Chapter 7
It is reassuring that even as the times and surrounding people change, some things never do. Harry Potter - despite all the turmoil and shenanigans of the future, the continuous stressful correspondence with a present version of himself and the constant presence of his new psychotic housemates - still excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Professor Ainsworth was a decent teacher who covered all the necessary material, balancing theoretical knowledge with practical skills. She was also, objectively, a relatively good-looking woman and this naturally attracted all sorts of annoyingly lewd comments from the boys in his year (and some girls too.) She had light brown hair that was tied into a long, loose ponytail and hazel, almond-shaped eyes.
They were discussing methods on repelling Inferi and Ainsworth, once again, called upon him to demonstrate in front of the class. (“Go Pothead!” Someone had shouted, presumably Hector.) “Now, Potter, you demonstrated to the Lumino-Relashio spell splendidly last week, but we all know that non-verbal spells are a crucial part of our curricula. So Harry, please, show the rest of the class how it is supposed to be done.”
She really did a good job of explaining how non-verbal spells were meant to work a couple of weeks ago, when classes first started. Intent was key. The intent to disarm, the intent to shield, the intent to light up the room…
A bright white lasso of flame sprung out from his wand. Focusing his gaze on the string of light, Harry directed it into a ring of protective fire. (“Pothead does it again!” Someone else, probably another psychotic Slytherin, shouted.)
Her mouth curved upwards. She gave him a curt nod. As he went back to his desk, sitting to next a simultaneously impressed and distracted Scorpius, he heard her whisper, “Stay behind after class, Albus. I’ve always known you are one of the talented ones. I think we ought to start our one-on-one tutorings.” She had starting suggesting private sessions when he, in a brief moment of lack of caution, blurted out that he was interested in being an Auror. He was sure this wasn’t what Albus actually wanted to do. That said, there had been a dearth of actual decent Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors during his time and Ainsworth gave very good instruction during class. Eventually curiosity gave in.
~X~
“Very good, Potter,” Ainsworth remarked as he casted a Protective Boundary Charm. Swirls of silver erupted from his wand, gallivanting around the empty classroom before congealing into a barrier.
“Thank you professor,” he replied curtly. She had a very intuitive method of instruction and seemed to know exactly the kind of help he needed.
Nodding her head, she reached for her notebook and marked off another tick. “I must say, Potter, your progress has been phenomenal. I thought about getting you to perform the Patronus Charm but then I remembered you didn’t exactly need help on that.”
He nodded, not wanting to give away any extra information on how he came to learn it. Besides, he was not sure when his future son figured it out. Scorpius only mentioned off-handedly that Albus’s Patronus was a crow. If his Patronus came out, it meant that he would have to spill his true identity.
It was then that she proposed teaching him Occlumency. Harry shook his had, remembering his disastrous lessons with Snape. But then something made him hesitate again. Maybe Snape was just a bad teacher and all that was required was quality instruction of someone that had held little to no grudge with him and who actually wanted to see him learn things. “Alright. We can try that next session.”
~X~
“You’ve figured out Occlumency?” The adult version of him, still a bizarre phenomenon he had to grapple with day by day, corked his eyebrows. “Well… I must admit I never thought I would figure it out, if ever. I remember struggling with it greatly back in the day. Although I did eventually get the hang of it in the Aurors.”
“I barely managed a block really, but I did feel… something. Snape was just a terrible teacher. Ainsworth and I … well… she has been offering one-on-one tutorials and I was kind of reluctant at first but we made really some progress. I was able to resist her Legilimency spell just a little,” Harry recounted. “I think I managed by clearing my mind. She told me to focus on things that calmed me and I thought about flying…”
“Ah, yes, that was how I figured it out too—”
“I mean, you are me…”
“Yes… yes and Ainsworth… she’s a good teacher?”
“Considering that, well, out of all the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, one of them was possessed by Voldemort, one a narcissistic fraud, one an obnoxious Ministry appointee who wouldn’t teach any practical spells and one a literal Death Eater, I would say she’s pretty decent. Professor Lupin was the only one I had that really compares.”
