Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Anomaly	By : KaraiSenju Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 20628 -:- Recommendations : 5 -:- Currently Reading : 12
Disclaimer: I do not own HP, and make no proft from this or any other work, including those I may borrow characters from. HP is the property of JK Rowling, very smart english woman.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
~Time Skip- it is now, middle of fourth year, right at the start of the second task. Slight deviation from Canon; in third year, Sirius never escaped. Instead it was Pettigrew looking for Harry, Pettigrew who slashed the curtains, etc, and when they confronted him in the shrieking shack, Remus changed before they could capture him to prove Sirius’ innocence. Remus never mentioned him.~

Harry was terrified. He chewed the rubbery, foul weed quickly, feeling his lungs stop working and his gills open, and threw himself into the water. The young Gryffindor understood, then… they had to go to the bottom of the lake, and this was one of the better ways, he supposed. Better at least than a bubble-head charm that might wear off or a partial shark transformation that, again, might wear off, or kill you.

He swam quickly, diving straight down. He ignored the kelpies and hinkypunks, knowing they were traps, and instead sent jets of scalding water at them. He was the first to reach the people tied below- a little blond girl that couldn’t be older than eight, Hermione, Ron, and Cho. Cedric, with his bubblehead charm, got there soon after while Harry was pondering the ways to get them out, and was driven off by the mermaids, who seemed vaguely familiar. He used the fire charm again to send jets of boiling water at them, and Cedric smiled, taking out a knife. He cut Cho free, and then gave the knife to him with a wink. He swam forward, distracted by the sight of one particular mermaid, and Krum got ahead of him, biting Hermione free and swimming off. The mermaid approached him, speaking.

“Hello, Hadrian.”

Harry blinked. “My name is Harry…” he said, surprised at himself. How… when the hell did he learn to speak Merish?

“No, your name is Hadrian. Though, it is unsurprising you do not remember.”

“Clindra!” called a sullen looking merman.

“Hadrian, you must remember. You saved my life, many, many years ago. I was newly allowed free roam, curious, I stumbled upon the Squid and in my arrogance got thrown ashore. It was a hot day on the surface, I could not breath, I thought the end had come when small hands pushed me back into the water. It was you. You were a first year, Hadrian, but I taught you Merish to thank you. You picked it up very easily, faster than any other human.”

The sullen merman was approaching now, sneering.

“But something happened to you, something evil. The old one who can speak to us, the Lord of your school, he made you drink something, something to erase your memories of the life and family you had, of your bonded. He threw your wand in the lake, asking us to keep it. If you touch it, the memories will return… Hadrian… my friend. So much death and killing on the surface because of his foolishness…”

She pressed into his hand a very small box. Harry took it, the feel of the algae soaked wood slick on his webbed fingers.

“Remember, and be safe. Remember your place, friend, for all of our sakes. Ah… this wand will suit you better than before. The Lord in his arrogance thinks we are his allies, he hides things here. We have modified your wand in order to reflect your past.”

Harry nodded, confused, and Clindra led the way, releasing Ron and the little blond girl. “Please take her as well. Her sister has failed.”

Harry nodded, and placed the box carefully in the pocket of his jeans, along with the knife. Luckily, they were the baggy kind with a lot of pockets, Dumbledore wouldn’t notice- if the Headmaster had been keeping a different story from him he wanted to know it. He grabbed the other two and swam, quickly, to the surface.

~

Fleur was crying. Absolutely balling, begging the Headmistress of her school something in broken French when he came up, throwing first Ron, and then the little girl to the medics. Harry supposed, given that the potion safeguarding their lives was almost depleted, she didn’t want her sister to die. Would the mermen even save her, in that case? Somehow, except for Clindra, he didn’t think so.

“By Merlin, Potter’s done it! He retrieved his burden, and… Gabrielle Delacour as well!” Bagman announced, in his hyper tone.

Fleur ran at him and tackled him, muttering something in French before hugging her sister for dear life.

