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Chapter Text

When the emergency alarm started echoing through the empty halls in the Ministry, Harry was brutally woken up from his surprise nap. He grabbed his wand automatically and started sprinting towards the noise, only to be faced with the typical set up of Death Eaters. They were charging into the Department of Mysteries with only one other Death Eater standing guard.

Harry counted four others and decided that his odds as a practiced duellist and advanced Auror should be enough to fight one on four. So, he took his chances, quickly apprehended the one sole guy at the door, before running in and… stopping promptly.

Okay, that was slightly more difficult than he had previously thought. One on eight was… rather unfortunate. Well, he would make due with what he had.

The labyrinthine corridors of the Department of Mysteries echoed with the hiss of spells and explosive effects as a lone figure, Auror Harry Potter, found himself engaged in a desperate duel against eight formidable Death Eaters. Harry was a prodigy in duelling even in the Auror rounds, renowned for his lightning reflexes and unconventional spellwork. However, even his exceptional talent was being sorely tested against the combined might of the Death Eaters.

Harry knew he was outnumbered and outmatched, but he refused to surrender.

Who was he if not the Boy Who Lived and had apparently eight lives?!

With a defiant cry, he once again raised his own wand, his heart pounding in her chest. He nimbly dodged and deflected the Death Eaters' spells, his movements as fluid as a dancer's. He countered their attacks with a barrage of his own, his spells as varied and unpredictable as his mind on a good day.

He conjured a swarm of butterflies, their wings fluttering with a deadly hex. He summoned a wall of water, its icy blasts freezing the Death Eaters' movements. He even conjured a spectral apparition of their late lord, Voldemort, to distract his enemies.

Harry's unconventional tactics caught the Death Eaters off guard, forcing them to adapt their strategies. They formed a tight circle around him, their wands aimed at his heart. A few of them, masters of dark magic, unleashed a series of bone-chilling curses, each one aimed to incapacitate him.

He fought valiantly, but he was slowly being worn down. His wand arm grew heavy, his spells less precise. The Death Eaters closed in, their laughter echoing through the corridors. Harry raced after it, finding even more Death Eaters.

Damn it, did he just see the last few idiots enter?

What would Ron have done in his situation? Probably retreat and find more Aurors. The problem was, that it was in the middle of the night and Ron was no longer with them, having passed during a house inspection.

So… no one to keep Harry from hunting the Death Eaters.

Someone called something and they continued to duel through the different departments, until Harry caught sight of the Veil. Shit.

What?!

“Come on, you can do better than that!” he heard Sirius laughing through the hall. Surprised by his sudden grief, Harry lost sight of the intruders.

He couldn’t think about anything else, before he received a heavy push and fell… straight into the grey water like material. It surrounded him, pulled him in further and further until Harry couldn’t see anything else but darkness and his skin grew colder and colder.

The icy water-like substance felt close to a suffocating blanket, pressing down on Harry's lungs, making it difficult to draw a breath. He tried to scream, but the words caught in his throat, replaced by a gurgling sound as the icy water filled his mouth and nose. Panic seized him, a cold, clawing beast that threatened to consume him entirely.

His arms flailed wildly, his legs kicked desperately as he tried to break free from the watery prison that held him captive. He clawed at the plants on the bottom, trying to get his feet free, but it was like trying to tear through a concrete wall.

His vision blurred, his body grew heavy, and the darkness began to creep in, threatening to swallow him whole. Panic surged through him like an electric current, and he fought against the encroaching darkness with every ounce of his remaining strength.

He kicked harder, his lungs burning for air, his muscles screaming in protest. His vision narrowed to a pinpoint, the darkness closing in like a hungry predator. He was losing consciousness, the icy water stealing his breath and life.

Just when he thought all hope was lost, a sudden jolt of adrenaline surged through him. He kicked with renewed vigour, his body reacting instinctively to the primal urge to survive. A surge of strength coursed through him, and he felt himself break away from the plants and he quickly swam up all the way to break through the surface, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

He coughed and sputtered, water spewing from his mouth and nose, his lungs burning with the sweet, sweet oxygen. He found footing by the shore and crawled onto the dry, but ice-cold earth. The loud noise of cheering people, made Harry jump. He scrambled to his feet, his wand in his hand immediately, when he realized something was off…

In the back, he caught sight of Hogwarts, the beautiful dark grey colour of its early life in what seemed full bloom. The Hogwarts flag billowing in the rather cold February wind and all four House crests hanging above the entrance.

He was at Hogwarts?

The three tall tower in the Black Lake were filled with people and they rushed over the narrow path above it towards the land.

People were staring at him…

Some people seemed very thoughtful, some even confused, a few seemed to not realize what was going on. Red, yellow, blue, green all blurring together.

Wait…

He looked down at himself, as he put the wand back in his… the wand fell to the floor and Harry quickly crouched down, grabbing his wand back. Shit, he didn’t have his Auror grade wand holster. Where the hell had he kept his wand when he was younger?! In his pocket?! Was he mental?!

As he got back up, he finally saw his dark trousers, the long sleeved, black shirt and his long, burgundy open-front robe. His hand moved to the edge of the robe, the wet fabric stinging slightly. He couldn’t forget this, even if he had tried very hard.

His Hogwarts’ Champion outfit. Fourth year Hogwarts. Second Task.

Ron!

He turned around, catching the dark green entrance to the healer’s tent. On the bed closest to the entrance, he found a redhead sitting there, looking slightly green. Ginny? Why was Ginny under water? Hadn’t it been Ron? Did his memory betray him already?

Next to Ginny, on the bed sat a little girl with Fleur kneeling in front. Fleur had a ripped dark blue Champion’s robe on, that even looked bloody, though apparently, Fleur had been healed already. It looked like she was comforting her, or actually, as if the two older girls were comforting Fleur’s sister.

Harry exhaled and shook his head. He must have remembered it wrong. Ginny seemed to have been the one under water before as well.

He turned back to the three towers, seeing the judges handing out points. He got to thirty-two points due to him ‘drowning’ again after rescuing everyone that was left. Harry didn’t remember whether or not that was the same, but something told him it wasn’t…

Then, his eyes swept over the people assembled and running over to the land. He caught sight of Fred and George making jokes and felt his heart hurt with so much pain, he almost lost conscious, stumbling back.

“Wow there” Viktor Krum grabbed his shoulders, kept him standing. As Harry turned to look at him, he felt his breath leave him. “You must ‘aff side effekts for the gilly weed.”

“Probably” Harry huffed and tried to keep it together. If he had thought he would ever be back, seeing the twins laughing and being themselves, he could have had prepared himself for the pain he would feel.

Viktor led him to the healing tent, where Madam Pomfrey cursed the Tournament under her breath, which was definitely going to be funny tomorrow, as Harry fell into the camping bed. The mediwitch checked him and made sure he didn’t have anything.

Harry’s head was somewhere else entirely. “I must be dead” he muttered to himself.

“No, dear, but you gave it a good shot” Madam Pomfrey answered. She clearly seemed to think that Harry was alright, in a way. “Broken rib and you swallowed some water. We’ll have to make sure you’re not suffering from anything long term. Three days in the hospital wing should do it.”

Harry sighed, but Cedric next to him laughed, before coughing loudly. “Don’t worry, Harry, you got off easy. I’ve got two weeks! How can I survive two weeks in there?!”

That made him snigger and he turned to look at Cedric. The blond wizard looked well, despite the clear signs for his hospital stay. He was healthy and had a light in his bright grey eyes that confirmed to Harry that this Hufflepuff was surely alive. It warmed Harry’s heart, healed it in way too.

He would make sure that Cedric wouldn’t go to the cemetery with him.

“Oh, would you two just shut up?!” Hermione spoke up and rolled her eyes. She had Viktor’s moss-coloured robe over her shoulders, though it didn’t do anything, as it looked slightly wet too. “Madam Pomfrey is just making sure that everyone comes out of this as healthily as possible!”

“Speak for yourself” Cedric answered and stuck out his tongue, very unlike himself. At least… himself from the past. Right? Or had he always reacted that way?

Harry didn’t remember. All he remembered from Cedric were the dead eyes on the floor. Damn, how traumatized had he really been?!

Hermione harrumphed while Harry sniggered quietly, though he coughed again and held his throat. “Merlin, this hurts.”

He wondered whether or not his future accidents and attacks had somehow travelled with him to his past. Sitting on the bed, he looked down at his hand, creating a fist and waiting for the blood to pool so he could see the scar of ‘I shall not tell lies’. Nothing happened.

He breathed a bit easier at that, but noticed Hermione’s and Ginny’s intrigued glances. Not so much from Cedric, which interested him much more.

“All good?” Ginny asked and raised her eyebrows. “Or… do I have to attack someone?”

“No, don’t worry.” Harry smirked and shook his head. Damn he loved her so much! But, he realized that it was more a sister-kind of vibe.

Why had he married Ginny? They always worked out well, they were funny together and he loved her witty responses, but… at the moment, it felt more as if he was bi… He hadn’t felt that the last time ‘round.

He was getting better at living in the past, he thought.

“Glad to have you back, Harry.”

He looked up harshly, seeing Ron standing in the entrance to the tent. He looked good with his red hair and blue eyes, shining so bright.

Suddenly, Harry’s memories attacked him from all sides. His wedding, divorce with Ginny, her death, the continued attacks of Death Eaters, Ron’s death, Hermione’s grief. How he had buried himself in renovating all kinds of houses, before deciding that he wanted to avenge his best friend’s passing.

Ron had been found on the streets, head missing. They never found it, no spell could unearth it. Harry had lost it after that – for a really long time. The fact that he was here, his friends, his family alive… it was… it was… unreal.

Harry felt himself leaving his body, while it fell to the side, almost hitting the floor, had Ginny not caught him mere seconds before.

“Madam Pomfrey!” she called, slightly panicked.

Then, the world turned black.

Harry groaned as he came to. His head hurt, his arms hurt, his lungs hurt… it felt as if the world was ending.

“Welcome back, Mr. Potter” he heard Madam Pomfrey say and he opened his eyes, blinking against the aggressive white light. He groaned again and turned his head away. “And congratulation, you’ve just earned yourself four more days in the hospital wing.”

Harry huffed, then grimaced at the pain in his chest, and Madam Pomfrey seemed to be laughing softly. She handed him three potions, all in various degrees of disgusting, which he took without complaint. The worst one was definitely still the Skele-Gro. No one had ever found a way to make it taste better. Harry grimaced and leaned back in his bed, finally relaxing.

His hands moved to his neck, where the moon-pendant from Luna should be, but… it was gone!

Shit… no…

He sighed, remembering the fact that he somehow ended up back in the past. Strangely, a different past. Or maybe he truly was losing it and the past had always been like this and his mind was just playing tricks on him.

He looked at the ceiling, finding comfort in the clear pattern he remembered. He heard Madam Pomfrey walking around, talking to the others, before closing the curtains that had silencing charms on them. Clearly, she had decided to give them some rest.

Harry wasn’t sad about it; it gave him time to think about how he had gotten here and what he could change to make sure that the future he had come from wouldn’t exist. He knew the locations for all the Horcruxes, so that was the first thing he was going to do during the summer holidays.

Three months was enough to fight the Horcruxes, right? It could be a bit… dangerous. Especially the one in the Inferi infested pool, or the one in Gringotts… but he should be able to do it. He had done it before. Granted, that was with his friends, but they were mere magic students and he had been an Auror with Ron. He could do it.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” he heard Ron speak up and turned his head to see his best friend standing at the footing on his bed with a half smile. He put the curtains back softly, as if trying to make it look that they had been undisturbed.

Harry frowned. “What?”

“Being here” Ron added, shrugging. “I know I was freaking out much worse than you are currently.”

What? Being back? In the hospital wing? Ron freaking out? What was going on?

“Honestly, the way she handled the whole house-elf rights thing was a nightmare.”

Harry sat up, despite the pain of his sudden movement, as he stared at Ron, his late best friend, his confidante, his anchor. Had he really…? Did he say something about the future? Was he referring to… to Hermione’s fight that was only just going to happen next year?!

No… he… he couldn’t. Right?

Tilting his head, slightly, Harry decided to chance it. “She shouldn’t have made all these hats” he muttered, just trying to see if his best friend would react.

Ron snorted and nodded. “Nor refraining from eating. That was truly stupid.”

Staring at Ron, Harry couldn’t find a single word to describe what he was feeling now. Relieved, to see his friend again; confused, because he didn’t understand how they were back, remembering everything; dying of laughter, because the situation Hermione put herself in truly was hilarious, thinking about it now; utter disbelief at the situation at hand; and hope to somehow turn this ship around.

His eyes watered at the realization that this… this truly was his Ron! His best friend was back in the past with him!

“They never found your head, by the way. Do you remember anything?”

Ron laughed softly, making Harry grin. “Nah, sorry mate. I only remember being jumped and then I woke up here.”

“Yesterday, or?” Harry frowned, when Ron shook his head, clearly amused.

“Woke up during the chess thing in first year. That was confusing and scary and all kinds of traumatizing. It took me several months to finally understand that I am here and it was okay to be back” Ron sighed. “How is everyone back home?”

Harry bit his lower lip, unsure how to answer that Ron’s death was a rather huge catalyst to all kinds of bad things to happen… Hermione hadn’t left the home for a really long time, the Weasley family was devastated, their friends felt as if the war started again, the Aurors put up some incredibly dangerous rules for any trainee. It wasn’t good…

He decided to go with half-truths. “Took us a while to get back to normal” he said, softly. “’Mione’s back to researching whatever she can about finding your body.”

“Ugh” Ron rolled his eyes. “Must have been strange to see that and now seeing me.”

“It’s really confusing” Harry agreed and grinned. “But also absolutely amazing to see you again and talk to you.”

“Mate, I feel absolutely the same!” Ron laughed and shook his head. “All these times, I wanted to talk to you, refer to something or the other, I remembered that it wasn’t… you know you! That was terrible.”

Harry shook his head fondly, how much he missed Ron!

“You know, I had to go through Lockhart without making some comments to you about his future, mate! It almost killed me.”

Now, Harry was really laughing. He fell back in his bed, holding his chest. His lungs still hurt, though not as much as before.

He sighed, feeling a weight falling off him. It was good to know that he wasn’t the only person in the past. With Ron, they could make sure that Voldy wasn’t coming back.

Ron placed a hand on Harry’s arm, making him look at him again. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll be back tomorrow, okay? Try to get some sleep, we’ll update you once you’re back from here, yeah?”

“Sound’s fine” Harry answered, feeling suddenly very tired, as if the reunion with Ron had taken all the energy from him. “See you then.”

Squeezing his arm softly, Ron sent him a smile. “Sleep tight, mate.” With that, he left.

Harry yawned and rubbed his eyes, putting his glasses away. Well, he had to find the potion for good eyesight again, but that could wait for a while. It didn’t seem as important as getting the Horcruxes.

As he closed his eyes, he realized that Ron had said ‘they’ would inform him. Who was they?

Yawning, he soon fell asleep, dreaming of monsters under water, people without heads and Hermione’s reformed House Elf Right’s turning into protests from the house elves at Hogwarts, where they for some reason were dancing on the table with treacle tarts as hats.

Chapter Text

Harry snuck out of the hospital wing.

Well, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded… Ron hadn’t come by yesterday, Madam Pomfrey said, he was fine, he just had to refrain from any physical activity and technically spoken, climbing up all these stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room, was physical activity.

So… he was allowed to leave? In a way?

As he walked around the castle during the classes, he marvelled at the clean insides. There were no old holes nor cracks, nor was there the ‘remembrance wall’ on the second floor. It looked strong and powerful, and the magic was just as playful.

He hadn’t realized how stressed the castle seemed to have been, how oppressive and sad the magic in the air had felt. Even the Great Hall had had this solemn feeling after the war. Clearly, the fight on Hogwarts grounds had done something to the intricate magical building.

As he turned around the corner, Harry had looked everywhere, but where he was going and collided rather messily with a certain blond wizard. Both fell to the floor, though while Harry just felt a stinging pain rushing through his body from his butt upwards, the other boy lost all five huge books he was carrying.

“Ugh, Potter?! Do you have eyes behind these glasses or is this a way to make people think you’re not actually blind?!” Malfoy asked, clearly annoyed. Then, he sighed and got up, holding his hand towards him. As if wanting to help?

Harry stared at him for quite the while, before he cleared his throat. “Sorry” he held his hands up. “I wasn’t looking, won’t happen again.”

The hand didn’t disappear and Harry finally decided to let Malfoy help him get up. He groaned slightly at the pain in his back, but held most of the curses back.

Malfoy frowned. “Should you already be out of the hospital wing? I heard Ron talking about how you were supposed to be there for two more days?”

“Well, Madam Pomfrey didn’t say anything when I left.”

“Did she see you leaving?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “She was talking to Cedric.”

Huffing a laugh, Malfoy nodded. “Alright. I’ll be bringing you back there. Unless you want her to come find you herself?”

Groaning, Harry nodded. “I’d actually rather fight another dragon.”

Hopefully, the first task hadn’t changed, otherwise this comment wouldn’t have made sense. But Malfoy seemed to understand, as he cackled. “Sure.”

He quickly gathered his fallen books with a wandless spell und motioned Harry to continue walking. Sighing, Harry decided not to fight his childhood bully. Though, frankly, the way everything was currently playing out… it didn’t look like he and Malfoy had bad blood. They seemed to be… okay? In a truce? What was the correct word here?

He kept wondering, while they silently walked closer towards the hospital wing. It was strange walking there, next to Malfoy, who himself seemed to be in deep thoughts. The only thing they could hear were the birds outside the windows and the echo of their steps through the stony hallway. At one time, the clock tower of Hogwarts made a sound, reminding them that it was eleven in the morning, but other than that, it seemed calm and almost peaceful.

Once they had gotten about halfway there, Harry turned towards Malfoy. “So, how are you enjoying the tournament?”

Malfoy shrugged, almost losing his five books again. Harry looked closer, seeing titles ranging from mental health to advanced ritualist magic. What was Malfoy doing?!

“Quite frankly, that question should be coming from me, shouldn’t it? You are the one partaking, I’m just one of a hundred onlookers.”

Harry snorted. “Alright, ask away.”

Malfoy smirked at that. “Has the tournament been to your liking?”

“No!” Harry almost yelled his answer, but he refrained from it, since they were now rather close to the Charm’s classroom, and everyone knew that Professor Flitwick had exceptional hearing. Harry laughed softly. Rolling his eyes, Harry continued. “Not really what I thought my fourth year was going to be, being forced into a death tournament.”

The Slytherin laughed at that. “I can imagine.”

They silently passed the big stairs that would lead down towards the entrance of the castle. Then, at the end of the hallway, they turned around the corner, headed straight down towards the hospital wing.

“My father is betting against you, he’s lost a lot of money already.”

Harry laughed, on one hand, because he remembered Malfoy talking about that in his past, but on the other hand also because he could really imagine Malfoy Senior keep betting on him, even though he had already passed the two tasks.

He shook his head. “Seems like a you-problem.”

“More a ‘him’-problem” Malfoy answered. “He’s bet away at least a thousand galleons on predictions that didn’t come true. Mother is slowly losing her patience.”

Harry snorted. “How many times has he predicted my death then?”

Malfoy grinned at that. “Five times so far, it keeps getting more and more outlandish, too. During the second task, he bet that you would be eaten by the Giant Squid and half an hour later that the Grindylows would behead you.”

“That is a good guess” Harry answered with a laugh. “How very sad that it didn’t happen.”

Imagining the Grindlylows beheading him, putting his head on a spear like the story of Indians were and then rising from the water, made Harry snigger. Since people would see his head, cheer loudly and then as if continued rising, the head was just… the only body part growing out of the lake, with a Grindlylow underneath.

Where had his humour gone to over the years that he thought that was funny?!

They had already made it three quarters of the way, now silently walking towards the closed door of the hospital wing. The silence was comfortable, even though Harry did feel the stinging in his back from time to time.

Harry sighed softly. “I wish I hadn’t been chosen as a damn fourth contestant. I would have been very content in just watching everything unfold.”

Malfoy snorted, before answering. “I don’t think that’s how the Potter Luck works. But hey, at least you can get an early emancipation out of it and you won’t have to return to your abusive relatives.”

“True” Harry smirked, before seeing the hospital wing doors open. Madam Pomfrey stood there and upon seeing them, placed her hands on her hips.

Groaning quietly, Harry muttered “save me” under his breath.

Malfoy cackled at that. “Sorry, Potter, you’re on your own here.”

“I thought you were a normal human being, not a typical Slytherin” Harry whispered back, while they made their way closer to the medical wing.

“I am normal and I am a Slytherin, Potter. I know not to try anything in front of Madam Pomfrey. You should too.”

“You’re a coward, Malfoy.”

He would have thought that Malfoy would react negatively to such an aggressive way of speaking, but to his surprise, the Slytherin was obviously amused. What a strange timeline…

“Whenever the circumstances need it, yes. Also, the medical people know too much, they could blackmail the whole country” he grinned and turned to the mediwitch. “Found this stray wandering around the castle, decided to bring him back.”

Madam Pomfrey smiled at Malfoy, while Harry glowered at him. Malfoy clearly noticed, because he did send him an impish grin back. This boy… how was he so different than before?!

“Mister Potter, back to your bed, right now. I’m tempted to give you another day of bedrest, but I’m afraid you’d run away again” he said strictly, before turning to Malfoy. “Twenty points for correct behaviour, Mister Malfoy.”

Malfoy grinned broadly, winked at Harry and thanked Madam Pomfrey, before taking off. Harry would have loved to run after him and do… something to this idiot. But not something like pushing him or hexing him… more on the lines of having the last word.

He couldn’t.

Not with Madam Pomfrey looking at him with raised eyebrows.

Sighing, Harry held his hands up. “I’m sorry, Madam Pomfrey, I just… I felt boxed in.”

“You are healing” Madam Pompfrey said instead. “Obviously, you should be boxed in, as you’ve put it. Now, back to your bed, I’ll be over in a second to see what you’ve done to your healing process.”

Harry nodded and slipped through the door, trotting to his bed. He could see Cedric laughing silently at Harry’s situation, since the curtains were open. That was probably how Madam Pomfrey had realized he was gone. He jumped into bed, wincing at the sting from his back and lay down, waiting for the mediwitch to arrive.

“I saw that” she commented, as she handed him the potions he needed to take right now. “And if you’re not letting your body heal, I will cast the spell on you to make you stick to the bed. You’re not the first one I’ve had to use that spell on.”

By the look Madam Pomfrey sent him, it was clear she was either talking about Sirius or his father, James. Or maybe both. Probably both.

Harry nodded. “Understood.”

“Good.”

Harry was in bed in the hospital wing for a few hours, before another person came by. It had been quiet, with Cedric being the only other person inside. And since that Hufflepuff had soon after Harry’s return fallen asleep, it had been peacefully quiet.

It also gave Harry plenty of time to think.

He had always dreamed of being able to go back and have a do-over, but actually getting one seemed a bit… out of touch with reality. And yet, here he was. He had to figure out how to actually go about this, now that he wasn’t alone anymore.

Could he actually ask Ron to once again run into danger with him? Should he just not tell him what he was planning and just go on a summer Horcrux hunt himself? Fix what was broken before it had even gotten started?

It was a possibility, but there was also the possibility that Ron was thinking he would do it and somehow stop him, for whatever reason. Harry wasn’t sure if he really wanted to be stopped. If he could do something from starting this war once again, he would absolutely do it.

When the door opened and the next visitor arrived, Harry tilted his head to see Ron walking in, behind him following almost silently like a shadow was Neville. He looked more confident, standing taller, he was less thin and bony. He just looked healthy.

When Madam Pomfrey walked over, talking to them, Harry watched as Neville sent her a calming smile and nodded, before answering with something that seemed to amuse the mediwitch. Neville talked softly, but with a confidence he had been lacking before their seventh year.

This most certainly wasn’t the Neville Harry had known growing up before. Even Ron was different with Neville around. Not physically, he still had the red hair, blue eyes. He seemed to respect the other Gryffindor boy very much and seemingly held back from talking. He did comment on something, making Neville and Madam Pomfrey both laugh.

Finally, Madam Pomfrey nodded and went back to her office, and the two boys headed Harry’s way. Neville smiled at him and sat down next to his bed; even this action seemed very out of character for his earlier persona.

“Welcome back, Haz” Neville said with a grin. “As you might have realized, I’m also back.”

“How many are there?” Harry asked, curiously. He looked at Ron, who shrugged.

“We don’t know” Ron answered. “If they wake up during summer, they might have already adapted to the new reality and we would never realize.”

Neville nodded. “We’re also not going to throw all the numbers at your head. You need to adjust to this thing first, deal with your loss and grief, the fact that you’re back and everything else that might happen.”

Harry frowned slightly at that, while Neville’s brown eyes looked at him softly. “Why would I need to deal with grief? I haven’t lost anything?”

“You did, in a way” Neville countered. “Your life before returning. There must have been friends, things that you miss. Something to grief.”

Sighing, Harry nodded. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure I’ve got to grieve that.”

“Nevertheless, you’re not getting introduced to the others before Ron or I are sure you’re mentally stable to deal with whatever else is going on.”

Harry sighed. “Fine.” He moved around to sit more comfortably. “Could you answer my question then; is everyone who dies coming back?”

Ron shook his head and brushed his hair out of his face. “We don’t know. We’re also unsure of the reason why we’re waking up here.”

Neville nodded darkly. “We know who started the whole ‘waking up in the past’-thing, but we don’t know when it’s going to end, if it’s going to end… all unclear.” He sighed, pulling his shoulder-length hair back over his head. “What we do know, is that returning students need therapy.”

“No one would believe you… us, Nev. There’s no adult in this world who would believe that how many people you know have come back from the future.”

Grinning, Neville answered, “well, we do have another returning student who before the ‘waking up in the past’ was a mind healer.”

Harry frowned, trying to think of who he knew had died and was a mind healer, but he came up with shit. No one he remembered had even went to study healing, let alone be a mind healer.

Judging by Neville’s grin, which in Harry’s opinion could be considered slightly evil, he knew that Harry had no idea who it was.

“Justin Finch-Fletchley.”

Harry narrowed his eyes at Neville, who grinned at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Neville laughed, and as Harry looked over to Ron, he saw him trying to suppress his own laughter. Sighing, Harry shook his head. That could not be true, the boy who annoyed him so much at school travelled back to the past and was now basically his therapist?! That was simply unfair.

“This is actually the easiest way to tell if someone has woken up here” Ron explained with a grin, “because in this timeline, Justin is a very respected and fair person. No one would believe he did stupid things like what he did with us.”

“And you say he would… I don’t know, respect things I would tell him?” Harry was unconvinced.

Neville nodded. “Yes, he’s a fair person and knows a lot of secrets.”

Harry reluctantly nodded. “Did… is Ginny back as well?” he finally asked, partly to change to topic, but also because he was curious.

From what he saw at the healers’ tent by the lake, he couldn’t really tell if she had woken up, but it didn’t appear so. Or if she did, she knew exactly how to behave to make it look like she was a child. By the surprise in both Ron’s and Neville’s expression it was clear to Harry that she wasn’t.

“Gin died?” Ron whispered, eyes wide.

Harry nodded. “A few weeks after you, your family was distraught.”

Neville hummed, turning his almost wise eyes towards Ron. “She had a near-death experience in her first year.”

Ron shook his head. “She was just as before. Well, more traumatized, but she didn’t suddenly talk about the future. And Ginny was amazing there, she would have done something to get our attention.”

She really was. A true fighter, skilled with and without a wand, talented in so many areas. And especially spells to attack were her forte. People would have noticed if she was back. So she wasn’t. It was getting more and more confusing by the second.

“Okay” Harry sighed. “Sad to see her not returning, but maybe it’s for the best.”

Neville nodded softly. “Well then, I’m placing you into Ron’s care. He will be the one to help you with getting up to speed here. Not all things are the same, and we don’t want the adults to know; who knows what kind of experiments they would be doing with us.” He rolled his eyes. “Until Ron tells me you’re ready to get to know everyone and our goals, you’re just here to learn, to grieve and to settle down.”

Harry really badly wanted to roll his eyes, but he refrained from doing it. It seemed wrong at this point and he understood Neville. So instead of being a child, Harry nodded. “Fine.”

The brown-haired boy smirked and got up. “I’ll see you around, Haz. Don’t bother Madam Pomfrey much more.”

“Did she talk, huh?”

Neville grinned. “Told us you were running away, so, better stay here and fully heal.”

Harry groaned, but nodded. “Fine. Fine.” He held his hands up in mock surrender, which made Neville wink at him. Then, the other bid goodbye and Ron sat down where Neville had been sitting.

They sat there in silence for a while, clearly both in their own worlds. Harry was thinking about all the potential people having ‘woken up’ in the past, as Neville had put it. So far, he only knew of Ron and Nev, Justin as well. And his mind wandered to all the people they had lost over the last couple of decades.

Was Fred here?

Did Fred start all this?

Maybe the battle at Hogwarts was the thing to start the people waking up. He had read somewhere that Hogwarts used to be a living, breathing castle, like a living object. But over time, it lost this ability. Maybe when the battle broke out, it did something against children dying on its grounds and now, everyone who had fought during the battle was back?

Did it only count for children or was Snape also back?

Did Dumbledore wake up?

Harry frowned, unsure what he felt if that was the case… Dumbledore had had so many flaws, and sadly, Harry had been in the middle of most of the attention from the old man. He thought that maybe this time around, he would try not to get so close to him.

All of this didn’t make sense if Ginny hadn’t come back. She had fought with them during the Battle of Hogwarts. She had died. She had seen a near death experience in the chamber if was what it took.

So why wasn’t she back?

Harry sighed, which seemed to garner Ron’s attention.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Its…” Harry rubbed his forehead. “It’s a lot… Not everyday that you wake up in the past, mate.”

Ron snorted and nodded. “Yup. Guess how I felt!? Too many emotions for my teaspoon, really.”

It was sad to realize that Hermione was still in the future and maybe never coming back. Or maybe she was coming back, when this whole Riddle thing was over and they couldn’t really get in danger together anymore.

Reluctantly, Harry realized that he was actually grieving that. Grieving that Hermione, their Hermione could not be with them right now. The teaspoon thing really was funny, though, in a way.

Smirking, Harry leaned over the side of the bed to shove his friend slightly. “Idiot.”

Laughing, Ron held his hands up. “According to ‘Mione, you’ve also got a teaspoon.”

Harry shook his head, amused. “So, are you now my mentor?”

“Yep. Don’t be surprised, though, I am currently mentoring two others. So, if you see me suspiciously talking to some people, or you know, mentioning the future, it’s because they know.”

Alright, two more people who had woken up in the past. That were already six; Ron, Neville, Justin Finch-Fletchley the two mysterious ones and him. There were definitely more, and Harry wondered if he should try to figure out who had come back, but decided to put that on the back burner for now.

“How did you become a mentor?” Harry asked, tilting his head slightly. He felt just a little bit of jealousy at realizing that Ron wasn’t going to be there for him all the time. Though he tried to push the thought away, they did remain to the side.

Ron clearly didn’t realize what was going on in Harry’s mind. He laughed softly, shrugging his shoulders. “I helped when someone had a panic attack and then I was their number one person. From there it evolved to being a mentor. I have one permanent person and then one like you.”

Seven people in the past, safely. Harry frowned.

“Like me?”

“Temporary” Ron explained with a grin. “I don’t expect you’ll be running at me, when you’re faced with a problem, mate. Once we’re sure you can live in this time without destroying it, I’m not going to be your mentor anymore.”

Harry felt unsure. “We’re still friends, right?” he asked quietly.

Ron leaned forward, placing a hand on Harry’s arm, squeezing softly. “Obviously, idiot. You’re my best friend, that’s always going to be that way. You and ‘Mione!” He grinned. “It just happens that I also have a few friends outside of our bubble, but that’s not bad. We all need some time to ourselves too.”

“I see you’ve spent time with a mind healer too, haven’t you?”

“Clearly” Ron winked at him. “No wait, what did Snape say? Ob-vious-ly” he said it just like when Umbridge had interviewed Snape during fifth year.

Harry sniggered and they were interrupted by Madam Pomfrey who told them that visiting hours were over. Ron bid goodbye, told him to stay in bed and waved as he left the hospital wing with a lot of confidence. It was good to see that.

Chapter Text

“What is this?”

It was another day in the hospital wing and Harry looked at the parchment in Ron’s hand with almost trepidation. His friend laughed softly, shaking his head, before he placed the parchment on the hospital bed. Harry immediately noticed the days and lessons.

“Third year, we chose not to do Divination, by the way” Ron said with a smirk. “Instead, we went with Runes.”

Harry widened his eyes, “But… I don’t have all that knowledge!” He frowned, for a second, trying to figure out whether or not he had returned with the memory from school, but no. Somehow, his minds hadn’t melted together in a way. Well, that sucked.

Ron simply nodded. “Neville already has a cover story for that. Near death experience and all that” he shrugged his shoulders. “Hermione will be happy to teach you, if a little bit annoying, since she will likely think, you hadn’t paid attention before.”

“Technically correct” Harry retorted, which made Ron grin.

He pointed at the time table. “Better learn that one quickly then, before anybody asks you something you should have known.”

Harry sighed. “Like Runes?” he asked sarcastically.

Ron held his hands up, in mock surrender. “Exactly, mate. Alright, Justin will come by tomorrow around ten. Remember that out in public, you and him do not have bad blood, okay?”

Narrowing his eyes, Harry simply nodded, not really wanting to talk about it more, but Ron seemingly didn’t expect more. He grabbed his apparent bottomless bag and pulled an Auror-grade wand holster out. It was slim, fitting to his forearm, grey in colour and shorter than a wand, but held much like the bag, a sort of bottomless wand pouch. The grey leather had two straps, one going around his wrist, the other one reaching to the middle of his forearm, where he could magically fasten it and nothing could take it off anymore. Harry felt himself relax, and he gratefully accepted the gift.

“Where’d you get that?!” Harry asked, his eyes wide, as he held the wand holder carefully between his hands.

Ron smirked. “I’ve got my resources.”

“You won’t tell me?”

“Nope.”

Harry chuckled and nodded, before he put it on, with Ron’s help, and finally stowed his wand safely away. It was very relaxing to have it on his body again and he realized how naked and weak he had felt with it just hanging around in his pocket or up his sleeve or in his belt. This truly was a dangerous thing.

“Thank you so much!”

Ron grinned. “I know that as teenagers, we didn’t really care for our wands, but… having lived through our Auror training, there’s nothing better than having your wand on your body” he shrugged his shoulders. “Your holster has an automatic return spell on it, so should your wand have been stolen from you, it will return.”

Harry sighed, but more out of relieve. “You are my angel, I think.”

“You’re not the first to think so, especially with wand holsters” Ron said laughing. “Alright, learn the time table by heart, I’ll stay here for a bit and do my potions homework” he rolled his eyes.

Sniggering softly, Harry turned to the parchment and went through the list of courses. Some were the same, others were definitely different. There was English, Mathematics and ‘The Art of Writing’ on the time table.

Other than that, there were the same things going on, and yes, he actually had three electives; besides Care of magical Creatures, he now also had Arithmancy and Runes. Hermione definitely had been the one to inspire Ron and Ron probably had pushed Harry to do it as well.

Funny was that every day, the first two lessons were double periods, first Charms, the Transfigurations, Potions, Herbology and on Fridays it was Arithmancy. Sighing, Harry shook his head.

“I don’t think I can get all this in my head at once.”

Ron snorted over his homework and looked up with a grin. “I know exactly what you’re feeling, but for me it was worse, because I have never had mathematics nor English in school. Mum never did any of that in home school.”

Harry laughed softly, though he winced at the slight stinging in his back. “What is Art of Writing then?”

“Oh, essay structure mostly. We’ve had AW ever since first year, but there it was mostly just writing with a quill. I hope you haven’t forgotten how to do it.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry stuck out his tongue. “With the amount of paperwork I’ve had, nope.”

Ron sniggered. “Yeah, so now it’s literally just the structure of essays and I think we’re slowly going towards calligraphy.”

Harry widened his eyes. “Holy shit. I definitely can’t do that!”

Laughing, Ron placed his homework aside. “Yeah, well, the only people who can do calligraphy at the moment are Hermione, because obviously” he rolled his eyes good naturedly, “I think Draco, and Neville too. Nev’s been doing that forever, I think. His gran was really happy with him writing well.” He leaned forward, grabbing his satchel and pulled out a smaller parchment after looking through it for a bit. “This was his birthday party invite.”

Accepting the parchment, Harry stared in wonder at the beautiful cursive with thinner and bigger lines that were almost expertly placed. The letters spells ‘invite’ and took up the whole upper part of the parchment. There were even different colours of ink and even the droplets seemed to be placed there out of sheer will.

“It’s really beautiful!” Harry said in wonder.

“Yeah” Ron smirked. “I think he will be bored out of his mind, when we’re doing more calligraphy.”

“Clearly” Harry huffed a laugh and therefore hid another wince.

Ron must have seen it, as he collected his parchment and the time table., before he turned into professor mode. “When is AW taking place?”

“Wednesday.”

“Time?”

Harry frowned. “eleven to twelve?”

Ron shook his head. “Eleven thirty to twelve thirty. What’s after it?”

“Lunch, I know that.” Harry rolled his eyes, which made Ron grin.

“Potions, single period?”

“Monday at…” Harry frowned, trying to remember where all these Monday lessons were taking place. “One thirty to two thirty?”

“Well done” Ron nodded, clearly proud that Harry could actually remember it.

“What day do we have Astronomy at night?”

“Tuesday. No, Wednesday.”

“Yup. Double DADA?”

“Thursday from one thirty to three thirty.”

“Then you’d be early and you’d ignore our free period” Ron grinned. “Two thirty to four thirty.”

Harry sighed. “Alright, still have to learn a bit more.”

Ron shook his head at that. “Not to worry. I’m always going to be there for the first week and we both know you’re a fast learner. I’d just suggest you don’t look lost or confused when someone talks about anything. If something should happen, Neville or I will help you out.”

“Thanks.” Harry smiled at his friend. “I don’t know how you did this first time around.”

“It was close to the end of first year and then I had a whole summer to get over it. Still took me a while and I’m glad Neville found out. He was my mentor back then.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. If things weren’t the exact same as last time, proven by having mathematics and languages on their time tables, maybe the thing with Sirius also wasn’t the same?

Also, if Ron was back, then Scabbers-Wormtail probably wasn’t with the Weasleys? Hopefully?

“What happened with Sirius?” he finally asked.

Ron sighed and rolled his eyes. “Very weird, actually. Scabbers was gone before I even woke up, someone handed him into the Ministry, but he escaped before anyone could bind him. Sirius heard about it, broke out during second year actually, after Christmas, and then went on to hunt the rat.”

Harry frowned. “So… a completely different third year?”

“Not really” Ron snorted. “Wormtail decided that you would know where his Lord was and came to Hogwarts, Sirius followed, the Ministry heard rumours and placed Dementors around the school, yada, yada, yada. Wormtail escaped, they decided to feed Sirius to the Dementors, we all time travelled, saved him by handing him an illegal Portkey and… there we go.”

Shaking his head, Harry couldn’t help but be relieved that nothing had happened to his godfather. “And how did you like time travel by actually choosing it?”

Ron laughed quietly. “Much more enjoyed it than just dying and waking up in the past, thank you very much.” Harry smirked at that and was sad, when Ron got up and bid goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow again.”

“You said that one time too, and then didn’t show up.”

Holding his hands up in mock surrender, Ron grinned at him, “I had an emergency from one of my mentees that I had to work through with them. Usually I keep my promises.”

Harry frowned at that. “Is it the temporary one or the one you somehow adopted.”

Ron laughed. “The adopted one. And I am certainly going to tell him about that, it’s really funny. Anyway, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Unless there’s an emergency.”

“Even if there’s an emergency. I’ll just be there later than I thought” Ron stuck out his tongue and waved, before leaving.

Harry sighed, leaning back in his bed, feeling his back still hurting. What had he done during the tournament that left him in pain for so long? Or was it the fact that he had fallen, when he had snuck out?

Madam Pomfrey came by and handed him more potions, including one to make him sleepy and without a warning, he felt his body grow heavy, his eyes closing and he relaxed further into bed, even letting himself be tucked in by the mediwitch.

