A Stolen Past

Questions and Answers

The next morning at breakfast, Molly did not shield Harry from questioning; in fact, she was the one who first asked him to recount his tale.

"Harry, dear," she said as she Levitated a plate heaped with scrambled eggs onto the table, "now that you've had a good night's rest, would you mind telling us where you've been all this time?" It was phrased as a question, but Harry knew that he had no choice but to tell her what she wanted to know.

"Sure, Mol- er, Mrs...." His voice trailed off.

Molly laughed - not unkindly - and said, "You normally call us Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, dear, although we wouldn't mind you calling us Molly and Arthur, would we Arthur?"

"Of course not, darling," he answered.

"Er, I think I'll stick to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for now," said Harry. Then, taking a deep breath, he began his story. "The first thing I can remember is waking up in my old bed at my aunt and uncle's house and realizing my memory was gone. Everything from the time I was ten years old up to that day is just a blur, and I get a terrible headache whenever I try to remember any of it. Uncle Vernon said something about me getting hit over the head at the end of term, so I figured that was the reason for the memory loss, but I don't know that I believe that anymore."

"A Memory Charm, no doubt," muttered Mr. Weasley.

"A what?" Harry asked.

"A Memory Charm," the older man repeated. "It's a kind of magic that modifies a person's memory. If whoever did it had done a better job, they'd have replaced your memories, rather than simply making you forget. Go on, though."

"Right," said Harry. "That day, we left town for the summer, and we didn't come back until the night before I left for school. They told me that I went to- I went to- Why can't I say the stupid name?" he wondered aloud. "Do you have any idea why I physically can't say or write the name of the school I was at?"

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley exchanged a quick glance, and Mr. Weasley said, "I think that's a question best reserved for Professor Dumbledore. He sent word early this morning that he'll be coming by later; you can ask him then."

"Alright," Harry said, deciding that a few hours wouldn't be too long to wait. "Anyway, the Dursleys sent me to a school for really bad kids - boys, actually; it was an all boys school - and that's where I've been ever since." Over the course of the next half hour, Harry explained how he had begun dreaming about things that had happened to him at Hogwarts, finally culminating in the discovery of Ron's letter during the Christmas holiday. Then he told them how he had gotten Hassseth, his serpentine friend, to find out Hedwig's name, thus enabling him to establish contact with Ron and Hermione. Throughout the story, Harry carefully avoided any mention of actually doing magic, as the Weasleys knew he had not had a wand, and he had already learned that no one but him did magic without one. It wasn't that he didn't trust Mr. and Mrs. Weasley with this secret; he just wanted to keep it to himself until he had a better idea of what was going on. He also avoided mentioning Tyler, as he didn't see any reason to involve his friend any more than necessary.

"And to think Ron's been in touch with you for weeks, and he never bothered to tell us a word," Mrs. Weasley huffed during a pause in the story.

"It was on Dumbledore's orders, Molly," her husband reminded her gently. "If he'd gone against Dumbledore and told us, you'd have sent him a Howler for disobeying."

"I know," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "I just wish- Oh, never mind. Go on, Harry."

"Two nights ago, I was sitting around, talking with Hassseth," Harry said, "when she started telling me about an evil rat with a silver paw that was looking for me." Mrs. Weasley gasped, but didn't interrupt, so he continued, "She told me to be on the lookout, and then hid inside a big crack in the wall. Not five minutes later, this rat with the silver paw comes sneaking toward me. Well, Hassseth was waiting, and she came shooting out of her hiding place and bit him around the middle. Then the rat started swelling, and it... turned into a man." Harry suddenly stopped, realizing how absurd his story must sound, even to people who were accustomed to dealing with magic, and the astonished looks on the Weasleys' faces served only to reinforce this thought.