As the dawn broke over Horizon, James Potter finally got up and left the room. He had barely gotten any sleep last night, worrying about his loved ones in his world while fearing what his family would have to face here. Walking out the tent, he noticed Harry and Daphne were also up, talking to each other as they watched the sunrise. Harry turned after hearing his father approach.
"Good morning, Dad. Did you get any sleep?"
James replied negatively as he finally noticed the drawn wand on Harry and Daphne's hand. Seeing it, Harry explained.
"Daphne felt that there had been an intruder last night.", James own wand came out at that as he swept his head around.
"But I never felt anything through the wards."
"I know, that's why I checked them over this morning. They are as we raised them yesterday."
"Then?", seeing that the question was raised at her, Daphne replied.
"Something woke me up last night. I never caught whatever it was, but I saw the flap flutter."
By this time, Sirius had also woken up and joined them. After hearing them, he and James cast every detection charm known to them, but nothing came up. The only thing different was Harry's magical signature spread around the tent in circles, but nobody could explain why it was such."
"Let it be for now. Let's get ready for today."
Two hour later, just as they were getting ready to check out the manor, Daphne stiffened.
"Something just passed through the outer perimeter ward."
Everyone ran outside as a snowy owl swooped around the tent. James held Sirius's hand as he tried to bring down the bird, his eyes focused on the paper clutched in its talons. He lifted his hand as in invitation for the owl to land, but instead, it swooped down to perch itself on Harry's shoulder. Everyone held still as they watched the owl stare at Harry for a long time, before finally hooting and lifting its leg, which James finally noticed holding a newspaper. As Harry retrieved it, instead of leaving, the owl stayed on his shoulder, her head moving around to stare at all of them. It finally stopped at Daphne, who had lifted her wand, but was interrupted when suddenly Harry started cursing. His son turned around the paper, and everyone could read the blaring headline.
"The Boy-who-lied?"
But, that was not the worst part, but just below it was a moving photo of a younger-looking Harry. James immediately grabbed the paper, and started reading it, absently noticing that Lily and Sirius had joined him in doing so. A few moments later, they were interrupted when Daphne gasped.
"It's the owl. She was the intruder last night. Harry's magical signature is all over her."
It didn't take them long to connect the dots.
"You are his owl, right?", Harry whispered at which the owl seemed to bob its head.
James shared a glance with Sirius before continuing to read the paper. A few hours later, they had gone over every inch of the newspaper. The owl was still there, now perched on a chair. James brought all the discussion to pause he called everyone out.
"Okay. We now know a few things. There is a Harry Potter here, who was known as the boy-who-lived due to some reason, but now due to claim that Voldemort came back to life after some event at the last task of Triwizard Competition at Hogwarts is being called The boy-who-lied."
"Also, Dumbledore is still alive here, and has been recently removed from his position of chief warlock by the ministry", added Sirius.
"Not to mention that the Ministry is denying this Voldemort's revival and is all but calling Harry a liar to general public."
James leaned back in his seat as others pitched in what they had found interesting. His eyes soon found those of his wife, who was staring back at him. She seemed to know what he was thinking as he caught her also looking at the owl. At her smile and nod, he spoke again.
"We need to talk to Ha… this world's Harry."
Silence spread at this as everyone considered his words.
"Are you sure about it dad? I know it is weird me saying it, but Harry Potter here is just a child. Maybe it's better we talk to an adult first."
James ignored the owl staring at Harry in what looked like anger as replied.
"No. I am not sure, but more and more, it looks like this Harry Potter is the reason why we are here. I didn't read any comments in the paper that were made by him. We need to know what the situation is before making any further decision."
"I understand what you are saying, Prongs. But how do we find this kid? We can't exactly fly along with the owl to wherever he is can we? There is no brooms in the pouch…"
"What about the manor?" Mary interrupted. When everyone looked at her, she explained.
"It's not destroyed, and brooms hold enchantments for decades. We might some in Manor."
Seeing other nod, he stood up, but paused, instead looking at the owl.
"Amm…would you be willing to bring to him?", he felt like an idiot asking an owl, but was not surprised to see the owl hoot what looked like an agreement. With Mary and Daphne staying behind with Twins, James led the other three to the ruins. Surprisingly, the owl had left Harry, instead preferring to stay with Daphne.
