Chapter Text
Sirius sat in the bed he had occupied for most of the week, he was bored. Andromeda had him on a strict potions regime and was insisting on bed rest for him. He wanted to go out, and have a drink, to meet a pretty witch, he was bored. He picked up the copy of the daily prophet that had been delivered and flipped through the paper. It was full of basically nothing, he kept turning the pages until he saw a picture near the back, the caption read, Harry Potter, Youngest Seeker in a Century, wins game for House. Sirius sat up straight in the bed and read the short article. James and Lily’s boy was at Hogwarts, and he was a Quidditch prodigy, he beamed. Sirius climbed out of bed and found some clothes, he was at the Tonk’s place, and they lived in muggle Crawley, so the clothes were muggle jeans, tee shirts and such. He padded downstairs where he could hear his cousin Andi talking to someone. Sirius walked into the kitchen where the voices were coming from and stopped in his tracks.
Andi was sat at her kitchen table, talking to a couple of neighbours he had seen a few times over the last week or so, and their kids. One of the kids was,…….Harry. Harry turned to face him and immediately smiled. “Padfoot, you shouldn’t be up yet.” Harry crossed the distance and wrapped Sirius in a hug, “Hello again dogfather, I have missed you.” Sirius broke. Tears rolled down his eyes and ten years of guilt and fear and grief poured out of him. “Prongslet, is it really you.” He wrapped his arms around Harry and sobbed, “I am so sorry Harry, I should never have left you with Hagrid, I should never have gone after Peter. I promised your mum and dad and I let everyone down.”
Hermione walked over to Sirius and joined the hug, “He has been safe Sirius. My dad found him the night Dumbledore abandoned him on the Dursley’s doorstep and he has lived with us ever since, you will like the fact that I am his soulmate, and we will marry one day, he beat James’s record by nearly ten years, but he isn’t Prongslet, he is Bambi.”
Sirius dropped to his knees, “Oh my, you are so like Lily, thank you, thank all of you. I have despaired for so long. I saw the papers, “where did the boy-who-lived go? what happened?”
“You will probably get a serious rollocking from Lily when you see her, she isn’t impressed.”
“You are right, I have that to look forward to eventually……..You talk as if you have met her?”
“She has Padfoot. She is correct, what were you thinking leaving our boy and careening off after the rat?”
Sirius was still kneeling on the floor, he stared vacantly at Lily as she stood in the room facing him. “Mum, Sirius will think he is going mad, you promised to let us tell him about this stuff before you laid into him. He has spent ten years in Azkaban, chill woman.”
“Do not tell me to chill, Harry James Potter..”
Harry looked at Sirius and winked, “What are you going to do mum, ground me, kill me, again. Really. I am the one who had eight shitty lives, if I can forgive him, you WILL forgive him, or I will banish you back to the hereafter.” Harry flashed a quick grin at Sirius. Lily stood arms folded, clearly fuming. “Mum, you gave Sirius an absolute earbashing last time around, he needs to heal, we need his help, we don’t need this. Stop going all Molly Weasley on us.” Hermione had her face in her hands and was shaking her head.
“Harry James Potter, you little monster, you are deliberately antagonising me, where do you get this from?”
“He gets it from you Lily.” Hermione answered, “this is exactly how you deal with James. Don’t worry, Harry James will be punished. Trust me.”
Finally Lily stopped, and started to laugh, “You little tyke, you are a nightmare. Hermione, we need to talk. These Potter boys are getting out of hand, Sirius, we will have words. Make it right, Padfoot.” She faded from view.
Sirius looked from one to the other, “that was real?”
“Oh yes. Long story dogfather, not for today, but Hermione and I are living our lives over, we have died a few times already, DEATH has sent us back to deal with Moldyfart, and the Death Munchers, everyone in this room is in on it, and when you are well enough we will need your help, but the most important thing for the next few weeks is for you to get well. You can’t help us until you regain your strength.” Harry leaned in and whispered, “Amelia Bones tried to investigate and open your case but Fudge and Dumbledore were blocking it until we caught Pettigrew and the charges were all proven false. Don’t be too hard on her when she comes to visit.”
Sirius climbed back to his feet and Harry pulled him to the table, “Sirius, I need you to meet Dan and Emma Granger, they are Hermione’s birth parents, and they adopted me. They have kept us both safe.” Dan stood and held his hand out to Sirius.
------oooOOOooo------
Harry and Hermione were jogging around the lake in the dark, the cold late November morning sharp on their lungs. “We should use the room of requirements and run along a tropical beach tomorrow.”
“Good idea, shame we can’t use the bracelets and train in Susan’s place, we wouldn’t have to get up early.”
“I don’t mind early mornings, compared to the tent this is easy.”
“Yeah, that was a truly awful part of our lives. The only good thing was finally bringing us together, once we were potion free.”
