CHAPTER 1: DUMBLEDORE'S MISTAKE
It was on a cold October evening that this story began, an evening that, in the eyes of many people, marked the advent of a new era, an era of great upheavals, although it would affect only a certain category of individuals. In many ways, the very place that would see the birth of this new period was nothing special: an elegant manor house of red bricks and white-painted woodwork, like hundreds found in the far corners of the United Kingdom. It was neither too big nor too small, surrounded by a freshly mowed lawn and embellished with a few trees and bushes cut by hand. The building was away from any trace of civilization, delimited only by a thick forest of beech extending as far as the eye could see, and by a simple beaten path at the end of which it was located.
At first sight, the family living in this house did not seem to be particularly extraordinary people, but rather individuals living simply from their achievements and enjoying peaceful, happy days in the midst of all this luxuriant vegetation. This is at least what any good traveler would have said while admiring the area and its surroundings. However, the family living in this mansion was far from ordinary. Four people lived inside: two adults and their two little boys.
The parents were first named James Potter and his wife Lily Potter (born Evans). James was a young man in his twenties with a slender, well-built figure, developed through years of sports, without giving the impression of being just a bunch of muscles. His main feature was his jet-black hair, which was impossible to style, no matter what he did.
"So, stop fighting for a cause lost in advance, Jamie. No Potter has ever managed to style his hair properly for centuries," his mother had once happily reminded him during a family meal.
He was also a proud and boastful man, continually bragging about the legacy passed down from generation to generation by his family and always ready to embark on new challenges, much to the chagrin of his wife, who couldn't keep him in place for more than a minute. He knew how to show himself intelligent and hard in business in rare circumstances, but all the people who knew him would rather call him an eternal child showing an unusual immaturity for his age. Indeed, although he had to take over all his father's businesses when his death came, he generally preferred to have a good time with his friends as soon as the opportunity presented itself, even when she did not show up. His parents worried about it and really wondered if he would be able to manage the family fortune himself. The Potters were not poor; it would be the opposite. But James was very spendthrift and could quickly squander the equivalent of £10,000 in just one day.
His wife, on the other hand, was a very simple person who preferred the simplicity of a godly life where material things were secondary, and hard work prevailed. She was, in the eyes of many people, the typical example of the perfect woman, especially from the physical point of view: a fine and graceful waist, dream measurements, and a bright smile making any man blush. She also had long auburn hair that she let fall freely on her shoulders and back. However, her greatest peculiarity was undoubtedly her almond-shaped eyes of brilliant green that reflected all the intelligence and wisdom that emanated from her. The fact of having lived for a long time in a family of lower rank than James may have been something, but until now, their ways of life, however, so different, were perfectly understood. Even their characters were the opposite of each other. Unlike her husband, though, Lily was a very calm and gentle woman, helping her neighbor and struggling to satisfy others before her own self-interest. She almost never raised her voice and knew how to be discreet in all circumstances, as was generally the case with all Lord's wives at that time. She gave herself almost no pleasure, preferring to spend most of her time with her two children, feeding them, dressing them, washing them, playing with them, etc., teaching the older of the two. The rest of the time, she took care of the house as a good hostess she was, quietly read a book in the huge library of the manor house, or took care of her small vegetable garden at the back of it, in which an impressive variety of vegetables grew quietly.
"Sometimes I feel like I married a farmer! Merlin, this is the first time in a long time that I have seen a woman of your rank gardening!" James had once mockingly remarked before taking a rake on the top of his head.
Some people wondered how two individuals like Lily and James managed to fall in love with each other when they knew their personal history and way of life. They were all opposed, and yet they had been married for four years, four years without a single gray cloud to darken their idyll. To fill their happiness, two boys were born successively.
The first was Harry James Potter, a three-year-old boy who now strongly resembled his father. One of the only things he inherited from his mother was his eyes, but despite everything, he was very attached to her and spent most of his time in her company. Not without a hint of anxiety, Lily had worried about the possibility of him becoming a copy of James and absolutely did not want to have an even more exuberant second person in the house. Fortunately, Harry turned out to be a very quiet boy eager for new acquaintances and preferring to devour a book with his eyes rather than learning to practice his father's favorite sport. Lily did not doubt for a moment that later her son would be an intellectual, and deep down, she was very proud of it. Perhaps the only shadow on the board was the relationship between father and son that was not extremely developed. James loved Harry, she was convinced, but the fact that they had so little in common in their tastes and ways of enjoying life seemed to be a drag on their relationship. Maybe James thought Harry was going to grow up to be a true copy of himself? It was for his expenses, and it was in a sense a disappointment for him.
