Death's Loyalty Card
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU (also means that people's names, birth dates etc. might be changed to fit into this story). Partly OOC. Possible time paradox.
When Harry felt the movement become slower and finally stop, he curiously opened his eyes and glanced around. He found himself sitting in a garden next to a baby; however, he felt extremely strange. Looking down at his own body, he realised in shock that he was a baby as well, just about the size of the one next to him. His torn, bloody robes were missing, and he found himself dressed in a baby jumpsuit with a pattern of small, quacking ducks all over the quilt.
'What the hell happened?' he thought, horrified. 'Who's the other baby, and moreover, why am I a baby?' He looked up in shock, when a young witch, whom he could not recall having seen before, leaned over him and gently picked him up.
"Hello Harry," the witch addressed him in a soft voice, before she sat down, gently placing him onto her lap, while a young man picked up the other baby.
"Hi," he uttered, shyly, giving the three people a curious look. What he supposed was the mother of the small family had long, black hair and warm brown eyes, just like the father, although he had the same messy hair as Harry and the other baby.
"Harry, this is your twin brother James," the lady explained, "and this is your father, Charlus Potter. I'm your mother, Dorea Potter-Black. Fate told us that you were going to belong to our family from now on."
"James?" Harry queried, quirking an eyebrow at the other baby. 'James as in my father James?' he wondered in disbelief. 'Charlus and Dorea Potter must be my grandparents,' he realised. He had heard the names before, however, had never spent much time engrossing himself in the history of his family.
"Yes," the woman confirmed. "James, this is your twin brother Harry."
'I just hope he'll accept me as his twin. This is simply amazing. I'm going to get to know my father and my grandparents,' Harry thought in excitement, as he observed how James carefully slid down from his father's lap and toddled over to him. He quickly slid down from their mother's lap, smiling happily, when James hugged him and placed a sloppy kiss onto his cheek.
Casting his surrogate twin brother a broad smile, Harry carefully hugged him back.
"James, why don't you go and show Harry your room?" Dorea suggested. They had explained to James that he was going to get a twin brother, because Harry's parents were dead and James was the closest to a brother Harry had.
"Hawwy," James called him, and Harry happily toddled behind his newly-found twin, carefully climbing up the stairs to the nursery, which was equipped with two cots next to each other and a large window that allowed the view onto the park.
'This feels totally strange,' he inwardly moaned, as he tried to keep up with his newly found twin's speed on his small feet. 'I'm not used to these small feet. I haven't been a baby anymore for more than a decade,' he thought, as he let his eyes wander around the nursery.
'This is an amazing room,' he thought, uncertain how well he was supposed to speak to not be too different from James. 'I need to ask our parents many questions, once I can talk to them alone without having James listening in,' he resolved, as he admired the room, which was kept in different shades of blue.
"Hawwy pway?" James invited him, as he pulled a miniature version of the Hogwarts Express out of a shelf with toys.
"Cool," Harry replied, and the two boys busied themselves putting the train together, before they spent the remaining afternoon letting small animals travel from London to Hogsmeade and back, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
'Oh Merlin, even if I've kept all my memories, I'm a real baby now,' Harry realised in shock upon noticing how much fun he had playing with James.
All of a sudden, he noticed that he had to relieve himself. "James, where's de toilet?" he enquired, urgently, causing James to shrug, helplessly.
Fortunately, their mother came looking for them just in time to assist Harry to the bathroom.
"Fanku," Harry said, gratefully, once he returned to the nursery.
"My, you're a really big boy already," Dorea commended him, smiling. "Your father would like to speak with you for a moment. Let me show you to his office."
Holding out both hands to the twins, Dorea accompanied Harry to her husband's office before heading to the parlour with James.
HP
"Harry," Charlus addressed the child, before he gently helped him into a chair in front of his desk. "Do you remember everything that happened?" he asked in a soft voice.
"Yes," Harry replied, firmly, wondering how much his parents, who were obviously his grandparents, knew about him.
"Fate came to see us yesterday and announced that she would bring you here today," Charlus informed him, "and she gave us a Pensieve, which contains a copy of many of your memories."
"Oh okay," Harry replied, thoughtfully.
"I'm sorry, my boy, that you had such a horrible childhood. While in reality, Dorea and I are your grandparents, for now, we're going to be your parents and we'll see to it that your childhood will be much better this time around. I hope you don't mind growing up together with James," he added, giving Harry a questioning look.
"No, I wike it," Harry replied, only to add, "but it's strange to be a baby."
"I believe that, considering that you have your sixteen-year-old mind," Charlus said in understanding, smiling fondly at the child. "We're very happy to have you and to get to know you, and James will thoroughly enjoy having a brother."
"Fank you so much," Harry replied, feeling happy at the revelation. Suddenly, however, he felt extremely tired and could not help letting out a huge yawn, causing his grandfather to chuckle.
"So much about having a baby body," he said in a soft voice, only to add, "Harry, I know about the prophecy and your deal with Death and everything. Please just leave everything to me for the time being, and we'll figure something out when you're much older. Just enjoy your second childhood for now."
"Ok, fanks," Harry replied, feeling very much consoled and relieved by his surrogate father's kind words.
HP
When Charlus placed Harry into his cot in the nursery, where James was already taking a nap as well, he and his wife could not help admiring their grandson.
"He looks like a duplicate of James," Dorea spoke up, "apart from his beautiful emerald eyes."
"I wonder who his mother is," Charlus added, grinning. He suddenly leaned down and took the baby's right hand into his own, much larger hand. "Dorea," he blurted out in apparent shock, "the boy's not only wearing the ring of Gryffindor but also of Slytherin as well as another ring, the one which we saw in his memories."
