The Warning: pt II

Exile's End

Harry felt a prod at his shoulder. He didn't want to wake up. Slowly he lifted an eye lid. Then he slid backwards. There was someone standing over him. He grabbed his glasses, pulling them on quickly. It was only Sirius. "SIRIUS!" Harry yelled at his godfather. "What are you doing?"

Sirius was bouncing with a manic smile. "YAY!" he yelled like a child on Christmas. "You're up! Today's the day!"

Harry couldn't be more confused. Sirius was only ever up this early and this energetic on Christmas. It was about as far from Christmas as you could get, it was the end of July, Harry's birthday in fact. "I'm glad you're happy about my birthday," Harry groaned, trying to pull the blankets back over his head, "But I want to sleep in... its summer."

"No!" Sirius said, jerking the sheets down. "Today's the big day!"

"How is my eleventh birthday more important than my tenth?" Harry grumbled.

"Remember how when you ask about your parents and stuff like that, I always say, I'll tell you when you're older? Today, you're older."

That jerked Harry awake quickly. Harry stared at Sirius anxiously. Harry asked questions about the strange things that happened around him, but Sirius and Uncle Lupin always deflected him by saying "We'll tell you when you're older." "You'll tell me?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Get dressed," Sirius told him with a wild smile on his face. "We'll talk over breakfast."

Harry had lived for the last ten years of his life with his godfather, a man named Sirius Black. Unlike most other adults in his life, Sirius insisted on being addressed by his first name. The one thing that Harry was not allowed to call him was "Padfoot", a name frequently used by Harry's uncle Remus Lupin. Likewise, Harry was forbidden to call Uncle Remus "Moony" despite the fact that Sirius did frequently. Sirius had always insisted on keeping his promises, and to day would be the day that Sirius told him everything. Harry couldn't wait!

Harry showered and dressed and was in the kitchen, shocked to find an enormous spread on the table; sausage, bacon, toast, waffles, eggs, ham, gravy, and more. Harry loaded up his plate and sat in front of Sirius expectantly.

"Harry, you're a wizard," Sirius confessed. Sirius Black and Harry Potter had been living just outside Glasgow. They lived as muggles, and Harry enjoyed the occasional visit from his Uncle Lupin. Harry didn't have much in the way of friends, but his one friend was a close friend, Hermione Granger. They both went to a nearby private school. They were both fairly introverted unless they were together and alone, then they laughed for hours, joked with each other. They were like brother and sister. Sirius and Dan Granger often joked together about marrying the two. Harry never saw the words "You're a Wizard" coming out of Sirius' mouth.

"What?" asked the young boy.

"Try the sausage," Sirius advised. "You are a wizard. Your parents were wizards, I'm a wizard (which, by the way, is how we have this feast), and your Uncle Lupin is a wizard. We didn't tell you because..." Sirius paused, not sure how to explain to an eleven year old that he is a celebrity. "Well, remember how me and Moony are always telling you you're special?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, wondering why on earth they would keep this from him.

"You're more special than we let on Harry. You are famous. You have your own children's bedtime story." Sirius sighed. "We wanted to protect you from the dangers of celebrity."

Harry paused to think about that. He was very confused. All his life he hadn't been special anywhere except in his home and around Hermione. Now he was famous? Sirius must be lying. He occasionally pulled little jokes on Harry, but Harry was having trouble seeing the punch line in this one."

"Harry, have I ever lied to you?" Sirius considered what he'd just said, then amended. "Have I ever tried to hurt you?"

Harry thought on that. Sirius had always leveled with Harry. If he couldn't answer something, Sirius said that. Sure, Sirius had told little lies for his jokes and pranks, but it was never meant to hurt Harry. Sirius, had in fact, always treated Harry closely, like a brother. "Keep going," Harry prodded.

"This opens a whole new world for you Harry, including your new school, Hogwarts. You start September first," Sirius laid Harry's letter down. Sirius' face dropped. Now things wouldn't be funny. He had to tell Harry something that could never be funny. "However... There is another part of your story I have to tell you."

"Why I'm famous?" Harry asked.

Sirius nodded. "The man who murdered your parents was called Voldemort. He wanted to kill you; he killed your parents because they wouldn't give you up." Sirius put his hand on Harry's shoulder, hoping to make sure the boy understood. "Harry, your parents loved you SO much that they would die rather than give you to him."

"Why would he want to kill me?" Harry asked, fearfully.

"That is a complicated part," Sirius said.

Harry sighed and looked at the table. That was usually what Sirius said before he told Harry "I'll tell you when you're older."

"Do you know what a 'prophesy' is?" Sirius asked.

Harry's head snapped up. He hadn't been expecting Sirius to actually explain. "Yeah," he replied, "Hermione told me about them when she had to go to bible school in second grade."

"There was a prophesy made, about Voldemort and the one who would have the power to destroy him." Sirius fiddled with the bacon on his plate. He barely understood all this prophesy business himself. How was he supposed to explain it sufficiently to an eleven –year-old? "Voldemort believed you were the one, so he went to kill you."

"But my dad killed him before he could kill me," Harry said, supplying the last bit of the story he knew.

"Harry... That is the closest thing to a lie I've told you." Sirius flinched at the look of hurt on Harry's face. Sirius had never told Harry about storks, Father Christmas, or Easter Bunnies. He was honest to a fault with Harry. It had hurt him to have to lie to his surrogate son. "Voldemort tried to kill you after your father was dead, HOWEVER your father left a protection in you, by giving his life to save you, he left you immune to Voldemort's magic. The curse Voldemort used should have killed you, it's called the Killing Curse, but instead it rebounded upon him leaving you with nothing but that scar. It shattered Voldemort... nearly killing him."

"Nearly?" Harry asked.

"Harry," Sirius began. This was a complicated thing, something he had thought about many a night while he lived as a muggle. "Death is a natural thing, as natural as birth and breathing. Voldemort had made himself so UNnatural... I don't think he had enough human left in him to die." Sirius sighed. "I, and a few others, believe that he is still out there. He has no power left, but he is looking for a way to get it back."

Harry thought deeply upon what he'd just been told.

"Your parents left specific instructions in their will where I should take you to live," Sirius replied. "that is why we live here, and that is why we have been living as muggles."

"Muggles?" Harry asked.

"It means non-magic folk," Sirius explained. "There are a few things I should explain. Okay, enough Serious Sirius," the man said, wiping the tears that had brimmed in his eyes. "Starters, Voldemort and his bunch, Death Eaters, they hated people who weren't of pure wizarding blood. The ones they hated the most were the ones like your mum, she was what we called a 'Muggle-born' witch. Mean's her parents were muggles is all."

"What does that make me?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well," Sirius thought for a moment. "Your dad was a Pure-blood, like me, but with a muggle-born mum, you'd probably be considered a half-blood. Doesn't matter. Despite what anyone tells you, Blood doesn't count for anything."

Harry laughed, as he always did at Sirius' lame pun.

"We're going on a shopping spree before the party today," Sirius said with a smile as he pushed himself up from the table. Harry, who had just realized that throughout their conversation he'd been eating and had actually finished his breakfast, looked up at the man who had raised him. "Get your jacket and helmet," Sirius chided.

"Can't we just walk to the shopping mall down the way?" Harry asked.

Sirius gave Harry a smile that seemed to radiate an old sense of trouble-making.