One-Shot: Harry Potter's Changeover
The Ministry dinner party was over – finally – and Harry was glad that he had not had to accept yet another award for it. It was a great double date night out with his wife, Ginny, and best friends, Ron and Hermione Weasley.
Now, the quartet was at Ron and Hermione's place, dropping them off for the night. Hugs and kisses were exchanged. "Don't wake the kids," Harry warned. Ron and Hermione waved goodbye and slipped inside.
The couple headed through the dark house. There was silence. Rose and Hugo had to be in bed. Hermione peeked her head into her 12-year-old daughter's room…and nearly fell over.
The bed was empty.
Later, Harry would be glad that he and his wife had decided to enjoy the walk home instead of Apparating. They were barely one house down from Ron and Hermione's when they heard their sister-in-law scream. Harry and Ginny looked at each other and ran back to and inside the Weasley residence.
"Rose isn't in bed. Neither is Hugo!" Hermione said to them, panicked.
"Maybe they're watching TV in the attic or something," Harry offered, saying anything to alleviate her worries. Hermione didn't seem to believe him. Now, Harry joined the other three as they ran through the house, through the kids' empty bedrooms, pulling off comforters, tearing the place inside out.
"Rose? Hugo? Answer me!" Harry called for his niece and nephew. He was starting to panic as well.
"HARRY!" Ginny suddenly cried. Harry followed her gaze to behind Hugo's bedroom door. A scrap of parchment was hanging there, pinned to the door by a wand. Harry read the words, trying to keep a measured voice.
"I have taken your children far away, and now hold them at ransom. All my brethren and I want in exchange is Harry Potter. If Harry Potter does not meet with us, the children will die."
Harry's mind whirled. His godchildren had been taken - his favorite niece and nephew, the products of his best friends. But where had they been taken? And why?
"So…these people took Rose and Hugo to get to Harry? Why? Couldn't they have done just as well taking James, Albus and Lily?" Hermione's voice was beginning to show signs of calm again. Harry's mind jumped to a thought.
"Ginny, go home immediately and make sure the kids are OK. Lock the door and don't answer it for anyone!" Ginny nodded and immediately Disapparated.
Harry now peered closer at an insignia on the bottom of the parchment. He gasped when he recognized it.
Old Death Eaters had taken Rose and Hugo. This was not good.
Suddenly, the phone rang. The Trio jumped. All at once, Harry sensed that this was no ordinary phone call. He had a strange feeling he knew who was on the other end. He picked up the phone and did not even wait to hear who it was before he began to speak.
"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills that I've acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my niece and nephew go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don't…I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you."
Silence briefly before an unfamiliar voice replied, "Good luck, Harry Potter." The receiver clicked.
Ten minutes later, Harry, Ron and Hermione barged out of the Burrow's Floo. Harry stalked upstairs, his eyes now steeled in calm determination. His Auror training had kicked in, and he would stop at nothing until he had found his godchildren. Hermione was now bawling at the realization that her kids were in the hands of Death Eaters.
"They'll kill my children!" she cried hopelessly.
"NEVER!" Ron thundered, the determined and protective anger in his voice almost daring those far-away Death Eaters to make such a proposition come true.
"But, darling, they will!" Hermione wept. "You know they will!"
"ARTHUR!" Harry barked, tuning out the grieving parents' melodrama behind him. "I need to use your computer! Now!" He marched upstairs to his father-in-law's office, Ron, Hermione, Arthur and Molly following behind him.
"What's happened?" Molly asked.
"Rose and Hugo have been taken," Harry reported. "By Death Eaters." Molly's hand went to her mouth. "Death Eaters used them to get to me. They figured that Rose and Hugo were the only people I would willingly track down, while bringing Ron and Hermione at the same time. It's a trap meant for all of us! Trouble for them is…" and here he smirked grimly. "I'm gonna play their game my way."
He booted up the computer, and then placed a call to his old Auror colleague, Seamus Finnegan.
