Albus Potter and the Cauldron of Light

Chapter 3: Albus' Past

The world faded into focus slowly for the awakening Albus. He awkwardly turned to his left and looked at the light streaming in through a large window. He recognized the room as his parents' room. As someone walks through the door Albus' head suddenly started to burn. "AAARRRGGHHH!!!" he screamed in pain.

He lashed out with his fists and hit the mysterious figure who was trying to approach him. The figure screamed unnaturally loudly and flew backwards into the wall. Just before Albus fell unconscious again, he saw Harry run inside the room, wand held high.

While he was unconscious he began to see a strange scene form around him:

Albus watched confused as he saw a younger version of himself walking towards a circus tent with his parents, his younger sister and older brother. He looked on in a daze as the group walked by him.

Someone suddenly appeared next to Albus surprising him even further. "Who..." Albus began confused before the new figure interrupted him.

"Not yet important I'm afraid..." the tall figure announced with a very low voice. He had long red hair and bright green eyes, much like Albus' eyes.

"I don't- what is going on?" Albus asked as the scene around him changed into the inside of the circus tent. The tent was massive on the inside and had hundreds and hundreds of people in the audience.

"This- I barely remember this..." Albus muttered still in a daze. He looked up to the tall mysterious man with him expecting to him to say something but he remained quiet staring at nothing in particular.

In the middle of the tent a man dressed as a ringmaster apparated with a small firework-like explosion. "Hello! One And All!" the ringmaster announced in a supernaturally loud voice. "We Have An Astounding And Strange Show For You Tonight!"

The Ringmaster grinned at the audience and jumped high in the sky, transforming into a large eagle. The eagle flew in a circle then into the audience. Suddenly, someone stood up in the audience and raised his wand angrily. Down in the ring Albus quickly panicked, "Wait... What is this!? Did- Did this really happen?"

"Memory is a difficult thing" the mystery person next to Albus said calmly.

The man in the audience screamed loudly and raised his wand to the eagle in the air. "Avada Kedavra!!" he roared firing a spell at the eagle. The audience looked on in shock as the eagle fell blood pouring from it. After it hit the ground it transformed back into the ringmaster who was staring with lifeless eyes seemingly straight at a shocked Albus.

The murderer began to jump down the audience seats pushing past the audience that were running out the tent. Harry grabbed his wand and pointed it at the murderer. He jumped out the way of both Harry and Ginny's fired spells. He quickly grabbed the younger Albus and he placed the wand at Albus' head.

James in anger rushed forward and was knocked out of the way by the murderer. As James fell down the seats towards the ground, the older Albus tried to run forward to help but he found he couldn't move from the spot he was on. The tall stranger sighed and told Albus with an almost sad tone, "I'm afraid this is only a memory... It cannot be changed." Albus heard this but when he saw Ginny desperately trying to get to James as he fell, Albus could not help still trying to move to help his family.

Harry was holding Lily close to him and was nervously pointing his wand at the murderer. "Let... Let go of him!!"

"Shut up!" the murderer yelled, "You don't know me, but... but I know YOU! Harry Potter..." He spat on the ground as he said Harry's name. "You ruined my LIFE! And now I'll destroy yours!"

"Wait a minute!!" Harry shouted, "I've never met you before, how could I have ruined your life?"

The younger Albus finally began to cry, screaming for help, he was only five years old. "BE QUIET!!!" the murderer yelled going to punch Albus. Harry panics and jumps forward pushing the murderer onto the ground. Both of them dropped their wands in the process.

Suddenly the scene began to change, it became blurred to the older Albus. "What the-!?" he said confused. He looked over to the stranger who then explained what was happening.

"The memory is no longer as clear as it was before... unfortunate." However they could still hear what was happening.

"You will not hurt my family!!"

"DAD!"

"Damn YOU!!!"

"ARRRRRGGGHHH!!!"

The older Albus was trying to figure out what was happening when the scene became clear to him again. His eyes widened as he saw the murderers body on the ground next to the dead ringmaster and the unconscious James.

