Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction based on the world of Harry Potter, which is owned by J. K. Rowling and company. No one is profiting financially from this story.

31 October 1994, Department of Mysteries

In an office deep in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries in Britain's Ministry of Magic, two men stood staring at a wall. The room around them looked like it was used for storage, every surface covered with parchments or trinkets. The only clear spot was a space cleared next to the section of wall that held the men's attention. That part of the wall had two concentric circles of runes burned into it. The diameter of the outer circle was about a meter; the diameter of the inner circle was about two-thirds of a meter.

The circles had appeared on the wall two days prior. The two Unspeakables weren't certain if someone had waltzed in the office and etched the circles without them noticing, or if the circles had appeared out of nowhere. The work in this office often resulted in very strange things happening. This was the Office of Time, the fancy name for the Unspeakables who studied time and time travel. The Office of Time currently consisted of two people, Saul Croaker and Broderick Bode, the two men currently studying the wall. Most other Unspeakables avoided this office, since a number of people who had worked in here in the last century had died here as well, in ways that were both odd and gruesome. That was why the two men thought it was just as likely that the circles had appeared spontaneously.

Croaker and Bode had been studying the circles ever since they appeared, careful not to actually touch them. Croaker had masteries in two branches of study in runes. Bode had high NEWT scores in Ancient Runes. However, neither of them had ever seen rune sequences like the ones that these circles were composed of. The two men had already concluded that it could take them years to decipher this puzzle.

After their first round of study, which had taken a full 18 hours nonstop, they had decided that there was no immediate threat from the circles. The runes were not giving off any magic at all.

Until now.

Without warning, the runes on the circles began to hum, glow, and move. Considering the runes were burnt into the wood, seeing them move was unexpected and startling, causing both men to stumble backward. Croaker backed into several stack of books and parchments, causing them to fall and cascade all over the floor. Bode managed to stumble backward even farther until he fell on his butt.

The outer ring expanded until it was about two meters in diameter. The inner ring shrank until its diameter was the span of an adult's hand. The runes grew brighter and the circles spun faster and faster until the runes were no longer distinct. By now, the glow of the spinning circles was almost blinding, but the two Unspeakables couldn't look away. Without warning, a person stepped into the office through the circles in the wall, as though the wall was an illusion.

Once the person stepped clear of the wall, the two circles of runes slowed and their glow faded, until they disappeared altogether. The wall was now just a plain wall, with no sign that the etched runes had ever been there.

The man was quite naked, and had similar rune patterns glowing all across his body. Those runes also faded until they were no longer visible. Once the runes disappeared, the man opened his eyes and looked down at his naked body.

"Shit! What happened to my clothes, my stuff?" he said quite articulately.

The man looked up at finally locked eyes with the two Unspeakables.

"Well, shit."

From Act 1: 24 August 1995, Department of Mysteries

Mr. Gray started the meeting with, "As you know, healers Smith, McCoy, Baker, and Ward are dead."

Over the years, many people have remarked how easy it is for a wizard or witch to kill with a spell. One could easily use a "harmless" curse to cut a person's throat, drop them off a cliff, or hold them underwater for ten minutes. The Department of Mysteries routinely researched topics that were far more deadly. The Unspeakables knew how to open gateways to realms full of creatures who anxiously awaited the chance to devour humans, and against which humans had no defense. The Unspeakables knew how to transform all water on the surface of planet into acid or chocolate or beer, leading to the death of all animals and plants on earth in short order. These were the smallest examples of some of the mysteries the Department had solved.

The Department of Mysteries in the British Ministry of Magic had taken it on themselves to limit the knowledge available to witches and wizards worldwide to what was deemed "safe". Each topic was given a security designation that dictated exactly who had access to the knowledge. In that sense, the Unspeakables in the U.K. had appointed themselves as the worldwide censors of magical knowledge.

All Unspeakables were bound by contract and oath so that they could not share Department information outside the Department (thus the name "Unspeakable"). That protected Unspeakables from accidentally releasing information in everyday conversation (or more likely in drunken conversation), but it also protected them from things like coercion, Veritaserum, and Legilimency.

There were two kinds of Unspeakables: public and anonymous. Public Unspeakables were not required to obscure their identities while they were working, and they were allowed to mention that they worked at the Department of Mysteries. Public Unspeakables had very limited access to information inside the Department. They had no hand in making Department rules or security designations, other than an advisory role.

Anonymous (or "Hidden", or "Gray") Unspeakables wore the identity-masking gray robes while at work, and used a pseudonym while in those robes. They did not put on or take off the robes unless they were alone. No one knew their real identity except those in their chain of command. And no one outside the Department knew that they were an Unspeakable.

