Still, however hard Harry tried to get rid of the thought of his father bullying other children, images of his own experiences with Dudley and his gang taunted his mind's eye, with James as Dudley and Severus as himself. Had his father been that cruel? What about his mother, then?
It hurt very much when the carefully-built, cherished images of one's parents were shattered by the careless blow of reality.
It was worse to him presently, as neither of the twins sought to alleviate even a little bit of that pain. They huddled stoically around him, indifferently acknowledging his presence. It made him want to hurt them a little, just to coax out a reaction, more than what he had gained before.
No, it was wrong; just… wrong. Besides, the searchers seemed to be zoning in on their hideout at last. They did not have much time left. He must not act on his impulse if he wanted answers.
`Can you tell me about my parents, please?`
Ana frowned in thought. Ardila's calm countenance did not change one bit, though.
All the same, unexpectedly, it was Ardila who finally spoke. `James Augustus Potter was our father's godson, born from middle-aged parents. He was Severus' yearmate at Hogwarts, and one of the most popular students there. He was in Gryffindor House, a head boy in his last year, and he loved pranking people – especially those of Slytherin House. Severus, your mother's best friend at that time, was his gang's chief target.`
The icy feeling in Harry's belly solidified. Would James have turned away from bullying his schoolmates, if he had known that his son would suffer the same fate from his cousin years later?
He felt sick, but knew that he could do nothing about it. It was the past, and James was still his father. Besides, he had only gotten one half of the story; he had to know the other, however reluctant he was to get any more dejected and disappointed. `How about my mother?`
This time, Ana spoke up. `We know little of her, and Sev doesn't want to talk about her too much. She's a Muggleborn, enrolled at Hogwarts in the same year as James and Sev. She'd known Sev since some time before school and they'd been best friends since then. She's in Gryffindor while Sev's in Slytherin, but that didn't deter them. Well, until their fifth year that is. He called her a Mudblood one time and she broke up their friendship. To my knowledge, she'd never forgiven him till her death despite his many attempts to apologise.`
Harry bit his lip hard, refraining from lashing out mentally at his surroundings to alleviate some of his pain. But otherwise, he could not care less about anything. Unbidden, tears prickled at the insides of his tightly-shut eyes. His father had been a gangster bully and his mother had been a stuck-up goody-two-shoes. Why could they not have been just normal, good people with normal, bland characters?