Happy holidays, everyone!

Chapter Nine:
Alexander Prentice

[Al]

"To me, Potter," said a man with white blonde hair. Al recognized him as Scorpius Malfoy's grandfather- Lucius?- as black-robed people appeared around them, their wands at the ready, trapping the seven of them.

Al's mind spun. How was he supposed to tell- ?

Never mind a plan, make it up as you go!

"It's a trap," Al hissed to the rest of them, trying not to move his mouth.

"What?" Harry whispered back.

"That ball thing is a prophecy," whispered Al. "And it's a prophecy about you."

"Wait," said a man from behind Lucius. "Let me handle this."

Al felt as though he should recognize this man. Unlike most of the others, he did not have a mask on, so that his face was perfectly visible. He had almost blond, light brown hair, and inky blue eyes. While the others wore arrogance in their posture and expressions, his mouth was set in a line, his eyes with a hardened look in them.

"Theo," began a man near the very back.

"It's Theodore, father," he spat.

Their words sunk into Al's mind. The man at the back, the man who had called Theodore 'Theo' and who Theodore had called 'father' couldn't have been more than ten years older than Theodore himself. It would probably have been a puzzling situation to most people. There were several answers to it, of course- the de-aging and aging potion among them- but one jumped to the front of Al's mind and to his lips, and all thoughts of a plan melted away.

"You're a time traveller," Al blurted.

"It looks as though there's one of them that's perceptive enough," said Theodore. "He looks familiar, also."

"You do, too," said Al. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"He's Theodore Nott," piped Luna, "from Slytherin."

"Ooh, ten points to Gryffindor!" mocked Theodore Nott.

"Luna's a Ravenclaw," said Ginny.

"As if I care," dismissed Nott. "The point is, if I'm a time traveller… he is, as well."

Al's hand moved to his pocket, glad that his wand was ever present.

He looked over to the others. Hermione had a knowing look on her face; Luna smiled vaguely; Neville looked stunned; Ron's mouth hung open; Ginny's eyes were wide; and Harry was staring at Al, who looked away quickly.

"You know, I think I do know you," said Nott in a mock thoughtful tone. "You were the one that was wandering around the corridors after curfew, weren't you? You were the one who almost stopped me? What did you say your name was? Or was it a nickname- Al? There's something about that- isn't it also the nickname of that kid of-"

"Stop talking."

"Why should I?" asked Nott, much like his younger self had. "And anyway, it's not like you're very important. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be here."

Al swallowed. "You were the one who-"

"Yes, yes, I'm the reason you're here," said Theodore Nott impatiently. "Don't you remember? I didn't Obliviate you, did I? Well," he said dismissively, "all right, I've been Obliviating so many people, I wouldn't remember if I had."

"But-" Al said, struggling to get his words out, "But why would you want to go back in time?"

"To change things, of course," said Theodore Nott, raising his eyebrows. "I don't seem to be the kind of guy who goes back in time to go sightseeing to you, do I?"

"No, you don't," said Al agreeably, deciding to go along with the conversation in order to buy the others some time. "You're a Slytherin after all; you're supposed to be the cunning ones. You must have a plan."

Theodore Nott might have looked a bit pleased. "Oh yes."

"Then it must be a clever one. In fact, I am pretty sure it's a clever one. Would you care to tell me about it?"

He took care to keep his tone pleasant- light and friendly, so that there might still be a chance that Nott would tell.

Unfortunately, it looked as though he was still wise enough not to.

"I'm afraid I'm not the sort of person who goes around blurting out my plans," said Nott casually. "Not that you don't know anything about my plans, after all. You do know that it's to change what already happened."

Al nodded. "But terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time, right?" If Al were to be honest, it didn't look as though anything terrible would happen to Nott. It looked as though all of the terrible things would be deflected to Al and everything he'd had.

"Do I look like I don't know that?" Nott growled. "It's not like terrible things haven't happened to me already, boy. It can't get much worse now. I've spent more than half my life in Azkaban, and everyone I cared about was dead. Do you hear me, boy? Dead, every one of them, my family, and those friends that actually cared about me, they were all dead."

Al's situation was rather like Nott's, he saw. If Nott had spent more than half his life in Azkaban, Al was doomed to spend the remainder of his life in the past. But while Nott could escape from Azkaban, Al couldn't get away from his situation. While Nott's friends and family were dead, Al's friends would likely not exist after Nott was done tweaking the time line. Half of Al's family wouldn't exist either, and the other half was much younger and didn't even recognize him as family. And while Nott could change everything, it was by changing things that Al would lose his family.

If Nott had lost everything, Al had nothing.

"But there's one other thing I'm going to tell you about my plans, Al," said Theodore.

Al didn't feel like listening. A sense of dread was building up inside him.

"You could ruin everything about them." And with that, Theodore Nott raised his wand and shouted, "AVADA-"

"RUN!" yelled Harry in Al's ear.

Al accepted, and sprinted after the rest of the teenagers down the aisle.

For good measure, Al shot a stunning spell in the Death Eaters' direction. It evidently didn't hit any of them, but a shelf behind them toppled down and the prophecies broke on the floor. It was an effective distraction.

"MAKE SURE THEY DON'T GET THAT BALL!" shouted Al as they exited the Hall of Prophecy.

The time room glittered around them, fragile and dangerous. It was Al's only hope of getting back where he came from.

But did he really want to get back to where he came from? He couldn't just get back there and let Nott mess with everything. That was plain selfish.

