H. J. Potter

By: Belcris

Summary: Not all is as it seems in the life of Harry James Potter. Lily Potter was not the person everyone thought she was and her child pays the price. Some secrets are hidden under a thin layer of lies and sometimes we carry our prison with us.

Harry Potter created by: J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter, associated characters are owned by J. K. Rowling.

I do not own these characters and I do not seek to profit from this story.

However, in a dark and twisted future I may own it, but I will instantly be killed by a mutant rabbit named Francis, who will then go on to return all the rights to the original owners.

Damn you, Francis!

WARNING: This story contains scenes of fantasy based violence, gender bending, two hot chicks in a romantic relationship, and good old fashioned sexiness. You have been warned.

Category: AU. Adventure. Romance.

Chapter 1

Part 1

The figure stood before a full length mirror and sighed as they examined the reflection before them. The image of a young man in his early teens was reflected in the mirror, standing at five foot nine inches tall, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. A mop of raven black hair crowned him, with emerald green eyes and facial structure that would clearly one day be considered ruggedly handsome, even with the raw red lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. The reflected image's expression was that of a smirk as it looked out from the mirror, an expression matched by the person looking into the mirror. The figure looking out from the mirror was easily recognizable as Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, a hero or madman depending on who you talked with on any given day.

In his short life, not quite fourteen years on the planet, Harry Potter had been both victim and savior, hero and villain, yet always he was a center of attention. In the last three years alone he had been touted as a symbol for peace and vilified as an up and coming Dark Lord. Sadly, no one ever asked Harry Potter how he saw himself. Many people would have been surprised by his answer to the question, not to mention his reaction. They would have been shocked to hear him call his own life a hollow lie over a surprising truth, though he would have never explained that answer to them. No, he would have surprised many people, especially given the fact that in truth, Harry Potter never really existed.

Turning away from the mirror a young woman finished toweling off after her shower. The young woman, standing at five foot seven inches, sighed as she dried off. Her damp deep red, almost blood red, hair hung down to mid-thigh, a luxury she allowed herself as no one else could ever see it but her. Unlike the reflection in the mirror, the young woman had what men would call a model's figure, with long toned limbs, pleasantly toned and firm hips and buttocks, a narrow waist, and a chest that verged on a an impressive C cup. Her skin was unblemished, not one freckle or scar, though if you looked at her back you would see three Runic Arrays along her spine. However it was her face that most would have been entranced by, with her high cheekbones, full red lips, and glowing green eyes she would be easily considered a beauty beyond compare. This was the truth hidden by the illusion of Harry James Potter. This was Harriet Jasmine Potter.

"Stupid Runic Glamour," spat the girl as she sat on the edge of the tub and towed off her legs. "Gee, thanks mum and dad."

Standing up and wrapping a towel around her waist, the young lady made her way out of the bathroom and across the hall to her bedroom without bothering to coverup further. The cold hard truth of her life was that no one ever saw the real her, not through the illusion her parents had cast around her as an infant. It was a lesson she had learned the hard way as a young child, no one ever saw the real her. In fact, she hadn't even realized something was strange until the first time she saw a mirror on her fifth birthday. Hari, as she called herself, had never remembered being called anything other than freak, so had no idea there was something odd about being referred to as a male by her family. As the glamour that covered her created a solid illusion powered by a combination of her own magic and the ambient magic around her, even the sense of touch was fooled by it. The only person that could bypass the illusion was Hari herself and even then there were situations in which it didn't matter.

On her fifth birthday Hari had been locked in the the closet of her aunt and uncles room because of a dinner party they were having. To prevent Hari from disturbing the party, her relatives had locked her in the closet farthest away from the from the guests. It just so happened the inside of the closet door was covered in a full length mirror, the first Hari had ever seen. The only light entering the closet was from the crack at the bottom of the door, but it was enough for her to see her reflection in the mirror. At first she was terrified and only the greater fear of making her relatives angry at her stopped her from screaming in terror when suddenly she realized there was another person staring back at her. For a time she thought the second figure was another child mimicking her from beyond a window, her mind not quite grasping the concept of the mirror. Over time however she figured out he was more than mimicking her, his movements were hers and even his expressions were the same.

