26Saving Dobby
Disclaimer: I don't own it, but I wish I did.
A/N: Another plot bunny. I don't know how long I'm going to make this one, but here is a bit of a teaser for those of you that don't want a Twilight crossover.
Also, I've made some slight changes to what I had previously posted before replacing this chapter, but the original posting wasn't all that long to start with, I don't expect anyone to be upset about having to reread the beginning again.
And lastly, I've decided to make this a one-shot.
Harry and Merope arrived in stealth mode, as usual, to the onslaught of screams and spells coming from all directions, and it took a moment for Harry to recognize where they were. Malfoy Manor.
Harry was wrestling with Draco Malfoy for the wands in his hands.
Ron was attempting to reach Hermione, who was struggling to stand after having been tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange.
Harry looked up and saw Dobby unscrewing the chandelier.
Merope asked, "What's going on, Harry?"
"This was when we were captured by snatchers and brought as prisoners to Malfoy Manor. This was when Dobby died to save us." Harry responded.
Merope nodded and said, "I have the feeling we're here to keep Dobby from dying this time around?"
Harry nodded and said, "Among other things. Not the least of which is to make sure the Weasleys don't get their hooks into Harry and that he doesn't have to bond to the Hallows. We'll need to work quickly."
Knowing that Harry kept the snitch with the Stone in the moleskin pouch that was worn around his neck, Harry quickly moved over next to Harry and absorbed the powers of the Stone. He didn't detect the Cloak on Harry, so took that to mean it was stored in Herminone's little purse along with everything else, and so left that alone.
Then he quickly maneuvered over next to Bellatrix and waited until Dobby had grabbed ahold of the trio, and then petrified her before she could throw her poisoned knife. Dobby and the trio escaped without issue.
In the split second between when Dobby and the trio were there and gone, Harry turned to Merope and asked, "Are you ready to rock their world?"
Merope grinned and said, "Well, of course. I haven't participated in all that training in the Room of Requirement with you after all these years to not put it to good use now that I have the chance."
"That's my girl," said Harry with a dopey grin. "Dropping stealth mode in three, two, one." Then Harry and Merope were visible.
Draco seemed to be the first one to notice them. His eyes kept darting back and forth between the two of them. Harry could almost imagine Draco's inner dialogue going something along the lines of, "Potter, you idiot! After all of the effort I expended in acting as if I didn't know it was you, and then letting you take my wand so you could escape. What do you think you're doing coming back?" Harry just hoped Draco would realize that the Harry he was looking at was older, cleaner, and not panicked.
Just as all the others present in the room were realizing they had company, Voldemort himself apparated in, in possession of the Elder Wand, and started throwing crucios like confetti the moment he realized that they had had Harry Potter captured and were stupid enough to allow him to escape.
Voldemort's fury was cut short when Harry raised his hand and the Elder Wand flew from Voldemort's hand and into Harry's and was promptly absorbed and disappeared. Harry grinned happily when he saw Voldemort's eyes bug out in shock. His grin only grew wider when he saw Merope's temper start to flare.
"TOM MARVELO RIDDLE!" Voldemort's eyes narrowed at that name and turned to see who had dared to scream it, but before he could respond, Merope continued her rant, with her index finger pointed towards Voldemort, as she steadily walked closer until she was very nearly in his face.
"HOW DARE YOU GROW UP TO TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. MY COUNTERPART DID NOT DIE TO GIVE YOU LIFE, ONLY FOR YOU TO RUIN IT BY TEARING UP YOUR OWN SOUL!" Merope took a breath at this point and stood there glaring up at him with her hands on her hips. "I HAVE HALF A MIND TO TURN YOU OVER MY KNEE AND SPANK YOU!"
Voldemort was shocked. "Impossible," he said.
Merope said, "Oh, it very much is possible, and you have been one big idiot. I blame your father for your idiocy. I would blame the love potions, but the rumor of love potions was a lie, you were conceived in rape. And here you are allowing all of your fanatical followers to murder, torture, and RAPE. I swear, I'd think you were trying to imitate the Vikings, if you all started pillaging, too."
Voldemort narrowed his eyes and asked through gritted teeth, "How dare you speak to me that way. Do you know who I am and what I'm capable of? Who do you think you are to talk to me like a wayward child?"
