Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 28
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Author's note:
The Wookie speech came straight from a Wookie translator website I found using Google. I didn't know such a thing existed before I started writing about the Wookie action figure speaking. Additionally, if you need a refresh of the toys Little Harry received from the muggle world, they were listed in chapter 6, listing them all again just felt a little redundant.
Christmas Day, Grimmauld Place:
The house woke up to the sounds of barking and giggles at just after six o'clock in the morning.
Now, on a normal day, Sirius Black would have been found still sleeping in until well past nine o'clock in the morning, but Christmas Day was always different. He was always the first one awake on Christmas morning in Gryffindor Tower, and he would wake up all his dorm mates by changing into Padfoot and licking their faces until they woke up. Luckily for him, all his dorm mates were the rest of the Marauders.
This morning, he had quietly woke up and made his way to Little Harry's room to see if the little tyke had woken up on his own yet, and he was happy to find the little guy had crawled out of his little toddler bed and was playing with his wolf, stag, doe, and grim. Sirius briefly wondered if Mary or Harry conjured them every day, because anything he had ever conjured himself only lasted for a few hours at the most.
Shaking his head out of his musings, Sirius quietly walked the rest of the way in the room and shut the door behind him and said quietly, "Merry Christmas, pup!"
Little Harry gave an excited squeal and exclaimed, "Paddy!" And then proceeded to reach out his hands towards Sirius to be picked up; instead, Sirius became Padfoot and playfully barked and licked Little Harry's face, causing him to have a fit of giggles, which Padfoot answered with barking laughter, all pretenses of being quiet gone.
In the next room, Harry groaned at the sound of the barking and giggling. He and Merope had stayed up rather late the previous night alternating between conversing and lovemaking. They had been so busy since arriving in this timeline that their need for each other just exploded from them the moment they were alone in their room.
After letting out a large yawn as he stretched, Harry rolled back over and gathered Merope up in his arms, breathing in her scent that he loved so much. "One would think that the fact that we're immortals would eliminate the need for sleeping," Harry said, followed by another yawn.
Merope smiled and kissed his chest before she burrowed even further into his arms, "I'm rather glad we still have the need to eat and sleep and have the normal needs and wants of any other mortal." Then she stretched and started to pull away, which caused Harry to frown a bit, before she crawled up on top of him and began to straddle his body, Harry placing his hands on either side of her hips, "Can you imagine how boring our adventures would turn out to be if we never slept," Merope said, as she started to kiss her way up his chest, "never felt hunger," kissing the hollow of his neck, and then said as she hovered over his lips, "or didn't feel this passion anymore?"
Harry tightened his grip on her hips as she ground herself into him and deepened the kiss. Finally, they needed to break apart for some air, and after catching their breath, Harry said, "You are absolutely right. I don't know what I was thinking. Care to go for another round before Padfoot and Little Harry decide to venture out of the room?" Merope just leaned down and kissed him passionately in answer.
On the next floor up, Walburga blinked awake at the sound of barking and giggles and called Kreacher. "Yes, Mistress?" asked Kreacher.
"What is going on downstairs, Kreacher," Walburga asked tiredly.
Kreacher popped out and returned to say, "Little Master Harry is playings with Master Sirius in his dogs form."
"Oh, that explains it. Thank you Kreacher." said Walburga. "I had nearly forgotten that my son is an animagus, there was so much excitement after the trial that it never occurred to me to ask about it after we were home." Walburga let out a yawn and stretched, before checking the time, then said, "Please get breakfast started, Kreacher, I imagine it won't be long before all the rest of the house is awake after hearing those two."
Kreacher gave a bow and said, "Yes, Mistress." And then he popped to the kitchen to get breakfast started.
After Kreacher popped out, Walburga lost herself in her memories of the night before as she was introduced to her son's sweet little godson. She had loved him the moment she laid eyes on him and when they had begun to introduce her as Mrs. Black, she had immediately corrected and told them that she would be immensely pleased if Little Harry would call her Gran. She smiled remembering the look of shock on the other adults' faces, but Little Harry just grinned and enthusiastically began to call her Gran.
