Harry was tired. Not quite the bone deep tiredness he had felt after the war was finished nor the tired he felt after a long day. It was somewhere in between the two. In his hands he had a letter from Gringotts.

To Lord Harry Potter,

Your presence has been requested for the Inheritance Rite concerning one Aberforth "Abe" Reynolds Perdieus Odysseus Dumbledore. The Inheritance Rite has been enacted due to the previously named death on Tuesday, the 12th of March, 2030. Investigation has determined that the cause of death was Natural Causes and as such the Inheritance Rite will proceed without legal interference.

As an Inheritor you will need to be present at Gringotts on Saturday, the 16th of March, 2030 at 3:30 PM in order to claim any objects, titles, deeds, etc. that the deceased has left your or file a form of delayed absence…

Harry skimmed the rest of the letter as it dissolved into legal jargon. If he remembered correctly Abe was only a few years younger than Albus, and Albus was born in the early 1880s. Living close to almost 150 was very reasonable for a wizard. Some of course could live to almost 200 but it was very rare, and the current average expected lifespan ranged somewhere from 90 to 100 years old. Mostly though that was due to the recent wars in the '80s and '90s.

He felt for the death of his long time associate. While he never was very close to Abe he had more than once drank with the man after hours at the Hog's Head. Abe had a nice dose of straightforward skepticism that had helped many times in the very political minefield of the Wizengamot. While being Lord Potter came with a nice chunk of gold and a good plot of land he could due without the politicks. He was too straightforward, like Abe himself had been, for all the subtle maneuvering of the Wizengamot. More than once he was tempted to follow Abe's drunken suggestion of blasting the tongue off of a fellow Lord that tried to introduce some inane law.

The chiming of clock pulled him from his reminiscing. He groaned as he leaned forward in his chair to pen his acceptance of the invitation. He was getting old and he was only just going to turn fifty. Merlin help him, how did the Dumbledores feel when they were more than twice his age?

-o-

Harry hated these chairs they were never very comfy. Straight backed sold oak chairs with only a thin cushion to soften his seating. Gringotts goblins frowned deeply on 'wand waving' in their hallowed halls. And considering he was one of the only living beings to actually steal something from their bank, even if it was over thirty years ago, he doubted the guards would stop to ask questions before stabbing him a few times, if he tried to cast a cushioning charm. Two of the closest guards kept glaring at him and there were only four guards in the whole room. A dozen other wizards and yet he had half the guards pinning him with their eyes. He'd be smug if the seats weren't so damned uncomfortable.

"Regarding the ownership of Hog's Head Tavern," the goblin reading the will droned. Harry hadn't really been attention to the goblins name. It was probably something-nok or something-nuk. Tagnok? No that didn't sound right.

"...given to the closest living…"

Ragnuk? No not that either. Damn this chair. Harry frowned as he shifted position. One of the goblins staring at him smirked for less than half a second. Those little buggy bastards did it on purpose didn't they? Harry didn't know how they got the chair he just happened to be sitting in to be so uncomfortable but by Merlin he was going make some goblin's life difficult for it.

"...the contents of the vault being…"

Harry let his eyes droop as if he was falling asleep. He let his tight control over his magic eb slightly. Letting the magic wander over the chair.

"...do you accept the aforementioned items…"

He was distantly aware of someone standing up and in room and speaking. There were something like 8 rows of chairs with 5 chairs on each side of an aisle. The speaker was a younger woman towards the front probably Abe's closest living relative. But he didn't care much though as he found the rune making the seat so uncomfortable. It was positioned on the bottom of the cushion.

"...the next item is the…"

Now he just needed to use his magic to adjust the rune slightly slightly.

"...accept the aforementioned item…"

And perfect, one slightly changed rune goblins none the wiser and the pain in his rear end was leaving.

"LORD POTTER!"

"Huh?!" Harry exclaimed. "What was that? My hearing's not so good after the war…" Which was a bald faced lie. His hearing was just fine but he'd learned a while ago most people just tended to roll their eyes when he blamed not paying attention on war injures.

The goblin reading the Abe's will just gave him a very dry stare. "Do you accept the aforementioned items bequeathed upon you by Aberforth Dumbledore's will?"

"Yes, I accept." Harry stated. Normally he'd have been more concerned about what he was accepting but he doubted Abe would give him anything that could seriously blow up in his face.

"Moving on to the next item, to one Gregore Nott for years of service at Hog's Head…"

Harry sat back down and gave one of the goblins glaring at him a dry look. It was part disbelieving Snape, part disapproving McGonagall, and part confused Ron after someone refused food. He found it gave a stern but disbelieving tone that befuddled or guilted the party he directed it at quite well. In this case the guard just sneered at him. Merlin, can goblins hold a grudge.

"...so ends the bequeathment of Aberforth "Abe" Reynolds Perdieus Odysseus Dumbledore's estate. Please see one of the goblins by the exit for instructions on where to get your inherited items. I, Tarnuk Bloodfang executor of the deceased estate, call this Inheritance Rite to a close.

