Chapter 1! Enjoy! ch2 should be posted on july 16th

Harry looked out over the grounds of Potter Manor, and wondered.

Was this truly worth it?

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and a shock of red met his eyes when he turned. A soft smile on his face, a warm look in his eyes.

Ron.

A presence on his other side made him turn, and was greeted by the sight of bushy hair and a kind face.

Hermione.

Was it worth it?

If they are with him, always.

The world around them pulsed with a hidden war, and they sat eating cookies.

The room was quiet though, as James sat in front of the window staring out blankly, and Sirius sat on the other side of the room, staring blankly at the ceiling. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat awkwardly in the middle of the room, slowly eating their cookies.

"So," Hermione whispered, "when do you think they're going to make up?"

"Probably when one of them dies." Harry whispered back.

James sighed loudly. "You know I'm like two feet from you, right?"

"What, we were whispering!" Harry said, mock indignantly.

Ron snickered and James rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, you're from the future, you tell us how we make up."

Everyone froze.

Harry turned and looked at Sirius.

"What?"

Sirius' eyes were as wide as saucers and he looked as if he were desperately trying to think of a lie. "Well, you know, that's just a joke we have around the dorm, haha, they're from the future, hilarious." Sirius looked over at James, and James looked back. "Right, Prongs?

James took a moment and just looked at his best friend who he hadn't spoken to in months.

"Yeah. It's just a joke."

Harry's heart was racing, and he was not entirely sure what to do. But he watched as Sirius and James stared at each other.

It didn't seem as if he'd have to tell them after all.

Nothing brings people back together like mutual secrets.

The bed was warm and comforting, but Harry was anything but comforted.

His dream started as his dreams usually do, with him running for his life from a non-discernable figure. He could never run fast enough. Harry had spent his whole life running, and he couldn't even escape in his dreams.

Suddenly, he saw his reflection in front of him, an eleven year old version of himself putting the Philosophers stone in his pocket. Harry couldn't slow down and crashed through the image, shards of the Mirror of Erised.

A fist flew at him from nowhere, and he ducked, still running, being chased by a shout of "BOY!"

A flash of green light and Harry almost tripped over a yellow and black clad body.

The figure was still chasing him, and it felt like it was catching up.

A deep howl cut through the air and Harry stumbled. Before him, the Veil from the Department of Mysteries appeared, and he watched as Sirius fell through it. He couldn't stop his feet and he plowed through after him.

Lines of bodies on either side of him, and a small aisle between them where Harry ran. Faces he recognized flashes by, and he couldn't look away.

Sirius, Remus, Fred, Tonks, Colin, Dumbledore, Cedric. People he could have saved. People he should have saved.

He began to see the faces, the bodies of living people. Ron, Hermione, Ginny….James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Charles, Dorea, Lily. People he could lose forever.

In his dream, Harry tripped and fell. He looked up at the endless expanse above him and wondered. Will he ever be able to win?

Darkness fell over him, and instead of the emptiness, suddenly his vision was filled with red, red eyes.

Harry jolted awake, startling the others sleeping beside him.

"Harry?" Ron rubbed his eyes blearily as he sat up. Hermione roused slower, but was more coherent when she was up.

"Was it the nightmares again?" She asked.

Harry say silently for a while, and Ron and Hermione day with him. Neither went back to sleep, because they knew. Harry would talk when he was ready.

"I don't think I truly realized before now. What exactly it would entail, coming back and defeating Him early. Changing the timeline. I didn't realize."

Harry's voice was soft, barely above a whisper, yet it was filled with such longing and sorrow.

"We can't ever go back. I think I sort of always knew that, but it never really snapped into place before now." He looked between his best friends, the two great loves of his life. "I'm sorry I did this to you. I've taken you away from your families, all for some selfish dream I had. It wasn't fair of me."

"Harry-"

Ron tried to interject, but Hermione put her hand on his knee, her eyes conveying a million things. Ron deflated slightly, and Harry, oblivious to the exchange, continued.

"There isn't a way, at least not one that has been discovered, in this time, or in the one we came from, to travel forwards in time. Time Turners only take you back in small increments so you can catch back up with the time you left. So you're a couple hours older than you should be. That's not something that would truly affect a person."

Harry heaved a deep sigh. Why he was talking about this, he didn't know. His mouth was moving of his own accord, he just had to get the words out. Better this, he thought, than telling them about his dream.

"We can't...we can't catch back up. We went back too far. Even with the de-aging potion, we left when we were eighteen. Mentally and magically we're all twenty now. Of course, our bodies are still seventeen. You both know that. I don't know why I'm telling you." He shook his head, trying to get his runaway thoughts to fall back into place.

"We know, Harry. Sometimes you just need to talk. We're listening." Hermione said, her voice soft. She took one of his hands, and Ron took the other, both giving them a light squeeze.

Reassuring.

Harry took a deep breath. He couldn't avoid it forever.

"I saw Him in my dream."

Ron and Hermione's hands tightened on his, and he could see the panic on their faces, so he hurried to elaborate.

"Not like before, not like when I was a… when I was a horcrux." Harry plowed through that memory. "It was just. The version of him we saw at that meeting. Dark. Powerful. Human. And red. Red eyes. They consume everything they see. He's hurting people. And what have we been doing? Playing house." Harry snorted in disgust at himself. "I've barely done anything for the fight. I know his weaknesses. I could take him down. But I haven't. I haven't done anything."

Harry scooter himself to the edge of the bed and shoved his feet in his slippers. "I have to do something. I came here to do something." Suddenly, his eyes lit up and a smile slowly came over his face.

Before Ron or Hermione had a chance to speak, Harry quickly got off the bed.

"I know what I'm going to do."