A/N 1: So, the first Hogsmeade Weekend is supposedly on the first weekend in October.
Well. The 1st of October 1995 was a Sunday. Meh. Does this count? I decided it doesn't, at least for this story.
Especially because the eighth was a full moon with a partial lunar eclipse in England according to the lunar calendar and other sites I looked at. So, it did fit my non-existing plans for this story quite well.
Now another question occurred to me. It is called Hogsmeade Weekend, right? Does that mean they can go on Saturday and Sunday? Uhm, here they can.
A/N 2: Warning: If you're a huge fan of James Potter, sorry? No, seriously. Please don't hurl abuse at me if you don't like what is said about him in this chapter. Remember, he is a fictional character in a fanfiction of a fantasy novel, okay? I am not. I'm a real human being.
Gringotts 4
Harry lazily got ready to meet the twins and Neville. He just hoped they would all manage to travel to London unnoticed.
After a huge brunch he was on his way and at noon, a blond-haired, blue-eyed, quite lanky young man was waiting on the steps of Gringotts and was soon greeted by the Weasley twins and Neville Longbottom. With the latter being much more reserved in his greeting than the twins.
Only when the stranger whispered something to Neville did the boy start beaming and the twins began laughing.
"Come on, Will," one of the twins said and clapped the man's shoulder.
"Let's go inside," the other added and steered the slightly overwhelmed Neville up the steps.
Soon they were sitting in front of Grobhook who had been waiting for them.
"You understand, Heir Longbottom, that this is a grey area we are in? Normally your magical guardian would have to approve any medical attention you received from Gringotts. Only the fact that you're the last Longbottom by blood operating with full mental capacity makes this possible."
Neville nodded glumly.
"And you, Messrs. Weasley are to go to the healer caves as well, according to my client. Do you agree?"
"Oh? We are? Sure. Why not."
"Then all of you have to sign one of these three contracts."
Harry was relieved the twins had agreed so readily. He had only thought of it this morning and therefore had just contacted Grobhook today, but not the twins. Who knew if they had been fed some unwanted potions as well, right?
"Please follow me," Grobhook got up and went to his door, clearly expecting them to follow him which they did.
Soon the three were in the hands of Master Yordam, and after the twins first foray into the Star Wars Universe in August they were rather wide-eyed when meeting the little goblin who told them they also could call him Master Yoda. And even if the joke was lost on Neville, all three followed the healer obediently.
Grobhook turned to Harry when it was only the two of them, "We can do the inheritance test here if you wish. But fair warning. This test often leads to very unexpected surprises and great heartache."
Harry shrugged, "I don't think it will for me. I mean, what secrets I don't know yet can possibly come up, right?"
Half an hour later he learned that he was wrong.
He was the son of James Fleamont Potter and Lily Potter née Evans, true. And the blood-adopted son of Sirius Black, also true. But what was new to him was that his mother had been under the influence of a love potion when she conceived him.
Harry nearly threw up.
He needed to talk to Sirius now! So he sent a Patronus message to him to immediately come to the bank. Afterwards, he turned to Grobhook and gasped wide-eyed, "Shit, I'm sorry for casting a spell in Gringotts! I'm sorry!"
The goblin narrowed his eyes and answered, "I'll let it slide this once." (What he didn't tell his client was that the Patronus Charm was the only spell allowed to be cast at Gringotts by wizards and witches without asking first. It had become an exception after a witch had saved three goblins from a rogue Dementor in Gringotts in the 15th century.)
Grobhook added, "I'll go collect your godfather."
Harry nodded and leaned against the wall, feeling rather faint.
Not ten minutes later Sirius was brought in and Grobhook brought them to a cubicle that he then silenced so nothing said within could be heard outside.
After they all had taken a seat, Sirius looked wild-eyed at Harry and asked, "What happened?"
Harry wordlessly handed the parchment with his inheritance test to Sirius and waited.
The man read it and nodded along but stopped very soon, "What? Oh shit! He didn't!"
"So, you didn't know?" Harry asked with a rather raspy voice.
