This is the last chapter of this story. Thanks for all your reviews. Happy reading.


Reflecting the Past

Birthdays within the Potter family were always big event with several friends coming over to celebrate the special days together. And with the high number of children living in those families it was always loud and wild. Not that any of the adults minded it a bit. So on 31st July 1990, Harry's tenth birthday Potter Manor, where James and Lily had moved in after their third child Thomas was born, simply because there was much more space for the growing family, was filled with laughter of children.

James and Lily had stopped having more children after Jasmine in April 1988 because four were more than enough for them. They had two boys and two girls which was perfect in their opinion. Hadrian now had three children and he and Rhapsody planned on having at least two more. Both wanted a big family. And it wasn't as if they couldn't afford that many children. Hadrian mad more profit with MoD Enterprises in a month than he made as an auror in six months. And aurors were paid well, especially senior aurors like him.

Among the family friends were the Longbottoms with their now three children Neville, Reese and Leila. Then there were the Tonks with Dora, Draco and Elleanora who was called Ellie for short. The Bones came with Susan, Theodore, Michael and Rachel; the Prewett brothers came with their pregnant wives, coincidentally also twins like them, and Sirius and Charlene with Stella. Though Charlene was pregnant again. She would give birth in four months. From what the healers said it would be a boy this time. Of course Remus was there too, though he was still single.


After the celebrations had come to an end James invited Hadrian, Sirius, Remus and Frank to a men's night which they after clearing it with their wives agreed to. James opened a bottle of good wine and handed out the glasses. Lily didn't like him drinking hard alcoholic drinks with the children in the house, but she didn't say no to a good wine now and again. Remus was still the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts and his students loved him. He had now taken over for Professor McGonagall as head of Gryffindor too. Professor Flitwick was still head of Ravenclaw, but he had declined the offer of becoming Deputy Headmaster. So Professor Sprout got that position. The head of Slytherin was now Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher.

Remus loved his job and was incredibly thankful that thanks to the PR offensive that MoD Enterprises had started werewolves weren't ostracized like they had been before anymore. There were still tensions, but all students at Hogwarts knew that he was a werewolf and took wolfsbane potion. Information went a long way to taking away fear.

Sirius worked for the Ministry as an Unspeakable while Hadrian, Frank and James were still aurors. Though Frank was scheduled for a promotion to Head Auror at the end of the year when Moody would retire.

"I still wonder about that prophecy Dumbledore went on about." Frank suddenly said. "He said it would be either Harry or Neville who could defeat Voldemort, but in the end it was Hadrian who killed him. Not that I wasn't incredibly grateful that my son was spared that fate."

"Yes, that is strange and I wondered about it too. Did he tell you why he was so convinced it would be one of our sons?" James asked.

"No, he only gave me the warning. And from then on he was somehow strange." Frank answered.

"So none of you knew the wording of the prophecy?" Remus asked surprised.

"No, we didn't. We asked, but he said it was too dangerous for the wording to come out." James grumbled.

"He asked a lot with that little information. I thought he told you the wording. Though the recording is strange. It has switched to fulfilled." Sirius said.

More he couldn't reveal as he had to keep his job a secret. Hadrian pondered if he should tell them. He had now been here for ten years. They were his family and friends. The world had changed and no extremist would be able to rise as long as they all were cautious to not overlook the signs. There even was a ward around Azkaban that prevented the dementors from leaving. He decided to do it. Only Rhapsody knew his secret so far because he didn't have secrets of that magnitude from his wife. He wanted to stay happily married.

"I know the wording." He therefore said to the astonishment of the other four.

"But how?" Frank asked.

"Because I was shown it. I was shown it in a pensieve memory of Dumbledore. It goes like this:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches … born to those who have thrice defied him … born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal … but he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die by the hand of the other … as neither can life while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."

Hadrian recited the words that had overshadowed his life from memory.

"Wow," Remus exclaimed baffled "but if that prophecy is real, how could you kill Voldemort? Your birthday is 1st July."

"Not really," Hadrian admitted and threw a silencing spell at the door to prevent that others accidentally overheard their conversation. "What I tell you now is my biggest secret and has to be kept one. The only other person alive that knows is Sody. You can tell your wives, but nobody else can find out."

