Lightning Strikes Twice (Harry Potter)(Time Travel)

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Heh, a couple people guessed this one :P

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Anything at all. Harry could do an awful lot with ‘anything at all’, but first and foremost he needed to know exactly who he was dealing with.

“There’s certainly something you personally could do for me, Head Unspeakable. If you would be willing to unmask, that could go a long way to helping me trust you more.”

The Head Unspeakable tilts their head to the side at that.

“Oh? You wish to know my identity?”

Harry smiles apologetically.

“You might have decided to trust me but seeing as you’re aware I come from a doomed future, you have to understand how it might be difficult for me to trust someone who keeps their identity a secret from me. I also have an offer for you, but I would be foolish to give it to someone I don’t know… intimately.”

There’s a brief pause and then a chuckle emits from the Head Unspeakable’s hood. Finally, they nod.

“Intimately. Of course.”

Harry watches as the Head Unspeakable stands, their hands running along the magically sealed seam of their robes for a moment before it begins to come undone. Finally, they pull their hood back and robes off and set them on the desk next to… her. As the adult witch sits back down in her chair, dressed in simple but serviceable officewear, she graces him with an amused smile, Harry can’t help but stare in disbelief.

Andromeda Tonks nee Black stares back at him curiously, her smile growing a little.

“Judging by your reaction, you truly didn’t know who I was. I suppose we weren’t close in the future that will never happen?”

Pulled from his stupor, Harry slowly shakes his head.

“No, I didn’t. And yes, we actually were.”

That gets a furrowed brow from Andromeda, who tilts her head to the side.

“Oh? Well, the life of an Unspeakable is one of sacrifice. The Head Unspeakable even more so. Still, once things began getting dire, one would think I would have revealed myself to you if we knew each other… I’d privately held out hope that I may have been the one to help you with this time travel of yours, truth be told.”

Harry is having a hard time wrapping his head around this. Maybe it’s a consequence of being from the future and knowing so much about everyone around him. The amount of times that Harry hasn’t really known somebody inside and out have been next to none, or featured women he hadn’t been very close to in the original timeline such as Amelia. But Amelia had died before Voldemort’s second defeat. Andromeda…

It hits him then what must have happened and before he knows it, he’s blurting out his realization.

“You retired.”

Andromeda raises a single eyebrow at that.

“I retired?”

Yes, he’s starting to put the pieces together now.

“The first time around, I didn’t defeat Voldemort quite so early. There were losses. Among them were… Nymphadora and her husband. After the Second War, you took custody of your grandson, who was also my godson. We weren’t close before that, but we grew much closer than. However… I think you probably retired around that time. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Andromeda slowly blinks, clearly having to process the death of her daughter for a moment before getting to the rest of what Harry had just said. Finally, she nods.

“… Yes, I imagine that would make sense. Living a double life as Head Unspeakable as well as Andromeda Tonks the Solicitor is difficult enough, but if Nymphadora died and left behind a child… well, I could certainly see myself hanging up the robes to focus more on my personal life. Hm, I wonder who I would have had take over for me…”

Harry didn’t know, but he did know they were far less competent than the woman sitting across from him. That said, he was still struggling to process this revelation. Andromeda Tonks was sitting behind the Head Unspeakable’s desk, in the Head Unspeakable’s office. Andromeda Tonks was the Head Unspeakable.

This was, to say the least, blowing his mind.

“Still, whenever things started getting bad, I would have thought I would have maybe told you then. Unless I grew addled in my old age or something.”

The adult wizard grimaces at that, because no… Andromeda hadn’t grown ‘addled in her old age’. Frankly, even now she was quite the beautiful woman, showing no signs of advanced aging, just like most witches at her age. In the end…

“You were the canary in the coal mine.”

Andromeda’s eyes widen slightly at that, her breath hitching.

“Oh. I see.”

Harry nods, wincing as he thinks back.

