AN: Bonus chapter 2023.
Chapter 10 - The Lost
Albus Dumbledore dreamed of warm arms, of late nights passed dreaming of a better world.
A world where muggles and wizards lived in peace. Where no wizard or witch would ever fear the muggles reprisal.
Albus had grown up hiding what he was, of fearing his neighbours who hated not only what he was but who he was.
He couldn't perform a spell in the light of day in their own backyard.
No more than he could hold the hand of the man he loved.
Both were forbidden.
The latter would get him lobotomized as if consensual love could be evil.
As if any love could be evil.
The tales Gellert brought with him, of what the muggles were doing…
They scored the earth. Men dying in pits dug into the earth, poisoning each other —the very air they breathed burning—, and pillaging towns and cities.
With all the horror it implied.
The muggles spoke of the Dark Ages as if the plague were the worst things humans could do to one another.
No, what the muggles had done, in the War to End All Wars, was testament to their evil.
Gellert's arms held him safe even as their plans turned darker than he was comfortable with.
Warm lips brushed against his earlobe, "Remember, Albus, this is all for the greater good."
Albus sat up, his nightshirt stuck to him in sweat. He pulled himself out of bed, his legs shaking, hands trembling as his past mistakes continued to haunt him.
It was always a balancing act, to act but not to far. The trust people placed in him only made him doubt himself more.
Harris Black scared him. The way he mistrusted Albus, made him like the man, if it wasn't for how much the man reminded him of Gellert.
Well spoken.
Competent.
Self-assured.
Questionable relation with the Dark Arts.
And: Power.
Albus sighed, pulling on a robe and going to his desk. Snapping his fingers, the candles lit as he sank into his chair.
From a locked drawl, he pulled the picture that had been sent to him eighty years. He looked at the photograph of Newt Scamander, his lovely wife, an Ilvermorny Professor standing on either side of an older Luna and Harry, holding nifflers in their hands. And Albus himself, though much younger.
He flipped it over to the note that was written on the back.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I'm sending this to you so that when the time comes, you won't panic. (Please pass this along to whoever the Headmaster might be in 1990s). Your students, Harry Black and Luna Magnolia, have returned to you despite not remembering the means by which they ended up here in America. They will forever be remembered as two of Ilvermony's finest graduates. If we did the math correctly, they shall arrive in the Dark Hedges, Bregagh Road, Ballymoney, Northern Ireland. Date: 31st of October, 1998. Our best estimate is that Harry and Luna will be pulled from your reality in 1996 during their 5th year.
Yours Sincerely,
Newt Scamander.
Albus didn't knew what happened but now, there was a new mystery.
Harry Black.
Luna Magnolia.
Harris Magnolia Black.
Albus sighed, how did Harris fit into this mess?
Where did he come from?
What conspiracy was at work here that a man of such power appear and the promise that two of his students would disappear?
He loathed not knowing. He hated himself for letting his anger get ahead of him and make an enemy out of Lord Black.
For he was a Lord.
Someone who could go toe to toe with Albus himself and Tom Riddle without much concern.
But the note said and Newt confirmed, he knew neither how young Harry and Luna had been sent back in time —an ocean away— nor if Harris Black was involved.
Albus could not recall either though his memory was perhaps more faulty, even his pensive could reveal no more.
Luckily, Harris's actions had been primarily moral, he had even managed to break the curse placed on Harry's magical core without killing him.
However, Albus still didn't trust Lord Black.
Not at all.
oOo
Bella had decided against joining Harris in grocery shopping. At first, because she wasn't allowed out on her own and rarely in front of other people, it had been a fun adventure.
Now, however, she found it boring and she wasn't sure how Harris felt entertained by it.
Still, being home alone was also boring.
She began snooping through the book shelves.
Seeing an unmarked volume, she pulled it from the shelf and flipping it open she found not a book but a journal written in Harris's hand writing.
She found a family tree sketched on the cover pages.
Andromeda and Ted Tonks, began the base branches, followed by Lily and James Potter.
Harry Potter.
Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin followed by Teddy Remus Lupin (Hufflepuff) who married Sonya Shacklebolt (Slytherin).
The branch that Teddy was artistically sketched to be intertwined under Harry's so he dipped in front of the two names marked as his blood children. The branch was inscribed, Godson.
Beside Harry's name was a thin branch connecting his name in marriage to Ginerva Weasley.
From them, two lovely branches:
Rose Lilian Potter (Slytherin) who married Dharmik Zabini (Slytherin)
James Sirius Potter (Slytherin) who married Eliza Nott (Slytherin)
The grandchild had been inked with pink flowers:
Magnolia Tonks Shacklebolt
Bella's heart tore for Harris. He had lost everyone, his entire family. And though it was remarkable that Harris Black had written his name Harry Potter, Bella knew the important part of the beautifully inked tree was the loss and love behind it.
She flipped the page to see if anything else had been written. Pausing on the page inscribed, Notable Careers:
Teddy Shacklebolt (Head of Hufflepuff)- Care of Magical Creatures Professor
Nevil Longbottom (Head of Gryffindor) - Herbology Professor
Angelina Johnson (Gryffindor) - Flight instructor and Medi-Witch
Charles Montague (Head of Ravenclaw) - Medi-Wizard
Scorpius Malfoy (Slytherin) - Potions Professor
Eliza Nott (Head of Slytherin) - History of Magic Professor, Assistant Headmistress
Harry Potter (Gryffindor but considered by most to be Slytherin much to his, Luna, and Hermione's amusement) - Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor
Susan Bones (Hufflepuff) - Headmistress of Hogwarts
Hermione Granger (Gryffindor) - Minister of Magic
Luna Lovegood (Ravenclaw) - Magizoologist and Dragonalogist
Continuing her reading, Bella felt a chill go upt her spine.
Note: Most children who were born from the Lost generation gravitated toward either Slytherin or Hufflepuff, survivalists and peacemakers respectively. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were almost solely composed of muggleborns. During the following years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Hogwarts had record low attendance rates. Much of Hogwarts' prestige was lost though there was an uptick in acceptance rates for 'lesser magicals' and muggleborns, as well as a greater acceptance rate of international students (though this was the work of decades not seasons).
The Lost Generation
Those who attended Hogwarts during—
Bella noted the date had been viciously scratched out. And the words that followed didn't seem to be written in Harris's voice. It was too formal like something said at a speech or engraved into a memorial.
Known as the Lost Generation for an uncommon death rate. Many were lost during the Final Battle at Hogwarts, many more came to take their own lives afterwards, many fell into some type of addiction, many led lives uncaring of consequences and prone to taking dangerous risks that -more often than not- led to terminal results.
Such as it was, the survivors gravitated toward each other, most were in some way connected either by blood or marriage to the Potter and Weasley lines. Subsequent generations were unable to wed and the 'Purity' of the British 'great' families in the ways of old were lost almost entirely.
The Lost Generation stands as a reminder to the Wizarding World for all time that children are not to fight in war. Children's rights and protection laws in Britain, Scotland, and Ireland have become the strictest across the globe.
The Lost we remember; or be lost ourselves.
Bella had to reread it thrice before she could understand, this was the future, this is the future that Voldemort would have created.
Not lifting up the Wizarding World, but erasing generations.
Maybe she was still crazy, maybe Harris was a time travel, but Voldemort?
Voldemort was evil.
oOo
AN: Thoughts, spiders, or feedback, pretty please?
