Destination Unknown

Chapter 18

Christmas, 2019

4 A.M.

"Draco?" Hermione called softly. Her husband, sleeping next to her, opened one bleary eye.

"Mmm?"

"Have you noticed that Harry is behaving strangely ever since the children came back for Christmas?"

Draco was fully awake now. He had noticed a change in Harry - specially his attitude towards Hermione. And there were dark circles under his eyes as if he wasn't sleeping properly. Cory, too, had changed a bit, but not as much as Harry. He nodded.

"I wonder what happened...Draco, do you think he found out the truth?"

"I doubt it."

"Should we confront him?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Draco...I can't go on this way...I can feel his misery...his anger...something is definitely wrong...Cory and Ace are different, too...and Harry's isolating himself from them...from all of us..."

"Go to sleep now, Hermione. We'll see how he behaves today."

Hermione nodded.

6 A.M.

"Harry?" asked Cory softly as he entered his brother's room. Harry lay on the bed, pretending to be asleep.

"I know you're not sleeping. Don't act. We have to talk," Cory said. Harry sat up and asked wearily, "What?"

"Why are you avoiding us?"

Harry shrugged.

"I guess I just want some time alone," he muttered vaguely.

"It's been more than a month, Harry. We're worried about you. You look like you haven't had a decent sleep in ages...you merely pick at your food...you grow paler by the day...and you refuse to talk...what is wrong with you?"

Harry shot his brother a pleading look and said, "Just let me be, Cory."

"No. You have to tell me what's destroying you."

"You know."

"No, I don't. And you won't either, until you talk to them, got it?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I can't, Cory. I just can't."

"It might be coincidence."

"It can't be. The cloak and the map, Cory. Do you remember Uncle Ron told us that Harry Potter got an invisibility cloak on his first Christmas at Hogwarts from Dumbledore? Do you remember Mum saying he had a map of Hogwarts?"

Cory's eyes widened.

"Your Cloak? The Marauder's Map?" he asked faintly. Harry nodded.

"You think Mum sent them to us anonymously? Won't that mean I'm his son, too?" Cory asked anxiously. Harry shook his head.

"I don't think you are. Your memories are different from mine...I see Harry Potter's life...you see someone else's. You vaguely remind me of someone in the visions, but I'm not sure who...I remember the Marauders, too...you know, Cory, our guesses were pretty accurate...Prongs was James Potter, Padfoot was Sirius Black, Moony was Remus Lupin and Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew. You know of Lupin's Lycanthorpy. The other three were Animagi - James was a stag, Sirius was a dog and Peter was a rat. No, I would say that you are a Malfoy all right...I am not."

9 A.M.

"Merry Christmas, darlings," wished Hermione as Harry, Cory and Ace walked down the stairs together. She proceeded to hug them. Draco kissed Ace on the forehead and shook hands with his sons - they were young men now, and almost as tall as him. The children wished back. Ace ran to her gifts, dragging her brothers. Harry seemed almost reluctant to touch the gifts. Draco and Hermione shared a worried look.

Noon

Hermione had searched for Harry all over the Manor. He seemed to have disappeared. Almost panicking, she ran out to the Quidditch pitch and found him sitting in the snow. She ran to him and threw her arms around him.

"What are you doing here? You're freezing!" she quickly muttered some warming spells and heaved a sigh of relief when his icy body warmed to a normal temperature.

"Are you trying to catch a cold?" she scolded. Harry did not lift his head. She put a gentle hand under his chin and turned his face towards herself.

"Harry? Are you all right?" she asked softly, startled at the tears in his eyes. Instinctively, she moved closer to him and put an arm around his shoulder.

"What's wrong, dear?"

Harry closed his eyes and let the tears fall. Hermione squeezed his shoulders and said softly, "Hush, my baby...tell Mum what's wrong."

It was a whole minute when Harry opened his eyes and looked at her straight in the eye.

"I know that I'm not a Malfoy - not by birth, that is. I'm a Potter, am I not?"

Hermione paled. She nodded, horrified.

"How did you find out?" she gasped.

"Through some pictures...and my memories."

Hermione hugged him very tightly and broke down. Mother and son clung to each other as they cried.

"Don't worry darling, it's all right," she said finally. He shook his head sadly.

"Does Dad know that I'm your illegitimate son?"

Hermione was so shocked that her mouth hung open for quite some time before she started laughing. Harry, mistaking this laughter as one of guilt, shook his head sadly.

"Mum," he said softly, " you should have told me that Harry Potter was my father. At least you should have told Dad."

Hermione couldn't stop laughing. Harry walked back to the Manor. Hermione sat laughing till her sides ached and tears ran down her face. Her giggles stopped only when she keeled over, unconscious.

2 P.M.

"Where is Hermione?" asked Draco, banging his fist on the table. They had been looking for her since an hour, but she had vanished. Harry had shut himself up in his room and refused to come out. Cory and Ace stood next to him, looking equally frustrated.

Tickle, a House-elf, appeared suddenly with a 'pop'.

"Tickle found the mistress!" he squeaked, "Mistress out in the snow fainted!"

They brought her in immediately.

"Enervate!" said Draco, pointing his wand at his wife. She blinked and opened her eyes.

"Harry?" she whispered.

"Fetch him!" barked Draco at his two children. Cory and Ace rushed out. Tickle had already disappeared.

Hermione took in Draco's face.

"Draco? You won't believe this..." she began and proceeded to relate everything that Harry had said.

"Uh-oh," murmured Draco, "so that's why he's so upset? Did you tell him the truth?"

