With love, Harry

Summary:

In which Harry goes back in time, adopts his arch nemesis and pulls one infamous Dark Lord into his madness somewhere along the way.

"Surprise! Tom, meet your grandfather!"

"Harry. That's Gellert Grindelwald."

"I know. Isn't it exciting!? And he'll be tutoring you to be the greatest Dark Lord ever!"

"What?"

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is the boss of it all.

Warning: Grammar, perhaps?

A/N: In which it's Septhis's turn to throw a tantrum and Harry finally returns home, bringing along a new addition to the family (who, sadly enough, isn't Grindelwald HAH).

Five

CRASH!

Clymene winced over her cup of chamomile tea as the sound of multiple windows in the upper floor of the manor breaking simultaneously echoed throughout. She placed her cup down and cleared her throat. "The boy is very destructive."

Septhis who sat on the sofa across the nymph snorted. "He's just lonely without Harry around and seems incapable of expressing it in forms other than violence."

Septhis and Clymene, sitting together and drinking tea while having a casual chat. What was the world coming to!? Harry's abrupt disappearance was surely causing a stir within the manor.

"Why not call your master back?" Clymene asked as she tilted her head to the side. "He would return at once if you told him of the situation."

"Well, my master cut off all means of communication to him." Septhis replied, his voice sounding almost strained. "The fool remains hidden from my eye."

The nymph paused before bursting into laughter, a sweet and melodious sound— that only sounded like nails on a chalkboard to the pale man.

"Pray tell what's so hilarious here."

"My, my, the great Mors himself is unable to find his own master." She chuckled as she picked her cup again and took a long sip from it. "How...pitiful."

"I find you equally pitiful for laughing at me while being unaware of where the man you claim as your fratribus is hiding." He rolled his eyes, spitting out Harry's stupid title with mockery.

In all honesty, he hated nymphs.

(And also perhaps anything that was alive and breathing but who knew.)

Why couldn't everything just be dead?

It would have made his job much easier than it was.

Clymene blinked and raised a brow. "Oh but Regiam Majestatem does. She knows where all her children are."

*(Regiam Majestatem — Her Majesty in Latin.)

Septhis's eye twitched at the mention of that cursed name. "Don't go around spitting the name of your deity when in my presence."

"How childish," Clymene scoffed, "Regiam Majestatem has been around for as long as you have been. Are you jealous, Septhis dear?"

His expression grew dark at the reminder. Jealous? No, he simply hated her; the woman who brought forth life and extended it for her servants, these nymphs. She would make them live past their due dates and even through centuries they didn't deserve!

Clearly, the Regiam Majestatem did not understand that all life needed to come to an ultimate end for the sake of balance. But did she care? Of course not!

"She is not worth my jealousy." Septhis rose from his seat, the tiny string of calm within him finally snapping. "I, however, find it rather worrisome how your queen seems incapable of recognising the harms of her generosity when it comes to the longevity of life!"

The room suddenly witnessed a drastic drop of temperature.

And Septhis, of course, blamed the sudden loss of control over his anger on Harry's uninformed leave. The very cause of all the drama that had taken place in this manor till date! Besides, tea with a nymph would have never ended diplomatically or even at the very least, with a pinch of civility anyway.

So Septhis wasn't really surprised when the nymph in front of him suddenly hissed like a frightened kitten, interrupting his train of thoughts—

"You're raising some unpleasant company outside! Let the dead remain as they are; leave my sisters in their graves. Do not raise them in your little fit!"

He paused.

Septhis saw the conflicting emotions that raged within Clymene's clear blue eyes and then grasped onto her rare moment of helplessness, like an excited child receiving a brand new toy.

His voice lowered to a frighteningly soft tone. "But won't you want to see them again, Clymene?"

The pale man's features slowly began to change, the room growing darker as it did. His eyes sunk in and turned into hollowed pools of infinite darkness while his body took on a more skeletal appearance.

Clymene shivered and drew into herself. It was growing colder by the second, the room turning into something much like when a dementor dropped by, but in tenfold.

"I can offer you a chance," he softly murmured in an almost seductive tone while drawing closer to her, "to meet them again."

She knew what he was doing, what this was...

The call of the dead.

Mortuorum evocatio.

And the biggest sin to Regiam Majestatem.

Clymene felt a great urgency to get away.

In a last resort, she slammed her palms against the surface of the table, channelling all the energy from within as she did. The world around her spun before she found herself outside in the next moment, collapsed on the bed of green grass and very exhausted.

The plants around her quivered restlessly on sensing her distress; trying to reach out to touch her and give her comfort.

She lifted her head to gaze back at the manor. To her utter horror, the surrounding of the mansion —all the flowers and the trees, everything— was dead; seeming like it had been burnt down.

"Oh, Regiam Majestatem." She whispered. "What a dreadful sight."

"If Harry does not intend on appearing any sooner, I can confidently guarantee all that will be left of this mansion is its ashes."

The four cloaked wraiths that had been attending to their lord wavered about their positions nervously. An angry Death was, after all, not someone anyone would like to be around.

You would be wishing for death even if you were, well, already dead.

There was a soft knock on the door and the wraiths immediately dispersed in a frenzied hurry, leaving behind wisps of black smoke.

"Come in." Septhis called out as he swirled the contents of the glass cup he held.

Tom Marvolo Riddle (the cause of all his apparent misery— yes, he was currently throwing the blame around, and no, he did not care) stepped into the room with a mildly disturbed expression etched across his delicate features.

"It is not yet time for your classes." Septhis greeted the boy in a lazy drawl.

"I am aware of that fact myself." The boy replied tersely. "I just came to inquire about," he paused as though trying to put a word on whatever it was he had come to ask Septhis, "a certain matter."

"I had nothing to do with the sudden lack of plant life around the manor, if you were wondering."

Tom shook his head. "I do not care about the lover's spat you had with Clymene—"

Septhis's wore a pinched expression. "We are not—"

"—but rather, the presence of dementors outside."

The pale man paused at the sudden revelation. "Dementors?"

"Yes." Tom nodded. "Three of them, and they are hovering about the manor as though attracted to something inside."

Septhis sighed and sunk deeper into his armchair. "Forget about them, they are just posing as mere...messengers."

"From who, might I ask?"

"Who else if not from your papa dearest, at least we know he's still alive." Septhis replied with nonchalance. "He could have just dropped by himself sooner instead of causing me all this trouble."

The boy bristled at the mention of his adoptive father. "Harry?"

"Yes. Now, don't ask me why he can command dementors to send messages, I'm not in the mood to deal with your questions, Tommy boy." Septhis waved him off. "And do me a favour. Go up to one of them with the brightest smile— oh, you can't smile, can you?"

The scowl he received from Tom pretty much answered Septhis's question.

"Well," the pale man sighed again, "now I'm just going to have to deal with more complaints from the nymphs about unwanted company in their territory. Fuck."

"Or you can deal with the dementors yourself first." Tom stated almost quietly as he firmly fixed his gaze on the window behind Septhis.

The man turned around (with much dread because no, he did not like dementors) to be greeted by the sight of the said creatures outside, lightly banging on the windows with their skeletal hands as though asking for entry.

Yes. He, Death the Great, did not favour these dark creatures.

Not because he was bitter over the fact that his master had taken the reins of control over them after winning a stupid bet that involved Thestral racing. Of course, not.

(Septhis did not want to talk about it— let alone remember his humiliating defeat at the hands of a once mortal who went through life armed with only "sheer dumb luck".)

Tom impatiently waved his hand, his magic spilling out to unlock the windows when he realised Septhis was not going to do it.

The room's temperature abruptly dropped to a chill, but Tom seemed rather enraptured by the creatures and entirely disregarded how he had begun to shiver due to the cold.

"Don't get too close, Tom." Septhis warned. "I will not be the one who takes the blame if you end up being kissed."

"So, I was right all along then." The boy paused, turning to Septhis with a smirk tugging on the corners of his lips.

Septhis blinked. "What?"

"You can't produce a patronus."

"That is all you can think of in such a dire situation as this?" Septhis resisted the urge to pinch (and punch someone) the bridge of his nose.

The dementors began to circle high above Tom like vultures but kept a considerable distance at the same time. The boy was slightly puzzled over their behaviour before the sound of a chorus of mismatched whispers reached his ears. And that was when he realised that the creatures were communicating with them.

They seemed to be talking (?) in a language (Latin, Tom's mind supplied), directing their words to the pale man. A pity Tom wasn't well versed enough in the dead language to understand why Septhis's expression grew to a very sour one. It amused him how the man seemed outraged, annoyed and resigned all at the same time.

A part of him wanted to demand the man what Harry's message was— but all was forgotten when Harry's voice seemed to drift out from the chaotic whispers of the dementors, calling his name with a fondness that squeezed Tom's heart.

'Tommy, I do hope you're being a good boy. Don't worry about your Papa alright? I'll be back soon.'

(The only good which came from Harry's theatrics, Septhis had to admit, was the wonders it worked on the little Dark Lord's mood for the next two days before the green eyed man's actual return. Thankfully.)

Harry's words echoed on like a sweet song.

'I'm coming home.'

Septhis could sense the foreboding pandemonium.

Even taste its awfulness in the air.

He was a fan of chaos, don't mistake him.

He loved it, raised it whenever he could, and very often stood at the frontline of it— he was a master of mayhem, in fact.

But this was a different case altogether.

Harry coming back home.

Wasn't he supposed to be relieved and all grateful for the return of his master (like finally!) after the past two weeks of torture no thanks to a certain kid who "missed" Harry?

Believe him, he was.

Initially.

Before Harry informed Septhis he was bringing "someone" back with him.

So there stood Septhis by the front door, hands clasped together a little too tightly behind his back. The pale man wished Grindelwald had finished off his master in that confrontation Harry had mentioned. If he had, Septhis wouldn't have had to deal with all the tension slowly building up within him.

But then again, Harry couldn't die.

(The back of his mind idly registered the sound of the little Dark Lord's footsteps as he made his way down the foyer.)

Septhis sighed.

Why was he freaking out anyway? None of this really concerned him in the end. He was only supposed to be keeping an eye on his master. That was all. He seriously just needed to run through a few sets of breathing exercises to keep his calm—

No.

His little seconds of calm immediately fell into a disarray when he felt the wards shift to accommodate the arrival of Harry and the stray his bloody fool of a master had picked up after his run in with Grindelwald.

("I couldn't leave the poor child alone so I'm bringing him home. He will make a good companion for Tommy, don't worry! I just know it and I can't wait to introduce the two!")

Heart of a stupid saint Gryffindor!

Did he not know what introducing another child to the jealous little brat he was currently holding custody over would do!?

Of course, not.

The door opened and Septhis inhaled a sharp breath in sync with the little Dark Lord now standing beside him— though not for the same reasons.

The pale man immediately disliked the "vermin" who seemed to be glued fast unto Harry's hip, arms tightly wrapped round him and head resting a tad too comfortably on the crook of the smiling man's neck.

And for once, even Tom seemed to agree with Septhis— if his now clenched fists were anything to go by.

To make things worse, Septhis knew who this was!

He opened his mouth, ready to command Harry to throw the kid out of the manor because having one to take care of was more than enough. And also because this new addition to the cosy family of three would definitely not be much of a pleasant company seeing that he was a—

But Septhis was suddenly interrupted when he unintentionally gleaned a rather worrisome thought from the depths of the little Dark Lord's mind as their eyes met.

And Merlin, Tom Marvolo Riddle seemed to be lucid inside despite the almost calm exterior he put on.

Septhis could already feel the migraine that would plague him for the next few days because the only thing the boy had in his little mind seemed to be—

"Is this James!?"

A/N:

For all of you who were expecting the arrival of Grindelwald to the story, sorry. It's still a little early for him to make his appearance. Instead, we have a mystery character and I can assure you that he's a hundred percent canon!character.

For those of reading this for the first time, take a wild guess? You'll be surprised when his identity gets revealed next chapter.

A big thanks to SakuraLuck, D C JoKeR H S, Plogop, halfblood hufflepuff, vanzphantomhive, Yatocat19, Guest (Jun 18) and ChibiCielo27 for your reviews! You guys are my lifelines! I get really motivated reading your reviews, thank you :')

And my thanks to all who put this work in their favorites and follow lists!

Finally, thank you for reading/giving this a try!

[Edit: 10.02.2019] I am SO GLAD I REDID THIS CHAPTER. Phew, I feel satisfied because this one had been a thorn to my side.

Also, thank you holyscythe (you'll get to see all of those unfold in the coming chapters!) and narakunohime for leaving reviews in the previous chapter! :')