Chapter 8
Young Harry Meets Young Hermione
Wednesday, 24th July, 7:11 p.m (evening)
Harry, John and Paulina were in the Dursleys' back garden. Then Harry saw John's wand appear in his hand. John said to Harry, "I'm going to take you to meet the girl Hogwarts student that I told you about."
John put his hand on Harry's shoulder, then did part of a spin. Suddenly it felt like Harry was being squeezed through a garden hose. As soon as the weird feeling stopped, Harry could not help himself—he threw up.
Paulina pulled a little bottle out of her handbag. "We're sorry we had to put you through that. Here, drink this, you'll feel better. It's stomach-soother potion."
The potion tasted awful; it tasted like how unwashed socks smelled. But instantly Harry's stomach felt okay again. Harry handed the little bottle back to Paulina, who put it in her beaded handbag.
Sometime in the past minute, Paulina had drawn her wand. Now she said to Harry, "Open your mouth, and I'll give you the magical equivalent of a tooth-brushing and mouthwash. You don't want to have puke-breath when you meet Hermione."
Harry obediently opened his mouth and Paulina pointed her wand at his open mouth. "Oral scourgify," she said.
Harry thought, Paulina can be bossy sometimes.
Whilst Paulina was cleaning Harry's mouth, Harry looked about—and realised he was no longer in the Dursleys' back garden. By sunlight, Harry saw that the back garden that he now was in, had a blue swimming pool in it.
When Paulina touched her wand to her left forearm, somehow it disappeared. John looked Harry over, smiled at him and asked, "Are you ready to meet your future friend?"
"I guess," Harry said.
It occurred to Harry then, this girl the Potters were visiting might become his friend, because Dudley would not be at Hogwarts to beat her up when she acted friendly to Harry.
Meanwhile, John loudly was knocking on the back door. Seconds later, Harry heard inside the house a girl's excited voice: "Mum! Dad! Harry is here!"
Seconds later, the back door was yanked open, and Harry got his first look at the girl who would be attending Hogwarts with him.
The evening sunlight revealed to Harry that the girl's eyes were brown, like most people's in England. She had overlarge front teeth—which Harry could easily see now, because the girl was smiling so big. Her hair—brown with a little bit of red in it—was bushy and uncontrollable.
Harry did not have brown eyes, or hair that was the same colour as chestnuts, or front teeth that were too big. But Harry wore glasses, which he often was mocked for—just like this girl undoubtedly was mocked for her teeth. And his hair was insane, just like this girl's.
Right then, Harry decided he could be friends with this girl, because she would understand him (at least a bit), and he would understood her (at least a bit).
Now the girl was looking at Harry. And smiling.
As soon as the three Potters stepped into the house, the girl said excitedly to Harry, "Ooh, is that your Hogwarts letter? Can we see it? I want to know if it's like—"
"Hermione sugar," Paulina said to the girl, "please don't question-bomb Harry now. Harry's head is in a strange place now, because he just left his abusive relatives."
Harry was puzzled. What do you mean, "abusive"?
The girl's name was Hermione—her-my-oh-knee. Harry mangled the name, and cringed. Harry asked her to repeat her name, then he cringed again. It was Paulina, smiling gently, who told Harry how to pronounce Hermione's name—and who told Harry that nobody in the house was angry at him for saying Hermione's name wrong.
"Harry, I'm used to it, it's okay," Hermione Granger said. Her smile at Harry was bigger than Paulina's—Harry could not begin to guess why.
Harry felt a sense of relief that this girl was not angry with him.
When Harry correctly spoke Hermione's name three times in a row, the girl hugged him. Harry was shocked—he never had been hugged before.
The doorbell rang then. Apparently Mr Granger had rung up an Italian restaurant that delivered, and the food had arrived at the Granger house just after the Potters had arrived. Mr Granger had ordered all this food, but John Potter insisted on paying for it. After some friendly argument, Mr Granger allowed this.
