Harry's Second Chance

Harry stopped briefly at Grimmauld Place, where Hermione, Dobby, and Winky were waiting for him. "You scouted everyplace?" Harry asked Dobby.

"Yes, sir," Dobby said. "Miss has the list."

"Are you ready, Miss?" Harry asked, trying to lighten his mood.

"I finished the potions Snape started," Hermione said, trying to hide her own nerves, for she had been worried about the duel and hadn't attnded. "I think you'll be pleased."

"I know I will be, since this was your idea. Let's go then." Harry touched the first old sock he had made into a portkey, and the pair was gone. Dobby and Winky disappeared a few moments later.

Harry and Hermione appeared in an empty alley in Pompeii. Hermione pulled the extra-powerful time-turner Winky had taken from the Department of Mysteries over them, and they went back two days in time. Then Harry activated the next port key. At each new destination, they would go back two days in time, a safe-limit on the device for multiple use. From Pompeii they went to a ruined temple, usually off-limits to tourists, in Egypt. From there, they went to a deserted beach in Yemen, then to one in the desert of the Iranian/Afghani border, then to a forest in eastern India, then one in Laos, then another forest in Indonesia, and finally to the Grangers' in Perth, putting them some 16 days behind time.

After greeting the Grangers, they retired to a small suite located in an extension to the house, where they took a series of potions. The first set were partially based on human growth hormone, a substance unknown to the magical world until Hermione had made it known to Snape, and some heavy-duty nutritional potions. Harry grew to become six foot even and added thirty pounds of muscle mass over the next three days. Hermione grew to be five foot seven, added ten pounds of muscle, and to Harry's delight (and her dismay) went from a b-cup to a dd.

Using his limited metamorph abilities, Harry was able to change his hair color (to dark brown) and eyes (to a brilliant blue, nearly as startling as his green eyes were) and managed to move his scar from his forehead to the top of his head where it was completely hidden. Harry's eyesight had already magically improved due to his power, so he could do without glasses in his new identity, and merely don glasses with plain safety glass when he wanted to become Harry again.

Harry finished changing Hermione's teeth (and doing a perfect job, much to the dismay of her parents, who realized that most of their skills were useless in the magical world). Hermione also had her now-huge mop of wild bushy hair cut very short and slightly straightened at a Muggle hair salon. Still, they also took another set of potions which would slightly change their features. After a few days rest from all the changes, they would be off to California, again using the time-turner, although for one-day jumps. In the end, they would end up in San Francisco on July 31, a pair of orphans of mixed heritage from Britain, just coming out of their O.W.L.s. Their faked records would not need to directly follow them, as they would be tested on the American equivalents.

The magical world of Western Europe, especially Britain, was in an uproar. The threat of Tom Riddle/Voldemort was over, but Harry Potter's last words were still stinging many as they pondered them.

Most would let the words slip past them -- although it took some time for that to occur for many. For others, especially for the incoming Fourth years at Hogwarts, Harry's speech were words they meant to live by.

The California School was an excellent school, and was also considered to be the most liberal school of Magics in the world. The faculty was meeting for the first time since the end of the school year in late June, and discussing the incoming students.

"Finally," the Principal, Peter Bredon, said, "we have two new Juniors, transfers from Hogwarts. They are childhood friends, and at least for now, I'm sure, something more. Barry Green is a first generation Magic user on one side and mixed on the other, just like his girlfriend, Jane Seymore. She is from a more mixed background on both sides, several magical users in her family but not her parents." 'Squib' was a politically incorrect term, and the condition was talked around. "Their parents were friends and they were all attacked and murdered some time ago by followers of that Dark Sorcerer who was killed yesterday. I asked if they were going to stay here, and they said they didn't want to go back to a place where blood might still matter more to many than ability."

The whole staff shook their heads at European backwardness.

