The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 03 January 2, 2010

Chapter 60: Stories from the Past

Everyone started talking all at once. With the new comers, came new questions about the Princes and what they were doing. Several of the purebloods recognized the man in the quality green and silver robes as someone that looked like Salazar Slytherin and must be related to him. Although his robes appeared to be of an older style they still were of the utmost finery. But the only one they knew that could claim to be Slytherin’s heir was the Dark Lord and they had been told the Prince Organization did not support him.

This man however, had an air about him that the Dark Lord could never achieve. He was not only elegant in a way that spoke of breeding and confidence; he pulsed with an old magic power that no one had seen in a long time. At least not until the Prince family had shown up. He was obviously of pureblood breeding and very old pureblood at that. They were all curious as to where he came from and why he was there. In contrast, it was easy to understand the difference between this man and the Dark Lord. This man’s magic was dark and tinged with old magic, the Dark Lord’s was dark magic tinged with evil. Those who had been in the service of the mad man, finally started to see the difference and it would forever make a lasting impression. Suddenly the book that had been sent to them was making complete sense and their minds were open to the truth for the first time.

Harry then stood at the podium and spoke to everyone in the room.

“Everyone please, may I have your attention. I would like to introduce you to our unexpected guests. They have traveled a great distance to be here and we did not realize they would arrive tonight. The gentleman standing next to Becca is Lord Slytherin and the couple is Dora and Remy Tonks with their son Teddy.” At this Narcissa snapped her head forward and she noticed her aunt also looked at the acknowledgement of the name. “Please help us to make them welcome as we continue with our celebrations.”

It was another hour before the party came to a close and the guests were escorted to the upper level to be portkeyed back to their homes. The Malfoy’s were among the last to leave.

“Are you related to my sister, Andromeda?” Narcissa wanted to know of the couple. It was Tonks that answered her.

“Distantly, I believe, Lady Malfoy. The Tonks were from an old pureblood family that had several squib born children.” She was glad that Becca had given her some brief instructions on what to say if approached by Narcissa or Walburga.

“Ah, yes the squib born. Such a shame that we didn’t have this information sooner, it could have saved so much trouble.” Narcissa replied.

“I believe we did have it, some just didn’t want to believe it.” Tonks said. She was trying to stay neutral with the woman, even given the history between them. She had to remind herself that this was not the woman that had helped to shun her mother from the family in her own time line.

“I look forward to seeing you again soon, perhaps at our Lady’s Social Club? Ask Becca for the details if you will be staying awhile.”

“It would be most agreeable to further our acquaintance Lady Malfoy. Have a good evening.” Tonks smiled as she cut the conversation short, she didn’t want to say anything that would compromise the safety of the family before she found out exactly where and when they were. This time travel stuff was giving her a headache.

She walked over to her husband who was speaking with his younger self. They had left in the morning from the time facility that Sal said was in between time lines, but now it obviously was night. Poor little Teddy didn’t know what to do with all the sudden attention. Severus, the younger Remus and Harry kept taking turns holding him and he seemed confused about the younger Remus. She could sympathize with him, she was confused too.

When the last of the guests left with Sentry Dobby in command of the untraceable portkeys, and making sure no one could come back in without permission, the group of current adults remaining consisted of Remus (the younger) Harry, Severus, Becca, Regulus, Snape and the four new time travelers. Severus had already called an elf earlier to prepare quarters for the four of them.

When they arrived at the Prince quarters, the elves set out tea and biscuits for the ten people that had congregated in the room. Harry sat on the sofa with Remy and Tonks on his other side. Salazar sat with Becca in the matching love seat. Other chairs were brought in so the group could be comfortable.

“Now, tell me how you guys came to be here.” Harry said as they settled in with their tea. “I never expected to see you again.” As he said this he leaned into Remy letting him know how much this had distressed him. He looked over at Teddy who was on a blanket on the floor playing with a few toys Harry had conjured for him. Presently he was watching a teddy bear walk around and say “Teddy”, “Teddy”.

“You had a job to do Harry, and you left plenty of information and help behind. You said you knew the time line was going to destroy itself, but you hoped we could make a difference. Your letter explained everything you had gone through and everything you were trying to do. You could not have done more to make my last days as fulfilling as possible. Do not blame yourself for having to leave me behind. It took your letter nearly two weeks to reach me. You had already been gone into this other time line long before I received it.” Remy took Harry’s hand and held it, patting the back in a fatherly fashion, giving testament to the affection he had for the young man.

“But how did you get here?”

“I can answer that question.” Salazar spoke up for the first time this evening. So far he had only conversed with First Born and quietly watched everything going on around him other than to say a few words to their guests of earlier.

