Chapter 19: A Glimpse of Summer

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Bioshock Infinite

What a difference a year makes.

Ever since returning from Hogwarts, things had been surreal at the Dursley's they no longer held him in such disdain, they didn't like him by any means of the word but they weren't going out of their way to treat him horribly. Vernon seemed to be content to ignore him or when he did speak to him he managed to keep a civil tongue, the chores were still largely left to Harry but he didn't mind, it gave him something to do. Thanks to the years dealing with Dudley, he didn't really have any friends in the area to talk to or hang out with, as such he kept to himself. Except for the days that Elizabeth turned up, every couple of days she'd turn up and although they wouldn't go anywhere, she was quite content just to sit and talk to him in the back garden away from prying eyes. Petunia didn't even seem to mind that she was turning up almost like clockwork, every three to four days Elizabeth would arrive at nine in the morning and leave in the evening at around about six to prepare other things. During those times, she'd talk to him about what she had experienced, what she had dealt with in Columbia. He could tell she was holding something back when she talked about it, every time she drew towards the conclusion of the story she became vague, not going into as much detail as she had the beginning or middle of it.

There was a reason for her bringing up Columbia, the Handyman and Motorized Patriot that he had called in to face Voldemort had thrown her a bit. "When I finished with Columbia, we broke that timeline. All variations of Columbia should have been locked away... We stopped the root cause that would bring it to creation. No Columbia, no Handyman and no Mechanical Patriot." She paused, cup of tea in hand as she looked at the hedge at the back of the garden, neatly maintained, no doubt by Harry's work. "These days where I haven't been here, I've been looking into it. I'm still trying to understand it myself." She sighed, placing the cup down, leaning forward slightly in the chair, "Columbia is gone, but fragments of it still remain." Elizabeth explained and Harry looked at her in confusion from the seat he was sat in. "We destroyed it through a Paradox, because we destroyed it before it could exist but we wouldn't have been able to unless it existed, it's a bit confusing but it largely comes down to this ability, it is sealed in its own little bubble, no one can enter it anymore and no one can change or toy with it." Elizabeth explained it, trying to keep it as simple as it could possibly be.

"But I thought you said that these decisions just created branches, that changing an action won't affect what would happen, it would just branch off into another alternative timeline."

"In theory, it should have, but this was myself at my peak with my powers, I had just had them fully returned and the action I took wasn't just myself. Every Elizabeth from every timeline acting as one, we sealed the door." She stopped, looking slightly pained at this, her thoughts back to the river and each of the other Elizabeth's disappearing, one by one as each possible outcome was sealed away. Somehow, whether it was just due to her being her and the instigator of it, or perhaps it was due to some other reason, she survived. Like the Lutece Twins, involved with the world but not completely. "With that shut, there should be nothing of Columbia left other than myself and the Lutece Twins because they act outside of everything now. But things have a habit of popping up. When I went to Rapture I found myself able to access a part of Columbia that I had been to before, I'm still not sure how it happened, was it because it had happened and would always happen or was it because that version of Rapture was connected to Columbia and it was acting as a hole in the seal?" She asked herself more than Harry, it was an answer that she still didn't have. "But that is where your Handyman and Patriot came from. Suchong and a few of Raptures brightest minds were able to influence the tears, they even shared ideas with Fink from Columbia and had a little back and forth on ideas and the theft of ideas happened quite a lot, if I had to guess, Suchong created his own version of the Handyman and the Patriot but decided they didn't work as well in the underwater city. The handyman is designed to have open areas to move around in, it wouldn't survive in deep water and the Patriot is durable but with its weapon working through ammunition at the rate it does, it's not really viable in the situation it was needed. I think when you pulled them through, you pulled prototypes that had been abandoned, they saw Voldemort as a threat to a child and acted on basic programming rather than anything more advanced." Elizabeth finished her explanation, it covered the basics in her mind about how he had been able to get them, a question that had bothered her since she had first seen them, they shouldn't exist anymore, yet they did. How many more fragments of that time were going to appear? She looked over at Harry who had drifted off in thought, leaning back into the chair and looking up at the sky. She could see the thoughts running through his head as he tried to understand what she had said, she hoped she had been clear enough but also knew that what she was talking about was confusing.

