The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 20: November 2009

Chapter 49: Who Has The Real Power?

It was an interesting afternoon. Harry and Severus pulled the four men into private meetings. Harry had Remus and Regulus while Severus had his younger self and Lucius. They each explained what was going on and got a promise from the men to stay with this new group that wanted to make a better world for all, not just themselves. They understood what was going on and although they didn't know half of what was to come, they could see the direction would have a much better outcome. Remus wondered how they were going to influence the Ministry, as they were the ones that kept passing the Magical Creature Laws that were so unfair.

The only thing he was told is that they had a plan. It wasn't to be revealed yet but would take a few years before they started that phase of the changes.

"What are you doing, in the meantime?" Remus asked Harry.

"Building a business, and putting the other magical creatures in a better position without the Ministry. Our businesses are mostly muggle registered and kept in muggle areas, but you already know this. It keeps the ministry from interfering as they have no jurisdiction. We use other magical creatures as much as possible and everyone pulls together to build their world together. It will take generations to change everything, but we have to start somewhere." Harry smiled as Remus was nodding in agreement. It was easy to explain this to Remus as he was already immersed in it from the side of the werewolves. He just hadn't known that other creatures were being treated the same way.

"Why did you choose me Harry? It was something I ask Slytherin and he couldn't answer it."

"Remus, believe it or not, you're other counterpart taught me my patronus when I was thirteen." He watched the shocked look on the man's face. "I won't go into the whole story, but for some reason dementors kept attacking me and you taught me how to keep them at bay."

"Are you talking about being able to produce a full 'corporeal' patronus at the age of thirteen?"

"Yep, that would be me." Harry smiled and shrugged, he wasn't showing off to this man, he just wanted him to understand what the man meant to him.

"Harry, how did I teach you that, I can barely do one myself?"

"I don't know when you learned it, you didn't tell me. I only know that it was in my timeline so you were about twenty years older than me and teaching DADA. I imagine you learned a lot after leaving Hogwarts with a war going on."

"Are you telling me I was teaching at Hogwarts? Did they have the cure in that time line too?"

"Yes, you were teaching at Hogwarts and no the cure was not available yet."

"The headmaster must be barmy, hiring a werewolf to teach children."

"He was 'barmy' a long time before that. But that story is for another time."

Harry and Remus continued their conversation for a half hour longer then Harry checked his Occlumency shields and Regulus was called into speak with the youngest team member.

Of course when Reg asked the same question as Remus had, "Why did you choose me?" Harry's answer was different.

"You were the first to find out about the... objects... that were being made. You were the first to risk your life to try and destroy them. You were one of the first to realize how depraved that man had actually gotten. We need someone with those instincts. In my timeline Sirius was my Godfather but you both died. I thought I could honor him and save his brother."

"You know, Sirius does not really care about me or the family. He left us a few years ago."

"I know," Harry replied calmly. "But you don't serve a mad man anymore. Maybe it's time to bring the family together just as we are going to bring the magical world together. It won’t be without an enormous amount of hard work, but it will be worth it. We have an idea on how to get some of the others on board with the changes we want to make. The only thing I need to know is, are you with us?"

"You don't need to ask that Harry. I was with you when you kept me from drowning in a lake of inferi."

"I am thinking that maybe your mother would want to come for a visit. It is time."

"I would love to see my mother. When can we invite her?"

"Soon, let me clear it with Severus first."

As before with Remus, Harry spoke with Regulus for a while longer and as before he explained about blocking some of Malfoy's memory to keep their secrets safe. Strangely enough, both young men believed that it was for the best. They needed to gain Malfoy's trust more before he would accept what they were trying to do. Voldemort wanted other magical creatures too, and promised them a change in the laws, but he wasn't sincere and most of them knew that. He just wanted them to help fight and let them die on the front line. Severus, Harry and the others wanted to keep them out of the war altogether. It was what separated the two groups the most.

Harry had an idea. He wanted to bring Lady Black here at the same time as Narcissa Malfoy. Maybe even have Lady Black speak with Salazar's portrait. If she knew what they were trying to do, he might be able to get her out of the house and start socializing again. She was Narcissa's aunt and perhaps they could start with a few tea parties with a few of the other marked pureblood ladies. This would leave the men out of the plans and he felt that as soon as they heard what was happening to the children they would want to help.

