AN: Sorry for the long wait and the now short (by my standards at least) chapter. I just really wanted to get this out before I moved. Yes I'm moving again and will more than likely be without internet for some time. Also can I just say wow to the shitstorm of reviews last time! lol I was angry and put my hurt feelings up on my profile. Since then I'm good, I've been able to get a chapter of my PJ story out and two of my new HP story. Thanks to Joe Lawyer for betaing!
WARNING! READ THIS B4 CHAPTER!: Many of you have asked if this story will end badly, all I'll say is that I never read a story unless I'm a 100% it will have a happy ending. And people say that you write what you read, I'll leave it at that.
This chapter will LOOK like it will be bad for Harry toward the start, but keep reading! Alls not lost, Harry has some amazing luck! Try and enjoy this chapter, who knows maybe, just maybe I havent COMPLETELY destroyed this story Chapter 20 is LILY-CENTRIC and will answer many a question!
Large neon green flames burst to life in the Potter's kitchen fireplace, emitting a beautiful woman with long red hair that reached to the tops of her breast. Lily Potter was home.
She had just left the home of her good friends the Greengrasses, where she and her two daughters, Ivy and Iris, had spent the day with the Greengrass women. They all had such a pleasant time together that when it came time for them to leave, the girls had begged to spend the night at their friends' home. Lily, after receiving Arana's consent, had allowed them to stay.
Now that she was home and had nothing to do and no one to care for she planned to take a nice long bath before James got home and surprise him with some much needed one-on-one time. With a smile gracing her stunning features, Lily made to exit the room when she caught sight of the vial of potion she had left on the counter for Remus to find.
A bewildered look made its way to her face as she stared at the Wolfsbane potion. 'That's strange,' she mused. 'Remus has never put off getting his potion this late before.'
She had taken a step toward the counter where the potion sat, intent on taking it to her dear friend, knowing the anguish he would be in if he were to hurt someone when he lost control, when she caught sight of something that put her on alert. The door leading into the backyard was standing wide open, as if someone had been in a hurry and had forgotten to close it.
She knew for a fact that the door had been closed when she and the girls had left earlier that morning. Her war time instincts kicking in, Lily drew her wand with the speed of a world class duelist. Her hand sped through a number of complicated motions, every few seconds a different colored light would glow on the tip of her wand before going out to be replaced by another.
'There's nothing in the house,' Lily thought as she finished scanning her home. 'That means whoever left the door open was leaving, not coming in.'
Cautiously, she made her way to the door, her wand at the ready. Crossing the threshold into the backyard she pulled the door closed behind her as she set out looking for clues for whoever it was that had been in her home. Her search didn't last long as she soon found deep grooves in the ground that looked to belong to some kind of large animal.
"Remus." She muttered, softly taking off in the direction the claw marks had led. Unlike most of his kind, Remus didn't phase into his wolf-form all the time, like it was some kind of cheap parlor trick; he only did so when deemed a situation serious enough for it. His discretion was one of the reasons he was able to keep the fact that he was a werewolf a secret for all these years, allowing him to have a steady job and a good life, unlike many others who shared his affliction.
So if he had transformed during broad daylight it meant something was up and she couldn't escape the feeling that he would need her help.
Just as the thought passed through her mind, a sound she knew well drifted up to her from the woods. It was the same sounds of agony that would escape Remus when he turned back and forth between his forms. The pain he went through when changing was the only drawback to his choosing not to change as often as others of his kind. The more often you made the change, the less pain you experienced and the more control over it you gained.
Whatever it was that had caused him to change must have been dealt with if he was willing to turn back. Slowing to a jog, she continued onward to the forest wanting to make sure her friend was safe and get some answers in the process.
She felt the odd sensation of walking through a quivering wall of energy as she passed through the wards that stopped just outside the tree line. As one of the two people connected to the wards and that could control them, she was able to tell when she, or someone who wasn't on the access list to the wards, passed through them.
Just as she was about to cross into the woods she caught sight of the familiar red glow of a stunner. Crouching low, she proceeded slowly into the woods, being careful to not draw attention to herself.
She had only traveled a small ways when she saw two people together, one standing over the other. The person on the ground was none other than Remus. Moving into action she sprung up and dashed forward only to stop when she recognized the long blood red hair of her son, she didn't need to see his face to know that it was her child. She watched in horror as he held his wand on the unconscious werewolf. It wasn't until a thin hazy beam of green light made its way to her downed friend that she was moved into action again. Even as she sent the high powered disarming spell at him, she knew it was too late to stop the spell Harry had cast that she knew for a fact to be a memory charm.
The spell contacted her son sending his wand and a time turner flying from his hands, the latter of which smashed against a tree. Growling animalistic, Harry turned to her and what she saw was as bad as the scene around him. What stood before her looked to be a sick copy of what her beautiful son was.