She excused herself quietly, taking her cup back into the Kitchen, placing it by the sink ready for whoever did the washing up, she would have done it herself out of politeness but as the only item to wash it felt pointless to waste the water. Petunia was sat in there, reading her own book at the moment and Elizabeth smiled politely at her, nodding her head in polite greeting. "Thank you again for allowing me to visit Harry every couple of days as I've been doing." Elizabeth said gracefully as she made her way back towards the garden.

"It wasn't just for him." Petunia spoke up and Elizabeth stopped at the doorway, turning around to face her, surprised and confused at her speaking up. She hadn't really spoken to the Dursleys during her visits other than the brief greetings and farewells when she arrived and left.

"Oh? How do you mean?" Elizabeth questioned in curiosity.

Petunia sighed, closing her book, and placing it down on the table. "What you said to us last year hit close to home, I've always put my sister out of my thoughts due to everything that happened as we were growing up, but you brought it back to my attention and I realised you were right, she would not have treated Dudley like we treated Harry." She had hesitated on saying Harry's name, old habits were hard to stomp out. "But it's a change that we couldn't reverse overnight. The damage towards Harry had already been done, he has no reputation other than a criminally deranged child." Petunia explained and Elizabeth felt herself frowning, she hadn't heard any of this before. "The reputation had been made over years, always alone, always quiet, always pale... yes it was our making that caused it but they were the labels we put on him." Petunia explained and Elizabeth folded her arms, letting her body language speak her anger at the situation instead of saying anything, knowing full well that Harry was close enough to hear this. "Before his magic was revealed to him, the excuse was that he was going to be attending St Brutus's School for Criminally Insane Boys." She stopped, flinching under the glare. "We've worked to stop it," she placated quickly. "While he still holds the reputation for being troubled... he's not seen like that anymore." The glare lessened and Petunia relaxed slightly. "We have done many things that I'm not happy with now that I look back on it. But you being here is helping fix it."

"Fix it? how?" Elizabeth asked sharply.

"When you first started arriving, the neighbours noticed, they saw you arrive and they saw you leave late in the evening." She paused, looking down at her book, Elizabeth couldn't see what it was but at the moment she didn't care. "My neighbours asked about you, turning up so routinely and staying for so long, I explained to her that you were acting as a counsellor, trying to help Harry, it took suspicion off your continued appearance and helps fix some of the damage that we've caused towards him." Petunia explained and Elizabeth relaxed again, letting the anger dissipate. It was an interesting idea, to fix both Harrys reputation and their own, they would be seen as doing something to benefit him and attempting to take care of him, his reputation would also shift if he was fixing the alleged problem that they had made for him. An interesting move to make. "It will also explain why you're taking him with you when he leaves at the end of the week."

He had already told them that he was going to be leaving when the month was up, he hadn't mentioned any details other than the fact that he was leaving with Elizabeth and that he wouldn't be back until the end of his second year. "Why tell me this now? knowing that he can hear this entire conversation."

"I know he can hear it, it's... I suppose it's easier to talk to him through someone else than it is to actually do it in person." She said calmly effectively finishing the conversation. Elizabeth hesitated, tempted to continue the talk but decided against it, walking back out into the garden, closing the door.

"I take it you did hear everything that was said?" Elizabeth asked and Harry didn't respond. She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, walking back to her chair, and sitting down. "Harry?"

"Huh? What?" Harry said in confusion, snapping away from where he had been staring at the bushes at the end of the garden.

"You were just listening to what was said weren't you?" She asked and Harry looked even more confused.

"Not really... there was something in the bushes back there... I was trying to see what it was without scaring it off... I think it's been watching us for a little while now." Harry explained and Elizabeth partly wanted to bury her head in her hands, groaning in frustration at him missing that little bit of insight into his aunt and another part of her wanted to immediately move to investigate the bushes in question. "But it's gone now..." Harry muttered and Elizabeth, still slightly hesitant to drop either of the subjects sighed. "So, what were you saying?"

"Nothing, it doesn't matter for now." Elizabeth said dismissively.

