Harry Potter and the Famous Rock

AN: A number of the reviewers on Let's do it Right This Time have pointed out more than one error, as well as commenting on the fact that my chapters were too short. With this in mind, I am rewriting Let's do it Right This Time with more attention to realism, accuracy, and longer chapters. This will likely eventually mean that the stories will diverge entirely, and there will be darker themes. All standard disclaimers apply, and anything that is just bolded is from the book. Bolded and italicized print means parseltongue.

Chapter One

"What's wrong, Ginny?" Harry asked, beginning to become worried at his wife's continued silence. He's spent his whole day preparing their anniversary dinner, charming the candles to float like in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, sending away for elvish sparkling moon-cider, renting the services of a house elf to make dinner, digging around in his vault for two days solid to find a good engagement present, and trying to make everything perfect for her.

She looked so beautiful in the flickering candlelight, red hair flowing in smooth curls, her gorgeous red velvet robes clinging to her breasts and stomach, chocolate brown eyes...filled with tears?

"Are you all right?" he repeated.

"N-no," she replied. "Harry, I- oh, Merlin!"

"Ginny, it's ok," Harry replied, now beginning to grow worried. "You can tell me. I swear I love you, and I always will, no matter what you say."

"B-but you don't," she said, now almost sobbing, her hand shaking around the flute of moon-cider, "you never did!"

"Of course I do," Harry replied, leaning forward, very worried now. What had he said? Had he done anything wrong?

"No. It was all amor-amor-amortentia!"

Harry dropped his own flute of elvish cider. What?

"I'm pregnant," she went on, "and the baby- oh, Merlin, the baby- conceived under potions- another Voldemort-"

Harry stared at her, his head spinning. What was she saying? How? Why?

"I wanted you- but you would never want me- I'm tainted- no one ever wanted me- no one but Tom- you saved me- oh, Merlin-"

Harry was shaking now. He'd loved her since his sixth year- he'd married her- he'd planned a family- and it was all amortentia? It hit him for the first time, staring at her quivering frame, that she had never gotten counseling for her possession, and he suddenly couldn't breathe. How could he not have seen it? How could he not have seen what was wrong, what kind of husband was he? A drugged one, his treacherous mind whispered. He'd been drugged. For four years. She'd been drugging him. How had he not figured out?! "Look, Gin, I- I need to be alone for a moment," he said, voice quivering. He staggered to his feet, turned, and ran from the room.

He ran through the house that they had shared for two years, bolted into their shared bedchamber, and flung himself on the bed, panting, trying desperately to hold in his tears. All this time he'd been deluded, tricked, drugged. All this time he'd thought he loved her- all the years she'd stolen from him- the child she'd brought into the equation- his child-the child whose life would be a lie, a child who could be born without the ability to love, because his mother was mad...

He fell asleep still trying not to cry, and finally gave in when he made the mistake of opening his eyes and saw the room that they had slept in so many times, together, remembered how long he'd thought he'd been totally in love with her.

When he woke up, he was alone. At first, he couldn't remember what had happened- yesterday had been his anniversary, so why wasn't Ginny here with him? And then it all came rushing back, in waves. It took almost half an hour for him to muster the strength to get out of bed and go down to face his wife.

She wasn't in the kitchen. She wasn't even in the house. In fact, he found out from the newspaper, found out that the beautiful, young, pregnant Ginevra Potter had shot herself with a muggle shotgun, and was sequestered in St. Mungo's. She wasn't expected to wake. And she never did.

Harry sunk into a deep depression. The only thing that was keeping him sane, as a matter of fact, was caring for his godson Teddy; even the meals at the Burrow seemed tasteless and empty...although Molly Weasley's tacit blame did not help matters. And then the next disaster struck.

He had been sitting with blue-haired, giggling Teddy Lupin on the old leather divan in the flat he'd owned in the other timeline, blowing multicolored bubbles with his wand. When the boy tired of trying to pop them, he started to tell a story, one of the stories he told Teddy whenever the boy was fussy and tired.

"Once upon a time,"

"-At a school called Hogwarts-" Teddy broke in, anticipating.