Harry was amazed that two men could have a disagreement, yet neither man raise his voice.
Harry stared as the Granger parents laid out the delivered food on the dining-room table: lasagna, spaghetti, breadsticks, salad and a pizza. Harry had never eaten lasagna before, and pizza he had never eaten whilst hot and fresh.
Harry looked at every face here, and was surprised that nobody in the house seemed to resent Harry for not cooking any of this food.
Five minutes later
Harry still was trying to wrap his brain around being allowed to eat with everyone else, instead of being forced to eat the leftovers afterwards. He also was freaking out that the Granger parents and the Potters all had urged Harry to fill up his plate, and that Hermione was smiling at him approvingly.
(Come to think of it, Hermione had not stopped smiling since she had opened her back door. With each passing minute, Harry was finding it much easier to smile back.)
"So," Mrs Granger said, "what happened today?"
Harry was paralysed with shyness, so did not answer. John said, "I'll let Paulina tell the tale."
Paulina answered, "Y'all should know that I am so proud of John. He was magnificent today." She side-hugged him.
Paulina told the Grangers that when she and John met Harry at the door of his house, John deliberately said to Harry at the start, My wife is cold, so please invite us in. Somehow John had known that Harry needed this "gentle push" to extend the invitation to the couple.
Harry nodded agreement, even as he thought, They tricked me into inviting them in?
Paulina described more of that morning meeting, ending with, "John really restrained himself. He wanted to hurt Vernon Dursley; but John hit that loud, fat bully only with a Silencing Charm, the tie-up-with-ropes spell, and one Stinging Hex. A Stinging Hex is annoying, but it does no harm."
Paulina described the end of the morning meeting (the negotiations between Cousin John and Uncle Vernon) and the evening meeting. Harry got a strange feeling then, that John's and Paulina's decision to assume Harry's guardianship was not so spur-of-the-moment as it had seemed at the time.
Mrs Granger snapped, "Those fools were paid to sign the guardianship papers? They sold Harry like he were a used car?"
John smiled cruelly. "They did. I paid them a thousand pounds in cash for them to let Paulina and me have guardianship of Harry. But beforehand, I recorded the serial numbers of all the fifty-pound bills I gave Vernon Dursley—which left the bills unmarked, but which proved that the cash that was in his pocket, I'd possessed previously."
Paulina said, "We didn't send the nonmagical police or the magical police after the Dursleys, instead we gave the Dursleys to the goblins. The goblins ran into the Dursleys' kitchen right after John, Harry and I walked out."
John smiled cruelly. "As for the thousand pounds I handed Vernon Dursley, I'm sure the goblins will have the money back in my vault by midnight."
Hermione asked, "What will the goblins do to the Dursleys?"
John said, "I don't know, Hermione. We left the Dursley house right after the goblins ran in. This was when we beamed over to your house."
Mr Granger said, "Princess, remember the reputation that goblins have in fairy tales. If the Gringotts goblins got hold of abusers who sold a child, you probably don't want to know what the goblins did to them."
Mrs Granger nodded.
Paulina said, "The Dursleys were thieves too. They stole most of £116,000 from Harry. Well, the Gringotts goblins hate thieves with a passion—there won't be cake and ice cream handed out to the Dursleys."
Hermione said, "If those Dursleys hurt Harry and stole from him, I hope they get hurt, really hurt."
Harry's eyebrows shot up. He was surprised that this girl he had just met, cared what happened to him.
Meanwhile, in Gringotts
The elder Dursleys were indeed "hurt, really hurt" by the goblins. Vernon Dursley already had been beheaded, and Petunia Dursley was soon to be.
Back at the Granger house
John Potter put down his fork and drew his wand. This puzzled Harry.
John looked at Harry and said seriously, "Harry, I need to confess. Everyone else here knows a secret about Paulina and I—"
"About Paulina and me," Paulina and Hermione said together.
