Chapter twenty one

'Didn't you ever notice that other kids had cakes Harry?' Charlie asked.

'You know what my life was like babe, I had too much on my mind to worry about what else was going on.'

'You called him babe, why?' Evan asked.

'We're married, Charlie is my partner, husband if you like.'

'Oh, a gay couple, I've seen tv shows about them. You both seem nice though.'

'Thanks, and we are nice men,' Charlie smiled.

'There is more we have to tell you Evan, something that will probably shock you and maybe even upset you, we are sorry if this does upset you,' Minerva nodded to the woman.

'Your father and I were always going to tell you and your sister when you got older, but you need to know now. Just know that we both love you very much, nothing will change that.'

'I know mum, I love you too,' Evan shrugged.

'Because of an accident when I was a young girl, I was never able to have children. You're father and I wanted to have lots of kids, but we couldn't. So we decided to adopt, you know what that is don't you?'

'Adopt, yeah,' Evan stared up at his mother, 'So even though you're my mum, you're not my real mum.'

'Yes, that's right. But I've raised you since you were a couple of weeks old, so to me you are my son, your father feels the same.'

'Oh, okay, well you still look the same to me.'

'Everything will always be the same,' the woman smiled and kissed her son's cheek.

'Mum,' Evan screwed his face up and wiped his cheek making Harry and Charlie laugh, 'Why are you telling me now when you said you weren't going to until I was older?'

'I think I should explain,' Harry said and his relaxed his face, 'You noticed we look alike, that's because I'm your father. Now I only found out yesterday, I didn't know anything about you Evan until your biological mother told me when I took her to court. So I wanted to find you, get to know you and see if you were looked after. I explained to your mum that if you were looked after and loved I would leave you with them. All I want to do is get to know you and I hope you want to get to know me. But there's more to this as well.'

'So you didn't just give me away?'

'No, I would never do that, I didn't know. Ginny, that's your mother's name, she was angry with me and left. None of us knew where she went or why. I found out a couple of days ago that she got pregnant to me. While we were in court yesterday she told me that she gave you up for adoption. So Profession McGonagall and my boss worked out who you were so I could come and see you.'

Evan stared at Harry then got up and stepped in front of him, 'You seem nice, so that's the truth, you didn't know but would have kept me if you knew? I hate it when people lie.'

'Oh he's like you Harry,' Charlie shook his head then saw Evan look at him, 'Harry won't lie, he hates it. Sometimes in his job he does need to, but doesn't like to. Some of us think he's too honest at times, but that's Harry.'

'I don't lie, do I mum.'

'No, you don't sweetheart.'

'What's this,' Evan touched Harry's forehead, 'It's shaped like lightning.'

'I got this when my parents died, I was just over a year old.'

'Were you adopted too?'

'Sort of, I lived with my mother's sister and her husband. They weren't very nice people and they didn't like me because they didn't like magic and they knew I was a wizard. That's why I wanted to make sure you lived in a good and loving home or I would have taken you to live with me. But I can tell your mum loves you and you love her, you have a very nice home and you look like you've been well cared for. I wasn't and people could tell, I was small for my age, very skinny and wore old oversized clothes that belonged to my cousin.'

'So since you know mum loves me, you won't take me away because I don't want to leave them.'

'No, I won't take you away, but I would like to get to know you Evan. Charlie is your uncle as well, Ginny is his sister. You have lots of cousins, uncles and aunts, grandparents, there Charlie's parents. I would like to get to know my son but since I do know you love your adoptive parents, you don't have to call me dad or anything, you can call me Harry.'

'It'd be strange saying dad when I have a dad. But I want to know you and my cousins. Charlie looks nice, big though and has lots of scars. Do you get into fights?'

'No, I don't fight, these are caused by my job. Now as a child raised in the non-magical world you would have heard of these creatures but think they aren't real, but they are. I work with dragons Evan, great big dragons and occasionally I get burned.'

'You mean they breath fire, do they fly?' his eyes wide with excitement.

Harry and Charlie laughed, 'Yes, they fly and Harry has actually flown on the back of one.'

'Wow, can I see one?'

'We can work out for you to visit where Charlie works, I go occasionally to watch Charlie work with the dragons. You just have to remember to do what Charlie says, because it is dangerous and you have to stay right back out of the way.'

'I can do that,' Evan smiled, 'So if Charlie works with dragons, what do you do?'

'I'm what you call an auror, in a month's time I'm about to be the head auror or boss. My old boss is going to Hogwarts to become a teacher, one of your teachers. Now what an auror is, well, it's like your police, but a lot more so. Aurors go after the worse dark witches and wizards there are. It's a dangerous job, but we are highly trained.'

