17

Chapter 17: Kreacher, Walburga Black and the trip back to HogwartsNotes:

Good morning everyone.

Here you go, a new chapter. This time we're gonna visit Grimmauld Place, Diagon Alley and then - finally - Kings Cross to get back to Hogwarts. Hope you'll like it :)

Have fun reading

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

During August Remus had started to spend more and more time in his new office. Because there were more and more often people staying at the Manor, Harry and Mione had started to make all rooms usable, for example bedrooms for Minnie, Remus, the Grangers and even Severus, who had decided to stay for a few days while Dumbles was out of the country to do some brewing with the kids. Remus was the only constant inhabitant of the Manor as the kids did occasionally stay at the Grangers, but that got less once Amelia Bones unofficially connected the Grangers' fireplace with the floo network. It wasn't publicly accessible, but at least allowed travels from the Manor to the Grangers, even for the two adult muggles, who were obviously not able to apparate. 

Remus and Minnie both started working out of small office spaces on the higher floors, while Severus tended to spend most of his time in the very impressive potions lab. 

The kids didn't know what exactly Remus was doing, they were split between making lesson plans for third year as he now knew he'd be a professor then and writing a book. But they didn't try to find out, he'd tell them once he was ready. Besides, they still had some other things on their agenda.

Aside from doing their shopping for school - no Lockhart books surprisingly, but Mione suspected that Minnie had intervened and forced the man to use proper literature for class - they still had to destroy a Horcrux. Well, to be honest they were still missing four, the locket, the Gaunt ring, presumably the diadem and the diary. The latter shouldn't be an issue, Dobby's behaviour told them that it would still come into play this year. The ring they had located, but since they didn't know where leech Riddle was hiding they had to assume he was there. The diadem they'd try to find during the school year - Harry had begun suspecting it was hidden in the chamber - which left the locket. That had become possible thanks to Sirius. Since Harry was the Heir Black and Sirius the Lord, once he took the ring, he was able to give Harry access to Grimmauld Place, which was under both Fidelius and lockdown.

That meant that Harry, Mione and Severus (Remus was busy and Severus too was damn good when it came to handling dark arts) made a trip to London. Once they reached the street, they noted that Mione could see the house too, despite the fact that she didn't know the secret in that timeline. 

Harry stood in front of the house, made his rings visible and spoke the words the ring told him to say.

"I, Lord Harry James Potter, Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black demand entrance into this ancestral home of mine. I hereby lift the spells that keep it closed off from the world and name myself secret keeper as well, by the permission of my Lord Black."

With a flash of light the ring reacted with the house's wards, Harry felt the transition of power to him, turned around and said "The ancestral London home of the House of Black is located at 12 Grimmauld Place, London."

Now Severus saw the same thing Harry had seen once before, how the house got visible. Believe it or not, that had been the first time that he witnessed a Fidelius charm. 

Harry was the first one to step forward and begin entering the house, something he kind of dreaded. The last time they had been here was after their ministry break-in, but that had led to terrible consequences. 

At first glance the building was in worse shape than the first time he had set foot on it. It was still dark and dusty, no place worthy of the Black family. He'd have to put Kreacher in his place, tell him that he was no more than a servant to Sirius and the Black family. Yes, house elves were no slaves, but the bond they needed to survive and stay sane was a bond of servitude. The locket and Walburga Black's picture had corrupted the elf terribly.

"Who are you to enter the Black's home, you blood traitors and mudbloods."

He started attacking Severus with a wooden cooking spoon, but then Harry raised his hand and the rings started glowing. Now it was time to play every last part of the pureblood etiquette training he had had.

"YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW. I am your Heir Black, acting under the orders of our Lord. I command you to stand down and end using this foul language, or you'll face clothes and your head will join those over there. Get this place cleaned up properly, your Lord will return in the not so far future. Collect the dark artefacts and hand them over to me and my associates, especially…"

The little elf fell down on his knees, feeling all the radiating power coming from the rings. He knew Harry was more than just Heir Black, he was a strong and powerful Lord. But that wasn't what had interrupted Harry. Instead, it had been the loud voice of Walpurga Black, yelling - as usual - about blood traitors and mudbloods corrupting her house. But not with Harry.

