Chapter 3

The setting sun seemed to carry the sorrows of the world along with it. Minerva took her mokeskin pouch and pulled out treacle tart that had been freshly prepared by the kitchen elves.

The thing with mokeskin pouches is that they had a limit on how long they could hold things. They were quite fragile in the sense that dropping the pouch might not harm the things inside them but coming in contact with spellfire definitely did. As with all things magical, the effects lasted until the magic lasted. The charmwork on these pouches was a work of inspiration but the quality of the pouches themselves depended on the cost. You could buy a mokeskin pouch worth 20 galleons, like Minerva had done. It provided a volume of 3 cubic metres and the charm work would last for ten years before it needed to be replenished. It also came with one free replenishment on the charmwork at the end of ten years.

Harry seemed to be suspicious of the tart until she broke off a piece and put into into her mouth.

"The thing with stasis charms Mr. Potter is that they maintain whatever you charm exactly as they were when you charmed them. For as long as the charm holds at least."

"Thank you ma'am. It does taste fresh. Would it retain temperature too? And call me Harry ma'am."

"Yes it does Harry. Now let's get on with your questions shall we."

"Firstly what am I ma'am?"

"You're a wizard, Harry. Wizards are what the male part of the magical community of Britain. In the 1600s, when the people were still incredibly foolish, they went on a hunt for witches and wizards because their existence and their magic was against the religion and church of that time. It was then decided that the magical community would go into hiding to preserve itself and it's ways. There are still things that trickle down Harry which is why things like werewolves and vampires or alchemy remain in the collective memory. But keep in mind Harry that magic is generally prohibited when amongst muggles"

"As to how I know you're a wizard, it's because your parents were wizards too. Two of the best ones. James Potter your father was a mischievous boy when he came to Hogwarts. He grew into his own during his seven years at Hogwarts and was one of my best students. He was a genius at transfiguration which is the art of changing the form of things. Your mother, Lily Evans was the brightest witch of her time. She was excellent at charms and potions and was a very kind woman. You look incredibly like you father Harry but you have your mother's eyes."

She watched as the boy digested the information slowly wiping off the tears that had started flowing.

"I don't know what to say ma'am. I'd been told that they were worthless drunks who'd gotten themselves killed in a car crash"

"Far from it Harry. They were instrumental in defeating one of the greatest dark lords that magical Britain has seen in the past few years. Your father served as an auror. An auror is part of the law enforcement. He was good at it too. We do not know why Harry but the dark lord went after you. He was involved in killing a lot of children your age but he personally came after your family. Your grandparents had passed away due to dragon pox and your family was in hiding. He broke through your family's defenses and attacked them. We do not know what happened that night Harry. The only one who came out alive of that encounter was you and you were but a baby. James and Lily had been killed but you survived and did something impossible that night Harry. You survived something called the 'killing curse'. I think your mother might've done something to protect you that night."

The tears were flowing freely now. She reached over and embraced the boy in a hug noticing how he flinched at the contact.

"Who was this dark lord ma'am?"

"The thing with this dark lord is that at the height of his reign of terror, he invoked a taboo in his name. Whenever or wherever his name was uttered, his followers used to go and kill those people. Even to this day people are afraid to say his name Harry and refer to him with monikers like 'you-know-who' or 'He who must not be named' but he used to go by the name of 'Lord Voldemort'. The thing is that Voldemort in his quest for blood purity ensured that magical Britain is at it's least capacity in the last few hundred years. As to what blood purity means, it refers to having magical ancestry on either side of your family. Pure-bloods are those who can claim such a thing. Half-bloods are those who have magical ancestry on one side of their family like you and muggleborns are those who are born to muggles or the non-magical folk. Your father belonged the 'Potter' family while your mother was a muggleborn. Voldemort waged his war to rid the community of the muggleborn."

Knowing that she had his attention she continued, "But the thing is Harry, do not be ever disillusioned by what he did. He was a vile man with a hunger for power that hasn't been seen in centuries. That the magical community had fault lines he could exploit is the fault of the community itself. He was just a clever man who could see the opportunity and took it. There were more than 200 pure-blooded families in Britain before his reign Harry and today there are close to 50. The night that he died was a celebration in Britain like never before. That it came at the cost of your childhood is the greatest tragedy."

"I know it has been a difficult ten years for you Harry but I'd like to know how bad it has been. I know it will be difficult for you to share but remember that you are not alone anymore."

"I don't remember much from my earlier days. I know they've beaten and starved me and insulted me but I haven't ever let them see the satisfaction of seeing me crying. I suppose it has toned down since the past two years but that is because I grew stronger. Nowadays he doesn't beat me for all insignificant things like he used to do when I was younger."

"I'll try my best to get you away from here Harry. We'll have to meet with Headmaster Dumbledore. He'll be able to do something. When Voldemort died, the situation in the magical community went from bad to worse. Your relatives were the only ones left and regardless of how much I didn't want you to be placed here, you ended up here. I know you might hate us and I wouldn't begrudge you of that but we made a hard decision in a tough time. We aren't proud of it though. While we regret that your aunt and uncle turned out to be the worst sort of muggles, we don't regret the decision because the war didn't end with the death of Voldemort himself. Once he died, many of his followers got away scot-free because our legal system is not up to the mark and they had a lot of influence and money."

"I don't like it ma'am. I don't like that the society was responsible for a dark lord. I don't like that the dark lord killed my parents and I don't like having to suffer the Dursleys. But I can understand it ma'am. No matter how much I hate what happened to me, I can understand why it did. And thank you for telling me this. I don't like being treated as a child anymore ma'am. Not after the Dursleys"

"I understand Harry. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive us someday. You don't need to worry about your fees at Hogwarts. While scholarships are available, they are only for muggleborns because their currency is weaker than ours. Also because you come from the Potter family, your fees for all the seven years have been paid in full. Yours may not be the richest family Harry but they were definitely rich enough to afford a luxurious life even if they didn't work a day"

"It has been getting late Harry. The charms I put on your relatives must be weakening. Don't worry about them anymore. You might only have to stay here for a few more days and they wouldn't dare do anything to you anymore. I'll be back tomorrow and we might be able to get you your first experience of the magical world."

AN: I think I'll end it here. I just don't like to think of Dumbledore as this mastermind evil villain. His motives make no sense. He'd offed himself before Harry confronted Voldemort so it wasn't like he wanted to save the wizarding world again. He was Flamel's apprentice, Grindelwald's defeater, chief of wizengamot, head of ICW and also a headmaster of one of the oldest and most reputed magical institutions. It doesn't make sense that he harmed Harry so much when he could have done anything else. I'm not saying that I hate Dumbledore or that I'll bash him. I just don't think his character made sense. I'll probably not bash anyone in this story.

My aim is to keep it as realistic as possible while exploring the world of magic more than the characters. That is not to say that the characters are not going to be the focus of the story. I'll just have them explore the world of magic that JKR gave us instead.

Also thank you for all the favs and follows. I hope you leave your reviews so that I can improve my writing.