Hey, everyone. I'm so sorry for letting you wait so long on a new update. Unforeseen circumstances (not COVID-19 related) took my attention for this fanfic away. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review!

"Speech"

'thoughts'

§parseltongue§

CHAPTER 6

August 1995

While the Order was summarising the events of Harry's first two years at Hogwarts to Frank Longbottom, the dimension traveller and his family remained seated where they were. Harry spoke up to his brother.

"So, for how long did you have a crush on Hermione?" he asked with a smirk. To his amusement, Skylar turned red when Lily and James looked at their youngest with raised eyebrows.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, please. I saw your reaction watching the scene where she got petrified. You can't fool me. I could even take a look in your mind to see what your intentions are towards her." Harry mock-threatened his brother. The youngest Potter son took offence and glared at him when he heard those words.

"That's none of your business." Skylar hissed in anger.

"Actually, it is my business. Hermione is my sister in all but blood and I won't let her being hurt again, whether she lives in this dimension or mine. So forgive me if I take her happiness and safety very seriously." Harry coldly said. His facial expression darkened and sparks came out of the tip of his wand which he hadn't put away since Frank's recovery.

It didn't escape the notice of the Potters, Sirius and Remus that the Boy-Who-Lived from the other universe mentioned he wouldn't let his friend getting hurt 'again' and his reaction to his own words. What happened to her that angered Harry so much? Before they could ask them what he meant, they got approached by the four youngest Weasley children.

"Skylar, can we…eh…talk to you two for a moment?" a nervous Ron asked. He felt awkward right now, he had accused Harry of being dark and yet Dumbledore's phoenix had seen the parselmouth as a 'light' wizard. He still didn't trust Harry neither did he want Skylar to distance himself from the Weasley family. His friend had taken that accusation to his brother very bad and Ron had decided to mend the burned bridges between them. The only way to do so is to apologize to the other Boy-Who-Lived.

"What do you want, Ron?" Skylar asked, his voice imbued with venom.

"Good question, little brother. What is it that you want, Weasley? Are you sure it's safe to come in the proximity of a 'dark' wizard?" Harry mocked the redhead. Ron flushed in embarrassment and before he could answer, Skylar turned to his brother.

"Little brother? You're only one year older than me. That makes me hardly little, you know." the younger Potter said, quite annoyed at Harry's remark of their age difference.

"Do I look one year older to you? I am 28 years old right now, meaning that you are my little brother." Harry smugly retorted.

"…"

"What? The kneazel got your tongue?"

"…You are only 28 years old in your universe. In this world, you are still one year older. That makes you actually 15 years old." Skylar reasoned with his brother.

"…At least I finished my education and I have the right to use magic outside the school and manor." Harry teased.

"…Smart-ass." his brother mumbled while Harry triumphantly twirled his wand between his fingers before putting it away. They were brought out of their banter when Ron cleared his throat.

"Listen, we" he said, pointing at himself and his siblings at his side "would like to apologise to you. It was wrong of us to judge you because you possess an ability that had always been linked with dark wizards. Can we start over?"

Harry casted a small Legilimency probe in Ron's mind and saw that the redhead only asked forgiveness to stay friends with Skylar. He still didn't trust Harry and said wizard couldn't care less. He never had the intention to become friends with Ron's counterpart in the first place. He also saw something else in the redhead's mind that confirmed his suspicions about this Weasley family. His mood and eyes darkened again at the mere knowledge of Ron's true intentions.

"I'm not interested in your apology, Weasley. If there is someone you should say sorry to, it is Remus and Sirius. You know Remus is a werewolf which is a dark creature and the mutt is raised by the Blacks, one of the most notorious dark families in Britain. I don't see them being held at wand point. Instead of vilifying everything that is connected to the dark side or seems dark, you should judge people for their actions. Those two are part of the Order, fought against Voldemort and are prepared to do so again. Tell me Weasley, what gives you the right to deem something or someone evil? What makes you better than them?" Harry icily said.

Unknown to him, he unintentionally had gathered the attention of the rest of the Order in the office. They had been in the middle of briefing Frank when all of them heard Harry's response to Ron's attempted pardon. Harry's parents beamed at him for defending his honorary uncles who in turn were touched by his words. Everyone was now focused on the scene, waiting for the youngest male Weasley's reaction.

