Chapter 3: Shadow of a Memory

As James tried to forget his youngest son, Harry eventually accepted in his young mind that, for whatever reason, his father wasn't coming back. Tory did his best to keep the child contented but Harry soon grew restless and Tory found him out wandering the halls on numerous occasions.

After a close call with James, Tory finally cast the house elf versions disillusionment and silencing charms on the toddler so that, should he happen to come across his father on one of his wanderings, he would not disturb him and James would not be any wiser of it.

Tory would bring Harry his meals (two a day in the house elf fashion), bathe him, and put him to bed, but other than that, had little to do with the child. In assigning him Harry, James had neglected to relieve the elf of his other household duties and the overseeing house elf would not take an extra assignment as an excuse to shirk his other work. Thus Tory was kept incredibly busy and had little time to spend with the younger Potter twin. Not that he minded. While he was happy to serve the Potter household till his dying breath, Tory did not see taking care of a human child as a typical house elf duty and went about it as begrudgingly as a house elf is capable of obeying an order.

Harry meanwhile, took to following his father around the house whenever he could. Disillusioned and silenced, he was never noticed, but he followed nevertheless, naively hoping that his father would somehow sense his presence, forgive him of whatever wrong he must have done, and take him back in as his son with Aaron. If James did sense his presence however, he didn't let on. And so Harry followed him around the house, trying desperately to keep up on his short toddler legs as James strode swiftly from room to room, watching longingly as James spent time playing with Aaron, and listening on as James praised his elder son for taking his first steps.

After a few weeks of this torture, Harry finally began to give up on his father, realizing that he had been forgotten. He could not understand why James had abandoned him and he thought through all of the possible reasons trying to find a viable answer. He finally came to the conclusion that he must not be good enough for his father's love and that Aaron was somehow better than himself. How exactly, he didn't know, but that was the only explanation that made sense.

Suddenly, everything clicked in his small mind and he realized that if he had been abandoned because he was not good enough, he would be accepted back once he became so. Now the question was: good enough at what? He had been able to walk and talk long before Aaron so that couldn't be it. It was not until a few days later that he received his answer.

Harry had been down in the living room spying on his father again, hoping against all hope to be noticed when there was a knock on the door. James went to answer it and came back accompanied by an old man with a long, white beard that Harry barely remembered. After brewing another mug of tea, James sat down across from the man, (Albus, he called him), and the two settled down to talk.

The man, 'Albus', got right down to business: "You must understand, James, that the boy is in no immediate danger from Voldemort but the power it must have taken an infant to defeat a Dark Lord must have been immensely great. If Aaron has such great power, it is to be expected that he will differ from his peers in certain things."

"What things exactly?" James asked, slightly nervous.

"Oh, nothing terrible my boy, not at all," Albus chuckled. Harry noticed that his long beard dipped down and up as he laughed. "We just need to be prepared for some early bursts of accidental magic and, given Aaron's suspected power, they might be a bit stronger than your average bursts of accidental magic. Nothing too serious but if you wouldn't mind me examining the boy?"

"He's asleep at the moment..." James started.

"Oh not to worry my boy, I won't wake him. I just need to run a few scans to see that his magic is replenishing itself and that the dark magic I detected earlier around his scar has dissipated."

James however, seemed to take that as a definite reason to worry and said as much: "Dark magic around his scar? Albus, is my son alright?"

"Like I said, I just need to run a few scans. I'm sure the boy is fine. With such power as he possesses, his magic is bound to have pushed away the residue by now," Albus replied.

Consenting, James led the old man upstairs, Harry following curiously behind. Tiptoeing into the sleeping Aaron's room, Albus smiled softly at the peaceful expression on the infant's face and the trail of drool slowly making its way down his cheek. Lifting his wand, he murmured a spell and, after a few minutes, smiled, satisfied. He mouthed "all clear" to a worried looking James and stroked Aaron's hair down a few times before heading to the door where Harry quickly scrambled out of the way so as to avoid being caught spying.

Harry followed them to the door and managed to hear the last bit of their hushed conversation. To his surprise, it was actually about him!

"-shouldn't let the boys get too close to each other. Keep them separate. For the boy's own good of course. There is a good chance that Aaron will be targeted and we wouldn't want the child to be too affected by the loss of his brother. Also, Aaron will need to have special treatment and advanced training and we don't want young Harry growing jealous do we my boy," Albus was saying as James walked him out.

James mumbled his agreement and watched as the old man turned on the spot and vanished.

Harry returned back to his room thinking hard about the things he had overheard. So Aaron was special! He knew it. It must be because of his great magical power. Well there's that problem solved. All Harry had to do was become as good at magic as Aaron clearly was and his father would welcome him back with open arms! He quickly began formulating a plan in his mind as to how to go about becoming as powerful as Aaron.