Once she had gotten over her surprise the young boy she had gone to meet resembled James Potter with Lily's eyes, Professor Bathsheda Babbling took Harry to Diagon Alley. After a quick conversation about the magical world, in which Bathsheda answered one or two questions Harry had for her, she then took him to Charing Cross using apparition.
While it did shake him up a bit, Harry found it fascinating to experience magical teleportation the way they did it. "Wow!" He staggered a little bit.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Harry, I did warn you," Professor Babbling apologised sheepishly.
"No, it's okay," Harry waved her off, not wanting any sympathy before he took another deep breath and stood up. A triumph of willpower. "So, this is where Diagon Alley is?"
"It's just over here," Professor Babbling said, "come on," she added with a smile.
Harry smiled back. The young woman had a beautiful and contagious smile. The fact she might be able to find somebody who could give him information about his parents only made her more attractive to him. Harry wanted to ask more questions, but at that moment they were passing through a crowd.
"Er, Professor, exactly how do you know this Lily and James Potter?" Harry asked.
Professor Babbling had been expecting the question for a while. She had been horrified by the revelation and the implications Lily and James, two people whom she liked, had a second child but one they'd abandoned… she hoped it was wrong and not right.
"They're two of my colleagues, Harry," she said gently, unsure how he'd take it, "I've come to know them very well. You see, a few years ago, well a decade ago, there was a war." She paused as they passed near a few people before she continued. "A war between the Death Eaters and their leader, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-."
"Who?" Harry's mind flashed to the serpentine face under the hood with the red eyes.
"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Professor Babbling repeated. "He was a Dark Lord who placed a curse on his name, so whenever someone said it, they would find themselves under attack. As a result, everyone refers to it in fear."
"I'm not scared of a cowardly loser who needs to do something like that. What's his name?" Harry asked.
Professor Babbling blinked. There was a menacing undertone in the boy's voice, but she ignored it; if he had been abandoned, he had every reason to be unlike Lily and James. At the same time, she was stunned by the force of his will. "Oh, Merlin," she moaned. "You're gonna make me say it. Okay, but try not to say it too often, please. It's Lord….V-Voldemort."
"Voldemort?"
"Please don't say it!"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Sorry. Wait," he looked at Professor Babbling with renewed interest, "does Vol-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named look like a man with a snake-like face, with red eyes?"
"What did you say?" Professor Babbling demanded, staring at him with renewed interest.
"I remember it," Harry said seriously and he looked down at his feet. "When I found myself with…my relatives," he ground the word out, startling her with how much pure hatred he felt towards the Dursleys even if she understood it, "I had an image of him standing over me, pointing a…wand at me, with his eyes burning into my mind. It's kinda hard to get that out of my mind, and I remember hearing a high cold voice."
Professor Babbling was chilled to the bone by this latest twist, and by now she was now positive this boy was Lily and James's son. But what in the name of Merlin and hell were they thinking, sending him away and then turning their backs so then they wouldn't know he was being abused? Why would they do that, and not keep him as an elder brother to their other son, the Boy Who Lived? Had they done it because they thought Harry would get jealous?
That made no sense.
Along with many of their other friends, Lily and James had invited her to dinner more than once, she had seen how they interacted with their children. Lily and James had gone out of their way to make sure Charlus didn't get a big head, any more than Hayden, Rose, Dahlia and Jasmine did.
But hearing that this boy had not only seen what You-Know-Who had done…..but heard him…she was chilled.
"Professor?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Professor Babbling tried to smile, but she was sure it came off as a bit of a grimace. Harry just looked at her sceptically, clearly not believing her. She sighed. "No, I'm not fine. I'm just…horrified because you're confirming more and more in my mind you are Lily and James Potter's son. Yes, Harry, that was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He did…something, performed dark rituals on himself and changed his appearance until it was warped. Some theorised, because of his ability to speak to snakes, he wished to emulate them."
"Speak to snakes?" Harry was unable to stop himself.
"Yes, why?" Professor Babbling said, confused.
"Oh, I was just surprised to hear it," Harry was cursing himself for likely giving too much away. "He could speak to snakes, so he decided to look like one? That makes no sense."
"It only made sense to him, Harry. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was insane. He was a monster. He and his followers, the Death Eaters launched a terrifying war against the magical world," Professor Babbling paused as several more people walked by and she waited until they were gone before she spoke again, "There were many dark days, Harry. The Ministry of Magic - yes, there's a Ministry of Magic; they control the magical world and ensure our presence is not revealed to the non-magical world, otherwise, they would destroy us. Families were being wiped out at a terrifying rate; 30 years ago, there were many families, but now some of them are reduced to two or three or are just extinct. All of it came to a head when he attacked the Potters and he was stopped by Charlus Potter."
"Charlus Potter?"
"If my suspicions are correct, then he's your brother, Harry," Professor Babbling said. "Your younger brother."
Professor Babbling had never seen an eleven-year-old child look so shocked and so angry at the same time before in her life, but somehow Harry pulled it off, and for a moment she was frightened for herself. But then the moment was cleared.
"Stopped by Charlus Potter?" Harry deliberately made sure not to refer to Charlus as his brother because while it was looking like the younger boy was, there was a chance it wasn't correct. "How?"
"Yeah. Nobody knows. But it happened, and everyone has called him the Boy Who Lived because of that night. Lily and James, who were out at the time while Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, James's parents were there, looking after the kid protected Charlus, but I have a feeling Lily did something. She's an extremely smart and powerful witch. She would have looked high and low for any kind of protection for her children, although I don't understand why the potters didn't just run away and recover. The Potters were on the list to be wiped out, and several members of the family had already been killed," Professor Babbling said. "Do you feel up to finding out if Lily and James are your parents?"
Harry was still absorbing the information he'd been given and while a lot of it was beyond his understanding since he found it illogical for a family, who was being targeted to stay, never mind leaving the kid behind to be attacked. Surely they would have put the children on a higher priority?
But at the same time… Harry wanted answers. Harry wanted to know more about himself and he desperately needed to know. As they went on, Harry asked himself if he truly wanted to go to Hogwarts and be overshadowed by this Boy Who Lived. It sounded like a stupid thing to call a kid.
"Yes, please," Harry nodded.
"Okay, come on," Professor Babbling said, and she led the way to Diagon Alley.