“What are we going to do about Ron. I was all set to send him to the Troll, and he is just a daft kid so far.”
“He stabbed me in the chest with a fang and as the poison reached my heart he looked into my eyes and called me a mudblood whore. I did not know that person, he was so full of hate, he was your friend. I wonder about every nice thought I ever had about him, were they mine or created in a cauldron?”
“Fair comment, I think I am hanging onto my fond memories a bit. I saw him kill you in your memory, did he ever really like you, or was it just more jealousy?”
“I don’t know, perhaps we can introduce him to fluffy?”
“Ooh, poor dog, he would be ill.”
“Acromantulas?”
“Might cause Hagrid a bit too much grief.”
“More than Norberta?”
“When does he get the egg?”
“After Christmas break, not for a while yet.”
“Perhaps not then.”
“Chamber of secrets, feed him to the Basilisk?”
“Then what, if it wakes up it will kill half the castle before it’s finished. I am not going to chance it with a sword again.”
“Is it a cockerels crow that kills them.”
“That is the legend, I wouldn’t want to bet my life on it. I would rather have Dad there with a bazooka or whatever they call them these days. I read up on Basilisks after the whole thing, some reckon the cock-crow defeats a Basilisk thing just refers to the fact they don’t like sunlight, so hunt at night, and withdraw at dawn. It would be a bit of a let down if you produced a cockerel and it just scoffed it first as a starter.
“I don’t know what I am going to do, but his days are numbered, he is wary of me now, because he saw me deal with McLaggan, but the toxic ginger gargoyle will show up at some point. If I thought he was redeemable I might let it go, but he has Molly’s temper, and huge entitlement issues. I wonder if he actually started to hate you once he realised you were the popular one, and he was the sidekick. He was the reason I was in the toilet for the troll to find in the first place.”
“I might have an idea, how we can potentially kill two birds with one stone.”
“Pray tell.”
------oooOOOooo------
Harry was sat eating lunch with Hermione, Daphne and Tracey, they had just finished transfiguration, all of them had managed a teacup from the conjured mouse they had been given and they were discussing if it was a relevant thing to learn, and what if anything could be developed from the spell.
Just down the table Ron was complaining to Seamus about how ‘old McGonagall’ was picking on him, because his cup was furry and still had a tail. His voice drifted across a momentary lull in the background noise level, “of course Potter and his know-it-all muggle bitch were bloody perfect, they make me want to puke the pair of them. I was told to try to make friends with him by my mum, I am bloody glad that never happened, imagine having to listen to that stuck up snooty bint that’s always with him, he get’s everything…..,” the noise rose and drowned out the rest of his rant.
Hermione looked Harry in the eye and bit the end off a carrot stick, holding his gaze for a long minute. “No hesitiation, no tears and no hearts breaking no remorse, his actions require a deadly course.”
“Are they lyrics?”
“Might be, can’t think what to though.”
------oooOOOooo------
Sunday morning came around, with a light frost coating everything outside the castle. Harry and Hermione decided to apparated from an empty classroom on a part of the fourth floor that was no longer in use. Harry checked on the map to ensure no-one was following and they jumped away to their house, to get changed. They sat in the kitchen and had breakfast with their parents, discussing their plans for the day. Dan wanted to accompany them, and even when they told him that they would be going with a team of Goblin curse breakers he still wanted to be there. Hermione tapped Harry’s leg and gave him a look, so they agreed to apparate him to Gringotts with them when they went to join the Goblins after they got ready.
They popped into existence in Diagon Alley and took the walk down to Gringotts, the three of them were kitted out in black clothes, combat style boots and Dan was carrying a black holdall. They walked through the doors and were escorted straight into the back by a pair of the guards.
They were taken to a non-descript room, where a group of goblins were gathered, some wearing armour and carrying long handled axes. “Good Morning, Master Potter and Miss Granger, and Mister Granger, I am Kragnok, I shall be leading this party. We have a portkey set to the location you advised. We are just awaiting our scouting party to return and confirm it is safe for our arrival.
A few minutes later a pair of goblins appeared in the room, and after some discussion in their own language, the group all took hold of the proffered length of rope and portkeyed into Little Hangleton, arriving at the junction of two quiet country roads. Harry walked a few yards down the road and then pointed into the hedge. “The shack we are looking for is in here, under concealment charms.”
Two of the goblins walked to him, and after a moment inspecting the hedge walked through it, Harry waited for Dan and Hermione to catch up and they followed the group through the hedge. It was a badly overgrown path, the trees had not been cleared in years, at the front, two of the goblin guards were clearing the path with their axes and one of the curse breakers was following close behind and checking on progress. It took the group about fifteen minutes to reach the shack, the frost covered trees and bushes looking starkly beautiful around the near derelict building.
