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The plan he came up with was simple enough. Harry would pass himself off as the illegitimate son of Sirius Black and one of his many lovers, then use his familial connection to get Sirius' case reopened by the Ministry. Once Sirius was freed Harry hoped to be able to talk him into going along with the pretence, thereby adding credence to his story. If all went well, Harry would be considered part of Sirius' family and his identity would be established as a young wizard who was most emphatically not Harry Potter.
"And then I'll be free," Harry said to himself. "So long as the plan works… and so long as Sirius agrees… but I've got to trust someone..."
Decision made, the only thing that made Harry hesitate was choosing the right woman to be his so-called mother. It would need to be a woman close to Sirius' age, preferably a pureblood, if possible attractive, and most importantly of all - dead. He couldn't give anyone a reason to suspect him of lying. If such a conveniently deceased witch didn't exist then Harry supposed he'd have to choose a random muggle instead, but he wanted to keep that as a last resort. He was determined not to let the Death Eaters come to power in this world, but he knew that would be a lot easier said than done. Harry would need to be in a position to influence events and people, especially those wizards and witches who believed in Pureblood Superiority. Belonging to an important wizarding family would strengthen his support amongst the Noble and Ancient houses which would be a useful advantage to have.
So Harry sat down with the stack of old Daily Prophets he'd got from the junk shop earlier that day and began skimming the obituary sections for any likely targets. He found a few witches who seemed as if they might fit his requirements, having all died during the war, but further digging showed that they were unsuitable. It couldn't be a woman with a close family that was likely to investigate the sudden appearance of a long lost son, nor someone who had been too much in the public eye.
It took a week of research in between his work at the Leaky Cauldron before Harry narrowed the options down to one witch who fit all the requirements. Her name was Evelinda Aubrey and she was a Gryffindor from an old and predominantly Slytherin family. Harry found mentions of her in several old articles about her older brother, Bertram Aubrey, who was described as a rising star in politics. He was pictured in several photographs alongside a young Lucius Malfoy, Rabastan Lestrange, and one of the Carrows. The Aubrey siblings had apparently been estranged for years due to their political differences, but when Evelinda died in a terrible house fire her poor brother turned up at the funeral - with several reporters in tow.
Reading between the lines, Harry gathered that Bertram Aubrey had been a Death Eater, or at least an unmarked supporter, who had disowned his sister because she refused to join the Dark Lord and then had taken advantage of her death to drum up public sympathy and political support.
The fire that killed Evelinda did more than burn down her home, it had also destroyed her body. Which meant there was no real proof that the woman was actually dead - Harry could claim that she'd left Britain before the fire or had faked her own death or something. Considering the panicked state of the Wizarding World back then, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to have done just that. Many witches and wizards had ended up fleeing Britain and going into hiding during the war. There would be no reason for anyone to suspect Harry of lying about any of it - after all, the truth was much more implausible than the lie.
Checking the dates, Harry worked out that Evelinda would have been only a year older than Sirius and that she had died during the height of the war, two years before Sirius was sent to Azkaban. It fit perfectly;
according to the stories Harry had heard, Sirius had slept with every attractive witch he met back then so it wouldn't be outside the realms of possibility for Evelinda to have fallen pregnant with his child. His story could be that Evelinda hadn't wanted herself or her son involved in the war (and later hadn't wanted to live in the country that had thrown Sirius in prison) and so had left Britain to live quietly abroad, keeping her son a secret from everyone.
The rest of the details were easy enough to invent. Harry chose the name Orion Aubrey for himself, after Sirius' middle name, and made up a half-way believable history of the last ten years. He decided he would pretend to have been born and brought up in France, where his mother had home-schooled him.
Then when Evelinda had died a few months ago from some sort of lingering illness (perhaps Dragon Pox?), Harry had made his way to Britain in the hope of proving his father innocent. France was close enough to England to make that possible for a ten-year-old, right? He could tell people he had stowed away on a muggle ferry.
By the end of the day Harry was mentally and physically exhausted, but pleased with everything he'd managed to get done so far.
He would have to do more research to make sure he hadn't overlooked anything, but Harry was pretty sure his made-up background would stand up to scrutiny. Well, so long as he didn't have to speak much French and Sirius agreed to go along with everything.
Even with doubts pressing in on him, Harry fell asleep minutes after collapsing into his make-shift bed. His sleep was plagued by nightmares though, and he woke up several times in a cold sweat, his hand reaching for his wand and his heart beating wildly in his chest. Only one of the dreams was about his last panicked moments during the attack in Piccadilly. The others were all based on older memories; hearing Hermione's screams as she was tortured in Malfoy Manor, seeing Luna hit by a cutting curse in the middle of an ambush outside the Burrow, and - most vivid of all - watching his godfather disappear forever behind the Veil of Death.
"Sirius," Harry whispered to himself as he lay awake, staring blankly into the darkness of the Shrieking Shack. But for once the crushing sense of loss that his nightmare always invoked was lightened. He had a chance, here in this new world, to save Sirius. "I'll make sure he's freed," Harry told himself fiercely. "I'll do everything right this time. I swear it."
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