'Harry, my boy! You've done it! I am so proud!' The twinkly-eyed portrait looked down at Harry, pride etched clearly all over his face. 'You are not happy, Harry?'
'I am, I'm glad he's gone. I just wish it didn't cost quite so much. Why did all those people have to die? I just wish I could go back eighteen years and stop it before it all started, maybe then I could have had my parents my whole life, and my friends to live the rest of my life with. And Ginny. Without them all, what's the point?' Harry sat down in the old Headmaster's chair. Tears began in his eyes as he thought about a future without Ron, Hermione or Ginny.
'Harry,' Dumbledore's portrait sighed 'Harry, I know you feel responsible for their deaths and you have lost everything you held dear to you, but just think how many people are alive due to you!'
'Luna. And Neville.' Harry said. 'That's pretty much it! Everyone I ever loved has gone! You said love was the greatest weapon! Now I have no one left to love and it obviously didn't save them, did it?!'
'Harry, we've discussed this before, I remember. After Sirius died. And I would tell you the same things all over again but you already know it.' Dumbledore's portrait was as calm as could be, looking at him you would never tell that the Darkest Wizard in history had just been defeated, or that his defeater was now shouting at his old mentor.
'I just want to go back. If I can't go back, I can't go on.' Harry said, almost as though it was an ultimatum.
'You can,' Harry looked up at the portrait. 'You can go back. Take my portrait off the wall and we will go into the library, I will tell you what I know. It won't be easy, Harry, I assure you that.'
'When has anything in my life ever been easy?' Dumbledore let a small smile creep across his face. It appeared that the one flicker of hope had restored Harry's less depressive personality, and it was only then that Dumbledore was sure he had made the correct decision in telling Harry about the time travel.
Harry did as he was told and removed Dumbledore's picture, putting it under his arm while he carried it over to the Headmaster or mistresses private library.
'This is where all the Headmaster's books have ended up, some were taken from the library when they were deemed too Dark or dangerous for young students, I believe Miss Granger may have known this, as I seem to remember her Summoning all of my books on Horcruxes shortly after my funeral.' Harry smiled a little, remembering his best friend. 'While I was Headmaster, during the years prior to your arrival at Hogwarts – when things around here were a little quieter! I had enough time to look through nearly all of these books. There is one on the bottom shelf of the fifth bookcase on the back wall,' Dumbledore's portrait paused as he allowed Harry some time to locate the correct shelf on the correct bookcase. 'It's name is simply 'Travelling Time'' Again, Dumbledore allowed Harry time to find the book, when he did, Harry pulled it out of the bookcase and blew off a layer of dust which had settled in the years since Dumbledore last opened the book. 'Please, I do not remember which page it is on, can you read the contents page?'
'Chapter 1 – Magical Objects and How To Use Them,
Chapter 2 – Charms and Short Term Travel,
Chapter 3 – Charms and Long Term Travel,
Chapter 4 – Potions and Substances,
Chapter 5 – Warnings'
'Chapter four then please Harry, I believe the potion you're looking for is one named Mind And Body Travel.' Harry flipped through the pages until he reached the page he was looking for, he quickly scanned the potion list and was pleasantly surprised, thinking it would be highly complicated and would take months of preparation, Harry was pleased to realise that the majority of the ingredients could be found in Snape's storage room and would take no longer than a couple hours if he didn't mess up. 'Read through everything on the page, and I mean EVERYTHING.' Harry nodded.
Mind And Body Travel.
The Mind and Body Travel potion ultimately transports the body of a being as well as any knowledge or memories, however, the soul will remain attached to the present day, thus meaning that whilst one person may travel back in time, they will never really exist in the past as long as the past version of themselves is living. Example, Silas is twenty, he travels back to when he is a baby. He cannot truly exist as another soul as his soul is already living in this time.
Therefore, the potion maker must also make a portion of a separate potion (see below) to travel themselves back to the present day, thus creating a parallel timeline.
If this is not an option for the Traveller, brewing a portion of potion three (see below) will merge souls thus the Traveller need never return to the present day, instead living forever in the parallel timeline. However, once the souls are reattached the person will have no knowledge of the timeline they left behind, nor that they had travelled time at all.
Ingredients
100g Boomslang Skin
25g Beetle shells
40g Unicorn hair (preferably tail)
8 drops of Acromantula venom
4 Beetle eyes
7 Frog livers
100ml water
Method
Add the water to a 5cm Pewter Cauldron
Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for one minute
Add Frog Livers, Unicorn hair and Boomslang skin, allow to simmer for one hour, stirring every three minutes
Add Acromantula venom, the potion should now change to a deep purple, leave to simmer for one hour stirring every five minutes.
Add Beetle shells and eyes, turn up heat to 172 degrees celsius for twenty minutes, stir.
Take off the heat and allow to cool before consuming.
Potion 2 – Re-Travel
Ingredients
100g Boomslang Skin
25g Beetle shells
40g Unicorn hair (preferably tail)
8 drops of Acromantula venom
4 Beetle eyes
7 Frog livers
100ml water
Method
Add the water to a 5cm Pewter Cauldron
Bring to the boil
Add Beetle shells and eyes, stir.
Leave for thirty minutes.
Add Acromantula venom, the potion will now change to a sky blue.
Leave to simmer for one hour, stirring every 4 minutes.
Add Frog Livers, Unicorn hair and Boomslang skin.
