SquidgeWorld Archive

Cavehouse-on-the-Sea.
by Royslady51
Email: royslady51@yahoo.com

It was a lonely existence, but he had most of what he needed near to hand and could make what he didn't have from local materials, so it wasn't as if he lacked anything but other people. He had not spoken aloud in years, there wasn't any need since there wasn't anyone there to answer back. His island home was over thirty miles long, nearly eighteen miles wide and was in one of the most isolated places he could have imagined. It was somewhere on the Tropical Belt, that much he knew...but where it was, was unknowable.

He was holed up in a seaside cave several stories above the plains where he'd landed after having sighted what, from what his muggle education had said, he was positive was a large saber-toothed cat of some kind...which pretty much removed any need he'd had to identify where...or rather when...he'd landed.

The only two things good about this situation when he'd got here were that this was apparently either summer or a tropical region...and that Dobby was with him.

He would never complain about the inconveniences of a House Elf again. No matter how much he missed Hermione's brain, the elf was the best person to have had with him...Dobby had proved that many, many times already...and they'd been in this ancient time less than a day. Shelter, food, fire...absolute imperatives for living like this and Dobby found them easily. He had found humans, too, but then had to report that since Harry didn't know how to apparate and because it wasn't safe for Dobby to move him for more than short hops, he'd have to walk. And then he was regretfully told that at human walking paces, he'd take at least three years to get to where the nearest of the humans were. There were other groups, many moving around in summer but unless one knew where they were going, they were pointless to contact.

He'd deflated then and there, his young head going 'turtle' between his hunching shoulders. He was thinking more than he ever had in his life, and when he hoped he had a plan, he asked, "Dobby, does this Age have any horses in our area? Or donkeys? Some kind of burden beast I can tame...and ride or load with goods for trading?"

"Yes, Master Harry Potter, sir. Dobby is glad you is thinking what you will do because Elf Magic is will not let Dobby stay here much longer. A few hours, only. Dobby would like to stay and care for Master Harry Potter, but Dobby has no choice. Dobby is bonded to Headmaster Dumbledore, not Master Harry Potter. Dobby must return to Master Headmaster Dumbledore. Dobby, once a year, can visit, Dobby can bring things, or animals, but not people...and Dobby must always return to Master Headmaster Dumbledore. Dobby wishes he had not accepted the bonding, now."

"I need you tell him what happened."

"Dobby can do that, Dobby's Master Headmaster Dumbledore needs to know. What else does Master Harry Potter need? Dobby can bring horses and donkeys from future. Not too far in future, not from home, but Dobby knows where in near history the early ancestors of horses are. They are livestock and have no real minds that will explode from trying to understand too much, so I can move them."

Harry winced at the description but continued thinking aloud to the elf. "I need a place where seashells are something I can gather from a beach by myself. I need to have a cave near the sea...one that's out of reach of storms...in a tropical belt where it's always as warm or more warm than it is here right now. I need a place where I can take seafood or bird's eggs for food and gather vegetables. A place with what I need to cook with. Dobby knows I can cook, right?"

"Dobby knows yous can cook and clean as good as house elf." His voice was sad. "No child should have the skills Harry Potter has been forced to learn so young. But now those skills will save Harry Potter's life. Many house elves know of the Boy Who Lived to Become a Friend to House Elves. Dobby steered our landing to tropics when the Turner set us down."

"I'll need riding tack and pack saddles, bags and boxes to put things in...and viable modern vegetable seeds and potting soil or bagged garden soil, of the sort muggles use...no magical properties, just for growing foods...viable fruiting plants and fruit tree seeds too. Replace the local earths with the good bagged muggle garden soils, if need be. I will want to grow many orchards here and many fields of food plants of many kinds." He thought more, "And several never-ending sources for pools of good, sweet-tasting, fresh water, both for drinking and for watering which will never fail even in the worse drought or after the nastiest flood...and also for a safe place for swimming."

"Good choices. Dobby can think of other things, too. Does Master Harry Potter wish Dobby to provide them?"

"Yeah, please. I'll think of enough things after you go back as it is, no need to add more things I forgot to ask about or didn't know I'd need. I must make an artist, a farmer, a husbandman, a fisherman and a grower of myself. And a harvester of other things for use as trading items."
Dobby chuckled slightly and exerted the magics of his kind while absorbing any elf-type power in the area. There was a lot of it because the Wizard's Constructs known as House Elves hadn't been invented yet...so no one was using it yet. It made Dobby into a very powerful Elf. He would horde it until he got home, then take Winky as a mate.

No other suitor would be so powerful...and since Dobby was Bonded, any female he took as a mate would become bonded to his master as soon as he did so. Winky would be very grateful to her husband for giving her such a powerful new master from an ancient line to serve. Of course, she would scold a bit for not telling her he'd bonded as was right and proper for an elf instead of letting her think he was some sort of a pervert, but it wouldn't be too harsh. Dumbledore's family far out ranked Crouch's.

She would be in a better place than she'd been thrown from and she would recognize this. The first thing he would do, though, before going to report to his master, was to report to Gringotts. This would freeze and hold all Potter and Black assets until and unless Harry returned to or caught up with, his era. Kreatur would be killed by the goblins as useless as any elf of his sort should be...only Goblins could kill an elf. Unlike his ancestors his head would not adorn the wall because he was unworthy. He had not managed to obey his young Master's last order nor obeyed either Master who had inherited him. He would be tossed back into the elfpot to cook more, in hopes that the next construct made from his material would be stable.

All in all it was a very dishonorable end.

Dobby had got him housed before he left, at least. And it was a properly Wizard home that Harry Named. Cavehouse-on-the-Sea, he called it. Once he'd done that, Dobby could fill it with the things a wizard or wizard's child needs, from supplies to foodstuffs, and lock the Build into Forever. He put it on the List of Places Maintained by ALL House Elves. When he did so, he felt himself stabilize and understood that before he had added this place in the NOW, future elves were not on it. That was because it didn't exist before Harry Potter had been born, but now, even the very first creature of a species one day called a 'house elf' would be fully successful instead of partway like Dobby had been...because he'd put them on this list. All elves had to be able and willing to service this place correctly...so the magic of the list made it possible. He did not have long, though. So he had worked quickly as well. He left the boy as the child slept, knowing that only the boy's lonely sorrow would be there to greet the dawn.

In a Cleft Stuck

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stared in horrified shock at Dobby the Elf as the last words of the house elf's report died into silence. There was nothing that could be done, they all knew that. All for nothing, all this effort and all the suffering, all the many, many deaths, were for nothing for Harry had not been trained well enough to escape Voldemort's traps forever...and now he was lost in the distant past...so far before the present day there was not even an written record of the time.

"No spell will reach him, for good or ill." He finally said hoarsely. "No elf can carry anything living for so far through space and time. Supply him Dobby, as best you can. But no more than once a year, for it t'isn't safe for you either. Nor may I release you nor send another free house elf...for no unbonded elf can make such a journey and survive it. There is nothing but moving the school to a safe location to do now. America has pledged a place under their Mage Shield for this school and it's children. Pull in your anchors, Professors. I will send for Remus and we leave Scotland at midnight. There is a better system for werewolves in America, as I understand it. "

Minerva's voice was melancholy as she spoke. "The protective magics of Hogwarts will prevent it's return until two thousands of years have passed. One day, people will say, 'Long ago, many hundreds of years ago, Hogwarts sat in the land of her Mothers, in Scotland, the Brave where her stones were raised and there she taught the Sons and the Daughters of Magic for over a thousand years...then came Voldemort, the Evil and she left those shores for the sake of her children and found a Refuge in America, England's Firstborn.'"

"What did Potter name his home, back then?" Snape paused to ask Dobby, a sort of quiet wonder floating in his tone that Albus had never heard from the sardonic man before. Neither had anyone else, apparently: Everyone was suddenly staring at Snape.

"Cavehouse-on-the-Sea, it was located on a shore along the South Pacific in a place where Southern China is now and that isn't in the tropics any longer...but it will remain there for many centuries before the shifting earth twists round enough to move it from where I steered him to land, close to food and water, further from most predators, professor sir."

"I know it. I saw it for the first time when I was very young and the boy who lived there was neither Chinese nor frowning at me like the ones that were. In fact, he smiled at me and told me he was glad to see a familiar face...but would not say why he also offered a place to live away from my father did I chose it: I accepted, of course. Now I know why he spoke as he did...for indeed my face was very familiar to him, was it not? And who he resembled...but why does he not now come to us? He is alive in this time, for I saw him last summer. He wears a glamour and as far as I know has worn one every time I've been with him." He questioned Albus with is eyes. "I lived with him three years and never knew his name. Only that one day someone else would tell me...and now, apparently someone has."

"First we move the school, then, when we are settled, you may take Dobby with you to go find out if Harry has lived several hundreds of thousands of years without aging a day. He no longer needs us...and perhaps believes we will not want him. But mostly, so much time is a dangerous thing to meddle with. There is only one man who will be able to tell Harry whether or even if it is safe to be himself with us again, after all this time. And I've not seen the Oldest One in many years."

"Who?"

"Exactly." And he chuckled anew at their confusion. "Severus, ask Mr. Harkness to step up to my office when he arrives. If he asks why I wished to speak to him, tell him I'm going to ask that he send the call out for the man who offered to find someone for me a few decades ago. I seem to need the rain-check I asked him for. Not even Old Jack, have I seen in a long time."

"Did you send for him?"

"No, but I never needed to when we were in Scotland and if anything Torchwood will be watching us closer, now, after such a move. Odd how the Americans call theirs Wooden Torch with a caption underneath their symbol saying, 'Ready to go up at any time', but I suppose it means about the same thing."

"Aye. Bloody Americans being so blunt as they are."

"So, this person can reach an expert consultant in temporal manipulations and the Consultant will be able to tell us if we can have our student back or no?" The deputy head wanted to know.

"Possibly, though Old Jack may have to return to England to do so. And there's no guarantees."

"Just lovely." Snape groused. "All these years of putting him through hell in my classroom and I discover Mr. Potter has been my dearest OLDER gentleman friend who has taken care of my welfare since I was five. I've known him for longer than I did his mother, whom I didn't even meet until I was at least eight...and approached on his suggestion, for Merlin's sake. Said something about keeping all our ducks in a row...the blasted boy. And I love him more than ever I did her."

"Send a note round with Dobby to say hello properly, Severus."

"Busybody."

"Yes, but do it anyway."

Living in the Past, Speaking to the Future

He had a few information gathering spells, too, and having made primitive paper, his Forever Inking Quill gave him the knowledge he sought as he prepared for the Great Journey...it drew on the knowledge contained in the future library of Hogwarts. Age was a funny thing. Because he lived SO far in the past, the Restricted Section and the Master's Section was freely available to him. He could enter information into the Book of Student Inquiry because he was an enrolled student, addressed to a particular person in the future and such folk could send it back by leaving it on the next page via a folded note.

Madam Pince was the one who noticed that there was a great deal of activity in the Student's BOOK. The Query the Librarian Book. The one where she'd answer ONE question from each student every day a student asked but each student was limited to a single sentence. As she read the question, she realized that even though the question was four feet in length, it WAS a single sentence. Had it it not been posed by Harry, who was known to be lost hundreds of thousands of years in the past, she might have had a poor response to his very creative uses of punctuation. As it was, she told him he was exempt from the Single Query and One Sentence rules...she knew he needed all the information he could get his hands on to survive his new era and she said so. She sent her elf for the Headmaster and he brought with him a small group of Volunteer Book Watchers.
It was one of the things he did in the Month of Storms when his fingers were sore from working the shells and he needed to hold his fingers a new way for a time to get out the cramps. He never wrote long enough to acquire different ones, though. On his request, Madam Pince procured a full series of muggle school books, from kinder through several kinds of college A levels. She did take the time to study them herself and soon realized (what the rest of Wizard Society didn't) that Modern Muggles were by no means the brutes of the past.

In response, she did what any self-respecting Master Librarian would do and put their Art, Music and Fiction on her shelves as well, to the shock and pleasure of all students and to the horror of some of the purebloods. From that contingent the refrain of 'Had no idea those muggles were so advanced! Traveled to the moon? Have researchers living five good miles in the sky, or better, do they? This is horrible, wizardry has no such advances!' was becoming depressingly frequent. And admittedly, she snapped at the brats doing the most of it.

"Then get off your lazy bums and do the researches! Even the extremely primitive humans he's living with now have that much common sense!"

And predictably it was the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs who buckled down and took her advice...well, them and a single, lone Gryffindor...Hermione Granger. Puffs did, who honored hard work and the Claws who honored knowledge in all its forms...and Granger who honored both and was excellent with either, which irritated students of both those houses as well as her own.

But for Harry, such things as he sought had specific purposes...and so it was that in this way Albus had helped him pinpoint where he was in time...and how far he'd been thrown.

"Four hundred, ninety three thousand, eight hundred fifty seven years, two hundred, thirteen and a quarter days." Snape croaked.

The sheer magnitude left him gasping and from the length of time it took his employer to respond, he was fairing no better. But after that, Snape and Dumbledore kept an eye on that mostly blank journal and from time to time there was a question in it.

