Chapter Text
June 9th, 1996. Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic
Duck, attack, shield, deflect and back again. This were the only things that Harry focused on as he tried to find a weak spot on Rodolphus Lestrange as they dueled. Around him, the sound of his friends and members of the Order casting spells could be heard. As much as he wanted to turn around and see how they were doing, he could not do that. The choice could cost him his own life.
Everything had been fine up until he and his friends arrived at the room where the prophesies were being held. Sirius was not held prisoner by Voldemort; Nagini was nowhere to be found and the whole department looked as if it was abandoned.
He should have known immediately that something was wrong. He should have noticed it was a trap. Should have left the Ministry as soon as he saw the lack of people that were supposed to have been present on his vision. But he didn’t.
Which is why he now was fighting a death eater that had years upon years of experience dueling up his belt. If he was being honest with himself, he was surprised he had lasted as long as he had against him. Especially when he knew the reputation the wizard had for his fierceness when dueling and his fondness for using dark and painful spells to win.
He supposed he should be thankful to the Dursleys and his unfortunate adventures for honing his reflexes, for they were the reason he was still standing.
Still, Harry could not help but curse himself for his recklessness. He knew that Voldemort was someone that liked to exploit the weaknesses of his enemies to his advantage and would often use them to get what he wanted which, in this case, just so happens to be the prophesy that is currently resting in his pocket.
Somewhere along the fight, Harry and Lestrange left the room where everyone was still fighting and stumbled upon a different one filled with thousands upon thousands of artifacts in not so neat piles. He spared himself half a thought to make sure he did not touch anything here. For all he knew, they were cursed with dark magic that could kill him.
With each curse fired his way, Harry was pushed further and further inside the room until he became unable to see the exit of the room. He hoped that after he incapacitated the elder wizard, he would be able to find his way out of here. If he managed to incapacitate him that is.
Lestrange suddenly fired a sickly purple curse that forced Harry to duck sharply behind one of the piles. His sudden movement made him lose his balance and fall against the pile that had been behind him.
Eyes widen in panic, he hurried to his feet only to see how the pile tumbled towards another pile, creating a chain reaction. With every pile that fell, objects hit the ground, leaving close to no space to stand in the room. Not that this bothered the Death eater in the sightless as he continued to fire curse after curse at Harry.
Harry took off running, casting spells towards the piles to make them get in between Lestrange and him. He ran as fast as his legs would take him, all the while doing his best to avoid an artifact touching his skin, or even his clothes – for all he knew, the clothes would be of no use to protect him from whatever magic they may be covered with.
But like everything in his life, just when he thinks that he had managed to avoid the worst of it, life gave him a metaphorical slap in the face. Just when he had finally managed to find the exit of the room and was making his way towards it, an object fell on his left arm and clamped it.
Harry turned to see if he was being followed by the wizard, happy to find that he would not see him anywhere. Maybe he had been squashed by the artifacts, that was a nice thought. And it gave him the moment to see exactly what had clamped itself around his arm.
It was a bracelet, a beautiful one at that. It was silver band covered in swirling patterns, at the center of it was a round quartz with two halfmoons on each side of the circle made of two different jewels. The one on the left was made of a light blue jewel, turquoise he thinks, and the other one was made of onyx.
When he turned the bracelet around, he found a strange symbol engraved in it. A half circle with a cross pointing downwards.
He frowned; he did not recognize the symbol. And he also did not see the clasp of the bracelet that would let him get it off and free to figure out just what it may have done to him. He tried pulling it off from his wrist and gave a yelp when it seemed to dig into his skin and give him, something that felt a lot like an electrical shock.
Maybe he would need to get Hermione to take a look at the object when they got out of this sticky situation.
A groan alerted him that his pursuer was not as buried by the artifacts as he hoped. Ignoring the bracelet for the moment, he got into position and pointed his wand towards the pile of objects that was beginning to shake.
As soon as he saw the head of the wizard poke out the ruble, he casted a stupefy at him – knocking him out cold. This would give him time to flee and join the others and, maybe, time for the authorities to capture him and send him to Azkaban again.
