AN: I don't own anything that is from Harry Potter or Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.
The Returning Stag
Chapter 1
Harry Potter/ Steffon Baratheon
"Hermione? Hermione, where are you," I call out glancing around the dark room. I mutter a quick lumos and step inside. The light from my wand shines on boxes upon boxes filled with unknown items. Some of the boxes had been knocked over and its contents scattered across the floor.
Of course, she would ask me to meet her in the darkest and messiest place I had been and not show up. Glancing down at my watch, I loer myself to sit on one of the sturdier looking containers. 'I'll give her twenty minutes before I leave,' I think.
The first ten minutes seem to drag on. I knew I should have tried to find a way out of this, but she had basically begged me to meet her here and I would have felt horrible if I hadn't shown up. Besides she is one of the few people that I actually still talk to after quitting my job as an Auror and she had agreed to help me find out more about the odd things that I found in Godric's Hollow a year prior.
Things had been calm for a while after the war, and corruption had been weeded out of the ministry or at least we thought it had. The peace didn't last long, less than two years after the war and the people who had corrupted the government had only been replaced with more people who had their own ambitious agendas without a care for those around them.
A voice comes from the darkness to my right, "Harry?"
"Hermione," I ask, looking the general direction the voice had travelled from, squinting in an attempt to see her. "Why exactly are we here? What is this place?"
"An old storage room," she says with a sigh.
"Okay, but why are we here," I inquire, as I finally catch sight of her and begin to head in her direction, though somewhat off course to avoid having to climb over higher piles of boxes.
"Did you bring everything I told you to," She asks, staring at the piles around us.
"Yeah, I was meaning to ask you about that," I say. "Why do I need everything I own? Especially some of these books, the majority are useless information anyways," I complain, as I dig through the small brown leather messenger bag that she had put an undetectable extension charm on and gifted it to me for my birthday.
"Like this one," I say, holding it up for her to see. "History and Application of the Printing Press, why would I ever need to know this?"
"Everything is useful, Harry. You just have to wait for the right opportunity," she replied giving me a bright smile.
"Yeah, okay," I nod letting the subject drop. "Have you found anything out about the flash things," I ask, reaching into my bag I pull out the small leather bound diary that was my mother's or at least who I had grown up thinking was my mother, I had found it while poking around in their house in Godric's Hollow last year. In the small book she had confessed that they had found me as a babe and planned to raise me as their own. She had wrote of how I was found outside of their home days after the death of their real son and simply told everyone that I was their little Harry.
Folded neatly between the last page and the back cover had been a note wrapped around a gold pendent that has a head of a lion imprinted on it that read:
My Dear Steffon,
We may not see one another for some time, I hope you shall keep this with you as a reminder of my love as you study under your Grandfather for these coming months.
Your Lady Mother,
Queen Cersei Baratheon
The more I held the pendent the more flashes that went through my mind. The very first one had been of my mother and Uncle. I had been in the gardens picking flowers with one of the maids that had been told to watch me. I had only been left alone for a short time as Sybil went off with the stable boy again, when a man who I knew was my uncle called for me. It's hard to explain how I knew these people when I can never remember meeting them before the flash… dream… things.
"Little one," I heard Uncle Jaime call.
"Uncle, look," I cried as I ran as fast as my little, three year old legs will carry me. I crashed into his legs at full speed and nearly drop all of the flowers that I had collected with the maid. Uncle regained his balance and puts his hand on my back with a small chuckle. I took a couple of unsteady steps back and I hold up the flowers for him to see. "They're for Mother, since she is hurt," I explained with a smile, excited at the idea of hopefully making mother feel better.
"Your mother isn't hurt little one, she was giving birth to your bother," He informs me as he kneels and resting an elbow on his bent knee, so that we were at the same eye level.
"Oh," I replied as my smile slid from my face. None of this made any sense to me. People always said that women were always happy to have babes, so why had Mother been screaming as if she were in pain. "I guess I don't these then," I told him and drop my shoulders. Disappointed, I toss the small bundle of flowers to the ground which caused Uncle to frown.
"Nonsense," Uncle Jaime said, picking up the flowers with one hand. "We wouldn't want these beautiful flowers and your hard work to go to waste, would we?" After a shake of my head he continues, "Now, let's go see that new brother of yours."
He stood and reached down to lift me in order to place me on his hip. He began to walk through the gardens to the Keep passing roses, lilies and several other flowers that I didn't know the name of yet, but before we reach the door to enter the Keep he turned around and his eyes skimmed the garden before he brought his eyes to me. "Where is the maid that was tasked with watching you," he asked as his eyebrows pulled together causing a crease to appear between them. I had hoped he wouldn't ask that, I didn't want to get her into trouble.
"I can't tell," I whispered as I leaned closer to his ear and glance around. Hopefully he won't ask any more questions. "It's a secret."
"Does she leave you often when she is meant to watch you," He inquired, readjusting me on his hip.
"Can't tell," I say, shaking my head.
"What's my brother's name," I had asked in an attempt to distract him.
