Harry Potter and the Other Half

Prologue: Another Child

James and Lily Potter had had a difficult trip to St. Terence's Hospital for Daily Magical Injuries. James brushed back his unkempt hair has he watched his wife being given a magical epidural. Lily hair was, unusually, messy and sweat was dripping down her face as she waited for the pain-killer to set in. Lily whimpered and James stepped closer, resting a hand on her very pregnant belly.

"James," she whimpered into his shoulder. "James the contractions are getting stronger!" He gently caressed her back and whispered soothing words in her ear.

"Shhhh, it's gonna be okay." At that moment the swinging doors to their private room opened and to people stepped in. Sirius Black, James's best friend, supported his own pregnant wife, Hannah McTaver.

"So, James, how's Lily doing?" Sirius quietly asked his longtime friend as Hannah sat down.

"Well, not too badly, considering," the black-haired, bespectacled young man answered. "How was the ultra-sound for Hannah?" The other young man pushed his own black hair away from his face, responding with a wide, mischievous grin.

"Let's just say that we have a healthy baby boy on the way!" was the elated response from the father-to-be.

The conversation stopped as a doctor came in to usher little unborn Harry Potter into the world. Hannah sat on one side of Lily, with Sirius behind her. While James held his wife's hand as she leaned back into the pillows of her bed. A painful half hour later, a newborn baby's cries filled the room at exactly twelve a.m. on July sixteenth. Gently, James took his newborn son in his arms and walked around the bed to show Hannah and Sirius.

"Wait," the doctor's sudden words stopped the trio in the corner from cooing over the little baby.

"What is it?" James questioned in a highly worried tone. The doctor looked up at the clock, it was 12:05 a.m. Then, he carried another bundle over to the new parents.

"There you go," said the doctor matter-of-factly, gesturing from the two babies, then to a desk. "Here is your new baby daughter, as well as your son. There is just a little bit of paper work that you need to fill out, if you'd kindly step over here."

James leaned down and kissed his wife, before commenting on their children's amazing resemblance of themselves. Lily looked down at the twin bundles in her arms as her husband walked over to fill out the paperwork.

"Lily, darling, we have to give her a name," James called. "What should it be?"

The young woman thought for a moment, looked up at her husband, and said, with the utmost certainty, "Iris. Iris Laurel."

She looked down at the tiny black haired version of herself and whispered, "Yes, your name is Iris Laurel Potter, my little flower." The sweet baby girl looked back at her mother with her baby eyes of deepest blue, and smiled.

~*~*~*~

The naming ceremony was a quiet, private affair. As the adults went to the refreshment table the babies stayed behind. Harry was sucking on the Snitch his father had given him; Iris was hugging her doll close. The little boy let his golden toy go and attempted to catch it, unsuccessfully; His sister beat him to it. James and Sirius let out a roar of laughter as they watched the twins antics.

"It doesn't look like your son got your excellent Quidditch genes," Sirius commented. "It looks as if your daughter's got them instead!"

James continued laughing, but defended his son all the same, "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that!"

~*~*~*~

Three months later James, Lily and their children went into hiding, thankful that very few people new of their daughter, because Voldemort was already after their son, they didn't want her to be hurt too. A few months after that Hannah, was kidnapped by her brother, who was one of the Death Eaters. She was seven and a half months pregnant.

Sirius went to James and Lily's house almost every day, after drinking himself into stupor, either with alcohol or with misery. The only ones who were even a remote comfort to him were Harry and Iris; he had been desperately awaiting the birth of his child.

Two months after that Voldemort attacked the Potter's home, they had been betrayed by Peter Pettigrew. James died with Iris in his arms, Lily with Harry in hers. Sirius never forgot the look on little Iris's one-year-old face. It had been one of complete misery and sorrow; her godfather had a feeling that she understood what had happened even more than he. He wanted to take Harry with him, but he couldn't. He gave his motorbike to Hagrid and brought Iris to Remus Lupin for a while, with the orders to take her to her aunt in America by broomstick.

It was a long hard flight, but Iris, understanding the situation, kept quiet and didn't cry. She was handed over to her aunt, her father's sister.

Chapter one: Who is my savior?

A girl of fifteen was sitting at her desk waiting for the message from her far away friend; it was time to get ready to save an unknown father. The hand mirror that was sitting on the desk in front of this young black-haired, hazel-eyed American witch flamed with amethyst sparks.

A tired looking French girl appeared in the glass. "Iris, Uncle Severus is asleep," She said. "How's it doing on your end?"

Iris rubbed her face and replied, "Oh, not too bad. My aunt and uncle are sound asleep; so are my cousins, but I'm not so sure about Aunt Minnie."

