The Haunting of Grimmauld Place
Saturday, 31 October 1998
Harry must’ve fallen asleep at some point because when he blinked his eyes open, the windows were letting in early afternoon light and Theo was talking to someone with a voice he didn’t recognize.
He took a moment to orient himself; Teddy was still snuggled against his chest and Theo’s head was still resting against his shoulder, they were on the couch in the Tapestry room at Grimmauld Place, it was his first Samhain as the so-called Master of Death, and it had been a rather overwhelming day so far. He’d known everyone who’d appeared so far, even the Prewett twins’ voices had been oddly familiar. But this voice was entirely new.
“Well what else have I missed, mo leanbh?” the voice asked.
“A lot, mháthair,” Theo said with a slight laugh, “but that was everything from my first years at Hogwarts. And you know that Father died during the Second War, I don’t actually know when, nor do I care to know.”
Ah, must be Theo’s mum, Harry thought to himself, though he wasn’t sure whether he was meant to join the conversation now or not. Theo made that choice for him.
“Love, I know you just woke up,” Theo said, Harry could hear the soft smile in his voice, “meet my mum, Lillian Nott, Lillian Fawley originally, she was Lord Fawley’s younger sister.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Harry said, his voice still heavy with sleep, “Hadrian Potter-Black.”
“Lovely to meet you, dear,” Lillian greeted, her voice had a more distinct Irish lilt than Lord Fawley’s, “I was a couple of years older than your parents at school. I was in Frank Longbottom’s class, Theo mentioned you were close with his son.”
“Yeah, Neville’s like my brother,” Harry confirmed, grinning, “we’ve worked with your brother and niece quite a bit in the Wizengamot and they’re great people.”
“I’m so happy to hear that,” she said, her smile growing soft, “I was always fond of my older brother.”
“Can I have Teddy now?” Theo asked, “you’ve been hogging him all morning.”
Harry passed Teddy over with a smile. The movement shook him out of his nap, which was probably a good thing because if he slept much longer he’d have never fallen asleep that night.
“Mum,” Theo said, finally done tickling and praising a giggling Teddy, “this is Teddy, he’s Harry’s son. He adopted him after his mum and dad died in the Final Battle.”
“He’s absolutely adorable,” Lillian said, “I’m so thankful for the chance to meet him and to see your little family, Theodore.”
Harry was just about to ask Lillian what she’d like to know when he heard, “Haz! Come here please!”
He was immediately thrown off by Neville’s tone. He sounded like he was trying too hard to be casual, “I’m sorry, I’m going to go see what that’s about. I’ll leave Teddy here.”
Theo, who’d also recognized the strain in Neville’s voice, just nodded to Harry.
* * *
Harry kept his pace measured until the door was closed behind him and then he darted in the direction of Neville’s voice, he headed up the stairs to the floor where Neville’s bedroom was and saw the issue as soon as he turned the corner, “oh for fuck’s sake,” he muttered.
“Hello, Harry,” Barty Crouch, Jr. greeted in an all-too-casual manner.
All Harry could do was respond, “hello,” before he looked at Neville with about 14 different emotions in his eyes, Neville didn’t look much better. Realizing that his brother wasn’t about to start this conversation, Harry turned to Barty and asked, “what the hell?”
Alright, maybe it wasn’t the best way to start a conversation. But he was looking at a person who’d sent him to his death, tortured Neville’s parents into insanity, and was also apparently his father’s best friend. No one would be able to formulate a real thought in that situation, give him a break.
Barty, the absolute nutter, just laughed.
Harry decided that pretending he wasn’t there would probably work for the time being and turned his full attention to Neville, “how are we handling this?”
Neville followed Harry’s lead and responded, “great question. He appeared in front of me, somehow knew I could see him despite you being the insane Death demigod, not me, and said he wanted to explain, that’s about when I yelled for you.”
“Alright,” Harry said, nodding like this was a situation he could handle, “good thinking, should we maybe go into a room instead of standing here in the hallway?”
“Smart,” Neville said, backing up toward his door and not taking his eyes off Harry, as if letting Harry leave his sight would derail any grasp on sanity he still had.
Once the door was closed, Harry and Neville flung themselves on Neville’s bed and turned toward Barty. “Start talking,” they said as one.
Barty went on to explain how he didn’t, in fact, join the Death Eaters to spite his father, though spiting his father probably would’ve been motivation enough. Both Regulus and Evan were being forced to join, both for the same reason. They were the heir and, if they didn’t join, their families would turn their sights to their siblings. Regulus knew that the Blacks re-focusing on Sirius would mean certain death and Evan knew that if the Death Eaters figured out Pandora was a seer she’d never see the light of day again.
