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The little boy standing in his crib stopped crying so abruptly, the two other persons in the room stopped their respective threatening and pleading and looked at the toddler who then said to their surprise, “Wha’ de futt?”
The toddler was frowning like no toddler should frown. His eyes looked weary and much too old. So much so, that the balding older man immediately sent a Legilimency probe into the toddler’s mind.
What he found there was immensely disturbing. He was met by a shrouded figure that reached out to him.
The man tried to pull his mind out of this obvious trap, but the being was much faster. Hooks of some kind pierced his mind, and it was yanked fully out of his body.
>> NOT THIS TIME << echoed through the man’s mind.
“What? Who are you? Let me go! I am the Dark Lord Voldemort!” his mind called out in fright.
>> NOT ANYMORE. CAUGHT YOU <<
“What? What do you mean? Who are you?”
>> THE ONE YOU ARE TRYING TO FLEE FROM. BE QUIET. YOU ARE MINE NOW <<
“Nooo! You can’t, I took precautions!”
Five more hook-thingies burst out of the being on long string-like things and seemed to catch something far away, like a fisherman with his rod. Only this ‘fishing’ seemed to happen horizontally, not vertically.
The strings were reeled in impossibly quickly then, and the being – Death (?) – took the caught ... soul shards(?) and slapped them – uncaring of where they went exactly – onto Voldemort’s spectral form.
>> COUNTERED. SAISI PAR LA MORT <<
The hooks pulled Voldemort’s patched-up soul and spirit with them to never return to the world of the living again.
At least not in this form exactly. There was much to undo first.
But karma is a bitch.
In the physical world, after looking at the toddler, the man just fell to the ground like his strings had been cut.
The crying woman rushed to her child immediately and pulled him out of his crib, hugging him tightly.
The child looked over her shoulder and saw a rat scurrying off hastily through the rubble and said, “Wommtail.”
The woman immediately pulled out her wand and cast a very precise stunner at the rodent, making it squeak and then fall to its side, sliding a bit but being halted by a brick, the door frame - which had been blasted out of the wall - had taken with it.
“Good eye, love. Now, is he dead?”
The red-haired woman cast a diagnostic charm at the body on the ground and relaxed a bit. “He is. I wonder what just happened.”
The little boy nodded seriously. He seemed to wonder the same.
He then looked at the rat and said, “Tage!”
“Tage? What do you mean, love?”
The child frowned and tried something else, “Pwison. Tage.”
His mother looked a bit confused.
The child had an idea, “Jail? Shain?”
Comprehension appeared on her face, “You meant, ‘cage’, right?”
The toddler nodded emphatically.
“How do you...? Never mind that right now. You are right.”
She transfigured the brick next to the rat into a steel cage and soon the rodent was imprisoned and locked up with spells and a physical padlock.
While she did that she was muttering, “Oh James, I hope you are alright, please, please be okay. Oh please, please, please!”
Harry waited patiently for her to finish and soon they were rushing down the stairs. The woman didn’t want to leave her child with the dead body of the Dark Lord and the caged prisoner even if she had no idea, what awaited her downstairs.
There, on the ground, lay her husband's crumbled and unmoving form.
The woman - whose name was Lily - sobbed. Causing her child to sob as well.
Lily seemed to be torn about what to do now. She wanted to rush to her husband James, but also was unsure, of what to do as she was holding Harry, her son right now.
She could see James just fine from her position and saw his open but sightless eyes. He was dead, it seemed. Her sobbing became stronger, and Harry hugged her tightly as if to console her .
“Oh love, our James has left us. What are we to do without him?” she sobbed.
Harry hugged her tightly, then he leaned back, and asked, “Fidelius?”
“Woah! How?!”
“Time twavel?”
“WHAT?”
“Ow!”
“Sorry, love. But did you say ‘time travel’?”
“Yeff... Yefffss. Yesss.”
Lilly heavily sat down on the first step of their staircase and stared at the toddler in her lap, “Are you my Harry?”
“YEFSS!”