That's it! Tarnuk, I knew it was a -nuk. Harry slowly rose and made his way to the back of the room where the exit was. Well as much as he loved annoying random goblins with his presence he was starting to feel his stay was quickly becoming less than welcomed. Harry smiled as he approached a goblin at the back the only one that wasn't baring it's teeth at him.

"I'd like to get my inherited item if you wouldn't mind." Harry said mostly politely.

"Of course Lord Potter right this way," the goblin said as Harry followed him to a large box of objects. "Here it is Lord Potter. One..

-o-

Diary. Well a journal would probably be more accurate. A personal journal of wizarding rites and rituals as written by Albus Dumbledore with notes throughout the ages and addendums by Aberforth Dumbledore. It was probably worth more than a pretty knut or two. Any personal journal by Albus Dumbledore was probably worth a small fortune actually, especially on rites and rituals. While Dumbledore was most famous in the world of academia for his expertise in alchemy he was also very well known for his large understanding of wizarding rituals and rites. And no one had anything that came anywhere close to amount of details this book had.

Harry glared at the deceptively slim leather backed book and the two notes that had come from within it. His head hurt and the fire whiskey wasn't helping. The first note was from Abe, which simply stated:

Harry,

It is of the utmost importance that you read Albus's note that he had left to me and page 286 before performing any rite or ritual in this journal. I leave the rest to your judgement.

Abe

PS: Everything in this book has a cost, only knowing some of the cost is worse than knowing none of the cost.

That was interesting in and of itself but the real head scratcher was the second note.

Abe,

I am not long for this world. Currently, our world is on the verge of a darkness that has not plagued us in over a decade. I ask that you do everything in your power to help Harry Potter in the ways I will soon not able to. The world has thrust upon him a heavy burden one that I fear will decide the fate of the world. And I have only made it harder for him. I have purposefully removed from him the chance to learn of rituals and rite that are so common to those of us that grew up in the wizarding world. I do this because of the ritual on page 286. I ask that if Harry should fail to fulfill his destiny that you enact the ritual to give him a second chance. The only cost to Harry would be the Ritual of Protection Against Evil. I have included it with specifics of Harry's circumstances on page 198.

Sincerely,

Albus

PS: This journal must not fall into the hands of those that would use it for evil, destroy it if you must to prevent that from happening.

Harry had already read the whole book. In fact he had spent 5 months memorizing the whole thing. It was full of useful information about rites and rituals. Abe giving this book to him was like a five star gourmet chef giving their personal cookbook to amateur chef. A personal cookbook that contained detailed secret ways of cooking literally no one else in the world knew of.

The pertinent facts were that rites and rituals gave the subject of them some kind of boon but the boon came at a cost. Rites were for actions that had occurred in the past, like doing someone a favor and being in their Rite of Inheritance, or killing a beast and claiming it's body as a Rite of Conquest. Rituals were much more controversial. Rituals required a sacrifice, either at the time of the ritual or continuously after the ritual. For example there was the Ritual of the Soured Tongue, that gave a person the ability to immediately taste and identify any poison they have eaten but they no longer can taste any form of sugar, continual sacrifice. Or immediate… like the willing sacrifice of a mother's life to forever prevent a person or creature from directly harming her son, the Ritual of Protection Against Evil.

However it was the ritual on page 286 of the book that finally caused Harry's current headache. The Ritual of Second Life. Harry took a deep breath as he tried to sort out the facts. He cleared his mind using occlumency and focused. Whenever performing a ritual you must know four things about it, its name, alignment, prerequisites, and its required sacrifice.

"First the name, obviously it was the Ritual of Second Life." Harry muttered to himself.

"Second its alignment. Light rituals were purely willing sacrifice while dark rituals had forced sacrifice," Harry reminded himself. "So this ritual was Light aligned."

"Third prerequisites." He muttered scratching his head. This was where things got complicated. "The subject, me, needs to have died, which stops most people from being able to do this ritual. I have died so I meet that one. The subject needs to be in a runic circle as shown in the book, which I have chalked out on the floor over there. The ritual must happen on the subjects birthday, which is today July 31st. Check. The subject must have been the subject of at least one other ritual. Check, I was the subject of the Ritual of Protection Against Evil. Finally the subject must have in their possession the sands of time. Which is time turner sand." Harry lifted a vial glistening sand up to his eye. The sands floated in the vial, constantly moving and shining in the light. Some clumps moved up while others moved down as the sands clumped and bumped passed each other. It reminded Harry of those muggle lava lamps.

"Fourth the required sacrifice," Harry frowned. This was why Albus never told him about rituals, why Harry had never done a ritual before despite so many being completely worth it. Like the rarely known Ritual of the Hawk that gives the subject better vision better than 20/20 but causes one the inability to hatch an egg. Harry still wasn't sure how Dumbledore figured that sacrifice out, or how a human could hatch an egg. He took a deep breath and cleared his mind again. "Fourth, the required sacrifice. The subject sacrifices the ability to redo any ritual they have done previously in the their new life and sacrifices the boon of every ritual they have been the subject of while keeping their sacrifices. But because I have never sacrificed anything, only my mother did for the Ritual of Protection Against Evil, I only sacrifice my protection against Voldemort."

