When Harry woke again, he found himself lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing. The first face he saw was his mother, Lily.
"Thank goodness, you're finally awake, dear!" Lily rushed anxiously to his bedside and looked at her son with concern. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, Mum... I'm sorry I worried you." Harry shook his head apologetically, seeming to hesitate over what to say. "Mum... I met Voldemort."
"I know. Dumbledore told me all about what happened... Harry, how could you be so reckless?" Lily reproached him softly. "Dumbledore and all the professors were there, and your father and I were almost there too. Why did you have to risk your life, when you're just a child?"
Fear in hindsight, but also immense pride. That was perhaps the contradiction in Lily's heart as a mother at that moment.
"I won't do it again~" Harry put on the smile he always used to act sweet and innocent after getting into trouble.
He really wasn't the impulsive sort—unless someone crossed his line!
And what Voldemort had said earlier had crossed it more than anything else!!
"Mum, I... I didn't really defeat Voldemort, did I?" At the mention of Voldemort, Harry's mood sank. "Voldemort said it was all a lie... When I was one, it was that miracle that defeated him—the person who gave me this lightning-shaped scar. And today, I only got out of danger because of its power..."
"Yes and no." Lily smiled tenderly. "You didn't defeat Voldemort through your own strength, that's true. But think about it from another angle: that lightning-shaped scar appeared because you are who you are. Dear, the scar holds more than magic. It also holds powerful emotions, and those are what will let you truly defeat Voldemort one day!"
Harry still didn't have a clear understanding of the "emotions" his mother spoke of, but this experience had made him realize something else...
"Mum, when we get home, could you and Dad teach me more magic?" he asked, looking at her expectantly.
"Of course, but why all of a sudden..."
"Because the little man of the house has found something he wants to protect." A hearty voice came from the hospital room door. Harry's father had arrived with Dumbledore.
"Harry, you did a very good job this time!" James smiled and nodded approvingly at his son. "Padfoot and Moony were delighted to hear the news, but I didn't let them come. There was no need to make such a fuss~"
"My godfathers... Right! That rat!" Harry suddenly remembered something and looked urgently at his father, only to find him smiling as if he already knew everything would be fine.
"That matter has been dealt with, Harry. The rat really was the fugitive Peter Pettigrew. He's now locked away in a specially made cell in Azkaban." Dumbledore answered on James's behalf. "I must commend you for your sharp eyes. I never imagined Pettigrew, who had been on the run for ten years, had been living with the Weasleys all this time—and spending much of it at Hogwarts, no less... I also owe your family an apology. It was my failure not to discover this sooner."
"Professor, it wasn't your fault. You can't keep an eye on a rat all the time." James hurriedly waved his hand. "But Harry really did do well this time. I'm proud of you~"
"Dad..."
"Ha ha! Lily, what did I tell you? Our son was bound to be brilliant. That's all thanks to your good parenting~"
"He takes after you more, actually. And Harry's always looked up to you~"
"Lily..." "James..."
"Could you two... please leave the hospital room?" Harry, who had just been feeling touched, immediately got a vein throbbing on his forehead.
The Potters never had the slightest self-awareness when it came to publicly showing off their affection. Especially when there were two single people in the room~
Fortunately, his parents didn't make Harry suffer through it for long. They soon wandered off together, still being lovey-dovey, to find another corner.
Harry and Dumbledore then naturally moved on to something else.
"Professor, what happened to the Sorcerer's Stone?" Harry was very concerned about the fate of the thing he'd gone to such lengths to protect.
"Harry, I'm truly grateful for what you did, but I'm afraid I must tell you... the thing you and your friends did your best to protect never existed."
"What?!" Harry froze.
The Sorcerer's Stone... didn't exist?
"It disappeared—or, to be precise, it was stolen. Someone took it from a heavily guarded vault at Gringotts without anyone noticing." Dumbledore explained softly. "My friend, Nicolas Flamel, seems to know something about it, but he isn't willing to reveal much."
"How could that happen..."
