The Peverell Legacy
A/N: I own nothing, especially not HP. Welcome to another fanfic, Italics are for thoughts and Bold is for spells. Here's chapter ten, enjoy!
Chapter Ten: The last Horcrux
It was the weekend when Harry and Padma finally spoke aloud the thing neither had been willing to bring up. There was only one Horcrux left and it was currently residing in the small boy that was grinning at them while wearing a majority of his morning oatmeal. "We have to do something." Harry said morosely, "But I only know three ways to remove a Horcrux."
"And suggesting either of those methods will promptly result in there only being one Harry Potter left alive." Padma said simply, "We aren't using a killing curse on a baby, we definitely aren't using basilisk venom on one, and fiendfyre is too messy even if it wasn't guaranteed to kill him." She groaned, "But we do have to do something." She looked fondly at the toddler. She'd dressed him that morning in denim overalls. She liked to buy him clothes and toys, making up for the life her Harry had suffered. Every time she thought of the Dursley family and what they did to him, she regretted his stupid noble spirit that kept her from setting their house on fire.
"I'll talk to Cissy." She said after a moment of thought, "I doubt she'll know anything more than we do. But it never hurts to have another brain working on the case."
Harry nodded as he added sugar to his morning cup of coffee. "I think I've managed to convince Dumbledore that I'm not interested in remaining a professor." He said with some humor, "After I refused to reopen the Chamber for him, he didn't seem as keen on keeping me around." That earned him a smile from Padma who leaned in and kissed his cheek.
"Good boy." She said, "I think today should be a family trip to the park. Little man enjoys the sunshine almost as much as he enjoys when I get an ice pop." Padma laughed, "He ends up wearing most of it when I share with him."
"How's Bodhi?" Harry asked her, "You asked Andi to check you out on Wednesday?"
"Tuesday," Padma corrected and then continued, "Our little girl is fine and putting on the correct amount of weight. Andi said that we needed to have the wedding soon if I want to still fit in that dress."
Harry nodded, Padma had been going over the details for their wedding. With the induction of Pandora Lovegood into her circle of friends the foursome of Andromeda, Narcissa, Pandora, and Padma was enough to terrify Harry with the idea of the sort of messes they would get him into.
Once breakfast was finished, Harry and Padma cast warming charms on each other and on the now sleeping toddler. Harry placed his younger self into the pram they had purchased and with that, the little family made their way out of the house.
It was a clear if chilly day, the sky was bright blue and a breeze blew through the street. It would have caused a shiver to go through Harry and Padma if not for the warming charms. They had still bundled up and looked to anyone watching like a normal couple with their son. As they walked together they didn't speak, not needing to fill the comfortable silence. This, not madcap adventure was what Harry had longed for since the end of Riddle's war. Harry heard the birdsong from a nearby waxwing as it drove a crow from the tree it had claimed as its own.
Seeing the bird's fight made him think of Hedwig and he sighed. That earned a look from Padma, "What's on your mind?" She asked him quietly as they waited for the crosswalk light to change.
"Nothing really, just looking forward to his eleventh birthday so I can introduce him to my first real friend." Harry replied with a smile, "Hedwig," he clarified, "The first time I met her I had no idea what to expect, I thought she'd be like a pet."
"Considering how whipped she had you, I need to remember to do something nice for her when we go to get her." Padma teased him fondly. The fact that Hedwig had run roughshod over Harry had been well known during their time at Hogwarts. Padma could easily remember seeing the snowy owl dive bomb Harry during meals if she thought he was being stingy with bacon. "She did my work for me," Padma said as they crossed the street.
"Oh haha," Harry said dryly as they made their way down the street towards the nearby park. Harry and Padma paused to let a woman pass them with her own children, "Remember when Molly Weasley tried to act like everything was fine after we started dating?"
Padma rolled her eyes, "I hate when people ask me if I know the guy who runs the curry house they like because his last name is Patil same as mine." She groaned at the memory, "My family hasn't been to India since my grandfather's wedding. Mum and dad both grew up in Bognor Regis for Circe's sake!" They arrived at the park and settled onto a bench, "She wasn't as bad as that jackass transfer from the states. 'You speak Tamil but your name is Maithili'." She said affecting a nasal accent, "I told him that I am British, I didn't go to India until the year before I met you."
"He was just trying to show off how smart he was." Harry said to her, "Or at least how smart he thought he was."
"He was a jackass." Padma said hotly, "Anyway he's probably shitting his pants right now, so I don't want to think about him or Molly Weasley. What I want is a nice day out with my fiancee and our kiddo and one on the way." With that, she settled in beside him and pulled a small book from her pocket.