“I’m gonna guess that means, ‘thank you’,” Harry smiled, as Ron and the girl were brought around. Hermione shook her head, Krum beside her.

“Honestly, Harry. You were the first one there, why didn’t you just grab Ron and go? Dumbledore wouldn’t let anything happen to people who aren’t even participants!”

Harry frowned, remembering the wand in his pocket and gave Krum a look he hoped he’d get. “Hermione, I don’t think that Dumbledore has the greatest control over this. I mean, yes, there were tamers, but do you honestly think if someone had moved wrong they wouldn’t be dead by now with dragons? Or what if one of us was hydrophobic, and had a panic attack down there? He can’t keep track of everything.” He tried to explain. “The potion was already wearing off when I got close to the surface. If I had been delayed any more, Ron and…”

“Gabrielle.” Fleur sniffed. “She iz my sister.”

“Yeah, well… Ron and Gabrielle would have drowned. The Squid doesn’t like merfolk disturbing him, apparently, and they aren’t nice enough to just hand them back over. The nicest one of the lot was the one who handed my Gabrielle to take up, though I was going to do it anyway.”

“Many thanks, ‘Arry.” Fleur sniffed again. “If anything ‘ad ‘appened to ‘er…”

“Still,” Hermione sniffed. “First to get there and last to come up? Your points are going to dive!”

“I didn’t put my name in and I don’t care about winning this thing, Hermione, so I don’t care about points. I just did what I had to do to live with myself.”

“And now the points from our esteemed panel of judges this round! Diggory, Hogwarts first Champion- 8,8,4,and 7! Nice use of the bubblehead charm, early finish, but not very original… total points: 47! Krum, from Durmstrang- 7, 8,9, and 8! Total, 56! A partial shark transformation, very nicely done, but still, only a partial. Delacour from Beauxbatons did not complete the round, but nevertheless receives a ten point bonus for attempting, bringing her score to 46. And Potter, second Hogwarts champion, receives… 9,9, 8, and 6! He arrived first at the targets but was delayed getting back, with excellent use of gillyweed- his Professor must be proud! His total is 62, given his stunning performance in the first round. Which means the entry line up for the next round is… Potter! Krum! Diggory! And Delacour!”

“What was that about a point dive, ‘mione?” Ron laughed.

Harry shook his head, trudging with the others back to the common room to get a nice hot shower and open his box. Mysteries upon mysteries upon lies… and he still had another task to get through.

~

It was sheer bliss as he sank into the hot water, the others having graciously allowed him use of the Gryffindor bath rather than the showers. Ron and Hermione claimed they just needed to get warmed up, so they didn’t mind. As feeling began to return to his fingers and toes, he reached over and dug the box out of the pocket of his soaked, ugly jeans, giving the things a short glare. Dudley’s castoffs…. While the bagginess had served a point this time it was still revolting.

He opened the box, revealing the wand inside. The wood was a dark grey, ebony, he thought, with runes etched along the handle, and inlaid with something else… purple heart wood, he thought, or amaranth, it had a very dark stain so you could barely tell, but the thin, flexible wood was inlaid along the wand in a spiral, capping the tip. He picked it up, noting that it felt lighter, freer, almost a part of him in a way that his holly wand never did.

And then the pain started. He bit his lip to keep from crying out, but it was intense. Prickling fire covered his entire body like he had been submerged in angry fire ants or bees, and his eyes felt as if they were melting. Image after image, white and blinding, was shoved into his mind, fighting with others and then, suddenly, it stopped.

And he… remembered.

His eyes filled with tears and shame as he remembered how Dumbledore had ripped him from his family, threw him across time and space back to his awful relatives, how he was poisoned every month to forget them; how he was made into a whipping boy and slave despite all the pride he had in the black name. He had failed his family- even if they were alive, what of it? They’d hate him for his weakness, for getting caught, he should have run or never answered Dumbledore, he should have done something.

He had his Cinderella moment; the poor orphan who got taken in and raised as lovingly as one of their own, and he fought and studied as much as he could to prove himself worthy of them, their name and love, yet… Dumbledore stole it all away, and for what? For this?