The only response was an eye roll and a muttered, "Do we need to worry about your Aunt Minnie?" The mirror sparkled again and went blank. Iris Potter stood up and surveyed her room. She grabbed her broom and swung a heavy woolen cloak on and started sweating profusely.

Iris quietly trod down the stairs, careful to skip over the one that creaked. She checked to make sure the fire was still burning in the living room and went into the kitchen in search of some parchment and a pen. When she found these items, she scrawled a quick note, trying not to get sweat on it. When she was done, she straightened back up and read the note quietly to herself.

"Dear Aunts, Uncle, and cousin. Don't worry about me I've gone to a friend of mine, in France. Au revoir, and I'll see you in a few days. Sincerely yours, Iris Laurel Potter," Iris whispered to the empty room.

Iris gently laid the piece of paper down and walked back into the living room, took down the floo powder container, and sprinkled a pinch on the dying flames. They burst into all their emerald floo glory.

The teenager took one look around and stepped into the fire, saying clearly, "La Maison de Monsieur Snape, en France!"

~*~*~*~

Several thousands of miles away, a fifteen-year-old boy with perpetually messy black hair awoke, with a tiny gasp, from his sweat soaked sleep. Harry Potter looked around his room, trying to figure out what his dream had meant. It was of a girl, around his height, she had black hair just like his, but when he saw her face he saw someone he recognized. The person he saw had looked exactly like his long-dead mum. But, he thought ruefully to himself, it couldn't be any one related to me, because I'm an only child... and an orphan. Harry thought more about the idea of a relative who was also from the wizarding world. Because she was a witch, she had used floo powder. He lay back down to sleep, his mind still whirling these confused thoughts through his head.

~*~*~*~

In a cold kitchen in France, a man was sitting up late working on a potion. Suddenly, the fire turned green and the spinning form of a girl showed through the flames. When she came to a stop, she tried to step out of the fireplace but almost brained herself on the cauldron above the fire. There was a loud yelp, a gasp, and a thud as Iris fell to the stone floor of Snape Manor's kitchen with a thud. She brushed off her cloak and looked up, surprised to see the one person she had definitely not expected, Severus Snape. She gulped, and tried to buy some time to think by straightening her messed up hair.

Her French friend's Uncle Severus cleared his throat, and said in a way that showed he was trying to control his rage, "Who are you? And what are you doing in my home?"

At that exact moment, Lily Black, Iris's French friend came down the stairs and into the kitchen, saving her from answering.

"Oh, hello, Uncle Severus, I thought you were asleep. Allow me to introduce you to my pen pal from America, Iris Potter," Lily interjected.

Severus started at the name Potter, but quickly regained control. "And what might Miss Potter be doing at this late hour, in my house, and with a broom no less!"

The two girls shared a slightly guilty look and then Iris replied in feigned meekness.

"Oh, sir, Lily didn't tell you? She agreed to come to America for a few days because a couple of my friends and their international friends are going to have a Quidditch match. And it's only seven p.m. in America." She added this last as an after thought.

The greasy haired adult nodded and said, "Well, I guess you'd better be off."

As he went back to his ingredients, he didn't notice that the two teenagers said, "Riddle Mansion, England," instead of, "Ten Walden Pond Way, America."

~*~*~*~

The two fell from an ancient fireplace into a musty old room. "Do you have it?" Lily gasped through the immense amount of dust in her face.

"Yeah, I have my mom's invisibility cloak right here!" Iris whispered back. The girls got up and silently snuck down to the basement stairs.

They looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Are you sure you want to do this? Of course!" And with that, they pushed the door open not knowing what they would find.

~*~*~*~

Sirius Black was drifting in and out of painful sleep, like he had been doing for the past month or so. He wasn't even sure how long, anymore. He had been transported to the Riddle Mansion dungeons, surprisingly, through the Archway of Death. He could only think hopelessly of how it was almost Harry's birthday and he wouldn't be there. No, he wouldn't be there; no one would expect him to be there because they all thought he was dead. Yes, he had been cleared and given the Order of Merlin, First Class. But, he would have given everything to be with Harry on his Birthday and to tell him about his twin sister.

The sound of a creaking door broke through his dismal thoughts and he moaned, thinking it was Voldemort, come to torture him again. Several minutes passed and he waited, wondering why his captors paused. Footsteps, too light for Voldemort and his Death Eaters, came padding down the hallway between the empty cells towards him. He opened his bruised eyes, as the footsteps came to a stop outside his prison. He was given the shock of his life.

Standing before him was a black haired replica of Lily Evans at sixteen, and standing next to her was a black haired vision of his beloved Hannah. His face broke into the first smile it had on it in a very long time.

"Who are you? Are you part of V-Voldemort's s-s-side?" he questioned them through cracked and bleeding lips. The one who looked like his Hannah spoke first.

