Just Forget the World
Disclaimer: The following is from my own imagination, influenced by various other works with characters and themes from JK Rowling's Harry Potter series.
AN. I decided that I ought to post this, seeing as I have been meaning to do it for about... three months. Yeah.. sheepish grin... I'm a bit like that.
Now for tricky little details
Title: Just Forget the World
Author: barmy-ol-badger
Original post date: 24th September 2008
Expected No. Chapters: Roughly 20
Update Schedule: Whenever I feel like it
Summary: Oh... I forgot to write a summary... eh...
And lastly... Enjoy!
PROLOGUE
"I have nothing more to say to you Potter" said Voldemort quietly. "You have irked me too often for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA"
Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist; his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor.
The sickly green light shot from Voldemort's wand, crackling and sparking as it rushed towards his teenaged nemesis. Harry could see Dumbledore in his peripheral vision, and time seemed to slow.
It never occurred to Harry that the best was to survive a killing curse was to not get hit, and so he did not duck or attempt to dodge the unforgivable. Instead, he dropped his holly wand to the cold tiles of the ministry floor, and embraced death thinking only of how much he would miss his friends.
The clatter of wood on tile was not heard over the dull thump of a body and a victorious yell from a serpentine mouth.
LETTERS PART 1
Dearest Penelope
I must admit, my dear, that age does seem to know its boundaries. I am getting older each day, every hour another that I have lived in this meandering life. To think, I was once worried for a crinkle in my brow! Nowadays, my dear, a wrinkle shows nothing less than an exciting adventure that my age has so loathsomely prevented me from embarking upon. And you, my dear Penelope, would not look a day over thirty I daresay.
Yes, my dear, I am well aware that you are 25, and so would take no heed to the words of a senile old man such as myself.
Why, I could almost picture the grimace your pretty face would be pulled into at such an insinuation. Relax, my dear, or you will find yourself with premature age lines.
Then again, you never were one for superficiality, although I hardly see why. What with your beauty. And you would do well to keep this from my Grandson, but if I was not inclined the way I am, then I would 'most ardently admire' you.
But alas, I do not write to ramble silly inconsistencies on age and beauty.
Dearest Penelope, I am in dire need of your help. I have recently received my great-great-grandson, a young Harry Potter from myself. A trifle confusing, but Harry Potter is your grandson, and James son. How I know this is of little concern, and I trust you will not question me or my sources.
But of course, you would need to know the full history to truly appreciate what I am saying to you.
Your son James is four at the moment. He will grow up, attend school. He will be Head Boy and fall in love with a muggle-born, Lily Evans. They will be wed, and shortly after Lily will announce her pregnancy. Unfortunately, circumstances arise that cause the boy you knew as Tom Riddle to hunt down the soon to be born baby. You see, your Tome Riddle will change, and become Lord Voldemort, a blood-purist bent on ridding polluted blood. He becomes feared by all, and kills without mercy. Your son and his wife become prime targets for Lord Voldemort. On July 31st, Harry is born. Your son and his wife decide to go into hiding, and entrust James's best friend, Sirius Black as their secret keeper.
On Halloween 1981, the Potters are betrayed and murdered. James and Lily die protecting Harry, and that love protection allowed the baby to live, to survive the killing curse.
Tom Riddle was expelled from his body when the curse rebounded, and Harry was left with nothing more than a scar on his forehead.
Sirius Black was arrested and sentenced to life in prison, and being Harry's godfather, custody was handed over to the next living relative, in this case, Petunia Dursley. Mrs Dursley is extremely magic-phobic, as is her husband, and Harry was treated like vermin with them. He appears to be around four years old. He lost his memory, or so we think and is now healing in the Hospital Wing here.
And that, my dear, is where you come in.
Penelope, I beg of you, please take in this young child. Treat him as if he was your own, a sibling to James.
Harry is so anxious to meet you, as Poppy has told him all about James, the little mischief maker. He is every bit his father in that way, full of life. But behind the bubbly child, I see a hopeful longing, Penelope, and that tears me because I know that I could never care for him properly and legally.
Please, Penelope dear, reply as soon as you can.
My love to William and James
Grandad
Dearest Grandfather
I happened to stumble across a letter to my wife; care to explain the suggestive comments?