An Unspeakable had to be Anonymous to access any "sensitive" information in the Department, or to access information outside the project they were working on. Only Anonymous Unspeakables made the rules.

31 October - 6 November 1994, Department of Mysteries

After Harry appeared in the Office of Time, it took him less than an hour to explain his situation to Croaker and Bode, how a future version of him sent him back in time to become him. They extracted and viewed key moments in Harry's memories from Voldemort's resurrection to the moment he went back in time. It took a whole day for the two Unspeakables to discuss the situation and the possible ramifications of Harry's rather blatant causal loop. Harry finally called an end to their discussion (debate) so that they could move forward. They reluctantly decided that Croaker, the senior of the two Unspeakables, should petition for a meeting with the Director of the Department of Mysteries to discuss the situation.

The meeting occurred the next afternoon, which was weeks sooner than they could have hoped for. The Director was an Anonymous Unspeakable, so Mr. Gray, Croaker and Bode had no idea if the Director was male, female, or something else altogether. Croaker, Bode, and Harry explained the situation to the Director and provided him with Harry's pensieve memories. Before they were dismissed, the Director told them he would decide upon the Department's course of action and inform them of his decision the next day.

It was a nervous 24 hours for the three men. Harry had worries of being held in the Department permanently as a research subject, or even worse, having all the improvements in his life obliviated away.

Fortunately, those worries proved unfounded. The three were summoned back to the Director's office the next morning, and the Director agreed to implement measures to make Harry's future memories occur. He started by inducting Harry as an Anonymous Unspeakable with the identity "Mr. Gray" and granting Mr. Gray access to the information he needed, as shown in the memories.

Because the time-traveling Harry was now an Anonymous Unspeakable, he would henceforth only be addressed by his Unspeakable name, "Mr. Gray". The only person referred to as "Harry Potter" would be the non-time-traveling Harry. Initially, only the four of them would know who Mr. Gray really was. They would only tell others the secret when it was absolutely required, like if a healer needed to examine Mr. Gray.

The Director told the other three that he would give Mr. Gray a bit more history. Documentation would be back-filled (like changing the names and signatures on past reports) to say Mr. Gray had worked for the Department since 1981, in a way that couldn't be easily uncovered or disproved. In the meantime, Mr. Gray would have to do a lot of reading to come up to speed on the project information he could now access.

Lastly, the Director told them to use Harry's memories to make a plan of what needed to be done to prepare for the other Harry's arrival. They would present the plan to the Director in another three days.

The three Unspeakables were very busy for the next three days examining every detail of those memories and creating a plan to make it happen. The Director was satisfied with their plan and authorized them to start the Riddle Response Project.

11 November 1994, Department of Mysteries

After several days of studying Department files, Mr. Gray uncovered something of interest that Croaker and Bode didn't have permission to access. Mr. Gray got their permission added, then shared the info with them directly.

"The Department records who is present every five minutes. The records include where each person is in the Department at the time, and the records highlight anyone who is in an area they aren't allowed to be in."

Mr. Gray gave them a minute to digest that, then continued. "Apparently, Dumbledore visited several times in the 1950s. I went through the inventory logs and found at least one artifact that went missing in the time of his visits. There was no record of the artifact being moved; it just disappeared. It may or may not have been Dumbledore who took it, but he was near the artifact at least once before it went missing. Unfortunately, the inventory logs are only created every two weeks, so I can't be certain Dumbledore is the thief."

Croaker asked, "What was the artifact?"

Mr. Gray responded, "Something called the Legilimency Amplifier. It was a crystal about the size of a galleon, circular, thin at the outside, thicker at the center. The project description says that, with this artifact, a strong legilimens could control a group of people with Imperius-level strength, perhaps as many as a dozen people, with hardly any effort."

"So that was the theory. How well did it actually work?" Bode asked.

"Unknown. When the project was shutdown and the artifact locked away, the developer notes were locked away with it. When the artifact disappeared, so did the notes." Mr. Gray said.

Croaker responded, "Well shit!"

Mr. Gray agreed, "Exactly."

15 December 1994, Department of Mysteries

Harry was undergoing yet another physical examination. He was starting to believe that, if he ever had an office in the Department of Mysteries, it would have an exam table rather than a desk and office chair. Harry was certain that he'd now spent more time exam tables in the Department than in the beds of the Hogwarts hospital wing.

To continue their studies on Harry's method of time travel, Croaker and Bode needed more information about what was going on in Harry's body. The three men needed a very good healer that they could trust with not only the "Harry is Mr. Gray" secret, but also the secret of Harry's changed physiology. That would require someone they trusted implicitly.

