Chapter 3: Meet the family...
In Harry's entire memory, he couldn't recall ever being so excited about anything, ever. As he opened the trunk, he saw all kinds of things inside. Lots of books, some thick paper, a few small writing notebooks, bottles of ink, things that looked like wierd feathers, clothes, pictures. All in all, he didn't know where to start, so he decided to take it all out and organize it to find out all the things that were in there. As he started pulling things out (starting with the books), Harry realized that there was WAY too much stuff in this trunk than should have fit inside of it. The stacks of books alone should have taken up two trunks of the size of his mother's trunk. Putting this out of his head for the moment, he pulled out the rest of the things. The notebooks appeared to be diaries that his mother wrote, and Harry decided immediately that he would start there. He desperately wanted to know his parents, and what better way than to read the things that she wrote?
Once he had collected all of the diaries, he put the rest of the stuff back in the trunk. As he put the things back inside, Harry noticed that there was definitely something wierd about the trunk, in that it did indeed hold about four times the amount of stuff that it should have held. Harry hoped that the diaries may help explain it.
Harry looked at the covers of the diaries, and it appeared that there was one for each year, starting from when his mother was about ten years old. Harry held out the first diary and put the rest of them back in the trunk in order by year, so he would be sure that none were lost or misplaced.
So, with some hesitation and lots of excitement, Harry opened the first diary and started to read. Harry very carefully read each page, soaking in all of the information that it contained. Harry found out that his mother and her sister were the best of friends, and pretty much inseparable. This struck Harry as odd, as it seemed that his aunt had hated Harry's mother, based on her reactions every time Harry had asked about his parents. But, this diary told a very different story, or, many stories in fact. The more Harry read, the more he wanted to read. It seemed that Harry's mother wrote in the diary about every two days or so. It took Harry only a couple hours to get through the first diary, and by that time, Harry was very eager to read more. A couple of the entries had peaked his interest, as his mother explained a couple of "strange happenings", but had no idea what had caused them. Harry was all excited about the possibility that his mother had the gift as well, and hoped that the other diaries helped to explain it.
After finishing the first diary, Harry carefully placed it back into the trunk and pulled out the second one. The first few entries were just like the ones in the first diary, but about halfway through summer in this second diary, there was an entry that Harry had to read about a dozen times, trying to understand. This particular entry seemed to be a random collection of thoughts and Harry got the impression that she was very excited when she wrote it. It talked about magic, and witches, and a school called Hogwarts, and wands, and a place called Diagon Alley, and various other things, most of which Harry couldn't understand. However, one thing that Harry did understand was Magic and Witches.
Thinking to himself, he started asking "Am I a witch? Is it magic I'm doing? Is that my gift?" After a moment, Harry laughed to himself. He couldn't be a witch, weren't they all old women with warts on their noses? He decided to continue reading through the diary, and hoped that some of the things that were confusing Harry would be better explained in future entries.
A few entries after the one mid-summer, there was another entry that did not seem nearly as happy as the magic entry was. It described in detail a huge fight between Harry's mother and her sister, Petunia. It seems that Petunia was very mad that Lily was able to do magic, and would be going to a special school, but Petunia could not, and would be staying at a local school.
"That might explain a few things..." thought Harry as he read through it.
The next few entries went on to talk about more fights, and from the descriptions, they seemed to get nastier and nastier. By the end of August of that year, it seemed that the once inseparable sisters weren't even speaking to each other. From the entries, Lily was very upset about this, and really missed her sister dearly, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn more about magic.
At the end of August, there was another entry explaining all about a place called Diagon Alley. It was apparently an all magic community where all kinds of magic things can be bought, including all of the schoolbooks, cauldrons, potions ingredients, wizard clothes (Hah! I'm a Wizard, not a Witch!), and other such things for this Magic school. It explained in detail how to get in, as well as all the places that his mother went to and what she got. It explained that magic folk used a different kind of money. It went on and on about these creatures called goblins (Goblins are real?!) who ran the magical bank, which she called Gringotts. She talked about her wand, and that she wanted to learn all about it right away, but was saddened that she was not allowed to use the wand until she got to school. This one entry was a plethora of information for Harry, who was so excited about all of this that he was literally bouncing as he was reading it. A part of him wanted to go to see if this Diagon Alley still existed, but decided against it until he learned as much as he could from this trunk first.