Ron's face became red as his hair, he felt angry and embarrassed. Angry because Skylar's brother had refused his apology, embarrassed for the valid and obvious points Harry had brought up. It was true the ginger didn't consider Sirius and Remus as dangerous as any other dark sentient beings. Their friendship with the Potters and Longbottoms and membership in the Order of the Phoenix had opened him up to them, but not without apprehension. He suddenly remembered the reason, in his opinion, why the werewolf and dog animagus were not that dark at all. Ron was sure Harry couldn't deny it.

"You seem to forget that Sirius and Remus were sorted in Gryffindor. That's why they refused to join You-Know-Who, because Gryffindors can't impossibly be evil. In their case, they are related to the dark side but their upbringing in the house of the Lions made sure they didn't became evil. The founder of our house was a champion of the Light and so are all those who are and were sorted in Gryffindor." he proudly exclaimed. His siblings nodded in agreement.

Harry looked at the ginger with an unreadable expression, saying nothing for several moments. He was seething inwards however. 'How brainless is that redhead waste of magic?! He wants so-called proof that all Gryffindors are light sided? Well, he shall have it.'

"Are you sure about that?" the eldest Potter son asked with a false, sweet voice which put everyone except the oblivious Ron on edge.

"Of course, it is a fact." Ron smugly said.

"If that's a fact, then could you explain me why a Gryffindor named Peter Pettigrew betrayed my parents to Voldemort on both worlds?" Harry asked with a sinister grin that exposed his teeth which resembled that of a shark that had smelled blood. The ginger had walked right into his trap as he expected.

Ron's triumphant expression vanished instantly as he heard the question. He had completely forgotten Pettigrew had been a Lion too. He had no time to ponder about it because all of a sudden Harry rose up from his seat, approached and towered over him. The Weasley children backed away when they looked in the dimension traveller's eyes. His emerald green pupils resembled green flames and his facial expression was thunderous to say the least. His anger was radiating from him in waves which made everyone in the office feel like they were choking. Dumbledore waved his wand and the pressure on their lungs became less but before he or anyone else could calm Harry down, said wizard spoke.

"Are you insinuating that Pettigrew was a good man because he was a Gryffindor?" Harry snarled.

"No, I…" Ron meekly answered, but was cut off by the enraged wizard.

"Andromeda Tonks, Nymphadora's mother and Sirius' cousin, was cast out of the Black family because she married a muggle. Yet she had been sorted in Slytherin. Knowing this, is she evil?"

"Well, no...But…"

"Barty Crouch Jr. was a Ravenclaw. Are you saying him killing Charlus and Dorea Potter and delivering Neville to Voldemort were light sided actions?" Harry raised his voice.

"Absolutely not! How can you…"

"SPEAKING ABOUT MY GRANDPARENTS, DID YOU KNOW DOREA POTTER WAS A BLACK BY BIRTH?! ARE MY DAD AND SKYLAR EVIL BECAUSE THEY ARE HER SON AND GRANDSON?!" Harry roared.

Ron remained silent this time. He opened his mouth several times, but no word escaped him. It didn't matter anyway for Harry grabbed him by the throat, dragged and slammed him into the nearest wall. Molly took her wand out to protect her son but was surprisingly stopped by Dumbledore.

"His wand isn't drawn, only engage when your son is truly in danger." he whispered.

"He is choking my Ronniekins, Albus. That's dangerous enough for me." the Weasley matriarch hissed. She raised her wand to curse Harry but her wrist was unexpectedly grabbed by Arthur of all people.

"Molly, please don't do this. Remember, he has already vanquished You-Know-Who in his universe, tortured Lily and James to force us swearing the Unbreakable Vow (even though it seems they already forgave him) and now his magic almost suffocated us. Let's not forget the memories he just showed us. Do you really want to start a fight with him?" he quietly told her.

Molly's fierce expression changed to doubt and a hint of fear. Harry had scared her, not only by appearance but also by power and ruthlessness. His reflexes were so fast he had Lilly at wand point in a blink of an eye and the dome he summoned to shield himself had been extremely powerful. He even faced a basilisk with only a sword and survived, for Merlin's sake! The way he forced the Order to take the Vow was despicable and using the Cruciatus curse was clearly a dark sided action. He was a Parselmouth and dressed like a dark wizard, but for some reason Fawkes deemed him light. Something was not right about him, but she had no time to give it more thought when Harry spoke up.

