Through His Daughter's Eyes

Chapter One

Eliza Potter listened to her favorite song as she laid on her bed staring at her ceiling. The early morning fog dimmed the sunlight coming through the window. PINK was singing her heart out about her parents' divorce, and how much it hurt her. Eliza felt she could relate to the pain, if not the circumstances. Her parents had not divorced but she understood what it was like to lose a father.

Harry Potter was known throughout the wizarding world as their savior. He defeated the evil lord Voldemort, and ended the war. Her father was not just a solider; no, he was more than that because he did what no one else could. Harry succeeded where others failed: he'd killed the leader of the Death Eaters. In the eyes of the Wizarding World he was the only one that had mattered in the war. He never forgave them for that. The ministry never did him or anyone else any good, and Dumbledore had played one to many times with his life. In the end it was just too much.

After the war Harry left England, and went to the one place he knew of that had not been involved: America. The United States Wizarding Community (USWC) had been estranged from the European Wizarding world for nearly two hundred years. For reasons that varied depending on who you asked.

He met a woman named Terri Morissette and married her a year and a half later. It was a relief to be with someone who didn't know of his famous past. Much less stressful. Of course he eventually told her the truth but it was a wonderful change to be first judged as himself and second as the Boy Who Lived. The Boy Killed. The Man Who Left. Regardless of titles and press, Harry was always just Harry in the end. He never really wanted to be anyone else. Except perhaps a son, but that was a hopeless dream.

Together they had Eliza. When Eliza was little her dad told her about war, and how horrible it was. She remembered him clearly saying, "Eli, society as a whole tends to only notice bad things. That's why kids act badly, and people only seem to remember the worst things. And that's why even though no one really wants a war, if given the choice they will use it to better themselves, and to hell with everyone else. Eli? Promise me you'll try to be strong, and you won't let others control your future."

Of course she promised him: Eliza was without a doubt daddy's girl. Two years later, Eliza was ten, and her dad was dead. The spell cast years ago by Voldemort had not killed him instantly, but it had shortened his life span. By the time the reason for Harry's declining health was discovered it was far too late, and the world's hero was gone forever. But Harry was not sad at the end, he held his daughter's hand, and told her he'd done something wonderful with his life. He had no regrets.

Eliza at first thought he was talking about defeating Voldemort, but he squeezed her slim hand, and said, "I created life, my daughter, and I was there for her. I hope you understand that while my physical body will die I will always be there when your cry, when you laugh, and all the times in between. My wonderful Eli."

"My wonderful Eli" was the last thing he ever said, and after that Eliza decided to go by Eli. As a way of remembering. Not that she could ever truly forget.

Eli was like her father in many ways. Physically she had his eyes, and slim body frame though in female form. They had the same laugh, and wild hair except for the coloring. Her color hair was sun kissed sand, like her mother. But internally she was even more like him, she to had a people saving complex as Hermione would put it, and did long ago.

She did volunteer work, helped out at the free clinic, the homeless shelter, and the animal shelter. Eli never judged a person by money, clothes, or their family. She knew too much to be so shallow, not with all the stories about growing up with the Dursley family. Growing up with kind, hard working parents Eli did not want for much. So while she could not fully empathize, she did understand in her own way. Her only real award was the look on their faces, was the sense of rightness as she helped others figuratively an sometimes literally to their feet. It felt good to do what was right for the simple reason that it was the right thing to do.

Terri never did cope with the fact Harry was a wizard, ignored it. As though if she pretended hard enough it would be true. Harry didn't seem to mind, possibly because it was a relief. To simple be Harry, husband and father, rather than Harry the wizard. But it was unfortunately one of the reasons Eli never really got along with her mother. Another, was that when Harry died Terri realized she was unable o relate to her daughter, and in some ways she didn't want to know her. Terri was Terri to Eli not mom, or mommy not even mother. If her dad as still alive, things would no doubt be different. But he wasn't so the point was moot. When Eli received her letter to attend the American school of Witchcraft, and Wizardry: Excelsior Magical Institute, she jumped at the chance. Terri frowned in disapproval, but let her go, she wasn't a nasty person, after all.

As far as regular school went, Eli had not been motivated. It was dull, boring, and too easy. But magic was much more practical, and a lot more fun. Eli often taught herself spells, and as a result was ahead of many of her classmates. Most thought she had horrible grades because she never raised her hand, or seemed to study. But she learned best in a lecture environment with some practical application and that's what 90 percent of magical learning was.

No one treated her any different, because no one knew who her father was. The principal thought it would be easier if she went by her mother maiden name. Just because the USWC was separated didn't mean they were completely clueless about the happenings overseas. She did so, not because the Principal suggested it, but because it was something her father would have done. To ensure that she didn't go through the trouble he had in school, with being famous.

Life at home was never easy. Her mother yelled at her for this, or that. It didn't matter what. She was hurting, and she unconsciously took it out on Eli. Eli was different from her dad in many ways as well. Not only did she like to read and learn but she was also a calm person who could read people very well. In a sense she was almost eerily like Dumbledore. Although, no offense to Dumbledore, not one to manipulate people, regardless of how good the intention may be.

Strangely enough many were unsettled by her clear emerald eyes, which seemed to look straight through a person. Her main problem, besides a habit of breaking the rules, was that she was in, and out of fights all year long. It was her people saving instinct telling her to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Terri yelled at her again, and again but it never did any good. After fight number six, in which Eli nearly broke her arm, Terri decided that if she was going to fight all the time she might as well learn how to do it without hurting herself, or the other person too much.