He couldn’t let his best friend and boyfriend go through all of that alone, so he followed.
Then Regulus disappeared and Evan and Dorcas both died, fighting on different sides of the war, and Barty was left alone.
He’d been told that the visit to the Longbottom’s was information gathering, he’d thought that meant staking the place out and, at absolute worst, placing charms to spy on them.
There had been no indication of what would actually happen.
When he realized they were breaking into the house, he thought of everyone he could contact to help and realized there was no one. Regulus was dead, Evan was dead, Dorcas was dead, Marlene was dead, James was Dead, Lily was Dead, Sirius was in Prison, Peter was (supposedly) dead, Pandora was on the continent, and he had no clue how to contact Remus or Mary.
He was alone.
So, he followed them into the house and at the first possible chance he’d ran off to find Neville’s nursery. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan were too focused on Alice and Frank to realize that he had left. So, he found Neville, who’d woken up from all the noise and was yelling out for his parents. He placed silencing charms so they wouldn’t hear him and remember that there was a toddler here as well. Then he placed every protective ward he knew around the nursery before going back down to see if there was any way he could help Alice and Frank. But by the time he got back downstairs, they were too far gone.
It was a minute later when the aurors showed up and they were all taken into custody.
Harry was about to ask why none of this came out at trial before he remembered that he’d actually seen that trial. Where all four of them were brought in together and Bellatrix confessed for the group and Bartemius Crouch Sr. was more than happy to throw his only son into Azkaban, no questions asked.
When Barty finished speaking, Harry and Neville just started at each other in silence, or what looked like silence to anyone else. But with direct eye contact, they could hold an entire conversation through surface-level legilimency. Barty stood quietly and waited until the boys seemed to reach some sort of decision and turned back toward him.
“Thank you for protecting me,” Neville said.
“And we’re sorry that you ended up alone,” Harry added.
“Yeah,” Neville agreed with a nod, “we know what it’s like to feel alone and we know how helpless everything seems, so we understand.”
Well, that was more than Barty could’ve ever hoped for. He simply nodded his thanks and disappeared into thin air.
The boys sat in silence for several minutes before Neville spoke, “when I made that joke at dinner last night about how weird shit always happens on Halloween, someone should’ve told me to shut the fuck up.”
It was silent for another thirty seconds before Harry snorted and then they both broke out into slightly hysterical giggles.
“This is, by far, the most insane day I’ve ever had,” Harry said after they’d both caught their breath.
“Somehow,” Neville said, resting his head against Harry’s shoulder with a sigh, “despite everything I know about your life, I believe that.”
They just sat in each other’s presence, trying to sort through everything that had happened that day. It was only 1:00 and the day was already beyond strange.
Harry, having not learned his lesson from Neville 5 minutes earlier, said, “well, if anyone else wants to drop any bombs on us, now’s your chance.”
A second later, Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore appeared in front of them.
Harry just stared at them in open shock and Neville grabbed one of his pillows and hit Harry over the head before shoving his face into it and screaming at the top of his lungs.
Ignoring Neville’s muffled screams and Harry’s dismayed (if slightly ruffled thanks to the recent encounter between his head and a pillow) expression, Dumbledore said, “hello, my boys, lovely to see you.”
Neville pulled the pillow away from his face and stared at Dumbledore with a look identical to Harry’s. Snape did his best to cover up his amusement but failed miserably.
“What can we do for you on this fine afternoon, sir,” Neville said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Harry might not have decided how he felt about Dumbledore yet, but Neville sure had.
Snape knew Neville could be confident, he’d seen it in that last year when the Death Eaters had infiltrated Hogwarts and Neville stepped up and led the resistance in Harry’s absence. He also knew that these two boys had always known more than they let on. He wasn’t in the least bit shocked by Neville’s reaction.
Dumbledore, however, was.
He looked between the two young men in front of him who no longer looked shocked. Neville was clearly angry, and Harry looked … hurt.
Dumbledore was shocked even further when Harry ignored him entirely in favor of turning toward Snape and saying, “I just wanted to thank you, sir. I didn’t get the chance to, and I know that, despite everything, you always tried your best to protect me and you used your last moments to give me what I needed to win. You also got angry when you realized I’d been raised for slaughter and that’s more than I can say for a lot of people, so please know that I appreciate that, no matter what your motive was.”
Snape took a long moment, searching Harry’s face. He’d known this boy for 6 years and had always thought he’d been a complete brat but over that last year, when Harry was on the run, he’d had to rethink his opinion. It was always clear that Harry had held the focus of the student body, but it wasn’t clear that he’d been a leader until he wasn’t there. Neville had stepped up, but that simple knowledge was enough for Snape to re-think everything he knew about the Boy Who Lived.
