Chapter 1
Eternity's Waiting Room
Saturday, 2nd May 1998, between 5 a.m and 6 a.m
At the Battle of Hogwarts, in the Forbidden Forest
Harry believed with all of his heart that the only way for Voldemort to be killed, was for Harry to let Tom hit him with the Killing Curse; this would destroy the horcrux in Harry's scar.
For one second, Harry's plan worked. He was hit with the Killing Curse; but it was the horcrux, not Harry's own soul, that was separated from Harry's body.
But then Tom Riddle realised, If I can come back from the dead unexpectedly, why can't Potter? Maybe I should make sure he stays dead. So Tom hit the corpse(?) of Harry Potter with a second Killing Curse.
This second Killing Curse did was it was supposed to: It removed the soul of Harry Potter from his body.
Meanwhile, Hermione was battling Bellatrix Lestrange. When Hermione saw Harry be hit by two Killing Curses and drop, then Hermione got quite distracted. When battling Bellatrix to the death, there can be only one outcome when an opponent is distracted.
Hermione outlived Harry by only seconds.
Someplace timeless and eternal
Harry found himself in a waiting room. Already in the room were many people, of every age, gender, colour, and type of clothing—or in the case of one old man, lack of clothing. Scattered about the room were Hogwarts students he recognised, magical adults who had fought Voldemort's forces at Hogwarts, and Death Eaters (with their masks either in their laps or still on their faces).
On the opposite wall of the waiting room were three maps: Great Britain, North America (with Greenland, Mexico and all the Caribbean islands except for Jamaica greyed out) and Australia/New Zealand. By the maps was a sign, "Language spoken here: English."
A bright light flashed, and the chair next to Harry now had someone sitting in it.
"Harry?" said a quite-familiar voice.
Harry never initiated hugs—but now he fiercely hugged Hermione next to him. Across the room, Harry saw one of the Death Eaters glare at the pair of them; Harry gave the shitstain Pureblood the two-finger salute.
As Harry waited for the woman with the clipboard to call his name, he looked about the waiting room and he kept thinking, I've been here before. He could not explain this feeling, but neither could he convince himself he was wrong.
The last time I was here, I sat over there. I started a conversation with Fred Weasley. He told me how to remove the Trace from my wand.
After Harry and Hermione had flashed into the waiting room, a few other Hogwarts defenders and Hogwarts attackers flashed in, but Voldemort never did. Harry sighed; obviously Voldemort had survived the Battle of Hogwarts—at least temporarily.
At one point, Harry looked at the woman with the clipboard and thought, The last time I was here, she had her hair put up in a bun atop her head.
Three hours, eleven minutes after Harry's death
The woman with the clipboard said, "Harry James Pott—no, no, no, you are fucking kidding me. Harry Potter, you're back here again?Not to mention, the last time you were here, you promised Gerhardus you would not come back for years yet—expect to be screamed at."
Hermione asked the woman, "Harry is back here 'again'? What do you mean?"
Harry said, "I've been in this waiting room before, but I don't remember anything else."
By then, Harry had stood up. Now Hermione stood up too, and grabbed Harry's arm. "Harry, whomever you're supposed to talk to now, I'm there with you."
Hermione then frog-marched Harry over to the woman with the clipboard.
Hermione looked at the woman's clipboard, then pointed at the top name on the list. " 'Hermione Jean Granger'—that's me. But I'll be with Harry James Potter; tell this to whomever I'm supposed to talk to."
The woman with the clipboard said, "This isn't allowed, one client sitting in on another client's meeting with his or her Grim Reaper."
Hermione replied in a haughty voice, "Harry has a long history of being buggered by bureaucrats, starting with a woman named McGonagall. I am going with him; accept this and move on."
Harry laughed. "Language, Hermione."
The woman with the clipboard shrugged, then opened a door. On the other side of the door was a corridor and a white-haired old man with white angel wings. "Two to speak with Gerhardus, Clarence," the woman with the clipboard said.
"Hoo boy," muttered Clarence.
Soon Harry and Hermione were led to a door that had a name on it: Gerhardus Freiherr von Schiffer, Grim Reaper. Clarence opened the door. The two British teens walked in.
"YOU!" Gerhardus yelled.
Chapter 2
Meeting Two Grim Reapers and Death
"YOU!" the man behind the desk yelled, at Harry.
Hermione walked into Gerhardus von Schiffer's office, behind Harry. Hermione was hugely unimpressed by what she saw.
To start with, Hermione lived by the adage, "A clean desk is the sign of an ordered mind." Hermione had a desk in her bedroom in Crawley; each night before she had gone to bed, everything on that desk had been put away where it was supposed to go.
In contrast, Gerhardus had what looked like sixty or seventy manila folders on his desk, in six stacks, plus another twenty or so manila folders dumped into an open wooden box. Honestly, the man had a filing cabinet—a wooden-walled filing cabinet that looked 1920s-ish—so why not use it?
Just as offensive to Hermione's sense of order: On the wall was a calendar, but this calendar had not been updated since April 1823!
On the opposite side of the room from where Harry and Hermione were entering, were two doors. One door was painted red; the floor in front of this door, and the doorjamb that surrounded the door, both were covered with black soot. The other door was painted pearlescent.
Hermione had no doubt in her mind, which door Harry soon would walk through.
Meanwhile, as Hermione was eyeing the room (and disapproving), a man with seventeenth-century clothing was yelling at Harry with a German accent. Harry had taken a seat on one side of a grey-metal desk; the man in period costume sat behind this desk.
So this is Gerhardus, Hermione thought. He acts like Professor Snape.
Under Gerhardus's angry verbal barrage, Harry was cringing. Here was another reason for Hermione to dislike Gerhardus.
"You failure! You loser! Are you a Dummkopf?" Gerhardus was yelling at Harry. "Your destiny is easy to understand: You slay the Dark Lord, you marry your soulmate—some Granger girl—and you live to be 184 years old. Instead, you keep dying! This sixth life, you let yourself die—and now you and I are in big trouble!"
Harry said, "Erm, I have a soulmate? And she's 'some Granger girl'?" Harry and Hermione exchanged looks.
Hermione asked Harry, "Did you know that you've lived before? Did you remember things to avoid, so you avoided them? You've never mentioned this."
Harry shook his head. "I didn't remember anything about any prior life till I came here."
Gerhardus snapped, "Of course you don't remember! I wiped your memory before I sent you back. Each of your past five lives, I wiped your memory of it before I sent you back."
"Why?" Hermione demanded.
" 'Why' what?" Gerhardus demanded back.
"Why didn't you let him keep his memories? It's stupid to erase all of Harry's hard-earned experience."
"I didn't let him keep his memories because I needed permission from higher-up for that," Gerhardus replied condescendingly, as if speaking to a dimwitted child.
"My mistake—you're not stupid, you're timid. Now explain how Harry and I could be soulmates, but I wound up in love with Ron Weasley and Harry dated Ginny Weasley."
Gerhardus glared at Hermione, then asked Harry, "Is she like this all the time?"
Hermione scowled. Gerhardus's attitude sounded way too similar to Mental, that one.
