The Rise of a Dark Lord

The Boy-Who-Lived

"Approximately ten years, I think. A police officer brought him if I'm not mistaken, on the fifth of November of 81. he was such a beautiful baby, so calm, we never heard him cry. We never understood why nobody wanted a baby like that... But then..."

Mrs. Brown didn't continue, she seemed to be lost in old memories and Dumbledore started to have a bad feeling. He could remember a talk that he had a little over 50 years ago that had started in a similar way. Even Snape started to pay more attention to the conversation.

"Was there something wrong with the baby?" asked Dumbledore calmly.

"It wasn't really wrong... I would say strange to be the right word... Even when he was a baby, those eyes, they seemed to see the darkest secrets in our souls. It was unsettling."

Dumbledore 'hummed' and took another sip from his tea. "And what else could you tell us about young Harry?"

Now Mrs. Brown appeared uncomfortable and the bad feeling Dumbledore was having grew.

"Ah... Well... Harry is an excellent student. He has the highest grades in school, he even jumped a couple of years. Most of his professors say that Harry could probably be considered a prodigy."

Albus visibly relaxed, maybe she was uncomfortable because she didn't want them to think that she was exaggerating. There probably was no reason for him to have a bad feeling, and Albus had almost convinced himself that that was the case, until Severus ask a question that destroyed any conviction that Albus may have had.

"And friends?"

Mrs. Brown became even more uncomfortable, but she managed to smile and say. "Ah... Harry never was very social... and you know how children are... sometimes they can be really cruel..."

Snape had to contain the growl that wanted to escape his throat, he hated bullies, and the brat appeared to be following his father's footsteps. "He's a bully? Is that it?" he ended up asking.

"Oh, no, on the contrary. The other children were often cruel to him. You know how it is, we are a small orphanage, with little funds, the children do everything they can to be adopted. And suddenly Harry shows up. A truly beautiful child, an angelic beauty many say, and on top of that he's an extraordinary student, brilliant in everything he does. Naturally, the older boys started to resent him. They beat him, they would tear his clothes up, they even locked him up in the basement we couldn't find him for a couple of days..."

"And nobody did anything?" asked Dumbledore incredulous.

"Do what? We didn't have any evidence, we couldn't accuse any of the boys. And Harry was completely alone, none of the boys said anything to help him." the matron defended herself, slowly her eyes unfocused and the professors could see something like fear on her expression, "But things changed," she whispered, it seemed she was talking more to herself than to her two companions, "oh, how they changed..."

"What changed Mrs. Brown?" asked Albus gently. The bad feeling he had previously was back and, although he tried, he couldn't ignore the similarities between this one and the other. But he could still convince himself that they were only coincidences.

Snape may have been too young to have been there, but he knew what his mentor was thinking, Albus had told him stories about the brilliant pupil that went through Hogwarts fifty years back, and if he could see the similarities based on what Albus had told him, then he was sure that Albus could see it even better.

"You are going to take him, right?" asked the matron in a voice a little above a whisper.

"Harry has been registered since he was born, nothing that you tell us will stop us from taking him. We just want to know a little more about him." replied Dumbledore trying to tranquilize her.