Once they realized that, Harry immediately thought of seven people who were good candidates. Before time-traveling, when Harry had originally joined the Riddle Response Team, there were three senior-level healers and four standard-level healers already on the team. Those people were trusted with Harry's secrets, and were contracted to secrecy. In the here-and-now, all of them had been very recently added to the team.

After careful consideration of the seven candidates, one person stood out to Harry, and Croaker, Bode, and the Director agreed. That person was Heather Ward, a 24-year-old British witch who had already attained a mastery in healing and earned six years of post-mastery experience. She had been schooled abroad, at schools that set grade level based on capability rather than age. She was now the one healer aware of Harry's time traveling and other secrets. She was also the healer who supervised Mr. Gray's physical regimen when he was originally in the project as young Harry.

And in 265 days, she'd be dead.

Harry still had nightmares of seeing her lying next to him, eyes frozen open - just like Cedric - and her god-awful cooked flesh smell being the last thing he ever sensed from her.

The plan that Harry, Croaker, and Bode wrote said to let history occur just as Harry had witnessed. Harry was still struggling with that. He had the same issue with the other three people who had died. Currently, Harry couldn't bring himself to let it happen, but he still hadn't done anything about it.

Once the exam was over, Harry stood up and reached for his pants. These latest exams were necessary for Croaker and Bode's studies into Harry's recent time travel experience. At least this time Harry didn't have to be totally nude; he was allowed his underpants. Not that Harry actually cared anymore. He only wished that he had some romance to go with all this naked time. It seemed to Harry that he had spent half his waking hours in the last year naked in front of other folks, but he was still unattached and still a virgin. Harry's examiners never broke their passionless professional facades, so it was obvious that Harry wasn't the most impressive physical specimen they'd ever seen.

Healer Ward turned to Harry and said, "I'm sending the samples to the lab. Let Croaker know the results should be available after lunch."

"Thanks, Doc," Harry said, using the nickname that he knew she hated. Her answering growl brought the trademark Potter smirk to his face.

Harry put his Unspeakable robes back on, and became Mr. Gray once again. He then called to one of the two elves working for the Riddle Response Team. "Flipsy."

Mr. Gray had gone through quite a bit of effort to get two house elves allowed into the Department of Mysteries. The Department was had warded against all teleportation, whether it be from creatures (like humans, elves, and phoenixes) or artifacts (like portkeys and floo). Furthermore, creatures like elves and phoenixes were banned from the Department altogether. Successfully lobbying for two house elves for his team had brought Mr. Gray to the attention of almost everyone in the Department, which made it a two-fold win for him. The Department had made absolutely certain that the elves were loyal only to the Department, not to anyone or anything else outside or inside the Department. Mr. Gray had enough faith in the two elves to share his secret identity with them.

Flipsy appeared and Mr. Gray said, "Report."

Flipsy responded, "Construction is complete as Mr. Gray Sir directed. The goblins expect to finish the wards in the next two days. The goblins are very true to their contract, as Mr. Gray Sir predicted. Mr. Slipknot Sir stated that all Gringotts preparations for the young Mr. Harry Potter Sir have been made."

Mr. Gray had introduced himself to a select set of Gringotts managers, and was assigned Slipknot as a liaison, as Mr. Gray had expected. Slipknot had been made privy to Mr. Gray's secret, and Slipknot had verified his claim with several identity tests, most of which were minimally invasive. After he passed the identity tests, Mr. Gray was allowed access to the Potter vaults. The new facility being built for the Riddle Response Team was being funded from those vaults. Mr. Gray considered it a small price for getting rid of Voldemort and his followers.

Everyone exposed in any way to the new facility or the people involved were contracted to secrecy. With any luck, this was one set of secrets that Britain's two master manipulators - Dumbledore and Riddle - would not have access to.

Returning his thoughts to the elf in front of him, Mr. Gray replied, "Good."

Flipsy continued, "Mr. Bode Sir asked Flipsy to tell Mr. Gray Sir that Mr. Croaker Sir and Mr. Bode Sir are done with their tasks except time travel research and the new mental device."

Croaker, Bode, and the new staff were working on creating the imager based on what Mr. Gray described. It was all conceptual right now; they wouldn't actually start assembling anything until they had moved into the new secure facility.

"Excellent," Mr. Gray responded. "Thank you, Flipsy. Please let Mr. Bode know that the latest set of lab results will be ready after lunch."

"Yes, sir, Mr. Gray Sir," Flipsy said, then he bowed and popped away.

31 January 1995, Department of Mysteries

As the first month of 1995 came to a close, Mr. Gray (Harry) had spent weeks reading about and visiting projects. He felt he had a layman's grasp of what all the projects were doing. Having access to all of the projects in the Department was a rare and unique privilege usually reserved for the Director only. Mr. Gray still didn't understand why the Director was allowing him the access, but he planned to take advantage of the privilege while he had it.

