“Dear students,” Albus addressed the hall, “Again a year has passed and 41 students have finished their final year at Hogwarts. 40 of them are seventh year students and one of them is a sixth year who during this school year went twenty years into the past where he stayed for two years and finished his sixth and seventh years taking the NEWTs in the past. I have much to say this time, so I suggest that we have our dinner first, and I will talk to you again after the main course.”

In an instant, the tables were full of delicacies, and everyone enjoyed the meal thinking that it would be the last time for more than two months to have such a feast.

“Now, this year’s leaving class has a speciality,” Dumbledore continued after everyone had finished the main course. “Fifteen of the forty students are capable of the animagus transformation. This has never happened before as normally we have about one student a year capable of transforming into an animal. As your professors have assured me, all of these students’ animagus forms are registered with the ministry. And Mr. Arthur Weasley, our new Minister of Magic has awarded Hogwarts the Order of Merlin 3rd class for the best and most efficient Transfiguration class ever.” He held a golden plate in his hand and showed it around.

“Everyone who is interested may look at it during the feast; later it will be stored either in the headmaster’s office or in the office of our Transfiguration teacher – I have to discuss this with my colleagues later. Anyway, thank you Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape-Dumbledore for excellent teaching, thank you students for excellent work; it is a great honour for the school to have been awarded the order of Merlin.” When he made a short pause, Professor McGonagall stood and said for everyone to hear,

“I decline any responsibility for this. Professor Snape-Dumbledore was the only one to teach the students the animagus transformation. Therefore, your applause belongs to him and the seventh year’s students. Congratulations!” Harry blushed deeply and looked down onto his plate, while the hall was erupting in applause. “Therefore, I have already decided that the award will be placed in the Transfiguration teacher’s office, which will be Harry’s from the next school year onwards.” Dumbledore cleared his throat during the loud commotions that was starting throughout the hall with his wife’s announcement and continued,

“Alright, as Professor McGonagall has already told you that Professor Snape-Dumbledore will be your new Transfigurations teacher,” he was interrupted by another huge applause, ”I may tell you now, that I will be going to retire in order to teach the youngsters at our school, who are between six and eleven years old. Therefore I will remain at Hogwarts and I am going to meddle and interfere all the time, but your headmistress will be Professor McGonagall.” The hall went nearly silent after this announcement; everyone was stunned – The headmaster was going to teach the kids leaving the headmaster’s office to his wife?

“Wow – cool,” Fabian Weasley said aloud, and the whole hall erupted with laughter.

“Now, I have two more awards to give to a student. Harry please come over here for a moment.” Harry pretended to have not heard anything, but Ginny and Julia dragged him out of his seat and pushed him into the direction of the Head table, where he glowered at his grandfather. Albus continued,

“I want to award the Order of Hogwarts 1st class to Harry Snape-Dumbledore because of what he did for our school. I will explain this a bit,” he added, when he noticed the questioning faces of many of the students. “Many of you are taking things for granted, which would not exist, when Harry had not gone to the past and invented them. He has invented the Hogwarts team and the Quidditch tournament as I told you some weeks ago. But he has also discovered and revived Merlin House, which did not exist for more than five hundred years. And when he was in the past, he vanquished Voldemort, a very evil wizard, who had put our world in a great war. Because of this, he has changed our future so much, that he constructed a different time line from the one in that he grew up. I know several people here in this room who did not even exist in the other time line, because they either had been killed by Voldemort or because their parents had been killed before they were even born.”

“Who for example?” someone asked aloud, and Dumbledore hesitated for a moment but replied,

“For example Professor Evans-Snape, Julia and Marina Snape, Anna and Brianna Lupin, Fabian and Florian Weasley, and many more. Harry has also found the diaries of Salazar Slytherin and translated them from Parselscript into English, so that his father, Professor Snape was able to brew the cure for werewolves. Anyway, Harry, please take the Order of Hogwarts 1st class.” Harry took the medal from his grandfather and thanked him.

