Chapter I
"You want me, and that kills you."
It's cold.
That's the first thought that appears in harry's mind.
It's so cold.
"What?"
"I understand this may be a heavy toil on you-"
"No, You don't! Because if you did, you would find a way!"
Voices.
Familar voices.
Ron?
Dumbledore?
"Harry?" Hermione. She's standing over him, a unreadable expression on her face, she breathed out his name, almost like she didn't believe he was there? That he was, where was he?
"Mione?" Harry mumbled, it came out, rougher then he intended to and almost in a whisper.
"Harry." That sounded like ron, but harry didnt have the chance to turn and confirm it because hermione instantly wrapped her arms around him, clinging onto him as if she was afraid if she let go, he would fade into dust.
"You're,
You're okay."
She breathed out the words, as if she didn't really believe what she was saying. Harry let out a small laugh, it sounded so
weak.
His voice was harsh and his throat was almost uncomfortable in his own skin.
What was wrong with him?
"Why wouldn't I be?" She tensed up under his words, finally letting go of her tight imbrace around him, she smiled wobbly as if the act was taking up all her energy.
"Do you not remember?" She asked, her voice soft as always, harry opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Because he couldn't.
Another pair of arms wrapped themselves around him, this time belonging to a red-head rather then a bushy brunnete.
"Ron?" Harry almost laughed, ron was his best mate but they rarely ever did hug, whatever was bothering him had to be real bad to force him to hug harry.
"You git! We thought you-" Ron cut himself off, jaw snapping shut.
"I what?"
Ron didn't answer, he sat down opposite to harry, beside hermione thats when he realised he was in a white bed, were they in the hospital wing? In hogwarts?
"We thought you died."
A shock went through harry's body, electric.
Dead?
"What's-what happened?" Harry barley mutters out the words, his scar is starting to heat up.
"We were in the Malfoy Manor and, you found this time Turner,"
It was pulling him towards it, it wouldn't let go, the darkness.
"You touched it, like you kept fiddling with it, like you couldn't stop-"
The darkness wouldn't let him go.
"And then there was this bright white light coming from it-"
It never would.
"And you passed out."
He was the darkness.
Deep down, he belonged to it.
He was it.
"And it sucked us all into it."
"What?"
How could they be sucked into a time Turner? A old ancient time Turner that was abandoned in malfoy Manor? It was supposed to be broken.
"Harry."
Some say Time Turners symbolise time itself, forever moving, never staying one spot unless forced too, they move without cause, unpredictable.
Bad things happen to wizards who mess with time.
"We're-its, its 1945."
Bad things happen to wizards who mess with time.
T
I
M
E
"What?" Harry's head started to burn up, making a pounding noise inside his mind.
"You three travelled back in time, from what miss granger has told me, you have travelled almost fifty years into the past,"
Fifty years.
"Upon arriving, you, Mr Potter were unconscious and seemed to not be breathing." Dumbledores face was young, not aged by the stressful years to come.
"You are all sixth years in your time, correct?"
Sixth year.
Voldemort.
The battle.
He had won.
He had won.
"That's what we said wasn't it?" Ron snapped, even fifty years in the past he held a spiteful attitude towards the older man. Not that harry blamed him, this was the man who denied their pleas of help, the man who raised him as a pig for slaughter after all.
"Ron, stop it, he hasn't done anything."
"Yet."
While they were whispering harry knew dumbledore heard exactly what they had said, but he chose to ignore it, and carried on speaking.
"The Time Turner does not seem to work at the moment, I have contacted a friend to help me figure out what is wrong with it and then we can make a plan to fix it and send you all home."
Home.
To war.
"For now, you should all stay in hogwarts, and you will be sorted as exchange students and introduced as that."
He made it seem so simple, like pretending to belong here, in a place where they don't is so simple.
"Does that seem alright with you all?" He questioned when nobody spoke up for a few moments.
"Well, we don't have a choice do we?" Ron commented under his breath, to which he received a firm smack from hermione.
"We're okay with it."
Noise filled the great hall, like it always had, laughter and yells, of both joy and frustration at having to start yet another school year.
The loudest table was griffendor, as they laughed and spoke in loud tones to one another and to the people sat with other houses near them.
The quietest was slytherin, speaking in hushed whispers, looking so distant from the rest of the houses.
It was so odd in a way,
But so normal too.
A small, almost fragile looking man with barley any hair at all, except a few stray wisps of white hair rose from his chair, declaring silence in the hall.
"Welcome or welcome back to the great school of hogwarts, the school of magic-"
He then proceed to go on quite a ramble about the school's history, to which harry turned to hermione who was busy straightening her robes and Ron, who was already staring dreamy-eyed at the feast.
