Unofficial Portkey Archive

Disclaimer: The characters of this fiction are borrowed and used as a tribute to the wonderful world created by J.K. Rowling. They're not mine, never was and never will be. No money is being made on this either.

Summary: Driven by jealousy of Hermione Granger's obvious crush for The Boy Who Lived, Ron Weasley makes the biggest mistake of his life that puts the whole Hogwarts school in peril. As Harry Potter suddenly finds himself trapped in a different world, it is now up to him to set things right.

Author's notes:

Note 1: I am so sorry that it took a long time for this chapter to be uploaded, but my own computer is malfunctioning since a week back. But now I have a week's access to my brother's PC while he's on holiday. During that time I will do my best to finish this story.

Note 2: I do apologize for the miss-spellings and grammar-problems that did and might still occur in my story. It seems that I have over-estimated my own knowledge of the english language. (I live in Sweden.) But I'll promise to do my best to avoid them.

Note 3: Some re-viewers has expressed some doubts around the effects of the curse Ron Weasley accidently cast over Hogwarts. I'll ask those who feel this to be a little patient. More minor but yet major details of this curse will show up in the future.

Note 4: Perhaps I should say that the story of "Sleeping Beauty" that was spoken of in chapter two does not belong to me either.

Note 5: This chapter might feel a little slow, but it's the calm before the storm.

'Nuff said! On with the story...

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'Ron, what have you done?'

In despair, Harry continued to shake his head, feeling totaly lost and helpless. Of all the trials crossing his path in his past, this was one of the most catastrophic. Being an underaged wizard trapped three hundred years in the future was not an appealing thought. He bent his head down to his knees, trying to think. There had to be something he could do about his situation, but his mind were totally blank, refuseing to work to his favour.
'What can I do?' he mumbled to himself. 'There must be something I can do!'

'I'll tell you what you can do, Harry.' The ghost of Ron spoke up. 'You can save what still can be saved!'
Harry looked up, staring at his dead friend with a confused expression. 'What can still be saved?'
'Hermione!' Ron pointed a finger towards the floor. 'She's still down there, sleeping. The potion was not perfect, but it still did some good. It preserved her, Harry. I been down there everyday checking up on her and she hasn't aged a day.'
'Hermione's still alive…?'
'Yes. Therefore you should now go into that bathroom, open the entrence, go down there and kiss her. She's been asleep for three hundred years because of me, it's time she got waked up!'
As if in a state of trance, Harry got to his feet and started to walk towards the door leading to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He was about to pull the handle when Ron spoke again: 'But before you go down there Harry, you might want to fetch a broom first. There's no Phoenix around to fly you up from there this time.'

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After a detour to the Gryffindor tower where the empty frame that once housed the Fat Lady stood ajar to fetch Harry's Firebolt, (which thankfully still worked, although no longer in top condition) he opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and flew down, followed by Ron. And then for the second time of his life, he stood in the dimly lit chamber with the serpent-carved pillars and the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin. Harry was not happy to be back there. He glanced at the bottom of the statue. The first time he'd been there, Ginny Weasley had been lying at its feet in a state of near death. This time, it was the motionless form of his friend Hermione Granger occupying the spot. As he walked closer, he could see that Ron had spoken the truth. Hermione still looked the same as last time he'd seen her. Had he not known the whole situation, he would probably have mistaken her for being calmly asleep. Harry knelt by her side, watching her, and strangely enough felt his heart skip a beat.

'She looks so… peaceful.' Harry thought to himself. 'And… I never realised that she looks so… pretty.'
'Go ahead Harry. Kiss her.' Ron said behind him. 'Free her of the curse I brought upon her.'
Harry leaned closer to her while several thoughts kept popping up in his mind. 'Is it really me she's waiting for? Does she really… love me?'
Harry's face was now only a few inches away from Hermione's, moving closer. 'Will she really wake up if I kiss her? If she does, how will she react? Will she be… happy that I gave her a kiss? Happy that I awakened her?'
Harry's mind then reached a conclusion: No. Hermione would not be happy! With that knowledge Harry got to his feet, without having touched the girl.

