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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, ideas, and situations created by JR Rowling and owned by her and her publishers. I own the original elements & characters. No money is being made by me, and no trademark or copyright infringement is intended.



Chapter VI
Sunday, August 27, 1995


"Good morning, Miss Tonks."

"Good morning," Tonks said. "I take it you two had a good week?"

"We did, all things considered," Emma agreed. "I presume your boss told you where we were?"

"Actually, no," Tonks said, clearly disgruntled that Dumbledore knew and had not told her or Sirius. She would have been angrier if she had known that Dumbledore had told Molly Weasley. "I presumed you were with Hermione and hopefully Harry."

"We were," Emma agreed. "We don't know where we were, other than its being a grand house which somehow belongs to Harry, and that it's under something called a Fidelius."

"How are they?" Tonks asked, eagerly.

"Flourishing," Emma had to admit. "I didn't recognize Harry, he's grown so much, and so has Hermione. I do know that Harry had at least one long conversation with the Headmaster, and that he and Hermione have gone out shopping quite often, in the magical and regular worlds."

"Really?"

Emma nodded. "Of course, they said I could tell you that, as they plan on sticking closer to home until the First of September."

Tonks looked dissatisfied.

"This sounds a bit weird to me," Emma said, "but Hermione said I was to ask you to do the 'pig snout.' Does that make sense to you?"

"It does," Tonks admitted. "I'm what is called a metamorphmagus, meaning I can change my physical appearance." With that, Tonks scrunched up her face, and her cute nose turned into a pig's snout, and then turned back.

"Good enough," Emma said. "Dan!"

Dan came into the kitchen and handed Tonks four letters, addressed to her, Moody, Remus, and Sirius. "Have a pleasant summer, Miss Tonks," Emma said, almost pushing her out the door.

Tonks shook her head as she realized she was standing on the back stoop of the Grangers' house, holding four letters. Then she realized that Emma had slipped her a private note, asking her to visit when Dan was not at home. Tonks considered this, and, deciding to keep it a private matter, disapparated.



"I'm surprised the Ministry can't trace portkeys," Hermione said, looking up from her sweet crêpes and café au lait.

"You do know how new spells of any kind are usually created, right?" Harry asked.

"Of course," Hermione said. "The desired results are translated into an arithmatic formula. Then the magical actions needed are translated into formula as well, and once any bugs are worked out, a designated phrase is added. Then come the two difficult parts. First, combining the formulas into workable magic. A team then conditions the magical flows of the world so that the phrase and intent trigger the desired effect. There usually has to be a specific wand motion as well."

"So, the 'portus' charm usually used has a component built into the original formula which notifies any local magical tracing equipment that the portkey is in use. The same with common apparation. Because both travel along the streams of magic which envelope the world, we couldn't really be traced otherwise. Now, suppose you were powerful enough to coerce magic to do what you wanted to without using pre-existing spells, although it is a bit tiring and you have to be careful not to do accidental magic."

"That's a lot of power," Hermione agreed, "but I know you have it."

"Exactly," Harry said. "So, I can use regular magic, or I can use my own. I portkey and apparate using my own brand of magic, not conditioned magic. Hence, I cannot be traced."

"Why portkey at all?"

"It's easier to get through wards that way than by using apparation," Harry said simply. "The two methods are related, but not identical. Elves travel a third way, and some other magical beings might travel differently as well." Harry smiled. "I haven't gotten the hook on the elf way with another person, but it is easy to do myself."

"So, you could actually go say, to Hogwarts, anytime you wanted?"

"I could, and I could bypass all the wards and alarms."

Hermione looked worried. "Couldn't Voldemort do the same thing?"

Harry smiled more wanly. "No. He could never think or feel like a house elf. It would mean thinking yourself so low that the wards don't notice your magic. I don't really feel that way about myself any more, but I certainly did when I lived with the Dursleys, and can recapture that as needed. Wizards command magic, elves supplicate themselves before it. If Voldemort could do that, he couldn't be a Dark Lord."

"I see." Hermione, seeing Harry was finished, set her cup down. "Well, I'm ready to see magical Paris. How about you?"

Harry switched to French, saying, "I am ready to show off the beautiful city of Paris to the even more beautiful lady."