"Hermione, ron, what about our names?" He quickly asked, whispering, as thought someone was trying to listen in on their conversation.
"Our names?"
"Hermiones muggleborn so thats okay, but Ron's a weasley and I'm a Potter for merlins sake, our grandparents are probably here what do we do when they see we have the same name but they don't remember us at all?"
"Harry, wizards and witches have a long and complicated history, some people may talk but they're probably think you two are half-bloods who's parents fell inlove with a muggle or muggleborn and caused a scandal and thats why they don't recognise you two."
Hermione had answered it quickly, as if she didn't need to think about the answer, but then again she probably planned it from the first minute they stepped foot into here.
She may have hid it well, but the crack in her voice when she had said muggleborn and scandal had not been so well hidden.
Harry knew hermione had problems with her blood status, especially after Draco Malfoy had tormented her for it for years aswell as the other slytherins.
And now they were fifty years in the past where things were even worse for muggleborns.
"We have three new exchange students coming from abroad after an attack was made on their families, we hope you treat them with respect throughout these hard periods of times."
"Hermione Granger! Would you please come forwards and let the hat decide your house for the reminder of your stay?"
As hermione walked to the hat, harry knew he heard mutters of 'muggleborn' and 'mudblood' and his jaw tensed at the words.
How could they say such things? About a witch? One of their own, muggleborn or not.
"GRIFFENDOR!"
The hat shouted, after a few seconds of poundering, harry saw hermione flash him and Ron a small smile before going to sit down at the table.
"Harrison Potter!" Harry heard mumurs of his name, Potter, but he tried to shut them out of his mind, hermiome was right, his name wouldn't be questioned too much.
"Ah, you've been here before haven't you, Potter boy? Hm, yes yes, a life full of struggles, hardship, aren't you the bravest soul one has seen in a long time?"
Griffendor. Griffendor. Griffendor.
"The house of the lion, yes? I don't think so, you have already learnt enough from there, I know just the house just for you and the lessons you shall need to learn."
Please.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Fuck.
Harry quickly walked over to the green table, head down, he should've known the hat would put him here, he should've known.
As he got closer to the table, a few people looked towards him, most of their eyes were dull and emotionless, some had the glint of curiosity into it, a few students shuffled slightly to make room for him.
As harry sat down, he glanced down the table only to catch eyes with a certain tall, dark-haired boy.
Tom Riddle.
"Ronald Weasley!"
Harry turned to watch his best mate be sorted, though knew exactly what house he'd go into, he just needed a distraction, a distraction from being in the same house, on the same table, as Tom Riddle.
The hat barley stayed onto his head for more then a few seconds before shouting out,
"GRIFFENDOR!"
Curiously enough, it reminded harry of draco malfoy's sorting, how ironic would it be for Ron to have a similar sorting as him, harry could vividly imagine ron's grimace as he told him.
"You may all enjoy your feast." And with that, the hall erupted in noises once more, this time it had almost gotton louder.
"Mr Potter." Harry turned to the voice who had called his name, ultimately frowning as he saw who it was.
Slughorn.
"I would like to welcome you into our house, it's not often a student gets placed into slytherin, consider yourself a lucky soul, yes?" He winked, laughing at his own comment.
"Tom, here," he motioned over to the end of the table, harry did not look.
"Is head boy of the house, he shall help you with anything you need. You should be in sixth year however, you have been placed in seventh year out of request from the headmaster. I hope you find our house is quite . . . Welcoming." And with that the man turned away, giggling to himself, and his own inside jokes.
"Quite odd isn't he?" A boy said, harry almost fell off the table when he saw who just had made that comment.
A boy, with dark curls and grey eyes, looking almost identical to Sirius.
"Oh, I apologise, I'm Orion Black, of the most noble house of Black." The boy; Orion, Sirius' father, took out his hand, making quite a formal introduction in harry's opinion, but then again he was a black which explained his incredible resemblance to sirius and his manners.
"Harry Potter." He introduced as he shook orion's hand, which led to orion letting out a small laugh "I know who you are."
"Oh."
Harry ultimately felt his cheeks start to burn as the boy countined laughing.
The girl next to him, quickly gave him a look and rolled her eyes,
"Hello, Harrison, I'm Walburga Black, of the most noble house of Black." Sirius' mother then, he remembered hearing sirius speak badly of her, how she was cruel and unfair. She had a sort of warm atmosphere around her now, in her youth she looked less cold.
"Just harry."
"Just harry, I'm druella Rosier, how do you do?" A girl sat on the other side of Walburga said, she had light hair and blue eyes, her hair was less contained then Walburga's, harry realised.
"I'm good, thanks, and you?" Harry almost winced at hearing himself speak, in his causal words and quiet tone, he hadn't meant to speak to quietly.
