The semester is finally drawing to an end, and I have a few weeks before I start my job so hopefully some updated chapters. It didn't take a month this time, but seriously I'm seriously loving how this is going.

Updated: 5/15/22

Chapter 19- Shadows of the Past

Within a couple of weeks, the month of February finally arrived with not much change. Lord Potter still taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, constantly deducting points from Slytherins in each passing second if he so wished while Professor Snape countered that. The weather still remained cold, gloomy and cloudy with each passing day. It rained quite a bit to where students kept getting mud all over their shoes and falling ill with the cold weather, coming down with the flu or a cold, who was nursed back to health by a pepper up potion that Madam Pomphrey gave out.

Because of this, Harrison was forced to stay inside the castle. He was currently sitting in the library, his back arched straight with a quill dipped in black ink in his hand, his head looking downwards over his charms essay about the usage of bluebell flames, finishing up the last couple of paragraphs of the essay, when a pair of feet stopped right next to him.

He looked up towards the person, with green eyes that shone coldly to the person. He didn't relax even though he knew it was Hermione Granger, who was probably going to ask a question. He had no idea who was worse: A Malfoy who was curious about his actions or a mudblood that kept coming back to him with questions.

Hermione squirmed under his gaze, biting her bottom lip as her warm brown eyes avoided eye contact with him, as she shifted her weight from one foot to another, and picked at the tattered strings of her gray sweater she was wearing.

He tilted his head to the side, waiting for the unavoidable question he knew Hermione was probably going to ask him.

It took a couple of minutes once Hermione took a couple of deep breaths and a lot of mouth opening then closing before she was able to speak and ask her question,

"I-I have something I wanted to ask you…" Hermione trailed off, biting her bottom lip before she continued on, "I want to know what happened the day you were convicted of your sentencing."

Harrison was a little taken back by the question. He had never expected such a question to arise, certainly not when it came to his past of being convicted. He expected such a question to arise in Draco, but he never thought Hermione would actually ask him this sort of question.

"Why?" Harrison asked coldly, "Everything you should be able to find is in the Daily Prophet or you could ask Saeviour… He'd certainly tell you."

"It's not your perspective and I don't want any bias especially since whatever happened changed you to be like this."

Harrison's eyes narrowed in thought,

"What brought this on?"

"I couldn't sleep at night when you told me about Elladora," Hermione admitted. "I thought…"

"You want to try to save Ella?" Harrison concluded.

Hermione nodded.

It made sense in why Hermione was persistent, but he just never expected this to happen. She was best friends with Saeviour Potter, and here she was- questioning everything she had been told and going right behind Saeviour's back, to bring justice to those who were wrong.

"But why do you want to know what happened when I was convicted?"

"I contacted Madam Bones about the possibility of her reopening the case… She told me that there was sufficient evidence that points against Elladora and won't reopen the case."

"So you figured that by asking me about my experience, it'd automatically help you?" Harrison pointed out, a frown forming on his lips. "There's so many flaws about that, and things that I don't want to tell you about, especially not here where there are too many unwanted ears listening about."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, lowering the volume of her voice before it was nearly a whisper. "I don't see anyone."

Harrison rolled his eyes at how dense Hermione was being. It didn't matter if there wasn't anyone there listening in, that was obvious. He didn't trust anyone in the library, especially the portraits who would eagerly report back to Headmaster Dumbledore, the moment something suspicious arose. It was better to talk about this somewhere rather private, especially since it involved him and probably that dreadful moment that led up to him being incarcerated in Azkaban.

He spoke in a low voice, "Meet me on the seventh floor at seven o'clock tonight, right by the tapestry with Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet."

….

How is the Dark Lord doing? Harrison wrote in the diary.

The reply came immediately,

Weak, seeing how the last host failed and has no hope in finding a new host.

You know I still don't understand the fact that you're eleven years old and already want to dedicate your life to my cause, Harrison. Tom wrote.

I had no choice either. I was six before I was thrown into Azkaban, and even before then, my life wasn't great. I was raised by the dark and the creatures that gives people nightmares. It consumed me as it was the one place I had found acceptance.

It seemed Dumbledore never stopped being a meddlesome fool and still continues to destroy children's childhoods. Azkaban was and certainly is not a place for a child. I never thought he'd stoop that low, considering what he did to me.