Leaving the wizard behind, and ignoring the piece of jewelry on his wrist, he left the room and ran back towards the sound of fighting. Intend on helping take down more Death Eaters before anyone gut seriously hurt.
Only for him to freeze as he watched Sirius fall through the Veil after being hit by a red colored spell.
A scream was heard. It took Harry a moment to realize that the scream was coming from him, he had a moment to marvel at the strength of his lungs, before he felt himself be drowned in sorrow and grief.
Sirius is gone. His godfather was gone. The one person that promised to take him away from the Dursleys and become a proper family was gone.
He promised, tears threatened to fill his eyes at the thought, he blinked them away as best as he could. He could not afford to show more weakness than he already did, he could not make them think that they won – even if on the inside he felt like they might as well have.
The sound of Bellatrix’s laugh brought him back from his sad thoughts, making him aware of the arms that were around him. Mooney’s, he thinks, he was the only man he knows that had arms so skinny and yet possessed a strength that was not expected from someone so thin.
The moment he heard the witch begin to sing ‘I killed Sirius Black’ he saw red. After that moment, everything passed in a blur. Voices and faces overlapped over each other in his mind, Harry just moved in autopilot. Duck, attack, shield, deflect and back again.
Eventually he was forced to his knees, thanks for Voldemort taking possession of him. Harry felt how the man seemed to claw at his memories, trying to find anything that he could possibly use against him in a future. He felt disgust that this monster was intruding on his temple, dirtying his most precious memories with his sole presence.
Rage filled him when he heard the man’s laugh echoed in his mind when he saw his memories of him talking with Sirius, laughing with him, embracing him. He did not know how he did it, but he channeled all his grief, his rage and his sorrow at the loss of his godfather and threw it at the Dark Lord.
He figured that, since the man could no longer feel emotions, being hit with raw emotions would throw him off balance – just enough to kick him out of his mind. His plan paid off as he felt and heard Voldemort scream in his head before he fled from his mind, as if he had been burned by Harry’s emotions.
Kicking a Dark Lord out of your mind was an exhausting job because, as soon as he felt Voldemort flee from his mind, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body stopped responding to him. He welcomed unconsciousness with open arms, not wanting to stay awake one moment more in this terrible nightmare.
********
July 30th, 1996. Privet Drive
Harry felt numb, empty, like a dementor had come and sucked his soul dry. After everything that happened in the DoM, he had spent the last few days of term moving in a mechanical manner. He went to the Great Hall to eat breakfast, went to classes, took his end of the year tests, eat lunch, did homework, ate dinner and then went to bed - where he spent hours upon hours laying on his bed and watching the ceiling until his body became to exhausted to let him keep his eyes open.
Then, he had been told by Dumbledore that he needed to return with the Dursleys for his safety. In Harry’s mind returning there was pointless, the blood wards had been pretty much useless ever since his fourth year, yet he didn’t have the strength to fight the old man anymore. Besides, he could not even bring himself to care about his situation.
And so, he boarded the Hogwarts Express with his friends when the school year came to an end. Hermione and Ron spoke during the ride back to London, but he honestly didn’t pay attention to what was being said despite their best attempts at bringing him into the conversation.
The train ride passed with him stuck in his thoughts of what if and before he noticed, he was being dragged by his uncle to the car and back to his personal hell.
Last summer he had been safe from the worst of his uncle’s beatings, the knowledge that his godfather was a prison convict stayed his hand, but Moody had informed Vernon of Sirius’ death. Meaning that this summer, he had no way of escaping from his uncle’s wrath.
As soon as the door closed behind them, his uncle got to work. He was punched, kicked, whipped mercilessly. He did not stop even when he felt Harry’s bones break, Harry was certain that his back must be a bloody mess from where Vernon had taken the belt at. The older man only stopped when his breath began to get labored, and his face flushed red from the exertion.
Harry was a little thankful that his uncle was such a lazy and fat man, making him tire easily, otherwise, he would have killed him. And wouldn’t that be a humiliating way to die? He could picture the headline, ‘Boy-Who-Lived killed by his muggle uncle!’ he would become the laughingstock of the purebloods.
