POTTER RESURGENCE
Chapter 29
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J. K Rowling.
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July 30th 1995
Ministry of Magic
Department of Mysteries
Harry sighed as he finished drawing the final rune to complete the set. The center of the ritual chamber was covered with all kinds of runes. If it wasn't for his memory, Harry was sure he wouldn't have been able make sense of the numerous rune patterns before him. As it stood however, he knew where every single room was, what it stood for and what role it played.
He had been working on this rune pattern for almost two months now. On the day the horcrux in Hardwin's head was destroyed, the three Potters had sat down that evening and Lily had apologized for her words. She had confessed to being afraid and scared. For a moment, she had believed that her son was dying and that fear had still been there even after it had been clear that he was alive and yet Harry and Hardwin had been behaving like nothing was wrong.
She had apologized for wishing death on them. No mother in their right mind wishes death for her sons. She felt horrible for it, even when the twins told her that they didn't hold her to it. She hoped she could make it up to them in the future, however she maintained her decision about their father. The were not to going to use the ring despite it having worked on Hardwin.
And after thinking about it for the whole day, Harry agreed with her. They weren't sure if it would work on James as well. It was even possible for it to just suck James' life force into it like it had with the horcrux. That was not something they were willing to risk, and so they had decided to find alternative methods.
Without the threat of Voldemort, Lily decided to go back to the Department of Mysteries. Harry also went back on his original plan of time-travel and with his mom putting in a couple of words for him, he had come to an agreement with the Department. They would let him use their library for his research on condition that he becomes an honorary Unspeakable.
Which meant that he was obligated to share whatever he discovered with the Department and he was not to use his discoveries for profit without the express permission from the department head. He also had to take oaths of secrecy like the rest of the unspeakables. When he said that the later would be a problem as he shared everything with his brother, the problem was solved by making Hardwin an honorary Unspeakable too.
Before he truly started his research, the first thing he did was appoint Alfred Greengrass as his Proxy in the Wizengamot. This move not only officially made House Potter a 'neutral' house but it also gave numerous power to Greengrass. Harry trusted the man to make decisions that in the long run would definitely benefit House Potter. He could have selected Sirius but the man, despite his protests had been appointed as the new Director of the Magical Law enforcement and he was now a very busy man.
The other thing he did was to give his brother more access to his network. Before the Yule Ball, Hardwin had managed a few things on behalf of Harry and he had done perfectly which was why Harry had no trouble handing over control of his network to him. Any correspondence that didn't require physical meetings would be handled by Hardwin and with how Harry had organized it, the system practically ran itself and so there weren't many aspects that required his direct attention.
Hardwin had also enlisted Hermione and Luna as these were the only people with nearly as much knowledge on Harry's dealings as Hardwin himself and Harry trusted them to keep anything they learned to themselves. The two girls were pretty smart too, and together with Hardwin, Harry was sure his network was in good hands and so he was free to put all his time into his research.
With in a week spent almost 24/7 in the Department's library, Harry had found what he needed for his research. In other words, he had found the names of the people who could help him understand the inner workings of the time-turner. The very people who made it.
And with the names in place, all he had to do was to use the ressurection stone to summon them. While initially not pleased at having their rest interrupted, the three men were intrigued with what Harry was offering them. A chance to discover alternative methods for time-travel that allowed one to stay for much longer than a time-turner allowed.
He obviously didn't share the existence of this ability with the Unspeakables and therefore they were understandably unbelieving when he told them a month later that he had figured it out and was ready to start testing. What they didn't know was that whenever he wasn't at the ministry, he was conferring with the three geniuses and sharing with them what he discovered in the library.
He explained to the Unspeakables what they had come up with untill when they were convinced that his idea made sense. They deliberated for hours, trying to understand the complicated rune pattern and when they were sure it wouldn't be dangerous, they gave him the go ahead to start experimenting. He had a room all to himself where he spent more than an hour drawing the pattern on the floor.
Once he was finished, he immediately started the experiment. Starting small with nothing more than a piece of parchment, Harry charged the runes with his magic untill they were fully charged before casting a time-reversal charm directed to a single rune which would trigger the effect.
