Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hurry, Lily!” James hissed as he threw as many of his belongings as he could into a bottomless suitcase. His wife was frantically doing the same, flinching every now and then as her son shrieked for her. “He’s going to be here any second, and I don’t want to be here when he arrives.”

“I know, James,” his wife snarled angrily as she dumped the last of her jewelry into her suitcase. “I’m going as fast as I can.”

“What about Harry?” Potter asked, eyes briefly flicking toward their bedroom door at a particularly harsh cry.

“You know I never wanted kids,” she snapped as she struggled to close the bag. “If I’d have known that you were canceling the contraception charms, I would have castrated you. Albus knows what’s happening, and he’s assured me that he has a place already lined up for him. Now, do you have that portkey?”

“Yeah,” her husband replied as he pulled the coffee cup from his pocket. “In a few more moments, we’ll be in Sydney, Australia, and with our new identities, no one will ever be able to find us.”

Hammering on the wards alerted the couple that time was almost up, and they both grabbed the cup, waiting impatiently for the magic to whisk them away. Just as the last of the protections fell, James and Lily Potter disappeared, leaving behind an innocent fifteen month old baby to face the brunt of Voldemort’s rage. The Dark wizard stormed up the stairs, hiding his surprise well when he didn’t see either of the Potters anywhere in the house.

He stepped into the nursery, ruby eyes softening slightly as he stared at the bane of his existence; the potential end to his purpose. “I am so very sorry, child, that I cannot spare you from death, but know that I will be dealing you a mercy, since your parents saw fit to abandon you to your fate.” He raised his wand, the incantation for the killing curse trembling on his lips when the sound of footsteps running up the stairs startled him out of his concentration. Before he could turn and face the invaders, a blasting curse was bellowed out, hitting the last Gaunt heir in the back and blowing him apart.

“Not on my watch, Tom,” Albus Dumbledore growled as he glared down at the remains of the other man. “I can’t believe Lily and James couldn’t wait just a few moments more before running away. Ah, well. Nothing for it, I suppose.” He approached the little boy, who was standing in his crib and gripping tightly onto the rail. He was covered with blood and gore from the back blast of the destructive curse, and on his forehead right above his left eye was a jagged scar that bled sluggishly, the liquid mixing with Tom Riddle’s as it dripped down his face. The injury was caused by a flying bit of bone, and it would make the perfect symbol behind which the wizarding world would rally.

The old man reached into the crib and pulled the toddler out, cuddling him close as he took the bed sheet and tried to wipe away most of the blood and bits of flesh that clung to the little boy. “Now, I’ve made arrangements for you to live with your aunt and uncle in the muggle world. They probably won’t be the kindest to you, but you’ll be safe there until it’s time for you to return to our world to go to school. You will be the figurehead behind whom our people will gather, and I will be holding the reins. Things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly for me if I tried.”

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“Boy! Get in here now and go clean yourself up!” Vernon bellowed loudly. Five year old Harry Potter was out in the garden, planting new flowers and pruning the rose bushes, but he dropped all his tools into the basket by his side and stood quickly, nearly running to get to his uncle before he got mad. In the intervening years, the child had spent the majority of his time in his cupboard under the stairs, and was only let out when he had chores to do. There wasn’t a spot of skin left unmarked, or a single bone that hadn’t been broken at least once. Vernon Dursley was a tyrant, and he used little Harry Potter as a form of stress relief.

If he lost a promotion, the boy paid in blood. If he was pulled over for a traffic violation, the child received the fat man’s anger. If he was reprimanded by his boss, the toddler earned black eyes, a broken nose and a bashed up face. Petunia always made sure that she and Dudley were out of the house when it was time for her husband to return from work. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to just stand by and watch the man brutalize the child, and she didn’t want to take the chance that he’d turn his fists on her or her son.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t treat the interloper like a slave. She always left him a long list of chores to do, and she expected them to be finished before Dursley returned. The child was fed once a day, and was permitted as much water as he wanted from the hosepipe. All in all it wasn’t the most comfortable or welcoming life, but at least he was still alive to experience it. He’d been told, from the time that he was small, that his drunken parents killed themselves and another family in an automobile accident and left him behind to pick up the pieces. There was no one else to tell him differently, so he figured that this was his punishment for what they did. He stopped wishing he were dead after the age of three, when he realized that wishing for something wouldn’t make it happen.

Harry stopped before the fat man, head bowed in submission as he waited for whatever fresh hell would be visited upon him. “Raise your head and look at me, boy,” Vernon ordered, and Harry’s head snapped up instantly. Moving too slowly always earned a punishment. “These two gentlemen have paid a great sum for you, and now you belong to them.” Emerald eyes shifted to the two men beside his uncle, and he examined them curiously as Vernon continued his instructions. “As soon as you’ve showered, you’re to leave, and never come back.”

The one to Vernon’s immediate left was tall, with long black hair surrounding a pale face. The man’s eyes were just as dark as his hair, and his nose was a little too big for his face, and had an odd bend in it, as if it had been broken once upon a time. However, it made the man look distinguished, rather than ugly. The other one was just as tall, with long silvery blond hair that surrounded a face that would have looked good carved out of marble. Grey eyes held a little more emotion, and Harry noticed that this man flinched ever so slightly at the sight of the fading bruises that covered the little boy’s face.

