FAN FICTION AU AND TIME TRAVEL
Flipped
Summary
Female Harry Potter (Juniper) wins the war but the cost is too much so she performs a ritual and performs dimension travel after much research when she is 24. Her counterpart is Cordelia Faye Black, the daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy. Has memories of both the worlds. Lives in France. When Juniper (Harry) seeps into consciousness, she is 14. Born on Beltane. Thus even though she is a girl, she has a high standing among the Blacks. Has gone to Beauxabatons for her first three years. Born on May 1, 1927. Start school in 1938. Goes to Hogwarts in 1942. Meets Tom Riddle. (Romance and power play)
Disclaimer: The characters and the world in the story belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not earning any profit from it.
Note: I have been a fanfiction reader for quite a lot of years before I gave this fic a shot, so if you see any ideas seeping in that I do not openly acknowledge, just let me know and I will add the credits. I have read too many to keep a track of them but I will try my best.
1) The idea of totems belongs to Catsarecool who is writing A Maurader's plan .
2) The basic idea of dimension travel comes from Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning by Aariya07. You will see quite a few similarities in the first couple of chapters but it diverges after that.
3) This is a gender bender. I will bend gender roles like clay, considering it is based in 1940s. :D
4) Harry was born a girl as Juniper Anastasia Potter. Everything is as it is in canon except for her romances. This is not because I don't read slash or like it. You will see a lot of them in my favorites but because I don't think that I could do justice to that genre and because I want to do this. If you do not like such fics, do not read. Please do not flame. I will welcome criticisms, I know I am not perfect, just don't meaninglessly bash me for nothing.
For your references
"Talk"
"Thought"
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 2: Flight and Fright
Tom's POV
It was Defense against the dark arts. Professor Merrythought had again asked him to give a thought about joining the dueling club. He charmingly turned it down. He did not want the whole school to know about the extent of his abilities just yet. But he was distracted. He wanted to see how the newest Black did in the class.
She performed the spell in one single go. He felt oddly satisfied.
She was given the invitation to the dueling club as well. She politely said that she would think about it since she was still settling in the school.
What happened next was not something that he could have predicted. She went on to help other Ravenclaws with their spell, to be exact, a mudblood, Evelyn Adler, being perfectly polite and all smiling. Even Adler looked at Cordelia like she had grown an extra head, but accepted the help. Adler still looked wary though.
"A Black that did not care about blood. She got more interesting by minute."
Tom's POV
If DADA was surprising, then Care of magical creatures was downright shocking.
Tom was not looking forward to it, they shared it with the loud and brash Gryffindors who had no subtle and sophisticated bone in their body.
They were studying Hippogriffs today. He was not very fond of animals except for snakes. But he still aced the class.
It seemed that the animals were not infallible to the charm of Cordelia Black as well.
The hippogriffs looked a bit vicious so when Kettleburn asked for a volunteer, Tom was not surprised to see that even the Gryffindors looked unwilling to take the risk. He was downright surprised when Cordelia volunteered. She had a knowing smirk on her face as she stepped forward.
"Not that one, Ms. Black, he is not exactly..."Kettleburn began but she did not listen.
The Hippogriff was not hostile to her. She did not even wait for Kettleburn's instructions, she stepped forward, maintaining her eye contact with the beast and she bowed as low as she could go. The beast bowed back.
"Why, I never…"Kettleburn looked surprised.
She slowly approached the hippogriff, and gently touched his beak, scratching him under the chin and softly saying something to it. She petted his side. The beast nuzzled her hair and she gave a soft laugh.
For the first time, he did not find a laugh deplorable.
And then the Beast did something much unexpected; it went down on its knees.
"She has such a mischievous look on her face." Riddle thought incredulously. Kettleburn looked perplexed, he did not even realize what she was doing.
She went and climbed the back of the beast and before Kettleburn could realize, the hippogriff had taken flight.
"Ms. Black!" Kettle Burn looked murderous and worried, very worried.
Orion and Abraxas had went white in the face, therefore it was not something that she had done before. Aimee and Tara looked horrified. Lestrange looked gleeful. Rosier looked like he had never seen anything like this, which he probably had not.
Tristan Fawley was cheering out loud. Warrington and Bolton were following the same lead. The mudblood, Tufts, was biting her knuckles. Brendon Longbottom had a mixed face of worry and pride.
