My Son, The Boy Who Lived
Chapter Seven
My Son, the Boy Who Lived
James, Lily and Harry were at Hogwarts with the Headmaster once more who was looking older than ever. Their home had just been attacked by Death Eaters and Voldemort himself wanting to kill Harry which made no sense whatsoever.
Why would he want Harry?
There was no way Harry could be the prophecy child!
Harry was sitting on James’ lap seemingly quite happy looking around at all of the spindly objects in Dumbledore’s office with curiosity. James was trying to keep his mind clear and calm knowing that Harry was sensitive to their emotions. Any upset of theirs would be felt strongly by his son.
Violet was sleeping soundly in Lily’s arms completely exhausted by the events of the day. Every so often she sniffled but when she heard Lily’s voice she calmed and drifted back to sleep. But even so it was obvious that she was rattled.
The attack had upset both children.
But they were alive.
That was important.
But why?
They were sure Voldemort’s targets was the Longbottoms which had James and Lily worried for their friends. But this seemed to say that Voldemort was specifically targeting Harry which made absolutely no sense as there was no way he could be the prophecy child.
‘Why did he attack us?’ Lily said urgently.
‘He can’t be the prophecy child – you know he can’t,’ James said.
‘I do,’ agreed Dumbledore. ‘But from my sources in the Death Eaters Voldemort believes it is your son.’
‘Why?’ asked Lily.
‘That I do not know,’ Albus sighed. ‘I’d suggest moving into your Manor for the time being.’
James nodded it had stronger wards, but he hadn’t wanted Harry and Violet to grow up in a large and empty Manor which was filled with rooms they couldn’t go in because they were dangerous or filled with priceless objects. He wanted his children to grow up in a loving cosy home not a cold and unforgiving manor filled with ghosts of the past.
But his safety was more important.
That was when Hagrid appeared accompanied by two people in Muggle dress that James didn’t know and had him clutching his wand. James was still too wired after the attack to be happy with newcomers who might harm his children.
Who were these people?
Why were they here?
There was a man probably in his late twenties or early thirties with gelled brown hair and deep dark brown eyes. He was wearing a blue three-piece suit, a red tie and a long brown jacket and what looked like cream plimsols.
To his right was a woman about James and Lily’s age with bright blonde hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a tight black trousers and blue blouse. She was looking around curiously at their surroundings.
‘I foun’ these two wandering near the library,’ Hagrid said.
James clutched Harry tighter to him just as Lily did to Violet. Strangers who had managed to breach Hogwarts powerful wards were not to be trusted in these times. How had they even got in? The secret passageways? James should really tell Dumbledore about them!
The man noticed and smiled, ‘don’t worry I’m no threat to your children.’
‘Then, how did you come to be here?’ asked Dumbledore kindly. ‘And what do you want?’
The man grinned, ‘ah you must be Albus Dumbledore. It has been a few decades since I last saw you.’
Dumbledore blinked, ‘I’m afraid to say that I don’t recognise your face.’
The man grinned, ‘oh you wouldn’t. I had a different face back then. I was all old and serious back then. Blimey that was a long time ago. I was still travelling with my granddaughter and her teachers back then – I’m sure you remember Susan, Barbara and Ian. This is Rose Tyler and I’m the Doctor.’
‘The Doctor,’ blinked Dumbledore. ‘We fought the Ice Warriors from Mars. How do you know about that? Are you his heir?’
‘No, I’m literally him,’ the Doctor said. ‘Same person, different face.’
‘A metamorphagus?’ asked Dumbledore.
‘No, a Time Lord,’ the Doctor said.
James and Lily stiffened recognising the word.
That was what Harry was.
Was this Doctor the same species as Harry.
Was he related to him?
The girl was called Tyler!
The same name that future Harry had used!
Dumbledore blinked, ‘yes, I suspected that you were not from our world.’
‘What are you doing here?’ asked James feeling confrontational.
Was he here for Harry?
‘Just popping in to see a friend,’ grinned the Doctor.
‘An accident,’ Rose Tyler said. ‘We don’t always go where we mean to.’
They said it at the same time.
So obviously lying.
