Complications

7th of March, 1997.

It was late and Neville was doing his best to finish his Transfiguration homework before heading off to bed. He looked up from his books as the portrait swung open. Harry walked in and sank down in an armchair. He looked around as he noticed Neville and he smiled. "We're close," he said. "Next time I want everyone with us. I think we can break through."

Neville smiled brightly. "That's great," he said. "When can we do it?" he asked.

Harry rubbed his face and Neville noticed how tired he looked. Sometimes it was as if more of who Harry truly was shone through and while he seemed almost indestructible he was just human.

"Quidditch is starting up soon and I have a bunch of things to do," Harry said. "Two weeks from now, on Saturday. If we plan that far in advance we can make sure we don't have any homework left that weekend. That Sunday is also the last of the Mosaic craft and they can handle that without me. It wasn't as popular as the other two."

"At least Justin doesn't seem to mind," Neville said.

"The people who are there are very enthusiastic to be there," Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. He was with Justin on that. He would rather have people around who wanted to be there even if it wasn't as many participants as Dean and Sue had.

Neville finished his essay and put it to the side before pulling Harry out of the armchair he was dozing off in. "You should get to bed instead of sleeping here. You'll hate yourself tomorrow you know," he said.

Harry steadied himself. He gave Neville a part on the shoulder. "I can get myself up," he said. "Thank you."

"No problem," Neville said as he gathered his things up. He kept an eye on Harry, but it seemed like he was awake enough to get to bed at least.

11th of March, 1997.

Laughter floated out of the Gryffindor common room as Hermione and Neville came back from a prefects' meeting. They gave each other a questioning glance before heading inside. A glowing ball was flying around the common room as people did their best to try to catch it. Hermione smiled and looked around. Harry was sitting by a table with most of the quidditch team. He must have finished making the Seeker's Light for Angelina and Alicia. That was great. He had been beating himself up for forgetting about it for weeks now. She was glad he could finally let that burden off his shoulders.

"The patent went through," Harry said. "The build is mine. I have five that can be shipped out now and I'm handing the design over to Angelina tomorrow." He smiled at Hermione and Neville.

"Looks like it works well," Hermione said as Ron lunched for the glowing ball but missed.

"It is set to the first pro-level right now," Harry said.

"Can you catch it?" Dean asked.

Harry shrugged. He got up and watched the orb for a bit before he moved. It dodged him the first time, but the second time his fingers closed around it. He let it go again. "It starts getting really hard for me on pro-level five and it goes all the way to ten, but it also has a beginners mode and an intermediate mode so it is good to use for just about anyone."

"What do they cost?" Jimmie asked.

"I can't say for certain," Harry said. The five first ones are being sent out for two-hundred galleons a piece, but they also get them before everyone else. We are going to make cheaper ones that only do one mode as well. Those I think will end up costing something somewhere between ten and twenty galleons a piece but I'm not the one setting the price and there is quite a lot of work going into one of these."

"I'm just glad that is one more thing off your plate," Hermione said.

"Especially since Quidditch season is creeping up on us," Harry said. "Now I just need to have a chat with a certain professor and then we can focus on schoolwork and do the side bits when we actually have time."

Hermione smiled and nodded approvingly. She hadn't liked how Harry overworked himself. She knew he was still going to use a time turner to secure vaults, but she couldn't do much about it and it didn't exhaust him that much since he used part of the extra time to rest up as well.

14th of March, 1997.

Three days later Harry was heading down to the dungeons. He had put this off for too long and he needed the rune array for Severus' mark if they were to find a way to remove it. Irritatingly enough just cutting the arm off wouldn't actually work. Not that Harry wanted to use that method anyway. He might as well kill Severus at that point. As a Potion Master, he kind of needed his arms and hands to be fully functional. Harry knocked on the door to Severus' office. He took a step back and waited patiently.

Severus heard the knock on his door from his private lab. He sighed. He was in the middle of a rather complicated potion and he didn't want to walk away from it. His students knew that if they wanted something very important they had to knock twice. Since a second knock never came he had to assume that the person standing outside his door was either not in a hurry or wasn't one of his Snakes. Half an hour later when he could finally walk away from the potion they were still there though, and he opened the door slowly.

"… there you go. Now I know Gryffindors can be right arses sometimes, but if you still want to be his friend you can let him cool down and I'll have a chat with him about anger management when I get back to the common room," Harry said as he stood back up. Next to him was a Slytherin first-year who looked like they had been crying.

