- Phase Two -

[August 11, 1999]

Potter's Mill

Ottery St. Mary, Devon

England

Harry appeared just outside his home in a flash of light. He immediately fell to the ground, his equilibrium shot to hell. It wasn't as…wild a ride as a Portkey or the Floo, and not the same kind of discomfort as Apparition was, but feeling your molecules stretched in thousands of different directions all at once before basically feel them blow up like supernovas and then crushed back together with the force of creation itself and watching the universe be born, expand, shrink, die, and reverse itself three times before 'falling' toward one single point within it… well it was a discomfort all its own.

Once he'd successfully quelled the urge to regurgitate everything he'd ever eaten, and perhaps most of his digestive tract along with it, he slowly climbed to his feet and looked around. It was his house all right, practically the same as he'd left it. Except… There was a car in the drive-way. A car that he'd personally blown up during one of his many experiments and practices in Time Magic!

There were also a set of brooms that did not belong to him, leaning up against the back wall. They actually belonged to a few of his neighbors and family through marriage. The only time they'd all been here at once was…

Harry smiled brightly. It had worked!

He wanted to jump up and down shouting for joy! Instead, he pulled out his Family Cloak, silenced his footsteps and started casting the detection spell for any time disturbances in the area. He was only detecting the trace amounts left from his arrival at the moment, so he knew he wasn't too late. Making his way to the front window, he silently observed the party play out just as he remembered.

"SURPRISE!"

"Harry! Oh my god, it is perfect!" Ginny screamed amidst the cheers of all their friends and family applauding her arrival.

The invisible Harry from the future smiled nostalgically at the scene, briefly allowing himself to get lost in memories and feelings. The present-day Harry, who looked like he'd spent the last three days without sleep and staring too hard at an open book in poor lighting, just enjoyed the embrace he'd earned from his wife for having the place ready for the party in time, if only just.

The reminder of how he'd gotten into such a condition pulled him out of his funk and back on mission. He was here to stop his wife from being murdered in front of his eyes, he had to be on guard. Or as his old teacher used to say, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

As the invisible Harry began erecting the wards to prevent time portals from forming, the Harry embracing Ginny finally let her go and allowed her to make the rounds with all her friends and party guests. Hermione Granger, his best friend, who was still 'only dating' his other best friend, Ron Weasley, walked up to him and made the comment, "You look like hell, Harry."

"You would know," he returned, keeping the smile on his face. "You've been in this same condition for the exact same reason before."

"Oh, and what undeniable project has you so involved?" she asked, curious.

Before he could answer, Ginny called her husband over to her side, "Harry! Come say hello to Luna and her date! Luna, it has been so long. How was… I'm sorry, where've you been lately?"

"Sorry Mione, the redhead beckons," the tired wizard said, kissing the brunette's cheek and walking away. He didn't look back, and thus did not see the look of frustrated jealousy cross her face. But the invisible Harry on the fringe of the party did. That look confused him, but he had more important things to worry about for the moment.

He'd just finished placing the artifacts in the proper configuration around the property, now came the complicated part; raising the wards without alerting his younger/other self to what was going on. Sure, he was more experienced and actually knew what he was doing, but the younger had read the book and whether practiced or not, he had the knowledge of time magic now. He had to be careful, lest he wreck his own plans to save Ginny.

Harry started casting, raising the wards one piece at a time, so to speak, and then waiting until they were fully charged before bringing up the next and then the next, until the wards against time portals was fully up and powered with no one the wiser. Unfortunately, he was quite sure that whoever was behind his wife's murder was not going to give up so easily, so he kept his cloak up and patrolled around the fringes of the party, keeping an eye out.

As it turned out, it gave him a unique opportunity of experiencing an entirely different perspective of the party that had started out as one of the best, before turning into the worst experience of his life. He lurked around, invisible, listening in on and observing various conversations that he'd never been a part of or in position to hear before. It was quite… informative.

"So, I hear Potter is expecting," he heard a voice saying. A very familiar voice.

Turning, listening in unseen, Harry overheard a conversation between Dean Thomas and Patrick Sturgeon, coworkers of his from the Aurors.

