Chapter Two: The Line of Evans
He stood there, stunned, not believing what the man had to say. This, this Richard, he couldn't possibly be his mother's brother. He couldn't be a relative of Harry's. There was no human way; all Harry's relatives were dead, save his aunt and uncle upstairs, and his unusually fat cousin snoring the morning away. No, it couldn't be…
"But… wait," Harry said, "you couldn't… no, it's not… its not possible… the only relatives I have are upstairs now…"
"Ah, but that's where you are mistaken and wrong," Richard said. "When your parents died, I was the last one left in the Evans family. Everyone else had been killed off or had disappeared by Voldemort's doing. But I was left, and I knew he was after me next, so I hid. No one else knew I was even alive, not even Dumbledore, but when I get to Hogwarts, I'll be sure to tell him I'm not dead as they suspected," he added thoughtfully, looking skywards.
"But, how does that explain…?" Harry started.
"The explosion? Ah, that is where my plan came crashing down. Let me start from the beginning. If you have the time, please listen and listen good.
"It all started when my family all started dying. One by one, we were dying off. My mother, your grandmother, died from a supposed heart attack, but we didn't believe so. We thought it to be a murder. But the Healers said otherwise, and so we had a funeral for her. Not that much later, our father died. He was an old man and supposedly broke his hip while walking down a steep flight of stairs one day. But we knew he was as healthy as a horse and had walked those steps many times. There had to be a murdered linked to it. But, we kept going, keeping our suspicious minds at a low.
It was almost a year before anything else bad happened to our family. Then, Lily met James. Oh, how she loathed him, yet loved him. It was like a rival between the two at every second of the day. But when she got home, she would drift off to her room, pull out her journal, and write for hours on end. That, we knew, was love.
But then our aunt died. It was so devastating for Lily. She was connected to her in a way I still have never figured out. But after her death, we both decided to investigate the deaths of our family members. That was when Lily was out of school. I still had some schooling left, but I decided to skip. And so the hunt was on to find out who was responsible for the family attacks. James, naturally, helped us, but no one else found out about our searchings. It seemed like forever without any luck on who the killer was. We almost gave up… almost.
Then, when our hopes were at the end of the line, and we were just thinking about settling back down, hoping that the person would stop killing our family off, which consisted of me and Lily, James found a vital clue. It led us straight to who it was, and… well, as you guessed, it was Lord Voldemort. We didn't know why, but we just knew it was him. James went straight to Dumbledore with the news and he put an extensive spell on the Potters; Lily and James were married already. The charm, which kept the two under lock and key and undetectable by anyone, was set, and the Secret-Keeper needed to be found. I, naturally, volunteered, but they figured since Voldemort was after me too that I shouldn't be allowed to take the job. So Sirius took the job, but was the one who betrayed us all. The slimeb…"
"Actually, Sirius never did betray my parents. It was Peter Pettigrew," Harry corrected simply, then shut up for the rest of the story.
"Oh, yes, thank you. So he got the job and betrayed us all. He killed your parents and was going to kill you, but never did. Since you and I are the last remaining decendants of the Evans line, he's after us. And that explosion you heard outside, that was Voldemort."
Harry was utterly shocked. How could this be? Why was Voldemort after the Evans family? How could he get here? And how did this man, Harry's uncle, survive?
"How did you survive?" Harry sputtered out.
"I went into hiding after Voldemort was vanquished. I knew that his Death Eaters would be after me, so I left the country, pretended I was a Muggle, and lived under an alias name. I changed my image entirely, and now here I am. Of course he knows what I look like now, but I'm just so fortunate to make it back here alive."
Harry understood, but really didn't grasp the concept of why Voldemort was after them of all people. He could understand himself, yes, but why his mother? The sun was fully risen by the time they had finished. Aunt Petunia was heard cooking up the usual breakfast, and the TV in the kitchen could be heard. Wait, it could be heard…?
"The charm is wearing off, so our chat is over," Richard said. He stood up, offered a hand to Harry, and pulled him up. "If you don't mind, I really must be going. I'll change quick."
He flicked his wand to his head, and his appearance changed before Harry's eyes. Instead of long blonde hair, it changed to short cut bristly red hair. His eyes turned green and his nose grew to a large size. He shrunk to about five foot six and his clothing became casual, as though he had slept in it. A green robe appeared and he fit it on. Seeing the look on Harry's eyes, he added, "Don't worry, this is just an alias look. The first look were my real features." And with that, he Apparated.
Harry stood there, perplexed, and then darted out of the room. He ran upstairs, surprised his uncle wasn't bombarding him with questions about the stranger. Dodging into his room and closing the door, he quickly grabbed some parchment and started writing, smudging in many spots. He wrote:
Dear Remus,
I hope you're having a somewhat enjoyable summer. It's going okay here. I just have one thing to discuss with you. I just want to know if my mother ever had a brother. If she did, what was his name? And did he die?
Sorry to bother you,
Harry
Yes, that sounded good, somewhat urgent, and right down to the point. But somehow, it seemed too short. So he added:
P.S. Say hi to Buckbeak for me, and give him a big hug.
With that, he stood up and woke Hedwig up. She looked somewhat disgruntled, but perked up when she saw the letter in Harry's hand. "Now Hedwig," he said as he tied the letter to her leg, "send this to Remus Lupin. And please, make it quick."
She nodded and gave him an affectionate nibble on the finger. Then, without warning, she took off, soaring over the rooftops. He watched her off into the horizon, then turned to collapse on his bed. He fell, and without another word spoken, he fell into another sleep.