"I'm quite alright, the boy next to you is my brother, Louis Rosier, he doesn't speak much." Her brother looked exactly like her, must be twins. The only difference being he had a scramble of freckles across his face while Druella did not.
"That's Abraxas Malfoy, sitting next to Riddle." The blond-haired boy gave harry a slight nod and nothing more.
"Nott Jr, we all call him Nee, its easier." She gave harry a wink, and harry tried to muster up a smile, if it worked harry had no idea.
She countined to name people from down the table.
Lestrange, Avery, Mulciber, dolohov.
"Thanks." When Druella finished, she gave him a smile and began speaking to Walburga, about some articale.
"Potter." A boy; Lestrange possibly, caught his attention, he smirked when he realised he had gotton harry's attention.
"You're a pureblood right? Potter name and all, so tell me why, your what? Siblings? Cousins? The other potters haven't greeted you yet, they're your family right?" He had a wicked tone in his voice, almost mocking.
"I'm a half-blood, they don't know me." From the corner of his eye, harry saw what seemed to be Riddle look up from his conversation with Malfoy.
"Half-blood?" Lestrange repeated, it was as if the table had gotton more quieter then it already had been.
"My mum was a muggleborn."
"Centuries the Potter family has been pureblooded only, and now your filthy mudblood mother ruined it, ha! How ironic."
"What did you say?" All the hushed voices and whispers stopped, the table had gone silent.
"Did your dirty mothers blood ruin your hearing aswell? I always knew mudbloods were nothing-"
Harry reached over the table, and punched Lestrange, causing the boy to loose his balance and fall off the table onto the ground.
"Shut your mouth, Lestrange." Harry felt himself shaking with anger, his hands still formed into fists by his side as he sat back down again.
"That dirty little-"
"Stop it, roy!" Druella yelled, cutting him off, "The only thing dirty here is your manners!" The entire table seemed to be listening to her biting lestranges head off, and harry had to contain his laugh as lestrange pulled himself back onto the bench, only to be forcibly pushed off it again by Druella.
"You are being cruel, roy, Harrison-"
Harry.
"-Is now apart of our house, so stop your childishness its embarassing." Druella seemed to be flushed when she finally stopped and lestrange mumbled something under his breath, sitting on the bench once more and this time being allowed to sit.
Soon enough the table was back to hushed voices, minding their own business and lestrange stayed silent, apparently learning his lesson.
Druella turned to harry, "Sorry about him, I promise he's not usually so, vulgar."
Harry smiled at her, this time a genuine smile, "No worries, what you did was cool though, thanks for standing up for me i didn't expect anyone to."
Orion turned to him this time, raising an eyebrow, "You're a slytherin, slytherins protect one another."
you're a slytherin.
"However, slytherins shouldn't punch eachother in the face either, not in public anyway," Orion gave harry a wide grin, and harry felt abliged to return it.
"Lestrange shouldn't have said those things, especially in public but in future circumstances, try to keep the muggle fights inside the common room, yes?"
"Muggle fights?"
"Wizards usually use their wands in such instances, harrison."
Harry recognised the firm cold voice, who spoke so smoothy it was almost impossible not to get enchanted by it.
But harry wasn't.
"Well maybe wizards should learn a thing or two about fights from muggles, Riddle. I'm sure they'll learn alot."
A few gasps from around the table were heard, but harry ignored them and kept his vision on riddle, he had expected some sign of aggression or annoyance but instead he just,
Laughed?
And with that, lots of the other slytherins started laughing too, "We've gotten ourselves a funny one." Giggled a younger year, well harry assumed she was, as she was sat further down the table and druella had not introduced her to him.
"Harrison, do elaborate on your train of thought?"
Harry felt himself redden with embarrassment and he felt his hands clench themselves into fists pulling on the table cloth, luckily where nobody could see them.
"Well, wizards are so dramatic sometimes, that they complicate things that don't need to be complicated, like..."
Tom had stopped laughing and was instead looking at harry with a sort of, amusement? Like he was genuinely waiting for harry to finish his explanation, even if he was doing it mockingly or perhaps he was just ready for harry to embarass himself.
"Like killing a baby." Harry settled for, a few of the girls gasped again, he knew it wasn't the best example but it was the only thing he could think of. Quite ironic if you think about it.
"A wizard may use a killing curse on it, or some other spell, but what if it backfires? And the wizard dies or get badly injured? And thats pathetic, 'I lost my magic because I tried to kill a baby with a killing spell instead of just dropping it out of the window'."
Harry knew it was a morbid explanation but it was true, Voldemort had nearly died by trying to kill him as a baby with the killing curse, when in reality he could've much easily just dumped him somewhere and left him to starve or shot him.
