Capítulo 1553: 15
Chapter 15: Summer Part One, or: How Severus Snape and Remus Lupin got drunkNotes:
Good morning everyone!
Once again, thank you for all your comments, especially under the last few chapters when year one came to a close. Your feedback is incredible.
Now we are heading into a very interesting summer, ranging around two and a half chapters. I hope you'll like it. The chapter kind of got out of hand and is quite a bit longer than usual, but I'm sure you all won't mind.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A week into the summer holidays both kids were pretty happy and in a damn good mood. All their school assignments were done by now, everything else they did were some extracurricular things to advance their knowledge. The only bad thing here was that, other than Harry, Mione couldn't use her wand to work on their battle and elemental magic. Well, at least they weren't sure about that, not knowing how much the trace detection had improved in the recent years and if it could penetrate the Potter Manor wards. But there was a simple solution to that.
Since basically all they did was study advanced magic and both of them had to work on the practical application too, Harry found his best friend a traceless spare wand which was more or less well-suited. That created a whole new set of opportunities for them, mainly duelling in a controlled environment. The Potter Manor held, like most of the old families' homes, a duelling chamber with the necessary enchantments. Combined with the house-elves, some of whom had healing experience mainly thanks to the Marauders, it all was basically harmless.
Well, it was dangerous, but they always came out unscathed. How, they didn't know since they threw quite a variety of curses at each other. Thankfully Dan and Emma had no idea of what precisely they were doing and assumed it was studying, which it was - sort of.
Mione threw a fire dragon curse, a gigantic flame in the shape of a dragon burning nearly as hot as fiendfyre, at Harry, while he skillfully built shields of water out of the air humidity to deflect it. The whole duelling chamber was filled with hot steam as those spells clashed, an opportunity Harry just had to use.
Fog, smoke and steam were rather easy to manipulate but could be used very efficiently to blind the opponent, which is what Harry did. And since the steam was hot, Mione had to focus on defensive casting for a few seconds, which gave Harry the opportunity to cast a simple banishing and disarming spell. It was one of the spell fusions they had learned from the Grimoire, creating so many possibilities.
It knocked Mione out, throwing her against the wall, and Harry summoned her wand, before dropping the steam manipulation charm and walking up to her. The room's wards had protected her from any real physical damage and because of that she was already getting up again when Harry handed her the wand. She smiled at him.
"Nice one, that with the steam was damn mean. Took me way too long to protect me from the heat so…"
She was interrupted by a loud bang, which made her panic. Were they under attack?
Harry had an answer to that as he started to rush away, yelling that someone had tried to get through the main teleporting wards. That meant an unauthorised access via portkey or apparition, which usually led to the individual being ported into the holding chamber beneath the manor. That room wasn't anything like the prison basement at Malfoy Manor since the Potters were too light for something like that, but essentially it was there for the same reason.
Before opening the door in the basement, Harry thought about who it might be. Dumbledore was always an option, if he somehow found out, Remus was unlikely since he had told him to go to Minnie if he didn't know the location and the werewolf was smart enough to know about the defence systems. Any death eater would be possible too, but he had honestly never expected THAT person.
"Dobby?"
Yes, it was the Malfoys' little house elf, who had tried to enter his Manor. Made kind of sense, now that Harry thought about it. He was probably attempting to steal any incoming letters to prevent Harry from returning again, which was absolutely pointless.
"Yous be Mr Potter, Harry Potter! How comes you not living with family?"
Harry groaned. Dobby's stupid interferences were the last thing he needed. Still, it was good to see him, even if he looked bad and mistreated. He couldn't remember when he had last seen him, probably when he had found Mundungus Fletcher for him.
"You, house elf, tell me who's your master and what you are doing here."
He had to play that role, as much as he hated it, because as of now Dobby was still Lucius Malfoy's elf.
"Yous be in grave danger, Mr Potter. Dobby is here to tell you not to return to Hogwarts."
