Author's Note:
Thank You for your feedback on chapter 03! Have fun!
Time went by fast, far too fast for Harry's liking. He had hoped they would be a lot further in their plans by now. They had just finished the design for their headquarters, deciding to do all the remodelling themselves. Harry had been too paranoid to let any other person know that the ruins of the Potter home had stopped being abandoned. They had already started with the most important rooms, the first one had been finished a few days ago. Inside the new secret basement of the old Potters home, the first room had been designed for rituals or dangerous spell work of any kind. Thick layers of spells warded the walls from the rest of the house, so that any kind of magical backlash would not hit the rest of the house. It had been quite the hassle to set up, but Harry was proud of the end result. The room was completely empty, besides of some candles around the black stone floor. The walls also consisted of the same stone, as any other material would run the risk of clashing with difficult spell or ritual work.
Inside the room, three figures stood. Remus had his hand firmly clasped around Harrys, who gave him one last questioning look, to which Remus returned a silent nod. Beside them stood Hermione Granger, her eyes shining with wonder and excitement about the magic she now would be part of. She had helped Harry and Remus design the vows, and Harry had spent weeks helping her learn the necessary procedure for the magic. He had explained to her that her magic would instinctively know what to do, but a small part of her still feared she might do something wrong and mess everything up. She had recited the necessary words for days and days, even though she could remember them instantly after finishing their design with the two wizards.
"Hereby, I invoke the magics of old, binding Remus Lupin to the Order of the Unbound," the girls voice echoed through the room. She spoke loud and clear, no tremor evident in her voice, even though her hands had started to shake. Threads of magic started spreading around their clasped hands, lingering and waiting for her to continue. "As proxy for the Order of the Unbound stands Harry James Potter, Hermione Jane Granger bears witness to the binding." The magic threads, appearing as colouring lights started to intensify, swirling around their hands and up their arms, stopping around the halfway point between their wrist and their elbow.
"Do you, Remus Lupin, hereby swear to always act as a proxy for the order, in line with the orders wishes, and never purposely act against it, as far as your own conscience, morals, and capabilities allow?" she asked, her gaze locked on Remus. They had wrecked their minds a lot, on how to give themselves enough headroom for independent action, while at the same time not allowing any other bindings to slip into the cracks of the vows and force their hands. The last part of the vow did exactly that, which is why they put it into the end of every one of the three phrases.
"Yes, I swear," the werewolf answered, and a few threads started to fasten around their hands.
"Do you, Remus Lupin, hereby swear to protect and help members of the order whenever it is possible, to treat them like your own kin, and help them flourish as far as your own conscience, morals, and capabilities allow?"
"Yes, I swear."
Another set of swirling magic fastened, leaving one third still swirling around the air. Hermione was sure she could feel the magic at work, weighing around them like a thick fog. She was glad it was not her own magic used, or else she might have gotten a bad magical exhaustion before the vow even properly started. No, the magic brought forth through her was far older than herself, said to be donated by Merlin himself.
"Do you, Remus Lupin, hereby swear to pledge your life to destroying the Dark Lord Voldemort, to free the British citizens from their bindings, and usher in a new order magic, as declared by the order, as far as your own conscience, morals, and capabilities allow?"
"Yes, I swear."
The last tendril of magic fastened, pulsing around their hands and forearms, and Hermione waited for a few seconds, before speaking the last required words: "As you have sworn to the ancient magics, only death might take away your vow. So mote it be."
The magic pulsated one last time, before abruptly vanishing. Hermione felt as if a thick blanked had been lifted from her, and she couldn't stop herself from taking a big, long breath.
"Well done," Harry congratulated her, and his approving smile forced a grin onto her face that she couldn't hold back. Ever since her lessons started, and he had offered her the choice of taking these vows, explaining in detail every bit of hardship that might be associated with that choice, she couldn't help but grin at every approving word or smile he offered. It wasn't a choice she had to consider for long. There stood a wizard that had travelled back in time to offer her, the always belittled Hermione Granger, a chance to change an entire nation for the better. And he genuinely believed she could offer enough to significantly help that cause along. At first she had thought it had been pity that drove him to her doorstep, but he had quickly seen her doubts and said something no one had ever said to her—at least not seriously. "Hermione. You have enormous potential. I know that because I have seen what the future you was capable of without any outside help and thousands of obstacles in her way. Don't ever believe I am offering this out of pity. Yes, I want to help you as much as I can. But without you, our chances of success decrease… a lot."
"Well," Harry's voice cut her out of her musings, "one down, two to go."
-o-o-
With the vows done, Harry concentrated on the next big step: magical focuses for Remus and Hermione. He still periodically checked Kusznezow's hideouts, but for now to no avail. With the vows in check, he was thinking about just getting Hermione a wand from Ollivanders. While the tracing of her spell work outside of heavily warded places would be more than irritating, especially in the later years of her education, when the war would be in full effect, that was the only part of the trace that would be functioning. The rest would be deflected by their unbreakable vow.