That day, looking in that mirror she got the first look at her male counterpart, though she didn't realize it immediately. No, what she saw was a little boy, slightly shorter than her and extremely skinny. The boy wore the same baggy clothes as her, though on him they looked even bigger. His black hair was a mess, looking more like a bird's nest than real hair and on his face he wore a pair of overly large round spectacles that had been taped together at the bridge. All in all he was a nice looking boy, though Hari disliked that he seemed intent on mocking her by continually mimicking her movements and expressions. Still, he was the first person she had seen outside her family and by default that made him Hari's first ever friend.

A few weeks later Hari was allowed to enter school with other children and Hari started noticing other oddities around her. For one thing it seemed that the teacher always thought she had problems seeing the chalkboard, so made her sit at the front of the classroom even though Hari could see it perfectly fine from the back of the room. Another odd thing was that although she looked more like the girls in her class, at least to herself, the teacher always made her play with the boys in her class. Finally it was an experience in one of the bathrooms that convinced her something was wrong after she caught a glimpse of one of the boys in he class with his pants down and realized he had something she didn't. When she tried to ask a teacher about it they laughed at her and explained that all little boys had "things" between their legs. However, when she tried to tell the teacher that she in fact did not have something between her legs, Hari found herself unable to express herself. A second attempt with her Aunt had the same result and Hari soon discovered that any topic related to her being different than the other boys seemed to be impossible to talk about.

With time came wisdom and understanding for Hari. As she reached her seventh birthday she realized that her friend in the mirror was how other people saw her. Calling her reflection Harry, she once again tried to explain the situation to her Aunt, but again found herself unable to speak of it. She also realized that her reflection was slightly taller than she was and the clothing she wore seemed to float ever so slightly above her skin, never quite touching her. Examining her reflection she realized the clothing fit the false image, not her real body. This was strange in the extreme, but had the added effect that when her cousin punched her, he never actually touched her real skin, just the skin of the illusion. Still, as she grew and the outer illusion grew with her, she wondered what it was like to actually feel something other than her own hands upon her skin. On the bright side, when her Aunt decided one day to shave off all "her" hair save for her bangs, the clippers never touched her real hair and by the next morning the illusion had regrown all its hair.

Years passed and Harri and occasionally other strange things would happen to her, like the time she was being chased by her cousin and suddenly found herself on top of the school roof. Another time she turned a teacher's hair blue when the woman was being mean to her and while no one blamed her at the school, her aunt and uncle locked her in her cupboard under the stairs for several days afterwards. With these odd occurrences and the fact she couldn't tell anyone the truth about being a girl, Hari realized something abnormal was happening around her. Well, in truth she had known that for quite some time, but this just confirmed her suspicions. She gave up trying to tell anyone the truth and resigned herself to the fact she would always be trapped inside an illusion.

By the time Hari's eleventh birthday rolled around she had given up hope of ever being seen for who she really was. Her only consolation was the arrival of Rubeus Hagrid and the announcement by said man that she was a wizard! Oh how she secretly hoped he would see her for who she really was, a girl and therefore a witch, but whatever hid the truth from everyone else also hid it from him. She did learn that her parents hadn't been killed in a car accident and were in fact a witch and wizard, but Hagrid had very few other details regarding her situation. An evil wizard responsible for their deaths and Hari wondered if he was the one responsible for how others saw her. Oddly, it was only when she entered her trust vault at Gringotts, the Goblin run bank, that she got her answers.

When she entered her trust vault, despite Hagrid urging her to make haste, Hari took a quick look around the vault for anything other than gold and silver. She was just about to give up when she saw a small book with a red leather binding and the name, "H. J. Potter" written on the cover. Grabbing the book and tucking it in her gold pouch, Hari stepped out of the vault and rejoined Hagrid for the rest of the journey through the tunnels of Gringotts. Much of the rest of the day was spent wanting nothing more than to stop and read the book, but something held her back from doing so just like when she tried to tell anyone she was a girl. Only two other things really drew her attention from the weight of the book in her pouch, the purchases of her first wand and Hagrid's gift of a beautiful snowy white owl. The wand was a confusing item, she could feel it drawing power from her, but it was like the power was being drawn from around her and not directly from her. On the other hand, the owl was the first gift she had ever gotten and she loved it more than anything else in the world.