Mr. Gray had paid especially close attention to Croaker and Bode's work on the time travel method that had allowed Mr. Gray to traverse 87 weeks back in time. Mr. Gray was just reaching the point to where he could understand most of the two experts' discussions.

The only reason Mr. Gray could understand any of this was because of the magic he had siphoned into himself from the Death Eaters. Since he already lived through the next 74 weeks, Mr. Gray now knew that the outcome of the Riddle Response Project would be the execution of everyone who possessed the Dark Mark except Severus Snape - that is, the kidnapping and murder of more than two dozen people. Croaker, Bode, Mr. Gray, and the Director of the Department of Mysteries all knew this, and they all planned to let it happen.

Still, Mr. Gray was the one who would approve it in person, and his younger self would be the one to carry out the executions. As Mr. Gray saw it, that made him a murderer - a mass murderer, in fact. Was he wrong to want to execute a group of people who had willingly raped and murdered others and then escaped any punishment? In fact, the Director had said that if the Death Eaters started their reign of terror again and were caught again, the Wizengamot would almost certainly let them go, given their current membership. Mr. Gray felt he had no choice but to act in place of a working system of justice.

Mr. Gray recognized the slippery slope he was standing on. If he could so easily decide to execute Death Eaters, would he some day decide that executing other criminals was his job? Would he one day hunt down people whose only crimes were the equivalent of muggle traffic violations? For the rest of his life, Mr. Gray would have to exercise "constant vigilance" and fight the temptation to circumvent the law and apply his own justice to others. Nevertheless, he fully intended to continue on with the plan.

On the other hand, Croaker, Bode, and Mr. Gray had found a way to save the lives of the four healers who would die in August. In fact, the idea was so obvious that they all wondered why it took them so long to see it. They would have the elves pop into the unshielded exam room just as the attack occurred, and replace the potential victims with four lifeless duplicates. The elves would do this without being seen by anyone there. The exchange would require pinpoint timing, but it had a large probability of success. The maximum number of people that the average elf could transport was two, so two elves should be enough for the four healers. Mr. Gray wasn't satisfied with that, so he planned for the team to acquire two more elves. One elf per person was the safest option.

During the weeks that Mr. Gray had been learning the inner workings of the Department of Mysteries, three major discoveries had been made. First, Croaker, Bode, and Healer Ward had determined that Mr. Gray's method of time travel was very specific to Mr. Gray's new physiology. Second, the research and healer teams had reached the conclusion that the imager was very specific to Mr. Gray's new physiology. Third, Mr. Gray had discovered a method of teleportation that only he could use.

Given that the imager was tied to Mr. Gray, those who knew Mr. Gray's identity (Croaker, Bode, Healer Ward, and Mr. Gray) felt that the device would only work for Harry Potter. They had been worried that, if anyone outside the team discovered how to turn the average witch or wizard into a powerhouse like Mr. Gray, the information would used to create a group of "super wizards and witches". If the imager only worked for Harry Potter, it would be very difficult for the process to be adapted for someone else. That was a huge relief. Of course, all project information was protected by oath or contract, but someone as crafty as Dumbledore might find a way to get the information.

Because the imager depended on Mr. Gray's physiology, Mr. Gray might have have to reveal his identity to all of the healer team (nine people) and the research team (four people) in order for the team to complete the imager, or to repair it later on. Mr. Gray would wait and see how well the team progressed before making that decision. Regardless, most of the team would be able to deduce the secret as they watched the younger Harry Potter transform. It might be better to just tell them in advance.

As for the third discovery, while preparing himself for their first time travel experiment, Mr. Gray had tried to feel the timestream flowing around him. Mr. Gray pushed himself through this stream very slightly, and found that he had moved spatially rather that temporally. After some practice, Mr. Gray was able to teleport easily in any unshielded area. With a whole lot more practice, he was able to teleport inside of apparition wards. He had yet to teleport through apparition wards.

10 February 1995, Department of Mysteries

The team had finished packing all of the equipment, documents, and other things that would be moved into the new area, which meant time was running out for Mr. Gray. He had two tasks that needed to be completed before he became too busy inside the area to work on things outside the area.

The first task was to conduct time travel experiments so that he could send himself back in time when the time came. Just this morning, Mr. Gray had scheduled the experiment for the first time that he, Croaker, and Bode had free, 6 A.M. the next morning.

Mr. Gray had been procrastinating the second, far more odious task for weeks now. Mr. Gray had introduced himself to everyone except Dumbledore. Mr. Gray was not looking forward to meeting the wily old bastard.

Sighing to himself, Mr. Gray leaned over the Department fireplace closest to the Office of Time and said, "Hogwarts headmaster's office."

