*Ducks Pitchforks* Yes I know its been a few weeks past when I said I would update. But in my denfense my University school semester started back up, and I've been very busy. It's no excuse I know, and I'll do my best to update again before this upcoming tuesday as a reward for being so nice about it :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am not making any money off of this.
At first all he felt was pain, an intense mind numbing pain throughout his entire body. Slowly the pain started to ebb away and Harry sat up uneasily in the dark space. Well, his cupboard was just as he remembered it at least, he thought as he groped blindly for his glasses only to remember belatedly that at five years old he didn't have them yet. Instead he let his hand fall to the comforting presence of his wand, glad that he still had it. After all the whole plan would basically have been shot if it hadn't come through with him. Leaning back against the wall he reflected, not for the first time, on just how he was going to manage everything he had to do. It really hadn't occurred to him just how incredibly small he was at this age.
His mind started to wander over what he was going to need to do in the next couple days. First he was going to need to perform a series of spells over his relatives, some of which were on the darker side. It was nothing that horrible really, well depending on one's opinion of such things. But Harry personally didn't have too much of a problem with what he had to do, since he knew how the Dursleys would treat him if he didn't. Add in the fact that if he didn't do this then he would never be able to carry out the first phases of his part in The Plan, and through cause and effect the later stages of his part in The Plan, which would in turn effectively ruin the entire Plan and well any lingering doubts he had went right out the window.
It was fairly simple really; he was going to cast a series of charms over his relatives, some of which would effectively tweak their memories of certain events, and outright alter their memories of other events. While some of the other spells he would be casting would deal with their emotions, towards magic, his parents, Petunia's parents, Harry himself, and even each other. It wasn't just one spell, there were many, and each one was chosen specifically for the fact that they would complement the others and play off each other. The memory charms would only make slight changes in vital memories. Not enough to change the outcome of the memories, or actual events, just minor details that in accordance with the emotion charms would change the way these events were remembered and the feelings that would accompany them.
By changing these things the Dursleys extreme prejudice towards magic in general, as well as Harry, James and Lily, and for Petunia her very childhood, would be changed. Oh they're personalities would remain the same, rather they would be they way they would have been had they never hated magic in the first place. Now obviously they would never love magic, but they certainly wouldn't hate it. This meant that they would have no reason to "beat the magic out of him," the result being a normal childhood and being raised as if he were actually a part of the Dursleys family. Harry was still mostly convinced that this was not going to be a good thing, but it was necessary.
Due to his age, and current lack of magical maturity, it would take Harry the course of several days to complete the charms. During that time he was also going to need to break into Mrs. Figg's house and make several potions for himself. All of the potions he would be making were going to help in correcting the four years of neglect at the hands of the Dursleys. There would be several nutrition potions, to get him to the levels he should be at for his age and make up for the previous four years. As well as potions to make up for the lack of sunlight he received due to the majority of his time being spent indoors or within his extremely dark cupboard, as well as the standard potions that all children that grew up within the wizarding received. These mostly consisted of various immunizations to various wizarding and Muggle diseases, similar to Muggle immunization shots (which Harry had never received), as well as the standard boosters.
Unlike the Muggle world where boosters were basically a type of immunization, boosters in the wizarding world were a mixture of various nutrients, vitamins, and magical ingredients that would encourage any recessive magical traits or genes to come to the forefront. There was really no grantee that the boosters would do anything other than help the child reach their full growth and health potential. You actually had to have some recessive magical traits for that part of the potion to actually do anything. But fortunately for Harry he did. Boosters were common practice among purebloods such as the Malfoy's, but people like the Weasley's hadn't bothered with them in ages.
Making the potions would take several days as well, and that was provided that Mrs. Figg had all the necessary ingredients. He would have to find a way to get his own potions set and supplies within the next few months since he would need to take the nutrition and booster potions on a fairly regular basis. There would be other immunization potions he would have to take over the years as well. One benefit of all the nutrition potions correcting the years of neglect, and the Dursleys soon to be new attitude towards Harry would be that he would hopefully end up not needing glasses at all. Most of the damage to his eyesight had come from years and years for being locked up in dark spaces, and lack of proper food, and the potions would obviously correct that.
Of course that was only the easy stuff. After he had completed all that within the next week or two he had the small matter of absorbing the horcrux within him. Obviously small being used rather loosely. He had to completely integrate the horcrux to himself, effectively destroying Voldemort's soul while keeping all of his memories, knowledge, and abilities. The first stage would be simple enough, if excruciatingly painful, however the integrating of Voldemort's knowledge, memories, and abilities would take much longer and he would be out cold the entire time. But if all went well the Harry's would know everything Voldemort knew. Every spell, potion, ritual, and random information. He would know Voldemort's personality and how he would react to any given situation, as well as be able to effectively guess at what he was going to do. Also he would still be fluent in Parseltounge, as well as gaining the abilities of Occlumency and Legilimency.
But still that was fairly easy when compared to what he was going to need to start doing once he had finished absorbing the Horcrux. After all laying the foundations for your own person army of half-bloods was no easy task. Especially when they were all still five years old.
When Hermione Granger opened her eyes she was greeted with the sight of baby blue walls, and toys scattered across the floor mingled with various children's books. Bolstered by the fact that the ritual had in fact worked she twirled her wand in her hand. She had chosen this particular ritual for the very reason that it used each person's wand as a focal point, allowing the wand itself to go back in time with them. The ritual did have its downside, but luckily it played into their plan.