The boy next to him, Louis? Snorted, while mostly everyone else had calmed down their laughter and was either looking confused or shocked at the example.
"The only reason that would ever happen is if the baby is magical, and why would any wizard want to kill a magical child, much less a baby?" Walburga asked, leaning in, she looked so much like Bellatrix. The dark curls, and even though they were contained they still spilled out. Then again, Walburga was her aunt, ofcourse she'd look like her, even a little bit.
"The wizard could have been trying to take the magical babies parents out," Harry turned his head away from riddle once more before continuing, "and the baby got in the way, or maybe he went for the baby in the first place because the baby was a danger."
The table was quiet, Tom sat still very much composed, and then he smiled and something inside of harry turned. That disgusting vile beast just smiled-
"Um," Druella cleared her voice, turning to harry, "he?"
"I'm sorry, what?" She seemed almost angry, druella took a deep breath, closing her eyes before opening them, and several people-mostly Lestrange and Avery started groaning.
"Your scenario, did it have to be a man who killed the parents? Who was after a magical baby? Why couldn't it have been a woman? Are woman not powerful enough to take on a baby in your scenario, Potter?" In that split second, harry thought just how similar she was to hermione.
"For centuries, woman have always been underestimated, as if we can't do just as good as magic as men, sometimes even better!" A couple of boys snorted at that statements, pricks.
Druella did not mind one bit, she carried on, "Do you know who created the crucio curse? Yes lestrange, a woman, she created the curse! A woman! Barley a woman, a girl barley over the age of seventeen, do you know how much she must've studied? How far we've come? As women? From housewives and baby makers to being allowed to go to magical schools?"
She is so like hermione.
Hermione could go on and on about elfs and how they shouldn't be slaves to magical families, that it was cruel and unfair and-
"-the elfs stay because that's all they know! They don't know how to be anything else, it was raised for, thats why they stay!"
"Merlin, potter, dammit look what you've done, she'll never shut up now." Lestrange groaned.
"Oh really roy? I never shut up do I? Well if its tiring to hear about it all the time imagine living it!"
"It's the first day! Do we really have to hear about this right this second?"
"Yes! We do, do you even know the name of the woman who created the cruio curse lestrange?"
"She might aswell been called 'Druella Rosier', you're putting us all through torture and it's not even noon!"
"Torture? The only thing torturing is your receeding hairline! Barley seventeen and already aging like an old man!"
Harry thought how ironic and confusing it was how lestrange could go from insulting a muggleborn witch and calling her a slur to making jokes.
All while the table was seemingly quiet except the debate going on and some quiet laughter.
Harry shrunk in his seat a little, deciding to just watch the spectacle infront of him, when he felt a soft tap on his shoulder.
"Really, Riddle? Really." The room was dark and seemed almost sticky, maybe it was just the air, but it was suffocating.
"Riddle?" He hadn't meant to, but the letters came out as barley a whisper, it was pitch black, he couldn't see a thing, he could barley see his own hands infront of him.
"Shh." A hand clapped over his mouth, a very very soft smooth hand, harry looked up, expecting to see the darkness around him but instead he saw two red glowing eyes peering down at him.
Harry opened his mouth to scream, to yell, to do anything but no words came out, no crys, nothing, he couldn't do anything.
"Mhm, good boy." Tom leaned in closer, leaned those eyes closer to harry's, suffocating. Wrapping his free arm around harry's waist, pulling him in, he gazed down onto the smaller boy, slightly trembling under his touch.
"Just what are you?"
"Mione, Ron?" He turned to see his bestfriends standing behind him, hermione with a worried expression on her face while ron wore one of a grimace probably due to being so close to slytherins; deatheaters.
"Students make your way to your common rooms, perfects, head boys and head girls accommodate first years."
Hermione opened her mouth and then snapped it shut at the headmasters order, "Just," she raised her eyes from harry's to glance around the table, from which many first years were standing and even Tom had stood up and was making his way down the table.
"Be safe, okay?" She squeezed his shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile.
"I will be, promise."
Harry swore he saw eyes on him from the corner of his eye as he bid ron and hermione goodbye with a hug.
It was just his imagination.
"Harrison, your bed is the second farthest from the door, next to mine." Riddle smirked at this reconciliation, probably due to the way harry's face fell as soon as the words left his mouth.
Harry went over the bed; his bed, closing the curtains he collapsed onto the bed, shoving his face deep into the pillow.
"Did you see that girl who spoke to Harrison?"
"Mudblood one? Why?"
"She told him to 'be safe', as if we were dangerous!"
Aren't you?
"As if we'd ever hurt one of our own."
"He is a half-blood."
"Better then a mudblood."
Harry groaned into his pillow, This was going to be a very long year.