John flashed an amused smile, then went back to looking serious. "Paulina isn't Hermione's second cousin from the USA, and I'm not your second cousin—"
Harry felt panic then. John and Paulina had tricked him, kidnapped him. Why?
Seeing Harry panic, John put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "The truth is much stranger than what we made you and your relatives think. Paulina and I actually are Hermione and you from May 1998, almost seven years in the future."
"Erm...," Harry replied.
John (older Harry?) said, "Let me show you what Paulina looked like, yesterday morning." John pointed his wand at Paulina and said, "Add glamour." Now Paulina looked like Hermione, except eighteen.
(Young) Hermione said, "Notice she doesn't have my big front teeth? I can't wait to learn how she did that."
Older-Hermione Paulina smiled at Hermione, then turned to face John with her wand out. When she spoke, she still sounded American. "Add glamour."
Now John looked like an eighteen-year-old version of Harry himself, except that A, this Harry definitely needed to shave every day; and B—
Harry blurted out, "Your scar, it's different!" Older Harry's lightning-bolt scar was three thin, pink lines, not the angry, red, three-part gash that was on Harry's own forehead.
Hermione said to Harry, "They're telling the truth. That's how they both looked yesterday morning when we met them."
Mr Granger added, "Yesterday morning, the young woman over there looked like my daughter, but older; she sounded like my daughter, but older; and she knew things that only my daughter would know."
Older Harry laughed. "Such as the value of pi."
Older Harry (John) and older Hermione (Paulina) then cast (what sounded like) Infinity Incantation on each other. Now they looked like John and Paulina as they had looked this morning.
John said to Harry, "I'm sure you're wondering, 'What's happening with Paulina and John, and why the trickery?' Let's start the explanations with your parents, James and Lily Potter—"
Harry said, "Those are my parents' names? My relatives never told me."
Hermione gasped, and gave Harry a sympathetic look. He gave her a weak smile in return.
John continued, "The Dursleys told you and me that our parents were drunken bums who were killed in a car crash. Actually, they were murdered by an evil wizard. But the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, didn't come to the house that night with intent to kill our parents, he came there intending to kill us. You and me. He was trying to thwart a Prophecy, which I'll tell you about a little later. Anyway, he hit us with the Killing Curse, which supposedly can't be blocked and supposedly always kills—and the Killing Curse bounced off our forehead, hit Lord Voldemort, and he disappeared. You're famous in the wizarding world as 'the Boy Who Lived'—because you survived the 'always deadly' Killing Curse."
"I'm really famous?" Harry asked.
"Quite," Hermione replied. "Children's books have been written about you."
"Which I will be dealing with," John snarled.
Mrs Granger asked, "What do you think happened that night, John?"
"I have four theories. My father performed a Potter family ritual ahead of time, both my parents performed a Potter family ritual ahead of time, my mother did something genius-y with ancient runes ahead of time, or toddler-I performed a feat of accidental magic that never has been seen before or since. Which of those four theories is the true one? I can't guess."
John took a calming breath, then said to Harry, "But it turned out, just as you and I didn't die from the Killing Curse, Lord Voldemort didn't completely die either."
John and sometimes Paulina spoke for the next half-hour, whilst the Grangers and Harry said nothing. During the half-hour that John and Paulina spoke, John quoted the Prophecy in full, and gave his interpretation.
By the end of the half-hour, Hermione was silently weeping.
After half an hour of silence, Harry blurted out, "So you and Paulina think you can change the future? I won't die in ... almost seven years from now?"
Paulina said, "Harry honey, we've already changed the future. My younger self didn't meet this man till the first day of the Hogwarts term, on the firstie train. Yet here you both are, in the Grangers' dining room, over a month before September first."
John said, "I remember this day vividly. This was the day I received my first Hogwarts letter—"
Harry thought, "First" Hogwarts letter? Why would Hogwarts send me more than one letter?
"—and the next week turned into slapstick comedy, all because Uncle Vernon was determined that I not read my Hogwarts letter. So don't worry; Paulina and I can and will change the future for your benefit."
