Sometime in the early hours of the morning, the signature of Lord Henry James Slytherin looked as though it was closely related to chicken scratch, instead of English.
Not that it bothered Harry one bit. The sooner he was out of Rock's damned office the better. It also helped that magical intent mattered a whole lot more than signature legibility when it came to magical documents of the Gringotts variety. Which was helpful as the best he could do was write the beginnings of an H and let the rest taper off into a pathetic line.
His right hand had all but decided to call it quits.
"Still holding in there, love?" Diana called to him from across the Slytherin Account Manager's office. She was simultaneously breast feeding the infant Thomas – which Harry's mind attributed to the unfair advantage as the only explanation that made sense – as well as signing the documents that Harry passed onto her. She sounded unfairly chipper for someone who had been stuck in an office signing documents for half a day.
"You know me," Harry gave her a weak smile and a thumb up. "Slytherins never quit."
"Indeed, they don't." Rock announced as entered the office once more, another trolly filled with unsigned documents following behind him all on its own. "This is the last batch. The boys down in records had to dig them up from underneath a pile of Hippogriff adoption forms and petitions flyers for cauldron bottom standardization."
"It's actually a good thing to get around to doing." Harry said, mostly glad for a distraction, even if it was cauldron bottom thickness standardization. "Did you know that some foreign imported cauldrons are too thin? They lead to increased chances of leakages during more difficult potion brewing."
"Well, you can bring it up at the next Wizengamot Session. I'm sure you'll have a right good time arguing with all those old coots about cauldron bottoms. Right after they finish arguing about Creature Rights, the Yearly Ministry Budget, and about how bad the sworn enemy of Magical Britain is."
"Sworn enemy?" Diana asked.
"The French, Lady Slytherin." Rock said.
Harry snorted at that and went back to making his sad imitation of a signature. Some things never did change. Being thrown back into the past still meant that the French were loathed simply because they were French. It was heartening in a way that Harry hadn't realized. Made him wonder what else was oddly similar to his past future. When did Dumbledore decide to do away with three-piece suits and embrace his own eye water brand of fashion?
That thought kept him occupied and distracted for an unfortunate amount of time.
It also proved to be something that broke up the monotony of document signing. That and the occasional fussing from young Thomas. Diana was more than happy to hold onto the boy for the entire time they were singing documents, but Harry took it upon himself to spend some time with his son as well, both to actually get familiar with the kid as well as to serve as a distraction. He may have still held a slight grudge against Tom Riddle, but looking down at the boy in his arms, Thomas Henry Slytherin wasn't at all similar to the wayward dark lord.
No, he realized, they were very much different.
He had a loving family to take care of him for one thing.
Which reminded him of something they needed to address.
"Are there any properties in the Slytherin Estate that are currently livable?" Harry asked the Account Manager. "I've signed about a thousand or so documents dealing with the estate. There's gotta be some house or other that still stands, right?"
"You would think." Rock shrugged and pulled out a piece of parchment from his desk. It looked clean and neat compared to some of the documents Harry had signed. There was a rather large list detailed on the parchment that was handed to him. A list of properties. "But five hundred years is a long time for any family to go without a lord to oversee it. The Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin has the vast Slytherin Estate to contend with, but most of the properties have fallen into disrepair and decay. Most of them would also likely not meet your twentieth century standards."
"Right, homes built in the… fifteenth century probably are a no go." Harry winced at that. A great many of the properties on the list before him hadn't received any attention in the intervening time since the death of Lord Rionarcher in the late 1400s and Harry assuming the title of Lord Slytherin for himself in the year 1927. He looked at the infant in his arms again and thought that the kid at least deserved to grow up in a home with running water. "What did survive the test of time?"
"Well, there are two that have survived, and one of them is Hogwarts Castle. Since Salazar Slytherin was one of the four founders of the school and a part owner of the castle itself, that means you are entitled to living there, since the Slytherin Estate still holds the entire twenty five percent ownership shares of the castle itself, and you are the current Lord Slytherin."