They rushed out of the time room, thankfully not breaking anything. They emptied out into the circular room. One of them, probably in a moment of panic, had shut the door. The room was now spinning around them, but before it had even stopped three of the Death Eaters stumbled out of one of the doors. The Death Eaters seemed quite disoriented and they took the advantage to put their heads together and figure something out.

"We ought to go in pairs," said Al, "it'll be harder for them to catch us if we split up."

None of them argued, which was good, because there was no time to.

"We'll never divide equally," pointed out Neville, "there are seven of us."

"I'm going alone," said Al.

"No, you are not!" said Ginny. "They're bound to target you."

"Yeah, but I can manage- we can have Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione and Neville and Luna-"

From one of the doors there was commotion- the Death Eaters had obviously caught up.

"Split up! No arguments, now!"

The others headed for the doors in twos. Al headed towards the one nearest to him, opened the door, and hurried in, and found himself floating.

Al shut his eyes hard and opened them again, disoriented. He appeared to be in an actual working model of the solar system. The planets and the sun weren't as huge, of course. Jupiter, for example, had a diameter only about two and a half times longer than Al's height. However, they retained their respective properties, as Al found out when he passed by Jupiter's great red spot (which, as any respectable astronomy student should know was actually a huge storm that raged on Jupiter's surface and therefore emitted a fair amount of wind). Al made a mental note not to get too close with the sun.

A good thing was that he seemed to be pretty all right, considering that he seemed to be able to breathe and that the absence of gravity should have made his guts explode. Also, he was able to move around by kicking against nothingness, which was especially strange, but at least learning to swim did Al good.

The door burst open from across the room, surprisingly loudly for a place where there shouldn't have even been a medium for the sound to travel. Al kicked his way to behind Mars, which was tiny, but thankfully Al wasn't all that big anyway so that he was still able to conceal himself fairly well.

"Come out, come out, little Potter," said Theodore Nott's voice. Al was grateful he decided to go alone; goodness knew how awkward it would have been trying to explain it to the others. "You should know it's pointless to hide… I'd find you anyway…."

Al recognized that Nott was right- it was pointless. He felt that this was a crucial moment- he knew where Nott was. But Nott didn't know where he was.

Quickly making up his mind, he pointed his wand to where Nott's voice originated and whispered "Reducto!"

One of the asteroids was hit and bounced towards the wall, where it smashed into a couple hundred pieces. Al then proceeded to fire blindly at the asteroids while making his way around the room towards the door.

Al shot at particularly large asteroid and the rubble flew at him, and he was glad that practicing in Dumbledore's Army had made it second nature for him to set up a shield charm around him.

The problem with casting shield charms to protect yourself against actual physical harm and not against spells was that they didn't leave you too free to move around until you take them down, which meant that Nott had plenty of time to find Al before the shield charm was down.

"There you are," said Nott calmly. "You're alone as well, eh?" He had a cut on his right cheek from one of the particularly sharp asteroid bits, which explained why he'd been able to move quickly- he hadn't erected a shield charm.

"Yeah," said Al. "It's one on one, then?"

"Of course," said Nott, raising his wand as Al raised his own.

It turned out Nott was still pretty quick at duelling even after years in Azkaban without doing so (Al guessed fighting a war had something to do with this). An assortment of curses was fired his way, making more asteroids and a dwarf planet explode.

"Oh, wonderful," Al muttered. "Reducto! Stupefy!" He kicked against the wall to propel himself towards the door.

A green jet of light flew past him and Al realized that Nott was shooting to kill- to get rid of the glitch in his plan. Al, as he had said, would ruin all his plans. Al was the most likely person to ruin his plans. Of course there was Dumbledore and Harry and the entirety of Hogwarts school but Al was the only time traveller there.

It was, he understood, an important place to stand. He could change what was meant to happen- and he, aside from Nott, was the only one who actually knew what was going to happen. He was untied to any time- he didn't belong in the present, or the future.

He was a time traveller.

You could ruin everything about them.

The killing curse is cheating, thought Al. It can't be blocked and it can't be reversed.

It was arguably the best type of cheating there was. It couldn't backfire on the caster, as there was no such thing as a charm that could reflect it back to him; it couldn't be used to Al's advantage- seriously, what advantage was there against killing curses?

Al was done for.

Unless he could physically evade the curse's path, that was. This room was great for evasion of spells- there were plenty of moving things to block them, but a few were sure to come through. The best thing he could do was to escape the caster.

Just up to the door, now-

What about the others? The question jumped out at Al as he made a break towards the door. I can't just let them get hit! That's cruel!

But wouldn't they have already been killed? He and Nott had been here for almost a year already- why didn't he just get over it and kill them? The Dark side would win the war easily if it weren't for Dumbledore's Army, and its leaders.

Immediately Al counted out possible reasons. One, Voldemort was supposed to be dead and it would blow his cover to just kill them; two, Nott might have taken some time to earn the trust of Voldemort's minions. The Death Eaters, Al presumed, were clever enough not to make such an uncalculated move.

It felt as though he was missing something, though- all of the others were some of the most renowned war heroes and therefore had a vital role in the war. Just one of them gone could drastically change the course of the war-

A cutting spell of some sort hit his right calf and he inhaled sharply. He'd been stationary for too long, an easy target. He daren't look down and inspect his injury but resolved to keep moving.

You idiot! What about your wand?

Al turned around and raised his wand blindly, and said the first spell that came to mind.

"Incendio!"