Both men wore handsome black three-piece suits, and they looked like they came from wealth. If they're paying for me, Harry thought, then they must really be rich. “Answer me, freak,” Dursley barked out, hand fisted and raised to strike the child.

“That will be quite enough,” the dark man growled lowly, black eyes narrowed on his uncle in what could only be called controlled rage. “You’ve received your money. Collect the boy’s things and we will be on our way. We’ll take care of cleaning him up when we get him home.”

“He doesn’t have anything,” Vernon told the men, voice trembling only slightly. Even though the dark haired man didn’t make any threatening moves, Harry’s uncle was still very afraid of him. It piqued the little boy’s interest enough that he was willing to go along with them. After all, he thought sourly, it couldn’t be any worse than how I’m living now.

“Come, Harry,” the blond said as he held out his hand. Harry couldn’t help the flinch that accompanied the gesture, and grey eyes grew ever so much colder. “I have a son that’s your age, and I’m sure that the both of you would be great friends.” Nodding hesitantly, and looking at his uncle one more time, the boy put his tiny hand into the much larger one, and followed the men into a bright new future.

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As soon as he had arrived at Malfoy Manor with Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy, he was whisked away to the suite of rooms that had been given to him, where he was bathed by the house elves and treated for his many, many injuries. The healer elf in charge had run a quick scan on the boy, and discovered a lot of badly healed bones that had been broken during his time with his relatives. She popped immediately to Severus Snape and explained what she found, and he went to his lab and locked himself inside, brewing up bone mending potions and Skele-gro, in case some of them weren’t able to be fixed any other way and had to be vanished and regrown. Once he was healthy enough, Severus Snape-Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and Rodolphus Lestrange all performed a blood adoption, adding the little tyke to the Black, Prince and Lestrange family trees.  Narcissa and Lucius would be the beloved aunt and uncle that the Dursleys could have been, had they shown even a modicum of love for the child.

It took nearly a year for the little boy to finally begin to trust that everyone he met only wanted the very best for him, and he didn’t meet Tom Riddle until he was completely healed and ready to meet new people. Harry took one look at the man and ran from the room, crying hysterically. Only Narcissa and Bella could get close enough to the child to comfort him and explain a few things, so they quickly followed after him, knowing where he'd most likely go. “It’s all right, loveling,” the wild-haired, wild-eyed woman soothed gently. “He’s a really good friend and he won’t hurt you.” The child launched himself into his mother’s arms, trembling alarmingly as Narcissa knelt and added her own hug. In fits and starts, the boy explained why he was so afraid.

“H-he was there after my mum and dad left me,” the boy haltingly said. As soon as the child was able to understand, Severus had explained what James and Lily Potter had done, as it was told to him by Albus Dumbledore. After two hours of non-stop crying, the child calmed down enough for Severus and Lucius to explain that, yes, though his birth parents had abandoned him, his real parents came as soon as they could to rescue him, and little Harry Prince-Lestrange-Black fell even more in love with them. “Th-that old man c-came in an-and made the o-other man 'splode all over the p-place.”

“Ah, I understand,” Bella sighed out, relieved. “He scared you because he’s supposed to be dead.”

“Yeah,” Harry whispered, playing with strands of Narcissa’s silvery hair as he cuddled his face into her neck. “People ain’t s'posed to come back once they’re dead.”

“Tom is a special case, love,” Severus remarked from the doorway. Harry pulled himself from his mother's and aunt's arms and ran full-tilt to his dad, jumping in the other man’s arms and wrapping himself tightly around Sev. “Tom is a very, very powerful wizard, and a Dark Lord, to boot. He knows an awful lot of ancient, arcane magic, and that makes him the smartest, most powerful magical in the whole world. He wants to say he’s sorry for scaring you, and to talk to you about a few things. Will you listen to him?”

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“I am very sorry for scaring you like that, little one,” Riddle told the child, who was snuggled into Draco as they both sat in the same large, squashy chair. “After that horrible accident when you were fifteen months old, I traveled around a lot after my family here brought me back, looking for better ways to live forever, and I think I’ve found something. I brought all the research here, to give to the two smartest men in the world, so that they can figure out how to use the magic so that we all live forever. It was as I stopped in to see the Flamels that I found that for which I was looking, and they were more than happy to teach me how to create the magic that they'd used to give them over six hundred years in the world up to now.

“I’m happy that you have the family you truly deserve, and that your disappearance from your muggle relatives has caused Albus Dumbledore no end of trouble.” The man with the red eyes smiled a little meanly, but, instead of frightening Harry, the grin charmed the little child, and he got up and climbed in Tom’s lap, startling the everloving hell out of the man.

“I’m glad you didn’t stay dead,” the boy told Tom quietly. “I want to learn the kind of magic you know, and I want you to teach me.”

Chapter Text

“Are you ready for Hogwarts next year?” ten year old Draco asked his betrothed quietly. He and Harry had grown so very close as to be nearly inseparable through the intervening years since the brunet was brought to Malfoy Manor when Harry was five. It was on Harry’s tenth birthday that both boys had signed betrothal contracts; the brunet had vehemently insisted that no other mate would do, and as the child’s godfather, Tom Riddle had agreed. He was made both boys’ guardian when the children were six, and had begun to train them in all aspects of magic soon after. Severus, as one of Harry’s adoptive fathers, started tutoring his son and godson, Draco, in potions as soon as the children had shown an interest in the art.