True. But Dumbledore has a history of meddling, and he'll finally have to stop if I have anything to do with it.

With that, Harrison set the black diary and his quill down, and put it back in his trunk. He put the two things inside and closed the lid of his trunk with a thud. He got up from the dormitory stone floor and headed out of the dormitory and out of the common room, and into the dungeons

Eventually after navigating the corridors of Hogwarts, Harrison finally found the twins inside an abandoned classroom on the seventh floor. The two redheads were looking downwards at a person, both of them had their wands out, saying an incantation with nothing happening.

He watched as the twins eventually transfigured the person's hair into a pink bubblegum color with their hands that eventually became a light pink color with hearts all over their fingernails. The twins broke into grins and canceled the spell, looked at him and sent the person scurrying off out of the classroom with a handful of bronze knuts in their hand.

"If it isn't our little snake, Gred… Come to hang out with the lions?' George asked, with a huge grin on his face.

"Or perhaps the snake got lost and should be our little subject?" Fred suggested, looking at George before looking at Harrison, who had a smirk on his face.

"Touch me with whatever you're planning and I'll make sure it's going to be the last thing you do as I'll feed you to a basilisk."

The grins on both of their faces disappeared as they looked at him with a stoic face.

"Right…" Fred cleared his voice before he continued on, "What can we do for you?"

"I need you to provide a distraction for Dumbledore to get him out of the castle," Harrison told them in a hushed voice.

"Is the little snake-"

"Going to get-"

"The philosopher's stone?" The twins chorused together.

Harrison nodded.

"Now what could we do to get Dumbledore out of the office and the castle for a few hours?" George mused.

"Send an owl to Dumbledore saying that there is an emergency at the ministry?" Fred suggested.

"That would work as long as it keeps Dumbledore out of the castle for a couple of hours. Do not let Dumbledore come back until after like two hours… if he does, set up a distraction or something," Harrison told them.

"That certainly wouldn't be too hard to do. We'll keep watch if and when Dumbledore gets back if you're not out yet," Fred explained.

"Great…" Harrison said flatly. "Could I borrow the map for when I get the stone?"

Without saying a word, Fred grabbed the map out of his right hand pocket on his black robe and handed it to Harrison, which he took it gracefully. He stuffed it in his pocket and was about to turn away, to head down to the great hall. He looked over his shoulder and called out,

"You know if you ever get a chance to do whatever you're planning… You should cast it over Draco and possibly the two blood traitors in your house. It'd be funny."

The twins looked at each other with grins on their faces as an idea popped into their head while Harrison headed out of the abandoned classroom and down to the great hall for supper.

…

His footsteps echoed through the stone floor of the seventh floor corridor, the torches casting an orange lighting across the corridor, shining like a beacon of light against the dark evening sky that was the color of almost pitch black as the last remaining rays of the golden sun slipped behind the mountains and hills surrounding Hogwarts for the day.

It didn't take long to go find Hermione leaning against the stone wall, right next to the tapestry of Barnabas teaching trolls ballet, looking at her hand, picking at her nails while she awaited for Harrison to show up. He quieted his footsteps as he approached her until she nearly jumped at the sudden presence of another.

"Don't do that," Hermione said, clutching her heart as if she was about to kneel over and have a heart attack. "Right… So why did you want to meet here."

"For a Gryffindor who sneaks around… I'm surprised that you haven't found any of the hidden rooms or passages this castle has to offer," Harrison said, pacing around the corridor back and forth three times until a large, mahogany door that wasn't there before, appeared.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked, straining her neck to see up to the ceiling of the corridor.

"Magic," Harrison said flatly.

Harrison pushed open the doors and headed into the room of the requirement. The room was filled with bookcases of books, a fireplace that was already lit and a couple of armchairs sitting around the fireplace, bathed in an orange glow as the fire crackled from logs collapsing due to the heat.

"Right…" Hermione cleared her throat and stepped inside the room, "This isn't a ploy to kill me and no one is going to find my body, right?"

