Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't have to keep looking up dates and names on the wiki.

WARNINGS: Slow building slash. Harry will be in other relationships before Harry and Tom actually end up together.

CHAPTER ONE.

Hermione finally finished brewing, from the looks of her relieved smile. Not like he was counting time or anything. She was doing the majority of the work. Nothing unusual about that. She wiped her brow with her sleeve, took a ladle and poured it into a bottle, and looked up at him. "Here you go, Harry," she said, handing him a silver, swirling potion.

Harry took it, the potion still warm. "Thank you." No, what was unusual was not that she was brewing a potion, but that they were doing so alone. No supervision. Quite like their adventure in second year. It gave him a bit of a buzz. He missed that. Adventure. He wasn't Gryffindor for nothing.

Well, to be truthful, he probably had more than enough adventure for a lifetime. Brewing secret potions was about all he could take at the moment after the war.

"You're welcome, Harry." Hermione started cleaning her workstation.

"You know, Hermione I never got this angle of you in potions before..."

Hermione blinked back, her warm milk chocolate eyes brightening in surprise. He had a weird feeling. Like he should be enjoying this moment while it lasted. "Really?"

"Yeah, I have to admit... I can see why Ron didn't notice you before... You look like a right mess." And he pointed to her hair frizzing up even more than normal due to the potions fumes.

"Oh sod off, Potter!" she said, mock indignant, before bursting out in giggles.

They were sitting in a well provided potions room thanks to the Room of Requirement. Or rather, he was sitting. She was standing over the cauldron and he had been sitting patiently in front of her since he finished drawing runes on the ground of the Room of Requirement.

Yes, he drew runes. He rather regretted the decision to take Divination and Care of Magical Creatures as his electives, but there's not much he could do about it at this point. Then again, did his NEWTs really matter? From what Minister Shacklebolt suggested, he really had the credentials to work anywhere. He just needed to flash his scar.

Actually they'd earned the right to go wherever they please after the war and the Room of Requirement was no longer a secret room either; it was just nice to have a place provide him his needs. It always meant something safe in Harry's heart so he came back whenever he had a chance.

He wasn't sure why he had decided to stay for seventh year and just go into Auror training like Ron, but after feeling so lost while they had been traveling last year, he decided to actually become more educated. At least, that's what he told Hermione. He told Ginny and Ron it's because he wanted to be with Ginny for the extra year. It was nice actually being in classes together too since they were now both seventh years together.

While partly both of those things, in truth, it was tough leaving Hogwarts castle itself. He missed the walls of the first place he called home. It wrapped him with a warm, loving embrace, the best way any thousand year old castle could – with Magic. He wanted to help out and make sure that after the war that the castle was as strong as ever. He also wasn't really sure he wanted to chase bad wizards for the rest of his life. Going back to Hogwarts was supposed to help him stall while he explored his options.

Killing off Voldemort felt great at first, but now it seemed that something was missing from him. That is, something missing other than the Horcrux sharing his body.

That's why he kept trying new projects with Hermione. To distract himself, and the small part of him that didn't need to play lazy with Ron was actually enjoying the intellectual challenge. Not that being lazy wasn't great. Considering he could have died at any time over the past seven years, lazy was what he needed. But this was now. This was after the war.

This current project they had been working on was a Christmas gift – well, now, an early Christmas gift or please-stop-being-angry-with-me apology gift. The original surprise would have been to show up at her doorstep or in her room or however the transporting part worked with the knowledge that Ginny was his true love. That's what the potion in combination with the runes supposed to do – determine his true love, which he was certain was Ginny.

And for his efforts, he and Ginny had a spat at lunch because he said he wasn't going to stay with her at the Burrow as part of the setup for the surprise. He hadn't realized she was going to make a big deal of it.

Well, it was a pretty bad fight actually. Not like a small lover's spat. He had made it worse by indicating that Ginny shouldn't have been so hot-tempered about the whole thing, and, for him using "hot-tempered," Ginny sent him a Bat-Bogey Hex (a snarky part of him wondered if she knew any other hexes) and then proceeded to shout about how he'd been spending so much time with Hermione and that it was embarrassing when her dormmates whispered that there was probably trouble in paradise if Harry was spending time with a girl other than his girlfriend.

And that sort of.. that sort of made him upset, if he cared enough to think about it more. She was accusing him of cheating on her with his best friend's girlfriend who also happened to be his other best friend. Of course Hermione was close to him, they had gone through so much in the war and in the last seven years...

