Chapter 3 - Introductions

The next few days, the Potters mostly just got used to the sudden appearance of their new son. The Quidditch World Cup, however, was looming on the horizon. With James' knowledge and agreement, Harry started teaching the more violent aspects of magic to Iris. This of course made Rose jealous as she also wanted to start learning magic, her first year approaching fast, so both of them occasionally gave her a lesson as well. Since the Potters had already gone to Diagon Alley for everyone before, Rose had her own wand. She was slightly disappointed she hadn't gotten a rosewood wand, but in the end she was perfectly happy with her Rowan wood and Unicorn Hair - especially after Lily told her that Rowan was closely related to the roses. Without to much trouble, they'd taught her both the lumos and wingardium leviosa. Harry had mostly focused on control with that second charm - with focus, you could also make an object drift sideways a bit.

Harry learned that the marauders had been doing a lot better in this world - Sirius was married to a Marlene McKinnon, who Harry had never heard of before. Aside from Mary, who was about Rose's age, he also had a 2 year younger son named John James McKinnon, after Marlene's father and Sirius' best friend. Remus was a self-employed enchanter, so that he could choose his own work times and plan around the full moon. He was still single, though.

Then one morning, Harry joined Iris in the kitchen while they were home alone - James was at work, while Lily had taken Rose to visit Sirius' daughter Mary, so their mothers could catch up as well.

"Sister, how about we go get the ingredients for your backup wand?"

She frowned. "Why now?"

"Because if I want to explain to mom and dad that we went hunting for dementors and break into hogwarts, I'd prefer to do it after the fact rather then when they can still object.."

Iris gasped. "You're planning what exactly?"

Harry grinned. "Come on, family bonding experience. It'll be fun. I got a good plan for both. It's basically risk free."

"So what's that plan of yours?"

"..can't you just come along and see?"

"No. I've once asked that exact same question to Ron and Hermione, and I still can't comprehend why they were stupid enough to follow me without explanation. I doubt you're that much different from me that it'd suddenly be sensible."

Harry pouted exaggerated. "You're no fun. Fine, I want to apparate to Iceland first. It's the closest where there's still wild dementors around. I have a Snake patronus - I can grab a dementor and hold it still. Then you walk up to it, hold your wand down it's throat, and cast your own patronus."

Iris gaped. "Hold my wand down it's throat… is this what my plans sound like to my friends? Am I as totally insane as you are?"

Harry shrugged apologetically. "Hence why I'd prefer you'd just come. I know it'll work. I know of instances it did before. And about the insane levels of this plan, well, it's better thought out than when either of us went up against a Merlin-be-damned basilisk. But I might be used to a tad more danger than you because of the war and all."

She sighed. "Fine. I'll come."

He grinned. "Good. Bring the marauders' map. Then let's go outside, so I can apparate us."

She got the map from her trunk, went outside, and took his arm. She felt herself stretch out a tiny bit, then suddenly squeezed through a far to small tube, pressing in on her from all sides. From under the hand she held on Harry's arm, he felt warm, as if he was the sole beacon of heat and existence in the void. A moment later they emerged on a rocky field. She almost collapsed, but Harry caught her.

"You OK? I know side-along can be… unpleasant."

"I'm fine. And that… felt different. It felt different then when dad took me to Diagon Alley by apparition once."

Harry nodded. "At the risk of sounding a bit like Hermione… what most currently think of as apparition used to be referred to as emergency apparition. It's fast, and given sufficient power, you might break wards designed to counter it. That's very inefficient though. So I took a slower variant I'd been preparing since our talk. It takes some time to prepare, but the less intense wards can be bypassed without to much trouble if you know what you're doing. For instance, the apparition detection wards that are around every magical country. It's perhaps a little bit unpleasant to go through as well. But anyway, we're out now, and the ministry doesn't know someone without even a licence just apparated all the way to iceland - which they stupidly consider impossible."

"Then why are they wrong?"

"Because emergency apparition was developed for short distance only. The slower form I just used is much less power intensive at these distances. The power requirements increase linearly instead of quadratically. I can't quite jump to the other side of the planet, but I can get about halfway."

"That sounds… extremely useful. How do you know that many things about so different topics? Are you sure you were only twenty?"

"I've got an.. Advantage. It's my secret, for now. But I'm confident we'll get you the same one before you start your NEWTs. Now, lets see if we can find any dementors..."