"Don't worry, I'm strong enough to protect myself. And you still haven't answered my question."
"Dobby can't. His bad mas…Oh no, Dobby has to punish himself for speaking badly of great great master."
Luckily, he accepted it when Harry forbade him to do so, but still, the little elf was anything but forthcoming. That was beyond unfortunate, because he couldn't have him interfere at all currently, or someone might find out that he was no longer with the Dursleys. On the other hand, Dobby was important for the timeline. Maybe the impact of keeping the elf in the Manor wouldn't be so bad. Or he would ask Mione to obliviate him.
Yes, that was a good idea. Implanting false memories into Dobby's head based on Harry's memories from the previous timeline, combined with a compulsion to not continue stealing Harry's letters.
He turned around and stepped out of the room, where his best friend was already waiting. She hadn't wanted to give away her presence to Dobby, but had to admit that Harry's solution was pretty nice. After using some legilimency she had enough of Harry's memory to alter Dobby's mind, so she stepped into the room, muttering Obliviate.
After around twenty seconds of working something started to happen, because the little house elf started to scream out of pain. First she thought she had done something wrong, but after he murmured something along the lines of "master be calling poor Dobby again" she understood. Dobby was trying to elf-teleport out of the Manor despite its wards to return to Lucius. House elf magic was strong and barely anyone understood it so she was expecting him to pop away any second now, making her speed up the process.
Then he disappeared.
"Did you do it?"
"I honestly don't know, Harry."
A few days later both kids accepted an invitation to Longbottom Manor, flooing from Harry's place to them to meet up with Neville. Little did they know that he wasn't the only one there. Augusta had invited the Greengrasses too, but not only so Daphne and Neville (a match she would appreciate very much) could spend some time, but also that Harry could tell Lord Greengrass his tale (well, the part Augusta knew obviously, not the time travel).
Lord Arthur Greengrass was a proud and cold man.
Well, at least that was what most people believed. Just like his daughter (mainly in the previous timeline) he kept his emotions to himself and always seemed distant. Actually he was a very kind and loving person, showing very much empathy towards Harry. He had never been one of the biggest Dumbledore fans, but the tale of young Harry Potter and all the bad that had been done to him totally shocked him.
Not as much though as the young boy's variety of titles. That had come out of nowhere. Yes, Lord Potter for sure, Peverell made sense now that he thought about it. If he were to help him out, then they would be able to make remarkable political changes. He was a Slytherin after all, cunning and calculating. He wouldn't abuse the boy's trust once he got it, Harry was one of Daphne's friends after all, but he would definitely try teaming up to push some of his ideas through the Wizengamot. If the price for that would be supporting muggleborn tolerance and acceptance even more than he did now and less strict creature and werewolf laws, then he would do that. And that much he admitted to Harry.
"You can count on my support, Lord Potter. I do hope that I can have yours too in the Wizengamot. With me you'll get the neutral and grey families on board for your werewolf and creature laws, and working against the systematic bigotry will be achievable too, if you back me."
Lord Greengrass, that much Harry understood, was a politician through and through. Harry had many titles and by that quite the political power, but with the support of one of the biggest neutral to grey houses he could do basically anything on his agenda. The light's support was mostly granted, and with the neutrals… that did sound like a good idea.
"So, what is your agenda precisely? If you were to tell me when you'd expect my support, once I go public with my titles and claim the seats obviously, then I'd suggest an alliance."
Arthur Greengrass nodded and summoned one of his elves, asking to bring him a document from his desk, which he used to negotiate alliances. It had all of his main points written down, explaining how flexible each and every one of those were, plus his voting behaviour on all previous topic-related points. Harry planned to go through the whole thing with both Augusta and Mione and promised him to make a decision before the end of the holidays.
The remainder of the day all four kids explored parts of the Longbottom Manor and its lands. Since the library wasn't really interesting (Hermione's words, though after Hogwarts and Potter Manor she had very, very high expectations), they were mostly outside and looking at the park and the greenhouses, which were bigger and more fascinating than Hogwarts'. That did explain Nev's knowledge and skill in Herbology.