Sometimes, he really wished he had a family that would have done this for him ever since he was small.

When Justin Finch-Fletchley entered the next day, looking for Harry, it took everything in him not to scowl at him, Ron’s words of them being… friends… were still in his mind. The Hufflepuff sat down next to him, without looking out of place.

What Harry did realize was that he too seemed very mature and put together. Not just with his yellow school uniform, but his nicely combed brown hair and his tie. Nothing seemed out of place.

“Well then” Justin said with a quick smile. “First let me apologize to you about my behaviour in sixth year, emotions were running high, everywhere.”

Harry snorted and shook his head. He remembered that after the snake incident during second year, Justin as actually an okay boy and after he got over the fact that he had been chosen as another Hogwarts champion, he seemed to be okay. Sixth year was hard, because… yes, as Justin put it, emotions were running high.

This was how fast Harry could remember that he did not actually hate Justin. It was just easier to push all bad things happening onto someone than dealing with it himself, or something like that.

“I understand” Harry said with a weak grin. “I myself have to apologize, because telling you that it was all your fault wasn’t really the right thing to do. Also, incredibly unrealistic.”

Justin laughed at that and nodded. “With that in mind, let’s start anew. Also, just so you know, I did not fear you in this timeline and I did not blame you for being in the tournament.”

“’Cause you know better by having lived it already” Harry commented sarcastically.

“Exactly.” Justin pulled a muggle writing block out of his satchel, as well as a muggle pen. “Now, how are you feeling with being back here?”

Harry looked around, confused that Justin was just doing this out in the open in the medical wing, but Madam Pomfrey was on the other side of the room, checking the potion storage and Cedric across from Harry was once again sleeping deeply. So, there wasn’t really anyone else listening to them.

“It’s… really strange” Harry finally answered. “I have all these feelings of what I should be doing now, how I could stop everything from happening once again. It’s also strange to see people I know, but seeing them different, in a way.”

“What do you mean?” Justin asked, curiously.

Harry hummed softly. “Well, Neville for example is so much more confident and he just knows what he wants. He doesn’t match my idea of how he should be reacting at Hogwarts anymore.”

Justin nodded. “That will fade with time.” He crossed his legs and silently watched Harry for a bit. “What topics would you like to discuss today?”

Harry was taken slightly aback and frowned at the Hufflepuff, before he sighed. There were so many topics he could be discussing and while at first he had thought Neville’s ‘order’ to see a therapist was kind of stupid, he realized right now, that this was exactly what he needed. Yes, he had Ron and Neville to talk to, but he had only once talked to Neville so far and Ron seemed more interested on the practical aspects of having woken up in the past. He was great at it and Harry wasn’t mad at that, but… it was nice to have someone there to check in on him.

“I guess today I just want to…” it felt so weird talking about things like that. “I don’t know. I want to talk about Hermione?”

Justin nodded. “Our Hermione or the Hermione in the future?”

Harry sighed. “The future. I’m just incredibly sad that I might never see her again.”

“Tell me about her” Justin said softly. “I wasn’t around long enough to see her succeed.”

“Well, you know Hermione” Harry said, warmth spreading through him. “She is smart, intelligent, doesn’t take no for an answer and fights her way even through the toughest of rooms.” He grinned, remembering how she had fought hard against the wizarding purists to allow Muggleborns to hold seats in the Wizengamot. “A year after Ron died, she created the Headhunters, which were basically specialized Aurors tracking down fugitives or Death Eaters, and putting them to rest. They were doing a really good job and she even got an award for that. She was working on being the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot.” He chuckled. “She’d been dating again and she found a very nice and handsome guy, who she tried to keep hidden from us, but we all knew it. He was a Muggle, Christopher, just a really good guy. He supported her in every decision and wherever he could. These two were a really cute couple, even if she tried to hide it from us.”

“Do you know why she tried to hide it?” Justin asked.

Harry nodded. “She felt guilty for dating again after Ron died. And she kept on looking for his… the rest of his body, I think so she could tell herself that she did something to restore the family’s peace. The Weasleys just wanted her to be happy. She was still a part of their family, as much as I was, even though Ginny and I divorced.” Harry sighed. “I think Hermione was pregnant and finally decided to tell the family, when I got killed. I just hope that Christopher can support her through grief again and that she won’t lose the baby.”

Justin hummed. “You feel guilty for dying and leaving her?”

Frowning at that, Harry was about to shake his head, when he stopped and thought more about it. “She didn’t leave the house after Ron died. For almost a year. George and I had to kind of force her out once a month to make sure she was still alive. She grieved so heavily, I was sure she would follow Ron. And then, she got better, no one knew why.” Harry bit his lower lip. “I was afraid she had decided to follow Ron, but it didn’t happen, she found her footing again, worked harder than ever.” He swallowed thickly. “I hadn’t wanted to leave her, what if her grief would consume her even more? Right now, only George is left and he probably grieves as well.”

“You did say that she has a boyfriend, right? Christopher is there too.”

Harry sighed. “I know. I just feel… I do feel guilty for leaving her.”

Justin nodded. He leaned forward on his chair. “If you want, sometimes it helps people to talk to them. You could talk to Hermione and ask her for forgiveness.”

Harry frowned. “She’d be mortified. Why would I go to her and ask her for something, that hasn’t happened to her yet?”

“No... sorry, you talk to me, but pretend I’m your Hermione from the future. Sometimes that helps.”

After Justin said that, Harry stared at him silently for at least two minutes. Then, he cleared his throat, realizing that he did need to do this, but he also thought it was incredibly awkward.

So, he decided to start without overthinking it. Further. “I… um, I wanted to apologize, ‘Mione.”

“Whatever for?”

“For… leaving you. Leaving when… I mean, you’re… getting started in this amazing life… your new life and I… I promised not to leave you. And I did.”

“Well, you didn’t choose to leave me.”

In front of Harry, Justin seemed to disappear and Hermione Granger, his Hermione, seemed to come alive. She was tired, sad and grieving. What Justin was saying seemed to come out of Hermione’s mouth.

“I… I still did. And… I’m not just sad to leave you, I wanted to see you happy again. And yes, there were glimpses of happiness, especially whenever Chris was around, but… I couldn’t wait for you to be the old ‘Mione again.”

“I don’t think I could be the ‘old ‘Mione again’, as you’ve said. Too much has happened and people grow, they learn new things and go on.”

“I am still sad to not be able to witness it. And I’m sorry to have left you. I wish you all the best in your future and please don’t drown in sorrow and grief again, as you’ve done the last time. I’m fine here.”

Hermione smiled at him softly, before vanishing, leaving a silent Justin behind and Harry placed his head on the pillow, thoroughly exhausted from all these emotions. He closed his eyes, remembering Hermione talking to him about her book club in the Muggle world and how this new guy, Christopher, had joined them and he was just as knowledgeable as she was. At first, it had clearly annoyed her greatly, but Harry had seen her attitude towards him changing, every time Hermione had talked about it, there was more life, a light almost in her eyes.

She was clearly in love with him. It was good to see her going out more and having fun again.

“I guess this is enough for one session” Justin said softly and placed a hand on Harry’s arm. “It’s good to know that you’re fine here and you’ll have to believe that she is also fine there, okay?”

Harry opened his eyes and looked at the brown-haired Hufflepuff. “Sure.”

Justin smirked and nodded. “I want you to think about, who else you might feel guilty about leaving. We’ll talk about that list next time.”

“And when is next time, exactly?”

“In two days. Or whenever your first day of school is. Unless you want to talk before?”

Harry shook his head. “Should be fine. I’ve got Ron until then.”

Justin laughed and patted his arm. “Sure thing. I’ll tell Madam Pomfrey to give you some calming potions and then I hope you’ll get better soon.”

“Justin” Harry stopped him from getting up and the Hufflepuff boy sat back down again, looking at him questioningly. “Thank you.”

Nodding at him, Justin went over to Madam Pomfrey, who was still working through the potions storage, but Harry felt his eyes falling closed on itself. Falling asleep, as if he had ingested a sleeping potion already.

Nothing was better than healing sleep, not potion-induced.

Chapter Text

Harry was thrown out of the hospital wing after three more days. During which he had gotten visitors from everywhere. Fleur and Viktor had visited him and Cedric, giving them news about the date for the third task, which soured the mood rapidly.

Hermione and Ginny had come around every day and Ginny kept asking whether or not she had to hurt someone to get her revenge, which Harry told her not to do. Hermione helped him with Runes and Arithmancy due to Neville’s rumours that Harry’s drowning had had an effect on his memory.

Obviously, Ron was around every day, helping Harry memorize different things that were new, and the new time table.

Fred and George had snuck in once and handed him a basket full of desserts which Madam Pomfrey had found mere seconds later and confiscated it until Harry was allowed to leave the hospital. The Weasley twins had pouted and tried to persuade her to at least let him eat the treacle tart, but the mediwitch remained steadfast, which had Cedric in the bed across laughing until he was coughing. Therefore, the Weasleys were thrown out of the hospital wing for ‘endangering the patients’.

Seamus brought him all the homework, making notes on which ones he was supposed to be doing as fast as possible since ‘Snape is going to quiz you the second your back in his classroom’. That was very funny.

Harry did spend his last afternoon in the hospital wing completing the Potions essay, because he knew that Snape probably still had it out for him. It hit different now that Harry knew the truth and he wasn’t sure if he could ever unsee it.

Once dinner came around, Madam Pomfrey let him leave and Harry wandered through the halls again, his satchel over his shoulders, when he once again came upon Malfoy. He didn’t run into him. He just walked down the stairs towards the castle entrance and found Malfoy walking up from the dungeons.

“Well, well, well” Malfoy drawled. “Do I need to guide you back to the hospital wing? Did you run away again?”

“During dinner?” Harry answered, raising his eyebrows. “How stupid do you think I am?”

“Incredibly stupid” Malfoy said with a smirk. “Did you finally get out?”

“Yup.”

Malfoy saluted him. “Get ready for double potions tomorrow then, he’ll eat you alive.”

Harry sighed. “Any… hints to what I should be studying for tomorrow?”

“Possibly the Shrinking Solution, but I wouldn’t only study that one” Malfoy grinned, which made Harry frown.

“I think you’re playing with me.”

The grin on Malfoy’s face widened, which really did not help him at all. “Maybe.”

Harry sighed. “I hate you.”

“And I don’t believe you. See you tomorrow for potions.” With that, he walked into the Great Hall and left Harry standing outside.

Steeling himself for what might await him inside, Harry took a deep breath, before stepping out of the shadows and into the cacophony of sounds, laughter, cheering, yelling, just everything.

First, he found Ron and Neville talking animatedly at the Gryffindor table with a few students from Beauxbatons. Hermione was missing from the table, which made Harry frown and he scanned the hall for her, finding her sitting at the Ravenclaw table, talking to Cho and Viktor Krum. Their discussion seemed very dark and important.

Fleur sat with some of her friends at the Slytherin table, seemingly discussing the tournament and her future. In her discussion were Cassius Warrington and Graham Montague. Both had Death Eater parents and Harry wondered if they tried to convince Fleur to join them. Seemed irrelevant, since first of all, Riddle wasn’t back and even if he was, Fleur had Veela blood, that wasn’t pure enough for old Voldy.

At the Hufflepuff table, two students were throwing around the peas and carrots and the Slytherins were as Harry remembered, perfect little poster children. Honestly, the Hufflepuffs currently were the wildest in the Great Hall.

Harry chuckled and turned right, walking along the wall until he reached the Gryffindor table and then continued along the wall until he stopped next to Ron.

This action only now had shown him, that he did need to do more to fit in. In school earlier, he had never sought the safety of a wall in his back or to his right. He grinned when Ron scooted over and made room for him.

“Thanks” he said with a soft grin.

“No worries” Ron answered, putting a plate together for him. “Now eat.”

Harry narrowed his eyes, “I feel threatened by you.”

“Good” Ron answered, just as the Hufflepuff food war moved over to the Gryffindor side, since some carrots reached the Weasley twins. Obviously, they couldn’t stop from joining in.

Harry chuckled and dodged a flying pea, while Ron caught another one in his mouth. “Hand me peas closest to my brothers, Seamus, please” he yelled over the table, which started a war between Seamus and the twins.

Neville snorted. “You did that on purpose.”

“Obviously” Ron said, as if he thought Neville was an idiot. “Now, they’re fighting with him and I’m in peace over here.”

“A true Slytherin” Neville whispered, just loud enough for Harry and Ron to hear, though both were absolutely amused by it.

Harry snorted. “Did you do that at home as well?”

Ron grinned maliciously. “Oh, yeah” he said. “My victims were either Ginny or Percy, mostly Percy to be honest.”

Neville sighed and turned to Harry. “Aren’t you happy you’re an only child?”

“Well… technically I am an only child, but I live with my cousin, yeah?” He remembered all the times where Dudley had annoyed him and even though that had taken place a long time ago, it was still fresh in his mind. Maybe he was getting to turns with being back.

“Sorry” Neville said instead and turned to Susan Bones on the Hufflepuff table, who was trying to study Astronomy while the chaos around her erupted. “Sue! Aren’t you happy to be an only child?”

“Yes!” she yelled back and glared at a few Hufflepuffs, who started to shoot their peas at her.

Neville turned back, clearly proud of what he had done. Harry tilted his head, seeing the mischievous glean in his eyes. “I never realized how evil you are” he commented and smirked. “And you said Ron should be in Slytherin?! You should be there!”

Laughing, Neville shrugged his shoulders. “It’s always fun to rile people up.”

“You’re the worst” Ron said, laughing, before Seamus threw the bowl of peas over and only Harry stabilizing the content helped to not have peas everywhere. Ron laughed loudly, when the twins complained about not having peas to throw at the Hufflepuffs anymore, before they moved over to pickled carrots.

Harry snorted. “Not sure if this was your goal?” he asked Ron, who rolled his eyes and shook his head. He turned to the two Beauxbatons students and asked for their help in shutting this food war down. Neither had a good idea, which made Harry snigger.

Once dinner was over, the Gryffindors moved up to the Common Room, bidding goodbye to the foreign students. Viktor did stop next to Harry, since he had to wait for Ron to stop his discussions on the side effects of Polyjuice potion – tactically held close to where the former Azkaban escapee was standing and able to listen in on it – with three students from Beauxbatons.

Neville had also stopped next to Harry with a shit-eating grin. “Chess players, eh?” he said, with a look towards Ron. Harry only hummed at that. Ron really was playing a giant game of mental chess.

“Harry” Viktor said, when he stopped by the entrance. “I’m glad you’re back wiff the living.”

Frowning, Harry turned to Viktor, wondering if he too had come back from the future, but he didn’t give any other hints. Harry would have to ask Neville once they were in their dormitory.

Harry sighed. “Thanks Viktor. It was almost touch and go for a second.”

No, thinking back, it really had been over. Maybe he had actually gone, maybe that was why he was back from the dead, his younger self had actually… died? Wait… that was kind of morbid to think that he was no inhabiting a dead person’s body…

A hand touched his arm and he inhaled sharply, looking down at the slender hand, squeezing his arm softly. He turned to Neville, who sent him a comforting smile. “Don’t think about it” he muttered, though it looked as if Viktor had heard it as well.

He seemed slightly confused, though let it go. So, it seemed he wasn’t back then.

“Sorry” Harry said, shuddering slightly. The thought lingered in his head, but he pushed it away, needing to talk to Neville or Ron about it. Or maybe Justin.

Viktor seemed to understand. “Don’t worry about it.” He nodded. A tall man, wearing a Durmstrang uniform, stopped next to Viktor and grinned at him, trying to push him into a wall. The Bulgarian Seeker fought back and got the black-haired man to back off. He looked a lot like a young Sirius Black, but only if he was looking at the hair, nothing else, really.

“This is Hristo” he said, rolling his eyes.

The man, Hristo, smirked at Neville and Harry. He bowed, respectfully, which wasn’t really needed. Why would a man from Durmstrang bow to someone from Hogwarts?!

Harry didn’t have time to think about it, as the guy introduced himself quickly. “Hristo Zlatev” he said with a grin. “At your service.”

Viktor pushed the boy out of the door and into another friend. He rolled his eyes, which made Harry chuckle, but when he continued, Harry was quickly annoyed. “Karkaroff told me the last task will be a maze.”

Harry sighed. Of course, it would. “Great” he deadpanned.

The other champion seemed to share his sentiment, though he did shrug his shoulders after that. “We might haff to postpone our Seekers-off to after the task.”

Widening his eyes, Harry turned to Neville, who was silently laughing. Probably about the face Harry just made. He pulled himself together rather quickly and nodded then. “I’m in. Should we already make plans?”

Viktor shook his head. “What iff someone gets hurt again? Cedric’s also supposed to play and he’s out for two weeks right now. Let’s just plan it once this is over.”

Harry nodded and Viktor bid goodbye, tapping on one of the Beauxbatons guys’ shoulders, who had been talking with Ron, and they went towards the other schools. Watching this, Harry wondered if maybe, the three schools were coming closer together due to the tournament.

This definitely hadn’t happened the first time around, so it was nice to witness. Ron soon after bid goodbye to the other two Beauxbatons students and they walked up to the Common Room through the now quieter hallways. There were still students around and Harry caught sight of Ginny and a Durmstrang girl jumping into an abandoned classroom and just when Harry was about to think of some shenanigans that could be taking place, a few Ravenclaw girls showed up with make-up.

“This sort of inter-house and other school friendship thing is incredibly new to me” Harry muttered as they passed that classroom, hearing excited chatter from inside.

Neville frowned, before nodding. “Oh yeah, we’ve been working on inter-house unity for a while now, it took off once the other schools arrived and Cedric was chosen.”

“And then I was chosen” Harry rolled his eyes.

Ron sniggered, turning to Neville. “Do we still have the Pensieve?”

Nodding, Neville lead them through a few lesser used pathways, even a shortcut that the students wouldn’t have known without the map. “We do, but it’s in the RoR.”

“Which I’m not allowed to go to?” Harry asked, amused. It had been a joke, but Neville actually nodded, which made Harry sigh. He held his hands up and promised not to go snoop. “But why did you ask that?”

“Oh, I wanted to show you the memory of the ceremony. People were silent, no one thought you got your name in” Ron explained and grinned. “I might have told the twins that they could prank me for the rest of the school year without me retaliating if they got their names in.”

Harry stopped walking and stared at his best friend. “You… what? Why?”

Ron snorted. “Honestly, Harry. Isn’t it obvious? They were doing everything in their power, for a whole month! The entire school had seen them trying something at some point. They all knew that your name coming out of the Goblet was an impossibility.”

Staring at Ron in shock for at least a minute, Harry then turned to a far too amused looking Neville, who only shrugged, before repeating his comment from earlier. “Chess players, am I right?”

The potions classroom looked the same as it did before, or rather as it did in Harry’s memories. In the front stood the professor’s desk with two different cauldrons on them, the blackboard to the left, the storage room door to the right. It smelled like past potions and had earthy tones in it. The single, darkened window, that was probably just barely reaching the start of the earth outside, behind the blackboard was open and a soft breeze wept through the opened room. Animal entrails lined the left side of the room, which to Harry seemed funny at the moment, though it had terrified him as a child. On the right side were several commodes and next to the door was a tiny library of specialised books.

“Walk, Potter” Malfoy muttered from behind and pushed him further. “You’re not looking natural.”

Harry snorted. “You’re also not natural, Malfoy.”

The Slytherin grinned at him. He went over to Blaise Zabini, spreading his things around while Harry took a seat next to Ron. His friend had a suspicious smirk on his face which Harry frowned at.

“What are you grinning into space about?! Can’t be potions, that I’m sure of.”

Ron snorted. “Yeah, mate. Potions is not really something to laugh over. It’s a very skilled art, few can master” he said mockingly.

“That’ll be ten points from Gryffindor” Snape said as he passed them and Harry rolled his eyes, though Ron just shrugged his shoulders, clearly he didn’t mind anymore.

It was fun to see how the students were reacting to Snape. While in Harry’s past especially Neville had been so scared of him that he had turned into his Boggart, but now the other boy sat there in front of Harry, next to Dean, quietly observing the professor. If anything, this situation would have tipped Harry off that Neville had come back from the past.

Their nightmares had become bigger, scarier than just a mean professor. They had seen family and friends fight and lose their lives, watch the Ministry fall, become so corrupt that Death Eaters worked there. Neville was fighting Death Eaters in school, leading the Hogwarts rebellion.

Sure, Snape was a… an unhealthy professor, but he wasn’t the worst thing in their lives anymore.

“Today” Snape said, closing the window with a flick of his wrist, “we revisit the Wiggenweld Potion. For two tedious months, I have endured your clumsy attempts at this rudimentary concoction. By now” a sneer flickered across his lips, “any lingering incompetence will be met with... displeasure. I expect nothing less than perfection. Begin.”

Harry had to keep himself from sniggering. Snape – hadn’t changed a bit.

He followed Ron into the storage, grabbed what he needed, as quickly as possible and was out even before his best friend. Then, he quickly set everything up, started the precise cutting of Dittany and let the Flobberworms play in the vanilla water.

Ron built everything up next to him. “You should talk to someone about the cupboard thing.”

“Yup” Harry answered, but kept his concentration on the precise cubes of Dittany that he needed. “But now is not the time for that.”

“Oh yeah” Ron agreed and smirked. “How are you already done with the Dittany? Can I borrow some?”

Harry grinned at Ron and shook his head. “Do it yourself. This is my batch.”

“Might have to slow down now, mate. You weren’t this good before” he whispered towards him, which made Harry roll his eyes.

He got it, yes, he understood. But… he wanted to be the real him… the one who didn’t just do the bare minimum. And while he did understand that he couldn’t have just gotten that good over being in the hospital wing… he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to make this potion well.

“Want to swap with me?” Ron asked, motioning to the uneven squares on his side.

“Your potion is going to explode with that” Harry commented with a grin, when he found a shadow standing in front of him. He froze and looked up to see Snape standing there, looking at both of them with a narrowed, calculating gaze. “Sorry for talking, sir.”

Snape hummed, his eyes narrowing in on Ron’s cubes. “Your observations are quite correct, Potter. Weasley, two point from Gryffindor for unfocussed cutting.”

With that he left again, looking for any other Gryffindor to take points away from, probably. Ron grew a grin and worked on making the squares more into identical cubes. “Already got twelve points away in the first ten minutes, this is not looking good.”

“Neither are these cubes, Ron” Harry commented and grinned. “Before you destroy them more, put the Flobberworms into the vanilla water. Damn, mate, am I the one who woke up six days ago or is it you?!”

Ron sniggered and followed Harry’s comments. Harry in the meantime placed the Chizpurfle fang into the mortar and crushed it into small rocks. Then, he grabbed two black disposable gloves from his satchel and started dealing with the Flobberworms.

The gloves he had ordered through Madam Pomfrey when he had a quiet day in the hospital wing. At first, she had been critical, but once he had explained to her all the benefits he saw in having sterile disposable gloves around, she had ordered two packs and kept one for herself, gifting the other to Harry. It was really nice of her.

Collecting mucus from the Flobberworms was even more disgusting than just using them as a whole in a potion. He had learned a few years ago that disposable gloves, if magically cleaned worked perfectly and did not put the potion’s stability in danger.

And honestly, who wanted to work with disgusting things with bare hands?!

Ron stared at him. “What are you doing?!” he asked, loud enough to have half the room – including Snape – look at them.

“Collecting mucus from Flobberworms” Harry answered as he finally filled half a phial.

“With Muggle things?”

“Potter, put the worm down, step away from the cauldron” Snape said and Harry followed what his professor asked him to do. He took his gloves off and made sure that the disgusting thing remained inside the ball of plastic, while the Flobberworms went back into the vanilla water.

Snape walked over and inspected the phial closely, while most students (Gryffindor side mostly) held their breaths. Harry just stood there and waited. He knew what he was doing; after Hogwarts he had actually started to like brewing and the glove thing had been a project he’d had with Hermione after Ron had died. It was something for both of them to see each other without having to open up old wounds.

The professor turned back to Harry with raised eyebrows. “Too arrogant to do it with your hands, Potter?”

“No sir” Harry said, evenly. He was not jumping into defending himself from Snape’s taunt.

“So” Snape drawled, his black eyes narrowing, “you propose we sully the purity of a magical potion with Muggle interference? Such a notion is not merely foolish, Potter, it is an insult to the very principles of this discipline. Elaborate on this... innovation... if you dare.”

Harry nodded once. “Yes, sir. I wanted to keep my hands clean, should I have to add more Chizpurfle rocks or cut more Dittany. Having to clean my hands before adding something could potentially destroy the delicate balance and timing of whatever potion we should be creating.”

Snape watched him closely, his face not showing whatever he was thinking. After a few seconds, he finally spoke up. “Indeed, Potter. And pray tell, amidst your delicate convalescence in the hospital wing, a place for recuperation, one would assume, do enlighten me as to the precise moment your infirmity permitted such industrious, albeit likely misguided, activity. Or perhaps” a thin smile played on his lips, “the rules, as always, are a mere suggestion for the celebrated Mr. Potter?”

That man clearly wanted a rise out of him. And frankly, if he had been the boy who hadn’t woken up from the future, he would have absolutely taken the bait. He would have yelled, called Snape an idiot professor, unfair and maybe even bigoted.

But he wasn’t that boy anymore.

“I have been working on this for a while, sir. My stay in the hospital wing simply kept me from using them earlier” he said, trying to make it sound as if he was just slightly upset.

He could see in Snape’s eyes that he didn’t believe him. “Detention with me. After dinner.”

“Sir, we have Astronomy after dinner” Neville cut in, sounding much more respectful than Harry had before.

Snape hummed. “Tomorrow after dinner, then. Should your predictably clumsy handling of the Flobberworm mucus result in the usual catastrophic eruption, Potter, be assured that the remainder of this month will find you in my less-than-charming company. Consider it... remedial instruction. Proceed. Or perhaps you find the prospect of starting anew, with only your patently inadequate manual dexterity, more appealing?”

This man. Honestly, the way he was taunting Harry, it was… almost to an insane level, right?!

“No sir” Harry stated, confident in his own work. He accepted the phial and added the last remaining Chizpurfle fang rocks, before he started to stir clockwise and after four times, slowly added the mucus, while stirring.

Nothing happened and Harry could feel the tense atmosphere in the room calm and relax. Snape eyed the potion, before he harrumphed and walked over to the Slytherin. The noise started to kick up again and people continued to work on their potions.

Ron deflated next to him, a long sigh escaping his lips. “Do not do things like that again, mate. I thought I was dying here.”

Harry just laughed quietly. “Hey, how quickly did you get your first detention? I’m sure I’m the fastest at waking up and getting detention.”

Neville, in front of them, turned around with a dark look. “You’re insane.”

“I’m aware. Why is everyone else so surprised by it?!”

Chapter Text

“Mr. Potter.”

Harry stopped at McGonagall’s voice and turned around. There was unmistakable comfort in her stern voice, once you've realized it. And Harry's long talks with then Headmistress Minerva McGee gave him a lot of options to realize that. He had gotten to understand her and her antics with Hogwarts quite a lot. Additionally, he loved to visit the castle - not too often, since the memories of all the people he lost while the fought for him, was sometimes still unbearable.

However, now... He had just tried to get to a double of Care, but had obviously been intercepted by his Head of House after lunch. He sent her a smile, which she did not send back, simply raised her eyebrows. Usual scare tactics, really. Nothing to be afraid of. At least not as adult Harry, but the teenager Harry would have probably tried to get away from her as quickly as possible.

“I heard you received detention on your first day back after the hospital wing.”

Sighing, Harry nodded. “Yes, professor.”

McGonagall stayed quiet, clearly waiting for him to continue, but honestly, Harry didn’t know what else she wanted from him. Tell her he was sorry? Explain how it happened? Promise to not do it again?

She chuckled. “Professor Snape was rather sparse with details, could you please enlighten me as to what your detention was based upon?”

“Uh, sure” Harry opened his satchel and grabbed his box of disposable gloves that he always had with him. He handed it over to McGonagall and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been working on these for a while, because… well, sometimes the things we have to touch in Potions are not really… nice? I, well… I used them today and Professor Snape wasn’t a fan, I guess.”

McGonagall hummed and pulled one out of the box, performing some spells on them. Some of which Harry caught or recognized, but a few were new to him. Most of the spells seemed to gather information on material and added magic and magical durability.

“They’re stable” McGonagall commented and turned to Harry in confusion. “How did you do that?”

“It’s an adapted cleaning spell” he said, blushing slightly. “I… I thought about it a lot and experimented on different things before I used it, I promise.”

McGonagall chuckled, a hint of amusement flashing through her eyes as she handed him the box back. “Rest assured, Mr. Potter, I have no reason to doubt your account. Perhaps the start of this detention can be held in the hospital wing, where you can demonstrate this spell. Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey, as well as I would be very interested in how you’ve adapted the cleaning spell.” A thoughtful glint entered her eyes. “I believe Professor Flitwick might find such innovative spellwork quite fascinating as well.”

Harry stared at her in shock, before muttering that he didn’t believe Snape would actually do that, but McGonagall was already leaving towards the dungeon, the single black glove in her hand. Holding up his hands, Harry shook his head, showing the box back into his satchel and walked towards the entrance of the castle, where Neville stood, leaning against the wall, clearly amused.

“Making waves the first day officially back? You’re impossible.”

Sighing, Harry rubbed his forehead. “I mean, I didn’t really think about what my actions would do. It was just so natural, because that’s how I’ve been doing my potions forever.”

“Yeah, that is sort of the problem when coming back” Neville said. They remained quiet as they headed towards Hagrid’s hut where most of the class was already standing around. Hagrid was talking about a triple-X creature with so much fascination that he had clearly forgotten to do a headcount.

With all the love Harry had for the half-giant, he wasn’t really the most attentive teacher. It was sad, because Hagrid was a good guy, but his teachings were very unconventional and if tested by an outsider looking at Hogwarts, could end his career. That wasn't the part that made Harry a little unsettled around his 'friend', however.

It was the fact that he was endangering the students. Who in their right mind would introduce Buckbeak without first going through the theory.

“Make sure to not create big waves from now on, Haz” Neville muttered.

“Who do you think I am?” Harry asked, before he grinned. “Can’t promise much, but I’ll try.”

Neville just huffed and moved through the crowds to stand next to Hannah Abbott. Ron and Hermione swooped down next to him, Ron with amusement shining in his blue eyes so brightly, it almost lit up the sky. Hermione just asked whether or not he had now detention with McGonagall as well. When he denied it, she commented, that he probably just didn't know it yet. Very helpful, thank you Hermione.

When the lesson was finally over and they headed back up towards the castle for their theoretical lesson of Astronomy, Ron and Justin walked next to Harry. So, something was about to be talked about, Harry thought.

“I have never seen Neville so annoyed” Ron said with a quick laugh. “Usually, he’s so composed, but what you’ve done today…”

Harry sighed. “I didn’t do much! It’s just… I don’t like touching some ingredients.”

“Snape will use this against you” Justin grinned. “You’ll probably have to gut a bat.”

“Or rip an owl’s vocal cords out.”

“Fill ten phials with extracts from an Acrumantula’s Digestive system.”

“Collect the spinal cord of Dementors.”

Harry pushed them both, with a disgusted look. “I will kill you tonight. I’ll smother you while you sleep.”

Justin sniggered. “That’ll be a bit more difficult, since I’m in the Hufflepuff dorm? But you’re welcome to try.”

Ron laughed throwing his arm around Harry’s shoulders. “You won’t get rid of us. Who knows how this thing works, maybe we’re immortal because of something and when you murder us, we’ll just wake up earlier again.” He frowned. “Actually, can you murder me tonight and I’ll check that theory?”

Harry shoved Ron away and grinned. “You’re the worst friend ever.”

He sighed as they entered they castle. He caught sight of the Moody impersonator talking to some second years about something scary, judging by the faces of the children he was talking to, and his mood soured, remembering all these times where the impersonator was doing stupid things and that he was in fact a Death Eater.

Ron tapped his right shoulder. “Don’t glower at him, Harry, while we do hate him, you’re looking like you want to murder him.”

“To test a theory” Harry said darkly.

Justin sniggered when they turned left and headed up the left side of the grand staircase, to get to the Astronomy tower quickly. Whoever created the timetable and set Astronomy in the tower right after Care of Magical Creatures outside was a true sadist!

The Hufflepuff spoke up, once the crowds thinned more, since the next lesson was about to begin. “Well, we have yet to find an adult who woke up.”

Harry frowned. “No adults? But they… they died too!”

Ron nodded and shrugged. “We thought for a while that Snape was back, but… he’s just the same old idiot. Then, we thought McGonagall was back, but she too didn’t really behave differently and I don't think she's dead in our original timeline. She just saw that some of us were having problems. Both are different than when we were at Hogwarts, but that could just be because of other outside things.”

“Madam Pomfrey is a contender too” Justin continued, “but we think she’s just… more attentive or observant than before.”

Harry hummed. “So, no adults?”

“Not so far” Justin shrugged his shoulders. He pulled his hair back as they began to climb the main stairs towards the moving staircases. “Also, no one really dared to talk to the adults, in fear of them locking us away.”

Harry nodded. “That’s fair. So, what are our plans so far?”

Ron shoved him slightly. “None of your business, Harry” he answered with a grin. “Honestly, first you’ve got to be present, then we can introduce you to what we’re planning.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry couldn’t help but smirk. “Worth a try.”

They reached the moving staircase, just as the stairs moved away. Looking up, Harry could see Hermione and Parvati on the stairs one floor up, but they were rotating to another landing, that didn’t help them out at all. Hermione tried to race to the end, but it was long gone.

“How long ago did Astronomy start?” Ron asked and Justin checked his Muggle watch.

“Two minutes ago. I’m pretty sure no one made it on time.”

Harry snorted. “I saw Nev and Seamus booking it, I’m sure they tried everything in their power to be on time.”

Ron sniggered. “They’ve been doing that since September. No one’s ever been able to get it. McGonagall has even set up a small monetary award if someone manages to be there.”

“No one did so far” Justin finished the explanation just when a staircase arrived.

The three of them stepped on and walked up, waiting for it to turn right so they would be ahead of Hermione and Parvati. The two seemed to have noticed them, since they were yelling for a staircase to move into their direction.

Harry laughed when their stairs moved first and Ron enthusiastically waved over while Parvati was actually cussing them out. Justin made a little dance, that almost threw him over the railing had Harry not grabbed his cloak and held him back.

“One question… why not move the class?!”

Ron snorted. “To where? That would mean we’d have to restructure the timetables again and no one wants to do that.”

“So they’d rather us arriving ten minutes late?”

“Actually” Justin cut in with a grin, “depending on how the stairs are aligned, people end up thirty minutes late. In December someone actually needed over forty minutes.”

“Laugh it off, Justin” Ron shoved him. “The twins found me and made my shoes slippery, so I couldn’t get out of the snow. Usually people need fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“Like ‘Mione?” Harry asked and leaned over the railing. “You’re going to be late!” he yelled downwards, where Hermione and Parvati just received their staircase.

Hermione glared at him, clearly considering throwing a hex their way, but Parvati pulled her up the stairs so they could continue their way.

“We’re already late, Potter! You too!” Parvati called once they reached the landing, though Harry, Ron and Justin had already found their perfect connection and were two flights of stairs higher than them. Harry laughed and waved, when they finally found the correct floor and jumped off, racing down the hallway.

The tower was at the end of said hallway and they climbed it as fast as their burning legs would allow them. Harry groaned at the last few stairs, thinking of having to do that again after dinner. At least, they had a break until eight.

They made it with twenty minutes into the lesson. Professor Sinistra didn’t bat an eye, clearly she expected it. The prize money Ron and Justin had been talking about was still behind her in a bookshelf, so clearly no one had been on time.

When they took their seats, Ron leaned over to Neville. “How much?”

“Two minutes!” Neville whispered over, furiously. “And only because we missed the last flight of stairs!” he rolled his eyes, which made Harry snigger.

“Next time you should jump” he whispered over, to which Neville made a ‘do you think I’m stupid’ gesture with his arms. Ron sniggered and Justin added “to prove a theory.” That made Harry laugh quietly and they turned back to the lesson, which Sinistra was holding.

Hermione and Parvati arrived twenty-seven minutes late to an almost full classroom, there were still three people missing. Harry winked at her, while she gave him the middle finger. Behind an opened book, so Sinistra wouldn’t see. Harry sniggered behind his book.

It felt good being back.

That feeling lasted through Justin’s mind healing session and all the way through Thursday dinner. Then, he had detention. And Snape had indeed accepted the fact that Harry could spend half of his detention in the hospital wing, explaining to him, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Flitwick how he had come up with this idea.

He had spent the night after the Astronomy lesson together with Ron in the dormitory, casting spells on some gloves to make them look like failed experiments. Before Neville showed up and told them to stop since these gloves were the one from Madam Pomfrey and Harry almost ran head first into a wall, to make himself think for one second.

So, he had nothing to show, claiming the gloves he had experimented had all been thrown out. Snape’s comment of ‘how convenient’ had been ignored.

Right now, he was showcasing the spell he used. It was at the very basis a cleaning spell, but it also removed the microplastic and any Muggle things that made them a bit dusty. They were clean, stretchy one-time-gloves that due to Harry’s spell could be used for all kinds of things and taken off within seconds to make sure whatever had been on the gloves would not contaminate anything else.

Madam Pomfrey was already talking about how safe they were for mediwitches working with patients with blood transmitted illnesses. Flitwick seemed amazed at how far Harry had come, layering spells, while McGonagall just seemed proud that one of her lions had been doing something so good.

Snape though was another story. While his facial expression didn’t give anything away, his eyes certainly were. There was healthy dose of mistrust in them, Harry was sure.

“Mr. Potter, this is very advanced for your level of magic” he commented, once the fuss was over.

Harry nodded. He had already tried to find a good explanation and thanks to Neville, Ron and Justin had found one rather fast. “I’m aware, Professor. But I have been working on this ever since second year. I just wanted something to help me work with es-especially potions.”

Snape seemed more annoyed, but Flitwick already sang his praises and Madam Pomfrey asked Harry if he wanted to earn pocket-money by performing that spell on all disposable gloves she was going to get for the infirmary. Three Sickles and a hundred Knuts, roughly two pounds per glove pair. That seemed like a good price. A very good prize actually, since she obviously needed more than two gloves. He happily agreed.

“This is delightful” Flitwick said, almost cheering. “Please create some for me too! I’ll pay the same rate.”

Harry frowned. “But… do you need these in Charms?”

Flitwick waved him off. “You can never be too careful. I’d like to have a classroom set, if possible.”

He must have been the first student at Hogwarts to get a job during detention, Harry thought amused.

And so, after the first half of his detention, Harry followed Snape’s quick steps down to the dungeon and into the classroom. Along they way, they met Zabini and Malfoy. The latter grinning at Harry who just rolled his eyes.

Once inside the classroom, Harry was given parchment and quill and he was told by Snape to write a hundred lines of ‘I will not use untested products during potions class.’ Once he would be done with that, he was allowed to leave. The room was quiet, other than Harry’s quill and Snape reading through the essays and correcting them. Harry made sure to use his best handwriting for the lines as he wondered if he was allowed to use the gloves on Monday again. He didn’t dare to ask the question.

Once he was done, he handed Snape the parchment and was told to sit down again. Harry bit down the comment of ‘you said I could leave once I was finished’. So instead, he sat down and waited.

“Your pronouncements are as predictable as they are unconvincing” his voice was low and laced with thinly veiled contempt. “These gloves display a competence that utterly belies your supposed years of... experience. They possess a finesse that your otherwise consistently mediocre efforts have never even hinted at. Two years, you claim? A ludicrous assertion. And this melodramatic excuse of a near-death experience? A convenient fabrication, I suspect, masking a level of skill you deliberately choose to keep hidden. What game are you playing now, Potter? What advantage do you seek by feigning such unremarkable competence?”

Harry stared at his professor silently. He hadn't expected the professor to ask any questions once they were done in the infirmary. How stupid of him. Obviously, Snape was going to ask more. He should have realized that sooner. “I… I wasn’t lying, sir.” He said weakly.