“That’s fair. Ah Lupin… I remembered those obstacle courses he set up. And, while I don’t wish to impede on the reminiscences of fond memories, there are other pressing concerns I believe we need to discuss…”
~X~
It turns out that when things get bad they could always get worse, but perhaps simultaneously there are also silver linings in such grim developments.
Al excused himself for a minute, making up some excuse to go to the bathroom and then proceeded to tail Scorpius and Professor Snape. Luna seemed to buy it and resumed her chat with Professor Trelwaney without much disruption, no doubt engrossed in her conspiracy theories.
Oh Scorpius. The poor guy, he must be so confused as well. Al recalled how disoriented he felt when he first landed.
The corridor outside was deserted, though the sound of music emanated from the party. Frowning, Al put on his Invisibility Cloak and pressed his ears from door to door. It would take a while to figure out which room poor Scorpius was in. As terrible as it sounded, he did look forward to encountering his friend again. It had been weeks since they last met and for some reason it felt like eons.
“…cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled —”
“Sorry, Sir, I am not entirely sure what you mean.”
Ah there they were! Scratching his temples, Al wondered if Snape was talking about Draco Malfoy’s previous suspicious antics, which Scorpius would no doubt be left rather befuddled with. Or perhaps Mr. Malfoy finally got the chance to tell Scorpius his side of the story after years of embarrassed vagaries.
“I hope you are telling the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it.”
“Sir – um, Professor Snape, I’m not sure what you mean. You’re going to have to be a bit more specific—”
There was a pause. Al gave into the temptation to peer into his friend’s mind, just a little. He wanted to know how his friend had been.
First there was darkness and then there was a faint dimmer of light, glowing at the end of the tunnel. –
(“It was you! Joanna – or are you Joanna?” )
(“Professor Ainsworth?! No – hang on. Wait. No. But I thought you - ” )
A smirk carved onto the face of his Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, which quickly twisted into a snarl before the whole visage morphed into someone, something else. She had ice blue eyes and silver-white hair. “I’m afraid Susanna Ainsworth is taking a brief sabbatical from teaching. She asked me to sub for her this year.”
None of this made any sense. So essentially someone was impersonating Professor Ainsworth, transported him to the past, laid low about the situation for a while, before resuming her activities?
Before he could make any further sense of the unfolding scene before him - during which the woman doused Scorpius in time dust as bright orange streams of light came out from her wand and swirled around them – he felt another pair of eyes bearing into him. Coal black. Oh shit.
“Potter! Come inside right now!” A voice commanded. The door swung open. The sight of a furious Professor Snape made Al gulp.
~X~
“No, Professor, really, we came from the future, albeit not at the same time,” Al explained to an extremely peeved and skeptical Professor Snape, holding his arms up, “You saw what happened to Scorpius.” He was wary of angering the man further but felt it necessary to reiterate for the hundredth time.
“Yes, yes, the year was 2022,” Scorpius explained. “You – well – Albus first came here. You saw what’s in my head.”
“I think I was completely inebriated when it all happened,” Albus added with a nervous chuckle, “But whoever did this to me must have obliviated me.”
“Professor Ainsworth. Someone disguised as her did it to me.”
“Our Professor Ainsworth?”
“Yes, but you know what I mean. Oh and she also placed an Imperius Curse on Joanna and they did it together, technically. I figured it out, but barely. Your brother knows because I told him, but before I could tell your dad, she caught up with me and effectively blasted me into the past, I think. Whoever disguised as her, that is-”
“Hold up, so, we figured out who did it? That’s kind of progress I supposed but—”
“I also just wanted to say, Al, that I really missed you. I know that’s not related and we are probably in deep trouble but I am glad we get to face this together—”
“Oh Scorp! Me too! I’m so lost without you and I probably fucked up a ton already but hopefully with you around I will fuck up less? Oh sweet Merlin we really need to get on top of this—Although while you're still here, I mean can you get us into the nice Prefect bathrooms, I’ve missed those—”
“Boys! Both of you!” Snape’s thundering voice interrupted their conversation and Al could tell that he was fuming, as well as flabbergasted at the derailment of the conversation. His face had a whole “will someone please explain just what is going on” expression to it all.
“So we came from the future and we can’t go back. We’re probably screwed,” Al explained.
“Have you tried going back? Figuring out anything on your end?” Scorpius questioned.