Back in another room...

Severus was not having as much luck as Harry. Malfoy was going to be a problem. He had already known that so he started with his younger counterpart first.

"Mr. Snape, please have a seat." the older man said. He wasn't sure how to approach his younger self and it came to him that this could get awkward.

"Don't you feel strange calling me Mr. Snape?" the younger man smirked. "I am not sure what I should be calling you either. I never expected to meet myself from...what 17 years in the future? It is a little surreal."

"Yes it is, but let's make the best of it. First I want to tell you that there is a Gringotts account for you. You just need to go to the bank and claim it."

"I don't need anything from you." Snape snarled at the older man. He didn't like anyone offering him charity.

"I know what you need and don't. This account is in payment of your contribution to the werewolf's cure. We did eventually modify it and we are using it at Prince Conglomerate. We can't have too much publicity yet to give you credit, but we can pay you for your part. I know the last two years you have been working on it."

"I don't understand."

"Well, my future counterpart sent the formula with his great grand daughter, so I am sharing the profits with my younger self."

Snape was of the opinion he didn't need help from anyone, but everything these people said was so out of the norm that although he wanted to turn down the vault, it was not coming from anyone but himself. How did you refuse that? As he sat and contemplated this for a minute he looked at the older man in front of him. The more time they spend together, the more the similarities were evident. But there were a lot of differences too. The way he treated his young fiancé was quite out of character. He wondered why and if they would eventually share that information also.

"I thought you were giving it away." The younger man pointed out. “You can't have profits if you were not charging for the product.”

"We don't exactly give it away. It is given with the understanding that the werewolves become productive citizens of our world or the muggle world if they were muggle. They start businesses and pay back the company. If they don't they are educated and get jobs, either with our company or somewhere else. I know there has not been much of that yet, we are just getting started. But I don't see why we can't invest in the cure by paying for the origination of it. It is what Becca calls a 'tax write off'.”

"I will go tomorrow and speak with someone at Gringotts."

"Good. Now on to other business..." It took the two men about two hours to go over everything and answer questions about what was going on. Severus knew he could trust this man more than the others because he always had a natural ability in Occlumency and Legilimency. His secrets would be safe.

Snape agreed that he would try to convince the Dar... What's-his-name... to agree for him to study to be a Potions Master with Prince Conglomerate. They would pay all the expenses and he would have access to rare ingredients that even the Dark... Whos-its-whats-it... couldn't possibly get as easily. It could be presented as spying on the people that originated the book and get information on the others. This would give him a reason to not respond when called, or not be called in the first place. Severus was afraid to remove the mark right now as Snape was too much in the limelight with some other up and coming Death Eaters. He didn't want him to become a target before they were closer to the mad man's demise. He also didn't want his younger self to become a spy. He wanted him out of there and getting trained and the pharmaceutical company seemed the best cover. It would take anyone else at least two years to get a certification but Severus knew the younger man would do it in one. Of course there was no reason Voldemort needed to know that.

Severus asked Snape about the Death Eater women and he confirmed that they were rarely ever called. The ones that were known to be pregnant were never called. That came about when he called two women, Parkinson and Greengrass, with the others; they had morning sickness and threw up all over the floor of his throne room. He never did that again. Severus remembered something like that happening in his time too and gave a little laugh at the memory.

It was now time to speak with Lucius. This was not going to be easy but it had to be done.

As the aristocrat came into the room for his personal meeting, Severus could see he was a little shaky in his stance. He wondered what the man thought he would do to him. "Mr. Prince," the young Lord greeted him. "I assume we are here so you can extract a vow out of me not to reveal your secrets to anyone else?"

Severus wasn't fooled by the man's austere manner. He had spent too much time with this man in the other time line. Severus knew the man was worried he might be obliviated.

"It is true that we would rather no one else know about us or why we are here. Not yet anyway. However I am here to check your Occlumency shields so that I can be assured that you can keep that promise. We still have time for shield strengthening before you leave if we need to. Some of the others could benefit from it also."