Kragnok motioned for Harry to join him, “I believe that you need to open this.”
Harry looked at the snake pinned to the door, §Open§ Harry tried in Parseltongue. Nothing happened.
§Open for the Heir of Slytherin§ The door clicked and one of the goblins hooked the handle with a crook and pulled the door open. He motioned Harry to move back. Harry pulled his wand from his holder and Hermione matched his move, they took up stances watching the surrounding tree and shrubs, waiting and wondering if anything would trigger Riddle.
Dan was kneeling at the bag he had brought with him, with a few muffled clicks he assembled the HK MP5 he had brought along, and cocked it. He stood tall between his children and scanned the surroundings; a slight mist was forming in the trees as the weak sum warmed the cold earth. This place gave Dan the creeps. Strange shapes could be seen in the mist, and it felt colder here than on the road.
Outside the shack a pair of goblins were working their way through the various traps and wards placed on the door, and others on the window. With a nod of agreement, they stepped warily into the shack and cast about. They slowly worked their way into the main room, the furniture had rotted and collapsed, and a thick layer of dust covered everything. They could sense the dark miasma surrounding the ring, and identified its location. Without approaching, one of the pair levitated the floorboard clear of its hiding place and the other lifted the metal box containing it into the air. He summoned the box and keeping it a distance from himself motioned it out through the door.
As the tin, which was an old toffee makers product, passed the threshold, Harry and Hermione felt a scream in their magic. “Kragnok. An alarm just triggered, we know he is possessing a Professor at Hogwarts, he may turn up.”
“How long will it take him to get here, Mr Potter.”
“He will need at least five minutes to clear the ward line of the school, then he can apparate straight here.”
Sadly for Harry’s prediction, Quirrellmort was heading to Hogsmead and was only a few hundred yards from the ward boundaries, when he felt the alarm trigger. He ran to the boundaries and apparated to the location.
The goblins placed the tin on the floor outside the hovel, “Can you open the tin safely?” Hermione asked, “We can call a reaper to take the soul shard.”
Kragnok nodded and spoke to the two goblins who concentrated on the tin.
Dan spoke quietly to the two, “What does this guy look like?”
“Purple turban, skinny and a bit weedy. If Tommy boy is in charge he will fire off killing curses like confetti. I doubt he is really powerful at the moment, but we should shoot first and go for the kill if he turns up.”
“Roger that.” Dan said half in jest, and flipped the safety off, pulling his weapon into his shoulder and tensing ready to move. He didn’t like standing in the open, waiting to be attacked. He didn’t like waiting. Harry spoke softly, “I am going to make you invisible for now,” Dan felt a sensation like cold water slowly running down his body. He could still see and hear everyone, he shrugged, maybe it worked. Who knew?
Hermione closed her eyes and called Susan, as she opened them the curse breakers finished with the tin it’s top hinging open and they magically unwrapped the cloth to reveal the gaunt ring, with the resurrection stone as its centre piece. Harry and Hermione could feel the wrongness of it, and were aware of the compulsion charms, but unaffected by them.
“I will sort that gentlemen.” Susan walked in form the side and placed the tip of her poker on the ring. Harry felt as much as heard the scream and he grimaced and ducked his head down. The green bolt flashed through the space his head had just vacated, Hermione dropped onto one knee and fired a chain of cutting, blasting and piercing hexes at the figure emerging from the shadows. He batted them away sneering, and cut down two of the goblins with flicks of his wrist.
“You will have to do better than that mudblood.” He pointed his wand towards Hermione, Harry saw his wand swinging around to Hermione and the world slowed down around him. He pulled a conjured wall out of the ground to use for cover as the first curse left the wand and blew several chunks out of the newly constructed barrier even as they ducked behind it. He flicked his wand at Quirrellmort and let fly a chain of curses, Quirrell dismissed them with flicks of his wrist, but fatally, shifted his attention to Harry, “Potter. Time to end this, boy,” he heaped derision on the last word.
Dan had the figure square in his sights, he was only twenty feet away, and as he put the first pressure on the trigger the green laser sight marked the centre of Quirrell’s chest, visible in the slight mist. Quirrell hesitated, seeing a green light, thinking he was dead.
He was not wrong. His brain sent the command to his legs to jump clear, but too slowly.
Three muffled thumps followed a tenth of a second apart and the three 9mm rounds made a respectable grouping in the centre of his chest, his heart exploded and one passed though his spine. Quirrellmort fell to the floor, Quirrell was dead, and Voldemort’s wraith started to form above the body.
