Chapter 19: The Little Book and Fighting the Will of Time

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

Chapter 19: The Little Book and Fighting the Will of Time

1900 - 2000 A.D.

Harry awoke with the comforting sounds of the cryo chamber disengaging knowing that this was finally the time that his plans could begin to be set in motion. As always after he woke from a similar 'sleep' he felt a bit queasy and took several slow and deep breaths for just over a minute until the feeling had passed on its own.

"GE3?" Are you there my friend?" Harry called out into the darkened bowels of his ship.

"Yes Master I am" came the voice of his only friend on Earth at this moment. It called out to him from the darkness and, soon enough, GE3 appeared from deep within the inky blackness to help him stand after his long hibernation.

"Is there any news other than the usual updates?" Harry asked his faithful companion.

"Yes Master. The recon droids that you have periodically sent to watch persons of interest have reported something intriguing in regards to Dumbledore. It appears that though he was set to go on the traditional Grand Tour that most students of this time participate in instead he cancelled at the last minute with absolutely no warning and citing a family emergency.

"What level of education has he achieved?" Harry asked "And can you project how long until he becomes a member of the teaching staff at Hogwarts?".

"He has managed to gain a Mastery of Transfiguration under the private tutelage of Nicholas Flamel. From the information that we have been able to gather from the Goblin Nation and other sources it is quite likely that he's also learnt a fair amount of Alchemy and perhaps even a smattering of Blood Magic. It is unclear exactly when he will become a member of the teaching staff however many believe it will happen soon and, as further incentive for the man to accept, teachers are known to continue their studies during the break between student years and Dumbledore has made it clear that he wants more than one Mastery. He has even intimated on many occasions that he would like to try for a Sorcerer's qualification in at least one subject" stated GE3 blandly.

"What of my own subjects? Have they improved over the years?"

"Yes and no Master, There are three rather large books covering the official advancements on your desk in your study at Bluestone. That being said a great deal of what you were taught, as well as a great many possibly useful advancements, have been classified over the years".

"So what you're saying is that too an extent I am over educated rather than undereducated then? Harry said amused at the idea.

"Yes Master" was the droids very simple reply.

Harry quickly gestured for GE3 to follow him as he left his ship but, he only did so after first sitting in the chair to catch himself up on the most recent events of the wider Galaxy. Then and only then did he carefully and quietly move into his newest home.

The term home however was very loosely applied here as there were no personal items in the building and the few pieces of furniture that were in the home were covered by dust sheets although they were both expensive, tasteful and completely unconnected to Harry on any personal level.

Still as he moved through the home Harry pulled off the sheets raising great clouds of dust into the air as GE3 followed behind him dutifully.

"Master? Can I ask a question?" Asked the droid in his synthetic tone while somehow managing to infuse it was a sense of curiosity.

"Of course GE3... what is it?"

"You have all the timeline to choose from and could have picked any point in the future to begin to affect things for the better. Why then did you choose now? Voldemort will not be born for more than twenty years after all"

"Two very simple reasons" answered Harry. "First I need something from Hogwarts and it is vitally important that Dumbledore not be there or aware that I've ever taken it. You must understand that, in my time, his history is well known at some point in the next year the Headmaster of Hogwarts Phineas Nigellus Black will offer him the post of Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts. From that point on, aside from his other official duties, he rarely if ever leaves Hogwarts and it would be very difficult to work around him. Combine that with the fact that the goblins have told me there are no Potters in Hogwarts at this present moment and it seems like the perfect time to act".

"Forgive me Master but when did they tell you this?"

"I was given the dates of birth and death in relation to my father and my grandfather in my third year when I originally stayed at Diagon Alley. I was also told that I should come back to learn more but, quite ironically, was never able to find the time especially with Dumbledore's band of useless watchers".

"What then is the second reason?" Pressed GE3

"Neville mentioned something years ago and I need to research that as well as place contingencies upon my assets and begin my plan to deal with Voldemort and others like him" responded Harry.

"Surely it is just a matter of killing him?" Said a quizzical GE3.

"Voldemort is a symptom but not the actual problem. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do about that and so I will need several options at least".

"I did receive one piece of good news that you have been waiting for" began GE3 "There is a solution of sorts to the elf problem". The droid then passed Harry a datapad and then simply stood there waiting for his next instruction.

"Good... and they even managed to use time appropriate materials, or near enough, to make it work" Harry commented. He then began to read the pad and, as he did so, he began to frown. At length, he had finished he left his home without a word leaving GE3 to uncover and reactivate the things in the house.

Once he was past the ward line he was quickly gone with a small and almost silent pop.

He reappeared on the steps of Gringotts Paris (unbeknownst to Harry though they had eventually set up apparition wards in La Ruelle Magique they hadn't done so until just after Voldemort first began his rise) and he was pleased to see that the bank now resembled the one in Britain from his memories. He was also surprised by how comforted he was by that and he was happy to see that they had even installed the plaque on the wall with the poem regarding thieves.

As he had before, both hundreds of years ago by their reckoning and a handful of days by his, he strode into the bank as if he had all the right in the world to be there. There were lines in the bank that stretched back almost to the door but he ignored it as, by goblin custom, premium account holders did not have to queue. He may have interacted with the Goblin Nation in other ways but, for the most part, had not needed to enter the bank personally in a very long time.

Instead of joining a line he instead called out to a passing goblin who, though unhappy to be stopped, did pause and seemed about to bitingly tell him to get into the queue (without looking at who he was talking to if his sneering face was any indication). He was stopped from the unwise action buy Harry's raised open palm and, when he finally did look Harry in the eye, his face froze between a sneer and disbelief.

"I will speak to my Account Manager now" stated Harry abruptly still quite aware that the Goblin Nation hated to waste time.

Finally the goblin came out of his self-imposed stupor and his expression morphed into almost adoration. He even fumbled and almost dropped the items he was carrying (which happened to be a great number of almost priceless gems). To be fair to the goblin though he had realised that he was speaking to one of the most valued customers in the bank that no one had seen inside its walls in a very long time and so his shock was understandable even if his superiors would not have forgiven it.