“And finally I have one more thing I want to give to my great grandson today. It is the Order of Dumbledore for the student most capable of getting himself into trouble. Here, Harry, you really earned it,” he said and the Great Hal exploded with laughter, while Dumbledore handed Harry one more medal. Harry snorted, when he looked into his grandfather’s eyes, which were twinkling merrily and took the order as well. Everyone was laughing now, and Harry growled at Dumbledore, before he returned to Merlin table as quickly as possible.

“Last but not least,” the headmaster continued to speak, “I would like to announce that Ginny Weasley, who has finished her fifth year today, will cease to be a student from now on and will continue to study at Hogwarts as an apprentice to Madam Pomfrey. Congratulations Ms. Weasley.” Harry grinned when he noticed that Ginny blushed under the applause just as he had before.

The first week of the holidays passed in a blur. In the morning, Harry went to his grandmother’s office to look through all her notes concerning the curriculum for each class. At least for the first year, he would mainly stick to Minerva’s lesson plans. As she had more than forty years of experience with the Transfiguration class, her plans could not be too bad, he thought. In the afternoon, Harry, Anna and their sisters spent a lot of time outside playing Quidditch or going for a swim in the lake. After a dinner in the Great Hall, where a round table in the middle of the room had replaced the six tables that filled the hall during the school year, the Snapes spent the evening in their quarters, where their grandparents, the Lupins and Poppy joined them nearly every evening.

Two weeks into the holidays, Harry began to notice, that he was missing the effects of the potion he had not been able to take for three weeks now. He began to tire much faster, and each time he went for a swim, he woke up with a sore throat the next morning. Harry groaned inwardly and thought, ‘That was it. When the school year starts, I can hardly leave the castle in order to be able to teach properly. Hopefully Dad will be able to invent another potion for me.’ The change in his mood did not go unnoticed with his parents and grandparents. One evening, after Marina had retired to bed, Minerva and Albus joined the Snapes in the living room, and Minerva asked Harry,

“Harry, please tell me the truth. We have all noticed that something is wrong with you, but what is it? Do you have a problem?” Harry sighed and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn’t want to talk about it, let alone with so many people. He would have preferred just to speak to his father or mother, but now he had to say something. He sighed again and said,

“It’s nothing. It’s just, that I start to miss my potion. I felt better during the time while I was taking the potion every morning. I’m tired, and I’m afraid to go swimming any more or to go out for the full moon, because I don’t want to catch a cold each time again.” He threw a helpless glance at his father. Severus smiled at his son calmingly and told him,

“Harry, I am working on the potion every free minute, and I hope to be able to come up with something. However, at the moment, I cannot do anything. I will also try to improve the potions I made for you to replace the pepper-up potion, and apart from that I would like to find out why pepper-up potion doesn’t work for you. I will have to discuss this with Poppy. During the holidays, you don’t have to worry a lot, and during the school year, you just have to be careful. Maybe you should schedule the teachers’ Quidditch practise for Friday nights, so that you have the whole weekend to recover if necessary.” Harry laughed a bit and countered,

“But Friday night is the Marauders’ night, isn’t it, at least once a month?” Severus thought for a moment and suggested,

“We can ask the others if we can switch the Marauders’ night as you call it to Saturdays. During the school year, you won’t be able to join anyway, only during the holidays.” Harry hoped that nobody would notice the tear that was just running down his cheek.

One morning at breakfast, an owl brought a letter for Lily. Very astonished she mustered the envelope and said,

“It seems to be from my mother. Normally she only writes to us for Christmas – I wonder what might be wrong.” Severus smirked and suggested,

“Maybe opening the letter would help to clarify certain things.” Lily hesitantly opened the letter and started to read. While she was reading, the look on her face changed from curious over helpless to upset.

“Lily?” Severus asked worried, “What’s wrong?” Lily looked at him and sighed.

