The wizarding world was rocked with the news of Harry Potter’s sudden recovery. The papers speculated furiously about the possible connection to the thousands of ghosts currently flooding London where St. Mungo’s was based. The Ministry was out in full force to disable the ghosts and obliviate the muggles that saw them. Most were easily handled by the ministry, being frozen by specialized spells and exorcized.

But there were a few outliers of unseen power that managed to knock out the team of Aurors sent to deal with them before they fled. It was widely believed that these ghosts were derived from extraordinarily powerful wizards, as the more powerful a wizard in life generally the more powerful their ghost would be.

Attempts to communicate with the ghosts were all met with failure as all spoke in strange tongues that no one understood and all were unusually aggressive when confronted.

Only the staff knew for certain that Harry Potter was directly connected to the event. Even now the doctors watched the boy as he continued to talk to himself, paying minimal attention to the people around him.

“Seven. Seven. Eight, eight, nine. Nine. Closer, almost there…”

After another two hours, the boy finally looked up, looking slightly constipated.

“Alright, I think I have it. Did I miss my final exams for school?”

The doctors glanced at each other. Eventually one woman took a step forward, “I’m sorry, Harry. But it has been a full year, it's late February now.”

“Oh,” Harry said, “Does that mean I have to take- gah! the exams for the first and second year at the same time?”

“Uhm, I’m not sure-,” The woman glanced uncertainly at the others, “How are you feeling? Your Headmaster and the Minister are eager to speak with you whenever you feel comfortable.”

“I’m fine. I can see them now,” Harry said, struggling to suppress his soul’s vibrations as he spoke. The fingers on his right hand spasmed slightly as Harry tried to focus inwards.

Suddenly, all the doctor's faces went blank including the woman speaking and they stiffened, their eyes going glassy. The door slowly opened and revealed a heavily scarred man that was lanky and tall. Every inch of his skin was covered with a spider web of healed wounds on his skin and raised lumps of flesh. Harry saw him smile widely with brilliantly bright teeth. He closed the door behind him as he walked in.

“Harry! Young little Harry. You would not believe how excited I was to hear about your recovery. I was almost afraid that you would die for a few months there,” The man said happily.

“Who are you? What did you do to the doctors?” Harry asked, unable to suppress his soul’s vibrations in his surprise.

“Oh, nothing terrible my dear boy. They are just out of commission at the moment. I just wanted a little private conversation between us.”

He walked over to the woman who had been speaking to Harry before and waved his hand in front of her frozen face. She didn’t even blink in response.

“See?” The man said.

Harry controlled himself and worked to suppress his vibrating soul as best as he could.

“Ok. But who are you, why do you want to talk to me?” Harry said.

The man’s eyes widened and he dashed forward in an instant until he was looming over Harry, his wand having appeared from his robes. The man’s smile grew even wider if anything and a manic gleam entered his eyes.

“Yes! Progress, you can control it! Do it again, I must know. Speak,” The man demanded

Harry hesitated at the man’s sudden change in personality.

“SPEAK,” the man demanded roughly before abruptly coughing and turning away from Harry’s bed. He coughed into a handkerchief he drew from his robes and Harry saw blood staining the cloth after the man violently coughed for a few seconds.

The man tucked away the red cloth and straightened up, taking a deep breath and running his free hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” the man said, “I’m growing too excited, I should introduce myself. We’ve actually met before. James Kensit at your service. From what I’ve heard, you’ll remember me,” he gave a small bow and then straightened, his eyes still darting over Harry’s body in intent interest.

James Kensit was back again? What did this man want with Harry?

“I do. Are you using polyjuice again?” Harry asked.

James Kensit shook his head. “I thought we’d have a true face to face for this. Common courtesy, you know.”

“Why do you care about my voice? Can you understand me while I’m like this?” Harry asked.

James Kensit considered Harry for a moment, “Tell you what. Much as I like you, no information in this world comes for free. I want to know what you’ve experienced in the year you’ve been gone. Maybe let me run a few harmless little tests on you… and then I’ll answer one of your questions. But make sure you pick the right one, I’ll only answer the one you pick and then I’ll be gone until you do something else interesting.”

