Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Eragon Series. Make no money from them either.
Chapter 1 – was it really this hot?
The sun beat down on the rows of houses that made up Privet Drive and its surrounding neighbours. Everything was as it had been in the last timeline. The cars were dusty and the lawns were as brown and yellow from the lack of water. The trees provided what little shade they could, but even they were suffering. As such, this caused everyone to retreat inside to rely on their air conditioning in the vain hope that they would cool down. The only person who hadn't run inside was the young teen who was sat in the park under one of the few shady trees.
His black hair was stuck up and all over the place, and his clothes hung off his body. While that would normally allow the air to circulate around him, the clothes were thick and the air hot, meaning that his whole body was covered in a sheen of sweat. His glasses (which had fake glass in them as they blurred his vision) kept slipping down his nose, causing him to have to keep pushing it up.
Harry Potter was already sick of the pretence. It had been two weeks since he had arrived back from the Express, and while the Dursleys were simply ignoring him, it was the silence from everyone else that was getting to him. He knew why, of course – Dumbledore, for all of his flaws, was simply trying to protect him.
Of course, isolating someone always works out the way you want it to.
The only good thing that was happening during the summer – make it two good things – was that Hermione had been coming over every second day to train and practise magic. Even though they had their original wands back, they continued to use their newer ones. They trained in hand to hand as well as sword-fighting. Along with that, he was able to create the 'doorway', as he called it, that allowed him to travel to Ophelia and go flying with her.
The second good thing was that he wasn't having any dreams of Cedric or of the corridor to the Department of Mysteries. Harry sighed as he realised that they would have to go and deal with that – and something told him that they would have to retrieve the prophecy soon before Voldemort did.
When he had thought of that, he had decided that he would also try turning into his owl form and fly the letters to people directly. Hermione was quick to wave that off when he had mentioned it however; clearly stating to him that there were multiple ways to prevent letters and owls from delivering letters, and that he could possibly be attacked or captured – both of which would raise awkward questions.
Harry sighed and looked down at the letter which had arrived from Maddie. They hadn't seen her since they had come back, but knew that she had come back and was in the country since they could sense her through their bond. The letter was short but reassuring.
Harry,
Don't worry about me – came back safe and sound. I'm heading back to Rider Island to 'introduce' you, Hermione, Ophelia and Polonius to the other riders.
I know it'll be painful, but you cannot deviate too much from what happened in the time line – not yet anyway. I'll be along soon, and all of us can go after the ring – It'll save Dumbledore getting cursed at least.
Stay safe – won't say stay out of trouble because you're Harry Potter and your third parent is danger.
Maddie xxx
Harry smiled and put the letter back into his pocket, running his hand through his hair again. Even though it was a rider glamour, more for the Order of the Phoenix members who were tasked to watch him, he missed his longer hair. The colour didn't matter – indeed he changed it periodically – but it was just the length and that it looked different enough that no one recognised him that gave him the sense of freedom to do what he wanted without being approached by anyone.
A crack in the distance made him smile again – no doubt Mundungus disappearing to go, what was it again? Right, cauldrons, Harry thought to himself. He snorted as he rolled and got up – whatever Dumbledore saw in him he couldn't see – he was useful, but not for being part of a militia that was supposed to fight against Voldemort.
He set off at a leisurely pace, breathing in the air. It was hot, stuffy and uncomfortable, and yet, everything about it seemed to shout 'home.' England was home, but it hadn't been for years. Of course he now had another home, aside from Hogwarts – Rider Island. He missed the library, the large hall with food, the Dragon Hall. It wouldn't be long before he saw it, but still, it was the feeling of homesickness he got thinking of it. He wondered what Hermione was doing today.
Hermione's House, Crawley
The girl in question was reading one of her favourite fiction books. Well, more like staring at the book while thinking of everything else – the war, Voldemort, how they were going to save their friends and Ron. When they had arrived back at King's Cross, she had given Harry a hug and a kiss, told him that she would see him in two days, and set off to find her parents. Upon seeing them, she had burst into tears and almost tackled them to the ground in the bear hug she had given them.
