Whatever It Takes: Complete

Whatever It Takes


Snape had just finished giving Harry a milder version of Vertiaserum, just as Minerva returned with his younger self, Cedric, the elder Diggory’s and Cho Chang. Harry could feel the potion starting to take full effect just as he finished reclosing the front of his robes.

Harry merely sighed when he heard several gasps, as the new occupants of the room lay eyes upon him. Harry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before saying in a weary tone of voice, “Please take a seat” he gestured to the seats Albus had conjured whilst Snape had been giving him the Veritaserum.

Cedric was the last to sit, as he’d been stunned by the sight of the person who resembled his younger lover, sitting right in front of him, meaning the only seat available was next to the older Harry, only for the younger boy to flinch and quickly spring to his feet and start pacing.

Harry quickly removed his glasses and scrubbed a weary hand across his face. He mumbled, his voice cracking in anguish, “Sorry. I just find it far too painful and overwhelming to be so close to you after six months.” Everyone quickly noticed the rapid tear tracks that were appearing on Harry’s cheeks from behind his hand.

The younger Harry spoke up, “It’s obvious you’re me, but why and how can you be here? Are you using a time turner? Hermione said it is dangerous for one to see an earlier or later version of one self, and not to forget to mention also against the rules.”

Harry removed his hand from his face, revealing green eyes dulled with agony and tears of heartbreak. The younger Harry visibly flinched, as did most in the room, at the sheer naked and undisguised misery in the older Harry’s eyes.

Harry replaced the glasses on his face before clearing his throat. He said, “No, I’m not here by the means of a time turner.” He asked after a brief pause, “Has anyone heard of a group of immortal beings known as “The powers that be?”

Albus spoke up, “Yes, I’ve heard of them. They’re very much real, not the myth most people believe them to be.” He added asking Harry, “Is this how you came to be here, did they send you here?” Harry replied, “Yes they did.”

Cedric asked, “But why? And answer me this, why did you flinch when I sat by you before?” Harry blanched before relying, “The powers that be” they sent me here to prevent an event from occurring, an event that should have never happened in the first place.”

He added anguish, “An event that left me without my lover, which left him six feet under, neither place which I could go nor follow. The agony of not being able to ever look at his face, hear him laugh or hear the sound of his voice again.”

Cedric and Harry had both gone terribly still and looking like they were going to be terribly ill. The younger Harry gritted out, “How and why?” Harry replied, “Third and final task. The Triwizard cup was in fact a portkey, a portkey that transported us to a very familiar graveyard from some of our worst nightmares.”

He added visibly trembling, “That portkey was created by Barty Crouch Jr, who is currently under the influence of a ploy juice potion. He is masquerading as Alistair Moody. The genuine article, he is currently lying at the bottom of his own trunk. Crouch only opens the trunk to give Moody enough food and drink in order for him to survive, so that he can continue to steal his hair for the poly juice.”

He pauses for one moment to gather his emotions before continuing. “Crouch made the portkey out of the Triwizard cup. First, he had been helping me all the way through the tasks in order to make sure it was I who touched that blasted cursed cup. He was the one who told Hagrid about the Dragons, who told me.”

He went on, “He was the one who told Cedric to take his egg for a bath and submerge it in water. And Cedric in turn told me to do the same, leading to me figuring out the clue to the second task.” He added, “He gave Neville the book about certain underwater plants, namely Gillyweed.”

He went on after letting out a loud and weary sigh. “He was the one who bewitches Krum, who knocks Fleur out before using the Cruciatus Curse on Cedric. I have to stun Krum in order to stop him from continuing to subject Cedric to anymore pain.”

He growled, “In short the son of a bitch removed several obstacles I should have faced during the third task. He did it to grantee I got to the cup first. Although he never counted on the fact I and Cedric would help each other enough to the point that we reached the cup at the same time.”

Harry suddenly crumbled and covered his face with his hands. He said between sobs, “I’ll never forgive myself for convincing him to take the cup at the same time as me. Claiming we take it together, making it a Hogwarts victory.” He hiccupped between sobs, before roughly scrubbing a hand against his face.

