Sal's next outing was a few weeks later.
Theoretically, he already knew how it would end, and yet, he needed to go anyway.
He needed to know why .
Why had he never come to his younger self?
Why had he never visited?
He shook his head and apparated instead to a formerly well-known location.
It was odd to see Privet Drive again.
Even in the darkness of the night, Sal could tell that there hadn't been a lot of changes from now to the Privet Drive he remembered best from thirteen years in the future.
He shook his head at that observation.
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
Sal flinched and turned in surprise.
Behind him, his grandfather stood, looking at Sal with his tired eyes full of flames.
Sal closed his eyes.
"Grandfather," he greeted the phoenix in his 'old man' disguise. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking out for you," Fawarx said calmly. "Just like I always tried to do."
Sal shook his head.
"Shouldn't you be with the Headmaster?" he countered.
In his humanoid form Fawarx shrugged his feathered shoulder.
"It's one o'clock in the night. He's sleeping," he said. "I doubt the Headmaster will miss me for a few hours."
Sal sighed but had to agree with that assessment.
His grandfather looked around thoughtfully.
Sal followed his gaze.
"It's odd," he mused more to himself than to the phoenix next to him. "Even now, after millennia, I don't like this place."
As a child, he had despised it, but now, after all those years, the only thing he felt was a slight aversion to it.
Nevertheless, it surprised him that there was that much feeling left for a place he hadn't seen in such a long time.
"You weren't happy here," Fawarx said, more a statement than a question.
"I wasn't," Sal agreed and then shook his head. "But it's still just a place. I'm surprised that I feel much of anything for it."
He looked around and then shook his head.
"I guess, some things you will never like."
His grandfather hummed and when Sal walked down the street towards the house of his Aunt and Uncle, he followed after him.
About a hundred or a hundred fifty feet away from the property, a ward came up, shielding it from Sal.
Sal frowned.
"That shouldn't happen," he said with a frown. "I know my child self is protected by the wards through my mother's blood… but those wards shouldn't react to me !"
He reached out towards them.
The moment, he touched them, they sizzled, burning his hand.
Sal flinched back.
His eyes were fixed on the ward with confusion on his face.
He knew the ritual Lily had most likely used.
From everything he had taught her, from everything he had learned about her, and from everything he remembered Dumbledore saying in the future-that-was-yet-to-come, Sal should have been able to enter.
He was blood.
He was the one who should have been shielded by the wards.
And yet, the wards didn't recognize him.
"Are you alright?" his grandfather asked and when Sal looked towards the phoenix he noticed that he was looking at Sal's hand.
"I'm not worse for wear," Sal answered and shook out his hand, his face thoughtful. "I'm just not sure what happened… I have no idea what's keeping me out…"
Fawarx frowned and reached out towards the wards as well.
Sal's eyes widened when his grandfather's hand went through the wards… just to vanish into feathers the moment it went through.
His grandfather pulled his hand back as well.
"It seems I can't enter in my human form as well," he said thoughtfully. "In my normal form, though, I seem to be able to get it…"
Sal's frown deepened.
"Something is definitely wrong then," he concluded.
He gritted his teeth at that thought and then flicked his wrist to release one of his wands.
With the wand in hand, he cast a muggle-repellant before he forced the wards to reveal themselves to his experienced eyes.
The wards… wards that had been so beautifully crafted by Lily… had been forcefully tied to the Dursley family on top of little Harryjames.
Sal clenched his fists.
"Dumbledore," he growled, his wand hand, still with the wand in his hands, went up to pinch his nose. "You cumber-ground! You actually went and decided to meddle in a ritual of that power… and for what?!"
He shook his head and tried to subdue his desperate wish to hit the older-looking-wizard over the head once or twice.
"I can't believe you went and twisted Lily's wards into THIS !"
"Twisted them into what?" his grandfather asked, concerned.
"This… this abomination!" Sal pointed at the wards in front of him forcefully. "I doubt he did it with malicious intent… or even deliberately… but…"
He shook his head and looked at his grandfather.
"He twisted them," he whispered, his free hand clenching to a fist. "He took them and twisted them up! Made sure that everything of… 'dark nature'… wasn't able to enter."
Fawarx raised an eyebrow at that.
Sal snorted at the disbelief in his grandfather's face.
"No matter my inclination," he elaborated. "I use blood magic and rituals. It doesn't matter what I do with them, I count as 'dark'."
Fawarx had a look of understanding on his face.
"Just like the blood magic I use for my own transformation," he said with a sigh.
