Harry nodded. Professor McGonagall chose a small bistro at the end of Diagon Alley. She ordered pumpkin juice for her and Harry and a fruit salad for herself. Harry decided to get a chicken steak with fries and carrots. While they waited for their orders Professor McGonagall asked Harry if she should start or if he wanted to. Harry decided he wanted to know how his parents died first.
"Okay, Mr Potter. I told you that James and Lily were part of the resistance against the dark wizard that tried to take over Great Britain. He and his followers believed in pureblood supremacy. It's based on the classifications of magical heritage. There are purebloods, those who have only magical ancestors until their great-grandparents. The ones in the next category are halfbloods. They come in different ways. They can have one magical parent and a non-magical parent, a pureblood parent and a not pureblood parent or both magical parents which are both not pureblooded. Then there are muggleborns, those with two non-magical parents. You would be classified as a halfblood. Your father was a pureblood while your mother was muggleborn.
"Now this dark wizard assembled followers around him. They were called Death Eaters. They spread terror all over the County. They killed people without remorse. All those that opposed them were in danger. One of the only remaining safe places was Hogwarts. There were rumours that the dark wizard, who is mostly called You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as people still fear to use his name, feared Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts and therefore never dared to attack.
"It were really dark times. Nobody knew whom they could trust anymore. The Ministry of Magic and Professor Dumbledore, who led a group of people that fought against You-Know-Who, tried to stop him, but he and his followers were winning the civil war. Your parents were some of his main targets as they refused to work for him. Professor Dumbledore got a warning that You-Know-Who would come after you, so they went into hiding with you. On Halloween 1981 he found your hiding place and went there. It was in Godric's Hollow, the birthplace of Godric Gryffindor, one of the four witches and wizards that founded Hogwarts centuries ago, where he went to kill you all. He somehow got through the protective wards around your home and attacked. He killed your father and mother and then he tried … he tried to kill you. I don't know why, perhaps he just wanted to end your family. The Potters had always been a light family and never supported any dark Lords.
"But here the mystery starts. When he shot the killing curse, one of three curses that are called unforgivable curses, at you, somehow the curse backfired at him. That's how you got the scar on your forehead. It's the mark of a dark curse hitting you. He vanished that evening. Nobody has seen or heard of him for ten years. Some say he is dead, but they never found a body. Some say he is biding his time, but why would he do that if he was strong enough to cause terror again? The most probable theory is that he was weakened so much that he can't do anything at the moment and waits until he can get back his strength. Nobody definitely knows, but one thing everybody in the wizarding world does know. And that is that he vanished because of you. You are very famous in the wizarding world all around the world. But especially here in Britain.
"You are known as The-Boy-Who-Lived, because nobody but you ever survived a killing curse." She said.
Harry was shocked. He didn't expect this. He was famous? He had never felt anything of that. The Dursleys definitely didn't treat him like a celebrity. This needed to be researched more intensely. Professor McGonagall let him get his head around the news she had given him for a moment.
"Professor, you said, he was called You-Know-Who, what was his real name?" Harry finally asked.
She sighed, but he needed to know that as well.
"His name was Voldemort. But most people don't like to say or even hear the name. Even after ten years the fear is rooted very deeply in the people." She answered.
"I see." Harry said.
Then their food and drinks came and they ate in silence for a while. For a boy who was obviously neglected by his family, Harry had impeccable manners she noticed. So somebody had taken the time to teach him something. When they finished, she turned to Harry, trying to ease him into telling about his home life.
"You wrote in your letter that you had offers for scholarships to several muggle schools, Mr Potter. How did you get them, if you don't mind me asking." She started.
"No, I don't mind. I got them for my skills in playing football, a popular muggle sport and my high grades. If my relatives had agreed, I would already attend secondary school. I was offered to skip a year when I was nine. But they refused and as my guardians they had to give permission for me to be advanced to a higher class. I was the top student of my year at my old primary school." He said with a hint of pride.
'He inherited his parents' intelligence then.' Professor McGonagall thought smiling.