Harry's and Severus' Change of the Future
Chapter 1
Harry let out a deep sigh while he dragged himself down the stairs to the dungeons. It was only the second week of his fifth school year at Hogwarts, and he had just served his fifth detention in a row with Professor Umbridge, from where he had to head straight to his first detention in the Potions classroom. He had received the detention in the morning, because Draco had thrown something into his potion that had made it explode all over his desk.
Harry slowly moved his achy body, knowing that he was already late but he couldn't help it. After the Quidditch world cup that had ended with the appearance of the Dark Mark, Dumbledore had been afraid that it wouldn't be safe enough for Harry with the Weasleys and had sent him back to the Dursleys, who didn't take it well at all to have the freak back, whom they had already thought to be rid of for the rest of the year. During the remaining days of the holidays, his uncle had used him as a punching back whenever he came home from work.
Since Harry had returned to Hogwarts his whole body was sore, and it didn't help much that Professor Umbridge let him use a blood quill in his detentions. Harry sighed once again and hesitantly knocked at the door of the Potions classroom with his unharmed hand.
"You're late, Potter," the Potions professor sneered, shutting the door with a flick of his wand, before Harry had even a chance to close it.
"I'm sorry, sir; I had a detention with Professor Umbridge, and she only let me go now," Harry explained in a soft voice, while he obediently sat down where the professor motioned him to sit. On the desk in front of Harry were all the ingredients lined up, which he needed in order to brew the healing potion again, which they had brewed in the Potions class in the morning.
Harry slowly gathered his ingredients and began to prepare them. Due to a splitting headache, lack of sleep because of reoccurring nightmares about Voldemort's rebirth, and the pain in his hand he had to try hard to concentrate. 'I just have to get the potion right at the first try; otherwise I'm going to spend half the night here,' he mused in desperation, while he absentmindedly took a knife and pulled one of the frog eggs close, not noticing that the professor had abandoned his grading work and was watching his every move.
"What are you doing?!" the teacher all of a sudden hissed, causing Harry to flinch back badly and accidentally hit his sore back against the table behind him.
"I... I'm preparing the ingredients, sir," Harry replied uncertainly, rubbing his good hand against his aching back.
"Well, if you want to finish your detention before curfew, you have to hurry, Potter," the professor sneered and returned to his desk.
"Yes sir," Harry replied hastily and went back to preparing his ingredients. Knowing that it wouldn't hurt as much to stand, he leaned over the table and resumed his work without sitting down.
"Potter!" Professor Snape barked. "What do you think you're doing? Sit down and do your work properly, if you don't want to earn yourself a month's worth of detention."
"Yes sir," Harry replied miserably and sat down, trying to ignore the pain it caused his sore ribs and back.
Unbeknownst to Harry, the teacher watched the boy during the next hour, taking in the painful expression that covered the boy's face from time to time as well as his flushed cheeks. 'He looks as if he was ill,' the professor mused, 'but I'm sure he would complain vehemently if he was, and he would certainly want the whole school to know about it.' However, a small voice at the back of his mind told Severus that something wasn't right, and he curiously stepped nearer to the student's working place to observe him even closer.
"No!" he shouted, grabbing the boy's hand to prevent him from stirring into the wrong direction not a second too early, causing Harry to yelp in pain. "You have to stir COUNTER CLOCK WISE, you dunderhead. Can't you read?" the professor hissed, slightly irritated at the boy's reaction to his touch that certainly hadn't been so forceful.
"Yes sir, I'm sorry sir," Harry replied, gritting his teeth.
"Show me your hand," the professor demanded, putting the potion under a stasis charm for the moment.
Harry hesitantly held his sore hand out to the teacher, unconsciously pulling it back as soon as the professor reached out for it.
"I m not going to hurt you, silly boy," Professor Snape sneered, carefully observing the emotions that were reflected on the boy s face. "What did you do to your hand, Potter?"
"Um... Nothing," Harry replied tentatively. "Excuse me sir, may I continue, please?"
Seeing that the boy was throwing him a pleading glance, the teacher sighed and cancelled the charm, resolving to speak with the child later on. 'I wonder what he got himself into,' he mused, noticing that expressions of pain flushed up in the child's face every time he moved.
Determined to find out what was wrong with Potter, Professor Snape waited for a chance, which came when the boy had finished brewing his potion and went to retrieve a phial from the shelf in order to bottle the product of his efforts.
The professor reached out to grab the boy's arm in order to examine his hand, causing Harry to pull away so violently that he fell over a chair. Painfully pressing a hand against his sore ribs, he scrambled up from the floor and continued his way to the shelf with the empty phials.
"Don't touch me please," he mumbled, averting his eyes to the floor. 'It hurts so much,' he thought, gritting his teeth.
"Then show me your hand and tell me what's ailing you. You look as if you were in a considerable amount of pain, Potter," the teacher sneered and once more reached out to examine Harry's hand.
"I'm fine," Harry insisted and jerked away forcefully. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to keep his balance and stumbled against a table, on which a very delicate test potion was simmering in a small cauldron in its last step.
"No!" Professor Snape shouted horrified and rushed forward to pull the student away from the potion that was exploding all over the boy. Unfortunately, he was too late, and in the blink of an eye they were both hit with quite an amount of the potion and were whisked away. 'At least we have to stay together,' the professor mused, holding Harry's arm in a forceful grip, while he felt the movement begin.
HP HEALER POMFREY HP
Finally, the movement stopped. Harry blearily looked around, feeling even worse than before. When the professor released him from his strong grip, Harry felt so dizzy that he couldn't keep himself upright anymore and quickly grabbed the nearby table to steady himself. Hesitantly looking around, he noticed that they still seemed to be in the Potions classroom, although it looked a bit different than a few minutes ago.
"Are you all right, Potter?" Professor Snape asked.
Too startled by the teacher's voice that held obvious concern instead of malice, Harry was unable to answer the question. Instead he enquired, "Where are we, Professor?"
The man raised an eyebrow. Leave it to a Potter to make such a fuss. "Where do you think we are?" He asked back sarcastically.
"The Potions classroom?" Harry supplied in a small voice.
"Exactly. The test potion, which you saw fit to waste, was a time travelling potion. It didn't take us to a different place, but to another time." The professor looked around, noticing that the room resembled the one of his own Hogwarts time.
"Potter, I suppose that we travelled about twenty years into the past; however, this is only a guess. We have to go to Professor Dumbledore and speak with him. You will stay close to me and do what I tell you. Do you understand me?" Professor Snape told Harry sternly.
"Yes sir," Harry replied wearily, while his mind was doing flip-flops. 'Twenty years into the past? That would mean that my parents should be at Hogwarts,' he mused while he quietly followed the teacher out of the dungeons, telling himself that the teacher had said it was only a guess. 'Maybe it's fifty years, and we meet a younger Voldemort,' he mused, horrified.
Noticing that the boy was in obvious pain and hardly able to walk, Professor Snape strode as slowly as he could manage, which Harry noticed gratefully, although he still had to do his best to keep up with the man's pace. As soon as they left the dungeons and reached the entrance hall, a look through one of the windows showed the two wizards that it had to be the middle of the night.
When they reached the gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office, Harry asked shyly, "Professor, wouldn't it be better to wait until the morning? Can we disturb Professor Dumbledore at this time of the night?"
Professor Snape gave Harry a thoughtful look. "First of all, we might need an hour or two to guess the password, and secondly, it will be fortunate if nobody sees us, especially as we don't know exactly which year we have and whom we could meet here."
Together they began to name all the sweets they could think of; however, the gargoyle didn't open. "I can't think of anymore sweets," Harry said finally.
"If I knew exactly that we only travelled twenty years, I'd say we should go to the hospital wing to ask Madam Pomfrey, but I'm not sure; it is definitely more than ten years, but I don't know how many; it could be as many as forty years or maybe even a hundred," the teacher replied thoughtfully.
Both remained silent for a moment until Harry spoke up, "Professor, I have an idea. You know, in our time, there is always a copy of the Daily Prophet in the library. Maybe it's the same in this time, and then we would know the exact date."
"That sounds reasonable," the older man replied. "Are you well enough to accompany me to the library, or do you prefer to wait for me here?"
"I'll come with you," Harry answered quickly.
Together they headed down to the library, glad that they didn't meet anyone on their way. "There," Harry whispered urgently, pointing to one of the desks, "a newspaper!"
The professor rushed over to the desk, and Harry could see how his eyes widened, before he curiously followed the teacher.
tbc...
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.