Let's do it Right This Time, Chapter 26

Aurelius took a thoughtful sip of the firewhiskey offered to him, making sure to go slowly. He was no stranger to the alcohol, but this body had not had it before, as it wasn't exactly legal to sell it so a child, even the Chosen One. Harry probably could have just used a disguise, but it simply hadn't occurred to him what with all the other things that he had had to deal with. "Well, first of all, we have to get Vol- the Dark Lord's- horcruxes and destroy them. That's going to be a lot harder than it sounds, actually, because Lucius Malfoy has the diary horcrux right now, the locker is in the Black family home, the ring is hidden by a bunch of wards, and the snake hasn't been created yet. Then we have to draw Tom out into a reimbodied form so he can be killed, and after that there's Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey and James Potter to take care of."

"James Potter?" Professor Snape rasped, shaken. Granted he probably had been in shock the first time Harry had told him about it.

"Yes, the son of a birch has to go, preferably to Azkaban," Aurelius said viciously. "And speaking of Azkaban, Sirius Black and Morfin Gaunt need to be gotten out of there."

"I agree about James," Professor Snape said after a moment. "And I...am willing to go along with freeing Black. But who in Merlin's name is Morfin Gaunt?"

"An old pureblood wizard- Tom Riddle's uncle- who was framed for the murder of Tom Riddle Sr. and his family and shipped off to Azkaban. He was never quite sane to begin with, so he's probably quite mad by now, but no one deserves to be locked away in Azkaban for life for something he didn't even do."

Professor Snape nodded. "And...what are your other priorities?" He looked as if he was calming down, ever so slightly.

"Well, Dolores Umbridge has got to go, no matter what. She's a sadistic bitch who's only not a Death Eater because she prefers not to have tattoos or be crucioed at every turn. Also, I'd like to reform some of the creature laws, and there is a basilisk to be slaughtered or possibly befriended under the school. And then I think I'll have fun, because I haven't gotten a chance to do much of that in either lifetime. As for what you can do to help, I may need you to help me with horcrux retrieval, and I will probably also need your healing abilities."

"Dare I ask what your plan for Headmaster Dumbledore is?"

"I want him to go down hard," was Aurelius's response. "Maybe I'll pay Rita Skitter to defame him again, or owl Grindelwald. Or maybe I'll charm those horrible lemon drops of his to taste like dog excrement..."

Professor Snape gave a muted, painful chuckle at that. "I s-see. Are you sure that you are not judging Albus by the decisions that he made in your timeline? Surely he is not...surely he can still be reasoned with."

Aurelius realized belatedly that he was still reeling from learning that Dumbledore was not as Light as he seemed; after all, the man had looked on the headmaster as something of a protector and a father figure. "I'm sorry Professor," he responded. "I wish he could be. But he's already going Dark. I want to give him the option to reform, but I can't really afford that, not with the war going on. I can't risk him getting in my way because I'm interfering with his 'plans' and I would really like to reclaim my vaults before he takes the whole of the Potter fortune. I mean, it wouldn't actually matter much, except that he's going to use that money to fund his order and further his politics, and that could be majorly problematic. Plus, I have two lifetimes worth of abuse to make him pay for, and that doesn't even include all the things he did to other students, in this timeline and the last."

"To other students?" Professor Snape rasped.

"Yes. He had a major role in Riddle going dark, and he also doesn't seem to know what to do about domestic abuse and about safety at the school. Students shouldn't have to worry about trolls- speaking of, Quirrell is going to try to let one into Hogwarts this year, so be on your guard- and about cerberuses and werewolves and Merlin knows what else, besides, and bullies should be disciplined no matter what house they come from. And if students are being abused, he should be intervening, not just sending them back." He winced. "Or putting them there to be abused in the first place; I'm still mad about that."

"You...were abused?" It appeared that Snape's entire world was falling to pieces around him, and Aurelius had to remind himself that in twenty-four hours the man had discovered that one of his little Slytherins was not only not who he said he was but was also a time-traveler and a parselmouth, and incidentally also the son of his ex-best friend and his schoolyard antagonist. Aurelius should probably have taken it a little slower, but then, he hadn't planned any of this in the first place when he had gone down to the wardroom to reintegrate the parselwards.

"Yes," was his quiet response. "I'd always hoped that Dumbledore didn't know, but even if he had, he shouldn't have put a baby on a doorstep in the middle of the night like a bottle of milk, and then never checked up to see if it was ok. And I'm actually inclined to think that he did know, considering the fact that he had two trackers, five magical blocks and a mail ward on me."

Professor Snape took a long drink of his firewhiskey to compose himself. His voice shook ever so slightly as he went on. "What else? What else...has he done."

Aurelius hesitated. "He obliviated Minerva Mcgonagall multiple times," he said at last. "And, um, he does a lot of illegal spells on students. Normally not actively harmful, but things like trackers and eavesdropping spells that he has no business casting except for legitimate reasons. And..." he trailed off. Snape had probably had enough shocks for one night.

"And what? Tell me," Snape said seriously when Aurelius did not go on.

"You need to get a full-body chronic scan at Gringotts," Aurelius told him. He didn't know all the things that Dumbledore had cast on the other man, but what he did know was definitely not good.

Snape's eyes widened, and then slitted. "What did he do!"

"I don't know what all he cast," Aurelus deflected.

"You wouldn't advise me to get a scan if you didn't know something," Snape countered. "Tell me!"

"Compulsions," Aurelius said when it was clear that the man was not going to back down. "Compulsions and trackers and a few obliviates, probably, because there's no way that a Potions Master and Occlumens of your calibre wouldn't have figured out what he's doing by now."

Professor Snape slumped back in his seat with a muffled choking sound that might have, in a lesser man, been a sob. "I trusted him," he whispered finally. "I would have trusted him with my life."

"I know," was Aurelius's quiet response. "I did, and he sent me to die."

Neither of them talked much after that. At last Professor Snape rose and escorted Aurelius out and back to the Slytherin dorms, so that no one (cough, cough; Dumbledore) could accuse him of impropriety for letting a student sleep in his private rooms, and Aurelius entered the empty common room alone. No one had waited for him, not even his dorm-mates. So much for one's house being family! Actually, on second thought, Aurelus's house was exactly like his family, and wasn't that a depressing thought.

And that's when he heard a quiet snore. Draco Malfoy, prince of Slytherin, was waiting on one of the common room couches. Well, waiting for something, anyway; Aurelius doubted it was for him. Slowly, he walked over, and at last stopped in front of him, allowing himself a long moment to simply observe him. Asleep, with his normally impeccable white-blond hair in a mess and features relaxed, the boy looked so much younger, so much more innocent. So much more worried, too, Aurelius deduced from the worried crease in his forehead, the insecurities he would never allow to rise to the surface in his waking life. Aurelius noticed, for the first time, that there were dark smudges beneath his eyes, and hesitated to wake him. All the same, the boy should probably go back to the dorm before the morning; it would not be good for his reputation to be found asleep and drooling, and weakness was pounced upon with alacrity in the Snake Pit. Plus, he would probably have a sore neck in the morning.

And so he laid a hand gently on the boy's shoulder. "Draco? Dray, wake up."