Chapter 20: The Past and The Future Begin to Meet

Star Wars + Harry Potter Crossover

Chapter 20: The Past and The Future Begin to Meet

15th of June 2000

A/N I have been very very ill of late and so this cchapter is shorter than I intended. Rest assured however that the next update will be longer :)

Harry sat in a Gringotts meeting room, now the Boy-Who-Lived once again, a hero, a pariah and a war torn man stuck in the body of a fifteen year old boy. He had spent much of his time sleeping throughout the century, with the occasional year or two working for Gringotts as a Curse Breaker.

It all started now, he thought, in three days the battle at the Department of Mysteries would happen and, finally, his timeline would catch up with itself. I wonder what those who would use me or take advantage of me would think if they knew the full truth. Hell if they knew even a tenth of it they would either call him a Dark Lord or something else equally condemning.

Some might, as they did with Nicolas Flamel, call him a legend.

The goblin in the corner nearly did, his face showed a mixture of awed reverence and fear, but that was hardly surprising given both his now astounding wealth and his very long life.

Harry was sitting around a small table facing two others and at first glance they were old but quite unremarkable for all that. If someone looked closer they would find that the man's face was hawk like, his nose was far too large to have ever been beautiful and his eyes were almost ageless pits of blue that seem to be aware of almost everything around him.

The woman, on the other hand, was breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair was like delicate spun gold and seemed to catch and somehow enhance the light, her eyes were brown and seemed to radiate warmth, and her entire being paradoxically to the man seemed to radiate caring. Her lined face was framed by a smiling mouth and they seem to be more lines around the corners almost as if she had spent a long time smiling.

"When the Nation asked, just after your first year, for us to give you a DNA sample we were more than a little skeptical. That was until you and the Goblin Nation gave contracted oaths that you would possibly save our lives and use it for nothing other than that purpose". The man paused even as his face spasmed in a moment of unbearable pain. " Our final supply is running low Mr Potter and we only have days left at best before the elixir that saved us will run out and we will die. Rationing it is no longer helping matters so please tell me... have you succeeded or are we to face oblivion?"

"Before I answer your question Nicolas" said Harry "answer one of mine. When you made your Stone, all those years ago, did you understand the price of its creation?" As Harry continued to speak his voice had become colder until, at the very end, it was as frostly as the Arctic and just as merciless.

Unbeknownst to them Harry had chosen this meeting room because, thanks to certain enchantments present in the room, it was impossible for them to outright lie. With time and knowledge they might be able to dissemble but a true falsehood was impossible.

"No" Said Perenelle her soft voice speaking for the first time. "It is our greatest regret that we did not understand the price of such a things creation. If we had known what the balance of magic would require we never would have done it. I can offer no defence except to say that we were young and stupid. None of this however changes the fact that rationing the Elixir is causing us great pain and slowly stretching out our deaths. So Harry Potter, child of death and war, can you help us?".

Harry sighed and gave the two and open and honest, as well as deeply frank, look.

"Given the fact that the creation of your Stone inadvertently cost just over six hundred people their lives I suppose the question really is... should I help you?".

Harry shook his head and thought about all of the mistakes and bad things that he ended up doing in his life and realised that although he was the most qualified person to judge their decisions he simply couldn't do so. "Yes I will help you, at least to a degree, assuming that you don't want an immortal life once again".

"After all this time" responded Nicolas Flamel " we have come to the conclusion that immortality carries to high a price. Even if you could discount all of the people that died in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone it is still too much to see everyone you love die. If we can be saved for a few years and enjoy a true old age rather than one that is a by-product of the Elixir of Life failing that would do very nicely I think".

Harry smiled, an easy and almost carefree thing, and his eyes twinkled with suppressed mischief as he took a moment to formulate his reply.

"Of course I will help you" Harry said while nodding at the goblin who scampered off and swiftly returned with three others carrying two large tubes (around six feet tall) covered in a simple dark sheet. "Although I think that we can do better than simple old age. I hope you are happy with this result as I used up the last of my ships backup power doing this. Now it will barely return home and then, most likely, have to be rebuilt from the ground up as it was never meant to run on such low energy levels".

