Harry Potter And The Other Boy Who Lived

The phone rings.

"Hi Gabrielle, can i call you latter? I'm reviewing my notes for the interview tomorrow."

"The Google or Microsoft interview?"

"Google."

"Okay then. It's just that brother is complaining a lot recently of your absence in football's practice. He keeps saying that without you completely focused the team loses its mental leader and keeps bothering me to press you."

"I know, he just texted me. I will compensate next week. But I don't think you just call me for that. You little devil! You know I'm weak against your seductive voice. Don't do this to me, I really have to review the interview material. I'm watching youtube videos about group dynamic the whole day. Don't entice me anymore."

"Oh Arthur, I just miss you. It has been more than four days we don't see each other due to this interview. You are the number one of your class, does a lot of community work, there is no way you don't get this job. Let me relax you. You know i do a great massage."

"Stop, little devil.! I'm hanging up. I'll call you tomorrow."

I breathe deeply. Too much temptation for a boy in college. This girl is so gorgeous, just thinking about her massage and I have to take a shower to calm down. I can't let these thoughts take away my focus. Tomorrow is the day that will change my destiny.

I woke up early. I do my morning jog and my breathing yoga as usual. Brush my teeth, take a shower and put on my best clothes. When i'm ready to leave, my granny stops me.

"Won't you take my blessings Arthur?"

"Sorry granny, I'm just a little bit anxious."

"Ha! You don't have to be anxious you got our family genes, we never had a useless Smith. Just go there and show them how good you are!"

"Thanks grandma! I will not disappoint you, neither our genes. Hahahaha"

My granny is a tough woman. She raised me since i was a baby. My parents were scientists and were nominated to nobel prize. A few nights after I was born, my mother left the hospital to prepare for an event prior to the nobel, when some kind of spies from another country kidnapped them in search of secrets of their research. They were tortured and electrocuted so much that they were never the same. Every month we visit them and every time I look into their eyes I see nothing but a body without a soul, a mere shell of a human being. It is the most devastating feeling I've ever felt. I really think their souls are gone.

Oh God, why am I thinking these things now? Let me breathe slowly and think of good things. Football, my team, my friends, Gabrielle, Amanda, Anne, better stop thinking about women too.

The interview room is packed. I see some familiar faces. Among them I see Martha, a senior I dated in my first year of college. The first test is a group dynamics, as I had anticipated. We are divided into groups of eight and we are taken to another room. It is a rectangular room with nine chairs placed in a circle format. I obviously end up staying in Martha's group. We ended up amicably, at least that's what I thought when i hear a whisper in my right ear.

"Won't you, at least, greet me"

"I thought it was best not to show that we knew each other during the interview."

"Do you really think Google doesn't know we used to date in college? Google knows it all."

"You're right! How have you been"

In this moment, enters a very strange guy in the room. He is very pale guy, has a white-blond hair and is a little tall. He is wearing a branded suit, carrying a laptop. He sits in the empty chair, opens the laptop and turn it on. He starts to click and look at the people in the room.

When it comes to my turn, he looks at me for a long time, sort of analyzing my whole being through those grey eyes. I do not look away despite the discomfort. After several minutes, he smiles, gets up and leaves. Another person enters the room and says that the group dynamics is over.

Martha then looks at me for answers. I shake my head to indicate that I don't know anything. As we leave the room, they begin to distribute papers with numbers. After the distribution, a random guy says the number 1 can go to the upstairs room.

It's my number. So I quickly climb the stairs and come across a small yellow door. Upon entering, I feel a strange energy in space, as if I have traveled a long distance.

In this new room, there are two armchairs and among them a small table with a different chess. I look more closely and identify it as a copy of the wizard chess of the Harry Potter universe.

I sit in the nearest armchair and keep looking at the chessboard. I can not help but think of J. K. Rowling's books. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books.

I remember as if it was yesterday. I had just finished my football practice and was waiting for my grandmother to arrive when a friend called me to go to the library to pass the time. There he begins to show me a horror book he had just finished reading, pointing out other books I should read. I've never been much fan of the horror genre. I found such books a bit silly. My friend started talking about one of the books and I started looking at the shelf when I noticed a thick book called Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.

I begin to read and quickly find myself immersed in the history. My friend says that this book is too big for a 9-year-old boy. I ignore him and when I'm reading about Harry talking to the snake, the man in charge of the library tells me that my grandmother is waiting for me. The fifth book of the collection was released when I was 11, I grew up along with the characters in the saga.