Some of those questions required Miss Granger to be added to the people watching the book because it needed a muggle answer, from muggle textbooks books on Natural and World History or from Social Studies. Listening to her read aloud it came to Albus Dumbledore that the best muggle studies course would be done from the lessons their own children were taught...and also from muggle fashion books. He hesitantly asked Hermione about this and was relieved at her nod of approval. He promptly changed the books required for the next term...and hired a squib who worked in London's school system as an educator for from kinder to age 18 years, giving the woman a free hand with her classes as he did with any other professor. Shortly afterward, particularly with the addition of the weekly Current Muggle Fashions study day, the purebloods stopped embarrassing themselves when shopping in London.

"One does not wear robes, a pointed hat, any form of magical cloth or leather including dragonhide or carry one's broom with one on shopping trips when in muggle shopping areas, in any nation, anywhere, unless 'tis the week before or after Halloween...because only then will no one notice." Mrs. Grant told them. "Elsewise, you shall stand out to the side of the crowd like a monkey with a sore thumb and everyone will stare and think you're a simpleton."

Some took more than one trip to the changing room, but eventually they all made it to 'Boots: How to select type for purpose and put them on correctly'.

To the utter dismay of the purebloods, when told they had to wear muggle clothing all day, they discovered what any muggleborn or muggle raised halfblood could have told them...muggle boots are far, far better in snow or on ice than those slick-soled dragonhide boots they usually wore...and much, much warmer. The same went for muggle clothes especially once they learned to put on the thermal underwear correctly and layer up properly. And though the snottier ones wore their robes fastened up completely, the lack of bulk and the much lessened response to frigid days told any muggleborn they were wearing sensible clothes under those robes. Particularly when one finally broke down and bought a decent coat, decent gloves and a thickly knit hat.

He'd decided that warmth was better than no warmth and ignored the fact that pureblood after pureblood followed his lead. Deciding to be comfortable instead of traditional, they snorted derision at Malfoy and changed to muggle clothing. The muggle clothes also meant that wasting power on warming charms was unnecessary.

Harry and Hermione chuckled at her description of the Hogwart's Muggle Fashion Takeover. But there, they were warmer now and less prone to catching colds or flu: Madam Pomphrey was excited at the difference well-made, purpose-made clothing could have on general health. Only one needed another person's answer...and for that he requested Molly Weasley.

"You poor little thing...so lost and all alone..."

"There's no help for it at this time, Mrs. Weasley...I need to ask you to do something for me, though, on that end of History."

"Anything dear."

"I want you to accept Hedwig. She needs a place with a responsible witch and your Errol needs to retire...badly. Will you take her? I miss her but I have an Eagle Owl pair on this end of history and I can't get her here anyway."

"Yes, of course. She's a highly intelligent, solidly responsible bird, quite aside from being beautiful."

"Tell her I said find a wild male Snowy and bond with him. He'll bond to the family when their bond is set...that way your branch of Weasleys will have owlets to sell every year and one of her babies will always serve as Home Owl for the Family. If you keep a few female owlets and trade her first few years worth of sons for unrelated males from a good breeder, you could get a good business going as a Snowy Owl supplier. And with Hedwig to train the babies, you can get higher prices."

"That...that's a very good idea, Harry. Thank you, I'll do that. Snowy Owls are quite expensive and a clutch a year will put us quite into the black with our yearly budget, even with school expenses and tuitions to cover! Is there anything else?"

"Um...give Ron and Ginny one of the girls, each and have Ron give Pig to Colin Creevy for a birthday present. Trust me, they'll fit well. Spend a few minutes with Colin and I think you'll see what I mean...or just ask Hermione. And Ginny won't mind if she's got a breeding snowy of her own. Now, listen tight and make sure none of your kids are there to ruin the surprise."

He waited as Snape penned a short note that her brats were being very stubborn, grinning in amusement at the sort of 'stream of consciousness' type of written snark that was pure Snape. The man was being very gentle with Harry...in his way.

"Note to Hermione...watch the quotable animated movies when you know I'm going to be talking to Mrs. Weasley. I swear I could hear Pumba's voice in her first sentence. Consider yourself smacked. He jotted down, taking the opportunity to needle Hermione about that Lion King quote Mrs. Weasley had aimed at him.

There's two things you need to know and there's a couple more that I want you to know...being as there is a difference between Needing and Wanting. Some of them are reactions to things I have planned...I'll want to know how all this turned out. Just make sure Ron gets new robes and a firebolt, okay?

He wrote several keying phrases down, one for every adult on a short list, to take to Gringotts and give to a teller. He did count Fred and George as adults, to their mother's dismay. He gave no further information. And then he said, "I've found my earliest ancestor and rescued him from a hungry cave lion. Used a Wingardium and he never saw me. Thought 'the mother' or something saved him. Losing the first Father of your line is a problem, y'know? So I put the guardian spell on him and his mate and all those in a direct line with me. Might not save my parents, it's supposed to just makes sure that the next generation actually happens and then lives long enough to continue the line, which did happen or is happening, though my line might be continued here and have to get there again...which makes my head hurt to think on for long. I'm rather glad I'm still just 12 'cause I'm just not really interested yet and there's no one here but me anyway so that's just as well, y'know?"

Most of his missives were in winter and all were dated, this let them see that often months passed without a word, in the warm, working seasons until the Winter Storms came and pretty much locked him indoors. He worked his harvest of shells and hides in those months or wrote in his Journal so Hogwarts-That-Will-Be would know he was still alive. As the years began to pass he wrote less often, though he made sure to write on both equinoxes and solstices, no matter what.
The first Spring after he gave Hedwig to Mrs. Weasley he got a landslide of notes...excited ones. He'd expected that after explaining 'banking' to a goblin in this age...the very first Gringott of the Line of Gringotts and gave him wizard Gold from the future Goblin Bank to get started. He made him preserve a list of key phrases for people in the future to get a 15% cut of what Gringotts would owe him in interest in those days from just that original seed money. He gave the goblin more over the years and of course did all his banking with the Gringotts Goblin Family, but that first bit was a special harvest.

Wealth beyond Ron's wildest dreams poured into his parent's vault as each family member was counted and the family was paid accordingly from the interest owed on an ancient account long overdue. Fred and George bought a very nice location next to the Diagon Alley entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, they had a whole five story building to themselves for their budding company and for a home of their own, using the top two floors for that.

On Harry's ancient request, Gringotts Apprentice department took on Percy. His apprentice wages were roughly twice what he'd gotten from the Ministry and his future in business was very bright. Two weeks into his apprenticeship the goblin masters discovered what Harry had long suspected...that Percy had the right kind of mind to be a killer investor and business tycoon. They happily assigned him to their best goblin. This told the goblin nation that The Boy Who Lived Far, Far into the Past was the correct Harry Potter and more wealth poured into the Potter Family vault as that initial loan and all the other loans and accrued interest was finally paid off.

Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger and Severus Snape also got a huge share of the bounty though in addition to the gold, Severus was named an adopted Black on his father's side, as well which removed his muggle sire entirely.

As he was the only living Black available to the wizarding world on his end of history, he got the entire Black inheritance and the fact his muggle father was replaced with the last Black, did two things...it made him a half brother to Sirius and Regulus and made him eligible for the Prince Inheritances.

Lucius was not happy when the Ancient House of Weasley took up its rightful position several ranks above his own but what absolutely infuriated him the was when his own elves confirmed the right of Severus Snape to full time Residency in Cavehouse-on-the-Sea. No one in modern times knew the owning Family, but apparently the House considered Severus one of the Cadet branches of that unknown House, which allowed him to claim it as a home. It also led to suspicions that the unknown family might possibly be Prince.

He was even angrier when Snape told him, "No, it's a Potter property, actually. Apparently that huge Turner deposited Harry over four hundred thousand years in the past...and he's made some changes then that are affecting the Now. He hunted down the original Gringott and gave him seed money, for one thing...invested in the Bank. Those loans are only now being paid off..."

The sudden ascendency of the Weasleys was bad enough, but to Lucius, Severus Snape was only a filthy Halfblood sired by a muggle father, no matter who had adopted him, he was still filthy. This was not to be borne, but there was nothing he could do. The Law was the law and no one was listening to Malfoy wishes any longer. Finding out that the Forever property was a Potter residence just made it all worse, somehow.

Cavehouse-on-the-Sea used peacocks for decorations and peahens as messengers instead of owls. Fudge had already abandoned Malfoy with the normal lack of consideration for eventual consequences that politicians usually showed, choosing instead to begin fawning all over Lord Arthur Weasley, who (as Lucius was well aware) had no use for Cornelius Fudge. And in the natural order of politics, when the highest ranking politician bailed, they all did, following their leader like ducklings in a line behind their mother...and suddenly Lord Malfoy was left with no one who wanted his advice or cared what he wanted. He was not pleased by this for it was now impossible to get any of his measures through. Particularly once Fudge gave Arthur's son Charlie a promotion to Reserve Head of the English Welsh Green Preserve and appointed Umbridge to Guardian of Fudge's Gateway...otherwise known as Minister's office door. The Pink Toad Woman was impossible.

"Get Albus' permission, if he tells me it's okay to support this measure, I'll finance it...but I'm not a political man and you well know it." Came Arthur's House Elf delivered reply, "Tell Albus what you want and have him owl me or come over for dinner and he and I will discuss it over after dinner drinks. That answer won't change no matter the question you ask."

The second Gift, this to Arthur Weasley as the head of his family, was of a property Harry called The Summer-Forever-by-the-Sea and was located in Hawaii. Like Cavehouse-on-the-Sea, at some point in the distant past, Dobby had Build Locked it. It was listed as House Weasley's main House Seat. Like muggles, only the best of the best of wizardry had an Ancient Build Seat in those tropical islands. The seat held hundreds of house elves in residence that were bloodbound to House Weasley. Three took over the Burrow immediately once Arthur first set foot inside Summer Forever and they had a chance to read him and understood the need.

Malfoys had never owned a Forever Place in all their history and it was this that proved they were outranked. When Draco learned of it, he became helplessly furious as Slytherin House's rank hunters migrated toward the pompous, if quite generous, redhead. Even Pansy had dropped the luckless Draco and was actively pursuing the Weasley's youngest. Bill, the first born, was already wed as was Charlie. Percy was Apprentice Locked into the Goblin Bank for the next twenty years and not even pursuing an advantageous marriage could get Pansy anywhere near the Twins...but Ron was different. Unfortunately, for her plans, right before she intended to put them into action, Ron announced at breakfast that Hermione had accepted his proposal of marriage and both sets of parents had come to an agreement. The Betrothal Contracts, magical and non, had already been signed.

Pansy was furious but there was nothing to be done about it. She had no choice and direct orders from her father. Pursue the Twins. She returned a request that he approach their father directly. She got a reply two weeks later that included the bride's portion of the contracts...and from the outrage at the Gryffindor table, one of the twins had just received his. There was no getting out of it for either of them now: Not with magical contracts in place.

She read the bride price that had been gained from her new father in law and paled. It was huge. She got up and headed to the High-table, handing her copy to her head of house for Professor Snape to read.

"Oh, really?" He passed it to the deputy head who bobbled her teacup as she handed it to Albus. Albus ran a scan over it and it came back as quite legitimate.

"Congratulations on your marriage into House Weasley, I believe you will discover, however it appears now, that you've done a good thing for yourself, young lady. You may relax formalities, for one thing...your mother in law is a good woman who will coddle and spoil you if you let her." Snape told her quietly. "I'll have private quarters put in the Southern Tower for yourself and your groom. Only the twin cited in the contract will be able to get in."

What he didn't tell her was that neither she nor her new husband would be able to get out until she'd birthed a son. That was part of the ancient magic on that tower. That was one of the reasons South Tower and Hogwarts Matings had been discontinued fifty years earlier. But this was a new country and it was imperative to some families to have solid allies considering the times. And she realized, once she and her twin sons were allowed out that Professor Snape was quite correct about Mother Molly, as she called her. Her own mother had never been so caring or so supportive. Pansy had done quite a good thing for herself...and now that she was married to a Twin, she was invited to help design pranks instead of being a target of them. This turned out to be a very great deal of fun.
Gather a Living, Scavenge a Life

Harry harvested the sand and the sea, laying fish-traps in the tidal pools , taking the foodstuffs the ocean gave so freely with each tide and saving the best of the shells as well. For Harry, the best shells were the most detailed in their markings but also the smallest for some larger seashells were both heavy and fragile in their natural state. His wand delivered Unbreakable and Featherlight Transporting Charms over every finished load of clean, polished shells, strung onto their thongs or woven onto fibers. In these ancient days, trading was the only way to gain certain goods, for there was no money system yet. Still, at the land distances he was about to embark on, such things as shells were rare objects and that made them valuable. He'd warned the Journal readers that his next letter might be months or years in coming, he didn't know as he was taking his possessions and leaving notes for future house elves as to where he'd gone and when. Mostly so Dobby could find him for his yearly visit.

I'm headed toward the Painted Cave Dwellers of Southern France, from what I believe is the Southern Pacific tip of the part of a landmass which will one day be known as China. In this part of history, there are no other continents, it's all one big piece of land, except for islands like the one where the cave is and where I get most of my shells.