“I was trying to follow Becca. We have been conversing through the mirrors of past and future for many years. I watched her grow up into the beautiful young woman she is today. When her Great Grandfathers discovered the secret magic of a Time Spirit, I was the only one on record as having that particular type of magic. We spent much time together through the mirrors studying and looking for answers. When I learned of what was happening and what my supposed heir did, I had an argument with Godric and Rowena about the squibs and told them what would happen. I also told them to leave the muggleborn out of the school. The true muggleborn are only gifted in one area and do not have a magical core. I believe you have this information already so I won’t repeat it.” He was correct; this information had already been published in several of their books.

Sal took a sip of his tea and settled more comfortably in his seat before continuing. “I couldn’t get a fix on what time line Becca settled in. In order to have an accurate fix, she needed to be in the past and future mirror, but she didn’t have any contact with me. So I followed her to her last known location. I met Remus and Tonks at Prince Manor where I was sure I would find her, only to discover she had already left and moved on. We had to wait a few years before an open window into this time line was available. This is the first chance we have had to follow you here.”

“How long has it been?” Harry asked.

“I received your letter about four years ago Harry. Tonks was not even pregnant at the time.” Remy answered. “In fact, it wasn’t until I took the cure that I could even think about having a relationship with her.”

“Harry you really helped us out, Harry, we will never forget it.” Tonks added to what her husband had said.

“If Becca hadn’t come and saved me, we would not be having this conversation. We only did what we could.” Harry replied. He didn’t want thanks, he was just glad his Remus was here and he was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Remy was a Dad.

“So you two are married and you know Harry quite well from what I am seeing.” The younger Remus stated as he leaned forward listening intently for the answer. “How do you know each other?”

Remy looked at Harry as Harry looked at him and then Harry stated, “That is something we will have to explain later. We can’t say right now.”

The younger Remus then looked at Becca, “So does this mean I am to marry the Tonks of this timeline? I have never understood the whole pairing thing and who we are meant to be with.” Remus looked casually at Snape sitting in the corner. He actually would not mind a relationship with the man, but had held off because the older Severus was with Harry.

“No, it doesn’t mean that at all.” Becca stated trying to answer his question as best she could. “This timeline is different. Every thing we change here, changes the future. The Severus and Harry that came from the other place were perfect for each other. They had both suffered and grown up in war. They had similar experiences and could understand each other.” Becca then focused over to Regulus and made a slight movement to bring the focus to him.

“Take Regulus sitting there. He was dead in the other timeline. Does that mean that he is not meant to find a life partner or have children? Of course not! His soulmate may also have been killed in the other timeline and we may rescue that person too. Or perhaps his soulmate had to settle for a different partner. We don’t know that, but we do know things are not going to be the same.” Becca explained to the group at large.

Remus nodded in response and settled back into his chair to continue listening to this unbelievable story.

Salazar then continued, “I arrived about two years ago at Prince Manor only to find I had missed Becca and was in the middle of a war. We kept the forces at bay, helping what people we could until the window presented itself. We then went to the time facility and followed you here.” Salazar finished his story. Everyone knew there were more explanations to come and that was only the highlights of what happened.

“So what happened with Dumbledore?” Severus asked the older version of Remus.

“Well, after he lost Harry, the man became incensed. It was like he was a different person altogether. No one could understand anything he did. If I had not already read Harry’s letters and the information left at Prince Manor, I would have thought he had lost his mind. But then, I think he lost his mind many years ago. He started looking for Harry and the only thing he could get from the Dursley’s was a woman took him. So he went to the Weasleys and nearly destroyed the whole house trying to find him. I guess he thought that was the only woman Harry knew and it couldn’t be anyone else.” Remus paused and looked at Harry. “After I read the letters and journal, I started keeping tabs on him to see what he was doing. He started attacking almost anyone who might have known where you were. Tonks didn’t come under suspicion because she was on a mission for the ministry aurors in Switzerland at the time you disappeared. Funny thing was, when she came back I had already taken the cure and showed her the letter. She was the only woman that knew where you were.” He chuckled at the irony of the situation.

“I know he took Ronald and Ginny back to the school, but I don’t know what happened to them after that. I couldn’t keep tabs on his private quarters or his office. He tried to destroy Grimmauld Place when he couldn’t get in and he attacked several of the Order members looking for Fawkes too.” Remus paused before interruption himself, “You wouldn’t know anything about that now would you?”

Harry smirked and pointed to the opposite side of the room in a corner where the magnificent fire phoenix was perched in rest. As if he knew they were talking about him, he ruffled his feathers and nodded in their direction before twisting his head back under his wing. “I guess I forgot to mention that in the other information. Fawkes was magically chained to his perch and we rescued him. Becca has some interesting ways of doing things. We will have to teach you later.” He smiled at the memory of receiving Fawkes in the box that disrupted Dumbledore’s magic.

“He wasn’t happy about losing his bird, Harry.” Remus smirked at his first cub and added. “Nope, not happy at all.”

They were temporally distracted as Teddy grabbed his bear and said “Teddy… bear, Teddy… bear.” The young tike lay down on the blanket and started sucking on his bottle as he held the stuffed bear and started to fall asleep.

