The Boy Who Disappeared

by computerneek


Chapter 16: Family

Amelia raised an eyebrow slightly when Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy didn’t come to her office alone the following morning.  Instead, they brought with them a pretty little girl with twin royal blue stripes- that matched her robes- splitting her gleaming silver hair evenly into thirds.
It took her almost a full second to recall the image she’d seen on the document the day before, and link a name to the girl.
This was Silversong- Princess Silversong, with that long list of qualifications.
…  Silversong looked mildly disinterested, like she would rather be elsewhere.
“You asked to meet us?” Lucius began.
“Ah, yes, I did,” she answered, and surreptitiously took a deep breath, bracing herself for the inevitable arguments…  or political maneuverings.  “About your children, actually.”
“Children?” Narcissa asked, an eyebrow raised.
She nodded.  “Yes, both of them.”
She blinked.  “Oh.  Um, Silversong isn’t ours…  her parents passed away, and we took her in.”
Lucius tilted his head.  “Speaking of which, I don’t think her parents ever registered her with the Records Department, and I haven’t checked on that yet.  Is that what you were asking about?”
“Funny thing about that,” Amelia smiled.  “She is registered with the Records Department…  as your daughter.”
“Okay,” Lucius muttered, scowling.
Silversong, meanwhile, sat in a nearby chair and started examining her fingernails, looking entirely disinterested.
“At the same time,” she continued, “Draco is marked as ‘indisposed’.”
“Draco?” Silversong asked, looking up.  “Who’s that?”
She couldn’t help but notice the flash of surprise going across Narcissa’s face.
“He’s our son,” Narcissa explained.  “Your new brother.  He’s been…  I’m not exactly sure where, actually.  Something about the Americas, I think.”
Lucius looked back at Amelia.  “So, why is that…?”
“The thing is, you two are listed as both Draco’s and Silversong’s parents, and they as your children…  but Draco is not Silversong’s brother, and neither is she his sister.”
“Makes sense,” Silver mused.  “With the whole foster parents thing.”  She shrugged.  “Good to know that it’s updated, should simplify things later on.”
Amelia studied Silver’s face, but found no telltales.  “...  That discrepancy in the records usually means someone was trans, and turned themselves into a girl by some means or another,” she informed Silversong.
Silver shook her head.  “Nope, I’ve always been a girl.”
She found it interesting how Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, some of the finest nobles of the land, were easier to read than their daughter.  There was only one person she knew that was harder to read than the Malfoys- and Silversong was giving Dumbledore a run for his money.
“And the records would seem to agree,” Amelia nodded to Silversong.  “After all, you’ve got nearly eighty years of education and experience that Draco never did.”
Silver scratched the side of her head with her finger.  “I knew it’d come up sometime.”
“Oh?”
“Well, after that age reversal spell went bonkers and took me back in time too…”  She shrugged.  “I had to make something up to tell my great-grandparents.”
“Grandparents?” Narcissa asked, looking genuinely surprised.
She nodded.  “Don’t tell anyone, but Draco was my grandfather.  And I was a grandmother myself, before that spell failed so spectacularly.”
“You…  were a grandmother.”
She shrugged.  “I can only assume the timeline has been rewritten,” she answered.  “Either that, or I’ve dumped myself into an alternate universe.  In my timeline, Harry Potter grew old with Pansy Parkinson and had six kids- one of which was my mom, actually.  But I’ve seen the newspapers, and a dead man can’t have kids.”  She rubbed her chin.  “I wonder what the difference was…?”
“And Draco being ‘indisposed’?” Amelia asked.  “Usually happens a few months before they’re marked ‘deceased’, in transgender cases.”
She shrugged.  “No idea.”
“Why, then, would a time travel spell have registered you- and three others- with the Department of Records?”
She blinked.  “Three others?  Huh.  No idea…  but I came alone.  I was the only one in the entire mansion when I cast that spell.  Even my husband- a Weasley, they saved the world in my timeline- was away for the weekend.”
Amelia studied the girl’s face for a second, but it told her exactly what the girl wanted it too.  “Alright.  How about this:  Do you know why the Records Department has you listed as Princess Silversong?”
“Princess?” Narcissa asked, surprised.
Silver, meanwhile, scowled.  “Must’ve been my return attempt,” she mused.  “About the first thing I did when I realized what had happened was to try and get back, but the blasted spell didn’t seem to do anything but consume my wand.”