"Anyway, their parents all died in the same attack. Mister Green's uncle -- his mother's brother -- and Ms Seymore's aunt -- her father's sister -- are married and but have moved in Western Australia. While the students had considered attending one of the Aussie schools, they received permission to come here instead."

Convinced, as most faculty are, of the superiority of their school, this made sense to everyone.

"Their records were destroyed in shipment, something about that Voodoo cartel attacking the wrong shipment, but as they're coming in as Juniors, that hardly matters, since they had to take the Standard Magical Exams for placement in any event." These were of course similar in content to the O.W.L. To pass a subject, a student had to have at least a 70 on the relevant SME. To continue the basic subject, a student needed an 80. To take the Honors Level, a student had to have a 90.

Bredon picked up Barry's file. "Since they are from another country, we asked them to take the remedial 'Mundane Living' course. They actually asked to be tested in all our subjects, magical and Mundane both. Mister Green did fairly well to brilliantly in most of his magical areas, not terribly well in most of the Mundane. He scored 75 in Arithmancy, 87 in Astronomy, 90 in Care of Creatures, 100 plus in Charms, 100 plus in Defense -- he nearly managed a corporeal Patronus! -- 75 in Divination, 90 in Herbology, 84 in History of Magic, 90 in Mundane Living, 99 in Potions, 96 in Runes and Magical Languages, and 100 in Transfiguration. As for the Mundane, well, he easily passed multiple languages. He scored 75 in Maths, 72 in Mundane History, 75 in Science, and an 87 in Writing. He will be taking Honors Charms, Defense, Herbology, Potions, Runes and Languages, and Transfiguration. He'll also be taking Remedial Mundane Living for a year, just to get used to America, plus the Remedial Maths, in case he wants to go on to a Mundane University. He'll also be in the Junior Literature class. Oh, he easily passed his broom and apparation exams." Limited apparation in North America was allowed for those between 16 and 18.

"Impressive young man, I take it," one of the instructors said.

"He is," Principle Bredon agreed. "Ms Seymore is even more so, academically. She scored a 100 plus in Arithmancy, 99 in Astronomy, 100 in Care of Creatures, 100 plus Charms, 100 in Defense, an 81 Divination, 96 in Herbology, a 90 in History of Magic, 96 in Mundane Living, 100 plus in Potions, 99 Runes and Magical Languages, and 100 plus in Transfiguration. She has the Minor Gift in Languages, and scored 90 in Maths, 87 in Mundane History, 90 in Science, and a 99 in Writing. She just managed to pass her broom test, and did well enough on apparation." He smiled. "It was quite a battle to get her to only take ten courses. In the end, she'll be taking Arithmancy, Astronomy, Charms, Defense, Herbology, Potions, Runes and Magical Languages, Transfiguration, Physics, Calculus, and Junior Literature. She'll also audit the Remedial Mundane Living for the fall term."

One of the younger witches, an Arithmancer, picked up their photos. "Good thing they're already a couple. Otherwise, they might break a few hearts."

One of the more matronly, elderly witches demanded, "If you talked to them since the duel yesterday, I take it they are not in Australia? Are these two young people wandering about unescorted and unchaperoned?"

"Oh, no, Emily," Bredon assured her. "They spent two weeks at the Ponderosa." This was a magical 'dude ranch', where the students rode horses and acquired other old-fashioned or Mundane skills, including how to drive a car. Harry and Hermione, or Barry and Jane, would have an air-tight alibi for the time of the magical duel, plus they were meeting a number of their fellow students as well as other students from all over North America. "Right now, they're with that tour of the west that Salem organized for its students."

"Oh," the witch said, "never mind."

The California School did not believe in Houses, or open dorms with rows of beds. Their dormitories were high towers, although not nearly as high as the neighboring redwoods. Unlike Hogwarts, which had seven years of instruction for ages 11 through 18, the California School had three neighboring campuses, with some recreational areas (playing and flying fields, a large swimming pool, etc.) in common, and the central campus had libraries, classrooms, laboratories, etc.

