Unity

“While I do not wish to interrupt this family reunion, we need to know. Why did you travel back in time?”

“You better sit down, it’s a long story.”

Everyone who had been standing took back their seat. Harry and Hermione took the two available ones on Lily's left. Dumbledore moved from the other end of the table and sat in one of the empty seats around the middle on the opposite side of Harry and Hermione so that he could be closer to the time travellers.

“First, I have a question to the Marauders. Where is Wormtail?” asked Harry. The time travellers were pleased to see that he wasn’t present.

“Damn, you are right! I should go tell him that my son has travelled back in time!” said James proudly, slowly raising from his seat.

“Don’t!” shouted both Harry and Hermione.

“Why not?”

“I’m sorry to tell you that Peter Pettigrew is a Death Eater.” said Hermione.

“What!?” shouted a dozen people in shock.

“It is true. Peter joined Voldemort’s side around the time of my birth.” added Harry.

“No!” shouted the three Marauders, pain evident in their voices. Lily looked at Harry with shock. Harry knew that Peter was their Secret-Keeper and that Lily had just realised that they had never been safe at their cottage. He wasn’t sure if the Marauders had that fact realised yet.

“Wormtail betrayed us?” whispered Sirius.

“I can’t believe it!” said James. Remus was just looking down, holding his head in his hands. The time travellers knew how much his friends meant to Remus and couldn’t imagine how he was feeling, having just discovered that one of his best friends had turned to the enemy and betrayed them.

“Let’s tell our story, shall we?” Hermione said to her husband.

Harry nodded. “Our story starts a few weeks before my birth. When Professor Dumbledore was giving an interview for the post of Divination teacher, a legitimate prophecy was made.”

Albus immediately stopped Harry. “You know of the prophecy, Mr. Potter?”

“What prophecy?” asked a few people.

“Of course, I do. I’m the one named in it after all.” answered Harry, rolling his eyes. “And yes, I’ll reveal it to everyone here. The prophecy doesn’t matter anymore since we will release my younger self from the role. I personally already fulfilled it once, I can do it again.”

Only Albus, Frank, Alice, Lily, James and Sirius reacted to that statement. They all looked at Harry with awe.

“Can someone tell us what is that blasted prophecy?” shouted Alastor.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....” recited Harry. “To explain it, the prophecy state that a boy born at the end of July of parents who defied Voldemort three times would have a chance to kill him. That prophecy could apply to two children: Harry Potter, so me, or Neville Longbottom.” The lack of reaction from the Potters and Longbottoms showed to the others that they were already aware of the prophecy.

“So, you killed You-Know-Who?” asked someone that Harry didn’t recognise.

“Yep.” said Harry. “Fun story but we will come back to that later.” he said nonchalantly. Hermione only rolled her eyes. “So, the prophecy was made to Dumbledore but while that was happening, a Death Eater overheard the first two lines. He was kicked out before he could hear more but the Death Eater told the prophecy to his master and Voldemort decided to target the two families who defied him three times and had a child born at the end of July: The Potters and the Longbottoms. The Death Eater who reported the prophecy eventually learned that Voldemort decided to target the Potters and decided to defect to our side. That Death Eater’s name? Severus Snape.”

“Snape made Voldemort target us!?” instantly shouted both James and Frank angrily.

Harry nodded sadly. “The worst part is that when he heard that we were the targets, he pleaded with Voldemort to spare Mum’s life. When he realised that Voldemort probably wouldn’t give a shit, he turned to Professor Dumbledore and again, pleaded that he kept Mum safe. Not Dad, not me. Just Mum. I learned that the reason why he did this was because he was in love with Mum, and probably hoped to take her on the rebound of losing us.” he finished with disgust evident in his voice.

“That bastard!” shouted James once more. The Marauders, Layla and the Longbottoms then started launching a bunch of incomprehensible obscenities but Harry quickly stopped them. “Oi! There are children here!”

“Sorry.” whispered James.