‘Well, we got here by accident, but I decided to pop in to see you whilst we were here,’ the Doctor said.
But he wasn’t looking at Dumbledore.
He was looking at James.
Or more accurately Harry.
James and Lily shared a look.
‘Dumbledore is busy at the moment,’ James said.
‘There is a war on,’ agreed Lily.
‘Why don’t you help us move into the manor,’ James said.
‘We could use some help with the moving,’ agreed Lily.
‘Especially with two babies to look after,’ James said. ‘A friend of Dumbledore’s is a friend of ours.’
‘Well, if you are sure,’ Dumbledore said.
‘We are,’ James and Lily said together.
‘If you give the address we’ll meet you there,’ the Doctor said.
*********************************************************************************
James kept an eye on the man behind him, the Time Lord, a face changer. He wondered about that. Harry had never shown any evidence of being a metamorphagus or a shifter. Yet, from the conversation he understood that this Doctor was. Dumbledore had confirmed that he had met this man before when he had a different face.
Would Harry come to change his face?
They flooed to the Manor and sat down in the main living room. James, Lily and their babies taking the main couch whilst the Doctor and Rose took the seat opposite them. The Doctor was doing his best to look calm, but his eyes kept zeroing in on Harry’s and Rose too was looking at his son curiously.
‘So, what do you want?’ asked tersely. ‘Because I do not believe for a second “you came here by accident” or “to see an old friend”!’
Lily nodded, ‘you want Harry.’
‘We’re not here to take Harry from you,’ it was Rose Tyler who spoke up.
James calmed at that.
‘You’re not?’ asked James.
‘No, that would upset the causal nexus,’ the Doctor said.
James blinked.
‘The causal nexus?’ asked Lily.
The Doctor sighed, ‘timey wimey. I can’t risk upsetting the trajectory of the future by interfering with the past as much…’
He trailed off but the words were there anyway. The Doctor wanted to take Harry but for some reason the future meant that he couldn’t take Harry. That relieved James because he didn’t want to lose his son but he could almost feel the man’s sadness.
Lily smiled, ‘Harry said that. Used those exact words “timey wimey”.’
‘I wouldn’t think he would be speaking yet,’ the Doctor said. ‘Nor have the words to explain the complications of time travel. He may have Time Lord instincts, but he is too young to understand them.’
‘Not our baby,’ Lily said. ‘Grown up Harry from the future.’
‘Ah, that is how you know that he is a Time Lord,’ Rose said.
Lily nodded.
‘Don’t tell me too much about it,’ the Doctor said. ‘Knowledge of the future is dangerous and forbidden.’
‘But if you are not here for Harry, why are you here?’ asked Lily.
‘We found Harry in the future,’ Rose said carefully.
The Doctor nodded, ‘what you have to understand is Time Lords don’t always do things in the right order. I have yet to father him … so I wanted to find out how he came to be and how he ended up in your care. But I cannot take him, or I will never find him in the future to know about him in the first place and that would be a paradox.’
‘Which you can’t have,’ Lily said understanding.
James and Lily had read every theory about time travel that they could get their hands on in the magical and muggle worlds after meeting future Harry. There was a lot of waffle and conspiracy theories but some of it seemed legit and terrifying.
‘No,’ the Doctor said. ‘That could unravel time itself.’
Rose shivered, ‘you really don’t want it.’
‘So, how did you end up adopting Harry?’ asked Rose softly.
‘Did you know the … his mother?’ asked the Doctor.
‘I can’t have children,’ James said. ‘We did float the idea of what did you call it … sperm banking. But we weren’t sure how to go about it or if it would even work for wizards. So, we thought about adopting a magical child. We went around several muggle care homes before we found Harry who had magical readings.’
‘It wasn’t exactly magic,’ the Doctor said. ‘But close enough that your spells would tell you he was magic.’
‘So, we adopted him in the muggle world and blood adopted him in the magical world,’ Lily said.
‘Ah, that might have consequences,’ the Doctor warned.
‘Harry in the future said that too,’ Lily said. ‘Said that he had unique abilities that our magic blended with a Time Lord’s time powers so that he can do things most Time Lord’s cannot. Violet was once Bellatrix Lestrange … he de-aged her with a spell.’
