Sevvie and his friends

Soul magic, Lily discovers, is a lot like Blood magic. Both are so intrinsically tied to one's being, that separating one and the other transcends more than physicality. It transcends reality. What makes us human? Our intellect? Our latent or inactive magic? How much blood can be separated from the body before it becomes other than a human being? How many pieces of the soul can one lose before becoming something else altogether? Is Harry a complete human being by himself, or is he, somehow, more? 

She talks about it with Petunia, who is always a good sounding board and keeps her feet on the ground and doesn’t let her spend all her waking hours in seeing how to separate Harry from that thing. She’s a good older sister like that. 

She can’t see Reggie and misses him like a missing limb, the boy quickly making a place in her heart which she knows he also has for her. Now that he knows she loves his friends as brothers and that he, well, has a little something (a furnace, a galaxy, a supernova) for Harry, they are thick as thieves. Not so much like the motherly affection Petunia has for him, but still. After all, they need to deal with Harry and Sev’s mischievousness and recklessness. 

She’s worried about Petunia, almost as much as Petunia is worried about her. Both are almost adults, Lily just shy of becoming one in the magical world, but the truth is… she doesn’t feel like one. She doesn’t know how to do taxes or pay mortgages, doesn’t know how to pay the electric bill, she doesn’t know what to pursue one she’s out of Hogwarts. She still trusts her big sister to be the voice of reason whereas she just…slams into things. But Tuney has gotten into this whole mess because of her. And if she gets hurt, Lily doesn’t know how she is going to live with herself. 

So she discusses with her and makes rituals and investigates, but makes her promise not to do anything dangerous alone. Petunia takes a fond look at her and takes her hands between hers and promises to be careful. She makes her swear to do the same.

They tell Walburga about the Cup, which is the only horcrux they haven’t located and destroyed (save the one on Harry). She holds Regulus' gaze when she tells them that if a Black has it, she will find it. Orion is the head of the family but it’s Walburga who commands them. Her word is enough, for now. And she proves herself to them, controlling the fiendfyre as she used to control her children, with an iron will and magic, and destroys the locket in front of their eyes.

“Last time” says Harry, “The other Harry had to  break into Gringotts to steal the cup. He, me, had help of… this is difficult.” He chuckles and tries to hide his face into Regulus' side. Regulus lets a little smile and holds him with a scoff.

“Get it over with” Severus scolds him, looking at him sternly “and stop that” 

“Leave them alone Sev. You jealous twat”

“Lily!” Petunia swats her.

They are over at the Evans’ sitting by the yard and protected by a muffliato, trying to figure out how to find the cup. Harry is almost nervous over the attention. It was all so easy when he treated his…past life? The other’s Harry life? As a dream, it had been easy to tell his friends about it. Now that he has to recount exactly what had happened and not gloss over it, the words escape him.

“The thing is, I had to break into Gringotts and I almost didn’t make it. I would much rather not go through the same again, now that we have the endorsement of Walburga. We had to escape with the dragon-”

“There’s a dragon in Gringotts?” asks an excited Lily.

“Yes, and we have to do something about it by the way. The poor thing is imprisoned and chained!”

“We can go back to that once our lives are not in danger” Severus tells him and rolls his eyes.

Harry gives him a helpless look and Regulus rests his head on his shoulder.

“We will save the dragon, love. After” 

Severus rolls his eyes more pointedly.

He really misses Remus and Dorcas, but is not about to say it. Harry and Lily would be unbearable. 

“It’s truly barbaric. Almost funny” Petunia states, her eyes shining “Wizards mistreat goblins, see them as lesser and in exchange, goblins mistreat a dragon”

“One more for the checklist. First kill Voldemort, then change the wizarding world.”

“Nothing ambitious then”

Harry feels a stabbing pain on his scar and the cold blooded and alien glee he feels are bad news.

Lily is not part of the Order. That is what might have been what saved Evan’s lives.

The death eaters have escalated.

In the Daily Prophet comes out a list of the members of the Order. It leads to the attack of all Non-28 sacred purebloods as well as halfbloods and muggleborns. Lily’s breath hitches when she reads the Potters’ name. Severus' blood leaves his face when he reads Remus’ name, as well as his status as a werewolf. Purebloods or rich halbloods may have Notice-me-not protections in their homes, but not muggleborns, who can’t perform magic outside of Hogwarts.

Harry is lost.

“This didn’t happen last time” he says, his face ashen “They are moving quickly. We need to end things now. We can’t wait on the cup”

“We’re not even out of school yet! This is insane! How are we going to kill the dark lord, 60 years our senior and with abilities like his?!” Severus yells at him, because they all have thought it but no one has said it. Lily is crumpling the Prophet with her tight fists, white knuckled. 

“I did it once, I’ll do it again” Harry says with confidence in his voice. “We will use his tricks against him”

“How?”

James Potter is having the worst day of his life.

He always considered himself lucky, talented and loved. He had amazing parents, and his Dādā and Dādī, his grandparents, always gave in to him, always let him have the last piece of Barfi or slice of treacle tart, for his more english cravings. His Dādā had gifted him his first broom and his dad had taught him to fly. His mum was a no-nonsense kind of witch, a stern woman who loved her son and taught him the rules of his House and taught him to write and how to count and make additions. She often scolded him but her eyes were always, always bright. 

His grandparents had met in America, both far from home. Henry Potter was walking unsuspectedly on muggle New York when he heard a woman complaining about the poor quality of the Indian food and found the beautiful Kavya Rao quite funny, so he invited her and her companions to a restaurant that claimed to be authentic. 

It wasn’t, but they spent the afternoon talking, her companions long gone. She had come to collect something, the what she didn’t say, and he had come just to wander, to get away from his responsibilities as Lord Potter and of the incessant shouting of the Wizengamot. Although he didn’t say that, instead just telling her he was vacationing. He invited her to Broadway and she declined, to his disappointment.

He found her again in the magical alley and both laughed so hard at both hiding their magic from the other that they went to a café to keep talking. Turned out she had a matter to discuss with the head of the Body for Protections of Magical Species department.

