Homesick

I’m terrified I might never have met me

But if my engine works perfect on empty, I guess I’ll drive

I guess I’ll drive

Chapter 2: What’s In A Name But Bullshit?

After Harri calmed down and made a mental plan to tell these people everything in a valiant attempt to burst their weird family bubble he found himself at a long kitchen table with a chipped mug of tea in front of him. The table was obviously well used with scratches at different spots, some random paint surrounded one specific seat at the table while another had scorch marks and yet another had pictures carved into it. The last marked spot had sharpie-honest to gods sharpie- dick drawings all around where he assumed a plate would go. Harri wondered how bad of parents these people were to let their kids destroy their property so thoroughly. The mug itself wasn’t too garish, one of those best dad mugs but instead of dad it said dog. That was weird. Harri tried to focus on what he wanted to tell these people instead of mentally berating their parenting skills, but it was hard.

“Harri dear, why don’t you tell us what’s wrong. You mentioned escaping? And charades? Can you tell me and your dad what that was all about?” Harri’s dead mum asked in such a gentle voice Harri almost didn’t want to burst their bubble. Would it be that bad living in a pretend world with his dead parents? With his luck, probably. They would try and have sex with him next or something. (He sometimes read the fanfictions people wrote about him and one night he’d been scarred for life. So his track record with strange situations is terrible) He looked at each of the faces around the table, his dead dad, dead mum and invasive sibling who’s name he didn’t even know. They all looked so genuine, he figured he better get this all over with as soon as possible.

“I don’t know any of you people” Harri started “I mean I do know who you are, at least two of you” he gestured to his dead parents “but I don’t know you” another gesture to the sibling. He turned to his parents (dead) and said “You two are supposed to be dead, I lost you both when I was one to Voldemort and grew up with your sister, Petunia Dursley. I don’t know what kind of sick joke this is, but I don’t appreciate having what I missed out on dangled in front of my face like this. I am an orphan, with no family, raised to kill Voldemort and save the world or some rot like that. I wasn’t raised with love or family or heritage, and definitely not with siblings. I am sorry I misgendered you in my mind though, I didn’t know. So yeah, that’s why I fainted and lost control. None of this is real and its cruel to have to see it and know it’s all a dream.” Harri was mad now, fully realizing how evil it is for these people to do this to him. How dare they twist his greatest dream into this? He looked sharply at each of the three people in the room as if challenging them to say he was wrong. That they were actually real, and he was the one being cruel. What he saw was exactly that. His fake dad looked sad and very very confused while his fake mum was red in the face, obviously angry but trying to keep it all in… for now. She really scared the shit out of him.

“Okay” said the mystery sibling “so you don’t know who we are and never lived a life with any of us around. That sounds awful. Can you tell me what you think is actually happening then?” They spoke very calmly and seemed genuinely interested in what he thought. It felt almost like they were trained in this sort of thing, but that’s ridiculous, you can’t be trained in emotional kidnapping, could you?

“Honestly, this is no time for your psychoanalyzing!” His fake mum snapped at the sibling. So maybe they were trained in something like this, that was somehow the least weird thing he’d learned today. “He’s just being cruel. I don’t understand why you would try and convince us that you grew up with Petunia of all things! You know how she feels about us, she would have tried to kill you!”

“She probably did. I mean I was regularly starved and beaten and lived in her cupboard under the stairs until I was 11. I feel like that’s probably attempted murder or something. I may be an Auror but I don’t know muggle laws that well.” Harri replied.

“You’re not an Auror, you refused to even think about it because I was head Auror and you didn’t want a handout.” James seemed to be back in his body after a brief conversation with the gods above. “I was both proud and sad when you told me that. But Harri something must have happened. Have you been attacked recently? Made a new friend? Taken any food or drink from someone you don’t know very well? Something must explain this!” Harri found it easier to think about them if he called them by their first names, except for that fucking sibling. Still no clue what their name is. He wasn’t even going to process this fake James being fake proud of him. He felt sick.

“Okay” the sibling interrupted his spiral “Harri is convinced that he doesn’t know us, mum can you go get one of our photo albums, dad you can do a few diagnostic spells on him to see if he really has been tampered with? Harri how do you feel about taking Veritaserum so we know you’re telling the truth? I can take some too and we can all ask the questions we want. Does that work for everyone?”

“I wish Hermione was here” Harri muttered to himself. Louder he said “Okay I can do that, if you take it too. I won’t do it alone. And you’ll go first.” His fake sibling nodded in understanding.