That night Hari, now in her new room with the Dursley's, finally found out she could tell her secret to someone, her lovely new owl. For the first time in her life, after naming the owl Hedwig, Hari told the owl everything. At first she just thought it a joke, she would attempt to tell the owl and when she failed, Hari would chalk it up to another frustrating detail of her life, but she didn't feel the compulsion not to speak. Instead the words flowed easily from her mouth and Hari shared her real life story with the owl, who never seemed to take her eyes off the young girl. Then, much to her surprise, Hedwig landed on her shoulder and brushed her soft feathers against Hari's cheek. For the first time ever in her life, Hari actually felt the touch of another living being against her skin. Displaying how smart she really was, Hedwig then demonstrated her ability to touch both the real girl inside the illusion, and the illusion itself. It was a joyous event for Hari and one she would not soon forget. In fact, she was so caught up in the new sensations that she almost forgot about the book, at least until she accidentally knocked her money pouch on the floor and the book fell out. Picking it up she opened the cover and found a long note, almost a letter, written inside and addressed to her.

28th of October, 1981

To our darling baby girl:

If you are reading this it means we have not survived the events happening around us and you have grown up alone. You need to know this, before anything else, that your mother and I love you with every ounce of our very being. For myself, I knew I loved you more than my own life the moment your mother told me she was pregnant with you. Lily says she loved you even before she knew you existed for sure and I don't doubt for a moment that she's telling the truth. Believe me when I say, we never wanted to leave you alone in the world which makes this letter so very, very hard to write. No parent ever wants to think they are leaving their child defenseless and alone. I know Lily and I don't.

Now, an explanation as to why we aren't here. Shortly before you were born our old school Headmaster approached us with dire news regarding a prophecy that had been made about you. Well, possibly about you, but that's neither here nor there. Dumbledore never gave us the actual wording of the damned thing, but he did give us a vague idea of the meaning. According to him the prophecy effectively states a child born at the end of the seventh month, July, will have the ability to defeat the Dark Wizard currently causing us so much trouble. For that reason the Dark Wizard, he calls himself Voldemort though I don't think that's his real name, has targeted our family. Our old Headmaster advised we hide out in one of my family's rental properties in order to use a special type of spell that will hide us away from the Dark Wizard. I wanted to stay at our ancestral home, it's much nicer than the little rental property, but the Headmaster assures us the spell wouldn't work with such a large parcel of land. Lily thinks' he's nuts, but I find myself wanting to trust the man.

The point is, Lily has decided before the spell is cast that we need to put a second layer of security on you. Your mom is a genius when it comes to runes, so she's going to use Runic Arrays of her own design to hide you a little better than just under a secrecy spell. Your mum designed the Runic Arrays to act as camouflage, protection, and a filter. The camouflage aspect is a glamour that will make you look like a boy, easy enough to pull off since the healer that delivered you was sworn to secrecy. We're the only ones that know you were were born a girl, so we're telling everyone your name is Harry James Potter, so that if things get back to normal we can remove it and hide you someplace without anyone ever realizing that Harriet Jasmine Potter was once Harry James Potter. (You're godfather also knows the truth and will probably let you use his family name to help muddy the waters if that happens.)

The second Runic Array is a shield to protect you using our blood as the foundation. That means the shield will conform to the illusion, adding to the effect by making people believe it's solid, while protecting you inside. Right now your mum and I are the only ones that can see through the illusion and touch you through the shield, we used our blood as the foundation which is what allows us to do so. We did the same with the last Runic Array, the filter. Actually, it's less of a filter than a geas for you not to talk about your true gender. I know, sounds a bit controlling, hahaha, but thankfully we only need it until you are a bit older and we can explain the situation to you. Trust me, your mum insists this is necessary, the chances of you blurting out something before you understand the dangers is actually pretty high, so I'm going along with it even though I don't really like the idea that much. Don't worry, your mom is putting a final array on you during the winter equinox that will allow you to turn them all off if something happens to us. To that end, all you will need to do is put a drop of your blood on the base of your neck to deactivate the arrays, then another drop to reactivate them should you need to.