They kept on seeing each other, until his time to return made him uneasily aware of the fact that he was in love with the feisty and beautiful woman. He asked her to marry right away and to go back home with him, but she said no. She wanted him to meet her family and she wanted to meet his family as well before making a decision, because family was important to her.

He ended up falling in love not only with the woman, but with her welcoming and rambunctious parents and sisters. They married within the year. And they were blessed with Fleamont soon after. 

They met Euphemia and welcomed her to the family. They spoiled James. They had his friends, his best friends, always over. They called Sirius their second grandson.

And now they were laying dead.

He is with Sirius when it happens. Padfoot tells him that things at home are better, but he still prefers to stay at the Potters until they have to go back to school. Reggie might be okay staying with their parents to keep up appearances, but he isn’t. He’s happy to let his friend, who is more like a brother, stay with him. They attend the Order’s meetings with Remus and Peter and it all downs on him, that there’s a war coming ahead, that Voldemort wants to subjugate the magical world to his liking, until only the dark remains. That he will kill everyone and anyone who opposes him, pureblood or not. That he is 17 years old and he’s a soldier, not his Dādī’s pi'ārē anymore. That he could die, as well as his friends, as well as that beautiful and obstinate redhead that is also a part of this war in her own way. Everyone he cares about could die.

And then it happens, an explosion hits their wards and his father looks at him and runs, while he readies his wand. 

“Go to the Longbottom’s. Augusta will take care of you both”

“What?! No!” yells Sirius, just before he does as well.

“We will stay and fight, dad!”

His mother is reinforcing the wards, Dādī joining her wand with hers. His Dādī doesn’t look at him, her features focused on the spellwork, but his mum does. Her gaze softens looking at them.

“You need to go, my love” she says, and returns her eyes to her work.

His Dādā is running down the stairs, carrying a box James has never seen before.

“You are both the Heirs of your Houses” his dad tells them, sternly. “You are the future of the magical world, and if something happens to me, you will be Lord Potter. Don’t throw the future of my house, my son”

He still refuses and when the wards break, he is wand ready, so nervous and ill prepared that even when he thought he could do this, only first year spells come to his mind.

A cacophony of spells ensue, with death eaters throwing curses and his family responding in change. The walls of his house, his home, tumble and pieces crack, falling. Their paintings, their furniture fly in pieces as they fight. 

Sirius sees James yell when a curse hits Euphemia, his mother in all but blood, and she falls, and he lets something dark, something ugly and untamed that resides in his chest come free. He throws the curse his mother taught him, the one he and Bella practiced and throws and Avada kedavra at the assailant, who drops dead, eyes no longer seeing. 

He hears Lestrange cackle and for a second, he’s afraid. Afraid of what James will think of him, afraid of being seen as a monster in the Potters’ eyes, who opened their doors for him. 

James responds with another yell and a green ray is shot off his wand. Sirius stops breathing for a second. They lock eyes and the same thought passes for both of their heads. I will do anything for my family.

They are losing, the death eaters (people who Sirius knows, people who he had in his house) are bigger in number, and Euphemia is just rejoining the fight. 

 They are both too distracted to see James’ grandparents join their hands around the black box, while Fleamont and Euphemia cover them.

“It has been a lovely dance, my rājakumārī” Henry says, the crinkling around his dark eyes and smile lines evident, while the curses rain around them.

“And what a wonderful dance. We’ve been blessed, have we not?”

“We will see each other again”

“You better take me to a better restaurant this time” Kavya responds, smiling as well.

Fleamont looks worse for wear but he runs to his boys. Fear and love flood him when he sees them fighting their best, coordinated and deadly.

“I’m so proud of you both” he says, and then “here, catch” he throws two of his mother’s figurines, two non descrip silver pieces that look like a man and a woman in a dance. They each instinctively go to grab them, while Fleamont runs to where his wife is and covers her.

They see bright light emerging from where Kavya and Henry are and then a hook somewhere behind their navel takes them off the ground, just as a wave of power races their home.

They land in a field, with Sirius feeling sucker punched to the gut. Everything stills. 

He looks at James, who is tense, quiet and with a look of stupefiat betrayal.

He looks at the trees, at the sky, trying to identify where they are.

It’s cold. 

The wind blows through the trees and grass blades, moving the leaves in a tranquil way. They are the ones who look out of place, with their torn clothes and dust from the debris covering their faces, with cuts on their arms and faces. It’s as if the place is mocking them, telling them you are the outsiders, you are the ones that shouldn’t be here.

James vomits and starts crying. Sirius wants to hold him, his heart wrenching seeing his friend in that state. He is crying too.

“We have to get back” James tells him and he agrees. They are weak but still strong enough to apparate, although he decides to direct the apparition and for James to side along with him. His friend is too frazzled. They don’t want to think about what they will find.

Apparating to the Potter Manor is not supposed to be possible, but the wards are broken, so they do.

James heart is beating out of his chest and he is paralyzed, torn between running to check on his parents and grandparents, or stay outside, where the Mannor’s entrance seems damaged by curses, where he can’t hear any more fight, where he can still convince himself his life hasn’t drastically changed in less than an hour.

But he has always considered himself lucky, talented and loved, so he goes inside, hoping he can still consider himself lucky, still loved by his family.

He ignores the dark robed figures laying on the ground in varying stages of death and dodges under pieces of debris and runs to where he last saw his parents and grandparents. 

It’s a carnage.

Blood and pieces of flesh are stuck to the remaining walls and the smell of burnt flesh makes his stomach roll.

He gut-wrenchingly screams when he sees the place where his grandparents were standing as a soot and blood stain on the ground. He can’t breathe. He is choking on his sobs.

“James!” Sirius yells “get it together mate. Let’s look for your parents”

Magic should not be like that. Even dead, someone should look glossy eyed, almost asleep. He doesn’t even have his grandparents' bones to bury them.

He runs to his parents, his heart in his throat and almost cries again when he sees them, his dad laying on top of his mum and both thankfully alive but unconscious . The relief that washes over him fights on par with the shock and desolation he feels about his grandparents death.

“We need to apparate to Saint Mungo's” Sirius nudges him.

They kill the one death eater that survives.

