Chapter Four:

June 2008, The Burrow:

I headed to The Burrow an ancient mage community in the heart of the White Peak part of Peak District. This ancient village had been allowed to stay and was right near where mundane would pass on hikes and the like. However due to the terrain and magic, it was well hidden. Even without magic a hiker could be right near the place and not know it was there. I hiked to it to see just how well hidden it was and found if I did not know where to look, I would not have found the path that took me through a narrow place between hills to a small valley well hidden. There were twenty families that called this village home, fifteen lived in cave homes carved over generations from the limestone walls. One family, the Weatherly family truly had a bunker, it was near the entrance to the valley and was part of the reason there was a national park here at all. The mage in this area had helped as much as the statute would let them and so they were rewarded and gained this bunker as their home. There were boat homes, homes created from old boats upturned and this was where the rest of the families lived.

I saw a man working on chopping wood, you may think that all magical would use their wands to do lots of things, but this is not the case. This man was clad dark blue shorts, a pair of heavy buckled boots and no shirt. He was tanned and lean and had a tattoo of a snake on his upper arm. His dark greasy black hair was tied back from his face with black eyes and hooked nose. Aside from the choice of clothing I recognized him as the head of Slytherin House, Potions master Severus Snape. He turned and saw me and smiled, his teeth were in good shape but not straight or white as we in America like. He was not a bad looking man and with a deep tan he looked almost first nation to me. He grabbed a tee shirt, a brown shirt with a logo of Led Zeppelin on it and put it on. He added the wood he had chopped to a small radio flyer, levitated it and I knew I was to follow him. We came on one of the boat-houses, a long low building that I could see had two floors. Into this I went with the potions master. Inside was a great room that housed the kitchen, dining area and living room that had a large fireplace. It felt very nautical and I liked it at once. Minerva McGonagall was here clad in a simple short sleeved gown of green, her long dark hair tied back from her face.

"Is the mutt around?" Severus asked.

"No my husband is not around." Minerva said rising to greet me. "So glad you could come."

"I saw you at lecture at Salem." I replied, "I knew you were married but not to whom."

"Why Sirius Black of course, yes I know I am twenty years older than him, and even in the magical world that is, well rare. But we are soul mates and fitted for each other."

"Makes sense." I replied. "I do have a question, are the rumors about Dumbledore true?"

"That he likes men?" Minerva said laughing, "oh no, it is hard enough for us magical to even be sexual for him to be that, well, surly you know why we have so few children?"

"No, then again I am a squib and went to mundane schools."

"Well, as we live nigh two hundred or more years and are powerful there are costs to that power. Very low sex drive, which is why so few magical are born compared to non-magical. Nature knows what she is doing after all. No Albus is completely and always has been very much asexual and infertile to boot. It's why he gave headship to Aberforth who did marry had have two children, twins, a boy and girl."

"Ah, and he is as powerful as Merlin or so I am told." I replied.

"He would disagree, ah Maggie my dear I brought you the flowers you wanted!"

I turned to see Sirius Black who does look a lot like Gary Oldman in the Sirius Black role, though he was taller and stocker of build. He was clad in jeans, boots a button up yellow shirt and a purple paisley waistcoat. He smiled at seeing me and bowed deeply too me. He walked over to Minerva and handed her a bunch of carefully picked flowers. I did not mind this kind of thing, while it is true that magical or not, human woman had a short window to have children, and magical women were on the shorter end of the time they could have children, matches like Minerva and Sirius did happen. It was only twenty years, Minerva born in 1929 and Sirius in 1949 but they were happy and still, in magical terms not really that old. A young man came into the house, he looked very similar to Severus except his long hair was curly and he had a neatly trimmed beard. He was clad all in dark brown leather, the kind of outfit fit for flying on a dragon.

"Hey dad, hello ma'am I am Macmillan Severus Prince Snape, you can call me Mac." Mac said. "I just finished Hogwarts and have come to get money from my dad."

"Certainly, if you finished the job I had for you." Severus said.

"Yup, Charlie helped and she is a beauty, right outside in fact."

"You really did it." Sirius said grinning from ear to ear, "oh I thought you might, clever Ravenclaw with a heart of a lion."

"Say any more and I hex you." Severus said, "the day you and your brother went to Gryffindor was a sad day indeed, though your parents were proud."

"Well yea, thought dad would be upset, being a Slytherin and all, but mum was fine with it, then again Hufflepuff are wise peace-makers." Mac said, "oh come see the dragon!"

I went out and saw her, for it was a she, I loved dragons and knew my breeds well. This was a Welsh Green, and she was truly green all over, males have a splash of color around their eyes and are slightly smaller. Dragons are not large in our world, well not nearly as large as folk lore would have. Dragons average twelve feet long with a wingspan nearly twenty feet across but no more. She was lovely and smiled at seeing me, she bowed and though she could not speak human words it was clear she had intelligence. Mac laughed, bowed to her and was on her back in a flash. He strapped on a helmet and the dragon took off at once into the sky staying low so the mundane never got a sight of her but it was fun to watch her fly. She landed and Mac took the helmet off and bowed to his father who looked a little less than pleased.

"Where is your sister?" Severus asked.

"Well Apple found her own dragon, and is flying over Scotland somewhere." Mac said.

"Apple?" I asked.

"Yes, their mother's idea and yes it is after a certain band." Severus said, "I would have preferred Michelle but there you have it."

"I see, "so I was told to come and see what tests one needs to get to Hogwarts, not that I could pass."

"No, no you could not, but I take it you can brew potions?"

"Yes, and all the other things a squib can do, I can't do any other magic though." I replied.

"Well then, yes there is a test and yes we find mundane born very early, and they are taught well from the age of six up. Yes Hogwarts does get a lot of mundane born, their magic is fresh and a quarter of all students are mundane born there. That is the real reason for persecution of mundane."

"We snatched up mundane born for a time, to route the scourers, but the civil war ended them and nearly all mage in America for a time." I replied. "There is dark magic in New Orleans and we are trying to clear it, Detroit should be cleared soon, the dark was contained soon enough." I replied, "please do go on."

"The test is done on all magical and while it is true many ancient and noble make it in, there are many that do not, the new blood does better."

"So no prisoner of Azkaban?" I asked.

"Heavens no! Any witch or wizard guilty of what I was accused of in the books would go through the trial of wells and if found guilty, their head would be separated from their body." Sirius said, "we do use the guillotine, don't be shocked, you do too and you know why."

"I do, does not mean I like it even if 100 percent are guilty." I replied. "So third year for Harry?"

"Uneventful as was forth, now fifth, ah yes the Tri-mage tournament and yes, Harry did enter but lawfully and was accepted, his aunts were most displeased." Severus replied smirking at the memory.

November 1, 1985, Hogwarts

Harry was happy, he was part of the Hogwarts team! He knew he could handle what was thrown at him, he had made it to Hogwarts and did very well in all his classes. So naturally he entered and was chosen, along with Cedric Diggory, Cho Chang, Blaise Zamboni and Fred and George Weatherly. He had not forgot how quickly news could get back to his aunts and how one head of house, namely Severus Snape was on good terms with his aunt Li. He looked up to see a brownie in the blue messenger livery walk up and take out what looked like a miniature old time record player complete with the horn. Harry paled and wanted to run, but he sat where he was as the brownie wound the player up and put on an actual record. His aunts took turns, congratulating him and promising that they were going to make him very sorry for his stunt. It was not as if he could die in this tournament, it never had been allowed and sure he could get hurt but he wanted to have fun and he was going to. Did he mention it was at full volume?

"HARRY FLEAMONT-BLACK, CONGRADULATIONS ON ENDING UP IN A MOST PEACEFUL TOURNAMNET THAT CAN'T POSSIBLY HARM YOU." Aunt Li said.

"YES IT WAS WONDERFUL ONE OF YOUR PROFESSORS SAW FIT TO LET US KNOW BEFORE YOU DID, MOST WONDERFUL." That was aunt Marge.

"PULL ANY MORE STUNTS LIKE THIS AND I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR NES!"

"No!" Harry said in horror and as if to answer him.

"Yes, and give it to someone else, you can figure out how to spend your days with out Zelda and Link!" Aunt Li was no longer yelling "I love you Harry, stay safe, don't get killed or I will dig you up and ground you until you are thirty."

"I was going for sixty." Aunt Marge replied.

"Nice family." Ron said.

"Ah but not as fun as ours." Fred one of the twin menaces said.

"Yes indeed mum did two and they went off at once." George said, "we have never, ever pranked a professor again."

"Let me guess you pranked professor Snape?" Harry asked and got two identical shakes of the head.

"Professor Sprout, you didn't, oh no, no, no!" Harry said, "sweet as sweets but deadly you are lucky to be alive!"

"We know." Both said as one.

Harry just grinned and went back to eating. He was going to have fun in this tournament and indeed he did. The first task was dragons, and it was a dragon race. Harry got a Norwegian Ridgeback, a fine dragon and a great racing one. Dragons were not like the ones in the books or even like the evil worms of Tolkien lore. They were smart, kind and wise but could be deadly. Breeds like the Ridgeback, Welsh Green and the American Yellow tail were born racers and loved to show off. Harry was a great flyer and in his new flying leathers helped with that. Harry won his race and gave a fish to Norberta who ate it and nudge him gently with her head. The other tasks were anti-climatic Harry thought to that first task. They had to swim through the black lake to find treasure as a team. Mermaids were not the beautiful creatures Harry had hoped for after all. The last task led to the return of Voldemort.

It started out innocently enough, there was a maze and the teams had to get through it. They all did wonderfully well, they faced all the dangers they were allowed, had to work through puzzles and the like and in the end they had to face a band of elves. They were exactly like Tolkien elves, all but for the fact they lived around 900 years old and were not immortal. All the same facing them and having to fight them but not harm them was interesting indeed. In the end all teams were captured by the elves but it was the Hogwarts team that lasted the longest and Harry was able to escape and get to the cup. Hogwarts was declared the winner, the cup was not a portkey as it was too well protected. No it was a shadowy figure that stole some of Harry's blood that he had wiped away with a tissue and tossed away. This led to a potion and Voldemort returning, though not to the strength he had before. Harry would find out in a rather abrupt way. He was called to the headmasters office to fine goblins there looking a bit upset.