'Harry, what're you doing? Why didn't you kiss her?'
'I can't do it.'
'What do you mean you can't do it?' Ron asked with a miffed tone. 'Surely you have feelings for her?'
'Yes I do. That's why I can't kiss her.'
'But… Harry, you're talking nonsense. You can't just leave her like that if you do, you must…'
'Think, Ron!' Harry interrupted. 'If you were in my position, how would you explain to her that she's been asleep for three hundred years and tell her that everything she knew is gone? Could you think of something to say that would make it easier for her to adapt into a world where she does not belong?'
'I… no I can't think of anything.'
'Exactly Ron. I can't do that to her.' Harry started to walk back towards the dark tunnel from where he came. 'It's best to let her be unbeknownst to all of this while we figure out a way to undo this mistake of yours.'
'But Harry…' Ron floated after. 'Surely you havn't gone mad all of the sudden, just what do you think you can do? There's no way to undo what I have done…'
'There must be a way!' Harry argued. 'We are living in a wizard world where anything is possible, I'm not about to just sit down and feel depressed of all of this. I've got to do something!'
'Yeah, but what?' Ron asked, unconvinced.
'I'm gonna do what Hermione would do.' Harry said as he mounted his Firebolt. 'Go to the library.'

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Harry explained to Ron that it was possible in the wizard world to undo his mistake even though it could prove to be dangerous in some matters. Harry had to go back through time and stop Ron from giving the potion to Hermione, and to do that, he needed a Time-turner. But he needed to go back three hundred years, and he wasn't prepared to use Professor McGonagall's hour-glass she had provided for Hermione in their third year for that kind of trip. Since it only would take him back one hour per turn, he would have to turn it well over Two and a half million times. Besides he doubted that Professor McGonagall even still had that thing left on Hogwarts. A Time-turner was a magical artifact with plenty of safety rugulations written over it; it was not meant to just be lying around somewhere for anybody to use. Still, Harry needed one, and to find out where he could find one was the reason to why he spent the next hours plowing through books in the librarys restricted section, thinking that there had to be a hint somewhere of a stock-house for Time-turners. It took time since he had to work by himself. Since Ron was a ghost, and therefore intangible, he was not much of a help. All he could do was to read the text of titles along the spines of the books, looking for someones that might have the necessary information they needed.

Harry rubbed his eyes as he put away Paradoxes through time. It contained only the documented misuses of Time-turners that wizards had used in the past. There had been an incident where a wizard had managed to travel back to before his birth and had stupidly enough dated his own mother (to get to know her better on how she was before he was born). It had resulted in that he almost managed to erase his own and his siblings existence, since his mother fell in love with him instead of his father. The Ministry's Time-department had to work overtime to correct the timeline, and the culprit was sentenced three years in Azkaban for endangering not only himself, but the rest of his family-tree as well. But not a single word on where you could find a Time-turner.

'Maybe this one, Harry.' Ron said, levitating in eye-level with the top-shelf. 'A guide to the future with the stars.'
'Don't bother with that one.' Harry said as he stiffled a yawn. 'Got nothing to do with time-travel, it's a book of fortune telling, talks about the future written in the stars.'
'What's it doing in the restricted section then?'
''Cause its actually written by a Centaur. Printed in very few copies. The school wanted to keep it safe.' Harry then picked up a book with the title: Magical hours, but then he put it away again.
'This is bloody pointless.' Harry bellowed. He rubbed his strained temples. 'I'm doing this wrong. I'm looking at the wrong stuff, but where am I suppose to look then?' He sighed. 'Hermione would most likely know. I really wish she were here now.'
'It can be arranged, you know.' Ron said.
'NO! I will not wake her up. I told you Ron, I don't want her to face this nightmare.'
'Harry, that particular excuse for not waking her up is ludicrous. We both know that she can handle difficult situations. Now tell me Harry, what is your real reason why you don't want to wake her up?'

