When Harry disappeared on the night before Halloween, none of his group of friends were surprised. Because of his family's magicks, he had a room to practice in—wth Sirius, they believed—and occasionally had to deal with legal stuff that Sirius couldn't legally just sign for him.

And while Sirius did occasionally observe via the mirror, for the most part, when Harry practiced in the old armory wing of Hogwarts, he was alone save for Darklings and occasionally Charlus.

So when Daria, a Hufflepuff, came over and asked, "What happened to Harry?" breathlessly, they were just as surprised as anyone else to hear he was in the hospital wing and not away from the school.

Even Ron forgot about food as they left lunch to go to the Hospital Wing.

They found Harry asleep with Sirius sitting next to him, dozing.

They all looked to Hermione to be their spokesperson.

She worked up the courage and slowly approached Sirius.

His eye snapped open as she approached and she jumped in fright at the absolute lack of movement in the rest of his body.

"Is-is Harry alright?" she worked up the courage to ask.

"Yeah, he just took a hard hit while training. It was expected. He might be back in classes tomorrow. He will be at dinner though."

He heard Ron's stomach growl at the mention of food and raised an eyebrow as Hermione huffed in annoyance.

"Go to lunch," he told them. "He should be awake by the end of class."

They headed back down and as soon as they entered the Great Hall, students from all the houses surrounded them. Hermione said, "It sounded like he got hurt practicing some advanced magic."

On the way to dinner that evening, Sophie was "reliably" informed by a third year Ravenclaw who said she had seen it all that Harry, wielding a flaming sword, had been fighting two vampires and a hobgoblin, protecting a half-dead Professor Dumbledore.

And that was one of the more reasonable stories the students were bandying about Harry's injuries.

When he appeared at dinner that night, nearly the entirety of the school stood and applauded him. He stopped and stared, wondering what was going on. Deciding to ignore it until he had food in him, he walked to Gryffindor table.

"What the hell are they doing?" he asked when he sat down in between Hermione and Sophie.

"We heard you defeated a dragon, saved a princess, married her, had two kids in a time compression chamber, and they're starting at Hogwarts next year," one of the Weasley twins said.

"Well, that's what we've been telling everyone, actually."

"A Hufflepuff said you drank Hagrid under the table and it killed him and all it did was make you a little sick. Then he fell on you," Sterling said breathlessly.

Harry looked up at the staff table. Hagrid and Professor Green were laughing at something. Harry looked back at Sterling and asked, "Are you insane‽ Hagrid's right there!"

"That's just a golem so the other students aren't frightened," Figgis stated matter-of-factly.

Harry's head hit the table hard enough there was blood.

~•~

Sirius patted Harry's shoulder as he related what had happened at dinner.

"It's not surprising. This is a closed community. Which means gossip is faster than a lumos. And no one really believes all of that, it's just fun to try to top everyone else's story.

"Tell them you were dehydrated from the wedding night to the princess one time then when someone else asks, say something else. Show them you can laugh at yourself."

Harry nodded then turned as the Headmaster reentered the office.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

The Keeper appeared. "Once the Master sets foot on the Dimholdt Road, he will he in a transitory state between here and the Redoubt. He must travel this alone save for us and his armor."

"Where is the redoubt?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry's grandfather floated in. "Sorry, it's Nick's deathday, we were celebrating a bit. Lost track of time. Are you ready, Harry?"

Harry nodded. "You explained the Redoubt before but I still don't think I understand."

"Okay. This is all supposition of course but two hundred years ago, my grandfather was experimenting with time-turners and ritual magic when he was attacked. A significant confluence of events sent him massively backwards in time.

"Now as we all know—well, not know but assume due to prevalent evidence—once we know something had happened, we cannot make it unhappen. I could not use a time-turner to save my wives' lives because I saw their deaths and experienced them." Harry nodded. He understood that, mostly due to the comic books he had been reading. Doctor Strange had been unable to save someone when he was back in time for the same reason.

"But grandfather was so far back in time that he saw creatures he had never seen before. And like the hunter and explorer he was, he started killing, capturing, studying, and cataloguing, trusting in magic to see him through his time-issues."

The adults nodded as Harry sat enrapt.

"He captured at least sixty of each species and as many eggs as he could as he studied what had happened magically, keeping them in a magical stasis in a dangerously big compartment in his satchel. And then one day he was flung about time again. There were more creatures, different than those he had captured. So once again, he did the same thing.