"Even though I never knew my grandparents, you just insulted their memory my family had about them. Worse, in your stupidity you accused my dad and Skylar of being evil because Dorea was a Black. You're lucky my dad is Head of the Potter family in this dimension, otherwise I would have declared a blood feud against you and your family members for your disrespect and idiocy." the dimension traveller growled while pressing harder and harder on Ron's throat who started to turn blue.

"Your condescending on everything non-Gryffindor and non-light makes you as biased as Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I thought that the light side was better than those bigots who like to rape, torture and murder innocents for their own pleasure. You are better than them, aren't you?"

The redhead tried to answer but only a small squeak crossed his lips. He was desperately trying to kick Harry's shin, but the latter caught his leg by the knee and pinned it against the wall.

"Aren't you?!" Harry hissed as he pressed his body close to Ron's.

Before the Gryffindor could answer, he felt a burning sensation on his throat. It became warmer and more painful by the second; he started to smell burned flesh. Ron wanted to scream but was prevented to do so as he was being strangled.

"Answer me!" Harry barked, this time loosening his grip a bit.

Before Ron could do so, a voice rang through the office.

"Harry, that's enough! He's not worth it, release him!" James yelled, authority clearly imbued in his voice. He saw his eldest son stopped burning Ron's throat but didn't let go of him.

"Now!" he ordered.

To everyone's relief, Harry took finally his hand away and backed away releasing the youngest male Weasley. Ron collapsed on the floor with tears in his eyes and a nasty, dark red burn on his windpipe. Madame Pomfrey and his family hurried towards him, the nurse and Molly were all over him while the other family members watched in concern. Arthur warily approached the eldest Potter son who was looking in disdain at Ron.

"I know my son should think first about everything he says, but don't you think you took his words a bit out of proportion? Why did you do that? I thought you were friends in your dimension?" he affronted asked.

"It is just a little part of burned flesh, nothing a Burn-Healing Paste can't fix." Harry evenly said. "You are right that he should consider his words carefully instead of putting his foot in his mouth. I had every right to get angry at him. I know he unwittingly praised Pettigrew, but in doing so he insulted my family. I will say it again, he's lucky I'm not the Head of the Potter family on this world or I would have immediately declared a blood feud against your family. You can thank Merlin that didn't happen."

"A blood feud had not occurred in more than two centuries. Even if you did declare it, do you think your family would have joined you in this?" the Weasley patriarch challenged.

"Harry has no authority to declare a blood feud as he already told you and we wouldn't certainly announce one for such petty slander nor support Harry in it." James intervened before Harry could retort. "However, your son insulted my mother and my sons' grandmother. I would've challenged him to an honour duel were he an adult, which is not the case. The restitution that I demand is that you punish him accordingly and I forbid him to come to Potter Manor for the unforeseeable future and have no contact whatsoever with Skylar until the first of September. Is that clear, Arthur?"

The redhead wizard wanted to protest but at seeing the Potter patriarch's raging eyes, he nodded with a grave expression and turned around to go back to his family. Before he could even take a single step, he suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder and was shaken to his very core by what Harry whispered in his ear, standing right behind him.

"You realise how lucky you are, don't you? I would've personally rooted you out of the Burrow and burned it to the ground. I would've mentally teared your family apart peace by peace; made you experience your greatest fears and nightmares so bad you would've begged for a Dementor at the end. I would've carved your hearts out and sent it with your corpses to the Wizengamot as a warning to those who dare to insult or stand against the Potters and Blacks. You would've been erased from existence and no one would've been able to persecute me because of the juridical protection the blood feud offers."

His words were meant for Arthur, but because nobody had spoken after James' statement, they reached everyone present in the office. His threat was greeted with different reactions. To most of the Order members, Harry's words send shivers down their spines. They couldn't believe the malice a Potter would commit because of an unintentional barb.

Harry's family had mixed feelings. They were touched to see his protectiveness for them and the remembrance of his deceased grandparents he never met on both worlds. However, they felt their blood running cold when Harry transformed back into the dangerous wizard he was at his arrival in this dimension. In the very short time they met Harry; they knew this wasn't an idle threat.