"What about the other three founders?" Diana asked with interest as she came over and sat beside Harry. Thomas was relinquished into her grasp and the infant looked up at her with his sleepy eyes, mewling softly.
"Godric Gryffindor relinquished his shares to the school itself on his deathbed. The Hufflepuff Estate did much the same when their line died out while the Ravenclaw portion still remains in legal purgatory since the formation of the Ministry itself." Rock shook his head at the apparent great shame that was the Ravenclaw Estate's legal woes. "The last Lady Ravenclaw, who I point out died childless bequeathed the entire estate to, and I quote, the witch or wizard who returns the stolen Ravenclaw Diadem to its rightful owner. Now I'm sure you can see where everything went wrong with that."
"Yeah, I can see it." Harry smiled wistfully to himself. The Ravenclaw Diadem? If he didn't know any better, and if history was anything to go by, the damn thing was sitting in the Room of Requirement. It was probably never even stolen in the first place. Just misplaced by its last owner while attending Hogwarts.
Or was he making assumptions because this present was all too similar to his past future? He knew they had traveled back in time. But who was to say that it was the past he knew and read of? Harry was pretty sure he had never heard of the Slytherin Estate owning a fourth of Hogwarts. He was also sure that when everything had gone sideways it didn't feel like time traveling via a Time-Turner.
Were they really in a new alternate dimension of the past or just the past?
Did anything of the past Harry knew of even matter here?
He felt a headache coming along and rubbed the faint outline of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"That last requirement doesn't make any sense." Diana said as she shifted Thomas in her arms. The swaddling clothes prevented him from doing anything more than babbling softly at them all. "Who is the rightful owner? If the last Lady Ravenclaw died without an established heir, and no one has been able to claim the lordship since, then there's no one who is the rightful owner, there's no one to return the stolen diadem to even if it was found."
"That hasn't stopped all manner of people trying." Rock grinned at them. It was a rather concerning sight. "The amount of people who have come forth and claimed that they have found the stolen diadem are numerous and each of them has tried unsuccessfully to return the artefact to its rightful owner. The alleged rightful owner in question has been almost as numerous as those who claimed to have found the thing in the first place. Everyone from the Muggle King of England to the Hogwarts Keeper of the Keys has been at one point returned a diadem. Unsurprisingly none of them proved true."
"So, it's basically a wild goose chase for the diadem and the twenty five percent ownership of Hogwarts that it comes with." Harry surmised.
"Indeed."
"Well, that hardly matters to us." Diana said. "You said that there was another property that survived. Other than Hogwarts Castle."
"You don't fancy living at Hogwarts?" Harry asked. He wasn't exactly opposed to the idea. It was basically his first home, and it would probably do Thomas some good. Being around other kids and all.
"I'd rather not share my home with a couple hundred strangers and the various pets they own." Diana raised an eyebrow at him. "Also, can you honestly tell me that Hogwarts is a safe place for an infant?"
"Well… it's…" Words failed him, and he simply shrugged. Hogwarts Castle was more likely sentient to some degree and not at all safe for an infant. The moving staircases, Peeves the Poltergeist, and the giant squid in the Black Lake were to name a few reasons. There was also the fucking Basilisk living in the Chamber of Secrets, which he'd have to take care of before Thomas ever stepped foot into the school. It was safe to say that Hogwarts was not indicative to children under eleven years old.
"The other property?" Diana turned to Rock.
"Yes, the other property is Slytherin Castle." The goblin said with a flourish of his hand. From within another drawer of his desk appeared a very detailed painting of said castle. It flew through the air and snapped itself to the wall just behind Rock's parchment ladened desk. "Home to Slytherins since the time of Salazar. Built around the same time as Hogwarts, it boasts a modest twenty-five bedrooms-"
"That's modest?" Harry muttered.