After a moment, the connection opened and Mr. Gray could see the headmaster's office, with the headmaster seated behind his desk. Dumbledore smiled and said, "Ah, the mysterious Mr. Gray. It's good to finally meet you."

After Mr. Gray greeted him, Dumbledore continued. "Despite what the records in the Department of Mysteries now claim, you are a new player on the scene, Mr. Gray. Would you care to join me in my office for tea? I would like the opportunity for us to learn more about each other."

Mr. Gray agreed and walked through the floo to Dumbledore's office, hoping he'd prepared well enough for this meeting.

As he stepped out of the fireplace, Mr. Gray used a skill he had been practicing for months now, using his magical senses like a radar. When Mr. Gray activated his "magical radar", his runes radiated magical pulses; the pulses that reflected and returned would provide information about magic in the surrounding area.

The portraits were magical; the contents of the many shelves in the office (books, trinkets, and the like) were magical; the floor, ceiling, walls, doors, and windows were magical; even the furniture was magical. Literally everything in the office was magical. Dumbledore was using a forest of magic to hide his secrets.

Mr. Gray seated himself and politely refused Dumbledore's offers of tea and sweets. The two talked cordially for a while before Mr. Gray decided to get to the point.

"I'm curious, headmaster. What are your plans for Harry Potter?"

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose and he said, "Pardon?"

"As you know, the Department believes your suggestion that Harry Potter is the 'one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord' mentioned in the prophecy you witnessed in 1979. You placed Harry Potter into an abusive household, one whose occupants loathe magic. You arranged for the Ministry to only allow mail with the Hogwarts seal to reach him. As a consequence, Potter did not learn of the wizarding world until he received his Hogwarts letter."

The moment of surprise on Dumbledore's face told Mr. Gray that the headmaster had thought no one would find out that he had been behind the restriction on Potter's mail.

Mr. Gray continued, "While at Hogwarts, Mr. Potter has faced more peril than most wizards and witches - including Aurors - face in their lifetime! Mr. Potter faces very active persecution from his peers and one of his professors. Not only do you do nothing about it, you have trained your staff to ignore it as well. These all seem like things one would do to weaken the boy, not to empower him to vanquish a dark lord. The Department is simply curious as to your reasons for this."

Mr. Gray realized Dumbledore had used the earlier conversation to uncover Mr. Gray's weakness - impatience, in this case - and had used it against him. Mr. Gray had just revealed the real reason he was here.

Dumbledore leaned back in his throne-like office chair, steepled his fingers, and said, "The answer is not as simple as you might believe. I am trying to help Mr. Potter navigate the wizarding world so he can become the hero he has the potential to be."

Obviously, Dumbledore would never give his real reasons; he would only offer generalized platitudes. The team would have to find another way to determine Dumbledore's motives and plans. Mr. Gray decided it was time to wrap up this useless meeting.

"I won't ask you for details, as I suspect you don't have any that you can share," Mr. Gray said as he stood. "If that changes, or if the Department can be of any help, please contact me."

"I will keep that in mind, Mr. Gray. Thank you for your visit. It was good to finally meet you."

With that, Mr. Gray left the headmaster's office.

11 February 1995, Department of Mysteries

Croaker, Bode, and Mr. Gray had spent every spare moment finalizing their calculations for the first test of Mr. Gray's method of time travel. They decided to perform the test while the move was being performed, which was about as late as they could do it without compromising their other plans.

The idea was simple: Mr. Gray would travel four weeks forward in time, then four weeks back. They thought that, since Mr. Gray had never shown up in the past other than the one time, the first test must have been traveling forward in time. They had decided to completely avoid a "return trip", because return trips seemed to be the part of time travel that caused most of the fatalities. Instead, Mr. Gray would execute a one-way trip forward and a one-way trip back.

A space had been cleared in the Office of Time near where Mr. Gray had first appeared. Mr. Gray stood there now, ready to initiate the test. Rather than cast a spell or charge runes, Mr. Gray had to will himself to move through the timestream in a non-standard way. Mr. Gray closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, and focused himself. He opened his eyes again and pushed his magic outward in an attempt to push himself forward in time. His runes began to glow and, just like before, he grew brighter and brighter until Croaker and Bode could no longer look at him directly.

When the glow subsided and they could see again, Mr. Gray was gone.

Date and Time TBD, Location TBD

Harry was on his knees with his arms around his waist, unable to sense anything except the blinding pain of his runes burning. He was certain they were glowing and visible to anyone looking at him.

He looked up, expecting to see the same old Office of Time, but instead saw an alley between two skyscrapers in some urban downtown, probably London.