So could he really be blamed if he didn't chase after Ginny when Hermione was also upset at the accusation? That seemed to make it worse for his and Ginny's relationship, but as much as he loved Ginny, he couldn't help but know he would choose Hermione over her any day.

This potion Hermione had found had been hidden in a book about German wizarding history and showed it to Harry when he had been having trouble with what to do about Ginny's Christmas gift back in November. It was written in German, but Hermione swore she had the correct translation and that this wouldn't end badly. This was Hermione, so of course Harry didn't raise too much of a fuss.

"I don't really want to know," Hermione said, when Harry asked if she was going to try the ritual with Ron. Harry wanted to try it though. "There are risks," Hermione had said. "The book warns that this ritual is particularly powerful, and the extent at which it would find your True Partner could be drastic. It would have torn through Hogwarts wards to transport you out if it saw fit. I don't know what the side effects could be if it did something like that."

But Harry was sure. Ginny was his true love or equal partner or however it should be phrased. It just had to be official. A part of him wondered whether he was okay with this because it would effectively be a huge "let's get married" sign, but if Ginny was the one, why wait, right?

"You're sure it's a working potion?" Harry asked. "Remember last time we tried to secretly brew a potion?"

Hermione sent him a look as if daring him to try better. But she looked at the cauldron. "I mean I could have always used more time to practice but I followed the instructions exactly. You're sure you don't want to wait until Christmas to surprise her like in the original plan?"

"She's upset. I don't want us to spend the week not talking because she thinks I don't want to be with her. It's not quite the Christmas morning 'Hey I'm in the Burrow' surprise I was hoping for, but this should do just fine."

"Are you worried this fight is permanent?" Hermione asked.

Harry frowned. "I don't think it's permanent... but I think she's trying to teach me a lesson I don't quite know the meaning of. In any case I have a bad feeling that if I am away for long enough, this break up could become permanent... Well, I think... I think Ginny would still want to date me, but it wouldn't be good for our relationship." Harry wasn't sure that that meant, even as he said it. It sounded right, but it also sounded like given enough time apart he would have broken up with Ginny for good.

Hermione furrowed her brows and looked into his eyes as if searching for something. But then she looked at the potion in his hands. Her headed moved up and down very slightly as if agreeing with herself on something. "Well, alright then. I'll see you back in the common room if it all works out. You're sure it's Ginny?"

"Who else could it be?" He ignored her puzzled expression.

And Harry got onto the floor in the center of the runes he drew with potion in hand. He took a few deep breaths while Hermione only watched.

After he took a swig, Harry's eyes shut involuntarily and he felt his stomach lurch a little and his back suddenly feel too heavy to keep him up. Eyes refusing to open, he fell forward from his kneeling position, arms sprawled on the cold stone floor as if gravity itself had increased.

He heard his glasses crack and he mentally groaned. That's great. He hoped glasses didn't get into his eyes or skin. "Hermione, are you sure it's supposed to do this?" There was no answer.

Suddenly, the heaviness lifted and he blinked because his eyelids were no longer paralyzed shut. Pushing himself up, he looked around to notice Hermione and her potions set were no longer there. Harry thought to himself that it must have worked. Though a small Hermione-like voice in his mind pointed out that he was supposed to be transported, not her. He looked around. No Ginny, either.

No one, really. Was this the Magic's way of saying he didn't belong with anyone? That was.. that was sort of depressing. He was transported to an empty classroom? Sighing, he got up and walked to the means of egress. They could have messed up. Hermione could have translated incorrectly. He just hoped nothing too bad happened. Like suddenly he was the last man on earth because Magic couldn't find his true partner.

His field of vision was behaving strangely, he thought offhandedly. That is, stranger than the webbed crack he could sense from one lens. Potions side effect, probably. But his vision was both too sharp and too blurry.

When Harry walked out and quietly shut the door behind him, he noted that it was particularly quiet. Was it evening? Harry frowned. He certainly felt something was different. He walked down the corridor to find his way back to Gryffindor common room when he caught his reflection in the suit of armor.

Harry immediately stepped closer, thinking someone was stuck in the reflection of the suit of armor.

He flicked his hand at the nearby light to brighten the hall.

