Harry could not understand it, every time he spotted Dumbledore- the man just disappeared. No matter. He could always talk someone in the Order into checking in on the triplets. But for some reason he really wanted to get to the bottom of this thing with the Headmaster. There was no way he could miss the fact that Harry was looking for him. He was walking towards the man's office (for the sixth time that morning) when he was distracted by the sound of running footsteps.
"It's too late!" Harry turned around and came face to face with three familiar sets of eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"We're gone. We've been forgotten and abandoned. You overslept, and did nothing. And now we have to pay the price."
"You broke your promise, Harry Potter. And we will never forgive you for that."
They started to walk away. Halfway down the hall before Harry was able to come back to his senses.
"Wait! I tried!"
"Too little. Too late, Harry Potter."
Suddenly an old hand rested on his shoulder, "It was for the best, my boy. You would have lost sight of the goal had they remained. It is best that you focus on yourself and on your friends. Do you want any more lives on you conscious?"
Harry turned to yell at the Headmaster and instead let out a shriek as he began falling through darkness.
He landed on the floor of the smallest bedroom at Privet Drive and struggled not to cry out as pain started radiating through his elbow. He listened carefully to the rest of the house and let out a relieved sigh when no one moved.
But even he had to admire the perfect timing when there was the gentle rap at the window. A beautiful horned owl was hovering just outside his window. He quickly opened the frame, not wanting it to get frustrated and make more noise, but also because he was eager to see the piece of parchment tied to the owl's leg.
"Aren't you gorgeous? Can I see that? You can feel free to get a drink out of Hedwig's dish, I only have a few treats left, but let me see if I can scrounge some up."
By time he had managed to find the treats under his floorboard he was staring at one Hedwig where she was attempting to play coy with the other owl.
"Can't be too easy, huh girl?"
He handed the owl its treat but didn't encourage it back out the window just yet. He wanted to see who the letter was from. He tore open the seal and quickly looked at the end of the letter for a name. Sirius!
"Prongslet,
"You know, I'm a little disappointed that I finally get a letter from you and it's to three kids who I don't even know! Are you sure you got the right address from them? At least you mentioned me in the letter though, so that's something.
"What time did the owl reach you? His name is Arch by the way. Remus wanted to call him Archimedes. And I responded by saying we should just call him Arch Nemesis. Long story short, he now refuses to respond to anything else. So Arch it is. He just showed up one day, I think he kind of adopted us to be honest.
"Is this a good time to write? I don't want those Muggles to give you any more of a hard time than they already do. Hopefully we'll be able to pull you out of there soon. Maybe you can come stay with me for part of the summer? I definitely have the space. Nothing but space if you ask me.
"Anyway, I think you should tell me about these kids too. Lily, Russel, Persephone? That's an odd mix of names for someone to name their kids if you ask me. Regardless though, why exactly do you think they're living in my house?
"Sleep well,
"Padfoot."
Did Dumbledore send them triplets to live somewhere else? That wouldn't make sense. They would be safest out of the way there. Unless… maybe they did send them to the Burrow? It could be that they were in a house Harry didn't know about.
Quickly Harry penned a short note to Ron asking him if he had heard anything about the Triplets. He thought the older boy would have mentioned something to him, but he could be a bit scattered at the best of times. It probably just slipped his notice.
Although, surely Sirius would have remembered the three kids. Even if they had only been in his house for one night. Well it could…
Harry shook his head. No more excuses. If Ron didn't have anything to say about the triplets in his next letter he would be finding a way to visit them himself. Hopefully.
(0,0)
Russel bit his lip as he watched Lily carefully trace the runes onto a piece of parchment. Again. Some of them looked a great deal like the ones Sephy had already filled the attic with. By muscle memory. He really needed to talk to her about that, but first the less troublesome sister.
"And you're sure these are the ones we need? They'll make people remember us?"
Lily shrugged, "More or less. And assuming we've made all of the correct logical leaps."
"What do you mean?"
