Later, when Rhys and Harry were both asleep, Jessie left the rented room at the Leaky Cauldron, going to Knockturn Alley under several spells that both altered his appearance and disguised his presence from the average witch and wizard. The year after the war had been spent rebuilding, but Harry – unlike Hermione – decided that the 'eighth year' wasn't for him.
Ron was identical in this thought, and both joined the Aurors, entering the Auror Academy. Not many realised what this fully entailed, though to be quite fair they were extremely secretive about their training program and the identities of their trainees. It was the best in all of Europe, after all. Aurors weren't just policemen for the Magical World, they were soldiers and guards and spies and cannon fodder. And not all that entered the Academy left Aurors. Obviously, some dropped out, but others became Hit-Wizards, or part of the Muggle Government Defence Guard, or the Wizarding Legion – basically the very secretive army who told no-one what they actually did, at all – or indeed, stolen by another Ministry Department, the most notable being the Department of Mysteries, the second being the Department of International Cooperation. In the Academy, you were trained in a variety of subjects, from duelling to diplomacy, foreign languages to logic puzzles, espionage to army tactics. Ron had excelled, despite what many might have thought, and when Jessie had…left, Ron had been on the way to becoming one of the most skilled tactician the Academy had ever seen.
Jessie, however, had drifted. He didn't have a specific skill set – though he was notably good at duelling – and basically, during the year he'd been in the Academy, he's skipped between specialities, becoming a Jack of All Trades, just about. There had been a point though where the Academy got annoyed at him, and sent him on a small-time mission, something they probably thought he'd completely fail. It had involved spending three weeks in Knockturn Alley, staying undercover as an aged duelling-circuit contestant who'd been banned after too many dark curses. He was supposed to find out something – anything – before bringing it back to the Academy, who'd act on it if they thought it suitable.
Jessie managed to stay undercover a short time before finding something, and he still claimed that it wasn't his fault that he had to take it into his own hands. Theodore Nott Senior – one of the few Death Eater's that managed to escape getting arrested by simply running – had been in Knockturn, trying to barter a fake identity off someone, complete with permanently changed family tapestries, Family Grimoires, the whole shebang. Jessie obviously took offense to that, and knowing the Auror Department had been collaborating with the Order of the Phoenix, trying and failing to track him down, started a street-wide fight, using his newly-taught skills to distract the dark wizard before capturing him and bringing him – and the woman who could provide fake identities – back to the Academy's doorstep.
There had been a lot of paperwork for him to fill out after his little 'stunt', as the Academy professors called it fondly, and while it had taken literal days to get it all done, skipping his classes to do so, Jessie had learnt all about the case that he had both closed and opened – who knew how many people the woman, 'Alexis Maxwell', had proved fake identities for. So he knew all the details, knew all the itty gritty bits of every interrogation, every dose of truth serum – he knew who she was, and where to find her, and how to get a fake identity off her without paying.
So, quite rightly, as a most likely illegal time-traveller – or was it dimension-traveller? – he wanted to find that woman, and not just for himself, but for Rhys too. She deserves better, he thought firmly as he approached her shop, opening the door and stepping inside, attracting her attention. Looking over her, Jessie found himself amused.
'Alexis Maxwell', last time he'd seen her, had been disguised as an old woman with wrinkled skin, dead eyes and a long grey ponytail. She clearly had no issues pretending to be any age imaginable, as she was currently disguised as a teenager with a pink streak in her hair, still in a long pony-tail, though higher than in the future, and was wearing a Weird Sisters shirt and blowing Drooble's Colour-Changing Bubblegum.
"Not taking customers," the witch said flatly, voice clear and low, a growl escaping from her throat. "Get out." Jessie went over to where she sat at the counter, staring her in the eyes.
"Two identities, no questions asked, and a two-way unbreakable vow that would bind both of us to our word. I'm only offering the latter because I know how fast you can move your precious pets."
Immediately her eyes widened.
