Author's Note: Thank you all for your favorites and reviews, it means so much to me to see them and get feedback from you all. I love this story so much and seeing others respond to it is the best. As always I own nothing, it all belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter Sixteen: Plotting and Scheming
Tapping her nail against the table as Merlin poured over her notes from the resurrection, Morgana fidgeted and then finally asked the question that had been on her mind for many years now.
"Merlin, what enchantments did you place on the Crystal Cave to keep me locked in for so long?"
Pausing from his perusal, the man in question looked up at her and blinked twice before setting the papers down and replying.
"A great many, some I learned from Kilgharrah, others I found in books about the Old Religion. I had to be sure you wouldn't escape. You were mad Morgana, you killed and killed and kept killing and wouldn't stop."
"I did though… I did escape," she pressed.
"Ah well…" he rubbed at the back of his neck, a sheepish expression crossing his face, "I planned for that you know. I had visions of my own when I was trapped in the cave before Camlann, and I saw you escaping, saw you bringing light and magic back to the land, but I knew you would need time, and a lot of it to change before then. So I added in a little loophole to the enchantments to where if you felt a change of heart and desired to escape not for yourself but solely for the benefit of others, to help others, the enchantments would weaken."
Morgana stared him down for several minutes her mind racing through the complexity of the magic that he must have wielded to manage such feats before it came to an abrupt halt.
"Merlin, it took me over three years after witnessing the Potters' murders to escape. Three years of Harry being tormented by the Dursley's."
"Yes, that was a rather unforeseen consequence, I ah… might have overpowered certain aspects of the wards," Merlin coughed and looked away from her.
"Merlin," she tried not to snap, she really did, but knowing what Harry went through while she was trapped made her angry and reminded her that she had yet to act against them yet. Merlin had cost her precious time with her son, time that she had admittedly squandered when she first got out under the guise of acclimating herself with the modern world. While she admitted that it was necessary to research, prepare, and scheme to gain guardianship of Harry legally, a part of her loathed herself that she hadn't just swept in and stole him away from the minute she escaped the Crystal Caves. She could have…
"I know Morgana I know, believe me when I realized that you couldn't get out right away, when I realized what you were trying to do and for who, I wanted to help. But it wouldn't be right, you had to do it on your own, you're strong, stronger than you know. And whatever you're beating yourself up about, you know it wasn't your fault," he said, laying a hand on hers, stopping her from gouging her nails any deeper into the table.
"What do you know, you didn't see his wounds, you didn't wake up in the middle of the night with his panic attacks, you didn't…"she broke off, her voice catching as a sudden flow of tears welled in her eyes before breaking down her cheeks. Her Harry had been so hurt.
"Morgana. You cannot blame yourself for that, it was not your doing. You saved the boy, brought him home with you in such a way that no one could take him from you. You've loved him and raised him well. You're his mother and his guardian," Merlin replied his hand reaching up to swipe away her tears. It was so unlike the Morgana he had known in those years battling her for Camelot, but it was like the Morgana he had once fallen in love with, so long ago.
"But I do, I think I always will. It's hard Merlin, so very hard to see someone so pure and full of love as Harry, to know that he has been hurt and to know that I've been the type of person who would have hurt him back when I was still…unhinged." Morgana turned away from Merlin, of all the people who had met her over the years, he should be the one to understand, to see what she was trying to say. He knew her darkness so intimately after all, knew the depths that she could sink to, but she didn't see understanding in his eyes, compassion yes, but not understanding.
"Morgana," Merlin started but was stopped as the woman in question rose and began to walk away from the table.
"I'll leave you to my notes, I want to check on our guest."
Oh Morgana, Merlin thought. He had wondered over the years, after learning of Alannah's existence, if raising their daughter might have brought her away from the madness she had fallen into, away from the self-doubt and the fear she'd lived in for so long. But seeing her now, happier than she'd been in a long time with a son she loved with all her heart, he wasn't sure. Alannah had been a symbol of their love yes, but she'd also been a sign of his betrayal, something that he could tell still held sway over her. He'd crossed her first, and it was something she would never forget.
Ϟϟϟ
Tom was having a hard time adjusting. He told himself that was understandable considering he'd been separate parts for half a century only to be jammed together in an excruciating ritual, but really it stemmed from how—nice Morgana was. She fluttered about him each day after resurrecting him, giving him potions to nurture his new body, checking on his mental health as well as physical. All the stories he'd read about when he was a boy at Hogwarts had never painted the dark witch as this—compassionate.
