Title: The Boys Who Lived
Author: Shara Lunison
Beta: Batsutousai
Rating for this Chapter: K+
Pairings: Harry/Henry (OMC)
Warnings: SLASH, Eventual twincest!
Summary: The Potter twins are attacked by Voldemort and somehow defeat him. Now the Dark Lord has returned and they have to choose between light and dark. SLASH, Twincest, rated M for later chapters.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: Things are going to start moving very quickly now. I've got the groundwork laid, but I'm not actually interested in writing every moment of every year of the twins' time at Hogwarts. So after this chapter, large gaps of time are going to pass, though the important things will still occur. I hope you'll understand! Also, you might be amused to know that I created an Excel spreadsheet of every professor's class schedule for all seven years. XD Anyone who wants to use it, PM me with your email and I'll send it to you.
Chapter Seven: Week One
Harry's day began with some jostling among the Slytherin boys for the mirrors in the bathroom. Both he and Hen showered and raked a comb haphazardly through their hair. All of Harry's things had appeared at the end of his bed the night before (he wasn't sure, but he thought the house elves might be responsible for that) and it took him a few minutes of comparing schedules with his brother to grab all of the things he would need. Henry's first class was Transfiguration, which Harry didn't have until the next day. Then Henry would attend Charms with Harry and they would both go to Herbology, though Harry's class was first and Henry's was the last period of the day.
"It's not fair, you know," Harry told him. "I've got a class every morning, and here you are with Tuesdays and Thursdays free until lunch."
Henry laughed. "Just be thankful you don't have History after lunch on those days, like me. I've heard Binns is the most boring professor in the whole school. And with all that good food, I'm likely to fall asleep."
All of the first year boys made their way down to the great hall together. Harry hadn't exactly gotten over his animosity towards Draco Malfoy, but he was at least attempting to tolerate the other boy since they were now going to be living together for an indefinite period of time. Malfoy seemed to be doing the same. And Harry took it as a good sign that Ron had acquiesced to Henry sleeping in their dorm. Perhaps all of them could become friends and it would work out for the best after all.
Well, he thought that until his legs suddenly went all wobbly and he fell flat on his face.
"Draco!" Henry admonished. He bent down to help his brother up. The Malfoy heir was laughing loudly, drawing attention from the other houses flowing past them to enter the great hall.
Harry scowled at his brother's friend. This meant war.
After Malfoy had set his legs right by reversing the Jelly-Legs Jinx, Harry grabbed his brother's arm and marched him toward the Gryffindor table. "Come on, it's Monday. And I don't want to sit with Malfoy right now anyway."
"I suppose," Henry said reluctantly.
The other Gryffindors fell silent as the twins joined them. Henry took this to mean they had been talking about him and sneered nastily at them.
"So how was it?" Ron asked promptly after the twins had snagged some food for themselves.
"How was what?" Henry snapped.
"I wasn't asking you," Ron said. He turned to Harry expectantly.
"What, sleeping with the Slytherins?" Harry asked. The rest of the first years nodded, seeming oblivious to the fuming Slytherin sitting with them. "It was fine. I fell asleep right off, anyway."
"Oh." Ron sounded disappointed. "Malfoy didn't curse you in your sleep, then?"
Harry grimaced. "No, he did that this morning, thanks."
"It was just a joke," Henry said, defending his friend.
"Yeah, just like it was a joke when Dudley and his gang would chase us around and beat us up. Just because it was done with magic doesn't make him any different, Hen."
His brother frowned. "I'll talk to him."
"Thank you. And Ron, don't go getting any ideas about hexing my brother, all right? I really do want all of us to get along. You too, Hen. I know you've been reading up."
The redhead nodded uncertainly, watching Henry. When the Slytherin nodded, the youngest Weasley seemed to make a decision and held out his hand to the other boy. "I know you don't like me, but you don't really have to. Let's just called a truce, all right? And if Malfoy wants to hang out with us any time, well… I'll try my best, but I doubt he'll agree to leave me alone anyway."
Hen smiled a little and took the proffered hand. "I can live with that. But you know, six generations is a long time to hold a grudge. Do you even remember why it started?"
