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 were 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:

I saw in the swedish newspapers that Daniel Radcliff will quit as Harry Potter after finishing filming 'Prisoner of Azkaban'. That is a real pity. But I sure hope that if they go on with filming 'The Goblet of Fire' anyway, I sure hope Emma Watson stays. No one can replace her, that's impossible.

Well, we'll see what happens. Hopefully it's just a false rumor. For now: on with the story...

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'POTTER! HE'S HERE!'

'H-he knows.' Harry's voice trembled. 'He knows I'm here. He's coming after us.'

Ron's voice dropped to a low strained whisper. 'W-w-what are we gonna do? Harry, let's get out of here.'
'Where are we suppose to go?' Harry said with a likewise strained voice, of his scar burning.
'Anywhere but here.' The ghost of Ron whimpered. 'If we let You-Know-Who find us here he'll kill us on the spot.'
'You mean he'll kill me. You're already dead.'
'This is no time to be sarcastic, Harry!' Ron almost shouted. 'Let's go, we'll come back another time.'

'We can't come back another time, Ron! Now that Voldemort knows I'm alive, we'll never be able to slip back in here unnoticed. We have no choice, we have to make a stand here.'
'You'll never be able to fight off all those Death-Eaters by yourself!' Ron argued.
'Maybe I don't have to fight them.' Harry said as he got up, walked over to the door and closed it. Then he locked it with a charm. 'All we have to do is to stall them long enough for the Time-turner to charge up. With any luck, Voldemort might not even think about looking here until it's too late and we'll be gone.'
'Do you believe us to be that lucky?'
'No. We probably used it all up.'

They both waited nervously, watching the sand in the small hourglass pour through very slowly. Harry strained his hearing towards outside the room, but so far no one was rushing up the stairs. Finally, the first ten minutes were up, now they only needed another thirteen minutes of charging the giant Time-turner.
'Harry?'
'Yes?' he answered as he turned the hourglass again.
'Those ten minutes… that's about half the time…'
'Yes Ron, but we need another thirteen minutes to…'
'Harry, let's use them now. Let this thing take us back one hundred and fifty years… from there we can take the time for the rest of the journey, but without You-Know-Who coming after us. He can't possibly expect us to show up back then, it would…'

'I follow you Ron. And I agree, let's do it.'
'Wonderful, Harry.' Ron said with a breath of relief. Harry walked up to the giant hourglass and took hold of a long golden chain fastened to its middle piece.
'When I turn this thing,' Harry said. '-It will release all of its chronological energy through this chain into us and send us back in time.'
''Us', Harry? How am I going to hold it?'
'You do as you did when we traveled by the Floo-powder, of course. Grab hold onto me.'
'Do you really feel up to some more freezing?' Ron asked with a smirk.
'No, I don't. But what choice have we?'

Wasting no time, Ron once again put his ghost body over Harry, who had to bite his teeth together real hard not to scream from the sudden cold. When they were ready, Harry took a steady hold of the chain in his right hand and put his left on the bottom of the giant hourglass.
And then he pushed hard…
And then he pushed hard again…
And again…
It wouldn't budge.
'Either th-this th-thing is-s-s s-s-stuck…' Harry shivered from the cold of his friends ghost body. '…or it's much t-t-to h-h-heavy for me to b-b-budge b-b-by m-myself…'
'Perfect. Just perfect.' Ron said. 'And who in his right mind would help us budge it? What do we do now, Harry?'
'M-Maybe i-i-f we…'

'Reducto!'
The door was suddenly turned into splinters as it was blasted in from the other side of it. It was thanks to Harry's Quidditch-reflexes that he'd managed to crouch down and cover his head with his arms in time, or the flying wooden debris would've perforated his face. But the dart-like debris still shot painfully into the rest of Harry's body; it was actually a good thing that he wore the Death-Eater cloak, it helped cover him a bit more from any serious damage. The bruises would stay around for some days though.
From the corner of his eye, he saw some Death-Eaters rushing through the now door-less entrance with wands in hands. They didn't know though that Harry still had his composure, and that was his advantage. Ron quickly shot away from Harry as he pulled out his own wand and pointed it at the intruders.

