Carpe Diem

AN/ Thank you the wonderful Persephone-Gaia for Beta-ing this chapter.

Chapter 1

Harry used to have dreams of what his life would be like after the war and the defeat of Voldemort. He would imagine himself making off with Ginny, having troves of children, becoming an Auror, settling down later on to teach at Hogwarts, work in the ministry, or some such job. He would watch his children grow along Hermione and Ron's and would eventually grow old having lived a long, good, peaceful life.

Harry had many of those dreams.

But now as he stared into the fearful distrustful eyes of the ones he had committed his life to protect, he wondered how he could have ever been so foolish. After years with the Dursely's you would think the message of trust no one but yourself and keep your head down and just survive would have been drilled deeply enough inside his thick skull to stick, but somewhere along the way of false kindness, hope, and twinkly eyed old men, he had buried his resolve and convinced himself of goodness, truth and love.

What utter hogwash.

No, Harry knew better now, he could see Dumbledore's manipulations for what they were, a way to control his weapon and now that his weapon had run out of uses he was much too powerful to leave sitting around where he may develop a thought process of his own. Growling lightly, Harry looked up from his seat in Dumbledore's office refocusing his attention. "What are you saying Headmaster?"

Said Headmaster cocked his head lightly to the side and sighed, eyes still twinkling obnoxiously. "My dear boy I know life has been hard on you, but I simply cannot condone the choices you have made. You must speak for your actions."

"My actions," Harry shouted loudly letting out a burst of magic in his wake, "You mean the actions I took to save us all from a megalomaniac dark lord! Those actions?!" Dumbledore gave him a rather disappointed look for his outburst in an attempt to cow him. It only served to incense him further and he felt his magic coil and grow around him as he seethed in rage.

"Calm down, Harry my boy, there is no need to get so upset; you know the Dark arts and lost arts are illegal. You must face the consequences." Harry's eyes widened and he slumped in his chair before schooling his face into a perfect picture of blankness. The room's temperature dropped swiftly as the once enraged magic turned deadly.

"You intend to punish me for learning the dark arts and lost arts? The two things that allowed me to beat Voldemort? The things I spent years desperately studying so I could fight back against the death eaters and save the ones I loved…?"

Harry paused then, leveling a steely glare at the man he had once idolized. "You know Albus, I have begun to wonder who is truly more despicable, you or Voldemort."

With those words he pushed himself from the chair making a move to leave, when two Aurors burst in. "Harry Potter you are under arrest for the unlawful use of the Dark and lost arts. Step down and hand us your wand." Hardly blinking, Harry flicked his wrist causing the two men to fly backwards hitting the far wall of the office. He heard Dumbledore yell for him to stop, but without looking back, Harry Potter disappeared.

Moving quickly, Harry exited the Hogwarts wards, grabbed his wand, and disapparated. The familiar feeling of being pulled through a tube hit as he was unceremoniously dumped on the tile floor, barely refraining from falling. Harry sighed, moving around the old house he now resided in. The house had been one of the Potter properties that had been given to him upon his seventeenth birthday, along of course with the rest of his inheritance and the Potter lordship.

Looking around, he found the large tome he had read before Dumbledore had summoned him to his office to betray him. Flipping through the pages, he opened to a particular marked page and re-read the ritual listed there. This really could go horribly wrong. Not many people had tried the spell and the few that had hadn't lived long enough to remark it a success.

Sighing again, Harry let his head fall in his hands. What was it again that Fred and George had always been trying to teach Percy? …Ah yes, Carpe Diem: seize the day. Well, he supposed he didn't truly have much to lose. Lifting his head from his hands he called out, "Dobby!" The small wrinkled house elf appeared moments later, grinning happily at him.

"Oh master Harry! What can Dobby do to help yous?"

Smiling lightly back at him, Harry replied, "Do you remember the list of items that I showed you a few days ago? Did you pick up the things on it?" Dobby nodded enthusiastically and snapped his fingers, handing over a bag filled with a few large objects and a bucket of goat's blood.

"Yes Dobby gots everything Master Harry asked Dobby for!" Thanking him, Harry let him know he was dismissed and turned to the items he would need to perform the spell.

Working quickly, Harry managed to set everything up in a matter of hours. He now sat in a black robe in the center of a circle filled with runes, drawn in goat's blood. His wand was clutched tightly in his hand as he took a deep breath and began the enchantment.

"Sileo et reformandam."

Harry felt his magic swirl around him causing wind to erupt and the goat's blood runes to glow. All around him, the world began to rain in bright colors, drawing brighter and brighter until there was a bleak nothingness.

Groaning in pain, Harry sat up and rubbed his hands over his eyes before stopping abruptly and lowering them in front of him. Staring at his now child sized hands, Harry stood and made his way into a slightly busy street that appeared to be somewhere in London.

Meandering around, Harry found a newspaper stand and pulled one of the latest editions from the stack. Ignoring the articles he went straight for the date: June 21 1931.

It had worked.

AN/Edited 12/21/2014