"Better Mr Xanders?" Severus asked briskly.

The first year looked up at his Head of House. "Yes sir, Mr Potter will take care of it," he smiled up at Harry.

"You bet, small fry," Harry said and ruffled the boy's hair. He got an angry glare in response and Xanders moved away from Harry. "I'll leave the two of you to it. I hope you have a good talk," he said.

"See you," Harry said before turning to Severus.

"I take it you are the one who has been staring at my door the last half-hour," Severus said. He sighed deeply. "Fine, come in," he said. He walked over to his desk and sat down as Harry walked in and closed the door. "And what pray tell can I do for you, Mr Potter," he said icily. He might hold a certain respect for Harry at this point, but he still didn't like the boy.

"I'll simply get right to the point," Harry said as he placed the rune array of Lucius' dark mark down on the desk in front of Severus. "This is the dark mark," he said. "I'm trying to figure out how to detach a certain part of it that would lead to either the loss of your magic or possibly your life should the Dark Lord activate that part of the mark. Last time his death was sudden and unexpected which is why he didn't have the time to do it then. We cannot rely on that being the case this time."

"And you are approaching me, why?" Severus asked.

"Because I know that you aren't on the Dark Lord's side and I need more than one array sample to truly work things out. If your mark differs at all from this one then I need to know or I won't be able to adapt the treatment. I'm of course assuming that I will have to do this to more than two marks before the end," Harry said. "I could just kill the Dark Lord, but I think that there are certain followers that deserve a chance at life without his shadow hanging over them."

"You are willing to spare murders?" Severus said.

"I have killed numerous people. I lived for years with people willing to do what was needed to get the job done. My Master was a professional assassin, sir. Morally my compass doesn't work quite like others might," Harry said. "I'm no saint Master Snape. I can be a cold-blooded killer when the situation calls for it. I prefer not to of course which is why I want to do this. Besides…" he smirked, "I think Rhavaniel might just find a way over here if I let a man with your potential die while I could have stopped it."

Severus closed his eyes. He knew that it wasn't the student Harry Potter asking for this. This was the man also known as Kato asking. He could do things people thought were impossible as he had already shown by healing Alice Longbottom.

"On a more professional note, I would prefer if a man of your calibre looked over the lycanthropy antidote that I brought. I would like to see if we could immunise people from the disease instead of just curing it after the fact," Harry said. He smirked as he saw one of Severus' eyebrow twitch. It was the only reaction he got but knowing Severus he was considering what he was being told quite intently.

Then suddenly and without warning, Severus pulled up his sleeve and showed the dark ugly mark on his arm to Harry. "Get it over with," he said. If nothing else he would get to see Harry work on something far more complicated than homework. He saw the array being drawn out in quick precise strokes. He compared it to the one that he was holding in his hand and that he assumed was Lucius' mark. At first, everything looked the same. Runes were not his forte, but he knew enough to recognise most of them. A part of him wanted to question if Harry was actually reading the mark correctly, but the firm hand holding his arm in place moved, and Harry hissed something. Pain flared up in Severus' arm and he had to clench his jaw to not scream out.

"He used blood to set this mark," Harry commented as he let go of Severus. He didn't do that with the other one. Your mark is deeper cemented in some ways, but he did make one mistake in using blood."

Severus gave Harry a calculating look. "How is that a mistake? Blood magic is both forbidden and very dangerous," he said.

"I know," Harry said. "But he and I are related and there are similarities between us. I can coax this to do what I need it to."

Severus almost started laughing. It would be interesting to see how everything turned out. Harry certainly was not what anyone expected. He would love to be there the day that the Dark Lord finally realised his mistake. He pulled himself together. "If you have what you need I would appreciate it if you left. I have a potion on cooling that needs to be poured," he said irritably.

"As you wish Professor," Harry said. He grabbed the rune arrays and headed out. Now all he needed to do was copy them for Hermione and they could get started.

17th of March, 1997.

Mass Breakout from Azkaban

The Minister of Magic announced late last night that there has been

a mass breakout from Azkaban.

Hermione read through the article quickly. "They are blaming the escapes on Sirius Black," she said.

Harry snorted. "I guess that is the most reasonable explanation they have since they won't believe Dumbledore," he said.