It took a long time for the last Potter to recover from all the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of Vernon Dursley, and as soon as they were able, the Lestranges, Snape and Riddle had visited the muggles’ home, turning the eldest Dursley male into a pig and the woman into a cat. Animal control was called a few days later when the neighbors had complained about a wild boar being loose in the neighborhood, and several of the feral males had ensured that Petunia-cat was heavily pregnant when she was collected by the RSPCA and taken to a cat shelter. The hog was collected by representatives of Forestry England and sent to a legal slaughterhouse, where it was tested for any porcine-borne diseases or illnesses that could be transmitted to humans through the consumption of the flesh. Once the animal was cleared for butchering, it was killed and its parts sent to various shops and supermarkets for distribution.

Child Protective Services were notified by Arabella Figg, who had taken in the Dursley child when he’d shown up on her doorstep, tired, hungry and rather filthy. She immediately called CPS, who came out to collect the boy, who, at five years old didn’t have the cognitive capabilities to explain what had happened to his parents or himself. All he could say was that ‘some people broke into the house and pointed sticks at his mum and dad, and they turned into animals’. Thinking that the child had suffered from severe shock at seeing the possible deaths of his mum and dad, the boy was sent to Coney Hill Hospital in Gloucester, where he was placed in the Juvenile ward. Since the parents were gone, and it took several weeks to find the paternal aunt; a woman by the name of Marjorie Dursley, Dudley was put in the welfare system, and the costs of his care were picked up by the government. He was eventually re-homed after Dursley stepped forward to claim him, and his mental health treatment continued until the age of ten, when he finally realized that what he thought he saw was a delusion brought about by the stress and horror of the situation.

The blood protections that had been placed around the Dursleys’ house fell two years after the child was removed; his magic had fed into them enough for the wards to remain, but degradation had begun almost as soon as the little boy was adopted by the Lestranges and Severus. It was another three weeks after the wards had disappeared before Albus became concerned enough to go check them out, panic setting in when he saw an entirely different family living in number four, Privet Drive. Spinning on his heels, he nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to get to his spy in the neighborhood, hammering on her door desperately as he waited for Arabella to answer. Finally, after several long moments when he could hear her snapping at the part-kneazle cats under foot, she opened the door, peering out through the screen at the old man in confusion. “Where are the Dursleys?” the old man barked harshly, causing more than one cat to hiss in agitation. “Where is the boy?”

“I sent you several letters about the situation nearly two years ago, Albus,” she explained patiently, sounding as if she were talking to a slightly dim two year old. “I told you that the Dursleys had disappeared when little Harry was five, and that their son had appeared on my doorstep a few weeks later, starved and unkempt. I explained that the police and Children’s Services were searching for them, and that the boy had been taken into custody by CPS. When I didn’t hear from you, I just assumed that you didn’t care overmuch what happened to little Harry Potter, and I put it out of my mind.”

“So Harry’s in the custody of the muggles?” Dumbledore asked almost desperately. He knew a few halfbloods and muggleborns working for the local constabulary, and he was sure he could get the information he needed to locate the Savior and place him somewhere else.

“No,” Figg replied slowly, sounding like her opinion of the headmaster’s intelligence had somehow dropped lower than she’d first surmised, “the Dursleys’ child is with the authorities. I have no earthly idea where Harry is, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I saw how they treated him from the moment he was dumped there like so much unwanted trash; all at your hands, and there’s no way I’d ever subject him to your ‘tender loving mercies’ again.” With that pronouncement, she slammed the door in his face, leaving the shocked centenarian steaming mad on her doorstep. Not wanting to lose control in front of the muggles, he apparated away to vent his spleen in the Forbidden Forest, destroying a few elderly trees in his fury.

“Blast and damn,” he muttered as he returned to the castle, unaware of the many eyes watching his exit from the forest with thinly veiled anger, “the boy’s been missing for nearly two years, which means that the trail has gone rather cold. I’ll talk to Severus and see if I can’t get the man to hunt down every lead until we find that boy.”

“I’m not sure,” the raven haired child replied softly, desultorily moving his food around his plate. “Our spies have said that he’s been looking for me for the last three years, and I don’t know what to expect when I show up in the castle.”

“We have our heir rings to protect us from potions and poisons,” the blond explained softly, reaching out to gently take his future bond-mate’s hand. “You wear the Malfoy betrothal collar as well, which will prevent you from being taken from me by apparition or portkey. Your parents and uncle Tom have ensured that nothing will happen to you. Besides, with the name change as well as the changes in your appearance, he’ll be too off balance to think of how to react, which will give us time to settle in and set up even more protections for ourselves. He's been scrambling to find you, and wouldn't expect you to show up at all, let alone with a different name and attitude.

“Tom’s going to be there as the DADA professor, in his Quirinus Quirrell disguise, and his wife, Nagini, will also be there in her serpent form. We each have our own special maledicti from the children uncle Tom and aunt Nagini had over the years, so we’ll never be without protection no matter where we are. Please stop worrying.”

“I’ll try,” Harry sighed out, stroking Draco’s fingers with his thumb.

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“So how did you and Nagini meet?” Lucius asked softly. The boys were going to be on the Hogwarts Express the next day, and the family was quite nervous about it.

