Harry Potter and the Rewinding of Time
Chapter 1: A New Post
A/N 'Funny' disclaimers are back!
Disclaimer: I looked in the mirror this morning and didn't see JK Rowling. This either means that the laws of physics have changed or I'm not her. (In other words, don't expect me to write canon.)
-O0O0O-
The dark figure walked through freezing London, huddled under a grey cloak, trying to preserve as much warmth as possible. His cloak, now more white than grey from the snow that covered it, flapped in the freezing wind, and the figure wrapped it more tightly around himself. The other Londoners ignored the figure, too busy trying to keep themselves warm to care. After all, he was no different to them. Just another human being going to his job early in the morning. Nothing abnormal about that.
The figure walked into a bathroom, chose a stall, and began to do something very abnormal. He stood in the toilet bowl and flushed it. The figure pulled off his cloak as he soared down the pipes, seeming to magically fit down the narrow plumbing. He could feel the heating charms already.
Harry Potter flew out of one of the many fireplaces that lined the Ministry atrium, cloak in hand, and managed a decent landing. Over five years of flushing himself down those toilets meant that he could land expertly on his feet. Maybe it was the Quidditch; the Chudley Cannons had managed to win for the first time in many years with Harry on their side, so he must have been skilled. However, obligations had led Harry to quit professional Quidditch and take up a job at the Ministry. Maybe the same training and dedication that made him the Ministry's best auror also made him so good at landing on his feet. Either way, he was extremely proud of the way he exited the fireplace, and everyone at the Ministry knew not to disagree with him. Harry's auror training and work with Hermione, the current head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meant that he knew a lot of hexes, and many a Ministry employee has spent a day with their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth or oversized front teeth for saying that they exited the fireplace better than him. All Ministry employees had learnt to stagger a bit when they landed, just in case Harry was there and thought that they looked more stylish than he did.
Harry dusted himself off and walked over to the elevator, nodding to a few employees he recognised, and pressed a button. The elevator began to move. It stopped at the first level, and Hermione entered the elevator, nodding and smiling at Harry, who stood aside to give her somewhere to stand. "How's the house elf legislation going?" he asked. Hermione smiled.
"Almost got it through the Wizengamot. Just the final votes this afternoon and it will all be over. And I think that I've at least got a majority, thanks to you." Harry frowned.
"Thanks to me?" he inquired.
"When you passed that law to open the Wizengamot to anyone, not just the old pureblood families, you let a lot of people supporting to my cause in. Although," she amended, "A lot of them probably only agree because I'm your friend. But I don't care either way." The elevator arrived at the Auror offices, and Harry stepped out, Hermione following him.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to talk with Kingsley. He wanted a report on the new laws regarding under age magic and the rework of the trace. Good work on that, by the way. It would have taken a lot of struggle to get that past the purebloods." Hermione commented. Harry nodded.
"Extremely difficult. They didn't want their children to be able to be caught doing magic at home." Harry had recently been promoting a reworking of the trace, the spell placed on every underage wizard that detected if they used magic. It could not distinguish who did the magic, so it was useless when in proximity to adult wizards. Pureblood parents had been using this fact to train their children at home during the holidays, as the trace would assume the magic it detected was coming from the adult. Voldemort had modified the trace, changing it so that it extended beyond 17 years. He had used it to identify when someone said the word 'Voldemort', which led to many incidents when Harry, Ron and Hermione had been tracking him. The Aurors had fixed the trace shortly after the war ended, but Harry had been pushing for the trace to be refined so that it wouldn't be able to be fooled by the mere presence of an adult wizard. Pureblood wizards had resisted, seeing as it would ruin the advantage that their children had over muggleborns (seeing as they could practise magic during the holidays), but Harry, through rallying the muggleborns and half-bloods loyal to him, had managed to finally force the modifications through the Wizengamot a few days earlier.
"I would have given up. It seemed like you would never be able to get it through." Hermione said as they arrived at Harry's desk. Harry had decorated his desk in memory of the late Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody, covering it with dark detectors. A slight smile graced Hermione's face when she saw the desk. She knew that Mad Eye had been Harry's biggest drive to join the Aurors. While it had been an imposter that originally gave him the idea, Moody had encouraged Harry before being killed in the course of evacuating Harry from the Dursley's house on the 27th of July 1997. Harry smiled at her comment.
"I had inspiration."
"Dobby?"
"You got it." Harry smiled at her and sat down. "See you around? We need to talk about that house elf law this afternoon. How about we go out for dinner at the Leaky Cauldron with Ron and Ginny?" Hermione smiled.
"I'll be there." She replied, and began to walk away, towards Kingsley's office.
Harry sighed as he saw a huge pile of papers on his magical in-tray. One downside to being an Auror is that he had to deal with a large amount of paperwork. He reached out to the tray but was surprised when the tray rattled. A letter appeared in the top, bearing the Hogwarts crest. Harry frowned and grabbed it. He opened the letter. He froze, his morning coffee half way to his mouth. He slowly put the coffee back down and grabbed a parchment and quill, eyes not leaving the parchment. What was going on with his life?
-O0O0O-
Professor McGonagall walked through the halls of Hogwarts. The students were on board the Hogwarts Express, and she had still not managed to find a Defence professor. Even after Voldemort's defeat, people were still wary about the supposed curse on the job. She had thrown caution to the winds and owled the one person she knew would not worry about a 'curse' on a job. Harry Potter.
She knew Harry was busy at the Ministry, but she also knew that he harboured a secret wish to become the DADA professor. She had seen Harry's teaching ability in Dumbledore's Army, and she had seen how much he enjoyed that. He had even applied for the position a year after the end of the second wizarding war. McGonagall had been willing to accept, but Harry retracted his offer after he realised that he had to help the wizarding world get back on his feet. It was the same year he quit the Cannons.
She knew that she had taken a risk. Her owl would only just have reached Harry, and the students were just arriving at the castle. Harry wouldn't arrive until the middle of the welcoming feast at the very earliest – if he did accept at all. Yes, McGonagall understood that she was taking a risk.
-O0O0O-
The younger students arrived in the great hall in an excellent mood. These children were not scarred by the wizarding war. The older students were a little more resigned. For them, arrival at the castle reminded them of the Battle of Hogwarts. The seventh years had been ten when that happened, but they still remembered the horrible effects of the war. Even the third years were five when it happened. They remembered almost nothing. But Hogwarts was not the same as it had been before either of the wars. It never would be.
Professor McGonagall stood up and silenced the students. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the doors to the great hall opening with a crash, just as there was a lightning strike outside. Some of the students screamed; Professor McGonagall merely hid a smile. It seemed that Harry Potter wanted to start the year the same way that Mad Eye Moody did.
Harry strode down the centre aisle, between the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. His footsteps were the only sound as he walked towards the head table. However, he heard applause starting at the Gryffindor table as he reached the half way point. It seemed that some people had got over their shock. The applause started to gather momentum as Harry finally reached the head table. He smiled at McGonagall, handing her a piece of parchment, which she put in a pocket.
"I would have sent an owl, but this is so much cooler."
"I see you haven't regained your sanity, Potter." McGonagall replied. Harry merely smiled.
"I would have to be mad to accept an invitation to this place." Harry sat down on McGonagall's right. "I accept, by the way."
-O0O0O-
A/N Thanks for reading! I like to interact with my readers, so leave a review. I might take your advice into consideration!
This chapter is probably about the length that a normal chapter will be. A little shorter than the original, but I like to think that my writing has become better since then.
If you have read the original, you might have noticed that the story has changed quite a bit. I still wanted to keep the original storyline, though.
I might continue this story sometime soon. I have no inspiration left, but it generally comes back very quickly.
Thanks for reading once more.
GlimmerGamingMC