I don't own Harry Potter.
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The Patil Triplets.
"Miss Patil, you can open your eyes now," the goblin healer instructed.
Pavini opened her eyes, revealing deep dark liquid eyes, but there was a touch of emerald green in the iris which ruined the effect, but it was diminishing rapidly. "Well?" She asked, clapping her hands to her mouth in almost comical surprise when she registered how…different her voice was.
The goblin healer understood her surprise. "I have managed to largely restore your body to its original and true appearance. It will take a few more days, but you will eventually be returned to normal."
Pavini frowned. She had never liked the word normal, she had heard that word so many times from the Dursleys, who had hated anything even remotely odd in their midst. She knew if they were here now, or if they even knew of what Dumbledore was giving to them, they would have thrown her out.
But she had something rather more important to focus her attention on. Her hands were running over her face, and she could feel the bone structure and the rest of her face. They felt totally different. She also noticed her hands. They were darker-skinned and extremely dainty.
"I'm sorry, but do you happen to have a mirror I could use please?" She asked politely.
The goblin healer stood back and nodded, and another goblin brought forward a small mirror which they handed to Pavini, who took it with a smile and thanks before taking a deep breath, looking at herself in the mirror.
As Harry Potter, Pavini had seen the other Patil sisters all her life, she had even had visions of herself and her real biological family, putting on clothes with her sisters, going out with her sisters, and visiting friends and relatives in India. But until now she had never understood what the visions meant thanks to Dumbledore's meddling.
In the mirror was the reflection of her real self.
With the mirror, Pavini examined all of her features which had been buried and disguised for a long time.
Experimentally Pavini bounced on her heels, feeling the lightness of her new daintier frame, watching in wonder as her dark hair bounced slightly while the still small orbs attached to her chest bounced and pulled against her chest and back. It was a sensation she had never experienced before, and she actually found she enjoyed it quite a lot.
Pavini was no longer an effeminate British boy who felt like he was caught between two worlds for reasons that were a mystery, often caught himself or herself looking at a shop window full of clothes, or listened to gossip and had a good enough understanding of how a girl's mind worked.
Pavini was no longer desperate to wonder why she had such an affinity for Indian culture.
Pavini was an Indian girl.
Running a hand through her hair, Pavini marvelled at the rich smoothness of her hair. Granted she would need to wash it later, but it was a far cry from the bird's nest she'd coped with before coming here today. Pavini's face bore absolutely no resemblance to her old face. It had taken on a velvety smoothness. Her cheekbones were more prominent. Her lips were fuller and poutier. Her eyelashes were long, luxuriously long and so dark that she doubted makeup would even be needed to emphasise them. Her nose was smaller, cuter in its new shape and suited the rest of her new face. Her eyebrows were perfectly shaped, forming slight, curved arches that complemented her new dark eyes.
But as she examined her eyes, Pavini saw to her disappointment there was a touch of emerald green in her eyes. "How long will it be before the green still remaining in my eyes goes away?" She asked.
"Several days, I'm afraid," the goblin replied. "The person who performed the work on your body was an expert in potions, and so it will take a while before your body's original self reasserts itself. Still, it's impressive how well you've come so far."
Pavini was not sure she liked being viewed like a sculpture at an art gallery, but she decided to ignore it for the time being since the goblins were helping her. "Have my family been told about me yet?"
"They have yes, but I need to ask you something important, Miss Patil."
Pavini heard the serious tone in the goblin's voice, and she bit her lip when she realised he sounded serious. "Of course," she nodded in agreement.
"Your scar. Have you ever felt anything from it? Pains? Headaches? Twinges? Anything?" The goblin asked.
Pavini frowned. She had caught the serious tone in the goblin healer's voice. She was about to respond with a question about why and what was wrong, and what it was that had warranted the question in the first place. But she had decided against it. While she hadn't liked or trusted Hagrid, she recalled the warning he had given to her about handling and dealing with the goblins. And she had the feeling he wouldn't like a facetious reply, and besides, she wanted this to go more smoothly. The goblins had helped her after all, and she had no intention of acting like an immature brat. "No, I haven't," she replied with a frown, "Why do you ask?"
