Rand stood in a dark room, with two imposing doors before him. He had no idea what lay behind them. He stepped forward and tried to turn the handle of the first door. Nothing. He tried the second. It didn't budge either.
Before he could consider another attempt, a voice echoed behind him, sarcastic and provocative.
— "You'll need a lot more than brute force if you want to open one of those doors."
Rand turned abruptly, his eyes locking onto a man leaning against the wall, arms crossed and a mocking smile on his face.
— "Who are you?" Rand asked, alert.
The man let out a short, mocking laugh.
— "Funny… One of the most powerful beings to ever exist, and still so pathetic," he said with an amused air.
Rand frowned, ignoring the insult, waiting for a clearer answer.
— "You're rather quiet. I expected more… entertainment watching you grow. Well, since you asked who I am, I'll satisfy your curiosity. My name is James Sirius Potter."
Rand stepped back, surprised.
— "You… you're Harry Potter's eldest son? The magical races inside the Trunk speak of you as if you were a god."
James simply nodded, smiling with a touch of melancholy.
— "And why are you here? You're supposed to be dead. Are we still inside the Trunk?"
— "Easy, kid. It's complicated. I am dead… and at the same time, I'm not. It's hard to explain. I'm... what's left. A shadow of who I was, a fragment preserved within this reality created to protect what remains of the magical world."
Rand stayed silent, about to speak, but James raised a hand, signaling him not to interrupt.
— "Now listen. I need to clear a few things up before you do something stupid and get yourself killed out of ignorance. Let's go back in time a bit… I want to tell you a story. My story."
James took a few steps, slowly walking across the room as he spoke, as if reliving each memory.
— "From birth, I was blessed with magic. At just two years old, I was already able to manipulate it. My body… was not ordinary. It evolved constantly, adapting to the immense magical reservoir within me. At four, I started school. It was boring. Everything was too easy. My father noticed and gave me access to books on magical theory. I absorbed it all with an insatiable hunger."
— "By seven, I was already creating my own potions and spells. I mastered Occlumency and Legilimency with perfection. I became a complete animagus — I could turn into a dragon. Sometimes just an arm, sometimes the full form. By eleven, I had consumed all the knowledge from the Potter and Black libraries, including dark arts — which I mastered without corruption."
— "I reinvented old rituals, reintroduced ritual magic into the wizarding world, explored forgotten practices. But my thirst for knowledge was greater than the world could offer. I asked my father to let me travel, to learn other forms of magic. He understood. My mother… not so much. Even so, I left. And I traveled for twenty years. I wrote letters to my family on important dates, but... I was far. Too far."
James paused for a moment, his gaze lost, as if he were seeing the past in front of him.
— "And while I sought knowledge, I failed to see what mattered. My brother, as you may know, was a Squib. No magic. He grew up frustrated, angry… and jealous. He sent letters asking for help. I barely replied. When I did, I said there was nothing to be done. Then he stopped writing. And I… didn't notice."
Rand watched in silence. He felt that this story was bigger than anything he had imagined.
— "When the Statute of Secrecy was broken and the Muggles began hunting us, I wasn't surprised. It was only a matter of time. But nothing prepared me to find out that the leader of the war against wizards... was my brother."
James looked at Rand with intensity.
— "I was in Brazil, collecting rare herbs, when I found out. I opened a portal and went straight to the Potter mansion. I found my father there… he had aged greatly. He told me everything. My brother, without magic, had distanced himself from everyone. My father tried to help him, gave him money to live without working. But he wanted more. He wanted revenge."
— "My mother and sister were killed in an ambush. My father tried to contact me... but no one could find me. Not even the elves. Not even the phoenixes. I was too deep in my own world to see that everything around me was falling apart."
James closed his eyes for a moment, as if reliving the pain.
— "When I finally returned... it was too late. The wizarding world was on the brink of extinction. And the salvation plan was already underway. My father's last words, as he prepared the spell that would save part of our world, were: 'I have no more children. They're all dead.'"
Rand swallowed hard. The pieces were starting to fall into place. James' pain, his absence, the reason for his appearance now.
— "And now, Rand... you're here. Not by chance. You carry a legacy. And even without knowing it, you're at the center of it all. The doors behind you don't open with strength or skill. They open with truth. With purpose."
James walked over to Rand and placed a hand on his shoulder.
— "You're more important than you think. And before you can choose your path, you need to understand what's at stake. This is just the first part of the truth. And I'll be here... to guide you until the end. Because I am you, and you are me."
The words hung in the air, echoing as if time itself had stopped. Rand stood still, his eyes fixed on the man before him. James continued, his voice lower and heavy with an emotional weight that seemed to drag the atmosphere down.
— "When my father was preparing the multiple destruction spells, I was there, watching, trying to understand all that I had lost. The pain of absence, the guilt of my distance… it was crushing. I approached him and asked him to store something in his trunk — the same enchanted trunk that protected secrets for generations. I told him it would be useful for the future, for a generation yet to come. He only nodded silently, but his eyes… they looked like he had accepted it as a farewell."
— "After that, I prepared for a ritual I created myself. A rebirth ritual. The time I would be reborn was random, but my goal was to ensure that even if the physical world was destroyed, a spark of our heritage would survive. I also took the opportunity to create something more… a Philosopher's Stone."
Rand's eyes widened, and James smiled with slight sorrow.
— "Not like the old one that only extended life. This one had a different role. As you've seen, this world inside the trunk is functional, with its own magical laws, almost like a separate plane of existence. But for that, it needed a core… a power source. There was no Tree of Life here, so I had to improvise. I took the lesser Philosopher's Stones I created during the pandemic, and through a complex fusion ritual — using the lives of all the people and creatures who died on that fateful day — I created the Supreme Philosopher's Stone, the Épice of Power."
He paused and looked at Rand, who was listening in silence, completely absorbed.
— "After completing the ritual, I still survived for a while… enough time to see the world crumble before my eyes. What remained was despair, ashes, and a deafening emptiness. But for rebirth to be possible, there was a price. I had to die. And so, in one final act… I took my own life. My death was the final seal to make everything work."
Rand took a step back, as if the words had physically pushed him. He didn't know what to say.
James took a deep breath and continued:
— "So… I am you. But I'm also not. I am your memories, your experiences, and your heritage. I'm not a real person at this moment. When the time comes, you'll fully take over the body… and my existence will fade. But don't worry, kid. I said I am you, and you are me. But we are also separate entities. I'm just the shadow of who you will become, a guide shaped from your essence to lead you. I can't take over anything. I can't make decisions. I can only show the way."
Rand was still trying to understand everything. It was a lot to process — deep revelations about himself, his past — about a world he didn't even know he was such an integral part of.
— "What do I do now?" he whispered, more to himself than to James.
— "Now?" James smiled with a gleam in his eyes. — "Now you choose. But remember, the doors that were locked… they only open to those who know the truth. And you're beginning to understand."
Rand looked again at the doors. Something inside him was changing. Doubt was giving way to certainty. The boy who once believed he was just another... now knew he carried within him an ancient, powerful — and perhaps dangerous — legacy.
He turned back to James, but the man had vanished. In the air, only the final words echoed:
— "Find the trunk. Find the truth. And awaken the power that sleeps within you."