The Third Time is a Charm

Chapter 23: Receiving the Gifts

Severus didn’t like this, all this fuss for the wolf that had almost killed him. The only reason he was going along with this was for his Harry. He couldn’t remember a particular moment when he started thinking about Harry that way, but it was sometime after the first bonding. Harry wanted to help Remus and they were leaving anyway so Severus could be gracious and go along with the plan. What he DID know is that finding Harry almost dead at his uncle’s house changed his attitude about a lot of things.

They spent an extra day getting things ready for Remus. They devised a special message that would appear after Remus said a password only he and Harry knew. The werewolf’s cure was packed and copies of all the books they thought he could use were moved to Prince Manor. The wards were reset and enough food supplies and other essentials were purchased by the elves and sent there so Remus would be able to live comfortably. There was also a considerable amount of galleons left so Remus would not have to work for awhile and would have the money to start his own little faction in the war. Harry also made sure there were six new sets of robes for him to wear with instructions in a letter to wear them no matter what. If he was going to be a leader, he needed to look like one.

The only strange thing was that three of the elves from Hogwarts decided to stay there at Prince Manor and help Remus. They knew him from when he was a student and then later as a professor and they asked to be free to stay. It was unusual to say the least but they could bond to him when he arrived. They also left ingredients for more werewolves’ potion and the recipe so they could make more. It didn’t take a potions master to make it, but someone would at least have to be good at potions.

The manor was not full of the precious antique furniture that was prevalent before they packed up the place, but they knew Remus could transfigure some nice furniture to fill the house with and of course the elves would help. Harry just hoped Remus would listened to what he had written about Dumbledore activities. He would need that information to help with the war and maybe keep him and Tonks alive. Harry was really struggling with his emotions about leaving him here but they didn’t even know where he was and so Harry had written a long letter. Not telling him exactly how he was leaving but about the Dursleys and how he was rescued and what had happened. He truly regretted leaving him and hoped they would see each other again. He told him about the horcruxes they had destroyed and how now anyone could kill Voldemort and his followers.

The note Harry sent to Remus with Severus’ owl and the letter he left at the manor for him were both written in parsletongue that would change to English with the password Remus knew. It was something they devised back in third year so they could get messages through and no one would be able to decipher them even if they were intercepted. He had been able to keep Remus up to date without Dumbledore’s interference. The only problem had been getting messages back to Harry. They had tried a couple of times but Harry’s messages were always seized before he received them. Sometimes he would get them several days later and sometimes he wouldn’t get them at all. At first they thought that it might have been Death Eaters or their children at the school. Now, Harry understood it was probably the headmaster that had exerted the control over his mail.

Severus seemed to know what Harry was thinking as he came up behind him and held him close. They were ready to go and needed to leave soon. Becca had given them another scarf; this one was a portkey back to where they had healed Harry. Severus pulled out the scarf and turned Harry around to look at him. “You will see him again, ready to go love?” Harry nodded and took hold of the scarf and with that Severus said “Mission Control.”

They landed in the same room that had been dubbed the hospital room. As they stood there the others were making their way back to the safe house. Five adults and numerous elves started popping in by the droves; everyone getting ready for the trip to the past. There must have been almost two hundred elves with their belongings and all of them ready to serve their new masters. It really was a sight to behold, young and old all with smiles on their faces. Harry felt like he was watching one of those muggle western movies about some wagon trains, everyone excited to be going somewhere else.

Two more adults appeared in the room. Gorbink, Harry recognized but the other was a light elf and was introduced as Shashi. For some reason, Becca sent them to the past first. They had gone into a room with runes on the walls and floors; there was a pentagram in the middle of the floor. They stood in the middle of the pentagram with eight elves and Becca wrote something in the air with her wand while chanting something low, under her breath. Harry didn’t hear it but the next thing he knew Gorbink, Shashi and the house elves were gone.

Harry and Severus had watched closely to what Becca had done and wondered if they would learn this also, or if their other selves had. They watched Becca as she sent being after being along and Severus realized there were only a few humans that were going, but there were over two hundred nonhumans. Not always using the same wand movements and sometimes chanting different words or in a different tone. They wanted to ask her about it but didn’t want to interrupt her as she was concentrating on what she was doing. She sent the elves ten at a time and it took quite a while. After one hundred they stopped for the day, ate and went to sleep, Becca had to replenish her magical core.