“Oh,” Lily said helplessly. “How old are you then?”
“Twenty-one.”
“Damn.”
“Yes.”
The two stared in silence at each other with their brilliant green eyes for a while.
“When did that happen?”
“What de futt?”
Lily snorted and then giggled hysterically, “Just before You Know Who collapsed?”
Harry nodded.
“That was you?”
Harry shook his head.
“No? How did that happen then?”
Harry shrugged exaggeratedly, raising his little arms while pulling the corners of his mouth down with his eyes wide open.
“So, you have no idea either. Do you- “
“Fidelius,” the child said decisively.
“You are right. We can figure this out later.”
Harry nodded, “Wommtail is bad. Tate Fidelius?”
“You mean, ‘take’?”
Harry nodded.
“I am not sure. It can be transferred by the homeowner... Who is me now,” Lily sobbed once, but pulled herself together again. “The initial caster of the spell is not necessary. But who should be the new Secret Keeper?”
“Me!”
“What? But you cannot tell the secret to anyone! Your speech is too...”
“Too bad? No. No one sud ‘now it.”
“You mean, no one should be told anyway?”
Harry nodded, “On’y Pa’foo.”
“You are right. We shouldn’t trust anyone right now. Albus suggested we switch to Peter, after all,” a strange calmness had settled over Lily. So, she picked the tiny time traveller up and went upstairs again.
She quickly cast the charm she had taught James when they decided to switch from Sirius to Peter and immediately revoked everyone’s permission to enter. Except for Sirius. She trusted her son not to steer her wrong.
Afterwards, they went downstairs again, and Lily decided to look after James' body. She levitated him to the couch in the sitting room and closed his eyes. She started crying again and Harry did as well. The little tyke wailed like the one-year-old his body was.
Soon the two of them sat in one of the armchairs sobbing, while the cat rubbed its head and body against Lily’s legs, trying to spend comfort in her own kitty way.
This was how Sirius found them.
The man got understandably upset when finding his best friend lying dead on the couch and he started yelling, “What the fuck happened here?”
Lilly answered wetly, “Peter betrayed us, You-Know-Who came and killed James who tried to hold him off,” she shuddered. “He then came upstairs for Harry and me and something happened. We don’t know what. But he dropped dead and... You-Know-Who is dead...” she whispered in realisation.
Sirius sat down heavily on the second armchair and the cat hopped on Lily and Harry’s seat and somehow draped herself over them while purring.
Little Harry started to pet her gently while listening in closely.
“Peter? Why? That cannot be!” Sirius exclaimed. He clearly couldn’t believe this.
“Deas Eater,” Harry said, and Sirius looked at him in confusion. “Dawt Mawt on awn.” The child tried to explain, but his unreliable vocal abilities clearly annoyed him.
“What?” Sirius looked to Lily who didn’t seem as surprised as he was.
“It seems, Harry managed to travel time as a 21-year-old into his 1 1⁄4-year-old body. He knows stuff but has a hard time expressing himself.”
Harry nodded emphatically and looked with big teary eyes at Sirius. Drinking in the sight of his impossibly young and healthy godfather.
“How?”
Harry did his overemoted shrug again, “Was asleeb.”
“Damn!”
“What did you try to tell us about Peter, Harry? Lily asked. “He is a Death Eater?”
Harry nodded, “Dawt Mawt on awn.” He scowled and pointed at his own left underarm.
“He has a Dark Mark on his arm? Did I understand that right?”
“Yes.”
“Do all Death Eaters have one?”
“I sink so.”
Sirius perked up, “So they are identifiable?”
Harry tilted his head, “Dunno. Widdle is dead.”
“Widdle?”
The toddler looked exasperated with himself, “You-‘now-Who.”
Lilly frowned then said, “You don’t know if the Mark disappeared because You-Know-Who is dead.”
Harry nodded.
“Even if, there should be magical residue, don’t you think, Lily?” Sirius asked. He seemed to take Harry’s change in personality and unbelievable knowledge in stride.
“Yes. You should tell the Aurors, Sirius.”
