WHEN TIME STANDS STILL
EPILOGUE
"Where's Harry?" Sirius said. "He was here a minute ago."
"I don't know," Remus said, looking around. "Maybe he took a wrong turn..."
"Should we go look for him, do you think?"
"Look for him where? He could be anywhere by now! Let's go wait in the Common Room. Harry has the Map, remember. He'll find his way back."
*~
"Evans!" James shouted, racing through the Great Hall. "Evans!"
"What is it now, Potter?" she demanded.
"Evans, have you seen Harry?"
"Harry? No, I – what do you mean? Is he missing?"
"I don't know," James said anxiously. "We were coming back to Gryffindor Tower last night, and he was with us – and then suddenly he just wasn't there any more. We thought he took a wrong turn, but he never came to the Common Room. If he's lost in Hogwarts..."
"He can't be; he knows Hogwarts as well as you and I do."
"Anybody could get lost in Hogwarts, Evans."
"Yes..." Lily said, frowning thoughtfully. "Potter, you don't think he's gone back, do you?"
"Gone back?"
"To the future."
"But he never said anything about –"
"He didn't plan on coming here, either, did he? Maybe it just happened."
"So what should we do now?"
"Talk to Professor Dumbledore. Get Black and Lupin – get Pettigrew, too, who knows what he heard – and come on!"
*~
"So that's it, Professor," James said. "We don't know where he is."
"He is easily located if he is in the castle," Professor Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the portraits of old Headmasters and Headmistresses on the wall. They sat up at once, some of them poking and prodding the others awake.
"I need you to search the castle for me," Dumbledore said. "A boy who looks exactly like James Potter – if you see him, tell him to stay where he is."
Twenty minutes later, the portraits were all back.
"Nothing," Phineas Nigellus said. "Your boy's vanished, I'm afraid, Dumbledore."
"It appears you were right, then, Miss Evans. Harry has gone back to the future."
"I hope so," Remus muttered. "The future is in very big trouble if he hasn't."
Professor Dumbledore looked at him sharply.
"Now, all of you, I want you to give me a complete list of anything anywhere in this castle or out of it that shows that Harry Potter was here. And Sirius, James – the full truth, if you please."
*~
Uncertainly, hoping against hope, Harry made his way to Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Fizzing Whizbee," he told the gargoyle tentatively. It came to life and jumped aside.
Drawing a deep, relieved breath, Harry went up to knock on Professor Dumbledore's door.
"Come in."
Harry pushed open the door and entered.
"Ah, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "I thought it would be you. Did you enjoy your trip?"
"You – you know I went..."
"Of course I know," Professor Dumbledore said. "I sent you."
Harry gaped at him for a second before finding his voice.
"You sent me into the past? Why? And why didn't you tell me before you did it, then I wouldn't have run into your office not knowing what was going on –"
"Calm down, Harry, and sit down. There is a great deal I must explain. But first, I hope you paid attention to your lessons in the past?"
"My lessons – yeah, I did, but –"
"Good, because they were part of the reason I sent you there. You see, Harry, the year after your parents left school, Professor Flitwick discontinued the course on Defensive Charms, and Professor Williamson stopped telling his classes about Priori Incantatem and brother wands."
"But – why?"
"It was too dangerous. More students than I care to remember bore the Dark Mark even before they had completed their Seventh Year. We could not tell if we were teaching those loyal to the light or giving Voldemort's supporters information about our own weaknesses. And the amount you learnt about Defensive Charms in the past – or at least, the amount I hope you learnt – could not have been taught, Harry; even if I had asked Professor Flitwick to teach you all that specially, it would have taken weeks. We do not have weeks to spare in the present, but the past gave you all the time you needed."
"So," Harry said slowly, "you sent me back to learn Defensive magic?"
"Partly. Harry, after you vanished that night all those years ago, your parents and Remus and Sirius came into my office and told me you were missing. I guessed you had returned to your time, and I put Memory Charms on all of them. Before I Obliviated Remus, however, he said things that led me to believe that you were a vital part of the fight against Voldemort.
"That opened a lot of possibilities that I had not looked into before. I knew only that you had gone, probably to your own time, but where in your own time? Had you found yourself safe in Hogwarts, or had you been drawn back by Voldemort?
"After that, Harry, I did a great deal of research on Time Travel. I read practically the entire library, but I got nowhere. People can send themselves around in time, using Time Turners or spells, but how do you send another? More importantly, how do you pull a person back after he or she has been sent away? But someone had done so. I wanted that someone to be me, because if it were Voldemort I would have a catastrophe on my hands."
Several of the portraits were leaning towards Dumbledore and Harry to listen; Armando Dippet was nodding energetically.