"By recent Slytherin standards, yes." Rock continued without a hitch. "There are also several sitting rooms, multiple dining rooms, a number of hearths with floo connections that will require reconnecting, some storage rooms, various other all-purpose rooms, and quite a handful of empty rooms that can be turned into whatever you desire it to be. There are also suitable defenses for a magical castle constructed in the tenth century by the finest architects and engineers of the time. Additional high curtain walls and crenelations were added over the years. There's also the fifty acres of land around the castle that have been continuously farmed for crops and other magical plants that have been sold at a profit to help maintain the castle and its surrounding lands."
They all sat in silence to take in that information for a moment. Harry was still having a little troubling believing all of that as fact even though he was looking at a painting of the damn castle. Diana looked equally surprised, it seemed that she hadn't known about Slytherin Castle either, even with everything that her unfair advantage granted. Thomas made his opinion known by making baby noises at Diana, demanding his mother's attention. Rock simply looked pleased with himself.
Harry might have liked it better when the goblins all gave him the cold shoulder and ugly glares.
"Who exactly is farming the land and taking care of the castle?" He asked after rubbing his eyes. The prospect of a good bed to sleep in was becoming ever more enticing as the hours went by in the damned office.
"The Slytherin house-elves." Rock spoke like it was an obvious fact. Probably was.
"They've been doing that for five hundred or so years, all without direction?" Diana's question tapered off with a yawn. She looked genuinely tiered. Maybe another thing about being pulled to this new reality was that she was all together more mortal than before. It was just another thing that Harry added to the long list of investigations he had to perform.
"More or less." Rock shrugged. "Lord Rionarcher left detailed instructions for both the Slytherin Account Manager as well as the twenty-five house-elves under his control. Not much has changed in the last five hundred years so there's been no need to deviate from the instructions for the house-elves. They farm the land, gather the crops and other magical plants, put some in storage and sell the rest for profit. Maintaining a castle of that size is not cheap, and it's only a third the size of Hogwarts."
"And Hogwarts is such a cozy little abode." Harry thought aloud. "Do you have a list of the house-elves so I can call one of them? I'd rather sleep in a bed than this chair."
"Of course," Rock produced a slip of paper and handed it over. "You'll be pleased to know that all the wards are still standing and only require a drop of blood to rekey to yourself and your family."
"Brilliant." Harry took in the ridiculously complex hierarchy that Lord Rionarcher had for the house-elves and simply chose the highest-ranking house-elf and called out his name. "Vipera."
With a snap a house-elf appeared by the door to the office. He was wrinkly and weathered, old and slightly hunch over, but also surprisingly spry. He kind of reminded Harry of Kreacher, the old Black family house-elf, who was probably a lot younger in the year 1927. The house-elf in front of him bore little resemblance to that little menace, however. Vipera – the name sounded snake based to Harry's ears – was dressed in clothes straight out of the fifteenth century, even with a little hat on his head, and a walking cane in his hand.
"You called, Lord Slytherin?" Even his voice sounded old.
"Right," Harry decided that formal introductions could be done when they were all freshly awake from a long night's rest and actually at the castle. "Could you please get the castle ready for my family? It's been a rather long day and I'd like to sleep soon without having to haggle for a room at the Leaky Cauldron."
"Of course, Lord Slytherin." Vipera gave a bow that had his bracing on his cane for support. "I shall see that the castle is ready for your occupation at once."
Then he was gone with a snap.
Harry took a moment to realize that the house-elf hadn't spoken in broken English. "They can speak normally?"
"If you command them to do so." Rock explained. "The whole begging servitude act is just that, an act. Lord Rionarcher and many of his ancestors found it ridiculous so they simply commanded the house-elves to talk like normal people."
Had that been true all this time? Harry suddenly felt like an arsehole for not realizing.
"As interesting as that is," Diana said as she placed Thomas back into the stroller. "Can we table all of this for tomorrow? I'd like to get some rest as well."
