Awful Things Happen…
He stepped into the Great Hall to be sorted for what felt like the millionth time. The utter shock on the faces of his fellow students a comforting balm to the torrent of emotions flying through his mind. He was once again standing with Ron, the numerous fates the redhead had experienced in the many futures playing through Harry's mind. He saw Draco standing before him, as pompous as ever. He shook his head at how the boy was completely oblivious to the many battles, touching moments, and deaths they had both shared.
"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History," he heard come from behind him. Turning around he saw Hermione. His Hermione. They had spent a grand total of 106 years, 7 months, and 4 days together throughout the timelines, both as friends and as enemies, as lovers and as bitter rivals. He would take care to leave her especially untouched this time around, as he now knew her utter devotion and trust in authority and books as the crutches she used to survive the horrible cruelty that only schoolchildren can provide.
Glancing up at the staff table he saw the twinkly-eyed old coot himself. How that old man's machinations had destroyed him, both in the original timeline and countless others, never ceased to haunt his nightmares. All in the search of some extraneous and undefined 'Greater Good.' Next to the Sorting Hat was Professor McGonagall, at times his most ardent supporter, and at others the one person he would avoid at all costs. He recalled fondly when she was 'Mum' before she was 'Professor,' and recalled less fondly the ire and disappointment directed his way when he followed Malfoy around like an add-on to the Bookends in one of his more foolish attempts at fixing how things had happened.
As the gaggle of students walked fearfully towards her stern visage, he saw a pair of identical redheads to his right and had to fight back tears. For some reason their fates stuck with him the hardest, but arguably only when one half was left. When the unstoppable force that was Fred and George was wholly gone, it seemed far less tragic than when you saw one of them sitting alone, the humor gone from his eyes, because his reason for laughing was taken from him. Harry still recalled the times he had seen Molly Weasley's boggart, how the thought of the two twins being separate had never even occurred to her.
"Harry Potter"
Thinking back to the first time he had seen that boggart brought his memories of Sirius, of how he was currently wasting away in a prison he had no business being in, surviving on meagre amounts of food and only holding on due to the unknown existence of Padfoot. A single tear had to be quickly wiped away as all of the ways his beloved godfather had left him played through his head. The red spell and the Veil, blood loss, a simple 'Goodbye,' and many others were all going through his head when Ron nudged him.
"It's your turn mate," the redhead spoke as he knocked Harry out of his reverie.
Harry's head snapped up, suddenly aware of the whispers his name had started and seeing the timeless pursed lips of the Transfiguration professor. He made his way up to the stool and the hat was placed upon his head.
"So you've finally understood Mr. Potter. Well I have to give you credit, you have persevered far longer than most," the hat spoke into his head with a tone of amusement.
"I'm sorry?" Harry thought back. "What exactly do you mean?"
"Well young Harry, I was enchanted by the four greatest magic users of their time as a way to impartially sort students, don't you think they would have added other things for me to do?"
"And what exactly are you doing right now?"
"Well you have traveled through time, don't even try to deny it, Occlumency shields are useless against me. Don't worry, you should know by now that your secrets are safe with me, I have had plenty of occasions to give them to people, yet they have been kept safe. But I am here to tell you that your final decision is the correct one, and that I will help you achieve that goal."
Harry stiffened. "My final decision? But I decided to do nothing."
"Exactly the point my boy, doing nothing is the correct choice. The founders all meddled with time at least once in their lives, and each came upon the same conclusion, the same conclusion that your true love told you in your original third year. 'Awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time.'"
"They told each other about it? In my experience that only leads to even worse complications."
"That would be correct, if they had been traveling at the time. All four had come to this conclusion before divulging their secrets. But putting that aside, they realized they were not the first, nor would they be the last, to try and meddle with time. Hell, I have had travelers who simply came back to affect their love lives, or to increase their monetary success, let alone a noble cause like the one you have championed. But each traveler eventually comes across the same conclusion, whether I force it or not."