Harry and his ethereal companions had designed the rune pattern in a way that one could set the destination as well as how long what they were sending was to stay there. In his first experiment, he set the conjured parchment to be sent to the living room at Potter Manor an hour back but to stay there for one minute. He wrote on the parchment one single sentence before placing it in the middle of the pattern.
When he cast the hour-reversal charm, the runes glowed brighter for about a second before they went out, along with the piece of parchment. Almost immediately, they started lighting up again, one by one and within a minute, they were all charged again. With another flash, the runes went out and this time the parchment was there.
Harry picked it up and smiled in satisfaction.
"Hardwin, if you get this, sign it with your name and the time you got it."
Harry knew his brother along with Neville, Luna and Hermione were in the living room watching a Star Wars marathon. They weren't aware of his ongoing experiment and so a piece of parchment appearing in their midst should have taken them by surprise. Thankfully, Hardwin had managed to sign it before it was summoned back by the rune circle.
His first experiment had been a success. From there he moved to slightly bigger objects while at the same time increasing the number of hours the object was sent back. They were all a success as everything he sent back had instructions for the receiver to sign with their name and date. He obviously sent them to locations he knew were people that would follow the instructions without question.
Three days of testing with inanimate objects and with the last one having been sent three months back, Harry felt he was ready to try it on animals. The first animal, a ferret didn't come back, and so Harry summoned his research mates to revise the rune pattern. The next day, he tried again, sending the ferret to the forbidden forest twenty-four hours back. With living things, he didn't need anyone to confirm its arrival back in time as he had learned an age-determining charm from Croaker.
While experimenting on inanimate objects, he had modified the rune pattern allowing him to set how long the item stayed in the past while in the present it was only gone for a minute, which was how long it took for the circle to recharge again. And so after adjusting the circle, he sent the second ferret twenty-four hours back and when it came back a minute later, the age-determining charm showed it was a day older than what it had been a minute ago.
Next, he tried with a dog, sending it a week back where it would spend a whole day in the past. That too was a success and so he knew that the pattern was perfect, there was only one thing he wanted to change before he could try and use it himself.
Normally, once the object has been sent back in time, it stays there for a predetermined period before it is automatically summoned back to the present once that time is up. However, Harry wanted to change it so that when the person is sent back using the runic pattern, he would be able to trigger his return by himself instead of the pattern automatically summoning him back. This way, a person could stay in the past for as long as they wished and once their business was complete, they can come back to the present.
Presenting his idea to his research group, it took them just hours to come up with what he wanted and the next day, Harry presented it to Croaker and the others who were just as excited about it as he was. They had been there for the experiments and were all dying to try it out. Harry procured himself a magical monkey, it wasn't very different from the mundane one, only slightly more intelligent.
He had its hand shaved of all hair and traced a small rune circle in it. It was linked to the bigger circle and once it was fed with magic, it would trigger the bigger circle to summon the monkey back to the present. Croaker gave him a small gem, that stored magic, all the monkey had to do was place the stone on the rune circle.
Using leglimency, Harry implanted the instructions in its mind before placing the monkey back into the circle. The monkey was to stay in the past for six hours before the commands Harry had put in its mind activated, once that happened, it would activate the rune and be summoned back to the present.
A minute later, the monkey cane back. Six hours older than it was before it left.
That had been yesterday, and today Harry was ready to test it himself. Croaker and two other Unspeakables were present as well as Hardwin and Lily. The Unspeakables had given the three a moment to talk.
"How long will you be gone?" Lily asked.
"For you, it will only be a minute. While for me, I'll stay for as long as necessary and then I'll come back." Harry replied. "Don't forget though, if for any reason the minute elapses and I'm not back, then you have to trigger the summons from here."
"Be careful, will you?"
"I will." Harry hugged her one last time before she left the two alone. He pulled off the ring with the ressurection Stone and gave it to him. "Hold onto this for me. If I don't come back after a minute, summon them and figure out a way to get me back."
"So there's a possibility of you not coming back, then?" It was obvious he was worried.
"By the look of things, no but you never know what diety is up there waiting for a chance to bugger us." Harry joked and Hardwin smiled despite his worry. "The Stone will also help you access the Astral plane much easier."
"Why would I need to go to the Astral plane?"