Harry laughed, drawing Voldemort's attention to him, "Oh, Tommy Boy, if you didn't want to be treated like a wayward child by a version of your birth mother, you shouldn't have started throwing a tantrum like a child the moment you arrived and were disappointed with your slaves."
"POTTER!" Voldemort screamed, having had been distracted enough by his mother to forget he was there
Harry bowed at the waist and said with a wide grin, "In the flesh." Then he did a wide area petrification on everyone present in the manor, along with conjuring indestructible manacles that popped up out of the floor to take a hold of everyone present, minus himself and Merope.
Then Harry turned to Merope and asked, "Can you handle the rubbish while I go and prevent a Gringotts break-in, sweetheart?" If Voldemort could have widened his eyes in his petrified state, he certainly would have.
"Of course, dear," said Merope. "Go do what you need to do and I'll catch up after I've sorted through all of the fanatics and all of the victims. I'll probably meet up with you again at Hogwarts, along with this idiot, who could have been my son."
Harry smiled and gave her a quick kiss and gave Voldemort a wink before reactivating stealth mode and disappearing.
Merope cleared her throat before she turned back to those present, making sure everyone was facing her, turning around those who were not, then said, "Hello, I'm Merope Potter. In another world, I could have been this terror's mother," she gestured with a wave of her hand to Voldemort, "that is, if my Harry hadn't time traveled and rescued me from the brute that would have been his father." Turning back to Voldemort she looked at him sadly and said in parseltongue, "I wish you had not torn apart your soul, you had such potential to do good, if only you had not been driven by your fear of Death."
"Now, my job today is to pick the sane from the insane, the coerced from the volunteers. There will be no need to try to speak, not that you could, as I am better at legilimency than your 'master' could ever hope to be."
Obviously, no one was able to answer her at this time and she continued, "First I want to clear up a few misconceptions that you all may have. The first being that being pure of blood is best. That's rubbish. If being a pureblood was best, then my family, the Gaunts, would not have bred and inbred themselves into extinction. The Gaunt line was pureblooded all the way back to Slytherin himself, yet in the end, my father and brother could only do enough magic to be a step above a squib. And they had the audacity to think that I was a squib, but in reality, I was given an ill-suited, used wand; in addition to their abuse of me that caused me to be too frightened to concentrate on using spells. If fate had not stepped in, I have no doubts that my father would have eventually forced me to marry my brother in an effort to keep the line pure." Merope grimaced at that acknowledgment.
"Additionally," Merope added, "if only purebloods made powerful witches and wizards, your Dark Lord would not be as powerful as he is, considering his father was a muggle."
"I believe with just those few logical examples, your beliefs in the might of the purity of blood should have been debunked; however, I have my doubts that the majority of you will be able to think critically and logically." Merope said as she looked at the petrified Death Eaters with narrow eyes.
Out of the corner of her eye, Merope noticed Nagini attempting to sneak up on her and just as the snake was about to strike, Merope dodged and petrified her, too. "Hm. It seems my husband didn't remember the snake, I'll have to tell him about it when I see him again." Merope said as she walked over to Nagini and said in parseltongue, "I'm sure you were only doing as you were told by your master and owner of the horcrux inside of you, but that was very naughty." And then she proceeded to use the power of the Stone to remove the horcrux, much to Voldemort's and the Death Eaters' shock.
Alas, Nagini was still as murderous after the horcrux's remover as she was before, so Merope said in parseltongue, "Well, I see you're too corrupted to be allowed to live and go free, so sadly, you'll have to go." After which, Merope promptly used a cutting spell to take off Nagini's head, and then she banished the body.
Next she turned to the Death Eaters and started the process of sorting through who should be eliminated and who should be given another chance. Afterwards, Merope shook her head and said, "I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm somewhat amazed at the number of you that are beyond redemption at this point."
Merope sighed and said, "All right. All of you who are actually victims of the circumstances, as much as I would like to set you free this moment, I cannot. Right now you will be on, what the muggles call, house arrest. I'm going to place on each of you, an unbreakable bracelet that can only be removed by either myself or my husband, Harry, which will prevent any of you from leaving this manor in any way, shape or form." Narcissa and Draco, along with a few of the minor Death Eaters were given this bracelet.