Then again, dying did not seem like such a bad idea at the moment. He would not have to participate in this war anymore, wouldn’t have to deal with death eaters and there would be no Dark Lord chasing after him. More importantly, he would be able to see his mom, his dad and… and Sirius.
Merlin, he missed him. He may not have spent a lot of time with the animagus, but the few times that they had managed to interact had left an enormous impact on him. He gave him his firebolt, he told him stories of his parents when they were young, he taught him some defensive and offensive spells, and he was always there to listen to him. Always there to give him some advice, even if said advice consisted of doing something outside of his comfort zone.
But he was always there and now he was not. He was gone and it was his fault.
If only he had used the two-way mirror that Sirius had given him, if only he had contacted the someone from the order before going to the Ministry, if only he had dealt with Lestrange faster, if only he had been just a smidge faster Sirius would still be alive.
But he wasn’t and now he had to deal with the consequences of his foolishness.
As he lay on the hard floor of Dudley’s second room, a small pool of blood forming around him, Harry desperately wished that this would all be over. Wished that he was not the chosen one, that Sirius was there, that he was somewhere safe. Somewhere where he could be himself, where he could be free and – most importantly – somewhere where he could find happiness.
That was his last thought before he succumbed to blissful unconsciousness and that was the last thought that was sensed by the bracelet that was still attached to his wrist and he had forgotten to tell his friends about.
The piece of jewelry began to emit an eerie white glow that slowly began to encompass the entirety of the wizard it was attached to. Hedwig squawked from her cage as she saw her wizard be embraced by this light, getting the sense that something was going to happen to her charge, she quickly got out of her cage and landed on Harry’s chest – quickly getting covered by the same light.
And just in time, because the moment that she landed, the magic of the bracelet activated completely and vanished them from the room they had previously occupied.
Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived, vanished from Privet Drive. Leaving behind a pool of blood and his meager belongings inside his school trunk.
**********
“Are you sure about this sister?” asked a deep male voice.
“Yes” a soft melodious voice said, the owner of the voice gazed tenderly at the broken figure in front of her. “If we left him there, he would have died”
“Everyone dies, it is a natural curse of nature” the man stated, “you’ve never cared much for the death of your children before”
“Death is indeed something natural” she agreed, “but there’s a difference between a predestined death and an orchestrated one, like the one that crazy old man had planned. Besides,” she pinned her older brother with an accusing look, “isn’t he also your child?”
His silence was all the answer the woman needed to hear. “You can’t possibly be happy to let the little one die like this? He would have a better chance here, a chance to actually live his life” she insisted.
The man sighed; he was indeed not happy about what had been done to his child. The little one would still have lost his parents, there was no avoiding that, but he should have had a nice childhood filled with happiness, freedom and love. A childhood that would shape him into an outstanding wizard. But the actions and ambitions of one man destroyed that.
“Hecate, our uncle won’t be happy about this when he finds out” he pointed out, a weak argument to use he knew, but the reality was that he was not completely against what his sister was planning to do.
“Let him be angry, but I won’t let my champion suffer more in that dreaded place” she jutted her chin in stubbornness, “if he did not want this to happen, then he should not have lost that bet against that mortal”
Her brother gave a chuckle at her words, “indeed he should not have” he turned his attention towards the black-haired wizard on the floor. He needed to think of where he should leave him, the time was already decided between his sister and him, but the place was the problem.
Humans would panic if Harry were to suddenly appear out of thin air on near their houses or territories, those in the Ministry would certainly want to imprison him. Not to mention that there were not many wixen families in Britain that the two deities could entrust with their charge to.
A thought hit him then, there was a magical race to whom they could entrust their little champion. A small smile formed on a pale face, “I know where we can leave him, dear sister of mine”
The woman tilted her head before she nodded, she would trust her brother’s judgment. “Then it is decided. Will we meet them in person, Thanatos?” she asked.
Her brother nodded, “they will need to know who he is so they may be able to help him” he explained, taking the little wizard into his arms and disappearing to his destination. With an offended squawk, the lady of magic followed her brother’s footsteps.
