The Fountain of Magic
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Eleven-year-old Harry Potter was spending the time between lunch and the first afternoon class outside together with his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, discussing the happenings of the Quidditch match a few days ago.
"How can Hagrid be so sure that it wasn't Snape, who cast the curse at me, although you stopped him by setting his robes on fire?" Harry queried in disbelief. "You saw him cast it."
"Yes, that's true," Hermione agreed, sighing.
"Maybe Hagrid..." Ron spoke up but interrupted himself, seeing Malfoy and his two sidekicks come over to them.
"Planning mischief again?" Malfoy sneered. "Maybe you should better use the time to properly practise Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potter." Before the three Gryffindors had even realised that he took his wand into his hand, he cast the Expelliarmus spell at Harry, causing the boy to fly backwards, ending up right in the fountain.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, horrified, while Malfoy returned inside the castle together with his friends, laughing.
Together, Hermione and Ron ran towards the fountain and stared inside, only to exchange a terrified look upon realising that there was no sign whatsoever of Harry.
"Is Harry able to swim?" Hermione queried in concern, eyeing the completely calm water on the surface.
"I've no idea. Can you?" Ron asked, shrugging.
"Well, then we should go after him," Hermione said, worriedly. "He could drown if he can't swim."
"I can't either, and I surely want to kill myself by jumping in here," Ron stated, staring at the fountain that was surrounded by an old stone wall.
"I thought you were his friend," Hermione said in disbelief. "Are you not worried about him?"
"I don't think people can drown in the fountain here. Otherwise they wouldn't have it here on the school grounds," Ron replied in a firm voice, causing Hermione to shake her head in annoyance.
"Well I'll go and check where he is," she announced in determination and, without waiting for her friend's reply, climbed into the fountain.
"I'll wait here," Ron promised, while she prepared herself to dive into the water.
HP
Harry felt himself being flung backwards through the air, hitting his head against the stone wall behind the fountain, before he found himself in the water.
'Oh no, I can't swim,' he thought, anxiously, as he felt himself being pulled downwards further and further. Just when he feared that he would suffocate because he could not breathe under the water, he found himself out of the water again. However, instead of being outside on the Hogwarts grounds, from where he had unwillingly entered the fountain, he was sitting on a stone floor under the water. Right over his head he could see the fountain. 'That must be magic, but why does the fountain have a room underneath?' he wondered, noticing in surprise that he found himself in a very tiny stone room that was in no way larger than the fountain itself.
He stood up from the floor and carefully explored his surroundings. To his left hand, there was a door, and when he hesitantly stepped through it, he realised in disbelief that he was back in the courtyard, right next to the fountain. However, the courtyard looked slightly different from before, and Hermione and Ron were gone.
'Are they not even waiting for me to come back let alone looking for me?' he thought, feeling slightly sad that he seemed to be unimportant enough for his friends to just go on with their lives even if he was in danger to drown in the fountain.
However, all of a sudden, Hermione showed up, coming out of the door, through which Harry had walked a minute earlier.
"Harry, where are we?" Hermione asked, letting her eyes wander around in apparent surprise.
"Hogwarts?" Harry returned the question, tentatively.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh well I can see that. But it looks a bit different all of a sudden. The trees that were over there are all gone. And Ron isn't here, although he promised to wait for us. Are you all right?" she suddenly interrupted her rant. "You look like a ghost."
"I think I hit my head at the fountain wall," he admitted in a quiet voice. "It hurts a bit, but it's not so bad."
Hermione sighed. "Well let me take you to the hospital wing. We need someone to cast a drying spell at us anyway. I hope that everything apart from the trees is still where it's supposed to be."
'Hermione doesn't know how to cast a drying spell,' Harry thought in surprise as he slowly followed his friend back inside the castle, however, as soon as they stepped inside, they stopped dead in their tracks. It was clear that they were at Hogwarts, however, all of the moving paintings that usually decorated the walls in the corridors were gone.
"Harry, I think we ended up either in an alternate universe or in a different time," Hermione spoke up, pensively.
"An alternate universe?" Harry queried, rubbing his forehead.
"Have you not heard about them?" Hermione asked, shaking her head. "They're said to exist. Most things are the same but some things are said to be different from our normal reality. I don't really believe in them though. Maybe it's rather that the fountain took us to a different time, maybe to the past and the trees and the moving paintings just have not been made in this time."
Harry stared at the girl in confusion. 'I know that she's the most clever witch in our year, but time travel through a fountain? That's impossible.' However, his head hurt too much to fight with his eager friend, so he said nothing but just followed her to where the hospital wing was supposed to be.
