~The Time of Roses~

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Summary: Harry travels back to 1942 in order to kill the 16 year old Tom Riddle. But apparently, someone else had the same idea. Who is the mysterious Arcturus Black? And why is he kissing Riddle? SLASH HP/TR.

Author's Note: This is it, the final chapter! Thank you so much for following this story so far! As pointed out in the first chapter, this story was written in response to UbiquitousTime's "The Beginning of the End" challenge. Each writer is assigned the final line of a well-known novel and has to work that line into their story somehow. My line appears as the very last line of this chapter, so as you can gather, my hands were tied, in a manner of speaking. I could think of so many other ways in which this amazing line could have been used for a story, but some of them are... well, rather disturbing. So this is what I came up with.

Thank you for reading this story, and thank you for all the wonderful suggestions and theories. I would love to use some of them in future fics! I'll ask you first if I do.

This chapter is dedicated to you, UbiquitousTime. Thank you for the intriguing challenge!

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~Chapter 10~

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"The Dark Lord? I don't know what you are talking about," whispered Tom. "Who is the Dark Lord?" He stared at Arcturus' outstretched wand, his silver-grey eyes wide in the candlelight.

"Put your wand down, Arcturus." Harry threw himself rapidly in front of Tom, shielding him from Arcturus with his own body.

"Harry? What are you doing?" groaned Tom. "Arcturus seems to have lost his mind; he's probably still drunk from the party. Get away so he won't hurt you, my dear."

"Move aside, Harry Black." Arcturus' voice was hoarse. "I am not a cold-blooded murderer, Harry. I don't want to harm you. Only him. Tom has to die."

"Harry, I think he is serious," breathed Tom in Harry's ear. "Get out of the way, my love. I'll see if I can talk some sense into him."

Harry didn't move. "I will not let you harm him, Arcturus." He held the young assassin's grey glance with his own until Arcturus looked away.

"I have to, Harry." There was a pleading note in Arcturus' voice now. "It's the only way. He's... he's Voldemort. He is the Dark Lord."

"Not yet, Arcturus," said Harry softly. "He is not Voldemort yet. Right now he is Tom Riddle, a sixteen year old schoolboy who has never killed anybody. Are you going to sentence him to death for murders he has not yet committed?"

"What-?" Arcturus stared, wide-eyed, at Harry. "Don't... don't try to confuse me, Harry. I know who he is. And apparently, so do you, whoever you are. You know the name Voldemort, don't you, Harry? And if you know that name, then you must also know about the atrocities he will commit. This is the only way to prevent all those horrors from happening, Harry. Tom Riddle had to die."

"Harry?" Tom's voice was a whisper. "What is going on here? What is Arcturus talking about? Who is this Dark Lord? How does he know about the name Voldemort? And what are these murders you both seem to have heard about?"

"Arcturus is talking about a future that hasn't happened," said Harry quickly. "A future that will never happen."

"A future where I will become a murderer?" Tom's voice was unsteady. "A future where I will be the one you call the Dark Lord? Is all this true? Why didn't you tell me about any of this, Harry? You know exactly what he is talking about, don't you? I can sense that you do..."

"And you know in your heart that I'm speaking the truth about that future, don't you, Tom?" breathed Arcturus. He tightened his grip on his wand. What sort of wand was that? Harry glanced at it curiously. Some sort of dark wood. Not holly, like his own wand. "You know that you have the capacity to commit murder."

"But he hasn't committed any murders yet!" Harry stood immovable in front of Tom. "He didn't release the basilisk, Myrtle didn't die, and Tom hasn't even killed his father yet."

"My father-?" Tom's voice was a whisper. "I will kill my father?"

"No, you won't," said Harry fiercely. "I won't let you. I'll go and see your father myself. I will hex him until that bastard falls to his knees and apologizes to you for abandoning your mother and letting you grow up in an orphanage, but I will not let you kill him, Tom. Don't you see, Arcturus? Everything has changed. The future will no longer be what you and I remember."

"You remember me killing my father?" Harry could feel Tom's hand gripping his shoulder, hard. "Harry, what is this? Is this why you wouldn't tell me about the future? Because you know that I will become a murderer?"

Arcturus shook his dark curls out of his face. There was still a wild gleam in his eyes. "A few individual events may have changed, Harry, but he hasn't changed. He is still the boy who will become Voldemort. Myrtle was not killed by the basilisk, but Tom will commit other murders. How can he not, being who he is? He will begin to gather his death eaters around him, you will see. He will convince poor delusional youths from pureblood families to join him in his mad quest for power. It may not have happened yet, but it will."