"I command you to be quiet!"

Surprisingly it worked. For a fraction of a second Harry wondered why she had never followed Sirius' commands, but that might have had something to do with him not taking up the ring. Another one of Dumbles' manipulations.

"Who are you that you can command me? You're no Black."

The woman spoke in a calm and quiet manner, probably forced due to his commands.

"I am Lord Harry James Potter, Heir to the House of Black, Lord of the Houses Potter, Peverell, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. My Lord Black, you son Sirius, will take up the ring as soon as his illegal imprisonment has ended, and as you can see, magic has obviously accepted his claim, otherwise I wouldn't be here. If you want to stay here, and believe me I could end that sticking charm and burn you, then you'll keep more or less quiet and end the usage of this foul language, just like I told your little house elf here. The House of Black will find back to its old glory and if you hinder that, I'll simply remove you. Understood?"

Not wanting to endure more of her shrill voice he hadn't given her a chance to react to his revelations, but now that he had ended his monologue, she just nodded submissively.

Kreacher too was very stunned and decided that if this young man could command Lady Walpurga, then he'd be a worthy heir to serve. He was already beginning to clean up the entrance hall, when Harry called him.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Don't ask me how, but I know of Regulus Black's task. As Lord Potter I can achieve what you've failed to do for so many years and rid the locket from all evil. If you do your job here properly, then you can keep it on loan, as I am the Lord Slytherin, though I might need it from time to time."

Now the elf was halfway crying. His new master was stronger than every wizard he had known before, even old master Arcturus. He felt the familiar blood, knew that he was a descendant of master Arcturus' aunt, knew he was the godson of his righteous Lord and held the blood of many many ancient families. And now he was relieving him of the only task he had ever failed, master Regulus' last command. Not even hesitating he handed the locket with the dark spirit in it over and then witnessed the power of master Harry.

"The Lord of Potter rids you from the evil inside of you, the Lord of Potter rips away the splintered soul to free you. I summon thee, dark force, I summon thee!"

This time he only had to repeat it once before the spirit of Tom Riddle appeared, probably it had less protection on it as it had been in a very secluded and protected place. Snape intuitively drew his wand on the Dark Lord, but Harry was faster, pulling that disillusioned dagger of Godric Gryffindor from his side and stabbing the spirit in the chest. It screamed loudly, which everyone, especially Severus, seemed to enjoy.

Another Horcrux gone and destroyed. One less they needed to worry about. Things were undoubtedly looking better and better with every day that passed. As far as planned they would have a calm time now, until school would start again.

In other parts of Wizarding Britain that was not really the case. The Weasley family was very busy and chaotic all the time. Arthur for example had to deal with dozens of ministry raids, at one point even nine during one night. It was simply exhausting.

That was one of the reasons why the family patriarch rarely noticed anything strange at all in regards to his wife's behaviour, and if he did, she wasn't to conservative to use mind modification and compulsion spells. Over the years this had made the energetic, stubborn and very vivacious man become calm, reserved and submissive. He didn't realise at all, and hardly anyone else bothered. Bill and Charlie, the two, who had really known their father's original temperament, always thought it was the age and the exhaust, always working so much so the family would get by. 

And in truth they very well did - or would, if Molly Weasley wouldn't secretly take up to half of her husband's earnings and put them into a private vault or buy some nice things for her little girl. That included all the potions ingredients that she had used for the love potions to get Ginny the boy-who-lived and future head of the Potter family. Little did that boy know that he was indeed very wealthy, Albus had made sure that no one would tell him any of that. And by now their plan was, that - since Albus intended for the boy to die due to that prophecy - Ginny would get pregnant beforehand and either just give birth to the next Lord Potter (yes, illegitimate children had close to no chance to get the title, but there was nobody else) or to guilt-trip him into marrying Ginny despite their age. Sure, she had to hand some of the funds and relics over to Albus, but they would still be damn rich.

