Fanfic / Innocent (MarauderLover7)

aka: Innocent

"Planned? Nah, I just- It wasn't- You were supposed to be happy," he sighed. "You were supposed to be playing pranks on your Aunt and Uncle with your cousin! You were supposed to know all about your mum and dad! You were supposed to be excited, because you've only got two and a half years until Hogwarts!"
...
He stared at his feet for a long time and then looked up again, seeming agitated. "Under normal circumstances, I'd never ask this; you're – what – eight and a half? And I'm trying to evade Aurors and the rest of the Ministry, but if you want... another home-"

Innocent is a series of Harry Potter fanfiction, by MarauderLover7. It starts in 1989, when Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban five years early through a bout of accidental magic. Having no leads on Peter Pettigrew, he focuses his attention on Harry instead, discovering that Harry is unhappy with the Dursleys and offering him another home. The "kidnapping" of the Boy Who Lived, however, only intensifies the ensuing manhunt...

The series is posted on FanFiction.Net (book 1 here), and Archive of Our Own (here). Book 6 is in progress as at November 2023.

Not to be confused with the detective TV series or historical drama manga of the same name.

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This story contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Since the Malfoys have two living sons, and since it seems likely that Harry Potter will be Sorted into Gryffindor and will be an influential figure in society, Lucius Malfoy gets the idea into his head that they should hedge their bets by deliberately conditioning Draco to have a more Gryffindor mindset. Not that he feels any need to tell Draco this, of course. Cue Draco being thoroughly confused, first by the ways he's treated differently from his brother, then how he finds that he doesn't really fit in with their circle of friends anymore, then when he actually goes to Hogwarts, he finds himself involuntarily estranged from his brother and doesn't understand how it happened... Oh, and Narcissa didn't like Lucius' plan, but her idea of helping was to ask Severus Snape to train Draco in Occlumency, so that if Lucius chose to use Draco as a spy, Draco would at least have the skills to survive. That is to say, he would be an expert liar whose loyalties no one except himself can really be sure of. Narcissa is at least self-aware enough to realise how much they've hurt Draco, while Lucius doesn't see any problem.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Being in the magical world several years earlier, Harry meets many characters much sooner than canon. It's not just Sirius and Kreacher, he also encounters Ron and Ginny while at the Ministry, goes to the same primary school as Hermione and Blaise Zabini, gets to know Remus and Tonks, all before he even starts Hogwarts.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Draco is sorted into Gryffindor, as per his father's plans, and befriends Harry. However, Hydrus more or less takes on Draco's canonical role as a close-minded bigot and bully.
  • Professor Quirrell survives Voldemort's banishment at the end of Initiate; while he isn't exactly Harry's biggest fan, he's pragmatic enough to work for Dumbledore rather than be executed. And since Voldemort set him up to die, he wouldn't mind returning the favour.
• Adaptational Relationship Change:
  • Ginny and Ron meet Harry when he's just eight, and strike up a friendship without Ginny's "elbow in the butter dish" phase. She still develops a crush on Harry, but doesn't become speechless and shy around him.
  • Severus Snape is not exactly friendly, but his involvement in the search for Sirius results in Harry seeing that Snape wants to keep him safe, and Harry's greater maturity (coming from a better childhood) results in less friction between them.
• Animorphism: Naturally enough, being raised by Sirius, Harry learns the Animagus transformation — although it takes him several years to succeed. He becomes a black wolf.
• An Arm and a Leg: Harry is able to Apparate away from the graveyard, but with the pain of their duel and the stress of the whole situation, he doesn't focus well enough while Apparating, splinches himself and loses an arm.
• Butterfly of Doom: The actual point of divergence is that the Malfoys had a second son, Hydrus, slightly older than Draco. Sirius hears the guards talking about Hydrus and "the other Boy Who Lived", which focuses his attention more than anything else has in years, which leads to him having an unusually vivid dream where he transforms into Padfoot and chases James through the bars of his cell...
• De-power: The Vitalitas vorax curse feeds on the victim's magic, draining them more and more every time they use any, until they're left as a Squib — if they survive. Since Dumbledore is much older than Muggles can survive, he expects that losing all magic would be quickly fatal for him. It's also the reason Argus Filch is a Squib, having encountered a cursed item in his youth.
• Doorstopper: As of April 2022, the series is over 1.3 million words and counting.
• Double Agent: Draco's parents groom him to become this for years before he meets Harry. Lucius intends for him to be a valuable spy in Harry's inner circle. Narcissa just wants Draco to survive, and begs Severus to train him in Occlumency and lying in order to achieve that. Ultimately even she can't tell whose side Draco is truly on — which she considers a bittersweet success. He becomes a loyal friend to Harry, but plays his role as a spy very successfully, fooling his father and Voldemort and Dolores Umbridge — though it takes a heavy emotional toll on him.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Harry pretends to be displeased that as far as toddler Stella is concerned, both he and Kreacher are "Ree" (because he doesn't like the idea of being interchangeable with Kreacher). Then he learns that Sirius (ie Padfoot) is "Poo".
• Fake Relationship: Harry persuades Fleur into a pretense that they've been dating, in order to undercut Rita Skeeter's insinuations that Remus has been having an affair with her. Fleur isn't thrilled by the idea, but does go along with it for the sake of her own reputation — though she ensures that Harry doesn't actually enjoy it much, and she stages a very public breakup a short time later (which achieves their goals quite neatly).