Nodding in acceptance, Harry leant back in the chair, looking up at the sky above. "Hey, tell me something," he started calmly, "when you talk about Rapture, you keep mentioning things called plasmids, super powers in a bottle." He said and she gave a slight nod in acknowledgement. "Why didn't you use them?" He asked curiously, "surely they would have helped you." He questioned, she had spoken a bit about what she had gone through but never in any form of detail. She didn't want to bring up the fact that she had been killed.

"I did, at least a few of the weaker variants, I tried to avoid the majority of them for the same reason I'm going to tell you to avoid them, they bring nothing but insanity and destruction. They're unstable and alter your Genes and will inevitably cause you to lose any form of sanity that you have. So, you can understand why I was hesitant to use them, much less talk about them. They were made to make money, the people didn't care about the safety behind them or any addictive qualities that they may have, in fact that last bit would be why " She explained and received a nod in understanding. "Good, now when you were looking at the bushes, ignoring quite an important topic that you were expected to listen in to... what did you see?" She said pointedly, again confusing Harry but he dismissed it. If the conversation was vitally important she'd end up repeating it.

"I'm not sure, it was something doing its best to remain hidden, I only caught sight of it because it blinked but it disappeared the moment you came back out." Harry explained and Elizabeth frowned again. It couldn't be something dangerous to him or the wards would have prevented its entrance, even so, it wasn't something that was worth risking. Standing up again, she walked towards the back of the garden, looking at the hedges in question, she could see small imprints on the ground that no doubt was the result of something being there but she couldn't tell what.

"Whatever it was, I doubt it was something that meant you harm." Elizabeth said, voicing her thoughts that she had just had, "but we better play it safe, head inside and stay inside today, I'm going to speak to a couple of people about it." Elizabeth said cautiously, it wouldn't do to ignore the risk, as little as it was. Slowly Harry did so, knowing as well as Elizabeth did that he should be in theory safe wasn't worth putting it to the test when he had no need to do that. "I'll be back this evening, though you know how to get in touch with me if you need to." She said pointedly, knowing that he had a pretty much guaranteed way to contact her.

"And if you don't come back this evening?" Harry questioned and Elizabeth smiled.

"Have I missed doing anything I said I was going to do?" She questioned and Harry shook his head, entering the house. Elizabeth followed and seeing the look of confusion from Petunia, waved it off as Harry went upstairs and Elizabeth left the house, making her way down towards the house that had been designated as her way in and out and using her Portkey that she had been supplied to return to Hogwarts.

With Elizabeth gone, Harry returned to his room, his homework set out on a rickety desk that had suffered a lot of abuse from Dudley over the years, he didn't mind too much, it fit his needs. His homework was already piled up ready to be put away, completed after his first couple of days back just to kill time outside of the chores and the talks with Elizabeth. Now it had a blank sketchbook resting on it, open on the first page with a pencil resting on it. It was something that Elizabeth had suggested, to help think about variations that he could try and interact with. Of course, he could have just used a notepad to write the ideas down but she had suggested art through the simple fact that he needed to be able to visualise what he was focusing on, knowing something was all well and good but was apparently harder to pull through compared to something that he could visualise. At her request, he hadn't messed with the power, not wanting to take a chance that it could affect the wards that apparently protected him, he frowned, pencil in hand as he looked down at the blank paper. Something felt strange around him. A prickling in the back of his mind that made him question if he was seeing everything that he needed to.

He lowered the pencil, placing it down on the desk, glancing towards the Wardrobe that stood in the corner of his room. "I know you're hiding in there." Harry said calmly as he could, making sure to keep the noise down so that the Dursleys didn't freak out. "You can come out, I won't hurt you... but I won't let you stay hidden." Harry called out to whoever or whatever was hidden but nothing responded, he doubted it was a threat because it wouldn't have waited for so long in a place that he could have opened at any time. He didn't hear a tell-tale sign of anything disappearing but that didn't mean whatever it was had vanished, the only signs he had seen in regard to teleporting was a pop or a crack when the figure had disappeared but that didn't mean there wasn't a way to do it silently. Calmly, he stood up, a slight shift of sound in the wardrobe letting him know that whatever was in there was still there. "You've got until the count of three." Harry enforced holding up his hand and lifting a finger. "one..." no movement, he pictured what he could use to eject the figure, "two..." he held up a second finger, he had an idea, something simple and practical. "Last chance..." Harry muttered loud enough to be heard by the thing hiding "Three." He said after a moments pause and just to add a bit of flair, clicked his fingers as something burst out of the Wardrobe, hitting the floor with a dull thud. "I warned you." Harry said calmly, folding his arms, glancing at the spring platform which he had formed in the wardrobe, it looked like something out of a comedy film that he had seen snippets of years ago and it worked just as effectively as it did in the film. Turning his gaze from the spring he looked down at the figure that had been hiding and studied the small greyish brown creature and frowned.

