Adopted!/Substituted!/Changling!Harry-Part II

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 57993

I have modified my variant name as the Changeling!Harry variant. It fits the 
conditions much more accurately and appropriately.

It also offers some additional possible context and subtext for the first two 
books.

The "Changling" interpretation turns out to offer an explanation for why 
Harry was left with the Dursleys despite their being perfectly horrible 
people. And I am quite convinced that Albus Dumbledore *knew* that they were 
perfectly horrible people. But they were his best shot.

The explanation that he gave Minerva McGonagall was only part of the 
reasoning. The shallowest and most surface part. The disapearance of Lord 
Voldemort and Harry's unaccountable survival were bound to have been a major 
subject for discussion and investigation throughout the missing 24 hours. 
Dumbeldore knew, and had been a contributor to the protective spell structure 
which had allowed the child to survive. But this particular spell structure 
was experimental. It had never been done before. The actual results were 
theoretical and untested. They did not know what had actually taken place and 
they did not know whether, or how deeply the child had been affected, or in 
what manner. The child could be a ticking time bomb. The results of this 
investigation are known only to Dumbledore and a handful of people with high 
security clearance, probably Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries (we 
will hope that Agustus Rookwood was not privy to that investigation).

Given these uncertainties, for all that he appeared to be a normal human 
child, he was both in danger from and a danger to the wizarding world. It was 
necessary that Harry Potter be kept well away from the magical world until he 
came to Hogwarts, where he could be watched, and only a family of Muggles who 
were already aware of magic could be depended upon not to raise the kind of 
uproar that would direct the kind of attention to him that might be fatal in 
the Muggle world. 

The Dursley's known opposition to magic was, in this case, an advantage. They 
would not expose him to the wizarding world where they would not be able to 
protect him, and he would not be subject to undesirable magical influences. 
The Dursley's unfamiliarity with the norms of raising young wizards would 
also keep them from recognizing anomlalies as anomalies, chalking all strange 
occurances down to "magic". And, horrible as they were, Dumbledore had 
reasonable confidence that they would not physically torture or starve him.

Mrs Figg was indeed set to watch over him. But not to protect him from the 
Dursleys. Nor was she primarily stationed where she was in order to detect 
the approach of possible ex-Death Eaters. Her part was to give the alarm and 
try to neutralize Harry if he should show signs of turning out to actually be 
their enemy and reverting to type. She could not and did not take the risk of 
permiting herself to become fond of him. (Now that Voldemort has returned in 
fact, and it is clear that Harry at least is not the enemy, her watch may 
either be called off or her function changed.)

Hagrid was sent to collect the boy because Hagrid was one of the handfull of 
people who remembers Tom Riddle as a young boy.  Hagrid saw no resemblance in 
Harry to anyone but James and Lily Potter.

Dumbledore took a tremendous risk in showing Harry how the Mirror of Erised 
worked. He was 99% certain that it was Quirrell who had been possessed by the 
entity that they had known as Voldemort, but he had to test whether Voldemort 
might have tried to work through Harry as well. The news that Harry had 
entered the labyrinth was highly unwelcome, but it is clear from Dumbledore's 
response that he had always considered it a possibility. That when found 
Harry and Voldemort were locked in a mortal combat seems to have cleared 
Harry of suspicion of being an intenional tool of their enemy, regardless of 
whatever else he may be. It was now solidly established that to Voldemort 
Harry Potter was only a child that he wants dead.

Until he turned up in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Chamber was 
opened the following year and suspicions started flying all over again. 

Dumbledore knows kids, and while he did not really think that Harry was 
responsible for the attack on Mrs. Norris, the boy was clearly keeping some 
information back. There is also still the fact that he has some connection 
with the entity which had possessed Quirrell through his scar, and that the 
second Fawkes wand had chosen him. And they *still* do not know just what 
took place when Voldemort first tried to kill him. How far do all of these 
connections go?

Dumbledore has had 50 years to mull over what had taken place the year that 
the Chamber of Secrets had been opened the first time and it is altogether 
too likely that he already *knows* that somehow a Basilisk is making free of 
the school. By this time, it is also known that Lord Voldemort is a 
Parselmouth. I am not sure that this ever *was* actually known of Tom Riddle. 
I strongly suspect that it was not, or he might have come under suspicion the 
first time around, and all indications are that he did not. But. Dumbledore 
*does* know Voldemort's origin, and has long since worked out that if Riddle 
is Voldemort, and Voldemort is a Parselmouth, and that one of the classic 
stone-turning monsters (and there are not that many of those) is the 
Basilisk, which is a form of snake, that the uproar the year that Myrtle was 
killed and Hagrid was expelled was probably produced by Riddle, who was 
controlng and directing a Basilisk. But *how*?

And now Potter is acting suspiciously, and he *really* does not want to have 
to believe that Voldemort is acting through Potter. 

Plus, we suddenly have Lucius Malfoy underfoot, and that is even more 
suspicious. Dumbledore refuses to believe that Potter is dancing to 
*Malfoy's* tune.

But a Basilisk is a *snake*, and Riddle was a Parselmouth, and Potter has 
some sort of a connection to Riddle. Could Potter have *heard* the Basilisk 
as it moved through the school? It's worth establishing that much at least.

I believe that in PS/SS Dumbledore enlisted Snape and Filch's help to set up 
the Mirror of Erised experiment wherein he explained to Harry Potter how the 
Mirror worked. I think that in CoS he took Snape into his confidence far 
enough to pass on his suspicion that Potter may have acquired the gift of 
Parselmouth when LV first tried to kill him and that it might be useful to 
test this theory. 

Snape, being Snape, agreed that this might be useful indeed and, as Harry 
exceeded expectations in PS/SS by going into the labyrinth to save the Stone, 
Snape exceeded expectations by making sure that this hypothis was verified 
publically, dramatically, and with maximun negative impact upon Potter. 

Dumbledore was Not Pleased. But he chalked it down to experience, and got a 
certain degree of private amusement when he was able to sit back and watch 
what goes around come around and bite Snape when he engineered Sirius Black's 
escape the following year. Snape could have readily avoided making a fool of 
himself by exercising a little open-mindedness and moderation. But 
open-mindedness and moderation are lessons that Snape is determined not to 
learn.

And, the evidence of Fawkes and Godric's sword is inarcuable, and assures 
that by the end of CoS, we can safely say that Harry has never, and probably 
will never come under suspicion from Albus Dumbledore again. He has amply 
proved himself, and his intentions, at least, have Dumbledore's absolute 
confidence.