"I used to date her, y'know," Dean commented.

"Everybody used to date her, from what I hear," Patrick laughed. "Nobody, 'cept Potter, ever got anywhere with her though."

"We snogged," Dean hissed, defending his 'reputation'.

"She ever let you get anywhere though? Word is, from my wife you understand, not even Potter got anything more than kisses until they were married. Hard to believe, eh? Hero of the age, and he didn't even get any freebies from his girlfriend! Ha!"

Harry wasn't sure how to react to that, though surprise seemed to be the strongest emotion at the moment. Sturgeon's wife was a known gossip, almost as bad as his Aunt Petunia had been, just with more reliable sources. Chances were good that anything she heard and 'passed on' was closer to the truth than anything printed in the Daily Prophet, and certainly more believable than anything in the Quibbler.

Moving on, he caught a few other conversations, mostly about Ginny and how lucky the two of them were, Harry for having a beautiful wife, and Ginny for having 'snagged' the 'Hero of the age' aka Man Who Won formerly the Boy Who Lived. There were a few snippets that fell outside of this box, and those he paid particular attention to.

"Cho, stop this, it isn't good for you," Marietta begged her old school friend. Harry hadn't even known they'd been invited, let alone that they'd been here at the party.

"Shut up!" Cho slurred. "I… it could've been me, that could've been me, but I… I messed up."

"You went on one date with the wanker!" Marietta fumed. "And it took me years to repair what that mudblood friend of his did to me! You're better off without. Besides, everybody knows Weasley is just a gold-digger. Look at her family, they're pisspoor. Potter probably took pity on her and took her in as his whore."

"Stop trying to cheer me up, Mari, t's not workin," Cho slurred, taking a final swig of what he suspected was a bottle of rather strong alcohol.

"I'm serious," Marietta hissed, though even Harry could see that she was more concerned about her drunk friend than bitching about the birthday girl.

"Somebody should show Harry just what he's missing out on," Cho mumbled, stumbling off with Marietta close behind.

"Funny," Harry mused quietly to himself, "She never showed up after Ginny died. Not that I would have given her the chance to really do anything. Guess she was all talk."

Another interesting tidbit was actually part of a conversation he vaguely remembered, but hadn't heard the entirety of the first time around.

Ron, Hermione and George were huddled near the punch bowl. Originally, he'd stopped by to get some refreshment for himself and Ginny, and contributed a bit about the next 'investment meeting' for WWW and promised to drop by and help out a bit when he got the time. At least, that is all that he remembered about it…

"So, did he get the package?" George asked, taking a sip of punch. Only, Harry observed from close-up, his lips were dry when the cup was pulled away.

"I don't know, I haven't been able to confirm it," Hermione admitted, biting her lip.

"Does it matter if he already has it or not?" Ron asked. "We all know that he gets it. What could we even do if he did or didn't already have it, eh?"

"It matters, Ronald," Hermione lectured her husband, an all too familiar sight, except the subject was highly unusual, "because if he already has it, but does not yet know what it is, there is a chance that I might-that we might be able to 'borrow' it and use it for the greater good."

This is the point at which Harry remembered entering the conversation.

"There is no greater good than a good prank, in my humble opinion, my dear sister-in-law," George said with a wide grin.

"Oh, you and your pranks!" Hermione said in an outraged tone, completely opposite from what it had been moments beforehand.

"So how are things going at the shop?" past-Harry asked.

"Couldn't be better, Harry," George replied enthusiastically. "Business is booming!"

"Literally," Ron added with a smirk.

"So I hear," he said. "Considering that I keep getting sent down on calls about noise complaints and fireworks going off in the middle of the city where no fireworks are ever supposed to be set off. I'll have to bring this up at the next 'investment meeting' George. Especially if I'm not invited along next time. I'll be sure you get the memo." They all laughed.

"Speaking of which, Harry," Hermione directed the conversation back toward him. "Have you received anything special recently?"

Future-Harry did a double-take while his past self teased his friend at the misinterpreted double-entendre.

