Charmed Wizard

Harry shifted his gaze back and forth between the two strangers, as if somehow expecting what they said to change if he stared long enough. It wasn't true. They weren't his parents. His parents were Lily and James Potter. These people were either liars or mental. He couldn't tell which at the moment.

“Harry,” Phoebe said hesitantly. He hadn't said a single word in several seconds and it was starting to worry here. She expected him to freak out. She did not expect silence.

Harry finally found his voice after the prompting. “No. My parents were Lily and James Potter.”

“I'm not going to tell you they're not. They loved you. That's what it means to be a parent. But we love you too and it's us you share blood with,” Phoebe explained.

Harry got up abruptly, knocking his chair down in the process. “No, you're barmy!”

Cole and Phoebe got up as well. “Look, we understand that this is hard for you to accept. Just let us explain,” Cole said.

“There's nothing to explain. You're either mad or lying!” Harry yelled as he backed away from them.

“Well, will you at least let us try? What do you have to lose by listening to us?” Phoebe asked.

Harry looked at her reluctantly for a minute. He didn't want to listen to this lunacy, but he supposed she had a point. Besides, what choice did he have. He had nowhere to go. Even if they let him leave, he was trapped in a foreign country with no way to get back at the moment. “Fine. Just stay away from me.”

“Thank you. This is hard for us, so I can only imagine how bad it is for you. Up until a couple days ago, we thought you were dead,” Cole said.

“Dead? What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“I don't know about the magic you're learning, but the kind we have can do some very unbelievable things. When I was pregnant with you, a demon used magic to take you from us. She literally transferred you from my body to hers,” Phoebe said.

“That's impossible,” Harry immediately said. Yes, he'd learned a great deal of things that he would've thought were crazy before he joined the Wizarding World, but surely this was over the top even for his world.

“I know it's hard to believe, but it happened,” Cole said.

“So you're saying that Lily Potter is evil and stole me? No, I won't believe that. My mother was good. She sacrificed her life for me!” Harry defended.

“No, not her. We never even met her,” Phoebe told him.

“It was a demon who wanted to use your powers to gain power. However, she couldn't handle your power, and when she went to use it, it became too much for her and killed her. You either became ejected in the process or used your powers to vacate her before you could die. You transferred yourself into Lily Potter,” Cole explained.

Phoebe turned to Cole. She'd noticed he'd glossed over a lot of details in his explanation, details that might have had Harry hating her when he heard them. Cole had protected her.

Harry looked at them both as though they'd lost their minds. “You're both bloody mental! You expect me to believe something like that is even possible?!”

Cole sighed. He supposed it did sound pretty crazy, even to someone who knew about Magic. Hell, he never would've guessed something like that was possible before the Elder, Sandra, had told them what happened. He had another tactic to convince his son though. “Can I show you something? I promise I won't hurt you.”

Harry gave a reluctant nod, but looked guarded.

Cole held his hand out and an energy ball appeared. “This is an energy ball. You have them too, right?”

Harry blanched slightly. He'd forgotten that he had the same power as this man. But it was just a coincidence, right? It had to be. His parents were James and Lily Potter. This was crazy. “No. It's a coincidence.”

“It's not, sweetheart. You have Cole's power and you probably have a lot more that you got both from him and from me. I know it's frightening, but we're telling you the truth,” Phoebe said as gently as she could.

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He felt cornered and he wanted to get the bloody hell out of there. He needed to think, and he needed for someone to help him sort through this mess. He needed Hermione.

Cole and Phoebe watched in shock as seconds later their son disappeared in flames.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Hermione had been walking down the hall towards her bedroom when she got the shock of her life and screamed in surprise. Flames appeared out of nowhere. They formed into a person and before she knew it, her best friend had appeared.

Harry stumbled back in shock and fell to the floor.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed, bending down to help him. As soon as she touched him, she felt him shake wildly.

“H...Hermione? How did I get here?” Harry asked shaken.

“You'd have to tell me! You appeared out of nowhere, in flames!” Hermione said in disbelief.

“I...I don't know.”

Hermone noticed a couple of faint bruises on Harry's face. “What happened to your face? You didn't have those when we left school?”

“I fell,” Harry lied.

Hermione studied him for moment before pulling him up. “Come on.”

Harry let her pull him down the hall and into a bedroom.

“You're lucky my parents are home. How did you get here?” Hermione asked.

“I don't know,” Harry said as he sat on the edge of the bed. “All I was thinking about was how I wanted to get away and how I knew you'd be able to help me sort everything out.”

“Sort what out? What happened?” Hermione asked.

“Last night, two people kidnapped me,” Harry said.

“What?! Hermione asked in horror.

“They didn't hurt me anything, but they've just told me something really crazy,” Harry said. He then told her the entire story that Phoebe and Cole told him.

“That's insane. Clearly these people a due a trip to Saint Mungos,” Hermione said.

“That's what I said. It's crazy. It can't be true,” Harry said. It sounded as though he was trying to convince himself.

“Why do you sound unsure?” Hermione asked. It was clear to her that she was missing something. Something had her best friend considering that this might be true.

Harry sighed. “Th...There's something I've been keeping from you and Ron. Something happened at the Department of Mysteries that I didn't tell you about. When I went after Bellatrix and my crucio failed, I got really angry. I wanted some way to hurt her. After a second, this thing appeared in my hand. It was like a ball of light and electricity.”

Hermione sat down next to him. “Why didn't you tell us this?”

“I didn't know what it meant and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. It was frightening. It was something I'd never seen before. I was afraid it was something bad,” Harry told her.

“What does this have to do with what you were told this morning?” Hermione asked.

“The man who says he's my father, he can do it too. He did it last night and he showed it to me again before I came her,” Harry explained.

Hermione could definitely see why that would frighten her friend. He exhibited the same power as the man that said they were father and son. It was no different than being told he looked like the man.

“And now I can somehow travel to other countries in flames. And... And I can see the future,” Harry said sounding very freaked out. This was too much for him, especially all at once.

“Are you talking about your dreams about You Know Who?” Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. “Right before we left Hogwarts, I had a dream that didn't involve Voldemort. It was the people claiming to be my parents. Hermione, I watched my dream play out right in front of me. Do you think it's true? They said I'd get more powers and it already happened! Do you think they're telling me the truth? No. No, they can't be. I'm James and Lily Potter's son. Everyone says I look like them.”

Hermione wordlessly got up and went to her desk. She picked up her potions book and then turned back to her friend. “There's a way to find out.”