Harry knew that he'd just been seen through by Ron. He sighed again and said: 'I honestly don't know myself, Ron. It's just this… strange feeling that I got. That it's somehow connected with danger to break the spell right now.'
'Danger to her or to us?'
'Dunno.'
'That doesn't make any sense, Harry. Sounds to me that you're afraid to face her, which you shouldn't. If someone is to be afraid to face her, it would be me, don't you think?'
'Ron, if there's one thing I learned during these years at Hogwarts, it's to never ignore my feelings of sensing danger. We're in deep enough trouble as it is; I'm not ready to face more dangers until I know for certain what the danger is! It's safer to leave Hermione where she is.'
'Ok, Harry. But it still won't help us here.'
'No. I'm tackling this problem from the wrong direction. Please hush a minute, Ron. I need to think.' Harry placed his head in his hands.

'Now think: what would Hermione do in an unknown situation?
Answer: Look up a book. But that's what I'm doing now. Wait, why would she look up a book?
Answer: to look up all of the facts. So the question is: in which book can you find all the facts?
Answer: in a book that would that would document the situation.'
Harry slapped himself in the head. 'Wrong answer! This is a situation that might never have happened before. Therefore there is no book about it!
Conclusion: if you have no answer to the situation, which means you didn't ask proper question.
Question: What are you trying to do?
Answer: Go back through time.
Question: How are you supposed to do that?
Answer: I need a Time-turner.
Question: Where can you find one?
Answer: That's why I'm plowing through books, so I can find out.
Question: What book do you need?
Answer: I don't know.
Conclusion: Then find out.
HOW?
Conclusion: If you don't have the answer, then you didn't ask the right question.
Then what IS the right question?
If you don't know that, then you don't know anything.
But I need to know everything.
Then start from the beginning. Pretend that you don't know anything. Question: What are you trying to do?
Answer: Go back through time.
Question: How are you supposed to do that?
Answer: I need a Ti…
STOP! You're supposed to not know anything.
Then how am I supposed to know that I even CAN go back through time?
That's the question, isn't it? So what's the answer? Pretend that you don't know that there is a way.
But then I need to find out if there is a way.
Exactly. And where do you need to look to find out?
Probably in an encyclopedia of magic.
Now we're talking. And where can you find that book?
In the library's Reference Section.
And where are you now?
In the library's restricted sect… DAMN! I'm sitting in the wrong section!'

Harry felt really stupid for having wasted time plowing through the restricted books instead of going directly to a source of information, but he also felt a bit awkward having just spent time arguing with himself like he just did. He got to his feet and without a word walked out from the section to look for the References Books at the other end of the library. Once there, he traced a finger along the rows of books, searching… He got startled a second as Ron floated through the shelves catching up with him.
'What's up, Harry? Why'd you just leave without a word like that?'
'Sorry. It's just that I realised we were looking at the wrong place.' Harry said as he pulled out the book he was looking for: The Encyclopedia of Magic: Volume R - T.
'Now let's see…' Harry mumbled as he turned the pages. 'T-e, T-h, T-i… Time… Ah. Time-travel: See Time-turners.' Harry traced his finger a little further down the page. 'Here it is!'

'Time-turners: A magical artifact produced in the shape of sparkling hourglasses that enables a wizard to travel back through time. The most common size and the most used are the smallest that takes the wearer back one hour per each turn. Larger sizes of hourglasses do occur, each larger number will enable a traveler to go back a day, a week, a month or up to a year. The largest known hourglass today resides at the Durmstrang school of dark-arts and witchcraft in Europe. It's record as far has taken a traveler back ten years in one turn, but might be able to transport an individual even farther back through time, although it's possibilities has yet to be studied.'