But meanwhile, Harry was saying angrily to Gerhardus, "Oi, the only reason I've lived this long is because of Hermione's excellent brain. Show her proper respect!"
Then Harry demanded, "Tell me how my soulmate is Hermione, but I fell in love with Ginny Weasley."
Gerhardus flipped through Harry's folder—spending less than fifteen seconds at the task. "I don't have time to find out who 'Ginny' is. But it says here that your relationship with Granger has been disrupted by means of mind-altering potions."
"Mr Potter, Miss Granger's relationship with you has been sabotaged just as much," said a woman's voice behind Harry and Hermione.
A woman was now walking into Gerhardus's office. She was in her thirties, with dark red hair like Susan Bones's hair, and a weak chin. She wore nineteenth-century clothes, and held a closed folder in her left hand.
The woman walked up to Hermione, her right hand out to shake. "I'm told you are Hermione Jean Granger. I'm Ada King, your Grim Reaper." The woman spoke with the Received Pronunciation accent of a BBC presenter.
Hermione blinked, because this was the first time a stranger ever had spoken Hermione's name properly, without Hermione needing to correct her. Then Hermione remembered something she had read in primary school.
As Hermione shook the offered hand, she asked, "Are you AugustaAda King, née Byron, Countess of Lovelace?"
Now it was the woman who blinked. "You've heard of me? I died 127 years before you were born."
"You wrote an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers!" Hermione said enthusiastically. "It was the world's first computer program, and you wrote it! And you are my Grim Reaper? This is brilliant."
Harry smiled at the newcomer. "I'll be honest: I've never heard of you. But if you're quite a smart woman, it's no surprise that Hermione has heard of you—at school, she was known as 'the brightest witch of her age.' "
Ada King laughed in delight. "This is why I'm Miss Granger's Grim Reaper—I asked Thanatos to assign to me all the girls and women who were so intelligent that other Grim Reapers cannot cope with them." Then she looked at Hermione with interest. "Only one human out of 6 042 is magical; so I've had only one other magical client before you. I am most delighted to work with you."
"This is all quite interesting," Gerhardus said sarcastically, "but we need to get back to what we were discussing before Mrs King interrupted. Namely, that Mr Potter here keeps failing to achieve his destiny."
Ada asked, "What do you mean, 'Keeps failing'? This implies continuous or repeated action."
Harry angrily explained to Hermione's Grim Reaper, "Supposedly this is the sixth time I've died. Gerhardus keeps sending my mind back in time to redo my life and to achieve my supposed destiny; but each time he sends me back, he wipes my memories. Then I blunder about like a drunk till I get killed again."
Hermione huffed. "Like I said before, Mr von Schiffer, that is just gormless. How do you expect Harry to achieve his destiny if everything he's learnt, you make him forget?"
Gerhardus snapped, "Nothing in the rules permits me to let Mr Potter keep his memories unless I get Thanatos's permission, and I won't bother him for that."
Now it was Harry who spoke angrily: "So because you're too timidto ask your boss for a signature, I had to suffer you yelling at me and calling me a failure, and Hermione heard you say this to me?"
Then Harry said to Hermione, "A minute ago, he told me my mind has been affected by potions. When I walked out to face Voldemort, I thought Ginny Weasley was the love of my life. But now? I think she's a nice kid, but way too obsessed with me. Now in this office, I'm wondering, how could I love Ginny any more than I could love Romilda Vane? Plus when you and I were dancing in the tent, and I wanted so badly to kiss you? I didn't, because I kept thinking, 'It would be disloyal to Ron.' The bell-end left us, three years after he publicly denounced me during the Triwizard, and I was still feeling loyalty to him? It's now obvious that I was potioned for two or three years before I died, but now the potions aren't working."
"Same here," Hermione said. She groaned as she covered his face with her hands. "Sixth year, Harry, honestly I was a hormonal fool. I'm so sorry."
"Potter!" Gerhardus snapped. "Stop with the chatter. You need to—"
"I don't need to do sod-all!" Harry yelled back. "I've got my parents waiting on the other side, and Sirius, and I've got Hermione right here—I'm looking forward to strumming a harp for centuries. And if this means Voldemort wins because I failed to achieve the destiny that you never let me remember, then that's on you, mate! Youexplain to whoever is in charge of destinies, why my destiny hasn't been fulfilled. I've done enough!"
"I can send you to hell if you don't cooperate," Gerhardus growled.
Ada sniffed haughtily. "Oh yes, Gerhardus, you can, but remember Rule 63 in the Handbook. Mr Potter will be in hell only till I talk to Thanatos and Thanatos gives new orders to the angels. Then guess who replaces Mr Potter in the Lake of Fire."
"Why are you pushing me to do this, anyway?" Harry asked Gerhardus.
Hermione said, "I smell a Dumbledore-ish plot."
Ada said, "I'm guessing that if Mr Potter keeps not fulfilling his destiny and keeps not fulfilling his destiny, Gerhardus might be sacked as his Grim Reaper. Or at the least, might be demoted."
Gerhardus glared at Ada but said nothing.
"Like I thought," Harry said to Gerhardus. "You don't give a rat's arse what Voldemort will do to Britain with me dead. You just want to keep being paid your nice salary."
Ada made the rocking-hand gesture.
"What I want to know, Gerhardus," Ada said, "is what all this talk of 'destiny' is about. Miss Granger doesn't have a destiny; none of my other clients ever had a destiny. Why do you say that Mr Potter has a destiny?"
Gerhardus paused, clearly groping for words. Then he glared at Ada and said, "I can't tell you. It's confidential."
Harry said, "I'm sure it has something to do with there being a prophecy about me."
Ada gasped. "Gerhardus! Since Mr Potter is the subject of a prophecy, how do you have his folder? You know that every client who hears a prophecy, or who is the subject of a prophecy, is supposed to be sent directly to Thanatos."
"It doesn't matter how I have his folder, Ada. The fact is, I do have his folder, I am who decides his Judgement, and Mr Potter needs to fulfill his destiny, or else he shall suffer the consequences."
Harry said to Hermione, "Gerhardus is definitely Dumbledore-ish. There are things he's not telling me, so that I'll be herded into making the 'right' decision."
Ada glared at Gerhardus. "No way shall I accept my client's heroic soulmate being sent to hell, else being sent back through time to relive a dangerous life but with his memories wiped. I am informing Thanatos about you."
So saying, Ada turned and hurried out of Gerhardus's office. Gerhardus tried to move the meeting forwards, but Harry and Hermione folded their arms and said little.
Two minutes after Ada left, a Being entered the room. Gerhardus was a Grim Reaper and Ada was a Grim Reaper, but this Being was the Grim Reaper—a walking adult-male skeleton who was wearing a cowled black robe.
Gerhardus's sneer changed to a look of panic.
The Grim Reaper—thankfully, not carrying a scythe—stepped into Gerhardus's office. Ada reentered Gerhardus's office behind the Grim Reaper.
The Grim Reaper walked close to Harry and Hermione. "I am Death, but I prefer the name Thanatos," the skeleton said, in a baritone voice. "Gerhardus von Schiffer and Ada King both work for me."