He looked at them seriously. They all understood how serious Hadrian took this. They looked at each other and then nodded.

"Alright, my story sounds unbelievable, but I swear everything is true. Let's start with my birth name. I wasn't born Hadrian Potter, but Harry Potter. In fact I am the future self of your oldest son, James." Hadrian started, shocking the others.

"What? How?" James exclaimed not sure if he wanted to believe this.

"Just wait until I have finished my story, then you will understand." Hadrian said patiently. "To start understanding my story you need to know that time travel is possible beyond the capabilities of time-turners. Though the ability is limited to one special person, the so-called Master of Death. I don't know if you are familiar with the legend of the Deathly Hallows, but I can tell you they exist. One of them is your invisibility cloak, James, the second is the Peverell family ring and the third is the Elder Wand which was last used by Albus Dumbledore who won it in a fight with Gellert Grindelwald."

Harry wouldn't tell them the procedure. It was his secret and he would only pass it on in the family grimoire he was writing. The main Potter family had one and Hadrian had decided to set one up for his branch too.

"I will keep the specifics to myself as that knowledge is really dangerous in the wrong hands. Just believe me, it is possible. In my timeline things didn't go as well as they did here. In fact they went beyond bad. I travelled back in time from 15th August 1998. On 2nd May of the same year I had killed Voldemort in a big battle at Hogwarts. Well, killed isn't really true, it was a backfiring killing curse. To give you an idea why he was only killed in 1998 and not in 1981, I need to start at the beginning. Originally the information that Death Eaters were branded with the Dark Mark on their arm was only found out in February 1981 by Dumbledore, who was told by Snape who had turned spy for the Light because Voldemort targeted me and therefore Lily. He still loved her. But Dumbledore didn't give the aurors that knowledge.

"The man kept too many damned secrets and is indirectly responsible for many deaths among those fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Voldemort very nearly had won the war. Barty Crouch's actions came too late because the Ministry was full of Voldemort's spies. They killed the Order members one by one. The McKinnons, the Bones, Fabian and Gideon, Dorcas, they all died. James and Lily and Alice and Frank went into hiding under a Fidelius charm. With that the real tragedy started for me. For some reason not James and Frank were the secret keepers. Dumbledore told you to use somebody else and offered to be secret keeper.

"I don't know who you used Frank, but you cancelled the charm too early. You were attacked and ended in the long-term spell damage ward of St. Mungo's for over-exposure to the cruciatus curse. Your mother raised Neville, but she and the rest of your family squashed his sense of confidence because they wanted him to be you and couldn't accept he was different. I think you know what I mean." Hadrian said and got a startled nod from Frank.

"Now the charms had been set up one week before Halloween." Hadrian continued only for James to interrupt him.

"Wait a moment; we put the charm in place in September after we were constantly found, not in October."

"Yes, but there it only happened in October. Here you followed my example. Well, Lily and James secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew and you more or less told everybody it was Sirius to confuse the Death Eaters and Voldemort." Hadrian explained.

"Sweet Merlin, Peter was a Death Eater. So he betrayed us?" James asked understanding the message Hadrian implied.

"Indeed. On Halloween Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow after Peter told him the location. Voldemort killed you first, James. You had been careless and left your wand in the living room when he blasted the door open. I saw the memory in an incident around Christmas 1997. So I know exactly what happened and I can tell you it was horrible to see him murder my parents through his eyes accompanied with his thoughts on the matter. You tried to stop him, but he simply used the killing curse on you. Then he went upstairs where Lily had fled with me, strange to think that honestly. I've become used to think of you as my cousin and not my father. Well, she tried to shield me by placing me in my crib and standing in front of it.

"Voldemort offered her to spare her, because Snape had begged for him to let her live because he wanted her. But of course she refused to let him simply kill me. So he killed her too. Then he tried to kill me, but thanks to my mother's willing sacrifice the curse backfired. Voldemort was ripped from his body and fled as a wraith. His horcruxes kept him alive." Hadrian explained.

