2. A Promise Rendered
DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and related characters are the property of JK Rowling, various publishing companies, Warner Brothers, etc. I’m not making any money from this. If I was, I’d probably get a new computer or something.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Thanks for those who have been reading along so far. I know SOMEBODY’S reading it because as an author, I can see the number of page views through Portkey’s Control Panel. Now, if only more of you would actually review and/or comment.... *GRIN*. Come on, don’t be shy...
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Chapter Two
A Promise Rendered
After eating their fill in the magically-expanded dining hall downstairs, and as soon as they could without appearing rude (as Lily continued to receive numerous congratulations from the extended family who had come to wish her well), James and his sister had quietly excused themselves from the after-dinner family gathering. They slowly worked their way towards the hidden staircase in the entryway, distracted their persistent youngest cousin Fred by reminding him that he hadn’t played Exploding Snap with cousin Sirius yet this evening, and finally activated the secret lever. When they returned to the darkened, apparently empty attic room, they saw Hermione’s illuminated head floating in the air.
“Ah, there you are, children,” she said with a smile. “I was wondering how long it would take you to arrive here after that wonderful feast. Sorry for the theatrics,” she said as she glanced down towards her invisible body, “but before we go any further, there are some formalities I need to attend to. By the way, Lily, since you’ve read some of the items up here without advance permission, it is very important for you to pay attention.”
Hermione cleared her throat and said, “As Matriarch of the Great and Noble House of Potter and Mistress of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, I, Hermione Jane Granger Potter, do hereby declare that what you, Lily Minerva Potter and James Cedric Potter, will learn in this room constitutes official Potter Family and Wizarding World secrets that are bound by all the applicable customs, laws and penalties of the Wizarding World. Do you both promise to keep everything you learn here to yourselves, and to not discuss it with any of your family members outside of this room, even those in your family who already know these secrets?”
Lily and James, who were quite aware of the importance of both Wizarding World Secrets and Family Secrets, raised their wands and nodded in agreement.
As they lowered their wands, Hermione removed the invisibility cloak she was wearing and put it away carefully. Lily noticed that the ornate bookcase she had only discovered by accident behind the magical barrier was now visible, and the room was well-lit. Hermione was now sitting in one of three comfortable chairs that were arranged next to a large table covered with a number of books and two large parchment scrolls, a chilled pitcher of pumpkin juice with three glasses, and some of Hermione’s favorite dessert, pumpkin pie.
“Ah, that’s much better,” Hermione said as she flicked her wand slightly, causing the two unoccupied chairs to slide back from the table. “Please, sit – the three of us will probably be here for a while over the next few days so you might as well get settled.
“Now James, since you’ve not actually seen what Lily found up here, I’m going to show you some very special and quite maddening items and give you both a bit of a Potter family history lesson while I’m at it. Look here on the table. What do you see?”
James’ eyes were immediately drawn to three of the books on the table and he stood up to get a closer look. Each bore a title that he immediately recognized, even though the ones he kept by his bedside at home and at Hogwarts were obviously of more recent vintage… and weren’t printed by an unfamiliar Muggle printing company, besides. The third book, which by contrast to the others was leather bound and quite nicely appointed, also had a very recognizable title but the listed author’s name was strange to him.
“Grandmama Hermione!” he shouted, “Where did Muggles get these books from? Why does this one have a fake seal from the Hogwarts Library? And why does this one have a fake copy of Grandpapa Harry’s signature on it? And who is this Rowling person that is claiming to have written a book of traditional Wizarding tales? I’ve never heard of him.”
“Her, actually.” Hermione corrected. “The person primarily responsible for the publishing of those three books and several others is…well, was, to be precise, a Muggle author named Joanne Rowling, or ‘Jo’ as she preferred. According to our research, the name J.K. Rowling was simply a shortened version of her name that someone asked her to use when they published these books.