On the floor below Little Harry's room, Remus just woke up grinning ear to ear at the joyous sounds of childish giggles and enthusiastic barking. He felt content to have his family/pack back together again, even though it was missing a few of its important members, and was looking forward to celebrating the day with them. Not to mention that the faster they get through this day, the sooner he and Sirius would get to hear the adult Harry's life story. Something told him that he and Sirius were going to be in for one hell of a shocking story.
The smells that were exuding through the hallway and up the stairs was what finally made the occupants of 12 Grimmauld Place emerge from their beds to get dressed and make their way downstairs for what smelled like it was going to be an amazing breakfast, courtesy of Kreacher.
After breakfast, everyone made their way to the drawing room to open presents together. Sirius played the part of Father Christmas and passed out all of the presents. Once they were all passed out, Sirius took a seat on the floor next to Little Harry, who was sitting near the tree in front of where Harry and Merope were seated, then Sirius clapped his hands and said, "Okay. I think we should all take a turn to open a present, starting from youngest to oldest, until we run out of presents."
At everyone's acknowledgment of agreement, Sirius then turned to Little Harry and said, "Okay, pup, it's your turn first, let's see what you have here."
While Sirius was choosing which present to help Little Harry open first, Harry instructed Little Harry, "Now listen very carefully, Harry." Little Harry looked at him with a very focused amount of attention, then Harry resumed, "You get to open one present and you can play with that one present while everyone else takes a turn to open one present each, and then after Gran opens her present, then it will be your turn again. Do you understand?" Little Harry appeared to go over the instructions in his head before saying "Yes, Daddy." Then Sirius handed Little Harry his first present.
Little Harry clapped his hands and giggled, and then proceeded to open up his first present, which happened to be a Wookie action figure from Star Wars, everyone besides Harry and Merope were staring at the action figure in undisguised curiosity, as they had never seen such an item before. When the figure started talking, "Awwgggghhh, raaaaahhgh uughguughhhghghghhhgh," everyone's eyes widened in fascination and Little Harry just giggled in delight, turning it over and over in his hands before he set it down on the floor and it started to walk around and talk more.
Harry had to remind everyone that the rest of them needed to take their turn opening presents and that he would answer any questions they might have after all the presents had been opened, as he was sure they would have many questions regarding the rest of the presents that Little Harry would receive.
So everyone took their turn, opening each fascinating present after another, and Little Harry was excited for all of his presents, including the child's broom, but the Wookie, Wolfman, and Dracula toys appeared to be his favorites. While everyone loved and were thankful for each of their own presents that they had received, they were all still somehow more fascinated with Little Harry's presents, than their own. Harry found it amusing and even joked that if they really liked the enchanted muggle toys so much, then perhaps Sirius and Remus would like to visit Toys R Us to buy their own toys. He never imagined that just that one joke would be what influenced Sirius and Remus to consider opening up their own toy store with enchanted muggle toys, especially when Remus said, "We would only need to ward them all with permanent muggle repelling charms so that a muggle cannot accidentally stumble upon them."
The day passed peacefully and without the interruption of a certain nosy headmaster. The adults, including Walburga, enjoyed playing with Little Harry and his enchanted muggle toys, Kreacher was even persuaded by Little Harry to join in the play, which he did only after receiving surprising permission from Walburga.
This led to Harry remembering that arrangements needed to be made for Kreacher to come to the island the next day to keep Little Harry entertained, so that he and Merope could speak privately to Sirius and Remus. Upon the request for Kreacher's services, Walburga said she had no problem with it; however, she said she enjoyed Little Harry's company and would be pleased if Little Harry were to remain at Grimmauld Place for the night; or in the alternative, Kreacher could go pick him up from them in the morning and bring him back whenever Harry called for him.