Snape watched him with careful consideration. It was as if he was trying to read his mind, though Harry never felt an intrusion and truly, Harry trusted this man to know what was right and wrong. Reading children’s minds was punishable by law.

“How, pray tell, did these remarkable creations materialize over a mere two years, given your well-documented limitations on practicing magic beyond these hallowed halls?”

“I… I worked on them here” Harry answered with a shrug. “There are books in the library about layering spells, Hermione showed me the cleaning spell a few weeks into second year and I’ve had gloves with me since my Aunt Petunia ordered me to clean out the organic waste.”

Granted, that last thing didn’t happen, but he just wanted to name-drop his aunt and see Snape’s reaction. If Snape was from the future, he would probably not comment on Petunia and if he wasn’t from the future, he would hopefully do something to expose this.

His face remained impassive and he just continued to watch Harry. This was getting ridiculous.

Was he from the future? Was he not? Everyone kept telling Harry that while Snape behaved slightly different, he was still the same old, but… Harry felt a different kind of energy coming from the man. He… he wasn’t convinced that Snape was actually the one from the past.

“Despite the dubious nature of your claims, Potter” Snape stated, his tone flat and dismissive, “you are dismissed back to your Common Room. Do not mistake this for acceptance of your preposterous tale. My vigilance regarding your conduct will be... intensified.”

“Yes sir.” Harry got up and left as quickly as he could without making it obvious. Once he had left the dungeons and climbed the stairs to the first floor began to run and made it in record time all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Most lions were reading, in the back corner next to the girl’s door was a fiery game of Exploding Snap going on and the fifth and seventh year were sitting by the fire place, working on their exam preparations. He caught Ron playing Exploding Snap with Dean, Ginny and Angelina on the table in the middle of the Common Room, while Neville sat at the table next to the boy’s dormitory room with Hermione and Parvati, working on some essays.

Seamus, part of the fiery Exploding Snap game in the background, saw him entering, a bit out of breath and narrowed his eyes. “If you are training to get the money from Astronomy, you will be met with a powerful enemy! I will get this first, me and Neville!”

Harry laughed and held his hands up in mock-surrender, as Neville looked up from his book. “Not trying to steal money. I’m actually happy that there is a lesson where no one seems annoyed that we’re late.”

Hermione glared at him, when he took a seat at her table. “I am annoyed.”

Neville snorted and made some space for Harry by placing the books about Herbology on the floor. Parvati grabbed the loose parchment and cleaned it up as well.

Harry sniggered and winked at his best friends. “Yeah, but… you’re ‘Mione. You’re always on time.”

“Not anymore, obviously” Hermione rolled her eyes. “And I did talk to Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore, but they just… they didn’t change it.”

“One week, we’ll make it” Parvati said, patting Hermione’s arm.

“The very last week” Neville said with a snigger and dodged Hermione’s hex, which went straight for the fiery game of Exploding Snap, making everything explode. Several yells could be heard as ashes of the card game glided through the air, smoke filled the room and the windows had to be opened to make it breathable again. Not that it stopped the students from collecting a new set of cards and getting on with it, as if nothing had happened. Harry wondered if this was how the card game industry was making their money: by having the card set blow up every once in a while and then, everyone needed to buy a new one.

Hermione hummed, turning to Neville. “That’s on you, by the way.”

“What?!”

“For moving out of the way.”

Neville snorted. “I’d do it again.”

Harry laughed as Hermione shot another hex at him, which he once again dodged and it hit Seamus’ butt. He yelped loudly cursed whoever did that with unruly hair for the rest of the month. Hermione's hair glowed pastel pink for two seconds, which made her gasp in outrage. Seamus laughed victoriously. Parvati sniggered and shook her head.

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure that curse out and hand it right back to him” she whispered conspiratorially towards Hermione.

This timeline… it was just crazy.

Chapter Text

Harry entered the Great Hall right on time for breakfast on Saturday at seven. Breakfast started at seven, so he was happy with being on time.

Not many students were around as it was… Saturday. And seven o’clock. Harry had seen Ron still sleeping when he left, as his curtains had opened a bit during the night, mostly due to the bedsheets pooling out of his right side of bed.

In the Great Gall currently were only fifteen students and Professor Sinistra who was nursing a cup of coffee and looked virtually still asleep, a dead-eyed look at the right corner of the hall.

Harry snorted and observed the students. There were not many awake this early and Harry wondered if the students who were awake had woken up here… Then, he caught Ginny’s red hair at the Slytherin table talking to a brown-haired girl, Astoria Greengrass, Draco’s future wife, and a raven-haired girl from Durmstrang and he shook his head. That couldn’t be it.

Aside form the three girls at the Slytherin table, there was also Neville, close by the head table, and two Gryffindor firsties close by the door, at the Gryffindor table. Two Ravenclaws that Harry didn’t recognize were talking to two Hufflepuffs and Justin sat there as well. They seemed to be discussing some theory, since they listened closely to what Justin was talking about, and asking questions. Close by the head table on the Ravenclaw table sat four seventh years, books open and studying. It seemed as if they had been there the whole night, as they hadn’t even realized that breakfast was on the table.

Harry sat down next to Neville without making much noise. Neville looked up and yawned. “Sorry. Still sleepy.”

“Then why aren’t you in bed, Nev?” Harry asked amused, shaking his head.

Neville huffed. “We’ve had a meeting yesterday that went well past midnight. I just can’t sleep anymore when I have to go to bed after midnight.”

“Really?” Harry frowned. “Has it always been that way?”

Shrugging, Neville grabbed another coffee. That meant something, since Harry had always seen him drinking tea. But actually going for coffee… his friend truly seemed tired.

After Neville took a large gulp of the dirty liquid, he closed his eyes for a second and it seemed as if was falling asleep. Then, he opened his eyes again, seemingly more awake. “Don’t know. I think it’s definitely been that way after the war.”

Harry nodded. He could understand that. “I have a question… But it’s not really a question, more a… suggestion?”

Neville groaned and placed the coffee mug back on the table. “I hate this already” he muttered, before turning to Harry. “I’m all ears.”

“Really?” Harry asked with a grin. “Didn’t sound like you were looking forward to that suggestion.”

“Basilisk, Thestrals, Battle of Hogwarts, need I say more?” he asked, which made Harry laugh.

“No, point taken, thanks. This one is different.”

Neville sighed, grabbing more black pudding, sausages and baked beans from the middle. “I’m ready to shoot it down, so hit me.”

Harry hit Neville’s arm.

“Ouch! Not like that!”

Sniggering, Harry dodged an attack from Neville, but then received a baked bean to his face. “I was thinking of going Horcrux hunting during the Easter holidays. We have two weeks, hear me out” he held his hands up, when Neville opened his mouth. Without saying something, Neville shook his head and continued eating. “Okay, so we have to weeks, I’m just going to tell everyone that my relatives want me home for… cleaning the house, I don’t know. And then I’m off to go look for them.”

“It’s too dangerous” Neville said, shaking his head. “We wake up with our minds intact, yes, but not our bodies. You have a teenage level of magic again, I know your mind knows magic and can perform it, but teenage magic is volatile. What if something happens and you can’t get out, because your magic doesn’t know how to behave or what to do?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “I’m always good at getting away, Potter Luck and all that.”

Neville narrowed his eyes at him. “We have to wait ‘till summer.”

Sighing, Harry looked around for anyone observing them closely. There had been a few more students, but most were half asleep or in their own little world. Everyone else seemed too interested in their own breakfast, so he spoke quietly, “I am just worried that it would be too late during summer.”

“Harry, I-“

“We don’t know how we woke up” Harry continued, “what if the same thing that brought us here, will bring Riddle’s memories back?”

Neville froze and turned to look at Harry, as if he had never considered that. Then, he swallowed the food in his mouth and shook his head. “Adults have never come back.”

“I’m not so sure that Snape’s actually the same” Harry argued. “I talked about my aunt, which he knows from his past and he didn’t react at all, as if he knew.”

“Or you’re just imagining it, because you want it to be true, you want someone who could possibly fulfil that wish of having a guardian” Neville countered.

“Not Snape!” Harry shook his head. “All I’m saying is that we don’t know how this thing works and if old Voldy actually is coming back during the ceremony, we need to make sure to defeat him fast.”

Neville sighed. “If… and I’m only saying this to help you, Haz, if Riddle is coming back, wouldn’t it make more sense to leave the Horcruxes alone? What if he goes looking for them and finds them missing? He’ll likely create more, which we don’t know anything about.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “Then when do you suggest we go looking for them? Because quite frankly, I want the one in my scar gone as fast as possible. But I am not going to walk into his layer and demand him to kill me again.”

“The scar we can deal with. I don’t think Riddle will try to do anything like he did before – should he have come back too” Neville calmed him down. “We’ll have to ask the goblins for help, but for Merlin’s sake, Haz, do not go there alone.”

Frowning, Harry tilted his head while Neville picked up his coffee again. “Why not?”

“The goblins have something that can tell them when someone’s travelled through time and they will realize you’ve done that. It’s illegal for any goblin to help a time traveller, because they have more knowledge than the goblins.” Neville rolled his eyes. “So please wait until one of us is free to get you there. We have a standing alliance with them already, we’ll just have to add you to the parchment.”

“Holy shit” Harry whispered. Before he could add more, a shadow on the other side of the table made both Gryffindor boys look up in slight alarm, before realizing that Fleur Delacour stood there. Harry smiled at her. “Hi Fleur.”

“Bonjour ‘Arry” she answered. “’Ow are you doing?”

Harry smiled as she sat down, tabling the discussion with Neville for when they were alone or with people who knew about them. As she took her seat, the table’s content became more international with French breakfast items appearing around them.

Neville made a happy noise and when Harry looked over, he saw his friend filling another plate with Croissants, Pain au chocolat, brioches and yoghurt. Harry sniggered, deciding to help himself to some fresh fruits and despite his better judgement, a chocolate bread. These were the best thing he had ever eaten.

“I’m fine” he finally said. “Made a bit of a miscalculation back at the lake that made… an impact, as you’ve seen in the hospital wing.”

Fleur laughed softly. “I did, oui. So, Viktor couldn’t tell me the last task, his ‘eadmaster was always around. ‘E did tell me to go to you, so what do you know?”

Harry rolled his eyes at that. Yes, he had seen it himself, Karkaroff had been annoyingly close to Viktor the last two days and it seemed as if Viktor wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable with that. The other Durmstrang students had tried to get him away, but whenever Viktor wasn’t in school, the headmaster would follow him around. It almost bordered on stalking.

“It’s a maze” Harry answered with a shrug. “That’s all I know. Also, Viktor told me, we had to postpone our Seeker’s off, so…”

“Oh oui” Fleur nodded. “I got myself an invitation too.”

Harry laughed, while Neville added that Cedric would fly as well, so after the tournament, there would be a Seeker’s off between the four champions.

“Maybe this one will be more interesting than the lake task. Or the maze task” Harry added, rolling his eyes.

Fleur laughed softly, while Neville adapted a grim expression. That was gone by the time the Weasley twins sat down next to Fleur and tried romancing her, which she took with amusement, as if they all knew this would never happen.

The redheads did enjoy the international breakfast surrounding Fleur and by the time Ron arrived, the Hall was basically full with activities and children talking. Harry turned to the Ravenclaw table, where he had seen the four seventh year students working away and found them eating and talking as well. It seemed, they finally exited from their study bubble.

“On Tuesday, we have a free period” Justin said when they were sitting outside by the lake in a warming charm bubble of his own making. The Durmstrang ship was lazily sitting in the harbour to their left, students milling about, enjoying a rare sunny day. Even of it was cold and the snow had left, leaving partially muddy earth behind, the sun could take away all the bad thoughts. Harry, who had been lying on the cold earth with his winter cloak opened though still around his shoulders, turned his head to look at the Hufflepuff, unsure of where his friend was going with this.

Ron was sitting against the tree, with a Transfiguration book hovering the air in front of him, while he had another book on his lap to make it easier to write on the parchment he had brought with him. Even if they were all from the future, traits like doing homework the day before it had to be done, apparently couldn’t be taken away from Ron, which Harry thought incredibly amusing. He had his essay done two days ago.

“So?” Ron asked, before turning towards Harry. “When is our free period?”

Harry groaned. This again! “After lunch?”

Justin sniggered. “I mean, yeah… but we have Herbology first. What I’m trying to say is that this might be the best option to get Harry to Gringotts.”

“What?! No!” Ron placed his quill aside and grabbed the hovering book, pulling it out of the stasis charm. “We have DADA after that free period! The Moody impersonator will know if Harry’s missing.”

“How long do you expect the ritual to go?” Harry asked, curiously.

“An hour?” Ron shrugged. “I don’t know. But if it will take longer, and we still have to add Harry to the parchment…” he held his hand up. “That won’t work.”

Justin sighed. “What’s your idea then? Because unless we sneak off after dinner and hope no one’ll catch us, I don’t think we have much time to go to Gringotts.”

Harry sighed and placed his head back on the earth, watching the very few clouds drifting by. “On a Hogsmeade weekend?” he offered.

“Too many people to potentially see us apparate, which he technically shouldn’t have mastered” Ron said, shaking his head.

“Then during the night” Justin offered. “Unless we wait until Easter, get Harry away from wherever you are and go to Gringotts.”

The long silence on their warming charm bubble made Harry look up. When he saw his friends looking at him, he shrugged and laid back down. “Guess it’ll be Easter.”

Justin opened his mouth to say something, when Harry saw from his limited view, that Hermione and Ginny were heading their way. He cleared his throat, getting the boys’ attention and by the time, the two girls had arrived, they were talking about Quidditch.

“Always the same with you boys” Hermione commented amused and rolled her eyes. “Ginny has a proposition.”

“For who?” Ron asked raising his eyebrows.

Ginny stuck out her tongue which made Harry snigger. “It’s for whom, idiot.”

Ron stared her down, which she returned that had Hermione and Harry share an amused look. Justin next to them was cackling. After a good two minutes of silent dark stares, Ron finally held up his hands. “Sorry, my bad. For whom?”

It was clear that Ron just gave up, because he knew that Ginny could potentially take this to the next level and they could be staring at each other for the next hour or so.

His sister smirked and turned to Harry. “I know about the maze and what will be inside. I’ll help you, but you have to give me a percentage of the prize money for me to tell you.”

Harry stared at her, with a slowly growing grin. Ron made a comment in the background about ‘blackmailing’ and Justin was cackling once more in the background, before talking about how he loved the Weasley family, that only earned him a hex from Ron.

“You didn’t tell me about the money!” Hermione commented and Ginny shrugged her shoulders with a grin.

“There are advantages, everyone; you just have to know where to get them” she said.

Harry sat up properly and turned around, so he was facing his future/past wife, before he narrowed his eyes. “Is that what you were talking about with Astoria Greengrass and the other student from Durmstrang?”

“No?” Ginny glared, but clearly didn’t have the same annoyance for Harry as she had with Ron. After two seconds, she folded. “Okay, yes. We did…”

“I think we have ourselves another little Snake at our hands” Harry grinned.

Ginny was about to say something, when Ron laughed and turned to Harry. “You out of everyone currently present cannot say that, Harry. You are the obvious Snake in the lion’s den.”

Hermione was amused and shook her head. “Maybe all of us are Snakes?”

“Not me” Justin held his hands up that made Ron laugh.

“Hell yeah, you are!”

“Nu-uh! Badger all the way!”

While Ron and Justin continued arguing, Harry turned to Ginny. “I will give you ten percent of the prize money for everything you know. Sounds fair?”

Ginny narrowed her eyes. “Twenty-five.”

“Nine.”

“What? You’re going downwards!”

Harry smirked. “Yeah, I am. It’s ten, or nine, I can go down even further.”

“Ten, fine!” Ginny clearly tried to be annoyed, but she was too happy to make it clear. Then she sat down and told Harry about all the creatures she had heard Dumbledore and the other heads of their schools talk to Hagrid about bringing here. It was crazy that she was able to overhear it and Harry wondered if she had done so before, but put it off, in order to write everything down.

He made sure to add them to three letters and send one to each champion, so that they all had the information needed.

During Sunday dinner was the first time Harry had seen Ron being concerned. He kept staring at the Slytherin table and played it off, Neville helping along, but Harry wasn’t born yesterday. He knew when his best friend was worried and his lack of eating adding to that the speed or better lack thereof, it was clear to him, that something bothered Ron.

Harry kept trying to find out who he was looking for, who this person could be that was apparently also a time traveller, maybe even the one that had a permanent problem, but he couldn’t see anything that would have alerted him.

At the Slytherin table sat a dozen Durmstrang students, close to Viktor, and about five Beauxbatons students. Malfoy was talking to Zabini and Nott, Parkinson throwing in some comments that made the boys laugh, everything seemed normal. At least to Harry.

Before dessert was served, Ron excused himself and walked over to the Slytherin table. Harry just turned to look at Neville with raised eyebrows. The Gryffindor in question sighed and shrugged his shoulders, before shaking his head. As Harry selected a delicate mousse au chocolat, he received a note from his friend.

Don’t ask, we’re telling you when you’re ready.

Harry just rolled his eyes, but nodded. He turned back to the Slytherin table and saw Ron talking to a few students in their year, as well as someone from Durmstrang. Did a student from outside Hogwarts come back? Was he the temporary mentee?

He looked at Neville, who had started a discussion with Dean about dried versus fresh herbs in potions, before turning back to Ron. His friend was walking out of the Great Hall with… Cassius Warrington? What the hell was going on there?!

Neville seemed to have noticed him looking and he sighed. “Why aren’t you blind to everything else, like before?!” he muttered more to himself it seemed.

Harry snorted. “What, you think I’ll come out of a… of… my situation and continue not observing everything?”

“I was hoping that.”

“Sorry to break your illusions then, mate.”

Neville just sighed, turning back to Dean who hadn’t even realized the other boy was talking to someone else. He jumped back into the conversation as if nothing had happened.

Next to Harry, however, sat Hermione who had clearly heard what they said, but obviously not understood the reference. “Come out of what?” she asked, brows furrowed.

“My uh relatives, I guess” Harry answered quickly. “Not the best situation.”

Hermione huffed, shaking her head. “You won’t be going home for Easter, I bet” she said with a sad smile. “My parents want me home this year, since they have a family gathering and they can’t really explain to everyone why I’m not there when all the other schools are out.”

Harry nodded. “Makes sense. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing over Easter. If they want me home to clean the house, I might have to go back. But I hope I won’t have to.”

He received a sad smile, before Hermione was pulled into a discussion between Lavender and Parvati and she lost interest in what was going on otherwise. Harry turned back to the Slytherin table, observing them, only to stop at Malfoy, who had been watching him with a raised eyebrow.

Since Harry didn’t exactly know how to ask if everyone was okay in Slytherin, he just grinned at him and turned to where Fred and George were talking lowly with some Ravenclaws. They were discussing something for their Herbology O.W.L.s, but looked very mischievous, leaning over the table like that.

When Harry glanced at Malfoy, he could see the Slytherin in high alert, as he kept checking the food on the table. He cackled, before finishing his dessert and following his House to the Common Room. They did lose a few people on the way who were doing or planning other things, but about half the students made it up the stairs.

The evening progressed with a lot of games, tales, homework – lots of panicked children doing it for tomorrow – and… Neville distracting Harry. It was obvious to Harry, but he didn’t say it. Ron was not once mentioned by anyone of their year and Harry began to wonder if they were all back from the future.

He knew that Dean couldn’t have been, since he hadn’t died. Lavender also hadn’t died, yet. But the rest was actually dead. So theoretically, Seamus and Parvati could be the ones other than Neville to have ‘woken up’ in the past.

Ron didn’t come back even when curfew started. The boys got ready for bed and once again, Harry was being distracted by Neville and Seamus. He pretended to play along, but he was too aware of Ron not being back.

He went to bed without asking a question and closed to curtains, but he did not add spells to it, too curious if he would hear Ron return. Instead he heard Seamus whisper to Neville, “I don’t think he bought it.”

Seamus was back, then. Good to know.

Chapter Text

Ron returned around two o’clock in the morning. Harry woke up by the lit candle seemingly floating through the room. He peaked out of his bed and saw a very tired looking Ron slowly getting ready for bed. He then walked over to the lavatory and showered. How that didn’t wake anybody else up was slightly confusing to Harry, especially since he knew that Neville and Seamus both had… should have the war instinct inside them.

Then again, they had been here for a while now. So, maybe they did lose the easy sleep.

When he walked back into the dormitory, he fell onto the bed with a soft groan. Harry knew that sound well enough. It was the thing that Ron usually did when he was more than tired and coulnd’t believe that he was still not asleep.

Finally, he moved under the covers and with a flick of his wand, closed the curtains. Harry followed suit and placed spells on his own curtains, so he could sleep in peace. Briefly, he wondered confronting Ron while Neville was asleep, but he decided against it.

Ron was too tired to give him anything and even if he did, it probably would just come out as confused messed up sentences that wouldn’t make any sense at all. So… he would have better luck questioning a literal lion.

In the morning, they all got ready for school, Ron looked as if he hadn’t slept a second. He was too tired and even walked a few steps behind the group, since he seemingly couldn’t find the strength to walk with them. Harry wondered whether or not he should ask his friend about it, but before he could go there, he received a warning look from Neville.

Why on earth could Neville read him so well?! Harry silently held his hands up and grinned when Neville rolled his eyes.

After a short little trek, they made it down to the Great Hall, only to be met with the Weasley twins. Hiding behind a pillar with a perfect view of the entrance. Harry raised his eyebrows while George grinned at him. Oh something was about to happen here…

“I wouldn’t go in if I were you” Fred said, looking entirely too innocent. The group stopped walking and Harry bit his lip to keep himself from laughing. What had they done to the Great Hall?

Neville sighed. “What did you do?”

“Us?” George asked feigning displeasure. “We would never!”

“Then why would you not want us to enter?” Ron asked, placing his hands on his hips. “Unless there is something we shouldn’t see?”

“Something you shouldn’t… feel?” George offered with a smirk.

Seamus laughed. “So you did something then.”

“No!” Fred crossed his arms. “Just wait until someone else walks in first.”

Unlucky for Justin, he just walked up from the dungeon with a few friends from Hufflepuff in a deep discussion of what seemed to be the positives and negatives of having sheep at home, and as they entered, a confetti canon erupted, shooting balls of confetti at the five Hufflepuffs. They earned themselves a wild lion mane made out of confetti. Harry stared wide eyed at the Hufflepuffs who looked down at each other, while Fred held his hand in front of his mouth, eyes sparkling with mischief. George started to cackle, which gained him attention from the five Hufflepuffs and without having to talk, they raced at the two fifth years, who in turn ran away.

“This never get’s boring around here” Harry commented and Dean sniggered.

He placed an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pulled him into the Great Hall. “Absolutely right, Harry. After you.”

Monday was the worst day in Harry’s opinion. They had seven different classes, History of Magic being once of them, but also Potions and Transfigurations right after each other. Harry sighed as they headed towards Potions after lunch. Before their break, Harry had finally gotten to know what ‘English’ was all about and it really was just… Grammar, spelling… exactly what one would think would happen in an English class.

However, he had only just now realized that their Monday time table had one more hour than the rest of the day. While they usually had free time before their dinner (the time tables stopped after four thirty), there was another class listed at four thirty on Monday.

“Why do we have Latin?” Harry whispered to Ron as they headed down to the Potions classroom.

Ron sighed. “It got introduced in second year, because a lot of Muggleborns couldn’t properly speak the spells and it also helps in inventing new spells.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Quite frankly, I want it gone as fast as possible, seventh year won’t have to deal with it anymore.”

Parvati who had heard the last part turned around and frowned. “Deal with what?”

“Latin” Harry answered and rolled his eyes, which made the girl laugh.

“I agree” Parvati shrugged her shoulders. “It is…” she paused for a while, before she sighed. “No clue. Important for one, yes. But it’s also so incredibly dry!”

“Who teaches it” Harry asked once Parvati had grabbed Hermione and the two were walking in front of Neville who was shielding them.

“Professor Valeria Glyptographus” Ron answered quietly.

“Glypto-what?” Harry asked, shaking his head. “Glyptomania? Kleptomania?”

Neville in front of them snorted and coughed. He turned around once he had calmed down, walking backwards with Seamus next to him leading the way. Yeah, it was kind of obvious now that Seamus was back.

“How is that your mind goes to?” he asked, laughing. “Glypto. Graphus. Glyptographus.”

Harry snorted and shrugged his shoulders. “Glyptographus. Thanks.”

They reached the Potions classroom, where a few Slytherins were already standing. Harry could see Malfoy standing in the shadows opposite the door, his two side kicks next to him. Actually… now that he thought more about it, he hadn’t seen either side kick around since coming back.

He felt Ron walking away from him, behind his back, heading towards Malfoy. Instead of talking to him, he went to the boy next to him. He had brown hair and a flat nose, his dark brown eyes looked tired and his face, half in the shadow looked almost traumatized.

In fact, he looked just as tired as Ron seemed to have been.

When Ron talked to him, Harry could feel the desperation and he frowned slightly, before his eyes fell on Malfoy who was frowning and seemed unhappy with Harry’s attention on them. Harry turned away, only to be faced with Neville who shook his head.

“You are too observant for you own good, Haz.”

Harry just smirked. “Well, expecting everyone to be the same after they went through what we did” he said lowly, unsure of who else had come back and knew about it, “that is kind of your mistake.”

Neville snorted. “Point taken. Want to pair up with me for Potions? Ron’s probably going with Vincent.”

Oh.

That made sense.

Vincent Crabbe.

The boy who died due to fiendfyre that he had started… yeah. That boy probably was the permanent guy Ron was mentoring. Made sense now.

“Sure” Harry answered as his eyes wandered back to Crabbe and Ron. How had he not realized that this was Vincent Crabbe? Well, he looked fitter and healthier, less like a human meatball and more just like a healthy, sporty teenager. He had muscles on his arms, clearly and he obviously didn’t need the big clothes anymore he had used when they were children. His clothes fit him well, this time around.

But he looked haunted, still, even now that Ron was quietly talking with him. Next to Crabbe was Malfoy who was adding some things, making Ron nod and continue. Clearly, something bad had happened.

“Is he alright?” Harry asked Neville.

The other boy just sighed. “He will be. Ron’s really good at helping people, no matter what they go through. He’s probably a Heart-Seer, if not a Seer per se.”

Harry frowned, turning to the other Gryffindor. Before he could ask about Ron being a Seer – what the hell? – the door was opened dramatically and Snape stepped aside. The students walked into class and found the same setup as last time. Harry partnered with Neville, while Ron went over to the Slytherin side to partner with Crabbe.

No one seemed to think it was odd, which was kind of crazy for Harry.

If this had happened when they were in school, Harry would have thought someone was using Polyjuice potion to look like Ron and do stupid things – or forgot that it hadn’t worn off yet.

Snape closed the door with a bang getting a startled reaction from almost everyone from the future – at least the ones that Harry knew and a few others as well.

“Evidently” he began, as he walked back through the rows of students to the front of the class, where he turned around so quickly that his robe needed a second to catch up, “the rudimentary task of dicing ingredients into uniform cubes proved beyond the capabilities of far too many of you in our last session.”

Harry looked over to Ron who was rolling his eyes at no one in particular. Probably just because he had been caught.

Snape continued, thankfully, without taking points away. There was also an option that he hadn’t seen it, but Harry was convinced their professor had eyes and ears everywhere in this classroom. “Therefore, we shall dedicate this precious time to rectifying such staggering incompetence. You will prepare all necessary components for the Truth Speaker Potion – a concoction, I feel compelled to emphasize, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the infantilely simple Veritaserum. Now” his black eyes narrowed as he stared down the class, “can any among you, assuming your intellectual capacities extend beyond the recognition of exploding cauldrons, enlighten me as to the crucial distinction?”

Hermione’s hand was up, so was Parvati’s and Malfoy’s. Harry knew that if he didn’t put his hand up, Snape would most likely call on him, so he chanced it by putting his hand up, even if he didn’t know. Thankfully, he did the right thing, even if Neville looked at him as if he had lost his marbles. Snape called on Malfoy.

“The Truth Speaker Potion differs in two points from Veritaresum” Malfoy started, clearly competent in his answer. “It’s more delicate in its preparation and, while being a short brew, the unprecise preparation of ingredients can lead to disastrous results. The Truth Speaker Potion is used mainly for adoption or family purposes while Veritaresum has a wide range of uses.”

Snape nodded once. “Ten points to Slytherin.” Then, his eyes wandered over the students assembled. “Five ingredients” Snape announced loudly, the words hanging in the air like a challenge. “A number so pitifully small, one would expect even the most intellectually stunted among you to have committed them to memory. Well? Does anyone dare to break this deafening silence with a correct answer?”

Harry held back a groan. Why was Snape being so… taunting? Had he been back in their past as well? It seemed almost aggressive even.

With a mix of Gryffindors and Slytherin, they actually managed to count to five. Congratulations. Slytherin earned themselves another ten points. Gryffindor got zero.

Gillyweed stems, dried sopophorous beans, preserved shrivelfig hearts, crystalized valerian roots and dried sprigs of honestwort. All cut to the exact same size of perfect cubes.

What could go wrong?!

Seven exploded cauldrons was the answer to that question. Including Malfoy’s.

Though Malfoy’s potion was because he made fun of Ron’s dicing skills and subsequently found himself at the mercy of an uneven cube of shrivelfig heart of his which destroyed the delicate brewing Malfoy had been doing. It was funny in a way.

Ron earned himself detention and Malfoy surprisingly along with the other students of exploded cauldrons (which also included Ron) earned themselves five inches of a parchment in which they had to explain what went wrong.

“Do I have to write five inches on Weasley’s messed up dicing skills?” Malfoy asked as they were packing up. It lacked the cutting aggression Harry had thought Malfoy had.

Snape, who was cleaning the ceiling, stopped next to Malfoy and smirked at him. “Instead, dedicate your efforts to elucidating the methods by which a properly brewed potion can be shielded from the myriad of imbecilic interferences that invariably plague this classroom. Merlin forbid the outright sabotage by your less... gifted peers.”

Malfoy scowled which was almost funny to Harry as he finished packing up. Luckily for him, he had actually learnt how to dice perfect cubes. And apparently, skill with the knife translated to time travel, unlike magical power.

They then headed up with the Slytherins to Transfigurations. Another class that was quite hard or had been hard for him before, but maybe now was different? He hadn’t had Transfiguration since coming back, so maybe?

McGonagall stood in front of the class, silently watching everyone entering, before she greeted them. “On time today, I see Professor Snape let you go early.”

“Because seven cauldrons exploded!” Dean announced with a laugh, earning several glares. Seamus, who despite possibly having time travelled, was still shite at potions. He glared the most.

The professor clearly seemed amused. “I can imagine who that might have been” she commented. “Today, however, we will get an introduction into the Switching Spell. Can anybody explain what this is?”

Harry didn’t feel the need to put his hand up, since McGonagall was actually a fair professor and only asked those who actually offered the answer. Hermione, Neville, Ron, Malfoy, Zabini and Crabbe were some of them.

“Mr. Zabini, if you please.”

“The Switching Spell refers to two objects switched places at the same time. It’s a difficult spell to master, because they could… meld together, if done wrong.”

McGonagall nodded. “Any other difficulties we should have our eyes on?”

Once again, Ron, Hermione and Malfoy had their hands up. McGonagall chose Ron to answer.

“The distance of the objects can be an added difficulty. It is theoretically possible to switch objects hundreds of feet away, but the less you can see them, the harder it gets.”

“Exactly” McGonagall seemed proud. “Ten points per answer, well done.” Then, she told them to open the book on page 232 and read the entire page silently. While everyone did so, she handed out parchment with questions on them.

All in all, it was kind of a boring class, except for the interesting theory. Tomorrow, they would start attempting the spell with objects right in front of them. That spell was actually new to Harry, they had not done this the first time around.

Tuesday morning was double Transfiguration. Harry wanted two things done during the lesson: He wanted to be able to perform the Switching Spell perfectly, preferable as soon as possible, and he wanted to figure out whether or not McGonagall came back with them.

The professor seemed too understanding. Not that Harry could name a specific instance in which McGonagall had given him any hint whatsoever… but he couldn’t get this feeling away. Not about McGonagall and not about Snape. He was sure that either one or both had travelled through time or ‘woken up’ as Neville and Ron used to call it.

But first, they were in for a surprise as during breakfast, a certain blond Hufflepuff walked through the door.

“Cedric!” Susan Bones yelled and jumped up. Everyone shut up immediately and when Susan ran at her house mate, several other people followed, from every house there was. Harry grinned at him and waved when his fellow champion beamed at him. Clearly, he was healthy as ever and with the attention of all three schools on him, he bowed dramatically, before walking over to where Viktor was conversing with Cho Chang and Penelope Clearwater.

Several people around the Great Hall seemed to relax and Harry chuckled, waving at the other Hogwarts’ champion. “The true champion is back!” he yelled as Cedric was led down the Hufflepuff table. Or rather between the Hufflepuff and the Gryffindor table.

Cedric just rolled his eyes, while his expression was incredibly amused. He sat down at the Gryffindor table, which made most Hufflepuffs boo him and he stuck out his tongue. Harry suddenly caught Luna’s blonde hair at the Badger’s table, but as soon as he spotted it, she was gone again.

He so wished, she was back, but he hadn’t seen her, hadn’t interacted with her since he had come back a week ago. Did she travel through time as well or… was she just a random person to him? That would be so sad…

Fred and George looked up and turned to Harry. “If he’s the true Hogwarts’ champion, which school do you belong to?”

Harry sniggered, while Neville tried to shoo them away. The twins didn’t listen to his friend, though, since they just shushed him, trying to hear Harry better.

“It’s called Quirky Undergraduates' Institute for Daft Divinations and Idiotic Transfigurations.”

A quick silence followed his introduction, before Ron snorted.

“Quiddit!” Fred yelled, laughing.

“Quidditch” George added.

“Quit it!” Neville answered instead and placed his head on his arm on the table. “This is a disaster.”

George laughed loudly, announcing Harry the champion of the Quiddit school and when Fleur walked over, trying to find out what this ‘Quiddit’ school was all about, she quickly brought Viktor over and they began to brainstorm what lessons there could be, the school mascot, where on the world this institute would be situated…

Harry finally turned to Ron who was far too amused by the twins’, Cedric’s, Fleur’s and Viktor’s efforts. “This was supposed to be joke!”

Ron grinned, finally able to grab some international food – pain au chocolat especially – and winked at Harry. “You’re the only one thinking a joke like that could be ignored by my family.”

Sighing, Harry shook his head. “I think, I’ll just lie on the floor and die again. Out of embarrassment.”

The last part wasn’t heard, since Justin yelled “to test a theory” over him, making Ron cackle and Hermione started a lecture that dying wouldn’t prove a point and that he should just embrace the situation as it was.

“She has a point, Haz” Neville smirked, amusement shining in his eyes. “Even if she doesn’t know the entire truth.”

Hermione meanwhile had turned to Ron, who was obviously, far too interested in the French breakfast that had appeared in the table. Harry was only able to make out the last part of what she told him. “Did you do your Potions essay, Ron? Your potion exploded as well, didn’t it?”

Ron groaned, as Harry sniggered and he had to dodge a flying baked bean from Ron’s plate. Neville clearly hid his amusement, but Harry could see the small grin, the shining eyes. He concentrated on his plate, clearly in order to not laugh loudly at their friend.

“Potions is tomorrow, I have time until then.”

“So, you’ll be writing the five inches during breakfast” Hermione commented. “Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll be sitting with Padma at the Ravenclaw table, then.”

Harry laughed. “I’ll join you, if you don’t mind.”

“Hey!” Ron held his hands up.

“What? You’re not getting my help. Try dicing more evenly, then I’m on your side.”

Ron turned to Neville. “Please. There has to be something you can do to force them to help me!”

Neville laughed, finally turning to look at Ron, before he turned to Hermione. “Do you have space for one more?”

“This is so unfair!”

“Make better cubes!” four voices said at the same time, which made Ron roll his eyes, but it was clear that he too was if only a little bit amused by all of this.

Chapter Text

“The silk glands: They've got these glands, yeh know-“

“Ten.”

“… where they make the silk. Don't touch 'em! Just... don't.”

“Nine.”

“Important things to remember: Never turn yer back on an Acromantula.”

“Eight.”

“Always keep an eye on 'em.”

“Seven.”

“What are you doing?” Harry asked, moving next to Neville, who was looking at his watch.

“Six” Dean counted down.

“Running” Neville answered Harry’s question. “Five.”

“If they start clickin' their pincers, back away slowly.”

“Four.”

“To Astronomy?” Harry sniggered, when he was met with Neville’s quick nod.

“That's their way o' sayin' ‘I'm not happy.’”

“Three” Dean counted and both got ready to run.

“If they try to bite yeh... well, run.”

“Two!” Neville looked up at Hagrid who hadn’t stopped talking.

“Now, I know it sounds a bit scary, but it's important to understand these creatures.”

“Good luck, I hope all the stairs are turning wrong.”

“What?!” Dean yelled.

“One! Idiot!” Neville yelled both words as he and Dean raced off. Harry laughed as he saw Neville and Dean running. It was too funny.

“Oh, I see we have runners, I guess the lesson is over. See yeh next week, again.”

They bid goodbye and walked up the castle grounds. It was quite the hike from the forest edge to the castle entrance. The Slytherins seemed to be joining them for a little while, though before entering the castle, the Slytherins and Ravenclaws turned left and headed towards Herbology. Harry pointed out that this seemed to be the correct way to create a time table, which was met with amusement.

“Then, you’d have to be on time” Ron said with a shrug.

“True” Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll take it back.”

They quietly walked through the hallways at first, mostly because they were packed with students all rushing to the next place. Harry had to evade two love birds almost running into each other. It was smoother than he had done during school. On day like these, Harry knew that people could see his battle instincts and Auror trained observation skills.

He could see Fred and George handing out prank items they had bought, whispering together, before seemingly innocently greeting McGonagall who was walking past. She stopped, watching them with a raised eyebrow, while the twins tried to convince her they had nothing planned.

Ginny was running down the hall with Astoria, laughing about something, talking excitedly about Quidditch and Harry looked after them, watching them disappear around the corner, before he turned back to the stairs. Colin had run into a sixth year, all books scattered on the floor, almost ten people helped in cleaning it up – from all houses.

Justin nodded softly as they climbed another set of stairs to a much calmer hallway. It was more difficult getting the right selection of stairs from this level when met with the turning stairs, but it was the calmest hallway, especially during class changes.

“It’s nice to see them all like this” Harry said with a sigh. “Kind of relaxed, just being themselves.”

Ron nodded silently. Harry saw several thoughts rushing over his face, at least five different expressions in three seconds, it seemed. Justin next to them hummed and they walked down the hallway. As they passed the other stair case leading down, the noise from downstairs had lessened quite a bit.

Justin sighed. “It’s also weird seeing the people we grew up with, fought with, defended the castle… seeing them so carefree. I remember Hannah, this battlefield warrior woman. I can still see her fighting three Death Eaters at once, bleeding from a shoulder cut extensively, while keeping an eye on the Dementors.” He was quiet, while Harry tried to remember if he had witnessed this, but a shared look with Ron told him, that he was probably off doing his own thing.

“They’re just children” Ron said softly. “They don’t have the memories we do, the ghosts that haunt us.”

“If Hannah was this amazing, I can understand why Neville fell for her” Harry commented with a smirk. “They would have matched perfectly.”

Justin laughed softly. “They did and they obviously were a couple to be feared off.”

Harry nodded. “So, what has stopped him from asking her out now?”

“I guess the same thing that’s stopping me from asking ‘Mione” Ron said with a shrug. “They’re children! If she was back too, I would have no problem asking her out, but I can’t talk to ‘Mione and not feel weird about how the lack of knowledge, of power, of … pure surviving in her eyes isn’t making this weird. She’s smart and fun and sometimes snarky. But she’s not the woman I fell in love with.”

“You think Neville fell in love with Hannah because she was a warrior?” Harry asked, looking at Justin, who nodded. “And now she’s just a… an innocent child?”

“I’m not sure it is that exactly, but… it feels this way. Can you imagine our Neville, how he is now, with Hannah? She’s cute and smart, keeping an eye on every Badger, for sure, but… she’s not her.”