As they approached the manor, James finally got the chance to study it closely. He could see a lot of places where he had made changes in his world. He did pause at the destroyed fountain, which was built for his mother before continuing. It was clear that whatever had happened here had led to the entire west wing collapsing on itself. James was the first to enter through the doors, which looked like they were blown apart. Looking at the state of foyer, it was apparent that a magical battle had taken place there. There were no bodies present, but evidence of spell fire was everywhere. Harry was the one to break the silence.
"This. ..was done intentionally. The entire west wing has been destroyed right from the middle of manor, "he said pointing towards the destruction. James agreed with that. After a moment of hesitation, he sent Harry and Sirius to search through the still standing East wing while he and Harry entered the destroyed section, which used to house the residential area. In a way, he was afraid to find remains of someone familiar and had to send Harry away if such was a case. With their casting still affected, they avoided the unstable looking areas and moved ahead, Nature had started claiming the area, as plants and trees were growing everywhere ground was visible. There were remnants of furniture and architecture in between all the rubble which was familiar. Moving further, they came across a small circle which was free of rubble. From the carpet, which was still visible, James deduced that it was a part of the Lords room, his father's room. He tried removing some of the rubble around, but the spells came out unpowered. Lily tried a few summoning spells but found nothing. It was when she summoned jewelry that things changed. From around them, pieces of jewelry and gems flew towards her. Looking through them, he could identify a lot of them belonging to his parents. Lily, who had been silent through this, finally spoke up.
"The attack was not on the House of Potter, it was on whoever was the Lord, to kill them. The clear area, looked like someone raised a shield when the entire wing was brought down."
James nodded that, having come to same conclusion. Eventually they returned towards the foyer area, where Harry and Sirius met them with a few brooms lying at their feet
"Prongs, the entire wing looks like it has been under stasis charm. Everything, valuable or not, looks pristine but unused. We also found these…"
James ignored Sirius's rambling as he picked up a familiar broom. It was Nimbus 1700, gifted to him by his father when he had become the head boy. In his old world, it had been destroyed on one of his auror missions, but here, it still existed. The broom seemed to vibrate in his hand, seemingly recognizing him. He didn't know whether it recognized his magic as same of James Potter of this world or it was something else, but it still made him smile and murmur.
"Hello again, old friend."
By this time, the others picked up the brooms, and a few supplies Lily felt they would need. He wanted to leave immediately, but Sirius was not ready.
"We need to wait until the night, Prongs. Disillusionment charm can easily be picked during day, especially if we are on the broom. We have no idea how far we would have to travel. Also.."
He paused at that, his eyes travelling between him and Lily before moving on.
"..we need some way to ensure this Harry would tell us the truth."
As expected, Lily frowned at that. The Potter matriarch held a near fanatical love for her children, and any form of harm coming to them was not acceptable to her. Sirius had expected some protectiveness to extend to this Harry Potter too, and he was not wrong.
"What do you mean, Sirius?"
Sirius sighed as he sat down.
"I would have suggested Veritaserum, but it will grant only limited time and field of questioning. We need this Harry Potter to tell everything to us willingly and I can't think of anything that would be acceptable by both of you."
"You mean legilimency."
"That is one of the options I considered, but if the kid knows occlumency, it will turn out to be very painful for him."
There was some murmuring for some time before Mary spoke up.
"Could you tell us the least harmful method you could think of?"
Everyone looked at him as he considered his thoughts before answering.
"When we find him, if it is possible, we knock him out and bring him here. In the manor's potion lab, there are a few ingredients under stasis. Since we don't have a pensieve, lily can brew some veritaserum so we can show him the truth about us. If it's enough, it might help to get the kid to trust us and tell us everything."
"That's a lot of ifs and maybe scenarios in that, Lord Black", observed Daphne at which he groaned.
"I know, but that was the best plan I could think of. If there is anyone with a better plan, let me know."
After that, the rest of the day was spent in discussion, with plans being made and discarded every minute. Their food supplies were running low, and soon they would have to obtain it from somewhere along with other supplies. With them still having problems using magic freely, it could be an issue, but they still had a day to resolve that. As the night approached, Sirius, Daphne, Mary and Harry got ready to leave, with James and Lily staying behind with the twins. While Harry still had his father's cloak, the others had to cast multiple disillusionment charms and tracking charm on themselves to finally get a worthwhile result. With the owl's shining form under the bright moonlight escorting them, the four of them lifted off soon after, turning west and flying in a formation. After a little more than half hour of flying by Sirius's estimate, the owl hooted and started descending. The four of them removed their disillusionment before following the bird down. Sirius was surprised to see them coming down over what looked like a muggle area. He hesitated for a moment before continuing, landing on a empty patch of area in front of one of the houses. He could see a sign saying "Privet Drive" and looking at the house, noted the number 7 written on the house in front of them. The owl was perched on a bush and was pointing towards a house further ahead with its wing.
