Magical Mishap

Chapter One

Departure

It was with reluctance that Harry Potter stepped out of the fireplace and into the Ministry Atrium. It was a Saturday, and he technically wasn't required to work. He had decided to go to work anyway, however after receiving a rather demanding request from one of his friends.

When he had gotten up that morning to prepare breakfast, he had found a kitchen chair occupied by Hermione Granger. She had rather forcibly made him agree to come by her office in the afternoon. Harry couldn't say he wasn't curious though, ever since Hermione joined the research division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she had only taken on interesting cases.

Add to that the fact that Hermione had barely spent any time at home these past few weeks, Harry was wholly interested in what she had to say. She wouldn't even tell her own husband what she was doing there, only that it was very important.

Notwithstanding all these things, Harry was still reluctant. Hermione was clearly excited and even slightly obsessed with this whole thing, though he would never tell her that. An enthusiastic Hermione, however, was also intimidating at times. Harry had a feeling he was going to get so much information dumped on him that his brain would shut down.

Harry was just looking around the Atrium, greeting the few people who were working on weekends, when suddenly a face framed by brown, bushy hair appeared before him.

"Great to see you again, Hermione," Harry said as he took in her appearance.

He had been sleepy in the morning, so hadn't gotten a good look at her. Now that he saw her up close however, Harry could see she wasn't looking very good. Her hair was even more bushy than otherwise, and her eyes were looking droopy, tired. All in all; she was looking exhausted. It seemed even that couldn't curb her enthusiasm though.

"Harry! Finally! Come on, we've got to hurry. There is much to explain and not much time to do it in," Hermione said hurriedly, as she started pulling him along. Harry decided it was best to simply endure the treatment, and let himself be pulled into the nearest lift.

"I've been investigating a magical disturbance with the Unspeakables for the past two weeks now, and we think we've finally come up with a solution for it. The problem is though, that we need a powerful wizard to make it work, which is where you come in," she explained while they stood waiting in the lift. Harry absently noticed they had already passed the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"It's not like I don't want to help Hermione. But I don't have any more magic than you, Ron, or any of the employees here at the ministry," Harry argued.

"Firstly, Harry, did you know your modesty gets annoying sometimes? Though, it's what makes you, you, I guess. Secondly, of course you don't have more magic. Nobody has magic. Wizards and witches simply have the ability to manipulate it, something which you ought to know after all these years. And thirdly, you are very talented in magic of all kinds. Honestly, Harry, even Dumbledore would be impressed at some of the defensive charms you have mastered."

Harry looked sceptically at her, but wisely decided to stay silent. There was simply no arguing with her when she was like this. He also very much wanted to avoid an even more intricate explanation of how magic works, though Hermione would probably enjoy it herself.

"What do you need exactly, Hermione?" he asked instead. She shook her head.

"I'll explain further when we're inside," was all she said as they exited the lift at the last level. They continued the rest of their walk in silence.

Harry followed Hermione dutifully as she approached the door to the Department of Mysteries. The door swung open just as they reached it, he was surprised for a second before he noticed Hermione holding her wand. They both slipped inside after which Harry heard the door shut again. He thought he even heard a lock click closed, but he wasn't certain. They stood waiting in the centre of the room as the doors spun around them. There were more than Harry remembered from his last trip inside.

"Summerby's office," Hermione called loudly, as soon as the room had settled. A door sprang open at her command, she quickly entered, Harry only a second behind.

After trying to close the door, only to notice it was already locked, Harry turned to examine the office he had just entered. It was small, was Harry's first thought. It probably would have been a decent sized office, if it weren't for the numerous cabinets, filled with papers and notes, that stood pushed back against the walls. There was a single desk in the exact middle of the room. A man, presumably Summerby, was sitting behind it. Hermione had sat down on one of the two seats in front of it. Harry was left with the last. It was an old, rickety wooden chair that had one short leg and the back looked like it would fall off if you dared lean against it. Harry was shaken out of his thoughts by a voice breaking the silence.

"Sit down," Summerby said.

Harry quickly sat down and looked expectantly at the two of them. Summerby nodded at Hermione, so he also focused his attention on her. She turned to Harry and started to talk.

"All right, Harry. This is a long explanation, but it's all really important, so I need you to pay attention here," she said. Harry nodded his agreement.

"About a month ago, the Unspeakables came upon a magical disturbance in Devon, near the Dartmoor National Park. It's quite violent, and immediately started to destroy everything nearby, leaving behind only empty nothingness. They tried everything they knew to stop it, but nothing worked. The energy currently still isn't too large, but it's speeding up. We made a prediction of its progress. In a few months it'll have consumed the world, and in fifty years the whole universe will be gone," Hermione said gravely, taking a deep breath.

"Wow. And you think I can stop this thing?" Harry asked disbelievingly.

"Well, yes. But not in the way you're thinking. Anyway, I wasn't finished," she answered.

"To find a solution to the problem, the Unspeakables and I searched through their archives, looking for similar cases. We managed to find a record of a similar energy burst from the year 1894. It was only a short flash, as opposed to the continuous force we're experiencing now. Also, the detection instruments weren't as advanced back then, so we don't know where it took place. Anyway, from the records we were able to find out that the source was underage magic. It was strong, but didn't have any real purpose. It might have been a case of accidental magic, actually. In itself it wasn't that dangerous, but it came in contact with dark magic somehow."