Harry hummed at that. “I think I’m starting to see the problems with this time travel thing.”

“We’ll all find our match again” Ron said with a decisive nod. “It just probably won’t be the same people as before.”

Nodding, Harry followed his friends again quietly through the hallways that were by now eerily silent. That was until they reached the platforms for the rotating stairs. The low rumbling sound of a larger staircase turning could be heard from a few steps down into any hallway connected to the turning staircase. It sounded as if the very foundation of the castle were shifting. Then there was the clicking, shifting and grinding of the stairs, the creaking of ancient wood, as they connected to the main platforms and the banisters disappeared or appeared, depending on what was going on.

Depending on the day and mood of the castle’s inhabitant, there could also be ethereal or eerie music notes in the air – according to myth and legend and Hogwarts: A History. Harry hadn’t heard them, and he hoped he never would.

The whispers on the sixth floor’s seventh platform on the right was enough for him and he had noticed several students just staying on the stairs when they connected to that platform, so he knew he wasn’t the only one. And sometimes, it would seem as if the stairs were sighing, so there was that.

In addition to all that, when you were running up or down the stairs, there were thuds or stomps that were coming after you, as if someone was running behind you, but there was no one! It was very scary and freaky.

So yeah, Harry didn’t like the moving staircases at all…

As they reached the platform, the banisters were up, so there was no staircase at the moment. He looked up and down, trying to see if he could find any other late students and was met with Susan Bones and Lavender Brown, cursing at a stair that was disappearing from them one floor down.

Hermione and Parvati were above them and as soon as Harry’s and Hermione’s eyes met, she made a victorious noise and stuck out her tongue. Harry sniggered and shook his head.

“That seems very like her” he shoved Ron who laughed and shook his head.

“She’s still our friend” he said instead and they hopped onto the first stair case that stopped at their landing. Justin laughed and they quickly ran up, making surprisingly good connections and they soon were at the same level where Hermione and Parvati were at – just one platform to the left.

Hermione saw them and yelled loudly, “no! How can you already be here?!”

“We left before you did!” Parvati added and turned to analyse the turning staircases, pointing at one. “If we jump on that one, when it’s underneath us, we can go over there and be above them again!”

“Don’t you dare jump onto a moving staircase!” Ron yelled over and had to be held back by Harry and Justin, as if he wanted to jump the distance to probably beat some sense into the girls.

“Now!” Parvati yelled and Hermione held her back, while Ron had his wand in his hand to magically stop them from jumping to their deaths. Justin had put both his arms around Ron to make sure he wouldn’t jump after them, but since Hermione was also making sure that her friend didn’t jump, they all seemed alright.

As the stairs under the girls rotated away, Parvati made disapproving noises and groaned, when Hermione let her go again. Ron leaned heavily on the banister and was breathing deeply. Clearly, this idiocy did something to him.

Justin picked up a pebble and threw it along the wall, hitting Parvati’s left shoulder. “I think you just gave Ron a heart attack!”

Parvati cackled. “You missed your stairs!”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Next week, I say we just put them both into rope bindings and carry them up. Or make them float behind us.”

“Agreed!” Ron said and stood back up, when another stair case stopped at their platform, though it was going down. All three boys watched as the girls sniggered and took their own stairs up. Ron breathed out heavily once more and brushed a hand through his hair. “This was bloody terrifying.”

The stairs moved away and Harry nodded. “I think she would have done it, had Hermione not held her back.”

“Oh yeah” Justin nodded. “How late are we now, though? Do you think Neville and Dean made it?”

Harry laughed as he checked his watch. “Not a chance, the stairs move incredibly weird today. And we’re already fifteen minutes late.”

Finally, they received the correct part of the staircase and they began to climb again, though they were always beneath Hermione and Parvati, but Susan Bones and Lavender Brown were still two levels beneath them. It seemed as if they had the worst luck with the stairs so far.

They raced down the hallways, when they finally reached the correct level and up the last stairs, until they managed to get to the Astronomy class twenty-six minutes after the class started. Neville and Dean looked very unimpressed, which was hilarious to Harry, especially seeing as the money was still behind Sinistra.

When the two saw Harry enter, they narrowed their eyes and Harry sniggered, clearly, they thought he had done something to the stair cases to make them behave weirdly. He waved at them and sat down next to Justin and Ron, pulling out his Astronomy book and they settled down to listen to their professor.

Just before the lesson ended, Sinistra told them that they didn’t have Astronomy practical today. “Tomorrow, there is something very magical happening in the night sky, so the whole school will have Astronomy then, it’s a one-in-a-lifetime-event and believe me… you will want to experience this. So, after dinner tomorrow, I require you all to meet at the castle entrance, we will go to where this thing happens. That is all I’m telling you now. Goodbye.”

The class left, excited and curious about what was happening tomorrow. No one knew what it was, not even the people who had been here a while, and Hermione neither, had no clue, so…that was certainly interesting.

“You did something to the stairs!” Dean accused Harry when they walked down to the Great Hall for study hall.

Harry snorted. “I wish I could control them, otherwise Parvati didn’t have to threaten to jump!”

Neville widened his eyes. “Parvati did what?!”

The look on Neville’s face was truly comical and Ron laughed so loud it seemed to interest the girls as well, since Susan, Hannah, Lavender and Hermione with Parvati in tow gravitated towards them.

After the initial shock, Neville turned to Parvati holding his arms to the sky. “Are you insane!? You don’t jump from stair to stair with moving staircases! You could have plummeted to your death!”

“That never happened” Parvati shrugged her shoulders.

“We have to inform her sister” Lavender said with a grin and ducked as Parvati shot a spell at her. “I will do the honours!” with that she ran off.

“NOOOO!”

Parvati raced after her, clearly trying to keep her from informing her sister. The group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors laughed and they slowly headed down to the Great Hall.

“I think, after today, there will only be one Patil at Hogwarts left” Justin announced.

“Kind of sad, Parvati started to grow on me” Hermione commented and sniggered when Ron walked over and hit her over the head softly.

“Come out of it! She made you almost jump!”

“I held her back!”

“You could have died!”

Justin laughed at Ron and Hermione and commented, “you could have jumped after her!”

“To prove a theory” Harry added much to Neville’s clear annoyance, as Justin, Seamus and Ron laughed. Seamus was definitely also back, that wasn’t even a guess anymore.

Harry walked into the Great Hall for dinner on Thursday, separating from Neville, Seamus, Dean and Ron to walk over to the Ravenclaw table, where the three other champions were currently sitting. Since they were sitting close to the head table, he had time to scan every student’s face, but couldn’t find Luna anywhere. It was a bit sad, especially since he missed her so incredibly much.

He really hoped that she had woken up here and was just hiding from him, because he wasn’t technically allowed to know who had travelled back in time. If she hadn’t, that would probably hurt a lot.

Sitting down next to Viktor, he greeted the other champions and dug into the international cuisine on the table. From France, there was Duck confit, Ratatouille, Bouillabaisse and Salade Niçoise. From Bulgaria, there was Kebapche and Kyufte, Moussaka, Gyuvetch and Bob Chorba. And finally, on the UK side, there was Fish and chips, Shepherd's pie and roast with Yorkshire pudding.

“The house elves clearly outdid themselves here” Harry commented, as he tried to figure out what he wanted to try, since it was impossible to go for everything.

Cedric across from Harry nodded. “Yeah, I think someone gave them a few ideas” he said, looking at Fleur sitting next to him who held her hands up, in mock-innocence, while her eyes sparkled with mischief that wouldn’t have been out of place close to the twins.

“Mon dieu, Cedric, I ‘ave no idea what you are talking about, merci beaucoup.”

Viktor laughed, leaning over to Harry. “Try moussaka, it is my favourite. Or iff you’re more into meat, try eitter kebapche or kyufte. Bof are minced pork and beef meat.”

Harry smirked and leaned over to grab some moussaka. He was surprised when he ate the first bite that there was meat inside, since Viktor made it sound as if there wasn’t any meat there. He got the hearty and savoury foundation of potatoes and ground meat, the spices of cumin and paprika as well as the richness of tomatoes.

“It’s really good” Harry said between bites. “Sometimes I wish Hogwarts would make more international food.”

Cedric sighed and nodded. “I one-hundred percent agree with that. If I can direct you to my favourite dish, it’s absolutely duck confit. And the elves don’t make it often, so I’m hogging everything when it’s up.”

Harry laughed at the serious expression Cedric made and when Viktor and Fleur both started to argue that this wasn’t fair to his fellow students, Cedric came up with all the right excuses. In the end, they were left with nothing but a ‘you’re right, I guess’.

Nevertheless, Cedric actually passed Harry the duck confit and he put a serving of it on his plate. The rich duck fat and the tender and succulent meat was so incredibly good! Adding to that the slightly salty flavour and the crispy skin, Harry knew exactly why Cedric would hog this. It also had thyme and garlic in there. While he finished his plate, he did not talk, just enjoyed his meal and listened to the other champions bicker with each other.

This certainly hadn’t been like that the first time around. It was nice, though, having people who went through something similar and got to have fun. In a way it calmed Harry down. He never had had people around him who went through the same exact shit. Yes, when they went camping, Hermione and in a way Ron too, but they didn’t have an active Horcrux in their mind.

Here, with Fleur, Viktor and Cedric, he felt as if he belonged to this tiny little group of survivors. While the world around them continued and the students in the Great Hall were loud and rambunctious, there were the four of them, a tiny island in a world of chaos. Not that they were anything else but chaos themselves, but it was an island of people who understood.

“Tomorrow, I will show you my favourite” Fleur told him with a grin, then she turned to all of them. “So, zird task coming up.”

Viktor laughed. “In June, Fleur! It’s March!”

Cedric joined Viktor’s laugh, while Harry sniggered. Fleur looked as if she didn’t care that the task was three months out. Finally, Cedric had calmed down enough to talk to her. “Even Easter is before that!”

“Let’s do someffing togetter during the holidays” Viktor said, looking at the three others. “I would like to get to know you more.”

“And we hadn’t gotten to know each other enough?” Cedric asked, sarcastically, which made Harry laugh. Fleur hit him over the head, much to Viktor’s amusement and Harry grinned at her.

“I’d like that!” she said with a big smile. “Ooh, I can show you ‘ow to make my favourite meal!”

Harry laughed softly. “If there is cooking and food involved, I will always be there.”

“But you’d have to cook as well” Cedric said, sounding as if the mere thought of having to cook was a nightmare. This time, Viktor hexed some of the French salade into his face. Cedric ducked a second too late, making the salad end on his head. “This is a disaster. You do realize that we have Astronomy after dinner, right?”

“It’s not like the Hufflepuff house is far away, is it?” Harry asked innocently. “I would need more time to get ready, if I had to run up to Gryffindor Tower.”

Cedric levelled him with a playful glare and was clearly thinking about hexing him as well, but Fleur had his back, since she cleaned him off wandlessly and silently. The Hufflepuff sighed and turned to the French witch. “Thank you, mademoiselle.”

“De rien, monsieur.”

“Okay, Easter holiday, we plan a cooking day?” Viktor asked, obviously amused by everything.

Harry nodded, even if a bit reluctantly. “I’d love it, but I made plans with some friends and we haven’t yet figured out our whole itinerary.”

“But one day, surely…” Fleur asked, her head tilted.

Holding his hands up, Harry grinned at them. “I mean, yeah. One day, I should be able to spare.”

Cedric cheered loudly, though it got swallowed by the noises outside of their island. Viktor laughed at the Hufflepuff and Fleur just silently added another portion of duck confit on his plate which made Cedric inhale sharply and he was eating once again.

Harry laughed and turned to Fleur. “I think we found a way to distract Cedric, when we need to.”

“Fine, I will always carry duck confit in my bag” Viktor announced, made even funnier by Cedric’s total lack of answer, he clearly was just enjoying the food. Harry, Fleur and Viktor shared amused glances, and it warmed Harry’s heart to have the three of them so close. It felt like a group effort at the moment, which was much better than the first time around.

Chapter Text

Professor Sinistra led the whole school up the hills, away from the castle’s lights. Several professors were following them, making sure that they all followed and no one ran off doing whatever. Harry did see George rolling his eyes and whispering something to Angelina, which made her hit him over the head. He sniggered quietly, having an idea what his best friend’s brother probably whispered to her and why she hit him.

The light of the day came to an end as the last colours from the leaving sun disappeared from the night sky and they settled down behind the hills. It was dark and the shadows danced around all of them. One of the students tried to make a fire, but was intercepted my McGonagall and told to stand down and wait.

Harry was curious what this was all about. He sat in a small circle with Ron, Hermione and Parvati – who had apparently survived her sister’s act of sending an owl back home. They quietly waited and Harry finally leaned back, watching the stars.

He followed the patterns they had learnt and finally arrived at the star he was tracking basically every night under the stars. Sirius.

As it was early into spring, Sirius appeared lower in the southwest, but was still one of the brightest if not the brightest star in the sky. Harry wondered how Sirius was doing, since he hadn’t heard anything from him yet. He briefly wondered if he should write a letter soon, but decided against it. He had yet to find out why he was back in the past and how it differentiated from his past.

His thoughts went all over the place, even to Sirius’ death and he started thinking about all the possibilities that there were and if in fact his beloved godfather was also back… Then, he went down a spiral of all the possibilities there were of things going wrong.

Most importantly, what would happen if the dead Death Eaters had also somehow travelled back. Yes, Neville said that no adults had returned, but had they ever actually asked or did something to test it?

They knew that not everyone was back, Ginny for example. So, there seemed to be a rule for why people were returning. He had seen his ex-wife getting sick with a ‘rare Muggle illness’ no one had somehow found a cure to. The fucked up part was, if they had visited a Muggle doctor, she wouldn’t have died.

Tuberculosis wasn’t a deadly disease, if you were in a country that had medicine available. And with the NHS providing antibiotics… Ginny would have made it. But no, the wizards thought that Muggle doctors were beneath them.

Harry concentrated on his breathing again and closed his eyes, focussing on what he felt, smelt and heard. The students around him were whispering excitedly, Professor Flitwick reminded some students not to make a fire and he could smell Luna's perfume of English daisies around, even if he hadn’t seen her. He reached for his necklace, before realizing that he was grasping at nothing, as the necklace Luna had given him, was lost in the future.

Professor Sinistra suddenly lit up her wand, silencing the whispers and Harry opened his eyes, tilting his head to look at her, when something in the night sky to the very north took his interest away. Why would there be a sunrise on this hour? The sun had barely gone down, it was dark… it should be dark.

“Watch the night sky, dear students” Sinistra called, before casting nox and her light went out. She continued in the dark, “lie back if you want, but enjoy what is about to happen!”

Enjoy what?

Harry was just about to ask Ron what he thought she was talking about, when he saw a shimmering curtain of light stretching across the sky. It was soft green at the beginning and he gasped, drawing attention from a lot of people. They too looked up and very quickly, the moving bands of light appeared to be dancing, changing in shape and moves.

Vibrant greens far above, along the lower edges of the Aurora intense pinks and reds. It danced far above them, the fate of the world ignored, its own rhythm, its own purpose. The colours varied from intense to soft, the movement wandered over them, flickering, pulsing as if it was the heart of the night sky.

It was completely silent, the movement above them, the rippling dynamic display of just powerful beauty, it was silent. Playing with the colours, dancing across the sky, sometimes the reds got more intense, then they dimmed more, pulsing with life and power. It was so full of wonder and tranquillity, Harry felt himself relax, as he watched the Aurora Borealis above them.

It was a connection to the world far away from him, a place outside of time and space. These beautiful colours, the dancing lights.

He closed his eyes, listening to the others around him who gasped in awe and whispered quietly about how beautiful it was. In this moment, Harry relaxed and realized that being back, meant a do-over. He could have the life he had always dreamed of, his own life.

Tears shot in his eyes and he opened them again, watching the light show above them. He felt Ron’s warm hand curl around his arm and tilted his head to see his friend lying next to him, understanding in his eyes. He sent his friend a smile and looked up again, not wanting to miss any more of it.

The whole show lasted about thirty minutes. It had been the most beautiful thirty minutes of Harry’s life and as the colours softly disappeared again, he could tell that nobody was ready to leave this magical place. A few were sitting up shortly after, but most remained lying on the dirty grass, watching the stars. Harry remained lying down, even as most people sat up or got up entirely.

Nobody was talking much, the whispers were still around, but no one was loud like before. Everyone had been mesmerized by the beauty of nature.

Sinistra led the first few students back to the castle, while a few other professors remained, clearly no one was in a rush and apparently, the professors had decided to let the students stay there, if they needed more time – like Harry.

Once there were only about a dozen people left, Harry got up, with Ron in tow. He looked across the field, spotting Luna lying next to Ginny, both whispering quietly. Only from looking at them, he knew that this was not the time to interrupt and find out whether or not Luna had time travelled.

He followed Ron and Dean back towards the castle, leaving an almost sleeping looking Neville behind. He looked so relaxed and care-free. How did the adults not realize that some students looked like they had gone through a war, Harry wondered, as they silently passed the other Gryffindor.

But he didn’t ask, deciding that it did kind of work in their favour. And as the Hogwarts’ motto went… ‘Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus’.

The twins stopped whispering together when Harry passed them, which made him highly suspicious, so he stopped walking and backtracked. Ron and Hermione hadn’t noticed, as they headed over to Friday’s History of Magic lesson.

The moment the two redheads saw him walking back over, they straightened their backs, as if McGonagall came walking by. It was kind of hilarious.

“Hello, devils” Harry greeted the redheads who smiled innocently at him. “I do not believe these faces. So, do tell me what you’ve got planned for me.”

They shared another innocent look, before turning to look at him in unison. It would have been creepy had it been a horror movie, but Harry knew his redheaded twins. They just liked to creep people out. Or make them go away again, which usually happened when people were creeped out by them.

George sniggered. “What makes you think, we’ve got anything planned surrounding you?”

“You stopped talking when I passed.”

Fred shrugged his shoulders. “Could have been about Ron too, you know. We do like to prank our brother.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “You were looking at me.”

“Oh, I am so sorry, your highness” George bowed mockingly, which made Harry roll his eyes and he placed his hands at his hips, but his friend just continued. “We didn’t know that it was prohibited to look at you without your express consent.”

Snorting, Harry shook his head. He was really happy to see George be silly again. In the other timeline, after Fred died, he had never been the same. Mourning had almost taken him to the grave, if not for Ron and later Oliver Wood who had surprisingly taken very good care of the former Beater.

“What have you got planned?” Harry asked, annoyed. He wasn’t really, but a little bit. It was mostly, because he knew that they were planning something surrounding him and he had no idea what it was.

Fred and George both held their mouths close, though when they saw each other doing the same, they switched and held the other twin’s mouth closed. It looked incredibly rehearsed.

“Mister Potter” McGonagall spoke up behind him and he jumped at her voice, turning around in a millisecond, before he tried to stop his racing heart. He stared at her wide-eyed, before he took a deep breath.

“Hi Professor” he said quickly, once he composed himself again. Her eyes wandered over him in a close inspection and he almost wondered if she too could read minds and if she was doing so at the moment.

“Shouldn’t you be in class? All three of you?”

“We have a free period” the twins said in unison.

McGonagall silently raised her eyebrows, clearly unimpressed by the redheads’ dedication to making it look like The Shining. Harry wondered whether or not they had even seen it or if she had seen it, though before long, her eyes moved to him.

Shrugging, Harry decided to charm her. He smiled at her and then pointed at the twins. “They were planning something which has to do with me. I just wanted to know what it is.”

“Did not!” Fred announced.

“Would never!” George added, a little bit later, so it was still overlapping a bit.

“Will never” Fred finished it off with a satisfied look, as if that had been the goal of this little spiel.

Harry glared at them. “I don’t believe you.”

McGonagall seemed clearly amused, though she tried to hide it, but Harry had learnt to read her when she was Headmistress and he had come by to teach a few times a year.

“I see” she said, contemplating. “Well, Mister Potter, I do believe that the Weasley twins are like nature – unpredictable, wayward and peculiar.”

“I resent that!” Fred said loudly.

“I take offense to that!” George added.

“I’m offended by that” Fred continued.

“I'm outraged by that” George said with a twinkle in his eyes.

“That's unacceptable” Fred said, keeping his laughter inside, which he was clearly fighting, much to Harry’s amusement.

“I won't stand for that!” George yelled, the word echoing through the now silent hallway.

“That's not fair” Fred added, playing almost dramatic theatre with how wide he spread his arms.

McGonagall clearly had to fight her laughter, Harry could tell. “I believe it’s time I’ll send you to your class, Mister Potter. Do make sure to inform me if anything happens.”

“I will, thank you, Professor.” With that he raced down the hallway, hearing the twins continue to argue with the professor. As he turned around the corner, he looked back to see McGonagall handing out a day’s worth of detention for every new phrase said. They clearly had no problem with that, as they just continued and McGonagall happily dished out detention as if it sold like hotcakes.

Harry didn’t find out why the twins were talking about him, though.

Just like last week on Saturday morning, it seemed that not many people were awake, even less than last week, to be frank. At the head table, it was once again Sinistra who seemed to be nursing yet another cup of coffee, though she seemed more awake than last week, which was funny in a way, as on Thursday, everyone had been out with her leading the pack.

Then, there were only two handfuls of people around, the students not from Hogwarts clearly outnumbering the ones living here. Two Hufflepuffs, one Ravenclaw, one Gryffindor – Neville with dishevelled dirty blonde hair seemingly half asleep – four from Beauxbatons including Fleur Delacour and two from Durmstrang. Everyone sat alone, eating quietly. It was… kind of okay, since it was once again Saturday at seven in the morning.

Harry walked to the Gryffindor table, realizing then that he had lost his tendencies to always have a wall next to him. Maybe it was the fact that he had watched everyone present for a while and had realized that there was no harm coming to him, but he even felt confident enough to head towards his friend between the Hufflepuff and the Gryffindor table – no walls to make him feel safe anywhere.

His future self would have hit him over the head and pulled him to safety.

Sitting down across from Neville, he watched as his friend came back to reality, blinking a few times, before looking at him. He sent him a quick smile, before starting to eat again, his American style breakfast probably already cold.

“Morning Nev” Harry greeted him, stacking his plate with the pancakes as well. The elves clearly went to research a few breakfast things, since this wasn’t really normal for Hogwarts. “We should tell Ron, that breakfast today is special. He’d be down in five minutes.”

Neville snorted and shook his head. “I think he would jump out the window and tell us to catch him.”

Harry grinned at the pictures in his head. “That’s likely as well, true.”

They ate in silence for a while, Harry enjoying the breakfast and the quiet atmosphere around them. Even as two more groups of students entered, it was quiet and relaxing. And the pancakes and bagels were also helping, along with the fruits and the maple syrup… Harry loved it.

Once he had eaten enough, he quickly looked over his shoulders, seeing the hall still rather empty, so he turned back to Neville who was looking at him curiously through his brown eyes.

“Okay, I have a question from Monday that I just didn’t have time to ask until now.”

Neville nodded. “Shoot.”

“You called Ron a Heart-Seer and then a Seer… are you sure?” Harry asked, frowning. He would have never called Ron a Seer, since these people were strange and behaved in ways unnatural to normal people…

Ron was… Ron was just… Ron. Harry didn’t see any special behaviour surrounding him, expect for wanting to eat every half hour and sometimes his essays would stray and it would suddenly be talking about food… Especially Potions was difficult for him, since the ingredients could also make something else… But he was working on it and keeping an eye on the food sections and he also showed it to people he trusted to make sure he wasn’t talking about food all the time. Harry had realized that rather quickly.

Neville smiled gently at him and nodded. “Do you know what a Heart-Seer is?” he asked. When Harry shook his head, Neville explained it. “A Heart-Seer is a wizard or a witch with unspecified Seer potential. You know, Professor Trelawney, she has Seer potential, she needs trinkets and things to focus her abilities and it doesn’t always work for her.”

“So, a Heart-Seer can do it without tea-leaves, you’re saying?”

“Not per se” Neville frowned slightly. “A Heart-Seer can’t see the future. They are people with an extraordinary capacity for empathy and profound ability to sense emotional and sometimes even magical essence of others.” He looked at Harry as if assessing him for a second. “Do you remember the context around me saying it?”

Harry frowned. “Something with Crabbe, I think.”

“Something, yeah” Neville nodded, clearly not wanting to talk about it without the other boy’s permission. “Ron was able to detect him suffering silently pretty much from the beginning. I don’t know why it worked with Vincent so well, but…” Neville shrugged his shoulders, wordlessly saying that it obviously was working.

“Okay” Harry said slowly. “So, a Heart-Seer is someone who can… work with people like that? Why did you call Ron a Seer then?”

“Not really” Neville rubbed his forehead and looked past Harry into the Great Hall. He watched silently for a little while, as if he had forgotten what their discussion was about.

Harry turned his head a little and from the corner of his eyes, saw the Slytherins of their year filling the table, along with some Durmstrang students. As he turned back, he saw Neville nodding at someone from Slytherin – maybe Crabbe.

Then, he cleared his throat. “Okay, there is a pretty good definition for Heart-Seers. I forgot how it starts, but basically, it says that Heart-Seers can do more than understand feelings, they can intuitively sense the unspoken desires, hidden wounds, and the true nature of a person's inner being. They can often discern truth from falsehood and see beyond superficial appearances to the core of an individual's character.” Neville watched Harry carefully. His brown eyes darted from left to right, as if he was trying to look in both his eyes. It made Harry feel seen in a way. “As for Ron being a Seer, he always had these comments that came true… We just never put one and one together.”

“You think Ron is a Seer?” Harry asked with wide eyes, trying to remember anything specific, but he couldn’t find the comments Neville was referencing. He did believe him, but… it was kind of weird.

“I’m calling Ron a Heart-Seer. Not sure about his actual Seer-ability” Neville smirked. “And since we’re almost alone here at the table, how are you doing so far?”

Harry sighed and placed his arms on the table, with his head in his hands. “I don’t know. I realize I’m adapting and changing, but… I do catch myself trying to talk to ‘Mione like I’ve been before. Or… wanting to reference something that happened to us in the future. I… sometimes everything is good, but other times, it’s like… my brain is pudding or something.”

Neville chuckled at that. “Unfortunately for you, that is in fact normal. It will take you about two to three months until you’ve acclimated yourself to this timeline.”

Harry frowned. “Do I need to stay unknowing about that secret organisation of yours the whole time?”

“Yeah right” Neville stuck out his tongue. “Not mine, by the way. And no, just until Justin deems you ready to understand our goals. And you know… you not trying to sacrifice you again.”

“Don’t worry about that” Harry held his hands up. “I was raised a lamb for slaughter once, I know what to look out for now.”

“Good” Neville nodded. “We’ll make sure that the Triwizard Tournament will get you emancipated, then you can start making waves in the Wizengamot.”

Harry smirked at that and nodded, grabbing another pancake. “I do like the sound of that.”

Later that day, Harry had his mandatory meeting with the Mind Healer. Justin leaned back in his chair, clearly assessing Harry. He let it happen silently, watching Justin in return, which granted him a raised eyebrow. That as an answer made Harry grin, thinking if the silent staring contest made the Hufflepuff uncomfortable.

The abandoned classroom they were in seemed to be functioning as Justin’s impro-office. It was locked to others and warded against professors, to which Harry hoped one day one of them would stumble upon this door and find it weird that a classroom in Hogwarts was locked to a professor.

Other than that, it was decorated really cosy; the wall next to the door was full of old filing cabinets, locked once with a physical key and a magical ward that only Justin was allowed to go through. In addition, Harry noticed a chain ward on the cabinets that he had only seen in his future. Should the ward on the door be broken, the result of the chain ward was that the file cabinets turned invisible, and added an object-notice-me-not charm on them.

Then, there were a few different couches and arm chairs placed around the room, with a desk and office chair sitting right in front of the cabinets, almost to the middle of the room, facing the door. The desk was always clear, but the ink and quill showed that it was used regularly. On the cabinet were different trinkets and photographs, all somehow mentioning the future without actually doing in. There was for example, a Muggle stress ball that when squeezed seemed to explode through the gaps of your fingers, and when letting go, it returned to a ball. Harry had used it in his last session and it reminded him a lot of the explosion that killed Fred.

That had made him wonder whether or not Fred was back, but since he had always just seen him with George, the answer might be a no? Or maybe Fred was the one who had started it all? Neville had said that they all knew who started the loop back, so… maybe Fred?

“Why are you watching me?” Justin said, finally, bringing Harry back to reality.

He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “You are watching me. Revenge on my part, I guess.”

Justin snorted and shook his head. “I am merely trying to figure out whether or not your ready to get inside information to our current situation.”

“And?”

“You haven’t had any major traumatic reaction” Justin said slowly. “I don’t know if you’re just keeping everything inside or… are you really okay being back?”

Harry furrowed his brow, thinking about that question. In reality, besides his hopes that Luna was actually back, there was nothing else that was hard on him. He had Ron and Neville around, both had been close friends of his in the future. Yes, it would have been nice to have Hermione around too, or even Ginny. But… He was okay.

“For now” Harry answered, shrugging. “I can’t say if I’m okay with everything that’s being thrown at me, but… for now, I’m fine.”

Justin shook his head, but it seemed to be more surprise than anything else. “I’ve never had that before.”

“Wait really?” Harry asked, huffing a laugh. “Alright. I guess I’m okay with that.”

“Oh no, my guess is that there will be something happening when we introduce you to the room behind the curtains, that will probably fry your brain.”

Harry smirked. “Would it be overconfident if I said ‘bring it on’?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, retracted then.”

Justin rolled his eyes with a grin. “I’ll give Neville my recommendation and he’ll see about introducing you. One thing though, you still have regular sessions with me, until I can see that you are indeed going to the right direction.”

Harry tilted his head. “Who are you having sessions with, then?” When Justin frowned, he quickly added, “I mean, if all of us are coming to you with our problems, who are you going to?”

“That” Justin said with a quick grin, “is a good question, but reserved for Mind Healers, only.”

Frowning, Harry watched Justin for a while, before he shrugged. “I’ll just become one then.”

Chapter Text

Ron frowned as he investigated the house. What on earth was going on here? It was definitely used as a Dark Magic hide out, the levels on the meter were going off to the sky. And it was so intense, he could feel the volatile magic curling around his body like a blanket of sweat during summer time. He breathed out and shook his head. Looking over to the left, where his magic was pulling him, he only saw an empty room. Well… a door leading into a seemingly empty room. It was dark inside. Strangely dark, as if shadows had taken over.

Sighing softly, Ron knew he had to look at it, since he needed to make sure there were no dangerous artefacts here, so he turned and headed towards it. He felt the magic thrumming almost against his skin and stopped inches before going inside. Checking the magic detector, he put a step forward.

The wooden board creaked underneath his foot.

A soft click emerged from the dark to his right.

A man appeared, wand at his throat.

The green blinding light and everything went black.

The next moment, Ron opened his eyes and coughed. Breathing felt like dragging a baby dragon through the Black Lake. His arm was broken, his foot laid on some pillows, clearly also messed up. The room he was in was giant, resembled Hogwarts Infirmary, really. Down to the cracked window in the left corner, where George had told him that Fred accidentally let loose an explosive prank and then hid it, never telling Madam Pomfrey about it.

The beds were neatly made, opposite him lay Hermione, passed out. Why was she here? Did something happen in the Ministry that caused both of them to be thrown into St. Mungo’s? That was kind of strange.

Next to Hermione was Harry, a giant pile of chocolate in front of his bed. It reminded him a lot of his… first year? His mind started racing. They both looked so young and innocent.

He pulled his sleeve up, looking at the latest cursed scar he had gotten for being an idiot and touching something he really shouldn’t… but it was gone. The halfmoon scar on his lower arm that had he had kind of gotten to like – despite the stupid history – there was only smooth thin.

Ron moved his fingers over where the scar should have been and there was nothing. No charms then, no Polyjuice. Unless, he was masked as someone else…

Casting a quick reflection charm, he stared at the mirror and gasped softly. That was not him!

His hair was red, his eyes were blue, sure. But he looked so young, so calm! No wrinkles of stress, no scars over his face and neck. He had gotten a curse scar to the face during Auror training by accident which had led to a problematic right eye. It was weaker than Harry’s eyes and couldn’t be healed by anyone. But he could see perfectly.

Touching his face, Ron could see that it was real and something was clearly going on. He vanished the reflection and sat up with a groan. His analytical mind went to a few places, before he decided to make a list and figure out his next step after analysing everything.

A few things could be happening:

• He time travelled. Unrealistic. He didn’t use any object that could put him here and he wouldn’t just appear in the past. He would have seen everything changing. Possibility… 1%.
• He was captured by Death Eaters who were trying to make him comfortable, so he would talk. Slightly more realistic. However, the crack in the window didn’t really help that theory, since they wouldn’t know about its history and therefore not do that. Possibility… 3%.
• It was a ritualistic time travel. Somehow, he must have stumbled into a ritual that had brought him back. Also unrealistic, since a ritual needed a lot of magic, time and most of all consent from any actively participating wizard and witch. He didn’t remember any ritual in the last few months. Possibility… 1%? There was always a chance.
• A prank from George? He would know about the window. Maybe he got Hermione and Harry to join him. But it wouldn’t explain why he looked younger. Why he could see through his right eye perfectly. Why his cursed scar was gone. Maybe, he was working on a prank and he was once again the test subject? Possibility… 54%.
• It was a parallel universe. But why now and why would he look different? Dimension travel wasn’t known to be possible and once again, he had done it without any objects and that just couldn’t be it. Possibility… 10%?

No, he needed to restructure the possibility percentage, dimension travel couldn’t be that high compared to time travel and ritualistic travel. He was however, still convinced that George played him. Somehow.

All his theories were thrown out the cracked window, when the door opened and two identical Weasley twins walked in. Ron’s heart was beating so much, he could feel it breaking, healing, falling to pieces, all of these at once. He didn’t know what to think, or feel or do. Tears sprung to his eyes, seeing George and Fred together again.

Whatever this was, however, he got here… He was going to make sure that nothing happened to them. No one was going to touch his brothers. No harm would come to them anymore.

“Hey Ronikins” George said with a giant grin. “How’s it going?”

“What happened?” Ron asked, slightly confused by the fact that he could indeed keep them apart. He hadn’t been able to do that when he was younger. They had looked the same. But looking now, he could tell that Fred was walking softer, his moves were smoother and he looked at the room as if there could be danger hiding everywhere. George was just like… like before. Before their lives collapsed.

Fred was the one to talk next. “Well, you played chess with giant chess pieces somewhere hidden. Sacrificed yourself and then ended up here.” He grinned. “Does that jog your memory?”

It did.

Ron narrowed his eyes, while George looked at Fred surprised. “How’d you know that?!”

“I have my sources” Fred grinned devilishly at his twin brother. George rolled his eyes, though before he could respond, Madam Pomfrey appeared and ordered them both out. Fred pleaded with her to stay behind for two minutes, then he would leave. She accepted.

Ron watched as the Matron walked to the potion supply cabinet as George walked out. Fred stayed by the foot of his bed and watched him closely, before walking to the left side, stopping next to his pillow. He looked over the other sleeping firsties, before he grinned.

“Welcome back, I guess.”

“Welcome back?”

What?! Was it time travel? He couldn’t rule out a prank just yet… it did look however, more and more as if this was the real deal.

“What is going on?”

“I don’t have much time to give you all the details” Fred whispered and leaned closer. “Basically, we wake up in the past when we die and go through a near death experience here. That’s how you ended up back here. There are at the moment thirteen confirmed cases of this happening. We don’t know why or how this started. No one can find the cause.”

Ron was completely speechless. He stared at his brother, before he threw his arms around Fred’s neck and pulled him closer. He was here. With Fred. All these terrible nights, grieving his brother, his lost friend, the teasing, the pranks, the stupid remarks… he has missed this so incredibly much!

“Don’t you ever leave us again! You hear me!” he muttered, tears in his eyes. He tried to blink them away, but there were more and more. He cried into his brother’s shoulder, who kept him close.

“I don’t plan on that, Ronnie. I want my family safe and I’ll make sure you all make it out of this mess okay.”

Nodding, Ron held his brother for a few more seconds, before falling back into the bed, completely drained of energy. Whatever happened took a lot out of him, or maybe the emotional aspect of seeing his family whole again was enough to destroy his battery. He closed his eyes as he felt Fred squeezing his arm, as if to tell him that he was in fact here.

And with that he fell asleep.

It was definitely weird being back. He was friends with Harry and Hermione, but apparently also a lot of others. During his first week, he could tell that Neville held himself completely different, that was no problem to analyse. Fred was also obviously back and he could see that Seamus was different. Still a pyromaniac, but his facial expression was more guarded.

Fred had told him about having to wait out a healing period and he was happy that after this first week, the summer holidays started. At least back in the Burrow, he could get his thoughts in order. He was warned by his older brother not to go to Gringotts, for an unknown reason, but he believed him if he said not to do it.

When he saw his family standing by the train station, he had forgotten that Ginny was alive. He stopped walking, Harry ran into him with his trunk and Seamus almost let go of a card set of explosive Snap. Luckily, nothing else happened.

He felt tears in his eyes and cleared his throat, helping Harry up and telling him some lame excuse. His Harry would have realized something was up in a second, but this sweet, trusting, little Harry believed everything.

It felt a little strange to tell him a lie like that. In the future, they knew everything of each other. Ron knew why Harry had divorced Ginny the second he had gotten to doubt their relationship. In turn, Ron told him everything about his own life. Including but not limited to the problems they were experiencing with making a baby.

That was just their friendship. And now… he was alone. Kind of. He still had Fred, but he had never been as close to anyone as Harry and Hermione in trust.

He sighed, but they continued. Ron hugged his family tightly, Ginny despite her protest too. He could work with this.

He would make sure they were all safe. All happy until the end of the war.

It was definitely an advantage that he had been there during (parts of) the Horcrux hunt. He could find them again. Make sure Harry was safe. But first, he needed to get his magic level up again and get someone’s approval. For some reason, he thought that Neville was rather high in the ranking of students.

During the summer, he had started to get acclimated to everything. There were nightmares, bad days and he was definitely suffering from PTSD, but it got better by the day. Fred helped enormously and would always claim to have pranked Ron when his reaction was weird or didn’t match with his supposed behaviour. He stared at his family sometimes from the doorway, looking in like he was an outsider watching them having fun.

He made sure to stand up for the twins when his mother would argue that they were good for nothing. He helped Percy getting his revenge when the twins pranked him again. He spent time with Bill and asked him how to ward his letter so they weren’t stolen.

Obviously, Bill asked questions, but Ron just announced that he heard Flitwick talking about some advanced spell. He mastered it in three weeks. That was a low point, as in the future, he had been able to master new spells in five days at most. But he kept at it, because he knew that this summer, Dobby would be stealing Harry’s mail and he wanted to be sure that at least, he would be getting his mail.

Hedwig never arrived, so maybe Dobby was also stealing Harry’s mail, but that didn’t matter. Ron kept writing his own letters once a week and hoped that Harry would get the realization that he wasn’t getting mail.

He spent time with Ginny, acknowledging her flying skills for the first time in their family, and soon everyone was flying.

Ron also made sure to spend time with his parents – with mum in the early morning when she was preparing breakfast and with dad when he was out in the garage working on Muggle things. He could tell that the family dynamics had shifted. They were tight-knit before, but everyone had individual problems.

Percy felt laughed at for being a good student and having passions to work for the Ministry. The twins felt like they didn’t belong in this family, where everyone was supposedly ‘academically well off’. Ron remembered when in fifth year, he had gotten the Prefect badge and his mother announced ‘like everyone in the family’.

How had he not realized it then? The twins must have been heart-broken for being ignored there! That wasn’t going to happen, he made sure.

That left the oldest siblings and Ron knew they had fled because their parents were going on and on about their responsibilities in the family and the soft possessiveness of their mother. It could be rather drowning to be there.

However, since Ron spent his early morning all throughout the holidays with her, he had gotten to know her much better. And he’d had long talks and discussions about their family and how important it was that she saw everyone as an individual.

Just because Bill and Charlie made something of themselves, didn’t mean that Percy wanting to work for the Ministry was a bad thing. Or that the twins wanting to have fun was terrible. He also told her that he felt ignored most of the times, because his older brothers already did something great and Ginny was the only girl in the family.