“You had better come with me,” Susan said in her strictest voice as she stepped over to where the body lay, and with a sweep reaped the wraith, The shade of Quirrell was standing looking surprised, “Congratulations, you just picked a fight with the agents of DEATH himself, before your arrogant possessor picked the fight, he perhaps should have checked, young Lord Potter over there is the last Peverell, he is also the keeper of the Hallows, the Master of Death. You cannot kill him, your master is gone, and it is time for you to meet your fate, I hope you like being warm, Quirinus. She tapped him with the poker and he was gone. Susan turned to the gathered goblins, flanked by the spirits of their fallen comrades, she spoke in their language, “I am sorry for your loss Kragnok, your warriors have passed over and I shall guide them to their ancestors.” She faded from view, the two guards fading along with her.
“Is that it?” Dan asked.
“For today, thanks dad.” Hermione smiled. “We still have the rest of the horcruxes to sort, and all the Death Eaters, and Dumbledore. We won this battle, but the war still continues. That is a great result though, as long as we can recover all the horcruxes, he can’t come back. We killed two more bits of him today. We have still got the cup, the locket and the diary to clean.”
Harry laughed, “That was awesome, the laser sight stopped him, he thought it was an AK.”
Dan looked puzzled, “Why specifically an AK?”
Hermione smiled, “Avada Kadavra, the killing curse. It’s a green spell, just a flash usually. Harry, dad thought you meant an AK47, a Kalashnikov assault rifle.”
“Harry laughed, “Ah, I see. So what is that?” He nodded to Dan’s gun, the barrel of which was steaming in the cold and damp.
Dan grinned, “this? How did this get here?” He laughed. “This is an HK MP5, Heckler & Koch, currently owned by Royal Ordnance, but originally Mauser. German. Most of the best guns are really. I asked a mate from the old days if I could borrow one.” He grinned, “I was surprised when he dropped it around a couple of days later with a decent supply of ammunition.” He looked from Harry to Hermione who was dusting herself off, “You two are scary calm for just being in a firefight. How many times have you done this?”
“Against Riddle alone, ten or twelve times, I died twice. Against all his cronies, dozens, I have no idea.” Harry stowed his wand as he spoke, “You OK Hermione?”
“Mmm’mm. Just checking myself over, not even a scratch. Who knew, the power he knew not. A gun.” She laughed. “What are we going to do with the body?”
“Should we put him in the shack and torch the place?”
“No, if the mundane fire service turn up there might be a trap or two left. Let’s leave the place, and after the rest are dealt with the Ministry can deal with it.”
“We should remove his ancestors bones from the graves. Just in case someone tries to revive him with one of the horcruxes.”
“Good thinking, we can do that. Kragnok?”
“Yes Mr Potter”
“My condolence’s, and respects for your fallen. We are going to visit the graveyard on the hill and remove some items to prevent a ritual. Can you dispose of this body, or shall we make arrangements?”
“We shall carry our fallen back to the Horde. We have already witnessed them depart to join the ancestors, their families will be proud, they will cherish the memory of the reaper appearing to do battle with us. We shall dispose of the wizards body for you, the dragon’s will be grateful.” The whole group of goblins cackled, those in armour thumped their chests three times.
“Warrior Granger, you are welcome in the Horde, I will tell our king that you defeated the wand waver, I believe he will want to express his gratitude.”
Hermione accio’d the ring and handed it to Harry who slipped it into his pocket. She levitated the empty tin back into the shack and closed the door with a gesture.
The Goblins had the bodies slung between them, they took hold of the portkey, “Warriors – HO!” they shouted and disappeared.
Dan had the HK across his chest and the bag in one hand, Hermione took his hand, they three apparated up to the graveyard, and Harry walked them over to an all too familiar gravestone. “Is that the grave? Harry.”
“Yes, I was bound and they transfigured the angel statue to restrain me, they did the ritual over there in a cauldron.” He looked around, and ghosts filled his memories. “Cedric died just there.” Hermione held him close for a moment.
Dan spoke, “Harry, talk about it. The more you talk it through, the less impact it will have. I struggle with you two in these circumstances. My instinct is to pick you both into a hug, but inside you are both veterans, I think you might have seen more action than I have. I can tell you, from personal experience, bottling it up is destructive. You must talk, to each other, to me if you want to. Not your mum, Emma had enough nightmares after Africa.”
“Is that when you rescued mum?” Hermione asked.
“It was, she was captive for nearly twenty four hours, terrified the whole time. She feared, well. Maybe when you are older.”
“She was expecting to be raped and tortured I assume. Harry and I were captured in two previous lives, I was tortured for a while, Harry got killed trying to save me the first time. The second time we had help. The madwoman that was carving me up with a dagger was telling me how the men would use me one after another until I died, I know exactly what she feared. I had those nightmares as well.”
She turned to watch Harry as he was busy extracting the skeletons from any of the Riddle family graves and shrinking them down into a small pile at his feet. “These ‘Death Eaters’ as they call themselves, they are animals. They have to be wiped out, or it will all start again.”
