November 8th, 1981, somewhere in Russia.
In a quiet mountainside villa, surrounded by trees covered in snow, lay the current hideout to the remaining death eaters who were known to the public after the defeat of Voldemort. Only the foolish stayed behind and pretended that they were imperiused, or in two very specific cases, they were commanded to do so. Of course, this area was much too small to house all of the death eaters, so other hideouts were needed, but this one held the most important, those deemed the Inner Circle.
Narcissa Malfoy was among them, even though she never took the mark, and so was currently privy to some of the more secret plans that revolved around the currently deceased Dark Lord. Of course she didn't understand them, nor did she want to until it involved her husband, Lucious Malfoy.
Narcissa had known what marrying Lucious Malfoy would mean for her. She would have to be the perfect pureblood wife. She would always be beautiful in public, she would always show deference to Lucius, never deny him, provide him with a son, and entertain guests while hosting at their home. She never expected love, she didn't even expect to be treated nicely in private. Thankfully Lucius never raised his hand at her, he knew he didn't need to. She would obey, within reason, any request he would have as a good pureblooded witch should.
Even though she didn't want him touching her, she was still disappointed that he was sleeping around with other women, at least if it was men she would understand why he didn't try to bed her more often. Even so, she didn't mind too much. She had given birth to the heir of the Malfoy name and possible heir to the Black family as well and that was enough for him, and it meant that she didn't have to pretend to orgasm anymore. But through all his shortcomings she never expected to be seated outside of her sister's room, knowing that her husband was the only other person in the room. Worse yet, was hearing her moan nonstop how she wanted the dark lord inside her.
Bedding other women was one thing, but bedding her sister? The one married off to Rodolphus Lestrange? She was beyond livid; she did not understand how this was for the cause. Sure, he wasn't the only one that had gone in there today, so far, she had witnessed at least two others walk into the room, and others still leave with a disheveled look. No matter how much research she did, she could not find any ritual that required all this fornication that would help them in any way save for creating a very strong child, but that would hardly help bring Voldemort back. And even if this did help, why must Lucious be part of it? It didn't make sense to her, so she patiently waited outside in a comfy armchair that she conjured, ready to shrivel up his junk the moment he came out. She had to wait an additional twenty minutes, which pissed her off even more considering he would never last longer than five minutes with her.
As he walked out, dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief to remove the sweat, Lucious just managed to dive to the side away from the curse she had sent his way.
"Are you mad, woman?" he yelled.
Instead of answering, she sent stunning spells at him in mass, so she could more easily curse him. Unfortunately for her Lucius was not just talk when it came to dueling, and he quickly pulled his wand from his cane and disarmed her.
"You fucking asshole, did you really have to fuck my sister?" she screamed as her fists rained down on his chest.
He quickly stunned her and levitated her to their bedroom. Once inside he sat her on her bed, placed her wand on the nightstand and bound her before waking her up.
"What the fuck is your problem?" he asked her as her eyes opened up.
"My problem? Why are you screwing my sister?" she returned with a question of her own.
Lucious quickly silenced the room as well as cast many other privacy spells before answering, "it is under order from Lord Voldemort himself."
"Yeah, and I'm the second coming of Merlin, if you wanted her so badly, you should have married her instead of me, you sick bastard!" she yelled as she struggled to get rid of her bindings.
"For fuck's sake Narcissa, the Dark Lord has ordered all of his most trustworthy to impregnate Bellatrix, once the ritual is complete, she will perform yet another ritual to pull his soul into the unborn baby. After that, I assume they will do one last ritual to age him up at an accelerated speed."
Narcissa was surprised by the answer, she had been partially right about the ritual they were doing, but this answered more of her earlier doubts. Still, she did not like that he was taking part in this, "but why you? He has so many others, why did it have to include you?"
"You know just as well as I do, that the magic that flows through my veins as a Malfoy, is far superior to that of other blood lines. The Dark Lord wisely selected me and others, you should be grateful that I dissuaded him from just taking Draco instead."
"What!? No, not my baby!" she screamed.