With that Harry stood up and, with a great flourish, pulled off the sheet and revealed two frozen and sleeping bodies in cryotubes that had a small power source attached along with a one time use transfer device. The energy was almost completely depleted from the battery that powered the two as it glowed up a full dull red and, if it did fail, the bodies would swiftly die. Unless of course they were occupied first.

"And what" asked Nicholas Flamel skeptically "is the price for our salvation? Why if you could do this did you not come to us earlier than you did?" The man's voice was cracked and harsh clearly assuming that Harry wanted the secrets of the Stone, despite everything that he had inferred to the contrary, and just as clearly ready to die in agony to refuse him.

When they had created the Stone, at the start of their immortal journey, a great wave of magic had left their protected lab and had grabbed the life force or many nearby people. It had then torn it loose from their bodies and forced it back into the stone both killing them and empowering the device.

It was the pairs greatest regret that they had not realised that this might happen, falsely assuming in their rush to prove that the alchemical dream could be realised, that the power would be taken from the minor ley line below their lab rather than the people living near them. It had turned two joyous and headstrong researchers into careful, very methodical and humble immortals.

"My price is a very simple one" replied Harry " I will tell you a story, my story, and then I will make you an offer. You are of course free to refuse and the bodies there would still be yours". Harry then quickly held up a hand forestalling the objection that he could see coming "it has nothing to do with your Stone, I never would have interest in it, but hopefully is simply an offer that should intrigue you instead".

He talked for quite some time but, at length and having heard his story they readily and even enthusiastically, agreed to his terms. It helped of course that he readily admitted to the enchantments in the room and, after some simple testing, they came to the conclusion that not only was he not lying but the Goblin Nation had proof of his claims.

Then Harry left, excusing himself as he had another meeting that he had to get to. As soon as he did the former immortals wasted no time in changing their dying bodies for the new 'fresh' ones. They were happy that they were biologically eighteen again and, more than that, that it would be the last time they would ever be so.

In Harry's ship one final body remained, on life support, empty and waiting to be used.

Harry, or those working for him, had managed to create quite a network of influential people that had over the years helped him in his plans so it was quite easy to arrange the next meeting. Ordinarily it wouldn't be so but sometimes being extremely wealthy and long-lived had its advantages. So after a tense meeting with the Queen, that nonetheless proved more than fruitful, Harry was once again in Gringotts staring at the Prophecy Orb in front of him.

He had known about it for a long time of course, since before he left through the Veil, but he had avoided learning the actual wording like the plague.

The very idea of Prophecy unnerved him, especially now, as from his training as a Jedi he knew that often once you have seen the future (or at least a prediction of it at any rate) you were often chained by it and could cause the very future that you were trying to prevent to happen.

Added to that, thought Harry, magical Seeing was so imprecise often showing merely fragments or compressed into imprecise rhymes.

Still, having just heard what the Prophecy actually said, he was aware that this was not the prevailing opinion amongst wizards and witches of this time. He cursed his luck that the two most powerful people in Britain (aside from himself) believed in it wholeheartedly. He realised that this was most likely why Dumbledore seemed to want to control him and Voldemort wanted to kill him quickly and utterly. Their hubris would allow for no other course of action.

Fan-bloody-tastic, thought Harry, either way I'm fucked and will most likely end up dead if they have their way.

This was, of course, if Harry decided to play by their rules and he had no intention of doing so. He had come to the conclusion that, time travel was one of the ultimate cheats in life and that, if the rules did not agree with you, you should cheat six ways to sunday with everything that you had. That didn't mean that he hadn't planned other ways of cheating and, given its massive problems, his plans were not actually relying on that but other ways to stack the deck.

He had set about cheating with impunity, as he had tried to do ever since he had gone through the Veil in the first place and found the Infinite Empires technology, to not only be able to survive but thrive in a universe that had seemingly stacked itself against him.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office that evening indulging in a rare tipple of Firewhiskey while reviewing his plans in his mind even as the liquid burned his aged throat in a very pleasant fashion.

How had Gellert got it so wrong, he wondered, so long ago?

Albus was not blind to the flaws in their society and had, years ago, agreed with his charismatic friend turned lover that their world needed to change. In fact the reason that Grindelwald was not dead was less to do with any sentiment left, though in all honesty that was part of it, and more to do with showing his old friend that Albus was right.

