Hogwarts, October 31, 1999

No more.

Looking at the twisted bodies lying in the dust around him, Harry finally found a solution. The Death Eaters tossed mocking remarks over their shoulders as they sped away on broomsticks. Harry ignored them, as much as he wanted to kill them, he'd finally found the answer. Harry swept the invisibility cloak over his shoulders and tightened his grip on the Elder Wand. He couldn't take any more of it. Hermione was dead, her neck broken, lying on the ground ten feet away. Ron was dead, Fred and George were dead, Luna Lovegood had been driven insane, Neville Longbottom had received the Dementor's Kiss, and Ginny Weasley... Ginny Weasley was gone. They were loosing the war.

But clinking on a golden chain around Hermione Granger's broken neck was the answer. A Time Turner.

He gently unfastened the clasp and lifted the tiny device. He raised his right hand and looked at the black stone around his ring finger.

"Hermione Granger." he said, his voice hoarse. The pale specter of her soul wavered into existence before him. "'Mione." he whispered. "Oh, Mione..." A tear almost escaped his eye, but he blinked it back. "Hermione, I've a question for you..."

And she answered him.

Godric's Hollow, October 31, 1983.

It took 140,160 turns, just like Hermione said. Actually, it was 140,162, because the 140,160 turns took him an hour an a half to do. but finally, he was here. Home at long last. He knew he'd set an alarm off when he appeared, but he walked calmly to the front door and knocked. It was odd, knocking on one's own door, but it was his parent's house at this time. The door creaked open a fraction of an inch, and hazel eyes behind round spectacles peered out.

"Hello, father." Harry said, tearing up.

"You're...Harry? You're my son?" Lily Potter asked confusedly. Harry nodded.

"I'm from sixteen years in the future. I used a Time Turner to come here."

"But...won't this mess everything up horribly? You're not supposed to be seen when you're time traveling. It wreaks havoc on the timestream." James Potter said. He was slightly rumpled-looking, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes of him. Off either of them. His parents...this was something worth dying for.

"I don't care." Harry said firmly. "I'm the only one who can kill Voldemort."

"He's coming?" Lily gasped.

"Yes. Soon. In maybe an hour. I have the last of his Horcruxes ...with me, I'll destroy him an it when he comes."

"Horcruxes! So that's how he's done it!" exclaimed James.

"Yes. It's ...hard to explain, and we haven't time. Have you got a Pensive? And a very large jar?"

"They're in the cupboard. I'll get them."

"Thank you." Harry touched his temple with his wand and muttered the words Dumbledore had taught him. A fine mist gathered around the tip of the wand, but more and more gathered, eventually forming a cloud the size of a beach ball. He dropped it into the jar with a weary gasp. "That's it. My memories from the last sixteen years. Well, sixteen and a half. Everything you need to know is in there." He hesitated, then glanced, almost shyly, at his mother. "Would you...would you show them to Ron, Ginny, Fred and George Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom when they're old enough? And to me? I-I want us to know what we were. What we could—can--be. To know that we were strong, that we made a difference, maybe. Even if—even if I wasn't enough to save them."

"Oh, Harry..." Lily whispered to her son, and embraced him tightly. He sobbed into her shirt, and James wrapped his arms around them both. Their son...so tired, so broken, so wounded... It hurt their hearts to see it.

"Mum...Dad..."

An evil cackle sounded in the front yard.

"He's here." Harry said, and rose from the sofa, his heart aching. He longed to stay, to touch his mother's hair, to see his father's familiar smile for the first time. But he knew what he had to do—what he would do, so that someday a different self could have the parents he'd lacked. He moved to the front door, and turned back to his tearful parents.

"I—I love you. No matter what happens. And-and this is worth it. It's worth it all to see you just this once." He smiled with a sort of gladness and sorrow, happy to have found at last what he'd lost, aching to know he'd loose it again. Lily sobbed openly, and even James allowed a tear or two to streak down his face. Harry pulled the door open and stepped out to meet the Dark Lord.

Voldemort sneered at him. A lone teenage boy, battle-scarred, weary and dirty, against him? Not a chance. But the boy drew his wand and took a spell-casting stance, so the Dark Lord decided to spare a second on him. He smiled and chanted "Avada Kedavra!" as the boy cast his own spell.

They met in two blazes of light, sparking and illuminating Godric's Hollow. Red against green, future against past. The boy, Voldemort noted distantly, was the spitting image of James Potter. But with green eyes. Even as he speculated, the red power began to flow back along the green, forcing his own curse back towards him. His eyes widened and he forced out more magic, but the red bore down steadily.

He cried out, and twisted the wand, breaking contact, and even as the fatal glow of his curse flew to his own chest, he cast one last spell, one that would fly true...

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry James Potter was blasted through the door of his home, the curse throwing sickly green light on his face. His parents rushed over to his fallen body, and he smiled as he died in his mother's arms. He'd won, in the end. He'd ended the final war before it began. And his parents were alive...James wept as the body of his son faded out of existence, out of a time where it didn't belong, leaving Lily crying in his arms.

Upstairs, a tiny babe with a scar-free forehead wailed.

A/N: okay, thought this up at about three in the morning, felt like writing it. Not much to say, really, except please review. if anyone wants to do anything with this story, you've my full permission to do so. Oh, yeah...Harry Potter's not mine. He's JK's.

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