'IMPEDIMENTA!' he bellowed, hitting the Death-Eater in front, stopping him in mid-motion that he blocked the way of his colleagues. A second Death-Eater rushed around the stunned wizard to apprehend Harry, but Harry was ready for him.
'STUPEFY!' he yelled, sending the Death-Eater flying backwards into some others, knocking them down as well.
'You blasted fools!' shouted a well familiar high-pitched voice. Lord Voldemort stomped in, showed aside the wizard that had been stunned by the Impediment Jinx and shot a curse of his own at Harry.
Voldemort's rage had flared up because of the incompetence his men had shown, and that rage sent another jolt of pain into Harry's scar. That pain was what distracted Harry from defending himself from whatever hex the Dark Lord used, Harry was hit square in the chest, knocking the air out of his lungs and sent him sprawling into the opposite wall.

The Dark Lord laughed and raised his wand again. 'Crucio!'
Harry's body was suddenly like it was on fire. He couldn't help himself: he screamed. The Death-Eaters snickered. And then it was gone again, but Harry was shivering from the after-effects, and he had yet to re-capture his breath as well. For the moment, he was defenseless.
'Harry Potter. Such a pleasure to see you again.' Voldemort said. 'You know, it pains me that you didn't bother to at least say hello to me. Well, truth to be told: you surprised me. For three hundred years I had thought that the element of surprise was on my side upon your return, but you turned it against me instead. Tell me; why didn't you wake your mudblood friend and brake the curse?'

Voldemort turned his red eyes towards the ghost of Ron who nervously hovered behind the giant Time-turner. Harry felt astonishment when he realized that the Dark Lord wasn't in the least surprised to see the apparition. It was as if Voldemort had expected to see him.
'Didn't you tell Potter about the mudblood girl being down the Chamber of Secrets?' Voldemort asked Ron. Ron looked surprised.
'RON? Did you work for him?!' Harry asked aggrieved from the floor.
'No way, Harry! How could you even think that?' Ron asked with a hurt tone. 'A-and how could even HE know about me telling you everything about Hermione? He just left me in Hogwarts, how would he know that I would become a ghost?'
'Because it was my doing that you would become a ghost so you could tell Harry everything you'd done.' Voldemort explained. 'It was also me who left a preservation spell on the girl to hold the curse active until Harry's return, otherwise she would've died just like the rest of the fools at Hogwarts after a while. You're a rotten potion-maker, Kid. I'm surprised that my late friend Snape never just failed you.'

'You used me!' Ron exclaimed. 'And you used Hermione…'
'I use everybody who can help me achieve my goal.' The Dark Lord said totally without remorse. 'And my goal is finally reached. It took you three hundred years to come back Potter. Three hundred years have I been longing for your death, and I'm going to savor this moment.'
Voldemort walked forward to Harry with a few steps, wand raised. The Death-Eaters meanwhile just stood back; they knew that their Lord would not want any interference from them.
'Of course Harry…' Voldemort then said mockingly. 'If you wish to beg for mercy, I might consider inviting you into my ranks, if you'll swear me your complete loyalty. I'll even let you have that mudblood for your personal pleasure. So, Harry? How do you plead?'

Harry crawled up on his knees. 'I'll never join you, Riddle.' He said through gritted teeth. 'I'll fight you 'til my last breath!'
'Such tiresome noble nonsense, Potter.' Voldemort said disgusted. 'But so be it. Don't expect the end to be quick though. Crucio!'
Harry was prepared. Just as Voldemort threw his curse, Harry had raised his wand and simultaneously with the Dark Lord he shouted: 'Expelliarmus!'
Both their hexes met in mid-air and connected, a narrow golden beam of light now formed from tip to tip of both their wands; just like they had that night when Voldemort was reborn.

'BLAST!' Voldemort shouted. 'We have no need for another Priori Incantatem, that one time was quite enough!' And before the rare effects of the incantation could take place, Voldemort wrenched his wand upwards, braking the golden thread.
'I can't duel under these conditions!' he roared, and then he turned to the nearest Death-Eater. 'You! Give me your wand!'
The Death-Eater didn't hesitate; he passed his wand to his Lord. This was too good of an opportunity for Harry not to miss. While Voldemort paused to grab another wand to use, Harry made use of that moment to strike!

