Lordships, Marriage and Manipulations.
Chapter 17 - First Year Summer.
A/N: If anyone feels like giving a good review for either this chapter or the story as a whole please go ahead. I've recently finished ch23 after a fair battle with some writer's block as I couldn't word the scenes exactly as I had wanted them for awhile. It's done now so that's why I'm publishing this chapter and tbh I could do with a bit of an ego boost as it had exhausted me a bit.
I don't mind if people have criticism, just remember or try to be kinder rather than nastier.
Please also remember that I haven't just wrote these chapters in minutes or hours, these chapters can take up to a whole day of my life to write and this version of Harry Potter; I've been cooking up in my mind for years. Feel free to show your appreciation if you have any for this story.
Quick reminder that I don't make any profit from this story, nor am I rich in life as JK became from this story, so I'd very much appreciate any digital artists to stop messaging me for collaborations, as I'm obviously not paying for your work when no one is paying for mine.
Disclaimer: As always, I (in Snape's voice) obviously don't own Harry Potter, rights are retained to JK Rowling.
Reacting immediately, Harry moved as he landed from being apparated to this unknown location. His wand snapping into his fingers as he threw spells out in all directions. He wasn't taking any precautions, just because Voldemort hadn't re-arisen during his fourth year yet, doesn't mean there wasn't anyone trying to kill him. Like hell was he going down easily.
Spells ricocheted around the room and a spell or two came flying to Harry, who instantly reacted by dodging and slinging more spells around. A voice or two tried yelling at him to stop but he didn't until one spell finally went through his defence by hitting him as he dodged another, going through a shield and smacking him near unconscious.
"Stop already!" An old voice rang out just then as the heat of the small battle ended. Harry found himself tied up and stripped of his wand before he could react and begin the battle anew. He hated it, but he had to coincide defeat and if he died then, well at least he could say he did give it a good shot at doing everything all over again for the better.
"Will you look up at me boy?" Someone repeated, snapping Harry back to reality as Harry finally looked up to see an old, very old woman standing over him with his wand in her hand, looking stern at him.
'Well this is a first.' Harry thought, being surprised at being beaten by someone so old for the first time in his life.
His eyes dodged around the place, sinking in as much information about his surroundings as he could. All the while, his brain began thinking both of ways to get out of the situation and ways to delay and stall for time to make up new ways to get out of this predicament.
Harry saw the room he was in was elegant and almost screamed wealth but instead only moderately yelled it instead. To his back was a door and to his left was a window, but ahead of him, other than the old woman, was an old man as well who remained watching him all the while like a curious owl.
"Fight or flight response kicked in dear, can't really blame him can we, love?" The old man said, speaking softly to the old woman. Harry's eyes of course snapped back to the man as he spoke, taking in his words and realising he was analysing Harry just as much as Harry was analysing him as well as the rest of the room.
"Still though, quite rude. Dangerous to say the least… I had hoped for better manners." The old woman replied, not sparing a glance to the old man behind her as she too, observed Harry like he was a rare statue waiting to be collected.
"Who are you?" Harry said, finding his voice and being surprised he wasn't silenced from his kidnappers. It was something he could use at least. His mind raced with plans as he tried to distract them long enough to be able to use wandless magic. He thought about summoning Ebby but didn't want to take risks that were not necessary, which at the moment they were not - since he was alive and talking with the old people at least.
As soon as the question came out of his mouth, Harry realised who he was dealing with, but he didn't know why.
"Mr and Mrs Flamel. Apologies for earlier, but you have caught me quite off guard. Might I ask why you have me here, without invitation?" Harry asked, immediately the tone and feeling in the room shifted.
Perenelle Flamel, the old woman, raised her eyebrow seeing and feeling the change of pace in the air from Harry's words. Nicholas, her husband, the famous creator of the Philosopher's stone stood before Harry, clearly tired and worn out but still standing strong as he stared at Harry and digested his words.
"Quite a reaction child. I apologise for kidnapping you, I assure you. It is all in good faith. You see, I'm looking for something, something I believe you may know something about, am I right?" Nicholas asked, watching Harry closely to ensure he didn't miss anything about Harry's reaction or body language at his words.
Harry grew confused, knowing exactly that Flamel would be talking about his stone but he didn't understand why he needed to discuss it with Harry of all people, seeing as previously he had just destroyed it after speaking with Dumbledore.
"You don't understand do you?" Perenelle asked, also watching him closely.
"I understand you wish to discuss your stone. I'm sorry you've decided to destroy it after discussing it with Dumbledore and that it was almost stolen from Hogwarts by Voldemort…" Harry said, about to say more before he realised he couldn't, or shouldn't, judging by the look on Perenelle's face.
"What do you mean, nearly stolen?" She asked, barely keeping her calm as clearly her anger began burning. Nicholas frowned and also looked at Harry to explain. From there Harry and the famous Flamel's discussed Harry's first year at Hogwarts, from how the stone was protected and how easy it was for Harry, never mind Voldemort/Quirrell to nearly access and steal the stone…
The Flamel's, particularly Perenelle, wasn't impressed by that, she saw straight through the veil and realised how Dumbledore had set up the traps as a test for Harry against Voldemort, all the while using Nicholas's stone as bait. Bait that could have been used very wrongly for the worst reasons by the worst person, if they had managed to succeed.
