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.
Albus Dumbledore looked up in apparent surprise, when Arcturus Black followed Charlus through the fireplace. Only Charlus had made the appointment with the headmaster, knowing that the old wizard was not aware of the unusual friendship between the two lords.
"Lord Potter, Lord Black," he greeted them, offering each of them a seat in front of his desk. "Would you care for a lemon drop?" he then asked, pushing a bowl with sweets to their side of the desk.
They both declined and after answering a couple of polite questions about their families, Charlus came straight to the point.
"Headmaster, why we sought you out this morning is to ask you to set up a Hogwarts Primary School for the magical children from the age of six years onwards," he explained in a firm voice.
"Headmaster," Godric spoke up from his portrait, "please note that we, the four founders of this school, second that request. It's a brilliant idea and it would help greatly to remedy the main problem at Hogwarts of this time, the house rivalry."
"It would also give Hogwarts more influence on the children and lesson certain pure blood parents' indoctrinations," Arcturus added, causing Dumbledore to look at him in surprise.
Dumbledore thoughtfully stroked his beard, before he replied. "This sounds like an idea the founders seem to approve of. Did you put any further thought into the matter like classrooms, teachers and so on?"
"If you wish to set up a new building for the school on the Hogwarts grounds, we're both willing to finance it to a certain extent," Charlus replied, "although, we don't believe that it would be necessary, considering the many empty parts within the castle. An unused part of Hogwarts, perhaps provided with a separate entrance, if possible on the Hogsmeade side of the castle, would suffice."
"As to the teachers," Arcturus took over, "my daughter-in-law, Druella Black, as well as my daughter, Lucretia Prewett, née Black, would both be willing to teach, and I've heard that Eileen Prince would make a good teacher as well. I do not know if she would be willing to teach though. From what I have heard, she seems to be a Potions Mistress. Druella would only be able to teach if her youngest daughter Narcissa was allowed to attend in spite of only being five years old right now," he added as an afterthought.
Dumbledore, who had scribbled the names onto a parchment, nodded in understanding. "I shall contact them and ask them," he promised. "We'd need three teachers anyway. I could imagine that Mary Greengrass would be willing to become a teacher as well. Her son, Cygnus Greengrass, should be of the same age as your sons respectively grandchildren."
"Oh right, she's a very enjoyable person," Charlus agreed. "Please ask her as well."
"I will," Dumbledore promised before thanking them profusely for bringing the idea to his attention. "I need one of you to become the headmaster for the primary school," he added. "I can't possibly take over more work; although I promise you that we're going to work closely together."
"Lord Potter," Arcturus replied and, turning to Charlus, added, "Your children are going to attend the school, while in my case, they're the grandchildren."
"Really?" Charlus mouthed, knowing that his best friend was fully aware of the fact that one of his children was his grandson as well. However, he agreed, deciding that Arcturus had to become his deputy headmaster.
HP
While, until now, the twins had always shared a room, their parents decided that they should have their own rooms from now that they were going to become pupils of the Hogwarts Primary School – much to the twins' surprise. James and Harry were very excited and did not really think of it as a loss, as the rooms were adjacent to each other, and the balconies were even connected, so that they could easily visit each other, even in the evenings, when they were supposed in bed.
Nevertheless, Harry felt very much reassured by having his own room. As much as he loved James and wanted to spend time with him, he knew that Death was going to come to see him at least on their birthdays, and he did not want James to accidentally witness the events.
'It'll be difficult enough to hide things while being at Hogwarts,' he mused, before he turned his attention to the portrait of the four founders of Hogwarts that decorated the wall opposite of his bed. 'This is just awesome,' he thought, happily.
HP
After Charlus and Arcturus were called to the headmaster for further talks about the new to be set-up primary school a month later, Charlus told Harry and James that Druella Black, Lucretia Prewett and Mary Greengrass had agreed to become teachers and that Dumbledore had already begun with the building of a new house for the school. "It's going to have two entrances," he explained eagerly, "one on the Hogsmeade side, so that parents can easily take their children to school by apparition, and one on the Hogwarts side, so that you'll be able to use the Hogwarts ground and, for example, the Quidditch pitch."
'That must be where he built the Shrieking Shack in my old timeline,' Harry thought, wondering what Dumbledore would do, when Remus was going to come to Hogwarts as a student. 'It would be cool if he could attend the primary school together with us,' he thought, longing to meet his old friend as soon as possible.
HP
Later, during Harry's private time with Charlus, his father showed him a parchment with a list of names.
"Do you recall anyone else, whom we should invite?" he enquired. "These names are from the book of magical children, however, except for the muggleborn children. Apparently, Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall have decided to only alert their parents to the fact that their children are magical, when they turn eleven."
"Dad, do you really believe that Dumbledore talked to McGonagall? I think that she might be more open to… Oh well," he interrupted himself. "We can't change how Dumbledore ticks anyway. At least he agreed to the primary school. We can always work on dismissing him at a later time."
Charlus chuckled. "We can always work on that after this task, and I'm sure that Arcturus will assist," he agreed, pleasantly.