"But unlike me, you are a phoenix," Sal pointed out. "No matter that small bit of natural blood magic you use, you still count as light . You can enter, even if it's just in your natural form."
Sal sighed.
"I, on the other hand, am not going to be able to enter," Sal said unhappily. "The wards need to weaken for me to make the attempt… and only when Harryjames is gone… when I am Harryjames, then the wards will recognize me as the one who needs to be protected."
It was a bitter realisation.
"And even then… there might be repercussions," Sal thought darkly.
"Repercussions?" his grandfather asked, concerned.
Sal grimaced, "The wards are strong, and even worse: they are strongly twisted," he said. "It'll most likely ensure that I won't be able to think clearly after entering them when I finally can. They will press on me and… I guess I will have to get used to that pressure. Until I do, I might act a bit out of character for me."
Fawarx frowned.
"Nothing too different," Sal assured him calmly. "And the worst will be directly after entering the wards. Afterwards, I will slowly return to normal, so don't worry."
Then, his eyes lit up in dark humour.
"Well," he said amused. "At least Lily's sister and husband, my Uncle and Aunt by blood will be the ones who will be suffering from my first reaction to the wards. I doubt they will tell anyone, even if I say things that aren't that typical for fifteen-year-old Harry."
Then he shook his head, his mind still going through everything that was yet to come.
"Not that it'll matter," he said to himself darkly. "I doubt I will be able to play the Harryjames they know and love."
"Does it matter?" His grandfather asked calmly and reached out to squeeze his shoulder. "You don't want to be the same child you were, after all. As far as I understood, you plan to return to Hogwarts to change everything. Being the same wouldn't help you if you want to shake everything up."
Sal sighed.
"People will still question why I'm different," he pointed out before grimacing. "I guess it's good that young Harryjames will have watched Voldemort's resurrection and has just lost Cedric will cover most of my personality changes. People are known to change after an experience like that, after all."
And as much as Sal wanted to, he knew he wouldn't be able to step in and stop it.
"I guess there's a reason why that has to happen?" his grandfather said with a sigh.
Sal grimaced.
"I need Voldemort alive so that I can actually kill him," he said with a sigh. "And it's not as if I could step in. I can't remember the date it took place and I don't know the graveyard it happened in."
He sighed.
"I guess, I could find out," he acquiesced. "But even if I'd know, I'd most likely wouldn't be able to react for other reasons."
After all, the past was the past and no matter what Sal had done, in the end, everything he knew about had happened the same way he knew it would happen.
Sal threw a disgusted look at the wards.
"Even if it's in the most unexpected way," he added.
His grandfather followed his gaze and grimaced as well.
"I see," he agreed with a sigh.
Sal sighed and then shook his head, before he removed the magic from the wards that made them visible to have them fall into invisibility again and then removed the muggle-repellant.
"I guess," he said aloud. "There's nothing I can do here."
Not even approach the young boy somewhere else since the wards would surround the child no matter where he went - like a bubble that Sal wouldn't be able to breach, like a second skin, burning those who touched Harryjames in ill-intent or were marked by the dark like Sal.
"Nothing at all?" Fawarx asked softly.
Sal shook his head.
"It's going to weaken every year Harryjames is at Hogwarts," he said. "But by then, it'll be too late. At Hogwarts, little Harryjames will already be monitored by the Headmaster."
And Sal wasn't willing to play his cards before he was ready.
"I understand," his grandfather said and looked at the wards. "Then I will take your place."
Sal turned and looked in surprise at his grandfather.
The phoenix smiled a slightly bitter smile.
"I might be unable to take him and unable to show myself to him," he said softly. "But I can ensure that he stays half-way healthy and I can look out for him in Hogwarts."
And Sal remembered the phoenix coming to his aid when he fought against the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
He winced.
"Doing so might cost you dearly," he cautioned.
His grandfather just looked at him in understanding before reaching for Sal's arm and tracing the scar Sal had thanks to his fight with the basilisk through Sal's clothing.
"I know," Fawarx said. "And I'm willing to pay the price to keep you safe."
Eyes made of fire met eyes of poisonous green.
"You're the most precious thing in the world for me right now," his grandfather said. "My grief will be terrible the day her body dies as well, but for all my love for your grandmother, Aleahkys is already lost - you on the other hand, aren't. If that is my fate, then I will kill her for you, and when everything is over and you - you, my Fledgling, not your little self - are safe, then I will go and join her."
Sal felt a single tear run down his cheek at that.