"There was a boy called Remus Lupin, and his three best friends, Sirius, Pettigrew, and James Potter. Now this boy was different from all the other little boys in the school, not just because he was the smartest," (Teddy giggled) "but because he was under a dangerous curse. He was a werewolf."

Teddy ooohed, despite the fact that he had heard this story thousands and thousands of times.

"Now, in those days, having lycanthropy was not seem as a good thing at all, and Remus was afraid to tell his friends, because he thought that they wouldn't want to be friends with him. Every full moon, the nurse would take him out to the the deep, dark, Forbidden Forest, and lock him up in a cabin so that nothing could hurt him while he transformed.

"A transformed werewolf is very dangerous. The change from wizard to wolf is very painful, and it also makes the wolf really hungry, and so the wolf would always be in a bad mood, and sometimes he would want to bite people; that is why people are scared of werewolves.

"Of course, his friends would not have been concerned that he was a werewolf, but he was too afraid to tell them, because he hated the curse and he thought it would make him a monster. And so he would make excuses, and worry, and curl under the covers at night worrying about what they would do to him when they found out. What Remus didn't know was that his friends already knew.

"Now, Remus, Sirius, Pettigrew and James did everything together. They pulled pranks together, and they studied together (well, more like Remus studied and Sirius did the essay due for the very next period and Pettigrew copied the homework that James had copied off of his girlfriend Laura Greengrass while James read a quiddich magazine)" (Teddy giggled again) "But anyway, they were always together, and the only time they weren't was when James was playing for Gryffindor on the quiddich pitch or one of them was in the hospital wing. So they quickly realized that Remus was always gone at the same time.

"Sirius was the one who figured out he was a werewolf. Now, Sirius told the other two friends, and together they decided that they had to do something to help him. They all knew that he was lonely and hurting in the forest one night every month, and they didn't have Wolfsbane then, like they do now. So they went into the library and looked up lycanthropy, which was really saying something about how much they liked their friend, because none of them ever read if it was not required for the core classes. They read, and they read, and they didn't find anything, and they were almost going to give it up when Sirius found something that said that a werewolf couldn't hurt you if you could turn into an animal."

"They looked up the spell for how to do that, which was really hard, and then they practiced, all without telling Remus that they knew. They practiced every night for two years, starting on the Christmas of their third year, and by the beginning of their fifth, they could turn into animals. Sirius was a big, shaggy black dog, because he loved to play- he was a puppy really."

Teddy sat straight at this part; it was his favorite.

"James became a big fat deer, with giant antlers, like this:" (Harry demonstrated the antlers with his hands) "because he was really vain and thought he was the best thing on planet earth-" (Teddy smiled sloppily at him) "and Pettigrew was a rat, because he was a sneaky backstabber and he wasn't really friends with the rest of them. So anyway, the next time Remus had to be locked in the cabin on the full moon, the other three snuck out of the castle under the cloak-"

"Prongs' cloak!" Teddy burst out, proud of himself, and Harry grinned widely.

"And they went to the cabin the nurse had left Remus in, and they unlocked the door. Remus was inside, and he was a wolf, and he was crying wolf tears because he was lonely and it hurt. And they came and opened the door and let him out, and they all ran around all over the forest that night in the moonlight until Remus fell asleep.

"And the next morning Remus woke up with nothing on, because when he'd turned into a wolf all his clothes had fallen off, and he looked around and saw all his friends around him, also naked, and asked what happened. And Sirius said 'we couldn't make the clothes change with us'. Remus asked what they were talking about, and Sirius said-"

"We wanted to be with you on the full moon!" Teddy yelled- this was his favorite part.

"And so that was how Remus and his friends spent every full moon after that." Harry summoned a glass of water, having grown rather thirsty Do you want to go outside now, or have ice cream?"

"Ice cream, uncle Harry! And can you tell me the one about how mum met papa?"

It was not very late, and while Harry normally inforced a bedtime, he was feeling indulgent that evening. So he gave Teddy the ice cream (chocolate and apricot with sprinkles and a foodsafe color-changing charm, and shaped into a wolf and a chameleon- Moony and the form Tonks had been trying to achieve when she died, not that Teddy knew that). He bathed the reluctant boy with magical soap and tucked him in, telling him more stories on the little boy's demand.