He took a step forward but was stopped by Harry who pointed towards his glasses. Right, he had forgot that his godson had paid heavily for getting a few enchantments on his glasses, just like his father.
"The entire area a few feet ahead was enclosed recently under a ward."
His godson's voice seemed to tremor at that, which Daphne had also noticed.
"Harry?"
He shook his entire body, like he was trying to remove something from him.
"That ward or whatever remains of it, it's not…natural. It's red in color, like deep dark red mixed with black, very different from those of blood wards, and… and it's like calling me."
Before anyone could say anything, Harry suddenly pulled all of them behind a bush.
"There is someone there. Infront of No.4 house on the other side. Whoever it is, seems to be under disillusionment or invisibility cloak and is lying flat on ground."
This flow of information changed a lot of things as Sirius discarded his original plan. With Harry still shivering, there was no way he was taking his godson anywhere near that ward. With no other option, he threw caution and sense to the wind and turned to the owl.
"Is there anyway you can bring… your master outside?"
The owl hooted and lifted off, but not before cuffing him on top of his head without any reason. At Mary's suggestion, all of them once again casted disillusionment charms over themselves, all the while keeping an eye on the person in front of No.4. They didn't have to wait long, as soon after, the door of No. 4 house opened and a small figure slipped out with Howl fluttering over his shoulder, trying to pull him in their direction. They held their place, but as the figure reached some distance away from them, it stopped following the owl's pull. All of them could the boy's muttering.
"Hedwig, what? No, where are you taking me. No…"
Harry ("the older" his mind supplied) whispered from next to him.
"He has stopped right outside the ward boundary."
Sirius was already concerned about the change of plans and the ward and decided against waiting anymore. A stunning charm left his wand, striking the boy on his chest, but instead of dropping down, he started stumbling around. Someone cursed behind him before two other stunning charms hit the boy, finally bringing him down. Sirius and Mary moved ahead to gather him, but just as they reached him suddenly there was a sound of crack on the other side of the house. Recognizing is as someone apparating, the other two also joined them. As Sirius pulled the younger boy on his broom, his godson staggered and fell to his knees, but Daphne got him first. She handled him behind her on the broomstick and grabbed his before lifting off, Sirius and Mary close behind them. Mary was at the last, her wand out to cast a shield charm if needed, but no spell was fired at them as rapidly gained height. Once they were sufficiently far away, the owl once again flew out in front of them, guiding them back. By now, Sirius had casted disillusionment on the younger boy's body but with Daphne having difficulty controlling her broom, they soon dropped their speed and height. So, it took them considerably longer to return, and despite the warm season, all of them were shivering and tired as they finally touched in front of the tent.
Lily looked ready to go ballistic seeing the stumbling form of her son, but by now, the boy had gained enough sense that he caught his mother before anything happened.
"I am okay, Mom. I just need to sit down."
She all but dragged him inside, with James assisting him in carrying the younger boy. As they entered the tent, all of them finally got the first clear look of the boy. James wiped his finger over the boy's wild hair as he settled him on one of the beds.
"I can see the resemblance…and the famous scar."
He then turned to check on his own son, who was breathing heavily as Lily ran a bunch of charms over him.
"I am fine."
"You don't look fine, Harry Potter", Lily snapped, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"I am, Mom. I never expected that ward to merge with me."
James listened as his son explained about what had happened and the remains of a strange ward. It seems when he has run to help Sirius, all the remains of the ward had seemed to suck in towards Harry with a considerable force.
"The weird thing is I can feel it, like an extension of me, and it feels like both of you, mom, dad."
Lily paused at that.
"Feels like us?"
"Yes. I can't describe it better than that."
After Mary checked over him, they all looked at the knocked-out boy lying on the bed.
"So, what's the next step?", Daphne asked.
"With three stunning charms, he would have remained out for more than 12 hours, but with our underpowered charms, I would say he would be out for around 6 hours."
They formed a schedule for who would keep eye on the boy as others rested. The morning came, but the boy remained unconscious. It had been decided that the elder Harry would use his name while the younger they would address as Jameson. Sirius had remained smug after everyone had accepted his suggestion after initially denying it. Mary had once again checked over Jameson, explaining that the boy was probably tired and unfed before, so his body was taking longer to recover.
Just as they were finishing their breakfast, Jameson's body twitched as he released a groan.