The goblin nodded his head very swiftly, multiple times almost like a new magical bobblehead, even as he carelessly placed the gems on the nearest surface and gestured for Harry to follow him. He knew that he did not need to worry about the safety of the gems in Gringotts, as if anyone tried to steal them, they would wish for death before it finally came.

The Goblin Nation may have been bankers by treaty but they were always first and foremost warriors and, to their own morals, very ethical ones at that. That's not to say they didn't do things that humans didn't agree with in general (for example torture) but they had their own code and they stuck to it with an almost religious zeal.

It also should be pointed out that it wasn't that they did not like being bankers, they did love gold after all, but they enjoyed combat and creating new pieces infinitely more. Banking, to them, was more of a side business and while they were exceptionally good at it their heart had always beat for the drums of battle.

As Harry walked through the bank he drew some attention. It wasn't the fact that he didn't get in the queue, quite a lot of rich account holders tried that with varied amount of success, and Account Managers were also standard for the richer clients. The reason that he was getting so much attention from other customers of the bank stemmed from the fact that whenever he passed a goblin, though they didn't stop their work, they nodded to him in an almost respectful way.

Goblins were never respectful to humans, so the common wisdom went, and it did not help that no wizard in the bank could remember them ever doing it for anyone no matter the size of their particular bank account. The wizards in the bank then were dumbfounded and stopped to stare at this unknown man who the goblins didn't even attempt to sneer at. They actually seem to, if not like, then respect the wizard that moved with them as if he belonged there.

After reaching the very same door that he first entered so long ago his guide, like last time, knocked and left without a word although he did shallowly bow at Harry before he did so. If it wasn't for the age of the old oak door (visible despite the charms placed into the wood which, to Harry's sight were as artfully placed as the brushstrokes of a world renowned painter) and the changes in the bank proper Harry could almost imagine that it was his first meeting once again.

Although he had noticed, by this point, that the goblins no longer carried any type of wand and seemed more distrustful of wizards than ever despite his own treatment.

Thankfully this isn't my first meeting, Harry thought, as I have enough trouble with time travel as it is without adding time loops or another trip to the past into the mix.

"Enter" came the voice of a goblin.

Harry moved into the old office and, apart from the same greeting, the sense of deja vu was most apparent in the office itself. It even smelt the same to him with the odd musky scent that came with all goblins as well as the smell of ink and cooked meat (it was clear to him, if it hadn't been before, that goblins were great believers in the idea of a working lunch).

"Account Manager" Harry began with great formality "I am here to discuss the business of both my Account and my House".

"Harry Potter" said the goblin sitting behind a desk and speaking in an orderly appropriate Gravelly tone of voice. It sounded like two rocks slowly grating together trying to make a music that humans would never understand.

"You know of me?" Asked Harry curiously.

"Aside from being your Account Manager? All of Gringotts know of you and your story. After all, before the Flammels we had never had another immortal of any sort visit us other than you unless you count phoenixes and vampires. As phoenixes do not bank and vampires pay a heavy price for their immortality coupled with the fact that goblins cannot become vampires it is hardly surprising that we know of you. I am Sharptooth and I am the one responsible for managing your assets".

"Any relation to…?" Harry asked leaving the question hanging in the air.

"I am the third of that name. The Sharptooth that you knew was my many times great grandfather and, not only did he speak highly of you, but he served his family, his clan, Gringotts and you well. It was, of course, in that order". The response was positively pleasant sounding for a goblin.

"You do realise that he did not like me at all at first?" Asked Harry.

"I am aware of that yes... unlike the majority of wizardkind we do however learn from our mistakes" Sharptooth responded even as his face and tone showed just how low his opinion of wizards was as a whole.

Harry snorted out loud at that as he couldn't help but agree with the goblin's sentiments.

"What is the state of my finances?" Harry asked getting right to the point.

"Here" Sharptooth passed him two folders and both had helpful summary pages magically stapled to the front of them. "They are the accounts that are, or one day will be, under your direct control. I managed to speak to my counterpart for the Potter accounts and have gotten the relevant information for them as well. That is the second folder that you are holding but until you become Lord Potter you cannot alter them as that is solely his privilege nor can you access more than the information as no matter how we bend the treaty between us and the wizards we would then have to inform the current Lord Potter of your actions".

"Of course" came Harry's easy reply as if he expected it all along and the reaction made Sharptooth chuckle loudly.

It was an odd sort of laugh as, given the goblins rocky tone, it sounded somewhere between a river of gravel falling down a hill and a small avalanche. Harry could not see, for the life of him, what was so funny about his acceptance and said as much.

"You wouldn't believe how many whelps... the so-called heirs to the Ancient and Noble families... that scream and wail over the fact that they can not touch their families principle money until they become head of their family. It has become so common in recent years that there is even a standard betting pool for how long it will take them to do so from the time that they, at eleven, are first informed of this fact. All the betting revolves around how long it will take them to moan and wail about the unfairness of it all and you can even get bonus coins if they scream in a tellers face though, of course, the families of those unfortunate souls soon regret it as they are heavily sanctioned by Gringotts. None of the truly self-entitled families have made it past ten minutes yet and before you ask, no you cannot bet, as it is goblins only I am afraid. Yet here you prove yourself a surprise once again as you not only do not wail but accept the facts as they are given to you".

"I'm glad that I amuse you so" said Harry flatly ignoring the ensuing laughter that his reaction caused.

"I am sorry Mr Potter. It is just funny that the second largest, as well as the most respected (although that was admittedly not saying much given the general opinion of his competition) Account Holder in the Nation is riled up so easily".

"Sorry what was that?" Harry asked not quite believing what he had heard.

