Tuesday, 3 November 1981
Merlin hid himself in his butterfly form in the folds of Harrison's blanket as a rather large man named Hagrid tucked the child into the sidecar of a motorcycle outside the main entrance of Hogwarts just after sunset. He found himself questioning the sanity of the entire wizarding world if they all blindly followed a man who'd decided leaving a toddler who could crawl wrapped up in a tiny blanket outside on a doorstep in November was a good plan. But who was he to judge, he'd happily followed a king who'd thought it was a grand idea to kill a unicorn.
After a couple hours of flying through the bitterly cold late autumn night, they landed with a roar on a perfectly groomed Muggle street where they found Dumbledore and Minerva waiting. Merlin was rather pleased to see that Minerva was still miffed by this entire plan and, unlike seemingly everyone else, wasn't happy to just follow Dumbledore blindly. She seemed more like a woman who knew how to pick her battles than someone who was ever ready to cede to the greater power. It might just do to bring her in on his plan … as soon as he actually had one.
Within minutes, Harrison, who Dumbledore was calling Harry like he'd been honoured as family by simple nature of being the one in charge, was bundled up on the front porch with a letter, as if telling someone their younger sister was dead held the same importance as the weekly milk delivery.
Merlin didn't even want to imagine the fallout if this plan were actually allowed to carry through.
He wasn't one for overstating his own power or intelligence, but he was nearly certain that a local seven-year-old could've concocted a better plan than this if given twelve minutes, half a sheet of scrap paper, and a fresh pack of crayons.
After one more whispered reassurance from Minerva that she'd always do her best to protect Harrison, the group apparated away, leaving a lightly sleeping toddler on a front step in the middle of the night. Merlin let out a huff and flew out of Harrison's blanket, only transforming into his human form when he was standing on the other side of the property line. He let his magic flow out, eyes glowing gold as he took in the information on the wards and protections surrounding the house.
There was a total of three wards.
One ill-intent barrier tied (rather poorly, if you were to ask Merlin … or anyone who'd read the table of contents of a blood warding book) to Harrison's blood, one ward to alert Dumbledore if magic was cast in the general vicinity, and a tracking charm to alert Dumbledore of when Harrison was on the property.
That was it.
None of the wards were properly anchored which worked in Merlin's favour as he made quick work of tying the ill-intent barrier to the bedrock beneath the home (despite the fact that Harrison wouldn't be staying in this home beyond the next 45 seconds, he didn't particularly feel like allowing danger to get at Lily's sister's family was a very kind thing to do), he tied the magic alert to the same stones, and attached the tracking charm to Harry's cousin, the pair would've been going to most of the same places anyways so Dumbledore wouldn't have any reason to question it. He did the same with the tracking charm Dumbledore had placed back at Hogwarts.
He then pulled out the note he'd spent the past two evenings writing, explaining the situation in the wizarding world, telling Petunia that her sister had died, and leaving contact information for who he knew to be the Potter account manager at Gringotts for if she wanted to get in contact with someone to ask more questions.
He stepped back up to the door and opened the envelope with Dumbledore's letter which had similar information to his own but quite a bit less tact and no opening for further communication, it also included a rather thinly veiled threat to keep Harrison here if they didn't want to be attacked by the people who'd killed his parents.
Merlin's opinion of Dumbledore was getting lower by the minute.
With hardly a thought, Dumbledore's letter burned to ash, carried away on the wind. Merlin carefully folded his own letter, put it into the envelope that Dumbledore had left and slid it through the mail slot. Once he heard the soft sound indicating the letter had hit the floor on the other side, he picked Harrison up, held him close to his chest, and walked back down the street. Only when he was a full block away did he turn on his heel, leaving Privet Drive for the last time, and appearing in an alley alongside Gringotts.