"He's... dead?" Albus whispered before looking up to Harry, Lily and his younger self all in shock. Once again the scene changed, the entire area seemed to melt around them and the place becomes entirely white.

"I... I don't understand" Albus said turning to the stranger with sadness in his eyes. "Who was that... that man, and... and how did he die?"

"Unforgivable curse, Avada Kedavra..." the stranger said calmly, slowly drawing his wand and pointing it at Albus.

"Wait," Albus said panicky, "what are you doing!?"

"The memory is over," the stranger explained, "it is time for you to awaken, however, I have to help you along on your return to the real world."

Albus held his hand up in an attempt to stop the stranger from using his wand. "Hang on! I understand I must have blocked that memory but who killed that man!? Was... was it my dad or-"

The stranger interrupted, "As you saw, that part of your memory was missing, I know no more of that memory than you, unfortunately..."

"Who are you?" Albus asked very curiously.

"As I said before," the stranger began, as he raised the wand to Albus. "It is not yet important to know who I am..."

Albus was about to say something when the stranger waved the wand and Albus began to disappear.

"Wait!!" he yelled as he felt the world fade away from him.

Just before he completely disappeared he heard the stranger say "Goodbye, and good luck..."

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Albus awoke quickly, yelling, "WAIT!!!" He began to feel more and more exhausted. What was wrong with him? Suddenly the door slammed open and several people ran in.

Albus saw that his tall brother, James, was one of the several people who ran in. When he saw him all he could think about was the image of James unconscious on the floor. He jumped out of his bed and hugged James. "WHOA!!!" James yelled surprised, "Alright, alright, I'm glad you're better but... let go!"

Albus smiled, glad of being able to see James acting like his normal self. Albus looked around the small, unfamiliar room he was in. He'd been moved since the last time he fell unconscious.

The people who had run in were Lily, Harry, Ginny, James, Rose Weasley and Hugo Weasley. Albus coughed weakly before asking, "Where... Where are we?"

"Ah... right," Harry said, walking over to Albus, "We're at your Uncle Bill's shell cottage, I'm afraid we didn't have time to wait for you to wake, so... We just brought you with us in the... The Er... Car."

Albus raised an eyebrow, "The flying car?"

"It was cool..." James informed him, and started laughing as he said, "Lily was screaming the whole journey!"

"Don't tell him that!" Lily said, punching James in the arm.

Albus sighed, "Dad... What's going on?"

"Yeah," James said, "Who were those guys who chased after us?"

"People chased you?" Albus asked in shock.

"Okay" Ginny said quietly, "everyone sit down and Harry and I will explain what is going on."

As everyone sat down, Rose walked over to Albus and whispered kindly, "I'm glad you're okay, Al..."

Albus smiled, "Thanks, Rose."

"Where have mom and Dad gone?" Rose asked Harry.

"Oh. They've gone to the Malfoy house to tell them what's happening." Harry responded.

As Harry sat down to tell them what was happening, Albus had an image flash inside his mind. For a brief moment he'd seen a young boy bleeding on the ground, a cloaked figure hovering over him.

"Huh!?" He whispered, rubbing his eyes. Suddenly, another image flashed before his eyes. The image was the bloodied face of the cloaked figure from the previous image. The face was familiar... but Albus couldn't quite remember who owned the face.

Then he heard several sentences being said by different people he didn't recognize.

"Send out the Death Eaters."

"Find it, now!"

"Kill Him."

"Ow!" Albus whispered in pain.

"Albus?" Harry asked, worried, "Are you okay?"

"Don't Worry" Albus said weakly, "I'm fine."

"Just fine..."

Author's note: Okay I've been working on this chapter for a little while at the same time I did the previous chapter which is why they were both finished so close to each other. Next chapter we return to Scorpius' story. Judging by how these chapters have been going the next one will probably be longer again and might take slightly longer to finish and upload. But... hope you enjoyed this chapter.