Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me unfortunately.
A/N: Hi everybody I'm ecstatic that you're following my story so a shout out to Erris Wagenaar, HalfDemonDaughter, Rusher156165165, The Omnitrix Conquer, and raveygirl17. In celebration of my first five follows I've decided to post this early. Thanks guys!
Padfoot was the first one back on his feet.
"Whoa! That was awesome let's do it again sometime!" Harry laughed Sirius would always be the same old Sirius. "Hullo Prongslet! What's the date?"
"Padfoot what's wrong with you? Honestly, 'let's do it again'? Sorry cub his head isn't screwed on properly yet from the last time he and Prongs tried to become muggle stuntsmen." Harry stifled a chuckle. Sirius pouted and swatted at him. "Now then let's see what Furball did to disguise us. After that we'll answer all of your questions." With that Remus wandlessly conjured 3 floor length mirrors. Peter shrieked.
"What? Oh she's evil. Finite Incantatem!" Peter started shifting shape as soon as he cast the spell. First he grew taller and then he lost most of his fat. The last thing Harry noticed was that Peter looked 25 or somewhere close. Finally he stopped shifting, his hair was dirty blonde and remarkably short, he was lean, and for some reason he had mouse ears. He looked over at his dogfather and other uncle. Both were also built well. Padfoot's hair had blue streaks with dog ears perked up between them. Most of the tattoos Harry was accustomed to seeing were there, but a few had been swapped out for other symbols. Remus looked healthier, now there was no gray, and his werewolf bites were all gone. As with the others Remus had wolf ears, Harry was starting to wonder what the story on the ears was. Remus and Sirius looked like they were Peter's age.
"Now that we've fixed the damage are there any questions you have before we start explaining about Aether? Such as why we only look 8 or so years older than you." Harry shook his head.
"I just guessed that the purpose of the chambers was to keep you frozen in time until the button was pressed. The enchantments are centered around the wood, but there's something else. Blood runes on the wood maybe? Which is why you didn't use metal. Metal would've melted, but wood is a safe medium as long as you don't overpower it. Lastly the wood isn't anything I've ever encountered before, the kinds of runes that work with time overpower all naturally occurring woods." The Marauders stared at him. Peter chuckled,
"Bloody hell! Prongs' looks and Furball's brains, that's one hell of a combo. Oh and James's knack for trouble. We'll have a devil of a time with you I can already tell." The last part was said with a grin as if he was anticipating the adventures they'd find themselves in. Harry didn't notice a galleon changing hands and Sirius's smug grin after that statement, "Anyway it's good to see you again Bambi. I'm sorry about what that Peter did." Harry shook his head.
"No apology necessary Uncle Wormtail. You've already explained why he acted the way he did. Why would I fault you for something you had no control over?" Peter pulled Harry into a hug and Harry instinctually tensed, then relaxed. Remus made his way over next and Sirius followed with an exclamation of,
"Group hug!" Remus whacked Sirius over the head with a bat he'd conjured. "Ow abuse! What the hell Moony? Is it your time of the month or something?" Sirius kept talking but Remus silenced him also wandlessly.
Harry was starting to wonder at the wandless and wordless charms the Marauders were using. So far he hadn't seen anyone's wand and they'd used several spells. Supposedly only very powerful wizards could do wandless and wordless magic, such as Dumbledore. This had confused Harry, after all what was accidental magic if not wandless and wordless magic performed by young children. Any parent or kid could tell you that accidental magic wasn't an accident at all. A stimulus was introduced and magic tries to correct the problem. For example his first apparation when he was 8, he needed to get away from Dudley and his gang and his magic took him somewhere Dudley couldn't possibly reach him. Other times when experiencing a strong emotion his magic would respond. Which led Harry to believe it was at least partially sentient. After that Harry decided it would be prudent to learn how to cast wandless and wordless magic, so he found time to practice. Sure his essays had suffered for it, but that served two purposes. Firstly it prevented Hermione from having a conniption because he could achieve better grades and secondly with the time he would normally spend refining his essays he learned how potions worked and how to cast every spell in his arsenal without a wand or spoken incantation. Regardless wizards seemed to lose any shred of common sense when it came to magic. At first Harry wasn't sure if he was truly exceptional or if it was just a lack of common sense in wizard genes. After the Marauders' little display earlier he was betting on the latter.
"Okay Prongslet have you read the last two letters from your mum and dad or the journals attached? No? Well I guess I'll do my best to explain the Aether with these two dunderheads filling in whatever I miss." Peter gave Sirius a 'who on Earth do you think you're kidding look?' And Remus ignored the slur. "To start with the Aether is the best school of magic to ever exist. Every form of magic from the beginning of time is still practiced on school grounds. They also accept approximately 500 students every year, out of those students 250 are expected survive until graduation. Aether exists in another reality created by the school's founders thousands of years ago. There isn't a house system, but Aether is a boarding school. You'll be given a suite, which you are expected to furnish. There is no curfew, but we'd recommend being in your suite before 11 PM if you don't want to become a vampire's midnight snack. That's another thing as I explained in the letter at Aether mortal humans are a very small minority. The class will be comprised of vampires, djinns, weres, centaurs, goblins, elves, fae and the occasional gnome or dwarf. I'd recommend you learn the difference before you go. Also be aware there are no repercussions for killing another student besides the possibility of friends and family taking revenge. The only reason this may not apply is if you are challenged to a formal duel. If you are killed in a formal duel we cannot avenge you, so don't go challenging anyone unless you're 100% sure you'll win." At this Sirius gave him a feral grin. "Granted students that try to off each other with poisons and the like are considered cowards and shunned. Also you have to be an animagus and an occlumens to attend the school. Which means you have a month to learn both, sorry about that prongslet. Now let's see what am I missing?" Remus answered first,
"You'll be attending this school until you die or turn 21. I'd recommend you also keep on the good side of the teachers. If you try to run away a teacher will hunt you down and either kill you or drag you back to class. They're also allowed to kill you if you piss them off sufficiently. Please don't annoy them and just for good measure avoid Cyrus, he hates humans in general. He's the Head Animus Sorcerer and he's one of the old school fae who still believe humans are nothing more than vermin." Peter took it from there,
"Another thing you should know is that the Aether has special wards preventing anyone from sharing the school's secrets. In these wards is a special tracker that'll attach itself to your magic. That's how they can find missing students. Not that they actually care if you miss class, the tracker is just to find students who've skipped town trying to escape. Lastly if you're going to be late to a class don't go because the punishment is heavier for interrupting a teacher than missing a class. Actually there isn't a punishment for not going to class. Aether isn't like Hogwarts, if you miss class the price is that you won't know the material you would've covered. Which means you'll fail tests and eventually the class if you skip enough. If you fail Aether you will be killed. They refuse to graduate a student who failed their classes." From what Harry had understood so far he was starting to understand that Aether was a school he'd either love or absolutely hate. "Any questions?" Harry shook his head still processing what he'd been told.