Addendum: Lily just pointed out that should anything go wrong between then and now, the arrays will stop working automatically on your tenth birthday. If we are still in hiding by then, I think it's safe to say we won't bother putting them back on you because every little girl deserves to be a princess at some point in her life.

Anyway, the rest of this journal is a combination of notes concerning the arrays and how to modify them if you want, and diagrams for them. If we aren't there with you, you may need them, but I hope you never do. When you get done reading the journal, add it to the Potter Library under Family Magic, just in case anyone else ever needs the arrays again.

Now I'm off to carve pumpkins with Lily and you. She insists we do it the non-magical way, rather than with a magic. I think it sounds messy, but she insists it is the the best way.

Love you dearly, my beautiful little girl.

Dad

On the one hand Hari loved reading the letter from her father. On the other she wanted to strangle the man for ever going along with her mother's stupid plan. She highly doubted they would have hidden a son as a girl for the same reasons they gave for using the method to hide her. Obviously, given the date the letter was written and the fact she now knew her parents were killed only a few days later, her mother had never gotten the chance to place the last array, though Hari tried just in case. Why Hari's mother hadn't placed that one first was beyond her, but just as confusing was the fact the arrays had not stopped working when she was ten. Either her mother made a mistake when she designed the damned things, or something else was interfering with them. She really hoped it was the second because that would mean she could eventually solve the problem, but if it was the first Hari knew she might be stuck for the rest of her life being thought of as male. Adding insult to injury, she couldn't even see the damned arrays because they were hidden under the illusion meaning Hari couldn't see them in a mirror. Hopefully, somewhere in the book was a copy of the damned things she could see.

It also hurt to realize that after flipping through the book several times, there was no note from her mother, just the one from her father. Hari had once heard that little girls were always their father's princesses, while a son was a mother's pride and joy. Maybe her mother had felt exactly like that, preferring having a son over a daughter, so hadn't bothered to write to the little girl she never wanted. Was that the reason she had planned to add the final array last, because secretly she never wanted to turn it off at all? That thought had Hari crying herself to sleep that night and many nights to follow.

Part 2

Hari's first year at Hogwarts was exciting and more than a little frustrating for the young girl. It was exciting because it felt like one big adventure for her. Sadly, it was frustrating because not one single person saw through her mother's illusion, not even the Sorting Hat had been able to see the truth when it was placed on her head. She was sorted as Harry James Potter, a boy, and therefore shared a room with four boys in Gryffindor tower. That she learned more about boys than she ever wanted to know was a given, but that she learned it in the first week was a rather disturbing reality. For instance, she did not need nor want to hear how boys thought of girls. She also didn't need to see them naked as much as she did, they thought she was just shy about undressing in front of them which was true, but that didn't stop them from doing it. Thankfully the bathroom was big enough for only one of them at a time, so that relieved some of the embarrassment in that she didn't have to shower with them.

Another frustration was that the same compulsion that kept her from telling anyone the truth about herself also seemed to have been modeled on her father's personality. What this meant was while Hari read all the material for her classes, often reading far ahead of the assignments, she was unable to speak about what she knew. Her father had evidently been something of a slacker in his younger years, excelling only in the practical portion of classes, so the compulsion made her act in the same manner. No matter how hard she tried, Hari was unable to use the knowledge in any way other than in practice. This had always been true for her, but it was more frustrating now when she didn't also have the Dursleys breathing down her neck about doing better than her buffoon of a cousin, Dudley.

Her first year was interesting to say the least. She made some friends and a few enemies. Then she discovered a mystery which she eventually solved, though she got injured in the process. Oh, she couldn't forget also that she learned how to fly, which she loved more than anything else. Yet it all seemed so hollow and sad when everyone praised Harry Potter for being a hero, while the real Hari was unknown to everyone. Yes, she defeated a troll, saved a magical stone, and sadly was responsible for an evil man's death, but Harry Potter got all the credit, not her. Even her hopes that the school nurse would discover the truth were dashed after the woman declared "he" was in perfect health after a prolonged stay in the woman's care. It was just so damned frustrating for her and she was starting to really hate being called Mister Potter.