His father wakes up, hurt but stable. His mother on the other hand doesn’t, the mediwitches making all kinds of tests on her.

When the anxiety gives him a rest, immeasurable rage heats his body until he’s trembling with the force of his magic core, vases trembling, lights flickering.

“Peter” he whispers, under his breath.

The Longbottoms and Prewetts are also attacked, Frank’s parents pass away under the attack, as well as the Prewett twins, Fabian and Gideon. The hospital is at full capacity.

“Oh, my boy” Dumbledore places a hand on his shoulder. He feels spent.

He doesn’t know where to go, but sides with Sirius. Bile threatens to come back through his throat when he sees the yellow house in Privet, undisturbed and sunny. It’s not even noon yet.

He’s greeted by an armful of redhead and breathes in the scent of her shampoo but gently pushes her when he sees the boy.

“You are happy, aren’t you?” James spits “You told me not to trust Dumbledore, told me to keep an eye on Peter. Well, you were right all along!”

Harry looks at him, his mouth downturned. He sighs. “How could I be happy?”

He will never get to meet them now. He has lost the family he could have had.

He hugs James, because that’s the only thing he can do. James is still so mad, so full with grief and hatred that he wants to push Harry, attack him, duel him until only one of them is standing, but he takes a look at Lily, at her bright green eyes now full of tears and holds on to Harry. Holds to the family he still has. “I’ll help. With anything you guys are planning. Just…help me hunt the rat first.

Remus is running. He feels burning in his lungs and throat, but that doesn’t stop him.

They come one day after the full moon, when he’s the weakest and still tired from his transformation. The bastards. They should have come when the moon was still high on the sky, so he could tear their flesh apart. 

He is getting tired, and doesn’t know where to go. There’s nowhere safe. 

His mother and father.

Severus.

Dorcas.

James.

Sirius.

Peter.

Right before a cruciatus lands on him, he thinks that at least he’s helpful he moved out. He wouldn’t want the death eaters to attack his family.

Peter was always thankful for the little blessings he had.

His dad had died when he was but a boy, but his mum had always been enough for him. They weren’t rich, but still purebloods, so he never had to bear the brunt of being called a mudblood. People still teased him for not having much, but his mum, with her work and what little inheritance she still had, covered their expenses, so he was never without food or clothes. He was happy. He could easily ignore the little voice in his head that wanted more. 

Then, he met his friends. He was part of something, something so fantastic that they had their own name. The marauders. 

The first years were pure bliss. He was in the middle of things, he was included, cherished. All the mayhem they got into only cemented in him that this was it. His family. No longer would he need to bear things alone, the worry for his mother, the thought of not being enough, because he had friends that were always with him, trusted him, loved him. 

Until Bellatrix Black came one day.

He had always kept an eye on her, on Sirius’ pretty, deranged, skilled and cruel cousin.

She was older than them and always looked at Sirius with contempt, which translated to looking at him in contempt. 

A part of him hated her a little.

The other part of him sometimes smiled at her antics, at her quick wit and her poise. No one could verbally abuse someone as Bellatrix could, and always while maintaining her glossy, bushy curls in check. No one could battle so fiercely. She looked like a bird of prey, beautiful and deadly.

And then one day he was walking down the hall, waiting to meet James and Sirius in the Quidditch pitch when we walked into Bellatrix cursing a Gryffindor muggleborn younger than them.

He ran and shouted “Bella!” he was about to yell at her, to defend Matthew and maybe even try to duel her even though he knew he would lose when she stopped what she was doing and her smile became an indifferent stare.

She narrowed her grey eyes at him.

“Who are you?”

He froze in place. He was about to shily give his name when recognition changed her features into a derisive smile.

“Oh” she said “the spare”

The spare.

Four years being friends with Sirius, four years being a marauder and that’s what he was.

The spare.

She cackled at him and walked off. 

He wasn’t good at Transfiguration like James was, wasn’t good at Potions like Remus or Defense like the three of them. In quidditch he was a benchwarmer. He wasn’t a werewolf or the darling of Gryffindor, he wasn’t the black sheep that had gone against his family and ended up a Gryffindor. He wasn’t any of that.

He was the spare. And that knowledge felt like a poisoned dagger in his side, making him see the last four years in another light. He tried to tell himself that his friends loved him, that he was important for them, until that ugly part of himself told him that they had new friends, that James now had Harry, Sirius had Regulus and Remus had Snivellus. They didn’t need them.

So he started drawing back from them. He started going to sleep earlier, started being quiet on meals, started pulling back from the pranks.

And nothing changed.

Sure, Remus frowned at him, asked him if he was alright, James told him his grandmother had made biscuits for him, Sirius invited him to go flying with them. But when he assured them everything was peachy, nothing changed. They were alright without him.

When he joined the order, things were a bit like the beginning, all four of them joining forces for the greater good and all that, all of them part of something important. But for Peter, it was as usual. He was there because they were there, and nothing else. He wasn’t strong or talented enough, he was there just as a spare. 

And he was afraid.

He didn’t understand how his friends could act as if it was all another prank, another marauder heist. They were entering war against a power so strong only thinking about it made him tremble in fear. They could die. He could die. Because he wasn’t like them, he wasn’t bright or brave or strong.

But he was loyal. And so, even if it cost him his life, he would not give up. He would show them he was more.

Or so he told himself.

Until Bellatrix came one day. 

“Hello, Pettigrew” she greeted him, already inside of his house. 

His breath hitched on his throat, he ran, she threw a curse at him, he dodged, she cackled. 

“W-what do you want?!” he yelled, with his wand on his trembling hand.

She disarmed him in the next second.

“You are one lucky bastard, boy” she said, her smile saccharine. “The Dark Lord has some words for you”

Robert didn’t ask for much in life. A warm nest, a fat mouse from time to time and someone to speak to. His speaker cuddled with him, gave him mice and talked about a lot of things with him. Robert didn’t always understand everything. Why was his speaker always so hurried to learn new things? Why didn’t he talk with the other humans?

His speaker told him that there was a bad man that wanted to kill mug- muggle…other humans. Wanted to hunt them because they didn’t have magic or magical parents. Robert didn’t understand, was the other human hungry? Why did he hunt other humans? 