The next day started the whole procedure over again. Each set of ten elves took approximately twenty to thirty minutes. After four sets of elves Harry and Severus made Becca take a rest, eat something and then she would start over again. When only Doc, Becca, Harry and Severus were left, she looked at Harry and said. “We have to go back to Hogwarts to the Chamber of Secrets. There is something else we need to do. I didn’t do it before because there were too many people around and our window is not going to be open much longer, I needed to send the others ahead while we still had more time to compensate if something went wrong. This is something personal as well as special.” The young woman paused to get some tea then continued.

”In the Chamber, there is a ritual room. We need to go there so you can accept your inheritance from the founders. We could not do it when everything else was going on, but each of the founders named you their heir and each have a present for you, a gift that is to be bestowed upon you as soon as you can claim it. It is the last thing we need to do before we go back in time. I hope you still want to do this. I know it has been hard to leave Remus.”

“It is hard to leave Remus,” Harry said, “but you said this war is going to get worse and we are going to change the time line completely. I don’t want my son to have to go through anything like what I did and certainly not go through more than I did. I am alright with this. I have a wonderful lover and soul mate, and a son to look forward to and protect. It’s not like I won’t see the younger Remus and he will be safe.” Harry studied Becca’s eyes and continued. “You look tired and I think we need to wait and go back to Hogwarts tomorrow. Lets get a good night’s sleep and we can do this in the morning.”

“No, Harry we have to go now and I have to remind you that we don’t have Gorbink to distract Dumbledore anymore. We are on our own now and have to plan this carefully. We can portkey straight into the chamber but he may detect us if we are not careful. That’s why I made sure he was not there when we were coming into the castle before.”

Severus then spoke up and told Becca. “Don’t worry, I feel sure we will be able to pull this off. We will get in and out of there so Harry can get what he needs from the founders.” Severus got a thoughtful look on his face. “Do we need to bring some of The Seven with us for protection?”

“Probably not, I just don’t want anyone to be surprised if there is trouble. We should keep the familiars here so they won’t be harmed. Let’s get going.” Becca said, as she was anxious to get finished so they could move on to their destination.

They portkeyed into the chamber and immediately made their way to the room of mirrors. They saw that Dumbledore was resting in his quarters, so far so good. The old coot probably wore himself out casting curses and throwing fits. They made their way to the ritual room that was just beyond the bedrooms in Slytherin’s living quarters.

In the ritual room they found the portraits of the founders and one couple that Harry didn’t recognize. A pentagram was etched on the floor, similar to the room that Becca used to send people back to the past. Becca indicated that Harry should stand in the center of the pentagram and recite a spell she had written on a piece of parchment.

“Masters of Hogwarts, Four of the Ancients
I invoke your presence now, to receive that which was foretold
Master of Light, and Master of dark
To receive my inheritance, I summon your presence now.”

All five of the portraits came alive and stared at Harry standing in the middle of the pentagram. They knew immediately who he was and why he was there. Each of the founders and the older couple stepped out of their portraits to stand in front of the young man. Harry was just watching them, speechless. He had never seen anyone step out of a portrait in a corporeal body before and knew this must be a special magic. They came before him and nodded their heads in acknowledgement of his request for their assistance.

Severus, who was standing on the sidelines watching all of this, was dumbfounded as the founders stepped out of their portraits. He also had never seen any kind of magic like this and was speechless. This magic was even beyond his imagination and he could not fathom how they accomplished this.

The four founders then turned to Severus even though he had not moved a muscle. Godric looked back at Harry and indicated Severus with a motion of his head. “This is your soulmate?” At Harry’s nod, Godric continued. “He should join you in the pentagram and receive the gifts also.” The others agreed with a nod of their head and Severus slowly stepped into the pentagram as if moving in a dream. Godric explained “Since you are soulmates you may often share your magic. It is common among a soulmated pair to even borrow a mate’s magic if the need arises. The gifts we give to Harry will be shared with Severus, but his being in the circle will make those gifts stronger.”