Harry then looked at his mother with concern. He knew that she and Snape had once been best friends but stopped when Snape called her a ‘Mudblood’ which Lily saw as a betrayal from her oldest friend. It was one thing insulting your best friend with one of the most vulgar words in the dictionary, but it was something else to set loose a madman and worst Dark Lord in the last few centuries against them. Surprisingly to Harry however was that Lily didn’t look sad, she looked utterly furious.

“Arg! I’ll kill him!” she shouted to Harry’s shock.

“Hey, hey, hey, Mum... calm down, please.” he whispered to her. Lily took one look at her time travelling son before her anger visibly deflated and she was left very close to crying. Seeing the state of Lily, Harry took her in his arms and comforted her.

While Harry was embracing his mother, Hermione continued the story.

“I don’t know exactly why it took so long but Wormtail eventually revealed the location of Potter Cottage to Voldemort.”

“Wait.” asked Dumbledore. “How could Peter reveal the location where the Potters were hidden if Sirius is the Secret-Keeper?”

“About that,” started James. “We knew that everyone would suspect Sirius to be our Secret-Keeper because of how close we are. Our original plan was indeed to take Sirius but we changed it at the last minute.”

Sirius continued. “When they told me that they wanted me as a Secret-Keeper, I refused. I was too scared that I would reveal their location under torture so I instead proposed the idea of making Peter the Secret-Keeper and I would act as a decoy. That’s what we did and we told everyone that I was the Secret-Keeper. If I knew that he was a traitor I would never have proposed that idea!”

“I know Padfoot.” said James with sadness.

“On Halloween 1981,” continued Hermione, “Voldemort attacked the cottage. He first fought James and then killed him.” she said and everyone heard the sudden sobs from Euphemia who was being comforted by Fleamont. “Then, he went upstairs and entered the nursery where Lily and Harry had taken refuge. Since Snape had pleaded for her life, he gave Lily the option to get out of the way and live.”

“Did he really expect Lily, a mother, to just give up like that and not protect you, her child?” asked Fleamont to Harry, shocked.

Harry answered. “Voldemort doesn’t understand love and his worse fear is death itself. Voldemort doesn’t understand why a mother would sacrifice herself for her child, especially when the other option is to be killed. So yes, he thought that Mum would get out of the way. He was also offering her the chance to stay alive because Snape pleaded Voldemort to spare her. But of course, she didn’t.”

“No, she didn’t.” continued Hermione. “He killed Lily there, in front of Harry who was in his crib. He then turned his wand on Harry and shot the Killing Curse at him.” he said. This time, it was Lily who was crying and being comforted by a very white-faced James. She was holding tightly on baby Harry, like she feared that if she released her grip, he would die right then and there.

Harry cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention before he moved the hair away from his forehead. Everyone saw the scar and gasped, recognising what it was. “...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,” said Harry. “Because Mum sacrificed herself for me, she unknowingly created a blood protection based on her love for me which was strong enough to deflect back the Killing Curse. I’m sure that Professor Dumbledore would agree with my statement that Love is one of the most powerful type of magic that we know of.”

Professor Dumbledore’s eyes were twinkling. “I am guessing that it is ‘The Power the Dark Lord knows not’ from the prophecy?”

“Yes, it is the power from the prophecy although I didn’t kill Voldemort with love, obviously.” which made a few people chuckle. “Without Love however, but most importantly without Hermione’s love for me, I don’t think I would have been able to fulfil it.” he said, looking with loving eyes at Hermione. Hermione kissed him on the lips which made Lily and Euphemia smile.

“What happened after... you know what?” asked Fleamont, unable to mention the murder of his son and daughter-in-law and attempted murder of his grandson.