After sharing a look with Merope, Harry agreed that he would call Kreacher in the morning after Little Harry had woken up and had breakfast, and that Harry would call for him again later in the afternoon. However, first he wanted to check the wards to make sure that Dumbledore would not be able to make his way through the wards, if for some reason he overcame the effects of being hit with his own compulsion and confundus charms. He didn't think it entirely likely, but he knew not to underestimate him, especially since he had already made one surprise visit to Grimmauld Place already. By the time Harry was done, Grimmauld Place was more secure than Gringotts.
It was after Christmas supper that the Potters, Remus, and Sirius gave Walburga a warm goodbye, promising to visit again soon, and returned to the island. Boxing Day was tomorrow and the occupants of the island subconsciously understood that it was bound to be a long and emotional day by the time Harry finished telling Sirius and Remus his story.
Boxing Day, Island:
The next morning found Harry in a somber mood, as he sat outside on the shore of the beach waiting for the sunrise, sipping on a cup of hot tea. He didn't sleep well the night before, unusually anxious about what the day ahead would bring, as he knew this was the day he had promised to tell the remaining Marauders his story. He wasn't exactly excited about having to tell the story of his life, but he felt like he owed Sirius and Remus the truth of his life, considering how he pretty much just barged into their lives and started making all the decisions, including taking custody of Little Harry and making all the decisions regarding his future upbringing.
He was contemplating how much detail he would go into about his and Merope's MoD status when he felt Merope approaching from behind, he had barely enough time to take his last sip of tea and banish the cup to the tent's kitchen before she was climbing in his lap and getting comfortable.
Merope seemed to know that he wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet of watching the sunrise before speaking, so they sat there in comfortable silence as they waited for the rising sun. When the last of the colors from the sunrise had faded away, Merope asked, "Are you ready for the day now?"
Harry took in a breath and exhaled slowly and said, "I'm just trying to decide how to go about telling them everything, or even if everything needs to be told. You know how hard my life was, you've seen the memories." Harry sighed again, leaning down to breath in the scent of Merope's hair, trying to make himself relax, then whispered, "I don't know if I want to live all of those memories again, but I know that I promised to tell them my story and I need to keep my word."
Merope turned her head towards Harry and gave him a kiss before resting her head back on his chest. Quietly she said, "I understand how hard your life was, Harry, in many ways it was much worse than mine had been before you rescued me. I try not to think about what my son in another lifetime grew up to become and do to you, because it's so depressing, my heart breaks for what that little boy became. If someone would have just shown that they cared, if someone would have taken him away from that place, I don't think he would have grown up to be what he became."
Harry gave Merope a comforting squeeze and said softly, "One day we're going to do just that, you and I, even if we don't get pulled there as we did here, one day we will make it to him in time to save him and give him a loving home." Merope looked up at him at that, tears having built up but not yet overflowed, and gave him a small smile and a nod, because her throat was too tight to speak at the moment. Then they fell into a comfortable silence once again, until the ward alerting them that Little Harry had woken up and that it was time to get breakfast ready.
After breakfast, Kreacher had been called to pick up Little Harry and a bag that had been prepared with some changes of clothes and his toys. They didn't know how long they were going to be at it, but Kreacher was instructed to tell them to take as long as it takes, Little Harry would be safe and happy with them at Grimmauld Place for the day.
Now the four of them were sitting quietly in the sitting area of the tent, waiting for Harry to get his bearings and decide where he wanted to start.
Finally Harry said, "Well, I'm tempted to just pour all of my memories into the pensieve for you both to review at your leisure, but that almost seems like the coward's way out."
"If it's too difficult for you to speak about, Harry, I'll understand if you would rather us view the memories instead," said Sirius.
Harry shook his head and said, "While it is difficult to talk about, I did promise to tell you about it. That's not to say that I won't share any memories, because 'seeing is believing,' as they say, and I'm afraid that many of my experiences were like that. You had to see it to believe it, like killing a 50-foot basilisk when I was 12, using the Sword of Gryffindor, being bitten in the process and then being healed by phoenix tears."
Remus' and Sirius' eyes were huge at that declaration and Sirius stuttered, "Y-yeah, I-I would d-definitely want to see that memory." Remus could only nod in answer.