And he looked up at sky and was awed by the scene. Cordelia was flying, alright.
In fact, she seemed to have the time of her life and looked extremely elegant. She circled the lake and towers of castle and with one final swirl around lake, she landed right next to barn that they were standing beside. He could see that she was laughing.
"Good Boy." She patted the hippogriff's back.
The hippogriff again went on its knees and she climbed off its back, gently, carefully, as if she was afraid to hurt it.
She continued to pet it.
"Ms. Black, I have never…that was extremely reckless, and how in the world did you manage it?" Kettleburn tried to reprimand her but could not stop from asking the question.
Gryffindors were catcalling and whistling. It seemed all of them were lovestruck by her. Foolish Gryffindors, all she had to do was do something brash to win their hearts.
Orion and Abraxas looked better.
"Hush guys, you would scare them." She called out disapprovingly, "Simple Professor, I climbed him on because he wanted me to. If I had not, it would have taken insult, and I would be lying here bloodied."
Orion and Abraxas glared at the Professor.
"Do you have experience with ..."Kettleburn now looked chastised but still was unable to keep out his curiosity.
"Not really, Professor, not in this lifetime, I just read about them, found them fascinating. They are indeed very proud." She continued petting him, then bowed back, and stepped away.
"All right everybody, do not attempt what Ms. Black did but approach them in the same manner as she did." Kettleburn said and began lecturing again.
Tom tuned him out. Like Cordelia, he had read up on the hippogriffs and he had observed her closely and she had accomplished something that, the Professor's look told him, was unique. He watched her for a bit but then she came and stood right next to him.
"You are at times too bold, Ms. Black." He whispered to her, referring both to last night and her feat with the hippogriff. He could not resist the jab.
"And you are not. Mr. Riddle." She shot back.
"Fair enough, voicing the jab was bold." Riddle thought.
"Point taken." He inclined his head, "But I am not so blatantly Gryffindorish about it. My boldness is necessity. Riding a hippogriff, however, is not." He gave her a scrutinizing look.
"Well, I do not take offense to the idea of being a Gryffindor. It is a noble house with a fair bit of history. And the second part depends a lot of how one defines necessity, no..? However. I do concede that my boldness was not necessary but rather impulsive, but I still took the best route to minimize damage to myself. Bold but not reckless. And boldness in my eyes is a redeeming quality just as cunning is." She raised a brow at him, with a questioning look.
"Your wit and the way you weave words is commendable, Ms. Black. But you would find that there are people with abilities to see beyond them." Riddle shot back.
"Only those who use it themselves, I am afraid." She inclined her head.
"Sly little dame. It could be an insult or a compliment, spun either way, as it suited her. A jab on his manipulation or a remark on his observation." Tom grudgingly thought.
"Very well, Ms. Black. This round goes to you." He smirked.
"Oh, I don't care about who gets the round as much as I care about a well-played game, Mr. Riddle." She looked at him impassively, "You should pick Buckbeak. I think he would like you."
She again moved around to talk to everyone else. He watched her assure her cousins of her perfect health and move on to chat up with Gryffindors. He realized, she mostly listened after greeting people and offered only a couple of interjections, but nodded and smiled often. He understood why people called her quiet even though she socialized often.
Tom's POV
The rest of the school week passed in blur.
She was at par with him in academics. Her potions were perfect, she aced through charms, she aced through everything. She had every Professor eating out of her palm. She got along with everybody, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Slughorn seemed to love her just as he adored Tom. In Slytherin, she was well liked but she made no hints to defer to or oppose him. Though, she did seem to respect his authority over others as she never got in his way.
They shared a few more banters, mostly playful and testing waters.
Most teachers had hinted that they should pair together in classes as they seemed to do well and would not slow the other person. They could even attempt extra, advanced work.
Despite himself, Riddle found himself actually liking her company. She intrigued him. He wanted her within his circle, but a part of him knew that she was competent, as competent as him and would likely not defer to him. She was a risk, and yet he could not find himself wanting her to bow to him. He liked her where she was, challenging him subtly, privately while respecting his domain and rule over Slytherins. He never enforced his rules over her, but she never actively broke any too. Though she made it clear that she was unhappy at the state of Slytherin, unhappy with the state of Hogwarts too. She, like him, was the epitome of Slytherin and wanted the glory restored.
