Here is the next chapter. I hope you like it even though it's the shortest of the three so far. We're almost at Hogwarts… I promise! The closer we get to Hogwarts, the closer you get to the smut

Words: 3,453

Chapter 3

In The Past

Like many Pureblood families, the Wise and Trustworthy House of Dumbledore stretched back generations. In fact, Emmanuel Dumbledore was Leader of the Elders – similar to being Minister for Magic – when Hogwarts was first opened.

Emmanuel and Salazar Slytherin did not get on at all: mainly because they were both in love with Rowena Ravenclaw. Now, it is a funny thing, but Rowena had always assumed that Godric and Salazar were secret lovers because they seemed to fight and make up so often, it could have been mistaken for unresolved sexual tension. Salazar had scoffed at the notion and sent Rowena longing looks, which she had missed.

The reason Salazar and Godric had fought so much was because Salazar didn't trust Emmanuel and Godric used to say it was only because of jealousy. Those fights always escalated into anything banal that was happening at the time. Such as the first Muggleborn to appear due to an experiment carried out on Muggles by Healer Kerrigor Dumbledore – that family always seems to be in the thick of it all.

Now Salazar hated Muggleborns because they were technically unnatural, and because a Dumbledore was involved in their construction. Emmanuel was proud of his Father's accomplishment and made sure to boast of it to Rowena at every opportunity. Rowena however could care less.

She had known that Salazar was her soul mate; her Seer blood having let her See them together in years to come. But she still thought he loved Godric, so she kept her distance until he came to her. One day, Salazar couldn't take any more. Emmanuel had been all over Rowena, much to her disgust, and Kerrigor had even tried locking them in a room together in the hopes of something happening. If Rowena's virtue was called into question she would be forced to marry Emmanuel, he figured.

Salazar had found them in that room, and at first been heartbroken until he really looked at them. Rowena had been pressed against the wall, Emmanuel's hands up under her dress while his mouth fused to hers. Tears ran freely down her cheeks. Suffice to say, Kerrigor had to have another Son because Emmanuel was hexed so badly he was made infertile. And that was the nicest thing Salazar did to him.

After that incident Salazar couldn't help himself. He declared his love for Rowena from the highest tower of Hogwarts School and then almost fell to his death in the process. Good thing Godric was such a good Quidditch player and caught him. Helga Hufflepuff had been most pleased to win the bet she had going with the rest of the Hogwarts staff when Rowena and Salazar announced their engagement two weeks later.

The two were married in a lavish ceremony, with guests such as the Malfoy's, the Lestrange's, Hufflepuff's, Gryffindor's, Nott's, Prewitt's, among others invited. The Dumbledore's had been slighted on purpose, but no one mentioned it at all.

Within a year, Rowena was expecting a Son and Salazar couldn't have been happier. When Severus Damien Slytherin was born on Sahmain the entire Wizarding World celebrated the birth of the first Heir to the Founders. Except the Dumbledore's.

Rowena was pregnant two years later, and during that time Emmanuel had stirred up a lot of trouble. He had stolen his Father's ideas and experimented on more Muggles, causing a rapid increase of the Muggleborn population over the years since the soul mates married. With the threat of so much new blood to dilute their pureblood lines, many families revolted at the idea of sending their children to Hogwarts along side the Mudbloods.

Salazar was of the same opinion, and even thought of home schooling his Severus. Godric of course had been outraged. Their petty fights escalated into all out screaming matches, especially considering Godric himself was in love with one of the mother's of a Muggleborn. He eventually married a Pureblood by the name of Avery, and their Daughter married a Potter. But none the less, Godric couldn't believe how Salazar was acting, and that Rowena was taking his side.

No one really knew why she hated Muggleborns, although it was mostly to do with Dumbledore and how much the Mudbloods adored him. Salazar left, angry and bitter and began killing as many dirty-bloods as he could get his hands on. Rowena stayed in Hogwarts castle until her Daughter was born. Robin Sears Ravenclaw was born during the Winter Solstice.

When the child was a year old, Rowena ran from Hogwarts and to her husband. Together they made a new life for themselves and their three-year-old Severus and one-year-old Robin.

Until, a year later, Emmanuel Dumbledore found them.

With a mob of Muggle-lovers and Muggles supporting him, he attacked the modest cottage in the forest where the family lived and beat Salazar Slytherin to death: a most unfitting way to go for a member of the Cunning and Sly House of Slytherin.