“For some reason back that many years ago, the publishers apparently feared that their supposed limited target audience of primarily adolescent boys might be reluctant to buy books written by an obviously female author, and requested that she use two initials instead, and since she didn’t have a middle name, she used ‘K’ in honor of one of her grandmothers whose name was Kathleen.”
With a wry smile, she added, “I understand they ended up being quite wrong on multiple counts with those fears.”
Instead of boring her progeny with additional trivial facts she had discovered during her research, Hermione then pointed to the rest of the hard covered books on the table that bore Ms. Rowling’s name.
He chuckled, “Whoever designed the covers for these books sure didn’t attempt to be consistent in their typesetting for the book titles, now did they? Here Grandpapa’s name is emphasized, but here it’s just part of the title. At least the artwork is nice.”
Lily, who had been sitting patiently while her brother examined the strange books, now stood up and picked up one of the books to get a closer look at it. “Yes, that’s true. I never really paid attention to the cover art. It must have been because it was so dark up here when I was reading them. And sometimes Ms. Rowling’s name is listed first, and sometimes it’s Grandpapa’s. Wonder why that is? And James, why did you even notice such a detail?”
Hermione shook her head in wonder at her great-grandson. “So, James, when you are faced with mysterious books that shouldn’t, according to all the wizarding laws you’ve ever heard your whole life, even exist, and will most likely shake up your entire understanding of your family history, the first thing you notice that the cover design isn’t consistent? Seekers!” she sighed in exasperation. “Harry is still the same way. Always noticing ‘the flaws in the pattern’ as he puts it. Well, at least he’s a wonderful proofreader for anything I write for publication. After I gave him a little training when we were first married, he can always pick up spelling and punctuation errors, style inconsistencies, and changes in the ‘feel’ of something even if he doesn’t have a clue about the subject matter.
“Ah…there I go again, getting off the subject. Let’s just move on…all I’ll say now is that there were other publishers who printed many different editions of these books in many languages with different artwork on the covers. Some publishers were more consistent than others in their titles, at least, but there was a really annoying change introduced by a certain foreign publishing house on one of the titles…”
Hermione stopped mid-sentence. She noticed that James and Lily had both returned to their chairs and their eyes had started to glaze over as she talked. She clapped her hands sharply to wake them out of their stupor. “So, would you like to know how I came to acquire these ‘officially non-existent’ books? Yes, both the very existence of these books and the reasons how they came to be are the major reason why you had to swear not to disclose the ‘Wizarding Secrets’ you’ll see here.
“Interestingly enough, the Ministry aren’t all that fussed about the content of these books being shared with Muggles…well, except for Scamander’s book. That one probably caused the most uproar, especially in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I remember Newt was LIVID when he found out from me that some Muggles somewhere were reading illegal copies of the 52nd edition of his book, ‘fixed up’ to make it look like it was a copy of Harry’s schoolbook he bought during his first year at Hogwarts. I can still hear him yelling in his office when I showed him the copy that day -
‘I’m well over 100 years old and I’ve NEVER seen such a thing! In one brazen act, a MUGGLE, mind you, STOLE my life’s work and claimed it as her own, which revealed to Muggles the existence of creatures that they’d best not know about, while at the same time implicating that Harry Potter was the source of the leak so he’ll be investigated for violating the International Statute of Secrecy! THE UNMITIGATED GALL! I’ll SEE ABOUT THIS! WHO’S THE IDIOT AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL ACCIDENTS AND CATASTROPHES THAT LET THIS GET OUT! CALL THE OBLIVIATORS!’
“Then, when I went to visit Kennilworthy, the first thing he noticed was the Hogwarts Library seal on the front cover. He immediately began to fear for his life – he was very afraid of Madam Pince, the school librarian back then…he didn’t want to be in the area if one of her books was missing. He still had horrible memories of an unfortunate incident that occurred when he was a student at Hogwarts. I assured him it wasn’t really a library copy or else she would have already tracked it down, so he felt much better. After that, his reaction was mostly one of shock that some Muggles knew about not only the history of both Quidditch and Quodpot, but also about how to do a Sloth Grip Roll properly. ‘Muggles should never try that one, that’s for sure,’ he said.”