Penny and I would love to meet Harry, and I don't know why you had to beg like you did. Or ramble for that matter. You may be pushing the pension, but not quite a wizened old man! On the subject of your letter, well! You got me nice and riled up. We are certainly no halfway house, but the boy is a
Potter, for Christ's sake, not some simple beggar! Of course we will take him in, though heaven help poor Penelope's nerves. I swear James has the effect of a bottle of peroxide; we are 25 not fifty, we should not be having grey hairs I tell you! Anyway, I thought wizards aged better.
Oh, and now of course, you will accuse me of being superficial. Unjust! I can see you now… old man… sitting smugly behind your desk. It the Terrible Twos that brings this on! We worry about our kid, then are we setting a good example and where the hell did he learn to say bollocks? He stress over our appearance. Yeah, laugh it up! Well, grandad, that is just fine. Just because some of us think a nice healthy trim of the hair and a cleanly shaved face is proper, does not make us superficial. And who is it that takes the care of tucking his ridiculous beard into his belt when he eats, so as to save it from getting dirty?
Sorry, grandad, I would love to stay and argue my point, but James has done something again, and Penelope is quite… upset.
When shall we arrange to meet Harry?
Love from all
Will
Dear William
I sincerely hope that you know that you argued yourself in your previous letter, as I made no accusation to your superficiality. And dear boy, if you would only use the name your mother gave you, for I am sure she did so with good reason!
Regardless, I would like for you to visit soon. This Saturday for lunch?
Do tell your lovely wife that I am most disappointed that she left our private correspondence out for anyone to see. And never mind, as I have no inclination to steal your wife from you, as you both well know.
I am neither wordy nor verbose.
I hope to see you this Saturday.
My best to James and Penelope
Grandad
Dearest Grandad.
Three wise words of perceptible wisdom.
Verbose. You? Never!
Will
Dear Grandad
It seems like only yesterday when we picked up Harry. He a champion little thing and James simply adores him. They are sharing a room; Jamie thinks that Harry will get nightmares being in this big old house, but I think that they just want to stop up all night.
As I said, Harry has settled in wonderfully, as if he was always part of our family.
Penny sends her love.
Jamie and Harry indignantly send theirs. I think that they are indignantly sending it, as I only mentioned Penelope, but with the look on their faces I daren't not write it.
With love,
Will and Penelope
PS. I personally find Will to be a rather dashing name thanks Gramps
Dear William
Dashing you say? I daresay change it altogether if that is your motive. How about Darcy? You could even change Penelope to Elizabeth, although I highly doubt that she would allow you to. Her mother is slightly more agreeable but I would not recommend insulting her so.
I would hope that your perception on time has not changed, as Harry has only been in your care for just short on a month. I am glad, however that he and James are getting along.
What have you told James of all this? It is highly unlikely that he will believe that his brother came out of thin air. And, however much I trust young James, four-year-olds are not renown for their secret keeping abilities.
Alas, I must finish off. I have just received this year's invitation letters to sign. One of these days I will recruit Minerva to the task, bit for now I like to consider it practise at signing my own name.
Love to all
Grandad
Dearest Grandad
Harry has started Primary school with James now, and the house is so incredibly quiet. I am thinking of returning to work in the hospital soon, as sure as I am certain that the boys, especially Harry, are settled in alright at school. I have sent them to a muggle school, because I think it important that the boys know how they live. I know that we could afford a tutor in basic maths, reading and writing, and the boys will have to have Latin lessons, but primary school seems to be such a novelty to them. Muggles live their lives so differently to us, and if my son is to marry into that world then I want him to be knowledgeable and not make a fool of himself.
Will is, of course, at work and as I said, the boys are at school until two thirty and so I have plenty of time and ink to write to you.
It seems like such a short year yet harry has become part of our family, as if was always here.
As for James, it turns out that there was no problem. We told him that Harry was his brother, and had been staying with some of my relatives. He asked why we didn't look after him of course, but we told him that we would tell him when he got a bit older, and he accepted that.
As for Harry's amnesia, I suppose it was a blessing while it lasted. He now remembers bits and pieces of his previous life, but I think he is slowly starting to forget it and put it down to dreams, or he never knew that he is not from this time. Sometimes he talks about things that haven't happened yet, or things that don't exist, but most people put that down as being a child with a child's imagination. The school knows that he lost his memory, and so is not surprised when he says things. The other day he asked me how a CD player worked. A fantastical idea, but it would not surprise me if Muggles had come up with something that played letters. Although I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't call it an AB Player.
