A Different Life

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, a worried frown on his face. Arabella Figg had contacted him that morning, reporting that Bethany Potter did not seem to be at the Dursleys. Dudley Dursley had been seen going to first grade, but there was no sign of his cousin. Something was wrong. If Bethany wasn't at her relatives, then she was missing and action needed to be taken. After some thought, he summoned Minerva McGonagall and asked her to check if Bethany was at the Dursleys.

Miles away, Beth and Hermione were racing to the Granger home on their bicycles. Beth was winning at the moment. However, when they turned the corner, Hermione yelled, "Your chain is falling off, Beth!"

Beth skidded to a stop and hopped off her bike to check. As she did so, Hermione pedaled past her and took the lead. Beth's widened when she saw that the chain wasn't falling off and realized she'd been tricked. She got back on her bike and tried to catch up, but Hermione won the race. "That's not fair, Hermione Jean Granger!" shouted Beth.

Hermione just smirked. "There's nothing in the rules that says I can't trick you in order to win the race, Beth."

"Fine, you win, Mia," said Beth, reverting to the nickname for Hermione (because she couldn't pronounce the full name at the age of three) to show she was no longer annoyed. "But I'm getting you back at our next race."

"Good luck," grinned Hermione. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Visiting Uncle Gary and his family," responded Beth. "I don't really want to, 'cause all Evanna wants to do is play tea party with her dolls. And I'm stuck playing with her 'cause she's only a year younger than me. Daniel and Julie are too old and Mike's too little."

At the Ministry of Magic in London, Natalia Harper was sorting through papers from old cases. She stopped when she came to one labeled 'Sirius Black'. Back in Hogwarts, she had dated Sirius briefly in her fifth year. After three months, though, they had mutually decided to break up, because they felt that they didn't have all that much in common. However, they had remained friends. After graduation, they'd lost touch with each other and the next thing Natalia had heard about Sirius was that he had been arrested for betraying the Potters to Voldemort and killing his friend Peter Pettigrew plus twelve Muggles. She wasn't sure what to believe, because Sirius had never struck her as the kind of person to betray his friends or turn to the Dark Arts like most of his family. However, all evidence had pointed as him being guilty, so she had dismissed it from her mind.

Natalia now read through the file and gasped when she discovered that Sirius Black had never received a trial. In the Muggle world, all arrested people got a trial, so that didn't sit well with her. Just because the war against Voldemort ended and all evidence showed Sirius to be guilty was no excuse. She contacted her Head of Department, Amelia Bones, and requested a trial for Sirius Black. Amelia Bones, who was a very fair person, agreed with her, and promised to do her best to get a trial.

The next day, Saturday, Natalia took Beth to visit her brother and his family. The drive took an hour. Evanna came running out the door when Beth got out of the car. "Hi, Beth! Grandma gave me a new doll! Let's have tea."

Beth sighed. She didn't mind dolls, and had several at home, but she hated having tea parties with them so often. Whenever she played with dolls with Hermione, they normally played school or doctor office or something similar.

To her surprise, ten-year old Julie came to the rescue. "I'm sorry, Evanna, but Beth can't have a tea party with you right now. I'm sorting through some of my old books and I want Beth to pick the ones she likes to take with her."

Evanna pouted. "Rats! Now I have to have a tea party with Mike. He's only a baby."

"Don't call your brother that," repriminded her father. He then bent down and hugged Beth. "And how's my favorite niece?"

"I'm your only niece, Uncle Gary," giggled Beth, returning the hug and kissing her uncle on the cheek.

Julie then took Beth upstairs, where there was a cardboard box filled with books. Beth instantly began looking through the box. She had insisted on having her mother teach her to read when she was three, and had fallen in love with reading books not long after. By the time she had started kindergarten, she could already read at a second-grade level. That was one of the reasons that Hermione was her best friend, because Hermione also loved to read as well.

After several minutes, Beth annouced, "I want all the books, Julie."

"Sure," replied Julie, shrugging. "I don't read them anymore, and Evanna's not going to read them for a few more years, so you might as well get some use out of them. And Dan doesn't want them because the main characters are mostly girls."

"Thanks, Julie," said Beth, grinning.

At Hogwarts that afternoon, Professor McGonagall was reporting to Dumbledore. "I went to the Dursley home like you asked, Albus. Bethany Potter is not there. Petunia Dursley answered the door and was not happy to see me when I explained who I was. She and her husband tried to throw me out and I had to resort to threatening them with magic before they desisted. Both informed me that Bethany was not there, and their son Dudley told me that he was the only child. I did the spell that reveals human presence and it showed only the Dursleys. After some pressure, Vernon finally admitted that Bethany had been left on their doorstep, but they didn't keep her. He didn't want, in his words, 'a freak living under their roof', and Petunia didn't want anything to do with the wizarding world or her sister's child."