"Well assuming the spell is on us and not the Order, we just need to make the spell not affect us. This rune is a focusing rune which should allow people to see us a little more in focus. This is a memory rune, I put the same rune on someone else and they should have a better memory of us. This one is a dream rune, once again to go on someone else. Theoretically, if they dream about us they should remember us when they wake.
"So the focus rune goes on us, as does this majority rune, and this compulsion shield one. Theoretically, all three of us only have to wear one each and it should do the job. Put the other two on the person we want to remember us and ta-dah."
"What if it's not just on us? And what is that majority rune for?"
"Then we may still be able to counter the spell but I'm not as sure it will work. The majority rune is to try and confuse the spell into thinking we're of age. Which will either lesson or end it if we get super lucky."
Sephy suddenly swung her head in their direction, "Wati. The spell isn't permanent? It's supposed to end when we reach majority?"
"It's not permanent, per say. It's just that it doesn't seem as intricate as it would need to be to shift when we reach majority. Our magic and bodies change by that point. And judging by the fact that Sirius and Remus both seem to occasionally see us here and at least recognize that we're supposed to be here. It does not seem to be fool proof."
Sephy frowned, "I wonder why he didn't think to add to it so it adjusted as we grew older…"
"Because he planned for us to be dead long before then." Russel supplied a little honestly perhaps.
Lily gave a grim grin in return, "Yeah. That was pretty much my thought too."
Sephy nodded, "Alright then," Clapping her hands she grinned openly at her siblings, "So when do we do this?"
Lily's shrug and long silence as she continued writing was met with the clearing of a throat, "Right, sorry. I really need to make sure I can do these runes right. But I was thinking that the only one who will willingly let us write runes on them at this point is Dad. Especially since he seems to somewhat remember us anyway."
"You mean judging by the way Black was ranting and raving about the absurdity of having three house guests in this 'wretched place that is more like a house of torture and seclusion' that took up the entire morning?"
"That's the one." Lily's smirk was clear to any who could hear her.
Sephy's groan was audible throughout London, "It could be weeks before Dad gets here! How are we supposed to survive until then?"
"Sephy, It's literally been a week. I think you can make it through the end of the month."
(0,0)
Lily walked into the room, tossing her hands up in the air before collapsing face first onto the bed and letting out a frustrated shout.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't take it anymore! Isn't there something we could be doing like…I don't know…something?!"
"Have you tried reading? Truly, the Black family has a fascinating library," Sephy hummed as she flipped the page of her book.
Lily heard the words, her own from the day before when Sephy had been in a similar position and glared at her sibling, "Not. Funny."
"To be fair, I wanted to be tricking Black into trying the runes or trying to convince Remus. But I believe you were the one to suggest, no insist, on waiting for Dad." Sephy reluctantly closed her book, not wanting to search for her place in the readout again, but something told her this was going to be an intense conversation.
Lily sat up, "That's it! Let's work on the other problem."
"What other problem?"
An eye roll as the other girl went scrambling around for a quill and a piece of parchment.
"We need to get Dad and Father together. Or else the exact same thing is going to happen again and there will be nothing we can do to change it."
"And how exactly do you plan on accomplishing that?"
Lily shrugged, "I don't know that's where the 'working on' part of this comes into play."
"Fine, let's do it!"
Russell came into the room to see his sisters talking excitedly while Lily scribbled notes. Deciding again that the brave who live are the ones who choose battles carefully he tried to sneak back out. But he barely had a foot in the hallway when a hand gripped him by the back of the robes. He was dragged over to where a smirking Sephy waited cross legged on the bed.
"Alright, what's going on?"
"We're writing a letter."
Russell waited for the punch line. None came, "Okay… A letter to whom?"
"The President of the United States."
Russell glared at his sarcastic sister, not that it did much good, "Haha."
Lily filled in the blanks, "Well, it is kind of obvious. We're sending a letter to our other father."
"Why?"
"To tell him about the horcrux hunt, and that he should try to woo Harry Potter to his side of the war."
Russell nodded, "Well, in that case- ARE YOU MAD?!"
Sephy grinned, "Most likely. Now come on, you have to help us get it right."