"No, we're against Voldemort. We're here to save you, Father," she timidly whispered the last word.

This was surprising, he knew that Hannah had been pregnant, but the Healer at St. Terence's had said it was a boy. His bloody lips parted again and he managed to croak a few words before wincing in pain.

"Who are you? What are your names? Who is my savior?" he moaned forcefully.

The slightly taller girl that looked like Lily started picking the lock of the cell door as she replied, "I'm Iris Potter and this is my friend, Lily Black, your daughter. Come on, we have to get you out of here." Sirius gasped as they entered the cell and freed his wrists from the manacles the held him up for almost a month. He almost fell forward, but the two girls caught him.

The trio made their way to the stairs, careful not to cause Sirius any more physical pain than he was already in. They reached the stairs and began to climb. After what seemed like forty-five minutes, they heard footsteps creaking down the stairs towards them. Lily paused, and being the leader of their odd ascent up the staircase, caused the other two to stop as well. Around the bend in the wall came Voldemort.

A look of utter shock came over his snake-like face but then he drew out his wand and said in a cold, high-pitched voice, "Prepare to die!"

Iris drew out her own wand, and she and Voldemort cried, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Lily and Sirius gasped as Iris pushed them down onto the stairs. The brilliant green jets of light ricocheted off the walls, and one after the other, hit Voldemort in the chest. The man that had killed her parents fell to the floor, unconscious, as Iris helped Lily, then her godfather up from where they lay.

"How did you do that?" Sirius croaked as they started up the stairs again. The girl didn't respond; her grim look was only reinforced into her expression. They somehow managed to get out of that place that reeked of deaths already done and more to come.

~*~*~*~

Harry awoke again, just as sweat soaked as before. Except, it wasn't his dream that had woken him.

It was a sharp knock on his bedroom door and his uncle's gruff voice calling him, "Boy, get up. There are people here to see you!"

The way Uncle Vernon had said people made Harry think that his uncle didn't think very highly of them. That could be good or bad for Harry. He got up and pulled on a pair of Dudley's old jeans he had shrunk to fit when he was bored one day at Hogwarts. After that he pulled on a baggy T-shirt that had its hems trimmed. He tried, futilely, to neaten up his hair.

As he walked down the stairs, he heard voices coming from the kitchen.

"Y-y-you can't take h-h-him from here! Isn't that against that Professor Dumbley-wats-it's orders!" spluttered Uncle Vernon.

A patient, familiar voice responded, "We have to take Harry because this is part of Professor Dumbledore's orders." Harry walked into the kitchen to find several members of the Order on one side of the kitchen and the Dursleys on the other.

"What's part of Professor Dumbledore's orders?" was Harry's immediate question, it was answered by Remus Lupin.

Harry's ex-professor reported, "Harry, we've come to take you to headquarters, we need to tell you something."

Harry only came up with more questions, so he asked the one that seemed most reasonable, "Well, can't you tell me it here?" Lupin was about to answer, but Mad-Eye Moody beat him to it.

"Dumbledore wanted you at headquarters, so that's where we'll tell you," Moody said matter-of-factly in his usual gruff tone of voice.

Tonks and Lupin went back to Harry's room with him to help him pack. When they got to his room, Harry decided to try asking again.

"Couldn't you give me a hint? Please?"

Lupin smiled, and Tonks spoke for the first time that night.

"Nope, sorry kid," was her disappointing answer. They got to packing and in around a half hour were back downstairs and Moody was taking a pinch of Floo powder and sprinkling it over the fire. Aunt Petunia and Dudley had gone back to bed, but Uncle Vernon had stayed downstairs to make sure nothing happened to his precious living room.

Moody had gone through, then Tonks with Harry's trunk. Now it was Harry's turn; he didn't even look over his shoulder, just stepped in and muttered, "Twelve Grimmauld Place."

He was then whisked away in a swirl of emerald flames.

~*~*~*~

Lying in some shrubs on the edge of the Riddle property, the three escapees caught their breath. When he recovered enough strength, Sirius pulled himself up onto his elbows.

His first words after his successful rescue were, "Are you two all right?" The girls nodded their heads as they slowly stood up and picked up their brooms.

"How are we going to get to twelve Grimmauld Place like this?" Lily asked her friend. "We'll all need to rest."

Iris thought for a moment, and then whispered, "We'll bind the two brooms together, one in front of the other, and switch them in shifts. Whoever's leading will stay awake and the others can sleep." Sirius and Lily nodded, but then Sirius had some second thoughts about flying.

"What about me, I can't fly a broom in this state."