“As you know, I’m well-traveled,” Riddle replied, a fond smile for his wife as he stroked the palm of her hand. “I’d stopped in India, because I’d heard about some rather powerful magic and wanted to learn. I stopped in to see a show about a dancer who could turn into a serpent, and I was intrigued. True naga were exceedingly rare, and this experience would be something to remember. She came out, and I was instantly smitten. Tall, with long raven hair and sultry dark eyes, her moves were sinuous and sexy, and as I watched, spellbound, she slowly dropped to her knees, her legs melding together and scales forming as her arms continued to twine about each other above her head.

“There was such a look of melancholy on her face; almost as if she were acknowledging her end, somehow, before her conversion was complete, and there, before me, was a magnificent python, with coal black scales that blended into the purest of cream on her belly. With a flicker of her forked tongue, she slithered out of sight, and I couldn’t stop myself. I leapt to my feet and followed her, hoping to speak to her when she returned to her human form. Unfortunately, in my chats with her, she told me that she was cursed to be a maledictus; that the curse was in her family line and only affected the women. Unfortunately, this was to be her last dance; her last transformation, which was permanent. I felt such loneliness from her, and my own heart squeezed as I realized how lonely she was, because I felt the same. So I talked her into coming with me, and worked for many years to figure out how to get rid of the curse.

“It was as I was studying some ancient Egyptian texts on magic that I found what I’d hoped would be the answer. With my newfound knowledge, I came home and began to design a ritual that would bring my Nagini back to me. I discovered that I couldn’t eliminate the curse, but I could change it to be a voluntary changing, like an animagus transformation. The upside to this was that our children would also have the ability to transform at will, and that, because her humanity had been returned to her, she wouldn’t have more than four children at a time, which wouldn’t have been possible had the curse remained in its original form.”

“Tom’s been my hero and the love of my life,” Nagini contributed with a small smile for her mate. “I knew there was something special about him from the moment our eyes met in that performance, and when he took me with him, I fell in love with him all over again every single day. He never treated me like an appendage, or like a pet. He’d always treated me like I mattered to him, and I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. I’d always been treated like a freak or a commodity, depending on to whom I’d been sold, so it was quite refreshing to be treated like a best friend and confidante.”

“I’m glad you’re allowing Brahma and Vishnu to attend school with our sons,” Bella told the woman with a grin. Bellatrix’s malicious streak was fed rather well by Nagini’s own malevolence, and the two women became the best of friends over their mutual love of torture to the worthy. “They can learn about magic whilst attending classes with Draco and Harry as serpents, and then the boys can go over the lessons afterward, in the privacy of the Slytherin dungeons, so that your kids can pass their OWLs and NEWTs when the time comes.”

“We’ll all help to make sure that they don’t fall behind,” Severus told his mentor softly. Tom had taken the dark-haired man under his wing when the Prince lord was seventeen. Lucius had brought him to one of their meetings, and Riddle had seen a lot of himself in the skinny, angry young man. With his gentle encouragement, Severus went on to become the youngest person to obtain a Potions mastery in the history of the discipline, and in the process gained a devoted protégé who would move heaven and earth to see that his mentor receive all for which Riddle had striven, and to which he deserved.

“Are you going to send Saraswati and Lakshmi to school with the boys?” Narcissa queried. "They’ll need to be educated in magic, as well.”

“We’ll be sending all of our kids to Hogwarts when they’re ready,” Nagini replied with a grin. “Shiva, Shesha, Durga and Savitri will be ready in 1993. Rama, Krishna, Gayatri and Aditi will be ready in 1995, and Kartikeya, Ganesha, Bhumi and Vedavati will be starting the year the boys graduate.”

“Who would have thought Tom Riddle would have fathered sixteen children in his life?” Lucius joked, grey eyes sparkling with amusement.

“It’s been a bit of a trial,” the Dark Lord sighed dramatically, wrist to his forehead faux tragically, “but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. However,” he glared at his wife, who smirked in the face of his aggravation, “I draw the line at sixteen. We don’t need any more kids.”

“How did Nagini have so many at one time without stressing her out too much?” Rodolphus asked curiously. At the embarrassed flush drifting up Riddle’s cheeks, Lestrange smirked knowingly.

“I...ah...I may have mated her in my anaconda animagus form.” At the snorts of amusement, Riddle felt the need to defend himself. “I couldn’t help it! There she was, all gleaming black scales and enticing pheromones, calling to the serpent within me. I can guarantee she won’t be able to overcome my senses like that anymore.”

“We’ll see, love. We’ll see.”

Chapter Text

They arrived at the train station early enough to avoid the crushing crowds and the last minute arrivals, which gave everyone enough time to board the train and see that the children were already situated in a private, warded car to await their friends. Harry and Draco were looking forward to meeting up with Theo, Daphne, Greg and Vince and catching up, and the four Riddle kids were eager to wander the train and meet other first years; to get a sense of who would be attending and which ones they wanted to befriend. Prince and Malfoy had seen their friends at the boys’ birthday parties in June and the end of July, but hadn’t had a chance to touch base with each other during their shopping trip.