One of the planets caught fire, but Al didn't care. He just needed something distracting enough to draw Nott's attention for a while long enough for him to make it to the door, and he was very nearly there.

Keep moving!

Al would have liked to keep kicking but he was certain that if he did his wound would get worse. It was already throbbing and the ripped robes around it were starting to get soaked.

Fine, he'd do a doggy paddle if he had to.

Panting, he tried for a breast stroke. (Al would later realize it must have been a bizarre sight- doing a breast stroke while floating in mid-air surrounded by a replica of the solar system!) It was all right, but he was slower than he would have liked and with all the spells he was currently dodging it wasn't exactly the most convenient position.

Finally, after what seemed like a very long time, Al reached out for the door and pushed. To his relief, it opened easily and he stepped out using his left foot and was unbelievably glad that gravity had returned. Would anyone think him crazy if he kissed the floor?

While he was inside trying to divert Nott (it wouldn't be fair if he called it fighting; it appeared he wasn't able to do much), apparently a lot had happened outside the room.

The central, round room had plenty of scorch marks around it, and one of the doors was hanging on its hinge. Al went over as quickly as he can to inspect it.

He looked over the hanging door and into the room and leapt in when he saw what was happening inside.

A group of Death Eaters, about five of them, were crowded around some railing surrounding a chasm so large it was strange that it was able to fit in the room. Al quickly did the math and figured that there would still be one Death Eater chasing after every one of the others. Behind some of them a streak of red hair was visible. Al, trying to be quiet, peered around them, afraid of what he would see.

His suspicions were confirmed. Ginny was lying there, unmoving. Hopefully, she was just unconscious. Al ran over, ignoring the slight pain in his calf. (Why was it that it wasn't as painful? Was it because of adrenaline?) He pressed his finger to her wrist. When he didn't find a pulse, he panicked for a few seconds before realizing that he was trembling slightly. He kept still and checked her pulse again, and when he felt the surge of blood underneath her skin, he visibly relaxed. She was just unconscious.

Why were those Death Eaters there?

Al looked up, but they had already noticed him. Directly in front of him was a woman- Bellatrix Lestrange?- who had a manic smile on her face.

"Oh, finally. I've been beginning to think Theodore's plan won't work after all."

Al looked up at them unflinchingly. "What plan?"

"To lure you here, of course," said a man behind her who had a proud expression on his face. Al recognized him as Theodore Nott's father. "Gryffindors… so much for being brave, when in the end, you all are cowards. He knew you'd run away from him. We broke down the door, and hoped that natural curiosity would make you go there. An exceptionally effective tactic, as it turns out."

"Why? Why would you want me go here?"

"He wanted you to make a choice," said one of the others. "He figured that it would be better if you could have a say in it."

What sort of plan is this? Al thought. What sort of villain lets his victim get a say?

"What choice?"

"He still hasn't figured it out!" said Bellatrix Lestrange gleefully. The rest of them chuckled at this. "Why, boy, look. This is the fear room, see?"

"Oh," said Al lamely. "Yes, and?"

"It's a clever room," said Nott's father. "It imitates the fears of the first person to go inside. It was Theodore who went inside first- this is his fear- but it has something for all the people who enter it after him. Not necessarily their greatest fears- but their fears, yes."

Al processed this, and didn't like the meaning.

"But Ginny's not dead," he said.

Exasperatedly, one of the others said, "Well, obviously, she's not, but you know who went with her."

"Harry," said Al, swallowing down the lump in his throat. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh, he's not dead," said a voice behind him- Nott, obviously. "Over there," he said, pointing to the chasm, and several of the Death Eaters parted to show him.

There was stone railing- familiar stone railing, like the bridge above the black lake. Al didn't see what was so remarkable about it, or why Nott would be afraid of it.

And then he noticed the arms wrapped around one of the stone posts- arms that were wearing his father's watch.

Al ran over to the railing and looked down at Harry, his heart hammering in his chest. The first thing Al noticed was the gash under Harry's right eye- probably from hitting his face on the stone. He was hugging the post, holding on exceedingly firmly, but he couldn't hold on forever, and he was in fact gradually slipping. He was, for some reason, hanging over a body of water. In most cases, Al supposed, the body of water would have cushioned Harry's fall, but they were so high up Al was pretty certain that landing on water was the same thing as falling onto asphalt. Al looked up at Nott again, slowly realizing exactly what kind of choice he was supposed to make and why it was better- for Nott- that he make it.

"What sort of question is that?" he said finally.

"A worthy one," said Nott. "After all, you could haul your friend up, and try and fight against us, and probably die. It's honourable to die fighting, but ultimately futile.

"Otherwise, you can let him fall," said Nott, remarkably casually for a decision that would make Al lose everything he ever knew, and would make Al stop existing as well.

"And do you expect me to let him fall?" said Al incredulously.

Nott shrugged. "It's a fair expectation," he said, "when you see the entire impact of letting him fall."

"Well, I do," said Al, "I would lose everything I ever had, everything I ever knew, and you of all people should know I don't want that."

Nott tapped his chin. "No, you don't quite see everything."

Al raised his eyebrow.

"You see," said Nott, "if you let him fall, you wouldn't exist."

Al was rather taken aback by this. "Do I look like I want that?"

"Well, it's not like you have a whole lot to exist for, anyway," said Nott, shrugging again. "No family, no friends. All of the work you've done during your fifteen years in the future is pointless. It would be much easier to let go."