Mum hadn’t believed him at first, but after a few days and more discussions, she had seen reason and the dynamic in the family had finally changed.

That being said, Ron was so focussed on his family throughout the holiday, that he had forgotten that Harry would come over and that on the way to the Hogwarts express, Dobby would close the barrier. When they ended outside, he offered to fly them to Hogwarts – having actual driving experience in the future did make a giant difference.

They made it there without any incident and he quickly sent an owl to his parents about what had happened, before they tracked their way up to the castle. Despite that incidence, the year had started as usual.

With the exception that Ron had felt a connection to a Slytherin who seemed to be very traumatised. Not at first glance, but Ron looked closer saw the invisible scars left by the war on the children they had been. It was easy to see, when you knew where you were supposed to be looking.

It all made perfect sense, when Malfoy walked up from the dungeons as Ron headed down for breakfast. He stopped walking, seeing the group of Slytherins head up. Among them was the thin boy he had been searching out.

“Vincent, come on” Malfoy said and stopped walking as the four others passed them. “It’s the Great Hall! Everyone has to eat something.”

“Too many people” Vincent muttered and shook his head. “I’d rather not eat there.”

Malfoy sighed. “We went later than usual, there shouldn’t be many people here.”

The other Slytherin shook his head. “I don’t feel comfortable! You go ahead, I’ll see what I can find in my room.”

With that, the Slytherin turned around and went back. Malfoy groaned and called his name once more, before shrugging his shoulders and going into the Great Hall. “I’ll bring him something from breakfast instead” he muttered to himself.

When Malfoy was gone, Ron raced after the Slytherin going to the dungeons. He had seen Harry punishing himself with withholding food and while he thankfully never had a problem with eating, he knew that it was a possibility. Or maybe it truly was because there were too many people around.

Luckily, he found the Slytherin after going around two corners. “Hey, wait!” he yelled, before realizing that this probably wasn’t the best way to approach someone with possible PTSD.

The guy froze and turned around in an instant, clearly realizing him, while Ron was still trying to figure out who this ‘Vincent’ guy was that he mysteriously, didn’t recognize. He seemed suspicious, which honestly, was fair.

“If you don’t want to eat in the Great Hall, I know where the kitchens are” Ron said, hoping that his voice sounded sincere. Then, he held out his hand. “Ron Weasley.”

“I know who you are” Vincent said, waiting for something to happen. Since nothing did and Ron had his hand still out as an offer, he finally grabbed it. “Vincent Crabbe.”

Oh shit. Yeah, that made sense.

“Oh.”

Vincent nodded darkly. “So, you’re back then.”

Um… was Ron supposed to answer? Or was his current lack of an answer kind of an answer already? He stared at the Slytherin for a second, before shrugging. “I guess? When did you come back?”

“I was two years old. Waking up with nightmares of the fyndfire and friends dying for a war so far in my future I almost thought it was just a very flowery nightmare” Vincent sighed. “It’s so bad at the moment, I can’t have fire around me or I’m getting a panic attack.”

Ron stared at Vincent in shock. “There’s fire in all Common Rooms and sometimes even in dormitories, right?”

Vincent nodded darkly. He didn’t say anything more and Ron convinced him to follow him to the kitchens. He knew that there was fire as well, but they had a little nook, like a separate room where there were just tables and chairs. It had a separate entrance, one that the Marauders hadn’t found, since it wasn’t on the map. But Winky had told them when Ron had come back for his repeated seventh year and the anxiety of the Great Hall was too much for him.

That was where he was bringing Vincent to.

The elves were clearly surprised, but after Ron explained why they were there, both received the invitation to come here as often as they wanted, just not to bring everyone in their year.

Immediately, after they sat down – Vincent with the door in his view, which left Ron a little unsettled that danger could enter any time – the table filled with breakfast items must like in the Great Hall. At first, they were eating in silence, but soon, Vincent opened up about his family, his life after coming back and how he wanted to be a better person. But he needed to stay under his family’s radar, since he didn’t know what would happen if history played out like it did before. What would they do if he was not a follower anymore?

Ron listened closely and talked about courage, trust and friendship with other houses that could lead to a group of working rebellions and not just three people against everyone else. He knew it wasn’t like that, but sometimes it did feel that way.

Once they were done, they made their way to Potions and Ron could tell that Vincent was unnerved with the idea of cauldrons and fire. “We can partner together” he offered. “You can do all the cutting and preparation, I’ll keep an eye on the cauldron and the fire. You can make sure that it’s not getting out of hand.”

Vincent looked at him as if he had never considered anyone wanting to help him, which Ron knew wasn’t true. He knew that Malfoy tried to help his minions often. But maybe, in this reality, since Vincent came back at two years old, that wasn’t the case?

“Okay” Vincent said with a quick nod.

They waited outside the Potions classroom for the rest to arrive and Ron noticed the surprised look on both Neville and Malfoy. Interesting.

Before either could say something, Snape opened the door and they all headed inside. Practically everyone stared at Ron in confusion as he worked next to Vincent this whole time, without doing anything strange.

Once the lesson was over, Vincent grabbed Ron’s arm. “Please work with me from now on. It never went so well!”

Ron grinned and nodded. “Obviously, mate!”

The relief on the Slytherin’s face spoke volumes and Ron decided to keep an eye on his new friend. He was going to make sure that Vincent wouldn’t suffer so much in silence as he seemingly had before. And he was going to make sure that the Slytherin knew he was always going to be there – just like he would with Hermione or Harry if they had something on their hearts.

That was just what Ron was like.

Chapter Text

The Forbidden Forest looked darker and greyer than before. There were trees that Harry thought hadn’t existed yet. He walked closer, placing a hand on them, the magical colours spread through them, soft greens, blues and lilacs, leading the way.

He slowly made his way through the maze of trees, seemingly growing out of nowhere. It almost resembled the last task, but was more serene than stressful. The ground was mossy with giant rocks in strangely familiar forms looking out of the vivid almost glowing green. His steps were soft and silent as he headed through the trees, following the lights.

As he turned around another ancient looking tree that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the amazon rainforest, he stopped. His eyes fell on the tiny rock in the middle of the dark green moss. Now, he realized why the giant rocks looked familiar. They were all replicas of this tiny one.

The Resurrection Stone.

Harry sighed and stepped forward, he knew its calling. It was his to begin with and the fact that it was here on the ground, probably where he had let it go when walking to his death, was most likely a sign. And yes, he knew that this wasn't a real replica of the the Forbidden Forest, so it couldn't have been the place he had let it go... But it made sense in a way.

As he grabbed it, he felt it heat up and when he stood up right again, he saw the faces of his loved ones. Or the people he thought meant a lot to him, but they looked… weirdly out of place.

His parents looked paler, there seemed to be bloody wounds on their faces. Sirius looked haunted, with a stare that resembled those who had their souls sucked out of them. Remus was stuck in a half transition between a werewolf and a person, seemingly in pain. Teddy was next to him, arm bitten off clean, looking so incredibly scared.

“Don’t leave us!” James said, looking at him as if he was hypnotized. “The ones who love us never leave us.”

Harry stumbled back. “I… uh… this clearly isn’t real.”

“Even if it’s all in your head, what makes you think it wasn’t real?” Lily asked, her voice sounding broken and sometimes crackling. Like an old radio station that had some trouble connecting to the radios.

“That’s not how the saying went” Harry shook his head. “What is going on?”

“Why did you leave!?” Teddy asked, before growing into a werewolf in front of Harry’s eyes. He was missing his left front leg. “You were supposed to take care of me” the werewolf said in a contorted voice.

“You’re nothing like your father” Sirius said, with a dead voice. “He wouldn’t have let me die.”

Harry let the stone fall to the earth, the people disappeared. “Fuck this” he muttered and shook his head. The forest seemed even bleaker now, trees without leaves, even the cone-bearing evergreen trees had lost their fir needles. There was mist everywhere, he couldn't see further than twenty feet, the trees turning into weirdly shaped creatures.

He frowned, turning around only to see Hogwarts up in flames through the woods. He saw the proud castle standing in the middle of a giant fire, burning proudly, children screaming for help and his name. But it was eerily silent despite the noise in the distant.

“The boy who lived” Voldemort’s voice spoke behind him. Harry sighed. He was definitely dreaming now. The old man was not in a body at the moment, or at least not in a body that could speak without Parsletongue.

As he turned around he found Voldemort standing alone in the forest, though he had his wand pointed towards the right, where Snape was floating in the air, his head almost severed, hanging at an unnatural angle. When Harry focussed back on Voldemort, the bald man grinned. “Come to die.”

“It won’t happen like this again” Harry said instead. “We’re all going to make it out alive.”

Voldemort raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “What makes you think the Fates won’t do the exact same thing to you again? You can’t run from what you are.”

Harry felt his heart quicken, he had fought this hard in the future. He didn’t want that title, didn’t want to be someone else’s pawn again. Or Master. The thing about to be said were going to make him something else. Not the boy who lived, but the-

“You are the true Master of Death!”

“No!” Harry yelled back.

“You can’t fight it anymore.”

“Yes, I can, I’ve been doing it before.”

“And it would have killed you eventually.”

“So be it, I’ve died enough times. One more time won’t hurt.”

Voldemort laughed, the sound echoing through the trees, the birds mimicking it. Snape’s severed head smiled at him, while it floated around. Then it fell to the floor making the sound of an apple hitting the grass. Harry looked at it repulsed, it kept smiling.

Definitely a nightmare by now.

“As you wish” Voldemort said darkly. “Avada Kedavra!”

Harry gasped violently as he shot up in his bed, the curtains half open and he scrambled to the headboard, reaching for the glasses on his bedside table. His heart was pounding, his ears rushing, he felt the cold wind from the open window to his left on his sweaty skin and breathed out harshly. He closed his eyes, giving up on finding his glasses and burying his head in his hands and pulled up knees.

He tried to follow the breathing exercise his late Healer had shown him, but couldn’t quite figure out how to get himself to focus enough, his memory still with Voldemort. The family that was disappointed in him.

When a warm hand touched his shoulder, he jumped, the wand flying into his hand. “Hey, Harry, calm down” he heard Neville through the rushing of his ears. “You’re in the past, fourth year. We woke up here, no idea why. The war hasn’t happened yet, we’re just students.”

“I died” Harry whispered, his voice sounding nothing like his own in his ears.

Nevertheless, Neville seemed normal, so it probably wasn’t different than before. “You did. Because you are reckless and an idiot” he explained, with slight humour in his voice.

“Am I really the Master of Death?” Harry muttered, rubbing his forehead. “Why does everyone tell me that and what does that even mean?”

“Haz” Neville said squeezing his shoulder softly. “You are just Harry, okay? Just our reckless Gryffindor, Snake in Lion’s den kind of idiot.”

Harry felt glasses put into his hand and he put them on, hiding his wand again. “I’m so sorry” he said, feeling the adrenaline leave his body, as he started to tremble. Neville sat down on the bed and pulled him into a tight hug.

And here, he finally relaxed and put his head on Neville’s shoulder, breathing in deeply. He almost fell back into bed with Neville attached to him, but the other Gryffindor was stronger and laughed softly, while keeping him upright.

“Nothing to be sorry for, Haz. To be honest, I’ve been waiting for this to happen. You can’t just wake up in the past with tragedy once more happening and just always be fine.”

Harry sighed, nuzzling more into Neville’s hug. He always gave the best hugs and he realized how much he had missed them when his friend had died. Neville just kept him close, and rocked them both just a tiny bit.

“I dreamt that Teddy lost his arm and asked me how I could leave him. Sirius told me I wasn’t like my father, which of course I am not!”

Neville chuckled. “No, you’re not. You’re not a bully like he was. I wouldn’t like you if you were like your father.”

Harry laughed and nodded. “I don’t think I’d like myself if I was like my father. And I do like myself.”

“Which is the most important thing.”

Neville hugged him tightly one more time, before letting go. “And how are you feeling now? Do you feel like you’ve abandoned the people from the future?”

“I mean, yeah!” Harry shook his head. “But that wasn’t my intention, so nothing really I can do about that. What I can and absolutely will do, is giving Sirius some choice words about comparing me to my father. He will need to learn that I am my own person. Him and Remus actually. They both think I’m James Potter.”

Neville laughed softly. “I’ve got your back on that one. Now, lie down, try and get a few more hours of sleep. I’ll introduce you to the ‘time travellers’ on Monday evening.”

Harry frowned. “Why not tomorrow?”

“Oh, tomorrow is just a general meeting, not all of them attend. On Monday we’ve got the official meeting for everyone. It works perfectly to introduce everyone to you there.”

Neville wanted to get up, but Harry held him back. “Please give me one person, Nev. Is Luna back? She’s been avoiding me ever since I am here and I don’t know if it’s just the fact that we don’t really know each other or if she’s back and doesn’t want to face me yet.”

Chuckling softly, Neville squeezed his shoulder. “I think you know the answer, Haz, Get some rest.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but lay down without arguing. If Neville reacted that way, the potential that Luna was back was… almost a hundred percent.

That was at least something to look forward to.

Harry,

I haven’t heard from you in a while. Is everything okay? Did you have any visions? I heard from Dumbledore, that the Second Task was a bit much for you. How are you doing so far?

You asked me about Crouch in your last letter, I couldn’t find any new information, but I’ve asked Kingsley for help in spying on him. His usual ruthlessness seems to have passed, we have no idea how.

I also do not trust Moody, he was attacked before your school year started, Kingsley talked ages about that. However, I do not believe a former Auror such as Moody would set a fake alarm and have the whole department come to his home just for him to send them away again. Also, keep an eye on Snape. In his early years, he has been quite close to Karkaroff. I do believe, they are planning something again.

I’m going to come to you, I need to see you. On your next Hogsmeade weekend, meet me halfway down the road by the fork that leads up to the snogging spot.

Snuffles

“Shit” Harry swore quietly when he spied out of the little hiding hole he had found himself in, just to read the letter quietly. He watched as the little barn owl took off again and rubbed his forehead. He knew that was going to happen. Obviously, Sirius wasn’t going to let him get away with not responding.

Maybe, he had just hoped that, him not responding would put their meeting a few months into the future. Well, that backfired.

At least, the next Hogsmeade weekend was after Easter, so he had time to prepare. There was one positive here.

When the first person walked by Harry with the t-shirts, he hadn’t really been paying attention, but as the fifth student walked by, Harry stopped walking and turned around with a frown. It was Sunday, granted, students didn’t walk around in school uniforms, but the lime green shirt with the gold trimmings around the neck and the bottom wasn’t something he had seen before. Except on the other students he had passed.

What was going on?

He walked around the corner only to be faced with Cedric, Viktor, Fleur and two other students from Durmstrang which he hadn’t learnt the names yet. All of them wore the same lime green shirt with gold trimmings.

“Ah, tte man off tte hour!” Viktor yelled and grinned at him, beckoning him closer.

Harry narrowed his eyes. “What is going on? And where did you get these?” Cedric sniggered, which drew Harry’s attention. “What do you know, Badger?!”

“The twins did something.”

Sighing, Harry shook his head, much to the students’ amusement. “I knew it.”

Viktor clapped his back and motioned to the other students from Durmstrang. “Ttis is Ivan and my very best friend Stoyan.”

Harry raised his eyebrows at the two blond men. What was going on? They seemed to work very hard not to laugh out loud. His eyes trailed back to Viktor who clearly bit his lip not to laugh as well.

“And?”

“And ttey would like to attend.”

“Attend what?”

“Didn’t you read?” Fleur asked in her French accent.

Harry frowned. “Read what?”

Cedric pointed to his shirt. And now that Harry was closer, he finally saw the black lettering – which was beautiful, but not the point of it.

Quiddit

Quirky Undergraduates' Institute for Daft Divinations and Idiotic Transfigurations

“Oh no” Harry groaned and shook his head. “I’m going to kill them both.”

Fleur laughed, as Viktor told him to not be too harsh, apparently, he was the investor for the ‘school’. Stoyan offered to research good burial sites. Cedric announced that he, Hermione and a few Slytherins had already started working on classes and finding places for the Institute to be.

“I don’t know whether or not you’re joking” Harry commented and narrowed his eyes. “In either case, it was supposed to be a throw away comment. McGee is going to skin me, probably.”

Cedric smirked. “And then hand the rest over to Snape so he can use you in potions?”

“Most likely, yes.”

Viktor smirked and shook his head. “I haff already signed my investment. So, you better figure out how you can start ttat school.”

“Vik!” Harry yelled out, accidentally slipping back into the nickname from the future. “I will... I don’t know… beat you in the Seeker Off if you’re saying the truth! I’m not a guy who can start a school in fourth year!”

Clearly, Viktor had nothing against being called ‘Vik’, and he also seemed amused by the threat. “Go on, beat me then, because once my career is ended, I will like to teach at Quiddit.”

Harry buried his face in his hands. “Oh my God. I’m going to hunt the twins down.” With that, he turned around and walked back towards the stairs that would bring him to the Great Hall quicker (though using a few short cuts).

“I’ll warn the twins then” Cedric yelled after him, laughing.

“Do it, I don’t care” Harry yelled back with a grin, disappearing behind a portrait of wizen children playing with a dog. The corridor behind the portrait was long and not straight. It went almost in a zigzag through the second floor – it did lead from one end of the castle to the other. So, despite the annoying way of having to side step along the path about every twenty to sixty feet, it was the most effective hidden passageway to get from one hard accessible place to the other.

When he was in the middle of the pathway, he turned left and headed into a hidden Courtyard, which had always been strange to Harry. There was a small round room, open towards the sky, but with a protection over it, so it wouldn’t rain and flood the secret hallways. But the protection seemed to let in a little bit of rain, as there was a giant tree growing out of… the castle? An old round bench had been placed around it and it seemed well kept. There were names written into the bench with hearts, other crossed out and scribbled over. The floor was covered in almost oriental looking small carpets.

Harry smiled at it, as he passed it, walking to the door opposite. He opened it carefully and peered around, but no one was there. So, he walked into the abandoned classroom from what to everyone else must look like abandoned professor’s quarters. Then, he slipped out of the room and followed the flow of the students towards the end of the south corridor, before kneeling down to pretend and redo his shoelaces. He waited for the perfect opportunity to slip out and when that happened, he jumped behind curtains, pressed the lowest stone on the left and yelped as the floor was ripped away from under him and he fell into the slide that brought him to the abandoned classroom two doors down from the Great Hall.

He gathered himself quickly and shook some dust off of him, then he headed out and ran the rest of the way, finding the twins handing out lime green t-shirts. They had a lot of fun and while it was clear that most people had no idea what was going on, Harry could see a few students laughing.

As he walked over, he found McGonagall heading the twins’ way. “What is the meaning of ‘idiotic transfigurations’?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

The twins smiled innocently at her. “We don’t know.”

“Who would know?” she asked instead.

The twins looked at each other, before Harry realized that he stood in such a way that George was able to see him from looking at Fred. And he saw George grinning at him, making Fred turn and then both of them pointed at Harry.

Groaning, Harry walked closer, McGonagall looked at him with a mix of amusement and a frown. He placed himself next to the twins, accepting a t-shirt without actually looking at it.

“I made a joke about a school and the twins took it to the next level, without my consent. I have nothing to do with it” he quickly explained, which earned him some yelling from the twins, while they handed out more t-shirts.

McGonagall looked amused, though she tried to hide it, but Harry could see it. She nodded thoughtfully, before she chuckled. “Carry on then.”

“What? No!”

“Yes!”

“Exactly!”

Harry turned to the twins. “You better run, because I am coming for you.”

The twins looked at each other, before abandoning the rest of the t-shirts and taking off, Harry hot on their heels.

The Monday double Charms class was hitting different with Flitwick trying to explain Impedimenta, which was a spell to hinder someone during a duel, when Harry had seen it working countless times on the other Aurors with a criminal on the loose.

For some reason, that spell, which basically created an invisible magical force on whoever it was cast upon to make it difficult to move forward or do whatever they wanted to do, was very liked by the criminals. Harry had seen all kinds of effects, some Aurors just slowed down slightly, others were seemingly encased by the magic of this spell and stopped moving altogether. The weaker Aurors sometimes even stopped breathing.

While Flitwick explained the wand movement, Harry remembered how he had to let a criminal go, because his young Auror partner went into heart failure due to that spell and he had to resuscitate him. He could still feel the rain on his skin, the coldness of the air as he counted down and tried to make sure his partner wasn’t dead. Luckily, the Healer Squad was right around the corner and got to him in time.

“And this, is why you have to make sure to never aim it at people” Flitwick said loudly, waking Harry from his memories. It kind of even worked with what he had been thinking about.

Harry caught Ron’s slightly worried gaze and smiled at him, giving him one nod. Hopefully that would stop making him worry.

“Pair up, pair up” Flitwick waved his hands around, looking very excited. Harry sighed, but was pulled aside towards Ron by Neville. Snorting softly, Harry just followed his friend as he was being shoved towards a clearly amused Ron.

The Gryffindor nodded towards Neville. “Got it” he told Neville who then walked over to a Ravenclaw, pairing off with him.

Harry sighed. “Looks like I’m getting flashbacks now” he muttered.

“That’s kind of normal, mate” Ron shrugged his shoulders. “Took you long enough. I remember having trouble all summer long, it was terrible” he shook his head.

Before Harry could say something, Flitwick seemed happy with the pairings and he explained that one person was to throw an object towards the partner and that one had to stop the object using the spell.

Harry tilted his head and turned towards Ron. “I don’t think it works like that” he whispered.

Ron sniggered. “Maybe he just wants to see children being hit in the head.”

Harry cackled, which luckily wasn’t heard as everyone got ready to throw soft balls. “What do I get for hitting you in the head?”

“I’ll buy you a butterbeer next Hogsmeade weekend.”

“I don’t think I can go there, the Dursleys clearly didn’t sign the form.”

“Hasn’t stopped you before.”

Harry smirked. “You’re on.”

Grabbing a soft ball, he placed himself opposite Ron and got ready to shoot. Ron had his wand in his hand and narrowed his eyes at Harry. “I’ll buy you one if you stop it” Harry said before he gathered all his strength and shot the ball.

Ron dodged it effortlessly and grabbed a rolling ball, shooting it back, which Harry sidestepped. It reminded him a bit of Auror training, where they also had to shoot back and forth different spells and dodge them.

It seemed as if none of them would get anywhere, so Harry decided to switch it up. He grabbed the flying ball – not with the correct spell though – and turned around, looking for a specific Gryffindor.

Seeing Neville engrossed in the game with Terry Boot, Harry smirked. “Head’s up Neville!” he yelled through the classroom and without waiting for the other boy to realize what was going on, shoot the soft ball into his direction.

Ron was laughing even before the ball hit, but as it did – descending high into the air after hitting Neville’s left side of the head – he fell onto the floor, laughing. Neville just stared dumbfounded first at Harry, then at the soaring ball. Following it until it ended up on the floor next to Seamus.

Flitwick looked delighted. “Very good shot, Mister Potter. Five points to Gryffindor.”

“What?!” Terry Boot yelled and shook his head. “Neville’s not even his partner!”

Meanwhile, Neville grew a dangerous grin and grabbed a ball. “Haz! You are so on!” He answered and pulled Terry to one side, Harry immediately grabbed Ron for his own side and they started a ball fight in the middle of Charms classes. By using different shooting spells and protection spells obviously.

Flitwick seemed to have nothing against it, in fact when Harry looked at him as he was dodging a very well thrown ball from Mandy Bucklehurst, he looked over and saw their professor looking rather proud and amused. It seemed as if this had been his plan all along.

“Duck!” Ron yelled and Harry did so, looking over to the other side, seeing Seamus shooting a ball towards them. Padma yelled for her sister to join their side, but Parvati answered that she wasn’t going to be on the losing side, which ignited a far more competitive ball fight.

Seamus - who was on Neville's side - yelled at Dean “Come to the dark side!”

And Ron added “we have cookies!”

That turned into a chaotic sequence with several people switching around, Ron creating a confetti canon that shot cookie dough, Hermione yelling at him for wasting food and every wizard yelling back that magical cookie dough tasted like shit.

“How do you know?” Harry yelled at Terry Boot who gasped in mock outrage and sent a ball on fire into his direction. Laughing, Harry side stepped it and checked that it didn't hurt anyone.

Then, he hit Neville once again on the hair to which he was attacked on four different sides and used the Impedimenta spell twice successfully, earning himself ten more points along Neville, Padma, Anthony Goldstein, Ron and obviously Hermione. Because even if she hadn’t time travelled, she was still the same perfect student.

Nevertheless, when morning break arrived and they all left the lessons, the students were all rather calm and happy, the fun fights having definitely given them some way of getting rid of some energy. Harry was somehow sure that Flitwick knew that some things were different with a few students. Otherwise, why would he do something like that?

Padma and Parvati walked happily in front of Neville, Ron, Hermione, Lavender and Harry. Seamus and Dean trailing behind and Harry grinned when Ron placed an arm around his shoulders, as they listened to which side had won.

Since Flitwick hadn’t declared a winner, just handed out points, there was a lot to discuss. And naturally, both sides were convinced that they had won.

Chapter Text

“Alright” Neville said as they headed towards the Room of Requirement. “As you know, Justin, Ron, Vincent and I have woken up here. We don’t know why and how, we also don’t know why there are years between us, when we died approximately the same time. Thing is there are so many unanswered questions, we’re still learning.”

Harry nodded softly. “When did you wake up here?”

They walked silently up another set of stairs. Since it was so late in the evening, there were almost no students around and the ones Harry could see were walking in front of them – most likely also to the RoR – or far behind them.

Neville snorted as if the memory of it was funny. “Do you remember when I told you about my Great Uncle Algie and how he threw me out of the window to check if I had magic?”

“Yeah. I thought that was kind of brutal.”

“It was. In fact, I died that time. My Great Aunt got me back, but Gran found out and threw Algie out, luckily for me. But I was in such a bad mental state that she took me to a mind healer. I thought I was the only one being here with all my memories intact so one evening after a rather brutal session with mind healers, I told her everything.”

Harry stopped walking and looked at Neville who came to a halt a few steps in front of him. Neville turned to look at him and shrugged. Harry frowned. “She knows, then?”

“Everything.” Then he shrugged. “Well, everything that an outsider knows. Didn’t know about the seven wonders of Voldy, so she didn’t know that for a long time. But she’s the one adult that’s been on our side from the very beginning.”

Chuckling softly, Harry shook his head. “I like the seven wonders thing, no one will know what that is, who hasn’t known before.”

They continued walking down the hallway until to the left there was a painting of a wolf and his cub. Behind the painting, stairs led down to the hallway leading away from the RoR. It was the best way to confuse people who shouldn’t know where they were going.

Once they arrived at the room, Neville did the walk – since Harry didn’t know what to ask for – and he opened the door very gentleman-like for him. Harry sniggered and entered the room, not sure what to expect.

But what he walked into was… unlike anything he could have expected. The room was about twice as large as it usually was, the ceiling hung with soft blue and white drapes, golden rims all around the edges. At the other end of the room were three huge magical windows, picturing the outside in sunshine and peacefulness that seemed to be a need for everyone.

The room was open, but separated by bookshelves into three different areas. To Harry’s left seemed to be a warded training area where all sorts of weapons were offered. Form the little sneak peak Harry got, he saw two long swords and a few arrows, as well as training dummies from the Ministry.

Who had been able to get these here?!

In front of Harry were a bunch of sofas and empty desks with reading lamps (Muggle actually, very funny), and the book shelf separating the training area from this one was filled with books, so many in fact that every hole had been filled with a book. Hermione probably would have cursed the person out who had done it. Or fell in love with them, depending on the mood.

To his right were several tables, with chalk boards standing around. The titles read different things from ‘history’ to ‘seven wonders’ and ‘trusted adults’. It was amazing. The bookshelf separating the tables from the living room aspect seemed to be filled with mental health and trauma responses and history. Next to Harry was a little kitchen nook with everything needed to cook – except food, since that was the one thing that the room couldn’t provide, but the house elves sure could.

“It’s amazing” Harry whispered and Neville laughed next to him.

“Sure is, come on, sit down” he beckoned him to follow and they headed to a couch, where Harry sat down, looking around. “The meeting is to begin in three minutes, let’s see who shows up.”

Before Harry could respond, Justin walked in and upon seeing Neville, told him to follow and they headed into the warded section which seemed to also have a silencing charm surrounding it, since Harry couldn’t hear shit.

Not that he had wanted to, because he was in fact too curious who would walk in. He had already figured out that it was – additionally to Justin, Neville and Ron – Vincent, Seamus and probably Parvati, but… he didn’t know the rest. He still hoped that Luna had also come back, without her, he would feel very sad.

The first person to walk in after Justin however, took his breath away. How had he been so stupid to think that everything started with someone during the battle?! No, obviously, this whole bullshit started with one death. Even before.

“Cedric.”

The blond wizard grinned at him. “Heya Harry, didn’t expect to see me?”

“Not in a million years” Harry admitted and laughed. “But that was obviously a lack of critical thinking on my part.”

Cedric waved him off and walked towards the big old armchair next to Harry’s couch. “You would be surprised by how many people forget I died. It’s always funny to see their reactions when they see me for the first time.”

Harry chuckled at that. “I could see that. Do you know how many people are back?”

“Around twenty”

“What?!”

Cedric laughed and nodded. “Yeah, it’s nice to see our little coven grow, to be frank.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “That’s what this is?”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Ron and Seamus walking around the bookshelf that was leading to the tables and chalkboards. Seamus smirked at him. “Obviously, it’s a coven!”

“Give me a definition of a coven, because I’m not sure I can believe it” Harry shook his head, while Ron laughed.

“You’re not even surprised that Seamus is back?”

“Nope.”

Cedric shrugged his shoulders. “You were probably talking about to future at some point. We all know you’ve almost got Dean into our coven without him actually woken up!”

Harry snorted while Seamus held his hands up. “Come on, mate. I thought he was!”

“You wished he was” Ron corrected him and turned to Harry. “Also a coven is a group of witches and wizards who meet regularly. That is so us.”

From the door, Harry could see a few Slytherins enter and a Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaw, he didn’t recognize, he seemed older, but the others he actually did. Behind the raven haired older Ravenclaw was Blaise Zabini – the black student was rather easily spotted, since there were only four percent in the UK. Next to Hermione, Harry could only count four other students in all of Hogwarts. At least it wasn’t only one, that would be a bit strange.

Next to Blaise stood Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and…

“Malfoy.”

The blond wizard smirked and bowed elegantly. “At your service, Potter.”

Malfoy frowned. “Should you already be out of the hospital wing? I heard Ron talking about how you were supposed to be there for two more days?”

Harry frowned and shook his head. “I should have realized way sooner, I just realized.”

The Slytherin laughed at that and nodded. “I was frankly surprised you weren’t calling me out ever since you woke up here. I know I would have.”

Ron gave a laugh at hearing Malfoy speak. “Yeah, but you’ve been here before Hogwarts started, Draco. You would have called everyone out and gathered attention to us, so… thank Merlin you were already awake by the time we got to you.”

Malfoy stuck his tongue out and they took their seats on the couches around. The unknown Ravenclaw boy held his hand out towards Harry. “Jasper Nightshade, Heir to the Honourable House of Nightshade, seventh year Ravenclaw.”

Harry shook his hand, catching Malfoy’s eyes for a second, who rolled his eyes. That made Harry grin, but he answered. “Harry James Potter, Heir to the Most Ancient and Honourable House Potter. Or possibly Lord, since I’ve been emancipated by the tournament, I guess.”

“Look at that” Malfoy said, clearly pretending to be in aw of Harry, “The Potter Heir learnt pureblood manners!”

“Fuck you Malfoy” Harry said instead, making the lot laugh. “You know just as well as I do that being in the public’s eye and the Ministry, that there had to come a time where I was getting enrolled in private tutoring classes for manners. They were awful.”

Ron sniggered and received a slap over his head from Cedric. “Be a good friend, Ron.”

“I’m always a good friend!”

Blaise Zabini shook his head and finally spoke up; “Who is talking about covens, by the way? Covens usually celebrate Wicca, not… whatever you think we’re celebrating.”

Ron pointed at Zabini, obviously trying to make it aggressive, but the amusement in his eyes was too much to ignore. At least for Harry. “Leave us alone, Blaise. I want to believe that I have my own coven.”

“Who died and left you in charge?!” Cedric asked with raised eyebrows.

“We all died!” several people responded, making Harry cackle.

Then, he left Ron and Cedric to bicker and instead turned to the seventh year Ravenclaw. “How long have you been here then?”

“Three years and a couple of months. Got bitten by an Acrumentula when Professor Snape took us for a gathering trip for Potions into the forest. That was a dark day.”

“Wait, that was when we were at Hogwarts” Harry said with wide eyes and turned to the others. “How did the school react then?”

Theodore Nott rolled his eyes. “The school was closed for one day. One!”

“It would have been closed zero days, if it had been a Slytherin” Malfoy commented, though he seemed more amused by the fact than annoyed.

The Ravenclaw, Jasper, flicked the other boy’s ear and Nott moved a way, swatting his hand away. Ron immediately came to help Jasper, which made Harry confused at first, but maybe these two had become friends. Possibly by playing chess… Obviously, Nott’s comment had to do with the Headmaster’s clear love for Gryffindor. When the two boys started play fighting, the others started to laugh and Harry chuckled about their behaviour.

It was nice to see that Ron had turned into a more confident boy – the fact that he had been an adult probably help with that. The same with Neville, honestly. Seeing him just as confident as he had been as an adult was amazing.

“The school didn’t shut down when the basilisk was around” Ron finally said, blocking Nott’s attempt at a slap. “Stop being a child!”

Malfoy cackled in the background, while Cedric and Jasper shared a look, clearly thinking they were the only adults in the room. Crabbe and Zabini stood back, letting the others fight and turned to Seamus, talking about Charms.

The door to the Room opened again and Harry was faced with a two Hufflepuffs. Susan Bones and a younger girl which he didn’t recognize. She had auburn hair and a round face, looking like a very trustworthy Hufflepuff. Susan immediately went to Cedric and grabbed a pillow, flinging it over his head, which he had not seen coming.

“Wow!” he yelled and ducked another attack, before realization seemed to hit him instead and he widened his eyes. “I didn’t wait for you two! I am so sorry!”

Susan hit him over the head again and he dodged the second pillow. The younger girl just laughed and finally stopped Susan from going after the other Hufflepuff more. She then walked over and held her hand towards Harry.

“Isolde Ashworth, Baroness of Ashworth. Second year Hufflepuff.”

Harry frowned slightly. “Oh, I am out of my comfort zone now, I am not quite sure what a Baroness means in this context. Anyway, Harry James Potter, currently Heir to the Most Ancient and Honourable House Potter.”

Isolde Ashworth grinned at him and shrugged her shoulders. “It means that I am a Pureblood, but I don’t have any claim to the heirship. I am the fourth daughter in my family and their family magic has always chosen boys, so… no luck for me.”

She pulled her auburn hair back into a ponytail, before sitting down next to Cedric, who put his arm around her shoulders. Clearly, it seemed that they had a brother-sisterly relationship. The same could actually be said about Susan who was still trying to hit Cedric over the head with a pillow, while at the same time avoiding Isolde.

Harry chuckled at that. Hufflepuff seemed to be much closer than the other houses, but who would that actually surprise…

“Fred in the house!” a new voice yelled and Harry’s heart stopped when he lay eyes on the Gryffindor twin, who had just walked inside with a mini firework going off next to him. “Also, I brought the other stray.”

“I am not a stray!” Parvati shoved him to the side, which only made Fred laugh. “Colin’s sick, so he can’t make it. And the actual adults have to work, so they too won’t be able to attend."

Harry chuckled, trying to figure out who these ‘adults’ were that Parvati mentioned. But before he could ask, Justin and Neville left the secure room and greeted everyone who was in the Room. The fourteen people quickly took their seats and Harry found himself once more on the couch, Cedric and the whole Hufflepuff time travelled house on the couch next to his. Cedric still had his arms around the younger ones. It was cute, in a way. Cedric clearly took his brotherly status to heart.

“New development, that might be in our favour, everyone” Neville announced and everyone who had still been standing by that time took seats, Harry caught Parvati sitting down next to Ron, whispering something in his ears. He grinned and nodded and turned to answer her.

That was indeed a new development and Harry watched amused as she beamed at him and sniggered, before turning her attention to Neville. Ron also grinned and looked at their friend. Harry continued looking at them, but finally turned to the front.

After the initial explanation of Harry being back and how that happened – thanks so much for not making him talk, Neville! – Harry thought happily, the meeting seemed to start.

Justin sat down next to where Neville was standing. Harry caught Malfoy looking at him and tilted his head in a questioning way, but before he could decipher anything, the Slytherin was back looking at the apparent leader of this… coven?

“Now, the potion’s researchers found a better option for Wolfsbane Potion, the question is whether or not we want to publish it.”

Malfoy frowned. “It would give unwanted attention to the people who have made it.”

“And school children shouldn’t be able to brew something complicated” Ron added, before he shrugged. “Unless you’re a Slytherin. Or a Ravenclaw.”

“To be fair, it actually wasn’t one of us” Fred added with a knowing grin.

Jasper held his hands up in surrender at the same time as Fred spoke. “I do not want to take credit for that, since it would take away attention for my all O’s N.E.W.T.s that I want to work for.”

Seamus hummed, thoughtfully. “We could always ask one of the adults if they want to publish it under their names.”

“Neither Rowan nor Elias match for that option and we all know that Lys wants to work for the Unspeakables, they’d find this in a second” Justin explained, while Harry tried to remember who these people were that his friend had just spoken about. Did he know them?

Probably not. They were probably just like Jasper and Isolde, people who had died and who he hadn’t known in his first life.

Neville nodded at Justin. “Agreed, we can’t ask them for doing that.”

“What if I take credit for it?” Harry asked, with a shrug. “Snape saw me working with gloves before and the professors know I’ve been working on stuff. Depending on what’s in the potion, I can argue with the need for gloves. And when we say that I just really wanted to help Remus out, since he was my father’s friend, people won’t go looking for another reason.”

“That could work” Susan said with a frown. “We could frame it with an even clearer sob story of how you wanted to help him after he helped you with the Patronus and everything.”

Neville seemed thoughtful, before turning to Malfoy and Fred questioningly. “You know the ingredients, would the glove-thing work for that?”

Fred grinned while Malfoy snorted. “Oh yeah, easily. It’s made from Leeches and freely given Bowtruckles blood. If added wrongly or bare hands touched the other’s substance, the potential of explosion is huge.”

Harry widened his eyes. “And we want to hand the recipe out to the public?”

“Nope” Justin answered. “We want to brew it and secretively owl it to known werewolves. Obviously, what’s-his-name won’t take it, but he will realize that there is something out there…”

“And then Greyback going to come after me” Harry rolled his eyes. “You are talking about him, aren’t you?”

Neville sighed. “True, but the idea isn’t to send them all free potions. What we will do, at first, is send out two hundred potions with the owls to find werewolves in need. They will go to Greyback’s pack, too, obviously. Not everyone is okay with his mentality. And then, we will send a form after full moon to buy more potions, with your name attached then.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. “The Potion’s Guild will have my skin, Nev.”

He remembered a young Auror who was doing doubly duty as a Potioneer as well. The Potion’s Guild was not happy and practically every Potion he invented had to be sent to the Guild for a full year’s testing. The process was incredibly slow.

“Blame it on being a child, raised in a muggle environment” Ron answered. “You didn’t know better and you wanted to help all werewolves when you realized it would work.”

“We could make it more believable, if you’d send the potion to Lupin first, with a feedback note attached, and when he answers, we could send the potion to the werewolves” Zabini added with a thoughtful expression.

Harry nodded slowly. That could actually work. “I should talk to the inventor then, because I’m sure Snape will ask me every detail and if I’m just slightly wrong, he’ll probably… I don’t know… hang me?”

Malfoy snorted. “Probably not. He’d just hold a one-hour long speech about your idiocy.”

“And then assign an essay for a hundred feet” Cedric added, sniggering.

“Either way, I should know what I’m talking about”

Neville nodded. “I’ll make sure to give you two a meeting room later on.” He looked around the room. “Any updates you’ve got for the circle?”

Ron held his hands up. “With Harry’s return, it might be easier to find the seven wonders and do something about them.”

