Chapter Thirty-Seven: Voldemort's Escape and Marauder Theories
Professor McGonagall was extremely annoyed. Someone had filled her private quarters with catnip and transfigured her into her animagus form for three hours. The Marauders, notorious pranksters though they were, wouldn't be able to get into her quarters, which left only the staff as suspects. And there was only one staff member with the Marauders' love of pranks.
Orion Potter.
Where was he though? She'd checked his usual haunts, the staff room, his own quarters, the Room of Requirement, outside by the lake. He wasn't anywhere to be found. Shifting into her tabby cat form again, she sniffed the air and caught a familiar scent. Ah ha. Following it up a flight of stairs, she came to a stop in front of the girl's bathroom inhabited by Moaning Myrtle.
'Why would he be going into a girl's bathroom,' the cat thought, before a loud grinding noise drew her attention. Quickly shifting back to human form, she made herself invisible and peered round the door.
The sinks had moved away to form a large hole in the floor. As she watched, Orion climbed out of the hole and dusted himself off. He looked around and quietly hissed a command in Parseltongue. McGonagall shivered as the sinks moved back into their usual positions. She liked and respected her colleague and he was doing a lot to improve the relationship between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, largely due to his unique position as both Lord Gryffindor and Lord Slytherin. Still, she wasn't quite used to his casual use of Parseltongue. She'd come across him having a conversation with Salazar Slytherin once, discussing something in Parseltongue. When she'd asked them what they were discussing, Orion had responded that they'd been talking about the recent weather. Both he and Salazar had laughed when she'd commented that she'd never heard a discussion of the weather sound so evil, and Orion had responded that it might sound evil but in reality it was just the way the language was, and he couldn't change that.
"Hello Professor Potter," she said as he exited the bathroom, and almost fainted when a wand came to rest right between her eyes.
"Oh, sorry Minerva," Orion said as he slid his wand back into the sheath on his arm. "Did you want to see me?"
"Yes, I did," McGonagall responded rather huffily. "You wouldn't happen to know who filled my quarters with catnip and transfigured me into my tabby cat form for the past few hours, would you?"
Orion chuckled. "Now who would have the nerve to do something like that," he teased.
"Orion," McGonagall said.
Recognising her tone, Orion held up his hands in surrender. "OK, I admit it, it was me," he said. "I needed some more practice at getting into a warded area, and yours are best wards I know apart from Albus'. At least here, anyway."
"Why not get him then?" McGonagall said, still a bit annoyed but relaxing now that she knew it wasn't purely a prank.
"Because I didn't want to have to destroy the gargoyle," Orion admitted, bringing a reluctant chuckle from McGonagall.
"Well, it was a good prank, I'll admit that," she said, and Orion relaxed. He'd read the manual that all new teachers were given, but nowhere did it mention what could happen to teachers who pranked senior staff members. The answer was, apparently, nothing.
As they walked towards the staff room, Orion unfolded the clue again. He frowned as he read it for what seemed like the thousandth time. It was proving annoyingly resistant to interpretation.
To find the treasure you seek,
In history, you must look.
Dangerous challenges lie ahead
Tests of skill and tests of knowledge to be passed
The start is underground, in a place of myth
Where the first challenge is triumphing over a gaze of death
Orion snorted as he walked beside McGonagall, wondering when he could reasonably return to the Chamber of Secrets. He needed peace and quiet to work on this clue. Suddenly his eyes widened, and he looked at the last two lines.
"Place of myth, gaze of death? Oh that's very clever," he chuckled, certain that he'd found the start of the task. The rest of it was less clear. He did wonder, privately, how the organizers intended to open the Chamber, and then wondered if they were going to reconstruct a version of the Chamber for the task. McGonagall gave him an odd look but saw the parchment in his hand and remained silent, correctly deducing that he was trying to work out the clue for the next task.
"Probably," a voice floated through his mind.
"Sirius?" Orion asked, making sure to keep his end of the conversation purely within his mind. He didn't want Minerva thinking that he was going crazy.
"Yes, pup, it's me," Sirius said with a laugh. "Were you expecting someone else?
"No, just that usually it's Dad or Sev that talks to me unexpectedly like this. What's up?"