"Why me exactly?"
"Because we said so and their your fathers too."
He grumbled as he joined the girls on the bed, "Fine. But this is under protest."
The sister rolled their eyes at his words, never taking their minds from the problem at hand, "Isn't it always?"
Without further protest the siblings bent to work to save their father's and hopefully themselves. This letter had to be good or there would be some problems to deal with in the morning. Or not cause they would be dead, but you know…details.
Hours passed.
"That's stupid, Lils. Why would he care?"
…
"Maybe say that he's terminally ill?"
"Yeah, cause he'll be torn up and want to save his enemy instead of throwing a victory party."
…
"How about: 'If you don't, you will die.'"
"Perfect! I give it about thirty two seconds before he calls the bluff and executes us."
…
"You could be a little more helpful you know. Do your part of the job."
"My job is to point out the flaws in your plan. Thank you for making that easy."
…
But finally, after much frustration and a few thrown pillows, the final draft was done up in Lily's fine handwriting. About an hour later they finally managed the courage to tie the note onto the leg of the owl. Sephy lay back on the bed while Lily grabbed her read of the week. Which was when the door opened.
Nerves on edge, Lily slammed the anthology down and with a loud crash a body fell to the floor with a muffled curse.
(0,0)
The only way out that made sense, was somewhat available to him, and was less likely to get him killed on the way was the Knight Bus. Now the problems with this were probably greater than the list of benefits but Harry was pretty much out of options. He had no floo powder (not that the Dursley's were still connected to the Floo) and he could not apparate yet.
Even if he managed to find a teleportation spell that he could cast on his own the ministry would be on him faster than Fang was on a pastry. So the Knight Bus it was.
But he did not intend to forget that anyone would be excited to see Harry Potter wandering aimlessly around London. So he needed a disguise. Or at least something to help keep him unnoticed by the general populace. The invisibility cloak, while nice would hinder him because he doubted Stan would move out of the way of an invisible person, much less help them with their luggage.
Which brought him to this moment standing just outside his Aunt's room. He needed a way to cover his scar and potentially change his hair. He wasn't sure what he would find, but anything would be helpful. He knew the cleaning bleach would change his hair but for some crazy reason he was a little more worried about chemical burns than some nameless bus rider.
Steeling himself (honestly, why was this so much more terrifying than sliding down a tube into the lair of an unknown monster and a potentially dead body?) he let his hand fall heavy on the door handle and carefully pushed inward.
Soon enough he was standing in the dark space lifting his shaking hand up to the light switch. The lights blared on and Harry did his best to avoid looking at the garish (yet unfairly plush looking) bed spread. He moved straight into the bathroom. Soon enough he found the supplies he needed although not as many as he thought there were. His Aunt must have taken some of them with her on the trip.
He had a couple of brown and tan powders. A couple of powders in varying shades of pink. Some purple. And some hooker red lipstick that he did not even want to imagine Petunia wearing. Plus a thing of talcum powder. Taking a stab in the dark he went to work.
Layering a bunch of different browns together seemed to cover his scar for the most part. It would look stupid if anyone looked closely, but hopefully his bangs would cover it. He dumped some of the powder in his hair, which honestly just made him look ridiculous, but it covered the classic Potter hair so he would run with it. He used some gel stuff he found to flatten his hair a little more.
He shrugged in the mirror, wasn't much of a disguise but it would have to do. His hair was weird and his scar was pretty much gone. His glasses were kind of a giveaway but unless he wanted to be blind, they were kind of necessary.
He was going to be spotted in under a minute. Well, he needed to leave or he would never get out of this place in time. He turned off the lights as he slipped out the door, broke the lock on the cupboard using a hammer, grabbed his things and slipped out the door. Just before he turned to the lock he impulsively grabbed a cap and a worn grey sweatshirt Dudley probably outgrown years ago.
He made it to the end of the street and raised his wand, not once looking back at his annual summer prison.
(0,0)
Okay.
