Chapter Text
Seeing the underside of a set of stairs, from the inside of a boot cupboard, had him viciously baring his teeth.
“Throw me in Azkaban, will they?” He snarled. “I did what they wanted and the thanks I get, is a life sentence in Azkaban? Not this time, you bastards.” He lifted his hand, only to pause. “No, let’s do this the muggle way. Leave nothing to register on a magical residue scan.” He crouched down, grunting as it became clear that his young body was already battered and bruised.
It took him five valuable minutes to pry out the pins that held the door hinges together, but finally, the lack of pins let the door drop down the half-inch, to the ruler he’d shoved under it. Then, he carefully slid it to one side, far enough that the latch that Petunia had demanded be installed, was bypassed. Once he was in the hallway, the door was replaced, from the outside and the latch relocked. Lastly, he eased open the dining room’s French doors and exited the house, pushing them almost closed, but not letting the latches catch.
Just in case, he needed to return and plant some ‘evidence’, later.
He slipped from shadow to shadow, staying close to the fence, and avoiding the clear path with its crunching gravel, instead creeping along on the soft, not yet dew-laden grass. Fifteen minutes of cautious creeping, had him far enough from Number 4, that he could apparate.
But where to go?
Grimmauld was out. Walburga might be dead, but after the Battle of Hogwarts, when Dumbledore revealed that he’d faked his own death, it had emerged that Arcturus Black had been in cahoots with the old goat. For what reason, was never told to Harry, but what he’d worked out, was that Arcturus had also faked his own death and as Lord Black, had to lower the wards on Grimmauld, so that Sirius could even enter the house.
“The Tonkses are out, too.” Harry muttered quietly.
The purple-haired Auror and her mother had stood beside Dumbledore, when the old bastard had read out Harry’s sentence. It seemed that faking your own death was commonly acce…
“Oh…” Harry paused, mid-thought. “Oh, yes… Let’s do that…” The echo of a quiet laugh was all that was left, when he apparated away.
The ruins of the Cock and Bull tavern popped into existence, as Harry reappeared in Hogsmeade. He quickly and quietly made his way to the statue of Sir Edmond Lester, the man who had given the Founders the castle and grounds, that they’d used to build Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Or rather, the passage that ran from under the plinth, that the statue sat on, to the fourth floor of the castle’s keep.
He'd got just a few yards into the passage’s tunnel, when he bumped into a semi-solid object.
“Fuck!” He swore.
“Ow…” The object he’d bumped into spoke at the same time.
“Who’s there?” Harry wasn’t quite ready to expose the fact that he could do wandless magic, yet.
But all the same, a small ball of lumos light appeared above a small hand. It wasn’t Harry’s hand…
“H-Harry?” Asked a weak voice, as a face came into view, before collapsing into the shadows.
“Neville?!” Harry blinked, then realised exactly what he was seeing. “Oh shit. Hold on, Nev, hold on.” Harry started casting every healing chant he knew. Episky, vulnera sanentur, brachio emendum, ferula and reparifors were followed by enervate to wake the other boy. “Neville? You with me?”
“Harry…” The relief in the boy’s voice and on his face was clear. Relief that faded, once he saw Harry. “What the…?” He frowned. “Harry?”
“Yeah, Nev.” Harry sighed, he had a fair idea what the other boy was asking. “I’m ten… ish… Maybe nine, but more likely ten. It’s mid spring, or autumn, but I’ve been avoiding checking the date, until I was in the Room.”
“…of Requirement?” Neville asked.
“That’s the one.” Harry nodded.
“What do you remember?”
“Everything, right up to the dementor entering my cell, with the bushy-haired know-it-all and the jealous git, standing right behind it. You?”
“Later that same day.” Neville replied. “They didn’t intend to announce your death, as far as I know, but I heard Ron and Ginny talking to Dumbledore. They’d been to Gringotts to claim your vaults, but the goblins had already claimed them to pay for the damages you three did to the bank, when you broke in. They were also very put out, when the goblins barred Ron and Hermione from ever having vaults with them, again.”
“Good.” Harry smirked. “Serves them right.”