However, there had been one event her first year at Hogwarts that stood out to her more than any other. Surprisingly it wasn't meeting the spirit of Voldemort. No, it was finding the Mirror of Erised in an abandoned classroom. It had shocked her when she first saw the reflection of herself, the real her, for the first time in her life. Her reflection stood among a group of people, including her father, as she stood revealed as a female. In the reflection she was wearing a pretty green dress, had her hair braided nicely, and even had on a little bit of makeup. All the while people were smiling at her, accepting her as a girl for the first time ever. Several nights in a row she returned to see that image again and when Dumbledore advised her not to do it again, she barely made it out of the room before she found herself in tears.

Life was so unfair.

Part 3

Hari's return to #4 Privet Drive was not a happy experience after her first year at Hogwarts. Her aunt and uncle seemed to be even grumpier after her return. It didn't help that shortly after the Christmas holiday she had started to "develop" and there was no one she could ask for advice because of her mother's stupid compulsion. This had left Hari with the unenviable task of sneaking into the library at school at night to research what was going on with her. Getting her father's old cloak for Christmas had made it a lot easier and most nights, when not trying to find information about Nicholas Flamel, she had been looking up advice for young witches. Thankfully there were a number of spells and potions listed in addition to several books about puberty that would allow her to deal with the changes. Before leaving school she had managed to secretly order several of the potions she might need should her period start, along with a supply of the magical version of sanitary napkins. Thankfully those could be purchased anonymously via special owl order forms, so the geas did not stop her from doing it. She hoped she wouldn't need them yet, but better to be safe than sorry.

It was early July when Harry first noticed she was "developing" faster than before. Waiting until the Dursleys were asleep one night, Hari snuck out of bed and checked herself out. Suddenly she felt like she was all arms and legs, not to mention her hips looked bigger. Hari even noticed she definitely had breasts now, not the molehills she had developed towards the holidays, but definite breasts. The books she read said that witches tended to develop a little later than non-magical girls, sometimes seeming to stop developing at all for a time, but then having sudden changes happen. This seemed to be the case with her because over the next three days she felt like she was always hungry and tired, not to mention she could physically measure the difference in her chest size from day to day.

Her ongoing changes were forgotten when a crazy house elf named Dobby showed up in Hari's room one night. The little beast caused her more trouble than she could ever remember being in before. After warning Hari she would be in danger if she returned to Hogwarts, the little beast seemed determined to force the issue. One ruined pudding and a warning for underage magic later and her Uncle was dragging Hari up to her room and barricading the door. By the next morning she was locked in her room and her aunt and uncle seemed rather determined to never let her out again. Even poor Hedwig was locked up, a padlock on the owl's cage preventing her from getting out. By the afternoon her uncle was happily bolting bars to the outside of Hari's window after having installed a cat-flap in his door.

"It's official," Hari sobbed into her pillow later that night, "I'm in prison now and I'm never getting out!"

The next week was spent locked in her room, only being allowed out twice a day to use the bathroom and shower. Her uncle had taken all of her things, leaving her and Hedwig locked in Hari's room with nothing to do all day but stare out the now barred window. Hedwig was restless and Hari was terrified, an emotional mess that spent much of the days and nights crying into her pillow until exhaustion would force sleep upon her. Starving, lonely, and emotionally wrecked Hari for the first time considered a method of ending her own life. It was to her disappointment that she realized short of starving herself to death, there was nothing int he room she could use to end her life with. It also occurred to her that Hedwig would be left behind, defenseless, and Hari could not bring herself to harm her only companion or leave the poor bird to be killed by her uncle. Luckily, Hari was rescued by the Weasley boys late one night thanks to a flying car their father had charmed. Feeling like a princess being rescued from her lonely tower, the three Weasley boys managed to escape from Privet Drive with all of Hari's things. Hari wished she could really be that princess, something she was denied thanks to her mother, but just being free was enough for her at the moment.

