Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, none of the characters, all belong to J.K. Rowling, blah, blah, blah.

Summary

The Weasley twins are experimenting with time for a new joke product, but end up getting sent back much farther than they expected, and right into the middle of the fight where Ariana Dumbledore would have been murdered.

Rather than casting the Cruciatus Curse in front of the twins, Gellert Grindelwald stuns Aberforth and convinces Albus follow him out the door.

Fred and George return to the future, not expecting much of a change. They're in for a shock when they find themselves in a Dystopian future where Muggles and Muggleborns are kept as pets or live in overcrowded prison. A world where Dumbledore has been morphed into a crazy dictator, and Gellert Grindelwald rules by his side with an iron fist. To make things worse, the Weasleys are esteemed because of their blood status, and Fred and George seemed to have taken up where their cruel predecessors have left off, leaving them with horrible reputations, horrible friends, and memories from another life fighting to take over their minds.

They know that their only choice is to right their wrongs, but doing that is going to involve a long and painful journey. One that they may not survive.

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Help, I need somebody,

Help, not just anybody,

Help, you know I need someone, help.

Help, The Beatles

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Fred Weasley had always had a nose for trouble. Everyone said that George was more soft-spoken, gentler, less brash. He was the one who thought things through, who made carefully detailed plans, who made sure that no one was ever going to get hurt.

Fred didn't see what the point of all that thinking was. Life was short. He wasn't going to spend it considering every little thing that could go wrong. He wanted to live.

And that is exactly what he told his mother when she caught him adding lacewing flies to his potion when she knew that it already contained powdered unicorn horn, which even a first year would recognize as a volatile mixture.

George laughed from the corner of the room while he looked through a book on time traveling. He was trying to work out a formula for a potion that they could mix up into candies that would rewind time for just a few minutes. Not in the way a time turner did, either.

They wanted to rewire time, change the universe. Not for long periods of time, obviously. They'd give their candies properties to go back ten minutes at the most. Incase you asked out a girl and she said no, or you failed a quiz that you should have spent those ten minutes studying for.

It was the perfect idea, Fred's own, sure to be a best seller. George was into it wholeheartedly, checking to see if it was even possible that they could actually change the timeline.

Fred shook his head at his brother as their mother left the room. He had perfect instincts for this stuff. He didn't need any real formulas. While George wrote down fancy ingredients and measurements, he threw stuff in a cauldron.

Forgetting about his mother's warnings, he put a pinch of crushed beadle eyes into the creamy mixture. It turned a blazing orange and started bubbling viciously. He grinned, his gut telling him that this was exactly what they needed. Fred scooped up some of the potion in a test tube, put a stopper on top, then turned back to the still nearly full cauldron.

It was always good to make cures to his potions, on the very rare occasion that there was a mistake. So he started adding ingredients that he knew countered the ones that he put in his first batch. When he was finished, he scooped some of that up as well, picked up both test tubes, and hurried over to George.

"I've got it, I can feel it. This is going to work better than any time turner."

"Do you know how far back it goes?" George asked. Fred made a face at his twin.

"Not exactly, but I didn't add too many ingredients. It can't take a person back very far, I don't think."

"You think it's safe to test?" George asked, looking warily at the test tube in Fred's hand. It was still bubbling cheerfully.

"Oh, of course," Fred said, waving off his worries. "I'm sure that it's perfectly fine. If not, I've got another one that should send us back to our normal time if there is a mistake. Now, the question is how to test it."

"Well, we don't want to go back anywhere around here, just incase we wind up in a different place from where we started. We don't want to just appear outside here, not with all the Muggles around."

"Right you are, brother," Fred said, easily seeing the logic there. "Why don't we go to Godric's Hollow, instead? It's mostly a wizarding village, so if we appear out of nowhere, people won't be too freaked out."

"Yeah," George said, but Fred could see that his twin was worried. "But what if it goes back too far and we run into Voldemort when he killed Harry?" Fred snorted.

"Is that pessimism I hear?" he asked. "I never would've thunk it, Forge."

"Shove it, Gred," George said with a grin. "I was just saying."

"Well, I'm saying that we can floo there easily. It's convenient, and it'll take two seconds."

"What about Hogwarts?" asked George.

"How're we going to get there in Summer? Nope, Godric's Hollow. Chances of going back to the exactly night and time that Harry died are one in a million, and nothing else big happened there that could change the course of history. Besides, we can apparate there since we've already visited the Potter Memorial. Much easier than breaking into Hogwarts."

