Chapter Four

As J.P followed the man in the headache-inducing robes, he wondered what kind of group this was. It was obvious that the man named Albus Dumbledore was in charge, at least of those currently present, and that there were more members of this group than were here. J.P. had not yet seen the two men who captured him, and he assumed that they were not the only ones absent.

The rather odd-looking procession ended when they reached a large kitchen. Dumbledore motioned for him to sit down at the table and J.P. complied.

"Now then. Where to start…" Dumbledore mused.

"The beginning is generally a good place," J.P. quipped.

"Yes, yes, of course. Splendid idea, my boy!"

There was a brief silence that quickly became uncomfortable.

"So…" J.P. let his voice trail off questioningly.

"Yes, indeed," the old man began. "Well, I suppose the first thing you should know is that you are a wizard."

"A…wizard." J.P. repeated flatly.

"Yes. As are all of us. Well, Madame Pomfrey is actually a witch, but I'm sure you get the point."

"Okay, just for the sake of argument, I'll accept that for now. I will be asking for proof later on though. But for now, just continue with your tale, if you please," J.P. said politely.

'I may as well humor the batty old man, it might make for an entertaining hour rather than a boring one,' J.P. thought.

"Well then, to continue, you are a wizard and magic is real. If you really are Harry James Potter, then we have been looking for you for a very long time. You see, I knew, we all knew, your parents."

"I assume you mean my birth parents? Because my father is alive and well."

"Yes, we knew James and Lily Potter. They were both very talented. They were killed when you were fifteen months old. You were placed with your closest living relatives, Lily's sister and her husband."

At that bit of news, J.P. snorted in disgust. "You mean Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia? What kind of idiot would leave a child with those horrible people?" He shook his head. "Do you want to know how I came to be adopted? My adopted father saw Vernon beating me in an alley and stopped him. After everything was said and done, Vernon and his family had been thrown out of the country, and I had been adopted and granted citizenship in the U.S." J.P. sighed. "All of that happened when I was seven years old. I never did understand why they hated me so much…" As his voice trailed off into contemplative silence, J.P. saw that Dumbledore appeared to be very sad about something. "Anyway, please, continue with your story," J.P. briskly said.

And so, Dumbledore proceeded to explain to J.P. all about Voldemort and the prophecy, the betrayal of the Potters by one of their closest friends, and the eventual discovery that Sirius Black was, in fact, innocent. As he sat there and listened, J.P. couldn't help but start to believe what was said. He began to recall the times that odd things would happen around him, and when Dumbledore mentioned being the headmaster of Hogwarts, J.P. remembered what he and his dad had thought was a prank letter that he had received on his eleventh birthday.

Sooner than J.P. thought, the hour was up, and he had a choice to make. Should he stay and learn more about the wizarding world? Or should he ignore what he had already heard and witnessed, and return to his life as a normal marine? Could there possibly be a way for him to balance the two? His thoughts kept whirling around and around, faster and faster, until he could barely keep up.

Leaning over and putting his head in his hands, J.P. begged, "No more! Please, I just need some time to process all of this!" Abruptly standing, he made his way to the front door. "Please, just take me back to someplace I recognize, and leave me. I need some time alone, and if I decide to pursue this new life you're talking about I will need to make some arrangements. Give me a way to get in touch with you, and I'll let you know what I decide, but for now, I really have to leave."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding, and handed him a paperclip. "This is a portkey; it's tied to my magical signature, so anything touching it when it is activated will be carried directly to me. Just write a note whenever you're ready, clip it to this portkey, and say: 'decision made.' It will also bring you if you are touching it, so be careful."

J.P. took the portkey paperclip and nodded his understanding. "Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get going."

"Alright my boy. Here's another portkey, it will take you directly to your hotel room. Don't hesitate to contact me for any reason. I hope I will see you soon!"

With a last glance at the headmaster's twinkling gaze, J.P. portkeyed away from his new-found world of the fantastic, and back to the familiar world of the mundane.