CHAPTER ELEVEN
Summary: What if Hermione was given a second chance to save the world? What if Lily Potter wasn't the one to protect Harry from the Killing Curse? It's the time of the First War and Voldemort is on the rise, but that soon changes with the arrival a young witch that is hell-bent on destroying him, no matter what it may cost her in the process. Rated M for a reason!
Disclaimer: I do not own canon events or characters, they belong to J.K Rowling. I'm not making money from this writing or posting this either.
Page count: 12
The Burrow - Monday 21st December 1981
"Thank you for watching him, Molly," James said as he handed over his hand to the older woman.
"Oh, it's no problem, dear," she smiled. "I imagine whatever you're doing is important and Harry shouldn't be around potential danger."
"It is important," Hermione nodded. "It's the next step in taking down undesirable number one."
"What?" Four sets of eyes trained on her bemused.
Hermione chuckled. "Inside joke, you wouldn't understand it," she explained.
"Well, we should only be a few hours," James informed her.
"Take all the time you need, good luck and be careful."
The four Marauders stood to attention, saluted and then turned on their heels, leaving out the door.
~000~000~000~
Hogwarts
Hermione and the Marauders walked through the large gates that protected the entrance to the Hogwarts grounds and as they grew closer to the castle, they noticed the lack of students with it still being early morning and most of the students went home for the holidays the previous Friday.
Hermione stopped in her steps, and stood, taking in the sight of the castle through her snow-covered hair and eyelashes.
"You okay?" James asked, stopping in his steps and turning to look back at her, noticing that she'd fallen behind.
"Yes, it's just the last time I saw the castle it was in pieces at my feet and surrounded by dead bodies."
They cursed silently; they should've remembered it would be difficult for her to return.
"That won't happen again," Remus promised softly and Hermione nodded silently.
James walked over to her, put his arm around her shoulders and tucked her into his side, a sigh leaving her as he guided her forwards once more.
Sirius smirked. 'Prewett Twins don't stand a chance,' he thought smugly.
"Albus," the Marauders greeted as one when they entered his office without being seen by any students, though it was still early. Hermione didn't speak, she just stood by the door leaning against the wall, observing Dumbledore's demeanour.
She noticed that as they exchanged pleasantries, James seemed more reserved with Dumbledore, more so than he'd ever been before.
"How is progress coming with the Horcruxes?" Dumbledore asked her.
"Well," she answered curtly, her gaze not wavering from his. Remus cleared his throat, breaking the two out of their staring contest.
"Shall we?" Sirius asked.
"Let's get this over with, I'm not exactly looking forward to it," she sighed.
"Why not?" Remus asked curiously.
"You'll see," with that, she turned around and left the office.
The four wizards followed behind her as she navigated her way expertly through the halls, even taking them through some of the secret passageways to make the journey quicker, the less time she had to spend with Dumbledore, the safer it would be for everyone around her. When she reached the seventh floor, she led them to the back wall.
"I don't get it," Sirius said, scratching the side of his head in confusion.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
'I need the Room of Hidden Things,' she thought as she paced back and forth three times in front of the wall.
When the door appeared, eyes widened.
"Whoa!" The three Marauders muttered.
She opened the door and they followed behind her, when the door was closed, it disappeared from sight and they were surrounded by every lost and found item since Hogwarts was founded.
"Okay, Hogwarts has some severe hoarding issues," Sirius commented his wide eyes darting about and it pulled a laugh from Hermione, and he beamed at the sound.
"Follow me, if I remember correctly, it's down there, followed by a left, then a right, then another two lefts, then two rights, past the broken bed and filing cabinet, we walk past the toilet seat, past the cabinet which I will be destroying, by the way, and then it should be sat on top of a wig."
They blinked slowly and she snorted before walking off, leading them through the maze until she reached the vanishing cabinet; she pulled her wand and pointed it at the cabinet.
"You might want to stand back," she warned them and they immediately stepped away from her, but looked at her questioningly.
"Fiendfyre," she whispered.
A beam of vicious fire licked at the cabinet, the dragon-like flames devouring it hungrily and without remorse. Hermione took deep breaths and blocked out the sound of curses and gasps from behind her, focusing only on controlling the demon-possessed blaze. When she ended the spell, her wand arm dropped tiredly to her side and her breathing came out in sharp pants. She bent over, pressing her hands on her knees as the last of the cabinet turned to ash before their eyes.