Sitting in an armchair he looked out at the view beneath him. Thick, tangled branches of dark green leaves far as the eye could see lay below him. At best guess he was in some sort of fortress in the middle of the woods somewhere, the where of it escaping him though. He'd left his rooms twice, making it as far as the first floor where the kitchen before his new body collapsed from exertion. He was furious at himself for such a weakness, even more so since his host had found him there and picked him up herself and carried him back to his room. Since then she'd been curiously absent appearing only to give him his potions before disappearing. He didn't know what to make of her, or of the situation he found himself in. Stuck in his head he almost missed the first knock at the door signaling her arrival. Straightening himself in the chair he smoothed a hand over his hair before calling out to her.
"Come in."
The door opened and revealed Morgana clad in simple grey and white robes that made her seem younger than he'd seen her before. Her eyes were strangely red rimmed and something in his snarled at the thought of her crying.
"How are you today Tom?" her voice cracked a bit at the end as she closed the door behind her and made her way to where he was seated.
"I am well," he replied, cocking his head slightly as she sat down across from him, "And you milady, how are you?"
"I am," Morgana paused and summoned a tea set with a flick of her hand, grateful that Bitty almost always had one ready to go for her. "I am uneased. You have been here for a week now, yet you have yet to approach me about my plans for the future, something I was sure you would want to address." She skillfully brought the conversation back to him, she had little time to talk with him before she had to be back at Corvus Place, Harry was performing in a play at the school that night, something Andy had co-written with her aunt Cassiopeia about Morgana's past in Camelot. Not knowing the script Morgana was a little worried as to what the play exactly entailed, and Harry wasn't sharing anything beyond the endearing enigmatic smiles he seemed to have picked up from Arcturus.
"Well I have to admit I am curious, what are your plans for me?" Tom smirked at her evasion of his question and the way she moved the conversation back to him.
"Nothing. I have no plans for you, or rather, I have no plans set in stone beyond one." Morgana paused to take in his reactions, the slight stiffening of his back, the way his jaw settled, he didn't believe her; good. Leaning closer to him she let a seductive edge into her tone as she purred out, "How would you like to help me bring down the Ministry and send Albus Dumbledore to his knees?"
Tom's eyes flashed red and Morgana knew she had him.
"How?"
"By showing the world how corrupt the ministry is, how ineffectual they truly are, and how black Dumbledore's soul is."
"Sounds easy," Tom leaned back and let a smirk cross his face, "what would you need me for?"
"Dumbledore ruined you, he set in motion the creation of Voldemort. I gave you back yourself, now I ask for your help in ruining him, you know him better than most still alive, you've seen behind the mask he wears, and I need that, I need you. You're powerful too, as powerful or more than him, and the Wizarding World knows it. I can't reveal myself to them yet, but your presence either overtly in their faces or subtly behind the scenes will work wonders to undermine him. He's entrenched in the ministry, his old gnarled roots buried deep, and I intend to see them burnt out one by one, cauterizing the wounds he leaves to be healed over by something new."
Tom watched her as she spoke, her green eyes glowing brighter and brighter as she went on. Killing curse green, he mused to himself. He could sense her power in every word she spoke, in every breath she took. Here was a woman who could obliterate him with one word, and she was calling him powerful and asking for his help. He wasn't so egotistic as to not see that she was stronger than him, but nor was he inured against such flattery. He was curious, so very curious. She could undoubtedly do it without him, so why go to all the trouble in collecting his horcruxes and resurrecting him?
"I'll do it. But I expect something in return."
Morgana narrowed her eyes at him and felt a shudder in the Old Religion as he spoke.
"What do you want?"
"Answers and aid. Maybe not now, or even a few days or weeks from now, but one day, I want answers and assistance in whatever I need," he replied.
"And you will have them. When I decide." Reaching over Morgana held out her hand, palm up waiting for him. The world seemed to freeze for a moment, breath frozen along the air and then he reached out and took her hand. "A bargain is struck, and a pact is made. I vow not to harm you or seek others to harm you and in return you will swear not to harm me or mine or seek others to do so. Do you accept?" Her eyes were a brilliant gold, sparking and flashing with power that Tom had never felt before, but was instantly enamored with.
"I do."
The Old Religion pulsed between the two of them and swept through Ealdor Manor startling Merlin from his perusal of the documents several floors below them and making the warlock cackle with uncontrollable laughter at the knowledge that the dark had joined the fight against oppression. Magic such as he and Morgana was neither light nor dark but both, and so far their allies were predominantly light and neutral leaning, they needed Tom Riddle for the balance that he brought, and now they had him. He just wasn't sure what having Tom Riddle on their side would bring.
Breathless from the vow Morgana took a second to compose herself before she stood and headed towards the door, gesturing for Tom to follow her.
"Come along now, it's time we leave this place."
Following behind her, Tom felt his curiosity rise again, where would they be going?
Ϟϟϟ
"Can you at least tell us who you're playing tonight pup? I'm dying of curiosity here," Sirius whined as Harry finished up the last of his homework for his practical maths class. Aunt Dromeda as Draco had taken to calling her had assigned a light load for the night in the face of their play's premier. He was excited, it was his first time acting in front of a crowd outside of their classes and his entire family would be there. Especially Mumgana.