Harry then discussed how Dumbledore had said he had discussed the stone being destroyed with the Flamel's and then they jumped in to explain further. They had agreed to destroying the stone, due to being sick of living and seeing the world grow darker. But they were also mostly sick of people trying to take advantage of them, whether it was family or friends trying to get the elixir of life or gold, even the goblins and Dumbledore had - now their patience had grown to be as thin as ice.
Dumbledore had, of course, tried to get them to pass on naturally and leave the stone behind, for others to study and secretly use of course, but they had seen through that as they had seen through time itself over the years.
Before they had gone to destroy the stone for good, they had discovered a small piece of it to be missing, after all, a stone doesn't just randomly lose part of itself after being the same for many years.
At first, Nicholas had worried Dumbledore had managed to find a way to break off a small piece that he could use himself. But that had been cleared up almost immediately after Nicholas spoke with the headmaster. Dumbledore might have been the supreme mug after all, but Nicholas was his mentor and would always be one of Albus's mentors. Not long into the conversation, Nicholas knew Dumbledore didn't even know about the missing piece, so of course, Nicholas had to locate the only other person he knew had been near the stone.
One, Harry Potter.
Nick knew Harry had been close to the stone, because Dumbledore had obviously needed to inform Nick about how the stone was nearly stolen, even at Hogwarts - the most secure place in the world! (Other than Gringotts.) to prove to Nick why the stone needed to be destroyed. So Nick obviously knew how Harry had stopped it before it was taken.
From there it was only a matter of hard work and magic. Nicholas and Perenelle had been able to calculate a location spell and ritual, specifically designed to locate the stone. It used the main stone as a base to find the missing shard. Both expected that wherever the shard was, it was with the person who had taken it. Thus, causing Harry to be kidnapped as they believed he had it on him.
"But I don't." Harry replied after listening to their explanation, with a clear, blank expressionless face.
"You must." Perenelle replied, dismissing his denial in her belief that she and Nicholas were right.
"No, he's right…" Nick said, almost smirking as he stepped closer to Harry and grabbed his arm to look closer at his skin, or blood, or veins - Harry wasn't sure which.
"What do you mean Nicky?" Perenelle asked softly, looking at her long time husband in confusion.
"He doesn't have it ON him, Penny. He has it IN him." Nicholas explained as he held out Harry's arm and Perenelle took a closer look. It took a moment, but then she too grabbed his arm before gasping in disbelief.
"Erm, does someone want to tell me what's going on?" Harry asked, getting hit with a sense of déjà vu as he asked the question and knew ironically that he was someway, in some form, back to square one of not knowing anything that was happening around him.
He could have laughed. If he didn't have two super old and famous magic users in front of him; half holding him hostage and half having a pleasant conversation with.
"A shard from the stone snapped and embedded itself into your skin, almost immediately absorbing and merging with your bloodstream. Something impossible." Nicholas explained like an old teacher, barely paying attention as he discussed lesson material while remaining deep in his own thoughts.
"What? No! How can you tell?" Harry asked, immediately moving his gaze to look at his own arm as Perenelle and Nicholas had done, to see if anything stood out and proved what the old alchemist had said. Nothing did. At least from what Harry could see.
"You'd need to have partook in drinking the elixir of life for well over a century or so, before you'd be able to see the flecks of gold within your bloodstream like we do, mon cherie." Perenelle expressed offhandedly as she too remained deep in her own thoughts, even slipping into her native French tongue at the end.
"What does this mean though? I can't be immortal, right? I can't make gold? Or my blood can't? Right? Can you get it out or am I stuck with it inside me? Do you need to take it out? Is it dangerous?" Harry began listing off questions, a little bit anxious and overwhelmed that a chunk of the Philosopher's stone was a part of him.
"Settle down, child. No, to most of your questions…" Perenelle said to him before looking to Nicholas to confirm her statement.
"I'm not sure, my boy." Nicholas said at first before pausing, reminding Harry oddly very much so, of Dumbledore. It was likely where he had picked it up.
"I'd like to say for certain, but there is no certainty unfortunately. This is new ground after all, just like when I first created the stone. Never did I imagine it could be possible to basically transmute the stone into one's body, to become stone to liquid blood…" Nicholas said as he drifted further into his thoughts in a very Hermione like research mode.
"Nicky. Nicky! Focus. What do we do then?" Perenelle asked, gaining her husband's attention.
"Not much we possibly could do I'm afraid. I doubt we could get the shard back without seriously harming the boy and he seems to be fine so far with the shard inside him. How long has it been now, a few weeks since it entered his bloodstream? Yes, he should be fine I suppose." Nicholas said, watching Harry closely once more, almost like he was an experiment.
"I believe we should stick around, as they say nowadays, to keep an eye on him and see what happens." Nicholas finished, turning to Perenelle to see her view on things.
"I suppose we might have to. What happens if he is immortal, or if he can make gold from his blood? The goblins likely won't be pleased, for one." Perenelle said before asking Harry what he thought of all this, that he would be spending some of his summer time with the couple to see the results of this unexpected experiment.
"I guess I don't really have much choice since we don't know if this could have a bad result, like killing me. But wants not to enjoy having you too as company, right?" Harry answered, honestly and truthfully. Barely holding back a comment about how the goblins might have actually loved it if his blood did turn out to produce gold, as a goblin friend or enemy…
After that, the weeks flew by and Harry was right and wrong at the same time. He was right that he didn't have much choice but to stay with them, after all he didn't want an unknown reaction to happen to him without them close by to help. But he was wrong in enjoying their company.
