Warning and/or Notices: Snape is alive, was pardoned and is now a close friend of Harry's and in this Tonks is just a couple of years younger than his parents and was seventeen at the time his parents were killed. A very Powerful!Harry. There might be some Dumbledore bashing as well. That old man just rubs me the wrong way.
As for pairing it will just be a Harry focused story for now, but maybe and Harry/Tonks later.
Time And Time Again
Spoilers! So don't read if you don't want to know the gist of what is going to happen in this story.
Summary: Harry has lived for eighteen years. All of it was time spent looking forward to a better life, a life free of the Dursleys, a life free of Voldiewart, a life where he could be normal. A life where he might have a family. But now the war is over, and he's eighteen and jaded. Or so he thinks. Then he finds a spell that renews his-thought-to-be-forgotten-hopes, a spell that might help him go back in time. To do what? Save his family of course. So that he can live that normal life he always wanted. With the help of his new found friend, the pardoned and medalled former Potions Professor they go back to the day of his parent's death. They accomplish what they set out to do but nothing ever works out as planned for Harry. Now he is stuck in the past with his one year old self, his, to him, virtually unknown parents, his beloved godfather's very different younger self, his much changed Potions Master and his suspicious younger self, as well as a certain younger metamorphmagus who seems very pleased by Harry's current position, and is very determined to get him into a few other, more enjoyable, positions. He has survived time the first go around. But can he survive, literally, time and time again? Especially when the world who he hoped wouldn't have to experience the fiasco that was the Boy-Who-Lived somehow found out his secrets and his life story? The life he just traveled over seventeen years to change?
Let the story begin…
It was eight in the evening when Harry walked down the road toward Godric's Hollow with determination and a small, but healthy, amount of fear in his eyes. The tall dark potions master walking next to him looked little more than resigned, and though he would never admit it a little proud at what the boy he walked beside was about to do.
The darkness around them got thicker as they reached the front gate of the beautiful three story black-and-white Victorian style Mansion. Opening the gate, they started the final stretch of walk to the door. Harry paused at the door, his hand outstretched for the knob. He looked back at Severus, a question in his eyes.
Severus nodded. They had come this far, if they didn't finish it…Well, it was too ghastly to think about.
Harry turned the knob…and was greeted by his father's wand.
Harry stared at the tip of the eleven inch mahogany wand before lifting his eyes, those deathly green eyes, to his fathers face. James instantly altered.
"What the hell?!"
Snape went to take a step forward but Harry waved him back, determined to keep Snape's face out of his father's view till everything was explained. James eyes caught both movements however and though he didn't see Severus's face, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"James? What's going on? Why did you open the door?" Lily's voice floated down the stairs. Her footsteps could be heard rushing down the stairs. James froze in horror. He turned quickly and hurried to head her off.
"Lily! Go back up stairs with the baby. There are some strangers here. And-"
"Strangers? How did they get in?"
James flicked a quick, nervous glance at them as Lily came into view, not yet seeing them. "I don't know yet-"
Lily caught sight of Harry and gasped, "Harry?" Her eyes went wide and she unknowingly shifted the baby on her hip so they could see him. At the sight of Harry he stilled, then cooed, stretching out his arms.
James was agog. "What do you mean 'Harry'?"
Severus chuckled. "We should have counted on her recognizing you. A mother is a mother, no matter how old her child is."
Harry threw a glare at his companion as his mother's eyes widened in recognition at the sound of her friend's voice. As both she and James opened their mouths, one in happiness and wariness, and the other in irritation and hatred, Harry cut them off.
"You're right." He held up his hands to fend off their comments. "I am Harry, your son. If you would please give me the time to explain I will tell you why we are here. But," He looked at this watch, "We do not have as long as I would like. We have best get started now if we are to explain fully."
Lily was distressed. "You have to go so soon?"
Harry grimaced. "No. But something is going to go down in about four hours that will definitely cut this short."
Lily nodded in understanding. "I take it you're from the future then." Without waiting for an answer she came forward, sat baby Harry in his older self's arms and pulled both him and Severus into the house, shutting the door behind them.
James had an odd look on his face when he looked at Harry. No doubt, Harry thought, wondering what his son is doing with his worst enemy. He followed along as Lily ushered them into the parlor. She sat them down in front of the tall French doors that led out to the veranda on the large rap-around porch. She sat across from them, calling her husband to sit next to her and a house elf to bring tea.
With that being done, she looked back at Harry and smiled. "So, tell me, how old are you?"