"Well you know what they say Padfoot, curiosity killed the dog animagus," Harry teased his godfather, laughing as Remus snorted into his cup of tea at Sirius's dramatic flailing about.
"I'm wounded pup, truly I am."
"Come on Harry, go get ready and leave the old mutt to his whining," Remus said, ruffling his pup's hair as the boy ran past him to do as he said.
"Old. I'm not old," Sirius pouted making Remus shake his head and return to the paper in front of him. "Does this look old to you?" Whipping off his shirt Sirius ran a hand up and down his torso to his face, wiggling his eyebrows as he did.
"Sirius put your shirt back on, we have a guest," Morgana said from the doorway, but not before she let her eyes wander over the tattooed muscles exposed before her a leer flitting across her face.
"A guest? Who?" Sirius asked, tilting his head at her in a mirror image of his animagus form.
Stepping away from the doorway, Morgana ushered Tom into the room wincing as the temperature dropped several degrees as her lovers realized who he was. Though they'd supported her plan in theory, seeing the man who murdered James and Lily Potter in person was a different reality.
"My name is Tom, Tom Riddle. And you are?" The monster said, his voice nearly human but for a strange sibilance underneath. It rankled the two canines and made them even more hostile. They had agreed to give Morgana's plan a chance but if he continued with his false veneer of politeness they would snap.
Sirius stepped forward, his eyes darkening as he seemed to become more feral, unconcerned with his shirtless state in the face of a threat, "Sirius Black."
Remus was only slightly more contained as his eyes burned amber and he stood, growling out "Remus Lupin."
"Ah, I vaguely remember you. My memories from my time outside the horcruxes are a bit scattered. I should apologize, I think for my actions against your loved ones, I was not whole," Tom ducked his head and affected a shier mien than what Morgana anticipated, and she held back a snort as she interrupted him before the two launched themselves at the former dark lord.
"Of all the people you'll meet these two are the least likely to fall for that, be honest and upfront with them."
Straightening, Tom smirked his face and he slid back into his normal state of being. The two men across from him exchanged a long glance before backing off from their offensive stances and giving him a grudging once over.
"He's prettier than I expected. He looked half monster last I saw him," Sirius muttered, and Remus nodded his head.
"Less snake-like now."
"His hair is ridiculous, like who has hair that smooth and straight."
"Pads you spend an hour on your hair in the morning."
"Not the point Moony."
"True, I did expect him to be taller though."
"Yeah he does seem to be a bit short."
The two Marauders continued to go back and forth, their insults getting louder and more outrageous as they did. Turning to arch an eyebrow at Morgana, Tom asked, "Are they always like that?"
"Yes, always," Morgana replied.
"Must be tiring."
"You have no idea."
Footsteps sounded down the hall and a messy head of black hair appeared in the doorway before hurtling towards Morgana.
"Mumgana," Harry cried, happy to see his mother after only seeing her so sporadically the last few weeks. "Are you home for good?"
"Yes little one, I am," Morgana replied, running her hand through his hair as she did. Her eyes met Tom's and sent him a silent message. Harm him and I destroy you. Make him cry and you'll wish you'd never existed.
Pulling away from Morgana's arms Harry blushed as he took in the stranger's form standing next to her. Taking a step back he bowed slightly at the man and introduced himself.
"Sorry for my inattention. My name is Harry Potter, can I ask for yours?"
"Well met young Harry Potter, my name is Tom Riddle. Pleasure to meet you."
Reaching out Harry grabbed onto the outstretched hand in front of him and gave it as firm of a shake as he could.
"Pleasure to meet you too." Turning back to Morgana he dropped his pureblood etiquette and began bouncing from foot to foot, "Come on Morgana we have to go or we're going to be late."
"Go where?" Tom asked and Harry turned to him and Tom got the full effect of the boys' green eyes, so eerily similar to Morgana's.
"To the play of course. Aunt Dromeda spent so much time on it and I'm in it. We can't be late!"
"Well now, we should get going then," Tom replied, ushering everyone towards the door much to Sirius' chagrin. Pulling on his shirt the marauder muttered angrily as he followed a silently laughing Remus out the door.
Ϟϟϟ
Harry bounced back and forth between the curtains and backstage his anxiety spiking as the start time drew nearer. Andromeda has put a lot of work into the play, making it as historically accurate as possible for something based off a myth. He was worried though, for it was based on his Mumgana, though no one would know it. And he was worried that she wouldn't like it, that it might hurt her. But another part of him, the part that guarded his dreams at night ever since the horcrux removal whispered it would be okay. That they would be okay.