Both Robert and Emma Granger returned the hug, and were both startled and worried that their daughter was so distraught. Asking her what was wrong yielded nothing, just the usual assurances that 'she was fine'. The car trip had been …. difficult, as she had realised that she didn't remember everything that had happened that year. If her parents had thought it was weird that she hadn't, they didn't say anything.
Both Robert and Emma were, along with being dentists, orthodontists and as such they both ran a very popular and highly successful practise. They had hired other dentists to work at their practise, therefore Emma worked only part-time; something she had done ever since Hermione had been born. Even when Hermione had gotten her Hogwarts Letter and went off to Scotland for 10 months didn't change Emma from working part time.
As such, Hermione heard a knock on the door and turned to see her mum sticking her head in. Hermione knew that, if she had left her hair as it appeared in the glamour. Her mum's hair had mellowed and was not so much bushy as it was thick and wavy and reached down past her shoulders. She was as slim as Hermione but had ice-blue eyes that shone with intelligence.
"Hey honey – do you need to talk?" Hermione gave her mum a smile "no mum – I'm fine. I'm just worried about my friend that's all." Emma nodded "Sure – that's why you're reading the same page in the book upside down" Hermione looked down to see the book was indeed upside down, and turned back towards her mum "I've opened the door and stuck my head in three times"
"Oh" Hermione said, embarrassed and angry at herself. She was reminiscing too much – with the threat of Voldemort, she had to keep better awareness of her surroundings. Emma walked over and sat down, not surprised when Hermione reached over and grabbed her hand. Since coming home, Hermione had suddenly become more, needy would be a word that seemed to suit the situation. It was like she just needed to physically check her mum was still there.
The truth was, and Hermione was still trying to deal with, was that she did need to keep checking. She still felt really guilty about sending them away and losing them. Even though they didn't remember her, nor did her parents right now know, but she had taken away their memories of their daughter. She had no idea how they would react, and it was one of the conversations she had done a lot with Harry and Maddie, who had both told her to follow her heart and do what was best.
"I told you that Harry was entered into that competition yeah?" Emma nodded "Well, it turned out to be a trap from Voldemort to get his body back"
Emma gasped "Oh! Is the boy ok?" Hermione gave a small smile "I hope so. He came back, stayed in the hospital wing and then we came home. I was going to write a letter to him and then Professor Dumbledore showed up." It had been the first day of the holidays and he had shown up and politely requested, in a tone that told her there was to be no arguments, that she was not to contact Harry to allow him to deal with his grief, and that she would see him soon after his birthday.
Hermione hadn't even asked any questions, just said "ok" and continued to look out the window or at the fire. Dumbledore had looked surprised that she hadn't asked questions, but didn't press any further and had left.
"So, now I don't know how's he's feeling, or if he's suffering, because he will be, but he won't tell anyone that he is, he'll bottle it up like he always does." Emma sat back. "Well, why don't you just ask him when you see him next?" Hermione just looked up at her confused "What?"
"Hermione, I know you are going and seeing him." Hermione's eyes widened. "How?"
"Well, to begin with, you just accepted what Professor Dumbelfore" "Dumbledore" "Yes, that one said – without any questions or arguments. Then, there's the fact you haven't even attempted to write letters to him – again, something I know you would do. Finally, and probably my biggest indicator, is that I came home to grab my lunch and found the house empty. Twice. The second time the house was completely locked and that wouldn't be possible as I took the spare keys the second time. You told us how the ministry would know you had used magic, so therefore you got out somehow – probably to see him, I assume. Mind explaining how?"
Hermione sat back, amazed that in two weeks her mum had somehow worked it out. She sighed and looked down "It….will be difficult to explain – and take a while. I have been going and seeing Harry, and I'll explain how at the same time." Emma nodded, satisfied. "So, still speaking to Krum?"