"Thank Merlin," Hermione spoke up, as she opened the door to the hospital wing and realised that it still seemed to be there. "Come Harry, lie down on the first bed. I'll go and fetch the healer."
Harry hesitantly sat on the edge of the first bed. Like from far away, he could hear Hermione speak with someone, however, he could not make out what was being said.
HP
A few minutes later, Hermione returned to his side with a healer in tow. Harry stared at the young witch in surprise. She was dressed in extremely strange clothes. Before he could further explore the situation, the healer addressed him in a soft voice.
"Hello Harry," she said, giving him a sharp look. "You hit your head?" she queried, not waiting for Harry to reply, before she began to wave her wand over him. "Yes, you have a slight concussion and should not do any magic for a few days. I'll give you a potion that'll help with the headache."
"Harry," Hermione spoke up, as soon as the healer returned to her office to fetch the potion. "We're in the time of the Founders of Hogwarts. The healer is Helga Hufflepuff."
"What?" Harry blurted out in disbelief.
"Yes," Hermione confirmed. "On the one hand, it's great, and I'm very excited to meet the other three Founders too, but on the other hand, it's unsettling that we don't know if we'll ever be able to return to our own time."
"I'll call my colleagues here and ask if anyone knows about this function of the fountain," Hufflepuff promised when she returned with a goblet, having heard the second part of Hermione's words. She handed Harry the goblet with the instruction to drink all of the light yellow liquid, before she called a house-elf and instructed her to fetch her three colleagues.
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To Harry's relief, the potion worked wonders, and he felt completely well afterwards. Together with the healer, the two time travellers made themselves comfortable in Hufflepuff's office, where they waited for the other Founders to arrive.
"The last afternoon class is just about to finish, so they'll be here shortly," Hufflepuff promised and in the meantime told the time-travellers that Hogwarts had only opened its doors for the students a little more than two months ago and that it still was not completely finished.
"During the weekends, we still have to apply charms to part of the walls and corridors," she explained, just when the first of her colleagues entered the room.
'Oh Merlin he looks like Snape,' was Harry's first thought, before the healer introduced him as her husband, Salazar Slytherin.
"You came through the Fountain of Magic?" he repeated his wife's explanation in apparent surprise. "Your magic must be quite strong then, considering that you look like first-years."
"We are first-years," Hermione threw in, indignantly.
"The Fountain of Magic?" Hufflepuff threw in, giving her husband an incredulous look. "I've never heard of such a thing, Sal."
Slytherin smirked. "I invented it," he admitted. "I thought that it might become necessary to communicate with Potions Masters of the future in order to teach them potions that might be lost in the future and to learn new inventions from them. I just didn't have time to try it out yet," he explained, matter-of-factly, before he turned back to the time travellers. "Maybe you can help us charm the castle. I want to make some short-cuts."
"Harry is not going to do any magic for at least two days," Hufflepuff threw in. "Do you have an idea how Hermione and Harry can get back to the future by the way?"
"Yes, it's easy," Slytherin said, smirking. "I'll tell them after they help me with the shortcuts."
"Professor," Hermione spoke up in a firm voice. "We promise that we'll help you as soon as Harry is allowed to do so. Please just explain to us how we can get back, so that we don't have to worry about it while we're here."
"The young lady is absolutely correct," Hufflepuff agreed, giving her husband a sharp look.
"Ah that's no problem," Slytherin contradicted, however, seeing his wife's glare, explained, "You simply have to stand under the fountain and say, "Up to... and the exact date to where you wish to go."
"Thank you very much Professor," Hermione replied, smiling at the Potions Master, who slightly inclined his head.
Just at this moment, a young witch entered the room together with a brown bear. 'A bear?' Harry thought in disbelief.
"Sorry we've kept you waiting," Rowena Ravenclaw spoke up, glaring at the bear and Slytherin. "Godric and Salazar saw fit to mix a potion into the meal of my students, and they're all wearing purple hair now."
"That's why you had to transfigure Godric into a bear?" Hufflepuff asked in apparent annoyance, already waving her wand to transfigure her colleague back. "These two here are Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, two time travellers from one thousand years into the future," she then explained.
"Oh Merlin," Gryffindor blurted out, staring at them in clear amazement. "How did you manage to get here?"
Rolling his eyes, his colleague told him about the Fountain of Magic, making Gryffindor nod in understanding.
"Well done Sal, that's a brilliant idea," he commended his friend.
"I know you," Ravenclaw suddenly spoke up, pointing at Harry. "Godric, he's the boy I told you about. The boy from my visions." Turning to Harry, she queried, "You have a scar on your forehead, don't you?"
"Yes," Harry replied, quirking an eyebrow in silent question.