Oh, oh no. It's just himself looking even worse than normal. His hair was a disaster and that was saying something. There was a red mark on his cheek where it was crushed against the stone floor earlier. He thought it was a small webbing but his entire right lens looked completely shattered. He took it off only for half of it to drop and shatter into tinier pieces on the ground.

He sighed, letting himself drop to the ground. He reparo'd it wandlessly, though with a whisper. Putting the glasses back on, he realized that it wasn't his imagination. His prescription was all off. His eyes were stronger than they used to be.

He decided not to put his glasses on until he reached someone who could fix his prescription, so he stuffed the glasses in his pocket.

Looking back at his reflection he noted that he otherwise appeared normal. Albeit blurry.

Someone cleared their throat and Harry's snapped out of his reverie. "Pardon, but what are you doing down there?" Harry looked up and saw a male face upside down, someone with a smooth complexion and a dark, soothing voice.

How long were they there? He didn't hear footsteps.

"Oh, sorry I think I might have dropped something," he replied. As Harry stood up, he brushed off his robes and turned around.

Only to immediately back himself into the armor behind him as he stared into the face of someone he knew was supposed to be destroyed entirely. He managed to balance himself but the suit of armor seemed indignant as it righted itself to its former glory.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was in front of him.

No, this must be a nightmare, Harry thought, scrambling to his feet and reaching for his wand to defend himself. Suddenly his wand flew out of its holster and into the hand of Riddle who must have wordless cast an accio. Harry was ready to start casting wandless magic but he wasn't advanced enough for a fight. He wasn't battle ready at all – not having a madman trying to kill you makes you really rusty with your flight or fight response.

He was on full alert – only Riddle's lack of a battle posture and sense of urgency kept Harry from attacking immediately. Not to mention Voldemort was very much dead. Was there another ritual missed? Why was he wearing school robes? And standing next to Riddle was a rather normal, but pretty looking girl.

Tom Riddle was wandering around Hogwarts. Yes, this is a nightmare. Harry would work with that.

Even after falling into metal, Harry's behavior did not seem to alarm Riddle a bit, though Riddle was staring at Harry's wand, twirling it around, probably disturbed by how well it matched him. Curse Fawkes and curse his feathers for causing that bond between him and Riddle. Riddle looked puzzled at the holly wand and appeared to want to use it.

The girl with shoulder length hair standing next to him stepped forward since Riddle was distracted. "And you are?" the girl asked.

"Harry umm" Harry stopped when his brain caught up and realized he might be in the past. What did Hermione do to him? Why was he here?

"Harium?" the girl asked.

"Ye-es," Harry said, unwittingly drawing the word out. The girl did not seem to notice anything wrong but Riddle narrowed his eyes.

It seemed Riddle couldn't decide between suspicion of this "Harium" name and incredulity that his companion would believe Harry.

"Regardless of who you are," Riddle said. "You are past curfew. This must be reported to your Head of House." Riddle's gaze and Harry's lack of a wand made him feel naked and vulnerable.

Harry, still, was barely putting things together. Head of House? So Riddle was a student?

"And what, pray tell, were you planning on doing when you pulled your wand on prefects, Mr...?"

"I was just going to check the time," Harry said, managing an annoyed tone. Just going to check the date, in actuality. Prefect? So Riddle was in his fifth or sixth year.

Riddle looked skeptical at the answer.

"It's okay, I'll take him to Dumbledore. It's on the way back to Ravenclaw dorms. You can finish the rounds?" the girl said.

Riddle looked Harry over and in a drawl said, "You're sure you're not going to get attacked? I don't recognize him. I'd be better suited to do it."

The girl smirked. "Why, I didn't think you cared!"

Immediately, Riddle looked annoyed. "Suit yourself." He started walking away.

"My wand?" Harry said, patting himself on the back for that not coming out like a desperate paranoid screech.

Riddle looked down, apparently confused that he forgot he was holding it, and tossed it back at Harry before continuing on his way.

"Ignore him, he's been moody since he came back from the summer," she said. "I'm Winifred Vance, the sixth year Ravenclaw prefect. I'll take you to Professor Dumbledore."

Harry's mind started racing again. Dumbledore was alive in 1940 something, whenever he was. There were so many things he could say to his old mentor, but he didn't know where to start. He just nodded and followed Winifred. If she said her last name was Vance, did that mean she was related to Emmeline Vance?