Hermione snorted "Probably not. While he was a good date for the ball, I'm not that interested in him – but he'll be a good pen pal." Emma nodded "So, are you and Harry dating?" Hermione just nodded, not wanting to start trying to explain the love triangle that she had with Harry and Maddie just yet.
She was about to say more when she suddenly felt pain come across the bond between her and Harry, and was about to get up when she heard [No! stay away – it'll raise too many questions!] Hermione just turned towards Emma, who looked surprised at her daughter just suddenly jumping.
"Yeah" Hermione muttered "We have a lot to tell you"
Harry
It had been a couple of hours just calmly walking around the park. He remembered what day it was and therefore was looking around for signs of the Dementors. He also knew that his cousin was around but couldn't remember where they had been. He rounded the corner and, speak of the devils, there they were, walking towards him.
Looking around, he saw that the park was empty and that none of the houses were close enough to really see them. As such, he knew he could get away with a bit of magic if needed. He was going to change direction so that he could follow without being seen, when one of them turned and looked at him.
"Hey, look! It's Potter!" yelled the one with the rat-like face in a surprisingly high pitch voice (which raised a good question – did every group of bullies have one person with a high voice?) They walked over and surrounded him. There were five of them including Dudley, and Harry made sure to be aware of where the other four were while looking at Dudley.
"Hey Big D. What have you been doing today? Oh wait" Harry got a thoughtful look on his face "you beat up some kids, smoked and sold some of that crack that you hid in your room. Am I right?" the silence and shuffling that the gang members did told him that he was right.
"Well you talk big now, don't when you're at home right?" Dudley mocked, clearly not knowing what else to do. Harry raised an eyebrow but said nothing else. The timeline had already changed apparently, with Harry not having dreams of the graveyard, and Dudley's gang coming over.
The silence that spread seemed to make them uncomfortable. Dudley clearly had no idea what to do. "Look guys, just go home – not worth it" Harry said, trying to get them to move.
"Hey, don't tell us what to do" mutters of 'yeah' followed this statement. "How about, we teach Potter here a lesson – make him show us some respect" smiles spread on their faces as they took a step forward. Harry sighed but said "I'm being serious, it's not worth it" the click of the switchblade made him turn around and take a step back as one of the gang took a swing at him, the blade scratching along his right arm. The pain shot up his arm, and Harry realised that Hermione and Maddie would know about it.
[No! stay away – it'll raise too many questions!] he shot across the link, knowing they would stay away. The knife guy took a step forward and thrust the blade forward, and Harry caught his wrist, twisted it and snapped it. Before anyone could react, Harry with the grip on the arm, rolled over the guys back and flipped him, before elbowing him in the head knocking him out.
Harry rolled to the side as the high-pitched guy took a kick at him, and watched as the guy stumbled. Harry didn't allow him to recover, instead he launched himself and caught the guy around the midsection, bringing him to the ground and punching him hard in the face, breaking his nose.
Getting off the guy, he turned and caught the chain that thug number three flicked at him around his wrist, before grabbing it with his other hand and twisting, pulling the guy with him and kicking his legs out from under him. Harry turned and just stared at the fourth and Dudley, who both just held his hands up in surrender.
"Let me make this clear – you're not to bully me, or anyone else around here. If you do, I will know, and if you do, I will make your lives hell for as long as you live, and believe me, I will be making sure you live nice long lives." With that, he pulled out his new wand and before anyone could say anything said "Obliviate" while also casting a simple healing charm over the three members.
The gang members got up and, without another word, turned and left. Harry knew the Dementors weren't far away, but honestly didn't know nor care about those who left – the Dementors were after him. He turned back towards Dudley "So, Big D, shall we head back?"
Dudley nodded and set off back to Privet Drive, Harry following a couple of steps behind. He waved his left hand over his arm and watched as the skin stitched back together. Shaking his arm, he looked up to see the sky start to darken. He ran up to where Dudley was still walking and grabbed his arm.