Her heart felt as if it was being ripped out as his snarling turned to a look of disbelief, before slowly horror took its place.
The tip of her wand lightening up with a stunner of her own she asked him, "Harry...What have you done?" Her voice breaking into a sob causing him to flinch.
"Mum," he said shakily, taking a step forward. He stopped his movements when she held her wand just an inch higher. The feeling of having his beloved mother hold him at wand point was... indescribable, but not nearly as bad as when the first tear rolled down her cheek. "It's not what it looks-" He never received the chance to finish his sentence for Lily had stunned him where he stood.
A broken sob escaped her as she watched her son hit the ground. Dashing over to his prone body she pulled him to her chest as tears streaked down her face and into his beautiful long hair. What was she going to do? She couldn't lose him, not after she had finally just gotten him back, not when her family was the happiest it had ever been. If James found out about this they'd never see Harry again. It would destroy not only her, but Ivy and Iris as well, and though he would be strong and never show it, James as well.
"I have to hide this..." She whispered, as she stared down at her hurt son. 'What happened to you,' she thought sadly, as she ran a hand through his hair, looking over the damage that had been done to her beloved child. The memory of his green eyes with the clashing red in them burned into her mind's eye.
"His eyes..." She whispered sadly. It was slow at first, but gradually her own words penetrated her mind; it was then that she came to realize what she had to do. To find out all that she had to hide, to figure out what it was he had done, and just as important as the first two were for her to find out what had been done to him. She would have to search every inch of his mind for answers. Now that he was asleep it would be so much easier to find what she needed to, than it would have been if he were awake.
Pulling her hand through his hair one last time, she caught sight of a strange black earring in the helix of his ear. Not knowing why she found herself drawn to it during such a disastrous time she leaned closer to take a look at the runes that graced it. Her eyes widened when she recognized the design on it as the type of rune-array designed to protect the mind from intrusion.
Gently reaching out she took the rune covered piece of jewelry from his ear and laid it to the side.
Focusing all her will into a single point in her mind, she delved into his, not knowing what secrets she would find, but hoping to discover a way to keep her family intact.
S2ndC
Lily had entered many a mind during her time as an unspeakable. All of them the same blur of activity and chaos that only a Legilimens or an Occlumens could make heads or tails of. The only exception to this were Occlumens who could control their mind, bending it as they pleased to their will. But when she entered the mind of her son, all that she found was a great expanse of inactivity. Nothing but a white emptiness that stretched on for miles, or what could have just as easily have been inches ahead of her - that was how complete the blankness that encompassed her was.
Keeping a cool head she turned in place, looking for any distinctive sign of where his mind and thoughts could be. It was as she was spinning that someone from behind her spoke up, surprising her.
"Lily," said a cheerful voice. "It's good to finally meet you, or should I say this version of you."
She had expected many things when she turned to face the speaker, but a small green haired boy with orange eyes was definitely not one of them. "Who are you?" Lily demanded as a wand materialized in her hand. "And what are you doing in my son's mind?"
Snapping his fingers her wand turned into a single perfect lily. "Right now, that's not important," Kar said in an, unknown to Lily, uncharacteristically serious tone for him. "What is important is whether or not you want to help Harry... Do you?"
Anger flared behind her emerald eyes as she stared down the person she could tell wasn't really a child at all. She could sense all the power that he held and how it could be unleashed with the smallest of gesture on his part. "Of course I want to help my son, but-"
"Then answer these questions for me," Kar said cutting her off. "What do muggles know for a fact to be true about magic?"
"That there's no such thing," she answered hesitantly, not sure if this was the answer he wanted.
"Correct, or at least you are," Kar replied, letting a small smile escape to his lips. He had started walking back and forth, his hands clasped behind his back, unknown to Lily this was a sign of just how serious the man/child was. "Now then, what is the magical world's view on gods and the like?"
"That they're nothing more than made up nonsense of the muggle mind to explain away things that they have no way of explaining away rationally."
"Good," Kar told her, coming to a stop, staring her in the eyes. "You're a smart woman Lily; I hope you can keep an open mind for this next question." Lily chose to say nothing, instead just nodding that she was ready. She wanted to hurry this up so she could find out who this was and how she could help her son. "If the magic world is real, but the muggles are so sure it's not, then isn't it just as possible that there are things out there - beings of great power that are hidden away from those of the magic world?"
Lily looked at him incredulously after having caught on to what he was implying. "You're one of these things hidden from the magic world - a god?" She asked, a hint of skepticism slipping into her voice.
"One of many," Kar surprising her with the seriousness of his voice as he made his claim. "Tell me Lily, do you believe in the Many-worlds interpretation, or Many-worlds theory?"