Harry cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the attention. "I am eighteen. But that's not what we're here for. First I must tell you-"
Lily looked appalled. "Not what you're here for. Whatever you are here for can wait till we talk. I want to know my son is doing well in the future."
"Actually, it can't wait."
"And why not-"
"Because you are going to die." The silence was oppressive and Harry's eyes widened at his bluntness. This is not how things were supposed to go. He cleared his throat again. "Or at least you did. When I was younger. Now that we're here," he exchanged a glance with Snape, "we are hoping to change that fact."
Both of his parents looked shell shocked. "But how?" James stammered. "Peter-"
Harry scowled. "Peter is a rat, both literally and figuratively. He sold you out to Voldiewart." Harry was surprised to see his parents look more shocked by his nickname than they had anything else so far. "And what's worse is that he framed Padfoot for it. Sirius spent twelve years in Azkaban for it."
James jumped up, "Sirius would never!"
"I know, I know. Trust me, I tried to get him cleared for it but no one would listen. Piece of shit minister." This last was mumbled under his breath but was still heard by everyone in the room. Snape snorted, James grinned and Lily just rolled her eyes.
Harry sighed. "But anyway, we had better get on with it. We only have," he glanced down at his watch, "Three and a half hours till Voldie is supposed to be here." He glanced up at his parents to see they were now giving him there full attention. He leaned forward and began.
"My time around, the both of you were killed tonight. Voldemort came to the house and killed both of you. He killed James outside the bedroom door, trying to stop him from getting in and Lily when she refused to get out of the way. You see, he was after me that night. There is a prophecy saying that at the end of July a boy with the power to kill him would be born and that one of them was destined to kill the other. But when mom wouldn't get out of his way and die trying to keep him from me her sacrifice created a deeper kind of protection and when he sent the Killing Curse at me it was deflected by that protection and sent back at him. He died that night, for the most part." Harry rolled his eyes. "He had created Horcruxes that kept his soul tied to this plane even though his body was gone. He has six of these. Between my second year, when I unknowingly destroyed one, and my seventh year, which I took off to hunt down the last of them after Voldie had killed Dumbledore, the old man and I were able to destroy all of them so that I could kill him before what was supposed to be my seventh year was out." Lily gasped and James's mouth dropped open at the mention of Dumbledore's death. Harry shook his head and plowed on.
"But anyway, you died tonight and Sirius was blamed while the rat faked his own death and framed Sirius for that too. I was sent to live with the Dursleys."
Snape growled. Harry directed his gaze to the potions master and let him take over the story. "The Dursleys who are nothing but a bunch of swine not fit to raise a child, let alone one like Harry. They didn't tell him he was a wizard, in fact they literally beat in the fact that magic didn't exist." Lily gasped. Harry rolled his eyes. He was now very used to the verbal abuse Severus dished out to the Dursleys as it had begun soon after the war was over and Voldie was gone. He found out that the man was very adamant about percussion of child abusers. Harry inwardly smirked at the though of the reaction the Dursleys had when the imposing man had tracked them down after the war to…discourage any further abuse of magical children. Or children in general. Harry calmed himself and quickly took back the conversation.
He told them about meeting Hagrid and saving the stone from Voldemort/Quirrell. His mother looked appalled and astonished, his father looked proud. He told them about Lockhart and the petrified cat, about the voice, about being a Parselmouth and opening the chamber and killing the basilisk and saving Ginny.
They both looked astonished this time. Though he was too quiet to hear Harry could feel Severus laugh at their open mouthed expressions.
He told them about the rat and Sirius's escape and his part in it. He got a proud smile and a 'that's-my-boy' for that one. He told them about the Triwizard tournament and the goblet of fire. About Fleur and Krum …and Cedric.
Cedric was the hardest part. Severus helped him through that one. He told them as detailed a telling as he could of what happened after the portkey took Harry and Cedric to the grave yard. He told them what happened after Harry returned from battling Voldemort, dragging his friend's body. Lily was nearly in tears by this point. James was growling at the telling of how his now former friend had forcibly taken blood from his son.
Next came the story of the dementor attack and Fudge's refusal to accept the truth and his attempt to discredit and sabotage all effort by himself and Dumbledore to fight against Voldie. When he was half way through the story of the Department of Mysteries fiasco, just at the part when Sirius was pushed through the veil by Bellatrix's spell when the baby in his arm started to fuss. Lily started to get up but the moment the baby started fussing Harry began to bounce him on his knee, cooing to him and waving a hand at Lily in a sit-down-I-know-how-to-take-care-of-myself kinda way. She smiled and sat. Apparently her son didn't take after his father. Sure, James was a good dad now, but if you had handed him a child at that age he wouldn't have known what to do.