“Unfortunately, I made a noise, when I probably shouldn’t have and… well…” Neville shrugged. “I’m not sure what they hit me with, but I woke up, in my bedroom… An hour ago… I’d forgotten how badly Uncle Algie’s ‘lessons’ hurt.”
“Same here, with Vernon’s.” Harry sighed.
“What’s the plan?” Neville asked. “You’re not seriously going to let them get away with what they did to you, are you?”
“Oh, no.” Harry shook his head. “I want to kill them all. Or at least make them suffer. Take away what they value the most. But I need to do it in stages or it’ll draw too much attention.”
“What’s first?” Nev asked. “I’m not going back, I’ll kill Algie and Augusta, if I do.” It had been years since he’s called her ‘Gran’.
“The Room.” Harry replied. “I’m going to set a golem in my place. Kill Dumbledore and Molly-the-mouth. But Ron, Ginny and Hermione? I want them to suffer. I figure stripping their magic and fracturing their cores, should do it. Arthur won’t be able to keep the darlings, if they’ve no magic. The Burrow’s wards won’t allow it.” It had been a bone of contention between Hermione and Ron, that her parents couldn’t even drop her off, the wards wouldn’t let them anywhere near the place.
“That’s a start.” Neville nodded. “What else?”
“I plan to empty their vaults, via the Room.” Harry said. “Then, Bloodline conversions. Become someone else. Someone unknown. Someone new.”
“How do you intend to kill Dumbledore?”
“Use his own habits against him.” Harry replied. “He uses switching spells to change his clothes and sleeping potions get undisturbed sleep. I think a switching spell to move a nice bead of air into his veins, should do it. He’ll be too potioned to get help in time.”
“Nice.” Neville nodded. “And Molly?”
“I was thinking that I could do the something similar.” Harry answered. “But then I realised, I don’t want any similarities between their deaths. I spent the last few months working on something special. Just for her. For when I got out. I knew that sooner or later, someone would bust me out. I was kind of tossing up, whether it would be the twins, you and Luna, or Malfoy.”
“Oh, boy…” Neville grunted, he knew that the twins had been planning just such a heist.
“An internalised sectumsempra, but…” Harry grinned. “If I can get close enough, I can cast it wandlessly and wordlessly.” His grin grew teeth. “Using her own magic to fuel it.”
“Ooh… oh, I am so in.” Neville nodded fervently. “What do you need from me?”
“Nothing, but what you want to give.” Harry assured his friend. “But have a think about Algie and Augusta, and what you want to do to them.”
“The golems.” Neville replied. “When it dies, with all my injuries, they’ll be charged with Line Theft and Murder of an Heir. I don’t need to do anything more. I don’t think…? If they get away with it, I’ll reassess. I just don’t want anything to do with them.”
“Fair enough.” Harry nodded. “Welcome aboard.”
~~~
With Harry half-dragging-half-carrying Neville, arm around waist, it took a good twenty minutes to reach the Room. There, Harry had the Room set them up with the potions and equipment needed to create two living golems and to fully heal both Harry and Neville afterwards.
Both golems were battered and bruised, but as far as their makers were concerned, that was exactly what they were after. Then it was the long and arduous task of getting the golems into position. That meant apparating to Lincolnshire and Harry waiting as patiently as he could, while Neville and his golem snuck into Longbottom Lodge and into Neville’s room.
Here, the boy took a small bag and a single picture of his parents and then headed back out to meet up with Harry. In return, Harry apparated the three of them to Surrey and after some fast talking, convinced Neville to wait at the old abandoned sports field. The last thing they needed was for the wards to alert Dumbledore, to the fact that Harry had a magical visitor.
Now-uninjured, Harry and his golem were able to reach and infiltrate Number 4, within ten minutes. Then, it was time for Harry to retrace his steps.
~~~
Meeting up with Neville, apparating back to Hogsmeade and getting back to the Room, took another fifteen minutes.
“The night is vanishing…” Harry grimaced.
“… and fast.” Neville nodded. “What first?”
“I want to scalp the old goat.” Harry stated, bluntly.
“Physically or financially?” Neville tried not to laugh.
