Chapter 10: A Perfect Spy
I loved the BBC production of LeCarre's A Perfect Spy. I read the book afterward and loved that too. It was published after 1981, but you know--authors work on books for years, so it could still exist in perhaps only a slightly-changed form despite the publication date coming after Harry changed the timelines...
Chapter 10: A Perfect Spy
1. "Young Potter and Malfoy... Normally, I would have you--do something for me at this time. But not tonight. You will know soon enough what I require of you."
To be clear--Voldemort really did have something specific he wanted each of them to do, but he changed his mind when the General Strike started, and their "tasks" became related to that.
2. "Of course, until I visited my servants at your school, I did not even know that I had a daughter, and I learned that the school had a Parselmouth."
There were readers who were convinced that this mean Voldemort had visited them at Hogwarts, though I never said that. Others were more observant, though. (It means Durmstrang. He was talking to Viktor Krum. The people who thought it was Hogwarts also forgot that Harry isn't a Parseltongue in this timeline.)
3. "Again!" he cried triumphantly. "Again I benefit from your scholarship, my servant, from your astute research." He gave a small nod to a figure of medium height wearing a dove-grey cloak. This man bowed deeply to his master in return for the recognition. "Were it not for you, I would not know of this ancient ritual. I would not know of the power I can gain by partaking of the body of my servant and heir after he willingly submits to me."
This is actually an ancient belief in many cultures around the world, some of them otherwise NOT cannibalistic. But still icky.
4. He spoke softly, hoping his dad didn't suspect he had anything to do with the chaos at the Death Eater meeting. Even though he had prevented them from partaking of the body of the heir, he had performed dangerous dark magic.
Some readers thought Harry should have told Snape about what he'd done at the initiation, and also Dumbledore, but Harry was trying to protect his stepfather. What he didn't know, he couldn't reveal under torture. (Remember--pre-OotP we didn't know about Occlumency and Legilimency, but Snape's not-knowing would also have protected him in the event that Voldemort had penetrated his mind using Occlumency or a similar tactic.) Plus, Harry couldn't tell his stepfather that he'd found the Tempus Fugit spell in a book of his--Snape would know if he had a book about this (which was the story he'd told the Weasleys). Which leaves the question again of how he knows about this, to which he would have to say once more, "I can't tell you."
5. At length, she told him she loved him and they both said good night. His stepfather hadn't spoken to her, but had stood in the doorway to his bedroom, hands deep in his pockets, face inscrutable.
One reader correctly pegged this, in hindsight, as a pointer toward a revelation about Severus and Lily that occurs later in the chapter.
6. But he found something interesting in the sports pages: in World Cup coverage, football teams for both East and West Germany were listed. The Berlin Wall fell about five years ago, he thought. Or was it six? Either way, there was just one Germany now. Or was there? Did the heir interfere with that? Or had the circumstances for the destruction of the wall simply never occurred in this timeline?
It's interesting how politics can even penetrate sports reporting. (I also didn't want Harry to "accidentally" take a part of the paper with specific information about political news. That would seem too on-the-nose.) Thus more and more details about the differences in the outside world will leak into the story now. In fact, it will rather snowball after chapter 14.
7. He wondered why his mother liked this book better than the others he knew she read by the same author. Perhaps it was because this one traced the life of a spy from his very early childhood, showed exactly how he’d come to be on the path that led him to covert operations. That was one thing about the book that had seemed rather depressing to him, as if this man had been irretrievably destined for this life, with no choice about it at all.
And hence the title of the chapter. I put a a disclaimer about the publishing date in the note at the end of the chapter.
8. "You can't talk to Sirius," Charlie told him. Harry frowned.
"Why not?"
"He's not here. In fact, as far as I know, he never came back from the village last night."
Another "Dun dun DUN!" moment. But overall, I believe I made these details seem innocuous enough that people were genuinely surprised by what they were leading to. (And honestly, if Harry had been privy to all of the details of how his mother and stepfather had grown apart and how Lily's relationship with Sirius came to be, it would have seemed perfectly natural to him and not such a shock. But since they were shielding the children from all of this, it WAS a shock.)
