QLFC submission
Season 6: Caerphilly Catapults
Finals, Round 1: Each position has been given a prompt related to time-travel; the method of time travel you are given should be the method used in your story (so no Time-Turners!). Chaser 2: Hot Tub Time Machine
Prompts: [dialogue] "What, have you changed your mind now?, [dialogue] "He didn't really like much else.", [emotion] Disgust.
Word Count: 1,420
HTTMHTTMHTTMHTTMHTTM
"This is going to be interesting."
Dean sounds amused next to me, and I flash him a grin.
"A bunch of Wizards who have very little social skills while around Muggles, spending a weekend at the ski resort? It's going to be fantastic," I counter, making him laugh. We were waiting near the forested area. I had the portkeys made so that they were dropped off here, and we could all get into a large van and drive the two minutes to the resort. We were waiting on Ron, Seamus, and Neville. Dean, having spent half his time in the Muggle world since we graduated, had his drivers license. Ron and Hermione's wedding was in three days, and we were booked into the resort for the next two. I'd already told them to be prepared to give their wands up as soon as they saw me, so that we didn't have Aurors on us while celebrating. Half of that order was a fear of them freaking out and messing with the van I had rented for the day as well.
"Here we go!" Dean says excitedly, and I spin to see Seamus spiraled out on the ground.
"Why'd you hit the ground Shea?" Dean helps his long-term friend up, using his wand to clean the snow off of him.
"Harry! Good to see ya. I tripped while I was reaching for the can," he explains. He tosses the old tin can at me and I catch it easily, putting it into my backpack.
"Right, let's get started packing up so that we're ready to go!" Dean says brightly, headed for the vehicle I had already given him the keys for.
HTTMHTTMHTTMHTTMHTTM
"This is nice," Ron admits slowly. I give him a short salute with the glass of firewhiskey I was enjoying and he laughs. It was our first night, and the room I had rented for all of us- a suite really, we all had our own rooms- had a hot tub on the deck that we could enjoy while watching it snow. We had all changed and hopped in after the day spent skiing and inner tubing down the hills. Dean and Seamus had produced the drinks they snuck away. I had stuck with Seamus' Firewhiskey, knowing I could handle a glass of that, but Ron and Dean had each tried a can of 'chernobyl' that he had found while traveling. It was a bright green color, and I wasn't going to trust it in my system.
"I'm sore in places I didn't know I could be sore in," Neville counters in complaint, but he's grinning.
"You just need to get out more Nev," Dean teases him, laughing when a wave of water is splashed his way.
"I just didn't play Quidditch like you all!" he sniffs dramatically, causing us all to laugh. Dean sends a wave of water back, and soon there's a slight war going on in the small tub.
"Hey watch out!" I warn as I see Deans' abandoned drink tip. It hits the side and pours over the buttons Dean had used to start the water, and a purple hue enters my vision before I black out.
HTTMHTTMHTTMHTTMHTTM
"Oh, no. Nonononono!"
"Wha?" I bolt up, still half asleep, and I blink in surprise.
And then blink again.
And again.
"Uh…." I reach to my left instinctually and find my glasses, pushing them on.
Nev was sitting in bed, head in his hands. Dean was stood in front of the mirror that he had hung up on the back of the bathroom door, our fifth year, staring wide-eyed.
We were all in our Gryffindor dorm room.
"What's wrong?" I decide to ask Dean, who was still wide-eyed. I'm dragged from my bed and he plants me in front of the mirror.
"Oh no!" I exclaim, shocked. I glance back at Dean, but he looked the same as the man who had been in the hot tub with me.
In the mirror, a teenaged Dean and Harry were staring back.
"Was I really that small?" I ask in disgust, and that makes Neville snort.
We learn fairly quickly that we still looked the same to each other, but for all intents and purposes, we were stuck in our old bodies. I dig through the books and things on my desk and determine that it isn't a prank, and we are, in fact, back in time. It is November 22, 1996, exactly ten years back, smack in the middle of sixth year. We wake Seamus and Ron and share the panic before we discuss what we need to do.
"Can't we just go to the room?" Dean cuts into Neville insisting we needed to tell Dumbledore, and Ron saying we needed to live the day through and go back to bed and reset whatever happened.
"Huh?" Seamus answers eloquently.
"The room. Ask for a hot tub and our drinks and see if we can't make it happen again. Right?" he shoots this question at me, and I blink in surprise.
"Uh, we could, I guess? I don't want to mess with the timeline. But how do we…" I pause as I remember the fight they had before I blacked out.
"Your drinks! You need to ask the room for the hot tub and your foreign drink. You poured it into the control panel!" I tell him excitedly. We get dressed as quickly as possible and head downstairs.
"Harry!"
"Ronnikins!"
I hear Rons groan an instant before a bushy-haired girl throws herself into his arms. It takes me a second to register that it isn't Hermione. It hits me suddenly that in sixth year, Ron was dating Lavender. I stifle a laugh as he tries to talks himself out of the Hogsmeade date they apparently had, and I follow Dean and Seamus with Neville trailing behind. I'm blindsided when a younger version of my wife slams into my side.
"Oh, er, hi Gin," I say in surprise. She beams up at me and I raise a surprised eyebrow.
"We're going to the pitch today, right?"
"Oh, uh, sure, yeah. But I promised Ron and the guys I would spend some time with them first, sorry. I can meet you for lunch and have the whole afternoon to ourselves?" I suggest. She sighs, but nods and kisses my cheek before flouncing off. Ron shows up at my elbow looking bedraggled and I grin.
"Not a word!" he points his finger at me threateningly and I snicker but nod. We make our way to the Room of Requirement with no other mishaps, and I let Dean do the honors because he remembers the name of his drink and the make of the tub because he had been fascinated by it.
"Let's hope this works," he mutters as he steps in. We strip down to our boxers, and he starts up the machine. We all get in around the same area we were in before, and then he glances around nervously before pouring the can on the panel. After a moment, it goes purple, and then I black out again.
HTTMHTTMHTTMHTTMHTTM
"I can't believe you put me in the doghouse with you!" I growl at Ron, who shrugs.
"Hey, she was mad we were hiding something from her, and you kept lying. You put yourself there."
"You didn't have to tell Ginny!"
"Oh, right, because I wanted a bat bogey hex coming out of my nose on my wedding day!" he exclaims back, and I nod in acceptance. He had a point, Hermione would have been furious. I glance at the dance floor again, where the two girls in question were currently in a group of squealing other girls, about to catch the bouquet that Hermione was throwing. I didn't have to worry about Gin catching it, she assured me one of the other girls would get it since we married two years ago and she had no need for the luck that came with catching it.
"At least we didn't change anything," I tell him after a moment.
"I don't know if I could have lived with myself if I had."
"We could have saved some people."
"And we would have lost what we have now. Harry, changing one thing could have changed the outcome of the war. We can't have that. Yes, I miss them, but I have Hermione and you. I can't have that taken away," he says in surprising seriousness.
"I know. Let's go wrangle our wives for another dance," I suggest, and he perks up at the idea.