Two pairs of emerald green eyes met, staring at each other for less than two seconds before they both sprang away from each other, tumbling to the carpeted floor. Both figures were similar, nearly identical if not for the age-difference. One was clearly older than the other by at the very minimum, five years, having gained slight stubble, and a thicker, more prominent jawline that could only come from age. The younger of the two looked to be around ten or eleven years old, lightning bolt scar prominent on his forehead, while the other, perhaps eighteen, or twenty, had the same scar, but silver and faded.
"Who are you?" The younger asked in a hush, the older stiffening as they faced each other.
"Who are you?" The other repeated, clearly confused as he looked around, "This is my old room…"
"It's my room – but it was Dudley's before," the younger boy frowned, "What magic did you use to get here? It has to be magic, right?"
The older frowned, matching the other in an absurdly identical expression, "What year is it?"
The younger boy narrowed his eyes, "Nineteen ninety-two." The older boy sucked in a breath.
"Oh no."
"Oh no, what?" The younger questioned. The older slowly got up off the floor, standing hesitantly, the other boy following. In the light, the younger could see the older – he wore a fitted green t-shirt and blue jeans with nice trainers, the only other thing visible being a leather bracelet around his wrist.
"This is going to sound crazy, but…I think I've gone back in time." He met eyes with the younger boy once more. "I'm you, from the future. I'm Harry James Potter, from the year nineteen ninety-nine."
The younger Harry stepped back, banging against a chest of drawers, "You're crazy." But all of a sudden, the quiet they'd arrived in became quieter, and then came a dreaded thumping from the stairs. The two Potter's looked to the door in horror, before it opened to reveal Vernon Dursley in all his glory, wearing a ghastly suit. He went to whisper-shout, only to see the older Harry, who stepped forward, whispering impromptu as genius struck.
"I'm a relative of James Potter. I've come to take Harry away so you never have to see us ever again. We'll be leaving within five minutes by teleporting out of the room – I'll come back for his stuff later tonight. You won't see or hear me, and if I'm lucky, you'll never ever have to see either of us again."
Vernon, at his words, gaped, spluttering before finally pursing his lips tightly, glaring as he nodded, slamming the door and going back downstairs to where – the older Harry presumed – the Mason's waited with Petunia and Dudley. The younger Harry looked to him in awe.
"You're taking me away?"
The older Harry hesitated, before a hoot came from Hedwig, who was trapped in her cage. The older Harry stared at the bird for a few seconds, as if in awe, before swallowing, rubbing his eyes under his glasses and nodding, looking back at the younger Harry.
"Yeah, I'll take you away. We'll stay in the Leaky Cauldron, but first I need to disguise you. Everyone will be clambering over each other to get to just shake your hand," he ran a hand through his hair, trying to think up a plan on the fly. To think, less than five minutes ago he'd been wandering around the Department of Mysteries with Luna as his guide. A sudden thought occurred to him, his hand going to the holster in his wrist. His eyes trailed downwards, heart panging upon seeing his Holly wand gone. It's probably because of time-streams and not being able to exist twice, he thought morosely, remembering Luna's airy speeches about the progression of time and applications of long-range time-travel. He winced upon realising he actually had no way to apparate them to their destination.
But then a crack filled the air, and both Harry's turned to look at Dobby, who immediately squeaked upon seeing them both.
"We need you, Dobby!" The older Harry blurted out as he saw him about to disappear. The house-elf hesitated, but it was all Harry needed. "You don't want Harry to go to Hogwarts this year, I know that, and while I'm not agreeing with you, if you did want him to stay home, he would need his things to study anyway, wouldn't he?" There was a pause before Dobby nodded, "Great, so, before we agree to anything, why don't you get Harry's trunk and other things from under the stairs and bring them here, then we can talk technicalities?"
The younger Harry went to speak, but then Dobby nodded, smiling weakly, before disappearing, reappearing a second later with younger Harry's things. Older Harry smiled at Dobby.
"Thank-you," he opened the trunk, taking out Harry's wand before waving it, causing the objects in the room to hover before they dived for the trunk, all cramming in until it was overflowing. "Dobby, could you help?" Dobby nodded quickly, grinning before snapping his fingers, causing the trunk to sort out so just about everything could fit in – the only things that didn't being younger Harry's Nimbus 2000 and Hedwig in her cage, the latter squawking as she was placed on the ground.
"Hush, Hedwig," the younger Harry said, before picking her and the Nimbus up, the older Harry shutting the trunk and putting it upright, Dobby's smile fading into a confused frown. Older Harry gave him an apologetic look before putting his hand on younger Harry's shoulder and apparating them all – he, younger Harry, Hedwig, the trunk and the Nimbus – to an alley he knew near Charing Cross. Immediately younger Harry swayed, sucking in a breath.
"What was that?"
"Apparating," older Harry replied, glancing about for any unfortunate muggles that needed obliviated, "you'll get used to it." He took Hedwig from the younger wizard, opening the cage locks and padlocks with a muttered 'alohomora'. "Go get something to eat, then fly to Hogwarts and wait until August eighth to come back and find us. I love your feathers, girl, but snowy owls aren't from Britain, and you get noticed." Hedwig chirruped before coming out of her cage, fluttering to his shoulder to nip his ear before going down to the younger Harry, giving him a longer farewell before flying off. Older Harry threw her cage in a nearby dumpster before shrinking younger Harry's trunk and Nimbus, taking the latter from the surprised twelve year old and stuffing both in his pocket.
"Okay, first we gotta disguise you, and figure out how to address each other." He twirled the younger Harry's holly wand, noting it wasn't as smooth or worn as it would be in seven years time. "You can be Harry if you like," he offered.
"Thanks," replied Harry, "why don't you be James? Like Dad?" Immediately the older Harry pursed his lips, a flash of Sirius calling him James running through his mind.
"No, not James," he muttered, before speaking again, "Henry? John?"
"No," Harry shook his head, "you don't look like a John, or a Henry. How 'bout…Arthur?" Older Harry shook his head, "Daniel?" Nope. "Tom?" Definitely not. "You're making it really hard. How about…Charles?"
Older Harry grimaced, "I don't know. Jack, maybe?"
"How about Jessie?" Harry gave another name, before humming, "I like that. You could pretend to by my Uncle Jessie!"
The older Harry gave him a short frown, "Why would I be your uncle?" Harry shrugged.
"I don't know. You can't exactly pretend to be my brother. How are you going to live while I'm at Hogwarts?"
Older Harry…Jessie, shook his head, "I have no idea." He tapped Harry on the head, turning his hair auburn – not Weasley red, but more like the colour he'd seen in the pictures of his mother. Doing the same for himself, he frowned at the sight of Harry's scar, remembering his own at last second before he looked out of the mouth of the alley. Peering at muggles passing along in the night, he spied someone across the road with a ratty blue baseball cap. Putting a notice-me-not on it would be hard for any other wizard that far away, but he'd always had excellent eyesight and aim. A second later he summoned it across the road, doing the same for two similar hats before showing them all to Harry. "Pick one."
Harry bit his tongue at the sight, before he picked the red one, putting it on. Jessie immediately twisted it around strategically on his head, so it was backwards. He made sure to cover his lightning bolt scar before doing the same for himself, knowing without looking where his faded scar would be. Then, he waved his wand again, changing their eye-colours to dark blue and a hazel respectively – hazel for himself, dark blue for Harry – before fixing their skin-tones to match.
"Okay, that's our looks sorted," Jessie muttered, before eyeing Harry's clothes. His own fit him well due to some 'proper shopping' with Lavender as a birthday gift, the girl guilt-tripping him. She'd bought more clothes for him than she had for herself. But Harry's clothes were still Dudley's hand-me-downs. "Don't get alarmed by this," he warned, before shrinking Harry's clothes as he wore them. As expected, Harry muffled a yelp.
"Is…is this how tight everyone else usually wears them?" And Jessie couldn't help but feel angry at himself as he nodded, wanting to hit his head off a wall as he remembered the Dursleys' cruelty. "It's weird."
"You'll get used to it," he whispered, before hugging him. The boy stiffened in his grasp, but Jessie held on tight, knowing how much the boy needed it – knowing much he had needed it, before he realised it was never coming. A few seconds later, Harry returned the hug, and both were silent for a long while, just embracing there in the alley. Eventually, Harry's grip loosened, his weight leaning onto Jessie, becoming more casual.
"You're going to look after me?" Harry asked, voice small but solemn. Jessie nodded, pressing his chin to the younger boy's head.
"Yeah, buddy. I'm going to look after you."
Harry finally pulled away from the hug, fixing his glasses. "So what now?"
Jessie, at that, searched through all his pockets, making a triumphant noise upon finding his wallet. "Good, muggle money still here." He put his wallet back into his pocket before taking his younger self's hand, "We're getting you some new glasses. These ones," he tapped his own, "were magically fixed. Yours are still the wrong prescription. I think there's a Specsavers down the road."
And then the two Potter's were walking down the road, disguised but happy.