What was a house elf doing in his house? "Who are you?" Harry asked cautiously.

The creature looked up at him, "Dobby is sorry..." It spoke quickly, practically grovelling at his feet. crawling towards him as he repeatedly apologised.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked calmly but still on guard in case this was something more sinister under the guise of apology. If it had been one sent by Dumbledore or someone at the school surely it wouldn't be hiding and watching him from a distance.

"Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter." He spoke quickly, looking around as if he could be in trouble at any moment from speaking to Harry.

"Warn me about what?"

"Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts!" Dobby cried out and Harry winced at the sudden loudness, both because he knew the Dursley's were in the house and also because of the close proximity. For a moment, Harry stood in silence, waiting to hear the angry sounds of his Uncle before looking back at the Elf and frowning slightly.

"Keep the noise down, you'll get me in trouble." Harry hissed quickly, although attitudes were better, there was still an underlying level of out of sight out of mind with regards to his magical abilities. If it didn't show up in front of them, they were okay with ignoring it and by proxy him. "Now, what were you saying, why can't I return to Hogwarts?" Harry asked and Dobby looked around nervously.

"There is going to be terrible danger Harry Potter, you can't go back, it's not safe." Dobby spoke quietly, and Harry felt a slight level of unease run up his spine as he could almost feel the level of unease in the air from Dobby. Whatever it was scared Dobby immensely and from the way he seemed restrained in his actions, tensely looking around and uneasy gave Harry the impression that the Elf wasn't ordered to come here.

"What is the danger?" Harry asked cautiously, if his luck was any indication then he was going back to face it, that there was no doubt, but any information he could get would be useful, if nothing more than to prepare him for an inevitable conflict. Either to consider it with his abilities or to investigate through normal means. Dobby looked away, confusing Harry as he didn't know why the elf didn't just speak what was on his mind.

"I can't say..." Dobby spoke weakly and Harry frowned.

"Does it have to do with Voldemort?" A flinch from Dobby showed that even the magical creatures had feared the name of the dark lord, but after a moment's hesitation, Dobby shook his head. The problem had nothing to do with him, "What about one of his followers, is it something they're doing?" He asked, just because Voldemort was gone didn't mean that it wasn't an independent idea from one of his previous followers.

There was another shake of the House Elf's head that showed it wasn't and he frowned, then who would be the problem behind the situation. "No loyalties at all?" Harry asked to make certain, it wasn't so much as he believed the elf was lying but more that he had to cover the entire spectrum. A pause in response to the question and Dobby shrugged, looking uncertain by the answer. He didn't know. Harry rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he tried to think on the situation. "Do you know what the threat to the school is?" Harry asked, the elf knew something and perhaps if he knew what the threat was then Harry could either act to prevent it or get someone else to stop it entirely. Another shake of the head. He sighed and Harry resisted the urge to rant a little bit. "So, you know that the school is under some kind of threat but you don't know who and you don't know when and you don't know by what?" He said and paused as he saw the pained and defeated look on the Elf. "No, I'm sorry that was out of line."

"The great Harry Potter is apologising to Dobby!" The elf practically cried out and Harry winced at the volume of it.

"Keep it down, you'll get me in trouble." Harry hissed, while things had been slightly better with his aunt and to a small extent Dudley, though the latter was more of a 'stay out of my way and we'll be fine, get in my way and you'll suffer' policy. It was still dicey with Vernon who was currently working with the 'if I ignore him then I have no problems' attitude. So, something like a house elf making lots of noise was not going to go over well with him. "What do you know that you can tell me?" Harry questioned trying to keep Dobby from punishing himself and crying out. If he limited the question to something that he could freely choose what he could say then perhaps he'd be able to get information that way.

"It happened before..." Dobby started quietly and then looked up in surprise before disappearing into thin air.