"No! I mean, he joked about it once and I laughed half-heartedly. But I didn't take it seriously and only said something like 'That would be pathetic, right?' and he agreed... Damn!"
Harry nodded and said, "I don't want his name anymore! I want to be known as your son from now on."
"Ok, pup. No problem. It would make me very happy. But I insist you sleep it over tonight."
"Sure, whatever."
Sirius turned to Grobhook, "Would he still be able to inherit the Potter estate?"
"Yes. As he would have been able to inherit the Black Estate as a Potter. Names change. It wouldn't be the first time."
"Good," Harry said and rubbed his face, feeling quite tired. "I'll not vilify the whole Potter family for one member without further research. I mean those Potter rules are quite sensible and caring."
Grobhook nodded.
"But please add another rule that not only the Potter, or Black if I follow that route, has to be scanned for potions and enchantments but the potential bride or groom as well."
"Good thinking, pup. And make sure they also scan for airborne love potions. Now that I know of this, I'm sure James used those. And he never stopped using them after Lily became his girlfriend... Shit!" Sirius yelled the last quite loudly.
Harry just nodded, stunned, and Grobhook made a notation in the small notebook he carried everywhere.
Harry then said, "Cho Chang tried to use such a potion on me on the Hogwarts Express on September 1st. Luckily, I have had the ring since the beginning of August. And now that I think of it, she must have tried this in my LF as well, but the Basilisk venom/ Phoenix tears mixture must have dampened its effects considerably." Harry rubbed his face.
"Cho Chang you said? Gringotts will watch out for her then."
Harry nodded.
A small chime could be heard and Grobhook said, "I'll look what they want," and went outside of the cubicle.
Sirius sighed, "Well shit."
"Yeah. Grobhook even warned me that there might be unexpected results in that test, and I laughed at him, what could possibly go wrong, right?" Harry laughed disparagingly at his innocent past self.
Sirius looked at the rest of the results again and frowned, "Did you look any further than the information about your parents?"
"No? ...Do I even want to?"
Sirius barked a surprised laugh, "No other bad surprises, I promise. Just a lot of people bequeathing money to you."
"Maybe I should set up another foundation that has the goal of making the use of love potions anathema and illegal in the wizarding world with this money."
"A worthy goal," Grobhook said while entering the cubicle again.
Sirius nodded, "And quite necessary, it seems."
"The Weasley twins are done. They had a surprise as well."
"What? They did the inheritance test already?" Harry asked.
"No, not yet. You better see for yourself. They asked for you."
They left the cubicle and soon found two red-heads who only remotely resembled the twins. They weren't as stocky, and the hair colour was more auburn than orange, for example.
"Er," Harry said confused.
"It's us," they said. "Gred and Forge. We are as surprised as you two."
"Ok, the voices and the twin-speak are the same," Sirius blinked.
Harry blinked, "But you don't resemble your Mum anymore and your Dad even less so."
"Yup, so that inheritance test is rather necessary now, don't you think?"
Harry and Sirius nodded.
Grobhook had them take the test and as they waited for the result, he said, "I have commissioned two amulets for your necklaces already that will disguise your new looks.
"Good idea, that way they can investigate this and decide what to do first" Sirius praised the goblin.
The twins nodded a bit confused and then got distracted because Master Yoda came and handed them their health scan results and they read them immediately.
"Wow."
"Ok."
"Damn."
"Well, shit."
Harry and Sirius looked at each other and then at Grobhook, who shrugged. He was as clueless as they were.
Fortunately, the twins soon became a bit more talkative, "So there was an enchantment on us that made us resemble Charlie. We guess that is because he is her true son, and we are not. And some dampening spells as well that suppress family magic."
"That's some Dark shit," Sirius commented.
"No potions?" Harry wondered.
"Nah, we needed a purging potion too often. All kids do at some point, don't they?"
"Enchantments to make one resemble a family member are nearly undetectable and more often used in our world than you might think," Sirius told them. "Especially in Pure-blood circles. But no one ever talks about it."
