Undone
by Healer Pomfrey
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.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC.
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind feedback on the previous chapter!
"Harry, what's wrong?" Gwendolyn asked, apparently noticing that his expression suddenly darkened.
Harry sighed, knowing that no one but Luna, Sirius and Remus were aware of the fact that he could feel other people's emotions that were directed at him. He shortly explained the matter, only to add what he had sensed the headmaster think about him before leaving.
"That meddling old coot," Severus growled, before he motioned Gwendolyn to call Tom and Alex back.
"Does he really believe in the prophecy?" Tom wondered aloud upon hearing about the headmaster's thoughts concerning Harry. "I really don't know if he made it up or Dolores, but I don't believe in it, and I think neither I nor Harry have any intention of killing each other."
"Definitely not," Harry agreed, shaking his head in annoyance.
"Oh well, that's good to know," Gwendolyn spoke up, causing everyone to laugh.
HP
A few days later, Hermione, Fred and George arrived as well as Justin and his younger sister Birgit, who was betrothed to Alex. Birgit and Alex were going to be first-years in a month's time and were both very excited to finally become students at Hogwarts.
Harry and Luna arranged for their friends to show Birgit Hogwarts, while they kept Hermione back and led her into the Wallace common room, where Tom was already waiting for them.
"Why don't we go with the others?" Hermione asked in obvious confusion, when they entered the common room.
"Because we want to introduce someone to you," Luna replied, smiling mischievously.
"Whom?" Hermione enquired in surprise.
"Tom," Luna called out to the boy who was standing in front of the painting engrossed in a conversation with William Wallace.
"Tom?" Hermione mouthed, giving Luna and Harry a questioning look.
Quickly excusing himself with William, Tom came over to his friends, reached for Hermione's hand and kissed it, causing the girl to blush profusely.
"Hello Hermione," he said in a soft voice.
"Tom?" Hermione asked, looking at the handsome boy in front of her in apparent confusion.
While Tom explained everything about his de-aging and Regulus blood adopting him, Harry and Luna unobtrusively made their way upstairs to the second-year boys' dormitory to give Tom some much needed time alone with Hermione.
HP
Hermione stared at Tom in confusion. 'He's THE Tom,' she realised, but somehow, he seemed like a completely different person. "My, you're very handsome," she breathed, causing him to smile.
"Thank you dear," he replied, seemingly happy at her kind words.
"Hermione," he then said, "you're beautiful."
"Thank you," Hermione replied, inwardly groaning in annoyance, as she felt her cheeks heat up again.
"Hermione," Tom spoke up again, "I know that you barely know me, although I've known you for almost a year now. So please don't be upset if I ask you something, all right?"
"All right," Hermione replied, wondering what Tom wanted to ask and where Harry and Luna had gone all of a sudden.
"Will you give me the honour to become my betrothed?" Tom asked in a soft voice. "You know that all wizards need to make a betrothal contract when they turn eleven, and since I'm now registered with the Ministry of Magic as a twelve-year-old pureblood wizard, the ministry will soon come after me if I don't make a contract with someone. I very much wish this someone to be you if you don't mind."
Hermione remained quiet for a couple of minutes, while her thoughts went haywire. 'He wants me because he needs to bond right away. I'd prefer someone to want me because they love me,' she thought. 'On the other hand, most wizards are already bonded at our age, he's very handsome, and as far as I knew him as an adult, he seems very nice.'
"All right," she finally agreed, causing Tom to gently pull her into a hug, before his mouth carefully captured her lips.
"Thank you Hermione," Tom said, sounding relieved. "This means a lot to me."
"What do we need to do?" Hermione enquired.
"My guardian, which is Regulus, has to meet with your parents, explain the matter to them and make the betrothal contract with them," Tom explained, patiently. "Do you think they'll agree?" he then asked in apparent concern.
"Well," Hermione replied, sighing. "We really need to explain the matter to them, but in the end, they'll surely agree. Do you think Regulus can take us with him?"