"This happened five more times sending him backwards and forwards, we believe, until he was standing on a rise one day, bemoaning the lack of his favorite pipe tobacco when he saw it. A massive rock falling from the sky, miles across. Your great-great-grandfather had used much the same tactic before in battles to kill vampire nests so he did the first thing that came to mind. By tapping into the nearest ley lines, he created a massive protego that caused the asteroid to be deflected back to the heavens.

"This nearly killed him for he had created a schism—or rupture or something—in time. That asteroid was supposed to hit and kill off the dinosaurs, causing the rise of mammals. At least, that's muggle science's thoughts.

"The earth's magic—due to the tapped ley lines, his magic, and the Darkness swirled about, tearing the world he stood on, flinging him even farther back in time, rocking the axes of the universe itself we believe. For now there were two of our worlds. But the Darklings could walk on the earth he stood on. And he could once again feel his son's ring connected to his house symbol.

"The Lightlings were there as well.

"So he sent his Darklings to be studying where they were, summoning more and larger than he had before. Darklings took wing and flew in the sun, roamed the continent as massive forty foot tall beasts, climbed mountains as thirty foot giants, explored the ocean as thousand foot sea serpents."

"Did you say singular continent and sea?" Albus said.

"Yes. One of each. The muggles called it Vaalbara. We call it why the Potters are wealthy. Only we have access to a whole world's mineral wealth.

"The Lightlings and Darklings began seeding the planet with flora and fauna of the animals they had then and now."

Harry blinked. "Dinosaurs? Really?" he breathed.

Charlus nodded. "But not around the redoubt. There are three islands in the middle of the C, kind of like the Turkish Flag."

The Headmaster created an illusion of the flag and Harry nodded.

"Once there, you will feel crippling depression, an urge to turn back. Fight this! You are Harry Potter, eleventh Wielder! You are power! You own the world you stand on, not the other way 'round. The Darklings will protect you." Harry nodded.

"Perhaps whistling a happy tune?" Dumbledore suggested. "Music is a very powerful weapon in a mage's hands, metaphorically."

"Huh, I never thought of that," Charlus said. "Dead and still learning. Who knew?"

Harry laughed at that.

Dumbledore held out a muggle device and Harry recognized it as a Bop-It. Dudley had had one for a week, throwing it away after Piers beat him the first time they played.


Harry accepted the hug from Sirius and admonition to be careful as Albus built a bonfire and conjured up easy chairs, including a ghostly one for Charlus.

He turned and looked at the cave. They were on a deserted beach, looking at Fingal's Cave, the one place where the rift between the world he stood on and the world he planned to visit were malleable enough to nearly allow physical steps.

Breathing in, Harry's armour formed around his body, his mask forming for the first time to Sirius. A blank chain-weave textured faceplate with a crown like jutting of ragged bone stumps made it look like mutant antlers had pierced the shadow armour.

Darklings swarmed around Harry, looking like a mist of shadow spreading away from him as he strode forward.

~•~

Harry's first step into the cave and his will to transfer to the redoubt left him in the shadowwalking plane. Purple hued x-ray views of the cave were visible as he walked a dozen yards then he was on the other side, standing on a path of stone, stretching off into the distance, wishing he had been able to bring his broom.

He could see his goal in the distance, a massive castle, sitting on the three arches from the islands, supporting it hundreds of feet in the air, shaped like a large rough cut red crystal, its bottom point just breaking the ocean's surface. It was vaguely reminiscent of Dumbledore Castle he thought as he began trudging forward but with only one tower that looked like a conical pyramid.

Doubt crept into his mind. I can't do this, he thought.

Remembering his grandfather's words, he recited a mantra. "I am the Wielder, I am in charge here."

"Yes, Master," the Keeper said, clutching the Book of Shadows, now four feet tall instead or his normal two.

"I am the Wielder, I am in charge here," Harry whispered again.

Each of the three islands were nearly twenty thousand cubic miles, about the same as the UK, he knew, and the farthest away from each other was a half mile, rock and earth having been carefully added to to make the sea channels a veritable no-go for the larger ocean only life. He could walk through the channels without issue.