"Harry calm down and stop running about, we're going to start soon and Professor Tonks needs to adjust your glamors," Hermione said, shaking her head as her friend rolled his eyes at her only to be confronted by Draco.
"Hermione is right, calm down. It's just a play," Drake said.
"Easy for you, you're not the one playing Merlin," Harry snapped, running a hand through his hair as he twitched.
"She won't mind Harry. Now calm down before the blubbering hummdingers get a hold of you," Luna added, her glamors already cast. Her blonde hair was gone, replaced by thick black curls, she was to be playing Morgana while Draco played Arthur and Hermione played Guinevere. Neville was Will, Merlin's childhood friend. Blaise was the only one of them not excited at this role though, claiming that being cast as the wise mentor figure for Merlin was an insult to his good looks.
"Come along everyone, we start in ten," Professor Patil called out right as Aunt Dromeda appeared and began to wave her wand about Harry's head.
"Oh I think I might be sick," Draco turned a sickly yellow as he stared at the curtains, earning him a swift hug from his cousin. Luna upon seeing Draco pale, launched herself on him and tugged him into a tight hug.
"Get off Luna," Draco tried to shove her away, embarrassed at the sudden affection.
"Nope, you need a hug," Luna replied smiling as Harry gave her a thumbs up from the sidelines, his normal messy hair flattening to a strange swoopy style.
"Places everyone places," Susan called out, taking her role as Andromeda's assistant very seriously.
"La la la la, me me me me," Theo ran through a series of vocal exercises Hermione's mom had taught them, his role as narrator making him the first person who would cross the stage.
"Alright, we start in Five, Four, Three, Two, One," Andromeda flicked her wand at the curtains which they opened on Theo who stood center stage staring out at the audience.
Clearing his throat, he began.
"Our tale begins long ago, long before the Hogwarts four, before magic as we know it existed. It begins with a world at war against the very heart of magic, the Old Religion. Our story begins with a young boy whose name would go down in history. A young boy who had yet to know his true destiny. A young boy named, Merlin."
Here Harry stepped onto the stage, dressed in a brown leather jerkin and pants, looking so much like the Merlin of her youth that Morgana had a mini heart attack.
Theo continued oblivious to her panic.
"Coming from a small town on the borders of Camelot, Merlin was unused to city life, unused to the strict policy against magic that the King Uther Pendragon put in place."
Here Ernie MacMillan walked out his head held high and chest puffed out.
"But Merlin learned quickly and soon found himself in the service of the prince, Arthur."
Draco sauntered out a smirk on his face as he waved at the audience.
"While the prince wasn't yet the man legend would come to know him as, Arthur held promise. New to the world of Camelot, Merlin quickly befriended a young servant girl, called Guinevere, called Gwen by her friends."
Hermione strode out, a basket in her arms as she went to stand next to Harry.
"And through Gwen, young Merlin befriended the woman who would be his greatest love and his most fearsome enemy, the Lady Morgana."
Luna skipped out, ignoring Andromeda's groan at her actions, to stand next to Hermione.
"Together with his new friends, Merlin began to enjoy life in Camelot, though he had to hide his magic from everyone, except for his uncle, the King's Doctor, Gaius."
Blaise stomped up onto the stage, a glare on his face as he shook his finger at Harry. Morgana held back a laugh as Blaise managed to pull off Gaius's eyebrows of doom.
"The four went through many adventures together to protect Camelot and the life of its prince, Arthur."
Draco bowed and a smirk settled on his face as he pointed at the crown on his head.
"But there was one adventure that truly made them friends, that tested their bonds, and showed them to be true." Theo stumbled a bit over the words, Andromeda had tried to make them simpler for their age, but she had a flair for the dramatics that couldn't be contained.
"Merlin's mother, Hunith had come to Camelot, pleading for aid from the king as bad guys threatened her home. The king refused and Merlin decided he would go home and protect his mother and his home."
Harry as Merlin walked over to stand by Hannah Abbot who was playing Hunith, tugging at the bottom of his coat as he went.
"But he would not go alone, for the Lady Morgana saw the king's refusal to help as very rude and decided that if he wouldn't do anything she would."
Luna cleared her throat before walking over to face Harry and Hunith as she pulled out a sword and said, "We're coming with you," gesturing to herself and Hermione.
"What do you mean?" Harry took a step back and frowned.
"You're going to need all the help you can get. I can mend armor and sharpen swords," Hermione said coming to stand on his other side.
"And I can fight," Luna added.
"But you can't. Why would you?"
"If it was the other way around, you would help us. You already have, you've saved my life," Hermione said.
"We owe it to you. Both of us," Luna added before impulsively pulling Harry into a hug making the audience coo.
The three of them ran off the stage and left Draco and Ernie and Blaise who shared a look and shrugged before walking off to the other side. Shaking his head at them, Theo continued to narrate.