He'd thought that Harry had been raised in opulence. He’d thought that Harry had been loved. He’d been wrong.
He also knew from the conversation that he’d just had with his godson that Harry was now not only a Slytherin, but Lord Slytherin. That he was always supposed to be a Slytherin but had talked the Hat into Gryffindor because he’d been afraid of what would happen to him in the House of Snakes. Draco had also talked about how Harry had welcomed not just him and Narcissa, but all of Draco’s friends with open arms.
The person before him wasn’t James Potter’s son. He was his own person; an incredibly strong, brave, and kind person. Snape had never felt more ashamed in his life.
“I appreciate that, Potter,” he said after a full minute of silence, “but you don’t owe me your thanks. It was the least I could do after the role I played in sending Voldemort after your family. I do, however, owe both of you an apology. Not only did I send a monster after your families, but I also treated you both horrifically while you were in school. I feel terribly but know that nothing I say can truly fix it, but please know that I’m sorry.”
“Thank you for saying that sir,” Neville responded for both of them.
They then turned to Dumbledore to see what he had to say. They really weren’t expecting much so they weren’t entirely disappointed when all he said was, “I am proud of the men you two have grown into.”
They just stared at him for a minute. The silence was broken by Harry laughing.
Everyone else in the room turned to stare at him.
If Harry and Neville’s laughter after their conversation with Barty was edging on hysterical, Harry’s was now nearing Bellatrix levels of insane.
When Harry’s finally caught his breath, he looked back up at Dumbledore with tears in his eyes and a look that made even Snape take a half step back.
“I walked to my death on your instruction,” Harry started, his voice deadly quiet, “I dragged Ron and Hermione along and spent a year on the run hunting down Horcruxes without any direction and the more that I think about it, the more I believe you knew the identity, if not the location, of every single one.
“I suffered through year after year of trials that simply had to be orchestrated and if they weren’t, they were due to your utter neglect. You allowed Sirius to sit in Azkaban for 12 years without a trial, even though it was well within your power to get him one and then when he got out, you let him go on the run, neglecting to use that power once again. And, in doing so, you left me to be raised by magic hating, abusive people. You not only condemned me in doing that, but my cousin as well. Instead of being raised by parents who just loved him, he was raised by two people who used him to show how much they hated me. It damaged both of us.
“You let me get dragged down in the media right alongside you and ignored me for an entire year after I watched my boyfriend’s murder with my own two eyes and then when you finally decided you liked me again, you spent a year giving me the world’s most convoluted history lesson and then dragged me along to a cave of horrors before stunning me and forcing me to watch your death. You let me believe that Snape was responsible. And then, when I actually died, you spewed more shit about things happening inside my head being real. Which, come to think of it, is actually hilarious given the years you spent waving off my connection with Voldemort.
“Then, this summer, I go into Gringotts to adopt Teddy and name my heirs after someone else, not my self-proclaimed Magical Guardian, told me that I was Lord Potter and that Sirius leaving me everything probably meant I was Lord Black as well, and found out that you’d left blocks on me my entire life and, more than that, if you’d just taken me to Gringotts 17 years ago, they could’ve cleansed the soul shard that dear old Tommy boy left behind in my forehead because he’d never actually finished the ritual, I wasn’t a full Horcrux, Albus, and you either didn’t care enough to check or knew and decided to leave it anyway. Both options are fucking horrific, by the way.
“So, I’ve spent the last few months trying to figure out how, exactly, I feel about you. The man who presented himself as some sort of grandfather-figure while working behind the scenes to send me to my death. But I think I’ve finally figured it out. I am thankful for the small number of things you did to help me, but I’ve lost all respect for you, and I’m officially done wasting energy thinking about you.”
Say what you will about Albus Dumbledore, but he knows when he’s lost a battle. He simply took a long look at Neville and Harry before nodding his head and shimmering out of existence.
“Well,” Snape said after they’d spent a minute staring at the spot Dumbledore had just stood, “good for you, Harry. Well said.”
“Thank you, sir,” Harry responded before leaning back against the pillows with a sigh, “that felt good.”
“Fucking finally,” Neville said, grinning over at his brother, “I’ve been trying to get you on the Dumbledore hate train for years now.”
Harry reached out and shoved Neville, but the corners of his mouth were twitching toward a reluctant smile.
“I’ll leave you two to your day,” Snape said, “I’m glad to see you’re both doing well.”
Harry and Neville both simply sent him a nod as he, too, shimmered out of existence.
* * *
The second Snape disappeared, there was a muffled noise that sounded like someone falling against Neville’s door. Harry and Neville looked at each other before they called out in unison, “come in!”