"Seamus. Rose and Hugo have been kidnapped. I need you to analyze the digital copy of this ransom note I'm sending your way. Tell me everything you can find on it: where the parchment was purchased, whose handwriting, how long ago it was written."
"On it, Harry," Seamus replied in his thick Irish brogue. "How are Ron and Hermione holding up?"
Another fit of wailing from Hermione was the only answer needed. "Not very well. What have you got?"
"Just pulling it up…. analyzing…OK. The parchment was purchased in a place called Finchley. It's a rural area close to the western English border. The handwriting belongs to Rodolphus Lestrange, and was written approximately….3 hours ago."
Harry cursed. Rodolphus. The husband of Bellatrix, who had tortured Hermione and been killed by Mrs. Weasley in the Battle of Hogwarts. So, this was a revenge plot too. And Finchley was miles away from here.
"Oh, and Harry. You'll have to hurry. These guys operate efficiently and in the shadows. I'd wager you have about 3 days between now and to…"
"To what?"
"To never finding Rose and Hugo."
Hermione let out another wail at this. "Oh, no! Not my babies!" she sobbed into Ron's shoulder.
Harry thanked Seamus and hung up. He checked his equipment he had stored here for safekeeping. Finally, he looked over his wand, before lastly loading and slamming closed the butt of a Muggle Glock .45 pistol.
"Arthur, I need you to charter me a plane!"
"For when, son?"
"An hour ago." Harry said grimly. Clearly, he was not messing around and felt he was losing time all ready.
"You mean, he needs to charter one for us," Ron corrected his brother-in-law.
"No. Just for me. You two are staying here."
"Like bloody hell we are! These are my kids we're talking about, mate!"
"And my god-kids! Those Death Eaters used them to get to me, to lure us all into a trap! You and Hermione come with me, we're giving them exactly what they want. Don't you understand?!"
"Ron," Hermione said gently. "As much as I want to go too…Harry's right." Ron stared at her as she stood up with some composure and crossed over to Harry. "This is for Rose and Hugo, when you find them." She kissed Harry chastely on the lips. Harry awkwardly cleared his throat.
"Well…I don't know if it'll mean the same coming from me." But he promised to find Rose and Hugo and to give them their parents' love. As he flew through the night to Finchley, he read and re-read the parchment, and also listened to the reply of the phone conversation, which he had secretly recorded. Presumably Rodolphus Lestrange's voice repeated "Good luck, Harry Potter" over and over again.
Upon arriving in Finchley, Harry used Auror tactics to track down and infiltrate a cell of old Death Eaters. He even managed to vocally identify Rodolphus, by tricking him into translating "Good luck" from an ancient Dark Wizard dialect. Harry proceeded to kill everyone inside, trashing the place, but sparing Rodolphus. Suddenly, more Death Eaters appeared as back-up. Rodolphus then lowered a net through the ceiling. It's contents made a now captured Harry's heart stop. "Rose. Hugo." His godchildren were screaming and crying as the net stopped its descent about halfway between ceiling and floor. Harry was then released.
"Go on, Mr. Chosen One," Rodolphus sneered. "Free them. If you can simply touch them, I will let them go. You too, in fact."
Harry didn't believe him, but decided to play by the rules…for now. He climbed up a staircase and bestrided the railing, so that he was close to Rose and Hugo. Both were crying and reaching out to him.
"Get us out, Uncle Harry! Then we can go home!" Rose begged through her tears.
"Yes…touch them, Potter, and you'll be free!"
Harry reached desperately for Rose's hand offered through the net. She was just out of…No! He fell off the railing, grabbing on to the bottom of the net and swinging to the floor to break his fall. The Death Eaters laughed cruelly at their old rival's apparent inability to play the hero anymore.
But, Harry knew one thing that they didn't. He had come with an escape-hatch plan. The Death Eater nest was suddenly broken into by Auror reinforcements; Harry had leaked the location to them before infiltrating. The Death Eaters were captured, except for Rodolphus, who got away. It didn't matter, though. Rose and Hugo were safe.
