The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 17 December 2009

Chapter 58: And More Testing

A/N Welcome to the third and final of three parts, Testing, Testing, and More Testing. These three chapters will focus on what our guys have learned and who is watching them. Then we will have the big celebration party where we will have a surprise guest. I hope you all enjoy.

Harry and Severus Prince took off for Germany the same day as Regulus left. It was the same chauffeured limousine that had just come back from Heathrow Airport only to go back there a second time a few hours later.

Harry was excited, he had never flown in an airplane before, Severus hadn’t either, but he was NOT excited but he was not going to let Harry know that. Instead, the older man had taken some calming draft potion before he left the manor. He kept up his stoic mask and followed the chauffeur into the terminal. As with Regulus and Sensei, both Harry and Severus were carrying overnight bags that could be brought on the plane with them and the chauffeur brought them to the correct terminal. The Airport was huge and had, what must have been, hundreds of muggles milling about. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere and Harry kept moving his head about to see everything. They were standing in line to check in.

As they were standing there, they didn’t notice a blond stranger approach them until he was about a meter away. Harry turned to Severus and touched his arm to get his attention.

“Look Sev, there is someone behind us and he looks suspicious.” Harry said under his breath so as not to attract any attention from the others in the line. Severus turned and looked around and saw the man standing there. After looking at him for a few seconds he leaned over and said to him, “What are you doing here?” He would know this man’s magical signature anywhere.

“You are being watched.” Was the only answer Severus received, but the man then looked at his fake ticket in his hand, and then at the board, shook his head and started to leave the line as if he were lost. When he brushed past Severus he dropped his bag, but handed Severus a small rolled up parchment as he picked it up and left.

“Who was that?” Harry asked in a whisper.

“Me” was all he said before putting his arms around his lover as they stood in line.

When Harry started to ask him to explain, Severus only put his hand against Harry’s mouth and said, “Shhhh, later.”

When they reached the ticket agent, Severus asked for two tickets for Switzerland , and then he paid for them with his Gringotts card. After receiving their tickets, he dragged Harry down the terminal to the men’s loo and pulled him in.

Immediately upon entering Severus put up several warding and silencing spells while Harry looked at him with a questioning look. When Severus made a gesture to look behind him, he saw two men standing there. One was the blond that had ‘bumped’ into Severus, the other he didn’t know.

“Alright, what is going on here? Who are you?” Harry asked.

With a wave of their wands they revealed themselves and Harry stood there looking at… him and Severus.

He turned around and looked at his lover that had walked into the loo with him and quirked an eyebrow.

“I have a time turner Harry; I didn’t want anything to happen to you while we were traveling, so I took one of the time turners in case we needed to know about any dangers. If they are here, then something happened.” Severus said.

“And when were you going to tell me about it?”

“Never; if it wasn’t necessary.” Severus replied.

Harry turned back to the other two of them and thought how strange it was to be staring at his reflection without a mirror. “I assume you have something to tell us?”

The other Severus that had been masking as a blond a few minutes ago nodded. “There is a Death Eater following you. I don’t know how they knew you were here, but he is in the lobby. Did you get the other tickets?”

“Right here” Severus handed over the two tickets he had just purchased.

“We will go to Switzerland, while you go to Germany and take your tests. Oh, and you need some basilisk blood for one of your specialty potions. I would call a house elf to bring it to you.”

“I wasn’t going to use basilisk blood. I thought they had all the ingredients for the potions they wanted me to demonstrate.”

“They have dragon’s blood that went bad, but didn’t know it. The basilisk blood will substitute.”

Severus nodded his head and quietly called a house elf to him. When he explained what he needed the elf popped out and back again with the required substance. Severus added it to his bag and said, “Well, your plane is leaving soon, so you go ahead and leave. We will wait ten minutes and go to the gate for Germany .”

“Yes, and we will make sure the... 'unwanted attention' is following us” said the other Harry.

They parted ways and Harry grinned at his mate, “What are we going to do for ten minutes?”