It was a lazy Saturday Morning. He did not see her in the common room in the early hours or down at Breakfast.
He waited for the rest of his court to arrive who gradually slumped on the chairs around him.
Cordelia came as half the breakfast was over. Completely awake, dressed in a casual robe of purple, with the same tome that she had been perusing on Monday, with a bag hanging over her left shoulder.
She smiled and greeted everybody including him and settled down next to him. It was the place of Renatus Lestrange who had yet to make an appearance. He did not mind.
But he was sure but some others would, especially Lestrange.
"I don't like to have my back towards the rest of hall." She quietly said, put the book aside, and started piling her plate with bacon.
"I am surprised that you slept in, Cordelia. You are usually such an early riser." Abraxas said.
"This is why I said that we should meet more often cousin, you missed me this summer and past winter. I have a new morning regime. I did not attempt it here with the first week of school but since it is a weekend." She trailed off.
"What kind of regime?" Alphard asked, very curious. Riddle for once was grateful to him because he was curious as well.
"And you are unexceptionally unobservant, cousin and a lazy sod, if I may add?" She fixed him with an unrelenting look," I stayed a part of my summer with you, you surely should have discovered it by now." She raised a brow.
"She is good at sidestepping questions too." Riddle thought.
Before Alphard could protest back, owl posts arrived.
Six owls dropped in front of Cordelia.
She looked startled and then she and Dorea together removed all the packages.
Four of them had two letters each, one carried one, and the other carried lots of shrunken packets.
"Looks like a lot of people miss you, Corrie." Sebastian Longbottom strolled over to the Slytherin table.
"I think your mother wrote specifically to ask me to keep an eye on you, Ian," she shot back.
"Everyone misses dear Cordelia." Walburga did not look pleased.
"Well, I will read the letters later." Cordelia ignored her and separated one of the shrunk things and put her wand on it and muttered, "Engorgio."
It converted into a large basket of desserts, with huge chocolate muffins on top.
"All right, people! Who wrote to my mother and insinuated that I am not eating?" She blinked and added as a dry remark.
She was acting very nonchalant, but in a fraction of moment she had slipped and he had seen how overwhelmed she was.
"Well what are you guys waiting for? Help yourself. I am fairly confident that it was Cherry's incessant commentary that led mother to send me this." She just had to say it and everybody pounced on it.
She just sat and watched everyone amusedly and he was watching her." The treacle tart is mine." She declared, "So, don't even think about it."
When everybody was busy chortling and gobbling up the food, she picked out a fairly plain slab of chocolate cake, placed it on a plate and offered to him, looking at him expectantly. "You will like this. It has raspberry and molten chocolate sauce."
Then she picked up a fork and knife and placed them in front of him.
He looked at her as if he had seen nothing like her, took the cutlery cut a small piece and took a bite. It was delicious. He said so.
"Thank you. I am sure that Cherry will appreciate it." She said graciously.
"She is your house elf?" He questioned.
She nodded, "My personal elf, she was allowed in Beauxabatons but not here. She is very protective." She nibbled on a small piece that she tore off from his dessert.
He looked at her incredulously because of the house elf comment and the casual way she just picked up food from what was supposedly his plate.
She looked at him, with a full mouth and chewed very slowly as if deciphering his look, then after a quick realization, she quickly swallowed, " Oh I am terribly sorry, Mr. Riddle, I did not mean to come out as a.."
"It is okay Ms. Black." He said quickly to assure her. And then, he thought about why he assured her like that. She nodded, but she gave him a concerned look.
It was true that even while keeping aside the custom and etiquettes, Tom did not like people taking his food. It reminded him of the orphanage, people stealing his meal and he usually reacted instantly but somehow, it did not quite affect him when she did that. His subconscious did not see her as a threat and he wondered why.
And her reaction was not scared or nervous, she looked concerned, as if she knew the affect it would have on him. It was a tad bit disconcerting.
The others had not noted anything, busy filling their mouth with all the cakes and pies and tarts.
She gave him a weak smile and blinked once assuredly, as if insinuating that his secret was safe with her. "What secret?" He thought furiously. He left the dessert, got up and left.
If he would have turned around and looked at her, he would have seen her giving him a sad look.