*******
July 30th, 1913. Gringotts bank
It was nighttime when the wards of Gringotts alerted the goblins of the arrival of three individuals, which intrigued them as wizards rarely came to their territory at night. Unless they were dealing with some questionable transactions that is. Not that the goblins cared, as long as there was money to be earned, they saw no reason to not provide their services.
A teller came to the lobby of the building, where costumers often waited for a goblin to attend to them, and almost tripped on his step at what he found.
He quickly recovered and bowed low at the beautiful fair-haired and dark-skinned woman standing beside a dark-haired and pale man carrying a small body, “Welcome, Lady Hecate and Lord Thanatos. What may Gringotts do for you both?” he greeted the couple.
Hecate, also known as Lady Magic, smiled at the creature before her. “Rise Master Goblin, there’s no need for you to bow before us” she said softly, watching with kind eyes as the goblin quickly rose to his feet.
“We require your services for our charge” Thanatos motioned at the unconscious young teenager on his arms that, while he was healed from his previous wounds, still needed to be treated for all the damage that he had suffered his entire life.
The teller finally paid attention to the boy in the deity’s arms, he did not see anything wrong with him, but if Lord Thanatos said he needed help, then he would comply to their demands. He gave a nod at the two immortals and motioned for them to follow him, “this way please, my lords”
The two figures followed the creature with a grace that many purebloods would wish they possessed, passing through several tastefully decorated halls with silver and gold accents filled with relics crafted by their kind. Walking past marble columns with engravings that detailed the history of the goblins and wizard kind, past several vases containing flowers of different kinds and into an elegant and warm office.
Inside, the Lord of Death carefully placed his charge into one of the long sofas that the room possessed and took a seat at the edge of his feet. His sister opting for placing the young wizard’s head on her lap, giving her the chance to run her hand through his brittle dark hair, hoping that this would be remedied soon.
The teller bowed and went to look for the head chief, something that wizard could compare to being akin to a king amongst their kind, knowing that whatever the two immortals required of them, it would be better for it to be dealt with him.
Not long had passed waiting in that room, before a goblin dressed in fine armor and a purple colored cloak entered the room and took a seat behind an intricately designed desk.
“Greetings, Lady Hecate and Lord Thanatos. I’ve been informed that you require our services” he spoke in a strong and clear voice.
While his clients may be immortals, he was not about to treat them any different that he would an ordinary client – albeit an important one. Meaning that he would treat them with the respect they deserved but he would not bow down of their requests were ridiculous and could potentially harm his people.
“Indeed, we do Head Chief Ragnock” replied the goddess of magic, “we seek a through healing ritual for our charge and a new identity for him to live here” she informed him.
Ragnock blinked and stared at the body that rested in the Lady’s lap. It was not an unreasonable request, his people could easily fulfil it but the second request made him curious. Why would the little wizard need a new identity?
“Forgive me for my boldness but, may I know why the new identity is necessary?” he inquired respectfully, not wanting to offend any of them.
Hecate smiled once more, “You may, you see, this child is not from this time but from the future” she informed the goblin, knowing that she needed to creature to know the reason for their actions.
The goddess regaled the goblin the tale of the boy-who-lived, she spoke of his childhood, of the hardships he had been forced to bare and the loses he suffered all due to the actions of one man that believed himself to be above all. She spoke of what his destiny would have been had he stayed in his time, of what his life should have been and what Thanatos and she wanted for the child.
Said goblin’s eyes widen in surprise at the revelation given to him, looking at boy in a whole new light. Ragnock felt his heart go to the child, his story was one filled with too much tragedy for one so young. He felt his heart harden with resolve, he would help the young wizard and see what future he would build.
After all, a champion of Lady magic and a child of Lord Death was sure to bring enormous change to the world. One that many would be interested in watching.
Taking advantage that the boy was still unconscious, Ragnock ordered for the healing ritual to be performed on the wizard and for pain reliever potions to be prepared – knowing that the ritual would leave him in a state of mild pain after awaking.
Hecate and Thanatos stayed seated on the sofa as they took their precious charge to the ritual chamber, trusting that the goblins would do an excellent job healing the raven-haired wizard. Together with Chief Ragnock, they planed what would be the best course of action for the creation of young Harry Potter’s new life.