As Severus stood in the middle of the pentagram, Harry and he were instructed to face each other and hold hands forming a small circle. After the circle was formed, Godric told them this was the symbol of everlasting unity, the circle never ending. Then they were told to look into each others cores and merge as the six adults formed another circle around them. They didn’t see the magic start to swirl, but could feel the power. As Severus stared into Harry’s eyes and beyond, he could see the brilliant light and the colors surrounding him and was excited to know that blocks were completely gone and Harry was whole.

Salazar was the first to speak and he gave them the gift of parsletongue and the gift of potions. The ability of Divination was something you had to be born with, but some people could get impressions without the actual gift and Salazar gave them the ability to see impressions of the future. Helga then spoke and gave them both the gift of charms and languages. Rowena then spoke and gave them the gift of knowledge and understanding of arithmancy and runes and the gift of teaching. Then Godric spoke and gave them the gift of transfiguration and defense even though they had knowledge in these fields, the gift of transfiguration would allow them to be animagi. It would just take a little training. Then an old man spoke and gave them the gift of magics over the air and earth and the ability to command them. The older woman spoke and gave them the ability of shape shifting and healing.

As each one had spoken another strand of magic swirled around the room. Magnificent colors of purple, gold, blue, green, red and silver with threads of colored light and power that were flowing through the room and through their bodies. Circling faster and faster as the six figures chanted out in the room in some unknown language, until the ribbons of light in the royal colors were so fast it looked like a rainbow flying through the air at light speed. As if in a wind tunnel with sound, the air around them swirled faster and faster. The power was so palpable you could almost taste it, and it tasted sweet like honey and milk filling their bodies, until the ribbons of color snapped into the bodies of the soulmated couple and stopped with a final explosion of power. Silence, dead silence. Severus and Harry almost fell to the floor after the power surge, but were caught by two of the men in the circle.

After only half an hour the ritual was complete and Severus and his mate were allowed to speak with the founders and the other couple. When they were introduced the two younger men looked at the group and nearly fell to the floor again. They had known to expect the four founders but not the other two, Morgan LeFay and Merlin, the man himself. Harry wanted to know why he was named an heir when he was not descended from all of them and his mother was muggleborn. Godric answered his question.

“Actually Harry, if you go back into history, you will find that most wizards are related in one way or another. Also you should be told that there is no such thing as a muggle born witch or wizard. If you had ever studied genetics, you would know that there are recessive and dominant genes. When magical cores are the recessive gene then a squib is born but when the dominant gene creates the magical core then you have a witch or wizard, how strong the gene is determines the power of said witch or wizard. Under no circumstances are two full bloodied muggles able to produce a truly magical child, just as an acorn cannot produce an apple tree.” He paused after this statement so they could get the full impact of what he was saying.

“Muggles can produce telekinetic children and children with ESP but only very RARELY. These children only have one aspect of what we call gifts with no magical core to progress any farther than that. They are merely able to use about twenty percent of their brain instead of seven to ten percent that most muggles are able to use. It is losing track of squibs that creates what we now call muggleborns. So in a way, you are related to all six of us. When we first started the school, we didn’t have this information and wanted to admit muggleborns into the school, Salazar was the only one who objected. We found out later that the true muggleborns did not have a magical core and only exhibited one ‘gift’ and could not learn real magic” Harry was learning more in a short conversation with the founders than he ever learned before. This was all new to him and he imagined that much of this information was lost through time.

Helga then took up the conversation. “We have seen what is to happen to our world. You are the key to the future existence of Hogwarts and its students. You will have the knowledge to keep going on. The headmaster of this time does not function in the best interest of the school or its students, only himself. You are our future and we have designated you our heir, heir of the school and heir to our legacy. This includes the Hogwarts of the timeline you are going to create. The new future of Hogwarts will be in your hands and not of the infant Harry as he has another destiny. There are vaults to help you on your way as you may already know. We have placed them there from long ago knowing that you would be born to carry on and teach the true old ways. The old ways before greed and evil became so prevalent in this world.”