"You're the one that has been hanging around an ex-convict, who spent years in Azkaban… If I wanted to kill you, I would have, but seeing how I enjoy my new found freedom. I don't fancy another one-way trip back to Azkaban," Harrison said flatly. Besides, I find you quite useful right now. He silently added.

"Touché," Hermione responded, "So can I hear how you were locked up?"

"Why do you want to save Ella? Why do you care?"

It was quiet for a few minutes, before Hermione was able to say something.

"Because it's not right that you or her have spent years in Azkaban, no matter what you guys did… You said before she is only eight-"

"Nine."

"She still has her whole life ahead of her, because her magic reacted poorly in her reaction, which is completely understandable… It's accidental magic and you don't have any control over it…"

"Look, Granger, you don't need to convince me why Ella deserves to be free… I want to know why you care, considering the fact that she is considered dark."

"It's the right thing to do… I guess, now that I am no longer blinded by the magic and that I see that the magical world has similar problems that no one is bothering to fix. You have to start somewhere," Hermione explained.

"I've got to hand it to you, Granger. I really didn't think that you would actually care about Ella for that matter."

Hermione didn't bother saying anything else.

"Now, do you want to hear about what happened that day?" Harrison asked, sitting in one of the armchairs the room had to offer.

Hermione nodded once she took a seat.

It was a memory that he could recall really well and felt like it was almost yesterday when it happened.

Six-year-old Harrison was sitting in the back of the library, surrounded by stacks of books, and bookshelves filled with books. He sat on the way back, which made it hard for people to immediately find the tiny child, wearing dark handy-down clothes that were one size too big for him. His pale hand flipped through the book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, focusing mainly on the Legend of the Deathly Hallows, about the tale of three brothers meeting death.

It was quiet in the library, save for the sound of Harrison's breathing for a little bit until he heard multiple pairs of footsteps echoing through the corridor, adjacent to the library. He paid no mind to it, until he heard the library's grand doors closing and the same multiple pairs of feet inside the library, stopping only right behind him, and multiple hands placed on his shoulders.

He'd expected the soft, firm hands that belonged to Sirius Black. He wasn't expecting the multiple hands on his shoulders that squeezed harshly, as he turned his head, his green eyes shining brightly, with his eyebrows arched high as he took in multiple people- unfamiliar people at that- with their wands pointed at him, and two of them having their hands on his shoulders.

"Who are you?" Harrison asked.

"Are you Harrison James Potter?" One of the strange men most likely an auror- asked.

"Yes."

"You're under arrest for the homicide of seventeen muggles and the incapitation of three others. Under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, you pose a serious threats to muggles and magic alike and must detain you."

Homicide? Incapacitation? Arrest? So many thoughts were swirling around in Harrison's head as he tried to understand the situation. But he didn't kill anyone? He was sitting at home in the library, reading and having the books as company. What on earth were they talking about?"

"But I didn't do it!" Harrison shouted.

He screamed, and kicked as the aurors pulled him out of the chair by his shoulders as they dragged him out of the library. Tears fell down his face as he realized that his parents were not coming to the rescue, not like he was surprised by that.

"Mother! Father! Someone save me!" He yelled as the doors to the drawing room opened.

Through his tears and his hysterics, he saw his parents and his older twin, Saeviour, with grim faces.

"Please! I didn't do it!" He begged, "I didn't do it! You have to believe me!"

He expected them to move, to stop the aurors from taking him away from his home, from Potter Manor, but they just stood there, shocked.

The aurors pulled him outside, and through his hysterical crying and through his screaming, he thought he heard his father say,

"There is no murderers in this house."

It was clear that once he got outside, out of the manor and out of the wards, the Potter were not going to save him. No one was. He stopped his hysterics through very unsteady breathing, and the silent tears dripping down his face as the aurors spun on their heels and apparated back to the Ministry of Magic with him in tow.

"Did you ever get a trial?" Hermione asked.

"No… Not like I was expecting one in the first place."

"Then Ella?"

"Of course not."

"Look you got what you came for… Perhaps you should use the information I gave you and appeal to the magical law community in person, and ask the new minister… Maybe you'd get somewhere."

This took a lot longer than I expected, but it's starting to come together.

Update (5/15/22): Fixed grammar, added details, and still doing the Ella plot, now adding in the philospher's stone. I hope the story is cleaner.