"That would sound insincere in English, sir," Hermione replied in the same language. "What are your plans for the week?"

"Magical shopping in Paris this morning, Muggle shopping tomorrow morning. We visit Basle and Florence, and then magical and Muggle Rome on Thursday and on Friday morning. In the afternoons, more Occlumency practice for you, and then some dueling practice. Next Tuesday afternoon, we might have to deal with the Headmaster. One afternoon in between, we can spend on the beach, any beach in the world you wish." Then Harry's smile grew wide. "And, above all, I want all that time to be spent with you."



"Well. . . ." Remus said that afternoon, having now read the letters to Sirius, Tonks, and Moody as well as his own.

"Well," Sirius echoed, "I can see why Harry doesn't trust Dumbledore."

"Aye, I agree," Moody said. "Still, things just don't add up."

"True," Remus said.

"Not to mention there's hardly a word, at least in the letters, about who rescued him from the Ministry, who he's with. . . ."

"Other than Hermione," Tonks threw in.

"Other than Granger," Moody acknowledged.

"Not that it helps now," Remus mused, "but knowing what the Prophecy actually is does explain James and Lily's actions."

"True," Sirius agreed.

"There's something else," Moody said. "Dumbledore asked me not to repeat it, and I would hope you lot wouldn't spread this."

Three sets of eyebrows went up in surprise. Moody rarely shared private information like this.

"Old Horace Slughorn is coming out of retirement. Snape is moving to the Defense job." The other three made a face. "Potter told Dumbledore the only way he and Granger would return to Hogwarts, instead of going to Beauxbatons or the Swiss Ecole was to either fire Snape or allow a Class Two duel between Snape and himself."

"What!" the three exclaimed.

"Harry can't take out a Dark bastard like Snape!" Sirius protested.

"He has the power, but neither the control nor the experience," Remus agreed.

"Dumbledore might be blowing smoke, but I'm to come to Hogwarts for the autumnal term as a security consultant," Moody went on. "Dumbledore said that if Potter beats Snape too badly, or even kills him, I'll be the new Defense teacher."

The four sat in amazed silence, unable to believe what Moody had said -- not even Moody could believe what Dumbledore had told him. Then Tonks said, "The Grangers both said that Harry and even Hermione had grown so much they were barely recognizable. Could they have spent the last few weeks under some extreme use of a time-turner?"

"Or has someone substituted someone else for the pair?" Moody demanded.

The four sat in silence, because there was nothing further any of them dared say.


Tuesday, August 29, 1995


As Sirius sat in the kitchen, nursing his fourth firewhisky, a voice asked, "Don't you think you've had enough?"

"Bugger off, James," Sirius almost snarled.

"If you don't realize what's wrong with that statement, then you've certainly had too many."

Sirius frowned, and then realized what exactly he had said. He turned around so quickly he fell out of the chair. "Harry!"

"Sirius!" Harry hauled Sirius to his feet and gave the older man a strong hug.

Sirius pulled back and looked at Harry. "Damn, Harry! What the hell happened to you?" He looked again. "You grew what? Five inches?"

"Just over six," Harry said.

"Which isn't possible in less than three weeks," Remus said from the kitchen doorway, his wand out.

"I took a few days worth of special maturing potions and nutrient potions," Harry stated. "Amazing that no one equated the near- starvation I went through at the Dursleys for ten years and then for three and a half more summers with my being shorter than both of my parents. A few legal potions and I've caught up to where I should be."

"James wasn't this tall until sometime during his Sixth year," Remus observed.

"I'm not my father," Harry reminded the two men.

"No, you're not," Remus agreed. "The question is, are you Harry?"

"Am I?" Harry challenged. "Of all the people in the Order, you two should know."

"Why?" Sirius asked. He had had too many, after all.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Because I'm a werewolf and you're a dog animagus," Remus said. He came over to Harry and sniffed. Sirius changed into Padfoot and did the same thing. After over a full minute of sniffing, Sirius changed back.

"Close?" Remus asked.

"Close, but not quite," Sirius agreed, confused.

"Ah," Harry said, "that would be because I added a new trick. Well, new to me, anyway."

