Not All Was What It Seemed (Prologue)
Harriet Laurel Potter Black. That was what her parents named her at birth. Until today she had no idea that she even had a middle name, let alone two last names.
She didn’t know that she was blood adopted by Sirius.
He never got the chance to tell her.
He didn’t get the chance to tell her much at all.
That was her fault.
One of the few things Harriet would admit was entirely her fault nowadays. She had three parents, and it was her fault that she lost the last one. Her last chance at a family gone. Staring down at the Gringotts inheritance test she felt grief wash over her again. She was tired, so tired of losing people. Everyone who had ever gotten close to her, dead. Everyone but Ron and Hermione. But even they weren’t truly there for her. Ron had always been a jealous git, but she was hoping that as he got older he would grow out of it. He didn’t. And Hermione. Oh, Hermione, she tried, really, but she just didn’t -couldn’t understand Harriet. And Harriet had trouble understanding the other girl as well. Who worried about academics so much that being expelled seemed like a worse option than death? She loved Hermione, really, she did she just… wasn’t the kind of person Harriet needed her to be most of the time.
But thinking about her friends isn't going to change her current situation. In fact she wasn't sure if anything could be done to fix all of her mounting problems. And her Gringotts accountant, Griphook had just informed her that what she already knew wasn't even the worst of it. Apparently Headmaster Dumbledore has been dousing her in potions and compulsions ever since she started going to Hogwarts. How he had done that without anyone knowing she didn't know, but it was starting to look like Dumbledore was not the kind benevolent man he presented himself as.