He took a few moments to compose himself before continuing painfully. “The portkey took us to the graveyard when Tom Riddle senior was buried.” He paused when he heard several horrified gasps. He went on, clenching and unclenching his hands into fists, until his knuckles were stark white from the ferocious pressure he was using.

“I knew exactly where we were, having seen such a place in our nightmares. I begged and pleaded for him to just grab the cup and leave me, to go and get help. Fucking lovable and loyal prat wouldn’t budge from my side.”

He sobbed as he said, “Pettigrew was there. I pleaded with Cedric to leave one more time. But before he could even move or defend himself, Voldemort told Pettigrew to kill the spare.” He sneered venomously, as he spat, “Kill the fucking spare indeed. Pettigrew fucking traitorous rat scumbag, he cast Avada Kedavra.”

He had a look of horror on his face as he concluded, “He never stood a chance as the green light hit him, lifting him off his feet, before slamming him to the ground several feet away. His eyes looked dull, broken and lifeless.” Harry truly broke down then, and doubled over, as he let out six months worth of terrible and overwhelming anguish.

Mrs Diggory and Cho Chang were silently crying, while Amos looked like he was going to be violently ill there and then. Minerva had a look of such anguish and pity on her face for the young man weeping brokenly in front of her. Albus looked grave and his eyes looked truly lifeless.

Not even Snape was entirely unaffected, as he asked, “I don’t want to seem heartless here Potter, but what else happened in that Graveyard. You said it was the dark lord who commanded Pettigrew to kill Mr. Diggory?”

Cedric had silent tears streaming down his face, while he desperately clutched a silently sobbing younger Harry to his chest. Harry looked on with a pain-filled smile at the sight of his younger self in the arms of Cedric. He felt like his heart, was being shredded and ripped out of his chest.

He replied to Snape’s question, “After they killed him, Pettigrew tied me down with ropes so I was balanced over the grave of Voldemort’s dead muggle father” he did not even pause or react when most people in the room flinched at his casual use of such a name.

“Pettigrew then shredded the front of my shirt followed by the sleeves. He then proceeded to make several deep cuts across my chest and arms. He then allowed my blood to flow onto the grave below me.” He paused before adding, “In order for Voldemort to be resurrected, he needed the bones of his father, the blood of his enemy, and the sacrifice of a servant or an ally. In short Pettigrew cut off his hand as a sacrifice.”

He concluded, “Voldemort then stepped out of the cauldron his small and decomposing body Pettigrew lowered into at the start of the ritual. He used the Cruciatus Curse on me several times, while all of his followers, death eaters, who had bothered to turn up, were pissing themselves with laughter at my screams of agony.”

Albus asked, “And how did you escape?” Harry replied, “Voldemort cut the ropes holding me down. He wanted me to duel with him. Therefore, we did, but just as I cast Expelliarmus and he cast Avada Kedavra, the two curses met and interlocked, causing Priori Incantatem to take place.”

He added after taking a deep breath, “The bond between our wands caused the spirits of Voldemort's most recent murdered victims to appear, including Cedric, Bertha Jorkins, my parents, and even a Muggle, Frank Bryce, to spill out from his wand. “

He concluded, “The spirit victims provided protection for me, allowing me to escape with Cedric’s body, who told me he loved me and tell his parents he loved them and he was sorry. And he asked me to take his body back to Hogwarts to his parents.”

Harry stumbled over to the chair he had sprung out of before, not caring who was sitting next to him. He was far too drained both emotionally and physically to honestly care. He just wanted to curl up in a ball and die, and for all of his heartache and troubles to dissolve into nothing and leave him alone in peace.

Cho spoke up for the first time, “So you’ve returned to prevent Cedric from dying and “He-who-must-not-be-named” from returning to his body?” Harry replied, “Cedric’s death, yes, Voldemort no. He unfortunately was supposed to return. I’m not allowed to prevent that, no matter how desperately I would love to do just that.”