"Well, first off," Harry said, "since you were present and already know what happened up to Halloween, I'll start from after that..."
Harry told them about what he knew of his delivery to the steps of the Dursleys in the early morning hours on November the 1st, wrapped only in a blanket with a letter attached.
"Wait just a minute," Sirius interrupted. Harry paused and raised an eyebrow in question and Sirius asked, "Are you telling me that that senile old man left a toddler alone on the doorstep with nought but a note and a blanket in the middle of the night?"
Harry sighed and said, "Yes, Padfoot, that's exactly what I'm telling you. Not only that, McGonagall claimed to have been watching them all day and said they were the worst kind of muggles and she didn't want Dumbledore to leave me there.
"And that's another thing to think about, I always understood it that I had been delivered there almost immediately after the attack, which should have been during the early morning hours of November 1st; however, that would mean that McGonagall would have to have known when the attack would be, if she had been watching the Dursleys all day, which would have been October 31st, so there's another hole in the story somewhere.
"Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think McGonagall is part of any conspiracy against me, and the story could be as innocent as the Dursleys were watched all day on the 1st, and I wasn't delivered until the early morning hours of the 2nd, but when I coaxed the story from her, she was adamant that I was delivered there immediately after the attack, which coincidentally was well before the day that you were initially arrested and thrown into Azkaban, Padfoot."
Remus frowned and said, "So far your story just leads to more questions, Harry. What do you think happened to cause such a discrepancy?"
Harry sighed in frustration and said, "After thinking about it off and on for all these years, I still haven't been able to come up with what I know to be the answer in truth, just speculation. I suspect that I was taken to a healer and examined first, when said healer discovered the horcrux in my scar and notified Dumbledore, I believe they were obliviated of all knowledge of having seen me or treated me.
"The delay for my healing would explain why McGonagall would have been watching the muggles all day, but it doesn't account for why she still insisted that I was taken there immediately, even Hagrid's story corroborates that he delivered me there immediately after the attack and that he used the motorbike that you let him borrow, Padfoot."
Sirius was rubbing his chin and said absently, "Yeah, I need to get that back from the big guy."
Remus cleared his throat and asked, "What if it wasn't just the healer that was obliviated?"
Harry nodded and said, "That is my best theory." Then Harry resumed his story about his life with the Dursleys, where he was occasionally interrupted with expletives and curses.
"I was always told that my parents were worthless freaks who died in a car crash while driving drunk…
"My bedroom was the cupboard under the stairs, until my Hogwarts letter came...
"I didn't know my name was't Freak or Boy until I started primary school and learned I actually had a name, my teachers thought I was trying to be the class clown when I wouldn't answer to my name...
"I did all the cooking, cleaning, and gardening, I wasn't allowed to eat what I cooked…
"I was always the smallest in class, always underweight from being underfed...
"I wasn't allowed new clothes, I had to wear my fat cousin's leftovers…
"I had to run away from my cousin a lot, otherwise I would be beat up by him and his friends…
"I apparated to the roof of the school once, while trying to get away from Dudley and his gang of bullies…"
And on and on the story went; the letters...Hagrid's rescue...his first trip to Diagon Alley...finding out he was famous and why. Harry had just made it to the confrontation with Quirrell when Sirius interrupted.
"Wait, wait, wait. You expect me to believe that Dumbledore hid the Philosopher's Stone in a school full of children, using protections that a group of first years could get through?" asked Sirius.
"Well, I can show you the pensieve memory for this portion of my story, if you would rather trust that," said Harry, "however, it became clear to me years later that it was nothing but a test and the traps and protections seemed to be uniquely geared to each of our own talents, as if it was some big test to see how well we would respond under pressure."
Remus piped in and said, "It's not that we don't believe you're telling the truth, Harry, but I do believe this sounds like something we would like to see for ourselves."
Harry nodded and said, "Very well." And then he proceeded to remove his memories of the confrontation and waited while Sirius and Remus plunged into the memory.
