Wayfaring Stranger

It had taken all of two weeks to finalize everything on my end. James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Lily Evans were all ready before then. 

It took longer for me mainly because I had to send my entire Palace in my pocket dimension. There I created an archway not unlike the veil of death that led back to this world. That archway was connected to a chamber deep in Gringotts that only the Clan Chief and I could access. I had plenty of gold and my powers over reality allowed me to create more out of thin air.

The Marauders plus Lily took that time to convince their families that they had to go on this excursion. I still didn't know how exactly the quartet had managed to do so seeing that they were firstborns and in the Marauder's cases the only children their parents had. Aside from an interesting meeting with Euphemia and Fleamont Potter where they threatened me with a painful death should any harm befall James. The other parents seemed rather dismissive and just wanted me to keep their children out of trouble. The irony was not lost to me, that I, in my physical appearance of a teenager, was being told by grown men and women to watch out for their kids as if they knew who I really was. 

In the Potters' case, they did know who I was. Dorea Potter née Black had a portrait in their home and she had apparently informed the Potters of my identity. Unsurprisingly the Potter were the most accepting of my divinity other than the Black family. Leading to the threat that Euphemia made on my life earlier even more funny to me. Though it was refreshing to see a pureblood that could face impossible odds fearlessly for the sake of their family. 

I contemplated leaving my self appointed companions for a moment before deciding against it. They humanized me in ways that I didn't even realize myself. 

This was a problem I had that I swore I would fix before starting my search for Vela. The years I had spent as a god had unfortunately addled my own thoughts. I was overconfident, it pained me to admit it but it was true. Lily had seen to it that I remembered that I was once human like them too. I had to hand it to her, despite her petite stature she could pack a punch. 

"Are you guys ready?" 

"Y-Yeah, just give us a minute." 

The Marauders huddled together to speak, I gave them their privacy and walked over to Lily. 

"Are you still sure on coming along?"

"Yes, now more than ever. Someone has to keep you boys from doing something stupid." 

"You do realize that I-"

"Are a god? Yes, as you keep on reminding me. That doesn't change the fact that I can see through that tough exterior you put out. You care about your family, as distant as she is, Vela is your blood. From all the myths and the stories in the mundane world of gods none actually care about their family. Not like you do at least." 

She did have a point. The Greek pantheon was a great example. The gods and goddesses saw their children, demigod, and godly, as nothing more than tools. They hid behind laws that they themselves created so that they wouldn't dirty their hands. 

"And how do you know that this 'tough exterior' isn't really who I am?" 

"You're taking us along when you don't need to." 

"Fair point." 

She smiled and I sighed, I had nearly lost myself in my own hubris. I needed to do better, be better, for the sake of my family in this world and any others I might find. The Marauders eventually finished their discussion and made their way over. James took the lead and nodded at me. 

"We're ready."

Lily looked like she had a question on what they had spoken about but decided against speaking about it. I summoned my trident and slashed and held it tight. Closing my eyes I pushed my senses farther than I had ever done before. I needed to cross universes after all. 

I could feel the faint traces of Vela's magic, following the trace I found the world she had jumped to. Willing a gateway into existence I opened my eye to a shimmering portal. 

"This is it guys, if you have any second thoughts about going now is the time to voice them. Once you step through you're in for the full ride." 

James jumped in without a word followed by Remus and Peter. Lily rolled her eyes at their antics. 

"Bloody Gryffindors." 

I grinned, "Need I mention that we're all technically Gryffindors?" 

"Shut up." She huffed before following the Marauders. 

I shook my head before glancing back one last time. 

'Here we go again.' 

I stepped through the portal, closing it behind me. Around me the teens had drawn their wands and were scanning the surroundings. We found ourselves in an empty street dead in the middle of the night. Quietly casting a notice-me-not spell over our group I glanced around taking in the view. Frowning once I recognized the street. 

"Privet Drive, Little Whinging. Fan-Fucking-Tastic." 

"What? Do you recognize this place?" 