As expected, Harry was naked. Since he was "out of uniform", he thought of himself as Harry rather than Mr. Gray. He was very glad he no longer needed glasses or a wand. If he needed either, he'd be helpless right now.

The pain faded and Harry stood. Without him consciously thinking about it, Harry's magic (the runes) clothed him in a lightweight, comfortable ensemble of an off-white shirt, dark pants, and leather-like brown boots.

Harry murmured a date-time spell, and was more annoyed than surprised to see "2025 May 1 13:10". The jump was supposed to have been one month forward in time with no change in location. Apparently something had gone wrong. He cast a location spell, and confirmed that he was in an alley in London directly above where the Department of Mysteries should be.

The jump missed time-wise by a large margin. Croaker, Bode, and Harry had expected that was how the jump would go wrong, if it did. They hadn't expected to also miss space-wise.

With a few spells cast downward to determine the state of the Ministry of Magic, Harry determined that it didn't exist anymore. Instead, the space was filled in with something as dense as rock, probably concrete.

That was a lot of concrete.

Now Harry understood why his runes had been so active - they had re-routed him in transit since appearing where the Office of Time had been would have killed him.

All their careful calculations didn't take into account the runes changing in transit, evolving like they did when he first learned to absorb magic. If the change in spacial destination caused the runes to evolve, then the change in runes couldn't have caused the change in temporal destination. Or could they? Were the runes bound to linear cause and effect? Harry would do the math once he found a place to stay.

Harry, Croaker, and Bode had decided that Harry should avoid seeing any details about the future. Harry had learned at the end of his third year at Hogwarts, when he time-traveled with Hermione, that seeing things made them happen. Of course, what you thought you saw might not be what actually happened, but it still constrained the possibilities.

Because of all this, Harry knew it was a bad idea to see if St. Mungo's was intact. Like any good Gryffindor, Harry decided to do it anyway. He teleported to an alley near the magical hospital, only to find the hospital had been replaced by a muggle office building of some kind.

It finally dawned on Harry that he was trapped in his future without any of the resources he needed to get home.

1 May 2025, London

Harry was standing in front of where St. Mungo's used to be. The building had been demolished and replaced with a modern office building.

There were so many people! There were probably more people in this part of London than the entire magical population of Britain!

Harry felt exposed and vulnerable. He had lived in the Department of Mysteries for the last year, and wasn't used to open spaces. He could tolerate Diagon Alley, but this was orders of magnitude worse. He couldn't adjust his defensive techniques for this many people. The situation was out of his control.

Harry stepped in the closest building, but that didn't help. The building he stepped into was just as crowded as the sidewalks outside. Harry pushed his way to a back door and exited into an alley. The alley also had people in it, but they were few enough that Harry could anticipate how they might cause trouble.

Harry brought his breathing under control, then calmed his mind by taking control of the situation he was in - he started a list of what to do next. He needed the necessities, room and board. He had to study his time travel equations and adjust for his runes modifying themselves while he was time-traveling. He might need reference materials that were only available in the Office of Time.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by someone he hadn't seen since before his time at the Department, his former companion Hedwig. Harry stretched out his arm and she landed on it as gracefully as ever.

Harry had trained to keep his emotions hidden, but he couldn't help but show his surprise at Hedwig's arrival.

"It's so good to see you, Hedwig," Harry told the owl. "What on earth are you doing here? How did you know I'd be here?"

Harry noticed from the corner of his eye as a woman turned the corner into the alley. She said, "Hello, Harry. It's good to see you again".

Harry turned a quarter circle to face the woman. It took him a few seconds to recognize her.

"Gabrielle?" he asked.

"Yes," she responded simply, stepping closer to him. When Gabrielle stood in front of Harry, she looked into his eyes and murmured, "So young...".

He couldn't express how glad he was to see a familiar face, so he took her hand and pulled her into a quick hug. Kevin and Rachel would have approved; this was quite an outpouring of emotion for Harry.

Harry stepped out of her personal space for politeness, and asked, "How are you, Gabrielle? You were only eight or nine when I last saw you."

"I am doing well, Harry. It's been 30 years since I met you at the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Before you ask me what you asked Hedwig, let me say that I can't share specifics. Just know that I 'got the memo', so to speak, about your arrival. I'm here to offer you a place to stay until you are ready to return home."

"I will take you up on that offer. Thank you so much."

Holding her hand out, she continued, "You're welcome. Take my hand and I'll apparate us."

After Hedwig settled on Harry's shoulder, he took Gabrielle's hand and they disappeared with a pop.

They appeared in the lobby of another large building bustling with people. None of them were in robes, so Harry assumed they were all muggles.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked. "You just apparated in full view of the muggles here."