"Get off me Potter!" Harry didn't respond, just pulled his wand out and pushed Dudley behind him. Looking around the park, Harry noticed three Dementors that were gliding towards him, their rattle filling the cold air. Harry stumbled back as voices started to fill his ears, and he raised his Occlumency shields so that the voices disappeared. He lifted his wand and yelled "Expecto Patronum"
A bright silver stag flew out of his wand and slammed into the Dementor which flew off – Harry turned and found that the other Dementors were going for Dudley who was crawling away from one and towards the other. With a flick of his wrist, the stag flew past him and hit the Dementor that was reaching for Dudley.
The third Dementor turned towards Harry, who conjured a fireball in his hand and held it out. The Dementor stopped, and Harry vaguely noticed that the two other Dementors had stopped.
"I know you recognize this magic – that it can hurt you" Harry said, hoping that his voice wasn't shaking – the effects of Dementors on him was still very strong. The Dementor just floated there but slowly nodded.
"Tell me who ordered this attack, and I'll make sure that they pay. No one else will know that this happened or that you attacked me. In exchange, you tell your brethren that they are not to join the one who calls himself Lord Voldemort. If they do, my friends and I will hunt you all down and burn you. If you do this, I'll do what I can to ensure that you lot are moved to a place that you want to be"
None of the Dementors responded, and for the longest time Harry was preparing himself to attack them. Eventually the Dementor nodded, and Harry felt a presence pressing against his mind. Harry dropped his shields enough to allow the Dementor to pass on the image of a woman in a pink cardigan. The presence withdrew as soon as he recognized the woman in the image, and Harry knew that the Dementor was trying not to antagonise him so that he wouldn't attack and kill them with Elemental fire.
In response, Harry let the fireball go out, but kept the patronus near him. Dudley scrambled to his feet and moved towards Harry, and stared in a random direction while Harry watched the Dementors glide away and the heat that had been missing came back.
The patronus faded away as Harry and Dudley collapsed, Harry onto his knees and Dudley onto his side. Harry reached into the disillusioned bag on his back and pulled some chocolate out, breaking it into pieces and passing some to Dudley while eating it himself. His hands were shaking but Harry was more intrigued in the fact that the Dementors had backed off. He already knew who had given the order, but wanted to see what choices the Dementors had made.
Getting back up, Harry held his hand out to Dudley and pulled him up when he grabbed his hand. He was surprised that Dudley was allowing him to do this, but suspected that it was more the shock of what had happened that prevented him from fighting back. With that, Harry put his arm around Dudley in case he collapsed and made his way back to Privet Drive.
Improper Use of Magic Office
At this time of night, there were only two people in the office. One was the Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office that related to underage magic, while the other didn't even work in the department. She was there to watch as the map lit up near Privet Drive and they could send the letter of expulsion to the brat, no, Harry Potter.
Delores Umbridge was impressed with herself and the plan she had thought up. The Dementors were under her control, and it would be easy to claim a few were rouge, if anyone even suspected them. She had heard the rumours from Lucius that Potter had produced a patronus in third year.
Delores scoffed. The patronus was a powerful spell, and Potter was a mere halfblood. If she, a pureblood, couldn't produce a patronus, how could a halfblood do it? It was preposterous. But, it played into her plans. The boy dared to say that the Dark Lord was back. That was impossible! He died in 1981!
It was clearly a plot to remove Cornelius, no the Minister, and therefore her. Cornelius was the one who had to be in power. With him, they could introduce laws that benefited purebloods, and dealt with the halfbloods, mudbloods, no Muggleborn and the beasts. If the boy lived and did drive them off, she could get him done on trumped up charges and removed from school, causing a disgrace on Dumbledore and the boy himself. If he didn't, well, no one would be able to listen to him anyway.
As time passed, she started to get more worried. Surely the Dementors had found the boy by now? She had given clear instructions! She turned towards Mafalda "Mafalda? Has there been any underaged magic near Surrey?" Mafalda shook her head "No – there were a couple of instances but they were spread out around the country, and they were for under 10 year olds. No Hogwarts users have been detected using magic tonight"
Delores turned back, a snarl barely suppressed. At that moment, the device she had tied to the three Dementors went off, alerting her that they had returned to Azkaban. She turned and stormed out of the office to the Floo, determined to work out what had happened. How had no magic gone off? No one would have known that she was sending Dementors – not even Cornelius, no The Minister, knew.