“The Killing Curse rebounded on Voldemort and he was defeated." continued Hermione. “At that point, Harry was the only living being left alive. Something important happened at that moment but we won’t talk about it until later in our story.” Harry shivered, remembering that he had once been one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. “Harry stayed alone in his crib until someone arrived at the house. That person was Rubeus Hagrid.” At the mention of their half-giant friend, Harry realised that he wasn’t currently present at the meeting. “While Hagrid was looking for survivors, Sirius had gone and looked for Wormtail, making sure he was still safe. When he saw that Pettigrew was missing, seemingly having left his safehouse without a fight, Sirius realised that something must have happened and immediately left with his flying bike in direction of Potter Cottage. He arrived not long after and landed in front of the cottage. Inside, Hagrid had found Harry and brought him downstairs. Dumbledore had asked Hagrid to bring Harry to him so that they could check on his health to make sure he was okay.”

Harry continued. “Hagrid told Sirius that I was the only survivor and that he had been ordered to bring me to Dumbledore. Sirius originally wanted to take me with him but he realised that it was probably better for now that my health was checked. He let Hagrid take me to Dumbledore and left him his bike. Sirius decided at that point to go and look for Wormtail, realising that he had betrayed us.”

“What?” asked Lily. “You are his godfather! You should have gone with him!”

“Don’t blame him for his future-self's actions.” said James to his wife before Sirius could say something. “However, if a similar event come to pass, I hope that will take care of Harry first before jumping into revenge, Padfoot.” he warned.

“I will.” promised Sirius.

“Thank you.” said Lily.

Hermione continued. “From that point on, we don’t really know what happened until the next day. On November 2^nd, seemingly once Harry had been checked by a healer and made sure that he was alright, Dumbledore decided to bring him to his only family remaining.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” said Fleamont, frowning. “Harry didn’t seem to recognise us when we met him.”

“I’m sorry but from what we know, at that point in time you had both passed away from Dragon Pox.” said Harry. Euphemia palled but Fleamont didn’t react instantly. Once he did, he said “Well, we know now to take all the necessary precautions then.”

“So, like I said, Dumbledore decided to bring him to his only family remaining. The protection Lily created with her sacrifice was still active and Dumbledore realised that it would be a powerful defence but the power of the protection would slowly diminish unless Harry stayed with blood-relatives of Lily.”

It clicked in Lily’s mind. “No... he didn’t!” she said, looking angry at Albus.

“Did what?” asked James, concerned.

“Were you raised by my sister and whale of a husband?” asked Lily to Harry. Harry only looked down, confirming her suspicions. “They hate magic! Why would you send a magical child to live there?” she said to Dumbledore. “My sister does not even talk to me!” She looked back at Harry. “How did they treat you?”

“Not well.” is all that he answered. Hermione looked at him with concern before she whispered to him. “Harry, they are your family, your parents. They have a right to know, my love.” Remus, with his improved hearing was the only one to hear Hermione outside of the couple. He looked at them with a lot of worry.

“I don’t want them to know, they will blame themselves.” he whispered back.

“If Rose had been raised by them, would you want to know the truth about how she was raised, even if you didn’t like it?”

Seeing her point, Harry whispered “Tell them, please.” he pleaded. “I already have a hard time talking about it, I don’t think I’m capable of telling it to my own parents.”

Hermione nodded before saying “I will keep it simple since it is neither the time nor place for this but Harry was pretty much abused by the Dursleys.” she started. Lily and Euphemia gasped loudly. The Potters and their friends all looked at Adult Harry and Baby Harry with a white face. “There wasn’t really any physical abuse, at least from Vernon and Petunia but there was a lot of emotional abuse. They would also make him do all the chores in the house, barely feed him, always and I mean always give him hand-me-downs from his cousin. Hand-me-downs aren’t a bad thing, in normal circumstances but Harry’s cousin was four to five time his size and they only gave his clothes to him once they were old, used and weary. And his bedroom...” She stopped and looked at Harry. Harry only nodded, telling her to continue before setting his head on her shoulder. “And his bedroom, for the first ten years, was the cupboard under the stairs in the entrance hall.” she finished.