He nodded and with a last, sad smile, his grandfather changed back into his phoenix form and flashed away.
Sal turned back to the wards for a moment.
No, no matter what Sal had wished, child-him was out of reach for him…
"Until we see each other again, Harryjames," he promised the wards. "Don't worry. I will come and protect you from the Dementors. I will come and send you to safety."
With that, he apparated away, back to his comatose charge.
The next time he left Regulus was another few months later.
It would be the first of many visits to these friends over the next six years.
When Sal apparated to the Lovegoods, he was met at the door by Pandora.
"Hello, stranger," she greeted him, her eyes full of laughter and sadness.
"Pandora," Sal answered her greeting in return.
"I feared you died," Pandora said and then stepped back. "Not one of us has heard anything of you for the past two years."
Sal grimaced.
"No," he said. "I was a bit preoccupied."
"Planning the next Resistance?" Pandora joked.
And while Sal would have loved to agree with her just to see her face, he knew better.
"I'm currently stabilizing a coma-patient," he said truthfully. "It took me a year to ensure that he's stable enough that I can actually leave his side and he will take at least another two or three until I can even hope of him returning to the waking world."
Pandora sighed and then stepped aside.
"Of course, that's what you've been doing," she said softly, and led him towards the living room.
She took a little girl from the crib in there and handed her to Sal.
"Meet Luna," she said.
"Ana's goddaughter?" Sal guessed.
Pandora's lips twitched.
"I'm not surprised you guessed that," she said, confirming what Sal had feared.
He snorted.
"Tell me if he goes and tries to get her to go dragon hunting without you," he said amused.
Pandora's lips twitched.
"He predicted you'd say that," she said amused.
"He knows me," Sal answered with a shrug. "Have you seen my wayward son recently?"
Pandora just smiled at him while Sal cradled the child to his chest and carded through the baby's blond tuft of hair.
"He said something about northern Europe," Pandora said calmly and gestured for Sal to take a seat. "I wasn't actively listening. It's not as if I could go with him to cause havoc right now."
Sal snorted.
"I'm not sure if I should feel thankful for that or dread in what kind of trouble Ana will get when you're not with him," he said amused.
Pandora just hummed, her eyes roaming over him thoughtfully.
"Have you seen the others?" she asked.
"I haven't seen anybody but you," Sal said.
Pandora nodded thoughtfully.
"You should go and visit the others," she decided.
Sal threw her an amused look.
"I wasn't close with a lot of them," he pointed out calmly, indirectly refusing to visit all his old acquaintances from the Resistance.
"Arcturus and Pollux, then," Pandora countered.
Sal hummed in agreement.
"I might go and see them," he agreed. "At least to tell them that I have something that belongs to them."
"Oh?" Pandora asked.
Sal snorted.
"My patient is their grandson," he said truthfully.
"Sirius?" Pandora asked. "I thought he ended up in Azkaban. Arcturus is trying for an appeal as far I know."
"Regulus," Sal corrected her gently and when she looked at him in surprise, he sighed. "It's a long story…"
She nodded and Sal's gaze returned to the baby in his arms.
The little girl had latched onto his sleeve and was currently in the process of stuffing it in her mouth, chewing on it.
" Are you sure you want Ana for a godfather?" Sal asked Pandora thoughtfully, but also a bit amused. "The little girl in my arms already looks like trouble - I fear what will become of her if Ana has that kind of influence on her."
Pandora laughed.
"I'm sure that with Ana's help, she'll at least turn out the right-hand woman of a queen," she answered jokingly. "What else?"
Sal rolled his eyes fondly at Pandora.
"Maybe the right hand of a king?" he offered just as playfully.
"That might be the other option," Pandora agreed, her eyes sparkling. "But then, what else could I wish for my child?"
Sal laughed.
"Exactly, what else," he agreed amused. "And now, tell me, Pandora, how is life, otherwise?"
They would talk the rest of the afternoon, sitting in Pandora's living room with tea and biscuits and Sal with little Luna in his arms.
It would be the first visit like that, but there would be many to follow. When she died unexpectedly in an accident when Luna was nine, it would be a great loss for Sal and Ana both.
The visits would taper off after that, but wouldn't fully stop until young Luna Lovegood was old enough to go to Hogwarts - and while Sal was careful to ensure that his appearance was his typical one of a twenty-something-years-old, Luna would still recognize him the moment they met again after he returned to Hogwarts as Harryjames.
Years later, Sal wondered if Luna had recognized him or if she had actually known he would come and therefore hadn't even needed to recognize him at all.
