Work Text:
WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS
TIME TRAVEL
TEEN PREGNANCY/PREGNANCY OF A MINOR!
MISUNDERSTANDING OF SA, SA DOES NOT ACTUALLY HAPPEN BUT THE ADULT CHARACTERS BELIEVE IT DID AND ACT ACCORDINGLY.
MENTIONS OF DEATH AND THE AFTERLIFE, THE CHARACTER IS DEAD FOR A BIT AT THE START OF THE STORY!
TALKS OF WAR AND VIOLENCE
MORAL AMBIGUITY/REDEMPTION ARC FOR A VILLAIN
PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Hey so, as you can see from the warning above this is going to be a very different story from my normal ones, please if any of the things listed above bother you stop reading now. If there's anything I forgot to put a warning for please let me know and I WILL fix it.
If you want to continue reading please do so at your own risk, this story is inspired by "Haryana and the Determination to Make the Adults Deal with the Adult Problems" You can read it on AO3, it's honestly very different from this story just the themes are the same.
Once again, read at your own risk, onto the story.
Henrietta Heliotrope Potter, better known as Rai Potter to her friends, opened her eyes to see the ceiling of the Hogwarts hospital wing. Sitting up, she took notice of a few things.
Firstly, the hospital wing should have been in ruins after all the fighting the castle had seen not even an hour ago, but the room looked as clean and stable as ever.
Secondly, her body was much smaller than she remembered it being. A quick glance at the time showed that it was night, so she snuck out of bed to the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror to see what was happening.
She was shocked to see herself looking exactly as she did when she was eleven. Her reflection showed a petite eleven-year-old girl; her hair reached her shoulders in wild and unruly curls that went up in all directions. Her almond-shaped emerald green eyes, which shone with confusion and shock, were almost hidden behind her circular glasses.
A few freckles dusted her flushed cheeks, making her look younger than she was, though they weren't that noticeable unless you knew what to look for or looked closely.
Rai glanced down at her body and then back at the mirror in shock as she tried to process the surreal reality that was being displayed in front of her. There were three things that could be happening right now.
Option one, she was sleeping and having a very weird dream. Considering she could feel her body aching and she didn't normally feel uncomfortable sensations in her few good dreams, she didn't think this was it.
Option two was that she had been de-aged and somehow missed the end of the war and all the repairs that had to be done to the castle. She doubted it was this one, but until she could get her hands on a wand to know for sure, she couldn't be sure.
Option three, and the one she was baffled by, was how this could have happened: she had been sent back in time to her younger self's body. She was going with this one because it made the most sense at the moment, though it was still surprising and confusing to think about.
Shaking her head, she went back to the hospital bed that she had originally been in and lay back down, trying to think of how this happened.
Her eyes widened as the memory flowed back into her.
~Memory~
Henrietta was sitting on a bench holding the ugliest baby she had ever seen. She was in King's Cross, or at least the afterlife's version of the train station.
A few minutes ago, she had finished speaking with Albus Dumbledore, who explained that she could go back to her body and continue living as before. She had seen the disgusted and yet smug looks he kept shooting at the ugly baby she soon learned was Tom Riddle. Tom was lying on the floor under the bench she was now sitting on.
She acted like she was going to go back to her body and fight Voldemort, but the second Dumbledore was gone, she went over to Tom and reached out to touch him. The second her hand touched him, an unpleasant cold shock went up her arm.
She ignored the shocks of cold with long-earned practice in ignoring pain and used the sweater she had been wearing as a makeshift blanket for baby Tom and held him in her arms. She settled into the bench and stared at the ugly baby sadly before she sighed.
"You know, I never wanted to fight you. I just wanted to be a child, have fun with my friends, and be able to live my life." She glanced down when something wrapped around her finger and sent another cold shock down her arm. She smiled sadly when she saw that it was Tom who was gripping her index finger gently.
She let out a soft chuckle and smiled softly. "If I could go back, I think I would do things differently. I wouldn't listen to Dumbledore, that's for sure." She leaned back again, keeping her hold on Tom so he didn't slip from her arms, and sighed softly.