“No!” Harry exclaimed.
“Huh? Why not, pup?”
“Sey sink you are se Setret Teeper. Astaban!”
“They think I am the Secret Keeper and will send me to Azkaban?”
Harry nodded; relieved Sirius had understood.
“Do they know, You-Know-Who found you already?”
“Don’t tnow. Betta safe sen sowwy.”
Sirius had a hard time not starting to giggle hysterically.
“There is also the matter of the body of the Darkest Lord of all times lying next to Harry’s crib.”
The three looked at each other cluelessly. Then Harry seemed to have an idea.
“Auwow Bowt-tey. Sent You-‘now-Who and Wommtail to holdin sells.”
Sirius looked elated, “That is an awesome idea, pup. We use my... no... James' Portkey to send them there. It can be set to not disclose the starting place. They will know it was James' though.”
“Don’t wanna be famous, sis time. Dad is betta shoise.”
Sirius scratched his head, “Did Wormtail see what happened in your room?”
“Don’t tnow.”
Lily also shook her head, indicating she had no idea, either.
“Maybe we better kill him, too,” Sirius said, scowling.
Harry nodded and Lily looked shocked from one to the other.
“You cannot kill him in cold blood, Sirius! That would be murder!”
“Watch me,” Sirius said and scowled. He knew Lily would be adamant about this when she used that tone of voice though.
Harry also looked resigned. He probably would have stopped Sirius, too. Killing just wasn’t okay, “Obivate?” he asked.
“That is an idea. We could ask him under veritaserum what he saw and obliviate him when necessary. I did nick a small vial, last week.”
“Tan you obivate animadus twansfomation, too?”
Sirius blinked, “You asked if one can obliviate the knowledge that he is an Animagus? That is tricky. He learned and practised it over a long period of time. His body would know how to do it on a cellular level, I think. I transformed in my sleep once...”
Harry pouted. He looked so cute doing that, Sirius wanted to pinch his cheeks!
“Why did you ask, Harry?” Lily asked.
“Estabe fwom jail as Wommtail.”
“Oh! That is true. As a rat, he would be out of Azkaban in no time at all!” Sirius agreed.
“Etsatly.”
“That is an even bigger concern than him blabbing about me being an Animagus and Moony a were- oh damn.”
“I tnow what Moony is.”
“Oh, good. I don’t need to start watching my mouth in this house.”
“Too late, anyway,” Harry said cheekily.
Lily giggled and then clapped her hand over her mouth. James was dead. How could she laugh?
Sirius saw that differently, “Lils, James loved your laugh. Don’t ever stop yourself. He would hate that.”
Lily nodded tearily.
“Why don’t we send You-Know-Who’s body off with James' Portkey and decide what to do with Peter tomorrow,” Sirius asked. “That way we can rest here and decide what to do with Peter and with James' funeral. Damn!” Tears started leaking out of Sirius' eyes and Harry wriggled out of his mother’s arms, dumping the cat on the ground, and toddling to Sirius, holding out his little arms, “Ub!”
Lily swept up her indignant pet and cuddled it until it was purring again and watched her tiny child comfort the distraught young man.
The little one’s mind was their age now, she realised with a start. It was inconceivable!
When the storm had passed, Sirius got up and plonked little Harry into his chair, where the boy curled up, like a cat, and seemed to doze off quickly.
“He must be exhausted,” Lily whispered. “It is way past his bedtime. And his little body is only 1 1⁄4. It needs rest.” She summoned Harry’s little blanket and Sirius gently covered the child. Afterwards, he went and plugged the Standard Auror Portkey out of James' pouch. Luckily, he had access to it, just like James had access to his. Did have. Damn.
“So, I just sent the body back? This will cause a panic.”
Lily nodded thoughtfully, “We should warn them first. But Harry was right. We don’t want to become the Vanishers of Voldemort, or some such rot. – Oh! can we say his name now?”