While they were waiting, Merope rubbed Harry's back in comfort and asked how he was fairing, to which he responded that he already felt drained and he was just barely through first year. Merope nodded in sympathy and said she would go and prepare tea and that maybe that would help him when time came for him to start the next round.
Sirius and Remus emerged from the pensieve speechless to find Harry impassively sipping on tea and munching on cucumber sandwiches. Sirius exclaimed, "How can you sit there and calmly eat sandwiches and sip tea after what we just saw?"
Harry rolled his eyes and said, "One, it's been more years than I'd care to count since that happened to me; two, I wasn't watching it with you, so it didn't affect my appetite; and three, the tea and sandwiches are delicious."
Remus, having more practice at calm and patience, settled himself back down on the sofa and prepared himself some tea and filled up a plate, causing Sirius to turn to look at him as if he had been betrayed.
Harry chuckled and said, "Padfoot, if this is the way you're going to react to just my first year, I don't think you're going to be able to handle my second year, which is when I fought and killed the basilisk. Are you sure you're a Gryffindor?"
That caused Sirius to give a little growl, as he proceeded to fix his own tea and plate, finally once everyone had had their fill, Merope sent everything back to the kitchen, she would get started cleaning after she knew Harry wouldn't need her support.
When they got to the point of seeing the battle with the basilisk, Harry swore he could hear Sirius shrieking from within the pensieve, and both Remus and Sirius came back out shaking.
It was lunchtime by the time they had finished the story about Harry's third year, and so it was decided that they would take about a 30-minute break before they got into the harder years.
There were many emotions throughout the review of Harry's remaining school years. They were proud of his courage, furious at Wormtail, ready to murder Umbridge, saddened at Sirius' fate, shocked at Dumbledore's death, and elated at Harry's victory over Voldemort, only viewing memories of the major events of each year.
It was nearing supper and they had only just finished getting through the final battle when Remus asked, "Why haven't we heard the story of how you met Mary?"
It must be noted that while Harry told Remus and Sirius about Tom Riddle and his origins, they did not view the memories of Tom M. Riddle, so they had yet to recognize Merope for who she was; however, living a much richer and healthier lifestyle has made her barely recognizable from who she used to be, in addition to her eyes no longer appearing to be crossed. And while Remus was previously told about Merope's real name, he had gotten used to her name as Mary and didn't think about how her original name matched that of Tom M. Riddle's mother.
Harry cleared his throat and said, "Well, that's because I didn't meet her in that timeline, I met her the first time I tried to time travel, this is actually my second trip around, I just arrived in a different time period this time."
Twin shouts of "WHAT?!" were exclaimed.
"Moony and Padfoot, you need to calm down, there is still a lot to the story before I can tell you how I met Mary," said Harry, as he and Merope exchanged glances.
Remus sputtered, "But what about the supposed paradoxes and warnings about the bad things that happen with wizards who meddle with time?"
"Well, that's all completely true for the people who use time-turners, but that's not how I became a time-traveler," explained Harry. At Sirius' and Remus' confused gazes, Harry asked, "Do you remember the Tale of the Three Brothers that was a prominent part in what should have been my seventh year, when I defeated Voldemort?"
Harry watched Remus closely, as he was the one that he expected to catch on faster, but he was surprised when it was Sirius who whispered, "You became the Master of Death." Harry nodded solemnly. Remus jerked in surprise at that revelation and looked back and forth between Harry and Merope with wide eyes.
Harry gave them a small smile and said, "I became Master of Death because I didn't seek it out, the wand and stone came to me entirely through coincidence and chance, and the cloak had been in my family for generations. I tried to get rid of the wand and the stone, I told you that I left the stone in the clearing of the Forbidden Forest when I sacrificed my life to Voldemort, and I returned the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore's tomb after everything was settled and done.
"It was after my 18th birthday that they just kept showing up beside my bed and wouldn't leave me alone. Finally, I just gave up. The moment that happened, they all combined together in a flash and disappeared into my skin." He was about to go through his years following that and up to his first adventure of time travel, when stomachs started to growl.