He was on the third story, and thinking that he should wrap it up on the fourth, when there was a knock at the door. It was too insistent to be Neville or Luna and too polite to be any of his old dorm-mates (besides Neville, obviously). Perhaps it was Andromeda Tonks, home early? But she certainly wouldn't knock to enter her own house...

Hastily he got up and went to the door, carrying a sleepy Teddy, only to see Dolores Umbridge and two aurors.

"Ms. Umbridge. May I ask what you are doing here?" Harry asked, very frigidly.

"Just my job, Mr. Potter," was her simperimg reply. "Where's the beast?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your godson, Mr. Potter," she said as if he was incredibly slow-witted. "The werewolf. Why have you not brought him for extermination?"

"Extermination?" Harry asked, his voice very quiet. "First of all, he never inherited lycanthropy. Secondly, I would not hand over any child to you, ever, especially for 'extermination'. Thirdly, it's eleven pm, and I do, contrary to popular belief, need my sleep."

"Of course he inherited it, even if it's recessive. Do you take me for an idiot?"

Harry applauded himself for not saying "yes.""That is impossible," he said instead. "The only way you can get lycanthropy is by blood contact, which means that a child can only get it from his mother. Secondly, there is no such thing as 'recessive lycanthropy' because it is not a genetic disease."

"Regardless, he's the son of a werewolf. The law demands that every werewolf be confined in the Ministry-run Sanitary Habitations within one year of turning, or within one month of the law having been passed- there was certainly adequate time to comply. Your godson was not turned in at the appointed date. Therefore he must face the consequences, for the good of society Mr. Potter."

"And what might the...consequences be for this imagined crime?"

"Extermination, of course, these are brutal, bloodthirsty beasts, Mr. Potter."

Teddy buried his face in Harry's neck, and Umbridge's eye latched onto the sudden movement.

"Hand it over, Mr. Potter."

Harry understandably refused.

"The law is the law, Mr. Potter- noncompliance must be punished," she said again.

And then the aurors stunned him. And he had to watch twin beams of unnatural green strike the screaming, and then whimpering child, had to watch the vibrant teal hair turn white in death.

The worst part of it was that he could not prosecute her. Not only because Teddy was not blood kin, but also because it was actually the law- he had read every tome in The London Scribatorium, a Wizarding library, only to find out that it was perfectly legal for such a thing to happen. Harry grew more and more depressed, ingesting more firewhiskey than was probably healthy and throwing himself into his work alongside a grieving Ron- the only Weasley who had not been cold to him since Ginny's suicide, trying to tell himself that if he only hunted down the last of the Death Eaters and the Snatchers who had escaped at the end of the war, everything would be ok.

It wasn't, but the final straw came the very next month, when a perfectly alive James Potter showed up on his doorstep. For a long moment he had simply stared, taking in the face so like his own, the messy, greying hair, the warm brown eyes.

"Dad?" he whispered.

"Hello Harry," replied the man. "Can I come in?"

"Hang on, first, what is your Maurader name?" Harry asked. "You have to forgive me for being a little suspicious here..."

"Prongs. I was Prongs." And the man abruptly changed shape, morphing, momentarily, into a great stag.

Harry made a sound, low in his chest, that was suspiciously like s sob. After all these years of longing for his father to be there for him...now he was. Just when he needed a shoulder to cry on.

Quickly, he lead the way into his flat, casting a few quick household charms to tidy it for the visitor- there were rather too many empty firewhiskey bottles and rather too much dust from his past three months of grieving.

"You want a drink?" he asked, cautiously. Hell, he didn't even know if his father drank at all! He didn't know anything about him!

"That would be great, thanks," James replied, seating himself familiarly on the sofa. Harry returned with two glasses of wine and sat down across from him.

For a long moment they simply stared at each other, Harry drinking in his father's features. At last, Harry spoke, in nearly a whisper. "Why?"

"Why what?" James asked, unperturbed.

Why what indeed. Why had he not come back for him? Why had he allowed Harry to think he was dead? Why had he only shown up now? These and more questions churned in Harry's brain.

"Where's Mum?" he settled for at last.

"Who?"

Something was seriously wrong here. "My mom. Lily Potter. Your wife?" Harry tried.

