Those with an older self, Everybody else

Parselmouth

Sign language

I've gotten a few reviews not liking how I portray Snape. I'm not trying to excuse his actions in the books, because yeah, he was a bigoted bully, but I also happen to think that he did do a lot for the war effort, and he did protect Harry, despite his personal feelings of him. In the last book, he was put in a difficult position, because his job was to protect his students, but he couldn't. He is by no means my favorite character, I just try to cut him some slack considering all the fics that bash him without taking all that into account. *shrugs* He has literally had all his misconceptions about Harry shoved in his face and rubbed in, giving him no choice but to see Harry for who he is, and now how he chose to see him for years.

Sadly neither Harry Potter, nor any of his friends and companions belong to me. I really wish it were different, but it is not and likely never will be.

Harry woke up ridiculously early, according to the alarm clock on the table between his and Hermione's beds. He was pleased to see that they hadn't somehow ended up pushing their beds together during the night, the first time since they arrived in these rooms. To him, that meant they were finally starting to feel safe again. Quietly, he got dressed and made his way to the kitchen, determined to do some baking before everybody else woke up, just to help him work through his thoughts.

Today, they were continuing with the reading after taking the last few days off to relax and do nothing. Well, almost nothing. Snape had had him and his younger self in the labs off and on teaching them about Potions... Harry always knew that he could learn a lot from Snape were it not for the Potion Master's general attitude, the past few days had proved him right. Now that Snape's blinders had been ripped off, the man seemed determined that Harry could sit for his Mastery if he so chose after this reading was over. He was pretty sure his younger self would be able to sit for his own Mastery by his second or third year of Hogwarts. When he wasn't teaching them potions, he was teaching them Occlumency, properly this time.

Now that Harry knew what Snape meant when he said to 'clear your mind', it was much, much more simpler. Now that he knew what he was doing, he was having a much easier time of keeping Snape out.

When they weren't in the labs with Snape, Sirius usually had them in another room, teaching them about the Black and Potter families. His godfather was determined that they know everything they should have been learning growing up, which Harry was grateful for. Once he got out of here, he would be better prepared for putting his estate in order after years of mismanagement or outright neglect, he already had a list of businesses he wanted to invest in, both magical and Muggle, and a list that he should either sell his shares in or pour more money into, depending on if they were worth being saved or not. He started teaching them, and Draco, the language of the Black family, and said that in the next week or two he was going to start conducting their lessons in it entirely.

And that wasn't even counting the amount of time Moody monopolized, teaching him to fight. According to the old Auror, he fought very well and he had a nice range of spells... for being largely self-taught. Which, apparently wasn't quite good enough by Alastor Moody's standards. Like Severus Snape, his standards were rather high, and very difficult to meet. Moody was also a big believer that a person's magical strength was largely affected by their physical condition. As a result, Harry was put through a grueling physical workout (that Sirius usually joined him on). He ran laps, he lifted weights, did stretches, and he learned hand-to-hand combat.

(That was after numerous drills and exercises designed to punish (teach) him to never let go of his wand, no matter what. If, at any time, they were doing anything other than their workouts, and Harry's wand wasn't in his hand, oh boy... was he in for it. Moody had not been impressed with the fact that his wand never left his pocket once they left the Common Room that night to stop the Stone from being stolen. Especially when they knew they were dealing with a follower of Voldemort.)

As Moody said, in this day and age, a wizard without his wand, was a dead wizard. Wizards were far too reliant on their magic anymore, they didn't know what to do if they lost it. Nobody would ever expect another wizard to start fighting them hand-to-hand after being disarmed, most wizards would just stand there helplessly and let their attacker do what they wanted with them. As one might imagine, he was very... unimpressed by this fact.