"That's why you warned me, Grobhook, that many people get nasty surprises when taking the inheritance test," Harry realised.
"Yes."
"Oh man, imagine the chaos we could cause in Hogwarts if we found a way to reverse those enchantments," the twins grinned viciously.
"Please don't. I see the humour, but there would be so much heartache," Sirius cautioned them. "Even I would baulk at doing this prank. Man, you two need your own Moony to rein you in!"
"Yes, you're right. It was a stupid idea. And Harry can be our Moony, right?"
Harry blinked and nodded then.
"The tests are done," Grobhook announced and handed the results to George and Fred.
"Phew," was the first thing they said. "Still twins."
Then they read on for a while.
"Ok, shit."
"Fuck me."
"Why would they do that?"
Harry and Sirius waited patiently again with Harry leaning against his dogfather. He was just glad Neville was still with the healers. Maybe they kept him until they were finished. He wouldn't put it past the goblins.
"Well. Meet Fred and George Prewett, sons of Gideon Prewett and Marlene Prewett, née McKinnon.
Sirius gasped, "Marlene?"
"That's what this scan says."
"They married? Damn. Probably never told a soul for safety reasons."
"It also says we are the heirs of the Prewett and the McKinnon family and the Fenwick family as well. Strange."
"Hm, I might be able to shed some light on that. You see, the Prewett twins always said they were bi, but that they had divided it among each other. So, Gideon said he was straight and Fabian, well, he was very close to Benjy Fenwick if you get what I mean."
"So they were like us?"
"Oh, okay. Well, yes. Right down to the twin-speak. And you look like a perfect mix of your true parents now. I just don't understand how we didn't know about you two."
"Safety reasons?" Harry offered.
"Probably. The McKinnons were hunted down particularly viciously. And you two did survive, so there is that."
"Other than our families. Shit. We just don't understand why Mum... Molly never told us."
"Or Athur," Sirius offered. "I don't see him going along with this kind of illegal plot."
"Yeah," the twins nodded.
"Maybe you should drag him here too," Harry suggested.
Grobhook nodded, "We'll have Curse-breaker Weasley bring his parents. We'll call it a routine check."
"Good idea. A perfectly innocent reason," Sirius agreed. "What about Bill? Why did she use Charlie's likeness?"
"We scan all new employees. I cannot tell you of the results obviously, only that nothing stood out that needed our attention or made him unfit to do his job."
"Good," the twins signed. "Just imagine Bill was the true son of Dumbledore or something." They both mimicked gagging.
"That would have been quite the turn of events. Especially after the news about Grindelwald," Harry sniggered faintly.
Damn, he had enough of receiving unexpected news for one day.
"We just wonder why she didn't blood-adopt us. Wouldn't it have made us resemble them too?" The twins said, confused.
"Not always. Look at Harry here. I blood-adopted him when he was one year old and he has very little resemblance to me, wouldn't you say?" Sirius explained.
"Hm, why don't you take off your glasses for a moment, Mini-Moony?" the twins asked.
Harry did so and they scrutinised him intently.
"He looks like you, Padfoot," they said. "Quite a bit actually."
"Oh? I thought that was his resemblance with Lily. But you're right. I'm there too."
Harry beamed at Sirius, quite happy with this news at least.
A goblin rushed to Grobhook and handed him two little boxes that looked like jewel cases.
"Good. The artificers worked quickly. These will be expensive, but they're pendants that hide your new looks. I believe my client has the necklaces for these."
"Oh, right!" Harry pulled out his wallet and handed the necklaces he had commissioned for the twins to hold his secret-keeping charm to Grobhook. Those would come later.
"Wow! Thanks, Harry! Well, we have money now, right? We'll pay for it all. Please show us."
Harry decided not to get into a discussion about money right now. They could talk about it later. He was also quite grateful for the distraction the twins presented at the moment.
Soon the twins looked like they had before their check-up again and Harry had promised to tell them about the reason for the necklace later.
Harry's suspicion was proven right when as soon as the twins had finished their business, a slightly slimmer and healthy-looking Neville joined them.
