Part 3

It had taken a lot of time for the occupants in the room to calm down at the sight of the newly realized Harry Potter. There had been a wide variety of reactions from the Order.

"That's why I never liked him! He's a Potter!" This was Snape.

"You can't be! Harry wasn't a Metamorphmagus!" Hermione.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Tonks.

"So you're not a Seer?" Charlie.

"Silence!" Dumbledore's magically heightened voice cut through the confusion. He looked a little bit surprised. "Now," he continued in the quiet room, "I'm sure Mr. White, that you will not fault us if we asked you for some proof."

"Of course not." John—or Harry—cleared his throat. "I, Harry James Potter, hereby swear on my life and magic that I am Harry James Potter. So mote it be." There was a flash, and when it died down, John—Harry—was still standing there.

"Well, now that that is out of the way," Dumbledore was maddeningly cheerful. "I would like to know why, Harry, you didn't come to me. I would have gladly kept your secret, and I could have helped you through you're Hogwarts years while you were trying to keep your real identity a secret."

"First of all, I'd prefer if everyone called me John; I've been going by it for a while now, and I find I'm a great deal fonder of it than my last one. Second of all, you are not allowed to tell people that you are from the future." John said the last bit with steel, staring straight into Dumbledore's eyes, his mouth tight. "And if I would have told anybody, it would have been Remus or Sirius, not you. You don't tell me secrets—even one that pertains to me—so why would I tell you my own? Third, I have no doubt that you would have kept my identity a secret, but if you didn't know you also would keep my secret because you wouldn't know it to tell it."

"Why did you choose the name John Evan White?" Remus asked curiously, while also trying to dispel the awkwardness that had settled in with the shock of Dumbledore being told off.

John's neck snapped towards Remus and he smiled once again, looking amused. "I thought that you would have guessed that. White, because it is the opposite of Black." Sirius perked up at this and chuckled. "Evan, because Evans was my mother's maiden name. Can you figure out why I chose John though?"

Seeing that Remus was stumped, Hermione ventured, "Is it because it is one of the most common names?" John shook his head.

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed, and then grinned. "Remus! It's your middle name!" Remus looked a little dumbfounded, but smiled a little.

"So," Tonks said slowly, "that was your way of telling everyone who you were without actually telling anyone at all."

"There you have it!" John laughed. "I'm brilliant, I know. I would bow, but I'm sitting down at the moment—maybe later."

The heavy atmosphere lightened, and quite a few people laughed—if only to relieve some anxiety that they were still holding onto. "Can you tell us, perhaps, why you did not come forward to us? Why did you wait for us to go to you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, originally I did plan on telling all of you right away, but I had a lot of things that were more pressing." He noticed some of the glares he was getting for that comment and held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey, hey! I even went to the Department of Mysteries under an invisibility cloak to help. I did too; I pulled Sirius away from falling into the Veil. But before I could 'come out' I got a Patronus that one of my patients needed me, so I went back to work." He shrugged. "Sorry if taking care of my wards is on the top of my priorities list."

Nobody really had anything to say to that.

"Hey!" Charlie said suddenly. "Why are you a Metamorphmagus, and why is your scar so unnoticeable?" Under his breath he muttered, "I can't believe that I'm best friends with Harry Potter and I didn't even know."

"That one is a bit more difficult to explain, and one of the secrets I talked about previously," he glanced at Dumbledore, "with have to be told—not that everyone shouldn't have known in the first place, but I think an Unbreakable Oath to never tell anyone what I am about to tell you would be required." He looked at the Order expectantly. Everyone complied, too curious to not take the risk.

"Wonderful!" John clapped his hands. "So, I'll give you all a crash course in Dark Magic—I studied that as well; not just time travel. There is an object called a Horcrux. It is a disgusting thing, also known as a soul container." Sirius went wide-eyed, and clapped his hand over his mouth in revulsion. "Sirius knows what it is." John said grimly.

"The mutt knows about Dark Magic?" Snape asked in surprise.

"Sirius?" Remus was a little confused at the strong reaction of his friend. He also didn't know that Sirius had very much knowledge of Dark Magic.

"Of course I know about it." Sirius snapped. "Did you expect me to always just know that my parents were wrong? No, when I was young and my mother and father tutored me, I was under the impression that Dark Magic was the best kind, so I have extensive knowledge of what my parents taught me, and it definitely wasn't Light Magic." He shook his head in disgust. "I was never good at it though; my magic didn't like it—it was too Dark, too brutal… too twisted." He took a deep, rattling breath and closed his eyes. Remus put a hand on his shoulder, but was as surprised as the rest.

"A Horcrux," John continued as if nothing had happened, "is made by murder. Then the maker performs a ritual and rips off a part of their soul and places it into an object. When this is done, the maker is practically immortal. The Horcrux can only be destroyed by basilisk venom, Fiendfyre, or if the person felt true remorse for what they had done—which is highly unlikely." John paused. "It is my belief that Voldemort has made several of these; I was one of them." He shushed everyone so he could finish his explanation when they had started to speak. "The Killing curse that Voldemort fired me with destroyed it. With the destruction of the hitch hiking soul within me, it freed a block that it had created and I was able to use my Metmorphmagus ability… I was also able to see without my glasses, so I believe that it was also impairing my vision. With me already going back in time—time sand going through my blood—then the sudden ability to change my appearance, I woke up in my nine year old body.

"Now all we have to do is find all of Voldemort's other soul containers and destroy them."

"Others?" Sirius spluttered in horror.

"Yes, others. It's a good thing that I know where we can find a basilisk then, huh?" John smiled.