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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters, ideas, and situations created by JK 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 IV

"And how was your day?" Harry asked his three friends after he told them everything he had done.

"We were worrying about you," Hermione growled.

"Sorry," Harry said, not totally meaning it.

"So, where is Voldemort's essence?" Luna asked.

Harry held his left hand up and a large, thick, handsome book appeared. "How does it work?" Remus asked.

"If you're the Defense instructor or the Headmistress, you place a parchment inside the front cover, facing in, and say a simple charm," Harry said. "Any corrections appear on the paper. If Riddle somehow manages to slip in any comments the teacher disagrees with, they can edit them out with another charm."

"Just those two?" Hermione asked.

"And me of course." Harry thought a moment, and added, "I could make it possible for the three of you to . . . what's the phrase, for adding information to a computer's memory?"

"Inputting data?"

"That's it."

The trio thought about that, and then smirked, as each thought about what they would add, and in Hermione's case, what she thought Luna might add, and what Riddle would think of it.

"Very clever," Remus said. "Your father and Sirius would be proud of what you did to Voldemort and Severus, not to mention the Malfoys."

"Considering what the Headmaster told you, do you think Professor Snape really deserved that punishment?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Harry answered. "Dumbledore couldn't say that Snape needed to be even half as hash with non-Slytherins as he was, not to mention how he treated me. And he had to admit that he wondered at how easily Bellatrix and Narcissa snookered him into giving that oath." He grimaced. "I suppose you think I was too harsh on the Malfoys, too."

Hermione considered that. "No. That was my first reaction, of course, but the more I think about it, the less I'm going to be bothered about them. They don't have to try and free their magic, and I'd just as soon not see them left unpunished."

"I have to agree," Remus said. "I'm more surprised that the Minister gave in so easily. Do you think he's planning on double-crossing you?"

"He considered it," Harry answered, "but he's happy that I'll be leaving every day wizarding life. He knows that, if he screws up too badly, I'll come back, boot his arse out like he did Fudge, and slaughter the problem. He believes in law and order, sort of like Percy did. Having people, good and bad, as powerful as Dumbledore and Voldemort, never mind me, screw up the system."

"True, so far as it goes," Remus agreed.

"But . . . but what about us?" Luna asked. "Hermione and myself, I mean?"

"In what way?"

"Well. . . ." Luna said.

"Luna," Hermione said, "Harry just lost Ginny, even if they had split up. As much as I love Harry, I lost Ron. You lost your father. It's far too soon."

"Hermione is mostly right," Harry said, "When do you turn seventeen?"

"The First of November," Luna answered.

"Just over three months," Harry mused. He shrugged. "You'll need a guardian for that time."

"Yes, since I don't have any close relatives," Luna answered. "My great uncle Ollie, I mean Mister Ollivander, is still in hiding, but hopefully he'll reappear soon. Now don't change the subject."

"Luna," Hermione tried again, "don't press."

"I'm not leaving you two unless you want me to, if that's what you're worried about," Harry told them. "Luna, you may stay with me until it's time to go to Hogwarts, here or where ever I go. Hermione, I know you'll want to spend time with your parents, but the same applies to you. Remus, well, you might not get as much quality time as these two, but I'm not losing track of you, either."

"I wouldn't think so," Remus said.

"So what are you going to do?" Hermione asked.

"I'm setting up a secret identity," Harry said. "I know I can't change anything -- believe me, Dumbledore really drilled into me many of the things that could go wrong."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.

"I'm going to travel back in time about a week, maybe two," Harry answered. "I'll be setting up a home near Hogsmeade under another identity. Everything should be registered before the attack on the Weasleys."

"And what will you look like?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "I'm not nearly as gifted as Tonks, but I can now change my eyes so that I don't need glasses, and change my hair, plus my hair and eye color. I can pull off a few other little tricks as well. I think I'll also be growing about an inch and a half taller by Christmas. With Voldemort dead, I can finally disguise the stupid scar, and with no scar, messy hair, green eyes, or glasses, who would expect me to be Harry Potter?"

"Let's see," Hermione said.

Harry removed his glasses and complied. His eyes turned deep blue, and his hair (mostly) flattened and turned a light brown. The scar seemed to disappear, and Harry's longer bangs covered it nicely. His nose also changed just slightly. He bowed. "Bredon Wimsey, at your service."

Hermione giggled. "Oh, Harry, you read those mysteries I loaned you."

"Of course. I'll be back in a moment." Harry popped away, and in less than a minute, a much more stylishly-dressed 'Bredon Wimsey' appeared.

"That was quick," Hermione said.

"I've been gone eight days," Harry answered. Hermione huffed as Luna and Remus smirked.

++++++++++++

Eight Days Previously

'Bredon Wimsey' appeared silently at the public apparation point in Diagon Alley, transfigured his clothes a bit, and made his way to Gringotts. He went over to the information desk and plopped down the required Sickle. "I need to set up a medium security cash vault. I will also need to consult with an account specialist."

"That will be two Galleons," the bored goblin answered.