At least there don't seem to be any surprises there, Harry thought relieved. But better to wait for the results of his health scan.
Neville was a bit surprised to find Sirius Black waiting for them but got distracted when Master Yordam handed him his scan results wordlessly.
"Oh!" was all Neville said, when reading the results. But he then looked up and said, "Dumbledore had spells on me."
"Shit. Sorry to hear that mate. You're not the only one. That's why I wanted you to come here. I had a gut feeling he did something to you too. But there were no potions?" Harry asked.
"The first purging potion as a kid would have gotten rid of those, right?" Neville said. "No, 'only' spells. Like Decreased intellect, lowered mind barriers, and increased timidness." Neville growled the last words. "At least the latter was breaking down. But it would probably have been renewed at some point, right?"
"Shit! Sorry to hear that, mate! At least it seems like the hat could see past the enchantments and sort you right," Harry said consolingly.
"What did you have?" Neville wanted to know.
"Uhm, the first two were the same. Lower intellect and an unprotected mind. My third one was recklessness."
"This all explains so much!" Neville exclaimed and then turned decisively to Grobhook, "I want to charge Dumbledore for tampering with a Pure-blood heir and all other charges I can reasonably throw at him. Even if he was convicted already."
"We'll add them to the new list," Grobhook nodded and made another note in his little book.
"Well, this was quite a lot of discoveries when we only set out to get a wand for Neville today, wouldn't you say?" the twins asked.
The rest chuckled, except for Neville, who asked, "You discovered things too?"
"Uh, yeah. Tell you later," the twins said.
Harry kept mum about his own news. He didn't feel like sharing it– maybe never.
"Well, it looks like my part is done, here. I need to get back to Moony now. Good meeting you again, my heirs in marauding, See you later pup, and good luck with finding your wand Mr. Longbottom," Sirius said and rushed off while the others settled their bills and then left too.
Outside of Gringotts, the twins exclaimed, "Wow, it's after four already! We need to hurry!"
A New Wand for Neville
So, the four of them rushed to Ollivanders where Neville was chosen by a handsome wand made of a branch of an apple tree and with the extremely rare core of Devil's Snare fibre after a long time of hunting for it. Apparently, Ollivander had experimented with different wand cores in his youth. The aforementioned man was ranting quite viciously most of the time their search took about the stupidity of 'Gus' for forcing an already bonded Ash wand on her grandson. This did seem to cheer Neville up quite a bit, so the quest for his wand wasn't a bore to him, much to Harry's relief.
Even the twins were entertained by the wandmaker's antics.
When the shopkeeper and his customer were out of hearing range, the twins asked, "So why did Sirius rush off in such a hurry? What's up with Moony?"
"Well, it's the night of the full moon tonight, right? Additionally, there is a partial lunar eclipse this evening. I think the moon will rise half-covered by Earth's shadow or something. So, Remus is a bit antsy. Apparently, such a thing is hard on him and Moony."
"Oh wow! We never thought of that. But will he be alright?"
"Yeah, the goblins will heal him if not, I'm sure."
"When is the moon supposed to rise tonight anyway?"
"Around half six, I think. In the evening."
"Will they be at Grimmauld Place?"
"Nah, they have a place in the woods – warded to the nines – where they'll stay for tonight. Tonks is keeping me company."
The three of them then got distracted by a crowing Neville who had found his wand at least.
After buying it and Harry gifting them all with some quality wand holsters (not the most expensive, but good ones), they hurried outside for the twins and Neville to rush back to Hogsmeade. They were quite late already. Luckily, the streets were surprisingly empty, so they quickly covered some ground.
Unfortunately, they weren't all alone in their part of the Alley, as they nearly ran into the back of a person in Death Eater garb who was saying loudly, "Harry Potter is here somewhere, I'm sure, Master!"
"Fuck!" Harry cursed quietly and brandished his wand, which was quickly copied by the twins and Neville, and they slowly walked backwards away from the small group of Death Eaters in full garb huddled around a very weak-looking Riddle, who was heavily leaning on one of them.