"That's the best idea I've heard all night." Harry jumped to his feet with a sudden shock of energy. Any chance to get away from the paperwork and he was all for it. Body and mind united in their task. "Uh, Rock? Do you have the floo address for the castle?"
"You'll have to take a portkey to just outside the ward line of the estate." Rock produced a necklace forged in the design of a snake, go figure. "The floo connections haven't been reactivated yet. You'll need to speak with someone at the Floo Network Authority to get it activated again."
"And that's a problem for tomorrow." Harry took the necklace in hand. He also received a little note with the activation word on it. "It has been both a pleasure and a horrifying document ladened experience to meet with you, Rock."
"Likewise."
Harry chuckled at that, gathered up a none too impressed Diana, and a slumbering Thomas before uttering the activation phrase and disappearing from that damned office with a pop.
"I've had a thought."
"Mmm?"
"Just a little observation."
"Mmhmm."
"For a castle with twenty-five different bedrooms, our entire family seems to have chosen only one of them, the so-called Lady's Chambers."
"Mmm."
"I mean, Vipera did point out that there is a nursery-"
"Mmm."
"-and half the house-elves are trained in baby raising or whatever Vipera called it-"
"Mmm."
"-and even if that would pose a problem the Lady's Chambers has a connecting mini nursery right next to the surprisingly modern bathroom-"
"Mmhmm."
"-all I'm trying to say is that our son's a little clingy and that it might be a problem if you ever want to get to know every inch of my-"
"Harry." Diana elbowed him in the side as she burrowed her face deeper into her pillow. "I will put a Silencing Charm on you if you don't stop talking."
"All I'm saying is that it's gonna be a little hard to have some fun under the sheets if the only way for Thomas to fall to sleep is if his crib is right next to our bed-"
The Wandless and Wordless casting of the Silencing Charm should have offended him. Instead, it just made him smile to himself as he glanced past the sleeping form of his wife and at the ornate crib standing beside the bed. Thomas was sleeping away and hadn't made so much as a sound, which was ironic, because that boy sure had a set of lungs to him when they had tried to put him in the nursery.
He apparently took them all being one big family to heart.
Harry wondered to himself if he was all too accepting of everything that had happened. Not two days ago he had been trading jokes with Ron over a glass or three of Butterbeer and having nightly talks with Hermione and listening to her rattle on about some piece of legislation that Kingsley was trying to push through the Wizengamot. Now he was laying in bed next to a close friend turned wife, caring for an infant that would have grown up to be a dark lord if not for their intervention, and bearing a surname that had hounded after him for six years at Hogwarts. Was it all too fast? Did he really want to simply live this new life? There probably was a way back if he searched hard enough, he knew that for a fact. But some part of him didn't want to, oddly enough. Some part of him was utterly content to live the rest of his life with his new wife and son.
Then the Sorting Hat's words came to him, and the meaning was not lost on him, not one bit.
Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, the hat had said, and Harry felt like it had gotten the last laugh.
He was as Slytherin as he could possibly get.
All he had to do now was see about getting some of that greatness that everyone thought came with the name.
"And… Done!" Harry swiped the quill across the sheet and gave it a final tap. "Finally! No more paperwork to deal with."
"Yes, celebrations are in order." Diana sounded rather bored with the prospect of no more paperwork. She signed her own name with a calmer manner and didn't end it with a flourish. "Now all we have to deal with is the paperwork that will come with the first Wizengamot Session of the year."
"What?" Harry's hopes of no more paperwork were fading away like the morning dew.
"The Wizengamot will need to formally invite you to retake your seat." Rock explained as several other goblins carted away the signed documents for processing. "Just a ceremonial formality, but it does come with several forms to fill out and file with the Ministry of Magic."
"I'm starting to regret taking up this lordship."