The Lightlings and the Darklings posted to the Redoubt itself maintained the security of the islands, growing potions ingredients, foodstuffs, and other fungible flora on those islands with a great wall surrounding it all and an anti-muggle charm to keep the flying fauna away though occasional land fauna arrived on the island by swimming as storms struck.

He took a step and the Darklings moved forward, covering the ground save for a path large enough for him.

"I am the Wielder, I am in charge here," he breathed again.

He closed his eyes as a sense of dread overwhelmed him. Something was wrong with Sirius, he had to get back!

He started to turn back but stopped. "I AM the Wielder, I'm in charge here!" he exploded.

Harry made it another five hundred feet before he began to see visions of his friends under attack at school. Sophie was lying in a heap against a wall, Hermione trying to staunch the flow of the other girl's blood.

"Hogwarts is the safest place," he reminded himself. "It cannot be breached."

He deliberately placed a foot before the other, making his stride as long as possible.

He had covered a mile, fighting off constant doubt when he remembered the musical suggestion. Singing "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes,

"Sun, sun, sun, here it comes," he modified the throats of the Darklings by accident and created a huge chorus, singing along with him, pushing away the despair that spilled over him.

~•~

They were halfway along the path when the first attack came. A massive long necked sea dinosaur had come under the anti-muggle dome of magic and up the waterway.

For a long moment, Harry was stricken in shock. Intellectually he had accepted his grandfather's statements but proof was… awe-inspiring.

And dangerous, Harry realized.

His wand snapped up almost seemingly on its own and a massively bright light flared as he shouted "Lumos! Attack!"

The horde of Darklings swarmed, growing larger and larger as more were unintentionally summoned and their bodies enlarged at Harry's second unintentional command.

It easily grabbed up a few dozen Darklings in its maw even half blinded as it was.

Harry remembered a news story he had read over the summer and one of the surviving Darklings began to swell as it scrambled down the throat of the creature, somewhat imitating how the postman had survived the pit bull attack by forcing it to choke on his fist.

In a short amount of time it succumbed to unconsciousness then death as the Darkling kept it from being able to breathe.

After the Keeper congratulated Harry on his quick thoughts, the rest of the Darklings began consuming the meat of the creature as the Keeper finished a detailed sketch of the creature. Though they had no need for food, they had historically eaten the enemies of the Wielder to help sow fear amongst Dark Mages.

Harry looked away but couldn't help a chuckle as a dozen Darklings carried the skull off as a trophy and another contingent lifted the multi-tonne beast to dump it back in the ocean, tearing it apart to get it there quicker.

"It was really beautiful," Harry thought aloud. "The dinosaur books always showed them as one color but it had so many colors. And furry like an otter!"

The thought brought him to butterflies and he began summoning butterfly Darklings to scout ahead.

~•~

He had made it a mile this time before a rogue creature attacked again.

This time Harry acted quicker due to advanced warning and his Darklings restrained the creature.

It was almost six feet tall.

Its skin was pebbled, Harry saw as he got up close. It had violet wing shaped patches on its back, a yellow belly, and the rest of the skin was like a tiger's with green and orange stripes except around the muzzle where it had white and violet speckling.

Its feet had enormous hook claws and its hands were just three claws without a thumb. "This is the one gramps liked hunting‽" Harry asked in surprise. "With only a spear‽"

"Yes."

"Gramps was crazy!" Harry said as the Darklings began climbing into the creature to consume its flesh and organs from within.

His new trophy was carefully folded around its bones and joined the sea dinosaur's skull as they continued walking, Harry whistling Be Happy.

~•~

They were closing on the arch that supported the castle and would let them enter when it began to rain so hard he couldn't see more than a few feet and fog rolled in.

At a command from Harry, his Darklings began growing in size until he was surrounded by eight foot tall Darklings, creating a safe corridor to the arch as more doubt swept over him. "I am Master here!" Harry ground out then began jogging.

Then he was there, standing before massive doors which opened as he walked forward.

There was no sound as they smoothly swung inward save for Harry's ragged breathing.

Inside were stables but no animals and no smell like he had experienced before on school trips.

The Keeper urged him forward, leading him towards a pillar of light at the end, pushing the Book of Shadows into Harry's hands.

As soon as Harry stepped onto it, he transitioned like he was stepping into one shadow and out of another.

They were before him. A bookcase of the other Books of Shadow of Wielders that came before him. But theirs were true books surrounded by trophies interspersed on the c-shaped shelf.