"It's likely that you won't, but you know me, I don't like leaving things to chance." Harry smirked. "See you soon, little brother."
"Ready, Mr. Potter?" Croaker asked once Hardwin had stepped back.
Harry checked himself. He checked the pockets of his coat to make sure his emergency-potions-kit was in place and his two modified wand holsters were secure on his forearms, the one with the Elder wand on the left and the one holding his normal wand on the right. The invisibility cloak too was there in one of the numerous pockets.
"As ready as I'm ever going to get."
With a nod, Croaker cast the Hour-reversal charm. The runes lit up, one by one untill all of them were glowing green with magic and then with a bright flash, they went out. When Hardwin blinked the spots out of his eyes, Harry too was gone and the runes had started lighting up again, one by one.
"Thirty seconds." Lilly muttered under her breath while Hardwin stared at the watch on his wrist.
"Ten seconds..." She said as more runes glowed.
Hardwin felt his stomach drop, even as the seconds wound down, he knew that something was not right. He slipped on the ring Harry had given him and closed his eyes and concentrated. Next to him, Lilly was counting down the seconds but he paid her no mind.
"Harry?" He tapped in the their bond, which for some reason was stronger than ever before. The ring on his finger pusled and he understood, Harry siad it would be easier to access the Astral plane with it, which meant it boosted anything related to the spiritual world. "Brother?"
"I am fine." Harry replied. "Something went wrong, though."
Of course it did. Hardwin opened his eyes just as Lily rushed towards the still glowing rune circle to activate the fail safe. The runes were all lit, but nothing was happening.
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6th August 1995
12 Grimauld Place
Harry knew something was wrong the moment Croaker cast the spell. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was strange, nothing like what he had felt when he examined the monkey's memories of its trip back in time. It certainly hadn't been tossed and spun around like it was in a washing machine. Harry was already vomiting before the sensation came to a stop and by the time he felt solid ground, there was practically nothing left in his stomach.
He was just dry heaving while he held his stomach. The nausea wasn't reducing, quite the opposite actually and his vision was still spinning and he couldn't dare to move from his position.
However that didn't stop him from reacting when he felt magic of a Stunner barrel towards him. His body blurred and in a split second, he had transformed into Meg. With his mind not thinking clearly, he surrendered to Meg's instincts trusting the Jaguar to protect him by all means necessary.
What Harry didn't know was that he had only transformed halfway. His hands and legs had grown with muscles and claws had appeared at the end. He had remained at his height while his head had transformed into Meg's and black fur had appeared allover his body. The two men that had been about to attack him froze at his transformation and that nearly cost them their lives.
Harry leaped towards the man who had cast the spell, too fast for any of the two men to follow. He slid past the man's guard and came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck, his claws dug into the man's flesh and he barely managed to grunt as he was hurled across the room and into the wall.
A Stunner slammed into his back but Harry just shook his head and dismissed its effects before turning to where it had come from with a snarl. What he saw had him freezing in shock. His jaw dropped and his slitted eyes widened before closing as two powerful Stunners slammed into him from the front and back. He slumped onto the ground while his features returned to normal, the look of shock frozen on his face.
When he woke up, he was certainly feeling better though his stomach muscles were still paining from the dry heaves. His mind had settled down and he could now think clearly, though the nausea was still there, just mild. He was seated on a chair and his hands cuffed behind his back on the chairs back.
Looking at the young woman before him, Harry managed to hide his shock, it wasn't as hard as it had been when he saw Sirius. The woman looked nothing like she had that morning, she seemed older, and stressed though it was expertly hidden. Her bubblegum hair was less bright than usual, something not many people would have noticed.
"Hello, Tonks." Harry greeted softly, making eye contact the woman. Tonks had decent mind shields but they were not good enough to keep out someone with Harry's skill. "You look like shit."
Tonks blinked at his blunt words, clearly not sure how to react. She recovered fast thought. "Who are you?"
"Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Harry told her. "You do know that magic suppressing cuffs only stop someone from using their wands, right?"
"What do you want, boy?" Tonks asked again, glaring at him. "You have one minute before I run out of patience."
"And if someone had alternative means to do magic, these would be pretty useless." Harry continued like he hadn't been interrupted. "You can't do anything to me, Dumbledore won't allow it."