Harry had long forgone the idea of trying to stop the war from ever breaking out. There was no way around it. In some aspect, it was actually what they needed to upheave the oppressive structures of the ministry. They needed chaos from which a new order could then emerge.
Still, Harry was hell bend on saving as many lives as humanly possible. And he also knew that in order to do that, they needed to apply lethal force. Death Eaters had been too often put into cells, just for them to be freed and back to killing people the next day. In peace time, trials were the way to go. He even was strictly against the death penalty. But in war, that mentality didn't apply.
Realising his thoughts had drifted again, he focused back on the wand problem. For Hermione, the Ollivanders wand might be a solution. She always resonated well with one, anyway. For Remus however, Harry thought that something else might be far more effective. Making up his mind, Harry made his way into the kitchen where Remus was often times to be found, especially in the early morning hours.
As he had predicted, Remus was sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee pressed to his lips.
"I have an idea," Harry declared, sitting down on the opposite of the table. Remus smiled at him, motioning him with his hand to continue. "While practically all wizards inside Britain use wands as their magical focus, many other are used all around the world. Especially in older times, they ranged from runic tablets in Egypt, over shaman staffs of the native American's, to elemental stones deep inside the jungle of Africa. Actually, you can use practically anything as a focus, as long as there is intent behind it."
Remus nodded, having heard at least some of that through his own studies. He wondered where this was going. Surely Harry wasn't suggesting him to use runic tablets for his spell work.
"As you probably know," Harry continued, "the focus of the individual witch or wizard becomes an extension of his magical core. The more in tune the wizard is with his focus, the better the results. Often times, parts of magical creatures are used as part of the focus. Luckily, we have a magical creature that fits you… a lot."
"Are you suggesting making a wand out of a hair from my werewolf form?" Remus asked, brows furrowed at that thought. While he was working a lot on integrating that part of himself that he had loathed for such a long time, marking his wand with that curse… didn't sit well with him. A scowl passed his face thinking about that primal part of him. A monster inside him, lurking just beneath the surface. To be honest, he was glad when nothing except some of his muscles and hair had changed after that ritual he had undergone. While Harry had been quite disappointed when they found no similar abilities to Greyback, Remus had felt relief. It was hard enough to deal with the ever more present werewolf inside him, pushing primal urges and instincts into his mind, he didn't need physical proof that he was a monster in disguise.
"Something similar, yes. I knew you wouldn't be thrilled about it," Harry's voice held a compassionate tone, his eyes soft, so much like Lilly's had always been.
"Isn't there another way?" he asked, hoping it didn't sound too pleading.
"There is," Harry answered holding up his hands with the two silver rings on them, "Several, in fact. But none so effective and useful as an actual part of your inner wolf would be."
Remus groaned. The oath he had sworn several days before etched inside his mind. Was this a price he was willing to pay for their goals? The selfish part inside himself declined, but the much larger part, the part that dearly wanted to help his best friends son in every way possible, that part knew it was a small price to pay.
"You said something similar?" he asked.
"I had thought about something like a fang. I am not well versed enough in wand crafting for an actual wand. But I'm good in imbuing things with magic. Your smile would however loose a bit of its touch."
Harry's chuckled, but Remus couldn't find it in himself to smile.
"These," again Harry motioned to the rings on his fingers, "were a bit of a mishap. Done too rashly, but I needed a focus. We have more time to plan yours. It should work for you far more effective than your old wand."
Remus nodded, resignation etched on his face. But what was a tooth against the life of countless others? "A small price to pay," he reminded himself again.
-o-o-
Hermione grinned at the small smile on her parents faces. In her hand shined a silver needle, were only moments before had been a matchstick. She knew her parents were far from thrilled about the whole situation, but her delight at completing Harry's tasks always brought at least a small genuine smile onto their faces.
Harry had spent many evenings at the Granger household, talking with their parents about the wizarding world, laws, and many other things. Although he always came as his adult persona and did not tell them the full story of his time travel. Even though the chance was quite small, even the possibility of someone taking it from their minds was a risk too high. Which was why the first thing Harry had her working on was Occlumency. She trained her shields every day for hours, and Harry had said they were coming along nice, but the pressure of having less than a year to keep people like Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard if the modern age out of her mind, was taxing.
"You don't have to keep out a full force attack. Dumbledore wouldn't do that. The most he will do is brush against your shields, and even that is a low possibility," Harry had explained.
But when Harry had explained to her, that their Defence instructor would be Voldemort himself, she panicked.
"Surely Voldemort is a Legilimens too?!" she had explained, fear evident in her voice.