“You should call them something that mocks them, fear of the name. Call them Shit Eaters, or Deaf Eaters, or Bed Wetters, anything that makes them sound stupid. Don’t give them power.”
“Harry will like ‘Shit Eaters’, he used to call them ‘Death Munchers’, I rather like ‘Bed Wetters’ it makes them sound pathetic. We have some friends who like making up nicknames, they might help.”
“How about Meat Beaters?” Harry asked as he walked over. “Basically.” Hermione cut him off.
“Harry James, I know exactly what that means, and it is fine amongst you boys, but I am not using that sort of language around the school, even euphemistically.”
Dan laughed, “Princess, we just fought and could have died. You get a pass on any potty mouth, and calling the assholes trying to kill you, ‘Wankers’, works just fine for me.”
Harry threw his head back and laughed, Hermione stood open mouthed staring at her father. “Well, father, they are fucking wankers, most of them are dickless as well. Just don’t ever tell mum you heard me say that.” She giggled, “Harry, we might need to pop to Susan’s, I need some adult stress relief.”
Dan looked at his daughter, closed his eyes, shook his head and started laughing. “I am going to pretend that I did not understand that.” He looked at Harry, “Don’t worry Harry, your first act on contact was to shield Hermione and me, I could not ask for a better man to take care of my girl. Just let me pretend you are both children for a bit longer.”
“We are Dan, sometimes we just sit and giggle about silly things, our past lives are distant memories, we spent years in neverwhen, I think, it was strange, we had to be fixed to come back. You know what PTSD is about, we would have seriously hurt someone for dropping a plate, or some such nonsense.” He transformed all the bones into a ball with a swirl of his wand and shrank it to the size of a golf ball, before pocketing it. “Shall we go home, get washed up and have some lunch?” The others nodded. “Hermione, pop dad home, I am going to toss this in the ocean, I will see you there in a couple of minutes.” They apparated out with a couple of soft pops.
They had fish and chips for lunch, Harry threw the bone ball into the North Sea at the end of Whitby Harbour and picked up four portions of Haddock and Chips, with peas from the chip shop near the harbour bridge, before bouncing back home. They sat around the table and ate the food with their fingers, Emma passed on the peas, she had grown used to English fish shop chips, rather than fries, and enjoyed the succulent fish, but mushy peas were just wrong on so many levels. Dan and Harry covered theirs in a liberal layer of salt and vinegar and tucked in with gusto. Hermione, ate a few peas, she preferred tartar sauce really.
------oooOOOooo------
Up in ‘Neverwhen,’ as they called the limbo that Susan’s house existed in, adult Harry was laid in bed with his adult wife laid naked across his body, enjoying the after glow of a quite passionate lovemaking session. He stroked her hair. “After today that’s four out of seven I think?”
She propped herself up, Harry deliberately admired her breasts as they were exposed, Hermione smirked, “Glad you like them, Harry,” she kissed him, “but yes, that’s four. Cup, Diary, and locket left. The Goblins should hopefully look for the cup now, Sirius can get us the locket at Christmas, once he takes his Head of House ring, The diary is the difficult one.”
“We never did figure out a way to get Dobby free, did we. He would be such a help in all this. Do House elves come up here after?”
Hermione shrugged, I don’t know, we should ask, but he isn’t dead in this timeline, so he probably isn’t here, Sirius isn’t anymore. She kissed Harry, “I need the loo, then we should really head back, just in case we have been missed.” She rolled out of the bed and Harry enjoyed watching her naked form walk to the bathroom. He sighed, and climbed out of bed, he had been hoping for seconds.
------oooOOOooo------
Harry had packed and locked his trunk, he had no intention of taking it home, but he had locked it to keep untrusted dorm mates out of it over the holidays. This time around he was going home for Christmas, it would be strange, he had always spent his Christmases in the school, except for the times in the tent. He waited in the dorm for Hermione, and when she appeared they walked down to breakfast. The room was filled with noise, most of the school was leaving on the train a little later that morning and everyone was dressed in their home clothes, robes for the purebloods, and many like Harry and Hermione in jeans, trainers and hooded tops. They sat and ate a large breakfast, the food service on the train was sketchy on the trip up to London, and it was better than eating a mountain of sugary snacks and sweets. Healthy food was not a thing in the magical world.
They were sat close together waiting for Nev, Daphne, Tracey and the rest to appear at breakfast when they heard a commotion near the door. They were a little out of hearing range, but Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were squaring up against one another. Harry grinned and head pointed the fracas to Hermione. She smiled, they exchanged a look.
They left the school with Neville and the others from their house that were heading home for the holidays, grabbing a carriage together down to the station, they found a compartment and settled down for the journey, home.