Azkaban
Delores emerged from the Floo in the Wardens office. Even though she had a protective Ministry medallion that the officials had that prevented all effects of the Dementors from affecting them, she still shuddered. She hated interacting with the Dementors – how they looked, how they communicated and their general presence. If she had her way, she would have them all destroyed – they were beasts after all, and therefore below her. But, since there was no way to destroy them, they might as well use them.
She called the Dementors that she had sent out, and it took 10 minutes for them to arrive. "Well? Did you attack the boy? Is he dead?" The main Dementor sent images which told her that they hadn't found him, and therefore came back. Had she actually thought about it, she would have found it odd that the Dementors had apparently not gone near Privet Drive at all. Luckily, she didn't, and just left without bothering to check. The boy had escaped!
As she got to the Floo, she slowed her breathing. Hopefully, with the new legislation that Corn- The Minister was implementing, she would be able to get her revenge on him at Hogwarts.
The Dementors watched her leave. Most people tended not to bother with Occlumency when interacting with them, and as such the Dementors tended to receive a lot of unnecessary, and often unwanted, thoughts. Something that was similar with pretty much all ministry employees was the common thoughts of disgust, horror and relief that they could send them away to Azkaban. The thoughts of having them destroyed often was noticed by the Dementors.
That was why they had agreed to the boy. Unlike everyone else they had interacted with, he had used Occlumency, reducing the amount of thoughts they received, but they had also gotten the sense that he was someone they could get a good deal out of – more freedom for them to be them. Voldemort was the same as the Ministry to the Dementors – he may have allowed more leeway, but ultimately he would just do the same and reduce them to mere guards.
Yes, the Dementors had decided. If the boy could give them the freedom they wanted, even with a bit of compromise, then they would not join the Dark Lord – they might even join the fight against him.
Headmaster Office, Hogwarts
Albus Dumbledore sat staring out the window. It was his favourite thing to do while contemplating – he could see the grounds and sky and watch as life went by. The joys of that, however, had diminished over time, really from the time Harry Potter had returned to the wizarding world.
Year after year events had happened that seemed to revolve around Harry Potter, and they all seemed to have a common theme – Lord Voldemort. Indeed, just last year Voldemort had returned and had used Harry as the blood for his return. When he had heard that, Albus was happy and worried – happy that Voldemort had taken the protection that tied Harry to the world of the living, and worried that Voldemort was back – and had access to Harry.
That was the main reason he had decided to minimize contact with Harry from everyone. He couldn't allow Voldemort to discover and use Harry as an unwitting spy. So he had made the decision to have little to no contact with the boy, to minimize the desirability.
Part of him whispered that he should tell the boy about the prophecy, something which Voldemort would undoubtedly seek to learn and would try to use the boy, both to collect the prophecy and to finish him off. Perhaps he could get Severus to teach him Occlumency, Albus mused.
He was interrupted by a tapping on the window behind him. Albus turned and was surprised to find a large bird perched on his window. He opened it and allowed it to land on his desk. Fawkes trilled at the bird, which gave a small screech. If Fawkes found it offensive, he gave no indication, instead going back to preening his feathers.
Albus walked over to the bird. It looked like an Eagle, but it was no Eagle he recognized. It was massive, whatever it was. Perhaps he would look into it, and to whoever owned it, because the parchment obviously came from the wizarding world. When he took the letter, the Eagle took off, but instead of flying out the window, it screeched, flew into the Floo and disappeared in the green flames.
Albus just stared at the Floo before turning back to the parchment. It was a very short letter.
Albus,
We need to meet. We'll come to you when school starts.