"Now, I must warn you that should any of you attack me after I release your petifications, not that you could actually cause me harm, you will be petrified again and you may find yourself in the dungeon while you wait for the final decision regarding your fate." Merope warned them, before removing the petrification spell. Thankfully, they all took her warning to heart and did not attempt to attack Merope. They did quickly take their leave from the room and went to other parts of the manor. Narcissa was the last to leave, after she looked back towards her husband regretfully.
Turning to the remaining Death Eaters, Merope said, "Those of you who are redeemable will be confined to the ballroom, you will be given a similar bracelet as the others, but it prevents you from leaving the ballroom and/or the connecting restroom, should my husband take longer to straighten out this mess than I anticipate. The house elves will be permitted to serve you food, should it take longer than a handful of hours. Also, those of you that have wands will have them confiscated until further decisions can be made for you."
Those confined to the ballroom and connecting restroom included Lucius Malfoy, Travers, Jugson, Avery, and Wilkes.
"Now, the rest of you, you're all disgusting filth that don't deserve to see the light, much less to scrape the mud off my shoe. Your wands will be confiscated, your magic suppressed with the lovely manacles that my husband conjured, and you will be confined to the dungeons. You won't be able to escape, not even if you call for your house elves, so don't bother."
Those bound to the dungeon included all three Lestranges, Antonin Dolohov, Mulciber, Nott, Sr., and quite a few others.
Finally, the only being left when Merope was finished was Voldemort. "Now, then," said Merope, turning to Voldemort, "you and I are going to have a little discussion while we're waiting for my Harry to clean up the mess you've made. Then I'm going to drag your poorly reconstructed body over to Hogwarts, so that the wizarding world can see their nightmares defeated. Then Harry and I are going to move on with our lives."
Harry arrived at Shell Cottage without any issues and found everyone gathered in the sitting room getting caught up on the news, with the exception of Griphook and Ollivander, who had been given rooms upstairs. Hermione was recovering temporarily on the sofa, her head laid in Ron's lap. Harry, Dean, Luna, Bill, and Fleur were all sitting on various chairs surrounding the sofa. Dobby was not present anywhere on the property, that Harry could sense, so Harry assumed he had returned to Hogwarts.
Before revealing himself, Harry petrified everyone in the home, except for their eyes, including Griphook and Ollivander who were upstairs resting. He figured he wouldn't get a word in otherwise, because there was no way this group would wait and let him speak before attacking. As an additional precaution, Harry blocked the floo in order to prevent surprise visitors until he was finished.
As he was getting ready to reveal himself, he had the thought that he should at least verify that these Weasleys were, in fact, guilty of the same crimes they were in his timeline, so he took time to do that. He was in shock to find out that this world's Ron was genuine, the only love potion he had been involved with were the chocolates that Harry had received from Romilda Vane in sixth year that Ron had eaten.
Harry then revealed himself and said, "Well, I'll be damned. This is the first world I've arrived in where half Weasleys were not dosing Harry with love and loyalty potions and/or conspiring with Dumbledore to help kill him and then steal his inheritance in some shape or form."
Obviously this just caused his frozen audience to become more confused. Harry said, "Okay. So it's a bit of a long story. The short of it is, I'm Harry James Potter from another world/timeline/dimension/whatever, I unwillingly became the Master of Death when I inadvertently collected all the Deathly Hallows. I tried to get rid of them, but they just kept coming back. I became the Master of Death after I gave up trying to get rid of them. Now I spend my time visiting other timelines and worlds, helping and correcting wrongs where I'm needed."
Upon seeing the recognition from the trio when he mentioned the Deathly Hallows, Harry said, "I've already absorbed the power of the Stone that's located in your snitch, Harry, Dumbledore intended for you to only retrieve it after you had made the decision sacrifice yourself and allow Riddle to kill you."
Harry's eyes widened at that and Harry nodded grimly and said, "Dumbledore knew your scar contained one of Riddle's horcruxes." At Harry's saddened and betrayed look expressed through his eyes, Harry said, "Don't worry, mate, I can remove it from you without harming you, and I know where the remaining ones are and can cleanse them without damaging them as well." Which caused Harry's eyes to visibly relax.
