Chapter 7

Things had gone pretty much as Harry planned. Hagrid had shown up at the family's campsite, Vernon had put on an act of being an overbearing muggle who didn't want Harry to have anything to do with 'that freakishness'. Dudley was even currently sporting a pigs tail which was something that Harry had hoped to avoid this time around. He knew that Sirius would be able to remove it easily so Dudley wasn't too upset. Actually knowing him he was already using it to freak their mother out thought Harry. Currently he and Hagrid were just finishing up their business at Gringotts. As they stepped outside the bank, Hagrid got a glazed look on his face.

"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." *

"Not a problem Hagrid."

"Oh, and could yer hold onto this package for me" said Hagrid as he handed over the small wrapped package they had just retrieved from Gringotts.

"Sure Hagrid."

"Okay, then I'll just come and fetch yeh from Madam Malkin's in a bit, takes a while to get yer robes."

"Okay, see you then Hagrid." said Harry as he walked off towards the tailors. On his way there, he ducked into an alley for a second, and only the most observant of watchers would have seen the small package suddenly disappear from his hand.

The rest of the day went the same as Harry remembered, he ran into Malfoy who was his usual obnoxious self, he got his wand and the whole brother wand gave you that scar shtick from Ollivander, and was gifted Hedwig by Hagrid. As they were leaving Diagon Alley to head back to the train station Hagrid's eyes glazed over again for a brief moment and his pocket suddenly sagged with the weight of the small package.

Hagrid escorted Harry to the train that would take him back to Little Whinging. Harry waited for a few minutes until the station was no longer in sight. He then ducked into an empty compartment and activated the portkey he had been carrying around with him since the weekend. One familiar whirling sensation later he was falling over in the drawing room at #12 Grimauld Place.

"Damn it, what is it with magical travel, do they go out of their way to make it unpleasant or what?"

"Still having troubles with portkeys I see" said Sirius.

"Yep, hate the damn things."

"Your language seems to have gotten a little saltier lately."

"Sorry Sirus, been a little stressed lately."

"I can imagine."

"So, did you get things done?"

"Yep got the items you wanted last week, potions all brewed and I made some gold as well."

"Excellent, how much potion?"

"2 litres."

"Hmm. A standard dose is 50 mils so that's 40 doses. Elixir of Life is not supposed to have much of a shelf life though; did you get the stasis boxes?"

"Yep, got a few, once the lid is closed no time is supposed to pass inside. They're guaranteed to keep things fresh indefinitely."

"Excellent, so we're going to need one dose today, we should keep another 5 in a safe place in your house, somewhere secure where we can get to it quickly in case anyone we know has an accident, let's keep the rest in our vaults at Gringotts. How much gold were you able to create using it?"

"I thought one metric ton was an appropriate amount."

"Great. That should buy us a few friends in the Wizengamot. We should start selling it off slowly in the muggle world."

"Not to the goblins?"

"Nah, the pounds to galleons conversion rate isn't pegged to the price of gold, we'd get a better return if we sell the gold in the non magical world. Careful not to sell too much at one time though, don't want anyone getting suspicious."

"I guess not. By the way you never said how you got the instructions for the potion."

"My mother told me."

"How did she..."

"Remember the night they died, there's not much my mother couldn't do including speaking to you from beyond the grave. Anyway, according to her, there's no keeping secrets from a spirit, she left me the complete set of instructions."

"Lily was amazing."

"That she was. Anyway, are things set up for our meeting?"

"Yep, we'll be having it in the study."

"And the defenses?"

"Put this ring on. It's a portkey, anything happens and you press the stone on the top, it'll take you straight to just outside the wards at Privet Drive. You'll be sitting behind the desk, so he'll have to sit in this chair which is another portkey. Its destination is set to the inside of a furnace at a steel mill. Should be quite unpleasant. The wards are set so that any offensive magic in this room from someone not keyed into the wards will activate the portkey. If you want to set it off manually just tap the handle on the drawer to your right. Now you've got the wandless banishing charm down pat right?"