Then Thanatos held out a fleshless hand to Gerhardus. "Mrs King tells me you have the folder for Harry James Potter. Give it to me."
Gerhardus, clearly frightened now, closed Harry's folder and handed it to Thanatos. On the front of the folder, Hermione saw a large, royal-purple Π.
Thanatos said angrily, "This folder has been missing from my office since 1982. The capital-letter Pi means this client somehow is involved with a prophecy. Tell me why you took his folder."
Gerhardus replied nervously, "I thought if Potter achieved his destiny and I was his Grim Reaper when he did it, I'd earn a promotion. But Potter kept dying early, so I had to keep sending him back."
Hermione ranted, "Harry and I just learnt we've both been potioned by the Weasley family. I'm willing to bet that Harry was potioned in his previous lifetimes too. But Gerhardus here can't be bothered to let Harry keep his memories, so Harry has never known to look out for betraying redheads! Because Harry's memories are wiped, he never knows dangers to avoid. Now Mr von Schiffer says, 'You keep dying early, so I'm about to send you to hell.' " Hermione huffed.
"You stole from me, Gerhardus," said Thanatos. "Now I have two choices: to extend your penance by another few hundred years, or to pass a revised Judgement on you now. Unfortunately for you, I don't feel like showing you kindness."
Gerhardus's face was chalk-white as Thanatos called out "Giuseppe!"
A dark-skinned, black-haired (and white-robed and white-winged) angel flashed into the room. He looked strong enough that he could wrestle Hagrid and win.
"Antonia!" Thanatos called out. Light flashed and a white-robed, white-winged, brunette angel suddenly appeared in the room.
Hermione saw that Gerhardus was pale with fright.
Thanatos spoke German words to "Gerhardus Johannes von Schiffer" in a formal voice. Then Giuseppe the strong angel walked over to Gerhardus and picked him up off his chair, as easily as if Gerhardus were a baby.
Giuseppe carried Gerhardus over to the red door that was behind Gerhardus's desk. Gerhardus twisted and struggled to escape, but still he was held fast. Antonia opened the red door, then Giuseppe threw Gerhardus through the doorway, into the blackness beyond.
"NEI-EI-ei-nn!" Gerhardus yelled, as he fell out of sight.
Black smoke entered the room through the open red door, till Antonia shut this door.
Thanatos looked at Harry, and the voice of the Incarnation of Death now sounded friendly: "Mr Potter, I invite you to my office, to discuss all the things that you should have discussed with me, instead of with Mr von Schiffer. My deepest apologies for all the suffering he has put you through."
"Sure, no problem, sir, I'll talk with you. But I ask that Hermione and Mrs King be allowed to come with me. They've been quite helpful to me."
"An excellent idea, Mr Potter."
"Thank you, angels," Hermione heard Thanatos say. After two flashes of light, Antonia and Giuseppe were gone from Gerhardus's office.
Then the black-cowled skeleton led Harry, Hermione and Ada out of Gerhardus's office, along a corridor and to a bone-white-coloured door. Thanatos opened the door and walked through it.
On the corridor wall next to the door, Hermione noticed, were hundreds (thousands?) of words, going from ceiling to floor in tiny writing. The words were in every alphabet that Hermione had ever seen, including cuneiform, Oriental writing, Cyrillic writing, and many Roman-alphabet words. Amongst the words that Hermione did not know, and the words that she could not even read, she spotted the words Θάνατος, Mors, Mort, Muerte, Tod and Death.
The display of the many, many words for Death was fascinating, and Hermione wanted to study them. Harry murmured, "Maybe later, Hermione. He's waiting."
Hermione blinked. "Right. Of course." She, Harry and Ada walked into Thanatos's office.
Ada murmured, "I understand your interest, Miss Granger. The linguistics of that wall are fascinating."
In the gigantic room that Hermione found herself in, were thousands of filing cabinets. Those filing cabinets were being tended by Antonia, Giuseppe and other white-winged angels in white robes.
Near a corner of the room was a huge, wooden desk, into which were carved dancing skeletons. The top of this desk was clean—Hermione saw no papers and no folders, no pens, pencils or quills—except for two heads that faced in opposite directions, with the heads' braincases touching.
The back-to-back heads were a pair of skulls. The skull whose face that Hermione could see, had pink, healthy lips and flesh out to its (nonexistent) ears, all covering its face below the skull's nose-triangle.
Beyond the desk and the desk's two half-fleshed skulls, a large wood-and-steel scythe rested again the corner made by the back wall and the left-side wall. Near the scythe, the back wall's smoothness was interrupted by a wooden peg that was a bit more than a man's height above the ground. Next to the peg, a round, wooden shield, which was about two and a half feet in diameter, hung on the wall. A stubby bronze (not steel) sword also had been mounted on the wall. The shield had many gouges, and the edges of the sword had many nicks.
When Hermione stepped into the gigantic room, she saw that the skeleton-man had walked over to the peg on the wall; now he was removing his black cowled robe. As soon as his body no longer was covered by the black garment, flesh and different clothing appeared on the skeleton.
Hermione watched as a shaved-bald man in his forties, who was wearing brown-leather armour, hung Death's robe on the peg. Just as the sword on the wall was made of bronze, so the man's leather armour was held tightly in place by bronze (not steel) rings.
The man called out, "O Antonia-nib, something-something-something-something." The head on Thanatos's desk that was facing the visitors, magically translated those words as "Antonia, conjure two more chairs, please." The head spoke these English-language words with Thanatos's baritone voice.
On the client-side of Death's desk was a wooden chair; now two other wooden chairs flashed into existence, one chair on either side of the original chair. Thanatos gestured towards the three client-chairs—please have a seat.
Harry sat in the leftmost client-chair, Hermione sat next to Harry and Ada sat next to Hermione. Hermione noticed that Ada did not sit back in her chair, but sat on the front third of the seat—something that Hermione had read was done by British women of good breeding, back in the day.
Thanatos, still appearing as the shaved-bald man wearing brown-leather armour, sat down in his own chair. He then spoke in his language. The half-fleshed skull that faced Harry, Hermione and Ada said, in Thanatos's male voice, "Please give me time to become familiar with Mr Potter's file. Whilst I do so, you may talk quietly amongst yourselves."
So saying, Thanatos opened Harry's folder, as Antonia the angel walked over. Antonia waved a hand, and the pages of text in the folder changed from English to cuneiform.
Hermione took Harry's hand, as she began lecturing Ada about modern computer programming. Whilst Hermione and Ada talked, Harry fidgeted.
Eventually Thanatos nodded at Antonia, Antonia waved the pages in Harry's folder back to English-language text, then Thanatos closed the folder. Light flashed, and Antonia was gone.
Thanatos looked at Harry and Hermione with a serious expression.
Thanatos turned to look at Ada and asked, "Mrs King, can you tell me what Miss Granger's MPI, Merlin Power Index, is? I'm willing to bet that it has been reduced."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I know almost nothing about the magical parts of this folder." The skull that was facing Thanatos now spoke with Ada's voice, but spoke in a foreign language.