DR
He had no idea who DR was. In fact, the only clue he had was that they had to be students, and even that was a suspicion. That would have narrowed it down, except for the 'We'. It was a group, clearly, but made up of whom?
Albus put it to the side. Clearly whoever they were he was going to see when term started. In the meantime, he had to prepare the Order for the war against Voldemort, and had to prepare the other teachers for the new Defence against the Dark Art 'professor', if that was how they were describing Umbridge. Albus sighed – he hoped that this year would go easier, but had the sinking feeling in his gut that told him it wouldn't happen.
Voldemort's Lair
Voldemort waved his hand, dismissing the nearly prone Death Eater bowing on the ground. He was one of the guards at Azkaban, and had reported that he had discovered that three Dementors had been sent on a 'unreported' mission – a mission that came direct from a top Ministry official. The Death Eater hadn't known who had given the order, but Voldemort suspected it was one of the advisors to Fudge. The man had no backbone, and preferred to make life difficult for the Potter boy without getting his hands dirty, instead working on turning the wizarding world against him.
Which would make his destruction of the boy all the sweeter.
His mind drifted back to the day he had been informed of the prophecy, or rather part of it. For whatever reason, he had panicked. He had gone after the boy without the full information and had nearly paid the ultimate price. It was the second most thought of problem during his exile – the top most being how to get his body back. Of course, he couldn't just walk back into the ministry to collect it. As such, since he had discovered the link in the boy's head, he had decided to get the boy to go get it.
However, something was wrong. Where was the link? He couldn't sense the boy at all. He walked over to Pettigrew and grabbed his left arm, placing his wand against the Dark Mark and calling his spy.
5 minutes later, Snape walked into the room. "Ah, Severus. I have a question for you" Voldemort's tone indicated that it was not so much a question, more of a request for information. Snape bowed in front of Voldemort, looking up but not raising from the bow. "My Lord – I will endeavour to answer whatever questions you have"
"Rise – you have more than earned that right" with a nod, Snape stood and faced him, his face blank. "Tell me, has Dumbledore increased the protections around or on Potter?" Voldemort almost smirked when he saw Snape's eye twitch at the mention of 'Potter'.
"As far as I'm aware, he has not. However, information about the boy is…convoluted at best. Dumbledore doesn't fully trust anyone with the information, not even the Weasleys who are the boy's closest friends."
Voldemort stared at him, testing Snape. Satisfied, he dismissed Snape who bowed and swept from the room, robes billowing. While Voldemort knew how to do that, he found it was unnecessary theatrics.
'Perhaps the ritual did affect the link after a delay' Voldemort mused. 'I'll need to look into this more'
4 Privet Drive
Harry helped Dudley through the door and sat him down in the living room. He got a blanket out and wrapped it around him, and set about healing the scraps on his hands and arms. Dudley didn't say anything as he watched Harry work. Harry walked into the kitchen and made a mug of hot chocolate, bringing it over and handing it over. Harry then sat next to him.
Dudley sipped on the hot chocolate while looking at Harry. "Why?"
Harry just raised an eyebrow "Why?" When Dudley nodded, he continued "Because I'm more used to them, and at least have magic to give me some protection. You have no magic and therefore will be more affected."
That seemed to make sense to Dudley. His face scrunched up, and Harry realised he was trying to think. "You used magic though. Shouldn't you have gotten in trouble?" Harry shook his head and held up the wand, smiling internally when Dudley didn't even flinch. "This wand isn't registered with the Ministry – they don't know it exists and therefore I can use it whenever I want."
Dudley chuckled "thank god for that, or we would have been dead. But what was with the fire?" Harry's face grew serious and Dudley realised that he may have gone too far. "That, is my secret. Think of it as being under the Official Secrets Act – I can't talk about it, and you don't have the right to know."
Dudley nodded, then went to get up. Harry, surprisingly gentle with him, helped him up and up to his bedroom, laying him down and leaving. Harry turned and walked back to his room, and turned to find Hermione sat on his bed, arms crossed.
"You, have some explaining to do" Hermione said "and not just to me"