A smear campaign launched by the ministry against Albus Dumbledore had been present in the papers since the Dark Lord's return. They just would not believe that Voldemort could possibly be back. As far as Harry was concerned it was foolish but understandable since the ministry worked the way it did. "Remind me to never work for the ministry," he said. "I think I'd self-combust if I had to deal with people like Fudge on a daily basis."

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked over at Neville whose face was pale as a sheet. "Neville, what is wrong?" she asked.

Neville pointed at the picture. "She was one of the ones that did it," he said. Then he looked at Harry. "They can't stay there," he said.

"I'll get in contact with Augusta," Harry said. "I'll see if I can have them moved this evening."

"To where though?" Hermione asked.

"Ennerdale," Harry said. "The wards there are top-notch. They can stay there until the Longbottom wards are up to par and can protect them."

Neville nodded slowly. He felt a little better knowing that Harry would take care of it as soon as he could. It didn't stop him from messing up in class quite a lot that day though, but none of the teachers blamed him. They knew why he was upset.

Harry disappeared after their last class and came back late that night. "The Healers weren't happy, but Augusta took care of that. Now Frank and Alice are situated in the guest rooms at Ennerdale," Harry said as he sat down next to Neville. "Winky is overjoyed and Alice is ecstatic to be able to walk around outside whenever she wants to. I made sure she can't stray past the wards."

Neville visibly relaxed. He knew that Harry didn't want anything to happen to his parents, and he fully believed that a member of a goblin clan had better wards than most wizards especially when they could also lay their own wards in a language that almost no one else could speak. "Thank you," he said softly.

22nd of March, 1997.

The living room at Ennerdale was full of life and laughter. Leoline was crawling around and Remus sat on the floor with Hermione to keep an eye on him. Harry had gathered people that would have a positive influence on himself, Alice and Neville. Bill was there as well. Fleur had wanted to come but had been held up.

"We're ready for you," Kato said. "You won't see Frank, but he will be able to hear you and please act as naturally as you can. I know it will be hard." He looked at Hermione and Remus because he knew they would have to do most of the work.

"Will you give him the extra memories today?" Neville asked.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea," Kato said. "We will try to do it as soon as possible though. It isn't that strenuous a process so he should be fully caught up within the month."

Neville nodded. He stood up and followed Kato nervously. He smiled at Hermione as she took his hand. He was glad that she was there and Professor Lupin was nice and had always believed in him. Bill was cool so he hoped that together they could keep his mind off his nerves. So many scenarios that weren't likely to happen were going through his head.

Augusta was already in the room. She had been helping Alice and Kato with her son. She smiled at Neville. Hopefully, she would have her son back after today.

Neville sat down with Hermione on the floor so they could play with Leoline. They had a box of coloured blocks with them. Neville started building and Leoline crawled around for a bit before moving up to Neville and pushing his tower down. Neville smiled and started building again.

"That isn't very nice Leoline," Remus berated his son.

Hermione laughed as she looked over at the white drape that separated them from the bed where Frank lay.

Kato took Alice's hand. He reached out to the people gathered and connected with Bill first since they had done this before. He touched upon Hermione's magic and it was almost as if she hugged him. He chuckled softly. Neville was nervous but determined to help and Remus was happy to help in any way he could. Then with the borrowed magic available to him he looked Alice in the eyes and she nodded. They dived into Frank's mind together.

Time passed.

Leoline started crying and Neville handed him over to Remus.

"Why is Neville crying? Alice is something wrong?" Frank asked.

Neville squeezed Hermione's hand tightly. It was the first time he heard his father speak. He looked over at Augusta and could see the tears in her eyes.

"Neville is fine dear," Alice said.

"But the crying?" Frank sounded confused.

Kato moved walked out to the rest of them and raised a silencing ward. "They need a bit of privacy. This bit Alice will be the best one to explain to him. "Then Augusta in a bit you should head in there. Once he has gotten a hold of the time difference then you can go in Neville. It might take an hour or so. No one has to stay at this point though I believe that he would like to meet at least a few of us.

Bill nodded. "I have nowhere else to be," he said. "Mother isn't expecting me until this evening."

Kato smiled. He had a feeling that Bill wasn't too keen on listening to Molly berating him about the length of his hair any longer than necessary. He didn't look forward to that himself. He hadn't really met Molly since he had started growing his hair out.

"Neville please come here," Alice said after what felt like forever to Neville. He walked up to his mother and gave her a hug. Then he flowed her up to his father's bedside.