The Doctor’s eyes widened, ‘well, that’s going to be complicated. But how did he come to be at the children’s home?’
‘He was abandoned,’ Lily said. ‘On the doorstep of the children’s home. He does have memories of an older woman who we presume is his mother….’
The Doctor nodded, ‘perhaps. Thank you.’
Lily hesitated, ‘if you found him in the future that means that we didn’t get long with him….’
The Doctor hesitated, ‘I can’t tell you that. I am sorry.’
James heard the grief in the Doctor’s voice.
It was what Lily already suspected that they were dead in the future. That they wouldn’t get a chance to raise Harry and Violet. James drew a deep breath wanting to ask, wanting to change it but he knew he wouldn’t get any answers.
He would just have to love Harry for as long as he had him.
‘Look after him,’ Lily said quietly.
‘I will, I promise,’ the Doctor said.
Rose nodded, ‘we will.’
‘And thank you for being his parent,’ the Doctor said. ‘He really loves you.’
James nodded, ‘we know.’
They might die young, but they would do everything in their power to ensure that Harry and Violet survived. That they raised them the best they could until then. Hopefully, they would see Violet at the vest least to adulthood. And after that Sirius, Remus, this Doctor and Rose would have to take over.
‘Where is Harry now?’ asked Lily softly.
‘Now in your husband’s arms,’ the Doctor said.
‘Doctor,’ Rose sighed. ‘He is right but we find him in about twenty-five years and he’s safe in bed.’
Twenty-five years.
Of course, they came from the future.
That meant they would have twenty-five years with Harry and Violet. They would get to see Violet grow up and then the Doctor would find Harry.
But then why did the Doctor look so sad?
James and Lily shared a look.
Whatever happened it wasn’t going to be happy.
‘Where’s Violet?’ asked Lily softly.
‘I’m sorry we don’t know,’ Rose said softly.
‘But I do know she will grow to be one of the finest witches of her age,’ the Doctor spoke. ‘Minister for Magic at one point, completely revolutionised the Ministry.’
James beamed proudly, ‘of course, she did.’
‘Well, someone had to,’ Lily said dryly.
James laughed.
The Doctor did not.
---------
The Doctor sighed as he moved around the TARDIS. They had spent the next few hours helping the Potters move into their ancestral home. The Doctor had been able to hold his son as a baby and it had made his hearts twist in joy and despair.
He would never get that.
Because in six months James and Lily Potter would be murdered by a mad man with delusions of grandeur. They were so young, only twenty-one and they would die trying to protect the Doctor’s son, their son.
And there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
‘Doctor,’ Rose was speaking. ‘So that was Harry’s adoptive parents?’
The Doctor nodded.
Rose frowned, ‘how does Harry end up with Torchwood because from how they were there is no way they would give him up willingly.’
‘No,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Because in six months James and Lily will be murdered.’
Rose frowned, 'and we can't save them.'
'That would be changing history in a big way,' the Doctor said sadly. 'I would if I could. But I cannot save them ... or Harry.'
She didn’t ask to save them because after her father she knew better than playing with time in that manor. But she did look sorrowful because Rose had a massive heart and wanted to save everyone. It was one of the things that that the doctor lo liked the most about Rose Marion Tyler.
‘How?’ she asked instead.
‘Lily and James Potter are members of a secret community of witches and wizards that hide on your planet,’ the Doctor explained. ‘In the 1970s and 80s there was a wizard who stylised himself as the Dark Lord Voldemort who wanted to rule and kill anyone who didn’t fit his ideal of “wizardry” or went against him. Thus, the British Wizarding community was plunged into a brutal civil war with atrocities and a mounting death toll. In 1980 when Harry was adopted it was the height of the war.
‘In 1981 the Ministry of Magic and those fighting against the Dark Lord and his followers are on their knees. It looked like Voldemort was going to win. But then something unexpected happened. Some called it a miracle. On the thirty-first of October 1981 Voldemort would attack the Potters killing Lily and James. He attacked Harry Potter but … it didn’t work … it rebounded on him destroying his body and ending the War. Harry Potter would become a celebrated figure in the Wizarding World … and when Voldemort returned to life Harry Potter would lead a revolution to stop him once and for all. I've heard the story ... but I've never met him ... I had no idea that ....’
That Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Saviour of the Wizarding World was his son.
He was going to have to send Harry to Hogwarts knowing that Harry would suffer greatly.
He didn’t want to.
But he could feel how many fixed points and how many time altering points there were in Harry’s timeline there was. He wanted to protect his son from all that, but he knew he couldn’t. And he hated it.
Why could he never save the ones he loved?
‘Doctor?’ asked Rose.
‘He’s going to suffer more,’ the Doctor said. ‘And there’s nothing I can do about it!’
Rose held his hand, ‘but he’ll survive, and he’ll be brilliant, and he’ll have us and it’s not for a long time yet. Let’s go back home. I’m sure Harry will be waking up soon.’
The Doctor nodded.
He still wasn’t happy.
But Rose was right they had time to plan, to protect to find a way to keep Harry safe.
The Wizarding War would wait.
For now, his son needed him.
That was when a knock came at the TARDIS causing both Rose and the Doctor to jump at the sound. Rose looked at the Doctor and then the door it wasn’t like people to knock so it was probably Mickey or Mum coming to see what was taking them so long.
Rose rolled her eyes, ‘honestly, Mum, he hasn’t kidnapped me. And don’t slap him again.’
Rose opened the door to someone who was very much not Jackie Tyler.
‘I shall endeavour not to, Miss Tyler,’ the Brigadier said voice as dry as ever.
The Brigadier made his way into the TARDIS, and he looked around obviously finding the new interior of the TARDIS below his standards. The Doctor felt angry on his old TARDIS’s behalf. She was still as beautiful as when he first found her and if you had gone through a horrific war that cut you off from the planet whence you were born you might not look as clean as you once had.
‘Brigadier, what are you doing here?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Who are you?’ asked Rose at the same time.
‘This is Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart,’ the Doctor said quickly. ‘An old friend.’
‘Technically you were under my command,’ the Brigadier said dryly.
‘That was a very long time ago,’ the Doctor said.
Back when soldiers didn’t bother him so much.
Back when they didn’t remind him of his regrets.
Back when he didn’t know just how far a soldier could go to win wars.
Rose smiled, ‘nice to meet you.’
‘Brigadier this is Rose Tyler,’ the Doctor said.
‘Nice to meet you, Miss Tyler,’ the Brigadier said. ‘Now back to what brings me here. I thought you would like an update on the investigation into Torchwood.’
The Doctor’s mind filled with fury at the thought of what that organization had done to his son.
The Brigadier nodded, ‘Yvonne Hartman has been arrested on charges of child abuse, endangerment of the world and illegal experimentation. Unit is currently interviewing her employees at Torchwood One – London, those who did not perish in the Battle of Canary Wharf. There has been ten already also charged with the same and there will likely be more. No one who harmed the boy will get away with that I promise you.’
‘Good,’ Rose said.
The Brigadier nodded a frown on his face, ‘Her Majesty has also put the other branches of Torchwood under our control for a full investigation into their activities to be conducted. We will find all their dirty secrets.’
The Doctor nodded, ‘how did my son come to be in their hands?’
The Brigadier sighed, ‘it would seem he was located after regenerating on the thirty-first of October 1981 through the radiation that a regeneration gives off.’
‘Yes, that makes an unfortunate amount of sense,’ the Doctor said darkly.
Voldemort had done what he was reported to and used the Killing Curse on Harry. Not expecting the regenerative blast of a Time Lord child forced to regenerate well before he is ready or the control to keep the energy within him. Voldemort caught up in the blast must have perished (at least temporarily) due to that.
‘Where is the boy now?’ asked the Brigadier.
‘Asleep,’ the Doctor said.
The Brigadier hesitated, ‘look after him Doctor. He has suffered a lot.’
The Doctor smiled, ‘I will.’
‘Doctor, good luck,’ the Brigadier said.
‘You too,’ the Doctor replied with a smile. ‘Old friend.’
‘Stay,’ Rose said giving the Doctor a pointed look. ‘You can meet Harry when he wakes up.’
The Brigadier thought and nodded, ‘I’d like that.’