Just for clarification
Elder Harry is 'Harry' while Younger Harry is 'Junior'
Elder Daphne is 'Daphne' while Younger Daphne is 'Munchkin'
Elder Susan is 'Sue' while Younger Susan is 'Ginger'
Elder Ron is 'Ron' while younger is 'Ronnie'
Elder Hermione is 'Jean' while Younger Hermione is 'Hermione'
Elder Tracey is 'Tracey' while Younger Tracey is 'Brat'.
HARRY POTTER
He had not forced Dumbeldore to say anything when the Old man had remained silent after the last memory. There were still things they had to see, and once it was over, then he would have his answers. Once they had broken for lunch, he was accosted by his friends, enquiring about the reason for Dumbeldore's presence. None of them had been happy with his 'you will see' answer. Small groups had formed as everyone had become informal and were discussing things among them. While the adults had drawn together, he could see that all the youngster had accosted his friends. His eyes looked for Junior, and found him talking to Nymphadora and Andromeda, who was holding Teddy. Dora was explaining something in large gestures to Junior, who had his complete attention focused on the Metamorph.
Once they had reconvened, he entered another few memories in the Pensieve, and looked towards the Headmaster.
"You always said that my aunt's house was safest for me, Professor. Watch what that safety meant for me."
The memory started from when Dobby had appeared in the house. When the letter from the Ministry came, Madam Bones frowned.
"That's odd. A ministry worker goes to a muggle house in case of improper use of magic. I don't recall a case where a letter was sent."
He rolled his eyes before looking at the Headmaster.
"I found the reason behind it in the future. Somebody, thought that a magical person might make my relative angry, so he convinced Madam Hopkirk to send a letter in such a case after I had started Hogwarts."
Madam Bones glanced at the Headmaster before rubbing her eyes.
"How many rules and law did you bend, Albus? What all did you manipulate?"
For the first time, Dumbledore spoke up in his defense.
"I did not manipulate anything, Amelia. I just wanted to keep Harry safe and happy..."
A sarcastic laugh stopped the Headmaster, who looked towards him. But it had not been him, it was Junior. The teenager was staring at Dumbeldore with anger, his eyes full of tears.
"Safe and Happy. I have neven been safe and Happy there ever, Professor. You put me th..."
The words failed the young boy, as he closed his eyes. No one missed the tears that were flowing down on his face. Natalie Greengrass walked up to Junior before taking him in an embrace. He looked around the room, noticing that most of the people were pretending to not see Junior.
"There will be a lot of things in the memories that will shake all of you. I know it's correct, but all of you do need to watch them. It's about each of your's future, and also for who will come after you. Us coming back has given everyone here a second chance. A chance to not go through the horrid future that we had. I know that my actions will end the innocence of every young child here, but it will be better than losing it brutally a couple of years later."
The last sentence was directed towards the adults., all of whom had solemn faces. Once junior had calmed down a little, he restarted the memory.
"As Junior said, we were never safe or happy there, Professor. You would see why it is so."
As the memory of Ron and twins rescuing him played through, every person in the room gained a little hardness on their faces. Dora, whose hair had changed from pink to black, spoke up first.
"That's worse than cells in the ministry. They were keeping you in a prison."
He looked towards the trainee Auror, wondering why the woman had not reacted as such during his fifth year. Hermione's father caught his attention. He knew the man worked with rescued children regularly, so his reaction was not unexpected.
"I hope you are not going to let them go unpunished, Mr. Potter."
"No. My relatives will have their due soon. Once we take up our seats, they will pay for everything they have done."
Dumbeldore immediately straightened up.
"Seats, Harry?"
He did not answer, just giving a smile. Fortunately, Ron spoke up at that moment. The redhead was looking at Molly Weasley.
"Ronnie told you, mother, remember."
The Weasley matriarch flustered a bit.
"I thought he was exaggerating. And the Headmaster had said that Harry was safe."
He shook his head at the familiar answer. Most of the people, who should have made sure that he was not left at the Durselys, had given the same answer through his entire life. Ted Tonks, who had been discussing with Lord Davis, addressed him.