"I believe it's plausible," she answered automatically, letting the forced disbelief from a few seconds ago drop away from her voice. "As a muggle-born and not someone who was raised believing I knew everything about this world, I'm more inclined than most to believe that there are things out there that I have no knowledge of."
Kar gave her a smile, knowing she would be open to reason and would be able to accept what she was about to learn. "What if I told you that the theory was not only real, but that your son, Harry, the one who has been so kind and loving to you and your family for the past couple of mouths is from a universe different than your own?"
While being more open to believing that there could be more out there than she knew, Lily didn't buy that her son was from another universe. She was going to voice this disbelief to the small powerhouse until she looked back at how sudden Harry's change had actually been. She knew that she had pushed for him to be changed - that she had forced herself to believe the dream he had experienced had been a miracle that had given her her Harry back - turning a blind eye to how implausible it was that a single dream had made him essentially a completely different person, they all had, with the exception of Iris and James. Both of whom had followed her and the others' lead in doing so soon after.
"I see you're connecting the dots," Kar softly pointed out. He had seen her mind process all she had over looked, or it would be more accurate to say what she had turned a blind eye to in the beginning. "Your Harry was an evil little monster, cloaked in human flesh, who would have brought ruin to the world. It was only by chance that I was listening in on him when he said the right thing for me to take him from this world, giving the boy who has worked his way into your heart - your son - a chance at life, after he gave up his own to save his native world."
"Why did he have to give his life up for his world?" Lily questioned, outraged that her son had to give up his life for others, forgetting that she didn't believe this being or his claim. But it was as she took in what she was feeling that she realized that the person before her had just said the boy she had given birth to was gone... and that she found herself not caring. "What happened to Harry... the one I gave birth to?"
Kar fixed her with a look that bordered on a glare. The intensity in his orange eyes flaring as he thought about the boy. "Honestly," Kar said, pausing for a second to ponder if telling the woman before him the truth would be the wisest choice. "He's paying for all the sins he committed during his life and that's all I'll say on the subject."
"And my Harry," she whispered. "Why did he have to give up his life for the world?"
"To tell you that would take far more time than either of us is in possession of at the moment," Kar told her. Lily was going to object to this, but was cut off by Kar. "I'll show you instead." With those words Lily's world went dark.
S2ndC
Lily awoke with a start. Sitting up she found herself to be floating in midair. Not knowing why she was there, she started wishing she was on the ground. She would have fallen had she been in the real world, but here in this place that was her child's mind, she found the transition from air to ground to be seamless. Slowly, the surrounding area that had been completely dark just seconds before started to take form. In time she found herself standing in front of a man leaning over a woman who was lying in bed, a small bundle in her arms. Lily felt a jolt in her stomach when she saw that it was her and James and a small child with a shock of black hair.
"Lily pad," James chuckled with misty eyes, leaning down to kiss both her and the baby on the head. "You did an amazing job, he's beautiful!"
"No, not beautiful," the other Lily replied, smiling down at the black haired child. "Perfect... he's absolutely perfect in every single way."
And with those words the Lily who had intruded on the happy moment of her alternate self, had her vision blur as a steady stream of information passed into her mind. Time jumped from one important event to another before her very eyes.
Dumbledore coming to the Potters who's Harry had black hair, telling them that Voldemort would be after them and that they should go into hiding. Jumping ahead again she was with the alternate Potters on a Halloween night; it was Harry's first, but instead of being able to take their child out and let him see the sights, they were stuck in their home, hiding from a madman. Lily sat back, unable to do a thing when said madman showed up. In silent agony she watched Voldemort killing this other version of the Potters effortlessly, before trying and failing to do so to the black haired Harry.
Lily sobbed as she saw the curse hit her child. She now knew this was her Harry, without knowing how she knew it to be true. Any leftover doubts about all of this being a lie or some type of defensive illusion cast by her son's mind were gone. She watched as Sirius handed her son off to Hagrid, the Hogwarts grounds keeper, before running off and disappearing into the night.
Why would Sirius do such a thing; they barely knew Hagrid and while he had never been anything but kind and gentle, she still wanted her son with his godfather, not some mildly known acquaintance. Maybe they knew him better in this world she told herself, trying to gain some composure over herself.
The scene blurred again, but this time it was of Albus, Minerva, and Hagrid leaving Harry on the doorstep of her sister's home. As soon as Albus laid Harry on that doorstep, the jumps in time and the speed of the memories sped up to dizzying levels, yet Lily was somehow able to easily keep up with them.
