Harry Potter: Return From Future

Bertha' expression was of complete horror as she questioned if the dark lord was still alive. It was a shock she could hardly bear.

Harry let out a small chuckle of amusement at Betha' reaction.

"Yes, Miss. Jorkins," said Harry. "Through some vile methods, Voldemort was able to save his life."

"Though for now, he is no where as powerful as he used to be. He is in an extremely weakened state," said Harry.

Harry's last sentence brought some relief on Bertha's face. In a single night, her entire knowledge and understanding of the Wizarding world had turned upside down.

She took successive deep breaths and calmed her emotions. She decided not question anything which was related to Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew.

From Harry's confident demeanour, she felt some assurances and did not wanted herself to entangled in unnecessary mess.

"What do you want from me?" She questioned a moment later.

Harry smiled, "Hmm… What I want from you?"

"But let us hear a short story before I come to this."

He continued, "Few years back, you were a new ministry employee and was working in Department of International Magical Co-operation under Barty Crouch Sr."

Bertha nodded with a confused expression. Why would Harry start her tale?

Harry continued, "On one unfortunate day, you visited the Crouch estate to get some paperwork signed from Crouch Sr. At his estate, you deserved a secret which Crouch Sr. had been hiding for years."

Bertha's eyes bulged at this. She had no such memory.

"So, in order to keep his secret hidden, Crouch placed a memory charm on your mind," added Harry. "And the forgetfulness you developed in the past few years is the side effect of that charm."

Bertha's expression was that of utter shock. She could believe what she was hearing.

"What was that secret?" She questioned instinctively.

"Crouch Sr. is hiding his son Crouch Jr. in house," Harry replied immediately.

"But he had died in Azkaban," Bertha stammered incoherently.

Harry shook his head as he narrated the tale of how Crouch's mother had used the Polyjuice potion to disguise herself as her son and had replaced him in Azkaban in her final moments. After all, if a person died after taking a dose of the Polyjuice potion the effect of the potion would not disappear.

Bertha took few extra minutes to calm her raging nerves. She could have never imagined that she had been through such a tragedy in her life.

"And what do you want from me?" Bertha repeated her question.

"I want you to work for me," Harry replied.

"What kind of work?" Bertha inquired with a frown.

"The usual… giving information from the ministry… few other things I ask for," said Harry.

He continued cutting across whatever she was about to speak, "Look, its not that I am in dire need of you or anyone for that matter."

"My powers and knowledge are beyond what you can imagine," he continued. "I just want to avoid all the hassle of doing everything."

"And no… you won't simply work for me just because you owe me a life debt," he added. "You will have your rewards."

"What reward?" She asked

Harry smiled mysteriously, "How does using family magic of Potter's sound?"

Bertha eyes widened in shock, "You… you don't mean it?"

"Of course, I mean it," said Harry.

Bertha found herself lost deep in thoughts.

"Would not this mean that I will become a vassal of Potter house?" she questioned.

Harry coughed awkwardly, "You can put it this way… but it will only benefit you."

"Even so, you can't do this till you gain Potter Lordship," she countered. "And there is still 2 years for that."

Harry shook his head, "No… I will be Lord Potter in 2 months."

Bertha narrowed her eyes but Harry cut her across, "Tell me your choice."

His tone was displeased and impatient.

"Fine," she replied after few moments.

"Good," said Harry. "Now let me remove the memory charm from your mind."

Bertha nodded eagerly as Harry poked his index finger on her forehead. Just like previous time, he found himself in Bertha's mindscape.

But unlike Peter, her mindscape was brightly lit. Its size, though not very big, about a big hall was better organized. She too had castles in her mindscape organising her memories.

The castle was the most basic and most general form of organising a mind. Only powerful wizards with greater understandings of mind arts chose different complex routes.

Harry projectile moved and appeared in front of a castle which was in a corner and was hidden behind dense trees.

Crouch's memory charm had created a further fog like layer around the castle obscuring its view and thus Bertha could not access it. Occasionally this fog would leak making her other memories hazy.

Since, Bertha was not an expert of mind arts, she had been unable to feel the presence of the fog or the castle hidden beneath it.

Harry pointed his index finger towards the castle and a gust of air started to erupt from it. The air circulated in a spiral form sucking all the fog inside it.

In no time the fog was cleared and a clear view of the castle could be seen.

With another thought, Harry left Bertha's mindscape.

"Done," he said and Bertha sat on the sofa as she accessed her missing memories.

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