James and Sirius rushed forward to either side of her, helping to support her whilst she pulled herself together. Remus couldn't help his mouth twitching into a smirk at the display and the behaviour of his best friends.
"That was something else," Sirius commented and she chuckled tiredly.
"Why did you destroy that cabinet?" Dumbledore asked.
"It was the vanishing cabinet," Hermione answered. "That's how the Death Eaters snuck into the castle my sixth year, I'm taking any and all precautions that I can to prevent it from happening, it's doesn't matter if we destroy Voldemort, I don't want anyone learning about the cabinet and using it, no matter the intentions behind it."
She pulled away from James and Sirius and knelt down on the ground in front of a pile of ash. She reached into her beaded bag and removed two large jars. In the pile of ash sat twelve Ashwinder eggs and she carefully placed six in one jar and six in the other.
"Why are you doing that?" James questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Ashwinder eggs, they're incredibly useful in potion brewing and they're even rarer, one of the rarest in ingredients in the world, I believe. The reason why is because they're an after effect of fiendfyre, they're left in the ashes of whatever was burned. And since there's so few fiendfyre practitioners in the world, Ashwinder eggs are hard to come by," she explained. "Snape can have six and I'll take six and see what I can do with them."
She stood up from the ground, turning around and looking behind her before walking straight down the narrow pathway and she turned to her right, where the diadem sat on top of a wig, just like Hermione had said it would be. She climbed on top of some boxes and reached up and grabbed the diadem before jumping back down to the ground.
"So that's the lost diadem of Ravenclaw?" Sirius asked. "It doesn't look evil," he eyed it strangely.
"Just wait, this one'll take a lot out of me. Horcruxes fight back which makes this ten times worse."
She shut her eyes and thought, 'I need a room that's fiendfyre-proof and with a divider to separate them from me until the Horcrux is destroyed.'
Just as she asked for, the room changed until it was empty of all objects, obstacles and items except them. She looked behind her to see there was a glass divider with the four wizards stood behind it, protected from what she was about to do. They could still see and hear her, but they couldn't get to her until the Horcrux was destroyed as was her intentions. Their eyes widened when they realised what she had done, but unlike her, they didn't know how the room worked so they couldn't do anything to stop her or reverse the actions.
She put the diadem on the floor and stepped back, taking a deep breath and she raised her wand, aiming it directly at the diadem.
"Fiendfyre," she whispered and once more she conjured the possessed flames.
As they touched the diadem a shadow of Harry appeared in before her.
"It's your fault, you know? I died because of you. You were the reason I was fighting, you and your blood. You were supposed to protect me and you failed. You're a useless, filthy Mudblood. You're not worthy of magic and it should've been you that died," the shadow Harry spat.
Tears fell from her eyes and trailed a path down her cheeks as she worked to keep control of the fiendfyre. She could distantly hear shouts and banging come from behind her, but she blocked it out, needing to focus.
"You're a failure, Hermione, you got everything you deserved. Your parents, the Slytherins, the torture, being alone. You deserved it!"
Hermione could feel the exhaustion sinking in; her muscles, her bones, her very magical core as her magic was drained by the fiendfyre. She wanted nothing more than to give up, to stop and sleep, but she couldn't. The Horcrux hadn't been destroyed and she was the only one with the ability to do that.
She steeled herself and tensed her muscles in order to keep herself upright, to keep herself from collapsing. She held her wand with both arms for stability, the limbs shaking violently.
"I hate yo..." his words were cut off by an ear piercing shriek.
The shadow of Harry disappeared and the diadem started thrashing around on the floor. One last scream was released before black smoke poured out of the diadem and there was a loud explosion.
The Horcrux had been destroyed.
Hermione let out a loud sob and before she collapsed to the floor, she was caught and lifted off her feet. She barely saw James' face above hers before she blacked out.
"She's unconscious, likely will be for a few days," James spoke with a horrified look on his face at what he just witnessed.
"I can't believe that happened," Sirius whispered, equally as disgusted.
"No wonder she wants to get rid of these things so quickly," Remus commented, staring between Hermione's unconscious form and the destroyed diadem. "We better get her back to the apartment."
The Marauders turned to leave ignoring Dumbledore's presence.
"Take her to the hospital wing," Dumbledore said.
"No, we'll take her home. It's where she needs to be and we already know what she needs," Sirius said. "And, who knows what potions you'll shove down her throat," he muttered quietly so only James heard.