He started waving his wand in wide motions, muttering under his breath. A variety of colors appeared in seemingly random patterns, until he stopped.

"Ok, closest is about ten kilometers eastwards. You coming?" He offered her is elbow.

Iris took it, and a moment later they were standing on the edge of a small glade, In the distance, they could see the dementor. It seemed to be only the one.

Harry kept his wand ready. "Ok. Follow me. Wait until I got it locked in place, then aim your wand down it's throat and cast your patronus." He hit her with a small cheering charm. "That should keep you well enough to do what you need."

"Can't you do the kill yourself?"

"Yes, I could, but the wand will be more suitable to you if you do it. Stay behind me until I got it, ok?"

"Ok."

He started walking towards the creature, and when it noticed them, it apparently considered them food, since it approached them. They could feel the cold set in, and a moment later they started feeling the effects on their minds when it tried to depress them. When they got into a range which Iris would normally call closer than comfortable, Harry raised his wand, and cast a silent patronus. A silvery snake came out of his wand, and rushed towards the dementor. At first it tried to flee, but the snake was a lot faster. Unlike the stag Iris was used to, it didn't strike the dementor, but it instead shot past, and curled around it, locking it's arms to its sides. After only a few seconds of struggle, the dementor was clearly locked in place.

Harry approached it, and pulled the tattered black cloak away from it's head, revealing it's eyeless disgusting face full of blotches. Iris forced herself to step forward, and while Harry and his patronus held the dementor still, she held the tip of her wand just over its mouth, and shouted:

EXPECTO PATRONUM

A white light shot into the dementors' mouth, and Harry stepped back, Iris following on instinct. The dementor seemed to fight harder against the snake for a moment. Then a light started to shine out of its mouth, ears, and even eyes, breaking through the skin. From there, the light started to spread, until it emitted light everywhere. Then the light faded, and Harry's snake slithered back to him. He gave it a pet, and it disappeared.

Where the dementor had been, now lay a tattered black cloak, and what looked like a blue-ish colored human skeleton in a pile of ash.

"Are they… human?" Iris asked.

"I don't know." Harry replied. "Whatever they are, they are an old race. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they were humans turned into these monsters."

He walked up to the pile of remains.

"Dementor ash is also valuable. The cloak has a few weird properties, which aren't terribly useful, but they can still be nice to have."

He took a shrunken trunk out of his pocket, which he'd obviously had gotten from Potter Manor. He opened it, and grabbed the obviously prepared bags for the ash and bones, and bundled them back in the trunk with the cloak.

"Good job sis. We got 'm."

She raised an eyebrow, but then raised her hand for a high-five, which he supplied. Then he offered her his arm again.

"Lets go to school and grab the basilisk."

"You want to grab the entire basilisk?"

He nodded. "Yes. Magical resistance doesn't affect folded space like that of space-enlarged trunks. It's perfectly ok to do it like this."

She took his arm.

"This may take a minute, Iris. I need to find the hole in the alert wards again."

After slightly more than a minute, Iris felt herself get stretched again, and then pulled through the tight tube. Suddenly, they were at the edge of Hogsmeade.

"Iris, plan for this one is simple. We take one of Filch's four tunnels into hogwarts. There's one exit close to here. We both wear our cloaks, which will hide us from even the wards of hogwarts. Even Dumbledore won't figure out we've been here. We go to the chamber, get the basilisk, get out, use the same tunnel, and we'll apparate home as soon as we clear the wards."

"Sounds good. But I don't have the cloak here."

"Then call it towards you."

She flushed. "Oops. That's going to take some getting used to."

Harry smiled. "It happens, sis. I once was imprisoned for two hours before I realized I could do the exact same thing with my wand. Felt pretty stupid about that to."

She giggled, then summoned the cloak towards her. Then she looked at Harry.

"You're still visible."

"Only to you. If you have sufficient practice, you can tell the cloak to not affect certain people. Also, I've got some… bonus possibilities. I don't need to physically wear it for it to work on me anymore. But if I lend it to someone else, I still can't use it of course. Could you give me the map? Will be easier that way, since you still need to wear your cloak."

