A/N:

Hello, everyone!

This is the THIRD chapter today! It's a new (personal) record!

This chapter was a bit rushed and as a result, it may have some mistakes.

However, while writing this, we can confirm that we both cried and laughed along with the characters.

Please remember to review to tell us any ideas for pairings and mistakes we can fix. We are open to ideas as always.

Disclaimer: Anything recognisable belongs to JK Rowling.

26/10/23

xXxDoubleKxXx

DavidoDaVinci

Chapter 10: The Aftermath: Part 2

Liam sat there in shock.

A brother? Since when did he have a brother?

"Liam… are you OK?"

Liam nodded. "Do… do you… why did you never tell me? Why aren't there any pictures of him anywhere? Is he at Hogwarts? How old is he?"

Lily breathed in, heavily. "Ten years ago, our house was attacked by V… V… You Know Who."

Liam nodded. "You already said that."

Lily's mouth twitched. "I did. And I also told you that he took my first son, Harry."

Liam waited in silence.

"At the time, he was only fifteen months old."

Liam looked up, and saw there were tears in her eyes.

"It was horrible, Liam. I felt that it was all my fault. I spent years looking for him, but I could never find him. He disappeared from the wizarding world for ten years! You were born and I love you more than anything, but you reminded me of him, Liam!"

It was like a bottle of ketchup. She kept tripping over her words, but then all the words would spill out of her, all at once.

"I kept wishing he was here. Eventually, everyone agreed that he must be dead. I tried- I tried to forget about him, I got rid of every picture on the walls that showed him to try and get over the grief. We were so happy when you came along; it gave us another chance. I wonder what would happen if he killed me and James, instead, and he spared Harry!"

She was crying at that point and her sobs kept interrupting her words.

Liam was alarmed. Throughout his life, his mother had always been happy, always seen the best of things, but now she was having a full mental breakdown. He had always prided himself on having a strong mother, one who didn't cry no matter what. But now he could see that bottling all her emotions up was just making her feel worse inside.

Liam had spent his life living through a war, but nothing had ever hurt him as much as this.

"It's ok, Mum. Let it all out." Liam said.

After another ten minutes, she had calmed down sufficiently enough to walk to the fireplace and take a box that Liam had always known to be closed. Locked, he presumed.

"I haven't looked at these pictures for ten years."

She took out her wand and tapped the box gingerly.

"A-" she swallowed. "Alohomora."

She gingerly lifted a hand and prised the top off and Liam got a glimpse of pictures he did not recognize. Lily grabbed them, and held them to her chest, like a deck of cards in poker.

She laid them down on the table so Liam could get a good look at the top picture. It was moving, and was of a young baby, riding on a toy broomstick, and making a wreck of an ugly-looking vase.

"This was Harry on his first birthday. Sirius had given him a toy broomstick and Harry wouldn't get off of it. Your father couldn't catch him and Harry ended up destroying a horrible vase Petunia gave me."

She let out a noise that sounded half like a laugh, half like a sob.

His mother brought out the next picture from underneath.

"And this one was taken the day I met Harry."

Liam looked at it. His brother was certainly a year younger than the last picture. She and James were holding him and waving. Harry was finding immense enjoyment in tickling the air nearby.

She got the next picture, which depicted James holding Harry, sitting on the armchair Liam knew so well.

"And this one was taken the day he- he-" She shook her head. "That's a story for another day."

They spent the next half an hour looking at different pictures. At one point, Lily laughed out loud.

"I remember this! Your Dad bet me twenty pounds that he could take a picture at the exact moment Harry burped."

Liam looked down and sure enough, he saw Harry putting down a bottle of milk, burping, and falling down in fits of laughter.

At another point, they came across a picture of a man who looked awkward, and very much like a rat. Lily moved on soundlessly, fury in her eyes.

They passed over about three different pictures of James and Sirius on Christmas Eve, chasing a squirrel and looking very drunk indeed.

There was a picture of Harry chasing James, of James chasing Harry, of Sirius chasing both of them, and one of Harry sitting on both James and Sirius, who had both passed out.

Finally, there was one of Harry attempting to eat the ear of a teddy bear, while glaring viciously at the nearest carrot.

By the end, Lily and Liam were both dying of laughter.

Lily put them back in the box, and Liam was hit with a sudden burning question.

"Hang on. You said this was ten years ago, and that at the time, he was one. He would be Eleven now, wouldn't he?"

She nodded. "Until earlier today, I thought he was dead."

"He's at Hogwarts, isn't he?"

She closed her eyes, and nodded.

xxx

Afterwards, he sat in his room, having said goodbye to his mum. So Harry was at Hogwarts.

He should have felt buoyant.

He had discovered he had a brother. But the thing was, he had never met Harry. Never gotten to know him. He felt hurt that his Mum, his Dad, and everyone in the Order had never thought to tell him he had a brother.

It was difficult to imagine that fifteen month old child as an eleven year old. He was probably quite tall. Maybe he had glasses. No, he definitely had glasses. Probably.

He knew he had raven hair and emerald green eyes. Would he be kind? He'd be brave. He'd have good values. He'd be a good big brother, surely.

Right?

xxx

As Lily got off the station, absorbed in her own thoughts, she noted vaguely that it must be at least one in the morning.

She nearly walked into Albus Dumbledore.

"Professor Dumbledore!"

"Hello, Mrs Potter. How did Liam take the news?"

Lily thought for a moment. "I don't really know." She shook her head. "Have you kept your side of the bargain? You've talked to Harry?"

"Yes, yes. I want you to know that I trust him completely."

She frowned. "It felt to me like there was a part of Voldemort in him."

Dumbledore nodded. "I thought so too. But everything lines up. He acts trustworthy. I performed some Legilimency. I see that we have no choice but to conclude that he is telling the truth."

Lily nodded.

"Will you accompany me back to the castle?"

"Gladly." she said, her teeth chattering. And to think. She hadn't even started marking that Homework for the sixth-year Hufflepuffs.

xxx

Liam was looking at the pictures again.

The moment it occurred to him, he stole away downstairs and found the box. He was underage and didn't have a wand anyway, so he was greatly relieved when he discovered that his mum had forgotten to lock it up before she left. Or maybe she had chosen to leave it unlocked.

He laid them all out on the floor and analysed them.

He was greatly intrigued by the one of the man who looked like a rat.

Despite staring at it for at least twenty minutes, he could not think why it was there in the first place.

The thing was, every other picture had Harry in.

Even in the one where James and Sirius were chasing the squirrel, he could just make out Harry, latched onto James' back and sleeping.

But in the one of the man, there was no trace of him.

If his mum had locked up these pictures because they reminded her of Harry, why this one?

Then Liam remembered the expression on his mum's face when she saw this particular one. It was almost like she hated this man… no… she loathed him. But that couldn't be true. If she hated him, why would she keep his photo? Maybe so she could shout at it when she got angry?

Or was there more to the story?