"Those things will not happen, Arcturus. I won't let them!" Harry glared at the Gryffindor boy. "I will stay here in this time with Tom and watch over him. He is already changing, can't you see it? He was the one who killed the basilisk, remember? Not me. Him. With the Sword of Gryffindor."

"You will stay here in this time with Tom? " Arcturus lowered his wand slightly. "You actually think that would work? Just keeping an eye on Tom? And why would you do that, anyway?"

"Because I love him, Arcturus... or... whoever you are. Oh, Merlin, I can't stand this anymore. I have to ask: Are you Sirius Black, Arcturus?"

Arcturus stared at Harry. "Am I Sirius? What the hell? I thought you were Sirius! Well, at least I used to think that, before I began to wonder if you were actually me... But that wouldn't have been possible, would it? Even with time travel? If we were both the same person from different time periods, then one of us would have remembered the other, right? Unless someone obliviated both of us... Oh, I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. Wait, did you just say that you love Tom Riddle? But that's... ridiculous! I know that he's attractive as all hell, but you can't seriously consider giving up your own life in whatever part of the future you came from just to stay here with him. With The Dark Lord! Think about it, Harry! You would never see your family again. Well, if you were Sirius, that would probably not be such a terrible loss, but if you are not..."

"Don't have a family," said Harry curtly. "My parents were killed when I was a baby."

"Killed?" There was a flicker of pity in Arcturus' eyes now. "Oh. I'm... I'm sorry to hear that, Harry. I really am. That had to be rough on you, growing up without parents. To lose both of them... Wait - how did they die?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Harry swallowed. "They were... they were killed by Voldemort, actually..."

"But that's... that's me... That's the secret name I use for myself." Tom spun Harry around now, and Harry saw the look of horror in the silver eyes. "I killed your parents, Harry? No, that's impossible! If I were your parents' murderer, you wouldn't fall in love with me. This doesn't make any sense."

"Of course it doesn't make any sense," muttered Arcturus. He sighed deeply. "Listen, Harry, try to be reasonable about this. I don't like murdering people, but in this case it's absolutely necessary. Don't you see that Tom needs to die? If I kill him now, you can go back to your own time and find your parents still alive."

Harry wrapped his arms around Tom. "But I don't want to go back to my own time, Arcturus. Don't you see that this is how things are meant to be? Everything that happened before, the future that we both remember, is all wrong. This is what was supposed to happen. Tom and I will stay here together, and there will be no murders and no death eaters. My parents will be alive in the future, and so will all of Voldemort's other victims, but I will stay here with Tom. I'm sorry I won't get to meet my parents, but that's the way it has to be. Perhaps they will have another child and name him "Harry" too... Go home, Arcturus! There is no need for murder anymore. Go home to your own time, and you will find that the world will be different from the way you remembered it."

"Go home?" Arcturus sank down on one of the beds with a sigh. "Just like that?" He looked doubtfully at Harry. "Do you really think the future would be different if I went back home right now?"

"Of course it will be, Arcturus. You will have friends and family waiting for you, won't you? Perhaps you can even use the time turner later to come back and visit us and tell us how everything turns out. Let me know if Hagrid ever passed his O.W.L.s, will you?"

"But I was supposed to stop Voldemort..." Arcturus poked his wand absently into the silver sheets of the bed he was sitting on, and a few sparks flew out.

Harry couldn't help smiling at the boy's bewildered glance. "There is no Voldemort, Arcturus. There never will be. There is only Tom, and he is my lover."

"Your lover-? It's that serious between the two of you, is it?" Arcturus glanced at the two of them and ran his hand clumsily through his dark curls.

"Very serious..." Tom kissed Harry softly on the lips. "But Merlin, Harry - we have a lot of things to talk about, you and I. There are so many things I don't understand."

Harry flushed. "Yes. I know, Tom. But we have many, many years ahead of us to talk."

A slight smile danced over Tom's pale face. "Many, many years... I like the sound of that, my love." He kissed Harry again, and Harry could hear a deep sigh escape Arcturus' lips.

"Enough already, you two! Merlin, save it for when you are alone, will you?"

Harry laughed. "Listen, Arcturus," he said mildly. "I know that this can't be easy for you. You were somewhat attracted to Tom yourself, weren't you?"