"Don't dwell on it too much, Harry." Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "At least Voldemort didn't get it, did he? And the Sorcerer's Stone wasn't important to us or to the Flamel couple. Besides, we didn't come away empty-handed. At least now we know that Gringotts' security measures aren't completely foolproof. And the person who took the Stone even left me a note in return..."
"In return... What did it say?" Harry frowned in confusion.
"The note said I could hire Gilderoy Lockhart as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor next school year." Dumbledore beamed. "It was a very timely reminder. I was worried I wouldn't find a suitable replacement for Quirrell~"
"Gilderoy Lockhart? Good heavens, he's a very famous wizard! He's also the most popular author in the British Wizarding World!"
At the end-of-year feast, Harry reunited with his worried friends and told them about next year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Hermione immediately got stars in her eyes, practically ready to jump up from her seat.
Huh... Harry hadn't realized she was such a devoted fan~
Anyway, seeing Hermione so excited her girlish heart was practically bursting made Harry feel inexplicably unhappy. It even dulled the joy of winning the House Cup by a huge margin.
No, he had to look into that man. And he had to do something during the holidays, too!
With that in mind, just as the Hogwarts Express was about to pull into King's Cross Station, Harry suddenly shoved Hedwig's cage into Hermione's hands.
"Huh? You want me to take Hedwig home... but why?" The girl was utterly bewildered.
"So you can write to me during the holidays~" Harry requested as though it were obvious. "Please? You can write about anything, just make sure you write to me."
"So what exactly are you up to?"
"Heh~" Unlike the utterly baffled Hermione, Neville beside her had already seen right through it.
A scheme. It was all a scheme~
(p.s. This extra chapter hints at the main story~)
Six: Harry Potter, Meeting the Parents Already?
Once the holidays began, Harry waited and waited, and finally, on his twelfth birthday, Hedwig returned.
He'd been waiting for the letter so eagerly that he'd practically lost his appetite and forgotten how to enjoy tea. Even the cake at the Longbottom family's birthday party had lost its appeal~
The moment Hedwig returned, Harry carried her into the living room and opened the letter in front of his parents.
It was only a simple birthday greeting and some everyday small talk, but Harry kept rereading it, making all sorts of different faces as he did. He managed to make a thin little letter look like a whole collection of love poems.
"Oh? Harry, who sent you that letter?" Seeing that her son had been showing it off in the living room for ages, Lily, who was busy tidying up, decided to play along.
"Hehe, my girlfriend, of course. Why else would Hedwig have delivered it~" Harry replied cheerfully, grinning so widely his back teeth were almost showing.
Nyehahaha, how about that? I finally got to show them up for once!
As if afraid someone might see it, he pressed the letter to his chest, then darted back to his room.
"Honestly, that boy~" Lily watched him go with a knowing smile.
"What's going on? What was he reading?" James asked curiously, looking up from his newspaper.
"Our son was reading a letter from his 'girlfriend'~" Lily's smile threatened to spill right off her face.
"Ha, that little Granger girl, right?" James immediately figured it out. "Who else would be willing to take care of his owl over the holidays?"
"That's not necessarily true," Lily argued, shaking her head. "Our Harry is so brilliant, surely there are plenty of girls at school who like him."
"But that clever girl is the only one who's always by his side," James said with a laugh. "Let's let him amuse himself for a while. Otherwise, he'd be too pitiful... don't you think, darling?"
Honestly, Harry had no chance of showing off to the Potters with that kind of silly trick.
James maintained that he'd already tried all those little tricks back when he was at school~
Harry: I'm at school now!
James: You don't have a girlfriend~
Harry: I have a girlfriend now!
James: You don't have a wife~
Harry: I have a wife now!
James: You don't have children~
Harry: I have children now!
James: You don't have grandchildren...
So it turned out that a dad was always a dad, and someone was doomed to be shown up by his parents for the rest of his life~
Of course, if Harry really did manage to bring Hermione home as his wife, the Potters would wholeheartedly approve.
After his first year, they finally understood why their fifteen-year-old son had once been so completely smitten with Miss Granger.
Clever, lively, independent, and confident, Hermione Granger would undoubtedly become an outstanding witch. Those qualities of hers—including being Muggle-born—were also very much like Harry's mother, Lily, so of course Harry would be especially drawn to her.