Amelia winced.  Only the most powerful spells could consume the wand used to cast them- and the weakest one of them was the reason time turners were so expensive and hard to come by.  “So you then went to Gringotts and inherited a vault?”
“You what?” Lucius asked Silversong.
Silver just shrugged.  “Yup.  Same one I inherited in my youth- or, first youth, I suppose.  None of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on knew about it, so I knew it would be there- and the only question was if the goblins would give it to me.”
She nodded slowly.  “Alright.  So, with eighty-odd years of experience, why are you going to Hogwarts?”
She shrugged.  “You’ll notice Hogwarts isn’t on that list,” she answered simply.  “That’s because, in my timeline, Voldemort razed it before I was born.  After he died, it was then transformed into a memorial for those that had died in the war.”  She completely ignored all three adults’ gasps at the name, and shrugged.  “As a result, I was deprived of a chance to attend the finest wizarding school in Britain.  Even CSGU- the Combined Systems General University they built next door- couldn’t compare to the legacy Hogwarts left behind.”
“Combined Systems?”
“Yeah.  It was one of the finest boarding schools in the world, to the muggles- but the magic curriculum was terrible, so I had my earlier school years at more local schools with better magic curriculums, then only went to CSGU for my postgraduate studies.”
“...  To the muggles.”
“Yeah.  It was a bit of a surprise when I found out the Statute of Secrecy is still in effect- in my world, it collapsed when the war ended in nineteen eighty five.”
“Eighty five?”
She nodded.  “Woulda taken a few more years- and Voldemort would have won- had the muggles not figured out where he lived.  Turned out they had weapons capable of decimating anything they pointed them at, magical or not.”
“...  Okay then.  How did you get an infinity power rating?”
“Infinity?” Lucius asked, alarmed.
Silversong just scowled.  “Huh.  Must’ve exceeded the capacity of the self-updating paperwork spells; nothing is truly infinite.”
“Okay,” Amelia blinked.  “I believe that answers all of my questions.  Did you have any…?”  She looked between the Malfoys.
Silence held for a few seconds, before Lucius spoke plainly.  “No, I don’t think so,” he stated.  “I believe they’ve all been answered.”
“Meanwhile,” Narcissa said, looking towards Silversong.  “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do when we get home, young lady.”
“Alright then,” Amelia smiled.  “I think we can add one more thing to your already extensive list of qualifications, Silversong.”
Silver looked up.  “Mm?”
She smiled.  “The perfect poker face.  Time or dimensional travel- no matter the source- is always permanently recorded on your files, labelling you as a time traveler or the like, and your file shows nothing of the sort.  Had I not known that, you probably would have fooled the head of the DMLE.”
Silver flinched.  “...  Sorry.”
Amelia didn’t drop the smile.  “No, don’t worry about it, Princess.  I’m sure the reality of it is even stranger than that, right?”
Silver raised an eyebrow, and nodded.  “Did you know the Malfoys are descended from Rowena Ravenclaw?  I know I didn’t.”
“...  Much stranger,” Amelia nodded.  “Unless you’ve got something else to say, I think we’re done here.”  She hoped to be in better standing with the young princess before their next conversation came about.


Narcissa hardly waited until they were walking away from the closed door of Amelia’s office before she looked at Silversong.  “Where did all that come from?”
Silver answered immediately.  “I made it up,” she answered.
“So the part about Rowena Ravenclaw…?”
“Oh, no, that was real.  I inherited her vault yesterday.  And her estate…”  She rubbed her chin with a finger.  “I haven’t yet looked at either, of course.”
“How about the last little bit…  Princess?” Lucius asked.
Silver winced.  “That was a surprise,” she answered.  “And I’d rather people didn’t know about it.  Can’t exactly live a normal childhood- even for a Malfoy- with that much power hanging over my head, can I?”


Amelia sighed as she approached the front door of the Granger home.  The Dursley home- in which the Potters lived, one past and one present- had been empty…  and now, she was fairly sure she wanted to talk to both parents and children, after Ginny, Ariel, and Silversong had been so enlightening.
…  Nevermind that about the only thing she’d learned from Silversong was that the girl didn’t trust her.  She needed to build some rapport with the others, and perhaps gain some insight or another that would help her build rapport with Silversong.
She raised her hand, and knocked on the door.
There was silence for a few seconds, before Mrs. Granger answered.  “Who is it?” she asked, even as she opened the door.