He checked quickly to make sure Harrison was still at least dozing before taking a deep breath and heading around the corner up to the bank's entrance. He nodded in greeting to the two goblins stationed at the doors before making his way inside. The lobby was entirely empty at this time of night so he was able to make quick work of approaching one of the tellers and asking for his own account manager … who just so happened to be the King of the Goblin Nation, Ragnok.
Within seconds he was following a runner through the bank to the office at the very end of the hall. They paused outside the gilded doors where the runner knocked, in the moments it took for the King to respond, Merlin readjusted Harrison slightly so his head was resting on his shoulder, his little king let out a contented sigh, pressing his face against Merlin's neck and tangling one of his hands into the collar of his tunic.
Merlin had never felt love quite like this.
He loved his friends deeply, he'd loved his mother and his dear mentor, Gaius, more than anything, he'd even loved his students who'd often been more like family than anything else, but this was something different entirely.
He knew without a doubt that he'd burn the world if it meant Harrison were safe, he'd fight wars to ensure his happiness.
With that thought grounding him, he stepped into the office when called and looked into the eyes of the most fearsome Goblin Warrior of the last several generations and asked for his help.
* * *
It took fifteen whole minutes for them to remove Dumbledore's binding and compulsion as well as the malignant magic in Harrison's scar.
The only real issue they'd run into was the fact that it wasn't a complete Horcrux so it couldn't be trapped and used to track any other potential soul pieces … and they were rather certain there were others because the fragment trapped in Harrison's scar was a little over 1.5% of a soul. Realizing there was no viable way to track these fragments for the time being, Merlin quickly labelled the Horcrux issue a problem for "future Merlin" and moved on to the next step in his plan.
It took about 75 more seconds for them to complete the ritual to allow Merlin to name Harrison his heir, he briefly considered doing a full blood-adoption but decided against it, not wanting to replace either of his parents and knowing that his young heir had already somehow inherited the Druidic magic that flowed through Merlin's veins without them sharing blood.
Back up in Ragnok's office, they ran a full Inheritance Test on Harrison and the results made it rather easy for them to carry on with Merlin's plan of fleeing to Camelot.
Harrison Arthur Pendragon
Common Name: Harrison James Potter
Father: James Charlus Potter
Mother: Lily Jane Potter nee. Evans
Godfather: Sirius Orion Black III
Godmother: Alice Marie Longbottom nee. Fortesque
Titles:
Crowned Prince of Camelot
Death's Chosen
Heir Apparent Emrys (Lordship Available Upon Current Lord's Death)
Heir Apparent Peverell (Lordship Dependent Upon Conditions Subsequent)
Heir Apparent Gryffindor (Lordship Dependent Upon Conditions Subsequent)
Second Heir Black
Heir Apparent Potter (Lordship Available Upon 11thBirthday per Last in Line Protocol)
"I take it that James and Lily somehow knew of his position in the Pendragon family?" Merlin asked as he studied the list of Harrison's magical abilities that followed his titles. This boy would be powerful beyond measure if given the chance to actually train these skills.
He possessed the ability of All Speak which would make it much easier for him to work with Magical Creatures and avoid any potential threats said creatures posed. But, more specifically, he'd inherited Parselmagic somewhere down the line which would be a great benefit if he wanted to learn warding. He was a natural occulmens which would incredibly useful to him as he went through his education, not to mention the fact that it would protect his mind from any who wished to intrude.
He also had an inherent talent for Necromancy that would need to be trained to prevent any accidents … Merlin didn't necessarily fancy having an army of inferni wandering about Camelot because Harrison sneezed near the graveyard. With that gift and the rather massive magical core he was working with, he'd likely have a talent for shadow magic and travel which would be an incredible boon in any sort of combat situation. This kid was going to be a force to be reckoned with, that was for absolute certain.
"I don't believe they did," Ragnok said, reading over his own copy of the test results and cutting through Merlin's whirlwind of thoughts. "I'm rather certain Lady Magic herself is responsible for the difference in his proper and common names."
"Do you happen to know if they created wills?"