He cast a quick silencing spell and sobbed, letting himself break down in the warm water. Everyone he loved… Regulus, Mother, Father, Sirius, Tom… oh, and that was the worst! He was Tom’s Dark Siphon, meant to keep him sane and powerful, what had happened to him without him? He couldn’t abandon his magic or ideals, they were necessary!

Tears gone, he took a few deep breaths to get ahold of himself. Tom’s ideals… logically speaking, Tom would have become Voldemort. All right, that fit since with the Basilisk he had seen Tom, even as a younger version. He was still a Parseltongue which meant whatever Dumbledore did likely hadn’t changed his abilities as a Dark Siphon either; and Remus and Pettigrew were the friends of James, his father, and Sirius his brother so maybe Remus knew what happened to Sirius, and Sirius could tell him what happened to the family. Then again, Sirius and Remus were closer to being Light than Dark… and he had humiliated Sirius earlier, at the beginning of the year, he might not even want to help. But he had to try. Tom needed him; if he was as insane and twisted as people said Harry would need all his strength to purify him, because what tom was doing was good and right and he had to help.

Another deep breath and he relaxed, staring at the faintly red tile on the ceiling. He couldn’t afford to rush in blindly; he needed to be careful. Think things through. Tom had to be planning something. He’d tried to get the sorcerer’s stone and use Ginny to revive himself, and Pettigrew had escape last year so he had a reliable servant. It would make sense that he had put Harry’s name in the goblet, not knowing who he was, and that meant the Final Task was the most important. If Tom was planning something he’d do it then. That would put them in close proximity, close enough that he could blast his abilities to full power and help him.

He had to be patient. Patient and cunning, like the snake waiting for prey.

He would try and indoctrine his friends as well. Some would be easier than others, with Hermione he could be scientific, and she’d understand the logic of it. She would be the easiest to convince. Ron would be harder; most of his family was practically worshippers of Dumbledore. Fred and George would go easily. Ginny was impossible, she was too emotional and fragile… he thought he could get Remus and maybe Sirius if he were still alive, if they remembered him. They could point him to Regulus, though he hoped Reg was safely in Tom’s court still, along with his parents. So much to do; so much he wasn’t ready for, and he was terrified he’d screw things up, but he had to try.

~

His plan started the next day. He had used his Ebony and Amaranth wand to take the trace off his Holly one, and then used the Holly to disguise his real wand. It was easy for him to tell the difference, one felt stifling and the other was freeing and powerful. Ron had been taken out of Charms for a bad bit of wand work that meant he was laughing like a hyena and disrupting the already-chaotic class, so he was seated with Hermione talking after they had both cast successfully.

“Hermione, I’ve been thinking.” He said, making a show of being serious. “Do you really think Dumbledore is all-knowing?”

“Well, maybe not all-knowing, I mean he is human. But he’s the Headmaster, he’s bound to know everything that goes on in the school, plus he’s old and powerful, which means he has more experience, so… why do you ask?” she said, narrowing her eyes.

“I think maybe he’s losing his touch… now hear me out. Our first year here, I kept hearing about how Hogwarts was the safest place in the world, that we had wards on top of wards and nothing bad could ever get through to hurt us, right?”

“Yes, Professor McGonagall told my parents the same thing, but what does this have to do with anything?”

“Well, don’t you find it a bit odd then, that he hired a Professor who had the Dark Lord sticking out of his head? I mean, if he’s supposed to be so powerful and all, why do something like that? And, other things, too. I mean, even if you count that as an accident, what about the stone? If three first year students, as smart as you are and all, could get past those booby traps, wasn’t the stone safer in Gringotts?”

“Well… maybe he just wanted it to slow people down.” She offered. “After all, he didn’t count on being called away, right, maybe he had alarms set up so that if someone tried to do it and he was there, he would come down and save it.”

