SUMMARY: The story continues after the 6th year and Dumbledore's death. Harry is committed to find Horcruxes, but he's found something else instead.
Basically he and others are all more or less what JKR made them to be, but now in different circumstances. Harry will find he's got some new talents, but nothing that wasn't already hinted by JKR, who by the way owns all magical characters in this story. Yes, there are ships too, but later and only a little bit, for now.
I'd really like to know what in this story you liked, what you didn't and especially what you'd like to be different.
Hope you'll have as much fun reading it as I have writing it.
Prologue
The young man could feel the anger. The fury. He could feel time changing as he floated along helplessly.
Harry, someone screamed. Harry! Help me!
As he whizzed through time and space, he tried to figure out who was yelling. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move.
Images flashed through his mind. Red hair. A Grim. People laughing. Screaming. Being hugged. A little girl who had green eyes.
But most of all for he could remember crying for someone who didn't answer him.
A few days earlier
"Hermione," the boy named Harry said. "I have something to show you."
Something in his voice made her look at him sharply.
"What?" she said. "What is it?"
"That's the problem…" Harry hesitated. "I don't know."
"Well, I hope you didn't touch it."
"Of course not! I'm not stupid, you know."
"Where is it then?" she snapped impatiently.
Hermione had been very irritable lately. "I'm just sitting around doing nothing!" she liked to moan. "Like I'm useless or something!"
"It's in my room." Harry tried to soothe her. "I'll show it to you."
The look on his face was that of someone who had found a treasure map, but had no idea how to read it. His eyes shone with excitement.
Hermione rushed upstairs, with Harry at her heels. Harry's room was the same one he had shared with Ron the summer before his fifth year. Ron was away, helping his mother arrange his eldest brother's wedding. Judging from Ron's letters, Harry figured that detention with Snape, the former potions master, would be more enjoyable. ("Seriously Mum, you can't expect me to wear this at the wedding?" Harry could almost hear him yelling.)
But now, his thoughts were far away from Ron's house, the Burrow. He opened his chest and took a small box out.
"It's inside." Harry held the box in his hands.
"It's a very beautiful box Harry," Hermione said sarcastically. "May I go now?"
"Sorry…I'm just very nervous. You open it, would you?"
"Oh, very well then." She did.
Inside was an emerald green, gleaming stone. Its surface was perfectly smooth and shiny.
"What is it Harry? Where did you get it?"
"I'm not certain. I followed some clues, looking for Horcruxes. "Hermione looked at him.
"I promised professor Dumbledore that I'd tell no one, including you and Ron. But this isn't a Horcrux."
"And now, when the heroic part is done, you want your little library moth to search in the Blacks' library and find out what it is?" said Hermione coldly, but she couldn't hide her anger.
"Hermione…I'm sorry. It's not like that." He paused. "You see, Sirius died in front of my eyes, and then professor Dumbledore. They both died protecting me. I can't even think of loosing you or Ron."
Hermione stared at him for a while. "I'll see what I can find." Her voice was a little bit softer.
sss
"It's Lia Fail," said Hermione the next morning during breakfast. "Would you pass me the juice please?" She was falsely casual.
"And now I'm supposed to know what Lia F… whatever is?"
"It's one of the four magical wonders of ancient times. Long before Merlin and others had come. It's also called 'Stone of Destiny'." Hermione seemed more like herself now.
"You enjoy knowing something that nobody else does, don't you? What does it do?"
"It was created with a purpose to reveal who was the rightful king of Ireland. But it can also bring you to any point in time you command."
"But how?"
"That's the tricky part. Command words are written in the stone itself."
"Hermione, please."
"In those times, there had been only a few wizards and they hadn't known all the magic we do today." Hermione said proudly, almost triumphantly. "I'll show you in your room."
sss
Like all other rooms in Black's house, Harry's also had heavy curtains. They were closed now and the only light in the room was coming from the stone and the half sphere above it that was glowing in thousands of tiny particles of light. Like a conductor in front of an orchestra, Hermione was moving those particles with the wave of her wand.
"It's beautiful. But what is it?" Harry asked.
"It's the night sky. When you arrange the stars the way they were at the time you want to leap in, the Stone will bring you there. You'll appear at the same place as you are in present at the sunset of that day, and you'll come back at the sunrise next day."