She nodded, and handed it over. He led her to a rock that looked totally random, tapped it with his wand, and it rose a bit from the ground, giving access to a tunnel. They followed it for about half an hour, before the emerged in the castle. Harry checked the map, with her looking over his shoulder. They indeed weren't visible, which she'd never noticed before. The castle was mostly empty, though, and it was laughably easy to find Myrtle's bathroom and get there undetected. Harry opened the sink, and jumped down, casting charms as he went. When she followed him, she noticed they must have been scouring charms. When she landed, she also felt the effect of a cushioning charm, which also was a significant improvement from last time. She also wasn't filthy to her underwear, and she wouldn't have to wash her hair hours on end again.

And no, she was not above admitting she was still a bit angry about that one.

They walked to the chamber. A few waves of Harry's wand cleared the collapse, and before long they were in the chamber proper. Harry pointed out the door towards Salazar's study, which Iris hadn't spotted last time. In her defense, we had been a wee bit distracted between the basilisk and the young Voldemort. Harry took out a different shrunken trunk, and put it on the ground. He unshrunk it, then raised up an entire wardrobe from it. He opened its doors, and it indeed seemed large enough for the basilisk to pass through. Then he levitated the wardrobe , since the basilisk was probably indeed a bit too heavy to carry, and to magically resistant to levitate. He scooped up the beast with the wardrobe, until it was entirely inside. It had taken him two minutes, tops. Damn, but Potters were good when they had time to prepare.

"Harry? How about we grab some of those books you were talking about, so I can start on parselmagic?"

Harry shrugged. "Fine. Let's get one that goes over the basics. And perhaps the one for summoning."

He smirked at her, and pointed his wand towards the floor close to him.

$Big constrictor$

A big snake shot out of his wand, mostly unremarkable but clearly strong. Iris raised an eyebrow.

"Big constrictor? What kind of incantation is that?"

"It's part of how the snake summoning works with parselmagic. Don't worry - it still sounds like some awesome arcane incantation to everyone who doesn't speak it." $Disappear$ He gestured, and the snake faded from view. Then he led her towards the door he'd indicated previously.

"There are some spells with other types of incantations, though. But stay away from the magical snakes for now - they take a lot out of you to summon. If you'd try, say, a basilisk, the power demand could very well kill you. Parselmagic is a tad more.. Primal and dangerous than what you learn at hogwarts."

Salazar's quarters here were pretty small - or perhaps he only left it for special situations. It was basically a study, a small bedroom, and a library - but that last one was basically a small corridor with bookshelves on each side, and only about 5 meters deep, and far from filled. Harry picked out three, and gave them to her.

"These are good starting material. Let's look them over at home?"

Iris nodded. "Good plan."

They left the chamber. Arriving at the entrance, Harry used parseltongue to ask for stairs, which appeared.

"When going down, it's easier to slide. It otherwise takes forever."

They ascended, which took them a good quarter of an hour. Using the map, they passed through the castle completely undetected. Harry guided them to the same entrance they'd used before, and as soon as the tunnel left the wards, he apparated them both back to Potter Manor.

Harry gave her a quick explanation of parselmagic, and then set her to reading. It was quite weird at first to read the parcel script - it was all squiggles, lines and dots. But for some reason, when trying to read it a word at a time instead of a letter at the time, it all made sense. She took a small break with a lesson for Rose, teaching her the Impediment jinx. It had low power requirements, and as a first year, she could easily handle it. Then, the afternoon after their little trip around, Harry found her in the library, and put something in front of her. She took her eyes off the book, and saw the wand Harry'd made for her - the dementor bone still had the dark bluish sheen she'd seen on it before, and it was slightly longer than her holly and phoenix feather wand. She took it up, and gasped when she felt the raw power she had access to with this wans. She looked up at her brother.

"Now be careful with this one at first. Your old wand is probably better for the fine work. This wand is more… combat oriented. You'll find that your curses are significantly more powerful. Your shields will be sturdier. And if you try the fine work, you'll probably horribly overpower your spells. If you tried your old levitation charm… your feather would be flat against the roof, if you didn't break it by its rapid ascension."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Let's test it out?"

"Of course. Never doubted that you would want to. Keep in mind, since it's core is a basilisk eyestring, it will overpower parselmagic even more. Because of the soul magic affinity, it also seems to amplify the power of the killing curse, though you probably won't need or use that."

They trained some more, trading combat spells. Harry kept his assortment up to her own level, but didn't dial back his speed much. He was a far faster caster, and could put a lot more force behind his spells as well. As a result, Iris tired quite quickly, to which Harry merely smirked and answered that if she wanted to grow powerful, the only way was through exhaustion.

