The Young Ones

Chapter 5: Message from the Future

It was after dinner and Harry, Severus, Tom, Arthur and the kids were in Harry's bedroom so that Severus could run his scans. The children were lying on the bed with Harry sitting in the middle of them, watching worriedly as Severus ran his wand over their bodies and the pieces of parchment listed their medical history.

He saw Tom and Arthur looking at the parchments, Tom grinned at what Harry could only assume was their birthdays. Although there was a glint in his eyes as he read the top of Lyra's parchment that worried Harry more than he already was.

Severus read through the parchments, starting with Salazar's and working his way down. As he read them Harry could see worry growing in his eyes as he got to certain points, but when he read Lyra's it was all worry, pain, sorrow, and anger.

Harry noticed through his growing worry that Lyra had fallen asleep, so had Orion, but the other two weren't looking at anyone but each other as they tried not to say anything.

"Could you two take the younger two to bed, please? Then go to bed yourselves. You are both perfectly healthy and it has been a long day," Severus said seriously, though he looked at them with kind, love filled eyes.

They nodded and got off the bed, picking up their siblings and saying goodnight before leaving the room.

"What's wrong?" Harry said, worry filling his voice and tears filling his eyes.

"The older three are perfectly healthy, although there was a period of about two weeks where there are signs of them being hurt, and not fed very much. Thankfully they weren't put under the cruciatus, they were however hurt by other means occasionally," Severus said, pain in his eyes.

"And Lyra?" Harry asked as tears started pouring down his cheeks.

Arthur sat next to him and pulled him into his arms, rubbing his back gently to try and comfort him, but it didn't help much. His children had been hurt.

"She… You were put under the cruciatus when you were pregnant with her, a lot it seems, and probably hurt in other ways also. As a result she was born prematurely, when you were about thirty weeks pregnant from what I can tell. When she was born she had trouble breathing for a while and still has periods where she struggles, though not nearly as often, or as bad, as she did the first year of her life, and it can be helped with potions when she has those issues. I will be sure to make some, just in case. She also had a number of seizures during her first year and a half of life due to the cruciatus, however, it seems that she has been given a potion or something to help with that and now all she gets is the occasional shakes. There seems to be a deeper connection to you, or at least, the version of you in her time, due to the trauma you experienced whilst pregnant with her. The nightmares she has are what you saw as she wasn't born to witness it. She seems to be given a dreamless sleep potion once a week, which is the most frequently she can be given one without becoming addicted. I can give her her next one tomorrow night,"

Harry couldn't stop the sob that tore through his throat at the thought of what could have, did, happen to his children. Harry had to admit that the bond between him and Lyra was a tad stronger than the one he shared with the others, but he didn't think it was because of anything that happened whilst he was pregnant with her.

It hurt, more than anything, that his children were dragged into whatever happened in the future and were hurt because of it. One of them was potentially killed. And torturing him whilst he was pregnant?

Why?

Part of him wanted to know who the hell did this to his family so that he could ensure that it wouldn't happen again.

No wonder his future self was having a difficult pregnancy. He just hoped that all would be okay. The thought of losing another child, potentially, just… hurt was an understatement.

He felt a comforting hand on his back that wasn't Arthur's and he turned his head slightly to see Tom sitting behind him, looking at him with sad, and yet angry eyes.

"We will do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again. I promise you this, Harry," Tom said gently.

"But-"

"No. We don't know yet why you sent the kids back here, but I am willing to guess that changing things is one of the reasons. As far as we know, this didn't happen in the original timeline, so things are already changed. And that is okay. That means we can fix things. We can protect you and our children. We can make sure this doesn't happen,"

"We should watch the memory," Harry whispered, not knowing what else to say.

He needed to know.

He needed to know what happened.

"Okay," Tom nodded before standing and walking over to the desk to bring the pensieve back to the bed.