"There was a list of guardians entered with the Ministry but only James created a proper will and he never filed it with the Wizengamot, only with the Bank."
"Forgive me for my lack of knowledge, but what is important about that distinction?"
"It usually means that his will is only bequeathing money and property and that there were no additional 'instructions' in it, for lack of a better phrase. It's also likely that he didn't trust the Wizengamot to carry out his last wishes. I know that the list of guardians has already been sealed so his lack of trust wasn't necessarily misplaced."
"What do we need to do for the will to be carried out?" Merlin asked, choosing to set aside the fact that the Ministry had already bungled the situation and it hadn't even been a week since the young family was attacked.
"We need the permission of the Heir or their Guardian."
"Guardian per the Ministry or Guardian per the Bank?" he asked, almost certain he knew the answer but wanting to make sure.
"Per the Bank," Ragnok confirmed, a pleased glint in his eye at Merlin's ever present ability to find the loopholes. "If you would simply ask for the will to be read, it shall be done."
"I Merlin Emrys, guardian of Harrison Arthur Pendragon, ask that the will of his father, James Charlus Potter, be read and enacted."
With a flash of blue light, a sheet of parchment appeared on Ragnok's desk.
The Last Will and Testament of James Charlus Potter was rather short and to the point, he included the same list of guardians they'd submitted to the Ministry (Sirius Orion Black III, Alice Marie and Francis Harfang Longbottom, Remus John Lupin, Minerva Ross McGonagall, or Aarav Kamal and Mira Parvati Patil) and had left vaults for Sirius Black and Remus Lupin while leaving the rest of his estate to his son, Harrison.
It only got interesting when the pair noticed the slip of parchment that had fallen out when Ragnok had broken the seal:
"If we perished while under Fidelius, our secret keeper was Peter Andrew Pettigrew."
In the brief moments he'd been able to focus on something other than Harrison in the last couple of days, Merlin had seen the papers painting Sirius Black as the betrayer of the Potters and the right hand of the Dark Lord, it seems they'd gotten it wrong … he was going to give them three months to sort their shit out before he did something stupid.
"Could you make sure that Remus Lupin gets the contents of his vault?" Merlin asked before pausing for a moment and running over everything he'd learned about Albus Dumbledore, "and when he arrives could you please scan him for compulsions and tracking charms? Take the fees for any necessary removal out of my personal vault and then pass along our contact information? I'll be placing a mail ward around Harrison but I'll be sure to include his name in the accepted senders."
"It will be done," Ragnok said with a nod. "Is there anything else I can help with today?"
"Could you please lock down all of Harrison's vaults except for the Potter Trust Vault? I believe Dumbledore somehow got the key to that one and I don't want to alert him to any of … this …" he trailed off, gesturing vaguely to himself and Harrison, "but please direct the Potter Account Manager to keep track of every transaction in that vault, down to the last knut."
"Of course," Ragnok said, grin edging on feral.
"Then I believe that is all," Merlin said after a moment's thought. Adjusting his hold on Harrison, he stood up and headed for the door, not wanting to keep Ragnok any longer than absolutely necessary, "I thank you for your time and assistance, it has been invaluable."
"As always, it was a pleasure, Lord Emrys."
"May your gold ever flow."
"And may your enemies cower in fear."
* * *
"Alright, rí beag," Merlin whispered, wrapping his arms even tighter around Harrison's sleeping form, "we're going home."
With a sharp crack, they left Diagon Alley and reappeared at the castle gates, immediately doubling the population of Camelot.
As they crossed the ward line, the glamour that Merlin had, until this point, forgotten he'd placed washed away and sleepy blue green eyes blinked awake, staring up at the castle in awe. The torches stationed around the courtyard flickered to life, glinting off the gold flecks around his pupils.
"Prince Harrison," Merlin said, voice still hardly above a whisper but echoing through the empty streets and carrying on the wind with the weight of prophecy and the gravity of fate, "welcome to Camelot."