Al wanted to say that that was ridiculous, but he was, quite unexpectedly, tempted by this offer. What was the point of staying there in the past? He could lead a normal life, of course, get his N.E.W.T.s after the war and have a decent job, but he had nothing, nobody to live for anyway. It did seem pointless. Why waste the effort to go through a war, get N.E.W.T.s and waste his time doing a job, anyway, when in the end it would have no point?

"Well?" said Nott impatiently. "Are you going to let your friend fall or not?"

Friend.

Nott had made an enormous mistake by using that word.

Harry was his friend, and so were Ginny, Hermione, Ron; and Neville and Luna also seemed like good people. He couldn't just let them die. Even if they weren't tied to Al's world, he realized, he wouldn't want to let them die. Even if they wouldn't save the Wizarding world, or be the parents of Al's family and friends, or basically be the ones that ultimately impact the war as much as the Order of the Phoenix did, he would want to save them. These were actual people, and he will not let them, any of them, die.

Al looked up at Nott and smiled. "Actually, I think you'll find I do have something to live for."

And he reached over the railing, pried one of Harry's arms from the post, and began hauling him up before the Death Eaters could stop him. Harry let go of the post completely. Al had some trouble pulling him up—though Harry wasn't all that heavy, Al wasn't very big himself either. Al managed anyway, and when Harry got to the top, he helped Al by pushing against the railing.

After what seemed like a few hours, Harry slid onto the floor from the railing and tackled his son with a brief, one-armed hug- the sort that his older self would greet Uncle Ron with after they went on separate missions for weeks. This was completely unexpected and slightly out of character for the 1995 version of Harry, and with a start Al realized maybe this Harry was more like his father that he had ever recognized during his stay in the past.

He was too startled to hug back. Harry whispered into his ear, "Thanks," and he dug into his pocket for his wand. Al was going to raise his own, but he turned to Ginny.

"How-" he began, but Harry seemed to have remembered the same thing and pulled the unconscious Ginny's arms around his neck. Al began protesting that Harry was the better fighter but Harry gave him a look as if to say that there was no time to argue.

Al raised his wand and whispered, "Stupefy!" Without those irritating moving planets and asteroids, Al's aim was much better, and he hit one of the surprised Death Eaters. Harry had started towards the door already- he was halfway there. Al shook himself and shot another stunning spell towards the Death Eaters, backing towards the door. Several more spells shot towards him- but thankfully none towards Harry and Ginny, who were both out of the door already. Al cast a shield charm around himself and most of the spells bounced off, but one got through and Al had to physically avoid it. While the shield was still up, Al sprinted towards the door.

"Where's the prophecy?" Al called when he was out.

Harry opened one of the doors and entered the room, which turned out to be the brain room and was luckily empty. Al closed the door behind them and repeated his question.

After several seconds, Harry replied, "It broke."

"Broke?" echoed Al blankly.

"It fell out of my pocket while I was hanging there," confirmed Harry.

Al felt half relieved and half disappointed. The adrenaline was gradually fading from his system and the pain in his calf made itself known again. Al stopped to roll up his wet pant leg and inspected the wound.

It was shallower than Al would have assumed from the way it felt, although fairly it was quite long. It stung incredibly badly and was bleeding worse than any other wound Al had ever had. He knew that there was a charm to heal this but he had no idea what even the words were.

Al had never been so glad that he'd attended Muggle school before this. He tried to remember the correct procedure to dress a wound like this.

He didn't have any soap and water—he would have to grit through whatever dirt was there. He

Al felt slightly proud of himself as he stood up. It didn't lessen the pain, but he did feel a bit better.

He looked to Harry, signalling that they should get moving already. Harry nodded and said, "We have to find the others."

Al opened the door for his parents and hurried out after them. He headed for a random door, and entered the room behind it. It had a deep pit rather like the one Harry had been tried out by the Wizengamot. It would have been dimly lit if it didn't have jets of mostly azure light flying across it- Anti-Disapparition Jinxes, if Al remembered correctly.

While Al had been escaping Nott and rescuing Harry from that awful chasm, the Order had, it seemed, arrived and helped the others out, which explained both the fact that Dumbledore, Tonks, Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody and several other members of the Order were there as well as why Neville, Luna, and Ron and Hermione were in the same room when they had originally split up.

Harry, meanwhile, had something else on his mind.

He was interrogating Remus, who had successfully bound the Death Eater he had been fighting with an Anti-Disapparition Jinx. "Where's Sirius?"

Remus seemed stunned, and only when Harry repeated, more frantically this time, "Where's Sirius?" did he seem to regain the ability to speak.

"Dead," he said hollowly.

Although Al didn't even know this man, Sirius Black, he felt a pang of sorrow.

It was his brother's namesake, he supposed, but he'd never actually seen what was so amazing about him. Sure, he was a Marauder and a close friend of his grandfather, a creator of the Marauder's map, and overall, his father had told them, a good although flawed man. And now he was dead.

"NO!" shouted Harry, so loudly Al was slightly surprised that Ginny didn't wake. "Where is he?"

"He's dead, Harry," said Remus again. "He fell through the veil while fighting Bellatrix Lestrange."

"That thing?" said Harry, looking at an archway which stood where a chained chair would have been in a courtroom. It was made of stone, and there was indeed a veil hanging there, rippling as though a wind was passing through it. "No, there are people hiding behind there- he's just hiding-"

"Harry, that's the Veil of Death," said Remus. "Sirius is-"

Harry didn't even seem to notice as he let Ginny go and hurried towards the veil. Al scrambled over, but Lupin had already cast a Cushioning charm. Al mumbled thanks and hauled Ginny towards the stone benches.