“Remember when the papers spread the concern, he would place a Taboo on his name? That way he would have found anyone who was saying it. But the only way to do that is if one has constant access to the Department of Mysteries and other Ministry resources. He would have had to overtake the Ministry before he could do this. It is safe to say his name at the moment. It just became a custom not to, just in case, you know?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Let’s just send the body off. It is late enough not to cause a mass panic at the ministry, is it not?”
“You are right. I don’t know whom to trust, to be honest. I don’t even trust Albus right now.”
Sirius nodded, “How could he not know Peter was a traitor? He regularly does surface scans of our minds.”
“What?” Lily whisper-screeched.
“You didn’t know? I thought James was teaching you Occlumency because of this?”
“That was the reason? I never saw the need, to be honest. A clear mind is boring!”
Sirius chuckled, “Yes. I like mine cluttered, too. He probably didn’t tell you, not to alert Albus to the fact that we knew when he scanned your mind? We might have made a sport out of it and started to think of the most outrageous things whenever he did it.”
“Typical,” she smiled sadly at the dead body of her husband.
Lily then waved her wand and summoned four big church candles to hover at each corner of the bier she had changed the couch into while the boys mourned.
“Let me just do the Portkey-thing and then we will keep the wake for James tonight,” Sirius said looking untypically sober and drawn. He left the living room and Lily kept sitting where she was, stroking her cat.
So much had changed this Halloween night. She had lost both her husband and her toddler son and gained a son that was 21 years old in his head in a 1 1⁄4-year-old body whose mere sight made Voldemort drop dead. This Prophecy must have been genuine, after all. Harry did have the power the Dark Lord knew not. The prophecy just failed to say that Harry didn’t know it either.
Had Albus orchestrated a meeting of Harry and Voldemort to force an end to the war? The man tended to see the bigger picture, she had noticed, instead of the fates of individuals. Even if he mourned each death on either side. But his pacifist stance hadn’t helped their side. They had lost many lives due to his insistence to capture the Death Eaters alive.
And she could understand his mindset. She even shared it. But it had been war. Survival had been imperative.
The war was going badly, and the fall of the Ministry was imminent. Albus must have been desperate, she thought. That Prophecy had been made nearly two years ago and Voldemort had only started looking for them in earnest a couple of weeks ago. Why?
Lily noted that her mind tried to distract her from her deep pain about James' death.
But she wasn’t allowed to properly mourn now, as a slightly wild-eyed Sirius entered the room again and a spectral Phoenix flew in the room, saying in Albus' voice, “James, Lily, are you well? The wards I cast on your house told me a killing curse has been cast. And when I sent Hagrid to check on you, he couldn’t find you in Godric’s Hollow, even though I shared the secret with him. I myself tried to find you then and couldn’t remember your address, either. And all the paper slips with your secret address have burned. What happened?” the Patronus dissolved.
The two stared at the space it had been in disbelief.
“Wow, he sent Hagrid?” Sirius asked.
“Apparently.”
“He detected a killing curse, and he sent Hagrid?” Sirius asked again.
“I don’t get it either.”
They looked at each other grimly.
“And he had multiple slips with our secret location? So, he knew Peter was the Secret Keeper because I sure as hell didn’t write the secret down when it was me.”
“He nudges us to change Secret-Keepers to Peter. He must know Peter is a Death Eater via mind magic. Voldemort only started looking for us a few weeks ago. Albus made Peter write the secret multiple times. He casts wards on the house, detects the killing curse and sends Hagrid and only when Hagrid cannot find us does he deign to come himself,” Lily listed scowling. “This was clearly a set-up.”
“Damn.”
“Albus doesn’t have our best interest at heart. I see him as the enemy now.”
“Yes. Fuck. – Sorry, Lils.”
“Little can shock me tonight,” she waved him off.
“Do we answer him?”
“I don’t know... I don’t want to.”
“Then we don’t. By the way, did you change the Secret-Keeper?”
“Yes. Harry insisted.”
“Good. So, who is it n... Harry?” Sirius asked wide-eyed.
Lily nodded, smiling slightly, “He thought it perfect as he wouldn’t be able to share the secret for some time. He wanted everyone off the list except for you.”
