Unlikely Allies: A Harry Potter Fanfic
Disclaimer: not mine, all hers. Wildly AU, but I’m trying to comply with the canon back story and relationships.
Q: What do a deceased Pureblood supremacist, a magic-hating Muggle, and the Half-blood Head of Slytherin have in common?
A: No, no, you had the correct answer: nothing at all. Don’t be silly!
Unfortunately, Severus has to get them (plus a spoiled prat, a drunken seer, a cowardly hedonist, and more) all working together if he’s to have any hope of saving Lily’s child from both Riddle’s machinations and Dumbledore’s.
It is said that a Slytherin will do ANYTHING to achieve his ends. We’ll see how true this is.
“You speed by with your camera and your spear
and stop and ask me for directions
I answer there are none ...
Once, when there was history
some obliterating fact occurred,
no solution was found
Now this country is underwater;
we can love only the drowned”
Margaret Atwood, “Interview with a Tourist”
What if one didn’t accept the obliterating event as fact?
Prologue: Blackmail
Petunia Dursley stared at the scrap of parchment which had fluttered though the window while she was putting up her hair after her bath. She had been luxuriating in their return from that mildewed hotel and that horrible hovel.
And in the absence of the freak, however temporary.
The spiky script read,
“Petunia:
You obviously don’t care for your nephew, but still you give him the shelter of your home-which has probably saved the child’s life, and which may do so again in the future.
I haven’t told your nephew about a certain letter which I once read.
Nor shall I, should the child be treated moderately decently from now on. At least as decently, shall we say, as a respectable woman might treat an unwelcome dog which for some reason can’t be shunted off to another owner or put down?
Force me to see the child further mistreated, and I might be tempted to tell your sister’s boy, and your own, details from our mutual past which you might prefer to pass over in silence.
I am, of course, in a position to appreciate fully your desire to keep some matters private. I shall respect this desire, provided you don’t further mistreat the child.
Fold this parchment in two and it will turn invisible; only your fingers will be able to unfold it. Should you feel some need to answer me, write on the back and fold the parchment in quarters; it will return to me. Tap the final full stop twice, and the parchment will be destroyed.
SS”
She kept reading and rereading the scrap, not touching it at all.
A worthless, good-for-nothing drunk… You’re worse than he. What’s your excuse, Tuney?
She hadn’t treated the boy so badly! She had given the little freak houseroom, fed him, clothed him in Dudley’s own old clothes, made sure he went to school, dragged him kicking and screaming to the doctor when he’d needed it…. They’d never even hit him, though the boy had practically begged for it. What did that freak mean, mistreat? He was one to talk! Finally Petunia heard Vernon’s step on the stairs, and she touched the parchment twice, her face twisting.
The parchment vanished in a final-looking puff of smoke.
The show-off. Her little sister’s freakish friend had always kept his word, whatever else one said of him.
Vernon filled the door. Petunia could see that he was trying to fill the room; that he was trying not to betray uncertainty in the face of all, all this. That he was trying, in fact, to protect her and Dudley. But nothing Vernon could ever do would shield Petunia fully from the strangeness in her family.
Vernon said, inflating his chest, “He’s back. That long-haired weirdo brought him back. And he’s got a raven riding on his shoulder this time! Are we letting that-that little freak-back in Dudley’s second room?”
Petunia nodded silently. She crossed to her husband and let him hold her. “We can’t do anything else. Vernon-I never really explained it to you. He’d be killed otherwise, by some of those other freaks, if we don’t let him stay with us. That chief freak of theirs did something so he’d be safe from my sister’s murderers only while he lives with his blood kin, us.
“It’s not whether people would talk, if we sent our own kin to a home. The boy would be murdered otherwise. He has no chance if we throw him out. So this is our only choice.”
Vernon grumbled furiously in his mustache. But Petunia had known he would give in, just as she had. What else could a body do?
*
A/N: In OotP, Vernon wants to kick Harry out after realizing that harboring Harry endangers Dudley. After getting a Howler from Albus, Petunia overrides him. I see only two ways to interpret this. One, that Dumbledore has threatened her family with worse than Dementors if she doesn’t shelter Harry. Remember, Petunia knows what Dementors are, as she knows who Voldemort is. She KNOWS what harm the magical world can do. If you choose to believe that badly of Dumbledore, you can probably find some canon support.
Or two, that Dumbledore has told her that Harry’s death is certain if he’s expelled, and she balances possible danger to her beloved husband and son against certain death to her freakish nephew-and chooses to save Harry’s life. She is a Gryffindor’s sister, after all, and these things do run in families. Talk about choosing between what is right and what is easy!