After safely reuniting the children with their parents, things went back to normal for a while. Until one fateful night near Halloween…
Rose and Hugo were already in bed, and their parents were downstairs, snuggling and watching TV. Suddenly, a voice yelled, "FREEZE!"
Ron and Hermione whipped out their wands as they spun around, but a quick Expelliarmus disarmed them both.
A hooded figure had somehow sneaked into their home. He revealed his identity soon enough – Rodolphus Lestrange, still wanting revenge and enraged that the kidnapping scheme had not worked as planned.
"My wife lost her life because of you two!" Rodolphus roared. "And you helped Potter destroy my Master! You two are the reason that purebloods do not rule – encouraging interbreeding by marrying! You really are a blood traitor, Weasley! I should kill you just for even kissing this Muggle filth!"
"Well, then you'll have to kill me too," Hermione said defiantly. "Because I kissed him back." She said the last slowly and with relish.
Rodolphus sneered. "With pleasure. I still will get what I want! I'll mercifully spare your children and make them orphans. And your deaths will break Harry Potter and bring him to his knees!" Before Ron and Hermione could do anything, green light had been blasted at them both. Two of the Golden Trio fell back, dead.
It was the middle of the night when Harry got the panicked call from Hugo. Ron and Hermione couldn't be – no, he must have heard wrong…
But the story was all too true when he arrived at the house, already swarming with Death Eaters. Upon seeing his siblings-in-law's bodies, Harry came apart, just as Rodolphus had predicted. He fell to his knees and wept. "No! No, no, no…" Then, his grief turned to uncontrollable rage. "Who did this?" he roared to the room at large. His eyes found his niece and nephew, huddled against the wall in terror. "This monster is gonna pay. I swear on your parents' graves, Rodolphus is going to pay. I'll find that bastard for you, Rose and Hugo. Cause when I do, I'm going to be ready. When I do, I'm gonna kill him!"
Several afternoons later, following quick and quiet funerals for Ron and Hermione Weasley, an exhausted Harry sat with Rose and Hugo in the Minister of Magic's office. They were about to hear his best friends' will.
"Our house will be offered up to Edward "Teddy" Remus Lupin, Harry's godson and our surrogate third child. Hermione's belongings will go to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Granger of Kensington. Ron's belongings will be distributed amongst his large family, to be detailed below. And finally, we wish for Rose and Hugo, our dearly beloved children to go into the care of our best friend and brother, their uncle and godfather, Mr. Harry James Potter. This, our last will and testament. Signed, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Bilius Weasley." The Minister of Magic looked up from the parchment, and even he looked emotional.
"So…that's it?" Harry asked, as carefully as he could without appearing to sound greedy in any way. At the Minister's nod, Harry sighed and left with his godchildren.
Rose and Hugo moved in to the Potter residence in Ottery St. Catchpole. Due to deaths in the family, Rose was allowed to study from home for the rest of that year. Harry had two extra rooms magically installed, even though he knew Albus and Lily would have been more than willing to share. He didn't want to up-end their family dynamic anymore than it already had been. Changes like this came best in baby steps.
Life was hard for the Boy Who Lived those first few months. He stewed within in his own grief. He barely concentrated on Auror work, engaging the most in only the ongoing manhunt for Rodolphus Lestrange. On interviews regarding the deaths of his best friends, he went through the motions. His brooding was also taken out on Rose and Hugo. Only cordial words were exchanged between uncle, niece and nephew. Harry even refrained from hugging or kissing them goodnight, and this attitude began to spread to his own children.
Finally, one night, Ginny Potter had had enough. As Harry sat morosely watching the TV, she marched over and switched it off. Harry rose angrily.
"I was watching that…"
"Well, I've been watching you, Harry James Potter! For weeks now! And I don't like what I see! How can you?"
"What?"
"We have a 12-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew in this house, and you're going around as if they don't exist! Some godfather you are! We're the only parent figures they have left, Harry, and you don't even look at them, much less show affection towards them!"
