CHAPTER THREE
THE NON-AMBIGUITY OF PARADOX
Harry had been in St. Mungo's for nearly two weeks after the final downfall of Voldemort. Each day he was receiving letters of congratulations, job opportunities, care packages, and other odds and ends related to relief and thanks of millions of his fellow witches and wizards. It meant nothing to him. Molly Weasley had been with him at least two hours a day and swapped shifts with Ginny, Fred and George, and Luna Lovegood. Cho Chang had even made an appearance but left after a short time. Everyone was secretly crying for him to recover and he didn't care. The only thing that mattered to Harry was the plan. The plan. He had many hours to think about it. He rarely slept because when he did he saw Hermione. He heard her tell him she loved him and wanted to spend eternity with him. Harry didn't even bother with Occlumency to give him a good night's rest.
"Harry?" Ginny called to him again. "Harry, please talk to us." She said as tears started flowing down her cheeks.
Harry lay there staring at the ceiling not moving an inch.
Ginny moved closer to her friend and tried to take his hand in hers but he pulled away. "Harry, please!" She cried but Harry didn't move or say a thing.
For what seemed to be the thousandth time, Ginny broke into sobs at the side of Harry's bed. "Harry, we need you. Ron needs you. He's not getting better, Harry, they don't think he'll last another day!" Ginny looked up in surprise. "H-Harry?"
The savior of the wizarding world, The-Boy-Who-Lived turned The-Man-Who-Prevailed was gone. There wasn't a sound just a rush of air from a silent disapparation.
Ginny stood quickly in a state of shock. "MUM!" She shouted desperately.
How he did it, Harry couldn't remember. Somehow he'd gotten to his things at Grimmauld Place and found the same set of clothes he wore that night. He grabbed the Marauder's Map and his invisibility cloak and disapparated again.
Harry looked up at the telephone booth that was the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. He stepped inside, picked up the receiver and dialed the numbers automatically.
"Harry Potter here to see the Minister of Magic." He said blankly into the mouthpiece.
A small button clinked in the coin return and after Harry retrieved it, he found himself being lowered to the main lobby of the center of England's wizarding world.
Harry quickly composed himself and made sure that the cloak and map were securely hidden on his person and he walked confidently to the security guard's post and smiled.
"Is Minister Weasley too busy for visitors?" He said with as normal a tone as he could keeping in mind the recent losses and the effect that should have had on him.
The guard smiled at him comfortingly. "He's in but I'm sure that he'll have time for you, Mr. Potter."
Harry nodded and without a second glance made his way to the lifts. He waited patiently until an empty car presented itself and he stepped inside. He pushed the button for the Department of Mysteries and immediately threw on his invisibility cloak.
The car came to a stop and the doors opened to the familiar, circular room that he'd been in on several occasions now. Harry stepped out of the lift and began opening doors. Each door he opened led to somewhere he hadn't been before and he began to lose his patience.
"It's got to be here somewhere!" Harry growled in frustration as the room spun to the next door. He ripped the door open impatiently and smiled grimly. This is it. He thought desperately to himself. Harry moved swiftly through the room with the tank of brains and opened the next door. He descended the stairs and crossed to the arch in the middle of the amphitheatre-like room. As he got closer, he could hear the whispers of the people behind the veil just as he had two years ago. He lost someone special that night in this very room and he thought that was devastating. The recent events drove him over the edge far more brutally than he thought possible.
He stepped onto the podium and closed his eyes. With intense concentration he could hear the whispered words of the woman he loved. Tears erupted from his eyes and he looked at the shadowy figures that were milling about behind the silky, thin material of ether that everyone referred to simply as The Veil.
"I'm coming for you, Hermione." He whispered across the dimensional bounds. He waited in vain for a response and after mentally reviewing the plan that had come to him in St. Mungo's he turned and fled the room in quiet determination.
He made his way back through the room with the tank and into the circular room. He marked the door with a flaming 'X' and tried to remember the sequence from his fifth year.
