Weekly Witch

The article, not penned by R. Skeeter, in The Daily Prophet said Quirrell was in Snape's room to get an elixir for his mum, Mrs. Marigold Quirrell. Harry was relieved his mum wouldn't find out about his affair through the paper. Most of the article dealt with B. Crouch, Sr.'s body that was found in his house. It's believed he was killed Christmas day by his only son. The younger Crouch claimed his father kept him under Imperius for years. Harry couldn't imagine someone committing patricide. If he hadn't fallen on his wand, Harry and Severus could have been buried in some back passageway in Hogwarts. Harry spilled his tea all over the paper while trying to drink the hot liquid.

Harry said, while having a late breakfast, "Mum, my stars say I'm dead. Sibyll, our Divination profession, says I'm shouldn't concern myself about it. 'It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves' - William Shakespeare."

"Your heart stopped." Mum took a bite of toast. "You were dead. Prophecy wouldn't take resurrection into account. I'm glad you didn't take Divination when you were younger. You wouldn't have taken it well. You always told me you were going to find a way to defeat your weak heart."

"My heart has healed completely according to Poppy. I still get nervous when I exercise too hard and I'm careful to warm up and cool down after exercise. Poppy and Pomona have given me a number of pamphlets on heart disease since I started exercising regularly so I wouldn't overdo." Harry smiled. "I try to keep the eggs down to three a week. Cholesterol can be a factor in heart disease. Poppy wants me to keep mine under 170."

"We can eat more rice, vegetables and fruit during your visit." His mum ate her eggs looking slightly guilty. "I'll look over Poppy's recommendations."

"I was concerned when Dumbledore mentioned a death toll with this contest. Thanks, Mum. I want you to know that I love you even if I don't agree with everything you say."

"I understand, son." She smiled slightly.

Harry started on his eggs. "Were you in the audience when I battled the Horntail?"

"Of course, I was. Why did Bagman call you Potter? You're Quirinus (Harry) Quirrell in newspapers and magazines."

"I asked him to because Dumbledore pulled that name from the Goblet of Fire. I'm not ashamed to be your son."

Mrs. Quirrell poured him more tea. "I know you're not."

Someone was knocking on the front door. Harry got up and kissed his mum's cheek. "Mum, I'll get the door."

Two women were at the door. One had a camera. "We're from The Weekly Witch."

The woman with the camera giggled.

The other said, "I'm Mary Collin and this is my photographer, Amy Ferris."

"Hello," said Ms Ferris.

"I get that a lot more since I had my cheek fixed," said Harry. "Please, come in. Mum, we have two more for tea."

"No need," said Ms. Collin. "We want to interview Mr. Quirrell about the Triwizard Tournament and his capture of the escaped convict, Bartemius Crouch, Jr."

Harry showed them to the sofa. "I didn't capture him. Auror Moody did."

Ms. Collin said, "You did the Disarming Spell."

Harry sat on an overstuffed chair. "I did, but Severus bound him."

"We want to know more about the man," said Collin. "Before those transcripts were released, most people believed Harry Potter died with He-who-must-not-be-named. Now the Triwizard Tournement has brought to everyone's attention that Harry Potter's soul was transferred to another body."

"You have your story," said Harry. "What do you want from me?"

"Children claim they want to be big," said Collin. "You went from twelve to twenty-seven overnight."

"I didn't realize I had an adult body until the magic holding me to my bed worn off enough for me to feel my body," said Harry. "That makes it about a day to two days later."

"What did you think?" Collin asked.

"I insisted that my name was Potter, not Quirrell. I remember telling Dumbledore that Quirinus Quirrell was quite a mouthful. I call myself Inus now. It's easier to say." Harry tried to sound as relaxed as possible.

"The school rolls have your name as Harry Potter."

"I can call myself anything I like, but I'm Quirinus Quirrell. This lovely lady gave birth to me a little over thirty years ago. I would never deny my parents." Harry relaxed into his chair.

"What was it like to know you were in another body?"