“I’d like to do both, but will settle for financial.” Harry snickered. “But first, I want to empty my trust vault. According to what was stated, at that sham of a trial they put me through, it holds the entire monetary wealth of the Potter estate.” He grimaced. “The only other vault, was an artefact vault. And bluntly? I’m sure the old goat went through that, within days of my parents’ deaths.”
“Quite likely.” Neville agreed. “But if he has the keys, empty it anyway. You might find some pictures or even a wand. Maybe some books. Who know?” He frowned. “That raises the question… How do you intend to get the keys?”
“Ask the Room to retrieve them from the Headmaster’s Office or private rooms.” Harry shrugged. “He’s not likely to have them somewhere else. He needs to be in control. Of everything.”
“True.” Neville nodded. “Should I do the same, do you think?”
“Definitely.” Harry replied, smiling sharply. “We may have to open the door to the Room for the actual withdrawals, though. I’m not sure that even goblin magic, will work through whatever magics enchant the Room. But opening the door, is not necessarily leaving the Room.”
“And it’s only taking summoned items out of the Room, that’s restricted.” Neville stated, nodding his understanding. “Alright, let’s do this. You first, so I know exact how it’s done.”
Harry nodded and summoned from the lost property a double opening coin purse. He checked the charmwork on it was still working and stable, he didn’t want an ANEC or featherlight to fail, not with the number of coins he hoped to have. Next, he had the Room summon all keys belonging to any Potter vault. With a surprising six keys in his hands, he began by checking the tiny tags attached to the key, for the vault number. One key was placed into one side of the coin purse and followed by Harry stating the order for withdrawal of all ʛalleons, §ickles and κnuts. This was repeated for each key. He repeated the process using the second opening of the coin purse for withdrawal of all Gringotts’ draughts.
Once each key had had its turn, he summoned a larger coin pouch and checked its ANEC and featherlight charms. Then, he began all over again, only this time he summoned all the contents of the vaults.
“Right…” Neville let his head rock as he thought about what he’d seen. “Are we keeping everything together, or separating it?”
“Let’s put it all together, to start with.” Harry replied. “Yours, mine and everything we ‘acquire’, too. We’re in this, together. They cheated us both, out of families and out of decent lifespans.”
“Right.”
For the next few minutes, the two now-young boys, summoned keys and inserted them into the coin purse and pouch, one after the other. Then, they summoned all coins and draughts from the Room’s contents. But eventually they finished and just sat looking at the two items.
“So… financially, we’re set.” Neville stated.
“Appears that way.” Harry agreed.
“So, what next? I mean… we’re nine, maybe ten. What do we do next? Are we going to Hogwarts? Are we leaving the country? Are we taking aging potions? What?”
“I’ve been thinking…” Harry said quietly.
“Oh, shite…” Neville groaned. “That tone is never good.”
“While I really want to see the life fade from Dumbledore’s eyes…” Harry grimaced. “It’s safer for both you and me, if I have the Room do it, instead.”
“Oh.” Neville blinked. “Yeah, that… that’s definitely better.” He nodded. “And the others?”
“Yeah, them, too. Less chance of getting caught.”
“Right…” Neville nodded some more. “I like that better. And then what?”
“As the last Potter,” Harry said quietly, “I’m going to declare the Family extinct.”
“Oh…” That hadn’t been what Neville was expecting.
“Then delete old snakeface.”
“Definitely.”
“Then bloodline conversion potions.” Harry went on.
“No, temporary de-aging potions, first.” Neville corrected. “That will get rid of your scar.”
“Oh, right, I forgot about that.” Harry grimaced, again. “Yeah, de-aging… should I do the conversions before the de-aging wears off? Does it make a difference?”
“Not as far as I know.” Neville frowned. “Maybe ask the Room for confirmation, though.”
“Yeah, Hogwarts will know.”
“There’s one thing…” Neville hesitated. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but Ron said something that…” He paused, again. “Can the Room check if we should actually be male.”
“I don’t understand…?” Harry tilted his head in confusion.
“Ron kind of implied that one or both of us should have been born a girl. That Dumbledore did something, that changed it.”
“Oh, hell…” Harry sighed. “Can’t be the ‘he’ in the prophecy if we’re girls, can we? Fuck you, Dumbledore, did you mess with every part of our lives?!” The question was screamed into the Room.