Harry's brother, Matthew William Potter, had only just turned one year old, and no one could yet really say who he would resemble the most, although for now, his physical characteristics were closer to those of Lily. But despite his young age, Matthew was a very playful baby, with no more than a minute left without moving, most often to go for a walk alone through the maze of rooms of the mansion. A strange coincidence: he and his brother were born in the same month and on about the same day, a detail that later proved important. Unlike Harry, who had been a calm infant and cried tears only very rarely, his brother made himself heard at any time of the day and demanded more attention from his parents. He was also a boy with a strong temperament for his age who already knew how to carefully select the food he preferred, usually sweets; he cried tears when his parents refused him something. Lily had wondered at length if it was the fact that her godfather, Sirius Black, incubated too many gifts that had made her son so capricious, she said, but the concerned and even James preferred to laugh.
"Come on, Lily, you only get ideas! This little one is only a year old; he cannot already realize the importance of material things and the value of money!"
Their discussion usually never went any further, although Lily would have liked to have something to complain to her husband about the impressive number of toys he and Sirius offered Matthew, but he preferred to override it.
Their family life was finally like all those in the country, with one exception: The Potters were wizards. The witch community, although largely in the minority compared to those without magical power, was nevertheless widespread throughout the world, although generally hiding from the rest of the population. Wizards did not have a habit of showing their talent for irrational things to "muggles." It was partly for this reason that Lily and James had decided to settle away from any trace of human life, deep in the county of Nottinghamshire, with the help of some protective spells, but not only.
The Potters were also people stalked by a dark wizard calling himself "Lord Voldemort," but the fear that he inspired dissuaded anyone from calling him that way. Only his opponents called him that way; the rest of the magical population preferred to nickname him "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or more simply "You-Know-Who," while his followers called him "Master" or "my lord" out of respect. Voldemort was a powerful sorcerer who supported the domination of his fellow men over the Muggle population, as well as their outright enslavement. His ideology went even further, and for him, anyone who had the blood of a non-magical person in them was an undesirable one who had to be banished from their world or eliminated. His theories on the superiority of sorcerers attracted many "pure-bloods," that is, those without an ounce of Muggle blood in them, and his faithful committed many criminal acts to terrorize populations and inspire fear in the minds. It had been several years since Voldemort and his "Death Eaters" murdered, tortured, and intimidated without anyone being able to end it. The Potters themselves were now considered pestiferous by most of them, James having married a Muggle-born, and her children consequently being half-blood. Therefore, the easiest thing for them was to hide most of the time, something they gladly did to ensure the safety of their children.
But for now, the depredations of the Death Eaters were the least of Lily's worries, who preferred to focus on her younger son at this time of night. Standing near Matthew's bed, she was distractedly contemplating the face of her baby, who seemed so fragile at the moment. Being a child during this dark time was really the worst thing for someone his age, especially since a sword of Damocles hung over him every day without him knowing it yet. Almost mechanically, she tenderly caressed her son's cheek while he slept so peacefully in his nursery, while a few minutes earlier, he was still choking to claim God knows what. Getting this one-year-old to sleep was no easy feat, but Lily knew how to be patient and always got her way. And then, seeing the so carefree and peaceful figure of her son was the best remedy for melancholy.
Did he finally fall asleep?
The little voice that had just spoken belonged to none other than Harry. He stood in the doorway of his little brother's bedroom door and looked at his mother with a dreary eye while holding a piece of his blanket in one hand. His gaze briefly passed over his brother's bed, where Matthew's shape was visible through the sheets, before lingering on the rest of the small room. Everything, or almost everything, in this room was red and gold, from curtains to carpets to the decoration of walls and furniture—an idea of James, who wanted to see his younger son grow up in the middle of these colors reminiscent of the Gryffindor house, one of the four at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft in which he and his wife were placed during their schooling. Harry had not been entitled to this honor, but the blue color of his room suited him perfectly.
"What are you still doing standing at this time of night, Harry?" she asked quietly not to wake her other son.
"I couldn't sleep because of his crying," he muttered as he approached to look at Matthew as well.