'Cavehouse-on-the-Sea is my sole property, so far. I am not abandoning it or moving or anything, I'm merely seeking a trading route since I think being a trader is a good career, seriously. With some luck, maybe I can attract more humans here. My new era is likely in the early part of the Hunter Gatherer stage...probably shortly after humans had discovered how to control fire and lost their fur.
It's even odds whether humans have some form of writing or are still painting simple concepts and ideas on cave walls.' He jotted down for the people of the future to read.

NATURE BOY

The only sounds he ever heard now were those of Nature; the jungle noises, of creatures and sometimes he thought he could hear the plants grow, other than that, there was only his own breathing or footsteps in the leaf litter or over those parts of the interior that were hard sand, harder clay or rock and the white noise of the surf as combers crashed into the shore. In some seasons, the rookeries of migrating birds raised a racket that had he but known it could be heard far out to sea, as the competition for the best nesting sites and enough room to rear their babies grew vicious.

He took some of them for roasting birds, saving the best of the feathers for fletching and figured out the hard way how to make shell-tipped arrows that flew far and true...and how to fashion working longbows. He knew that seeking out people was dangerous for the future, but he also knew that he needed other humans to survive at all in this primitive world. He had applied Future ideas by capturing some of the wild asses that ran all over his new home, taming them and training them to carry packs. His best bet, he decided, was to be a traveling trader, until he found a People somewhere, that would accept him. He figured that would probably take a while, since if he'd been considered a freak even next to other wizards, what else could be be considered by these primitives?

There were good parts about being here, in this 'Now', though. For one thing, the sound of the surf when combined with the view of the stars through crystal clear, unpolluted air at night from the beach was incredible, the sunrises on the eastern shore and sunsets on the western one were masterworks of color, and things that washed up on his beaches after storms were often at the very least fascinating and there were lots of creatures in the jungles of his island that served him in various ways, as food or as companions of a sort. Food literally hung from nearly every tree...it had everything a boy could want except friends. And it wasn't as if that lack was something to which he was unused.

All in all, while he wasn't completely happy all of the time, he was both well fed and mostly safe...he had his wand and having been trained for the defeat of Moldyshorts he also had a nice array of defensive spells he could and did use, despite never actually having fought the foul creature...which was more than enough to ensure that Harry was at least content. He had peace and no one bothered him here. He was free in ways only castaways can be. He had no one to please except himself and his various pets. He had replaced Hedwig with another owl and gave her the same name, even though she was of a different breed. Using the name of the Patron Saint of Orphans was even more appropriate now than it was the first time.

This Hedwig was an Eagle Owl and was absolutely huge...at least a third bigger than her mate, a male Harry had named Mipsy after his favorite Kitchen Elf at school...that elf knew his dietary needs and usually managed to use nutrient potions as ingredients in his favorite vegetable casseroles. It made sense since the bird was always attempting to feed him.

He also had a growing pile of scavenged 'treasure' found on his beaches after storms and a collection of pearls found in oysters he'd opened after having harvested them for food from the tidal pools along with things like crabs and clams.

He idled away many long, lonely days drilling holes through them with sharp shell fragments and stringing them on long ropes twisted from plant fibers. A few he tied off into necklaces or belts, but most he just tied one end of to an overhead branch and let the breeze swing them about. Some places, he had so many they made a curtain that lightly clicked and clattered in the wind. Other places or sometimes the same places but a few feet away were abalone shells with their mother of pearl insides shining in the sun or strings of his favorite shells. His muggle education had told him that when traders got far enough inland, these things counted as wealth. He was also harvesting huge water-repelling packs of sea salt, shrinking them down until he could carry them in his pockets.

And, eventually, when he had as much 'treasure' as he could handle the number pack animals needed to carry it, Harry began to prepare to start his search for humans. He still wasn't so big a boy that a large ass was too small for him to ride. His occasional forays to the mainland had yielded deer hides and meat to dry, experiments had yielded, eventually, soft skins to make his clothing from, and shells or pearls, once holed, were sewn to his clothing in creative patterns and colors. Others were sewn loosely to hides he'd trimmed into squares, in rows of type and kind, then rolled up and tied securely before rolling it up in another, larger hide, the other way round.

Working out saddle-trees fit for packsaddles had be so much fun, he mused, sarcastically to himself as he loaded the last ass. The actual saddle hadn't been nearly as much of a headache, though he had used the Western one the Americans had developed instead of the English version...it had more places to hang things from and one could strap saddlebags to the backrest, he thought that was the part called a cantle. It also had a large saddlehorn, which was as well while he taught himself to ride as it had given him something to hold onto when the stallion was trying to buck him off. The other fun project was carving the parts for an essentially one-piece wagon bed complete with seats, it's self-lubricating axles and wheels.

Now, of course, the lead lines for the other animals were fixed to it, running under his thighs to the animals. And he cheated, a bit, using side-along apparition to get them all to the Mainland. He didn't know why, not that it mattered anyway, but he turned North and settled into the un-ending days of travel. If he found humans, it would be by chance, but he wasn't defenseless, by any means. He had both his wand and the Elder wand, his battle-learned defensive and offensive spells and a huge host of 'home' charms Molly had taught him. Hedwig alternately flew, hunted or rode on one of the packs.

Killing Curses weren't illegal yet, so he used them as an ordinary hunting weapon to kill meat and fur-bearing animals painlessly and instantly. Many of the dark curses he found useful for processing his prey, such as those which drained blood or skinned at a word...and he asked through the Book, if hunting and processing hides and meat were the original purposes for those spells.

They were and there was a comment from the Ministry's legal department that it was only Unforgivable to use the AK against a human because many magical hunters still used those spells correctly, intense need, not necessarily hate, was what made them work best. The need for filling, good food and warm clothing was as good a reason as any. They wrote in other good spells for processing hides for his uses as well.

Drying and curing spells turned the hides into clean, soft skins and simple 'color' charms put in hues that were bright and which didn't fade. He could, of course, have used the knowledge Professor Snape had given him to dye things the hard way...and if he found humans it would probably be wiser to do it the hard way...so as he traveled, he harvested such plants as would give leather or cloth long lasting, bright colors. He also harvested cotton and flax seeds, for when he finally found a home, to grow a crop to harvest for thread. But for now, he only took cotton bolls when they were poofed out and ready. He had to pick them anyway to get to the little black seeds, so why not use the cotton fiber?

After about two full years of northward travel, barring a week or two spent in various places to rest the animals and himself, he reached cooler lands. It was autumn and there was a bit of a nip in the air. He knew it was going to be cold in the winters here so he did something he had not needed to do before. He sought out shelter, looking for a stone cave big enough for himself and the increased size of his ass herd.

It took a while to find one, even with magic, but he finally found what he needed. He didn't know that it was inside the territorial boundaries understood by the native people who lived there, however friendly they were to visitors and never-minding the fact they had no idea it was there.

Nor would it matter to them. Harry Potter, for all his skills and abilities, was only 12 years old, had not yet begun puberty and was a child in a land and a time when every human child was welcome because humans were so few, where the loss of every life, even prey animals killed for food and hides, was cause for at least regret, because Life was both precious and fragile.

People from the Past , Arrive in the Past

He woke at the snorting of his asses, to the sound of unfamiliar but definitely human voices. He had not heard anyone's voice in almost four years by then...and he put a Language Comprehend Charm on himself, then ventured outdoors cautiously. There were five people out there. Four men and a woman.

"I didn't know we had a Cave living here, Healarnad."

The other man had seen the unfamiliar clothes, the strange designs made by countless precious shells and replied, "We don't. There is a stranger's little boy in the cave mouth." He held up his hands in the formality of welcome, trying to reassure the child who looked like he thought he was going to be attacked.

One of the men called into the cave, but received only equine snorts in answer.

"Someone better go get Zelandoii of the Ninth. " The woman said, indicating that two of the men should stay with the child while the rest spread the news of the abandoned boy. "She's nearest anyway. I think this child is alone...and he's got a lot of asses in there. Some are wearing strap arrangements like she puts on her horses...but different, somehow."

The two concerned adults hunkered down in as non-threatening a way as they could manage, while Harry worked at getting his voice to work again. Finally, he went inside for a bit and returned with sweetened water in skins, cups and plates, and some of the dried, tropical fruits he still had. Pineapple, mostly, because it kept well. He bowed low, formally, as a Wizard would, and served the men.

"He's got good manners, wherever he's from. How could anyone lose a child like this?" He heard, once he finally worked past his nervousness and got his translation charm going. It worked to let him know what they were saying, but it was useless for teaching him to speak their tongue because it translated it to English. He had another for that, but thought that it would be suspicious to use it too soon or without permission.

When it grew late, he indicated to the men who were still here...from their speech they were obviously not inclined to leave him here unprotected from predators, that they should come into the large cave where he'd been settled for about a year. He'd been thinking about moving on when they'd passed the cave and had seen the rather obvious signs that it was occupied.

It was very, very clear to both men...men who had sons, acknowledged under the New Knowledge, no older than this boy was, all of whom they loved deeply, that he was alone. Very alone and had been so for a very long time. Far too long. He worked the Shells with skilled precision, after setting a roast to cook. It was, with the side dishes he put to cook with it, enough for several people.

"I guess it's pretty obvious we're waiting for someone." One man commented ruefully to the other, watching the boy drill the string holes into some fairly heavy small conks which could serve as pendant on a necklace with smaller shells above it. They watched the skilled boy craft several necklaces. Harry prepared the shells for each necklace or bracelet as he made the item it was for. One of them got up and went outside when new voices were heard calling for the men.

"This foreign boy has high status, wherever he is from. He has a great deal of wealth with him, from his everyday clothing to what looks like formal clothes...they are all very valuable. The shells are southern ocean shells...one hardly ever sees them this far north. And he has a huge array of them, in bundles and in baskets. His wealth is great, his clothing is decorated in a way used, I think, to display his trade items. Did Willomar come with you?" Toratilan asked Ayla.

"Yes, I came too. I know many languages of many peoples. I thought I might be of some help."

Harry watched the woman closely, sensing the kind of authority his Head of House had displayed. She was nicer, though, he thought, upon seeing the gentle smile and much, much younger.
Her grasp of communication sounds was profound, it didn't take her very long to understand he had special, powerful magic...but no teachers. Almost all the teachers had died and he was alone. He told her he had lived in a place where children went to be taught the secrets of the magics of their kind, where no one who didn't have power lived and that a great evil that could not be stopped slew almost everyone. This boy had a horror story to tell her, one of a powerful magic user who had become the Servant of Evil, killing out as many Good magic users as he could not manage to pervert and corrupt before he was finally slain.

"In the end, I and a few others lived, but they had families to mourn with them. As we began to grieve, probably because I am an orphan and stood somewhat apart from those who had families, one of the other evil men who had served the Servant of Great Evil, who was not as dead as we thought, threw a strangely configured Power at me. It threw me into the vortex of time and I landed here." He paused to gather hsi thoghts, then continued, "I am far, far from the time I was born in and there is no way to get home to my correct place in time. There is no choice, I must live in this one. But I can't live alone indefinitely, I wish to live with people, if I can find someone who will have me." He finished, cuddling his new Hedwig who crooned to him as she would an upset fledgling. She did allow the other humans to give her skritches, though. "Or rather come home with me to the place where I live."

Ayla was stunned, her head swimming. "Get your animals and get packed up. I'll help...I think it's best I take you home with me to the Ninth Cave, where my senior can be told and we will decide what to do. You, being a Magic User in a future time, are One Who Serves, in this one. You must let us find out if you already have the Knowledge. Come along, child."

Even with seven people including the young shaman to help, it still took a day and a half to pack up all his property. They decided to wait until morning to load the asses and return to the Ninth Cave. By the time dinner was started, Zelandoni who was First had arrived on her special travois led by Ayla's mate and Ayla told her, in relief, what the boy, whose name was Harold but who liked to be called 'Harry', had told her.

"And he does not lie." Ayla told her mentor. "I would have seen it."

"I know you would have. So great an attack to sent him so deep into the past. He must be brought into the Zelandonia, Ayla. He is partly trained in ways that we don't even know. He is powerful and wealthy...but he is still a small boy who is, for all his skills and wealth, without parents."

"Yes. He wishes to return to his home that he made, but for now I will have a sleeping place made in my dwelling so that he may live with us, if he chooses, until then. I think adopting him to the Ninth Cave is wise."

"So do I." The old donier nodded.

A few days later, after the adoption to the Cave, because a small child, however skilled, was never left alone for long by those ancient ones, Harry asked Ayla if the Cave would mind if he put a piece of magic on himself that would allow him to speak their language without all the stumbling.

She asked the leader, who asked the Cave...in the presence of five or six other leaders and doniers. The Cave agreed and he cast the Language Charm he needed...and then he thanked them profusely...in their own tongue.

They were stunned.

"There are two kinds of magic user. Those who are warriors against evil spirits and those who wield High Magic. I am of the second kind." He explained. "We were taught differently than those you call doniers are taught. We were taught to call a donier a 'shaman or shamaness', if female. My kind of Magic User is called a Wizard, if male or a Witch if female." He quirked his lips, "When I listened to your plans for my future education, I just had to tell you this."