Flashback

The letters came with a nondescript brown barn owl, the type of which was typically used for the Hogwarts messages, and it dropped one each in front of the blond and brunet eleven year olds. It then wheeled away and headed upstairs, where Tom’s suite of rooms were, to deliver the other four letters it had to Saraswati, Brahma, Vishnu and Lakshmi, who were attending the school with Malfoy and Prince. Harry stared at the front of the envelope with wide, dark eyes, still slightly worried that the headmaster would try and corner him as soon as he arrived. He had some concerns that the headmaster would be warned ahead of time as to who was attending, and had talked with his dad about it when the older man had explained how the invites went out. Severus reassured his son that the deputy headmistress would be the one to stuff the envelopes, and the house elves would be addressing them before sending them out, ensuring that no one would know where Harry lived, who didn't need to know. The muggleborns who needed a visit from Minerva would be put on a separate list which was handed to her after the invitations had left the school.

Harry Severus Prince-Lestrange-Black

Malfoy Manor

Lower Stoke, Limpley Stoke

Bath BA2 7FR, UK

Opening it, he read the standard form letter that every first year received, and looked over the list of books and the choices of pet for their year. Across the breakfast table, his mate was doing the same thing, brow puckered in a slight frown as grey eyes stared at the permitted pets. “This says we won’t be able to take our cousins in their serpent forms,” Draco remarked softly as he looked at his betrothed worriedly.

“I’m not leaving them here,” Harry said mulishly. “They’ve no doubt received their letters, too, so it’s not like they won’t be expected. I’m just not sure how uncle Tom and aunt Nagini are going to handle the letters for the girls.”

“We’ve bought a mated pair of African bush vipers for you, instead of denying our kids their proper magical education, and the chance to experience Hogwarts in full,” Tom said as he descended the stairs, his eldest children bouncing happily behind him. “It occurred to us shortly after we made those plans that if we turned down their placement now, they’d not be able to continue on in later years, and trying to learn magic second-hand would have been wholly unsatisfying and ultimately detrimental to Saraswati and Lakshmi. We want them to be able to make their own friends, instead of ‘inheriting’ yours, and besides, I don’t think they’d profit from being stuck in Slytherin if they were meant for a different house.”

“Good,” Harry and Draco replied simultaneously. The blond continued with a smile for his mate. “It would be ruddy difficult to try and explain the strange children that might crop up occasionally, and be seen by the other students and staff. We could meet in the Chamber of Secrets, but without being able to interact with other kids our age and making their own friends, they might end up resenting us and the family for taking away this once in a lifetime opportunity. Besides, the more eyes we have on the headmaster, the safer everyone would be. Will we be able to shop with our friends?” Draco asked softly.

“I’m afraid not,” Narcissa told the boys sadly. “We can’t let Dumbledore or his followers figure out that Harry is the missing Potter heir, and we don’t want everyone turned against you lot before you’ve even reached the school. It’s bad enough that Slytherin had been segregated as long as it has in the castle; no need to make things harder on you and your friends than absolutely necessary.”

End flashback

“I want you children to keep an eye out for the Weasleys,” Severus instructed gently before he and Riddle would make their way to the professors’ car, which was at the very end of the train. “We know that Albus has been to their home several times over the years, most likely instructing the youngest male on how to approach you, Harry, and try to weasel his way into your good graces. His name is Ronald Weasley, and he’ll most likely spend most of the trip to school looking for the Boy Who Lived. It’s a good thing that we were able to have a magical plastic surgeon erase that scar, so that Dumbledore can’t point it out and use it to mold you into his weapon against Tom.”

“It’s also a good thing that the adoption changed you enough that you no longer resemble a Potter,” Harry’s godfather added with a grin. “Now that your hair is longer and darker, and your eyes are a deep brown, you don’t look like James Potter or Lily Potter anymore. The Lestrange and Prince blood altered you enough that you look like a totally different, unrecognizable person to who you were when we rescued you, and the Black magic gave you a more aristocratic appearance as well. I must say, it’s sad that you couldn’t keep that remarkable emerald color of your eyes, but I’m grateful for the change. It’s kept people from getting too nosy when we were out shopping. Your resemblance to Severus is quite striking, and I’ve no doubt his surly reputation kept anyone from approaching us.”

The train whistle startled everyone out of the conversation, and with a slightly panicked look, Narcissa, Lucius, Rabastan and Bella gave the children a quick hug and kiss to their foreheads and cheeks before exiting the train as quickly as was possible whilst still maintaining their dignity. With a wide smile, Harry lowered the car window and all the children took turns to lean out and wave frantically at their parents as the locomotive huffed and steamed, shuddering as it began the day long trip to Inverness and Hogsmeade station.

“Well, here we go,” Draco murmured quietly as he looked at his bond mate fondly. As soon as the station was out of sight, Brahma, Vishnu, Saraswati and Lakshmi hied off to parts unknown, eager to meet new people and make new friends. Severus and Tom had already left for the professor’s car, leaving Harry and Draco to anxiously await their friends. In short order, Theo, Daphne, Greg and Vince entered the large car, smiling happily as they spied their friends. Behind them came a dark-skinned boy with tight mahogany curls and deep brown eyes and a brunette girl with a ready smile and a pug nose.

“Hey, everyone,” Theo said softly, grinning at his best friends excitedly. “I ran into these two in the station, and thought they’d like to ride with us. They seemed to be a little lost, and I noticed more than one parent glaring at them as if they’d just let off a bunch of stink bombs.” He turned to the newcomers with an inviting smile and said, “This is Draco Malfoy and Harry Prince.” He turned to his friends, and gesturing at the new kids said, “This is Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.”

