Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
$Parseltongue$
Chapter 51: Truth part 2
"Harry?!" Lily came running to them as soon as they went into the living room.
She gave her son a long hug before checking him for injuries.
"He is fine, Lily. A healer has already performed a checkup on him." James measured her.
Her eyes moved to land on her husband and she did not look happy at all.
"What took you so much time?!. It's been hours since we received the message! I had to sit here and wait here for so long!."
"I'm sorry…things got a bit complicated…" James looked at Harry for a second.
"We have some things to tell you."
"You have a lot to tell me. I only know that someone attacked our son and Daphne at school." Lily had finally let Harry go of her embrace and they all went to sit down.
"Before we start…" Jamea closed the door and placed an anti-eavesdropping charm. Then, he approached the fireplace and temporarily disabled the floor network.
This startled Lily.
"What is this about, James? Why are you taking so many precautions for?"
"What we are going to tell you…must not come out of here. Not even to our daughters, at least for now." James turned to look at Harry and this one nodded.
"Harry?" Lily stared at his son in confusion.
"This is more than just about the attack, right?"
"Yes…this is going to sound crazy." Harry started.
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It was already two past midnight when Harry and James were done with the explanations.
Lily sat there in silence, moving her eyes from James to Harry.
"There are some details that make little sense…to begin with, time travel doesn't work like that. And second, if you are the future version of our son…why are your personalities so different? I don't want to badmouth my own son…but my Harry was not a good person…I knew this deep inside me. But never dared say it out loud. And I don't think time would have changed him soon much."
Harry looked down and let out a sigh.
"Lily? What are you saying? He made a magical oath in front of me. I tell you, that can not be faked. I understand your doubts, but he is our son." James insisted. He did not want his wife to make the same mistake he did.
"I'm not saying he is not our son…but there is more to this story, isn't it, Harry? "
Lily's intense glare was starting to make him uncomfortable.
"When you woke up at the hospital, you looked at me like you had just seen a ghost. You failed to remember many details of your life so the healer concluded you had amnesia. But there was one answer that struck me as odd…"
"Odd?" asked James.
"You weren't there yet." Lily glanced at James.
"The healer asked Harry about his date of birth. And Harry answered… July 31, 1980. With complete conviction. "
"He got the date wrong. Why is that so important?" James didn't understand it.
But Harry did. He could already imagine what conclusion his mother had arrived at.
"People would often tell me that you were the smartest witch of your generation when I asked about you. They were right." Harry smiled.
"Harry? what are you-" James was interrupted by Lily.
"An alternate timeline?" Asked Lily.
Harry nodded.
"How is it possible?, isn't time supposed to be linear?" James exclaimed.
"Research about time travel has been forbidden by the Ministry for the last two centuries. Time Turner's have been limited to a few hours to avoid any big change. We don't really have a way to know but there have been theories about alternate timelines. And if he came from a different one, where…." Lily opened her eyes widely as she realized something.
"What is it, Lily?" James looked at her with concern.
Lily looked at Harry.
"Were you really born on July 31?"
"I was, yes…" Admitted Harry.
"So really are you from a different timeline?." Asked James.
"One where you were born on a different day?. But I don't see that changing much, to be honest."
"This changes a lot!. Think about it, James!" Lily raised her voice.
"Have you forgotten about what Dumbledore said back then…born as the seventh month dies…"
James' eyes opened like plates.
"That's impossible!. But then…"
"The old man told you about the prophecy then." Said Harry.
James and Lily turned to look at him with surprise.
"You know about it too? Albus only told us part of it. The same part that Voldemort learned about. He wanted us to know why he was so obsessed with the Longbottoms." Said James.
"Harry…were you?..." Lily seemed hesitant to ask what she wanted to ask.
"That's right." Harry glanced at his mother.
"I was born as the seventh month died and my parents had defied him three times. The bastard chose me to mark as his equal. That Halloween night in 1981, he came to my house and made me an orphan before falling victim of his own curse. He died, albeit temporarily and Dumbledore declared me as the 'Boy who lived' before dumping me on the doorsteps of the Dursleys." Harry said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. Despite the many years that have passed, he still has a hard time forgiving the old man for that one.
"You said that we died early in the war…I didn't think it was this early. No wonder you didn't remember Lyra and Holy. They were never born in your time." Said James.
"He left you with Petunia and Vernon?!" Cried Lily.
"But they hate magic…what was he thinking?!"
"Lily dear, calm down. You are going to wake up the girls…" James tried to placate his wife.
Lily went to hug her son.
"Oh, Harry!, I'm sorry…you just had a tough life."
"Well…it wasn't ideal. But it wasn't all bad. I later on got to meet Uncle Lupin, and I also had Sirius…for a few years at least."
"Sirius was alive?" James perked up at hearing that name.
"Harry, we want to hear everything about your life…but now is getting very late. Let us all go to sleep and we will talk more tomorrow. We have a few days before you need to come back to school, right?" asked Lily to her husband.
"That's right." Said James.
"We have time, we are not going anywhere."
Harry wasn't sure if they realized the implication of what he had revealed to them.
If the one occupying the body of their son was a different version from a different timeline, then what happened to their son? At least to the version they knew…the one they raised since he was a baby.
Whatever the case, they didn't ask him.
Maybe they knew he didn't have the answer or maybe they preferred to ignore it.