“Probably.” Neville chuckled.
Harry suddenly stopped and looked at Neville.
“What were you planning?” Harry asked. “Before I stepped on you, what was your plan?”
“Kind of the same as yours.” Neville replied. “Not quite as detailed, but you’ve had a whole year to work on it, sitting on your ass in Azkaban. I’ve only had the hour since I woke up.”
“Did you have parents in mind?” Harry asked. “Because I gotta say, I’m coming up blank there. There’s lots of options, but every one of them has negatives. Negatives that make me cross them off the list, pretty quick.”
“I did, actually.” Neville’s smirk was a thing of beauty. “In 1970, a young girl wanted to play a trick on her brother, who’d started Hogwarts the year before. She hadn’t liked the way he talked about some of the muggle-raised students and decided to teach him a lesson. Her letter arrived and she slipped it to her mother, but told her brother that she hadn’t received one. He ran straight to their father and tattled. Her father confronted her with the accusation, in the main sitting room. She hesitated, not wanting to lie to her father, but not wanting to let her brother know, that she’d lied to him.”
“Right…?”
“Her father took that as agreement and cast the cruciatus on her.”
“Shit…”
“He went to cast it a second time, but she activated an emergency portkey.” Neville said. “He’d gotten Gringotts portkeys for both her and her brother, before the brother had started Hogwarts. The brother, because he was the Heir to the House, and her, because she was the first girl born in their family, in nearly four hundred years.”
“Right.” Harry nodded, those were fair reasons.
“Her father was forced to floo to the bank.” Neville went on. “But that took time. In the time between the portkey depositing her in the bank and her father getting to the bank, explaining the issue and being escorted to the portkey arrival area, she’d presented her trust vault key and had her vault emptied, converted to draughts and placed in a new coin purse. Seconds before her father entered the arrivals room, she dropped the coin purse and pushed it under the monitoring goblin’s desk.”
“Smart.” Harry snorted.
“Her father walked into the room and immediately cursed her, with the cruciatus, again.”
“Asshole.”
“He then went to AK her, but a goblin stopped him.”
“Why? I thought they were forced to be neutral? Something in the Treaty, isn’t it?”
“The goblin reminded her father, that killing a blood-related child, one wholly dependent on him, would result in him forfeiting his position as Head of House. Magic would not allow it.”
“Oh… right.” Harry nodded. “Forgot that.” Luna had told him, that was the only reason Dumbledore hadn’t killed Harry and claimed his vaults, himself. It would have cost him every position he held.
“So, he disowned her.” Neville continued. “He got through the entire spiel, only had the confirmation to say, when the girl’s mother burst into the room and handed him the girl’s letter. Told him that ‘no, she didn’t have her letter, I did’, that it wasn’t until the girl’s brother told their mother what had happened, that the mother had flooed straight to Gringotts, in an attempt to stop him, before it was too late.”
“Two casts of cruciatus, wasn’t too late?” Harry asked, blinking in disbelief.
“At that point, the girl spoke up.”
“Of course, she did.” Harry sighed.
“She said the confirmation.” Neville sighed, too. “Told the father that he’d declared her a stone around his neck, so a Stone she would be. From that moment on, she would no longer be Celestina Athena Alexandra Malfoy, but would now be Christina Athena Stone.”
“Malfoy…?!” Harry gasped.
“Then… in a display that Gringotts talked about for months…” Neville grinned, “she cast a perfect… wandless…Vindication curse on her father.”
Harry blinked and frowned. “I… I don’t know that one…”
“If someone feels that their disownment or repudiation is unjustified, they can cast the curse.” Neville started. “The curse is completely impartial, it will take half of the magic of the person at fault. No matter which person it is. Child, parent, grandparent, Head of House. It doesn’t matter. And you can’t argue with Magic. Magic knows.”
“Whoa…”
“Very few people are brave enough to actually cast it.” Neville agreed. “In most cases, there’s a reason for the disownment. In the few, where there isn’t… It’s usually known, far enough in advance, for the one being disowned to sort out their finances and make a plan. And Magic takes that sort of thing into consideration, when determining who will be affected by the curse.”