"You also somehow became an animagus over the last three weeks?" Remus asked, doubt in his voice.

Harry changed into a Kodiak bear, and back. He had been very pleased to discover the ability had traveled with his older self.

"That would explain the change," Sirius said, amazed.

"I suppose so, but. . . ."

"But it's still difficult to believe, isn't it?" Harry agreed. "How does this strike you, then. I was possessed in the courtroom by accident."

"Someone possessed you by accident?" Sirius asked.

"No, but the timing was off. I was supposed to be possessed in late May."

"Why did they wait?" Remus asked.

"They didn't," Harry answered. "He travelled back from the year 2013, and miscalculated slightly, although the courtroom was the third most likely possibility."

"Who?" Remus demanded.

"Me," Harry answered. "I won the war in 1998, but nearly everyone I really cared about was dead, including the two of you. The few people I still cared about were killed in the civil war that followed. It started in ernest, at least for me, when the Ministry, fearing the coming uprising to bring about a democratic government, killed my wife and daughter. I helped overthrow the Ministry and set up a more democratic wizarding Government, but decided that there had been too much bloodshed. I came across a ritual, and used it. I was able to send my memories and most of my magic back in time."

The two men gawked at Harry.

"So, I possessed myself and had a good talk with myself. Older!Harry made his little speech and disapparated us. Here." He handed both men slips of paper with his Fidelius secret. "Don't say it, just in case Dumbledore, or worse Snape, have the place bugged."

The two men glowered at that idea.

"I brewed the potions and integrated the two personalities. Now, I don't have huge amounts of time. Questions?"

"Why give up the Prophecy and why challenge Severus?" Remus asked.

"The Order spent this next year trying to guard it," Harry acknowledged. "Mister Weasley almost died one night. He was only saved because of this link I have to Voldemort. Well, I can keep it closed now, because I've mastered Occlumency. Oh, you did know that Dumbledore and Snape both practice nearly-constant passive Legilimency, right?"

"We do," Remus acknowledged.

"We can both block them," Sirius added.

"Good. So, I wouldn't be able to sound the alarm if the same sort of thing happens -- the time line will be different, of course, but it still could have happened if the Order stayed as obsessed with the Prophecy as Voldemort was. I don't think it was worth defending, and by giving it to Voldemort the way I did, it raises suspicions about Malfoy and also makes Voldemort doubt it was the true Prophecy anyway."

"Snape murdered Dumbledore in the other time-line and was one of Voldemort's chief Death Eaters, which tells you all you need to know about him. I need to get him out of Hogwarts, and I will by beating him badly, hopefully making him look bad as well."

"We died in the other time line, you said?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded. "I didn't see how you died, Remus, but it was in battle. Sirius, next year Voldemort tricked me and five friends into going to get that stupid Prophecy. A bunch of you came to the rescue after you realized that Kreacher had been in on the plot. Oh, and about him. . . ."

"He's already gone, and let's leave it at that," Remus said.

Harry nodded. "Anyway, Voldemort had freed a number of his Death Eaters late this autumn, including the Lestranges. Damn, that bitch was fast! She had beaten a few people, and then you had to go taunt her. She caught you in mid-taunt."

"She killed me? Bella!?"

Harry nodded. "We were deep in the Department of Mysteries. There's this Veil thing. . . ."

Remus nodded. "The Execution Veil," he told Sirius, who then nodded as well.

"She hit you and you fell through it." Harry shrugged. "I knew I would come out sometime between late May, 1995 and late May, 1996. I couldn't save Cedric, but at least I've saved you."


Wednesday, August 30, 1995


"Good morning, Miss Tonks," Emma said. "Coffee?"

"Please." Tonks sat and looked at Emma expectantly.
"As you know, Harry and Hermione are together," Emma said, and Tonks nodded. "Is there such a thing as a 'sucking corner'? and if so, what does that sort of behavior imply?"

"Oh, dear. . . ." Tonks said. "That sounds like something you wouldn't approve of."

"I don't," Emma said. "Now spill."

"I was a Hufflepuff, not a Gryffindor, so we just called it the couples' corner, a private alcove," Tonks said. "In one sense, women in wizarding cultures have until recently been treated better than in Muggle ones because our magic is much nearer equal to wizards than our physical strength is."