He understood that Harry felt distraught, but surely it wouldn't even have taken half a minute to lay down Al's mother a bit gentler?

Especially since they'll get married someday, too….

Al knelt beside Ginny and checked for any injuries, but the Cushioning charm had done its work well.

There were footfalls from behind him, and Ron knelt down and peered at his sister.

"Is she all right?" he asked. "What happened to her?" Ron had wounds running down his arms, which had been wrapped in Hermione's robe, but it wasn't the time to ask about them.

Al shrugged. "I don't know; she was like that when I saw her. Ask Harry, he ought to know."

"It doesn't look like a stunning spell, at any rate," said Hermione (who had a gash near her mouth and was slopping wet), walking over.

Both Al and Ron gave her a bemused look.

"How can you tell what sort of spell it is by looking at her?" asked Ron.

"I can only tell if it's a stunning spell or not," corrected Hermione. "The effect of stunning spells lessen as it hits farther from the heart, or at least that's what I read in one of the old textbooks in the library; it might be awfully outdated as the copyright was-"

"Right," interrupted Ron.

Al couldn't be sure because of the dim lighting, but Hermione might have blushed. "Anyway, it looks as though Ginny was hit above the ankle, judging from that scorch mark on her sock."

"Scorch mark?" asked Al, looking at the said sock and seeing that it was indeed singed.

"Yeah, it theoretically shouldn't even have taken effect if she was hit there. It's definitely not a stunning spell."

"Where's Harry?" said Ron abruptly.

Al stood up and surveyed the room. "Oh, wonderful," he muttered. Now he was sure about from which parent James had gotten his recklessness.

"Put yourself in his position, Ron," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Well, obviously, he'd want to avenge Sirius, right?"

"That's going to be bad," muttered Al. "It was Bellatrix Lestrange who killed Sirius Black…."

Ron and Hermione stared at him.

"Well then he's going to be fighting Bellatrix Lestrange!" said Al impatiently. "Aren't you two going to be doing anything? You're his best friends!"

"I'm sorry, Dumbledore told us to stay put," Hermione said in a small voice. In that moment Al was convinced that he would wrong Harry in the past, and that Harry remembered this and specifically named him 'Albus Severus' for revenge.

Ron, on the other hand, seemed to have been struck by what Al said. "He's right, we have to help Harry."

"Ron-"

"Hermione, if you think I'm just going to stand here-"

"If you two are just going to bicker I may as well go alone!" exclaimed Al, who patted his pocket to make sure his wand was there before marching out to the circular room.

It turned out Harry had left the exit open, which was rather convenient as Al didn't want to try out any doors.

Once he was in the corridor, it became quite obvious that the battle was going on upstairs. Judging from the metallic clanks, the golden fountain Al had seen in the hall was being destroyed at the moment, which explained the fact that it won't be there in the future.

The good thing was that Al now knew where the battle was being waged (Not the best place for a battle, thought Al, when that's where the employees Floo in). He found his way towards the lifts and pressed the button labelled 'Atrium'.

It slid down irritatingly slowly. Al chanted, "C'mon, c'mon," as though it would make the lift go down a bit faster.

When, finally, he got to the floor, he rushed out quite recklessly. Thankfully, he wasn't caught in a flurry of killing curses. He didn't exactly know whether he should be glad they weren't still battling when he arrived.

What he saw was definitely worse.

There was Harry, lying on the floor—but it wasn't quite Harry. There was neither the kind father Al had known all his life, nor the troubled but worthy friend that he'd gotten to know in him.

Al sucked in a breath. Harry's eyes were a brilliant shade of crimson; and Al knew, although he had never seen it before, that this was what possession looked like, and a shudder ran through him.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore…." The voice wasn't Harry's. "If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy…."

Dumbledore wouldn't, would he? Al asked himself. Surely he wouldn't!

But ever since he had met Dumbledore, Al had had the impression that the old head was something of a chess master. He would gamble on his pieces as long as he believed that there was a fair chance of winning.

But Harry is like the king if this were chess, Al tried to assure himself, it would be ridiculous to gamble him.

He closed his eyes and whispered to himself, "It's all right."

And then something curious happened: Al caught a flash of green and Harry sank to the floor, shivering like mad. A tall, pale man with a face like a snake's and scarlet, slit-eyed pupils like a cat's, appeared, clutching himself, and disappeared before Al had any time to register anything else. There and then, Al realized that he had just glimpsed Lord Voldemort for the first time but, he was sure, not the last.

In a movie, this moment would be punctuated by the sforzando of a score and possibly cut to the others, because movies like silly cliffhangers. But in real life, this awkward moment would be followed by another awkward moment or by an awkward starter for a conversation.

In this case, a bald, tiny baby phoenix- Fawkes- dragged itself helplessly across the floor near Al's feet. Al scooped him up, setting the bird on his palm, and handed it to Dumbledore. The headmaster seemed to be surprised to see him there.

Harry had picked up his glasses and set them on his nose, and Dumbledore was reminded of the situation at hand.

"Are you all right, Harry?"

"Yes," mumbled Harry. No, you're not, Al wanted to say, you're far from fine, but he had the feeling that this wasn't very tactful. It was true, though: Harry was shaking so hard he seemed incapable to lift himself higher that he currently did. "Yeah, I'm- where's Voldemort, where- who are all these- what-"

The fireplaces had burst into green flame, and Ministry employees were stumbling in. The statues of the house-elf and goblin were leading a portly man up front; Al recognized him as the guy who had led Harry's hearing.