"James, Lily, Follow me. Remus, Peter keep a look out for Ministry stooges, Death Eaters, and Albus Dumbledore." 

The two boys went off wands still drawn and hid on separate ends of the cul de sac. Lily and James followed me as I walked up to the infamous house. I wasn't too concerned about the DMLE showing up, the Trace was removed from everyone's wands since they were all off age. Death Eaters and Dumbledore on the other hand, were another thing. If I was right then in this world both were still an active threat to our rescue mission.

There was shouting in the house followed by a crash, I growled at the sounds before flashing ahead of Lily and James kicking the door down just as Vernon Dursley was about to stomp on a downed Harry Potter who had his arms over his head. Slamming my trident on the floor I froze the fat bastard in place before James and Lily burst through the door after me. Lily's eyes widened when she spotted Petunia. James frowned at the sight of the rotund man standing over a cowering boy. 

"Harry, it's okay. You can stand." 

It took every bit of restraint in my body to keep my temper in check. Once again, reading about it was one thing, but actually experiencing the abuse the Dursleys put Harry through was another. 

Harry slowly stood up, he looked like he did in the third movie and I sighed. This would be a lot easier to explain since he was a bit older. 

"Mum? Dad?" 

"Lily?" 

"Tuney?" 

"James Potter." 

I nearly rolled my eyes at James' impromptu addition. 

"Bu-But they said you died! This is more of your freakishness!" 

"Okay what the hell is going on here?" 

Everyone turned to Harry, who was looking back and forth between James, Lily, and my trident. I mock bowed before freezing Petunia and Dudley in place and fixing the broken door. 

"My name is Theseus, this is Lily Evans, James Potter," in a flash of light I summoned Remus and Peter who looked disoriented. "Followed by Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. I have taken it upon myself to freeze your relatives in the case they get too rowdy."

"Er- Hi?" 

"Right, first things first everyone take a seat, this shouldn't take long to explain." 

I was wrong, it took nearly four hours to explain. Harry had a lot of questions and Lily had somehow convinced me to unfreeze her alternate reality sister. Petunia had cursed out Lily before trying to tear into James and everyone else. Vernon was turning a funky shade of reddish purple and Dudley had fallen asleep. 

Turns out, Harry was due to start his third year. Which was good for us since this was the year Sirius Black broke out to hunt the other Peter Pettigrew. The younger Peter paled at the mention of that. He had nearly puked all over the carpet at the mention of his apparent betrayal of James and Lily in this world. Harry was shocked at the revelation that this Lily and James were from another reality and that James was apparently in love with a female version of Sirius and that Lily couldn't imagine herself with James. Petunia on the other hand was having a near mental break at the revelations and I had to restrain Lily and surprisingly James, when the topic of Harry's upbringing came up. 

"Blimey, Hermione is going to lose it when I tell her about this." 

"Of that I have no doubt Harry." 

"So what about you? How do you fit into all of this?"

After silencing Petunia again and avoiding the withering glare she sent my way I began my explanation of who and what I was our search for Vela and why I had intervened. 

"So you're a god?" 

"You're taking a lot easier than I thought you would." 

"Yeah, well…. I figured magic is real, so why can't alternate realities and gods be real too." 

Lily looked proud, James spoke up pulling everyone from their thoughts. "Was it really wise telling them everything? I mean I get it, he's my son or I guess this worlds me's son. But we don't know them." 

"Would you rather we let them keep abusing him?" 

James flinched at Lily's tone, Remus and Peter wisely chose to stay out of it. 

"Nevertheless, Harry will be coming with us. I can't, in good conscience, leave him here with these people. Lily, I know she may wear your sister's face. But she isn't the sister you left back in your world. She also condoned the treatment that her husband saw fit for her nephew." 

"No, I understand. As much as Tu-Petunia hated me in my world, she would never have done this to a child." 

The older Petunia looked down in shame. I sighed again before standing. 

"Harry, it would be wise to pack your things. I suspect you won't be returning to this place ever again." 

