Twice upon a Tome
“Have a good day, Mr. Potter,” the gravelly voice of the guard goblin said as Harry Potter exited Gringotts Bank through a secret door.
Ever since he, Ron and Hermione broke into the bank and stole the Cup of Hufflepuff they were publicly banned from the bank.
Not because the Goblins wanted to, rather the opposite. He often worked with them in a freelance capacity. No, the rich Lords and Ladies of old Houses demanded for his ban, because they feared him breaking into their vaults.
Which was ironic, because he improved the Wards for most of their vaults over the last five years.
So, to the wider public, Harry Potter was banned from Gringotts. To the Goblin Nation, he was a respected figure for his accomplishments, who has been given knowledge about secret entrances.
Though because of the public ban, he does not have a vault himself. Most think that the bank seized his assets, some belief he got most of it out before that happened. In reality, they gave him a goblin made bag with undetectable extension charms that no one can take from him which since then held all his valuable items. Monetary and sentimentally speaking.
And also everything he could need should he ever need to be on the run again. Call him paranoid, but since the Horcrux Hunt, he liked being prepared.
Additionally, he saw how quickly the public can turn on him multiple times throughout his time in the magical world.
As he turned a corner, a faint blue glow of a runic circle came alight underneath his foot and engulfed him.
He had his wand in hand before the glow stopped, preparing himself for anything.
But as the glow fainted, nothing changed.
Despite the seeming calm around him, Harry was still on high alert.
He had enough near death experiences in his life to not trust this.
He crept around the corner to Diagon Alley proper and looked around.
The sun was still up at the same position, so he concluded that no time had passed since the glow. Or an entire day has passed, but he thought that was unlikely.
Time magic was very finicky after all.
People were still milling around, yet the atmosphere seemed more tense than before, like people are paranoid.
He scanned the crowd and shops for anything out of the ordinary.
The Magical Menagerie, Madam Malkins, the Leaky, Gringotts, Olivanders. Looks normal so far.
His eyes scanned over Flourish and Blotts, the Apothecary and Zonkos, before going to Fortescues.
A split second later his head snapped back to Zonkos. They had gone bankrupt three years ago. He could still remember the headlines very well. They couldn’t compete with Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes and instead were bought out by George for a good amount of galleons.
His head whipped around to where WWW should be, but found only an empty building where it should be.
As Harry tried to make sense of what the hell happened, he saw something else. Something that caught his breath in his lungs. Exiting Zonkos were a deceptively alive and young Sirius Black and James Potter.
In a moment of absolute shock and panic, he apparated away from Diagon Alley to a small alleyway close to Charing Cross.
Taking deep breaths and holding them for several seconds before exhaling, he slowly calmed down.
“Tempus,” he whispered and flicked his wand.
Slowly the numbers started to form before him.
2:37 PM ; 13.06.1977
- He was back in 1977…
He was trying to remember what he knew about that time.
The first war with Voldemort was almost upon them. Half a year, was it?
The Marauders were…god they were in sixth year now.
He was older than his parents.
“Wait a moment,” he whispered to himself.
“Sirius said my parents started dating in seventh year, after Dad matured due to his parents death,” he said in dawning horror.
His parents weren’t even dating yet.
And his grandparents are still alive.
Before he could run around without a plan just to meet them, he abruptly stopped, remembering what Hermione told him in third year.
Nobody is supposed to change time, nobody! You heard Dumbledore, if we’re seen…!
He shuddered for a moment, thinking about her elaboration on the topic during their Horcrux hunt one evening when they discussed stealing a time-turner to fight multiple battles.
We can’t change time. We are lucky if we are only erased from time for doing so. We could very well rip time and space apart! Our success in third year was in all likelihood just because we didn’t change the outcome, but just how it came to be. Buckbeak and Sirius always survived, we just changed the reason.
That was her theory that she told them.
And since Hermione was always the smartest of them, he decides to trust her words, no matter how much it hurts him.
Talking to anyone from the magical world may change the outcome of everything and therefore, according to Hermione, destroy time and space.
But, if he can’t interfere, he realizes, he has a chance to finally live a quiet life, away from fighting dark wankers, life threatening situations and expectations of people that are just as likely to turn on him as they are to support him.
Maybe he can now do what he dreamed about before learning about magic.
During his time at the Dursleys, the library and books were his solace and escape.
He always liked the idea of opening a quiet second hand bookshop, giving all of those books a home where they are wanted and improving the life of the people reading them.
—
Well, it has taken him a few weeks, but he finally managed it.
He had found someone with an empty store that he could buy, then bought or permanently transfigured some needed furniture and collected as many second hand books as he could find.
He even got a lot of them donated by people once they noticed him building his shop.
While he had to sort some of them away, honestly how did magical textbooks and a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard find themself in possession of a muggle, he decided what to do about magical books.
He doesn’t want to be dragged into the magical world and destroy it by accident, so he packed those books into a crate and put them away.
But his decision didn’t mean that he forgot about magic at all, evident by him transfiguring some of the furniture.
He meticulously carved some runes into the shelves, floor, walls and the counter to prevent theft, mold, dust, accidental ripping of pages and the like.
When he was finished, he looked over his shop with a proud little smile.
The counter was at the back wall with a door behind it that led to a small hallway, which was connected to a small staff room, should he ever hire someone, and a storage room as well as some stairs to his upstairs apartment.
The layout of the shop was open and cozy with many hip height shelves in the middle and floor to ceiling ones at the walls.
And the window front next to the door held a small and comfortable area with two small couches, an armchair and a coffee table.
His idea was to let children sit there and read in peace, if they so choose.
Reading was his solace before Hogwarts, so he wants to give the same chance to other children as well.
He exited his little shop to do the last thing, before he was officially finished.
Climbing the small ladder he put next to the door already, he lifted the shop sign and nailed it atop the door.
Stepping back afterwards, he read the sign with a satisfied smile.
Twice upon a Tome
Second-hand books for the avid reader.