"I can't BEAR to look at them!" Harry roared suddenly. Ginny blinked and went silent. Her husband continued:
"I can't bear to look at them. Every time I do, I see something of Ron, or Hermione in them – and I have my insides ripped out all over again!" He devolved into sobs. "But, I do love them. Merlin, how I love them – since the day each of them was born, I've loved them! And they're not even MINE!" He broke down in a fit of crying. Ginny's gaze softened, and she pulled her husband in for a hug.
"I know you love Rose and Hugo," she whispered soothingly. "But you have to show them that you do. Right now, all they think is that they're living with us because that's what Ron and Hermione wanted. Those kids think that you want their parents more than you want them. I have grieved for my sister-in-law and brother just as much as you have, but you eventually have to pick up the pieces and move on. You have to be strong now – for 5 kids instead of 3. And for me."
Harry, knowing she spoke true, held her closer and cried more, letting it all out.
Over the next few days, Harry thought more about what Ginny had told him. He felt guilty that he had mistreated his niece and nephew, but he couldn't figure out why. No, he wasn't trying to think of some excuse for his actions, but…something, some feeling had made him treat Rose and Hugo they way he had.
The Chosen One had an epiphany one night after dinner. Rose and Hugo had volunteered to help him clear the table. Rose then suddenly asked him:
"Uncle Harry, what were Mummy and Daddy like when they were younger?" Harry found a smile tug at his lips as he stood at the sink cleaning dishes.
"I first met your dad at the entrance to Platform 9 3/4s, along with your aunt, grandmother, and some of your uncles. They helped me get through the barrier. Later, I was alone in a compartment and your dad asked to join me because everywhere else was full. We talked and ate probably the whole lot off the candy trolley."
"Then, your mama came in. She asked us if we had seen a toad because a boy named Neville - that's Professor Longbottom to you, mind - had lost it. She fixed my glasses and told your daddy, right to his face, that he had dirt on his nose." Hugo cracked up with laughter, nearly dropping a plate as he passed it to his uncle. Rose smiled, eyes sparkling.
"She was probably flirting with him. I bet it was love at first sight."
"Oh Merlin, no it wasn't," Harry told his niece, now trying not to chuckle himself. "Your parents hated each other those first few weeks. Ron was annoyed when Hermione got into Gryffindor with us. And Hermione would boss Ron around in class. She would tell him he was doing the spell work wrong….'It's Levi-O-sa, not Levio-SA,'" he said, mimicking his late sister-in-law's bossy tone.
"That was the final straw for your father. On Halloween, he was imitating her, mocking her to me and some of our mates. Your mother heard him and ran away crying."
"No!" Rose squealed sadly, like a little fangirl afraid that the lovers wouldn't get together. Harry nodded.
"We later found out she was in the girls bathroom, crying. Then, the troll got in -"
"WHAT?!" Rose and Hugo chorused.
Harry blinked in disbelief. "Your parents never told you how we all became friends?" His godchildren shook their heads. Harry continued.
"Anyway, a troll got into the castle. Students were led back up to their dormitories. But, your mummy didn't know. So Ron and I actually slipped out of line, broke into the girls bathroom, and found the troll wrecking the place, and Hermione was terrified. We attacked it, and Ron actually knocked out the troll with its own club. He used Wingardium Leviosa - the same spell your mother had criticized him for saying incorrectly."
Rose clasped her hands, enraptured. "How romantic," she sighed.
Hugo made a face. "Sissy stuff," he gagged.
"And that's not all. Hermione returned the favor by sticking up for Ron and me when we almost got in trouble with the teachers. Your mother - one of the honest people I've ever known - actually lied and said she had gone looking for the troll herself. She got docked a couple points, but your dad and I were actually awarded points for knocking out the troll. Anyway, that's how we all became friends. Your parents falling in love didn't come until later - much later," he added as an afterthought.
"Are we a lot like them?" Hugo suddenly asked. His uncle smiled.