"I couldn't. I just...laughed...and he left..."

"And he's shut himself up in his room since then."

Cory and Ace came in, looking anxious.

"He isn't opening the door, Dad...and we heard exploding sounds from the room..." Cory said. They were both very white.

"Go ahead and have lunch, dears. Let your mother and I take care of this. We'll join you shortly," said Draco. Cory and Ace went downstairs. Draco and Hermione went to Harry's room.

"Alohomora!" muttered Hermione. The door refused to open.

"Allow me," said Draco. He whipped out his wand, pointed it at the door and yelled, "Reducto!"

The door shattered into tiny splinters of wood. They walked in and Hermione repaired the door with a 'Reparo'. The sight of the room made her nearly faint again.

The room looked as though a whirlwind had passed through it. Every breakable thing was shattered into tiny pieces. Everything else was torn or ripped apart. And the particles were hovering in mid-air, encircling Harry, who stood in the middle of the room, staring ahead with unseeing eyes.

"What the hell happened here?" shouted Draco.

"It's his accidental magic...he used to do it when he was really upset or angry..." whispered Hermione. She took a tentative step forward.

"Harry?"

The boy turned at the sound of his mother's voice. The wall behind him cracked with a loud sound.

Draco walked up to Hermione.

"Stop it, Harry. Calm down. We need to talk," he said serenely.

Harry gave him a disbelieving stare.

"You knew? You knew I was a bastard and yet you took me in?"

Face flushed, Hermione walked to him with slow deliberation, not even flinching when the suspended broken particles sliced her skin. She opened her mouth and said very slowly, emphasising each word, "You. Are. Not. A. Bastard."

Harry blinked.

"I'm not? Who's my mother, then? Or were you married to Harry Potter when I was conceived?" he asked angrily.

"What gives you the idea that you are Harry Potter's son?" asked Draco.

"I...I saw his picture...we look the same...except for the glasses and the scar...are you saying that he's not my father? Then why do I look like him?"

Draco chuckled.

"My dear boy, you look like him because you are him."

"How's that possible? He died more than seventeen years ago!"

"No," said Hermione softly, "he didn't. He sacrificed himself to give Voldemort a second chance."

"What?"

"Let me explain right from the beginning...you see, there was this prophecy of Trelawny which said that only one between Harry and Voldemort could live properly...so Harry had to kill Voldemort...Lord Voldemort, who once used to be Tom Riddle, a brilliant Hogwarts student...somehow, Harry knew that once Voldemort was dead, the essence of Tom Riddle would remain...he wanted to give Tom a second chance, so he made a deal...he and Tom were turned into newly born babies..."

"And you took us in? But if I'm Harry Potter, then that means Cory - he - he is Voldemort!"

Draco nodded, but Hermione shook her head.

"No, Harry - you have to understand this - Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort were different...Tom Riddle became Voldemort due to certain reasons, some of which were a dead mother, a Muggle father who rejected him and an improper orphanage. Harry wanted to give Tom a chance to lead a normal life, with normal parents - people who really cared for him. He was sure that the transformation wouldn't take place, then. And the prophecy would not be violated, either, as it spoke of the Dark Lord and not Tom."

"Why did I have to become an infant, too?"

"Because the spell Harry used required the sacrifice of his youth. And I believe Harry always wanted a home and a family, too - all he ever wanted was to be normal, and that was the one thing forever denied to him..." tears ran down Hermione's cheeks. Even Draco's eyes shone brightly.

Harry dropped to his knees.

"My brother...my best friend...he...my mortal enemy? My parents' murderer? The Dark Lord? How can this be happening?"

Hermione sat down next to him.

"Harry, Cory was not the one who did that to you or to anyone. You gave him a chance to be good - and he took it. You know the core feathers in your wands? That came from Harry himself. That white phoenix is Harry. Anyone with Dark intentions cannot even touch those wands - Harry was pure Light...and the fact that you and Cory have his feathers in your wands means that you two are Light, too!"

Harry rested his head on her shoulder and broke down, sobbing violently. Hermione held him tightly. Draco repaired the room. Then he sat down on the other side of Harry and put a hand on his shoulder.

When Harry finally stopped crying, he said softly, "Thank you, Mum, Dad."

"No, Harry," said Draco, "thank you. You and Cory are the best sons any parent could ever wish for."

Harry gave him a tremulous smile.

"Who else knows?"

"Only seven people knew...now eight...Draco and I, Ron and Ginny, Snape and McGonagall and Dumbledore," said Hermione.

"What about Cory? Will you tell him?" Harry asked.

"Not until he finds out something himself," said his father, "learning that you were the Wizarding world's greatest hero is very different from learning that you were the Dark Lord."

"You're right," said Harry, "I'll tell him that you knew about my parentage and you don't have any problems with it. And that my real parents are dead."

"You do belong in Slytherin," said Draco proudly, "not a single untrue word...and yet the impression is very different from the truth!"

Harry beamed at his parents.

"Let's go down for lunch," he said, "I'm hungry!"

The three of them quickly muttered cleaning spells and went downstairs, where Cory and Ace were waiting for them with an untouched lunch. Harry gave his brother and sister a big smile as he took his seat on the table. He was sure that his feelings for his brother wouldn't change. He hoped the same thing would happen with Cory when he learnt the truth. He wondered vaguely if Cory would find out before they left Hogwarts. A slight nudge from his brother broke his musings.

"Everything ok?" asked Cory gently.

Harry nodded happily.

"Fine, dear brother, perfectly fine."