“We aren’t going to do anything. It’s a muggle bathroom Harry, not a bedroom.” Severus recognized that lusty glare from the younger man and knew what he was thinking.

“You warded the door, didn’t you?”

“Yes”

“Good” said Harry before he lunged at the older man and latched his mouth to the others lips, plunging his tongue into the cavern that tasted like manna from the gods. Severus moaned into the mouth that had started sucking on his tongue and wrapped his arms tightly around the younger man.

When they parted for air, Severus said, “You, Mr. Prince, are an exhibitionist and a tease. How is it I didn’t know that about you?”

“Can’t let you in on all my secrets, can I? It would make life boring and I wouldn’t want to bore you.” He quipped back with a lecherous grin.

Severus smacked the bottom of his partner and smiled evilly when Harry yelped at the sudden movement. They kissed again and when Severus ended the kiss, he lowered his head to breathe in the scent of Harry while using his hands to kneed the flesh of Harry’s arse and lower back. After a few more minutes, even though the two of them were not nearly satisfied, they broke apart and made their way for the door.

Their flight was uneventful and immediately upon landing, there was a car from the Germany Ministry of Magic to pick them up. Well, it was uneventful if you skip the indoctrination to the mile high club.

They were exhausted by the time they reached the hotel in Munich .

“Sev, how did you know you would need a time turner? How did you know to buy the tickets without looking at the note?”

“I had this idea before we left. I had a gut feeling that Voldemort was keeping a closer watch than we suspected. I was with him too long, not to suspect something.”

“Do you think we were still followed?” Harry wondered.

“No” Severus told him firmly, “The other us would have made sure to take care of the situation.”

Harry went over to where Severus was sitting on the chair and slid into his lap. “Thank you for taking such good care of us. Can we go to bed now? I’m tired.” He laid his head on the man’s shoulder and snuggled up to him.

“Come on love, I am not the bed and as much as I love having you in my arms, I would prefer to be in a horizontal position.” They both got up and made their way to the bed and slept through the night.

They next day at the Ministry of Magic in Munich, both Severus and Harry showed up there in the Educational Division of Mastery Examinations. It was a little different here as they walked through the halls. The whole structure was beautiful carvings on the walls and ceiling. The artwork carved into the doorframes depicted other magical creatures as well as animals. Harry was in stunned with the amount of work that must have gone into the design.

As they entered the testing area they were greeted by several instructors and the director. Each one had a book in their hand and Harry noticed with a grin every book was the same. It was the book about Voldemort.

“You are responsible for this book?” the director said sternly.

“I am one of the authors, yes.” Severus replied with trepidation, now knowing why they wanted to know that.

“We would like autograph. It is wonderful to see someone doing something about that megalomaniac. He had started to infiltrate our Ministry, but then the book came out and we realized exactly what he was doing. We value our magical creatures and they help keep our magic alive. Several of them help when we are sick or badly hurt.”

“We also work with the magical creatures and animals of our world. We hope to bring that back into focus in the near future. Harry here has a basilisk familiar he is quire fond of and always treats as an equal.” Severus informed him.

“He is a snake speaker?” The director said, “magnificent! Over the next few days, we would like to get to know you better and perhaps speak about an alliance between us.”

Wow, that was a surprise. Harry thought. He wasn’t expecting to meet supporters; he was just expecting to watch Severus take tests. If the man was being honest, this could turn out better than they could hope for.

“We will get started, yes?” The director said. He looked at Severus and said, “Mr. Prince, although we were told you would be getting several Mastery Certifications, the only one we know about is the Potions, so we have prepared the Potions Lab for you and eagerly await the partaking in your expertise.” You could tell he knew English but did not practice it often. When he spoke he sounded stilted and often paused to form the correct word.

And so began a long week of testing and getting to know the instructors at the ministry. Severus was actually taking several tests on the same days, mixing potions in the morning with DADA and Charms in the afternoons. This way the potions he was brewing could simmer or sit overnight as the directions required.

On the third day, the testing was interrupted when someone from the Minister’s office came into the room.