Thanatos replied to Ada (in translation), "Ask Miss Granger to help you. The information will be somewhere in the first six pages of her folder."
A minute later, Hermione snarled, "Harry, the average MPI for a wizard or witch who isn't a Squib, is 100. My MPI was 151—Outstanding-level—but then somehow my core was bound by 30 percent, giving me an MPI of only 106. Barely above average."
Harry scowled. "Someone didn't want Hermione Granger the Muggle-born humiliating the Purebloods when you sat your practical exams, not only your theory exams."
Thanatos said, "That 'someone' was Albus Dumbledore. He put several core-bindings on Mr Potter also, which lowered Mr Potter's MPI by 80 percent, leaving him with an MPI of only 203."
Harry nodded. "Thankfully, even with the bearded buffoon binding my core, I still could cast a Patronus that drove off a hundred Dementors."
Ada asked the teens, "What Mr Potter just said, it's unusual for you magicals?"
Hermione replied, "Not merely 'unusual,' it's completely unheard of."
Then Hermione turned to stare at Thanatos. "Harry's original MPI was 1015? That's Merlin-level!"
Thanatos replied, "Yes. Which creates a problem. Had you, Mr Potter, with your full magical power, faced Tom Riddle, with Miss Granger by your side and using her full magical power, the Dark Lord and his minions would have been blasted into red mist, and the prophecy would have been fulfilled to the good of mortals. But after Mr Dumbledore has worked his core-bindings and his potions, the prophecy is fulfilled, but with the Dark Lord alive and Mr Potter dead. Mr Dumbledore failed to understand the beginning words of the prophecy—with you dead, Mr Potter, nobody else can kill Mr Riddle. Now he is invincible."
Harry scowled. "The headmaster has doomed Magical Britain, you're saying. That, that"—he looked at Hermione and Ada, and changed what he intended to say—"that prat!"
Thanatos nodded. "That bearded wizard plotted your death, Mr Potter, before you were born. In your future, remember: Even when he is acting like the 'kindly grandfather,' he always is your enemy."
Thanatos said, "Back to the prophecy. Mr von Schiffer, for all his faults, had the right idea how to deal with the prophecy. With you dead, Mr Potter, the only way to fix the prophecy the way we want—with you and Miss Granger living long and happy lives together, and with Mr Riddle sitting in front of my desk quite soon—is for your mind to be sent back in time. But this time, Mr Potter, I promise that your mental time-travel will be done right."
Harry said, "Meaning, I have my full memories. Can you do something about the horcrux in my scar?"
Thanatos nodded. "Easily removed. And speaking of horcruxes, I'll make sure you 'remember' the Apparation coordinates for the Gaunt shack. That's where the Gaunt ring is—but watch out for its withering curse!"
Hermione bit her lip, then said, "Erm, sir, may I ask a question? I don't understand your planning about 'Let's send Harry's mind into the past.' I had a Time-Turner when I was thirteen; and as brilliant as having it was, it came with a huge drawback: I couldn't change what I knew had happened."
Ada shook her head. "Sorry, I cannot believe that. If I accept for the sake of argument that travel into the past is possible, then changing the past not only is possible, it is inevitable—the odds approach 100.000 percent when you spend more than a brief amount of time in the past."
Thanatos sighed. "The Fates really, really do not like the timestream to be rewritten. This is why Time-Turners have that limitation built in, and why only I, or someone Upstairs, may permit a time-traveller with full memories to go into the past. But now in May 1998, with Voldemort alive and invincible, both I and the Beings to whom I report, must think the unthinkable."
Hermione said, "The 'unthinkable' thing is to send Harry's mind into the past with full memories, am I correct?"
"You are," Thanatos said.
Hermione took a breath. "Sir, rather than I accepting Judgement and going on to my Reward, I ask that you also send my mind into the past with full memories, to the same day Harry goes. We just found out that Harry is my soulmate; and if he's going to put himself in danger again, I'd rather be with him than go to Heaven alone."
Harry said, "Not to mention, Hermione, the only reason I'd agree to go back is if you were with me. Otherwise, if you go to Heaven now, I'll let Voldy own Britain whilst I sit next to you and strum my harp."
Ada said, "May I ask you two about something my one previous magical client told me? She said that a magical child is not as powerful as that same person as an adult, am I right? That every magical person has something like a bottle for their magic, and in a child, the bottle is smaller?"
Hermione gasped. "Harry, she's right! If we travel back to fourth year or later, Voldemort will be too well set up; and if we go back to third year or younger, we'll be limited in how much magic we can do, even with all our core-bindings removed, because we'll have immature cores!"
"Bugger-all," Harry said. For once, Hermione did not correct his language.
"I see a solution to the problem," Ada said. "Correction: I see maybe a solution. Thanatos, instead of sending their minds back in time, you send them—their entire bodies as they are now—back in time, with each given a magical disguise so that nobody realises little Hermione Granger and little Harry Potter each have a years-older twin sibling."
Thanatos laughed. "If we're going to quit worrying about the timestream being changed, then 'Reach for the stars or slink away in shame,' as an old, old, old saying goes. I like your idea so much, Mrs King, I'm promoting you to Senior Grim Reaper."
Ada smiled. "I accept the promotion, thank you, so long as you still assign me the girls and women of genius." Ada smiled at Hermione.
Thanatos said, "Now before I send these two back in time, let's do some five-way planning. Antonia, please join us."
With a flash of light, the brunette angel suddenly was standing by Thanatos's desk.
OMAKE by The_Ghostly_Minion
After Thanatos promoted Mrs. King to Senior Reaper, Harry had a thought.
"Mrs. King, you said Hermione is the second witch for whom you've been a Reaper. Can you tell us who the first witch was?"
With a glance towards Thanatos, who nodded, she turned to Harry. "My first witch was named Lily Marie Evans Potter."
An endless joy filled Harry. He gave Hermione a crushing hug and then told Mrs. King in a reverent voice, "That's my mum!"
Chapter 3
Planning
Still in Thanatos's office, in Eternity
The discussion began with Harry and Hermione telling Thanatos and Ada all the hard truths about their lives that they had learnt the hard way, that they had not known when they were younger.
Then Thanatos went through Harry's folder, and Ada went through Hermione's folder, and they told the magical teenagers all the hard truths that the soulmates still did not know—such as when and how Harry and Hermione each had first been mind-whammied with Molly Weasley potions. Thanatos also told Harry much information that the goblins were supposed to have told him, that Harry never got the chance to hear because of Dumbledore's control of Harry's comings and goings.
Alas, Antonia the angel refused to explain to Harry or to Hermione why the prophecy was worded the way it was, or what the prophecy meant. Harry still had no clue what was "the power the Dark Lord knows not."
Now with the background information given, the five made plans.
The five decided on sending older Harry and Hermione back in time to 23rd July 1991, the day before young Harry received his (first) Hogwarts letter.
For the disguises, the five decided that Harry and Hermione would become Americans, with accents to match.
Harry would become a new person, John Potter, who would be young Harry's second cousin. Hermione would become a new person, Paulina Moffitt—with a great-grandfather in common with young Hermione—Stephen Moffitt a.k.a Stefanus Malfoy—but with Paulina having new grandparents.
