The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 3 November 2009


Chapter 42: You Haven’t Been Trained


“Let me repeat one more time. Did you know we developed a werewolf’s cure?” Harry asked again

“I did.” Snape stated. “Remus told me about it.”

“Did you tell, Vol… er Mr. Whatever?” Severus smirked at his young lover. He certainly had a way with the titles.

“Our report to the Dark Lord is not due until the first of the year. We have not seen him in the last couple of days.” Lucius said.

“Did you know about the attack on these people when you portkeyed in?”

“No.” Lucius said

Harry looked at Severus and then at Regulus. They all three were thinking the same thing. Dumbledore.

“Then it was the other one.” Harry murmured quietly, but not quietly enough not to be heard by the two visitors.

“I don’t understand.” Lucius said quietly. He had finally relaxed a little as it didn’t appear these people were going to start torturing them any time soon or treat them as prisoners. “Can you tell us where we are?”

“How are your occlumency skills?” Severus asked.

“Fair.” Lucius said.

“Not good enough. You haven’t been trained enough. This I will tell you… You are at the Prince Stronghold Manor. You, Snape, may study with us at our pharmaceutical division. We will help you get your Potions Mastery and you may decide what you want to do after that. Malfoy, we have a business proposition for you. You either may accept, or reject the offers and we will portkey you to the Leaky Cauldron. You may make your way home from there. Are you ready to listen or do you want to leave now?”

“You are not going to hold us prisoner?” Snape asked.

Severus snorted and looked at the men. “You mean like your Master would? Hardly, we have enough to do without trying to keep an eye on you two. You will leave here with some new information, but not anything that will be detrimental to our survival. Do you understand?”

The men nodded and Severus continued. “Everything in the book is true. Power is being leached from the dark mark on every one of the followers; especially the inner circle.”

“That can’t be.” Malfoy denied. “It is to call us together, not drain us.”

“I suggest you check it out for yourself. I know you don’t realize it, but it is the truth.” Severus said.

Lucius raised his eyebrows and asked him, “How would you know about that?”

“Regulus, do you want to take it from here?”

“Lord Malfoy, please look at me.” Regulus demanded of him. Snape and Malfoy both turned their heads at the same time. Regulus took off his outer robes and rolled up his sleeves. When they saw that he dark mark was gone, both of them were dumbstruck at the sight.

“How?” Lucius started to say but Snape at the same time interjected.

“We saw you marked! That can’t be, it must be a glamour.”

“It is no glamour. It is real. I have been here for several weeks now.” Regulus grinned at them.

“How was it removed?” Malfoy asked.

When Regulus started to reply, Severus interrupted and said, “We can’t tell you that.”

“Well, what can you tell us?”

“Let me ask this first. Don’t you work with Brittan’s floo system? I seem to recall the ministry contracts out the floo services with Malfoy Industries.”

Malfoy looked puzzled but nodded in assent. He did have the contracts to maintain the floo system for the ministry. “What does that have to do with this?”

“Nothing as far as the Dark Lord is concerned, but our business proposition does.” Severus paused to look the man in the eye. “Did you see me use the small floo to call security when we came in?”

Lucius again nodded his blonde aristocratic head in assent. He was still not sure where this line of questions was going.

“We call that a mini floo and want to offer them to the public from our construction division. If all goes as planned, the activity on the floo system is going to double.”

“Double? It can’t handle that kind of volume! Why would it double?”

“We believe that when people find out how easy it is to use, they will spend more time on the floo. That means more floo powder and more sales for your company as well as ours. Are you interested?”

Lucius Malfoy is no fool, of course he was interested. As Harry, Severus and Malfoy continued to talk contracts and floo call volume, Snape and Regulus were speaking quietly in another section of the room.

“Reg, how did they take the mark off? How did they know where to find you?” Snape asked, trying to get more information from him.

“I can’t tell you that, I had to take a wizard’s oath before I was given certain information. I can tell you that there are certain things the Dark Lord has done to make him immortal, and these things have dehumanized him.” He couldn’t tell him about the horcruxes because if he knew and the Dark Lord found out, it could create a whole new set of problems and they didn’t need any more of those.

“Isn’t there anything else you can tell me? I too would like to be free.” Snape said.

Regulus, being a Slytherin, knew this could be true or just a ploy to get more information, so he said, “Not right now. Perhaps later I can get the all clear to speak with you further on this subject.” Snape nodded, knowing the ploy for what it was. Regulus was no longer a Death Eater and did not have any loyalties to anyone connected with the Dark Lord. So the topic of conversation was changed to mundane things while the others were involved in business contracts.

Three hours later had Regulus sleeping on the sofa and Snape reading a book he pulled off the shelf. He had been impressed with some of the tomes displayed on one wall of the room.

