"You knew Awce Abernathy?" Dean asked, his heart pumping loudly.
"Of course. He was my friend, and a very gifted wizard too. I'm sorry about his murder ten years ago."
"Murder?" Mrs. Thomas and Dean said together. (Mrs. Thomas arrived just in time to hear her first husband's name)
"He was my husband," said Mrs. Thomas faintly, "was he a wizard, then?"
Michael Finnegan invited the Thomas family for an ice-cream at Flourean's and they sat down to talk about Dean's father.
Dean discovered that his biological dad was a real hero. He had never really abandoned his wife and baby son, he just didn't want them to be involved in the horrors of the wizarding world at that time. Voldemort, the most evil wizard of all time, wanted Awce to become a Death Eater in his service. So he left his beloved Muggle family, trying to escape 'you-know-who' and was murdered before the year was over.
"what about now, though, where is, er- you-know-who now?" asked Dean's stepdad.
"No one knows, really. Some say he's dead; but most believe that he is still out there, but powerless."
"How?" asked Mrs. Thomas, "I mean to say, if he was so powerful, what happened to all of his power?
"Oh, that everyone knows, the story doesn't make much sense; it's very unbelievable, but it's the truth.
"During the time that he killed your father, he was also looking to recruit another two wizards to his Death Eater ranks. Their names were James and Lily Potter; husband and wife. They were very powerful themselves - they were able to escape you-know-who three times! Not too many wizards can say they did that. Anyone who he wanted to kill had no chance.
"But one day, you-know-who went to their house, attacking the Potters for the fourth time, and he was successful in killing them, too. Maybe it was because they were new parents by then, and that made them a bit weaker, or maybe he really was much more powerful than them and they were just lucky to escape him in the past. I don't know because I never knew them personally.
"But after he who must not be named killed the couple, he tried to kill their baby, and that's when he disappeared. He couldn't kill that little baby."
Mr. And Mrs. Thomas were sitting very still, dazed by the story.
Dean, however, had a few questions, "how can anyone know that this is what really happened? Was anyone there to witness? And you say the baby was not killed. If so, where is he now? How do you know that he-who-must-not-be-named tried to kill the baby, maybe he was destroyed by killing those two wizards?"
"Well, first of all, you-know-who made himself very known when he was strong. Suddenly, he kills two very strong wizards, destroys their house, and disappears? Why? The only explanation could be that he lost his powers. And how we know that he tried to kill the baby, the baby has a scar on his forehead, right where you-know-who aimed his killing curse. No one has ever survived a curse like that. The boy is living by his relatives now, but he is the most famous boy that ever lived. There isn't a child who doesn't know Harry Potter!"
Dean chuckled derisively. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Famous, you say?" provoked Dean, "most famous that ever lived? Why then have I never heard of him?"
"You've never heard of you-know-who either, nor of anything in the wizarding world. You see, Muggles don't know anything about our world, and Wizards know nothing of the Muggle world." Seamus said, piping up.
Dean leaned back in his chair with a long sigh of realization. It finally made sense why noone heard of Dean Thomas in this strange world. Here he was nothing but a boy; nothing but a plain, ordinary, eleven-year-old boy. Nothing more. Here in the wizarding world, it was Harry Potter that everyone knew. Dean Thomas was nothing.