A Different Beginning

Chapter VII - Summer Vacation

When Harry stepped into Potter Manor the next evening with James he was glad to be there. His first year at school had turned out to be slightly more eventful than he had planned on. But he was glad that it was summer time. Once he had deposited all of his belongings into his bedroom, he headed downstairs and into the living room where James was.

"Hey, Da."

James looked up and smiled warmly at his son. "Hi, how are you feeling?"

Harry shrugged as he plopped himself down in his favourite cozy armchair in front of the fire, grinning when Foolish rested his head on his knee. "Alright. I wasn't really hurt or anything."

James nodded. "You know, when I read your letters and I heard about all those suspicions you had, I never imagined that you would end up face to face with Voldemort again, and so soon in your life."

"But you knew that I would end up seeing him again?"

"Yeah, I did." James replied, his voice sad, almost desperate. "Voldemort is the most evil wizard since Grindelwald, and frankly, I believe that he is worse. My Da used to tell me stories about Grindelwald and about the evil things that he had done. Then my mum would tell me about how Dumbledore had destroyed him. But then Voldemort started rising and gathering followers. My parents were worried. They tried not to be of course, as they didn't want to scare me. But I knew that they were afraid. Voldemort was a lot worse than Grindelwald ever was."

Harry stared at his father in surprise. James had never really talked about the time when Voldemort was around. Harry remembered the way he had sat on his father's lap on the park bench in Little Whinging after being rescued from the Dursleys, and how his Da had told him the story about him. He remembered the surprise and sadness that he had felt when he learned that he had made Voldemort disappear, and that his mum was gone. But even now, at eleven years old, Harry still didn't understand everything.

"Da, what was it like when Voldemort was around?"

James sighed. "It's hard to explain Harry. You wouldn't remember the fear or anything. But it was terrible. Do you remember how I told you that people were afraid to speak his name?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. I noticed that other than Professor Dumbledore no one calls him Voldemort at Hogwarts either. Snape calls him the Dark Lord, and Ron as well as everyone else calls him You-Know-Who. And every time I did say his name out loud everyone would sort of shudder and tell me not to use his name."

"Exactly. Voldemort has been gone for ten years, but people are still afraid of him. Dumbledore always said that "fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself". He was very right by that. I don't know about you but when I say Voldemort or I hear his name, I understand that I am dealing with a dark and dangerous wizard. But, when I hear You-Know-Who, or He Who Must Not Be Named, I feel more fearful, because to me by not saying his name its worse." James explained. "Does that make sense to you?"

"Yeah, I feel the same way. Whenever I heard someone say You-Know-Who, I couldn't help but get this big ball of fear in my stomach, you know? But I'm so used to hearing Voldemort that it's not the same."

James smiled at his son, glad that he understood. "Yeah, that's it exactly. It was dark times, Harry, very dark times. No one knew who to trust or who to turn to. No one knew who was a Death Eater and who was under the Imperius Curse."

"What's the Imperius Curse?" Harry asked.

"That's one of the Unforgivables. There are three and this one enables another wizard or witch to control you. To make you do something that you don't want to do. Lots of witches and wizards claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse when Voldemort had his downfall. But the problem with it is that you can't prove that it was true. It caused a lot of problems. I think there is a spell out now or something Dumbledore can do anyway with a light thing to see if you were under the curse or not. I'm not sure and until it becomes a spell, Aurors don't know it." James explained. "You'll probably learn about the Unforgivables in your sixth or seventh year. Anyway, because no one was sure who they could trust, the entire wizarding community was afraid. There was another problem too, because muggles were dying as well. Voldemort and his followers were not only torturing and murdering witches and wizards, but entire muggle families as well. There were massacres of muggle schools and communities. The muggles couldn't explain what was going on, and it was a nightmare for the Ministry of Magic who had to go and do memory charms on muggles who had seen more than they should have. The entire world lived in constant fear and chaos."