"I think young Mr. Potter must visit the St. Mungos for a complete check-up. His body would be suffering from what we have just seen, not to mention any ill effect of what happened in the first year."
Dumbledore once again spoke up, but was interrupted once again, this time by his father in law.
"Madam Pomfrey..."
"is a Medi-witch, Headmaster. A healer might be able to diagnose the child more deeply."
The Headmaster's eyes narrowed at the Lord. He knew the old man was wondering about Lord Greengrass's interest in Junior. With a wave of his hand, the next memory started playing. It was of the fight outside the bookstore.
"Pay attention to Lucius Malfoy, everyone."
Brat, or young Tracey, piped up from her seat.
"Dung face added a diary to weaslette's cauldron... I mean the female weasel..."
Adult Tracey pushed her younger self's mouth close and shrugged at his curious glance.
"I am sorry, Weasley's. She is a teenager and has no control over her mouth. And Malfoy senior always looked like he was smelling dung when he met my family so I named him such.
Arthur Weasley spoke up in a very serious voice, his eyes fixed on Junior.
"Is that the diary, Harry?"
At Junior's nod, the man closed his eyes and leaned back on his seat. He continued the memory, promising everyone they will understand soon.
"Nothing major happened until the Halloween feast. Well, except the fact that Ron and I flew to Hogwarts on a flying car, and were nearly mauled to death by a tree."
"Fun times," Ron and Ronnie observed together, bringing a smile on everyone's face( except Mrs. Weasleys's).
"We had our lessons, learned that Lockhart was a fraud and had some minor scuffles with the Malfoy and Slytherin's Quidditch team. And then, I went to detention with Lockhart a few days before the feast.
After a long period of practice, he had learned how to differentiate between Parseltongue and normal English. So while he knew no one except Junior would understand what was been said by the Basilisk, he had made the memory to focus on the hissing sound.
"That is the first time I heard the centuries-old Salazar's Basilisk."
Since it was a known fact that Harry Potter was a parselmouth, no one reacted negatively. The mention of Basilisk though, caught a lot of attention. Madam Bones had sprung from her seat.
"You bloody heard what?"
His eyes turned to look at the Headmaster, who finally looked guilty.
"Not even the head of DMLE, Professor?"
"I had some genuine reasons for that, Harry. Informing the ministry would have brought the Basilisk poison in the market, and in turn, in hands of people who would have used it destructively. The poison can not be used in any potion supplies so it was not necessary. I did not want to grant the world another source of very and rare poison which has an equally rare antidote."
Hermione's mother caught everyone's attention.
"Uhh, Mr. Potter, mind explaining what is a Basilisk?"
He looked at Jean, who answered after a moment of hesitation.
"A magical snake, which can grow to more than 50ft in length, and is so difficult to kill that breeding was banned in the Medival times. In mundane terms, it is something like a weapon of mass destruction."
At Jean's last words, the Granger parents had turned deadly pale. He could see that her father was going to react explosively, but a hand from both Jean and Hermione stopped him. He continued the memory.
"Next, is the Halloween feast. We three were returning from Nick's deathday party, when the memory starts."
They all watched as Harry and his two friends ran through the corridors, and came upon the petrified Mrs. Norris. The memory ended with Draco Malfoy's words. Andromeda was the one to speak up in ensuing silence.
"I assume the inter-house fights became worse than ever after this incident."
A bitter laugh erupted from Jean, who had her eyes fixed on the headmaster.
"How is that a woman who has never been a teacher grasps something important, but the teachers present had been unable to?"
"What do you mean by that, Ms. Granger?". Tracey's mother, who he knew took up supplementary Astronomy classes in case Aurora Sinistra was unable to, enquired.
"After this incident, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaw's started attacking Slytherin students, who retaliated as heavily. No one noticed it because the students kept it a secret. Ambushes in a corner, attacks on the first and second year became a regular thing. And why should it not be? An entitled ponce, whose father was known to be a death eater, smiled and told nearly half of the school that they will be murdered soon, and not a single teacher did anything. So, the whole Slytherin house was deemed guilty by association, and every student of all four houses paid for it."