"In your last message to my ancestor you asked us to 'avoid Britain but go out and make me money' and that is exactly what we did. You, unlike other wizards, place no other limitations on our use of your then modest fortune" Sharptooth nodded once, quite strongly, at the folders that Harry had yet to read. "That show of trust on your part endeared you to the Nation and, more than that, caused us to aggressively invest your money until it has become a rather large fortune. Admittedly this is a bigger deal to us then it might otherwise be as we are often restricted by many different instructions from our clients and then blamed when our investments fail due to those instructions. Still it doesn't change the fact that, in terms of wealth, you are third in France or if you prefer second in Britain behind your birth family. When you take command of the Potter family fortune on the 18th of June in the year 2000 you will become the wealthiest wizard in Western Europe. You will in fact be only very distantly followed by the fortune of the Longbottoms".

"What about the English Malfoy's?" Harry asked curious despite himself.

"They are as of this moment a minor, though heavily political, family here and although they have a great deal of wealth to some comparing the size of that to the wealth of the Longbottoms would be like comparing a giant to a dragon. I cannot be more specific than that as neither are or will be your accounts".

Harry glanced at the summaries in his hand and found that, in terms of money, his current account was about the same as that of his family. They, like the Longbottoms he supposed, were extremely wealthy, the Potter's from their potion inventions (given that most modern potions used them as a base) and the Longbottoms brewery and partial stake in the butterbeer business. After all just because he was asleep it did not mean that he was dead and so he picked up a few things from notices and gossip in the Gringotts lobby as it appeared both families sons were the most eligible bachelors of their day and were fodder for gossip even here in the bank.

The main overriding difference between his account and those of the other two was that his were being overseen by some very motivated goblins. Given that when Harry looked at the summary page, under projected wealth, he was not as surprised as he might have been to learn that at current rate is personal wealth would eclipse the Potter's within a decade.

The one area in which the Potter Vaults truly eclipsed his own was in the family heirlooms and items department. The Potter's had a long and proud history that stretched back far beyond Camelot and far further than even the Nation's magic could track. This meant that, although they were not wealthy until relatively recently, they had a large selection of items in history that Harry could only envy and, as an orphan, longed to see.

"What about the relationship between the Longbottom and Potter families?" Harry asked changing the subject as he knew that he would be unable to view any of those things until, at the very earliest, time caught up with itself. He would be in an odd position after his earlier self turned elven as, if he were to access them then, the goblins were honour bound to report him to... himself.

"The Longbottom Potter Alliance began almost 1000 years ago when Silas Potter saved the life of the Viking Harfang Longbottom. Instead of calling in the life debt and making him a slave, which was very common at the time though notably the Potter's hadn't done it, Silas chose to forgive the debt by asking for a single gold coin. Ever since that day where a Potter led a Longbottom followed bound, not in debt, but in honour and friendship. Abnormally for wizards it has both survived and been an open and honest friendly arrangement throughout the centuries".

Sharptooth clearly did not care for wizards, if the normal tone of his voice was anything to go by, but, at this moment his speech was almost reverent as to a goblin all you had in your life in the end was your honour and it clearly pleased him that some humans could show a modicum of that.

"Tell me more please?" Asked Harry. He knew so little of his family history that it was difficult for the proud man that he was to keep a begging tone out of his own voice.

Sharptooth's first instinct was to refuse as this was not going to make him any money but, seeing the man before him, he reminded himself that this was not a normal wizard and that certain allowances could be made on occasion given Harry Potter's unique situation.

Over the next few hours Harry sat and learned from the a goblin a great deal of his family history and it included everything about their relationship with the Longbottoms. That was not all though as he learned of the trials and tribulations of those long dead men and women and it inspired something deep within him almost as if he could see all of his ancestors comfortably watching and supporting him. He learned of all their losses and triumphs as well as their pains and hopes. He even learnt that the Longbottoms and the Potters intermarried occasionally, with the last being three centuries ago, making Neville (though not his grandmother as she married into the family from another minor pure blood House) a family member no matter how distant.

After many hours, as well as sharing a meal with the descendant of his first Account Manager, Harry gratefully took a portkey to one of the few places that he must always be careful of no matter the time frame.

He travelled to Wizarding Britain and, more specifically, the Gringotts branch in the middle of Diagon Alley.

Ordinarily the issue of international portkeys was heavily regulated by the I.C.W. with multiple checkpoints and several ways of confirming both the persons identity and their intentions in regards to their travel.

To Voldemort this was a concern because, although they had a very narrow mandate, the I.C.W had the potential to be a very large and ugly problem for him. It was why he had not recruited from abroad very much as, in theory, they could draw wizards from their member states to combat him if he shattered the Statue of Secrecy and they would do so if he even dared try or gave any hint of thinking about it.

They had taken the view, during his first rise, that it was a local problem and had been assured by many from Dumbledore to the Minister that it was a local problem well in hand. In short they lied through their teeth and were left with a stern warning about Voldemort crossing international borders or breaking the Statue. They also had damaged their international reputation greatly after his fall and the I.C.W. had taken a dim view of both men ever since.

Voldemort had always intended to deal with them but, given their resources, it would have to be after the magical world was broken under his heel. He had then planned to quietly build allies on the international stage and armies at home to take the muggle world in one glorious push and then bring the fight to the I.C.W.

Still this meant that international travel had been a concern for certain people since the founding of the I.C.W. and even though Voldemort (and in theory Harry) would be powerful enough to avoid that and disguise his intentions if necessary (as no system was perfect) his followers were certainly not powerful enough.

Although the Nation had no definitive proof of it they shared the theory with Harry that the Dark Mark did much more than brand the soul of his followers and, as masters of enchantment, they were likely correct. There was also the fact that they may have abducted a low level Death Eater or two to conduct their 'research' though Harry never did ask as their grins when they spoke about the research was enough to dissuade anyone with half a brain.

It did do that of course, not to the extent that they would die when he did sadly, but it did allow the old paranoid bastard that Riddle was to draw a minute amount of power from each of his individual followers when he had a need. Given the impressive nature of that magic that created it it was not hard to believe that he had imbedded something in it that would help them carry out his will and lessened the chances of detection by the I.C.W.