A few days before they'd head to the Quidditch World Cup, Hermione would get to Potter Manor, and stay with her best friend Iris until they'd go there together. That had already been decided before Harry had shown up.

And now he was restlessly pacing through the entrance hall. Because he was to meet a girl who was basically a clone of his best friend, and he had no clue how to deal with it. She might even have been his girlfriend? It'd been simple only because all their other friends had been dead. They'd definitely done a few things that normally required boyfriend/girlfriend status. But this was a different Hermione. Yes, he mostly knew her. He knew the kind of person she was. And Iris was here, who knew both of them. She smiled a fragile smile when he realized that Iris knew him a lot better than anyone knowing him for a week and a half had a right to. However, this Hermione didn't have a clue about who he was.

"Calm down, Harry." He looked up, and saw his mother enter the room. He had a mother… He sighed.

"I just… I don't know what's going to happen. How do I not alienate her?"

She embraced him, and he allowed himself to melt into her. Despite the fact that his brain knew she couldn't protect him from anything he couldn't protect himself from, part of him still felt safe in her arms.

He felt her move a bit, and felt the silent privacy charm jump into existence around them.

"Is this about what happened to her in your own world? About the two of you being involved?"

"Perhaps? I don't know. Partly I think. I don't know how romantic it was, we were just both the only one left the other trusted…"

"Sssh. It's gonna be fine. You're a really nice boy, and she'll like you just like her other self did. I think it's due to Iris always having had more confidence in herself than you used to have, but Hermione is also more confident than the way you showed her to me. Just be honest, don't press too close too fast, and don't try to continue something that she wasn't part of."

She released the hug, and held him by his shoulders to look him in the eyes, glistening of held up tears. "And I don't mean that I wouldn't want her as daughter-in-law, but never forget that you'll have to start from scratch with her. Deal?"

Harry nodded. "Yes mom."

She hugged him again.

"You've never had the time to properly mourn her death, have you? That's why it's so painful. You haven't told the Hermione you knew goodbye yet."

She kept whispering in his ear. Harry didn't say a word, but she could feel she had all his attention by how tight he held her.

"I'm very grateful to other Hermione for taking to good care of you. But in the here and now, there's another Hermione. See it as her second chance for happiness."

She ended the hug and the charm.

"Now go sit with your sister. I promise it's going to be fine."

He sad down next to Iris, and went through his occlumency exercises to keep calm. He did nearly all occlumency subconscious these days, so it'd been a while that he had to actually meditate. After a few more minutes, the floo flared up green, and out stepped a very well-known bookworm. She did indeed look a tad more confident than he remembered of almost-fifteen Hermione. His Hermione had gotten more confident throughout their fourth year, but the new one seemed ahead of schedule. Iris jumped towards her, and caught her in a hug.

"It's good to see you again, Mione."

"You to, Iris."

Iris release the girl, then led her to Harry.

"This is Harry. Consider him my twin brother."

Harry shook her hand, hoping his own hadn't gone sweaty.

"Pleased to meet you." Said Harry. "Iris told me a lot about you." Most of that was comparing her to the Hermione he'd grown up with, though.

She gave him a small smile. "Pleased to meet you. Iris told me a tiny bit about you, but, if you don't mind me asking… Most people don't just get fourteen year old brothers out of nowhere."

Iris was the one who answered.

"What we're telling everyone is that he was kidnapped when we were both small. We were all obliviated about it. Harry grew up with a hermit somewhere who taught him magic, but was a bit antisocial. However, the hermit died, he saw my name in the newspaper, and went to figure out if he was related to us Potters."

Hermione nodded. "So what really happened?"

Harry smiled. "See Iris, I told you she'd figure it out right away before you finished talking." He turned to Hermione. "How's your occlumency?"

Hermione frowned. "What's that?"

"It's a type of magic that allows you to better control your emotions and preserve your memory. It also allows you to shield your mind against Legilimency, which you could crudely call mind-reading."

Hermione blinked. Twice. "Mind reading exists?!" It was almost a shriek.

Iris replied. "Yes, but there aren't many people who can do it. However... We kind of don't want people to figure out how Harry really got with us. So we'll help you learn occlumency, and then we'll tell you. Is that ok?"

Hermione bit her lower lip, which Harry considered seriously cute. "You know the story and trust him, Iris?"