“History department is against that” Jasper countered. “If we do something now, the history is completely done for.”

“That will happen either way” Cedric said darkly. “I do not plan on winning the tournament. Sorry, Harry, but you have to go there on your own.”

Harry snorted. Especially when he saw Susan and Isolde holding Cedric closer, clearly, they would have tried to haunt a ghost, would he have died once more. “You’d do me a favour, Cedric. I do not want to go through that trauma again.”

Neville rolled his eyes. “We’ll get Harry assessed and cleaned through the Goblins during Easter break, afterwards we can see how we go about the rest of the seven wonders.”

“Petition to get George…”

“No!” several voices overshadowed Fred’s question and Harry frowned, but when he saw Fred sniggering quietly, he realized that the Gryffindor was joking, he probably did this every time and as if the other boy felt Harry looking, he turned to him and sent him a wink.

Shaking his head with a grin, Harry concentrated back on Neville and the people who were updating everything. Apparently, Jasper and Parvati were the history department. Harry hadn’t yet found out what that meant.

Ron and Justin ran the physical and mental health club, which meant that once a week, the whole ‘coven’ would meet to run around the lake or do other ‘fun’ activities. Harry was used to running through Wood, but he didn’t think it was fun.

Then there were Theo and Isolde who were apparently the researchers. Maybe one of them had made the new potion for werewolves? Harry shrugged that thought away and continued to follow the meeting.

It ranged from study hours to wands and research and colour schemes (thank you, Malfoy). Before it ended on budget and how to keep in touch during the holidays. Harry quietly listened and analysed. People were different, calmer and put together. They clearly liked working together and it was nice to see the houses so intermingled. No one here seemed to care that the others were from a different house.

Once the meeting was over and Harry had a time and date for the meeting of this mystery brewer, the people disappeared. Mostly, that was. Fred shoved all Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs into the training area to see who was stronger, of the two houses, which ended with the houses acting in concert against him. Which in turn led to him asking for help from his brother and a few Gryffindors.

Harry just laughed and headed towards the kitchen area, leaning at the counter, so he still had the whole room on view, but also had sneak peaks of Ron, Seamus and Neville fighting the Huffleclaws.

“It’s different being back, isn’t it?”

Malfoy stood very casually in front of him and Harry shrugged. “I guess it is” he answered. “How was it for you?”

“Incredibly terrifying” the Slytherin said, before moving to stand next to Harry, leaning against the same counter. “But it has its perks.”

“Watching Gryffindor fight Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff?” Harry asked, motioning to the training area.

Malfoy snorted and shook his head. “Not really. More a chance for a do-over. Getting to date people you didn’t before. Finding friends in very unlikely places and people.”

He shoved Harry slightly with his shoulders, before walking out with Zabini and Nott in tow. Crabbe was currently walking over to the training area with an answer to Ron’s call for help.

“Ravenpuff against Slythindor!” he battle-cried, as he grabbed a hold of his wand and jumped in to defend his friend.

Harry laughed, but frowned, when he felt a piece of parchment in his pocket. Curious, he pulled it out and opened it, since it was crumpled-up. His breath hitched when he found the beautiful cursive.

Meet me at ten on the Astronomy Tower. ~ D.L.M.

Wait, what?

Chapter Text

Harry placed his Cloak by the door and headed out onto the plateau that was used during class to look at the stars. It was so dark that he could see all the studied constellations and once more, he was looking for Sirius, smiling up at the beautiful star shining so bright, no matter what happened down here. They were but atoms for the universe.

The Blacks sure knew what they were doing with star names, always able to find one’s family when looking up into the sky.

He heard footsteps behind him and found Malfoy entering the plateau. The Slytherin placed his cloak at the door as well, even if it wasn’t an invisibility cloak. He did brush his hands over the artefact from Death and smiled, before heading out.

“So, the parchment really was from you” Harry commented with a grin.

Malfoy rolled his eyes, the grin betraying his pretend-annoyance. “Can’t read initials, Potter? Do I have to write my full name onto the parchment when passing a message?”

“Please do so next time” Harry joked and chuckled. “No, seriously, I knew it was you, but… one can never be too certain.”

The Slytherin hummed and shrugged his shoulders. “I tend to agree. It’s nice to hold conversations with you again, you know."

Harry chuckled at that. Before Malfoy had died in the future, they had tentatively started to converse on different topics, mostly potions because Harry was uncreative in that way, and had gotten to the early beginnings of a friendship. At least in Harry’s mind.

He still hadn’t gotten over calling him ‘Malfoy’, so was it really friendship?

“Are you saying that the Harry Potter before couldn’t hold such exquisite conversations like I can?”

Malfoy raised his eyebrows unimpressed. “Most comments flew over you head, so no. And I’m not sure your conversations have ever been ‘exquisite’.”

Harry chuckled. “Throw a curse word at me and you’re almost as bad as Snape is when speaking to me.”

The Slytherin laughed and nodded. “Understood. I’m not trying to be, you know. I’m confident in saying that I did change.”

“So that’s why you ordered me to come here?” Harry asked and chuckled when Malfoy rolled his eyes. He grinned and looked up at the stars again, his eyes finding Sirius almost out of habit. It was the brightest star, so it probably wasn’t habit.

Malfoy stepped closer and recaptured Harry’s attention. “Probably to throw you off the Astronomy tower.”

“Good plan” Harry joked and turned to fully pay attention to the Slytherin. “But you could have done that every time we have Astronomy. So, my guess is that it’s not actually to commit murder.”

“How quickly you have got me taped.”

Harry titled his head, watching the other boy moving from one foot to the other. He seemed nervous and a little unsure which he had never witnessed in a Malfoy before. As he furrowed his brows a bit more, he heard Malfoy mutter “fuck it.”

“What?”

Malfoy moved closer, grabbed Harry’s chin and pulled him into a kiss. Underneath the stars. How sicking sweet was that?!

Harry closed his eyes and didn’t need to be told or lead more, his arms wrapping around Draco’s waist, pulling him closer, deeper into a passionate kiss. Time stood still, magic seemed to explode around them, as it intermingled, created magic itself.

Finally, Malfoy pulled away and Harry just stared at him dumbfounded. There was a grin on the Slytherin’s face and Harry rolled his eyes.

“Don’t go telling your friends all your dirty secrets now” Harry commented and received a haughty look.

“Well, unlike you” Malfoy retorted, “I don’t air my dirty laundry in public.”

“As if I want that to happen” Harry rolled his eyes and smirked. “But don’t worry. Next time Rita Skeeter asks me if I’m in a relationship with Hermione or Ginny, I’ll just refer to you.”

Malfoy widened his eyes in horror. “My father will have my hide!” he whispered in obvious shock.

Harry just sniggered. “Then try and be less idiotic towards me.”

Malfoy huffed. “How are you in Gryffindor?! Honestly, I’ve asked myself that last time around, but now it’s a huge point of contention.”

“You’re welcome.”

“That was not a compliment, Potter.”

“Oh, Malfoy, I know, but now you have something to talk about.”

“Stupid point.”

Harry grinned wordlessly and placed his arms around Malfoy’s neck. “I mean, we could either continue to talk and discuss our views or…”

“Second option” Malfoy interrupted him. “I’ve always wanted this, but in our other lives, I never got the chance to do so.” And he started kissing him senseless underneath the stars. Definitely romantic.

But what else had Harry expected from a pureblood Malfoy heir?!

And honestly, he could get used to that.

“So, you went out last night?” Neville asked as they headed down for breakfast. Next to Harry walked Seamus and Susan, who for some weird reason had stayed in the Gryffindor Common Room all throughout the night.

Harry thought that there could only be two options for that; either she was seeing someone from Gryffindor, or she was working on something in the Room of Requirement and was too lazy to walk down to the dungeons…

Actually, the RoR would have given her a bed, so she was most likely seeming someone from Gryffindor.

“I did, but I won’t talk.”

Susan sniggered. “Uuuh, a gentleman really doesn’t kiss and tell, huh?”

Seamus laughed and threw an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “We all know who you were talking to, or maybe kissing?”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Draco Malfoy” Susan and Seamus said at the same time. When Harry rolled his eyes, the two laughed and Harry freed himself from Seamus’ prison.

He moved over to Neville, who was chuckling a little at the others’ antics. “I’m happy you’re moving on, you know.”

Harry tilted his head. “From Ginny?”

“From the past, or future, whatever you’re calling it.”

“I’m not sure if me going out with Malfoy is actually moving on” Harry said slowly, shrugging his shoulders. “He said something yesterday, about always having wanted this, but never gotten the chance to do so. I think we’re both looking for something that could have been.”

Neville frowned at that. “So, you’re not sure what you’re going to do with that? It’s not even been twenty-four hours.”

Harry sighed at that. “I know! That’s the worst part.”

“Well, a coin always has two sides” Seamus said, clearly trying to help. Harry didn’t really think it was helpful, but hey… “Maybe what you think could have been, actually will be now.”

Harry looked over his shoulders at his friend and shook his head. “You’re making this sound infinitely more complicated than it has to, mate.”

Susan nodded at that. “Harry’s right. Also, Seamus, every situation has technically four sides. Mine, yours, the witnesses’ and reality. Though I guess no one will ever see reality’s side, since that one’s truly neutral.”

“You make it sound like you want to murder someone, Sue” Neville said with a grin.

The Hufflepuff winked at him and shrugged her shoulders. “You’ll never know.”

Harry sniggered as he walked next to Neville to the Great Hall. “I think Susan should have been in Slytherin with an attitude like that.”

Susan shook her head. “Nope. I’m an infinitely more loyal and hardworking than cunning.”

“I think everyone has all three… four houses in their-“

“Wai-wait, now, hold on, Nev” Harry stopped his friend while Susan and Seamus both cried out with disdain. “Which three houses are we talking about then?”

“Haz, with the utmost respect, fuck off” Neville rolled his eyes, but he was clearly amused. “I actually forgot Gryffindor if you can believe it.”

“No!” Seamus yelled, while Susan started to giggle like a maniac. Harry just snorted and nodded. He believed it alright, but it was still funny that Neville forgot his own house.

Susan calmed down and linked her arm with Neville’s pulling him away from Harry’s side and they walked in front, Seamus catching up with Harry. Then the Hufflepuff continued, “I agree, Neville, all people have traits from all houses and the fact that we categorize children when they’re eleven to one single house has always rubbed me the wrong way.”

“There has been a petition from someone for students to be able to change houses in their fourth year” Seamus said with a thoughtful expression.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure I would be for that, quite frankly.”

“Why not?” Neville asked, turning his head to look at Harry. “You would definitely be a candidate to be rehoused.”

“Thanks for that” Harry stuck out his tongue, which made Seamus snigger and Susan showed him a thumbs up over her shoulder. They turned around the last corner and headed down the stairs to the entrance of Hogwarts and to finally arrive at the Great Hall. “Also, can you imagine the old me being resorted into Slytherin?”

Neville and Susan cackled and Seamus put his arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Look at it that way” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “You would have been able to date Draco sooner.”

Harry sighed, when the laughter of the three other students echoed through the entry hall. Neville sent him a blink of his eye as they entered the Great Hall and Harry rolled his eyes.

The worst part was that Seamus kind of spoke the truth.

Wednesday morning meant another double period of potions. They hadn’t yet gotten out of the exact dicing thing, going what felt like all different potion ingredients. Harry had started to wonder if Snape was just inventing potions at this point to make them continue dicing and cutting.

Ron had gotten a bit better at making sure his dices were the same sizes, Malfoy as impeccable as ever, Hermione a close second, Neville having surprisingly the most difficult time with it, besides Seamus who at this point just seemed to actively want to blow up the classroom. At least judging by the uneven cutting method he implemented.

Snape was definitely losing his patience with the arsonist.

On the Slytherin side, obviously, everyone was flawless. Harry knew he was just as good as Hermione, if not a little bit better.

He had invented a few potions himself, though he never went further and actually got them recognized. He enjoyed the playing around and testing different ingredients, but the bureaucracy was a bit too much for trying to have fun. He did understand Snape for ‘playing around’ and he respected the man for actually going through the right paths to become a Potions Master.

“Petition to die before Snape walks in?” Ron whispers as he snuck up next to Harry who stood in front of the room.

Harry snorted. “Ask Neville.”

Nott who obviously had heard the Gryffindor, since he stood practically behind Harry snorted. “I don’t think Neville is going to accept that petition.”

“But I could try to test that theory of ours!”

“Ron” Neville stated with an incredibly neutral voice and expression. It was one with authority that made Harry snigger and he held his hands up in mock surrender when Neville’s eyes wandered over him. And with that, the other boy had his attention back on Ron.

Before Harry could say anything, he was pulled back by arms around his waist. He gasped in surprise and turned around to find Malfoy grinning at him. In front of both houses. That would have never happened – not even in his dreams – the last time around.

“Hello handsome” Malfoy said with a stupidly sweet voice.

Harry sniggered. “Aren’t you putting it on a bit too much? All that romantic shit, tone it down a bit, won’t you?”

“Never.”

“Oh no, is that what it means to be in a relationship with you?” he asked, taking immense joy in the gasps and noises of shock and surprise around them. He could hear Ron making vomiting noises, but was hit over the head by someone – most likely Hermione or Neville.

Malfoy smirked. “It is, sorry.”

“Alright” Harry answered and leaned in for a kiss. They did not get that far, however, as the door was ripped open and Snape ordered them to walk inside. Malfoy and Harry separated as Snape stared the Slytherin down. Obviously, Malfoy had a grin on his face and they passed the Slytherin Head of House into the room.

As predicted, there were a lot of utensils for cutting and dicing.

Ron sighed, taking Harry’s side. “I’m not letting you sit with Draco, you’re my only lifeboat in here.”

Harry sniggered, seeing Malfoy shrug and walk over to Crabbe and they got ready for everything. Neville and Seamus were in front of Harry and Ron with Hermione and Parvati behind them.

“Silence! Today, we shall proceed to ascertain the precise degree of your incompetence when confronted with the exacting demands of advanced potion-making. This particular concoction, with its volatile ingredients and intricate magical interactions, will serve as a most unflinching gauge of whether any of you possess even a flicker of genuine aptitude. Prepare yourselves; this will expose the utter inadequacy of the majority.”

Ron groaned quietly which almost made Harry laugh loudly. Oh, how he missed torturing his best friend with potions. And now, in this exact moment, he remembered how he had liked to talk to Hermione about different potions and tactics just to see how many times Ron could roll his eyes.

He almost looked over his shoulders with a grin, before realizing that their Hermione hadn’t made it back to the past. That lowered his mood a little, but he still listened closely to Snape’s explanation, not surprised that there were two disgusting ingredients.

Even less surprised when Snape walked towards him and ordered him not to use the gloves anymore. “You will learn to handle these ingredients with the respect they command, not through some Muggle-inspired barrier of synthetic film.”

“Sir, you were present when we tested them-“

“Fifty points from Gryffindor.”

Harry stared at Snape, who was obviously daring him to roll his eyes so he could take more points. He wasn’t going to do that, though behind Snape’s back, he could see Malfoy glower at the professor. That was a new development.

They started dicing, Harry helping Ron along while Neville helped Seamus. Harry wasn’t sure who had taken the worst partner or luck. He grabbed a pair of his gloves and stared dicing the heart pieces of whatever creature they were trying to slice in perfect cubes.

He caught Ron’s look of what seemed to be a mixture of annoyance, amusement and entertainment. “He’s going to kill you.”

“You want to bet? You know, for the test and everything.”

Neville turned his head to send Harry an unimpressed look over his shoulder, making all three Gryffindors snigger.

“I’m not going to bet on you dying! Who do you think I am?! Draco’s dad?!” Ron hissed, but clearly, he had to keep himself from laughing.

Harry grinned and continued to dice the ingredients as fast and clean as possible. He didn’t want to know how many points Snape would take away for this, especially since he seemed to be in a mood today.

Luckily, it seemed as if having Malfoy on his side was a good thing in potions, as the Slytherin kept his godfather busy with different questions for the potion and the effects the different cuts and cubes had on the potion. Even Crabbe was joining in with asking questions, which was new to Harry.

By the time he had finished his disgusting items, Malfoy and Crabbe had done everything in their power to stall Snape from looking at the Gryffindors. Harry had just enough time to hide the evidence, when the professor was back in his space and critiqued everything from size of cuts to knife work.

Harry almost imagined pushing the knife into Snape, to show him that he could handle his knives. A knowing look from Ron made him not do it. But he was incredibly close.

And after that disaster and kind of a waste of a potions double period, all houses met in the Great Hall for the Art of Writing which Harry had to admit, he didn’t like. Not as much as potions or history… But close to second year DADA.

Harry placed an arm around Ron’s shoulders as they walked down for their double of Care. “You know, we could just pretend to be sick and then leave early and make our way up to Astronomy without stress.”

“Don’t you dare!” Dean hissed who walked in front of them. Hermione who had joined the walk down to Care after lunch sniggered and nodded at Harry, mouthing ‘do it’.

That was also something different. This Hermione was more fun, which had taken some time for Harry to admit, since it felt like betraying the one he had known. But it seemed as if branching out and having more friends than just Harry and Ron had some positive side effects. He wasn’t mad at that and he knew that deep down, the Hermione Granger of the future had the same core as this one. War and danger and fighting had just made her harden more than she had to now.

Ron cackled as Neville turned around with daggers in his eyes. He didn’t say it, but Harry knew that if he was ever pretending to be sick so he could be the first one in Astronomy, he would be sleeping in the Black Lake after that.

And that situation was what the Hufflepuffs walked in on. They hadn’t made it down to the forest yet, but apparently, the Badgers walked faster than the Lions.

Susan snatched Harry’s arm and pulled him forward while Hannah grabbed Ron and Justin got a hold of Seamus.

“What are we talking about?” Susan asked and sniggered when Neville glared at her too.

“Hey don’t be mad at her, she’s got me imprisoned and Hannah’s got Ron, so there’s no way we can miss Care now.”

Hannah snorted. “Why would you want to miss Care?” She looked at Ron as if he had gone mental, which was fair as Ron really had a knack for the animals. Harry hadn’t seen it much in the future, but he had realized that memorizing seemed to be hard for Ron and with the creatures, he had to listen more to his instincts. Which he was great at.

Also, researching dragons for his fourth year, he had realized that without a trained dragon handler, the baby dragon in first year could have fried them all in an instance and it hadn’t. Harry was convinced that Ron’s presence had something to do with that.

Ron patted her arm and grinned. “We were just thinking about how we could be the first to Astronomy. Be ill during Care and then walk all the way up without having to deal with turning stairs and running over other students.”

Hannah lit up, while Neville, Dean and a few Hufflepuffs talked to the others about how stupid that was and that should that happen, they would be reporting it to McGonagall to have the prize money revoked.

Harry cackled, while Susan next to him sniggered. She shook her head and pulled Neville away from the commotion. “Let them all have fun” she muttered to the boy, who winked at her and went back to arguing.

Clearly, they all knew how to have fun. Harry remained with Susan and they walked towards the Giant who greeted them happily. Before he announced that today, they were going deeper into the forest, much to Dean’s and Neville’s annoyance.

“Will we be back before the class ends?” Dean asked, glaring at Harry who held his hands up in mock surrender. Ron sniggered quietly, while Hagrid explained that he wasn’t sure but he hoped so.

Apparently, a demiguise had gotten loose from a collector who wanted to talk to the headmistress of Beauxbatons and Hagrid thought this was the perfect opportunity to study them, while they were looking for them.

In the forbidden forest.

Harry sighed. “Someone has to talk to the Board about Care, because this excursion is risking our health and safety” he whispered to Susan who nodded darkly.

“I’ll inform my aunt, as much as I like Hagrid and I know you like him even more, this is getting to be a huge problem.”

They entered the forest while Hagrid walked at the front, talking loudly about demiguises. Meanwhile, almost instinctively, all time travelled teenagers pushed their ‘normal’ classmates into the middle and flanked them to make sure that they would be safe.

The children who had war experience making sure to keep eyes and ears open as well as a quick release thing on their wands, if necessary. From the children in the middle, Harry did catch Hermione looking at the formation with a tiny frown, as if she was trying to figure out the rules of this formation, though she did eventually turn back to listen to Hagrid talking about the creatures who could see the future and turn invisible when feeling attacked.

Or stalked by a Giant and about twenty-two children.

Harry brought up the rear together with Susan, so the two couldn’t listen to the Half-Giant talking about the creatures, but he assumed it must have been interesting. So interesting in fact, that Hagrid seemed to have forgotten where the centaurs’ land began – the whole class walking in as if there hadn’t been markings around.

Well, not everyone, as the people who knew this land, glanced at each other worryingly. Mostly that included Ron, Neville, Harry and for some weird reason Susan. Seamus, Justin and Parvati seemed to catch on rather quickly as they straightened, or went more attentive.

Once again, Harry caught Hermione getting some wind of the change in their behaviour as she looked around warily. When she noticed Harry looking, she stopped walking and let the people pass her by before she was next to Harry and Susan, where she continued. Neither Harry nor Susan – as far as Harry could tell – seemed happy to have someone unexperienced at the back of the group.

“What’s going on?” Hermione whispered. “Something is going on, I can see it.”

“We’re in the centaurs’ part of the forest” Harry answered softly, his voice almost being overshadowed by the steps in dry leaves and over roots.

Hermione shook her head. “Okay, I’m not talking about that” she frowned slightly, before motioning at the people in front. “What is this about?!”

Looking through her eyes, Harry could see that this was a little confusing. The were in fact walking in a triangle, it seemed. In front Hagrid, who the time travelled students thought should be able to defend himself – especially when bringing them here – then in the middle thirteen students and on the left side Neville at the front, Seamus behind him and Parvati straight after, before Susan ended the left side fighters. On the right side there was Ron at the front, behind him walked Justin and then Harry at the end.

It was obvious that there was reason to this chaos.

And Hermione being smart and all, she clearly noticed that something was off. Even if she couldn’t figure out why some Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were flanking the others.

Susan came to the rescue. Almost. “We're part of an experimental historical re-enactment group – very immersive, obviously.”

Harry almost laughed out loud, but kept it in, especially when Hermione looked at Susan as if she knew that the other was taking the piss.

Though luckily, she couldn’t ask, as their walk came to a halt and Harry spied through the students to see a very hairy creature sitting on a tree stump looking at them calmly. Hermione gasped, clearly momentarily forgetting about the discussion and she moved forward, through the others. Harry relaxed slightly, knowing that she wouldn’t be at the back.

He realized how his war and Auror training kicked in immediately. He had a map of everyone’s position in his mind, noticed how students changed positions, Hagrid turned around to explain some more, but his mind wasn’t in the lesson.

It was with the forest. He heard branches snapping, leaves in the wind, somewhere there were squirrels jumping from tree to tree. There were Bowtuckles hiding in an old tree a little down the path by the tiny stream, which he could hear due to some rocks which stopped the silent flow of water.

There were signs of recent passage, demiguise or centaur, it was too low to rule out anything. But the hoofprints in the dirt showed him that they were clearly past their place of comfort. He scanned the trees, looking for a mirror, potential ambush, finding the best path to escape.

Birds in the trees, singing, building nests, hammering further down. The noises of feathers in the trees, the plants on the floor. There were few bees, looking for flowers and collecting honey. Since the weather had started to get warmer, that wasn’t such a surprise, but it added to the noise and Harry would have liked a bit more silence.

Especially since Hagrid was talking, adding to the background noise.

He heard the herd of Thestrals walking down the path behind them, which meant less escape. So, he turned to look at the bony creatures stopping a few feet from them, grabbing in the ground for something with their hooves.

Susan next to him bristled and he looked at her, seeing her shaking her head. “I do not like this part” she muttered and Harry nodded.

He looked at the students, seeing Neville scanning the west side, Ron did the east. Everyone felt on edge here, so Harry was happy to know that he wasn’t the only one not getting anything from this lesson except anxiety.

The students gasped, Harry turned to look into the direction of the demiguise, which had turned invisible.

“Leave!” Harry muttered with urgency, hoping against hope that Hagrid would realize what this meant, but no. Obviously not. He explained why it happened, but didn’t realize the imminent danger they were now obviously in.

All time travellers stiffened.

Harry heard a sudden, sharp snap followed by a brief silence in the usual bird chatter. His head snapped to the direction of the sound. He realized almost everyone looking to the north, where the castle was supposed to be, listening.

Then, there was a soft thud, followed by a slow, methodical crunch, crunch, that was definitely too heavy for a deer or a Thestral and too light for a Hippogriff. Harry, Susan and Seamus went into an alerted stance, Neville and Parvati shushing everyone and ordering them to take cover.

Hagrid continued talking, unaware of everyone else.

Until a centaur made his way into the ‘room’. He passed by the Thestrals who moved away again, finally stopping Hagrid in his explanations. The Half-Giant greeted the centaur happily, talking about how he hadn’t realized where they were and that they would make their way back, now.

The centaur for his part listened, promised to lead them back, but his eyes moved to each time traveller individually. Only them. Clearly, he knew. Maybe it was the soldier part, or maybe the stars had told them. But he knew.

Luckily, he didn’t comment, but lead them all back towards safety. When Harry as the last person passed him and thanked him quietly, then centaur held him back.

“The past will impact reality in this time. Be smart, fight with knowledge hidden from you at first.”

Harry frowned as he looked after the centaur, who vanished in the depths of the forest. He turned back to Neville who had walked closer upon realizing that a centaur held him back, but before they could say more, Dean appeared next to them.

“We’re already five minutes late to Astronomy!”

Chapter Text

Malfoy frowned at the explanation Harry had just told him of his encounter with the centaur. They sat by the lake, watching Durmstrang students trying to enter the ship without being exposed to the Weasley pranks that had been installed above the door frame that lead into the dorm rooms – not that the foreign students knew about that. They kept walking out with different hair styles from ancient England, making fun of themselves and each other while doing so. It was really hilarious – had Harry not just told Malfoy what was going on in the forest.

The Slytherin was watching the ship as well, but he was quietly thinking, obviously. “Do you know what he meant?”

Harry shook his head and leaned into Malfoy’s embrace. It was strange, yet fitting in a way, it felt nice and he was happy to be here.

“Well, it’s a centaur” Harry finally said, looking at Malfoy with a little grin, “he’ll probably get punished for what he had revealed to me.”

“Probably.” Malfoy nodded. “We should still try to figure out what he means by ‘the past will impact reality’. Does he mean, we shouldn’t change a thing?”

“If you’re suggesting sending Cedric with me to get him killed again, I will throw you into the lake with added weights and watch you as your lungs fill with water and you sink to the bottom, turning into food for whatever creatures out there like human flesh.”

Malfoy snorted and ruffled through Harry’s hair which had him grin. Physical affection was clearly high on his list.

“Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Anytime.”

They continued to silently observe the Durmstrang students, Harry finding the twins hiding behind some giant rocks, watching as well. They noticed him looking and held a finger up to their mouths, clearly not intending to end the fun just yet. The Durmstrang students continued with their fun, laughing harder and harder as the wigs went to full on chaos mode.

And as it was Saturday, they could probably spend all day on this mystery. Harry chuckled and leaned into Malfoy. He frowned slightly when he realized that he was calling his apparent boyfriend still by his family name. Maybe it was time to stop and call him Draco.

Turning his head slightly, he was greeted by a soft kiss and Harry smiled happily. Who would have thought that he would be dating the Slytherin? Well, his entire dormitory, it seemed.

“What are you thinking, dear?” Draco asked and Harry shrugged his shoulders.

“Just general things” he answered, before grinning. “I’m just confused that you don’t wear high end fashion even on weekends.”

That was something that had actually astonished him. When Draco had walked over to whisk him away, the Slytherin was wearing jeans and a green hoodie. Obviously Slytherin green, but still. In Harry’s mind, all Slytherins were wearing finely tailored vests, waistcoats, elaborate shirts with ruffled cuffs, or tunics of Acromantula silk, Phoenix feathers, Mooncalf hide, or fine-spun wools from Alpacas or more exotic magical animals. And naturally dragon hide boots.

Though the dragon hide boots were in fact on Draco’s feet, Harry wasn’t kidding himself. The moment they would be going to Diagon Alley, he would be getting himself a pair as well. Out of all the footwear he had worn in his life (which was also the future), the dragon hide boots were the most comfortable and most practical and tactical shoes out there that he had ever worn.

But a hoodie and jeans? On Draco Malfoy?! Who would have thought.

“As it turns out” Draco answered, “I have found that Muggle comfort wear is in fact better than wizarding comfort wear. I especially like hoodies, they’re all hidden away in my trunk, where my father never finds them.”

Harry snorted. “Because it would give him a heart-attack?”

Draco pulled Harry closer and nodded. “Yes, exactly. Mother knows, however displeased she might be, she has always accepted my fashion trends. Though she might not be following this one.”

Imagining Lady Malfoy in jeans and hoodies made Harry laugh and he shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think this is something for her.” Harry leaned his head back and looked up at the sky. “Sometimes I wonder how my family would have behaved in situations like these.” It was kind of sad that he didn’t have any pictures of them.

He felt a kiss on his head and looked over to Draco who smiled at him, comfortingly. He then changed the topic back to what it had been originally. “So, are we going to try and figure out what the centaurs meant, or just enjoying the late morning?”

“I vote for the latter” Harry answered quickly.

Draco chuckled and nodded. “Sure. Maybe once you tell the others, they can try to figure it out.”

Harry sighed, turning back to the Durmstrang ship. Apparently, one of the students had noticed the twins and they were now charging at them in their ridiculous hair styles which made each other laugh and the twins – as well as any other student watching. Even Viktor and a handful of his friends (Harry recognized Stoyan and Hristo), who were just walking down towards the ship from late breakfast, were laughing and making jokes.

“I’m not sure I want to tell the others just yet” Harry said while he watched the twins trying to defend themselves against a rising number of Durmstrangs until they were caught. Which in turn lead to Hogwarts students running out from the castle to save their Lions.

From an outside perspective, it looked as if there was a war going on, but since Harry had seen the beginnings of this fight, he was very much amused by all of it.

“Why not?” Draco asked and Harry turned to the Slytherin.

He rubbed his forehead – not the scar – and sat up properly. “Everyone is so focussed on not messing with the timeline too much, it might actually convince them to send Cedric with me during the third task and getting him killed, because it was what happened before and therefore ‘the past won’t impact reality’. I just don’t think that Cedric is the key to this mystery.”

Draco hummed thoughtfully and after a second of no response, Harry turned back to watch Hogwarts and Durmstrang fight over the twins. It seemed as if the were negotiating freedom, but the Durmstrangs in their ridiculous wigs looked like they had entered through a history book.

The twins led everyone to the ship and showed them where they had anchored their prank spell and it was swiftly dismantled, the twins ‘freed’ and a peace treaty signed – not really, but Harry thought that would have been funny. The Hogwarts students were invited to the ship afterwards and everyone seemingly accepted.

“I guess we can leave it, until the third task is over, so that Cedric doesn’t die on us again” Draco finally said, shrugging his shoulders. “But you said Neville saw you getting a message from the centaur, right? He will be asking you.”

Harry nodded darkly. “And I will tell him, that I’ve talked it over with you and we’ve decided to not say anything until summer. I’m sure he’ll accept that.”

“So, I’m an accomplice now?”

“Exactly.”

Draco sighed, clearly exaggerated. “Is this what it means to be in a relationship with you?” Harry smirked, without giving him an answer, which made the Slytherin roll his eyes. “I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

As predicted by Draco, Neville did ask him about the message from the centaurs and after giving him the prepared answer, he didn’t look happy, but he let it rest. For now. Harry was sure that he would come back to that before the third task was going to happen.

Harry was told to report to Justin however, since three to four weeks being back was apparently very traumatic. Harry had officially been three weeks awake, make two or three days more, but he counted ‘Saturdays’ as his official time back.

Justin sat in a chair in his ‘office’ when Harry walked in and knocked on the door. The Hufflepuff looked up from his reading and smiled. “Hey Harry, I didn’t expect you for another two days.”

“Neville’s orders” Harry said with a shrug. “Apparently, since I’m keeping the centaur’s message a secret, I’m not healthy… or something.”

He entered the room and closed the door behind him, taking a seat across from the light brown-haired boy. Justin put his things away and leaned back in his chair, amusement in his eyes, though he did keep his facial expression rather neutral. Still, Harry could tell that he was entertained.

Snorting, the Hufflepuff shook his head. “Nah, Neville just likes to know everything and with you back… I think you’ve always been good at keeping secrets and I assume it annoys him.”

Harry frowned slightly. “I have noticed that a lot of things that I do annoy him to certain degrees, I guess. Do you think that’s something that I need to talk with him about?”

“Not until he’s ready to confront himself with whatever he is currently working on” Justin answered, before he raised his eyebrows, “and no, before you ask, I don’t know what he’s working through. Cedric, Lys and Colin have some kind of secret Mind Healer club, and Neville obviously. I have no idea what you have to do to get access there.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry accepted that some people just had secrets upon secrets. Interesting though, that these four were in a Mind Healer club. He really wanted to find out more about that one.

Nevertheless, he was spending the next thirty minutes with Justin, talking about his experiences in the past and quite frankly, he had noticed himself that a few things had changed. Not so much how he behaved, he knew that he was less like a war-torn teenager, but his attention would probably never return to a way it had been before all of that.

He had changed in being more open, being himself sooner, accepting that sometimes things go out of hand and that he couldn’t control anyone. Without getting them possessed, but Justin didn’t need to know that part.

And he was calmer, he had less memories. Sometimes, he missed the people from before, especially the badass version of Ginny, but he knew she could get there once more, if she wanted. Not that she needed to.

After Justin threw him out to get back to his study (or homework, by the looks of it), Harry was surprised to find Neville in front of the door. He was leaning against the wall across the hallway with a book in his hand and looked up when the door opened.

Harry tiled his head, closing the door behind his back and smiled. “Hi Nev, what’s going on?”

Neville closed the Muggle pocketbook and Harry caught sight of gentle pastels, a picture of a steaming tea cup on a window sill with snow outside. Clearly, Neville liked something heart-warming to read.

“I’ve got a surprise for you” Neville said and moved his head quickly towards the stairs. They headed down the corridor and Harry asked questions upon questions, none of with Neville was answering, and they simply walked towards the Great Hall, but instead of walking into there, they headed outside.

In the courtyard stood Luna. Harry gasped, as he saw her smiling brightly at him. Her light blond hair almost glistened in the sun’s light. And she sat elegantly on a stone bench, surrounded by a bowtuckle and other small creatures. She got up and started walking, but he ran the short distance and pulled her into a tight hug, which Luna returned.

“Lune, I missed you!” He easily fell back into the French nickname he had for her. While he didn’t speak French, he always liked the sound of ‘moon’.

“I missed you too, Seeker.”

Harry chuckled and took a step back. “You were evading me for three weeks!” he lightly accused her.

Luna nodded and shrugged her shoulders. “You needed time to heal and I didn’t want to interrupt that.”

“You wouldn’t have interrupted my time to heal!”

“But I would” Luna said matter-of-factly and while Harry didn’t want to hear it, he did trust her blindly. So, if she said it, maybe it was true.

As he saw Neville retreating, he smiled and waved at the Gryffindor who smiled back, before heading down to the dungeon, who knew for what. Harry sat down next to Luna on a bench with crossed legs and listened to her tales and stories, while explaining what he had been through after she had died. It was hard for him and he mad missed her so incredibly much, every day of the year.

The last present she had given him was a necklace of a moonbeam, which was just a stone with a white line through the middle. And he had worn it every day. He was a bit sad, when he realized he had lost it. Or… woken up in the past and it wasn’t there anymore.

“I will find you a new one” Luna said instead of anything else.

Harry chuckled, pulling her into a hug. “I really missed my little sister, you know.”

Luna beamed at him. “I missed my big brother. I’m not sure which is worse, having to see you everyday and knowing that this isn’t my big brother, or never getting to see you again.”

Sighing, Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I guess having to see me always unsure of whether I would wake up, is worse… so you win that one.”

“A terrible game.”

Harry laughed and nodded. It sure was a terrible game to be playing. But in the end, it seemed as if everything went well for them both. They were back together, their little family.

“By the way” Luna said out of the blue, “the centaurs weren’t talking about Cedric.”

Frowning, Harry tilted his head. “Why not?”

It would make sense that the thing to impact the future, or this timeline, was Cedric’s continued life. That had been the thing to get things rolling last time and since Harry didn’t want to see his friend die once more, it would be the easiest answer.

Luna shrugged. “The Nargles haven’t said more. They just informed me that it wasn’t Cedric.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders. That was a good thing to know. “I’m still not telling Neville, Lune, I hope they didn’t tell you to make me talk to him.”

The Ravenclaw chuckled and shook her head. “Not to worry, Seeker, they didn’t say anything else about that.”

“That’s at least something. Now I just have to figure out what the sentence actually means.”

“You’ll find it, I’m sure.”

Harry chuckled. “Is that something the Nargles told you?”

“No” Luna shook her head, smiling up at him. “You’re Harry Potter. Of course, you’ll find what you’re looking for. You always find it. Just think of it as the Snitch.”

“That kind of trust makes me feel unsure.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

Harry laughed at her answer. He didn’t feel unsure, but he liked to talk to Luna that way. They were both playing and it was always fun to be around his little chosen sister.

His eyes fell in the hoodie that she was wearing and he had to stop himself from cursing. It was lime green with gold trimmings on the bottom and the strings in the hoodie were the same shade of gold. Did the twins manage to create and sell hoodies now?!

“Lune, please tell me you didn’t really buy a hoodie from the twins.”

Luna laughed lightly and showed him the ‘Quiddit’ inscription proudly. “Obviously, Seeker! I need to support your school!”

“I’m going to ruin them” Harry muttered. “When did they start selling these?”

“Yesterday.”

Harry hummed. “Let’s go find Ginny and whoever is interested in standing up against the twins, because this cannot go unpunished.”

Luna laughed and they headed back into the castle with one mission only: to find Ginny and destroy the twins. Those were two missions… but kind of the same anyway.

Draco led Harry through the dungeon and he had long lost count of turns and hallways and shortcuts. The dungeon was one part of the school he hadn’t had much time to explore and it clearly showed. After losing track the second time around of where they could be exactly, he had joked that Draco wanted to kill him here, but he just waved it off. “Too many Slytherins come here, it would be too obvious.”

And so, they had continued for around ten minutes, until they stopped in front of a dark blue, almost black wooden door. The corners on the bottom were a bit used, probably from the door being too big and it dragging on the floor.

Interestingly enough, there was a schedule on the wall next to the door with dates and hours. Clearly, it was a well used classroom. Harry frowned and was just about to ask what in Merlin’s name was going on, when his former boyfriend knocked and entered the room.

Inside, it was an actual potions laboratory, different areas set up, a whole rack on the right hand side full with potion vials and names Harry didn’t all recognize. There were five different areas set up with a shield in between them and parchment where names were written on. There was muggle ventilation going on and it was clear that whoever had set this one up had been in the future.

“Who did this?” Harry asked as Draco knocked on a glassy wall where a busy redhead was working on potions.

“Oh, you don’t know him” Draco said as his eyes lit up. “Elias Grimshaw, he graduated last year and was a Slytherin. He woke up when he was eleven years old and his goal was to first make sure that Hogwarts was thriving and then change the Ministry.”

Harry frowned. He had never even heard that name. “Did you know him back then?” he asked, curiously.

Draco shook his head. “Nah, he was too old for me to be interested in his life. But he sure as hell knew my name…”

“You were the Slytherin Seeker” Harry shrugged his shoulders.

Then the frosted glass door opened and Harry widened his eyes in shock. In front of him, as the obvious mystery potioneer who had been working on the werewolf potion, stood none other than George Weasley!

George!!!

“Harrikins” George greeted him with a smirk. He leaned at the door, eyes sparkling with mischief. “I love that look on people’s faces.”

It took an embarrassingly long time for Harry to find his voice again. Next to him, Draco was cackling as quietly as that was possible for the Slytherin. Harry finally shook his head. “What?!”

George grinned. “Yeah, I’ve found my passion deep in the Slytherin dungeon, obviously. But in reality, Fred and me were looking to create a dungeon map and got lost. We found this place, realized it was in good shape and slept here in hopes that someone would find us.”

“And the Slytherins found them and adopted George” Draco finished with a smirk. “Fred, we sent on his merry way.”