"Slytherin?" Dorea repeated in surprise. "Oh well, considering that he's to marry a Death Eater…" She slowly trailed off, realising that the ring could not have anything to do with his future wife.
"His mother must be the heiress of Slytherin," Charlus clarified. "However, the last heir before Harry seems to not have claimed their heritage, so that Harry kept the ring, when he was returned to this time, unlike the Black and the Potter rings, which I know he was wearing during his conversation with Death. I didn't notice the other rings in that memory. Or in any other," he added as an afterthought.
"Do we already have these Death Eaters in this time?" Dorea enquired. "I've never heard of them."
Charlus shook his head. "Nor have I," he admitted. "But we saw a few of the people who became Death Eaters in Harry's memory. Most of them were in Slytherin."
"Hey," Dorea protested, playfully slapping his arm. "I was a Slytherin if you remember correctly."
"Yes, my dear, I'm aware of that," Charlus replied in apparent amusement, gently pulling her into a passionate kiss. "There are always examples from the rules," he added, smirking. "Let me reword it then. Most of them belong to the dark fraction in the Wizengamot."
"Why aren't you wearing the ring of Gryffindor, by the way?" Dorea suddenly asked. "You're the heir of Gryffindor, aren't you?"
"Yes, that I am," Charlus confirmed, "but I've never claimed the lordship for that family, and I don't really see a need to do such a thing. Let's just leave the rings to Harry for the time being. If the need arose for some reason, I could always take the lordship. We should ask Harry to conceal the rings or help him do so to avoid questions," he added as an afterthought.
They were brought back to reality, when Harry suddenly began to thrash around and mumble incoherently, causing the young couple to exchange a horrified look.
"A one-year-old having nightmares," Charlus blurted out, seemingly horrified. "How mad is that?"
"Oh, my poor cutie," Dorea cooed, as she gently raised Harry into her arms, carefully placing a kiss onto his cheek. "It's all right now, Harry. You're safe at home, my child."
She felt full of love for the small addition to her family, when emerald green eyes opened and looked at her and the baby's mouth bent to a small smile.
"Fanks…Mummy," Harry whispered, happily chuckling, when Charlus playfully tickled his tiny toes.
'He's so adorable,' Dorea thought, 'just like James.' In spite of knowing that the circumstances that had led to her getting to raise her grandson together with his father had been dire, she felt extremely happy at the prospect of raising them as twins. 'I so much wanted another child,' she thought, as she gently cuddled the baby close until he drifted back to sleep.
HP
"I'm going to see Arcturus," Charlus informed his wife, as he rose from the breakfast table.
"All right dear," Dorea agreed, smiling, knowing that the man, who was not only her brother but also her husband's best friend, would surely be able and willing to help with the predicament they found themselves in.
Charlus grabbed the Pensieve from the table, where they had left it the day before, and stepped into the fireplace, calling out, "Arcturus Black's place."
His friend was sitting behind the desk in his office, when Charlus stepped out of the fireplace.
"Good morning my friend, what brings you here?" Arcturus enquired, sounding as grumpy as ever.
"I've much to tell you," Charlus replied in a grave voice, before he informed his friend about the visit from Fate, his grandson's memories in the Pensieve and his new, surrogate son.
Arcturus merely nodded and motioned for Charlus to enter the Pensieve together with him. Together, they watched the memories, which Charlus found even more incredible and horrible than the first time.
"Oh Merlin," his friend breathed, once they returned to the office and sat around his desk. "Well, most of it is already done, and I trust your grandson AKA son to remedy a few things this time. I know that I'm surely going to handle the Black family differently from what I must have done in the boy's former timeline."
Charlus nodded, feeling completely lost as of what to say.
"As to his deal with Death, I suppose that we could simply set up a betrothal contract between Harry and one of my granddaughters," Arcturus spoke again, causing Charlus to look at his friend with a hopeful expression.
"That would be extremely helpful I suppose, as much as I usually detest betrothal contracts," he replied, feeling very grateful towards his best friend.
Before Arcturus could spin the idea any further, however, a black figure materialised in front of them, right in his office.
"Death?" Arcturus enquired in apparent disbelief.
'That's him,' Charlus also realised from the memory of Harry and Death that they had viewed earlier.
"Yes, it's me," Death growled. "Just so you know, if you don't want to meet a very untimely end in five minutes at the latest, you're not going to make a betrothal contract with my Master and any of your granddaughters. That's a deal between me and the boy, and he has to fulfil his part – not either of you. You better listen, or we'll see each other again very soon."
With that, the black figure disappeared as sudden as he had appeared in the first place, causing the two friends to stare at each other in disbelief.
"Well, so much about helping the boy," Arcturus sighed.
"Thanks for trying though," Charlus replied, smiling.
"That's what friends are for. Don't worry, we'll still be able to manipulate the matter a little," Arcturus promised, as he fetched two small glasses as well as a bottle of old Irish Whiskey from the shelf behind him.
HP
Harry spent the whole day playing with James and his new mother and just enjoyed being a baby without any responsibilities whatsoever.
Ever since he could remember, his greatest wish had always been having a family, and right now, he almost felt as if he was living in a paradise, having not only parents, but even a brother, who seemed to fully accept and appreciate him as his twin. 'I must be the happiest boy in the world,' he thought, wearing a delighted smile that made his parents' hearts melt.
tbc...?
Thank you so much for your kind comments on the previous chapter. I am not sure if I should continue this. While I don't have time to read much, as I rather spend my time writing besides working full-time, my husband told me that there are many similar stories around, so I don't know if there will be much interest in this. Please tell me what you think.