"So what did they do with Bethany?" asked Dumbledore, alarmed. It appeared he had a mistake with Bethany.

"That Vernon Dursley left Bethany on the steps of an apartment building in another town," answered McGonagall. "He doesn't know the address, but he was able to tell me the town."

After being told the town, Dumbledore got up and paced his room. "How could I have made such a mistake? I should have listened to you when you protested leaving Bethany with her aunt and uncle. Instead, I insisted on leaving her there, but her relatives didn't want her and left her for someone else to deal with. The poor child is probably in an orphanage somewhere."

"If you would check the Hogwarts register, you could find out where Bethany is, Albus," pointed out McGonagall.

"Thank you for reminding me, Minerva," said Dumbledore. The two left the office and went to check the register. They flipped to the section listing all magical children born from September 2nd, 1979 to September 1st, 1980, and scanned the "P's".

McGonagall gasped, "There's Bethany's name, but it's different! Instead of 'Potter', she's now Bethany Lily Potter-Harper! And she's still living in the town the Dursleys left her in. And since the rest of the address is for an apartment building, I would guess that one of the tenants in the building decided to adopt her."

Dumbledore sighed. "Well, at least Bethany seems to be safe. I will have to go to the building tomorrow and check on things, however." He frowned and continued, "The person who adopted Bethany may be a witch or wizard. Back when I was Transfiguration teacher, there was a Muggleborn student named Adam Harper. And around twenty years later, his son, Gareth Harper, attended Hogwarts, followed by his daughter, Natalia, five years later. So either one could have adopted Bethany."

An hour later, Beth and her mother were driving home. "No reading in the car, honey," said Natalia. "It's bad for your eyes."

"But it's boring, just having to sit here for an hour!" protested Bethany. "I want to read." She turned to reach for the box in the back seat.

"Bethany, turn around," said Natalia, not taking her eyes from the road.

Beth pouted, but did as her mother said and turned around. "I bet my real mother would let me read."

"She wouldn't," responded Natalia. "I knew Lily Potter and she wouldn't let you read in the car."

"Fine, but I still want to read." Suddenly, a book floated out of the box and towards Beth, who caught it in her hands. "Mum, how did the book end up in my hand?"

Natalia quickly pulled to the side of the road and stopped. "You didn't turn around and grab the book from the box, Beth?"

"I didn't, Mum," answered Beth. "It just floated towards me, like magic."

Natalia started the car again and resumed driving. As she drove, she explained about magic and the wizarding world. Finally, she told Beth not to tell anyone about it, because many people weren't magical and they weren't supposed to know.

"But what about Hermione?" asked Beth. "She's my best friend and I tell her everything. And yesterday, she acc'dent'ly broke her mum's favorite vase, but then the pieces flew up and stuck together. It stopped being broken."

Natalia turned to stare at Beth before remembering that she was still driving. She quickly focused back on the road and said, "What happened exactly, Beth?"

"Well, Mia tripped and acc'dent'ly hit the table with the vase. It fell and broke into lots of pieces. She started crying, saying that it was her Mum's favorite vase and that she'd be mad it got broken. Mia looked at the pieces and added, 'And it can't be fixed 'cept with magic and magic's not real!' Then the pieces flew up and the vase was fixed."

"Beth, has anything else like magic happened around Hermione?"

Beth nodded. "Last week, Mia and I were reading a book. Mia touched a picture in it and said she wished it could move. Then the picture did move, but not very long. Only 'bout a minute."

"Then that means Hermione can be told about magic, since it turns out she's a witch as well," said Natalia.

"She is?" asked Beth. "Then does that mean she'll go to Hogwarts with me?"

"Yes, dear," said Natalia. "We'll visit the Grangers tomorrow after church and explain magic and the wizarding world to them."

"Okay," said Beth. "Mum, can you tell me 'bout my real mum and dad? You said that an evil person killed them and that's why you 'dopted me. Was the evil person a wizard?"

"Yes," replied Natalia. She proceeded to explain about Voldemort, but she didn't go into too much detail because while Beth was mature for a six-year old, she was still a child and didn't need to know everything.

The next day, Dumbledore stopped at the apartment building. He had to knock on several doors before someone answered, because most of the tenants were church-goers. The man who opened the door replied to the question, "Yes, a Miss Natalia Harper lives in this building, with her adopted daughter, Bethany. They live in Apartment 4B, but they're at church right now."

"Thank you, sir," answered Dumbledore. "I will call on them later." Mr. Slate nodded and shut the door, wondering about the other man. He had a long white beard and appeared to be in his seventies, with an odd fashion sense. Most eldery men did not wear flamboyant plum-colored suits. However, Mr. Slate forgot all about the strange man when he accidentally knocked over his cup of tea and had to clean up the resultant spill.