Turning to everyone else, Harry said, "Well, I hope I've revealed enough information that you all know I'm telling the truth." Everyone, except Harry, just looked at Harry with a flat look. So Harry said, "Fine." Then he raised his right hand and swore, "I, Harry James Potter, sometimes known as Hadrian Evan Jameson, swear on my life and magic that what I have told those present here with me is the truth as I know it. So mote it be." Then he did a wandless patronus, which was still a stag, to prove that he still had his magic, and as an additional form of identification.
Turning his attention back to the group, Harry said, "Well, everyone blink once if I can release you and you won't attempt to attack me. Otherwise, I'll just petrify you again." Seeing everyone comply, he released them, but remained on guard just in case someone decided to do something crazy.
Bill was the first to speak, "How did you get past the fidelius charm? That should have been impossible, as you haven't been told the secret."
"I can bypass any wards at any time, without detection. Also, I was told the secret in my original timeline, so even if I didn't have the ability to bypass wards, I would have still retained the secret from that, at least that's my belief." Harry answered with a shrug.
Harry cleared his throat and asked, "Am I really a horcrux and can you really remove it?"
Harry nodded and said, "I wouldn't have said so, if I couldn't do it." Harry nodded in response.
"All right. First things first, I'm going to go pop over to Gringotts and get the goblet, so you can quit planning your break-in using Bellatrix's hair. I'll be right back." said Harry, who then disappeared with a silent pop, only to reappear within five minutes, goblet in hand, much to everyone's shock and disbelief.
"All right." Harry said, "My wife is dealing with sorting through all the DEs that were in Malfoy Manor, along with chastising Voldy, but -"
Harry interrupted and sputtered, "Wife? Chastising Voldy?"
Harry looked back at Harry and blinked, then said, "I went back in time and saved Merope, fell in love with her and then we married. If anyone has the right to chastise Voldy, it's her."
Ron sputtered, "You married Voldy's mum?!"
Hermione asked, "How is there not a paradox with you and our Harry in the same room together? How is Riddle still evil if you went back in time and saved and married his mum?!"
Harry rolled his eyes and said, "I'm Master of Death, the regular time traveling rules don't apply to me. Voldy wasn't born in the world I married Merope, because I changed that time stream. Every time I change something in a time stream, it branches off into a new one."
When it appeared as if Hermione was going to start asking more rapid-fire questions, Harry hit her with a silencing spell and said, "Look, I'll gladly answer all your questions, but can we first clean up Riddle's mess?"
Hermione pursed her lips together and nodded eagerly, so Harry removed the silencing charm once again.
"All right. The first thing we're going to do is get this horcrux out of Harry and then cleanse this cup," said Harry. "Then we're going to Hogwarts to get Ravenclaw's diadem from the Room of Requirement and cleanse it. And lastly, we're going to take back Hogwarts and then the Ministry." Harry looked at his watch and said, "We should have everything complete in about two hours, three hours tops. My wife will probably have taken care of Nagini by then, as I didn't remember about her while I was at Malfoy Manor. I'm sure I'll hear about that later, too."
"How can you leave your wife to handle all those DEs and Riddle by herself, won't she need help?" Harry asked.
"Oh, trust me, my wife has spent 200 years or more with me as a joint Master of Death, she can handle herself and handle herself extremely well." Harry responded with a smirk. "You see, we share all the same powers. In fact, we still have never reached our limit, though, though, we can still feel tired and hungry. We can get hurt, but we heal extremely fast. I even caught an avada kedavra, like you would catch a ball, one time."
After opening and closing her mouth a few times, Fleur finally found her voice and said, "While we would love to hear of all of your adventures, should you choose to share them, we really should move on with our plans, if we are to be finished with this war within the timeframe you have stated."
"You are correct, ma'am." Harry said with a smile. "All right. This horcrux bit won't take but a few seconds, though, I'm going to put you to sleep, Harry, just to make sure you don't feel it." Then Harry conjured a cot and said, "Here, lay down for a moment. If your friends feel the need to hold your hand, it won't harm anything."
Harry laid down on the cot, visually nervous. As soon as he laid his head down, he was fast asleep. Harry then used the power of the Stone and pulled out the horcrux from behind Harry's scar. Next he went ahead and cleansed Helga's goblet of Riddle's taint.