The knob turned and Hermione, Ron, and Draco came tumbling into the room.
Hermione immediately threw herself on the bed and wrapped Harry up in a vice grip. Draco and Ron settled at the foot of the bed at a much more measured pace, though Ron reached out and wrapped his hand around Harry’s ankle, letting him know that he was there.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you that angry,” Draco said, staring at Harry with something that looked like awe in his eyes.
Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Harry all snorted out a laugh at that.
“This is what we meant this summer when we said that an angry Harry was scarier than anything you snakes could’ve come up with,” Ron said, squeezing Harry’s ankle slightly, “this one’s got a bit of a temper.”
“I’m willing to admit it’s more than a bit of a temper,” Harry said, grinning over at his best friend, before looking toward Draco, “do you still have the ring?”
“I gave it to Professor MacDonald an hour ago, I think she’s down in the kitchen with … everyone.”
“She is,” Hermione confirmed, “we were down there until we heard Neville yelling and you running up the stairs, once we realized it was Barty we decided to give you two privacy, but when we heard you start yelling, we knew the list of people that could evoke that anger was incredibly short and couldn’t exactly help but eavesdrop.”
“I think,” Draco said, “I’m going to do my level best to never make you angry again.”
“As long as you don’t send me to my death, kill my parents, kill my boyfriend, or devote your life to making mine miserable,” Harry said, counting off on his fingers, “I doubt you could bring me to a murderous rage.”
“Good to know,” Draco said, nodding.
“Back on track,” Hermione said, “Mary is in the kitchen, Emmaline Vance joined the party at some point but as far as we know it’s the same people as earlier.”
Harry thought through all the ghosts that had appeared and realized someone was missing, “did we forget about Marlene?” he asked the room.
“And Dorcas,” a voice said from near the door.
The group of five living teenagers whipped around to see Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadows standing by the door grinning.
“And Dorcas,” Harry muttered under his breath before turning toward Neville, “any other dead people we’re missing?”
Neville thought about that question for a minute before looking at Harry with wide eyes, Harry looked at Neville for a second before his eyes went wide and they both said, “Pandora!”
“Fuck,” Harry said, “we forgot Luna.”
“I even sent Susan a note to tell her what was going on when Fawkes brought Mary and she said she wanted to wait for the ritual, but I somehow completely forgot about Luna.”
“Fawkes,” they called out, entirely ignoring the three humans and two ghosts who were looking on in amusement.
Harry dug into his pocket and found a random scrap of parchment and then held out a hand to Hermione who pulled a pen out of her own pocket and handed it over. He scribbled a quick note to Luna:
Little Moon – I can see ghosts and make others see ghosts all day. Do you want to join? Fawkes will bring you. Love, Harry.
He handed the note over and a minute later, Luna appeared in a burst of flame, “you forgot about me,” she said, trying her best to glare at Harry.
Harry just smiled sheepishly, “I genuinely don’t know how. I didn’t even think about it until Dorcas showed up and I even talked to Barty about Evan and your mum earlier.”
“You’ve had an odd day,” Luna said.
“He scolded Death this morning,” Neville said.
“I missed that,” Draco said, “but he just spent several minutes screaming at Dumbledore.”
“So, a really odd day,” Luna corrected.
Harry smiled at her and shoved Neville until there was just enough space for Luna to squeeze between them, “you have to be touching me or my Peverell ring and Mary has the ring right now.”
“You’ll do I guess,” Luna said with a sigh, though her attempt at frustration was rather tempered by her grinning and launching herself onto the bed between Neville and Harry, “oh hello,” she said once she could see the pair by the door.
“You look so much like your mother,” Dorcas said with a smile.
“Thank you,” Luna said, smiling back, “I heard so many stories about you growing up, it’s great to actually meet you.”
Harry threw his arm around Luna’s shoulders and thought hard about everything he knew about Pandora Lovegood until the woman herself appeared next to Dorcas.
“Mum,” Luna greeted with a bright smile.
“Hello, Luna,” Pandora responded, mirroring her daughter’s smile, then spared no time exclaiming, “introduce me to your friends!”
Luna’s smile somehow grew, “this is Draco Black, Ron Weasley who you’ve met, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Harry Potter.”
There was a chorus of nice to meet yous and a nice to see you from Ron, but Pandora had locked her eyes onto Harry’s, “you’re not just a Potter are you?”
Harry smiled and was about to answer before he was cut off by Luna laughing and saying, “I wanted to see if you knew.”
“I didn’t know,” Pandora said, sending a fond look at Luna, “but I was able to guess. He’s wearing the Black Lord’s ring while the one you introduced as a Black is only wearing the Heir’s ring.”
“Observant,” Harry said with a smile, “my full name is Hadrian James Arcturus Ignotus Peverell Potter Black.”