“Because he’s a bad human, Robert. He wants to rule wizards and have other at his feet”

Robert nodded in his serpentine way and then tried to bury his head on his speaker’s hand. He loved doing that.

The other humans were nice, the red one always scratched his head and the gloomy one, who was his speaker’s brother, made sure to give him mice. He liked the other humans. 

He didn’t like when his speaker was sneaky. 

He remembered the time his speaker had run off to a dilapidated shack, walls falling in themselves, other snakes nailed to the door. He didn’t like that place. But there was a trumm of energy there, something that called to Robert.

When his speaker lifted a loose wood plank, the yelling in his serpentine head increased.

His speaker seemed as if in a trance, and Robert didn’t like that. Didn’t like that at all. 

When his speaker lifted the ring, he felt a malicious energy coming off it. It felt like warm oil, covering him all over. He hissed and puffed up.

His speaker still wasn’t himself. He trembled and took the ring in one hand, lifting the other to put it on.

“No! Speaker!”

Robert threw himself and bit his speaker, hard enough to puncture the skin of his hand, and didn’t stop until his speaker stopped and petted him.

“Thanksss”

Then, his speaker lifted his magic stick and put a dome around the ring. With that, the ringing in their ears decreased. 

“The ring is evil. It wants you to put it on. I hear it” Rober hissed.

“I know, Robert. Thank you for stopping me”

“I’m helpful. I want a fat mouse”

“I’ll get you one” his speaker said. They returned to the house with the gloomy human. The red human scratched his head and he tried to dig his head in her hand.

That night, Robert slept rolled around his speaker’s wrist, eyeing the corner where his speaker had hidden the evil ring. He hissed at it and slept.

Hunting a rat can be tricky. For all the bad reputation they have, rats are fairly intelligent. They have great ability to solve puzzles, run through mazes and are quick problem solvers. The bad thing about rats, though, is that they are unable to resist temptation.

Peter is just leaving Gringotts, having received a hefty sum of an inheritance he somehow discovered.

He has a second to look at the dark eyes of his friend before a fist collides with his face and he loses consciousness.

When he comes to, he is wandless, tied up in tight ropes draining his magic, preventing him from transforming into his animagus form, sitting in a dark room. He feels the dark magic seeping through the walls, the room filled with it, choking him. He’s almost expecting to see a death eater open the door and curse him. So seeing Sirius in silence, torso resting against a dark wall surprises him.

“Padfoot!” he gasps, relieved. 

Then he sees James, a cold look to his face, and it all dawns on him.

“P-prongs, it is all a misunderstanding, they made me tell them-”

“Don’t call me that” James yells “Don’t you dare call me back ever again”

Sirius comes closer to the light and the smile he has doesn’t reach his eyes. It’s cold and cruel and not something Sirius ever showed to him.

“My, my. It seems like the rat decided to rat” he says, and Peter feels cold sweat running down his back. He feels lightheaded, his stomach tied in knots, his breathing labored. He is afraid. He is so afraid.

“You betrayed me” James whispers, the room trembling around them. “My grandparents viewed you as their own and now they’re dead because of you.” he continues to look at him as if he is shit on his shoe.  “My mother is still fighting for her life. All because of you!”

Peter has a constricted expression at first, but at the last words he is too full with rage. “And what about my family?! He screams “Where were you when Bellatrix showed up at my house and Lord Voldemort threatened to kill me?!”

“What’s done it’s done” a voice says behind him and Peter screams.

“Hello, Peter.” Harry says, with his bright eyes full of derision. They are all there, waiting. Assessing. Regulus looks at him with indifference, while Severus does with cold rage. Oh. That’s right. He told them Remus was a werewolf in the Order.

“Lily” he tries with a sob, because Lily is his friend, always looking at him with affection in her eyes. But now her eyes are void of all feelings. She looks at him with the same set of eyes Harry does, with the same hate, and Peter trembles in his seat.

“Are you going to kill me?” he cries. Harry laughs, an ugly sound, and Sirius lets out a huff. 

“I would have died for you” James tells him. “I would have given my life if it meant you would be safe. I want you to know that before I do what I will”

Peter is crying. All he can think about is Whymewhymewhyme. But he bites his lips. He wants to live. As a coward, but he wants to live. 

“I guess,” he cries “that makes you a better person than me”

James draws his wand and Peter sobs the more. He closes his eyes.

“Diff-”

“James! No.”

Peter swallows and opens his eyes. Harry is grabbing James by the elbow, the two Potters staring at each other. Lily has grimm expression but touches his shoulder. “Don’t, James”

“My grandparents are dead”

“I know. I know what I’m asking, I know you want to punish him. But he has an in with the death eaters. He is our link to Voldemort. The bloody traitor can betray them, too.

He wants to live. “Yes!” he yells “I can help you, I can tell you all I know of the death eaters and-”

“Whatever makes you think he won’t betray us again?” Severus says, eyes boring into him.

Lily cracks her neck and a mean smile covers her face. She takes out a silver athame. “He won’t have the choice”

Returning back to school when Remus is missing and all the muggleborns stay back feels like a joke. But they still do. In the compartment, James, Lily, Regulus and Harry sit on one side, while Severus sits holding Dorcas and Sirius looks at them with despair on the other side.

“We will find him” Severus tells her, letting her lay her head on his shoulder.

“Oh yes we will” she sniffs and looks at him “We will get him back”

Harry is tired. From the moment the Order was attacked and Remus went missing, he hasn’t slept a wink, that with helping Severus achieve a good locator potion, Lily doing the same with a rune ritual and him learning everything he can before the day he has to face Voldemort..

Teachers are going easy on them, still trying to maintain the order but turning a blind eye when a crying halfblood flees the classroom. Some Slytherins have knowing smirks, fully aware that more and more Wizengamot officials are disappearing or changing their votes. Harry wakes up in the middle of the night to Severus trashing on his bed. He does what he can to calm his brother, but he knows that only Remus’ return will be able to achieve such a thing.

He even tells them, to the five of them that he’s thinking to exchange the (destroyed) horcruxes with Remus but Severus quickly discards that option.