“Good thinking. But damn. Time travel...”
“Yes. I am of two minds. He is my darling son, but my little baby Harry is gone,” tears started running down Lily’s cheeks. “And I want him back, but not lose the new one,” she added wetly.
“Yes, he is hilarious. But when I imagine that I was returned to my toddler body...” Sirius shuddered.
“And he is the same age as we are,” Lily shivered.
“That must be so frustrating!”
>> I WILL SHROUD HIS ADULT MEMORY UNTIL HE REACHES THE AGE OF 21 UNTIL THIS NIGHT IN TWENTY YEARS. << a voice - that the two could feel deep in their bones - boomed.
Their heads went up as soon as the first word had been spoken and they saw a Dementor-like being hovering in the living room next to Harry, who peacefully slept on. The only thing differentiating it from a Dementor was the absence of coldness. Well, and the voice. And no unhappiness. Ok, there are quite a few differences here, Sirius decided.
The being stretched out a very thin hand and stroked Harry’s forehead for a second.
Lily found her voice and whisper-yelled, “Don’t hurt him!”
>> DO NOT FEAR. I COULD NEVER HURT MY MASTER. <<
“What? Who? Master?” Lily stammered.
>> HARRY POTTER BECAME MY – DEATH’S – MASTER WHEN HE COLLECTED ALL THREE DEATHLY HALLOWS AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN. <<
Lily blinked in incomprehension while Sirius gasped, “He did?”
>> IN THE FUTURE THAT IS NOW LOST TO HIM. <<
“Is that why Voldemort died?” Sirius asked, eyes lightening up for the first time this evening.
>> YES. <<
Even if Lily didn’t understand the Deathly Hallow bit, she got the rest, “So, I have my little boy back for the next twenty years and then he will remember again? What of the memories he makes here ‘til then?”
>> THEY WILL STAY AND WILL ALWAYS BE MORE PRONOUNCED THAN THE OLD ONES. <<
“Oh, thank god!”
>> I AM NOT THEM <<
“Right.”
>> I WILL HELP YOU WITH ONE MORE THING FOR MY MASTER'S SAKE. <<
The two humans looked up hopefully, “James?” they both asked with great hope in their eyes.
>>NO. NOT POSSIBLE. HE IS WITH ME NOW. NO,<< the being waved his hand. >>THE ONE CALLED PETER. HE WAS SENT TO THE HOLDING CELLS. HE DOESN’T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TONIGHT. NOR THE ANIMAGUS TRANSFORMATION. NOR THE WEREWOLF. – HE WILL ONLY BE ABLE, TO TELL THE TRUTH.<<
Lily and Sirius slumped but Lily remembered her manners, “Thank you, sir. That is a great relief. Is James alright wherever he is now?”
>>YES. YOU WILL MEET AGAIN.<<
“Thank you!”
Sirius nodded and mumbled, “Yeah, thanks.”
>>FAREWELL<<
Sirius couldn’t help himself and said cheekily, “See you.”
Lily bobbed him in the rips gently, but the being was gone.
“Fuck,” Sirius swore.
Lily nodded, she quite agreed.
But the two of them didn’t say anything else while sitting by James' side in deep mourning.
At 6:30 Harry woke up bright and early and couldn’t remember a thing of last night, it looked like. He was back to his toddler-self.
A tired Lily took the boy up to the first floor where everything was as it had been before last night – no rat or dead body - and Sirius started to make preparations for James' funeral at the burial site of the Potters by contacting the Potters family lawyer and Gringotts to oversee the burial rites as was custom.
When the three sat down for breakfast an owl arrived with the Daily Prophet that blared in large letters,
VOLDEMORT DEAD!
This is not a bad Halloween joke, dear readers, it is a fact. Last night at 11:30 a lifeless body was portkeyed into a Ministry holding cell. It was immediately identified as the body of the Dark Lord Voldemort we all feared greatly for over a decade. But how? We cannot say, as there was no identifiable cause of death detectable. Not even the residue of Dark Magic, a killing curse leaves behind. A healer that was brave enough to enter the cell pronounced him deceased of unknown causes. “He just dropped dead, it looks like,” she said. “But he is definitely gone. No return possible.”