They also worked with a gun range, after asking the Room for the type of gun that Harry had learned to shoot with, and Harry finally revealed to Moody just where, when, and why he learned to use one. He'd had a similar idea about a wizards reliance on their wand. He hadn't thought to learn hand-to-hand, but he had wanted some kind of back-up should he ever lose his wand. So, his time's Moody had gotten him in touch with a Muggle police officer he knew, who was aware of magic, and that officer agreed that Harry Potter had many enemies and could use every advantage he could get. Besides, Harry had noticed that, while a shielding spell would block most curses and hexes... they did next to nothing for physical objects.

Harry didn't spend nearly as much time with Moody as he did, but he did join them a few times during Harry's workouts or combat exercises. While his older self learned from the best Auror of the last century, he was with the Heads of House, learning the basics of magic that all Purebloods grow up learning, along with Hermione. A few times, Sirius had pulled them both aside and taught them how to fly, and he was much better at soothing the girls fears about being on a broom than Harry had been over the years. Of course... it probably didn't help that Hermione had also spent those years watching Harry perform his death-defying stunts on a broom...

He supposed that, considering how busy the adults kept them with learning things, he should be glad that they'd managed to get a few Quidditch games in, much to Charlie's pleasure.

The first day after finishing the first book, Ollivander and Mrs. Figg had actually come around to all the younger people, and tested wand woods and cores on them, like he had Sirius, so he could make them a second wand. Bill and Charlie, of course, already had one through their jobs, but Percy and younger didn't.

According to Percy, he'd never needed one, and it was actually frowned on to have more than one wand unless, of course, you had a job where you would need a back-up for safety reasons. Like the Aurors, Curse-breaker, and Dragon-tamer in the Room. (Moody overheard that conversation and was not happy.) This was because there were only so many supplies to go around. If every witch or wizard in the world had more than one wand, then the creatures and trees the materials for making those wands came from, would be much more depleted than they were (and poaching might be a much bigger issue). So, in the interest of those creature and tree populations, governments generally tried to regulate wand sales to one per person. (They lost enough of those populations to the Muggles greed regarding land and developing).

Some made it outright illegal to have more than one, others simply discouraged it, and the rest regulated the wand makers so much, that it just wasn't feasible for them to sell a single customer more than one wand. Britain was one that discouraged it, although it was illegal for wand-makers to sell more than one wand to underage wizards and witches. This was in accordance with underage wizardry laws, and to make it easier for the Trace to be applied and monitored. Purebloods, of course, got around this by supplying their children with old family wands to use as back-up until they were old enough to buy their own if they wanted.

(Ollivander had done what Severus did, and claimed a room for himself to use as a workshop, and was stockpiling core materials and woods so he could rebuild his stock, he wasn't going to need to go on any 'hunting' expeditions for years if he could help it. He'd been heard grumbling about Death Eaters not having any respect for an old man's livelihood, he'd been very unimpressed when he heard about the ransacked state his store had been left in, and had no doubt that everything was either ruined or looted. He was also experimenting with new combinations that he'd always wanted to try, but never had the materials for it, or a way to get the proper materials.)

The more he spoke to some of the others, the more he realized just how biased and unfair the entire British system was in respect to the Muggleborn population. Sure, they didn't have any more disadvantages than any other immigrant if you really thought about it, but still. It didn't help that the Purebloods actively passed laws to make the Muggleborn even more disadvantaged than they should be.

"Oh, hello, dear. I wasn't expecting to see you up yet." Molly said, joining him. A morning person, Harry Potter was not, after all.

He smiled, "I couldn't sleep anymore, and baking is relaxing." He said simply.

"Too many thoughts?" She asked with a small smile. She knew what that was like, consequence of having to worry about sending seven children to school, while still keeping them fed and clothed. Good thing she grew most of their food herself.

"Yeah... just going over everything from the last few days. Well, more like the last week." He muttered.

"These books can't be easy for you. All your private thoughts are out in the open, things that happened to you that nobody knew about before are suddenly known." Molly said softly, watching him put a tray in the oven while she started taking out things to make breakfast. It seemed she would have to share the space this morning, not that she minded.