"Force it? What are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing harmful my boy, I promise you. The founders gave me the ability to remove memories of past timelines, and I automatically give a slight compulsion to those I remove memories from to not meddle with time. I do this automatically to the shallow travelers, those with delusions of romantic or monetary grandeur. But to those who travel for the sake of others, those who travel for the reasons you do, I allow you to come to the conclusion yourself. Fate is immutably the best outcome, and those who attempt to change it are doomed to make things worse."
Harry looked about the room, seeing all his former friends and former enemies, their many fates flashing before his eyes.
"Yes, young Harry, all of that knowledge that you torture yourself with daily will be gone from you, and you will live out your life as you had in the beginning. Cedric and Sirius will still die of unnatural causes, but as I have told you it is not 'before their time,' as you have become fond of thinking. Albus's machinations will still come to fruition, and Miss Ginevra will eventually gain your affections due to your once-stunted sense of what love is."
Harry's thoughts, when Ginny came to them, immediately shifted to her one-time friend Luna. His adopted sister. The cruelty she had suffered at the hands of her housemates, her unique view on the world, her tendency to understand and do things before anyone else.
"Ahh, Miss Lovegood. Don't you know already Harry? She has already come to the conclusion that you have now come across. Her mother's death affected her far more than she lets on, even you know that, but the extent of it goes beyond what anyone had guessed. Thankfully for you she came to that decision before sitting on this stool, so her advanced understanding and her particular variety of the Sight were not taken from her. She has known you were a time traveler, but I have repeatedly advised her to not aid nor hinder you in any way in your travels."
"She knows what I've done? What I've seen?"
"Not at all, she merely recognizes that you are a fellow time traveler, and that you have not come to the true conclusion of your story yet. Either of your stories for that matter."
Harry screwed up his face in confusion. "Either of our stories?"
"Well Harry, the farthest you have gone in your life was in the original timeline, one month after Lily Luna was sent off to Hogwarts. Don't you wonder what happens after that?"
"Are you able to tell me?" Harry asked as he nearly shook with anticipation.
"As Rowena and Salazar both gifted me with their forms of the Sight, and I know what knowledge Luna has gained through hers, I do know what your eventual future holds. Also, since all of this knowledge will be removed momentarily I suppose it won't hurt. The melancholy and listlessness that you felt as an empty nester do still set in, but thanks to my compulsion you do not travel in time, and those feelings only get worse. Eventually, your negative mood and lack of desire to be in the spotlight grate upon the Holyhead Harpies' star chaser, and you manage to go through a somewhat mutual divorce. Luna and Rolf had also divorced the year before, but the details were never divulged. Eventually, after a night of commiseration of the pains of being newly single, Luna comes clean to you about two of the many secrets she has kept. One of those being Mr. Scamander's serial infidelity."
Harry inwardly gasped. He had always seen Rolf as a good man and had held his and Luna's relationship up as an example of what two kindred spirits could accomplish when they came together.
"Yes, Rolf was definitely not the man he seemed. It seems his years of living free and traveling wherever his next creature took him did not translate well to the married life. Anyway, the second secret she will divulge is her deep-seeded romantic feelings for you. Don't freak out now, remember that the outcome Fate has designed for you is immutably the best option. You of course think of Hermione, seeing her as your true love. I'm sorry to say that you were correct in your original assumption, she is much more your sister than she is a romantic interest. You were repeatedly perfect for each other in school, your similar childhoods and passions worked wonderfully in tandem with one another. Once graduated this is no longer the case. Your habit of rushing headlong into danger would destroy her in your married life, as she could not be by your side as she once was, and her tendency to become a worrywart would drive her to smother you even worse than Molly ever did. Luna has all of the intelligence that Hermione displayed, and the understanding that only a fellow victim of bullying and discrimination could give, but she also has the ability to let you live your own life. I digress, all of this knowledge is useless in the end, and it is the end. All you need to do to start the process is make of me your original request."
Harry steeled himself and repeated his age-old mantra. "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin."
"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the Hat's small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you're sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!"
At this, Harry felt all of the knowledge he had gained over the many years slip away from his mind, and grinned as Per… a Gryffindor prefect got up to shake his hand.