Breaking the Hourglass Chapter 2, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter Two

Summary: Castor meets the curse breaking team assigned to Grimmauld Place and writes a number of important letters.

Evie's Notes: Happy Monday! I hope you all are having a wonderful week ! Thank you so much your support of this story, it really and truly means the world to me ! I am blown away by the support the first chapter received! I hope that you all enjoy the this new update .

The next morning found Castor pacing his reception room as he waited for the curse breaking team from Gringotts to arrive. He anxiously twisted the Black family cufflinks he had found in Orion's things. He had chosen to wear his curls loose today so they fell around his shoulders. The rest of his new clothing had arrived via owl order had arrived so at least he was wearing a suit of this era. Since he would be going to the ministry for a bit after setting up the curse breaking crew he also wore a sleeveless robe ontop.

Kreature had worked miracles in making the house liveable over the past two days. The cursed artifacts, and boy were there a lot, had been relocated to the secondary sitting room to be worked on or destroyed.

Cleopatra slithered into the room, her tongue flickering as she scented Castor's anxiety. "What's the matter, Master?"

"There is just so much to do and I only have three weeks to get my ducks in a row and get Harry to trust me. I can't stand the idea of him going back to that awful house" hissed Castor.

"I can't do much about your hatchling, but I can eat any ducks you want me to," offered Cleopatra sweetly.

"No thank you Cleo, but I will keep your offer in mind," laughed Castor.

The chiming of the floo alerted him of his new arrival, granting approval for them to step through. Five people quickly stepped through the green flames of the Floo. Castor's heart did a little flip as the very familiar form of Bill Weasley stepped through.

"Lord Potter-Black" greeted the goblin in the group. "I am Tyrisk, the leader of this curse breaking team. Thank you for welcoming us into your home".

"Well met Master Tyrisk. Welcome to the Black Seat. I am grateful for your team's help in making this space safe before I bring my new ward home" shared Castor, not afraid to reference Harry since the team was locked under a secrecy contract for what happened/they found while on this job.

The goblin motioned to the four figures standing behind him as he introduced them. "This is Cordelia Hollstien, our language expert." The woman in question was tall and willowy with long blonde hair. Her most striking feature was her brilliant red eyes, marking her as a vampire.

"This is Roger Abney, our potions expert". Rodger was a handsome, sturdy looking man with blonde hair that looked perpetually windswept. Castor privately thought he might not look out of place in a Hollywood movie scene.

"This young lady is Evelyn Burton, our ancient runes and arithmancy expert" The young brunette woman shot Castor a welcoming smile.

"And lastly, our defense against the dark arts expert, William Weasley"

"Just Bill, please Lord Potter-Black" winked the attractive redhead. His long red hair was tied up in a loose bun, his long white sleeves rolled up to the elbows revealed scars on his well shaped forearms. He was dressed in the normal cursebreaker leather pants and vest. In his right ear was a bright ruby stud.

"Well met all of you" grinned Castor, "All of you please call me Castor. I am sure my family's reputation precedes me, you all will have plenty of work ahead of you all so we will get to know each other well"

Cleopatra, tired of being ignored, crawled over to rest at his feet. Bending down, Castor picked her up as she asked, "Master, who are these creatures?"

"Cleo, these are workers who will visit us often over the next couple days. Please leave them to their work, it is dangerous and I don't want you hurt" hissed Castor kindly.

"You're a speaker!" gasped Cordelia, her red eyes lighting up excitedly. "It has been too long since I last met a speaker in Britain".

"Yes, the gift runs in the Potter family. I am looking forward to seeing if my new ward has the talent as well" replied Castor, eyeing Bill worriedly. He hadn't really used his talent in his past life so he had no idea how his crush would react.

He needn't have worried though as she spotted the man's brown eyes darken with attraction and his body shifted and straightened. He cleared his throat slightly as he said "There were plenty of speakers in Egypt, which is where I was stationed before relocating back here"

The other crew members praised the talent. "Parseltongue is such a cool language" grinned Roger.

"What is your familiar's name? Can I pet them?" asked Evelyn as she bounced in place excitedly.

"This is Cleopatra, and yes you may pet her" agreed Castor holding his arm out to the girl.

"What a fitting name for a beautiful girl" cooed Evelyn as she petted the snake. Cleo soaked up the praise and attention happily.

"I have instructed her to stay out of your way while you work, but she is a free-range snake so you will see her around," explained Castor. "If you all would follow me, I will take you where we have gathered most of the cursed items".

Castor quickly led the Curse Breaking Crew up the stairs to the secondary sitting room where Kreature had locked away the cursed items. The hallways were plain white courtesy of Kreature who was awaiting Castor's orders on how to decorate. Opening the door he showed the various crates of dangerous objects.