Rowena had hidden her Daughter and rushed back to save her family. She had dabbled further into the Dark Arts than Salazar had, although no one knew that, and she was capable of defeating the mob. Unfortunately she wasn't in time.

Severus, as the Son of the Dark Wizard – who Emmanuel had told people was planning to take over the Wizarding World – had to be killed as well. Even though he was 4-years-old, they murdered him. And Rowena Ravenclaw screamed silently as she tried desperately to break down the shields the mob had placed around her Son.

They tied Severus to a tree and set it on fire. One man, Amanas Weasley had been kind enough to knock the boy unconscious first, so he felt no pain. But Rowena was heartbroken. She couldn't save them. She was a bad Mother, a horrid Wife. She ran, fetching her Daughter and fled.

Tom Riddle and the Gaunt family didn't stem from Robin Ravenclaw. Rather, when Salazar was a very young man, well before establishing Hogwarts, he had many illicit affairs with various women. One in particular, Morgan Gana, Daughter to Mor Gana (Morgana) had given birth to a Son. When Rowena fled, she stole the Son and renamed him Severus Slytherin in remembrance to her dead child, and no one ever knew that the boy was a bastard Heir.

The line of Morgana was thought to have died out, and only Rowena knew the blood continued through the Dark Lords veins.

As they were soul mates, they were supposed to die together. But Rowena didn't have the courage to kill herself and leave Robin and Severus II alone. So she carried on living, despite the fact that Salazar had been reborn into Harare Slytherin, Severus' Son. She still couldn't kill herself. She did carry on an affair with the much younger Harare for numerous years, until pregnant with another bastard child she finally threw herself into a river and drowned.

Now Harare and Salazar couldn't follow her because he had yet to carry on the line, which had split. Ravenclaw through the Daughter and Slytherin through the illicit Son.

When Harare died, Salazar was reborn into Harare's Grandson. Rowena was alive in Robin's Great-Great Granddaughter, and never found Salazar because she now lived in America. Through the years, the soul mates were either separated by country or age difference. At one point, Salazar's host was 200-years older than Rowena's and not even the call of the others soul was enough to tempt the 210-year-old man to sleep with a 10-year-old.

And so, Salazar died, and Rowena lived long enough to carry on the line, and killed herself again.

Rowena's host gave birth to a Daughter by the last name of Hammond, and died 31st December 1927, the same day Salazar's new host was born.

XXX

The orphanage was cold and lonely. It wasn't the most ideal place to raise children, but at least the staff never beat or attempted to rape their charges, like in some of the other orphanages. Now, that might make you think the children were happy, but they weren't. They all wanted mummies and daddies and people to love them.

There was only one kind staff member in the whole orphanage and she took care of the babies.

Tom Riddle was very lucky to be Mrs. Harmony's favourite baby when he was younger. When he was one she rocked him to sleep at night, when he was two she read him stories, when he was three she took him to the park, when he was four she taught him football, when he was five he left the Nursery, when he was six Mrs. Harmony died in a car accident.

When Tom Riddle left the Nursery the children surrounding him now were old enough to realize he was different. Like Rose, he spoke too well for his age and could hold decent conversations with the more academic staff members. He could count and read and write, and when Tom was eight he realized he could do magic.

When Tom learnt of magic, he also learnt another extraordinary secret.

"Hello Tom, how are you today?" Tom smiled when he heard the voice. That voice belonged to his only friend. It didn't matter that no one at the orphanage thought his friend was real; Tom knew he was, and he knew he wasn't a freak. Tom's friend made Tom feel special, and told Tom that the children in the orphanage were bullies and filthy Muggles, and that their opinions didn't matter. They were beneath Tom.

"Hello Salazar, I'm fine." Tom smiled, when Salazar gave him a mental hug. "And you?"

"I am well my boy." Now Salazar wasn't like any other imaginary friend. He was the very same Salazar Slytherin who had been reborn on December 31st 1927. He shared Tom's body and mind, and Tom happily let him because it meant that one day Tom would find someone who loved him, truly loved him, and they would get married and have a family, full of children that would love him as well. And he'd be a much better parent than his own had been.