In the end, Sal would go and do what Pandora had advised him to do.
"Sal," Arcturus looked even older than the last time Sal had seen him. It was about three months after Sal's visit at Pandora's and they were meeting in a café in Diagon Alley. "I thought you might have fallen like the Prewett twins."
Sal shook his head and sighed.
"No," he said. "I was a bit preoccupied."
"Rescuing my grandson?" Arcturus immediately asked.
Sal inclined his head.
"How is he?" Arcturus wanted to know.
This time, Sal sighed.
"I'm surprised you came alone. I thought that at least Pollux would be there to hear my words as well," he said calmly.
"He's currently distracting his daughter, Regulus' mother," Arcturus said and when Sal raised a surprised eyebrow, he added. "Walburga is… difficult. Neither he nor I doubt that she'd immediately ask for her son to be returned to her if she knew."
"She'd kill him like that," Sal said, concerned. "He's healing, but I'm still looking after him and partly stabilizing him. The poison that caused his condition might have been neutralized, but that doesn't mean he's fully healed."
Arcturus grimaced.
"I guessed as much," he said with a sigh. "We also fear that she'll try and get Regulus back under her thumb if she knew he was still alive."
He shook his head.
"Pollux and I talked and we decided it would be best if she'd believed him dead," he told Sal calmly. "Pollux will ensure that the tapestry is changed so that no matter his condition, he will be shown as dead on it."
Sal raised an eyebrow at that.
"He wasn't shown as alive before?" he asked surprised.
Arcturus raised one of his shoulders.
"He was shown as dead in 1979," he explained. "After, Walburga has refused to enter that room. I guess that he might show up alive now, so Pollux will ensure that he won't."
"He showed up as dead?" Sal asked, surprised.
Arcturus snorted.
"Some kind of side effect to your wards or some such," he said amused. "It happened before. We learned to deal."
Sal blinked in surprise.
"Huh," he said thoughtfully. "Might have been the stasis one. If I manage to cast it, it's keeping people from dying even if they should have. It's not an eternal solution, but normally it's good for the short term."
He grimaced.
"Being too long in stasis is partly an issue with Regulus right now," he elaborated. "He's healing, but the stasis… well, I fear that he won't wake up from his coma thanks to that ward for at least another few years. It's kind of unpredictable thanks to the ward, no matter how far along he is with healing."
Arcturus nodded and closed his eyes.
"How high are the chances that he'll still die?" he asked carefully.
Sal looked thoughtfully out into the street.
"He's healing," he said slowly. "Now I'd say it's about a 40% chance that he'll still die. Ask me again in a year and I might be able to give you the all-clear. Until then… this is the best I can do. The longer he survives, the better his chances."
Arcturus nodded and then returned Sal's serious gaze.
"Thank you," he said.
Sal just inclined his head.
It wouldn't be the last time he saw the other man - just like he ended up seeing Pollux sometimes, but over the years, Arcturus would remove himself further and further from the wizarding world. In the end, after his try to get Sirius a trial failed, Sal would be the only one who was still allowed to come by and visit.
When Arcturus, a few years after Pollux, died in 1991, Sal would grieve deeply for the man.
But by then, Regulus would be awake again and Sal and Regulus would have developed a friendship.
In the end, Regulus would be stuck in a coma for six years after Sal pulled him out of stasis.
"Who are you?" was the first thing he asked when he saw Sal sitting at his bedside, watching him.
"My name is Salvazsahar," Sal replied calmly. "I pulled you out of that cave before you could die."
Regulus had frowned at that.
"How did you know I was there?" he asked confused.
Sal smiled amused.
"Let's leave it at 'unusual circumstances all around' for now," he said. "I had to put you in stasis for a while and you were in a coma even longer afterwards. Let's get you healthy before we do anything else."
For a moment, Regulus looked at him in confusion.
Then, something like remembrance showed in the younger Black's eyes.
"The locket!" he whispered. He reached out for Sal to grasp his sleeve. "I was in the cave because of the locket. It's… the Dark Lord made a Horcrux. The locket is a Horcrux! It's… I need to destroy it!"
"I know about the Horcruxes," Sal replied calmly and the younger Black visibly startled.
"Horcrux es ?!" he repeated in obvious horror.
"Yes," Sal agreed with a sigh. "I know about them and what they are."
Regulus blinked.
"How?" he asked, confused.
"Let's just say that I established a link between our minds in the last war," Sal said calmly and when Regulus startled at those words, he elaborated. "The war ended for now. Voldemort's body was destroyed thanks to a ritual."