“Director, we have an emergency! The aurors need you right away!” A young secretary said as she tried to catch her breath, obviously after running from what they knew was two flights of stairs and three long hallways. No one could apparate inside the ministry.

“What seems to be the problem? We are testing and need to be uninterrupted.” The director scolded the young woman.

“The aurors said someone is warded into a box they cannot open. It is a small child and they are afraid she will not be able to breathe. They tried all the methods they know to break the wards, but none have worked.”

“Will you excuse me gentlemen. I am also one of the instructors for the auror academy and have a specialty in warding. I will be as quick as I can.”

Harry looked at Severus, who nodded and tossed his head toward the door, to let Harry know he could go too. He was standing and carefully counting fifty counterclockwise stirs and didn’t say anything.

“I would like to accompany you, if I may Director.” Harry said politely, “I have some knowledge of warding and would welcome the chance to see this box.”

“Yes, you may come. The more the better, I have never heard of a box that couldn’t be opened by the aurors.” The director said even as he led the way and hurriedly walked the three long hallways and the two flights of stairs to be met by five aurors in the room. All of them had wands pointing at a trunk that looked very familiar to Harry.

“Everyone stop!” Harry said upon entering the room. He knew this box was one of the trunks made at the Prince facilities. It was made of acromantula shells with the runes and protection spells. The only thing Harry wanted to know is where it came from and what happened to the safety spells.

“Does anyone know where this box came from?” Harry asked the room aurors.

“It was sent as a gift to the Minister for his daughter. She is starting school next year and was putting some of her things in it when she fell in.” answered a middle aged woman from the group.

“Alright, everyone back. I know what this is and should be able to open it.” Harry pulled out a vial from his pocket. He learned from Severus to always have some on hand. He then transfigured both of his index fingernails to grow and look more like a goblin’s claw. After dipping his fingernails in the vial, they came out and appeared red with blood. He took the claw fingernails and ran them down the invisible lines in the lid of the trunk and then down the side of the lock. The trunk opened and out came the ten year old girl that was the minister’s daughter. He immediately reapplied the safety features as the young girl was wisked away to be comforted.

"No one leave this room, please." Harry requested of the Aurors. "We need this not to leak out into the press."

“How did you do that?” the director asked. He had never seen this before.

“The trunk is one made by Prince Conglomerate. I don’t know how the safety features were removed, but each of these trunks is outfitted with features to prevent this from happening. My assumption is that someone lost track of us and is trying to flush us out. If the minister’s daughter is rescued by one of us then they know where we are. Since no one could possibly get past the goblin warding, they would know it had to be someone from our company. Severus and I and the goblins are the only ones that can open the chest other than the owner. Unfortunately, the owner was locked inside and needed to be outside to give a drop of blood to get past the anti-theft features.”

Harry stopped in his rant to think about the ramifications of this event. It was going to look very bad for them if he didn’t act now.

“In answer to your question, I used goblin blood to simulate goblin DNA. It will fool the box into thinking I am a goblin so I then can scratch along the invisible warding lines to get the box open.” Harry said absentmindedly, he paused to think a moment and then said to the director. "If you don't know where the lines are, you won't find them."

“Director, may I use your floo? It will need to be an international call.” Harry asked.

“Yes, of course.”

Harry went over to the corner of the room where a floo was located and got on his knees to make a call to Gorbink. Merlin, he thought, I am really glad we don’t have to do this at home anymore. After his conversation, he looked back at the director with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Do you think we could send a report to the Daily Prophet in England telling about how the Minister’s daughter is still locked in the box as if I wasn’t here? We need to speak with Severus as soon as he finishes his potion he is working on. He will want to know about this. I have our company manager looking into who bought it.”

“I thought you just spoke to a Gringotts goblin. Who is your manager?”

“The Gringotts goblin handles most of the overseeing of the company. He works very closely with us to keep things running smoothly.” Harry said. “It’s the goblins that build these trunks for us. We use the shells that the acromantula molt off and there are protection, safety and warding runes carved into the shell.”