"Oh my dear boy, you're the saviour of the magical world in the future," Ravenclaw said in a grave voice. "But now that you're here, we can all help you. Thank Merlin that you came here today. You must stay for a few weeks, and we're all going to teach you and your friend."
HP
Over the following six weeks before the beginning of the Christmas holidays, Hermione and Harry had to attend first-year classes, and after the classes, each of the Founders taught them special subjects like Sword fighting, Occlumency, Healing and Animagus transformation.
During the weekends, Professor Ravenclaw showed the two students many of the visions that she had received about Harry and his future. Together with the other Founders, they watched the visions in a Pensieve.
'This is horrible,' Harry thought, horrified, seeing himself kill basilisks, collect Horcruxes and fight Death Eaters as well as Voldemort. 'If I thought my early childhood with the Dursleys was bad, the next years are going to be much worse.'
"This is all about this stupid heir of mine, right?" Salazar suddenly growled. When Ravenclaw confirmed in a grave voice, he continued, "He doesn't deserve being a heir of mine. Let's go and spell a potion into his mother's stomach that makes her unable to have children."
Silence broke out after the Potions Master's suggestion, before Ravenclaw finally spoke up. "Salazar, that's it. We don't even need a potion. I can just cast a charm at her. I know what Merope Gaunt looks like, and I can just apparate to her and cast the charm."
Gryffindor cast his wife a concerned look. "I'm not going to let you time travel alone," he spoke up in a firm voice. "If you get lost in the future and are unable to return here for some reason, I want to be with you. I'll accompany you."
"Very well," Ravenclaw agreed, smiling. "Salazar, will you escort us to the fountain and tell us how it works?" Turning to the others, she promised, "We'll try to be back tomorrow."
HP
Not only Hufflepuff and her husband were very concerned about her best friends, but also Hermione and Harry worried if the two Founders would make it back to their time let alone cast the spell at Voldemort's mother. However, when they woke up after a short night, the young couple was already back and in a good mood.
"We did it Harry," Ravenclaw informed him, smiling broadly. "It took as a few days to meet her alone, but we managed to cast the charm, and we cast it together, so that it should be strong enough to not be reversed by anyone. So far I don't know what your future looks like, but it can't be worse than it was before we changed the future."
"Thank you so very much, Professor," Harry said, gratefully. "This is the best news that I've ever received."
HP
During the Christmas holidays, the Founders continued to teach Hermione and Harry, and at the same time, the two friends pondered if they should remain in the time of the Founders until the summer holidays or return to the future as soon as school commenced again.
After a long discussion, Professor Hufflepuff suggested in a soft voice, "I believe that you both want to know how far my colleagues have changed your future. Therefore, I suggest that you return home next week. However, please remember that you're more than welcome to come back here at any time."
"Exactly," Ravenclaw agreed. "If we made changes for the worse, which I can't imagine, come back and we'll change the future again. Other than that, we'd like you to come and continue your studies here at any time, if necessary during the summer holidays."
"Thank you very much," Hermione replied in clear excitement. "We'd love to come back here during the summer." She let out a long sigh, before she enquired, "Professors, is there anything that we can do so that we become best friends again in spite of the changes? Harry's the first friend I ever had, and I don't want to lose him. This time we were both in Gryffindor and got to know each other on the Hogwarts Express, however..." She slowly trailed off, and Harry noticed that tears welled in her eyes.
"Yes please Professors," Harry added, casting the girl a comforting smile.
Seeing that both students looked at them in expectation, Godric replied, pensively. "If that's what you really wish and are sure that you want it to last, you could bond to each other. That way, you'd probably get together by one or the other way when you're still babies or at least small children."
"Yes please," Hermione said, eagerly. "Would that be all right with you Harry?"
"Of course," Harry replied, smiling.
The four Founders conversed about possible spells that they could cast at the students for a few minutes, before headmaster Gryffindor finally turned to the friends.
"Are you sure?" he queried and, seeing Harry and Hermione nod their heads in agreement, waved his hand over the students, uttering a complicated incantation.
Harry immediately felt incredibly happy. "I think it worked," he spoke up in a small voice, causing Hermione to nod cheerfully.
"Yes, I'm so happy," she concurred. "Thank you very much, Professor Gryffindor.
The two friends decided to travel to the future on the following day and come back to study with the Founders right at the beginning of the summer holidays.
In the morning, the Founders accompanied them to the Fountain of Magic.
"Since we don't know if you'll end up here again in your new timeline," Slytherin spoke up, when the friends readied themselves to travel, I'll go and fetch you here on the tenth of November, 1991.
"All right sir, thank you very much," Harry said, gratefully.
After all Founders had pulled them into hugs and said their good-byes, Harry took Hermione's hand. "Let's go together," he said, before they uttered "Up," adding the date and time simultaneously.