“That wouldn’t have needed to be done if it was in Gringotts.” Harry pushed. “The goblins are fierce warriors, right, we know that from history and they still do that, from what Griphook told me. Anyone trying to steal from Gringotts would have to face security dragons, goblins, Aurors, mazes of tunnels to even get to the vaults and more. That’s if they could get through the wards with the intent to steal, because the wards at Gringotts would have bounced him right off. Dumbledore had to have known that. And if he really had an alarm set up, wouldn’t he, if he was so great, pass the alarm on to the other Professors if he had to leave? It would have been simple for them to step out of class, get down there and stop us if he had.”

“That’s true… maybe he forgot?”

“Awful forgetful then. And why would he have to leave the school anyway? He doesn’t have a family so there wouldn’t have been any emergencies, it was too late in the year to be doing interviews, and yeah, he’s the Chief Warlock on the Wizangamot, but if there was a trial that pressing he wouldn’t be done in an hour and it would have been all over the papers.”

She shifted, uncomfortable. “Why are you trying to pick him apart, all of a sudden?”

“I just got to thinking during the Second Task, when the potion started wearing off.” He lied. “He can’t know everything, it’s impossible. But he always acts like he does. What would he have done if Ron, Cho, or you or that little girl had been stuck down there? Levitate the Squid and hope that the merpeople would get them to the surface out of the goodness of their hearts? They don’t like humans, Hermione, and you guys were bound, very tightly.”

She shifted again, looking vaguely disturbed. “I thought we were just, you know… floating there?”

“No, they had you tied from head to toe in some kind of rope made from braided seaweed. It wasn’t easy to maneuver underwater to get you free, well, Krum just bit through but still.”

“Well, I’m sure he had his reasons!”

“We can say that… but then again we can say that of everyone, right?” Harry said, looking down and catching her flustered expression from beneath his lashes. He almost had her… “I mean, even Hitler had his reasons. There were reasons for everything. That doesn’t mean they’re good reasons or that the actions based on them are good. And then there’s second year… I read a lot this summer, and it was rather obvious, to any of the teachers, what the monster was.”

Hermione sat up at that. She’d been proud, he knew, at figuring it out. “What do you mean, it was obvious?”

“The creature was never seen. All the incidents happened near a reflective surface, and it was petrification. Only eight creatures can petrify, and one spell. You were turning into granite, which is the basis for a basilisk. The spell turns you to sandstone, and creatures like the cockatrice or groundworm turn you into the same rock as your surroundings. Besides, the warning about the Chamber should have given it away, when the chamber was opened before a student died. A basilisk’s unshielded gaze kills. Anyone adult worth their teaching degree should have known what it was, and how to send it into hibernation with freezing spells.”

Hermione’s mouth was wide open, and she seemed scared. “But… what if someone had been killed?!”

“That isn’t the worst of it. You know Pettigrew from last year? If security was so tight, how did an animagus get on the grounds? For years- remember he was Percy’s first!”

“Harry… this is horrible… I mean… what do you think he’s doing, then?”

“I can only think of two reasons.” Harry said. He had her now, he knew it. “And listening to the upper years I’m more inclined to believe the second, even if I really don’t want to.”

“What do you mean? What reasons?”

“The first is that he’s losing his touch. I mean, he’s old, right? It’s possible. The second is that… well, that he’s testing me.”

“Oh, come on, Harry-“

“I mean it Hermione! Think about it! All the upper years say nothing like this stuff happened until our year started, and most of it is confined to our year, not above or below. I mean, this isn’t silly stuff I can pin on Draco Malfoy or pranks. Maybe he really does think that the Dark Lord is going to come back, and that if he does, I need to be prepared.”

“That would make sense…”

“But not the way he goes about it. I mean, preparing me would mean extra classes or summer work. But he sends me home every summer to muggles who starve me and beat me, and I come back every year weaker. So it doesn’t make any sense.”

She looked troubled, but resigned. “Harry, if this is true… what about this year? You don’t think he put your name in the goblet do you?”