They also had quite the interesting conversation with one of the paintings, a direct ancestor of Neville, though around six hundred years back. He, Lord Franklin Longbottom, had some interesting stories to share, and listening to him was something Neville had done quite often in the past. Now, as soon as the group stepped in front of the painting, it demanded to know who they were. Daphne instantly stepped forward and introduced herself as Heiress Greengrass, then Mione as a muggleborn (though the possible connection with the Dagworth-Granger family was brought up again, something she had disproven in the previous timeline), and then it was Harry's turn.
"Lord Harry James Potter, my Lord."
"A Potter! And a Lord? My condolences then, young man."
Harry smiled and thanked the former Lord Longbottom, before he then continued to introduce himself.
"But to be precise, I'm not only Lord Potter. Mainly due to the past wars the wizarding world has been decimated and so I'm also the Lord of the Houses Peverell, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, as well as Heir Black."
As proof he lifted up his hand to show the variety of all his rings to the painting, which in turn burst out laughing. Not only was the notion of one boy being Lord to so many ancient and most noble houses quite hilarious, the combination was very amusing too. The Gryffindor and Slytherin titles being held by one person was very funny (Lord Franklin's words), but Potter and Black was hardly less funny.
This led to quite a handful of stories about many of his ancestors from the middle ages, most of them being on different sides of the conflict. They had quite a laugh, before they went on looking at the greenhouses, but not without having to promise the painting to drop by again.
Unfortunately, this day ended way too fast and eventually Harry and Hermione left via house elf, this evening heading to the Manor. Both Dan and Emma had a few free days and so they decided to spend their time there. Dan mostly sat around reading (yes, just like his daughter), but mainly about mediaeval sword fighting and stuff like that. Emma on the other hand, together with one of the house elves used the nice summer days to make the rose garden beautiful again.
The kids did - surprisingly - not only learn all the time, but also grew rather fond of the pool and Harry even got Mione to play some quidditch. After a war heights didn't really make her uncomfortable anymore and once she stopped overthinking everything and just played, she wasn't that bad a chaser. It was really another ideal and perfect summer. Just peace and quiet.
Little did they know that all of that was about to change.
Harry was the first one to notice as he had control over the wards. Minne was here - but not alone. A powerful ringing in his ears told him that she brought a werewolf, but he had already known that. He would recognise the feeling of Remus Lupin's magic everywhere. And so did the wards, since Remus was classified as a friend. He just had to make that entry into the ledger of the disease and creature ward too, or otherwise he would have that stupid noise in his ears all the time.
"He's here, Mione!"
The witch didn't understand whom he meant, but since Harry started to slowly land, and that with a smile on his face and sounding pretty happy, she assumed he neither meant Riddle nor Dumbledore. Obviously she followed him, reaching the ground only a few seconds later. At that time though, he was already running towards the house, when Mione spotted him. Just a fraction of a second later, Harry started shouting "Uncle Moony!" and hugged the man (well, he would have probably tackled him down if he wouldn't have werewolf strength), who was mildly surprised. Still, he embraced Harry's hug.
Remus Lupin had reached British soil on the day before. It hadn't been an easy journey, especially because he had tried to travel undetected. As soon as he had arrived, he apparated north, closer to Hogwarts. After around an hour of walking - he hadn't managed to apparate further due to his exhaust - he arrived in Hogsmeade. It was a quiet day with hardly anyone on the streets, so there was no real danger of him being spotted, as he sneaked into Honeydukes.
His plan was to use the secret passageway in the shop to get into the castle where he would look for Minnie. The headmaster would luckily not be there, since the Wizengamot had an important meeting today.
It felt good to be back here, he thought. For years Remus had dreamed of returning to the castle some day, maybe even as a teacher, but to now be here…Hogwarts was still stunning, and it was still a place he could call home. After a long walk through the cold corridors he ended up in front of Minerva's office. Since a silently cast homenum revelio told him that there was only one person in there, he knocked.