His mother nodded before pulling a chair near the nursery on which she sat, before beckoning her eldest son to come and sit on her lap, which he did at once. Harry loosened like a cat on her while Lily hugged him, bordering him distractedly.
"Was I as small as him when I was his age?" he innocently asked, peeping at his brother.
"Even smaller," Lily answered him, smiling at this memory.
"Really? But... I'm big now!"
"Oh yes, you have become a very big boy, my big boy. Besides, if you keep growing like this, you'll eventually overtake me, and you'll have to leave the house because you'll be too big to stay here."
Her son looked at her in surprise as his eyes suddenly began to shine. As a signal, his arms surrounded Lily's body as he tucked his head at her chest to mask her figure. Her reaction surprised her, but she quickly understood what had put her in this state.
"No, Mom, I don't want to leave! I want to stay with you forever! I don't want to be a big one anymore!"
"Come on, my darling! Everyone gets older one day! But Mom will always be there for you, don't you know?"
Harry nodded softly without loosening his grip on her, to the great joy of Lily who could at leisure cuddle him. Both remained for several minutes in comforting silence, illuminated simply by the dim light of the candles hanging on the walls, appreciating the presence of the other at his side.
"Mama?" Harry timidly inquired to break the silence.
"Yes, Harry."
"Why doesn't Dad want to spend time with me anymore?"
Although she tried not to let anything appear, Harry's question had the direct consequence of making her stiffen, and her face darkened. How to tell his son that his father spent less time with him because, in his eyes, he did not correspond to the perfect image that James had imagined of him? Maybe he wouldn't even understand it.
"Your father is very busy right now. He has to work on some projects that only concern the big people," she hastily invented.
"Yet he has a lot of time to devote to Matthew when he has nothing else to do. Does he no longer love me?"
"We've already had this discussion, Harry," she said more dryly than she would have liked. "Your dad loves you just as much as your brother and maybe even more."
"Does it hurt?" he suddenly said.
"Forgive me?"
"When the stork put the baby in your belly, did you get hurt?"
On the spot, Lily failed to burst out laughing at the innocent question of her son. His ability to change the topic of conversation sometimes surprised him. Slightly lowering her eyes, she noticed that Harry was carefully watching his rounded belly while tracing with his little finger's circles on the fabric of his dress as if he wished to be able to touch the little being who grew little by little in his belly. But it was better not to teach him how to make babies at such a young age.
"Not really," she confessed, smiling tenderly at him. "She does it at night so she doesn't wake mom!"
"And Dad, he says nothing?"
"No, because the sand merchant comes to lay sand on mom and dad so that they do not wake up! They work together! What then! This little discussion had at least the merit of making him forget for a time all the worries that weighed on his conscience, and in particular, that concerning his two children. The man responsible for all these horrors had been after them since he became aware of a prophecy announcing that a young boy born at the end of July would be able to defeat him. She and James, following the advice of Dumbledore, who was not only their director at Hogwarts but also the leader of the opposing forces against Voldemort, had decided to hide from him and his henchmen by protecting themselves as best they could.
The house itself was, as we have already said, away from any civilization, but to better guarantee the safety of the small family, James, as well as some of their trusted friends, had set up several protective spells, making the Potter mansion one of the safest places in the world. Harry obviously suspected that something was going on around them, especially when he was constantly forbidden to get out of the property boundaries, but he didn't know the reason. Just was he able to recall the last crimes committed by the dark lord, but this kind of information did not really interest him, especially at his age. Keeping him in the dark may not have been a good thing in the end. How would he react if he found himself one day facing Voldemort without suspecting that he was after him and his brother? Merlin, he didn't even know what he looked like! Maybe she should talk to him about it but while trying to minimize things a little. So, she took her courage with both hands and told her son what would change her life forever.
"Harry, there's something I'd like to tell you. You see, you and your brother are very special boys."
"Really?"
"Yes. You know there's a bad guy who hurts a lot of people, don't you? And that's why mom and dad are forced to hide from him, right? Well, one of you two will be able when he's older to make the evil gentleman disappear with a power he doesn't have."
"To make it disappear? You mean kill him? Isn't it wrong to kill someone?"
"No, because this villain is actually a naughty monster, and in all the stories, the monsters have to be eliminated for people to be at peace, you understand?"
"Yes. But how do we know if it's going to be me or Matthew?"
"There is an old legend that says that whoever can defeat him has a power he does not possess. I don't know what it's all about, but that power, you or Matthew, has it deep inside you."
