Shiro Emiya had the dreams again. The boy in them looked nothing like him, except perhaps the facial structure was remotely similar. Aside from that, most of them were sad or cruel towards the child.

The people that used him, those that pretended to be his friends only to try and manipulate him...the old man that ruined his life and the madman who tried to end it.

He used to get through them by telling them to Kiritsugu, his adopted father. Aside from giving him some rather foul tasting vials, Shiro eventually managed to ignore them.

Though he did have some misgivings when he was granted a full scholarship to the nearest Japanese Magical school, who promptly set up a portal in the unused guest house for him to get to and from school. He didn't mind, as there were actually a few Magi in the academy who corrected his mistaken use of circuits. It had taken months, but eventually he got used to using his magical circuits correctly.

Shiro was now seventeen, ten years after the Fuyuki fire that claimed his family. Or so he believed.

He had no idea that the war to come would rock the very foundations of his life, down to the core of who he was. It wouldn't be because of the fact that his father's daughter Ilya was in Fuyuki, or the Archer servant that was him in the not so distant future where his ideals became so twisted that it nearly destroyed his dream.

No, the event that would change a great many things would be not from his future, but from his past. Specifically the events before the Fuyuki Fire...and for once it wouldn't be his adopted father's fault he was in it.

Shiro stared in shock at the beautiful blond maiden in battle armor.

"I ask of you, are you my Master?"

He shakily said "Yes."

"Then by the blessing of the Grail's Refuge, I, servant Saber have answered your call."

She charged at Lancer, the Irish hero looking quite put out at her abrupt summoning and her protection of the boy who lived after his attack. For some reason the idea of being called the boy-who-lived rankled him, though Shiro had no idea why.

Still, he watched and observed.

Aside from stopping her from attacking Rin, who had come to either investigate or take out Lancer when she realized her mistake, the night was rather uneventful.

Then Shiro had the nightmares again. He had thought he had moved past them after Kiritsugu died and the teachers showed him how to use his natural circuits.

Shiro's Dream...

"Are you sure this will work? I won't remember anything?" asked the boy, now a man. He looked world weary, almost like Kiritsugu did before his death.

"We are sure Human. This potion will forcibly reverse your age, and this time-turner will return you to seven years old. Your memories will have to be extracted manually when you get to Japan. And may I say that I hope you choke on it," sneered the creature. A goblin, his memories provided.

There was no love lost between the two. He remembered that the goblins were doing this because one, the man had promised that they could have the gold in his account provided another didn't rise to take his place as the Lord Potter, and two, because the effort it would take to sustain his seven-year-old self in the same country was likely to kill him anyway, never mind what removing twenty years of memories would do to him.

He'd be little more than a shell, only slightly better off than those Kissed by a dementor, and the goblins knew it.

That was the primary reason they agreed to help and hide what he had done from everyone else. He had royally pissed them off during the war, breaking into their bank and setting that dragon loose, so the fact he was willing to do this to himself just to be free for the first time in his life...well, they were giddy to help him. Mostly because the odds of him living through this long enough to reclaim the gold was next to nil, and he had written in his will that should he die and no one stepped up to reclaim the vaults, it would go to the goblins.

His way of 'thanking' the magical communities for turning him into a weapon. It would piss off everyone who assumed they would get a share of the Potter, Black, Peverell and Slytherin fortunes, including his former friends. Out of them, only George and his godson Teddy would see a single knut.

Everyone else could go to hell for all he cared.

Two days later he flipped the odd pendant around his neck ten times, and the drain on his magic nearly killed him. It took some fast talking, but he eventually ended up in Japan after changing the most of his vaults aside from his trust to the name Shiro Black.

Since the goblins had no reason not to hate him, they changed all the vaults he had access to legally to that name, except for the trust which would still be tied to the original Potter vault.

There was also the fact that he had most of it transferred to Japan, and recalled all items inside. The house elves bound to the families had their bonds renewed, and he had the magical academy give his eleven-year-old self a full scholarship in four years so he could be trained properly this time.

Once he had settled all his accounts, he had the healers remove all of his memories except for one, which would undo the bindings should the need arise.

Once he had his hair, eyes and most of his features changed so no one would link him to his old self, he deliberately used the memory charm to remove all knowledge of who he once was or what would happen during the war. As hard as Sirius and Remus' death was, he knew that they would understand why he was doing this.

He couldn't go back, not if he wanted a chance to live as his own person, instead of a weapon for the Ministry to unleash on anyone who tried to disagree with them.

He hated his nickname as the Minister's Attack Dog.

Green eyes, now a hazel brown looked in the mirror once last time before the charm took full effect. The next memory showed him being taken in by a kindly old couple who treated him like their grandson, even making him the heir of their minor vaults to keep their greedy squib relatives from getting their hands on it.

Then he got hit with a flaming beam of wood, and lost all memories before Kiritsugu rescued him, making him Shiro Emiya.

Shiro shot up from his bed, unaware that Saber had seen everything due to their bond.

Finding out that her master was in fact twice his age and had been forced to do something so drastic...well, it was naturally a shock to her as it was to him.

Which was the only reason she brought up the minor bounded field she had noticed on one of the drawers, undoubtedly his father's work as it had the same feel as Kiritsugu.

Shiro opted to look at it later when they were alone.

Shiro firmly placed his hand on the drawers handle, doing his best to ignore the bounded field that had hidden it so effectively for nine years. His adopted father had placed several things in there before his death, most of them belonging to the Wizard known as Harry Potter, Master of Death.

And that he only knew because Shiro had let it slip while half asleep trying to recover from his 'nightmares' as he thought they were.

What he didn't know was that Kiritsugu had gone straight to the Japanese bank that was run by Oni and demanded a full explanation as to why Shiro had the memories of a British wizard.