“Parkinson...Parkinson…” Harry murmured thoughtfully, trying to remember where he’d heard that name before. “Wasn’t there a Perseus Parkinson as Minister for Magic in the early seventeen hundreds?”

“That was my great many times over grandfather,” she said shyly. “My father is named after him.”

“Welcome,” Draco said in the sudden silence. “Come on in and have a seat, and we’ll get to know each other.” The newest students perched on the bench across from Harry and the blond, whilst Greg and Vince found seats against the outer wall of the car. Goyle and Crabbe had no problem sitting on the floor Indian style, since they were rather bulky, but Theo and Daphne balked at sitting on the dirty carpet, so Harry tapped a button on the wall beside their bench and enlarged the car with wizard space, which provided more seating for everyone.

It didn’t take long for everyone to settle down and relax, and they were in the middle of a conversation about Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge when a redheaded, freckle-faced boy passed their compartment for what seemed like the tenth time, as if he were desperately searching for something. “What in Merlin’s name is his problem?” Blaise asked incredulously as the boy passed by their windows yet again. He glanced into their compartment for a moment, scowling, before hurrying away.

“He’s looking for me,” Harry offered with a grimace of disgust. At the confused looks thrown his way by Parkinson and Zabini, the raven haired boy elaborated. “This information goes no further than this car, and I’d like a promise on your wands to that effect.” Pansy and Blaise glanced at each other for a moment, then nodded at Harry, pulling their wands out and placing them across their right palms. Once the promise was made and the magic had taken hold, the brunet continued. “No doubt you’re aware of Dumbledore’s frantic efforts to locate the last Potter heir?”

At their cautious nods, the Prince heir said, “Well, here I am. My parents abandoned me just before Tom broke through the wards, but before he could kill me, Dumbledore came in and blew him up with a spell. Then he took me to Lily’s muggle sister and her bastard husband, where I was dumped on their front stoop like so much garbage. They took me in, and I was made to sleep in a cupboard underneath their front stairs. When I was old enough, I was forced to slave for them so they wouldn’t have to do anything for themselves.

“If I messed anything up, they beat me. If I didn’t finish my chores on time, I wouldn’t get fed, and they beat me. Vernon was particularly vicious, and any time anything went wrong in his life, I was blamed for it and punished. When I was five, Dad and uncle Lucius came to our house and paid Dursley to take me away from them, and as soon as I was well enough, Dad, Mum Bella, and Uncle Rudo adopted me. Dad and uncle Rudo gave me their blood, and Mum gave me some of her magic.

“It took two years for that old fossil to finally figure out that I’d gone missing, but my trail had gone ice cold by that time, and he was never able to locate me.” Parkinson and Zabini sat and stared at the brown eyed child for long moments, mouths hanging open in shock. Finally, the Italian boy shook himself out of his surprise and whistled, long and low.

“How is the headmaster still alive?” was not the question anyone was expecting, and Harry and Draco broke down laughing. It took a few moments before they could speak again, and what they said shocked everyone in the car. Not even their closest friends knew this.

“Dad and uncle Tom went back to the Dursleys with uncle Rudo and Mum a few weeks after I was sold to them,” the raven haired eleven year old said conspiratorially. “They were set on avenging my abuse, so they broke into the home and turned Vernon into a pig, and Petunia into a cat. Dudley must’ve been out with friends at the time, or I’m sure he probably would have been hexed, too.” Dudley had, in fact, been upstairs, peering through the banister and watching what the strange people were doing, unbeknownst to the witch and wizards in the house. Being five, he didn't quite understand what was going on, and when the animals fled the house in terror after they were cursed, he wandered around his home, looking for his mum and dad.  It took the little boy nearly a month to realize that no one was going to take care of him anymore, and remembering when they'd left the freak with the old cat lady the next street over, he wandered to her home himself, hoping that she'd at least feed him. “They figured that with the way they abused me, they needed to be punished. Last I heard, Petunia was in a cat shelter and popping out a bunch of kittens, and Vernon had gone straight to the slaughterhouse.

“Since Dudders was out with Petunia at the time I was sold, Dad and uncle Lucius didn’t know the Dursleys had their own child. In a way, I’m kind of glad that they weren’t able to do anything to my cousin. He was little, like me, and didn’t really know any better. I’m not sure what happened to him after that, but it's a good bet we’ll find out eventually. Anyway, uncle Tom, Dad, Mum, uncle Lucius, Papa and aunt Narcissa have some plans for the old man of which I’m unaware, but I’m positive that we’ll be in for a heck of a show this year.”

The carriage door was violently thrust open, and in the doorway stood a bushy haired girl with an overbite, and behind her a shy, nervous looking chubby boy. “Anyone in here see a toad?” she demanded loudly. “Neville here has lost his, and I’m helping him look for it.” Dark brown eyes met amber, and the boy called Neville shrugged a little hopelessly, mouthing Sorry about her to everyone in the compartment.

“No one’s seen a toad,” Theo replied flatly, eyes hard as he stared at the girl. “It’s incredibly rude to barge into someone else’s cabin without knocking first. Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”

Chapter Text

November 10, 1981

Petunia Dursley

Number 4, Privet Drive

Little Whinging, West Horsley

Surrey KT24 6AT, UK

Petunia,

I know that you hate me, and frankly, I couldn’t give two shites. An evil man is after my son, which I didn’t want in the first place, so James and I have left him behind as soon as that evil man came to the house. I know that Albus Dumbledore is going to leave him with you so that my husband and I can escape. The evil man came to the cottage before Dumbledore could get there, and we fled as soon as we were packed.