Harry scanned the area, but everyone seemed to have fled, leaving the street eerily empty.
"There!" one of the Death Eaters yelled. "He must be one of them! Maybe he's in disguise," the unknown perpetrator guessed quite correctly.
"Then start the chant! I need his blood! Enslave all three of them, we have enough of the powder," the high voice of Riddle commanded weakly.
"Oh, for fucks sake, not again!" 'Will Turner' cursed and said hurriedly, " Run! I'll hold them. Now!"
"As if!" one of the twins said and took a duelling stance as did Neville.
"Shit! Okay, try not to hit one of us. Don't hold back. Watch each other's backs!" Harry yelped. There was no time to discuss this now as three of the Death Eaters were closing in on them.
"Dodge any green spell," was the last Harry managed to say before the fight started. At least, the confusion of the Death Eaters about their Master's inability to count to four gave him time to get some basic instructions out.
Riddle, meanwhile, wondered where the fourth person had come from but was soon distracted.
At least Harry looked like an adult at the moment and so the enemies concentrated on taking him down first.
But they didn't expect to find such a ferocious adversary in the blond, weedy young man and one of them paid for it dearly in the first few seconds of the fight, never to get up again.
While the remaining two Death Eaters fought the three students and the stranger, there was chanting to be heard in the background, so Harry manoeuvred his body slightly in front of the others, his left hand free to react quickly if needed.
This wasn't very easy as the twins tried to protect him and were inching in front of him. So, Harry barked very commandingly, "Diamond formation. None of this chivalry shit now! Neville, watch our backs!"
Amazingly the twins and Neville followed his order, and the fight got more fluid for their side. Harry and one of the twins fought the two in front of them, and the second twin pelted the three in the back with prank spells and prank items, disrupting their chant quite often and making Riddle curse.
Harry saw through his glasses that major magics were being summoned and cast an overpowered piercing charm at one of the Death Eaters in front of them that felled the man, who was trying desperately to fend off the chaos that one of the twins hurled at him.
Harry then quickly conjured a stone slab in front of the other twin when a killing curse was cast in that direction.
The last opponent left in front of them seemed to want some safety in numbers and fell back toward the chanting three who didn't seem very happy about it but soon had to do their best to keep on chanting, fending off the barrage of spells coming for them, and keeping their magicless lord safe.
So just when one of the three remaining ones went to their knees, trying to take their wand out of their lifeless right hand, Riddle commanded, "Now!" and the one on his other side strongly hurled some kind of sand in their direction.
But their opponents knew that something was coming. Harry cast the vanishing spell he had practised, one of the twins cast a strong ventilation spell a second later and the other one cast a shield charm, to keep any of the remaining sand from hitting them.
The most amazing one was Neville, though. He cast an overpowered pruning spell for Devil Snares at Riddle.
Cleaving him in half.
All of this resulted in a magical overload and the area where the ritual had been performed exploded, taking the two still alive Death Eaters with it.
Harry and his friend stood there shell-shocked for a second until George (?) said, "Eeew!" and broke the spell. "Why didn't I hold that shield a bit longer?"
The four looked at one another and saw blood and gore covering each of them.
"Eeew indeed. Are you alright? Anyone hurt?" Harry asked. "No? As long as you can walk and are not bleeding out it doesn't matter, anyway. We need to run to Gringotts before people arrive to investigate!"
They started to run, and Fred puffed, "I don't think even the Marauders repair spell could put them back together again."
Another Aftermath
The four rushed toward the white building while Harry cast cleaning charms on all of them repeatedly which the twins soon joined in on it. Harry led them to the backdoor, because he guessed that people might have taken shelter in the main lobby, and therefore rushed his friends inside via the more unknown entrance, calling for assistance and private healing as soon as they were inside.
Goblins rushed to them and led them to the healing caves once again, where Master Yordam quickly checked them. Only Harry was found to be injured but it was taken care of in a minute with tasty potions. He hadn't even noticed he had been bleeding. But he immediately ordered another Ritual of Recall, should someone collect his blood at the scene.