“Your death… it didn’t make any sense at the time. Teddy, your grandson, couldn’t believe you were gone so soon and neither could I. In the end, I found myself investigating and from there everything else started to fall into place even as it unraveled at the exact same time. You were one of the first casualties of the loss of magic.”

To think all this time, the Head Unspeakable had been someone Harry knew and he hadn’t even known it. It was a chilling reminder that his foreknowledge didn’t make him omniscient, but at the same time… it was good. This was good. Andromeda was someone Harry trusted wholeheartedly in spite of him never learning this about her. She was a good woman with a good heart.

“I suppose you’ll want to complete the set now, hm? Shall we get the binding over with now?”

Harry’s thoughts stutter to a stop and he blinks owlishly at Andromeda for a long moment. Complete the set. Binding. She knew. How the hell did she know?!

“You know about all of that?”

His incredulous tone causes Andromeda to laugh lightly. Honestly, he was starting to think he needed to revise his earlier assessment of the Department of Mysteries. Maybe he was the one who was wrong about just what the Unspeakables did here! Maybe some of them they were less researchers and more special agents than he’d ever known?!

“Did I know that Bella was out of Azkaban? Yes, I’ve known for years that she was missing. Only recently did I manage to put two and two together though. Admittedly, you haven’t been entirely subtle in your movements Chief Warlock. You and Cissy’s little game was done well enough to fool most people, but I know Narcissa… she’s not a leader, she’s a follower plain and simple.”

Leaning forward, Andromeda smirks as she steeples her fingers together.

“From there, it was simply a matter of hearing a rumor through the grapevine about something called a ‘Wizard’s Coven’. And then it all started to make sense. The pieces fell into place. If you don’t mind confirming it for me… Voldemort was not in fact the one who stripped Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy of their magic, was he?”

A rumor through the grapevine. No, that was seriously downplaying things unless Harry had far worse problems on his hands. Either everyone important knew far too much about him… or Andromeda Tonks was singularly informed and perhaps the greatest spymistress he’d ever interacted with.

… Harry was going to choose to believe it was the latter option, purely for his own sanity and peace of mind at this point. Chuckling softly, he shakes his head and gives Andromeda the confirmation she’s looking for.

“No… he was not.”

Smiling victoriously, Andromeda leans back in her chair.

“Admittedly, that was the last piece of somewhat shaky ground. It was a hunch I had, but I didn’t know for sure until right now. Still, it makes it all make sense, doesn’t it? I won’t bother asking after Bella. Years of good behavior have made it clear you have her on a short leash. And I don’t need to know the details of your deal with Narcissa either.”

She pauses for a brief moment before looking at him intensely.

“However, for the sake of trust between us, I assume I cannot now leave this room alive without having my magic bound to yours. This is something I’m willing to do despite the level of… intimacy required. I assume that was the ‘offer’ you were going to make me if I turned out to be a witch?”

… It was. Andromeda was making it sound so much worse than it actually was. Sure, she knew way more about him than Harry expected… perhaps more than anyone at this point, even Amelia. And yet, at the same time… this was Andromeda. Harry would never demand such a thing from her. Especially since…

“You’re a married woman, Mrs. Tonks.”

At the reminder, Andromeda blinks… and then lets out a light little laugh.

“Oh? Is that a hang-up for you, Mister Potter?”

Flushing a little bit, Harry rolls his eyes.

“When the husband is a good man? Yes.”

He hadn’t given much thought towards men like Rodolphus and Lucius because… well, they were the scum of the earth. However, Andromeda was happily married to Edward ‘Ted’ Tonks. And while the man had died to Voldemort’s Snatchers in the original timeline, that hadn’t happened here. Ted Tonks was still very much alive and well.”

Chuckling, Andromeda shakes her head.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know about that… my marriage to Edward is a sham.”

Wait, what?

“We like each other well enough and are quite close friends, but there’s no romantic spark there. Edward is, in fact, an Unspeakable, just like me. Always has been. We were actually both recruited in our last years at Hogwarts.”

