The Third Time is a Charm

Posted 06 October 2009

Chapter 29: Adding to the Team

Severus and Reg were having an enlightening conversation about being a Death Eater and having the mark removed, and the feeling of freedom, and the relief of being able to be a part of destroying the evil wizard. Severus was able to reveal some of old Voldy’s philosophy and why he pressured purebloods into joining him. Regulus was most distressed when he found out that they would die when the man was killed, he also didn’t know that he had joined a half blood with a platform of blood purity.

Harry moaned and changed position, murmuring about talking too much and then climbed into Severus’ lap and put his arms around his neck only to snuggle his face into the crook of his lovers neck and go back to sleep. It had been an early morning for them and Harry was not back to full strength. He usually, Severus had noticed, fell asleep after putting out tremendous amounts of power as he had in the cave and at Diagon Alley.
Severus smirked and a small rumble of laughter could be heard in his chest as Harry’s ear was right there, but other than that Harry settled down again and went back to sleep.

“Sorry about my partner, it was an early morning and it was just a week ago he almost died. His Uncle almost beat him to death and we had to rescue him.” He went on to explain what had happened and how they had come to be here. He was careful, however, to omit the fact that James Potter was Harry’s father and about the couple dying from the killing curse. He, Harry and Becca had all agreed that they needed to keep that secret no matter what oath someone had taken.

Regulus was intrigued. “Some of the medical theories you are describing are very different that anything I have every heard. My cousin, Narcissa, was interested in being a healer before she met and married her husband and she would tell me some of the latest information, but I have never heard any of this.”

“I forgot you were related to the Malfoys. That could come in handy later. In the other time line the family, with several other pureblood lines all died out. Voldemort becomes more vicious as he becomes more insane.”

Just as Severus finished his statement Becca came into the room and sat down in one of the chairs that matched the brown leather couch. The whole room was decorated in soothing muted tones of brown and beige. After she sat down she addressed Regulus for the first time.

“Hi, you must be Regulus Black, I’m glad you are here. My name is Rebecca Prince but everyone calls me Becca.” She held out her arm to shake hands with Regulus, but he took her hand and kissed the back of it before releasing it.

Regulus, who looked at Becca as the beautiful woman she was, replied, “Hi, you must be related to Harry. You have his beautiful green eyes, but they look better on you.” Becca blushed but said nothing.

Severus grinned and answered for Becca. “Yes, this is the other bearer that is carrying mine and Harry’s son. She is our great granddaughter and came from farther in the future than we did. She is the reason Harry is still alive and the author of this facility and so by proxy the reason you are now alive.”

Regulus lifted his brows in surprise but showed no other emotion. Then Becca said “Actually, this facility was designed more by the goblins than me, I just told them what we needed. The books were mostly written by, the Severus and Harry that were my great grandfathers. Severus, I brought two copies of the completed manuscript with the changes you and Harry indicated. I thought maybe you would want to let Mr. Black read one and maybe you would want to go over the other, one more time before we go to press.”

“I do want Reg to read the book about Voldemort, but how did you find the time to finish them so soon? I would have thought it would take weeks to complete and we haven’t given you that much time. You haven’t been staying up at night to complete them have you?”

“No sir, the books were on the computer and I merely had to make the changes but not type or rewrite the whole pages. I just went upstairs to use the computer.”

Severus nodded. He knew a little about computers but didn’t know how to operate one. He would have to get Becca to show him.

“Tell me about what it was like in your time.” Regulus challenged, he was sure that it was good as she was such a sweet young woman. “Tell me how old you are.”

Severus was interested in this conversation. He and Harry had not had time to have this discussion with her yet and he wanted to know what prompted her to start jumping timelines and come to him. He realized as she started her story that things had gotten really bad.

“My great grandfathers were very special, gifted with different powers not just from the founders of Hogwarts but from Merlin himself. They couldn’t find five of the seven horcruxes, however, before Voldemort started activating them. He had found a way to reproduce but his offspring were not human, they were part snake.” Becca shuddered as she said that. “Oh they could take on the appearance of human, well mostly, but they were like snake animagi. There were five of them and he put a piece of his soul in each one. My grandfathers had destroyed the other two. When he was defeated, he kept coming back.” Becca paused for a breath, trying to think of how to continue her story.