“The Harry Potter I know would have meddled nonstop until something disastrous happened,” Snape continued drawling.
“Hermione did some research, bless her, but found out that there were instances of time travel in the past. Always a father and a son or a grandfather and a grandson. Direct bloodlines,” Al recalled their findings, ignoring the snide nature of the comment.
“It’s a rare of magic… Dark Magic, some might say,” Snape commented, looking genuinely concerned, “Very difficult to execute and whoever has done it did it twice.”
“You know anything about it? How to reverse it?” Al pressed, hoping for a breakthrough answer. “I mean, I would like to be back. I kind of prefer things my time, sorry.”
Snape shook his head. “It’s difficult to affect things from our side, if this were true.”
“Oh,” Al looked disappointed again. He could tell Scorpius was as well.
“And I reckon you’re his son, correct?” Ah there it was, the slightest hint of disdain, mixed with genuine curiosity.
“Yes. My father was Harry Potter.”
“So he did make it after all… and I assume that I must have taught both of you-”
“Actually, Sir, you…”
“Yeah… uh…”
“Well…”
“Um…”
They took turns making awkward half-suggestions and statements, until it was so ridiculous that they both suddenly stopped.
“Oh. I take that I am deceased?”
“Yes…”
“Who?”
“Voldemort.”
“How very irritating.”
~X~
Just when they had finished a full recounting of their life and times to a resigned Severus Snape, a new development transpired that only served to confuse things even more. Al first sensed it, but it seemed his namesake had noticed it as well.
“But he’s not supposed to be here!” Al whispered. “You guys were supposed to swap places! That was how the spell worked in theory right?”
“Well this is unfortunate, Potter, I take that you were hoping your… friend would take his place?”
“Yeah. By the way, I’m a natural-born Legilimens, that’s how I…Well, anyway, I mean, maybe Scorpius still can? I don’t know can’t you send him away? Make up a reason…?”
“I’m not doing that.”
“What is going on?” Scorpius was still rather behind.
“We should probably sound-proof the classroom,” Al noted, “What’s that spell again?” He took out his wand but before he could figure out what to use, Professor Snape had taken care of it wordlessly.
“The spell is Muffliato, Potter.”
“The younger version of your dad is still here and wandering around the dungeons in a very suspicious manner,” Al explained, “Although he knows Occlumency so I can’t tell what he’s thinking.”
“He’s plotting something, most likely not good. He did say that his Sixth year was his roughest. Well, his Seventh wasn’t great either.”
“But what are we going to do about you then?” Al asked, concerned. “I mean I’m not sure how we’re going to explain to everyone why there’s two of you. I assumed your dad would be beamed into the future but—“
“She’s experimenting with spells,” Scorpius speculated, “You were probably her first try. With me, maybe she – whoever that is impersonating Ainsworth is – maybe she was testing out whether one can unilaterally send a person into the distant past.”
“How’s your animagus skills going?” Al blurted out. “You mentioned you were working on something.”
“I can transform myself into a raven now!” Scorpius said, “I actually just figured it out over the summer. I had been meaning to tell you that—Oh wait—you want me to—“
“Yeah I can pretend I have a pet raven. That would work,” Al replied, coming up with a plan and a list of explanations he would have to relay to Ron and Hermione. “I mean, Sir,” he turned to a bemused Professor Snape, “I kind of need you to not point out my ‘pet’ raven all the time in class though.”
A snort.
Okay, maybe a snort of approval.
“Plus it would be nice if you weren’t such a bellend all the time.”
“Oh?”
“My dad did name me after you, yeah my middle name is Severus, after all and called you the bravest man he has ever met. Just saying.”
Snape almost choked.
~X~
“Guys, guys, guys,” Al announced as he gathered Ron and Hermione together the next day as they stood in front of the Room of Requirement, “Promise me you won’t freak out or attack anyone. So about my new pet raven Sparky, whom I showed to you guys yesterday…”
“What’s the matter? You’ve been looking nervous the whole time on our way here,” Ron said while shrugging. “Is this about Sparky? Because if so I think Hedwig is the one you’ll need to reassure.”
“Hedwig likes her just fine.”