Tonks smirked. "Dumbledore doesn't even know you're here."
"Oh, but he does." He gestured with his head to a spot at the wall. "Moony over there notified him the moment I woke up."
Remus dropped the spell hiding him and frowned at Harry. Going by the barely healed claw marks on his neck, it was him that Harry had thrown into the wall.
"How did you know that?" The werewolf asked. "And how do you know that name?"
"I have been around those little trinkets long enough to know when they're being used." Harry replied. "Just like how I know the feel of my Invisibility cloak."
Tonks and Remus exchanged a look, one Harry did not miss before Sirius pulled off the Invisibility cloak. He stared at Harry, and Harry stared right back, the man looked to be over a decade older than the Sirius he knew and yet Harry had seen today's date in Tonks' mind.
"No, I'm not James, Sirius." Harry said, having caught the thought on the man's mind. He then looked at the three that were staring at him expectantly. "My name is Harry Potter. I was experimenting with time travel but there were a few things I did not account for and instead of going back in time like I had intended, I ended up in your world."
"Our world?" Tonks voiced what was on everyone's mind.
"I learned recently that there were worlds living alongside our own, worlds that are similar but with a few differences that make them apart." Harry explained. "For example in my world, James and Lily did not die on Halloween that night. And from what I can tell, that was not the case here."
"How do we know that you're telling the truth?" Remus asked. "Apart from the eyes and hair color, you don't look like Harry at all?"
Harry summoned his dagger to his right hand and he cleanly cut through the magic suppressing cuffs with no trouble, startling the three when he brought his hands forward. "Would the Lord Potter's ring suffice?"
"Wha...how did..." Tonks had drawn her wand but trailed off, looking at Harry's free hands.
"It looks and feels like the Lord Potter's ring, and I know no one other than the rightful Lord could ever put it on." Sirius meanwhile was examining the ring. "How old are you?"
"I'll be making fifteen tomorrow, well in my world my fifteenth birthday was to be the next day." He replied. Before looking beseechingly at them all. "Look, I don't want to cause any trouble, I just want somewhere to work from so I can figure out a way back home."
"You say you don't want to cause trouble but my neck says otherwise."
"You're the one who attacked me, Moony, what was I supposed to do, sit there and sing kumbaya?"
Sirius snorted. "You sound like Lily. She refused to tell us what 'kumbaya' meant."
"It's a kids song, she used to sing it to us when we were kids." Harry said before raising an eyebrow at Sirius. "I could sing it for you if you want to take a nap..."
Sirius barked a laugh. At least some things never change.
"Look, this is not a time for jokes." Remus interrupted them. "Don't tell me you believe him?"
"Oh, relax, Moony." Sirius waved him. "Just because his story sounds insane doesn't mean he is lying. Besides, if he meant harm to anyone in this house, he would have been struck down on the spot. Not to mention the wards clearly recognized the connection between me and him and that is why they did not expell him immediately despite his intentions."
"Look, I know my story is hard to believe, especially for someone who blatantly ignores the half-plus-seven rule..." Remus frowned while Sirius snorted. "But I honestly don't need your belief. Clearly I mean you no harm or I would be dead already, all I need is a bit of rest, some ink and parchment and I'll be gone before you know it."
"Come on, Moony. Don't tell me you're not at least curious to find out more about this many-worlds thing." Sirius shoved the werewolf playfully. "Don't you want to know what would have happened had you not turned into this... pervert?
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You heard the boy, obviously I'm not the only one who noticed how you're on the verge of ignoring the half-plus-seven rule." Sirius laughed. "I doubt the other you is like this."
"Look, I don't know what you lot are talking about but we can't make any decision without Dumbledore." Tonks interrupted them.
"She's right." Remus added. "We should wait for the headmaster_"
"But I thought this was your house, Padfoot." Harry said, looking confused. "Why do you need Dumbledore to decide for you who stays and who doesn't in your own home?"
"This is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Tonks insisted. "Dumbledore has a say on who stays there."
"That doesn't make any sense." Harry argued. "This was Sirius' house before it became headquarters, and will still be his when the war ends. Unless he transferred ownership of course?"
This time Harry was looking at Sirius. Going by the look in his gray eyes, Sirius seemed to understand exactly what Harry was doing and he gave him an appreciative smile.