"Gaius made sure his nephew was well prepared for the journey."
Blaise's voice echoed throughout the hall, "Are you sure you don't want an extra blanket?" Followed by Harry's response of "It's okay really, I'll be alright."
Luna led the group out back onto the stage and flounced to a log that appeared and sat down and began to weave a daisy chain. The others followed and sat down next to her and Hannah began to speak:
"They shouldn't be here. Especially the Lady Morgana. Isn't she the King's ward?"
"Not that it you'd know it. She's the only person I know who isn't frightened of him," Harry replied.
Theo started to talk again, "The group settled in for the night, sending Merlin off to gather firewood where he runs into a familiar face."
Harry stood up and walked away from the log only to run face first into Draco.
"I'd ask you for money, but I know you don't have any," Draco said, and Harry jumped back in fake shock.
"Arthur!" Harry cried out and pulled Draco into a hug making the audience coo again.
Theo snickered and continued talking, "The group made it to Merlin's hometown and save the villagers from the bandit and Arthur started to teach the villagers how to fight."
Draco brandished a sword about to and fro and Harry narrowly dodged getting clipped by the end. The villagers, an assortment of their classmates milled about and pretended to train, stumbling into one another and tripping over their own feet. Poor Neville face planted into the ground after Luna gave a particularly vicious twirl of her wooden sword that he narrowly dodged. Morgana couldn't contain the grin that crossed her face at their actions on stage, it was a bittersweet memory for her, one of the first times she acknowledged her growing feelings for Merlin, but seeing it acted out so purely by the children, it eased any pain it brought up.
The training montage ended as Harry and Draco settled down to sleep on the floor.
Draco was mocking Harry as Merlin for sleeping on the floor before asking him why he came to Camelot. Harry's response had Morgana clutching at her chest, the longing in her boy's voice carrying the echoes of the past.
"I just didn't fit in anymore. I wanted to find somewhere that I did."
"Had any luck?"
"I'm not sure yet."
Sirius had been watching the show with an air of amusement but at those words he straightened himself in his seat. It was like his pup was channeling an 11-year-old Sirius from when he first started at Hogwarts and was desperate for connection. Looking over at Morgana he could see the same longing in her eyes, the same desire to belong. Remus shifted next to him and reached over to entwine their hands, squeezing as the play continued on and Theo narrated a rather impressive fight scene where the children managed to flail about on stage in a way that made sense.
Tom Riddle wasn't one for introspection, but after the last few weeks of his new life he figured he had earned it. Seeing the young form of his downfall echoing his own sentiments of a lonely childhood made him wonder if perhaps there was more that connected him to the boy, to this world. He'd set himself apart from everyone for so long, the bullying he received at the orphanage had started his isolation, but the mocking and sneers of his first years at Hogwarts, where everyone assumed he was a mudblood and treated him accordingly had proved to him that he would never belong with them, nor did he want to. He had ruled them at a distance with fear and power, and yet…and yet seeing the child now, and looking to the woman next to him whose eyes shone with similar sentiment, perhaps he'd been wrong to make such judgments at such an early age.
Harry hadn't been this excited in a long time. He loved acting, and Mumgana had cried and hugged him and laughed and cursed Merlin for some reason after his performance. They'd come back to Corvus Place for an after party and all his friends were running around hopped up on candy. He was sitting quietly for a moment in the corner, taking some time for himself though. Being on stage he hadn't been Just Harry, he hadn't been Pup or Little One, he'd been someone else, and it was freeing. He loved being all those things for his family, but the freedom of the stage or being someone else was great. And being Merlin, well that had been awesome. He liked that Merlin wasn't some titan of magic, Merlin was awkward and anxious and wanted friends just like him. Ever since Mumgana had saved him from the Dursley's he'd felt warm and safe, he'd started to belong, but sometimes…he still heard the word freak in his head, still felt the cold of the cupboard under the stairs. He belonged in his new home though, fit in with his friends like Drake and Nev and Hermione and Luna, just like Merlin had with Arthur and Gwen and Morgana.
Shaking his head at his confusing thoughts he laughed at the sight of Padfoot pulling Mumgana into an impromptu dance as Moony snickered in the corner. Mumgana's new friend Tom was standing off in the corner, their celebration's making the man alternate between sneering and smirking. He wasn't sure what to think of the new man, Mumgana had seemed nervous when they met, and Padfoot and Moony were really, really angry, was Tom Mumgana's boyfriend like Charlie Weasley was Nym's? He hoped not, he was really looking forward to Padfoot and Moony becoming his dad's, he'd been planning it for years now. He wanted his family to stay together forever and what better way than if his godfather and uncle married Morgana? Then no one would be able to separate them, and everyone could be happy.