"We saw you increase the lighting in the hallway and fix your glasses – impressive feat of casual use of wandless and wordless magic. I'm surprised someone with that control over magic isn't a prefect or Head Boy," Winifred chuckled. "I like to imagine that Riddle purposely summoned your wand wordlessly just to show off his power too." – Harry had mixed emotions about the idea of Riddle trying to show off, to him of all people – "What were you doing in the hall anyway?" she asked.

"I.. I wasn't feeling well. Needed to take a walk.. I thought I was looking like a mess when I saw my reflection," Harry added, attempting to paint his lie of a story.

"Oh.. OH," Winifred said, turning to look at Harry. "Did you need to go to the Hospital Wing?"

"Oh, no," Harry thought.

"Sorry about that. Go straight to the Hospital Wing if there are troubles next time," she said.

"Thank you," Harry said, not knowing what else he could add. A couple minutes later, "You say we a lot... are you and Riddle... friends? Dating?" Harry made a face. He also would have a hard time imagining this nice girl and Riddle being any how close.

"Hmm," Winifred had an interesting smile on her face, and she didn't respond for a while, just evaluate Harry from the corner of her eye. "We're not friends, per se. I don't think he has actual friends, just acquaintances. I think he tolerates me because I'm smart enough to keep up on partnered work and he knows I'm not really attracted to guys, so I wouldn't try to flirt with him at every moment."

Harry wasn't quite sure what Winifred was saying at first. But then, "Oh. You are... interested in women?" That was a bit disappointing.

"Primarily," she responded. "Though I admit you're cute enough that I might reconsider that a little." Harry thought she was joking at first, but as he looked at her, he realized that she could actually be serious. "Just a little. More than any other guy though."

Harry felt himself reddening madly.

Eventually, they reached Professor Dumbledore's office, apparently. It wasn't quite McGonagall's quarters, but higher up in Hogwarts. Winifred knocked. "Professor? I have a student who was out of curfew today."

The door opened, though Dumbledore was still at his desk. He looked up at the two students at the door. "Thank you, Winifred. I was expecting him. I'll see you tomorrow in Transfigurations."

"Thanks, Professor."

Winifred turned to Harry and smiled, and Harry just noticed how blue her eyes were. "Hope to see you around. And oh, you can call me Winnie! All my friends do." She gave a sly wink and walked away, with her hips swaying and she flicked her hair over her shoulder.

Harry stared at her as she left, and gulped, feeling tingly. He was still in love with Ginny, but since he was brought here... perhaps Winifred was the true partner? It was hard to say.

The door snapped shut. He turned around to look at Dumbledore, feeling alarmed.

"Who are you? I know all the children at Hogwarts and you are not one of them. State your name and purpose."

Dumbledore's fury shocked Harry so much he couldn't think properly. "I – I -"

Apparently that wasn't fast enough because Dumbledore continued: "No matter, Stupefy."

When Harry woke up, he found himself blearily looking at Dumbledore, Slughorn, and who Harry recalled was Professor Dippet. His arms were bound and he was sitting in a chair, stuck in place. They were still in Dumbledore's office but this was no longer just a meeting. It was a full blown interrogation.

"Open your mouth," said the calm Slughorn.

Consciously trying to be a willing participant, Harry did as he was told. Harry thought maybe 5-6 drops of what must have been Veritaserum were placed on his tongue. Guess they were not taking any chances. Not wanting to raise anyone's spell-happy tempers, Harry didn't say a word.

"State your name," Headmaster Dippet said gently.

"Harry James Potter."

Dumbledore looked like he was getting very angry, it wasn't particularly obvious but Harry felt the bubbling magic coming from his direction. "There are no known Potters your age."

"Perhaps a strong Occlumens?" Dippet asked, concerned.

"It seems very likely that this boy is a well trained spy able to defeat the Veritaserum."

"I'm not," Harry insisted. "Please, I'm not a spy. I'll submit to more drops of Veritaserum if it helps?"

Slughorn gave the other two a glance. "I think there's more to this story but not necessarily malicious. Any more drops of Veritaserum and the boy could be poisoned."

A bit nervous, Harry volunteered instead, "I am not an enemy of the British ministry, light wizards, or Hogwarts." Dippet seemed satisfied with that. So did Slughorn. Battle hardened Dumbledore was not.

"Let's get the boy's story first, then we can start poking holes in it," Dippet said.