“You forgot Slytherin,” Neville said.
“I feel four last names is a mouthful,” Harry responded, maintaining his serious face for all of five seconds before he cracked a grin and turned back toward the three women standing at the door, “but to answer your real question, I’m Regulus’ son.”
Pandora looked at Dorcas and Marlene to see if they were at all shocked by that news and looked rather disgruntled when they weren’t, “no one tells me anything.”
“To be fair,” Marlene said, “we were told about 45 minutes ago. It’s not as if you’ve been left out of some decades long secret.”
“We were actually all left out of a decades long secret,” Dorcas said with a shrug.
“Don’t worry,” Neville said, drawing their attention back to the living people in the room, “we were also left out of the secret.”
That got a laugh out of everyone, living and dead.
Luna looked around the room for a second, trying to figure out what was missing then turned to Harry, “where’s Theo? And Teddy?”
“Last I checked they were downstairs talking to Theo’s mum,” Harry responded before cocking his head as a quizzical expression passed across his face.
Neville looked at Harry with the same expression, but it was Ron who actually asked the question, “how can Theo see his mum without you there?”
“That, Ronnikins, is an incredible question,” Harry said.
“Well,” Hermione said, adopting the tone she takes when trying to figure out a particularly difficult problem, “Neville can see them but he’s not a conduit, and the twin bond is a soul bond of sorts right?”
“Yeah,” Harry and Neville responded.
“Really?” Draco said, looking at Hermione, appearing to be on the same train of thought, “you think so?”
“Are soul mates real?” Hermione asked.
“I don’t know,” Draco said, “magical bonds are, and magic and the soul are so intertwined.”
While those two were talking, Harry was still thinking, after a moment he shook his head, “I have a far more practical answer.”
Everyone looked at Harry who smiled before responding, “he has the Cloak.”
“What do you mean?” Ron asked, “as in the Cloak? Why?”
“I carry the Stone and Wand on me at all times and the Cloak exists in that same shadow space as my scythe in case I need it for anything. Anyways, after Death told me this morning that I’d taken on the powers of the Hallows, I pulled all three of them out to analyze and found some runes embroidered on the inside of the Cloak that I’d never noticed before and I gave it to Theo to look at to see if he knew what they were before I ended up in a several hour long lecture on runes from Death.”
“Something about that whole conversation makes me think I missed a lot more than just the revelation that you’re Regulus’ son,” Pandora said, shooting Harry a look.
“Boy do we have a story for you,” Neville said with a laugh before gesturing to one of the couches in the corner of the room, “why don’t you lot take a seat.”
Theo, Teddy, Sirius, Regulus, and James walked into the room around the time Luna was telling Pandora, Marlene, and Dorcas about their training with the Founders.
“Do you have the Cloak?” Ron asked.
“Yeah,” Theo said, looking rather confused by the sudden question.
“If you’re not holding it, can you see the ghosts?” Hermione asked.
“What?” Theo asked.
“Can you see them right now?” Harry asked.
“Yeah,” Theo said, before a look of realization passed his face, “and it’s weird because I’m not touching you or the ring. You know, I actually hadn’t thought about that, it’s been a rather long day.”
He passed Teddy over to Neville and pulled the cloak out of his pocket and set it on the bed, “nope, can’t see shit.”
“That answers that question,” Ron said.
“What question?”
“Hermione and Draco thought maybe you could see ghosts because we had some inexplicable bond like Neville and me,” Harry told him, “I reasoned that it was probably because you were holding a Hallow and not because there was more magical shit happening that no one could explain.”
“Solid logic,” Theo said with a shrug before somehow squeezing onto the bed that was now holding 6 fully grown teenagers and a baby, “you think it’d work with the wand?”
“No,” Harry said, somehow just knowing the answer, “the Cloak and the Stone are Hallows that can be used, the Wand has to be mastered to be the Elder Wand, in anyone else’s hand it’s just 14 inches of Elder with a Thestral Hair core.”
“We can spend more time discussing the several insane magical items that Harry walks around with another day,” Neville said.
“Did you mention a scythe?” Dorcas asked.
Regulus, Sirius, and James, who hadn’t been there for that particular conversation, turned toward Harry with a mixture of expressions. Sirius looked excited, James looked like he couldn’t decide whether he was excited or concerned, and Regulus just looked concerned.
“Oh, this should be entertaining,” Luna said, “shall we do a weapons tour?”
“Are you carrying everything?” Neville asked, looking over at Luna.
“Are you?” she asked back, instead of answering.
“I swear to Merlin, if Godric told you three about the hidden holsters after acting like it was some great Gryffindor Family Secret, I’m going to burn his portrait,” Neville said, sounding entirely serious.