His daughter said, "Well, we could bind you to one of us and you can ride double on their broom and you won't have to steer the broom." They all agreed on this plan and began their work. Iris bound the two brooms together; hers in front of Lily's. Lily bound Sirius to herself. They all climbed onto the brooms and began the journey to the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters.

It took almost a whole day to reach their destination, but they made it. They came to rest in the square outside Twelve Grimmauld Place. Lily, who was in front, unbound her father from her back and walked towards the door. She was about to open the door when it was opened from the inside. Molly Weasley stood staring out and almost fainted when she saw all of Sirius's injuries.

"It's okay, Molly, I'll survive," he told her as she ushered him and the two teenagers with him inside the mansion.

~*~*~*~

Soon, the three weary travelers were sitting around the kitchen table drinking butterbeer to warm them up. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to get Lupin, and Professor Dumbledore was talking with Sirius about all that had happened during his absence. Lily and Iris were leaning on each other in silence, when Lupin and Mrs. Weasley came down into the kitchen.

Sirius asked his best friend, "How's Harry doing?"

Lupin looked concernedly at Sirius and answered, "He's confused, but he's sleeping now." Sirius nodded, but a voice interrupted the silence.

"No, I'm not! Sirius, I thought you were dead!" Harry cried out as he entered the kitchen and sat down across from his godfather.

Sirius laughed his bark of a laugh, then replied, "I guess you didn't learn how truly resilient I could be!" Harry smiled.

Dumbledore interrupted the happy moment and announced, "I believe now is the right time to tell young Harry what we brought him here to be told." The adults nodded.

Lupin cleared his throat, "I know you must be confused and expect something earth shattering, but the information we're going to give isn't, not really, anyway." Harry looked from Lupin, to Sirius, to Dumbledore, and to Mrs. Weasley. He finally realized that there were two girls sitting next to Sirius.

Sirius spoke, "Harry, I'd like you to meet your sister, Iris. Sitting next to her is my daughter, Lily." Harry looked back at the girls and recognized the taller one as the one from his dream. She does really look remarkably like my mother, no... our mother, he thought to himself. But she has our dad's eyes, like I have our mum's.

His sister spoke to him, "Harry, I've been living in America with our Aunt and Uncle for the past fourteen years. I've lived there for the same reason you've lived with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon." Harry just stared at her like a deer caught in someone's headlights.

"Papa, when you said the Healer at St. Terence's said it was a boy, what did you mean?" Lily asked her father, interrupting the silence.

"When we, that's your mother and I, went to St. Terence's, that's a hospital for every day things, we had an ultra-sound done. It showed us that the baby we were going to have was a boy. That's why I was surprised when you said you were my daughter," was Sirius's lengthy reply.

Iris broke in, "Well you weren't wrong about there being a boy. Sirius, your son's my boyfriend."

"WHAT!" both Sirius and Harry yelled. Harry started screaming with a sudden over-protective-brother urge. Sirius, on the other hand, had started screaming because they hadn't told him about his son earlier.

"Shush, you two! Do you want to wake the other teenagers in this house! I thought this was supposed to be a private moment!" intervened Mrs.Weasley. With that, the two men calmed down.

"I want to meet him," Sirius said, restraining the urge to continue yelling.

"Easily done," was the only response he got from Iris, who remained calm throughout the noise.

Iris stood up and went over to the fireplace. She bent down and took a pinch of Floo powder. After she sprinkled it over the flames she stuck her head in the fireplace.

She gave the address of what turned out to be her boyfriend's home, "18 Rosary Park."

A few moments later, she pulled her head out of the fire. Several minutes after that, after Iris had sat back down, the fire turned green again and the spinning form of a tall boy appeared in it. When he stepped out, he was wearing a resigned, angry look.

"I don't see why you two couldn't have taken me with you. He is my Dad, too, after all!" He glared at the two girls, who pretended to look shocked.

Lily pouted, "We didn't mean to leave you out, Brother!" Sirius and his son quietly surveyed each other.

Sirius cleared his throat, "So, what's your name, Son?"

The boy looked startled, he quickly replied in a quiet voice, "James Damian Black."

Sirius nodded at this that was the name Hannah and he had talked about.

"Why were you two living in different places," he asked his children, "let alone away from me!" The three foreign teens looked at each other skeptically. Lily was the first to speak.

"Papa, that would take too long right now," she looked at the entrance to the room. "And anyway, I don't think we should tell it, in front of those that it doesn't concern." At that everyone who had been sitting comfortably in the kitchen turned around and saw Ginny, Fred, and George standing in the doorway.

Mrs. Weasley checked the time and exclaimed, "Oh dear, it's late, very late! Come on, kids, up to bed. Lily, Iris, dears, you can room with Ginny and Hermione. James, Harry will show you to his and Ron's room." With that, everyone went up stairs to have a good night's sleep.