Dumbledore continued, "This is a war. I'm sorry but we have to be careful. Are you working for or with Dark Wizard Grindelwald? Are you a sympathizer of him or his cause?"

"No to all of that," Harry said easily.

"Then why are you here?" Dippet asked.

"I'm not sure. I was brought here with what seems to have been an incorrectly brewed potion. I don't really want to stay here..." Harry said, his mind flashing to an image of Tom Riddle holding Harry's wand. Desperate for an escape, Harry said, "Professor Slughorn, if you can find a reversal of a potion, I think it might be able to take me back."

Apparently he must have said something wrong because all men looked firm again. "I did not give you my name, Harry Potter." And Harry realized they had avoided using their names around him this entire time. "And a potion should not have transported you. A potion only changes that which it touches," Slughorn said, as if lecturing. "Perhaps we do have a spy but one lacking in Potions knowledge."

Harry frowned. "There were runes too." Though Harry didn't understand why the potion was necessary if just the runes were needed to transport him to the 1940s. So it was something in the way the runes and the potion interacted? He felt as if Hermione could have said, 'This could send you fifty years into the past. Thought you out to know."

Dippet said, "I happen to have taught Runes back in my days as a professor." He chuckled. "That was a mighty long time ago. But that should be fine. I wouldn't want to drag our current Runes professor into this."

"Headmaster, I do not know if I trust this child, still," Dumbledore said, frowning. "He is British yet has never been a student of Hogwarts but is wearing a school uniform. It seems more believable that this is a sinister plot to take Hogwarts for hostage..." He paused and sighed. "Though I am reluctant, I believe I am a strong enough in Legilimency to break down the boy's walls."

"Albus!" Slughorn said incredulous and offended. "If this is truly an innocent child, you can damage their mind."

"I took am shocked at this suggestion, Albus. No one can apparate in, and yet I was informed moments ago that a new presence had entered Hogwarts by the wards. I have an idea. There is one and only known way within reach that can break through mental defenses without damaging the mind." Clearly his throat, he said clearly. "I need an Elf!"

A crack! A house elf appeared, bowing. "You called for an elf, Mr. Master, sir?"

"Please bring me The Hat."

Two cracks later, the house elf appeared with The Sorting Hat held in both arms. "Take your hands off me, Elf!" Squeaking and grumbling about naughty hats, the house elf let go but the Sorting Hat didn't fall from its place.

"Armando, it is a bit soon for me to be required when I just sorted so recently."

"I am sorry, Hat, but we require your assistance. Not necessarily a sorting. We need you to peak into this boy's mind," – here Dippet gestured to Harry – "And determine his level of threat." Albus approached, took the hat by its tip and the hat dropped onto Harry's head.

"What do we have here..."

Harry had enough occlumency training at this point to be able to actually feel the Hat's presence this time. Harry mentally gulped. And he could sense the Hat frowning as it sifted through Harry's memories. "Oh... oh no..." it said aloud.

The other men looked alert, but the Hat kept flipping. "I'm getting a bit of a headache. But you can see why I'm trying to avoid saying too much to the professors."

"I see the predicament. Yet as loathe as I am to admit it, those snoozers in front of you are good people. They can be entrusted with your fragile situation."

"Hat...?" Dippet inquired. "What have you discovered?"

The Hat was replaying the scene of Harry's death, to Harry's displeasure. "He is not a threat," the Sorting Hat said simply. "Powerful, yes, lots of potential and power..." Here the Hat flipped to Harry's memory of acquiring the Elder Wand and destroying Voldemort. "But he has had a life of suffering at the hands of Dark Wizards and is amongst the last people that would harm Hogwarts."

"While I am relieved to hear that, we still need more information," Dippet said.

There was a pause before the Hat just said, "The boy is a Potter from the future."

"Hey!" Harry shouted instinctively.

"Give me a break, they were going to fry you without something that big."

The other men looked in disbelief.

"Well then!" Dippet said excessively loudly, his fingers steepling. He stared with great focus into Harry's eyes. "I see we have a time traveler." There was a long pause as the knowledge set in. As it was not a question, Harry was not compelled to say anything but he threw in a "yes" for good measure.

Dippet continued. "It remains to be seen whether your existence here will maintain or change the future. Hat, can you provide assistance?"

"I am not omniscient. I can only tell you should let the boy do as he pleases. He has a fairly good head on his shoulders."