9. He didn't tell them that he recognized the heir; he couldn't remember ever actually seeing him or even hearing of him in this life, and he was tired of people giving him funny looks when he remembered things from his old life he shouldn't know. They didn’t ask anyway, simply assuming that he wouldn't know the heir's identity. But finally, Draco couldn't stand it anymore and said, "All right, Harry, out with it. It was you who did it, wasn't it?"
As a bullshitter himself, Draco has a pretty good bullshit detector. :D
10. "Actually," he informed his best friend, "the point of the wand-switching wasn't to leave that one Death Eater wandless. His isn't the wand that's missing."
"It isn't?"
"No. I--I stole Voldemort's wand."
Three jaws dropped at once.
I probably enjoyed writing this part way too much! Never let it be said that Harry lacks nerve.
11. He was about to knock on the door when he realized that it was already slightly ajar, and he heard voices from within. His mother was there, talking to his godfather. Well, Harry thought, perhaps I can hear about it right from her, then.
But there weren’t any more words to hear; there was merely a rustling and a sighing, a small giggle and a moan, an unmistakable sort of moan, and in a blind rage, Harry held out his right hand in the direction of the door, flinging it open without laying a finger on it, and the thick oak split as it struck the wall, as if propelled by a hurricane-force wind.
Do not, I repeat DO NOT piss off Harry Potter!
12. The pain in his joints was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. After he transfigured, he kneaded dead leaves with his paws for a few minutes, shaking out his mane. His breath was white before his muzzle. He took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his lungs.
Harry began to run.
Harry would continue to be disillusioned by his mother's life choices, but in my mind, Harry is partly to blame for what occurred, due to her being compelled to do whatever was necessary to save his life (such as marrying Snape to convince Voldemort that Harry really would be raised as his servant, though she had begun to be emotionally attached to Sirius after James' murder). That may be clearer if I ever get around to that AU missing-years fic.
13. Poor Dudley...except that his cousin was alive in this life. He tried to comfort himself with this knowledge, but he still didn’t feel any better. Harry had never even met any of the Dursleys. It was such an odd thought.
And not a true one. I never did find a way to fit in the information that Lily had gone with Harry to Petunia after James died and stayed on Privet Drive for a few days. But Harry was too young to remember this. (Another detail for the AU missing-years fic.)
14. What would happen, he wondered, if I just walked away from it all? If I just changed back into a boy and left my wizard's robes and wand here and walked into that Muggle town and left the wizarding world behind? Would anybody really notice, or care?
But he knew the answer to that; his parents and siblings and friends would be frantic, searching all over for him. He also has forgotten that he has the Dark Mark now. As he and Draco discover later, that's just a bit of a drawback if you're trying to disappear.
15. ...he could see the great castle in the distance, towers ablaze like beacons, and he moved toward that, since it was the only thing he had to guide him. How odd, he thought, that I can see it so clearly, and if a Muggle were staring right at it, he would see nothing but ruins.
An oblique reference to the dream he has in the previous fic in which he does see Hogwarts in ruins, which is foreshadowing for the end of the next fic.
16. He was miles away from the sixteen-year-old boy who'd declared his love for Harry's mother in the Potions Dungeon. He already looked like his life was over, like he was just biding time until some gruesome end. That, Harry thought, is the face of someone who has nothing to live for.
Which was what I thought after reading the FIRST BOOK. And what do we find out in DH, in the Prince's Tale? That losing Lily as his friend was THE WORST MEMORY OF HIS LIFE.
17. "After your father was killed, both Black and I came round quite often, helping her around the flat, helping her with you, spending time with her, comforting her. She was in a right state, and pregnant, to boot. I think it was just pure luck that I was with her when she went into labor with Jamie."
Snape's story is somewhat sanitized for his stepson's consumption. It also leaves out Dumbledore's part in encouraging Snape to pursue Lily, for Harry's safety, and Sirius and Lily agreeing that despite how she felt about him (Sirius) it was safer for Harry if she was in a publicly-acknowledged relationship with Severus Snape. But there was honestly no way to get the truth about all of this into this fic without overloading it with backstory which Harry had not personally witnessed! And Severus didn't want to tell his stepson that his relationship with his mother had restarted under less than romantic auspices.
