The Danger of Truth

Chapter 1: The Truth will out

Harry Potter was sitting on a dirty floor, attempting to brush some of the dust, which presently covered his shirt and trousers, off of him. He had been up in the Dursley’s loft almost all day because his Uncle and Aunt had demanded that he clean and sort all the junk that had been cluttering it up. He gazed tiredly around him. There was only one box left to sort out, so he slowly dragged it toward him and began to sift through the contents. The first thing he came across was a rather crumpled photo. In it was a man with Jet-black messy hair, who he was standing next to woman whose long, red hair was being tugged by a baby she was holding. The baby looked exactly like the man, except for the colour of his eyes, which were the same as his woman’s; Emerald green.

“Mum…Dad…” Harry murmured as he gazed at his parents and himself as a baby. He had photos of his parents in an album that Hagrid had made for him in his first year at Hogwarts but he had never seen a photo where he had been with them. His eyes were starting to feel a bit wet, so with shaking hands he put the photo down and looked up at the box. Would there be more of his parent’s things in there? He looked at it for a long time and realised that there were faint words written on the side. He leaned closer to get a better look and saw that ‘Property of the Potters’ was written on the side. Harry felt a hot surge of anger course through him. The Dursley’s must have been given what was left of his parent’s belongings after they had died and their house had been destroyed. For all these years this box had been in this loft, doing nothing except gathering dust.

‘How dare they!’ Harry thought as he continued to stare at the box. ‘These are my parents things and now there mine. How could they keep them from me?’ Harry had half a mind to march downstairs and demand an explanation from his Aunt and Uncle but knew that any mention of his parents would only spark up a huge row. The Dursley’s hated any mention of his mum and dad as they considered them to be freaks, just because they were Wizards.

With a sigh Harry put his hands back inside the box and lifted out the next thing that came into contact with them. At first glance it looked like a long, rectangular piece of blank card. Harry frowned, why had this been kept? He turned it over and read:

Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth

Pursuant to the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1964.

It was a Birth Certificate. At first Harry thought that it could be his, but after scanning the page he realised that the birth date was years before his, so it must be one of his parents. He looked down at the section reading ‘Name, if any’ and saw that ‘Lilith, Anne’ had been written.

“Lilith…” Harry repeated, “Or Lily for short.” He added with a smile. It was his mother’s certificate. Harry didn’t know anything about his mum’s parents or really anything about her…except for the fact that she had gone to Hogwarts, left and then married Harry’s father. He looked at the next section and saw the heading ‘Name and Surname of Father’.

Harry looked down to read his Grandfathers name and stopped dead. His heart felt like it was about to explode inside his rib cage and his chest tightened, as he began to breathe rapidly.

It read:

Name and Surname of Father

Thomas

Marvolo

Riddle

Harry stared at the name for a long time and eventually he began to shake, not from fear or shock however, but from laughter. He couldn’t help it; Harry laughed and laughed at the complete absurdity of what was written in front of him.

He was still laughing ten minutes later when his Aunt poked her Horse-face through the hatch and up into the loft, demanding to know why he was making so much noise and what was so funny. Harry slowly managed to calm down and stop laughing. He wiped away the tears that had been flowing down his face.

“My mum…why does it say on her Birth certificate that her fathers name was Riddle? Your surname before Dursley was Evans…so why wasn’t hers?” He asked shakily. Petunia’s eyes went wide in shock, whatever she had expected him to say, it clearly was not that. Then her expression changed to a mix of rage and hate.

“Your mother was adopted into MY family!” She spat angrily, “My parents took her in and gave her my surname. Her own family didn’t want her, so she came in and stole MINE! It was all because her mother gave her up…something about protecting her from the father an…” She suddenly stopped and looked up at Harry in horror, as if she had suddenly realised that she was answering his questions, which is something that the Dursley’s never did. A closed expression replaced the horrified one on her face.

“Finish up here boy, and then go to your room. I’ll bring your dinner up to you.” Petunia said calmly, as if their previous conversation had never happened. Then as quickly as she had arrived, she was gone, leaving Harry alone.