Harry considered it and watched James Kensit as he seemed to struggle in keeping the insane smile from spreading over his face again. Harry wasn’t sure he would accept no for an answer…

“Alright,” Harry said, “How should I start? Right before I woke up here I was- I was- I can’t remember? What?”

Kensit shook his head and tssked. He pointed his wand and cast a glowing spell. “Now, this won’t do at all,” Kensit said, “Clearly someone wanted to cover their tracks. Alright here it is, ooooohhhhh. Whoever did this was quite skilled. But time trumps talent as the ancients used to say. I won’t even consider this bit of work as a favor to you considering I benefit too. Aaaaaand… fixed.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Harry’s memories returned and he blinked. Professor Quirrell had hit him with the killing curse and Harry had survived? Was that what had severed the great glowing tether in the void? Why had Dumbledore erased his memory after Snape found him? It didn’t make any sense…

Shaking his head, Harry looked up at Kensit who was standing over him. “If you’re so good at memory charms then why do you need me to say it at all? Why not directly collect my memories?”

Kensit nodded, “Oh, I already did when I first walked into the room. But the way you express it in words helps add new context and nuance to the memories. And its best to not to rely on that method too much, its generally considered quite rude. Over my long life, I’ve found that memories in isolation can only take you so far in getting a full picture of things. Now that your memory is restored, why don’t you continue? I’m so generous, I won’t even count that as your question.”

Kensit gave Harry a crooked smile and raised his eyebrows.

“Okay,” Harry said after a moment, “So I was practicing by the great lake when…”

Harry told Kensit everything from his brushing Quirrell accidentally causing him to dissolve, to his experiences in the void as a free standing floating soul.

“...and then everyone froze and you walked in,” Harry finished.

“Interesting, interesting. You are progressing nicely,” James Kensit said, “I never expected for you to master yourself so quickly. Hmmm. Perhaps I should…”

Kensit flicked his wand and nothing appeared to happen.

“You did something,” Harry said carefully not to phrase it as a question.

“Yes, I removed that curse I put you under,” Kensit said, “For your safety of course, can’t go speaking Ascendant around those that aren’t fluent. Or sometimes even around those that are. Now that question was… Oh, you got me! Good one, Harry Potter, taking advantage of my excitement to sneak in another question. I respect that, so I’ll allow it. Now ask your question. I think I’ve given you enough for free now.”

Harry’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the man who had cursed him, forcing him to suffer through the years. Harry nearly blurted out his questions about why he placed the curse but Harry managed to stop himself in time. Kensit smiled indulgently, he was probably reading Harry’s mind right now while they stared at each other in silence.

Harry took a deep breath and thought silently about his question for a few minutes. His question had to be something he absolutely would never be able to figure out without Kensit’s answer. What to ask? A million questions darted around Harry’s head, but he could only ask one. What to ask?

Harry opened his mouth, then closed it. No, not that…

He pondered some more and Kensit watched him.

Finally, Harry decided on his question and finally spoke,

“What was the reason that you first took an interest in me?” Harry asked. This might lead to an answer of why Kensit cursed him and maybe give Harry a window into Kensit’s motivations. He was clearly incredibly powerful and Harry didn’t ever want to accidentally upset the unstable man.

“Hmmm. That is a good question, isn’t it,” Kensit said, his expression growing serious, “A rather broad question, but I’ll answer as best as I can. You see, you are a unique existence on this Earth, Harry Potter."

“A child of prophecy, killed before his time?” Kensit said much to Harry’s shock. Harry felt his heart rate rising as the man continued to speak, “Such things do not happen. Because little baby Potter was very much dead. That killing curse rebounded on its master, but enough made it through your mother's shield to finish off your body’s original inhabitant. You are not the same soul that this body was born with. I was lucky that I was investigating the odd readings on some of my magical sensor equipment at the time of the event."