"Well, Dumbledore is not here anyway." Sirius said instead. "If he wanted to have a say on this, he would have come or sent a message when Moony notified him. As it stands, I have decided that Harry will stay, if Albus has a problem with that, he can bring it up to me himself."
"What about the others, what shall we tell them." Tonks asked and Sirius snorted as he led Harry towards the door.
"They can bugger themselves for all I care."
"Sirius, please think carefully about this." Remus asked but the man didn't even stop.
"If you wish to think for the whole night, please be my guest." Sirius told him as they exited the door. "I'm sure Tonks won't mind giving you company."
Sirius led Harry to a door that Harry was very familiar with.
"This was my brother's room, it's probably the cleanest in the house." He told him. "You should be fine sleeping here for tonight, we can talk in the morning."
"Thanks, Sirius." Harry smiled. "This is where I sleep when I stay the night at your place ever since I was a kid."
Sirius nodded with a smile which later disappeared after he thought of what Harry had said. "I take it he's dead in your world, too?"
"Your brother...he did something before his death." Harry said. "You should talk to Kreacher about it, it's his story to tell."
"Kreacher?" Sirius frowned.
"Yes." Harry nodded. "In my world, he was instrumental in the defeat of the Dark Lord."
"My brother, or Kreacher?"
"Both." Harry replied. "Talk to the elf, Sirius and hope that at least that did not change in this universe."
Harry closed the door leaving the older man standing there, deep in thought. When he turned, the subject of their conversation was staring at him.
"Who are you, and what do you know about Master Regulus?" The old elf asked dangerously. Just like everyone in this universe, the elf looked decades older than his counterpart in Harry's world.
Rather than answering, Harry reached in one of his pockets and retrieved the destroyed locket and handed it to Kreacher. The elf grabbed the locket with its gnarled hands and examined it.
"How?" He asked, running his fingers across it. Harry knew there were still traces of house-elf magic on the locket and Kreacher probably recognized it as his own.
"I have my own ways." Harry replied mysteriously. "I could help you destroy yours as well..."
Kreacher looked at him, weighing his offer for about a minute before he disappeared with a snap of his fingers. When he came back, he was holding the locket and Harry was immediately hit with its revolting magic. He had almost forgotten how foul the evil things felt and he couldn't wait to destroy it once again.
He opened it with perseltongue and stabbed it before it could even try to fight back. The explosion at its destruction was minimal and he easily container it with a round shield. Once he was done, he turned and gave the locket to a wide-eyed Kreacher. Once the elf had confirmed that the horcrux had been destroyed, he thanked Harry profusely before springing into action to prepare his bed.
The room was sparkly clean with in a minute and the bedsheets and covers had been replaced. Before going to bed, Harry's last request was for Kreacher to help the house be in a condition that his Master Regulus would be proud of.
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The next morning, Harry woke and had a quick shower. He removed a shrunken backpack from his coat pocket and enlarged it. He had come prepared to stay a day or two in the past and so had prepared some spare clothes. Putting on a white V-neck t-shirt and black sweater pants, Harry left his room and went downstairs to where he knew the dinning table was.
There was already chatter which immediately stopped when he entered. The two older Weasleys were there as well as Bill and Ginny who was seated next to Hermione and Tonks on one side of the table while Remus was alone on the other. Sirius was at the head of the table and the seats on either side of him were empty. Harry took the one on the right leaving one empty one between him and Remus.
Harry sat down and started eating without a word. He didn't pay the girls opposite him any mind though he could see that they were clearly checking him out.
"Oh, this is amazing, Mrs. Weasley." Harry said after he had swallowed and cleaned his mouth.
"Thanks dearie." Molly smiled. "You look so different, did you hit a growth spurt since I last saw you? And what's with all that hair, we're going to have to cut it off after here!"
"That won't be necessary, I like my hair just the way it is." Harry ran a hand through his long hair while Sirius smiled at him seeing that they were the only ones with long hair on the table. Except for Bill who had his in a ponytail.
"That's nonsense!" Molly countered. "No one living under my roof will have long hair!"
"First of all, this is my house." Sirius said. "And secondly, Harry here will do whatever he pleases as no one here has any authority over him, as I'm sure you have already been briefed."