"He hated Cordelia Faye Black. She was everything that he was, everything. He could not pinpoint one thing apart from parseltongue that the girl lacked. On top of it, she was a pureblood, not just any pureblood, but a Black, an influential and powerful Black. A Black who had his circle tied tightly around her fingers and charisma, who had grown up amongst them and had them eating tout of her palms.
Hell, there was this thing about her that even drew him in, for Morgana's sake. What was this girl?
But she seemed genuine, she was not hostile towards him, she had reprimanded her cousin, she was evaluating him, but not like he was evaluating her. He was calculative in his approach, she did not seem to be. She was nice to him, but not like he was nice to her. She seemed to include everyone in whatever her affections were directed towards, including him. That disconcerted him, it gave him an itch, because he could not point one reason for why, why was she nice to him.
He understood why she was not scared of him, she was as good as him at magic. She did not defer to him, even when he was heir of Slytherin but she respected him, just like he respected her. But she was nice to him, when she did not have to. She must have an ulterior motive.
But he, for one, could not figure it out. He would keep an eye on her." Tom was thinking furiously as he walked on, trying to clear his head.
Cordelia's POV
Cordelia went to the room of requirement, and took out the letters. The paired letters were from her mother and Father, Uncle Arcturus and Aunt Ariel, Uncle Pollux and Aunt Cassiopeia, and her two friends from Beauxabatons. The single letter was from Callidora Black.
She read her mother and father's letters first. Her father's was a detailed response to a question she had sent about the book she was reading and the last paragraph in very crafty language stated how proud he was of her to be able to read that much in to the text.
Her mother was a bit more open, she sounded worried, and asked after her health, and any pain.
Her Uncle Arcturus' letter was a bit of thick parchment of Black family properties and their details. He was serious about making her the Heiress. She knew most of the details and he said so, but this was in further detail, he said.
Ariel had asked her to keep an eye on Alphard and Orion and had also asked to check up on one Charles Potter, it seemed that Dorea had mentioned him in one letter back home. 'Check' meant see if he was worthy enough to marry into the Black family or was it a ploy of light to undermine one of the prominent dark families of world.
Pollux wrote about curbing Burga's outbursts, apologizing for them, and basically giving her leeway over to her to deal with her in any manner she pleased, short of physical and mental long term affects. She smirked.
Cassiopeia's was much more joyous, hinting on a lot of dirt on her fellow classmates, which Cordelia was surprised to note she deciphered easily. Her aunt asked her to have to some fun while she was in Hogwarts. Cordelia could actually picture her aunt giving her a sly wink.
Callidora Longbottom nee Black wrote too, asking general questions about life and how she was settling in at Hogwarts, telling how Ian was praising her performance and to keep it up and coerce Ian to grow a subtle bone as well. She grinned.
The last bunch was from Colette and Raphael, who were her best friends from the French school. Raphael was a bit general, about how things were boring without her and Colette described the entire week at the school, about how everyone's reaction to her transfer was and how Raphael was acting like lovesick puppy and moping and whining all around.
She realized with a pang that she missed them both.
Tom's POV
"My Lord, the book you asked for, well I wrote to my father and asked for it, he replied that cousin Corrie…Err... Cordelia had borrowed it over in the summer and that she still has it. I would have asked her but since she is very observant, she would probably realize that I did not wish to read it and would deduce that you want it .Since she has yet to be inducted in, I did not take a chance." Abraxas said.
"Tell me Abraxas, why would your cousin need that book when she is not the heiress apparent of any house?" Tom asked him succinctly.
"I cannot say, my lord, but she reads anything and everything. It is not very surprising for her to read up on family magic." Abraxas replied.
The face of Blacks were composed. They knew something but could not say it.
He seethed inside.
Then he saw Cordelia approaching them. She stopped at a few feet and gave him a questioning glance.
He scowled. She smiled unconcernedly and approached him and handed him the book, the book he had wanted.
"Uncle wrote to me." She shrugged as if that explained everything.
She took out her wand and before he or his lieutenants could do anything and had murmured and waved her wand and created a ward between the two of them.
"A privacy ward as you already know." She raised a brow.
"What kind of assistance do you require, Ms. Black?" He glared at her.