Until then, they would have to manage somehow without spending all of her money. No idea how much expense was needed to get there, especially with that Granger mudblood being close to Harry. What a cheeky little devil that girl was. And that in front of her parents. Absolutely not appropriate.

The most exhausting thing was that they had to do the Hogwarts shopping towards the end of holidays. That, with all the kids, was beyond horrible. Even worse was that they had coincidentally picked the day, on which Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing his books all day long in Flourish and Blotts. Not that Molly didn't like him, much the opposite, but that just created more chaos in the Alley. 

And that's why they waited with the book shopping as long as they could, finishing everything else beforehand, but that had hardly changed a thing. Once they were entering the bookstore, they saw a lot of more or less familiar faces, some friendlier than others, many with children in Ron's year. And one of those familiar faces was Luicus Malfoy.

The Lord of the Malfoy family hadn't had such a nice time during the summer. Throughout the entire year, Draco had sent him letters about his time at school, and not to forget, Harry Potter. This boy did act very strangely, so it seemed. He wasn't close at all with Dumbledore's most devoted followers, the Weasleys. Or at least their youngest son, a boy in his and Draco's year. Potter did even seem to despise that kid, especially because he was very pushy and appeared to think he'd be Potter's "best mate". But no, Potter was in - partly - better company (if you'd exclude that sadly brilliant mudblood). The young Longbottom, who was not at all a squib (Draco still insisted on that but Lucius had other sources from inside the castle. That boy outperformed Draco in theory and practical application), the Greengrass girl, as well as Bones, Abbott and occasionally some of the other descendants of old blood. None of the dark faction, but at least grey families. Dumbledore didn't seem to have the boy under his command, it was rather McGonagall, whom he trusted and looked up to. Interesting.

But all of those thoughts, as well as Draco's complaints about Potter's quidditch skill, were occupying him during the summer, a time when he should actually work on his political standing. Damn Arthur Weasley was annoying him with ideas of a new "muggleborn protection act". 

Even worse than that was the current amount of raids though, but he had been spared up until now. That was why he had visited Borgin and Burkes with Draco earlier, and that was why he was carrying that damn diary with him. 

The compulsion charm to write in it had overpowered him in a moment of weakness and idiocy, but then it had ordered him to make sure it got to Hogwarts, close to Harry Potter. The spirit within, he had no idea what it was though, had been very interested in the story behind the boy. 

Was it really that good to bring something that his Lord had handed him into circulation?

Well, it didn't matter what he thought, he was an obedient servant. And he had already made his choice at the platform after the end of the year. That is, if he'd manage that. If not, there were enough other people here, which would more or less work.

Lucius saw the damn pack of redheads, this time with the smallest one, the girl, he saw the Greengrass family, the Davis family, and those Indian wizards with the twins in Draco's year…Patil, that was it. Enough possibilities to sneak the diary into a shopping bag. Unfortunate was that he didn't see Potter's mudblood, but that would have been too risky, from what he had heard she would have never fallen for that. 

Half an hour later Lucius Malfoy left Diagon Alley with a smug grin. No, actually he didn't, but he would have if Arthur Weasley wouldn't have broken his nose. Yes, it was healed again, thanks to his…let's call it "fun evenings" with fellow death eaters back in the day, he was not that bad when it came to healing charms. 

At least he had been successful.

And on the same evening, a girl, looking through the things they had bought her today, was very surprised when she found a black leather diary amongst all those things. She couldn't even remember that they had bought one. But she wasn't complaining, since a diary was just what she needed. So many things were currently on her mind, things she couldn't tell anyone about. So many issues and problems, Harry Potter just one of them. 

Believe it or not, but the summer holidays were already over again. Harry and Hermione didn't really believe it, and that despite the fact that they were standing at Kings Cross right now, being accompanied by Remus and Emma. Dan had an early operation to perform at the clinic so this time it wasn't him dropping them off at the station. Once they had reached the barrier, Emma said her goodbyes and left, also having to head to work quickly. London traffic had been horrible this morning. They were basically the only ones still outside of the barrier. Remus, who was obviously not dependent on someone with whom he could drive back, decided to stay with them until the express left. 