"I know, and I also know I should give them directly to the acocunt specialist, so he won't charge me again," Harry stated, adding three Knuts to the Sickle. He was performing light Legilimency to wind his way through the goblin's beliefs.

"I shall summon Strikedie."

Harry flashed another Sickle. "How about Knarlgem or perhaps Slingsilver the Taciturn?" pulling the names of the two best advisers from the goblin.

"Slingsilver it is." Harry dropped the Sickle, and tossed in another Knut.

++++++++++++

"Quite the set of requests," Slingsilver said after Harry had explained who he was and what he wanted (although not his status as a time traveler). "Care to tell me why?"

"If you still need to ask in nine days, I will be happy to oblige," Harry answered.

"Very well. Since you only wish to draw money through your Trust Vault and not any of the main vaults. . . ."

"How many vaults do I have?" Harry asked.

The goblin blinked. "Albus Dumbledore assured us in 1991 that you would be informed, at least generally, as to the Potter estate, and so informed us he had in 1992. Last summer, he assured us he told you of the deposition of the Black estate."

"Except for one house he and his friends were using as a secret headquarters and one crazed and elderly elf, he didn't tell me much about anything," Harry said.

"As you come in to control the fortunes at the end of the month, do you have time to talk?"

"Time is money, I understand," Harry said.

"As we are hoping to stay on as at least one of your investment firms, it would profit us both," Slingsliver stated. "I do not have time to act for you, so I am not personally interested, unless you were to name me a senior advisor."

"Then perhaps we can both make the time," Harry answered.

++++++++++++

That night, a slightly dazed Harry was camping out at the manor house he had seen that Hogsmeade weekend he and his friends had met Sirius in the cave years before. It was just a glimpse, but he had liked what he had seen.

The previous year, he had seen a notice in the Three Broomsticks, saying it was for sale. Fortunately, it still was.

The large manor house faced the Muggle world, literally. A two lane paved country road ran past it down the hill on the side opposite Hogsmeade. Another paved road turned off towards Hogsmeade some fifty yards from the house, forming the second side of the property. That road had any number of Muggle-repelling and 'notice-me-not' wards on it.

Hogsmeade itself was nearly a mile away, Hogwarts some three miles further on, which is where the road ended. While the edge of the Forbidden Forest came to the edge of both village and school, it was some distance from the property. Several magical farms fronted the side of the lake closer to the property, and their pastures and some open heath were between the house and the actual farms. The path Harry and Padfoot had walked together snaked up the heath and into the high hills, where the forest again approached.

Regular forest started just thirty yards to the north of the house, and Harry now owned the first three miles of forest. Beyond that were mostly Muggle villages and then a small town. To the south and east were the same.

Harry was pleased to learn that electronics set up in the front of the house worked, although there was some interference in the very back of the house. He had already strengthened the wards.

Harry conjured a sleeping bag which looked much like the type that Dumbledore had created for the students back in Harry's Third year, and went to sleep.

Harry spent the next few days getting a few the basics together for the house, knowing that the elves would take care of the fine details, and that it might take a lifetime to fill a house this size. He also did some shopping for his Bredon persona, making certain he was known in the village.

The house itself was a bit eccentric for a Muggle house, but certainly not excessively so. Harry decided that the best term might be 'sprawling', as it consisted of an old main section and then two 'wings' which swept behind it. The main block had been part of a stone manor house, built partially over a neolithic platform, as the hill had been a small defended 'hill fort' for more than a thousand years before the Romans had tried (and failed) to tame the Highlands.

The main floor of the 'old block' now mostly consisted of a 'great hall', twenty-four feet deep by thirty-three feet long and thirty feet high. Most of the center (southern) wall was a massive fireplace, where a whole hog or sheep could be roasted. There was a large door way to the front side of the fireplace, and a small minstrels gallery on the higher floor to the back of the fireplace. There were no windows on the ground floor level of the room, and now-paned arrow slots on the upper level. (The wooden platform defenders could have fired off of was long gone.) A door on the north end of the hall led to the north wing.

The rest of the 'old block' had a grand stair leading to an empty library on the upper floor, while the rest of the ground floor was a solarium and a hallway leading to the south wing. Under the solarium was a large wine cellar (now also empty). The contrast between the militaristic north end of the building and the domestic south end made Harry wonder at what the builders had been thinking. Then Harry realized that anyone coming down the now-paved road would have seen the north end. If they had been wizards, they could have defended the whole building easily enough, meaning the martial tone of the visible end would be something of a decoy.

The north wing had been added in early Tudor times. The ground floor was still made of stone, but the upper level was mostly in the half-timbered style. Half the ground floor was a reception room, and there was a formal dining room which could easily seat thirty. The rest of the ground floor was a kitchen and a pantry, with storage cellars below and quarters for the 'upper' servants beyond the 'butler's pantry'.

The south wing had been built in the late Tudor style. It had nine bedrooms and three baths on the upper floor, and a master suite, a parlor, and a breakfast room.

Harry walked through the house after the fifth day, and nodded to himself. It was satisfactory, He wondered, just for a moment, what he should do before the wedding, so that he wouldn't be tempted to interfere.