The rest of that summer was unlike anything Hari had ever experienced before thanks to the presence of Mrs. Weasley. The woman just exuded a feeling of love and warmth that Hari instantly associated with being a mum. As she compared what she knew of her own mother as compared to Mrs. Weasley, Hari for the first time admitted that she resented Lily Potter for what she had done to her own daughter. Yes, an argument could be made that Lily Potter's actions were done to protect her child, but one question kept repeatedly popping into Hari's mind. Would Lily Potter have hidden a son in the same way she had her daughter, by changing their gender to anyone not already in the know? Hari doubted she would have and each time she asked herself the question she found her resentment towards the woman growing just that much stronger.

Hari also learned several things from Mrs. Weasley indirectly, thanks to Ginny the youngest Weasley. As was her habit from years of living with the Dursleys, Hari was often awake long before sunrise. Unlike at the Dursleys' home, Hari was not required to wait for someone to let her out of her cupboard or room, and once awake she would usually make her way downstairs to the kitchen where she would watch Mrs. Weasley cook breakfast. Ginny, though she didn't look that happy about it, was more often than not standing at her mother's side learning how to cook. The younger girl didn't seem to really have a desire to learn cooking, but it was also a time for her to talk with her mother without her brothers interrupting her. Hari figured this out the second day and from that point on she would hide in the shadows just past the kitchen doors to listen to the younger girl's questions. Listening to the answers from Mrs. Weasley as she talked to her daughter was the closest thing Hari had ever gotten to getting womanly advice and she loved ever minute of those overheard conversations.

"No dear, the potions to keep your hair sleek and shiny can only do so much," said the Weasley matriarch one time. "Brushing it each night does the rest, helping it to look bright and shiny, not to mention keeping the tangles at bay."

Another morning she told Ginny, "I remember what it was like, my emotions were all over the place. One moment I was laughing, the next it was crying. It's the change, dear, you're becoming a woman and it's stressful, but it will get better."

"Pish posh!" scoffed the woman at one point. "At your age a diet is going to do more harm than good. You need to eat if you want to stay healthy, just like my mum told me. I saw the girls in my class at Hogwarts that tried to 'stay slim' and almost every one of them ended up sick or weak. With you growing up, you need energy to do it and stay healthy. Now that doesn't mean you need to overdo it, but even if you eat a bit much one day, just stay active and it wont' matter that much."

"If a boy tries to force you, kick him in between the legs," grunted the older woman with a smirk. "If the boy hasn't learned that a young woman means no when she says no, he's a fool and deserves the pain."

These were all pieces of advice that Hari held onto, but they were not the only things she learned. Most of them were simple things like the best way to brush her hair, or how to trim away dead ends from it. The discussions about makeup and fashion were also enlightening, not that Hari needed to worry about either currently. There were also some embarrassing things, mostly dealing with puberty and issues a young girl would have to deal with over time, but they were things Hari had always wanted to ask about and been unable to. So, listening in to those conversations between mother and daughter made Hari feel better about herself than she had ever before.

With the beginning of the new school year Hari fell once again into the role of Harry Potter, loathing every minute of it. Her frustrations grew as she tried to overcome the limitations the geas placed upon her, but was powerless to overcome it thanks to her mother. As her grades suffered and Hari's mood darkened, she found herself once again in the center of mystery. Halloween brought attacks on Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's nasty little cat. A message was left that was less than complimentary towards those not of "pure blood," and the whispering began regarding Hari being responsible. From there the whole year started to escalate out of control, leaving Hari an emotional mess throughout much of it.

Part of the problem was she had a very unwelcome visitor arrive the day after Halloween. After having a restless night's sleep, Hari had awoken early the next morning to discover that her period had started. Stripping the sheets from the bed before anyone else woke up, Hari grabbed her previously hidden emergency supplies and then snuck into the bathroom. She was able to deal with most of the mess after a hot shower and a potion, cleaning the sheet just required a Scourgify spell, and then it was back to dealing with her life. Hari had rather hoped her first period would be the thing that released her from her mother's damnable curse, or at the very least that Madam Pomfrey would finally be able to detect something was wrong. Sadly, neither wish was granted and even though Hari purposefully made herself sick by eating too many sweets, just to get Madam Pomfrey to examine her stomach. Hari's hope was that running a diagnostics spell that close to her stomach would also detect the other issues the young girl was dealing with at the time. Unfortunately, either Lily Potter was a better witch than anyone ever imagined, or Madam Pomfrey was not as good a Healer as everyone claimed.