"An advice for you, actually. That is why the ward, I did not think that you take it kindly if I advised you in front of your court. My intentions are not to belittle you or tell you that I am better than you in any sense, but I feel the need to tell you this, in case, you do not know. If you do know, very well. However in case you don't, you should listen to me carefully. If you are waiting to be the legal heir of Slytherin to tap into your family magic, you are just stalling. The magic does not require legality. It is within you from the time you took birth. You just need to tap into it. If it approves of you, it will form a totem. The more it approves of you, the more easier it would be to call upon it, but once you have done so, remember that it has a will of its own, it will respect you or not, but well it will pretty much do what it would want to do. The more it approves of you, the more control it will give to you. You will not find this in any book. The magic is inside you, call upon it when you think you are ready, but if you would want my take on it, don't delay it. You were ready when you were born. The chant is Familus Magicus. It will be prudent if you use your blood the first time, since you are old enough. It is just a drop, let it drop to earth, you don't even need the ritual circle. It might help if you invoke it in parseltongue since it is likely to be a snake. Again be respectful and firm, don't let it intimidate you. That's it. Thank you for listening to me." She gave a very small curtsy, waved her wand again and canceled the ward, turned around and left without waiting for his dismissal.
"He was even more confused now and he felt threatened. She had discovered that he wanted the book for without intending to. She gave it to him, without hesitating, even though she did not bow to his authority. She advised him and he could not decide if it was a ploy to get him killed or to genuinely help him. But she had read him like an open book, she knew his insecurities and what his plans were without him or the court even indicating them.
She had the power to destroy him in a blink. Slytherin heir or not, he was a half blood, many pure bloods would be against him for that reason alone and well muggleborns and light faction would be against him because he was the spawn of Slytherin.
But he had the book, and she had very conveniently said that he would not find this in any book, should he trust her word and do it. If it was an ill advice, the consequences would be not pretty and if he did not do it and it was a sound advice, he delayed his progress when it was handed over to him on a platter."
He looked at his court, Abraxas and the Blacks were pale, and the others looked contemplative. They had no idea what had happened, privacy ward blurred surroundings and canceled all noise and smell.
They just knew that a fourteen year old girl had cast the ward and had talked to their king and the king seemed none too happy about it.
"I am not going to do anything with your cousin sister," He said looking at her family members. They relaxed.
"Yet." He added soon after they relaxed and they tensed up again," It is highly inconvenient for her and you that you cannot reveal anything to me about her. "
"My lord! We...cannot. . ." They stammered.
"Cannot or won't. It did not escape my notice that you, all of you, are extremely fond of her. While I do not condone your family bonds, I will not tolerate you keeping information from me, or any sort of insubordination." Riddle hissed, his eyes darkening, "Dismissed.". He said a minute later, when he had made it sufficiently clear with his glare that how furious this made him.
It might have escaped his notice in his anger, but Tom was very observant, Renatus Lestrange looked like Christmas had come early. He wondered why.
Since I promised that I would update on Saturdays, here is the new chapter. I will post the next one only on next Saturday now, so don't wait for an update in just a couple of days. I have to pack to go back to college. :(
But I am excited on going back. :D
I have updated my profile to include a detailed encyclopedia about characters in this fic. So check that out.
As for the members of the court, you can assume that all pureblood male heirs from Slytherin are a part of it and a few other sons who come from important families in Slytherin are as well, like Anastius Zabini.
Yes, the position of women is subservient in the society as is evident from their absence in Riddle's court and this fic is going to address that to an extent because Cordelia has time traveled back from 2004 where times were relatively kinder to women. This is 1942 and she is going to have a hell lot of problems in adjusting, so her normal self, which will be perceived as rebellious will seep in. We will see how 1942 handles that.
Also, you must have noticed that most of the story in this chapter was from Tom's POV. That would be a pattern for quite some time. There might be a couple of other POVs too.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, Please read and review.
To all the followers and favoriters, you made me very excited. I am glad that people are liking the fic and that I have not typed about 50,000 words of junk. But yes, I am only going to update it weekly because well, I need time to catch up with the future of this fic and I don't want to go on a prolonged hiatus in case I get busy with college.
To all the reviewers, thank you, you made me day. Reading praise is just different so, thank you for that.
I would also request that if there is a general feedback on my writing or clarity, please let me know.