“I didn’t want to. But it would fit, with trying to test me. And I had every right to refuse, Hermione- I could have started an investigation, but he railroaded me and lied to me, and the contract was only valid when I said I would compete, verbally.”

“So now you’re stuck?”

He nodded.

“That’s terrible. Absolutely despicable! But why would he go through all of this?!”

“I don’t know… but I think it’s to make me angry, Hermione.” He sighed, looking down. “I know it’s wrong, but I just can’t fight for my parents’ sake. I don’t even remember them, and I never grew up with fond stories or mementoes or anything like that. To me it’s more of an abstract concept- nothing I’d fight and die for, which is obviously what he wants. I think he’s trying to make me so angry with the ‘Dark Side’ that I won’t think for myself.”

“That would mean he thought it was a possibility.” She laughed. “I’m sorry Harry but I really can’t see you going around torturing people for no reason.”

“That’s another thing.” He said, and this was the tricky part. If she researched, if she saw for herself, then he’d have her completely. “Why? I mean… look at, say… Lucius Malfoy. He’s Dark, black as they come, but he can hold down a job and a family. If he really tortured people every chance he got, don’t you think he’d be in Azkaban right now? For that matter, the whole thing is insane. The Ministry is composed almost entirely of ‘Light’ wizards, right? ‘Light’ wizards, who still send people to jail without trials, still enslave creatures, and still get corrupted. Does the type of magic really matter? We killed a troll with a first year levitation charm, and saved a life, your life. Would your life be somehow worse if we used the killing curse, or the troll any more dead? What is this war really about?”

“Well, it seems to me to be more about blood purity from the way Malfoy talks. As if I don’t have the right to learn just because my parents don’t have magical cores…”

“That reasoning had to start somewhere, though, Hermione. If we really want the fighting and the killing to stop we need to examine the cause, not patch the symptoms.”

“Library?”

“Library.”

~

“Harry?” Hermione said, three days later, looking tired and disturbed.

“Yeah?” He said, looking up at her, his Potions essay halfway done. She looked even worse in the dim light of the common room. Was she ill?

“I… can you back me up? I want to talk to Malfoy… he’s the only one I think that could help me and…”

“Whoa, slow down. Why do you need to talk to Malfoy?”

“I found something out. You’re right about what we suspected. But I can’t get the whole story without the point of view of a pureblood, who believes in this.”

Harry smiled inwardly. “Sure. We might as well go now before Ron comes down, or he’ll be looking for us all night.”

She nodded and he folded up his essay before leading her out of the common room. It wasn’t curfew yet, but they were still careful as they made their way to the dungeons. Once there, she paused. “We… don’t know where their common room is, do we?”

“Well, if we wait, he or another Slytherin is bound to come by, this is the only entrance to the dungeons-“Harry said, just as Malfoy, Zabini, and a few others turned the corner, and spotted them.

“Potter!” he crowed. “Come to offer yourselves up to the Dark Lord?!”

Hermione was nervous, ready to back out. Harry put his hand on her shoulder, calming her. “Actually Malfoy, we found out a few things and would like to talk to someone on the other side about an important matter. Feel free to have your backup, but it’s not something we should talk about in a corridor, where the other Gryffindors or… Professors… could hear.”

Malfoy’s eyes narrowed.

“Drakie, let’s get em!”

“Hold on, Pansy. Potter… no way in hell am I letting you in the common room… but, Professor Snape leaves his classroom open for Slytherins and their guests. We can talk there.”

Malfoy made them lead the way, though he opened the door and rearranged the desks. Harry made sure Hermione was seated, though she was shaking like a leaf, before he stood and looked around. “No monitoring charms?”

“No, now talk!” Malfoy sneered.

“I… I read that… if a muggleborn marries a pureblood, and they have children, then even if the parents are both magical the child has an eighty percent chance of being less powerful or sick. Is that why… you purebloods hate us so much?”

Malfoy blinked and laughed softly. “You’re getting pretty close to the Dark Doctrine, mudblood.”