Q: What do a deceased Pureblood supremacist, a magic-hating Muggle, and the Half-blood Head of Slytherin have in common?
A: No, no, you had the correct answer: nothing at all. Don’t be silly!
Unfortunately, Severus has to get them (plus a spoiled prat, a drunken seer, a cowardly hedonist, and more) all working together if he’s to have any hope of saving Lily’s child from both Riddle’s machinations and Dumbledore’s.
It is said that a Slytherin will do ANYTHING to achieve his ends. We’ll see how true this is.
“You speed by with your camera and your spear
and stop and ask me for directions
I answer there are none ...
Once, when there was history
some obliterating fact occurred,
no solution was found
Now this country is underwater;
we can love only the drowned”
Margaret Atwood, “Interview with a Tourist”
What if one didn’t accept the obliterating event as fact?
Prologue: Blackmail
Petunia Dursley stared at the scrap of parchment which had fluttered though the window while she was putting up her hair after her bath. She had been luxuriating in their return from that mildewed hotel and that horrible hovel.
And in the absence of the freak, however temporary.
The spiky script read,
“Petunia:
You obviously don’t care for your nephew, but still you give him the shelter of your home-which has probably saved the child’s life, and which may do so again in the future.
I haven’t told your nephew about a certain letter which I once read.
Nor shall I, should the child be treated moderately decently from now on. At least as decently, shall we say, as a respectable woman might treat an unwelcome dog which for some reason can’t be shunted off to another owner or put down?
Force me to see the child further mistreated, and I might be tempted to tell your sister’s boy, and your own, details from our mutual past which you might prefer to pass over in silence.
I am, of course, in a position to appreciate fully your desire to keep some matters private. I shall respect this desire, provided you don’t further mistreat the child.
Fold this parchment in two and it will turn invisible; only your fingers will be able to unfold it. Should you feel some need to answer me, write on the back and fold the parchment in quarters; it will return to me. Tap the final full stop twice, and the parchment will be destroyed.
SS”
She kept reading and rereading the scrap, not touching it at all.
A worthless, good-for-nothing drunk… You’re worse than he. What’s your excuse, Tuney?
She hadn’t treated the boy so badly! She had given the little freak houseroom, fed him, clothed him in Dudley’s own old clothes, made sure he went to school, dragged him kicking and screaming to the doctor when he’d needed it…. They’d never even hit him, though the boy had practically begged for it. What did that freak mean, mistreat? He was one to talk! Finally Petunia heard Vernon’s step on the stairs, and she touched the parchment twice, her face twisting.
The parchment vanished in a final-looking puff of smoke.
The show-off. Her little sister’s freakish friend had always kept his word, whatever else one said of him.
Vernon filled the door. Petunia could see that he was trying to fill the room; that he was trying not to betray uncertainty in the face of all, all this. That he was trying, in fact, to protect her and Dudley. But nothing Vernon could ever do would shield Petunia fully from the strangeness in her family.
Vernon said, inflating his chest, “He’s back. That long-haired weirdo brought him back. And he’s got a raven riding on his shoulder this time! Are we letting that-that little freak-back in Dudley’s second room?”
Petunia nodded silently. She crossed to her husband and let him hold her. “We can’t do anything else. Vernon-I never really explained it to you. He’d be killed otherwise, by some of those other freaks, if we don’t let him stay with us. That chief freak of theirs did something so he’d be safe from my sister’s murderers only while he lives with his blood kin, us.
“It’s not whether people would talk, if we sent our own kin to a home. The boy would be murdered otherwise. He has no chance if we throw him out. So this is our only choice.”
Vernon grumbled furiously in his mustache. But Petunia had known he would give in, just as she had. What else could a body do?
*
A/N: In OotP, Vernon wants to kick Harry out after realizing that harboring Harry endangers Dudley. After getting a Howler from Albus, Petunia overrides him. I see only two ways to interpret this. One, that Dumbledore has threatened her family with worse than Dementors if she doesn’t shelter Harry. Remember, Petunia knows what Dementors are, as she knows who Voldemort is. She KNOWS what harm the magical world can do. If you choose to believe that badly of Dumbledore, you can probably find some canon support.
Or two, that Dumbledore has told her that Harry’s death is certain if he’s expelled, and she balances possible danger to her beloved husband and son against certain death to her freakish nephew-and chooses to save Harry’s life. She is a Gryffindor’s sister, after all, and these things do run in families. Talk about choosing between what is right and what is easy!