"Calm down, I've already told you that he will not take our son's body. I convinced him that it would be better to perform a ritual to mix many of the strongest bloodlines, that way he would have a body worthy of the Dark Lord. Your psycho sister jumped in and begged for the opportunity to be the mother of this child."
"And you obviously detested it so much that you lasted four times longer with her than you've ever managed with me?" she asked sarcastically.
"Really? As if you cared who I slept with, but to put your mind at ease, after finishing as quickly as possible, I was told by a voice, presumably the Dark Lord's, that it would not be enough and that I had to go again. Obviously, it is difficult to perform a second time so quickly after the first. It shames me to admit it, but it took a long time to get it up, perform and finish a second time," he explained.
"Fine, I'll stop trying to castrate you for now. But until whatever this is, is over, you and I will not share a bed. I don't care if you have to go sleep with one of your whores, just stay away from me until this ridiculous ritual is over," she responded with a much calmer voice.
He released her bindings and watched her rub her wrists from where the bindings were too tight.
"Would he really have taken over Draco?" she asked.
He looked her right in the eyes, "without a shadow of a doubt. The mix of Black and Malfoy blood lines was too strong for him to ignore, which is why adding so many more bloodlines to the mix was the only way to get him to look elsewhere. Of course, he demanded that I partake, and before I had to persuade him to look for some one other than you Bellatrix excitedly volunteered."
She waved him off, "yes, so you've said. What ever happened to my sister, sure she was always devoted to blood purity, but never like this."
She looked towards her husband and saw something in his eyes, "what do you know?"
He pondered for a moment, but before she could nag him again, he answered, "the Lestrange family are great at mind magics. That mixed with how good they are at potion brewing, not as good as us or the Greengrasses but close enough, it wouldn't be beyond them to have messed with her mind during or after the wedding."
Narcissa scoffed at that, "as if a daughter of house Black would fall to such paltry tricks. Our minds are fortresses, even the Dark Lord would have a hard time breaking through our defenses. No, it must be something else."
"Usually, you would be right, but the Lestrange family combines both potions and mind magics. There is a reason why they hold so much power. They trade secrets, secrets that would be impossible to get normally, but I have a hunch that they hold a secret formula for a potion to rattle the mind enough for their impressive mind magics to work on anyone. My father mentioned once having seen a Leonard Bones act like a fool after having had a few drinks with Corvus Lestrange. From that we inferred that they had dosed him with some brew and not a few weeks later, he hung himself and passed over his votes to his cousin Eugene Bones, giving Lestrange just enough votes to pass a law allowing him to trade with less restrictions with many countries is northern Europe."
Narcissa thought on this new information, "if those bastards messed with…"
"You will do nothing!" He quickly approached her and roughly grabbed her hand.
This unusual reaction made her hesitate for a moment, but she quickly got her wits about her and cast one of the few wandless spells she knew, a small electric discharge shocked him enough for her to grab her wand, "don't you ever grab me like that again!"
Lucious, looking down at her glowing purple wand decided not to push his luck, he might be a better duelist than her, but at such a close range, he doubted he would be successful in dodging this spell, "fine, I apologize for my behavior, however we cannot show our hand so quick, what I told you is only a guess, it might also be that your sister is just bat shit insane. We will continue to monitor them and once we figure out what they have done, I'm sure Arturus can stomp their faces until they release your sister IF that is what is going on.
"Until then, we shall behave as if nothing is different and only gather more information. Do not behave like some brainless Gryffindor and charge in there without all the facts."
Narcissa looked away, ashamed of her own brashness, "yes, I understand. But if I find out that she's under some mind magic, potions, charm, or fucking Voodoo, I'll hang the Lestranges by their testicles from the Astronomy tower myself."
Lucious, not for the first time, feared his wife, "yes that's fine, but could we please get something out of them before you kill them? Maybe I can blackmail them and once I get us what we want, then you can um… do what you said you would."
"Fine," is all she said before leaving the room.
TFACC
November 9th, 1981, Greengrass Manor
Harry and Daphne appeared next to the jump stone and were immediately surrounded by their parents.