"He will return," Regulus pointed out. "As long as his Horcruxes are still out there…"
"Yes," Sal replied calmly. "He will return in summer 1995, until then, we have time to gather everything we need so that we can destroy them. I told you, I know what they are. Finding them won't be that hard like that."
Regulus blinked.
"Oh," he finally settled on saying. "So, you're going to help me find and destroy them?"
For a moment, Sal looked at him critically, then he sighed.
"We won't destroy them at first," he said calmly. "He's a wraith now. Maybe, he wouldn't notice if his oldest Horcrux was destroyed… maybe he wouldn't even notice if it was done to his oldest two… but after that, he will know if someone does something to them. I'm not willing to take the risk and destroy them just to have him make more after he returns. And he will return in 1995."
Regulus raised an eyebrow at that.
"Are you a seer?" he asked. "Or why do you know that?"
"Let's just say I lived through his resurrection already and keep it at that for now," Sal replied calmly. "We have time. I've already started looking for his Horcruxes and now that you're awake, after I help you recover, you will be able to help me."
It would take a lot of time, after, for Regulus to regain his abilities from before and more.
There was more than one angry grumble at Sal when Sal started training him.
Sal just shrugged it off, though.
"You want to fight a dark lord," Sal gestured at Reg's arm where the Dark Mark was. "If you want to fight and win, then your Hogwarts education is anything but enough."
"That doesn't mean I have to get better than even the Aurors!" Regulus argued back immediately.
Sal rolled his eyes at him but gestured for him to sit down.
"Alright," he said calmly. "Take a break - but give me your arm while you're resting."
"Whatever for?" Regulus wanted to know unhappily.
"The Dark Mark," Sal said. "I'll go and take a look at it. I haven't seen it up close until now, but I should be able to work out how it was done."
"Why do you want to know that?" Regulus asked with a frown, clearly a bit suspicious of Sal.
Sal snorted.
"Not to use it," he said amused. "I'm a healer. I'm pretty sure creating something like that would go against my oaths if I planned to use it."
"Then why?"
"You don't want to hear him call if he returns," Sal said with a sigh. "And you definitely don't want him to know that you're still alive to be called, do you?"
Regulus grimaced, but inclined his head.
So Sal reached out and started to poke the Dark Mark with his magic.
"It will take a while," he warned the younger man. "I'm only starting today. I can't tell you how long it will take me to unravel it, but it definitely won't be today nor tomorrow."
The answer was a sigh.
"I figured as much," Regulus agreed a bit unhappily.
Sal just hummed and painted a rune on the Mark to be able to take a closer look.
"You should also look in some other magics that could be useful for you," he said to Regulus while concentrating on the Mark. "Something like Animagus transformation or the like."
"Animagus transformation?" Regulus repeated in disbelief. "As far as I know, you aren't an animagus, Sal, so why do you suggest I learn it?"
Sal threw him an amused look.
"Unlike you, Reg," he countered amused. "I am more or less a pureblood. For me, a transformation like that is nearly impossible. Too much creature blood to be successful."
"As if I'm not a pureblood," Reg grumbled.
Sal snorted.
"Pureblood once meant creature-born, you know?" he said. "And that is what I meant to say as well."
Reg stared at the other man.
"Creature-born?" he asked.
Sal just shrugged.
"I'm the grandson of a phoenix and a basilisk," he said. "If I had been further down the line, just an Olde one instead of a Firbolg-born, or pureblood-born, I would have been able to use the animagus transformation just like you do. As it is, maybe I could learn it, but it would never feel natural to me. My blood is too magical to take a mundane form."
"Then why not a magical form?" Reg countered.
Sal just snorted.
"The spell isn't possible with a magical creature as the form you change into," he answered. "It was invented to stay hidden - something that a magical form wouldn't allow."
He shook his head.
"No," he said. "For me, it's impractical. For you, on the other hand, it might be the opposite. Now, will you learn?"
And Regulus agreed.
That didn't mean that he was happy when he turned and found out he was a fluffy, black cat .
Nothing frightening, nothing dangerous.
No, he was a cat .
Yes, Regulus was horrified… at least, until he found out how easy it was to blend in as a cat.
After, he agreed that Sal was right and the form was practical.
It took Sal nearly a year and a half to unravel the Dark Mark, but in the end, the only thing left was unblemished skin.
Regulus, the summer after, rolled up his sleeves, no matter how cold it was.
