Chapter 22
James was amazed by the reflexes that his son just showed, before he had even been able to comprehend Mark coming into the room at a full sprint Harry had already found a good defensive position and had one of the most impressively strong shields surrounding both of them. It was so thick that James could barely see or hear anything that was happening outside of their protective bubble. As he turned to Harry to explain that all was okay that it was just Mark he could tell by the panic in Harry’s eyes this was not the first time that he had had to protect himself and others and from the look of things he knew what happened when he couldn’t protect him.
James slowly sank to the floor beside Harry and did the only thing he could think of he began carding his fingers through his sons hair, as that was the only thing that would calm him as a child, and softly began reassuring him that it was okay and he was safe. Miraculously this seemed to be slowly working as Harry’s breathing began to calm and the shield gradually became more transparent and he could see Ron and Hermione forcing Lily out of the room and seemed to have a slight conversation before making their way to the shield and placing their hands on the outside and with a spark of light from each of the touched locations the shield completely collapsed and Harry gave a sigh of relief.
Once everyone appeared to have calmed down some Harry rubbed a hand through his hair and looked to James and asked “Where is Lily and Mark I need to apologize and to explain, I swear I didn’t mean to scare them like that.”
“Of course I’m sure they just went to the kitchen through there” indicating a door over on the left wall, “and don’t you dare worry about that its clear that you have been through hell you have a reason to be jumpy, the war ended 13 years ago here and many people are still that way today.”
With a nod from Harry the entire group made there way towards the door.
As the door opened Harry made his way across the room to where Mark was sitting with Lily and said, “Mark I am very sorry I should not have reacted that way, I like it when people are completely honest with me so that is what I am going to do with you. In my world there is still a big war going on and for the past year it has been extremely violent so we all especially me, Ron, and Hermione here have had to learn how to protect ourselves so that nothing bad happens. It startled me when I saw you coming in, it wasn’t that I thought you in particular were going to hurt me I just was alarmed and reacted on instinct so I am very sorry.”
Mark then asked the question that both James and Lily had been desperate to ask but were afraid would upset him, “How bad was it really, please don’t sugar coat it Mum and Dad have told me about what happened before I just want to understand.”
Harry glanced at Lily to make sure she was okay with it after all Mark was only eight year old. She gave a soft nod and said, “He knows about Voldemort, and what he did to you here, and to us in your world.”
“Okay, for me to be able to tell this story I need to be able to say it all in one go and I can answer the questions that I am sure that you will have afterwards.” Once he got the nod of approval he began, “So like here Voldemort disappeared on that Halloween and everyone thought he was dead, however, he had not really died because he had been creating horcruxes, thanks to Hermione this summer we figured that out, and were able to destroy most of them, and he had been trying to come back ever since and last year he was successful in performing a ritual to restore him to his body. Ever since this it has returned to the way it was back before he disappeared, except for the fact that he is searching for me or anyone close to me, in fact when he performed the ritual to restore his body he needed my blood and so he captured me during the Triwizard tournament that was held at Hogwarts, however for some reason he did not kill me after he came back instead they held me captive for a few months until Ron and Hermione here figured out where I was being kept and helped me to escape, that is why I am so jumpy right now because I only escaped about six months ago.”