Truth to be told, Al was most worried about Ron’s reactions. With that said, he knew needed to keep tabs on Hermione as well, since she bore the brunt of a lot of Draco Malfoy’s insults and would likely not take this well either. Sensing the potential need to be the facilitator, Al pushed open the door and –
“Oh you guys are finally here!” An excited Scorpius piped up, much to the horror of Ron and Hermione.
“What’s he doing here?!” Ron exploded. “You said-”
Evidently, they could not differentiate between Father and Son.
“Guys meet Scorpius.” He pointed towards his friend. “Scorpius, meet past Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” Hermione inquired, eyes narrowing.
“And how do we know that he’s not going to hand us over to—”
“Guys, guys, there’s some misunderstanding –”
“Al, you mentioned that you had something important to show us-”
“Err… I guess I’m the person he wanted to show…” Scorpius was scratching his head. This was going to be much, much harder than he anticipated.
“Please,” Al raised his voice, frustrated at the potential disaster unfolding in front of him and doing his best ‘authoritative Prefect’ impression, “I can explain everything. This is Scorpius Malfoy, my best friend, whom I have told you guys about. Unfortunately, he ended up here as well due to machinations in my present day.”
Scorpius nodded along, “Nice to meet you guys!” He waved. “I brought some sweets!”
Ron’s eyebrows were raised and Hermione had her wand up.
“You, Al,” Ron instructed, “Taste his sweets.”
“They’re probably fine,” Al said as he plotted a peppermint pixie into his mouth.
There was a pause as the whole room waited for something drastic to happen, Scorpius started moving really, really slowly towards them as he pulled out more candy.
“Alright, alright, I’ll have a chocolate frog,” Ron announced, “But if I’m hurt, Hermione, I want you to finish him.” He took a chocolate frog and began munching.
“That’s kind of cute,” Al said, laughing slightly nervously, “Avenging your lost love and stuff.”
They both ignored him.
~X~
“So you guys were best friends because he gave you lots of sweets during your Hogwarts train ride?” Ron inquired after listening to Scorpius’ account of their first meeting.
The tension in the room had eased slightly due to Scorpius’s generally goofy, unthreatening and easy-going nature. Hermione’s wand was no longer drawn, which was a relief.
“Correct,” Albus beamed while taking out more jellybeans. He then passed around the jar to Ron.
“Yeah I was extremely nervous that we weren’t going to end up in the same house,” Scorpius remarked, “But we did and the rest is history!”
“Oh so you were a Gryffindor?” Ron was almost relieved and the remaining tension was on the verge of dissipating.
“Oh no! No we –“
Al almost shoved his friend surreptitiously but it was too late.
“You guys were in Ravenclaw?” Hermione asked. “Now that I think about it, Albus, well, maybe not you but I could see this guy—“
“And well, he can turn into a Raven--”
“Ron, Ravenclaw’s animal is an Eagle, not a Raven,” Hermione corrected didactically.
“Oh no, we—“
“Actually—“
“Albus, you haven’t told them?” Scorpius asked, dismayed and mildly affronted.
“I didn’t think it was important information,” Al said with a shrug, trying to gloss it over, doing his best to sound as nonchalant as possible.
“Oh Merlin,” Hermione gasped, “That’s why you recognized the Locket immediately.”
“Um… That’s actually not the reason. We aren’t taught that kind of stuff. That’s from Scorpius rambling about history. Besides, this isn’t important. Anyways—”
“Please tell me you guys were at least in Hufflepuff,” Ron continued the questioning strain, trying to give Al the benefit of the doubt, though he looked wary.
Al thought about making a joke about Uncle Ron always being slower than Aunt Hermione but stopped himself from doing so. Now was not the time. His plan of smoothly introducing both of them to his friend who was also stuck in the past was quickly being derailed by inconvenient conversations about Houses, of all things. “No,” he took a deep breath. “No, we weren’t.”
Ron looked aghast, while Hermione shook her head, “You’ve been lying to us?!”
“You were lying to them?” Scorpius added.
“No. I did not, I was not,” Al defended himself. “I just… well, you guys never asked.”
“Because we assumed you would be in Gryffindor just like your father,” Ron countered. Somehow he managed to repeat one of the most annoying passing comments people always seemed to make, the same thing all of them would say.