Tears flowed freely down her face as she watched him grow up unloved and abused. When he reached his first year of Hogwarts she hoped things would be better for him, that someone with half a mind would take notice of how badly he looked and do something, but her hope was to no avail. They saw him as the Boy-Who-Lived, nothing more than a side show act that they were all allowed to shamelessly point and stare at without any regard for his feelings or wellbeing.
His first time on a broom, fighting a troll in the girls' bathroom, the pain in his scar whenever he was around Quirrel, receiving his father's invisibility cloak, finding the Mirror of Erised and what he saw within its frame, and finally facing a man with the Dark Lord in the back of his skull. So much of his first year passed at blinding speeds around her. Taking a deep breath she settled in for what she could now see was going to be a journey that would hurt her very soul.
Before she knew it, he was in his second year and it was clearly as hard on him as the first had been. She could do nothing as the school turned on him, with only his two friends standing by his side as he ran around the school searching for the voice that only he could hear. Her heart almost stopped as she watched him go down into the chamber of secrets to face the monster of Slytherin, and was amazed and beyond proud, when he came out on top, beating the colossal snake with something as simple as a sword.
In his third year, she along with Harry, found out together what Sirius' fate after that Halloween night had been, and could do nothing but watch as the rat ran free. Even she hadn't connected the dots when it came to Scabbers being Peter. But even in all the darkness she had seen closing in on him; she was able to catch a glimpse of Harry's power and the potential he held when he cast that Patronus. She had found herself smiling when she saw his patronus was the same as his fathers and the male counterpart of her own.
Fourth year he once again was forced to deal with the school turning against him, but this time Ron wasn't by his side for a good period of his suffering. To make things worse, he was competing in the Triwizard Tournament, a contest in which many a witch and wizard had died. Her only solace was in the fact that their version of the tournament wasn't like the obligatory one they were forced to hold in her world. But this small comfort lasted for far too short a time, for soon he had done such a selfless thing in taking the cup with the Diggory boy. And as a result of his act of kindness all of Britain would pay, starting with her son and the friend he was forced to watch die.
Her surroundings, if possible, were moving faster than ever. She knew the green haired being must have had a hand in her ability to process the information, as it passed her by and started showing Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts.
She growled angrily as Harry was forced to carve into his own hand, felt a sad mixture of happiness and pity as he had his first kiss with an older version of the girl from the bookstore. She chuckled as she watched Hermione and Ron talk Harry into leading the DA. Her heart ached as she witnessed Snape's barbaric and ineffective method of teaching him occlumency, him being tortured at the hands of Umbridge, and his headstrong attitude and Snape's actions leading him into walking into a trap set by Voldemort that would ultimately lead to Sirius's death.
Lily's breathing was now coming out in short gasps, the speed with which the memories were being pumped into her head was slowly getting to her. And yet, with her force of will she kept her eyes open, not wanting to miss a second of what made her son who he was.
Memories within memories and Voldemort's past. She followed as he went on the trail the Jr. Death Eater left in his sixth year at Hogwarts. His second relationship starting with the young redhead and it failing as he came to realize she was more of a sister to him, but this was quickly wiped from her mind as she learned the horrible truth about how Voldemort had lived. She had held onto some semblance of hope that together he and Dumbledore could win the day, but that hope was obliterated as she watched Albus fall from the Astronomy tower, the sight made all the worse by the fact that the act was carried out by the man she had once called her best friend.
Lily could feel herself becoming weaker as the speed of the memories reached an all-time high. Her mind felt as if it would snap under the pressure it was experiencing from the constant stream of information. Unknown to her, she had started to bleed from her eyes and ears. Even a mind as brilliant as her own was suffering from what Kar was putting her through.
The horcrux hunt and all its ups and downs, Severus' part in the grand scheme of things, and the battle of Hogwarts and all the deaths it brought with it. Suddenly, everything slammed to a standstill for Lily, as the final pieces of memory made their way into her mind. The black haired Harry - her Harry, agreeing to come take the place of the boy she had given birth to.
She was only just able to catch the tail end of a bird's song before her entire world faded to black, just as his vision came into focus for the first time in her world.
S2ndC
"Selfless, wasn't he?"
Lily's world once again snapped into focus as his words reached her. She found herself sitting at a small table in the same white encompassed area as before. Kar was sitting across from her sipping from a teacup, watching her over its brim.
"Was all that real?" She questioned, though even to her ears the question sounded weak and meaningless. It was quite clear she believed him and knew that everything she had experienced had truly occurred.
Kar sighed, fixing her with stern look as he set his cup down. "I'm going to be honest with you; I don't have much time left. So if we can, let's skip all of these meaningless, redundant questions and focus on the important things that would be great!"
"What do you mean you don't have much time left?" Lily asked, looking and sounding concerned for the person who had gifted her son a second chance at life.