I love Harry as if he was my own. I would be glad if he forgot his previous life because of that. As selfish as it is, I don't think I could let him go. I understand that one day, I will have to, but for now, he is my child, or as good as.
Will feels the same; he absolutely spoils the boys rotten. He brought home two prototype brooms the other day. Of course, they had a fifteen foot child lock on them, but I still spent the next three hours biting my nails while they tried them out. Fifteen feet is so high, and James likes to test his limits. Harry of course, was happy to just zoom around at impossible speeds, and at one point pulled into a dive that almost had me fingerless! He dropped from fifteen feet and pulled up as his toes skimmed the grass. And so, of course James had to try it. And ran straight into the ground. Harry felt ever so bad and slept with his brother that night while his bones mended.
We will have to have you one evening, and our annual ball is coming up, and Will and I hope that you will be present for the evening.
Although now it seems such an awful holiday to be celebrating. I just can't picture my Tom doing that to anyone, let alone to my son. He contacted me a few years ago. He sounded so, well he sounded as if he hadn't changed at all. He was still fun, charming and devilishly handsome. This was the year before James was born. We'd only been out of school for two years. My Tom, well he is complicated yes, but I refuse to believe that he is evil. Not yet. I loved him like a brother. He and I, we were outcasts in our houses. I suppose that's what drew us together. I could see more to life than books and libraries and he had the wrong blood. That is what I can't understand. My Tom is cunning, quick and clever, but he is a half-blood. How can he be a blood purist when he is not of pure blood? Of course, people warmed up to us, and we were Heads together. He was at my wedding. Of course, Will was a bit cold, with him being a Slytherin, but never said a bad word against him, because you just couldn't. He will always be that same boy to me, my friend, Tom Riddle. I will never forget him, and I hope he has not forgotten me.
Do remember my invitation to tea grandad, and the Halloween Ball.
Love from all
Penelope
Dear Sir
The House of Potter requests your company at the All Hallows Eve Ball to be held in the Great Hall of Potter Manor on October the Thirty-First.
Dinner begins at six pm.
We await your reply
Lord and Lady William Potter
Dear Penelope
I am most glad to hear of James and Harry's settlement into Primary School. As for William spoiling the children, well we both know what he is like.
I understand your concerns with Tom Riddle. I myself was always cautious around the young boy after meeting him in that awful orphanage. He was so mature, so cold and so powerful. According to my future self it was probably good that I was so cautious. I believe that he made his first kill while he was still at school, in his sixth year. Penelope, I did not want to believe it, but you and I both know that Hagrid is innocent.
Tom Riddle changed the day that Myrtle died. I must stress the need for you to stay far away from Tom Riddle to ensure your safety and that of your family.
On a lighter note, I will of course be in attendance at your Halloween Ball, but unfortunately not for the dinner. I must preside over Hogwarts' own Halloween Feast, and will join your party from seven, if you are most obliging. Unfortunately, time constraints prevent me from visiting you soon and more often and I fear that I will next speak with you this coming Halloween.
Until then
Grandad
Dear Sir
Your reply has been most graciously received.
Lord and Lady William Potter
Albus,
Tom Riddle is no more a murderer than I, and I shall not have you thinking otherwise. May I remind you who was Tom Riddles particular love interest at that time, and who spent most of her time with him? I was the one who found Hagrid's spider, and while Tom and I fully understood that it was not big enough to kill, nor did Myrtle have the symptoms of a spider bite, it was still dangerous. We never intended for Hagrid to be expelled, as Hagrid well knows. In fact, that was more through Headmaster Dippet, not Tom.
As for staying away, if Tom Riddle becomes who you say he is, then it is most probably from a lack of love. You cannot claim to have ever felt anything but apprehension for my friend, and we both know that those awful beasts in that orphanage held no love for Tom. If Tom Riddle is to be doomed to a life of murder, then I will try to prevent it as much as I can.
I cannot, in good faith, abandon my friend on the pretence of what he will become.
Will sends his love
Penelope
Just Forget the World