For months, Harry Potter had spent his life in 1976/1977. He had fallen in love with a family member, killed and imprisoned a dozen enemies, and created lifetime rivalries and enmity. Now, just in the past two hours, he had realized the enormity of what he had done.
A Ministry fallen...a relationship shattered...a history rewritten....Harry has changed history to the point that it cannot be fixed. The only way out now was to change the past “ again “ for the better. But at the present moment, Harry had something else on his mind: his now-vacant forehead.
Harry touched his forehead gingerly at the spot where his scar had once been, incredulous. “How...when...?” He was at a loss for words.
“We think,” Hermione said slowly, “that when you changed something back in the past...something that made Voldemort go after you...it disappeared, because Voldemort never went after you or Neville.”
“I think it happened right after you got Peter,” Ron put in. “Yeah, that’s about right...because if he wasn’t around, he couldn’t betray your parents, so you never got the scar.”
“That, plus Lily didn’t die for him,” Hermione said. “If Harry was hit with the Avada Kedavra curse now, he wouldn’t survive, like before.”
“Gee, thanks, Hermione,” Harry said sarcastically. He Vanished the mirror with his wand, then took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. “What do I do?” he said weakly.
“Simple, mate,” Ron said. “Just go back to where we first appeared at Hogwarts, alter some memories, and everything will be back to normal!”
Harry thought about this for a moment. “No,” he said finally.
“No, what?” Hermione asked, confused. “Harry, that’s the easiest way to...”
“Exactly,” Harry said, nodding. “I’ve taken the shortcut path for long enough now...like you said, I need to live up to my mistakes. I’ll go back to where you came and got me, re-modify James’ and Lily’s memories so they remember it was me that night at the Hog’s Head, and live with the consequences. And hopefully I’ll be able to save myself “ and the rest of the wizarding world “ in the process.”
“Now you’re talking, mate!” Ron said, pumping a fist into the air jubilantly. “That’s the old Harry I like to hear!” Meanwhile, Hermione had tears slowly forming in her eyes as she examined Harry’s set face.
“Harry Potter,” she said, “you’ve grown up.”
“Erm...thanks, Hermione,” Harry said, blushing. Of course, it should’ve been a bit ironic, being told that for the first time at this point in his life, but he was pleased with himself nevertheless.
Hermione snapped out of her little reverie and began pacing. “We need a place to work quietly for a bit,” she said. “Ron, would your mom let us work at your house again?”
“Sure,” Ron said. “But I’d have to do some explaining about Harry. You know...”
Of course, Harry didn’t know what he was talking about, but Hermione seemed to understand. “Good. We’ll go there, then. We’ve got work to do.”
“Wait a minute!” Harry protested. “Explain what about me?” But before he could say more, Hermione had grabbed his arm and Apparated both of them away.
***
They reappeared just outside of the fence bordering the garden of the Burrow. Hermione and Ron led the way up the path to the front door, and Ron rang the doorbell.
“Mum, it’s me!” Ron shouted in through an open window. “I’m back from the Ministry!”
“Ministry?” Harry asked quizzically as Ron pulled back from the window. “Why were you there?”
“I wasn’t,” Ron said, grinning. “It was my excuse for leaving the house for a few hours. I told her I was going to fill out some paperwork for pre-Auror training, which doesn’t exist, by the way, for people still in Hogwarts...you have to graduate first. She was so proud, she just let me go alone.”
“Brilliant!” Harry said, returning the grin. Just then, Mrs. Weasley came to the door, beaming.
“Ronald, you’re back!” she said. “How was it at the Ministry?”
“Fine,” Ron said, grudgingly allowing her to kiss him on the cheek.
“Oh, Hermione, you’re here, as well!” she exclaimed, hugging Hermione jubilantly. “I haven’t seen you since Ron invited you over for dinner three years ago...such a lovely girlfriend you have, Ron!”
“Mum!” Ron said exasperatedly. Both he and Hermione blushed furiously, of course not remembering this dinner three years ago. Harry was starting to get confused. Hermione was here three days ago for my birthday! he thought to himself. What does she mean, ‘three years ago’? Just then, he realized Mrs. Weasley was looking at him over Hermione’s shoulder.
“Hello, Mrs. Weasley,” he said, smiling at her. Mrs. Weasley does not smile back.
“Sorry, have we met?” she asked, examining him head to toe. “Ron doesn’t bring many friends home, and I don’t remember seeing you before...”
“He’s a new friend I made at school last year, Mum,” Ron cut in quickly. “His name’s Harry Potter.”
“Why, hello then, Harry!” Mrs. Weasley said, extending her head to him, which Harry took, still royally confused. “Make yourself right at home, then...will you be spending the night?”
“Probably,” Harry said slowly, looking to Ron for help, who just nodded for him to continue. “I, erm...I’ll be leaving in the morning, maybe before you see me again,” he added.
“Very well, then,” Mrs. Weasley said, nodding and smiling at Harry. “Well...come on in then, you lot.” She shooed them into the house, closing the door behind them.
As they walked up the stairs to Ron’s room, Harry rounded on his friends once more. “What the bloody hell was that all about?” he asked furiously. “Why doesn’t she remember me?”
“Harry, you don’t exist in this time...remember?” Hermione explained calmly. “You disappeared nearly eighteen years ago! We never met you!”