In his mind, it was more likely that it was Harry who was able to defeat the dark lord. A small check-up during an afternoon allowed him to notice that the magic core of his eldest son was surprisingly developed for his age. Besides, he was already starting to do accidental magic, whereas generally this kind of phenomenon only happened around seven or eight years. Conversely, Matthew's was one can no longer normal for his age, or even slightly below. Maybe the difficult pregnancy she had had was for something, but it was clear to him that his younger son was not on the same level as Harry from a magical point of view. But the power Lord Voldemort ignored may have been something else…
"I'd like you to make me a promise, Harry. I'd like you to promise me that no matter what, if your brother is the boy who'll definitely destroy the bad guy, you know, you protect Matthew from all the dangers in his path and defend him as if your life depended on it. Mom and dad won't always be there to look after him, but with you, I'm sure he'll be safe."
"I promise you, Mom. And I will also protect my other little brother or sister as soon as she comes out of your belly! That is my role!"
Lily smiled at him tenderly and ruffled his hair in a gesture that was meant to be friendly, but above all slightly provocative. James had a habit of deliberately unclogging his hair by passing several times during the day the hand on them to give the impression of having flown with his magic broom. Harry instead tried to discipline his brown hair by styling his hair for long minutes and applying various remedies to them that would flatten them with great difficulty. Even for their physical appearance, father and son differed in their opinions. If only there would be only that in the future…
"Mama! Harry got angry as he pushed his hand away."
"I think it's late now, Harry. You should have been in bed a long time now. Do you want me to read you another story before I sleep?"
"I would love very much! He whispered joyfully."
"Well, let's go into this…"
BOOM. The house was suddenly shaken by a violent explosion from the floor below. Harry and his mother jumped as soon as the walls shook and immediately stood on their feet. Matthew had woken up to the noise caused by the blast and, obviously not liking being woken up so brutally, began to cry loudly. Lily immediately rushed at him to calm him down, but she herself was in all her states. She turned in every direction with an alarmed air, repeatedly looking out of the bedroom window to try to see if anyone was outside, whispering to herself what Harry couldn't hear. He himself did not understand why his mother was so panicked, but seeing her in this state also stressed him.
"Oh, my God, it's a nightmare! Tell me it's not possible!"
As if to answer her question, her husband's voice reached her ears from the ground floor, but his words were not comforting.
"LILY! IT'S HIM! GO, TAKE THE KIDS WITH YOU! I WILL TRY TO HOLD IT BACK!"
A cold laugh without an ounce of warmth accompanied his words as Harry's blood immediately froze as he heard these sharp giggles. He did not recognize the voice of his owner, but the man certainly did not have to be a very pleasant person. His impression was confirmed when his mother abruptly closed the bedroom door after putting her little brother back in bed.
"Mama? What is going on!?"
"Harry, stay with your little brother!" She cried out as she pushed a dresser against the front door.
"But mama…"
"Harry! Don't argue with it! Remember the promise you made to me!"
His son obediently understood that his mother was not joking and that a possible danger was hovering over them. He quickly approached the bed of his little brother who continued to cry loudly while standing at the bars of his nursery and tried in vain to calm him by caressing the top of the skull.
"Right now, it's going to be okay, Matt'. Mom's going to protect us, you're going to see!"
A second explosion took place just below them, followed by a heavy shock against what appeared to be a piece of furniture. The sneer of earlier resumed more beautiful accompanied by the squeaking of the stairs that someone began to climb.
"Why didn't I take my wand Merlin! Let someone help us!"
"No one can hear you, Lily Potter," mockingly declared an unknown voice for Harry. "No one will hear you scream when I attack your little family. No one will hear you moan when the corpses of your two sons are bathed in their blood."
The footsteps finally stopped right in front of the bedroom door to the great horror of Lily, who had rushed towards her two sons in a vain attempt to serve them can be shielded. The doorknob of the door turned in the void, but the individual wishing to enter did not seem in the least angry at this obstacle. On the contrary, he laughed again.
"Your defenses are derisory, Lady Potter. Magic Wands are really fascinating, don't you think? With a simple gesture, I could open that door, like this."
The door lock immediately emitted a loud noise indicating that the door was now open, but the furniture placed in front of it prevented the intruder from being able to enter.
"Come on Lily, it's not your age to have fun stacking things anymore. What would you say if we put them in their place?"
