Harry Potter and the Second War
Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot one, and there'll be another along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not shoot everyone and invade Poland? In fifty years', thirty years', ten years' time the world will be very nearly back on its old course. History always has a great weight of inertia.
Terry Pratchett – Lords and Ladies
Note: This story was inspired by a comment on Wormtail's escape in Prisoner of Azkaban on the Wallbangers/Literature page of tvtropes. The commenter said "It seems like the author realized she wrote an end to her seven part series in the third instalment and had to use an Only the Author Can Beat Them Now to get out of it." This got me wondering about what might have happened had Pettigrew been captured that night, and the end result is this.
This story is, therefore, something of a thought experiment. It's also a challenge for me. Everything in the books that occurs chronologically before this story takes over from PoA (at the point where Harry is explaining that he thinks his father drove the Dementors away) is canon for the purposes of this story. Not just the events of Stone, Chamber, and Prisoner, but also stuff that happened earlier in the timeline but is revealed later in the series (Snape's schooldays, the Horcruxes, etc.). So, the challenge for me is to write a story that is true to the Potter universe, or the Potter universe as it could so easily have been, but is still full of twists and unexpected revelations. It's going to be a long ride: buckle up.
As well as that comment on tvtropes (and, indeed, tvtropes as a whole. It's a brilliant site.) and obviously the Harry Potter books and films, this story has been inspired by the works of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Greg Bear, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Shakespeare, Kurt Vonnegut, Dr Michio Kaku, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many others. Not to mention too many fanfic writers and sites to mention (although special mention to The Sugar Quill for getting me into fanfic all those years ago, Doctor Who, and all the music I love. That may seem like a ridiculous list, but it may all start to make sense as the story progresses. No promises.
Prologue – Taken at the Flood (Third Year)
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures
William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
Part One – The Night Before
Tonight's the kind of night
Where everything could change
Noah and the Whale – 'Tonight's the Kind of Night'
Not even the Gods can change the past.
Agathon
He had added "But when you do, I expect Historical Imperative will win."
Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
"I know it sounds mad, but I swear it looked like my father."
Harry glanced at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. As he had expected, she was watching him with concern and just a tinge of fear.
"But Harry, your father's –"
"– dead. I know. Maybe I am going mad, I mean, it's not like tonight has been particularly sanity-inducing."
He stared out at the Whomping Willow to avoid meeting Hermione's eye.
"First, I find out Scabbers is the man who betrayed my parents and Sirius Black, my godfather, is innocent. I'm offered a chance to leave the Dursleys forever, then my favourite teacher transforms into a werewolf, the traitor escapes, and we get attacked by about a billion Dementors. Someone who looks like my dad – and bear in mind it was dark and I was about to pass out – drives them off, and I wake up in the Hospital Wing to be told that Snape's a hero and Sirius has been condemned to a fate worse than death. Then Dumbledore gets the two of us to go back in time so that we can fix everything. If I'm not mad, it must be some sort of miracle."
He turned to face Hermione, who gave him a weak smile but still looked worried. However, before he could say anything else, she gasped and pointed over his shoulder.
"It's us," she whispered, "we're coming out of the passage."
Harry watched as Lupin stiffened and a thought struck him.
"Hermione," he hissed, "we have to move!"
"I told you Harry, we can't interfere! We can't risk being seen! Why –"
"– If we stay here, Lupin's going to run right at us. Not only will we be seen, we'll probably be killed."
Hermione paused mid-harangue and looked around at the shadowy figures beneath the Whomping Willow.
"Alright," she whispered, and pointed towards Hagrid's house, but as Harry began to follow her, stumbling across roots and trying to avoid stepping on fallen twigs for fear of revealing their position, he glanced back towards the bizzare scene.
What he saw made him stop so suddenly that Buckbeak almost crashed into his back. The fully-transformed Lupin was disappearing into the Forest a good hundred yards from the point where Harry now stood. Of greater interest, however, was the small shape darting through the grass towards Harry. It was Wormtail.
As the rat drew closer, Harry raised his wand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione turn around to ask why he wasn't following her. He aimed at the oblivious, fleeing traitor and muttered the incantation for the Full-Body Bind, ignoring the look of horrified realisation on his friend's face and her warning cry. Pettigrew froze, the momentum of his headlong rush causing his helpless form to skid across the ground towards Harry, who picked him up and ran after Hermione.
"What in Merlin's name do you think you're doing?" she hissed. "You know we can't interfere!"
Harry didn't answer until they were safely inside Hagrid's. Buckbeak seemed pleased to be back there, but Harry didn't wait to enjoy the relative safety of his surroundings. He turned to Hermione, raising a hand to forestall the lecture he could see building on her lips.