"About two years ago, Harry, I came across a very old book in Knockturn Alley. It mentioned a spell, the Chronos Revertae, that could be used to send a person from anywhere in time to anywhere else. Here to 1976, 1976 to Godric Gryffindor's time... on one condition. There had to be a connection between the person using the spell and the person being sent.
"My first, horrified thought was naturally of Voldemort and your scar. Finding the book in Knockturn Alley made my sure that he had read it, that he knew the spell, that he would use it against you. And what could I do? This time, I was powerless. Voldemort is connected to you by the scar; the only other connection I could think of was the tie of blood, that has kept you alive so long...
"And what good did that do me? There is none left living of your father's blood; Voldemort saw to that. Your only living relatives are Petunia and Dudley Dursley. Muggles. They could not perform such a complex and difficult spell."
"But you sent me..."
"Yes, Harry, I did. Professor Dippet –" the portrait of Armando Dippet nodded proudly and smiled paternally at Harry "– reminded me of a letter I received five years ago from Mr Ollivander."
Harry looked bewildered. He had no connection with Mr Ollivander; Mr Ollivander had not given him any curse scars.
"Your wand, Harry. It is the twin to Voldemort's. My first reaction was panic – that was another connection between you and Voldemort, another sign that it would be he who sent you back... And then I realized that the letter had another implication. The feather in your wand came from Fawkes."
Struck dumb, Harry looked from Dumbledore to the beautiful bird on its perch, and back again.
"Harry, do you remember the first thing I told you when I saw you in my office on September the second?"
Harry grinned.
"Sure, Professor. Don't go anywhere without your wand; take it to bed and the Quidditch pitch and everywhere else."
"Exactly. As long as you had your wand on you, Fawkes could enable me to reach you."
"So that is why I sent you, Harry – to listen to Professor Williamson, to research Defensive Charms, to make sure Voldemort did not send you, and also... to give you what I considered some much-needed peace."
"Peace?"
"It is time, Harry. Voldemort is scared of me now, and he dare not attack Hogwarts, but that will not last forever. Perhaps in two months, perhaps in two years, he will gather enough courage to come in here with all his Death Eaters behind him and the Dementors at his side. You must be ready."
"Why me?" Harry muttered. "I didn't ask for it; I don't want it."
"We are not always given what we ask for, and we are often given what we do not want. An eleven-year-old should never have to fight Lord Voldemort face- to-face, but you did. Whether you wish it or not, whether you face it or try to run from it, you will battle Voldemort one day. If you do not win, he will. You will find a way, Harry. I know you will find a way."
"So you want me to learn to fight – him?"
"I want you to know as much as we can teach you before the battle comes."
"We?"
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Remus and I. I would have liked Professor Snape to teach you as well, but he seems unable to forget that you are your father's son. Every night at nine o'clock in my office, Harry. If anybody asks, you are taking Remedial Transfiguration."
"Remedial Transfiguration?"
Dumbledore's moustache twitched. "Professor Snape flatly refused to vanish for an hour every day and pretend he had been giving you Potions lessons. And nobody will believe that you require Remedial classes in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Tomorrow night, Harry, we begin."
"Yes, Professor."
"Oh, yes, and I have something for you."
Dumbledore opened a drawer and fumbled with some papers.
"When I burnt all the evidence Sirius had collected of your trip, this thing escaped – I have always suspected Fawked of pulling it from the flames when my back was turned... anyway, I thought you might like it."
Harry looked at what Dumbledore was holding out to him... an old photograph, singed around the edges, in which he, Lily, Sirius, James and Remus were waving enthusiastically at the camera.
"I believe Mr Pettigrew was taking the picture," Dumbledore said. "I must ask you not to let anybody see it, though... since I did not bother to take Minister Fudge's permission to send you back, he will not be pleased."
Harry swallowed.
"Thanks, Professor," he said, taking the photograph.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's it, then – all your reviews made me feel so guilty about stopping, but it had to end sometime. Many, many thanks to all my loyal reviewers – you guys kept me going, or I would have given it up as a bad job months ago.
I guess I should explain a couple of things – I'm not going into the James- Lily issue in detail, because I don't think you can go from hating a person to loving them that quickly. I've left it where Lily can kind of stand James, except when he's got his wand out to hex someone; that seemed most natural. And Dumbledore sort of set the time went he sent Harry back – that is, as soon as he'd sent Harry he used the spell to decide how long Harry would stay, and it kind of guided Harry to the room at that time... hey, Time- Travel doesn't make sense to me, either!
I'll see you again in June, with another fic that I'll probably put in the SB/JP section. (Just so you know, it won't be set at Hogwarts – but I'm telling you no more.)