"Go away!"
The dresser suddenly floated in the air before being literally catapulted to the wall opposite the door. The noise made Matthew's tears redouble as Harry, who was beginning to panic, clasped himself against his mother trembling with fear. The bedside table quickly took the same path as the chest of drawers, as well as two armchairs and a table that ended in a thousand pieces, and that's a nightmarish vision Harry could see. The man standing in front of them was tall and very thin. He wore a long black dress reaching up to his toes and a thick cape of the same color. But the peculiarity of this man was the fact that he had no nose, and his eyes were a flaming red. His white skin looked scaly like reptiles, and his infinitely long-fingered hands looked like two giant spiders. The look of the newcomer was the worst he had ever seen so far, much more than the amused expression he displayed bared nothing good.
"I tend to prefer to converse with people other than through a door, you see?" He said calmly as he entered the room. "Perhaps it is a common practice among the mudblood to leave their guests on the doorstep?"
"For pity's sake, leave us alone! Do not harm them…"
"You're kind of going straight to the point apparently. You obviously know why I'm here."
Lily merely tightened her embrace on Harry while placing her other hand on the head of her other son, trying in this way to calm him down. But Matthew continued to grow more beautiful, to the great obvious annoyance of the man who shot the toddler with his eyes.
"Push yourself now, and I promise you that nothing will happen to you!" He ordered her dryly.
"Not my sons, for pity's sake, spare them! Kill me in their place, I beg you!"
"Push yourself! This will be my only mercy to you! Step away from them or I will torture you before their innocent eyes! Lord Voldemort grants his grace only on very rare occasions!"
"Have mercy, take me in their place!" Lily wrote to herself without paying attention to what her enemy was telling her.
"Time for you. I'll have to use the strong way in this case."
He quickly pulled out of the pocket of his dress a long wooden tube which he pointed at her. At its end, flamboyant red sparks escaped and burned the carpet as they crashed into it. Lily saw this spectacle, pressed her eldest son even harder against her while moving in front of Matthew to serve as a shield.
"Stupefy!"
A reddish gleam immediately escaped from the magic wand and melted on it without warning. The spell reached him in the chest and sent him after a hovering flight of several meters to heavily hit the wall just behind the bed of his son. Harry screamed at the show and tried in vain to rush to her, but his instinct told him that it was better to protect his unconscious little brother from danger.
"A good thing to do," Voldemort commented almost with amusement, turning his attention to the two youngest occupants of the room. "Now it's your turn. Which one will I start with?"
He began to play with his wand by pointing the two children as if he were trying to determine which would be a perfect target. Taking his mother as an example, Harry stood valiantly in front of his little brother's figure, and although torn by fear, he looked up at the sorcerer in front of him.
"I forbid you to harm Matthew!"
"Ooooh, that's courage, young man. I appreciate this quality in my servants, although most of them are only scoundrels and envious. Won't you join me? We could do great things together…"
"You hurt my mom! You are wicked! I don't want anything to do with you!"
"As you will, you little abortion. Your brother will be the first to suffer the punishment he deserves for refusing my offer."
The black mage suddenly disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, leaving nothing but emptiness behind. Harry wondered for a moment if he had not abandoned the game but preferred to remain on guard by looking carefully at every corner of the room. It is with horror that he finally spotted him near the pile of broken furniture as he pointed his magic wand directly at Matthew in a totally uncovered angle.
"Avada Kedavra -!"
The green-colored spell escaped from the piece of wood and very quickly made its way to its target under Harry's horrified eyes. "I'd like you to make me a promise, Harry. I'd like you to promise me that no matter what, if your brother is the boy who'll definitely destroy the bad guy, you know, you protect Matthew from all the dangers in his path and defend him as if your life depended on it."
His mother's voice echoed through his head as he ran like a damned man to stand between his brother and the deadly evil. Resigning himself to death, he closed his eyes, waiting for it to fall on him and make him leave this world. But strangely, a feeling of power seemed to emanate from him while in his subconscious, a very bright white light appeared and enveloped him little by little. He did not need to know that the curse had reached him when he suddenly felt excruciating pain in his forehead, but the pain was still present even after that. He felt himself being violently catapulted back as a terrifying scream gushed his eardrums, before he in turn hit a piece of furniture miraculously spared by the attack. The shock was so violent that it exploded in pieces and covered it from the head to the foot with wood debris. He himself was knocked out instantly, without suspecting that in just a few seconds, he had repelled Voldemort's deadly curse and destroyed his body shell at the same time. All that remained of the black mage was a pile of cloth in the place where he was before as well as his magic wand, but outside of that, there was no sign in the room to tell what had happened to his body.