More text followed, but it spoke mostly of the laws and safety regulations of using Time-turners. But Harry knew now what he needed to know.
'Ron, we have to go to Durmstrang!' he stated as he closed the book with a bang.
'Durmstrang? And how are we supposed to get there? You can't apparate and using a broomstick would probably take weeks, and furthermore; we don't know where exactly it is! And besides: we're trapped inside this castle. Those magic-impervious thorn-bushes are preventing even me to go through them.'
'One thing at a time, Ron. True, we can't apparate, and flying isn't an option either, but neither was on my mind. I was thinking of using floo-powder to get there. With any luck; the Floo-network might just get us there.'
'But you don't have any floo-powder! Such stuff only holds for approximately ten years.'
'Then I'll just make some.' Harry said as he exited the library. 'Snape should have the recepie in one of his books down the dungeons.'
'You'll need to gather ingredients out in the forest.' Ron argued as he floated after Harry. 'And as I said: you can't get out of this castle!'
'I'll find a way.' Harry replied feeling a bit annoyed with his friend. 'In every challenge there is a solution.'
'You know; you're starting to sound like Hermione when she's on her bossy side!'
'I am not being 'bossy'.' Harry said as he walked on. 'This is my stubborn side, the one that disregards with the rules, and the one who refuses to give up!'
'Tell me about it.' Ron muttered.

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After a detour to the dungeons, (and spending some time to find the recepie for floo-powder) Harry and Ron arrived at the large doors leading to the outside of Hogwarts. As his dead friend had said; the thorn-bushes covered every inch of the doorway. The wines inter-twinned with each other so much that they become like a solid wall, there wasn't even a crack to peek through. And after a closer examination, Harry knew that neither a magical spell nor any kind of tool would even make a dent in the thick branches.
'I know that I really shouldn't say it, but: I told you so.' The ghost of Ron said.
'I'm not convinced, though. I've come to know Tom Riddle enough to know what his true intentions always would be. Hogwarts is a mighty magical area, it's not just something he'd abandon or simply destroy. He'd probably make sure that he would be able to come back if he needed to.' Harry stared at the wines and imagined them to be snakes that had slithered around each other. Then he spoke: 'Open up.' The words came out as a hissing since Harry had spoken in Parcel tongue. And as he watched and had hoped, the thorn-bushes parted like some curtains and revealed a passageway to the outside.
'Still got any doubts Ron?'
'I can't help it, but I hate it when you manage to prove me wrong.' Ron muttered.

The Hogwarts grounds were nothing like Harry remembered it. Instead of open grassy fields, the outside of the castle was overgrown with wild grass, bushes and trees. Several plants had grown out of the large greenhouses and the Quidditch pitch was as good as erased. The spectator's stands were either teared down or overgrown by branches and the golden goal-poles were nowhere to be seen. Harry felt a pang of sorrow as he saw the remains of Hagrid's hut. The walls were still standing, although they were cracked. The glasses in the windows were gone and the door had long ago fallen off its hinges. The roof seemed to have fallen in. With a lump in his throat, Harry squeezed himself past a large tree that had conveniently grown through the doorframe to get into the hut. Once inside, he gazed around to see what still remained, and then he froze. While the sleeping people inside the castle had decomposed into nothingness, the giant fossilised skeleton of Hogwarts Keeper of Keys and Grounds were still lying on the cot.
'Hagrid.' Harry managed to whisper barely.

'I am truly sorry, Harry.' Said Ron who had followed Harry inside.
'That is a sight no one would have to see.' Harry responded slowly. 'I only hope that I can forget this when I'll go back through time and can undo all of this.'
'IF you'll manage to go back through time to undo all of this.' Ron was still sceptical.
'I must succed! I must!' harry said with clenched teeth.
'Forgive me if I'm still a little doubtful about this, but I…'
'Dammit Ron, Can't you atleast TRY to belive in me? Stop try to discourage me all the time, I am after all trying to save your life as well!'
'I don't think I really deserve to live.' Ron sighed.
'Ron, that is enough!' Harry now yelled. 'I'm sick of your whining, 'cause it won't do us any good here. I know that you're depressed of what you've done, but if you please could atleast try to pull yourself together then you can help me.' Harry forced himself to calm down a little.
'Look Ron, I mean it. I could really use your help. And if you're willing to give it, then I'll be willing to forgive you. But you're no good to any of us if you're going to be like this. We have a plan, so that means we got a chance. And as long as we have a chance, then there's hope for all of us. But only if you atleast for the moment can forget about the past. What's done is done, but if you'll help me to repair this mistake of yours, then you'll redeem yourself. Isn't that what you really want to do?'
'Now you sound like Hermione again. No wonder she fancies you.' Harry was about to speak again when Ron stopped him by holding up a hand. 'But I'll do what I can to help you. If you truly belive we got a chance, then I'm willing to give it a go.'
Harry gave a smile of relif. 'Good. Now that that's settled, let's get to work.'