After church, the Grangers invited the Harpers over for lunch. After the meal, Natalia explained about the wizarding world and from what Beth had told her, it appeared that Hermione was a witch. Though the Grangers attended church, they weren't really all that religious, so they didn't have any problems with Hermione being a witch once they'd gotten over the surprise. Natalia then explained about Hogwarts and how Beth and Hermione would receive acceptance letters to the school when they were eleven. The Drs. Grangers weren't too sure about sending their daughter to a boarding school to learn magic, but they had five years to get used to the idea, and they admitted that it was best for Hermione to be properly trained.

Finally all three Grangers promised not to tell anyone else about the wizarding world. Hermione, in particular, was thrilled to find out the strange things she had done were magic and chatted about it excitedly with Beth.

Finally Beth and Natalia went home. Beth was about to change out of her church dress when there was a knock on the door. Natalia went to answer. She paused when she looked through the peephole and saw Dumbledore standing there, dressed in a flamboyantly cut plum suit. There was a second knock and Natalia decided she might as well answer.

"Good afternoon, Professor Dumbledore," she said, one eyebrow raised. "And what are you doing here? I wasn't aware that you know where all your former students lived."

"Professor Dumbledore?" asked Beth behind her. "You mean the Headmaster of Hogwarts that you told me 'bout yesterday?"

"Yes, dear," said Natalia, turning around and smiling. "He's come to visit us."

Beth remembered her manners and curtseyed, saying, "Hello, Professor Dumbledore. I'm Beth. Please come in and sit down."

"Hello, Beth," replied Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "You're a very polite young lady."

"Thank you, Professor. Mum brought me up to be polite, and she says my real mum would have wanted me to be polite too."

Dumbledore raised a brow. He had not expected that Bethany to know that she was adopted. In the living room, he sat down and offered Beth a lemon drop. After asking her mum for permission, she accepted the candy and offered tea. "I'll take care of that, honey," said Natalia, taking out her wand and conjuring a teapot, two tea cups, and a glass of apple juice. She then summoned a plate of small cakes and the sugar bowl from the kitchen.

Beth insisted on pouring the tea and asked, "Do you take sugar, Professor Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore chuckled and replied, "Yes, two spoonfuls will be fine, Beth. Thank you." Beth stirred in two spoonfuls of sugar, handed him the cup and saucer, and then sat down.

"Now, Miss Harper, I'm here to discuss Beth," said Dumbledore. "I was informed on Friday that it didn't look as if Beth was at her relatives' home. When Minerva went to check yesterday, it turned out to be case. We checked the Hogwarts register, which informed us that Beth's last name was now 'Potter-Harper', and listed her address as this location. So I came to check."

Natalia nodded. "About five years previous, one of the tenants and her son found Bethany on the doorstep of the building. That evening, all the tenants, other than the children and two of the parents to look after them, got together to decide what to do. I recognized Beth and decided to adopt her. I told the other tenants that I recognized Beth and explained that I had gone to school with her parents and heard that they died a couple of days ago. I didn't mention the wizarding world, of course. The other tenants agreed that it was the best choice, especially after I mentioned Beth's aunt."

"You knew about Petunia Dursley?" asked Dumbledore, surprised.

"I was Lily's dormmate and friendly with her," pointed out Natalia. "She had told me about her sister and I had heard that Beth was supposed to be left with her aunt. Since Petunia was jealous of Lily and hated magic, I put two and two together and gathered that she didn't want her niece and so left Beth here. When I mentioned this to the other tenants, they were horrified. Mr. Edmunson saidd that he didn't want Beth going to an orpahange, because then it'd feel too much like what her aunt did."

"Fine, then," said Dumbledore. "I suppose it's a good thing that Beth didn't remain with her aunt and uncle. If they had kept her. no doubt they would have made her life miserable." He turned to Beth and patted her on the head. "You are a very lovely young lady, Beth, and you've got a wonderful adoptive mother."

"Thank you, Professor," said Beth, smiling. "You're nice. You remind me of Grandpa."

"You mean Adam Harper?" asked Dumbledore. "He was a very good student. I was his teacher, you know."

"Wow, you're old, if you taught Grandpa!" exclaimed Beth. "You must be as old as Father Christmas!"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Actually, Father Christmas is older than me, because he's been giving good boys and girls Christmas presents before I was born, Beth."

"Oh. Well, I can't wait 'til I'm old enough to go to Hogwarts and have you as my headmaster."

Dumbledore smiled, gave Beth another lemon drop, and then finished his tea. After that, he got up and explained that he had to leave. Beth didn't look happy, but cheered up when he promised to visit again and said that she could visit Hogwarts.

"Can Hermione come with me?" she asked. "She's my best friend, and she's a witch too."

"Of course she may, if her parents agree," said Dumbledore. "Now, I really must go. Good-bye, Beth and Natalia."

Beth and Natalia bid him good-bye and saw him out the door. After that, Beth spent the rest of the day reading an easy book about the wizarding world.