“Right.”
“In the case of Christina Stone…” Neville grimaced. “Abraxas Malfoy was furious. He stated that as she was no longer a Malfoy, she should no longer have access to Malfoy money and reclaimed her trust vault, re-absorbing it back into the Family vault. Then told her mother to say goodbye, as she would never speak to the traitor again and swept his way out of the room.”
“Fucking Malfoys.” Harry groaned. Draco might have wizened up in his last year at Hogwarts, but it took far longer for Lucius to do the same and Harry wasn’t truly certain that he’d done so, not even four years later, when the blonde had been sentenced to be Kissed.
“Alexandra Malfoy, was barely able to speak,” Neville sighed, “but she was able to hug her daughter for the last time. Then she asked the goblins if the newly-named Christina Stone, had a vault. When told no, she ordered the withdrawal of half the funds in her own personal vault, to be given to Christina, as draughts. Then she too, left the room. Lucius was reputed to have been violently ill, when told what had happened to his sister and the part that he’d played in it.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Longbottoms do not have elf nannies.” Neville said, bitterly. “It’s below us. Christina was my nanny from the day the Lestranges attacked, until my eighth birthday. I don’t think Augusta even knew her name, I only ever heard her called ‘nanny’, for the entire time she was with us.”
“Bloody hell…”
“She used to tell me stories.” Neville continued. “She’d make them up, just for me. But sometimes, late at night, when I woke with nightmares, she’d tell me about her life. She never went to Hogwarts, Gringotts became her guardians, seeing as the disownment and the Vindication curse were cast in the bank and Magic clearly marked Abraxas, as the one at fault. As such, they felt that her going to Hogwarts was asking for trouble, instead, they sent her to the Irish Magical Academy. She did quite well. Got seven OWLs and six NEWTs. Planned to go on and study for a Mastery in charms.”
“But…?” Harry turned he head sideways and looked at Neville from the corner of his eye.
“Not long after she graduated from the Academy, she was attacked.” Neville answered. “Magically and physically. A group of young louts, she called them. Wizards. They immobilised her, hexed her, cursed her, beat her, then one of them raped her. She knew who he was, his father was an associate of Abraxas Malfoy’s. There’d been talk of a betrothal between the two. He had no idea who she was, just assumed that she was another muggle. The other louts left, while he was… occupied. Once he finished, he released her and went to cast the AK on her, only she was quicker and hit him with a tongue-tie hex. Then she castrated him. And vanished the bits she’d cut off.”
“No growing that back.” Harry laughed.
“He was horrified.” Neville snickered. “And she was vicious. Hexed the word ‘rapist’ onto his forehead and proceeded to call down the magic of her mother’s House on him. He was burnt and would feel those flames for the rest of his life.”
“Her mother’s House?”
“Potters never forget.” Neville smirked. “And they never forgive.”
“Potter?!”
“Alexandra was the youngest daughter of Charlus Potter.” Neville replied. “Your father was James, his was Fleamont and Fleamont’s, was Charlus. She’d be your Great-Aunt, if she were still alive. She died, just days before Christina’s seventeenth birthday.”
“Potters never forget and we never forgive.” Harry nodded. “That sounds about right.”
“Yeah.” Neville nodded.
“Continue.” Harry made a rolling gesture with his hand, he knew there was more to come.
“Right.” Neville nodded, again. “She left him there. In the dirt, severely burnt, castrated and his wand burnt to ash. She apparated to Gringotts and had them contact his head of house with a claim of rape and a request for reparations, but…she’d asked them to word it in such a way, that his father would be more likely to repudiate her and her child, if she ended up pregnant, than to pay her.”
“Smart.” Harry said for the second time.
“His father didn’t even reply, just cast the repudiation, immediately.” Neville grinned. “Then, went looking for him.”
“Ouch.”
“His father tried to reverse the repudiation, but she’d already acknowledged it. There would be no children from him. House Shafiq died with him, when he attacked you, in the DoM, in fifth year.”
“Lovely.” Harry smiled.
“Very.” Neville grinned. “I was ever so pleased, to see him cut down.”
“You’re welcome.” Harry grinned back.
