Chapter Two
Harry received a response the following evening which was a little surprising considering Kreasiara Institute was a long flight for owls. He had received the letter at dinner but had waited until he was back in his dorm room to actually open it.
Dear Harry,
I must confess I am surprised to receive your letter. The Potter Family has always been very close knit and has always kept track of our members since the 1700s. However, as my father said, when my best friend came to live with us 'the more the merrier'.
I would love to tell you about the Potter Family. As much as you would love to hear. My other two kids are not interested in our past and family. Though occasionally I can get a story out about a family member that I remember.
Before I do that, however, I would feel better verifying this information. When I was 20 my wife gave birth to twin boys. This was the height of the War, and we were members of the Order, making this a very stressful, but joyous time. We had to go into hiding and regrettably; we chose the wrong person as our secret keeper. He betrayed our location to Voldemort in 1981, three months after my son's first birthday.
One son remained untouched and in his crib, but the attacker took the other twin that night with only a few items. You mentioned being adopted and only having a few items that belong to you, which is why I am telling you this. My son, Harry, coincidentally, had four stuffed animals and a baby blanket he slept with every night. He wouldn't be in a separate room without them, which was quite the hassle for us when traveling, but it was quite adorable.
These four animals had tags with their names on them. It's a family joke. The animals were a wolf, a dog, a stag, and a rat and the names were Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail. The baby blanket is handmade, knitted by my mother and my wife. My mother had started both blankets, but had passed before she could finish them, so my wife finished them.
If you did the Bloodline Potion, I think you did, then it would have revealed me to be your biological father. If that is the case, just know you ended up in that orphanage by mistake. Your mother and I never would have given you up. Your twin brother, Charlie, was the harder baby. He would have been the one to go for sure. I'm joking. I love my kids, all of them equally, and never would have given them away.
Lunch sounds great. I work at Hogwarts currently to stay close with my kids while they go to school, but as a professor I may leave when I need or want to as long as preparations have been made. I know little about Kreasiara Institute, but I am more than willing to go there and sit with you if that is required.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Yours,
James.
To say Harry was shocked and confused would be a vast understatement.
He was... Stolen? Kidnapped?
Harry set the letter down on his desk and sat back in his chair letting it sink in. He decided to set the letter aside and focus on his homework for his other classes until he knew what to do. It was only Wednesday evening after all he had a few days before the weekend arrived.
***
After four days without a reply, James decided, against his better judgment, to go to Kreasiara Institute himself. He was desperate and he needed answers. He feared that if he let it go too long Harry would never contact him again and that just couldn’t happen. It took a few hours on Sunday to figure out where exactly Kreasiara Institute was located and how to get there, but after that James was able to plan his trip easily enough. Asking Remus to cover his classes without telling him the reason why was harder, but eventually he was entering the Headmaster’s Office of Kreasiara Institute.
“Lord Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you. I’m Headmaster Cox.”
“You poor guy.” James said unable to help himself, the Headmaster thankfully laughed good naturally.
“I’ve heard it all. Every generation thinks they’re creative with a new one and I have to beak their spirits to tell them I’ve heard it before. They grow out of it after a few years. So, what do we owe the pleasure, we do accept transfer students as long as they pass the required tests if that is what you are here for.”
“No not that. I was contacted by one of your students a few days ago for a class assignment.”
“Magical Families?”
“That’s the one.”
“Say no more. Though I must admit I am surprised. I can take you to the professor. He should have a free period now. He can help you contact the student.”
“Great, Thank you.”
James followed the headmaster through the castle corridors. They stopped outside an open door and an older man with white curly hair sat behind his desk.
“Professor Maldonado, this is Lord Potter. A student of yours contacted him.” The headmaster introduced him.
“Ah yes Harry I remember. Are you here to speak to him? His class starts in ten minutes. I don't mind releasing him for the period.” The headmaster took his leave nodding to them both before he turned and left the room leaving James alone with the professor.
“No, I was actually hoping you had a copy of this bloodline result? The Potters have always kept track of our bloodline and family members, even the ones who went and married muggles. Not saying an illegitimate child isn’t a possibility, but I was hoping to have a little more information about his specific lineage from the family to better help him. That way I’m not giving him unneeded information.” James lied through his teeth, but he made sure to keep a respectful smile on his face to hopefully hide the fact.
“Oh no I do not I’m afraid. We only make one copy and due to the sensitive nature of the information we let the students keep it. We also make the students hide the biological information from us so we can’t see it, we only need to know their closest magical family after all. But Harry I’m sure wouldn’t mind letting you see it. He’s a great student, top in all his classes actually despite his young age.”
“Young age? I assumed he was in his sixth year.”
