So, here is chapter two of my Christmas story. Happy reading and thanks to all of you that already left reviews.
NEWTs
The Department of Magical Education, DME for short, was filled with young witches and wizards that were sitting their OWL or NEWT exams. Most were home-schooled, but some wanted to have exams in subjects they didn't take at Hogwarts and couldn't fit into their study schedule when they were taken there. They only had to apply for them before starting the exams at Hogwarts. It was few who did though. Some who had for example learned Arithmancy or Ancient Runes over the summers as their families were good in them and they had wanted to take other subjects and fitting so many classes into one time table was difficult. One young man was especially ambitious. Madam Marchbanks had seen for which subjects he had applied to sit his NEWTs and she wondered how he would do. After all, eight NEWTs was extraordinary. Normally students took five or six. But it was his decision and what kind of educator would she be to suppress a young man's desire to learn?
Over this whole week the exams were taken. This was the third day of testing and so far they had done Transfiguration and Ancient Runes on Monday, Charms and Arithmancy on Tuesday and today were Potions, Muggle Studies and History of Magic. Tomorrow would be Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination and Astronomy and Friday would conclude the testing with Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.
Madam Marchbanks had first thought that James Potter was playing a prank on her to celebrate the birth of his first son, but the young man that looked so much like him had introduced himself as Hadrian Potter. Turned out that he was James Potter's cousin, the son of her old friend Charlus' long thought dead younger brother Edward. Well, Edward had died seventeen years ago when Hadrian was just a year old. It had been an accident. Sadly the boy's mother had also died from an illness three years later and Hadrian was left to grow up with his mother's family, whose name he had worn till today. They had died in a Death Eater attack five months ago. As they didn't trust Dumbledore, Hadrian had been home-schooled. He had learned the rest of his classes' material in self-study and now he was here. She had found notes on his OWLs under his former name.
Harry had made sure that his story had no deplorable holes. Hadrian Vaisey had died five months ago with his parents in a Death Eater attack. He hadn't been healthy enough to go to Hogwarts so he had been home-schooled. The Vaiseys were living really secluded and the three that had died, they had been on the way to Gringotts when the attack happened, had been the last ones. It had been one example in his history books, the one that didn't involve goblin wars, of families dying in Voldemort's attacks, even if they were only innocent bystanders, at his height of power in the first war. It was perfect. Nobody knew Hadrian Vaisey, so Hadrian Potter could take his place. With the goblins selling the Vaisey property for a bargain, he had bought it and now he was warding it using all kinds of wards he had found in the books from Dumbledore's collection and the Black family library.
Dark as the bastards had been, they were fantastic at protecting their property. And in these days nobody cared how you secured your home. The house and the surrounding land, about six hectares of plain with an old countryside house with a house elf, had taken about 40.000 galleons from his funds. A bargain indeed as normally a property of that size would have easily cost him 150.000 galleons. But paying directly for it and a ten thousand galleon bonus for the goblin in charge to arrange a quick transaction dealt with that issue. After all, it was better for Gringotts to have sold the land without the Ministry finding out about anything, claiming it under the law of extinct lines and selling it to the highest bidder, putting the profit into their own pockets, the goblins seeing nothing of it. And the goblins could only keep the extinction of lines a secret for a year. After that a treaty forced them to give the Ministry the information.
In his past Lucius Malfoy had bought the property from the Ministry after he had been 'proven' to be an imperius victim and turned it into a highly profitable acromantula farm. Acromantula silk was highly pricey and favoured by the high society of the wizarding world in their clothes. If Hagrid was smarter he could sell the silk from the nets in the Forbidden Forest for a fortune, but he would never do that to his 'friend' Aragog. Now Lucius wouldn't be able to do that. The best part was, as he hadn't technically broken into Gringotts the goblins had no problems with serving him again. Though he only opened a business vault. His company, MoD Enterprises, would be the cover for his plans. In this vault he placed 60.000 galleons. The rest of his money, not that the goblins would be informed about it any time soon if ever, would be otherwise secured. There was no way that he would trust the nasty, ungrateful buggers more than necessary.
He also exchanged another 60.000 galleons into pounds which gave him 300.000 pounds. He knew that the exchange rate was too little, but the Ministry was fixing them, so even if the goblins would have wanted to they couldn't have given him more. But it was enough to get started there too with all the information he had from the future. The goblins were only told that he planned to do business in both worlds and therefore needed to open an account at a muggle bank as well as at Gringotts. In the biggest book store in London he had looked up the books that described the most successful companies at the Stock Exchange in detail.