“Well it’s not my job to correct your incorrect assumptions if you didn’t ask!” Al threw his arms up in the air.
“Now I don’t know if I can trust you!” Ron started raising his voice. “Hermione back me up on this, he could have been sent back in time by these slimy—Wait—how do we even know you are Harry’s son? What if—”
“Okay this is ridiculous. This doesn’t change anything!” Al folded his arms. “And yes. I am. And just because there is a random piece of information I forgot to disclose to both of you, it doesn’t change anything!”
“I don’t think you are a trustworthy person,” Ron announced, “None of you snakes are.”
“No we’re not! You’ve known me for weeks!”
“You could just be trying to deceive us. Get close to us before striking.”
“No you’re just making things up, it's all in your head.” Anya always mentioned he was a master at gaslighting but this time, he was really trying to not gaslight his past Uncle and Aunt. It didn’t help that he sounded like he was, sure, but it wasn’t his fault!
Hermione looked icy as well, though she was less garrulous. It was simply infuriating and Al did not know if anything he said or did at the present moment would help assuage either of them. Wonderful. Another plan gone astray.
“This is stupid,” Al declared, “And this type of reaction is exactly why I’d rather avoid this conversation. See Scorpius? If present day Uncle Ron was skeptical enough about me being in Slytherin, how did you think past Uncle Ron would react? Exactly this way. And at present, he is deciding on whether to draw his wand and attack me.”
“How—“
“Yeah, I wasn’t lying about being able to read minds. See? I can be honest.”
“Can we all please calm down?” Scorpius pleaded.
“I’ll calm down when he tells the truth!” Ron fumed.
“I am,” Al stated plainly, resisting the urge to yell. “Hermione,” he looked at her, “You believe me, right?”
“Didn’t pick up any of these anti-muggleborn prejudices from your housemates?” She asked skeptically.
“Oh come on, you’ve known me for weeks! No. For Merlin’s sake, no! You’re supposed to be the smart one!”
“Al, I… I think her concerns are maybe kind of valid?” Scorpius chimed in, slightly nervous. “I mean, we are at a different time. The context is different! You should be a little open-minded about, well, why they might think that way.”
“Scorp, I know why. I just don’t agree with their assessment of me. And all these out of the blue accusations of dishonesty and prejudice,” Al defended himself. He took a deep breath and let the situation in front of him simmer. Somehow, he thought introducing Scorpius to everyone was going to be the flaring point. Not him.
“Al, I know you’re not happy but—”
“I… you know what. I don’t want to be here either, this sudden turn in attitude sucks and there’s probably nothing I can do about it. But my point still stands that Scorpius and I are stuck in the past. We need to disguise ourselves to the best of our ability and figure out how to solve everything and go back. In the meantime, I implore both of you to, well, give me another chance.” He hated that phrase. He didn’t need another chance, but he couldn’t let everything escalate further. “After this… well, we still need to keep up pretenses. But I’d like the chance to prove both of you wrong.”
He thought about storming out of the Room of Requirement but hesitated. He wanted to see their reactions.
“We have Potions class next,” Hermione simply said, “Which I’m sure our friend Al here will be very comfortable with, given they’re held in the dungeons.”
~X~
When Scorpius had vanished pandemonium and panic descended upon Hogwarts. Harry was visiting the Gryffindor common rooms, which he always felt comfortable in despite the numerous stares he continued to incur, as James had notified him that there was urgent information to be relayed, when the news broke to him.
“What do you mean he’s disappeared?” James demanded more explanations from Lily, who shook her head in horror.
“Don't know. Notice just came that he’s been missing for a whole day.”
“Merlin’s beard he’s – there’s no way that he’s dead right—“
“They haven’t found a body,” Clarisse, a Fifth-Year who was eavesdropping on their conversation mentioned.
“I heard that he’s gone home to sort out some family business,” someone else joined in.
“I heard that he’s transformed into a Werewolf. But permantnely.”
“I heard that he’s engaged. Apparently to an aristocratic girl from Italy.”
“I heard that he’s lost his marbles and has been sent to St. Mungo’s.”
“I heard that he’s been offered a job at the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance.”