"Me?" Arcturus' cheeks reddened. "Well, I won't deny that Tom is rather good-looking, but I'm... I'm not really gay, you know."

"You are not?" Harry smiled.

"No," said Arcturus firmly. "I'm not. Or at least not much. I'm mostly interested in girls, actually. The only problem is that I haven't met any attractive girls yet. Well, except for one, but she thinks that I'm a pain in the neck."

"Perhaps you should try to convince her otherwise?" suggested Harry gently. "Girls sometimes change their mind about these things, I understand."

Arcturus looked doubtful. "Well, that sounds like a good idea in theory, but I'm not sure I know how to make her change her mind about me. Maybe I should look into a love potion? Oh, better not; that would make her really mad if she found out. She does smile at me sometimes, but most of the time, she refers to me as arrogant ass. She also says I can't ever admit I'm wrong about anything." He rolled his eyes slightly. "I think I'd be the first to admit it if I ever were wrong, actually..."

Harry laughed. "Perhaps you can go back to your time and tell her all about your failed attempts at murder, Arcturus. She might enjoy the story, if you tell it to her candidly."

Arcturus stared at him. "What? Tell her that I tried to go back in time and save the world, but ended up looking like an idiot? You think she would like that?" He sat silently for a moment, apparently thinking deeply. Then he shrugged. "Well, I suppose I can give it a shot. Are you sure girls like it when you are that honest? Oh, all right, I'll try it. Perhaps I should bring her back some flowers or something, some roses from the past. Girls like that sort of thing, don't they?"

"Probably. That's a lovely idea, Arcturus."

Arcturus stood up and slid his wand back in his pocket with a sigh. "Well, all right. I suppose I will try. But when I get back home, I'd better find Regulus Black playing Quidditch for England rather than torturing for Voldemort. And I will come back here and check on you two, so don't you even think about the Darks Arts, Tom."

"I don't suppose I will..." Tom brushed his lips along Harry's neck. "I have a lot of other things to think about right now. Like Harry."

"Or whatever his name is," muttered Arcturus. "Wait, you are not Regulus, are you, Harry? That would be funny, wouldn't it, seeing that I used Regulus' hair for the polyjuice potion and his middle name for my alias. I was hoping that would be enough to get me sorted into Slytherin this time, but the hat just laughed at me when I suggested it. I've got a bloody dark mark on my arm, and the stupid hat refuses to sort me into Slytherin, can you believe it? No? You are not Regulus? And you aren't Remus either, are you? You name is really just Harry?"

"Yes, Arcturus. My name is really just Harry."

"Funny. It feels like you should be someone I know, but I don't know any Harrys. I like the name a lot, though. It has a nice ring to it."

"Er... thanks."

"Any time." Arcturus pulled the golden time turner out from his robes and began spinning the dial. "Goodbye, then. Oh, mind if I grab these white roses off your nightstand? Thanks. They'll make a nice present for Evans. Maybe she'll go out with me after all. Bye now..."

The time turner emitted a strange little golden pulse, and the next moment, Arcturus Black was gone.

"Wait... What did he say?" Harry let go of Tom's hand and reached frantically for the vanished time-traveler.

"Harry? Are you all right?" Tom kissed Harry gently. "Merlin, you are white as a ghost. It's... it's rather difficult to process everything that has happened, isn't it? We'll sort it all out, love."

Harry stood frozen and stared at the spot where Arcturus had been the moment before. "Evans?" he whispered. "He is going to give the flowers to... Evans?"

"That's what he said, yes. Are you all right, Harry?"

Harry sank down on one of the nearest beds, burying his head in his hands. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "But then... But then... Arcturus must be... Oh, Merlin. Oh Godric. Oh, my god."

"Harry?" Tom ruffled his hair softly.

Harry shook his head slowly. "Oh, Merlin, why didn't I see it before? A Gryffindor seeker with an invisibility cloak? A boy who seems to know all about Voldemort, and who knows Sirius and Regulus Black and Remus Lupin? A boy who is so strangely like me that I almost began to wonder if he was me, in some bizarre way." Harry burst out laughing.

"What, Harry? Is Arcturus someone you know from the future, then?" Tom seemed completely baffled.

Harry, still shaking with laughter, managed to gasp out: "Good grief! It's daddy!"

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Author's Note: And that was my assigned line, from the novel Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg: "Good grief! It's daddy!" Thanks for reading all the way to the end!