“Anyone know what’s happened to the Squirrel?” Tracey asked. “We’ve had Snape for the last couple of weeks in DADA and potions is bad enough without D.Bat being a monumental arse about everything. The only plus side is he makes me want to be really good so I can hex his bits off.”
“No haven’t seen him at a meal for the last couple of weeks, Hagrid reckoned he saw him running down to the gate a couple of weekends ago. Last time he was seen apparently.” Neville added from the corner.
“I wonder who we will have for DADA come the new year, it would be nice to have a professor that actually both knew the subject, and wasn’t a complete arse to go with it.” Harry said, “Snape knows his stuff, but he want’s to teach the dark arts, not defence against them.”
“Not everything that is classified as dark magic, is evil Harry.” Daphne spoke quietly. “The so-called light faction has been making any ritual based magic either illegal, or not taught, and blood based magic is banned. That means communing with your ancestors, your Parents Harry, on Samhain, is frowned upon. Blood adopting a child into your family, so you can share your family magic, is banned. When you inevitably marry Hermione, the ritual I would recommend for the wedding night to welcome her into the Potter family magic’s would currently get you arrested. Not everyone from the light side is good, and not all so-called dark wizards are evil.” She shifted in her seat, “Sorry if I sound a bit preachy, Snape is not a good person, but neither is Dumbledore. My mother knew your parents well, she told me that your Godfather Sirius was a good man, and the Black family are as dark as they come. She didn’t believe he was the one to betray them.”
“He didn’t, it was Peter Pettigrew. He went through the veil for his crimes in early November. Sirius is out of Azkaban and recovering at his cousin’s. I will meet him again over the holidays.” Harry told her quietly, “It wasn’t widely published because Fudge doesn’t want to look bad.”
Tracey snorted in derision, “My dad hates Fudge, he reckon’s he is a complete buffoon. Reckon’s his opinion comes from the highest bidder.”
Hermione nodded, “Your father sounds like a sensible man. Fudge is uncompetent, to say incompetent would credit him with some level of competence. Him and his pink toad Umbridge are dragging our world back into the past, but that’s what the old guard purebloods want so I am sure he will survive a little longer.” She huffed, “Umbridge would have someone like me put in prison or kissed, for ‘stealing magic’ from a pureblood family.”
“Really?” Neville was surprised.
“She is the worst sort of blood purist Nev, she isn’t even a pureblood, her father was muggleborn, or a muggle I forget which.” Hermione finished.
The rambling conversation stopped when the compartment door opened and Malfoy stood with his minders, “Potter.”
“Oh Malfoy, and your backing dancers, are you going to sing?”
“What? Are you stupid? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know Draco, the label has fallen off. Look, just get on with the insult you’ve been working on, we’ll all give you marks for content, originality and delivery, and then we can all get on with our lives.” Harry looked at him expectantly, Crabbe’s eyebrows were furrowed, but Harry noticed a slight smirk on Goyle’s face.
“You think you’re really clever, just because you are the seeker, just you wait, next year I will show you.”
“Thanks Draco, I think the insult is weak, say four out of ten, it’s not really original, so three, and delivery was a bit lame, you need to work on presentation. For the record I think Hermione is really clever, I think I am just cleverer than you, and I think that because I get better marks. Anything else, or is today’s act like a Gryffindor session over?”
“How dare you compare me to that mudblood,” Draco spat out.
“That witch would kick your pathetic arse intellectually or in a fight, magical or physical Draco Malfoy. You are nothing without your name, she will make a name for herself, what are you going to be remembered for?” Daphne asked pointedly, “running around with your goons and making a complete arse of yourself. Not very cunning is it?”
Hermione looked at Draco, “If I am supposed to be offended by you calling me names, you have no idea who you are dealing with.” She stood and walked up to him, “You are a pathetic excuse of a little boy, you hide behind your fathers legs at anything scary, Ronald Weasley is more of a wizard than you, and that is a low bar. Now leave before I beat you up muggle style and you have to explain how a girl gave you a black eye to your precious daddy.”
“You would not dare lay a finger on,” the slap stopped him midway through his retort.
“Leave, or these two will be carrying you.” Draco’s face had a bright red handprint and he was fighting tears,
“Just you wait.”
The whole compartment joined in, “until my father hears about this!” He stormed away, his minions followed after.
“No doubt Lucius will try to have me charged with the crime of being a muggle and using oxygen reserved for purebloods or some such nonsense,” she said as she sat down.
Daphne looked up, “He will not admit getting schooled by a muggle girl to his father, he would not dare. He might whine to his mother, but I am not sure where Narcissa’s allegiances are these days. She is a pureblood snob, but she isn’t interested in any of the Death Eater nonsense her husband was wrapped up in. She is a society witch, and enjoys the good life, she will probably scold Draco for being so easily goaded. Slytherin is supposed to be ambition, cunning and subtlety, Draco is as subtle as an Erumpant in a cauldron store.”