The South Campus had four years of classes for ages 10 - 14. The first year was mostly basic academic courses for the first term, although they would be given training wands in the second term and taught basic wand movements and fundamental concepts of magic. The next three years covered much the same material as the first three years at Hogwarts plus some Muggle subjects. These students lived two to a room.

The North Campus also had four years of classes, ages 15 - 18, roughly corresponding with the Fourth through Seventh years at Hogwarts. The Fourth and Fifth year students also lived two to a room, the Sixth and Seventh years lived in single rooms.

The West Campus held faculty and staff housing. The East Campus was for older students, as the School offered advanced training in several areas. These students usually lived in singles, although there were some larger rooms for couples.

Into this more boisterous environment, Barry and Jane found that they could thrive, although it took several weeks before they could easily find locations where they could pursue their intimacy. They wished they could have easily reproduced the Marauders' Map, but that was a complicated piece of magic, which required many hours of scouting. It had taken the four Marauders more than a full school year to produce it.

Barry was fairly popular with the flyers, and he proved to be a decent Quodpot player and a fantastic flyer and broom racer, using a brand new Devil he had brought with him from Australia. He claimed, however, that Quidditch had always bored him, as the catching of the Golden Snitch ruined any real strategy. A few disliked him because it was clear that he and the very well-built and smart Jane Seymore were a solid couple. He was also not popular that academic year when he cleaned up betting on the Triwizard Tournament being held over in Britain, correctly predicting the tasks would be grabbing a clue from a dragon, confronting the merpeople under the lake at Hogwarts, and a maze, not to mention correctly betting that Cedric Diggory would emerge as the champion, when most of the money had been on Viktor Krum, with some of the boys also succumbing to Fleur Delacour's charms, and some of the feminists feeling that they should back her on principle.

Jane's beauty and brains generated some jealousy in the female dorms, but her solid relationship with Barry at least assured them that she would not go after any of their boyfriends. Both of the new students' dueling skills also insured some respect, although Harry kept his abilities as Barry toned down to just enough to win the tough matches without showing off too much.

Dumbledore had also arranged a triple-blind magical mail drop. Harry and Hermione received mail from Sirius, Remus, Tonks, the Dumbledores, and the Fourth year students (Moody refused to write, citing security reasons even though he had partially designed the system, although he often added long postscripts to Remus' letters 'Since you're ignoring security anyway'). Obviously, their letters back were very circumspect, especially to the students. Only Dumbledore, Remus, Sirius, and Snape knew they were not Fourth years and even what continent they were living on, and only Dumbledore knew they had been advanced to their Sixth year, not Fifth. They did promise to stop by the Burrow in 1998. The only other person in on most of the deception besides Dumbledore, the Grangers, Dobby, and Winky (the elves were working at Hogwarts again for the time being) was Principal Bredon and two people in San Francisco.

Harry was amused ro learn that Ron managed to get up enough courage to ask Lavender to the Yule Ball, while Neville had asked Ginny. Viktor had asked Susan before anyone else could, including Ron or Neville.

At the California School, there were six dances for the 'Freshmen' through Seniors -- three informal dances (two in the fall and one in the spring), two semi-formal (a Yule Ball the Saturday before the Christmas Break started and the other the first dance of the spring, on the Saturday nearest to Valentine's Day). The final dance, held with some of the older students, was a formal Prom.

Many of the teen girls sighed as they saw how Barry and Jane danced together. They weren't the best dancers (although they were fairly good), but they were the most obviously in love.

One thing that those few in school who noticed wondered was where the pair was allowed to go one Sunday morning per month. The answer was to the small wizarding community outside of San Francisco, where they visited a late middle-aged looking couple, alleged refugees from Europe. They had also used a time-turner to show up in their new home a week before the duel in Britain. Using the name of Nick and Pam Fleming, the Flamels (who had had enough elixir over the centuries to insure they had at least a normal wizarding life-time to look forward to) were raising a loving infant 'granddaughter', with the typical California name of Star Lilac Fleming, who would not know she was the missing daughter of Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Black-Lestrange until she turned sixteen.