"So, you are of a different kind of Those Who Serve, entirely." The Fourteenth Stressed.

"Yes. I cannot walk the spirit world for that is not one of my Gifts. But...I can defend you against most magical attacks and just about any purely mortal one." He held out one hand in a clear entreaty, "And...I have knowledge that humans of the future, as generations came and went, gained...that the people of this time don't have yet. But there is no reason not to teach it, since it only just hasn't been found or discovered yet."

Draco 's ghost might yet regret sending him down into Limbo, since he knew quite well when Wizardry's history started...from Magical History class. And it wasn't for another fourteen or fifteen thousand years...Harry had plans for joining muggles and magicals into ONE people before they ever had the chance to separate to start with.

The full council of Doniers met to discuss the amazing boy, his powers, differences, Gifts and his offer. They determined they had to accept since it was clear that the child would give all he knew to the benefit of anyone who accepted it.

"He is so lonely," The Ninth said, finally. "He just wants a family, parents of his own and a people who will claim him, value him and love him. He can not return to his own time and I don't think he has anyone left there anyway. He has no reason to go if he could. If we give him the little things he needs...those things any child deserves, he will Serve our people well."

The others agreed. He'd even hugged the Fourteenth when she'd exclaimed in delight over the wealth of shells he owned. She'd also examined his stitchery and embroidery and had praised him for it. He liked her and it showed. She reminded him of Snape, with her snap and snark. He had tied a long rope of pearls around her neck and told her they were, themselves, suitable as a necklace. It wasn't until much later in the summer when Willamar stared in shock at the pearls that she learned not only how rare they were but also how much work it was to gather them. Pearls, to the Doniers, were known to be objects in a form of Clear that glowed...they were considered magical beyond belief, but it wasn't until Willamar asked her if she knew how much Harry must love her to give her a rope of pearls so long that she found out what they were. No one but the Trade Master had ever seen one.

When the leaders and the Doniers explained that the leaders of all the Caves had to see the full extent of his wealth so that they could establish his Rank within the Ninth Cave and the rest of the Zelandonii, as a whole, he nodded. They assisted, the leaders of many Caves and the Doniers as a whole, in helping to bring the hundreds of thinly rolled but quite heavy skins. As they were brought, he untied the outer skin, unrolled it then repeated the action with the thinner hide where the precious cargo of Equatorial Seashells were tied and cushioned against breakage. Baskets were brought out filled with carefully wrapped finished pieces, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, rings, ear-rings, finger and toe rings were displayed.

And the clothes he'd made for himself, by himself...all covered with strange designs in shells. The tall racks he'd tied together to hang the pearls and other small, bright shells held the precious things in huge ropes, each braided into 'logs' that had to be unbraided so that each long, long string could be shown properly. Some were over a hundred feet long, once fully unbraided, untied and displayed.

He was probably the wealthiest person they had ever met.

"Of course, these," He gestured at the shell covered, bright blue square hides, "As are all the ones on the blue dyed hides, are for trading. Most of the ropes of hard shells and pearls are too, but first I have to string them into Jewelry or make lesser strings of them to trade to other Jewelry Makers for their own uses. I trade the finished pieces only, never an unfinished partial work, but since I have so many shells, a person can select what other kinds of the better shells they want added to a partly done necklace or bracelet that only has the basic ones started on it." Harry explained.

"That just makes them more valuable."

"And in a few months, in the Spring, I want to go back to the island where I live. It is my Cave and my home, so I will be there for a long time when I go home between trading trips...but there's plenty of room for others to live there. Besides, I've got a lot I didn't bring 'cause I had no room for them."

"We'll have to with you to do that, you aren't alone anymore and shouldn't travel by yourself at your age. No sense wasting wealth, though, so arrangements will be made for the Spring." The Fourteenth nodded, soothing him with a hand on his shoulder. Both the First and the Ninth took note of this.

There's knots between some of them with a bit of open sinew between so they can be cut into smaller sections, shorter strings are easier for making things with. That's why I brought them. I've got others stored on other square hides, dyed different colors, for my own uses, but the ones on the squared blue hides or wrapping in blue hides are for trading." He looked at the leaders of his new People. How many blue skins of shells to get me a home built big enough for all my stuff...plus my asses and me?"

"If we expand the Horse Place, the asses will fit. We'll need a bigger shelter for them all, though." Jondalar commented.

"Okay, wall, new stabling...not a problem. I'd better put up some defensive wards, though, to keep out any unauthorized four footed hunters." He idly petted Wolf, thinking of Remus sadly. He hadn't been at all afraid of the big canine, after all, having large dogs about were normal in his time...and he was used to 'Moony'.

"Stabling?"

"A building made of some kind of material...in this case I'll suggest stone, intended to provide shelter and protection from predators to domesticated or tamed animals like your horses and my asses. Bigger creatures like cattle are put in similar buildings called barns."

"What's a building?"

Harry just groaned.

Harry had just finished his Lunar Calendar, noting the weeks and months, the names for each, the Quarter Days and Cross Quarter Days as he'd learned at Hogwarts. He knew the Moons, the Risings and Settings of the sun, the Solstices and Equinoxes were all things he already knew. He only had to prove that to the First.

First though, he needed scrolls and ink, both of which he needed to make. The Cave watched the process of parchment making, noting that he preferred the skins of wild sheep for this. But when he first set quill to ink and began to write, he knew from their faces just how far into the past he was.
They couldn't read or write. They were the Cave Painters! He beamed at the confused Doniers.

"Here then, is something you need to learn to do." He chuckled. "This is called 'writing'. It is a system of symbols that are used to speak to people...even when whoever writes it isn't there...or even has been dead for years. These symbols represent the sounds made by words...and therefore, spoken words themselves..." He trailed off, the doniers were not stupid.

"DEAR BOUNTIFUL MOTHER!" Came out pretty much in unison.

"So...while you are all learning the symbols, I'll go ahead and write my knowledge of the Seasons which First wants to know if I know...and when she's learned to read, she can find out what I still need. THAT should provide motivation." He grinned at her.

"Young one..." She glared, subsided, paused and then started laughing.

"Learning the symbols can take a while since you have to match the right basic sound with the right basic symbols first, then move to the combined symbols that make more and more complex sounds within a language. Best part is, not only does this work with ANY language, I can reproduce the learning materials you're going to need magically." And he did so, chuckling at so many adults with primers, thick pencils and copy paper...all of which fascinated them.

Summer Meeting and Trading for Wealth

The Doniers, in addition to their usual duties, spent the winter learning to read and write Zelandonii. When First finally discovered that Harry's summary and essays both made perfect sense...and added to the knowledge of the Zelandonia as a whole, she was pleased that he had traded shells to the Shelter Builders to build him a large house. House was the word he used for the kind of shelter he wanted.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen...and most people wanted to alter their space to match it. The 'chimney' was a wonder, keeping heat inside his dwelling while directing the smoke and soot out of it. The roof shed blown snow and kept drips of water from the cave of the ceiling, loosened by the rising heat of many fires, from dropping on one's head or one's belongings. The thick stone walls kept out the most persistant drafts and also held in the heat with the interior of the underside of the roof, called a ceiling. The rafters that held up the roof added overhead storage space for items and food and there was a space under the floor that wasn't guarded from cold at all where he stored meat, keeping it frozen there.

Harry spent most of his winter checking the Donier's efforts and making shell jewelry. The Early the next spring, he showed the Doniers how to trace the mineral deposits they used for dyes back to the metal ore they came from. Having traded over the winter, a stone carver to make the biggest stone bowl anyone had ever seen attempted at the site of a large deposit of copper, he paid in smaller, common shells to have children gather wood for a special purpose. He also paid them to gather clay. He decided to put off heading home for one year, for there were things he wished to make first.

From the clay and large stones, Harry built a huge kiln, then made and fired clay molds for pots, pans, forks and spoons, other utensils and grinned at the array of molds that came out of the firing process. Along with the molds, were bowls and platters of all shapes and sizes. He had personally gathered the items from the land he'd need for glazes, traded for brushes from the painters and had the Zelandonia of the Nineteenth, formerly known as Jonokol, paint his best designs on several of them.

"You'll be taking those home with you for display purposes, after they've been fired the second time. You'll be stunned at the transformation of the glazes on the clay vessels when I remove them. You'll still have to let them cool overnight, though. I'm putting some smaller pieces in with a single glaze on them so you can see which colors and tones I can make a glaze for. After that, you can tell me which ones you want."

Stoneware and ceramics made a huge difference to these folks. Knowing which of the white or red clays to use, how to clean it until it was free of debris and how to mix and mold it, provided nicely for new trade items. Harry had the only kiln, he did the Potting himself, he was a Potter, he told them, after all, in addition to his other skills, since this was, after all, what his family had been known for, generation after generation. It gave the Ninth a steady supply of ceramics and he wouldn't teach anyone else. Not yet, anyway because it added to his value and the leaders and none of the leaders or doniers had told him what his baseline rank was, yet.

Someone complained that he refused an apprentice Potter and he reminded them of this. He could only teach family members or those who married into his mother's line...and he still didn't have a mother yet.

It meant more to the girl's parents than it did to Harry, because she was from a high status mother who wanted to know if her child risked loosing status by learning a skill from an UnRanked boy. So, she reminded the First that his personal status still had to be established.

Harry was of great value in that ancient world, it grew when spring came and he took the arrowheads he'd taught Jondalar to make so a master hand would do what he really didn't have time for. Thereafter, he'd taught many of the hunters to use the longbow. He had learned it himself, taught himself, during those years alone.

Stunned at the hunting advantage it gave them, they learned with eagerness. This far north, the English lad used traditional woods for the bow, ash or yew, when he could get it. He also planted the Cotton seeds he'd gathered on his Journey...that's what they called his wandering...in rows with the flax seeds beside the cotton, spaced to allow each mature plant enough room to fully expand to it's best potential. All of the gatherers saw the potential in his neat rows and the Ninth put in seeds to grow her medicinal plants. He showed her how to take cuttings from adult plants and which ones she could take roots from, divide them and plant that way to have strong, healthy plants much sooner than from seed.

Harry was useful, valued, productive, accepted, cared for, loved...and he loved in return with all the heart in him. He kept his former dwelling though, insisting his family, meaning his new mother and the children born to his new mother move into it with him.

It was huge, after all...and doing so would raise their rank even more, to something very close to what his had been before the adoption. That raised his up again...since his mother still owned the other dwelling, but she and her father lived with him. It meant he had a grandfather, now, but it also meant he was providing for an Elder.

He had asked a woman with many children who had lost her mate to adopt him. She was high of status, though not so high as his, so she had hesitated until he put puppy-dog eyes to work on her and then she capitulated without a word. There was, she knew from her birth sons, no accounting for it once a lad got a notion into his head. She rather liked the new nickname he'd given her...Molly.

When the First began explaining the 'new' knowledge, she slowly stopped talking as she realized that Harry was grinning at her.

"You already know."

"Yes, Ma'am." She'd gotten used to his honorifics that he used more often than the Zelandonii ones. 'Ma'am' she had learned, was a polite, Female specific, general acknowledgment of greater age, a wider range of experienced knowledge and rank. It did not indicate one's function, title or duties, though. It was, he had said, the safest term of general respect to use on any fully mature female one doesn't know. Among people that were known to the person using it, it was used from younger to elder as a casually respectful address for a woman. It was not to be confused with the much more formal 'Madam'.

NOT a girl, though. Girls, he told her, he called 'Cootie-carriers' because they all had something he called 'cooties'. After some questions, she started smiling. Harry was not only too young to be interested in sex, yet...he was still in the time of development when boys thought they were allergic to girls, she assumed. She knew his background now, though. This was less about age and more because the boy had never before been allowed to be a child...so he'd reverted in his behavior to that of a child that was younger than his actual age.

'Cooties', she thought, chuckling. It was a very useful, indicative term, instead of a parasite or disease...and it would disappear on it's own...in time. She was going to have to spread that word around the Zelandonia, though.

"Now, here are all the words for Father that I know of." He grinned. "Dada, pappa, padre, daddy, poppie, pops, pa, papa, abba and da." And then she got a lecture on how reproduction occurred, what the organs did, how sperm interacted with 'eggs'...that had her staring at him in shock.

"So, it's well known in my day, Ma'am," He finished, his face bright red, "That a woman's fertile time is the three days right before a period begins. There is no egg present in a woman's body at any other time of the month. It is also known that a man's seed can survive in a woman for up to two full days after he deposits it there. So, if you avoid Pleasures for five full days at that time..." He looked sickened every time he mentioned the word 'Pleasures'.

Harry's aversion to physical contact with females did not abate, however. When he got his manhood belt and his mother's da explained...

"Do I have to?"

Grandfather stared. "What do you mean, 'haveto'?"

"I don't like girls, that way." Harry told him.

He chuckled and smiled at him. "Prefer men, do you? Non-functional with females, I suppose? It happens, son. The Zelandonii understand this...come on, Harry, let's go talk to the First or the Ninth. There are special arrangements that are made for boys that carry the Soul of Woman within them."