Harry and Luna’s responding grins were all the answer he needed.
“I hate him.” Neville said.
“You guys lead odd lives,” Pandora mused.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Neville and Harry responded.
“You two have been doing that a lot today,” Theo said.
“It’s been a stressful day,” they responded as one, again.
Theo just held up his hands in surrender.
“Take the kid,” Neville said, passing Teddy over to Theo, “we’re about to be holding a lot of blades.”
When Luna, Neville, and Harry stood up, Theo, Ron, and Draco all moved up to lean against the headboard while Regulus, Sirius, and James took a seat on the other couch.
“Ladies first,” Neville said, grabbing Luna’s shoulders and directing her to the large coffee table at the center of the room.
Over the next several minutes, the impromptu armory in Neville’s bedroom continued to grow. They hadn’t even gotten to Harry yet and the coffee table was full. It turned out that Harry wasn’t the only one amassing weapons.
Luna had her original longsword along with the dagger Godric had insisted they each carried but she was also carrying a second dagger along with several small knives at Rowena’s direction along with an axe she’d decided to learn how to use after seeing Harry and Neville working on axe fighting, the two boys looked rather frightened at that development.
Neville had his double headed axe and dagger but, with the “hidden holster” that Godric had introduced them all to (it wasn’t actually a holster, but rather a thin leather bracelet that acted as a sort of pocket dimension, much like the shadow dimension that Harry and Death spoke of, but with a physical anchor; a rather impressive piece of magic that Godric had actually invented himself), he was also carrying three more daggers and the Sword of Gryffindor.
“Can’t you just call that thing into battle when you need it?” Harry asked, pointing toward the Sword.
“I can, but if I carry it around it stops you from being able to call it.”
“You’re joking right.”
“Nope.”
“You are the worst person I’ve ever met, and I have met Voldemort, on several occasions.”
“That feels like a bit of an exaggeration.”
“It is not.”
“Boys,” Hermione cut in before they could get much further, “maybe save this for later?”
“Fine,” Harry said with a sigh, “though I maintain that he sucks.”
“Harry what could you possibly need another sword for?” Theo said with a sigh, “I don’t even know what weapons you’re actually carrying but I can nearly guarantee that one of them is a sword.”
Harry turned his glare toward Theo and then quickly realized he wasn’t going to win this utterly insane argument and took his turn to show off his weapons.
Their classmates weren’t even slightly shocked by the number of weapons they were carrying; their parents, aunts, and uncle were another story.
Sometime around Luna’s second dagger, Lily, Remus, Emmaline, Fabian, Gideon, Evan, and Barty had joined them. Lily had said something about Mary going home and Narcissa and Andromeda talking to Ted and Tonks in the kitchen before getting entirely sidetracked by the arms show happening in Neville’s bedroom.
Harry turned away from Theo and noticed the expanded group of ghosts for the first time.
“Ah,” he said, “hello everyone.”
“So, what all do you have?” Sirius asked, nearly bouncing in his seat with excitement. Lily, Regulus, James, and Remus all shot him glares but he was undeterred.
Harry decided to focus on Sirius instead of his three concerned parents and one stressed out uncle.
“Hold on,” Barty said, “this kid is deadly with a normal wand, what else could he possibly need to carry? Also, what the bloody fuck is going on?”
“We’re Founders Heirs,” Luna responded, as if that answered everything.
It turned out only a few people had heard that story before they’d launched into showing off their collection of deadly weapons, so Neville gave a quick rundown and then turned to Harry, “your turn.”
Harry pulled off his jumper, so he was left standing in jeans and a t-shirt, the two forearm holsters with the Elder Wand and a basilisk fang and the thigh holster with his holly wand and dagger on full display. He pulled them out one by one, holding off on the fang because he knew that was going to raise several questions. He’d laid out the wands and daggers, pulling the Slytherin dagger from his ankle, and then realized he wasn’t going to be able to avoid explaining the fang the length of his forearm any longer.
“So, this is a basilisk fang,” he said, dropping it into his left hand and setting it carefully on the table, he tried for a full half second to move on but was interrupted by James, “did you say basilisk fang?”
“Yeah,” Harry said, “from the one I killed.”
“Oh, that’s not all,” Neville said, grinning at Harry.
“Have I mentioned recently that I hate you?”
“You have, actually.”
“Good,” Harry said, turning back towards his dad, “when we sent the Goblins to render the corpse over the summer they decided that my killing a 60-foot snake was enough to name me a Warrior of the Nation.”
“Do you mean to tell me,” James said, “that you’re a Goblin Warrior?”