John and Paulina would have school records at Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the USA state of Massachusetts. After Harry's and Hermione's transformations into John and Paulina, Ilvermorny's records would show that John and Paulina each completed six years of school, then took a "gap year" rather than attend his or her seventh year.
Some Ilvermorny professors would have vague memories of John and Paulina, but only as "quiet students."
(Harry asked Hermione, "When have you ever been a quiet student?" Then he answered his own question: "At midnight, when you're asleep." Hermione smacked his arm.)
Despite the saying that "You can't take it with you," Harry's and Hermione's clothes had come to Eternity with them—including their wand holsters and the Ollivander wands in those holsters. When Harry and Hermione would be transformed into John and Paulina, the names registered to their wands would likewise be changed to "John George Potter" and "Paulina Priscilla Moffitt"; their Ollivander wands would become Walton wands.
Once the couple was "visiting" in Britain, "John Potter" would loudly declare his intention to start Harry in his American school; but the teen boy could be "persuaded" to let young Harry begin his first year of magical school at Hogwarts, and Harry's adoptive parents would "transfer" to Hogwarts for their seventh year (but not take NEWTs at end of seventh year).
Harry's and Hermione's transformation to John and Paulina would be done at a time of their choosing, by each of the teens speaking a certain sentence aloud. For Hermione, the words were I become Paulina Priscilla Moffitt; for Harry, the words were The name is Potter, John Potter. The transformations would be total and irreversible—
Harry asked Thanatos and Antonia, "By 'The transfigurations will be total,' this means what, exactly? Our looks and accents will change, and...?"
Antonia answered, "Your looks will change, you'll speak American words and phrases with American accents, and your magical signatures will change."
Harry asked, "Will this change me? Will I still be a wizard 'with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord'? Because if I won't be any longer, and little-boy Harry still has to face Voldy alone, then we can forget all this right now!"
Antonia said, "Your magical signature will change, but you soul shall remain as it is now. The prophecy is tied to your soul. After you go to 1991, either young Harry or you can vanquish the Dark Lord. Also, when either you or young Harry touches Voldemort, your skin has Lily's Blessing."
With this point clarified, the discussion resumed. Because the teens' body-changes, once they were made, would be total and irreversible, Harry and Hermione were strongly urged not to change their bodies till after they had met with the Granger family, Director Ragnok at Gringotts, and the house-elves at Potter Manor.
(Harry said, "There are house-elves at Potter Manor? Dumbledore told me the place was destroyed.")
Antonia taught older Hermione the Healer spell that she could cast on young Harry, to remove his core-bindings. Hermione was strongly urged to remove only one core-binding per day, and to have a vial of Pepper-Up Potion at hand afterwards.
Then Hermione was taught the spell to diagnose core-bindings, on the theory that Dumbledore probably would do a sneak-rebinding of young Harry or young Hermione, or perhaps might even bind the cores of the time-travelled teens themselves.
Ada looked at the teens. "I don't know how Magical Britain works, but in my day, a British court would not let a seventeen-year-old American man adopt his second cousin if the man were a bachelor. The court would figure that the bachelor would bring loose women to his house and the child would be traumatised. I think the only way you can lawfully take young Harry away from the Dursleys is if you two are married. What do you think of this?"
"Wha-what about Ron?" Harry stammered. "Hermione, I don't want to force you into—"
"Harry," Hermione said. "I now feel no love, no lust and no loyalty to Ronald Bilius Weasley. All I feel towards him is deep antipathy. But you I've loved—loved, Harry—since we rode on Buckbeak together. I just figured that—that you never saw me as a possible girlfriend."
Harry stared at his shoes. "I don't know what love is, Hermione, I don't. All I know is that when you were petrified in second year, and when Dolohov cursed you in fifth year, I felt awful. For me it would be no chore at all to marry you. Is this good enough?"
Hermione lunged at Harry, hugged him fiercely, and was about to kiss him.
"Stop!" said Thanatos. "Mr Potter, Miss Granger, save the kissing for 1991, after you've transformed."
"Why, sir?" disappointed Hermione asked.
Antonia the angel answered, "Since you two are both magical and you're soulmates, the first time you kiss in 1991, you'll be magically married."
Harry laughed. "Brilliant! I won't need to hire a tuxedo."
"Prat," Hermione said, and slapped his arm.
Then Hermione said, "We should find a way to go to the States after we transform, and kiss there. This way, our marriage will be recorded in the USA. This would make the story told by 'John Potter' in Britain more believable."
Harry said to Thanatos, "Sir, what if I fail again? Gerhardus threatened that if I failed to kill Voldemort this time, I'll be sent to hell."
The shaved-head man with the brown-leather armour smiled at Harry. "When you go back, your scar will have no horcrux in it, your magical core will be unbound, Miss Granger's core will be unbound, you both will have your memories; and I've decided to make you both immune to all mind-magics. Short of you walking up to Tom Riddle or to Lucius Malfoy and snapping your own wand, it will be almost impossible for you to lose. Don't worry about being sent to hell."
Hermione said, "Sir, whilst I'm glad Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape can't read our minds, if we 'transfer' to Hogwarts, which requires a Sorting at the start, the Sorting Hat needs to read our minds."
Thanatos nodded. "I'll make a note."
The only thing left was the paperwork. Thanatos spoke two contracts, which Antonia the angel wrote up. Harry and Hermione each signed his/her contract, which thankfully had no surprises or Gotchas after the five-Being planning session.
Hermione's contract said that she was banned from telling almost everyone in the past, two facts: that she was from the future, and that she had died and had met her Grim Reaper. However, she was permitted to tell these two secrets to the Daniel Granger family, to young Harry Potter, to Director Ragnok at Gringotts, and to the Potter house-elves. Hermione presumed that Harry's contract said the same thing.
As Harry laid down his pen, he asked Thanatos, "Just out of curiosity, what happened to Dumbledore after he died? What was his Judgement?"
Thanatos smiled a cruel smile. "Considering that Mr Dumbledore tried to herd the prophecy, he caused the prophecy to be fulfilled in a disastrous way, he plotted your death before you were born and he gave you no help or training to fulfill the prophecy—let's just say that these days, Mr Dumbledore is nostalgic for cold Scottish winters."
With both contracts signed, Harry and Hermione stood up, and each of them shook Thanatos's hand. Then Ada led Harry and Hermione over to the filing cabinets (where the angels worked). Hermione hugged Ada, to the much older woman's surprise. Then Hermione hugged Harry.
Harry asked Thanatos, "Before Hermione and I leave, do you have any advice for us?"
Thanatos replied, "First of all, get yourself to the goblin bank and be officially told all the things that Dumbledore doesn't want you to know. That is, meet with the Potter account manager after you convince Director Ragnok to get rid of Bronzedagger; that dishonourable goblin is helping Dumbledore steal from you!"
Then Thanatos said, "Mr Potter, it would be wise of you to take the Elder Wand away from Dumbledore as soon as you can. You will find that, since you are a direct descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the Elder Wand will work well for you. When you summon Dumbledore's Elder Wand, be sure to immediately also summon James Potter's Invisibility Cloak."