He added coldly, “Although, I am also here to let the people who matter know that I was the one he made loved to last night in the prefects bathroom. I who he said he loved and would wait to graduate from Hogwarts in order to then ask me to marry him.”

He added bitterly, “So I would not have to watch you grieving in public, acting the mourning girlfriend that had lost her one true and only love. When I who was left in the shadows to mourn. I who am the one to hold onto the only remaining piece of him left.”

He stood up once more and started to unclasp his robes again. Everyone gasped as he opened the garment wide to reveal his six-month pregnant stomach. Harry noticed Cedric and his younger self were looking at his stomach in awed disbelief.

Harry said, “As you can see I am pregnant, six months along with twins to be more precise.” He added, “So try to imagine my horror, horror when I discover I’m pregnant by the one person who I had buried merely two months earlier, my lover?” He reclosed his robes and retook his seat.

Everyone sat in stunned silence before the younger Harry asked, “How do you propose we prevent Cedric from being killed?” Harry replied, “Simple we help each other as far as the cup, then after that you just take it. I want Cedric nowhere near that blasted cup or that fucking cursed graveyard. Cedric’s safety is our main and number one priority, at least until we reach the graveyard. Then you seriously need to cover your own ass.”

He added at Amos’s indignant expression, “Which would you prefer Mr Diggory, your son gaining eternal glory, which might I add you won’t feel very much like bragging over when he is fucking dead. Trust me I know, it destroys both of you and your wife.”

He added, “Or would you rather your son not have eternal glory, but still live to love and watch your grandchildren grow up. Still get to see him most likely become head boy and if I know Cedric as well as I know I do, graduate at the top of his year?”

He continued after a brief pause, “As for me receiving all the glory, I’d rather have Cedric. Rather have him around to see his children grow up and become my husband, compared to the fame and glory. I’ve had enough fame to last me beyond several lifetimes, thank you very much.”

He concluded, “And as for the prize money. I gave that to the Weasley twins to start up their own business, which I discovered I am a silent partner. Finally, of course I do not need money. I am a Potter, whose family name and bloodline has spanned over several centuries, since the time of Merlin in fact.”

He concluded at the younger Harry’s stunned expression, knowing his younger self was yet to have such a discussion with Sirius. “I was informed by Sirius that with the combined Potter and Black inheritance, I am one of the richest wizards in all of Great Britain, both muggle and wizarding.”

Harry looked down at his muggle watch and said, “Okay, you’ve got just under an hour to plan. Then you have to endure the third task, once my younger self takes that cup, I will be pull back to my time, which is six months into the future from now.”

He let out a pained sigh as told them, “I will either return to find a very much alive Cedric, which means you have succeeded. Or else I return to how I left, three months shy of becoming a single parent at the age of fifteen going on sixteen.”

Harry said, “I’m going to in the meantime provide a memory of all that happens during the third task and in the graveyard. Regardless of the fact I am currently under the influence of a milder version of Veritaserum, but still potent enough to be effective. I shall give you live action proof.”

Harry asked, “Professor Dumbledore could I please use your pensive?” Albus nodded and stood to go and retrieve his pensive. Harry then placed the tip of his wand to his left temple, before pulling his wand back slowly bringing with him a strand of what resembled a silvery gas or mist. He then placed it inside of the pensive, just as Albus placed the pensive in question down upon the desk.

Harry then lowered his wand and took a step back, just as the silver substance inside of the pensive began to swirl around. He gestured for everyone to enter the pensive, whilst he retook his seat and relaxed. His back and feet were really starting to ache.

The others noticed Harry grimace as he slowly lowered himself into the chair. He said at their questioning looks, “I’m pregnant. I am starting the stage where backaches are starting to become an issue, as well as the start of my feet swelling up bit by bit each day.” He added, “Finally, I have no desire to watch that memory. Can’t possibly forget it if I tried.”

He concluded, waving his hand towards the pensive. “Word of warning through, it is going to be extremely traumatizing, particularly for my younger self and Cedric.” Everyone nodded, looking more than a little weary to say the least.