------oooOOOooo------
The Train arrived in Kings Cross. It was dark and cold in London, and as they stepped from the carriage and walked to the exit they looked around, there were plenty of parents picking up their children, to their surprise they saw Emma standing on the platform, as they got closer they realised Andromeda was with them, Both ladies smiled and waved, and as they headed towards the pair a stinging hex caught Harry on the backside, he jumped around to see Tonks laughing her head off about ten feet away, “Gotcha Harry,” her hair was bright pink and as she walked up to him, she grabbed him around the neck, “how is my favourite second or third cousin?”
“I was just fine, thanks, I guess I deserved that, a bit.” He was rubbing the spot on his buttock where she had caught him, Tonks linked arms with them both and walked over to their parents.
Andromeda looked them over, “Nymphadora, can you side along Mrs Granger? and I will bring the two youngsters.”
“Ok, back to ours?”
“We can both apparate ourselves, if that’s easier.”
Andromeda looked at them with an air of mild disbelief, as if to say, ‘of course you can.’ Hermione reached out to her mother’s hand and popped away. Harry grinned and side-along apparated Tonks, Andi appeared a moment or two later. “You two are very advanced for your ages, just how old are you really?”
“Well, that is the question, I am not sure to be truthful, early to mid-twenties I think. Do all the previous lives count as well as the time in neverwhen?” Hermione answered matter-of-factly as she followed Andromeda into their house.
“Hi kids, come in, it’s really good to see you both.” Sirius was waiting in the kitchen. He looked a lot healthier, and his skin pallor had improved, “Come here kitten, give an old man a hug,” He wrapped his arms around Hermione. Then pulled Harry into a group hug, “Andi thought it better that I wasn’t on the platform, some people still think I am a mass murderer.”
Back on the Platform 9¾ Albus Dropped the disillusionment charm, he smiled to himself, Harry Potter lived with the Tonks family. He popped away, he would have their address on file at the school, he would be visiting them over the holidays. He had to admire the Tonks girls discretion, he would not have realised it from the few interactions he had witnessed. He arrived back at his office and sent a short note asking Minerva for the Tonks home address. He settled into his chair and popped a lemon drop. He could have things back where they belonged by new year.
Back in the Tonk’s kitchen, everyone was chatting at once, both sets of parents were there, Dan spoke up, “We are ordering in for tonight, so kids, Chinese? Italian? Indian? You choose?”
Hermione and Harry traded a look, “PIZZA!”
Tonks laughed, “are you two telepathic? I swear at times you are linked.” She pulled a face, Severus Snape’s. “Pizza will be acceptable Mr Black.” In a good imitation of his drawl.
Andi looked at Sirius, “Have you ever had Pizza Siri?”
“I have Andi, not for a good number of years though, Lily used to eat them with pineapple on when she was carrying Harry. I can’t say that I agree with fruit on Pizza, but it’s a thing.”
“We should all go to Hawaii for a few weeks next summer. It would be a really good break after this nonsense is finished with.” Harry commented.
“Steady Harry, you just spent a small fortune with that statement.” Dan laughed,
Harry looked around the room. “My treat Dad, I think we will all be ready for it by then. If we have got rid of Mouldypants and the Dead Beaters by then, we will have earned it. I might even ask a few of our friends along and charter a plane.”
Dora appeared with the local Pizza place flyer in her hand, “Who want’s what then?” They ordered a selection of large Pizza’s and they busied themselves sorting the table out for everyone to sit, Harry watched as Andi and Dora used a combination of magic and manual to achieve it. The table was set for eight and the adults had beers or wine, Harry and Hermione had cokes, their bodies not coping with any quantity of alcohol worth consuming.
The food arrived and they sat and helped themselves to slices of the pizza, once they had eaten enough, Andi turned an eye on Harry and Hermione. “Are we allowed an explanation of what you two really are? Sirius had some very weird dreams, he told me a little bit of them, and then clammed up and said it was your story to tell.”
Hermione gave Harry a slight nod and they had a soundless conversation, Hermione sat upright, “How good is your occulemency?” She looked from one to the other.
Andromeda replied first, “I am a healer, I also cover mental health, so mine is as strong as anyone’s. Hermione nodded, and looked to Ted.
“I am a law wizard, and a mundane solicitor at law, I have a very high level as well. Being read in court is not acceptable.” Hermione looked at Nymphadora.
“I think it has something to do with my abilities, I am pretty much naturally immune.” Hermione nodded.
