An Unexpected Companion
Harry had barely left the entrance hall, his heart racing from the tension of following Barty Crouch Jr., when he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
Footsteps. Fast, determined, and heading straight toward him.
Not now, Harry thought frantically, slipping into a shadowed alcove. He needed to get back to the antechamber, to stop Crouch from carrying out his plan. There wasn’t time for distractions.
But then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw who it was: Draco Malfoy, his platinum-blond hair unmistakable even in the dim light. He looked angry—no, furious—as he stalked toward the Great Hall, and Harry wondered what Malfoy was up to. Curiosity tugged at him, but Harry quickly dismissed it. He had more important things to worry about.
However, just as Malfoy passed, Harry felt the Time-Turner around his neck grow warm against his skin. The ancient magic embedded within the device pulsed through him, and he froze in place. Something was wrong.
The Time-Turner, still hanging beneath his robes, began to glow faintly, its crystalline hourglass spinning ever so slightly, as if reacting to Malfoy’s presence. Harry’s stomach dropped.
No…
Before he could move, a surge of magic ripped through the air, and in a split second, Harry’s body felt like it was being pulled through a vortex. Time itself was unraveling around him, distorting his vision, and the only thing he could feel was the sudden connection to Malfoy—an invisible thread binding them together as the world collapsed around them.
The darkness was absolute. Time wasn’t like a river, as some books had described it—it was more like an ocean, endless and suffocating. As Harry fell deeper into the whirlpool, his mind fought to stay focused, to understand what was happening. The Time-Turner wasn’t meant to work like this—he had been careful!
But then, it hit him. This Time-Turner wasn’t like the Ministry’s version. It was older, far more powerful, and—he now realized—it didn’t transport physical bodies through time. Instead, it sent the user’s soul and memories back into the past, merging them with their younger self.
A sudden panic shot through him. This meant that only his consciousness was traveling back—his younger body would already exist in the past, and he would have to live out the events again, with the memories of both timelines clashing in his head.
But that wasn’t all. Draco Malfoy had been dragged along with him, caught in the magical pull of the Time-Turner. Harry’s mind reeled. The device wasn’t designed to take more than one person at a time, and now, the timeline would be even more unpredictable.
The rush of time pulled at his senses, and Harry could feel himself slipping into the past, his consciousness threading its way through the fabric of history. He braced himself, waiting for the moment when everything would click into place.
Harry woke with a start, the familiar sounds of the Hogwarts Express filling his ears. The clattering of the train on the tracks, the chatter of students, the faint smell of pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs—it all felt surreal. He blinked several times, disoriented.
He was back.
He was really back.
His heart pounded in his chest as he looked down at himself. His hands were smaller—thinner—and when he touched his face, it was the face of a younger version of him, not yet hardened by the experiences of the past few years. His body had reverted to his fourteen-year-old self, just as he’d planned.
But his mind…his mind held all the memories of his future life. The pain, the betrayals, the revelations about his real parents, Dumbledore’s manipulation, and Voldemort’s deception. All of it was fresh in his mind, crashing against his thoughts like waves on a stormy sea.
Harry took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart. He could do this. He had to do this. He had come back for a reason—to stop the Triwizard Tournament and prevent the catastrophic series of events that would follow. If he could change the outcome, maybe he could save the people he loved. Maybe he could create a future free from the lies that had bound him.
But before he could formulate his next move, a sharp voice cut through his thoughts.
“What the hell did you do, Potter?”
Harry froze. Slowly, he turned his head, and there—standing in the aisle of the train compartment—was Draco Malfoy.
But this wasn’t just any version of Malfoy. It was his Malfoy—the one from the future, the one who had been dragged along with him in the time jump. Draco’s eyes were wide with disbelief, and a barely-contained fury radiated from him as he glared at Harry, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“Malfoy?” Harry asked, his voice hoarse with confusion. “How are you—”
“You dragged me back in time with you, you idiot!” Draco hissed, cutting him off. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Harry’s mouth went dry as realization hit him like a ton of bricks. The Time-Turner had accidentally pulled Draco’s consciousness along with his. They were both now in their younger bodies, stuck in the past with the memories of their future lives. This was not part of the plan.
“I…I didn’t mean to,” Harry stammered, his mind spinning. “It just…happened. The Time-Turner—”
“Don’t you dare blame that cursed object,” Draco snapped, stepping closer and lowering his voice to a menacing whisper. “This is your fault. I don’t know what you’re trying to change, but dragging me into this mess wasn’t part of your little hero act, was it?”
Harry clenched his fists, trying to keep his temper in check. “I’m trying to fix things, Malfoy. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Fix things? Oh, I understand perfectly,” Draco said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You think you can rewrite history, make everything perfect for Saint Potter, and just pretend the consequences don’t exist. But you’ve already made a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to be here, and now, who knows what will happen?”
“I didn’t want you here either!” Harry snapped, his patience wearing thin. “But it’s done. We have to deal with it.”
For a moment, they stood in tense silence, their eyes locked in a battle of wills. Then, slowly, the anger in Draco’s expression faded, replaced by something else—something more dangerous. “Fine,” he said, his voice calm but cold. “But if we’re both stuck in this timeline, you better have a damn good plan.”
Harry hesitated, his mind racing through the possibilities. “I don’t have all the answers yet, but I know what we need to do first. We have to stop the Triwizard Tournament.”
Draco raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. “And how exactly do you plan to do that? You know as well as I do that the Goblet of Fire is already rigged. And even if you manage to avoid putting your name in, the whole thing is still going to happen.”
“I’ll figure it out,” Harry muttered, more to himself than to Draco. “I just need time to think.”
Draco scoffed, leaning back against the compartment door. “Well, you better think fast, Potter. Because we don’t have much time before everything starts falling apart.”
Harry knew he was right. The clock was already ticking, and they couldn’t afford to waste any time. But there was something else gnawing at the back of his mind—something that made him uneasy.
The Time-Turner’s magic had been designed to send one person’s soul and memories back in time, not two. He had no idea what kind of unintended consequences might come from having both him and Draco displaced like this. The very fabric of time could be unstable, fragile in ways he couldn’t predict.
“Listen,” Harry said quietly, his voice more serious now. “We’re in this together, whether we like it or not. We can’t afford to fight each other. If we want to fix things, we have to work together.”
Draco stared at him for a long moment, as if weighing his options. Then, with a resigned sigh, he nodded. “Fine. But don’t think for a second that I trust you, Potter.”
Harry managed a small, humorless smile. “I don’t expect you to.”
They both fell silent again, the weight of their shared situation hanging heavily between them. Harry’s mind raced, thinking of what their next move should be. He hadn’t planned on having Draco with him, but maybe—just maybe—it would give him an advantage. Draco had knowledge and connections that Harry didn’t. If they could use that to their benefit, they might stand a chance at rewriting their fate.
For now, though, they needed to play it carefully. The timeline was already fragile, and any wrong step could send it spiraling out of control.
Harry glanced out the window of the train, watching as the familiar landscape of Scotland rushed past. In a few short hours, they would be arriving at Hogwarts, and the events of their fourth year would begin to unfold once again.
But this time, Harry vowed, things would be different. He wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. He had a second chance, and he was going to make sure that Dumbledore’s manipulations, the Tournament, and everything else that had gone wrong would be set right.