Oh sure, they were fun and hilarious at times. But they were also very old. A lot of the time they both needed to either rest or take it easy, meaning half of the time, Harry was at least a little bored. But on the other side of things, Harry never enjoyed himself more. Being stuck with him, the Flamels' obviously began teaching him almost like he was an apprentice to them, which translated to almost like a grandson due to his age and for the first time, Harry understood what it was like to have grandparents, or old people that felt like them in his life.
During the weeks together they got to know each other tremendously well, which is why he was comfortable talking to them like they were almost related in a grandson sort of way. Harry had been taught a lot from Perenelle, from; charms, runes, a few rituals to etiquette and dancing to even little tips and ways to improve his speech. Nicholas, meanwhile, taught him a lot about: Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Astrology, even muggle science and math. All of which were almost too high above Harry's level to understand, or at least would have been, had he not returned from the future.
Nicholas and Perenelle almost laughed in shock as they realised just how much Harry could become capable off as they saw his potential and ability to learn higher level magic and complex ideas.
It was during this time that Harry had become close enough to the pair that they had discussed more about how they had chosen to die soon. They had already settled most of their affairs and would have destroyed the stone by now had Harry's unexpected accident happened; but now they were curious to live a bit longer and see the results of this new development.
However, they knew it would be difficult sticking around as they were, Dumbledore would expect them to die soon enough and others would want to look in on them if they were believed to remain alive.
That was how they organised a fake death plan.
Perenelle had been adamant. She wouldn't leave Harry to manage his fate of fighting Tom and possibly Dumbledore while she and Nicky just died. She didn't mean that she would fight herself, but they could at least try helping, right?
She didn't even know about Harry actually fighting Dumbledore in his future, but knew from the sounds of Dumbledore's plan to test Harry during the last year, that something was wrong and weird.
Nicholas felt the same. After all, he didn't want one of his students to be one of Harry's main problems while he just died and left a young teenager to deal with it. So they made a plan…
Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel would die to the world, as planned. In their place, Leo and Ellie Flamel, long distant and old relatives of the deceased would appear and carry on in their place.
It saved a lot of time and effort, to pretend to die and live as someone else, since they were just adjusting their original plan of dying to fake dying. After basically living with Harry for the last few weeks, they even decided to involve him in inheriting some of their fortune.
Of course, much of their immense wealth would go to organisations like the French Ministry of Magic, or Beauxbatons, or other charities; with a few friends or distant relatives also getting a good slice of the inheritance pie - as Nick said. Now though, Harry would also be getting a good slice of pie, with Leo and Ellie also getting a half decent slice, as they had decided to become more modest in the last mortal adventure as Perenelle had said.
They had the stone to make more elixir if they wanted or needed to, but in all honesty, they believed they might only make one more batch of the stuff in a little while, like a year or two, before they could wean themselves off it slowly and eventually die in a couple years after seeing how Harry does in his plans.
So, after just over a month of the summer holidays, Harry still had two weeks left of his summer to enjoy before going back for his second year of Hogwarts. He was quite looking forward to it to be honest, from dealing with the basilisk to finally seeing Salazar again, to even developing his friendship with Daphne and Susan further.
Still, he had two weeks to go before he could even begin with that adventure. For now, he decided to begin pushing boundaries and doing other important work.
He began testing the training the goblins had given him and tried robbing a house. A pure-blood house to be exact…
Harry wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to rob somewhere like Malfoy Manor, a place where pure-blood's actually lived. No, he was going to rob somewhere where a Death Eater used to live before being captured and sent to Azkaban, after all, some of the Death Eaters were old families and had estates just like he and Sirius did as Potter and Blacks' respectively.
Tonight, he would be testing his abilities, like he had against that bank in America. He would be breaching some dangerous wards and even ensuring he wouldn't get caught from anyone as he stole whatever he could in a manor. In a way, he basically became like Mundungus for a while.
Breaking the wards turned out to be fairly easy, at least when you compare them to a bank's wards that you've already robbed before. They were on lockdown, just as the wards around the Potter estate were until he became Lord of the House and changed them. They were harder than the normal wards most people had active around their property at any given time, as these wards did as they suggested, locked a property down until their owners arrived back. War wards were much worse, but fortunately, these pure-blood idiots didn't think anyone would be trying to break into their old ancestral estates while they were in Azkaban and thought the god old lockdown wards would be best for the situation.
How wrong were they?
See, even while in prison, not even the Ministry would begin to dismantle an old family estate like the ones Harry would constantly begin robbing over these last two weeks of his summer. Why? Because it was only when the whole of the family was dead, that the magic of the family die and the estate become available, that, or they would have had to spend way to long slowly breaking down each ward and frankly, they didn't have; the time, effort, money or even patience to begin doing so anyway.
It took awhile, longer than Harry would have liked, considering he had broken down a bank's wards faster than he had done with these wards, but still, he entered the estate and began.
Inside, Harry had briefly been worried about coming across elves such as his own that were dying while waiting for their masters to return to them; he honestly wasn't sure what he would have done in that situation. Luckily, there were no such elves, and he didn't have to worry about it. Instead, what he found was almost similar to the inside of a Gringotts vault. There weren't mountains of gold or other artefacts, no. But there were lots of expensive furniture, artworks and even other expensive items that Harry knew he would be taking.
As he began walking the halls, he knew everything that wasn't bolted to the group would be coming with him. He was about to begin summoning items to enter into his loot bag when he felt a tingle, right when he was about to pull off his invisibility cloak.