Hermione sat and took a drink of her coke, “Harry and I have lived before, he has died about eight times before, we think, I have died at least three times. On one occasion I was pregnant with our daughter when your sister Bellatrix slit my throat, Harry died a few minutes later. We get sent back into our lives to achieve our destiny, this time we have all our memories, and our abilities from our previous lives, and what we learned training in the afterlife, neverwhen we call it. It exists outside of time. I assume you have regained your memories as well Sirius?”
He nodded. “I have, I will tell you my tale when you have finished yours.”
Hermione went on to recall their previous lives, the abuse Harry suffered, the people they trusted and learned were not friends. The deaths of so many loved ones, and so many innocents. She explained that Harry had united the Hallows and was now one of Death’s agent’s among the living, and that he could allow the dead to communicate, hence Lily had turned up to scold Sirius.
“So do I get any more information about the child you claim I have in the future?” Tonks asked.
Harry looked at her, “It may not happen in this timeline, sorry I am sure he will find his way to you somehow at some point in time, but it would be wrong to tell you who the father is, it would impact your whole life from this point onward. We loved both of you, and we were little Teddy’s godparents in that timeline. We both died a month after he was born, the same day that you and his father died, the battle of Hogwarts, the second of May 1998. It is not a date I shall ever celebrate.”
“One of the tasks we have to complete is recovering and destroying the soul pieces that Voldypants split himself into. We have successfully got rid of four of the seven so far, the first was removed from my head by a mundane surgeon, Susan reaped the soul from the waste bin in the theatre, it would have perished anyway, without my magic to feed it. Dumbledore convinced me that I had to die to end the Horcrux in my head last time, when in truth a simple mundane procedure would have sufficed. I hate Albus Dumbledore.”
Hermione stepped in, “We collected the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw during our first week at school, and our honorary aunt Susan reaped the soul from it. A couple of weeks ago, Harry, Dad and I accompanied by a team of goblin curse breakers from Gringotts collected another, this one includes the resurrection stone, one of the Hallows. Whilst we were collecting it, the wraith of Tom Riddle, Modlywarts, was alerted and using the body he had possessed, our Defence Professor, he attacked us. Harry and I were holding him off magically, and Dad finished him off with a bit of borrowed kit from his old Marine pals. That leaves us three to go.”
Harry took over, “The cup of Helga Hufflepuff, it is in the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange, at Gringotts. We have told them, perhaps they believe us now, and will act on the information, The locket of Salazar Slytherin, this is in the possession of Kreacher, the House elf at 12 Grimmauld Place. The last one is the diary of Tom Marvolo Riddle, which is in the possession of Lucius Malfoy. Once they are removed, Voldyprat cannot return, he will be in the afterlife, and will not be enjoying it.”
Hermione, “We also need to end the Death Eaters, finally. They need to die. Last time they bought their way out of trouble, or were imprisoned. They rejoined their Dark Lord and attacked Azkaban freeing the rest. They killed hundreds of muggles, especially muggleborns like me, perhaps thousands. Dumbledore preaches forgiveness, he is an obstacle to a peaceful future, and responsible for Harry suffering child abuse for the first ten years of his first eight lives. I will happily kill him at some point.
Harry started, “We need to break down the blood barriers, blood purity is a purely British thing now, and the poor treatment other magical creatures receive gives people like Riddle an open recruiting ground. We sat in DEATH’s cottage, in between time and I was quite happy to stay dead, Hermione was with me, and if I am honest only Andi was still alive out of all of you, I had nothing to return to, eternity with Hermione was a pretty good deal. I am apparently destined to fulfil a prophecy, so I was sent back. Dan, my new dad, was guided to where Dumbledore had abandoned me as a child on a doorstep, so this life has been full of love and care. Having experienced the other lives, I can say I truly appreciate what wonderful parents I have now, and I thank you from my very soul for picking that little boy up from the doorstep.”
Emma pulled Harry into a hug and kissed the top of his head, “You are welcome Harry, you have brought happiness to our home, and we have never regretted a second of our lives together. Hearing that I was already a grandmother once is a little scary, let’s wait on that one this time, perhaps?”
Harry smiled, “we only learned of the pregnancy from Susan after we died again.”
Sirius took up the reigns, “Kids, I had a few visits from Susan myself, I have been into Gringotts and taken up the Head of House of Black.” He adopted a dramatic pose, “I am ‘The Black of Black’ now,” he laughed “and I have attended to some outstanding business. I have reinstated Andi and Dora to the house, and I shall expel Bellatrix when it suits. I am going to get in touch with Narcissa, so we might be able to get hold of that diary. I have named you as my heir Harry. My time in Azkaban has removed my ability to have children, so I will pass on the name and the House to the pair of you. We can discuss retrieving that locket at some point, I need to go claim my seat in the Wizengamot at the Solstice session, and I will talk to Minerva about your Magical Guardianship. We have a few weeks to sort this stuff, tonight, let us celebrate being alive, and together with people we love.”