Miscalculation - Chapter 9

Harry closed his eyes as the Port Key activated. He felt the familiar pull begin to ease and braced himself for a landing. Even after all these years he hated most Magical versions of transportation. Port Keys were the least objectionable, but they still were uncomfortable. He did eventually become accustomed to Apparation. That didn't make it a pleasant experience.

He opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the entryway to a stately building. It didn't have any homey touches which made him think this was a location set aside for official meetings. He was a little disappointed they hadn't decided to speak with him at their home, but it made sense. Still, this wasn't a place he recognized. That meant they weren't in the Ministry or a private room at Gringotts. The décor was tasteful, if a little cold, which made him think it was a place of business rather than part of a manor. There were dozens of places like this for backroom deals, and there were probably more now since they hadn't been destroyed in the war just yet.

The sound of shoes clicking on the polished tile floor snapped him out of his train of thought. A younger, and much healthier, version of Remus Lupin approached. The scars on the side of his face were missing, his clothes were in good condition, and he didn't look half-starved. Honestly, even after all these years Harry had mixed thoughts about Remus. The werewolf had been a friend to his parents, supposedly one of his fathers' best friends, but hadn't contacted Harry until the Sirius' escape. Even then he had waited months before saying anything. They hadn't spent enough time together to have a real connection. Harry could understand not contacting him while he was a child. Not only was Remus a werewolf, but he had just lost the most important people in his life. Saying he went on a downward spiral was an understatement.

Harry hid a small smirk when he noticed Sirius quietly lurking a few steps behind Remus. A layer of shimmer told him that the animagus had on the invisibility cloak. As Death had said, the Hallows would not work against him. It would be too much to let them know he could see through it.

"Mister Potter," Remus drew the words out as he studied the green-eyed wizard.

"Mister Lupin, I presume?" Harry asked.

Remus nodded.

"Please turn over your wand as well as any sort of weapon you have," Remus said snapping back into his professional voice.

Harry drew his iron wand. He considered it for a moment, seeing the swirl of silver along the length. Slowly, as to not cause undue stress, he took off the glove on his natural hand and wrapped it around grip before handing it over.

"Careful of the silver," Harry said as he held it out to Remus.

The werewolf narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. Harry held up a hand to stop the other man from stepping away. He then removed the collection of Yew with a Wampus Cat Hair core wands. Remus stared at him for a long moment. Harry shrugged with an unapologetic smile on his face.

"Anything else?" Remus asked in a tired voice.

Harry thought for a moment. He did a quick pat-down of his pockets to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. The artifacts he had looted from the Malfoy horde had been placed in his new vault. He hadn't had time to track down the current incarnation of his weapons' dealer yet. Most likely it was under the purvey of the same group, but he still needed to make contact.

He unlatched his cloak, folded it over his arm, and offered it to Remus.

"It's not a weapon," Harry said. "Just feel like a prick wearing it when I don't need to."

Remus coughed to cover the snort of laughter from Sirius. Now, Harry could have easily fit in with a Muggle crowd. His black two-piece suit was expertly tailored and made from exotic materials, but it wouldn't draw any extra attention other than admiring the craftsmanship. He unbuttoned the jacket to allow for a wider range of motion as he waited.

"Is that all?" Remus asked once more.

"Yes," Harry nodded.

Remus sent a quick glance at the hand that still had a glove on it. Harry was not going to start that line of questioning yet.

"Follow me," Remus turned and motioned for Harry. "How did you know about the silver?"

"Oh, the werewolf thing?" Harry asked.

Remus did a good job of not reacting. Sirius moved to position himself behind Harry and off to the side.

"Yes, the werewolf thing," Remus replied with a sigh.

"The scars on your hands," Harry said. "Teeth marks, not quite fangs, but close. You've kept good control of your wolf, most have more scarring."

"Thank you," Remus said stiffly. "Lord and Lady Potter are meeting you in a secure location. I'm sure you understand the current situation."

"Death Eater attacks that wipe out entire family lines," Harry said. "Yes, I understand."

"You're rather cavalier about it," Remus didn't bother turning around as he spoke.