Stan Shunpike was officially going to get him killed. Amazingly enough, he had not recognized him, but he had been on the bus for all of ten seconds before the older man began bragging that he had picked up Harry Potter himself in practically that exact same spot a year before. He even went on to describe the way he had fallen over and then proceeded to fawn over the minister himself.
The man needed to learn when to stop talking. It was for that reason Harry was glad he had nicked a few notes from Vernon's wallet the day before. He'd been planning on using it for food when he got to London, but now he thought it was work better for a cab. As such he got let off in the middle of a random street in muggle London (he remembered it from a scene in some movie) and caught a taxicab to Grimmauld Place.
Who knew when Stan would get a guest that was not exactly Harry's number one fan. Better to give the man as little to talk about as possible. Especially since he had a feeling the witch in the purple robes had been much less oblivious than the ever excitable conductor. Although he was glad the witch had shrunk his trunk for him after the conductor dropped it…again, one less thing to worry about with it tucked inside his pockets..
So here he was standing just outside of number 12 with a sinking feeling in his gut. What if he couldn't find the kids? He was kind of hoping they were here and it was just a misunderstanding, but maybe he had imagined it. Or maybe they were running around London completely alone in a totally unfamiliar city and time period.
Harry shook his head at the imagery of the children in some alley wrapped in thread bare shawls. It had been a grand total of a month max since he'd seen them himself. Plus it was July. It wasn't exactly the coldest month they had here.
With that in mind he moved towards the door with a knock. All movement on the other side stopped and, after several shushes, so did the noise. He knocked again, quietly, not really wanting to wake the portrait just beyond the foyer. When there was still no response, he shrugged and took a few steps back.
He wasn't exactly eager for the entire Order to know he was here anyway. So he pulled his invisibility cloak over himself and took a few steps away from the door grabbing a handful of rocks along the way. So long as Mad Eye wasn't here he would be fine. With that thought he rethought his plan. Waiting patiently until the noise inside started up again and a boy a little younger than him started around the corner towards the row of houses.
With his cover in place he threw the first of his rocks at the house. It hit the door dead center and conversation paused again. The next hit a window. As did the next. Then the wall, another chimney. Half a dozen stones later the door opened, just as the boy started running away, towards the group of boys waving. He could not have asked for better timing.
Mad Eye himself came storming out wand raised and magical eye spinning frantically before locking on the poor muggle. Harry slipped inside the open door and up the stairs with a grin. This was working out better than he thought. He really did have an immense share of sheer, dumb luck.
He came across a room that was obviously unused (Really, Sirius? There had to be at least half an inch of dust on that handle) and at the sound of footsteps on the stairs he slipped in.
Which was when he was met by a hard smack on the back of his head.
(0,0)
Lily squeaked when she recognized the person she had just smacked with one of Auntie's favorite books. When he'd snuck in, he'd been invisible and besides Kreacher they didn't see many people, so she may have sort of freaked at the sight of the door opening by itself and thrown the closest thing to her. Which was just a book.
Granted it was the thousand page anthology of magical creatures…
But technically it was still a book. Just kind of a big one.
"Nice going, Lillian. The one person who might have actually helped us and you throw the a book big enough to hold the universe at him."
"It's not that big!"
"Lily! You threw that anthology at D-Hi-Harry Potter?!"
"I didn't mean to! He was wearing his cloak, I didn't know who it was!"
The figure on the floor rolled over with a groan, a hand cradling the back of his head, "Guys, I'm fine, just don't do it again?"
Lily's sigh was followed by a tackle, "I'm so so so sorry! I… It's just… You scared me!"
Harry wrapped his free arm around the eleven year old with a smile, "Hey, don't worry about it, better safe than sorry and all that."
Russel helped them up from their pile on the floor, "Assuming she didn't re-injure you in the process of apologizing that is."
The red head moved away from the older boy with a dark blush over her cheeks, "Sorry."
The Gryffindor shook his head and walked further into the room, "I'm so glad to see the three of you. You're all okay? Persephone?"
"I'm fine. Just kind of surprised you were looking for us. Most of them seem to have completely forgotten us." The girl spoke without turning her face from the covers.