"Yep."

"Ok, see these dice; they'll be on the desk, just another knick knack right. Nope, they're actually made out of lead. Banish them at him with enough force and they should hit him like bullets. He'll never expect wandless magic from someone your age. If those miss, banish this paperweight, lead covered with steel. Aim for his chest, not his head, heads too easy a target to miss. Remember this is for contingencies only. Your first option is to get the hell out of here using your portkey."

"Right."

"I'll be standing there in the corner covered with an invisibility cloak with my wand trained on him the entire time."

"Is that my Dad's invisibility cloak?"

"Nope that's a Potter family heirloom, I didn't feel right using that, which reminds me, I've got to give it to you before you head to Hogwarts, your Dad would be very disappointed if you didn't use it to play some pranks. I've been keeping it in safekeeping for you ever since I got it back from Dumbledore, and let me tell you, he really didn't want to give it up. I had to threaten him with going to the DMLE and filing a complaint out against him before he gave it up."

"Sirius, you know you're not supposed to antagonize him."

"I know, I know, but there was no way I was letting him hold on to that. As your godfather I have to make sure that you get everything that you're entitled to."

"I know your hearts in the right place Sirius, but you really need to be more careful. Just for a little while longer all right."

"It's been 10 years Harry. Ten years is a long time to wait for revenge."

"Dish best served cold Sirius."

"Yeah yeah yeah. Anyhow, there's one final fail-safe. Once he gets here, the wards will go into complete lockdown. Assuming the portkeys don't work and he gets past me as well, then if he tries to leave the house after that the wards will fry him to a crisp. They're set to maximum lethality."

"Excellent, and we're keyed in so that we can portkey or apparate away right."

"Of course, do you even have to ask?"

"Okay, then I think we're as set as we're going to be. What do we do while we're waiting, going to be another half an hour at least till he flooes in."

"Well, I guess I could show you how to use an invisibility cloak properly."

"What's to know? You just wrap it around you right?"

"Hardly Harry, just because you're invisible doesn't mean that you can't be detected. Okay, quick quiz. How does someone know that you're there?"

"Well, they see you of course?"

"Yeah, but the cloak will take care of that. What else?"

"Sound, if you make a noise they can hear you."

"Yep, So what's the spell to avoid making noise?"

"Uhh, Silencio , no Mufliato."

"Nope, Silencio will prevent someone else from speaking, while Mufliato is used to create a baffling noise that will prevent anyone from overhearing a conversation. No, the one you want is Quietus. The wand movement is a quick diagonal slash followed by a thrust toward whatever it is that you're silencing. So what do you need to silence?"

"Shoes of course, stop anyone from hearing my footsteps."

"Close but not quite. Apart from footsteps, there are your robes. When you move, your clothes can make a rustling noise if they rub against themselves. Then there's your breathing as well. Breathing can be surprisingly loud in a quiet environment. So you need to silence your shoes, your clothes as well as the cloak itself and finally you need to silence your head so no one can hear you breathing. You should still be able to cast spells though as it doesn't stop you from speaking, just stops anyone else from hearing you. Got that."

"Yep."

"Good, now do you think that's enough?"

"Well, I did until you said that. So what's left?"

"Smell of course. Loads of people have sensitive noses, and that's not even counting werewolves, and don't forget about animals. You know the caretaker at Hogwarts has a cat right? Horrible creature called Mrs. Norris. You want to make sure that she doesn't come sniffing around."

"So what's the spell?"

"Nidorio Expulius. Wand movements a quick circle around your head. Dead useful spell this one is. Great for when you're just done exercising or if you haven't had the time to take a shower. Totally eradicates any smell on you. Remember to recast it every once in a while though as it only eradicates the smells that are currently on you. Any odors that you pick up after that will be detectable. It's generally a good idea to use it after a potions class as well, trust me you don't want to go around smelling like Snivellus. There's a reason he's still single and it's not just his horrible personality."

"Got it."