It was only natural that the infamous Magus Killer be shocked that his adopted son had been an even more heartless killer than he had at his prime, and had deliberately broken several laws of magic to correct it and give himself a second chance.

Kiritsugu might have tried the same, if it wasn't for the fact he suspected his curse would kill him anyway if he tried. Instead he changed his training methods so Shiro wouldn't panic when he killed someone to protect another. Only time would tell if it worked.

Shiro opened the drawer and found a few things. One was a letter, with his father's handwriting. One was a cloak, a ring with a chipped stone, and a pale white wand the color of bones. They had an ominous feel to them, and Shiro knew he couldn't touch them unless his need was dire enough. The final thing inside was a medium sized bottle with a stopper keeping the silvery liquid inside from spilling. Shiro could feel the bottle was reinforced so much that the glass would never break.

So he read the letter first.

He did it aloud so Saber would hear it with him.

"Dear Shiro,

If you are reading this, that means whatever charm you used after you came to Japan has broken enough that you remember how you ended up in Fuyuki. While I was surprised to find out that my son was in fact the so called 'boy-who-lived' from England, sent back to get a second chance, it didn't change my feelings for you in the least.

The three items in the drawer, the cloak, wand and ring, are part of a set called the Deathly Hallows, which you apparently completed shortly before coming to the past and insuring you had a decent future. Whatever you do, don't take them out unless the need is very great, as I am fairly sure you might risk a paradox if you did. The jar is in fact your original memories, given to me by the Oni when I asked and proved my adoption of you. I'm sure you remember that foul vial I gave you shortly after your ninth birthday.

That was a blood adoption potion, and it insured that you wouldn't vanish because you were in two places at once. For all intents and purposes, you are Shiro Emiya. This will protect you from Gaia's attempts to correct the twin existences and give you quite a bit of protection from the British Ministry should they ever discover you had gone back into the past and removed all Potter influence from their control.

Whatever they might say, if they ever do find you, you owe them absolutely nothing. I have seen some of the memories you left behind and all I will say of the matter is that they burned any bridges that could have tied you to them first, not the other way around. To be honest I am amazed your original self never went on a killing spree for the injustices committed against you and your family.

If, as I fear, the Grail War has indeed started early, then I have one request. I am fairly certain you will summon my Servant from the previous war, a girl named Saber. This is inevitable, and I feel I owe her an apology for forcing her to destroy the Grail.

Saber, if you are listening to this, I am sorry. I had no other choice, because the Grail has been corrupted by Angra Mainyu, the root of all evil in the world. Had I not forced you with the command spells to destroy it, it would have hatched and done more damage than it did with that fire. From what I can ascertain, it was corrupted sometime the war previous. I have no idea how to fix it. Nor do I know if it can be fixed with mortal magic.

Shiro, if you truly wish to learn who you were before, then go to the Oni run bank and ask for the pensieve that was in my vault. Magi aren't the only ones I worked with, and one of the payments for a job was a penseive which will take the silvery liquid and turn them into memories the two of you can see.

I can only hope you survive this Shiro.

Kiritsugu Emiya."

Shiro took a deep breath, looking at the letter with something akin to shock. He never knew that Shiro wasn't his real name. And he remembered vividly that awful tasting potion. The resulting aftermath of drinking it had made him feel weird for weeks afterwards.

What he didn't know was that an unexpected side effect of the potion was that he automatically inherited what few circuits Kiritsugu had left when he died. It had been made by a magus, so that was one of the side effects.

Considering how rarely a magus would consider handing over their crest and circuits over to a relative stranger, it was almost never used unless the child in question had been adopted. The fact Kiritsugu trusted Shiro enough to use it spoke volumes about how much he respected his original self and the boy's character.

Though Shiro still had trouble using the Emiya crest without the backlash biting him in the ass.

"I don't believe it. The amount of magic needed to come back in the past and keep Gaia from erasing the newer presence..." said Saber in shock.

While she wasn't a magus in the conventional sense, Merlin had taught her quite a few things, among which was why it was almost impossible for her to go into the past and change her history. The amount of magic needed was beyond ridiculous, it was suicidal to try.

It was why she had wanted the Grail in the first place, so she wouldn't die from the attempt. For someone to actually succeed was simply amazing...and also raised the question why she only had the bare minimum to sustain her. Surely his reserves would have restored themselves after ten years?

Shiro reluctantly got ready for school tomorrow. He had sensed a bounded field around it and knew something horrible would happen should it activate.

He wanted to get rid of it without relying on Rin to help.

In England, a month after Harry Potter-Black successfully managed to get out from under the Ministry's eyes and thumb...

Ragnarok was pissed. The human had managed to trick them! How he had survived going into the past long enough to get blood adopted by that Magus he had no idea, but the human was out of their reach forever.

As far as Gaia was concerned, Shiro Emiya was Harry Potter's twin brother. The fact he never existed until seven years ago was a moot point. Because Shiro had been blood adopted by a magus and had different training, he wasn't the same human and could therefor be in two places at the same time without Gaia seeking to correct it.

Had the goblin known how far Shiro had gone to prevent being erased, he might have had a modicum of respect for the lengths he went to. Might being the key word.

The Ministry was ready to incite another goblin war just to get their hands on Harry Potter, because after he went into the past the spells they had forced on him were shattered irrevocably by the flames during the Fuyuki Fire.

The magic that caused the flames had been more than enough to rip apart those spells, and made it impossible for them to find Potter.

Needless to say there were a great many people angry about this, and even more thrilled because it meant Harry wouldn't be forced to hurt them anymore, despite the fact he hated doing so to begin with.

It was a race against time to see who would find Harry Potter...and if they lived to see the result of finding him.