"So everything in this room has some degree of curse on it. Since most of them are family heirlooms I would prefer if the curses could be removed. Anything that is unable to be saved please let me know and it can be disposed of. There are a couple other places in the house that will need your attention. But I am sure you have more than enough to work on here"

"They were not kidding about your family curses" whistled Roger, kicking one of the crates that just reeked with the worst of the worst Dark magic.

"I know, but here's to the House Black turning a corner" laughed Castor. "I will leave you all to get to work. I have to stop by the ministry this morning so I will be back later"

"Very well, let's get to work," ordered Tyrisk.

Leaving the crew to work, Castor set off in search of Kreature to give him his orders.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

Stumbling out of the floo into the ministry atrium, Castor dusted himself off as he made his way over to the wand check. Castor was relieved that his wand had traveled back in time with him, though he was unsure about the consequence of having the twin wand to Albus Dumbledore. He assumed his was the true elder wand now… but it wasn't like Death had stopped by for a chat since he had been back to the past.

Being the Master of Death was something that Castor had finally made peace with in the past/future. Mostly because it didn't really affect his day to day life. Occasionally Thanatos, the god of death, would stop by in his dreams for a chat. And apparently he would not die until he wanted to… which made being a spell inventor all the more exciting.

He got past the wand check without a fuss, the bored worker not even checking the spell report before adding it to the file. Making his way to the lifts he spotted several familiar faces.

He took the lift down to the bottom floor which housed the Department of Mysteries. Lifting his left wrist he left the ward to scan the spiral tattoo which was burned lightly against his skin. Stepping past the ward he made his way over to the changing room where he quickly located his new locker labeled Emerald. Channeling his magic into the locker door he protected the contents against access by anyone but himself. Sliding on the obscuring robes, he pulled the hood over his face, assuming his role as Unspeakable. Clipping on his new name badge he made his way out into the offices to get to work.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

A few hours later, Castor popped home energized and inspired from a day of inventing. He checked in on the Curse Breaking Crew and found them still hard at work cleansing his family heirlooms. Seeing that they were still occupied, Castor made his way to his study to write a very important letter.

Settling down at his desk, he took out his favorite emerald green ink and eagle quill and began to write.

Dear Harry,

My name is Castor Potter-Black and I am your father's cousin. My parents were your Great Aunt and Uncle Charles and Dorea Potter-Black. You might be asking "why is this stranger writing to me now"? Well I have just arrived back in the states and learned that your magical guardian wasn't even a family member! We have so many family members that I had just assumed you went to one of them when James and Lily passed away. Since that is not the case I have applied to be your magical guardian, we are family and the Potter family motto is "Strength through Family".

I thought a letter would be a good first introduction, but I would like to know all about you Harry! What is your favorite color? Food? Who are your friends? What house are you in at Hogwarts? Do you like it there?

I know that the final Hogsmede weekend for the year is coming up, I was hoping that you would agree to meet with me in person. Maybe at the Three Broomsticks?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Your Cousin,
Castor Potter-Black

Sealing the letter in an envelope with a green seal bearing the Potter crest, he addressed it to Harry.

Turning his attention back to his writing supplies he began his next letter.

Lady Malfoy,

I hope that this letter finds you and yours well. My name is Castor Potter-Black and I am the new head of the Black Family. My parents were Charles and Dorea Potter-Black. I am writing to let you know of my new status and hope to connect with my family. If you are agreeable, I would love to invite you to tea at the Black Seat next Friday at 2 pm.

I look forward to your response.
Lord Castor Potter-Black

Finishing his letter to Narcissa, he began on his final piece of correspondence for the time being.

Mrs. Tonks,

I hope that this letter finds you and yours well. My name is Castor Potter-Black and I am the new head of the Black Family. My parents were Charles and Dorea Potter-Black. I am writing to let you know of my new status and hope to connect with my family. I know that you have been previously disowned but I am officially adding you and your family back onto the family tree. If you are agreeable, I would love to invite you to tea at the Black Seat next Thursday at 2 pm.

I look forward to your response.
Lord Castor Potter-Black

Sealing the letters to the sisters with a black wax and his sigil ring, he sent all three letters off with Zephyr.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

The ritual to add Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora back onto the family tree was a fairly simple one. Even simpler was the ritual to strike Bellatrix and her husband from the family. Castor completed them both in the main sitting room before he was interrupted by Tyrisk.

"Lord Potter-Black, I have come to let you know my team and I are stopping work for today. We will be back tomorrow morning to resume our tasks" bowed the goblin.

"Thank you, Tyrisk" replied Castor, bowing his head in return. "I will see you all tomorrow morning".

