Thankyou to all of my pat re on supporters with a special thank you to my awesome tear supporters: Antar Das, LegendaryWasabi, Oli Wieszun, Ibuki Mioda, SvenGTX, Optimum Prime and Jack Schriner you are all great people.
chapters 9 and 10 are already up and available if you would like to find them go to the sight and add /Lowten at the end
we are quickly approaching the £50 point where I said I would commotion cover art for my fics. however, the artist I was in talks with has received a lot of work over the last couple of weeks and she won't be able to do the commission. don't worry though I still plan to keep to the same schedule, but I now need to find a new artist. if any of you know of an artist who is accepting commissions who you think is a good fit for the work can you please send me their details or a link to their commission's page.
Chapter 8
Harry and Hermione were only a little surprised when the door to their compartment slid open as they pulled away from Hogsmeade for the Easter holidays; after all, people visited each other a lot on the train journeys. They were surprised that the person the sliding door had revealed was Luna, their blonde friend hadn't mentioned that she was going home for the holiday,
"Hello." Luna said in her regular faraway voice as she came in and stood her trunk in the overhead rack with a swish and flick of her wand.
"Hey Luna," Harry greeted while Hermione just waved. "You didn't tell us you were going home for the holiday."
"Oh. I suppose that's probably because I'm not going home this year." Luna said as she pulled out the latest issue of the Quibbler.
"Oh, are you and your father off on an expedition then?" Hermione asked.
"Daddy is going to Egypt to see if he can find any references to a smooth-horned snorkack. Daddy thinks if there was ever knowledge of a snorkack that has been forgotten, then Egypt is the best place to look. It's very exciting, but I won't be going with him," Luna sounded a little disappointed not to be going with her father.
"If you're not going with your father, who are you going to be staying with?" Harry was confused now.
"Well I'm coming with you two of course." Luna said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Both Harry and Hermione stared at the Ravenclaw, completely flabbergasted. There was silence for a minute until Hermione found her voice. "Luna, we aren't going on a holiday, we are looking for another object like the diadem. It could be dangerous."
Luna shrugged. "It just feels like I need to go with you. Maybe you need me, or maybe it's something else, but something is saying I need to go with you." Luna told them in her usual ethereal manner.
Harry and Hermione tried to convince Luna that it would be better if she didn't come with them, but Luna held firm and there wasn't exactly a lot that the two of them could do about it. The only ways they had to force the issue were to basically take Luna back to the school or somewhere else and talk to an adult. Doing that would draw attention to the fact that Harry and Hermione were heading out for the week, something that they needed to avoid.
They arrived at Kings Cross in the early evening, waiting on the train until almost everyone was gone and then slipping out into muggle London. The three of them slunk into an alley where they wouldn't be seen, where Hermione grabbed Luna's hand as they Apparated to the Forest of Dean. They had originally thought they would go straight to Little Hangleton from London, but once they considered how late they would get to the village they had decided that they would camp for one night, arriving early enough the next day to have a look around.
Between the three of them, they got the tent up in about a quarter of an hour. Harry and Hermione were surprisingly the most awkward at putting the tent together. They were too used to putting up the tent with a flick of their wands during their time on the run, but as they had to be careful of the restrictions on underage sorcery they were doing it all by hand. Luna explained her experience with the tent by telling them that she had often put the tent up for her and her father when he was focused on something else.
The inside of the tent was not dissimilar to a cheaper London flat. It had two bedrooms and a shower, but the kitchen and living space were combined. The furniture looked like it had been sorted from a muggle second hand store. They spent the evening eating some pre-made sandwiches and crisps they had picked up at the train station, and going over their plan with Luna, making any modifications they needed to cover a third member of the group.
-ϟϟϟ-
The three children arrived on the outskirts of the village a little before midday, looking like campers in their mid-twenties due to the aging potions that Hermione had spent the last couple of months brewing. She had also come up with an intense method to hide Harry's scar after every grammar or illusion Harry had tried had failed: Makeup. Something Hermione called "concealer" covered up Harry's scar so that the conductor of the Knight Bus hadn't recognised him.
They secured their packs and walked the rest of the way into the village. The weather still held a little chill, but the coming summer was already being felt. Add to that the fact that they were away from the chills of northern Scotland and the three of them enjoyed the walk through the countryside.
The Hanged Man Pub was, as the case often was in small villages, in the center of the village a short stroll from the church. The inside was the very model of a classic English pub; the ceiling was black, the walls were whitewashed stone, and the bar was highly polished oak. Even though it was only a little after midday, the pub was half full of people, most of them with a meal in front of them as well as a pint of something or a glass of wine. Everyone in the pub looked up at them when they came in, and there were a few moments of surprised silence at them not recognising the people who walked in before everyone returned to their conversations.