Maybe then, he mused, he could be redeemed.

There were certain alchemical potions that could restore youth after all. Although they were nowhere near as powerful as the Magnum Opus that was the Philosopher's Stone itself they did work very well and the fact that the potions were banned was a problem for lesser men as far as he was concerned. He was also dismissive of the fact that three people would have to die for each dose as he viewed it as a necessary sacrifice for the Greater Good.

Alchemy needed a lot of work, for initially little reward, but unlike the Necromancy that Voldemort employed it was about maintaining the optimum human body rather than improving it beyond natural limits. As Voldemort had pursued enhancing his power beyond almost anything else and wanted his immortality as soon as possible (not to mention assured) combined with the fact that the study of Alchemy required not a small amount of wealth that Voldemort had initially lacked Tom Riddle had dismissed Alchemy as a fool's errand.

That, to Dumbledore, both highlighted Voldemort's stupidity and was another reason why he could not be allowed to live in Dumbledore's planned new world.

He imagined a better world, an intelligent oligarchy, an enlightened genius elite that had as little to do with the muggles as possible. His plan, simply put, was to lead his kind into a new Golden Age. It was his hope that it would make all other civilizations like it (including Atlantis and to a lesser degree Camelot as that had had muggles in it) rudimentary by comparison.

But to realise his dream he knew that certain impediments had to be removed and chief among those was the Dark Lord Voldemort. Tom was too steeped in the Dark Arts (not to mention far too narrow minded which set him apart from Gellert) to ever be of use as far as Dumbledore's vision for society was concerned.

Then there was the Prophecy. He knew that people had dismissed him as an old man well past his prime and so, to show that he should lead, during Voldemort's first right he had led the opposition to the madman's schemes. He had been offered the Minister of Magic job more than once (especially after Voldemort's apparent death) but that was too small and too reliant upon the whims of the law for his plans.

He had learnt very well from Gellert that he simply couldn't take power from others as they would rebel and fight back. In all fairness Albus had tried to garner some support after the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald and it did help his image that almost everyone believed that he had killed the former Dark Lord.

In the main however they were too weary of war to even begin to contemplate the idea that if they didn't follow his enlightened leadership then all would lead to ruin. It didn't help that, at the time, the Wizengamot was led by the Ancient and Noble houses of Potter and Longbottom with a history and ancestry that stretched much further back than Dumbledore's own Minor House.

When he had broached the idea to them they had had the gall to laugh at the most basic of his ideas, he remembered, but then some like Charlus Potter and Hephaestus Longbottom were simply far too blind to see the truth before them.

His plan was much more convoluted and required the people to put him in power rather than the government or for him to place himself there. He had worked tirelessly towards that goal and it was the most infuriating moment of his life when he realised that all of that, all of it, had been hijacked by Fate.

Still, if he prided himself on one thing, it was his adaptability. He had not dealt with Voldemort before, not truly, because he was waiting for the populace to be so disheartened that they would beg for him to take charge and when the Prophecy had been spoken that option had been stolen from him.

Still, as previously stated, he was nothing if not adaptable. With a few borderline illegal charms on the major players involved, or possibly involved, in the whole mess, as well as shamelessly using his reputation he had taken control of the situation to further his own ends.

It was notable that while he used charms on the Potters, Longbottoms and Sirius Black he had not used them on either Peter Pettigrew or Severus Snape. Their greed and hatred respectively were all natural and all the easier to manipulate because of that.

He felt no pangs in his conscience because of this as, after all in his mind, sacrifices must be made for the Greater Good.

Once Voldemort had chosen his target Albus had acted with even more esoteric spells and potions. Once the inevitable had happened he had then taken control of the young Harry Potter very easily and for the good of all.

It had almost been laughably easy, he remembered, as he had neatly through his agent Severus Snape managed to neutralize the Longbottom family as all it took was a few well chosen words in the wrong ears to have Frank and Alice attacked. This neatly kept the remaining family members looking inward rather than questioning the fate of the 'safe' Harry Potter. The fact that he should have been placed with them was easy to miss in their new and raw grief.

He had needed to do nothing about the fate of Sirius Black as the Wizarding World had done that for him. He had always known about the switch of secret keepers but had kept it to himself and the most he had done was delay the trial of Sirius until everyone forgot about it and had not pushed for another.