"As I'm sure you've already guessed, I'm not the only one who holds the title of 'god'. There are numerous others that rule and control over the other forces that drive humanity. Greed, hate, love, envy, even certain acts have those that rule over them, such as selflessness and genocide." Kar paused in his speech when the woman before him flinched at hearing the last of the gods he had listed in an attempt to give her time to focus on the important things that she would need to know.
"Even amongst gods, there are rules that must be followed! If the rules are broken by us once we can get away with it, but the more that we involve ourselves in the lives of mortals, the more likely it is that we will be stripped of our power."
"Are you..." Lily trailed off, a horrified look in her eyes.
"No," he answered with smile. "Fortunately for me, I'm the one who rules over karma. And while normally for any of us to take as active a role in a human's life as I have is unheard of, I was able to... but not anymore. I'll only be able to take as much action in Harry's life now as I do any other mortal's."
Lily would have pressed the issue of why he could no longer help Harry as he had, but could tell from the tone he had used that the subject wasn't up for discussion. "If you can't interfere with his life anymore, then why not tell him? Why did you come to me instead?"
"Because he needs you," Kar stated firmly. "You and I both know how he is; he sees all the knowledge from his previous world as his own personal burden. He never would have told you or anyone else about all he knows. He would have taken it upon himself to try and change everything for the better without any help at all. It's also why I never revealed anything about his connection to the Royce family."
Lily went wide eyed and was about to speak, but Kar silenced her with a raised hand. "Yes, I knew of what had been set in motion, and knew that it would serve as a wakeup call for the boy to have to struggle as he did on this day. His personality, now that it has traces of the old Harry poisoning it, is very different than it once was, from the boy you saw in those memories. He's now a strange mix of mature and childish, with both parts taking over at certain times. It's all made worse by the fact that he's unconsciously almost completed his occlumency shields. Right now he needs a strong hand to guide and mold him into the man we both know he can be."
"What happened out there today?" Lily asked in a voice that bordered on yelling, her green eyes filled with numerous emotions. From his words she had gained that Harry had been through something harsh out in the real world, though she could have guessed as much from the scene she had come across. To make matters worse he had gone through it all when he had almost finished making occlumency shields. Any master of the mind arts knew of how wild and uncontrollable one's emotions were when in the final stages of gaining true control of your mind. It was how the mind, a wild thing that never wanted to be tamed, reacted to losing its ability to have free will. Depending on how long he had been in the last stages of completing them, he could have alienated himself, or worse still, hurt an innocent or someone he cared for.
"How about I show you the events leading up to today?" Kar asked, smiling mischievously at the woman.
"I'll do it," Lily vowed right away, even though they both could hear the slight hesitation in her voice. Kar knew her earlier experience with taking memories had gotten to her and that she wasn't looking forward to having to deal with the pain again.
"Don't worry, this time all I'll show you is how he came to be a customer of the Royce's, and..." Lily frowned as she made out the thrill and excitement in the boy's voice when he trailed off. "All that Harry's done and experienced since coming to live in your world."
Before she could reply her mind was swimming with memories that were not her own. It took only seconds for the memories to pass into her mind, but was still long enough to give Lily a splitting headache that made her vision swim.
Kar snapped his fingers, ending the pain in her head, as he fought his laughter at the expression on the woman's face. "Yes, I know the old Harry getting caught stealing by one of the Royces was how he came to be involved with them, is, to say the least, shocking... But that's not what has you in your current state is it?"
"No, you're smart enough to know that even with his signing of a second contract as a result of his mind and emotions being the cluster fuck that they are at the moment, that he would have still been bound to their family. For the Royces sign all deals in magic, and of course we both know he holds the old Harry's magic. Not that the deal he made with the girl will make much of a difference anyway. When Vega's mother learns of her actions, the girl will pay dearly. What I'm guessing that has you all bothered is the obvious feelings your children hold for each other. Am I correct?"
Lily shook her head violently, trying to rid her mind of the thought of her children in that type of relationship, while attempting to focus on what really mattered at the moment- Harry's and her family's safety. There would be time later to worry about what she should do about her two oldest children's attraction to one another.
"What do you mean the second contract doesn't matter? He's at that harlot's beck and call now! Why didn't you warn him of what was coming, or better yet, why not give him the original Harry's memories? He could have been prepared for what was happening today!" Everything was starting to pile on to Lily emotionally, making the normally calm under fire woman's voice come out in snarl.
"First off, would you truly want him, a boy who's seen as much as he has, to be forced to experience what it's like to kill and torture animals with his own hands? Or better yet, think about how much it would torture him if he were to relive the memories of the person who harmed those he cared for the most? You know firsthand how much Iris means to him. Could you imagine what it would do to him to see himself try and succeed in hurting her?" Kar had started out speaking in a slow and calm manner, but as he continued to speak his voice had turned into a growl that had Lily, a person known throughout Britain for her acts of bravery during the war, frightened.