“My name is Killian by the way, you helped me pick my name when I came out two years ago.” So Harri finally knew their fake siblings name, that was helpful. Now he didn’t have to keep thinking of them as invasive sibling or mystery sibling or fake sibling. He felt slightly warm hearing their name, as if it was special. He couldn’t imagine helping someone pick out a name that they were going to be called forever, that seemed like too much responsibility. This fake Harri must really love their sibling or something, even if they are a twat.

“My name is Harri, it’s nice to meet you Killian” he held his hand out for a shake, which Killian took easily. “Thank you for believing me and helping me figure out what’s going on. I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well I’m not your favorite sibling for nothing.” Killian responded with a lopsided grin that eerily reminded him of his fake dad. Maybe they were related? Harri’s head was starting to hurt.

Moments later, after fake James did a handful of negative diagnostic spells Harri recognized from his Auror training, Harri and Killian had doses of Veritaserum in front of them. Killian took their dose first and Harri asked all the questions he had been burning with.

“Who are you?” Harri asked

“Killian Han Potter” they responded easily

“Who are you to me?” He continued

“Your favorite sibling” Though they choked a bit on the word favorite. Harri wondered if that was self-esteem issues or if the other version of him really didn’t like them as much as they had said.

“Why did you come to my apartment today?”

“To come and get you for breakfast before Ran’s Quidditch game” So far everything was lining up with what he was told before. He needed to ask a personal question that they would never want to answer to make sure they actually took the right potion instead of a placebo. What worse question to answer in front of your parents than…

“Who did you first have sex with and where?” Harri asked with a faint blush. Killian blanched though they seemed to come to terms with the fact that they were going to have to answer this truthfully in front of their parents quickly.

“With Luna next to the thestral herd at Hogwarts in the Forbidden Forest. I couldn’t see them, but Luna could, I don’t even know how she managed to cum honestly.” Killian seemed to realize they had said more than they wanted too and quickly shut their mouth in case anything more incriminating came out. Harri almost laughed, if not for the horrified realization that they were talking about Luna Lovegood. Holy fuck, his fake sibling fucked Luna Lovegood in the Forbidden Forest! This was too much for Harri, who passed the antidote over quickly.

“Okay my turn” said Killian as Harri took his dose. “Who are you?” They seemed to be starting off easy like Harri had.

“Harri James Potter” he responded easily, barely registering what he was saying through the fog of the potion.

“And who do you think I am in relation to you?” Killian seemed nervous for his answer and his fake parents leaned in closer to hear.

“I honestly don’t know. I thought maybe you were an out-of-control fan who had decided to kidnap me and play pretend. When we got here, I thought you were cosplaying my life and wanted some genuine Harri to make it better. You answered my questions honestly so now I don’t know if you’re just super delusional or if I am.” Harri hated how honest he was in that moment, but it seemed to be the right thing to say, Killian’s determined face said that it was an answer they could work with.

“Mum, Dad, you know that Veritaserum breaks through delusions, Harri would have had to say we were related if he even realized it in some small part of his brain. He really doesn’t know us.” Killian’s observation seemed to shift the feelings in the room quickly. His fake parents turned from confusion and anger to sorrow and fear. Fear for him, Harri realized. They were worried about him. He wondered how long it had been since someone had felt like that about him not in relation to his fight with Voldemort. It felt nice, and he said so out loud. He had always been incredibly susceptible to Veritaserum when he had to take it for Auror training. His fake mum leaned over and looked to be contemplating putting a comforting hand on his but pulled back at the last second.

“Harri, please tell us how you are related to James and Lily Potter and a brief description of how you were raised.” Killian seemed to be in pain asking this question, but Harri complied. He spoke for ten minutes about the horrors of living with the Dursley’s. Considering their horrible treatment of him for a decade and a half, that felt like a brief explanation. There was so much more he could say. Everyone looked horrified by the time he was done, and James shoved the antidote at him quickly. He took it and immediately began feeling better.

“Okay so now that we know the Harri we have here doesn’t know us and isn’t sure who we are, we need to figure out what our next step is. Any ideas?” Killian seemed to be a bit lost and more than a bit sad but were holding it together well.

In the end fake James did more tests, took Harri to St. Mungos for a thorough check-up and then finally to Gringotts. There the goblins did an inheritance test on both the Potters. The proof there was what convinced Harri that these people were in fact not fake or dead anything. He was looking at the living breathing parents he lost years ago, alive, and well. Needless to say, he fainted again.