"I just had an interesting conversation with a few of them," Harry stated like he was commenting on the weather.

That made Remus finally come to a stop. His entire body was tense as he turned to face Harry.

"Relax," Harry rolled his eyes. "They're dead."

Remus raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"They started causing chaos in Diagon," Harry explained. "I stopped them. End of story."

"You killed three Death Eaters on your own?" Remus asked.

"That's what I said," Harry nodded. "Can we continue? Talk to Auror Moody if you want more."

"I will," Remus stated.

"Goody," Harry motioned for Remus to move. "Let's go."

Remus grumbled but did as instructed. Sirius' steps had a stiff sound to them now. The wizard walked heel-toe and pushed off at the end of each step to be ready to move if it came to that. Harry had to stifle a sigh. He was nervous enough without having to worry about all this mess too.

They stopped in front of a set of double-doors. He could feel the magic rolling off from it. Privacy wards, anti-animagus, anti-glamour, and at least six other recognizable ones as well as a couple that he didn't know mixed in. Whoever did this was a true master. Remus opened the doors and stepped aside. The room beyond the door was obscured with a veil of mist that deadened the sound and completely blocked.

The werewolf waited for Harry to go first. He shrugged and stepped through the veil into the room beyond. His feet refused to move once he saw the two people waiting for him, but not due to any sort of enchantment

Lily Potter stood in the middle of the room staring right back at him. He had seen his father before. Most of the stories that he had heard were about James Potter. The few things he knew about his mother was that she was an amazing witch. She as smart, caring, and didn't back down in what she believed. Still, pictures and stories had not prepared him to actually meet her.

Her wand snapped up and she sent a barrage of spells at him. Harry couldn't dodge them if he wanted. His subconscious recognized that they weren't meant to cause harm. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough focus to actually identify what they were.

"Who are you?" Lily spoke with steel in her voice.

"Harry Potter," he replied on instinct.

"Cute," Lily replied. "Sit down and tell me the truth."

Harry nodded. He took a seat and waited for his parents to do the same. Some of his senses came back under his control. He had not expected such a reaction from seeing his mother. The sound of soft footsteps caught his attention. A quick glance out of the corner of his eye told him that Sirius had joined them. The animagus was positioned at an angle behind him. If Harry had hostile intentions he would have to practically turn his back to his parents to attack Sirius.

"Please," Harry said after a moment to gather himself. "The story I have is a long one. I will do my best to answer your questions, but I ask that you save them until I am finished. This is harder than I expected."

"Fine," Lily said simply.

"Tea?" James offered as a serving tray appeared on the table between them. "I find it helps get the words out."

"Thank you," Harry said.

Harry served himself a cup, added a bit of sugar, and then took a sip. He hid a smile as he tasted the slight tang of Veritaserum. It wasn't enough to make him a glassy-eyed zombie, but it would definitely help get the words out. Contrary to popular belief Occlumency was not a perfect defense against the truth serum. A witch or wizard had to prepare their mental shields to fight it. A situation such as this, where it was done stealthily, would make it obvious that a person was using Occlumency. In the future, Harry had become something of a legend. They said he could resist Veritaserum with hardly a thought and had mental shields without equal. In truth, he had a good sense of taste and absolutely hated the idea of someone rooting around inside his head. Years of sharing a connection with Voldemort made him have his Occlumency always at the ready to keep his thoughts to himself. He could have resisted the potion but decided against it.

James made a motion for him to start.

"The larger story begins with a boy named Tom Riddle," Harry began.

He went on to tell them about Tom discovering the Chamber of Secrets, the death of Myrtle Warren, Hagrid getting the blame, and then Riddle's life after Hogwarts which covered travels across the world as well as the creation of the horcruxes, becoming a Dark Lord, and gathering minions to his cause. He paused once he finished the first part of his tale.

"Tom Riddle is the Dark Lord," James muttered. "There's a taboo on his name."

"Dark Lord is a title earned through horrible deeds acknowledged by magic," Lily explained the use of the term. "That was interesting, but what does this have to do with you?"