Clearly, he thought, this was just further proof that the Wizarding world needed a firm hand and no hand would be better than his own. When the Prophecy was complete and Harry was dead along with the Voldemort he would be hailed as the mentor of the greatest hero of at least the last fifty years.

That was not to say that he hadn't taken precautions. After all if Harry was meant to be the mirror of Voldemort he would help it along, as long as he remained in control of course, and had begun by leaving Harry with the Dursleys against his parents specific instructions. They had happily and even eagerly treated him as Dumbledore had instructed in return for some money from the Potter Vaults.

Despite what the naive Harry Potter may have thought his home life was carefully watched and not only to keep the muggle authorities away. It was a delicate balancing act, he knew, between crafting a useful weapon and creating a psychopath and to that end he had limited Harry's powers until he was finally ready to face and die with Voldemort.

His plan had worked very well, he thought, and Harry now viewed him as a surrogate grandfather and trusted him implicitly. He was also easily kept ignorant of his true heritage and Dumbledore doubted that he even knew what a Ancient and Noble House was let alone that he belonged to one.

More than that, taking advantage of a school law that had not been used since 1805, he had enacted a legal clause in his guardianship of Harry (it was written specifically due to the Napoleonic Wars but had never been removed from the law books) to transfer the legal ownership of the Potter assets to him if Harry were to die before taking his N.E.W.T's.

He had even earmarked Potter Manor in Wales to be his new official residence when he finally took power. He deeply enjoyed the idea of the sudden and meteoric rise of the Minor House of Dumbledore to Ancient and Noble rank.

To that end he had orchestrated, or at least taken advantage of and improved, Voldemort's plan to get the Prophecy and he fully intended that once Fudge had seen Voldemort that he and Harry would kill each other with Dumbledore's assistance. Sadly that hadn't worked out so well as Harry Potter seemed to have an uncommon amount of luck.

As a backup plan assuming Fudge did not see Voldemort until too late or somehow Harry escaped his fate Dumbledore had several other ideas. He was aware of the Horcruxes that Voldemort had made for example, though not their precise location, and he knew spells to contain the spirit of Voldemort in the confusion of Harry's demise until he was able to destroy him.

The only problem that he had was that as long as he was uncertain where they actually were he could not finish Voldemort. He was confident however that certain torture spells that acted on spirits would get him the information eventually. It was, after all, the main reason why Peeves was so afraid of him.

Until then, he thought, I will enjoy extracting as much information as I can from his shade. After all we have both spent time studying different magic and there was always something to learn even from my worst enemies.

His plan was progressing nicely and soon, as far as he was concerned, he would take charge and begin his lifelong plans to better his kinds lot in earnest.

Harry on the other hand knew exactly where they were thanks to the tracker that he had placed in the baby Tom Riddle.

As it turned out the Cup was the only one that Tom Riddle hadn't placed personally but, as Bellatrix had placed it in Gringotts, that was actually the easiest to remove. It was gone and replaced within hours of it being deposited by a fake and best of all the Goblin Nation had not asked for anything in return as they had their own history with the vile things and hated them with a passion.

Ordinarily they still would not have bothered, considering it yet another example of Wizarding hubris and stupidity, but due to Harry's close working relationship with them they felt honour bound to take steps.

It was currently sitting in a small Vault waiting to be destroyed but it was not alone.

Voldemort may have thought that he was a true prodigy of magic, in absolute fairness in some cases he was, but his knowledge of Blood Magic was rudimentary at best. It was this lack of knowledge after all that allowed Lily Potter to develop a ritual to protect her son and further enabled Harry to gain access to the cave where the locket was stored.

He had done so in such a way that the basic protections believed he was Voldemort and though when he went to retrieve the locket, the same year that his parents had died, he had found that it was a fake he was not disheartened.

He knew that thanks to a little sympathetic magic and the other Horcruxes he should be able to find the locket fairly easily. Although he hadn't been able to retrieve it yet he did know exactly where the locket was. A fundamental rule of magic was, after all, that like called to like and this was especially true of soul pieces as they naturally wanted to recombine into a unified whole.