Here, Andromeda shrugs.

“Now admittedly, I still have nothing against muggleborns and absolutely no use for the nonsense surrounding blood purity. I saw an opportunity to divorce myself from my bigoted family and took it. By taking up with Edward and eventually marrying him, I got myself disowned. It made it all the easier for him and me to live a double life. Married couple ostracized by day, Unspeakables by night. While I regret losing the relationships with my sisters, it was better that than having to put up with their snooping when they inevitably noticed I wasn’t as close to them as before thanks to my work.”

… Alright. It was official. Harry was wrong. The Unspeakables, or at least some of them, were not just researchers. Some of them really were secret agents from the sound of things. For fuck’s sake. Even still…

“You two had a daughter.”

Andromeda’s face etches itself into a fond smile at that.

“Yes. Edward and I both love Nymphadora with all our hearts as her father and mother. But her conception… well, Edward doesn’t swing my way I’m afraid. As such, we used certain magical aids to inseminate me with his semen. We’ve never actually shared a bed in the romantic sense.”

Tonks’ father was gay?! Truthfully, after everything else he’s learned, that shouldn’t be that surprising Harry supposed. Suddenly though, Andromeda does look a little less certain.

“… I would ask that you keep the truth of our nature to yourself if it pleases you though, Chief Warlock. Unless there is some earth-shattering reason that Nymphadora needs to know our marriage was a sham, it would be better for her to remain blissfully unaware. Please.”

That… on the one hand, part of Harry wanted to fight for Tonks’ right to know. But on the other hand, he couldn’t really say what purpose it would serve to blow apart her entire understanding of her life. He didn’t doubt Andromeda when she said that her and Ted loved Tonks with all of their hearts, so finding out they didn’t love each other… well, Harry liked to think Tonks would be able to get past it in time, but she would definitely feel betrayed at first.

… In the end, it wasn’t his secret to tell.

“I won’t tell her, but I do think you should tell her yourself. She might be upset initially, but I really don’t think she’ll be mad for very long.”

Andromeda hums.

“Telling her would necessitate revealing mine and Edward’s nature as Head Unspeakable and Unspeakable respectively as well. Maybe once we’ve retired. But for now, enough about that. Shall we move onto the binding?”

Harry snorts, a little amused by how convinced she seems to be that there’s no other way to make him truly trust her. And maybe if this were back near the start of his time travel, he would feel the same way. But now…

“I could bind your magic to my own, but it wouldn’t be for my sake. Not at this point. When I called it an ‘offer’ I wanted to make to you earlier, I wasn’t lying.”

Andromeda furrows her brow in confusion at that.

“You managed to figure out what happened to Lucius and Rodolphus, but it seems to me you don’t realize what truly happened to Voldemort and all his followers. Voldemort did not in fact drain his followers of their magic to try and defeat me. I drained them all dry using him as a conduit.”

“Of course… I don’t know how I didn’t make that connection.”

Harry is glad she didn’t. It proves she’s still fucking human and capable of missing things. With everything else that she’s dropped on him at this point, he needs the reassurance. Unless… that’s just what she wants him to thin- no. Harry wasn’t going down that rabbit hole. Shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts, he looks the Head Unspeakable in the eye.

“I don’t need your magic and I don’t need your submission to be able to trust you, Andromeda. But if you wish to submit to being bound to me, I can offer you power in return. More power than any other living witch or wizard not bound to me can call upon. Even if you were to draw upwards of ten magic users worth from me, I would still have the power of over fifty left for myself.”

Andromeda takes that in stride, snorting in amusement.

“Not even over a hundred? You’ve been slacking, Chief Warlock.”

Harry just grins slightly, even as he watches her quietly, allowing her to make her choice.

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The Vote:

[X] Andromeda decides to be bound to him - 82%

[ ] Andromeda decides to remain unbound but still wouldn't mind having sex - 15%

[ ] Andromeda chooses to keep their relationship platonic - 3%

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