"Now, pay attention, because here it starts to get complicated," Hermione interrupted herself.

"Now it's getting complicated?" Harry repeated incredulously.

"Yes, now listen. The combination of the two different types of magic formed a kind of destructive time magic. Our first conclusion was that the magic was blasted forward in time to today, or rather, to one month ago. Later though, when I was looking over our calculations, I found an irregularity. Together with Summerby, I managed to correct the arithmetic. We found out that the nature of the combined magic should have sent it to the year 1974, not 2016. We then spent the next week trying to figure out what caused the forty-two year delay.

"To keep a long story short, we found that the magic actually did arrive in 1974. When it did though, something happened that caused it to become even more destructive. We think that's because it somehow combined with a form of soul magic. It's possible that it's not related though, the soul magic may have been there from the source in 1894. The records from back then aren't clear on it, they're subtle differences that are hard to discern. Anyway, its power was so enormous that it simply ripped the universe in two split parts, both copies of what existed before. In essence, you could say it created two equal universes. One half was slowly consumed over the past decades. The other half, our half, is only being attacked now because the magic was done with the other part."

Harry needed several minutes to fully absorb all the information she had just given him. Destructive time magic, arithmetic calculations, soul magic and a split universe. It was making his head spin.

"All right, I think I get it. But what do you want me to do about it?" he asked finally.

"The only solution we could think of was to send someone back in time, to when the energy first arrived in 1974, and there either capture or eliminate it, before it receives its added boost. We want to send you, because I think, and the Unspeakables agree, that it's likely the soul magic originated from Voldemort. And you're the best at dealing with him, even you have to see that, Harry."

"I guess you do have a point there," Harry conceded.

He didn't want to fight Voldemort again, but he definitely wouldn't let anyone else fight for him. Hermione continued providing him with more detailed information about what he would have to do while he was in the past. Summerby, meanwhile, observed silently, making sure she didn't forget to mention anything.

Harry would be sent back in time, to an hour before the magic arrived from the past, by a combination of three time-turners and a spell. The hour was so he would have enough time to prepare, but also that he wouldn't be there for too long that it would disturb the timeline too much. He would simply wait once he arrived there, and then take care of the magic when it arrived. After that he would simply perform the spell again, and he would be brought back to his current time. It was all surprisingly simple.

The hardest thing was getting the spell right, but after enduring Hermione's meticulous instructions for several hours, Harry was sure he could do it. She had still insisted he bring a big book with notes on the spell with him into the past though. Just in case he managed to forget how to do it. Harry didn't think he was quite that bad, but he decided not to argue. After that, she had instructed him to prepare himself.

Apparently, even though he was only supposed to be in the past for a couple of hours at most, he was still required to bring a bunch of supplies. Just in case something happened that caused him to have to stay in the past for a few days or even weeks. Hermione assured him though, that no matter how long he remained in the past, he would always come back to the same time in the present. That was how the spell worked. It sounded awfully convenient to Harry, he wondered why all magic couldn't be like that.

Harry spent the next couple days preparing for his trip to the past. He picked up what felt like half his galleons in Gringotts, after explaining to Ginny exactly why he needed so much of them. He picked a few spare robes and dug up his old mokeskin pouch. That last one would be used to carry all his stuff in, it had taken a few charms to make it large enough on the inside though.

At some point during the preparations, Harry had also asked what would happen to the already destroyed part of the universe, once he had come back to the present. The idea that somewhere, another Harry and Hermione might live was just too strange for him. Hermione told him though, that it was permanently destroyed and no amount of time travelling could bring it back. Time and space were interwoven, so time alone couldn't repair it again. The only way to bring back that universe, would be to somehow repair the break between the two universes, and merge them again. This wasn't something she wanted to attempt though, it could cause both worlds could vanish, or worse. Though what could be worse than that, Harry had no idea.

It was on the fourth day after he had originally met with Hermione, that he would perform the spell. He had been provided with a small empty chamber in the Department of Mysteries to cast it, everything he touched would go with him. Minutes before he was about to cast the spell though, Hermione sprung some new, unexpected information on him.

She told him that time travelling would have a side effect. Apparently, time-turners had the weird side-issue of de-aging the user. When travelling to the past, your age was divided by the amount of time-turners used. This wasn't a problem with regular use, because normally you only use one. But Harry had to use three for a reason he didn't understand, so he would be fourteen upon arrival in the past. Luckily this effect was reversed when travelling back.

It didn't really make sense to Harry, but when he voiced his disbelief, Hermione had started to lecture him and waved around papers full of notes and calculations. So Harry just accepted it, knowing there probably was a logical reason for it.

He wasn't happy at this sudden revelation, but he also didn't let it bother him too much. He thought being a child again for a short time might be fun, maybe he could connect better with his children afterwards. As long as he kept his adult memories, he wouldn't mind too much.

Harry glanced at the doorway of the small room, where Hermione and Summerby were waiting for him to arrive back. He took a deep, determined breath, pointed his wand up, and spoke the magical words that would send him on his way. For one instant, everything went black. For one horrible moment, Harry thought he had done something wrong. But then there was light again, and Harry breathed in fresh air.

Notes:

I've been wanting to write this for a long time. Very happy I finally finished the first chapter. Many thanks to Milly for initially inspiring me to write it.

If you enjoyed it, I would appreciate it very much if you left a review (I also welcome reviews from people who didn't like it).