Chapter 47:
***
Harry took his seat at the head of the table, while his family and extended non-blood relatives all took their seats. The basement where they had done the ritual a day before was freshly cleaned, refurbished, and warded against spying.
His mother, both of his fathers, his godfather and his dogfather looked at him expectantly.
"I need to take over my older selves responsibilities." He declared. "I need to cover for him as the divination teacher and manage his assets. This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what he has been preparing for."
They all shared unconvinced glances.
"What makes you think he planned for this?" His mother asked. "Or that you're ready for this?"
He raised both hands to his face and made spirit fingers.
"Psychic!" He declared.
His mother, at least, had the decency to pretended to appreciate his sense of humor.
"But also because that's the only way to make sense of how he's been running things." Harry said. "Dad, er, Remus said I, er, Professor Morrigan kept overlydetailed records of his classes and students along with his lesson plans for the future. Almost like he was preparing things to be taken over by somebody else."
Remus scratched his chin thoughtfully at that.
"He was rather zealous in doing that, yes. He's shared his lesson plans and documentation with the rest of us on the staff roll. We all told him it was a bit too detailed, down to the teaching styles he thought worked for different students." Remus explained. "I have to admit, it's so detailed that even another student could take over his classes."
"Exactly! Almost as if he expected somebody of a students age to take over for him." Harry explained, point two index fingers at himself. "And I'm willing to bet you he's done the same for his werewolf sanctuary. After all, he's been involving us in everything in a way that would make it easy for us to continue his work."
By now they were nodding along with his arguement. He was getting to them.
"I mean, we could go so far as to just pretend you are him full stop." Said Peter. "Maybe use an aging potion so people can't tell the difference."
"It would never work." Lily said.
"It would be detected instantly, and I'm sure Dumbledore will punish the effort by turning him temporarily into an old man." James said. "As is traditional."
Yeah, traditional with parents wanting to keep their kids out of the liquor cabinet. His parents, blood and surrogate, were particularly good at keeping children out by virtue of their great skill and experience of breaking into places children ought to be kept out of.
Didn't stop him, or at least not for long, but he envied his peers who were not the children or Marauders.
"Okay then, that's out. What about Polyjuicing as himself? I'm sure I could sneak into his quarters and get my hands on his hairbrush." Remus offered.
That could work. The stuff did last longer if you used it to polyjuice as yourself, though that was usually done by middle aged folks using hair from their teen years. Most witches collected and stored their own hair from their brushes for later life with this exact purpose in mind.
"Too pricy, and easily figured out." Peter shot down. "Especially with two potions masters on staff. And the marketis so supervised that if we got all of our own ingredients and had Lils cook up all of our batches, somebody would catch on. Especially with the state of emergency the entire planet is in, every pencil pusher and beurocratic busybody will be going over every transaction with a fine toothed comb."
That brought Harry some relief. He'd tried polyjuice once before, when his mom wanted to retake some photos of him she'd lost from his infanthood. If he never drank that foul concoction it would be too soon.
"Then I just have to pretend that I was de-aged or something." Harry suggested.
"Definitely doable." Remus said. "Professor Morrigan was last seen battling a time anomaly after all. We can go so far as to claim your memories were rolled back to those of a seventeen year old too."
Harry liked that idea.
"So I need you guys to explain the last few years to me and pretend to only know that much?" Harry asked. "And what about divination? Am I qualified to teach that?"
"You only need to fake it until older you returns." His mother told him. "After all, if he's been preparing for this eventually then he knows you're up to the task. So you're definitely going to hit the books this weekend, but you'll do fine."
Harry wasn't so sure about that. He was terrible at faking. Hell, his mom found out about him and Hermione a week into his relationship to her apprentice. It was nice of her to pretend like she didn't know it was still going on, but that's how long their lie lasted. He thoroughly doubted his ability to keep up this facade for long.