Merope started to get up to prepare supper, but Harry stopped her and said, "Mary, I can do the cooking tonight, if you'd like, I don't want you to feel as if you need to do all the cooking for us men."
Merope shook her head with an indulgent smile and said, "I don't mind cooking for you, and I know it's been hard for you to relive your memories today, so you just relax and feel free to tell Remus and Sirius the rest of your story, while I go and get supper ready." Then she bent down and gave him a quick peck on the lips before she left the room and headed for the kitchen.
Sirius was watching after her as she left and said, "You have yourself a good woman right there."
Harry smiled and said, "Don't I know it."
Remus said, "So, are you going to finish your story while she's cooking?"
Harry shrugged and said with a slight smirk, "Well, as long as you don't think you'll be too bored by it."
Sirius exclaimed, "Are you kidding? It sounds like your life has been far more exciting than ours ever was, even with Voldemort at his peak and running amok."
So Harry told him about discovering his powers, being immune to harmful and mind-altering potions, healing abilities, et cetera.
He told them of the discovery of the love potions plot and how Dumbledore and the Weasleys had been stealing from his vaults up to that point.
Remus questioned Harry about Hermione's role in all of that and Harry said, "Hermione was in love with Ron and I didn't want to drag her into the middle of it, so I never told her what I had found out."
He explained about his lost loves and what it was like to lose a wife and child during childbirth.
Finally, he described his research of time travel and the theories he had found in the Department of Mysteries regarding the Master of Death; then his decision to time travel and ultimately how he met Merope, how she came to share his MoD powers, and the changes he made to that timeline.
He ended his tale by telling them about the only child they were able to conceive, Edward, and that they didn't believe it likely that they would ever be able to have more children, due to their immortal status.
Sirius sat there in shock looking towards the kitchen. "Wow," he whispered, "You married Voldy's mummy."
Harry smiled and replied, "To be fair, she was never Voldy's mummy, because I inadvertently prevented him from being born in that timeline; however, I will concede that in another timeline, she would have been his mum."
"It's still shocking to hear, but now I realize why you mentioned that her name has been changed to Mary while you are here," said Remus.
"Exactly," said Harry. "Dumbledore would have picked up on that name very quickly and would have inserted himself even further where he's not wanted." Remus and Sirius both just nodded. Harry looked at them and said, "I hope you understand the importance of keeping all of this a secret and that I'm going to need to place a secrecy charm on you, correct?"
"Do you really think we would tell anyone?" asked Remus.
"No, Moony, I don't think you would ever intentionally tell anyone, but this is to protect you if Dumbledore or anyone else were somehow to douse you with veritaserum and start asking questions," replied Harry.
Sirius asked, "What about my mother, would she ever be allowed to know?"
Harry thought to himself for a moment and said, "Well, she already knows that I'm a time traveler and has kept it to herself, even when she wasn't obligated to, so I will consider telling your mother the story in the future, we'll just have to see how it goes."
With that, both men agreed to have the secrecy charm put in place, which Harry was able to do very quickly, then Remus asked, "Do you plan to ever tell Little Harry about it?"
Harry shrugged and said, "I'm not sure right now. All I'm sure about right now is that we're all going to make sure he grows up loved, but also trained to be able to defend himself and others to the best of his ability. I want him to learn how to be prepared for anything, even if we intend for him to grow up and go to school in the United States where it will be relatively peaceful. I've changed the future of this timeline too much at this point to be able to predict what will happen next."
Before either Remus or Sirius could ask another question, Merope called them all to supper, which they enjoyed immensely.
Later that night, after having called Kreacher to bring back Little Harry, who was so tired from all his play that he fell asleep early, Harry lay in bed with Merope wrapped in his arms contemplating the day. All in all, it hadn't been so bad reliving all his memories, but he wasn't so sure that he would want to go through his life story like that again and decided that this would probably be the only timeline where he spilled all his secrets, unless he found it necessary. It was too exhausting. And with that final thought, Harry drifted off into a peaceful rest.