Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Thoughts
Gwen stared up at the ceiling. Today her parents were celebrating the defeat of Voldemort. Even Bill and Charlie, 10 and 8 years old respectively, were rejoicing. Percy and the twins didn't understand what was going on, but they were happy that everyone else was happy.
Gwen, while glad that the war was on pause, was grieving for the little boy who, at this very moment, was being abandoned on a doorstep. She sighed, I'm going to have to do something about that, aren't I?
§§§
5 years old Gwendolyn Weasley waved Arthur's vault statement in the air. "Mom, why don't you work?"
Molly paled, "Give me that." She snatched the letter from Gringotts out of her hands. "I do work." She waved around at the busy kitchen where pots were flying everywhere, "Don't you see how busy I am?"
Gwen raised a brow, "We're in debt, we have no savings, and instead of supporting your family by getting a job you're playing housewife."
And dad earns criminally little for a government official. I guess the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office doesn't have much budget.
"I'm not playing housewife." Molly stared at a boiling pot. "These grownups' matters, honey."
"But Mom!" Gwen whined, "You always look so sad between chores."
She really did. Molly Weasley was bored, that was obvious. The woman had no friends and talked to no one but her children all day.
"Oh honey," Molly picked her up, "I'm not sad."
"Bored, lonely… It's the same thing." Gwen kissed her mother's cheek, "I really think you'd have fun working mom. Maybe as a cashier? So that you can talk to lots of people." On second thought, "Although you'd have to control your temper even with rude customers, so maybe not."
Molly laughed.
§§§
Later that night, Gwen eavesdropped on her parents in the kitchen.
"Arthur… if I wanted to… would you allow me to work?"
"What? Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
"You always dreamed of having a family and my parents taught me… you know how they were. I didn't think you'd want me to."
"Of course I do! I mean, if you want. You can do anything you want Molly dear."
"I always wanted to be a Medi-witch, and St Mungus offers a full scholarship for anyone who passes their admission exam."
"You were always good with Charms and Potions, love. Go for it!"
§§§
It was an adjustment, but their mom was a lot happier. And so were her kids.
Instead of being cooped up at home or on the magical side of Ottery St Catchpole where there were only 4 families, the Weasley kids started muggle school in September of 1985 (as it turned out, Gringotts offered muggle identities to the wizarding raised for a really affordable price) where they could make friends and play with other kids.
Even Luna's parents signed their 4 years old up for muggle kindergarten.
Gwen was in the 1st grade of primary school, Fred and George were in the 3rd grade and Percy was in 5th.
Charlie had just started his 1st year at Hogwarts (since his birthday was in December he started a year later) and Bill was in 3rd year (he also started a year later since his birthday was in November).
After school, while their mom was still working as a Trainee Medi-Witch at St Mungus (she started at 9 am and finished at 7 pm), the kids stayed with Great Aunt Muriel (she insisted on being called that). It wasn't that bad. Percy often stayed in the manor's library, Fred and George played in the gardens and Great Aunt Muriel read a book in the solarium or had a tea party with her gaggle of old ladies.
She was really hands off, Great Aunt Muriel.
Which explained how, two weeks into their new schedule, Gwen sneaked out of the manor gates, morphed into a fully grown woman (Thank you Grandma Cedrella) with brown hair and eyes, and called the Knight Bus by raising a hand filled with magic and thinking about the bus.
The last time she'd done so, the conductor had thought she'd stolen her parents' wands and warned her not to do it again. This time, they let her get on without a fuss once she paid the fee.
"And where to, Miss?"
"Little Whinging, Surrey."
§§§
Once in Little Whinging, she asked the conductor to drop her off at the playground, where she hid behind some trees, made herself invisible and transformed back into her red-headed little girl form.
She pulled a cut off corner of a baby mattress covered with blood on it from her pocket and cast a spell to lead her to the one whose blood it belonged to.
The spell led her out of the park, down the street, down an alley and to Number 4 Privet Drive, Surrey.
She slowly walked towards the house and held her hand out to the wards, what little there was left of them.
The blood wards are barely hanging on, I'm surprised they had the power to burn Voldemort at all. Although, Lily's intent was to protect Harry from Voldemort, so maybe the wards aren't strong enough to protect him from anything else but him? This is… a ward to keep out those with a Dark Mark, a weak notice-me-not to keep Harry under the radar, a charm to monitor any magic cast on the premises and… what's this? A magic dampener!
With a growl, she grabbed that ward and the monitoring charm, spun them tightly into a small ball and then wrapped them around the bird fountain out front. This way, they would only work on the bird fountain, where there was nothing to monitor and no magic to weaken.
I wouldn't have been able to do that if there was a proper ward stone. She eyed the wards suspiciously, I'm guessing the blood wards are anchored to Harry, but the other ones… what the hell is powering them?
She followed the thread to the door, knocked, waited for Petunia to open the door, and sneaked inside. Oh no. The blood wards' anchor thread was heading the same way as the others. There's no way, right?
She placed a notice-me-not around herself and the cupboard and opened the door. Bright emerald eyes squinted at the empty space where she was. She paled. Oh no.
The blood wards were powered by two magical chores inside Harry's chest.
It was horrifying. Possession would have been better than… this. Harry doesn't need blood relatives. Damn it Dumbledore! A wixen magical core recharged itself with rest and good food, and a tiny bit of ambient magic. Lily's and James' cores however, didn't have a body to recharge them, so they needed ambient magic to recharge, but Harry lived in a muggle area.