"They've locked my things in the cupboard."

"I'll help." 

I nodded at Remus, the two walked off towards the cupboard and I turned to face the Dursleys. 

"The freezing should last until we leave. Remember, I know what you did, I know who you are, and I definitely know where you live." 

Lily smacked me on the back of my head and I grumbled. 

"Lily might not be one for violence but let me remind you that Harry has every right to press charges against you. Should he wish it I can wipe your existence from this world with a thought."

"Let's just go, they're not worth it Theseus." 

I looked at Harry who just returned tucking a trunk the size of a matchbox away into his pocket. Remus nodded at me signaling that they had packed everything important. 

"If that's what you want, then so be it. Though we might need to deal with one more thing." 

"What's that?" 

"The tracking charms Dumbledore put on you." 

"WHAT?" 

"Didn't I tell you? The old man is manipulative, don't really know how manipulative he is in this world but in the last one he was dosing James over here with potions to get him to chase Lily. Don't know why he didn't just dose them both as it would have been much more effective but I take it he probably had some convoluted plot that hurts my brain to think about." 

"Th-that's, I'm not surprised. I've noticed several odd things over the years I've been to Hogwarts." 

"Let's discuss this further once we settle down. Come on, everyone grab on." 

Once everyone had a hand on my arm or each other I flashed everyone out to the clearing I had found in the other world that surprisingly existed here too. Everyone took a step back and I reached into my pocket dimension. 

In a bright flash my palace was moved to the empty space and everyone looked at it in awe. 

"You know, you'd think we wizards would have found a spell for that." 

"I think there is a spell for that Prongs." 

"Not for houses there isn't. Especially ones this big." 

"Lily's right, though I wonder if you can shrink a house and stuff it into a bag with undetectable expansion charms on it."

"This is all intriguing but can we please get inside? I'm freezing over here." 

"Sorry." James grumbled before stepping forward only to be stopped by the wards. 

"My bad, let me drop the wards, I forgot to disable them before packing." 

Everyone looked at me in various states of annoyance. I grinned innocently and beckoned for everyone to walk through. Once we were inside my palace everyone took a seat by the fireplace and warmed themselves. Harry looked around the room taking in the various decorations I had. I had decorated the place with things I had collected over the years, from celestial bronze swords I had taken from Camp Halfblood, trophies from monsters I killed, to the various paintings I had of past friends. 

"So what now?" James said as he shrugged off his pack that I didn't notice before. 

"James? Did you always have that pack?" 

"What? Oh this? Yeah… I think so?"

Everyone stood up and glared at him. "What do you mean you think so? Everyone brought their shrunken trunks, right?" At everyone's nod I turned back to James. "You don't remember bringing the pack with you?" 

"No, I- I don't." Worry crossed his face. 

"Everyone step back from the pack slowly." 

Harry turned towards us. "Stay there Harry. Someone seems to have charmed James here to carry something extra." 

Harry nodded before drawing his own wand. The pack twitched, I raised a hand stopping Lily who had begun to cast a spell at it. I stepped forward and nudged the leather pack with my trident. The pack let out a feminine yelp and I backed away sighing. 

"You have until the count of five to step out before I vaporize the bag. ONE." 

Hardly seconds later Narcissa and Bellatrix stepped out of the pack and began to smooth their disheveled appearances. Harry seemed to recognize Narcissa but thankfully he was still clueless as to Bellatrix's alternate self in this world. 

"Girls…. Mind telling me why you stowed away and how exactly you managed to do so without me noticing?" 

"No." "Andi helped us." Bellatrix and Narcissa said at the same time. 

"Is this the reason she isn't with you?" 

Bellatrix sighed. "Yes, she put a delayed charm on us that would only activate once Potter opened his pack or we entered your house." 

"Wh- How did you even know about my house?" 

"House elves of course." They looked at me as if I had asked a stupid question. 

"Never mind that," I found that pinching the bridge of my nose was slowly becoming a habit. "Why would you sneak off and follow me." 