Lucius Malfoy stood up and told the men that he would need to leave. Severus and Harry told them they were more than welcome to stay the night and that clothes were provided in the rooms they had used earlier. They still had some details to hammer out and they could do it in the morning.

Both Death Eaters looked at each other and immediately decided to stay. They could possibly get more information on this place and would need it for their master. As of yet, they didn’t have much for their report that was due on the first and the more information they gathered the better.

Severus’ only admonishment to the two men was to not leave this section as it would sound off the alarms again. They were told to call the elves for anything they might need and that they would meet for breakfast at eight in the morning.

Severus called Fifth Born as Harry called First Born to them before they left out the door.

The three men, Harry, Severus and Regulus proceeded to the receiving room to see how the others were doing. They found one healer there keeping watch over the twenty-two sleeping men, women and children. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, no one was lost. The healer said they had found out from some of the less injured ones that Remus was the last one out so no one who had been attacked had suffered death. Harry and Severus sighed a breath of relief, they had promised to keep these people safe as much as possible. Tomorrow there would be an investigation into how this happened, and to keep it from happening again.

Harry and Severus didn’t go to their rooms to sleep; instead they went to the rooms they used in the war room. They asked an elf to come wake them in twenty minutes so they could meet with their two intruders the next morning.

“Sev, did you tell them anything about the time displacement room they were in?” Harry asked his partner.

“No. I think we should just let them go home and wonder if it is all a dream. Right now the only thing the wizarding world knows about is time turners. They cannot be used for this kind of magic. Those two will end up thinking they dreamed the whole thing when they return to their homes three hours after they left.” Severus smirked. “It will keep them off guard.”

“Wicked!” was the only thing Harry could think to say as he smiled. He love the way his partner thought sometimes.

They both got ready for bed and fell asleep in each others arms.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP

The next day as they met the two men in the same room on the first level, they continued their discussions way into late morning. Snape was told of rare ingredients he would have access to and they were both told they needed to set aside time for training if they wanted to know more about their business. At least two weeks in the next coming month. They both said they would have to think it over for a few days. Of course, this was code for 'we have to check with the Dark Lord first because we don’t want to be tortured as traitors or deserters'. Then they were given the portkeys to the Leaky Cauldron and left the building from the first level receiving area.

In the same room, the other occupants were still asleep. Remus was among the few that were just waking.

“Remus? How are you feeling?” Harry said quietly. Remus was the only one he had treated and he wanted to know if everything was alright.

“I think I will live Harry, thank you for patching me up.” Remus weakly smiled at the young man and tried to move around to sit up.

“Don’t move too much, Remy. You don’t want to tear open any of the healing gashes. They were really bad when I looked at them last night.”

“Last night? Harry it still is last night I think. How long have I been asleep?”

“Oh, sorry. I guess it’s just been a long day for me. Do you feel like talking or do you want to sleep? We had a few questions to ask.” Harry forgot that he had been in the time displacement room and it was not even an hour later than when they left.

“I can answer a few questions, but first; where is the little one I had with me when I came here? Is he alright, was he hurt? I tried to take the brunt of the swipes from the claws of Fenrir.” Remus was starting to babble but he was worried about the small boy.

“He’s fine Remus; he didn’t even have a scratch on him. He is sleeping in another bed with another child whose parents were badly hurt.”

“Did we get everyone here in time? The elves helped get the portkeys to everyone in the area. I don’t know how they found us.” Severus, who had been in another part of the room, heard the last of what was said.

“It seems that the headmaster placed a tracking charm on you. Harry and I believe he was responsible for this attack. We have spoken to Snape and Malfoy and don’t believe they were involved and they said Voldemort didn’t know about the cure or their portkey so he wouldn’t have known to have them traced. Security found traces of magic attached to your uniform.”

“But why?” Remus clearly could not comprehend such a thing. “What would the headmaster get out of this? I don’t understand.”

“I would assume that in tipping Fenrir off, he hoped to find out how to find us and Fenrir hoped to incur Voldemort’s favor by attacking to find out how to find us. It seems that whoever it was, wanted to find us.”

They spoke to Remus for a few more minutes, he confirmed that the werewolves in the room were not been given the cure before the attack. As Remus started to fall asleep again they spoke with the healer to correct the problem and left the room for their own back on the third level down.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP

The following day, Sev, Harry, Becca and Gorbink were sitting at the breakfast table all talking about the previous day’s events as they were eating. Gorbink wanted to report that Lady Potter had claimed her vault the day before and received the book that contained the spell that was used on Harry to protect and empower him.

A house elf named Sentry Dobby came into the dining room just as they were finishing and the table was cleared.

“Harry Potter, sir. It is such a pleasure to be seeing you sir. Sentry Dobby has brought your morning mail from the contractor’s office sir. How is Harry Potter sir? I have not been seeing you for a long time.”

