Title: Balancing Hindsight or Foresight

Characters: Harry P., others (pairings as they come, potential slash)

MY Inspiration: Harry Potter (all media forms), ffnet story "Curse of Fate" by Mistress Nika, multiple Harry is a prisoner of Azkaban fanfiction stories

Disclaimer: This is my standard disclaimer; I don't own anything in regards to the sources of MYInspiration. All publically recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

All the characters, worlds, base concepts or general ideas are just a bit food for the writing bug. This story is pure fiction and is in no way meant to copy or reflect real life, events or people, should this happen then obviously it is pure coincidence.

Warning: See author profile for preferred pairing type.

Author's Note: Super Harry story, back-in-time-type. No sequels projected. This story assumes that the readers have read at least the first four novels for this series or are at least familiar with the movie versions. However everything changes in for this story anyway, not compliant with the last three HP novels.

Summary: Expect the following story type - A "What if", AU/AR and Char. Ooc, still magical world - Sent to prison upon the death of the Dark Lord, the Hero is bound by the ancient edifice on an island in the middle of nowhere. Laws that came into effect days before the final battle bound his battle actions and the rest of his life there... that is until the day he died.

Speech Legend: (This is the standard by which I write my stories and therefore you will not see this repeated in future chapters)

"Normal"
'Thoughts'
(…Sign language/Other Language…)
(...Parseltongue...)

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

CH 1

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

It has been commonly known as a truth that some witches and wizards can live long lives with the aid of devices. It has also been commonly known that some witches and wizards just live long lives because of the magic that they can wield. At three hundred and eighty-seven years, Harry Potter knew this was actually a fact in his case. However the length of his life didn't mean anything to him since the quality of his life was quite poor.

He wasn't even twenty years of age before he'd been thrown into Azkaban prison for defeating an evil menace known as the Dark Lord Voldemort. All reasons being some new Ministry Law that was to be specifically applied against those that had trained in Dark Arts to defend against it. This was supported by a supposed 'proven' magical theory research paper showing that those witches or wizards that had a certain level of accessible magic and wielded Dark Magic would turn to the Dark Arts and pose a veritable danger to their entire society.

That theory had been written, proved and provided to the Wizengamot a full year after the return of the Dark Lord. Who slowly appeared after that third Tri-Wizard task that the young fourth year Hogwarts student, Harry Potter, had been forced to participate in. The paper had been tested, researched and deemed conclusive by the Department of Mysteries, just days prior to the final defeat of the Darkest Dark Lord that the United Kingdom Wizarding World had ever seen. It was in place just in time, many thought, as Harry Potter the once 'Boy-Who-Lived' had been brought before the courts, after his magic had been evaluated to be at that dangerous level, sentenced and then thrown into prison.

Betrayal was quick to happen in strangers, but slow in his friends. However time eroded good feelings and eventually his friends too had abandoned him. Living as long as he had was also a guarantee that he had been able to read every obituary, of every person that he'd ever known. He didn't care about their children, since he never knew them.

The very last one to live was an extremely old, nearly blind woman named Luna Longbottom, who predicted that with the death of Harry Potter their world would end and that a new one would take its place. She'd visited him one last time before she died and had told him only two words.

"Change everything!"

Harry Potter had blinked and replied, "If opportunity presents itself."

She cackled at that and then left the prison. Four days after that she died.

Harry may have been placed in prison, but he was also the Head of two Magical Families. Unfortunately he'd not been smart or even guided in his life to create Wills or anything related to disposition of assets and the Ministry in dire need of funds, seized everything.

A third of the money went to Hogwarts, for thanks. The 'authoritative research paper', that outlined a preventative measure against those that wielded dark magic, had been written by one Albus Dumbledore, former Headmaster of Hogwarts. The old man was lucky he died before that law came into effect or he'd have been arrested too.

With the last of his 'old' crowd gone, Harry felt that it would be difficult to live. However unknown to anyone that had ever known him, he'd been bonded to three house-elves. That was one of the conditions to his imprisonment. It was like those conditions of old when lords or kings were imprisoned, they still access to many things. He was permitted books and half-way decent food, if he had a house-elf bonded to him and able to bring what he needed for the duration of his stay.

Kreacher, Winky and Dobby, all ensured that he received everything he needed to keep his mind alive and his magic active. He'd been placed in a tower far away from the other prisoners so that his magic would not supposedly affect them, since he was considered to be a powerful Dark Wizard now. They'd done everything they could for him or so they believed.

Harry had been prepared to travel the world, but his hidden three level travel trunk carried, all magical items and books that could keep him entertained for the time of his imprisonment. However, around the time he turned one hundred and seventy seven, the last of his house-elves had passed one. Only one child was born of them and that child too had passed on without producing another. He never ordered them to reproduce. It had been Winky's idea to bring forth a child, but since they passed he'd been considerably alone and lonely.

A lack of their chatter or even half-decent food, had taken its toll. It still took him about a hundred and fifty more years to die. But before that tragic or rejoiced event occurred, he'd prepared an unknown ritual that would not allow any Dementor to have his escaping soul for lunch.

The ritual consisted of many runes, a bit of blood-letting and a cremation spell. No body, nothing to suck a soul from. That was his reasoning for doing it and it was quite a good idea too. But the spell was untried, since Harry had been the one to invent it while he was in prison. He'd written a lot of spells in his hours of solitude. He was never limited by Magical Law of what can and can't be done, and since he was in prison, he'd never been fully trained to know anything about magical limits.

His trunk full of books was shrunk and hidden on his person, as some of the books were future references of magical and muggle 'industrial' machinery integration or else written in a language that only he could read. All of his is private journals and spell creations were in the trunk. There were also numerous works, which he compiled to improve the faulty path that the Wizarding World had trekked out onto during the first fifty years that he'd been imprisoned. Those books were not going to be of value to anyone, anyway.

The final word was said and his body burst into flames, not unlike a phoenix on their burning day. The cell and tower that he'd been placed in erupted like a torch in the night and all were completely destroyed.

Magic knew the old man and knew the child he had been. It didn't permit the soul to die, but sent it where it was needed to change the world...again.

Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter

TBC...