– INTRODUCTION –

Disclaimer: Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copywrited 2008 with all rights expressly reserved by its author unless explicitly granted. No portion may be reproduced in any fashion without the express written and notarised permission of the author.

Harry Potter is the © property of:

JK Rowling, 1997

Bloomsbury Books, 1997

Warner Bros. 2001

Author’s Note: Several aspects of the magical world are different in the fanfiction I write. The currency situation is one. As such, the currency valuation in any Seel’vor fanfiction will be as follows:

1 Knut 10 pence (0.20)

1 Sickle 2 pounds, 90 pence (5.80)

1 Galleon 49 pounds, 30 pence (98.60)

Non-consensual sexual relations will NOT happen in any Seel’vor fanfiction.

Any chapters or fictions that contain extreme violence or sexual conduct will be marked as such. If you are not of age to read such work, please do not do so. Please note, this work may contain swearing and other harsh language.

The concepts of ‘Ancient and Noble’ Houses is only briefly touched in canon, in Order of the Phoenix, where Sirius describes the House of Black. It is never accurately described in any detail, nor is the concept of ‘Lords’ being the heads of houses. As such, any references to Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of XXX is purely fanon.

Author’s Note:

I’ve read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction, and all seven of the books. During those books, I noted that Albus Dumbledore can always be interpreted as a manipulative man.

I, myself, have written fics where Dumbledore’s good but manipulative and evil and manipulative, but I’ve never written a story where Dumbledore’s a true hero, working tirelessly for Harry.

For chapter seven, I had to reread Deathly Hallows (under protest) and I was absolutely shocked at Dumbledore’s conduct. Had I been Harry in the King’s Cross afterlife, I would have killed Dumbledore again, making certain that his soul was destroyed. What Dumbledore did was truly unforgiveable, condoning child abuse and torture, all for some nebulous ‘greater good’.

In “The Real Us”, I decided to reinterpret several of the facts about Dumbledore. A number of questions have been raised about the contents of the books, such as:

• Why did Dumbledore never train Harry for the destiny he knew he’d have?

• Why did Dumbledore just drop a fifteen month old toddler, who was capable of crawling, possibly walking, away on the doorstep of ‘the worst sort of Muggles imaginable’ on a cold November evening? That action could have resulted in Harry’s death before he ever got to Hogwarts.

• Where was the love and support he needed while growing up, considering that love was supposed to be ‘the power the Dark Lord knows not’?

• Why didn’t Remus Lupin contact Harry before third year? And where the bloody hell was he during fourth year?

• Why didn’t Dumbledore look into the situation regarding Sirius more closely?

• How the hell did Voldemort wander around on the back of Quirrell’s head for a year without being detected?

• Why didn’t anyone notice a person using a Horcrux during Chamber of Secrets?

• How could Harry fall insanely in love with a girl who looks like his mother, shortly after they cover love potions? How could he fall in love in less than four weeks, too? Considering that it wasn’t love at first sight (that would have been Philosopher’s Stone) and no-one would notice if she wasn’t at Hogwarts during POA and GOF, and only seemed to turn up towards the end of OoTP, where the hell did Super!Ginny come from?

• JK herself had stated that she would never end up with Ron. In fact, she’s dated several Ron-type figures in the past, and her husband is like Harry... so why would she put the heroine with the (piss-poor) comic relief? They have NOTHING in common, but they’re not diametric opposites. That one baffles me, it really does.

All of these, I thought, were good questions. I’ve tried to answer them, making Dumbledore into the Hero of the Light that he was supposed to be. I’ve also given Snape a positive role in Harry’s life.

This is my work of fiction, and I’ve worked quite long and hard on this. I hope you enjoy it.