"Harry come on and tell Hermione I made the best Arthur," Drake called from across the room, drawing Harry's attention away from the adults. Making his way over to them, Harry dismissed his worries about Tom and Mumgana, he'd figure out what was happening later on.
Ϟϟϟ
Remus shifted from foot to foot, they'd decided to talk to Harry about their relationship with Morgana the day after the play, but Sirius was late, and he was getting anxious. His pup was reading in the corner of the library, calm after the previous day's excitement but he himself was full of nerves that for once had nothing to do with his time of the month. Moony was anxious too, he wanted his pup to favor his choice of mates and kept prodding Remus to say something and start the discussion. Picking up his cup of lukewarm tea Remus sipped at it and coughed at the bitterness of the leaves that had steeped too long. Setting the cup back down he thought "fuck it" and went over to kneel in front of Harry, Sirius could play catch up when he got there.
"Harry, do you have a moment to talk?" he asked.
Looking up from his book Harry tilted his head slightly to take in the form of his honorary uncle/father figure. Moony seemed, awkward, his hair was all messy and his face was red. Putting his book down on his lap Harry nodded his head and waited for his Moony to continue.
"I know you've probably noticed some shifting dynamics lately, between Sirius, myself, and Morgana, before she left to bring Tom back that is," Remus paused and waited for Harry to acknowledge his words which he did with a soft smile. "Anyways, we talked and we wanted to bring it to you before we go any further but the three of us love each other, and well…we are going to be together, like a couple, but with three…and we just wanted to let you know that we love you and no matter what happens between us, we'll always be there for you. Nothing is going to change the fact that you're our pup," he stopped as the words caught in his throat, never had he more wished that Lily and James could be there at that moment to both support him but also to be there for their son. Harry was looking up at him with such open, emerald eyes that embodied such innocence yet such knowing, and he felt like he was bollixing up the entire conversation.
"Remus is right little one," a soft voice said from behind him, startling Remus as he hadn't noticed Morgana's entrance. She swept up next to him and pulled Harry into a gentle half hug before turning to look at Remus with such a warm expression he felt Moony turn over in his head and practically whine.
"We love you pup, and while we love each other and are going to start dating, after you leave for Hogwarts, we're always going to put you first…do you have any questions for us?" Sirius added as he walked into the room from his position in the entryway.
Harry shifted in his seat to look at his three guardians. He was trying so hard to keep from wiggling about with joy, it was finally happening! But he had to keep his cool, he had to be mature like Hermione said he should be when this happened.
"I'm happy for you all, and I love you," the whisper left him, and he couldn't quite contain the squeak at the very end as he said I love you.
"So no questions?" Morgana asked her eyebrow quirked in disbelief.
"No, none that I want answered. You're grown-ups and that sort of kissing stuff is gross…but I do want to know who Tom is and why you left for so long to take care of him?"
Morgana shifted away from him slightly, debating whether she should share the full truth with him before deciding that yes, there wouldn't be any secrets, secrets had damned her in the past, and she would not be like Uther.
"Tom…Tom is Tom Riddle Jr. He is Voldemort as he should have been. I used his horcruxes that I collected and brought him back, reformed, and mostly whole. He is going to help us in our fight against Voldemort and the other darkness in the world."
Harry froze, the pretty man who had smiled at him and patted him on the head the previous night after his performance was the man who killed his parents. Why would Mumgana? He stopped that train of thought, he trusted his mum, he knew she saw things that no one else could, she had a plan, and if Moony and Padfoot were alright with it, he should be too. It hurt though, the thought that the person who killed his parents had taken his Mumgana away from him so long. She'd been gone for weeks. To help Moldie Shorts. Ugh. His head hurt. Rubbing at his eyes he looked up at everyone and froze, Mumgana looked like she was about to cry and Padfoot and Moony were looking at him like they used to when he was younger and remembering the Dursleys.
"Is he gonna hurt anyone?"
"No little one, I won't let him hurt any of us. He's sworn not to. I've made him take several oaths to such effect. I wish it hadn't been necessary to be away so long, but the spell took much out of me and I had to make sure that it worked and that he was not…Voldemort. Because he's not Harry, he is what Voldemort was before the horcruxes stripped him of his sanity, of what little compassion and morality he had. I know it might be hard to understand and we can discuss it if you want, but I've seen how instrumental he will be in the future for us," Morgana reached out and brushed his hair away from his face and he leaned into the motion.
"I…not now. Later maybe, can we just," Harry's voice broke and he was swept up in a three-way hug between his guardians. Wrapped up in their arms, he felt warmth spread down his body and he knew that no matter what, they would always be there for him, Tom Riddle or not.
