Chapter Four

The Christmas Holidays 1992 was the first one Harry had enjoyed somewhere other than Hogwarts.

Well other than the ones they had in the Burrow during the future that is.

Sirius invited him to spend the holidays with him and of all people Professor Lupin.

And even with two Marauders it was blessedly more quiet than time at the Burrow.

It was also incredibly convenient that they stayed at Grimmauld place.

Harry would have never guessed he would miss the old creepy looking place.

It was also incredibly convenient for Harry to manage getting his hands on the Locket too.

He acted on that one night not long after their arrival when Sirius and Remus were asleep.

He snuck down, careful not to make too much noise.

He proceeded to head towards where the Locket was being stored by Kreecher.

The moment Harry reached out for it however the House Elf appeared.

“What is the sneaky half Blood doing with Master Regulus’ locket?” He demanded.

“Would you believe me if I said I was trying to destroy it?” Harry replied.

“Kreecher isn’t stupid” the elf snorted.

“If Kreecher can’t destroy it stupid half blood wouldn’t be able to” he complained.

“Want to bet on that?” Harry asked.

“If I stupid half blood can destroy the locket Kreecher will eat his own foot” Kreecher said.

“I wouldn’t go that far. I was thinking more along the lines of you trying to be nice” Harry said.

It came to something when the expression on Kreechers face made it clear he would rather eat his own foot than be nice.

“Fine” the elf said after much deliberation as he muttered away to himself.

“Bring me a Goblin made knife” Harry said.

Kreecher looked at him searchingly before popping away.

Mere moments later he appeared with a small curved dagger.

“This is Black family heirloom” Kreecher said proudly as he handed it over reverently.

“Perfect” Harry said as he pulled out a small phial.

Inside was a small amount of the Basilisk venom he had procured before the School year even began.

He carefully dripped a single drop onto the dagger impregnating it with the properties of the venom.

“What is stupid half blood doing with Black Family heirloom?” Kreecher demanded.

“Trust me” Harry said as he carefully held the elf at bay preventing him from retrieving the knife.

Or at worst cutting himself with the blade and killing himself.

Harry then proceeded to charm the room so that no sound would escape beyond the walls.

“Here goes nothing,” Harry said.

He looked down at the locket that he had placed on the floor.

He stuck it down to prevent it from trying to escape as he knew from first hand experience the damn thing could move when it felt threatened.

He began to walk towards it with the dagger in hand.

The wood of the floor creaking where the locket tried to pry itself away.

$OPEN$ Harry hissed in Parseltongue.

He ignored Kreechers gasp at him speaking in the language of the Snakes.

Instead he focussed on the shifting form of Voldemort's soul appearing before him.

“I know you Harry Potter” Voldemorts voice said.

But due to Harry’s Occlumency Voldemort was unable to enact any kind of vision that would truly effect Harry.

The best he could manage was images of Remus and Sirius dead.

“Been there done that” Harry thought.

“Then you know your mind games don’t work on me Tom” Harry said as he quickly closed the distance plunging the knife through the open locket.

A loud shriek erupted as the shard of Voldemort's soul was destroyed.

He and Kreecher then stood in silence for a few moments before the elf began to loudly sob.

“It's done. Stupid half blood killed Master Regulus’ locket” he said with a large wet sniff before wiping the mess on his pillowcase.

“I thought we had a deal” Harry said upon being called a stupid half blood.

Kreecher nodded.

“Master Harry is correct. Kreecher was wrong” he said.

Harry nodded before reaching down to the now destroyed locket.

He unstuck it from the floor before handing it over to Kreecher.

“What say we bury this. That way it would be like your Master Regulus got the funeral he deserved” Harry asked.

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Kreecher nodded vigorously.

“Master Harry is a good wizard,” the elf praised.

And the two set about doing exactly that.

It wasn’t by any means a fancy funeral but the two of them praised Regulus for his actions against Voldemort.

And in doing so the two bonded on a level beyond what that Harry and the Kreecher of his time even managed.

The result of which was like Kreecher had a new lease on life.

And without the locket to worry about he could turn his focus back to his tasks around the house.

Before they knew it Grimmauld place was spotlessly clean if still in need of the occasional repair.

“How come the little monster is being so nice?” Sirius demanded upon seeing how polite Kreecher was with Harry.

Harry scowled at his Godfather.

“Maybe if you treated him better he would be nicer” Harry said.

“The way you talk about him is like how the Dursley’s talk about me” Harry snapped.

That well and truly opened Sirius’ eyes.

And although his dislike for the elf remained he at least tried to be polite to him from that point on.

It wasn’t perfect but it was the most Harry suspected he was going to get.

What did however matter was that Harry had an enjoyable winter break at Grimmauld place.

The highlight of which was the night of the Full Moon.

Remus tried to make his excuses to leave.

Something Sirius was loath to accept but putting Harry’s safety first agreed.

They obviously tried to keep Remus’ status as a werewolf a secret from him.

As such Harry had fun playing along but dropping the odd hint here or there.