The downside was basically that the magic used to create the portal that took them back in time also made it so that if they were to physically speak to each other for a set period of time or "disastrous" things would happen. Simply put, they would probably die. To open the portal a magical diagram had to be made. This diagram would plot the opening of the portal based on the position of the people and their focal points within it. However Hermione had been able to tweak the ritual just enough to allow Ron and Ginny's focal points to be at the same place, essentially this would allow them to be able to speak to one another. Since obviously they would not have been able to go any length of time not being able to speak to each other due to their family and their part in the plan.
This still left Ron and Ginny unable to speak to either Harry or Hermione, and Harry and Hermione likewise unable to speak with each other or either Ron or Ginny. The lucky part of this overall shitty situation was that it played into their plan well enough. They would divide and conquer, and in order for that to work in the way they intended it was essential that nobody think that they knew each other or were friends. This unfortunate downside to the ritual only ensured that aspect of the plan. Of course it would have been easier if they had still been able to communicate in secret, but they would make it work.
Hermione had estimated that it would be approximately ten years before the residual magic from the ritual had left them and they would be able to speak to one another again. However they couldn't be positive, and they had agreed to wait until the end or Harry, Ron and Hermione's seventh year in before they actually spoke to each other again. Just to be on the safe side.
Hermione slowly got dressed and made her way downstairs, somewhat reluctantly. She was both anxious and excited to see her parents. "There you are sweetheart, would you like pancakes or waffles today?" asked her mother as Hermione entered the kitchen. She bent down and gave her daughter a kiss before directing her over to the table.
Hermione froze in place shocked in spite of herself at the sight of her mother. She was both the same and vastly different, and she felt her eyes start to well up at the sight of her mother. She shook her head to clear it and asked for pancakes in a small voice she barely recognized as her own. Once her father was in the room as well, and her parents were busy talking to each other Hermione took out her wand and steadied herself. She was nervous, and scared. After all, the last time she had cast memory charms on her parents they had died before she could reverse them.
It was only temporary, she reminded herself. And it was different then last time. This time she would only be making them believe she was at camp for a couple weeks. When in reality she would be staying in London and getting various paperwork, research, and motions set up and put in place. She would have to work quickly, and it would be made harder by the glamour she was going to have to put on herself to appear older. But it was necessary, so she steeled herself and slowly casted the memory charms on her parents before quickly making her way out the door.
Ron and Ginny stopped running once they had made their way behind the shed and down towards the creek. If Ron strained his ears he could still hear his family talking and laughing away. He looked at Ginny, "You ready?"
Ginny looked somewhat sick, but determined just the same. "As I'll ever be." They silently grasped hands before pooling their magic in a joint effort and appareated away.
It was an hour later when Molly Weasley was getting ready to serve dessert to the rest of her family that she decided to send Bill to go fetch Ron and Ginny. After all they had "ran away" for a whole hour now, and for a four and five year old that was a long enough time. Besides she thought with a slight smile, they would get upset if they had to wait too long before the family came looking for them to apologise and beg them not to run away.
When Bill did not come back right away she felt a slight pit begin to form in her stomach, and a sick feeling begin to take over her. Fifteen minutes later Bill had still not returned. "Arthur..." She was pale and she could feel the horror begin to take over.
"Yes Molly? You look Pale, are you alri-"
She cut him off, and by now the whole family was watching her. "Go find the kids; Bill must be having trouble..." He studied her carefully and seemed to sense that she thought something was wrong because he gripped her hand before heading in the direction of Bill.
But she knew already, and she sat down heavily in the nearest seat and put her head in her hands. A mother always knew when something was wrong with her babies, and right now she knew something had gone horribly wrong. Ron and Ginny...
"Mom? Is something wrong?" But before Charlie could receive an answer Bill was running towards them.
"They're gone!"
Several hours later and well into the night found the Weasley household the center of the largest search party in recent history. Nearly half of the ministry itself, combined with most of the staff of Hogwarts, as well as family and friends of the Weasley's combined with various volunteers had joined the efforts; the Weasley's may have been poor, but they were kind, well liked, and well connected.
Well I would first off like to say thanks to everyone that has reviewed thus far, or put this story on alert or favorites! You guys rock!
Secondly a reviewer pointed out that Its not terribly realistic for a Four and Five year old to be living on the streets. They are totally correct, its not realistic at all. But luckily this is fanfiction :) Ron and Ginny will not actually be living on the street, and they will be using magic to disguise themselves when they are areound other people. Such as glamour charms to make themselves appear older. Also the Wizarding world (in my opinion) has no real knowledge of street life, only vauge notions since their world is so spread out and they have no cities of their own. Only hidden ally's and small towns, and various hidden buildings and things. I'm counting on the wizarding world's general naiveté on this, as well as there general standard on beliveing whatever is told to them like sheep and not using their own minds. Also Ron and Ginny are going to be pretty believeable, they'll have the knowledge, abilities, speech, and even real people to back up what they're saying. Their family and the general wizarding world won't have cause not to believe them.
But yes, as the reviewer also mentioned, the Weasley's will be confused and so will the wizarding world as to how they "ran away" they may even think that they've been kidnapped or killed in some way. *whistles* But I can't say anymore on the subject, or that would be telling :P
Also Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's "Plan" is a complicated one, you'll only find out parts of it as we go along. It won't be until the very end that you'll know everything and how it connects. So at times throughout the story some things might not make sense or seem unrealistic, but I promise that by the very end all will make sense :)
Now with that out of the way I would like to kindly beg you all shamelessly for reviews! The more reviews I get, the faster I will update :) They're an excellent motivator.