Well, if we're being honest here, Remus was boarding the train too, carrying his trunk shrunken down in his pocket, but he wanted to see the kids' surprise at the feast. That also had the benefit that Mione couldn't yell at him since they were in public, Remus thought, suppressing a laugh. 

Now that they were starting to head for the border, Harry already suspected the worst. And yes, it did happen. 

They couldn't pass through.

"That stupid house elf. Once again he's not letting me through the barrier, and since I have no intention of flying by car - don't ask - we'll have to find a different way. Damn traffic, we should have been here half an hour ago with the majority of students arriving at the same time, then he couldn't have done this."

Mione, brilliant as she was (well, it was a very obvious solution, but she was still brilliant) asked Remus if they could simply apparate onto the platform. After a few seconds of thinking if he knew any reason why they couldn't, he nodded. As far as he knew there were no anti-apparition wards there.

And yes, that really was the case, and so the three of them easily reached the train. Since they were in a hurry, both gave Remus a quick hug and ran off, wanting to find a nice compartment. As soon as they were out of sight, Remus himself got onto the Hogwarts Express, for the first time since 1978. Back then with Lily and James, damn cute together, Sirius, who was dating Amy Bones and little Peter. Those had been better times. 

Harry and Mione were looking for Nev or Daphne, with whom they had agreed to meet, but before they found them, someone else ran into them. A very, very dreamy person and a very dear friend back in their previous lives.

"Harry, Hermione! You're back…again. But this time the wrackspurts are all gone. That is good for you two. May I join you on your search for a compartment, until now I haven't found one myself. Or did I know I was waiting for you without even knowing it? So many fuzzy thoughts. Come with me." 

And with that Luna just ran off. After exchanging glances they just followed her, hoping she would know where she was heading. Luna tended to know things.

"You know, Mione, I'm not even going to question that. That's just so Luna."

Hermione nodded. Most of the time she had deemed the girl a little bit too dreamy, maybe because of the incident where her mother had died. Some sort of compensation and suppression of those memories. But no, she actually knew things. 

The blonde girl suddenly came to a halt in front of a closed compartment door, gesturing to Harry to knock. And who would have thought, it was actually Neville and Daphne sitting in there. Both did seem to blush a little, that much was obvious. 

After all introductions had been made, the five of them sat all together and chatted about their summer. Nev and Daphne had met up quite often, even if you ignore those times all four of them had met and explored one of their families' Manors or the muggle world. 

Highlight for Daphne and her family had been that the Grangers had taken all of them into an amusement park, followed by going to the cinema. The usually grey leaning Greengrass family suddenly started to enjoy muggle culture and Arthur Greengrass became more open to work on even more tolerant muggleborn laws. 

For Neville the highlight had also been something in the muggle world. After finding out about his love for nature and herbology, Dan had taken the boy and his grandmother to Kew Gardens, an incredible botanic garden in London, which both Neville and Augusta had enjoyed immensely. The elderly Regent Longbottom had seen many things in her life, including plants from all over the world (the benefits of marrying into a family of herbology maniacs), but that had surpassed everything.

Now Luna started telling tales about how her father and her had visited Iceland, hoping to find proof of the existence of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. They didn't, unfortunately, but the trip had still been incredible.

Harry and Hermione's stories were a bit less fascinating as they had spent their time (when not with friends) studying. They didn't tell that most of that had been practical, mostly advanced duelling, but no one really had any interest in asking any detailed questions, thankfully.

Some of their yearmates had dropped by like Susan, Hannah, the Patil twins, Theo and Blaise as well as Draco, at whom they all just glared until he left without stupid comments. Then something Harry had been dreading had happened.

He had just taken a short trip to the loo, when he spotted a very specific redhead he had wanted to avoid. The shy little girl was probably following her mother's orders in confronting him. She was just so convinced he was in love with her that she basically threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. Ginny was even trying to give her hero a kiss on the cheek, but Harry stood firm. Then his hand, or to be precise his rings, started to shake softly while he was already smelling something.