Many around the table gasped and looked at the older Harry in pity. Just like when they had revealed Wormtail’s treason, the friends of the Potters started angrily shouting abuse at the Dursleys. Harry didn’t meet their eyes as he loathed people who looked at him with pity. He instead looked for his family. James and Sirius looked beyond angry and were looking like they would jump to their feet at any moment and go find the Dursleys. The only thing that kept James from doing so was that he knew that there was nothing he could do. His baby hadn’t lived through that yet and his time-travelling counterpart was now an adult with his own child. Sirius however had to be restrained by Remus and Layla. Instead, James comforted Lily who was slowly crying, still holding the younger Harry strongly. Fleamont did the same for Euphemia while Hermione rubbed her hand in Harry’s back before kissing him on the cheek, something that always relaxed him.

Harry cleared his throat loudly. It was his turn to continue. “Now, I’m sure Sirius and Remus are wondering where were they the whole time...” he started which made both of them nod. “Well for a start, at the time of the attack, Remus was on an Order mission out of the country so he didn’t learn of what happened until a few days later. Sirius, as you know, went to look for Wormtail. The problem however is that everyone believed that Sirius was the Secret-Keeper.”

“Ahh F-”

“Language Sirius!” said Euphemia, Lily and Hermione at the same time. Fleamont, James and Harry all snickered which earned them slaps at the back of the head by their wifes. Many people around the table laughed at the antics of the Potters.

“Anyway, so you now had Peter Pettigrew being chased by Sirius who was himself being chased by the Order and the Aurors. The inevitable confrontation came the day after I was left at the Dursleys when Sirius found Peter. When Peter noticed that Sirius had found him, he started to flee but Sirius quickly caught on him. Before Sirius could say anything however, Peter shouted “WHY SIRIUS? WHY DID YOU BETRAY THE POTTERS?” before he sent a blasting hex on a gaz line, blowing up the whole street. Peter then cut his own finger and escaped in the sewers thanks to his Rat Animagus form.”

“Bloody hell” muttered a few people.

“Sirius, who had already suffered too many emotional blows in such a short amount of time, lost it and started laughing hysterically. Now, I think you can imagine how the Aurors reacted when they arrived on the scene of an absolute carnage. Twelve Muggles dead, many, many others injured, one finger being the only found remnant of the wizard known as Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, the Potter Secret-Keeper, member of the Noble and Ancient House of Black who are known supporters of Voldemort, on his knees and laughing.” said Harry. “Add to that the witnesses which would say that they heard Pettigrew blame Sirius for your deaths and the hysterical Sirius muttering about how it was his fault that my parents were dead and it’s easy to realise where it’s going.”

“They arrested me?” deduced Sirius.

Harry nodded. “And threw you into Azkaban without a trial. Literally everyone believed that you were guilty.” Sirius shivered. Layla’s eyes widened. When Harry had said that he didn’t know who she was, she had guessed that something must have happened in her and Sirius’ relationship. Now she knew: Sirius had been sent to Azkaban. And if Harry was telling the truth then it meant that everyone, which must include her, believed that he was guilty of being a Death Eater. She felt bad and embarrassed even if it technically didn’t happen yet. And it never will now that Harry and Hermione had told them the truth.

“A few days later,” continued Harry, “Remus came back into the country, only to learn that Mum and Dad were dead, that I had been exiled from the Wizarding World and that Sirius had supposedly betrayed us and then killed Peter. Remus, who had problems just holding on a job because of his ‘furry little problem’ and lost what he considered being his only family outside of his parents, got into a depression that he didn’t come out until years later.”

The Marauders and Lily all looked at each other. It was crazy how wrong things could go in such a short period of time.

Hermione said “Now, things stayed steady for the next ten years. The Wizarding World celebrated the Death of Voldemort, not that he was actually dead of course, while Harry was living at the Dursleys.”

“I never knew my real story during those ten years. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon told me that Mum and Dad died in a car crash while Dad was drunk-driving. They also kept saying that you were good-for-nothing peoples who didn’t even have a job.” said Harry with anger. James and Fleamont shared the same face as Harry. Lily had a mix of sadness and anger on her face while Euphemia just looked resigned.