“You’re the mystery brewer?” Harry asked, still in shock that it was George. In his mind, it could have been anyone from Slytherin or Ravenclaw. But not Gryffindor. How could that even be possible?!

George cackled, closer to Draco that Harry would have thought possible. “Oh yeah. Fred tried but he just doesn’t have to patience to re-do something or find the flaw in any potion’s field, but I realized that there is something meditative about the process, so this is my little side project.”

Harry shook his head. “Why not go public yourself? I thought maybe someone wanted to save themselves from their family or something…”

Save themselves from being helpful when a Dark Lord was around the corner. That would have made sense. A Slytherin taking away or trying to help werewolves? That would not have ended well for their families.

What were George’s motives for hiding his talents?

“Well, kind of family reasons” the redhead said with a shrug. “I just don’t want mum to separate the two of us. I’ve done something great, yeah… But if the world knew that she would try to separate me and Freddy. Never going to happen. I don’t know, I’m not explaining it right.”

“I understand” Harry calmed him down. It made sense.

The twins were always overlooked as being not good enough for their families. If one twin would make something great and the other one didn’t it could put more stress and pressure on the other twin. In addition, Molly would probably try to separate them into the one who was able to go the distance and the one who didn’t even if in reality, Fred came back from the future.

Draco wrote his name on a parchment on the door all the way to the left and told them to come get him, when they had discussed everything necessary to fool the world. He apparently, wanted to get a head start on next week’s assignment.

“It makes sense why the Slytherins are better than the Gryffindors in Potions” Harry commented as he followed George into his little work station.

George chuckled. “They’re very driven to do good in potions, which comes in handy, sometimes.”

Harry chuckled and sat down on a wooden chair, watching George create the potion and making sure he had the whole process memorized. Once the potion was in the world, it would only take a couple of months until the Potions Guild would realize what was happening and he would be ‘kidnapped’ by them to get questioned.

He had seen it a few times already with Muggleborn wizards and witches who just didn’t know the proper procedure. And luckily for their cover story, he was one of them now.

It took roughly an hour to make a new batch and according to George he could get fifteen rations from that. He filled them up, labelled them correctly and handed the box to Harry.

“How often would people need to take these?” Harry asked, having forgotten whether or not they had talked about that in the meeting.

“The idea is to take it once, but I haven’t gotten that far” George sighed. “At the moment, people need to take it within the week leading up to the full moon once and then on the night of the transformation again. That’ll do the trick.”

Harry shook his head in just simple awe of his best friend’s brother. “You are crazy talented!”

George blushed and waved him off. “I’m just… It’s something I like!”

“So?!” Harry rolled his eyes. “Draco likes potions. I don’t think he could do that!”

For a moment it seemed as if they had nothing to talk or do, before George grinned at Harry. He wiggled his eyebrows. “So. Draco?”

“Shut up.”

Sunday morning saw Harry sat at the Ravenclaw table with Luna, Cedric and Fleur (as well as the other champions’ friends around them). A day before, he had sent a package to Remus with the explanation of the potion and the ‘order’ to try it and report back to him. He was looking forward to hear from his former professor about how well the potion did (he didn’t know it, but he trusted George not to poison werewolves).

The seven of them were discussing the Easter holiday which were in three weeks. Apparently, Fleur could not wait for a chance to go back home. Most of her classmates were also going home and Harry wondered why he didn’t remember that from last time around, then again, it had been quite some years since fourth year happened.

When he looked towards the door after taking another chocolate bread – these sweet things were just incredibly good and he thought about bribing the house elves to make them even after the tournament was over – he saw Viktor walking in with a few friends from Durmstrang. The Bulgarian saw them and headed over without hesitation.

“Dobro utro” Viktor greeted them. Harry had learnt that it meant ‘good morning’ in Bulgarian, but he couldn’t really remember what the other greetings were. Nevertheless, he copied the Bulgarian and earned himself a giant grin from Viktor and a high-five from Cedric.

“Beautifully said” Fleur commented. “When will you attempt Français?!”

Harry huffed and shook his head. “How about ‘never’? I think I’d just butcher all these delicate words. Like an elephant in a China shop, eh Fleur?!”

“It’s a bull” Cedric said with a frown.

“In English” Harry agreed. “But in French, it’s an elephant.”

Fleur lit up and beamed at him, before she tilted her head. “You learnt idioms, but not my language?”

Harry sniggered. “From each a little bit.”

“It is also an elephant in Bulgarian” Viktor announced and grinned at Harry.

“Wait, so English is actually the odd one out?” Cedric asked and shook his head. “And here I thought we were international.”

Fleur laughed lightly, while Viktor’s bellowing laugh drew attention to their group. Cedric snorted into his orange juice as a reaction to that and Harry cackled, along with Luna who seemed to enjoy the discussion.

And so, throughout the entire breakfast, they sat there, enjoying their own personal feast, discussing differences in language, language barriers and school systems. From all of them, Durmstrang seemed to offer the most variety, which would have shocked the Harry Potter from the original timeline, but Harry did know that.

He had been invited to hold a guest lecture there, which he did and had even gotten himself a yearly lecture, since the students there seemed to like him.

Beauxbatons was almost like a fancy private school, some French families who couldn’t afford the tuition fees and were unable to get a scholarship, sent their children to Schola Magica Alpina in Switzerland, which surprisingly for a Swiss thing was rather cheap.

“How many other schools are there around Europe?” Harry asked, having never heard of any other school except these three.

Fleur chuckled. “Well, there is Lisboa Lux Magica in Portugal” she said, before holding up a finger for that. “The Swiss one.”

Cedric continued while Fleur held up another finger and then one for Cedric’s explanation. “There is also the Institutum Mysticum Hiberniae in Ireland. But this focusses more on natural magic and ancient Celtic practises. It’s not widely known and I’m sure in a few years, they’ll have to change something or they’re going down.”

“We haff two more schools in our parts” Viktor explained. “Romania and Slovakia haff their own magical schools, but they are smaller than Durmstrang und less diverse.”

Harry hummed, thoughtfully. “I guess you learn something new every day.” Cedric snorted and shook his head in obvious amusement. That was until Harry turned to Viktor. “Hey, how can I transfer to Durmstrang?”

“No you’re not!” the Hufflepuff yelled and at the same time, breakfast disappeared, as if the house elves had waited for this to happen. It seemed as if that question stirred something akin to panic in the poor Hufflepuff. Cedric turned around and scanned the hall, before finding who he had been looking for. “Neville!” he hollered through the Great Hall.

Luckily, there weren’t that many people left, though each and everyone stared at the usually quiet Hufflepuff in some degree of shock.

Harry just continued to cackle, Viktor and Fleur were both amused and Luna grinned at Harry, bidding goodbye and heading over to Ginny and Astoria who were just leaving the Great Hall.

Neville headed over with a frown. “What’s going on here?”

“Harry wants to switch schools!” Cedric said in alert. Harry laughed loudly when Neville stared at him with wide eyes.

“Is that so?” he asked, clearly catching on to his joke. “Where do you want to hide from us then?”

“I’m not telling you that, Nev. Then I couldn’t hide anymore.”

“Durmstrang” Viktor announced happily.

“No!” Harry looked at the Seeker who smiled at him innocently. “What’s it called… School Magical Swiss.”

“Uh-huh” Neville could barely hold his laughter in, especially since Cedric had clearly not gotten the memo that all other students had. Even Fleur looked amused. “Do you mean Schola Magica Alpina?”

Harry nodded quickly. “Yeah that. I’m going there.”

Cedric shook his head. “He will not! He asked Viktor what he’d need to do to…” he looked around the table, seeing amusement everywhere and he groaned. “I’m being played for a fool, am I not?”

The laughter at the Ravenclaw table was his response and Harry happily followed Neville out of the Great Hall to a study session with different houses in the library. It felt good being back.

Chapter Text

Harry had forgotten how annoying school was.

Everyday was practically the same: sit in a cold-ass classroom, listen to a professor talking about basically the same thing over and over again, work on some essays a few of which he could do blindfolded probably, do detention (usually Potions), research something either for time travel or rituals or essays he had forgotten in the library, do even more homework… it was just incredibly boring.

His only bright spot was the fact that he wasn’t alone through it all. Though since he had been the only one who had recently travelled back into the past, he was kind of on his own, but he could see how his future in a few months could look like. The people around him where proof of that. Everyone else was very well acclimated. And honestly, he felt like home.

It wasn’t the kind of home he had built with Ginny before the divorce. That home was built upon memories of long forgotten wars and fights and the hope that the future might change. And it wasn’t the home he had built after the divorce, where everything was cold and empty and vast. The only light being Teddy who had started to visit frequently.

And it sure as hell wasn’t the kind of home after Ginny’s death.

If he had thought that the world was empty after the divorce, he had not been prepared for the emptiness in his heart after Ginny died due to Tuberculosis. The kind of emptiness that was screaming in his ears, like a teapot. But constantly. Every day and night. And it didn't get quieter by his own screams, he had tried that before.

It was the kind of home that was judging his every action, fear gripping him from every angle. Andromeda stopped allowing Teddy to come over often, since his fear would triple with his godson around. Teddy could fall down the stairs, swallow something poisonous. Die due to instantaneous combustion…

Only with Hermione’s and Ron’s help did he get better. And Ron’s death also wasn’t as hard as Ginny’s had been. Mostly because it happened instantly and there was nothing Harry could have done to help his best friend. As to Ginny's death, where he could have saved her life. He could have. He should have...

Hermione was a constant and he had built a home around her after that. Not physically, but emotionally. She was always there in times of need.

And now, back in the past, Hogwarts held this title of ‘home’. His idols in this new timeline, in this new home, were without a doubt Neville and Ron. The first because he was so incredibly strong despite all the challenges they had gone through and he had clearly grown (who wouldn’t have…?!). The latter even though he had only travelled through time three years ago, seemed to have always been here. It was astonishing.

It was another Monday after lunch; so single periods all over the place. First Potions (Seamus almost exploded his potion by adding strangely shaped cubes, yes they were still freaking dicing), then Transfigurations (McGonagall made them read up on Animagus Transformations gone wrong), then History of Magic (where everyone was doing Latin homework) and then Latin (where Harry had almost caught up with everything taught so far – thanks Auror work), followed by a late dinner, as most students had dinner during their lesson of Latin. How that was fair was another question, but it did give the fourth year Hogwarts students time to bond during their almost empty Great Hall dinner time. Only Professor Sprout was left at the Head table and the odd seventh year who instead of eating was learning or reading. Harry liked that time a lot, especially because he could get to know other students.

If they’d had Latin, the Art of Writing, English or Mathematics in the timeline before, he was sure that he would have bonded with others. The classes that were for all years at the same time felt new and exciting. At the moment, he felt mostly drawn to the Hufflepuff bunch – aside from his friends in Gryffindor and his boyfriend, naturally.

Especially Susan and Hannah with their surprising continued friendship – even though Susan was from the future – was something, Harry enjoyed a lot. They were both equally sassy and had such a dark humour that it was obvious why they drifted together.

During dinner at the Ravenclaw table, Hannah complained about double potions tomorrow after the Herbology lesson in the afternoon and Susan moved closer to her and Harry. “I read about a potion that could induce high levels of forgetfulness. How high are our chances to make Snape forget that he has a fourth year?”

Harry snorted and part of the meat he was just swallowing got stuck and he turned away to cough and clear his airways. Then he burst out laughing while Hannah cackled. “We almost killed Harry Potter!”

“Voldypants must be so proud” Susan commented dryly.

Hannah looked at her with wide, but amused eyes. “We should ask where we could fill out an application form to join his cult! We almost succeeded in his plans!”

Susan answered with a laugh herself. “I’ll ask my aunt, I’m sure she knows where that shit goes down.”

“You two are the worst Hufflepuffs I’ve gotten to know.”

“Doesn’t say much” Hannah said, looking at Susan. “I think he knows about eight.”

“Five.”

“No, I don’t! I know way more than eight.”

Susan grinned at him while she grabbed more Roast Beef. “Prove it. Name more than eight Hufflepuffs.”

“Cedric.”

“That’s an easy one” Hannah huffed and held her plate over for Susan to add some of the Roast Beef to her as well.

“You two, that’s three. Justin.”

Susan snorted. “Still too easy.”

“Newt Scamander.”

Hannah sniggered. “That’s cheating.”

Harry grinned at them. “No, that’s five.” The girls showed him the middle finger, which made him laugh easily. “Ernie and Zach” he pointed at the other Hufflepuff students sitting a bit down the table, talking to Slytherins.

Then, he frowned, which made the other two Badgers snigger. “That, dear Harry, are only seven. Come on, one more! You can do it!”

He frowned, but couldn’t find someone else from Hufflepuff. Holy shit… Did he only ever bother to look for a tiny number of students?! He frowned, trying to remember if he knew anyone from Ravenclaw, besides Luna and Cho, but came up surprisingly empty. Even trying to remember the Quidditch players… he had no clue.

Which could be due to the time travel thing…

“That does not feel good” Harry said instead. “I have no clue.”

Hannah laughed while Susan shook her head. “We have to introduce you to our house, Harry. This simply won’t do.”

Her friend agreed easily and they came up with a time and place for Harry to be snuck into the Hufflepuff Common Room to learn more names.

Only once Harry was lying in bed that night did he realize that Tonks had also been a Hufflepuff… She would have bit his head off if she knew that he had forgotten her…

Tuesday morning meant double Transfiguration with Ravenclaw. Harry couldn’t remember ever having had such diverse classes. In his mind, every class during Hogwarts had been spent with Slytherin, but that couldn’t have really happened.

McGonagall looked stern even as the students filled into the classroom and Harry wondered what exactly was going on and why she looked as if the world was ending. No, actually, she looked as determined as she had looked during the final battle. But what would make her demeaner change?

“Tomorrow is April, which means that there are barely two months left in your school year. We will start revisions in two weeks and you’d do well to start practicing your spells. Next year means O.W.L. year and you do not want start that year having to work on your Transfiguration problems of fourth year.”

Harry nodded along with everyone else. She had a point there. On the other hand, he had travelled from the future and he was sure that unlike for Arithmancy, Runes and Latin, he would have no problems with her course.

They were given the last new thing this year for Transfiguration: Reparifarge. Which in theory meant that any badly transfigured object or technically also person, could be fixed. In reality, it was a bit more challenging, since it was heavily impacted on the caster to figure out what this mess was supposed to be.

McGonagall handed everyone an object that was badly transfigured and gave them the homework of getting it fixed, whatever that was to each individual. Harry got something that resembled an American football in the shape of a half-finished flower vase. It couldn’t stand properly since the tip of the football was the base of the vase and it kept moving.

Ron got a Muggle cat mouse-toy that when squeezed made a gurgling sound and candy fell out of the slot for batteries. He shared an almost haunted look with Dean who chocked on air the first time he had heard the sound.

Hermione received a child’s chair that could be reshaped as if it was pudding, but it looked sturdy like wood. The Gryffindor just sighed and put a bubble around it, to shrink it without having to touch it.

Neville got a wooden picture frame which could imitate the words spoken around it. And the lightest vibration made the glass shatter into edible glass.

“What is this supposed to be doing?!” Neville muttered, clearly unhappy with it all. Harry sniggered and, when Neville looked at him with a dark glare, only barely managed to not laugh loudly. “Want to switch?” the other boy asked.

“Nope” Harry smirked. “I’m happy with my accident.”

After Transfigurations, where McGonagall that the end told them to not panic if they couldn’t do it as this was a fifth year spell – “Challenge accepted” Harry heard Hermione muttering under her breath – they had a break for half an hour.

That was also new to Harry. There were break rooms all over the castle, but most just preferred to go to the Great Hall, where an array of fruits was on the tables. And as the Durmstrang students had a two-shift school going on, since there were not enough professors for the around, there were always students from Durmstrang in the Great Hall during break.

Harry enjoyed watching his friends making more friends with international students. Initially, he had followed his friends, but walked over to Viktor who was talking with Cedric in the corner at the Slytherin table. His friends, Hristo and Stoyan were talking a few feet away, clearly an intense discussion.

Sitting down, he was immediately handed an apple from Viktor and a banana from Cedric. Harry snorted and accepted both, peeling the banana first. “So, what’s new? My guess is it’s about the maze?”

“Da” Viktor seemed annoyed. “Karkaroff got information about the enchantments. And he told me not to takk about, I had to make a promise.”

“And I’m trying to find a way around it, so Viktor doesn’t lose his magic.”

Harry started eating the banana, while the other two champions talked strategies. Cedric made Viktor recount he magically binding promise that Viktor had been forced to make. ‘I will not tell anyone about the information I have received, so mote it be.’ Harry laughed and grinned at the other two who had stopped talking.

“You were forced to make the promise?” he asked, curiously.

Viktor nodded. “Then the ‘so mote it be’ part destroyed the promise.”

Cedric frowned. “What are you talking about? It’s the part that makes it magically binding!”

“Sure, and if I do something that’s not allowed; curse a child, create one of the seven wonders, make a potion out of someone’s pet. Can I know make someone do a vow to never tell?” Harry asked innocently.

Cedric nodded at that. “Yes, that is exactly the problem with binding magic!”

Harry held his hand up. “Nope. The biggest problem in this magically binding promise is the ‘so mote it be’ part. This is magic looking at your intent. If your intent is exactly what you’re saying, yes… the oath is binding. If you’re being forced into something that you do not agree with, magic will stop the promise from existing.”

Viktor narrowed his eyes and grabbed a hand-full of blueberries, eating them in one go. “So, you are saying that teknikally, I’m not… going to lose my magic?”

“Yup.”

“Wow, wow, wow” Cedric held his hands up and looked at the Seeker. “Viktor, before you try anything, we don't know if this is really the case. For all we know Harry could have found that in an experimental journal.”

He had read it in the future, the proof didn’t yet exist. So, technically the same, right?

“I’ll still try it” Viktor announced, but before he could, Harry saw several people leaving the Hall and he checked the clock on the wall behind the Slytherin table.

“I’ve got Mathematic now! Bye!” he said, jumping up with the apple in hand and running after Seamus and Dean. “I’ll see you at Lunch!”

He just heard Cedric curse and grabbing his things, running away as well, Viktor just laughed, as his school today only started at half past one, though it did go until seven and that was something Harry wouldn’t have wanted.

Mathematic wasn’t as one might suggest simply addition or multiplication, no… it still needed something magical. So, in that one lesson per week, they were calculating ‘spell trajectories’, specifically, the optimal wand movement and angles for non-verbal spells or those spells that required very precise aim.

It was fun, in a way, but Harry’s head wasn’t working with such complex mathematical things. “Why did I wait so long to come back” Harry muttered, while he was bent over the parchment, trying to figure this shit out.

Next to him, Ron was sniggering. “It’s not only complicated for you, mate” he answered and stuck out his tongue when Harry tried levelling him with a glare.

He had never been so happy when lunch finally came around and he met up with Cedric and Viktor again, joined by Fleur and her best friend Elise.

“Why didn’t they put you under water?” Harry asked when Elise sat that down next to Fleur.

“They tried” Elise explained. “But I have thalassophobia, which basically means, deep and dark water makes me… well it gives me almost a panic attack and when they told me about the task, I fell unconscious.”

Viktor laughed, but held a hand in front of his mouth. “I’m so sorry, that was not meant to funny, I know, but I would have loved to see their faces when you passed out.”

Cedric hit him over the head. “You’re impossible. Can’t take you anywhere, now, can we?!”

Elise shrugged while Fleur rolled her eyes, but she was clearly amused. “I ‘ave the worst friends, Ellie, as you can see.”

“Hey” Harry spoke up and shook his head. “I haven’t said a thing!”

“Not you, you’re very be’aved.”

“Like a dog” Cedric added and ducked as Fleur tried to hit him over the head, which had him go into a ‘sorry’-chant that had their side of the table laugh.

Harry grabbed more food from the international cuisine and silently watched the battle of the century going down between England and France, before Bulgaria came to fight next to England. That wasn’t how this had worked out in the history books, Harry was pretty sure.

England and Bulgaria offered a peace treaty which France took happily, that was also funny.

“During lunch we were talking about a forced magical promise” Harry brought Fleur and Elise up to speed. “And we think… I think that the ‘so mote it be’-part means it’s useless, since it’s forced. What do you think?”

Fleur frowned slightly. “I think it makes sense.”

“Oui” Elise agreed. “Ozzerwise you can do unspeakable zings to anozzer ‘uman and zen force zem to do ze magical promise and zey would never be able to talk about it.”

Harry looked at Viktor with a tilted head, waiting for whatever he would decide and he chuckled as all eyes fell on him. “Even if it takes away my magic, would be fun to stop my career in the middle of being so good.”

“A lot of people would think it was a power move” Cedric agreed, though he still seemed uneasy.

“The maze” Viktor started slowly, “will haff animals from all of our culture, and whatever that half-giant outside is creating-“

“Blast-Ended Skrewts” Harry said with a sigh.

“Blast-Ended Skrewt” Cedric said at the same time.

The two looked at each other and snorted, Harry rolling his eyes. The worst creatures out there. Aside from maybe rampaging werewolves.

Viktor chuckled and nodded. “Those. He wants to add apparition-wards, so he can get in and help me with anything. He’s creating a map so I can walk through the maze with his help and get there first.”

Harry hummed, a little unhappy with the news. And thinking of what would happen if Viktor was the one on the cemetery, that would have been interesting… But he couldn’t promise himself that Voldy wouldn’t just kill him and go on to find something else, so he shouldn’t even entertain that idea.

He looked over to the Headtable just in time to see the Death Eater portraying Moody taking a sip from his flask. He shook with the disgusting taste and Harry wondered how no one ever realized that this man was not Moody.

He looked back to see Viktor trying a spell and beaming when the duck dish was floating. Though after a second, Cedric snatched it from the air. “Mine!” he announced and put the dish in front of him as if that was his plate.

“You cannot be finishing all of zis” Fleur said with amusement.

“Watch me!”

“Is no one happy for me not losing my magic?” Viktor asked, looking at everyone, though Cedric was too busy stuffing food into his mouth to respond and Elise was whispering with Fleur, which meant that only Harry was able to say something.

He sniggered and shrugged his shoulders. “I am happy that you don’t have to stop flying.”

Viktor sent him a nod of approval. “Thank you, Harry. You see what’s most important.”

Cedric glared as he swallowed, but whatever he had wanted to add was drowned in thousands of gasps and Harry frowned, turning around towards the entrance of the Great Hall. His heart stopped in dread as his eyes found Draco wandering in with a giant bouquet of roses. There were at least a hundred.

It was so wide that it filled the entrance door entirely, not reaching as high as the ceiling, but that was because they were in a castle. If it had been a normal home, Harry would be sure that it would have messed up the ceiling.

His heart pounded heavily, as he realized that all eyes switched from Draco and the giant pile of roses to him. His ears rushed with the heat that raced in his face and he shivered at the sight of what was apparently his future.

He didn’t need this. He couldn’t handle such a show of love. How… How could he… How could Draco do something like that without asking him first?

As these thoughts rushed through his mind, he realized that this was just him. Only he would be thinking like that, there were so many others who would love Draco even more for openly showing so much adoration and love.

But not him.

This was so much! He tried to see the positives, but every eye was on him when Draco made his way through the hall and all he wanted to do was run. Run as long and far as possible.

He could see why people would like something like that, but… Harry swallowed thickly and got up, forcing a smile on his face. He didn’t want to embarrass Draco in front of everyone, so he was going to act the part.

It reminded him a little of what Ginny used to do on their anniversary, which was going out in public and let everyone take pictures while they walked to a restaurant or something else she wanted to do (which she would always insist on paying). It was romantic, yes, but… Harry hadn’t liked the attention, still didn’t like it.

“This is for you” Draco announced. “To show you how I feel about you.”

The Slytherin beamed, obviously very proud of what he had been able to accomplish. Harry liked Draco for that – he really did – but… in this moment, he realized that the two of them would probably not work out.

“Thank you, Draco” Harry said quietly, though obviously everyone heard it, since it was deadly quiet in the hall. “They’re all lovely. I don’t know though how I can take them all up towards the tower.”

“Oh no worries, I’ll help” Draco grinned and plucked a rose out of the bouquet, handing it over with adoration in his eyes. Harry wanted to cry for knowing what was going to happen later.

He sent his group a smile and headed out behind Draco, feeling like a dog in the storming rain. He couldn’t do it now, couldn’t break Draco’s heart so soon after. He needed just a little distance between this and the talk that needed to happen.

It made sense that Draco liked big shows of love and affection, it was certainly romantic to people who liked that sort of romance, but… it wasn’t Harry.

He was being gawked at enough during the day, he really didn’t need a romance that made it normal to look at him even more. He wanted something quiet, something… soft. One flower would have been enough. The one he carried up behind Draco was absolutely okay.

A love note found in his pocket for no one but him, food in his reach, or actively doing something for him, that was enough. He didn’t need such an intense public show of affection.

Pushing it all down, he followed Draco and tried to occlude as much as possible, to be able to act his way out of this. He felt really bad for the Slytherin, but… it would be even worse to just silently ‘suffer’ through the love signs for all eternity, right?

And who knew… maybe when he talked to Draco, he would agree to tone it down?

Something told Harry that wasn’t the case, but he could still hope. He liked Draco after all and they had been playing with each other long enough in the other timeline. Maybe this was just a little bump in the road and not a giant relationship-breaking-thing, right?

Right?

Chapter Text

First of April meant jokes, pranks, idiotic behaviour all around and most importantly, the twins’ birthday party in the Gryffindor Common Room, to which there were a lot of non-Lions invited.

Harry had been able to get presents for both – thinking more along of the joke shop they’d eventually open again and he gave them an advanced potions’ kit as well as an inventors’ kit. The potions’ kit was for Fred and the inventors’ kit for George, he hoped he had them well figured out.

First thing in the morning, he met them in the Common Room, where they were planning how the food-run would be working out. Fred had already suggested Dobby and Winky to help them out and George was currently running through all the counter-arguments.

In the end, they did agree to use the house elves’ magic to help them out. “Great” Fred said, looking pleased. “Now we know all the arguments someone could have.”

Harry snorted, drawing their attention. “That was why you were arguing?”

“That’s the best thing about having a twin, you can already practise arguments” George said with a laugh. “You have no idea how many times we trained arguments with our family.”

Laughing, Harry shook his head. He let the topic go in favour for their birthdays. “Happy birthday, Greg, Forge, when do you want your presents?”

The two perked up at that. It was funny in a way, Harry saw them more as sons and less as his friend’s brothers. But that could also be because he travelled through time. But in the future he came from, George had been a really good brother to him, so why did he see them as sons, now?”

Fred jumped over a couch and stood in front of Harry with wide eyes. “Now!” George followed quickly and added the echo.

Harry sniggered and handed them over the nicely wrapped presents. Both twins made appreciative sounds, which had Harry cackling, even before they opened the presents.

“It would be fitting for you to give us fake presents and then say ‘April fools’ when we open them” George said matter-of-factly, which made Harry widen his eyes.

“George, you are a genius. Next year-“

“Harrykins, I will put prank items in all of your food for a year, if you do that” Fred said darkly, which made Harry laugh loudly.

He held his hands up in mock surrender. “Duly noted, kind sir.”

Fred winked at him and opened the present with a gasp, George following quickly thereafter. Both seemed incredibly happy with the presents they got and Fred clearly caught on to what Harry was referencing. The inventor’s kit left not much to question. George was over the moon.

“You’re the only one who gives us different presents” George announced and smiled brightly at him.

Harry frowned. “Not even your siblings? I mean, I do see where your parents are coming from, but I always thought that at least Charlie or Bill would give you something different.”

The twins shook their head, looking like one person once more. Fred was the one to speak though. “It must be easier to just buy two of the same things instead of having to individually think what we could want.”

“That’s kind of sad.”

“That’s why you’re the best little brother ever” George said with a grin and took both presents up to the dormitory, probably to make sure they were safe.

Fred tilted his head and watched Harry closely, clearly happy that they were alone at the moment. “You don’t see yourself as our little brother?”

That man was picking up quickly onto the clues around him. Harry chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “Usually I do. But today, I feel more like you’re my sons. Which is very weird.”

“Relevant to the future you came from, maybe?”

Harry frowned at Fred’s casual tone and narrowed his eyes in thought. “Not that I could remember at the moment.”

And he really couldn’t, but he thought that Fred had a point. Maybe there was something hiding underneath the surface and wanted out. It felt like it, especially as he watched George return and the twins started to plan out the decoration they wanted to have around. He felt strangely fatherly and he could tell that it didn’t inherently have something to do with the twins.

The day after that went rather smoothly, with pranks from the twins for the entire castle, they really outdid themselves – and annoyed the most professors with it. Though it seemed as if they left Snape alone, which he seemed to appreciate. McGonagall seemed the most amused out of everyone, Harry could even see how Dumbledore was mostly annoyed, but seemed to appreciate the prank the twins had planned for him, when they made his chair transform into pudding and he sank in deeper and deeper, until he couldn’t get out without help.

He sent them an amused look once McGonagall and Sprout freed him from his sweet prison. He did eat a bit of the chair pudding to get free. The twins celebrated that until their own party started and Winky and Dobby brought food and drinks up to the tower.

The typical room colours of gold and deep red had been switched (somehow) to a brainhurting assortment of different rainbow colours, looking almost like a circus tent but with eight to ten different colours. None of them went together in a good way.

There were balloons, different coloured streamers, banners with the twins’ names and well-wishes, confetti raining down from a spot on the ceiling and Harry was careful not to get underneath it, since he didn’t want to pick confetti out of his hair for the remainder of the day. They somehow somewhere got an ice sculpture that spit ice cubes and was almost immediately taken away by McGonagall, which was amusing to Harry, while Hermione ranted about the dangers of being hit by an ice cube.

On the walls were fairy light string and Muggle LED in Gryffindor colours and they had a giant cake with their names. Harry wasn’t sure if someone was hiding in it, he hadn’t seen Lee in a while. His theory however was proven wrong, when Lee ran down from the dorms and belly flopped onto the cake, which started a giant food fight, much to the Ravenclaws’ annoyance. Most people were laughing themselves silly.

Chaos all around.

The way to ignore someone, whether by choice or by accident, always leaves marks. They’re not always visible, or recognisable. However, avoidance after a previously close relationship is noticed. By the parties involved and by the onlookers. Because everyone is nosy when it comes to famous people.

Harry lasted all the way to Saturday, thankfully without any big surprised from Draco, and they met by the lake, a bit further away from the other students. Since it was a nice day outside, a lot of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students decided to stay in the sun. And since the weather was slowly getting warmer, clearly, everyone enjoyed it.

The place where Harry and Draco were meeting was behind a little hill by the stony store. It was about double the distance than the Second Task had been to Hogwarts, so there should no one else be going here.

It was apparent in the nature around them, as it seemed almost untouched. The giant tree which had its roots into the lake build a nice privacy shield to anyone who was interested. Harry had made a bench out of the discarded branches around and was now waiting for Draco to arrive.

Even if Draco would have been oblivious, the last three days should have made it clear: Harry knew he was behaving differently towards the Slytherin. Mostly, he was rejecting public shows of affection and… that wasn’t Harry. He still liked to be close to people, to relationships.

But what Draco had done in the Great Hall had made Harry panic slightly. What if he made more of these giant bouquets and handed them over every weekend?! Harry was just about to go down that rabbit hole again, when he heard footsteps coming towards the tree.

“Hey” Draco announced and smiled at him. He wore his comfy clothes, light blue jeans and a grey hoodie with dark green edges. “You’re kind of hard to find around here.”

Harry chuckled, forcing his panicked emotions down, behind the occlumency barrier. “I guess. I found this spot once by accident when I was giving a guest lecture at Hogwarts and wanted to have five minutes of peace in remembrance of all the people I lost.”

Draco hummed, understanding what he was talking about. He walked over and sat down on the bench, next to Harry, but not as close as they had when they were sitting together before.

“It’s a nice place you brought me to” Draco said softly. “You know, in order to dump me.”

“I…” Harry sighed. “I’m not… I…”

“Could have fooled me” Draco added dryly. “You’re not behaving like you did before. So, what changed?”

Harry rubbed his forehead and suppressed another sigh. Damn, why was Draco so attentive?! But it made sense, he was a pureblood, they were looking at everyone, seeing miniscule changed in behaviour and his was anything but ‘miniscule’.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“Yes, a nice way to say you’re dumping me.”

“Draco, please” Harry leaned at the tree and looked out over the water. “I wasn’t expecting your love to be so… loud.”

The Slytherin frowned. “Loud?”

Harry nodded. “The roses are where I realized that maybe… we had to talk about what we wanted. It’s not that… I don’t want to break up with you, but… I can’t… I don’t want attention on me.”

“Because of flowers?” Draco asked, still frowning. He tilted his head questioningly and looked at Harry thoughtfully. “The attention was on the flowers.”

“It’s the entire scene that made everyone watch” Harry corrected. “And I applaud you for showing your love, Draco. But it was too much for me.”

Draco hummed. “I could make it half as big next time.”

“One flower is enough” Harry objected.

“No” Draco shook his head. “One flower is ridiculous. Harry, I need to… I can’t just run around with one flower. I want the world to know!”

Harry nodded softly. “And I understand that. But it makes me uncomfortable. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see if we could come to a… to an agreement, I guess.”

Draco watched him carefully. “And if not?” He hesitated. “Break up?”

Nodding slowly, Harry looked at the waves and waited for a bit. Draco clearly needed time to think things through. They remained silent for a few minutes, before the Slytherin’s soft sigh drew Harry’s attention.

“I… I can’t just ignore what I want to do, Harry” Draco said softly. “I want to hand over these bouquets, pave every path you walk with velvet and paint the sunrise in the exact shade of your eyes. I want the world to know who I love.”

Harry nodded sadly. “That is entirely too much for me.”

Draco sighed and turned to the waves himself. The silence stretched a while between the two of them. It was only broken by the soft sound of waves reaching the stony beach. A few fish jumped up and splashed the water, then they were gone again. The Giant Squid lifted an arm and brought it down forcefully, playing with something underneath the water. Somewhere, there was a seagull, screeching and a mouse ran towards the water, only to run back with a little noise.

Harry turned and watched his boyfriend for a couple of seconds, before he pulled his legs up to sit cross-legged on the bench.

“I know there are a lot of people out there who would want that, who dream of someone who shows their love so openly without shame” he said softly. There were tears forming in his eyes, and he had to fight to keep his emotions in check. He was the one breaking up with Draco, why was he getting so emotional?!

“But not you?” Draco asked, staring out over the lake, still.

Harry nodded. “Not me. I want no attention, I want small things, as I’ve said, one flower is enough for me, at most a small bouquet with a few different flowers.” He brushed away the tears, annoyed that he couldn’t have kept them from falling.

Draco sighed, looking at Harry finally. “I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I… I guess I didn’t question how it would make you feel. You’ve been in the lime light ever since stepping into our world, so continuing it, I guess I can see how that was the wrong move.”

Chuckling softly, Harry placed an arm around Draco. “Don’t change, Draco. I know there are people out there who want that kind of attention and romantic gestures you have in you.”

The Slytherin smirked and leaned into Harry. “Stay my friend, okay? I could need all people who know how to stroke my ego.”

Harry shoved the Slytherin away, which made him laugh. Rolling his eyes, Harry smirked. “Sure, we can be friends. I’ll try and find you a good boyfriend then.”

“Nah, don’t bother” Draco waved him off. “To be honest, I’ve had my eyes on someone before you travelled back. I just thought maybe… we could work out, since I was kind of obsessed with you as a child.”

“In that case, good luck” Harry announced and chuckled when Draco stuck out his tongue. “So much for pureblood behaviour, huh?” Draco stuck his tongue out one more time, instead of answering. Harry hit him over the head softly. “Do it one more time, and I’ll hex your tongue. Don’t know into what, but I’m always best when I’m improvising.”

Draco cackled, but didn’t repeat the gesture anymore. They remained at the shore for another hour, just talking about the world, their feelings and the future that had been.

On Sunday, Harry was sitting closer to the castle. The weather looked like storm; giant black clouds rolling over the sky, it also smelled like the storm. The wind was sharp, tasted metallic, but not like blood in his mouth, but as if the air was bleeding. The earth smell was faint, but earthy and even a bit musky.

Possibly a rainstorm.

Most people were inside, or hurrying to get out of the dark clouds’ way. In fact, looking up at the sky was probably even more clear than just analysing the air. The sky over the Lake was so dark that Harry couldn’t see the individual clouds anymore. It seemed to be a giant storm avalanche coming their way.

And here Harry was, sitting outside, watching the storm brew until it would most likely start to downpour so heavy that he either needed to find a place to protect himself or go inside and face all the people.

He heard footsteps in the grass and turned around to see Luna heading his way. He smiled softly as she walked closer in her Muggle flower dress. It was a grey-white, knee-length, short-shoulder dress and had about a hundred different coloured flowers stitched on it. Harry wouldn’t have been surprised to know that she had done it herself.

“You know it’s going to rain soon” Luna said, sitting down next to him, nevertheless.

Harry chuckled and nodded. “Is that why you’re sitting next to me, Lune?”

Luna smiled and looked at the dark sky coming closer. “Oh, if you are getting wet, I assume, there is a reason for me to be here too.”

“No reason really” Harry answered and placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, which she let happen and she sat leaning against him soon. “I’m just wondering if I did the right thing.”

His little sister nodded. “You did” she said with a smile and looked up at him. “You didn’t match and you will find yours one day.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully. “It’s not Ginny, right?”

Luna laughed and shook her head. “No, Seeker. That was for the future. What we do now has nothing to do with that. Also, she’s not interested.”

“And you know that why?”

“We talk a lot” Luna explained and grinned, when Harry chuckled.

They continued to watch the sky above them darken as the wind picked up. Yet, no rain. But Harry was sure that it wouldn’t wait forever. He considered forcing Luna to go back into the castle, because while he would only rarely get sick, he knew that not everyone had his genes.

Before he could even speak his mind, he heard three people approaching. At first, he thought it was Ron, Hermione and maybe Neville or one of the twins, but as he turned his head, he found the other champions heading his way.

He chuckled as they all sat down around him and he shook his head, looking at his new-old friends. Cedric came closest to still wearing wizarding clothes even on weekends, but Fleur in her Hoodie and leggings from what seemed the 80s, could very much pass like a Muggle. Viktor too, but he looked just like a very active person in his pullover and jeans.

“What are you all doing out here?” Harry asked, amused.

Cedric was the first to speak. “Well, you’re out here.”

“So, we decided it must be safe, still” Fleur added with a mischievous grin.

“Da, what are you doing out here?” Viktor asked and Harry rolled his eyes.

“Just contemplating my life choices” Harry said, shrugging his shoulders.

“As you do” Luna added. “Outside in the storm.”

“Hey!”

Cedric chuckled. “Is this one of these life choices to question?” he asked, pointing above them. “Because that rain is going to come any second now.”

The wind grew even stronger and Harry felt a tiny droplet of rain on his forehead. He sniggered and looked at Cedric. Clearly, the Hufflepuff had also felt it, looking up with wide eyes. The drops fell onto the dry earth, mixing with the plant oils around, creating one of Harry’s favourite smells: petrichor.

“I think Cedric can conjure storms” Viktor announced, with a critical look into the sky.

The Hufflepuff laughed, putting a fist up into the air. “Hell yeah! I’ve always wanted to have superpowers!”

Harry cackled, falling into the grass behind him, though the let go of Luna. The Ravenclaw still fell down with him, laughing. “Like magic isn’t a superpower!”

Rain drops fell onto his face and glasses and he put his hand up, trying to catch a rain drop in his hand, which he was obviously not going to succeed in. Fleur chuckled and practically manhandled Cedric onto dancing on the grass in the slowly starting rain.

“People will think we’re dating!” Cedric objected, but Fleur waved away his concerns.

Viktor seemed amused and shook his head over the people around him. Harry looked at him through the glasses, spoilt by rain. “You good?” he asked.

The Bulgarian smiled at him. “Oh yeah. It’s nice to feel part of a group instead of always being singled out.”

Harry groaned. “Ugh, tell me about it!” he put his head back, enjoying the rain that was slowly picking up its speed.

