Advent's Calendar 2023 - Fate's Fairy Tale
by teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Warnings: Completely AU! Partly OOC, time travel, soul bonds


Too soon for everyone's liking, their summer at Potter manor passed, and they had to return to Hogwarts for their second year.

"Harry," Lily kept the boy back on the first day of classes, when everyone returned to the common room after dinner. "May I speak with you in private for a moment?"

"Of course," Harry replied and led his twelve-year-old mother to the Room of Requirement, where he asked for a homely room in Gryffindor colours equipped with two comfortable sofas around a table along with a fireplace and a bookshelf filled with introductory books to the magical world including the booklet 'Beedle the Bard', a story book for magical children.

He motioned for Lily to take a seat, before he sat on the opposite sofa.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Lily apologized. "I just wanted to get to know you in private. I mean, you're my son after all. As unbelievable as it is to have a son of my own age," she added as an afterthought.

"Yes, Mum." Harry smiled. "There is nothing to be sorry about. In fact, I'm very happy to be able to get to know you and Dad in this time."

"You never met us, because we were murdered, when you were a baby. Did I get that right?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, I was fifteen months old, and you died protecting me."

"Who raised you then? Someone said that Sirius was sent to Azkaban?" Her eyes narrowed. "Did Remus raise you? Well, whoever it was, they did a wonderful job. I couldn't wish for a nicer son."

Harry chuckled. "Thanks, Mum, but I think it's rather your genes than the way I was raised, because Dumbledore sent me to live with Aunt Petunia and her family because of some blood wards he placed around their house, so that your blood would continue to protect me or such. Complete rubbish if you ask me, but until now, Dumbledore always insisted that I had to return there for at least half of the summer holidays."

"Petunia? My sister who absolutely hates magic? I can't believe what Professor Dumbledore was thinking." Lily's voice slowly became louder in apparent anger.

Harry nodded, calmly. "I know. That's one reason why I didn't really trust him in our time. But this time's Dumbledore still has not done what the other did, so we decided to tell him our secret."

"Did Petunia at least prepare you for Hogwarts like Severus did for me?"

Harry shook his head. "No, they told me magic didn't exist and that I was a freak, whenever I happened to do accidental magic. It's fine though. This time's Petunia didn't do such things, so please don't blame her."

Lily agreed in apparent understanding. "Oh, Harry, you're much too nice for your own good. Have you met my parents, by the way, your grandparents?"

"No, I never met them. They must have died before you and Dad. We could ask Sirius. He should know. He was best friends with Dad and you as well as Remus in our time."

"All right. Let's see that you'll meet them next summer at the latest, maybe even during the Christmas holidays."

"I'd like that," Harry replied, smiling, feeling thrilled at the idea of meeting his other grandparents. 'At least, they'd still be my grandparents, even if Lily happened to marry Severus or someone else this time,' he thought.

HP

With the beginning of the school year, Harry became busy again. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, he had Quidditch practice and on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons training with the Unspeakables. Above all, the friends decided that Sirius and Harry should teach them the Animagus transformation on Saturday and Sunday evenings in the Room of Requirement, so that Amelia and, on her request, her brother Edgar could join them.

During the weekend in August, when Hermione and Severus had stayed with her great grandfather, they had brewed the Animagus potion and prepared a phial for each of their friends to take on the first Saturday in September.

Harry asked for a room with comfortable sofas, one for each of his friends. The sofas were arranged in a circle, and he motioned his friends to make themselves comfortable, while he and Sirius sat on the floor in the middle of the room to give them instructions. When everyone was holding a small phial with the Animagus potion in their hand, Sirius suggested, "Why don't you take the potion one after the other, so that we can all watch and get a proper look at everyone's form?"

"Note that the form you will change into is the form, which you are most likely to achieve," Harry warned them, "but if you want to try for a different animal, you can always do that, even if it might be more difficult."

Everyone voiced their understanding. Lily decided to go first and quickly downed the potion. The others watched with interest, as her body changed, before a doe was standing on her sofa. She took a few unsteady steps on four feet, before she eyed the ground in front of her.

"Hey, easy there." James jumped from his own sofa and stood in front of her to keep her from jumping onto the floor. "You must get used to your form, before you can make such a jump."

The doe lightly inclined her head, nodding in apparent relief, when Sirius pointed his wand at the sofa and slowly lowered it to the floor. The doe proceeded to walk around the room stumbling on her unused legs every now and then, before James ushered her towards the mirror, which Harry had conjured on one side of the room.

A few minutes later, the animal automatically transformed back into the girl's form.

"Ah, that was amazing. Thank you so much for your help, James and Sirius. I hope I'll really manage to become a doe."

Hermione was the next to take the potion and transformed into a kneazle cat. The time travellers smirked in recognition.

'Poor Crookshanks, I wonder what happened to him. Maybe Ron is taking care of him now,' Harry thought, before he remembered being in the past. 'No, this time, Mione will be here for him,' he thought in relief, smiling as he observed his friend stumble about the room.

Once Ginny transformed into a cream coloured Freg, Harry swiftly changed into his own Animagus form and gently nudged the other dog about the room.

=You have the same Animagus form as me. How cool is that,= he said in happiness.

=It's brilliant, but these legs are killing me. Why does a dog need four of them?=

"Hey, don't bark," James spoke up in clear irritation.

"They're not barking. They're talking to each other," Sirius explained, before he, too, changed into his canine form and joined the couple.

Everyone was back into their human forms, when Luna to everyone's surprise transformed into a light brown bear.

"That is a most amazing Animagus form," Remus commented from where he was perched on his sofa.

To his friends' annoyance, he absolutely refused to take the Animagus potion, insisting that as a werewolf he wouldn't be able to become an Animagus.

"Ah, come on, Moony, you can do that," Sirius tried to make him change his mind.

"Moony?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Everyone needs a nickname for their Animagus form," Sirius explained, pleasantly. Pointing to Harry, he added, "May I introduce Paws to you?"

They quickly decided to call Lily Flower, Hermione Kitten, Ginny Creamy and Luna Ursa.

Edgar was the next, and he changed into a Crup, a magical Jack-Russel terrier.

"Another doggy. How nice," Harry said, pleasantly, before he and Sirius once more transformed into their own canine forms.

=I hope Meli will have a canine form as well. That would be so much fun,= Sirius said to the others, causing Edgar to chuckle and subsequently lose his balance. Woofing in amusement, Harry and Sirius nudged him back into a standing position.

tbc tomorrow...

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