"And you're sure your potion won't kill us?"

"Sure as pudding," Fred said with a grin. George relaxed, starting to gain faith in his twin.

"Brilliant. Now, time for test phase one."

The two twins both apparated to the park in Godric's Hollow with a loud CRACK.

"So, where do you want to do this thing?" Fred asked once they had both collected their bearings.

"I dunno. Let's just go over to that tree. We can go back, carve our names in it, and if it's there when we return, we've succeeded."

Fred yawned.

"Booooring. I say we invade a random house, terrorize the occupants, then go back in time and see if we can catch our future selves and stop them before they actually do anythingr."

"But if it doesn't work?"

Fred grinned devilishly.

"We leave some people pretty creeped out. It wouldn't be the first time."

George shrugged, conceding his point.

"I s'pose you're right. Now, whose life shall we make exciting today?"

"What about theirs?" Fred asked, pointing to a rather official looking two story house. In fact, he'd almost say that the house had a feeling of a museum of some sort about it, a demand to be respected.

"Bloody hell, it looks like the kind of place that Snape would live. You sure?"

"Hell, maybe Snape lives there. Just imagine it," Fred said. He could feel his eyes shining as a hundred new possibilities flooded into his head. If this potion worked, it could be used for so much more than getting out of a tardy. He could do anything he wanted to Snape next year, and then just zip back in time and make it go all away.

If this worked, his seventh year was going to be very pleasant.

"You're right, Fred. Picking on an old, Snape-like bat is too good to resist. Let's go," he said. With that, the two twins started skipping up the ominous path towards the empty looking house.

Once they got to the weathered white door, Fred knocked cheerfully. The door popped open, and he peered into the house, then figured 'what the hell' and bellowed, "HELLO!" at the top of his lungs.

Only his echoes answered him.

"Huh, empty," George said thoughtfully. "Shall we simply leave a mark here, then go back and change it, or would you prefer to switch houses?"

"Ah, hell. Let's just stay here. I bet that Mum is going to put supper on in a few minutes, and I'm positively famished."

"Agreed. So, what do you say we should do…."

"Reducto!" Fred said gleefully, sending a powerful blast into the hardwood floor at his feet. Wood flew out of the ground, spraying in different directions. He smirked. "Alright. Shall we go back and stop ourselves from blowing the floor up?"

"We've better now, haven't we?"

Fred tried to fake a guilty look, but he couldn't keep a straight face. With a crazy grin, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the first bubbling orange vial.

"Ready, George?" he asked.

"Clearly," his twin answered.

As Fred help up the bottle to take out the stopper, the stopper popped out more suddenly than he expected. He jerked forward reflexively to catch it, but George reached for it at the same time.

George's arm collided with his, causing Fred to drop the vial.

Orange, bubbly potion fizzled across the floor. For a moment, Fred looked at it in terror. Then it fizzled out and he relaxed. He felt George do the same thing.

"Wow, that was scary," Fred said, bending over to pick up the stopper.

"Too bad we can't test it today, though," said George as he looked disdainfully at the mess.

Fred was just about to suggest that they could try again tomorrow when the potion started fizzing again for barely long enough for him to notice it. He had just enough time to get nervous, and then it seemed like the entire world exploded around him.

He felt the strange tugging on his navel that came with apparation, and for a moment, everything was a blur. Then he was suddenly thrown into the middle of three very angry looking boys and a small girl who looked terrified. George joined him a moment later.

"What did you do, Albus!" a scruffy-looking boy, around their age, asked roughly, glaring at him and George like they were Inferi.

"I didn't do it," protested an auburn haired boy, slightly older than the two of them.

"Don't look at us like that, Goat Man. They're unintelligent scum who didn't apparate to the right spot, not Dark Magic creatures," a blonde haired boy said in a thick German accent.

"Right, no Dark Magic here," George said quickly, obviously thinking more clearly than Fred was. "We're new around here, got a little lost. I'm sorry that we interrupted your… thing, but we'll just be gone now."

"Speaking of being gone," the blonde boy said as he tucked a wand that Fred didn't even notice he was holding into his belt, "I don't think that fighting is really necessary, is it Al?"

The auburn haired boy smirked, giving the scruffy boy a look that Fred had only ever seen before on Malfoy.

"No, Gellert, I don't believe that it is," he said. Then he turned his eyes to the twins. That's the first time that Fred made the connection. Albus. Al. And the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.