Once everything was in place, they waited for the ritual to end and for the wizard to awake.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
July 30th, 1913. Ritual chamber, Gringotts.
Harry blinked glazed green eyes at the unfamiliar white ceiling that he found himself facing. Taking a deep breath to prevent himself from falling into a panic attack, he took stock of his body. He had all his limbs attached, his bones were surprisingly no longer broken, and his back was no longer killing him, in fact, he was not feeling much pain anymore.
Which was strange as he clearly remembered being in Privet Drive moments before, laying on the ground on a pool of his own blood with several broken bones and twisted limbs. Could it be possible that the Order had found him and taken him to St. Mungos? If so, than he hoped this would make the old coot finally let him stay at Grimmauld place or at Hogwarts.
But that was just wistful thinking on his part, he knew that Dumbledore would try to defend his relatives and throw him back in that hell hole as soon as he was healed. He had done so every single year that Harry had asked the headmaster to let him stay at Hogwarts.
Wanting to get this show over with, he slowly rose himself from the cot he had been lying on. Only to freeze when he came face to face with a goblin’s face.
“You’re awake, good. Take this” the goblin said, presenting Harry with the familiar sight of a pain reliever potion. Not wanting to anger the goblin, he quickly complied and downed the potion, grimacing at the horrible taste it left behind.
“Where am I?” he asked, already having an idea of where, knowing there was only one place where goblins worked at that he knew of.
“You’re in Gringotts, youngling” was the answer he received, confirming his suspicions. “If you’re able to walk, follow me”
Harry stumbled out of the cot in his haste to catch up to the goblin that had not even waited for him before walking away. The left the chamber that had been previously and brought to an office like room, where a beautiful dark skinned woman and a very pale man sat on a large sofa, looking at him expectantly.
Unease began to settle on him, who were these people? Where was the headmaster or the members of the Order that had rescued him? And why was he in Gringotts and not in St. Mungos?
“Fear not child, we mean you no harm” said the woman in a melodious voice that instantly made him feel relaxed for some strange reason.
“Seat down child there is much that needs to be discussed” came the firmer voice of the man who sat beside the woman.
Not knowing where the trust he was feeling for the two individuals was coming from, he took a seat on the only space available on the sofa at the far end of it. Looking around, he noticed that there was another goblin in the room. This was the first time he had seen a goblin dressed in something different that robes, instead, the one seating behind the desk was wearing some sort of armor and a long purple cape.
Turning towards the couple, he asked the more pressing question. “Who are you and why am I here?”
“We have many names, but your people know us as Lady Magic or Hecate and Lord Death or Thanatos” the woman, Hecate, was the one to respond. “As for why you are here… the best answer would be that it’s because you wished for this”
Harry frowned, deciding to file away the fact that he was talking to two gods, his mind was not ready to unpack that just yet. It was the rest of the answer that had him confused. “I did? How?” he asked.
“You remember the artifact in your wrist? It’s no ordinary artifact, little one” said the man, who Harry now knew was Lord Death.
He did remember the bracelet, he had tried to take it off hours before but was unsuccessful, so he left in peace until he could come up with an idea of how to get it off. Looking at his wrist, he noticed that the bracelet was glowing a little. Harry was sure that the artifact had not been glowing before he blacked out in his relative’s house.
“I assumed as much, I mean, it used to reside in the department of mysteries. It would make sense that the artifact was magical” Harry reasoned, looking curiously at the bracelet and tracing the swirling pattern with his other hand.
The god chuckled, “yes, that would be the logical conclusion. It was that artifact that brought you here. After sensing that you wanted something, the magic in the artifact activated itself and brought you here” he explained but deliberately kept the tiny little detail of the time period he had been brought to. Thanatos imagined that it would be quite fun to watch the boy realize that he was in the past.
Harry gave a slow nod. He had indeed wished for something before losing consciousness but try as he might, he could not remember what exactly he had been wishing for. Knowing himself, it was probably something to do with leaving the Dursleys.
“And I was healed by the goblins of Gringotts” Harry clarified, he assumed that that’s what had happened. But there was always the possibility he was wrong.