Hermione was obviously reliving her memories of Newt Scamander and Kennilworthy Whisp from many years ago, so Lily coughed lightly into her hand. “Grandmama…what about the scrolls? You haven’t said anything about the scrolls. Why, for example, can I read the first one, but the second one is magically sealed and I can’t figure out how to open it, much less read it?”
James raised his hand and looked at his sister. “Excuse me…but she also hasn’t said much about these other books, either. I mean, I obviously recognize this set, but these other books are new to me. What do scrolls have to do with it?”
“Enough of this!” Hermione said firmly as she snapped out of her reverie. “If you two would just stop interrupting me and let me get a word in edgewise,” (the two youngsters both rolled their eyes at this unfounded accusation) “I’ll answer your questions. Why don’t you both have a piece of pumpkin pie while I talk? That should keep you quiet, at least.”
James and Lily gladly agreed to this assignment. For, even though pumpkin pie wasn’t anywhere near as popular of a dessert in the United Kingdom as it was in the States, according to family legend Hermione started making the dessert a few years after she married Harry and it had been a family favorite ever since. Lily sat down next to Hermione, with James across the table from them both. By pure coincidence (of course) this meant he was closest to the pie and pumpkin juice.
As they tucked into the dessert, Hermione began her explanation. “I was 22 years of age when I first found out about these books. It was the early evening of December 26th in the year 2001, over three years after the defeat of Lord Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts.”
Lily started at the mention of that date and put down her fork. “Grandmama…isn’t that the day you married Grandpapa?”
Hermione smiled happily. “Yes it is. How good of you to remember, Lily! That was the day I married the love of my life…and at the same time, became Matriarch of the Great and Noble House of Potter and Mistress of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Which is why, after the wedding had been performed that morning, our house elf at the time - his name was Kreacher – I’m sure you’ve seen his grave marker in the garden - came up to me in the kitchen just before the wedding reception was to start and asked me what I wanted to do with the books in the attic library. My reaction was similar to yours earlier, James. I couldn’t figure out why Kreacher was asking about books in a library. Honestly, that’s what’s supposed to be in a library, right? But then I remembered just who used to live in this house and what they were like and I thought I understood why Kreacher might be concerned.
“I said as much to him, and he shook his head and said, in his croaking, bullfrog’s voice, ‘No, Madam Potter. I do not refer to the Black Family library holdings, which are, indeed, full of dark magic and evil spells. Master Potter was quite aware of those books and disposed of them as soon as he could after the Battle of Hogwarts. Master Potter donated the least dangerous ones to the newly rebuilt Restricted Section at Hogwarts to replace some of the books destroyed or damaged during the Battle, and the rest were sent to the Department of Mysteries where access to them is very tightly controlled. I am referring to the Muggle Books that have shown up from time to time in the attic room for over four years now. There are now six of them.’ ”
Hermione continued, “Kreacher showed me the entrance to the very staircase you discovered earlier, and led me to this room. At that time, all that was here were the first four Rowling books, along with the Scamander and Whisp publications. I glanced at them quickly without even reading the covers, thanked Kreacher for telling me about the books, and I promised I would take full responsibility for everything in the room from then on and to not worry about them.”
Lily gasped. “You said…what? And in front of the house elf, too? Oh, Grandmama…”
Hermione sighed. “Yes, well, in my defense, I was somewhat distracted that day. Besides all the things I was doing to get ready for the reception that was starting in a few minutes, I was anxiously anticipating the fruition of my upcoming wedding night and honeymoon plans, to be honest.” That comment resulted in blushes all around, but Hermione immediately resumed her story.
