xii. hey, where's your scar?

"Is it really too much to ask…?", she whispered to nobody in particular, but to everyone at the same time.

Griphook, Stella and Dudley didn't know what to say. Griphook had met time travellers before, but it was only a few who didn't travel back more than a day and of course they didn't die before traveling back in time. But even those time travellers hadn't had such a bad life. Mostly it was people that wanted more time to correct a financial mistake or save someone's life. But Harriet Potter was a whole other story.

Stella was shocked that her niece had had such a bad life. She knew that Harriet had travelled back in time, that she'd died before going back and a few things about her previous life. What she didn't know, however, was that Harriet was older than her, by almost a decade even. But even so, she hadn't expected Harriet to be the kind to marry. But seeing it like that, being famous for something you can't even remember doing anything for, and then being used as a weapon or just a saviour that does and leaves everything to others when the villain is dead. That, she could kind of see, since she's watched many movies with that storyline before. But love potions, compulsion charms, hate potion, loyalty spells, a horcrux (whatever that was supposed to be) and all that money Harriet didn't even know about...that were things that weren't exactly displayed in movies.

And Dudley...he may only be six years old, but he was way smarter than people gave him credit for. He was smart, but before they removed the blocks, or before Harriet came back in time, he just hadn't had the motivation or want to study. And even so, with his smartness, he didn't get all that great marks at school. It was more like, he could do it without problem if he wanted to, but before his life got turned around, he just didn't want to. So now, he sat in his seat at the table in Griphook's office at Gringotts Wizarding Bank and thought about what he had just heard.

He heard that people died, and that Harriet came from the future, that stood out from all the other things. Many people died, some even people that Harriet liked and was friends with. She had two best friends and married one of them, called Ron Weasley, but he turned out to be giving her love potions and cheating on her with other women. He even raped Harriet's other friend, who most likely really was her friend. The headmaster of that school, Dumble-something, turned out to be a manipulator, who only wanted Harriet as a weapon to destroy a villain.

Harriet became a teacher and got killed by a 12-year-old, apparently. Probably even while her back was turned, because from what he heard, that Voldy-villain tried to kill her about ten times and she always got away and survived. He couldn't imagine Harriet not surviving a 12-year-old's murder attempt unless her back was turned. And as a teacher, having to write really much on the board, her back was turned most of the time.

But one other thing he remembered about double as clearly as the others.

"You're older than Mum?"

Stella laughed out loud, Harriet snorted, and even Griphook had a toothy grin on his face. Dudley saw and heard this and turned red. "I mean-"

"It's okay, Dud. I don't mind", Harriet said. "But to answer your question, yes, I am older than Aunt Stella. But is that really all you remember from what I just said?"

Dudley quickly shook his head. Harriet knew that it wasn't all he remembered, but she found it funny that that was the first thing he'd asked.

"No, it wasn't. I remember...many people dying. You married and became a teacher..." And so Dudley counted up all the things he remembered, much to Stella's surprise, who hadn't expected her son to remember that much. Probably another thing the spells and blocks had prevented. They prevented him from raising to his full potential and be the best person he can be. Those spells made her Duddykins the worst any person could possibly be. Now that she thought about it, from what Harriet had told her about her previous childhood and Dudley's behaviour, she wouldn't be surprised if the Dudley from that other world killed a child five years younger than him just because he could. It also wouldn't surprise her if Vernon and her didn't believe them and done anything they could to get Dudley out of trouble.

But that time was over now. She knew that Vernon was probably a lost cause, so — when Harriet will have changed her name — they'll have to think of a way to explain the new girl there. Harriet didn't want to be Harriet anymore, so she'd need new looks as well, which will work out well with her being a metamorphmagus.

"Yeah, and I remember you saying that that Dumble-person is stalking you- hey, where's your scar?", Dudley suddenly remarked, looking right at Harriet's forehead. Harriet looked at Dudley in shock and lifted her hand slowly to touch the spot she knew her scar was. Only that there wasn't a scar anymore. She traced her forehead, but only came upon smooth skin. No cut, no scar, nothing to signalise that there ever was a scar.