"This one." He growled under his breath and flung the door open. He nodded and walked directly into the room containing the various versions of time travel devices. Harry stopped at a desk next to the door and frantically searched the drawers until he found a thick, dust-covered tome. He opened it immediately and began to scan the inventory list.
"Here we are." He said with a slight smile of relief. "They have one that deals with weeks. Shelf 3a, box 9b, section 27." He looked up and scanned the shelves for their catalog number. Once the location was spotted he headed directly for 3a and pulled the long wooden box marked 9b from its resting place. As in the inventory, he found the required time turner located in a cubical numbered 27 and he gently eased it out of the small cubicle.
He had just gotten the chain over his head when the bell to the lifts in the main room sounded and the doors opened. "He might be in the Veil Room." He heard his old mentor Albus Dumbledore announce from the entrance. "I'll look this way just in case I'm wrong."
Harry quickly slid the box back on the shelf and looked at the time turner. This is it. He thought with a sad smile.
"Harry!" Dumbledore said with more feeling than he had ever heard his headmaster ever use. "Don't, you'll create a paradox!"
"I know the consequences, Albus." Harry said sadly, not looking from the golden hourglass in his hands. "I'm sorry, but this is the only way."
"Harry, there's still much to live for!" Albus said desperately. "I know it's hard to hear now, but ..."
"Things will not get better, Albus." Harry said as he finally looked at the man he owed so much to. "If I don't do this, I'm going to kill myself so I can be with them. At least this way, there will be another path for everyone to follow to a happier world."
"Harry! You don't know the consequences!" The old wizard started forward but before he could take a step Harry had already turned the magical device twice.
"We'll see each other again, Albus." Harry said with a small, desperate smile. "Thank you for everything. You've been the father I never had."
Harry looked around the small dark room he arrived in. He pulled his wand from his pocket and muttered the lumos charm so that he could check the map he pulled from his other pocket.
Good. Everyone is still outside at the ceremony. He thought. He choked back a sob as he saw Hermione's name and dot at the place where the podium would be. She's giving her speech. He thought with a smile. You know how proud of you I was that day, love? Harry wiped the tears from his cheeks and his face grew stern. There was nobody in the castle so he pulled his cloak around him and slowly opened the door.
Within minutes, he was waiting patiently in the Gryffindor Common room in an area he could clearly remember nobody had ever stood in. There was one time that Colin had tripped over the rug and nearly broke his camera but that was well before Hermione had left for the library. He looked up as the portrait swung aside.
"Hermione, that speech was brilliant!" He heard himself say from the entrance.
Harry wasn't prepared to hear, let alone see, the person he decided to break the laws of time and space for. He had a difficult time holding back the elation and the tears that were threatening to spring from him.
Hermione walked into view following his past self. "I was so nervous!" She said with a blush. "But when I saw your thumbs up and smile, Harry, I knew everything would be fine." She sat on the sofa a scant few meters from where he was standing and he fought with all his might to keep from reaching out to her. Ron and Luna sat to her left and his past self sat on her right. Hermione put her hand on his leg subconsciously as more and more of their Gryffindor housemates entered the common room.
The party had just started and the laughter and music had begun to reach deafening levels. Harry couldn't hear the conversation he and his friends were having but he could remember with crystal clarity that they were all talking about the Auror training they'd be starting the next day. Harry stifled a sob and looked from his past self to scan the crowd.
Hermione should be leaving for the library in a few minutes. He thought as he recalled the events of that night. He scanned the room for the quickest exit that would allow him to avoid the rest of his old friends.
Harry was so deep in thought and planning that he hadn't noticed Colin Creevey backing towards him. He looked back to his past self and his friends when he suddenly noticed how close the house photographer had gotten. He didn't have any time to move and Colin tripped over Harry's feet and fell to the floor.
That's why he fell? Harry thought to himself. OH NO! Wh-What if I already did this and it didn't help?! What if Hermione dies anyway!? He looked around frantically but had the presence of mind to pull his foot back before Colin could feel what he'd tripped over.