Rowena then picked up the conversation “We know this time line is not going to continue. The evil is spreading between the two immoral wizards vying for power and stealing power from others. This cannot be allowed. Although there would be no good without evil, when evil dominates over the light and dark, nothing good can come of it. In the beginning of time, light and dark magic worked together. Light creatures kept the peace by day while the dark creatures kept the peace by night. All creatures were treated as equal by the others and each had a special gift in their magic to give to the world. This is the true old way and what needs to be reestablished. You can bring this information to the world and make others understand.”

It was then Salazar’s turn. “Every known ailment to the wizard had a cure once, but corruption and evil infiltrated our world and the recipes were lost in time or the ailments were mutated into something so bad that the medicinal potions would not work or could not be modified because the cause was not known. There are many lost potion recipes in the books from my library. You have taken them and are welcome to them. Use them well. We want to see our knowledge be put to use not left in a closet and only used for evil purposes like what the headmaster would do. This knowledge passes on to you so you may bring it to the world. You are our hope and not just from one prophesy. You as a couple will remember our missive, and your children will have the power to help change our world and keep it safe.” He turned and looked at the Professor and complimented him, “You have made me proud Severus, being in my house and becoming a potions master, and you Harry, next time let the hat choose. I know that it would have been difficult in my house, but they take care of their own.”

Merlin stepped forward and said, “You have been given power over the elements. You can now borrow power from the earth and the air if you need it. Do not abuse this gift; it only works when the purpose is for the good of others and the protection of yourselves so you may survive and continue your work. The more giving you are, the more power you will have available to you.

Morgan LeFay then came forth and said, “You are important to our world, but only if you make others important too. A king that rules with an iron fist and seeks only to please himself is doomed for failure and will be hated by his people, but a king that rules with love and compassion will always have the loyalty of his people and the power to make change.

Godric then spoke up. “Our time with you comes to an end and we must go. The spell to have a corporeal body does not last long. He looked at Becca in the corner of the room. “Good luck little spitfire and keep these two safe.” Becca nodded and hugged each one of the founders and the older couple as if they were long lost friends and then all six of the adults each hugged Harry and yes even Severus. Just before they entered their frames, they turned as one to the soul mated couple and all said together, “The headmaster will be banished from this place as soon as you leave. We didn’t want him interfering in the tasks you needed to complete. Happy Birthday, Harry.”

“One last word before you leave,” Godric said, “our portraits cannot leave this time line. The magic used to create our bodies out of the portrait will render us useless in another time. But we can be moved to another place in this time with people that will use our information for the good of our world and not of their own good.

The portraits then lost their animation as if the six of them went to sleep and turned off the lights.

Becca was the one to suggest that they send them to Prince Manor. As Severus and Harry agreed, she called one of the house elves that had stayed there to help Remus and when they came, reduced the size to a manageable elf size and let the elves take the portraits. They portkeyed back to Mission Control as Becca called it (personally Harry thought she had seen way too many muggle Science Fiction movies), and they were back in the hospital room. Doc was waiting there for them as they arrived. He looked Becca over and said she needed to get some food and rest. It had taken longer then they had anticipated and since she was pregnant they wanted her to be in full health before doing any time travel again.

Becca agreed for once and went to the kitchen to get an apple before going to lie down on the bed for an hour.

Severus and Harry did the same thing. There was much to reflect about and discuss before leaving. The founders had really said much to change their way of thinking and brought to light some truths that had long been forgotten.

That evening, Becca sat with Harry and Severus to determine exactly how far along in his pregnancy Harry had been before Becca transferred the fetus. She needed to pinpoint the exact day they should arrive in the past to make Evan’s birthday coincide with infant Harry’s. The birthdays did not have to match, but the closer the better, Becca had an idea to create a birth certificate for twins with the one birth to give infant Harry an alternate identity for when they traveled or needed to hide. She did not anticipate this happening, but wanted to be prepared for anything.

After the calculations were done and double checked, the four adults went through the same ritual as the others. They landed in a small ballroom with an older Gorbink present to greet them.


A/N A friend of mine told me it was not fair that I give my reviewers a preview on what is coming up in the next chapter, without offering it to everyone. As those of you who have reviewed know, I answer all my reviews personally for anyone I have an email address for and has not given an anonymous review. If anyone wants to reach me, you can use my author name on yahoo. I usually have a chapter up by Wednesday and at least one on the weekend but most of the time two will be posted.