"Does that mean wizards are still more powerful?" Emma asked.

"That's been argued for at least hundreds of years," Tonks answered. "On the whole, I'd say no. However, our magic does tend to be different. Notice, I do say 'tend'. Witches are usually more powerful in empathic magics, and most types of nature and blood magics. Wizards, unsurprisingly, tend to be more powerful in combat magics. Still, there is plenty of overlap. Many couples, even after they marry, do not engage in oral sex because of the bondings that result. Many others, however, do, even before marriage for the same reasons."

Tonks frowned in thought. "If Hermione and Harry are doing it, do they know all the implications?"

"Hermione seems to think she does," Emma said.

"Then let me think." After a few minutes, Tonks said, "Harry is many fine things, but from what I gather, he is emotionally fragile. Hermione could be doing it" -- 'and likely more' Tonks added to herself -- "in part because it will shore up the one vulnerable side Harry has. The couple's emotions reenforce each other's, so Harry's stability would be stronger. In addition to the emotional impact that any couple would feel, Harry would actually grow to feel Hermione's affection and support as the bond grows."

"Really?"

Tonks nodded, wishing that Remus would let her at him for just those reasons. "I don't know what Hermione would get from Harry in the exchange, as she will be able to feel Harry's emotions even more strongly, because I don't know them quite well enough."

"She told me there are two sets of reasons. One is that they think they're in love."

Tonks nodded. "If they aren't, they will be. Bonded couples can still separate for many reasons -- it's not a blind, enslaving love -- but they will never separate because they fell out of love."

Emma grimaced, but went on. "The other is that she believes that Harry is the most powerful magic user there is, and that once he defeats Voldemort, they will be able to rise above the prejudices of the magical world against the Muggle-born, in part because of Harry's raw power and his defeating this Dork Lord, as Harry calls him, and in part because of his family background and wealth."

"The Potters are an old family," Tonks agreed. "I didn't know they were all that wealthy."

"His Trust had an income of over two million Galleons last year," Emma said.

Tonks looked shocked. "Most magical fortunes are invested in the Muggle world," she said. "That would make his the second largest purely magical fortune in Britain, after the Malfoys, and certainly in the top twenty in all of Europe. It might even be larger than the Malfoys!" Lucius, after all, had been spending large sums to curry favor for years.

"His non-magical income was something over twenty-five million pounds," Emma said, gauging Tonks' reaction.

"That would likely be one of the top three in Britain, and the top twenty-five or so in Europe," Tonks admitted. "Together, he might be at the top in Britain. He would at least be second."

"Could he really take two wives?" Emma asked.

Tonks shook her head. "One official wife, whose children would out-rank any others. We do have legal concubinage. In fact, most wizarding marriages are really concubinage, although we prefer the term 'consort' these days."

"How so?"

"Well, first, both parties have to be magical, so any marriage with a Muggle or a Squib wouldn't qualify as a magical marriage, just as concubinage. Second, there are a series of magical oaths they would have to make. Third, Harry would have to pledge half his lands to his children by the marriage. Once sworn, those oaths cannot be broken. The couple may separate, but they are still Bonded legally."

"Oh."

"Concubinage is more like a Muggle marriage these days. Even divorce is legal then. To take a second concubine, or a first one if the wizard is already married, he has to provide a new domicile and either a set allowance or a dowry. Right now, the minimum yearly allowance is set at five thousand Galleons a year, and the dowry is set at a hundred and twenty-five thousand. So, you tell me, how many concubines could Harry take, just using one year's magical income? Even with the property requirement, he could have twenty."

Emma looked ill.

"Don't take things too much to heart," Tonks said. "I doubt if there are more than three hundred wizards with extra concubines in Britain. Certainly less than five hundred."

"There are only a few more than thirty thousand magical people in Britain and Ireland," Emma said drily. "If there are three hundred wizards with extra concubines, that could be what? About two percent of the male population? If there are five hundred, that's more than three percent."

"About that," Tonks agreed.

"And who knows, how many might have them but haven't publicly acknowledged them?" Emma asked.

"Probably a few," Tonks admitted.

Emma was far from reassured.

Neither was Tonks.