Sirius and Petunia had both immediately agreed to Harry's request to leave Hogwarts over a week before the Christmas break, and after running it by Dumbledore, he was in the Headmaster's office getting ready to depart via the floo.
"Come back to us as the best version of yourself, you deserve the freedom that it will bring," Albus commented as Harry stroked Fawkes while the pair waited for Sirius to come through.
When he finally arrived, Harry ran over to him and pulled him into a hug, the scene bringing a smile to both Sirius' and Dumbledore's faces.
They stepped through the fireplace and came out in the living room of Grimmauld Place, which had been permanently relocated to a quiet wizard-only village in Scotland named Wallaceborough after William Wallace.
"Are you sure you wish to be in this magical coma? Elias was in his for two months and he was twelve at the time, I'm worried you could miss out on the rest of your fifth year," Petunia asked Harry with tears in her eyes.
"If I don't, I'll become Him. I have to."
"Then let us depart for St Mungo's at once," Sirius announced, putting his arm around Harry's shoulders and telling him that it would be alright.
/_-_^_^/-/
"Mr Potter," the Head Healer at St Mungo's greeted him. "We have received a letter describing some experimental procedures that we are currently missing. The letter reassured us that we would be receiving very detailed instructions on what to do and how to do it, but that the letter wouldn't arrive until you were already nearly a month into the coma. All of this being said, do you still wish to go ahead with this procedure?"
"I do, and I am prepared to pay whatever this ends up coming to."
"Very well. I shall give you some time to say goodbye to your guardians before I return."
Once it was just Harry, Sirius and Petunia left in the room, Harry became slightly emotional.
"I hate that term. Guardians. You two have been the only parents I've ever known, my real Mom and Dad," Harry whispered while staring at his hands, avoiding looking up out of fear of rejection.
"I'll be honest in saying that when you first showed up at Privet Drive I never thought that we would be able to bridge the decade of distance, or at least not while you were still a child. However, while you were standing on our doorstep I made a decision to prioritise my children. You are my son, Harry," Petunia told him after pulling him into a tight hug.
"I can't have kids of my own Harry, twelve years in Azkaban has made that impossible. You will never know how lucky I feel to be able to call you, Dudley, and Elias my sons. When you first found out that I was Petunia's boyfriend I was worried your distrust would never fade. I was worried you would hate me forever."
"No. Never. C-can I call you Mum and Dad?" Harry asked, his voice still barely audible.
"Of course you can. Sirius and I were waiting until Christmas day to tell everyone this but… we're getting married," Petunia whispered to Harry, matching his vulnerability in her tone.
"I'm really happy for you, that's awesome."
The doctor walked in a few minutes later and Harry lay down on the hospital bed, taking one last look at his parents.
He closed his eyes as the Healer began the ritual that would cleanse Harry in body, soul, and mind. It was nothing like going to sleep, for one it was instant and not gradually, but the main thing that told him that this wasn't a dream was Fate and four other women standing beside her.
"Welcome Harry, we have nothing but time to talk. Allow me to introduce you to Life, Irony, Despair, and Magic."
/_-^_^_-/
The last week at Hogwarts had been downright boring without Harry. Without him, Elias was spending more time with Derek and his friends, Ron and Draco were being… well, Ron and Draco. Theo and Neville would often be found in the greenhouses or sitting by the lake, and Daphne had her own friend group.
It was after going through all of the previous options that Dudley sought out Blaise and Hermione, who were in the Library, only to see something that shocked him. As he rounded the corner he saw Blaise kiss Hermione, who spotted Dudley after holding the kiss for a moment.
"Dudley, how have you been?" Hermione asked him.
"This is clearly none of my business," The fifth-year Slytherin replied before turning and leaving, not wanting to interrupt their time together.
Bored and lonely, Dudley walked around trying to come across something to do, or someone to talk to. He noticed a poster on one of the walls that was, in Dudley's opinion, very meta. It detailed how to make a poster, and more importantly how to treat them with respect.
He decided to follow the posters, if for no other reason than for something to do. As he walked he was left alone with his thoughts, which was precisely what he intended to avoid, especially as these thoughts mostly pertained to Harry and the fact that he would be gone for an unknown amount of time.
Just as he was lamenting the unfairness of it all, Dudley found Luna putting up one of the newest posters, which in some areas of the school eclipsed the amount of actual wall that was visible.
"Hey Luna, how have you been?"
