Chapter 7
While this might be a different Sirius than the one Harry originally knew, it was still a Sirius. So for the second time in less than a day, Harry launched himself at a virtual stranger in order to receive a hug. Lily, with a very irritated look on her face, said, “Sirius, I thought we told you that we would call you when he was ready for visitors.”
“I think this qualifies as ready,” Sirius said with a chuckle while gesturing to Harry, who was just then unwrapping himself from around Sirius’s neck.
Harry mumbled a quick apology, all the while turning a deep shade of pink. James softly said, “Harry, bud, why don’t you come to sit down again?”
It was then that Harry realized how much he was actually shaking, and suddenly he felt extremely exhausted even though he had just woken up. Lily hurried to Harry’s side and guided him back to the bed, saying “Your level of magical exhaustion would be dangerous in a full-grown wizard. You need your rest. The healer came in right before I fell asleep, so he should be back soon, but right now, you are going to get back in this bed, young man, so that we can finish telling you what happened before you pass out again.”
Harry, smiling, muttered, “You sound just like Mrs. Weasley right now…” as he climbed in the bed
At that, everyone in the room chuckled, and at that moment, the healer walked into the room.
The healer was a rather short but thin man with large glasses that made him almost look like he had huge eyes. Harry was startled out of his train of thought when the healer began talking, “HI, Mr. Potter; it’s nice to finally see you awake. My name is Healer Jenson, and I have a few questions for you because it appears almost if my diagnostic spell failed, and I’m afraid that has never happened before. Your family may either stay or leave, whichever you prefer.”
After a moment of consideration, Harry said, “It’s nice to be awake, and I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have. It would probably be better for them to stay. They deserve to know the full story after all.”
“Okay, let’s get started then. Are you feeling any pain or discomfort?”
“No, sir, I’m simply tired.” It was only a small lie; really, his muscles were only slightly sore.
“That is completely understandable with what you have endured. I believe that I can just ask you one question and prove that something went wrong because this is simply impossible. Mr. Potter, were you poisoned by basilisk venom?”
James and Lily shared looks of confusion and alarm, wondering why this man was even bothering to ask this because obviously, this was a mistake nobody ever survives that.
Sirius burst into laughter, saying, “Doc, are you serious right now? This is a joke, right?”
Harry felt himself getting angry as the seconds ticked by. Then directing his words towards Sirius, he said with a completely straight face, “Second year, chamber of secrets, healed by phoenix tears. Next question, please.” The entire room froze.
Healer Jensen was the first to compose himself, surprisingly. After he cleared his throat, he cautiously continued,” Alright then, only one more just to be certain, your scar there,” gesturing to Harry’s forehead, “how did you get it?”
Harry stared around at everyone, mouth agape, sighing he said, “You seriously don’t know… Oh my, this is going to take a while.”
“Sirius, you might want to take a seat for this one,” Harry said while picking at the hem of his shirt.
“Okay, where to start? Do you all know who Voldemort is?” Harry slowly began.
Everyone aggressively flinched at hearing the name. James slowly nodded and said, “Sadly, yes, but he has been dead for almost 14 years now.”
This was now Harry’s turn to be stunned; however, at this point in his life, he was so used to being blindsided that he had learned to hide it very well.
“Okay, so I think I learned where our universes diverged. Anyway, in my world, there was this prophecy concerning me and Voldemort; no, I don’t know the details of it; I just know it exists, and somehow he found out about it and was searching for us. My parent’s secret keeper ratted them out, and on Halloween 1981, he came to our home. Neither of my parents had their wands,”
Sirius suddenly butted in, saying, “so far, that’s the same thing that happened here, so how did you survive.”
With a bit of irritation, Harry continued, “My parents didn’t have their wands, and so he killed them and then tried to kill me, but because my mother had died protecting me, it created a sort of protection, so the spell rebounded, destroying his form instead of killing me, and he went into hiding until last year when he got his body back. This scar is from where the spell hit.” He finished quietly
By the time he finished, James and Lily were clinging to each other’s hands, crying, and Sirius had silent tears running down his face and looked unbelievably angry. Healer Jenson stood up and said, “Thank you for your honesty I will give you all some privacy now. Once again, thank you.”
As soon as the door shut, Harry was enveloped for the third time in less than a day, and that is the very moment that Harry finally let his mask break, and he sobbed into his parents’ arms.
Sirius felt his heart breaking at the sight of the family in front of him. Harry looked so small and broken there in his parent’s arms, and the keening sounds that he was making were enough to pull at anyone’s heartstrings.
After Harry finally had himself under control, he felt extremely embarrassed and said, “I’m sorry. I’m not usually so emotional it’s just I never thought I would see you again.”
At this, James slowly carded his fingers through Harry’s tight curls. This surprisingly was extremely comforting to Harry as he once again fell asleep in his parent’s comforting embrace.