"Well, as a matter of fact I have, Hermione. On my birthday even, but I didn't think you would be the one to care for such things," Harry teased her.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm-" he cut her off before she could fully commit to the confusion of the moment.

"After all, what a man and his wife do behind closed doors, while perfectly normal, isn't the type of thing one converses about in casual company. Especially if that company includes the brothers of said wife," Harry grinned and took a long sip of his drink, enjoying how close to his wife's hair color Hermione's face was getting.

"-not interested in the least about that sort of thing!" she hastily corrected herself.

"I'll talk to you later," the happily married wizard said with a smirk. "Once you've got your blood pressure back under control that is. Enjoy the party! Ginny loves that you came!"

They waved silently as Harry's past self walked away.

"Does he suspect?" Ron asked his girlfriend/wife.

"No, he's just naturally that oblivious," Hermione grumbled with a sigh. "And he's in love. It makes everybody blind and stupid."

"You lot do know that love potions don't work like that, right?" George commented.

"Unfortunately, I've had first hand experience about how love potions work," Ron shot his brother an angry glare, recalling a certain potion that had been part of 3W's product line since his 6th Year at Hogwarts.

"Besides, Ginny doesn't need a potion," Hermione offered with a saucy smirk of her own.

"Bah! Gah! No!" Ron shook his head.

"La la la la la la!" George stuck his fingers in his ears and started blocking out other noise, specifically anything Hermione was saying about his sister's sex life.

"Boys!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

Harry stared at them, suspicious, but the subject was changed again and never seemed to go back to what they wanted to know about him having, or not having something. It was… confusing, and somewhat concerning. They couldn't be talking about the book of Time Magic… could they?

Moving on before he could drive himself mad with suspicion or paranoia, he sought out his wife in the crowded party, intending on staying with her and as close as possible in order to keep her safe. Yes, he'd erected wards that should protect her from the one that had actually taken her, but he doubted very much that whoever was behind the attack would actually give up just because they couldn't use a time portal all of a sudden. So he needed to stick to her like glue, to protect her.

He briefly lost her after she'd had some of the punch spilled on her dress, and she begged off to go inside and wash up. He recalled that his past self would go inside with her and 'guard' anybody from disturbing her. It was odd though. While the oblivious couple were inside the home, the observant time traveller was outside, continuing to patrol the party for any and all threats. What was so odd, however, was that he saw Ginny come around to the back yard to the party from the garage rather than from inside the house. Also, she was wearing a completely different outfit, one that she typically wore to and from work, not for a party.

Thinking back, all he could remember was that while 'guarding' his wife, she told him to go run a couple errands, making sure the refreshments were fully stocked and things like that, and finally she ordered him to get back to it and that she'd rejoin him when she finally got everything situated. At the time, he'd thought nothing of her change of dress, blaming it on her just throwing on the first thing she had laying around. He was rather pleased at her renewed enthusiasm regarding the party.

Observing everything from the outside, now, it was more confusing rather than endearing.

"Harry! Oh my god, it is perfect!" Ginny screamed between enthusiastic kisses to her husband's face.

"Glad that you're enjoying your party, Love," he remarked and kissed her right back. "Refreshments are fully stocked, as ordered. Everyone has had time to hobnob and stob their gobs, so how about we move right along to the main event, eh? Time to open presents, everybody!"

Cheers went up all around, but the future Harry was close enough now to hear his past wife say, "I can't believe you did all this! I just wish I could've gotten here at the start and enjoyed it more!"

The younger, past Harry hadn't properly heard her and was too busy herding the crowd toward the presents area, but the older future Harry heard the statement just fine and it struck a chord within him, though he couldn't say exactly what or why. As it was, he stayed rooted to the spot as the happy couple moved on toward the presents table.

All of a sudden everything seemed to be moving in a kind of fast forward. Not that time actually sped up, but rather from having experienced this part of the party before, he subconsciously felt that events were beginning to happen very quickly despite the exact same amount of time passing as before. Kind of like the difference of watching a movie for the first time, and watching it for the hundredth time.

