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Chapter Twenty—Offerings

"Have a good holiday, Professor!"

Harry nodded at the wishes of his students as they filed out of his classroom. Then he stretched his arms over his head and sat down behind the classroom desk with a sigh that was frankly one of exhaustion.

Teaching Hogwarts students wasn't as bad as Auror training, but it was mentally challenging in a way that Auror training never had been. Students asked him questions, tried to trip him up, reacted with glee to anything they thought was a mistake on his part, demanded his attention, and attempted to find loopholes in a way that Harry was sure even Ron would never have thought of. (Who knew that not telling students explicitly that they couldn't cheat by passing notes back and forth to each other during an exam would result in the students claiming that, "Well, you didn't say we couldn't do it"?)

Harry was starting to have a lot more respect for professors like Minerva in his original timeline who had rarely lost their tempers.

Someone moved outside his door, and Harry glanced up. He wasn't leaving Hogwarts permanently during the holiday, partially because he didn't really have any other place to go. He'd alternate marking with visiting Mariana and Severus, and the Blacks, for the holiday. He'd bought the gifts for the children months ago.

Harry did scowl to himself at the memory. He'd had to use Orion's money to do it, and had calmed his temper and conscience by reminding himself that if he used the money partially for Regulus and Sirius, he was still benefiting the Black family in a way, and refusing to benefit himself.

That was after the goblins had refused to do anything.

"What do you mean, you can't do anything about it?"

The goblin who had confronted Harry when he went to complain about the Black vault and ask it to be taken out of his name just blinked at him. "Mr. Black gave up all claims on the vault and transferred it to you. We can't remove it from your name unless you'd like to take all the money out of the bank, and then we'll close the vault."

"How am I supposed to keep twenty thousand Galleons in my drawing room?"

The goblin gave Harry a look that suggested he could not be further from concerned with that problem. Harry shut his eyes and ran his hand through his hair in frustration, then snorted out. "Okay, fine. I'll leave the vault intact. But there still has to be some method of transferring it back to Orion Black, doesn't there?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"What about transferring it back to the Black family?" Harry sat up as the thought came to him. "Putting it in a trust for Sirius and Regulus Black, Orion's sons?"

The goblin paused and eyed Harry as if he'd finally done something interesting. "That might be possible. If Mr. Black hadn't signed paperwork relinquishing any claim his family had to the vault, at all, ever."

"But how can he do that for his sons?"

"As I understand it, they're currently a few years old, each. It would be an interesting world if wizards allowed children to make their own financial decisions," the goblin added, in the tone of someone entertaining a hypothetical. "If somewhat chaotic."

"Ugh," said Harry, and slumped back in the chair with his hands over his face.

"You are a strange human being. All of the ones I know want money and more money. You've had some released to you as a gift, enough to keep you comfortably for many years, and you cannot even be appreciative?"

"Not when I know that the man who gave it to me is trying to buy his way into my bed."

"Ah." The goblin paused for a second, and Harry thought he must have gone on to another transaction, but when he dropped his hands, the goblin was still looking at him. "I had no idea the going human price for sex was so high."

Harry stared at him. The goblin blinked back and finally added, "Then you don't want us to close the vault and give you the Galleons?"

Harry sighed and stood. "No, thank you." He stalked out of the room and avoided the other goblins as he headed back to the surface. No matter how angry he was at Orion Black, it wouldn't do to be impolite to the goblins.

He would have gone to Grimmauld Place and yelled at the man if he didn't suspect that Black would enjoy that. Harry rubbed his hand over his eyes. Why was his life so weird, even when he went back in time?

The memory blew away as Harry realized that the person who had stopped outside his clasroom door was still standing there, and the Elder Wand was trembling in its holster. Harry let his hand rest on it, and heard a soft growling noise.

But a confused one. As if even the Elder Wand didn't know how to react to whoever was standing in the corridor.

Harry smiled a little and rose. "Miss Malfoy, is that you?" he called. "I told you that I'm not going to give you an exception to the homework, whether it goes against your personal beliefs or not."

There was a breathless moment when Harry had the distinct feeling that someone wanted to blow through the door in a gust of wind and kill him. The Elder Wand continued to emit that confused noise, but it would fight well enough for him once he was attacked.

Then the figure walked in. The thick cloak that covered it wouldn't have been out of place in Knockturn Alley. Harry couldn't see any of its facial features under the deep shadow of the hood, of course.

Harry raised his eyebrows and held still. It was still probably human—probably. It was at least taller than a goblin and smaller than a troll. But it could have been a vampire.

And he really didn't like the feeling that it confused the Elder Wand at all.

