D.M.Emrys
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(Harry Potter) Worthy of you: Chapter 17 - Where were you
🕑 Added 2025-08-05 06:06:15 +0000 UTCChapter 17 - Where were you
Summary: Harry meets unexpected family and uncovers secrets Voldemort tried to erase.
The male chuckled kindly before speaking, "Apologies, introductions are in order. I'm Charlous Oscar Potter, and beside me is my wife Dorea Potter née Black. Might we know your name?"
"Harry. Harry James Potter." Harry felt weird introducing himself to paintings of his grandparents.
Now that he thinks about it he never heard anyone speaking about them. It was always about his parents never about them.
Dorea smiled widely at him, "Harry dear it's so nice to meet you. You are looking so much like your father, but there is no doubt it's your mom who gave you your eyes, this shade of green was always one of a kind."
Charles nodded in agreement before a small frown flickered on his face, though it was gone quickly and he smiled again as he addressed Harry warmly, "You are quite a young man already Harry. Are your parents downstairs, it seems to be so long since any Potter entered the manor."
Harry winced a little and asked timidly, "So you don't know? About Voldemort?"
Dorea snorted, "You mean the upstart dark lord, who had the country on the brink of civil war. Calling himself a pureblood and my stupid cousin and three of her children bought that crap. Shameful."
Harry blinked in surprise, "You know he isn't a pureblood?"
The woman raised her nose so high in a true noble fashion, "I am a daughter of the proud Black house of course I memorized all the pureblood families by the time I was eight years old. Nowhere is the name Voldemort mentioned, not to mention has no one noticed he didn't have a first name?! Who is going around claiming to be named from birth Lord Voldemort? And people believe him! I warned my cousin. Told her she was being foolish. That was the first time I heard that despicable term 'blood traitor'. She allowed three of her children to be marked for servitude even if the man was a pureblood the Blacks serve no one! We are a proud house, one of the sacred twenty eight. And she dared call me a traitor. Disgusting."
Harry was speechless after his grandmother finished her rant. He wasn't sure what he would understand from all she said.
"Now look what you did love, you scared our grandson." Charles admonished gently before smiling toward Harry, "As you can see Harry this is a very sore subject for Dorea here. The point is yes we are familiar with the man you referred to."
"Well..." Harry tried to move on from the odd scene, "For some reason he targeted to kill me. He found where mom and dad were hiding with me. He killed dad first, then my mom tried to protect me and he killed her too, but when he tried to cast the killing curse on me the curse rebounded and destroyed his body instead."
There was a long moment of stunned silence before Dorea burst into tears, "M...My boy. My baby boy. I... I would have destroyed that madman, and if my cousin or her children stood in my way I would rip them limb from limb without hesitation..." After that angry statement she went back to crying.
Charles rubbed his wife's back gently comforting her while at the same time stroking his beard, "But why would a self proclaimed dark lord target a child? And this magic you mentioned, I never heard of something like that. You must be an extraordinary wizard."
Harry winced, but Dorea didn't see it as she just then pulled her face from her hands and looked at Harry with a small smile, "Yes. I suppose Sirius will make a good wizard out of you. Despite my nephew's attitude he is quite a formidable opponent with a wand."
Harry tilted his head. Sirius... as in Sirius Black, one of his dad's and Remus' friends, why is that name keep coming up without any obvious context for Harry to make some sort of connection. "Umm... I never knew Sirius, I... I was raised by my aunt Petunia."
His grandparents looked confused, exchanging a worried look. Charles was the one to speak slowly, "Lily's sister... If my memory doesn't deceive me she never liked magic around here, she didn't even show up for the wedding."
Harry couldn't hide the full body flinch and shudder from the memories brought back by that correct accusation.
This time unfortunately neither of his grandparents missed it. Both of them scowled but didn't comment.
Charles forced his calm smile back and tried to change the subject, "Still you are here now, surely it's not with that detestable woman."
"Umm, no." Harry was unsure how to respond. Then he took a deep breath and gathered the courage to ask the question he was too afraid to ask from the second he saw their portraits, "Where were you?"
The two people in the portrait were startled by the rushed manner the question was asked in. So Harry took another breath and tried to ask more calmly, "Where were you?"
The features of both his grandparents softened and Dorea let out a sad, "Oh honey."
Charles himself looked regretful, "A few months after your parent's wedding we visited Spain for some business, but we caught some magical illness. By the time we were diagnosed there was nothing left they could do for us. We just managed to receive the news that Lily was pregnant before passing away."
Dorea looked mad as she growled, "Three months. The country was descending into chaos, my own blood dragging the proud Black name through the mud. My son, daughter-in-law and nephew were fighting some madman wannabe pureblood and I was too weak to even pick up a wand."
Charles looked at her sadly and was about to say something when Harry beat him to it, "It's not your fault Grandma, and it's better than you getting killed by Tom because he wanted to get to me."
Dorea raised her eyes and gave him a bright smile, "Oh, you are such a sweet child."
Charles chuckled, "I will let you know that whoever tries to pick a fight with my lady over there finds themselves in a poor position. Dorea here won her fair share of dueling tournaments. Who is Tom by the way?"
Harry shrugged and explained casually, "Tom Marvolo Riddle is the real name of Voldemort."
Charles just nodded with a thoughtful look on his face, while Dorea froze for a moment before hissing, "Marvolo? As in Marvolo Gaunt?"
Harry tilted his head, not familiar with the name, "I mean, I never heard that name, but I never heard of anyone with the name Marvolo either. Why grandma?"