Until then – may the Force be with you.
EPILOGUE
"Where's Harry?" Sirius said. "He was here a minute ago."
"I don't know," Remus said, looking around. "Maybe he took a wrong turn..."
"Should we go look for him, do you think?"
"Look for him where? He could be anywhere by now! Let's go wait in the Common Room. Harry has the Map, remember. He'll find his way back."
*~
"Evans!" James shouted, racing through the Great Hall. "Evans!"
"What is it now, Potter?" she demanded.
"Evans, have you seen Harry?"
"Harry? No, I – what do you mean? Is he missing?"
"I don't know," James said anxiously. "We were coming back to Gryffindor Tower last night, and he was with us – and then suddenly he just wasn't there any more. We thought he took a wrong turn, but he never came to the Common Room. If he's lost in Hogwarts..."
"He can't be; he knows Hogwarts as well as you and I do."
"Anybody could get lost in Hogwarts, Evans."
"Yes..." Lily said, frowning thoughtfully. "Potter, you don't think he's gone back, do you?"
"Gone back?"
"To the future."
"But he never said anything about –"
"He didn't plan on coming here, either, did he? Maybe it just happened."
"So what should we do now?"
"Talk to Professor Dumbledore. Get Black and Lupin – get Pettigrew, too, who knows what he heard – and come on!"
*~
"So that's it, Professor," James said. "We don't know where he is."
"He is easily located if he is in the castle," Professor Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the portraits of old Headmasters and Headmistresses on the wall. They sat up at once, some of them poking and prodding the others awake.
"I need you to search the castle for me," Dumbledore said. "A boy who looks exactly like James Potter – if you see him, tell him to stay where he is."
Twenty minutes later, the portraits were all back.
"Nothing," Phineas Nigellus said. "Your boy's vanished, I'm afraid, Dumbledore."
"It appears you were right, then, Miss Evans. Harry has gone back to the future."
"I hope so," Remus muttered. "The future is in very big trouble if he hasn't."
Professor Dumbledore looked at him sharply.
"Now, all of you, I want you to give me a complete list of anything anywhere in this castle or out of it that shows that Harry Potter was here. And Sirius, James – the full truth, if you please."
*~
Uncertainly, hoping against hope, Harry made his way to Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Fizzing Whizbee," he told the gargoyle tentatively. It came to life and jumped aside.
Drawing a deep, relieved breath, Harry went up to knock on Professor Dumbledore's door.
"Come in."
Harry pushed open the door and entered.
"Ah, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "I thought it would be you. Did you enjoy your trip?"
"You – you know I went..."
"Of course I know," Professor Dumbledore said. "I sent you."
Harry gaped at him for a second before finding his voice.
"You sent me into the past? Why? And why didn't you tell me before you did it, then I wouldn't have run into your office not knowing what was going on –"
"Calm down, Harry, and sit down. There is a great deal I must explain. But first, I hope you paid attention to your lessons in the past?"
"My lessons – yeah, I did, but –"
"Good, because they were part of the reason I sent you there. You see, Harry, the year after your parents left school, Professor Flitwick discontinued the course on Defensive Charms, and Professor Williamson stopped telling his classes about Priori Incantatem and brother wands."
"But – why?"
"It was too dangerous. More students than I care to remember bore the Dark Mark even before they had completed their Seventh Year. We could not tell if we were teaching those loyal to the light or giving Voldemort's supporters information about our own weaknesses. And the amount you learnt about Defensive Charms in the past – or at least, the amount I hope you learnt – could not have been taught, Harry; even if I had asked Professor Flitwick to teach you all that specially, it would have taken weeks. We do not have weeks to spare in the present, but the past gave you all the time you needed."
"So," Harry said slowly, "you sent me back to learn Defensive magic?"
"Partly. Harry, after you vanished that night all those years ago, your parents and Remus and Sirius came into my office and told me you were missing. I guessed you had returned to your time, and I put Memory Charms on all of them. Before I Obliviated Remus, however, he said things that led me to believe that you were a vital part of the fight against Voldemort.
"That opened a lot of possibilities that I had not looked into before. I knew only that you had gone, probably to your own time, but where in your own time? Had you found yourself safe in Hogwarts, or had you been drawn back by Voldemort?
"After that, Harry, I did a great deal of research on Time Travel. I read practically the entire library, but I got nowhere. People can send themselves around in time, using Time Turners or spells, but how do you send another? More importantly, how do you pull a person back after he or she has been sent away? But someone had done so. I wanted that someone to be me, because if it were Voldemort I would have a catastrophe on my hands."
Several of the portraits were leaning towards Dumbledore and Harry to listen; Armando Dippet was nodding energetically.