"The reason why the contract doesn't matter is because the Royce Matriarch has plans for him," Kar informed Lily in a tone that was back to the light one he had started out with. "That woman has seen things in the old Harry that she wanted for her daughter's future partner. She had planned to start him out working off the debt he owed her family, then after a year's time, she would have offered him a place in her ranks that would have eventually led her to approaching him with an offer of her daughter's hand. However, with all that has taken place on this day, it will be received by Vega's mother as a sign that there is no chance of Harry being the strong man her daughter will need to stand by her side when she begins to rule their family."
"If she thinks there's no chance of them gaining what she wants from him, then what's to stop her from forcing Harry to come after our family, or simply make him kill himself?" Lily asked, sounding hopeless.
"Harry signing the second contract!" Kar answered happily, making Lily look at him strangely. "The Original reason I chose not to tell him about the Royces was because I had a feeling he would end up focusing on trying to obtain the abilities I gifted him with. And I was right, apart from learning a few more advanced spells, he didn't really do anything besides work out. So I let him do as he pleased, knowing that when the time came he would react violently like he had in the past with the Malfoy boy. What I hadn't expected was for him to go too far when dealing with Vega and end up in a second contract."
"So you knew he'd go through all he did today?" Lily hissed. "What if your choice not to tell him had gotten him killed? And what did you mean when you said that his signing the contract would keep the Royces from sending him after us, or from making him hurt himself?"
"You do realize that if I had known all this would happen then I would have been able to stop it from the start and would have already known about the second contract." Kar deadpanned. "But no, I didn't know if any of this would happen. The future isn't set in stone for anyone, including those known as gods. Those of the divine have what we call 'feelings' about the future, and this time my feeling was right, everything went fine. But as for your other question about what would happen if he had died? All I can say is that I care for him very deeply and I may be he who rules over Karma, but at the end of it all I'm just a spectator looking for a good show, and not all shows have happy endings." Lily let a humorless, almost hysterical laugh escape her as she looked at the now once again smiling god. It was like he was as much of a sociopath as her first son had been.
"To your other question of why his stupendously rash, and emotionally overloaded self, signing the contract saved him and your family. It's all in the wording of what the girl agreed to. No member of the Royce family, or any that they employ, can harm any of the Potters. That includes Harry," Kar said laughing. "If the acceptance of deals that involve using magic as a way to hold people to their word were just a little faster in taking hold of one's magic, the girl would have died from all she had done to him. The way it is now her mother will realize that Harry Potter and the rest of the Potters are untouchable and it's all thanks to her daughter who wanted him as her plaything."
"If we're safe from them retaliating against any of us..." Lily said, trailing off as she stared off into the vast whiteness of the room. "Then wouldn't it be possible for me to blackmail the Royces into letting him out of his deal with them, without fear of them being able to go after my family and me?"
"You, Lily Potter, are a very cunning woman." Kar and Lily shared a smile that was less enthusiastic on her part than his, but was nonetheless joyful in its origins. "I had planned on telling you all this tonight as you slept, making it so that he'd have you to stand by him in what was coming and to train him at the same time. It was only luck that you showed up when you did... luck on my part that is. I'm sure Harry will have a nervous breakdown when he wakes up and thinks you and the rest of his family hate him!" The god let a small laugh escape as he ignored the fact that Lily was glaring daggers at him.
"He needs help learning how to complete his shields as soon as possible," Kar informed her becoming serious once more. "He will also need help learning how to duel, and we both know I mean duel as you did during the war, not that half assed crap that he could learn from anyone else. You need to turn him from a survivor, into a hunter, because even I don't know if he's the chosen one in this world or not, meaning that there is a chance he won't have Fate saving his ass like she did all throughout his past life. All that could be keeping him from death in this world could be his skills, and at the moment that's a scary thought." A grim faced Lily nodded as he spoke; knowing that everything he was saying was true.
"Things you need to know are, if the both of you want to inform others of his secret, they'll need to learn how to protect their minds first. His mind takes priority at the moment and you should start with it right away! Otherwise, who knows what all he'll do to those he cares for as a result of the storm that his mind currently is? You also have to get whatever it is that you're going to blackmail the Royces with as soon as possible!"
"The Royce Matriarch had planned on having him working already, but a number of things came up that forced her to alter those plans. Now, however, with all that's happened today, she will without a doubt be pushing to get him to start paying off his debt, if for nothing else than to distance the liability that he has become away from her family and all that they have lied, cheated, and killed for. Though it's likely that even with her hope of him joining their family as Vega's future husband dashed, that she will continue to pursue him for her daughter."