"Remus! Good to see you, it has been years. Come on in, you want some tea?"
The elderly witch let him in and asked one of her elves to bring them some tea, before they sat down.
Minnie's office was not the biggest one, but she loved that room. As deputy she had access to another office, but that one was on the ground floor and way too big and posh for her. That she only entered when holding official meetings with staff, ministry or parents in her deputy function.
The office of the head of Gryffindor house was located in a little tower next to the Gryffindor tower, just steps away from the fat lady. It was very cosy and warm, kind of like the common room. The big fireplace was always lit and all the walls were plastered with pictures of students, former students, newspaper clippings about some of them and some very treasured photographs from Gryffindor parties, where she had let herself go and joined the fun. Hadn't happened in over a decade though.
Both Minnie and Remus took a seat on the big, red couch, while the elf placed a tablet with their tea and some biscuits on the little table in front of it. After exchanging some pleasantries and stories of how they've been, Minnie started retelling Harry's first year. Yes, she hadn't discussed it with Harry and Hermione, but she dropped enough hints for Remus to understand that they had come back from the future.
"You know, Minerva, I have actually heard of things like that before. I studied for my mastery with a travelling defence master in Middle and South America. He's sort of a legend there and tours through all the countries to solve their creature and dark wizard problems when needed. And in Peru I have heard tales of ancient wizards who claimed to have knowledge of several lifetimes and someone had given them another chance. Sure, they tended to claim it was some of their ancient gods, but I still believed it."
"Really? I didn't know that there was any knowledge about things like that, we found nothing in the library here. And I thought you did your mastery in the US?"
"Well, yes, the examination. My master said that the US-American examiners were the best in the world, making a mastery from there the most valuable. I thought that might give me a job despite my affliction. Unfortunately there were very little openings and yes, I was one of the best, but some people over there still have an issue with lycanthropy. That brought me back into Dumbledore's service. He could at least give me some minor guarantees."
After they had finished up the story time and Remus was familiar with their plans, Minnie suggested that they floo to Potter Manor, but Remus disagreed.
"As much as I want to see him, I need to rest. Apparating that far while trying to stay anonymous and hidden brought me to the verge of magical exhaustion. I think I'd like a nice meal and about twelve hours of sleep, maybe more, and then I'll get cleaned up, before we head to him."
She understood and suggested to him that they could get some food up to her office and then he could stay in one of the guest quarters. That did sound like a good idea.
Minnie did have another idea too, but didn't tell Remus. She headed to the fireplace, threw in some floo powder and stuck her head into the green flames.
"Severus? Would you be so kind and join me for dinner in my office? I have to tell you something."
The potions master put the cauldron he was currently working on under a stasis charm and rushed up to Minerva's office, using every shortcut he knew, because otherwise it would have taken him around twenty minutes. He managed it in under half the time and then proceeded to knock on Minnie's door. He was able to hear her say "could you please get the door?" to he had no idea whom, but the door opened.
"Lupin?"
"Snape?"
The following dinner was an…interesting one. The two men mostly kept to themselves for the first half of it, both not really ready to talk to each other after the whole incident during their time at school. At some point though Minerva had enough and scolded both men for their childish ignorance and that they should try burying the "god-damn bloody hatchet" so they could focus on helping Harry with both Voldemort and Dumbledore.
Both men had to agree that they were behaving childishly. And to be honest, the whole werewolf incident was both of their faults, and Sirius had played a major part too. It wasn't like Snape hadn't known Remus was a werewolf, for a brilliant student like him that had been obvious.
In the end they accepted that Minnie was right. Harry was all that mattered now, and they had to work together. Both men shook hands and slowly started to get to know each other, chatting about their time at school or their successes in their respective areas of expertise. Unsurprisingly, Severus was very able to talk to Remus about dark creatures, in his years under the Dark Lord he had seen, fought or even befriended many of them.