"It's no problem, Harry," Gabrielle responded. "The polite term is now 'non-magicals', and the non-magicals in the world of 2025 are well aware of magic and its peoples."

She continued as she led him to a nearby elevator, "I'm taking you to a flat where I'm living temporarily. It has some of the best security in London, including wards I installed myself. Fleur is now a certified security specialist, and she approved my flat as one of the most secure spots in London. I will adjust the wards to allow you full access. You will be able to work there uninterrupted."

"If your flat is secure, are you sure you want me there? I seem to attract trouble."

Gabrielle turned to Harry and smiled. "I welcome you and the chaos you bring."

As soon as they were in the flat, Gabrielle had Harry watch as she updated the security. She was giving him full privileges, so that he could add and remove people as needed while he was visiting the flat. Harry was surprised and a bit hesitant about Gabrielle trusting him that much, but she was quite insistent.

After updating the security, Gabrielle told Harry to make himself at home while she started dinner. Harry offered to help, but she told him that his job was to become familiar with the place, and also to keep her entertained while she cooked. Harry thought the flat was very nice. It had a living room, a kitchenette, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It could comfortably house a couple and the occasional guest.

That evening, Harry found out that it was no coincidence that Gabrielle had met him near the spot where he appeared. She had known he would be time traveling to this place and time, and had been waiting for him. After they had eaten dinner, Gabrielle presented Harry with a few things she had been saving for this occasion: books, arithmancy charts, and other resources from the Office of Time. Harry was very curious how she had gotten these things, and how she knew he would be here, but she was quite tight-lipped about it all.

Harry was prepared to sleep on the couch, but Gabrielle preferred that they sleep in the same room "for security's sake". Harry didn't understand her assertion, given the strength of her security, but finally acquiesced. He made a bedroll on the floor of her bedroom. Gabrielle tried to assure him that neither her virtue or her reputation would be sullied if they slept in the same bed, but Harry said he'd never be able to sleep if he was in bed with her.

2 May - 16 June 2025, London

The next morning, Gabrielle showed Harry her "tablet" computer that was 210 mm x 280 mm x 6 mm. She showed Harry how to use an arithmancy application that was much, much faster than doing all of the calculations by hand. Harry was amazed at how much more he could visualize and accomplish with the software. It took only one day with the arithmantic application to determine that all of the work that he, Croaker, and Bode had done up to now was the equivalent of approximating pi with one digit. All of their work would be a nice reference, but the arithmantic equations for time travel would have to be derived from scratch. Harry was quite frustrated and didn't want to stop for dinner, but Gabrielle insisted that their work would be much better after food and rest.

To break the sullen mood, Gabrielle suggested they watch a movie after dinner. They sat together on the couch and watched a "classic" movie - one released before February 1995, the day Harry had left. Harry knew what movies were, but had never watched one before. As they watched a mindless action movie, Gabrielle massaged Harry's shoulders and neck to relieve the tension that was giving him a raging headache. By the time the movie was over, Harry was relaxed enough to be fighting off sleep.

The next day proved much more productive. Fortunately for Harry, Gabrielle was quite adept with arithmancy, and seemed to be familiar with the work that he, Croaker, and Bode had done. This was another "coincidence" that Gabrielle wouldn't explain. Gabrielle and Harry started work on the new equations by creating two maps of his body's runes based on pensieve memories. The first map was from just before Harry started to time travel to this time and place. The second map was right after he arrived.

Capturing the pensieve memories, translating them to digital video to feed into the computer, then having the computer transcribe the video into rune sequences took a whole day. Dinner that night was much more festive, and they snuggled as they sat and watched their after-dinner movie. This time it was Gabrielle who got sleepier as the movie progressed. She fell asleep long before the movie was over. When it finished, Gabrielle was sleeping quite soundly, so Harry carried her to bed and tucked her in. After that, he cleaned up the living room and went to bed himself.

At breakfast the next morning, Harry teased Gabrielle, asking her if it was the movie or his company that she found boring. They had a good laugh, but agreed that it had been nice. They agreed to make movie-watching a regular post-dinner activity.

Over the next few weeks, Harry and Gabrielle worked diligently on deriving new time travel calculations. Gabrielle was a much better arithmancer than Harry, but he was more familiar with his body's rune sequences and the Department's works on time travel. Together, they made unprecedented progress on detailing the nature of the fourth dimension.

In addition to the dinner-and-movie pattern, Harry and Gabrielle spent time in the evenings conversing. Once or twice, they spent so much time talking that they had to skip the movie altogether. Gabrielle would only speak of her personal life up to 1995, which wasn't much, but she was educated and experienced enough to have plenty of other things to talk about. She tried to teach Harry about fine wine, but he was obviously uncultured in this topic - it was all rotten fruit to him. Gabrielle finally acquiesced and bought beer, which suited him much better. This gave her the chance to return much of the teasing Harry had started with her.