Ϟϟϟ
Merlin stood before the mouth of the cave, his latest conversation with Kilgarrah troubling him. The Great Dragon had seen a great darkness appear where none had dwelled before and had blamed Morgana for it again. Scrying into a crystal he'd nicked from the caves centuries ago he tried to focus his magic to see what Kilgharrah was talking about, but the crystal remained blank. The dragon had intimated that the darkness had centered around Morgana's ritual with the veil between the living and the dead and Tom's resurrection but all his research regarding the matters hadn't revealed anything out of place. Shaking his head, he dismissed Kilgarrah's warnings, there was nothing there, save the dragon's dislike for Morgana, ever present even these centuries after Camelot. Kilgarrah could hold a grudge like no one else and Morgana's bond with Aithusa angered the older dragon. He was trying to stir dissent between the two titans of the Old Religion and Merlin wouldn't let him, not again.
Ϟϟϟ
Albus Dumbledore sat in his office giddily going through the Hogwarts response letters for this new year's batch of students. The positive replies from the Weasley's, Patil's, Bones', and Abbot's meant that the Light would have a strong showing in first year's class. He'd received Harry Potter's response earlier that morning, brought in by a snowy white owl that hooted disdainfully at him before dropping the letter on his head and disappearing out the window. The boy had responded politely, stating that he was looking forward to coming to Hogwarts and was excited to be taught by his "Aunt Minnie." Briefly Dumbledore wondered if Minerva would notice that several of the first-year responses had been redirected to him, but he dismissed that thought. He'd given her the task of rounding up several new professors as well as reviewing their curriculum for the new year and she'd been running around in a frantic manner ever since. No, Minerva wouldn't be bothering him over this, it was a trivial thing anyways and he doubted she would care much anyways. He was headmaster after all.
Now his plans were starting to come into fruition, although the boy's adoption and subsequent rearing by Black and that foul Le Fay woman had thrown a bludger into his initial plans, this coming year with Harry under his watchful eye would see things mended. He already had several tasks in mind to gauge the boy's power and temperament and had carefully maneuvered several pawns to ensure the boy made the right sort of friends at the start of the year. The Weasley boy for starters, would keep him from the Dark and guide him down the path of righteousness. He would be sorted into Gryffindor for sure, and that would most definitely cause a rift between him and that damnable Le Fay (he conveniently forgot that the woman had never actually been to Hogwarts and therefore wouldn't have any stereotypes against particular houses, in his mind she was a Slytherin through and through).
His most faithful pawn, Severus, would be sure to instill a deep dislike for all things Slytherin by his treatment of the boy. He didn't even need to manipulate the man; he knew his deep loathing of James Potter would do it for him. The newly returned Quirrell with his very obvious parasite Voldemort would be a significant detriment to the boys' defense skills and he'd be able to gauge how deep the connection ran between Voldemort and the boy, the prophecy had to be maintained after all. The Wizengamot would slowly start to fall back to the Light after his new proposal through his puppet Arthur Weasley regarding muggles and the introduction of muggleborns into society as soon as their magic was detected. It was similar, to what he knew from his conversations with Minerva, her coven was working on, but with the provisos that the children be removed from their muggle parents and placed entirely with Light families as guardians. He couldn't have the muggle world influencing them too much, and he knew indoctrination into the Light needed to happen early so that the children wouldn't question certain traditions too much or try to learn more about the wizarding world on their own.
He was the Leader of the Light after all and their new minds needed to be sheltered and brought to his, their, way of thinking sooner than later. Though his ill-thought out union with Gellert in his youth had gone awry he hadn't changed his stance that muggles were inferior to wizards, he'd just adapted it. The Wizarding World were sheep and they needed him to guide them. The Light was the only way to do so. The Dark had too many traditions and practices steeped in dark magic and blood purity that he couldn't work with or manipulate, while the Light embraced him with open arms for his defeat of Gellert. They listened to whatever he had to say and never questioned him (barring recent dissenters in the form of Augusta Longbottom and Amelia Bones that is, but they were women and he knew that women were often fickle minded). Their new leader in Morgana Le Fay was a misguided American who was far too Dark and far too outspoken to be taken seriously and would soon be beaten back by the traditionalists in the Dark faction. He was looking forward to that to be honest. Yes, it was all coming together rather nicely now.
Ϟϟϟ
Not for the first time since he'd traveled to Albania, Quirinus Quirrell lamented his idiocy and blind acceptance of the Dark Lord into his life. The parasite on the back of his head was leeching his magic and his life and he hadn't had a proper wank in months because the thing kept him from holding an erection with its sharp barbs and caustic comments about the uselessness of sex as anything but a manipulator. He was frustrated and pent up and had no outlet. And now he was supposed to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a subject he barely managed to get Exceeds Expectations in and didn't even hold a Mastery for, all because the Dark Lord convinced him to apply. Dumbledore must have been truly desperate to hire him for the position and now he had to sit through hours of meetings with Minerva McGonagall as she ripped apart his lesson plans and critiqued him for every choice he made. Sitting across from her at their third meeting in two days he felt like Avada-ing himself for his life choices. Things were much easier when he was just a nobody muggle studies professor who kept students ignorant of the true world.