“Indeed, you had quite a lot of damage to fix, youngling” said the gruff voice belonging to the goblin that had been sitting behind the desk.
“Thank you for healing me, Mister Goblin. But…” Harry licked his lips, “why are you calling me youngling? I don’t mean to offend you but every time I’ve come here I’ve either been called Mister Potter or Heir Potter” he added hastily when he saw the goblin rise a hairless eyebrow.
“That would be because I do not know your name, little one. Youngling is the respectful way to address a young wizard that we do not know the name of” Ragnock explained, which was the truth. While the Lord and Lady had explained the life the young wizard had lived through, they had never revealed him his true name only that he was once called ‘the boy-who-lived’.
Now Harry was confused. As far as he knew, everyone in the magical community knew who he was – even the goblins. He had walked around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, and every single time he was recognized or – at the very least – their eyes with light up with recognition upon hearing his name. So how was it possible that this old, for he did look old, goblin did not recognize who he was?
“You do not know who I am?” he asked.
“I fear I do not, should I?”
Yes, Harry thought, you should. And he was not saying it out of arrogance, it was just a fact that he had come to terms with over the years. Everyone knew him, period. “I…No, I mean, yes? I’m not sure sir” he said helplessly.
“Don’t worry Harry, it’s normal for Head Chief Ragnock to not know you” Hecate comforted the young wizard.
“Indeed, after all…” Thanatos’ lips curved into a mischievous smile, which grew in size when he heard his sister sigh in exasperation, “how can someone from 1913 know someone from 1996?” he said with the most innocent tone he could muster.
Harry blinked. And he blinked again. And again. “I’m sorry, what?!”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
After an existential crisis, two calming droughts and two long hours of explanations given to him by two gods and a goblin. Harry was finally calm enough to go forward with the plan that the deities had crafted for him.
It was very likely that he would never be able to return to his time, based on the explanation given to him by Lady Magic. It was the punishment he would most likely receive the moment that their uncle, Kronos, found out that he had meddled with his domain. So, it was for the best that Harry came to terms with never seeing the people he knew and loved ever again.
Not that it really bothered Harry, he had very few people that he would actually miss. The only ones that really pained him to not be able to see again was Remus and his beautiful and loyal companion Hedwig. But there was nothing that could be done anymore.
The only thing left for him was to try and keep moving on in this new world he was now a part of. And the first step to doing so was by gaining a new name and a new identity.
On Thanatos’ insistence, an inheritance test was performed on Harry to see what families he was related to. The young wizard had been surprised to find that he was related to many wizarding families. Amongst the long list appeared names like the Blacks, the Lestranges, the Prewetts, the Malfoys, The Abbots and the Bones. All of them names that he recognized but the majority of them were a mystery to him.
Lord Death was quick to pick out the name Peverell for him the moment that he saw it appear on the paper, his reasoning being that he was a direct descendant of the line – like all Potters before him had been – and had a justified claim to the name. Plus, it had gone extinct not to long ago, so people would not bat an eye if a new male descendant was found out after years of hiding.
Lady Magic was also quick to back up his brother on the last name chosen for him but insisted on letting her chose the new name he would use. Not wanting to completely part from his birth name, he settled for a more formal version of his name, Harrison. This way he would still have that connection to his mother and his father through his last name.
Sadly, his middle name needed to change if he wanted to honor his godfather’s – and his own – family tradition.
Green eyes stared at the bottom of the parchment, were the words Harrison Rigel Peverell stood out in vividly against the paleness of the paper. This was his new name, this was who he would be from now on and he could not say he did not like the change, because he did. He would no longer be Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived and he would no longer be asked to fight a war that he never wished to be a part of in the first place.
Getting his affairs order, Harry came to the realization that he still wanted to bring a measure of change to the world that he had come to love, but he would not do it by jumping into the conflict headfirst. He would learn what he could and then decide what to do.
Harry swore to himself that this time he would live his life as he wanted. He would go to Hogwarts, have a normal year, learn all that he could and then he would life a happy peaceful life. This time, he will not be brought into the conflict that was brewing.
With that decision made, he left Gringotts and the two immortals behind to get himself settle in what, he hoped, would become his new home.