Moody was not intimidated at all; he had received far worse when facing the Death Eaters. He was intrigued though, if Harry would go as far in his cruelty against Voldemort as he wanted to against the redhead family. It would be an interesting sight to see, in his opinion. If the Dark Lord's followers would experience the same pain as their victims did, it would diminish their will and bloodlust to spread terror throughout the country.

Dumbledore was very worried now. Hearing the eldest Potter son's words made up his mind that this wizard was not light at all. He disregarded the thought of Harry being dark as his phoenix had deemed the wizard otherwise. This led to the headmaster's conclusion that the Potter he was looking at had to be grey which was not good at all! The Boy-Who-Lived must be light in order to defeat Voldemort; only with Dumbledore's guidance as Leader of Light could he achieve victory over the Dark Lord. Without Voldemort, the Death Eaters could be easily redeemed back into the light. A 'saviour' of the grey side would be disastrous for his plans, the plans to make the light faction the only ruling power in Britain.

Dumbledore had never trusted the grey or neutral faction of the Wizengamot. They hadn't chosen a side in the first war, thus never have they given their allegiance to the headmaster or Voldemort. In Dumbledore's view on magic, there can only be two opposing sides; light and dark, good and evil. There can't be a middle ground, only two sides destined to crush each other until one remained victorious and destroyed its opponent. However, it was never the headmaster's intention to eliminate the dark families. When they would see the light prevailed over Voldemort, they would join the light faction under Dumbledore's leadership. Through schemes and plotting, he would 'prove' the neutrals had been Voldemort's biggest financial supporters. The public would rise up and vilify the grey faction which would lead to their downfall and Dumbledore's permanent and indirect control over the Minister and Wizengamot.

'Oh Gellert, if you had only listened to me when I said we could achieve power through manipulation. It was unfortunate you were impatient and hot-headed that you argued only brute force and the Dark Arts could bring us to the top of the food chain. I didn't want to fight you, but you left me no choice. There were other ways that could have led me to take up the positions I now control, your demise only accelerated my rise to power.'

The headmaster was brought back to reality when Harry spoke to Arthur again.

"As to your question of my friendship with your son's counterpart, I haven't spoken to Ron for eleven years. Right after the war, he committed an unforgivable act that forced Hermione and me to break all ties with him." he lied.

"What did he do? Can you show us?" the Weasley patriarch asked, although it sounded more like a demand.

"I won't and believe me, you don't want to know. Speaking of showing memories…"

Harry flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand. The Weasleys quickly scurried away, afraid to get cursed by the Boy-Who-Lived from the other universe, but he brought the wand to his temple and took a lot of memories out and laid them in the pensieve.

"These are all the most important memories of my further education at Hogwarts and Voldemort's demise. I want you to watch them all and no one leaves this office before they have ended. That's an order." he said.

Everyone suddenly felt a shock going through their heart and they remembered the second condition regarding the Vow. They had to obey every order relating to Voldemort without question. If they refused to do as he said, they would die.

"Mum, once the memories are finished, you take them out of the pensieve, put them in a vial and take them with you. If someone tries to stop you, use brute force. I want those memories back, whatever it takes."

Lily nodded, but asked the question that was on everybody's lips. "You said we couldn't leave the office, but what about you?"

"I need to be alone. The longer I stay here, the bigger the urge I have to curse someone into oblivion." he growled, glaring at the Weasleys. "Also, instead of wasting my time of reliving the story of my life, I need to plan a strategy to bring snakeface down. The faster he's dead, the faster I can go back to my dimension. I will see you at Potter Manor."

Harry made way to the fireplace, only to be blocked by Dumbledore who had his wand out. "I am sorry, Harry but you can't leave yet. I still need some answers after viewing those memories and while I agree Voldemort needs to be put down; don't you think we should discuss possible strategies together? Certain events are different than on your world as you already know and blindly relaying on the same outcomes in your universe could possibly lead to disastrous consequences for us." the headmaster said.

"I know of the risks and of the different events, thank you very much. That reminds me, does this mean Ariana is alive?" Harry asked with a vicious smile. Dumbledore was shocked beyond comprehension at this question. No one had ever known about his sister's fate, except Aberforth. He didn't even stop Harry, who took the opportunity of the headmaster's stupor, from entering the fireplace and disappearing in green flames saying "Potter Manor".

