The missing boys ✔

Part 8: Sirius Black

The boys had barely entered the alley when they heard the whispers. People were looking at newspapers all with Harry's face on the front.

Ron looked around nervously.

"Maybe we should…"

He was cut himself off though as he saw Harry walking away towards a pile of crates.

"Hey! Where are you going?" asked Ron.

Harry ignored him carefully chose a crate to sit on. He had enough experience in hiding to pick a place where they were out of the way enough to not attract any attention but out in the open enough that they didn't look suspicious.

Once he was settled he crossed his arms defiantly.

"What's up?" asked Ron, walking over and sitting down next to him.

"Renette said she'd explain why everyone was making such a fuss about me going missing, but she forgot because she was trying to get us out of her shop, and I still don't know what's going on!" he said angrily. "Why is everyone calling me the boy-who-lived?"

Ron frowned, wondering where to begin.

"I—I guess it all started with you know who," he said after a tiny pause.

"You-Know-Who," said Ron.

"No, I don't know who, that's why I'm asking," said Harry, annoyed.

"No, we call him You-Know-Who because you're not supposed to say his name," said Ron.

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Well…Rumor has it that when you say his name, death eaters will come and get you."

"Death Eaters?"

"You-Know-Who's followers, they did bad things during the wizarding war, when we were fighting You-Know-Who" said Ron.

Harry digested this for a moment.

"Wizarding war?" asked Harry.

"Yea. You-Know-Who and his followers killed a lot of people. He killed your parents.

"What?!" asked Harry, "They died in a car crash!"

"Who told you that?" asked Ron, incredulously.

"My aunt and uncle," said Harry.

Something in the back of Ron's mind told him that he should find a really nice way to put what he was about to say.

"Sorry, mate, but they lied. Your parents were murdered."

Harry's eyes widened in shock and he looked a little hurt.

Guess I was too straightforward again. Thought Ron, cringing, but what else was I supposed to say?

"What happened to them? Why does everyone say I have something to do with it?" asked Harry.

Ron gave him a grim look, and dived into the story. It took a long time for Ron to explain the wizarding war to Harry. He told him about Voldemort, about the muggles he'd killed and the wizards. Ron told Harry about the he'd never seen, uncles and other relatives who had died before he was even born because of Voldemort. He talked about all the people that were lost, how there wasn't a single page in his parents' Hogwarts scrapbooks that didn't have a photo of someone who had been killed in the war. Ron told Harry what he'd heard about the attack that brought down Voldemort. This confused Harry, but Ron assured him that it was a mystery to everyone.