At around 1:00 in the afternoon, Harry decided to take a break and have some lunch. He used magic (since he now knew what it was) and attempted the hamburger again. Since that first day, Harry had been practicing as much as he could at creating food, as it was one of his biggest problems. He wasn't given much food, which was probably why Harry was so small for his age. He had progressed enough to make sandwiches and things, but still seemed to be stuck on cooked foods. He had almost given up, but decided to try again anyway. This time, when he pictured the Hamburger, he tried to picture each individual part of it. The bun, the Lettuce, the tomato, the Mayonnaise, the beef, and how it was cooked, what it's texture should be, and how it should taste. Thinking about all of that, he brought forth his magic and created the hamburger. A moment later, a hamburger appeared in his hand, and he hesitantly took a bite, and a smile crossed his face. It was perfect. It became clear to him that when creating food, he must think about every aspect of the food he was trying to create, and then bring forth his magic to make it happen. After a very hearty lunch, he went back to the diaries.
Harry read the diary straight through the afternoon and into the evening. His mother's entries were very detailed, and explained quite a bit about magic in general, as well as Hogwarts, the magic school. Because of the level of detail, this diary was much longer than the first diary. One thing that confused him was that everything she wrote about seemed to require a wand, usually a specific wand movement, and an incantation, but some of the things that were described in the book, Harry himself had been doing without a wand or an incantation for weeks already. By 6:00, Harry was only about halfway through it when he heard the car doors slam outside. Quickly, Harry checked to be sure that everything was in the trunk, and closed it. He kept the diary he was reading with him, and used his magic to go directly back into the cupboard. Immediately, he hid the diary under his cot, and waited for the Dursleys to get into the house. It was only a few seconds before he heard the key in the front door's lock.
Within a few minutes of the Dursley's arrival, the normal routine had been followed. Dudley had again started banging on the cupboard door, teasing Harry for being locked in the cupboard all day, and the family had gone off to do other things. Once it seemed that everyone was wherever they were going to be, Harry pulled the diary back out and started reading again. He read straight through until his aunt and uncle went to bed, at which point his uncle banged on the door and told Harry to shut off his light and to go to sleep, as he had school the next day.
Over the course of the next several weeks, Harry read through as much of the diaries as he could understand. After the first year, the entries describing the magic became a little less detailed, and Harry often found himself confused, since things weren't explained as well as they had in the First year of Hogwarts diary. Harry did, however, learn quite a bit about his mother in general. She seemed to be friendly with just about everyone, and it seemed that she was very popular in school, including with the teachers. She spoke highly of the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, as well as Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. She spoke about a boy named James starting in her fourth year, who she really didn't like too much. She thought he was arrogant and egotistical, but she did comment on a number of occasions that he was persistent. She also mentioned a number of other names, including Severus, Sirius, Remus, and Peter.
Also starting around fourth year, there were some entries about a Dark Lord who called himself Voldemort. Nobody seemed to know anything about him, except that he fought for pureblood supremacy, and people were scared to say his name out loud, instead calling him you-know-who or he-who-must-not-be-named. This seemed silly to Harry, but there it was. The entries went on to explain what pureblood, half-blood, and muggle-born meant. There were a couple of concerned entries about Voldemort getting more direct in his attacks, specifically directed towards muggle-borns and their families. Lily's concern was that she was a muggle-born witch, which meant that she was a potential target.
The second half of the fifth year diary was all about something called O.W.L.s, which were Ordinary Wizarding Levels. It went on to explain that these tests, and their results, would determine what courses you can take in sixth and seventh years, and were the first real step to determining your possible careers. The beginning of her sixth year diary contained her OWL results, and though it didn't mean much to Harry, from all appearances, she seemed to pass all of her classes, and if he read it right, his mother got mostly all O's, which meant Outstandings...
Somewhere around the end of her sixth year at Hogwarts, the entries about James seemed to change somewhat, and though the reason for the change wasn't written down, it seemed that Lily had finally had a change of Heart about James. It was also the first time that Lily had written down James' full name. James Potter. Harry realized that this James person that she had been writing about for two years was (at that time) his future father. Apparently James was their house's Chaser on the Quiddich team (what that meant, Harry had no clue). Thinking about some of the entries, he found it mildly amusing that Harry's mother really didn't like his future father much at all for the first couple years.