Severus felt terrible about not being completely honest with his old friend. But then he thought that this was not really his friend and he was only doing what must be done for the safety of his family. He quickly entered Lucius’ mind and walled up the memories of the Time Spirit discussion and the other topics that had become a problem. He agreed with Harry that they were going to have to hide some things for now, not only to keep the Prince family safe, but the Malfoy family as well. He could see that Lucius was starting to feel some pain from the intrusion and finished what he had to do. He offered the younger man a headache potion to relieve his pain which the man gratefully accepted.

All six men spent several more days in the time displacement room working on contracts, training schedules for the younger men and more Occlumency studies. While they were there Severus called Seamstress Sissy one more time.

“Yes Master Prince. What may I do for you today?” the little elf bowed before the man.

“We would like to have four outer garments made from the basilisk skins for these men. How much of the skins do we still have?”

“Master Prince, when you came, I was brought hundreds of the skins. I have lots and lots I can make into clothes. We are also finding a way to make some protective vests with the acromantula shells but we don’t have that ready to try yet”

Well, they were certainly busy little beavers, Severus thought. He remembered reading that expression somewhere in a muggle story book. “Good Sissy, if you could make the men their outer cloaks and also we will be having visitors later that will need women’s cloaks. You can measure them later after they arrive.”

“Yes Master Prince, sir. Seamstress Sissy will get right on it, but it will take a few days. The basilisk skin is resistant to the sewing spells and needs to be done by hand.”

“That’s alright Seamstress Sissy; the next couple of weeks will be fine. We appreciate your help during your holidays.”

The elf bowed slightly and popped out of the room to do her Master’s bidding. She didn’t really know why they thought she needed a holiday. She was used to working all the time without any time off. At least she did when she was taking orders from the Headmaster. But she liked these Masters much better. They were kind and were trying to really do some good, so she would do her best to complete her task as fast as possible.

Fortunately, Lucius didn’t pick up on the titles, he more or less ignored the elves altogether. Remus and Regulus smirked and had a private joke about Lucius and his oblivious ways to other creatures. Snape, however, did notice the difference in how the elves were treated and how they responded. It was quite something to see. The elves that he had seen here were more refined and educated if their speech was any indication.

“Lucius, we are half way through our last day from the outside and I would like to know if you would want to ask Narcissa to join us at the pool. We can have Doc look at the twins if you like to see what can be done about their power levels. It wouldn’t hurt and the sooner treatment is done the better. You can officially meet Becca and Narcissa could have a little discussion about raising an underpowered witch."

"It's the middle of winter, won't that be a little cold?" Lucius couldn't imagine what they were talking about.

"It's an indoor pool. I wouldn't suggest a cold winter swim. The pool is heated."

“I think that would be a wonderful idea. She has been so hesitant to leave the house, but if it were a relaxing atmosphere, she might feel better. She feels so guilty that the twins have no visible power. You know, usually you can get a reading on their power when they are a few weeks old, even if their accidental magic doesn’t show up for a few years later.” Lucius accepted the invitation.

Severus then turned to Regulus and asked, “Reg, Harry tells me that you would like to see Lady Black. If it is alright, we could invite her as well for a poolside lunch. She will probably not swim, but I am sure she would like to visit with the family members here.”

Regulus also graciously accepted the invitation. Both men then sent an owl. Along with the parchment note was a portkey that would take them straight to the pool room. It was set to bring them at noon for lunch.

The next few hours were spent on the report that Snape and Malfoy needed to give to Voldemort in two days. They would give him just enough information to keep him happy, without divulging too much of their current plans. It obviously was not secret that they had information; he just needed some background to satisfy his need to know.

After all the arrangements were made and Severus had asked Becca to see if Doc was available to look at the twins, it was time for the oath that nothing would be revealed outside the walls of the training room other than what had been discussed. All four men took the oath, only one had his memories modified and blocked to keep the peace.

They completed their meeting about the time Severus calculated it would be almost noon on December 31, 1979. It was hard to believe they were leaving the room before the time they entered. Using a time turner they weren't to be seen, but Severus thought since they would be in the pool area they would be sectioned off enough.

The men had opted to dress in casual pants and a turtleneck jumper. Severus knew of several scars his younger self had so he made a mental note to give him a jar of the salve that Harry and Becca had made. After seeing the success Harry had, he had used it and was amazed at how fast the scars from his abusive father disappeared.