He's also partially lying to Harry about their staying together for Stuart's sake; it's mainly for Harry, to still give the appearance to Voldemort and his followers that his father-figure is a loyal Death Eater, thus implying that Harry is on the same page.
18. "Actually, I also just recently found out I'm a witch. But that's because I was kidnapped from my family--who are all witches and wizards--and raised in a Muggle family."
Alicia seemed completely affronted by having to listen to such nonsense. "A what family?"
I didn't want to make this completely easy. Even if you're a bit of an overachiever, like Alicia and the others, are you really going to buy a story like this without proof?
19. "Here. What animal would you like this transfigured into? Something about the same size, preferably."
Alicia smirked. "All right. How about--a beagle. With a red collar."
Charlie nodded and waved his wand-and a small, muscular beagle was standing where the kneeler had been, a red leather collar around his neck, his tongue lolling out and his large dark eyes shining.
Alicia screamed.
Are we having fun yet? Ha!
20. Justin frowned. "You don’t even know me! What is this, some kind of blind date? I'm not gay!"
Liam glared at Harry, equally offended. "What, and I am? What have I ever done to make you think that, Potter?"
Harry looked back and forth between them helplessly. "I--I--'m sorry. I didn't mean--" He trailed off, not having expected this little bump in the road. Well, he thought, I suppose they haven't come out yet, in this timeline, even to themselves.
Having paired Justin and Liam together in the previous fic, I decided to embarrass Harry a little here by having him make the mistake of thinking that everyone who comes out does it at exactly the same time in all timelines. Which is ridiculous, of course. (I didn't meant to imply that in this timeline they aren't gay. They're the same people.)
21. "You'd better go back; your mum'll be wanting you all to get ready to go to the station in a little while. And you don't want her noticing that your hand on the clock says Traveling."
Ron nodded and started to turn back to the fireplace, but he stopped and frowned at Harry. "How did you know about that clock?"
Once again, Harry doesn't consider whether he's supposed to know something in this life...
22. The flickering firelight amid the tents was one of the most beautiful things Harry had ever seen. He felt a strange power as he surveyed the scene before him. I did this, he thought. Things will change.
Ah, but he didn't count on how truly evil Voldemort was. Harry is too good to truly be able to stay one step ahead of Voldemort. (There was some truth to Moody telling him that it took a Slytherin to catch a Slytherin. Trouble is--Harry's not a real Slytherin.)
23. "Here we are!" Mr. Malfoy said, pulling a black book out of his cloak. Harry widened his eyes in recognition; on the cover were the words Diary of T.M. Riddle. "Give this to the Weasley girl, after you're all back in the castle."
Draco took the book, staring at it. "Why? What will that do?"
That nasty smile again. "Never you mind. Just give it to her. The diary will do the rest."
I was actually consciously using the diary here in order to mirror its use in the second book of canon--I never suspected how much JKR would make HBP a mirror of CoS! Of course, there's nothing in my universe about Horcruxes because we didn't know about those from the first four books. And yet, the way the diary affects Harry and Draco when they're traveling around is eerily similar to the way Harry, Ron and Hermione are affected by the locket Horcrux when they were traveling around...
24. "What are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean--about Weasley. You're supposed to kill him."
"Oh, that. Well, I'm not going to, obviously."
Draco grimaced. "Well, it was nice knowing you."
Draco's being flippant, but he's also a little more clued-in than Harry here.
25. It happened so fast, he never had time to think; before he knew what was occurring, a huge tentacle burst up through the water and flung itself around Ginny, water flying everywhere. Harry saw the shocked expression on her face for only a split second before she was pulled under the surface of the lake.
I don't know how many people tried to tell me, "But the giant squid is NICE!" I didn't say WHOSE tentacle it was, did I? :D
And also--three cheers for JKR for putting an anti-gay troll in his place on Twitter. Though honestly, some of the comments I've seen from a handful of clueless wonders ("How was he being rude?" "Where in the books does it say Dumbledore's gay?") are making me shake my head...