"I-It's gone!", Harriet breathed out and Stella snapped out of her thoughts to look at Harriet.

"What is, Yetti?", she asked.

"My scar. It's gone! The cleansing got rid of it!" Harriet slowly started smiling, before a fully-blown grin made its way onto her face. "It's wonderful! I'm officially not the Girl-Who-Lived anymore! Even if people saw me now and thought I looked so much like my Dad, they'd never think that I'm Harriet Potter because I don't have the scar that everyone knows about!"

Stella chuckled and moved forward to hug Harriet. "That's wonderful, Harriet. But I still remember you saying that you wanted to change your name. If you don't, you'll show up as Harriet Potter at Hogwarts. And you don't want that, do you?"

Harriet nodded. "Yeah. I'm totally and utterly sick of being Harriet Potter! I still love my parents, but I don't really want to look like my father with my mother's eyes anymore. Maybe…" Harriet scrunched up her nose and concentrated really hard on a new look. It took a while, but slowly Harriet's hair turned longer, going down to her waist, and wavy instead of only going to her chest and being as unruly as ever. Adding to that it turned red. Her eyes turned a darker shade of green, which held specks of the hazel brown she'd seen on pictures of her father so often. Lastly, about a minute later, Harriet's hair got a few black highlights. Her skin turned a bit darker, too, and her cheekbones got a bit less sharp.

Then she relaxed and looked at Stella with her new look. "That's my new look. I still look like my parents, though now more like my mother, with the red hair and green eyes, but also like my father, with the black highlights in my hair and brown in my eyes. Also, I made the green in them darker, so people won't instantly associate them with my Mom. How is it, Aunt Stella?"

Stella looked at Harriet and smiled widely. "If I didn't know who you are, I'd just say that your red hair looks so beautiful with those black highlights and those eyes look so perfect on you. It all fits together perfectly. You look wonderful, sweetheart."

"It looks so cool, Yetti!", Dudley exclaimed. "But what about your name?"

"Thanks, Dudley", Harriet said smiling, before thinking of a new name.

"I already thought about first names a lot. My first name's gonna be Cynthia. I don't even really know why, other than I love that name so much. But I want more names. Maybe a second and third, too. Cynthia…Cynthia Sarah Lily. I remember the cousin of Hermione's being called Sarah, and she was always so nice to me, and I also want to keep something of my parents in my name, so Lily. Nobody's gonna think much on it. It's a common name, anyway.

But last names…I can't exactly go around as a Potter-Black. That would expose me immediately. Gaunt wouldn't be a good idea either, seeing as they descend from Salazar Slytherin. Also, I'd wake the interest of Voldemort, probably. The Hogwarts founders would be too noticeable as well. Just imagine the uproar if I get called up as Cynthia Gryffindor or something. That only leaves Peverell, really. That family died out centuries ago, so who's even gonna know about them anymore? Also, I wouldn't be lying, because the name would really show up on my family tree. The name would even give me the right to demand the Invisibility Cloak back…"

"Invisibility Cloak?", Dudley asked.

"Oh yeah. We'll buy the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It's a book full of wizarding fairy tales. There's one about the Deathly Hallows in it, but that's not actually a tale."

They heard someone clear their throat and turned to look at Griphook. "Heiress Peverell" He grinned. "You will have to fill out a form to register the name change so that it'll show up on any blood or inheritance test you take." He handed her a familiar black quill.

Harriet raised her eyebrows. "A blood quill?"

"It's a standard procedure. And they are different from the ones witches and wizards create. They work just like you know it, but it won't leave any scars on your skin."

Harriet nodded and took the quill before taking the form and reading:

Name Changing Form:

Old Name: Harriet Jamila Potter

New Name: Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell

This document officially declares the name change of Harriet Jamila Potter to Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell . The new name with show up on all official documents, including Blood and Inheritance Tests.

That was all that was on the parchment, so Harriet took the quill and quickly wrote down her new name on both of the lines for the new name.

And just like that, Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell was born, while a glass orb in the Department of Mysteries shattered into a million tiny little pieces.