"Give them a go then. Start with Quietus."

oo00oo

A little while later the fireplace at Grimauld Place glowed green and a pale nervous looking young man wearing a turban steeped out.

"Ahh Professor Quirrell, I'm so glad you could make it here."

"W-W-Well the note you slipped me at the Leaky Cauldron was most intriguing Mr. P-Potter. What matter did you have to discuss with me?"

"Shall we go to the study then? Might as well make ourselves comfortable."

"L-L-Lead on Mr. P-P-Potter."

Harry lead the way to the study.

"T-T-This is the ancestral house of Black is it not. I-I'm surprised to see you associating with a family that is so notoriously D-Dark. I'm shocked that Professor Dumbledore allowed it."

"Dumbledore has no say in what I do Professor" said Harry as he seated himself and Professor Quirrell in the study.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here today professor, but it was extremely important that I speak to you before I came to Hogwarts."

"W..Why Mr. Potter. Did you wish to discuss your d-d-defense classes?"

"Not quite Professor. What I actually wanted to discuss with you was something that happened more than a decade earlier. As you know the Dark Lord He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked my family at that time. My parents were killed and then something happened that resulted in he who shall not be named disappearing and me being bestowed with the rather ridiculous moniker of the Boy-Who-Lived."

"I-I don't think there is a single person in the wizarding world who is not aware of those facts Mr. P-P-Potter." stuttered Professor Quirrell.

"Yes, well what most people don't know is that there was a reason that Lord Voldemort attacked my family's house that night. It seems that he was informed that a certain prophecy was made about me and him. I believe the wording was 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ...' Lord Voldemort decided that I was the one who the prophecy referred to which led to the events that followed.

"T-T-That is most fascinating Mr Potter, but why did you wish to inform me about the prophecy?"

"I'm getting to that, if I could just have a bit of your patience. You see Professor, what I wanted to discuss with you was the wording of the prophecy. You'll notice it said that I would have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord. It says nothing about whether or not I would have the desire to vanquish him now does it?"

"I-I-I'm not quite sure I understand."

"To be plain and clear Professor, I have no desire to attack or vanquish Lord Voldemort in any way whatsoever. Now that we have cleared that up, I'm about to say something that may incite you to attack me. If you do so; you would me making a big mistake. It would be far more productive of you to hear me out completely. Do you think you could agree to that?"

"W-Why would I wish to attack you Mr. P-Potter, what could you possibly say that would make me want to attack you."

"Well, the real reason that I called you hear today was so I could talk to Lord Voldemort directly, so if you could kindly remove your turban and turn around I would be most grateful."

"H..How did you know?" stuttered Quirrell as he reached for his wand.

"Please Professor, remember what I said, I am very certain that Lord Voldemort will want to hear what I have to say."

"Let me speak to the boy" whispered a sepulchral voice.

"Of course master" said Quirrell as he removed his turban and turned around.

Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake. *

"Ah Lord Voldemort, it's so good to finally make your acquaintance, before we get any further let me just say that I currently hold the solution to all your problems and it would be in your best interest to ensure that I continue to be as healthy as possible. So, no attacking me in any manner. Do you agree?"

"I will hear you out Potter, after that we shall see. I fail to see how you can possibly hold any solution, you are just a boy, one who has probably just bought his first wand."

"And yet I knew that you were possessing Professor Quirrell here, I dare suppose you find that quite curious. As to your problems, I know that you have an incomplete possession of Quirrell and that his body is already failing as we speak. I also know that earlier today you failed to retrieve the stone you sought at Gringotts and that without it Quirrell's body will fail before the year is out."

"If you know all that you must know that the stone has been taken to Hogwarts, I will retrieve it from there, why do I need you?"

"Why go to all that trouble when I have a far simpler solution for your problems?"

"What solution would that be."

"I know how to heal Quirrell's body, I also know how you can complete possession of his body so that you no longer have to live in the back of his head hidden by a turban. In return all I need from you is one simple vow."