The First explained Arrangement for Woman Souled Males, "Many of the men who are Those Who Serve are carrying a spirit that have both genders. You Serve, but differently than most Doniers would. We doniers have had many meetings concerning this, particularly when you started identifying several people who are Gifted in the same way that you are and started training them. The Ninth, in particular, from what you have told us, is very strong in what you call High Magic. We are adding the new kind of Servers to those of us that are traditional. Harry, you are One Who Serves."

"I am One Who Serves but as a Wizard, not as a Donier." He agreed. "Sooner or later we'll find some kids who are both, so you must test and guide the wizards and witches along with your regular novices. Nevermind that, for now." He dismissed it for the moment, "Do I have to wear the manhood belt? Because if I do, I'm going on a Journey until after the Meeting is over, so I don't have to dodge the Fringes who're guiding the rest of the boys." He told her bluntly, shuddering.

She chuckled. "Yes, but it's a different belt, not the usual one and we will make the public announcement that only Those Who Serve are to guide you in this.

"Oh, good." He told her, expressing intense relief and ignoring her chuckles. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I gave a full third of my trade goods to Willomar to be traded on behave of the Ninth Cave as a whole. I noticed some things we needed for the cave that we just didn't have the goods for so he's to use it for food trades or supplies or whatever is needed. I don't need all of it now that I have a family."

"That's very generous and will raise Ninth Cave status considerably." The First nodded. "Have you put aside enough for a Consort?"

"Yes, Ninth is holding it for me. I'm also making the last of fifty bows, needing only strings, which will be given to the Cave's best hunters. I wish Professor Snape was here." He sighed.

"Who is he?"

"One of the few teachers that survived the Evil One. He is very brave and very smart, he was a spy in the camp of the Enemy and saved many innocent lives by doing so. He knows me...sometimes better than I liked, but that was good, you know? I could be a real boy instead of a really short grown up with him. It took a long time to learn to trust him because he's snarky and sarcastic...like the Fourteenth. I like her because she reminds me of him. If you get past the way she says things and down under that to what she says, she's smart too. And fun to listen to."

"Yes. It is good for you to have someone who knows you that well. And I appreciate your insights into the Fourteenth."

"Frustrating, sometimes...but...I don't think I'll ever find anyone else that will read me as well as Severus did."

She sighed, nodding agreement. "Such folk are few and far between that meet a need such as that.

The Fourteenth actually greeted Harry quite warmly when they arrived a few days after the Ninth, the wealth of new knowledge he had brought had greatly benefited her Cave as well as her People. The 'Garden' as he called the neat, convenient rows of useful plants made foraging for harder to find plants unneeded since she grew them near to hand, plus she had most of her healing plants close by, too. And unlike many, the lad from the far future not only understood her humor, he missed a man who had one very similar to it...and had transferred that affection to her quite freely.

Justice

"Now, there is a third, far smaller pair of Caves he wishes that only those Who Serve decide who will live there and for how long. One is for men and the other is for women. He gave directions to the second set of scouts that went out and they have located it. There was a senior acolyte with that scouting group and the location is fully under Our authority...he no longer claims it now that it has been turned over the people he intended to have it." The Fourteenth said with satisfaction. "The only condition was that we keep it's First name as its True-Name. It is Temple-Under-the-Hill."

"He also says he knows how to punish people who take Pleasure by force, this came out after he heard the gossip about those three men going around the encampment. He approached me because he knew I was One Who Serves and was the first one he saw after he heard about them. Harry told me that he could stop a man that does it...or who lies about being a Server...permanently. From what he said, females who commit such crimes are dealt with harshly too, but he wanted to know if our Age dealt with such things harshly yet." They had been discussing the Gift of the Retreat that was only for accepted members of the Zelandonia, not acolytes, but fully accepted members who had the responsibility of a Cave to take care of, only, to enter or to use, which had led to a discussion on the new lad's morals and other related topics.

"What did you tell him?"

"That we put them to death."

"Very true."

"And then he said his People could see to it without mercy but also without killing them. He stated that if they were dead, they could not be punished and that tormenting the dying only led to vengeful ghosts. This is true and makes them very dangerous so I wished to bring this to the rest of the Zelandonia and get a judgment on it, because we all know there are three men waiting to be put to death.

Harry said they would be humiliated by acts assigned to them for the rest of of their lives and that those acts would make them very ashamed, that they would feel great pain as the ability to commit a forcing was removed, but that they would still be able to urinate and would still live. He said that it would involve a major mutilation, but that it would not be visible so long as they were clothed. He gave me the instructions and when he had, I told him I would bring it to the Council of Servers and Leaders. His years are too tender for this." And then the man charged with dealing with Criminals explained fully.

"And we have long wished for a way to punish such people without killing them. Yes, I quite agree. He is too young to have to demonstrate and the only way we can try it is to follow his directions."

"It requires the ability to visit the same shame on the criminals, the same humilation that they forced on their victims. And he said for a healer that has experience with severe burns to be standing by close. His instructions are to remove something that will place them in a very low status place they will never get out of while at the same time making them live in a limbo that is neither man nor boy, male nor female. He says a man's body cannot remain truly male without one part...his testicles. After the cut is made, a narrow rod of stone is to be used to sear the wound closed with heat, one lays it in the fire long before the criminal is ready for it. A cap over the wound of red ochre and ashes from the ash tree mixed with fat from a predator as a symbolism instead of the fat of a prey animal, is to be used to dress and color the burn. It will heal in that color which is the red of a rich, dark red blood that has dried.

Since he will never be female either, as he ages, if he is not forced to work hard as part of his punishment, he will become a soft, fat, slug-like, not-quite thing. His flesh will go pale if he is not allowed out of the place of his prison. The boy says that one of the ways to punish is with extended periods away from the sun, though he will need more green things in his diet if his teeth and hair are to not fall out.

His people count this not-state as the ultimate in shame. There is more shame added because there is no act that a real person can do to a fully castrated male criminal or to a woman who bears the Dark Red Ex on her forehead, that is forbidden because while they aren't human anymore, neither are they an animal.

The Mother does not recognize them as her own and when the bodies die after we are finished using them, there is no , says the boy. They do not require a burial because the spirit died when their recognized gender was removed. One should merely drop the empty body into the latrine with other wastes."

There was quiet as they all thought about it, it did offer a part-solution to a major problem. Each one met the eyes of the others and nodded. "It will only be used when the only other choice is to put someone to death, because it is a severe condemnation, but yes, we will use it." The First ranked of them nodded.

Judgment and punishments

Each assaulted woman or girl and the adult males of her extended family watched as her attacker was placed naked on a special set of logs, his legs forced far apart and a tube of wood pushed into his anus. The tube had a wide, flaring mouth and warm water was filling each criminal for the third and final time. Once the last had been forced to squat to allow his bowels to drain, her men were directed to put him face down over a flat boulder and hold him there as the One Who Served for the victim's Cave used a sharp flint blade to cut away the humiliated man's testicles. The flat, broad tip of a stone rod heated in fire was pressed against the small cut that remained and seared it closed as the former rapist howled and screamed his pain and his horror.

This was a worst level of pain than the beating with the object the Server had called a 'whip'. A large handle attached to a long, braided length of leather had nearly taken the hide from them already. The One Who Served held the man's testicles up in front of his shocked eyes and told him what they used to be and what they were for...and what the absence of them would mean, before he tossed them into the fire.

"He's a slave. He is neither male nor female, neither human or animal, his Spirit died when his testicles were cut off. When he finally dies, he becomes nothing more than a big piece of solid night waste and his body will be disposed of in the same way. While a slave lives, they are forced to work and locked up when they're not working."

There was a new social rank now, to put these Punished Ones in. They had no rights and were considered just barely human enough to use for Workers since that wasn't a forbidden use of a slave, but not human enough to respect: Flatheads had more rank, in fact. All had once been male, but now were neither male nor female, neither man nor boy, neither human nor animal nor plant...they were nothing.

They were called slaves and were also the lowest of that rank, called Catamites because they'd once been male.

Harry had showed the healers which mold was the penicillin one. A salve made with it caused wounds to heal fast and clean. The salve was used on the Catamites because the rest of their life long punishment could not begin until the cut from their castration healed. Once they were no longer sore, the Mutilated Ones were brought out again and bent over a large, circular rock platform where they were bound facing each other. Their feet were tied to short posts to prevent them from closing their legs and every male of the assaulted woman's Cave drank a strong Lust Potion. If the slave had a mate who had hidden his crimes, her rank was removed and her mating ended. Harry put a cross-shaped burn on her forehead to show she was now a slave as well, without rights unless she was the one who turned him in.

Two of the geldings were single but one had a mate who had helped herself to his victims. Those victims gave her use to their men.

It was not possible to rape a slave. If one was taking Pleasures from a slave that was fine. Slaves weren't supposed to enjoy being used, that's why they were slaves. Some of them might be allowed to die someday, but not until they begged for it...not unless they truly wished to die and sometimes it was a worse torment to deny them that request. Female slaves sometimes got pregnant and sometimes the child was a human but sometime it was not. The Servers were startled at hearing the Punished One's Soul sometimes tried to escape dissolving into nothing by clinging to her hair and then jumping into the womb of a female slave to wait until she conceived.

The Mother must be asked to check or in a few years when the child got old enough, the rapes would begin again. He told her the problem was that some people didn't have a real soul, instead, they carried a spirit of rape or some other kind of misery that had pushed out the real soul and took the body. He also explained that sometimes forcing anal sex on men that weren't castrates was a form of suitably severe punishment on it's own and cutting wasn't always needed to drive away the invading spirit. By the time cutting was needed, it was too late and the invader was too deeply entrenched to drive away. People who refused to work and contribute to the Cave were prime candidates for this sort of punishment.

Again the Servers and the Leaders had a meeting and this time it was a new thing that was entered into both Ritual Life and everyday life...because they all knew of people...many of them, mostly men but not all, who could have an invading spirit. If a series of ritualized assaults could convince an evil spirit that this person's body wasn't a good place to live, it would leave. That was a known thing, they had just never thought to apply it to their own people before...and they should have. It was their duty to protect them, after all.

Harry had explained the sex part of his Age's Wizarding punishment laws and while it was pretty clear to the adults that he still didn't quite understand that part, Those Who Served and the Leaders DID. And after a great deal of discussion, they realized that they agreed with the elders of Harrian's people because they believed in 'results'. Local rapes and other kinds of assaults stopped after the first man had his testicles cut off. They still heard of a few in distant Caves and the territories of other People, but not amongst themselves or near any territories they held. And as word spread of their new, harsh, effective method to deal with that kind of person, those distant rumors also stopped. The screaming, suffering examples of what was done to such folks as did those things was a frightening reminder that behavior like that wasn't allowed. Their presence had the added benefit of allowing real People an outlet for aggression so that those People did not also commit such crimes.

So too, on a more limited basis, were those who were known to have an invading spirit also treated, though it was considered a favor to the assaulted one's spirit to make the invader uncomfortable and try to force it out. Once their hysterics happened, once they snapped, they were considered free of the invading spirit and any oddness they exhibited afterward was a warning sign that once they had been possessed. If the oddness left them, they were dragged back to the houses built for people judged to have that sort of problem and locked up. The door opened for men to go inside and take Pleasure from the Tormented Ones, but they did not leave a second time.

Formerly possessed people were treated as children that never got any older except when they carried a Lust Spirit. While the females sometimes had children, neither gender was allowed to mate and the children were counted as being questionable from birth. No-one would mate such, though many bedded them. These were the first whores in the world, for they would not bed down with anyone for free.

"If the human child is conceived of a woman while she is possessed of a spirit of lust, it will have a real soul that is soiled by that lust and is never a good candidate for a mating. Such females born thus do not wait for First Rites and the males must be included in them...for they are all Receivers for the best part of their young life and only begin to Give later. Some of them are so shameful that they offer their virginities up for trades."

Each Summer meeting had a few such, who dickered with men unsuitable to be selected for the ceremony, to spread themselves on a mat or hide on the open ground for that one who paid the most, and let him have his or her first time without ceremony and in a shameful way for anyone to watch.

A People of His Own

Harry had erected his tent for the summer in an area set aside for Visitors and Traders. It was a large tent, partly living area, partly storage and partly merchant's stall. He also built a large lean-to next to it where he put chairs that he had carved from a single piece of wood...teak, in this case and a low wooden table made the same way from matching wood, for socializing. The six chairs were part of a set of which the table was a part, and were also for sale along with small mahogany kegs with tightly fitting lids. The kegs had small circles carved out of them and halves brightly colored spiraled shells had been embedded and glued in place as decorations. On some, tiny, somewhat flattened looking shells that appeared to Harry to be some sort of sea urchin without the spikes symbolized Continuity. He explained this to another cave's curious Terataii and the man smiled his approval after he was told what the word meant.

Harry told the man it was a Power Word for Communities but also for succeeding generations. He agreed it was a very powerful Word and carried it back to the others in the place reserved for Those Who Served. This was a massive Summer Gathering...not just a meeting of local caves, but instead a Gathering of all the Peoples known to this part of the world and included representatives from many peoples. Instead of the usual thousand People or so, there were nearly five times that many at this special Gathering, held once every twenty years. Harry's timing could not have been better.