Ron grinned. "Dad says it's because my great, great, great, great, great grandmother had an affair with Malfoy's five-time great grandfather. But just try to get a Malfoy to agree to that."
The whole table laughed, including Hen, who had already discussed the feud with Draco. Turns out, the Weasley woman had broken Malfoy's heart by marrying someone else. Now it seemed it was just the principle of the thing. He decided that he would mention it to Harry later and see if they couldn't patch things up with the two families.
Shortly it was time for double transfiguration for the combined Slytherin and Hufflepuff class. Harry's head was the instructor for this class, and he was actually looking forward to seeing her teach. Plus, transfiguration sounded pretty cool—turning one thing into something else and all. And Henry had mentioned wizards called Animagi from one of his extra books who could change back and forth from an animal self at will. Harry couldn't wait to try that.
He was a little disappointed, if he admitted it only to himself, when they started out turning matchsticks into needles. With Hen's help he managed to get his to start turning silver, but his brother was as brilliant as always and managed to fully transform his own matchstick by the end of the lesson. McGonagall awarded everyone who had managed a partial transformation five points, and ten to Henry and a Hufflepuff named Susan Bones who had both managed a complete transfiguration.
"For class next week I ask you to read the first two chapters of your transfiguration textbooks and to complete the exercises at the end of each section. And trust me, it will become exceedingly apparent during the next class if you do not do your homework," McGonagall said just before the bell rang.
"You have charms now, right?" Hen asked.
"Yeah, it's down a corridor on this same floor."
Henry said goodbye to his year mates and followed Harry to their next class. This one was taught by the diminutive Professor Flitwick, who had to stand on a stack of books behind his desk to see everyone properly. He started them on the levitation charm using feathers for practice. Ron and the girl from the night before, Hermione Granger, sat near the twins and they all began to work together to figure out the charm. Both Hermione and Henry were brilliant at it right off and helped to coach the other two into getting it right. Ron seemed to be getting a little huffy with Hermione, but with someone as smart and nice as Hen to work with, she seemed to lose a little of her know-it-all attitude very quickly, making her much more tolerable. Harry smiled up at the four feathers floating above them, feeling like he was making the friends he had always wished for. Even Hen seemed to be enjoying the Gryffindor's presence, and they had relaxed around him to a certain extent.
Finally the bell rang. They were disappointed when Flitwick didn't distribute any points, giving them a chapter to read and setting a one foot essay on the uses of levitation charms instead, but they filed out anyway. Ron was leading the way and caroling about lunch time.
"Two whole hours to eat," Hermione complained. "I'd much rather get to Herbology. I'm looking forward to working with the plants outside."
"Yeah, but it gives us some time to start reading those chapters we've been assigned." Henry reminded her.
"Yes, but I read all of the books over the summer!" she laughed. "Though I suppose the review would still do me some good."
They ate and talked and passed the two hours much more quickly than any of them had anticipated. The twins followed the little group down to the greenhouses, relishing the warm end of summer weather. Herbology was taught by Professor Sprout, a round and happy woman who was also the head of Hufflepuff house. For their first class, she told them all about the properties of a plant with tiny pinky-purple flowers called fluxweed. Henry earned five points for Slytherin for knowing that it was used in Polyjuice Potion and Hermione shared her knowledge that it was closely related to mint and an endangered plant in the muggle world.
As they were leaving the class, the passed the Slytherins and Ravenclaws on their way to their own Herbology lesson.
"At last!" Ron groaned, stretching languidly. "So, what should we do for the rest of the day?"
"I intend to do the homework." Hermione and Henry said nearly simultaneously. They smiled and giggled at one another.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Homework? But it's the first day. It can wait until the weekend, can't it?"
Harry felt torn, "Well, as much as I hate to admit it, getting it over with now would mean having the weekend free to do something more fun. We've got an hour until dinner. Let's go to the library for that long, at least."
His friend groaned. "Fine, but you owe me Harry."
The four kids made their way up to the library on the third floor and claimed a table in a hidden away corner to do their work. Ron decided that reading for charms would be easier, since there was only one chapter and Madame Pince, the librarian, would skin them alive if they cast any of the transfiguration practice spells in the library. Everyone readily agreed with that and within an hour they had all finished and Hermione and Henry, at least, had begun their essays.