As he was sure that Voldemort was not aware of this he had simply used a system of summoning charms and fiendfyre to destroy the Inferi that were in the lake. He had then shattered the bowl and transfigured a block of wood into the facsimile of the now destroyed object. He had used a small pebble in a runic masking spell so that, unless Voldemort summoned them, he would be unaware that his zombies had been taken care of. Then he threw it into the lake.

When he had picked up the locket it had joined the other one in the Vault if only for safekeeping.

He couldn't just destroy the Horcruxes however as even he was uncertain if Voldemort could sense it, after all no one other than the Dark Lord ever made a great study of the vile things as far as he was aware, and no documentation of multiple Horcruxes existed before Voldemort.

As his final act in the cave he had added a potion based stunner in place of the liquid that was there before and engraved a minor compulsion ruin on the base of the bowl. With any luck, if Voldemort sent someone to retrieve the locket, they would simply starve to death as the entrance closed behind them.

The ring he hadn't even bothered with as, instead of trying to retrieve it, he had thrown in several explosives that would at the touch of a button completely annihilate the entire property.

The Diary He had left alone wary of the timeline and aware that it would be destroyed in due course.

All of which had led him to the Shrieking Shack and to Hogwarts. Because of Dumbledore's presence as the fact that there were currently two Harry Potter's either in or around Hogwarts it was not safe for him to enter but, luckily, he had a plan.

"Dobby" Harry called softly.

With a crack Dobby appeared. The short House Elf was almost shaking with excitement at being called by the Great Harry Potter Sir.

"Dobby be so grateful to be called" Dobby paused eyeing Harry critically even as Harry remembered that house elves were much more in tune with their magic than wizards. "You's be Harry Potter but... you are not the Harry Potter that I knows".

Harry raised an eyebrow even as he internally berated himself as he felt he really shouldn't have discounted the perceptiveness of house elves or underestimate them like other wizards. After all it was not just their own magic that they were more connected to but that of the Earth and therefore it stood to reason that they were much more sensitive to time.

From everything that he had read, before it been banned by certain small minded Purebloods, house elves had an advantage in that as they could use it to more easily serve their Masters needs and it was what allowed them to pop through wards as if they didn't exist. More than that the only reason, in theory, that house elves needed wizards at all was to 'top them off' as it were as there was the barest mention of some unknown cataclysm in the house elves history that had damaged their connection.

The actual cataclysm was unknown and all sources agreed on only one thing. The house elves would never talk about it even if ordered to do so and, wizards being what they were, had forgotten if they were ever told what it actually was.

"I am a time traveler" Harry said simply and Dobby's tennis ball like eyes widened in shock as he seemed to sense that it was a lot more than the hour that wizards normally would only be able to travel back in time.

"Harry Potter is the greatest wizard ever" stated Dobby firmly. "What does the Great Harry Potter need from Dobby?"

"I need to find something that Vol…" seeing Dobby begin to squeak at the hated name he changed his wording for his diminutive friend. "You-Know-Who would have hidden somewhere on the seventh floor in Hogwarts. "It could even be in the Room of Requirement but I can't go back into Hogwarts at the moment".

"Dobby will find" and before Harry could stop him that hyperactive little bugger was off like a shot.

He quickly returned with a diadem floating in mid air above him and Harry quickly slapped a one-way goblin portkey on it before the sibilant whispers could even start to affect his mind. It was gone safely less than a moment later.

"Thank you my friend" Harry said sincerely "is there anything I can do for you?"

"Dobby wants to be Harry Potter's elf sir" Dobby replied after thinking for a moment and speaking with a soft intensity that Harry had never heard from the little creature before.

"Before I answer" Harry said " what would happen to an elf if it was unable to receive the Earth's magic?"

"They be dead painfully in minutes Harry Potter sir" was Dobby's sad reply. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if his friend had sensed that this was not the answer Harry needed.

"Then you can't I'm afraid Dobby" Harry replied with deep sorrow in his voice " I intend to spend a lot of time off planet in the future. In fact, if everything goes perfectly, I will never come back here except for the occasional visit".

At those words Dobby's entire body seemed to deflate almost as if all of his nervous energy had just dribbled right out of him. That was until Harry's mind clicked with an idea of how to fix a persistent problem to his plans that had remained in the back of his mind for a very long time.