“My great granddad, Harry was branded as a sex slave by Albus Dumbledore and he tried to take Harry’s power by an ancient spell, but something went wrong. Harry had already met his soul mate and the bond had already started to form even without consummating it yet. This made Dumbledore very angry and he decided to join forces with Voldemort or Tom Riddle as he was originally named. I believe his idea was to later take control from Voldemort after they conquered the wizarding world. They wreaked havoc over half the continent. My great grandfathers and grandfathers and grandmothers all formed an underground for people to flee to; much like the underground railroad of muggle Americans during the Civil War. They saved as many as they could while trying to find a way to defeat two evil lords at the same time.”

Harry had woken when Becca came in but pretended to be asleep so he could stay in his lover’s arms as she continued to speak. He didn’t know she had gone through all this. He wanted to know more and listened carefully as she continued her story.”

“I was born the seventh daughter of a seventh couple. My mother was the seventh daughter of her family and my father was the seventh son of Evan Sebastian Prince. Their marriage was the only one prearranged by contract in our family. I was bred for this as someone with enough power would have to go back in time. It takes great power to do that. My great grandfathers had chosen to change their name to Prince as a way to throw off the press and the two evil lords. By the time I was born and of age, Hogwarts had long been taken over by the others that were trying to destroy our and the muggle world. Most of my family was killed in a series of attacks by the snakes that had started to infiltrate our underground.”

Becca paused again, and then continued. “Our family was the first time spirits in over one thousand years. It is not known how it happened; some speculate it was one of the gifts from Merlin; all we know is that it started with Harry and Severus. They studied the books they found in one of their vaults and waited for an open window to go back and change things, but some of the rules restricted their interference with time.” Becca paused again to get her breath. She called for an elf to bring her some juice.

So while carefully leaving out information about the Potters and that Harry was their son, she gave him an abbreviated version of how she had come back in time to change events.
They continued to talk until it was an hour before dinner. Harry had woken up and got off of Severus’ lap at some point and joined in the conversation. Regulus was starting to get a headache from having so much information thrown at him all at one time. Harry and Severus could sympathize.

“Becca, can we assign some living quarters for Reg and maybe get him a change of clothes?” Severus asked as they were leaving the first level. “He has taken the oath, the mark has been removed and the locket destroyed.”

Becca nodded. “Any man who gives his life, in three timelines to destroy one of those things is alright by me. I had already anticipated that and some of his old clothes were in the trunks that were packed from the other timeline. We can call his Kreacher to bring more if we need to. Maybe Seamstress Sissy from Prince Fashions can come and make him a cloak.”

Severus’ head shot up as she said that. “That is something I wanted to ask you about, why do the elves have titles? I have never heard of that before.”

“Elves are intelligent beings that have been down trodden for a long time. Our elves have specific jobs they were specially trained for, and they take pride in that. It gives them a voice to make suggestions for improvement and lets everyone else know their station. Besides, as you know, nearly all the elves from the other Hogwarts came with us.” Severus nodded. “Well, they have counterparts with the same names and we are still the heirs of Hogwarts. The titles differentiate between the two. ”

“Ah, I understand, and Prince Fashions?”

Becca nodded. “We needed something to do with the acromantula silk and the basilisk skins Harry and I collected. We have it in abundance. The spiders in the forbidden forest are quite a colony and we help them and the centaurs and the unicorns.”

As Severus nodded, Becca turned to Regulus and said, “Come Mr. Black, I will show you the quarters reserved for you, there are some rules you will have to follow. We are here to help create a better future in this timeline and we are currently under the radar of the ministry and want to keep it that way.”

“Under the radar?”

“Old muggle expression, in this case it means we are currently undetected and magic is not used above this underground manor. You are currently underground in a muggle area in a facility the Ministry doesn’t know about. As you may know, you must have a building permit to build in a wizarding area. So we built it elsewhere.”

“Very Slytherin of you Miss Prince, very Slytherin of you indeed.”

“Well, it was Salazar’s portrait that helped me come up with the idea.”

“You have Salazar’s portrait?”

”I have a great many resources, Mr. Black.” She informed him, and then returned to the original conversation. “Living underground, in a muggle area, means the Ministry doesn’t know about us and we want to keep it that way.”