"I have come to make you an offer," said the figure, in a low, burring voice that Harry was sure was disguised with magic. The Elder Wand's buzzing changed from sounding confused to sounding upset.

Harry kept his hand a little away from his side, so he wouldn't warn his enemy by reaching for it immediately, and shrugged. "Some people like to do that, but if I want to buy something, I'll go to Diagon Alley."

"Not Knockturn? I've heard so many rumors about the unusual Professor Evanson."

The man said his name with so much venom that Harry blinked. Then again, perhaps this was a pure-blood who had figured out that Harry was a half-blood. Or someone who just thought he was Muggleborn from his name.

"That doesn't sound like you want to make me an offer," he said. "Or at least not one that would benefit anyone but you."

The figure drew back, and shrouded its hands close to its chest. Harry, watching it, supposed he shouldn't say it was a man. He couldn't say for sure. But the figure was at least tall, taller than most women, and Harry decided to think of it as a man for the moment.

"Believe me, what I have to offer would benefit you the most of all."

Harry suddenly wondered if this was someone who had also figured out his connection to the Potters. He grimaced. Shit, I never did bind Mariana by her word not to speak to someone about the connection. He kept his voice neutral with an effort. "I don't think so. I have a job I like and more friends than I know what to do with. And you can't offer me money." Someone already did that in an irritating fashion.

"What if I spoke of something other than that?"

"I would ask you what you're speaking of."

The figure's shoulders twitched, and now his hands were clasped behind his back. Irritatingly, it reminded Harry of someone without bringing the memory into focus at all. "The chance to travel."

"I also have the funds to do that if I—"

"Backwards, Mr. Evanson. Or sideways. If you will."

Harry froze. He found himself watching the door of his classroom, waiting for the Aurors to come storming through. That had to be what would happen in a second, or at least the minute he confirmed he was a time traveler, right? Laocoon had been quick enough to try and turn Harry over, and there was really no reason for Dumbledore and Grindelwald to keep him that much of a secret.

If they try to take me, I'll fight. For Severus and Sirius and Regulus and his students, if not himself.

"I am not speaking of betraying you," the figure said, and again there was a weight on that one word Harry didn't understand. "I am speaking of the chance to make things right. Fix what you broke. It would benefit not only you but me." He edged a little closer, and Harry drew the Elder Wand because his instincts were clamoring at him to. The figure paused and eased back on one foot. "When you broke time, you also snapped my conception of myself. I want the person I used to be back."

Harry could feel the anger and fear hammering in him so hard that his head hurt, but his voice sounded steadier than he could believe, even if it also sounded muffled in his own ears, distant and underwater. "Show me your face, and perhaps I'll accept that."

The figure laughed, a chuckle twisted into something horrific by the charm his voice was under. "No. I think not. You would waste your time exclaiming and getting angry instead of listening to my proposal. Perhaps I should offer you a word about my power first. Were you not hunting for the man who tampered with Seneca Prince's mind?"

"Why would I cooperate with a mind-rapist?"

"Did you not cooperate with Albus Dumbledore?" The figure sounded as if he was enjoying himself now. "He is far more of a mind-rapist than I ever was. He has used his Legilimency even on himself, so that his thoughts are monitored by the Wizengamot when it comes to his husband. Beware, or he might betray you himself someday."

"If he cast those spells on himself, then he did so with consent," Harry snapped. "What you did to Prince was beyond the pale."

The figure sighed. "I had hoped you would cooperate. But why would you do that? It's not in your nature." He raised his hand, and one of his fingers appeared to lengthen into a dark wand, which began to glow with the pulse of a blue spell Harry had never seen before. "So I will force you."

The Elder Wand had stopped its confused noises and sprang out eagerly to battle. Harry didn't cast a spell until the blue glow reached towards him, though. He was straining his senses, trying to make sure that no students were coming down the corridor or in range of the spell. He didn't want to hurt anyone, or even shock them, if he could help it.

The blue glow aimed for him, and the figure said in a mocking voice, "No resistance at all? How unlike you, Potter."

Harry spun the Elder Wand then, with no thought in his head except to stop the blue glow. He couldn't shield against it when he didn't know what it was. He simply willed the Elder Wand to stop it, and—

And it did.

The blue glow slammed into a hardened panel of air that quickly grew crab-like claws and grabbed it. The crab-thing spun around and hit against another glass wall that had sprouted from Harry's desk. In seconds, the blue glow dimmed, and after a minute, it stopped struggling.

The walls and the crab-claws and the blue light disappeared at the same time. Harry leveled his gaze and the Elder Wand at the cloaked man, not sure what he would try next.