"Dear Merlin, are you ever," Harry sighed softly. "You have that same devil-may-care attitude as your dad, Hugo. You got his sense of humor, but also his deep loyalty for those he loved. Your mother, on the other hand, well, she was very protective of others, just as you are. You have her nose, and her eyes. Rosie, you are probably smarter and more beyond-your-years than even your mum. You are studious like her. Heck, sometimes, when I look at you, it's like looking at her, except for the red hair. You're very beautiful and kind and possess some of those maternal qualities she had. But, sweet wounded Dumbledore if you can't eat like your father, eat him under the table! And though you try and deny it, I know you love Quidditch - particularly those Chudeley Cannons - just as much as he did!" All three laughed. There was a moment's silence.
"It's our fault they're dead." Harry froze at Rose's comment. He had no idea how to respond to that, so she continued even as she began to cry. "It's our fault Mum and Dad were killed. We were bait for them; it's our fault…"
"NO!" Harry roared, and he threw a plate down on the counter so hard, it shattered. He spun around and stooped to eye level with his niece, shaking her shoulders. "Don't ever say it's your fault, Rose." Harry's eyes began to well up and his voice now cracked. "Do you hear me?" He also glanced to Hugo, and both his godchildren, startled by their uncle's violent and emotional reaction, nodded mutely. Harry dabbed at his eyes and cleared his throat.
"All right, now, uh…off with you. Off to bed." Rose and Hugo scampered up the stairs, Harry watching them go. The Boy Who Lived now understood why his relationship with his best friends' children had been so strained. He had blamed them for their parents' death; he had unjustly made it 'their fault.' Now that he knew this, Harry found himself letting go of such feelings and being at peace for the first time in a while.
Harry's relationship with all his kids improved, including Rose and Hugo. He played Quidditch with his nephew, teaching him to fly. He read full Hogwarts textbooks with his niece and gave her advice on homework. And he always hugged both of them good night. Maybe goodnight kisses would come eventually, but not just yet. He still needed a little more time.
One night, the summer after Ron and Hermione's murder, Harry received a call from the Minister of Magic.
"Potter. We've located Rodolphus. We thought you might like it if we left it to you to deliver his deathblow. How soon will you be prepared to leave?"
Harry's jaw hardened in determination. "Immediately," he growled.
Quickly, Harry threw together an overnight bag, with Ginny helping him.
"There are lots of leftovers you can re-heat. Make sure Rose does her summer reading, keep James and Albus from killing each other, don't forget Hugo's medicine, and all of you get to bed on time. I should be back in about 24 hours. You can manage that long, can't you?"
Ginny nodded. "Of course." She pulled him into a tight embrace and kiss. "Be careful," she murmured. Harry flashed her a grin.
"I will."
Now, it was time to say goodbye to the kids. All of them had gone to bed hours ago. Harry kissed each of his children, then moved on to Rose's room.
His goddaughter slept in a pool of moonlight, absolutely still. He sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her temple. Suddenly, she sprang awake and gave him a big hug.
"I love you!" she whispered. Harry blinked in surprise, and then smiled. "I thought you were asleep!" he laughed.
"I heard you and Aunt Ginny packing. Be safe and kick that bloody bastard's arse for me!"
"Language, Rosie," her uncle said warningly, though he still smiled. "Now go to sleep." He paused at the door. "And I love you too."
Hugo was next. He slept like a rock – much like his father had. Yet, as Harry sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the boy's hair, he marveled at just how much he looked like Hermione while sleeping. Finally, he kissed Hugo's forehead, and whispered. "I love you, kid." Then, Harry slipped out of the room and disappeared into the night.
Harry Potter himself killed Rodolphus Lestrange early the next morning. The Boy Who Lived let himself relish in torturing his combatant with the Cruciatus Curse – sweet revenge. At long last, he employed the Killing Curse when Rodolphus was practically begging for death. Finally, Harry found closure with his best friends' murders. And Rose and Hugo were safe with him, as a part of his family.