Harry said, "I'm sorry for interrupting. Go on with what you were saying."
"Hm, a moment ago, what was I about to say?" John paused to think, then said, "While it's obvious that Voldy was trying, again and again, to kill me, it was only when I died and I was talking to Thanatos that I found out: Dumbledore was trying to get me killed too. But his plan was more subtle: to sabotage me every way possible. The Dursleys beating and starving me was part of his plan; I being kept 100-percent ignorant of the magical world till my eleventh birthday was part of his plan."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure not ready to fight an evil wizard right now."
John said, "I hear you. For my first three years in Hogwarts, I was completely outclassed; I won against Voldy only by bravery and ridiculous luck. Even so, in May 1998 I almost won. If Voldy hadn't Killing Cursed me twice in a row, I might've been able to trick him and to kill him. And the reason I almost won, despite all of Dumbledore's sabotages?"
Harry said, "Tell me. I need to know."
"It was because of"—now John smiled at Paulina—"my genius nomaj-born friend, who was loyal to me when nobody else was, and whom Dumbledore had no contingency plans for, when she came to Hogwarts. The best thing I've ever done was to rescue this one from a troll in first year, because that's when she and I became friends. And oh, what a friendship it's been!"
John and Paulina kissed then. Harry looked over at Hermione—her face was still tear-streaked, but she again was smiling.
Harry smiled back.
John said, "I'm sure we can succeed this time. First, because Paulina and I know the future, which means that for a while, we know what our enemies will do. Paulina and I have a soul bond, which our enemies don't have. But I'm also expecting success because I have a better attitude now."
Paulina looked at John, her face puzzled. "I don't know what you mean by 'better attitude.' "
John looked at everyone else there. "First, some background: Thanatos, the incarnation of death, back when he was alive, was an army general during the Bronze Age."
Everyone else nodded.
"Anyway, when this woman and I were in Thanatos's office and Thanatos was reviewing my folder, he told me, 'Whenever you were forced to fight evil men or to fight dangerous creatures, you stood and fought. You were brave. But bravery isn't enough for your tasks ahead. A good foot soldier is brave, but a good general must also be proactive. It's much easier to win a battle when you're the attacker than when you're the defender. Alas, Harry Potter, your file tells me that never once did you fight your enemy at a time and place that you chose, instead of when and where your enemy chose.' When Thanatos said this, I realized that this former general was right about me."
Mr Granger asked, "So what does this mean, going forwards?"
John grinned. "It means no more Mister Nice Guy. Before, I was docile and reactive—no more. Today against Vernon Dursley, I was proactive, and I got much better results."
Paulina purred, "You got amazing results, so you are getting lucky tonight, John George Potter."
John took Paulina's hand, then looked at Harry and Hermione with determination. "You two can take this to the bank: Your seven years of magical school will be enjoyable and worry-free; Paulina and I will make sure of it."
This segued into a discussion of Harry's and Hermione's upcoming time at Hogwarts, and how to survive their hours outside of class.
At John's request, Harry finally opened the envelope of his Hogwarts letter and read the letter. By now the letter had no surprises for Harry—except for the ridiculous list of titles after Dumbledore's name.
Hermione asked if she could read the letter; Harry passed the letter over (but not the "Cupboard under the Stairs" envelope). After looking through Harry's letter, Hermione announced that the letter itself read the same as hers, but Harry's booklist was shorter than hers.
John replied, "Included with the Hogwarts letter that Professor McGonagall handed to you, Hermione, was a Supplemental Reading List of books about what nomaj-borns should know about Wizarding Britain. Harry, your Hogwarts letter doesn't include this list, and nobody will ever ask you, 'Did you get the list?' But last time, because I didn't know about these books, I made social blunders. One social blunder began a life-long enmity, and it took Antonia the angel to tell me how the whole thing could've been prevented."
"That's awful," said Hermione.