He was standing still, however. Harry didn't think that stillness was indicative of anything but immense rage. His hand was already twitching, as if the wand that had grown out of his finger wanted to kill Harry as much as use him.

"What was that?" His voice hissed and scraped along the edges of Harry's senses without turning into Parseltongue, the way Harry thought it might.

"Magic."

The figure trembled as if he would break out in swearing or dueling in a moment. Harry maintained his gaze. He would be happy to help the man decide to leave, if it came to that.

But in the end, the cloaked figure moved a step back and put a hand on the door of his classroom. "I hope that you know I offered you something priceless, something that only I in this forsaken world can give you."

Harry snored. "Given that it's the second time I've been offered it in a few months, you're wrong."

"Who?"

"Someone I'm sure you don't know."

Harry made his tone patronizing on purpose, and the expected curse came shooting towards him from the end of the cloaked figure's finger-wand. Harry gestured lazily with the Elder Wand, and yet another screen of light like glass opened in front of him and caught the curse. It folded over the damn thing like a sheet, and both disappeared.

"Someday, I will catch you without that wand."

Harry snapped his fingers and conjured fire. The flames spread around his hand, and he held it up. He couldn't make nearly as strong a fireball as he could with the Elder Wand, of course, and he reckoned that he might not be able to dissipate the sort of curse that this bloke seemed fond of casting. But from the way the figure jerked backwards, he didn't know that, or not for sure.

"You should not be capable of something like that."

"What would you know about my capabilities?" Harry asked, and wriggled his fingers when the cloaked figure didn't answer. "Now, leave. Shoo."

The cloaked figure stiffened with what looked like loathing, and Harry was sure that he wanted to say something else, or stay and fight out the duel. Instead, he turned and whisked through the classroom door. Harry waited a few minutes, then went to the door and glanced up and down.

Sure enough, the man was gone. That had been one reason Harry hadn't pressed him on his identity, or tried to take off the cloak or duel him to a standstill. There was magic going on here that he didn't know and which might be able to hurt him the way the figure had hurt Severus's grandfather.

Harry shook his head and shut the door, then went back to more pleasant thoughts, such as how Sirius and Regulus would react to their gifts when they saw them.

"Happy Christmas!"

Orion had put up with a lot to have the Christmas that Harry demanded. A tree filled with fairy lights and baubles. Hearing his sons speak with excitement of a mostly Muggle holiday and not scolding them for it. Agreeing that they would have a "special" dinner, which seemed to be mostly sweets, on the twenty-fourth of December.

It was worth it to see the way Harry eyed him every time he thought Orion wasn't watching, as if expecting him to turn into a snake when Harry looked away.

And it was worth it to see the smile that broke out over Harry's face as he watched Sirius and Regulus opening the presents he had apparently bought for them, the small enchanted plush cats that wriggled and purred and the simple books and a model of a fairy whose wings whirred and which was so realistic that Orion had opened his mouth to forbid Sirius to keep it before he realized that Harry was the sort of sap who would never buy a live fairy for a child as careless as his elder son.

That smile…

It could have warmed an arctic night. It could have called armies. And Orion could have spent days watching it.

Of course, the moment Harry noticed he had an audience, it flickered and died. Harry glanced away and then smiled as Regulus waved his own practice wand around.

"That's what you spent the money from the vault on," Orion murmured, leaning towards Harry.

"Of course I did." Harry tilted his head upright while his eyes shone with a warning.

"Thank you."

And now Harry was the one trying to understand him through a stare, but Orion ignored that. Harry had accepted the money and was spending it. And he had provided gifts that Orion's children genuinely enjoyed.

It had allowed Orion to take care of Harry as he'd wished, and at another remove, to take care of his sons. If Harry thought about it, he would have to guess the answer.

He glanced at Harry as they herded the children towards the table. "Will you stay the night?" he asked softly.

Harry gaped at him.

"I didn't mean in my room," Orion added mildly. "We do have plenty of guest rooms, you know."

"You do not give up." But Harry was smiling fondly down at Regulus, who was clutching at his finger, and the words didn't have the scorpion sting in their tail that they usually would. "I can't. I promised that I would spend Christmas Day with the Princes."

"That wouldn't preclude you spending the night and leaving early tomorrow."

"It does, because I still think that you'll wake up someday and realize this courting is a fantasy."

"Why?"

"My blood. My politics. Because you could find someone who would serve whatever purpose you have in mind for your second marriage better."

"But not someone I want more."

Harry glanced at him with stunned eyes. Orion just nodded, said, "If you have to leave, you have to leave, but let's get to the table before Sirius eats all the lemon tarts," and quickened his pace.

Harry might not believe him now. Someday, he would.