After the first changed view entry of Harry's father, the entries started to include more details about Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Sirius seemed to be quite outspoken, and suave with the women. Remus was more reserved, but very intelligent and studious. Peter was very quiet and shy, and seemed to follow the other three (James, Sirius, and Remus) like a lost puppy. She mentioned that they called themselves the Marauders, and a few entries included details on a few pranks that sounded quite hilarious. It seemed that the favorite pranking target for the Marauders was this other person named Severus. Apparently James and Severus never got along, and both antagonized the other relentlessly.
Starting with the seventh year diary, it seemed that the pranks against Severus had almost stopped. Harry's mother commented a number of times when James and Severus crossed wands, but the planned pranks seemed to stop. Harry was happy to find out that his mother was "Head Girl" and his father was "Head Boy". About halfway through Lily's seventh year, an entry was written stating that James had asked her to marry him, and that she had accepted. Harry had tears in his eyes as he read that entry. The rest of seventh year's entries seemed to only be about James and NEWTs, or Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. The final tests of her school career, and the ultimate deciding factor on what jobs you would be able to get once you were done school.
The First year out of Hogwarts diary started out containing Lily's NEWT scores, which, like to the OWLs, she seemed to also do well with. It also contained details of his parents' wedding, in which Sirius was the Best Man. From the sounds of it, It was a grand wedding, with lots of friends there. The names Longbottom, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Slughorn were mentioned specifically. After the wedding, they moved to James' family home, which she referred to as the "Potter Castle". The next two diaries contained all kinds of stuff about day-to-day things, as well as the fact that both James and Lily were part of the frontline against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. In November of 1979, an entry was written about Lily being pregnant, and seemed very happy about it. Further entries described in detail the stages of the pregnancy. Harry was again in tears when he read about him kicking, or when they found out he was a boy... Things like that. The diary also contained all kinds of entries about Harry after he was born. Lily was amazed that even at such a young age, Harry was already showing signs of being magical. Lily believed that Harry would be a very powerful wizard when he grew up.
There was also an entry dated December 1979 stating that because of the pregnancy, and ultimately the need to stay home to raise baby Harry, that Lily was going to use the time to write a book or two that she had been thinking about during her schooling. The basis for these books would be her thoughts on how to better integrate muggleborns into wizard culture, as the current system was sorely lacking. She also had a lot of thoughts on better ways to learn about magic, and better ways to teach it. Her goal was to eventually use these books as a basis to teach Harry about Magic. Harry made it a point to look for these books in the trunk at some later time.
The last entry in the last diary was dated October 15, 1981, in which Lily spoke about the fact that Voldemort had specifically targeted them and the Longbottoms in response to a prophecy that Voldemort believed to be related toone of the families' children. It went on to further explain that all of her school things and all of her diaries would be placed in her school trunk and put in the Potter vault, with a charm on it to move itself to wherever Harry was living on his 7th birthday just in case something happened to them while they were in hiding. It was further stated that a charm was placed on the trunk so that only a selected few people would be able to move it and open it.
As Harry finished reading the diaries, he was being pulled in a bunch of different directions emotionally. He was as happy as could be that he finally learned about his parents, and was happy that he got to learn some things about them, even if it was only through his mother's diary. He was sad, though, since he now knew that his parents hadn't died in a car crash, as the Dursleys had insinuated, but that they were killed by Voldemort. It was the only logical explanation. How else would two adult wizards die and leave a baby with only a single scar?
And with that came the questions. If Harry and his parents went into hiding, and both of his parents were killed, how is it that only he survived? How exactly did he get that scar on his forehead? If his parents had so many wizard friends, why is it that Harry has never met any of them? And, the one that burned in his head the brightest... If his mother and her sister were still not speaking to each other, why would Harry be placed here after their death? Surely, knowing a dark lord is after you, you would be sure that your child would have a loving family to grow up with. They HAD to know that the Dursleys are spiteful people!
These were questions that Harry had no answers to. Maybe in the future he would be able to find someone who could answer them, but until then, he would learn as much as possible about magic and how to use it. He knew that he didn't have a wand, but he seemed to be able to do magic without one so far, and he hadn't found anything that he had tried that he wasn't able to do, so it can't hurt to go through the school books and learn what he can, could it?