"Mr. Potter?" One said, "I am Gem-Stone." A female goblin said, "please tell me why I should not remove your head as of now?"

"Why would you do that, if you do that my aunts take all my money out of your bank." Harry countered.

"You helped bring back a dark lord!" She snarled.

"I did not!" Harry snapped.

"I am afraid it is true." Dumbledore said, "did you toss aside a tissue with your blood on it?"

"Yes sir, oh merlin!" Harry said, "oh, oh no! I, oh I am sorry, take my head if you must, I was careless and it's Voldemort isn't it?"

"Yes, he came into the bank demanding access to his vaults, naturally we denied him as he was listed as dead and the vaults were transferred to his family. He tried to curse us, us in our own bank!"

"I am sorry, but you know you guys used to follow dark lords." Harry said, "who is to say you would not again."

"How dare…"

"Enough, what happened in the past is done, goblins are now on the side of good and light." Dumbledore said.

"Yea well they blamed me for something did not remember even doing!" Harry said.

"I am sorry, but he is a bad dark lord and wishes to bring darkness to the world. We goblins swore never to go dark after we were nearly wiped out, and because of our wicked ways the mundane know us only for evil. So you can understand why I would feel this way do you not?"

"Yes ma'am." Harry said, "I am sorry."

"As am I, but a small fee will be charged to you." Gem-Stone said a smile showing she was teasing.

"Certainly, for spilling blood on the headmaster's carpet, your blood." Harry shot back.

"Oh human child I like you!" Gem-Stone said, "but really do something about this dark lord will you? He is bad for business."

It was with that that Gem-Stone left and left a very worried Harry Fleamont-Black behind. Harry knew the stories of the last war, how Voldemort had used the excuse of WWII and of the cold war to launch his war. He did not care about anyone but himself and in the end he had cost so many good families everything. His being back was very bad for everyone concerned and Harry was not happy at all.

June 2008 The Burrow:

Severus was seated across from me near the fireplace looking into it. The war had taken a told on so many and he was one. True he had never joined him, he never would have been allowed near children if he had. But he had been affected nonetheless. Both of his parents, good, kind people, his mother a pureblood but poor witch and his father a muggle had been brutally killed in the last war. He hated how they were portrayed in the books but understood JKR was writing a story. He had fought death eaters many times and knew how depraved and evil they could be.

"So the war, it was bad, very bad, but how bad did it get?" I asked.

"You know how you had an influx of mundane born?" Severus asked.

"Yes, we did." I replied, "I thought that they fled."

"They were spirited out, I helped with that once the ministry was taken over." Severus replied, "the only safe places left were Hogsmeade valley, the Burrow and Diagon Alley and even in Diagon Alley if a mundane born was found they were to be turned over at once. The best raid done was the theft of the book of souls, this kept track of all magical children, we used that to rescue the mundane born."

"How is that?" I asked.

"When a child does their first magic, it is recorded in the book of souls, well all human births are, if a child shows magic, the name goes from black to green. I helped remove the book from the ministry, they were most displeased." Severus smirked, "then again dear Gellert did help with that one."

"You mean the mass murderer Grindelwald." I snapped.

"Yes he killed, but he was no dark lord, nor did he care for purebloods."

"Next thing you will tell me is that Durmstang allows first generation."

"Only if they can fight, and many first generation could not, more can now, no Grindlewald was as born fighter and fight he did in WWII, he helped destroy the German ministry which is just as well, they nearly caused the collapse of the statute, which was are still not ready for. No he may be bad but a dark lord or lady is worse."

"So the war started again, what happened?"

"You will want to head to Hogwarts to see why it's not possible to attack and why it survived for so long, and was not sacked like many lesser magical schools were by the Vikings."

I had never thought I would go to Hogwarts even to visit. I never felt worthy but Severus seemed to think that is where I needed to go. I spent a day in the Burrow, it was a peaceful village that was built on lay lines and so perfectly safe and secure. Lay lines do very well with lots of natural light based magic and horrible with dark magic. Dark magic is not natural and is not something anyone should mess with. I had seen the affects that it had on others and had been horrified at the results. It was hard to cleans oneself of the darkness, possible but very hard for much of it, yet some never could be cleansed and a person would remained cursed by their own hand for life.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

So yes I have made the magical world a more shall I say sterile place. There don't seem to be a lot of births in the magical world, the population is so low. I would think that would be due to very, very low sex drives and many would not have one at all. There is no shame in not having a sex drive and I would think nature would not want a lot of magical humans running around, hence the low drive.

So yes, Harry was in the tournament but I changed it to teams (which makes more sense if you think about it). He did bring back the dark lord but not intentionally and he will have to deal with the aftermath of that.

Anyway, do review please!