"I have a better idea," Tom said, pensively. "Harry' and Luna's chameguises are able to transform into phoenixes. If one of them changed into a phoenix, it could take you and me to your parents' place, so that we could do all the explanations. Then Regulus could simply visit them at a later time or even together with us to make the contract."
"All right," Hermione agreed and glanced at her wrist watch. It was almost lunch time. "If we go right away, we should be able to speak with them over lunch break. Let's go and look for Harry and Luna."
HP
Huge smiles spread over Harry's and Luna's faces, when Hermione and Tom entered the second-year boys' dormitory holding hands.
"Congratulations," Luna spoke up, smiling.
"Thank you," Hermione replied, seemingly happy. "Could you perhaps ask one of your chameguises if they could take us to my parents' place? We'd like to speak with them right away."
"Of course," Harry was the first to answer affirmatively, while Itsy, who had been sleeping together with Bitsy on the bed behind Harry and Luna, already transformed into a beautiful fire phoenix.
"Just grab his back feathers," Harry instructed his friends, once the phoenix was hovering in front of them.
HP
Luna and Harry exchanged an amused glance once their friends had left together with Itsy.
"I just hope Hermione's parents will agree," Harry spoke up. "I mean, she's only twelve, and in the muggle world, it's not thinkable to bond at such an age."
"Even in this world, it's completely ridiculous," Luna added, wearing a dreamy expression.
"Yes, but in the magical world, all the parents know about this stupid regulation, but in the muggle world, no one will be able to comprehend the reasoning behind it. It'll be quite a shock for Hermione's parents."
"Shall we wait for them to come back or head to the Great Hall for lunch?" Luna enquired.
"Let's wait," Harry suggested, however, when Hermione and Tom were not back three hours later, he very much regretted his earlier decision.
HP
It was almost dinnertime, when Itsy arrived back with Hermione and Tom in tow. Both seemed flushed but happy.
"How did it go?" Luna blurted out, eagerly.
"It took us five hours to try persuading them, and in the end, we had to call Regulus, and he managed to convince them. We're already betrothed," Hermione informed her friends, holding out her left hand to Luna, where she was wearing a ring that was similar to Luna's and Harry's.
"Congratulations!" everyone screamed, and their friends, who had been hiding everywhere in the dormitory, came out to celebrate with the happy couple.
HP
On the following day, Regulus arrived at Hogwarts, together with his son Tom, who had been waiting for his old friend and new guardian at the Hogwarts gates, hidden under Harry's invisibility cloak.
Together, they headed up to the headmaster's office, feeling very much reassured by Sirius', Severus' and Lily's promise to be present for the conversation with Albus Dumbledore.
"Regulus," the headmaster greeted his former student, "and you must be Thomas." Offering his visitors a lemon drop, which Harry politely declined, he motioned them to take a seat.
'I just hope he won't get suspicious, be it by my name, my appearance, my way of speaking or the colour of my eyes,' Tom thought, worriedly, and, after bringing his Occlumency wards full up, for once accepted a lemon drop – just to do everything differently from the way in which one Quirinus Quirrell handled things.
He noticed in relief that Severus and Sirius as well as Minerva were present in the office, while Lily was hovering in the portrait next to Godric Gryffindor.
"Thank you headmaster for allowing me to become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor," Regulus began to speak. "As you might or might not have heard, I've been working as an Unspeakable for a decade. My son Thomas has been home-schooled in order to keep my position a secret. Unfortunately, his mother died last year, so that I'm now solely responsible for his education. Therefore, I'm glad that he's able to attend Hogwarts. I hope that he'll be allowed to attend second year classes together with other children of his age."
"Very well," the headmaster said, pensively. "Thomas' mother was a Gaunt I suppose, considering his last name?"
"Yes sir, Giselle Gaunt," Regulus confirmed according to his agreement with Tom. "She was a distant relative of the better known Marvolo Gaunt."