"A vow?"

"Yes, an Unbreakable Vow to be precise. You will simply make an Unbreakable Vow to me. The vow will state that neither you, nor Quirrell, or any of your Death Eaters or minions will ever seek to harm or attack in any way me, my family and my friends or their families. In return I will give you the solution to your problems."

"And what is to stop you from attacking me once I have made that vow?"

"Lord Voldemort, I am currently eleven years old. What could I possibly do to harm you? But to ease your worries I will also make an Unbreakable Vow to you. I will vow to never attack you unless I am attacked first by you, Quirrell or one of your Death eaters. Any attack on me or my family and friends will free me to respond in kind."

"I have certain ambitions Potter, what is to stop you from declaring everyone to be your friend?"

"Oh rest assured Lord Voldemort, I am hardly friends with everyone, in fact there is one name that will never appear on my list of friends, that name is Albus Dumbledore. Does that ease your mind?"

"You are not friendly with Dumbledore? I would have thought he would have made certain that you were firmly in his pocket by now."

"Albus Dumbledore is as much my enemy as he is yours. In fact I was hoping to form an alliance with you to bring about his downfall. Should you be interested in such a thing of course?"

"I would be very interested in anything that would harm Dumbledore. But explain to me why you feel the same way. Your parents were his followers after all, why are you not following in their footsteps?"

"Dumbledore believes in that ridiculous prophecy. He believes that as long as I am the one destined to kill you no one else will be able to. Why do you think he allowed the prophecy to leak in the first place? He could not wait for me to grow up, so he attempted to have you do away with me, so that he could be the one to vanquish you. Imagine his surprise when I managed to survive. Once he knows that you have survived he will attempt to pit us against each other until I am dead. I have no desire to be used as an old man's weapon."

"He allowed the prophecy to leak? He attempted to manipulate me?" raged Voldemort.

"Yes, and as such, it is him that I currently blame for the deaths of my parents. Not you. So I see no reason why we cannot work together. Can you?"

"No, provided you are saying the truth of course."

"I am, shall we get to the vows then."

"I believe we shall require a Bonder."

"Yes, would you allow me to call in my godfather? Sirius Black. I believe several of his family members are among your most loyal followers."

"They might have been but he never was. However for this purpose he would be acceptable."

"Fine then, Sirius could you please come in" called out Harry.

Sirius walked to the door, took off his invisibility cloak and pretended to be just entering the room.

"Lord Voldemort, meet Sirius Black. Sirius could you kindly act as our Bonder while we make our vows to each other."

"Of course Harry, if you would join your right hands, yes thats good." Sirius placed the tip oh his wand on their linked hands. "Now go ahead and make your vows."

"I, Lord Voldemort vow to never attack Harry Potter or his family members or any such people that are known to be his friends including the families of his friends in any way unless attacked by them first. I also vow that neither Quirinus Quirrell or any off the people that answer to me such as my Death Eaters will be allowed to attack him, his family or friends." A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.

"I Harry James Potter vow to never attack Lord Voldemort unless attacked first by him or his followers. Any attack on my family or friends will also be viewed as an attack on me."

Another tongue of flame wrapped around the two joined hands.

"Is that acceptable to both parties" asked Sirius."

"Yes, it is." said both Harry and Voldemort.

"Great, now thats out of the way shall we get to my solution to your problems."

"Do tell" said Voldemort.

"Well, firstly, earlier today Hagrid removed the stone from Gringotts to take it to Hogwarts for safekeeping. Now I'm sure you find the timing of this to be as suspicious as I do. Flamel has kept the stone safe for centuries, why is he no longer capable of keeping it safe? In short Dumbledore already suspects that you have returned. The stone is bait for a trap he's setting up for you at Hogwarts. The good news is that we intercepted the stone after Hagrid retrieved it and used it to create some Elixir of Life."

"How did you do that?"