Green eyes darkened, "Yeah, I noticed that. They have a habit of forgetting things like that though. Kids. That they shouldn't be adults yet. That they exist. Don't take it too personally, they get a lot of practice with me."
"What are you doing here?" All eyes turned to Russell, "Not that we aren't glad to see you, but no one mentioned you coming, and you were kind of sneaking around in you cloak and stuff so…"
Harry shrugged and gave a non-committal half-smile, "I may not exactly be expected here in the most technical of senses…"
"You ran away?"
"More or less. I was kind of sick of the fact that they just left me there with no info, no communication of any significance, nothing. They act like I'm supposed to save the world, but won't treat me like I'm fifteen. Granted I'm not much older than you guys, but until they start treating me like I matter I'm never going to be any use to them."
"It's almost like they're just prepping you to throw you away…" Sephy's words drew sharp glares from both of her siblings, but all of her attention was focused on the older boy's breathing and movement. The laughter was entirely unexpected.
"Yeah, well, some things are not as they appear. It's not that they're trying to kill me or anything, they just want to protect me and have a really funny way of doing it."
Sephy was starting to say something else but was cut off by a sharp elbow from her brother. She frowned but said nothing as they began the typical pleasantries associated with a re-acquaintance. She was worried that the longer they waited the longer it would take to solve this problem. What if they ran out of time? But her siblings were determined to make the most of this (not that she could really blame them, she wanted to get to know her father too) and were convinced that two years was more than enough time to change the past.
The problem was that Sephy was pretty sure they would only have one year, maybe until the end of next summer. If Harry went on his hunt for Voldemort's soul, they would be too late.
"So, you think that because you're from a different time period, people can't remember you because the travel through time altered your magical aura?"
Lily shrugged. Sephy was impressed, that was an almost believable story.
"Okay. I'm going to call that bluff, but I'm not going to ask for a reason behind it. If you feel the need to make up a reason, that's fine."
"But we-"
"Forget it, Lils. Are you willing to help us then?"
"Of course! What do you need me to do?"
Sephy couldn't help herself her response was dry and complete deadpan, "Learn to dance the reel and find a fish that swallowed exactly two bottle caps in the last four weeks."
Harry laughed, "Yeah, I asked for that one. I'm going to be wearing the runes, right?"
"Only a few of them, some of them need to be on us, too."
"Alright. What do you say I magically show up for breakfast tomorrow and really confuse everyone."
Lily grinned, "A galleon says that everyone will think Dumbledore brought you in the middle of the night."
Harry gave an exaggerated pout, crossing his arms and glaring at the little red head, "Not fair! That was going to be my bet!"
The children all laughed and settled in for a long talk about nothing and everything to kill the time before Kreacher brought them an evening meal.
(0,0)
Molly Weasley was just finishing up breakfast in the morning when she turned around to spot a familiar head of black hair in the doorway. With a jolt the woman nearly spilled the breakfast everywhere, barely catching it in time to prevent a disaster.
"Oh, Harry. I wish Dumbledore had given us notice of your arrival. I'd not expected you for a few weeks at least."
The Gryffindor couldn't smother his grin as he replied, "Ah well, change of plans, you know. I don't think Dumbledore had much of a warning to be honest."
The woman nodded, "Even so."
"Can I help you with anything?"
"Would you mind setting the table? Then wake that godfather of yours if you would. He's quite a mess in the mornings, stumbling down half undressed as though he just got done with some lousy sha…lousy shave. Go on."
Harry let a small smile out as he moved to go grab the plates. It looked like Sirius was doing something that was not 'age appropriate' for Harry to know about. Of course, with Mrs. Weasley that could mean just about anything but the blush she'd been wearing narrowed it down quite a bit.
He gave a little smirk, "Looks like I have a new godparent of sorts, doesn't it."
When he'd finished setting the plates he hurried up the stairs nearly knocking Remus over in his rush, "Watch it there, Harry."
He was around the corner before a voice came from near the kitchen door, "HARRY?!"
He'd managed a knock on his godfather's door, but before he could say anything it was yanked out from under his fist.