Harry stepped forward, lifting the book up to place it besides his Grandfather's.

The room went dark then the shadows seemed to run from the center to the walls and Harry saw his book was ready.

"Welcome, Master," he heard and turned to see the Lightlings. They were all uniform size, about two feet tall, and looked like angels with golden skin, eyes, and hair, wearing gleaming white togas.

"Yes, welcome," came more voices and Harry turned to see ten skulls, all blackened save for where gold runes were carved or embossed and gems filled the eye sockets. Wands were clenched between the teeth which were also gems.

"We are the echoes of those who came before you," said another, its eyes glittering in time to its words. "We can answer your questions if our written words are not enough."

"A-are you ghosts like gramps? Err, the tenth Wielder?"

"No, only imprinted memories and modified personalities."

Harry wondered why Gramps hadn't mentioned this then realized his was likely made from his actual skull. And it had been a decade. And ghosts had weird memory issues, he remembered.

"Are you hungry, Master? Would you like your robes? Or to tour the castle?"

"I don't really have time now," Harry said. "I have to go back."

The Scribe nodded. "Of course Master. Are there any orders?"

"Umm, for now, no. Wait, yes. Please stockpile one ton of every precious metal, magic reactive stone, and well, basically anything I might need to create my Iron Man armour. Keeper?"

He nodded and handed over a blown-up diagram of the armour from one of the comics. "We're going to make the armor for real but not just like that since the alloys mentioned aren't real or possible. We'll use runic arrays and enchantments to make it real."

"We already have all that in stock, Master. Your great-great-great-grandfather decided that we should have at least five tonnes on hand at all time. That is the tonne that is equivalent to one thousand kilograms or two thousand two hundred five pounds, Master, not the one that is equivalent to two thousand pounds."

"Your Book of Shadows has all you need to know of this place," the Keeper said. "You told your Godfather you wouldn't linger too long."

Harry nodded. "Okay, thank you, Scribe. And the rest of you Lightlings."

They bowed as Harry picked up his book.

It was now a black tome with gold leaf edged parchment, a quill in the spine for his use, and gold leaf along the spine stating Harry Potter with XI after his name. Locking it shut was a fine, unbreakable chain that was so long it doubled as a placemarker.

When he arrived, he and his Darklings were treated to the image of his drunk Godfather teaching his even drunker Headmaster and grandfather's ghost how to sing School's Out by Alice Cooper.

Harry leaned against a handy tree, enjoying the free entertainment.

~•~

Back at Hogwarts, a still drunk Sirius ended up escorting Harry back to the dorm then went to the guest quarters near the Hospital Wing.

Harry checked the time on his pocketwatch before climbing into bed. Near four am. He groaned and wished it wasn't a school day.

When he was awoken at seven by Ron and the other boys, he got out of bed and dressed slowly then trudged down to breakfast.

As soon as he finished filling his plate with his usual breakfast, a mug of something steaming appeared with a card. Sirius's handwriting said it was a pepper-up latte.

As soon as he took a sip, he felt infinitely better. While it was a cold cure it also worked as a general pick me up.

"You have a latte?" Hermione asked as she sat down with Sophie next to her.

He nodded. "With some pepper-up potion. Sirius sent it." He gestured towards it and the two girls each took sips.

"What's a latte?" Ron asked.

"Steamed milk mixed with coffee and occasionally flavors," Hermione said. "It's the only kind I can get when I'm allowed coffee."

"Why?" Neville asked.

"Dad thinks I'm too energetic anyway and mum thinks it might stunt my growth. It's more milk than coffee," she explained.

Harry sniggered.

"Where did you go last night?" Neville asked.

"Finally finished all the family paperwork, I think," Harry only half-lied. He had signed a few documents while in the Headmaster's office.

"We still meeting to discuss what we've learned?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "After dinner in the dorm again."

~•~

There was no table so this time Ron and Neville sat on Ron's bed while the girls sat on Harry's. He sat on the chair from his trunk's desk mode.

Ron's update was quick. He had learned that while he knew all the runes in both futhark alphabets and the Egyptian hieroglyphs, he didn't know how to write enchantment spells with them. "I went and talked with professor Babbling though and she lent me the correspondence coursebooks. She said we could study them and try to build the enchantments and she would evaluate our work if we promised to take runes in third year and gave her a good deal on a satchel."