"May I have everyone's attention please!" Harry called out, clinking a random utensil against his crystal glass. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and conversations ceased as they all turned toward their host. "Thank you for attending this momentous occasion, the celebration of the birth of a beautiful and, dare I say it, magical woman. The love of my life, my friend, my companion, my wife; Ginevra Potter!"

There was a round of applause as the crowd gathered closer together, which had the unfortunate effect of keeping Harry from moving between them without raising suspicion. The last thing he wanted was a 'duel' with his past self, especially when his goal was to protect the person they both loved, as his past self was lamenting at the moment.

"Ginny," Harry said, turning to the woman at his side, "I truly cannot imagine what my life might be like without you in it. We may not have had 'love at first sight', or been drawn together through conflict, like some others." The crowd laughed as many eyes turned toward one in particular of Ginny's brothers and his brunette girlfriend/future wife. "But you have always stayed at my side and been a haven and pillar of support whenever I needed it. So forgive me for stealing the spotlight for but a moment, but I just had to say it for everyone to hear. I celebrate this day not because you are my wife or because you are my friend. I celebrate this day, the day of your birth, because of exactly that. This world, my world, my whole existence is better, is worth living because you are in it. Because you were born."

Suddenly, Harry realized that this was it! This was the moment the portal opened and Ginny was killed! He needed to get to her and he needed to get to her NOW!

He employed every trick, every easy and fast use spell that he'd learned to give him an advantage, from stopping time (keep people from noticing him), accelerating his personal clock (giving him super speed), and manipulating time of the matter around him (letting him create 'steps' of 'solid air' and the like to get over obstacles), as he raced to get to Ginny's side. Unfortunately, despite all his tricks, all the spells, and everything else, the wards especially, he was still too late.

"And so, with that having been said, I want to…" Harry was cut off as the portal began to open directly behind the woman he was speaking to. It started only as a spark of magic, but then it slowly spiraled larger, moving in a clockwise motion, exponentially increasing until it was seven feet across, a perfect circle.

Harry was still feet away as the masked man stepped out from the time portal.

It all happened at seemingly different speeds. All time magics aside, to the Harry racing at top speed under an Invisibility Cloak, everything (himself included) was moving in slow motion, and yet things were happening very quickly and he just couldn't react fast enough to keep up with it! To the Harry that this was happening to for the first time, he was surprised and that moment of indecision cost him as the masked man grabbed the redhead and started to drag her back through the portal before either Harry Potter could actually do anything about it.

The Time Travelling Harry, however, was not frozen in surprise and indecision, and so he actually managed to make it to the pair right as they were entering the time portal, tackling them as they fell through it, desperately struggling to free his wife from the kidnapper's grasp. They came out the other side and Harry wasted no time in kicking the masked man away and holding onto Ginny with all his might, pulling her beneath his Invisibility Cloak as soon as he could.

"Harry!" she gasped, "What are you doing? What is going on?"

"Shh," he cautioned, already moving them away from man that had just kidnapped his wife. He tried to explain as quietly as he could, hoping to remain undetected for as long as possible. "It's a bit of a long story. Short answer, that man that just kidnapped you wants to kill you, I'm here to save you, oh and we're a few hundred years in the… future?"

He stopped and actually looked at their surroundings, initially to find a place to hide, and then to see that they were not in fact in the future dilapidated and rundown version of their home. Furthermore, the time portal they had come through had closed, without the younger Harry following!

That was not supposed to happen! And even if the portal had been keyed to the number of people going through it, then it should have been keyed to the kidnapper and Ginny and no one else. Originally, he'd only been a second, at most, behind Ginny and her kidnapper in following them through the portal, and this time he'd basically gone through with them. Did a second really make that much of a difference? If it did, then that could explain a few discrepancies he'd gone over in his memories of Ginny's murder, discrepancies that he'd been too grief-stricken to properly analyze at the time. So… what was going on?

"SALAZAR!" a voice shouted. "You've gone too far this time, Salazar!"

"What was that?" she asked, also keeping her voice quiet, sensing the seriousness of the situation.

"... I'm not sure," he carefully admitted.