Molly opened and closed her mouth a few times before she turned to Harry with wide eyes. "Oh, so you're him?"
"Actually I think I'll go by Hadrian for the moment, I wouldn't want to be confused with my counterpart." Harry took a sip from the juice. "Oh, Merlin, I really needed that. I was starving, I feel like I haven't eaten anything in a week."
Harry stood up and cleaned his mouth. Everyone was wondering how he had managed to clear his plate that fast.
"Well, this was an amazing meal, Mrs. Weasley and it was nice to meet you all." He refilled the glass. "Sirius, I'll be in the Lord's Study if you wish to talk to me, I'm sure Kreacher has made it presentable enough to be used for its rightful purpose."
He turned to leave and nearly ran into his counterpart who had just arrived. Harry had to blink twice just to make sure of what he was seeing. With his nest of hair, the boy looked more like Hardwin than Harry. Only much shorter and thinner, too short for his age as Harry knew they were the same age and yet they looked to be two years apart.
"Well, good morning, Mr. Potter." Harry greeted his counterpart offering his hand. "You call me Hadrian, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Uhm, okay." The other boy shook his hand awkwardly. "Are we...am I related to you?"
"More than you can imagine." Harry smiled. "You can call me Hadrian, I'm hoping we can have a chat before I leave."
Without waiting for a reply, he left. Harry watched the tall boy in confusion before turning back to the others. "Guys, who is that? And why does he look like me?"
"He is you_"
"He claims to be you." Remus interrupted Sirius. "Fed us some story of being from another universe. Apparently he was experimenting with time-travel and ended up here."
"And you just let him stay here?!" Harry frowned. "What if he's been sent by Voldemort?"
"If he meant any of us harm, the wards would have killed him the moment he arrived." Sirius said. "Besides, Dumbledore said he could stay untill he had a word with him later today."
"Dumbledore is coming?" Harry immediately latched onto that.
"Yeah." Sirius answered. "I think he'll need to talk to you about the trial."
"Alright, that's enough with the discussion, time to eat." Molly interrupted before any conversation could continue. "We have a lot of work to do."
Harry sat down and started eating, but his mind was still on the other boy. He was curious about him, and it seemed Sirius actually believed his story. Looking at his godfather, the man smiled at him, like he knew exactly what Harry was thinking.
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Hadrian looked up to see Harry enter the study. The other boy was timid, he looked like he was afraid of disturbing Hadrian and yet he wanted to talk to him. "Come on in, and please close the door behind you."
Hadrian blew on the rune he had been tracing with his dagger, before turning to another and started tracing one just like the one he had just finished.
"How is the dagger not cutting you?" Harry asked as he walked closer.
"I made it in a way that it can't cut a Potter." He offered the dagger to the other boy. "Here, why don't you give it a try."
Harry took the dagger carefully and tried to nick his finger but nothing happened. He turned it over before running a finger across the edge which honestly looked like it could cut granite, but nothing happened.
"How is this possible?"
"Well, I could say magic but I'm sure you already know that." Hadrian said and Harry snorted. "But the truth is that if you have money, the goblins can be pretty cooperative. And as it happens, the Potters always had that."
"Yeah, I was pretty surprised at what I found in my trust vault." Harry admitted.
"Oh, that was nothing." Hadrian shook his head as he examined the rune he had just traced. "Wait untill you see what is in the main vault, you'll have your mind blown."
"The main vault?" Harry asked. "I thought there was only the trust vault."
Hadrian frowned.
"Uh, that can't be right. Maybe it's another of the differences in our worlds." He shrugged and went back to his runes. "In my world, the Potters have always been rich given that they're one of the oldest magical lines."
"Yeah, about that..." Harry started. "What else is different about our worlds?"
Hadrian knew exactly where this was going.
"Well, I've only been here for a few hours and haven't had much interaction with others so I can't exactly tell you what is different." He leaned back to examine his work from a distance.
"Okay...uhm, are you the boy-who-lived?"
"Jesus, no." Hadrian chuckled. "That would be my brother, he's quite full of it with his title and he probably would take offense if anyone else was called that."
"You have a brother?"