Harry spent the whole holiday basking in the joy of having successfully shown up his parents. Of course, he didn't forget to look into Gilderoy Lockhart, either, and learned that the man would be holding a book signing in Diagon Alley.
"Neville, Neville, let's go to Diagon Alley together that day, like we planned~"
"Tell me, before you invited me, you hadn't already written to someone else, had you?"
That exchange was all it took to show that Neville knew his friend inside and out.
The moment he heard about the signing, Harry had hurriedly written to invite someone—without even putting his friend first...
Honestly, what a disgrace~
The men in the Potter family had always been hopelessly devoted to one thing at the expense of everything else... Neville had heard Harry's godfathers and uncles complain about it for ten whole years.
But Sirius and Lupin had watched James spend six years taking one blow after another, so they'd enjoyed it all the more. Why did Neville have to spend six years being force-fed lovey-dovey nonsense by one person and another?
But jokes aside, they still had to go to Diagon Alley. So on the appointed day, six people from the Longbottom and Potter families met there.
By the way, they also ran into Hermione... and her dentist parents.
Watching the Potters and the Grangers chatting away happily, the Longbottoms couldn't help regretting that they'd made such bad friends.
What was this? Did you need a third party to witness a meeting with the parents these days?
And apparently the third party couldn't just show up alone. They had to drag their whole family along, too?!
"Neville... Maybe we should stop seeing certain friends from now on~" Neville's father, Frank Longbottom, an elite Auror, patted his son on the shoulder with a heartfelt sigh.
His wife, Alice Longbottom, had just turned her gaze away from a small alley beside Gringotts. No one knew what she'd been looking at.
Before long, Gilderoy Lockhart's book signing began. The famous author really did know how to seize an opportunity to drum up publicity.
He spotted Harry in the crowd at once, then came straight over without asking. He dragged Harry into a whole string of photos with him, and finally insisted on giving Harry a complete set of his "masterpieces."
Harry was naturally delighted to accept such a kind offer... and, once they'd left, he promptly handed the books to Hermione.
"Here, they're for you. The autographs are still fresh, and he even wrote you a personal message."
"Ah... but I already bought them..."
"Then you can give those to me. No big deal~" Before Hermione could object, Harry grinned and snatched the book bag from her hands, then shoved a stack of books into her arms.
"Um..." Hermione was taken aback by what Harry had done. She really had wanted a set of Lockhart's signed books, and she hadn't even known if she'd get the chance to buy them. But Harry had just given them to her so openly, and she didn't know what to make of it.
What was more, both their sets of parents were watching. What if they got the wrong idea...
"Potter, don't tell me you really made her your girlfriend?"
"Mm..." The sudden voice made Hermione's cheeks burn, but when she recognized who had spoken, she immediately glared.
Draco Malfoy of Slytherin. There was no question about it: he'd been the enemy of Harry and his friends throughout the past year!
"You must be enjoying yourself, Potter," Malfoy sneered. "I hear it's a family tradition of yours to show off wherever you go. The famous Harry Potter—even going into a bookshop has to turn into a big spectacle~"
"Don't say that! Harry didn't mean to!" Hermione immediately snapped back.
"Oh~ Are you already so eager to meddle in the Potter family's business?" Malfoy drawled sarcastically, making Hermione blush again.
But facing Malfoy, who had clearly come looking for a fight, Harry didn't say a word.
He wasn't sure—no, he couldn't bring himself to refute it. After all...
What Malfoy had just said was actually pretty accurate~
Seven: Harry Potter, the Exposed Diary
The little incident at the entrance to Flourish and Blotts naturally drew the attention of the people nearby. They stopped to watch with interest, eager to see how the exchange between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy would develop.
One of the boys carried the glorious legend of having once defeated You-Know-Who; the other was the only son of the richest pure-blood family. Their every move could draw a crowd in an instant.
Of course, some people weren't concerned with families or factions.
For instance, a red-haired little girl who had only ever been described in the original story as pretty. She'd been sneaking glances at Harry this whole time and could hardly bear to blink.
And she was actually the angriest person there over Draco Malfoy's "big talk" just now...
Before you continue