Hours later Minnie had left them alone. They had emptied a half-full bottle of firewhiskey, sitting around in front of the fireplace and chatting about how horrible both their lives were. The one a gifted Defence Master, but unable to work properly since he was a werewolf, the other a potions prodigy, bound to two masters and having lost the love of his life.
"We really are pathetic, are we not, Severus? And life just hates us."
The potions master nodded, already half asleep and slightly drunk (slightly drunk being an euphemism for totally wasted). Remus was hardly better off, but somehow managed to get up and say that he was to meet Harry tomorrow, so he would need his sleep.
Severus just briefly smiled at him, before he fell asleep on Minnie's couch. It was just thanks to Moony that Remus was able to walk down to his quarters and fall into bed there instead of on Minnie's couch.
After that evening Remus slept until the early afternoon, but once he had woken up he saw the plate with warm lunch, charmed by elf magic, and next to it a potion with a piece of parchment laying next to it. It said:
Good morning Remus,
Since you're gonna go and meet Harry and Hermione today, I sent one of the elves with a sobering potion to you, you'll probably need it just as much as I did. Falling asleep on Minerva's couch…that is certainly a first for me. She wasn't amused, but at least we did bury the hatchet.
She'll wait for you in her office, but look out, the old meddler is back in the castle, though he'll probably won't leave his office.
I suggest we'll stay in contact, don't hesitate to owl me anytime.
Severus
Things were definitely changing rapidly, Remus thought. He had no idea how Harry's previous life had been, but him and Severus being on friendly terms was probably new.
And that is how Remus Lupin ended up at Potter Manor with Minnie, getting hugged by young Harry. The young, bushy-haired girl - Hermione, he figured - then walked up to him, shook his hand for him to shake it and introduced herself. She seemed pretty nice and friendly and was supposed to be damn brilliant too.
After all the introductions - to the Granger parents too - were done, the four wizards and witches went inside to have a conversation. Mione though stopped Harry and punched him softly on his shoulder.
"That was stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid Harry James Potter. Running towards Remus and yelling "Uncle Moony." You want to blow up the timeline?"
Minnie had stopped too as soon as she had realised that the kids were still a few steps back and intervened.
"Well, Hermione, I had already expected something like that to happen, so Remus is already fully informed. And if you don't disagree, we'll do the same with Sirius Black. They are too close to you, they'd eventually realise that you know more about them than you should."
Mione was clearly unhappy, but had to agree to Minnie. Both Remus and Sirius meant so much to them, eventually they would slip and drop something they shouldn't. And having both of them on board with their plan was brilliant too.
And so they spent the rest of the afternoon with conversations and detailed plans of what they could do, as well as Remus promising to train and teach them during the holidays as they both could use wands, Harry thanks to his emancipation and Mione with the old spare one they matched to her. The werewolf was very happy to be here and to help, letting out all his anger and frustration at Dumbledore, which in turn made Harry even more furious.
"Eventually, we'll take old Dumbles down too. The meddler had it coming for a long time."
While the four of them were ranting about Dumbledore and his plans, one of those got set into motion. The headmaster had come by the Burrow to help Molly with hiding her finally completed love potion inside of some treacle tart, while they asked Ginny to write a letter to Harry that she had made this for him. Even though the little girl had absolutely no talent whatsoever in the kitchen, she didn't hesitate in claiming she had baked for "her Harry." After finishing a two-page love letter, which did sound slightly obsessive, Molly sent the letter and package off with Errol. The potion should begin to work immediately, but kick in really strong as soon as they meet on the express. She knew it would work, it did with Arthur when he was nearly a grown wizard and Harry Potter was just a little boy.
The owl arrived the following morning, since Errol was ancient and very weak. Dan and Emma were both back to work and the kids were still at the Manor with Remus, all currently sitting at the breakfast table and eating. As soon as Harry felt the owl crossing the ward he looked up to the window through which the birds usually came in. Once he saw and identified it, he turned around to one of the elves and told him to go get Minerva from Hogwarts.