That is an interesting factoid of runes, Harry thought, they so easily lend themselves to concealment and subterfuge. Then again, his thoughts continued, if they didn't a great many Curse Breakers would be out of business not to mention dead as both they and the tombs they targeted relied on them heavily.

It was deeply amusing to Harry, when he had idly looked up the history of rune making, that the original purpose of them was to replace enchanting. Each race was different and, though some magical skills were universal, the art of enchanting while being common to goblins was exceedingly rare among humans and so runes were created as an alternative to that as the majority of wizards could only manage the barest touches of the art.

This was not what Harry chose however as he considered it overly complicated for his purpose when anyone who paid attention to history would realise that there was a much easier route. In Voldemort's defence he had never had a good relationship with the Goblin Nation as he had never approached them from a position of true strength but only one of trying to cower them with fear and terror.

Needless to say they did not respond well to that.

It was all yet more of a sign to both the Nation and Harry that wizards were both willfully foolish and routinely practiced a form of revisionist history that, not only was certain information not widely known, but that Voldemort would attempt such a tactic on them in the first place.

Harry's method, after all, was to simply travel using the Nations network of banks.

Muggleborns made several mistakes when it came to the nature of the Wizarding World. The biggest mistake they made was that the culture of their new world was hundreds of years behind that of the 'normal' world and they were right to a point but they were also very very wrong.

They wrongly assumed that the Ministry of Magic reported to the Prime Minister as a part of the muggle Government but that was not the case. Technically they reported only to the King or Queen of the country that they lived in though, in practice, that had fallen to the wayside and they functioned as (often legally) foreign countries with the same Head of State.

It made sense in a way as the modern muggle systems of government were not implemented until long after the the Statue of Secrecy was established. They had legally diverged at that point, though they had been apart in practice long before that, and when muggles were still fighting over whether the Earth was flat wizards were extending their lives and studying the nature of their gifts.

The reason that they believed this, amongst other things, was that no one was particularly inclined to correct their assumptions. The Moderates in the Wizengamot did not believe that it was their place, the Dark Faction used that ignorance against them and the Traditionalists were much less concerned with teaching them rather than simply keeping the unique nature, culture and history of the wizards alive and relevant to the day they lived in.

Gringotts was similar in the fact that it was not, despite some people's belief, a part of the Wizarding World. It was its own Sovereign State and as such could use it's own portkeys on its own ground. It just had very open borders with its neighbours to help facilitate commerce and Harry had never asked about their particular relationship with the Crown as, not being a citizen of the Nation, it was hardly his concern.

That fact and some aging potion was, Harry hoped, enough to safely have a small visit to Britain without damaging the timeline. He was aware that, according to the writings of the Infinite Empire, time seemed to have a will and that it wanted history to happen a certain way and he hoped that it worked in his favour here.

As Harry took a deep calming breath to settle his nerves he distracted those nerves by thinking of more differences while slowly walking down the streets of Diagon Alley towards the apparition point at one end of it.

Though it was well known that the age of consent in the Wizarding World was fourteen muggleborns assumed that the reason that it was that way was due to the fact that the Wizarding World was extremely backward. Though they sometimes had a point the Muggle World had not only instituted the first age of consent after the separation but it had been significantly lower being only twelve at the time.

That was besides the fact that the reasons behind the age were different than those of the muggles themselves as the Wizarding World was very small and so called 'modern' social conventions conveniently often forgot or disregarded the most important thing in their culture.

Bloodlines and the continuation of their diverging species.

There had been some allowances in recent years with small increments of change that both sides thought too little of. If the Dark had their way then certain classes (like muggleborns) would at best become baby factories to dramatically increase the species. The muggleborns wanted as much integration with the 'real' world as possible under the Statue of Secrecy.

For example the major schools forbade their students to procreate before sixteen and were allowed to use magic to see that it did not happen. It was, after all, desired that the future mothers gain an education first so that they may have been of use afterwards and that the expectant fathers study to take their place in the world before they dealt with the demands of being a parent.

Still, it was not only common for betrothal contracts to be made during their time at school but it was also heavily suggested that the two produce at least one heir right out of school (or nearly so) as Harry's parents had done. Of course in this some, purebloods mostly, were their own worst enemy as they did not produce more than one being deeply concerned about future infighting in the family and keeping the lines full of 'the right sort'.

When the few muggleborns that had learned of this complained at the barbarity of it they were often simply laughed at outright. From the wizards perspective here was a group of relative strangers to a world that they were only just starting to understand preaching to a culture that was older than their own (the roots of it anyway) and decrying it's barbarity without understanding, often without wanting to understand, the true reasons behind it.

Why shouldn't they be offended, thought Harry, as far as they could make out the first true wizard city was sometime before 15000 BCE back when the current societies didn't even exist.

In some ways, to most wizards, those that didn't find out were worse as they hadn't even attempted to understand the reasons behind it and instead stuck to the idea that an arbitrary number was suitable to determine when someone can reproduce.

Nevermind that in Harry's time there were several movements that seeked to either abolish the age of consent in the Muggle World and replace it with something else or lower it back to twelve... to these people the muggle way was simply better than the world they had stepped into.

For all of its faults (and the Wizarding world had many) fourteen was chosen solely because that was the state at which the latest blooming witches were magically stable enough to carry a future magical child to term with minimal risk to the offspring and their magic. With potions childbirth was not a risky prospect to wizards and witches and so their sole concern was the safety and protection of the future generations.

All factions in the Wizengamot agreed on this and it was also one of the few things that they unanimously agreed on. After all, to even the darkest members, blood did count but the continuation of their near human species and magic counted for far more.

Shaking his head and thereby trying to remove the errant thoughts from his brain he reached the apparition point and disappeared with a small pop.

He reappeared in Hogsmeade silently. The village had a timeless quality to it as, aside from the shrieking shack not being 'haunted' it looked almost exactly the same as it would a century from now. It's odd shaped buildings and bustling people were quintessentially wizarding in their nature in that it (and they) were both quirky, beautiful and sad.