Iris nodded. "With my life. And yes, he really is a brother to me."

Hermione looked at Harry. "Good enough for me. It'll look forward to get to know you."

Harry smiled. "Trust me, Hermione, not as much as I do."

While contact started off a bit awkward, it got better after Iris and Hermione started doing their summer homework for defense together.

"Ugh. How about we just ask Harry for help with this for a bit?"

"Your brother better in defense than you?"

"Yes."

"But you're the best in our year!"

"I know, but he's still a bit better. I'll just get him, ok?" Iris stood up and left.

Iris came back half a minute later, Harry in tow.

"So what's the problem?"

"Stupify. I'm pretty sure I have the wand movement right, but Hermione can't figure it out."

Harry turned towards the girl. He had to still his nerves for a moment.

"Let me see."

Hermione twirled her wand, then jabbed forward at the end.

"Close, but wrong. You start left, then make a clockwise spiral for seven-fifth rounds, constantly towards the center by a quarter of your original distance from it. Then you point forward and two wand-widths. A point, not a jab."

Hermione blinked.

And made the movement perfectly.

"Like this?"

"That was perfect."

She tilted her head, and looked at Harry inquisitively.

"How do you know how I memorize my wand movements?"

Harry managed to suppress his flush and surprise, but didn't quite manage to reply with surety.

"I.. Iris told me?"

Internally, Harry began to sweat. Other Hermione had used this exact sentence once to try help someone in the DA, but it turned out that nobody else could use instructions worded this way. While Hermione was a fast learner of spells, she was a horrible teacher for everyone who didn't have a lot of experience with her way to describe spells. Harry and Ron had basically been the only ones to understand it.

But someone she never met being able to instantly use her own notation to explain her a spell? Heck no. He hoped she'd somewhat ignore it. He knew his own Hermione wouldn't have, but perhaps she was still young enough to let it slide.

Hermione blinked, then slowly looked at Iris. Iris had had plenty time to realize what was up, and nodded.

"I hope you don't mind me talking about you?"

Harry breathed out. His sister was totally amazing and the best person ever. Iris to the rescue.

Hermione shook her head.

"No, it's fine. I just… well, it works, and that's what matters. So pronunciation?"

Harry tried to shift a bit more to how he'd explain the spell to, well, everyone not named Hermione.

"No significant emphasis. Instead, try to throw it out your mouth as fast as possible. Since this is defense, casting speed is paramount. Intent should be hostile numbness."

Hermione scrunched up her nose. That was quite a normal reaction for her when he explained something to her in a way not hers, so that was a good sign for his cover. Harry stealthily took out his second spare wand - Dragon Heartstring in Oak. It wasn't even that good a fit, but it had the advantage that nearly everyone seemed to be able to get some use out of it. Not that Harry really knew why. Nobody really understood wands, not even wand-makers.

"Here, try casting it at me."

"We're not allowed to do magic!"

"This is a practice wand. It doesn't actually do anything, and therefore doesn't give you warning either. But it will show you if your cast was effective."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, but started casting. First she needed to speed up her pronounciation - she had the bad habit of speaking really slowly to pronounce her spells perfectly. Stupify was one of those spells where it mattered, but it would be a bad habit with all spells, especially if it got to war again. Other Hermione had been slow in learning, and that had been massively inconvenient.

Her wand movements were perfect, though. And since he could feel a bit of magic accumulating, he knew the intent was coming along.

"Again. Just a tad more focus."

Hermione tried for the fifth time, and a red bolt shot out of the wand, towards Harry. Harry caught it on the tip of his primary wand, and stopped it in mid-air. Then he brought it closer to his eyes, to investigate it.

"Looks fine. I think you know it."

Hermione's eyes grew a bit wider.

"How do you do that? Is it because this is a practice wand?"

Harry grinned. "Ah. Well, I've got a bit of a confession to make. That's not a practice wand. Actually, underage magic is detected by means of an enchantment, called the trace, on your own wand. It falls off when you become 17. That wand had dropped the trace that exact way. By someone not me."

The only reason he'd been able to finish talking was because Hermione was gaping with her mouth open.

"But that's illegal! You made me break the law!"

He raised his eyebrow. Time to bait the trap.

"That's not a traced wand, so they can't know you did. While you aren't allowed to possess a wand without a trace, it's not illegal to use one."

"It's about the spirit of the law, not the letter."