"Harry, come sit, I'll have your foot ready in second," said Lily.
"Harry, son, you should have called us if it was going to be something dangerous, you may be older now, but we can still watch your back," James followed.
"Yeah, even Jamie here would have been a better help than you alone, but for true back up you should have called on me," said Sirius.
Harry looked around at his parents and godfather, "what the heck? How did you already know what happened, Daphne just found out a minute ago."
Isabella answered for them, "they have been here near the jump stone working on what you've thought them, so they naturally overheard once you told Daphne what happened."
"Can't get any privacy here," Harry mumbled, "well thank you guys, please mom, I'll be very grateful for your help with this."
James and Sirius helped Harry limp over to a sofa where they laid him down as if he was made of glass.
"I'm not delicate you know? I've had much worse than this happen, and that's just from training with Daphne," he complained.
"Oh, don't blame that on me. You're the one that decided that jumping into a bone breaker just to disarm me was the best course of action rather than break your undefeated record," she responded with a hint of anger.
"Honey, it would have looked bad if I wasn't willing to do everything in my power to win every fight. Besides Luna healed me up with her potion in like two minutes," he waved her off.
"Yeah, two minutes of you screaming for anyone to cut your arm off from how much it hurt," she snickered at him.
Harry pouted, "well that potion hurts like the devil, it feels like its constantly breaking your bones over and over until they're back to what they were supposed to be like."
Lily cleared her throat, "as much fun as it is to hear how my son disregards his wellbeing, I think its time for me to fix his leg."
"Sorry mom," "Sorry Lily," hey answered.
-TFACC-
November 10th, 1981, Greengrass Manor
Harry woke up on an empty bed. He quickly got dressed now that his leg had mostly healed and hobbled over to the kitchen where he found the women chatting over a cup of tea or coffee in Lily's case.
"Oh, he awakes," Daphne said.
Lily looked over at her son, "are you feeling better Harry?"
"Yeah, thanks mom. It's a bit sore but I'm sure that will wear off before the end of the day, where is mini me and mini-Daphne?" He asked.
"Oh, the boys have them by the pond, they're giving us some girl time," answered Isabella.
"Oh! Well, you girls have fun, I'll go join them," with that he maneuvered his way outside to go join Cyrus, James, and Sirius.
"Don't you guys have jobs?" he asked as he approached them.
They chucked and Cyrus answered first, "nothing I can't send someone else to do. As owner I'm allowed plenty of opportunities to take time off."
"And as far as the aurors go, we took a leave of absence, but we might as well have quit," answered James, "we're still fighting against dark wizards, and this way we have more freedom to do so. Besides, we do not have to worry about money since we have the Black and Potter fortunes behind us to fight this war."
Harry walked towards the children and made faces at them while responding, "yeah that makes sense, when I opened my trust vault, I was surprised by the large amount of money in there. It made me wonder why my aunt and uncle made it seem like a financial burden on them. Thankfully Daphne showed me that it was better for them not to know about that money, if they had, they would have taken it all for them selves and I would have ended a very poor wizard."
"Can I go mess with them?" asked Sirius.
"No, technically in this time they didn't do anything to me so just let them be miserable themselves," Harry responded.
The four men played with the children for the next few hours. They had the children float across the pond, flying on miniature brooms, and be caught on the opposite side by one of the adults. It was great fun, especially since none of the women were around to complain about their recklessness.
It was around this time that a large spotted owl came towards James, with Harry immediately stunning the owl and casting all sorts of detection spells.
"How did he find you?" Harry asked to which Cyrus responded.
"Oh, this area is very close to the edge of the wards, James must have moved just past them enough for the owl to find him. It must have been fairly close to reach him so quickly."
"Well, nothing is pinging on this letter James, so go ahead and open it," Harry said after grabbing the letter and handing it over to his father.
James opened it and read it quickly while a smile appeared on his face, "Its moony! He wants to meet up and talk."
"How convenient, all this time and nothing. Now that Albus can't reach you suddenly, he has time," Harry stated with distrust in his voice.