When Harry got the baby settled down he started his story again. It was slower this time, between the baby sensing his distress and the trouble he had in getting out the telling of the way he acted after Sirius's death and his suspicions of Severus during his sixth year. He skipped the part about Severus and Draco(who had also become a …well, not quite friend yet as he wasn't quite as vocal about his support as with Severus but at the very least he was a friendly acquaintance) having a part in Dumbledore's death, merely telling them only that he was killed during a Death Eater attack. James was stunned into silence at this point, no doubt having been one of those who believed the old man would never die. Lily put her hand over her mouth and shook her head, obviously knowing it would come eventually but still sad none the less.
The story was almost at its end when the baby started crying again. Harry took it out of the room when Lily said it was time for the baby to be put to sleep. There was a very uncomfortable silence after he left the room, with just his parents and a man who was still pretending to be on the opposing side at that current time.
James had finally gotten up the guts, despite his son's obvious like of the man, to confront Severus. "I don't know what you're doing with my son-"
"I am protecting him." The look Sev spared the elder male Potter was not scathing as it would have been from his younger self but it wasn't exactly nice either. Lily could tell her old friend was trying very hard to be civil for her son and decided to help him out.
So she smiled at him. "I think it's wonderful that you are friends with my son Severus, but may I ask how it happened?" Her face was twisted in a confused frown when she was finished.
Severus directed his gaze to his childhood friend. "I met your son when he started at Hogwarts. I couldn't be…courteous to him at the time because Albus had always predicted that the Dark Lord wasn't as dead as the world thought he was. I had to keep up the pretense of hating him for the sake of my place in the Dark Lord's inner circle when he came back to power." Severus took a deep breath before continuing. "Harry wouldn't tell you this but though I was always sending messages to the Order via anonymous tips there was a time I was thought to be on the other side spying for them.
James tensed and Lily's eyebrows went up and she made a motion that encouraged him to continue. "Dumbledore had destroyed a Horcrux on his own, one that was cursed should anyone ever find it. The curse not only back lashed and killed his hand despite his precautions, but because of it he couldn't get to me fast enough for me stop the curse from spreading. From the time it killed his hand he had less than a year to live." James had tensed even more but not toward Severus, toward hearing what led to his mentor's death. Lily's mouth had dropped open and was listening so intently she didn't notice. "So, when I brought Dumbledore news that the Dark Lord was holding the life of Narcissa over the head of Draco, her son, who we knew for a fact did not have the temperament, heart, or stomach to be a killer, we took advantage of the fact." He paused, sighing. "We knew also that Draco had been given the task of getting the Death Eaters into the school and then killing Dumbledore. We took advantage of this also and planned to use Dumbledore's death as a way of cementing my place in the Dark Lord's inner circle and not give away the true reason the Headmaster died at the same time. So we made it look like I killed him."
Lily gasped and James eyebrows went up. He didn't tense again though, realizing that Snape hadn't killed the Headmaster, just made everyone think he had.
Snape continued after a moment's silence. "As I said, I was always sending the Order information even when they didn't know it was me. But when the final battle came, the Dark Lord killed me, or tried to at least, to gain full possession of a wand known as the Deathstick, or the Elder Wand, because he thought that the only way to gain the wand was to kill the last person who had it and he thought I killed Dumbledore."
"But it didn't work because you hadn't killed Dumbledore? But then how do you get possession if the previous owner already dead?" Asked Lily, sharing a curious glance with James.
"I am not sure about that, but I do know that even if I had killed the Headmaster the Dark Lord wouldn't have been able to get it by killing me because the legend that you have to kill the previous owner to use the wand is false. And Draco Malfoy, while not being able to kill Dumbledore did go so far as to disarm him." Understanding blossomed on their faces. "But even if he had known that Draco was in possession of the wand when the Headmaster died, it would have been too late. Harry defeated and disarmed Draco a few weeks after that and gained possession of both Draco's original wand and the Deathstick, though he didn't have physical possession of the Deathstick at the time. When he later dueled the Dark Lord he got hold of the wand and destroyed him with it." Severus sat back and let them take this in.