"I have people in the unspeakables that owe me debts and favors," Lily stated pensively, a dangerous look gracing her features. "I'll find whatever dirt on them I can and will put a stop to them before they can sink their claws any further into my child!" Kar smiled at the hard look on her pretty face.
"James Potter is a lucky man," Kar commented. "I'd make a move on you right now if it wasn't for me knowing how happy the two of you are." Lily looked at the boy with a disgust that made him shake in laughter. "My joking and lack of showing it aside, I do care for Harry. He's a good person, even if he has become more of an ass since taking on part of your world's Harry."
"I had guessed as much," Lily replied, her features softening a fraction. "Otherwise why would you go as far and risk as much as you have if you didn't care for him?"
Kar nodded to her words as he took a drink from his cup. "Now then, there are two more things we need to cover before you go back and set things onto the correct path. The first is that Harry will still be mixed up with when he gains control over his mind. Admittedly he won't snap at his friends like you've seen him do and he'll gain back his cool head in battle, but he'll still basically be a child with an adult's emotions, or vice versa. An example of what I mean is as you saw in his past life, he never showed any signs of liking girls that were younger than him, but in your world he has feelings for a number of girls that would have never have been an option to his seventeen year old self."
Lily was silent for a moment, her thoughts that were unknowingly exposed to the small god before her, a swirl of activity. "What do you think I should do about him and Iris?" She asked looking him in his strange colored eyes. "I can't just let them-"
"Lily," Kar said firmly, cutting her off. "You've seen how he feels for her. Tell me, who out there could be better suited to love your daughter than Harry? Someone you know will never use her for her body then leave her when he gets bored like what happens all too often. Besides, you live in the magical world, it may not be commonplace for brothers and sisters to be with one another, but incest isn't exactly unheard of!"
Lily had no response for the god's words. They made sense to her, but the part of her that had been raised to believe such acts were atrocious and disgusting was fighting tooth and nail for her to put a stop to it before it ever got started. Not to mention what would happen if James were to ever find out about his children's feelings for each other. She could see him claiming that Harry had started acting like he cared for their family, only so that he could have his way with his little girl.
Pushing her newest dilemma to the back of her mind, she focused on the person before her. "What's the second thing you spoke of that I should know?"
"It has to deal with the horcruxes." Lily tensed as a cold feeling enveloped her as she thought of the sick magic that the snake man had used. "Do not go looking for them!" Kar ordered. Lily made to protest, but when Kar slammed his cup into the table smashing it and releasing its contents across the wooden surface of the table, she ceased any further attempt to speak. "They're not the same this time around! I can't go into details, because that would involve me encroaching on Fate's realm, and that would certainly earn me the chance to lose my powers. Simply tell Harry that he will eventually come to realize where they are."
"I will..." Lily became silent as she realized this was it, this would be the last time they had any contact with the person who had not only helped her son, but herself and their family as well. "Is there anything you'd like me to tell Harry for you?"
"You can tell him that even if I can't be there for him anymore, I'll always have his back."
"Kar, I just want to thank yo-" Kar smiled softly as he cut the woman's thank you off with a snap of his fingers. Her eyes became increasingly heavy as she felt the world around her start to fade. The last thing she saw was Kar who was waving childishly at her as the most beautiful little girl she had ever seen came up behind him and lay a loving hand on his shoulder.
S2ndC
Lily came to with a deep shuddering gasp; the strength of her grip on Harry was enough that she was sure she would leave bruises on his arms. Looking around the clearing everything was as it had been before she had attempted to delve into her son's mind. She wasn't a hundred percent sure, but she had the feeling that no time at all had passed during her time in his mind.
Taking a deep calming breath, Lily, as gently as she possibly could, set Harry's unconscious form to the side before standing up and getting to work. She quickly made her way over to the remains of the lethifolds, where she summoned three of her goblin-made safe boxes from up at the house to her person. Levitating the creatures' remains into one of the boxes she sealed them away for future use.
Using the memories she possessed of Harry's fight, she ran to the location of the Royce family ward stone. When she arrived, she found herself standing before the fractured and bloody skeleton of the man known as Necro. Her lip curling as she recalled what she knew of the no longer living man; she vanished all of his remains before storing the ward stone in one of the two remaining unoccupied safe boxes.
It took her less than five minutes to clean up all of the evidence of what had transpired in the woods and return back to where both Remus and Harry still laid unconscious. Summoning both of the males' wands she pocketed them as she made her way over to the broken time-turner. Being sure to gather every last bit and piece of the time traveling device, including every grain of sand that had spilled when it had smashed against the tree, she sealed it all away in the final safe box before shrinking it and putting it away as she had the first two.