Harry sighed. "I could do that, summon the Cloak, but it won't do me any good if I'm opposing Dumbledore. Somehow he always could see me when I was invisible to everyone else."
Thanatos laughed scornfully. "Because that son-of-a-tanner cheated. The Cloak itself cannot be detected and it cannot be Summoned—but the Cloak is silver-coloured, is it not? Dumbledore sewed a silver-coloured cotton thread into the Cloak, then put a tracking charm on that thread."
Hermione said, "So if Harry wants to be invisible even to Dumbledore, Harry needs to find and to remove the cotton thread in the Cloak."
"Indeed," said Thanatos. Looking at Harry again, Thanatos said, "The goblins can remove Riddle's dark magic from the Gaunt ring, without magically harming the Resurrection Stone that is in the Gaunt ring; there is no reason to destroy the Resurrection Stone. Now, should you wind up owning the Cloak, the Wand and the Stone, all three, you will not become any sort of demigod Master of Death."
"He won't?" Hermione asked.
Thanatos looked at Harry and said, "You will, however, discover that each of the three Deathly Hallows works better than before."
Harry shrugged. "I can live with that."
By then, Antonia was standing in front of Hermione, and an oriental-man angel was standing in front of Harry.
Antonia the angel did not say anything, or make any gestures, likewise with the oriental-man angel—
—but suddenly Harry and Hermione were standing in front of the front steps of a large house. Harry saw that one part of the horizon was bright with a low sun; either the sun had just risen, or the sun was about to set.
Harry gasped then, with what he suddenly felt, and Hermione gasped at the same time.
Hermione said, "I feel magically stronger."
Harry nodded. "I feel much stronger magically; I feel ridiculouslystronger. I feel like I could Wingardium Leviosa a double-decker bus."
Hermione grinned. "With us both so powerful, this just might work, Harry!"
Hermione drew her wand, and cast Tempus where Harry's body blocked the neighbours—but not the people in the house—from seeing the floating magical numerals.
"It's Tuesday, 23rd July 1991, just as we planned. The time is 6:35 in the early morning," Hermione told Harry, as she stowed her wand back in its wand holster.
Then Hermione confidently climbed the steps and moved forwards, with the index finger of her right hand about to press the doorbell.
She looked over her shoulder at Harry. "Are you ready to meet my eleven-year-old self again? And that girl's parents?"
Harry thought, Gryffindors charge ahead. Aloud, he said, "You mean my about-to-be in-laws? Sure, bring it."
Chapter 4
H&H Meet the Grangers and Ragnok
Tuesday, 23rd July 1991, early morning
Crawley, West Sussex, England
Hermione was about to ring the front doorbell of what clearly was her former home. Harry gasped and said, "Hermione, stop!"
"What's wrong?"
"These are the clothes we died in! We need to clean ourselves up, at the least. And maybe transfigure our clothes to something nicer?"
Hermione moved to where she was standing two feet in front of the door, facing Harry and with her back to the door. Harry and Hermione each drew their wand, Scourgify-cleaned each other's clothes, then transfigured each other's clothes to go-to-church clothes.
After both teens restowed their wands, Hermione walked back to the doorbell. This time she pressed the button, released it, pressed it again, released it, and pressed it again.
A full minute later, Harry heard a man's voice say from the other side of the door, "Hermione, stay back. Let me handle this."
A man in his late thirties or early forties opened the door. Harry saw that the man had curly, chocolate-brown hair with a receding hairline, and he was wearing a bathrobe. He had his right hand on the doorknob and his left hand behind his back.
Beyond the man, Harry saw a well-remembered eleven-year-old girl with bushy, chestnut-brown hair. The girl's face burnt with curiosity.
Before the man could speak, older Hermione spoke: "Hello, Dad, I'm your daughter Hermione Jean, nearly seven years older. May my companion Harry Potter and I come in and tell you, Mum and my young self about things that Professor McGonagall didn't tell you, ten months ago?"
Harry expected the man to need convincing. Instead, he peered at older Hermione's face, then said in a strange voice, "Nobodyexcept my daughter has hair like that, so you must be her. Come in."
Harry and older Hermione got parked on the sofa whilst the Granger parents went through their routine to get ready for work. Dan Granger ordered young Hermione to stay away from the older teens till breakfast—not because he was worried about the girl's safety, but so she would not question-bomb their strange visitors.
According to older Hermione, this morning the parental Grangers took less time than normal at their morning routine; still, it took forty-five minutes before the adult Grangers, now with damp hair and wearing dental whites, were sitting at the dining-room table with the makings for breakfast. Young Hermione—who also was sitting at the dining-room table, along with the teens—was shakingwith curiosity.
Young Hermione, when she finally had the opportunity, questioned-bombed everyone: "Dad, how did you know she was me from the future? Are you two from the future? Are you really Harry Potter? How did you two come back to 1991? Why did you two come back to 1991?"
Harry grinned at older Hermione. "You don't question-bomb me anymore. Hearing her do it, it's cute."
Dan Granger said, "I'll answer the easy question, princess: Nobody I know has hair like yours. Even when we go to gatherings of my family or Emma's family, nobody has hair like yours. But she does. Q.E.D, she's you."
Older Hermione smiled at her father, then said to her younger self, "Your hair is so wild because you're magical. By now you've noticed that whenever you're worried, or afraid, or angry, your hair gets bushier, right?"
Young Hermione nodded, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Notice in the future: When nonmagical people get emotional, it doesn't affect their hair."
Young Hermione turned to Harry. "You're Harry Potter? The Harry Potter? There are write-ups about you in—"
Older Hermione interrupted: "—Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and—erm, one more—Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
Dan Granger laughed, then said to older Hermione, "You've convinced me again, you're our Hermione."
Harry looked at the three 1991-version Grangers and said, "Why are we here? A nasty magical Hitler will rise soon, and Hermione and I will use our knowledge of the future to stop him. Also, my younger self is being abused, and my Hermione and I plan to rescue him. In the timeline that my Hermione and I lived through, when young me goes to Hogwarts, his life will stay bad, but in a different way from home. Since young Hermione will get sucked into all that crap—"
"Language, Harry."
"—when she becomes friends with young me, my Hermione and I will be working to also keep young Hermione safe."
Dan Granger looked at older Hermione and asked, "What 'crap' did you go through during your Hogwarts years?"
"Hoo boy," said Harry. "How much time do we have? How long before you two leave for work?"
Emma Granger glanced at the clock. "It's 7:25 now; we leave for work at 8:30."
Harry and older Hermione shared a look. Then older Hermione said, "Two months after Harry and I started our first year at Hogwarts, a troll was brought into the castle."
"A mountain troll," Harry clarified. "They're twelve feet tall, and stupid. The good news is, Hermione and I surviving the troll together was what started our friendship."
Hearing this, young Hermione beamed a megawatt smile.
Dan Granger asked, "Older Hermione, before we hear more stories, how is it that your upper central incisors have no macrodontia like our daughter's?"