The room immediately returned to calm, not even disturbed by the cries of Matthew who had also been wounded in the attack and found himself unconscious in the middle of the remains of his bed. A gaping wound from which a large amount of blood oozed passed through his stomach, and a thin stream of hemoglobin flowed from the top of his skull, probably due to a piece of wood that hit him hard enough to knock him out. The mansion returned after that strangely quiet, far from the activity that took place a few minutes earlier, but two 'Pop' from outside broke this moment of silence.
Two men had just appeared on the lawn of Potter's mansion and looked anxiously at the entrance of the house where the door hung miserably on its hinges.
"It's a bad sign," mumbled the older of the two, an old man resembling a white-bearded mage arriving at the pelvis and wearing a thick purple robe falling to his foot. "Anti-Apparition spells have been canceled…"
But his companion had already rushed towards the manor. Sirius Black, since it was about him, was usually an extremely cheerful man and always up for new adventures, most often ending in London brothels. It must be said that his physiognomy left no one indifferent, both in women and men. But tonight, a worried expression was displayed on his face, something that was not customary for him. But the mere fact of seeing the entrance of the house blown by an explosion spell put him in all his states. It was with anguish that he penetrated inside, and the scene he had before him almost made him lose consciousness. Resting on the first steps of the staircase, James' motionless body was the first thing he saw. A thin stream of blood slowly flowed from his mouth as his glasses hung miserably crooked.
"James! Shit!"
Sirius immediately crouched close to him, expecting the worst. But to his greatest satisfaction, he could feel the pulse of his friend as he feverishly groped his chest, even though his breathing seemed slightly difficult.
"Satanized Prongs, you made me one of these fears! Enervate!"
The spell quickly restored consciousness to James who flickered for a few moments before moaning while trying to put himself in a sitting position.
"My head. I have the impression of having made a fall of broom of at least thirty meters...," he muttered while massaging the top of the skull.
"James, what happened? Where are Lily and your kids?" the old man asked him when he arrived in the manor.
"The children? What do you mean Dumbledore? The kids are in bed and Lily…"
He immediately fell silent, remembering the last events that had taken place at home, and uttered a plaintive moan, suddenly rising. His gaze turned to the top of the staircase, which he observed with a panicked air.
"Merlin! Voldemort! He came just now! LILY!"
Without shouting guard, he rushed to the first floor, screaming at full lungs the name of his wife hoping that she would answer him. Only silence could be perceived. He had no trouble when he came up to find the place where the lord of darkness had gone, and not without a certain anguish, he crosses the doorway of his son's room, staring at the disaster in the room. There, in the middle of the wood and porcelain debris, was the inert body of his wife who did not move at all. This vision ripped a few tears from him as he imagined the worst for Lily's life and the third unborn child.
"Lily! I beg you, answer me! Lily!"
His wife did not appear to be eye-to-eye in poor condition, although a few scratches from the shock streaked her face. Putting a hand on his throat, he was just like Sirius just now, happy to find that Lily was doing well, and after a quick diagnostic spell on her body, he had confirmation that his child was also wearing a charm, although the shock could eventually cause him damage in the future. But that was the least of his worries for now.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore, accompanied by Sirius, had landed with Matthew and pulled him out of the wooden cluster under which he was a prisoner. His pajamas were now soaked in blood, but with a simple wand, Dumbledore closed the wound he had on his stomach while throwing on the small body he was holding some informal spells.
"Hm... Where am I?" muttered Lily returning to her after another "Enervate" from James.
"Thank God Lily, you are fine!" her husband cried out, hugging him tightly. "How is the baby doing?!"
"Well, I believe, but... Oh Lord!"
Just as her husband had done, Lily quickly got up by jostling her husband. The latest events came back to her memory, as did Voldemort's attack in the room, but she had to look everywhere, it was nowhere. Her gaze then landed on Matthew's unconscious body and, as a good mother she was, she rushed to Dumbledore to check on his condition. The somewhat abrupt gesture with which she almost tore her arms had the consequence of waking the toddler who immediately began to cry.