"Because there is a piece of the Dark Lord's soul in your scar, Miss Patil. It's a soul leech. When I first examined it I was horrified that such a breach of magic was performed. The soul is sacred and should never be tampered with. It's bad enough that in this country there are creatures which suck the soul from victims deemed dangerous enough to warrant it as a punishment, but the soul being splintered into pieces for immortality is beyond disgusting. We call it a phylactery, a container which holds a piece of the soul, split through committing the act of murder," the goblin healer bared his teeth in what Pavini believed was the goblin equivalent of a frown or a snarl of anger.
"Immortality? Is that possible?" Pavini blinked in confusion while she wondered if the worst murderers in the world had created a primitive version of a Horcrux, but she was disgusted by the lengths someone would go to for immortality, but she was curious about the subject; there were many myths of immortal sorcerers, and so she supposed there was a basis in fact, but were there real-life immortals out there? Judging from what the goblin was saying, Pavini had a feeling what Voldemort had done was wrong.
The goblin healer took her question for a generalised view of the subject. "Immortality is possible, Miss Patil. However, there are many other forms of immortality. What the Dark Lord Voldemort did was break a sacred law of magic. The soul is sacred, as I said. I don't know how and where he found the knowledge of how to create a Horcrux in the first place, but I know he bought a lie. Horcruxes don't work. Instead of extending life, splitting a soul in fact slices it in half. Throughout history, many wizards and witches have stupidly bought the same lie. They sought immortality, believing in the tales and seeing the advantages of committing murder to attain immortality, seeing it as nothing more than a means to an end, a necessary sacrifice. But they are now all dead."
"Because the soul has lost some of its allotted life span because it's split," Pavini nodded with a frown. "And one of these things is in my scar? Can you remove it?'
"Yes. We will begin preparing the ritual as soon as we meet your biological parents. I will need to speak to them urgently, and we will need to begin using the soul leech in your scar to begin the ritual which will completely end Lord Voldemort for good. Anyone who creates such abominations is irredeemable and should be wiped out."
Pavini realised something. "Could Dumbledore know about Horcruxes?"
The goblin healer blinked at the question but he nodded. "It's likely," he replied. "Albus Dumbledore is, despite the matter of opinion, seen as one of the most learned and most powerful wizards of this century. It's likely he knows of Horcruxes, yes, and it's possible he suspected or has confirmed the abomination is in your scar."
Pavini clenched her fists. "Then why the hell didn't he bring me here? Or conduct a ritual that would remove it? What's his game?"
"I think Dumbledore has come across his knowledge of Horcruxes from false sources written by people who don't have a clue what they're writing and believe that there is no way of properly destroying one of the Horcruxes without destroying the container," the goblin healer replied.
Pavini, of course, had heard the grim saying of 'someone walking over the grave' and she was positive she was experiencing such a moment now. Her eyes widened in horror as she imagined herself, still as Harry Potter, and ignorant of her true identity while her real family were left to struggle on, being marched to her death while Dumbledore brainwashed her into believing she really needed to die when it wasn't even necessary.
She had thought the Dursleys would be the people she would forever hate for all eternity, but now she knew they weren't. She had never met Albus Dumbledore, but Pavini knew she despised him.
At that moment, the manager returned, ushering in two girls who looked so identical to her. How many times had she tried to find these girls? How many times had she gone close to Indians in the city hoping to find these girls? The moment they saw her, their eyes widened.
They were followed by a woman who looked just like them, except older and more beautiful and elegantly distinguished, and a tall handsome Indian man.
The moment they saw her, the woman gasped. "Pavini?"
Pavini nodded. She wasn't sure what else to do or to say. "Yes."
The woman was about to rush to her, but Pavini leapt out of her chair and held her hands out. "I'm sorry, but please don't; I grew up with muggles who made it their life goal to crush my spirit, and they made it clear the only touches I'd get would hurt. So I don't like being touched, and despite being your….daughter, I'd like time to get used to you."
The woman seemed to lose her will to live, and Pavini felt terrible, but she didn't know this woman, or the girls, or her husband. "I'm….sorry," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
Pavini felt bad for her. "So am I."