A few seconds later Hermione stood and waved to everyone before heading to the portrait hole.
There's no stopping it now! Harry thought to himself desperately and as quickly and quietly as he could snuck up behind his lost love and matched her pace step for step out into the hall.
Harry kept quiet as he followed behind Hermione. She had stopped on several occasions as she was congratulated by another student or one of the professors. Harry hadn't seen Dumbledore so he felt he was somewhat safe at the moment. After what seemed to be close to an hour, he finally entered a deserted library behind an unknowing Hermione.
Without stopping, she made directly for the restricted section to the shelves that contained information on Auror training. Harry followed her to the least used section of the library and brought forth all the courage he could muster.
"H-Hermione?" He said quietly.
Hermione shot around in shock. "Harry?! What are you doing here? I thought you and Ron were going to bed?"
He lifted the hood from his head and gently let the invisibility cloak slide to the floor.
"Harry? What happened?" She asked with growing concern. "It looks like you haven't eaten in weeks! How can that ..." Her eyes rested on the time turner hanging from his neck and she looked into his face with alarm. "What ..."
Harry put up a hand to silence his best friend. "I don't have much time." He said quietly as he fought to keep from breaking down at the sight of her. At the way her eyebrows were crinkled in confusion. At her soft, warm lips and entrancing eyes. This is going to be tougher than I thought. He held up his index finger to let her know she should wait for just a moment.
Breathe Deeply. Remove all emotion from my mind. Step into the recesses of still and quiet thought.
Harry visibly calmed and he slowly opened his eyes to see Hermione still looking at him with a mixture of anxiety, fear, concern, and surprise on her face.
"As I said, I don't have much time." He looked deeply into her eyes and felt his heart leap to his throat. "There is something very important that I need you to know. It's a matter of life and death."
Hermione took a step towards him lifting her arms as if to comfort him with a hug. "Harry ..."
He stepped back and held up a hand. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but there isn't even time for that." She looked at him with sadness in her eyes and he fought back a fresh attack of tears. "Hermione, tomorrow events will unfold that will cause me to lose those nearest and dearest to me." He felt a twinge in his side but ignored it.
"Harry! The paradox that you're creating is going to destroy you!" She explained as tears started flowing down her face. "What's so terrible that you'd want to destroy yourself?!"
"Hermione, tomorrow morning at the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort will begin the final battle." He grimaced at the pain shooting up his side but continued unabated. "During the battle, we'll be ..." He doubled over and Hermione was at his side crying.
"HARRY!" She yelled as he went to one knee. She wrapped her arms around him in support.
"H-Hermione." He gasped. "You and R-Ron are going to get the wooooorst of it." His speech was slurring unnaturally. He looked up at her and his vision blurred as another agonizing pain shot through his chest. He clutched his heart and sunk even further to the floor.
"Harry! Harry stop!" Hermione was in tears and grasping onto him with everything she had.
"Hermione ... B-Bellatrix a-and D-D-Doloh-ov ..." He gasped. "Be c-c-careful. D-D-Don't follow m-me ..." He grimaced as another pain wracked his frame and he fell fully to the floor. "D-Don't tell th-the past m-m-me." He gasped, his breathing ragged. "Warn M-M-Mood ... Moody and Remus. D-Dea-Death." He whispered.
"Harry! Oh, my God, Harry! Don't ..." She was in near hysterics.
Harry did something she didn't expect. His eyes became fully unfocused and he looked directly ahead of him. He smiled lovingly a the floor and then spoke in a whisper. "I came back for you, Hermione. Now we have eternity to love ... each ... other ..." He whispered with more emotion than Hermione had ever heard from him and she trembled when he didn't take another breath.
"HARRY!" Hermione broke into tears as she watched the Harry Potter in her arms fade from sight and she was left sobbing on the library floor with her arms wrapped around her sides as she shook in uncontrollable grief. "Harry, no ... no ..."