It was Harry who answered. "Magic," he said, with a cheeky grin.
Older Hermione slapped his arm. "Prat."
Younger Hermione now was grinning like she had just been handed a sack of gold.
Emma said to older Hermione, "Would you do magic for us, please? Professor McGonagall warned us that it'll be years before our Hermione can do magic away from school."
Older Hermione looked at her younger self and asked, "You bought your wand last September, correct?"
When younger Hermione nodded, older Hermione looked at her mother apologetically. "Before a magical child gets their wand, any magic that they do is considered 'accidental magic' and is forgiven. But after they get their wand, if they do magic at home, the Improper Use of Magic Office will send them a letter, or the Ministry will send out magical police to investigate. I really don't want my young self to get a letter for something I did, nor do I want magical police coming here and finding an older Hermione Granger here and an older Harry Potter here."
Seeing the Grangers' disappointment, Harry said, "Why don't we do magic tonight, after my Hermione and I assume our new identities?"
Older Hermione said, "In the meantime, my parents want to know about my Hogwarts years. Nine days after the incident with the troll, Harry played his first Quidditch game. Think three-dimensional polo, played on flying brooms. When an evil teacher tried to make Harry fall off his broom and die, your sweet, rule-abiding daughter..."
An hour later, at 8:25 a.m
After Harry and older Hermione tell their stories
Dan Granger groaned. "What can we do? Hogwarts sounds awful, and we've already paid Hermione's Hogwarts fees for the year."
Harry said, "Let's discuss that tonight, when you aren't under time-pressure."
Older Hermione said, "Remember that when we come back here tonight, we'll be in our permanent disguises. I don't know what we'll look like, except that we'll look different than now."
Then older Hermione said to young Hermione, "When an eighteen-year-old woman comes to your door tonight and she claims she's you, be ready with a question that she can answer but nobody else can."
Harry said, "Something either quite swotty or quite embarrassing. Oh, young Hermione, one more thing—"
"Yes?" the bushy-haired girl said.
Harry was grinning again. "When my Hermione and I come back here tonight, do you think you could draw up a list of questions for us?"
Older Hermione smacked his arm again. "Harry James Potter, if you were organised and methodical like she and I are, your life would've had much less frightening drama in it."
Harry smiled at the young girl. "Too true."
Happy young Hermione smiled back.
Five minutes later, elsewhere in Crawley
As Dan was driving himself and Emma to Granger & Granger Dental, Emma said, "Those two told us things that have me so worried, but one thing makes me happy."
"Oh?" Dan said. "What's that?"
"Did you notice how comfortable those two are with each other? We've hoped Hermione will make friends when she goes to Hogwarts, and seven years later, she has a relationship with Harry Potter that is better than that of many married couples we know."
"Just so they don't act like a married couple in other ways," Dan grumped.
Meanwhile, in the lobby of Gringotts
Harry was wearing a conjured hat that covered his fading scar. No wizards were paying attention to Harry or to Hermione, mainly because the bank had few customers this time of day.
The wait was short before Harry and Hermione were at the head of the queue for their teller.
Harry said to the goblin, "Teller, I will s-l-o-w-l-y draw both my wands and pass them to you. You'll understand why in a minute."
Harry moved as slowly as if he were practising a martial-arts kata, first to draw his holly-and-phoenix-feather wand from his left-forearm wand holster, and to lay the wand on the counter; then to draw his backup wand from his other wand holster, then to lay this wand on the counter too.
The reason that Harry was moving so slowly was that if either the teller or the goblin guards decided that Harry was drawing a wand threateningly, Harry would be dead within seconds!
When Harry had disarmed himself, he said to the teller, "I don't have a key to present. I know your procedure is to give me a blood test to determine my identity. I'm warning you now, when you see my name, you'll think I'm trying to trick you, which is why I surrendered my wands ahead of time."
The teller stabbed Harry's ring-finger with a dagger, dripped three drops of Harry's blood onto a parchment, then magically cleaned the dagger and healed Harry's finger.
Harry saw that, upside down, blood-red letters formed on the parchment. When the teller read the parchment, he looked at Harry in shock—
"Have you drunk a combination of Polyjuice Potion and Aging Potion, wizard? No way are you H—"
"Ssh! Don't say the name aloud!" Harry snapped. "But yes, that's me."
"How?" the teller demanded.
"I won't say how. Not out here, which is too public. But to Director Ragnok I will explain how I look like I do. Please pass my wands to him and tell him that a certain wizard"—Harry pointed to the blood-red name on the parchment—"age seventeen, wishes to speak with him."
Fourteen minutes later
Harry had been told that goblins hated time-wasting chit-chat. So as soon as Harry and Hermione were in Ragnok's office and the door was shut, Harry said, "Director Ragnok, I'm Harry James Potter, and this is my soulmate, Hermione Jean Granger. We're from the future—May 1998. This is when we died and this is when we met Thanatos, but obviously we're alive now. But our eleven-year-old selves are alive too. Thanatos has sent us back in time to fix the next seven years."
Ragnok was decisive, or he never would have achieved the position of Director. He was silent for only ten seconds before he asked, "What proof, besides what the enchanted parchment shows, can you give me to show that you're from the future?"
Harry said, "How's this? I predict that sometime on 31st July, eight days from now, a wizard named Quirinus Quirrell will try to break into Vault 713 to steal what's there."
Ragnok growled.
Harry added, "You should know that Quirrell is possessed by the wraith of Lord Voldemort—whose real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle." Harry spelled the name.
"How is Voldemort—or Riddle—not dead?"
Harry answered, "Because he made horcruxes." Ragnok snarled. Harry continued, "What is in young Harry's lightning-bolt scar is an accidental horcrux. A quite deliberate horcrux is the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff, which is stored in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. Another horcrux, the diary that is stamped 'Tom Marvolo Riddle,' is stored either in Malfoy Manor or here in a Malfoy vault."
"He made three horcruxes?"
"Actually, he made six horcruxes, though he knows about only five. In 1994, he'll make a seventh—except that Hermione and I are here to prevent this."
Ragnok then held up his hand, to mean Hold that thought. He yelled something in Goblinspeak; a minute later, four unarmed older goblins had run into the office and had bowed.
Ragnok said in Goblinspeak, something about Lestrange Bellatrixand Hufflepuff Helga. Two of the older goblins bowed, then backed away towards the door. Ragnok spoke again in Goblinspeak, something about Riddle Tom Marvolo and Malfoy Lucius; the other two older goblins bowed, then backed away towards the door.
Ragnok returned his attention to Harry and Hermione. "So why are you two here? To kill Voldemort for good?"
Harry replied, "That's part of it. But also to rescue my young self. Dumbledore declared himself my magical guardian, whilst my mother's magic-hating sister and her angry husband were my Muggle guardians—and between Dumbledore and the Dursleys, my life was nonstop abuse and misery. My other plan, besides dealing with Voldemort, is to become my young self's magical guardian, at least till Sirius Black is freed."
Harry paused to explain how what "everybody knows" about Sirius Black was not true; and in fact, Sirius Black was innocent of all the crimes for which he was imprisoned without a trial.