“Around the time of my eleventh birthday, I received my Hogwarts letter. Of course, the Dursleys didn’t want me to go at Hogwarts but that didn’t stop them from trying. They kept burning the letters until Vernon had enough and drove us away from the house. We eventually ended up in a shack on a small island in the sea. That didn’t work either since hold and behold, Hagrid came and gave me my letter personally.”

“He must have scared them.” said Remus.

“Yes, he broke down the door, then politely asked for a cup of tea.” said Harry snickering. “When Vernon threatened him with a double-barrel rifle, Hagrid just bent the barrel until the weapon couldn’t be used anymore. Hagrid eventually explained to me about the wizarding world once he learned that I didn’t know anything and vented his anger at the Dursleys. At the end, Vernon ended up insulting Dumbledore in front of Hagrid.”

A few people laughed, knowing how defensive Hagrid could be about Dumbledore.

Hermione said “You never told me how he reacted.”

“He withdrew his purple umbrella which had his broken wand in it and transfigured a pig-tail on Dudley’s bottom.”

“Oh Hagrid.” said Dumbledore, shaking his head while the rest of the order was laughing.

“I wish I could have seen this!” said Sirius.

“I can give you the memory for you to watch in a pensieve if you want.” proposed Harry. Sirius’ eyes just lit up in interest.

“What happened next?” asked James.

“The next day was my birthday and we visited Diagon Alley. It was a nice day and it was the first time I received a birthday gift from someone.” said Harry, immediately sobering people up. Harry, however, smiled. “A snowy owl, Hedwig.” he said with nostalgia.

“I loved Hedwig.” said Hermione, smiling. Harry once had a very hard time remembering the casualties of war such as Hedwig as he would constantly tear up at the thought of their deaths but a few years married to Hermione managed to heal the various emotional wounds Harry had suffered during his teenage years. Harry had then been able to look back and remembered the good things instead of the bad things.

“A month later and we were on the Hogwarts Express, in direction of Hogwarts! It’s where I made my first ever friend of my age, Ron Weasley.” he said before both he and Hermione frowned.

Harry remembered what happened when he and Hermione started dating shortly after the war. The duo had realised the love they shared for each other during the Horcrux Hunt after Ron had left and before he came back. Harry had actually had been harbouring feelings for Hermione ever since the end of their third year, but as a 13-years-old who grew up without love, he hadn’t been able to recognise them until a year later, by which point Ron had made it obvious that he had feelings for Hermione as well. Since Harry was a noble git and didn’t want to compete against one of his best friends for their other best friend’s love, and since he felt that pursuing Hermione romantically would be like betraying Ron, he had ignored his feelings.

Hermione had been in the same boat. She also had started falling in love with Harry during their third year, more precisely when they were on the back of Buckbeak the Hippogriff, flying to rescue Sirius. She didn’t think Harry shared her feelings but since Ron was interested in her, she had decided to pursue him romantically. Hermione, while she liked Ron, never fell in love with him. When Harry realised that Hermione was interested in Ron, he had started moving on and eventually dated Ginny Weasley during their sixth year.

During the Horcrux Hunt, Harry decided to just admit his feelings. He didn’t know that she felt the same way but wanted to tell her either way. Once he did, he learned that Hermione actually shared his feelings and that the only reason she had pursued Ron was because she didn’t think that she had a chance with him. Harry had laughed when he realised that both had settled on Weasleys when they thought that they couldn’t have the other. While they wanted to do nothing but snog each other, Harry and Hermione decided that they would wait until the war was over to pursue a relationship so that they wouldn’t be distracted during the Hunt.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry felt his heart broke when he saw Ron kissing Hermione but he noticed Hermione’s semi-horrified, semi-disgusted face and realised that she didn’t want to kiss him and felt embarrassed. Harry suffered the same fate once Voldemort had been defeated, Ginny throwing herself at him and kissing him. Just like Harry had saw Hermione’s reaction, Hermione saw his and realised that Ginny had done the same to him than Ron had done to her.