"Terrifying. I felt huge. I was small for eleven. I realise that I'm on the smaller side of the curve, but I'm a grown man. I felt these impressions on the back of my head and realised this wasn't a dream. I had been forced out of my own body and now I was in another." Harry made eye contact with Collin. "I had to accept that I was now sixteen years older and I had a weak heart. The original owner of this body died of a massive heart attack. My soul pulled the fragments of his heart together and Madame Pomfrey was able to restart my heart. I should have died when Voldemort took control of my body, but instead my soul found a freshly dead body to inhabit. It's all rather creepy."

"Do you prefer to be addressed as Potter or Quirrell?" Ferris asked.

"It depends on the circumstances. I prefer to be called Inus by my friends and associates," Harry said.

"Do you have nightmares because you should be dead?" Collin asked.

"Not that many. I'm doing an astrological chart for my divination class and, for both Harry Potter's and Quininus Quirrell's birthtimes, the signs say I'm already dead. I spoke to my professor about this and she said that magical resurrection couldn't be predicted by the stars. I feel lucky that I'm alive no matter the circumstances. I'm glad to have two living parents although I have yet to visit my father in prison. However, I have started writing him."

"Mrs. Quirrell, would you mind answering a few questions?" Ms. Collin asked as Mrs. Quirrell poured them tea.

"It depends on the question," she said.

"Do you consider this young man your son?" Ms. Collin asked.

"He is my son. I gave birth to him thirty years ago." Mrs. Quirrell had a quiet, condescending voice.

"Ma'am, does he behave as he did before the massive heart attack?"

"In many ways, he's different and many ways, he's the same. I'm proud to have him as a son," the older woman said.

"Thank you, ma'am," Collin said. "Doesn't it upset you that he doesn't remember growing up?"

"Of course, it does," said Mrs. Quirrell. "When Quirinus told me that he didn't remember being my son because he remembered being someone else's son, he was scared I would hate him or kick him out of my house, but I looked at his face and saw my son's eyes."

Harry added, "I told her that we were still flesh and blood."

"Several times, I believe," said Mrs. Quirrell. "When a child as amnesia for whatever reason, you don't kick him out. He became more like my Quirinus as the days went by. I teased him that he couldn't fight his biology."

"My mother is a saint," said Harry. "James and Lily Potter died when I was a baby, so Marigold Quirrell is the only mother I have known. If people see me as a Mama's boy, so be it."

"He only remembers the last two years, so I tell him about his childhood and we form new memories."

"You do remember your muggle aunt and uncle?" asked Collin.

"The Dursleys severely neglected young Harry. I was locked in a cupboard when I wasn't in school. Most of Harry's childhood is the sounds outside a small dark room. My day-to-day existence is based more upon relearning what the old me knew than Harry Potter's limited existence."

Ferris cringed. "A cupboard?"

"They were probably told by Dumbledore to keep me hidden. My aunt Petunia lost her sister. She was doing to best to keep her nephew safe. They hid Harry all over England to keep him from going to Hogwarts. This monster of a man took him away. When they buried his body less than a year and half later, they must have felt horribly betrayed."

"I didn't understand," said Ferris.

"She was protecting her nephew form forces she couldn't begin to understand. She kept him safe for ten years. I didn't understand why I wasn't allowed outside or to have friends, but she had good reason not to want too many people knowing of my existence," Harry said.

Collin was busy, taking notes.

"Dumbledore told her that they were hoping to get Voldemort to leave Harry's body, so Harry would have his body back, but Voldemort fled and was killed by a wild animal," Harry explained. "I can never see my aunt, again. To her, I'm the man who gave her nephew to Voldemort."

Collin changed the subject. "Our readers want to know is there a lady in your life."

Harry smiled. "Other than my mum?"

Collin said, "There must be someone."

"I'm writing a girl in Pennsylvania USA. We met at the World Quidditch Cup," Harry explained.

"Our readers will be disappointed," said Collin.

The rest of the question centred on the incident with Barty Crouch, Jr. and Harry was careful to leave out the part with both Severus and he been naked at the time of the attack.

"Barty Crouch said you were undressed under veritaserum," Ms. Collin said.

"Please, show respect to my son and his friend," Mrs. Quirrell said.

"I'll write that your son was visiting the professor to fetch a potion, nothing more," Ms. Collin said.

"Thank you," Mrs. Quirrell said.