When the bell for the end of the last period rang, they all started to pack their things away to head down to dinner. Hermione told them all to go ahead, though, since she wanted to look up a cross-reference for her essay.
Henry was feeling amazingly content as he sat with the Gryffindors and eventually followed them up to their dormitory. There were only five boys in Harry's dorm, so his made the sixth four-poster in the room. His things had been brought up the same as Harry's had been the night before. It was strange, he thought, that he felt so comfortable with a house that was supposed to be diametrically opposed to his own. He supposed that it was because they were so warm and welcoming. Grudgingly he admitted to himself that it was the perfect place for Harry, though they both fit quite well with the cool and calm support of the Slytherins as well.
He climbed into the bed next to his brother and pulled the curtains closed. Despite the circumstances that had placed them in this situation, he thought that they could both live with it. And maybe the Potters would somehow end the thousand years of rivalry between their houses.
Tuesday morning they ate with the Slytherins and skipped Harry's transfiguration lesson. They spent the morning in the common room reading and hanging out with the students who also had the morning off. Professor Snape came in just before Harry was due to go to History of Magic and pulled the twins aside.
"Professor McGonagall and I spoke with the Headmaster again yesterday evening and we have decided that, instead of taxing you both by trying to determine what distance is tolerable, we will just combine your schedules so that your classes are divided. Here are your new sections." He handed them both identical slips of paper, except for their names. "However, if you feel that you are not grasping something properly, the Headmaster is going to announce to all the students tonight that, as long as they don't have a regular class that interferes, they may attend the opposite section of a class to repeat a lesson. The same goes for you, so keep your original time tables. A section schedule will be posted in every common room by tonight." Nodding to them, he left.
"Guess that means that we just keep doing what we have been," Henry said, studying the new schedule. "Hey, look! No more History after lunch!"
They left the common room to attend history of magic with Harry's house before lunch. Binns was every bit as boring as their sources had claimed and it was with sluggish spirits that they joined the Slytherins again for lunch.
"Let's go to the library again." Henry said once his friends had left for their own History lesson. He had wisely given his notes to Draco and told his friend to fill in anything he had missed. Between the two of them, they might actually have a complete enough set of notes to pass the class. And of course, they would make copies for anyone who cared to have them.
The library was pretty much abandoned at that hour. A few of the older students who had free periods were looking up extra sources for their first essays of the year. Both twins were stunned at the length of the scrolls being written.
"What should we work on?" Harry asked.
"I did some of the transfiguration reading this morning, but I haven't tried the exercises yet. Why don't you read the first chapter and then we can do the rest together? There's something I want to look up."
"Okay."
Henry wandered into the aisles of the library, breathing in the dusty scent of the old books. He loved libraries. He could happily live here among all these old tomes and never reemerge. And as if sensing a fellow book spirit in him, Madame Pince appeared at the end of the aisle he was perusing and asked him if she could help him find anything.
"Yes, actually. Are there any books on soul bonds that aren't Restricted?"
She led him to an adjacent aisle and pulled out a book called Ancient and Moste Magyckal Rituals.
"Rituals?" he asked.
"It's an advanced branch of Ancient Runes, which you can choose to begin studying in your third year. This book might be a bit complex for your current knowledge, but it has the most comprehensive study of ritual bonds out of all the books in this section."
"But I don't understand. What do soul bonds have to do with rituals?"
"I assumed that you knew." Madame Pince looked at him with confusion. "Soul bonds are most commonly associated with wedding rituals."
He blanched and took the book without another word. "Thank you, Madame Pince. I appreciate your help."
She blushed slightly. "You're quite welcome, Mr. Potter."
He returned to the table where Harry was sitting. It looked like his brother was about halfway through the chapter and completely absorbed. Opening the book on rituals, he studied the table of contents. There were rituals for newborns, for deaths, and for weddings as well as many other wizarding events. He turned to the section on weddings and began reading.
Wedding rituals are most commonly used between pureblood families, especially for arranged marriages. The most common of these rituals is one that contains stipulations preventing either party from seeking divorce, but not preventing them from having affairs or harming one another. Such rituals have fallen out of favor in recent times, but were originally intended to keep marriage alliances from being withdrawn.