Turning to Fleur, Harry asked, "Do you have any headache potion? The last Harry I did this for was a toddler and he slept it off, but I'm suspecting that this Harry could wake up with a headache, as we're not intending to wait around for him to sleep it off."
Fleur nodded and left the room to retrieve it. When she returned, Harry woke Harry up with an enervate.
Harry woke up groggily and asked "Where are my glasses? I didn't think I'd be put asleep long enough for you to take them off while I slept."
Hermione said, "Um. Harry, you are wearing your glasses." Then she looked at Harry and asked, "What's wrong with him?"
Harry said, "Oh, Harry, you just need to take your glasses off. The removal of the horcrux should have fixed your eyesight. You're lucky it was corrected for you immediately, mine didn't correct until after I slept for several hours."
Hermione looked at Harry curiously and said, "Something tells me that this was much easier for him that it was for you. How did you remove the horcrux that was in your scar?"
Harry shrugged and said, "I surrendered myself during a lull in the final battle and allowed Riddle to hit me with an avada kedavra, it killed the horcrux instead of me." Turning away to look out the window, he added, "I never knew for sure if the Dumbledore in my world knew that I would survive, but I suspected not, after I had found out that he had conspired with the Weasleys that I knew, to feed me love potions so that I would marry Ginny and and then when I died, they would inherit my vast fortune.
"As it turned out, Dumbledore died before the plans could be finalized and when I became the MoD, love potions and any other harmful and mind altering potion stopped working on me.
"I had overheard a conversation between Molly and Ginny that sent me to Gringotts, where I had found out they had been stealing from me for years. I could have punished them, but I was just so tired of fighting and betrayal at that point, so I just let it go. I did make sure they no longer had access to my vaults again, though."
He looked over his shoulder to see the shock on everyone's faces, and shrugged. "I haven't been bitter over it for a long time, I've stopped counting, but I know it's been over 200 years since it happened to me." Harry checked his watch again then said to Harry, "Fleur has a headache potion, if you feel as if you need one. I thought it was possible you may, but I couldn't be sure."
Harry smiled gratefully and said, "While it's not as painful as the headaches I would get after Riddle's visions, I do have a bit of a headache. I'd rather it was gone so I can focus on the battle." Then he took the vial from Fleur and downed it in one gulp.
Harry looked at his watch again and said, "It's not going to be as much of a battle as you think it might be, but you may see a little action. I suppose we should get a move on to Hogwarts, though, Merope should have wrapped up at Malfoy Manor by now."
Bill asked, "Do I need to alert the Order?"
Harry thought for a moment and said, "Just send word for them to be at Hogwarts in an hour. That will give us the time we need to do what needs to be done, then they can help take back the Ministry and help decide what to do about the Death Eaters we've captured."
Bill nodded and left to make a floo call, which Harry then remembered to unblock. When Bill looked at him with a raised eyebrow, Harry shrugged and said, "Hey, I didn't want to be surprised by an interruption while I was explaining myself to all of you."
Their arrival to Hogwarts was anticlimactic. Harry made easy work of the Carrow twins and the diadem was retrieved and cleansed.
The most difficult part of the whole thing was trying to assure Snape that it was now safe for him to drop his position as a spy.
Finally, when Hogwarts had been secured and the Order had arrived, Merope appeared with Voldemort in tow, dragging him behind her by the ear as he was screaming, "Salazar, woman, that hurts! Let me go this instant!"
Merope turned around and snapped, "Well, Tom, it would be rather awkward for me if I were to be dragging you around by another bit of your anatomy, I would think, so cease your whining!"
Harry just laughed while everyone else stared in shock and amazement that the mighty Dark Lord had been brought so low by a tiny wisp of a witch.
Harry greeted Merope with a kiss before turning to their audience and said, "Well, one special delivery of one now mortal Dark Lord. Where would you like us to leave him?"
A/N: Well, that's all I've got for this story. Maybe I should have actually made Dobby more prominent in this story, considering the title of the story, but they did save Dobby and the rest of the story just sort of snowballed from there.
I may be persuaded to write an additional one-shot as a sequel, but that's going to depend on the responses I get to the current content, and whatever topics are requested to be in said sequel.