"Nothing, just amused at your reasoning for the clue being what it is"
"Uh huh and exactly when do you think I was born?" Orion enquired sarcastically. "Since you interrupted my perfectly good logical deductions, do you have a theory on the rest of the clue?"
Sirius was silent for a while and then said, "It seems fairly straightforward. Pass several tests of knowledge and skill and gain the prize at the end."
Orion smiled. "True, but then, it might be too obvious."
He heard a familiar snort before Severus said, "Remember, Harry, not all wizards are as good at logical reasoning as you are. Something like this, they'd have to research it, or they'd spend ages thinking in circles and usually getting the wrong answer."
Now Orion chuckled. Severus' words, while slightly cruel, were right. "Alright, so if we accept that I have to take the clue at face value, what does the rest of it mean?"
"I think it means you need to start learning magical history again, and learning it properly," Remus interjected. At Orion's groan, he chuckled and continued, "No, listen, the clue says that you need to look in history to find the answers. The tests, I'm willing to bet are either tests of intelligence, or physical challenges. It's probably a mixture of both, given the wording of the clue. I'd sound out Albus on how they intend to open the Chamber, or if they intend to open it at all, the task might start in the dungeons."
"Yeah, in Potions class," Orion snorted. He was unable to repress a laugh at the thought of a ghostly version of Severus glaring at all the champions.
"I heard that," Severus said, and Orion laughed harder.
"You have to admit," he said once he'd regained control of himself, "that it would be a perfectly logical deduction."
"If you were in your original time, yes it would be, but not here," Severus said, and Orion got the distinct impression that Severus was scowling at him. "In this time," his former mentor continued, "it would be wise to take the clue at face value, at least for the starting point, and assume that it's the Chamber of Secrets. As to how they intend to open it, maybe they will construct a version of it for the task, the same as they did for Azkaban in the second task."
"Mmhm. Of course, it could be meaning that we start in a gigantic cave with a young basilisk," Orion replied.
"Yes, well, stop worrying about it. You'll find out what it is later, I'm sure," James said, ending the debate. Acquiescing to his father's wish, Orion entered the staff room with Professor McGonagall. Further study of the clue would have to wait until later.
A pleasant half hour of relaxation and conversation followed, as Orion and Professor McGonagall discussed various topics, ranging from who they thought would win the House Cup, to who might win the upcoming election and become Minister of Magic. As the conversation was winding down, Orion felt a tingle of magic surround him and gave McGonagall a sharp look.
"Relax," she said calmly. "It's Hogwarts, reaffirming your right to be here. It periodically renews its bond with all the teachers. The magic usually isn't noticed, but because you're an Heir of two of the Founders, it will bond more strongly with you."
"Does that mean I can't leave?" Orion asked.
"No, you can leave. The castle won't force you to stay. When a teacher leaves, their bond with the castle will dissolve, again mostly unnoticed, but I don't think yours will because you're an Heir."
Orion nodded, and examined the magic that had surrounded him. It was the castle's magic, and it did feel like it was welcoming him home. Smiling, he thought to himself that he really should track down the portrait of all four of the Founders. He needed some advice from them.
Standing up, he looked down at McGonagall and said, "I'm sorry to leave but I have to go and make a Floo call. I need to discuss something with Charles."
"What?"
"Voldemort escaped last night, I need to find out how, and also work out a plan for recapturing him," Orion said with a scowl.
"Why did you not transfigure him into an inanimate object at the start?"
"Because I was tired, sore, and didn't have the necessary focus to do more than shrink him," Orion growled back.
McGonagall blinked. "Oh. Well, that would be an acceptable reason. Can I talk to you later?"
Orion gave her an odd look, and then answered, "Yes of course. Come to my quarters when you're free and we'll talk."
McGonagall nodded and Orion hurried off. He needed to make a Floo call.
Reaching his quarters, he warded the door as tightly as he knew how, which was quite tightly, and put up the strongest privacy wards he knew. Once the room was as secure as he could make it, he threw a handful of Floo powder in the fire. "Potter Manor," he said clearly.
Emma answered the call and broke out into a relieved smile when she saw him. "How are you?" she said.