“After I took your body from that smoldering home, it took me years of dedicated effort to remold your body properly with the forces of Prophecy boosting me the whole way!” Kensit said with a wistful look in his eye, “Oh, the innovations and inspiration I achieved in that time as the universe itself worked to assist me, to help me improve my craft enough to revive you… I have never felt something so divine before or since. I advanced my work centuries ahead at least in those few wonderful years.”

Kensit shook his head, seeming to shake off his nostalgic memories, “After you were revived, I swapped you with the doppelganger child I had left behind at the smoldering ruin of your old home. I am not one for children, the few I have tried to raise over the years have come out… twisted, only shadows of my greatness. So, I am happy for you, my greatest creation. You are something that I truly can not replicate despite my best efforts over the last decade. I am excited to see how you develop in the future.

Kensit pointed his wand at Harry for a moment before lowering it as he seemed to think of something,

“Oh, and I forgot to warn you before, so no foul there. But I would advise you not to tell anyone else about your little chats with me in the future. It's so annoying creating a new identity every few decades after getting caught by some government or another. Now, It's time for the tests. Nighty night.”

Harry raised his hand, “Wa-Wait, Stop I…”

The end of Kensit’s wand glowed and Harry’s world washed away.

— — —

Kensit walked out of the room three hours later whistling a little tune to himself as he walked to the front doors. Fully invisible of course, he wasn’t an amateur. This place really had to work on their security, all it had taken was a few imperious curses to get the rest of the hospital to believe Harry Potter was ‘resting’ at the moment. Even a lesser wizard might have been able to pull off this kind of operation without too much difficulty.

Kensit could apparate out of here, but where was the fun in that? He rather enjoyed just strolling out right under everybody’s noses. Invisibility never got old even over James’ long long life. It was a productive session of investigation. He had kept his word, the boy was fine. Well, he was now. Kensit had gotten very good at healing spells over the years so he wouldn’t lose as many of his experimental subjects. The boy wouldn’t even know the difference when he woke up.

The boy had been quite shocked as James told him his origins, but Kensit felt that it was best to get the main bits out of the way in the beginning. Better than leaving the mystery tugging at Harry’s mind in his quiet moments. Kensit knew how that felt. The voices, asking for the solution to the mystery, to the puzzle of the decade, whenever he closed his eyes for too long. Whenever he was alone with just his racing thoughts for company in the never ending darkness. It was… maddening. Kensit would do better by his creation, he would try not to ruin the boy like he had done for so many of his adopted children in the past.

At least the boy would have some time on Kensit’s words before the next time they met. After all, the Ministry wouldn’t be so incompetent as to let another event to occur after everything that had happened already? Surely not…

But Kensit couldn’t watch over the boy constantly, nor would he want to. He had experiments to do, always more experiments. Nothing would be able to stop him from doing what he loved most in this world. Pushing his skills, his techniques, into the future! To boldly break new ground and explore the unknown. Kensit smiled broadly as he thought of some more tests he could do when he got back. Inspecting Harry's body had given him some ideas. He walked out of the doors of St. Mungo’s to the street and glanced around. No one else was here given it was three am. Ah, well, that was anticlimactic. Time to go then. With a sharp crack of displaced air, James Kensit was gone, no one even realizing that he had been there at all.

— — —

Harry woke up the next morning, his mind in turmoil. He had died as a baby and James Kensit had revived him somehow? It felt like it should be impossible… But Harry knew that the tether to his body had been cut only recently and his soul form had managed to reintegrate into his body. Was that not like dying? If what he said was true then Kensit had saved Harry’s life, even if he might not be the original.

Harry could still feel the soul form inside of him even now. He could now tell was now responsible for forcing him to speak the soul language when he wasn’t under Kensit's curse. What had Kensit called the language? Ascendant?

The Headmaster and Minister spoke to him briefly and Harry replied to them half heartedly. He had too much on his mind to focus on their words too much. Seeming to sense his mood the two left after a while after the headmaster assured Harry that he would indeed be able to take the second year exams if he wished to.

Harry just couldn’t wait to get back to his friends. Maybe once he was with them all these revelations about his creation would seem a little easier to handle. Harry hoped that would be so.