She smiled, and waved; she was wearing muggle clothing.  “Hello, Mrs. Granger, I’m Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”
The woman seemed instantly uneasy.  “So, the magic police?”
She tilted her head.  “...  Kinda, I suppose.  But I’m not here for enforcement business, just wanted to clear a few things up.  You see, a week and a half ago, a powerful magic surge blinded the spells we use to track illegal magic use for a whole day- and your daughter seems to have been caught up in it.”  She held up a calming hand.  “No, nobody is in trouble, we’re fairly certain it wasn’t any of their fault, just something that happened to them, or something.”
“So…”
She shrugged.  “I just looked over the records in the Records Department, then I wanted to ask a few questions about what happened, and make sure you’re aware of some of the more magical changes it has had.”
“...  Alright then.”  She pulled the door open- and as she did so, turned her head.  “Hermione!”
Amelia blinked, and very nearly stared into the house.  It was nice and pristine- except for little spots of heavy damage, as if someone had thrown a few blasting spells around.
The reason for the damage showed itself very quickly.  An eleven-year-old girl, wearing her Hogwarts uniform all except for the robe, darted to the door out of the kitchen, stopping in the doorway, and catching herself on the door jam as she leaned out.  “Hmm?”  Her ‘lean’ had too much energy in it, though, as a chunk of door jam tore free in her hand, and she crashed to the floor.  “Oof,” she grumbled, before tossing the chunk of wood aside and rising to her feet.  “Sorry.”  She glanced sheepishly at the new damage.
Mrs. Granger flinched, and gestured to Amelia.  “This is Amelia Bones,” she introduced.  “Head of the…  something related to magic law enforcement.”
“The Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” Amelia nodded.
“Yeah, that.  Anyways, she has a few questions for us.  Let’s try not to break her, okay?”
Hermione flinched, a flash of worry crossing her face as her hands curled nervously.  “...  Sorry.”
Mrs. Granger turned back to Amelia.  “Anyways, come on in.  I’m sure we can discuss this in the sitting room?”
“Absolutely.  Lead the way.”  She then followed Mrs. Granger into the sitting room, into which Hermione walked much more sedately.
“So,” Mrs. Granger began, once they were seated- Hermione on her own armchair by the fireplace, Amelia noticed.  She took a deep breath.  “You can call me Emma; Dan is at the practice right now.  You wanted to talk to us?”
“The practice?” Amelia asked, tilting her head.
“We’re dentists,” Emma answered.
She nodded.  “Ahh, makes sense.  Anyways, I suppose I should start at the top then, hmm?  Well, when that magic surge happened…  According to the self-updating paperwork, your daughter now has a power rating of infinity.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” Emma mused.  “I don’t think she’s had any difficulty going through anything yet, have you?”  She turned to Hermione.
Hermione winced.  “...  No, but I haven’t broken any books yet, either.”  She took a deep breath.  “And are you sure it’s infinite, and not just…  I don’t know, an error in the spell?”
She shrugged.  “That’s what we’re thinking it is, yes- but specifically, an error related to the level of your power exceeding what it can record.”
“...  Okay then.  I mean, it’s not like I didn’t see that coming, though, with…”  She took a deep breath.  “I mean, I could do magic even before Celestia gave me hers, so…”
“Celestia?” Amelia asked, eyebrows raised.
She rubbed the side of her head.  “...  Yeah.  Imagine being so weak you could barely stand…  then having a vision, in which Celestia gave me her magic…  and suddenly I look like this, and can probably lift a building if I really wanted to.”  She took a deep breath.  “Made my healing magic that much more powerful, too- before that happened, I never would’ve been able to save Dad after that beam crushed his ribcage, let alone watch him leave for work five minutes later…”
“Healing magic?”
“Yeah.  I…  I think it was something I got instead of strength.  I can heal anything with the lightest touch.  Before, it was slow, and took a minute to mend things like broken bones…  but after…”  She shuddered.  “It took hardly five seconds to heal him.”
“...  Okay then.  Do you know why Princess Celestia Solaris is listed as your magical guardian?”
“She was a princess?”
Emma looked at her too.  “Magical guardian?”
Amelia elected to answer Emma’s question first.  “Yes…  the Magical Guardian, the person we turn to to represent minors in matters of wizarding law, as different from the normal ‘parent or guardian’ for muggle law.  By wizarding law, the Magical Guardian has to be magical themselves- so for purebloods, that’s their parents; for half-bloods, it’s the magical parent; and for muggleborn…  it’s often Dumbledore for Hogwarts students, or otherwise the person that introduced them to the magical world.”