"I'm fine. How are you and where's Charles?" Orion asked, his worry for his grandparents overriding his concern about Voldemort's whereabouts. He also wondered why he hadn't felt anything when the Dark Lord had broken free. Surely he'd have felt Voldemort's elation over breaking out of his potions vial prison.
"Charles is in the study, trying to work out how the pesky mini-Dark Lord escaped," Emma replied. "We were hoping you could use your investigative skills to solve the mystery."
Orion nodded thoughtfully. "Let me through and I'll do my best to work it out," he said.
Emma stood back and Orion immediately went through the fire, staying still until he'd stopped spinning. Exiting gracefully, he was greeted by a rib-crushing hug from his grandmother. As soon as she let him go, Orion was engulfed in another, equally strong hug from his grandfather.
"I'm so sorry, one minute he was there, the next, he was gone," Charles said, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Orion blinked as the gesture registered in his brain, and he grinned as he realised that obviously it wasn't only genes that could be passed down through generations.
"That's fine; he's a slippery little bastard anyway. It's not your fault," he said reassuringly, before slipping into Unspeakable mode. "Can you tell me what happened just before he disappeared? Everything, what you did, what he did and anything you can think of, no matter how small it is."
Charles and Emma sat down in the lounge. Orion sat opposite them, his wand held loosely between his thumb and forefinger. Silence reigned in the room as Charles and Emma were reviewing the events of the previous evening and Orion didn't want to interrupt their memory recall with questions.
"We fed him," Charles said slowly, "at seven, when we had our own dinner. He seemed in a better mood than usual, but we thought it was because it was dinner time. He did perk up more around meals so we didn't think anything of it."
"Then what," Orion prodded carefully.
"After we'd fed him, we ate our own dinner. It happened during the meal. We heard a crash, and ran into the lounge. He'd managed to somehow Apparate out of the vial. The Apparition broke through the charms you put on it. We ran into the lounge and saw him standing there. He was very tired, I think, because he just glared at us and then Apparated away."
"He was the size of an action figure, how could he possibly escape you even if he managed to get out of the vial?" Orion demanded.
"He managed to somehow resize himself as well, so it wasn't as though we were chasing a toy version of him," Charles said pointedly.
Sighing, Orion acknowledged the point and examined the glass vial which was lying on the floor where Voldemort had left it after he'd Apparated out of it. Flicking his wand, he levitated it, and swiftly cast some highly complicated diagnostic charms on it. Frowning, he redid the tests, and then stood up.
"I need to consult some texts and possibly some medical people too, but I think I know what happened. Before I go, may I ask you something?"
"Of course," Charles said. "What do you want to know?"
"When I bound his magic, and removed his Slytherin blood-gifts, it didn't remove his magic entirely. All it did was bind it. Is it possible that he could have done something similar to the accidental magic that all magical children experience before they start school?"
"You reduced him to the level of a Squib though. How could it have built up?" Charles said, frowning thoughtfully.
"Squibs don't have much magic to begin with," Emma pointed out. "What you did, Orion, was to take an adult wizard and bind his magic so that he couldn't access it. Essentially you forced a large amount of magic into a small space. All he'd have to do would be wait for it to build up to a sufficient level and use it. It would be like putting the lid on a pot of boiling water, sooner or later the buildup of steam would make the lid fly off the top."
"So what you're saying is that it was inevitable?" Orion demanded, feeling utterly furious with himself for not realizing that this situation could occur and taking steps to prevent it.
"Maybe and maybe not, but the point is, what do we do now?" Emma said, trying to stop the atmosphere from becoming too tense.
Orion sighed. "First, we put some ultra-strong wards round this house, Voldemort won't be happy with any of us, and he knows some facts about us which would make us prime targets for him."
"Such as?" Emma asked.
"He knows that I'm the Heir of Slytherin, and he also knows that you're related to me, or at least are part of my family. What better way is there to get to me than by killing the people I care about?"
Emma looked shocked for a moment and then nodded slowly. "I see. What sort of wards do you suggest?"
Orion looked round the lounge, frowning thoughtfully. Flicking his wand, he erected strong privacy charms and sat back down. "Parseltongue wards I think, they're the one sort of ward Voldemort would have no chance of breaking, even if he has got the rest of his magic back. Maybe a Fidelius if he and Death Eaters start becoming too annoying."