“Merlin” the director said. “You really do work with other magical creatures.”

That evening Severus and Harry were invited to eat at the Minister of Magic’s home with his wife and two children.

The children were a twelve year old boy and the ten year old girl. The brother said very nicely in a much accented English, “Thank you for helping my sister.” Harry was pleased to see that the children were allowed to stay and speak with the adults at the dinner table. They were encouraged by both parents to participate in the conversation even though some of the subjects were clearly hard for them to understand. The parents would patiently explain so the children could ask questions.

They stayed in Germany for a total of two weeks. Severus completed his testing in Potions, DADA, Warding, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Muggle Studies and Wandless Magic. It was a grueling two weeks, but they were very successful.

At the end of the two weeks, they moved on to Sydney Australia and another round of testing.

Harry was excited to finally be here. He loved seeing the sites and watching Severus take his tests, but now it was his turn and he was really looking forward to it (being over that is).

They were met by the Minister for Magic at the airport. Harry wondered just how important he thought they were. He was sure the Minister for Magic in Britain would not have come to see them, and they were from his own country! Of course he didn’t know that.

During the drive to the hotel, they spoke about the testing Harry would be doing. They also spoke about the werewolf’s cure and many other things before being shown to their suite. Harry and Severus would meet the instructors the next day.

Harry had decided to test in everything he could so he would not have to come back for more tests. Not that he didn't want to come back to this country, but Becca was getting heavy in her pregnancy and he wanted to be there for her. After Evan was born, he felt his time would be better spent with his son. He was really ready to get on with the rest of his life.

As it turned out, one of the testing instructors was a middle aged Aborigine. He had on a tribal dress robe denoting that he was of some authority in his tribe and his expression was... stoic and emotionless, was the only way Harry could describe it. This was the only one who practiced Elemental magic and had already heard about Harry coming. They said that he was only there three or four times a year and only came in for special testers. Harry felt as if he was losing some of his anonymity if these people knew who he was before they had met him. It turned out that the German Minister for Magic spoke with the Australian Minister and so Harry was getting famous for himself and not what his parents did.

It was the middle of the week and Harry was getting exhausted. If he thought the founders were hard taskmasters, they had nothing on these people. They made him go though everything they could think of and more. Severus always watched from the sidelines and smirked when they tried to trip Harry up during DADA. It was after a particular grueling duel with the Head of the Auror Department that Harry collapsed after winning and said "Enough, you guys, I need a rest." He said it half jokingly, although it was true. He had just dueled with three of the best aurors they had. These people were always laughing with him and at him sometimes, but it was all in good fun.

When it was time to test with the Aborigine named Arbulee, they took a different approach. He wanted to bring Harry to an open place to test some of his elemental prowess. So Harry, Severus and Arbulee portkeyed to where his tribe was. Harry had never seen anything as beautiful in his life as he stared at the true outback. It was so open and in some areas desolate but struck you with a sense of awe at the same time. The tribe welcomed them, although they knew that was unusual. Harry spent a whole day testing his powers. He had never been able to on any large scale at home as he didn't have this kind of space to really create anything.

His test included moving the earth by moving a small hill, creating a water storm, a dust storm and then the hunters of the tribe threw spears at him all at one time. Harry wasn't expecting that and immediately created a cushion shield of air that slowed the spears in midair until they just dropped to the ground. Everyone, including himself just stared in awe at the spears that were sitting lifeless on the ground undamaged, as if they had been placed there by their owners instead of hurling at one small young man.

Arbulee approached him and said, "You are a true elemental. I have never seen anything like that. We will do no further testing on this matter. Come it is time to eat and rest."

They approached a campfire the others had started and noticed the women had been cooking there for some time. As they sat on the ground, they were served some kind of meat Severus didn't recognize, but it was delicious in any case. They also had some type of local squash and then fresh berries for desert.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught sight of something moving on the ground, close to the shadows. As he stood up, Severus pulled on his hand. "Where are you going?"

"I see something over that way in the shadows. I want to go check it out."