Xxxxx

Harry exited the fireplace in the manor's lounge and with a flick of his wand, he vanished the soot from his robes. He was honestly surprised the wards had let him in, but then he remembered anyone with Potter blood could enter the manor without permission, even when he was from another dimension, it would seem. Before he could go further, the Potter elves appeared before him.

"Who are you? You have dead Master Harry's magic, but you look too old to be him. How did you gain entry to the ancestral home of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter?" Tippy, the Head house elf, warily asked. The other elves were suspicious as well.

Harry didn't have time for this. While he was happy to see the counterparts of his elves again, he had a couple of hours left to execute the next part of his plan.

"I can't answer that question right now, Tippy. James and Lily will brief you when they return. I know you can feel the Potter family magic in me, so I instruct you and the others to leave me for now."

Tippy and the other elves didn't like his answer, but they had to obey his command as they indeed could feel the stranger in front of them was a Potter. They reluctantly bowed to him before disappearing with a pop. Harry immediately raised stronger privacy wards in Parseltongue, just in case the elves decided to eavesdrop. He smiled at the thought; house elves could be very protective towards the family they serve, if and only if they were treated well. The last war had seen to that. Once the wards were in place, Harry chuckled which turned into a full-blown cackle; cold and threatening. If it wasn't for the wards, it would have echoed around the silent manor.

'I can't believe it actually worked. You've got to love compulsion charms. Subtle and wandless casting them on my family in order to accept me quicker and to be more at ease around me was the best way to get them on my side. They were very supportive while watching my first memories, although I found mum's reactions a bit exaggerated. Oh well, I can't really blame her. She suffered from my counterpart's death and now she witnessed the dangerous life I have led without them. The Order's faces when they came to my defence after I was revealed to be a Parselmouth were golden. Dad forbidding Ron from coming over or correspond with Skylar has been an unexpected bonus. I really would love to see everyone's reaction after they've seen my further memories. Soon my family will fully support me in my endeavour, whether they have doubts about it or not. There won't be an Order anymore and I shall dance on the bones of my enemies. I played by their rules but now I play the fools, the predator this time is me.' he thought, his aura flaring around him, fuelled by his anger and his hate towards his old foes.

After several minutes of laughing, Harry got himself under control.

'Come on Hadrian, focus. There are certain things that need to be done before the rest of the family arrives here. But first, I need to make a call before I go.'

He took out a locket out of his inner pocket, enlarged and opened it. It revealed a picture of him with his family, Daphne giving him a kiss on the cheek while his children were smiling and waving to him. He turned his attention to the other half which contained a mirror and said "Daphne Potter".

Xxxxxxxxxx

April 2009

Alice moaned when someone was shaking her at her shoulder, trying to wake her up. 'Damn it, Frank. Can't you just let me sleep in after the weird dream I had.' she thought. She put her head under her pillow.

"Leave me alone, Frank. I'm not in the mood to get up now." she mumbled.

"I'm not Master Frank, Miss Alice. Master Neville and Misses Luna and Augusta told Ninly to get you up for lunch." a high-squeaking voice answered.

The meaning of those words entered Alice's mind several seconds later as she jerked her head up and looked at the house elf standing next to her bed. 'Neville and Augusta are dead, she knows it. And who is that Luna girl she is talking about?' Her eyes widened as she remembered everything again that had transpired the previous day.

"Holy mother of Merlin! I'm really in another dimension? None of this was a dream?!" she screamed, holding Ninly at her shoulders. "And what do you mean 'get me up for lunch'?" Alice casted the Tempus Charm and realised it was 11.45 am. She had missed breakfast and they hadn't awakened her. Why? She asked this to the elf.

The house elf looked ashamed to her feet and mumbled "Ninly can't tell you Miss Alice. Please prepare yourself quickly. Master Neville doesn't like waiting." before she popped away.

Alice stared for a couple of seconds at the spot where Ninly disappeared before she got up and went to the bathroom. After a hot shower and getting dressed, she left her room to find two Vipers standing on either side of her door. She ignored them following her and went down to the lunch table where she found her family's counterparts already eating. Neville sat at the head of the table with Luna to his right and Augusta to his left. A little blonde girl sat next to Luna and Alice realised this had to be Iris, her granddaughter from this world. The place that indicated her seat was at the far side of the table; a clear sign the Longbottoms still didn't trust her. She nodded to them while sitting down and her guards went to the farthest wall of the room, keeping her in their sight.