"Not the Fidelius, unless you plan to hide us from the world," Charles stated firmly. "Get the other wards up first, you'd be the only person I know of who could break them, so I'm not worried about him getting to us here."
Orion looked sharply at his grandfather and his eyes closed briefly. "Is that a lack of faith in me I hear?"
"No," Charles responded mildly, "merely that we're not planning to hide from possible retribution. If we do need to use that charm, you'll be the Secret Keeper, we wouldn't trust anyone else with the job. We just don't want to use it right now."
A shrug was all the response Charles got and the older Potter sighed. "Find Voldemort's last Horcruxes and either kill him or make him unable to hurt anyone ever again."
Orion nodded silently, not happy that his family was choosing to ignore the safest charm he could think of but he also understood why they were taking the route they were. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair, hearing the brief chuckle from Charles as he saw it, before standing.
"Alright, I'll get my team working on finding him, but I think we'll see a surge of Death Eater activity soon so finding him shouldn't be too difficult. Getting rid of him will be the tricky part." Walking to the Floo, he turned and said, "I'll do some research tonight, and get some of my friends from work to help me ward this place tomorrow. Would you be prepared to spend tonight at Marauder Manor? That already has Parseltongue wards on it, and I'd feel happier if you were there, just in case Voldemort comes back tonight."
Charles and Emma looked at each other and then gave Orion an affirmative answer. Leaving them packing, the Unspeakable returned to Hogwarts, preparing to spend a good portion of the evening after dinner buried in the library.
Accordingly, after dinner, Orion found a quiet spot in the back corner of the library and surrounded himself with books on wards. Contrary to popular opinion, wards weren't difficult to understand. The difficulty with wards was the amount of power you put into them. A small ward wouldn't exhaust an average witch or wizard, but the more powerful ones did take an above-average witch or wizard to be able to achieve the desired result. A ward such as the one that Orion was planning for Potter Manor would need several people working in concert with each other, although as the primary caster, all the power would flow from his helpers through him and into the ground around the manor, where it would join with the natural magic in the earth and form a strong shield not only around the house but over top of it as well.
Finding the one he wanted, Orion made sure he had all the necessary information which was available on it before he closed the books and stood up. Stretching his arms above his head and feeling several tense muscles in his back loosen with an almost relieved sigh, he was about to put all the books back when he heard furtive footsteps drawing close to his location.
Quickly, yet silently, he sat down, disillusioning both himself and his research materials. The spell was powerful enough that whoever was coming shouldn't see him, yet weak enough that it wouldn't create a noticeable shimmer if he remained still.
As the Marauders came into view, Orion relaxed and was about to let the spell go when Remus said, "Green eyes?"
Orion stiffened and listened carefully. This sounded serious.
"Yes," Lily hissed back, "and keep your voice down. We don't know where your father is, and I don't think he'd be happy that we're trying to work out his secret."
"He's given us enough hints – it's like he wants us to find out," James pointed out reasonably. "Besides, are you sure they went green, Lily?"
Lily looked around and then sat at the table directly next to the one that Orion was at. Now Orion had a problem – did he eavesdrop on their conversation, and possibly learn what information they'd been able to work out about him, or did he leave and risk being discovered. As Severus and Remus sat down almost on top of him, the decision was made for him – he couldn't leave without alerting them to the fact that there was someone there.
"For the last time, James, yes I'm sure," Lily snapped, her eyes sparking with anger. "They went green, almost the same shade as…" she trailed off and swallowed hard before shaking her head in denial.
"Almost the same shade as what?" Sirius prodded.
"Almost the same shade as Mum's," Lily finished. "But that can't be right. No one would have such a similar eye color unless they're related and your dad and my mum aren't."
"Maybe they are," Severus said with a grin. As the rest of the Marauders turned to him with disbelieving looks he pushed a strand of hair out of his eyes and continued, "Don't look at me like that. Let's list all the facts we have about Dad, both from what he's told us and what we can logically work out, and let's form some possible theories about this secret of his."
"Won't he be annoyed though?" Lily asked, seeming nervous about prying too far into the private life of one of her professors, who also happened to be the father of two of her best friends."