“But, of course, you’re right, Lily. I had momentarily forgotten that, as the Mistress of the House, promises rendered by me to the senior house elf (and vice-versa) are considered binding promises under ancient Wizarding law – not that too many of the blood families ever remember that little detail and they still treat their elves like...” Hermione cut herself off mid-rant, and once again focused her attention on her captive audience. So, ever since that day, I’ve been the one who takes care of these items. I’m also the one who controls access to them. As far as I know, Kreacher, bless his wonderful heart, never even came up here to so much as dust them from then until his dying day.”
“What about the other books and these scrolls, then?” James asked quickly, trying to avoid a digression into one of his Grandmama’s favorite causes and lecture topics -S.P.E.W. “You said that there were only six books here when you first found out about them.”
“Patience, James. I’m getting there. So, after we got back from our wonderful honeymoon, well, one thing had led to another, and between our new jobs at the ministry and my expecting our first child – your Great-Uncle Daniel, named after my father – I had completely put those books out of my mind. Then, one day in 2003 – let me think…Dan was six months old, so it would have been June of that year – anyway, Dan had just finished nursing and I was putting him in his crib for a nap when I heard a very loud bang coming from the attic. It woke poor Dan right up! He was not happy and he let me know it! After I got him settled down again, I went upstairs to investigate. And there, on this very table, was the book you see here – the one with the picture of Albus Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, on it. I thumbed through it and saw that it covered our fifth year at Hogwarts.
“Since Harry was scheduled to be out of town for a few months on an Auror assignment overseas and I was still on extended home leave from my position at the Ministry, I decided then and there to spend the time necessary to get to the bottom of this mystery. Since I was familiar with the content of two of the books, I started reading the other books in order.”
James had to ask an obvious question. “How did you know what order to read them in?”
Lily pretended to slap him on the side of his head. “Well, DUH, James – she was there when those events all happened, right, Grandmama?”
“Yes…well, sort of…in a way.” Hermione winked at them. “Here’s where it starts to get complicated, children.” Hermione waved her wand, and a large magical chalkboard on an easel and colored pieces of chalk appeared across the room from the table. With another wave of the wand, the chalk started drawing a complex series of boxes, lines, curves, and dates, all interconnected, with different colors used to show different relationships. While this was going on, Hermione continued to talk. “Don’t worry about the chalkboard now. It will take a while for that drawing to get finished, and it won’t make any sense to you unless you pay attention to the story.” At this, the easel quickly turned away from them so they wouldn’t be distracted by what the chalk was doing.
“What I found as I read these first five wonderfully written books was that they contained a detailed and extremely accurate account of the experiences of Harry’s early life, followed by when he, Ron, and I first met… - that is, the first first time we met, anyway- on the Hogwarts Express starting way back in the year 1991. They go on through the fifth book, which describes our experiences through July of 1996. In fact, it was probably TOO detailed for one person to write who didn’t have intimate knowledge of not just our lives, but those of many others, both Muggle and Wizard alike.”
Lily was nodding at this. “That’s what I thought when I was reading through them, Grandmama. The original books are written almost as if some omniscient third-party observer was watching and recording Harry’s every thought and move, almost from when he was first born. But not just Harry, either. The author also seems to know what those horrible Muggles…the Dursley’s, right?” Hermione frowned at the mention of that name, then nodded, “well, for example, the author appears to know what they were thinking and doing at least some of the time! How is that even possible?”
“I’ll get to that later, Lily. James, do you have a question?”
“Yes…what did you mean just now by ‘the first first time’?
“Very good, James. I’m glad to know you are listening. I suppose you didn’t know that your great-grandparents are …now brace yourselves… real live, honest-to-goodness, duly registered and regulated, licensed, and monitored, time-travelers.”
By the shocked look on James and Lily’s faces, that omniscient third-party observer would have thought that Hermione had just admitted to her and Harry being the naturally-produced offspring of a hippogriff and a house elf. When it looked like they were going to be permanently frozen in that position, Hermione said sharply, “Close your mouth, please, you two. We are not a codfish.”