"Hello, Miss Fortescue. Did you sleep well?" Luna asked while one of the house elves was serving her wine.

"Why didn't any of the house elves wake me up this morning? Or should I say, why didn't you let them wake me up?" Alice retorted with a glare before cutting her meat and started eating.

"We thought we would let you sleep in after your journey. After all, crossing dimensions with a different time zone will certainly have worn you out and you needed time to adept to ours."

Alice looked at Iris after Luna's answer. 'Does she know about the multiverse?'

Neville must have seen this for he said "Iris knows everything about the situation just like Hadrian's children are also informed. As a matter of fact we have news we need to share with you and I'm afraid it's quite bad."

Alice looked up at her son's counterpart and detected signs of pity and sadness in his eyes. She had a bad feeling as Luna and Augusta shared the same emotions behind their cold demeanour. She put down her cutlery and asked with trepidation "How bad?"

A moment of silence passed before Neville answered "You're becoming a squib."

xxxxx

Daphne smiled when she laid her locket down and thought of the events before her husband had finally made contact with her and his friends. After she had informed her children about Hadrian's whereabouts and the elves had repaired the quidditch pitch and weapons room, she had send an owl to the Daily Prophet with specific orders regarding modified editions of the paper stating her husband being Minister of Magic in order to fool Alice Fortescue. She had spent a quiet evening with her family afterwards before her parents returned to Greengrass Estate. This morning she got a fire call from Tracey during breakfast. The news she had, had made the Dark Lady more distressed then she already was.

FLASHBACK

"Miss Daphne, Lady Davis is calling for you from the fire place." Mabby said, who was Daphne's personal house elf.

The blonde witch looked up from reading the newspaper which had arrived before she came downstairs after having a difficult night falling asleep. Her offspring had arrived for breakfast shortly after and they had looked up from their sausages and scrambled eggs when the house elf did appear. Amaris couldn't keep her curiosity in check.

"Is it about dad? Did she find anything?"

"I don't know, young mistress. Lady Davis only told me to warn Her Ladyship as she wants to talk to her."

"It's okay, Mabby. I will see what she wants. Children, don't forget that Godric awaits you for your martial arts lesson in an hour." The boy and two girls groaned at hearing this.

"I bet that maniac has planned something vigorous for us. He didn't look very happy yesterday." James whined.

"Geez, I wonder why?" Lily sarcastically retorted.

Daphne left her children bickering among themselves and went to the lounge's fireplace, entering the room she could see her best friend's head in the flames. Before she could greet her, Tracey already spoke.

"Daphne, you need to come through immediately. I've got information about that ritual you need to hear. The others have already arrived."

The Dark Lady's eyes widened in surprise. 'That was quick.' she thought. She had estimated it would have taken a while for Tracey to restudy the ritual after being obliviated by Hadrian. Daphne would have been hopeful, if her friend's tone didn't sound too grave.

"Where?"

"The Council's chamber."

"I'll be there in half an hour."

Tracey nodded and disappeared from the flames. Daphne decided to cancel Godric's lesson, her children deserved to know about this as well. As a mother, she had the right to hold information back that could possibly harm and distress them. However, she wanted to spare the manor from being destroyed by their destructive magic when angered. She had no idea how she would have to explain to Hadrian how his ancestral home would have been erased from the earth during his absence.

Xxxxx

The Dark Lady exited the fireplace in her husband's office in the Ministry. While she got rid of the soot from her robes, her son and daughters arrived in neat robes according to their station shortly after. No one said a word while wandering through the Ministry's halls on the way to the Council's chamber. Upon entering the room, she saw every Head of Department was present and was surprised to see Bloodaxe, the Director of Gringotts and Head of the Goblin Nation. All of them rose from their seats and waited until Daphne sat down at the head of the table. James, Lily and Amaris took place on the seats their mother had conjured for them on her left. She gestured to everyone to take their seats and wasted no time of opening the gathering.

"Is everyone informed of my husband's whereabouts?" she asked Tracey.

"They are."

"Good. Now, you said you had news to share about this ritual?"