How the…seriously, Molly? The perfume was spiked with Amortentia. Silently and wandlessly he cast a protection spell he had learned from Severus, preventing the caster from breathing in fumes from potions. Then Harry - though carefully - shoved her away from him.

"Don't you ever dare coming close to me again. I don't even know who you are." 

With that he just turned away and left, leaving Ginny nearly in tears. Yes, it was mean, but the Weasleys deserved that. He had probably just started to shake the foundation of her belief system by telling her that he didn't know who she was. Maybe, once all of this was done, he could get her to visit a mind healer. That girl had been thoroughly brainwashed. 

Upon reentering the compartment, Mione saw that something was wrong and got up immediately. The two just went in front of the door, set up a silencing spell and then Harry told her the whole thing. Surprisingly, Hermione didn't really get upset at Ginny and wanted to hunt her down, she actually pitied her for being, at least at this point in time, another one of Molly's victims. Sure, they assumed that in the later years she got ambitious and cunning herself, but right now she was a little girl having been promised her own prince. They would have to look out for more moves by Molly and Dumbledore. This year was going to be terrible.

A while later Hogwarts came in sight and they all changed into their school robes. Once the kids left the train, Harry loudly called for Padma, who turned around and walked up to him. Mione was looking very surprised by that, having no idea what he was about to do.

"Could you do me a favour? We have met that little first-year girl, that blonde over there, Luna. She's… special. Luna is very dreamy and often talks about imaginary creatures, I guess she's living in her own fantasy world. Might have something to do with her witnessing her mom's death, quite a horrible accident. She just seems so…lost from time to time and we're a bit afraid she'll end up as a bullying victim. No matter where she ends up, I want to have someone looking out for her inside her house. If she's a lion, we'll do that, Daphne in Slytherin and I'm gonna talk to Susan too, but I got the feeling she's gonna be a Ravenclaw. Could you do that?"

Padma smiled at Harry, then nodded. 

"Sure, Harry. I had my fair share of bullying in the past, and from what I could gather neither of you was better off. I won't let that happen to her. And if you say she's gonna be a Claw, then I guess I'll go talk to her briefly before Hagrid takes them to the boats."

And with that Padma was gone, heading towards Luna.

"Oh Harry, that was nice of you. I would never have thought of asking Padma for help. And they call me the smart one, look at you."

Now they were slowly making their way to the carriages, the four of them sharing one. Daphne was the only one who couldn't see the thestrals, leading to an explanation by Harry and Mione of what those were. Thankfully Daphne didn't ask any of them why they could see them, as two of them hadn't really seen death in this timeline. That would have been hard to explain.

What none of those four had realised was that there was one person missing on the train. And this person was Ronald Weasley.

The second-year redhead had already boarded the train and watched Harry's arrival through the window of his compartment, when suddenly Scabbers started to act out. He had no idea what was going on with this stupid rat, he acted like he was afraid for his life. While trying to calm Scabbers down, he hopped out of Ronald's arms and ran off, the boy following close behind. 

Just as Ronald saw the man who had accompanied Harry and that Granger girl onto the platform walking on the train in the opposite direction, leading to a moment of confusion (because what was that man doing on the train) Scabbers used the opportunity and hopped off the train and onto the platform.

Why was that happening to him?

Ronald rushed after his rat for quite some time, until the stupid beast hopped through the wall which was the barrier to the muggle world. After hesitating for a second he followed behind, knowing he had to hurry to get back onto the Express.

After passing the barrier he actually had luck and caught the damn beast which had started to calm down. Now he only had around five minutes left, so he picked the rat up and went towards the barrier. Thankfully he wasn't afraid anymore like last year. His mother had told him back then to close his eyes and run. This time he walked at a normal speed through it…or he would have if the barrier hadn't been closed, making the wall pretty solid now. 

After a few attempts Ronald had accepted his fate. He couldn't get back on the platform and by now the train was already starting to leave. 

It was then when he had a great, no, a brilliant idea.

Notes:

And that's it for this week, hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think in the comments :)

See ya all next week