Unfortunately for poor Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore current Transfigurations Professor at Hogwarts and found journals hidden away in his Vault, all belonging to Emmanuel, Kerrigor, and other Dumbledore's that had been alive during the times the soul mates reincarnated.

Albus Dumbledore then set out to exorcise Amanda Hammond – Violets Mother – and succeeded in driving Rowena's spirit away from the newborn child, six years younger than Tom at the time. That had been two years ago, and no more Hammond girls were born, because Dumbledore succeeded in causing Amanda's Mother to miscarry.

And poor Tom Riddle, unable to understand why Dumbledore would want to stop him being loved, began to go insane. Salazar was no better. By the time Tom was 16, his anger at his Father's family for being the first to not love him had been driven to the forefront of Tom's mind by the fact that they were the Muggles, not his Mother. And so, along with Salazar, he killed them.

Salazar had told Tom about the other times he tried to find his beloved Rowena, and how he always died before her. And then Tom had a brilliant idea. Half gone in his madness, he decided to become immortal, ensuring that no matter how old he got he would never die and lose his soul mate. He forgot of course that by splitting your soul, you split your feelings. So while he had successfully created six additional Horcrux by the time Rowena's new host – Rose – was born, Tom Riddle no longer existed.

Lord Voldemort had shut Salazar away in his mind, no longer needing the elder spirits guidance, and began his campaign of genocide. Eventually, he would find his soul mate, he thought, but his soul no longer soured at the thought. Because his soul no longer resided in his body.

When he was finally face to face with one-year-old Rose Hammond, his soul mate, he didn't recognize her. Salazar was shut away behind the madness screaming for Rowena but unable to warn Tom. And then Rowena helped to kill Tom and Salazar.

And Tom raged that a mere one-year-old boy defeated him, for he had not seen Rose. But Salazar had. And while he was hurt, beyond belief, he understood. Death was the only thing that would save Lord Voldemort from his madness. And the Horcrux would save Lord Voldemort from death. Upon his return, Tom Riddle would finally have someone to love him, and Rowena and Salazar would finally be able to rest in peace.

If life was only so easy.

XXX

Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man.

In fact, he was livid. How could a Hammond child have been born with out him realizing? Two in fact, not just one but two Hammond girls. The Daughter of Amanda – Violet was her name – Albus knew could not be the host because from previous experience, Rowena tended to skip generations for an unexplained reason.

He knew very well who Salazar's host was of course, and he made very sure that Lord Voldemort would no longer be around to claim a mate. That was where Harry Potter came in after all. When his newest weapon defeated Lord Voldemort, Salazar would be banished forever because Voldemort could only be defeated if his soul was bound back together – along with Salazar's – and then killed, thrust forevermore into hell.

And Rowena would wander on, alone, and finally give up the ghost – no pun intended – and find eternal rest.

With a growl, Dumbledore stormed out of his Headmaster's Office in Hogwarts and made his way to Surrey. Standing outside Number 4, Privet Drive, he smirked. Petunia Dursley could be seen clearly, standing in her garden behind a 1-year-old who was kneeling on the floor covered in mud. She was hosing him down trying to clean him up somewhat.

"Now, sit there until you dry. Don't you dare come in and get my floor wet boy." She ordered and young Harry sniffed.

Dumbledore was pleased something was finally going right. The Dursley's would make Harry properly compliant. The perfect, mindless soldier, to be thrown into Azkaban at the opportune moment after the War. He turned and left, heading to the Ministry to see how well Minister Fudge was coming along in his campaign to arrest Lucius Malfoy.

Of course, what Dumbledore saw were the changed Rowena had made to the Wards surrounding Number 4. What really was going on in the garden was Petunia was watering her petunias and Dudley was running back and forth while his Mother tried not to get him wet.

"Now, stand still and stay dry," she ordered a pouting Dudley, who was 16-months-old. "I won't have you coming in and getting my floor wet Diddums."

Albus Dumbledore, what a fool.

XXX

Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man.

He had sent close to one hundred letters to Number 4, Privet Drive and none of them had been answered. Harry Potter would be turning 11 in four days and still no word had come from the boy. The Dursley's better not be trying to keep him from me, Albus thought angrily.

What was really happening of course was that Atticus had known Harry would have to keep up appearances, if his family were to stay out of Azkaban without leaving the country. So when Rose was accepted to Durmstrang Institute at 8-years-old, Ryder by default was clever enough to attend with her. They skipped the first three, pointless years, knowing that Harry would have to attend 7 in Hogwarts anyway.