"Alright, what did Moony do to deserve your mistrust?" James asked while Serius looked on warily.
"He impregnated a friend much younger than him. About 13 years younger actually. Then he goes and abandons her during her pregnancy. He tries to come help me instead of taking care of his pregnant girlfriend. He taught me in my third year as well and decided not to mention that he was your best friend for much too long. He then took off again and never as much as checked up on little 13-year-old Harry. He thought that Sirius betrayed us and never even visited him in the 12 years he was in Azkaban. He did absolutely anything Albus asked him to do. The only thing he did well was fight in the battle of Hogwarts and even then, he was the reason that his girlfriend got killed. He tried to rescue her and made her mess up her spell getting both of them killed.
"I mean, what kind of idiot tries to get in the way of a fully trained auror doing her best to protect herself and some students," at this point Harry had unknowingly raised his voice and began to clench his fists as the anger of what Lupin did began to make his emotions boil over.
"As much as I love my godson, I can't in good conscious allow him to meet her again," he continued.
James and Sirius were shocked that their friend could be this bad, even though Harry had previously mentioned to not trust him, they didn't expect it to be that bad.
"If I may ask, who was the girl, Harry?" James asked.
"Nymphadora Tonks," he answered.
Sirius' head snapped up, "my niece, that piece of shit shagged my niece? She's only eight right now, so by then she would have been… um… like 20 or something and he would be in his mid-30s. Oh he's so fucking dead if he even looks at her!"
"Calm down Padfoot, he hasn't done it yet," James tried to calm his fellow Marauder.
"That's true dad, but none of his actions give much room for trust, nor does it seem like it wont happen again," responded Harry.
"Yes, but in the wizarding world it's not so uncommon for someone in their 40s or older to marry a 16-year-old, so that age difference is not so bad."
"James, he fucking knows Nym, he has met her already, she's a little girl. If he can date her after knowing her as a little girl, and knowing she's my niece, and not giving a fuck about Harry or me, then I don't think he deserves the trust we gave him," responded a pissed off Sirius.
"Ok, ok. I get it. He hasn't done those things, but he is prone to making dumb decisions. So, lets meet with him, find out what he wants and do our damnest to keep him away from Harry, little Harry, Nymmie and well anything secret."
"Fine," grunted Sirius.
"Agreed, but I will be there, and I will check him for any kind of listening, tracking, or any kind of surveillance charms. If he has none, great, if he has any and is unaware, we will tackle that when we come to it. If he has any and is aware, well," Harry trailed off.
James gulped, "I understand. Let me answer him to meet us at Potter cottage"
"No," Harry interrupted, "ask him to meet you at the three broomsticks, its close to Hogwarts and will make Dumbledore ward the hell out of the place, however you'll grab Moony and apparate to a copy I'll make of the Shrieking Shack, I'll ward it against anything and everything, including Fawks and house elves. You'll make him think it's the regular Shrieking Shack, and we will monitor his actions. Once I get a good read on the situation, I'll either give you the signal to enjoy the time with your friend or stun him and go from there."
"Is that really necessary?" James asked.
"Dad, Daphne and I changed too much. Nothing is going as it went before. I have to be more proactive. Anything can happen, since this time, it seems like the death eaters are banding together and completely forgoing their regular lives. That must mean that Tom found yet a different way to survive than last time. Last time it took him 14 years to properly come back, with the full support of his death eaters this time around, he could be back any minute. And him coming back would terrorize and demoralize everyone in Britain. If killing him isn't enough to stop the monster maybe those who were on the fence might join him this time. Those afraid may flee instead of staying and fighting. This could be much worse then last time. The only difference is having you two and mom, apart from me and Daphne to fight which we didn't in the other timeline.
"So yes, I think it is really necessary to keep an eye on Moony since he is most likely an agent of Albus Too-Many-Names. And you and I both know that as long as No Nose Tommy is alive," Sirius forgot his anger and chuckled, "Albus remains a threat to our family. He thinks that dumb ass prophecy is the only path for him to remain the hero of the wizarding world by using our deaths as yet another steppingstone."