Ragnok then asked, "What do you want from Gringotts?"
Hermione replied, "Thanatos put an Eternity spell on both of us; it activates when we each speak a certain phrase. The spell will change our appearance, our accent, our Hufflepuff Magical Signature Texts"—magical signatures—"and invent a new heritage for each of us. We want you to witness our change. Then we want you to send us to Gringotts New York for them to marry us."
Harry said, "Though Thanatos told us that since we're soulmates, all we need to do is to kiss and we'll become magically married."
Hermione said, "But whilst we're in Gringotts New York, we need magical passports with our new names and identities."
Harry scowled. "One more thing: Thanatos told me that Bronzedagger, the Potter Account Manager, was helping Dumbledore steal from me. Whilst Hermione and I are in New York, I ask that you rebuke Bronzedagger. But when you replace him, please make sure Dumbledore doesn't find out."
Ragnok snarled, "On my honour, I shall indeed 'rebuke' Bronzedagger. I predict that soon Bronzedagger will suffer a severe neckache. As will any other Gringotts employee who shares Gringotts galleons or Gringotts secrets with that bearded fool."
Then Ragnok asked, "Is there anything else you need from Gringotts today?"
Harry replied, "I'm going to tell you young Harry's street address, since Dumbledore put an owl-mail redirect on him. Right now, only four magical people know young Harry's address—one of whom is time-traveller me. But this isn't the problem it sounds like, because by tomorrow hopefully, young Harry will be gone from the bloody fucking Dursleys forever."
Harry expected Hermione to chastise him for his language. Instead, she hugged him.
"Anyway, young Harry James Potter lives at Number 4, Privet Drive, P-R-I-V-E-T, Little Whinging township, W-H-I-N-G-I-N-G, Surrey, England."
"Got it," Ragnok replied.
Again Ragnok yelled something in Goblinspeak; two unarmed young goblins ran in. Ragnok spoke more Goblinspeak then; Harry could make out the words Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey and Bronzedagger. Less than a minute later, the two young goblins ran back in. One of them handed a parchment to Ragnok, the two goblins bowed to Ragnok, then both goblins backed out of the room.
Ragnok said to Harry and Hermione, "Since November 1981, Dumbledore has been removing two hundred galleons a month from your trust vault, vault 687, converting the galleons to one thousand British pounds, and Gringotts has been paying that money to 'Vernon G. Dursley.' How the money was sent was by using the Nation's 'money-banish' spell, for which Vault 687 was charged two galleons each time. The ledger notes include the Nation-format map coordinates where the Muggle money was sent to—those map coordinates work out to be the street address you gave me."
Harry snapped, "What? Uncle Vernon has been receiving a thousand pounds a month for my care, from the beginning? In the ten years of '81 to '91, I doubt he spent a hundred pounds total on me, other than for food, and damned little of that!"
Hermione nodded. "Every September, Harry came to Hogwarts thinner than when he left, and his clothes were always oversize and worn out."
As Hermione rubbed Harry's back to soothe him, Ragnok's smile showed all his piranha-like teeth. "How would you like Gringotts to deal with Vernon Dursley?"
"After I've removed young Harry from Privet Drive, I ask you to rebuke the Dursleys—all three of them."
Harry looked at Hermione and said, "Acting like 'Mr Nice Bloke' achieved nothing in my life but getting me played for a fool by everyone—even Gerhardus. It sounds cruel, and maybe you'll lose respect for me, Hermione, but each of those people nearly killed me at least once, so it's not like they would be too harshly punished. Besides, if the Dursleys are dead, Dumbledore can't send young Harry back to them."
Hermione said, "I don't disrespect you, Harry. I love you." She kissed him on the cheek.
There was a knock on the door then; Ragnok commanded, "Enter!"
Two of the older goblins were back; one of them was holding a lead box. At Ragnok's command, that goblin put the lead box on a corner of Ragnok's desk, whilst the other goblin gave a report. Harry heard that goblin say Lestrange Bellatrix twice.
Then Ragnok spoke to those two older goblins. Whatever he said to them was favourable, because both older goblins stood straight, before bowing deeply.
Harry murmured to Hermione, "Should we tell Ragnok that how we got the Cup in 1998 was by breaking into Gringotts, and we stole a dragon to make our escape?"
Hermione murmured back, "If we tell him at all, I suggest we tell him in 1998."
After the two older goblins left, Hermione asked Harry, "Whilst we wait for the other two goblins to find the diary, is there anything left to do, before we change ourselves in front of Director Ragnok?"
Harry looked at Ragnok. "Thanks to Dumbledore keeping me so completely ignorant, I never knew that Potter Manor could be repaired, and I certainly never knew that Potter Manor had house-elves. May I call those house-elves here and let them meet me, now when I still look like Harry Potter?"
"You may," Ragnok said.
Harry said, "I, Harry James Potter, last of the Potter line, do call to me the house-elves bound to the Potter family and who care for Potter Manor."
Pop-p-p-pop. Four house-elves appeared—then nearly collapsed on Ragnok's stone floor. When the four house-elves looked at Harry, their faces showed both joy and confusion.
Harry tried to end the confusion: "I'm Harry James Potter, son of James and Lily Potter. Hermione Granger is my soulmate; she and I died nearly seven years in the future and were sent back in time to now. This is why your magic is telling you that Harry Potter is in front of you but also ten-year-old Harry Potter lives in Surrey."
One of the female elves asked Harry, "Do you plan to marry Miss Hermy-ninny soon?"
Harry grinned. "I plan to marry her later today, in fact. But when we marry, we'll look different and we'll have different names."
The house-elves looked confused.
Hermione explained to them, "We're time-travellers, and we can't have anyone besides my parents, young Harry, Ragnok and you lot knowing that 1991 now has two Harry Potters and two Hermione Grangers."
Harry asked the house-elves, "Is there anything you need that only I can give you?"
"Magic," replied Greyclay, the head Potter house-elf. "We's all four be's magically weak. Can you help we's, Last Potter?"
Harry placed two hands on the head of each house-elf in turn, then injected magic into that elf. Because Harry's magical bindings had all been removed and Harry was a magical adult, he had magic enough for this task, with plenty left over.
The other two goblins whom Ragnok had sent off, returned. They looked nervous as they gave their report in Goblinspeak.
Ragnok asked the two goblins several questions, before dismissing them. After the two goblins bowed themselves out the door, Ragnok told Harry and Hermione, "The diary-horcrux is not in any Malfoy vault. I stake my honour on this."
Hermione put her hand on Harry's arm. "We're still one for two."
Harry sighed. "Looks like we wait till August '92 to grab the diary."
Then Harry looked at Hermione and at Ragnok, and asked, "Does anything else need to be done before we change?"
Hermione shook her head. Ragnok said "No." The four house-elves remained silent.
Harry said, "The name is Potter, John Potter."
Hermione said, "I become Paulina Priscilla Moffitt."
Light flashed in Ragnok's office, and a brunette human-woman angel, with white robes and big white wings, appeared.
"Hello, Antonia," Harry and Hermione greeted in unison.