"Not without me you aren't" Severs stated sternly. He turned to Arbulee and said something quietly and they both got up to see what Harry was looking at.

Arbulee noticed a movement from the direction they were walking and said quietly "Stop Harry" as he pulled back on both of the other men. "That is the King Brown snake and is deadly. Don't go near it. They don't normally come this close to the fires and the village.

Harry very carefully knelt to the ground and hissed, **"Hello, my name is Harry, what are you doing here?"** The snake then came into full view and raised its head to the black haired youth.

**"We are here to see the speaker. I am King of the brown, are you the speaker that came, the master of The Seven?"**

**"I know The Seven and First Born is my familiar, I do not claim to be 'Master' of ones so honorable."**

Severus was quietly translated to the others. He was getting used to Harry talking to the snakes, but the others were in a state of shock and didn't want to miss the show but didn't want to get too close either.

**"You are the one, the master of The Seven. We wanted to meet you."**

**"I am honored to meet you as well, King of the brown. I would ask that you do not harm these people, they are under my protection."**

**It was not our intention to cause alarm, only to see for ourselves the royal of the wizards."**

**"What do mean the 'royal of the wizards'?"**

**"The ones to bring peace. It has been prophesied through the generations. The masters of The Seven would come at a time of conflict and bring peace. We felt your magic earlier and wanted to see if the prophecy had finally come to pass."**

**"Then you are not here to harm these people?"**

**"We came to request you bring The Seven back here so we may meet them. It would be a great honor."**

**"We will be most pleased to return for a visit, however it will be awhile."**

**"Thank you, we will leave now."**

With that the King of the Browns left and Harry then saw several smaller snakes follow. A smile came to his face as he watched the pack leaving. He turned to face Severus and realized the entire tribe was looking at him.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" Harry asked.

Arbulee answered for the entire tribe. "Even we have prophecies and have heard of one to come and remove the evil. I thought it might be you but didn't realize the snakes knew too. That snake is one of the deadliest in the world."

"He wasn't going to hurt anyone. He just wanted to meet us and to find out about the different magic he was feeling. Everything is alright." Harry answered nonchalantly with a shrug.

The remainder of the evening was snake free and Harry and Severus learned much about the magical tribes in one of the oldest continents of the world.

The next day saw them back at the ministry with more testing. As he completed all his examinations he was given the certificates and told that they needed to be signed by both the ministry official and himself. Since the ministry instructors already signed them, they only needed a date and Harry's signature. If he wanted to wait, they would date themselves when he applied his signature. This way they would not all be dated now, Harry could take them home and sign them when he wanted thus making his completion dates different as if he had studied over several years.

The last few days, were upon them and Severus wanted to do something special. He told Harry they were not leaving right away, but taking a few days break before returning to England.

"You will love the place we are going to. It is one of the seven most wonders of the world and has the deepest pockets of old magic ever felt." Severus told him as they made their way out of the hotel. They took a muggle tour bus and then a boat to a hotel located on The Great Barrier Reef.

Approximately 2000 kilometres of blue green ocean along the coast of Queensland and over 340,000 square kilometres, with the most diverse species and vivid colors of coral and underwater wildlife ever seen. They spent three days at the hotel and did everything they had to offer. Scuba diving, touring and there was even a glass bottom boat ride where a diver went into the water to feed the fish so they would come up close to the windows in the boat and everyone could see them up in detail.

On the last day they went in a mini submarine to a few of the different coral cays. Harry was so awestruck by the beauty of the water life, he didn't want to leave. However, as Severus, pointed out, they could always come back and visit.

As they winged their way back to their own home, it was with a sense of relief that finally they were finished and ready for the next step in their lives. They had helped build the businesses and trusting relationships with many species of magical creatures and animals, they now had a good relationship with at least three other major Magical Ministries, they had completed their certifications and they were anxiously awaiting their child. Everything was set for the next step. Severus and Harry had discussed quite a bit about what else needed to be done while waiting to rescue the baby that was destined to be an orphan in this time line. Now all they had to do was continue the relationships they had and wait for the child.