“No, no, no” James corrected, “I don’t think that’s what happened.”
They broke away from the rest of the crowd as James grabbed him away to another corner. “Look, mini-Dad. Well, Scorpius and I – we – we think we figured out who was behind this. He left behind a note. It wasn’t clear, I think it was transcribed in Runes but I copied it in my notebook too. Here it is though.” James handed out a scrappy piece of parchment
“Does this mean Draco Malfoy is going to pop up because I’m not tolerating that,” Harry blurted out. “I have my boundaries.”
“No, that’s the scary part,” Lily popped up next to them, not wanting to be left out, “He’s not here. It appears to be a different development.”
~X~
“I know he’s your dad,” Al whispered to Scorpius during Defense Against the Dark Arts, who was at present disguised as his pet raven, “But he is seriously an ass and probably not a good person at this stage of life.”
Scorpius stared at him and cocked his head. This is the tenth time you repeated this. But you’re probably right.
“And you know, I know what people might say. Try to fix things, they said. Try to help around, they said. In my experience, that usually makes things worse...”
But you haven’t even tried to help! Us being back in time must have changed other things! We should do our part to make things easier for you dad—
“There was this Locket thing that I took from Mundungus Fletcher, who stole it from Sirius and I think it was probably important in defeating—”
“Potter,” Snape’s didactic voice interrupted Al’s conversation with Scorpius as his coal black eyes stared at Al. “I see you seem to have no need for reading or note taking. It appears you seem so confident in your mastery of wordless magic and repulsion spells that this class is not worthy of your attention.”
‘No, Sir,” Al did not say anything else and merely gazed at Snape neutrally.
“Care to demonstrate for the rest of the class, all of whom you believe to be so behind that you have started blabbering nonsense to that pet of yours?”
“Do I get house points for succeeding?” A guilty grin, as he knew he was pushing it by being cheeky.
“Get up Potter, in front of the classroom now.” The gritted teeth were, in a vacuum, quite hilarious.
Sighing, Al nodded and did as he was told.
“I’m going to fire a Stunning Spell at you and you will attempt to block it using a wordless Shield Charm. It will be 10 points off Gryffindor if you don’t.”
“Wow so I get points deducted for failing but not points for succeeding?”
“In 3, 2…”
The shield sprung up just in the nick of time to prevent his from being knocked off flying. Al felt rather pleased about himself but resisted the urge to talk.
“Now, Potter, your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“You will attempt a wordless Stunning Spell, I will block it and you will block the return.” The voice was dripping with snark.
“Ugh. This was not part of the –”
He ended up being knocked flying again, alongside another detention.
~X~
Al closed the door behind them at the Room of Requirement. “Human form, alas!” He declared as Scorpius transfigured back into his usual form.
“This is great practice,” the guy nodded eagerly, “Plus now that I think of it, your Legilimency really complements our communication. Ohhh this is so much fun!”
“Yeah we should totally try this when we get back too!”
“So,” Scorpius declared, folding his arms, “You really haven't done anything?”
“Well, there was that one Locket I sort of help acquire. Dumbledore destroyed it though with the sword in his office,” Albus defended himself. “Besides, I already sort of spoiled something about my dad, Ron and Hermione hunting down Horcruxes, which honestly I don’t even know what they are! Okay they’re some sort of dark object that dad needed to destroy but beyond that, I don’t know.”
“Hmmmm…” Scorpius frowned.
“Wait, do you know if your family library might have something on it?”
“Albus! My family library is not some Dark Magic repertoire!” Scorpius protested slightly. “Besides, we can’t just waltz into Malfoy Manor at the moment!”
“Sorry, sorry, was just asking.”
“We could try the Forbidden Section,” Scorpius offered.
“We could,” Albus nodded.
But before they could continue their conversation further, the door swung open to reveal a disheveled Draco Malfoy. Shit. Al knew he had been loitering around the Room of Requirement so this shouldn’t have been a surprise. “Stupefy!” Al’s spell struck a befuddled Draco before anyone else could react. “Quick! Scorpius! Pull him in before anyone else could notice!”
“Wow,” Scorpius simply said. “He looks like he’s in a very bad state. I’m glad you didn’t hit him in the balls though. Brachiabindo!” Coils sprung around Draco to bind his unconscious body.