On the other end of this spectrum is a soul bond. Wizards and witches who underwent this bond were bound together by their very souls for all eternity. Incapable of hurting one another, or even being out of each others presence for any period of time, only couples with the strongest feelings of love for one another underwent this ritual. It was declared to be dark magic by the Ministry of Magic in 1653 because it tampered with the very fiber of a person's soul, literally splitting and recombining them into one person.
The last couple to have undergone this ritual before its banning was Amelia and Rigel Black in 1639. Written accounts from this time claim that they were able to communicate with each other mentally and read each other's thoughts without the use of Legilimency. Both were also said to share any magical abilities they possessed, such as Animagi transformations, a Seer's Sight, or Parseltongue, the ability to speak with snakes.
Well, that answered his question all right. So essentially he and Harry were married. Great. He was married to his brother at the age of one year. It had to be a record (not to mention highly illegal). But there were several things he didn't understand, like what Legilimency was, or a Seer's Sight, or why splitting souls was considered dark magic. Deciding to try his luck, he went back to Madame Pince to return the book and ask some questions.
"Madame Pince?" she looked up from a suspiciously muggle-looking paperback (he would bet ten galleons it was a muggle romance). "I've finished with the book you found me, but I have some more questions."
"Go ahead and ask, then. If I don't know I'm sure we can find a book that does."
"Well, this book mentions a couple who were soul-bound and could read each other's minds without Legilimency and shared magical abilities. But what is Legilimency? And what is a Seer's Sight? And why is splitting your soul like that considered dark magic?"
She paled a little bit at the last question but seemed to sense that he didn't actually want to try such magic himself, just that he needed to understand. She could relate, she had been the same way when she was a first year at Hogwarts. "Legilimency is magic that can be used to read another person's mind. There is an opposing branch, Occlumency, that is used to protect the mind from such advances. Someone who is really good at Legilimency can do so completely undetected. As for a Seer's Sight, that means someone like Professor Trelawney, who teaches Divination. The Sight is what allows someone to see into the future, or the past, or see present events—it depends on their ability. And for your last question…" she sighed and hesitated.
"Madame Pince, I promise I have no intention of actually trying this ritual. I'm much too young, anyway." He smiled, it was only a little fib anyway.
"All right. You see, there is a way, using dark magic, to split your soul and place it in an object to protect it. That way, if you die or are killed, you will continue living on because a piece of your soul remains protected on earth. Such objects are called Horcruxes. When the Ministry gained knowledge that dark wizards were making such objects, some of them dying horribly in the process because they did something wrong, they banned any magic that tampered with the human soul."
"I see. Thank you very much Madame Pince. I think I'm going to go work on my transfiguration homework with my brother now."
She smiled and watched him walk away, then pulled out a scrap of paper to write a quick note to Dumbledore. She would have to tell him that another student had started asking about soul bonds again. A simple charm and the paper folded itself into a paper airplane and darted out the library doors. She had picked that spell up from her time working in the Ministry archives.
Harry had finished the first chapter and was attempting the first exercise by the time Hen returned.
"Sorry about that, I had something I needed to research," Henry told him. He had absolutely no intention of sharing the nature of the soul bond with his brother yet. It remained to be seen if it behaved the same way as the wedding ritual soul bond described in the book. There was no sense worrying both of them needlessly.
"No problem, I was just trying the first exercise. It says that we should try envisioning the object we work with transfiguring into something else. So, for a match into a needle, we have to envision each change in order for it to work. But I don't understand how you determine which way is right."
"Well, obviously it's easier to turn the fat end of the match into the loop for the needle." Hen thought about it for a minute and then said, "When I did it in class yesterday, I just kept repeating the same images in my head over and over again. I would think of the match taking the shape of a needle and then the match taking the color of the needle. Eventually it started to do that, so I envisioned what it was starting to look like turning into the needle and it just changed."
"Oh! I see. I kept envisioning the match turning into a needle. I didn't change the way I was thinking about it. We can't practice here, and it's almost time for DADA anyway. Want to try the transfiguration after dinner with the rest of the Slytherins?" Harry gathered up his books and waited for Hen to join him.