"Oh, Bugger," he whispered. He'd just led him and his brother into the middle of a Dumbledore family feud.

"I'll have to thank you two. You kept my brother from forcing things to get out of control," he said.

The scruffy boy, his brother, literally growled.

"We aren't done talking yet."

"Actually," the blonde boy interrupted, "I think that it's safe to say that this conversation is indeed completed." Then he raised his wand and sent Albus's brother to the floor in an immobile heap.

Fred watched in horror, paralyzed with fear. The boy must've seen the look on his face because he rolled his eyes.

"Calm down. I didn't kill him. He's just knocked out. See for yourself, if you want."

Then, before Fred could answer, the boy headed right out the front door, a somewhat more reluctant looking Dumbledore following behind him.

As soon as they were gone, the twins gave each other worried looks.

"You don't think we just did something horrible, do you?" George asked. Fred managed a nervous laugh.

"Nah. They were fighting anyway. We didn't change anything."

"But we should get out of here quick, just to make sure we don't mess up anything else, right?" George asked.

Fred's eyes flashed to the terrified looking girl in the corner, then to the stunned boy next to them.

"They'll be okay, won't they?"

"Yeah, look. He's already starting to move," George pointed out. Fred saw that his brother was right. "We should leave before he stops us."

"Agreed," Fred said, then hurriedly grabbed the other vial from his pocket. Being extra careful this time, he tipped a mouthful into his mouth, then gave it to George to do the same.

Again, there was the pulling in his abdomen, and he was rocketed forward. He vaguely wondered if they'd get back in time for supper.

Then everything went still. Fred looked around and let out a relived sigh, seeing that everything was perfect. The floor wasn't even messed up anymore.

George appeared beside him a moment later, studying his surroundings just as Fred had done. Fred grinned at him when George realized that everything was fine.

"Told you we didn't change anything," Fred said smugly.

George just rolled his eyes at his brother.

"Okay, you got lucky. Now come on, let's get back to Grimmauld Place. I'm starving, and Mum is probably worried."

"Bloody hell," Fred muttered. "I can only pray that she didn't notice we were gone. She'd probably have a fit if she knew that we left."

George shivered.

"Yeah. We really should hurry."

Then him and George both turned, thinking of the steps in front of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

When Fred opened his eyes, he nearly had a heart attack.

The tall buildings were all gone, replaced by what looked a heck of a lot like barracks. An enormous flag was fluttering in the breeze, and if Fred hadn't seen it, he would've figured that he had just apparated to the wrong place.

As it was, he did see it, and he was lucky that he didn't eat anything because he would have thrown up on the spot if he had. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see George, eyes wide and staring at the flag as well.

Dumbledore and an older version of the blonde boy from the fight smiled down upon them. In one corner of the flag was a symbol of a triangle with a circle inside it and a line through the middle. Running across the top were the words, "For the Greater Good."

Just as Fred remembered where he had heard that motto before, he heard the grim chuckle come from behind him.

"Merlin, I know that you two love to help out with the Mudbloods, but really, I'd figure that finally getting yourself a pet of your own would be enough to keep you out of here for at least the morning."

Fred whipped around, sure that he had just heard his brother Bill's voice say the word Mudblood. Sure enough, the familiar face of his oldest brother was grinning down at them complacently, but there was something different in his eyes. Something cold and cruel.

"Although," continued Bill, "I understand why you find it so much fun in there. All of them are so feisty, aren't they?"

"Wait," George said, his voice filled with disgust. "There are people in those barracks, and you think that we're... we're raping them?"

Bill laughed, long and hard.

"Oh come on, George," he chuckled, "you can't think that we're that stupid. Yeah, it's a disgusting habit, but we all do it, there's no reason to play dumb."

Fred felt like he was going to be sick. He was still mostly clueless, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to figure out what was actually going on.

"Right, uh, sorry Bill," George said with a nervous laugh. He looked at Fred desperately, but Fred didn't know what to do.

"Hey, no problem. You've been looking a little off. Probably a bug. You'll get over it. Now come on, the market opens in a half hour, and if you two want to get good ones you'll have to hurry."

"Good whats?"

"Pets, George," said Bill, like it was obvious.

"Pets?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, you know, Mudbloods."

That's when Fred promptly fainted.

A/N-

Yes, yes, it's a bit strange, but I promise that you'll like it if you keep going. Please, please review!