"Because I can," he had pointed out. "I'm not branded like cattle anymore."
Sal guessed, that was a good reason and didn't ask again.
A few years later, in 1992, they ended up discussing the plan they were establishing for Sal's return as Harryjames Potter. They had discussed it often, over the years, but this time around, Regulus had a specific question.
"Have you thought about trying to get the Wizengamot on your side?"
Sal hummed in agreement.
"I looked into the Slytherin line with Gringotts," he confessed with a shrug. "It's widespread enough that if I manage to get them to agree to return to Slytherin House, I should be able to make a stand in the Wizengamot without trying to use my last resort."
"Your last resort?" Regulus asked interestedly.
The throne.
But Sal just shook his head, not willing to elaborate.
"So… Slytherin House?" Reg asked instead.
"The Longbottoms are part of it," Sal said. "The Prewetts and therefore the Weasleys are. The British Branch of the Malfoys are connected to the Weasleys. The Greengrass and Zabini came from the House of Prince. And Prince is the House that was once Slytherin."
"Prince is gone," Reg pointed out.
"Severus Snape is the last of that House," Sal immediately replied.
"So that's what you've been doing at Gringotts over the years," Reg commented dryly.
Sal looked at him in amusement.
"That and a lot more," he agreed.
Reg hummed.
"I'm Heir Secundus of Black," he finally said. "I can ask for an alliance with another House to ensure that we will be part of Slytherin's side."
In the end, Regulus would decide to approach Longbottom for an alliance.
And while they didn't plan for it or even think about trying to include them, House Ollivander, allied with House Grim through the regency of Lovegood, would approach House Bones as well.
Not to mention that Neville and Augusta Longbottom decided to call back House McGonagall into the Wizengamot.
It was the alliance of those Houses that would under the banner of Slytherin take over after the first Wizengamot meeting in January 1996 - but when Sal and Reg planned, those things were still a long time in coming.
When, finally, in 1994 the whole Triwizard Tournament started and with it the articles about 'Harry Potter', Regulus was the one who decided to mention them.
"Why don't you stop them?" he asked with a frown. "You have controlling shares in the Prophet. You could stop it all."
Sal hummed in agreement.
"I could," he said. "But that would mean to show my hand early and I can't have that. Not now, not when Voldemort will return in a few months and certainly not when the whole wizarding world is looking at the Triwizard Tournament."
Regulus frowned.
"So… you bought the shares and won't do anything with them?" he asked.
"Not at first," Sal agreed with a sigh.
"You have planned something," Reg immediately concluded. After years with Sal, he knew how the other man thought.
"I do," Sal said calmly. "I need the newspaper to make a wake-up call. I need people to start questioning the status quo, but I can't start doing that until after Voldemort has returned. At the moment, the Ministry is quiet, but I doubt it will stay that way after."
"So… how do you plan to do that?" Regulus asked.
In the end, it was Regulus and Sal together who built up 'Oliver Twist' and decided on some of the articles he would write. Of course, having the opening article about 'Harry Potter's trial' hadn't been the plan - but some things were simply too good to pass upon… and the fact that Xenophilius without his knowledge, decided to help them out without Sal having to go to the Daily Prophet and pressuring them into complying, was a boon as well.
Some plans just needed to be a bit more flexible - something that Dolores Umbridge's try to take over Hogwarts showed as well…
When they reached the summer of 1995, Sal felt as if the time had flown by.
"Tomorrow," he said slowly. "Tomorrow, everything will really start."
It was a terrifying thought.
"Are you alright?" Fawarx was standing next to him, looking out in the night just like Sal.
"I guess Regulus is asleep if you're here," Sal said calmly.
"Sleeping like a fledgling," Fawarx agreed calmly.
He looked even worse than the last time Sal had seen him.
There was no patch of skin that wasn't covered in feathers anymore.
"Are you alright, Grandfather?" Sal countered the question with one of his own.
The phoenix sighed.
"No," he said and searched the sky. "I won't be long of this world."
He turned to look at Sal with tired eyes.
"I can hear the fire calling," the phoenix confessed. "Soon, it will be time for my last flame."
"How soon?" Sal wanted to know, he felt resigned and a bit afraid at that confession.
His grandfather reached for him and tucked him close.
"Maybe a few months," he said. "Maybe a year or two. I can't tell - but I promise to hold on until after you're done with removing that dark lord and the Headmaster of Hogwarts. After… I'm not going to promise anything but that I will tell you when I go."
Sal grimaced.