She took one final look around the wooded area, searching for anything that could lead to the discovery of what had transpired. Finding nothing that would reveal Harry's involvement to the Royces, Lily turned her wand on both Remus and Harry. Giving it a swish and flick she levitated them to her side as she headed back into the safety of the Potter wards.
Reaching the greenhouse Lily quickly made her way inside, hitting an invisible rune that was located on the inside of the doorframe as she did so. She had only taken a few steps inside before she came across a set of steps that led downward. Setting Harry down on the green house floor, she, accompanied by Remus' floating form, made their way down the steps that only she, Remus, James, and Sirius knew of. Descending the stairs, Lily entered a wide room that held a potions making/storage station that lined an entire wall and a large cage that took up three fourths of the room. The only item inside the steel frame of the cage was a single mattress without a bedframe.
Lily led Remus inside, levitating him over and onto the mattress. Lifting her wand she summoned the vial of wolfsbane potion from within the house and administered it to her unconscious friend. With that out of the way, she pointed her wand at the man's forehead and started casting a number of complicated spells she had learned from not only her time in the Unspeakables, but from when she had apprenticed under Filius.
She checked him over to see how much of his memory had been erased and if there had been any permanent damage done to his mind by Harry's spell casting. Thankfully, Harry had gotten lucky and had cast the spell perfectly. With little effort on her part she streamed together Remus' memories of the day, hiding the blank spot in them that would have appeared between him arriving at her home and when he would have awoken, by adding a false memory of him coming down into his secret changing room, on his own volition.
Having taken care of Remus for the night she locked him in and made her way over to where she kept her more deadly potions. She went straight for the section where she stored cures for the worst of afflictions.
When James, Sirius, and Remus had all first started in the auror corps, the war had still been in full swing. One night they had gotten in over there head and had ended up being tortured by a group of Death Eaters. They had suffered for hours before Sirius had been able to land a lucky hit that had led to the three being able to escape. Instead of going directly to the hospital, like any smart person who had been through what they had would have done. They had chosen to come to her. She remembered how she had cried at the state they were in, torn between trying to make potions to heal them and wanting to finish the idiots off herself.
Since that time she had always kept an abundance of potions for numerous things in case a similar situation was ever to arise. Finding four or five potions she could use, she quickly made her way back upstairs. Grabbing Harry she sealed the entrance to Remus' location and headed into the house where she took him to his bedroom and set to work on him.
Two of the potions Lily had grabbed for him were created to be used on patients who had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse for long periods of time. She only hoped it would be enough to keep him from suffering too severely when he awoke. How it was that a girl Vega's age was able to cast the 'Devil's Touch' so effectively and without showing any signs of the drawbacks that came with casting the spell was beyond her.
The spell she had cast was the precursor of the Cruciatus and was well known to give a pain that far exceeded that of the spell that had succeeded it. But anyone who knew of the spell also knew that the entire reason a weaker version had been created in the first place was because of the way the spell worked. Its caster was forced to share the same pain as its victim... So how was it that Vega had gotten away scot-free while Harry had ended up in such a state?
Lily worked for over an hour on trying to heal all the damage that had been done to him, and by the time she finished he looked far better than he had when she started, but still wasn't back to what he normally looked, and she was guessing when he awoke, felt like.
Crawling into the bed with him, she pulled him to her chest and started to hum the same song she knew him to love, all the while she ran her hands through his long red hair. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when he suddenly started to stir. Pulling his head back slightly, she watched as his eyes fluttered open. Confusion filled his emerald orbs, then a sad pensive look took its place, then slowly realization shined in them, before finally heart wrenching fear.
"Mum, I-" She silenced him with a firm, love filled hug that he greedily returned.
"It's okay honey," she whispered, placing a kiss on his forehead. "I know everything. Kar, your past life, what you did to try and help us... even your feelings for Iris!" Harry had gone completely still and had even stopped breathing as she spoke. Chuckling softly she pulled him closer still, tightening their hug further. "There's nothing to fear, you are my child and I'll always do all that's in my power to protect you and to ensure your happiness. We'll get through this together." A small smile graced her features as he broke down, letting the storm of emotions he had experienced on that day wash away.
AN:One of the many reasons I had Harry go through this was Kar. I used this situation as a way to get rid of him. Why? For the same reason that started happening in ch18. People were screaming about how Kar should have told him about what was happening, and since the very start I have said he would not be a recuring charcter. I tried remembering all I wanted to put in this chapter but with how I was all over the place with how I felt about this story and if I wanted to even continue it, I don't know if I succeeded. If you liked what you read leave a review, if not then I ask of you to just leave, so that you don't ruin my muse and this story for those who actually enjoy it.