"Holy Merlin and Morgana, how do you know about my pretties?" Her face became genuinely distressed as she obviously thought about being caught keeping various endangered magical creatures in her house basement in cruel living conditions, regularly harvesting magical parts from them. The worst part about it was that she honestly loved them, and cared for them. Jessie knew though that a basement was not the same as a forest, or a sky, or a lake or a sea, and almost pitied her despite her abduction of them.
"Don't ask questions you won't like the answers for. Now what do I need to do?"
She sniffed, wiping her eyes. "Well, bring in this other person who needs an identity, and give me a portfolio of what kind of life-history you want, qualifications, etcetera. Also, three vials of blood from the person you want to be related to, furthest away relative being that of a second cousin."
"That's fine," he replied, inwardly trying to think up a scenario that wouldn't have Rhys trying to attack him in poor, innocent Harry's defence when he said he needed her to come to Diagon Alley, and three vials of Harry's blood. Suddenly something occurred to him, as well as the realisation that she'd be under an unbreakable vow of silence. "But, uh, weird thing is, we're already related, pretty closely actually. Extremely closely. We need to do the vow now."
She glared at him. "We need a third witch or wizard for that."
Jessie grit his teeth, before taking out his wand, debating before finally just deciding that there was only one person who he could possibly trust with this. He waved his wand.
"Expecto Patronum," from the tip of his wand, white light came out in wisps, before forming a stag. "Go to Severus Snape and tell him that I need a Bonder for a two-way unbreakable vow, and he, right now, is the only one I can rely on. I'm at the store in Knockturn Alley opposite Ringworm's Apothecary. I'll explain properly once he arrives. Tell him not to go for his wand." Prongs pawed the air before running off, Maxwell staring at it in awe as it disappeared.
"A fully formed Patronus…Merlin, I thought for a second you really were a dark wizard come to take away my pretties." She sighed, rubbing her forehead at his confusion. "Only wizards with pure enough souls can produce a patronus. It's different for women – and don't ask why, nature's a bitch – but yeah, so identities? Why all the secrecy?"
Jessie frowned at her, before hearing the pop of apparation outside. A few seconds later the door to the shop opened, admitting Severus Snape. He was just as Jessie remembered – oily black hair, black Potions Masters robes, unmovable sneer… Jessie smirked at him, before dropping his glamour.
"I'm not James Potter, just a stupid Harry Potter who fucked up with either time travel or dimension travel and is going to try masquerading as his father's half-brother."
Snape, who had started staring in horror, collected himself, glaring harshly, "Only you, Potter, could so completely lose control of his life." He looked to Maxwell. "Is this the other person?"
"Yes, and her part of the vow is that she'll keep everything about this secret, and by everything I mean everything. In return I don't tell a single soul – not even you – about her 'pretties'." He gave the witch a sharp look, prompting her to nod stiffly.
Snape, who seemed pretty annoyed at this all, glared again before coming over, whipping his wand out. Jessie took Maxwell's wrist, holding tightly as she gripped his wrist too. Unwillingly, his heartrate picked up, before Snape pressed his wand to the top of their clenched limbs.
"Will you keep everything you learn about me, in the past, present and future a secret from everyone but myself, Jessie Potter, and Harry Potter, Rhys Potter and Severus Snape?"
"I will," Maxwell intoned, prompting a thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from Snape's wand and wind its way around their hands like a red-hot wire. "And will you keep my secrets also? Never informing anyone of what lies in the belly of my home, in the sanctuary of my estate, or leaving trails or careful words for others to trace?"
Jessie gripped her hand tighter, but didn't blame her choice in words, not one bit. "I will," he spoke, causing another tongue of flame to wrap around their hands. Snape cleared his throat to speak the third.
"Will you both keep your word?"
They spoke as one. "I will." The last tongue wrapped around their hands, and when it connected, it thrummed, before exploding in a light shower of sparks. Jessie felt a power shoot up his arm to rest in his heart, before fading completely, not leaving anything – not a numbness, not anything – behind.
Snape took his wand from their hands, then pointed it at Jessie's chest. "Explain. Now."