Thankfully he had, as of one hour ago, reactivated the most basic of communications on the ship as he now no longer had to use other cryostasis tubes and so he knew a way of Dobby joining him although he was uncertain if it was the right idea. " Dobby there may be a way of you joining me... but I'm warning you it comes with a very steep cost and you would have to understand my story first".

Harry then proceeded to give the elf, who was rapt with attention, a basic rundown of his life story even as Dobby began to gasp in the appropriate places and his eyes became wider than Harry had ever seen them before.

"How's can Dobby be joining the Great Harry Potter sir?" He finally asked and Harry had to give him points for single mindedness at least given all that he had just told him.

"Dobby... many elves are abused aren't they?" Harry finally asked and at the question Dobby's eyes dropped and he nodded his head sadly. The poor elf was ashamed not only of it happening but also of the subject matter as this was not something they ever normally discussed with outsiders. "I am afraid that my actions, that the things that I am about to do, will put more pressure on the elves and even more will end up abused than ever before".

Harry then hesitated and it was almost as if the entire world paused with his breath but, as quickly as the moment came, it passed.

Though what he was about to ask was the only way that he could think of possibly saving the elves it still amounted to willfully, utterly and irrevocably changing the course of their future evolution and he was uncertain if it was the right thing to do. Thankfully for Harry's morals he had a representative of the race in question to help soothe his prickling conscience.

"I may have a way to stop all of that" Harry said. "it would stop the elves ever being abused again but it will mean that they will have to change and... they can never change back".

"Hows?" Dobby asked and Harry privately thought that he had never seen such a serious look on the little elf's face before not even when he was trying to save Harry's life in his second year. Under other circumstances such a look of concentration would be highly funny but there was nothing funny about this situation.

"I have access to... machines Dobby... those same machines have been working on a way to help the elves for a very long time. Using information that they have sent and a ritual that the goblin nation are setting up even now I can free you of your dependency on the Earth's magic".

"But without that we would all die!" Dobby half screeched and half wild with great pearly tears in his eyes until, after a time, Harry stopped him.

"Not if I replace it with something else" was Harry's reluctant reply.

He then went on to explain his plan and how, if Dobby agreed, Dobby himself would become the carrier for a magically charged virus that would infect every elf that Dobby came across. There it would remain dormant until the early hours of the twenty fifth at which time it would activate. He held nothing back from his little friend even including the idea of asking him not to tell the other elves how it would be done including the fact that, once it was passed to them, they in turn would become carriers of the virus just as Dobby was.

"Simply tell them, if they ask, that a time of great change is coming and that after it is done if they wish to leave their Masters they should travel to a place called Bluestone in France or contact the Goblin Nation asking for Roland Vauquelin. It is vitally important to tell them that they will no longer have to be punished at someone else's whim and that, if they want a place of new possibilities where they can live and choose what they want to do without the fear of bad masters they should do so as quickly as possible. You should also tell them that there will be plenty of work for them and that they have Harry Potter's word on that".

"Although" he continued changing the subject slightly " I do think that, between you and me, there will be some radical physical changes as well. If everything goes to the simulation I believe your people will still be able to 'pop' at the very least... call it a memory...an echo... of what you were".

Dobby was silent in his deep contemplation. In fact he was silent so long that Harry believed he was going to refuse and if he did Harry couldn't find it in his heart to be sad about it as he really was putting Dobby in a very unfair and tough spot.

That being said he can almost see in his mind's eye the thousands of elves that would suffer horribly at the hands of so called 'pillars of society' if he did refuse once Harry had finished what he was going to do.

Still, Harry reflectively thought, this is not my species and it is not my choice.

"Dobby will do" the little elf stated faintly even as Harry released a breath that he hadn't realised he had been holding.

"Thank you Dobby….you may have just saved a lot of lives" stated Harry "Let's go to Gringotts now my friend as we have no time to lose". Harry was immensely grateful at the trust he was being shown and more than thankful that a remedy had been found using simulated Earth components and more than just a little bit of magic and the Force.

After all, if not for magic, the virus would be just that and that would mean that, aside from other things, each elf would have to be infected one by one which would make for a long and tedious process. With magic the spread and the replication of the changes were not even a tiny problem.