John said, "I didn't shake the boy's hand, because he offered friendship and I'd already decided I disliked him. The trouble is, refusing to shake someone's hand is only a mild insult in the nonmagical world—it's like telling a man, 'Your shirt is an ugly color'—but in Wizarding Britain, refusing to shake someone's hand is a big deal. What I should've done was to shake his hand and to say, 'I don't accept your offer of friendship now, but I'll consider it. Thank you for the offer.' "
"I'll remember that," Harry said.
"The other big social blunder you two will make will be names. Wizard-raised people will introduce themselves with both their name and their title, if they have a title. For instance, when I'm in Diagon Alley, on the Hogwarts Express and at Hogwarts, I'll introduce myself as 'John Potter, Regent Potter.' In Diagon Alley, I'll then be addressed as 'Regent Potter.' On the train, at Hogwarts, or in Hogsmeade village, I'll be addressed as 'Mr. Potter.' But please note, nobody except ignorant nomaj-borns will address me as 'John' unless I've first told the individuals, 'I give you leave to use my first name.' "
John then smirked. "Needless to say, I give everyone at this table leave to use my first name."
Paulina said with exaggerated politeness, "I thank you most kindly, Regent Potter." Everyone laughed.
Paulina said to Hermione, "I suggest you introduce yourself as 'Miss Hermione Granger of New House Granger.' This is how a wizard-raised person would introduce you."
John looked at Harry. "For you, I suggest you say 'Harry Potter, Heir Potter.' "
Harry grinned. "That's all? I say nothing about 'the Boy Who Lived'?"
"NO! You will come to hate that title, trust me. Don't make things worse by speaking it yourself."
Hermione stood up from the table. "I've all the books on the Supplemental Reading List; I'll go fetch them now so Harry can borrow them."
Paulina said, "Please don't, sugar. I suggest you keep the books here and seriously reread them before September first. But since I know you still have the Supplemental Reading List, why don't you go fetch that, and I'll make a copy for Harry."
Hermione asked to be excused from the table, and ran upstairs. Seconds later, Hermione ran downstairs with the List, which she handed to Paulina. Paulina pulled a scrap of not-paper from her handbag, then used the Xeroxis spell on the not-paper to make a permanent duplicate Supplemental Reading List. Paulina handed the original List back to Hermione and handed the duplicate List to Harry.
As Harry laid the duplicate Supplemental Reading List atop his Hogwarts letter, John shook his head. "Blimey, all the shit I could've avoided if I'd had that list. And while my not getting the list might've been an oversight, it might also have been another one of Dumbledore's little schemes."
Harry saw Paulina squeeze John's hand.
A minute later
Harry nervously asked John, "What did Aunt Petunia mean when she said that Dumbledore will make you give me back to the Dursleys?"
John explained to Harry that Dumbledore was determined to keep Harry at the Dursleys, and to send him back there every summer during Harry's years at Hogwarts. The stated reasons did not matter; the real reason was to keep Harry starved, injured and demoralised, with zero self-esteem; so that when Harry battled Voldemort to the death, it would be puny Harry who would die. But, John assured Harry, John and Paulina would make sure that Voldemort would not kill young Harry. Instead, John would kill Voldemort.
Harry said, "But why did Aunt Petunia say that Dumbledore would 'make' me go back? He's only the headmaster of a school, he's not a king."
John replied that Dumbledore, besides being Hogwarts's headmaster, had a powerful position in Wizarding Britain's legislature. Also, he was a smooth talker and many people owed him favours. "...But capital-M Magic has made me the Potter Regent, which overrides what Dumbledore did do or can do. I guarantee you, you'll never go back to the Dursleys, even if they are acquitted at their goblin trials, and I'll fight dirty to keep Dumbledore from making problems for you."
Mr Granger asked John what was the difference between the Potter Regent (what John was now), and "Lord Potter" a.k.a Head of House Potter (what Harry would become someday).