Lily recovered enough to sputter, “But…but…Grandmama Hermione…time-traveling is…well, completely illegal, and anyone caught attempting even the simplest, shortest time-travels or even claiming to have traveled in time are basically guaranteed a lifetime stay in Azkaban according to the Decree for the Restriction of Time Travel. And it has been that way for…well, forever, right?”
“Well, not really. Do your great-grandfather and I look like we’ve lived forever? Hmmm… on second thought, don’t answer that. To you, we do look like that, don’t we?”
James almost reflexively nodded in agreement, earning him a withering look from Hermione. “Sorry, Grandmama,” he apologized. “But… yeah…”
“Hmph!” she said, her remaining vanity still a bit hurt by his honesty. “Well, no matter… but I promise you that when Harry and I first did what we did, time-travel, although highly regulated, was not an Azkaban-level offense unless it was done with the intent to harm someone directly. The penalties you mentioned are a direct result of the story you’ll be exposed to in this attic room over the next few days. Speaking of which, let me continue.”
James and Lily nodded and listened attentively as the story had now taken a more interesting turn. Their famous ancestors were...criminals…according to Wizarding law.
Hermione stared at the ceiling for a second as she gathered her thoughts. “Where was I? Oh, yes…now I remember. I read the first five books, and, while I was interested as to how this unknown author knew that much about us, I wasn’t really upset. I realized that because of who we are and what we had done, we were considered famous in the Wizarding world. Unfortunately, that unwanted fame results in a certain loss of privacy, as you both still experience because of your last name. I made the assumption that somehow a Muggle may have heard about the story from indiscreet witches or wizards.
“So, I put them back on the shelf and considered them to be no more than a curiosity for some time afterwards. In fact, when Harry came back home a month after I finished the books, well, he had been gone on assignment for quite a while…and … one thing led to another, and… ahem…nine months later, your Great-Aunt Emma, named after my mother… was born, so I didn’t have time to investigate the books until mid-2005.”
“Let me guess. There was another loud bang in the attic?” James said with a smile.
“Yes, and this time it woke up both children in their nursery. And, just like before, after I calmed them both down I went up to this room. This time, however, there was something different. I saw a large scroll, and sitting on top of it was another one of the books – this time with a picture of a N.E.W.T. level textbook – Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage - on it. But it wasn’t just a picture of an ordinary copy of that book – it was a highly accurate representation of the very book that Harry used during our sixth year. I know that because…” her expression seemed to harden slightly for a second, “well, let’s just say that I was quite familiar with that book.
“Since the new book was on top of the scroll, I started reading it first. The book, as described on the flyleaf, anyway, appeared to me to just be a continuation of the story contained in the first five books. But then as I read the first two chapters of the sixth book, I began to get confused. The material in those chapters consisted exclusively of things that I am sure no one except the participants or their close associates could possibly know about.
“And then, as I started to read on, I noticed right away that the character in this book who was going by the name of Hermione Granger was obviously not me… and by the end of the book, I was certain that a person or persons unknown was interfering with time and was attempting to manipulate events in a way that would result in much heartache.”
“What about the first scroll?” James interrupted.
“Yes…about that first scroll. After I had read a few chapters of the sixth book, I began reading the scroll to see if it would make any more sense to me. Fortunately, I found that the material was something I was very familiar with, even if its existence was just as mysterious. That scroll contained a description of the ‘rest of the story’ as to how Harry and I ended up becoming time-travelers in the first place and what happened the ‘second time around’.
“As I read more, I realized that, after the first six chapters anyway, the person writing the scroll appeared to just be recording a number of corrections and edits to the original five books that showed how and where things changed from the original timeline as a result of our time-traveling. In some places it was almost as if he were taking dictation from someone ‘in the know.’ The scroll also contained some very personal experiences in that ‘alternate reality’ that I am sure that only Harry or I could have known. That first scroll ends with us returning to almost exactly the same point in time we left from in the summer of 1996, right after the end of our fifth year at Hogwarts.”