Then he remembered that he had left the Dursleys' that very evening.

++++++++++++

The next morning, Harry appeared three blocks away from the Dursleys'. He was invisible, and approached #4 slowly and cautiously. He could now sense, and even to some degree see, the remaining wards, and how to walk through them without setting them off.

Harry was glad that Dung was both 'on duty' and sound asleep. Harry be-spelled him into a slightly deeper sleep. He then entered the house.

The Dursleys were eating breakfast. As Vernon finished his bacon, he poured himself a second cup of coffee. He sat back and smiled. "Let's hope we've seen the last of the Boy."

"Won't we miss the money?" Dudley asked, which made Harry frown.

"What money?" Vernon grunted. "The only financial help we got was the paying off of the mortgage when he first was sent here, and I wasn't carrying much of one. It does mean we can leave here come August."

"Leave?" Dudley asked.

"We couldn't leave, because Potter, and we, were protected here," Petunia said. "Once he turns seventeen, the protections will die off fast. Three or four months at best. There's no reason to stay here."

"This was supposed to be our first house, not one where we'd stay for decades," Vernon growled. "We should have moved up to a better place ten years ago. The other directors think I'm stingy. We could only really entertain while the Boy is at school, and only one couple at a time. No, it's time to live the life we wanted."

Petunia sniffled a bit. "It's probably too late for me to have another baby." Vernon and Dudley flushed.

Harry reconsidered his vengeance. He would drop them a note, warning them not to mistreat any magical child in the future, should Dudley ever spawn (Harry shuddered at the thought). He would need to set up a mail box where they could contact him, in the unlikely event they wanted or needed to.

++++++++++++

Harry was of course tempted to interfere with the wedding massacre. He also knew that to do so, at least directly, would cause a disaster.

Instead, he laid in wait for the retreating dementors. When they swept away from the Burrow towards the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, he wiped them out.

Harry could sense the souls they had captured feelings of relief as they were released.

++++++++++++

The original Harry disappeared from Gringotts, and instantly the later version reappeared. "Did you forget something, Mister Potter?" Ringwraith asked.

"Yes," Harry said, smiling, glad he had timed his 'reappearance' so well. He handed Griphook a note. "That is private. You may only discuss that with one other goblin. A representative of mine will meet with you and this other in the morning."

When Harry disappeared again, Griphook opened the note and read it, puzzled. He decided he need to speak with Slingsilver.

++++++++++++

The next morning, Griphook looked in amazement as 'Bredon Wimsey' transformed into Harry Potter.

"Do we really want to know how you set this up over a week ago?" Slingsilver demanded.

"No," Harry answered. "If you found out, I would have to kill you, and I don't want to do that."

The two goblins swallowed nervously.

"Now, let's finish setting up my identity as Bredon Wimsey. You two will be taking care of the Potter fortune. I anticipate a very prosperous partnership for the three of us."

Now the two smiled almost happily.

++++++++++++

"So," Hermione said tartly, when Harry had briefed the trio on what he had been up to for the previous eight days, "you went and interfered with time anyway."

"No, I don't think so," Harry answered. "The first time I was in Scrimgeour's office, I heard that they had no idea what happened to the dementors. I merely supplied an explanation."

"You mean you eliminated the dementors," Hermione said flatly.

"Remus, were all known dementors in Azkaban?" Harry asked.

"Actually, no," Remus said.

Harry turned back to Hermione. "See. There are still some soul-sucking corporeal demons left."

"Are they really?" Hermione demanded.

"Yes!" Harry, Remus, and Luna all answered. Hermione frowned, but had to admit to herself that she wouldn't be founding a 'Preserve Our Dementors' campaign.

"So, what's your plan?" Remus asked.

Harry turned to Luna. "I'm sorry, but the goblins confirmed that there really aren't any close relatives of yours alive, at least in Britain. Mister Ollivander is actually a second cousin on your mother's side. Since he's not around, they have agreed that your cousin from Canada, Bredon Wimsey, is your financial guardian until you come of age. How fortunate that he bought an estate outside of Hogsmeade last week."

"Isn't it, though?" Hermione murmured.

Harry looked at her as he morphed back into Bredon. "I'm sure your parents will be happy to allow you to visit your good friend Luna."

"True."

'Bredon' turned to Remus. "You know, I just happen to need a part time estate manager. It only pays room and board -- and board happens to be provided by two very good elves, and the 'room' is actually the servant quarters, which would easily hold you and Tonks, all your things, and at least half a dozen children, if you have that many."

Remus flushed as Harry morphed back to Harry. "And I happen to need a liaison to the goblins. That pays a thousand a month."

"I can't take that!"

"Twelve hundred, then."

"Harry!"

"Fif. . . ."

"All right, all right! I'll take it."

Harry turned to Luna. "Did you father have help with The Quibbler?"

Luna sadly shook her head. "There won't be any more paper without Daddy. He did half the work."

"There should be one more issue, if you know how to get it set and printed," Harry said.

"A memorial issue?" Hermione asked quietly.

Harry nodded. "In part. And I thought I should give a statement as well, as the Ministry and The Prophet are sure to muck things up."