'Harry is one of the best aurors there has ever been, that's why he's about to be boss, he's very good at his job.' Charlie said.

'Okay, I think you should explain Harry,' Minerva said.

'Yeah, sorry Minerva, he reminds me so much of me at that age, excited. Okay Evan, see since I took your mother to court yesterday, people are going to know that you're my son. Now I should explain why that is. Years ago our war finished, a war that the magical world had been fighting for a long time. There was this very evil and cruel wizard called Voldemort. He wanted to rule our world and then the non-magical world and he was winning. People like Professor McGonagall had been fighting him from before I was born, a lot of people were trying to stop him. Just after I was a year old he wanted to kill me, he ended up killing my parents but that's when I got this scar. He disappeared, everyone thought he died, but my old headmaster, Professor Dumbledore knew he didn't die and knew he would come back, he did when I was fourteen and again he tried to kill me. Not long before I turned eighteen there was an all our fight at Hogwarts, all our side and all his side, we won with me killing him. So I'm very famous in our world, I was given a name, the saviour of the wizarding world. I hate all the attention I get but I have learned to live with it.'

'Harry is very well respected in our world, people love him. So whenever anything happens in his life, it usually ends up in our papers or magazines and he always gets photographed,' Minerva pulled out a magazine from her robes, 'This one is fairly new, as you can see, Harry is on the cover,' she handed the magazine to Evan.

Everyone watched Evan stare at the magazine before opening it, 'It mentions you're promotion to head auror and head auror Shacklebolt is going to teach defence against the dark arts at Hogwarts, but they haven't got a picture of him.'

'No, even though he is well known, he's not famous like Harry. Just after Harry and Charlie got together as a couple there were pictures of both of them in every paper and magazine every day, you couldn't pick a paper up without seeing their faces staring back at you. Do you understand now why you're mother had to tell you about being adopted?' Minerva asked.

'Because I look like him and people will know. Does that mean they will take my picture?'

'Yes, they probably will, but I'll keep them away from you as much as I can.'

'Okay, but one thing I don't understand.'

'Asked and I'll try to answer.' Harry smiled.

'If you're gay, how come you had sex with Charlie's sister, she's a girl?'

'I was waiting for that,' Charlie shrugged.

'When I was fifteen I was in love I with another man, but he died by one of Voldemort's main people. It scared me so much that I didn't want to love again. Ginny had liked me for a long time, so I thought I'd give her what she wanted, me, but because of the war, I thought I would die, so I also thought Ginny could have some happy memories of me after I was gone. When the war finished, I wasn't the same, I was having trouble living with my memories, of the man that died. Sorry to say but I was hard, I was cold, especially to Ginny, not cruel just not very attentive, but yes, we did have sex, even for a gay man we can have sex with woman, we just don't like to. You'll learn more about that when you're older though. Anyway, eventually she couldn't take it anymore, me not showing her any attention so she broke up with me. At the time she was pregnant with you but she didn't know, but when she did find out she left. She was only seventeen, alone and frightened, I thought I hated her for a while, but last night Charlie and I talked a lot and I realised that a lot of her problems and my problems were caused by me. I hurt Ginny very much and she was young and confused, so I don't hate her. She's a very nice woman who is actually well known in our world, she's a famous quidditch player, that's our sport. I'll explain that more to you another time.'

'You'll have to Harry, Evan could be like you and Ginny, both great quidditch players. You were offered to join a few teams to play professionally, so Evan will probably be a natural like you were,' Charlie said.

'Yeah, he probably will but I can teach him at home, there's enough land around the house to do that.'

'Okay Evan, in a month's time you will receive your letters explaining what you need to buy for Hogwarts. Now you'll receive this letter by an owl, that's how we send our mail, we use owls.'

'I'll buy you your own owl so you can write to friends you'll meet at Hogwarts, and hopefully write to me. Charlie and I have an owl, most magical people do.'

'All this is just so incredible and I want to hear everything. You said you want to get to know me, I want to know you as well and my other family.'

'Then I can work that out with your mother, find out when you can come stay with me for a few days. That way you can meet your grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. We can all meet at the Burrow, that's Charlie's families home. Oh another thing, like your prime minister, we have our own minister and that's Charlie's father.'

'Wow,' Evan's eyes went wide again as he stared at Charlie making the magical adults laugh but Evan's mother looked sad. They all understood and realised that nothing could help this all coming out, now they just had to learn to live with it.