Harry smiled. "Would you like to know why that law exists?"

Hermione blinked. "What's that got to do with it?"

"You asked about the spirit of the law."

She sighed, apparently having an idea of what was coming. "Ok, fine. Tell me."

"Let's say that all muggleborn children are responsible enough to actively take measures to avoid breaking the statute of secrecy. While I would consider that to be accurate for you yourself, I highly doubt that's something you could blanketly say about all muggleborns at school, right?"

"Yes, but, what has muggleborns to do with it?"

"Getting there. Not all children have adequate control over their magic. That's why we're taught how to use it at Hogwarts."

She nodded, and Harry continued.

"So if, say, Iris here would make a mistake casting something, both her parents are qualified magic-users who can reverse the problem, or in the worst case contact the ministry to take care of it. However, if a muggleborn miscast a fire spell to light the hearth, for example, then there's a magical fire in a muggle location. Muggle firemen can't fight it - it needs magic. And nobody can contact the ministry. Can you see where I'm getting here?"

Hermione had a clear frown on her face. She didn't like it.

"Yeeesss…."

"The underage restriction basically only exists for muggleborns, for the very reason of safety, and the related reason of secrecy. However, since they weren't able to put that into law, the law technically applies to those raised in magical dwellings. However, they mostly just ignore them, after all, it could also be a parent using the traced wand."

Harry looked to Iris.

"However, it's probably smart to not increase the amount of traced magic use in this house. If auror dad spots a sudden increase in traced magic use, he might decide to ask awkward questions Iris here doesn't want to answer."

Iris looked a bit down at that, but nodded, and continued for him.

"That said, your second wand is untraced, so…."

Suddenly, a dangerous glint appeared in Hermione's eyes.

"Second wand?" She interrupted.

"Second wand." Harry confirmed. "Don't tell mom and dad, please. It's not exactly legal. Also not exactly illegal, but more of a grey area. Just like you having mine there. However, it's the only way to improve, and to be honest, Iris needs that, as you know. As Iris' brother, so do I. And as her friend, you need to be able to defend yourself as well."

Hermione turned to Iris.

"He knows about.. The reasons.."

Iris nodded. "He knows about the prophecy. In fact, it's best you assume he knows everything I know except for the contents of our girl talks."

Harry cleared his throat.

"And I'd like to keep it that way and never find out. However, I hoped you might be able to return the favor a bit with the help… I haven't studied any arithmancy or runes before, but I'm hoping to catch up with them. I haven't talked to any professors yet about it, but… in trade for me helping you with defense?" Harry knew Iris had taken those subjects, and he still regretted never having taken them himself in his old school career. Especially runes, as he could recall a few moments that Rune knowledge would have saved lives. But no, he had to be a lazy ass and pick divination for an easy O.

Hermione nodded. "Of course. And no need for a trade, as Iris' brother I'd help you anyway."

"I promise I'll work hard on it, of course. It's not about the grades, it's about the knowledge."

That earned him his first Hermione Smile of Approval. Even if it was a different Hermione, he knew how to entice her. High grades were good. But to desire knowledge even over grades…. that spoke to a much more primal urge of his bushy-haired friend.

The day before the Quidditch World Cup, Sirius arrived. With him were his wife and children. Their kids didn't really go for the questions. Instead, Mary went for her good friend Rose, who she'd start Hogwarts with, and John joining them. Iris and Hermione greeted the newcomers, and then went to Iris' room for what Harry assumed to be girl talk. Which left Harry alone with the adults, and Sirius was still a true Gryffindor who charged in straight to the point.

"So... Prongs, Lily. I'm pretty confident Iris didn't have a twin."

The elder Potters were speechless. This was blunt even for Sirius. Harry looked towards his new mother, and asked a question through legilimency.

"Do you trust Marlene?"

"With my life and that of my children. And she's been keeping my secrets since my first year."

Harry nodded.

"I am willing to explain, but it's a long story, and parts of it may be tough to understand. You have a few hours, Padfoot?"

Sirius nodded. "As long as John doesn't blow anything up, sure."

Harry turned to James. "Are you aware of the location of the family pensieve ? I haven't spotted it yet..."

James called a house-elf, and had it bring the pensieve, which Harry put on the table.

"I am going to use this to support my story. It'll be easier to understand if you can see parts of it. In short, I am from another world. You know the essentials of the multiple-worlds theory?"