And how did he arrive in the cells? Well, a preliminary investigation showed that an Auror Portkey had brought the body there. Belonging to no other than James Potter. Did he slay Lord Voldemort? We can't say, but it is likely.
Albus Dumbledore who was called later tried to tell us that it must have been Harry Potter, the Potter’s one-year-old child. But as he couldn’t provide any evidence for that outlandish claim, and because he started to claim that Voldemort would be back for sure, standing in front of said man's corpse, no one believed him. Is he trying to get back some of the glory the Dark Lord's death will bring to James Potter? We hope not.
Dumbledore then claimed that the Potters had been betrayed by Sirius Black, the one supposedly holding the secret of their whereabouts in his very soul through an arcane spell called the Fidelius Charm (for more on that see p.3). But right as he explained this, another body appeared in the next holding cell and this time the person was alive and very talkative.
It was Peter Pettigrew, another close friend of the Potters, who must have been hit with an unknown truth spell as he babbled on and on, about how he had been the Potters Secret-Keeper and had told Lord Voldemort the family's whereabouts. How Dumbledore knew of the switch and had encouraged it. How he, Peter, had become a follower of the Dark Lord. A Death Eater, taking the man's ‘mark’. When asked what he meant, we were told that all Death Eaters had the mark, which everyone must have seen hovering over some unfortunate house by now, branded onto their left forearm. He even showed us and seemed surprised that it wasn’t black anymore, but that it looked more like a burn done with a branding iron. A bit like a slave brand of old.
We also learned that one needed to be free of any compulsion or other mind-magics to receive it. Free will was adamantly necessary or it wouldn’t take. He even told us that he had seen that happening with another initiate, who had promptly been killed by Bella Lestrange. Unfortunately for us, Pettigrew was then led into an interrogation room to be questioned further. And Dumbledore into another one. At least that was what the Aurors said they would do, but the wily old man called his Phoenix (for more on Phoenixes see p.6) and was transported away. He is now wanted for questioning.
As you can imagine, we tried to reach out to the Potters for comment but couldn’t reach them. But rest assured, our most insistent reporters are looking into it.
“Well, there it is, in black and white, not only Peter betrayed us, but Albus did as well,” Lily said sadly.
Sirius swallowed the swear word he wanted to spit, but impressionable little ears were present, so he caught himself just in time. Lily would have his balls if he wasn’t careful. Literally. She had returned them the last time but warned him she might not do so again for the next ten years.
When Harry started banging his bowl with his spoon and demanded ‘Daddy’ they ended breakfast as a lost case and returned to organising a funeral.
The funeral took place, James' will was read and the three stayed at the cottage in Godric’s Hollow for the most part.
Dumbledore – still on the run – tried to reach them once more, but they rebuffed him asking him to leave them alone from now on and they revoked their membership in the Order of the Phoenix.
Peter was a well of knowledge and soon the whole Death Eater organisation came toppling down. Some tried to claim having been cursed by the Imperius, but as Peter had informed everyone of the impossibility of joining against one's will, this didn’t work. Crouch had a good run sending most to jail until the involvement of his son in the said organisation came to light and he had to step back, and other, more impartial judges looked at the old and new cases, ensuring everyone got a fair trial. Most Death Eaters went to Azkaban. Even if it was only for a year, like Severus, Barty Crouch Junior, and others.
Meanwhile Lily found on Yule, that she was pregnant with James' child. It must have happened shortly before Halloween, while they were both in hiding. Not surprising, really.
Lily was overjoyed and deeply saddened when she discovered this. But Sirius was so delighted, it was hard to become depressed.
In the Summer of 1982, Jasmine Celeste Potter was born and the Potters and Sirius still stayed in the Cottage most of the time. Even if Sirius took Harry outside often so he would learn to live in the world he was born into. They often visited old Mrs Bagshot, the Longbottoms and others.