"That old man caused so much damage. I still don't know why he didn't ask Bill about your anchors. I don't know why he did things the way he did when there were other, better ways he could have done things." She stared up at the ceiling of the white room before sitting straight when she heard a train whistle.
She watched in surprise as three trains pulled into the station. One looked like the Hogwarts Express, and somehow she knew that if she got on that one, she would go back to her body and be forced to fight and kill Voldemort.
She didn't want to fight. She was so tired. As soon as she thought that, the red train let out another whistle and pulled away. She watched it leave in surprise. Guess she couldn't go back now, even if she wanted to.
Her eyes trailed over to the two trains left over. The first one was white with gold accents all over it, while the other one looked dirty and like it would fall apart any minute now.
Both trains had their doors wide open, beckoning her to enter. She stood up carefully and started walking towards the white train when the doors started closing. She stopped and stared before she glanced down at Tom. Henrietta frowned and started lowering the baby to the ground and watched as the doors opened.
It was clear that Tom could not go onto this train. Her eyes narrowed as she stood back up, Tom safely held in her arms.
She knew what she was doing. She was choosing her killer over everyone else, but as she looked down at the baby in her arms, she remembered everything he had gone through. He was like her. They were both orphans who were raised by abusive Muggles. They both went to Hogwarts hoping to find a place they belonged, both begged to be allowed to stay at the castle during the summer, and both were denied.
She didn't look at Voldemort and see an inhuman monster. No, instead, she looked at the person who used to be Tom Riddle and saw what she could have become.
This wasn't her excusing what he'd done. She knew that he did awful things and killed so many people, but she knew that if the roles were reversed, and she didn't have people who cared about her, she could have turned into a monster too.
She looked down at the tiny soul in her arms and felt determination fill her. Everyone always said that Voldemort was born evil, but she knew better. She knew that despite Dumbledore giving people second chances, he never even gave Tom a first one.
Dumbledore's treatment of Tom was clear from day one and formed the other professors', headmasters', and students' perspectives of Tom.
This meant that Tom had to quickly learn how to defend himself from other students attacking and bullying him. He had no one on his side until he managed to earn the respect of the other Slytherins, and by then it was too late. He got the mentality that he couldn't depend on anyone but himself, something he had before Hogwarts thanks to that orphanage, but which had gotten worse after coming to the old castle.
She didn't know most of his thoughts back then. She knew what Dumbledore had told her, but she had learned to take what he said with a grain of salt over the years. Anyway, Ria looked at the baby in her arms and decided to give Tom his second chance. She hoped that she wouldn't come to regret this.
She turned to the dirty train and boarded it. Seconds after she sat down, she felt tired and heard some unearthly sigh as she fell into the darkness of sleep. Even in her sleep, she kept her hold on the baby in her arms. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the past.
~Present time~
Henrietta's eyes widened as she finally remembered what happened, and she sat up in shock. She really was in the past. Where was Tom? Had he rejoined with his past self too? It made sense for that to happen, and she hoped that she didn't doom the world.
The next few days she pretended that nothing was wrong. Hermione and Ron could tell something had happened, but they put it down to their adventure. The two were getting a bit annoyed about Henrietta being so jumpy and flinchy but tried not to show it.
Neville had tried to find out if she was okay and clearly didn't believe her when she said she was.
Soon enough she was back at the Dursleys' and being worked to the bone. Things were going the same way they did last time, though for some reason she kept getting sick and felt very tired.
She hadn't noticed her aunt looking at her in suspicion and a hint of concern. She was confused when her aunt came into the room she used one day and shoved some weird white sticks into her hand.
"What are these for?" Henrietta asked, clearly confused.
Her Aunt Petunia huffed, "Just do as I say, and I'll tell you what they're for later."
Henrietta looked at her, confused, but did as she was told. She knew for a fact that this didn't happen last time. Maybe it was because she's been sick this time around.
She awkwardly held the sticks in her hand as she opened the door and told her aunt she was done.
Ria watched in confusion as her aunt took the sticks from her and set them on the bathroom counter before letting Ria wash her hands. Aunt Petunia stood there silently, staring at the sticks for a few minutes. Ria didn't know what to do, so she just awkwardly stood next to her and watched as each stick got two lines on them.