"No... no it's not." Harry laughed, somewhat bitterly. Then he sighed. "But that's ok. Because I'm used to it, by now. No matter what I do, something always happens to turn my life completely upside down. I thought I was doing what I was supposed to do, to stop the war. I was working on something to kill Voldemort! Kill him, end the war!" He exclaimed. "But now... my older self shows up, and killing Voldemort didn't stop anything! If anything, it made things worse! Because the Death Eaters are still active, only now they don't have a definite leader to rein them in!"

"Harry..."

"What's been the point of it all?! What's the point of all this fighting, if nothing even changes?" He yelled, catching himself on the counter before he started grabbing things and throwing them. He leaned over, breathing hard. He could feel his magic straining to be let loose, but he couldn't let that happen, not with Molly standing right behind him.

She sighed, then stepped forward to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes... sometimes it doesn't seem like the actions we take do, or can make a difference. Sometimes, it does seem pointless. But it's only pointless if you stop trying." She said softly. "That is how they win, is when people like us, stop fighting them. And maybe a difference won't be seen now, maybe the situation in that future is worse, but that's only seven years. He hasn't seen what will happen in the next seven years. You never know what will happen, until it's happening." She hoped that what she was saying was getting through to him.

She was glad that he was opening up a little about what was bothering him, she knew from experience that he could hold things in until he exploded, literally. His magic was quite... volatile at times.

She smiled softly when he turned, without a word, and leaned against her. She just wrapped her arms around him, and stood there until the timer went off, and he had to collect his cookies from the oven before they burned.

Arthur took one look at Harry when he entered the dining area for breakfast, and knew that he must have finally had a moment to vent to somebody. "He finally say something?" He asked his wife quietly.

"Yes, thank Merlin. I think the past year is finally starting to catch up with him, and become a little too much. Especially after the past week." She murmured.

He pursed his lips, and nodded, relieved that one of them was finally starting to process everything. Now they just had to watch out for Ron and Hermione to start. He expected it to be soon, now that they were finally starting to feel safe again, it should be soon. "I'll let the others know to be on the lookout." He promised, and went to sit down so he could enjoy the wonderful meal his Molly and Harry had put together.

Just because the three of them were used to dangerous situations, didn't mean that the last year hadn't been hard on them. In the past, from what he understood, the school year was relatively normal up until the end of the year. They'd been out there, hunted and on their own while trying to find some way to destroy You-Know-Who, for a year. It was taking them a while to really register that they were safe now.

"Before you guys go, Harry, Hermione, Ron... all six of you, Fred and George, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. Can you guys come with me real quick?" Bill asked once breakfast was over and the dishes all taken care of. Those named looked at each other in confusion, but they followed Bill to the room he'd been mostly holed up in over the last several days. They were surprised to see trunks on the floor around the room, along with a small stack of them against a wall. "Now... I thought that these all might come in handy for all of you. Those," he waved a hand at the stack, "are actually for your guys's younger selves that aren't here. I figured Ron or Harry could take them back with them and pass them out when they can." He shrugged and pointed out which belonged to who.

As the kids studied their new trunks, he explained them. "They are all as secure as a Gringotts vault, only the one to whom the trunk belongs to can get in it, and I will help you set it to your magical signatures in a moment. There are proximity alarm wards, as well, to alert you if you're inside that there is somebody outside, and another ward to alert you to who that person is, if you already know them and their magical signature of course." He gathered them all around Harry's trunk. "These are the different compartments." He pointed to the trunk lid, just above the latch. "The symbols, obviously, tell you which compartment it is, all you have to do is push a bit of magic into the correct symbol to access that compartment." He explained. "Not all of you have the same compartments, so I'll have to explain each symbol to you individually."

"So..." Harry said after a moment, trying to guess what the compartment symbols on his trunk meant. "This one's a library, obviously." He pointed to it. "And... a space for quidditch gear?" He questioned, and Bill nodded. "Clothes, a kitchen, art studio? I can't tell about the last two."