In the end Harry just came out and said “you know you won’t hurt me when you transform”.

“Harry” Remus said with a forlorn expression.

“I can’t control what the wolf does unless I’m on Wolfsbane. Something I haven’t been able to do this month” he explained.

“As such I wouldn’t be safe to be around” he said sadly.

His and Sirius’ expressions then turned to ones of shock as Harry suddenly shifted into his Brown Snake Eagle form.

“Holy Merlin on a motorbike he’s a bloody Animagus” Sirius roared excitedly.

“Wha…..Whe……How?” Remus stammered.

“Pretty sure you missed a Why in there too” Harry said as he shifted back into his human form.

“You know what this means, Moony” Sirius said with glee.

“The Marauders ride again!” he practically roared.

And so after questioning Harry on why he decided to be an Animagus.

To which he simply replied (I don’t know I thought it would be cool).

He even shocked them further by showing them he had more than just one form.

The group then organised a moonlit jaunt through the woods between them.

As such Remus woke up the following morning feeling much more refreshed than he had done in a good number of years.

It was almost like having his pack back.

“No it is like having my pack back” he told himself.

Sirius and Remus then inducted Harry into the Marauders.

They gave him the name Duo due to having two forms.

Something that was previously thought to be an impossibility.

Obviously Harry didn’t tell them that the reason why he had two forms was due to him lugging around a shard of Voldemort's soul in his scar.

Instead he just enjoyed the camaraderie that he had with them.

He especially enjoyed what was essentially a crash course/ bootcamp in Marauders Pranking.

He vowed to live up to the expectations they had of him.

And thus time quickly came where he was placed back on the Hogwarts Express heading back towards Hogwarts.

Whereupon he thanked his friends for the presents they sent him and talked with them excitedly about what they had all been up to over the holidays.

With school back in full force Harry’s work continued unabated.

The study group gained more members from various years.

The older students flocked to Harry from word of mouth from their friends.

As such he had very little to do in terms of “education” on the pureblood members.

It seems the older ones had taken what he had previously told them and run with it.

They had taken the initiative and over the holidays found more proof to what Harry had told them.

Thus even those from the most ardent of Death Eater families now believed that Muggleborns were descendants of Squibs.

This coupled with the knowledge of just how many pureblood families had been wiped out during the war, and that Voldemort was secretly a half blood had them believing practically anything Harry had to tell them.

Sure it took a little more effort on Harry’s part from there.

He had to offer them purpose.

Something that had been taken away when the pureblood ideals were “proven” to be fake.

Thus Harry would meet with them in secret.

He would talk with them for hours and hours about how to change their world for the better.

And in doing so they became more and more determined to make their image of the world come to fruition.

Sure Harry had moments of guilt thinking of how he was preying on their desires.

But he also came to understand the Greater Good philosophy.

“I simply can’t lose track of what my goals are and how they affect the world around me like Grindelwald did” Harry reminded himself.

After all somewhere along the line Grindelwald failed to realise that his movement was causing more harm than good.

Because of this Harry’s Greater Good was a more malleable thing.

Not something carved in stone unable to change.

“That always leads to bad things after all” Harry thought to himself.

“The world will always change and as such what is best for it at any time will also change too. It is our responsibility to change with it” Harry told those listening to him with rapt attention.

Typical of young teenagers they felt what Harry was saying was the most profound thing they had ever heard.

Little did they know he was doing what most cult leaders since the dawn of time had been doing.

And thanks to the loyalty he engendered from them they then began moving onto their plans for making the world a better place for them and how to best go about achieving that.

They thus debated the methodology of the Death Eaters, and Grindelwalds followers.

Comparing them with Muggle groups throughout history.

And thus pointing out where and why they were often doomed to fail.

It was also not lost on him that in doing so Harry was able to teach the Purebloods more about the Muggle world than any Muggle studies class had ever been able to do.

He opened their eyes to the fact that Muggles really aren’t as stupid as they believed them to be.

Not to mention the dangers they pose should the Statute of Secrecy fall.

Harry told the purebloods of the weapons the Muggles possess and their other feets of scientific achievement.

Things like putting a man on the moon, and the cloning of Dolly the Sheep just to name a few.

That the invention of the internet and their surveillance systems made it clear just how difficult keeping the Statute intact in the future is going to be.

Then he mentioned the many wars still ongoing in the world such as the Bosnian War.

Harry gained Muggle news papers showing just what Muggles were capable of doing.

It was a really sobering thought for some of the Purebloods.

Especially when they realised how close some of their Death Eater families came to making the Statute fall in their ignorance.

Thus Harry induced a healthy dose of fear into them too.

Which was good as it would make them all think twice about their actions in the future.

After all, he might have been able to convince them that Muggleborns were their own squib descendants.

But that positively didn’t extend to the Muggles themselves.

Thus he felt it better to instead make them fear the Muggles instead reminding them of the wisdom behind the phrase “Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon”.

And just like that another of Harry’s goals was accomplished to the degree that in the future Muggle baiting would be all but wiped out.

But that is a long ways away from coming into fruition.