A Thing of the Past

Summary: One bright autumn day, a young man appears in the Ministry of Magic with a secret about who he really is. When the crystal hourglasses fall, Harry Potter is sent to the one place he's vulnerable…the past.

Author's Note: Well, here it is! The brand new, better than ever, version of A Thing of the Past! This prologue comes from a few pages out of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with my own revisions. How many of you are going to go and look to see what pages they are? Anyway, I love it!

Prologue

They were at the end of row ninety-seven; Harry turned right and began to sprint in earnest. He could hear footsteps right behind him and Hermione's voice urging Neville on. The door through which they had come as ajar straight ahead, Harry could see the glittering light of the bell jar, he pelted thro ugh it, the prophecy still clutched tight and safe in his hand, waited for the others to hurtle over the threshold before slamming the door behind hi m---

"Colloportus!" gasped Hermione and the door sealed itself with an odd squelching noise.

"Where---where are the others?" gasped Harry.

He had thought that Ron, Luna, and Ginny had been ahead of them, that they would be waiting in this room, but there was nobody there.

"They must have gone the wrong way!" whispered Hermione, terror in her face.

"Listen!" whispered Neville.

Footsteps and shouts echoed from behind the door they had just sealed. Harry put his ear close to the door to listen and heard Lucius Malfoy roar: "Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing the prophecy --- Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary --- Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right --- Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead --- Macnair and Avery, through here --- Rookwood, over there --- Mulciber, come with me!"

"What do we do?" Hermione asked Harry, trembling from head to foot.

"Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start," said Harry. "Let's get away from this door…"

They ran, quietly as they could, past the shimmering bell jar where the tiny egg was hatching and unhatching, toward the exit into the circular hallway at the far end of the room. They were almost there when Harry heard something large and heavy collide with the door Hermione had charmed shut.

"Stand aside!" said a rough voice. "Alohomora!"

As the door flew op en, Harry, Hermione, and Neville, dived under desks. They could see the bottom of the two Death Eaters' robes drawing nearer, their feet moving rapidly.

"They might've run straight through to the hall," said the rough voice.

"Check under the desks," said another.

Harry saw the knees of the Death Eaters bend. Poking his wand out from under the desk he shouted, "STUPEFY!"

A jet of red light hit the nearest Death Eater; he fell backward into a grandfather clock and knocked it over. The second Death Eater, however, had leapt aside to avoid Harry's spell and now pointed his own wand at Hermione, who had crawled out from under the desk to get a better aim.

"Avada ---"

Harry launched himself across the floor and grabbed the Death Eater around the knees, causing him to topple and his aim to go awry. Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help; pointing his wand wildly at the struggling pair he cried, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands flew out of their hands and soared back toward the entrance to the Hall of Prophecy; both scrambled to their feet and charged after them, the Death Eater in front and Harry hot on his heels, Neville bringing up the rear, plainly horrorstruck at what he had done.

"Get out of the way, Harry!" yelled Neville, clearly determined to repair the damage.

Harry flung himself sideways as Neville took aim again and shouted, "STUPEFY!"

At the same time, Hermione flung out her arm and cried "Accio Wand!" Harry's wand flew from a dark corner into her hand and she threw it to him.

"Thanks," he said, "right, let's get out of ---"

He stopped as the jet of red light from Neville's wand flew over the Death Eater's shoulder and hit a glass-fronted cabinet on the wall full of variously shaped hourglasses. The cabinet fell to the floor and burst apart, glass shards flying everywhere.

Harry held his hands up to his face as the bits of glass seemed to attack him. He could feel the sharp edges gently grazing his skin. An odd sort of dread took over him. Something wasn't right. His eyes were oddly glazed, and when he heard Hermione's shout, "STUPEFY!" her voice seemed distant. He saw the jet of red light hit the Death Eater in the middle of his chest; he froze arm still raised, his wand fell to the floor with a clatter and he collapsed backward toward the bell jar.

It was quiet now. Harry thought he was hearing Hermione's voice, worried, talking to him. He tried to speak, but as he did he could taste nothing but sand. He could feel his eyes gritting over. Everything was going dark now. He could hear the clocks, slowly ticking, boring into him with a cruel passion.

He was falling now. It was the most spectacular feeling. Everything was melting away; the floor had gone out from under him. Desperation gripped him, his fingers reaching out for anything, but the sand just fell through. It was all he could feel now. The glass was gone; he could no longer feel the sharp edges biting at this skin. All but the sand had evaporated.

Suddenly, a light seemed to blaze from all around him. Blinking furiously, trying to see through the grains, Harry was sure he saw two distorted figures. He tried to scream a warning. The others had come, it was just Neville and Hermione now, he couldn't help them.

"Neville…" Harry gasped through his lips, trying to breath with the sand that was gagging him. "Hermione." He was drowning now in the sand, sinking through the layers of the world.

There was a voice. It was calling his name. That much he could make out. He knew the voice; he wanted to go to it. But he couldn't. Harry was dying now, the sand was destroying him.

He tried to scream out. To answer. It was odd, Harry saw them all flashing before his eyes. His parents. Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys. Sirius. Then, it was black.