The quiet was eventually interrupted by Padfoot who was bouncing off the walls. Literally. "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" He chanted over and over.
"Umm about that… As far as everyone out there is concerned Uncle Paddy died last year and Uncle Wormy is a death eater and you're all like in your 40's. How are you going to explain this? And more importantly how are we going to explain this to the goblins?"
"Actually Wormtail and I are dead here now as well. The golems have a self-destruct button, and when we woke up they automatically self-destructed. But I see the problem, we'll wear disguises. As for the goblins, well we'd have to be suicidal to not explain this back when we decided to enact this plan." With that Sirius and Remus changed their hair and eye colors. Peter looked so different they figured no one would be able to figure out who he was anyway. Before they left Remus showed Harry to the library in the vault to find books on Occlumency, Animagi, and other things to keep him occupied for the next month.
"Where are you staying anyway? It's not like Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon will approve of you guys staying with me." Remus eyes flashed gold.
"You mean Furball's sister and brother-in-law? That's who Dumbledore entrusted your safety to?" All Harry could do was nod under Remus' angry glare. Remus snarled and even Sirius had stopped bouncing. The three men had gone from fairly happy to spitting mad in about 5 seconds. Then they'd gone completely melancholic, Harry was getting whiplash. "We're sorry cub, we should've known Dumbledore wouldn't listen to Furball. After all Dumbledore can't imagine a family member holding such a strong grudge against another family member. We should've had some kind of safeguard to ensure you ended up with someone else."
"Don't worry about it. It's Dumbledore's fault, and the blame lies solely with him. Mum and Dad expressly wrote in their will that under no circumstances was I to be placed in the Dursleys' care. Dumbledore made the executive decision to leave me there against their wishes. Now answer my question where are you staying?" Peter grinned,
"The correct question Bambi is 'where are we staying?' And for your answer: we can stay in one of the Pettigrew properties in the Infinitium Reality."
"What do you mean Infinitium Reality? You said earlier that Aether was in another reality. What's a reality?" Remus went into professor Lupin mode.
"Have you ever heard of the theory that there are an infinite number of universes side by side? Okay good well that's not perfectly accurate. The correct thing to say would be that there are an infinite number of realities and they aren't flush against each other. There are cracks in between called 'the Void' which is basically just a vacuum. Every reality has a name chosen by it's distinguishing trait, Infinitium has no end as far as we've been able to figure. Aether Reality was created expressly for the school and ends at the borders of the school. You'll see what I mean when you go." Finally they made their way out of the bank vault getting a nod from Griphook. But before they left Harry took a mahogany trunk with the words 'Praesis ut Prosis ne ut Imperes' inscribed in a crest. He made a note to look up what it meant later as it was probably his family's motto guessing by the fact he'd found it in his family vault.
"My orders are to take you to a medic now." Harry was confused, he was grateful for all the help he'd received from the goblins so far, but a medic? It seemed to be a little much. Apparently Peter's mind was going the same way,
"A medic? Why would Harry need to see a medic?"
"I'm sure it has something to do with the soul shard in Lord Potter's scar." The soul shard was in his scar? Harry's hand flew up to his scar. It made sense in a twisted way that the soul shard would be in his scar. After all every time he was anywhere near Tom his scar started pulsing. Sirius and the others seemed to understand what the soul shard was though,
"Rightio then, lead the way!" Griphook led him down some tunnels approaching the heart of Gringotts. Humans weren't often led down here, and most that were never saw the light of day again. Not a happy thought, but the goblins did want him to go destroy the horcruxes so he doubted they'd try to kill him. Eventually they reached a door with a caduceus inscribed and Griphook pulled open the doors. Inside was a cave with a several goblins. There was a row of beds and he watched as the goblin healers used wandless magic in their healing. Most of the injuries seemed related to exploding inventions, but one healer was removing poison in a stream from an open stomach wound. As they shut the door a goblin healer approached them,
"Hello Lord Potter. I'm sure you've been told why you are here, I am healer Silvertooth and I'll be performing the removal ritual if you will follow me." She led them to a bed at the opposite end of the room. He sat down on the bed and watched as she inscribed runes on either end of the bed. Sirius grinned and gave him a thumbs up, Remus studied the runes she was drawing, and Peter sort of stood off to the side analyzing the other goblins in the room. Silvertooth started chanting in what sounded like Gobbledegook, Harry saw a brief flash of white before passing out.
Right just a quick word, I'm going to do the next month until Harry goes to Aether in one chapter. Or at least I'm going to try. Review pretty pretty please with a cherry on top.