“We’re still not ready for the battle, Lily’s ritual is not ready and Voldemort is not going to fall for that trap. He will kill Remus and us with him.”

He knows how much admitting to that hurts Severus, but he can’t help the surge of love he feels for his brother. 

It’s midnight and Harry is walking alone in the Chamber. Merlina smells him.

“Speaker?”

“I’m here, girl”

He has many things he wants to discuss with her.

It’s three in the morning and he raps his knuckles on the Headmaster’s quarters.

He waits a few seconds before the door opens and he is greeted by Dumbledore in his neon pink pajamas and his twinkly eyes.

“Oh, my boy. Did you come by for a cuppa?”

Harry breathes in and smiles. 

There’s a part of him that still loves Dumbledore, that still trusts him and looks up to him. He surprises himself with wanting to tell him everything.

Dumbledore always did what he thought best, sacrificed even himself in the pursuit of a greater good. But having lived a full life and waking up to become a child again, having gained the perspective of having all the information, of having people to trust, has put many actions the Headmaster took in a different light. He is a good man. Just a flawed one. And he doesn’t know if he can bear those flaws this time around.

One thing he will tell him.

“I know Tom Riddle made multiple horcruxes…”

The Headmaster's face becomes ashen when he tells him that he’s the last horcrux.

“My boy, my boy. What a heavy weight you have had to carry all this time”

There’s a part of Harry that feels vindicated. His Dumbledore always talked to him about bravery, about responsibility. About the task he would have to complete some day. This Dumbledore barely knows him, but still feels bad for him. 

“I’m so very sorry for what you’ve been through. But let me ask you, are you willing to…?”

“Yes” he responds, because he is. He knows he would have to die to get rid of Voldemort once and for all. 

The Headmaster sighs and in that moment it looks like he has aged decades. His eyes glisten with unshed tears.

“How I wish I could have been a guide to you sooner, child. No one should have to face this alone”

“I’m not alone” Harry says, and means it. He still lets himself feel sorry for him, before smiling.

“One last thing” he says and throws a wordless Expelliarmus.

He will not die if he doesn’t have to do it. 

“He’s at the Malfoys” Peter whispers.

“What?” Lily asks, but is shoved away by a frantic Severus.

“Where at the Malfoys? How do you know?”

Peter has tears in his eyes when he shows them his inflamed dark mark. He sniffles.

“I-I had to get the mark, I saw him while I was being branded. He looked at me so-”

“I don’t care. Harry!”

“Let’s go visit Lucius.” Harry says “No-” he stops “I have a better idea. Reggie!”

Regulus eyes open up comically and then smiles and plants a kiss to Harry’s lips. “I do forget you have a brain behind those baby greens”

“Um, Hello, REMUS?!”

The Malfoy’s dungeon is as Harry remembers it. Humid, dark and musty. A delight. He doesn’t think he has been as glad as he feels when he sees Remus, hurt and scrawny but in one piece. He is so glad that he is ready to jump to the wolf’s arms before being pushed aside by Severus.

Remus eyes widen and he covers his mouth to avoid yelling. He has problems breathing.

“You came for me” he whispers.

“How could I not?” Severus tells him and leans his forehead to Remus’.

“I also came for you, mate” James chirps

“Me too, can I get a kissy kiss?” Sirius adds.

Kreacher expression sours, but when Regulus tells him he did good and to apparate them back, he smiles up to his favorite Black heir.

Between Kreacher and Thorfin, they manage to rescue 13 muggleborns, 3 werewolves and 4 half bloods. 

“Not bad for not being part of the Order, is it?” Lily tells James, who is half carrying Remus with the help of Severus.

“More adepts to the Harry Prince’s army” Regulus says.

They miraculously manage to apparate back to the castle without being noticed and Regulus guides them all to the Room of requirement while Lily and James run to the kitchens to nicely ask the house elves to prepare light meals for 20 people.

“I hope they don’t curse us” Lily says.

Severus completely forgets he can’t enter the girls dormitory and gets swiftly propelled down while the alarm wakes up the whole Gryffindor dormitory.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Yells Mcgonagall in her pajamas.

Severus would be embarrassed but instead grabs Dorcas’s hand and intently looks at her.

Dorcas’ eyes widen and she takes up running with Severus.

“Children! Stop right on this moment! That is 50 points from Slytherin and 50 from Gryffindor!”

“You got him! Severus, you got our wolf!” She yells, manhandling Severus into bed and crawling to Remus’s lap.

“I told you I would” Severus responds, feeling a knot in his chest disentangle.

Harry listens to Regulus and tells the Headmaster about the rescue.

“Most of them need medical assistance” they tell Dumbledore.

“Very well. Hogwarts will always respond to the ones who need it”

They are tired. Remus is in one bed in the infirmary, which is at full capacity, tightly holding both of his partners.

James and Sirius decide to sleep on the floor by their side. Lily is helping Slughorn make potions for the injured. Harry and Regulus oversee what they can.

By the morning, the castle will know about their hit to the Dark Lord. Alliances will be strengthened, students will take decisions about what side to be on. They will probably be attacked by the few death eaters that have already taken the mark.

But they won this round and tonight, they rest.

By morning, with all eyes on him, Harry, who is nothing but resourceful, uses a neat trick his enemy taught him last time.

He walks up to the great hall and the voices quiet down.

“Voldemort is a liar” his voice resonates in the room, inside everyone’s head. He catches Regulus’ eyes for a second and smiles. “He has told you that the only way to achieve greatness is through murder, that the only way to use the dark arts is by his side. How many of you, who use his mark hasn’t he tortured? How many families has he destroyed? How many of his ‘allies’ has he not hurt or punished?” he makes a pause and looks at everyone level headed. The Hall is silent. “Voldemort also told you he has the last of the Slytherin line. In that, he lies too. I am”

And all of a sudden, the room erupts with sounds. Yelling, the chairs scraping the floor, people ready to draw their wands.

“Silence” he says, in parseltongue and you could hear a pin drop.

“What are you saying, Prince?” asks a seventh year in Ravenclaw.