Dumbledore, who looked aghast, turned his eyes on the youngsters. He nearly demanded.
"Is this true?"
The twins were the first to answer.
"Yes. We did not participate in it, instead opting to keep an eye on our house members if they needed help."
"If we had done anything, it would have been noticed."
Dumbeldore then looked at Percy.
"Mr. Weasley?"
The third eldest son of the Weasley family looked tired as he answered.
"I tried telling our head of the house about it. She said she will handle it. When nothing happened after two more complaints, I gave up and started healing them however much I could."
A wave of defeated look passed on Dumbeldore as he fell back on the seat. He himself was astonished, having never noticed that the twins and Percy had been involved in some way. It had been Daphne and Tracey who had told him after the war about the struggles of the second year.
"In the days after this, Dobby nearly killed me in a quidditch match, Lockhart had vanished all the bones of my arms, a few more petrifications happened, I was outed as a Parselmouth, nearly half the school started bullying me..."
Susan interrupted him, her eyes fixed on ginger.
"Which brings up an important topic. Ginger, move."
He could see Madam Bones looking as confused as others when Ginger flushed a little before moving towards Junior with a determination on her face. Once she was next to him, she bowed a little.
"Heir Potter, I, Susan Amelia Bones, Heiress to House Bones, apologize for my words and actions I have taken against you and House of Potter."
Junior, in an epic moment, waved her off.
"Uhmm, no problem?."
Despite the tense situation, the action made everyone laugh. He was going to direct Junior on a proper acceptance when Munchkin humphed and started doing so from next to Junior. His eyes connected to Daphne, as they both remembered a familiar scene that happened in the future. Once the Bones Heiress had taken her seat, he looked at her.
"Well done, Ginger. You were not even drunk, so much better than your future self."
Susan, who had already been glaring at him, shouted.
"You are a jerk, Potter."
Poking a tongue at her, he turned towards ginger once again.
"Don't say anything to your housemates. Many of them have an alliance with House Potter and I would be discussing their Heir's and family member's behavior with them."
Once she nodded, he moved on.
"Then we had the brilliant idea of brewing Polyjouice potion to interrogate Malfoy about the Chamber. Except for a minor issue, the plan went flawlessly."
Tracey snorted from her seat.
"He failed to mention that it was my wife who made the plan, stole the ingredients from Snape's personal stores, brewed the perfect potion, and then drank it after adding a cat's hair."
"Yeah, that too."
Once everyone had stopped laughing, Dumbeldore looked at the girls in question.
"A perfectly brewed Polyjuice potion in the second year is very impressive, Ms. Grangers."
Both Hermione's beamed at the Headmaster's words. Arthur Weasley looked at his youngest son.
"So that tip about Malfoy's hidden room?"
"Yeah..."
He shook his head before continuing.
"After that, Hermione was admitted to the Infirmary, Lockhart's valentine fiasco happened, and then, I found a diary. A diary, which was sentient, and it showed me a memory.
The Pensieve came alive again as the memory of a memory started playing. Once it was over, Charlie Weasley spoke up in a croaked voice.
"Hagrid opened the Chambers? The same Hagrid that we know?"
He shook his head.
"No. Hagrid was blamed wrongly. Remember the boy who accused him, he will come up again soon."
He looked at the Headmaster who was deep in thoughts.
"On that note, Professor. Why wasn't Hagrid readmitted after Voldermort came out in open? You knew he was not guilty."
The Headmaster looked at all of them before answering.
"IF I had done so, Hagrid would be in Azkaban right now,m or maybe even worse."
At the questioning glances, he received, Dumbeldore explained more.
"Hagrid may not have opened the Chamber of secrets or killed anyone, but he was hiding a Class XXXX in the castle, in the same room with 6 other boys. If that Acromantula had gone loose and had a chance to attack freely, it's poison would have killed a lot of students. This information would have come up in the investigation and made things much worse for Hagrid."