"That man was despicable." Dorea spat, "I was in Hogwarts when news came along that he dared to attack a ministry employee sent to investigate his various criminal activities. Gaunt spat at the man's face, claiming to be the heir of Slytherin himself, and as such he has higher authority than the ministry itself. How arrogant for such a poor family. He spent quite a time in Azkaban for that, rightfully so." She finished with a huff.
Harry's mind immediately focused and his eyes sharpened, "Did you just say he claimed to be the heir of Slytherin?" His grandmother nodded with an arched eyebrow and Harry's eyes widened, "Maybe he is Voldemort's father. You have to tell me what else you know about him, please grandma."
Dorea seemed to be very satisfied with her grandson's interest in pureblood society as she tilted her head and began softly, "Let me see... Oh, there was a rumor about him after he went to prison about him abusing his squib daughter, but no one ever knew for sure because she ran off with their muggle neighbor to escape her brother's abuse."
Something began to fit in the wrong way to the narrative Harry was building in his mind before. Harry frowned, "While abuse does seem to fit Voldemort... You said it was while you were in Hogwarts, so the timeline is wrong. If Riddle was his son, then he should be older by now." Harry shook his head, "Marvolo was probably not his father but maybe some other relative? The name, and the heir of Slytherin claim, it can't be a coincidence."
There was a moment of silence before, "Oh!" Dorea yelped, her eyes wide, "I just remembered. The muggle Merope escaped with, Morfin kept going on about him a lot, his name was Tom Riddle."
Harry's mind halted for a moment, the puzzle of the family now finally completed in his mind, "So Marvolo was his grandfather. Tom Riddle and Merope were his parents and Morfin was his uncle. Maybe one of them will be alive and be able to..."
His grandmother caught his excited rant, "Oh dear, I'm sorry to destroy your good mood. There is a problem with your plan." Harry looked at her with wide eyes, "You see after they escaped no one saw Merope ever again, but three years later Tom Riddle returned home. I'm not sure what happened in the later years, but around sixteen years after that Morfin was accused of murdering the entire Riddle family and was sent to Azkaban for the rest of his life. By the time we died Morfin was still there."
Harry blinked at his grandmother before smiling widely, "Thanks grandma, that's a lot of useful information we can use against Tom."
Charles chuckled, "Will you look at that, apparently it paid off to be a pureblood fanatic."
Dorea huffed, "I'm not a pureblood fanatic! It is only proper for a proud Black daughter to know both her allies and potential enemies. It's prudent to keep tabs on certain families, like one who kept making ludicrous claims such as the Gaunts." Then she looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow, "Which leads me to ask, that while I understand it's important to know your enemy my information is regarding a past Voldemort has erased to become a self proclaimed pureblood, why would it help you defeat him."
Harry hesitated for a moment before making a choice, "Well I'm not supposed to talk about it with anyone, but you are not exactly alive so it should be okay. Tom made horcruxes and if we can find them, we can get rid of them. Maybe that's why he erased his past, so no one will know where to look."
Charles tilted his head in confusion, "I don't believe I heard this term bef..."
"Harry. You have to go to Gringotts demand the location of Black Island, then take everyone you hold dear and stay hidden." Dorea cut off her husband with an unusually disturbed voice.
Charles looked at his wife with wide eyes, "Dear..."
Again she cut him off, this time her voice stern, "You don't understand Charles. That crazy bastard tore parts of his soul and hidden them in containers, rendering him practically immortal. Harry is still a child, I'm not having him face a wizard seven times his age, and an immortal one at that."
Charles now looked pale himself and looked at Harry, "I believe you should take your grandmother's advice, my boy."
Harry looked away from them, "I wish I could, but there are people I care about that wouldn't leave. My best friend is a muggle-born, I can't ask her to leave her entire family behind just for me. I will help stop Tom, I will make sure mom's and dad's sacrifice will mean something."
"Oh dear," Dorea spoke softly, with a sad lilt in her tone, "Of course it was worth it. You survived. It's all that would have mattered for them."
"Right you are, love." Charles spoke in a hard tone Harry didn't hear from him until now, "Who are you training with Harry?"
Harry rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Well... Remus is going to start soon. But until now I was living with mom's sister and..."
"Petunia?!" Dorea yelped in outrage, "That spiteful woman?"
Charles probably noticing how uncomfortable Harry was with the subject was quick to change it, "Very well then, go and use the library of the manor there are a few guides and spells books there that I believe would prove most prudent for your task."
Dorea let out a deep sigh, "While you are at it, I brought some books from the Black library as well, you might want to go through them as well. Even though the magic there will be considered dark when going against someone of Voldemort's caliber it will be good to have in your arsenal."
Harry nodded before he remembered something and he asked carefully, "Umm, Grandmother... Do you know where Riddle lived?"
Dorea understanding why Harry was asking that seemed to think very hard on the matter for a moment before responding slowly, "If memory serves right, the Gaunt house was in Little Hangleton. The Riddle house was not far from them so it will be your best bet."
Harry nodded and then paused when his Grandmother huffed and said in a sneering voice, "Considering my big sister's support of the dark lord as well as her son's and our niece's I would also suggest to look around the Black House in Grimmauld Place. Sirius will get you in."
Again. That name. But Harry already had too much information to go over with the headmaster and Remus so he gave his grandparents a smile and said cheerfully, "Thank you both, I will visit again soon."
Dorea and Charles smiled back with the lady in the portrait replying, "Be sure to do so dear. Oh, and do bring Remus with you next time."
Harry nodded and left the room. There was much to do now.