Hermione went next. Hers was quite long as she presented a short but detailed explanation of all the spells. "And as you can see, while these six spells require access to the Restricted Section, we've copied over all the spells and found some newer spells that might be more useful. Professor Flitwick said he'd be happy to help us whenever we have questions and he might be interested in a satchel, too."

"Professor Green helped me with one of the plant's name but I got the rest sorted out. I sent a letter to my gran and she said she'd order the seedlings of them all and Professor Green is accepting two seedlings of each plant for each mature plant we need. He was also interested in a satchel."

Harry stood up. "I looked up all the different types of cloth and leathers.

"Dragon leather is too anti-magic to use as an inside fabric but it's really good to use as the outside stuff," Harry said, laying down the pieces of a magic-free satchel he had taken apart. He set aside the single piece of canvas that was the flap and backside of the satchel. "So we use dragonhide for that, which can be color corrected with dyes so we can have a preferred color." Ron did an arm pull and Harry knew blinding orange would be a color he wanted. "It's a bit much at about twenty galleons a hide but one dragon would make at least one hundred satchels so I think we should make one hundred in total." Hermione was writing up the costs as Harry talked. "The inside fabrics we can use are silk—which is also anti-magic when magically worked but when made by muggles is really good at holding magic—canvas, linen, and something called crinoline but it's really rough.

"To line the inside of pockets with silk will cost about a galleon in total for one hundred bags. The pack can get us a good deal on some Parisian silk.

"I think we should use canvas for these parts," Harry said, holding up the folding side section and inner panels for holding items. "It holds magic really well and by placing a sheet of magically worked silk as backing for the inner panels, we can add up to seven panels in total easily."

"What do you mean by panel?" Hermione asked.

Harry opened his satchel and revealed the top panel under the flap. It had his father's Sneaky Pete, cursepicks, and a couple vials and a flask.

"Why do you have a liquor flask‽" Sophie asked.

"It's got water in it," Harry said. "And it's my grandfather's.

"Anyway, see?" He asked, undoing a zipper and moving that panel, revealing another one underneath it, held by another zipper. "And there's one more but both of them are empty. Auror satchels usually have three like this one does. But seven would be really useful and with spells properly done, they could be different panels for each class textbook and supplies or something like that. We can also make the panels replaceable so we could have dozens but only use seven at a time."

"I did the math," Sophie said. "Not counting our time to do the spells, each bag'll cost about a galleon to make. That's about a sixth of the cost of a standard one. But the really high end ones go for a lot more. The catalog we got ahold of has some going for thirty galleons each. Those ones have tents and stuff built in to them."

"Let's make a list of stuff we think the bag should be able to do," Hermione suggested.

"Hold a broom," Ron suggested, looking over at Harry's on the wall above the guitar. "But easy to get to. Like a side pocket."

"Like this one for wands?" Harry asked, demonstrating where he had placed one of his pencil-wands. It was a small pocket on the outside of the satchel near the 'hinge' part.

"Yeah," Ron said.

"A large back pocket," Harry said, "that's completely undetectable. No, two. On the body side of the satchel."

"Undetectable, self sorting enlargement charm," Neville said.

"First thing I wrote," Hermione said. "Gotta look up to see if they can be activated by saying what you want then just reach in."

"I like the tent idea," Sophie said. "Maybe we should try to learn how to do everything they do on the high end ones. Even if we don't do them, people might want to have some of that stuff."

Hermione added tent to the list. "I'll add the other stuff after the meeting."

"An anti-muggle charm," Ron suggested. "Harry mentioned how his godfather got seen taking something too big to be in something small in London."

"Some books," Harry said. "Yeah. He got a fine for having to hit the muggle with a confundus."

"Which one is that?" Sophie asked.

"It confuses someone enough to make them either forget something or just accept that he was carrying the books in his hands all along," Hermione said.

"A hammock," Harry suggested. "I love the one I have."

"What about a bike?" Hermione said as she wrote hammock.

"What's a bike?" Neville asked.

"Yeah," Harry said. "They're a two wheeled vehicle. I think Dean has a picture of one. Or can draw one at least."

A handful of other suggestions were added then the meeting was over and the girls left the dorm. Harry gratefully climbed into his bed and fell asleep without even undressing.