"Muggles? You lived with muggles?" One of the girls said.
Pavini nodded.
"I guess that makes sense, since we tried finding you in the muggle world, and we got impressions of where you were," the second girl commented, looking with concern at their mother.
"But why would they want to crush your spirit?"
"Because they must have known what I was, but not who I was," Pavini said grimly. She had already worked out that Petunia and Vernon knew about magic; if she grew up with Lily Potter, Petunia would have known about magic. And she was jealous of it; she knew how envious Petunia was of more beautiful women, and the more beautiful a woman, the more vicious she was about them.
"What do you mean?" One of her sisters asked.
Pavini decided to come clean. "I mean, for the past decade, Albus Dumbledore or someone close to him kidnapped me and altered me to be Harry Potter." She held up her hair, revealing her lightning bolt-shaped scar.
Her sisters gasped, but then one of them smiled. "Wow, my sister is the B-Girl Who Lived!"
Pavini hissed angrily, while her other sister elbowed her. "STOP THAT, Parvati. This isn't a joke!"
"No, it's not, especially since I've got a piece of Voldemort's soul in my head," Pavini snapped, her anger spiking dangerously as she perceived her own sister thought it cool her sister was a kid who'd nearly been murdered.
"What?!" The man, her father demanded angrily. "That filthy abomination's scar is in your head?"
"Yes."
The goblin healer, who had been listening to this for the last few minutes silently, stepped forward. "It's a soul leech, Mr Patil. It means that the Dark Lord's soul would have been seriously badly damaged for a chunk of it to split off and go into your daughter's head."
The man narrowed his gaze. "Let me guess, a Horcrux?" His wife clapped a hand to her mouth, while the girls looked confused.
"Yes," the goblin healer didn't bother to ask him how he knew about such things. Pavini guessed that her parents, her biological parents, had a different education which covered this sort of thing.
"I knew that thing that twisted and wrong, but I never imagined it would be this twisted," the man growled under his breath angrily.
"Mum, dad, what's a Horcrux?" One of the girls asked.
"One of the darkest forms of magic imaginable. The soul is a sacred part of the body, where our magic originates from and gives us both strength and mind. A Horcrux involves the splitting of the soul and placing it into a specially prepared container. Dark wizards use them to gain immortality. They do this by committing the worst crime. Murder. The more innocent the victim, the larger the soul piece, and the greater chance of being immortal."
"Innocent?" One of the girls asked.
"Do you….mean a child?"
Both the man and woman nodded.
"That's disgusting, and one of these Horcrux things is in our sister?!" The second girl asked.
"No, a soul leech," the goblin healer said. "If it was a true Horcrux, then your sister might have been overwhelmed by the Dark Lords' mind and power. It can and will be removed and will help us discover where the Dark Lord's remaining soul is so then we can dispose of him. We goblins have a great deal of hatred towards these things; too many priceless treasures and artefacts have been lost because so many people used unspecialised means to destroy them. And Lord Voldemort was a terrible threat to us as well," the goblin said.
"I don't get it, why did he go after the Potters? And why did Dumbledore, one of the most powerful wizards in the world, do this?" One of Pavini's sisters asked - Pavini didn't know which yet - desperately.
Pavini had heard Hagrid's story and she had a few ideas. "I don't know what the Potters did, but it sounds like Dumbledore was planning to use them as bait. Them and their child. The child was the important piece. The lynchpin of the plan. Otherwise, why would he go to all the trouble of stealing a child, and changing them right down to the gender and trying to sever the sibling bond to make it work?"
"He did what?" Her mother demanded in a horrified whisper.
"He tried to sever the sibling bond, Mrs Patil," the Healer explained gravely. "I'm not sure how and why he would do it, but it is looking likely that if your daughters were still connected, they would quickly realise what was going on, and he could not allow that."
"But it worked partly," one of the triplets pointed out. "Our sister was still attacked and we weren't able to find her until today."
"Yeah, but it didn't stop us from feeling Pavini's pain," the triplet who had been awed by her sister being the Girl Who Lived instead of the Boy Who Lived was no longer happy about it. "It didn't stop us from knowing she was still alive. If Dumbledore succeeded then we would never have known if she was alive or not, and when we arrived at Hogwarts, we might never have known she was there at all."