John answered that a Potter Regent, like a Head of House Potter, was in charge of the Potter family's properties, money and people.
However, the Potter Regent could not change the Heir(s) as chosen by the previous Head of House Potter. The Regent could not prevent the Heir Primary from claiming the Head of House Potter title at seventeen. When the Heir Primary did this, the new Lord Potter would "own" all the members of the Potter family—including the former Regent and other Potters who were older than he. When the Heir Primary would claim the Head of House Potter title, the Regent would lose his own title.
But note that when the Heir Primary and the Head of House were both alive, the Heir Primary could not become Head of House till the current Head of House either died or abdicated; the Head of House could not be deposed.
Only the Head of House Potter had authority to negotiate a betrothal contract that would obligate a future Head of House Potter or would obligate a current or future Potter Heir Primary; a Regent or magical guardian had no such authority.
After saying this, John turned and gave Paulina a meaningful look and a smirk, which Harry could not interpret.
However, John said, for every Potter who was less than the Heir Primary, the Potter Regent had authority to write a betrothal contract, but a later Head of House Potter could cancel this betrothal contract.
When it came time for three Potters to say goodbye to the three Grangers, John called a house-elf(!) named Greyclay to take Harry to Potter Manor(!)
House-elves had to be explained to the Grangers and to Harry; John let Paulina do the explaining. The main points Paulina made were that a house-elf had no magic of his own, and had to take magic from a magical place, magical family or magical person, lest he die; but then the house-elf mutated the magic he took so that he could do magic that wizards and witches could not do. Also, house-elves liked doing domestic work, unlike human servants (and Harry); house-elves considered laziness in a house-elf to be the greatest disgrace. Paulina firmly stated, "House-elves are symbionts, not slaves."
Once Paulina finished her lecture on house-elves, it was time for the three Potters to leave.
The plan: John and Paulina would apparate to Potter Manor—this was the form of magical transportation that had made Harry sick—whilst Harry would be taken to Potter Manor by house-elf.
Just before the three Potters left, Hermione gave Harry a fierce hug. This was only the second hug that Harry had received in his life, and both hugs were by Hermione.
Minutes later, in Potter Manor
To Harry, the Potter Manor house was amazing, like something out of a Hollywood film.
This morning, Harry had slept in the cupboard under the Dursleys' stairs. Tonight Harry would sleep in his father's boyhood bedroom in this magical mansion. Six years and a week from now, Harry would own this grand house.
Also, he had a true family now, and a magical friend his own age.
Harry Potter fell asleep on a big, soft, clean-smelling bed, thinking, This has been the most brilliant day of my life.
Meanwhile, in Gringotts
By then, Vernon and Petunia Dursley had been assessed £123 184.44 (110 percent of £111 985.85) by the goblins, which they could not begin to pay. Vernon and Petunia both were beheaded.
Dudley, even though he was only eleven, was sentenced to work in the Gringotts London iron mine till his eighteenth birthday.
Roughly nine hours later
6 a.m the next morning
Thursday, 25th July
Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey
One of the rune-based detection spells that "protected" Number 4, Privet Drive, noticed that Harry James Potter was not on the property at 6 a.m. Since neither the "evil intent against Harry Potter" ward nor the "Voldemort is here" ward had activated, the detection-spell assumed that Harry had gone on holiday with the Dursleys sometime after 6 p.m last night. Because the detection-spell concluded "All is well," the detection-spell sent Dumbledore no message.
Which was too bad for Dumbledore, who craved to know everything even slightly relating to Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, underneath Gringotts
Dudley Dursley was eating his first meal in the food room for prisoner-miners of the Gringotts London iron mine.
Dudley demanded more food than what he was given; a goblin guard smacked him across the face, so hard that Dudley was knocked off his bench.
Dudley's face hurt. But worse for Dudley was the shock of being hit. Since Dudley had been eight years old, nobody had hit and hurt Dudley; instead, Dudley had been the boy who hit and hurt others.