“So what did you do then, Grandmama?” Lily prompted.
“Well, not anything, really. While it was still a mystery to me how the books came to be in the first place, and why they were obviously published for and by Muggles, they weren’t really anything we would be concerned about. After I had Harry read them to see what he thought about them, we ended up agreeing that the first five books were just an eerily detailed description of our lives in the original timeline, while the scroll described how we both separately traveled back in time and the important differences of what happened to us the second time through, and ended with our return together.
“The sixth book, on the other hand, was what we at first thought of as merely an ‘author’s liberties in writing a semi-fictional account’, or a ‘story inspired by actual events‘ that didn’t match in certain very specific areas with facts that we knew to be true – Harry and I usually referred to it jokingly as a ‘book of lies’. But, we weren’t too fussed about it – we had each other, we had started our careers with the Ministry and we had our children to love, so the rest didn’t really matter.”
James looked puzzled. “So, what’s the big deal, then? I suppose I can understand why the Ministry might want to keep them under wraps because of the secrecy statutes, but why all the ‘Potter Family Secrets’ codswallop if the books weren’t a problem to you or apparently anyone else in the family.”
Lily quickly answered her brother’s question, her voice tightening. “Well, I’d assume things changed with the next book, right, Grandmama?” James saw that his sister’s mood was now becoming more and more agitated, almost angry; but Hermione (who had seen the mood change too) raised her hand to interrupt.
“You are correct, Lily. Please just calm down and let me finish before you say what’s really on your mind.” Hermione smiled reassuringly at her great-granddaughter. “It was two summers later in late July of 2007, soon after the twins - your great-uncle Romulus and your grandfather Remus - were born. But this time, there were some differences - the much louder bang this time was preceded by a few seconds by a horrible, yet very familiar, smell. At first, I thought it was time for both boys to have their nappies changed, but they were both quietly sleeping in my arms…until the bang, that is. Then they needed their nappies, not to mention their sleep suits and my nursing top changed. A word to the wise, you two - never startle recently fed and satiated newborns. Your grandfather especially had quite the talent for evacuating from both ends simultaneously. Actually, I don’t know if he’s ever lost that talent, come to think of it.”
Lily, who had been listening intently to the story to this point, started to gag. “Eww...Grandmama! That’s not really something we need to be reminded about concerning our grandfather, now is it?’ Lily protested, although James was smirking as he observed out loud, “Good old Grandpa Remus – always a laugh at parties. No wonder it took so long for him to find someone who would put up with him enough to marry him.”
Hermione winked again at James and continued. “So, after I cleaned both them and myself up and settled them down for a nap, I climbed the stairs and found another book – the one you see there with the locket on the cover. That’s what changed everything.”
“Why, Grandmama?” James said.
Before Hermione could respond, Lily interrupted. “Because, this last book, especially when it is read in combination with the sixth book, is full of the most horrible misrepresentations and outright lies about our family and other well-respected wizards and witches of any two books I’ve ever seen. It’s as if someone was deliberately trying to break up our family and make a lot of people look bad with these last two publications – especially you, Grandmama. Who would do such a thing? And why would anyone hate you and Grandpapa Harry so much to distort your characters and...well, the story of your life, so much while still telling in great detail about your defeat of Voldemort?”
Hermione’s face turned unreadable as she answered Lily’s question. “It wasn’t just one person, my dear children. It was at least two very evil and very nasty people...well, they were the only ones who were charged and sentenced over it, anyway. There were also others involved, as you’ll see. You’ve probably heard their names, even this many years after the deed was done. The people primarily responsible for the lies, at least, in these last two books were... Dolores Jean Umbridge and Rita Skeeter.”