“Most of you” Harry continues “Think your only choices lie between Voldemort and Dumbledore. But there’s a third option,” he breathes in and out “ Me. Join me and I will support you, I will take up on the mantle of the Slytherin line and fight for your ideals. Not to subjugate muggleborns, because they too, seek freedom to perform the magic that has been robbed from us. But to lead us towards the path of development, a way to learn from our brothers and sisters who had advanced through the time and hardships and are now in a new, technological era. A path where no magic will be light or dark…”

The first curse almost hits him.

Lily swears under her breath and then yells “Prewett!”

The red head glowers and raises her voice “My cousins died, killed by dark magic users. And you want to make it alright? You want to tell me dark arts should not be eliminated?”

“Any wand is like a knife and even a Wingardium leviosa can kill.” Severus says “Your cousins died because there’s a megalomaniac psychopath that wants to kill anyone that he deems unworthy of using magic.” he sighs “I’m sorry about your loss, but not everything is black or white.

Dumbledore seems stunned at first, but his shoulders sag and he gives a look to Harry to continue.

His house is a stir of emotions. Some, the ones who shared a room and are afraid of the dark lord feel a flutter of hope for a different future. Some look at Harry with distrust and some even with hate. 

“You are the one who lies, mudblood! You can’t be Slytherin’s heir with your dirty blood!”

“I don’t have time for this” Harry sighs and turns to the side.

“Merlina!”

And out comes the gargantuan Basilisk with closed lids.

“Do you believe me now?” Harry chirpily asks and smiles at the screams.

By the next day, the Prophet has an interesting article with the new self proclaimed true Heir of Slytherin, and his views on dark magic.

Harry’s scar hurts for a moment, before he raises his Occlumency shields and congratulates himself for a good day of work.

Locating the cup is so easy that he wants to laugh, cry and rage all at the same time.

Walburga’s letter comes with a charred piece of metal and a lock of hair. She doesn’t say much, just a time and date for a floo call. Floo calls are restricted at the moment but both Severus and Lily have Slughorn wrapped around their little potioneer’s fingers. It helps that Harry can control a Basilisk and that both frightens and amazes the Potions professor. So, he arrives just in time to see the grey eyes Walburga shares with her sons coming out from the green flames.

Bellatrix did have the cup. Along with another thing Harry had requested of her.

“What did you do to her?” Regulus asks, with an imperceptible frown.

“I killed her” Walburga smiles, looking at her son.

It’s a day like any other when Harry tells his friends “It’s time”

He hasn’t had a good sleep in days, worrying he might get cursed in his dorm. He has formed alliances and has promised a lot for the future, but nothing will come to be if he doesn’t kill Voldemort first.

Before what he thinks of as the beginning to the end, he goes to his dorm’s common room.

“This fight is not against your families. You won’t have to fight. Run, hide, try to convince your families to escape, the ones who can still escape. Live. There will come tomorrow, and tomorrow everything will change. If I don’t make it, know that others will come behind me. Other that will fight for our freedom”

“Voldemort. Come and fight the real Heir of Slytherin. I have in my power what you wish for the most,” “Tom riddle is a farce. He’s the son of the muggles he so hates. He has come to destroy, not to bring greatness to the magical population”

Harry walks off to his table, where he can see a myriad of faces with different stages of apprehension.

“My father will fight with the dark lord,” Trevors, a third year, says, with conviction. “Will you kill him? Will you force us to fight our parents? Or will you kill us with your Basilisk?”

Other voices join them and Harry looks at Severus. His brother raises his voice “Our fight will be against the dark lord. We do not wish to shed blood in vain. And we won’t force you to take your wands, this is for everyone,” he looks at the hall, at all the pale and fight ready faces “Those of you who are still minors and all of those who do not wish to fight, we have designated escape routes for you. You will be safe.”

The Order is wand ready to fight, as well as more seventh year than they expected to find. Severus feels a pit of anxiety when he looks at Remus and Dorcas. He doesn’t want to lose them and doesn't want to die. He wants to explore more of their relationship, share secrets and early mornings and laughter with them. He wants to introduce them to his mother. There’s so much he wants.

But to achieve it, they need to have a future first. 

Remus takes a look at him and smiles warmly, the scars of his face glistening and making him, from Severus point of view, more rugged and handsome. Remus takes his hand and kisses the dorse of it. He leans in to press his forehead on the other wizard’s. 

“I will be okay, Sev”

He leans in to peck him but Severus stops him.

“Kiss me when this is over” he whispers. He looks at Dorcas, his fierce partner and hugs her, breathing in her scent. She hugs him back as tight.

“I’m not waiting to kiss you wolf boy” she says and pulls Remus to join their hug. She presses her lips to him in a chaste peck.

“We will marry when this is over. The three of us” she mutters and Severus grins. Only Dorcas could bring up marriage at a time like this. 

Voldemort arrives flying, but so does Harry, because Severus, the most brilliant spell maker that he knows, taught him. Sure, he is not as good as him, but he’s getting better.

They are just in front of the castle, with teachers and students alike holding a shield from the attackers. Death eaters are surrounding the place and the stone protectors are standing, unmoving and with spears and swords ready.

In the middle of the deafening sounds, Harry takes a moment to look at Voldemort.

He doesn’t look like the last time he saw him, with his serpentine features and bald head. Instead, Tom Riddle has too sharp features and an unnatural paleness.

“Silence!” he yells and the death eaters quieten “The Slanderer” Voldemort hisses, as a greeting.

“The Snake head” Harry responds, cheekily. 

He is hit with a cruciatus  that he nearly misses, but he wants to stay in the same spot of the ground, so he rides it.

“You are but a boy, a mudblood who claims to be of the line of Slytherin, but it’s nothing but a pretender. And today, you die” Voldemort, smiling, hisses, while Harry convulses with the pain.

“We have that in common, don’t we?” Harry responds, out of breath.

That’s when Lily apparates behind him, with Regulus and Severus in tow, puts her bloodied hand on the ground, starting a chain reaction that lights up a circle of runes, creating a dome around them. She looks triumphantly at the death eaters who are now throwing curses that bounce off the circle.

“We got you, old man” she happily says. 

