-1A/N: New here, first story hope you enjoy. This is a story about the past, the present, and the future. And a team of the most unlikely individuals traveling through time to stop a madman bent on messing with time. It is Post HBP. If anyone want to submit an idea for a place in the past, like world war I, world war II, the Chinese dynasty, the 1900's, the 1600's, Rome, captured by pirates or search for the holy grail etc… Please feel free to suggest, this is not going to be a funny story however, I will try to make it quite serious, maybe a little humor here and there. The A/N will never again be this long. Hope you like the story.

Summary: A select group of unlikely individuals must travel through time to stop a madman from changing it. A group led by Harry Potter and a dark lord of the future. Little do they know, how hard not changing the past can be.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Harry Potter or any references to other books or games you may or may not see throughout this story. I'm not making a dime off of this so don't sue.

Harry Potter and the Battle Across Time

Prologue: Taliesin

A man unlike most walked swiftly to his plaza made of stone. It wasn't a large place, but when one is in hiding and the most wanted man of all time, things get a little less about luxury than safety.

The man stood about 6 foot 1 and was dressed in luminescent dark blue robes. His hair was messed up and branching off in all directions, it was blood red. The man was relatively young, around seventeen, the only sign of who his previous identity had been was the illuminating emerald green eyes.

The man was Lord Merlin. His real name was Taliesin, that was what his parents had called him, but he later changed it, and when he became the next dark lord, his name changed yet again, he was now known as the Dark Merlin.

It was ironic that the son of the savior of the wizarding world had turned out to be the next Dark Lord after Voldemort. The savior had ended up denying any plausible explanation to the change in his son and was convinced that he would 'come around' or if all else failed 'vanish' he never even thought of lifting a finger towards his son.

The savior was dead before his son's fifteenth birthday a victim to one of the last remaining members of the now disbanded group of death eaters. Oddly enough it was as if his father knew what was going to happen, for he had created an updated will only a day prior. It was this will that brought him before the goblin Griphook. Unlike the previous Dark Lords the Dark Merlin followed through with his promise he helped the goblins in one of the greatest goblin rebellions of all time, he was only twelve.

The will his father had made had been seen by only one person, a person who had died the very same day before the will could be looked at, the signature provided all that was needed to set the lock. Taliesin's father was odder than most, perhaps a cause of the battle between him and Voldemort, it wasn't until much later that some very gifted people learned that the hero of the wizarding world, had also unknowingly been a seer.

Once in a passing moment of drunkenness no doubt an act caused by his fathers business partners, he had mentioned in passing of a prophecy. Taliesin the Dark Merlin remembered it well.

(flashbackj)

Taliesin had been only nine at the time and was waiting patiently for his father to return from merrymaking. At the age of nine Taliesin was known as both the most feared and revered student in Hogwarts II. The original Hogwarts had been demolished almost beyond repair, but his father had put his life into rebuilding it, twenty years later Hogwarts had been rebuilt better than ever before. It also included two knew houses, Dumbledore and Snape. The original four houses were Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor, named such after the four founders, the newest houses were in respect for two men who had died in the war against Voldemort.

Albus Dumbledore had once been the current Headmaster of Hogwarts up until his fathers sixth year when he was murdered and betrayed by the current Potions Master of the school. Ironically it was the other man a house was named for who did the murder. In the end once Voldemort was destroyed the truth of Severus Snape was finally told. The story of his death destroying the last of the horcruxes and enabling Voldemort to finally die. Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore had been the two most craftiest and powerful men in the war, next to only his father, it was because of both of their deaths that his father was able to win against Voldemort.

Without Snape being thrust back into the inner circle and eventually the right hand man of Dumbledore the death of Voldemort would never occurred. It takes a courageous man to die for his friend, it takes a more courageous man to kill him. The animals of the houses of Dumbledore and Snape were a Phoenix for Dumbledore and a bat for Snape. His father could have created his own house, but in the end had made it so two people could never be forgotten.

It was just like his father, always being the hero, how he despised him. Thus it was that he became the new Headmaster of the school and every once in a while left to drown his sorrows in firewhisky and merrymaking with old friends. Technically what he heard that night was not a prophecy, but about a prophecy or vision of some sort that his father had had earlier.

His father had come home drunk and teary-eyed immediately he realized that his father and his friends had been talking about the Voldemort days. His father never cried, he saw his father cry for only two reasons, the loss of his wife, and when talking about the Voldemort/Hogwarts days.

"Tally you never want to have your life taken from you by a goddamned prophecy." The words were slurred and Taliesin winced at his father's nickname for him. He hated the name. "I remember when I was your age, I was living with the Dursley's back then."

The Dursleys were another name that was almost never mentioned in his fathers presence, and for good reason. It was not even two years later I would discover I was a wizard, it was two years later when the damned prophecy would begin taking hold of my life. Two years when I would meet Voldemort for the second time." The voice was slurred and the fists of his father kept beating the wall.

"You know how that turned out…" His father paused. "Don't let your future be controlled by destiny or some damnable prophecy! A prophecy saying my son would be the next dark lord…ridiculous." The last sentence was said softly and Taliesin gasped as he heard it.

"Dark Merlin my ass. Even if the prophecy does come true, I'll believe in you, you can turn back to the light. Nothing is impossible." His father stopped before continuing softly.

"The past, present, and future are in jeopardy, the Dark Lord plots. Time can be changed, but for good or evil, only the Druid knows. The Heir to Serpents threatens to destroy all that is known, only a group of six and its two leaders can prevent the fall. The Scar and Dark Bird shall lead, The Null, The Dragon, The Bat, and The Rat behind. The red haired wonder, and the one from the past, only together can these eight last. The past, the present, and the future lie in their hands, destroying many souls as they go along. Time itself is in Jeopardy, the Battle Across Time Begins."

His father seemed to snap out of his drunkenness and realize where he was, Taliesin quickly tried to hide, and he believed he succeeded, his father never knew.

(end flashback)

He had thought long and hard on the words his father said that night, as far as he knew the prophecy was meant for someone in the far future, that was how prophecies usually were created. It took him awhile but eventually he figured out that it was not actually given at the time he heard it, his father had never gone into the trance like other seers did, it seemed he was mumbling the words in his drunken state.

It was because of this reason that he had waited until he did for the will to be unlocked. His father had cast a spell over it, and it was not to be opened until his coming of age, his seventeenth birthday. That was today.

The will was handed into the possession of a goblin named Griphook who had been a friend of his fathers since he had entered into the wizarding world. He entered Gringotts and waved cheekily at the Aurors nearby, they were too cowardly to attack him. Walking right by the trembling law enforcement he walked behind the counter and headed to the vaults. That was where the will would be heard, vault 713.

Griphook was waiting for him near the cart to the vault.

"Mr. Potter." Griphook said bowing his head respectfully. The goblins did not recognize him as the Dark Merlin but as the last living Potter.

"Griphook. May your gold flow forever."

"Indeed." Griphook said amused. "This way, I admit I'm quite interested to hear what this is about, the day before he died your father came to me with his will, giving specific instructions not to show it until your seventeenth birthday. I could sense the power he cast on it and wisely decided to wait to show it. But I have to admit this is most mysterious."

"Yes, I'm intrigued as well. I may be called the Dark Merlin now days but I still hold strongly to my fathers beliefs, I'm still actively fighting for house elves, goblins, vampires, werewolves, and other dark creatures. It is the main reason they join me. I hold true to my word and have proven that by the goblin rebellion four in a half years ago."

"That's true." The cart began slowing. "We're here. Key please." Taliesin rummaged his robes before pulling out a peculiar key given to his father by Dumbledore in his will. It was home to an empty vault, which at the moment housed his father's will.

"Stand back." Griphook said unlocking the door and then putting his fingernail through the slot. The door to the vault slowly opened and to his great surprise his father stared back at him. Griphook also looked amazed.

"Father!"

"Son. This is just a recording, a mix between magic and muggle technology. This is a hologram, and I have no doubt that you already read the other will, so I will keep this short and simple." Taliesin nodded, he had already read his fathers first will, the one before this one. That was another reason this one was so mysterious.

"When you were nine years old I came home drunk one night and ended up saying a few things I shouldn't have. One was the prophecy which you have undoubtedly heard the one stating your rise to the power. The second was from a prophecy I myself had heard shortly after Voldemort's death, it was the last true prophecy given by Sybil Trelawney. Voldemort had just died so I was quite worried about this as he was without a doubt the 'heir of the serpent'." Taliesin's father stopped to take off and clean his glasses, once done he put them back on.

"I waited in fear of Voldemort's second coming and was relieved when nothing appeared, I totally forgot about it when you were born, it wasn't until your mother, god bless her soul, it wasn't until your mother was killed that I remembered it. I figured that was a wake up call from fate to remember my place. I continued to wait and slowly but surely pieced together a possible scenario of the prophecy."

"The Scar was obviously me, the Dark Bird took a while, but eventually when you began calling yourself the Dark Merlin I pieced everything together. Merlin was a name of a bird, so that was obviously you. The Bat and Rat are or were Severus Snape and Peter Pettigrew a.k.a. Wormtail. Both of whom were supposedly dead."

"I checked and finally confirmed their deaths, but yet it still puzzled me, this prophecy seemed to assume when they were alive. I narrowed this down to my Hogwarts years, and even though Peter Pettigrew redeemed himself at the Battle of Hogwarts, I still greatly disliked the man, the same goes for Snape, although we got along better near the end. He was a great actor."

"This helped me discover who the red-haired wonder was, it was obviously your mother so it had to be during Hogwarts sometime between my seventh and third year. Knowing that it was during the Hogwarts years I easily realized who the Dragon was. This prophecy seemed to be pairing me up with my worst enemies and greatest love. The one of the past will obviously only be discovered in the past, so I had one character left. The Null."

"Let me tell you, trying to figure out whom the Null was, was one of my greatest challenges. I didn't realize who it was until your were about ten. When I did it shocked me to the core. Null means valueless and amounting to nothing, having no importance. Another name for a muggle in the late 1600's was a Nulm. This made me narrow my search down by a lot. It eventually made me reach a very disturbing conclusion."

"If everything was correct, if I made no mistakes in solving the mystery of the people in the prophecy then the Null had to be a muggle. A muggle who I knew during my Hogwarts years. Amounting to nothing made me narrow my search down even more, the only muggles whom I associated with and who amounted to nothing were the Dursley's. Valueless soon made me discover the last member. My cousin, or your uncle. Dudley."

"Yet again fate was messing with me. Besides the red-haired wonder, the one of the past and the Dark Bird, the rest were my worst enemies. If I was right about the time which I also narrowed down, this prophecy would begin a little after my sixth year at Hogwarts."

"How any of this could be possible I can only guess, I can only assume that the one who kills me tomorrow will be the one to in the near future send the Voldemort of the past information and totally changing the events to come and were. You know of whom I speak. If they have not caught my killer by this date then you must do as I say, time itself is in stake."

"What you see before you is a time turner, it is all set date wise and needs only three turns to do the trick, when you arrive you should arrive a little bit after Dumbledore's funeral, hopefully in my old room at the Dursley's. You can under no circumstances tell the people who you really are, just call yourself Taliesin or if you want Merlin, hopefully people will get a different idea."

"When you arrive get my younger self and Dudley, how you do it, I don't know nor do I want to, my younger self should find it very entertaining. After you recruit them head to the Weasley's and grab your mother, Snape and Draco should be in a place called Spinner's End, if you get there in time Wormtail may be there as well. If not you will probably meet up with him later. Snape will automatically realize who you are, and if you need anyone to talk to he's the one, odd that he is the one I trust most out of the group. It would be in your best interest to make sure he doesn't tell the others who you are."

"Two last things before I finish. The first is that I love you no matter which side you are on, don't have fate pull your strings, and good or bad find a young woman to settle down with. I trust you shall do whatever you decide and know that I'll always be with you. And on that pleasant note; be careful do not change the past, for it could have terrible consequences on the future. Just make sure you try to stay away from any of the known people in history. With Voldemort though I doubt he will be that considerate if that is the case, the item next to the time turner will help. It was created by a friend of mine, you never got to meet her she died in war. The device was made many years previous it seems she also was a seer and had a vision that I would one day need it. It's funny because she dropped out of Divination. The device will let you know when history is the way it should be, and will let you know when it is wrong."

"Remember I love you and will see you again. Good luck on this quest, not to sound melodramatic or anything…but the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.

With Love

Harry James Potter Headmaster of Hogwarts II and a proud father.

P.S. The one from the past is almost assuredly a girl, be careful.

P.S.S. Almost forgot do not let my younger self save every person he meets, some of them are meant to die.

Taliesin wiped the few tears from his eyes and ushered for Griphook to get out. He was killed so the traitor had indeed killed him and the traitors identity was still unknown. It meant that he was heading back in time to warn Voldemort.

Funny. His fathers last plead was for him to help his younger self save the world, he always did have a saving peoples thing, even up to the day he died. Grasping the time turner and stuffing the cylindrical object in his robes he turned the time turner. Once. Twice. Three times. He disappeared from his world, knowing in his dark heart that he would never see it again.

A/N: Just to let you know most of the story is about Harry and every now and then a bit of the mysterious Taliesin will appear. How is it? As far as I know no one has done something like this, and even if someone has the characters have not. Give it a try. Please read and review, hope you enjoyed.