"I'd like to have my Mum invited though," Harry said, pensively. "She probably already knows about magic, because Snape told her at some stage, even if I can't be certain when that was."
"Harry, as much as I can understand your feelings, I'm sorry to say that there's nothing that we can do about the matter at this time," Charlus replied, letting out a deep sigh.
"There's another matter that I wished to talk to you about," he added, pensively. "As you've already attended Hogwarts up to your OWLs, I suppose that classes at Hogwarts won't be very interesting for you, let alone the primary school."
"That's probably true," Harry admitted, "but it's all right. I have much thinking to do about how to interact with people and later on how to get rid of Voldemort." He shrugged, knowing that he would certainly become bored sooner or later.
"Arcturus has suggested to introduce you to the Unspeakables. Apparently, he's good friends with Thoth, the head Unspeakable. If you worked for them, you could simply go and attend training with them after school. We've agreed with Dumbledore that school is going to end at two o'clock in the afternoon every day," Charlus suggested, giving Harry a questioning look.
"That sounds interesting," Harry had to admit. "What about James though? Wouldn't he want to do the same?"
"We have, of course, thought about that," Charlus replied, smiling. "Do you know that some of the professional Quidditch teams have junior or even children's teams? By chance, I know the owner of the Chudley Cannons team quite well, and when I told him of James' obsession with Quidditch, he offered to let James play with their children's team."
"Oh, that's brilliant," Harry blurted out, letting out a relieved sigh. "Yes Dad, I'd like to work with the Unspeakables if they'll have me."
"You're as good as James at Quidditch though, I know that," Charlus added as an afterthought.
"Yes, but it won't take enough time to distract me from boring classes," Harry replied, grinning.
HP
The first of August was extremely eventful. Charlus Potter gave up his position at the Ministry of Magic to become the headmaster for the Hogwarts Primary School. Before taking up his position at Hogwarts, however, he introduced James to the children's team of the Chudley Cannons. At the same time, Arcturus took Harry to the Unspeakables' Office.
The previous day had been a completely normal day, except for Harry, who could not help thinking that it was supposed to be his birthday. 'No, it isn't, as my birthday is the 27th March,' he told himself. 'I must remember that, and if anyone asks me at the school or the Unspeakables, it's the 27th of March, 1960.'
Arcturus took him through the fireplace right into Thoth's office and introduced him as his nephew, before he asked, "Thoth, may we speak confidentially?"
The Unspeakable nodded, before he pulled off his hood and cast his wand around in a quick motion.
'Probably a silencing spell,' Harry thought, feeling very much reassured, when the Unspeakable cast another two spells to ensure their privacy.
"No one but Charlus and Dorea Potter as well as myself and Harry of course know about this, but Harry is not what he seems to be," Arcturus began and explained Harry's story to the Unspeakable.
On the one hand, Harry felt extremely uncertain, afraid that the old wizard would just think him to be a freak, on the other hand, he felt very much reassured that the head Unspeakable knew the truth about him.
"This is a more than rare case," Thoth finally said after listening to the whole story. "However, the Unspeakables' Office is exactly the right place for you to be, and you're going to be a very valuable asset to us," he added, smiling at Harry.
"Thank you, sir," Harry replied, returning a shy smile.
"For the time being, we'll keep this knowledge to ourselves and pretend that you're just a normal wizard of this time," Thoth decided, causing Harry to nod in relief. "I might take you aside and ask questions about the future as they occur though."
"That's fine, sir," Harry promised his agreement.
"Do you already have a wand?" Thoth enquired, and his uncle gave him a questioning look.
Harry stared at the older wizards, wide-eyed. "Yes sir, the Elder wand. It's supposed to come to me when I need it. I don't have a clue how to summon it though."
"You probably have to think that you need it," Arcturus advised him, looking at him in clear expectation.
'I need a wand,' Harry thought. 'Elder wand, please come to me.'
At the same time as the older wizards let out simultaneous gasps, Harry felt incredibly happy. Glancing at his right hand, he saw the Elder wand ready to cast whatever spell Harry chose. 'I wonder if it stays if I pocket it,' he thought and carefully slid the dark wooden stick into his robe pocket. 'Thanks for coming,' he thought to the wand, uncertain if his feeling would transfer to the old artefact.
"So, my boy, if you believe that you'll be able to return home by yourself afterwards, I'm going to leave you to Thoth now," Arcturus spoke up.
"Yes, of course sir, thank you so very much for bringing me here," Harry replied, giving the uncle of his new time a fond smile.
The head Unspeakable motioned for Harry to follow him and introduced him to Devil, the trainer.
"No one has beat Devil in any practice or duel yet, so don't fret if you don't manage to do such a thing either," Thoth informed him, grinning.
"How old are you, six?" Devil enquired, his eyes narrowing in apparent annoyance. "Thoth, I'm sorry, but what am I supposed to do with a six-year-old?"
"Just try what you can do," Thoth replied in apparent amusement that made Harry inwardly grin.