They turned and the door appeared to allow them to exit the room.
"James, about using Harry, I really think you should recon..."
"Over my dead body," he said coldly and he stared at him in a similar fashion. "My son is not getting anywhere near this. We're already one Horcrux down and Mia's figured out where the last two are. When she's up to it, we'll deal with the rest of them and then we've already won. There's no part of the plan that Harry needs to be involved with."
They turned and left him alone in the empty room.
"Moony, will you pick Harry up for me?"
"Already heading there now," he chuckled.
~000~000~000~
The Burrow
Remus stepped out of the floo and into the living room of the burrow, and the first sound that assaulted him was that a screaming child. He winced, the sound hurting his ears due to his advanced hearing.
"Molly," Remus called and she stepped into the room carrying a hysterical Harry on her hip.
"MIMI! MIMI!" The child screamed and wriggled restlessly.
"I don't know what's wrong with him, he's been screaming like this for the last forty minutes and I can't settle him down," she said, her face flushed and her eyes worried.
"It's the bond, he knows something's wrong with Mia."
She gasped. "Is she hurt? Did something go wrong?" She asked worriedly.
"The mission went according to plan, but it was dangerous. Harry and Mia are able to sense when the other is in danger, that's what set him off. He'll be fine once I get him home," he assured her, taking the screaming toddler from Molly and she fetched his baby bag and handed it to him. "We may not make it for Christmas dinner, I'm afraid."
Molly frowned. "Why? I thought you said no one was hurt?"
"I did, but Mia had to do something incredibly draining and as a result, she's magically exhausted. She fell unconscious immediately afterwards. She's being tended to, but you can never be too sure when someone will wake up after a magical exhaustion. Could be days, could be weeks, hopefully, it won't take too long and she'll be right as rain in no time. I better get him home and calm him down before he hurts himself." He said his goodbyes to Molly and then floo'd to the apartment.
~000~000~000~
Sirius' Apartment
Remus entered the apartment carrying a screaming Harry on hip, the child bunching his shirt in his hands tightly, and he dropped the baby bag to the ground and quickly made his way through the apartment and to Hermione's room.
When he entered it was to see Hermione laid in the centre of her bed and the blanket covering her frame. Magic had been used to change her clothing to pyjamas and it looked as though she was wearing one of Harry's Quidditch jerseys. Sirius was sat leaning against the headboard on her right and James sat on her left. Once Harry's eyes locked on Hermione, his cries died down and he tried to wriggle out of Remus' hold, so he placed Harry on the bed, watching as he crawled over to Hermione.
He wrapped his arms around her neck and cuddled up next to her and they both began glowing until they had to shut their eyes or risk going blind. Once they deemed it safe to open their eyes again, the light had vanished and Harry was asleep.
James pressed the back of his hand against Hermione's forehead. "Her fever's gone," he informed them and they sighed in relief. "We just have to wait for her to wake up".
~000~000~000~
Several hours later Hermione still hadn't woken and there was a knock on the door. Hearing the sound, James stood and left the room, heading to the living room and he opened the front door, revealing the Prewett Twins and their worried expressions.
"Molly told us Mia was hurt. Is she alright?" One of the twins spoke, James wasn't sure which one.
James blinked slowly, his eyes darting down to the carrier bag one of them was carrying.
"She's fine, just sleeping. She's not injured but she hasn't woken yet," answered and they sighed in relief.
"Well, we brought her chicken soup and orange juice without any pulp,"
'Her favourite soup and drink,' James thought annoyed.
"Oh, and these, too," the other said, removing a bouquet of daisies from behind his back.
'And her favourite flowers.'
"Thanks, I'm sure she'll appreciate it, I'll let her know you stopped by when she wakes." He took the flowers and carrier bag from them and they nodded their thanks before leaving.
James shut the door in annoyance and returned to Hermione's bedroom with the gifts in his hands.
"Who was it?" Sirius asked.
"Fabian and Gideon, they brought Mia's favourite flowers, drink and soup."
Sirius growled. "Sneaky bastards, just when I think we've won."
"We don't have to tell her," James said hopefully.
"She'll find out, she always does," Sirius said grumpily.
Remus chuckled. "I believe that changes the scores."
"Prewett Twins, five: Marauders, seven," James glowered and Remus shook his head amused.
