"Look, people, all I want is my mom and dad," Harry pleaded to everyone there.
" Stupefy," Nicolas stunned Harry.
"Was that really necessary?" Albus asked his former colleague.
"Yes. I didn't want him to panic and hurt himself. We will take him home and begin treatment. We will inform you to our findings." With a simple gesture, Harry was floating in the air while Nicholas took his hand. "Pernelle, you ready?"
She grabbed his other hand and pulled out a pen. "Activate," she said loudly before the three of them disappeared.
"What now, headmaster? It's so tragic the way he thinks his parents are still alive," Hermione said.
"Now? We officially list Harry Potter as missing. Which, technically, is true. Our Harry is missing."
Many hours and many scans later, Harry was enervated back awake. He found himself lying on a comfortable couch with two people he'd only just met standing over him. He didn't know where his mom and dad were, but he could tell that these people weren't there to hurt him - their expressions were one of concern and hope.
"Hello, Harry. My name is Nicholas Flamel and this is my wife, Pernelle Flamel. Do you mind if we call you Harry?"
Harry nodded, not able to speak just yet. He did, however, move to a sitting position on the couch. Pernelle sat on the other end of the couch and Nicholas in a nearby chair.
"Harry, I know you want to talk to your mom and dad right now, but there are some things you need to first understand. I know these things will be hard to understand, but they are true. All the different scans we've taken of your magical core prove it."
"Harry, what my husband is trying to say is: do you believe in alternate realities?"
For the next several hours the Flamels hypothesized on what happened to bring a different person to this world and then gave Harry a crash course in what is was like to be Harry Potter in that dimension. It was difficult information to swallow. Losing your parents, siblings, uncles - everyone you'd ever grown up with was now gone. At age 11, he was on his own. True, he'd had spats with his folks, what kid didn't? But now? He didn't know what to do? Who was going to take care of him? Would he ever get a chance to eat his mother's partially-burned biscuits again?
It eventually took days for Harry to come to grips with what had happened. What had helped him believe their outlandish tale of an alternate reality was not when they took him home only to discover a burned out building. No, what had sealed the deal was when he looked at himself in the mirror. He was grown up. He knew something happened at puberty, but this was ridiculous.
It wasn't easy on the Flamels either. They hadn't been totally convinced at the beginning of what happened to Harry. Could it have been someone else under Polyjuice? They initially scanned the curse scar area. With Voldemort dead, the curse in the scar was no longer active, but the scar was still there. Their scan should have detected residual curse elements that created the scar. Only, they found nothing. It was as if he had simply cut his forehead one day and had a scar to prove it. As is, the scar almost appeared fresh.
But there was no getting around his magical core. It had changed from the scan example they'd made of Harry over the past year and a half. There were key elements still there and Harry would grow to be an above-average wizard should he put his mind to it. But there was no shadow signatures. That was when they realized that this Harry was physically the same as theirs, but magically different.
Yet, Harry was able to retrieve his wand and his necklace when he needed them. Nicholas had helped Harry design the wards in place on each so knew that this person was at least a Potter. A quick scan of the wand confirmed his was Holly & Phoenix.
"Harry?"
"Yes Mr. Flamel?"
"Pernelle and I have been talking and we want to see if something is okay with you. We know that you've been having problems working with your grown up body. Your sense of balance is totally off kilter, right?"
"Yes, sir," Harry acquiesced.
"We're not going back on our word to help get you back home, but you have to consider you may be here for some time. We have not made much progress in opening a portal to another reality."
"How much have you made then?" Harry asked quickly.
Pernelle bit her lip, looked at her husband who nodded, and said, "None. We are continuing to track time distortion theory to see if that brings about anything."
"In any event," Nicholas continued, "if it's okay with you, we'd like for you to become our ward until we can get you home, or until you turn your majority."
"But I'm already old enough," Harry smirked, wondering what he should spend his galleons on first.
"Uh, yes. That. Well, that brings us to an interesting quandary, Harry. We'd like for you to take a youth potion which Pernelle has modified to last seven years. If you take it, you won't look like you are now until you are 17 again. The benefit of this is that you will be back in a smaller body that you are accustomed to and that will age with you."
"This potion also contains a few of our characteristics that will merge with yours so you will not look like an 11-year-old version of Harry Potter. This will give you a chance at a new life. Your name would also be changed to Jimeson Evans," Pernelle added.
"If I became your ward, what would I call you?"
"How about Uncle Nick for me and Auntie Pernelle for my wife?" Nicholas smiled.
"But why do I need a new name?"
"Well, you still need an education and we're thinking of enrolling you in Hogwarts like you should have gone to. That way, you will get to play a hoax on the rest of school by agreeing to be our 'ward'. We know you like to pull pranks and this way, you get a chance to do it."
Harry began to grin, his mind whirling at the possibilities. "… and since I'm a founder's heir, I have total access to the school. Excellent! I'll do it!"
After Harry was dosed and physically changed to that of an 11-year-old boy that he actually was, Nicholas and Pernelle sent their ward to his room to clean up for dinner.
"Now that you've changed Jimmy's face and age, what are you going to do if Harry comes back?" Pernelle said to her husband.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm more concerned on finding out how he knew he was a founder's heir."