The village was sad because although it embraced wizarding culture it ignored the greater world. The buildings had not changed (and would not, Harry assumed, until well past his time) and that no attempt had been made in either this time or Harry's later time to adapt to new ideas from the greater world was understandable but that the people were most likely unaware of them at all was disappointing to say the least.

Innovation to the people below, especially in Harry's native time, began and ended inside the Wizarding world as far as they were concerned. Even things like the Wizarding Wireless, which was clearly somehow ripped off from the muggle world, made no mention of that fact nor did it mention that radio, in the main, had been supplanted by television among the 'poor silly muggles'.

They had made some innovations themselves, such as rapidly improving potions classes, and even Harry was impressed with that (he had begun self-study to compliment the training he had already received and to bring it up to the new standard although thanks to Snape's influence he would never be a Potions Master having been soured on the subject).

However, in the main, that was as far as their progression had gone. It was almost as if they had reached this point and then simply plateaued believing that only magic was important and seemingly blinded themselves to most of the planet and it's progressions.

That was not to say that all the innovations in the muggle world would ever work here as the cultures were clearly becoming too different but, to Harry, it seemed utter foolishness not to be aware of them or to ignore them.

Harry doubted that they would ever know that the second Boer War was currently in full swing and, as such, the country that their little fiefdom was nestled in was in a state of War.

Still the fact that they were absorbed with the own business helped Harry at the moment. He knew from the goblins that the Transfiguration Professor post would become vacant at the end of the school year and now, just before Christmas, the I.C.W. and the Hogwarts Board of Governors were holding meetings in Hogsmeade and Gringotts respectively (the board had financial issues to discuss after all).

This meant that both Headmaster Black and his Deputy were out of the school at the moment. Headmaster Black had pushed for the I.C.W. to meet in Hogsmeade as he was both the current British representative and Headmaster of Hogwarts and the Deputy was taking his duties with the Hogwarts Board of Governors because of his prior commitments.

Added to that Harry had a personal reason for going now because come September the soon to be vacant post would be filled by Albus Dumbledore and that was a meeting that he wished to avoid at all costs.

He moved quickly, with his hood up, towards Honeydukes that was still, quite remarkably to him, a well to do sweet shop for the ravenous hordes of Hogwarts students. Given the fact that it was early evening the shop was closed and dark. Knowing that drawing his wand would draw undue attention he wrapped his ring hand around the simple lock that protected the store.

Given the fact that it was, for all intents and purposes, a simple sweet shop and that Voldemort had not yet made his bid for power and neither had Grindelwald there were no wards protecting the shop. This meant that all Harry had to worry about were late shoppers (for the shops open that late) and the occasional wizard coming and going from the Three Broomsticks.

With barely a thought (and a small but muted flash from his ring) the simple lock failed and Harry moved, as quietly as he could, inside and headed directly for the secret passageway. Once inside he disillusioned himself, added some silencing charms on his body and headed deep into Hogwarts.

Though it was well after curfew it did not stop the Hogwarts students of this day and age from trying to break it and it took him a lot more time than he would have liked to get to the Headmasters office and, once he was there, he had to deal with the Guardian Statue.

Unlike Honeydukes Hogwarts wards were still comprehensive and, at least at a low level, active. He knew that he had no chance of directly defeating the stone Guardian's security features, at least not without alerting the whole castle to his presence, and if they were activated then the stealth action that he required would go right out of the window.

For a moment he was stumped until, with a small half smile, he remembered Neville so many years ago and realised it did have one single easy weakness. It did after all require password and for the first time in his life he was thankful for his Jedi training in relation to his Magical problem.

A wizard might try and confound the statue and would no doubt set off the cleverly hidden ward's designed to detect such an action. They also might try to overpower the statue with magic but this was obviously very unsubtle, easily detectable and foolhardy and so it was not a route Harry could use.

Further, he had to admit in the deepest recesses of his mind, whoever had designed this scheme was brilliant. If he stood there too long without giving my password or gave too many incorrect answers it would also warn the teachers as well as contact the ministry and anyone else on an unknown approved list about his attempted entry.

Thankfully Jedi did not command the Force rather they worked in conjunction with it and, unlike the Sith or the magical community, did not force these powers on the material world on a relative whim.

So he began trying to use his magic much as a Jedi used the Force as he did not attack, nor command or try to subjugate. Instead he compressed his magic and made it small and inconsequential. After he had done that he simply used it to passively look at the ward that controlled the password element of the statue.

After a few minutes, with the ward slowly changing from green to red under his senses, he studied a string of letters that made up the password. It was almost as if the letters were before his eyes and like any good Curse Breaker or Jedi he studied the warp and weft of the passwords magic and he looked for any tell tale signs that one letter was meant to be part of the answer he was seeking.

With mere seconds left before the ward turned fully red and alerted someone to his presence, not to mention sweat running down his face, Harry almost cursed himself for being stupid as he realised what it was.

Really, thought Harry, as a Black not to mention The Black of Blacks it really could not be anything else.

"Toujour Pur" Harry said softly and thankfully the Stone Guardian moved aside nimbly and without setting off any wards or alarms.

Carrying his wand in his off hand Harry moved quickly up the stairs and opened the door while executing a perfect spin, magic blazing from both his wand and ring, as he moved inside.

His ring quickly confounded the Sorting Hat while his wand froze the portraits of former Headmasters before they could even see him.

The Arch at Beauxbatons had no mind (or at least it was not designed with one) so a confundus charm would not work on it at all. It might develop one at a later date as magic was still much more an art rather than a science and intent played a key role. It really was impossible to tell if the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts was designed with or without a mind as no records from that far back still existed or, if they did, they were locked away in a private library somewhere and not made available to the public.

What can be said was that another famous artefact the Goblet of Fire was not designed with one but had begun to develop a primitive mind all of its own due to magic and so no one could really be certain wether the Hats mind was by design or was simply and evolution of magic.