“Hey, Dobby, it’s nice to see you too. What have you been doing?” Harry replied. The elf was still a little hyper, but for the most part greatly subdued and more eloquent than before.

“Dobby is now Sentry Dobby to help protect Harry Potter sir. Sentry Dobby brings you mail after checking it for hexes, curses and portkeys and anything else that might hurt Mr. Harry Potter sir.” Dobby’s big round eyes were alert, but to Harry he looked a little older than before, if one could tell the age of an elf.

“That’s great Sentry Dobby; let’s see what you have brought us today.” Harry took the mail and handed it to Sev to look at as he turned back to the little elf that was so fond of him. But Sentry Dobby was not looking at Harry Potter anymore, he was looking at the corner of the room and his whole demeanor was standing at attention as if ready for attack. Harry followed with his eyes to where the elf was staring, only to see First Born and Second Born slithering around the room.

**“Hey guys, where did you come from? I thought you were going to the second level to swim in the pool. I think you are scaring Dobby a little so I am going to come pick you up to show my friend you don’t mean any harm. Is that agreeable with you?”** Harry hissed at the snakes then turned back to Dobby.

“Dobby, these snakes are our protectors too, so you have the same job they do, only they live here and make sure nothing is getting into the building. You don’t have to be afraid of them, they won’t hurt you.” Harry assured the tiny creature that was standing there shaking as if afraid the snake was going to eat him.

“Sentry Dobby not afraid, Mister Harry Potter sir, Sentry Dobby just doesn’t want to kill them.”

Harry moved to the corner and picked up Second Born as Dobby was answering him. Harry let Second Born wrap around his shoulders and noticed he was a little cold so he spoke to the snake again.

**“Hey there little one, you seem a little cold, do you need a warming charm? You could sit in front of the fireplace if you prefer.”** Harry hissed at the snake then it answered back.

**“A warming charm would be nice, Master.”** So Harry did a warming charm and looked for First Born to direct one his way too. He found him slithering under the table trying to get a better look at Dobby and Harry paused to wonder if Dobby was aware of the snake coming closer.

He decided to dismiss the elf before something happened that would destroy the room or hurt someone. “Dobby, thank you for bringing the mail and I will see you again soon but we have a meeting that is about to start. Now that I know you are around, I will see you more often.”

“Very well, Mister Harry Potter sir.” With a bow the elf popped out of the room without being any wiser about the snake under the table.

**“Alright First Born, you may come from under the table now.”** Harry said in the sibilant language he used automatically when addressing the snakes. He watched as First Born came from under the table and started to climb up the leg of his master.

**“Master, that elf is different than the others.”** First Born said to Harry.

**“How is he different, First Born?”**

**“His heritage is not all house elf; he is mixed with something else, another kind of elf.”** First Born informed his master. It didn’t surprise Harry in the least; Dobby was always a little different with wanting to be free and not needing to be bonded to a master to keep his power levels up.

**“Thank you for telling me that First Born. Is he safe to be around or did you sense something else?”**

**“Oh yes, master, he is most devoted to you and is completely trustworthy.”**

**“Thank you First Born.”**

Harry, Sev and Becca all gathered with Gorbink to talk about the Weasleys. They had just received the signed contracts in the mail.

“I think we need to talk to them again, perhaps about building a small guest house next to the big house. It would give us a place for pictures and entertaining the Daily Prophet and other reporters. We could perhaps portkey Molly and the children here for a meeting. It would give me a chance to speak with her about the cookbook also.” Becca suggested. She really wanted to keep an eye on those people and this seemed the best way possible. “If there were tracking charms, they will not follow through here but will get to the general area so we need a sentry that is specialized to check for that.” Becca thought for a minute then smiled, “I think I know just the right elf for the job.”

“You’re not talking about Dobby are you? He is so hyper and he has always been a house elf, not a security guard. What if he doesn’t know the right spells?” Harry questioned her.

“He knows the spells, he has been here ten years already studying and learning just the way things have to be done. All the elves have been here longer than us. They needed to be trained and educated so they could be placed where they could do their best.”

“All the elves? How did you manage that?”

“I just sent them to different times; they needed to be better trained than most coming from Hogwarts. We needed them to be able to work in the other areas of the business. They did very well and most of them are very grateful for it. Some of them can even teach you a thing or two.”

“I imagine most of them could teach me a thing or two.” Harry answered dryly. “I have to start training soon too, don’t I? I was enjoying my vacation. If it were still summer, I would have a few more weeks before starting next term.”