On top of opening the vault he set up a secrecy agreement that included that the goblins, if they ever revealed the identity of the owner of MoD Enterprises or any information on Hadrian's personal property and heritage would be fined with 1.000.000 galleons. They would think a lot before risking that. They were too greedy. For Hadrian Potter couldn't be found out and this was the one weak spot in his disguise.
Armed with the 300.000 pounds he went to the most renowned investment bank and opened an investment account as well as a giro account in his name. A confundus charm took care of the missing documents; he planned to get them through the Ministry after getting his NEWTs. He bought shares of all the most successful companies. In a year he would have tripled his investment he knew. It might be unfair to other investors, but why should he care? He had a world to save.
Right now he finished the written part of the Potions NEWT. Knowing the questions beforehand was such a good way to ensure success. Hermione would have chewed him out for cheating. Well, technically it was, but he still needed to learn the material. He just knew what to learn and with the limited amount of time that he had had to prepare for this it was simply necessary. He had spent most of his supposed seventh year at Hogwarts on the run from the Ministry, Voldemort and his Death Eaters and trying to find horcruxes without having proper information and training. He deserved a little advantage for once.
He now had fifteen minutes till the Muggle Studies exams would start. His practical exam in Potions would be after a short lunch break. His exams the two days before had gone well. With no distractions to his learning since May he had got a lot of material covered. And he knew what to learn. So using the fact that Hogwarts was being rebuilt and OWLs and NEWTs were taken at the Ministry he had sneaked back into the castle and used the library. None of the house elves had thought anything about it. Kreacher kept him supplied with food and drinks. The old elf had told him he would still recognize him as his master in the past after Walburga Black died, which had been in 1983. His Kreacher wanted to stay at Hogwarts for his last years and Hadrian while sad to leave him had let him.
James Potter waited in front of the doors of the Ministry examination rooms. He had heard a rumour about a young wizard that looked terribly like him sitting the NEWTs in eight classes as a home-schooled student. He wanted to know what was going on. It was now about lunchtime and his possible relative would come out for the break before taking the Potions practical exams. Finally the doors opened. James looked around and found the young man he had been looking for. The similarity was shocking. It was like looking into a slightly distorted mirror.
Hadrian saw his father immediately. That hadn't been planned. Not this early. How should he react? Well, it would be best to face this offensively.
"Hello, uhm, did you wait for me?" Hadrian asked.
"Yes, I heard that somebody that could be my twin was taking the NEWTs." James answered. "Naturally I was curious."
"Then you are James Potter I presume? Madam Marchbanks accused me of pranking her to celebrate my son's birth by taking the NEWTs under a slight transformation." Hadrian said, seemingly trying to make heads or tails of this new arrival.
"She did? That would have been a good idea for a prank, I admit. I am indeed James Potter. And who are you?" James asked grinning now.
"My name is Hadrian Potter." Hadrian answered, somewhat enjoying the stunned face of his father. "Are you by any chance related to Charlus Potter?"
"He was my father." James said sadly. The death of his parents through the Death Eaters last year still hurt. "Why do you ask?"
"Because my aunt and uncle, whom I grew up with after my mother died when I was four, said that Charlus Potter was my father's older brother. My father was Edward Potter, but I can't remember him. He died in an accident when I was one year old." Hadrian explained.
"That would make you my cousin." James exclaimed astonished. "Why did I never hear of you? Dad searched so long for Uncle Edward."
"Really? I don't know why my father never contacted your father, but after Mum died I was taken in by the Vaiseys and they treated me like their own son. I also took my OWLs as Hadrian Vaisey. Sadly my aunt and uncle died in a Death Eater attack a few months ago. I decided to take back my father's name as thinking about them still hurts too much right now." Hadrian told with a sad look on his face his made-up story.
It wasn't difficult to get the right mourning look. He only had to remember the people that had died in his time in the battle of Hogwarts and before. There were too many friends he had lost to Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
"I see. Well, with your looks nobody could help thinking of you as a Potter anyway. That hair is traitorous." James declared, trying to cheer his cousin up a bit.
"Don't I know it? Untameable and always looking as if you just came out of your bed." Hadrian complained realising that his father was trying to cheer him up.
"What do you think about visiting my wife and me for dinner? I would like to get to know my cousin." James suggested.
"Uhm, okay, that sounds nice. Though I would like to wait until I am finished with my NEWTs. At the moment I revise every evening. I can't wait until I finish on Friday." Hadrian said wistfully.
