Hidden Face

Chapter 3

The Potters

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. JKR does. Sadly. :(

Hey. It's been awhile, I know. A very long awhile. :( Sorry. This chapter was somehow just impossible to write. I must have started it over twenty times. Nothing seemed to fit. How do you react waking up as someone else, in another body, with different parents and a brother? It'd be weird and, though Harry is a lot stronger than me, I'd personally have a panic attack. And I didn't want Harry to have massive panic attacks and freak out sessions for the next few chapters. This is supposed to be a somewhat happy experience for him.

So, last night, I was thinking about how Harry could adjust a bit more comfortably and perhaps – hopefully – realistically, and this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. Another chapter should, if all goes well, be up soon. Hopefully.

He was floating, Harry noted, unwilling to open his eyes. He felt far too peaceful to move a muscle. Why should he move? Too much work, too much effort, too much –

"Harry."

Harry's eyes snapped open. He knew that voice, but usually he heard it screaming. A beautiful red-haired young woman with green eyes – his eyes – smiled. She was floating as well. Above everything. Harry glanced down. Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were kneeling next to the body of a young teen with black hair and a pale complexion. Did he know the boy? He looked vaguely familiar….Harry couldn't remember

Draco stood next to Snape, away from his parents. He looked shaken – a strange expression on the usually proud – arrogant – Slytherin's face. But where was he in the situation? He'd been with them, he remembered, but his body wasn't down there and it made no sense that he was floating above them without their notice.

"Am I dead?" Harry whispered to Lily Potter.

"Only if you want to be," she replied. "Would you like to meet your father?"

"You aren't my parents!" Harry snapped, trying, and failing, to move away from the woman. "You kidnapped me."

"Look at yourself," she said, waving a hand at him. "You have chosen Harry."

"What are you talking about?" Harry's heart hammered in his chest. He tried to examine himself, but his head couldn't move, just his eyes and lips. Did he even have a body at this point?

"You picked Harry," she explained. "You left Arcturus behind. He's lifeless without you."

Harry tried to struggle against his invisible restraints to no effect. "I don't understand."

"My son, Harry Potter, does not exist in physical form anymore. You destroyed him when you recreated Arcturus."

"But I am Arcturus!" Harry protested. He remembered now. That strange, collapsed boy down there was him, somehow.

"No, you aren't, darling." She smiled sadly. "When a wizard breaks his adoption bonds, he has to choose his new identity or deal with the consequences of destroying the body of the being you chose to be."

"So, I die? I'm dead?" The idea scared him more than he'd ever admit. He'd faced death so often, but now it was scary. He had so many loose ends to tie up before he died. He had to apologize to his friends for not trusting them, deal with the Malfoy problem, destroy Voldemort, learn the truth about the Potters….He wasn't ready to die yet!

"Not quite. Since you rejected Arcturus, you, as Harry, escaped to the only plane you could survive in – this plane."

"You're not dead?" How was that possible?

"I am dead. Technically, Harry Potter is dead as well," she explained. "You can stay here as long as you want, but you can only move in two directions. Either join me in embracing death or accept Arcturus. As long as you exist here, Arcturus will survive, a body ready for your use."

"Why are you here?" Harry asked nervously. What she was saying made a little sense, but he wished he had Hermione at his side, translating.

"We decided to stay so that we could look after you." James Potter appeared out of nowhere, looking just as young as his wife.

"Why? You aren't my parents!" Harry shouted, furious at his immobility and lack of understanding.

"We are your parents until you accept Arcturus," Lily said. "Harry Potter is our son."

James wrapped an arm around Lily. "Do you see what they are doing?"

Harry glanced down at the scene unfolding below them. Mrs. Malfoy was crying, cradling the unfamiliar boy's - his head in her lap. Mr. Malfoy was pacing, yelling at Snape. Draco looked shaken and pale.

"They aren't my family!" Harry cried. "They're death eaters!"

"You remind me of your father," Lily said, almost fondly.

"He isn't my father!" Harry glared at James. "You aren't my father!"

"Everyone has a father," James replied, unfazed by Harry's response. "Choose yours."

"What do you want me to do?" Harry shouted. "I don't understand!"

Lily glanced at James before saying, "When you were given to us, we made Harry Potter. You were young then, young enough to change completely. Now, however, you have revived Arcturus Malfoy. You either must reconcile both Arcturus and Harry or accept one and embrace your fate."

"But, er, Harry and Arcturus, we're one person, just different bodies, right? I don't get it." Harry felt like he was in divination, just with more at stake and his pseudo-mother, instead of Trelawney, confusing him and hinting at death.

"Do you think you could incite their reactions as Harry Potter?" James nodded at the panicked Malfoys below. "Without the natural shallowness of humanity, you, Harry and Arcturus, would be one person with different bodies. In this world, imperfect as though it may seem, Arcturus is from a different world than Harry."

"I don't want Arcturus's world, though!" Harry protested. "He's the son of a death eater!"

"He's the son of a father," Lily said sharply. "Can't you see his pain?"

Harry looked. She was right. Harry still saw the death eater part, the cruel, evil part that Ron had shown him and that he had witnessed many times, but Harry could also see the worry, fear, panic, agony, and a hundred different human, caring emotions displayed on Mr. Malfoy's face.

"Why does he care?" Harry asked, unable to take his eyes off the man. "He doesn't know me."

"He is a father and Arcturus is his son," James explained gently. "It is instinctual to care for our children. We love our children even before they are born."

"Am I your son?" Harry queered, looking at the young man.

"Now, as Harry still exists, you are," James told him. "You were not born this way, but we crafted you into our son. Until you reject Harry, I will love you and even if you do reject Harry, I will always love him. You may decide to destroy Harry, but he – if not you – will always be my son."

"But I am Harry. I can't not be Harry!"

"Then be both," Lily said. "Your spirit as you are now is Harry, but put in Arcturus's body, you can be both."

"How can I be both?"

"Be Harry, but live in Arcturus's world," James explained. "You will eventually become one person."

"What about you? Will you, um, die?"

"Yes, we will enter the planes of death," James admitted. "But it is long past time and we will be leaving you in good hands."

"How did I become – how did you adopt me?" Harry asked quickly, before they could go.

"Alice and Frank Longbottom gave you to us," Lily said apologetically. "I was your closest relative in the Order of Phoenix. My mother was a squib and the aunt of your birth mother, according to the blood tests. They said that you needed a place to be hidden and we trusted them enough to take you in without question. Our mistake. I'm sorry. We should have investigated the situation further."

"No…It's, er, fine." Harry shrugged – at least, tried to. "I like how I turned out as, er, Harry, even if I'm biologically Arcturus, or however that works. Did – does Sirius know?"

"I think he suspected," James replied. "You can trust him. He cares about you."

"If you can, send him to a mind healer," Lily told him. "He needs help. No one can shake off Azkaban easily."

"And Remus?" Harry asked.

"He was away on missions a lot, so I don't think he had any idea," James said. "He should be trustworthy, as well, but I doubt he will be as accepting as Sirius of your second family."

"We should go now." Lily smiled sadly. "We love you."

"How do I, um, get down there?" Harry glanced below.

James began to fade as Lily began, "Just-"

"-wake up, Arcy. Please! Stay with us."

Arcturus opened his eyes.

What do you think? A bit short, I know, but I felt like the chapter should end there. Please review. Reviews make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)

Also, did I do all my 'chose's and 'choose's right? I wrote this in the middle of the night and I get words like that mixed up when I'm tired. Please tell me any other mistakes that I made. I read through it a few times, but I'm nowhere near perfect. :P

Thank you for reading! :)

P. Mariana