"He was there!" one of the men shouted, "I saw him, Mr Fudge, I swear it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!"

"I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!" babbled Fudge. "Merlin's beard - here - here! - in the Ministry of Magic! - great heavens above - it doesn't seem possible - my word - how can this be -?"

Harry, who had been pulled back to his feet, observed the scene silently as Dumbledore walked towards the newcomers and said, "If you proceed downstairs into the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius, you will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Disapparition Jinx and awaiting your decision as to what to do with them." Most of the people looked awestruck; a few raised their wands.

"Dumbledore! You- here- I- I-" said 'Cornelius,' who seemed to simply be too amazed for words. He looked around the people whom he had brought with him as though still planning to issue a command to arrest Dumbledore.

"Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men- and win again! But a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong man for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"

"I - don't – well, very well - Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see… Dumbledore, you - you will need to tell me exactly - the Fountain of Magical Brethren - what happened?"

"We can discuss that after I have sent Harry back to Hogwarts," said Dumbledore.

"Harry- Harry Potter?" Cornelius spun around and saw Harry. "He- here? Why- what's all this about?"

Al sighed inwardly. Fine, don't notice me. It's not like I exist anyway….

"I shall explain everything when Harry is back at school," said Dumbledore again, and he walked to where the wizard statue's head was on the floor. "Portus," he said, pointing his wand, and it glowed blue and trembled, then stood still as the light faded.

"Now see here, Dumbledore!" said Cornelius, looking insulted as Dumbledore set it near Harry. "You haven't got authorization for that Portkey! You can't do things like that right in front of the Minister for Magic, you- you-"

Dumbledore gave him a glance and Cornelius shut up. Al considered that it wouldn't be so bad to have a badass as a namesake.

"You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts," said Dumbledore. "You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you"- he glanced at his watch- "half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the Headmaster will find me."

"I- you-"

Dumbledore gave Harry the wizard's head; Harry immediately set his hand on it. "I shall see you in half an hour. One… two… three."

And Harry disappeared. Dumbledore then turned to Al, and the attention was momentarily transferred to him.

"And would any from the Committee for the Registration of Underage Wizards mind giving this young man a form? I daresay it'll be better for all of us," said Dumbledore cheerfully. A few people in bottle green robes rushed out of the Atrium to wherever their offices were. "In the meantime, Al, would you do me a favour and collect your friends here?"

Al nodded, muted by all the attention directed at him.

As he turned back to the direction of the lifts, Dumbledore said, "And one last thing."

He turned to look at the headmaster. He did not know what the older man would say next, but dread boiled at the pit of his stomach. He didn't want to hear what he would say next; he wanted to cover his ears.

"The time room has been destroyed."

What did I do to deserve this?

Al had dropped by the time room after rounding up Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna. When they had passed by the door to the time room, he'd said simply, "Wait a second," and pushed the door open. He had no idea that this sight would cause him so much sadness.

Previously the time room had been his room of hope. But with everything in it broken, was it any more than an ordinary room?

The shelf bearing time turners repeatedly crashed to the floor and then repaired itself, standing erect again; it was like it was in some sort of stable time loop. The bell jar containing the essence of time had smashed to the floor, the hummingbird stuck in its hatching phase, frozen like a fossil as it was about to exit its egg. The various clocks covering the shelves were going haywire, going fast, slow, clockwise and counter clockwise and again. Some had even stopped completely.

Al set his hand on the wall and set his jaw, afraid that he would break down and start weeping like a widow if he didn't. A lump had developed in his throat. He blinked rapidly, trying to hold back his tears.

Despite his efforts, a few trickled down his cheek. He wiped them off on his sleeve. He had to accept it: he would never be able to return to his family.

He would never see Lily, James, Rose, or any of his cousins again; even if he did, he would be Uncle Alexander and not their brother—or cousin—Al. He was never going to be able to call Harry and Ginny his parents again. He would never be able to call the Potter-Weasleys his family. No more Quidditch in the apple orchard, no more teasing, no more happy moments….

From now on, there was no Albus Potter, Harry Potter's son, a member of a heroic family and Gryffindor prefect and Seeker.

But still there would be Al.

"Al?"

He looked up, and saw a concerned Hermione. "Mm?" he mumbled. He didn't want her to be there right now. He didn't want to sob like a kid at the sight of his aunt.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm-" Al swallowed. "I'm fine."

Looking at him suspiciously, she said, "Professor Dumbledore says you have to fill up this form thing…."

Al nearly laughed. "Oh, right."

He looked around at the time room for a last time and tried to suppress the urge to shout in frustration, when Hermione said, "You know, you don't have to keep so many secrets."

He turned, looking at her quizzically.

"You could always tell us," she said, "we're your friends after all."

Al looked away. "Maybe someday, but not now."

Al didn't remember falling to sleep that night.

They'd arrived so late in the night through Floo. When they had all stumbled into Minerva McGonagall's office, they'd been immediately sent to their respective dormitories. This was obviously in an attempt to get them to grab the last hours of night for sleep, but Al still had adrenaline in his system. Although Ron had immediately fallen to sleep when he stumbled to his bed, Al and Neville had stayed awake through more hours, unspeaking. Eventually Neville had succumbed to sleep as well, but Al remained.

And so he was befuddled when he woke the next day.