Obviously, I loved Hermione, but the character I always had the most empathy was Neville. Our life stories have always been very close. Parents tortured by opposing forces, raised by grandmother. Of course, at first, I had a bit of contempt for the way Neville behaved. For me, he was a weak minded person who was not respecting the honor and memory of his parents. I used to think that I would be much greater than him if I were in the same situation. At least I would be a wizard as powerful as Harry at the end of the saga. Of course with the evolution of the character, it becomes evident that he became a great wizard and I came to respect him much more. But still, I can not help thinking that it took too long.

While I am immersed in the world of Harry Potter, I fail to notice that there is a person sitting in front of me. "It seems like you know the world of Harry Potter well, Arthur."

It was the same guy of the other room. I just nod with a bit of fear of looking again into this guy's eyes again. He then picks up a folder from somewhere and starts narrating my whole life. My birth on July 30, 1992, the attack on my parents, my school curriculum, my community work, even comments made by teachers, team mates, ex girlfriends... I just can't stop thinking the Martha's phrase "The Google knows it all". It starts to get a bit scary when he starts reading third-party comments. Opinions of people about me, my choices and attitudes, things that have never been said to me before. So, finally, he stops and when I look at him he asks "Is that you?"

I barely nod and then he asks me "Do you like Harry Potter Artur?"

"Yes, I really like the books. It's a very well written book. I am part of the generation that practically grew up along with the characters."

"Ah, yes, but what would you say if I told you that this world exists? That you not only grew up with these characters but you're actually one of them?"

I'm about to say it would be wonderful to be a wizard, but soon i start to consider that this is some kind of tricky question.

"Forget you are in a job interview. I want to know your true thoughts. 'Being a wizard and having super powers would be wonderful' is a very vague answer. I want you to imagine a different world, a world parallel to yours. A world where magic exists and all the souls here present also exist there, with different lives and destinies, but, in fact, the same souls, with the same genealogy. Can you do that?"

What the f.u.c.k is going on? Can he read my mind? To imagine a whole new world? What kind of job interview is this?

"Let me ask you a simpler question. What character would you be in Harry Potter? Look, it's not the character you'd like to be, but the character you most resemble."

"You have my files, my history resembles a lot Neville's."

"And if i told you Arthur, you and Neville are the same person. What is your thoughts on that?"

"We're not the same. Although there are several similarities, there are also several differences."

"Hahahaha, you really are a funny soul my dear friend. But you have to consider what I said earlier, different worlds, different stories and destinies. I know you do yogas and have read many metaphysical books, among them Helena Blavatsky. So you should know that there is a big difference between your individual soul and your personality."

"Yes I know. My individuality represents the set of my past lives, all that I have been able to evolve from past reincarnations. While my personality is who I am today, Arthur Smith. The first is my whole being, the second is the developing part of my being."

"Correct, and as you know, every being alive has the goal to evolve. Every person is born in a particular family, in a particular place, in a particular socioeconomic situation, with a single goal, to evolve what she has not been able to evolve in past lives. You, my friend, have failed as Neville Longbottom, but appear to be succeeding as Arthur Smith."

"Wait a second! Doesn't Neville develop his courage at the end of the Harry Potter story? In addition, in the book The Cursed Child Neville turns auror and professor of Hogwarts. What did Neville fail?"

"That is if you consider this last book to be true. It is a simple matter of logical analysis. England loses a lot of wizards in the war against Voldemort and manages to keep their wizard sovereignty? As you know, there are wizards in all parts of the world in the Harry Potter universe, Europe is just one of them. Let's consider a bit of wizard history. In the early 20th century, a good part of the European wizard community follows Grimdenwald in his attempt to conquer the world. In this battle, Dumbledore sought alliances with Eastern and American wizards, led respectively by the USSR and USA. Then, after less than one hundred years, a new world threat arises in the same europe, but this time it's an internal war, mainly considering European wizards. That is, both Eastern and American forces remain stable and strong.

Now, after the fall of Voldemort, the European wizard community is weakened and without Dumbledore or another great symbol of strenght. What do you think would happen later then?"

"Eastern and American attacks with the excuse of preventing new Voldemorts..."

"And how would the world's former largest wizard community reacts?"

"It would not accept it, there would be new wars ..."

"And that leads to the end of the world that you know as the Harry Potter universe."

I gape! I had never thought about it, but it is so logical! God, with so few wizards, how the Ministry of Magic would defend its treasures? He would be swallowed up by the other wizard's powers. I daydream and start to imagine all possible scenarios, and all of them result in war or subjugation.

Then I start to wonder who is this person in front of me?

"Ah, of course you should know me. My name is Gerald Grosvenor Junior, but you should know my other name Draco Lucius Malfoy.