Voldemort laughs and grandiosely extends his long arms for his followers to see. 

“Four children, with their snot still on their faces. Do you see?” he entones and then looks at them “I will kill you and make an example out of you. You, child” he extends his arm to Regulus “When I have tortured the blood treason out of you, I will return you to your mother, to be properly punished. And you” he says, this time looking at Lily “Dirty mudblood, I will flay your skin and feed you to the pigs, as the abomination you are”

“You are the only abomination. Look at what you have done to yourself” Harry yells, still getting his breath right “Wizards live up to 200 years, you’re only 60 or so and have broken your soul to scraps”  

At that, the other wizard stops.

“Yes, we know about your horcruxes, Tommy. The diary, the ring, the locket, the diadem and the cup. They weren’t too hard to destroy.” Then he truly smiles “You are mortal”

At that, the wizard stills, before a howl of rage leaves his chest and he starts throwing deathly curses at them.

“But there’s still one left” Harry hisses, still raising a shield.

The four of them are throwing curses to the older wizard, who blocks them and dodges, and curses them in turn.

Lily is behind them, hurriedly creating a ritual, while Regulus covers her. Severus and Harry are fighting in sync, using spells Severus created, reaching the older wizard with a cutting curse that only stops him for a second.

“I will kill you, slanderer, and make a wand holder out of your bones”

Lily shouts and Harry feels a surge of power, and the runes on his body light up. 

“Why can you speak the tongue of the serpent?”

“Because you made a mistake, Tommy.” his eyes shine, “You and I share more than being abandoned half bloods. You feel alive fighting me, don’t you? Doesn’t your tattered soul sing to you? How can I speak the tongue, Tom? How do I know so much about you? How do I have access to your mind?”

“No!”

“You know it. You can feel it”

“No!” he screams and throws a curse. He is erratic, full of murderous rage. Harry barely manages to raise a shield to block the curse, but he can feel it’s not mortal. He can see the cracks of doubt on the deranged man’s face. What he doesn’t expect is for the curse to bounce off and hit Lily on the side of the head. He yells.

“I got her!” James yells back and runs to Lily, who is screaming with pain and covering her right eye. The dome lets him in.

Regulus shares a glance with Severus and Harry and lifts his wand. It’s time.

A gargantuan sphere of water surrounds Voldemort, drowning him inside. Bubbles form when the man screams countercurses but the sphere does not dissolve. At the same time, Severus casts a curse to take away the oxygen still on his lungs.

Behind the fight of the dome, cracks have begun to appear on Hogwarts’ shields. There are death eaters fighting, students holding them off. Minerva Mcgonagall dispatches three of them, painfully aware that some were her students. Sirius and Remus are back to back, covering for each other and throwing curses.

“Remind me not to join any bloody club ever again” Sirius says, before dodging and casting a dark curse to one of his uncles. 

“I’ll make sure to remind you” Remus answers.

All of a sudden from the a cracked wall a gigantic Basilisk slithers into the fight. Many screams ensure.

“Go girl! Get the ones with masks” Petunia battle cries from its back.

Sirius gets almost hit with the way he opens his mouth and his eyes widen. Then he belly cackles into the sky. “That woman! She’s going to kill me!”

In the dome, Voldemort throws a curse that sends a wave and destabilizes the ground. Regulus and Severus lose concentration and the sphere of water dissipates.

Voldemort sends a hateful glare to Harry and casts a new cruciatus, and Harry, who is still on the ground, casts off an Expelliarmus at the same time.

Their spells connect, fighting for dominance and Harry, who was expecting the song of the phoenix, laughs.

“What is this magic?!”

“You can’t hurt me with that wand, Tommy”

The man and the child, both look at each other's eyes and for some reason, maybe that Voldemort doesn’t want to kill his last horcrux, maybe that Harry knows he needs to rile the snake even more, they break the connection and yell at the same time.

“Legilimency!”

They are in a corridor at Hogwarts. But it looks discolored, as if it was a memory of a memory.

“No!”

They are in Little Hangleton, outside of a dilapidated shack. Morfin opens the door and starts yelling at a young looking boy.

“No!”

There’s a little boy, hurt and with soot on his face, facing off the horrifying face behind his defense teacher’s head.

“No!”

A child is eavesdropping behind a door, there’s a woman screaming that the child is not normal, that there’s something demonic about him.

“No!”

There’s a boy sniffling quietly, nursing his left hand with a burn mark still fresh. His uncle is yelling at him to prepare breakfast or he will be locked up for the rest of the day without food.

“No!”

They are in Hogwarts. There’s a boy with blonde hair laughing about the ratty clothes of another child, calling him a no name mudblood.

“No!”

They separate and both are thrown off.

Regulus conjures a chain made of water and Severus hits Voldemort with a Sectumsempra. Harry gets up.

“Accio sword!”

He looks at his kneeling enemy and walks to him with the sword of Gryffindor in his hand. He drags the edge of the sword on the stone ground, creating sparks.

He raises the sword over his head. Meanwhile, Regulus and Severus are trying their hardest to keep Voldemort in place, but the wizard, who is much older and experienced than them, strikes up his pale hand and takes a hold of Harry’s throat.

He will not be subdued. He is immortal. He is the greatest wizard there has been, he is writing history. He is the Dark Lord. He squeezes the slander’s throat until his eyes bulge. He will capture this boy, entrap him, he will keep him alive in a cage for all eternity, keeping his body alive with rituals but nothing else. He will not know rest or sustenance. He will make the boy wish he was dead, after slaughtering his friends and everything he holds dear. He will-

He has but a moment for shock to look at the boy, still with a hand around his throat, smiling.

Lily Evans is holding the sword of Gryffindor, the real one, because she’s the only one who could have conjured it. The blade makes a deafening sound when she uses it to behead Voldemort from the back.

“Always looking in the wrong place, Tommy” Harry coughs.

There are screams everywhere. There are cries of relief and people disapparating.

Lily, the  only Gryffindor, sticks the sword into the ground and looks at the multitude.

She breathes in, her right eye closed shut and with blood on the half of her face.