He had, out of habit, gone through his morning routine- wake, bathe, change clothes, eat breakfast. But it felt extremely different. Something was missing, and Al knew precisely what it was.

It was hope.

When he entered the Great Hall, a great deal of whispering abound. Plenty of people were perusing the Sunday Prophet. Al was unsurprised to see that the headline was about their mishap yesterday.

He scanned the Gryffindor table for Harry, Ron or Hermione, but none of them were there. He therefore settled himself beside Neville.

Al asked Neville where they were before wolfing down his waffles.

Neville shrugged. "Probably the Hospital Wing. Ginny's still recuperating, remember? And apparently, Luna had gotten some injuries as well."

"Thanks," said Al after taking a swig of pumpkin juice. He immediately stood up, although he had only finished half of the food on his plate.

"Hey, where are you-" said Neville.

"I'm going to the Hospital Wing, of course," said Al, raising his eyebrows. "Aren't you?"

He moved to the direction of the Hospital Wing with Neville trailing behind him.

By the time he had reached the doors to the Hospital Wing, he was limping; he had completely forgotten about the wound on his right calf. Now it was stinging with a vengeance, as though it was saying, How dare you forget me! Madam Pomfrey spotted him as he entered, and approached him, clucking her tongue softly.

"What happened to that?" she asked, and Al explained what had happened to him.

She did not seem pleased. She immediately performed a healing charm of some sort on him.

"You may have a mark for some time. Next time, immediately go to me," she said sternly.

Sheepishly, Al promised, "I will."

Afterwards, she quite understood. She directed him to his friends at the very end of the wing. Ginny was thankfully conscious, and Luna seemed to be perfectly all right.

They fell silent as they saw Al approaching. Al wished they hadn't. It didn't make matters much better.

"Er… hi," said Al, standing awkwardly near the bed across Ginny's. "I- I can still join in, right?"

He felt like he had done some huge crime; they wouldn't even meet his eyes anymore. When nobody spoke, he drew a chair and sat a safe distance away from them, in case they decided to go berserk on him.

Finally, Harry said, "You owe us an explanation."

"I guess I do." Al suddenly found the lines on his palms fascinating.

"Well?" asked Harry impatiently.

"Er…."

"Why don't we do a simple question-and-answer?" said Hermione helpfully. "Harry can ask the questions. You'll have to swear to tell the truth, though."

"I swear," said Al. "Just… don't pry if I can't tell you."

All the Insincere

[Harry]

Harry felt like an interrogator in one of the few cops-and-robbers television shows he had seen as a child- invasive and yet with a righteous cause.

Al looked over at Harry, expressionless. "Well?" he said.

The weariness in Al's voice had never sounded right to Harry. Al was supposed to be affable, understanding and incurably stubborn, and not tired and apathetic.

Harry wasn't entirely sure why he thought this way- he had only known Al for a few months.

"What's your name?" said Harry. When Al gave him an incredulous look, he added, "No, really."

"Alexander Charlus Prentice," said Al.

"Your real name."

Al's eyes looked into Harry's searchingly, green into green, before he shook his head.

Harry frowned at him, and Al lowered his head. "Fine, then. What about what the older Theodore Nott said?" Harry said, dropping his voice.

Their time's Theodore Nott had left Hogwarts overnight for reasons "unknown," as Dumbledore had informed Harry last night. There was a silent agreement between those who knew of the older Theodore Nott that they wouldn't tell about him.

"What?"

"Something about 'Al' being a nickname of someone's kid?"

Al snorted. "You're asking who my parents are."

Harry cocked his eyebrows quizzically at him. "Yes."

Al stared at him. "You couldn't possibly be."

Scowling, Harry said, "I am."

"Well, in that case, no." Al shot him a forced-looking grin.

"Your birthday, then."

"Seventh of January," said Al.

"What year were you born?" said Harry.

"2006," said Al, almost bitterly.

Everybody else locked eyes with each other, quite clearly sceptical. It was one thing to be told by a complete stranger that your friend (or acquaintance, in the case of Neville and Luna) was a time traveller; but it was another for it to be almost directly confirmed. It was difficult to believe that this very solid boy would be born ten years from now.

"I'm telling the truth," said Al defensively. "Look- I- I'll prove it-" But as he looked wildly around, it was clear that he had no idea how to.

"I believe you," said Harry.

Al's eyes remained blank, but his mouth pulled up into a smile.

"But you can't just- you can't just believe him, Harry," protested Hermione. "It's completely preposterous! Time turners only travel for a few hours at most, and-"

"It happened, Hermione," asserted Al. "It happened to me; I swore to tell you the truth, and Dumbledore could attest that I'm keeping my word."

That silenced Hermione, but none of the others would look at Al. Even Harry had difficulty meeting Al's eyes.

When he did manage to look at Al, he couldn't help but note- again- that the boy had green eyes.

"Thank you," said Al. "Any questions not relating to my method of time travel?"

Harry shook his head.

Al exhaled. "Good."

"Anyway," said Ginny, clearly in an attempt to diffuse the tension, "Mum offered to let you stay in the Burrow for the summer in her letter. She said something about it being the right thing-"

"You can tell her that it's okay not to pretend that she's not doing it for Dumbledore," interrupted Al. Ginny blinked.

When did he get so blunt?

Harry shook his head. Clearly he had not been paying enough attention to this boy.

Or maybe, it occurred to Harry, he just changed a lot.