"Hagrid was the first one to arrive on the scene. I don't know to this day why Dumbledore sent him. I mean, while he has resistance against spells as a half-giant, he isn't allowed to use magic himself thanks to the Ministry messing up after the Chamber of Secrets was opened the first time."

"Wait, the first time?" Remus asked.

"My second year at Hogwarts was the second time, but I will come to that later, Remus." Hadrian promised and got a nod.

"Sirius who had a bad feeling was the second person to appear. He had tried to check up on Peter only to find him gone and no traces of a fight. Sirius tried to get me from Hagrid, but Hagrid refused, stating that he had orders from Dumbledore." Hadrian continued.

The other groaned.

"It would have been impossible for anybody to argue with Hagrid over anything if he had orders from Dumbledore." James commented. "Hagrid would have followed them without listening to any arguments no matter how valid they were."

"Yes, Sirius seemed to realise that too. He let Hagrid take me and offered his motorbike to take me to Dumbledore. Then he went and hunted Peter down. He went slightly insane in his grief over my parents' deaths and not being allowed to take care of me." Hadrian said.

"I would." Sirius said softly. "Thinking about losing James and Lily hurts too much to even think what I would do."

"I was brought to Aunt Petunia." Hadrian was immediately interrupted by James.

"What do you mean, Petunia? Lily's sister? We left very clear instructions where our children should go to in case something happened to us. First was Sirius, second was Alice, third Andromeda. After that any member of the Order willing to take you in. We explicitly forbid that the horse-faced harpy ever got to see any of our children." James ranted. "Why would anybody place you there?"

"Bloodwards. Dumbledore later explained to me that Mum's sacrifice gave me a really strong protection and that he managed to extend that protection over the home where my mother's blood lived. And the only remaining living relative was Aunt Petunia, so in his 'infinite wisdom'," everybody heard the sarcasm dripping from Hadrian's voice "the old man decided to place me there, knowing full well that he was 'condemning me to ten hard years'. His exact words. But seemingly the precious little saviour of the wizarding world had to be kept away from his fame to not get too big a head and listen to all the rubbish Dumbledore sprouted. While he knew a lot, he never considered the feelings of people that followed him. Sometimes it seemed they were all only figures on his chessboard. The wards would work as long as I could call the place where Mum's blood lived home. That was a pretty risky gamble.

"Had I only once expressed my exact feelings for that place and those bastards the wards would have fallen faster than he could blink. And safe in his words only included alive. Not happiness, not being loved or even being well-fed. Only alive. I must have gone hungry and been hurt more times than I care to remember before I ever found out about being a wizard on my eleventh birthday from Hagrid." The others looked really grim hearing that.

"While I was sent to Durskaban Sirius tracked down Peter, but the rat managed to blame Sirius for his betrayal and made it look as if Sirius had killed him and twelve innocent muggles that were behind him when he fired an explosion curse. Apparently it ripped the whole street open. He transformed into his animagus form and fled through the sewers. Sirius was arrested, nothing was properly investigated, not even mentioning that nobody thought it prudent to at least question him why he did it, and sent to Azkaban for life. He was presented in the press as Voldemort's secret second in command. Dumbledore did nothing, believing that Sirius had been the traitor and had killed the thirteen people." Hadrian told them.

"But Crouch made sure that every Death Eater or sympathizer was put on trial and questioned under veritaserum because it would have been a waste of information to not do so. On top the public was assured that nobody who was innocent went to Azkaban and that no true Death Eater went free." Frank protested.

"And who suggested that practice and worked on Barty for months on end to make sure it was really done? That was me. I knew what had happened in my timeline and I needed to prevent certain things. Do you think I would have travelled back if I had seen another way? I hold no mercy for Death Eaters and pureblood extremists, you know that, but I hold the law in very high regard. It was me who placed the information about the Dark Mark with the aurors early on. It was me who wrote all those anonymous letters about Death Eaters and sympathizers. And except for the ring in the Gaunt shack I destroyed all the horcruxes that Voldemort had made. I knew from my time what and where they were. I knew how to destroy them too, but for that to be possible without risking fiendfire I needed to get a certain tool. Getting the horcruxes also was a little tricky, but I worked out how to manage that.