“A Gryffindor muggleborn, a Black and and two half blood Princes who use dark magic and speak parseltongue did what you should have done, what you didn't dare to do.” she yells “ I’m a true Gryffindor” she clacks the sword again “I have a muggle father and a muggle mother and a Squib sister. And I used my gift in blood magic to fight!”

Regulus stands up, shaking with effort “This deceiver told you he believed in your principles.” he yells to the few death eaters, fathers and mothers who are looking for their children “He lied. He didn’t believe in family, he didn’t believe in freedom. He didn’t believe everyone should have the chance to exploit and know and use the magic that has been prohibited. He didn't have allies, he only had chess pieces. He never intended to share, only to possess, to use, to corrupt and command! He tortured and killed and burned even the ones who followed him. He was loyal to no one.”

Severus takes a look to Harry to make sure he’s okay and then yells to the castle. He looks at Dumbledore when he says “ Magic is might! All magic is. You divided us in four factions as if we could only ever be either brave, intelligent, loyal or cunning. You were too happy to see us condemn each other, one bad and one worth it, one evil and one good. You pushed the ones that didn’t fit, the ones thirsty for knowledge to the side and saw them rot. You did nothing.”

Harry coughs again, but still manages to stand up “Voldemort is a show of our failings as society. He was once a child cast aside by every adult that could have helped him. Cast aside by the muggles for having magic, cast aside by a post Grindelwald government for being a slytherin, cast aside by the Slytherins for having a muggle last name. The only place he ever found a home was in bigotry and hate, and he made them his weapon of choice. Do not cast us aside, do not deny us of our rights!  Accept the dark and the light as part of a whole. Magic is might!”

Petunia runs to her sister and hugs her tight, crying. “Lily! You did it”

Harry puts a hand on Severus' shoulder. “I want to go home with mum”

Regulus takes Harry’s hand and smiles sweetly at him. “Good luck telling Eileen you started a revolution behind her back”

Severus and Harry widen their eyes. “Oh, fuck”

Remus gets that kiss. Dorcas says that she’s going to look awesome with a wedding dress.

Epilogue.

“I think I’m pregnant” Lily tells them with a panicked look. She’s 21, but still can’t wrap her head around the idea she’s a full grown adult. Even with a ring on her finger and a reputable job as the subsecretary of the Head of the Department for the use of Runes, she still clings to her sister and asks for her opinion on all kinds of things.

Harry is stunned and Severus looks at the flabbergasted James, who just dropped the plate he had on his hands and groans.

Lily hisses and swats him on the head.

“Don’t judge me! I was drunk and celebrating!”

“There’s no need to share the details” Regulus makes a disgusted face but then schools it into a smile “Congratulations Lils”

Petunia screams and covers her mouth, to then run to her sister and squeeze her into the tightest hug. “Lily! Oh my god! Oh my god!”

“Lily?” James asks, holding his wife's hands “Our baby?”

“Our baby” Lily says, her eyes brimming with tears. She breathes in and lifts her wand, bringing flutes of champagne for everyone but her.

Petunia falls silent. “I can’t drink” she whispers, red faced. Lily looks at her. Petunia looks in turn. Lily widens her eyes and hugs her sister. “Oh my god!”

Sirius, who was laughing a second ago, gawks at Petunia.

“Tuney?”

“I wasn’t feeling well and I, remember I told you I was off to that ice cream shop because I was craving it? Well, on my way back I went to the doctor and-”

Sirius calmly places his flute of champagne and pulls Petunia into his arms.

“You are the woman of my life” he whispers reverently. She laughs and clears his hair out of his head “We’re having a baby, Paddy”

The few months he had to panic around the idea of meeting himself are forgotten when he sees baby Cassie for the first time. 

She is welcome to the world with a head full of hair and potent cries.

She’s a cute little thing, with fiery red hair and chocolate brown eyes. He cooes at her, with her little hand grabbing his finger. James is holding her and Harry, who can’t help himself, is right in his space, making faces at the baby.

Lily is sleeping on a chair, exhausted about having fed her daughter when James, who has dark eyebags of his own, snorts at seeing him all sentimental.

“She’s a beauty, but has the lungs of a banshee” 

The baby becomes fussy and Harry panics, but James holds her for him to carry.

“Be a fucking saint and hold your sister. Niece? I don’t know, just rock her a little”

Harry stills with a deer in the headlight expression.

James laughs at him “Come on,  you didn’t really think I’m that stupid did you?”

They welcome baby Edward Altair Black.

Petunia is in her hospital bed, holding the blue haired little bundle.

When Harry sees him, eerily familiar eyes look back at him.

“Hello again, little fella”

Regulus holds his hand and smiles softly. Harry squeezes his hand. 

Severus is discussing with Dorcas, before Remus appears behind him and hugs him. Severus swats him, telling him they are talking, but Remus just laughs and pecks him and then Dorcas.

“We made it” Harry tells Regulus.

“We did”

“I want a baby too”

Reggie chokes on his whiskey.

Harry is dreaming. He knows it because he can see Lily and James, but not the ones he knows, not the ones he grew up with. These are his parents.

He runs and hugs them, the tears threatening to escape his eyes

“You did so well my love” Lily tells him, with tears of her own.

James holds his face between his hands, smiling “I’m so proud of you son. You made it”

He hugs Sirius and Remus too and even makes a smiley face at Severus.

“You are still a menace that looks too much like your father” he says, but has a fond expression.

The last one to show up is Death.

“I thought I wouldn’t see you for a long time.”

“Time is what we make it to be, Master of. 

There’s a door. Harry opens it.

 Behind it, lays a deformed lump of flesh, moaning in pain.

“I’m sorry for the life you had, Tom.” The creature wails, but he closes the door and the cries stop. 

He is still a parselmouth. He is still an horcrux, but that piece of soul, that little piece of something that was once part of Voldemort, now is part of him. And will always be a part of him.

Regulus sleepily drags his hand through his arm and wakes him up. He croaks a “what?”

“You were babbling in your sleep. Something about an ugly baby”

Harry yawns and settles, hugging Regulus close, smelling his hair, breathing in his scent. 

“I had a dream…”

Robert hisses at him to go back to sleep.

His scar pulses, but never hurts again.