~000~000~000~
Sirius' Apartment - Friday 25th December 1981
Hermione had yet to wake from her magical exhaustion and it had been four days since the destruction of the Horcrux. Harry was asleep on the bed next to her, James was asleep on a chair by the side of her bed and Sirius was in Padfoot form and sleeping on the end of the bed.
Hermione woke crying. For the past four days, her mind had been on repeat. She'd dreamt of her years at Hogwarts, of every dangerous act leading up to the Final Battle, of Bellatrix torturing her, of the deaths and finally, the Horcrux's words.
She cried because it was all true, every last word and she knew it.
Her crying woke both Padfoot and James, the large dog whimpering from his place at the end of the bed and James jumped to attention immediately, leaning closer to her.
"Hey, what's the matter?" He spoke softly.
Hermione shook her head in refusal to reply and tears began to fall from her eyes and down her face.
"You can't be crying today, it's Christmas morning." She cried louder at his words. "It's what happened when you destroyed the Horcrux, isn't it?" He didn't wait for a reply, he already knew he was right. "It wasn't real. I've seen the way you and Harry were through your memories; he would never say those things to you. If he hated you he wouldn't have completed the bond with you. He wouldn't have trusted you with his secrets. He wouldn't have protected you from your parents. He wouldn't have gone to you for help. Harry loved you – does love you. You didn't fail him. Think of all the times he needed you, he'd turn around and you were there to break his fall, literally, out of a window! You are not a failure, think of what you've accomplished. You won a war; you beat the darkest witch and wizard known to wizardkind. And you've caught over one hundred Death Eaters, saved lives, figured out You-Know-Who's darkest secrets and destroyed one of his Horcruxes already. You're not a failure, you're the opposite. You, my little witch, are extraordinary. Truly extraordinary."
"You should call him by his name. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself," Hermione spoke through her flowing tears, giving a sniffle.
"Where did you learn that?"
"Dumbledore. It's a shame I don't trust him and he's manipulative. He has a brilliant mind and his wisdom is remarkable. It's too bad he doesn't know how to use it correctly."
He chuckled softly. "You should forgive yourself. I know you blame yourself for their deaths. Harry, Moony, Fred and Percy, but it wasn't your fault. Yes, you were blessed by the Moon Goddess and yes, you are powerful, but you can't save everyone. It's Christmas, a time for forgiveness. You need to forgive yourself and let go of the guilt and anger that you have bubbling inside of you. It's eating away at you and if you allow that to continue, it will destroy you. So forgive yourself and get some more sleep, you need your rest."
He reached over and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. Harry instinctively moved closer to Hermione in his sleep and James took hold of Hermione's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze as she fell back into a dreamless sleep.
James didn't release her hand and when he turned to look at Padfoot, he saw he had a huge doggy grin on his face and he snorted. He knew what Padfoot was thinking.
'We don't even need to keep tally anymore, we've already won.'
~000~000~000~
Later that day, they'd decided to stay at the apartment instead of visiting the Burrow like they'd originally had planned. They'd floo called Molly, who was slightly put out with the decision, but she understood their reasoning and she sent over the customary Weasley jumpers.
When Hermione woke just before lunch, they were waiting for her in the living room. It took her a little while to find her footing after being bedbound for so long, but once she did, she quickly showered and spent several minutes smiling at her light blue Weasley jumper with a large yellow H in the middle, before she dressed and headed to the kitchen. She quickly set to work with preparing Christmas dinner and it helped that Remus had already prepared the vegetables for her, they just needed cooking.
Once she was done, she headed into the living room where she found the Marauders and the young wizard huddled underneath the fort -which like Sirius had promised, had not been taken down- and they looked to be conversing discreetly. She chuckled and quietly made her way towards them, not wanting to alert them to her presence.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
They yelped and actually jumped from the ground in their surprise. The only one that wasn't affected by her sneaking up on them was Harry, who giggled and clapped loudly.
"Merlin's Sake woman!" Sirius gasped out. "I'm going to have change my underwear now."
Laughter bubbled from her. "It's not my fault, you're supposed to have advanced hearing, you need to pay better attention."
Remus chuckled at her. "We've been waiting for you to wake, poor little Padfoot was jumping in his seat wanting to open his presents."
Hermione laughed and with a wave of her wand, all of the Christmas presents appeared in a pile in front of everyone.
"Well then, don't let me stop you."