The pair spent their entire Christmas and summer breaks in Perth, making up for the previous summer, when they had stayed in Britain the entire time until their escape. The Grangers' Muggle friends and family were surprised to see how much Harry and Hermione had grown (Harry did change his eyes and hair back, while Hermione had taken a potion which had grown her hair out). None of the neighbors knew what Harry and Hermione had really looked like to see the other differences.

They did have three visitors towards the end of the summer: Sirius, Remus, and Tonks, now Dora Lupin. The British magical world was still reeling from the confrontation with Voldemort. The anti-Pure-Blood factions were placing all the blame for Voldemort on the traditional, pro-Pure-Blood agenda and the 'old- wizard' network that ran the Ministry. The Pure-Blood factions, led by the returned Lucius Malfoy, were trying to blame the whole mess on being duped by a devious Half-Blood and demanding legislation to restrict Half-bloods.

While Harry and Hermione had not had the entire inside story on British politics before, they had come back to Australia fairly well prepared. By the time the trio returned to Britain, they had a long statement signed by Harry condemning both sides (although more-so the Pure-Bloods) and pointing out that both sides were being unfair to the Muggle-born and those of mixed ancestry (such as those with part-giant or part-veela ancestry), and aligning Harry firmly with the pro-reform movements which were operating in most of the Ministries outside of Europe.

'Barry' graduated with High Honors. He achieved his Advanced Magical Certificate in all his subjects (Honors Charms, Defense, Herbology, Potions, Runes and Languages, and Transfiguration), and took High Honors in all but Herbology. He also did well in his two mundane subjects. 'Jane' did even better. They stayed at the California School an extra two years, receiving Masters of Magic Certificates ('Barry' in Charms, Defense, and Transfiguration; 'Jane' in Arithmancy, Charms, Defense, and Transfiguration). 'Barry' also received an Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts from the California Community College associated with the School, while Jane received her two ADs in Mathematics and General Science.

They had decided to go to University in Australia, where the academic year would start in January. 'Jane' would be studying Physics, 'Barry' Accounting, although he quickly turned to Anthropology. They would, however, first visit Hermione's parents in Perth, where they would formally be married under their real names (they would be married under their assumed names in Las Vegas just before they left). They would then go on to Britain as Harry and Hermione.

Thus started the dual lives of Harry and Hermione Potter. They ended up living most of their lives in New Zealand, although Hermione had earned MS and a PhD in Mathematics from UCLA, and Harry his MA in Cultural Anthropology. Under their assumed names, Hermione taught at a Muggle University in Christchurch and became an authority on Arithmetical theory, while Harry played househusband and did most of the raising of their three sons.

Hermione never returned to Britain again after their brief trip in 1998, but Harry made frequent trips, usually spending 60-90 days there after 2001. It would take most of the century for Britain to catch up with the rest of the magical world in terms of its policies and social concerns, but while always lagging behind, by the end of the century the British were at least in the same general area as the rest of the magical world. In the end, while Harry did gain the credit for being the inspiration for the reform movement, most of the credit for the actual work went to Draco Malfoy (Minister from 2046-2103) and Percy and Ron Weasley.

Harry never had to face down a would-be Dark Lord on his own again. He did join in with others in law enforcement groups in putting down three Dark movements over the years.

Just before the year 2200, as Harry's long life drew to an end, surrounded by his grandchildren and their children and descendants, and the descendants of his god daughter Star (who had never taken up her Dark heritage, or told her children about it), he reflected that his life had been worth living, and living over in part, despite the traumas. He would and rejoin his friends and loved ones, especially Hermione, Sirius, Remus, and Luna, and perhaps, in the next great adventure, even get to know his parents.