"Yes, even better than Dumbledore. But he needs direct eye contact for that, and as his eyes rest on the back of Quirrel's head, he won't be able to. And if Quirrel by chance knows any Legilimency, he won't be proficient enough at it to get past your shields without blowing his cover, which he won't do."
"Those are quite a lot of assumptions." she had answered, uncertain.
"We have to take some chances. And the reward of having you completely in the loop are far greater than the tiny risk it poses."
Warmth had spread through her chest at that statement. He was always talking like she was important for this. She had never felt important in her life, ever. And she would do everything in her might to prove to him that his assumptions weren't wrong. Harry knew the future Hermione and he said she had a potential far above the average wizard. She would not waste that.
"Didn't you say Mr. Potter expected this to take you at least a month?" her mother asked, "It has barely been a week."
Hermione just grinned. Today Harry would be coming over to see her progress and had she spent the whole week on about five hours sleep a day to finish this task before he arrived.
Just in that moment, the doorbell rang, signalling Harry's arrival. Hermione could hear her mother greeting him at the door, and a few moments later she found herself inside her room, proudly showing her needle to the time traveling wizard.
A big smile was to be seen on Harry's face. "I know you were good, but this is… more than extraordinary." Hermione couldn't help but giggle. "Most adult wizards aren't able to do this wandless. Heck, it took me weeks to do when I had already mastered it with a wand years ago."
"Do we try my shields next?" she asked, her voice giddy with excitement.
Harry nodded, finding her eyes with his own. Hermione took a moment to brace herself and could then feel the slight probing at her shields. Harry raised an eyebrow, and she could the force of his attack slowly increase. Her brows furrowed in concentration and for a moment she thought she was able to keep him out, but then memories poured through her mind. It was one of the times she had been bullied at school, the mean faces of her tormentors grinning at her crying form, a staple of books held to her chest as if they could shield her from the foul words of those boys.
A second later it was over, and she leaned over forwards, panting. "Well done," Harry intoned, but Hermione's face still showed disappointment.
"I... couldn't… keep you out," she said, frustrated.
"I don't expect you to. You are far ahead of schedule. Be proud of yourself."
She nodded solemnly, her breathing slowly returning to normal rates. She hated not being able to do something. Her skill in whatever she applied herself to had always been her only anchor, and now her magic was starting to fill that role. She wouldn't, no she couldn't fail this. She couldn't disappoint Harry.
"The next step in wandless magic would be a levitation charm," Harry said, "But don't complete it in a week again, or I will run out of things to teach you."
He laughed, and she couldn't help but do the same. Out of his robes he took a small staple of books, handing them to her. "One of these outlines basic charms, the other ones are on laws, customs, and history of the magical world."
She looked at the book in wonder and a little bit of dread. He instantly saw her expression. "You won't like what is written inside these books, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The really important stuff isn't written in books. I will start teaching you about them as soon as you have these finished."
She nodded as he stood up from his chair. "Well, I have to cut this short. We are working on Remus' focus."
Again, she nodded, a little disappointed. But the books sitting next to her were already waiting to be read, and then Harry would start with the real important lessons. So, she could now spend the next days with her once favourite, now second favourite activity—reading. The rest would be spent with her new beloved pastime—magic.
-o-o-
Once again, Harry found himself sitting in the kitchen with Remus, contemplating their next steps. The house renovations were going slow but steady. Harry had just updated Remus on Hermione's progress, which always brought visible amazement onto the face of the werewolf. Remus focus however, was a matter they hadn't quite figured out yet.
"You know, my brewing skills aren't that great. At least, the wolfsbane is far out of my capabilities," Harry said, sighing, "I really would like to avoid trying to pick a tooth from an enraged werewolf."
Remus didn't look like he had a solution ready, so Harry just continued with his thinking out loud. "Buying it is out of the question, we don't have the money. There isn't really anyone we could approach for it, too. We could try to secure you before the transformation and hope for the best…"
Remus looked more than alarmed. "You aren't actually suggesting that?"
Harry just shrugged. "If you have a better idea, go ahead. I'm all ears."
Remus shot him a look that roughly held the message of 'have you gone completely insane'. Harry just countered with a small smile.
"You are seriously suggesting picking the tooth of a werewolf without the help of wolfsbane," Remus asked, still completely perplexed by Harry even thinking about that course of action.
"Yes," Harry answered nonchalantly.
"You know one little scrap would turn you into a werewolf, if you are lucky and survive the toxins?" Remus asked.
"Yes," Harry answered again, seemingly unconcerned by the madness he was suggesting.
"You are insane," Remus declared.
"I know," Harry let loose a short laugh, before his face turned serious again. "Well, we should start planning so I, you know, don't die."
Remus let his head bang on the table. What had he gotten himself into?