Then he saw it.
A moving painting. How could he forget? Lots of paintings around him remained sleeping, but one had felt something different and awoken, they looked around the place and even opened their mouths, as if to ask who was there? Before they shut it again, clearly thinking better of it, lest they wake their relatives from their own sleep.
As it closed its eyes once again, Harry moved. Immediately he froze the portraits in their sleep, ensuring they wouldn't be able to see or hear anything that went on. He shrunk them and entered them into a separate compartment of the loot bag, after all, it wasn't like he was going to get a lot from the portraits of other people's ancestors. Realistically they were a liability, a chance for anyone to find out who had stolen them if they were able to wake up eventually.
Truthfully, Harry wasn't sure what he planned to do with them yet, he wondered if he could freeze them from exiting the portrait and try extracting secrets from them if he could develop a way to confirm the truth, or he could simply sell them back to their kin if they could afford it? Or maybe just sell them to muggles after freezing them with their eyes open? He could decide later, who knew, he might even just burn them if he got into a bad mood.
Moving on, Harry emptied the house and the rest of the estate, leaving the property bare as bones and only the bank vault of this old family safe from Harry's clutches and bottomless loot bag.
Mostly everything would be sold of course, from the furniture to the clothes and jewellery and books. Only the most valuable of the lot would remain with Harry. He didn't ever expect to be caught with anything, but if on the off chance he did, well he would say that he bought everything second hand, which was technically almost the truth.
The only thing he left at the house was a small symbol. A mark. To show he had been there. It was something he knew no one had ever seen before or could identify, after all, he had created the mark himself while training with the goblins.
It was almost the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. But he didn't want everyone to suspect the use of either the Elder Wand or the Invisibility Cloak in these thefts. So he altered it slightly.
Instead of a straight light down the middle to represent the Deathstick, he changed it to a lightning bolt, why? To symbolise him, clearly.
He left the first house with a rush of adrenaline. He enjoyed the buzz as it made him feel awake and alive, almost anxious for more. So he decided to do more. Of course, Harry didn't just go out on a spree and rob estate after estate of rich, locked up pure-bloods…
No. He did it over the course of the next two weeks before he went back to school, for his second year. Obviously.
Just after robbing what might have been his 7th small old family estate, Harry became shocked at how much he had been able to take, not only from the old families but from basically without the Ministry ever hearing anything about it.
He drew his mark and left the last house he planned on robbing. Of course, there were a few other houses he could hit, but these were the ones where Death Eaters actively lived and he knew it would be useless bothering with those unless he knew they were gone from the property or something.
Harry smiled as he looked at his small mark on the inside of the entrance door, it was like he was laughing at the owners of the property by leaving it. He expected no one would ever be able to connect the Hallows to the Boy-Who-Lived. Not unless he began actively showing off something like the Elder Wand, which once he got, he knew he wouldn't do.
Throughout the holidays, Harry had kept in touch with Hermione and Neville of course. Harry had even sent one letter over to Draco to try checking in with the little badger but never heard anything back unfortunately. That reminded him of Dobby, and after discussing the matter with Ebby, Harry knew nothing would be happening to his mail, and that Dobby would know to speak to Harry instead of just trying to protect him by Dobby's way.
Harry had heard from him the other day, of course, trying to warn Harry about what he already knew. He promised the little elf he would soon be safe and free from his masters and that he could remain free or join Harry's household immediately if he wished. The elf had barely grown wide-eyed before the tears had burst free.
Being with Nick, ahem Leo ahem, and Ellie had done wonders for Harry. He had of course learned from them, but he had also been able to learn by them. That meant he was able to explore his own creativity and see if he could do or make something new. It led him down a long road of experimenting, he went from science to runes, to maths to charms to science and runes to science, charms, runes and maths all in one project.
What a project it was…
He probably missed a few concepts out there, but all in all, Harry invented quite a few things in a short period of time. He knew of course that he wanted to open a big shop for his own items, almost like Fred and George's joke shop, but specifically for different things rather than just jokes.
Harry had and still did, want a shop full of a mixture of magical and muggle things, and a mixture of the two together. He wanted to create magical technology and ways for electricity to work with magic. With the runic scheme that maths, science and charms had helped him develop, Harry was very close to discovering that way for electricity to work with magic. It would take a little longer but soon enough it would be ready to show the world.
In the meantime, Harry had even gained the idea of how to repel a dementor without a wand, by creating a patronus a different way. Through the use of a bell.
Crazy right? But Harry had laughed at the way Leo and Ellie had looked at him when he first mentioned it, but he carried on with it anyway and soon enough, the idea turned into a fairly logical project that could end up working and turning out very well. And it was all thanks to professor Flitwick during Harry's first Christmas at Hogwarts. Why? Maybe he could show Flitwick himself one day…
Harry stretched from his bed, after taking a nap, just like the old people in the house (look how they rubbed off on him) he approached Hedwig and took the letter she had for him. It was from Neville, who apologised but couldn't make it to the meet up before term as Augusta wasn't really well enough. Harry understood and replied, sending the letter back with Hedwig after giving her some love. She'd been with him the whole time he was with the Flamel's of course, but he'd been so busy with researching and learning and even robbing places that he felt like he hadn't seen her in so long.