I don’t particularly care how you treat your nephew; I washed my hands of him almost from the moment he was born. James is upset that I was able to talk him into leaving the brat behind, and he’s hoping that we can have more kids now that we’re safe. I don’t want kids, so I’m going to have my tubes tied the muggle way, so that it can’t be reversed by magic. James has his heir, should the brat survive, and that’s all I’m willing to concede on this issue.

My advice to you is to move, as quickly as you can. Dumbledore will, no doubt, try to keep in contact with you, once he’s dumped your nephew on your doorstep. He’s almost as afraid of muggles as the rest of the British wizarding world, and, frankly, he’s right to be. He’ll have placed wards around your house to monitor the well-being of his puppet martyr, and if you don’t want any interference from the ‘freaks’, your best bet is to get out of Dodge as quickly as you can. James and I are far, far away from the UK, and that’s how it’s going to stay. Good luck, and I hope I never see you again.

Lily

“What do you have there, Severus?” Lucius asked as he came upon the Potions Master. They were in Malfoy Manor, getting last minute details arranged before Snape had to return to the school. He was able to beg off being there for the opening feast, citing some critical potions at a delicate stage as his excuse.

“I found this in Harry’s birth parents’ trunk,” the potions professor remarked mildly as he handed the missive to his mate. “After reading that, I’m very glad that I never gave the trunk to Harry.” Silver eyes fled over the words, a scowl of epic proportions morphing the blond’s face as he practically felt the venom and indifference in the words on the page. His arm dropped, the parchment clutched in his fist as he stared at one third of their triad, which included his wife, Narcissa. The message was clear in gunmetal colored eyes as they silently communicated to each other. “I agree,” Severus finally said on a heavy sigh. “We’ll need to show Harry that letter and be there to help him come to terms with his feelings about the contents.

“Up until now, we didn’t really know what had happened to the Potters,” the snarky man continued as he and Lucius headed to the salon to continue the chat. “Albus had made everyone believe that they were killed that night, when Tom gave Harry that scar. A scar that the old man had used to turn my son into an ‘icon’, and a scar that had been removed years ago. Fortunately we were able to retrieve everything belonging to my son when we went back to exact our revenge against the Dursleys, and after examining the contents were able to tell Harry the truth, as we knew it at the time, for why he was abandoned. However, this hatred for him, from his own mother, might be the thing that sets off those deeply buried hurts, and I want all of us to be there when the dam breaks, as it surely will. All this time, we’d been under the impression that they’d fled to somehow protect the boy, but this… Anyway, I, for one, can’t wait to see how the headmaster will react to the absence of that scar.”

“What are we going to do about the Potters?” Malfoy snarled angrily, glaring for all he was worth at the damning letter. It started to smolder, and he quickly dampened his rage; it wouldn’t do to destroy the admission of the Potters’ guilt in abandoning their child, after all.

“We’ll talk to Tom this weekend,” Snape murmured thoughtfully. “We need to locate James and Lily before we try to do anything about their crimes.”

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“You’re a rude one,” the bushy-haired girl snapped arrogantly. Her slight overbite made her look like a chipmunk, the fuller cheeks appearing to be filled with nuts.

“Pot, meet kettle,” Harry murmured to his mate, who snorted laughter. Cinnamon colored eyes narrowed on the blond and with an arrogant sniff, she turned up her nose at them.

“Did anyone see a toad?” she demanded again, valiantly ignoring those she believed were beneath her. She was consistently at the top of her class in primary school back home, and once she’d gotten all her books from Diagon Alley, she’d managed to practice the spells until she’d mastered them. The Ministry Trace was on the wand from the moment she’d left Ollivanders, yet oddly enough, no one from the Department of Underaged Magic bothered to come out and check on the Grangers’ home to see why magic was being done in a muggle neighborhood, and by someone under the age of seventeen.

No one answered for several moments, until a quiet croak came from underneath the bench on which Harry and Draco sat. The brunet bent down and, grinning widely, reached down to pick up the amphibian. “Trevor!” the chubby boy called Neville gasped out happily, stepping past the girl and making a beeline for his lost friend. He gently took the toad from the chocolate eyed boy’s hands and brought it to his chest, the gratitude in his amber eyes shining for all to see. “Thank you,” he breathed out, then turned and stared at the girl in the doorway, waiting patiently for her to move out of the way so he could leave.

“Why don’t you stay here and hang out with us?” Draco asked suddenly. He knew who the nervous boy was, and wanted to connect with him before the ‘wrong sort’ got their hooks into him.

“It’s about time someone invited us to stay,” the girl said as she aggressively entered the car. “Took you long enough to show some class.”

“Not you,” Blaise spoke up, voice like iron, which was surprising for an eleven year old. “Some of us are familiar with the Longbottom family, but we have no idea who YOU are. I can, however, tell that you’re a muggleborn based off of your rude, condescending manner. Now, it’s not that we don’t like muggleborns, but we definitely aren’t terribly fond of you. You didn’t even bother to knock when you just barged in here, and proceeded to insult us and condescend to us, without even knowing who we were. You’ve done what you’d set out to do and helped Longbottom find his familiar. Now I’d suggest you find somewhere else to sit.” The girl’s eyes flitted from face to face, and seeing absolutely no welcome on any of them, she turned and flounced out of the cabin, slamming the door hard enough to make the glass rattle.