To Ron's big surprise, Harry shouted: 'Avada Kedavra!'
It was a bluff. Harry had no idea how the killing curse was to be preformed. Just like the impostor of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody had said in his fourth year: he could point the wand and say the words, but he wouldn't give anyone so much as nosebleed. But the Death-Eaters didn't know that. Even Voldemort had failed to take that into consideration after having spent centuries teaching his young students how to do it. Harry's enemies dispersed to get out of the way of the fake curse, leaving them disoriented and vulnerable in the open. Harry quickly began to stun them; one after one after having started with Voldemort, who staggered backwards upon being hit.
'STUPEFY! STUPEFY! STUPEFY!' he yelled, and the Death-Eaters dropped.

'HARRY, LOOK OUT!' Ron then shouted. Harry barely had time to react before he heard the word: 'Reducto!' and then he were once again slammed into the wall, air knocked out of his lungs. Dizzily and with aching ribs he gazed before him. Voldemort was still standing.
'Nice try, Potter. But it takes a lot more than a stun-curse to knock me out!' he said with a cold smile.
Harry thought for a brief moment to tell him off for using the Reductor-curse on a human being. It was primarily used to blast solid objects out of the way, but it was obvious that the Dark Lords saw it fitting to use it as an attack hex as well. And it had worked: Harry wondered if his ribcage was still in one piece. He was once again defenseless.

'It was a good bluff, Harry.' Voldemort said. 'You really managed to fool me for a second as well. Too bad you don't know how to do the killing-curse; you actually had a good shot on me, which could have finished me off. But that's what you get when you study under that old fool Albus Dumbledore. Do send him my best regards when you meet him in heaven or wherever you're going…'
Harry understood what Voldemort's words meant. It was time to die. Harry tried to raise his wand as a final act of resistance, but to no avail… He could barely move.
'Goodbye, Harry Potter! AVADA KEDAVRA!'

What happened next took only a second, but Harry managed to register everything anyway. Before Voldemort finished saying the words, the ghost of Ron flew right between The Dark Lord and Harry, saying quickly over his shoulder:
'Free us, Harry! Forgiv…'
The ghost of Ron had summoned all his willpower to make himself as solid as possible to take the full blast of the killing curse. The green energy hit the apparition dead on, and the pale smoky form of Ron Weasley was destroyed. He had sacrificed himself to buy Harry some more time.

The Dark Lord didn't even raise a hair-less eyebrow. 'Foolishly gallant.' He snorted. 'But to what avail? He only delayed the inevitable, don't you agree Harry?' He gave Harry an ugly grin. 'Don't feel sad, Harry. You're about to join him.'
Feel sad? It was actually the one thing Harry didn't feel. Ron's last action had told him a great deal about his friend. Even though Ron had messed up real bad, he had just given Harry the final proof that he'd been full of regret and had been willing to sacrifice his own life for their eternal friendship. He understood that Ron had asked for a final forgiveness, and Ron now had it. In Harry's opinion, Ron had just redeemed himself and had acted like a true Gryffindor; that knowledge filled him with happiness. And Harry used that happiness as a next act of defense. Grasping on to it, he conjured a very special spell that not many wizards through history had learned to master.
'EXPECTO PATRONUM!'

A silver stag erupted from Harry's wand and immediately charged against Voldemort and the remaining Death-Eaters. A Patronus was a guardian made of a positive force; it was mainly used as protection against Dementors. There were none of those foul creatures around right now, but as Harry had expected: it took his enemies completely by surprise. How could they know what a Patronus was? It was a defensive magic, and Voldemort didn't teach defensive incantations. To them: Harry had just conjured a powerful unknown magic that could put a serious hurt to all of them, therefore they scrambled into disarray again just to get out of the way from the silver stag's rampage. Even Voldemort were momentarily perplexed, he tried to dispose of it with some hexes, but to no avail.

Eventually the Stag began to fade away, but it had bought the time Harry needed to regain his composure. Using the moment of confusion, Harry pointed his wand. But not against the Death-Eaters, but upwards to the ceiling, and then he shouted:
'DIFFINDO!'
Every brick-stone, every supporting wooden beam above the mass of running Death-Eaters became loose, and almost the whole ceiling fell down on the rooms occupants. Harry barely managed to get a shield-charm around him before the debris crushed down on everybody with a loud noise.

