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Harry hadn't noticed anything too strange about his watch while he was growing up, sure he'd had it his whole life, however, he'd thought that one of his parents had perhaps put it around his neck as some form of a reminder that they'd existed.
No-one could see his watch unless he showed them directly, and they tended to forget about it within a couple of hours if he did.
It also had thoughts and opinions, and often gave Harry advice when he needed it.
But now, after having spent almost a year running around the United Kingdom looking for Horcruxes, Harry saw it in a completely different light.
It shared too many similarities with the horrific items for him to trust it anymore, and so Harry tried to get rid of it.
Unlike Voldemort's Horcruxes, the watch had protections against Basilisk venom and Feindfyre, and so he was forced to get creative.
The Cursed Watch
His first attempt at getting rid of it was simple; drop it in the English Channel while taking a ferry to France when he went to visit Fleur and Bill with Ron and Hermione.
They spent two weeks in France then returned to England, no sign of the cursed watch.
And then three weeks after they'd returned home, he received a strange parcel in the post.
Opening it revealed the watch he'd thrown into the ocean over a month prior.
It felt very smug.
Harry glowered at it.
The Cursed Watch
His second attempt at getting rid of it happened by pure luck, they'd been visiting the Romanian Dragon Reserve where Charlie worked.
Harry had been leaning over the fence to get a better look as Charlie fed some of the smaller and more human-friendly breeds of dragons when one walked over and grabbed the watch hanging from his neck.
It was eaten before anyone could stop it.
The owners of the reserve wouldn't stop apologising for it, stating that they'd pay for it, Harry waved it off, saying it was fine and that there was no need to worry.
Dragons of that breed normally digested metal objects.
Harry received a clean and disinfected watch through the Floo two weeks later.
The Cursed Watch
His third attempt was inspired by The Lord of The Rings.
Hermione had been sent to Hawaii for a week for research purposes, and she'd decided to drag him along with her, stating that he'd been cooped up inside for too long and needed to get out for a bit, Ron had agreed and had baited him out of the house with promises of alcohol while Hermione packed his bag for the week they'd be gone, the little shit.
So, while they were in the hot country, Harry had booked himself into a guided tour to one of the active volcanoes.
While no-one was looking, Harry tossed the watch in.
He was unsurprised when it turned up to his hotel room the next day, seemingly no worse for wear.
Harry wondered how exactly it had survived and gotten out of lava.
The Cursed Watch
A nearby road was being resurfaced during the fourth time he attempted to rid himself of the watch.
He jogged a nearby trail, popping out to the roadside when he saw the workers prepping the next batch of asphalt to lay down on the road.
When he saw them begin to move the prepared asphalt, he tossed it down onto the road, he stayed to see it get covered with the liquid before he continued with his jog.
Three weeks later they discovered that there was a burst pipe under the road that had just been resurfaced, and thus it needed to be dug back up.
Unsurprisingly, Harry found himself the unwilling owner of the watch once again.
The Cursed Watch
His fifth attempt at getting rid of it was rather half-assed.
He'd all but given up hope that he'd ever destroy it or even get rid of it, as it seemed to enjoy returning to him.
So, while on a walk in London near the Thames, he paused by the fence that stopped people from falling in and tossed it into the river.
Harry didn't see the watch again for quite a few years.
The Cursed Watch
It was December 24th, Christmas Eve, and the news station that Hermione had the TV on said that the Thames had been drained.
Harry was sure that there was something that he was supposed to remember about the Thames, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Shrugging, he went back to baking the lemon biscuits for the annual Weasley Christmas dinner the following day.
Harry lived with Ron and Hermione, who were married now, they'd practically forced him to move in with them after he'd locked himself up in Grimmauld Place for over three months at one point, as they wanted to make sure that he was looking after himself correctly.
They had a daughter now, Rose, and she and Teddy often played together, although Teddy would be starting at Hogwarts the following year.
There was a knock at the door and Harry frowned, "Hermione?" he called out.
"Yes, Harry?" she yelled back from upstairs, where she was wrapping the last of their presents.
Ron had taken Rose and Teddy over to Andromeda's for the day, knowing that the children needed to be kept busy for the day, and knowing that Harry had to do quite a bit of baking.
"Were we expecting anyone?"
There was a pause before he heard footsteps on the stairs.
He turned just in time to see her go past the kitchen door towards the front door.
There was a click as she opened the door and Harry turned back to his baking, pouring the bowl of flour that he'd previously measured into the bowl of wet ingredients.
"Harry?" Hermione asked from the kitchen door.
"Yes?"
"Is this yours?"
Harry turned to look at what she was holding and froze.
"Oh Merlin, I thought I was done with that," he muttered.
"What did you think it was?" a man who looked remarkably like Barty Crouch Jr asked.
"Horcrux," he said without hesitation, causing Hermione to drop it immediately.
"Did you try and use Gryffindor's Sword?" she asked.
"Of course, what do I look like, an idiot?" he hissed.
"Sorry, it's just, he said he found it in the Thames."
"I tried everything, Hermione! I dropped it in the English Channel, got it back in the post just over a month later! A dragon ate it and I got it back disinfected! I threw it in a volcano when we went to Hawaii, and I had it buried under asphalt when the road was resurfaced," he cried out, "nothing worked!"
The man coughed politely, "that might be because it's not whatever a Horcrux is."
The two of them stared at him.
"Explain," Hermione demanded.
And so, he did.
The Doctor left that day with the watch, with promises to come back and explain more to them in a week.
In a week, their lives would be changed forever.
Because Harry wasn't Harry, and that watch was him.