Chapter 10: A Perfect Spy
1. "Young Potter and Malfoy... Normally, I would have you--do something for me at this time. But not tonight. You will know soon enough what I require of you."
To be clear--Voldemort really did have something specific he wanted each of them to do, but he changed his mind when the General Strike started, and their "tasks" became related to that.
2. "Of course, until I visited my servants at your school, I did not even know that I had a daughter, and I learned that the school had a Parselmouth."
There were readers who were convinced that this mean Voldemort had visited them at Hogwarts, though I never said that. Others were more observant, though. (It means Durmstrang. He was talking to Viktor Krum. The people who thought it was Hogwarts also forgot that Harry isn't a Parseltongue in this timeline.)
3. "Again!" he cried triumphantly. "Again I benefit from your scholarship, my servant, from your astute research." He gave a small nod to a figure of medium height wearing a dove-grey cloak. This man bowed deeply to his master in return for the recognition. "Were it not for you, I would not know of this ancient ritual. I would not know of the power I can gain by partaking of the body of my servant and heir after he willingly submits to me."
This is actually an ancient belief in many cultures around the world, some of them otherwise NOT cannibalistic. But still icky.
4. He spoke softly, hoping his dad didn't suspect he had anything to do with the chaos at the Death Eater meeting. Even though he had prevented them from partaking of the body of the heir, he had performed dangerous dark magic.
Some readers thought Harry should have told Snape about what he'd done at the initiation, and also Dumbledore, but Harry was trying to protect his stepfather. What he didn't know, he couldn't reveal under torture. (Remember--pre-OotP we didn't know about Occlumency and Legilimency, but Snape's not-knowing would also have protected him in the event that Voldemort had penetrated his mind using Occlumency or a similar tactic.) Plus, Harry couldn't tell his stepfather that he'd found the Tempus Fugit spell in a book of his--Snape would know if he had a book about this (which was the story he'd told the Weasleys). Which leaves the question again of how he knows about this, to which he would have to say once more, "I can't tell you."
5. At length, she told him she loved him and they both said good night. His stepfather hadn't spoken to her, but had stood in the doorway to his bedroom, hands deep in his pockets, face inscrutable.
One reader correctly pegged this, in hindsight, as a pointer toward a revelation about Severus and Lily that occurs later in the chapter.
6. But he found something interesting in the sports pages: in World Cup coverage, football teams for both East and West Germany were listed. The Berlin Wall fell about five years ago, he thought. Or was it six? Either way, there was just one Germany now. Or was there? Did the heir interfere with that? Or had the circumstances for the destruction of the wall simply never occurred in this timeline?
It's interesting how politics can even penetrate sports reporting. (I also didn't want Harry to "accidentally" take a part of the paper with specific information about political news. That would seem too on-the-nose.) Thus more and more details about the differences in the outside world will leak into the story now. In fact, it will rather snowball after chapter 14.
7. He wondered why his mother liked this book better than the others he knew she read by the same author. Perhaps it was because this one traced the life of a spy from his very early childhood, showed exactly how he’d come to be on the path that led him to covert operations. That was one thing about the book that had seemed rather depressing to him, as if this man had been irretrievably destined for this life, with no choice about it at all.
And hence the title of the chapter. I put a a disclaimer about the publishing date in the note at the end of the chapter.
8. "You can't talk to Sirius," Charlie told him. Harry frowned.
"Why not?"
"He's not here. In fact, as far as I know, he never came back from the village last night."
Another "Dun dun DUN!" moment. But overall, I believe I made these details seem innocuous enough that people were genuinely surprised by what they were leading to. (And honestly, if Harry had been privy to all of the details of how his mother and stepfather had grown apart and how Lily's relationship with Sirius came to be, it would have seemed perfectly natural to him and not such a shock. But since they were shielding the children from all of this, it WAS a shock.)
