Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 24: You are Famous Again
"I see now what you meant by children's books." Harry skimmed over the three thin books that Morgan had brought for him.
The first one was the most important, as it spoke about how Harry Potter defeated the evil wizard who had been terrorising the country, and whose name shall not be named, when he was a mere baby.
The other two books were short stories that described various adventures that the Boy Who Lived went on to have after growing up a bit.
In one of them, the boy tamed a red dragon that was attacking a village and became good friends with it.
In the other one, he was solving a mystery in an old haunted castle.
"This is rubbish…who wrote these books?" Harry picked one up and read the author's name.
It was just some man he had never heard about, and then he saw that the other book was made by someone else, meaning there were at least two people writing books and using his name while making up stories for profit.
"Forget the fantasy stories, those were just written by greedy fools. But what the first book said was the truth. Or at least, that is what the papers said at the time." Morgan told him.
"You mean that thing about me killing some evil wizard when I was a baby? And did people believe that?" Harry was now questioning the intelligence of Britain's magical population.
Morgan shrugged. "The citizens of this land were very scared of that man. So when he disappeared, they latched onto the first explanation they received. The name of Harry Potter brought them hope. And that is why you are so famous now. There is not a single man, woman, or child who hasn't heard of you."
"Who was this evil wizard anyway?" Harry asked.
"He went by the name of Lord Voldemort, but no one dares to say it out loud, even now. They all called him 'You Know Who'. He had a large following of dark wizards named Death Eaters, who dressed in black cloaks with white masks. They would often launch raids on muggles or muggle-born families."
"Muggles?" He had heard that word before from the barman, but didn't know what it was.
"Just normal humans. Non-magical. For the most part, the muggles are completely unaware that magic even exists. Only those with family members in the wizarding world are allowed into the secret."
"That's what I had been wondering…they really don't know anything about magic? How is that possible? Magic users were a common thing back then." Harry asked.
A deep frown appeared on Morgan's face. "A lot has changed since then. And my half-brother is one of the main people responsible for this situation."
"King Arthur? You mentioned him before, but…is he really still around?"
"Don't call that bastard a King!" Morgan snapped. "Camelot was destroyed soon after your death...he has been King of nothing since then. And about him being alive…to be honest, I don't know myself. But the Order of fanatics he founded after Camelot's destruction is definitely still around."
"Morgan, tell me…what happened since I died?. It seems like I have missed too much."
"That would take a very long time to tell." She said.
"I'm still young, and you don't seem to have aged a single day for the past 1500 years." Harry pointed out.
"1540, to be exact. That's the amount of time I have been trapped in this place." She grabbed the chains attached to her body. "Because of you…"
Harry's gaze softened a bit. "You may not believe me at this point, but I never intended to leave you sealed for this long. I had plans to come back and visit you often, and…well…"
"But Arthur killed you," Morgan said.
"He really took me by surprise. I never expected he would take advantage of my moment of weakness to strike. I thought…" He wasnt going to say that they were friends. Their relationship had certanly became more tense during the later years, but he would never have imagined in a million years that Arthur would have stabbed him in the back.
"I warned you to be careful with my brother." Morgan reminded him. "His heart had become filled with darkness, but you were too blind to see it. I have reason to believe that his sword was the only thing keeping him sane. So if it broke during his fight with Mordred, then that would explain a lot of what happened afterwards."
"Darkness…Arthur?" He couldn't really deny it. Not after what happened to him.
The cold expression on King Arthur's face had become engraved in his memory.
"But what could have happened to him in order to become this corrupted? He was such a pure-hearted boy. An evil person would never have been able to take the sword from the stone." Harry said to her.
"I have formed many theories about that. I may share them with you if I find you deserving of them." Morgan said.
Harry did not miss the bitterness in her tone.
"I still would like to hear your story. How have you been for all this time? What have you been doing? And…"
"How am I still alive?" Morgan raised an eyebrow. "You wish to know what kind of forbidden and dark magic I been using to maintain my youth?"
"I was going to word it differently," Harry said. "But I am very curious about it, yes."
"Hmph! Like I am going t—" Her expression changed suddenly.
Harry reacted the same way, directing his gaze towards the door. "You have visitors."
"I never have visitors." Morgan huffed.
"Clients, perhaps?" Harry suggested.
"I never have clients." She lifted herself from the counter and went to touch an empty patch of wall on the right side of the room.
A soft clicking noise could then be heard, and the wall moved aside, revealing a secret entrance.
"This will take you to the basement. Go hide in there. And don't touch any of my stuff." Morgan said.
"Hide? Why do I have to h—"
"Because those are Aurors from the Ministry of Magic." Morgan raised the tone of her voice. "For once, don't argue with me, Merlin. Get in there and don't make any noise."
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