James placed his hands up in surrender, "I understand Harry. I see that I'm still too trusting. I'll get better I promise."
"Good, now write the response and get ready, I'm going to have you three practice your magic against me.
Sirius' eyes comically opened wide and began to run away only to be stunned by Harry and levitated back to the group where he brought him back to consciousness "really? Am I really that bad?"
Sirius looked down at his godson from where he was being held up by Harry's magic, "I trained under the devil himself, Alastor Moody, and you make him look like a damn puppy with a bouquet of flowers in his jaws. Yes, you're that bad."
"Well, I guess I'll have to give you special treatment then princess," Harry smiled wide, especially after hearing the little ones giggling at the floating animagus.
Sirius gulped and tried to break free from the magic holding him up.
-TFACC-
November 11th, 1981, The Three Broomsticks
James waited for his friend to arrive while under his invisibility cloak, looking around as he saw the beauty of a bustling Hogsmeade. Ever since the war started, most people would rush between businesses trying to do their shopping and quickly head home, but now most wizards were being lively while walking around the town. Children were playing with other children while their parents caught up with each other. And oddly, the world itself seemed more colorful now that the war was supposedly over, as if magic itself was reacting to everyone's mood.
Five minutes prior to the agreed upon time, Lupin showed up looking far worse than the last time he had seen him. He wore a patched-up jacket, stained jeans, and was holding an old suitcase. James, while in the shadows removed his cloak and approached Lupin, "Moony, who was the last to become an animagus out of us four?"
Remus Lupin froze for a second before relaxing, "surprisingly it was Sirius, which made Peter very smug for a few days. And it was only the three of you not us four."
James laughed at the memory, and put his hand out for Remus to shake, "that day was too funny," as Remus accepted the handshake, James pulled him and apparated to what seemed like the Shrieking Shack.
"What the hell James?" an aggravated Remus asked.
James looked around to double check they were alone, even though he was sure that Harry was somewhere there before nodding, "sorry, just being extra careful. No one will spy on us here."
Lupin stared at James for a while before sighing, "yeah, I get it. I'm glad to see you for myself though and see that you're alright. How is Lily and Harry?"
"They're doing great, Lily is a bit pissed about the whole situation, but she'll get used to the new location."
"Why are you still in hiding?" he asked.
"The death eaters are still around; we noticed some recently. So, it is still not safe. Especially since it was a Potter that offed the maniac."
Remus pondered that information for a moment, "can I visit them? I haven't seen Harry in so long. And now that I'm back and don't have to go hunting for other werewolves, it would be nice to see everyone again."
James scratched the back of his head, "I'm not really able to make that decision, but I can ask the people we're staying with and get back to you on that."
"Can you at least tell me who you're staying with? I don't want another misunderstanding like with Sirius and Peter. I can't believe I believed that Sirius would betray you when I found out about what happened."
"Sorry Remus, my lips are sealed until I get permission from them. You know how it is," James answered.
Remus looked away, as if hurt by the fact that he wasn't in the know about their current living arrangements, "well I can understand it so some degree. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Of course, just keep an ear out for information. The death eaters are still doing their rounds here and there and Harry, my cousin, wants to find out where so he can take them down."
James noticed that at the mention of Harry, Remus perked up a bit, "speaking of which. You've never mentioned him to us. What's up with that?"
"Honestly, he had been gone so long, and we had almost zero time together that I kind of forgot. Only recently did I start talking to him again, and the war was already underway, so I didn't get to tell anyone about him other than Lils," James responded with his practiced excuse.
"I see," was all that Remus said in response.
A somewhat awkward silence settled over them for a few moments before Remus started to reach into his suitcase, "oh and before I forget, I wanted to give you a congratulatory present for your accomplishments recently. From what I heard, you did an amazing job against You-Know-Who," and he pulled out an old muggle bottle of champagne before immediately falling back into the seat unconscious.
James looked around until he noticed Harry appear behind Remus, "there are multiple listening charms on Remus, of course none could have been used in here, a location charm, a scrying charm, trust compulsion charms on his person and something that I'm not exactly sure what it is but if I was to guess, it lets Albus use Fawks to reach Remus easily. The champagne also has a compulsion to trust in Albus, location, listening, and scrying charms, and a forgiveness compulsion keyed to Albus again. Wow he went all out."