"So what's that book?" He asked her as he slowly moved the pram back and forth rocking the sleeping toddler inside.
Padma flicked her eyes at him, "Pandora lent it to me, it's her notes." She passed it over to him for a moment, smirking when he practically shoved it back, "It's a bit of a dry read."
"I nearly got a nosebleed from the first set of numbers." Harry said to her, "Maybe we should ask her about possible ways to remove them Horcrux?"
She paused, "I'll make a note on the calendar, you just had a good idea." She teased him before kissing his cheek, "I'm surprised you trust the mother of Luna Lovegood to muck about in your younger self's skull."
"I trust Luna, she's one of the best people I know. She adored her mother, so I'm willing to trust her the same way." Harry said simply. He took her hand, "What do you think Parvati will be like now?"
That gave her a moment's pause. Her sister had been tortured by the Carrows, now they, along with their ilk were in Azkaban. Parvati was safe from them now, she had a chance to grow up. "I think, she'll manage to get her hands on Neville this time." She said after a moment, "She had a crush on him when we were kids."
"I remember her defending him from Pansy in our first year, plus when we flew over the stands, I saw her sitting with him and Hermione." Harry said after a moment, "I'm surprised she didn't go with him to the Yule Ball."
"Nope, she had to go with my first choice and I got stuck with the human black hole." Padma said with annoyance, "Ginny wanted you, but you ignored her. She went with the next best thing in her mind to get you jealous." She laughed softly, "Do you know what Ron thought was a good conversation starter? He said my breath was a little too minty."
"I like your minty breath." Harry said kissing her to prove it.
Scene Break
Harry was back at school and Padma was with Narcissa and Pandora. Explaining the truth to Narcissa about who 'James' was had resulted in her friend leveling a single raised eyebrow at Padma, "You mean the dark-haired and green-eyed boy with a lightning bolt scar is the same dark-haired and green-eyed boy with a lightning bolt scar I thought he was the first time we met?" She said dryly.
"You knew?" Padma said and then sighed, "Of course you did," Padma muttered, "You were able to bullshit Riddle with your sister breathing down your neck." Padma straightened up, "Yes, our 'James' is Harry Potter and 'Hadrian Peverell' is Harry Potter as well."
Pandora goggled at the news, "I knew you were from the future, but I didn't know that he was-" She shook her head, the tiny radish-shaped earrings jingling slightly, "So, inside him-"
"Is the last chunk of Tom Riddle's soul not attached to him. We'd really prefer it to not be there so that when Harry goes to deal with the wraith of Riddle flitting about Albania he's dealing with a mortal spirit." Padma finished, "So, any ideas?"
Neither witch spoke at first. Then Pandora raised her hand, "This isn't a class." Padma said to the spacey looking blonde.
"What about a transference spell? Like a super-powered switching spell?" Pandora pulled a sparkly pink notebook out of her robes and began to scribble feverishly.
"The goblins have a way to destroy cursed objects, but I rather doubt you want that option." Narcissa said looking at the small playpen Andromeda had given her as a belated baby shower present. The two boys were playing with Draco's stuffed dragon and a small smile curved onto her lips. "He's not so bad as a little boy or as a grown man, so I would prefer not to use that method either."
"He owes you his life," Padma said while Pandora continued to scribble. "When he died during the Battle of Hogwarts, you were there with Lucius. Things had went tits up in a big way, your son's little buddies had used fiendfyre and nearly burned the castle down. Harry woke up in the forbidden forest with Voldemort and Bellatrix leering down at him. Luckily he sent you instead of Bellatrix to check Harry's vital signs. You just wanted to know if Draco was alive."
"And the only one who knew that at the time was Harry Potter." Narcissa finished looking back at the boys, "I celebrated the Dark Lords defeat in private," She admitted, "Lucius had to spend a small fortune to convince the Ministry that he wasn't to blame for his actions. I used to spend nights in Draco's nursery holding him while downstairs Lucius and Bella would do their masters bidding." She smiled at the pair in the playpen, "I would have turned my wand on any of them if they threatened Draco, something Lucius found out the hard way."
"He found it out thirty-seven times." Padma said with a smile.
Narcissa shrugged, "Only sixteen times, I may have severed a vein after that. He did bleed a lot more on the seventeenth."
"I think I have it!" Pandora exclaimed as she shot upright from her seat, "I need my lab!" She stood and vanished with a crack leaving Padma and Narcissa with the boys.
"She is very excitable isn't she?" Padma said looking at the spot where she had been. "She left her-"
There was another crack as Pandora reappeared, reaching down she grabbed the notebook she'd left and then vanished again.
"Never mind."