"We must return to Hogwarts! I don't want to become a spectacle like Harry!" Fred exclaimed.
"Oh Merlin, you're right! I don't want to become known as the one who cut You Know Who in half!" Neville gasped.
Harry suggested, "Ollivander might tell that you were there shortly before the explosion, so if someone asks you can always say it was all a guy named Will Turner whom you met at... er Zonko's today. If you want to, that is. But please keep my name out!"
"Good idea, Harry-kins! We better get moving though."
"My wife will bring you to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Follow me quickly!" Grobhook announced next to them.
No one was terribly surprised by the goblin's sudden arrival and the three were ushered off to ... somewhere.
The last thing Harry heard Neville say was, "I love my new wand. I wouldn't have been able to do this with my old one."
"Damn, he shouldn't be alone when the rush of fighting for his life wears off," Harry mourned.
"Then contact them and make sure no one is alone tonight," Master Yoda suggested. "You're physically healthy. Will you be alright?"
"Yes. I won't be alone this evening either, but I should rush back, or Tonks will connect the dots."
"My assistant will bring you to the inhouse Apparition point, just this once."
Back at Grimmauld, Harry found that his dogfather and Remus had left already and that Tonks hadn't arrived yet. Perfect.
He quickly made it look like he had been here for quite some time and fell onto one of the couches in the drawing room, breathing out loudly.
That was much too close to getting sent back in time again. What a horrible thought! Once was hard enough but twice would be devastating. I don't think I could do this again.
Harry tried to fathom it but couldn't. But thinking about it made him start shaking hard and break into a cold sweat.
This must be shock setting in, he thought clinically. I wonder why I didn't react that way the first time when someone actually did manage to send me back...
He had something to lose now... Last time there was only something to gain. Except for Teddy, that was. But he was working on it.
Er. Thank you, brain, for providing the answer.
Kreacher entered the room, took one look at Harry, and snapped his long, spindly fingers. A second later, Harr got handed a Calming Draught and was ordered to drink it.
Harry obeyed readily. He was just glad Tonks wasn't here yet.
Hm, she might have been called in, he mused.
"Just Harry is feeling better now?" Kreacher asked.
"Yes, thanks. Please keep this to yourself except for Sirius. Something happened this evening that I don't want to be linked with."
"Just Harry should turn off the disguise then," Kreacher suggested laconically, and Harry yelped and did just that.
"Wow, thanks! Phew, that was close," Harry sighed. "Will you tell me when Tonks enters the house should I not hear it? I don't want to be surprised again tonight."
"Kreacher will. Now Just Harry must come and eat."
After he had eaten a bit, Harry thought, didn't I need to do something?
Yes! Neville and the twins!
Harry tapped the mirror that was stationed in the drawing room to request a call as soon as the twins saw this and he heard Fred's voice rather quickly, "Harry? You okay?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure none of you is alone this evening. And tell you that calming draughts are amazing."
Harry heard someone huff in the background and saw Fred was grinning now, "Yes, we noticed. Neville has taken two by now. Gred and me one each. They really do help."
"So, you're not alone? That's good."
"No, we aren't. We went to The Room. Luna came too. She brought the potions."
Harry felt cheered up. Luna was awesome.
"And you, Harry? Are you alone?"
"Not really. Kreacher made me take the potion and I'm waiting for Tonks. She probably was called in. So, was your disappearance noticed?"
"Nope. Not even Lee knows. He was on a date with Angie and is currently on cloud nine."
"Oh? Didn't you go to the Yule Ball with her?"
"As friends!"
Harry blinked, right. He now remembered Fred's confession from earlier.
"Oh, Harry! We didn't tell you what happened in the Forbidden Forest when we arrived," George pulled the mirror towards him.
"Oh? What happened?"
"Our arrival didn't get noticed but we saw many wizards and witches who were returning from their great fight against the Acromantula colony. When they saw us, they grabbed us and marched us to the castle. They thought we had been watching them."
"That's a great alibi."
"We thought so, too."
"So, did they get all the spiders?"