"So this is our Neville," Frank said. He looked Neville over softly. "Your mother says that you really love plants," he said.

Neville nodded. "I do," he said. He wasn't sure what to say to Frank. Was he disappointed in him? Did he like him?

"She says you have good friends and that you even made prefect," Frank said. "I'm glad…" he fell silent unsure what else to say.

"The memory boost will help," Alice said sadly. She knew how Frank was feeling. They had missed so much and they would never be able to make it up to Neville.

Frank moved and placed his feet down on the floor. Augusta moved to the edge of the drape and waved Kato inside.

"Whoa, Frank you can't just stand up," Kato said. "We have done our best to keep your muscle mass up, but it will take you a bit before you'll walk on your own again. Don't worry it is perfectly normal for someone who has been in a coma for as long as you have to have these issues." He motioned Neville over and instructed him how to help his father before they got Frank up on his feet. It was a good thing they were both fairly strong because Frank couldn't hold much of his own weight up.

"Winky please get rid of the bed and the drape," Kato said. "Now there are a few people here." He told Frank. "Most of them you don't know very well, but I do believe that you'll recognise Remus at the very least."

Frank blinked a few times as the drape disappeared. Then his eyes moved along the room until they landed on Remus and little Leoline. "There we have the little unhappy culprit," he said hoarsely.

"He was hungry," Remus said. "Everything is better now."

Frank smiled. He looked over at Bill. "A Weasley," he said. He racked his brain and added the time that he had been in the coma. "Either William or Charlie?" he said.

"William through I prefer Bill," Bill said. "Curse-breaker and part of the medical team that has been trying to get you back to the world of the living Mr Longbottom."

Frank nodded slowly. The last member of the group he couldn't place at all. Her bushy brown hair looked like it had a life of its own and she sat with a book that looked far more complicated than sixth-year school work if he remembered correctly. She closed the book and looked up. "I'm Hermione Granger, muggleborn and Neville's friend. I'm also Harry Potter's adopted sister.

Kato and Neville helped Frank into an armchair so he could sit down.

Kato moved into the centre of the room "While we are on introductions," he said. "I'm Kato Peverell, your personal healer. I'm also…" he reached up to take his earrings out, "Harry James Potter one of Neville's best friends, Hermione's brother and little Leoline's guidefather."

Frank looked at Harry for a long while. "You are older than you should be," he said finally.

"That is very true and I will explain it to you since the rest of your family is already aware," Harry said calmly.

Frank nodded slowly. This was a lot to take in and he was realising that despite the fact that he had basically been sleeping for the last fifteen years he was really tired. It seemed like Harry could tell though because he employed Bill's aid in getting Frank back to the bedroom while also explaining where he was and why. The news that the people that had hurt him and his family were once again out there certainly worried Frank, but for some reason, he allowed Harry's reassurance that he was safe and that nothing would happen to Neville to calm him.

Slowly, people left though most of them stayed for dinner since Winky had cooked for them and it would be very impolite to head off to Hogwarts without partaking in her cooking.

Neville was both excited and nervous about his father's recovery, but he hoped things would work out.

"You can spend all summer at Ennerdale with them if you want," Harry said before they went to bed that night.

Neville's face lit up in a smile. "Thank you, Harry," he said. "We won't be in the way though?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course not, silly," he said.

Neville lay down in bed with a sleepy smile on his face. His parents weren't just hospital cases anymore even if his father had some way to go.

30th of March, 1997.

It was crafty Sunday again and Tracy and Harry led the current activities. They were using pyrography to decorate the tables and chairs that were supposed to be in the room. All the makeshift tables they had used during the other crafting were gone and nice new ones had been bought. Harry was sitting with a group of students carving wooden figurines since Tracy could only handle so many younger students at once. They were using spells that could set fire to things if you weren't careful after all.

It was a calm enough day even though exams were approaching quickly. The fifth and seven year students were getting exceedingly more frazzled by the day and the fake help market had bloomed up again though not as vigorously as the years prior. Harry had a feeling the people who wanted to profit off other people's stress were scared of Hermione. She had moved through the school like a hurricane when the first dealers had shown up and handed out not only detentions or loss of house points, but she had also taken a page out of Fred and George's book and pranked people who tried again. No one expected Hermione Granger, a model student to prank people.

"Look Harry it isn't working," Natalie said as she held up what should have become a dog. It looked more like a walrus and she was not happy about it.