He shook himself awake and went to meet Hermione in Diagon Alley. He portkey'd to Gringotts and went to meet her at the Leaky Cauldron. He appreciated the fact that the goblins let him come and go as he pleased, as was his right as a Friend of the Goblin Nation, but that Leo and Ellie weren't controlling as they grew closer to him as well. They felt like grandparents but weren't as worried or fearful of him or his actions as time went on, likely since they had seen him in his worst case scenario, of course.
His party time after being abducted still caused them to laugh every now and then about how Harry had reacted like a cornered animal.
Seeing Hermione put Harry in a much better mood. It was clear she had been away for the summer as well, maybe she had been in France like Harry too. Hopefully she had at least seen more of France than Harry had been able to. Being locked away in the Flamel fidelius charm had been the opposite of a freeing holiday.
At least he had been able to get away now and then, even if it was to rob houses.
Hermione grinned as she hugged him, almost dragging him immediately to begin their shopping to get it over and done with straight away. It went much faster than any shopping trip with the Weasley's. With a quick stop into every other store bar Flourish and Blotts bookstore and Madam Malkin's for a wardrobe update, they were fully done within an hour and a half.
They spent longer within the bookstore as Harry knew they always restocked and got newer or rarer books closer to the end of summer as they knew most people would always visit during that time for their kids to get their school books. Harry found a couple of books he knew he definitely wanted and got, it wasn't everyday that someone like Harry would find a couple of books that either the Potter or Black libraries didn't already have after all. One or two could be given to Hermione too after all.
It was then, Harry realised his mistake. He hadn't fully realised that he had allowed this to happen. He found himself caught between a photographer and him. Gilderoy Lockhart.
Urgh, he felt sick.
There was something about Lockhart, something more than what Harry already knew of him, that he was a fraud. No it was something else, that felt oily, slimy and dirty. Harry just couldn't put his finger on it yet…
Nonetheless, Gilderoy did his dramatic speech and tried to get Harry to join him in a shot for the Daily Prophet, of which Harry became much more vocal than he had the first time this happened.
"Get off me! Help! Paedophile!" Harry yelled. Surprisingly, it worked better than he had expected as Lockhart immediately removed his hand from Harry's shoulder as if he was a vampire being burned by the sun. Crowds reacted and Gilderoy instantly put himself back into the smiling actor, eager to perform and entertain the crowd.
At the back of the shop, or the front - depending on which direction you head - Harry found Hermione not too far away, her attention already pulled away from the drama between him and Lockhart and over to the others that Harry released would be here.
Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley.
He didn't know how this interaction had begun, as obviously last time it was regarding Draco making a comment about Harry. However this time, it was almost painfully obvious how Lucius had slipped the diary of Tom Riddle into Ginny's cauldron. Harry nearly found himself lost in the desire to simply swipe up the diary here and there, like he nearly had with the Rat. But he knew better. If he did that Ginny wouldn't be able to awaken the Basilisk, without the Basilisk Harry wouldn't be able to destroy the horcruxes, or at least not easily without the venom at least. He was quite young to physically be casting the Fiendfyre spell to be honest.
As the commotion between the two rivals, Malfoy and Weasley died down, Harry's eye caught Ginny's. He sighed, watching as the young girl instantly looked away and tried to move out of sight, clutching her cauldron as if he was a wall to steady herself. He knew it would be difficult to talk to her, he would either have to steal the diary or just allow the whole scenario to play out almost exactly like before.
Hermione and Harry went to have ice cream at Fortescue's, a tradition at this point. This time, Harry didn't tease her as he had once before and instead allowed himself to just get lost into watching and seeing who Hermione was as she either talked or read a bit from a book. He found it beautiful as she was who she was, without even knowing about it. He realised she really would be the only one for him, if it wasn't for other things like bloodlines and Houses that demanded he eventually have more than one wife to maintain separate bloodlines.
The goblins had mentioned a very unconventional method to stop that, but Harry hadn't looked into it further as the goblins had said it wasn't likely to be a good idea or work out in the long term…
After their ice cream, Harry or better yet Hermione, took the other into the muggle world to experience it properly, for basically his 12th birthday. They went everywhere from a few muggle clothes stores to muggle bookshops to even the cinema. It was a date. Harry knew it. Hermione likely knew it, but was probably denying it.
They had a lot of fun before they left each other and said they would see each other before the train ride in a few days.
Leo and Ellie also had a small party with Harry for his birthday before he went back to Hogwarts, they gave him a good sized collection of books to learn from when he could, after all he still had the Hogwarts library to also keep him busy, And that wasn't mentioning going back over the Potter and Black libraries when he had access to them again in the few years.
Or Slytherins'.
Still, Harry appreciated it, the books would go a long way, even more than Harry would realise. Probably even further than the artworks, jewellery and gold they had already given to him from their fake death inheritance.
The old Flamel pair had laughed many times over it all, saying they actually had begun to enjoy laughing at the idea that they would just give away a lot of their most precious things. Property and gold, sure. But books, jewellery and even artwork all held some form of significance, whether sentimental, emotional or even culturally. They had cemented the fact that even with everything they had already given up and away, that when they truly died, the world would really know as they would have an auction organised for the best to be auctioned off and fought over.
As the trio celebrated their last night together, until they next saw each other after the school year, Nick had pulled him aside and discussed what he believed to be the full effects of the shard of the stone inside him.