Hermione and Luna grabbed themselves a table and Harry went to the bar. "What can I get you?" The bartender asked with a cheery smile.
"Three pints of lager shandy please, and what's on the lunch menu?" Harry ordered their drinks. He had no problem buying alcohol. For one, he looked more than old enough, and he actually was in his twenties, even if due to time travel he needed a potion to look twenty. Some might have thought he should have been more reluctant to buy a drink for Luna, but it was only a shandy and he thought Luna was mature enough to handle it.
"We have a selection of sandwiches, a leek and potato soup, or baked potatoes and toppings." The man supplied as he started pulling a half pint of lager into each of three pint glasses. Harry stepped away for a moment to consult with Hermione and Luna, before returning to give the man their orders. He paid and the man handed him the three glasses as he topped each of them off with lemonade. Harry took the drinks and made his way over to the table the girls had claimed, setting the drinks in front of them before he took his seat.
"So, what do we do now?" Luna asked.
"Well, we need to ask around about a place we can put up the tent without bothering anyone. Last thing we need is for whoever owns the land to get annoyed at unattended campers and to come and try to take down the tent." Hermione told them.
About ten minutes later they were called to the bar to collect their food and Luna went up to get it. "Here you go, one leek and potato soup, one toasted ham and cheese, and one chicken salad. Anything else I can do for you, love?" The barman asked Luna.
Luna smiled at him "Oh, maybe. Do you know who we need to talk to about pitching a tent around here for a few weeks? My name is Luna, by the way."
"Sean. Hmm...well, if you're looking to pitch a tent then you'll do better down by the river. It's common land there and you won't be disturbing anyone. What are you going to be doing while you are here, if I may ask?"
"We are mostly going to be walking around the countryside. My two friends spend too much time in the city and need to get out every once in a while." Luna said coming up with the city part on the fly, before thanking the bartender and returning to her seat.
They looked around the village center and did a little grocery shopping in the local shops. Shopping for food was probably going to become a daily chore, actually, as they had to act as though they had no way to preserve food. That had benefits, though, according to Hermione; apparently spending money in business was a good way to get locals to warm up to you. The three of them set up the tent near the river just as the bartender had suggested to Luna, and then relaxed until the early evening when they went back to the Hanged Man to ask a few of the locals about the sights around the village that they might want to see. Over a few pints and a few games of pool with the locals, Harry had two lists of spots for them to look into.
One list was purely scenery, and in truth only held Harry's attention in that they needed it to keep up appearances with the locals. That list included things like a small waterfall that was upstream; interesting, but useless. The second list was far more relevant, including things like 'the old big house over the way' that was obviously the Riddle manor, and the old graveyard on the edge of the village that Harry was sure was the one that haunted his dreams on occasion. Unfortunately, no one had said a thing about anything that could be the Gaunt home. It looked like they were going to have to find it the old fashion way: go around and look.
Once it got late, the three aged-up children went back to their tent, and Harry was nominated-by-committee to cook. He had done a simple chicken and rice, throwing in some curry powder that made it less bland and boring. After that, the three of them turned in, Luna and Hermione taking the larger of the two rooms that had a double bed and leaving Harry with the single bed in the second bedroom.
-ϟϟϟ-
Three days passed after the trio arrived in the village of Little Hangleton, and they still hadn't found the Gaunt shack. Exploring the roads around the village had turned out to be harder than expected. The walks were easy enough, even pleasant; the problem was the number of them. There were a lot of roads that were just to provide access to the farms and fields that surrounded the village. However, they couldn't discount that the Gaunt house was off one of the side roads. In fact, from what Harry could recall from when he had seen the place in the school pensive, the only roads that could be dismissed were the two main roads in and out of the village that joined up with the bypass that took people to the relatively close town of Hangleton.
They were currently walking down a road that led back to the village when Harry suddenly stopped dead, surprising Hermione and Luna until they looked at where he was staring. It looked different than it did in Harry's memories, but he would never have forgotten this place. He quickly walked to the gate and opened it, the iron hinges screaming as rust grated against rust. Harry strode forward down the path, not hearing Hermione and Luna as they tried to speak to him. He came to a stop and looked at the stonework in front of him. The angel looked calm and inviting in the Easter sunshine, but in Harry's head it was dark, and the statue in front of him that was supposed to comfort the people who had lost someone was instead restraining him, holding him so that he couldn't run away.
Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and knew it was Hermione without even looking. "This is where I was standing when it happened. Wormtail stunned me after Voldemort had killed Cedric. I woke up and this statue was restraining me. I didn't have my wand, I couldn't run or fight. I was at their mercy, completely helpless. There was a cauldron right over there." Harry pointed to a spot about seven meters from the grave statue. "Bone of the father, taken from this very grave; Wormtail used a spell to crush it and added it to the cauldron. Flesh of a servant, Wormtail cut off his own hand and added that. Last ingredient was me, my blood. Wormtail came over and didn't even hesitate to plunge the knife in my arm so he could collect the blood. Then Voldemort rose up from the cauldron and called his followers. They stood right there watching and jeering as he tried to kill me. He tried all three of the Unforgivables on me. He missed with the killing curse and I threw off the Imperius, but the Cruciatus hit. He was like a cat toying with a mouse. I was terrified I was going to die, but I was able to get away enough that I could dive behind that gravestone." He hadn't noticed that tears were streaming down his face and he was being hugged by the two girls as he pointed to a gravestone that had the name Brice on it. "Right there, when I cowering away from Voldemort, was when I realised I was going to die. I accepted it, I almost embraced it. It made things easier to cope with. There was an end I didn't need to fight for much longer. I remember thinking about my parents and I decided if I was going to die, I wasn't going to go out hiding behind a gravestone, I was going to die like my parents: wand in my hand and fighting."
While Harry continued to unburden himself, Hermione and Luna couldn't do anything except be there for him and listen. When he was finished, the two girls guided him back to the tent for the evening. Harry was surprised when he woke up in an unfamiliar bed the next morning. The bedroom in the tent might not be anything fancy, but it was comfortable enough and he had quickly gotten used to its light blue walls and mismatched furniture. The room he had woken up in was dark, but he could see it had cream walls, and while it looked familiar he couldn't think of where he had seen it before through the befuddlement that sleep had left in his head.
Harry tried to get up, only to be instantly pulled back into the bed. It was then he realised that there was someone in the bed with him and they were laying half on top of him. Harry looked down and relaxed a little, he didn't need his glasses to recognise the mass of brown curly hair as Hermione. She circled her arms around him more, trapping him from going anywhere. If it was any other girl, he would be terrified at waking up with them and not knowing why, but with Hermione Harry had faith that, whatever happened last night, their friendship wouldn't be hurt by it. He tried to recall what had happened the night before, but everything was still a blur. He could remember the graveyard and telling Hermione and Luna about his first visit, then the girls had dragged him back to the tent; after that he couldn't remember anything specific.
After about ten minutes, Hermione started to wake up. She turned and looked at him, confused, and asked, "Harry, what's going on?"
"I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me. Last thing I remember clearly is getting back to the tent after we found the graveyard yesterday," Harry told her honestly.
At first Hermione looked like she couldn't remember either, but after a few seconds she shook off the sleep. "Well, you practically shut down last night. After seeing the graveyard brought back that night for you, you started unloading things that you had been bottling up for years. Once you were done, you just sort of sat there barely doing anything. I didn't want to risk leaving you alone, so Luna helped put you in here with me and then she took the other room," She explained to Harry.
He was embarrassed that he had unloaded his problems on Hermione and Luna. His problems were for him to deal with; those two had problems of their own without him dumping more on them. "I'm sorry Hermione, I shouldn't have dumped all that on you and Luna. You deserve better from me."
"Oh shut up Harry," Hermione said as she hugged him again. "You needed to let all that out. You should have done it sooner. Keeping stuff like that bottled up isn't good for you."
"You have your own stuff to deal with, you don't need me to put more on you. I should deal with my own problems," Harry tried to apologise.
"Harry James Potter, you can cut out that self-destructive macho crap right now. Everyone needs help. Everyone. And the people who love you want to help, just like you want to help other people. And to be frank here Harry, your problems aren't the type you can deal with alone. You have been through more than some war veterans. If it wouldn't break the Statute of Secrecy or get you labeled as delusional, I would suggest a therapist."
"I don't need a shrink, I'm not crazy!" Harry said with force.
"Harry, I don't think you're crazy. And don't confuse a therapist with a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are the ones who help crazy people. Therapists talk to people to help them cope with stuff. Now, get some more sleep and we can talk tomorrow, yeah?" Hermione returned to using his chest as a pillow and quickly fell back to sleep.
Harry took longer to get back to sleep, he had things bouncing around his head, but eventually he drifted off as well. His last thought was about just how comfortable it was to have Hermione sleeping on him like she was.
-ϟϟϟ-
It took them another three days to find the Gaunt shack, and it was actually Luna who spotted it after Harry and Hermione had already walked past it.