"I'm not looking forward to it," he said with a sigh.
"Death is a part of Life, Egg of my Egg," Fawarx said calmly. "And now, tell me, are you alright?"
Sal hesitated.
"I'm… not sure," he finally confessed. "I mean… I'm basically killing the boy-who-once-was-me just so that I can usurp his place."
"Is that how you feel?" Fawarx asked, concerned.
Sal sighed and closed his eyes.
"I feel like I'm planning to sacrifice an innocent child for my plans," he hesitated. "I'm not sure if that makes me better than Dumbledore."
Fawarx ruffled Sal's hair.
"You're seeing it wrong," he countered calmly. "You're not sacrificing the child. You're giving him a life."
"A life full of loss and pain," Sal countered. "He will suffer. Years and decades and centuries! He will suffer! I sacrifice him, I ensure that he has to suffer, to die - die and die and die just so that I can take his place!"
"It's your place," Fawarx countered. "Tomorrow, it won't be his any longer, it will be yours."
"If I don't-!"
"If you don't call him back to the past… what then?" Fawarx countered. "He will live here, always following the path laid out to him, never free to decide and maybe, never free to grow. He's you ! Don't you think he shouldn't have the same chance you had? Don't you think he shouldn't be allowed to know what it's like to have parents, to have children, to learn and grow? Don't you think he doesn't have the right to face his challenges and overcome them?"
Sal sighed.
"No," he confessed. "You're right. But that doesn't mean that I don't condemn him. He's my sacrifice. I know… I remember my own fear back then… and now I will be the one who will inflict this fear on somebody else!"
"Are you saying, you saw your older self as cruel?" Fawarx asked him calmly.
Sal hesitated.
"No," he finally said slowly. "Just… truthful in a way that I couldn't understand back then."
He hesitated.
"But… I wouldn't be able to lie to the child," he said with a sigh. "The world I'm sending him to will kill the child in him and will force him to bow to death more than once. The world I will be sending him to is a cruel, unforgiving one."
"And while you might have been forced to sacrifice your innocence and in the end your childhood in this time as well, that doesn't mean that you didn't find good things there," Fawarx pointed out and carded his hand through Sal's hair. "It's our experiences that make us who we are. Do you want to take those experiences from him just because forcing him to go means that he will be your sacrifice for a better future… and his sacrifice will be a childhood that wasn't one and friends that might not be lost?"
For a moment, Sal was silent.
Then he sighed.
"I'm going to grieve him nevertheless," he said, giving in to his grandfather's words. "I know it has to be done, but that doesn't mean I will ever like it. He, for all that he's me, is still a child - and when I'm done, he will be a child lost. That should be grieved - because unless it is me, nobody will."
"If that's how you feel, then I'm willing to grieve with you for him," his grandfather said softly.
And with those words, Sal would end up keeping solemn vigil for the rest of the night. After a few minutes, his grandfather would change back into his phoenix form, but would stay with him nevertheless.
"Are you ready?" Regulus asked, his face cautious and alert.
It was the third of August in 1995 - the day Harry James Potter would be attacked by the Dementors and vanish into time.
Sal stood next to him, watching the two dementors approaching.
His heart felt heavy, but he pushed through that feeling.
This wasn't the time to grieve.
"As ready as I can ever be," he said, distracting himself from the sacrifice he was about to commit for the future by reminding himself that even he wouldn't come out of that encounter unscathed. His green eyes were watching the street, his gaze never leaving the two boys who would be attacked in a few seconds.
He sighed.
"I'm going to hate those first few hours," he said.
"You expect some unreasonable behaviour thanks to the wards from you?" Reg asked.
Sal shrugged.
"It's likely," he said. "The wards are there to keep out the dark - and I am anything but light and yet, the moment Harryjames is gone, I will be the one who the wards are going to latch on to protect. It will take a while to adjust. I have no idea how I will react until then."
Regulus inclined his head.
"We will see how it'll turn out then," he said.
Sal sent him a short smile at that.
He took a deep breath.
One last thing before the finishing line would begin.
One last sacrifice for a better future.
And with those thoughts, he stepped forwards.
The boys had fallen to the floor, the Dementors had come for them.
"Time to start," Sal said and pulled up his hood. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
And when the Dementors fled from the phoenix that was Sal's Patronus, Sal stepped up to the fallen figure of the boy he had once been.
He looked at the boy and couldn't see himself in the child at all.
Green eyes met green eyes.
Regret and sorrow filled Sal's heart.
Sal drew his runes in the air.