“Do you remember that we discovered a few years ago that Petunia’s child was on the list of magical children in the Hogwarts book?” Everyone nodded expectantly. “Anyway, they have somehow discovered that this child, Violet it was I think, is magical and now Petunia wants to get rid of it.” Everyone gasped, and Harry said,

“What!? Mom, let us take her in then. If you don’t want to, then I will take her. I know what it means not to have a family who cares and I also know what it is like to be hated by the Dursleys.” Lily sighed and glanced over to her husband.

“What do you think, Severus?” She asked. Severus sighed and said,

“I agree with Harry and I have no problem adding her to our family. Did your mother say something about where and when we should get her?” Lily shook her head, and Harry said,

“Can we go to the Dursleys immediately and bring her to Hogwarts? She must hate it there and must be happy about any minute we can get her out of there earlier.” Severus nodded and suggested,

“Lily, do you want to take Harry with you and go to see your sister now? Maybe she will be happy if you take her immediately, and we can prepare the papers for an adoption later.” Lily frowned and asked,

“Harry, you know where they live, don’t you? Can you flash both of us there?” Harry nodded and transformed into Icicle on the spot and in a flash of ice, they appeared in the park on Magnolia ring.

“Alright, Mom, it’s a five minutes walk from here.” He transfigured their clothes into muggle attire, and they walked up to Privet drive No. 4. Petunia opened the door and was stunned. Obviously, she had not expected to see her sister and nephew in front of her door.

“What do you want?” she hissed at Lily in a tone Harry only knew too well. Lily somehow managed to remain calm and friendly, a fact, which Harry could only admire.

“Maybe you could let us in, and while we are drinking a cup of tea we can discuss something. I did not come because I wanted to, but because I got a letter from Mother telling us that you and your daughter needed our help.” Petunia’s face turned white, and she quickly opened the door to let them in.

When Petunia told Lily to sit down in the living room while she would be making tea, Harry motioned her to keep Lily company, while he could make the tea. He still remembered everything about the Dursleys’ household. The two sisters talked about the problem and finally agreed that it would be the best for everyone, if the Snapes could take Violet in and adopt her. Petunia glanced at Lily and said,

“Thank you Lily; I am really very grateful. You can’t imagine how much Vernon hates her.” At this point Harry snorted. So far, he had been able to behave very well and had not contributed a word to the conversation. When Petunia glanced at him suspiciously, he quickly found an excuse.

“I think she will like it at our place. My little sister is exactly the same age, and she has a friend in the castle, who has also just turned six years old; therefore it will be as if they were triplets. Can we take Violet with us immediately? Where is she?” Harry asked carefully, but Petunia apparently looking for an excuse told him,

“Oh, she has just gone to see a friend; she will be back in the afternoon.” Harry glanced at her suspiciously, using his wish magic to open the locked door of the cupboard. He was not the least bit astonished when a small girl stumbled out of the small space. Petunia was stunned. How could Violet have been able to open the door? She had made sure that it was properly looked when she went to open the front door before. Lily glanced suspiciously from one to the other, and Harry smiled at his cousin and said,

“Hello. You certainly are Violet, aren’t you? Nice too meet you; I am your cousin Harry, and this is my Mom.” Violet took a few unsure steps in Harry’s direction with her thumb in her mouth, and he held both hands out to her, so that she could sit on his knee. ‘Maybe she has never experienced that someone spoke in such a quiet and friendly voice to her,’ Lily thought and asked,

“We have come to ask you if you would like to come and live with us. We would like to have you very much, and I have a little daughter who is only three months younger than you; she would be your sister.” Violet threw an unsure glance at Harry, and he nodded affirmatively and explained to her,

“Yes Violet. We live in a huge castle that is full of magic. Magic is real, and you are a witch like my mother, and I am a wizard. We can do magic just like you can.” He noticed that Violet was glancing at Petunia with an anxious look on her face and added,

“How about you come with us and see how it is to live with us? If you like it you can stay and we will be your family, and if you don’t like it you can come back here.” Violet glanced at him and her eyes were wide open.