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It took Harry and Ron three days to finish the Floo-powder. One day to find and gather all the necessary ingredients and two days to prepare it. During that time Harry had not eaten anything since there were no food left on Hogwarts, it was only his determination that gave him the energy to keep going. Even thought he began to feel quite dizzy by now, he would proceeed with his plan. During that time he also came to wonder: the curse must still be active since Hermione still lived. Then why hasn't he been affected by it? He made a mental note to ask Proffesor Dumbledore about it if… no, when he got the chance to speak with him again.

The magical thorn-bushes Voldemort had planted around the castle prevented anything magical to pass through them; therefore Harry couldn't use the fireplaces inside. He now stood in the remains of Hagrid's hut with Ron hovering beside him, going through his inventory to see if he got everything that he needed. He had the stringbag with Floo powder and his wand. He was ready. Harry pointed his wand onto the empty fireplace and shouted: 'Incendio!' and a roaring fire came to life.

'Fill me in again on how I am suppose to come with you.' Ron said. 'As a ghost, I can't touch the Floo powder, and certainly can't travel through the network.'
'Even though you are a ghost Ron, you still have a slight fysical presence. You're going to have to concentrate on being as solid as you can and clung on to my body, and I travel for both of us.'
Ron almost laughed. 'Harry, don't you know that stepping through a ghost is like stepping through a cold shower?'
'I know. But there's not much of a choice, is there?'
'Ok, but… I still feel reluctant about leaving Hermione behind.'
'It's better this way. And besides once I get back in the past, I'll wake her and this will never have happened. Are you ready?'
'Ready when you are, Harry.'

Harry stepped into the fireplace with a pinch of powder in his hand. Ron followed after and placed himself completely over Harry's body.
'AAAHH!' Harry screamed. 'COLD! COLD! COLD!'
'Don't say I didn't warn you.' Ron said smuggingly.
'L-let's get this o-over with quickly!' Harry tossed the powder into the fire which turned emerald green and rose higher. 'Durmstrang school of Dark Arts and Wizardry!' Harry shouted. The next seconds both he and Ron were swept away with a whirl of green flames and a deafening roar. And as Harry spinned faster, he thought to himself that he'd forgotten how much he hated travel by Floo powder. After what felt like an eternity, Harry saw a blurred stream of fireplaces with rooms beyond them; some lit up, some dark. Concentrating, Harry willed himself towards one of the darkened rooms so that he wouldn't announce his arrival, he felt it was better that way. He was then shortly afterwards thrown out through the fireplace he'd been aiming for and landed hard on the floor covered with soot.

Ron immedietly withdrew himself from Harry's body. He was quite amazed that this scheme had actually worked. He glanced around the dark chamber: they seemed to have ended up in an empty classroom.
'Well, we're actually here. Now we just have to find that Time-turner and we can go back and change all this.' Ron said in a matter-of-factly tone, as he now felt a little more optimistic. He turned to Harry, and noticed that he hadn't got up from the floor yet. He was sitting there holding his hands to his head.
'What's up, Harry? Did you hit your head?'
'If only I had.' Harry said nervously. 'I-it's my scar. It hurts like hell.'
'Your SCAR? B-but… surely it wouldn't hurt unless… unless…' Ron couldn't finish his sentence. Harry did it for him.

'Voldemort's here.'

Next: Searching Durmstrang.

Author's notes: I know, I know... since Durmstrang's location is suppose to be unknown, how in the world could the Floo network be connected to it? I did try to work out a way around this problem, but unfortunately I couldn't find a solution. Please don't scold me. You can still send reviews although I'm using my brother's PC.