Becca and Regulus made their way through the massive space as she took him to the second level where his quarters were located; as they walked she pointed out the pool, spa and flying area. As they approached to back where the quarters were located, Becca told him, “I’ll show you to the house above your quarters tomorrow. When you are refreshed call for Valet Kreacher and he will come get you. Dinner is served at seven which gives you about an hour. Good day Mr. Black.”

Just as they were sitting down to eat; Hedwig came in with an answer to the missive sent to Remus. Severus took the parchment from Hedwig and excused himself for a few minutes.

Severus,
I was surprised to hear from you, but you are correct. My ‘furry little problem’ as Sirius calls it has gotten worse for me as my friends and I drift farther apart. I would agree to come and try your remedy trusting that you will not poison me or use me for potion ingredients.

In all seriousness, if you have a cure and it works well, I can get several more werewolves to join the side of the light. You didn’t give me much information, but I will be using the portkey at the end of the week.

Thank you,
Remus

Severus was glad that he had replied so soon. If he could get him to work for their company and maybe come visit at Christmas, Harry would be so surprised and really have the best holiday ever.

He returned to the dinning room and sat down to eat with the others. There was some general conversation but nothing too intensive. It was like they were a real family and Regulus talked about his friends in school and some about his parents. Then he spoke about his brother a little. He was funny and intelligent, but Becca held her self back for some reason.

The remainder of the week was much the same as the first part, planning and reviewing contracts, making plans to build the business. Regulus helped, he was quite the business man and wanted to work in the publishing division. He and Harry would go flying sometimes and were getting closer like brothers.

On one particular mid morning, the four of them made plans to go swimming in the pool. As Regulus and Harry were swimming with Becca, The Seven entered the pool area and wanted to join the fun. First Born entered the pool initially to get Harry’s attention, but he got more than he bargained for. Reg, who was still a little leery about the whole parslemouth thing, saw the snake in the water and with a screamed “NO!” scrambled out of the pool. He remembered Nagini and this was just too surreal for him to comprehend. When he sat down on one of the chairs next to the huge swimming pool he noticed six other snakes waiting to enter.

“HARRY!” Regulus screamed again as the young man was greeting his beloved familiar. “Why do we have snakes visiting all over the place? Do you have to have all these snakes around? What ever happened to a nice little puppy or kitten or something?” Regulus wanted to leave the room but was afraid to more, and he wanted to find out from Harry what was going on.

Harry and Becca both laughed. Their little friends had not been out of their quarters for awhile now and wanted to get out of the rooms, so they made their way to the pool. They knew Regulus would most likely have a bad reaction given that Nagini was always a threat at the Death Eater meetings. The snakes wanted to spend some time with their masters and needed to know Regulus so they knew he was friend and not foe. Becca swam over to the other six and started hissing a greeting, and then she looked at Regulus. “They will not hurt you as long as you do not attack us. If you prove to be dishonest and attack or try to harm us in any way, they will attack without any command from us.”

“Where did these snakes come from? I do not recognize their breed.”

“Ah” Becca answered as she picked up Seventh Born to put her in the warm water. “They are basilisks and were bred for us in the other time line. Probably in this one too, but I have no information on that, and now is not the time for me to get into Hogwarts to the Chamber of Secrets.”

“You mean the chamber exists? You know how to get into it? Where did you get this information?” Regulus paused for a minute and then answered his own question. “Oh, future, yeah I get it. How did you find them?”

“Harry killed their mother in his second year, when we went to go dissect the great snake, we found a door and these were behind it. They were sealed in there for years for their own protection. Evidently Tom Riddle did something to their mother and instead of keeping the school safe; she became a danger to the students so Harry killed her, but not before the mother sealed her younglings in a small chamber so Tom could not get to them too. We don’t really know the time frame, but their mother was about one thousand years old.”

She started hissing again at the snake and Harry had been with the others while she was talking to Reg. All the snakes entered into the pool and were swimming around their masters having a great time swirling around them. Regulus just looked on in fascinated horror. He could not imagine having friends that were actual snakes. His Slytherin friends would never believe this even if he could tell them.

Severus came into the room a little later and saw Regulus sitting in a chair with his arms around his legs that had been propped up. He wondered why he had such a defensive pose until he noticed the snakes in the pool. Ah, The Seven were here and Regulus was probably a little perturbed at the sight. He couldn’t blame him, it had taken Severus a little time to get used to it too. Severus transfigured his clothes into a swimming costume and went over to the side of the pool and started hissing. Reg stared at him with a disbelieving look.