9. He didn't tell them that he recognized the heir; he couldn't remember ever actually seeing him or even hearing of him in this life, and he was tired of people giving him funny looks when he remembered things from his old life he shouldn't know. They didn’t ask anyway, simply assuming that he wouldn't know the heir's identity. But finally, Draco couldn't stand it anymore and said, "All right, Harry, out with it. It was you who did it, wasn't it?"
As a bullshitter himself, Draco has a pretty good bullshit detector. :D
10. "Actually," he informed his best friend, "the point of the wand-switching wasn't to leave that one Death Eater wandless. His isn't the wand that's missing."
"It isn't?"
"No. I--I stole Voldemort's wand."
Three jaws dropped at once.
I probably enjoyed writing this part way too much! Never let it be said that Harry lacks nerve.
11. He was about to knock on the door when he realized that it was already slightly ajar, and he heard voices from within. His mother was there, talking to his godfather. Well, Harry thought, perhaps I can hear about it right from her, then.
But there weren’t any more words to hear; there was merely a rustling and a sighing, a small giggle and a moan, an unmistakable sort of moan, and in a blind rage, Harry held out his right hand in the direction of the door, flinging it open without laying a finger on it, and the thick oak split as it struck the wall, as if propelled by a hurricane-force wind.
Do not, I repeat DO NOT piss off Harry Potter!
12. The pain in his joints was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. After he transfigured, he kneaded dead leaves with his paws for a few minutes, shaking out his mane. His breath was white before his muzzle. He took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his lungs.
Harry began to run.
Harry would continue to be disillusioned by his mother's life choices, but in my mind, Harry is partly to blame for what occurred, due to her being compelled to do whatever was necessary to save his life (such as marrying Snape to convince Voldemort that Harry really would be raised as his servant, though she had begun to be emotionally attached to Sirius after James' murder). That may be clearer if I ever get around to that AU missing-years fic.
13. Poor Dudley...except that his cousin was alive in this life. He tried to comfort himself with this knowledge, but he still didn’t feel any better. Harry had never even met any of the Dursleys. It was such an odd thought.
And not a true one. I never did find a way to fit in the information that Lily had gone with Harry to Petunia after James died and stayed on Privet Drive for a few days. But Harry was too young to remember this. (Another detail for the AU missing-years fic.)
14. What would happen, he wondered, if I just walked away from it all? If I just changed back into a boy and left my wizard's robes and wand here and walked into that Muggle town and left the wizarding world behind? Would anybody really notice, or care?
But he knew the answer to that; his parents and siblings and friends would be frantic, searching all over for him. He also has forgotten that he has the Dark Mark now. As he and Draco discover later, that's just a bit of a drawback if you're trying to disappear.
15. ...he could see the great castle in the distance, towers ablaze like beacons, and he moved toward that, since it was the only thing he had to guide him. How odd, he thought, that I can see it so clearly, and if a Muggle were staring right at it, he would see nothing but ruins.
An oblique reference to the dream he has in the previous fic in which he does see Hogwarts in ruins, which is foreshadowing for the end of the next fic.
16. He was miles away from the sixteen-year-old boy who'd declared his love for Harry's mother in the Potions Dungeon. He already looked like his life was over, like he was just biding time until some gruesome end. That, Harry thought, is the face of someone who has nothing to live for.
Which was what I thought after reading the FIRST BOOK. And what do we find out in DH, in the Prince's Tale? That losing Lily as his friend was THE WORST MEMORY OF HIS LIFE.
17. "After your father was killed, both Black and I came round quite often, helping her around the flat, helping her with you, spending time with her, comforting her. She was in a right state, and pregnant, to boot. I think it was just pure luck that I was with her when she went into labor with Jamie."
Snape's story is somewhat sanitized for his stepson's consumption. It also leaves out Dumbledore's part in encouraging Snape to pursue Lily, for Harry's safety, and Sirius and Lily agreeing that despite how she felt about him (Sirius) it was safer for Harry if she was in a publicly-acknowledged relationship with Severus Snape. But there was honestly no way to get the truth about all of this into this fic without overloading it with backstory which Harry had not personally witnessed! And Severus didn't want to tell his stepson that his relationship with his mother had restarted under less than romantic auspices.