"I don't believe it's making you immortal. I've checked your growth rate and you are growing, if the stone had any part I'd believe it would likely be slowly or stopping all together. It's likely just very slowing down your aging rate, slowing the death of your healthy body cells, or maybe even the opposite where your cells are being replaced after they die so quickly, the body doesn't recognise the difference." Leo said before taking a breath.
"Your blood likely isn't much different, from what we've observed and discovered. I haven't seen anything to suggest you can create gold from anything like other metals. If anything I think you might just live a very long life, or it's made you harder to kill in some ways - and that's all." He said, finishing. Harry remembered when they had studied his blood, to see if it would change to be gold or if the DNA structure was different from the transmuted augmentation. But no, nothing really had. Only Harry had learned a lot about biology, physics and chemistry.
After saying his goodbyes to Leo and Ellie, Harry made his way to board the train for Hogwarts. He met Neville first and went to get a compartment to await Hermione in. It wasn't long before others started arriving, like Hannah and Susan. Harry saw Tracy and Daphne along with a very enthusiastic young Astoria, who looked slightly tired. Hermione then arrived and entered the compartment just before Draco arrived on the platform. He looked much worse for wear, almost like he had been hurt once or twice before he had come for the train. Harry caught his eye and nodded, Draco barely nodded but did so before he went to find his own compartment.
Not long later, Harry spotted Luna. The little moon. He knew this would be the year that things were different for her, she wouldn't be getting bullied nor would she be without friends as she would likely be a part of the group long before the school year ended.
Then, last as usual, the Weasley's arrived in all their noise and hustle. Ginny along with them as they ran to get on the train before it left. She looked a little tired, but otherwise no one would suspect she was actively allowing herself to be drained from a horcrux. Harry couldn't really blame her, after all, she was still an eleven year old girl, who barely understood magic enough never mind a horcrux to know she was making a stupid mistake.
Still she should have known enough to tell an adult about the diary.
The train ride began and Harry settled down, listening to Neville discuss his new cherry wood wand. He smiled, knowing things were definitely going better than they had before.
After a while, Harry read a book while Hermione snuggled close next to him. He had convinced her to be a little adventurous and get a cat while they were in the store and of course, she had found Crookshanks and fell in love.
Harry didn't mind, at least Crookshanks liked him.
Not long later, Harry went for a walk. Not only to stretch his legs, but to wander and meet some people like he had last year. First up, he saw Fred and George, they talked for a bit and planned some good pranks to be done through the year before Harry left. Then Harry bumped into Hannah and Susan, who were arguing with Smith over something stupid. Apparently Smith had said he had purer blood since he was related to Hufflepuff directly while Susan, who apparently was also fairly closely related to Hufflepuff, was more muggle than Smith. Harry wasn't happy with it, as he felt like Smith was outlining his beliefs quite clearly as those similar to a Death Eater, even though he was twelve like the rest of them. He told Smith to shut up before his mouth went for a walk, and when that didn't work, he actually sent his mouth for a walk, causing Susan and Hannah to thank him before he moved on.
He found Luna alone, in a compartment with things spilled about as if someone had already been in and decided to toss everything around. Harry frowned and watched as Luna looked up at him in a little bit of a fright and clearly worried whatever happened would happen again. It took one second however, before Luna recovered and smiled.
"Harry Potter." She said, clearly without anything else.
"Hi, little moon. How are you?" Harry said as he went down to her level and looked her in the eye, before slowly waving his wand to restore her things back into her trunk and locking it with an identifying charm of Luna.
"I'm well thank you. It's good to see you again, Harry. I'm glad you decided to make things better." Luna said before giving him a hug and after breaking it, went back to her magazine that Harry handed her as if none of it had ever happened and she hadn't just revealed she knew he had basically time travelled.
"Only you, little moon. Do you want to join me and the others?" Harry asked, knowing she would likely decline but giving her the option all the while.
"No thank you, the nargles likely still have more to say." Luna replied off-handily. Harry frowned but knew better than to just enforce his way or will onto people instead he offered Luna a spot anytime she wished to join him or if she needed him. She smiled back at him and told him to go find Draco, he had something he needed to discuss before too long.
Further down the train, Harry came across Draco. He wasn't alone, but he wasn't with friends either. Crabbe, Goyle and Nott were all laughing as Draco stood between them, effectively trapped. They left as Harry cleared his throat, knowing it wasn't worth bothering to stay and torment Draco further.
Inside, Harry and Draco had a long chat, nearly for a full hour as Draco discussed a lot of things. He told Harry about how sometimes he hated being a Malfoy, how he hated his father for obvious reasons and sometimes he hated his mother, for not doing enough - or in Draco's opinion, anything.
Draco broke down and actually talked about how much life had changed with him simply becoming a Hufflepuff and how much he had realised was wrong in his life, like his fathers views or how he had been spoon-fed his ideology since being a child.
It was a difficult conversation, Harry felt drained afterwards. He had to effectively work and put the effort into helping to make Draco a better person, because in all honesty, if Harry didn't, who would?
Hufflepuff talked a big game about being loyal and as supportive of everyone as ever, just like the snakes were loyal to everyone but other houses, but everyone knew the truth. Even as a Hufflepuff, Draco was still shunned and an outsider. It was tough, but it was that tough love that had forced Draco into reality, instead of allowing him to live in his own dream world where his father could hear about his problems and resolve them for him.
But because of that, Harry knew Draco needed at least one person, someone to really talk to and understand. And Harry did understand, after all, who better to understand than the Freak who lived under the stairs and had no one to talk to for nearly a decade, right?
