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Harry took of his cloak after he entered the Room of Requirement. He pulled the wrapping paper off the present only to see a mirror.
“A mirror? Why would Sirius give me a-“
“Harry!” Sirius said, his and Remus’ faces appearing on the mirror.
“Sirius? How?”
“Magic, of course. I’ve been trying to contact you for weeks. You forgot about the present didn’t you?”
Harry turned red and gave him a sheepish smile, “Yeah. It was just left still wrapped in the bottom my trunk.”
“Don’t worry, James and I did that all the time.”
“It’s a wonder you two made it through school without forgetting your heads,” Remus said.
“What do you mean my mom never attended Hogwarts? Wasn’t she in Gryffindor like the rest of you?”
“No, though if she had attended, she would have definitely been a Gryffindor,” Sirius said. Then he muttered quietly, “Or possibly a Slytherin, but then she’d have killed all of them.”
“I don’t know why Snape remembers her being there, but I’m sure it had something to do with her obsession with her,” Remus said.
“Now, Lily, while a lovely woman, wasn’t actually English, or actually called Lily, or even a witch for that matter. Her name was Liliya, Liliya Romanova, and she came from Russia. She left behind a sister, I think, I can’t remember her name. Remus?”
“N-something, I think. Natalia, maybe?”
“Anyway, she came to England, well, not to England specifically – she was just trying to get away from Russia and what she called the Red Room and-“
“Sirius.”
“Right, sorry. Anyway, she shows up in England and meets Harold and Rose Evans, who take her in, and gave her care.”
“She was injured?” Harry asked.
“No,” Sirius said. “At least, I don’t think so. She was pregnant with you, but-“
“Wait, with me? But isn’t James Potter-?”
“James gave you his last name and loved you like you were his, Harry. Never doubt that,” Sirius said. “But, no, he was not your biological father. We’ll get to that, I promise. Anyway, the Evanses take her in, give her care, even though it strained their relationship with daughter Petunia.”
“Aunt Petunia’s not really my aunt? Then why does Dumbledore keep sending me back there? He says I’m protected there because of my mother’s blood, since she was Aunt Petunia’s sister.”
Sirius and Remus shared a shocked look. Remus spoke first, “I didn’t even think of that.”
“Neither did I,” Sirius admitted, “and neither did Dumbledore.”
“Does Dumbledore even know that Lily wasn’t actually related to them?”
“I don’t know,” Sirius said, looking shaken. After he recovered, he continued, “The Evans even gave Lily their last name so she could hide from her pursuers. It was a few weeks after that that James saw her for the first time and became infatuated.”
“We were all out in the muggle world, hanging around a few bars,” Remus said. “We come across these big beefy guys all bothering a woman, your mother, who was obviously not interested.”
“And just before we could step in to save her,” Sirius said, “she saves herself. Knocks each and every one of them on their arses, twice. And then threatens to rip out their insides. James fell in love immediately.”
“It was beautiful, if a bit morbid,” Remus added.
“So, naturally James goes up and begins flirting, and asking if she could teach him to do what she did to those guys because it was awesome, and Remus and I wanted to learn too, though the rat was too lazy, so she starts hanging out with us.”
“During which time, James continued to try and woo her. She dated him, of course, and agreed to marry him, although I don’t think for sure that she loved him.”
“Her biggest priority was you,” Sirius said, “and insuring you had a family to grow up in. I don’t think she thought she had much time to live. And I don’t think it was Voldemort she was scared off.”
“They got married, and shortly afterwards you were born. They told people you were a bit premature, since she and James had met when she was almost four months along.”
“And then they named you Harold James, after Harold Evans, and your father.”
“I thought you said James Potter wasn’t my father?” Harry asked.
“He wasn’t your biological father,” Sirius said. “He was still your father. He adopted you and everything. And, I suppose, technically, you were named after both your fathers, since your biological father’s name was James too, according to Lily.”
“Anyway,” Remus said, “shortly after you were born, Snape banged on the door, and began shouting at James for taking Lily from him.”
“Completely out of nowhere,” Sirius said. “Lily had never even met Snape before, we asked. Snape apparently saw her at Diagon Alley once, and decided she was his. Of course, had he actually tried to force that view on Lily…”
“Oh, Lily’d have handed him arse on a silver platter, and probably a few other pieces of him as well,” Remus finished. “Anyway, he spent the year up until their deaths, screaming at James for stealing Lily from him, or following Lily around, trying to get her to go away with him. Pity, he never tried to force it. I would have paid good money to see his arsekicking.”
“So would I,” Sirius said, smiling. Then, his smile turned into a frown, “And then Voldemort came for them, and you know what happened next.”
“How come nobody told me this? Even Ollivander mentioned her and her wand?”
“Ah, yes,” Remus said. “James took her to Ollivander to get a wand, even if Lily herself couldn’t use one. At the time, being a muggleborn was only slightly better than being a muggle, but it was better, so she needed the tools to play the part.”
“And boy was she good at it,” Sirius said. “No one could figure out how her ‘hexes’ and ‘curses’ didn’t give off a magical signature. Terrified the piss out of the Death Eaters. Made them think a muggleborn had discovered a way to hide magical signatures.”
“Okay, so Mom wasn’t a witch, wasn’t from around here, and definitely didn’t attend Hogwarts,” Harry said, “but that doesn’t explain why I saw her in Snape’s memories.”
“Because Snape’s a sicko,” Sirius said.
Remus sighed, and clarified, “Snape is very, very sick, and I don’t mean like the flu or the pox, or anything like that. He’s had mental issues since we were in Hogwarts, and they’ve only gotten worse over the years. It’s quite likely that Snape does actually remember your mother being there at Hogwarts and on his side.”
“But in his memory, he called her a, well,” Harry said, “he called her a foul word for muggleborn.”
“It’s entirely possible. I mean, he needed something to be able to justify the fact that she was no longer friends with him and married to James. I think it was shortly after that incident that he fully joined in with the junior Death Eater squad. Before he hadn’t really hung out with them, but-“
“-but he was still a disgusting little berk that liked to-“
“Sirius!” Remus said sharply. “Harry really doesn’t need any nightmares about Snape and the things he did with those people.”
Sirius grumbled, but Remus ignored him and turned back to Harry, “Harry, you need to be very careful. If Snape’s mental problems have gotten that bad, there’s no telling what he’ll do. Especially since he thinks you’re really of James Potter’s blood.”
Harry nodded in agreement, “He cancelled occlumency lessons, so it’s going to be pretty easy to avoid being alone with him again.”
“Good. Now, I think it’s time you finally went to bed,” Remus said. “It’s late. Goodnight, Harry.”
“Night, Harry.”
“Night Sirius, Remus.”
The faces disappeared from the mirror. Harry put his cloak back on and made his way back to his dorm room.