Their after-dinner talks soon took on the role that his time with Kevin and Rachel had served. Harry shared with her all the tales of his time at Hogwarts and his time at the Department. He shared how he had been labeled a freak by his relatives, and how it had proven to be true in the Department. He was willing to be a freak, though, if it eliminated the cancer of Death Eaters from the body of magical Britain. He told Gabrielle about dating Katie, how it was nice but how he had to hide so much of himself because she just wasn't ready to see the freak in him.

With that statement, Gabrielle moved in front of Harry, looked deep into his eyes, and told him, "You are no freak, Harry, and you will not say that again. Do you understand?"

Harry didn't respond; he was speechless staring into her eyes, as deep and blue as the cloudless sky. Without thought, he leaned forward and kissed her. Gabrielle wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. She tore off his shirt and kissed down his chest. They continued until Harry finally picked her up and took her to the bedroom.

Several hours later, when they lay sated and sweaty next to each other, Gabrielle told Harry, "I think this explains something I had always wondered about."

Harry looked at her and responded, "What was that?"

"On my nineteenth birthday, I had a wonderful party in the afternoon with all my friends and family. When all the guests finally left, you stayed behind. We talked and laughed - I finally felt I had met someone who understood me. I finally dragged you to my bedroom and we made love all night. It was my first time. And second. And so on."

Gabrielle was looking off into the distance, obviously reliving the memories. "You were so gentle, then so rough. You told me I had been your first as well, but much earlier in your life. That made no sense to me at the time."

Gabrielle focused again and looked directly into Harry's eyes. "Was this your first time?"

"Yes, love, it was," he answered.

"And so that is what you meant," she concluded.

After that evening together, Harry no longer slept on the floor. Gabrielle spent each night showing him how to please her. During the day, they shared kisses, gropes, and other signs of affection as they diligently continued their work. Once the new equations had been tested by simulation, they derived the steps Harry would take to start the time travel process. Harry didn't use a spell or ritual, but instead focused power to a series of his rune sequences in a particular order, while also focusing on his destination. Teleportation was a much, much simpler process, so Harry only had to focus on his destination, not his rune sequences, to do it.

Finally, the time came when they could do no more research until Harry actually attempted to travel through time. The plan was for Harry to move forward in time a year. If that succeeded, he would attempt to travel backward a year, to this exact space and time. If that succeeded, he would travel back to his starting point, the Department of Mysteries on February 11 1995.

17 June 2025, London

After breakfast, Gabrielle could see that Harry was hesitant to go through with the plan. She gently coaxed him to share his worries.

Harry told her that it had been the most idyllic time in his life. Once they were together, they had only parted for potty breaks and such. Anything they needed (mostly groceries), they ordered online and had delivered. For the first time, Harry hadn't felt the need to escape the enclosed space he was living in.

Gabrielle agreed. This had been the most joyous time in her life - meaningful hard work, vacation, and romance all wrapped in one. But he didn't belong here. She assured him that, in order for her to be here, he had to return to his own time. Knowing that the time he shared with Gabrielle only existed because he had returned to the past, Harry finally agreed that it had to be done.

It didn't take Harry any time at all to prepare. He still couldn't take anything with him while time traveling, so packing was not an issue.

Harry pulled Gabrielle to him and kissed her, trying to express to her how much he would miss her. In the short time that they had, they had made this tiny flat into a home.

Just as he had done in the Office of Time, Harry closed his eyes, breathed in deeply, and focused himself. This time, he simply disappeared without any sound or burst of light, gone in a whisper on the wind.

Harry reappeared about ten minutes later with a large smile on his face.

"Gabrielle! It worked!"

Gabrielle ran to him and jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and locking her lips on his. They spent another night together - no movie this time - before he reluctantly returned to his own time.

After Harry disappeared for the last time, Gabrielle finally allowed herself the luxury of collapsing in tears.

Author's Notes:

This part of HPPW was originally posted in four chapters from January 2017 to May 2017. I apologize to anyone who is impacted by the format change.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed the original version of those chapters. Your feedback was greatly appreciated and very encouraging. I saved all of the original reviews so nothing would be lost. As anyone who's seen the 1980's TV show 'Robin of Sherwood' knows, "Nothing is ever forgotten."

Also, thank you in advance to anyone who reviews, favorites, or follows the story in this form.

(12 February 2019) This used to be Chapter 1 of HPPW Part 2. It got renumbered when I moved the epilog from HPPW into this story.

originally published: 30 January 2017 to 4 May 2017

last updated: 12 February 2019