A/n: Clearly musey has different ideas than me on time progression... Enjoy!
*+ovo+*
"Here," Voldemort said as he returned their wands. They had finished breakfast and gotten ready for their day out. Both younger wizards were wearing magically adjusted things from Voldemort's own wardrobe even as the Dark Lord was clad in his pretty boy glamours from the raid. A few of the items had been secretly tagged with trackers, monitoring spells, and two separate remotely activated portkeys that would drag the pair to his side in an emergency. Both portkeys had a back up activator in response to one or both wizards getting kidnapped or captured. The Dark Lord refused to loose the pair to idiots and treachery.
"Is there a way we can get my owl back?" Harry asked tentatively. "I don't much mind loosing the rest if you insist. There are just a few things I'd like back. Things from my... birth parents."
The other important things to Harry were still in his trunk at school but Hedwig was literally his first friend and deepest confidant. As upset as he would be for loosing the few family things he had, like his family invisibility cloak and the photo album, he would be even more devastated to loose Hedwig. If he knew that she would be okay that was one thing but he had no idea if the Hogwarts rumor mill had started in on him being a baby dark lord again or not. It wasn't inconceivable that some deluded schoolmate would try to kill her for that offense even if he wasn't actually a baby dark lord. There would be hell to pay when they found out the current Dark Lord had declared him under his personal protection along with Professor Snape and it would be worse when the medical thing eventually leaked.
"I've seen your wardrobe, its getting replaced," Severus insisted with clear disapproval. "You should not be dressed in rags, no matter your sense of muggle style or what happens to be popular among muggles."
"Its... not actually mine. The school clothes are mine but the other ones... they are Dudley's old ones. I'm not allowed..." Harry forced out before trailing off, refusing to look at the other two wizards. "I wanted my owl... my special cloak, my photo album, the hidden map my dad and his friends made, and maybe the Firebolt Sirius gave me... That's it..."
"Not sweets? Not the Weasley Sweaters you sport every winter holiday? Not pranks?" Severus asked suspiciously as he tried to remember what else his son had at the school.
"Don't really have much," Harry admitted, looking at his feet, still refusing to meet their eyes. "I figured I wont be allowed to keep my cloak or Firebolt even if we get them but I want them... safe. I can put them all in my vault I suppose except for Hedwig but I'm never allowed to keep my key so..."
A firm smack of flesh on fabric had him flinching as he quickly looked up, searching for the threat, only to be met by the sight of Severus rubbing his arm.
"How," Voldemort asked dangerously. "Could you have missed this?"
"He is a better actor than I thought," Severus grumbled. "Besides, I challenge you to see clearly with Dumbledore and the rest of the staff shoving the image of your childhood bully down your throat at every chance. Especially in regards to the one you are looking at and then tell me that you can do so without seeing exactly what they are shoving down your throat constantly. Even if the others on staff probably weren't aware of how much they were hurting me and my relationship with my son Dumbledore was most certainly aware and ruthless in re-enforcing the connection."
"Fine, expect a more personal punishment when we get back to ensure you see our brat clearly from now on. Perhaps a spanking? Something to make you remember but not actually cause harm," Voldemort told him bluntly, still scowling over the latest news. "We don't have time right now and I want the pair of you as safe as I can get you without having to fight the pair of you or imprison you both."
"What... did he do? Aside from the feud thing?" Harry asked carefully. He really wanted to know why Severus hated his birth father so much. He was slowly coming to realize, just from the change in how he was spoken of by the other two and their treatment of him, that they did actually care about him. He wasn't stupid so he knew that at least part of it was that they hadn't known about some stuff and that what they had thought they knew was dangerously wrong. He knew that the soul thing and his less than perfect health bothered them. He knew that Dumbledore seemed to only care about controlling him and keeping him on a leash to do his bidding. What he didn't know, out of all of this, was why they cared about his comfort and understanding.
Harry could see keeping him alive and healthy because of the soul thing. He could even see a reason to keep him somewhat entertained and tracked. What he couldn't seem to wrap his head around was that they actually cared about him.
"Black tricked me into meeting Lupin under a full moon before the potion that lets him keep his human mind was created. Had James not rescued me, incurring a life debt, I would have either been killed or turned and Lupin would have been executed. Black, if Dumbledore hadn't covered it up, should have been expelled and charged with attempted murder," Severus explained refusing to look at either of them. "I went to Dumbledore about it and he magically bound me to silence before punishing me for attempting to get his precious Gryffindors in trouble. I can speak of it to you because you hold the life debt that was earned during that incident. You inherited it from your... James."
"Considering how many magics bind you to the imp, you are very lucky that we discovered how important he is to both of us," Voldemort said with a glare. "As I said before we don't have the time to sort this out. We will deal with it when we come home."
"Times three," Severus agreed softly, causing the Dark Lord to pause in his turn towards the fireplace they would be leaving from.
"The number of times my mother refused to step aside on the night she was killed," Harry added thoughtfully. "I know its an especially magical number but I don't know why."
"Another time," Voldemort instructed softly, his anger now gone, as he turned back to the fireplace and reached for the floo powder. The powerful number three being so linked to the pair and the bindings between them wasn't something to just ignore. It did, however, highlight the fact that it might not be their fault if it was even something bad. Right then and there Voldemort was inclined to think that it might be something good.
A casual toss had the fire roaring green in under a minute as he called out the address of the Leaky Cauldron. His glamoured features wouldn't draw comment until the other two arrived. Voldemort fully expected an Auror escort to show up at the bank to "help" them get to the ministry meeting once word of seeing Harry in Diagon got out. He just knew this was going to be a long day.
*+ovo+*
A/n: Right now I'm remember that I have a hard time using Time Jumps. *glares at smug musey*
Reaction ideas? Entrance to the meeting ideas? How much bad information or how screwy will the Gringotts visit be? Will someone be an idiot and attack our boys while out and about? Will Rita Skeeter see them and pounce?!