The photographer took pictures of Harry with his mother and the reporter and photographer left.

"Son, when were you going to tell me that you're having relations with another man?"

"I was going to feel out the subject before I told you. It isn't something that you should be told by a third party." Harry sipped his tea.

"No, it isn't." Mrs. Quirrell sat on the overstuffed chair opposite him.

"I like him. We were both lonely and it was something that happened. He feels less lonely when I'm with him. He feels able to talk about his experiences for the first time in his life. He doesn't feel as ashamed near me. He told me things that he never told another living soul. I didn't mean for it to happen. He was treating me rudely in his class so I thought he might prefer to tutor me privately."

"So he's tutoring you in more than potions."

"Mum, I didn't want this to come out like this."

"What does he mean to you?"

"I don't know. He mentioned when I return to teaching that we could share a flat and I felt uneasy. I like having someone that listens to me, but I don't want that type of commitment."

xxxx

Harry walked over to the sofa, sat down and showed his mum the letter. "The last letter I received was this."

Frank wrote him about once a month since Harry got the address from his mother. The wizard news in Germany must have printed the transcripts because Frank wrote:

Inus,

You aren't my son. Please, stop writing me.

Frank Quirrell

Instead of sending a Christmas card.

Mrs. Quirrell put the letter in her handbag. "We're going to Germany. Once he sees you, he won't be able to deny you."

"I have to be back in school."

"You can be late. The next task isn't until 24 February, and you aren't required to take the end of year tests."

At breakfast, Mrs. Quirrell decided to return to their conversation about Barty, Jr. "Why did he attack you and Severus?"

"He was at the Yule Ball as his father. Severus was guarding the door because he didn't want to see me dance with someone else. Barty Jr. used a cloak of invisibility to enter Severus's chambers when the portrait allowed me to enter," Harry explained.

"You had no idea that someone followed you in." Mrs. Quirrell poured more tea.

"Not at all. I was talking to the busy body portrait. He must have been taken by surprise when Severus started to touch me. I thought I heard someone breathing, but there was no one there. Anyway, Severus knocked me on the floor while he was fighting off imperius. If I wasn't there, Barty would have killed Severus and then gone on to kill me and Karkaroff."

"Why you three?" His mum sipped her tea.

Harry wiped his mouth after finishing his toast and jam. "He believed we betrayed the Dark Lord. Severus and Karkaroff found protection in the wards of their respective schools and I had managed to get out of serving time due to my amnesia. He probably felt that we were responsible for the Dark Lord's death." Harry sipped his tea.

"I'm glad that you were able to disarm him before he killed anyone else."

"Severus was still fighting the effect of imperius when he pushed me on the floor. He wasn't thinking about me grabbing my wand. His only thought was pushing me out of the way of Barty's wand to buy a few seconds." Harry looked at his mum. "I didn't think only reacted. We were lucky."

"You have to invite Severus over one weekend."

"Mum, he's afraid to leave the castle for any reason. He betrayed the Dark Lord and there are many that would like to see him dead. He tells me that I would be afraid if I wasn't so naive."

"Do you love him?"

"I don't know what love is. I don't know if I'm thirty, fourteen or two." Quirinus Quirrell would have been thirty. Harry Potter would have been fourteen, but Inus (Harry) Quirrell, the composite, was two and a half. "A lot of the time I feel like I"m playing grown-up and somebody is going to see the frightened child inside of me."

"You don't talk like a child."

"And after my heart attack?"

"You spoke like a frightened little boy. Inus, you've grown up the last two years. I would like to have grandchildren, but I'll support your decision. It isn't like I expected you to live long enough to give me grandchildren. When you have a sickly child, each day is a gift." His mum put a light hand on his back.

"Severus feels like a surrogate parent to his charges. I'm sure that if I continue to teach that I'll feel like they're all my children. The only thing that I know is that I'm meant to teach. The first day I was in front of the podium it felt natural to be there."

"I'm glad for you."

"Remus said that I was given this gift because I'm needed. I'm certain that my place is teaching."

"Your father will see the kind of man that you grown into and acknowledge you. Are you ready to portkey?"

"I need to find a warm cloak." Harry felt like he was about to stutter due to his nerves about seeing the man that provided half his genes.