Harry reached behind him and grabbed onto seemingly nothing but swung his arm forward holding an axe, “yup,” he confirmed, popping the p.
“Chaos magnet,” Remus said.
“Yup,” Harry repeated.
“Since when can you do that?” Theo asked, gesturing to Harry’s axe.
Harry turned around looking rather sheepish, “always?”
“Merlin, Potter,” Theo said with a sigh, “you’re lucky I love you.”
“Don’t I know it,” Harry responded with a grin. Theo just rolled his eyes.
“So, you’ve got an axe, two daggers, a deadly fang, and two wands, including the most powerful wand ever made,” Marlene said, looking rather impressed.
“I want to see this scythe,” Dorcas said, looking nearly as excited as Sirius.
“Just a minute,” Harry said with a laugh, “I’m saving that one for last.”
“You mean to tell me there’s more?” Barty said.
Harry just sent him a grin that could’ve easily been interpreted as menacing before flicking his left wrist several times and setting five more weapons on the table; the Talwar sword he’d gotten on the first day of training, the Black and Potter daggers, and two knives.
“Did you get those knives from Rowena?” Luna asked.
“Helena, actually,” Harry said, “but they are Ravenclaw knives.”
“When did Helena give you knives?” Neville asked, “wait, I take that back, how did Helena give you knives?”
“Better yet,” Draco said, “who is Helena?”
“Rowena’s daughter,” Neville, Luna, and Harry chorused before returning to their conversation.
“Did you know that we can control our house ghosts?” Harry asked.
“Of course,” Luna said at the same time Neville said, “What are you talking about?”
“All the ghosts listen to us the same way they listen to a Headmaster or Headmistress, but we can literally command our House ghosts, and they have to listen,” Harry explained, “I told the Bloody Baron to stay the fuck away from Helena. Between that and destroying the Horcrux Tom had left in her mother’s diadem, she’s decided we were best friends.”
“That doesn’t actually answer how she gave you knives, Haz.”
“She’d hidden them on the grounds and took me to find them,” Harry explained.
“Scythe time?” Dorcas interrupted.
“Almost,” Harry said.
“Almost?” Lily repeated, looking like she was trying to figure out how to punish Harry despite her being dead and him being an adult.
Harry, who’d also realized he couldn’t actually be punished, just grinned before closing his eyes and reaching out his right hand, adding the Peverell dagger and a third wand (Ignotus Peverell’s wand, 12 inches of Holly with the hair of a Grim) to the pile before turning his grin toward Dorcas and reaching his hand out again.
Unlike the dagger, which he’d pulled out of the shadow space like pulling something off a shelf, the scythe materialized in Harry’s hand almost exactly like the ghosts had been appearing and disappearing throughout the day.
Luna and Neville had briefly seen the weapon on that first day of training but hadn’t actually gotten a chance to look at it. And no one else, including Theo, had gotten so much as a glimpse at it.
It was an impressive looking weapon, certainly, but the power was what caused everyone, living and dead, to suck in a breath. And it wasn’t just the power rolling off the weapon, it was the power rolling off the wizard.
Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Theo had each been near Harry when he was holding all three Hallows and that was nothing compared to what they were experiencing right now.
Harry, seemingly oblivious to everyone’s reactions, simply swung the blade around his hand in a practiced motion and said, “that’s everything.”
“Harry,” Luna said after everyone had been staring at Harry in silence for nearly a minute, “is that the same scythe you found in the armory?”
“Yeah,” Harry said with a nod, “but remember Death hid it there as a joke, it wasn’t actually one of the armory weapons.”
“Oh yeah,” Luna said, nodding and looking like she had all the answers she needed.
“What is that thing made of?” Ron said, staring at both Harry and the weapon in awe.
“The handle is Elder,” Harry answered, “same tree as the Wand. Actually, the whole thing is rather like a wand, it’s a conduit so it has no power unless it’s being wielded by someone with complimentary power.”
“You mean to say,” Hermione said, “that the scythe, like a wand, is utterly powerless without the user’s magic?”
“Yeah,” Harry said with a grin.
“I think what she meant to ask,” Theo said, staring at Harry like he’d never seen him before, “is whether the power that we can currently feel is the scythe’s or yours?”
“Mine,” Harry said, looking a bit confused, “I don’t cast spells with it, it just channels my magic, so it’s sort of like a wand that’s constantly casting a spell I guess.”
“Does it drain your power?” Hermione asked, deciding that getting answers to simple yes or no questions would be the easiest move at this point.
“No,” Harry said, “just sort of projects it, I guess?”
“Alright,” Hermione said with a nod before opening and closing her mouth several times, trying to decide how to word what she actually wanted to know.
After watching Hermione try and fail to come up with a question, Draco turned to Harry and simply asked, “are you aware that you have godlike powers?”
