The two men spent what felt like several hours discussing what would happen to Harry next. Basically Carver would transport to a magical park where a young child was about to choke. As soon as the soul left the body, Carver would heal the body enough that it would be able to handle life and implant Harry's soul.
"Why are you letting this child die? For that matter, why not save all dying children?" Harry demanded.
"That would be beyond my abilities. The children's deaths are fixed points in time. The only reason I can send you back is because I have special permission from my boss, and, even then, the child will still die. I'm only saving the body, not the soul within," Carver said.
Harry had a hard swallowing this new bit of information, but he thought he had the gist of it. The kid in the park was still going to die, Carver wasn't stopping that. The Dementers had taught Harry that a body could survive without a soul. Carver was going to take that soulless body and put Harry's soul into it.
"How will this help? Hermione once told me that time travel is incredibly dangerous," Harry asked.
"This isn't like that type of time travel. You wouldn't have to fear changing the future, that's the whole reason for sending you back. Also, it will create a minor paradox," Carver said.
Harry recoiled, "Aren't paradoxes bad?"
"Normally, but we want this paradox. Even though your body won't physically be marked, your soul has still been marked by Voldemort. By sending you back, we cause the prophecy to have ambiguousness. The prophecy could be talking about either you or the other Harry," Carver said.
"So I could take on the responsibilities of the prophecy," Harry mused.
Carver nodded, "I know that doesn't sound appealing, but it wouldn't have to be like last time. You don't just have to change your personal life; you can save so many lives."
Harry agreed, "I've gone through war once. I may physically be young, but I have the soul of an old soldier. That's probably why I went into the Auror corps. My hero complex is still very active, and it wouldn't let me deny this chance to save lives."
"One more thing, you will be given the gift of sight, so no one questions your strange knowledge of the future," Carver said.
Harry frowned, "No! The last seer I knew gave the prophecy that cursed me to my horrible life."
Carver tried to explain, "This wouldn't be like Professor Trelawney's prophecies. In fact, you would not be giving prophecies. You would be a very basic seer. You might have the ability to see tomorrow's weather or other small things. It is just a cover for the knowledge you already have."
"Couldn't I just keep my knowledge hidden?" Harry asked.
"Do you really want to spend your entire life as a lie? Besides, eventually someone would have to get suspicious. This gives a story you can tell your family and closest friends. You would want to keep even the knowledge of being a seer a secret from everyone else," Carver said.
Harry wasn't really paying attention anymore. His mind had hooked onto one word that Carver had said, "I'll have a family?"
"Of course, you would be the only child of Darlene and Robert Ogden. They had a lot of trouble with the pregnancy, so they are fairly doting. The death of their only child almost kills them. Also, they lose their heir, and their family dies out after their deaths," Carver paused; "If you were to do this, you'd only be helping them."
Harry slowly nodded, "Alright, I'll do it."
"One more thing before you go, the name of the child is Lucinda Ogden. You'll be a girl now," as Carver snapped his fingers; he could see Harry's furious face. 'I think he's rather mad with me.'
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When Darlene Ogden woke on the sunny morning of Oct 18, she knew something was going to happen. And not a good something, but a terrible, horrible something.
She knew better than to try and explain the feeling to her husband. He just wouldn't understand. And she couldn't just ignore the feeling. The women of her family were long known for having a strong woman's intuition. Why, her grandmother had been registered by the Ministry of Magic as a very low level Seer.
Darlene had just decided that she would spend all day inside, with her family, when she heard her princess waking up. As soon as she heard Lucy opening her door and walking downstairs, she remembered that she'd promised to take her to the new all magical park.
'Maybe I can convince her to wait for another day, even tomorrow. She might not even remember that we were supposed to go today,' Darlene thought to herself.
"Morning, Mum! When are we leaving for the park?" Lucy called as soon as she saw her mother.
Darlene worried through breakfast, she fretted on the way to the park, and she absolutely panicked when she got to the park.
When Robert noticed that his daughter wasn't having much fun because of her mother's overbearing, he decided it was time to intervene.
"Dear, you're being sort of overbearing," he said to his wife.
The look she gave him made him think of an angry dragon. He decided to try a different approach.
"It's just that, you haven't let Lucy off of the bench the entire time we've been here. Isn't the point of going to a park to play?" he asked.
Darlene sighed, "I suppose you're right. I just have this feeling that something horrible is going to happen."
"Perhaps you're worrying too much. Lucy's six years old, she's not a sickly baby anymore," Robert said.
"You're right, you're right," Darlene sighed. "Lucy, why don't you try out those swings? Just stay in eye sight please."