Harry stood, looking confused at the sudden disappearance, before he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him. He jumped, spinning around, and facing the new person. "Elizabeth?" He asked in surprise.

"Did I interrupt something?" She asked as the tear that she had opened had closed behind her. She had caught sight of something disappearing but hadn't seen who or what it was.

"Possibly?" Harry said with a bit of uncertainty, still not entirely sure as to what had just happened. "I was warned about something... I think." Harry said and then quickly went over the discussion that he had with Dobby.

"A threat to the school? A mystery person who isn't associated with Voldemort and something that had happened before." Elizabeth let out a small breath as she tried to puzzle it through, not being from around this time and knowing next to nothing about the history of the Magical World she had no clue as to where to even begin. But for now, the wards were not as secure as they believed for Harry, it would be better to get him out, somewhere safer and then work to fix the problem. Bathsheda is out of the country and Hogwarts is going through some routine work so is also out of the running... I don't want to just impose on the Malfoys." She also didn't add that she didn't want them to have even more leverage over her. They already knew her secret and her abilities to an extent and while she had hopefully pushed them towards a different view it was still all up in the air and a risk that she wasn't going to push.

"Rapture." Harry spoke up suddenly causing Elizabeth to pause mid ramble.

"What?" she questioned in surprise.

"Let's go back to Rapture, that version we went to at Christmas. We can come back at any point so it's not like we will miss any chance to get the gear for school and we barely looked beyond the surface of the place." Harry smiled for a moment, remembering the brief time that he had been there, it had been breath-taking, the city under the sea.

"Hmm..." Elizabeth was hesitant, yes, they could go there and yes it would be safe because they wouldn't enter any of the doors that led to a potential conflict with him but she could keep them in a time and place that there wouldn't be any problems. "It's possible, but what about the rest of your friends, up and disappearing on them for the better part of a month and a half." She then paused and smiled slightly. "No, I have a better idea for now, you'll be able to disappear for a bit and put everyone else's concerns at ease and you'll still be able to communicate with everyone easily enough without forcing open tears everywhere. It's the last thing we need for rifts to start appearing because we were jumping around in a concentrated area." They had talked about the rifts appearing in Hogwarts and how more were likely to appear as they continued to stay there, thankfully no one other than the two were able to open them, at least as far as they were aware.

"So where are we going then?" Harry asked curiously and Elizabeth shrugged.

"Wherever we feel, a lot has changed from what I've read in the past, a lot of it I never got to see, I want to say Paris but I'm biased, pick a place and we'll go there."

"I don't have a passport." Harry said dubiously, not thinking things through.

Elizabeth laughed reaching over and ruffling his hair. "Neither do I, but let's face it, with how we travel we don't need passports." She explained and Harry nodded, understanding what she was getting at. "Now, hurry up and pack we should go as soon as we can." Elizabeth ushered and Harry quickly started to dash around grabbing clothes and his gear and throwing it into his trunk. "If only I knew what the time difference was." She muttered under her breath thinking of different locations that they could possibly go to. As she did the thinking, Harry quickly finished packing, shutting his trunk with a dull thud and turning back to face her. "Okay, the world is open to you, where do you want to go today?"

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, he had multiple options available to him, many places that the Dursley's had gone but never taken him, "So many choices." He smiled, a thought crossed his mind that was in his own opinion kind of petty but he wanted to act on it. "New York." He said with seriousness. "I want to go to New York." And Elizabeth suddenly felt a small bit of hesitation.

New York, where Booker had planned to take her when he was still unsure of what his true goal had been, the words played through her head again 'bring us the girl and wipe away the debt' But she steeled herself, that was different New York, a different place in a distinctly different time. "You want New York?" She questioned and Harry nodded, recovering from her shock over the coincidence she smiled. "Fine then, New York it is." She finished, her own curiosity of the city also adding to the interest and willingness to go, it had been where her true father had lived and she wondered whether or not it was going to be anything similar to the flashes she had seen all those years ago. She brought herself back to the here and now and looked around, "I suppose we better leave a note for the Dursley's to let them know we're going for the rest of the summer." She suggested and although Harry initially looked hesitant to do it, not wanting anything more to do with the Dursleys, a slight change in attitude didn't completely equal forgiveness but it was a start. "They may not care regardless but its only right. Besides we're not telling them where we're going or anything like that." She added as she grabbed a spare bit of parchment from his desk and a pen, quickly scribbling down a note. "Stick that to your door while I open a tear."