“Do you really mean dat? Fiolet may come wif you? Fiolet not good gawl, Fiolet is fweak and aways doing bad fings.” Harry looked her straight in the eyes and trying not to think about how babyish her language still was at the age of six, said sincerely,

“No, Violet, you are not bad at all. I know that you are a very good girl, and I like you very much. What you are doing is magic, and it is very good; you are not a freak. Your parents don’t like magic, and therefore I think it is better for you to live with us, because you are like us.” The little girl was listening intently, and when he finished she jumped off his knee and asked,

“Can we go immediately? Will you really take me wif you?” Lily and Harry nodded and stood as well. Lily turned to Petunia and said,

“I suggest that we take her with us and see how she likes it, while we wait for the guardianship papers to arrive from the ministry. As soon as we have the papers we will come again because we need you to sign guardianship over to us.” When Petunia agreed with this, she continued,

“As we just got mom’s letter at breakfast, we only decided to fetch her, but we have not yet decided who will be going to become her guardian. It will be either Harry or me. He will be of age at the end of July, and is going to stay at Hogwarts as a teacher just like my husband and me. We are living together, so it probably doesn’t really matter, but we will observe her for a few days and then decide what will be the best for her. Do you agree with this, Petunia?”

Petunia glanced at her before she voiced a question. “Why is it that your son should become the guardian of his cousin and not you as his aunt?”

Lily sighed and after a glance at Harry who gave her a short, approving nod explained everything about Harry, his travel to the past and his experiences in his old time line.

“Do you understand this, Petunia? When I told the others about mother’s letter, Harry was the first to say ‘let’s go and get her’. Because of his experiences, he will be the best to know how she feels and how to help her. But we don’t have to decide this immediately. We can wait with the transfer of the guardianship for a few weeks. Alright Petunia?”

Petunia nodded her consent and said once more, “thank you, Lily,” and hesitantly added, “and Harry.” Harry told Violet,

“Violet, if you have anything that belongs to you, then get it so that we can take it with us, because we will leave now.” Then he turned to Petunia and said,

“Aunt Petunia, I know that you won’t like this very much, but I would like to do this here instead of at the park, because nobody apart from you can see us here. I will transform into a phoenix and flash Violet and mom back to Hogwarts. Mom will show Violet how to grab my tail feathers.”

With this, he transformed into Icicle ignoring Petunia’s gasp, and as soon as Lily and Violet had grabbed his feathers, he flashed straight back to the Hogwarts entrance gate. He just had to show the little one the beautiful view of Hogwarts.

As soon as Harry had transformed back, Lily thanked him and told him,

“You just can’t imagine how glad I was to have you with me, son.” Harry smirked and countered,

“And you will never understand how well I know how glad you were not to be alone with your sister. Remember I know her really well. I have lived in that house for ten years and have even spent five more summers there. But enough of that,” he said and turned to Violet.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, my dear. Tell me are you hungry? When was the last time you got something to eat?” Violet just looked at him and told him,

“Fiolet not allowed eating cause Fiolet not good gawl, only good gawls may get finks to eat and dwink.” Harry had not expected anything else and told his little cousin again,

“Listen to me, little one. You are not bad, you are a very good girl, and we will now go to our quarters, which will be your new home. It is inside of this pretty, huge castle, and I just know that you will like it very much. And when we are at our rooms, we will have lunch. Does that sound good?” Violet’s eyes lightened and she said shyly,

“Yes, I would like dat vewwy much. Fank you.” Lily, who had quietly watched the scene, was horrified about the situation in which her niece had been and about how well her son was able to understand this situation. She knew that he had had a bad time with the Dursleys, but she had never been able to imagine that it had been so bad. They walked down to the dungeons and Harry and Violet sat down on the sofa, while Lily walked into Marina’s room and conjured a second bed for Violet. Later she would ask Albus or Minerva to get another room added to their quarters but that had time until they would add Harry’s new office; then the layout of their quarters would change anyway.

