Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Twelve—Stutter-Start

Harry leaned against the corner of the stationery shop in Knockturn Alley, Disillusioned as only the Elder Wand could make him, and closed his eyes in despair.

He supposed that he should have known someone would find out about the time travel eventually, but he had been spared, perhaps unfairly, by the fact that the first person who had done it was Mariana, and she had been willing to strike a deal. It had made him assume that others would want to strike a deal.

Instead of—what? Expose him? Execute him? Drag him to the Department of Mysteries to investigate him? Harry didn't even know if the Department of Mysteries in this universe would have invented Time-Turners.

Harry ran a weary hand over his face. Well, he had blown up the life he'd built here, and he would have to come up with other plans, without a friendly Laocoon to give him shelter this time.

At least one more trip back to Laocoon's shop was essential. He had to retrieve his back wages, his cauldron, his books, his clothes, and other things that he doubted he would be able to live comfortably without.

Then he would have to find a place to sleep for the night. And an owl so that he could send Mariana a message about rescheduling the tutoring session he'd originally had set with Severus for Wednesday.

Harry sighed. Yes, this was such a mess. But he had little choice other than to work with it. This was his life now. It had been since the night he'd shattered the entire universe.

Part of him did wonder if he deserved Azkaban or execution or whatever else they would inflict on him for being a time traveler, considering how he had caused more damage than Voldemort, but his mind always caught on Severus and Sirius and Regulus. If he was in prison or similar, he wouldn't be able to help them.

He straightened up, ready to move, and then froze as he watched a raven winging straight towards him. It didn't even seem to notice the Disillusionment Charm, although it did land in front of him and then startle up again, wings out, when he moved. Harry stopped and waited, and the raven landed and strutted towards him. Its expression was as frankly dubious as he had ever seen on a bird.

"Messenger?" Harry asked, barely moving his lips.

The raven gave a solitary croak and extended a leg. Harry used the Elder Wand to unbind the letter and bring it to him without hurting the raven, although it gave him another long stare, as though reconsidering any good opinion it might hold of him. It then flitted up to the top of the crumbling wall next to Harry and settled with a ruffle of its throat hackles to show it was going to wait.

Harry didn't touch the letter with his fingers, floating it in front of him and using the wand to open it, as well. He sighed when he realized the parchment was covered with Black's handwriting.

Dear Harry,

I hope that you won't snap at me for calling you by your first name. I likewise hope that you don't think your value has changed in my eyes because you have shown yourself to be a time traveler. Quite the contrary.

Harry sighed and shook his head. Of course Black would think that being a time traveler added to his "value" somehow. Harry wished he could have told the fool exactly what he thought of his valuation of people, but he was never going to speak to Black again, so it didn't matter.

I want to offer you sanctuary. If you think it would be too obvious to come to Grimmauld Place, since after all Dumbledore and his husband did see you in my company, then I have many other small houses scattered in many places. The Minister may know about some of them, but not all of them. And there are wards that will keep you safe even if someone is standing in the same room and looking right at you.

For the sake of my sons, I hope that you will accept my offer. They adore you, and I do not say that lightly. They did not extend such affection to any of the other tutors hired for them, or to their own mother, for reasons which I think you know.

I will keep you safe, and all I ask in return is that you consider sharing your knowledge with me and becoming a Black. I do not even demand that you share it. That is something for you to decide. But I want you to know that whatever your change in the timeline may have cost the Black family, I, at least, reckon it worth the price.

Black had signed his full name with a huge flourish. Harry rolled his eyes and also rolled the parchment, into a small, compact shape that he tossed at the raven who was watching him from the roof.

"No reply."

He'd taken three steps when the raven swooped down at his face, wings fluttering in his eyes as it croaked at him. Harry ducked, wand rising, but that gave the raven enough time to pick up the parchment and circle around in front of him again. It landed and stared straight at him, wings wagging suggestively.

"No." Harry didn't say it loudly. Even in Knockturn Alley, there would be people listening if the thin air spoke to a raven, especially one that was carrying a message.

The raven bobbed its head and fluffed its feathers again, then hopped closer and settled down in front of Harry as though on a perch. Harry tried to step around it, and the raven lifted its head, threw its wings out, and opened its beak.

It didn't croak, but the threat was obviously there.

"You fucking bird," Harry hissed under his breath as he snatched up the parchment. "I suppose it hasn't occurred to you that I don't have any quills or ink to write with?"

It might have occurred to the raven, but it didn't seem to care. It sat back and preened its feathers while Harry stared at the parchment.

Part of him said that he shouldn't reject the one offer of an ally that he was likely to get, and he did want to see Sirius and Regulus again. But he had one more place he could turn to, and someone who he had to see in person at least one more time. Sirius and Regulus, as cute as he found them, didn't have as much of his commitment as Severus did.