"How do you know where the stars were on some day?" Asked Harry, knowing instantly that the question was stupid and that he'd hear another lecture.
"From ephemeredes. If you didn't give up of Divination lessons you'd know."
At the mention of Divination lessons, something crossed Harry's mind like lightening. Hermione continued like she had a class in front of herself.
"The stone says that you can go wherever you please, but don't do anything, or you'll be cursed by Destiny."
"Like I'm not cursed already." Harry resolutely turned to Hermione. "We must go to Hogsmade."
"Hogsmade?" Hermione was puzzled.
"It was in The Hog's Head where Professor Trelawney told the prophesy to Professor Dumbledore, and Snape overheard it. If that hadn't happened, Voldemort would have never been after my parents. If I prevent it from being told, my parents would be alive, and perhaps Sirius and Professor Dumbledore as well." With every word Harry spoke more and more passionately.
"Harry, you mustn't change the past, or you'll be cursed forever."
"Hermione, I am cursed!" He cried. "But you're right" he added in lower voice, "You don't have to be too. I should go alone."
"Oh no, you won't!" Hermione stood up. "If you're so silly to do it, I'll be there to watch your back!"
"I knew you would." Harry grinned.
sss
Harry and Hermione stood in Hogsmade just across The Hog's Head. They'd managed to sneak out from Grimmauld Place unnoticed after lunch and were waiting beneath the Invisibility Cloak for sunset to activate the stone. Hermione had already found positions of the planets and set up the "sky".
"Harry, are you sure you want to do this?" Hermione tried to reason him one more time. "Once we use the stone it will disappear and most probably we won't find it ever again. If you do something there, it can't be undone. And at that moment you'll be thrown back to our time, but nothing there will be the same!"
"I've never been so sure in my life. What about you?"
"I won't stay behind." She sighed. "It's time."
She tapped the stone with her wand muttering a spell Harry couldn't recognize. Diagon Alley started spinning and changing shape. They felt like they were in the middle of a vortex that was sucking in everything around them. The feeling of dissolution became almost unbearable and then, suddenly everything calmed down. Harry and Hermione were standing at the same place only without the cloak.
The lanterns could hardly shed any light through the thick fog. Harry and Hermione made their way towards Hog's Head inn. Harry was too afraid to miss spotting professor Dumbledore to pay much attention to his surroundings. Finally he saw him making his way through the crowd.
"There he is." he whispered to Hermione "Let's go inside."
As they stepped in the Hog's Head, a few wizards and witches glanced at them suspiciously and then turned back.
"Relax Harry," Hermione said quietly when they finally found a free table and sat, "Nobody knows you here, yet. You are about to be born next year, remember?"
"Off course I do. It's just awkward. The last time I was here most of these people wanted to shake my hand or say something."
"Miss Trelawney? Should be in any minute now."
Harry was nervous. He didn't have a plan how to stop her from telling the Prophesy. He looked towards the back rooms. There was no one in the passage. "If only I could sneak there and ambush Professor Trelawney before she meets Professor Dumbledore." ran through his head.
At that moment Professor Trelawney entered The Hog's Head.
"You stay here and make a noise when she comes near the stairs." Harry told Hermione and left towards the backroom trying to hide below the stairs that lead to the upper floor.
When Professor Trelawney approached, she heard a sound from the main room, and turned to see what it was. One of the tables was set on fire and people around it jumped knocking their chairs down. That moment she became as stiff as a board and fell to the floor.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry was still in the shadow when he cast the memory charm. By that time half a dozen wizards and witches surrounded him pointing their wands. Harry was smiling. He put his wand back in his robes and raised his hands. Harry caught Hermione's frightened look in the crowd.
"Thank you." he mouthed. She grinned at him worriedly.
Suddenly the whole Hogsmade started spinning around him. He knew he'd succeeded. He had changed the past.
Then his life started passing in front of his eyes. Harry saw the flash of green light, the baby carried on the flying motorcycle, the skinny boy in the cupboard. He could feel the anger. The fury. He could feel time changing as he floated along helplessly.
Harry, someone screamed. Harry! Help me!
As he whizzed through time and space, he tried to figure out who was yelling. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move.
Images flashed through his mind. Red hair. A Grim. People laughing. Screaming. Being hugged. A little girl who had green eyes.
But most of all for he could remember crying for someone who didn't answer him.
Everything went black.