"Only the big ones. The Forest is still infested, and it'll take decades to clean it because they have no chance to get the really small ones. And it only takes one pair to start a colony, as was shown."
"True. So, will this become a regular occurrence?"
"Yes. But this was the worst, they said. The next fight will be easier if they don't wait another 50 years, they said."
Fred added, "They were very proud to have come out of the fight victoriously. Must have been tough."
"I bet," Harry nodded.
Now they fell back into twin speech, "We might have dropped the information that you and even some students in the seventies told Dumbledore. And that we also told McG but she blew us off," they started whistling like innocent bystanders.
Harry snorted, "Just like the upstanding citizens you are."
"Yes! Exactly! – Well, that information made a group of those Ministry workers march to her office. She wasn't at dinner."
"Boohoo. Remember her saying that we were lying this summer?"
"Exactly. Oh, and the rest – mainly the Aurors – were called to some emergency on Diagon Alley."
"Do tell," Harry said dryly and even Neville laughed at that.
They chatted for a while until Neville fell asleep and they decided to return to their dorms while Harry waited for Tonks's arrival which would probably take some time.
Harry had guessed right. Tonks only arrived at Grimmauld Place at 11 p.m. She looked exhausted.
"What happened?" Harry asked, cluelessly. "I expected you much earlier. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm alright. Didn't fight, did I? – At least not in the Alley. – You'll learn it from the Prophet tomorrow anyway," she sighed and flopped onto another armchair in the library Harry had migrated to. "There was a fight in Diagon Alley this evening."
"Oh? There was? When was that?"
"Sometime past 5 pm."
"Who fought? Shop owners?" Harry chuckled. He was lucky he was so accomplished in pretending to be clueless by now.
"No! Death Eaters and You Know Who!"
"What? Oh my god, are you ok?" Harry sat up straight.
"What? Yes. We arrived after the fight. We are not sure who they even fought. No one saw the fight as everyone fled when they saw who came to the Alley. Most Flooed to Hogsmeade or a similar location or ran to Gringotts."
"Sensible. So the Death Eaters and Voldemort fought someone, and then what? Did they flee again?
"Their opponents fled, but only after soundly defeating the five Death Eaters and You Know Who. I mean, they were all dead! All six of them. Some of them were literally blasted apart."
"Oh my. Who could that possibly have been?"
"We have no clue. There was a magical explosion that destroyed all magical signatures. Only some particles of time-turner sand were left, according to the Unspeakables."
"Whut?"
"Exactly."
"But wait. Did you say they were ALL dead? Even Voldemort?"
Tonks flinched and nodded, "Yes! We identified the bodies of Corban Yaxley and Walden Macnair for sure, but the other four were harder to identify as they were in the centre of the explosion. But we are pretty sure they were the Carrow siblings, Avery Jr, and You Know Who. But the tiny body parts are still getting sorted and awaiting true identification."
"Urgh."
"Yeah. It was not pretty."
"So, the war might be over before it even begins?"
Tonks beamed, "Sure looks like it. And that without Albus' help." She said the last with a frown.
"Yeah, thanks to those unknown heroes. Phew. At least it was someone other than me this time. So people can treat another poor bugger like they did me and steal their family's possessions."
Tonks winced, "Yup, maybe we shouldn't dig too hard... But it must have been an army that managed this. Fudge is getting mighty twitchy."
Harry snorted, "How that one is still at the top of our government is such a riddle."
Tonks began to hum the melody of the song from the musical Cabaret 'Money makes the world go around, the world go around...'
"Right. Well, but this is good news."
"It really is. And the only known free Death Eaters left are Malfoy and his goons, Nott Sr, and Severus. Everyone else is dead or in Azkaban."
"Malfoy..." Harry mused. "Maybe I need to tip the Prophet off about him and our second year... hmmm."
Tonks stuffed her fingers in her ears, squeezed her eyes shut, and started humming again which made Harry cackle and he pulled her up and announced, "This calls for celebratory ice cream, wouldn't you say?"
Tonks cheered.
