I've had the time of my life

“Look what you’ve done now! Where are we Potter!” A cultured voice rang out.

“It seems to be a forest of a sort Malfoy. Tree’s and all.” A bland voice replied in a similar accent.

“I can’t apparate! Where have you sent us!” the voice growled out in aggravation. “Based on the position of the moon and stars…. I’ve no idea.” A harsh smack sounded out. “Idiot! This is why you’re not supposed to handle the portkeys!”

“Ow! You bloody cock I was just joking! I didn’t even set the damn thing I just picked it up!” The sounds of a tussle started up, slapping and grunting sounds along with the rustle of the fallen leaves.

Aesop sighed from his place harvesting bloodroot; leaning against the tree next to him to force himself up to his feet. Shuffling around the trunk he saw two young men about school age rolling around in the grass, pulling each other’s hair with red faces and muttered insults.

“Gentlemen. I believe that is enough.” They stopped suddenly, green and silver eyes locked onto him.

Now that they were still- he could see that they were most likely around six- or seventh-years age, the blonde was on top of the black-haired boy, cheeks flushed and a handful of dark hair clenched in his hand.

The darker-skinned boy on the ground had his mouth biting down on the other boy’s free hand, teeth digging into the pale skin even as he attempted to pull the hand out of his hair; glasses askew on his face.

“You are currently in the forbidden forest- still within Hogwarts wards; you will be unable to apparate. If you arrived by portkey, it must have been a mistake from whoever created it. We are quite near a nest of acromantula after all- unless this was an attempted murder.”

The boys released each other to quickly stand, the blonde smoothing his hair and robes into order as the other just patted the leaves off his back. He had meant the last bit as a jest- but the way the two were looking at each other it seemed it was a possibility.

“So, who gave you the Portkey this time Potter? Can’t you go one year without being kidnapped in some nefarious plot? Attention of being the chosen one not giving you enough fame?” The blonde- presumably Malfoy bit out.

‘Potter’ scoffed, hair fluffing up as he ran a hand through it. “Your mum gave it to me. I can’t really see her trying to kill the both of us- do you? Unless you’ve got some more ‘house guests’ that I don’t know about I don’t see how anything could have happened to it.”

Malfoy paled, the blood leaving his face too fast as he swayed in place. Potter was immediately concerned, dropping all pretense of hostility as he grabbed the other boy’s shoulder. “Malfoy?”

Aesop limped closer to the pair, ready to help if the boy fainted.

“My father…. My Father was just released this morning. Mother had stepped out to floo Aunt Andromeda… anything could have happened.” Potter grabbed either side of the pale face, dusky hands forcing the blondes head to face him.

“Draco- listen to me. No matter what- nothing that man chose to do is your fault. No matter our history, your father loves you; he wouldn’t put you in danger like that again. Not when he had a choice.”

Draco nodded, silver eyes shining with suppressed tears. Aesop gave them a moment to collect themselves, ignoring the ache in his leg for a moment.

After Draco’s break down in the forest they’d learned from Professor Aesop Sharp that they were currently in the past- inadvertently when the man was questioning them if they were a part of something called the ‘ashwinders’; Draco had gapped at the man before questioning the year- feinting when he heard the answer.

Harry wasn’t too upset honestly. He didn’t have any family, his only friend was Draco (FUCK YOU WEASLEYS), and after the entire ordeal with the dragon at Gringotts he had all his possessions in the moleskin bag around his neck.

Arguably, winding up in a time when Dumbledore was probably just a twinkle in his dad’s balls was fine with him. It was however, upsetting to see how affected Malfoy was. His ex-rival was clearly overwhelmed, mute with shock when he regained consciousness.

The blonde had a hold on Harry’s hand like a vice, clawing his manicured fingers into his palm in his distress- leaving the explanations of who they were and where they came from up to Harry, which…. Probably wasn’t the best idea.

“I will have my deputy headmistress prepare placement tests for you in the morning, you will both resume your education as soon as possible. If you are in need of supplies, I’m sure you know the way to Hogsmeade- the password to the dorms is Scorpius. That is all, get out of my office.”

