Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, and I'm just playing in her sandbox. It would be nice if I owned it, but we can't have everything.

For Friendship

Chapter 1

"Ding-dong" the bell rang, and I went to answer the door. It was 2 AM and I had woken bleary eyed, so it took me a moment to recognize the girl at the door.

"Luna?" I questioned, already deciding that this was some hallucination. I'd left everything, and hadn't given a return address in my final letters to my friends.

"Oh Harry! I finally found you!" She cried out, then rushed in to hug the life out of me. I awkwardly patted her back. My mind had finally woken enough that I realized she was shivering. The blizzard outside gave me the reason, so I shifted us back to close the door. No, she wasn't shivering. She was crying.

Due to the tender care of Dursleys, I hadn't developed any sort of social skills. I didn't know what to do, so I kept patting her till her tears were exhausted and my sweatshirt was soaked.

"They didn't believe me. Nobody did. Called me a lunatic, they did. Ha!" She was murmuring, and I decided to let her start explaining.

"Oh Harry! Why did you leave us? What did we do wrong?" She instead started questioning me.

"I wrote it in the letters, Luna. I wasn't prepared for a life full of paranoia and celebrity treatment. I couldn't handle the fact that I would have to look over my shoulders the entire life for escaped or 'pardoned' Death Eaters. I had solved your Dark Lord problem, and I wanted to be left alone after. That was my only wish then, and it hasn't changed since."

She only got more confrontational after that. "Yes you ran away! Leaving your friends behind. You could have stayed in contact, right? No! You selfishly left us all behind and now so many are dead!" She screamed the last. My heart nearly stopped.

"What did you say? No that can't happen. No. You're wrong."

"They did. I'm the only original DA member left. We searched for you through the country, but you'd already left England..." She continued speaking, but I simply stared at her.

Ron. Hermione. Ginny. Neville. All dead. No it couldn't be. We had won. The right side was victorious. It wasn't supposed to end like this. We were all supposed to have long lives, get married with our loves, give ridiculous names to our kids. Not… this. No. I refuse to believe it. I'm probably in a realistic nightmare. Yes that's it. Just have to wake up to end this.

"It's okay Luna. I know. This is just a nightmare. Anytime now I'll wake up and then maybe contact them. Yes that's it."

But Luna continued staring at me sadly. Dammit, will this dream end already.

I pinched myself, and it hurt. No. I pinched my arm again. Ouch.

No. No. No.

"Calm down Harry… Sorry for dropping the news like this. Calm down. Please!"

But I was already a sobbing mess on the floor. "No. No. That's not true. You're lying. That can't be true. No. No. No."

This time she was the one who hugged me and patted my back while I cried. I cried for all those years of friendship I had left behind. I cried like I had never before.

Eventually my voice found its way back. "What happened?"

"Another war, Harry. They were smarter this time. We weren't prepared enough. Shacklebolt tried his best, but the infrastructure apparently agreed with the purebloods. Our lives crashed within a week. Before anyone knew what happened, they had already eliminated almost all the resistance. Hermione and Ron went down in a muggle shop by way of a silent cutting curse in the throat. Neville was tending the gardens outside Longbottom Estate, outside the wards, when they attacked. Though he put up a good fight. I survived due to sheer luck. I was late to Hannah's House, so arrived just in time to see it blast apart. Nobody knows how they did that. Ginny, along with the other Weasleys were at the Burrow when the Feindfyre started. Nobody was skilled enough to control it, and wards prevented their escape. It was a massacre everywhere we looked. They didn't give us any chance at all. The takeover was as swift as it was brutal. Everyone at the Ministry was made to swear an oath to always follow their leader. The resistance got killed in a lot of creative ways. The leader calls himself Lord Slytherin, and we haven't found any photographs," Luna spoke in monotone, trying to control her emotions. A few tears dropped to the carpet anyway.

The truth was horrifying. It had finally sunken in my head just what magnitude of massacres she was talking about.

Luna continued, "Hogwarts apparently had enough wards to stop them. So all the teachers are still alive, though Hagrid survived another attempt on his life just last week and is still getting better.

"Hogwarts has become a war council of sorts, if we may even call it a war if the other side has already won. We know it. And they know it too. We will just die one way or another. We can't survive forever. Any day our luck will run out."

I tried to say something, anything, but the crushing sense of guilt and loss left me breathless.

"We have a way to stop it all, though."

I looked at her sharply. "Explain."

"We, with help from Dumbledore's portrait, discovered a way to travel farther in time. Only two can go back," she replied succinctly.

"Why me?" I questioned.

"You're the only one we think that has enough magical power to power it. We have calculated that if you use the elder wand to power it, we may just be able to go farther than fifth year."

"Sirius." I whispered. They were manipulating me. I knew. Yet I couldn't deny.

"Sorry for doing it this way, Harry. I haven't lied to you in anything I said. But we can't really risk you not helping us."

"How sure are you that this would work?"

"Not a lot. But we don't have any other option either. Professor Vector has said that she is 'reasonably sure.'"

I decided to help her, after all. How could I not? I won't be able to live if I denied. And the chance to meet Sirius and Remus again was everything I had always desired.

We took a cab to the airport, and took a flight to London. Passports had already been arranged via magic, the professors had helped her however they could even if they didn't believe her.

By train we reached Scotland from London, and walked for 2 days to Hogwarts.

Magical travel couldn't be risked, everything was traceable.

During the three days Luna shared a lot of the more pleasant memories with me. About the fact that Ron had married Hermione, and they'd had a kid. About Ginny excelling in Quidditch and going on into professional teams.

It helped heal the heart some, but the damage was done.

We talked a lot. But had to take a special care to not use names.

Lord Slytherin had casted the Taboo on all our names, just another way they could sneak up on us.

When I reached the big gates and waited for them to open the door, I thought I was prepared emotionally. I wasn't.

It was Hagrid who opened the door, along with Sinistra. He took a moment to recognize me, but he scooped me up in his giant arms when he did. But just as quickly he had taken me, he dumped me in anger, and without saying a word walked back to his hut, leading the now aging Fang. It hurt more than any words he could've spoken.

I sighed. Great. Following behind Sinistra, we finally made our way to the Great Hall. I had flashbacks as we went inside, about the mischief we got into. I could still see younger versions of myself, Ron and Hermione hiding inside my father's cloak, making our way to another adventure. I could just make out Fred and George flying around bursting crackers during our OWLs.

I shook myself up as I realized the other two had stopped for me. No. I needed to be stronger than that. They needed me to be stronger than that.

I entered the grand doors of the Great Hall.

#

AN: Of course a time travel fic, but hopefully different. It has started in a very gritty world, but will probably get better. Please share your thoughts on the start by reviewing.

Lectio Beatus.