"Listen," he said, "Pettigrew was going to see me anyway. Under the circumstances, why would I pass up a chance to bring him to justice and clear Sirius' name? Besides, if we're not supposed to interfere, what are we doing here? Dumbledore said we were to save 'two innocent lives': Buckbeak and Sirius. How are we supposed to do that without interfering?"
Hermione bit her lip, half-convinced, so he pressed on.
"Look at what happened with Buckbeak. What did we hear earlier? The swish and thud of an axe and the sound of Hagrid howling. What did we see after we rescued Buckbeak? A chain of events that led to those sounds, but without Buckbeak's death."
She nodded, looking intrigued.
"What did we see happen to Wormtail earlier? He transformed, ran off towards the Forest, and nothing had been seen or heard of him by the point when we went back in time. That doesn't mean he couldn't turn up again –"
"– after that point on the timeline!" interjected Hermione. "That makes sense!"
"What happens stays happened," said Harry. "Whatever we do now already happened earlier, we just didn't know it at the time! Don't you see, we aren't actually changing the past at all!"
Hermione's frown made him wonder if he had overdone it, but he was soon reassured.
"Muggle scientists have developed a concept they call a 'stable time loop' that is pretty much the scenario that you're describing," she said, gazing at him thoughtfully. "That sounds convincing."
Harry was slightly surprised, as she seemed to be more convinced by his hastily-improvised theory than he was, but he did not have time to ponder this turn of events, because his thoughts were derailed by the sound of Sirius moaning in fear as the Dementors closed in on him.
He paused for a moment, irresolute, and then said; "I'm going outside. I want to see whoever it was that saved our lives earlier."
Hermione nodded.
"Be careful," she whispered, and he smiled, squared his shoulders and stepped outside into the night.
He jogged over to the shore of the lake, stopping directly across the water from the moaning form of Sirius, and crouched behind a bush, watching as his and Hermione's past selves tried to fight off the Dementors, wincing as Hermione collapsed and he fell to his knees.
"Come on, whoever you are…" he muttered.
It was almost time, he could see that his past self was about to succumb, and there was still no sign of their rescuer. Suddenly, he realised why. His own words, spoken only a few minutes previously, echoed through his brain.
Whatever happens stays happened… Whatever we do now already happened earlier, we just didn't know it at the time…
"This is really weird."
With those words, not the most auspicious of battle cries, he threw himself out from behind the bush, crying "Expecto Patronum!" as he did so.
A silver shape emerged from his wand, charged across the lake and scattered the Dementors. It wheeled around and cantered back to Harry, its hooves making no impression on the grass. It was a stag, and for the third time that night understanding blossomed inside Harry. All four Marauders had returned to Hogwarts tonight.
"Prongs?" he whispered, and the Patronus gracefully inclined its antlered head. As he reached out to touch it, however, it dissolved, and in the shadows behind where it had stood he could see Hermione, watching him with an expression of mingled frustration and awe.
"How did you do that?"
Noticing that Snape was beginning to stir at the other side of the lake, Harry ducked back down behind the bush and beckoned for her to do the same.
"I know this is going to sound mad, but I knew I could do it because I'd already done it three hours ago. Whatever happens stays happened, remember?"
"This is insane," she replied. "Completely and utterly insane. Not to mention quite frightening."
Harry nodded. Across the lake, Snape was disappearing up the slope towards the castle, levitating four stretchers in front of him.
"Now all we can do is wait."
"For how long?" asked Hermione.
"Until Macnair comes down to get the Dementors. By then Sirius should be in Flitwick's office, so we can fly up, rescue him, and show Wormtail to Dumbledore and Fudge."
They could only have waited for a few minutes, but it seemed like they had been sitting there for hours by the time they finally saw Macnair emerge from the castle. As he strode down towards the gates, they ran back to Hagrid's, tugged the reluctant Buckbeak out into the vegetable patch and climbed on his back. Harry paused, unsure how to spur the hippogriff into flight. Buckbeak, however, seemed to understand his intentions: before Harry could decide what to do next he had taken off.
They soared up towards the window of Flitwick's office (Harry steered gently while Hermione clung tightly to his waist, muttering variations on the theme of "I really don't like this…"). Luckily she had regained some of her composure by the time they reached their destination, and was able to reach over and magically unlock the window.
Sirius looked at them in shock.
"What the – how did you –"
"We don't have time to explain," hissed Harry. "Hop on and hold tight."
He guided Buckbeak down to the ground and climbed off, hearing Hermione's sigh of relief as she dismounted behind him.
"I'm impressed, Harry, "said Sirius. "Impressed and eternally grateful. You are truly your father's son. Thank you."
Harry grinned.
"Oh, I haven't finished yet. I've got Wormtail." He paused, letting this sink in.
"You fly off, but stay near Dumbledore's tower. The two of us will show Pettigrew to Fudge and Dumbledore, and then the Ministry'll have to pardon you!"
"Really?" asked Sirius, with a note of incredulity in his voice. "You caught the rat?"
"Really, we did. And trust me, you don't want to know how."
"Trust him," chimed in Hermione, "you don't want to know. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it, and I did it."
A grin flickered across Sirius' face.
"Fine, I'll see you both soon. And I can never thank you enough for what you're doing tonight."
"Just go," said Harry. "Stay out of sight until this is over. We have to get back now or it'll be too late."
Sirius nodded, raised his hand in a light-hearted salute, and took off into the night sky.
Harry and Hermione ran down the last stretch of the corridor that led to the Hospital Wing, watching as Dumbledore locked their past selves in. Hearing their footsteps, he turned around.
"Well?"
"We did it," panted Harry. "Sirius is flying around your tower on Buckbeak as we speak, and guess who I caught?"
"Who?" asked the Headmaster.
Wordlessly, Harry pulled the paralysed rat out of his pocket.
"Is this Peter?"
"Yes, Professor. There's a spell you can do, Professor Lupin and Sirius did it earlier, that makes him –"
"– revert to his true form. I know. Well done, you two. Very well done indeed." Dumbledore looked delighted and more than a little impressed. "This changes everything…"
He broke off at the sound of Snape bellowing "POTTER!" somewhere in the distance. A tap of his wand unlocked the doors of the Hospital Wing, and he gestured for Harry and Hermione to follow him inside and sit down on their beds.
"No doubt Madam Pomfrey is impatient to see to you," he said, and Harry noticed his beard twitching, "but it seems that your treatment will have to be postponed for a little while longer."
Harry could hear footsteps approaching and the sound of Fudge and Snape arguing.
"Come Severus, be reasonable! Harry has been in the Hospital Wing with Dumbledore. How could he possibly have helped Black to escape?"
"You don't know him, Minister! The boy is perfectly capable of interfering!"
"I just hope we catch Black before he gets too far. Tonight has been a complete fiasco for the Ministry."
The two men strode into the room. Fudge looked worried and angry, but Snape looked absolutely livid.
"Cornelius, Severus," said Dumbledore, inclining his head gravely at the Minister, "I am pleased to tell you that thanks to Harry and Hermione, I have discovered the truth about tonight's events."
"Which is?" hissed Snape.
"This," said Dumbledore, picking up the frozen Scabbers and pointing his wand at him. He lifted the Body-Bind curse and the rat started squealing and writhing, trying to escape.
"Dumbledore, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" interjected Fudge.
By way of reply, the Headmaster raised his wand. There was a flash of light, and Wormtail crashed to the floor and began to turn back into a man. Fudge and Snape watched with horror and growing realisation as the writhing rat blossomed into its true shape.
Snape was the first to speak.
"Pettigrew!" he spat.
"Are you sure, Severus?" asked Fudge. "It looks like him, but I'm not certain…"
"Oh, it's him. Trust me. I saw enough of the snivelling little creep when I was at school."
"Very well. Excuse me, I had better go and call for a squad of Aurors. Congratulations, Harry and Miss, er, Granger, isn't it?" With an apologetic smile, Fudge left.
Dunbledore stood up.
"Harry, Hermione, please excuse me. I need to go and deal with Sirius." He flicked his wand at Pettigrew, binding him with ropes, and turned to Snape, who was glaring at the traitor with a look of pure loathing.
"Severus, this is the man who betrayed Lily and James Potter to Lord Voldemort. Kindly take him to your office and stand guard over him until the Aurors arrive."
Snape nodded grimly and swept from the room, levitating Wormtail in front of him. Dumbledore followed him out, smiling at Harry and Hermione as he shut the door. Madam Pomfrey bustled over, looking annoyed.
"So, am I finally allowed to treat my patients?" she asked irritably, handing them both chocolate. "Eat this and get some rest. It must have been a very traumatic night for you both. Don't worry about Mr Weasley, I've mended his broken leg, all he needs now is sleep."
She was so cross that it seemed wisest to acquiesce, and they ate their chocolate in silence. As she marched back to her office, Ron woke up.
"What happened?" he asked blearily. "Where's Sirius?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
"You explain," grinned Harry, and he helped himself to some more chocolate.
NOTE: OK, so that was a little slow-moving. Things will pick up soon, I promise. I just need to establish the setting and the differences between the end of Harry's third year in this story and the end of Harry's third year in canon. It'll pay off plot-wise later on, trust me!