"James said it earlier," Remus said impatiently, "he's given us hints, and even though he's said he doesn't want us asking questions, he can't fault us for trying to work out the secret simply based on what he's given us already. Let's have a go."
"We can have fun making up all sorts of outlandish theories too," Sirius said with a chuckle.
"Such as?" Severus asked.
"Such as, oh," Sirius looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling, "that he's really Voldemort's illegitimate son from the future, come back to destroy dear old dad because he doesn't want the stigma of being related to him."
As Orion sat at his table, too shocked to even be irritated at such a wild and untrue theory, the Maruaders, both young and old, cracked up laughing. While he couldn't do much about the younger versions, Orion sent a mental "Shut up," to the older ones.
"What's your theory then?" Sirius said rather waspishly, glaring at James, Severus, and Remus.
Severus, James, and Remus looked at each other and then Remus drew out some parchment from his robe pocket.
"Facts first," he said. "What are they?"
"Fact one, he's from the future," James said.
"Fact two, he's an orphan, who was raised by his muggle relatives until he was fifteen, when his godfather took him in," Severus added.
Remus carefully wrote the facts down, and added one of his own, saying it as he wrote it. "Fact three, his father was friends with a werewolf, and became an animagus to accompany his friend on the full moon."
"Fact four, his father and his father's friends had some sort of feud with his future potions professor which ended up with dad being blamed for stuff that wasn't his fault," Severus said with a frown.
"Fact five, his true eye colour is emerald green," Lily put in quietly.
Remus looked at her skeptically but added it to the list, putting a question mark next to it when she wasn't looking. "Fact six," he said, "he has four patroni, not one, a stag, a dog, a wolf and a panther. Why would he have four?"
"A patronus represents what or who a person thinks of as their protector," James said, "so the question there would be, who are the four people represented by those animals."
"One would be his father, surely," Sirius said. "As an orphan, he'd want to feel as close to his parents as possible, so having his father as one of his patroni would make sense."
"But which one is it?" Severus asked, frustrated.
"Don't know, but here's another fact to write down – he was famous in the future, and he didn't like it," James said, cutting off the patronus debate. "He also has a serious grudge against Professor Dumbledore."
Remus wrote both facts down, and chewed the end of his quill thoughtfully. "His potions professor eventually became his mentor, and from what Dad's said, he looked after him a lot, even when they didn't like each other."
"He likes pranks too," Sirius put in, "but not bullies," he added with a frown.
"True," Remus muttered, writing it down.
"What about his relationships with us?" Severus said suddenly, turning to look at his brother. "Remember when we were grounded for, er, whatever it was, and we asked him what we were like in the future?"
Remus' eyes widened. "Yeah. He said that his relationship with me was mostly good with a few rocky patches but yours was more complicated, starting out rocky but getting better later on. That definitely should go on the list."
"And what about when we first met you, Lily?" James said. "Didn't Uncle Orion spend a lot of time talking with your parents?"
"Yes but what does that have to do with anything? He was probably telling them about the magical world and what to expect," Lily said.
"He could have been," James agreed, "but let's say that he and your mum are related, what if he was telling them his secret?"
Lily closed her mouth, which she'd opened to refute James' comment, and thought about it. "OK, but what do we think that secret is then, if we're going to assume they're related?"
"Don't know. What about the relationship between Dad and Uncle Charles though?" Severus said. "Uncle Charles treats Dad almost as though he's you, James, or an older version of you at least."
James looked very thoughtful. "They look a bit similar too," he said.
"What other facts do we have?" Remus asked.
"He married his best female friend, and his best male friend became their enemy," Sirius said with an uncomfortable glance towards Severus and James."
"He married for love, the same as his father did, and both he and his father married muggle-born witches," Lily said, watching as Remus wrote it down on the increasingly long list.
"He also became an Animagus in the summer before his sixth year," Sirius said with a wistful sigh at the achievement.
"Not to mention that he's bloody good on a broom," James said with an even more wistful sigh.
"From what he said about his muggle relatives, I think they abused him," Severus said with a shudder. He watched as Remus wrote it down, and then helped to spread out the list on the table. "Wow, that's a long list. How about we work on those theories now?"