The outside world celebrated James as the Vanquisher of Voldemort. There were quite many petitions to let people have access to his burial site, but Lily always declined. In the end, a statue of James was raised in his honour in Godric’s Hollow, only visible to magical eyes and otherwise acting as a war memorial.
20 years later
Harry went to sleep in his old childhood bed on All Hallows Eve feeling quite tired. He had spent the evening chasing his youngest siblings, the twins Cas and Lux through the small town dressed up as R2D2 and Yoda, looking for candy. It had been fun, but also quite exhausting even for his 21-year-old self.
His night was filled with the strangest dreams. They were in some cases very close to reality in others so far, far off, it wasn’t conceivable, and when he woke up the next morning he stayed in bed, unmoving. These dreams... they were... memories?!
“What the fuck,” he mumbled quietly and kept lying in bed unmoving, his mind racing.
After some time, there was a quiet knock on his door and he heard his mum ask just loud enough for him to hear, “Harry? Do you remember?”
“Come in, Mum,” he said.
The door opened and his mother, who had raised him – and not raised him – quietly slipped into the room, and sat down on his bed close to his feet, while scrutinizing him, face full of worry.
Harry swallowed, sat up and said, “Whad de futt?”
Lily snorted and a tear ran down her cheek, “You remember. Oh, Harry!” and hugged him tightly.
“You knew I would remember today. How?”
So, Lily told her son about the visitor they had in the Fidelius-protected home late that fateful night.
“Wow, so my being the Master of Death in my other past called on the deity to the crib when I for whatever reason time travelled? And he cut Riddle's life-thread?”
“Riddle?”
“Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort.”
Lily blinked, “Oh, I always wondered where he came from. So, you remember all. Do you regret having come to this... timeline?”
“No, Mum. Absolutely no regret. The other... timeline was hell. We had won against Riddle after he had returned in 1995, but so many died and so little changed, and I was a mess, and you were dead. And there was no Jasmine, no Regulus, no Yvaine, no Castor and Pollux. This here is so much better it's incomparable.”
“So, in that one, I was killed the night James was?”
“Yes. I survived somehow. Did you do something, by the way?”
“I did. There was a protective ritual circle of old under your crib and if necessary, I would have powered it with my life force.”
“Well, that worked then in the other timeline. You died, Riddle cast the killing curse on toddler-me, and it rebounded, striking him. – There was no body left behind and he had made soul-anchors, keeping him tied to this plane. Long story. Anyway, Hagrid came, took me from Sirius and brought me to Little Whinging, 4 Privet Drive.”
“Wait a minute. I know that address. That’s where... Petunia?” the last word was whispered.
Harry nodded, “Let's not talk about it, ok? It was not nice.”
“And Sirius? No, let me guess, he was sent to Azkaban. You did warn him back then,” Lily swallowed, thinking of her husband of fifteen years being locked up in that hellhole.
“Yes.”
“Well, I am so glad you came – for whatever reason that happened anyways. Let's talk about more when Sirius can join in. And I am happy you remember. It felt wrong to have part of you locked away.”
“Hm, yeah. But it is horrible to be stuck in a baby’s body. And having to grow up with an adult consciousness?” Harry shuddered. “No, thanks.”
“Yes. Your mind had been the same age as Sirius' and mine. Too strange, even for the magical world.”
“Oh yes!” Harry nodded emphatically and then frowned, “Do you know what happened to Dumbledore?”
“No, he disappeared when the warrant for his arrest was issued. He was forgotten until that book written by Skeeter came out ten years ago.”
“Uh, right. I remember it faintly. Wow, quite different to his life and death in the other timeline.”
“Probably for the better. So, will you stay for breakfast?”
“Uh, what time is it? I have to be on the training grounds by two and have to get my bag from my flat before that. Tonks promised us a sweaty afternoon, not of the good kind,” Harry snickered.
“It is nine, time for a big breakfast and enough to digest it.”
“Perfect.”
The end.