Harry left Draco alone, to think about his thoughts and their discussion after Draco had finally worn himself out with the nearly frankly, downright depressing conversation about morals, ethics and family.
Deciding to return to his own compartment, Harry bumped into a few familiar faces such as Oliver and a girl from Hufflepuff. Normally Harry wouldn't have thought much about the two together, but he did notice a few hairs out of place with the girl and knew something was definitely off.
Speaking about off, he decided to let Oliver know that while quidditch was important to him and the rest of the team, he didn't expect to be roughhoused the same this year, as they had last year, they had won the Quidditch Cup and if one wasn't enough for Wood to lay off their backs then Harry would soon be quitting faster than he could say snitch…
Oliver obviously was already finished or somewhere close to being finished as his mind clearly wasn't just on quidditch but he agreed with Harry and waved him off. Harry left, knowing he wouldn't rather stay anyway.
He passed Angelina, Alicia and Katie who greeted him warmly before pushing him out of their compartment as they girl talked about the summer. He passed Terry Boot and Michael Corner before seeing Justin Finch-Fletchley.
He tried to see Daphne, Tracey or even little Astoria, but couldn't find them or Ginny anywhere. He wondered if the four were together but laughed as he knew Daphne wouldn't be seen with just anyone and Astoria would be with her sister. But Ginny, who knew who she was with or what she was doing?
Still, Harry had no choice but to let them continue doing their own things as he sat down and rested in his compartment. They got a few sweets from the trolley and stocked up for the year before waiting the rest of the train ride out to Hogwarts.
It was only as Harry entered the Great Hall and watched with the others the sorting of the new first years, that he realised he had never seen this before, specifically Luna, Ginny and Astoria being sorted. Then it clicked. He knew he had forgotten something.
Looking over to Slytherin to see if he was correct, Harry grinned but also shook his head at himself as he realised his mistake. He couldn't believe he had forgotten about this. He checked the teacher table and confirmed that Snape was gone already. It was too late to do anything, even if he wanted to, which he didn't in this case…
He watched as Astoria went to Slytherin. He clapped as Luna joined Ravenclaw as usual and Ginny as she joined Gryffindor where he spoke his first few words with the girl for the first time, a simple 'Hi. Welcome to Gryffindor.' He noticed how Gilderoy looked overjoyed at being announced as the DADA teacher, even though he had done so himself previously at the bookstore in Diagon Alley. Harry realised within moments what he really didn't like about the professor, it wasn't how he loved being the centre of attention, it was the way he looked at the students.
Other than Harry, barely any attention was given to male students, but nearly every girl (most of them the younger years too) were given plenty of his attention as he preened under Dumbledore's welcome. It was clear he enjoyed abusing the attention his fame gave him and it was something Harry knew he needed to resolve, sooner rather than later, then he had previously.
They went to bed and soon enough, Harry's second year of Hogwarts had started. Little did everyone else know, just how much of it had started off with a bang.
Until the next morning…
Ronald was having an absolute nightmare of a day.
At first, it was a normal school day as he left the Burrow to get the train to Hogwarts. Then it just went downhill from there.
First, the barrier between the platforms had frozen, just as he was about to get through while his family had already gone ahead of him. Then he had realised that the train had already left from the time on the muggle platform. So he employed what may have been the most thoughtless plan of his entire life, so far.
He decided to drive his dad's flying car to Hogwarts.
Where he was seen.
By no less than SEVEN muggles!
Then he had been nearly killed as he had driven ahead of the train unexpectedly and nearly been in the first flying car crash in the world. He survived.
Only to then crash into Hogwarts as the car died upon him just as he arrived. But where he crashed certainly changed then when Harry had been in that car.
This time, Ronald had driven the car into the lake, whereupon he had nearly drowned had it not been for the merpeople in the lake that had saved him and dragged him out of their lake, leaving him on the shore for the teachers to discover. He had really been very close to death as he nearly died choking on water and then again from the cold as he lay on the shore…
Because of this, he spent his first night back at Hogwarts in the hospital wing. Breaking a previously old record - or was it a future record, by Harry Potter - in the meantime, his mother and father were alerted of everything and were more furious than anything at the fact that Ronald had thought to do this.
To top it all off, his Head of House, had come in while he remained stuck motionless in bed, to berate him worse than ever before. After all Snape, yes Snape, was his Head of House as a Slytherin instead of a Gryffindor like he had always wanted to be.
Snape had been cruel and vicious and… also right.
He'd been seen by seven muggles…
Ron wouldn't have thought it that bad, after all a few Obliviates and boom - the problem was solved. But as he had stupidly explained that to Snape, his Head of House had explained the magical power of the number seven. How there was a reason, for why it was a magical number and not just normal like most others…
Seven could be seen as the confirmation of something. 'Think about it, Weasley, or are you unable to think as I believe you are incapable of doing so?' Ron remembered what Snape said to him.
If seven muggles had seen a flying car, magic, then that was much easier to believe they were telling the truth or correct in what they saw compared to a lesser number like two or even the magical number of three. Seven made it almost impossibly clear that something had happened, something magical.
Add to the fact that seven people could spread the story of what they saw, far quicker than a lower number like three, and boom! Many more people could have heard the story of the flying car over London.
Ron saw the truth in Snape's words and understood the consequences of his actions then. They would be able to reverse the memories of the muggles, since they had to, but it didn't mean it was just going to be an easy job.