She glanced up at Petunia, confused, and saw her close her eyes, sadness and anger filling her face before she looked at Ria and spoke.
"You're pregnant."
She glanced up at Petunia, confused, and saw her close her eyes, sadness and anger filling her face before she looked at Ria and spoke.
"Do you know what these are, Henrietta?" Ria's eyes widened. Her aunt never used her name—she was always "Girl," "Freak," or "Potter" to the Dursleys.
She slowly shook her head no in response to her aunt's question.
"I figured as much. These are pregnancy tests. I didn't want to think—"
Ria stood in shock as she stared at her aunt. She couldn't hear anything; all she could hear were her thoughts. Pregnant? How did this happen? This hadn't happened last time.
Wait, Tom—was that where he ended up? Holy shit, she couldn't believe this. What was she going to do? She started breathing heavily, and her aunt noticed Ria starting to panic. Quickly, Petunia bent down and put her hands on her niece's shoulders.
"Henrietta, Henrietta, listen to me—you need to breathe. Follow my breathing, girl." Ria tried to follow the deep, slow breathing her aunt was doing. Eventually, she calmed down enough, shocked when she was pulled into a hug by her aunt, who seemed just as upset as Ria was about this.
"I swear to you, if I had known what would happen to you at that freaky school, I would have done more to keep you from it." Petunia's voice was choked with emotion, and Ria finally realized what her aunt thought had happened.
It wasn't like she could correct her aunt either, so she slowly wrapped her own arms around her, feeling her bony shoulder blades, and let herself cry.
She didn't see or hear Vernon stand in the doorway, his face furious when he saw the tests on the counter and thought the same thing as his wife.
Yes, they hated the girl, they worked her to the bone, but this was too far. Neither of the adult Dursleys ever wanted this to happen to her, especially not when she was a child.
Vernon stomped away, feeling angrier than he ever remembered feeling before, as he went to the room he and his wife shared. He knew she kept some of her sister's things in a box in their closet. He never said anything, as he knew that despite everything, his wife still loved her sister.
He grabbed the box that was hidden in the back of the closet before setting it on their bed. He looked up when Petunia walked in.
"We're going to go through this box and see if there's anything in here that can keep that girl from going back to that school," Vernon snarled.
Petunia nodded, eyes filling with determination. "I've been avoiding this for far too long, and it might have cost my niece something she can never regain. I might hate her, but this... this is unacceptable."
Vernon and Petunia spent the rest of the day going through the box. They only stopped to get some dinner. They made sure that Henrietta had plenty to eat—the two would no longer starve her. Yes, it was out of guilt that they hadn't been able to stop what happened to her from happening, but they also knew that the girl would refuse to get rid of the baby.
They could try to force the issue, but the two knew she would most likely run away into the magical world, the world that hurt her, if they pushed. They didn't know who did this to her, so they couldn't risk her running off and getting kidnapped by the monster that harmed her.
Dudley was obviously confused, and so was Henrietta, but the two adults didn't say anything and sent the two off to their rooms not long after dinner. As soon as Petunia finished washing the dishes, she went back to her and Vernon's room and finished going through the box. She was starting to despair at finding a way to keep Henrietta from the magical world when she found it—her sister's diary.
She opened it up and started to read. She read long into the night and was beginning to think there wasn't anything in there that could help when she came across something surprising.
James Potter couldn't have children. Her eyes widened, and she started paying more attention to the words in the book. According to her sister's diary, James had been hit with a curse that rendered him sterile, so the two agreed that Lily would go to the Muggle world and sleep with a man who looked enough like James to get pregnant.
Petunia couldn't believe it when she read the name of the true father of her niece, but she knew she had finally found what she was looking for, and she could barely contain her cheer.
She knew that a lot of people claimed that their children belonged to this man, but she also knew that this man had DNA tests done on every claim brought to his attention. She laid down to get some sleep, knowing that tomorrow she would be packing. She would take Henrietta to New York to meet her father for the first time.
She knew Vernon had to work, so she and Henrietta would go alone to meet her father—Tony Stark.