That is where the similarities between the two ended however as, whether by design or not, the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts had a facsimile of a human mind and could even converse and sing where the Goblet could not.

This meant that the Hat was as vulnerable to charms that affected the human mind as a human would be especially as the creation of the Hat happened before the confundus charm was even invented. That was at least Harry's theory until now and later he would admit that he was only sixty per cent sure that the charm would work.

After all magic was tricky, in part, because intent was tricky. After all no two people thought exactly alike or in the same way so their intent, their will or mental images were not the same making magic unpredictable at its very core.

It also allowed for certain unintended complications and that meant that although everything that Harry thought and sensed about magic informed him that it should work he had still been worried that it wouldn't.

"Headmaster?" Asked the Hat "is there something amiss?".

Harry breathed an almost inaudible sigh of relief that the charm seemed to be working and that the portraits couldn't inform the Hat of his subterfuge.

"Hello Hat. I'm looking for something and I seem to have forgotten where I put it" said Harry.

"Is there anything that I can do to help you?" Asked the Sorting Hat.

"I don't mind if you do. Could you please tell me where I last put the Hogwarts Intake Book?" questioned Harry.

"I believe I last saw it in your top most left hand drawer in your desk" replied the Sorting Hat.

The Hogwarts Intake Book was a marvel of old magic, possibly on par with some of the works of Merlin himself, as it managed to record every first use of accidental magic by the children of the British Isles. It was created by Rowena Ravenclaw as one of her main contributions to the school. There were even rumours that she (as well as the other founders) had been tutored by Merlin himself and so it was hardly surprising that they were capable of such astounding feats of magic.

Thankfully there were only rudimentary wards on the door as, after all, It was considered a near impossibility that anyone would be mad enough to break into Hogwarts let alone into the Headmasters Office itself without detection. Added to that, in these pre-war times, it was considered ludicrous that anyone would want a book that records a child's accidental magic (generally around the age of five) except the educators of Hogwarts.

The book itself was sadly beyond Harry's ability to duplicate. Though he could have eventually copied the charms it was also heavily enchanted and that was not within Harry's skill set. It was not that Harry did not wish to learn enchanting as he did but, like a seer, you had to have a particular formation in your magic to master the gift and the few bits and pieces that he did know would not cover duplicating this masterwork.

Slowly and intensely, as if he had all the time in the world, Harry studied the blanket of spells that was around the book and that imbued it with its special abilities. He also knew that it was done with a very unique magical signature, that of Rowena Ravenclaw, and that even if he managed to make a copy somehow and leave one in its place it would only take a cursory examination to know that it had been tampered with.

So instead, similar to what he had done with the statue outside, he focused all of his thought analysing the very fibres of the spells that made it work seeking not to overcome them but to weave through them. At length, using that technique, he managed to slowly sneak a duplication charm between the complex matrix of other spells that formed and supported the book.

With a wave of his hand and envisioning one end of his spell like a root he sank the other end of the duplication charm into a blank diary that he had conjured with his ring. Then he cast a spell of permanence on the diary, that left him feeling almost exhausted due to its power consumption after his heavy use of magic to passively 'scan' his way up here and then coupled this with a simple illumination cantrip which would (when the diary was activated) enable Harry to know at almost the same time as the book when a new prospective magical had been found. Best of all the charms that he used were so simple and small (on the original book at least) that if he studied Rowena's masterwork even knowing what he was searching for he could see that it was only the width of a single hair at that end.

By custom and tradition The book was only read by the new Headmaster and the names passed on to the Deputy to deal with. Not only would this give Harry valuable time to continue his plans but, hopefully, when Dumbledore was headmaster he would assume that it was part of the books function if he ever noticed the small spell work at all. Given that it was highly unlikely that anyone would, at least before he returned to his own time and started using it, Harry felt that it was worth the small risk.

"Confundus. Obliviate. Confundus". Where Harry might be comfortable casting many spells silently he had rarely used Obliviate and had not felt comfortable trying to spell that way on a very old and powerful magical artefact. Most of the time that he had to do anything like this to anyone, which was rare in itself, he preferred using runes as, if a mind reader was to look carefully, they might notice the edges of the memory charm and realise something was up.

Runes had no such difficulty except that if you noticed the runes and could read them you could possibly break them.

After he had also memory charmed and confounded the shallow imitation of minds that rested within the paintings he reapplied is disillusionment preparing to leave. He figured that the disorientation from the Confundus Charm would allow him time to leave before anyone or anything realised he was ever there. He had after all replaced the memory of his visit with one of quiet contemplation as his targets waited for the Headmaster to return.

It was quite simple then to leave the way that he came with the diary in his pocket and, with the important visit done, he swiftly left both Hogwarts and the island of his birth alone. He was after all done with Britain for the moment.

When Harry returned home he knew that his struggle with the past was entering its final and yet, in some senses, the most difficult of stages.

Given that knowledge he began to layer the surface of his lightsabers with hundreds of microscopic runes that had many varied and useful purposes. He worked like a demented madman going over in his head any and all contingencies that he could think of as he did so and, when he thought of a new one, he would add another rune cluster to try and counteract it.

With the very last of the space on the hilts he added concealment runes and, before his eyes, all of the work he had done on them shimmered a deep emerald green and disappeared only to be replaced by an engraving of a snarling dragon for his matte black emerald weapon and a phoenix in flight for its silver sapphire twin.

"If I do say so myself the almost branded images look quite beautiful" Harry muttered to the empty room that he was in.

In his remaining 'downtime' he took a job with Gringotts as a Curse Breaker working mainly in Asia and though he did manage to get a qualification in potions at that time it was merely a passing grade as Snape had all but ruined the subject for Harry.

He managed to work four stints with Gringotts during this period alternating between doing that and entering cryostasis mainly to keep his skills sharp and so, when he finally awoke for good, he was not shocked by any sudden change in the nature of the time that he woke up in.

Still that was not all he did..