Headmaster Black dismissed them without looking up from his desk, seemingly uninterested in the time-traveling pair after they were sorted and finished their tale.

Glad to be away from the pompous git Harry dragged Draco behind him from the office, pulling him along through the corridors into the dungeons.

“Scorpius” the wall to the Slytherin common room revealed itself with a shifting of stone- setting Draco in front of the fire Harry ran a hand through his hair. So- 1880. His luck really was shit- and now he went and dragged Malfoy into it.

Or well- possibly Malfoy Sr. dragged him into it? Either way- the other boy was not having a good time right now; collapsing next to the blonde on the couch he wrapped an arm around him. Holding the slighter boy to his side as they stared into the flames.

“It’ll be okay Draco. I’ll take care of us.” He told his friend even as he wondered how he was possibly going to do that. He didn’t know anything about this time- Malfoy obviously knew more about what was going on if the way he scoffed was any answer.

But he did lean into Harry’s hold.

Harry seemed to have begun to hallucinate again- seeing whisps of light blue magic floating through the air in random places throughout the Forbidden Forest and towns when he went out flying.

He tried to ignore it- it wasn’t really conductive for him to have something else to be a freak about. But it seemed to be attracted to him in some way, floating around his face and trying to pull him somewhere.

He’d first seen the lights during the second week after they’d arrived in the past- going on his now daily trek through the forbidden forest; killing spiders and fighting poachers. He’d been distracted by the glow coming from some ruins- reaching a hand out to touch it when an acromantula jumped at him; scaring him into throwing his hands out instinctively.

The blue magic had reacted- following his fingers to strike out at the spider, lighting called down from the clear sky to char the thing.

Pretending it had never happened he finished clearing the ruins of spiders with a healthy number of slicing hexes. Of course, then he was accosted another time by random goblins- a few of them giving off a sinister red glow, using magic he’d never seen before.

Made it a bit harder to ignore but he persevered.

Currently, he was in some hamlet; he wasn’t sure which honestly- and there seemed to be a bundle of the red energy crackling maliciously in the stomach of a young girl. She was sweating in her garden even in the chill, hunched over in pain gasping with every pulse of the red magic.

Not one to leave someone to suffer Harry approached her- “Are you alright miss?”

Whimpering in pain her Hazel brown eyes squinted up at him- “please- please can you call for my uncle?”

Jogging closer Harry laid a hand on her back- the dark red magic swirling in agitation. As with all things, he jumped in head first- placing his hand over the center of the magic he tugged.

Red energy cut into his hand- clawing at him even as it attempted to devour the girl’s core of magic. Gritting his teeth Harry painstakingly pulled the foul magic from her, crushing it with the blue magic that had been following him around.

Breathless he staggered back- the girl giving a heaving sigh of relief now that the magic wasn’t leeching off her core.

“What are you doing to my niece?!?” an angry man stormed out of the house- Harry ran. Maybe he used to be a Gryffindor, but he didn’t need to deal with another belligerent uncle; especially if it wasn’t his.

Maybe he best stick around the castle until the school year started- finally allow Draco to bully him into studying; for his health.

A harrowing month later they were sitting in the great hall waiting for the other students to arrive on the first of September- Harry leaned on his elbow staring at the ceiling as if it held all the answers in the universe; occasionally hissing to the occamy he had rescued from poachers the week before. Draco at his side reading a potions text while he pets the snake-bird.

He’d no idea there were so many hamlets and ruins surrounding Hogwarts- he’d made it his mission to explore everything he could since their security was so lax in this time period. He had gotten into the habit of daily explorations of the towns and forest- fighting creatures and poachers and the ‘ashwinders’ with the Goblins as well.

After his confrontation with the angry uncle and sick girl he stayed away from the hamlets at least- kept himself to the castle and forest.

Draco found it boorish of course- but he was a bloody ponce anyways; total homebody wanting to stay in and read all the time. Harry was too traumatized for that level of relaxation honestly- it was hard to even sleep in the castle after the year on the run living in a damn tent.

