Rippling Wings
Prologue
I can't help but think that things could have been different. Those nights when I wouldn't sleep, that I couldn't sleep without waking up in a cold sweat, a bad taste in my mouth and blood that was never there, but that I could never get rid of. Hermione told me, back in third year with the Time Turner, about the butterfly effect. I didn't think much of it back then, but those nights were perfect times for it to creep into my mind.
One little event in the past rippling like a stone thrown in a pond and everything would be different. It got me thinking.
What was that one little thing in my life that effected so many different? What was the stone thrown into my pond? How could I be sure that it was my pond at all, and not someone else's?
I would never know, I supposed, what that focal point was. I had figured that focal points were small and insignificant at the time. A man coughs in one direction and the world ends. He coughs in another direction the world lives.
Chaos theory. What was seen as random really wasn't and it shaped everything.
I wondered if that focal point changed, if something else happened, would the future be different?
Would Ron still be my best friend? Would Voldemort still rise again? Would someone have had to die in that graveyard so long ago?
Would Cedric and Cho have sat with us, that first day on the Hogwarts Express?
I guess I may never know. But I can't help but wonder if things could have been different.
-Unspeakable Harry James Potter, Department of Mysteries
--
It took a long time for me to make any real friends. It took until my third year at Hogwarts, really.
The others only liked me because I was the son of Amos Diggory, or because I was on the Quidditch team, or because I was smart.
It wasn't until I met Harry Potter so long ago that I had a real friend. He only knew me as Cedric, or Ced, or as Cho called me, Niffler. I think that's why I stayed with him, through everything. He was my friend. My real friend. And I'm a Hufflepuff.
Loyal to the end.
And I'll stay loyal until we find him again.
-Cedric "Niffler" Edward Diggory
--
It was an accident that I met Harry Potter on the Express that day. A coincidence, really.
But it changed my life.
These three boys, two younger, one older but he might as well have been younger, let me be myself.
And sure myself is a little overbearing. But they liked me.
Harry trusted me. And I trust him.
He'll come back.
He has to.
-Cho Chang
--
Harry's my best mate. He's been my best mate for a long time.
Sure we've had our fights, but we've always managed to get back to being best mates again.
It's always been 'Harry and Ron.'
Now it's 'Just Ron.'
And it can't be 'Just Ron.'
-Ronald Bilius Weasley
--
I'll always be second to Ron, I know that. But, Harry has been my best friend ever since he saved me from a troll.
Harry didn't just save my life that day. He said we were friends. I'd never had friends. No one wanted to be friends with the ugly buck-toothed know-it-all girl.
And he did. He went and dragged his friends to fight a troll and won for me.
Harry is my best friend.
And he always will be.
-Hermione Jane Granger
--
Harry is Harry.
He'll come when he comes.
We all believe in him.
-Luna Artemis Lovegood
--
Things are bad.
I have to go back.
I have to change things. -H.P.
--
And as the Universe fell around them, eleven year old Harry Potter opened his bright green eyes, and screamed in pain.
End.
--
A/N: I know this might seem confusing, but this is just a teaser. This is a time-travel fic, but with a twist. There are three definite possible timelines. One is the Canon timeline, which has remained untouched until now. Another is what I call the 'Kicked' timeline (the name will make sense later) all the different confessionals except for the last one is from this timeline. In the Kicked timeline, Harry was an Unspeakable researching time travel.
In the last timeline which I'll call 'Disaster' is the timeline we all know of, when almost everyone but Harry is dead and they send him back in time to start it all over. Kicked Harry stumbled on a way to time travel and was hurtled back by accident.
These two possible Harrys collided and the timelines are breaking apart and colliding creating the story (and timeline) we'll be following. The timelines are sustained only for a certain period of time, which was when the confessionals were said.
A little confusing? I know. Review with your thoughts, questions, flames, whatever.