"Yes, but in order to understand the severity of the situation, I need to explain how the DOM succeeded in creating dimension travel. It all started right after the battle of the DOM in our fifth year. In the chaos of the battle; Hadrian, his companions and the Death Eaters accidentally destroyed all the time turners. As a consequence, the Unspeakables tried to create a new way for time travel without the risk of demolishing devices needed for this. The research came to a stop however when Voldemort took over and the Unspeakables were forced to search ways of 'transferring the stolen magic from muggleborns to purebloods'. Several of them quit their job but one of them kept looking for a solution in secret. A few months later, he found an obscure book in Knockturn Alley about dark rituals and one of them was a goblin ritual." Tracey explained, looking at Bloodaxe.

"That ritual is a secret that only the Head of our Nation knows about. I have no idea how it came up in a wizard's book, maybe we'll never find out." the goblin said. "Anyway, that ritual found it roots during the second Goblin Rebellion. One of our ritual masters, whose name I won't mention, had lost his wife and daughter in a wizard's surprise attack on their settlement. He was distraught and couldn't find closure with their deaths. He made up his mind to find a way to go back in time and save them. After many attempts, he finally managed in travelling back in time by himself. I won't say how, that's a secret between goblins and the DOM. How this came to be will be discussed in a moment. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. He appeared before his house and entered to warn his family of the approaching attack. Imagine his shock when he came face to face with himself and not his daughter but a son.

After an explanation where he came from, the ritual master was informed that his wife had died in childbirth and that the surprise attack had been repelled few days prior. His counterpart came to the conclusion that our goblin must have travelled to an alternate universe. They both informed the other Head of the Goblin Nation about this occurrence and were sworn to secrecy. After that, the ritual master prepared himself to come back to our world, but his magic was too weak after crossing the dimensions. His counterpart wanted to try if he could send our goblin back. The attempt succeeded, but in doing so they designed a fatal catch." he told with a sour expression.

"What catch?" Hermione asked on guard.

"They linked their magical signatures together. It means that whatever physical pain one suffers or a spell one is hit with, the other will feel it as well. Meaning, if one dies from an enemy assault so does the other. It gets even worse; the link is also some kind of leech for the ritual's performer's benefit to counter the magical fatigue after the ritual has been executed. For example, the moment the Dark Lord arrived in the other universe, Dumbledore is figurative speaking already sucking the magic out of our Lord, turning him into a squib as a result." Bloodaxe explained.

"WHAT?!" Daphne and her children shouted simultaneously. The others present in the room, except Tracey, gasped in horror.

"Don't worry, it happens gradually at a slow pace and there is a cure for it. Allow me to explain further."

None spoke and the goblin took this as his cue to continue.

"The link was discovered after our goblin had returned and told the then Director of Gigots about his little adventure. But there appeared to be a problem with time, the time on our earth had passed much faster than usual. He spent merely hours on the other side while here several days had passed before his return. How that could have happened, they didn't know. It became a secret between both of them and he got promoted to the position to ritual archmaester. He remained by my predecessor side, far from the battlefield. Suddenly, a few days later he got various sword wounds out of nowhere and recovered much faster than our healers expected. Out of possibilities to find answers on how he received those wounds, he sent himself back to the other dimension. Once there, his counterpart confirmed he had been wounded in an honour duel between him and a rival goblin. Due to the combined efforts of the healers on both worlds, they both recuperated faster than anticipated. They studied the link and time frame and noticed the dangerous leech.

After many experiments and with the help from both worlds' goblin potions masters, a cure was found to severe the link without consequences. It requires a complex potion added with two persons' blood. Each has to consume the potion with the other one's blood after the ritual has been performed. Once that had been done, both goblins went back on to their daily lives. The time frame had somehow been restored. After one last trip to the other world to check if everything had settled down, our goblin found out that several hours here had been a couple of days there so that in both dimensions there is an equal time zone. Let me be clear, I said time which means hours. Not the same year or months but hours. Until this day, it remains a mystery why the time frame had been affected.

After the ritual master and then Head died after many years, the new leader of the nation took it upon himself to keep the knowledge of the ritual and potion a secret for any goblin of his position. He mercilessly killed anyone who had assisted in the potion's creation and who knew about the multiverse. This secret was maintained from Head to Head until the arrival of a certain Unspeakable." the Director of Gringotts told everyone. "Would you like to continue, Lady Davis?"