[Al]

The clay path was dry and cracked. The narrow line of pebbles lining the path clinked as Ron walked on them, his arms out like a tightrope walker's.

"Ronald! You are sixteen years old! Stop walking there like a child!" hissed Hermione, pulling him onto the path.

"Jeez, Hermione…," said Harry, who looked as though he was trying not to laugh.

Al grinned, gripping the shaft of the broomstick that Ron had lent him. It didn't matter that the broomstick was likely older than him and probably even Mr Weasley; he was just glad that he would be flying again.

It hit him then: he wasn't calling him Grandpa anymore.

That's probably all for the better….

"Nearly there now," said Ginny, tugging at Al's sleeve. Al looked to where she was pointing.

He nearly cried.

There was the orchard- the same orchard in which he would challenge his cousins to Quidditch matches. The apple trees were smaller and younger, but he didn't even care.

It was there.

The four other teenagers stopped and stared as Al made a break for the orchard.

It was Ginny who broke the impromptu pause. "Oi, Alexander!"

They had to poke around the trees and bushes before they finally found him; even with the help of Ron and Ginny, who had probably known the orchard for the entirety of their lives. It confounded even Hermione's explanation when they found Al squatting in a shaded nook behind some bushes. He was practically invisible in that position, and there was probably no way that he had found that spot so quickly.

However, as Al was pleasantly surprised to find out, they seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement that it would be better if they didn't question his actions.

"Are you going to play Quidditch with us, or would you prefer lounging here?" said Hermione as Al stared up into the canopy of green above their heads.

Al would have really appreciated it had Hermione come at a more opportune moment than when he was, for once, having a peaceful moment.

"Rosie, why are apples red?"

"The same reason that your hair is red, Lily!"

"…But seriously, why are apples red?"

Al sat bolt upright. Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Did you hear that?" he demanded.

"What?"

"No! Listen-"

Hermione tilted her head as Al leaned forward as though that would help him hear clearer.

They heard nothing but the whispering of the wind.

Hermione looked as though she was seriously concerned for Al's mental stability. Even Al was beginning to doubt himself when they heard it.

"Why don't you just look it up?"

"Well, maybe I would, if only we could find our way out of this stupid orchard and find S-"

There was some hissing.

"Sorry, Andrew; now won't you get up and help me get out of here? Or do you want to be stuck here forever?"

"Lillian, would you shut up, I'm trying to think-"

Hermione didn't even get to blink before Al was on his feet and dashing towards the voices.

"Alexander!"

But there was no way that she would be able to keep up with him, because, for some reason, he was hurtling over bushes and hopping over tree roots and nearly stumbling over a few rocks in his dash.

He had a curious sense that any scrapes would be worth it.

"Oi, Alexander! Are you insane?" said Harry behind him.

When he saw them, his mouth pulled up in the widest grin he'd managed in nearly a year. Even if they appeared a bit different, he knew their mannerisms and patterns of walking all too well to be fooled.

The two former redheads were, to understate, taken by surprise when Al said, "You've come to visit, huh?"

They turned, surprise clear on their thinly disguised faces.

And that was how the four other teenagers found Al in the embrace of two total strangers. All three seemed to be laughing and sobbing simultaneously, so that there were almost maniacal grins on their faces as tears streamed down on their cheeks.

Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione simply stood there, dumbfounded, until Al finally pulled away, traces of his smile still in his eyes.

"Oh, there you are…," he said, "I've wanted to introduce these two to you."

"This is my family."

OMAKE!

"Also they're your future kids! HAHAHAHAHA!"

I bet you thought I forgot, huh? NO CHANCE! I pretty much crammed this into my schedule in between my homework and stuff (my new school is pretty big on homework), and I finished the chapter on midnight on Christmas eve, so I apologize if the writing is horrible. I wanted to conclude this thing already, especially since I've got some docs on my computer of other fan fictions.

So, I'm typing this up on 4:00 AM, GMT+8, and I just really want a coffee right now.

I'm still not abandoning this trilogy, but I'll be posting some other fics on here. Not necessarily about Harry Potter. (And by not Harry Potter, I mean Hetalia Axis Powers. Seriously, you guys should give the thing a try.

It may be some time until I post the next part of this story. In the meantime, I'm begging you to answer this review sheet.

Happy holidays once more!

First of all, is this story any different from the average time travel story? Is it really different from the usual clichés?

Is everyone in character? Are there any Mary-Sues that you notice? If so, why are they Mary-Sues in your opinion?

Is there any character development?

Are the characters realistic? Are their actions things that people in real life would do in their situation? Do they do things that are unbelievable, even in the Wizarding world?

What do you see are each character's flaws? Are their flaws clear in the story?

Does this story stick entirely to values? Is it discriminating in any way?

Is the story too slow-moving? If so, what chapters do you think are just fillers?

Does this story stick to canon? If not, in what ways is it non-canon? Any plot holes?

Who do you like better, Al or Lily? What are your reasons?

This story is supposed to characterize the Potter siblings. Do you clearly see their personalities? Setting aside their surname, family and magical abilities, would you like to be friends with them?

Is it entirely clear which the problem is in this story? Who or what is it?

Is the plot clear and understandable?

Describe, in your own words, the Potter siblings' basic personality types.

Do you think you really know Al?

Did this story change your perspective on the next generation? In what way?

What, in your opinion, are the moral things that this story deals with?

Are these questions really dumb?

Personal comments and suggestions?

Should I make a new version of this story, cleaning up the plot holes and fleshing out the characters more?