Severus had taken a seat beside Harry and was rubbing his back gently as they waited. Tom placed the pensieve at the end of the bed and sat next to Arthur somewhat before pouring the memory into the pensieve and casting a spell on it that played the memory in front of them, almost like a telly but without the telly itself.

An older, pregnant Harry appeared in front of them. Harry's eyes were drawn immediately to the large, yet small bump and he stared at it in awe for a little bit, his own hand resting on his flat stomach. Then he looked at the rest of him, he didn't look old, but he was definitely older, maybe late thirties. He looked tired, stressed, and sad, all at once.

"Hello. I…" the older Harry said, his voice cracked slightly as he spoke, "I know you have a lot of questions, some of which I can't give you the answer to. But I think your biggest question at the moment is why I sent the kids back to you. I-I can answer that," he gulped and looked down at his bump, rubbing it lovingly, "I don't know what the kids have told you already, there are certain things I asked Salazar to tell you, I don't know if he has or not yet… but anyway, things here aren't great,

"Dumbledore died a while ago now and we thought… we thought we were safe, most of his followers were locked up or dead. But, but some survived or aren't in prison and they formed a resistance group of sorts. Three years ago, when I was pregnant with Lyra, myself and the kids were taken by them. We were tortured, the kids not so much or hard, but they were hurt, and I had to watch. But I was tortured too much. I went into labour early. My magic went wild and broke all the enchantments on the place we were held at so that Tom and everyone could find us. And when they found us there was a fight. A fight in which Ron Weasley killed our oldest child, Regulus, in a fit of rage,"

A sharp pain stabbed at Harry's heart at the thought of the person he used to think of as his best friend killing his child. His son. His baby.

"We almost lost Lyra as well, but thankfully, for the sake of my sanity, she pulled through eventually, even if she was quite ill the first couple of years of her life, and still gets ill occasionally. It's hard, watching her struggle to breathe, or watching her shake uncontrollably. So hard. And her nightmares. My nightmares. There is barely ever a night where she doesn't end up sleeping with us, or her nana,"

"I am a necromancer and I couldn't save my own son. And it kills me, every day. He was only ten. He was getting excited to start Hogwarts. I had to hold my son in my arms as he died, I tried to save him. I couldn't," his voice hitched as a tear slipped out of his eye, "I used to speak to dad, to James and Lily, to Sirius on a regular basis. But now, I can't. Because he will be there, and I will have to look at him and remember more than I already do that I wasn't able to save him,

"And now, I am pregnant again, but it is difficult. My body isn't coping well, The remnants from the torture, mixed with my PTSD doesn't really help. I mean, I had been through horrible stuff before that moment, stuff that did make my other pregnancies somewhat difficult at times, but… none of it really compares to watching your son die in your arms, whilst your in labour ten weeks early after being tortured nearly out of your mind. Then when your daughter almost dies as well, and is ill a lot because of something that shouldn't have happened… This pregnancy isn't going well," a ghostly image of a young boy appeared next to the older Harry, a young boy who looked just like Harry just with darker eyes. This was followed by a slowly moving image of a labouring, hurt Harry holding the dying boy, Regulus, in his arms, rocking him and speaking to him, and trying to save him despite the ever growing pool of blood on his chest.

"I have almost miscarried three times now, thankfully we were able to save him, but I don't know how much longer it can go on for. I know I will give birth early. My body just can't take the strain anymore. And I don't know if he will survive it… I couldn't let the kids watch it, not after everything they have already been through, and are still going through,

"I spoke to Death one day, he told me I could send them back in time, back to you. You see, you are the younger versions of us in this timeline, so eventually you would have ended up here, having experienced all that we have experienced. But Death said, that sending the children back to before I received my necromancy inheritance would enable them to begin changing things so that you don't have to experience these moments. It will create an alternate timeline for you that will become whatever you make it. It is completely new, but Death has assured me that all of the children will still be born. So you don't need to worry about that,

"He gave me a ritual to send them back to you, to keep them safe from the dangers that are still in this world as some of the resistance are still around, and to keep them safe from what may happen with this pregnancy. They will be with you for a year then they will come back to us. Back to the original timeline so that you can create your own. You don't have to do anything to bring them back to us, they will automatically come back exactly a year after they left. And we will make sure the world they come back to will be safe. I promise," he nodded determinedly.