Hermione rubbed her chin.  “How would you turn to Celestia, though?  She died.  Unless there’s another Celestia…  And she never told me her last name, either.”
“...  Strange,” Amelia scowled.  Then she shook her head.  “Anyways.  I’m sure you’re already aware of the estate you inherited?”
“The what?” Emma asked.
“Yeah,” Hermione nodded.  “The goblins told me about it.  The McKinnons, it was…  Apparently, I’m their closest magical relative.  And apparently, they were rich.  Haven’t visited the house, yet- though come to think of it, the goblin did give me an address.”  She looked up at Emma.  “Maybe we could look at it sometime?”
Emma sighed, shaking her head softly.  “I knew from the beginning that you would go far,” she chuckled.  “Never expected it to be this far, nor so fast.  But sure- how about tomorrow, when the practice is closed?”
“Okay,” Hermione nodded.
Amelia smiled.  “You know, I kinda hate to burst the bubble here, but she’s already well past the McKinnons,” she mused.
Hermione looked at her.  “I am?”
She nodded.  “Yes.  Whatever that magical event was…  it made you into a princess.”
“How does that differ from being a girl?”
She blinked.  “Uh…  Royalty.  Specifically, magically speaking, you- Princess Hermione- are a member of the Wizarding Royalty…  which hasn’t existed for nearly five hundred years.  Meaning, you’ve got a senior seat in our highest ruling body waiting for you if you just ask.”  She took a deep breath.  “I would recommend against asking until you’re sure you’re ready for it, though.”
“So if she’s secretly a member of your highest ruling body…?”
She nodded.  “Wizarding law technically doesn’t apply to her, yes.  Should make the difficulty in reaching a dead Princess Celestia if something happens rather moot, but it does mean she’ll need to watch out for herself.  The moment the rest of the wizarding world finds out about it- which I’ve taken steps to delay, but we can’t hide it forever- there will be people that want her life or her power.”
“What about the others?” Hermione asked.  “Hailey, Silversong, Ariel, and Ginny?  They…  had similar visions, though with different…”  She trailed off.  “Are they princesses too?”
“You’ve already met them?” Amelia asked, surprised.
She nodded.  “We met in Diagon Alley a couple days ago.”
“...  Ahh.  And yes, they would be…”  She took a deep breath.  “Speaking of which, a couple days ago, there was a…  scene in Diagon Alley, where one of the Unforgivable Curses literally bounced off of both Ariel and Ginny.  I don’t know if the same will carry over to you, but…”
She took a deep breath.  “So, I’m a princess with limitless power and some kind of invisible shield?”
“...  I guess, yes.”
“But nobody knows about that?”
“Yes, nobody but myself, your mother, that one records clerk, and possibly the other four.”
“Then I’d like it to stay that way,” she muttered, looking up.  “Where nobody knows about it.  I…  I don’t want that much power.”
Amelia smiled.  “No worries.  And…”  She glanced around the room; there wasn’t much damage.  “You don’t happen to like reading, do you?”
“I do…?” Hermione asked, confused.
“Well, there’s a little charm they teach in the first year,” Amelia informed her.  “If I remember right, it’s in the Standard Book of Spells, Grade One.”  She drew her wand, pointed it at the nearest broken object.  “Reparo.”  The rocking chair practically sprang back into one piece, and she looked back at Hermione.  “It’s pretty hard to mess it up badly enough to have any really negative effects, and ought to be convenient while you get used to your strength.”
She blinked.  “But wouldn’t the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry…?”  She trailed off.  “I read about it this morning.”
Amelia smiled.  “Oh, that.  Except while people don’t know you’re a princess, the magic will know- and the Trace will automatically ignore anything you do, just like it does for adults.  Do try to stay within the Statute of Secrecy, though?”
“...  You mean I could cast magic all day long, and nobody would be any the wiser?”
She nodded.  “As long as it isn’t noticed by a muggle that doesn’t already know about magic,” she answered.  “As a Princess, you wouldn’t get in trouble for it…  but then the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement would know, and I can name at least a couple rats in there off the top of my head- you’d probably make the news.”
“...  So…”
“So your parents are fine, but anyone else probably isn’t.”
“...  Okay then.”