"A diary was given to Lucius Malfoy who hid it in his secret room under the living room floor. In my time it was used to open the Chamber of Secrets by possessing an innocent student. Said student, Ginny Weasley to be precise, was forced to let the basilisk out which led to it petrifying several muggleborn students, among them my best friend Hermione. Thankfully that time around nobody died. We were really lucky that everyone only saw reflections or through an object. The only direct hit was Nick, but as a ghost he couldn't die twice." Hadrian explained.

"Wait a minute," Remus interrupted "there is a basilisk at Hogwarts and you didn't tell us before?"

"Correction, there was a basilisk at Hogwarts, Remus. I said that I needed a tool to destroy the horcruxes and said tool was a goblin made dagger drenched in basilisk venom. Worked splendidly. Though the cup of Hufflepuff in the Lestrange vault got a few drops of pure venom onto it. Much less suspicious to do while clearing out that vault." Hadrian offhandedly said. "I killed the basilisk again during the Christmas break of 1980. I needed the venom and I doubt it would have been cooperative. On top I didn't want to risk it ever hurting students again. I had a personal vendetta against it too. Not only did it petrify Hermione, it also bit me and without Fawkes crying onto the wound and healing me I would have died with twelve."

James and Sirius looked especially pale hearing that. Frank and Remus were only marginally better and had their hands tightly closed around the armrests of their armchairs.

"This time I went for the easy solution. I borrowed one of Hagrid's roosters. A rooster's cry is deadly for a basilisk. Worked like a charm and I really didn't fancy trying to convince the Sorting Hat to let me use Gryffindor's sword again, not to mention risking getting poisoned again. While I was at Hogwarts I destroyed two horcruxes. The locket of Slytherin which I had found in a cave with a lake inside which was filled with inferi. The protection was a basin with a potion that caused the drinker to relive their worst memories and caused physical pain on top of it. I think the best description would be a mix of dementor's influence and cruciatus from what I have seen of the effects. My victim was an imperiused grindylow. The second one was Ravenclaw's lost diadem which Voldemort had found in Albania where the Grey Lady, who is really Helena Ravenclaw, had hidden it after she stole it from her mother Rowena. It was hidden in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts. I got it at the same time I went there for the basilisk. My invisibility cloak came in handy I tell you. Both horcruxes fell to my new dagger." Harry took a gulp from his glass, all this talking was making him thirsty.

"The one horcrux I couldn't get was the one in the Gaunt shack. I was no expert at wards at the time. So my only choice was leaving it to Dumbledore. I let him know that there were strong wards that reeked of Voldemort through Fabian and Gideon. I didn't know if he would fall to any protections on the ring, but I could hardly tell him what I knew. He would only have obliviated me or manipulated me again. No, once was already too much. Thanks to his manipulations and keeping too many damned secrets my first life was hell. I didn't have a proper childhood at the Dursleys. I was neglected at best and abused at worst. I had no normal year at Hogwarts either." Hadrian said.

"What do you mean, Hadrian?" Remus asked.

And Hadrian told them all about his six years at Hogwarts, how much Dumbledore had kept from him, how he had played with his life, setting up tests for him and not giving him the knowledge that was his by right. Dumbledore only had had Voldemort in his sight, not the people around or the Death Eaters that were at least as much of a problem as Voldemort himself. He told about the incompetency and corruption of the Ministry under Fudge and Bagnold and how it had led to the Death Eaters that got away amassing wealth and political power. He described the war as best as he could and all the lives it had cost. On question of Sirius Hadrian also informed them how that idiotic government came to pass.

They were all massively impressed with Hadrian's magical progress, especially his patronus with thirteen. James, Sirius and Remus got a real laugh out of Harry's story of running the DA right under Umbridge's nose. Though they groaned hearing how inefficient the Order had operated. Moody clearly was a better leader than Dumbledore had been. They all held their breaths when Hadrian described his finding out that he was the last horcrux. James tried to deny that, but Hadrian calmly continued telling his story.