Scene Break
It was three days later when Pandora arrived at Padma's doorstep with a smile that threatened to take up most of her face. "I said I thought I had it and I was wrong, I did have it! I mean I have it now!" She hurried into the house, pausing to scoop up Harry, earning a giggle from the boy and a happy cry of 'Pan!'.
"Hello my love!" Pandora said kissing his hair and making him giggle, "Auntie Pan has a surprise for you and your mummy!" She spun the boy before setting him back on the floor. "I did the last tests over the breakfast and everything worked."
Padma looked from her morning paper and then set it down. She rose from the table, "Okay, explain what you just said bearing in mind that while I have the basic idea of what this is about you talk very fast and forget no one else can read your mind."
"The transference spell, I used it this morning. I spent three minutes with my mind switched with Xeno's." Pandora explained to her, "So we can switch that aspect of Harry into something killable like say," She pulled a small box from her pocket, "This beetle."
"And you are sure it'll work?" Padma asked looking at the happy child who had gone back to his toys, "You won't take his soul and leave Riddles, right? I'm not about to explain to Harry why this version of him is gone."
"It should be as simple as looking for the part that doesn't belong." Pandora said pulling out the pink notebook and showing her, "See here by the jam stain?" Not giving Padma a chance to answer, she continued, "This is the procedure and there by that, don't mind the blood, it's fine, that is the wand movement."
"Every moment I am in contact with you, I find myself wondering how much crazier Luna is going to be." Padma mused earning a laugh from the blonde, "This is still above my paygrade, but I'm assuming everything is right. Alright, is there a specific time for this or can we do it now?"
"Oh now, of course. I wouldn't bring the beetle if it wasn't ready to go." Pandora said serenely, "Take him upstairs and bathe him thoroughly. I'll wait for you here." Padma picked up Harry and, perhaps still worried for what would happen, kissed his forehead and carried him upstairs.
She was a jumble of nerves as she bathed the little boy. Harry, being literally any child ever, did not want a bath, not now and possibly not ever. "Please don't be fussy right now love," Padma said hurriedly as he grabbed at the washcloth, "This is kind of important right now. It's giving me a chance to not think about what could go wrong. I know Pandora is brilliant, but let's face it, she did blow herself up last time." She sent a patronus to Harry, not caring if anyone heard it with the words 'we're doing this now, get here quickly as you can'. She watched as her patronus vanished with her message before gathering Harry back into her arms and carrying him downstairs.
Almost as soon as she took the first step on the landing to go back downstairs she heard Harry's voice and smiled. His presence made this situation far more tolerable than it would have been otherwise. "So, you're going to put him into a beetle and then we smash it with a hammer?" Padma heard Harry say to Pandora.
"As much fun as putting the beetle into a series of ever smaller boxes and smashing them with a large mallet, I was actually thinking we would use a less Heath Robinson-esque method." Pandora said as she finished clearing the toys and general clutter from the room with her wand, "Namely I was thinking we would just squash it."
"Last time we had an animal with his soul in it, we had to use a magical sword." Harry said, "How about I just use the killing curse? It's worked so far."
Pandora shrugged, "As you will." Padma entered the room and Pandora took the little boy from her, "Perfect since both of you are here I can do a scan to make sure that I get the right soul." She gently set the toddler on the floor with a sticking charm and then flicked her wand at him and then at the adult Harry.
A strange tickling sensation overtook Harry's senses as the scan continued. Pandora seemed to get what she needed though. She pointed the wand back at his younger self and intoned the spell she'd created. Harry took Padma's hand as a now-familiar black mist worked its way from the scar on the little boy's forehead. Harry heard his toddler self crying but they couldn't move to comfort him yet.
The mist was drawn into the box and as the last of it went inside, Harry was almost sure he'd heard a tiny shriek of pain. Pandora used her wand to levitate the beetle so that Harry could cast the curse onto it. In a flash of green light, the last Horcrux was destroyed.
"Now, all that's left is Tom Riddle himself." Pandora said cheerfully, "I think that went rather well."
Harry and Padma was busy looking after the screaming boy. Padma was healing his bleeding scar while Harry, in a position that many fathers find themselves when their child is crying, was trying to keep Padma calm while failing utterly to keep himself calm.
The piteous cries of the younger Harry called to Padma's very heart and once he wasn't bleeding, she practically crushed him to her chest.
"Thanks, Pandora." Harry said, "I didn't know how we'd do this without you."
Padma went to her side and hugged the blond witch, kissing her cheek, "Now we're even." Pandora said to Padma with a smile as she returned the hug, "You gave me a chance to see my future daughter grow up, this was the least I could do."