"Look on the bright side, Harry." Diana patted him on the arm. "We have all of two weeks before the first Wizengamot Session starts. That means two weeks of exploring the castle and all of its secrets."
Well…, Harry had to admit the decision wasn't all that bad, but he was starting to hate the sight of his own signature.
"And this," Vipera announced as the doors in front of them slowly flowed open, "is the Blue Room."
There was a hint of… longing in the air. Harry couldn't put his finger on it as he looked around. The walls were of blue marble, so very different compared to the green and silver coloring that the rest of the castle seemed to be bathed in. The furniture in the room was sparse; a couple of ornate chairs around an aged table in one corner, a metal cabinet that could only have been Transfigured in existence stood in another, by the window was a soft looking sofa, along the far fall stood an expanse of bookshelves with the leatherbound spines creased and worn, and in the center of the room stood an easel with a canvas resting.
When Harry walked up to it, he saw that the painting was unfinished. What he could make out of the image was a woman's figure, her robes light blue with a silver accent to them, with one hand clutching a wand while the other held a book. It seemed that the painter never got to finish the subject's face. Only an empty space remained, the brush strokes tapering off around the neck, the white background framing the portrait.
There was something about the room that he couldn't quite place.
"This all looks very…"
"Ravenclaw?" Vipera asked softly. The tapping of his cane filled the room as he ambled over to stand next to him, gazing upon the canvas with a frown. Harry's eyes landed on the little H on the school robes that he must have overlooked. "Well, Old Lord Salazar was a dear friend with Lady Rowena, might have loved her even. He had this room constructed for her after the Lady Helena absconded with the diadem, so that she could have a private place to work. Away from all the prying eyes."
"That's…"
"Not a part of Salazar's legacy that his heirs wanted to be known. Resourcefulness. Determination. Pride. Cunning. Ambition. Self-preservation. That is what is remembered. All of this," Vipera waved at the room with his cane, "this compassion? It doesn't exactly fit the definition of what it is to be a member of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin."
"It really doesn't." Harry remarked as he took in the room around him. Now that he was really looking, he spotted several little human touches about the place, hints of personality that he had overlooked. The books on the shelves were all written more or less by the same person. He retrieved one at random and flipped it open. The words were in an older form of English, but with a simple Translation Charm, he could read it perfectly fine.
Notes on Human to Animal Transfiguration, he read, compiled by Rowena Ravenclaw, Professor of Transfiguration.
Harry placed the book of handwritten notes back onto the shelf. That was a piece of history right there. Something that he knew Hermione would have done basically anything to have a chance at reading. It brought a sad smile to his face, remembering a friend he'd most likely never see again, and it was with that thought he decided to leave the exploration of Rowena Ravenclaw's library for another day.
The somber mood that hung over him remained until they came upon a balcony.
The sight of the surrounding lands was impressive.
"You know," Harry said as he gazed across the open terrain of Northern England. The fields of magicals crops were in the distance, all neat lines with little paths between them. They were growing the winter crops as of late, cold January winds preventing much else. "I didn't expect all of this from someone like Salazar Slytherin. The man chose the dungeons to be the place for the Slytherin Common Room for one thing. Yet his personal home is very well situated and built."
"I can't speak for the choice of location for the Common Rooms." Vipera conjured a little stool for himself so he could see over the stone railing. His head barely cleared it. He didn't seem to mind. "But I recall hearing from one of the previous house-elves that the Founders didn't want Hogwarts to have one tower for each house. Something about needing variety."
Harry briefly wondered if he could change the location of the Slytherin Common Room now that he was the Lord Slytherin. It would probably be a good thing as well. Spending seven years of school living in a basement was most likely a contributing factor that explained why everyone in Slytherin House turned out to be curse happy arseholes.