Wool's Orphanage 31st of December 1926

Standing in the corner of a small room and invisible to the naked eye Harry watched as a baby was cooing happily in his crib having just been fed and it's eyes, though closed at the moment, would no doubt soon sparkle with the innocence and hope of childhood however brief that hope may have been.

They also happened to be the eyes of a monster, Harry thought, and how I wish I could end your evil and sadistic life even now.

Regardless of the timeline Harry wanted nothing more in that moment then to gently reach out, perhaps caress the child's face in silent apology, and snap the neck of one of the greatest monsters in wizarding history.

This child, this innocent before Harry, was Tom Marvolo Riddle and every single fibre of his being wanted him dead and wanted it to happen now before he could hurt anyone ever.

Harry knew intellectually that he couldn't do this however and he had thought that, given that he had so much time to get used to the idea, though it would not be easy he could handle not acting. Instead he was almost blindsided by how hard it was and how simple it would be end the problem once and for all.

Still that was not why he was here.

From his pocket he removed and activated a recon droid that disappeared as swiftly as it came. It was now paired solely to the young Riddle throughout his life (as, until he was disembodied, though he had made many magical 'improvements' on himself it was still the same basic structure).

To facilitate keeping an eye on the future megalomaniac and to learn as much of his activities as possible he also embedded a tracer deep into the sleeping babies spine by way of the dart shooter in his bracer.

Now whatever Tom Riddle did he would be watched and all data collected would be sent to his ship under his home. He may not be able to kill Voldemort right now, thanks to the timeline, but Harry was damn sure that if it came to it a fight between himself and Riddle it would have to end quickly and the easiest way to do that was to gather as much information about the man as he could without his opponent knowing.

Soon after that he popped away still wishing that he could have ended the threat of Voldemort right there and then.

Godric's Hollow Halloween 1985

Harry was shocked by the state of the Wizarding World in this era. The fear and paranoia was palatable throughout Wizarding Britain as it was a time where a lifelong friend or family member could turn around, Imperius Curse or not, and try and kill you.

He had never seen people so despondent and suspicious. He had originally thought of simply going up to his parents and explaining his situation. He would have then figured out some way of saving them he was sure but, given the climate of the Wizarding world, it was not only unlikely to work but very difficult to do.

People, especially the Noble Houses like the Potter's, had placed every single protection that they could think of on their homes and were deeply distrustful of everyone they met no matter how trusted they once were. They were even distrustful of people they once had trusted but did not see on a daily basis.

Harry had also realised that going up to them was a bad idea as it was a kin to running down the street naked and screaming that he was the Messiah come back from Heaven. At best he would be placed in St Mungo's and treated like a lunatic.

At worst the Department of Mysteries, whose job it was to study unexplained events, would knowing his luck treat him like a lab experiment trying to figure out how he got where he was and how to replicate it.

All of which if he survived, which was by no means certain, would at the very least delay him and stop him from helping his parents.

Harry had such a negative attitude on it mainly because, as far as he was aware, he hadn't actively tried to change the course of events before and, if the Infinite Empire was right, in doing so he would not be simply combating possible ancestors of the Malfoys but fighting the will of time itself.

So, with the idea of meeting them before they left to go into hiding fraught with peril, he found himself on the night of their deaths moving around Godric's Hollow.

Given the events that had once transpired this night Harry was once again invisible but he had a problem as no one had ever told him nor was it ever written that children were unaffected by the Fidelius Charm. This was readily apparent as Harry roughly knew where the house was but he couldn't see it.

This presented a very large problem because adult Harry was as affected by the charm as anyone else who did not know the secret and that led him to wander around aimlessly, rather than the surgical strike he was hoping for, hoping against hope that he would be able to find his parent's cottage.

He originally had come up with the idea to use dead transfigured pigs in the place of his parents bodies and he had the carcasses shrunk and in stasis in his pockets at this present moment but, as time continued it's march onward, he was unsure if he would be able to do it.

After all, he had reasoned, just because my parents have to die to create the timeline I'm from it doesn't mean they actually have to die just appear dead. That was the theory anyway, now he was coming to the conclusion that if there was a will of time it was it set against him in his endeavour.

He still didn't leave though as even if he failed then at least his parents would not have to die alone.

He heard a scream. It was a man's voice and sounded like Harry's own and, he reasoned, it could only be his father's voice. He began to run knowing that he would already be too late for his father but also realising that the secret might be weaker given that one of the three that it concerned would be dead.

When he arrived correct that the secret had weakened and, as if it was a self fulfilling prophecy, he found his father dead.

Stepping into his burning childhood home and over his late father's body was a surreal experience to say the least. As he moved towards the stairs he saw a flash of green light followed by high pitched animalistic scream.

He found what he expected to see... no body of Voldemort, just robes and a wand, and his mother's corpse. It seemed that the will of time was not to be denied as he had failed on both counts when it came to his parents.

He knew the others would be coming in moments to the burning house, if not followers of the Dark Lord then everyone else in the village who would be attracted by the comotion (not to mention the house that appeared from nowhever now the adult Potters were dead). Still he reached down and stroked his mother's face offering a silent apology that he was not there in time.

In that moment he almost saw all the days that would never be his. He saw a lifetime of love from his parents and how proud they would have been of him at the most important moments of his life. He knew that they would have been proud of him graduating Hogwarts, his marriage to his wife, his first child and beyond. All the important moments of his life that they could have witnessed and now would not have a chance to.

All stolen from him by a twisted and demented dark child who was left unloved in an orphanage so long ago.

Before he could leave another figure entered the room and Harry instantly recognised him as a younger version of Severus Snape.

"He was supposed to spare you" Wailed Snape with tears running down his face even as he clutched possessively at Harry's mother's dead body. "I told him that it was your son! The prophecy was about your son and he promised to spare you my love".

Harry was shocked by the idea of a prophecy about him but was, at this moment, once again struggling not to murder the selfish bastard right where he stood. No mention had been made of Harry's father as it seems Snape was perfectly fine with James Potter dying.

