Disclaimer: This story, its characters and locations, is not mine - if you don't recognise it, I might've come up with it, but more often than not probably all belongs to the Harry Potter franchise.

A/N: Well, here we go again. This is a story I wanted to write in first-person, and takes place after Harry's fifth-year at Hogwarts. It isn't related to The Hero Trilogy or All My Love To Long Ago - my other stories, which can be found in my profile. First few chapters are written so I'll put them up straight away, after that its usually a week or two between updates, depending on real life.

All the best, thank you for reading and please review, join the yahoo! group found in my profile,

joe6991

Harry Potter and the Wastelands of Time

There are only two worlds – your world, which is the real world, and the other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination; their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist, and thus they are all that matters.

Do you understand?

Prologue – On Time's Watch

Just hold me closer, tiny dancer.
We'll count the headlights on the highway…
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You've had a busy day today.

--Elton John

I was born to run.

Of that I am sure.

To run and fight, to resist and defy the nightmares that threaten to cover the entire world in darkness never-ending. The darkness of dreams gone awry, of ambition gone mad, of chaos become eternal.

There are Keys to Time, and these keys are guardians…

—Harry, run!—

…of the Locks to the Past.

—Say, can you hear that, Potter? It is the sound of the Reaper…—

Nothing rests between one time and the last save…

—He killed them! He slaughtered them all like fucking animals and I stood back and let it happen—

…hopeless despair and the promise that maybe, somehow, this time it will be different.

—Don't fight him, Harry. You can't possibly win.—

I know not what will happen next, or if I'll even survive the trip, but I have to try. I have to. The world isn't worth living in during these dark days, and never will be again – because the dark days are forever now. There's not even any sky, just tortured storm clouds bulging with vicious unforgiving crimson lightning. The planet itself is dying, failing, a trait of my existence…

—The past belongs to long ago. Just what in Merlin's name are you?—

I miss the wind and the gentle afterglow of twilight. I miss the smell of fresh rainfall and strawberries. I miss green apples and honest white roses. Perhaps this way I can make the struggle matter. And save all that can be saved. After all…

—Have you heard this story? Once upon a time, when humanity was young and pure, there was a box. A box they were told never to open – but one man went and opened it anyway. He unleased all the evils of this world… power… violence… corruption… greed… envy…—

…there is no world left here. Just scattered remains and remnants of humanity huddling for warmth under the scorched and ruined sky. Perhaps this is the closest to heaven that we'll ever be as a race that thrives on war and conflict. Peace is a fickle thing, and was outlawed a long time ago. Ah, well… I don't want the world to see me, because I don't think that they'll understand this last, desperate bid for salvation. I promised myself I would not do this.

—The box was slammed shut but it was too late, the damage had been done. All that remained in the box was a single ray of light – the light of Hope. Harry Potter, we now face those same evils for the last time, here at the end of all things, and you are that last ray of light, our only hope.—

Easier to make that promise. Easier to do a lot of things, like walk away. But the difference is vast between what is right and what is easy. Amen, Dumbledore? That's right… Rest in peace, old man.

—Please, tell me what you are?—

No matter what happens, isn't it important to try?

—Very well, I am Lady Time.—

Time?

—Time.—

Oh…

—Just who were you expecting?—

I do not know… but Time's up, isn't it?

—Yes, yes it is, Harry James Potter. And this is really, really going to hurt…—

Fuck it, do your worst...