“He’s so cute Remy, and he seems to have inherited Tonks metamorphmagus abilities.” Harry said while he watched the little one go to sleep as his hair turned from purple to brown and settling for green.

“Where is your son? You wrote that you were pregnant when you were rescued.” Tonks wanted to know.

“Actually it’s only been about four and a half months since I wrote the letter, so Becca is still pregnant. We traveled back far enough so he would be born about July 31st. the year here is 1980.

Remus and Tonks seemed to know the significance of the date but didn’t say anything about it. The younger Remus, Snape and Regulus did not know why they chose that date and they had never been told that Harry was really a Potter.

“So what happened with Voldemort?” Harry wanted to know, but took notice as Snape cringed at the mention of his name. Harry had forgotten his was in the room. The man had sat quietly in a corner listening to the conversation and not making a sound. Harry knew there was some discomfort in the mark at the mention of the forbidden name. He sent an apologetic look Snape’s way and waited for his answer.

“About a year after I got your letter, he went on the warpath. He killed his entire inner circle, trying to find out about his… artifacts… I would imagine. One of the Death Eaters was a werewolf that came for the cure and would keep us posted. We did not have the ability to remove the dark mark at the time.”

“So that would mean the Malfoys and LaStranges were gone?” Severus wanted to know.

“Yes” Remy replied. “The inner circle and their families were all annihilated. As well as some of his other minions if he felt they were unfaithful.” Remy sighed at the memory. Such a waste of magical power.

“He started attacking like never before and the muggles started fighting back. However, they didn’t fight back with fists and guns; they fought with bombs and tanks. They blasted holes through our wards and didn’t stop there. The muggle news reporters carried stories of space aliens from another planet and there was terror everywhere. That is how the end came eventually. Wizards killing each other for supremacy were one thing, but the destruction from the bombs was something else. We had no way of fighting that. One explosion was the equivalent of a hundred blasting curses at once.”

Harry and Severus looked at each other and wondered the same thing. Would they be able to stop this from happening again? It seemed as if the fate of the universe hung on their success of this one task. A task that they had all bet their lives on and could not fail to accomplish, it was daunting to say the least.

“Why” Snape started to say, “do I get the feeling that there is something you are not telling us. I thought we were all in this together and were fighting for the same thing.” The young man was obviously getting tired and snarky. Severus thought that maybe it was time to call it an evening as it was close the three in the morning. Everyone was starting to feel sleep deprived.

“There are many things you have not been told yet, but there are some things we cannot reveal. We are not allowed to change certain events, but can change many others. The events we cannot change we do not speak of; the other events are not here yet and will be divulged later. You will know all eventually, when the time is right.” Becca told the young men in the room then added. “Please believe us, it is not that we do not trust you, it is just the way things need to be fore now.

Harry in order to change the subject looked at Becca and Salazar and asked “What about you two? You certainly seem to know each other well.”

Becca’s face turned a pretty shade of pink as Sal answered his query. “I have conversed with Becca since she was a small child. Although to go through time you have to wait for an open portal, you can see the past and future through a special mirror, the mirror of past and future. You can also converse with other Time Spirits. This allows you to adjust events to make sure of the outcome. When Becca grew older she and I both realized that we wanted to be together. However, we had to try to rectify the these events first. We could not be happy knowing we could have changed things and didn’t at least try. We promised we would wait for each other and this is the first time we have met in person.”

“We tried to stop the events we are currently in from happening from where we were. It could not be done from the mirrors and when I tried to stop some of it from my own time, the other founders did not agree with me. The best thing I could do was arrange with Gringotts to make sure I had appointed an heir that would use my money and other precious magical items wisely. Hence Harry was named as my heir and everything was put into trust.”

Salazar saw the interest in what he was saying as he looked around the room. The younger Remus, Snape and Regulus were listening intently as if they didn’t know some of this information. He did not want to disclose too much but didn’t see what he was saying as a real threat, so he continued his story.

“It wasn’t until many years later that the other founders finally took note of what I had been saying all along and changed their stance on muggleborn and squib born. However, it was too late to change things. The path of your current Dark Lord had already been set in that my sister had given birth to a set of twins. One had great magical power and the other had none. There was much sibling rivalry and a feud broke out. Needless to say, the one with the power, including parsletongue, was set on a path that we find ourselves on today. He was named my heir by his mother when I disappeared and left no children. She was not happy that I had taken steps to make sure my most precious possessions were secure. Her son only received what was left over; that which I didn’t care about and only one vault with a few thousand galleons. The other squib child was bitter and did not want to be a part of our world.” Salazar paused to get a sip of tea.

“I made sure that he would not get my money and years later after I left the other founders decided to duplicate my precautions and make sure Harry was named their heir, leaving the fate of Hogwarts to him. Finally realizing that what I said was correct and this point in time would be the crucial point of Wizarding history. They knew he would be able to settle the problems at hand and make a new future for the wizarding world.”

“But why me? I never did understand that.” Harry replied.

“Because you are the chosen one, Harry, you always have been.” Salazar said softly.