Prologue

Overhead, like fireworks, flashes of colour lit up the darkness. Red and purple collided and exploded, the resulting flash momentarily blinding dozens of pairs of eyes.

Harry ducked and rolled out of the path of an incoming stunner, the crunch of booted feet dangerously close to his ear. He shot out an arm, tripping and wordlessly binding the Deatheater with barely a seconds thought before scrambling to his feet. Fortunately for the residents of Privet Drive the temporary wards the Aurors cast hid the skirmish form Muggle eyes.

Harry didn't know if the Deatheaters had somehow gotten word that he was leaving to stay with the Weaslys for the remainder of the summer holidays or if they were just staking the place out. It didn't really matter the results were the same; either the Deatheaters would capture him and take him to Voldemort or he would escape and the process would be repeated at a later time.

Harry hoped it wouldn't be much longer before he would be able to take on the Dark Lord himself. He had recently made some new discoveries but hadn't yet been able to inform the headmaster or the rest of the Order. He was confident that these new advances combined with his private defence and Occlumency tutoring would be enough to give him the edge he needed. He had a few suspicions regarding his new abilities but nothing concrete. He had hoped that speaking to Dumbledore would clarify some things for him.

On his seventeenth birthday Harry had woken to the sensation of magic exploding throughout his body. He felt a golden light buried deep within his core erupt outwards, coursing through flesh and bone, hovering visibly in the outer layer of skin before sinking back down into him, infusing his entire body with warmth.

He had always been able to feel the magical energy residing in him but had always felt as if a barrier of sorts was restraining him access. It had frustrated him to no end when he would try to perform a magical task, could feel the power and the ability within him, but couldn't get the results he knew he had the capacity for.

People like the headmaster were always telling him that he was a very powerful wizard, but when he applied himself he was always thoroughly average. The only time he seemed to be able to summon his almost supernatural powers were when his emotions were exceptionally heightened.

He always managed to exude the necessary amount of extra power when he or his loved ones were in danger, but unless there were extenuating circumstances he just couldn't call up the amount of power he could feel suspended just below the surface.

But come midnight the day of his birth all the barriers he felt inside were decimated. He could feel magic radiating through his entire being, pulsing energetically just beneath the surface, as if it too were excited to finally be free. He had lain in silence basking in the sensation, revelling in the feel of his unleashed magic. For the first time in his life he felt complete, and for the first time in his life he truly felt like the powerful wizard everyone said he was.

Realizing that as he was seventeen he could perform magic away from Hogwarts struck him with the force of a bludger. He had grinned enthusiastically before remembering his wand was locked away with all of his other magical items. He had glared sullenly at his trunk, just wishing that it would open. He abstractly noticed a tingle of magic and abruptly all the padlocks and chains fell to the floor with a muffled thump. He stared, muted uncomprehendingly, at the freed trunk before realization set in, he had performed wandless and wordless magic.

Harry had stared at his trunk in disbelief for a few moments, unwilling to get his hopes up from just one instance. He silently cast a lumos then frantically had to cast a nox when the entire room was suffused with a light so bright it rivalled the sun.

He had left the wand in his trunk forgotten as he had nonverbally gone through a list of all the charms he knew of. Most of them required little to no effort, a few harder spells like expecto-patronum required more focus and were a lot more magically draining without a wand. He had spent the rest of the night and into the morning practicing what he could before falling into an exhausted sleep.

The following few days he had practiced with his wand, getting a feel for the differences and experimenting with which spells worked better with a wand than without. He spent the rest of his time at the Dursleys rereading all of his old textbooks and going over the books on Occlumency Hermione had gifted him at the end of the school year.

He hadn't been allowed any methods of communication for fear of it being intercepted, and thusly hadn't been able to tell anyone about his new abilities. And now it seemed, he thought as he fought the masked Deatheaters, that imparting the headmaster with his newfound knowledge would be a while longer in coming.

A streak of crimson shot towards Harry with alarming speed, he blocked it with a nonverbal Protego, concurrently disarming the caster with a shouted Expelliarmus. He scanned the area quickly for any trace of the Aurors but didn't see any. He realized he was surrounded by at least a dozen Deatheaters and futilely started cursing as many as possible.

He heard someone call out his name as something hurled through the air towards him, his seekers reflexes kicked in before he had a chance to analyse the situation. He felt the object hit the palm of his hand and simultaneously felt the wash of magic from several curses. He was aware of everything slowing down, his mind registering the shouts of the Deatheaters curses, and felt a tug behind his navel inductive of a portkey.

Harry was aware of a brilliant flash of light and all encompassing pain before the world around him seemed to dissolve away into nothingness.

AN: So this is the prologue of Tempus Fugit, which means time flies in Latin. It's a time travel fic set during the Marauders and Snape's 7th year. Its Harry/Snape so yes there will be slash. If you don't like it don't read it. Its rated M for a reason.

I've got a good idea of the main outline of the story and I've got a few random bits and pieces written, it should be pretty long, I'm still deciding where I want to end it. The chapters will probably be a few thousand words, nothing less than 1000 and nothing more than 10,000.

If you feel like reviewing please do, if not I'm not going to beg. Thanks, hope everyone likes it so far.