Chapter - 16 : The Truth Unveiled

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"Blown up?" I demanded. "You said our parents died in a car crash!"

"A car crash?" Hagrid demanded. "A car crash, kill Lily an James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry an' Lorena Potter not knowin' their own story when every child in our world knows their names!"

"But why?" Harry pressed. "What happened?"

Hagrid now seemed to deflate from angry to concerned. "I never expected this. When Dumbledore said there migh' be some trouble getting' a hold of yeh, I never realized how much yeh didn' know. Ah, I don' know if I'm the righ' person to tell yeh… But someone's gotta, yeh can't go off to Hogwarts not knowin'."

He gave a dirty look to the Dursleys before staring into the fire. "It's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh… Mind yeh, I can' tell yeh ev'rythin'. It's still a great myst'ry, parts of it. It starts, I suppose, with a man called… but I can't believe yeh don' know his name, ev'ryone knows…"

"Who?" I pressed.

"I don' like sayin' his name if I can help it," Hagrid admitted. "No one does."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Gallopin' Gargoyles, people're still scared! Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was a wizard who went… bad. Bad as yeh can go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…" Hagrid gulped, like the word was stuck in his throat.

"You could write it down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah, can't spell it." Hagrid shook his head. He took a great breath, steeling himself, and then whispered, "Alright… Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered violently, making the couch shake with him. "Don't make me say it again. Anyway, this wizard, about twenty years, he went lookin' fer power. Got it too. Started gatherin' followers. Some wanted power, some were afraid. It was dark times, yeh understan', dark times. Yeh didn' know who to trust. People were vanishin' an' turnin' up dead. He was takin over. 'Course, some stood up the him. An' he killed 'em. Horribly. Only safe place was Hogwarts. I reckon it's because he was always scared o' Dumbledore.

"Now, yer mum and dad were as good a witch and wizard as they come. Head boy and girl at Hogwarts in their day! I s'pose the myst'ry is why he didn't try to get them on his side. Prolly know they were too close ter Dumbledore to get them on his side.

"All anyone knows fer sure is that he turned up in the village yeh were livin' in ten years ago. Yeh were only a year old. Maybe he wanted them out o' the way. Maybe he jus' liked killin' by that point, but…"

Hagrid suddenly tugged a huge handkerchief from inside his pocket and blew his nose like a trumpet. I flinched at the sudden loud noise after Hagrid's hushed voice.

"Sorry, it's jus' that sad," he apologized. "I knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn' find. Anway, he killed, an' then – an' this is the real myst'ry – he tried to kill yeh." Hagrid nodded at Harry. "Maybe he wanted to make a clean slate of it, maybe he was jus' in a mood. But a scar like that," he thrust a finger at the scar on Harry's forehead, "only comes from bein' touched by a powerful curse, an evil one. That spell took care o' both o' yer parents, yer house even, but fer some reason, he couldn't kill yeh. Only a baby, an' he couldn' kill yeh. No one lived after he decide to kill 'em… no one, 'cept you."

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. Behind my eyes flashed a brilliant green light. I could hear a high, cold voice laughing, hear it whispering softly in my ear. The words were indistinguishable, but the malice in them… it drove the warmth from my bones and chilled me to the core.

Pain suddenly lanced through my left cheek. I clapped a hand to it, wincing. Hagrid looked at me sympathetically.

"An' that's another myst'ry," he said, nodding to my cheek. I ducked my head self-consciously. My hair had been concealing the large s-shaped scar on my cheek this whole time, but I got the feeling Hagrid knew it was there.

"Did he try and use that spell on me too?" I asked softly.

"No," Hagrid said, shaking his head. "An' no one can figure out why. Near as we can tell, he cut that mark into yer face, then set yeh aside and turned on Harry. No one knows why he stopped or didn' try to kill yeh. Maybe he just wanted to do Harry first?" Hagrid shrugged. "I pulled yeh from the house myself an' brought yeh ter this lot, Dumbledore's orders-"

"Load of old tosh." Once again, Uncle Vernon had gathered enough courage to speak up. Now, it seemed, he had a good head of steam up, because he started ranting, "You listen here, brats. I admit there's something off about you – probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have fixed. But as for your parents –well, they were weirdos, no denying, the world's better without them in it – they deserved what they got, getting mixed up with those wizarding types. Just as I expected, always thought they'd meet a sticky end-"

Hagrid lunged to his feet, brandishing as pink umbrella like a broadsword, but I beat him to it. I stepped forwards now, glaring hatefully at Uncle Vernon as my anger surged. I felt heat bathe my back and heard the crackle of flames as the fire blazed higher behind me.

"Shut up," I hissed. "You shut your fat face, you ass!" Uncle Vernon swelled with rage, but before he could say anything, I swept a hand through the air angrily. I felt the fire behind me shift, lunging in the direction I'd pointed, and he immediately backed down, eyes widening in fear. "Those are my parents you're talking about and I don't care what they did, wizards or not, they have to be better than you! All my life you treated me – us - like there was something wrong with us, like we were something shameful. Now I see though. Every time I blew a light bulb, every time you tried to cut Harry's hair and it grew back – you knew what was going on! You knew we were doing magic! You beat us down because you were afraid of us! Of what we might do to you!"

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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