“Actually, Harry, you are starting back to your studies in a few days. That’s one of the things we are going to discuss this afternoon. I have the founders’ portraits in the training room and Gorbink is going to start you on warding, runes and weapons training. I also have a martial arts instructor coming to stay for a few weeks to teach you defense. He is from China and a good friend of my grandfather’s in the future. He is also a wizard but they have a different kind of defense magic he can teach you. Sev, you may want to join them for that. He is really very good.”

“How did you get him to come if he doesn’t know us yet?” Harry wanted to know.

“I gave him a letter he wrote to himself from my timeline.” Becca smirked at this. The look on Harry’s face was priceless.

“You really put a lot of thought into this didn’t you?”

“What would you do? If a child was prophesied to being back the true old ways to the magical world and change it for the better? A child that the evil of the world was willing to make into a sacrificial lamb and try to destroy?”

“I guess… I would go back in time with the information he needed, build my own army while circumventing the evil after him, build him an underground fortress and raise him in the knowledge he needs.” Harry sighed, “I just regret not being able to do what needed to be done in my timeline so this wouldn’t be necessary. Sometimes I feel like such a failure.”

“Harry, that’s not true, you are not a failure.” Becca assured him.

“Harry, you need to stop thinking that way, you could not have known all of this.” Severus tried to assure him too. “Hell, I didn’t know any of this and am much older than you and a spy also.”

“Yeah, well, why did we have to do this then? Why did I have to displace you into another timeline just to get it right, Sev? I took you from where you belong and pulled you into this timeline after you have already been through this part of the war. Now you have to relive it.” Harry had been thinking about this for a while now and it really hit home when he saw the injuries the werewolves suffered, especially the children.

Becca could see that Harry was very passionate about this and that he was feeling very badly for Sev and her. She needed to get the message across to him, it was not his fault. Her own version of Harry from her own time was the same, trying to take on the world’s problems and she knew just what to do.

She called her house elf and spoke quietly to her. So quietly that no one heard what was said. Harry was not paying attention and Sev was still trying to comfort him and let him know he was alright with coming back in time to help solve the problems for infant Harry.

Suddenly Becca, who had enough of the pity party, shouted. “Harry!” She slapped a test in front of him and gave him a quill. “If it was all YOUR FAULT, then you can take this test with no problems.”

Harry looked at the test and said, “This is an Ancient Runes test. I can’t take this; I don’t know anything about them. Why would you give me this?”

“You have been given the gift of Runes, have you not? You have been born with the gift of magic, have you not? You can take the test.” Becca sternly told him in a slightly raised voice.

“I can’t take this test. I don’t know anything about it.”

“And why don’t you know anything about it? Harry, WHY DON’T YOU KNOW?”

“Because I have never taken a class in this and I haven’t been trained in this. I don’t have any knowledge about this.” Harry was getting frustrated at Becca; he couldn’t believe she would do this to him. Trying to make him take a test he didn’t have any understanding of.

“Do you hear yourself Harry, is it your fault you can’t take the test?” Becca seemed to be making some point and Sev was just sitting there with his arms crossed and he seemed to understand something the younger man did not.

“I guess it could be my fault I didn’t take this class in third year.” Harry’s self recrimination was full force now.

“IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT!” Becca shouted at him again. “Look Harry, you can’t take the test because you haven’t been trained. You didn’t succeed in your time line because you HAVEN’T BEEN TRAINED! How can you be expected to do things if you HAVEN’T BEEN TRAINED?” Becca's hormones which seemed to be in overdrive started to calm down a bit.

“It is not your fault we are here. It is Dumbledore’s and Voldemort’s. They didn’t let you get trained. You should have been in the wizarding world from birth, you should not have been taken out of it but even then, serving the Dursleys as their resident house elf did not train you for what was to come. The wrong people were taking care of you and every time someone tried to change it, the wrong people prevented it because they were given too much power. Even in the muggle world, you should have been taking martial arts and learning meditation techniques. You could have learned music to increase your magic flow and to build the discipline inside of you.”

Becca finally calmed down as she saw the dawning look on Harry’s face. “I never thought about it that way. I guess there was plenty my Aunt and Uncle could have done for me if they were not so afraid of magic.”

“Harry, your Aunt and Uncle were idiots and from what I know of the people next door, they are not any better in this time. You are going to be trained and when baby Harry comes he will be trained also; like you should have been in the first place. You really need to blame this one on Dumbledore. He was the one who put you with those awful people and made sure you were secreted away from your heritage. So now we train you and help you catch up to what you should have known all along.”

Sev looked at the young woman in front of him and marveled that she was able to put the situation into words Harry could understand. He had been trying to get the younger man to understand for months. He hoped his lover received the message, but he felt that they would probably need to have a similar discussion again in the future until it eventually sunk in.


A/N I want to thank everyone that has reviewed. Because this chapter is so long, I will acknowledge everyone on Friday when the next chapter goes up. You guys are AWESOME!