"You are not going to Hogwarts. Any of you," their father said darkly. "I refuse to allow any of you to have anything to do with Albus Dumbledore and his lackeys."
Pavini glanced at her sisters, seeing none of them was particularly bothered. In fact, they both looked relieved that they wouldn't be endangered by Dumbledore's insane plans. "Where will we go?" She asked.
Their father sighed. "I don't know, but we will be talking about that when we get you home," he added, sending Pavini a kind smile. Pavini couldn't help but be warmed by that smile. While she was a bit wary still of her parents after the life she'd had, she did know from the renewed bond she had with her sisters that they were not going to hurt her. But she had a feeling they would be discussing other things as well.
Pavini turned to the goblin healer. "How soon can you remove the leech?"
"We can get started now," the goblin replied.
Pavini smiled gratefully, pleased that she could finally get her freedom.
X
Pavini woke up, for a moment wondering where she was and what was happening, but once she looked around her darkened bedroom her sleep-fogged memory cleared. She smiled as she slept in her bedroom. The Patil family home was large enough for the three sisters to have their own separate rooms, which was just as well considering how different the three girls' personalities were. Parvati was outgoing, a bit of a makeup girly girl who loved parties and gossip; Padma was more introverted, and quiet and loved reading and playing games which required logic and reasoning.
As for Pavini.
She was a mixture of the two girls. The missing link. Like Parvati, she had a liking for gossip since she had listened to more than her fair share of it when she was allowed to, and she had come to like makeup and clothes, but unlike Parvati, she had a greater tolerance of books and reading; more than once as she'd settled down with her real family, Pavini had been with both Parvati and Padma, getting her makeup done while debating something with Padma.
At the same time, Pavini was opening up more with her parents. She had been truly upset when she had told her mother not to hug her, but Shehani and Rajal had quickly become rocks for her. They were paying for a mind healer, to help her adjust to the darker sides of her past so it didn't affect her later in life with nightmares or something deeper rooted. They had both gotten a better understanding of what had happened to her when Pavini had described the Dursleys' treatment of her, and Pavini understood their point of view and their reasoning. The mind healer sessions were a real godsend for her since they did help.
They were also helping her with her general knowledge about magic, and they were helping her with the Indian language and beliefs; it would take time with the beliefs, but with the language, it was a piece of cake since the sibling bond had already taught Pavini the basics and a bit more anyway.
As for Hogwarts and Dumbledore and the Dursleys.
The Patils were going to be moving back to India. That was why it was essential for Pavini to catch up with her learning so when she arrived in her home country, she would easily adapt. Truthfully Pavini wouldn't miss Britain beyond a few things like ice cream flavours, the London Underground, and a few quirks native to this country. But she would not miss the dull weather, the dreary conversations, and the fact she'd needed to hide so long. The arrangements had been made.
In the meantime, Rajal and Shehani had already begun raising almighty hell about what Dumbledore had done, and the newspapers were already filled with the story of what Voldemort had done to achieve immortality and how the goblins destroyed the Horcruxes, draining the Death Eaters of their magic, while Dumbledore's role in stealing a child had already sparked a massive uproar, and while it was bad enough he had stolen a child and magically changed them, but he had created even greater waves which threatened to destroy his reputation when it became known he had tried to destroy something so sacred as a sibling bond. For Pavini's sake, she was kept out of it although she shrewdly imagined her parents had something to do with it. Pavini didn't care if it was known or not, but personally, she would have preferred it was known since it would solve the mystery of her kidnapping and would drive a wedge that would shatter Dumbledore's credibility even more. She certainly planned to tell her parents what she wanted to happen.
She wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen with the Dursleys. It would be hard to prove to the muggle authorities what they had done. Pavini had come to the conclusion Dumbledore had used magic to make it easier for the Dursleys to do what they had done, but the trial would prove it or not; she had told her parents about her suspicions of Dumbledore using magic, but it would be proven in court, but she wasn't sure what the Dursleys punishment would be.
Pavini settled back down in her bed, savouring the warmth greatly, eager to await the new day.