He felt them charging with magic when the spell took effect.
He bowed down towards the fallen boy.
His own eyes met the boy's.
A boy, just a child, innocent and so foreign and strange to Sal.
There was no recognition in the boy's eyes and no matter how much Sal searched, he couldn't see himself in the fearful gaze that looked up to him.
He looked at the child, but all he saw was a stranger and a boy.
He couldn't find himself in those eyes.
And it hurt. It hurt so much because he knew what that meant.
He wasn't that boy anymore.
And he would never be that boy again - not as long as he remembered everything that had been.
Not as long as he was Salvazsahar Emrys, son of Myrddin Emrys.
The boy would die tonight.
He would be a lost child, unmourned by those who should mourn him.
And it hurt; it hurt so much.
One last sacrifice before Sal could change the future to a better one.
And yet, he couldn't sacrifice the child without at least warning him what would happen to him… what he would have to experience until he was as jaded and grown as Sal was now. It was the last, Sal could do.
" Bow to death, Harry," he told the boy softly, a last advice to the child to tell him to accept what would happen to him over the centuries - an advice not understood and yet still given. " It will be painless. I know, I have been there. Bow to death and move on!"
He gently cupped the boy's head with one hand; the fingers of the other hand drew runes on Harryjames' forehead and scar.
A sacrifice.
The death of a child - even if it was just figuratively and not literally.
It hurt nevertheless.
" Sleep well, precious child. May you never live again."
This was the end.
From now on, the only one left would be Salvazsahar Emrys.
This child, this stranger, would never return.
Light lit up all around the boy. When the boy's scraps added blood to the runes Sal had drawn in the air and on the ground, they lit up.
The boy's body followed.
And then, Sal's phoenix Patronus returned and Sal removed his hands from the child and stepped back.
The phoenix charged.
And with a burst of light, boy and phoenix vanished through time.
Sal's journey through time had finished.
It was done.
Sal was back where he belonged - and mercy on those who would try and stop him.
Older English:
cumber-ground - someone who is so useless, they just serve to take up space.
This was the last chapter in the past.
I have to admit, I was never sure how this final chapter in the past would end up looking. I knew that there were some things I wanted to show, but I was never sure how much I would end up showing. I hope you're not disappointed.
ALSO: Maybe you want to check out my other stories, like Why To Sort A Student Is A Horrible Job and Red Room ? (CAS ( Claude Amelia Song ) insert voice. I deeply recommend Why To Sort. It's absolutely special. Insert voice-over.) There are also two corresponding fics to Basilisk-Born : Erised and A Phoenix's Lament . (I'm very proud of making this one happen, Cas voice again.)
Anyway, please, all of you, stay healthy!
Hope you liked the chapter (even if it isn't the next Wizengamot-one - I know, I'm a terrible tease; I've been told that before).
' Til next time.
Ebenbild
OMAKE prompted by DebaterMax :
Ragnok was walking up and down the room. He was nervous.
It had been years since he had seen the man he was about to meet again and the last time it had been… frightening.
He remembered it as if it had happened yesterday.
The Healer, the man who everybody had admired, standing in front of a fallen opponent after the goblin warrior had gone and challenged him.
And now, after all those years, Ragnok would see the Healer again.
In that moment, Morganaadth stepped through the door, bowing shallowly the moment he entered in the way of a clan-leader who wasn't part of the goblin nation.
"Ragnok-Chieftain," he greeted Ragnok.
Cool green eyes made Ragnok sweat, but he was a goblin - and goblin's didn't show their nerves.
Ragnok returned the bow with an inclination of his head.
"Morganaadth," he greeted the man. "It is good to see you again."
The man hesitated.
"Again?" he inquired, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully at the goblin in front of him.
Ragnok wondered if he had been forgotten by the Healer. It had been a while, after all.
Then Morganaadth's eyes lit up in recognition.
Ragnok's heart sank.
"Oh!" the Healer exclaimed. "You're Ragnok, son of Rugnak! The little goblin who went and fainted when I tried to speak to him the last time we saw each other!"
Ragnok's ears twitched in embarrassment.
He had hoped the other one wouldn't remember.
It seemed his hope had been for naught.
At least…
"Weren't you also the one who told me that a Healer couldn't fight?" Morganaadth mused.
Ragnok groaned. It seemed like his juvenile sins were not forgotten and even if no other goblin remembered there was still someone who did…
And suddenly, Ragnok wondered if it had been such a good idea to ask Morganaadth to see him.
Sadly, that realisation came too late.