"What is it, Prongslet? Do you know this owl?"
Harry nodded and began to explain to Remus that it was the Weasley family owl and that they were afraid that at some point Molly Weasley would go for love potions again. That made the man growl so loudly that you could actually hear the werewolf inside of him, especially because the full moon was already approaching again.
"Don't open that package, Harry!"
Luckily Minnie was already here and rushed forward, muttering like half a dozen spells and charming the package, before placing it in the middle of the table. She signalled Harry that he could now go ahead, which he then did.
The first thing he grabbed was Ginny Weasley's letter. Careless he ripped it open and skimmed across the parchment before tossing it away, but not without Mione catching it mid-air and reading it too.
"Oh gosh. Are we sure she wrote that herself, because if, then she should definitely see a mind healer. It practically screams unhealthy obsession."
Both Remus and Minerva agreed, it really did not sound like the girl would be sane at all, but rather a victim of Molly's and Dumbles' manipulations and brainwashing.
"Now, I've put several charms on that package so that it could be used in front of the wizengamot. I'm an auror in retirement after all, my auror-grade evidence protection spells can't be doubted at all. It hinders us or anyone else from tampering with it. Now, do go on and see if that really is just treacle tart."
Now they realised how hard the professor was working on the dossier to incriminate Dumbledore. Minerva McGonagall was no woman whom you would want as an enemy.
Harry had to admit, he was a fan of treacle tart, and that one did look very delicious, but he knew better. After letting his hand hover over the food he knew for sure. His hand was vibrating at such an intensity he was quite literally getting afraid, because not even the compulsion concoction Dumbledore had slipped him had created such a response.
"How about we call Severus and let him analyse the potion? He's a certified potions master, which would make our position even stronger."
Harry nodded, Hermione was as always right. And so the young Lord Potter added Severus Snape to the wards as a person allowed to enter, while Minnie floo-called him to come over. Unfortunately, since the headmaster had called for Snape in regards to some business concerning Slytherin students it took over an hour until he was finally able to come over.
"I didn't think that I'd ever see that in my lifetime. Severus Snape coming into Potter Manor as a welcomed guest."
Remus smiled as he said that and offered the potions professor his hand, which he took, smiling as well. Yes, they had come to more than just an understanding. They were accepting each other.
The scanning of the food took just over five minutes, and then Severus turned around. He was, to put it mildly, terrified.
"What kind of person would send…no, create such a strong love potion? It basically sends you into submission and you lose your free will. How could Molly Weasley do something like that?"
Everyone was both surprised and shocked. Last time they hadn't done that to him, at least not in that magnitude. Sure, his reaper had told him that he'd been dosed with love potion, especially from fifth year on, once they were all staying at Grimmauld Place. But something like that…
"Well, one thing is for sure, that would get you thrown into Azkaban immediately, especially when given to a pureblood wizard or witch. Yes, I know you're not really a pureblood per se, but that only depends on how you define that word. Lily was a descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw after all. Add to that that you're a lord and the Wizengamot would throw her into Azkaban for the rest of her life while giving you financial reparations. Line theft is something the lords hate extremely."
Harry listened carefully to Severus' explanations, realising how much incriminating material they had at hand. Once they could risk blowing up the timeline, he would destroy them.
"Alright, thank you Severus. Seems like Dumbledore is meddling again. He'll never know what's coming for him. He already lost the fight and will one day pay for it."
Everyone nodded in support. Hearing what Dumbles had done in the future was shocking, ignoring the wills and placing Harry at the Dursleys' was horrible too, and so was the whole thing with creating a confrontation between the kids and Voldemort. But now they had reached a new level. If Dumbledore wanted war, then he would get it. He was already doomed to lose.
Notes:
So, that's it for today, hope you liked it :)
As always, looking forward to your comments, see ya all next week
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder