See for Yourself
by Healer Pomfrey
Please refer to the disclaimer and warnings at the beginning of the first chapter. Thank you.
Before Harry knew what happened, the Potions Master's office vanished from the sight and the world around him turned completely black. 'What did Snape do to me?' he thought, almost panicking, when finally the colour returned and he once more found himself in what seemed to be the Potions Master's office.
However, the office was empty, and Harry left through the door as fast as he was able to move in spite of the fact that he had difficulties breathing and had developed a splitting headache.
He sighed in relief, when he stepped out into the dungeon corridor, wondering if he should go to see Madam Pomfrey to receive a potion, go to Professor McGonagall to complain about Snape's behaviour or simply return to Gryffindor and try to sleep away the headache. Finally, he decided on the third option and slowly climbed up the stairs to the portrait hole that seemed farther away than usual.
"Ginger nuts with milk," he told the Fat Lady the password, giving her a terrified look when she refused to open.
"Wrong password," the Fat Lady replied in a firm voice.
'Oh no,' Harry thought, feeling more than annoyed at the thought that McGonagall had changed the password again. 'Her passwords are more difficult to guess than Dumbledore's, so I'll just have to go and ask her,' he realised, inwardly groaning.
He slowly walked towards his head of house's office and knocked at the door, wondering if he should tell the professor what had happened.
HP
It took longer than usual before the professor finally opened the door, and to Harry's surprise, she was dressed in burgundy bathing robes, her long hair falling loosely over her shoulders.
"Mr. Potter," the Scottish lioness addressed him in apparent surprise. "What are you doing out of your common room this late in the evening?"
"Late?" Harry repeated in confusion. "I'm sorry, Professor," he stammered. "I don't know how it could get so late. I had my Occlumency lesson with Professor Snape, and he just poured some potion over me. I've no idea what it was nor what it did to me, but when I returned to the common room, the Fat Lady told me that the password had been changed."
Shaking her head in apparent confusion, the professor motioned Harry to come into her office and take a seat.
"Mr. Potter, what happened to your eyes, and how did you get that scar?" she asked, incredulously. "Maybe I should call Madam Pomfrey and have her check on you."
"My eyes?" Harry queried, quirking an eyebrow. "I don't know, but my vision failed for a while after Professor Snape poured the potion over me, but my scar?" he asked, feeling very upset. "As you well know, I've had this scar since Voldemort killed my parents."
The professor, who was just about to settle down behind her desk, decided otherwise and stepped around the table, only to place a cold hand on the boy's forehead.
"You seem a bit warm, but not enough to be delirious," she muttered, before she let out a gasp. "What did you say? Professor Snape?"
"Yes Professor," Harry replied in annoyance.
"What's your name?" the professor now asked, causing Harry to glare at the teacher, wondering if she had gone nuts.
"Harry Potter," he mumbled in irritation.
McGonagall let out a deep sigh, before she enquired, her voice laced with apparent excitement, "Are you somehow related to James Potter?"
"He was my father. Professor, I'm sorry, but are you all right?" Harry asked, his annoyance slowly turning into concern. "Has someone cast a memory charm at you?"
"You must have come from the future if James is your father and Severus Snape is a professor in your time," McGonagall explained, smiling. "The potion that was poured over you must have been a time travel potion."
Harry just sat there staring at the professor in shock. "Oh right, you look younger than in my own time. I just didn't realise it because you never wear your hair open," he spoke up in amazement, more to himself than to the teacher, before the professor's voice brought him out of his reverie.
"Considering that it's already midnight, I suggest that you spend the night here in my guest room, and first thing in the morning, we'll speak with the headmaster. Since no one has developed a time travel potion in our time yet, I suppose that you just have to remain here for the time being."
"All right Professor. I'm sorry to be such a bother," Harry replied in a soft voice, causing the teacher to reassure him that he was not a bother in any way.
"Are you feeling all right?" McGonagall queried in apparent concern, seeing that Harry continued rubbing his forehead.
"Apart from a killer headache yes," Harry replied, inwardly groaning. 'I just hope she won't make a fuss,' he thought, having been dragged to the hospital wing by the professor before.
However, to his relief, the teacher merely led him to her guest room, transfigured his clothes into pyjamas with a flick of her wand and showed him where the bathroom was, before she fetched a phial with a headache potion for him.
HP
Five minutes later, Harry was lying in the bed, not feeling tired in the least, as it had only been lunchtime in his own time, when he had unwillingly travelled to where he found himself now. On the other hand, he knew that he had to sleep, as McGonagall had already announced that she would wake him up early to pay the headmaster a visit and get him sorted before breakfast.
However, to his chagrin, his arrival in the past triggered a series of visions, and two hours later, he was still awake and not only completely shaken by the scenes that he had been forced to view but also extremely confused.
'What was the spell that I cast together with Snape of my age?' he wondered, 'and who was there studying for the NEWTs with me? Hermione and my mum?' he thought, incredulously. 'That's impossible. Maybe these visions aren't real but nothing more than wishes,' he finally decided, noticing in annoyance that his headache was back full force. 'I need to put some of the scenes into a Pensieve,' he resolved. 'At least the one with the spell that I cast together with Snape. I wonder if that was to get back to the future or perhaps a spell to harm Voldemort.'
Twenty years into the future...
Hermione was lying in the first bed in the hospital wing, right next to Madam Pomfrey's office, feeling totally annoyed by the fact that McGonagall had dragged her to the hospital wing just because she was running a temperature. 'I don't have time to be sick,' she thought. 'I need to keep an eye on Harry with all his detentions with Umbridge and Snape, and I must make Ron study, or he'll fail his OWLs.'
All of a sudden, she realised that several professors were gathering in the healer's office. It sounded as if they were having tea. 'Oh well, it must be after curfew already,' she thought and unintentionally listened in to the adults' conversation, wondering why they seemed to have forgotten to cast a silencing spell around the office.
"Something grave happened today," Dumbledore spoke up and explained to his colleagues about the occurrences between Harry and Snape in the morning.
'How dare Snape do such a thing?' Hermione thought, horrified, feeling her fever rise as she made herself very upset. She sat up in excitement to be better able to follow the conversation.
"Where exactly is Harry now?" McGonagall threw in, sounding as terrified as she felt.
"Twenty years into the past," Snape replied in a soft voice. "I'm sorry."
"Albus," the healer spoke up in an upset voice. "Don't you think it was finally time to tell Severus about his relationship to Harry?"
The headmaster let out a long sigh, before he admitted to the Potions Master that Harry Potter was in fact Severus' son and not James Potters'.
Hermione almost drifted off to sleep during the following conversation about the fact that Snape had been married with Harry's mother but had separated from her because of Voldemort, the possibilities of prolonging a pregnancy as well as charms to change a baby's appearance even before it was born. However, she became fully awake again, when Dumbledore ordered the Potions Master to brew the time travel potion again and quickly develop an antidote.
"It's most important that Harry returns here as soon as possible," the headmaster added in a stern voice.
Snape agreed, stating that he could easily brew the potion again after his newly invented recipe, and that it would probably take less than a month to invent the antidote.
'If Harry wants to return at all, considering how Umbridge and Snape behaved towards him,' Hermione thought, wondering if she might be able to lay her hands onto the potion.
In the past...
By the time McGonagall woke him up in the morning, Harry was very tired and still had a bad headache. However, knowing better than to complain, he quietly followed the professor to the headmaster's office, noticing that the halls did not look any different from his own time.
"Liquorice frogs," McGonagall gave the password, and an instant later, Harry found himself in Professor Dumbledore's office, which also looked identical to what it had been in the future.
"Hi Fawkes," Harry greeted the phoenix.
#What are you doing here in this time, nestling?# Fawkes replied, causing Harry to sigh and turn to Dumbledore, who offered him a lemon drop and motioned him to take a seat.
The headmaster quietly listened to Harry's explanation and remained pensive for a few minutes, before he finally spoke up.
"I wonder why Professor Snape had such a potion in his office at all," he said, questioningly.
"I don't know, sir," Harry replied, shrugging.
"In which year have you been and in which house?" Dumbledore enquired, gently.
"I'm a fifth year Gryffindor," Harry informed the old wizard, thinking that he could not recognise any change in Dumbledore's age, while McGonagall looked much younger than in his own time.
"Nevertheless, we must get you sorted again," Dumbledore decided and fetched Sopho, the Sorting Hat, from his shelf.
Harry felt slightly uncomfortable, recalling how the Hat had brought him Gryffindor's sword in his second year.
'Ah, it's you again,' the Hat thought to him, before he informed him, 'I'm not going to discuss with you this time.' Aloud, he finally said, "Gryffindor and Slytherin."
Harry handed Sopho back to the headmaster, inwardly groaning in annoyance. 'Thank Merlin Hermione isn't here. She'd fret about it,' he thought, when Dumbledore stated in clear amusement, "This is a first."
tbc... (?)
Thank you so much for your kind comment towards the Prologue.