In the meantime, Harry tried to explain to Violet that the whole castle was full of magic and conjured a stuffed dragon for her like his own one, which Minerva had conjured for him when he was little. He handed her the dragon and she asked unbelievingly,

“Is dis fow me? Weally fow me to pway wif?” Harry laughed and told her,

“Yes, of course. Did you never have toys at the Dursleys?” She obviously tried to fight the tears in her eyes and said,

“I had many toys, but den I did somefing bad and daddy fwew all my toys way, said Fiolet fweak and fweaks not allowed to pway wif toys.” Harry glanced at her and asked carefully,

“May I hug you as I always do with my little sister Marina?” Violet nodded shyly and only flinched slightly, when Harry put his arms around her shoulders. Harry could well remember that he had been much worse even through his time at Hogwarts. He proceeded to explain to Violet about House elves in order to be able to call Dobby without having her panicking. Finally, he called his friend, and Dobby arrived with his usual ‘pop’. Ignoring Violet’s flinch, he introduced her to Dobby, who smilingly said,

“Oh, Master Harry, Dobby is very happy. Dobby likes children so much, and Dobby promises to take good care of Mistress Violet when Master Harry is in classes or busy.” Harry grinned as Dobby showed exactly the reaction he had expected.

“Thank you Dobby. Anyway could you please bring lunch for us and call Marina and Severus for lunch please?” Dobby nodded and went away with a pop. Minutes later Albus arrived with Marina in tow just as Severus emerged from his lab. Harry introduced everyone to Violet, who had proceeded to sit on Harry’s lap again. Fascinated she looked at Dumbledore’s beard. He sat next to her and asked with a bright twinkle in his eyes,

“You may pull it if you want to.” Harry and Marina laughed and Violet looked enquiringly at Harry.

“If granddad tells you to do it, then you can – but try not to hurt him please, because he is a very nice granddad and I love him very much,” he told her quietly. She seemed to think for a moment, before she asked,

“Gwanddad is Hawwy’s gwanddad and awso Fiolet’s gwanddad?” Harry smiled at her and answered,

“Yes Violet, granddad is your, Marina’s, Julia’s and mine great granddad, but we just call him granddad. And he is also the granddad of Aunt Lily and your mother.” She laughed happily and bent forward to pull the long white beard just a little.

In the meantime, Dobby had brought lunch, and Minerva and Julia had joined them as well. Violet seemed to intend to remain on Harry’s lap, although Marina had invited her happily to sit next to her, but Harry did not mind at all; he was not very hungry anyway and gladly shared his lunch with Violet. She was very quiet and shy, but seemed to feel well together with Harry in spite of the huge family she just had met for the first time.

Harry had been thinking about himself at the Dursleys for a few minutes, and when Minerva asked him what was wrong, he replied,

“I was just thinking about my own experiences with the Dursleys and thought maybe I should take her to Aunt Poppy and ask her to check on her.” His parents and grandparents agreed immediately, and Minerva suggested she would ask Poppy to come down to the quarters. Harry threw her a thankful glance, and as Violet seemed to be tired, he took her into his own room and put her onto his bed lying down next to her. She was asleep in seconds, and Harry was not able to stay awake any longer.

An hour later, Lily came into Harry’s room and laughed at the view of her son and niece sleeping peacefully next to each other. When she tried to wake them up, Poppy stopped her and said,

“Let them sleep, so I can check on her without any trouble. We can wake them up later if we need to.” She did her normal checks on Violet and was satisfied. “Of course I don’t know if she has any bruises or welts, I have to see her without clothes for that, but magically I cannot find any problem; she seems to be very healthy. I would assume that the Dursleys treated her very well until they just recently found out about her being magical. Let me just check on Harry too, I think he looks not too well. Is something wrong with him?” Lily frowned. That was unexpected.