Sirius already looked uncomfortable. "Let's… pretend...that I don't."

Harry started explaining the general idea, and then describing his old world. He showed bits and bobs, like parts of his first time in diagon alley, and the fight with the basilisk. Sirius was shocked to learn how he'd been in azkaban for so long in that world, and Harry had shown him the entire memory of what happened in the Shrieking Shack.

"Ok, I'm also going to show something that happened after my third year. The very quick and dirty version is, Voldemort returned at the end of my fourth year, and most inhabitants of magical britain died in the following war. I think that before the final battle I fought him in, only around ten percent was still alive. Even less after that battle, since it was a rather bloody affair."

He then showed them a last memory. The one of the attack on the Quidditch World Cup.

This had all of them silent.

"I want to be there." Harry announced. "Most Knight of Walpurgis that evaded azkaban were quite high up in the hierarchy. It gives me a proper excuse to thin their numbers."

Marlene was the one to respond.

"You mean to capture them, right?"

Harry shook his head. "They'd just bribe their way to freedom again. As far as I'm concerned, the war is already started. The only way to make sure an enemy doesn't return is to kill them. So when they all dress up like in the good old days... "

"But you're just a boy."

Harry looked up.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Black, but I'm twenty years old. And I could take all four of you in a fight, no trouble. Even if all of you went for the kill while I could only capture."

He saw the disbelief on her face. Sirius and James didn't seem to believe him either. Only Lily, but she knew more than the others anyway..

"Allright, lets go. Follow me to the duelling pit. All of you."

Marlene objected. "That's really not..."

"NOW." He sneered. "I fought a war for years. I will NOT allow you to doubt that I am capable, and I am serious about this."

He raised his index finger to Sirius to silence him, who'd already opened his mouth. "Not. A. Word."

Sirius did close his mouth, but he left a smirk behind. It seemed this Sirius was as incapable of resisting jokes regarding his name at least as much as the one he'd known in the other world.

Harry led them to a chamber in the basement.

"Discuss your strategy."

He conjured up a red light, and went to the other side of the room.

They discussed for a moment.

"Harry, we really think..."

Harry slashed down his wand. The red light went dimmer, and a voice spoke.

"Five."

Harry took his stance.

"Four"

The adults lined up, taking distance between them. At least they weren't stupid.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

The red light went out, leaving sufficient ambient light, but not like a well-lit room. Harry slung an explosive curse towards the floor in front of his parents, followed up with an area banisher charm to bombard them with the shrapnel. Then he twitched his wand to the side, and it obediently spew forth a series of lights all in different colors. Four headed to Sirius, and three to Marlene. Sirius shielded the first, dodged the second, had his shield destroyed by the third, and was thrown into the wall by the fourth. Marlene had her shield up to late, behind pushed backwards, silenced, and her wand thrown from her hand. Harry noticed his parents had started their retaliation. He conjured a shield, while throwing a wandless stunner towards Sirius to put him out, followed by one for Marlene before she could get her wand back. Then he cancelled his shield, batted a few curses away or back towards them, and added in a few curses of himself. He felt for magic behind him, and countered his father's transfigurations with their exact counterspells. Then he doubled up on the assault, and overwhelmed his mother first, disarming and binding her, before doing the same to his dad. He collected them, then woke and freed them all.

"This is when I play fair. Now let's go a round without fair."

They reluctantly lined up again. This time, however, they didn't fool around, and took him seriously.

He threw up a mist, then cast four delayed, slowed, soulshifted stunners. He released them at once. Since they were shifted compared to his shield, they could pass through. All four of them collapsed at the same moment. It had taken about a second.

He woke them up again. "More demonstration needed?"

Sirius stood up slowly. "No, I don't think so."

Marlene hugged herself, causing Sirius to put an arm around her shoulder.

She spoke. "I just wish you wouldn't have to kill them."

Harry's face softened. "Don't we all."

"Why are you telling us all of this? It's clear you could do it anyway, even without us finding out."

"I could. And if you'd find out, I could obliviate you. But I don't want to work that way. I want the four of you behind me. I'm… sick and tired of doing this alone."

Marlene nodded sadly.

"I'm with you. I don't know how much you've heard about my family in your old world, but I lost everyone except Sirius to those bastards. My family name will die out."

Harry attempted a reassuring smile at her. "I'll see to it that their deaths were not in vain."