When the dust finally began to clear, Harry was the only one left standing. Everyone else, Voldemort included, lay unconscious under the rubble that had crashed down on them. The giant Time-turner was thankfully still intact, and was now sparkling with energy just like a Time-turner was known to do.
Glancing over to the table with the hourglasses, Harry saw that the rest of the ten minutes had passed, but with how much? There was no way to know, so Harry decided to take this chance to escape anyway, hoping that he would end up somewhere in the past close enough to the events of his disappearance. If only he quickly could find a way to turn the giant magical device.

Harry thought of using a suitable incantation for his problem, hoping that he wouldn't end up destroying the Time-turner instead. He took hold of the loose chain once again and pointed his wand at the bottom of the giant hourglass. Then he heard some movement behind him: Voldemort was awake, but fortunately he was half buried in the rubble and in no condition to fight for the moment.
'Are you going to run, Potter?' he asked weakly.
'Who said anything about running? I'm going back where I belong, and once there, I'm going to break the curse.'
'No. I will not allow it.' Voldemort spat. 'My days may be boring, but I didn't reach total domination of the world just to have you ruin everything for me. No matter where you go Potter, I will follow you. I want to feel the satisfaction of killing you and will not stop before that… unless you kill me now, while I'm defenseless.'

'Kill you? Just like that and end up becoming just like you?'
'I know you want to, Harry. I killed your parents. I know you want revenge. Do it now!'
'For what purpose? To kill you here won't change anything in the past, 'cause back there you're still alive. I'll save my anger to that 'you', 'cause this 'you' is already defeated. Once I'm back and brake the curse, all this will be no more. And I didn't have to kill you to achieve it. That is the ultimate victory!'

With those final words Harry once again pointed his wand to the Time-turner and said: 'Reducto.' The shock-blast didn't shatter the hourglass but instead pushed it around its axel, just like Harry had hoped it would. The giant Time-turner released all of it's chronological energy through the chain into Harry, who suddenly felt like he was flying backwards through a blur of colors and shapes as the energy ripped a hole in the fabric of time and threw the boy into it. The last Harry heard was a muffled cry of rage from the Dark Lord as Harry disappeared from the future where he didn't belong.

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After an unusual long time, everything came back to focus. Harry emerged in the same tower-room he'd just left, but he was unprepared for the many more tables that were placed in there. Working to regain his balance as the last of the time-travel effects left him, he staggered into one that had a lot of equipment on it and tipped it over, making a loud noise. He got to his feet and tried to clean up the mess he'd done when he heard some running in the stairs outside the closed doors. Reflexively Harry took a tighter grip on his wand, but he would make sure that he wouldn't hex the one who was coming to 'greet' him unless he was hexed upon first. The door flew up and Harry was actually glad to see the face of the person who stepped in. It was Victor Krum.

'Vot…? Harry Poter?!' Krum said in his usual gruff but now surprised voice. 'Vot are you… hov did you got here?'
'Krum.' Harry greeted with relief. 'It's actually a pleasure to see you.' To Harry it meant that he had indeed gone back and was somewhere in his own time. 'Could you please tell me the exact date?'
Krum looked bewildered but answered. The answer made Harry whoop with joy.
'That's only seventeen days after Ron trapped me in the mirror!' Harry exclaimed happily. He couldn't believe that he managed to cut it so close.

'I… I don't onderstand… vot are you talking of?' Krum was even more bewildered.
'I'm afraid it's a too long of a story and I don't have time to tell it. My friends need me, I have to get back to Hogwarts.' Harry walked past Victor Krum and headed down the stairs. Remembering the room Lord Voldemort had made into his personal chamber in the future, Harry recalled that there was a fireplace there that he could use.
Krum followed down after Harry. 'Wait. You say your friends need you. Are them in danger?'
'You could say that!' Harry said as he entered the room down the stairs and turned to the fireplace. 'Incendio.' With his wand he lit a fire in the hearth.