Ryder was in the process of finishing his OWLs when Dumbledore was sending Hogwarts letters to his alter ego. He had to work for most of the summer and holidays to be able to keep up with the other 4th and 5th Years in Durmstrang, because he still wasn't as clever as Rose was. Rose was, at the moment, in Malfoy Manor talking to Draco who was happily showing off his Hogwarts acceptance letter to his very proud parents.

The Malfoys didn't mind that their Son wasn't accepted to school at an indecently young age, after all no normal person could be that brilliant. Narcissa had even turned her nose up at Rose and Ryder for a month the last time they mentioned their OWLs.

Rose paused in her conversation and Draco shot her worried looks. "Ryder," she whispered and left the room without a word. She apparated to the nearest flooing station and flooed to Durmstrang. "Highmaster Karkaroff," she greeted. "I must speak with my Brother."

Karkaroff, a former Death Eater, bowed slightly and sent a message to the Ministry of Bulgaria school examiners calling Ryder Hammond out of his History of Magic OWL. Pointless subject, Rowena thought as they waited, goblin wars.

"Ryder I forgot! You need to go to the Dursley's, you haven't replied to your Hogwarts letter!" She gasped and Ryder smacked his head against the wall. Just a few more days till the deadline ran out and only one OWL to go, the timing couldn't be worse. "Here," she handed him a golden watch on a rather long chain which he looked at in surprise. "Hurry."

He hung the time turner around his neck and turned it back two days. He ran to the nearest floo and called out "Lestrange Manor, Wiltshire, England," and was gone in a flash of green flame.

The first thing he did when he arrived at the Dursley's home was shove a piece of paper to Petunia with his mobile phone number on it. His Father charmed his phone to work in magical places as well as Muggle, so she would have no trouble getting through to him in future.

Going to Hogwarts wasn't top priority on his agenda. He couldn't be bothered to deal with Dumbledore's manipulations nor was he looking forward to repeating his OWLs with a further three years first. And now he was going to have even less time to spend with Draco, considering he'd have to spend his holidays and most afternoons at Durmstrang trying to complete his NEWTs.

What's worse was that no one was allowed to know he was Ryder Hammond, not yet, and so he couldn't get permission to leave School at any time to do exams. On the plus side though, Harry Potter couldn't be too clever or Dumbledore might fear he could slip his leash. So as long as Ryder passed his NEWTs, Harry wouldn't have to do much work in Hogwarts.

To keep up pretence, Harry managed to talk the Dursley's into running away from Number 4 with him. On the 31st July, at 10 minutes to midnight, Rubeus Hagrid burst through the door of the hut, balanced upon a rock, in the middle of the coastal sea. Harry had to laugh at the looks on his 'relatives' faces.

He took the letter handed to him and opened it, "but- I- I can't be a Wizard," he stuttered loving this game, "I'm just Harry!"

The next morning, he was on his way to Diagon Alley to buy his School supplies. While it was really hard to pretend to know nothing about the Wizarding World he managed well enough, he even fooled his fiancé, Draco. Which kind of hurt his feelings, Ryder had figured that if anyone would see through the ruse it would have been Draco, obviously he thought wrong.

But he had no time to mope over that fact, because he was being dismissed from Madam Malkins and sent to Olivander's Wand Shop. Now Ryder already had a wand, 13 inches made of blood oak, with a Vampyre hair and Veela blood core. Harry Potter, however, ended up with Voldemort's brother wand, phoenix feather – how pure.

The moment Hagrid had disappeared from Privet Drive; Ryder was twisting the knob on his time turner and flooing back to Durmstrang to finish his final OWL. His new wand and Hogwarts robes tucked away in his new 'HJP' inscribed trunk, he made his way – alone – to the Hogwarts Express and went along with Dumbledore's games by asking the Weasley's for help. Why else would a Pureblood with children who had graduated already be wondering around lost talking about Muggles at the top of her voice, for any other reason than to attract Harry's attention?

But he went along with it. And when no one was looking, he turned and waved to the dark haired girl child who stood half concealed in the shadows, her eyeteeth winking at him as she smirked back.

And so began Harry Potter's First Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

XXX

Thanks for reading, please review. The next chapter will probably be longer. I'll try and update Blurred Reflections later ok.