Sirius dived into the pile like an overexcited ten-year-old.
'Some things never change,' she thought fondly.
~000~000~000~
Hogwarts – Thursday 31st December 1981
Once more, Harry had been dropped off at the Burrow with the Weasleys and the Marauders were stood in Dumbledore's office early in the morning.
Hermione was there to go into The Chamber of Secrets and deal with the dormant basilisk. She leaned against the wall, putting herself as far away from Dumbledore as possible and she watched as he exchanged greetings with the other three wizards that had insisted on accompanying her.
She rolled her eyes. 'Honestly,' she thought with a huff. 'It's like they think I can't take care of myself. Stupid, idiotic, overprotective...'
"Mia, are you ready?" James asked.
"What? Ready? Yep, let's get this over with. I don't want to spend too much time down there. I need the sorting hat."
"Why?" Dumbledore asked.
"If you want me to get rid of the snake that's larger than the length of the great hall and is currently squatting in the castle, you'll give me the hat."
Sirius snorted at her until she turned a glare on him and he promptly looked away with Remus and James chuckling. Dumbledore reluctantly retrieved the sorting hat and handed it over, but before Hermione could do anything, the sorting hat started talking and she jumped in surprise.
"Well, Miss. Granger, I wasn't expecting to see you for another decade. It's not often I am surprised, well done, quite a feat," the hat praised. Hermione blinked. "Well, don't just stand there, put me on," it drawled and they chuckled at her as she cautiously placed the hat on her head.
She could hear the sorting hat mutter and mumble as he searched through her mind, witnessing everything that had happened to her until he was satisfied with his new knowledge of her.
'Well, no wonder I was surprised to see you, time travelling, eh? How very exciting. I know you have a war raging inside yourself, you search for answers, and you will have some difficult decisions to make. I will be here when you need help and to give you advice. Remember, Miss. Granger, I am the sorting hat and there's no other hat like me, I look forward to seeing you in the very near future,' it spoke in her mind. 'Now, you best remove me, the old coot is watching us both suspiciously.'
Hermione couldn't help snorting. 'I like you more and more each time I see you,' she thought and she heard the hat chuckling in her head. 'I guess I'll speak to you soon.'
'Until then, Miss. Granger.'
Hermione reached up and removed the hat from her head.
"What did he want? What did he say to you?" Dumbledore asked quickly.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, not that it's any of your business, but he was complimenting me on the fact that in one thousand years, no one has been able to surprise him quite like I have. He said he was impressed with me," she replied, not being blind to the suspicious glances she received from the Marauders. "Now, I better get going," she turned to leave with the Marauders following her, but when she reached the door Dumbledore spoke,
"I'm coming with you."
"No, you're not, it's not a good idea. Not only will The Chamber not allow more than four people in at a time, but Voldemort hated you more than anything, your presence alone might lock The Chamber and I won't be able to access it and take care of the pest you have slumming under the school."
She exited his office and led the three wizards to the second-floor bathroom, where they found Moaning Myrtle, doing what she does best; sobbing and making a mess of the bathroom. Hermione could see she was going to bother them and she intervened as she didn't want to have to deal with her so early in the morning.
"I'll blow your favourite toilet up," she threatened and Myrtle let out a wail and flew down the toilet and into the pipes. The Marauders looked at her amused and she just shrugged her shoulders.
"Is it true what you told Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, but knowing it wasn't.
"I didn't want him following us and who knows? Maybe Voldemort did ward The Chamber against Dumbledore, I would if it were me. And as for the hat, I'll tell you later."
She walked over to the sinks and made a hissing sound; she'd been around Harry long enough to pick up a few phrases in Parseltongue. Plus, when they were on the run Harry would teach her when they had their fill of researching and they needed a break. They stared at her in surprise as the sink collapsed in front of them to reveal an entrance.
"You can speak Parseltongue?" Remus whispered. "How?"
"Not here, wait until we're home and I'll explain," with that said, she sat down and propelled herself forward, sliding down the passage that took her beneath the castle.
Once they were all at the bottom, the door closed sealing them in and Hermione pulled her wand and cast a spell to light the torches lining the walls. She walked down the pathway until she reached a large stone wall with a huge figure carved into it and after whispering in Parseltongue, the stone wall moved aside to allow them to gain access to The Chamber.