"I do know Professor Dumbledore and Slughorn in the future and they never -"

"I do hope you were not planning to say that out loud because I will take back my vetting. Try to be careful about revealing information about people's futures." Apparently the Hat said the last part aloud.

"Yes," Dippet said. "I used to work as an Unspeakable you know. Do not talk to anyone you know of their future, even if it is to acknowledge you know them. It can reaffirm that they will exist in whatever year you are from. Perhaps Albus will walk into a stampeding herd of gazelle on the assumption it would be safe."

Harry smiled a bit.

"There you go," Dippet said. "However. On the off chance we can't send you back, you may as well attend classes. Once you find the ritual, we can have another little meeting. Is that alright?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now for your identity. There will be plenty of Gryffindors – judging from your uniform – who will know you were not one of them. Tom Riddle and Winifred Vance know you were around this night, so we can't say you just dropped in. I'll come up with something." Dippet said the last part mostly to himself.

"You will remain in Gryffindor," Dumbledore said. Harry could not tell if it was just to watch him carefully or because he was adding to the whole "keep the story consistent" thing with Riddle and Winnie knowing he was a Gryffindor from Harry's uniform. Dumbledore reached into his desk drawer and waved his wand in a circular motion. A parchment on his desk suddenly generated writing. "This is a copy of a seventh year's timetable."

Harry took the parchment and looked it over. "Sir, my electives had been Divination and Care of Magical Creatures."

Dumbledore waved his wand again and Arithmancy was replaced by Care of Magical Creatures.

"As you are from the future I do not think Divination would be a good subject to take. However, Alchemy is a very popular elective this year -"

"Ah yes, Mr. Tom Riddle singlehandedly encouraged students around him to petition its opening," Slughorn added, obviously very proud of his Slytherin prefect.

Dumbledore had a look of disdain. "Yes. Well, since it is a temporary extracurricular, all of the sixth and seventh years will be on the same level. It will be headed by both myself and Professor Slughorn here and will allow us to work on your way home."

Harry nodded. "That is fair. I did not know you both had Alchemy Masteries though."

"We do not," Slughorn said. "But Albus here was apprentice to the great Nicholas Flamel and I have had a few alchemy classes while doing my mastery... Normally Flamel would take his time to teach, and his name had been on the petition..." He gave Dumbledore a significant glance.

"Nicholas Flamel passes on his regrets though he may come in for a guest lecture," Dumbledore said, and Harry understood the hidden truth underneath that. He was worried Riddle would try to extract the secrets of immortality from Flamel.

"I'm afraid I can not do anything about the missing OWLs in general but hopefully you will not be around long enough for anyone to take a close look that you are taking NEWT-level courses without the OWL scores to accompany it."

"Headmaster, I see the wheel is already rollling, but would it not be easier for the boy to stay holed up in empty private quarters until after we ascertain it is impossible for him to go home? That way there is no massive risk that a paradox will be created," Professor Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded again. He saw the logic in that. The pretty face of Winnie Vance winking at him popped in his mind. "There's.. something. Well, you see, the ritual was trying to help me find someone.. a true love... I think it was called a True Partner though I don't think the ritual was called that." Is this cheating on Ginny? Well, they were broken up, right?

Dumbledore's face fell. "I know of it. It is a German ritual."

Before Dumbledore could start being more suspicious again, Dippet half shouted, "Enough, Albus. The Hat has vetted the boy."

Harry added, "It's just a coincidence. You see my friend Hermione Granger found it in a German history book and I was just trying to make my girlfriend happy but then she broke up with me and I wanted to surprise her by having the potion take me to see her but the potion took me here instead," Harry took a breath. He noticed Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "And well, if my True Partner is in this era, perhaps I was meant to stay? And if I was meant to find true love in this era, then my presence shouldn't actually damage anything, correct?"

Dippet and Dumbledore exchanged glances, before Dumbledore had a peculiar expression cross his face. "Yes, well.. I suppose if you manage to find love here and it was the intention of the potion you could perhaps stay." Dumbledore looked resigned. "Love is a powerful magic. Very powerful indeed. I find myself accepting that its power has allowed you to do the impossible and go back in time and yet not cause a paradox. However, after Professor Slughorn and I take a look at your memory of your process and compare it with the ritual instructions we may be able to pinpoint whether it was a mistake or intentional. And still... I am suggesting we should wait until after this point before allowing the boy to join Hogwarts classes."