“We want to make our own choices, Malfoy.” Harry said. Granted, his was already made. “And to do that we need information.”

“You never seemed to bother before.”

“Yeah, because you’re just so approachable.” He grumbled for effect. “Did you ever consider that there’s almost nothing in the library about this? All we who weren’t raised in the magical world have to go on is what the Headmaster tells us!”

Malfoy seemed to be chewing his tongue, before he nodded and spoke. “It’s true, Granger. It’s like… adding water to wine. Pureblood lines have been breeding for centuries based on specific physical and magical traits. We don’t deny other traits… if a Malfoy was born with brown hair we’d accept them just the same, because family comes first. But the core of a muggleborn is still tainted from muggles. When that core is added to a purified magical core like from a pureblood, it brings that taint with it, which affects not only future children, but also the entire family through the magical bond of a Wizarding marriage.”

“Wh- why is it tainted?”

He blinked. “Wow, you really don’t know why we call you ‘mudbloods’? Well… all right then. It’s like this. When a magical baby is born, they start imprinting on whoever is around them for magical cores, like wavelengths almost. For instance, say you want your baby to be a future potions master. You can increase the likelihood of that by letting them interact with children of, or wizards and witches who took potions as a major discipline. That’s why there are branches of magic, Granger; each branch applies to a specific magical wavelength. And something can’t be considered a spate branch if it is too close to another wavelength, which is why Jinxes are still considered Charms.”

“That’s why there are no magical primary schools.” Harry added, like it was a revelation, though, he knew all this previously from his other life as Hadrian. “Since a magical core imprints, you can’t get a clear reading if a child has been exposed to too many different cores. And it explains both you and my mother, Hermione.” He smiled, though, he still felt like Walburga was his mother. “You were both home schooled.”

Malfoy blinked. “What’s home-schooled?”

“It means, that Hermione doesn’t have a tainted core, neither did my mother. Both of them didn’t go to primary school or play with muggle children, they were schooled at home, with only parents and siblings around.”

“So there was no chance to imprint… ah… sorry, then, for the Mudblood comments, Granger.” Malfoy said with a shrug. “But you can see why this is a big deal for us purebloods. You bring both the taint, and the muggle cultures and customs into our world. Now, we can cure the illness you bring, that’s no problem. And if someone really wants to learn, they can. But no matter how much you learn, no matter how much you can act and cast like a pureblood, if the taint is still there it can ruin entire families.”

Harry suddenly looked aghast, and turned to Harry. “Harry… you went to primary school…”

Harry nodded. “But it had no effect on me.”

She got that suspicious look, and so did Malfoy. “Potter, the only way that didn’t affect you is if you were a Siphon.”

“Siphon?”

“A rare magical core. It’s perfectly suited to a specific magic type, Light Siphons, Neutral Siphons, Chaos Siphons and Dark Siphons, they each have different effects, but it’s very rare. And by very, I mean, there hasn’t been one since Hadrian Black- which is why everyone hated Dumbledore.”

“Now I’m really lost.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t heard it, even in Gryffindor.” Pansy said. “It was horrible! Hadrian Scorpio Black was the younger brother of Sirius Black, twin to Regulus Black. He was adopted into the family because he was on the run from muggles who abused him. This was back… oh… twenty years ago, I think, well anyway, Hadrian was really well liked, even if he was a Gryffindor. He was a true Black, and on top of that a Dark Siphon. Now, what you need to know is that there are two types of Dark Lords- those with a Siphon, and without. If a Dark Lord has a Dark Siphon by his side he doesn’t have to worry about insanity or his body twisting and changing him into a monster. Hadrian was meant to be the Dark Lord’s Dark Siphon. He would have cleansed the taint from the spells he cast, so that he could make the necessary reforms. But Dumbledore stole him!”

“He kidnapped a child?” she said, horrified.

“Worse. Apparently, Hadrian was found on all Hallows Eve. The veil was at its thinnest point over the ley lines in London then; he was literally from the future. Dumbledore didn’t bother to figure out the situation, he didn’t care, and as soon as he found out he threw him back to his own time.”