"Too far, Godric? HAH! I have not even started! What are you going to do about it, Gryffindor?" another voice shouted, sounding somewhat familiar to both Harry and Ginny.

The answer to most of their questions was quick in coming as they came out of the forest into a farm clearing and came face to face with Salazar Slytherin. Who just so happened to look just like a forty-year-old, non-Voldemort-yet version of Tom Marvolo Riddle with disturbingly familiar green eyes. Meanwhile, standing across from him was Godric Gryffindor, who just so happened to look remarkably like William "Bill" Weasley, but also in his forties, with dark brown rather than red hair, and blue/grey eyes instead of brown eyes.

"Did you know you were related to Gryffindor?" Harry whispered to his wife as they huddled beneath his Invisibility Cloak. She silently shook her head, her eyes wide.

What soon followed was the quote/unquote "legendary" duel between Gryffindor and Slytherin, set to the backdrop of… a pig farm?

"This is not how I imagined… this… going," Harry quietly admitted, even as he noticed two women racing down from Hogwarts castle, a group of younger witches and wizards struggling along behind them.

"Aw, we missed the beginning," someone said from right behind the invisible pair. "I've always been curious as to what, exactly, it was that started this particular duel."

Turning, they saw the man in the mask, leaning casually against the nearest tree. The killer of Harry Potter's wife then raised a wand and made a simple swipe with it… and everything around them froze. Harry tensed and held his wife closer, having recognized the spell used... and what it meant. What was going on here?

"You're probably wondering what is going on?" a far-too-familiar voice said from the direction of the masked man. Harry and Ginny froze beneath the Invisibility Cloak. Turning, they stared unseen as the man stood up and removed his mask.

Harry James Potter, identical in every way to the one beneath the Invisibility Cloak, stood there, mask in hand. Harry tore the Cloak off of himself and his wife, though he was mindful to keep Ginny behind him in order to protect her, as he turned and faced this alternate version of himself.

"How?" was the first question out of his mouth, followed a heartbeat later with a rage-filled cry of, "Why?!"

"For starters," he answered, removing the costume he'd worn with the mask, "I'm a bit more experienced than you are when it comes to Time Magic. I also remember exactly what you did when I was you, and that helped in finding the holes in the wards to set up the portal network. Now, for the difficult question. It's complicated."

"Then uncomplicate it! Fast!" he demanded.

"Harry!" Ginny called. Then she realized the paradox of her call, and made a physical motion to grab the closest one by the arm, saying again, "Harry!"

"Tell me what is going on!" she demanded once she was sure she had his attention. "He said something about Time Magic. Is that what this is? A Time Turner?"

"Not… exactly," he hesitated in saying.

"Remember this?" the other Harry held up the tome of Time Magic.

"How did you get that?!" Harry snarled.

"It's mine," he shrugged. "Same as the one in your pocket over there. Same as the one that Ginny saw me get on my birthday. Same one that you just spent the past, or would it be future, few weeks memorizing, cover to cover."

"What is that book, Harry?" Ginny quietly demanded to know.

"It's a book on time magic," he answered.

"Written by myself," the other Harry quickly added.

"Just because the author had my same initials…!" Harry argued.

"What part of it being a book on time magic was not understood?" he argued back. "This isn't an instruction manual or a textbook from school! It's our damn diary!"

Harry blinked in surprise. "Our?" he repeated.

"It is the diary of the Time Mage, Harry James Potter," he stated. "Every spell and ritual and trick that you read about in here, gets invented, developed, and figured out by me first. Then I write it all down and send it back to my past self on my nineteenth birthday so that I can have it fully mastered by the time I'm twenty-one, when I write the book."

"Fine," Harry growled, holding Ginny protectively close. "That explains how. Now why kill Ginny just to get me here?!" he screamed.

"What?" the redhead in his arms paled dramatically.

"..." The other Harry was silent, putting his book away and looking at them soberly. Finally he spoke after a hefty silence. "I don't know the true reason. Yet. But I understand why it has to happen in the first place. For one, name anything else that would get you to have reached the level of power in time magic that you have, and we'll do that instead."