"Imperious, made him think it was a good idea to have me hold on to the stone for safe keeping, I handed it off to Sirius who brewed the necessary potions while Hagrid and I finished shopping, we then returned it to him and obliviated any memory of him ever handing it to me. Now the Elixir will heal Quirrell's body, but that doesn't solve the problem of you being stuck in the back of his head, and no offense but there is only so much you can do while you are in this state."

"How do you propose to fix that?"

"Lord Voldemort, we know about the Horcruxes as well, we know that you have split your soul multiple times, this is the reason your spirit is currently too weak to complete possession of Quirrell's body. Before we go any further though, I must ask, was Quirrell willing? If not perhaps we should look into other ways of getting you a body."

"Quirinus is loyal to me, he willingly allowed me to take possession of his body."

"Okay then, thats one less thing to worry about. Now as I was saying, your spirit is currently too weak so we need to retrieve the bits of soul that you have left in your horcruxes, this will strengthen your spirit enough that you will be able to complete possession of Quirrell's body."

"My Horcruxes are the only thing keeping me anchored to this plane, I will not allow them to be destroyed."

"You only need one to stay anchored, we know of at least five, the diary, Ravenclaw's diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket and the Gaunt ring. What I propose is that you retrieve the soul fragment from the diary and one other. The fragment from the diary should be the largest as it was the first one created, that combined with the fragment from any of the other horcruxes should be enough to strengthen your spirit, while the remaining will be more than enough to serve as safeguards."

"You know far more than I am comfortable with but your solution might be acceptable, we will have to retrieve the Diary from Lucius Malfoy."

"Already done, Sirius put him under the Imperius Curse last week, got him to hand over the diary quite easily. I also have Slytherin's Locket here, that one was easy to retrieve as well since you did ask the Black family elf to help you place it in it's hiding place."

"You have two of my horcruxes?"

"Please calm down Lord Voldemort, we have already taken vows not to harm each other, and I am only attempting to restore you back to your former power."

"Where are the rest of my horcruxes?"

"Right where you left them I'm sure, we only needed two so we only retrieved two. Now as far as I am aware the soul fragments are only liberated once the items are destroyed. Is that true?"

"For anyone else yes, however since I was the one to create them, I can easily remove them from the items."

"That's great, I wasn't looking forward to figuring out a way to destroy them, so do you want to give it a go then?"

"Give it a go? Show some respect Potter, you are talking about items that I had to go to considerable trouble to create, one does not simply reverse years of work just on the say so of an eleven year old boy."

"That would be a eleven year old boy who has already proven to you that he knows what he is talking about" said Sirius. "He has given you a solution to your current predicament, take it or go take your chances with Dumbledore. Perhaps his trap will be easily surmountable. Perhaps he will not be waiting for you. Do you think you can take him on in your current state? If not then this is your only solution. Personally as long as you do not attack Harry I do not care what you do, go on and attack Dumbledore, I'm sure I'll enjoy the show no matter what the outcome."

"Swear on your life and magic that my other horcruxes are safe first."

"Fine, I swear on my life and magic that as far as I am aware, Lord Voldemort's other horcruxes are still wherever he left them" vowed Sirius.

"You too Potter."

"Is this really necessary? Fine. I swear on my life and magic that I have not made any attempt to retrieve the remaining Horcruxes. Is that acceptable?"

"It will have to do for now. Now give me my horcruxes."

"Fine, fine, Heres your Diary and here is the locket" said Harry as he retrieved the two items from a locked chest.

Voldemort looked at the items for a long moment while he decided what to do. Finally he came to a decision and placed his hands around both items whilst whispering an incantation over them. A blackish mist seemed to rise from both items, it hung suspended in the air for a moment before darting straight into Quirrell's head. Quirrell took one long breath, he seemed to be in agony for a moment as Voldemorts features seemed to sink back into his skull before disappearing completely. His eyes flashed red and his face took on a totally different expression.

"Lord Voldemort? Are you okay?" asked Harry.

"Voldemort? Who's that? My name is Tom, Tom Riddle. Where am I?" whispered the person formally known as Quirinus Quirrell.