“So now,” Malfoy said. “We Purebloods have to wait, and hope that Hadrian Black resurfaces at some point to cure the Dark Lord of the taint, preferably before he erases all the good he’s done. We’re still loyal to him because he has our best interests at heart, Granger; he had reforms ready which would have ended the taint, preserved the balance and promoted new births, something we sorely need. He would have reformed the Creature Council so that there was no more slavery, but promoted trade between species. Right now… it’s like he’s sick. That’s why no matter how stupid it may seem, we will always be loyal to him; because when Hadrian does come back, Dumbledore won’t know what hit him.”

“But what if his memory is being suppressed?” Harry said, testing the waters. “If that’s the case, who knows what he may have done, or who he even is. What if Hadrian had become someone you utterly despise?”

“It wouldn’t matter. We’d reclaim his memory. This is our future, Potter. Besides, we’ll know who he is. Each of us has these marks, on our arms, we check them regularly. See, they’re red right now but when they glow black-“

“Like now?”

Malfoy stared at his rolled up sleeve, all the other Slytherins checking their birthmarks as well. They were all glowing black.

Harry cursed.

Malfoy gave him a look, of dawning understanding, and he locked and silenced and warded the room as best he could with his amaranth wand.

“No one say anything.” He hissed. He gave Hermione a look. “I’m sorry, Hermione. I just found out myself.”

“You’re Hadrian Black? But how-“

“When I was barely nine, my relatives threw me out of the house. They dropped me off on at an alley in London, and told me not to move. That night, the local drug dealers didn’t want a kid messing with their business so they chased me away. I was running from the dogs when I felt something pulling me- next thing I knew I had banged my head right onto Orion’s Blacks front door. They found out I was a Dark Siphon and a Parsletongue, taught me to read, taught me pureblood customs and traditions and I love it, I was part of a real family. Dumbledore called me to his office halfway through first year though, and somehow he de-aged me, and threw me forward in time to my relatives. But his ideas weren’t perfect, during my first week at school I saved a young mermaid named Clindra, when he made my wand my secret keeper so I would never be able to remember my time with the Blacks, he threw it in the lake. Clindra gave it to me during the second task.”

“What are you going to do now?” Malfoy asked. “Will you save our Lord?”

“Of course! Hermione, he’s nothing like what you think. Well, maybe now… point is when I knew him, he was different. Funny, charming, human; he was a visionary. His plan was to take muggleborn children from families that weren’t suited and place them in pureblood homes, because the abuse was horrible. You have decent parents, Hermione, but yours are the exception to the rule. Most muggleborn parents end up hating their children. And because the children don’t know how things work, they either get ridiculed for ideas that seem normal to them or become overwhelmed and return to the muggle world. Without the benefit of a high school diploma or loving families; you know what this means. It’s how the witch burnings started.”

“The person you’re describing… seems so different from the one I keep hearing about!”

“That’s because I wasn’t there. I could feel it, Hermione, from the moment I saw him.” Harry said, letting his sadness show in his voice. “He was the one I was meant to save. I didn’t quite understand it- I still don’t- but I get the feeling that when I save him from himself, I’ll be the one rewarded for it. I want that.”

She bit her lip, thinking for a moment. “Why are you trying so hard to convince me, Harry?” she said, looking up at him, pleading to know.

Harry closed his eyes. “Because since I entered the Wizarding World again, you’ve been like a sister to me. I already know I’m going to lose Ron, even if his family wasn’t in Dumbledore’s pocket, he wouldn’t be able to do anything. And why would he want to… you know how he is around people he considers ‘Dark’. And he doesn’t want to learn… though I have hope for Fred and George…”

Hermione closed her eyes. “I don’t even want to meet him until he’s cured. Right now that man scares me and I don’t have any stories of how great he was before to feel sympathy over. But you were the brother I never had, Harry… Hadrian. I’m not going to leave you.”
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