“Seventh year actually.” All of James’ hopes were crushed by those two words, his shoulders sagging a little. A chime rang through the castle and by the sounds of students in the corridor, James assumed that meant the end of class, “You’re welcome to sit in if you’d like.”
“Oh, I don’t know if-“
“Ah! Harry, just the boy we were talking about!”
James turned towards the door expecting to see a boy with some Potter traits, maybe the unruly hair or the popular hazel eyes. If there were illegitimate children out there, then James was their only family, and he would never turn away family. However, he saw himself. Not an exact replica of course, but there was no denying that Harry, his Harry, had just entered the classroom. Harry looked up from his books he was carrying, and James was met with bright emerald eyes that had a shine to them that was almost unnatural. The young teen stared at him for a moment clearly confused then something must have registered as he came towards them.
“Hi. I was going to respond I promise. I got caught up in studying for my other classes and honestly it was sort of shocking. I wanted to talk to my Papa, but he’s out of the country at the moment.”
“Harry you can be excused for this class. The class will be going to the library to find books and resource material anyway.” Maldonado said handing Harry a black journal, “notes, resources, direct quotes, drafts, anything. It will expand as needed and at the end of the year you’ll turn this in with your final report. Just so we can read where you got your information.”
“Of course. See you in the next class then.” James followed Harry out of the classroom, “I really did mean to reply to you, it’s just I didn’t know what to say. I also wanted to talk to my Papa about the situation.” James chuckled as he shoved his hands into his robe pocket walking beside his son who was alive and right there within touching distance.
“It’s quite alright. I just wanted to know if what I was thinking was true or not. I was desperate to be honest.”
“Can’t say I blame you. I am quite great.”
“Not conceited at all.” James joked watching as Harry grinned, chuffing lightly.
“We can go outside. I can show you the test there and we can talk.”
They walked through a beautiful courtyard that put Hogwarts’ to shame by a lot. Though James still preferred Hogwarts over this, Kreasiara Institute practically had ‘I’m richer than you’ on every wall. Past the courtyard was a perfectly trimmed and cared for grounds, a Willow tree rested against a lake with a picnic table underneath it that Harry headed towards.
They sat opposite of each other, Harry placing his books on the table and his bag on the bench beside him. As Harry dug into his school bag James noticed a graded paper on top of his books so he tilted his head a little to get a better look. A red 1000% was on the corner and under it was an O+ now he was even more intrigued.
“Do you mind?” James asked, reaching for the parchment, Harry at him then his paper then shook his head.
“Go for it.” As he said that he pulled out a scroll holder and set it on the table between them, “That’s the test and that is just an essay from last term.
“ Just an essay? You got a perfect score.”
“Well yeah.” Harry said as if that shouldn’t be such a surprise, “There’s a reason why I’m top of my graduating class this year.”
Which reminds him…
“Speaking of you’re only sixteen. You do know that right?” James asked
“I started school at age 10 under the recommendations of healers. My magic was growing at a rapid pace, and I couldn’t control it anymore. According to Papa my magic had always been strong for a child, but after an accident it grew faster and stronger.”
“So, you’re the youngest in your year and the top of the class. That’s impressive.” Harry shrugged at James’ praise.
“I am very ambitious.”
“Do you mind if I take this with me to read it?” James asked, holding the essay.
“Keep it or else my Papa will add it to the wall of embarrassment at the house. You’d love it, it has pictures of me from when I was first adopted to three weeks ago when Papa caught me sleeping with my baby blanket and stuffies. There is a very good explanation for that.” Harry said quickly defending himself when James looked at him with a raised brow and a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Oh really? Do tell.”
“I…got scared and needed my MooMoo to protect me. Simple as that. Perfectly reasonable so there is no need to look further into it.”
“Your MooMoo?”
“Yes. Don’t give me that look, I was like three, okay.”
“Actually, you were one.”
“I’ve always said that?”
“Oh yes. Those were your first words. Your mother was pissed. You had been making the ‘m’ sound for about a week before then and we were all convinced you’d say mama. Then Remus or as we call him Moony came through the front door and you lit up and screamed ‘Moo Moo!’. And that is how you became Remus's favorite for about two months until you finally said Dada. Then you were all mine again.”
“So I have a twin brother?” Harry asked.
“You do. His name is Charlie, he's in his sixth year at Hogwarts. You also have a little sister, Ariel. She's in her third year. Then there’s your godfather, Sirius and his husband, Remus. Remus is Charlie’s godfather. Though we all live together at the family manor, so really, they’re sort of like two other dads who are more lenient with the rules.”
“It’s just Papa and I. Well there was Papa’s husband for a little while, but he and Papa got a divorce years ago and we don’t speak to each other anymore. I have family friends who are like my aunts and uncles, I talk to Uncle Frankie the most. He’s a werewolf pack leader near the forest we live by. Papa is a Healer for werewolves and other magical creatures like them.”
“Well that’s good I don’t have to worry about anyone being upset that I introduce you to a werewolf then.”
“Going by his very original nickname and plushie choice, I’m assuming it’s Remus?”
“Yes. He was bitten as a kid, revenge against his father by Fenrir Greyback. Dumbledore allowed him to come to Hogwarts as a student after safety precautions were in place and we met there. We were all in Gryffindor house. We found out Remus was a werewolf when we were thirteen and came up with a plan to become animagi to be with him on the full moons, so he wasn’t alone. At fifteen we finally succeeded. I was a stag and Sirius was a large black dog.”
It did not escape Harry’s notice that James didn’t mention the rat, so Harry didn’t either.
“So tell me about this project of yours.”
“Well it can be about any generation or era I want it to be about. It has to be at least two thousand words for the essay and I have to do a family tree that follows who and what is mentioned. The people and the historical events, if there are any.”
“Two thousand words? Really?”
“Well it goes towards my NEWT scores, so that's the bare minimum. It’s why we are given so long to do it.”
“Do you have a time you want to look into?”
“I’m not sure. What’s the most recent historical event and we’ll go from there.”
“The most recent?” James asked, watching as Harry nodded, “The most recent is actually about you.”
“Me? What? Why?” Harry asked, frowning.
“In 1980 before you were born a prophecy was made about Voldemort and the one destined to be his downfall. The month mentioned in the prophecy passed and there were two babies born that fit. Neville Longbottom was born on July 30 just before midnight and you were born July 31st just before midnight. That is the reason we went into hiding, someone told Dumbledore Voldemort thought you were the most likely threat. No one knows why he chose you, but he did and we chose the wrong man to be the secret keeper. He betrayed our location and Voldemort came after us in 1981.”
“Really? I mean…I always figured my birth family was attacked by Voldemort. Well it was the conclusion Papa and I made after enough nightmares. Though you clearly survived.” James nodded, putting the nightmare comment to the side for now to come back to later.
“Charlie was spared, your mother and I were under a fake death curse but we were able to hear everything. He cast the killing curse at you, the entire house filled with this deathly green light then smoke then miraculously we heard you crying. Screaming your lungs out as if in pain, we couldn’t move and eventually we lost consciousness.
“We woke up in St. Mungo’s and you were gone and the papers, before they knew you were missing, named you The Boy Who Lived. The first person to ever survive the killing curse, the person who defeated Voldemort and ended the war. For months the papers sent out massive rewards for any tips on your whereabouts, but eventually they came to the same conclusion everyone else did eventually. That you had been killed in revenge or maybe you were being raised in a torturous home. No one really knew for sure.”
“Why me? Why not my twin brother?”
“Charlie was born on August 1st at 12:15am. He wasn’t the prophecy child only you and Neville were.”
“So why not Neville?”
“We don’t know what made him choose you. Actually very little is known about him and who he was before he was Voldemort.”
“Okay…so maybe not recent history.” Harry said scratching at his forehead making James frown as he spotted what looked to be some type of scar.
“What happened there?” James asked, grabbing Harry’s wrist. He moved Harry’s hair away from his forehead revealing a lightning bolt scar that started at the right temple breaking off into seven branches with three zigzags for each branch. Almost like the wand movement of the Killing Curse was scarred on his forehead seven times.
“Oh that? Papa says I’ve always had it.”
“No...definitely not as a baby. Does it hurt at all?”
“No I forgot about it honestly. Well sometimes I get these weird dreams or nightmares and it tingles a little, but other than that no pain.”
“That’s good.” James said though he was still frowning as he sat back on the bench deciding to not ask about the nightmare this time.
“So what’s the coolest history of the family?”
“Tell you what. Why don’t I get the family book for you and you can look for yourself. I’ll bring it to you sometime this week then maybe this weekend we can get lunch? You can meet the others.”
“That works. There’s a few lunch spots in Ballycastle, it’s the magic town near the school just a short walk from here. Papa says it’s what Hogsmeade is for Hogwarts students.”
“You should invite him too. I’d like to meet him and I’m sure everyone else would too.”
“I’ll extend the invite.”
They stayed outside talking about small things until the next chime was heard then James walked Harry to his next class, History of Magic where Harry surprised him by hugging him in front of almost everyone. Something no sixteen year old boy would typically do, but James treasured it as he hugged him a little tighter.
“See you later.” Harry said, smiling at him.
“Wednesday or Thursday, I’ll bring the book for you. It’s not something an owl can deliver.” Harry nodded as he headed into his class. James lingered only for a moment before he turned and headed back to Hogwarts.