Harry Potter and the Legend of the Twelve

Long, Long Ago

Harry completed his third pass in front of the Room of Requirement in the early hours of Saturday morning and the doorway appeared. It was just after six o'clock. He knew everyone else would not be arriving until eight o'clock, but Harry wanted some time alone to collect his thoughts. This was going to be a very difficult day for him.

He knew it wasn't only hard for him: Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had shared so much of the pain. Harry tried not to think about it like his own suffering was somehow worse than theirs, but in a lot of ways, it was.

Harry knew they should have told James this last year before he went to school, and they should have told Albus and Rose this past summer. Harry knew they were just putting off the inevitable.

Harry had tried to conjure a room that would be inviting and comfortable. There was a fireplace with a roaring fire, and several comfortable couches and chairs placed close enough together for them to be near each other. A table and chairs were also in the room, where they could eat breakfast and lunch. Bright Gryffindor House banners hung from the wall. All in all, the room felt very comfortable and inviting.

Just before eight o'clock, Winky arrived with a "pop," and set the table for breakfast. No sooner did she leave than the door opened, and the other eleven members of "The Twelve" came in.

"Morning, Dad," yawned James.

"Morning, James. Morning, everyone," said Harry, trying to be cheerful.

Everyone gathered at the table for breakfast. Albus sat next to Carly. It was funny, they looked like they belonged at each other's sides, Harry thought

Everyone exchanged stories about the first week at Hogwarts. Harry listened to the conversation, and watched the happy faces around the table. Harry lived for moments like this. He thought it was why he had survived all he did in his youth, so he could have moments like this with his family. When breakfast adjourned, they moved to the couches and chairs in front of the fire. Now it was time for the hard part.

"What are we doing here, Dad?" asked James. He was a little impatient. James didn't want to spend a Saturday indoors while the weather was still decent.

"Well, James, we, your Mum, your aunt and uncle, and I, felt that it was time we told you all some things."

"What kind of things, Uncle Harry?" asked Rose curiously.

"Well, the four of us had quite a few...well adventures isn't really the right word, but it will do...when we were in school," said Hermione.

"We know that," said Albus. "It's in all our history books."

"That's true," Ginny agreed. "But what we wanted to talk about is what's not in the history books. The textbooks make it sound exciting, and they leave out a lot of the really hard stuff, that most people never knew about."

"We had a lot of hard times," said Harry with a sigh.

"Ours weren't as hard as yours, Harry," said Ron.

"I guess that's true," said Harry to no one in particular.

"Some of this might even scare you a little," said Hermione, directing her comments more at Lily and Hugo than the others. "But since there are others who were there who know many of these stories, and have told others, you will likely hear things about them from time to time, and we wanted to make sure you knew the whole truth."

"Stories sometimes have a way of being changed over the years as people retell them," said Ginny. "They often lose a lot of the truth behind them."

"I want all of you to know, we all decided years ago not to tell you certain things until you were older," said Harry. "It might seem like we lied to you about some things. I hope you understand, we were trying to protect you from some very ugly truths, and some very painful memories."