'Is Hermy-own-ninny in danger too?' Krum asked.
'Hermione is not in any mortal danger…' Harry explained as he took out some Floo-powder from his string bag. 'But it is her I have to reach to save everybody.'
'Then I come with you…' Krum started but Harry cut him off.
'Don't bother, you can't do anything. It is me she's waiting for.'
Krum looked angry. 'You said to me you haff nothing to do with Hermy-own-ninny!'

'Things seems to have changed.' Harry said as he now began to feel frustration with the Bulgarian Quidditch-seeker. 'Look Krum, I know Hermione broke up with you. And after that she obviously went on and felt a little attached to me, which is just something you're going to have to live with. Now if you excuse me…' Harry stepped into the hearth… 'Hogwarts grounds, Hagrid's hut!' and he threw the powder into the fire. Harry only managed to get a fast glimpse of Krum's disappointed face as he was sucked away.
'Well, he's got himself to blame.' Harry thought to himself. 'Hadn't he been such a diva, Hermione could maybe have been his. He has better learn to live with it, 'cause I will not feel sorry for him.'

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Harry came out of Hagrid's fireplace with a loud noise, since he stumbled over some of the giant's pots and pans. To Harry's disappointment it wasn't enough of course to wake up the giant from the enchanted sleep. But he was relieved to see his big friend alive lying in his cot, with his dog Fang resting just beneath the big feet.
'Don't worry, Hagrid. Soon you will be awake again.' Harry mumbled. He exited the hut and made his way up towards the castle, but it was not with ease. He was quite dizzy after the last trip with the Floo-powder, (how he hated to travel like that) and the poor nutrition was finally starting to get to him. Add the exhaustion from his battle with the future Voldemort, Harry had quite a headache.

Giving the 'Open up' command in Parcel tongue to the thorn-bushes, he entered the silent Hogwarts castle. He smiled when he got to the Great Hall. Here was everyone: students and teachers, all asleep but alive. Neither Ron nor Hermione was there of course. Ron was most likely down in the dungeons under the corridor of the third floor, pounding on the Mirror of Erised, begging it to release Harry. Hermione was therefore in the Chamber of Secrets where the present Lord Voldemort had put her, and that's where Harry was going. He had to take a detour again to the Gryffindor tower though to fetch his broomstick. He had fetched it from there in the future but not in the present.

With a pounding head, Harry made his way down to the chamber once again where he found Hermione just like he'd seen her the first time in the future. This time he also found the remains of the Basilisk that he'd killed the first time he was here, the snake-skin was dry and shrunken around the skeleton. He didn't pay much attention to it, 'cause he was once again overwhelmed with doubts. Was it really him she was waiting for? He knelt beside the girl and leaned over her. He felt a lump in his belly and his head began to hurt even more.
'Will you really wake up if I kiss you?' he whispered. With his heart full of doubts, he leant closer and let his lips touch hers. He would have found it quite exciting if the matter wasn't so serious, but it all seemed to be to no avail.
Harry was dismayed. Hermione didn't even stir.

Why didn't it work? And what was he suppose to do now? He tried to think, but it was impossible when his head hurt so much. If only… wait a minute. It wasn't his head that was hurting! It was…

'Yawn. I guessed I dozed of. You sure took your time to get here Potter.'
Harry spun around and gazed into the shadows. He remembered in his second year when he saw the apparition of sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle leaning against the nearest pillar. The owner of the voice was leaning against the same pillar. It was Tom Riddle again, but as Lord Voldemort.
'Surprised to see me?' The Dark Lord snickered.
'Very.' Harry answered, reaching into his robes or his wand. 'I thought you wouldn't expect me to be out of the mirror so soon.'

'Well, you won't be out of it yet for three-hundred years.' Voldemort answered.
'How do you know…?' Harry started, then hesitated. There was no way for Voldemort to predict that Harry wouldn't be released until after three-hundred years, unless…
The dark Lord grinned. 'I see you understand, Potter.'

'You're the Voldemort from the future'

Next and final: The battle for the future.

Author's notes:

Well, if Nearly Headless Nick could be petrified by the Basilisk, why can't the ghost of Ron be killed by the 'Avada Kedavra' curse?

As for Krum: that serves him right. I never liked him, and I think that he should stay away from Hermione.