The others agreed, and Orion found himself being treated to a list of increasingly bizarre theories from the younger versions of his family while having to endure the not so silent laughter from the older versions in his mind. One theory made all of them sit up and take notice, and it was proposed by Lily.
"We know he's from the future, and he resembles your dad, James, and he's got similar eyes to my Mum, so, is there any way he could be related to us?"
"What sort of relationship?" James asked.
"Well, could he be a future Potter?"
James, Remus, and Severus looked at each other, and then at Lily. "It could be possible," James replied reluctantly. "If he is though, why wouldn't he tell us?"
"What was his original reason for not telling us the entire story?" Severus enquired.
"It involved us," Remus said immediately.
"There was something else," his brother said insistently.
"You mean the possibility of Voldemort torturing the information out of us if he got hold of us?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, that," Severus responded. "I think we've got enough to work out a tentative theory anyway, but we need more proof. There are still a lot of holes in all of our theories, especially the future Potter one."
"True," James muttered. "I'm not sure how I'd feel about Uncle Orion being related to me anyway."
Orion stiffened in his seat, trying unsuccessfully to bury the small flare of hurt which James' unthinking comment had caused.
"What do you mean by that?" Severus and Remus snapped hotly. "No matter who he was in the future, in this time he's our dad and your uncle."
James raised his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean anything bad by it. Just that, if he's a future Potter, can you imagine how awkward it would be if we truly were related."
"How so?" Lily asked.
James rolled his eyes. "He's from the future, meaning that technically, in the future, we'd be older than him. What if I've been calling him uncle all these years, and he turns out to be my grandson?"
The Marauders looked at each other in shock, and then Sirius snorted and said, "Or even worse, what if he's actually your son?"
They froze for a moment, and then cracked up laughing. "Nah, that's too weird to be true. He'd have told us way before now," Severus said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"Not if he needed time to come to grips with the idea himself or if he was holding onto it as a prank for when we're seventeen," Remus said, chuckling. "Shall we run with that theory and see if our other facts fit it?"
"Not now, we have homework to finish and I haven't finished that DADA essay for Uncle Orion's class anyway," James muttered as he pulled the essay out of his bag. His friends followed his lead and Orion was able to slip away from his table as Severus and Remus moved round their own table. Escaping from the library, he made his way to his rooms and sank into his favorite chair.
"They're getting too close," he muttered, "and your younger self is too sharp for his own good, Dad," he said.
"Hey, at least they think it's only a joke," James protested. "Besides, you have given out a lot of hints, hints which they wouldn't have been able to put together when they were younger but they're fourteen now, and more than capable of putting together a workable theory from a few broad hints. Until they've got a theory which they think fits all the available information they won't do anything else. They won't come to you with it either until they believe they've worked it out. Just relax."
Orion sighed. "Fine, I'll leave it alone. I just hope they wait until next year to spring it on me though. I don't think I could take many more unexpected shocks right now."
Author Note
In case any of you haven't read my profile recently, I'm putting up the original Chronicles of the Chosen One series again. I found the files in my email archive and have spent the last few days putting them back in post-worthy format again. Because this is the original series, you may notice that it's not as well-written as Walking a New Path or Erasing History, and I will delete any flames I get which point this out. I know it's not as good, I know there are probably a million things wrong with it, but please, if you must point them out, do so nicely, so that I can fix those mistakes in the second version. I am putting it up again so those who have been waiting for the revised, better-written version two of it will have something to read while they wait.
On that note, the second version will be fairly different. I won't give out too many hints, other than that I'm redoing the relationship between Kiara and Sal, having them becoming Master and Padawan when Kiara is seventeen rather than fourteen like it is in the original, and the reason Sal adopts her as his padawan will also be different. I will also be changing quite a few other things, but the essential plot of the story – Harry being raised as a Jedi on Earth and having Kiara as his master will stay the same.
Hopefully this chapter of Erasing History and the soon-to-be-reposted Chronicles series will tide you over while I attempt to fit my writing around my new job, which is going very well by the way. I will also be reposting more chapters of Dark Apprentice soon as well.
May the Force be with you
Padawan Lynne