"Ah Dudley Dursley, would you carry this stack of posters for me if we are to talk, I have very little time left to put these up," she responded, avoiding the question outright.
"Sure, I don't mind helping you out."
The duo walked up and down the stairs, through one corridor only to walk back among one that ran parallel, and even stopped by all of the common rooms, not entering them of course. They walked around for so long that Dudley was completely exhausted, while Luna appeared to be very well acclimated to the walk. Their journey ended up by the Divination classroom and the simple act of sitting down felt heavenly to Dudley.
"Can you hear that?" Luna suddenly asked, breaking the silence and shocking Dudley with her tone.
"No… what can you hear?"
Instead of answering him, Luna placed her forehead against his, and suddenly he could hear. There was singing, a distant orchestra of voices, a disembodied choir. The voices sang of beauty and power, love and strength, with only one word remaining consistent between each line and verse. "Potter." There were other names, of course, other visuals and ideas depicted through their words. Dudley heard his own name as well as the names of his friends, his mum's name mentioned as being part of a bouquet of Petunias and Lilies. The singing was beautiful, with many layers that Dudley failed to understand, primarily due to being sung in languages that sounded inhuman, as well as those from the countries of the world.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, the singing vanished and Luna pulled her forehead away from Dudley's, who now felt like he had a new appreciation for the sort of things the girl could hear, and a desire to work on his Hearing to the point that he could hear exactly what Luna could.
"What do you think that could mean?" Dudley asked the blonde girl, who looked unfazed.
"I recognise the English verses, my father would sing those words as a lullaby, though the word Potter was always replaced with something funny. In fact, I now think that not even Father knew which word actually went there," Luna finished fondly, smiling at the thought of her father. "It's a shame he doesn't have the ability to Hear, he would have loved to hear that."
"You could maybe show it to him in a Pensieve," Dudley suggested, to which Luna simply smiled at him.
"Dinner is about to begin, we should be heading there."
/_-_^_^_-_/
"No, that won't work," Hermione countered Blaise's latest suggestion on just how they could give Squibs magic. It involved a group of seven wizards all pouring some amount of raw power into the Squib, using the magical crystal balls from last year as a medium.
"There is nothing to go wrong. If we arrange seven crystal balls, all equidistant apart, with seven wizards, also equidistant apart, all powering them; then there should be enough control over them to build on the undeveloped magical core," Blaise argued, both of them very stressed out after spending several months together researching the topic, with Blaise having spent a good chunk of last year also studying to this same end.
"The main issue would be the magic passing straight through them, with only a small bit of it remaining each time, you would need seven Dumbledores to do that without becoming magically drained. It is very wasteful," Hermione countered sadly.
"We could always place seven rows of seven, all of the outer crystal balls serving to catch and throw back the magic, hell even the initial balls would eventually be useful for pulling the magic toward themselves and throwing it back," Blaise suggested earning himself the largest smile from Hermione he had ever seen.
"That could help the issue, but what we could do to further reinforce our efforts is to start with larger crystal balls on the outside, getting smaller as they got closer to the surface, for one it would eliminate the need for us to actually be within the circle, with the added benefit of concentrating the magic as it passes through. I think we've solved every major obstacle so far."
At this Blaise became elated, so much so that he leaned forward and kissed Hermione, who wasn't expecting it to say the least. The situation was further complicated with Dudley showing up and rather awkwardly leaving the Library in a hurry after seeing them.
"I'm sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you're brilliant?"
"I… I have to go," Hermione responded, her face turning red as she rose and left.
"Great job, Blaise. You royally fucked that up," Blaise said out loud, berating himself as he wrote up their latest ideas before he left to find something to do until dinner.
/-^_^-/
The last Elemental training session of 1995 continued without Harry, with Elias and Blaise running the session on their own. Blaise explained to them about the ritual they would have to carry out on Halloween next year, and that it required an Elemental to bring you through.
"For this reason, Harry, Elias, and I will be choosing ten people each to bring through the ritual, though that number is subject to change if more students show themselves to have the aptitude. Unfortunately, our seventh years will have left Hogwarts by that time, unless they choose to return for an eighth year. I have already petitioned the school board to allow you to return for the ritual and only the ritual. The process of this will take many months of bureaucracy and red tape to get a definitive answer." After he instructed the club on the ritual, Blaise dismissed them, keeping up Harry's tradition of waiting for the club to disperse before leaving himself.
The Vipers, sans Harry, all went inside to spend one last proper night together before Christmas.