"Quirinus are you listening to me. Stop daydreaming and pay attention, I said you shouldn't introduce first years to the disarming charm until after you've taught them the basic ethics of dueling," McGonagall snapped at him, glaring when he rolled his eyes and noted down her comments. His life was officially the worst.
Ϟϟϟ
Voldemort wished once more that a stronger wizard had crossed his path in Albania those past months. Quirrell was an idiot of the highest order, controlled by his base emotions and weaker than his cannon fodder Death Eaters. He missed his old body, with its power and strength and ability to strike fear in all. But his old body had been destroyed by the Potter brat, a boy barely old enough to walk had obliterated his body and sent his spirit screaming in the dark. Soon he would have his revenge, soon the boy would face him, and he would know pain.
Ϟϟϟ
Arcturus watched as the younger generation twirled around the solar of Corvus Place, his heir flirting outrageously with the wolf and the eternal witch. Six years ago he was staring down oblivion, his family line all but extinct with only batty Walburga left alive and Sirius in prison, leaving the male line bereft. Now he had a strong heir courting two strong matches, and Narcissa had shown herself to be true to her Black blood, not the Malfoy's, and the family had reunited, not once, not twice, but every month for the past six years discussing their role in the Wizarding world. He was old, not that old for a wizard, but old enough that he could feel it in his bones. He wondered how life would have been different if it wasn't for Harry, his heir's heir. A bright boy who made him long to hold his own children one last time. Or Morgana, a woman who terrified and inspired him in equal regard, who had brought them all together.
A smile settled over his face as his idiot grandson turned into his animagus form and let Harry launch himself on his back. Too many emotions for one night. Shaking himself, he gave them all a small wave before heading to grab his coat, a drink at the Leaky Cauldron would keep the feelings at bay, and he could always keep an ear out for gossip to help the Black family cause.
Ϟϟϟ
The loud knocking at the front door had the members of Corvus house stumbling out of their rooms the next morning. Harry's hair was a mess of tangles and curls, a shorter version of Morgana's mane which she simply tossed over her shoulder as she tied her dressing gown. Sirius barely shrugged his on as he tugged his pants further up his waist, Remus on his heels fixing the neck of his hastily donned shirt. Tom was on a lower level and was already standing at the front door when they got there, his shirt and pants a simple white and black combo, but immaculately buttoned and straight, the only sign he'd just woken up in the red tinged glare he wore.
Nodding at Tom, Morgana stepped past him to open the door, her eyes blinking at the harsh daylight. A man and a woman stood before her, and it took her a second before she recognized them.
"Aurors Shacklebolt and Moody, what can I do for you?"
At the word aurors, Tom melted into the background and disappeared around the corner while Sirius and Remus pushed Harry behind them and stepped forward.
"Sirius Orion Black, Heir of House Black lives here yes?" Shacklebolt said, ignoring Morgana's question.
"I'm here, Kings. What's the problem?" Sirius replied.
"Your grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black was found dead last night at the Leaky Cauldron. Our investigation is undergoing, but as his Heir you were to be notified," Moody said.
Sirius stood there frozen, Arcturus was dead. His grandfather, was dead.
A/N:
Hyrmeigh: Thank you so much! Your review made my day when I saw it. Most of the plot is loosely outlined so a lot of my writing is based on character interactions and how they react in scenes. I will say that my portrayal of Dumbledore is heavily biased by my dislike of him as an adult, looking back to how much I like Harry idolized him as a child. If it feels like I've portrayed him as more feeble and uncharismatic that might be why. As to how Morgana knew about Sirius, she'd had visions of the Marauders periodically throughout her times in the cave because of their pivotal role in the War and later her own life.
Marcus1993: Thank you for your review! I too like Harry and Draco as brothers and I think they're writing themselves as such so it will probably stay that way.
FreeTraderBeowolf: Thanks for your review! Morgana and Tom are unique characters and I adore giving them each a chance at the lives they could and should have had if they'd been given the support they needed. I agree that Dumbledore never even tried with Tom, something that always bothered me and so here I'm trying to give him the foundations he needs while still acknowledging he is very much not a "good" person, but can potentially be a "great" one.
osterreicher97: Awww. Thanks! Zuko and Iroh kind of crept up on me and before I knew it were demanding to be characters in this fic. Tom and Morgana are definitely going to have trust issues, her with him around Harry and him with her in general, but I think the very fact she brought him back to life and out of madness gives her a much needed edge. I can't say much about the shadow creature but that it hints at larger crossovers in the future and is something that even Morgana would struggle to fight at full strength.