"I am sorry I had to do this. I love them all, so much. More than anything. But it isn't safe for them here. Not with the remaining members of the resistance we weren't able to capture or kill. And I… if I know they are safe, because I know you would do anything to keep them safe, or as safe as can be at the moment, then I won't be as stressed. Maybe that will help with the pregnancy. But I don't know. Either way, I know I will give birth early, it is just about prolonging it for as long as possible at this point. Hopefully they will come back to a healthy baby brother. And hopefully you will be able to change things so you don't have to experience this pain again," he whispered the last parts, pain etched on his face and deep in his voice.

The image disappeared and Harry just stared, tears streaming down his cheeks. His older self was so scared, so lost, so pained. It was hardly surprising, given everything he had been through.

His baby had been murdered.

Lyra had almost died.

His older self wasn't certain the baby he was carrying was going to survive.

He also got the feeling his older self left out a lot of the story. But he understood. Traumatic things were hard to talk about. They were hard to even think about. But he understood. He understood why he sent the kids back. He would have done it too.

He supposed he did.

He just hoped his older self was okay, or as okay as he could be given the circumstances.

He glanced at the other to find all of them crying, even Tom.

He had to get out of there.

He climbed off the bed and walked towards the door.

"Harry, where are you going?" Tom asked, sniffling slightly.

"To speak to Dumbledore," he shocked himself with his words, but found they were correct.

"What? Why?" Tom stood and walked towards Harry, stopping him from opening the door.

"Because I need to try,"

"Try what?"

Harry turned to look at him, stunned, and yet not stunned, by the tears and pain in his eyes, "I need to try and save our babies. To try to change our future. I can't… just the thought of what may be to come hurts more than anything else. I need to try. If he stops going against us the resistance shouldn't form. He can help us. He can… I need to try,"

They stared into each other's eyes in silence for a little while, feeling out each others' emotions.

"You can try, but don't be too disappointed if he doesn't help. Take this with you," Tom pulled a small, yet beautiful emerald pendant out of his robe pocket and gave it to Harry, "It is a portkey. You can use it to come home when you're done, just say the word 'home' in parseltongue,"

"You know I'm a parselmouth?" Harry was shocked.

"Yes,"

"Thank you," Harry whispered as he put the pendant around his neck, "it's beautiful,"

Tom's lips twitch slightly and Harry's does the same.

"I'll be back soon," Harry muttered hopefully.

He left the room and walked, tears still spilling slowly down his cheeks, towards the entrance hall. He headed over to the fireplace and removed the lid from the pot of floo powder on the mantle. He scooped up a handful of the powder and stepped into the fireplace. He didn't drop it yet, though.

He took a couple of shaky breaths, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Battling with his thoughts and feelings.

He needed to try.

He had liked Dumbledore once, cared for him even. He had been like the grandfather that Harry had never had. At least, before Harry realised what was going on.

He had to try.

He dropped the powder and cried, "Hogwarts, Headmasters' Office,"

He ignored the churning sensation in his stomach as he was whisked away.

Hiya, I hope you are all well!

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the slight delay in posting, things have been very hectic the past few weeks. A lot is going on. But I will try to update again as soon as possible.

I have a Facebook group called Maraudering_Paige which you are all welcome to join if you would like to. We can talk about Harry Potter, share memes, talk about fanfiction, life, and more. It is also where I will be posting updates about what I am doing when in terms of writing, and sharing some kind of updating schedule when I am a bit more organised. I will be happy to welcome anyone into the group so if you are interested then go on ahead and join.

I hope you are having a lovely day!