Snape then hit him with a heavier consequence then;
"You will recover over the night, then you will be back on the train tomorrow. You are expelled." He said calmly and surely, as if he was more than pleased at being able to deliver this news.
"What? No! Please, I had no choice, the barrier! It became solid, like I said!" Ron said in his defence, at first panicking before trying to explain himself again.
"Silence! I am your Head of House. I have decided, you are not fit to be a Slytherin, much less a student of Hogwarts." Snape said, cutting Ronald off as he spluttered in the hospital bed. Ronald felt his heart sink, knowing the disappointment of his parents would be worse at the fact that he had been expelled, not just their anger over the car.
"He is not…" Dumbledore rumbled out, stepping in the hospital wing, causing Ronald to look at him with sadness as Dumbledore had agreed with Snape. Snape, meanwhile, knew Dumbledore better and glared as Dumbledore continued.
"Expelled." The word uttered caused butterflies in Ron's stomach as relief washed over him for the first time that night, for what felt like it anyways.
"Headmaster, this boy." Snape said, pointing his finger at Ron in the hospital bed.
"Has flouted the decree of the Restriction of Underage Sorcery, as such…" Snape said, beginning to argue his case and point.
Dumbledore stopped him in his trails, muttering about how he had written many of the bylaws and as such knew them himself. Ron won, he wasn't expelled. But Snape dropped a bombarda before leaving in a sulk.
"You will be in detention for the rest of the year, at least! Make one mistake and you'll be in detention till you graduate from Slytherin House! You'll serve detention between me and Flitch, is that understood?" Snape said, awaiting a nod from Ron before continuing.
"I will be notifying your parents of this development tonight, expect a reply henceforth. I expect you down for breakfast tomorrow for your schedule." He finished, bellowing his cape as he stormed out the hospital wing to the dungeons for the night.
Ronald got only a painful and restless sleep that night, as he dreamed of what his mother would say when he heard from her eventually. He cried himself to sleep, holding the remnants of his wand in his hand, or Charlie's old wand.. Now it was ruined, all from his attempts to restart the car after it had died on him.
What would he do in a school of magic, without a wand?
Harry slept wonderfully, there was just something about the first night back at Hogwarts that really did feel magical. He woke up at his regular routine time and began what he constantly disciplined himself to do since coming back from the future. A run, some studying and meditating and then some magical training, theory or casting.
Neville did like to join him, but as it was the first day back, he took it easy and enjoyed the magic of the first sleep back at the castle.
At breakfast, Harry greeted Luna before she sat down at the Ravenclaw table; he would have joined her had it not been for the schedules that needed to be handed out. She told him how she had been the only to work out the Ravenclaw eagle riddle to which Harry beamed and ruffled her hair as he told her how smart she was. A few people noticed, but most ignored the interaction. The few that did notice made sure to watch closer to see if Harry and Luna really did have a close friendship or not.
The drama then began, as Ronald walked into the Great Hall, still looking injured over the events of last night. Percy noticed and went to question him about it, all before storming off quickly after getting his schedule, Harry could guess why…
George and Fred didn't bother, only smirking at how they saw Ron wasn't too badly hurt and was clearly watching the rafters like a squirrel afraid of a hawk. They knew that look better than anyone else.
Ginny was too immersed in her own world, between Hogwarts and Tom to notice much. She did stare at Harry more than ever but seemed more normal then even she usually was. Maybe being best friends with her brother and in closer proximity made it a bit worse for her, last time.
Neville and Hermione had just sat down, behind Harry before he saw the first few birds start to flock inside to deliver the mail.
With barely a flick of his wrist, a small sound barrier arose around them as Harry nudged them into watching Ronald at the Slytherin table. It seemed quite a few people had already noticed the red envelope clutched in his hands just as it erupted, loudly.
Harry grinned, as he paid more attention to the fact that Ron was clearly being ostracised from Slytherin House due to how his housemates reacted to the Howler, or how much they were showing a united front with Ronald. That was to say, there wasn't any.
"Look everyone, Weasley's got himself a howler!" An older Slytherin said laughing, along with the rest of the Slytherin table as Molly Weasley began.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley! How dare you fly that car! I am absolutely disgusted!" Molly Weasley's voice burst out of the Howler. Everyone bar Fred and George, who had heard it a thousand times, covered their ears. Well, not including Neville, Hermione and Harry, who's sound barrier worked just well enough that they weren't hurting their ears, but also heard everything the Howler had to say.
"Oh and Ginny dear! Congratulations on making Gryffindor, your father and I are so proud!" She finished before ripping her letter up, while Ginny blushed from over on the Gryffindor table.
Harry did have to admit, seeing Ron nearly flitch every time the Howler began to continue again, after believing it was over again and again, did make him feel a bit sorry for Ron. It was clearly almost borderline abusive. Some people clearly handled it better like the twins, but Molly clearly had some issues. Anyone only had to look at how far and how fast both her eldest kids had left home, as evidence.
Safe to say, for the hills!
Harry was pretty sure it might have been the reason why Percy was so adamant about choosing the Ministry over his family, maybe Molly had caused another one of her sons' to run away.
Harry himself was both shocked and unsuprised. He knew Dumbledore would never allow Ronald to be expelled from Hogwarts, not while he was still in power at least, but he was surprised to see Snape hadn't tried harder or made Ron's life worse.
Though he guessed Ronald would be in detention a lot this year, he still kind of expected a little bit more than what Ron had got as punishment.