A/N: Slight slash warning for this chapter, between a PHYSICALLY underage person (no prizes guessing who) and a character who IS of age. This is me testing the waters for reactions, so feedback please. Also, please remember and keep in mind that a) Harry is actually over 100 years old, he knows what he's doing, b) he can change his physical age if he really wants to and c) Severus' reaction will be hilarious! ^_^b
Harry frowned as he stared at the shop window, brow crinkling in thought. It had been a week since he had come back from the dead and he was beginning to notice some exceptionally strange things about the world he had found himself living in.
For example, some aspects of Muggle life were incredibly advanced, such as the technology. Why, just yesterday he had seen a woman on a phone which hadn't come out until 2032. And the roads, the buildings were just… indescribable.
It was like he had been transported to 2052, mere years before the Muggles discovered the wizards, when there were no roads on the ground, instead being several floors above it, and all the buildings were tall and white. He found himself regretting more and more apparating straight from the cupboard to the Leaky Cauldron. Look at all he'd missed!
Then again, if he hadn't, he might not have made it at all, too caught up in gaping at his surroundings.
He cast a disillusionment charm on himself, as well as a notice-me-not, shivering and pulling a face lightly at the disconcerting sensation of an egg being cracked over his head, before drawing on a more obscure form of elemental magic and manipulating the air currents around him to the point where he could fly.
The further out from the city he got, the more everything looked like he remembered they had when he was 11 the first time around, the houses were more old-fashioned, darker, with actual backyards and front yards and there were cars on the ground rather than just pedestrians.
It was like going back in time. With each mile, he seemed to travel a decade, and by the very outskirts of civilization, where it was simply one house every half hour of farmland, it was like being in 1990 again, cars and all.
It had taken him a long time to reach the countryside, but by the time he did he wore a soft smile of reminiscence, remembering the beautiful view of the countryside from the Hogwart's Express.
He returned to London by morning, with a soft smile on his otherwise exhausted face. Keeping the charms on himself, he made quick work of nabbing some clothes to wear, black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt, as well a warm cotton hoodie with a hood large enough to completely hide his face, hidden with a warm, long, cashmere-lined black leather jacket that brushed his ankles. There were the customary two outer pockets, and one on the inside left breast, as well as several more hidden in the folds of the fabric and he was quick to cast some undetectable extension charms on them, one designated for the clothes he grabbed, while the others had yet to be decided on what they would hold. He also grabbed some boots, also black, that reached his knee and cost about as much as he could sell a human body for, boasting to be the 'latest in retro-technology'. Meaning they were just boots, as opposed to all the alternatives. A pair of fingerless leather gloves, cutting off at the first knuckle and with metal tips on the knuckles, nipped from a less than amiable store that boasted extensive dangerous weaponry (though considerably less, now) completed the dark look.
'I'm sensing a pattern…' his inner SS, short for self-snark, which was basically the voice that criticized his every move from his own head, commented, sounding far too much like a certain dark lord for his personal comfort. 'Oh, come off it, Potter. I'm a figment of your own bloody imagination. It's your own fault.'
'Shut up.' He replied furiously, not noticing the strange stares he was receiving from people wondering who the strange short person that stopped in the middle of the street was and, more importantly, why?
'For now.' The voice replied smugly.
'I should probably seek help for that.' Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes as he continued walking, thinking to himself with a dry tone about how annoying The Voice was.
'You know you just called yourself annoying, right?'
'Shut up!'
0o0o0o0o0
Severus sat despondently on the bed in the Malfoy's guestroom. After a decidedly fruitless afternoon of trying to plan a way to start looking for Harry, eventually everyone had decided to retire and continue in the morning after a good night's rest, despite Severus' heated refusals and pleas to just be allowed find his baby.
He fingered the letter in his hands reverently. The handwriting was beautiful, he could see his own in the slightly sharp edge to the spiky letters, while there was a soft swirl to some that obviously came from Lily. Heck, even James' own chicken-scratch could be seen in the undertones.
"Severus." He looked up to see Lily standing before him, in a beautiful white nightgown, and James sat gently next to him in his blue plaid pyjama pants, gently prying resistant fingers from the parchment and laying it softly on the bedside drawer, but only after placing a soft kiss to the thoughtful words first.
"It's time to go to bed." James said softly, squinting slightly as he took in his husband, looking paler than ever in his black nightshirt, tears running softly from rich black eyes, half-hidden by thick black hair, and his heart ached.
"No." Severus sobbed softly, shaking his head almost frantically. "My baby's out there. He's out there and he needs me… needs us… so how could you possible suggest we sleep?" he turned to face James, anger developing on his face. "What if he's being hurt right now? What if he's in pain? What if he needs us? And we aren't there? Because we're lazing about in this god-forsaken bed while he's on the cold, hard ground with nothing to keep him warm while we fall asleep to a fire? What if he's…" suddenly, all the heat bled from the now standing man's words and he collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably as he barely voiced the last of his thought. "What if he's… dead? Or dying?"
"No, Severus, no." Lily cried softly, dropping to her knees beside her husband and pulling him into her chest, helplessly gazing at her other husband who sat, shell-shocked, on the side of the luxurious bed. "He's fine. He's so strong, our baby. You know that. He's our baby, and he's strong, and he's going to be all right," she said fiercely. "He's going to be so wonderful, and we're going to help him with anything we can. But we won't be able to do that like this. We need to be together for this, not falling apart. How can we expect our child to depend on us for stability and security if we can barely keep ourselves together?"
"Lily's right, Sev." James said softly, rubbing the man's back as he pulled his face away from his hands and stared up at him desperately. "We'll find him, and we'll take care of him, but we need to be calm and collected in order to do that. Now come to bed, sleep in the arms of the two people who love you most in all the world, and rest, because tomorrow's going to be the busiest day of our lives."
Tearfully, Severus did as he was told, curling up against James' chest while Lily curled around him from behind, and as he cried himself to sleep, his husband and wife exchanged a look over his head.
Severus had never been the same since they lost Harry. Since the day they came home and the door was broken and the glass coffee table shattered with blood on the shards and the nursery was in tatters and the crib was overturned and empty and the open window, with its billowing curtains, mocked a hysterical Severus' grief. But still, there had been hope. No blood was found that belonged to Harry, but when they found his tattered, torn and bloodied blanket in the middle of a dense forest, Severus snapped. It had taken months before he had spoken again, spending most of his days just rocking back and forth, clutching Harry's blanket in one hand and gripping his favourite stuffed toys to his chest with the other.
Neither James nor Lily could recall a more painful time in their lives than when Severus had grieved for their child. They hadn't really let themselves, devoting all their time and energy, all their attention and focus to helping Severus through what must have been, to him, the end of the world.
It wasn't until years later that they sat together and sobbed, screamed and fitted, secure in the knowledge that Severus was attending a potion's conference and wouldn't be back for a week, for their lost child. Their only hope, Harry had been their one chance, and even if they were capable, they wouldn't have been able to bring themselves to have another child. The guilt of betrayal churning their guts at the mere thought, the mere notion.
No, they said to each other silently, they would never allow anything to stop them from getting to their child. Not this time.
0o0o0o0o0
"Death!" Harry was pretty sure he looked utterly bonkers, shouting at the sky and actually waiting for an answer and couldn't help but be acutely relieved that he was in the middle of nowhere and no one was there to see him.
"Death! I have to talk to you!" Usually he would be more patient, he had, after all, only been trying for five minutes, but he hadn't slept in 36+ hours and if the stupid entity didn't bloody well show up by the count of five he was gonna-
"Yes?"
"Ack!"
Harry let out a spectacularly high-pitched shriek as he spun and saw a taken aback Death sitting on a fence, or, more specifically, falling backwards off of one.
"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed venomously, not paying the wince and rub of a sore posterior that Death indulged himself in, putting his hands on his hips and leaning forward to loom over the figure sprawled on the floor.
"You called me here!" the entity replied incredulously, before shrinking away from the glare he was subjected to.
Harry stared down at him ominously, glancing away as though the man was inconsequential to him, before his eyes widened in shock and he did a quick double take, mouth dropping open slightly as he realized this was the first time he had ever actually seen what the entity looked like.
Wow. Just… wow.
Blond hair that glowed when captured by the sun light curled, styled, around a lightly golden face, perfectly symmetrical with slightly thin, yet masculinely so, unlike Harry's own, pale-pink lips, silvery-blue eyes that freaking sparkled and a flawless, slightly, attractively, Roman nose, all leading down to a strong, thick neck, pronounced Adam's apple, defined collarbone and Adonis-like figure, hidden by black slacks with a light and pleasing dusting of hair on his chest, as well as a trail leading down from his belly button to the hem of his pants, the strongly defined arms that looked like they could squeeze him to death, golden skin covered lightly with black hair, cum-gutter hips, long legs that were so obviously thick and strong, made for… well, something, and two perfect, if not slightly large feet, poking out from the bottom of black fabric. And you know what they say about men with large feet…
Harry couldn't help but giggle happily, prompting an alarmed and slightly frightened expression to make its home on Death's face. "So…" he began, smirking predatorily at the now definitely intimidated man on the ground. "Death," he emphasized.
"Just call me Thanatos." The incredible man before him interrupted before Harry could speak more, resulting in a slightly irritated expression to cross his face before he pasted a friendly smile back onto it.
"Any reason in particular for that?" he asked sweetly, kneeling down beside the man… 'Thanatos…' his mind purred, and gently trailing his hand up the utterly perfect arm.
"W-well," Thanatos stammered, obviously uncomfortable, "it was the name for me in Greek mythology, and they were pretty much the only ones to depict me as kind instead of evil or as some kind of skeleton, so…" he trailed off, letting out a nervous laugh and shuffling slightly away from the physically young but mentally oh-so mature figure before him. Unfortunately, his attempt at evasion simply resulted in the lithe, gorgeous –no! Bad Thanatos!- figure simply crawling, stalking forwards until the long, thin arms and delicate wrists framed his head like the bars of a cage and he lay, on his back, staring up at the figure above him incredulously, and Harry hovered over him on all fours, head low enough for black locks of hair to gently brush his own face and Death couldn't help but shiver for all the wrong-right reasons at the slightly blown pupils, swallowing the exquisite green, but forgivingly doing so. "So…" cue nervous laughter that just got him a raised eyebrow and a lustily fond smile in return. "Wh-what did you call me… for?" his voice broke embarrassingly on the last word, but luckily Harry was adequately distracted by the question, long limbs unfolding into a standing position immediately and pacing away, leaving Thanatos to drop his head back in relief, mentally berate himself for the flash of disappointment at the boy- no, man's retreat. It was hard to make a connection between the youthful visage and the ancient soul within.
Shaking his head in disgust with himself, he tuned in just in time to hear the end of Harry's one-sided conversation.
"…don't you think?"
"Huh?" Crap, crap, crap! "Um… definitely. Sure, yep!" Luckily, this seemed to be the right thing to say because Harry turned back around and continued his pacing back and forth, Thanatos hurriedly trying to keep up with his words.
"Okay, because this world is really confusing me. I mean, the timelines are all messed up. Why is there technology 70 years ahead of its time and why are cars flying? They didn't do that until just before my death. And why is it that I'm seeing 2050s fashion right next to 1960s? And why-"
"I think… I may be able to explain…" Thanatos winced.
"What are you talking about? You just said you didn't know." Oh, was that what he agreed to? Whoops.
"Um… yeah, I-"
"Were you even listening to me?" Harry asked lowly, eyes narrowing, hip cocked out with a hand resting on it, other ready to be used as a weapon in any manner befitting of his next words.
Crap.
"Um… not really…" he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, laughing nervously at the dark look that crossed Harry's face and narrowed eyes. "Anyway," he began eager to change the subject and reassured when Harry made a, if slightly terse, 'go on' gesture. "Think of it this way…first of all, America tries to remake… Doctor Who, for example! The first decision they have to make is who to cast… um… Hugh Jackman, or… erm… Robert Downey Jr. for example. This gives us two possible outcomes based on these decisions, or alternate universes, if you will. Understand?" Harry nodded once. "Good. Um… next, the British decide they have to take their show back, so they decide to invade America," eye roll, "but they could use either Airplanes or Navy. Each decision becomes a new alternate dimension, creating four altogether possible outcomes. Now, for arguments sake, let's say they choose Navy, but begin to lose so they unleash their secret weapons. Zeppelins. This decision created 8 possible outcomes, where they send them in or not, depending on the previous decisions. Following me so far?" Harry nodded again, obviously deep in thought. "The world you lived in was one of these alternates, made by a long list of decisions that can go back through to the beginning of time itself. This current reality is simply one of many possible outcomes from many possible decisions made. Get it?" Harry nodded once more. "In fact, I do believe one of the deciding factors for this world is that Einstein actually graduated high school and became invested in the emerging technology and computer sciences."
"That… makes a lot of sense." Harry finally nodded after several painstaking moments in which he was completely silent. Thanatos slumped in relief. "I think what we should do now is compare notes and prepare ourselves for the next few months before I go to Hogwarts. We should learn as much about this world as possible. You will need to go to the library, and you need to find an adequate living space for us, as well as… you know what? I'll just write it down." He nodded resolutely, turning to face Thanatos expectantly.
"But… but why me?!"
0o0o0o0o0
"We overslept!" Severus fretted, pacing back and forth and practically tugging at his own hair. "Look at how much sunlight we lost!" Now he was tugging at his hair.
"Severus, for Merlin's sake, it is 5:30 in the morning. No one, least of all an eleven year old boy, is going to be awake except for you." James said exasperatedly, watching his husband, whom, though he loved dearly, he was quickly beginning to tire of, wear a metaphorical hole in the carpet.
"You are." Severus said, pausing to look at him pointedly, before continuing on his trek.
"Allow me to rephrase," James said through gritted teeth. "I meant willingly!"
"What's going on?" Sirius yawned loudly as he entered stretching his arms above his head until his back cracked and sighing contentedly as he lowered them again.
"Severus woke us up an hour ago, freaking out about the sun having already risen and us losing nearly half an hour of daylight to look for Harry in." Lily explained as James just threw his arms up in an exaggerated gesture of defeat, throwing himself into an armchair with a pout.
"But what kind of kid would be awake at this time of the morning? Let alone any earlier?" Sirius asked with a furrowed brow.
~And somewhere, in the middle of a field, an impatient boy-man sneezed loudly, huffing as he glared accusingly at the wild flowers before contemplating sleeping, despite it being on the cold, hard ground, for the first time in nearly 40 hours.~
"Beats the hell out of me," James shrugged.
"But… but…" Severus floundered for a minute, before his unfailingly pessimistic brain took over and supplemented his next words. "What if he fell asleep somewhere dangerous and someone kidnaps him now that it's daylight and they can see him?" he pointed out smugly, smirking as everyone's expressions seemed to freeze, before panic set him, before forced calm and rationality took its place.
"Look," Remus sighed, rubbing his temples tiredly. "We haven't anything beyond a sighting and a few letters to go on. The chance of finding Harry even this week are pretty low, so instead of focusing on all the possible bad things that might happen to him between then and now, can we instead focus on the fact that he has his trust vault, and the methods through which he survived until now. He'll be fine. Show some faith in him." Remus said, not unkindly, smiling softly at the man before him, finally showing some of the passion and fire that had made James fall in love with him in the first place. Honestly, he thought to himself, the three of them should, by all rights, have killed each other by now. The number of arguments they have, daily, was immense, and often over the simplest of things that their stubborn natures wouldn't let them back down on. But, somehow, they made it work and, to Remus, that was a feat in of itself.
"Come on!" Sirius grinned, bounding over to James and hauling him out of his seat. "Let's go find some grub before Tweedledum and Tweedledumber get to it first!"
"Don't you think we have more important things to think about?!"
This was going to be a very long day, indeed.
0o0o0o0o0
"Okay. I like it." Harry smiled, looking around the loft Thanatos managed to find and secure them, using a few charms to make the landlord think that they had it for the next three months, prepaid. It was soundproof, which was good because it meant Harry could use his magic, and the above floor that overhung just more than half of the bottom was accessible by a ladder. On the ground floor there was a bathroom and kitchen, as well as a lounge area that consisted of a two-seater, numerous bookshelves already stacked with old books the old tenant left behind and a beautiful, obviously dearly loved grand piano, violin and cello, also left by the previous tenant. The above floor had an armoire, dresser, large Queen bed with two bedside tables and a small powder room. "Scratch that, I love it!" he smiled, turning to face a slightly nervous Thanatos with a bright smile.
Thanatos couldn't help but smile back at his young friend, for the boy-man was young in comparison to the entity, relieved that he had approved of the fruits of his frantic scramble for lodgings.
"I am glad." He replied. "I also got some books on Muggle history from the local library, and procured some on Magical history from a library in Diagon."
"Diagon?" Harry perked up. "I love Diagon Alley. It hasn't changed at all from how it was." Harry smiled at that, glad to find some continuity between his old world and the one he was desperately trying to adjust himself to.
Harry waved his holly wand through the air, turning a small pebble he had collected, one of many, into a large muggle pencil holder, before happily depositing the multitude of wands he had thrust at him the previous day into the white metal.
"Feel free to use any of those is you wish." Harry told him, turning another pebble into a matching paper-clip holder and putting the rest of the small rocks in it. "Just in case," he said with a grin and a wink to Thanatos, before seating himself on the piano bench and staring at the entity expectantly.
Thanatos quickly passed over a couple of books to Harry and they both began dutifully reading, Harry now well-rested from the nap he took in the field that Thanatos couldn't begrudge him. As Death, Thanatos did not need to sleep, but he relished the experience anyway. It was always rather a good way to learning one self's true nature and desires, so they couldn't catch one by surprise.
"Oh my god!" Harry gasped, catching a concerned Thanatos' attention. "Tom Marvolo Riddle; Minister for Magic for the last 9 years running!"
"Is that not good?" Thanatos asked, confused at the distress the preteen face was displaying.
"I don't know! I can't read anyone without eye contact and, if I want to see anything beyond yesterday, today and tomorrow, physical contact as well. So I don't know," Harry shrugged helplessly. "I don't know if this is a good thing or not. What have you found?"
Thanatos looked down at the book in his lap and back at Harry uncertainly, not knowing how his companion would take the news. "Albus Dumbledore is Headmaster. And what's more, he is a known supporter of Tom Riddle's movements."
"Which are?!"
"He wants Pureblood traditions to be preserved and respected, instead of Halloween we celebrate Samhain, and instead of Christmas, it's Yuletide. Among other things. Also, Muggle-borns are integrated into the magical world from the age of 5, to stop the wasted 2 years spent catching them up in your old system. On top of that, there are now specifically magical orphanages, a magical form of child protective services, many branches of dark magic are legal that weren't, including blood adoption."
"So… it's all good stuff?" Harry asked tentatively.
"Yes." Thanatos nodded to emphasize what he was trying to say. "They have even brought technology into the wizarding world and schools, but there's a special alley for that off Diagon which is why you missed it." He couldn't help but feel slightly bad for Harry, who had just had his entire world turned upside down in 72 hours.
"So, let me get this straight," Harry said, holding up a hand to stop Thanatos from interrupting him, "the bad guys are the good guys, and the good guys are the good guys, yes?"
"Yes." Thanatos nodded in confirmation.
"Then who the hell are the bad guys?!"
0o0o0o0o0
"It's been five days! Five. Days!"
James was pretty sure that the average human voice shouldn't be able to reach that level of volume at that high a pitch.
"Five! Days!"
Lily winced with each rise in the voice currently screaming at them for all it's worth, and Sirius had already taken refuge under the coffee table in his animagus form.
"Do you know how long it's been?!"
"Five days?" Lucius offered dully, rubbing between his eyes and sighing despondently when it only seemed to set his old friend off on another tangent about what horrible fate could have befallen the 11 year old they had yet to find.
"Mother! Father! Uncle Severus! Mutt!" Draco cried, his volume prompting several more pained winces from the occupants of the room as he skidded to a stop and held up a piece of parchment, brandishing it through the air like it was a gold trophy. "He wrote again!"
"Oh thank goodness." Lily muttered, simply for the fact that Severus was silent long enough to snatch the paper and read it.
"Lucius!" He cried.
"Yes?" James also didn't think that the level of exhaustion in the voice was legal.
"His magical signature is still on this! Can you track it down?" Severus asked excitedly. That, at least, explained the strange arm waving.
"Yes, but it won't be finished for a week, tops."
"Then let's start!"
His voice was doing that thing again.
0o0o0o0o0
"So… basically, I'm in an alternate universe where the bad guys are the good guys, the good guys are the good guys, we have no idea who the bad guys are, and I may or may not even be Harry Potter at all, my parents could have other children and be alive and happy without me. Is that everything?" he asked, the slight waver in his voice at the end betraying how much the thought bothered him, and Thanatos' eyes softened as the man came and sat against the headboard, next to him.
"They might not. They might be dead-"
"Don't."
"-or they might be missing you every day. We don't know yet." Thanatos shrugged, feeling a little out of place. He hadn't comforted someone before, never had anyone to comfort, but for some reason this boy just felt… different, to him.
"Do me a favour?" Harry asked in a small voice.
"Of course."
"Stay?"
Thanatos sat in silence for a little while, feeling the warmth from the body next to him and the small hand that had been placed on his thigh in question, and found himself agreeing before he quite knew what was happening.
"Thank you. And Thanatos?"
"Hmm?"
"Thanks for… everything." Thanatos opened his mouth to say something else, but shut it again when he heard Harry fall asleep beside him. He leaned back and closed his eyes to follow his example, feeling more at peace than he could ever remember being.