"We would need either an Unspeakable, or somebody at least knowledgeable enough in chronomancy to vouch for this cover story." James said. "We don't want there to be any way for your new existence to be tied to us."
"Well, the Unspeakable of Time isn't going to help us out." Sirius said. "Either the former or current one."
This was true. They had just declared war on the world after all. And seemed particularly prickly towards Harry, er, Hadrian. He just realized that they were planning to put him in a position with a considerable amount of danger involved. Between the Unspeakables, Voldemort and his supporters, and of course Dumbledore and the Ministry who would both be much more inquisitive towards him now.
"I think I know a guy." Lily eventually said. "Somebody who owes me a favor."
"Somebody who will keep our secret?" Peter asked.
She nodded.
"And is respected enough to work as a character reference sufficient to stop questioning?" Sirius asked.
She nodded again.
"Somebody who takes as much joy as we do in picking on Dumbledore?" James asked.
"Ohhh, yes." She said, smiling wickedly.
***
Albus stared across his desk at his unexpected guests.
When Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel had floo'd him out of the blue to request a meeting with the promise that they had a gift for him, he didn't know what he expected, but it wasn't a Hadrian Morrigan de-aged to the state of a seventeen year old child. Let alone this hogwash story of theirs to go along with the find.
"And you say even his memories have reverted to those he had at that age?" Dumbledore clarified.
"Yes indeed." Said Nicholas, cheerily.
The boy looked the picture perfect definition of uncomfortable as he squirmed in his seat between the two master alchemists.
"We've had him for a couple days now, mostly confirming what had happened to him and trying to undo it. As you can see, we were unsuccessful in the latter." Said Perenelle.
Dumbledore sighed.
"And you two came upon him... how?" He asked, suspiciously.
The young Morrigan, who now bore such a striking resemblance ot Lily and James Potter that he couldn't believe Severus was the only person to recognize it, shrugged.
"We found him." Nicholas said. "It was easy, considering he is marked with a guardian mark."
That made Albus' jaw drop.
A guardian mark was something only a blood parent could place on a child, though could be tied to any adult, blood-related or not. It allowed the parent to apparate directly to said child, among other magical benefits. Theories abounded that Voldemort's Dark Mark was some perverted and enhanced version of it, but it strained belief. Not as much as the idea that Hadrian Morrigan was the son of Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.
"You are his guardian?" Dumbledore asked.
"I don't appreciate your assumption that I did not bear him." Perenelle said chellengingly, crossing her arms.
Albus groaned. While the woman opposite him looked like a witch in her forties, he knew better than to believe she could have been with child anytime recently.
"Okay! You got me. The baby making facilities haven't been working since before I was your age." Perenelle eventially said, returning to her usually jovial self. "We were his guardian. Past tense. But he's been all grown up for some time now. When he went missing we got desperate and tried reactivating the guardian seal. Imagine our surprise when it worked1"
Interesting. That was plausible. His mind whirred with possibilities.
His being raised by Nicholas and Perenelle explained why he was good at pressing both his and Voldemort's buttons.
It was also now clear that he was the son of Lily and James Potter.
He was painting a picture in his head. Lily hadn't los the child, but performed one of hte many surrogacy rituals out there. Transfered the baby from her womb to another womans, possibly even Perenelles. He imagined she would have been overjoyed to do that.
Then they'd merely raised him in secret.
That didn't explain why he had been too old before. Either Nicholas and Paranelle had been giving him the Morgan Le Fey treatment and hyperaged him, or he was still a time travelor after all, and now he knew the story of where he came from?
If such were the case, then that meant...
Two! There were Hadrian Morrigans. This one was the real one. The other was the time travelor and was still missing.
As much as he respected Nicholas and Parenelle Flamel, their tendency to screw with him was outpaced only by the Marauders and their wives tendency to do the same. And he sensed their involvement in this little prank as well.
Now he knew they'd been involved this entire time, and he'd make sure there was hell to pay.
For now though, he'd play along.