"About two years ago, Harry, I came across a very old book in Knockturn Alley. It mentioned a spell, the Chronos Revertae, that could be used to send a person from anywhere in time to anywhere else. Here to 1976, 1976 to Godric Gryffindor's time... on one condition. There had to be a connection between the person using the spell and the person being sent.
"My first, horrified thought was naturally of Voldemort and your scar. Finding the book in Knockturn Alley made my sure that he had read it, that he knew the spell, that he would use it against you. And what could I do? This time, I was powerless. Voldemort is connected to you by the scar; the only other connection I could think of was the tie of blood, that has kept you alive so long...
"And what good did that do me? There is none left living of your father's blood; Voldemort saw to that. Your only living relatives are Petunia and Dudley Dursley. Muggles. They could not perform such a complex and difficult spell."
"But you sent me..."
"Yes, Harry, I did. Professor Dippet –" the portrait of Armando Dippet nodded proudly and smiled paternally at Harry "– reminded me of a letter I received five years ago from Mr Ollivander."
Harry looked bewildered. He had no connection with Mr Ollivander; Mr Ollivander had not given him any curse scars.
"Your wand, Harry. It is the twin to Voldemort's. My first reaction was panic – that was another connection between you and Voldemort, another sign that it would be he who sent you back... And then I realized that the letter had another implication. The feather in your wand came from Fawkes."
Struck dumb, Harry looked from Dumbledore to the beautiful bird on its perch, and back again.
"Harry, do you remember the first thing I told you when I saw you in my office on September the second?"
Harry grinned.
"Sure, Professor. Don't go anywhere without your wand; take it to bed and the Quidditch pitch and everywhere else."
"Exactly. As long as you had your wand on you, Fawkes could enable me to reach you."
"So that is why I sent you, Harry – to listen to Professor Williamson, to research Defensive Charms, to make sure Voldemort did not send you, and also... to give you what I considered some much-needed peace."
"Peace?"
"It is time, Harry. Voldemort is scared of me now, and he dare not attack Hogwarts, but that will not last forever. Perhaps in two months, perhaps in two years, he will gather enough courage to come in here with all his Death Eaters behind him and the Dementors at his side. You must be ready."
"Why me?" Harry muttered. "I didn't ask for it; I don't want it."
"We are not always given what we ask for, and we are often given what we do not want. An eleven-year-old should never have to fight Lord Voldemort face- to-face, but you did. Whether you wish it or not, whether you face it or try to run from it, you will battle Voldemort one day. If you do not win, he will. You will find a way, Harry. I know you will find a way."
"So you want me to learn to fight – him?"
"I want you to know as much as we can teach you before the battle comes."
"We?"
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Remus and I. I would have liked Professor Snape to teach you as well, but he seems unable to forget that you are your father's son. Every night at nine o'clock in my office, Harry. If anybody asks, you are taking Remedial Transfiguration."
"Remedial Transfiguration?"
Dumbledore's moustache twitched. "Professor Snape flatly refused to vanish for an hour every day and pretend he had been giving you Potions lessons. And nobody will believe that you require Remedial classes in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Tomorrow night, Harry, we begin."
"Yes, Professor."
"Oh, yes, and I have something for you."
Dumbledore opened a drawer and fumbled with some papers.
"When I burnt all the evidence Sirius had collected of your trip, this thing escaped – I have always suspected Fawked of pulling it from the flames when my back was turned... anyway, I thought you might like it."
Harry looked at what Dumbledore was holding out to him... an old photograph, singed around the edges, in which he, Lily, Sirius, James and Remus were waving enthusiastically at the camera.
"I believe Mr Pettigrew was taking the picture," Dumbledore said. "I must ask you not to let anybody see it, though... since I did not bother to take Minister Fudge's permission to send you back, he will not be pleased."
Harry swallowed.
"Thanks, Professor," he said, taking the photograph.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's it, then – all your reviews made me feel so guilty about stopping, but it had to end sometime. Many, many thanks to all my loyal reviewers – you guys kept me going, or I would have given it up as a bad job months ago.
I guess I should explain a couple of things – I'm not going into the James- Lily issue in detail, because I don't think you can go from hating a person to loving them that quickly. I've left it where Lily can kind of stand James, except when he's got his wand out to hex someone; that seemed most natural. And Dumbledore sort of set the time went he sent Harry back – that is, as soon as he'd sent Harry he used the spell to decide how long Harry would stay, and it kind of guided Harry to the room at that time... hey, Time- Travel doesn't make sense to me, either!
I'll see you again in June, with another fic that I'll probably put in the SB/JP section. (Just so you know, it won't be set at Hogwarts – but I'm telling you no more.)
Until then – may the Force be with you.