"Lily, I would like to know what happened here," calmly asked the old man as she cradled her son crying with warm tears.
The young woman obeyed and explained in detail what had happened since Voldemort's arrival on the ground floor until the spell she had taken herself by wanting to protect her children. Thinking of them, she cursed herself immediately upon noticing that she had completely forgotten her eldest son who was nowhere to be seen, at least that's what she thought before seeing an arm come out miserably from another pile of wood at the bottom of the room.
"Oh my God! Harry!"
She then made a gesture which in this evening was totally innocuous, but which in truth changed many things for the future: She handed her youngest son to Dumbledore who was not asked to retrieve him in order to cast a few spells on him as she rushed towards Harry that she went out with difficulty to retrieve him from the old dresser. The old mage was totally disinterested in what she was doing and preferred to focus on the last discovery he had just made about Matthew. The mere fact of finding this little boy's body near the pile of black cloth acting as a dress for Voldemort was already very strange, in itself, putting the residue of black magic he felt around him troubled him far more than he would admit. The scar he now had on his abdomen itself let out reminiscences of magic.
"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry my baby," Lily sobbed while cradling her son who was still unconscious. "Sirius, give me your wand!"
"Why do? James' best friend was surprised.
"To revive him, you fool!"
Sirius agreed and handed her his magic wand while also standing next to her to also check on the health of James' eldest son.
"Do you think Voldemort is still here?" James wondered as he pointed his magic wand at every corner of the room, expecting it to suddenly appear.
"I do not believe, unless nudity has become a new inclination in his home."
"What do you mean, Professor Dumbledore?"
The old man contented himself with slightly shaking his magic wand by floating in the dark robe of the lord of darkness.
"James, do you remember the prophecy that I mentioned to you some time ago? The one about a young child born at the end of July who can defeat Voldemort?"
"Yes, and then? You think she just realized?"
"I do not think I am wrong in saying that the boy whom the Dark Lord has marked as his equal is in my arms."
A fat white man accompanied his words as the other two men looked at Dumbledore as if a second head had just pushed him. For a little bit, their eyes could easily be confused with marbles because they were so wide. A little boy of only one year, able to defeat the most terrible black mage of the century? The idea was completely ridiculous, but Dumbledore didn't feel like an idiot, and so far, all his decisions and intuitions had proved right.
"Matthew? Defeat Voldemort? Are you sure, Professor?" James asked him almost timidly.
"I cast a few spells on him, and I was able to find many traces of black magic, especially around the wound he had on his stomach. I think it must have been there that Voldemort tried to murder your son, but it seems that his attack failed for some reason. You can also see that his wand and dress were right next to him when we found him. I also noticed a lot of magic surrounding its core. Perhaps because of an intense emotion or approaching a mortal danger, it manifested itself and thus could protect him from the fate of Voldemort. Still, Voldemort has apparently disappeared and we owe it to this young man."
James was now looking at his younger son as if he were the eighth wonder of the world. His flesh and blood had just vanquished a black mage at only one year old! Dumbledore's explanations suddenly seemed convincing and full of common sense. Lily, she had listened strictly to nothing of the words of the old sage and continued to pamper Harry who had now regained consciousness and seemed extremely tired. All the magic he had used unconsciously to protect his brother had drained him of all his strength.
Dumbledore continued to watch the toddler spooking in his arms thinking that from now on, a little boy with extraordinary powers had just appeared, and that with his support, he had, he could defeat Lord Voldemort for good. The lord of darkness was not dead, he was sure, but the forces were now rebalanced. What could a man like him do to an adversary with a power that 'did he not know ? Even though he had been searching for long minutes, he could not find what differentiated Matthew from Voldemort, but he thought that this power was simply not visible thanks to a few spells. It is a great pity that he paid so little attention to Harry, otherwise he would also have noticed the residues of black magic present on his body in greater quantity than on that of Matthew. It is also very regrettable that he forgot that each spell left behind residues of magic, and that finding it on a one-year-old did not mean that he had been struck by a spell, and that therefore, a black mage had not marked him as his equal. Finally, his greatest mistake was to forget the difference between the magic nuclei of the brothers, otherwise, he could have noticed the amazing drop in power inside Harry and could have equated that with that unknown power. Briefly, Dumbledore made many mistakes that evening, but all had repercussions on the life of a poor three-year-old boy who had asked nothing. Harry's life took a radical turn that night, but not necessarily for the better.
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