He raised the Elder Wand and spelled the words onto the parchment. He smiled a little. If this didn't convince Black to leave him alone, then nothing would.

Harry really hoped it worked, though. He didn't want to have to deal with Black and his raven for weeks.

He tossed the parchment at the raven, who leaped into the air, snatched it, and flew off. Harry touched the Elder Wand to his chest and focused as hard as he could on the feeling of his Invisibility Cloak draped over him, the silkiness of the material, the sensation of hiding in a corner of Hogwarts desperate not to breathe as Filch and his cat came nearer and nearer…

When he opened his eyes, he smiled. There was a slight starriness about his vision, and when he moved, he could hear the whispering of the Cloak around him.

Now to retrieve his belongings from Laocoon's shop and then find a place to sleep.

Orion hadn't expected a response from Harry so quickly, but he understood when he opened the parchment.

Fuck off, Black.

Orion considered what to do for a moment. His anger at the crude words had reared like a cobra and then almost immediately dissolved. After all, that was what Harry was trying to make him do, grow so angry that he would abandon his pursuit.

He must not understand the full implications of what being a time traveler meant, or he would know that far more people than Orion would soon be pursuing him, and for reasons far more unkind.

Orion leaned back against the wall outside the nursery and looked in so that he could watch his sons. Sirius was using the practice wand Harry had brought him and managing to create controlled sparks. Regulus was studying the other wand with an absorbed expression. Orion had been concerned about that at first, but Harry had reassured him, saying that some children liked to feel how the wand interacted with their magic before using it.

Orion nodded slowly. Yes, he had to have Harry as a tutor for his sons even if the man never agreed to marriage. And to keep other families from using the time traveler against him as a weapon.

That meant taking a more active role.

Harry stepped into Laocoon's shop under the thick Disillusionment Charm like the Invisibility Cloak, confident that he wouldn't be seen. It had protected him all the way from Knockturn Alley, after all, with no one even turning to look at him—

"I know that's you, Harry."

Harry froze and turned slowly to look at Laocoon. Laocoon had his arms folded and a sad frown on his face. His back was against the door of the small room Harry had lived in for so long, and where he would have to go to get his things.

"I know it's you," Laocoon repeated. His eyes were aimed slightly to the left of where Harry actually stood, something that made Harry's heart begin to beat smoothly again. So he couldn't see through the charm. "I know you. And I'm good at defensive spells. It takes a lot for one to fool me."

Harry said nothing, and didn't shift his weight. Laocoon stood up straighter and shook his head. "And you have to realize why time travel magic was outlawed in this world—although I suppose it might not have been in yours."

Harry remained silent. It would be easy enough to move Laocoon out of the way, but he did want to hear this.

Laocoon waved his hands in the air. "Why do time travelers want to break the universe? It was fine just the way it was! But that's what they always want to do, is put the pieces together in a configuration that favors them personally." He peered again in Harry's direction. "I suppose this is the only chance I'll have to ever make that question become more than rhetorical. Why do you want to break the universe?"

He waited for longer than Harry thought he would in the face of Harry's silence, but finally gave an enormous snort and began to pack back and forth. "Fine. Be that way. Anyway. Time travel magic is the ultimate weapon. It could erase people from existence, and no one would even remember they were gone. It could, if you were powerful enough and had enough control of it, twist the world into what you wanted it to be. You could win any war, survive any conquest, make the world the way you wanted it to be forever by erasing books and ideas and rebellious movements." He glared at Harry over his shoulder. "Do you see?"

Harry held back the protest that burned his tongue: that he hadn't meant to do anything of that, that it had been a total accident. From what Laocoon was saying, no one would believe that, anyway. And again he huffed and kept explaining in a few minutes.

"That's assuming that someone really did know what they were doing with it. It would be much more likely, according to all the theories and because it hasn't been studied much, to have created a void filled with nothingness." He turned around and his eyes were suddenly direct and sharp in a way Harry had never seen on his face. "You could have killed everyone, you fucker."

Harry had known he was lucky. And he carried a load of guilt around over what he had done to Severus and the Blacks and probably other people he would never meet. He didn't need Laocoon to tell him that.

But it was the first time he'd thought about it in a while. He closed his eyes to absorb the blow, and took a deep breath.

And Laocoon sprang. His hands locked on Harry's arm instead of his shoulders, which it looked like he'd been aiming for, but he still caught hold of Harry and spun him around, his face triumphant. Harry found himself gaping at Laocoon, and the Disillusionment Charm on him broke with a soft pop like a soap bubble.

"You should have known better than to speak to someone who actually cared about his world," Laocoon growled.