Exploring the rest of the castle proved to be less exciting the more they went. Most of the rooms were much the same with the furniture being in varying colors of green and silver. The bedrooms were basically identical to each other with the only exceptions being the Lord and Lady's Chambers. The sitting rooms were quite unsurprising. Most of what was in them was horribly outdated. By way of Vipera, Harry learned that the Slytherins of old used to host parties in the castle, hence all the sitting rooms.
Curiously there were no ballrooms in the castle.
When they made it out onto the castle grounds beyond the high walls, they found a nice little area with a picnic table and bench.
"Fancy a spot of lunch?" Harry asked the old house-elf. He was kind of like a mix of Dobby and Kreacher, though not as friendly as Dobby nor evil as Kreacher. More like how he imagined a butler to act.
Vipera merely tapped his cane against the ground and a picnic spread appeared on the table. Sandwiches, various fruits, and a juice of some kind in a pitcher were nicely laid out. Harry took a seat while the house-elf returned to his other duties. The idea alone of any family needing twenty-five house-elves seemed ridiculous, but as Harry took a bite of one of the sandwiches, he couldn't help but think about how Hogwarts had numerous house-elves working the kitchens and cleaning the entire place. No doubt it was simply a scaled down version for Slytherin Castle, and Harry was pretty sure none of the Hogwarts house-elves did any farming, unlike the house-elves he currently owned.
He endeavored to try and get Vipera and the others to agree to freedom later on. They all seemed rather horrified at the prospect of not being bound to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin. Thoughts of S.P.E.W. came to mind and it left Harry with a wistful grin.
"There you are," Diana called out and Harry looked over his shoulder. She was dressed a hike, with rain boots on her feet and a thick traveling robes covering her deep green sweater. It made him realize just how chilly it was even with the generous application of Warming Charms to his own clothes. He hadn't even noticed that he left his robes back inside the castle.
"Where's Thomas?" He didn't see the boy with his wife.
"Sleeping in our room, being watched over by Atheris." Diana took a seat down across from him. She looked over the selection of foods before plucking a grape and popping it into her mouth. Harry found himself watching the motion.
"Do you think it was intentional that all of the house-elves are named after different species of snakes?"
"Well, Slytherins are known for their affinity for snakes," Diana shrugged, piercing blue eyes watching his own as she ate another grape. "Plus, you and Thomas are both Parselmouths. I'd say it goes hand in hand."
"You can't speak it?" Harry set aside his glass of juice. "I would have thought with your unfair advantage that languages wouldn't be a problem."
"That would raise too many questions. Safer to just have you two be the Parselmouths than for all three of us. Less questions about are past to answer as well."
"Right, about that," Harry leaned on his elbows, as if getting closer would somehow keep their conversation evermore private. "How are we going to explain that? We don't have any official documents to our names, other than the mountain of documents we signed over at Gringotts, but those were mostly related to estate. Our history in this… time, is only about a week old."
"We'll manage something up that won't be too complicated. It is the year 1927 after all. We could simply say that we moved back from overseas from one of the colonies. That or the United States."
Right, Harry kept forgetting that it was the year 1927, and that everything was radically different. Great Britain still had a vast empire in this time period. Gellert Grindelwald was running around Europe sowing chaos and destruction against both Muggles and Magicals wherever he went. The Great Depression would come about for them all in about two years. Albus Dumbledore was only the Professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts. Minerva McGonagall was not even a teenager yet!
He suddenly found himself in need of a strong drink.
"Let's just say we were living in… Canada." Harry offered. "It's plausible enough and I doubt anyone would question that story too much."
"You don't seem like the Canadian type."
"I'll have you know I am a great hockey player."
"Comparing your hockey skills to that of the Weasley Brothers is hardly praiseworthy."
"Say," Harry stood from the table as he remembered the small frozen lake he had seen from the balcony. "Care to put that to the test?"
"Now?" Diana asked, bemused. She also stood. "Let me get Thomas first. I'm sure he'll not want to miss seeing his father fall flat on his arse."
"Hey! I'm a great skater."
"We'll see."