"Joffrey. His name is Joffrey," He answered, shaking his head. "Surely you can tell your beloved uncle if a maid is doing her job," he pleaded placing his forehead on mine, green eyes meeting green eyes.
I sighed, "But she gives me a reward if I stay quiet."
"I'll double the prize if you tell me," He bargained as he is maneuvered through the twist and turns that lead to Mother's chambers.
"You won't tell," I asked as he pulled his head away and smiled.
"I promise that I won't tell anyone," He replied as the door to Mother's chambers was opened, so that we could enter.
"I don't know," I replied. "I like her."
"Whom do you like, my Love," Mother asked from her bed. She was sitting up with a thin blanket lying over her legs as she leaned back against countless pillows. She had a small bundle of red blankets in her arms.
"Apparently, your son likes to spend time with a maid who cannot perform her duties, leaving the Crowned Prince of the Seven Kingdoms to care for himself and rewards him if he doesn't tattle on her," Uncle explained as he placed me on the bed. No longer concerned with the topic at hand, I crawled over to Mother to investigate the blankets in her arms.
"Is that him," I asked as I stood up on the bed and holding on to her shoulder to steady myself as I leaned over to get a better look at the blankets.
"Yes, Darling," She smiled as she placed her hand on my back. "This is your brother." Satisfied with the little, pink, wrinkled babe in Mother's arms I sat down and popped back up again after remembering the flowers. I ran across the bed to Uncle and nearly fell when my feet got tangled in the red silk blanket that covers the bed. I held out my hand for the flowers, when I finally reached Uncle.
Once he placed them in my hand, I made my way back to Mother and held them out to her I said, "I picked these for you."
"Thank you," she said with a small smile on her lips and placed the flowers on the other side of her. "Now, won't you sit with Mother for a bit," she asked patting the spot next to her. Agreeing I crawled to the spot and curled into her and relaxing as Uncle sat on the edge of the bed. Her long golden hair fell in loose ringlets down her shoulders and as usual it looked as if not one hair was out of place. "Tell me about this maid that has been leaving you on your own," she commanded in a soft voice as she ran her fingers through my raven hair.
"I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself," I protested, wiggling to place my head on her shoulder and try to play with one of her ringlets.
"Of course you are a big boy," she agreed as she leaned down and placed her head on top of mine. "But won't you tell Mother. Do you not love me enough to tell me this secret," she finished and placed her forehead on mine when I looked up at her, just as Uncle had done earlier.
Mother looked so sad that I had to tell her. I could never keep secrets from her no matter what it was when she gave me that look. "Sometimes she leaves me by myself when one of the stable boys comes to see her," I said, hoping Mother wouldn't look sad anymore.
"What is his name, Love," She asked, rubbing her nose against mine.
"She calls him Al," I replied. "Are they going to be in trouble?"
""Of course they are, but it is no one's fault but their own," She assured me.
"But I like her," I disagreed, shaking my head.
"You may like her, Darling, but she isn't family and anyone who isn't family is an enemy. You can't let people undermine you. What would they think of you when you become King?"
My mind slowly came out of the fog it had ventured into in order to see the flash. I had blacked out for hours after the first few times but as the year progressed the less time it took for me to come out of the fog.
With every 'flash' I felt like there was distance between myself and the world around me. It was almost as if a barrier was being built between it and me.
"I think that they are memories," Hermione replies with an excited smile.
"Okay," I nod. "But why are we here," I ask gesturing to the room around us.
"Because this is where we'll find it," she states plainly with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Find what," I exclaim frustrated that I knew so little about what we were going to do about the 'memories.'
"A Time Turner," She replies ignoring my outburst as she rummages through one of the boxes.
"Fine, I'll look over there," I huff as I walk over to the opposite side of the room.
Eleven hours! We had been searching this room full of useless junk for eleven hours! Hermione and I had worked in silence for the majority of the time. I decide to take a short break and look around for a sturdy looking box that would be able to hold my weight. Finding one I slowly make my way over to it. Luck never seems to be on my side because as I came upon the box I trip and fall. Part of my body falls on the sturdy looking box, which slows me down as my right arm goes through the top of the box next to it. The glass in the box breaks and imbeds itself in my arm.
Pulling my arm out of the box I call over to Hermione, "I think I found them." Gently, I begin to remove some of the glass.
Hermione slowly makes her way over to me careful not to trip as I had and kneels in front of me, swatting my hand away from the glass in my injured arm. I settle on the floor and hold my arm up for her to inspect.
"This isn't too bad," She says as she pulls out a few pieces of glass. "It could have been a lot worse, but your jacket helped protect your arm."
Using the hole my arm made in the box, Hermione reaches in and begins to look for a Time Turner that I didn't smash during my fall.
"Now we can do it," She says holding up the Time Turner.
"Now we can do what," I ask, as I begin to stand up.
"We can send you back to the memories," She states as she also stands.
"How do we even know for certain that they are memories," I question as we weave through the mass of boxes.
"We don't," She shrugs.
AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm not sure yet on how long I'll take to put new chapter up. Hopefully you can forgive any errors I've made.
Should I stick strictly to Harry/Steffon POV or should I branch out and do some of the other characters POV?