Leave to simmer for one hour stirring continuously.
Take off the heat and allow to cool before consumption
Potion 3 – Soul attachment
Ingredients
Seven drops of blood from the body of the soul (past or present)
Hair from the body of the soul
20ml Toad Saliva
Add the Toad Saliva to a preheated Iron Cauldron (3cm)
Leave to heat for fourteen minutes
Add hair, stir continuously for eight minutes
Add three drops of blood and stir seventeen times clockwise
Add four drops of blood and stir sixteen times anti-clockwise.
With a potion like this, Harry need never return to the present, he need never know a life without his best friends and girlfriend. He would be brought up by his parents, he may never even meet Aunt Petunia or Vernon or Dudley, no one would have to die for him. He knew Voldemort's secrets and knew how to defeat him. He could do it quietly, he wouldn't have to be the Boy-Who-Lived or famous Harry Potter, he could just be Harry, Lily and James's son.
'Harry, do you understand. Do you want to do this?' Harry nodded, only slowly hearing old headmaster, still thinking of the things he could do, see, and be in his new life. 'Then we need to discuss our plans.' This made Harry pull from his thoughts, it had been a long time since he had discussed plans with Dumbledore. 'I would like it greatly if you could tell the Past-Dumbledore who you are and what you are doing. He may not believe you, show him this memory. I then think it is wise not to discuss this with anyone else, though it may be necessary to tell your parents, I will let Past-Me make that decision. You will need to take the sword with you, this is a very brave thing you are doing, I believe the sword will stay with you for as long as you need it. And you must remember, you need only destroy five of the Horcruxes, if this works, you will go back to a time before he has created the Horcrux in Nagini and in you, of course.'
'So how does the potion know when I want to go back to?' Harry asked
'You think it. Pick a date, think of it while you're drinking the potion, if I am not mistaken, you will be transported back to the exact place you are now but on whatever date you think of.'
'I'm going to do it now. I'm going to the Potions Storage room and I'm going to make it now.'
'Take me with you.' Harry nodded, then, remembering the survivors and mourners wandering the castle in the hours after the Final Battle, Harry slipped under his Invisibility Cloak and storing Dumbledore's portrait and Travelling Time under his arm he walked out of the Headmaster's Office and made his way through the rubble down to the Dungeons where the Potions Stores were kept.
Harry placed Dumbledore's portrait on a desk in the middle of the Potions classroom, propping it up against a pile of books he had found on the front desk. Then, after placing Travelling Time of the table he made his way into the store room for the ingredients and apparatus he would need.
Other than in his sixth year, when he had extra help from the Half-Blood Prince, Harry had never cared much for potions, however, tonight he spent extra time, extra care to make sure everything was measured in correct portions and quantities. Harry could not remember a time when anything he did was more important that this, even destroying Horcruxes.
Whilst the potions simmered, Harry had cast an Alarm Spell ensuring he stirred the potion at the exact times the Potions required.
'So when should I go to? The day my parents died?' Harry asked.
'No, I believe that it would be wise to tell them who you are and what your plans are, therefore we can place you silently inside the wards of your parents house, they can evacuate and you can kill Voldemort from under your cloak, he will not know what is happening.' Dumbledore said, he had used the time while Harry was collecting and measuring the ingredients to plan.
'So I should go earlier. OK, how much earlier, should I destroy the Horcruxes before I kill him?'
'No, I do not think that will be necessary, I do, however, think that your parents may need some time to adjust to the idea that the child that they are cradling is the same person as this strange man who has just turned up.' Harry and Dumbledore went over the plans a couple more times, so that Harry, when he arrived in Past-Dumbledore's office would know what to say and how to broach the situation. Finally, the potions were ready, Harry poured them into vials and slipped them into the Moleskin purse Hagrid had given him for his last birthday, amongst the Marauder's Map, the piece of mirror and the snitch which had spent a whole year travelling with him around the country and would now travel with him once more across time.
The plan was set, Harry would drink the first potion in the Boy's toilets on the fifth floor, thinking '24th October 1981' exactly one week before his parents had died. Providing the potion worked, he would then be transported back to that night. He would check the Marauder's Map, pull on the Invisibilty Cloak and head up to the Headmaster's Office.
First, Harry, sliding under the Invisibility Cloak once more, picked up Dumbledore's Portrait and Travelling Time and walked up to the Headmaster's Office. On the way down to the Dungeons, Harry had not noticed the extent of the damage to the Castle. The majority of the walls were crumbled around him, pools and splatters of blood decorated the floor and the remaining walls. Bodies and body parts were strewn across the hallways and the family and friends of the deceased were huddled in every possible place, consoling each other. It won't be like this, this time. Harry thought. Finally they reached the Office, Harry placed Dumbledore back on his picture hook and made his way to the desk where hours earlier he had placed Gryffindor's Sword after the Battle, now he would take it with him, returning the Sword to the birthplace of it's first owner. Using it once more to kill the Horcruxes Voldemort thought no one knew about and bring an end to the nightmare that had been his life.
'You're ready?' Dumbledore's voice broke Harry out of his trance.
'Yes.' Harry nodded. Never being so certain of anything ever in his life, he made his way across the room towards the door.
'See you in 1981.'
Harry turned around and smiled at the old man who had been so much like a grandfather to him, he hoped desperately that they would still have a resemblance of this relationship in the alternate timeline he was about to create.
A/N Please Review! Thank you!