“Yeah,” Harry said, looking even more confused, “haven’t I explained this?”
“You explaining, and us joking about you being a demigod, are entirely different to actually feeling your power, love,” Theo said, “I mean, I knew you could do wandless and wordless magic like it was nothing, we’ve all felt the power behind your spells, but this is entirely beyond what any of us thought.”
Harry looked a little put-off at that realization, he’d never liked things that made him other. He knew that being the Master of Death made him different, he knew that he was relatively more powerful than the average wizard, he knew that he was technically immortal, he knew that things kept being his problem, and he’d done his best to explain his situation to his friends. He’d thought that they’d understood.
He decided to save his new crisis for another day. A day when his freakish powers hadn’t blessed him with the chance to see his parents and share the experience with his friends and family; to save it for a day when it was just another thing on the list of things that made him different, things that made him question everything he knew about himself.
So, he took a deep breath and put on a smile that convinced everyone except for Theo and Regulus and continued his explanation of the scythe, “so the handle is Elder and there’s hairs of a grim and a thestral interwoven into the wood, that’s what serves as the conduit I believe. And the blade is iron with a number of runes carved into it.”
After the realization that this weapon and his power made him even more different, he’d decided to leave out the part about the iron being mined in Crete in the Age of the Gods and the whole weapon being bathed in the River Styx.
Once everyone had gotten a good look at the scythe, he let it fade into the shadows and started sheathing all the weapons he’d laid out on the table. Neville and Luna followed suit.
Harry glanced at his watch as he re-holstered the fang and winced, “it’s getting late, and we’re meant to start this ritual at sundown. I still have to get a couple of things ready. I need to go talk to Andromeda and make sure she’s still alright with Teddy staying here.”
“Are Andromeda and Narcissa not coming to Hogwarts?” Hermione asked.
“No,” Harry said, “Narcissa is registered as the Black Family Ritual Leader so they’re doing something here just the two of them.”
“Wait aren’t you registered as the ritual leader?” Ron asked.
“For the Peverell, Potter, and Slytherin families,” Draco responded, “we registered my mum for the Black family since she’d be the one teaching Harry and me the Family Rituals anyways.”
Harry nodded before taking Teddy from Theo and heading out of the room.
Everyone started to disperse, promising they’d see each other soon at the ritual and would save up stories and questions for Samhain next year. Regulus shot Theo a look and tilted his head toward the door.
In the chaos of humans and ghosts, Theo was able to slip out unnoticed. He could hear Harry speaking to Narcissa and Andromeda in the kitchen, so he turned right and headed upstairs, ducking into the library and closing the door behind him.
Regulus materialized in front of him and got right to business, “that smile didn’t fool you either, did it?”
“No, but somehow it fooled everyone else,” Theo said, sounding a little angry about that fact.
“I don’t think it matters how well people know him,” Regulus reasoned, “I think it has to do with being able to recognize that smile in the mirror.”
“I guess you’re right,” Theo said, running his hands down his face in clear frustration, “but if that’s the case Draco should’ve caught it.”
“Sirius as well,” Regulus said with a sigh, “I guess I don’t have a great explanation.”
“Either way, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
“He admitted to me that he was rather overwhelmed by everything.”
“Really?” Theo asked, snapping his head up and looking at Regulus in shock.
“Really,” Regulus confirmed, “is it safe to assume that’s not normal?”
“No, he’s much more of a grin and bear it person.”
“I can tell, I just thought maybe he’d admit that sort of thing to someone.”
“He does in pieces, he’ll tell different people different things, I’m pretty sure he’s trying not to be too much of a burden on any one person, but he’s starting to tell me more and more.”
“Good,” Regulus said, smiling softly at Theo, “so maybe he’ll tell you about this. Will he get angry if you just ask about it?”
“Not at me,” Theo said, “he would at Hermione or Ron, even Neville sometimes. He’s said that sometimes it feels like they want to fix him not listen to him.”
“I think that he’s starting to realize that all of this power isn’t just something he can shrug off and it’s not just a list of new responsibilities,” Regulus said.
Theo nodded and took a moment to think, “I think that he’s entirely alright with the responsibilities, or at least he’s able to process them. He’s used to responsibility; it feels natural to him. The power and what it means is what’s throwing him for a loop.”
“I agree,” Regulus said. He took a moment to just look at Theo before saying, “thank you for loving him and thank you for letting him love you.”
Theo blinked away the tears that had suddenly sprung up in the corners of his eyes and couldn’t do more than nod in response.
It was one thing for your boyfriend’s parent to thank you for loving them or taking care of them, it was another thing entirely for them to understand the weight of allowing someone to love you back.