Harry blinked, stunned. He… he killed Ginny, all so he could learn and master what was in that damned book faster?! This was insane.

"It's not insane, it's temporal mechanics," the other Harry said out of the blue, seemingly reading his mind. When, Harry realized, in actual fact he was just remembering what he'd been thinking at this time. "Only way that I could learn and master as much as I did, as quickly as I did, is if I had sufficient motivation to do so. Only person that means as much to me is Ginny. And if it were Hermione, or Ron, I'd probably try to involve one or the other with the learning, which would slow me down. Had to be Ginny."

"So… are you going to kill me, Harry?" she asked, a steel quality in her voice.

He shrugged and grinned mischievously at her. "Sort of. It's called a Time Clone. Basically, I take the you that dies in the timeline and I bring that 'event' into the current timeline, even while taking steps to make sure that such an event could never occur in the true timeline. It is only possible for a Time Mage."

"I… never read about anything like that in the book," Harry accused. "And for that matter, how do we even know that anything you've told us is the truth? You could just as easily be somebody with Polyjuice potion! And where the bloody hell are we?!"

"Already figured out the 'when' part, huh?" the experienced Time Mage chuckled. "This is Hogsmeade, or what will one day be Hogsmeade."

"It's a pig farm in the middle of the forest," Ginny pointed out.

"Trust me, it's Hogsmeade," he quickly assured them. "Guess when."

"August 12, 899 AD, eleven thirty two in the morning," Harry recited. "What about it?"

"Aside from it being a few hundred years to Ginny's birthday, it also happens to be the date of a very significant event for our world," he replied, gesturing to the frozen scene now behind them.

"Why bring us here? To this?" Harry asked, still hanging tight to Ginny. "The first time I went through that damned portal of yours, I found myself some two hundred years in the future just outside of our home, at Potters Mill. What is the point?"

"And yet, it never occurred to you to ask why that place had been abandoned?" the future version asked his past self. Harry just frowned and refused to answer.

"Of course it did," the future-Harry answered for him with a sigh. "I know because it occurred to me plenty as I sat in that dusty husk of a home while I studied and practiced. Why was it abandoned? Why wasn't there signs of life or children or even having been sold to somebody else? If it was simply a matter of changing the past, then the moment that I decided to save Ginny everything should've changed. And since it didn't, did that mean that I would fail to save her?"

Harry refused to acknowledge the questions he'd asked himself over and over again during his self-study, except maybe by clenching his jaw and fists.

"The answer to that is, believe it or not, the answer to your questions right there," he explained. "Or at least… that's how it was explained to me. I'm still trying to get those answers…"

"Then why go through with this if there is no point?!" Harry argued with himself.

"... You really weren't paying attention when I told you that I'd set up a portal network, did you?" his future-self mischievously remarked with a cock-eyed smirk.

"What do you mean?" the younger asked, only to have the answer made evident as yet another time portal opened up right beneath the three of them, each standing within seven feet of each other, after which they fell through and into a new time and place. With the time mages gone, time, and the duel between Slytherin and Gryffindor resumed as though nothing had happened.

[August 12 1981]

The Burrow

Ottery St. Catchpole

England

Harry fell flat on his back, thankfully just managing to avoid bumping his head upon landing. Unfortunately, he was quick to notice Ginny's absence, but slow to recognize his surroundings, or the fact that he'd been cursed. To be specific, he'd been silenced and found that out only after he'd tried shouting for his wife. Standing up and getting to his feet, he tried to find out where he was and where the others that had fallen through the portal with him had ended up. He couldn't see anybody (except some garden gnomes sneaking in through the holes in the fence) and while he did recognize the Burrow, and knew the exact date and time thanks to his time magic, he failed to understand what was going on.

Until a loud female scream pierced the night, sounding to be in absolute agony.

"Ginny!" he mouthed, still unable to make a sound and too distraught to try removing the Silencing Curse placed upon him. He ran toward the Burrow, fully intending on charging in and rescuing his wife. Before he made it three feet, he was thrown to the ground yet again, this time by a tripping jinx. Getting back to his feet, he saw his quarry, once again wearing the mask and costume, and holding Ginny in a disturbingly familiar manner, positioned on the roof of the mishmashed building. He tensed, ready to unleash the fury of all of time and space if 'history' repeated itself before his eyes.

Fortunately, rather than kill her or cause the young witch any harm, the masked time mage merely opened up another portal and dragged the redhead through with him, leaving Harry alone on the ground. He rushed forward once more, intent on getting to the roof and following them by reopening the time portal.

Three steps from the front door, he recognized the screaming as that of Molly Weasley, his mother-in-law, but also the panicked voices of her husband Arthur Weasley, and their boys. What troubled him, and actually succeeded in halting his steps was that he could distinctly hear five separate voices. Young voices. Boys voices. And a baby's cries…

Caution, and the numerous and extremely thorough warnings that came with his source of time magic learning, forced Harry to abandon his current course of action and draw his Invisibility Cloak over himself again. Then he snuck around to the side of the house he could hear the screams coming from and peaked (invisibly) in the window.

Molly was pregnant… and in the middle of labour, by all appearances. Thankfully he couldn't see… anything, but one does not mistake a pregnant redhead with a temper problem giving birth, while her husband struggled to free his hand from her cast-iron grip. A small part of Harry, which was still hopeful about the future, silently prayed that Ginny would have an easier time of being pregnant and giving birth. Although, judging by the amount of swearing and screaming coming from the (six times) experienced mother inside, he didn't hold out much hope for it.

Suddenly, his thoughts and the night were pierced by a very different cry, that of a birthing baby's first cries upon leaving the womb. Harry watched, stunned and in awe as he witnessed the birth of the woman he loved and had married. He witnessed the scene as Molly slowly recovered from her labor and held her daughter in her arms for the first time and named her "Ginevra Molly Weasley" and then rested together in the makeshift bed, even as Arthur and the local Healer went about cleaning the room with magic.

All throughout the scene, Harry stood silent, staring at the miracle of life before his eyes, tears in his eyes. Finally turning away from the infant that was his future wife, he walked away from the Burrow and noticed something that he wouldn't have, in fact couldn't have prior to becoming a Time Mage. Over the pond next to the Burrow, there was a time portal. It was incredibly subtle, and he only noticed it because of the ritual that allowed him to detect uses of time magic around him. The only actual clue he had, without the ritual effect, was that the waves of the pond were stuck in a ten second loop, and were absolutely identical in every aspect for each loop, even if another object were introduced to the pond to make 'different' waves, it would revert back to the same ten seconds later.

Walking over to it, he stepped out onto the water, using his own time powers to make it 'solid' without actually freezing the water, allowing him to reach the actual portal at the center of the pond. An instant of time later, the portal snapped open, sucked him up and closed, allowing nature to once again resume its normal pattern, and leaving the Weasley's with no clue that they'd just had an uninvited visitor to the birth of their latest and youngest member.

[August 11, 1999]

Potter's Mill

Ottery St. Mary, Devon

England

Harry stepped out of the portal and just narrowly managed to avoid walking into the holly tree that marked the back corner of his property. Turning around, he saw that he was at the furthest point of his back yard… and the party was still going on. Or rather, he slowly realized in seeing some familiar sights and sounds, was starting all over again. Seconds after his arrival, he witnessed the outside perspective of his arrival from the future via the Pentaract travel. It was nearly as nauseating as the actual experience.

Sensing a presence beside him, he said without turning or looking, "What is the point of all this? Why are… why am I doing this to myself? Motivation to learn time magic aside, why send me back to witness Gryffindor and Slytherin's Duel? Ginny's birth? Why do any of it?"

"Mostly?" his future self, unmasked, said. "To maintain the timeline and space/time continuum. It happened, therefore it will happen, and always has happened, even as it is happening right now."

"... That makes no sense," Harry turned and faced him.

"And yet it does," he shrugged. "When you think about it, I mean."

"You said 'mostly'. What's the rest of it?" Harry asked as he watched his past self set up the wards that in the end didn't do a damn bloody thing.