With every word James felt as if someone was punching him in the gut. He just hoped that Remus did not know about any of this. He watched as Harry placed three drops of Veritaserum on Remus' tongue, as chains restrained him, and mundane looking items floated away from him. The number of spells Harry was implementing silently was very impressive to James and for a moment, his fatherly pride overrode the heartbreak of one of his best friends probably working with Albus to get to his family. Harry then awoke the werewolf and stood in front of him between himself and James.
"What is going on here?" he asked in an emotionless voice as he looked around.
"What is your name?" Harry asked.
"Remus John Lupin," he answered.
"Were you aware of the charms that Dumbledore placed upon you? And if so, mention them." Harry commended.
James was praying that the answer was no. That his friend was on his side. That he wouldn't have to lose yet another friend, "Yes, Dumbledore placed a listening charm on my jacket, one on my left shoe, and one on my suitcase. He placed a location charm on my jacket as well and a location and listening charm on the champagne."
The answer broke James and he placed his face on his hands and began to shed tears, "how could you betray me Moony. Why would you do this for Albus?"
"Albus explained that he did not trust Harry, and wanted to make sure that you were alright. He explained that you may be under duress and would not be able to answer honestly," responded the robotic voice of Remus.
At this point, Harry had gotten the information he needed so provided Remus with the antidote.
"See, James. Using Veritaserum like this is illegal. He cannot be trusted. Can't you see I'm only looking out for you. James I, I love you! You are my best friend. I would die for you! I would die for Lily and your son. But this man just comes out of nowhere and suddenly you don't trust Professor Dumbledore anymore? You go into hiding where no one can contact you. If I did that, I know you would have found me and rescued me from whatever was going on. I'm only doing what you would have done in my place!"
Harry just watched the exchange, trying to gauge the reactions of Remus Lupin. It broke his heart to have his father go through this, but it was necessary for their safety.
"Do you think that I'm a fool? I trust Harry here with my life, with young Harry's life. And I have information that Albus does not know about, which paints him as another deranged controlling old fool who would rather watch us all die then let us fight back properly. What he has done literally would have killed Lily and Alice."
"What do you mean?" Remus asked shocked at the revelation.
"Remus, I can allow you to find out everything and make an informed decision, but if you do, you will either go back knowing that you knew why you decided to go against us but were obliviated from that information, or you will remain with us and never follow the old man again," Harry gave him the ultimatum.
Remus looked shocked, and James looked hopeful, but before he maid his decision Harry added, "also I can smell the wolf on you, my magic will obliviate you even through the werewolf."
Remus looked angrily at Harry, "fine, I'll agree to your ultimatum, but if I find that you're doing something to hold them against their will, I will end you!"
"That is the first thing you've said that's made me look at you in a positive light," Harry responded. "Also, I have already removed all of the charms that Albus placed on you and removed all of your portkeys and other magical items."
Remus looked around the room and noticed an empty bottle of Coke floating behind harry, as well as hairbrush, and an old tie. "And how do I know you won't brainwash me just like you're doing to James and Lily?"
Harry smiled, dropped the chains around Remus, and offered him his wand, "You don't, but you will also not be unarmed. Now follow me." Harry immediately turned around and walked out the room once Remus grabbed his wand back, James quickly followed behind and Remus shortly after. As they walked out of the room, Remus noticed Lily, Cyrus, Isabella, Sirius, and Daphne were waiting for them. He also noticed that he was not in Hogsmeade, but in the property of a house he'd never seen before. Turning back, he saw that what he thought was the Shrieking Shack, was actually just a barn.
"Lily, could you please share all the information that you have regarding Albus and Voldemort to our friend here?" Harry requested, while being pleased that only Remus flinched at the name.
Lily nodded and smiled at Remus, "please follow me, I'll introduce you to everyone, and then let you know everything. Thank you for taking this opportunity."
To be continued.