"Oh." The little sound would have been comical if it hadn't been so unnerving. "The mudblood. Right."

Harry went totally still. "Wait. What did you say?"

"Lily. Yes, I remember. It was a pity..."

"What was a pity?" Harry asked through gritted teeth.

"She died. It wasn't part of the plan, you know. I mean, it wasn't like I was going to keep her around forever, but I didn't want her dead."

Harry had gone numb. Everything seemed surreal, like some horrible dream. "What plan?" he asked finally, quite sure he was not going to like what he heard.

James blinked a few times. "Well, the war was still going strong when Lily and I were married, and Dumbledore wanted You-Know-Who to be defeated, so he made up this prophecy and had Trelawny recite it when he knew a Death Eater named Snape- you probably know him- was listening in. Snivellus went crawling back to his master like a good little Death Muncher, and we were all set. Unfortunately, Voldie attacked a bit too early. The plan had been for Pettigrew to tell Voldie where our house was, and then we would lay a trap for him. He attacked two hours before we were expecting it. I cast some protective wards and went to get Dumbledore, but by the time he got there Lils was already dead and so was Voldie, so I made sure Dumbledore was coming to get you and faked my own death. Then I went to France until the war settled down- Marjorie was pregnant, and-"

"Wait." Harry's voice cracked. "The prophecy was fake? And you let Pettigrew take the secret to Voldemort?" a stunned pause, as Harry tried to assimilate the rest of the information. "And who's Marjorie?"

"Yes, yes, and my wife."

"Your what?!"

"My wife."

"But...I thought..." Harry was having trouble breathing.

"If you'd been raised pureblood you'd know that a concubine claimed under the Pleasure Law is not a full wife."

"Why wasn't I?" Harry asked, swallowing his anger. Judging by James's smirk, he wasn't very successful. "Raised pureblood, I mean."

"Dumbledore wanted control over you, so I gave it to him. It's not like I didn't already have an heir."

"...didn't already have an heir?" Harry echoed.

"Oh yes, your half-brother, Marcus. He's technically the legal Potter heir..."

"And me?" Harry asked, throat closing up.

"We'll, you're the spare."

A cold chill swept over Harry as he sat there, and suddenly Voldemort's high, thin voice was echoing in his ears. 'Kill the spare!'

"Why didn't you even check on me? Did you know I was abused? And Sirius- why didn't you try to clear his name?"

"Harry," James said in a slow voice as if explaining things to a child, "A dead man can't show up to give testimony. If I were to do either thing, I would have broken my cover, and that wouldn't be so good."

Harry stared at him. "You're a bloody wizard! What's to stop you from using polyjuice?"

"Well, Dumbledore told me he had everything under control. Besides, I had Marjorie and the kids to think about."

Harry could only stare. "What is the Pleasure Law?" he asked at last.

"Well, if a pureblood wizard impregnates a muggleborn witch, he's within his rights to press her into a kind of marriage, to protect the child. That's what happened with Lils, as a matter of fact, I couldn't just let her fend for herself, you know. Too bad the kid turned out to be a squib."

"Wait. What? Mum was pregnant when you married? What happened to the kid?"

"Orphanage," was James's dismissive response. "Not much else you can do with a a squib. Lils wasn't happy about it, but it wasn't like we could keep her."

"So you took advantage of her, forced her into marriage, made her give up the baby and then let her die?" Harry asked, deadly calm. James winced, but Harry noticed that he didn't deny it.

"She was only a mudblood," he responded. "You should be grateful Snivellus didn't get her, then he would have been your father."

"I wish he was!" Harry exploded. "The man may have been a bastard, but he did more for the Wizarding World in one year than you did in your entire miserable life, and died for it, too, died while you were sitting back on your arse eating bonbons with your new pureblood wife. Get out, James Potter. Get the Hell out of my house."

"Mine, actually, since I own the deeds," responded James viciously. "I was going to let you keep it, but since you're acting like a spoiled little brat, I think it's time you move out. And I'll be taking that, he added as Harry started folding the invisibility cloak which had until that point been hanging over the back of the rocking chair.

Harry punched him in the nose, accioed his personal belongings and left without another word.