A soft pop alerted Harry to the presence of a house elf. "Master Harry Potter Sir, Dippy has brought you lunch."

Harry smiled at his house elf. "Thank you Dippy."

"Master Harry Potter Sir, should rest. It has been…" Dippy paused and looked up at something Harry could not see. "21 hours and 35 minutes since Master Harry Potter Sir has slept. Dippy worries Sir is not thinking straight."

Harry yawned he was getting tired. "I just need to think some more. I'm not sure if I want to do this or not and I need to decide today or wait a whole year."

Dippy nodded as Harry stood up and walked into the circle bending down to look at some of the runes. "Can Dippy help Sir in any way?"

"No, assuming all the prerequisites are fulfilled I just say 'I Lord Harry James Potter activate the Ritual of Second Life' and poof it starts." Harry stood up, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes and took a step back towards his desk, only to hear a soft crunch of glass.

He took a step back and looked at vial of time turner sand he just stepped on. Hadn't that been on the desk? He must be getting really tired to have not noticed it rolling on the floor. Suddenly the sand started glittering as runes started to shine with light. Harry's eyes widened as he tried to leap out of the circle only to hit an invisible wall. Harry and Dippy were forced to close their eyes as the light became blinding.

"Oh bugger."

Slowly the light faded and Dippy opened his eyes. He grabbed onto both of his ears pulling them down and wringing the slightly with worry when he noticed Harry was no longer there.

"Master Harry Potter Sir?"

-o-

The Personal Journal of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Sept. 1903

This is the personal journal of myself, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, I have created it using a combination of Transfiguration, Alchemy, Runes, and of course Ritual magic for the purpose of obtaining my Mastery in the Creation of Magical Artifacts at the very young age of 22, a record or so I'm told. It is the cumulation of almost five years of effort. This specific journal has many pages in and more can be added to while it's size will never be thicker than that of a newspaper the Prophet regularly gives out. While that is impressive, if I do say so myself, the truly great part of this journal is the amount one can fit on a single page. If my Arithmancy is correct one page can hold almost 15 feet of parchment which one can see by scrolling down the page. A witch or wizard simply need to put their finger on the page and move up and the inked letters will move up, more words appearing at the bottom of the page as the top disappears or vice versa. It is truly a marvel.

Nov. 1903

I have added the ability to erase, edit, and add more words even on things written long ago. The trick was in the way the ink is made to appear and disappear when one is scrolling. I find it quite useful as I can edit any mistakes or write notes as I please to things I have written in the past. I have also decided for this reason that I will use this to record my thoughts and opinion as well as the practice of various rites and rituals. The ability to add warnings and edit out mistakes will make this the perfect medium to use as a journal on Rites and Rituals.

June 1904

Despite my desires I cannot create anymore journals like this one. The Ritual used to create this is journal was deemed worthwhile at the time. Now I find myself wishing I hadn't done it. I have created two other journals and found myself in the position of making the biggest mistake subjects of rituals face. Only knowing some of the Required Sacrifice. I have removed the page containing the ritual used in the creating this journal to ensure it no one makes the mistake I have.

Nov. 1981

Harry Potter, you have saved the wizarding world from a great evil that I could not defeat. I worry, however, that the evil will be back. So I have a devised a plan, in the worst case scenario, which will, I believe, make it nigh impossible for you to fail. However doing so will require me to prevent you from doing certain rituals that will make your life easier. To that end I must ensure that you do not enter the wizarding world until you are 11 and ensure you do not spend the winter solstice or summer solstice in the wizarding world until you are 17 years of age. After you've reached that point I doubt it will matter. I have also taken steps to ensure that when you hear about ritual magic you will ignore it and forget about it until you have been part of the Ritual of Second Life or you see this journal. This will make life more difficult for you and I hope you will forgive me for making your struggle worse. However I believe that when you are older you will see that I did what I thought was best for you. I will do my best to ensure this journal gets to you in case of my demise and that on your second go of things you will be able to use this jounal of vast knowledge to your benefit. Two more things of note before you read the rest of this journal. Every Ritual has a cost. Do not do a ritual until you know the cost and are okay with the sacrifice. I have fallen into the trap of doing a ritual before I have fully researched it too many times to not stress this warning. Knowing only some of the required sacrifice is worse than knowing all of the required sacrifice. Finally, the Ritual of Second Life causes ripples in time and magic. The world you are entering will be slightly different than the one you knew. Somethings will be minor, like people have different birthdays, or favorite color. Other's will be major like people existing who did not before or not existing who did before. Be Careful. Best of luck.

Sincerely,

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

AN-

I hope you've enjoyed this little story I thought up while I was bored at work. I'll probably post another chapter once a week or every two weeks if it gets enough reviews, I'm thinking double digits-ish. I could use a beta to read through and find little errors so let me know if you're interested. I've done some editing since I rushed this out so quickly. Please feel free to comment with mistakes I've missed.