"But Hagrid did a crime." Madam Bones stated. Dumbledore replied in the same tone.
"And he had paid by losing everything he could be. Even now, he cannot get a better job or mastery, because he still does not understand the danger magical creatures pose to normal humans."
He agreed with Dumbeldore on that. They would have to discuss with Hagrid about Aragog and his brood soon.
"The situation was still tense. With Dumbeldore gone due to Lucius Malfoy, everyone was expecting another attack to happen. And when it happened it shook us. Hermione was found petrified along with one more student. For the first time, it looked like the school would close down. And it would have had, if not for Hermione's brilliance and Ron and my idiocy and rashness."
He started the memory where his younger self had heard about Ginny being taken away to the chamber. Throughout the scene that followed, there were exclamations, scolding directed towards them, and much more by the adults. When he was impaled by the Basilisk's tooth, Lady Davis fainted, while Percy vomited once again. Muchkin, for the first time, spoke in a shaking voice. Her eyes were fixed on Junior.
"How are you alive, Potter?"
Junior did not get the chance to respond as Fawkes once again appeared in a swirl of fire, before landing on Junior's other shoulder. He answered the question.
"Fawkes cried in my wound, saving me at the last moment. If not for him, I would have died in that chamber along with Ginny."
Fleur's father looked quite happy to see the Pheonix.
"Pheonix don't give up their tears easily, Mr. Potter. History has documented cases when a Pheonix has refused to share tears to save even the family members of their bonded."
He looked towards Fawkes, who flew to perch on his shoulders.
"Fawkes and I have always shared a different type of bond, Mr. Delacour. He is the creator of the core of my wand and now his tears are coursing through mine and Junior's blood."
Dumbledore nodded, looking at him and Fawkes.
"Unlike what everyone thinks, Fawkes is not my familiar. He has stayed with the school's headmaster as a secret companion for as long as I can remember. He chose to break the secrecy to help me in my duel against Gellert. If not for his arrival, I would have lost that duel. I don't think he will leave the school, but Harry here might enjoy Fawekes companionship as long he lives."
He looked towards the immortal bird for confirmation, who trilled in response. Chucking, he restarted the memory. When he stabbed the diary, Andromeda gasped.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes." was the only answer he could give.
"Merlin. How much of his magic has that madman corrupted?"
The answer was on his tongue, but he refrained, opting to restart the memory. It ended when the moment Dobby threw Lucius Malfoy away to protect him. Madam Bones was shaking her head.
"If only memories were admissible in the Wizengamot. I would have dragged Malfoy to Azkaban myself."
He didn't tell her that the time travelers had plans which would give her the chance to do as she wished at that moment. It was decided they would take another break before starting the next set of memories. Nearly every adult in the room approached him with questions. While the Healers wanted to know about the Basilisk remains for potions, Madam Bones and Dumbeldore wanted to search the chamber for any remaining secrets, which he had agreed to. Junior had no issue with Jon handling the sale of Basilisk and all the skin, with the only condition being that the poison would be stored someplace safe. Teddy, who had woken up some time ago, was in Dora's arms. He was sure that his godson had lost a part of his memory, as the small boy didn't recognize his mother and was more focused on her changing hair. Andromeda had asked them about it, with Jean promising to look into it.
But the thing that got his attention most was Junior, munchkin, and Hedwig's chat. Mainly, how Hedwig was perched on munchkin's shoulder and having a full conversation with her. Junior looked irritated and impressed at the same time as he was being ignored by both females.
Seeing the twins joking with Ron brought a wave of sadness in him. After Fred's death, Goerge has stopped smiling. Before his death, he was having problems with his marriage to Angelina, so he was never happy. Fawkes, who was still perched on his shoulders, sang a slow melodious tune. At the same moment, his and Junior's hands raised, their wands in their palms, and the same sounds coming from the wands. A sort of suppressed contentment spread in the room, relaxing everyone a little.
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