"Come here I'll help you get started," Harry said. He grabbed a new piece of wood and pulled Natalie closer so he could wrap his arms around her. He didn't take the knife from her instead he guided her as she carved. "You have to pay attention to the grain or you might try to cut against it or you might end up taking much more than you want because the wood wants to come apart there," he said.

Natalie nodded but didn't say anything since she was concentrating hard on not messing up this time.

"Oh I didn't know that one-on-one tutoring with you came with hugs, Potter," Daphne said as she came walking up to the group around Harry.

"Jealous?" Harry asked teasingly.

"You wish, Potter," Daphne said. She sat down and grabbed a knife and a piece of wood.

Harry laughed and let go of Natalie so she could move away from him. He knew he could get quite hands-on, but he didn't just want to take it from Natalie and do it for her.

"As long as you don't hug students who don't want to," Daphne said. "I guess it isn't bad. Though you know strange rumours will circle if you do it too much right."

"The rumour mill needs something better to do," Harry said.

Daphne snorted. "You don't say," she said. "You need to get a girlfriend… or boyfriend for that matter and they would calm down some. Did you know that there is a pool going?"

"The bet is whether I'll end up with a boy, a girl, or if I'll stay single until after Hogwarts," Harry said. "I know. I keep tabs on those things."

"I forgot that Ginny Weasley is on the Quidditch team," Daphne said and put the knife down so she could lean back on her hands.

Harry nodded. "How are you guys going to know that I don't have someone away from Hogwarts though?" he asked. "I could quite easily not tell anyone about that. Then who wins the pool?"

Daphne gave him a pained look. "Please, don't do that," she said.

"I guess I could inform someone towards the end of next year if I have gotten into a relationship," Harry mussed. "Or I could ask them to attend the graduation ceremony I guess." Then he gave Daphne a mischievous look. "What happens if I get together with a non-binary person?" he asked.

Daphne groaned. "You are awful," she said. "Do you even know anyone like that?"

"Four people just here at Hogwarts and another two, at least, away from here," Harry said.

Daphne sighed. "I guess we should add that to the pool. Is it likely to happen?" she asked.

"Well, that is a complicated question. I don't care about gender so from my standpoint it is just as likely as any other gender identity. However, Transgender identities are less common so I guess you could say that it is less likely based on availability," Harry said. He laughed as Daphne got up and headed off in a huff. He liked messing with the grapevine when he could, and he knew that Daphne was the unofficial Queen of Gossip.

"Evil," Natalie said as she elbowed him.

Harry rubbed his ribs. "I guess," he said. "It is the truth though."

Natalie rolled her eyes. Sometimes people were better off without the truth. She smiled as Tanya bounced over from the pyrography station. "I'm hungry," she said.

"I guess we should clean up and head over to the great hall for dinner then," Harry said. He chuckled as the students around him groaned. They were having fun.

"We have classes tomorrow, you need to at least look at your books before then," Harry said.

"Don't remind me," Colin said.

Harry ushered the students over to the Great Hall while cleaning up the mess they had made with a few well-chosen spells.

Soon enough the common room would be ready for use. It was starting to look really good. Harry closed the door as the last student left.

11th of April, 1997

It was a nice cool evening. The sun had been shining all day and it had been lovely. Winky helped Frank outside earlier and he was getting better by the day. Alice was so glad she had her husband back. She walked along the lake. The wind caught her hair and she pulled her hood up to warm herself. Harry had been by again and given Frank the second round of memories of Neville growing up. She knew that he needed some time to himself now. It was hard to accept that they had been vegetables in two beds all of Neville's young life. She wished they had done things differently. Why had they thought they were safe just because Voldemort was gone?

Healer Green was going to come by and Alice was glad that they would. Harry was an amazing healer but she didn't want to pour her heart out to one of Neville's best friends. He already knew more about her than she was sure she was comfortable with.

"Had a nice walk?" Frank asked when Alice returned to their rooms.

"Yes, it is still quite warm," Alice said.

Frank sighed. He rubbed his face tiredly. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"We make the best of the second chance we have been given and we try our best to not blame ourselves because that isn't what Neville wants," Alice said. "We give him the support and encouragement he should have had all along, but we also have to accept that he isn't a child anymore."

Frank nodded slowly. "That is easier now that I remember him growing up," he said.

"Harry said that Neville can spend all summer here if he wants to," Alice said.

Frank nodded. He hoped Neville would want to spend time with them. He wanted to get to know his son properly.