Clamoring footsteps sounded outside the doors; joined by excited chatter once the students saw the two already seated. The tables were immediately filled, all manner of Slytherins joining their table to stare at them indiscreetly.

~ You’d think they never met someone new before beautiful. ~ Harry hissed to their pet as he fed him little scraps of meat he’d gotten from the house elves.

A slight blonde boy with a smattering of moles on his face a few feet down from him jerked in place, head swinging in their direction but not focusing on them directly. Was this one of Tom’s ancestors? He didn’t look crazy- but they had similar face structures. Ya know, before the black magic deformities.

Draco jabbed him in the side with a hiss to ‘pay attention damn it Potter’

Shrugging it off he re-focused to the end of the headmaster’s speech- “ah yes, we will have three new students this year, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter will be joining our Slytherin seventh years, and Miss Judith Bridges will be joining our Fifth years- still to be sorted as soon as she arrives.” The man finished with a deeper scowl.

“In other news, due to last year’s injury, Quidditch will be canceled this year.” Booing rang out to the headmaster’s obvious displeasure. “Be grateful I’m not banning flying altogether. Ah, here we are- our final student gracing us with her presence at last.”

A mousy girl stumbled up to the dias- brown hair in a bun filled with flyaway hairs. Professor Weasley sat the sorting hat on her head- “Hufflepuff!”

Turning out the rest of the announcements Harry ate his dinner- cottage pie eaten quickly followed by golden flakes of treacle tart. The still unnamed Occamy slid from the table into the gap in his sleeve, blue feathers tickling his wrist as it went.

“It is you!” choking at the sudden shout Harry coughed out spews of crumbs to Draco’s disgust.

Looking over the rim of his glasses he saw the girl he’d met in that hamlet the month before, she looked much healthier, red hair shining in the candlelight with a big smile on her thin face.

“Anne?” a similarly looking boy questioned her from his place next to the blonde he’d noticed before.

“Sebastian, this is the boy that healed me!” twin pairs of hazel brown eyes looked on him worshipfully making him uncomfortable.

“Ugh, really? Saint Potter at it again. What else did you do on your little side trips, find the lost city of Atlantis? Discover a cure for DragonPox perhaps? Stumble upon Merlin’s tomb to usher in a new age of magic?” Malfoy fake gagged to break the tension- silver eyes laughing at him from across the table.

Harry winked at him with a blown kiss.

“You know me darling- knight in faded robes and bad glasses.” Draco laughed and flicked a chip at him, going back to his potions book ignoring the stares.

“My name is Anne Sallow; this is my brother Sebastian and our friend Ominis- I didn’t get the chance to thank you for what you did. Whatever it was anyways- after you left, I didn’t have another attack all month long! I’ve even been able to rejoin school as you can see.” Anne blushed at everyone’s attention even as she gushed about how well she’d been feeling.

Harry nodded feeling awkward- the one good thing about his ex-friends was that they kept the ‘thankful’ wixen away from him after one of his thoughtless stunts. Draco just left him to ‘suffer the consequences of your own stupidity Potter, don’t come crying to me’.

“Harry Potter- this is Draco Malfoy. It really wasn’t any trouble; just- don’t mention it.” He pet the animal hiding against his wrist to have something to do with his hands.

“What did you do? We took her to all the healers we could find; our uncle is a retired Auror, he took her everywhere- no one even knew what was causing it.” Sebastian questioned him with a fanatic look in his eyes.

“Erm… well… it was just like a parasite? It had latched onto her core, making it attack itself…” trying to describe what he saw while also not making himself out to be some kind of overpowered freak was difficult.

“When I touched her back it kind of latched? Onto me I mean, so since it was already in my hand I just… pulled it out?” nearly the entire table was staring at him now, Draco flicked his eyes up from his book just to fix him with a dead eyed stare. Harry shoved more potatoes into his mouth- hopefully someone would save him from this.

“If there is anything I can ever do to repay you, please, just ask. I can’t tell you what it means to me that you saved Anne.” Sebastian gushed with worshiping eyes, distinctly reminded of Bellatrix Harry just nodded and went back to his food.

This day couldn’t end sooner.