"Look, Molly. I'll come down when I'm ready I don't need you ushering me down like I one of your…"
Which was the moment he took in the fact that the person in front of him lacked red hair and a horde of children.
"HARRY! When did you get here! Wait, I don't want to know. Or I do, but I have a feeling it's more of an after breakfast conversation. And you look in need of the best breakfast."
Before long Harry was sitting between Ron and Sirius as chatter flowed through the room and everyone smiled at him, not a one questioning his presence there. It was like coming home, he only wished the three children upstairs could bring themselves to come down.
He was determined this would be the last time the children felt unwelcomed, tonight they would all sit at the table, somehow. They'd make a few extra seats, maybe expand the room a little. But all of Harry's family would be here if he had anything to do with it.
Wait. Since when did the triplets become family? Oh well, everyone could use more family, right?
(0,0)
Meanwhile, in a lonely house far away, a white hand stroked the feathers of a bird as it delivered him an unexpected letter.
"What is this?" A long graceful finger slipped inside carefully pulling it open as he saw that it was indeed addressed to him. Or he could at least assume that was the case.
'Dark Wizard (Who's name we will not be writing just in case this letter ends up in the wrong hands),
'We are aware that our writing to you may seem a bit presumptuous, but we seem to be running out of time for any other means of communication. So we shall make this quick. We have knowledge about Harry Potter that may be of use to you. But seeing as you are a Dark Lord and all that, we are a tad reluctant to share that with you.
'As such, we have discovered a rune that acts much like a contract. If you so desire to continue reading, you can but you will bind yourself so that you cannot use this information to injure Harry Potter in anyway physically or psychologically. '
After a long moment, the pale man traced his eyes down the page to where the text began again. He'd not heard of such runes but surely he would be able to circumvent them should it become necessary.
'Great! Now here's the secret. Harry Potter is going to win. Don't glare like that. It's fact, we're from the future you see (If you'll note there is an honesty rune in the corner so everything we have written/will write is completely true to the best of our knowledge.) and we know this to be true.
' He wins simply because Dumbledore knows about six or so personal objects that a certain Dark Lord has created. And he shares that knowledge with Harry. He will go on an expedition of sorts to recover and destroy these artifacts in one year's time. We suggest you use this time to woo him over to your side.
'With him on your side you are guaranteed a victory. Now you may ask why we wish for you to win. The answer is one that we cannot give you, but suffice it to say we have a personal stake in the outcome of this war as do many others.
'Please use this information wisely and best of luck to you and your side in the upcoming battle should you choose to ignore us.
'LM, RM, PM'
He glared at the letter until it disintegrated in his hands. There was no one in this world who could dare talk to him in such a way. Presumptuous it was, he knew exactly what he was doing and needed no help in his quest. He would win this battle because he was a powerful wizard, not because he tricked the one man who could prevent Lord Voldemort's conquest.
He penned his own scathing supply before dipping the entire letter in one of his more deadly of potions. It burned through human skin and into the blood supply before heating the blood until the heart itself would burst into flames.
He signed it with two letters and glared as he tied the letter to a spell protected owl.
He would be victorious and he would Harry Potter would fall alongside Dumbledore. That Dumbledore knew of his secret meant nothing. Dubmeldore knew a lot of secrets of a lot of people, it would not be surprising if the man had something on the Dark Lord himself. Knowledge meant a lot but it was not the only way to win.
Without another word or thought to the letter he leaned back in his chair and allowed the heat from the fire to warm is body as he slipped into the lightest of slumbers.
Okay! Finally a new chapter is a go! Basically, my laptop no longer charges so I had to use the last of my battery to send this to myself so I could open it on another computer, which surprise, surprise, I share with four other people. So not a lot of writing time. Hopefully I'll get another chapter up this week (Yay, Spring Break!) but thanks for sticking with me guys! Have a happy life until I see you again.
Please leave little comments, (especially if I did something really silly with grammar or plot or whatever) I really do write better with them and it just makes my day better to hear from all of you! Stay wonderful!
~DanniCat