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Almost one thousand years later, a small boy was sitting on the swing on a Muggle playground, watching closely how his mummy fed his baby sister on the nearby bench. His cousin Dudley was sitting on the other swing; however, Harry did not overly like his cousin and preferred to play alone, even if his mother sometimes met with her sister during the summer holidays, so that the children could play together.
All of a sudden, a girl entered the playground together with her mother. Only by taking a glance at the girl, Harry instinctively knew that she was going to be his best friend.
"Hello," he said, jumping down from the swing. "Would you like to play with me? I'm Harry, and I'm three soon."
"Hi Harry, I'm Hermione, and I'd love to play with you," the girl replied, smiling. "I'm also three."
To their mothers' surprise, the two children became inseparable. They begged their mothers to come to the playground again the following day, and after playing together for a full week, they found out that they were able to communicate telepathically. From that time onwards, they spent half of the day speaking with each other. Their mothers wondered why the kids were so tired all the time, however, they did not have a clue about their children's communicative abilities.
HP
While Hermione's parents were dentists, Muggles at that, Harry's parents were both professors at Hogwarts. Lily was teaching Charms and was the head of Ravenclaw house, while Severus was the Potions professor, Potions Master and head of Slytherin. When Harry and his best friend Neville, whose parents were professors at Hogwarts as well, turned three, the teachers founded a playschool group that was open for all magical children from the age of three onwards.
The house-elves had arranged the rooms for the playschool in an unused wing, and Harry could not wait for the first of September to come. It was two weeks before the end of the holidays that he spoke with his parents about Hermione.
"Mum, Dad, Hermione wants to come to the playschool too. Can she come please?"
Lily let out a long sigh, exchanging a glance with her husband. "Harry, if she was magical, she could of course attend the playschool. I have the impression as if she was a witch, but I'm not sure."
"She is!" Harry shouted, excitedly. "She told me today that she made her cousin's hair blue, because her cousin wasn't nice to her."
"When did she tell you that?" Severus enquired, frowning. Harry had spent the whole day in the Potions classroom with him.
"She thinked to me," Harry admitted. "We can think to each other."
His parents exchanged a shocked look and decided to go and visit the girl's parents during the weekend.
HP
To Harry's and Hermione's great pleasure, Hermione's parents took it well that their daughter was a witch and allowed her to attend the playschool at Hogwarts together with Harry. From that time onwards, the two children became best friends and completely inseparable.
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Hermione and Harry were flung out of the fountain, ending up in the courtyard right next to it.
"It worked," Hermione was the first to speak up, pointing to the trees. "The trees are back."
"Thank Merlin, although I really enjoyed being in the past," Harry replied, smiling, as he followed her gaze.
"Me too Harry," Hermione agreed, returning the smile. "I can't wait to go back there again in the summer."
"Welcome back to the future," they suddenly heard a soft voice, and a red haired woman came around the fountain to meet them. "You probably don't know who I am," she added and introduced herself. "I'm your mother Lily, Harry, and your head of house, Hermione."
"Mum," Harry blurted out, staring at his mother in amazement. "Sorry, I don't know anything..."
"I know," Lily said in a soothing voice. "I'm going to take both of you to our quarters, where you're going to sleep for two or three days, until you have all of the memories of the new timeline."
"How do you know...?" Hermione began to ask but stopped herself.
Lily chuckled. "Professors Gryffindor and Ravenclaw came here to fetch you yesterday, and they told us everything. Only my husband and I as well as headmistress McGonagall know about the matter though, and we're all very grateful for what you did for all of us."
"Mum, in which house are we?" Harry asked in excitement. "Are we together?"
"Hermione is in Ravenclaw, and you're in Slytherin. However, since Ravenclaw and Slytherin have classes together and you spend all the evenings at home together to help me care for the baby, I believe that the houses don't matter so much," Lily patiently explained, causing Harry and Hermione to exchange a relieved smile.
'My parents are alive and I have a little sister or brother,' Harry thought in amazement. 'How cool is that? And Hermione still seems to be my best friend. I'm so happy.'
HP
Three days later, Harry and Hermione woke up from a long, potions induced slumber, during which they had received the memories of the new timeline.
Seeing that Hermione was also just waking up, Harry said, "I can't believe how well this all worked out. My former life was so horrible, and now I think I'm the happiest boy in the world."
Hermione smiled. "Yes Harry, I know, and thanks to you and the spell that the Founders cast at us, my life is much better than before, too. I can't wait to go back to the past in the summer and thank Slytherin for the Fountain of Magic."
"We'll do that," Harry promised. "I love the Fountain of Magic."
The End