"Clearly, between our Age and his own the People have grown greatly in Understanding. With this one Power Word, Continuity, young Harrian has combined most of our laws and beliefs." Stated the First Among Those That Served the Mother for the Zelandonii. "The Tenth from the Teratonii says the lad stated this as if it were common, ordinary, everyday knowledge...and when he is from, it probably is. Perhaps he will share more powerful concepts with our Peoples."

"He has shown he can give us the studied justice of his Elders and still stand back and allow us to decide for ourselves whether or not they will work for our Age. Some do not and some are only of very limited use in very restrictive situations...like the UnManning, but most can be adjusted to fit our needs." The First of Those Who Served the Mother for the Teratonii observed in approval.

"He is a good boy of a good People and is from a good family, but Harrian was very lonely when he came to the Ninth Cave. He has been adopted and won't lose his mother or the rest of his new family. They will go with him, at the very least. He should not be left alone and there are skills we of this Age have that we should teach him. I understand why he would not abandon a perfectly good Cave in a land filled with abundance, just because he has no People in our Age, but he is a very good boy also and has made a generous offer to our Peoples. Have Those Who Serve the Peoples of the rather crowded Southern Lands come to a decision?" Asked the First, I know that the Ninth Cave, with a few exceptions, are going to migrate to where Harry has his cave. He says it is much larger than our abri...and we are fast outgrowing it.

"Yes." Answered the Third. "In addition to a great number of unmated young people from all Caves, fully eighty mated pairs from the People of the Tenth Cave of the Warm Forest Foresalonii and their children as well as one hundred mated pairs from the Third and Eleventh Caves of the People of the Rivailonii have agreed to go home with Harrian to his Lands. The people of my Cave, The Third Cave of The Warm Lands River People, who are Rivailonii will become The First Cave of the Seaacilonii, Children of the Great Mother Who Live in the Caves by the Sea with the People of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii and the People of the Warm Forest, the Foresalonii will become Oceanailonii, Children of the Mother who Live in the Warm Forest By the Sea. It will not be a huge change for the Foresalonii, but the Rivailonii will have to get used to being on saltwater instead of a river as will the Ninth."

"We will announce it to the Summer Meeting to make it official, after the Matrimonials tonight, but you may wish to tell him now. He knows the Ninth is going but not about everyone else. This will greatly expand our territories."

"That sounds good. He is too valuable in potential as a citizen to refuse his request and to refuse his offer of more territories would simply be stupid." The Tenth told her softly. "I would like to Apprentice him as One Who Serves, he's too powerful not to be."

"Yes, aside from his knowledge, he has many skills and is acknowledged as being of high rank. We have not yet determined how high because he is still a child." The Third nodded at her colleague. "The Seaacilonii have claimed him for our Cave because we are going to be living in his home. This is fair. There were many high status, experienced mothers who were competing to adopt him. I would suggest you offer the Apprenticeship first so his mother will know his status has been raised again."

"He has let some of the men of Those Who Serve know that he has no sexual interest in either females or in boys his age. He wants a man, not a boy. I was informed that he stated he can perform with a female if he takes a strong enough dose of the right potion, but will not really have much enjoyment. He says when the time comes, he can always adopt children belonging to a mateless woman and support them and her." The First Among Those That Served the Mother for the Terataii told the rest with an amused twitch of her lips. Like the other Firsts, she was really having a lot of fun in the subtle competition that would decide which First was actually first and which was last of the Firsts. This was part of what decided which People got what rank.

"I was present for that conversation since I am one of the men who has like wants and interests in that regard." One of the adult but still youngish Servers chuckled. "He said that for him it was much like swinging a small log back and forth on a pair of ropes, one on each end to keep it up and fairly level...he said, and I quote. "the interest is of severely limited duration and...that actual success in the attempt is varied but tends to lean toward the side of miserable failure."

The others laughed out loud in mirth.

"He is a lad who will prefer to take the submissive role during Pleasures with a man. He has a huge lifeforce living in him, far greater than any male normally has and even more than most women. It is natural for him to wish to be entered and Pleasured by a man. The power he calls High Magic is born of the woman's spirit that lives within him and that is what allows him to channel and use the Mother's Powers." the First Among Those That Served the Mother for the Zelandonii judged aloud to nods of agreement. "Has he shown a preference?"

"Yes, two, actually. Myself and Bartral, but Harrian doesn't seem to know how to ask."

"He is only twelve, Tackeran. He doesn't even have a manhood belt yet. As a Receiver, he is naturally confused when his Need rises and he has no experience so he doesn't know what is stirring."

"True. He will have time, however. I am the One Who Serves for the People now known as the First Cave of the Seaacilonii and Bartral will be Serving the People now known as the First Cave of the Oceanailonii. He says they are not far from each other, perhaps a day's travel, is all. He will learn to take Pleasure from us and to give us Pleasure." He smiled gently. "He is eager to prove himself useful, more than any child his age should be. I think the reason he is so harsh on abusive people is because someone treated him very badly. Have you seen his scars?" The former Tenth was sad.
The First...and several others nodded angrily. "Wehave." She bit out. "And I think you're correct. I think he will do as he must to remove cruel people from any kind of position where they can continue to hurt people. And he has."

"Yes, but sometimes when he doesn't realize you're close, and if you make a sudden movement, he still flinches." Tackeran mused sadly. "I seriously wish to Claim him as my Apprentice...and be his guide in other matters. I want him to learn that contact between people isn't supposed to hurt. More than that, I feel a deep Call to be the one to love him...he needs me."

The First studied the other Server, Tackeran had been One Who Served for over ten years. He wasn't given to flights of fancy or weird actions so this Call was probably genuine. "Very well. If he agrees to Apprentice to you, all his educational needs will be left to you unless there is a Mother Festival or unless he wants to share Pleasures with someone. The final choice is always his."

Tackeran and Bartral approached Harry's 'booth'. It was a very interesting construction for a traveling tent that had been expanded into a Summer Lodge. He had several baskets of the necklaces he had reserved as gifts, but had not given to anyone outside of the Ninth Cave and not everyone in it. Only those who both wanted to go and who Harry wished to share cavespace with had one. The Ninth's adopted children and her birth ones wore them as did Jondalar and his extended family...Tremeda and her mate did not. Tremeda would have Harry's house when they left and that was good enough for her. Harry had placed an Infertility Charm on Tremeda after she birthed the last child so she wouldn't have any more children.

"You have been adopted by our Peoples, a woman of the Zelandoni and there are almost two hundred families, plus many singles, willing to come home with you to your Caves. Our scouts just got back, you see. You're so young we wanted to make sure we didn't get lost on the way to our new home. They were full of excessive praise for both locations. You're very, very generous." Bartral told him, smiling at the lad who looked up shyly at him through his bangs. "And most of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii are coming, too. Only ten will stay behind...but I understand those were the ten people whom you didn't invite, so..."

"However, just as the magical communities of the future gather magical children to them and teach them the knowledge of the Age, we do the same. It has been decided by Those Who Serve the Mother that I, Tackeran, shall take you as my Apprentice if you are willing to allow it. Your mother has already approved."

"You mean...you really want me? Truly? And you don't mind that I'm a freak?"

"You are not a freak!" Tackeran was incensed, now he understood the underlying hesitation he'd always sensed from this boy. "You are an open-hearted, loving, kind, generous, powerful youngster and you will be those things when you are grown, but you are no freak, Harry." And the Server took the boy into his arms for a tight, long-needed hug. Harry shook hard, leaning against the older man. Tackeran's eyes met first Bartral's and then the eyes of the group of once prospective mothers in a gaze full of pain felt for this talented, skilled, lonely little boy and realized all of them felt the same misery that he did on this child's behalf. How could any family not value him? How could any child be so lonely and so alone that he had to fling himself back over so many forgotten years to find a People and a loving home? Bartral nodded and went to fetch the First and add Harrian to the Betrothal schedule. The women gathered around, petting and reassuring the boy that he was wanted and was NOT a freak.

"You're really staying? You'll live with me? I could fit lots more people in here with an expansion charm."

"Of course I will, but what's that?"

"Watch." And the next thing Tackeran knew the interior was far, far larger than there was leather available to account for it.

"Amazing." He shook it off after a moment though and sat down in one of Harry's carved chairs, pulled the boy onto his lap and leaned back. He petted the soft black mop of hair as he explained who was coming with them. Eventually the small boy relaxed into his arms and he didn't know when he too drifted off to sleep in that wonderfully comfortable construction Harry called a 'chair', so much better than a seat on the ground...

Of Old Men, Old Perverts, Bowties and Irritated Blue Boxes

Harkness was nearly gibbering by the time the Doctor answered his Call. He talked almost faster than the Time Lord could listen...and that was going some considering how fast the man himself tended to talk. But a modern boy flung over four hundred thousand years into the past was no joking matter...since when did a child that age not meddle with things, after all and for all his faults Jack loved children in ways that had nothing to do with his usual definition of that word...as did the Doctor.

"Please, Doctor, Harry's only 12 years old...and I don't care what species you are, for a humanoid that is terribly young to be wandering about on pre-historic Earth by yourself. Just think of all that megafauna and the huge meat-eaters!"

"Who needed you to Call me?"

"An old bloke called Albus Dum..."

"Bledore. He of the five names he can never keep straight. Yes, I offered to find someone for him once and he asked for a..."

"Raincheck, yes, he mentioned it. D'y'know he's moved Hogwarts to America? Torchwood 3 was contacted by Wooden Torch asking for me and when I got there he asked for you."

"Start explaining."

And Jack spent the next twenty minutes outlining what had happened to fling Harry back so far to start with...and what he'd been doing since he got then. "So, we cleaned the rest of their stock out and I gave them to The Lady for safe keeping just now...as soon as I saw her...she got rather aggravated about something when she felt them."

"No wonder: Those are TARDIS seeds. And this child got kicked in the teeth by one ready to germinate. Lovely, that means it's planted itself back in that Age and won't move without a Time Lord to bond to, which I refuse to do as I've got my own Lady. If it gets it's roots in deeply enough, we'll never budge it." He muttered. "Yes, we'd have to go back anyway and try to intercept it before it plants itself. What was the Ministry for Magic for the UK thinking?"

"Fudge's presence makes it doubtful anything resembling actual thought was occurring, Doctor. Biggest numbskull of a politician I've ever met."

"Cornelius? This is his era? Damn. Yes, you're quite right about that. I'm not saying I don't know others as bad within his type, just not any that are worse...and for me that's saying something. Well, if that Planting is a Fixed Point, I suppose I now know what's always drawn me to Earth...no matter what."

"Anyway, there's a little chap of a House Elf named Dobby that can take you right to the lad. The first problem is that he can't carry anyone whose has the wrong kind of mind to see what he's taking a shortcut through...cuts right through the Vortex he does. The other problem is that the only way not to effect modern day is not to act and the lad's not the sort to just sit 'round on his thumbs...and on top of everything else it turns out that the Dobby chap has locked in a few Builds for the lad...and that 'Locking In' makes Fixed points out of those builds. I didn't know anyone could just select a building and make it immovable, but..."

"Every world has one species with that ability at some point in it's individual history, yes, just one, mind. Apparently, the species that can do that on Earth are House Elves. It cannot be undone nor can the owner...the boy belongs as much to the distant past, because of those Builds, as he does to the time in which he was born."

"Lovely, and if that weren't enough, Albus says he's a prophecy baby."

"Wonderful, just bloody wonderful. What's his name?"

"Harry Potter."

"Albus is correct, then. On all counts."

"He was hoping you weren't going to say that. Told me so, in fact...he was close to praying."

"The boy belongs to every age on this world from when he is now to when he left in the present...as you knew it." It was very easy to see that the Doctor was more than just a small bit annoyed and upset. Harry was currently breaking most of the laws he understood...but he was doing it in ways that the rest of those laws allowed for. This was not supposed to be possible...except for the fact that Harry was a young Wizard and quite powerful at that.

"The problem is, when you're dealing with a wizard, all the laws of physics go flying straight out the window. I can't count on him using just the laws of Physics and Science because most of what he's been taught recently is an entirely different set of rules...and those are the rules in play here, at least in part. The rest of the problem is that he had a normal education until he was ten and that means he can play 'mix and match' with the rules."

Jack, with his background saw the problem now, and groaned. "Yes, I think I know why Albus told me to find you, one way or the other. Someone has to educate that child."

"Or at the least, find out what sort of half cocked, mixed up system he's been using." The Doctor nodded thoughtfully...then froze in horror as an awful thought occurred to him. "And he's just 12 years old, you said?"

Jack nodded, curious and bemused as The Doctor started to cuss...something he didn't do much of...at least, not turning the air blue the way he was just now. "Doctor?"

"At that age? He's using whatever's handiest and he's making it up on the spot as he goes."

"There is no 'system', is there Doctor?" Jack's language choices joined him after a moment's thought.

"No, Jack, I don't think there is."

"You want me to get my team?"

"No, but do alert Torchwood 1 and UNIT. The Boy has messed with history to a point that I remember what has changed. There are limits to what can be done for what has already occurred, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need a sitter service, Jack. That whole 'UnManning' business is his doing."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Really? How strange."

"Oh, I don't deny it was a good call, it stood the test of Time, on its own with no help from me. But it didn't go that way the first time and I've got both sets of memories. I'm not going to meddle with it, though. The other way was much worse and caused many problems. He's a good lad, if a bit shy."