Following the goblin to the reception room, Castor opened the floo to allow the crew to exit his home. The team all bid him a goodnight, with the last through the flames being Bill who threw him a cheeky wink which caused Castor's cheeks to burn. Shaking his head he headed towards the dining room for supper. He couldn't let himself be distracted, he had so much to do and no time for super hot Weasleys.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

The last couple weeks had been crazy for Harry. Between finding out that his godfather was actually innocent, traveling through time to free the man and then having his favorite professor fired… he had gone through the proverbial ringer.

Harry was surprised when at breakfast one morning he received an owl. Harry never received any mail unless it was an invitation from Hagrid to come down for tea or the daily newspaper. Taking the letter from the gorgeous gray owl in front of him carefully, Harry read the address. Mr. Harry Potter, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Huh, well it was definitely for him. Turning it over the seal was marked with a crest that looked vaguely familiar though he couldn't for the life of him place it.

"What's that Harry?" asked Hermione, finally stopping her argument with Ron over who knows what to pay attention to her other friend.

"Just a letter" said Harry, feeling kinda territorial over it.

"Ohhh! Is it from You-Know-Who?" she whispered so only the trio could hear.

"Uhhh, yeah I think so" said Harry, grateful for the escape offered. "I am going to go read it where no one else can possibly oversee. See you guys in class"

Gathering his bag off the floor, he hurried his way to his first class of the day, History of Magic, where no one would ever think of showing up early.

Making himself comfortable in the back row by the window, Harry once again took out the letter and admired the way his name was written in the beautiful green ink by the elegant scrawl. Steeling himself, he carefully lifted the wax without breaking it and began to read.

Dear Harry,

My name is Castor Potter-Black and I am your father's cousin.What his father had a cousin! He had more family other than the Dursley's?!

My parents were your Great Aunt and Uncle Charles and Dorea Potter-Black. You might be asking "why is this stranger writing to me now"? Well I have just arrived back in the states and learned that your magical guardian wasn't even a family member!Harry wanted to know what a magical guardian was and who his had been. They clearly hadn't done a very good job so far given he knew nothing about the wizarding world before he was eleven. No one had introduced themselves as his guardian either…

We have so many family members that I had just assumed you went to one of them when James and Lily passed away.Again the mention of other family… Harry was so confused.

Since that is not the case I have applied to be your magical guardian, we are family and the Potter family motto is "Strength through Family".This was awesome news! Sure this Castor was a complete stranger, but he was apparently family and wanted Harry. Did this mean that Harry would live with them like a regular guardian? He hoped so… nothing could be worse than the Dursleys. He would gladly cook and clean for this new person if it meant he got food and access to his school supplies. And a family motto! Wow, he had thought that the crest on the envelope looked familiar, apparently it was of the Potter House, his house!

I know that the final Hogsmede weekend for the year is coming up, I was hoping that you would agree to meet with me in person. Maybe at the Three Broomsticks?Harry would definitely be there!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Your Cousin,
Castor Potter-Black

Wow! Harry couldn't believe that he really had a family member out there who wanted him. Harry tried to close his eyes and imagine what this man could look like. WOuld he look like his dad? Or like Sirius? Or a mix of the two?

Getting out a piece of parchment, Harry tried to use his best handwriting as he penned his response.

Dear Castor,

I was so excited to receive your letter! I was under the impression that I did not have any family members left at all.

You mentioned that you are my new magical guardian, what is that? Does that mean that I get to live with you instead of the Dursleys? Do you know who my old magical guardian was… I don't think whoever it was did a very good job. I didn't know about magic till my eleventh birthday.

To answer your questions: my favorite color is emerald green, my favorite food is treacle tart and I am in Gryffindor House. I have two best friends named Ron and Hermione.

I would love to meet up with you during the Hogsmede weekend next Saturday. We could meet at the Three Broomsticks at eleven?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Your Cousin,
Harry Potter

Rolling up the letter, Harry stuck it in his bag as the other students began to file into the classroom. Harry resolved to post it with Hedwig before lunch. Hopefully he'd hear back from his cousin soon!

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

"So what's with you and the new client Weasley?" asked Cordelia bumping Bill's shoulder as she passed him a shot of firewhiskey.

"Nothing's going on" denied Bill with a slight blush.

"Ha! You're sooo lying" giggled Evelyn who had already had a bit too much firewhiskey.

"Really it's nothing. Lord Potter-Black just a very handsome man. We keep running into each other… literally" finished Bill with a mutter

"A meet cute!" shrieked Evelyn, falling onto Roger who kindly propped his fiancé back up. "OH My Merlin! Where did it happen, what was said… tell me everything" demanded the petite brunette.