“Yeah, couldn’t jeopardize your existence.”
“I am touched.”
“So… Last time I stalked him and followed him into this same room, he was having a nervous breakdown around that cupboard,” Al pointed to the cupboard. “Not sure what that is but he seemed very distressed. Like his family, well, your family, were being threatened if he didn’t succeed.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on Scorpius. “That, that was the cupboard Dad said he used to help the Death Eaters infiltrate Hogwarts. It’s still broken as of now but I remembered him saying it was connected to another one in Borgin and Burkes.”
“Ah… Wait shit. Should we do something about it?”
“I- I’m not sure—”
“Hah! And you’re the one who was mad at me for not doing anything!”
“Firstly, I’m not mad at you. Second, you knew my dad was having periodic nervous breakdowns in front of a cupboard and chose to do nothing so aren’t you the one that’s not doing anything?”
“Ugh. I don't even know! What if we destroy this thing and then Voldemort kills your dad and then you get erased from existence?” Al was scratching his head. “Anyways we should probably try to obliviate young Mr. Malfoy before he wakes up.”
“Wait, dumb idea, but what if we implanted an obscure message in his brain that only his future self would understand? I think my dad would be on board with helping us, you know, once he is part his reforming arc? I—Since we haven’t switched places, maybe—”
“I’m not an expert at this, I have been reading about this but my Legilimency skill are not quite—” Al looked at Scorpius’ downcast sight. Al could sense he was on the verge of tears. He had been wrested from the future too, where he had a life too, His father, for whom Scorpius was one of the few sources of emotional anchor, must be distressed at his disappearance. “I—I’ll try. I’ll have to reach his subconscious, maybe even his unconscious. And it’ll have to be triggered by him seeing something that only his future self would see. I’m still playing around with this.”
“If we fail we could just obliviate young dad again?”
“That… works. What’s a thing only you and your dad know? Wait- don’t tell me right now, just think about it. And let me know when you are ready.”
There were times when Al did envy Scorpius for being an only child. Him and his father got to share so many beautiful moments without the intrusion of raucous siblings, not that Al did not love his siblings. But he thought about what he would need to tell his dad. What he would tell him if there was one shot at getting the message across. His mind blanked. It made him frustrated.
“Albus, I’m ready…”
~X~
“Sir do you know what are Horcruxes?” Al blurted out the question during detention with Professor Snape, the one he had incurred because he forgot to deflect a spell in class, resulting in public humiliation.
Snape froze and appeared genuinely disturbed. “What word did you just use?”
“Uh, Horcruxes?” Anything that mortified Snape was probably amongst the darkest of arts. No offense, but that guy was a Death Eater.
“No,” Snape uttered.
“Oh.”
“No, that word is not meant to be uttered in plural.”
“You know that’s making no sense to me because I don’t even know what it is.”
Always knowing when to step in to explain for his best friend, Scorpius transfigured back into his human form. “Al came across that word from his drunken uncle one day. We thought it had to be important. Apparently, Al’s dad spent his Seventh Year destroying these objects instead of attending school because it was so important in Voldemort’s defeat.”
Snape’s coal black eyes, normally emotionless and stoic, enlarged. “But of course. It made so much sense. I really shouldn’t be surprised… but I am.”
“Also. Well, basically I think I got this Locket – Slytherin’s Locket, that is - that was supposedly a Horcrux. Nicked it off Mundungus Fletcher, but it was originally stolen from the Black household. Anyways, I took it to Dumbledore and he destroyed it with a sword.”
“But of course,” Snape nodded contemplatively.
“I’m still confused.”
“A Horcrux is a method to gain immortality, the darkest, foulest of all arts,” Snape interrupted him, finally coming to his senses, “One… splits his own soul and encases part of it within an impervious object. That way when the body is destroyed, the soul remains tethered to the earth.”
“And Voldemort has made multiple of them,” Al gasped. “That’s why. That’s why they had to be destroyed.”
He shot a gaze towards Scorpius.
“I hope you’re both not concocting some idiotic scheme,” Snape commented.
“No. Of course not.” Scorpius immediately replied.