"My part of the story begins on the night my parents were murdered," Harry said, he took a breath to steady his nerves. "October thirty-first in the year nineteen-eighty-one, James and Lily Potter were betrayed and murdered."

His parents stared at him in confusion. Harry used that moment to begin telling them the story of his life. He told them about Pettigrew being the secret keeper and his betrayal, how Sirius was blamed and wrongfully imprisoned, and then Dumbledore placing him with the Dursleys. The years before Hogwarts were summarized to save time, but each school year was explained in detail. Once that portion of the story was complete he moved to life after the war. He mentioned hunting down the remaining Death Eaters, showed them his replaced arm, and explained the time studying as he recovered. James and Lily shared a knowing look when he mentioned the Potter Family Tome as well as the spell he had found. The following years of focus on developing the ritual, the original target date, and subsequent plan were all summarized to speed things along.

Harry paused to brace himself before he continued.

"We used the Hallows to power the ritual," Harry explained. "Obviously, it was successful, kind of, but there was an unexpected development. I met Death and he gave me this." Harry held up the Perevel ring. "As the Master of Death, the Hallows have no effect on me. Which is why I know Sirius is standing slack jawed in the corner over there."

Harry finished his cup of tea. He waited for them to gather their thoughts. As emotionally draining as telling the story had been he still found their shocked expressions amusing.

"I'm not usually one for tea, but this is nice," Harry said tapping the cup.

Lily studied him for a long, silent stretch of time. Her hand had come to protectively rest on her pregnant belly when his portion of the story began. She had began to rub the bump in soft circles at some point. Harry smiled at the scene; it struck a cord in his heart that he didn't know existed.

"You killed Peter," James said after a moment.

"Lucius Malfoy, Avery, Nott, the Lestrange brothers, and that explosion in Nocturn Alley was me," Harry paused. "Most likely Bellatrix Lestrange as well. Unless she managed to get to someone who knew how to negate snake venom."

"You want to set yourself as King?" Lily asked.

"It sounded like the best option at the time," Harry nodded. "The magical community was dying. Hundreds had died in the first war. Entire families were gone, ancient bloodlines and muggle-born alike. The denial of the second war allowed the Death Eaters to kill even more. Muggle-born and Half-blood families fled and had no wish to return. We were going to disappear in twenty years at most. The Death Eaters need to be stopped before they can do more damage. The Ministry is corrupt and ineffective. It needs to be replaced with a system that works."

"That sounds dangerously close to becoming a Dark Lord," Lily said.

"That's why I wanted to talk to you two. I don't want to fight you. Any of your," Harry said motioning to Sirius as well. "I'm going to continue as I planned. I'll end the Death Eater problem, remove the Ministry, and rebuild the country. The Dark Lord won over non-humans by promising them they would be treated like people. Even the 'Light' Purebloods do little to guide or support muggle-born, half-blood, and non-human magical folk."

They sat in silence for a long few moments.

"You're going to need time to think about this," Harry said with a sigh.

He stood. Lily and James drew their wands at the motion. The disembodied arm holding a wand marked Sirius' location to anyone observing. Harry smiled softly. He held up his hands in the universal gesture of surrender.

"You know how to contact me," Harry said. "I'll wait for a few days to let you discuss this." He waited for a beat. "It was nice to meet you both."

Harry popped away.

The protective wards were wonderful work, but there was a weakness. They were set to protect Lily, James, and the yet unborn Potter baby. The wards considered Harry to be part of that list and didn't stop his travel. Remus was startled as he appeared in front of him. Harry gathered his things with a wave of his hand. He nodded to the werewolf and disappeared again only to appear in the rented room a moment later.

Harry collapsed into the provided chair. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it did the job. He laid his head back and focused on calming his breathing. His heart was thundering in his chest, adrenaline rushed through his system, and he felt like he had spent the last hour fighting for his life.

The meeting went better than he had feared. He closed his eyes tight. It was foolish to think they would welcome him with open arms and believe every word. He really hoped they would contact him again. They weren't going to die this time. This Harry would grow up with both parents. Even if he had to lock them away until his plan was complete.