“Thanks,” Neville whispered softly. “I was stuck in a car with her and a couple of second years, who were getting mad at her. She kept going on and on about all the first year spells she’d practiced at home, and how she’d mastered them. I could see her know-it-all attitude getting on their nerves; especially when she started grilling them on how they performed their spells. When she asked for a demonstration of their casting of the first year curriculum, she started correcting them, telling them that they were ‘doing it wrong’. I started to get scared as they got madder and madder, and I thought we’d end up seriously hexed until Trevor took that moment to ‘escape’.”

“So your toad did it on purpose?” Theo asked curiously, looking at the amphibian with a modicum of respect in his dark eyes.

“He was a gift from my uncle Algie, who took to trying to scare me into having bouts of accidental magic,” Neville told the other eleven year old softly. “When my uncle would try to scare me into reacting with magic, Trevor would always somehow distract him so I could escape.”

“Does your grandmother know that you were being humiliated?” Draco queried curiously, grey eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“N-not really,” the chubby preteen replied, flushing with embarrassed shame. “She had called me a squib a few times, and I think Algie took his cue from her. She...she wants me to be just like my dad, now that he’s no longer around, but I don’t know how.”

“Is...is he dead?” Harry asked carefully, not wanting to offend or upset their newest friend.

“N-no,” Longbottom whispered, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “H-he was an Auror who ran off with his partner and left Mum and me all alone. When we moved into Longbottom Manor, Mum locked herself up in her room and wouldn’t come out, no matter what Gran tried. The house elves make sure she eats and they take care of her needs, but she hasn’t come out of that room since he ran away six years ago.”

“My birth parents abandoned me when I was fifteen months old,” Harry quietly confessed to the other boy. Everyone in the compartment knew the raven haired preteen’s backstory, so nothing would come as a surprise to anyone but Pansy and Blaise, who were hearing it for the first time. “The incubator didn’t want to be a mum, and was able to talk the sperm donor into running away with her, leaving me all alone in an empty cottage with no one to take care of me. Albus Dumbledore came in a few hours later, took me from that house and dumped me on my aunt’s doorstep.

“They treated me like a house elf until someone contacted the incubator’s best friend in Hogwarts, and he came to get me. Of course, Vernon wasn’t going to let me go for nothing. I was his ‘stress relief’, something he could take out his frustrations on without consequence, and he wanted to be compensated for losing that. So he sold me to the incubator’s best friend, and I was adopted by him a short while later. My name, by the way, is Harry Prince, and I’m very happy to meet you, Neville Longbottom.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first years stood in the chamber outside the Great Hall, waiting to be led into the dining room to be sorted. Minerva McGonagall had introduced herself and told the children what to expect when they entered the hall, along with instructions on how they were to comport themselves during the sorting. Her eyes restlessly scanned the faces of the children, looking for that messy dark hair and signature emerald eyes. Disappointed at finding neither, she turned and opened the door, leading the preteens into the hall, where everyone looked around, awed at the magic they could see.

Up ahead, the muggleborn who’d rudely barged into Harry and Draco’s car was nattering on about the magical ceiling, bragging to anyone who would listen about how she’d read Hogwarts: A History from cover to cover. Finally, a dark-skinned boy with tight, curly black hair snapped, “Enough, already, girl. We get it. You’re the most brilliant person alive. Now hush up so we can hear the professor call our names.” Snickering and giggling rushed through the group of first years as the bushy haired girl flushed an ugly red in embarrassment.

Minerva cleared her throat and glared at the kids, making them settle down as she opened the rolled up parchment she held in her hand. “Abbott, Hannah,” she called out, and the first of the children stepped up to the old stool, sitting down as the deputy headmistress placed a battered old hat on her head.

There was silence for several moments, and Abbott’s face changed expressions several times before a tear in the brim opened and the hat announced, “HUFFLEPUFF!” Grinning, she took the hat off and waited impatiently as the older woman magicked the patch on her robes. She ran to the table that was cheering loudest for her, sitting down with a happy sigh. So the sorting went, with very few surprises. Neville Longbottom went to Hufflepuff, as did a serious looking blonde girl by the name of Susan Bones. Granger, the girl who had been acting like she was far superior to everyone else, was sorted to Gryffindor.

Draco, Vince, Greg, Theo and Daphne all ended up in Slytherin, as did Pansy Parkinson. Finally, McGonagall called out, “Prince, Harry!” The boy walked up to the stool and sat down, the hat being dropped on his head and startling him for a moment.

“Ahh, what do we have here? Welcome to Hogwarts, Mr. Potter. I must say, you’ve given the old man quite a fright, but it’s no less than he deserves for his role in your abysmal treatment. ”

“ I don’t want him to know who I really am,” Harry insisted quietly. “Things aren’t the way he’s been making them out to be.”

“I know, child. I’d had quite a long chat with your godfather when he sat underneath me, and several more times whilst he was in the school. Albus has hurt too many children over the years, and it’s past time for him to reap his just punishment. Never fear, child; your secrets will remain yours. Only one house for you. Better be SLYTHERIN!”