"According to the Unspeakable's notes, no goblin knew what he was talking about and since there was no leader after Ragnok fled, he didn't acquire any answers. He went back home and started studying the ritual. He didn't finish his research because he heard about the Battle of Hogwarts and joined the reinforcements who arrived shortly after Voldemort boasted about Hadrian's 'death' in front of the students. He fought valiantly, but fell." Tracey informed them.

"We found out about his investigation after the last war and experimented on it. Just like the two goblins mentioned in Bloodaxe's story, we performed the ritual with two people which re-established that damn link. We didn't know about it for it wasn't mentioned in the tome at all. We had failure after failure, many became squibs and ultimately, I went to Gringotts where our current Director heard about my enquiry. After swearing an Oath we would only use it for scientific research, Bloodaxe told me about the potion and the advice of using the one-person ritual. We finally succeeded and I sent a report to Hadrian with Bloodaxe's consent. The rest as you all know, is history."

END FLASHBACK

Daphne had been distraught after hearing this. She knew she had reason to be optimistic, but she couldn't help wonder if her husband had thoroughly read the report or didn't know of the link, potion and time frame. After the meeting concluded when they decided to wait Hadrian's call on her mirror, Daphne and her children went back to the manor. She had felt the distress emitting from her son and daughters and had ordered them to blow off some steam against the training dummies on the grounds. She had given them their practice wands back and soon enough, she heard explosions outside. She had decided to observe them from a safe distance and in a manner to distract her thoughts; she had focused on her children's stances and forms.

James was just like his namesake, a prodigy in transfiguration and as the Potter heir, he had started learning battle transfiguration from the Potter family magic. Lily was as gifted in curses and charms as her mother and both grandmothers. Amaris came on top with her destructive use of Parselmagic. If Hadrian could have seen this, he would have been proud of his youngest daughter. Despite being Parselmouths, James and Lily were somehow not as adept to this branch of magic as their sister.

Daphne had been marvelled by the power and talent her children possessed. In spite of the ages of 10 and 9, they were very powerful and they still had to start their education at Hogwarts. They had already received some education from their parents and guards, but Hadrian and Daphne decided they had to grow up in an environment where they could make new friends and have fun. Besides, it wouldn't do for the Dark Lord's heirs not to go to Hogwarts.

After the dummies were damaged beyond magical repair, Daphne had taken the wands back, had evaluated their duel, gave remarks on their flaws and advised them what could have gone better. She had gotten a fire call from Neville, with the message that he had told Alice about the meeting and how she had first raged against Dumbledore's foolishness and had then avoided them. After lunch, her children went to their rooms and she had spent telling Salazar and Godric about the meeting. Right before dinner, she received the long awaited call from her husband.

Once she saw his face, she had started crying in relief. It was so loud that a concerned James, Lily and Amaris came down, only to squeal in joy when they spotted their father through the mirror. After the happy, yet distant reunion, Daphne informed Hadrian what happened in the past few days. He had been shocked after hearing of the meeting, where he admitted to her he hadn't read the entire report after discovering about the multiverse and his reasons why he obliviated the entire DOM. Daphne admonished him harshly for his 'foolish and rash Gryffindor behaviour'. Hadrian scolded his children for the nearly demolition of the weapons room and warned them the next time this would occur, they would repair it without magic and the costs of the repair would be taken from their trust vaults. The three children had been very pale and had taken Hadrian's warning seriously.

The Dark Lord then had waved his children off to their rooms and activated a rune on his mirror. The mirror divided in several sections where he, his wife and all his friends were able to see each other. After another reunion, where Hermione and Tracey had been very vocal against their friend, Hadrian told them of the events in the other universe and explained his entire plan in detail. Some adjustments were needed since he found out about the link, but in overall the plan had been approved by all of them. Daphne had remarked what a great plan he devised without her help; his reaction had been a mock-glare. He had said his goodbyes to his friends and declared his love for her before he disconnected the mirror.

The Dark Lady smiled when she recalled those events and stood up from the couch. She went to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a glass of elven made mead. She thought her husband's plan over and couldn't find anything wrong with it or a lead that could turn the tide against Hadrian. She smirked evilly as she toasted her glass in the air. 'And now Death has claimed his foes and none of them to hear.'