"Well you invited this lot." 

"They invited themselves."

"Well so did we, and we have a much better reason for doing so than anything Potter could possibly whip up. Vela is family after all." 

"FAMILY?! Your family was the one that drove her away!" 

"Shut up Potter." 

I glanced over at Harry who was looking back and forth at the verbal exchange Bellatrix and James were having. Remembering the foul thing in his scar I left the two teens to vent while their friends look on and approached the younger Potter. 

"Still hard to believe that James is supposedly my father." 

"Not what you were expecting?" 

"No, er- sorry. Rather he's exactly what I expected. Brash, loud, and what I imagined I would have been like had I not grown up with my relatives." 

"What about Lily?" He turned to look at her once I mentioned her. She was frowning at the still ongoing argument between Bellatrix and James. 

"She's exactly as I'd expected too. She looks much younger than the woman in the photos I have though." 

"War will do that to you. In this world, James and Lily Potter had you pretty much right after they graduated from Hogwarts. At the same time, the war with Tom Riddle broke out and dragged everyone in." 

"It's just strange, you know?" I looked at him. "Realizing that there's so much more out there than we know." 

"Wise words from someone as young as you. Listen, I know I only briefly touched on the topic of your scar earlier, but how would you like it if I gave you a hand with your problems?" 

"That- I would like that." 

"Good, now just stand still and I'll take care of everything." 

Harry closed his eyes and stood still, I was impressed by his commitment seeing that he was also holding his breath. I focused on his scar, "Breathe Harry. This is probably going to hurt." At that he let out his breath only to scream as I began tearing the soul out of his scar. He began to fall but behind me Bellatrix and Narcissa held him up with spells. He began to shake as the final strands of Voldemort's soul left his body. 

The blackened soul shard screamed and tried to attack the room's occupants. With a thrust from my trident it exploded, evaporating into nothingness. 

"Keep holding him up, it seems dear old Dumbles has placed bindings on his magic."  

The bindings were easier to deal with. I merely had to touch them with my power and they vanished. Harry was languidly lowered to a couch that I magically pulled up. The soul extraction had knocked the poor kid out. Not to mention removing nearly half a dozen bindings on his magic. 

My dislike for Dumbledore only grew the more I learned about him. It took a lot of self control on my part to not just smite the old man on the spot. The Marauders had all retired to rooms I assigned them. Lily was exploring the house with Bellatrix and Narcissa was looking over Harry. 

They two Black sisters had begged me to let them stay, citing that since Vela was their cousin, that they had every right to be a part of the 'recovery mission'. Seeing no way out of it I reluctantly agreed to let them stay. I had also told them that their alternate selves in this world were not very well liked so they had to use charms to hide their true appearances should they want to explore. 

Narcissa didn't have a problem staying inside Bellatrix on the other hand was all for sowing chaos with the Marauders. James, Peter, and Remus insisted on going along with Harry to Hogwarts in the pretense of watching over Harry and looking for Vela there. Bellatrix had somehow convinced Lily to join her in keeping the boys out of trouble. I was tempted to join them but remembered that there was an escaped Sirius Black out there and Vela was caught in the middle of it all. So while they all went to Hogwarts, Narcissa would stay behind and read up on this world while I went out hunting for a mutt, soul shards, and a runaway teen. I felt like there was a joke somewhere in there. 

In true prankster fashion James stood firm in his stance to return to Hogwarts as himself. This only caused the rest of the Marauders to join in. Bellatrix, ever the Slytherin, was happy to hide who she was, whereas Lily also wanted to go as herself so she could 'give that old bastard a piece of her mind'. I told them to summon me when they arrived so that I could watch the hilarity ensue, they all agreed. 

Four out of five of them going as themselves saved me having to warp reality too much. I only had to forge papers for Bellatrix who was now Bella Swann, a transfer student from Ilvermorny. I laughed like a madman for a solid five minutes while she looked at me confused. I told her she'd get it eventually causing me to dodge a few stinging hexes she shot my way.