The only magical thing around was Harry, the very person they were supposed to protect. Lily's core was cannibalising James' to maintain the blood wards, but once that was gone… it would go for Harry. This could turn him into a squib!
Worse, Harry's undeveloped core was already stressed out from powering the other wards, and the magic dampener hadn't been doing him any favours. Luckily, it wouldn't affect him anymore.
It's a miracle Harry didn't become a squib before his 11th birthday.
Gwen spelled Harry to sleep, crawled inside the cupboard, closed the door, dropped the notice-me-not and made a small cut on her pointer finger. Making sure to keep the blood flowing from the wound, she wrote a rune ward in blood on the cupboard's door to keep everyone away and any sound inside.
She then healed the small cut and reached inside Harry's shirt to lay her hand over his heart, where his core was. She closed her eyes and visualised Harry's core. I really shouldn't be doing this without his consent.
She reached out to the threads bound around his core that were strangling it and carefully, slowly, unravelled those threads until she was holding the anchors to Dumbledore's wards in her hand, powered by her magic.
Now, what do I do with these?
With a wave of her hand over the wood, the ward disappeared. She sneaked out of the cupboard and looked around. There.
She walked into the basement and pulled a brick off the wall with magic. Holding the anchors tight in her right hand, a cut appeared on her right palm. Blood freely dripped down and solidified once it hit the floor. Once she had a sphere the size of her 5 years old pinkie finger, she cut off the blood flow and healed the wound.
Dizzy from blood loss and magic overuse, she anchored the threads to the blood sphere and hid it behind the brick.
She then grabbed a scone from her pocket, ate it quickly, covered herself in a muggle-only-notice-me-not and walked out of the house.
She then grew back into an adult version of herself and called the Knight Bus to go home.
§§§
"I trust that your excursion went well, Gwendolyn?" Great Aunt Muriel loomed over Gwen as she laid down on the grass beneath a tree.
Gwen eyed her warily, "Yes Great Aunt Muriel."
The woman nodded, "Your mother is here to pick you and your brothers up."
Gwen pulled herself up, "You're not going to tell her?"
Her Great Aunt sniffed, "My monitoring spell told me you were alright." They walked towards the manor together, "Just warn me next time you decide to leave, I won't stop you, but I will send a house elf after you if you're in danger."
"Thank you Great Aunt Muriel!"
"You should tell your father that you inherited the Black family's gift, Gwendolyn."
Gwen didn't look at her, "Why?"
"Because it means you're more of a Black than a Weasley. You have their madness in you, girl. He can help you learn control."
§§§
Since her great aunt had allowed her to come and go unbothered, Gwen decided to listen to her advice and show off her metamorphmagus abilities to her family.
The twins were impressed, Percy was jealous, and their mother was fretting. Gwen knew she wasn't supposed to hear how this made her even more attractive on the marriage market. Eww.
Her dad was more pragmatic, now on Sunday morning they would practice Occlumency together and Gwen had to meditate every night before bed. All to control the 'Black Madness' that she may or may not have inherited.
"Wait, but if it's a Black family tradition why do the others not have to do it?" she asked in confusion.
Her dad looked thoughtful, "That's right… I'll teach your brothers as well, and Bill and Charlie can join us over the Christmas holidays."
"Arthur!" Her mom protested.
Arthur sighed and grabbed her hand, "There are two Legilimens at Hogwarts, it's not a bad idea for them to learn. It's also a useful skill to know."
Molly sighed, "I know, I just don't want our children to use it as a crutch."
Arthur smiled grimly, "They're not at war Molly, they might use it to control their temper, but they won't need it to compartmentalise or hide from their trauma. They'll be fine."
Sometimes, Gwen thought, looking at her parents who had just casually revealed they had abused Occlumency to see them through a war, I forget these two were soldiers.
"Mom, dad, did you see a therapist after the war?" Gwen asked curiously.
"You mean a Mind Healer," her dad corrected her. "Muggles call them therapists."
"Yes, honey." Molly smiled tremulously, "Albus paid for it, we went for three years."
"That was nice of him." So, Dumbledore might not be a good person, but he obviously knows how to take care of his soldiers.
§§§
It took three days for Gwen's core to recharge completely. As soon as it did, she told Muriel she was leaving and took the Knight Bus in her mousy brown adult form.
This time, she didn't need the blood from Harry's crib to track him (not that she could use it anymore, since she'd used it all up the first time), not when she'd placed a tracking rune in blood on the bottom of his foot before she left the last time.
It was invisible until Gwen used it to track him, then it could be seen (which is why she'd placed it on the sole of his foot). Harry was at the park this time, hiding behind some trees in the bushes. Gwen turned back into a little girl and made herself visible.
"Hello," she greeted the little boy.
He squinted at her, "Hi."
Gwen held up a hand with two fingers, "How many fingers am I holding up?"
Harry squinted harder, "Two?"
Gwen smiled, "Yep!" He needs glasses. She held her hand out, "I'm Gwendolyn Cedrella Weasley, but you can call me Gwen, who are you?"
Timidly, he shook her hand, "Harry. I'm Harry Potter."
She raised a brow, "No middle name?"
He blushed and whispered, "James."
She smiled, "Hello Harry James, do you want to play?"