Both the Potters were stunned. But Severus continued, "Now, when the Dark Lord attempted to kill me, we were in the Shrieking Shack. Harry knew we were there, though I couldn't tell you how, and was watching this happen. For reasons I didn't understand then he panicked and placed a status charm on me. It made me look dead to the Dark Lord because I had stopped moving and breathing but I was still alive. A few hours later when the battle was over Harry came to get me, released the charm, gave me the antidote to the poison of the snake the Dark Lord had set on me and helped me till I was fully over the poison, at which point I asked him, 'what are you doing?'
"'Helping' he answered. Simple as that, then started helping me to climb down into the passage. 'You know they will kill me on sight' I said. And he told me that Hermione and Ron, two of Harry's friends, were explaining what Dumbledore and I had done. I asked him how he knew. He told me he had figured it out. You see, after Dumbledore died he had been emancipated and gained his inheritance. Somehow he got a hold of your journals of your years at Hogwarts," he gestured to Lily, "and investigated, eventually figuring it out. When we reached the castle the entire crowd was cheering for me, Harry apparently had them make me out as a hero so the people would be against it when they tried to convict me, not that it mattered, none of them would have gone against Harry after that."
The Potters absorbed this. Lily was the first to speak. "He is very important isn't he?"
"Was very important. One of Harry's goals here is to make sure that this time around he has the opportunity to live the normal life he always wanted."
Lily and James looked at each other, normal? With what they had just been told somehow they didn't think that was going to happen.
James cleared his throat, "But you said that You-Know-Who is going to be here in-" He glanced at the clock. "One hour. And how is this going to go down? If Harry just drives him off, he will come back after you guys have gone-"
Snape nearly snarled, almost reminding James of the Severus he knew, something he had seen very little of in this older Snape. "Of all the-" Severus visibly reined in his anger and calmed himself. James and Lily realized in that moment how much he did for Harry, coming to the home of the one person he hated most in the world and making a conscious effort not to get angry. He spoke calmly when he next spoke. "We are aware of that, and have made plans. We stopped by the home of Remus Lupin before coming here and have made an arrangement with him. He will arrive shortly before the Dark Lord, give Harry his wand, not that the boy needs one," Severus roll his eyes, "he will destroy the Dark Lord with it; then Lupin will take the credit."
They were shocked and confused. "Why Remus?" James asked.
Severus smiled a small smile. "Harry has always been supportive of magical creatures. Especially those the Ministry is against. And can you imagine what Lupin defeating the Dark Lord would do for the werewolf nation? Lupin has never joined a pack because he knows with his size he would be seen as a threat by any pack leader and doesn't want to fight, but he is still very pack oriented and he will take this advantage to better his race's place in the world."
Lily and James smiled. James said, "My boy is really incredible isn't he?"
Severus couldn't help it, he sneered. "If that is what you want to delude yourself into believing Potter, that's fine."
"Why you-" James started.
A chuckle came from the door way. The three looked over at the portal to the kitchen. Harry was standing there, obviously listening. Remus was standing behind him, taking in the scene with amusement. Harry turned to Remus, "Well," he said, "I was planning on you telling them the plan, but apparently it isn't needed. Sit down, please." He waved Remus to the couch next to Severus and took the armchair next to the fire.
Nobody but Harry noticed Severus's uncomfortable look and conspicuous shift away from Remus. He smiled sadly; he had asked Severus not to come, not because he didn't want him there but because his relationship with Remus was still new and being close to him physically but not emotionally had to be hell. He shook his head, he had known when he asked that Severus would still come and that Remus would fully support it. The two had taken on the job of unofficial 'caretakers.' Making sure he had everything he needed and was eating regularly. It was how they had gotten together, ganging up on him. He thought laughingly.
He stiffened, feeling a presence the edge of his senses. He glanced at the clock and sighed. It was time. He took a moment to listen to the chatter of his mother and Remus dotted with the sarcastic comment from Severus, none too rude for the sake of a certain werewolf, and James's snarls in his direction merely out of habit.
He wouldn't stay long in this time, getting back to his own and seeing the changes they had made in action was the next part of the plan but he hoped to stick around long enough to see younger Sev and hopefully older Sev would be a good influence now that Voldemort would never come back. Maybe Harry could get him to push younger Sev in younger Remus's direction.
And maybe see Sirius again.
He sighed again and stood up. If he didn't get started soon he wouldn't be ready. He turned to the group behind him, a serious look on his face. Severus glanced at the clock after one look at his face and stood. Harry, responding to the questioning looks of the others, said, "Remus, I need your wand. He is on his way down the street. It's time to do this."