As for the Force component Harry was using his own freely given blood and, although usually that would be a very stupid idea, he felt that the amount of trust he was being shown by his friend had to be met with an equal amount of trust on his part.

Harry knew that it was now time to give the house eves (those in the U.K. anyway) the ability to choose their own futures and the lesser gift of the Force while he did so. Soon they both 'popped' hand in hand to Gringotts into the Ritual Chamber and the admittedly uncertain future that awaited them.

After Dobby had undergone the ritual a few hours later he was off beginning to pop around the United Kingdom spreading both Harry's message and the virus to every elf that he came across and, more than that, did it all with a light heart sure in the knowledge that Harry Potter was doing the right thing.

If only, thought Harry, I was so sure.

Now, with only one day left before the timeline synced up again, he found himself at Bluestone and walking into his hidden ship.

"Nic?" Harry called "Are you in there?"

"Harry! We're in the back" called the famous Alchemist.

As Harry moved through to the back of the ship he was pleased to see that it was mostly restored to its pre-retrofit standard as he had begun to dismantle most of the software for dealing with time travel probabilities. Although power was now at such a premium that when it did leave it would only be a one way trip, all of the spaces on board had been opened up.

They had been filled with boxes upon boxes of Magical fauna and biological samples of animals under stasis charms. He had also filled one room to bursting with magical books that would be transferred to datapads and become part of the new Magical Archive that Nicholas would create (along with one for the Force and another for both of the Earth's and Galactic history) when he and his wife moved to Spero.

Nicholas and his wife had used their many contacts to expedite the acquisition of many items and were currently storing them in the ship. They were both excited to be travelling in space and see a new world. In return Nicholas would organise and then run (in a part-time capacity) his new Archives as well as becoming his lead researcher on practical applications of Magic, technology and the Force.

Harry had different plans for Pernelle although in the short term she would help her husband with his new work and both would hopefully enjoy their new life to the fullest as they were both more than eager for a brand new challenge and were scholars at heart.

"All set?" Harry asked.

"Yes. You leave tomorrow evening with GE3. The Homeward Bound and 4 others of the same design should be here about between six and eight days after that". Nicholas paused and looked at Harry gravely before continuing "Are you sure this is what you want to do? You could do such good here and possibly even save the Wizarding World from itself".

"That is all based on one faulty assumption Nic" said Harry after thinking about his new friends words for a moment.

"Oh? What is that?" The Alchemist replied truly interested in Harry's thoughts on the matter.

"The assumption that they deserve to be saved" Harry's face clouded with mixed emotions at that thought and Nicholas was, quite wisely, silent as he let his friend process all the thoughts that were going through his brain.

For the next few hours the three worked tirelessly to finish storing all that was to be taken to Spero before Harry abruptly stopped having noticed that the time was nearing midnight with a simple and quick tempus spell.

"If you would excuse me you know that I have somewhere that I must be" said Harry quietly even as he picked up a bulky helmet like apparatus. He hoped that the helmet did the job and, it should do, as it was cobbled together by GE3 from the remnants of his information chair and he also took a small recon drone that had been altered for a very specific purpose.

A move towards the sheet covered figure that was still on life support and, after attaching a more compact version of the devices keeping the figure alive, disapparated with all three in tow.

Pernelle looked up sadly from her work and to the spot that Harry had vacated just a moment before.

"If you're going to do what I think you are I wish you the very best of luck Harry Potter". As a former immortal she had sometimes felt that she was fighting the will of time and had a vague idea, especially from Harry's life story, how difficult that might be. She hoped that this was one fight the will of time lost and that with all her heart Harry succeeded.

Grimmauld Place was as dreary and dark as Harry remembered and it pained him that Sirius was forced to live in such horrible conditions especially after all that he had endured at Azkaban.

It was so dark and dreary not even Remus Lupin stayed overnight and given the fact that he was social outcast from almost everyone in the magical world due to his condition that spoke volumes about the state the house was in.

It also spoke about the fickle nature of Remus Lupin, Harry mused darkly, see your friend in pain and don't stay to comfort him. Don't bother to check on your dearest friends child and instead take the word of an old man that he was safe without checking for yourself because you're a dark creature and no one could be worse off than you.