• False Confession: Marlene admits to a violent assault that she didn't actually commit. Because she believes that she deserves to be imprisoned and punished for what she did do, trying to kill Sirius.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even though Harry has several more years of magical education and an involved and caring parental figure, once he goes to Hogwarts, things still more or less follow the stations of canon. Quirrell going after the stone, the diary and the Chamber of Secrets, Peter Pettigrew fleeing to rejoin Voldemort, Harry being forced into the Triwizard Tournament to help revive Voldemort, etc. They don't happen exactly the same way, and Harry himself is more mature and closer to his friends, but the storyline is still recognisable.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Hermione attempts to wipe Dolores Umbridge's memory of all the things that Hermione confessed to her under Truth Serum. However, Draco comes across Umbridge shortly afterward, still unconscious, and recognises that Hermione didn't have the skills to pull it off well; there are gaping holes in Umbridge's memory that will quickly expose the wipe, and with enough effort it would be possible to recover the memories. He uses his own Legilimency skill to undo the wipe and perform a more surgical removal of selected information, skilfully enough that Hermione thinks the hasty Obliviation succeeded while Umbridge thinks it failed.
• Last Request: Kreacher is able to personally fulfill Regulus Black's final command to destroy the locket. Harry notes afterward that although he's seen Kreacher smile on occasion, he's never before seen Kreacher look so satisfied and peaceful.
  Kreacher: Done, done, done, oh, yes, it is done.
• Mind Rape: While in his "evil mutant baby" form during the Triwizard Tournament, Voldemort has time on his hands... and discovers the mental connection between himself and Harry, so he uses it to torment Harry with unrelenting horrific nightmares, making Harry relive twisted versions of his own memories, every time he tries to sleep. It's partly to set Harry off-balance, but mostly because Voldemort loves knowing that he caused Harry pain.
• Moral Myopia: Harry's schoolteacher, Mrs Peterson, sees that both Dudley and Harry have filled out the same maths answers, without showing their working. She takes this as proof of Dudley's accusations that Harry was copying him, gives Harry a detention, and praises Dudley for his "Excellent work as usual." (During the class story-writing time, she reads Oliver Twist, almost crying over the poor boy's situation, and completely misses how it applies to Harry.)
• The Nicknamer: Despite his Adaptational Heroism, Draco still enjoys poking fun at the Weasleys — namely, Weasley, Prefect Weasley, Weasleys One and Two, and She-Weasley.
• Sarcastic Confession: Harry gets Dudley to pass on a library book, and Dudley anticipates that the librarian will be so pleased he's actually reading a book that she won't care if it's overdue.
  Sirius: And if she does mind?
  Harry: Then Dud'll probably tell her he's loaned it to his magical cousin in Scotland.
• Secret Test of Character: The entire "Serpent Sworn" conflict turns out to be a very elaborate one. And it's successful in its aims (proving that Sirius is still fit to be an Auror), but several characters are understandably dubious about whether it should have happened.
• Shout-Out: To canon; when Fred hears that Hermione has wiped Umbridge's memory to stop her from passing on stolen secrets, he remarks, "You're kind of scary, Hermione. Did you know that?"
• Spared by the Adaptation: As part of his attempt to recruit Harry, Voldemort chooses not to immediately kill Cedric in the graveyard. He would have still killed him later, but Cedric is able to seize the Triwizard Cup and escape back to Hogwarts.
• The Tell: Sirius can immediately see through Harry's lie about how much he overheard of Sirius' conversation with the Dursleys. However, the fact that Harry is lying doesn't upset him at all.
  "I could always tell when James was lying and you've inherited his face," Padfoot said conversationally. "How much did you really hear?"
• Tongue-Tied: Harry's Triwizard team chooses Hermione to learn how to assemble their egg pieces together, but when they ask her about the spell, she gets as far as "It's not—" before breaking down into spluttering and coughing.
  Hermione: I know what to do. And— we have to be here to do it. I don't think I'm physically able to say any more, though.
• Trauma Button:
  • Sirius freaks out when Harry suggests that he, not Sirius, should take on the role of Secret Keeper for their home.
    Harry: D'you think maybe I could be Secret Keeper? We could swap-^note Swapping to Peter Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper was what made everything collapse for the Potters.
    Sirius: No! No! No, absolutely not!
  • When Sirius calms down enough to ask about Harry's actual reasons, Harry almost says "because I'm the last one anyone would suspect" before thinking better of it.
  • Hermione develops a fear of being transfigured after Wormtail transfigures her into a rat to make exchanging her life for Harry's easier, and won't let Viktor Krum change her even though it would make swimming through the Black Lake easier.
• What Have I Done: Marlene is beyond horrified when she realises that Sirius is innocent, framed by Peter Pettigrew — and she previously cast the unforgivable Killing Curse at him, spiralling into self-loathing and bitter recrimination.
• Woman Scorned: When Sirius escapes from Azkaban, lots of people want to see him recaptured, but his ex-girlfriend Marlene McKinnon is especially angry about what (everyone thinks) he did; she genuinely cared for him, which makes his supposed betrayal sting all the more keenly. She doesn't just want justice, or for Harry to be safe, she wants to kill Sirius herself. She actually does cast the Killing Curse at him, but without quite meaning it enough for it to actually kill him; he's just knocked out.

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