"I've already had some training," Harry spoke up, slowly, mostly to distract the trainer. 'Expelliarmus,' he thought at the same time and held his hand out, as the wandless magic crossed the space between him and Devil, so that he could swiftly catch the trainer's wand in his hand. With a broad grin, he handed the wand back to the absolutely horrified trainer.
"Haha," Thoth blurted out between chuckles, "that was a brilliant move. Harry, I believe that we shall call you Death. You're going to be Devil's death."
"Death?" Harry enquired, not feeling comfortable at all with that name. "As my Unspeakable name?" he added, horrified. 'Oh well, I'm the Master of Death, even if no one is supposed to know that, so maybe it's fitting,' he thought.
Just in time, he managed to put up a shield in front of himself upon realising that Devil had just cast a tickling spell at him. To his enormous surprise, the Elder wand popped into his hand at the mere thought of needing to cast a spell.
"Very well done," Thoth commended him, and Harry could not keep a small smile from playing on his lips.
"Please teach me, sir," he addressed Devil, who nodded in understanding.
"I shall leave you to it," Thoth said and left the room, still looking highly amused.
From that time onwards, everything went downhill – at least for Harry's self-confidence.
Devil made full use of the training room, which – to Harry's surprise and at the same time horror – could be changed to a jungle full of dangerous magical animals, a desert with smaller yet poisonous creatures and many other, equally scary scenarios.
By the time Devil finished the training for the day, Harry was not only absolutely groggy but also almost ready to kill the trainer.
"That was horrible," he blurted out, once he stumbled out of the fireplace in his father's office, only to add, "but good."
HP
During the four weeks before the beginning of the primary school, Harry attended training with the Unspeakables every morning, while James attended the Chuddley Cannons' Quidditch practice.
After testing him on that first morning, Devil knew where Harry's strengths and weaknesses lay and explored his weak points to a great extent. By the time Harry returned home, he was totally knackered – even if absolutely thrilled.
'Exactly what I need to fight Voldemort,' he thought, as he went to wash his hands and ready himself for lunch on the last day of the holidays. 'Too bad I didn't have such a chance in my old time.'
He carefully dried his hands on the provided towel, when a small voice spoke up from the back of his mind. 'Then you wouldn't have come to this time, wouldn't have got to known your parents, godparents, great uncle and many more. Are you not much happier in this time than you were before?'
'I am,' Harry had to admit, smiling broadly, when James dashed into the room, series of words about Quidditch flowing out of his mouth.
'Thank Merlin I know Quidditch much better than he thinks,' Harry thought in amusement, as he listened to his brother's excited babbling.
HP
Finally, the much anticipated first of September arrived, and James and Harry excitedly followed their father through the fireplace into the headmaster's office of the primary school.
"You better head out onto the grounds, where all pupils are going to assemble," Charlus instructed them, and the two six-year-olds swiftly followed the instruction.
While they greeted his cousins and other classmates, whom they knew, because their parents were acquaintances and had seen to invite their children for their respective birthday parties, Harry unobtrusively let his eyes wander around the grounds, looking for Remus and Peter.
'There he is,' he realised, feeling very happy, as he recognised Remus Lupin among the children.
"James, what do you think, should we sit together with other children instead of next to each other, so we can get to know them and tell each other everything about them?" he whispered to his brother, when they waited for their father and Dumbledore to officially open the primary school.
"That's a good idea. Let's do that," James agreed and began to look around, wondering whom to choose to sit with.
Harry stepped over to Remus, who was standing a little aside, just by himself.
"Hello," he said in a soft voice. "I'm Harry."
"Hi Harry, I'm Remus," the other boy replied, shyly.
"Do you know anyone here?" Harry enquired, causing Remus to shake his head.
"No, I don't," he replied in a small voice. "You?"
Harry nodded. "I have a twin brother, James, and well, we have a few cousins and friends."
"I don't have any friends," Remus said, sounding very sad.
"I'm going to be your friend – if that's what you want," Harry reassured the shy boy, suddenly feeling very sorry for the six-year-old Remus.
The boy seemed very timid, and a faintly visible scar was decorating his left cheek.
Harry noticed that Remus hesitated for a moment, before he admitted, "I'd like that. Thank you, Harry."
"That's my father," Harry whispered to Remus, when Charlus cast a Sonorus charm at himself and addressed the children.
To everyone's relief, the headmaster merely greeted everyone and introduced the teachers, before he sent the children to their classrooms, and everyone eagerly entered the primary school after their teachers.
"Come," Harry whispered to Remus and pulled his new friend into the classroom, where they sat at a desk next to the window. From the corners of his eyes, he saw that James took a seat next to Sirius in the last row.
'Making Remus the confident wizard he was in my time is a tough task,' Harry thought, when their teacher, Mary Greengrass made everyone tell the class about themselves. It did not occur to him that James and Sirius had apparently managed that task before. 'The question is what to do with Peter,' he thought, eying the six-year-old at the other end of the classroom with disdain.
tbc...?
Thank you so much for your kind comments on the previous chapter. I am still not convinced if I should continue this, but due to your kind comments, I decided to add another chapter and watch the resonance for the time being. Please tell me what you think and what you expect for this story.