"A training room, and a potions lab." Bill said, satisfied that the symbols weren't too obscure. He hadn't really known what to make for the kitchen and art studio. He was glad that the painter's pallet and food symbols weren't too difficult to understand. It could mean anything, after all. While everyone else went back to studying their trunks, Bill showed them how to link it to their magical signatures, and then took Harry and his miniature self on a tour, using Harry's trunk since they were pretty much the same.

"Every compartment is fully equipped and stocked with everything you might need to make them functional. I went ahead and filled the clothing compartment with clothes already, and I included warm winter wear, so..." Bill shrugged, a little embarrassed with himself for just assuming like that. Harry was happy to see the library already had some books in it, and made a mental note to separate his books out from Hermione's later on. All of their stuff was kind of pooled together inside Hermione's beaded bag, after all. And that wasn't including the stuff he'd left at either the Dursleys (which he had no interest in getting back, those books were useless to him), or the Burrow when they had to run for it. He got quiet when he saw the mouse cages, though. He had no intention of getting another owl, not after Hedwig. There was just no replacing her, in any form. He figured that he could either vanish the cages later on, or use them for some other kind of pet. He was equally pleased with the fully stocked kitchen, the supplies he had available to him in the art studio, and the training equipment. If it weren't for the lessons with Snape over the past few days, and the promise of more to come, though, he might have asked Bill to change the potions lab to something else.

He noticed that it wasn't very personal in here, though, and resolved to fix that at a later time. It was very nicely decorated, don't get him wrong, but it wasn't very personal to him. A few picture frames, maybe, or wall decorations. Maybe change the color scheme here and there.

"Harry, yours is the same as this one. If you want me to change some compartments, though, I can." Bill told his younger self before leaving the trunk to help the others.

All of them, except for Luna's, had a clothing compartment that doubled as a general storage space for anything else they might want to carry. What made Luna's different, was that she had a full apartment taking up two compartment spaces in her trunk. "Now... I know that you and father like to travel a lot, especially to places out in the middle of nowhere to search for elusive creatures." He explained to her. "So, you have a full apartment. Kitchen, bath, bedroom, living room, the works. The kitchen and bathroom have running water, supplied by runes." He showed her what he meant, turning the faucet on in the kitchen and pointing to the runes in question, carved into the base. "Like any rune that is not being fed a constant stream of magic from the source to be powered, they can only be used so much before they have a 'cool-down' period, where they need to recharge before they can be used again. So, they won't supply an endless amount of water." He warned and left her to explore.

When he got to the Twins, he showed them the empty compartment that would serve for extra storage should they need it, then he showed them to the workroom he'd designed. "Now, you each have your own trunk, so you don't need to share all the time unless you really want to. Of course, that also means that if you have something extremely volatile going, you have the other trunk to work on other things away from it, where it is safer. The whole room is extensively warded, including a ward line down the middle separating the lab area from the rest of the room. That way, if something explodes, it will be contained to that side of the room. That is also why the garden area for potions ingredients, as well as the storage area, are in a separate compartment entirely." He pinned them with a look. "The last thing I want, is to get a notice through the Goblins giving me time off because my little brothers went and blew themselves up in their own lab."

They shared a look and promised to be more careful. They'd had their fair share of accidents over the years, where it was only quick reflexes and thinking that saved one or both of them, along with the rest of the building they were in. Having wards like this around would help immensely with that.

After a quick tour with Neville of his greenhouse, and the terrarium he'd built inside it for Trevor, the extra trunks were divided among Harry and Ron, and the group happily joined the rest of the reading room after putting them away in their rooms. The trunks that went with Ron and Harry had written instructions for what the trunks had, how to activate the security features and key them into the person's magical signature, and what wards and such were available on each individual compartment.

"Are we ready to get started?" Sirius asked, eyeing the book warily. After the way the last one ended, and from what little Harry had told him and the others about his years at school, he wasn't sure he wanted to continue at all.

"Might as well." Harry sighed while Filius cast the charm on the new book, for it to read itself.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Chapter one: The Worst Birthday