The Next Day
After breakfast the next day, Tonks had to leave for work to finish the paperwork about their fight with the Acromantula that she had been 'forced' to ignore because of the distress call from Diagon Alley that now needed some documentation as well. She was not a happy camper this Monday morning.
Harry sat in the informal dining room, waiting for his... For Sirius and Remus. He desperately wanted to tell them about yesterday's events. He needed to talk it out!
The Daily Prophet arrived before them, blaring in fat letters about the death of You-Know-Who at the hand of an unknown army. (The taboo spell didn't pick up a lie since the reporter truly believed it as the word 'army' wasn't blinking orange or red, just like the Ravenclaws had deduced a month ago. Or could the word 'army' mean four people? Nah.)
The Reporters had tracked down all shop owners and residents of the area where the explosion had happened. But everyone had fled. Even the cats, dogs, and toads had been taken to safety via Floo or Apparition. The reporters didn't ask around much further than that. So, no one interviewed Mr Ollivander.
Harry smiled, relieved. Neville and the twins were incredibly lucky not to be the lauded heroes of the wizarding world by now.
At nine, Sirius Side-Apparated Remus to the room they had designated for Apparition purposes for family members like Harry and Sirius, and both men flopped down at the breakfast table in the sunroom where Harry was waiting.
Harry waited until they had inhaled some tea and food and asked, "So, how was the full moon?"
"The transformation was slow and painful. That's why we're so late. We went to Gringotts first so I could see the healers. Yoda had me right as rain in a few minutes. With those potions tasting so bad, it's no wonder..."
"They taste good! But forget about that for a minute. If you were at the Alley, you know the news, right?"
"No? We arrived at the Apparition spot close to the backdoor. And inside Gringotts no one said anything. What news?" Sirius wanted to know.
Harry held up the papers with the front page plainly visible.
"WHAT"
"HOW?"
"Hm, let's activate the secrecy feature on our pendants," Harry said thoughtfully.
"But that would mean..." Sirius quickly did as Harry suggested, as did Remus.
Harry then told them of their visit to Ollivanders and their meeting with the group of Death Eaters and Voldemort.
When he came to the part of what Riddle had said and the start of the ritual Sirius sputtered, "Did they try to enslave you? With THAT ritual? AGAIN?"
"Yes, can you believe it? According to Tonks the Unspeakables even found a few grains of time-turner sand."
"Unbelievable. But please continue. So, three were in front of you and the three in the back were chanting."
"Right, well I surprised the first one, so that one was down. It was either Yaxley or Macnair and..." Harry proceeded to tell the rest. Including their second visit to Gringotts, and the twins and Neville's run-in with the Ministry army in the Forbidden Forest that had terminated the Acromantula colony.
"Un-be-lievable!" Sirius said again.
"What time was it that Riddle got killed?"
"A few minutes past 5 p.m. according to Tonks, why?"
"We should check with the Astronomy Room, but I believe that was the time the partial lunar Eclipse was at its peak."
"Really? But the moon only rose at a quarter past six?" Sirius asked, confused.
"Yes. The peak was when the moon was still below the horizon."
"Do you think that is relevant to the death of Riddle?"
"I've no idea. I just find it curious that Albus was tried and sentenced at a new moon and Riddle two weeks later at a full moon with a partial lunar eclipse."
Harry gaped, "Okay, when you put it that way... One such event could be a coincidence, but two? And such polar opposite ones like the new and the full moon? And somehow, it's like my adventure as a time traveller has come full circle too, right? I arrive via that ritual to a time where everything is about to go to hell and now most is resolved at the same time the same ritual is performed again, but it got botched this time. Ugh. That was a bit confusing. Did you understand what I wanted to say?"
"Your job is done now, and you can go on to enjoy the rest of your life?" Sirius summarised.
Harry laughed, "Yeah, that."
A/N: Phew, fight scenes are hard! So, does anyone remember why Riddle only saw 3 people at first?
A/N: So, that's the end of this story, but there will be a very long Epilogue that will address some of the open points. It's more like a separate 4th part, with 10.000 words and more than one chapter.