"Yeah." Hadrian replied with a smile. "You look alot like him actually. We are identical twins you see, but while I prefer to keep my hair this way, he keeps his short and usually has a bird's nest to deal with."
Harry was smiling too, despite himself. "It would be nice to have a brother."
"It really is." The other boy assured him. He pulled back from the bowl he had been working on and showed Harry the back of his hand where a rune circle had been drawn. "Between me and you, I could go back to my world if I just feed magic into this circle."
"But...why did you lie?" Harry asked in confusion. "Why are you still here?"
"Because I wanted to talk to you." Hadrian replied before gesturing to the bowl. "Do you know what this is?"
"A pensieve." Harry siad, he heard seen it in Dumbledore's office, used it even. "What does it have anything to with why you're still here?"
"I heard that you didn't grow up with any of your parents." Hadrian started and the other boy frowned. "That must have been... difficult."
"You have no idea." Harry said darkly.
"This Pensieve belongs to the Lord Black, most Lords always have one in their solars/study." Hadrian drew his wand and pressed it on his temples. "I thought I could give you a chance to experience growing up with Lily Potter from my perspective. That is if you're interested."
"I...I would like that very much." Harry said.
"Good." Hadrian pulled the wand from his head and a silverly string was attached to it. It was pretty long and by the time it stopped coming out his hand had reached the Pensieve. "Normally, you would see the memory just as an observer. I have tweaked this one aliitle so that rather than observing the memory, you will instead experience it."
The boy nodded as Harry started stirring the memory in the Pensieve.
"I should warn you though, everything I experienced, so will you and quite vividly as my memory is near perfect." He smirked. "Even the spankings I got whenever mom caught me doing something she had told me not to."
If anything, the boy looked even more eager. "What do I do?"
"Sit here, and put your head into the bowl." Hadrian instructed as he left the seat he had been seating on for the other boy. "It will probably take you a couple of minutes so you need to get comfortable."
Harry sat down and did as he was told. The taller boy watched in satisfaction as his counterpart became unresponsive as he sank into his memories before he flicked his wand towards the door, dispelling the illusion behind it. And as if on cue, the door suddenly burst open and Dumbledore entered with his wand drawn.
"Hello, headmaster. It's good to see you in good health." Harry greeted as he leaned on the table behind him. "The last time I saw you, you were dying."
Dumbledore looked at the seated boy with his head in the Pensieve. He walked around Hadrian and checked on him. "What did you do to Mr. Potter?"
"Nothing, just giving him a chance to survive this war." He answered. "Something you clearly don't have in mind."
Dumbledore made to lift Harry's head.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Harry interrupted him. "You see those newly inscribed runes on the side? If you take him out before all their memories play out, they'll be stuck in his head and he'll never be able to tell what his are and what aren't."
"Why are you here..." The old man asked. "Why are you doing this?"
"As unlikely as it may seem to you, I didn't come here out of my own violation. If anything, it was your counterpart's manipulations that brought me here." Hadrian answered. "But then I saw the boy, and what your manipulations have done to him and I just couldn't let it stand."
"I only want the best for young Harry."
"Really, is that why you haven't taught him a single thing, why you have told him nothing about the prophecy, or why you haven't told him of the horcruxes and the one in his head?"
"How do you_"
"It doesn't matter how I know, what matters is that I do and so will Harry when he comes out of the Pensieve." He turned back to Dumbledore. "How you deal with it will be up to you, but I promise you he won't be as malleable as he has been. And now that I have been here before, coming back won't be a problem."
"You have no idea what you have done." Dumbledore told him. "Tom knows about his connection with Harry_"
"On the contrary, I know exactly what I've done." Harry cut him off. "And if by the end of what will happen you're still alive, then you will thank me when I come back for my next visit."
And with those last words, Harry disappeared, just as his counterpart sat up from the Pensieve. Dumbledore looked at the boy before him and quite honestly, he did not recognize him anymore. The boy looked at his fingers where there was a strange ring with a black stone, and still looking at Dumbledore, he raised his hand and pressed the ring to his scar.
And then he screamed.
-PRPRPRPRPR-
AN: I WILL be writing a spinoff depicting what happened in this universe after Harry left, however this chapter was to finally truly introduce the multiverse.
Next chapter, we start the crossovers.