"I don't know if 'shy' is the right word. From what my people uncovered, his legal guardians were highly abusive of the boy. I think he waits to see what someone's intentions are before he comes much out of his shell."

The expression on the Doctor's face at the word 'abusive' caused Jack to take a step back. "What you're telling me is that the child didn't have a strong enough positive emotional tie to anyone which would have prevented his journey into the past. Most people have at least one person that the thought of leaving would have stopped it cold, instinctively. If the boy had no one, he went that far seeking someone."

The Doctor was really rather infuriated at this point, but not at Harry Potter. The lad had been left in an emotional vacuum and it was a great wonder he'd done so little damage to the Timestream as he had. There were alterations, but not real damage, as such.

Would You Care to Fly?

Harry had not thought or even wanted to think, about ways to get back when he belonged for several months: That didn't mean he didn't recall how he got here, it only meant he no longer cared about that old life. Winter days were quiet, spent with Tackeran and his new family in the Ninth Cave for company but mostly those were spent making his goods for him to trade. And if he was wintering with someone, Dobby stayed busy. He had a life here, now, a trade and he was freer than ever in his life before...and that made him content with his lot. He had a family now, mother who's mate loved him and he was betrothed.

He had built up a customer base he wasn't willing to lose and so had refused the friendly (if very strange) man's offer of a ride 'home'. He'd explained his reasons, too. He had not understood his need to make the odd man understand but the gentle and somewhat awkward man had told him that HE was NOT a fixed point in time and so could live where...or when...he wished. His homes were, though and that would not change...and that was what allowed him to live in any Age he wished. It was only that he, called the Doctor, had been told of his presence in a very odd point in time for someone from so far in the future and had wished to be sure.

"I pass through this era on the way to other eras sometimes, I'll check on you when I do." The man had told him. "Don't be afraid to use your wand. You'll need it more in this era than in your other one. I must say, I am rather glad you like it here, since it gives me the freedom to Act against Voldemort which I didn't have in your Birthtime, before now. The presence of an Official Prophecy Baby prevented it, against the rules, y'see. But really, I'm much better at dealing with his sort than you would be, loads of experience, you see. It's part of what I do."

"Maybe, 'The Power that He knows Not' meant the ability and willingness to get out of the way and let you do that." Harry's answer had been uncertain but it had made the strange little man smile. "And despite what Hermione told me once, I don't really have a 'saving people' compulsion. Things just happen to me."

"Yes, they do...and people could say the same of me...only in my case it's true, really. Perhaps your idea about the willingness to get out of the way of someone with more experience is correct, though. I have many, many options I can use on him...and my TARDIS certainly seems to agree, from the way she's humming. But though things will still happen to you, Harry Potter, now at least, while they might be difficult, acceptance will be found at the end of it." He'd gotten back in that blue antique police box and it had disappeared almost on his last word.

And Harry, of course, after having seen things just as strange at Hogwarts, shrugged it off and went back to sorting out his haul of things he had traded sea shells for this year. This year he had a Journey to complete, it was time to return to Cavehouse-on-the-Sea. He had traded off every shell and bit of decoration. The windchimes had been very popular. He'd even given a few sets to that odd fellow in the large blue call-box style portkey.

Over Hill, Over Dale and the Deepest Forest Trail

Leaving the last of the grasslands behind and entering the forest, Harry was glad that his new People were used to forests and understood their dangers. He followed the wide path he'd cut with his magic on the journey north, just the same, though. It was several hundreds of feet wide and the last year and a few months had allowed shortgrass to take over the bare earth, alongside short growing herbs. It attracted food animals and made predators easier to spot and avoid. Opening up the forest a bit attracted more Forest Bison and larger deer and that was a good thing, anyway, one of the hunters told him. He replied that the charm he used wouldn't allow anything taller than a foot or so high, to grow and that this area would remain cleared. Further away from the strongest area of the spell, low shrubs managed to grow a bit higher and small trees a bit beyond that. In the center, nutritious vegetables and those herbals favored most for seasonings or teas grew thick and full and the sweet-spicy grasses had attracted many prey animals making more successful hunts the hunters on the Journey...as well as making for very happy foragers.

Nearly two years after Harry headed north to Southern Europe, he returned to Cavehouse-on-the-Sea at dawn with a large number of people, most of which he showed where the entrance was and the rest he continued on with. If he pressed a bit hard, they could be there before dark. He got back the next day, wandering around and smiling at the excited people as they continued to gape in wonder at their already laid, lit hearths that didn't burn out or require fuel. Dobby had simply used EverCook, EverWarm charms on crystals placed in the hearths and charged them once. It's all they needed. Harry had explained. House Elf magic was the magics of home and hearth and home and field, if one grew crops and this Cave had many outlying fields.

The red Crystals gave off heat and would cook food, but would not burn someone who touched them. Intent made all the difference. Blue ones never got warm and would keep food stored in the same room or cave with it frozen. Pink drew warmth indoors when it was cold outside and pale blue cooled a room grown too warm when the outdoor temperature soared. An orange crystal in a bathing pool kept it at the temperature everyone in it needed, cool, warm or in between as required: The magic made everyone felt it differently. Those primitive people did not notice more than that the water was ever wonderful. The long journey home with all these people had been wonderful. He was never asked to do more than other children his age if they were boys and Tackeran frequently had to get him to slow down or ease up. He never seemed to mind if Harry leaned against his side or stepped into the curve of his arm, even though the good natured hedonist freely admitted he was looking forward to when Harrian felt 'ready'. He was showing some signs of it now, masturbating between his chores and his eyes followed Tackeran more, lingering on the man's crotch when he thought the Server didn't notice.

After a week of this, Tackeran shuddered lightly, squeezing the base of his erection to keep from cumming, his blue-eyes dancing in amusement at Bartral's grin as he called Harry to his side. The pair of them questioned him gently but well and at the end of it Harry was bright red and had a raging erection. Tackeran got up, exposed himself and Harry's penis and pulled the lad behind him by the hand. Knowing smiles and laughing eyes from the rest of the Cave told Harry he had not been so subtle as he had thought. As it was the custom for two experienced men to teach a boy of like tastes, Bartral was following behind, his own hard penis hanging out as a Signal that the boy was Ready.

They went to the bathing room first and each carefully cleaned the other's bowels, then his body, stroking and fondling as the went. One of the slaves was in the Cavern of Openings by the time they got there, readied and bound to take any excessive lusts from the men as they pleasured the boy with them. This area was reserved for Boys who were as a Girl, like Tackeran and Bartral.

Other areas were for women to school normal boys and still others were for the 'followup' lessons older men gave most girls during the year or two after First Rites. One night of 'lessons' during the Rite wasn't really enough and this was accounted for in this way. It did not matter what man taught her in the early part of the month after a period ceased for Harry's people knew a girl was infertile until the last week of four, so sometimes a girl's mother's mate, her grandmother's mate or favored Uncle that she trusted would see to lessons in the early part of the month.

This is What I do

Albus decided that, having never seen an angry Oldest One before, he'd have as soon missed it. The bottom line seemed to have been the fact that Harry had no real loving family to anchor him to his Age. Therefore, when the nearly sprouting Seed had struck him, his soul took the opportunity that had been given to it to seek out a Soul he could truly bond to...and that soul was located in Prehistoric France. And from what he could see, Harry didn't really have a 'People Saving thing' but the Doctor certainly did. The Oldest One also had a soft spot for children, particularly those who had been let down by the adults they depended upon.

Granted, he'd also greeted a stunned Severus with grace and warmth...and a good sound hug...to Albus' bemusement.

UNIT had answered Jack's inquiry with, "As long as Voldemort and his Cadre...called Death Eaters, are at large, England is in deathly peril. We can do little, as far as we can tell there's a prophecy baby involved."

Yes. One that is stuck over four hundred thousand years in the bloody past where he cannot act. And one who has the right to stay there if he wants to: Which he does.

But his decision to remain in the past had freed the Doctor to act...and he'd dealt with people like that Tom Riddle before. Frequently. To their detriment.

The Oldest One considered his options carefully and then entered the odd blue box he traveled in and simply left...taking of Torchwood's personnel, only Jack with him. Old Jack would pace the boy's existence with his own...and Jack's presence would act as a sort of Marker, his presence would make it far easier to pinpoint Harry's presence in any give Age which the Doctor needed him to do as Harry's presence was cloaked. He had promised to look into the Modern Harry's older self in China but only after a visit to the lad himself. He needed to track the lad's life though Earth History...he'd get to the China bit...eventually.

Albus watched Snape bang his head rhythmically against a tree. "Severus?"

"I've taken tea with that man...several times. In Harry's China residence." He answered without pausing. "Including during the Christmas break just past." He finally stopped banging his head on the bark of a youngish Whomping Willow they'd planted for old time's sake to say, "Mostly on Christmases and birthdays...mine and those of The Boy Who Has Apparently Lived Through Most of Human History."

Of course it was too much to expect that Voldemort wouldn't eventually get the story and most of the details...not that there was anything he could do about it when he did. He knew who and what the Doctor was and knew also that he and his Death Eaters were no match for the Master of Time. What was worse was that his Death Eaters knew it too...and used the General Counter for a Protean Charm to remove his link to their Mark...and then the mark. True, it wasn't all gone but that's what long-sleeves were for, weren't they? And at that point the Malfoy Lord thought he knew why Snape had bailed years before...that he'd found it out years before anyone else had and as usual, kept it to himself.

Malfoy took the added precaution of burning Riddle Manor down around his former master's ears to drive him into the open. No way was he going up against the Doctor...Lucius knew better.

FINAL CONFRONTATION – CURRENT TIME-LINE

"Ah, Thomas...so good of you to join us." Albus murmured, dodging the other wizard's wandfire, returning it with a curse of his won creation.

"Yes, Potter can stop me! But he isn't here to do it!" Voldemort shielded and recast.

"No, he's not...but he is only an enabler...he doesn't have to do it himself." Albus chortled as he spun and let it pass, then opened the ground under Tom's feet. "Prophecy is never straight forward Tom, you know that. That's the bit I missed, you see. Overlooked it entirely until the Oldest One pointed it out...rather angrily."

"Don't call me that!" He leapt free of the opening earth and sent fire at the old man. "That's a muggle name and I am not a MUGGLE!"

"Mr. Riddle, it is one of your names. We all know you're not a muggle, a halfblood, yes...but not a muggle. I will not address you by the other name that you made up for yourself...it stokes your ego too much." He calmly doused the flames and fed ice up Tom's spell trail to his wand. Ice cracked the wand maddening Tom Riddle. No wandmaker would repair his wand.

"Halfblood? Albus did you say he's a halfblood?" A pureblood called from the sidelines, disgust edging his tone. "We've been supporting a MUDBLOOD?"

"Oh yes, the last known Gaunt female bred with a muggle blueblood named Thomas Riddle. He's not a bastard though, she had love potioned him first and got herself married. He's the closest known heir to a huge fortune. Of course, we already provided muggle Aurors with proof he murdered the family, so the fortune went to the next closest. I'm afraid he's quite broke."

"I guess we have been supporting a filthy MUDBLOOD, well...there's a fast fix for that, then, isn't there?" Malfoy drawled. "I don't know why he bothered, we always find out. No matter how powerful he is, he's still filth. Dirty-blooded son of a crazed witch. No wonder the Gaunts kept her locked up!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Your defenses are shoddy, Tom. You didn't even think to defend your wand and now it's damaged. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I know for a fact that you were taught better than that. I taught you personally, after all."

"SHUT UP, OLD MAN!"

"Old? Young Albus isn't old." Came a confused voice from the sidelines, making Albus' lips twitch. Good old, Old Jack. "He's not even seen the end of his second century! Albus is still nothing more than a squirt."

"YOU! I killed you!"

"Old Jack's an immortal, Tom. He doesn't stay dead...I thought you knew that." Albus told him calmly. "Actually, I thought every magical human in the world knew about Old Jack. Safe to say he won't be granting you any boons after trying that on him, though."

"THAT'S Old Jack?"

"He is. Runs Torchwood Cardiff office."

Tom Riddle let out a noise of inarticulate rage, his minions had scattered, everyone knew his secret shame of fouled blood and now the only person who could deny him permission to become an immortal was one he'd already tried to kill, not knowing who the man was. Or more to the point, what he was.

"And the Doctor has a few plans for you as well."

"Who?"

"Exactly, old chap. Exactly." Albus replied as a blast from the Doctor's screwdriver knocked Tom Riddle clean out. A moment's worth of adjustments to said screwdriver and he applied it again, this time poking a drainpipe sort of thing in the bottom of Tom's Magical Core and emptying it right out. Albus collapsed the Core itself down behind the dwindling reservoir and finally there was nothing left there but a muggle.

Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort was no more. All that remained was a muggle man named Thomas Riddle. And the muggle police were waiting for him, on several counts of murder most foul.

So, it was over, Voldemort was only a muggle prisoner in a muggle prison, Prisoner #4651c66s1 Cell Block 154561 Bed 6, residing in a tiny cell in the Tower's secret section at her majesty's expense. This was so the Magical Tower Ravens could keep an eye on him.