"Then again, she's working in a school rather than a hospital," Hari muttered to herself after being given a potion to calm her stomach. "If she was actually a decent and qualified nurse I'm thinking she would be working in a real hospital."

Hari felt like Alice down the rabbit hole for the rest of the year. After being attacked once again by the insane House Elf Dobby, Hari had ended up in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts having all the bones in her arm regrown. Then students started getting attacked and people started pointing fingers at her as the "Heir of Slytherin," something that was not helped when it became common knowledge she could speak with snakes. She had known she could talk to snakes since shortly before starting at Hogwarts, but it was a very odd ability. Any time she talked with a snake it was as if there was a short delay in the translation, she would speak then an instant later she would hear a hissing sound. The same was true when the snake replied, she would hear the hissing and a moment later hear a voice she could understand, almost as if something was translating the snake language for her. It was confusing and yet another thing she found she could not speak about thanks to her mother's geas on her, so she ignored it as best she could.

The Christmas holiday was rather peaceful, other than her encounter with a strangely charmed diary that claimed Hagrid was behind the attack on the students. Then there was her adventures with Polyjuice, something that finally gave her a bit of hope. Taking the Polyjuice in an attempt to prove Draco Malfoy was the real "Heir of Slytherin," Hari noticed that when she took it the illusion surrounding her failed. She was looking in a mirror as the change began, unfortunately Ron and Hermione weren't looking, but Hari saw it as for the first time in her life without the use of a magical mirror her real features were revealed. It barely lasted a moment before the potion took effect, but Hari almost cried when it happened. Sadly, when the potion wore off an hour later the illusion returned before Ron saw the real her and the geas still refused to let her speak of it, but for a short time she had been free.

Things continued in this vein for the rest of the year, especially after the diary was stolen from her belongings. It wasn't he loss of the diary that really upset her, but whomever stole the diary from her also stole all her special potions and sanitary napkins. She had to hurriedly order more and was grateful the things arrived when they did as she started her period the following day. Then while as May arrived her friend Hermione was petrified along with another girl. Hari was devastated, Ron might be a good friend, but Hermione was like a sister to her. Days later she and Ron had an adventure in the Forbidden Forest which nearly cost them their lives. This was the start of a rather hectic few days, days which were very hard on Hari for various reasons.

Days after the adventure in the Forbidden Forest, Ginny Weasley was kidnapped and taken into the Chamber of Secrets. Hari and Ron eventually figured out exactly where the entrance to the Chamber was and forced their useless Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, to accompany them into the Chamber. Hari was eventually separated from Ron and Lockhart, continuing on until she found the true entrance to the Chamber. Inside the Chamber she confronted the memory of Tom Riddle, the young version of the man that would become Voldemort. After listening to him monologue about how great he was and then having the fool set an enormous basilisk on her which Hari was forced to kill, she was injured and could feel herself dying. What she also felt was the illusion around her body shatter. It was a very stunned Tom Riddle that watched a young red haired girl plunge a basilisk fang into his enchanted diary, killing him. Hari ignored his screams, she was too busy enjoying the sensation of feeling clothing against her skin even as the venom of the basilisk was killing her. Unfortunately, in her opinion, the Headmaster's phoenix, Fawkes, decided to heal her by shedding magical tears into the wound.

"No, damnit!" Harry cursed weakly as the phoenix tears started to heal her arm and she saw the illusion starting to reform. "Stop! I'm free! If I have to die to be free, then let me die!"

Hari cursed the phoenix bitterly as the last of the poison was dealt with, allowing the illusion to completely reform. By the time Ginny Weasley woke up, Hari was once again trapped inside her damnable mother's illusion and fully bound by the geas. After that she cared very little for what happened to her. Later she remembered leaving the Chamber after rescuing Ron and Lockhart, with help from the damned phoenix. Then she confronted Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy, the mastermind behind the diary and attacks, subsequently freeing Dobby in the process. Later Hermione was cured, something that finally brought a smile to Hari's face, but even that wasn't enough to keep her from feeling depressed. Truth be told, by the time they left school that year and boarded the Hogwarts Express, Hari was starting to believe that death would be her only escape from the curse her mother had placed on her.