“Hypothetically, though, how would one destroy a Horcrux? I know the Sword Dumbledore had worked but would the Kiss of Death Potion work?” Al pressed as Scorpius almost facepalmed. “Sorry, I’m just curious, because it’s known as the most corrosive, most destructive potion one can—”
“It’s also banned in all magical jurisdictions.” Snape deadpanned. Scorpius was still shaking his head.
“So are Horcruxes!”
“We’re not making that Albus,” Scorpius corrected him.
“I’m just trying to expand my arsenal of available tools to deal with Dark Objects. The Kiss of Death is described as being more destructive than a Basilisk’s venom, but extremely volatile.” Al reined himself in before he started rambling. He remembered one of dad’s subordinates coming over from dinner and having one too many firewhisky, which descended into a narration of how he partnered with the Indian Ministry of Magic to brew that the Kiss of Death in order to completely destroy the remnants of an evil sorcerer’s ring. They had allegedly received multiple clearances from various authorities.
“I bear no responsibility for either of your safety and wellbeing, but—”
(But what?) He shot a quick look at Scorpius before they both turned to Snape.
“If these Horcruxes,” he shuddered as he uttered the word in plural, “really do exist. Then, yes, the Kiss of Death would indeed be able to destroy them.”
“What about Fiendfyre?”
“Potter, absolutely do not try that here—”
“I’m brainstorming!” Al held up his arms. “Just coming up with a myriad of proposals that could help us in dire situations!”
“My dad mentioned about Fiendyre,” Scorpius said, squinting as he thought hard. “Said that the Room of Requirement almost burned down once because of it and that he would have died if it weren’t for your dad saving him.”
“What were they doing setting fire to the room?”
“It was Crabbe or Goyle I think, they was trying to kill your parents.”
“Oh.”
“Dad mentioned it was one of the worst moments of his life. Said he also saw a wraith, skull-like form screeching in the air—”
“Did it have red eyes?” That caught Al’s attention. This could be another clue—
“Don’t know.”
“That Horcrux Locket that was destroyed,” Al recounted, “There was a skull-like wraith too. Screeching. Scarlet red eyes.”
“There’s a Horcrux hidden in the Room of Requirement?”
“There could be.”
“But there’s a million possible rooms that one can conjure up… You know what, though, let’s give it a try, Al!”
“You know what else I remembered? Dad mentioned that Voldemort once tried to interview for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts and then put a jinx on the position once he got rejected. Which apparently meant back in the day no instructor ever served two consecutive years—Um Sir, sorry this isn’t meant to scare you or anything but I just thought it was—” Since Snape had no other reaction, Al elected to continue. “-Anyways maybe he was able to place the Horcrux at the Room then.”
“Wow we’re really high quality detectives!” Scorpius declared.
“I know. I bet we can upcharge people a lot as private investigators.”
“So let’s do it?”
Snape looked at the two, bewildered at two young boys genuinely considering the prospect of strolling into the Room of Requirement to look for Horcruxes based on some anecdote, seemingly forgetting the fact that they were both technically part of a detention. “No Fiendfyres. Immediate expulsion if that is even contemplated.”
“Of course not! I would never put all of our lives at risk!”
“No… un-supervised attempts at brewing the Kiss of Death.”
~X~
His eldest son was always more laid-back and carefree than Albus, a natural with the crowd and never really uncomfortable with the level of fame growing up as a Potter brought about. James was born to be a celebrity and being drafted to play for Puddlemore United once he graduated seemed like the obvious next step in life. He was never one to falter and give into doubt. Hence why James’ troubled expressions were especially disturbing.
It had only been a couple of days since past-Harry met with him and recounted his latest Occlumency lessons when an owl came from James, requesting for a meeting immediately and describing his suspicions on their Defense Against the Dark Art’s Professor and Scorpius’ findings. His heart had dropped when reading through the letter. It seems that the past version of him, possibly encouraged by those helpful tutorials, walked straight into the trap.
“Dad, we need to do something now. Right now,” James did not even wait for him to extend his greetings. “We’re all in trouble.”
But before Harry could respond, one of his subordinates burst in to the room. “Sorry, Sir. We could not turn him away. It’s Draco Malfoy. He was very insistent that he speak to you immediately.”