He's also partially lying to Harry about their staying together for Stuart's sake; it's mainly for Harry, to still give the appearance to Voldemort and his followers that his father-figure is a loyal Death Eater, thus implying that Harry is on the same page.
18. "Actually, I also just recently found out I'm a witch. But that's because I was kidnapped from my family--who are all witches and wizards--and raised in a Muggle family."
Alicia seemed completely affronted by having to listen to such nonsense. "A what family?"
I didn't want to make this completely easy. Even if you're a bit of an overachiever, like Alicia and the others, are you really going to buy a story like this without proof?
19. "Here. What animal would you like this transfigured into? Something about the same size, preferably."
Alicia smirked. "All right. How about--a beagle. With a red collar."
Charlie nodded and waved his wand-and a small, muscular beagle was standing where the kneeler had been, a red leather collar around his neck, his tongue lolling out and his large dark eyes shining.
Alicia screamed.
Are we having fun yet? Ha!
20. Justin frowned. "You don’t even know me! What is this, some kind of blind date? I'm not gay!"
Liam glared at Harry, equally offended. "What, and I am? What have I ever done to make you think that, Potter?"
Harry looked back and forth between them helplessly. "I--I--'m sorry. I didn't mean--" He trailed off, not having expected this little bump in the road. Well, he thought, I suppose they haven't come out yet, in this timeline, even to themselves.
Having paired Justin and Liam together in the previous fic, I decided to embarrass Harry a little here by having him make the mistake of thinking that everyone who comes out does it at exactly the same time in all timelines. Which is ridiculous, of course. (I didn't meant to imply that in this timeline they aren't gay. They're the same people.)
21. "You'd better go back; your mum'll be wanting you all to get ready to go to the station in a little while. And you don't want her noticing that your hand on the clock says Traveling."
Ron nodded and started to turn back to the fireplace, but he stopped and frowned at Harry. "How did you know about that clock?"
Once again, Harry doesn't consider whether he's supposed to know something in this life...
22. The flickering firelight amid the tents was one of the most beautiful things Harry had ever seen. He felt a strange power as he surveyed the scene before him. I did this, he thought. Things will change.
Ah, but he didn't count on how truly evil Voldemort was. Harry is too good to truly be able to stay one step ahead of Voldemort. (There was some truth to Moody telling him that it took a Slytherin to catch a Slytherin. Trouble is--Harry's not a real Slytherin.)
23. "Here we are!" Mr. Malfoy said, pulling a black book out of his cloak. Harry widened his eyes in recognition; on the cover were the words Diary of T.M. Riddle. "Give this to the Weasley girl, after you're all back in the castle."
Draco took the book, staring at it. "Why? What will that do?"
That nasty smile again. "Never you mind. Just give it to her. The diary will do the rest."
I was actually consciously using the diary here in order to mirror its use in the second book of canon--I never suspected how much JKR would make HBP a mirror of CoS! Of course, there's nothing in my universe about Horcruxes because we didn't know about those from the first four books. And yet, the way the diary affects Harry and Draco when they're traveling around is eerily similar to the way Harry, Ron and Hermione are affected by the locket Horcrux when they were traveling around...
24. "What are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean--about Weasley. You're supposed to kill him."
"Oh, that. Well, I'm not going to, obviously."
Draco grimaced. "Well, it was nice knowing you."
Draco's being flippant, but he's also a little more clued-in than Harry here.
25. It happened so fast, he never had time to think; before he knew what was occurring, a huge tentacle burst up through the water and flung itself around Ginny, water flying everywhere. Harry saw the shocked expression on her face for only a split second before she was pulled under the surface of the lake.
I don't know how many people tried to tell me, "But the giant squid is NICE!" I didn't say WHOSE tentacle it was, did I? :D
And also--three cheers for JKR for putting an anti-gay troll in his place on Twitter. Though honestly, some of the comments I've seen from a handful of clueless wonders ("How was he being rude?" "Where in the books does it say Dumbledore's gay?") are making me shake my head...