Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, obviously.

Warnings: AU, sevitus, time travel, mild suicide themes, reborn!Harry, OOC Snape and some other characters, OCs, mentions of torture (nothing detailed)

Summary: Harry Potter killed Voldemort, but everyone he has ever cared about is dead. He travels back in time and kills a baby Voldemort to prevent the war completely... and somehow ends up being reborn as Tom Snape.

A/N: Many thanks to amortencja – without her I wouldn't be publishing this today.

The first chapter should be up within a week.

oxo

Prologue

Friday, 18th February 1927, Wool's Orphanage, London

Around 3AM

When you are an adult wizard in possession of an unbeatable wand and the Invisibility Cloak of Death himself, breaking into a muggle orphanage in the middle of the night is not that hard. Finding a one-and-a-half month old boy for whom you went over seventy years back in time is also easy. Killing him is a bit harder. You need to remind yourself that this child is the reason why you have lost everyone you have ever cared about. Just one Avada Kedavra, a short trip to some deserted place, another Avada Kedavra, and you will be free forever. Another world, a better world will begin – this time without you. And without him.

Looking at the small baby sleeping in the crib you notice the irony of the situation. But you are not doing it for yourself. You need to do it so the others would live, so the world could be whole again.

"Avada Kedavra," you whisper for the first time in your life, pointing your old wand at the baby.

When the green light hits the target, the scar on your forehead explodes with pain so incredible that you want to scream, scream, scream – yet no sound escapes your mouth. Every fibre of your being seems to be on fire and you forget where you are, who you are... All you can think of is end, end, need it to END!

And then, after a second or a century, everything ends as suddenly as it began. There is a blackness and silence, a swirl of colour and voices you had once known but already forgotten, there are memories passing so fast you cannot touch them and endless hours of being-or-not-being and feeling safer and warmer than you can remember. There is nothingness and eternity, and a steady beat that soothes you and fills you with more love than you can hold, but there is also a gaping hole it cannot fill and you do not know what is true anymore and what is just an illusion.

And then, after a second or a century, everything ends as suddenly as it began. There is a coldness and noise, a swirl of colour and voices ringing in your ears, there are images passing so fast you have to close your eyes and scream, scream, scream as loud as you possibly can. And there are warm, unfamiliar hands, and another pair of hands that promise safety, but you do not want to understand them, you want to be back where you can forget everything. You hear voices you heard there but you are too scared to listen to them now, and you scream so they would shut up and put you back.

And then, there is another pair of hands and you hear the voice you knew then and had known before, the voice that chills your blood and fills your heart with warmth. And you finally stop screaming and look up to see the face of your father, Severus Snape, who is positively beaming at you.

And you feel as scared as you have never felt before because nothing is right.

ooo

Thursday, 31st July 1980, Hog's Head inn, Hogsmeade

Around 10PM

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was tired. He had always thought Divination to be a rather useless subject and never had he planned to hire a new teacher after Professor Aldebaran's retirement – but then the news spread, and here he was, interviewing an applicant for the post of Divination teacher. The applicant was, however, the great-great-granddaughter of Cassandra Trelawney, so he had thought it might not be a waste of time. How wrong he was! She didn't seem to possess the slightest trace of the Seeing gift and and it didn't look like she would be a good teacher. Albus thanked her for her time and politely told her he didn't think she was suitable for the post and that the school won't continue with the subject after all. He turned to leave – but then, something happened, something he didn't expect.

And it must have been a real prophecy.

xxx

The Master of Death approaches... thrice he died, thrice he lived, thrice he killed... the one who owns all the three... the one who knows, the one who sees, the one who speaks... praise his name, praise his deeds, praise his arrival... thrice will he be tried, and if he fails, the darkness will set upon the world for the third time... the Master of Death approaches...