"Well, I can finally call of the search for you. Those freed up resources can be devoted to hunting down the traitor Unspeakables before they make their next move." Dumbledore said, tacitly admitting that he didn't care if Tom Riddle was ever found.
"What about Tom Riddle?" Perenelle asked. "He may be needed in this time of crisis, and if there's a teenaged one of those running around that could cause more problems."
Riiiiiight, he was supposed to be buying this poppycock story of them being de-aged.
"I think his followers are covering hte search for him." Dumbledore said. "But I can have it be priority number two for all of my Order to be searching for Tom. After whatever new tasks they can be put on."
Nicholas clapped his hand.
"Wonderful! And do you have any further questions for us, or can we get to work helping with the Unspeakables dilemma?" He asked.
Albus had to think on that one. What to ask so as to not seem like he was onto them?
"Do we know how long it will be until he reverts back to normal?" Albus asked.
Nicholas sighed.
"I would like to imagine it will happen on its own, but I have no reason to believe that." He said. "I will continue to search for a way to restore him. But we may just be stuck with him like this."
The boy shrugged again.
"I'm mostly just here because of the contract. I probably should be in the accidental magic ward, but something tells me they wouldn't be much help. And I think I'm needed here." Hadrian told him. "I may not be as a desireable staff member or ally in this battle as older me was and will be again, but I would be more help within these walls than out."
Albus nodded.
"Well, let's make sure the contract is still in effect for you." Albus said.
He reached into the bottom left drawer of his desk, where he kept copies of the magical contracts for his faculty, and found Hadrian's at the front. The first sign that the man was still alive, for Albus at least, was the contract still being in effect. He could always check on if his colleaques were alive by tapping their contracts with his wand. It came in handy more often than he cared to admit.
He handed the contract to the young man afte tapping it with his wand, and it lit up at his touch.
"Well that's confirmation enough for me. You are Hadrian Morrigan." Albus declared. "And you are still on the payroll. I'll make sure to send somebody to refresh you on the rules, laws and other technicalities of working here."
There was a knock at the door.
"Speak of the devil! There he is now." Albus said jovially. "Come in!"
The door opened and in walked his substitute potions master. He visibly struggled to not look at and stare at the two alchemists in the room.
"You called for me, headmaster?" Professor Snape said.
"Yes. I called you in here to inform you that you are fired." Albus said with a cheerfulness that to most wouldn't seem appropriate for what he just said.
Severus, predictably, held both hands in front of his face as if he were praying, before looking straight up into the sky with an expresion resembling salvation. He mouthed the words "thank you" to the sky before putting his hands back down to his side.
"So. How long until Lily comes back to take over?" Severus asked.
"I expect her to call upon me by the end of the day. In the meantime, if you wouldn't mind reboarding Mister Morrigan, who has suffered a chronomancy accident and reverted to his seventeen year old self, that would be most appreciated."
Severus glanced at the young man, before sharing a knowing look with Albus.
"I see. And has Mister Morrigan been reverted just physically?" Severus asked.
"Mentally as well." Hadrian said.
"Interesting. You are going to be easy picking for your students." Severus said with a malicious grin.
Morrigan gave him a maliciou grin in return.
"We will see about that, won't we?" Morigan said challengingly.
"Right. Off you trot!" Dumbledore ordered.
The new teacher and former teacher both fled from his classroom together and Albus caught the faintest whispers of their antagonistic barbs as they left. With that done, he turned on Nicholas and Perenelle.
"Will you take Severus under your wing?" He asked.
-
This concludes day 1 of my five days of christmas gifts to you.
Five chapters of magic knows no boundaries, as promised.
Reminder tha the point of this is to prove I can write a chapter daily now and wish to spend 2025 doing exactly that. Finishing ALL of my fanfictions. To do that I just need all of you to go to the five dollar or 10 dollar tier of support. That way I can afford to write full time.
I will also be doing audiobooks of my stories for youtube.