“We needed you to see what you’d done firsthand,” Ron put in quietly. “Not just by telling you...so you actually experience this new world you’ve made by meddling with time.”
“Thanks for the lecture, guys,” Harry said sarcastically. “Like I really needed it. Maybe, for all you care, I should just go back to living in the past and disappear again?”
“Harry, we’re trying to take this calmly, all right?” Hermione said, still calm. “Please don’t jump all over us. We all want what’s best for you.”
Harry nodded, taking a deep, cleansing breath. “I’m sorry, guys,” he said quietly. “You know I don’t like this at all.”
“We get it, mate,” Ron said, patting his friend on the shoulder. “We’d be pretty freaked out, too, if something like this happened to one of us.”
“Okay, okay,” Harry said, exasperated. “So, what exactly are we doing here?”
“Like I said, we need a place to work quietly,” Hermione explained vaguely. When they entered Ron’s room, she locked and Silenced the door behind her, plopping into a chair at Ron’s desk and Summoning parchment and a quill. She scribbled something on the parchment and showed it to Harry. It read, To-Do List.
“I’m going to enchant this parchment so only the title appears as it is when anyone reads it,” Hermione said, waving her wand. A golden glow flashed upon the parchment as she did so. “That way, when we write down the other things you need to do, and if someone else finds this list, they’ll just see a list of something stupid, like...chores you need to do that day or something.”
“Brilliant!” Harry said for the second time that day. “Well...what are we putting on the list?”
“Oh, probably dusting the mantle, finishing homework-”
“No, not the fake one, the real one!” Harry exclaimed. “What do I need to change?”
“You tell us, mate,” Ron said. “You’re the one that wants to fix everything. What do you need to change?” Hermione sat there watching Harry intently, quill at the ready to write down what Harry needed to do.
“Okay,” Harry said, racking his brain. “First, I need to re-modify James, Sirius, and Lily’s memories, so they remember it was me that slept with her again.” Hermione nodded and scribbled it down. “Next, I need to figure out a way to get James and Lily back together.”
“How?” Ron asked, cocking his eyebrows.
“Beats me,” Harry said, shrugging. “Obviously, I need to figure out how to get Lily to like James, because the other way around shouldn’t take much effort. Then, I need to finish off Voldemort once and for all.”
“Why?!” Hermione and Ron exclaimed together, alarmed.
“Harry, why risk your life for that in the past, when you’re already doing that now?” Ron asked, confused. “You’re already asking for a lot!”
Harry shrugged. “I figure, a final showdown will happen sooner or later, and I might as well do it when Voldemort has less Horcruxes. What, did you say he only had two Horcruxes back in 1977? No, let me finish!” Hermione had opened her mouth to speak, and he quieted her. “It’s better there, because no one knows I’m “the Chosen One” or whatever. I can figure it out with Dumbledore...we’ll get Voldemort to try to settle things once and for all by taking over the school or trying to get the Stone again or something, but I have to kill him sooner or later.”
The impact of those words brought silence upon the whole room, but fortunately, the ice was broken when Mrs. Weasley brought finger sandwiches in for them to eat. As they ate them, they sat deep in thought, as Hermione went over the list again. “So, you’re going to re-modify those memories, get James and Lily together, destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and lure him into a final confrontation,” she read.
“Gee, that should be easy,” Ron commented sarcastically, spewing chunks of bread everywhere.
“Yeah, really,” Harry agreed, yawning. He had become very tired; again, possibly because of the time travel. “I think I’m going to go to bed,” he told both of them. “Then, when I wake up, I’m going back to the past. Alone.”
As expected, both Ron and Hermione protested. “We’re coming, too!” Ron said instantly. “You can’t do this to us!”
“We want to help!” Hermione said, nodded in agreement with Ron.
Harry sighed. “Fine,” he said finally. “You can come. I’ll wake you up when I’m ready to leave.” This made Ron and Hermione happy, and in a few minutes, all of them were in bed, ready for a good night’s sleep to go back to 1977 the next morning. Or so Ron and Hermione thought.
Harry waited for a full hour until he was sure both of them were in a deep sleep, and he got up. He wrote them a note at the desk, leaving it there for them to find later. It read:
Dear Ron and Hermione,
I’m sorry I left like this. As you said, I need to live up to my own mistakes, and I don’t want to drag you into it. I am taking my whole album with me, so you can’t follow me. I know you want to help, but I can’t let you risk your lives over me again. This is my battle to fight.
I still need your help, though. I will check back in with you soon. I don’t know when I’ll be back, or if I’ll survive, but if I don’t you will know. I need you to keep updated with all the changes that happen in this time as they go, so I can figure out what I’m doing right and wrong.
I hope you understand.
Love, Harry
Harry examined the note, and satisfied, stood up from the desk. He took his album from under the bed Hermione was sleeping on and held it in front of him, taking a deep breath. “If I could go back to the point where Ron and Hermione took me away from the past, it would be perfect,” he whispered, and with not a single noise to alert Ron and Hermione, he was gone.
Author’s Note: Welcome to chapter one of “Changing the Future”! If you’re reading this, it means I managed to get the chapter accepted to the site at long last. Now, by all means, Review! Review! Review! What are your thoughts thus far? I hope to see you all at Chapter 2!
Changing the Future by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: Thanks for being patient, everyone...now, please read and review chapter one!!!