The duo quickly became a couple in the days following the end of the war. Ginny was disappointed and sad that Harry had moved on and started dating Hermione but after she learned of the truth, she became happy for them and stayed their friend. Ron, on the other hand, was completely angry and screamed and shouted at the couple. At one point, he even called Hermione a ‘slut’, breaking forever their friendships just like Severus Snape had once done in regards to Lily Evans.

Ron had tried to apologise in the next few days but for Harry and Hermione who had already been backstabbed a few times by Ron, most noticeably during the Triwizard Tournament, the Horcrux Hunt and the whole Firebolt Fiasco (in which Harry had taken Ron’s side, forever haunting him.), it was just too much and stopped being friends with Ron. Ron had been invited to their wedding, mostly because all the other Weasleys would attend but Ron never showed up. Since then, Ron became a sore point for Harry and Hermione.

Harry quickly remembered where he was and more importantly, when he was when he heard the love of his life, his wife, Hermione Potter, start talking again.

“It is also on the Hogwarts Express where I first met Harry.” she said, looking at him with a smile. Harry honestly didn’t really know why she smiled. Sure, it was when they met which was a very special occasion but he remembered that he and Ron hadn’t been great to her at first. And yes, he never insulted her or anything but he remembered how Ron had talked about her in her back and how he, who had just got his first ever friend of his age, didn't challenge anything he said. Hermione must have seen the conflict in Harry’s eyes because she kissed him before smiling at him reassuringly.

Harry smiled back, deciding to remember the good things instead of the bad things. “She was helping Neville Longbottom try to find his toad which had escaped during the train ride. She was a bit bossy...” he started, which Hermione answered with another slap on the arm which made Lily and Euphemia chuckle “but it is understandable since she had just been thrown in a completely new world, didn’t know anyone and was trying to fit in.” he quickly added, hoping to make up for the first part of the sentence.

“Good catch up.” teased Hermione. Harry just kissed her on the nose.

“Now that I think of it, our first year was probably the most normal one we had.”

“Oh yes, because mountain trolls, three-headed dogs, devil snare and Voldemort are all part of the normal experience of a First-Year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” snickered Hermione.

The couple heard three consecutives “What!?”. The first was from James and Lily, the second was from Fleamont and Euphemia and the last one was from pretty much everyone else in the room.

“What the bloody hell are you talking about?” shouted Sirius, waking up baby Harry who had fallen back asleep in Lily’s arms.

“Gee, thanks Padfoot.” said adult Harry with a smirk when he heard his younger self cry.

“Sorry!” he said quickly under the glare of all three Potter women.

“Anyway, for those wondering, everything I mentioned happened. To make it simple since we don’t have all day here, the troll happened when our D.A.D.A Professor was being processed by Voldemort and made a troll enter the castle to serve as a distraction while he was trying to steal Nicolas Flamel’s infamous Philosopher’s Stone. Back then, it was being guarded in the castle.”

“That day happened to be Halloween and the 10 years Anniversary, if you can call it that, of the death of my parents. It’s also the day Hermione and I became friends since it was the day Ron made her cry. She hid in one of the bathrooms. I kept feeling horrible because of what Ron had said and because I didn’t come to her defence so once I heard about the troll, I dragged Ron with me toward the girl's bathroom to try to alert Hermione before it was too late. The problem was that once we arrived, the bloody troll was in the bathroom!”

“At that point, when I was in the bathroom, I had pretty much given up on the Wizarding World. I still didn’t have a single friend and didn’t really felt welcome.” she said. She noticed that Harry was now looking down in shame. She knew that Harry hadn’t done anything wrong to her but since it was Harry, he couldn’t help but blame himself for the whole thing. She started rubbing his back with one hand as she was still holding Rose with the other. She kissed him on the top of his head and said “When I saw the troll enter, I thought that my time on Earth was over, that I would die. It’s only when I heard Harry and Ron that I started feeling hope. They tried to distract the troll while I was trying to get to them but they didn’t really manage by throwing debris at them. So, what did Harry do?”

“If he’s anything like me, he probably did something completely stupid.” blurted James.

“He jumped on the back of the troll and stuck his wand in the troll’s nose.” said Hermione.