Harry snorted at that unkind thought as he didn't know that this was the way it happened but the fact that he wasn't here now helping Sirius spoke volumes about the man.

Admittedly the fact that the house was basically empty apart from Sirius did help Harry with his plans at the moment though.

The only other semi regular guests were the Weasley's and the first time that he was fifteen he was told that they were there often. Given the revelations (or manipulations) that he had discovered in Dumbledore's and Snapes treatment of him he had not taken it for granted when he had returned.

Imagine my surprise, Harry thought, when my recon droids reported that they were only there two weeks either side of when Harry visited. The thing that annoys me the most is the way Sirius latches onto the smallest crumb of comfort like a man drowning in the sea does with driftwood. However, to be fair, he supposed that any comfort would be welcome after a long period of time with the Dementors.

With a very loud crack Kreacher appeared with a pop and just as quickly was knocked unconscious by Harry and, before it yelled for help the portrait of Sirius's mother was frozen in the same way that Harry had done for those at Hogwarts.

That was not to say that Harry didn't have a small amount of revenge though. He didn't knock the elf out with magic after all and found that he was deeply pleased with the crunching sound that his foot made on Kreacher's head after it had connected with the the vile little arse's nose (not to mention how nicely the little bastard slid quickly across the floor from the force of the impact). He followed the assault with a memory charm for good measure and then did the same to the painting just to be safe.

Wasting no time Harry bounded, as quietly as he could while levitating the unconscious body behind him, off the stairs. He passed the room that he stayed in the last time that he was here and, almost giddily, into Sirius's room.

Sirius Black had been many things in his long life. He was a womaniser and a prankster, skilled in most magics of his age and had rebelled against his family without a second thought. Nowhere was it ever said that he was in any way stupid (except by a certain biased and greasy haired potions master).

So when Harry came bursting into the room Sirius was not only awake but had his wand hand pointed at the door and, as Harry entered, his Godson's face. Thankfully for Harry's continued sanity Sirius wore boxes to bed and so he was spared the horrific image of his father figure in the nude. That being said he didn't particularly appreciate having a wand pointed directly at his face.

That his godfathers eyes were just a little wild could have been to do with his stay in the Wizarding World's most famous prison but, then again, it could have had something to do with the fact that his school aged Godson (who by all rights should have been at Hogwarts) had just burst into his room in the middle of the night.

"Harry? How are you? What are you…" asked Sirius sleepily.

"No time" Harry said softly and, when Sirius's wand dipped from it's ready position, he acted. Harry said a silent apology in his head even as he stunned his Godfather. Still objectively Harry realised that the fact that the stunner had hit his Godfather in the face and Harry had captured his surprised expression perfectly was quite funny even as Sirius dropped like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

Then he quickly propped up both Sirius and the body so that they were facing each other on his godfathers bed and turned on the droid. Harry was very grateful that he felt no burning sensation from the amulet around his neck as it would have been just his luck to have traveled all this way back only to screw up the timeline at the last moment. It was more than that especially with the fact that the machines to correct an error had been dismantled.

After less than an hour, during which two brilliant beams of white light from the droid connected the two men, the process was complete and for all intent and purposes there were now two Sirius Black's propped up on the bed.

Flash imprinting memories in this way was not normally done as within a few days it would lead to psychosis, split personalities, insanity and possibly a horrible death. Thankfully symptoms set in at a minimum of one day and, as the battle was going to begin less than a day from now, it was hardly a concern.

He then quickly grabbed the still stunned Sirius and sent a weak rennervate charm at the clone leaving a silencing spell on his mother's painting (it would wear off eventually and Harry figured that this Sirius could use some peace given what was going to happen to him).

Then, like he was never there, Harry disapparated with his Godfather in tow but he did manage to grab the real locket in a rag that he had in his pocket before he left.

Popping by way of Gringotts to avoid the awkwardness of trying to ask for an international portkey with a wanted a murderer in tow and as he was uncertain if he could side along apparate Sirius over the channel he reappeared eventually at his ship.

"Take care of him would you?" Harry said to Nicholas Flamel while privately enjoying the Alchemists gobsmacked expression. Before he disappeared with a pop once again.

"Cheeky bastard" Nic remarked as Harry left and he bent down to pick up the unconscious man.