“Before she left,” Neville’s voice hitched, “Christina gave me four phials. Two of blood and two of memories.” He pulled the three phials from a small pouch, that he’d tucked into his pocket in Longbottom Manor.
“Blood?”
“Elios Shafiq raped her,” Neville stated bluntly, “and his father, Levaunt, repudiated her. And the child she bore. The babe was stillborn, dead before he even drew a single breath. It destroyed her emotionally, I think. She left blood with me, hers and Shafiq’s, no idea how she got that. But she told me that when I was old enough to make the decision for myself, she would love to blood adopt me. And the memories are of her disownment and the attack. She was fired by Augusta, not long after that.”
“…ugh…” Harry grimaced.
“I planned to make her my mother.” Neville said. “And as I doubt that Augusta even knew her name, it’s not likely that she’d know that I wasn’t Christina’s child.”
“When did she die?” Harry asked.
“The early hours of the twenty-third of March 1989.” Neville replied. “I’ve no idea what today’s date is, though. So, it could have been last year, last month, or even last week.”
“Tempus…” Harry intoned.
4:05am,
23rd March 1989.
“Or today…” Harry blinked.
“So, it appears.” Neville nodded. “That works well for us.”
“It does?”
“It does.” Neville nodded. “If we can get the bloodline conversions done, along with any age changes.” He frowned. “And check on the gender thing.” He shook his head. “We can go to Gringotts today and claim Sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary?”
“With a father that repudiated us,” Neville replied, “and a deceased mother, we’re fair game, for someone to claim guardianship of us and as our guardian, empty our vaults and sign inescapable contracts on our behalf. But… If we can get to Gringotts…? Because they were our mother’s guardians, when she was younger, we can claim Sanctuary with them. That means they will be our guardians and will find us a caretaker or someone to live with. They might just put us in a house with a house-elf. Hard to say.” He shrugged. “But as Christina died sometime between midnight and eight o’clock, we’ve got very little leeway, timewise.”
“Meaning, we’re running out of night.” Harry added.
“Rapidly.” Neville nodded. “Let’s the gender stuff sorted, cross one thing off the list, maybe.”
It took them fifteen minutes to make the Room understand what they wanted to know, but only a few seconds for the Room to have an answer.
“Well, shite…” Harry huffed. “I don’t know how to be a girl.”
“Neither do I.” Neville groaned. “But at least we’ll be ignorant, together.”
“No.” Harry said sharply. “We shouldn’t both revert to being girls. Dumbledore might have told Moody or Molly. Two unknown girls appearing? Right after his two weapons vanish. And Molly has six sons. That’s just asking for trouble. But a girl and a boy? More likely to slip past them.”
“And Gringotts being our guardians would also provide a bit more protection for whichever of us, is the girl.” Neville nodded, slowly. “They don’t often allow their wards to sign betrothal or marriage contracts until they’re twenty-one or older. There are exceptions, of course, but they’re rare.”
“Me.” Harry stated. “I’ll do it. I suppose I should be thankful, for how much Hermione and Ginny overshared about the joys of womanhood. We’re already talking of de-aging me, to repair the damage caused by the horcrux.” He shrugged. “Do the de-aging, the gender reversal and the bloodline conversions, before reversing the de-aging potion. It makes sense.”
“Get rid of snakeface, first.” Neville reminded him. “What the plan for that?”
“Exclusion bubbles and fiendfyre.” Harry grinned, wildly.
“And for your scar?”
“Exclusion bubble,” Harry started, “in contact with my forehead, just enough to enclose the horcrux, then you get to pull me away. Then fiendfyre.”
“We do the others, before we do yours.” Neville ordered. “I don’t want you bleeding everywhere, again. It was bad enough, cutting off a finger for the golem. Talking of golems, how long will they last?”
“Without injury?” Harry rocked his head, side to side. “Given our core sizes, they could potentially last six months, or even longer. But I had the Room add a fault, so if one receives an injury, it will lessen the time.”
“So a cuff to the head?”
“Flat handed?” Harry grunted. “Shorten the time limit by one to six hours. Hit with something solid, up to a week.”
“Nice.” Neville nodded his approval.
~~~