Lucy let out a whoop of joy as she ran over to the swings. She knew her mother and father would soon get into a discussion about boring grown up stuff, and she'd be free to explore more of the park. She happily played on the swings for a while.
Robert waited until his daughter was far enough away that she wouldn't be able to hear him. "Have you been keeping up with the new laws passed by the Wizengamot?"
Darlene gave her husband a look. Before she fell in love with him, she had been raised as the next head of her family. She had been an only child of an old matriarchal family. Then she met Robert, already head of his equally old and powerful family. After marrying him, she'd happily handed over control of her family affairs, but she always paid attention to current events so that she could properly advise her husband.
"Of course you have, stupid question. Then you must have noticed the new law Dumbledore introduced," Robert said.
"Would you be referring to the new law that is disguised as a way to help werewolves, but will actually lead to their registration and confinement?" Darlene asked.
Robert nodded with a grim look on his face. He had a brother – thought dead by the general populace – who was actually a werewolf in hiding.
"I doubt the law will pass. He managed to pass several confinement laws by using the ignorance of half-bloods, but the purebloods have gotten the truth out enough that this one shouldn't pass," Darlene said.
"Excuse me, but my wife and I couldn't help but over hear and we were wondering what you were talking about?" asked a gentleman sitting next to the Ogden's.
Robert and Darlene shared a look before Robert started talking, "Dumbledore is always passed off as some sort of benevolent grandfather, but he's actually very manipulative. It's a well-known fact, or used to be, that purebloods will occasionally marry a magical being to keep the blood line pure. This is done to prevent inbreeding if I can be so bold as to just out and say it."
Darlene picked up, "Dumbledore has been passing laws to confine magical beings. Beings like centaurs and vampires, who used to be known as magical beings, are now being called magical creatures. They're losing all rights. Soon they'll be treated like a pet dog."
"We believe this is done in an effort to control the magical world. The purebloods would be controlled as most of us have some sort of magical creature in our bloodlines. The muggleborns are being kept completely ignorant. Did you know that Dumbledore has removed any introductory classes from Hogwarts? He's keeping muggleborns ignorant. Those two groups combined would be enough to overpower any opposition from non-ignorant half-bloods," Robert said.
The other couple had recoiled in disgust.
"Of course, I'd heard from my mother that there used to be a class on wizard customs and a class for muggleborns, but I'd never really wondered why they were removed," the man said.
"Yes, the largest part of this plan uses ignorance. If everyone knew that they were slowly being oppressed, an outrage would break out," Darlene said.
"Is that why there isn't a class on wizarding law at Hogwarts?" asked the woman.
"Yes, you can't oppose a law you don't know about," Robert said.
Eventually Lucy looked up to see that her parents and some of the other adults seemed to be in the middle of a discussion. She happily headed for some of the other park equipment.
She soon found herself by a slide that some older boys were sitting on. None of them seemed to be using the slide; they were just sitting on it and eating candy. That wasn't fair! It was the only slide around, and they weren't even using it.
Lucy marched over, "If you're not going to slide, why don't you let others use it?"
The boys looked at her in surprise. One of the older boys said, "Hey kid, scram. We're using the slide."
"No you're not. You're just sitting on it and talking," Lucy retorted.
The boys glanced at each other, "Here kid, I'll give you some candy if you just leave us alone."
Lucy thought about it. Her mother had always told her not to take candy from strangers, but this was a teenager, not an adult. Plus he was eating the candy too, so it couldn't be harmful.
"Alright, if you give me some candy, I'll leave you alone," Lucy said.
The boy gave her a handful of candy. It was a mixture of hard candy and soft gummies. She hesitantly ate one gummy before cramming more candy into her mouth. The candy tasted really good!
She happily headed for the merry-go-round before she started choking. She'd tried to swallow a gummy, but she accidently swallowed a hard candy too. She fell to the ground clutching her throat. The candies completely filled her throat, and she couldn't even call out to help. As her vision turned to black, she saw a boy run over to her.
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Carver, in his younger form, rushed over to the dying girl. He knew he would have only seconds to heal the body after the soul left before the body also died. He knew the instant the soul left and he quickly set to work healing the body. He had a wand out to make it look like he was just normal first or second year wizard.
He completely healed the body and mostly had Harry's soul into the body before he called for help. He quickly cast the CPR charm at the ground in case someone used Prior Incantum on his wand.
"Help! Please someone help me! Help!" he shouted.
People started running from all over the park. The parents of the girl rushed to her side when they recognized her.
"What happened?" her father demanded.
"I saw her clutching at her throat and realized something was wrong. I ran over and found out she was choking. I cast the CPR charm at her, but I don't know if she's ok," Carver said as he made himself seem frantic.
"We've got to get her to St Mungo's!" the mother called.
The little girl was quickly picked up and taken to the floo entrance at the Information Center of the park.
Carver grabbed the father's arm along the way, "Do you think I could come along? I'm just so worried that I didn't do enough…"
The father looked at Carver with sympathy, "You did all you could, which I'm thankful for. You may have saved my daughter's life. You'd better come along though; I'll make sure you get off of any charges for underage magic."
"Thank you sir," Carver said as they ran to the floo entrance.
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When Harry first opened his eyes, he knew by the blinding light he had to be at some sort of healing facility.
'Why do doctors insist on blinding their patients?' he wondered to himself.
When he turned his head and saw a man and woman ('Darlene and Robert Ogden, his new parents,' his mind supplied) instead of Ginny, he remembered what was going on.
"Are you okay, darling? Does anything hurt?" the woman rushed over to his bed.
He (he supposed he should really start referring to himself with feminine pronouns since Harry was now a girl) gestured vaguely to her throat, which did ache.
Her father lifted a cup of water from the bedside table and helped her drink a little bit. The water helped her throat not to hurt as much and she was able to talk, "What happened?"
"Apparently you choked on some candy," said a healer. The healer waved his wand over Lucinda/Harry several times and seemed pleased with the results. "We sent out aurors to capture the teenagers. We've now taken their statements."
"How did you know who I got the candy from?" asked Lucinda/Harry (she supposed she also needed to refer to herself as Lucinda, because the Lucinda/Harry stuff was giving her a headache).
"This young man, who saved your life, told us he saw some teenagers giving you candy," her mother said.
Lucinda looked over to see a very different Carver smiling at her. The first Carver she met looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. This Carver was probably eleven or twelve. He was wearing a t-shirt and worn jeans.
"I'm just glad you're ok," Carver said.
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Harry quickly adjusted to life as Lucinda Ogden. Some things were weirder than others, like having over protective parents and being a girl, but she eventually became used to it. She had all the memories of the original memories, but none of the emotions that had gone with them. She could view the memories like a TV show.
Lucy lived in the Ogden Manor with her mother, father, and two house elves. The Ogden Manor was large and old. It was a two story house with a full basement. It was made out of bricks, and one wall was completely covered with ivy. It wasn't showy like the Malfoy Manor, but it was still an impressive house.
Lucy was very glad to have her own room. As soon as she'd gotten home that first day, she'd barricaded herself in her room.
She'd grabbed between her legs before screaming into a pillow. It was true, Harry was now a girl. Little Harry was gone!
"Am I interrupting something?" a voice asked. Lucy looked up to see Carver, back in his older form, at the foot of her bed.
She'd jumped out of bed and started hitting him with her tiny fists. "I'm a girl, you tosser! Where was that in the plans?"
"I'm sorry, but Lucinda Ogden was the only available body. Your other options would have been to become a muggle or to be a boy raised by monks in the Himalayas, 7 years older than the original you," Carver explained.
"I could've dealt with monks," Lucy muttered. Carver rolled his eyes. "How are you even here? I thought I wasn't supposed to see my guardian angel."
"That was before you knew who I was. Now that you know you have a guardian angel and who I am, there's no sense in my remaining hidden," Carver said.
Lucy nodded before thinking of something else, "So are you still the guardian angel of…uh…the other me, or what?"
"Another angel was assigned to him. At this point, your souls are very different. Your soul is scarred and older. I am assigned to your soul, so another angel had to be assigned to Harry."
"So you're the Carver I know, not some Carver from the past?" Lucy asked.
"I traveled back in time with your soul if that is what you're asking," Carver said with an amused expression.
Lucy eventually became used to being a girl. At first, she'd planned on cutting her hair short and never wearing a dress, but her mother was having none of that. Her brown hair was kept long, and often in ribbons. She wore dresses several times a week.
Lucy was also trying to plan for the future. She would be in the same year at Hogwarts as Harry. She wanted to keep Harry away from the Weasleys and the Dursleys. Also, she wanted to keep him from having to go through any of the challenges Dumbledore had set up.
Lucy screamed into a pillow again. It was such a good stress reliever.
A/N: I just wanted to mention something about the park. The wizarding community has entire villages (Hogsmeade), so in my AU, they also have places like parks that are entirely magical. If you have any questions, feel free to add them to your review. I'm really trying to keep this different from other clichés, how am I doing so far?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.