Soon, the clouds opened up and the masses of rain were pouring down that left no single inch dry and Harry sat up, looking over to Fleur and Cedric, who were dancing a more rapid dance, probably something traditional that Harry had never seen. Both knew what they were doing, even if they slithered around a lot more in the rain. But they were laughing and having fun.

Viktor created an umbrella over himself, though it didn’t stop him from being completely wet by that point. And the wind made the rain rush at him from all sides anyway. “Everyone is crazy here” he announced with humour in his voice.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way” Harry added to that and received a laugh from Luna and Viktor.

They did all eventually go back to the castle and were ushered to the medical wing by Flitwick who had seen them and was just about to get them inside. Luna shook her head behind his back, mouthing that he probably just walked past the entrance in that very second.

All four champions were cackling all the way up to the Infirmary. Luna happily skipping next to them, even though she fell almost twice, had Viktor not caught her.

Obviously, Madam Pomfrey wasn’t happy to have ‘the idiotic children who think a rain won’t hurt their immune system’ in her hospital wing, but as soon as Flitwick left, she agreed that it was a nice feeling.

“Cedric and Fleur danced in the rain” Luna announced to her and Matron looked over to the two with amusement. Harry sniggered when he saw Cedric throwing his hands up in annoyance.

“Don’t tell anyone, Luna! Otherwise, everything will think we are in a relationship!”

“Friendship is a relationship also” Fleur announced and received a glare from the Hufflepuff that had her laughing.

Viktor cackled. “You look like a puppy hoping for food” he said towards Cedric, which made Harry snigger.

They all received two doses of pepper-up and one preventive potion against the cold, which according to Madam Pomfrey, was only used on children who did stupid things like staying out in the rain when there are other options.

“Were you never young and in love with life?” Luna asked, innocently.

Harry and Viktor sniggered at that. Fleur immediately agreed that this was what it felt like while Cedric sneezed. He was the victim of another potion, this one stronger than the one before. Then Luna sneezed, but she tried to hide it with a cough and received two potions.

“Not a good idea that one” Cedric teased her. “In the presence of a mediwitch.”

“One more sneeze ‘in my presence’ and you’re all staying the entire night” she announced.

Fleur sneezed.

Harry cackled. “Okay.”

“Unbelievable” the Matron muttered, before turning to Luna. “And to answer your question, dear girl, I am a Slytherin. I know not to go outside and get myself sick.”

Viktor laughed softly and Harry leaned back in his bed, looking at the ceiling. It was nice to have this new support system. It felt like people were always with him and whatever he did, someone was going to catch him if he fell.

Having this good relationship with the other champions felt like a found family thing. He knew that they all had their own families, but he really liked the way they behaved when they were together.

Chapter Text

They were finally moving on from dicing. Finally!

Harry almost couldn’t see that shape anymore and was more than happy, when Snape announced that while he wasn’t happy with everyone’s progress, most had understood the importance of cubes and they were moving on to liquids.

And honestly, when he said that, Harry would have been happy to dice ingredients for two more months.

Preparing liquids meant all kinds of disgusting ingredients. Blood, mucus, sweat, digestive fluids, mixing up ingredients and using these. He could see Snape looking at him closely.

He wasn’t going to agree to work with bare hands.

In addition to the more disgusting ingredients, liquids were also more unstable than any other things. So much so that adding liquids even two seconds too late or too early could have catastrophically explosive consequences.

But Snape wouldn’t do that to them.

At least that was Harry thought until the professor continued and explained the potion they were supposed to create with mostly liquid things…

“The Essence of Ignis."

He let the name hang in the air, his eyes sweeping over the class, while Harry’s immediately went over to Vincent Crabbe who turned ashen. A fire potion, of course. Not only was this potion incredibly volatile to make, it was mainly used to walk over or through fire.

Something that would most likely trigger Vincent’s PTSD, and from looking at the Slytherin it was clear that he was already compromised. His hands were shaking and he was gripping the table as if it was his lifeline.

Looking over to Ron, he could see his friend contemplating whether or not to switch places with Nott to be closer to the other boy, just in case things went bad. But they couldn’t. Not with Snape continuing his speech.

“Do not mistake its name for a mere trinket. The 'Firewalker's Potion,' as it is quaintly mislabelled by those who lack true understanding, is a notoriously temperamental concoction. Its purpose, when brewed with the flawless precision of a competent mind – a quality demonstrably absent in many of you – is to grant temporary resilience to magical flame. A useful skill, perhaps, for those who find themselves frequently igniting their own sleeves, or, more likely, their eyebrows.”

Great, with Seamus in the class, it was most likely not going to end well. Harry turned his head to the left, looking over his shoulder, where he caught Neville glaring two benches ahead, where Seamus was sitting, rather innocently.

Snape had a sneer playing on his lips, a flicker of what seemed most akin to satisfaction in his eyes. He looked around, briefly stopping at Harry and Hermione’s table, before continuing.

“However. This potion, unlike the glorified bathwater you have been boiling for the past three years, is almost entirely comprised of highly volatile liquid reagents. Salamander blood, fresh from the most aggressive specimens. Liquid Phoenix Tears, not the diluted sentimental nonsense you might find in a children's story, but concentrated... essence. And finally, Scorched Vine Nectar, a substance so inherently unstable it yearns for spontaneous combustion.”

He flicked his wrist and complex, looking instructions appeared in addition to a series of alarming warnings. The entire blackboard to the side was filled with warnings in red and information what to do in case something happened that could be stopped.

Most of the warnings said nothing could be done, except make the potion disappear.

“He can’t be serious” Hermione whispered and looked around, as if searching for someone to agree that this was a joke.

Harry huffed. “He’s incredibly serious. Just because it’s the last couple of weeks before the exam, doesn’t mean he can’t introduce something dangerous.”

Hermione looked at him unnerved. “We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”

It sounded a bit too panicked and he snorted, turning to her, trying to be at least a little bit reassuring, even if he kind of had to agree with her assessment – especially with Seamus in their midst.

“We’re not, ‘Mione. We’re students. Snape knows what he’s doing.”

Hopefully.

“Observe the proportions. Memorize the stirring sequences. Pay particular attention to the precise temperature curves. For if any single one of these instructions is deviated from, even by a millimetre of a drop, or a single misguided stir... this potion will not merely fail. It will explode.”

Vincent Crabbe was close to hyperventilating, though Nott was seemingly helping in keeping him stable and calm. Ron was clearly about to run over there and do what he had been doing, but was being restrained by Blaise Zabini, who probably just didn’t want Snape to be confused.

Harry himself was about to make the professor stop talking. Couldn’t he see that he was scaring the children? If even Hermione, who hadn’t travelled through time, felt as if she couldn’t achieve that, maybe there was a better course of action. Like showing it first?!

Snape however continued, as if he was having the time of his life with explanations like these. “I speak of a concussive blast, sufficient to render glass into shrapnel, and possibly, to render the brewer into a rather unrecognisable paste against the dungeon wall. The resulting magical fire, unlike a conventional blaze, will be enchanted, and far more difficult to extinguish. You will find that Madam Pomfrey's capacity for miracles is not limitless, particularly when dealing with third-degree burns and internal liquefaction.”

He returned to his desk, leaving the students mostly in stunned silence by the rather well spoken threats to their lives.

“Fuck” Pansy whispered on the table next to Harry’s and he nodded at that expression. She exchanged a glance with him, hers was almost as panicked as Vincent’s, but less traumatized. She clearly wasn’t happy with having to do something.

“He is aware that this is a single period, right?” Hermione muttered and Harry rolled his eyes.

“He probably wants to see how many students can’t continue this afternoon’s lessons” he answered lowly.

“How many survive” Pansy muttered across the little hallway, clearly having heard him.

Hermione hummed. Snape picked up a perfectly sealed, clear vial of dark-red glowing liquid.

“You have the instructions. You have the ingredients. You have precisely one hour. Your cauldrons are to be cleaned meticulously. Any scorch marks, any hint of residue... you will be cleaning the dungeons for the rest of term. This is what you’re looking for at the end. Begin. And try, if you can, not to disgrace the fine art of Potions entirely.”

“We’re going to die” Ron muttered when Harry went over to grab the ingredients while Hermione prepared the cauldron.

“Yep” Harry answered easily and headed back to the desk in the middle of the room, where he placed all the ingredients. At least they didn’t have to prepare most of them, they just had to stir, count, measure and follow the technique on the board…

The first thirty minutes of the brew went exceedingly well for everyone. Maybe it was Snape’s threats or his close eyes on everyone, but they were all working cleanly, kind of calm and concentrated.

Harry had relaxed slightly, he kept a close eye on Vincent and Seamus, Vincent being two rows in front of Seamus helped him to not have to look all over the room. Hermione was doing a very good job at staying exactly on top of tasks. He only had to stop her once from adding the concentrated essence of Phoenix Tears five seconds too early, but it probably wouldn’t have ended in an explosion.

It was the smell that hit him first. The tasted of oranges and… evaporating wine?

Harry’s eyes moved over to Vincent who was in a discussion with Nott, leaning over the notes as they counted the stirs they needed. Nothing suspicious there.

Then, looking at Seamus, he saw thick almost black smoke rising from his cauldron. Harry frowned and looked at his own cauldron, seeing the soft lilac fume. Oh, something was definitely wrong there.

He got up and wanted to head over. A blinding light erupted from the cauldron, throwing Seamus over the next table, hitting his head on the floor. That cauldron tipped, pouring over Draco who couldn’t even form a sound, his skin burning in blue flames. Harry yelled for everyone to get down, casting a sealing charm over the cauldrons in the back.

The explosion ripped through the room, glass from the display cases changing into shrapnel. A cacophony of screams and grinding stone followed, as if the very castle were tearing itself apart. Harry put his arm up to shield his face from the liquids, it hit his arm instead. He didn’t even feel the potion on his skin, adrenaline too high. “Ron! Draco!” he yelled, but Ron was already busy with Vincent. The Slytherin was lying on the floor, eyes wide open in shock or PTSD, Harry couldn’t tell.

Vincent threw up, crawling away from everyone towards the walls underneath the exploded potions’ wall. Ron had no chance to look at Draco. But he wasn’t the only one reacting.

Neville was next to Draco immediately, Hermione ran over to Seamus, and while she lacked the war knowledge, she had apparently read up on enough Healing books, to stabilize him. Thank goodness for her limitless interest.

The exploded potion dripped from the ceiling, Lavender tried to conceal her own potion in the front row, but the purple dripping made it unstable and she was pulled under the table by a war-experienced Parvati, one row behind her, while Snape tried to stabilize everything else.

The second explosion from Lavender’s potion shot like waves through the room, throwing Harry to the ground. Forehead hitting the stony ground hard. A headache threatened to split his head in two, his glasses breaking upon impact. He felt something hitting his back, but jumped up. He looked over his shoulders, seeing through the broken lenses the potions in the back bubble slowly through the protection he had put up.

They had been left alone for too long, soon they would all erupt. Turning to the professor, he yelled, “vanish them!” His hand moved to his forehead, blood dripping from the floor encounter. Snape stared at him, as if he had lost his mind.

Blaise Zabini cast a protective bubble over the potion that Dean was trying to finish, just as more ceiling-potion dripped into the concoction. The smoke escaped the protective bubble turning the whole classroom into a theatre with a heavy blue smoke machine.

Vincent whimpered while Draco finally found his voice, screaming in pain.

The potions vanished. The silence after the potions erupting was deafening. Broken by Draco’s scream and Seamus’ sudden groans, as he apparently woke up. Lavender was crying underneath the table, Parvati held her close. Blaise stood guard, seemingly, in front of Dean’s now empty cauldron. Ron blocked all views towards Vincent and Harry stood in the middle of the hallway between the tables, glaring daggers into Snape’s body. He really wanted to hurt that man.

Part of being a ‘child’ meant that he was very sadly unable to do that. Had he been an Auror and this would have happened, he would have absolutely pulled Snape into an alley and either talked sense into him or hit him a few times to knock some fucking sense into him. Despite that wish… he didn’t do either. Any reaction right now could result in detention, which he did not want at the moment.

He just wanted out.

Away from the Potions Master.

Snape’s eyes were unreadable as he collected everyone who was hurt – the whole classroom essentially – and headed up to the Infirmary.

Harry was fuming. He walked next to Hermione, who was levitating Seamus, while limping a bit. Ron and Blaise helped Vincent walk, though his eyes were almost vacant. Draco was levitating next to Snape, passed out from the pain. Neville and Nott were supporting each other, though Nott seemed more hurt than the Gryffindor.

The class looked like they had returned from war.

Madam Pomfrey ushered everyone into groups depending on their level of injuries, tending to Seamus and Draco first, while having Snape walking around and assessing the students. The Head of Slytherin obviously started with the Slytherins, which made the time travelled students from said house scowl at their Head, but they didn’t say anything.

When Snape was happy with the Slytherins, he made his way towards the Gryffindors, staring with anybody else but Harry. Which made sense, in a way. Once he had made his rounds, he stopped next to him.

Hermione had fixed his glasses while Snape helped the Slytherins, so there was nothing that needed to happen right now. At least nothing where he wanted Snape involved.

Harry refused to show him anything.

“Potter! Must you always make a spectacle of yourself? You are clearly injured. Show me your injuries, now! Unless, of course, you'd prefer to collapse dramatically and require an even more public display of your incompetence.”

He stared the professor down, remaining unmoving. “You mean after your own public display of incompetence?” he asked darkly.

The room froze, everyone staring at him as if he had lost your mind. Snape narrowed his eyes dangerously. His gaze was so intense that had Harry not just travelled from the future, it would probably feel like a physical blow, or like fire burning into him. He probably would have stared at the floor, trying to disappear.

But he wasn’t Auror Harry Potter, Man Who Conquered, Boy Who Lived Twice, for nothing. He had dealt with much more dangerous people than Snape. He had walked the line between death and life enough times to not fear it anymore. This man really had not reacted fast enough. Several students were injured severely, and Harry knew that he was one of them.

He could feel pain radiating through his left arm and his back felt as if a werewolf had mauled him. But he wouldn’t back down. Not this time.

“My incompetence, Potter?” Snape hissed. “A bold claim indeed, coming from a boy whose academic record could wallpaper a goblin outhouse.”

Harry knew better than to raise to the bait. He just wanted to have something to yell at him. Madam Pomfrey in the meantime had stabilized both Seamus and Draco and was moving on to Nott who was also severely burnt, but not as much as Seamus.

Snape clearly wasn’t happy with Harry’s continued silence. “One hundred points from Gryffindor. For insolence. And another hundred for demonstrating a profound lack of respect for your betters. And detention until summer.”

“I won’t be joining your classes anymore, Professor” Harry said instead. “If you can’t make sure that the students in your care are safe when brewing potions, it’s not a place for me. And I do not think you’re fit to be a professor, Sir.” His voice was calm and steady, resembling more an Auror than a child. He knew that this was the voice he would use on Trainee Aurors, but so be it.

The Professor clearly occluded, since his expression turned neutral in an instant. “Detention until Christmas! You, amongst others, will find the O.W.L. examinations an insurmountable obstacle without my proper instructions.”

“And these are your proper instructions?” Harry asked, motioning to their surroundings. “Throwing students into the Medical Wing? I think I can do that on my own, thanks.”

Everyone was watching the showdown of the century between Snape and Harry. He could tell that Neville wasn’t happy with what was going on, but stayed back and didn’t talk. Ron had a grin on his face that could light up a Christmas tree.

“Mister Potter” Madam Pomfrey called him and he turned to look at the Matron. She silently beckoned him over and ordered him to sit down on the bed. He did so while she inspected his wounds.

Snape continued looking over the other students who were less injured. Vincent was on the bed next to Harry’s passed out. Draco was one bed further down, looking like a mummy in all the healing ointments and wraps that were around his body. Seamus had several cuts and burns all over his body, his uniform was at the foot of the bed, stained with blood and potion spillage. Nott was in a bed behind Harry’s also with several wraps on his arms and ointment on his face.

Harry watched the student body, while Madam Pomfrey cleaned the wound on his back. Two thirds were luckily mostly unharmed. A simple healing spell cleaning them right up, but they did look to a certain degree traumatized.

Ron now looked like he wanted to murder Snape when he held his arm out to the professor who cleaned three cuts and handed him anti-burn potion for his hand. Neville stood guard next to Vincent’s body, not reacting to the professor’s words as he spoke to the Gryffindor, which made him move on. Hermione limped over to Ron and helped him adding the ointment, before asking him to clean the wound on her shoulder.

Snape had clearly seen it, but decided not to act upon it. He went the rounds with mostly Slytherin students, but Harry could see that most of them were unhappy with what had happened today.

Madam Pomfrey was finished with Harry and ordered him to stay in the Hospital Wing until dinner. She wanted to make sure that his corroded skin would heal properly. Harry had nothing against that and lay back.

She remained at his side for a few more moments, watching him carefully. “I’m sure you protected a lot of people, Mister Potter, and I agree with you; it is time you started protecting yourself.”

Harry frowned as he watched her making the rounds and checking every injury. She gave Hermione a potion for her limp. Then, she let most people leave, though she had to physically throw Ron and Neville out, since neither wanted to leave the injured people alone.

Snape had left a long time ago and Harry hoped that he would be thinking about what had happened today.

Late dinner on Monday, which was mostly the fourth year students, was a subdued event. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had both heard what had happened and when Harry, Vincent and Nott appeared for dinner, they were welcomed with hugs and well-wishes. Vincent was pushed into a seat next to Ron and Pansy, and Nott sat down next to Neville.

“You good?” Neville asked them, but he looked at Nott still in concern.

The Slytherin rolled his eyes with a weak grin. “Yes, dear mother hen, we are all good. Otherwise we wouldn't have been permitted to leave the infirmary.”

“You never know, with Harry Potter around” Neville commented and smirked, when Harry decided to speak up as well.

“Oy, just because I snuck out once doesn't mean, I'd do it every time!” The laughter around the table softened the harsh feeling in the air. Harry was then congratulated for standing up to Snape who apparently looked shook during the second year class that followed.

He snorted and shook his head. “Whatever. I’m not stepping one foot into that classroom again.”

“I’m pretty sure you protected everyone there” Hannah said softly and pushed more salad in his direction. That was something new he had learnt, Hannah liked to hand over food for accomplishments. Not sweets or snacks, but salad or fruits.

Chuckling softly, Harry accepted it and shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t have had to if Snape had reacted faster. Doing volatile potions without being ever-present is stupid.”

Justin nodded at that. “I hope we don’t have to do the same.”

“He’ll have learnt something from what happened with them” Susan said, clearly trying to calm him down.

“And if he does tell you to brew that potion, just don’t do it” Harry said. “If you don’t make the potion, it can’t explode.”

Justin looked at him in concern. “But that’ll give me a T!”

“I think Draco and Seamus would have rather had a T than burns and cuts and blood everywhere.”

Hannah grimaced, while Susan sighed. “We’ll have to see, when we have potions. Maybe he did learn something from it.”

Harry huffed. “He better. I did not get my back and arm burnt for him not to learn.”

The dinner went on without much fanfare after that and it ended nicely with a few Muggle board games that Ravenclaw had taken with them. They played for two hours until McGonagall came to send them all to their Common Rooms.

She singled out Harry when walking up to the Gryffindor Tower and he sighed and stopped walking, waiting for the other to walk around the corner. But he knew they wouldn’t go further. Especially Ron had looked like he wanted to stand guard next to him.

In situations like these, he was reminded a lot about the war: together through everything, no matter how trivial.

“I have spoken with Professor Snape and the detention he has set until Christmas has been lifted” she said sternly. Harry almost wanted to laugh, he would have never gone to any of these anyway. At least now, he was allowed to stay away.

“Thank you, Professor.”

McGonagall hummed at that, her eyes almost calculating. “He informed me that you will not be joining his classes anymore. Is this correct, Mister Potter?”

“Yes” Harry nodded.

He wondered whether or not he should add all the things he hated about the professor, but refrained from saying it. Clearly, his Head of House knew these things already, he couldn’t have been the first student he had singled out.

“You are aware that next year will be your O.W.L. year, yes?”

“Absolutely, Professor. And I am prepared to study and pass them on my own.”

McGonagall's gaze, sharp and assessing, pinned him in place. “There is also a practical aspect to that exam.”

“I am aware of that” Harry said quickly. “I will study on my own and use the open potions’ lab time as preparations for my exam.”

The fact that he would be known as the person who had developed the new werewolf potion couldn’t have come at a better time. Now, once Remus would tell everyone about it, he had ‘proof’ that he could do something like potions on his own.

The professor nodded, clearly happy with the fact that Harry wasn’t just throwing the towel on the subject. “Professor Snape will be in the open lab.”

Harry answered, “yes. But he won’t be my professor. He’s there as a supervisor, that’s not the same.”

“If you’re sure” McGonagall said thoughtfully. “I will relieve you of that subject. But if you don’t pass the O.W.L.s, I will have you repeat fifth year with mandatory potions lessons. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Professor.”

McGonagall nodded and left him alone. Harry breathed out and walked towards the Gryffindor Tower, finding everyone who had time travelled in his year from Gryffindor around the corner. Which were only three people, with Seamus being in the hospital wing.

“You have balls the size of an Occamy” Parvati announced and sniggered when Ron held her mouth shut.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. Neville shook his head and placed an arm around Harry’s shoulders. “You are really lucky you’re Harry Potter.”

“I guess it’s the ‘Potter Luck’, eh?” he asked instead.

“You made everyone duck in the classroom, that’s what saved most people” Ron announced, Parvati nodding next to him. “I got cut by the shrapnel-glass from the displays, but that’s like mild to what happened to Draco.”

Neville was clearly pissed, but the worry in his eyes seemed more prevalent. “How was everyone at the hospital wing, when you three left?”

“Draco was conscious but in pain, Seamus has no idea what happened, the whole day is missing. He hit his head pretty hard” Harry explained. He had spent an hour talking to Draco, distracting him from the pain, but he could see how he was hurting everywhere.

Parvati glared at the path in front of them. “I’m sure Draco will rip his godfather a new one. Getting him burnt with that potion!?”

“It’s bloody lucky, we all survived, really” Ron added, to which the others hummed in approval and arrived at the Common Room to finish the evening with chatter and card games.

Chapter Text

Tuesday was the best day in Harry’s opinion. They started with double Transfiguration, then less good, mathematic, after lunch they had Herbology with Hufflepuff, where Harry could continue his friendship with Susan and Hannah. Then they had a free period and then DADA, which granted sucked, with Fake-Moody, but it was what it was.

Hmmm... maybe it wasn't the best day? Why did he think it was the best day...? He probably needed to go over that once more and choose another day. Saturday maybe. Or Sunday...

Whatever, best of all, Easter break was right around the corner. They only had to finish this week and then another one et voilà, finally off for two weeks. Harry could not wait.

Neither Draco nor Seamus had arrived for breakfast and Dean had informed everyone that Seamus would not be back until dinner. Neville had snuck off to the Infirmary before Transfigurations, making it back barely on time. He then told everyone that Draco was doing better, but was still under the careful watch of Madam Pomfrey. According to her, if Draco had no pain for the rest of the day and the night, he was allowed to come back on Wednesday.

For double potions. First thing in the morning.

Harry doubted he would actually be going there. He wondered how many students were going back to that classroom.

In Transfigurations, they looked over the homework again, the badly transfigured objects. Only Hermione had actually managed to free one, which was impressive. Harry was still fighting with his and Ron had given up altogether, which was kind of funny. Neville and Seamus were close, but clearly, McGonagall hadn’t expected them to succeed.

Nevertheless, she still gave Hermione fifty points for doing it.

Then, they went over the theory of the Reparifarge spell. They were allowed to try the spell in front of McGonagall so she could give pointers where needed while the rest read. When Harry walked back from having shown her how he had tried it, he couldn’t stop but compare her controlled teaching style with the one from Snape yesterday. He had no doubt that had anything like yesterday happened in her class, she would have vanished everything within a second, which only would have gotten a handful of people hurt.

In mathematics, they were finishing up the calculations on spell trajectories and continued on to geometric structures of defensive wards. They learnt about different pattern and strengths and how to change one into the other. Apparently, circles were the least effective, since they left a gap when added together. Pentagrams or spheres were stronger than that, depending on size and numbers. They then went over rather complex vector mathematic to plot magical force fields and how to spot them.

Harry was in over his head. Especially for a single period. He really wanted these mathematic lessons to be a double, so he could understand the magical things in math more easily… For now, he would need to read and work with Hermione or Draco on that.

When lunchbreak came around, he was just happy to relax his brain. He followed Neville and Dean to the Slytherin table and decided to be part of the Snakes for once. He was welcomed happily by Pansy Parkinson, Nott and Blaise – the older ones seemingly unsure, though that could also be because they would have to make a decision soon; whether or not to follow their families…

Before he knew it, DADA was finished, with Fake-Moody screaming ‘Constant vigilance’ in their faces, as if that would make it clear that he was indeed Moody. And these dreaded Imperious-lessons. Oh, how he detested them.

After dinner, the Beauxbatons students prepared a volleyball field outside and the real competition started showing. Immediately, the schools separated (with one notable exception) and everyone started playing after choosing a working team title.

Obviously, the only exception to the separated schools, was ‘The Champion’ Team’, in which Cedric, Viktor and Fleur as well as Harry were playing. Naturally, everyone expected them to be amazing. Harry had no idea what the rules were, except throwing the ball over the net and it wasn’t supposed to touch the floor. Cedric missed the ball several times – funny for a Seeker, really. Viktor was too in his head and always tried to pass the ball to either Harry or Cedric, Fleur yelling or laughing the entire time. By the end she was rolling on the floor, laughing.

Surprisingly, they weren’t the worst team, as most Slytherins and in addition, most Durmstrang students hadn’t played that Muggle sport. So, they did end up seventh out of twelve groups.

The next morning, when Harry entered the Great Hall, Draco was already sitting at the Slytherin table, nursing what looked like a cup of coffee. Even though it was fairy early, it seemed that Draco had been allowed to leave. He didn’t sneak off like Harry was used to.

Walking over to the Slytherin table, Harry sat on the opposite side of… his ex, basically. The Slytherin table had always had more exquisite food; there was toast and eggs everywhere, but the Snakes also had fruits and sometimes, when the house elves felt generous, they even got pancakes. Today, there was just a giant array of fruit. It looked delicious, even though Draco was just sipping on his coffee and ignoring everything else.

It was funny in a way, especially knowing that Draco from the past would have probably never drunk coffee, since that was just a ‘peasant drink’. Harry poured himself a cup of coffee as well, waiting for the Slytherin to wake up fully.

Draco looked up and blinked a few times, as if coming back to reality, before he sighed. Harry silently raised his eyebrows, waiting for the other boy to start talking. He took a sip of his coffee, watching the Slytherin carefully.

He looked stressed. There was visible tension in his jaw and he had his eyebrows furrowed. His fingers seemed to tap on the cup when he wasn’t sipping his beverage. He held his breath for a while, before releasing it in a huge huff.

“I’m not ready for Potions” he said quietly. “Did anybody else have Potions with him? Was he different?”

Harry shrugged his shoulders. Since he wasn’t going back there ever again, he hadn’t bother to ask around. He knew that Ginny, Luna and Colin had had Potions with the man, but he hadn’t asked and they hadn’t talked. In the Gryffindor Common Room, it had turned into a forbidden topic, not really officially forbidden. People just didn’t want to bother him and he was thankful not to talk about it.

“I don’t know” he answered.

“You’re not… worried, he will retaliate?”

Frowning, Harry tilted his head. Did Draco not know that he had quit? Granted, Draco had been passed out through the pain, but… honestly, Harry thought the rumour mill would also work in the hospital wing. As it turned out, Madam Pomfrey seemed to have a strict non-gossip rule.

Instead of answering immediately, Harry sent Draco a cheeky grin. “I quit.”

“Hogwarts?!” Draco almost let his cup fall on the table, but stabilized it before it fell onto the fruit selection.

“Potions!” Harry laughed. “I think most people would go insane, if a fourth year student would quit Hogwarts.”

Draco placed his cup on the table loudly and stared at him in shock. “Wait” he held his hand up, “you quit potions?! How did that go?”

“Well, it went… as well as one would think… with Snape around.”

Leaning forward, Draco stared at Harry with a frown. “What happened?”

Harry chuckled and recounted what had led to his decision of quitting Potions and he could tell the more he talking the more Draco was leaning towards following his example. Neville was going to kill him, if it ended up that all of fourth year would stop going to Potions.

But Snape deserved it.

“I don’t want to go either” Draco muttered. “I could pass my N.E.W.T.s now, if I wanted to.”

“We should get Vincent out of that class as well” Harry stated. “With Seamus in the same room, fire is pretty much a given.”

Draco nodded. “Definitely. I’ll talk to him after breakfast. Are you going to study in the library for the next two lessons?”

Harry grabbed a piece of pineapple and popped the sweet fruit into his mouth, almost melting at the taste. “Yup” he answered. “I had to promise to McGonagall that I wouldn’t fail this year. She threatened to make me re-do fifth year if I failed potions. Not happening.”

“You could pass the O.W.L. exams without problems. I bet, even N.E.W.T.s wouldn’t be that hard for you.”

Snorting, Harry rolled his eyes. “I do like potions, but I haven’t looked into getting a better N.E.W.T. score, to be honest.”

Draco waved him off. “You don’t have to. You’re the Man Who Conquered.”

Harry rolled his eyes, while Draco cackled. They continued talking while more and more students filled the hall. It was interesting to Harry how little the students looked at him for sitting at the Slytherin table.

It could be because he had done it in the past, and he just didn’t remember because he time travelled, but he was pretty sure that as a boy, he wouldn’t have trusted it. Not really. And now, despite his back being towards the Great Hall, he was doing fine.

During the meal, Vincent and Gregory came to sit next to Draco, Ron placed himself next to Harry and upon hearing Draco quitting potions, he forced Neville to come to the Slytherin table as well.

“Harry, you are a bad influence for everyone” Neville stated simply, but accepted Vincent and Draco leaving the classroom. “I can see why you chose that path and I’m not going to stand in your way.”

Vincent looked like a had realized that a rucksack full of stones had kept him from flying. So relieved, Harry was sure that he could see him tearing up.

Draco patted his arm with a knowing smile. “I’ll talk to him for both of us, okay?”

“You’re my hero” Vincent said, clearing his voice.

Everyone tactfully ignored him wiping a tear away.

The prank war between Durmstrang and Hogwarts had nothing to do with the Weasley Twins. No, really. If you ignored the one they did with the wigs on the ship, the muggle candy real looking food prank, the one where they dressed up as bears and stormed the ship…

It had nothing to do with them.

But Durmstrang retaliated just as well.

Later, it would be known as ‘the Durmstrang Dozen’. Twelve, days, nonstop pranks. It lasted a few days into the Easter holiday, every day, there was something happening. Mostly to the twins, but everyone was somehow involved.

It started with lunch food being a little bit different. Mostly the atmosphere in the Great Hall.

The thousands of floating skull lanterns with their eerily gleam did give a weird vibe. Harry snorted as he walked in and spotted all Durmstrang students already seated. Next to Harry were Seamus and Dean who did not like this at all, snatching food from the Ravenclaw table and heading outside. Ron was cackling and sat down next to his brothers, who were eyeing the Durmstrang students, as if they feared that their food was messed with.

Harry walked over to Viktor who was in a discussion with his friend Hristo – a giant of a man with long dark locks. Honestly, the girls were going from Viktor to Hristo on who was the better looking. On the opposite side of Viktor sat his best friend Stoyan – basically the ‘Hermione’ of the group. He was intelligent and could have definitely finished school already, but according to Viktor, didn’t want to break their group up.

Sitting down next to the blond Stoyan, Harry grinned at the three. “So, how many skulls do we have up there?” he asked innocently.

“Ninety-nine” Hristo answered wickedly. “The last one is going to follow Fred and George.”

Harry cackled. “That’s why they look so intense.”

“That’s only the beginning” Stoyan said in a hushed whisper. “When Easter’s here, they know not to mess with us.”

“Or they will up the game as well” Harry said, talking from experience. “I think I’ll like the show.”

Viktor laughed and shook his head. “I wanted it to be easy and quick, but was outvoted.”

Hristo rolled his eyes. “You never want to do anything fun!”

“True” Stoyan answered and fixed Viktor in a stare. “It’s always about Quidditch and all that!”

Viktor held his hands up. “I feel very attacked right now.”

“Good!” two voices said and Harry cackled when Viktor turned to him, mockingly betrayed. He placed breakfast on his plate and listened to the three of them talking about life after school.

It was funny in a way, how he had already lived his ‘life after school’ and how they were unsure whether or not they were able to stay in contact with each other. Harry almost wanted to calm them by giving them examples of his own future and how he had stayed in contact with Hermione and Ron even after graduation. Luckily, he caught himself, before anything could get out.

Instead, he gave tips of what they could do. Bi-weekly lunches, going to Viktor’s Quidditch games, picknicks…

“You’re very bad at giving advice” Hristo told him and shook his head. “If we have picknicks, Vik’s fans will come and hunt us down!"

Harry cackled. “There’s magic for that!”

Hristo looked like he had been punched in the face, turning to Stoyan. “Did that kid just tell me something I should have thought of myself?!”

Viktor sniggered, while Stoyan hummed, thoughtfully. “I guess that is why I’m the brains of this group?” he asked innocently.

Harry cackled at Hristo’s face of ‘I cannot believe we are friends’, looking around for other people to have witnessed it, but no one else was around. Well, no one else was listening to them, there were plenty people around. Mostly talking about the floating skull lanterns.

Dumbledore showed up shortly after that exchange and tried to take them down. The Durmstrang students told him not to, but didn’t reveal why. It turned out that any lantern being messed with would follow that person around for the entire day.

The headmaster had five lanterns following him all day.

There was a gasp and Harry turned around seeing the twins’ eyes light up and they started throwing food at the lanterns. Chaos erupted, people tried to stop them, the Durmstrang students daring them, the twins seeing if they could catch a lantern with a pea… It was absolutely hilarious, Harry had to force himself to breathe, or he would have died laughing in the Great Hall.

In the end, they had thirty-four lanterns together.

When they walked through the hallway, the entire air around them was just… lanterns. They were a huge obstacle to overcome and an annoyance in class, if they were to believe the rumours at lunch that day.

But the twins seemed to enjoy it a lot, as did the Durmstrang students.

The next day, there were two dozen free quills laying on a table next to the Great Hall, the twins grabbed some for themselves, knowing fully well that something was done with them. A few poor people got quills as well.

Harry was lucky enough to get one too. They scribbled insults only. It got so many kids in trouble, Harry couldn’t stop laughing.

After that were three screaming banshee illusions in the Great Hall, people had to scream at each other, to communicate. Meals were spent outside that day, luckily it wasn’t raining. The day after that, the pumpkin juice was mixed with a giant batch of giggling potion, making everyone giggle until lunch, where one dish on each table had it. As well as both twin’s food.

On Monday, staircases all over the castle started to disappear. Not only turning invisible, but actually disappearing! Luckily, the Durmstrang students made it so that it never disappeared with someone on it, but it did get multiple students stranded for ten minutes.

And always the twins. No one wanted to walk with them, and they took to running after people to also not get stranded.

Tuesday, six suits of armour marched the hallways, challenging Hogwarts professors for duels, and trying to find the twins, who had hidden from them. There were only six, so that wasn’t the problem.

The next day, there were seven cauldrons placed around the castle, with a green liquid. Every half an hour, two green frogs jumped out and went on a search to find the twins. By the end of the day, they had fifty-one frogs following them. It was really loud in the Great Hall by dinner.

Thursday, Hogwarts acceptance letters were following all students, like soft Howlers. They recited the whole letter over and over again. Slytherin had torched them up, Ravenclaw was analysing the charms and Hufflepuffs started singing with the letters. The twins were trying to catch theirs on fire.

In Harry’s opinion, the Friday prank was the best by far. There were nine portraits by the Great Hall singing Nordic war chants. It was absolutely hilarious. And they could walk through the other already existing portraits as well – they were hunting Fred and George.

Ron didn’t go out of the tower after breakfast on Saturday, as the Durmstrang students decided to go a little far with that prank: ten thousand illusory spiders were running around. They stopped that prank after lunch, when they realized that a lot of younger students were getting antsy.

Sunday – Easter Sunday that was – there were eleven spitting gargoyles. The gargoyles around Hogwarts were spitting different Muggle soft drinks and it turned into an ‘Easter egg hunt’ of a sort.

And finally, on Easter Monday, the first official day of the two week holiday, there were different coloured clouds floating around Hogwarts, raining only on the Weasley twins. And that colour did stick until dinner. They were their colours proudly.

“Okay” Draco stated as he placed a giant book on the table in the library a few days before the holidays. They were supposed to be doing Transfiguration homework as well as planning a Charms essay, since the professors gave a lot of homework for their Easter holidays, but half way through the study session between Harry, Ron, Justin, Lavender and Hermione, the Slytherin disappeared.

Harry had just shaken his head and the group continued with their studies, Hermione casually switching to Arithmancy while Ron turned to Astronomy. Justin and Lavender were working on a group project in Herbology which had originally left Harry and Draco to do the homework.

When he reappeared – just now – he was carrying a giant book Hermione-style. Ron and Harry exchanged amused glances, remembering the ‘light reading’ Hermione had done in first year.

“You wanted to know more about your family, right?” the Slytherin asked and opened the book without actually waiting for an answer. “This is a family encyclopaedia. All the families that have ever existed on British soil and their entire family history have been recorded here. Including the Potters. But yours is a bit strange.”

Harry just sighed. “Obviously nothing can be normal with me.”

Ron snorted and pointed at a rune on each page of the book. “This one is even self-updating, which is so incredibly expensive. Hogwarts has clearly funds for that.”

Justin snorted. “For books” he commented sarcastically, while still working with Lavender on the Herbology thing.

“Anyway” Draco shot Justin a dark look, but the Hufflepuff was too concentrated on his paper that he didn’t notice. The Slytherin rolled his eyes instead and opened the book on the correct page. There was a family tree that was spread over two pages, with different page number underneath the people’s names and dates.

Harry widened his eyes and pulled the book closer, looking at the people in his history. It led back to the very first Potter, having immigrated from India. Harry frowned, checking his own skin, before looking up at his friends. He had rather fair skin, nothing would have indicated that his family came from India. At least not on his body.

Ron snorted. “I know, right!” he didn’t even have to look to know what Harry had just read.

Draco hit him over the head with parchment and turned back to Harry. “The next pages are all blank. No one has been able to figure out why they are that way, but…” he shrugged. “At least you have a family tree.”

Well that sucked.

Harry sighed, turning the page over, only to be faced with an inscription at the beginning of the individuals of the Potter family.

Congratulations.

If you can read this, you have Potter blood within your veins. If you didn’t know this, please see our account manager Graknot at Gringotts to find your heritage. If you’ve known you’re a Potter but you’re missing the context of this book, please see our account manager Graknot at Gringotts. He will give you more details.

As you may have noticed, not everyone can read the following pages. This is due to our family’s involvement with the Unspeakables. Our work has always been secret and important, so we have made sure that no one can read this who isn’t part of the family.

DO NOT reveal its content to anyone. NO ONE can know, unless they’ve married into this family and have sworn a blood and magic oath to keep our secrets safe.

What is written on the next page can topple governments, destroy legacies and reshape history and the future with a single word. There is a reason why the Potter Luck exists. And it’s not always a good thing.

Until you’ve talked to Graknot, please remain cautious of the things around you.

Harry stared at the supposed blank page with wide eyes, which had everyone at the table staring at him in return. He cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders, trying his best to hide away the feeling of deep foreboding that was rising from his stomach.

“There’s something written there?” Draco whispered and Harry’s eyes flicked up at him.

DO NOT reveal its content to anyone.

“No.”

Lavender tilted her head. “But-“

“It’s empty. Don’t know why” Harry said with a neutral voice, at least as neutral as he could. He closed the book and shrugged. “Thanks for finding my family tree, Draco. I’ll go ask Madam Pince if I can take it to our dorm, or if it has to stay in the library.”

He really hoped he could take this book out of here and read it in a secure place. His family being part of the Unspeakables was kind of amazing! And he understood why no one was allowed to know that. He wondered if his parents had also been part of that side of the Ministry, or if his father was just happy to work as an Auror.