"Dumbledore has known from the beginning and set me up to die. Sure he held out a little hope that I might survive thanks to Voldemort making a mistake in taking my blood for his resurrection. But he wasn't sure and rather than giving me false hope, he went with keeping me completely in the dark until times were so desperate that I would sacrifice myself only to end Voldemort. After the battle things first seemed to look up. Kingsley was named interim Minister, the Death Eaters were arrested, well, those that had survived the battle, too many in my opinion, and were known of course and people buried their dead friends and family members. The really bad part happened soon after that. The battle was in May, but by August the pureblood faction already had their full power back. Voldemort was only the tip of the iceberg. They had the Ministry under control and made laws to control the halfbloods and muggleborns. The only law that was permanently repelled was the one concerning muggleborn registration.

"Instead they used other ways to completely control them. There was nothing I could do against it. While I was the hero for everybody, they already had found a way to neutralise my influence playing political games. The reigns of Fudge and Bagnold left them with too much money, not to mention they had the most profitable businesses under them. They had weakened those that they wanted to take over with terror and blackmail already, so after they had ensured them staying out of Azkaban, they bought them or got rid of the owners if they hadn't already done that. Some were also taken over by making the underage heir their wards. An ironclad marriage contract if the child fit into the family and the business was legally theirs.

"No, in my time I would have been forced to marry some pureblood princess who won the auction for me. She would then have been in control over me thanks to that law. Hermione quickly agreed to marry Ron Weasley to avoid being given a husband. Just to spite her and me for being substantial for Voldemort's fall they would have married her to some brutal pureblood bigot. Ginny had fed me love-potions since I was sixteen. I got free after the battle because Kreacher checked my food and drinks for them. Too many girls wanted to have the defeater of Voldemort as their boyfriend. I found a way to travel back in time. My goal was to destroy all horcruxes as fast as possible, cut the money from the Death Eaters and pureblood supremacists and make sure that as many people as possible survived. Though Dumbledore and a few others were at the end of that list. I started when I arrived here. I had brought all my money, books on history and important successful businesses in both muggle and magical world and some other things with me. I invested where I could make most money and where it would hurt Voldemort and his followers." Hadrian finished his tale.

"Wow, just wow, how does nobody know that?" Sirius asked awed how much his friend / older than normal godson had achieved.

"I don't act openly. I act though a company that I created for exactly that purpose. MoD enterprises." Hadrian said enjoying their gobsmacked faces. "In fact MoD stands for Master of Death."

"You are the mysterious owner of MoD Enterprises? The richest man in the wizarding world?" Remus exclaimed shocked.

"I'm the richest? I didn't know that. I let Regulus take care of the finances. As I got him out of Voldemort's ranks, he kept quiet about everything. And he is great at leading the company. I only give him some instructions what I want to achieve."

"So we basically all owe our lives to you, Hadrian. Without you we wouldn't have the lives we live now." James said.

"I don't want anything for it. The one thing I always wanted was a family to love me that I could love in return and I have that now. I have a funny cousin, two nephews, one of them my godson, and two nieces. Then two boys that are basically my nephews with how they grew on me. I have two sons and a daughter that I love more than life itself, not to forget my beautiful fiery wife. The fortune of MoD will be used to better the wizarding world and to make sure that there will never be a repeat of Voldemort." Hadrian stated. "I have great friends and a good job that I love. I have a house where I can raise my children in peace and more space for more children in the future. What more could I ask for?"

The others couldn't answer that. For James it was unbelievable that his cousin was in reality his eldest son that had travelled through time to save their world. He could fully understand that he wouldn't have wanted to be forced into a loveless marriage. But certain things made sense. He would tell Lily, but nobody else. Hadrian was right. He had all a man could wish for. Thanks to him they had peace. And the loss of Dumbledore, well, they had got over it. It wasn't as if Hadrian had killed him. He only didn't prevent it and after hearing his life-story he couldn't think badly about him for that. Dumbledore had caused or allowed to be caused a lot of harm and hurt for Hadrian.

"Well, this calls for a toast. To Hadrian and to the hope that another time-travel will never be necessary." James said.

"To Hadrian!" The other three chorused and they all drank their mead.

This time all was really well.


I couldn't resist that end :) Thanks for reading my story.