Since this was a meeting of mostly Slytherins, the portrait frame of Salazar was also removed from the wall of the training room just before they left. As Severus and Harry led them though the corridors, to the lift, used the recognition software to open doors, Snape and Malfoy kept their faces stoic and blank. Severus knew though they had to be in as much shock as he was when he first arrived. He knew Snape would know what an lift was and a computer; he was also just as sure that Malfoy did not know anything about muggle technology. He gave Harry a look and they smirked together. It was always interesting to see the reaction of others faced with the muggle technology.

When they entered the pool room, the picture of Salazar was hung on the wall. They set up the luncheon table on the same wall with painted palm trees. The trees appeared to be gently blowing in the wind so it looked like a real outside setting.

Lucius looked around for the first time and tried to understand where they were. He knew he felt like he was going down in the moving box. But this looked like he was outside, although he knew they couldn't be unless he had left the county for the tropics. The pool was an indoor pool and he saw to his left what he assumed to be changing rooms.

When Narcissa appeared in the room, she was the epitome of Lady Malfoy in splendid robes of emerald green with an embroidered design on the trim. She was carrying one twin girl in her arms and the nanny elf had the other. The twins were crying and the woman and her elf were trying to calm them. At the same time Lady Walburga Black appeared and heard the children. She was about to make a comment when she recognized her niece Narcissa trying to shush the babies.

“Aunt Walburga!” Narcissa cried in surprise as she caught sight of the regal woman standing in the room. “I didn’t know you would be here.”

“Actually I, too, am pleasantly surprised to see you. Regulus is here and invited me for lunch. It will be nice to see some of the family, we do not keep in touch often enough. I assume these are my great nieces? I haven't seen them since they were born. They have your coloring, dear. Is Lucius going to join us also?”

“Right behind you, Aunt Walburga, it is nice to see you again. You are looking lovelier than ever.” Lucius greeted his wife’s aunt. He then took her hand and kissed the back of it.

Becca came up to them, dressed in her casual robes. She greeted them with a slight bow and said, “It is good to meet you Lady Black and Lady Malfoy. My name is Rebecca Prince. Welcome to Prince Stronghold Manor.

Just at that time, Regulus entered the room and exclaimed, “Mother! It was so good of you to accept the invitation to come.” He took the woman’s hand and kissed it then said, “It is most agreeable to be in your presence. I trust you have been well.”

“It does a Mother good to see her son. It would be better if she saw him more often.” She said in her austere manner, it was Walburga’s way of scolding him for not being around to see her sooner.

The babies were still fussing and Becca asked Narcissa if she could hold one. When Narcissa looked to her husband, he nodded his assent and she relinquished the babe in her arms.

"They fuss most when they are apart." she said. "Sometimes we have to hold them together to get them to quiet down."

Becca looked at her in surprise and asked, "Are they identical twins?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"They are bonded as twins. It doesn't usually happen in fraternal twins. At least not that close that they need to be together all the time." Becca surmised. "I have been reading a book about babies and bonding. I am two months pregnant."

"Oh, that is nice, dear. I am almost four months pregnant. This time it is a boy."

"How old are the twins?" Harry asked.

"They will be six months next week. Their names are Licinda and Narcia or Lissy and Nissy."

Becca was gently jostling the baby up and down to try to quiet her. The baby was still fussing when she quietly started to sing a lullaby.

"You can fly in the sky; you can swim in the sea
You can keep your memories close, so no one can see
You are master of your own heart, and my dear
Your memories are yours to keep ever near

It is time for you to sleep, and dream of today
Place your memories out of sight far away
Hide them in a box or into a book
Hide them where no one can ever look

You can fly in the sky; you can swim in the sea
You can keep your memories close, so no one can see
Hide them in a cave or under a rock
Keep your mind closed like putting on a sock

It is time for you to sleep, and dream of today
Place you memories out of sight far away
In your safe place your memories will be
Your dreams are safe so no one can ever see."

"I think Lissy is asleep now, we have a cradle next to the luncheon table where we can let her sleep." Becca looked up to the others as she murmured softly so as not to wake the children. She saw eight adults, six men and two women staring at her in shock. Harry was the first one to speak.