This was all Snapes fault, he thought, all of it, as without pointing and arrow at my family and I as a valid target my parents would still be alive. Someday soon, he promised himself, Snape would die horribly and Dumbledore would too for protecting the murdering self-centered wanker.

The Day of Luna's Mother's Death

A despondent Harry had returned and spoken quietly to the Goblin Nation. They were very interested in the idea of him being part of a prophecy, having their own seers as well, and had requested through the Goblin Liaison Office a copy of the orb.

Thanks to pureblood bigotry this was by no means as dangerous as it sounded for the timeline. They had included the request with over a thousand other small and innocuous inquiries and Harry was assured that the people receiving them not only hated their jobs but were given it as a punishment.

This meant that after viewing the first few pages of their requests the wizard in charge of allowing it neatly shrugged and rubber stamped it through, apparently for their own amusement, in other requests they often included ridiculous jokes and limericks to see if anyone was paying attention to what they were asking for.

They were not of course as all the things the Goblins actually wanted, like wands, were already banned by other treaties and they were magically prohibited from even asking for them. In return they got sole control of the wizarding banking system.

This, in some ways for Harry, was the hardest death of the lot. All he knew about Pandora's death was that she died sometime during luna's ninth year. He also had a sneaking suspicion that the more he planned trying to help her the more chances time would have to find a way of stopping it from happening.

Still he remembered how kind Luna had been to him.

He may have changed a great deal but, even at fifteen, he had known that the majority of his life was watched by Dumbledore by this point (though at the time he had assumed it was for his protection) and like most teenagers he had chafed at the boundaries that it imposed on his life. Then he had, quite by accident, started to open up to Luna after the first meeting of the D.A. and he found it refreshing to have something (even just a simple friendship) that was not watched or dictated by others.

For her part Luna was very happy to simply have a friend. They were both lonely people and, at first, they had forged a kinship over that. Of course Harry had Ron and Hermione but Ron was from a large family and was seemingly only interested in getting Harry to play quidditch or chess most of the time and Hermione was equally as comfortable with books as people if not more so.

Luna, on the other hand, did not want Harry to do anything and, unlike Hermione, was not always pressuring him to keep his education in mind. It wasn't that Harry didn't appreciate what she did but rather that, with everything that happened to him, he needed to unwind, and Luna's gentle presence after the D.A. allowed him to do that.

She seemed happy just being with him and talking about everything or nothing. For his part Harry listened attentively when she spoke about her life and the fanciful creatures that she was looking for or saw. Harry wasn't sure if they were real but, for his friend, he gave her his undivided attention and at the very least suspended his disbelief when they spoke.

Their meetings had grown from there and fairly soon they had been seeing each other for simple companionship every other day after curfew as well as after the D.A. and, though at first their friendship may have been secret due to a small act of teenage rebellion, Harry and Luna both found over the months that they kept it that way because they cherished it and didn't want to share.

By unspoken agreement they did not talk about certain sensitive subjects, such as Harry's home life, and details about Luna's mothers death or her bullying by other members of Ravenclaw. Before the year was through however they both knew that they were each others most important person and best friend and that the other was there if they needed them and the wounds of those things began to ever so slowly close.

Now Harry wanted to do more than that.

So, starting at Luna's ninth birthday, Harry had begun a silent watch over the family and one of the few things, but the most important to his mind, that he learnt as he watched and waited was how kind and sweet Pandora Lovegood actually was. He knew from the few conversations that he and Luna had had over the years (especially after D.A. lessons) that she was not only a excellent spellcrafter but also wonderful mother.

Spellcrafting, like trying to learn spells without instruction of any sort, was very dangerous. However where haphazardous self learning was unlikely (though it was not unheard of) to kill you spellcrafting blurred the line between wild and core magic and was therefore a lot more dangerous though it was very lucrative.

That was the extent of Harry's knowledge on the subject as he simply did not want to know more and, like most advanced magics, it was a very specialised field that took a long time to learn.

Still his plan was simple. All he really needed to do was change a single moment and that was when Pandora's spell would backfire and cause her to slowly bleed to death. If he could move her out of the way as she cast it then she would be fine and given that he would be changing only a single moment he thought he might be able to get away with it.

The fact that this was a defining moment of Luna's life, that it could possibly change fundamentally who she was, was immaterial to him at the moment as he knew that she would be happier with her mother in her life and if he could make her happy while preserving his personal timeline as much as possible he would do so.

In the end all he really wanted for her was to be happy.

However standing in her work room invisible watching her try her new spell he knew this was not to be. Even as she began to cast he shouted at her to try and draw her away and for half a second he thought it had worked as she turned towards the noise in the corner that his voice had created.

The cut from the back firing spell was still made and she still felt into a heap bleeding from her throat. Her hand reflexively went up to stop the bleeding but, from a lifetime on battlefields, Harry knew that it was already too late and the odd mix of wild and spell magic would mean magical healing wouldn't work.

A young and innocent looking Luna came running in with tears streaming down her face. The shock and pain that he witnessed on her face seared into his very soul. For half a second she stood stock still staring at her mother before she ran off to try and find her father and get some help.

Pandora meanwhile, who had lost the ability to speak due to simply trying to stay alive, was slowly dying and Harry took the opportunity to take down his invisibility and hold her hand.

"Time travel" Harry began softly "it really is a bitch".

As Pandora began to try and speak Harry shushed her with a simple shake of his head. "I tried to stop you... I really did...Luna will be fine I promise you. Her father and I will look after her for the rest of her days. I'm just sorry that I couldn't do more".

With a final squeeze of her hand he had quickly reapplied his disillusionment and waited with a newly returned (and oblivious to his presence) Luna who cried for hours from seeing her final moments and both were there until help came... long after her mother's body was cold.

He didn't know if Pandora could even understand his words by the point that he had spoken to her but he hoped that he had given her some peace in the end.

He vowed there and then that, regardless of the will of time, no one else would die for him all the timeline if he could help it and he could think of at least one more death that he might be able to change.

In theory the closer to the time he left the easier it would be to change and the next death that he could change he would.

He would make sure of it.