"We met yesterday at Gringotts. He literally ran into me and I caught him so he wouldn't hit the floor. I may have flirted a little and he seemed to flirt back but mainly just blushed and looked adorable"

"Adorable now is he" noted Rodger, with a smirk, happy to have someone else in the romantic hot seat.

Bill was questioning why he loved his crewmates again."Look, I know better than to get involved with a client. Tyrisk would actually kill me and he has the axe to do it".

"He isn't going to be a client for too long. Sure there are a lot of cursed items, but we made decent headway today" pointed out Roger supportively.

"Yeah, so keep it in your pants till the job is finished then ask out our new hot client" giggled Evelyn.

"And I think that is our cue to head home" sighed Roger, helping his stumbling fiancé to her feet before making their way out of the bar to apparate home.

"As drunk as Evelyn may be, she was right. You're newly back in the country and single, nothing is holding you back from asking him out except for this job" pointed out Cordelia, brushing her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

"I don't even know if he's single!" Protested Bill.

"Well find out, stupid" scoffed the vampire, playfully cuffing him. "Now get home, we've got another day of cursed items ahead of us and I think I heard a Bogart rattling around in the closet".

"Fun times" sighed Bill, quickly paying their tab before following his friend out into the spring night.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

Castor grinned as he read Harry's letter. Luckily he hadn't scared off younger him, in fact Harry seemed excited to meet up! The plan was finally starting to come together!

Dear Harry,

I am glad that my letter was well received. To address your comment, you have many family members, perhaps not from our Potter direct line, but many who are part of the families we have married into over the years (like the Abbots or the Blacks)!

A magical guardian is someone whose job it is to care for a child mentally, socially, physically, magically and financially. In short, yes you do get to come live with me if you like. I am horrified to hear that you did not know you were a Wix or about magic until you turned eleven. I agree it seems that your old guardian did not do a very good job. We can talk about that more when I see you.

I am working on setting up a room for you at my house so that you will have your own space when you stay with me. Perhaps I should invest in some emerald green curtains and sheets for your suite.

Great food pick! I also love treacle tart and my house elf Kreature is an expert chef.

Do you enjoy living in Gryffindor Tower? I was homeschooled so I never attended Hogwarts but my father was a Ravenclaw and my mother was a Slytherin. I've been told I would be both a good Gryffindor or Slytherin. Though these days I tend to use my more Slytherin traits.

I am glad to hear that you have great friends. I would love to meet this Ron and Hermione at some point, but perhaps not on Saturday since I want us to focus on getting to know each other.

I look forward to seeing you at eleven at the Three Broomsticks this Saturday.

Much love little cousin,
Castor

Sealing the letter with the Potter crest, Castor made his way to the attic in search of Zephyr.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

When Tyrisk and his team came to work one morning they brought a letter from King Ragnuk for Castor meant to be handed directly to him. Opening it, Castor found it was a thank you from the Goblin Nation for letting them know about the horcrux in the Lestrange vault. They assured him that it had been destroyed. Castor internally celebrated that this left only three pieces of Voldemort's soul to destroy.

It took the curse breaking crew a week to get through the various spooky items stored in the secondary sitting room. Luckily they managed to save most of the priceless heirlooms, with only a handful having to go to the goblin forges to be destroyed. They then moved on to the most challenging task of all, Walburga Black's portrait. During that time Castor got to know each of the team members and would honestly miss the crew when they were gone.

While the Curse Breakers worked, Castor and Kreature focused on making the house into a home, painting and decorating the many rooms. They focused on using light colors bringing life back to the house that had been empty for so long.

Xx Spilling the Hourglass x Spilling the Hourglass xX

Castor's meetings with the sisters Black went about how he expected. Andromeda was easily convinced as she was once again connected to the Family magics. The pair had a lovely tea together with "Cousin Andi" being just as delightful as Castor remembered her being. They discussed her daughter's job as a Auror and Castor made her promise to bring "Dora" and her husband Ted along next time she visited.

Tea with Narcissa went as well as he hoped it would. The woman was smart as a whip and naturally cautious of the man appearing out of nowhere claiming to be family. Luckily the family tapestry was not easily fooled and went a long way in soothing the woman's concerns. Their tea was much stiffer than the meal with Andromeda, but Narcissa did express an interest in reconnecting with her family… including Andromeda. Castor knew from his time in the future that there was nothing more important to the Malfoy family than Family and that now once again included the Blacks.

Evie's Notes 2: Thank you all so much for reading ! I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know your favorite part of in the comments! I hope to see you all next week !

I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story as a whole in the comments or my Tumblr Find-y0ur-j0y! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie