Previously:

Castor used the knife to cut off the ropes binding Pollux. He gave his wand back and extended his hand for the other boy to shake.

"Pollux Black - also known as Tom Riddle, I hope we will get along better in the future. I'm Castor Black; also known as Harry Potter."

Author's note: This chapter includes lots of talking and is probably boring.

(1983)

Castor was pretty amused to find he was the little brother of Nymphadora Tonks. It had been so long since he'd last seen her alive. He was reminded of Teddy, as well as Teddy's daughter Miranda who had been the spitting image of Tonks.

God, he missed his family already, all of them. He wondered if it would all turn out the same way as before. But he stopped himself in time; that way lay madness. Let things happen as they happen. As far as he was concerned whatever happened before was the real one, and whatever happened now did not matter. He just had to hang in here till Pollux fails in his misguided quest to become a good person or whatever he's supposed to be becoming, and then he's get to be with his real family again.

He had been watching for Pollux to become "self-aware" and it happened pretty soon after he himself. And what's the first thing he does? Try to figure out if he can talk to snakes. He's stumbled onto Pollux's plan, which was as complicated and elaborate as he'd remembered Voldemort's plans to be. Did he have to make everything so complicated? Castor decided to help him out, because he was a rather nice chap that way. The next time he found a snake in the garden, he tried talking to it. Then he just grabbed it with his hands and took it to the bedroom where Pollux was reading. Turns out Pollux wasn't a parselmouth either. Wasn't that interesting?

He had to admit it was fun to see Pollux freaking out like that. He'd even played it up a bit by killing the snake with a kitchen knife. Back in the day Voldemort had the advantage of power, experience, age and knowledge and Harry had managed to match him many times till he beat him; now, with both of them on more or less even footing, Castor couldn't help but feel that somehow he held the upper hand. The glove was on the other foot and all that.

This would probably bite him in the ass at some point, but Castor couldn't help but give a psychotic smirk to Pollux every time he looked at him, just to see him flinch.

(now)

"Harry Potter?" repeated Pollux dumbly.

"I go by Castor now."

"Why did you release me?"

"I told you, my mission was to assist you."

"You tried to kill me!"

"I never tried to kill you." Castor protested "in fact, you attacked me. I just took you out before you hurt either of us."

Pollux had often wondered how he would react when he met Harry Potter - though he was thinking of the Harry who would show up in Hogwarts the next year - but when he met him what would he feel? Hate, at having destroyed him, not once, not even twice but about seven times? Gratitude, at having given him all that he needed to save himself in the end? Suffice to say that Pollux, who was not known for being one with his feelings, was dreading that confrontation.

And now that he'd found that a version of Harry Potter had been watching over him since he had woken up in this version of reality... Pollux just felt relief. He was not alone! He did not have to look after Castor; Castor was there to look after him! But then...

"So if you're not going to become a dark lord, and I am not going to become a dark lord, what the hell is my mission?"

And just then, he remembered. There was a still active, still evil and still very, very powerful Voldemort out there.

"Oh fuck."

(1987)

He wondered what Pollux's game was. Pollux would frequently come and talk to him like a bad imitation of Dumbledore, apparently trying to prove that being a good guy was a loser's game. Was Pollux trying to turn him evil? He decided he'd wait till Pollux shows his hand before confronting him.

Meanwhile, Castor had tried his best to keep fit. His auror training seemed so far away in the past, but you tended to remember that sort of thing forever. Still, discipline was easy when there was a sergeant shouting at you and much, much harder when you had to do it yourself. Given the circumstances, he thought he'd done a passable job of getting in shape. And hey, it was not like Pollux ever got off his butt to exercise. Maybe muggle methods of fitness were beneath the great Lord Voldemort.

Which is why he was rather surprised when Pollux insisted on joining him at Taekwondo class. He himself didn't need it, of course, he had progressed much further than the beginner level they taught here in his old life, but it was a decent cover to do some body hardening exercises. Also a good excuse for his hand-to-hand fighting skills, if they ever got exposed by accident - he doubted any other wizards would know the intricacies of Eastern martials arts. Or Krav Maga. Or the differences between the two.

And his mother turned out to be Bellatrix LeStrange! Who would have seen that coming. Having Voldemort as a brother was bad enough, but at least Pollux did not look like old snake-face. But every time he'd see Bellatrix how could he not see Sirius dying!

Wait, Sirius was alive here! No, don't think of that, none of this was real.

Still, he'd never thought he'd turn out to be a LeStrange.

When Bellatrix finally showed up, it looked like he wasn't a LeStrange after all. Dear Bella had probably been a whore! But when she spoke of his father in such a loving and reverential tone, Castor was reminded of the only man Bellatrix ever loved and revered, and had a sickening thought:

Was his father Voldemort?

(now)

"Don't you see?" Pollux concluded his explanation to Castor "there is no way I can defeat the Dark Lord as he is and as I am. He is too powerful and I am too weak!"

"You know," drawled Castor "that is what people said about me the first time around. And aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?"

"There's a perfectly servicable Harry Potter around - not me, the ten year old - and if you leave everything alone, there's a good chance everything would turn out as it did before."

Pollux was stunned. He had not considered the possibility of doing nothing at all.

"But then if I am not to defeat Voldemort why was I sent back to life? How am I supposed to redeem myself?"

"Have you considered that you were not sent here for your redemption at all, you selfish fellow?" asked Castor "maybe it was for Bellatrix. The very fact that we were born made her renounce Voldemort. And now she's trying to save Sirius! Maybe that's what your mission was to do, save Bellatrix."

Pollux thought about it. The idea that his fate was to play a passive role in somebody else's story, did not sit well with him.

"My turn to ask questions." interjected Castor "Why did you go after the diadem today?"

(before)

Castor still couldn't believe Bellatrix got a job. But more than that, he couldn't believe her job involved dressing up as Harley Quinn for Zonko's. Maybe Zonko was as insane as he pretended to be.

But she was doing her best to get Sirius freed, and that made her alright in his book. His main gripes with Bellatrix had always been killing Sirius and being Voldemort's psycho bitch. And now that she had abandoned Voldie and trying to help Sirius, Castor felt that went a long way in the way of redemption. Well, she was still a psycho bitch, but you can't have everything.

He remembered when the family solicitor, Mr Graves, visited to discuss with Bellatrix what her options are, with respect to Sirius's serious plight. He lived upto his name, Mr Graves. Looked well preserved for his age, like an Egyptian mummy. When he spoke it was like hearing a legal document being read aloud. Castor had worked in The Ministry of Magic as Harry Potter for several decades, and yet he hadn't been aware that you could use words like 'forthwith' and 'heretofore' in normal conversation.

Now, he and Pollux were out shopping in Diagon alley! It as still a wonderful experience, but not as good as being there for the first time.

He had been irrationally afraid that the Holly Phoenix wand of his previous lifewould choose him again. Or worse, choose Pollux. But when they got to Ollivander's both of them got the very first wands they tried. His was a 12-inch teakwood with dragon heartstring core, and Pollux's was a 12-inch willow with Unicorn hair core.

Ordinarily he'd be quite surprised by that. He knew enough wandlore to know that the emotions of the core donor affected the wand itself. A dragon heartstring core was always obtained by killing the dragon. Such a core was always 'angry', therefore good with destructive spells. A unicorn hair was usually obtained from a willing unicorn, therefore such a wand was 'agreeable', good for delicate charms work.

But that didn't necessarily apply to him and Pollux. Regular kids have to be matched with wands that suit their temperaments, but experienced wizards can work with any wands. And he had worked with several wands in his other life, hadn't he...

(now)

"I didn't go after the diadem" Pollux protested "I knew where the diadem was hidden. I'd be in and out in five minutes."

"So what were you after?"

Pollux hesitated, but decided to answer "I was looking to see if I could find a spare wand"

"Interesting. Did you find any?"

"Not before you attacked me."

"I didn't attack you, I merely confronted you. And I'm not surprised you didn't find any wands. A wand is not something you can easily lose in Hogwarts. If a student reports a lost wand, the elves are put to the job of finding it. If a student dies, the wand is given to the parents, or guardians."

"How do you know that? I never learned that in all my years of Hogwarts."

"I was headmaster of Hogwarts, my dear fellow. In the past... or future."

"Ah. I thought you'd be an auror or something."

"I was that too."

"Well that leaves me in a sort of quandary. I really need a spare wand."

"What for?" Castor asked, and when Pollux hesitated he continued "Come on Pollux. You only want a spare wand if you want to cast a spell that you don't want showing on your main wand. And considering you were willing to cast sectumsempras at me just a moment ago, the spell you don't want on your wand must be pretty bad. So, out with it."

Pollux suddenly realized he'd tainted his wand with dark spells. "The sectumsempra slipped out. In the heat of the battle." he said, but hesitated to add anything else.

Castor continued "Look, I'm not going to rat you out to Dumbledore or anything like that- oh for god's sakes, here." Castor pulled something out of his socks and handed it to Pollux.

"This is a pencil" Pollux said.

"It looks like a pencil. That my friend is a little bit of twenty-first century auror technology. Disposable wand, balsa wood with core of magical coal. You wanted a spare? Here's a spare. Now tell me what you wanted it for."

(The morning)

Castor had been very excited when he found the compartment occupied by the Weasley twins. He suddenly realized they'd be in his year - gods this might be fun after all!

It was surreal to see them as first years, something he hadn't had the pleasure of the first time around. They had the air of mischief he had expected from them, but also had an air of nervousness that he would never have associated with them. They hadn't been nervous when they were ready to face Voldemort - Harry had suspected at that time that they were incapable of feeling fear (which he soon realized was not true when Fred died and George became a father).

He hoped he could save Fred this time around.

Unfortunately those two eleven year old twerps did not share his enthusiasm on meeting them, and reacted in the true tradition of one Mr Ronald Weasley when they learned he came from a traditionally Slytherin family. Looks like they still had some growing to do before they became the people he knew from his past life.

Luckily, he was able to talk them down to convert a potential feud into a potential prank war. Maybe that'll give him an opportunity to win their respect. Pranking shouldn't be that much different from auroring, right? Both need planning. Both need strategy. Just replace 'apprehend' with 'give polka dots', 'question' with 'donkey's ears' and you're good to go.

Hogwarts was a sight to remember from the boats. He'd never have enough of it, no matter how many times he saw it.

The Hat wanted to sort him into Gryffindor. He had to use all of his pull as former/future Hogwarts headmaster to make it sort him into Slytherin. Much as he would have wanted to stay in Gyffindor and befriend the Weasleys, he couldn't afford to lose sight of the target. And sure enough, within minutes, Pollux Black was also sorted into Slytherin. No surprises there, huh?

The surprise was when Pollux was invited for a little tete-a-tete with Albus. The surprise was when after finishing the little chat, Pollux went into the Room of requirement.

Of course Castor followed right behind him...

(now)

"What the devil is magical coal?" asked Pollux.

"What do you think the Hogwarts Express runs on?" replied Castor. When Pollux's eyebrows could not be raised any further, he added "I'm joking. Look, we're running out of time, we need to get back to our dorms.

"Here's the deal. Keep the extra wand for now, but don't use it unless you're in trouble. We'll pretend to be normal students for the rest of the week, but the weekend we'll slip out back here, and in the meantime you can decide what you want to tell me... and what you want to ask me."

"And if I don't show up?" asked Pollux.

"You'll show up. You want to know and you want to talk to me, since I'm the only one you can talk to." replied Castor nonchalantly.

And Pollux knew he was right.

They both slipped back to the dorms without any trouble and went to their beds. As Pollux closed his eyes he realized he was actually looking forward to his weekend appointment. This would be a long week...

Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews. And thank you all for your patience. Weddings of friends, personal illnesses and turbulence at work made these a hectic couple of weeks with little time to add to the story. But finally here it is, the next chapter.

A little note about magical coal. One of the versions of the Leprechaun legend I've heard is that the sack of gold they give you turns into a sack of coal after a while. Of course, in the world of Harry Potter, Leprechaun's gold disappears entirely. There's also the legend that Santa Claus leaves lumps of coal in the stockings of naughty children. I'll be honest, I don't know where magical coal could come from. If anyone of you has any idea let me know, or I'll do a total ass-pull in the next chapter.

The wand in the form of a pencil is one of the first 'technical' ideas I had about this story. It will be discussed in detail in the next chapter, when Castor and Pollux have the second part of their talk.

So, keep on reading. And please keep on reviewing. All the reviews are good; if you think the story sucks, do tell me how it sucks. If you think the story is alright, do tell me that as well, since I find it to be great motivation.