"Who was it that discovered you past curfew?" Dippet asked.

"Winifred Vance and Tom Riddle."

Dippet shook his head. "You won't be getting anything past those two. I'm afraid the damage has been done and we would raise less questions to allow him a quiet life as a student then to wait until much later. If the ritual was correctly performed than the boy is here with reason. If it was incorrectly performed, he may not be able to go home anyway, and I can not in good conscience allow him to life holed up in Hogwarts walls simply to allow the timeline the least amount of disturbance."

Dumbledore simply closed his eyes in defeat.

Dippet clapped. "That looks like we are all settled then. Now for the matter of logistics. What shall be your name and year?"

Harry made an 'o' with his mouth. "I am a seventh year... I told Winnie and Riddle that my name was Harium."

Slughorn gave a barking laugh.

"Let's just keep it Harry, for now but for official announcements I can be 'Harium.' I'm not sure about my last name."

Dippet closed his eyes as if thinking. "We will give you the surname Key. They are an old Wizarding family that died a while ago. It is well known that they had a series of squib children – quite a scandal – before disappearing from British high society and being discovered dead in Norway. It will give you enough to allow you to function with the other purebloods but without raising too many questions about your parentage and why you were not at Hogwarts from the start. We will say that Albus found you in a minor counterattack against the – who were they? The other week? The Grindelwald spies?"

"The attack on the Amsels?'

"Yes. That it was kept hush-hush but you had been kept as prisoner but now that we have cleaned you up you are now attending a proper school."

"Wouldn't Grindelwald supporters know?" Harry asked.

"Nonsense. The Amsels were spies and were notorious for keeping lots of secrets. It will be fine." Dippet nodded. Harry supposed that made sense. The only people who would have really known were already dead it seemed. "Now, I shall turn in for the evening. Good night, Albus, Horace." And Dippet left Dumbledore's office.

"I will see you soon, ah, Mr. Harium Key." And Slughorn also took his leave.

"Oh, uh, Professor Dumbledore," Harry pulled his glasses from his pocket. "I think one of the potion's effects was to alter my vision. Could you.. could you adjust their prescription?" Harry asked

Dumbledore nodded, distracted by a thought it seemed. "Certainly. Put them on, please."

Harry put his glasses on his face.

"A or B?" Dumbledore asked, reminiscent of an optometrist.

"B."

"C or D?"

"D."

And this dialogue went on until they found the correct adjustment. Harry blinked and looked around to make sure everything was alright. When he looked back at Dumbledore, the auburn haired professor was frowning again.

"Did you particularly like these glasses?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well.." Harry said, not knowing if it would tell too much of his future to reveal his home life. He went with a soft truth. "These were the most inexpensive glasses my guardians could find." Even if the Dursleys could have afforded more.

Dumbledore's eyes softened and he tapped the frames of Harry's glasses. Harry didn't notice too much of a change, but he took the glasses off and looked at them. They were rimless glasses.

"You have very lovely eyes. These are very fashionable currently, and if you are looking for love, perhaps it will be easier for your partner to find you if you didn't hide them behind those glasses."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said gratefully. It occurred to him that he never asked if he could get his trademark frames changed.

"Good night now, Harry. I assume you know your way to the Gryffindor dormitory?" Dumbledore said, expecting Harry to leave.

Even if Dumbledore was warming up to Harry the stranger, it seemed Harry was still being tested. That annoyed Harry slightly but he realized he would have done the same in the middle of an active war. "Yes, I know my way, but I don't know the password..."

"Ahh, the password is: A brave heart will destroy the dark." And Dumbledore passed him a note to prevent Harry from being stopped by prefects or the caretaker.

Thanking Dumbledore again, Harry left. Slightly disoriented at the idea of leaving Dumbledore's office without having to step onto a moving staircase, he headed to his old yet new home.

As he walked to Gryffindor Tower, he cursed and hoped everyone would be asleep so he didn't have to explain his presence to anyone this late at night.

Please tell me what you think! I can't promise to take every reviewer's suggestions and throw them in, but let me know what you liked so I know which parts I should focus on as I develop the story. This isn't my first fanfic, but it's my first attempt at a long fic and I'd love all the support I can get! My writing needs some work and I apologize for that. I don't write as beautifully as my favorite authors but I'll try my best to entertain you!