"You were the one who insisted that your Divination professor had told you I'd be important in your life!" Harry snapped, more flustered than he'd expected. He was reminded forcefully, again, that he had obligations here, but he couldn't expect any in return. People would either hate him or seek to use him if they found out who he really was.

He'd even thought Laocoon was a friend, in a way.

"And I should have realized that it didn't mean you could work in my shop." Laocoon shook his head. "Instead, I'm going to become famous for following my duty and turning you in to the Ministry."

He raised his wand. The Elder Wand gave a vicious thrum in Harry's hand, and he realized that he had to decide what to do. Otherwise, it would be up to the wand, and that would be unlikely to spare Laocoon the consequences of his own actions.

He whispered, "Obliviate."

This time, there was no supernatural weapon protecting Laocoon from the consequences of the spell. He faltered and looked around the shop, blinking hard. Then he looked at Harry. "Hello. Who are you?" He let go of Harry's arm a second later, and flushed. "I'm terribly sorry. I don't know what I was—what's happening?"

The Elder Wand had gone for a comprehensive Memory Charm, then. Harry felt a slight ache in his chest, but ignored it. Laocoon's words were true, in a way. Harry should have known better than to get so deeply involved with someone native to this timeline. "I don't know," Harry murmured. "I walked into the shop, and you looked like you were on the verge of fainting. Then you grabbed me and started shouting some strange things. I cast a charm that should have got rid of most fevers. Did that help?"

"Oh, Merlin, I've been overworking again." Laocoon shook his head with a faint grimace. "Ever since my last assistant quit, I've been doing this. Ungrateful bastard. I should never have paid him as much as I did."

"Well, maybe you'll find someone else," Harry said, as diplomatically as he could. The Elder Wand was flicking behind his back, undoing the locks on the cupboards in the other room that had been his and freeing and Disillusioning their contents. "I actually came in here because I heard that you sold practice wands that could help focus a child's magic."

"Oh, of course!" Laocoon beamed at him. "Of course, yes. Come with me, and I'll show you the best ones."

Harry bought three, while his Disillusioned possessions flew over to him. He would send two by owl to Sirius and Regulus, once he found the public owlery.

And he would take the third with him for the day he saw Severus for the last time. He wanted the gift to be presented in person. Likewise, Severus deserved an in-person apology for why Harry wouldn't be seeing him again after that.

Harry's mind was made up. Laocoon's words had recalled him to a sense of what was proper rather than really being something new. He had no right to stay here.

Mariana looked at the parchment in front of her and shook her head slowly.

"Grandmother, what is it?"

Mariana sighed and reached out to gently put a hand on Severus's shoulder, the only kind of touch that she dared when Seneca was in the house. There was standing up to him and using a Memory Charm on him, and then there was suicide.

"I'm afraid that Mr. Evanson wants to change the arrangement," she said, rolling up the parchment. "He has lost his position at Mr. Laocoon's shop and would rather that we didn't go there again. Mr. Evanson seems to think that he will have to stop tutoring you, but he said that he will come—"

"I don't want him to stop."

Mariana felt her lips lift in a smile that was entirely involuntary. Once Severus had made up his mind about something, mountains falling on his head wouldn't be able to move him. "I know that, of course, Severus," she said. "But Mr. Evanson says that he has to leave for the good of everyone. It's rather mysterious."

In truth, Mariana thought that Harry probably just didn't want to trust the truth to owl post. It likely had something to do with his time travel. But she wouldn't say that as she watched Severus's face twist with determination. He might never be handsome, with the unfortunate Prince facial features and the scar on his forehead, but he could manage awe-inspiring, she thought.

"He's going to stay."

"Well, we would have to find another place for your lessons, Severus."

"He could come here."

"Your grandfather would make that difficult."

"I think Harry is a match for Grandfather."

Mariana blinked and then let her protest die away without being spoken. She was about to say that of course Harry wasn't, but—well, she had stood up to Seneca. He wasn't as unconquerable as she had always thought. Why couldn't someone as powerful as Harry fend off her husband? A time traveler, his magic thrumming around him even if he seemed to prefer that people would ignore that, and someone who could accept all of Severus's oddities…

Of course Mariana had never really intended to let the tutoring sessions stop. But it was wonderful what a strong ally she had in her grandson.

"Then let's tell him that in the letter, dear one," she murmured and bent down to brush her hand over his scar. "Do you want to write it yourself?"

Severus nodded and tore towards his bedroom. Mariana followed with a smile and a heart more fond and hopeful than she had thought she would ever allow herself three years ago.

Severus was her reason for living on the earth, and if he wanted Harry Evanson to continue as his tutor, Mariana would just have to make sure it happened.