So Eli learned basic defense and offense from self defense instructor. Learning to fight grounded Eli in many ways. The more she learned, the better she got the more she understood. In a funny twist, Eli learned patience and control through fighting. Eventually she moved on to judo, a form of fighting that used minimal physical effort to pin, throw, or lock an opponent in place. Still it wasn't long before most backed off the moment she came into view. At 5'3, 120 pounds Eli was not intimidating but she could effectively use another's weight against them. Throw a couple large guys, and word gets around. It wasn't long before most backed off the moment she came into view. Bullies were, after all cowards at heart.

Eli, and her mother Terri were too different to ever be close. But as Eli grew older they came to, a understanding of sorts. This didn't stop the verbal fights, and it didn't make them any closer. But when Eli told Terri she wanted to finish school at Hogwarts, the magical boarding school in England her father when to, Terri understood. Didn't actually agree with, but she understood.

Eli sighed, and turned the stereo off. She had been listening to the same song for the last hour. For a few minutes it was silent in her house, then her mother started yelling at the dog. Another day at the Morissette residence, her last day there for a while. Today she was going to get on a plane and fly to London, England. From there she would stay at the Leaky Cauldron. Like her father had many times before. She would have just enough time to buy her supplies, and get over jet lag.

Eli was nervous, after all her dad had left England eighteen years ago. But Eli reminded herself that her father defeated a powerful dark wizard at nineteen, only three years older than she was now. If he could do that, then she could do this. The only person who knew she was coming was Dumbledore. She couldn't exactly attended Hogwarts if the Headmaster didn't say it was ok. While Harry wasn't fully happy with how much Dumbledore was like the puppet master of his life, he understood why. The Headmaster wasn't evil, he just did what he felt he had too. Harry made sure that Eli understood that Dumbledore always meant well, and most of the time he was right. But that didn't mean he was omnipotent or infallible.

Eli had a semi secret agenda: she wanted to meet her dad's friends, the ones that helped her father through those long years. The ones he couldn't be around after the war, because he knew he wouldn't be able to live like a regular person if they were around. Even though he missed them terribly. They reminded him of all the pain he suffered, all the people that weren't there. On his deathbed, Harry confessed to his daughter that he wished he'd been able to make amends with them. As it was, the severity of his condition wasn't known until mere hours before his death. Not nearly enough time to track old friends down, to reconnect, to apologize.

"Eli! What are you doing? Stop lazing about, and get ready! If you miss the plane I'm taking the money out of your allowance and you can forget about Hoggston!" Terri yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hogwarts, not Hoggston," Eli mumbled. "Yes, Terri." She called back, not moving from her spot. It was three hours till she had to be at the airport, and unlike some people it did not take her two hours to get ready. More like twenty minutes to take a bath, and three minutes to get dressed. Five if it as close to laundry day, because it took her longer to find clean pants.

Her stuff was packed, except for the clothes she was going to wear, and her newest book. A muggle book, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. The book, and her prized possessions were in her backpack purse.

Terri hated the purse, said it was tacky. Which only caused Eli love it more. Besides she thought it was cool, with lots of buttons covering the jean surface, plus it was good for carrying her father's, or actually her grandfather's invisibility cloak, the marauders map, and her father's wand. Even though she currently had no real use for the first two items, they were very important to her. As soon as she was able to, she set it so that only she could open the purse. For everyone else would remain sealed shut.

Her father's wand was now her wand. She still remembered the look of surprise when the wand maker discovered her father's wand had chosen her. Very unusual, he told her, but he did not explain fully. Only saying that he'd never heard of a wand being passed down from parent to child. Personally she think that's because most of the time the parents are alive when their kids choose their wands, or if they died the wands were destroyed. Eli wondered briefly if all Wand Makers were weird, but decided that kind of observation seemed too stereotypical.

Eli got out of bed and took her CD M!ssundaztood by PINK from her stereo, and put it in her portable CD player. She knew that electronic things didn't work on Hogwarts grounds, but with some research and fifteen tries later Eli managed to find create a spell that would allows things (like her CD player) to work inside the barriers. It was part transfiguration, and part charm. An unusual combination given the circumstances, but effective. It failed on her MP3 but that was okay, it didn't require batteries anymore, and frankly she was just happy it worked. At least on the admittedly limited tests she ran it worked. The real test would be when she arrived at Hogwarts and tried it out.

After setting her book, and purse on top of her suitcase and taking one last look around the room Eli went to take a shower. It was still a long time before the plane trip but she wanted to take Grim for a walk, and she couldn't do that in her pajamas. Grim was her dog, a beautiful golden retriever. At first she thought she wouldn't be able to take Grim, and Stitch because they weren't on the list of animals you could bring to Hogwarts. But Dumbledore had replied he would make an exception since she had chosen her familiars before deciding to go to Hogwarts, and her old school had allowed her to have two pets. He seemed surprised about Stitch, he didn't think Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue would be passed on to his daughter. Since he had received it from Voldemort, not genetically. Or at least that was the theory.

Terri hadn't been too happy when Eli brought Stitch home. But that might have something to do with the fact that Eli had the little black snake looped around her neck like a necklace. Stitch was a black rat snake, in other words non-venomous, so she eventually got over it. She even grew to appreciate not having to worry about mice anymore. Although she wasn't happy when little stitch grew to be seven foot, and five inches long. Or when she learned that black rat snakes were constrictors, and Eli continued to drape him over her shoulders.

Eli set her clothes to the side, and turned the water on. Now that some of the nervousness was fading she was getting impatient and wished time would hurry along. She couldn't wait to go. This was her chance to do something for her father. Eli wanted so badly to make him proud, she tried so hard every day, even though he wasn't there anymore.