But that didn't bring Harry back. Harry Potter was quite happy where he was, thanks. Until reality set in, a few years later and people began to realize that Harry wasn't aging. That didn't bother the Zelandonii or the rest of those ancient people, it just meant that there was always someone with Knowledge about to make proper judgments. Word of the Unaging Boy spread from one side of the continent to the other until all of Those Who Served knew of him. They knew that when his mates died of aging he didn't experience, he would travel for many years, this was a known thing...planned for.

In time, he did lose Tackeran and Bertral to old age's final gasp and left Cavehouse for a time to grieve and to begin the promised Travel, Harry Journeyed.

As ever, Harry rode, though this time he drove another wagon piled high with shell-filled baskets and his trademark blue squares filled with rows of single, drilled shells loosely sewn onto them so as to be easily cut way later, packed with cotton batting and then rolled. He also packed up one of his medium sized looms and put all the thread he'd need for at least two winters on the wagon as well in large bins built into it. He had several dozen jackasses and mares with him because this wagon was his 'baby', his masterpiece...and took sixteen mules pull easily...and it was easier to breed the mares as he traveled. They wore headstalls that were tied to the wagon and no stallion would steal them. He also had a pack of ten full grown wolves and this year's litter which also rode in the wagon.

Over the years, the Zelandonii had become accustomed to having wolves and all manner of livestock in their lives. Harry had taken the presence of Ayla's animals so calmly from the start that these ancients had understood that such things were normal in his time. The original 'Wolf' had been friendly and Harry had responded the way he would have to a big friendly mutt...with all-over scritches, rubs and friendly slaps to the shoulder of the big canine. He'd also wrestled with the animal, playing hard with not a care in the world for his safety. He'd gotten a female pup and raised her, naming her Shadow...and when she was old enough, Wolf had claimed her, bred her and pups began to spread through the Ninth Cave in Cavehouse By the Sea.

There were several hundred now...and no one could believe they'd ever been frightened by Wolf. His and Shadow's decendents, called Dogs, now...as was natural to Harry...hunted with their hunters, guarded the humans and were as much a part of life as anything. And it was done several thousands of years earlier than in the original timeline...and in an era when people understood that all life had value.

But now, Harry and a small group of young people who wished to Journey left and Harry made them understand that it would be many years, perhaps generations, even, before he returned. The People had many magic users now, and he could keep in contact with them or by sending messages to the People with Dobby as the Messenger...but for now, he needed to move, to explore and see other Peoples.

He returned thirty generations later to an empty home for it was the time of Summer Meetings, Harry opened his cave and dropped his dirties off in the hamper for Dobby to collect and took a bath without thinking what it would mean to these people to have that cave Unsealed after so long.
Dobby passed on the Cave news and current goings on as he gathered up Harry's dirties.

"I should carry warning to this generation's Those Who Serve so they may warn the meeting, or you will frighten them with the unsealed cave that has remained closed for thirty generations." He suggested at last, smiling at Harry's crooked grin.

"Yes, I suppose you should. Do so, please, and thank you, Dobby."

And eventually, when the Doctor passed through and asked again if Harry would like to travel with him, the boy finally said yes. Owls, their current owlets for it was the spring of the year and Dobby boarded TARDIS for the first time and were removed from the People who needed Harry no longer. They picked up Old Jack and moved a few hundred years further into the future, eventually setting Harry down in Brittany. He would be picked up around Winter Longnight for a few days spent at Cavehouse-on-the-Sea, but until then, he traveled.

To the Doctor's utter shock, Dobby had managed to return TARDIS to like-new condition. He'd told Harry to consider her 'home' for now and once Harry did that, the ancient magic of a House Elf came to the fore and he repaired Harry's current 'residence'. He also safeguarded her through time by Build Locking her. Not that the Doctor minded...far from it...his kind lasted as long as their bonded TARDIS did...and now his lady was Sprout Aged.

And then, the next Christmas, he gave one of his many elves to the TARDIS as a gift. As the little female belonged to TARDIS instead of the Doctor, the Doctor had no say in it...and TARDIS' upkeep improved...in fact, she never broke down again because it turned out, that any House Elf's power was generated IN and so was part OF the Vortex. They were very much in tune to it in ways that made them the perfect maintenance personnel for any TARDIS. And the Doctor's various Companions could see a light echo of House Elf Behavior in the Doctor himself...though as far as they could tell, he never noticed.

As he was just that sort of a boy, when the Doctor grew tired of having the same companion all the time, he moved back into Cavehouse but when Doctor was between Companions and Harry was bored, he rode with the alien for a few months. He did this off and on through the centuries because sometimes the Doctor wanted someone with him who didn't need training and who could keep up.
On the downside, Harry's basic Gryffindor personality ensured that his responses to some aliens had proved to the Universe as a whole and to the Daleks in particular, that due to their inability to counter his offensive or defensive spells and his revolting tendency to transfigure them into members of lesser species whenever he saw them...that there was one person that they hated far more than the Doctor.

Autons, Cybermen and Weeping Angels weren't terribly fond of Harry either...he tended to transform the angels into granite outcroppings that connected far beneath the surface of wherever they were, to bedrock...or some other solid, permanent structure...which he and whoever was with him at the time simply climbed over and left. This put large hills in some very strange places since he needed to transfigure them all in large groups, making a single lump of the bunch of them, but so goes life. They couldn't leave, they couldn't catch or kill anyone and while they resented it there wasn't anything they could do about it.

There were times when he knew for certain that some of the statuary in some places were Angels and simply transfigured them into a different, prettier mineral, where they stood. The first time he did that, they'd just exited the TARDIS and the door was still open...the Doctor had paused and scanned a distant one just before Harry (who'd politely done that one last) transfigured it into something harmless.

"Angels. How did you know?"

"They have a magical signature. Weeping angels are magical dark beasts of some kind...if they weren't, they wouldn't have a magical signature. Now that I know what the signature is, I'd rather deal with them when I find them...before they become a problem."

"I agree." The Doctor murmured. "That was the fastest fix I've ever been involved with...sort of. I was here, anyway." He went back into TARDIS and examined the instrumentation. "She's not agitated any longer. Which means we can have a day or so relaxation here, if you like?"

"Yes, please."

The Cybermen were easier...he didn't actually have to do anything since his magical signature simply shorted out their computers...they fried where they stood. TARDIS had House Elf re-built systems that allowed for that and could handle it. Cybermen and Autons did not. One's circuits fried and the other melted.

Tis Gotta Be Done

Over the time approaching his birth, Harry often had to stop himself from calling the Doctor by a special title of his own choice...and eventually the Doctor called him on it.

"You do that a lot, Harry. Almost call me something...specific. You always stop yourself. Why?"

"I don't have the right. You don't like titles or names."

"What? Titles I don't really mind. I do have rather a lot of them, after all. And I don't mind the names others give me, as long as you don't expect me to tell you mine."

Harry hesitated, unsure. "I don't mean to, it's just that you're the nearest to it that I've ever really had. But you probably won't like it cause technically, I'm probably too old to call you that. Or to call anyone that. But I don't...I don't feel that old."

"Harry?" The Tenth was worried now.

The eternal boy swallowed, took a deep breath and then stunned the Doctor by replying, "Daddy."

"Oh Harry...I am deeply honored. More than I can say." He put his arms around the Ancient Boy's shoulders...because Harry hadn't really grown much. He had lots of experience in many things, but one of the reasons his body hadn't aged was because emotionally, he hadn't grown.

Somehow, everyone had missed it, this boy was still seeking at least one real parent...he still hadn't found one. The Tenth had figured that out years ago. "I will be your father, if you truly wish it." He told the boy. "Adoptions do count, you know." Tenth didn't mention that as far as actual years alive, Harry was older than he was.

Harry trembled in the alien's embrace, feeling something crack open in his soul that he hadn't really understood had never opened right and which had been sealed shut long ago. He leaned into the Doc...into his Father's arms and let himself remember the feeling of childhood that he'd left behind long before when it had become apparent that he had been mated because the Zelandonii needed him able to act as an adult, whatever his age.

He whispered that to the Tenth and the last piece of the puzzle of the unaging boy fell into place in the Doctor's mind. He'd forgotten to factor Magic into the puzzle. Magic had held Harry in a sort of holding pattern while he searched for what he'd needed all this time. Harry hadn't become mortal, no. But his body was going to be allowed to mature before it stopped aging again. He felt the process sort of 'click' over.

And, with a weird expression on his face, mentioned it...and what it felt like. The Tenth paused, let that bit of information percolate through his mind for a bit and headed for Hogwarts...and a time when Albus Dumbledore was the Transfiguration Professor. He needed some information on the Potters...actually, he needed to talk to Harry's Evans and Potter grandparents. If what he suspected was true...

That was a whole new puzzle, really.

Because the feeling Harry had described wasn't a human trait, not even an immortal one. But it was a trait of his own species' young. So the question was, who had a doubleheart or had put a human's body in play here? He led Harry into the medical bay, telling him he wanted to establish a baseline for him. Harry shrugged and went along with it...but the Tenth saw the speculation in Harry's eyes...as well as the moment when the boy shrugged it aside because he trusted the Galifreyian.
Three days later, two supposedly muggle people were introduced to Harry. They were supposed to be human too, but TARDIS didn't think so any more than the Tenth did. They were Harry's grandparents on his mother's side and the Tenth had him babysitting their daughter, Petunia, while his new father had a little 'needed chat' with these two fine folks.

Aunt Petunia. If that didn't beat all. They came out of the Tenth's bedchamber an hour later, upset as hell. Their eyes were full of emotion when they looked at him, and the older man handed the Tenth a gold watch, hugged Harry unexpectedly and both of them left.

"Dad?"

"Yes Harry?"

"What's going on?"

"The Evans aren't human, not really...and never were. Nor did they die when Gallifrey burned...they're Time Lords. So are the Potters. I checked. The Potters freely admitted it. The Evans had to be shamed into it. I got your share of DNA from the Potters the first day...and this," The Tenth held up the gold watch. "Holds the Evan's share. I will combine them and then show you something special. After that, young Harrian, you will be my son in truth as well as adoption." The Tenth's voice was rather fierce.

"You're ticked off."

"Not at you."

The transformation was over, but Harry's body...and his second Heart still tingled from the stress. TARDIS had plunged into the past, into the DEEP past to the newly planted Tree whose seed had started of all this, leaping at Harry whom he had known was no human...to Harry's TARDIS.

"But...I want to stay with you."

"And so you shall. TARDIS' can ride in each other when there's a new one needing training." He gestured vaguely at an odd protuberance forming next to TARDIS' console. "Yours will sit there. Poor lad. All this is very strange I suppose."

"I don't care. I've got a daddy now, that's what matters to me." Harry's words were whispered and nearly broke the Tenth's hearts.

"Your parents were never told, in the original timeline...but Petunia knew. She knew what she should have been and that you weren't supposed to be a wizard...but you are now and that's an end to it. Being Galifreyian won't change that now, not now that you've learned to harness and use that energy." He cupped the back of his boy's head in one hand. "It'll be fine, Harry. What I don't understand is how there is a pretty good sized community of my people living as humans and never told me. I thought I was the last...and the fact they could and did do this makes me angry, because it was cruel."

"So, what you're saying is that it's still just us two, right?"

"Yes, I suppose I am."

"At least they're not Angels. Let's make their human existence fun and tell UNIT and Jack?"

"That's mean, Harry." His father said with a chuckle, already opening the door for the uprooted, recently transformed baby TARDIS to sail through and take it's proper place next to the console of his own Lady. He looked like a student's desk.

"He's adorable. TARDIS' tend to be at that age." Tenth chuckled as his own 'cooed' at it.

As the time of his own birth in the previous timeline approached, the Doctor got him drunk and then kept him in the TARDIS for two years...then dropped him in the past until it was nearly time for Hogwarts. They actually watched the timeline split, then. The current Harry stayed in his timeline because the first one knew...really knew...that there was nothing lasting in the past except for his real father...and that man was standing right next to him.

Of course, it was Harry number 1 that found Boy Snape and made sure he was safe. And it was Harry number 1 who had to explain all this to Snape number 2 during Christmas of Second Year...at Cavehouse-on-the-Sea...in China. Snape number 2 wasn't hugely thrilled but there was no question of it. A firecall to Hogwarts proved beyond doubt that Harry...Snape's current Harry...was indeed at Hogwarts.

"My father...my real father...dealt with the Voldemort of my own time, but I'll deal with this one...not your Harry." The first one told Albus.

"I will need to verify this."

"Do you know someone you might refer to...personally refer to, I mean, as 'The Oldest One?" Harry asked and smiled when Albus paled.

"I...yes, erm...ah...aye..I do, actually."

"Good. He's my father. I'll call him in and you can ask him about it." Harry snorted. "He'll know how much to tell you and what needs to be left out. OR you could just go to Cardiff and just ask Old Jack. He's sort of an honorary uncle. I think I'm the only person on this or any other world that he won't flirt with. Says he's never been interested in real incest...he says now that he knows what it feels like to have a little brother, he doesn't want to spoil it."

"Um..." Replied the Headmaster intelligently, his eyes wide with shock.

~ Finis ~