"I understand, NEWTs are tough. What about Saturday evening?" James asked hopefully.
"That works for me. Where should I meet you?" Hadrian asked surprised that his father had invited him so quickly.
He wouldn't have thought he would trust a stranger, no matter if he was his cousin, so quickly. Especially not with a new-born baby in the house.
"I will meet you at the visitor's entrance of the Ministry at seven. Sorry about that, but I will need to do some security checks before I take you with me to my home." James said.
"That's no problem. I would have thought you to be crazy to trust a stranger in these dangerous times if you didn't, James." Hadrian replied.
"Thanks for understanding, Hadrian. Well, I don't have much family left on my father's side and most of my mother's family is dark. So I hope we can get along." James explained.
"I can understand that. I will be at the entrance at seven." Hadrian agreed. "Don't be cross with me, but I need to get something to eat before my Potions practical."
"No problem. Good luck for your remaining NEWTs." James said.
"Thanks, bye." Hadrian said and went to the room that was set up for the examinees to eat and rest between their exams.
"Bye, Hadrian." James said.
In the break-room Hadrian finally relaxed. That had gone better than he had feared. He had made contact with his father and could probably influence him in some way. Perhaps even save him and his mother. He would have to see how things developed. Now he only needed to maintain his cover.
Saturday evening Hadrian apparated to the visitors' entrance looking around carefully. He had made some inquiries about James Potter with Madam Marchbanks as he was sure his father would have done the same. After all it was only common sense to be careful in these dangerous times. Just yesterday the McKinnons had been murdered. Hadrian knew that they had been friends with his parents, though he couldn't show that. He heard a low crack of apparition and he held his wand ready, but hidden in his pocket. It wouldn't do to openly use it in the muggle world except he didn't have a choice. It was James. He would have asked security questions if he would know something only James would know, but it would be strange for him to know something like that.
"You're on time, that's good." James said. "I will just do some detection spells; feel free to do the same."
"In a muggle area? Isn't that too dangerous?" Hadrian asked.
"Notice-me-not wards around the entrance area for twenty metres. It wouldn't do after all if the muggles get too curious about the telephone booth we're using to let visitors inside." James explained happy to see Hadrian be cautious.
Hadrian nodded and did some revealing charms. There were no glamour charms on James, but it still left the possibility of polyjuice potion. But for now he would shock his father with a bit of knowledge that would be incredibly valuable in the war and had only been found out last time around the end when Snape had turned traitor on the dark side.
"Would you mind showing me your bare left forearm, James?" Hadrian asked.
"Huh? How would that help?" James asked confused.
"I want to see if you have a Dark Mark on your forearm." Hadrian answered.
James shrugged and pushed his sleeve up, showing the clean arm, Hadrian mirrored the action.
"Thanks, when my aunt and uncle were killed, I was there too, but I managed to find cover fast enough. I saw a man touch a Dark Mark on his forearm and shortly after the Death Eater apparated in and threw up anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards. Thanks to my cover I was able to get away uninjured, but my aunt and uncle weren't as lucky. They were hit by killing curses that the Death Eaters fired into the crowd without a care for who they hit. They didn't even stop before children." Hadrian spat disgusted.
"Hadrian, that's really important information. I didn't know that Death Eaters could be identified by a visible mark on their arms. I'll have to tell my boss, Mr Crouch, and Professor Dumbledore." James exclaimed excitedly.
Hadrian nodded. Perhaps this would help to get a better grip of the Death Eaters. They needed to get rid of as many of them as possible. And Dumbledore was the wrong one to do the job. In this situation the ruthless Crouch, if tempered a bit and given a push in the right direction was the better man to do the necessary things.
Hadrian reached James and Lily's home by side-along apparition. It made sense to keep the location a secret. Though Hadrian still recognised Godric's Hollow. Never would he forget that Christmas Eve of 1997. James led him inside the cottage and showed him where he could place his cloak.
"Lily, we're here." James called out.
"Five minutes, James, I'm just changing Harry's diapers." Lily called back from upstairs.
"Your son's name is Harry?" Hadrian asked chuckling.
"Yes. Why is that funny?" James asked back.
"Oh, it's just that Harry is my nickname. That's why I thought it was funny." Hadrian answered.
"That indeed is a funny coincidence. Though I will keep calling you Hadrian. Otherwise it gets confusing and calling you the older Harry and my son the younger Harry would be too much of a mouthful.
"True." Hadrian agreed and took a seat in the living room. "How old is Harry?" He thought how strange that question sounded.
