Book Two: Snape's Memories

Chapter Seven

Harry and Tim followed Mr. Clark up the street, he let them into a small, well kept garden. In the kitchen was a huge, old fashioned coal stove. Mr Clark poured water into a little electric kettle for tea.

"You two have a seat there, I won't be a minute."

"Mr. Clark?" asked Tim softly, "May I go feed your fish?"

The old man smiled, "Aye, you go on, then." he looked at Harry as the little boy took a box off the window shelf and let himself out his back door, "I've got a pond full of goldfish out back. You don't mind do you? It's no more than a little garden pond, he can't do more than get wet if he falls in."

Harry smiled, "It's fine." he did position his chair so he could look out the back window and see the boy.

Mr. Clark smiled, "You got other children, then?"

"Yes, three. The two oldest are at school, at the moment." Harry said.

"Good of you to take another one in." Mr. Clark finished plugging in the kettle and put the tea bags in the tea pot, "So, I'm thinking Tim must be a wizard if they put him with a wizard family?"

Harry nodded.

"Aye, I was thinking that boy was a little odd." Mr Clark hesitated, then shrugged, "Well, odd in ways that his mother's problems didn't explain. If my wife had been alive, she probably would've told Agnes, but I didn't know how to go about it. And poor Agnes had enough trouble on her plate."

"Tim's family is all muggle, then?" Harry asked.

"Mmm, Tim's dad could have been a wizard. Mary used to tell outlandish stories about him, but with someone like her-Well, it's hard to tell what's true and what she's making up."

Harry nodded again, keeping one eye on the little boy out by the garden pond. Tim was crouched down next to it, tossing bits of fish food from his box.

"So, what do you know of Tim's life?" asked Harry, he switched into his professional "Witness Questioning Mode".

"Oh, it's not been easy, Mr. Potter." the man looked at him sadly, "Mary was never quite right you understand...Especially not after...well..." he shook his head.

"Since she got into drugs?" Harry prompted, gently.

"Yeah, that's a bad business, that is. I think something dreadful must have happened to her. Agnes used to hint that Tim's father was...not the best sort. I mean Mary was a little wild, but then she disappeared for three years with this bloke and Agnes never heard from her. Then she reappears with the little'un and drops him in Agnes' lap."

"When was the last time you heard about Tim's dad?" asked Harry. He rather hoped the man wouldn't make himself known. If Tim's father were a wizard, and in any way respectable, it could complicate Tim's placement. Harry realized suddenly that it wouldn't be easy for him to give the child up.

"Oh, I wouldn't call him a dad." sneered Mr. Clark.

The tone was so unlike what Harry had heard from the kindly old man thus far that Harry turned all his attention to him.

"A dad would've made sure the poor little thing had food in his tummy and a roof over his head. When Mary got here, she said she'd been living in a squat and the boy's father wouldn't give her any money to take care of him. Agnes took them both in, but the girl ran off and left Tim after a week." He sighed, poured the kettle, "Wish she'd stayed away, to be honest. Every time she came back, there was a new disaster."

Mr Clark looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, " 'Course some of that might a' been the boy's magic showing itself. Mary always had trouble leaving Agnes' house with Tim. There was one time when the taxi Mary had ordered blew up on the curb."