It was the second time she'd been down there and it was exactly as she remembered it; stone floors, large pillars and statues, cold, damp air and a tense and frightening atmosphere. The only difference being the basilisk lying at the foot of the biggest statue in the room. No one dared to move when they saw it.
Hermione took a deep breath before she put her hand inside the sorting hat and when she pulled it back out, she had in her hand the Sword of Gryffindor grasped in her fist. The sharp silver blade had 'Godric Gryffindor' carved into it and there were intricate designs on the silver of the handle and brilliant red rubies encased in the silver.
She let out a sigh of relief. "The Sword of Gryffindor everyone," she spoke, holding it out for them to get a better look at. "It will only present itself to true Gryffindors. In my time that was Harry and Neville Longbottom."
They stared at the ancient relic that had once belonged to one of the four founders.
She placed the hat on the floor and moved towards the basilisk slowly and quietly. She knew there was no chance of it waking up unless it was summoned, but she couldn't make herself believe that. When she was stood by the head of the basilisk, she raised the sword and with a powerful strike, she brought it down and severed the head clean off, the sword working like a knife through heated butter. Quickly and without effort.
She put the sword down and kneeled next to the dismembered head and she used a spell to keep the mouth open as she removed empty vials from her beaded bag and placed them on the ground. Next, she went about removing the fangs from the basilisk's mouth and she wrapped them up and placed them in her beaded bag, and she used the vials to collect the leaking venom from the holes where the fangs used to be. When she was done, she put them safely in her bag, picked up the sword, cleaned it with a spell and made her way back to the others who were watching her quietly.
"Remind me to never get on her bad side," Sirius muttered and they nodded in agreement.
She picked up the hat from the floor and put the sword back inside until it vanished from view.
"Let's get going, this places gives me the willies," she shivered, all too happy to lead them out of The Chamber.
~000~000~000~
Sirius' Apartment
"We're back, no one can hear us, now spill," James said, plopping down under the fort with the rest of them. "And what were you doing when you were kneeling by the severed head?"
She sighed. "I was collecting the fangs and venom. They're both rare items and very useful. If anything were to happen to me before all the Horcruxes are destroyed, they can be used to destroy them, too." They frowned at that. "The hat wanted to know how I was able to surprise it. It looked through my memories and saw everything, and I mean everything. It said that I had a war raging inside of me, that I was searching for answers and I would soon have difficult decisions to make and that it would be waiting for me. It would help me and offer me advice when I needed it. And it called Dumbledore an 'old coot' which I found hilarious."
"Okay, the Parseltongue?" Sirius said, handing Harry a different colour crayon for his colouring book.
"I'm not a natural Parselmouth, but I can speak some phrases. Harry taught me."
The room was deadly quiet, all except for Harry who was giggling to himself.
"What?" The three wizards whispered.
"Harry was a Parselmouth."
They stared at her in disbelief, looking between her and Harry.
"No, he can't be, that's the sign of a..."
"Dark wizard? A Slytherin? It's not what you think though, he wasn't born with it. Voldemort was born a Parselmouth though, because of his heritage as the heir of Slytherin. When Voldemort cast the Killing Curse and it backfired, he accidentally transferred that power, that quality to Harry."
"Harry's a Parselmouth because You-Know-Who accidentally gave him the ability when he tried to kill him?" Sirius questioned bemused, horrified.
"Yes, but the ability to speak to snakes didn't appear in Harry until he was ten, almost eleven. It was only a couple of weeks before he was informed about Hogwarts, I didn't learn about it until second year when he could hear the basilisk moving through the water pipes. Spending so much time with Harry, I picked some of it up and he would teach me when we were bored, but that doesn't mean I understand it. It's more of the fact that I can just make the right sounds, I don't know what it actually means, not really."
"So Harry will be a Parselmouth?"
"Not exactly, when Voldemort dies that quality should disappear from Harry, too, he would never know he possessed it since he would be too young to remember and it wouldn't have manifested yet. This is also why I didn't want Dumbledore coming with us to The Chamber. Harry and Voldemort have kind of a connection. It's weak, but as Voldemort strengthens, so will the connection and he can use it to get into Harry's head. That's how he possessed Harry in fifth year. But Voldemort will be long gone by the time that's possible, I'll make sure of it."
They stared at her, unsure of what to say or how to react.
"I need a drink," James muttered, his head tipping back to look up at the ceiling.
"Anyway, next I think we should try for Hufflepuff's Cup. We can go after New Year's."