"Harry, Hermione, I think this is it."
"What do you mean Luna? There is nothing there." Hermione said, sounding confused.
"There is a magical aura here," Luna explained as if it was the most obvious thing.
Harry remembered Luna finding him when he was under the invisibility cloak just before the start of sixth year in the old timeline and decided to trust her. He vaulted over the low stone wall that bordered the road, and instead of finding himself in a woodland like he had seen, he found himself in a clearing surrounded by the woods on all sides except the road behind him. At the far side of the clearing was the old rundown shack Harry remembered from his trips into the pensive.
Behind him Hermione was going nuts. "Harry! Harry, where are you?!"
Harry stuck his head back over the wall, hoping that would be enough; judging by the way Hermione jumped when she saw him, it was. "I'm right here Hermione," Harry said, but was surprised when she ran up, grabbed his head, and ran her hands down his back before sighing in relief. "Hermione, what are you doing?"
"Well you suddenly disappeared, and then you're suddenly back as a floating head. Sorry for freaking out a little." Her tone saying that she was annoyed rather than sorry.
"It must be some kind of ward, an illusion combined with a Notice-Me-Not charm," Luna said as she stuck her hand over the wall and watched as her hand disappeared.
Hermione, whose brain was starting to catch up from her little shock, realized, "Oh, it's similar to how Hogwarts is protected to keep muggles out. But it's probably not keyed specifically to keep out muggles; it's done to keep everyone out."
Harry nodded "That makes sense, Tom wouldn't want anyone in here poking around. He would want to keep everyone from here."
"And he would probably want to kill anyone who did go in, so be careful," Luna said lightly, as if she was commenting on the weather.
"Right, we are here on a fact-finding mission, not to try and get the ring," Hermione reminded them. The two girls climbed over the wall to join him and looked around. Hermione took out a pencil and a sketch pad and began making a plan of the place. Once she was done, she switched to a red pencil and asked, "OK, do either of you see any obvious traps?"
"Well, that looks like a patch of Devil's Snare at the tree line." Harry pointed to where the trees would provide a patch of constant shade. "I don't know if it's meant to be a trap or if the Gaunts just had some growing there, but it's definitely a hazard."
"The house is practically glowing, there is so much magic there. There is also some type of ward on the path. I don't recommend walking on it," Luna said.
Harry sniggered, causing the other two to look at him. "Tom's not thinking again. He blocks the place from view but still assumes that anyone who gets in is going to enter by the gate and walk down the path."
Luna nodded. "But because it was hidden, we jumped over a random bit of wall and there is nothing here."
While Harry and Luna talked, Hermione was shading different parts of her map red, including a few spots that the two of them hadn't noticed. Once they were done with that, Hermione surprised them by asking Harry if he was setting this up where he would add traps. It was the same thinking that Luna had pointed out to them before that led to them finding the diadem, and Hermione wasn't going to miss that again in the future.
Harry pointed out a few places he would put traps and Hermione marked those off in orange. They stayed there for most of the day, mapping out what they needed before returning to the tent.
They spent their last days in Little Hangleton mostly enjoying the break, doing a little homework, and maintaining their cover with the locals. Easter Sunday Hedwig had turned up with a basket of chocolate eggs from Sirius that Harry shared with the two girls.
The trip back to Hogwarts was easy enough; they caught the Knight Bus at 6am and had it drop them near Kings Cross Station. They had arrived early, but they did have to wait for the last dose of aging potion to wear off before going to the train. Despite waiting, they were still some of the first students on the train going back to Hogwarts. They were worried when they got back that they would get called to Professor McGonagall's office for seeking off like they did, but apparently they had gotten away with it because no such summons came and none of them had a letter from home demanding to know where they had gone. Now they just needed to work out how they were going to get to the Horcrux, now they knew where it was. Well that, and find the last missing horcrux. Then it was just the snake and Voldemort, and finally all this would be over and this trip back in time would be worth it.
A/N
A note on the drinking age In the UK. While it is illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 it is not illegal for a responsible adult to buy one for them. I would get the occasional can of cider (hard cider to Americans even if it's still fizzy) from my grandmother as young as 12.
Common land is land that common people have the right to use. There are responsibilities to care for it as you do though.
Voldemort must have killed Cedric for him to come out of Voldemort's wand. No way Tom would let Wormtail cast with his wand. My headcanon is Peter tried to kill Cedric, couldn't for some reason (bad aim for example), and Tom just did it himself.
therapist / psychiatrist: this is not an accurate representation of mental health providers but is a good representation of what most British people thought in the 90s