Sirius laughed “I think that must have got his attention.”

“Well yes, it worked but the problem was that now I didn’t have access to my wand. The troll had thrown me down and my wand was still stuck there. Ron decided to use a levitation charm on the club and it worked. He dropped it on his head which knocked the troll out.”

“We all became friends after that and we would later be known as ‘The Golden Trio’.” she said before they both frowned again. It was obvious to everyone else that something must have happened to their friendship with Ron but they didn’t know what.

“During the year, we slowly unravelled the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone and eventually, at the end of the year, we found out that someone was about to steal it. Back then we thought it was Snape who since then had become the Potions Professor at Hogwarts which, spoiler alert, he didn’t treat me well as the son of James Potter, but like I said it was someone else, Professor Quirrell who tried to steal it. The stone was protected by various tests. The first was a Devil Snare, which Hermione passed by lighting a fire with her wand. The second was a flying key, which I passed by grabbing a broom and managed to grab the key. There is a reason I am the youngest Hogwarts Seeker in a century after all...”

“Youngest Seeker in a century?” asked James and Fleamont with interest.

“Not now James/Fleamont!” said Lily and Euphemia who wanted Harry to continue the tale.

“So, after that, it was a giant chessboard which Ron beat since he was one of Hogwarts’ best chess players. The next one was another troll but when he arrived, he had already been knocked down by Quirrell who had come just before us and the last one was a potions riddle which Hermione beat easily. Hermione then went back to grab Ron and bring him to the Hospital Wing before trying to contact Professor Dumbledore, who wasn’t at Hogwarts that day, while I continued on. I met Quirrell who was stuck in front of the last obstacle: The Mirror of Erised.”

A few people, including Dumbledore, gasped in recognition.

“The Mirror was quite a genius idea since you could only take the stone out if you wanted the Stone but didn’t want to use it. Since Quirrell wanted the Stone and wanted to use it, he wasn’t able to get it.”

“Quite ingenious, if I do say so myself.” said Dumbledore.

“You came with the idea, Professor. All obstacles had been designed by one Professor. The first one, the Devil Snare was Professor Sprout’s. The Flying Keys were Professor Flitwick, The Giant Chess Board was Professor McGonagall’s, the Troll was Professor Quirrell’s, obviously, and the Potions riddle was Professor Snape’s. The Mirror of Erised, the final challenge was Professor Dumbledore’s and it was the one where Quirrell was stuck at.”

“What happened next?” asked Lily, really worried for her son.

“Quirrell started doing his villain talk and eventually turned back to the Mirror. Then, out of nowhere, a new voice ordered Quirrell to make me look at the Mirror. I saw myself with the stone in my hand and putting it in my pocket. Suddenly, the real Stone was there in my pocket! Now, my goal was to flee before Quirrell realised that I had it but the voice knew that I had it. He ordered Quirrell to show him to me. The voice was Voldemort stuck at the back of his head.” he said with disgust. A few people gasped. “Basically, Voldemort tried to talk me into giving him the Stone, I told him to go fuck himself...”

“Language Harry...” muttered Hermione by habit.

“...although not in such crude words and Voldemort ordered Quirrell to attack me.” he continued quickly. “For some reasons, he didn’t use his wand and instead tried to strangle me which saved my life. Since I still had Mum’s protection, Quirrell would be burned every time he touched me.”

“Like the idiot he is, when he realised that, he jumped on Quirrell to burn him and eventually magically exhausted himself.” said Hermione, rolling her eyes at the antics her husband used to pull.

“Yeah...” said Harry, rubbing the back of his neck. “Woke up three days later in the Hospital Wing.” he shrugged like it was an unimportant fact.

“Don’t say it like that! You scared the hell out of me when Dumbledore suddenly showed up in the Hospital Wing carrying your body.”

“Sorry.” he said, genuinely at his wife’s concerns.

“And this happened in your First Year?” said Fleamont, incredulous.

“It gets worse.” said Harry and Hermione.

“Goddammit.” said James before slamming his head on the table.