"Take a minute. It'll come to you" said Harry.

"Come to me? What are you..." said Voldemort before suddenly falling to the ground screaming as the spirit of Tom Riddle became aware of his memories. "Oh my god, what have I done." screamed Voldemort as he thrashed around on the floor.

"Quick Sirius, get the Elixir, his body might go into shock, we need to heal him now."

"Well, I wasn't expecting that" said Sirius as he rushed to retrieve the vial of Elixir he had prepared earlier.

Harry and Sirius forced Quirrell's mouth open and poured in the elixir. Although Quirrell's body immediately began to take on a healthier appearance as the Elixir went to work, throughout this Quirrell kept thrashing and screaming in agony.

"I think we'll need a Calming Draught, or maybe we should just give him a dreamless sleep potion" said Harry.

"What just happened? I thought that restoring his soul fragments would just restore his sanity."

"That's what it did Sirius, and now for the first time in years he's completely aware of all of the atrocities he's committed. Obviously this is causing him a certain amount of anguish. The Elixir will heal his body and hopefully help his mind as well, but we need him to calm down before he does himself an injury. Do you have the potions?"

"I'll send Dobby to fetch them."

"Yeah send Dobby."

"Did master call Dobby?"

"Yes, Dobby could you fetch me some Dreamless Sleep Potion, get me some Calming Draught as well."

"At once Master Black" said Dobby as he popped away.

"I'm glad you managed to get Lucius to free him."

"Didn't free him, house elves don't do well if they're given clothes, they're ostracized by the other elves and most of them end up committing suicide. No, I had Lucius sell him to me for a knut."

"Well, that'll do I suppose as long as you treat him right."

"Of course I will Harry, the way Lucius was treating him was a disgrace to purebloods everywhere. That man is utter filth."

Once they had poured the calming draught down Quirrell's throat, they finally managed to get him to quiet down, they then placed him in bed and put him to sleep using the dreamless sleep potion.

"What do you think? Think he'll be okay?" said Sirius.

"Should be, once he's over the shock. Once he's settled down a bit, we'll fill him in on the rest of the plan. I also need to get him to look at this scar of mine, we need to figure out if it really contains a bit of his soul. Damn thing was throbbing the entire time I was talking to him."

"Yeah, best to take care of that as soon as possible."

"Well, I'm exhausted, will you be okay handling things here?"

"Sure Harry, not a problem, he's going to be asleep for the next 24 hours at least."

"Okay, then I'll just use the portkey to get home and get some rest. Oh and that reminds me, could you just pop over with me, I need you to fix Dudley's tail."

"Dudley's got a tail? How did that happen?"

"Hagrid didn't like the way Dad spoke about Dumbledore, decided to teach him a little lesson."

"What the hell was Hagrid thinking? You can't just go around putting tails on kids."

"Who cares? Let's just get home and fix him up okay?"

"Yeah, okay, I'll do that, let me just hold onto the ring there and activate it."

"Wait a sec, almost forgot Hedwig."

"Yeah, go grab your things and we'll go."

"Oh, and remember to let Kreacher know that you managed to destroy the locket. He'll be much happier once he knows that your brother's last command to him has been completed."

"Anything will be an improvement, Kreacher is the worst elf I've ever come across. Just my luck that my family had to have the craziest elf."

"Trust me, give him a chance and he'll be much better."

"I still can't believe you made him an Unbreakable Vow."

"I did leave myself a loophole. Any of his Death Eaters attack me and I'm free of the oath."

"He'll still have to attack you first."

"Remember Snape? How much you want to bet that he's still nursing a grudge against my father. And considering how much I look like him it'll be ridiculously easy to provoke him to attack me, at least verbally. And a verbal attack is still an attack now isn't it?"

"Very devious, better be careful or the hat will put you in Slytherin."

"In the house that Snape is the head of, the one filled with Junior Death Eaters, like I'll let that happen. Not bloody likely."

oo00oo

*Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone