It had been years since Harry had felt the familiar sting of his scar. As he watched a small thin barn owl tumble through the trees in poor fight, he felt Ginny near him in their living room. She ran her fingers gently down his arm from the elbow to wrist. She gave him a soft look, she knew that often times Harry needed a moment to settle his mind even with their lives being so calm and smooth now. Their children were all of age to attend Hogwarts now and the house was very silent in their absence.
"Where are you today?" Ginny asked in a soothing voice handing Harry a cup of tea.
"The maze…just after the tournament ended…just after…"
"Shhh." Ginny said clasping his hands around the porcelain cup to steady him. "Those things happened so long ago love. It's alright now. Let's comeback to today." She pressed her lips just against his cheek.
"I know Ginny. Thank you." He responded. "I'm not sure what it means…" he looked at her over the cup, their hands entwined.
"What what means dear?"
"It's begun hurting again." He said in a pained whisper. Ginny tightened the grip on his hands.
"No. No it can't." she said firmly.
"But it is…"
"It is not Harry Potter." She made a point of saying his name with a certain poignant annunciation. "You are feeling the ghost pains we talked about. It's the memories Harry." She pleaded searching his eyes.
"Maybe…" he said knitting his eyebrows together.
"It is. All is well." She said nodding, although if to assure herself or him Harry didn't know.
They had talked for years about the way his old memories could whisk Harry away at times. He would miss a simple word in a conversation, lapse in his desire to eat a meal of the day, and Ginny knew that the past they'd all been through was haunting him at those times. She had always done her best to assuage him. She'd gone through years of talking and talking and assuring him that he and their family was safe. At time, he felt what Ginny called ghosting pains through his scar; pains that he thought were real because they had at one time been so intense. He loved Ginny. He loved their children. He couldn't have asked for someone who would be able to deal with his problems any better than she. However, the pain slashing through his head over the last few days had given him pause to worry.
He had decided to meet Ron at The Leaky Cauldron for a quick drink that day. He assumed that if there were anyone he could actually talk to, it would be Ron. It wasn't that he didn't think Ginny understood how he felt, but the fear in his heart was that the pains were no longer ghost pains. They were too real. They were too intense and their frequency had increased. As he entered the bar, he caught sight of the familiar red hair sitting in a booth near the far corner of the window. However, it was dotted with grey hairs here and there now. It seemed that age had been hitting Ronald as hard as it had him. He slid in the side opposite of the booth across from his friend.
"Long time no see Ron." He greeted him.
"Eh, just last week. Are you really getting that forgetful old man?" he chuckled taking a sip of the Butterbeer he'd already ordered.
"Not to start this off on a bad note mate, but…I have to tell you something." Ron cleared his throat at Harry's sudden sullen voice.
"What?" he asked setting the glass down.
"The scar is hurting again." Harry said meeting Ron's eyes. "And it's not the fake pains…"
"You mean…" Ron leaned in worry filling his eyes.
"I can feel it." Harry sighed out starting to lean back in his seat rubbing it. The familiar throb was starting to ebb again.
"Is it now?" Ron asked incredulously. Harry nodded.
"Harry Potter?" someone said suddenly coming near their table. It was an older man, about their age, with a wand raised half in the air. He wore dark robes, tattered on the edges from weather. Harry glanced in the man's direction.
"Yes…and who…" he started but saw the wand. He and Ron both stilled and grabbed for theirs…
There was an explosion of wispy golden light that surrounded him and splintered him in painful fragments. Harry couldn't tell what spell the man had cast on him but he felt as if his insides were being ripped from his body.
As suddenly as the spell had been cast the pain vanished and there was nothing but darkness that engulfed him. Harry gasped taking in air like a fish in water. He looked around wildly in panic trying to see something. As he squinted his eyes the scene in front of him exploded again in a bath of white light.
When Harry was able to open his eyes, he noticed that he was laying in a patch of grass on a hill. He shifted and groaned as his stomach rolled. He turned on his side and held a few moments waiting to see if he was going to puke. In those small moments Harry was able to realize that he was actually laying on the grounds of Hogwarts, just near Hagrid's hut. Confused, he rounded to his feet. Looking around in a daze he also realized that his stature felt much shorter, his vision down a bit from where it normally was, and his eyesight felt keener than it had in years. Harry lifted a hand to his face and saw that he was in Hogwarts robes…he looked down to see his old shoes that he hadn't had since the year Slughorn was teaching at Hogwarts. Something was very wrong. Turning, he caught sight of himself in the small window of Hagrid's hut. He felt his eyes widen. He was looking at a much younger version of himself. He was a teenager again. Harry wasn't sure what to do with this realization. He whirled around hearing voices approaching the hut. He ran for the garden to hide behind a rather large pumpkin in the patch as they neared.
Draco Malfoy was tracing down the hill, wand raised, with nothing but malice goading him. Just ahead, there was a girl walking backwards with her wand raised as well. Draco sneered at her tightening the grip on the wan he held. The girl nearly tripped over a rock and had to stop to right herself.
"Get away from me Malfoy!" her tight voice snapped.
"I'll do nothing of the sort. You told him! You told him I needed help didn't you!" he said angrily where he'd stopped staring her down.
"I did not!" she pleaded. Harry had a better sight of her now that she was closer. He didn't remember this girl from before, couldn't place her face. She was tall, spindly, sort of all limbs. She had a mess of dark snarled curls that she was trying desperately to tame back in a low hanging pony tail. It was her eyes that caught him, her bight green wild eyes, glaring at Malfoy with as much intent as he had for her. They were like blazing emerald fires.
"You do need help!" she hissed back at him. "But I didn't say a word Draco." She lowered her voice.
"Then how else would he know!?" Draco stepped closer putting the wand to her face.
"I don't…my mum said something about the unbreakable vow Draco…he swore it. He must have found out some other way." The girl took Malfoy's wand and lowered it from her face.
"Don't touch me." He snarled yanking his wand from her hand.
"Let someone help Draco. We're all worried…" she whispered. The stress fracturing Draco's face was like a spider web and Harry could clearly remember the look from the moment he'd failed to kill Dumbledore.
"I don't need your crazy mum and you worried about me." He growled out low in his throat but he didn't move when she touched the cuff of his sleeve.
"I'd appreciate if you'd stop calling me crazy…or associating me with my mum." She said in a much softer voice.
"You might not be now, but you will be someday Arista." Draco smirked in a snide way as he side stepped her touch now. He turned away from her and made to travel back towards the school. He cast a glance over his shoulder at her.
"And you'll be as big of a disappointment as your father." She called back hotly. At this Draco faltered in his step, the smug smile falling from his face, and he quickly renewed his strut up the hill.
The girl's shoulders fell a bit as he left and Hagrid's door opened gently with a large groan.
"Ye be needed a bit of tea after that ruddy fight, won't ye Arista?" he asked in his thick gruff voice.
"That would be…nice Hagrid. Thank you." She smiled wiping at her eyes. As she came to him he put up a large arm and hugged her like a small child.
"Now don't ye be lettn' ol' Draco get ter ye. Your nothin' like ye mum." He assured her. "Ain't got nothin' in common with that witch Bellatrix at all." She nodded as he brought her inside and Harry felt his mind reel.
Had he heard correctly?
Bellatrix had a daughter?
He knew that wasn't right.
He knew he shouldn't be in his teenage body….and he knew that if he was here, wherever he was, in this time…that Voldermort wasn't dead.