"Wait... what are we going to do about money?" Harry asked, gallivanting around the country was all well and good but what about being able to pay for anything. Elizabeth paused as well, she hadn't thought of that. The leaving being an impulsive decision. She hadn't exactly got permission when she had checked with Dumbledore about the intrusion, all he had done was confirm her initial suspicion, something could enter the wards if they meant no harm. So, they weren't as secure as Dumbledore would make people believe. "Gringotts then, we'll go there, thankfully there's a quiet alley off to the side that we can reappear in that people won't notice." She said, it was something she had worked out after a few trips to the Alley during her free time. "Let's get out of here." She said flicking her wand, a shrinking charm, and a charm to make the trunk lighter and within seconds she placed both her wand and the trunk away. "Makes shopping so much easier." She said with a slight smile and Harry shook his head. "Let's get this done quickly, a holiday awaits us."

HPCVHPCV

Dumbledore watched the device that was used to monitor Harry's location stop spinning for a moment before rapidly beginning to spin again. "So, she's started taking him to different places." He smiled, it was something that he was happy for, all he had wanted to do was to guarantee a safe and happy childhood for Harry but he had failed at that task.

He looked over the list of books that had been suggested by his new Defence Against the Dark Art teacher and frowned. It was a lot of books. He sighed and signed off on it, there had been a greater challenge for recruiting this year with the death of Quirrell, yes it had been covered up as an accident but it was another professor who had been unable to last more than a year. People took note of things like that, especially when it had been happening for years now. He sighed again as he folded the list and put it to one side, he'd give it to Minerva when he next saw her. He opened the top draw of his desk and pulled out a folded piece of parchment that Bathsheda had given him before Christmas, he still had not opened it, a 'Pandora's box' he had been warned would be opened if he spoke about what he found and it gave him pause. Part of him told him to destroy the note, let the information disappear in to the ether but another part told him to keep hold of it, every time Elizabeth went to Harry he would find himself going back to it, she was good for him but she was also a risk, not just to Harry but through her influence with him, the entire wizarding world. People gravitated to him, they would follow his example. If he was to turn on people then it could cause any number of problems. Especially with that power.

He shook his head, banishing the thoughts, he couldn't judge the boy before he had a chance to prove himself, already he had shown he was willing to do the right thing by protecting the stone and he also showed some respect to authority by willingly going to speak to Professor Flitwick about his concerns.

The interaction with Mr Malfoy was a little disconcerting but Dumbledore was happy to see how it would play out, it wasn't something that either side seemed to be willing to give on, they would speak, question each other's ideals, and leave them both thinking, perhaps through this interaction Harry would be able to pull Draco away from that edge that led to the darkness.

Putting the piece of parchment away he shut the desk draw again, locking it tightly, he wouldn't consider it again, not until something forced his hand.

Truly he hoped nothing would. Taking a lemon drop from the dish he placed it into his mouth, closing his eyes and listening to Fawkes as he started singing a gentle happy tune. At least with Fawkes he was able to tell if he was making the right decision.

TBC

The next Chapter will be skipping forwards a few weeks to the trip to Diagon Alley.

This one I'm still not happy with, I'm going to come back to it and redo it at some point.

I'd like to apologise for the major and i do really mean major delay on this story, i hit a rough patch dealing with a few personal things, so i just wanted to apologise.

I've got one more chapter already written and one thats about twenty percent done. I find myself spinning my wheels so to speak. i keep coming up with ideas but i just cant seem to write them down.

But the show must go on and I'm dealing with my issues. I want to do a shout out to another fanfiction author, one I stumbled across a while ago and quickly became one of my favourites. Temporal Knight, author of the awesome story "Harry Potter and the Rune Stone Path." I also need to do a thank you to the author as I was reading their fanfic and saw they had recommended my story, so thank you for that. It helped give me a bit of a kick to get back into writing again.

Right, time to get on with the next chapter, With the appearance of our favourite blonde dumbass… no I don't mean Draco 😊