“Alright people, just how many parslemouths are there in wizarding Britain? I have never heard so much hissing in my life and that includes the Dark Lord’s meetings.”

“Salazar gave me the gift,” Severus informed him. “Harry was either born with it or got it from Voldemort when he hit him with the killing curse and Becca was born with it.”

“Every time I have a conversation with you, I find out some other unbelievable piece of information or another mind-boggling story. How did Harry manage to survive the killing curse? No one can survive that.”

Severus spoke again. “And no one can remove the mark, and no one else can speak parsletongue, and no one can apparate in Hogwarts, and no one can enter the Chamber of Secrets.” Severus told him, “What’s one more thing someone else can’t do?” The older man quirked an eyebrow at him the explained no one knew how but Harry survived the killing curse at the tender age of fifteen months destroying the Dark Lords body in the process.

“So how did Salazar Slytherin end up giving you the gift of talking to snakes?” After Severus finished explaining Regulus put his legs down and whistled low. “You people have the most interesting life I have ever heard of. You should write a book about this, it would sell millions.”

“You’re life is not so normal either.” Harry chirped in. “From Death Eater, to destroying a part of the one you once swore to serve, to being here with us. That is not exactly normal and don’t worry, we have lots of adventures to go on yet. You could help take all those people away from good old Voldy and make him really mad. Just think of the stories you would be able to write.”

“Somehow I get the feeling that it would take a lot of years to catch up with you three.” Regulus replied. “Make way I am coming back in.” Reg dove into the pool after Harry and Becca moved the snakes just as Reg hit the water with a big splash.

“You know, I cannot believe that I am here, swimming in the middle of December with seven basilisks in the pool instead of lying in the bottom of that lake of dead bodies. I guess I really could write a book with you guys.”

They all laughed and started to play some water games even getting Severus to join the fun.

Remus arrived at two in the afternoon and Severus was waiting for him. Harry, Regulus and Becca were in the pool having fun and trying to race each other in a swimming contest when Severus excused himself. He made his way to the first level and waited but he didn’t have long to wait. When Remus arrived, he looked at Severus with shock. Severus realized he looked much older than Remus expected and he immediately asked for a wizard’s oath for secrecy about where he was and what he was going to hear.

He gave Remus a little information about him coming from the future. He didn’t say anything about Harry or the baby Lily was going to have in seven months or any thing else, he did speak about Prince Conglomerate and needing many employees for different divisions. Remus was completely speechless at first. He wanted to try the cure first and of course he could work with Prince Conglomerate if they were willing to hire him

“Severus. I don’t know what to say. This is a great opportunity but I will not serve Voldemort and I know that you are a Death Eater.” Severus nodded and rolled up his sleeves on both arms so Remus could see the clear skin, then he explained.

“I was a supporter of Voldemort at one time, but like most people that join him, I regretted it. I found out that most of his blood purity speech, and his promises of power were all a bunch of lies. That is partly why I am here, to set things straight. I have a way to remove the dark mark from those who wish to be free of that mad man. For now, until the time is right, I can change only a few things and you are one of the things I intend to make better. This cure is not available to anyone yet, but I don’t want to tell the public about it. I wish you to be the spokesman only to the werewolves for this venture and help the others like you, but keep this as quiet as possible. Will you accept the challenge?”

As he put the challenge out there he handed Remus a vial of the werewolf’s cure. Remus hesitantly accepted it and looked at Severus one more time. He carefully took the seal off the vial and with one last desperate look upended the potion into his mouth and passed out.

Severus was expecting this reaction and quickly sent a levitating charm his way. He went down a corridor to some guest quarters he had one of the elves prepare prior to the man’s arrival. He left Remus sleeping off the shock of the potion after writing a note on what elf to call and when he would see him next.

Another one was added to the team.


A/N Thank you to my reviewers, momoko, nari-chan, mithrilandtj and tamikolee who review since the last chapter when up. Especially nari-chan who offered me double chocolate cake with chocolate chips. Now that Remus is with us, I guess I will share. He just loves chocolate as much as I do. In the next couple of chapters we are going to see how things are coming together and the holidays will be coming! Then the real fun comes!Becca has a secret, can anyone guess what it is? Enjoy