"Ginny is alive," he said. "She was just born in front of your eyes. She is alive and living and while you didn't 'save her' the way you had intended, she is still alive and to you, to me, to one who can travel through time, she will always be alive. The same can be said for our parents. Hey, want to guess where you're going next?"

"Where is Ginny?" he asked instead.

"Where do you think?" was the cryptic reply.

"Don't make me test Warning #3," Harry growled out.

"Ginny really was late to the party," he explained, ignoring the threat. "Remember? She sent a message ahead saying that she was running behind and wouldn't be back until almost four? Which is when she got kidnapped, as you well know, by yours truly. I'm not entirely sure, but this whole thing probably could have started out as doing a favor for her so she didn't miss most of the party. And then things happened. The Ginny that you tackled, that you 'rescued' from me is out there right now, enjoying and mingling and everything. She'll step out right before her past self shows up, meeting up with me back here, where we shall disappear, allowing everybody in the Wizarding World to think that she's been killed and leaving Harry Potter alone to grieve his loss."

"Why you?" Harry grumbled.

"Because," the future version answered as yet another time portal opened from just beyond the warded property, "you'll be far too busy. Here's a huge hint, I'm only about a week older than you. Somewhere between seven and eight days, give or take a couple hours. Everything so far? Amateur hour. You're about to get the crash course so you can pull off everything that I just did. Once I get Ginny settled in a Time Mage's version of Witness Protection, I'll be going in for the full course, and then some."

"And what if I don't want to do that? What if I change things so that Ginny doesn't 'die'? So we can continue our lives as they are now?" he argued, keeping one eye on the portal that had remained open so far. It was a good thing too, as it kept him from jumping too bad when an older figure stepped out and spoke.

"That, young man, would be a mistake. A fatal one at that," a much older voice that was still 'Harry Potter's' said as a man older than Dumbledore shuffled out of the time portal. "Hello gentlemen. How are we today?"

"You're me?" the 'youngest' Harry present scoffed.

The old man, with a full white-silver beard long enough to tuck into his belt, along with a silver mane to match, chuckled and merely observed his younger self, both hands holding himself up via a gnarled wooden cane/staff.

"He's your teacher for the next week," the 'middle' Harry answered. "After which, not only will you become me and do everything that I just did, you'll do it willingly and in full knowledge of the consequences, which make killing your wife seem like the sane and wise thing to do, not to mention infinitely merciful in comparison."

"Not that you'll actually be killing her," the old Harry interceded. "There is a trick to it, the whole 'Time Clone' thing. In the simplest terms you-and therefore I-can imagine, it is like conjuring up a daydream and then both deciding to do it, and not to do it at the same time. You'll understand once you manage to pull it off a couple of times."

"Do I really have to talk down to myself like this?" the younger grumbled.

"Only when we're being a brat," the middle answered rather smugly.

"It all turns out OK, in the end?" he then asked his oldest self.

"Well, that remains for you to decide," was the cryptic reply. "As you said, you can still change things so that Ginny doesn't have to 'die', so that you can continue on with your life with her as though the whole thing was just one gigantic prank. It wouldn't be that difficult, once you know how, to go back and have Ginny and her brothers 'decide' to prank you for some random slight. But, as with everything, there are consequences. You'll have to decide which is worth it."

"He's right," the soon-to-be-only-Harry in this time zone said. "I've made my decision. And just because I remember being you right up until you walk through this portal in twenty seconds, does not mean that you'll make the same decisions that I have. First rule of being a time traveler…"

"There is no destiny or fate, only free will and consequences," all three of them recited together. It was the very first 'rule' of the book on time magic. The very first line just so happened to be; "Time Travel Is Possible." But the first rule was about no fate.

"Fine," Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his wild black hair. He shot one last look at the Ginny at the party, and then glanced down the way and saw… his wife's car making the next to last bend before finally reaching the road onto their property. It was true.

"Let's go," he turned and made to follow his oldest self.

The old man just nodded once, his silver mane as wild as his younger selves black locks, just longer, and lead the way through the portal. Once they both had gone, Harry sighed in relief as he donned the mask once more, saying to himself, "I thought he'd never leave."

-END Phase Two-