"Just a week. He was born 31st July. That isn't your birthday as well, is it?" James asked.
Hadrian laughed and shook his head.
"No, my birthday is 1st July. That would have been a bit much if we also shared a birthday." Hadrian commented knowing full well that they had the same birthday.
But his new identity had been born on 1st July, so he had to go with that.
"Yes, you're right." James agreed.
Then they heard steps on the stairs. Soon Lily Potter stood in the living room, her baby in her arm.
"Lily, please meet my cousin Hadrian Potter. Hadrian, this is my wife Lily and our son Harry." James introduced them.
"It's nice to meet you Hadrian." Lily said warmly.
"Nice to meet you too, Lily. And of course Harry." Hadrian replied smiling.
'Unbelievable that I was that small at one point in time.' Hadrian thought intrigued seeing his baby self.
His younger self sucked at a pacifier and held a strand of his mother's long red hair in his tiny hand. James took Harry from Lily and sat down on the couch. Hadrian felt a small pang of guilt for leaving his godson Teddy Lupin behind. But if he had success perhaps Teddy wouldn't need his godfather so much because he had his parents. And he feared what the new government would do to the son of a werewolf. He simply had to succeed. He only hoped that with him changing the past Teddy would still be born. After all, Remus and Tonks had only met through the Order. But if somebody was meant to be together they would find each other. That had also been in the book about the powers of the Master of Death. He could only hope it was true for Remus and Tonks.
The evening was really nice and Hadrian told his made-up life story while James told him of Hogwarts and his friends. Then Lily told about her family and Hadrian drank up all the stories. To finally get to know his parents was like a dream come true. He would do all he could to get those damned horcruxes before next year's Halloween. Perhaps he would succeed. Though the first step would be to get Barty Crouch to pass a law that all assets of known Death Eaters are to be sized by the Ministry and examined for dark objects. That would get him the one horcrux, Hufflepuff's cup, which he couldn't get normally. On top of that it would lose Voldemort money. All other horcruxes he could get on his own as he had already dealt with their protection in the future or knew what they were. Well, except for the precise protection of the ring, but in case they were too strong he could drop a hint to Dumbledore to let him get it out of the Gaunt shack again.
The locket would soon be in the cave. Regulus Black had died in January 1981. So that one was first on his list. Sirius had been sad that his brother had died, which Hadrian wanted to prevent. Kreacher had known the whole story about how Voldemort had placed that horcrux, so saving Regulus would be possible. Kreacher had said that it had been two months between the placement of the locket and Regulus' death. Which meant that sometime in November the horcrux would be brought there. The best time to sneak into Hogwarts to get some basilisk venom to imbue another goblin made blade would be over the Christmas holidays. Then he could get the diadem too and simply kill the basilisk. With a rooster this time! There was no way he would let that monster live even if the diary would be taken care off before it could ever be given to a student.
If Voldemort decided to sneak into the castle in disguise and let the beast free or set it to kill Dumbledore, why he hadn't done that before was beyond Hadrian honestly, he would gain a lethal weapon. Thankfully having been a horcrux for so long had left him with the ability to speak parseltongue. And a long interrogation of Draco Malfoy, who had been surprised about Hadrian's viciousness, told him that the Dark Mark on all Death Eater's arms had been put there with parseltongue. Naturally nobody knew the spell that Voldemort used. It made him look more mysterious and superior being able to use magic others couldn't. So taking it away should also be possible that way. Especially with the Elder Wand.
Then the ring in the Gaunt shack. He only needed to remember the curse on the ring. Though using it to get rid of Dumbledore close to the date where Voldemort was vanquished was tempting. He didn't like killing, but Dumbledore was doing more harm than good with his manipulations.
The diary was at Malfoy Manor, probably the secret room under the living room that Draco had boasted about in their second year at school when Hadrian and Ron had used polyjuice potion to investigate if Draco Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin. Getting the aurors there to search for an anonymous tip that Lucius was a Death Eater would be easy. For once Crouch was useful. The point he wasn't sure about was Nagini. Was she a horcrux already? It was improbable. His murder should have been the trigger for the creation of the final horcrux. So right now there should be either four or five horcruxes, normally five. The diary, the ring, the diadem and the cup were ones for sure. The locket could have been made one just before it was placed in the cave.
He now only needed basilisk venom to get started and a perfect source was hibernating under Hogwarts.
Then he forced himself back into the conversation and enjoyed the evening. No matter what, his horcrux hunt would have to wait a bit.
So, that's it for today, next chapter will be up tomorrow.