"I suggest that we have Thomas sorted right away then," Dumbledore continued and fetched the Sorting Hat out of the shelf.
With mixed feelings, Tom accepted that the headmaster placed Sopho onto his head.
'Oh, it's you again,' the Hat greeted him, causing Tom to almost panic.
'Please don't tell anyone,' he thought back, horrified.
'Don't worry, I won't,' Sopho replied, reassuringly. 'The question is just where to put you. You'd still fit well in Slytherin, but also…'
'Wallace please,' Tom thought, intensely. 'I'm going to fight together with my allies in Wallace.'
'I can see that,' Sopho agreed and said aloud, "Wallace."
'Thank Merlin,' Tom thought in relief, as he handed the Hat back to the headmaster. 'Now I can finally enjoy the holidays here with everyone else without having to hide from the professors.'
HP
Very early the following morning, all students who were currently staying at Hogwarts left the castle by a Portkey, which Buckbean had provided for Harry, so that the boy could as usually spend his birthday on Goblin Island.
Unbeknownst to Harry, Luna and Gwendolyn had – with Gwenlin's help – invited all of their Wallace housemates for the birthday party, and Harry let his eyes wander over the almost crowded beach in surprise.
After greeting everyone and receiving a bunch of presents, Harry introduced Tom and Birgit to the others, while Fred and George eagerly presented Birgit and Alex with tips how to bribe Sopho to sort them into Wallace.
"Don't listen to the twins," Luna threw in, smirking mischievously. "I'll tell you later how to bribe the Sorting Hat."
"Oh sorry dears…"
"… if our Luna knows something…"
"… then it's better to listen to her," Fred and George finally admitted in capitulation, before they were pulled aside by Jane and Kengo.
During the rest of the day, the two couples of twins were inseparable, and Harry wondered what kind of mischief the four were planning. 'It can't be anything but pranks in any case,' he thought in anticipation.
HP
Hermione, Birgit, Justin and the Weasley twins were allowed to remain at Hogwarts for the next three weeks and only had to return home a week before they would come back boarding the Hogwarts Express on the first of September.
The ten friends spent much time exploring unused parts of the castle and tried to come up with ideas how to get rooms into use again, for example for study clubs, as meeting rooms or for homework groups.
"We could use the corridor between the hospital wing and Wallace house for study rooms for each year," Harry suggested one day. "As much as I love being in Wallace and studying together with you all, it would be nice if we could get to know students from the other houses better," he explained, only to add, "even if we only spend up to an hour or less there every evening."
"That's a brilliant idea," Hermione immediately agreed. "Should we go and suggest it to the headmaster?"
"Better not," Tom replied, shaking his head in clear annoyance that made Harry grin, knowing that Tom was not more fond of the headmaster than himself.
"Let's ask Professor Dumbledore. I mean Rosie Dumbledore," Harry added. "Err… Gwendolyn, Alex, would you perhaps like to go home for a moment and ask your parents about the matter?"
Gwendolyn and Alex chuckled, however, Gwendolyn replied, "I think that you should make the suggestion. It was your idea anyway."
"We can just ask her…"
"… when she comes to check on us in the evening," Fred and George suggested, causing everyone to agree.
HP
Somehow, during the last week of the holidays, Harry, Luna, Gwendolyn, Alex and Tom felt lonely in the large castle without their friends.
"Why don't we ask Sirius or Regulus to take us to Hogsmeade?" Tom suddenly suggested in an attempt to brighten the mood. "We could buy some small joke objects as a welcome present for each of the first years in Wallace."
"Don't let Hermione hear the part about pranks, Tom," Gwendolyn blurted out, grinning.
"I don't know about pranks either, but we could go and buy a chocolate frog for each of them," Luna suggested, smiling happily.
"If you want to play pranks, we could brew something together in the Potions classroom and prank the older students," Alex added, grinning, and the soon-to-be second years agreed, wondering what the younger boy had in mind.