"Sure. Let's get to class, then."
DADA was combined Slytherin and Gryffindor, so their sections hadn't been changed. It was the same for Potions. Both of them had been looking forward to this class, but it ended up being a bit of a joke. Professor Quirrell was clearly too afraid of his subject to effectively teach it. Henry also kept feeling strange all through the double period, the scar on his cheek twinging every time the Professor looked at him. Harry, for some reason, seemed fine.
They spent the evening finishing their Charms essays for the next day and practicing with their matches. Even Harry could turn his into a needle by the end of the night. Hen's explanation had really helped him to visualize properly, and the other exercises in the book were helpful too.
Wednesday was a repeat of Charms and Herbology. They turned in their essays, learned about Placement Charms by charming square stickers onto a grid, and in Herbology studied the properties of daisies.
Thursday brought a repeat of History and Henry once again traded notes with Draco. They already had a list of people interested in the project, and another pair from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who had volunteered their own notes to round out the effort. Between all four houses, they had a near transcription of Binn's extremely boring and extremely sleep inducing lectures.
That night was the first Astronomy class for Slytherin, which Harry joined. Each class would go the Astronomy tower on a different night at midnight and study the stars with Professor Sinistra.
Friday brought the end of the week and the class that Draco, Harry, and Henry had been looking forward to the most after DADA. Professor Snape started the double Potions lesson with a bang, storming into the dungeon classroom dramatically and immediately starting his lecture. He threw out several basic questions from the first few chapters of the textbook, to see who had actually read ahead. Henry thought it was so he could gauge who had an actual interest in the subject without waiting to see who blew things up.
After learning some very basic skills when it came to slicing, dicing, chopping, grinding, smashing, and most importantly following directions, Snape set them into pairs to making a potion to cure boils. Perhaps unwisely, Ron and Malfoy were paired together, while he kept Harry and Henry together. The family rivalry clearly extended directly into the classroom as they elbowed each other for space at the table and Malfoy berated Ron for his badly crushed snake fangs.
"Look at them, Weasley! There are still little chunks left. They have to be completely powdered!"
"Well it doesn't say that in the instructions, how was I supposed to know!"
"It's common sense, Weasley! Have you even read any of the textbook?"
"Of course not! I assumed it would be assigned for homework, not that we'd be brewing the first day!"
"It's a double period, you idiot! Of course we're not going to spend two hours reading aloud like primary schoolers!"
By this time they were bellowing at each other and Snape had come to stand directly behind them, a disgusted sneer on his face. As Ron drew breath for another volley, he gripped both of them by the neck of their robes and pulled them bodily from their seats. "If you cannot sit through my class quietly then I suggest you leave."
Ron immediately seized his books, shoved them into his bag and left. Draco, however, looked up at his Professor contritely. "I'm sorry Professor. Weasley's and Malfoy's never seem to get along. Is it all right if I stay and finish the potion by myself?"
The dark-haired professor considered him for a long moment before nodding once. Draco promptly sat and continued preparing his ingredients, throwing his slugs into the cauldron and adding thirty milliliters of water to set them stewing while he weighed his nettles.
Across the room, Hermione was working with Neville, who seemed to be absolutely terrified of the Potions professor. His hands were shaking as he added things to the cauldron at Hermione's instruction.
The twins, used to working with one another, worked as a fluid team. Harry found himself enjoying the calming process of preparing the ingredients and watching them combine in the cauldron. He had hated cooking for the Dursley's, but cooking itself was rather fun.
The bell rang at the end of the period and they ladled a sample of their potion into a vial to hand in to Snape. He gave them a slight twitch of his lips when he saw theirs, which they took to mean they had done well.
"Finally, the end of the first week." Henry sighed, collapsing into a chair in the Gryffindor common room after lunch.
"Yeah. And now we have a whole weekend to explore." Harry grinned at his brother.
"Oh, no you don't!" Hen cried. "Come on, let's finish our homework for next week first."
Sighing, Harry complied. Ron and Hermione soon joined them, and together they made the weekend a free one.
A/N: Next chapter will be Halloween. Please read and review! I could definitely use some encouragement!