Harry, Meet Harry
Summary: 16-year-old Harry gets pulled from his current time at Hogwarts to his 5-year-old self in the cupboard under the stairs. Thus begins a curious relationship where Harry travels time whenever little Harry needs his help.
Chapter Two
Harry remembered just in time to grab his bag off the floor of the boy's bathroom before disappearing out of Hogwarts. He stumbled over a patchy field of grass and fell onto his knees.
"Harry!" Little Harry said with delight. "You came!"
Harry immediately felt anxious, as the last time he had met his younger self, he was injured.
"Are you okay? Did something happen? What's the date?" Harry rapidly fired, his hands patting his younger self down for injuries.
Little Harry frowned and pulled away from his grasp.
"I'm okay," he said.
"Then why am I here?" Harry asked, looking around at the park in Surrey he seemed to have landed in.
Little Harry bit his lip and toed the ground.
"I-it's my birthday," he said hesitantly.
Harry raised an eyebrow. In his timeline, it was definitely not his birthday. It wasn't anywhere near the month of July. In fact, it was November back in his time.
Harry stood up calmly, brushed the dirt off his pants, and sat on the swing next to little Harry.
"Well then, I think someone deserves a birthday song," Harry said in a grandiose voice.
Little Harry giggled.
"Not here," he said in a loud whisper. "Follow me!"
He took Harry's hand and tugged him towards the end of the park. Harry had a feeling he knew where Little Harry was taking him. When he was a little kid, the park wasn't a safe place with Dudley and his gang prowling around. Even at the age of five, Dudley was a little terror. So Harry knew of places to hide - places to go where Dudley would never find him.
It was a small abandoned shack, more like a tree-house on the ground, across the fence and by the woodlands. The floorboards were rotting, and the ceiling was barely high enough for a fully grown man to stand, but it was small and private. It was his own. The fence had a small tear on the bottom, so Harry was small enough to crawl under and hide in the shack. He enjoyed going there, until he was too big to crawl under the fence anymore.
When they got to the fence, Harry looked at the small rip dubiously.
"Mm, Harry, I don't think I fit through there," Harry said.
Little Harry looked at the hole forlornly.
"I wanted to show you my secret hiding place," he said sadly. "It's really special,"
Harry felt his heart clench at the sight of his teary self. He put his arm around little Harry's shoulders and squeezed lightly.
"You know what, let's do it. Close your eyes," Harry ordered.
Little Harry put his hands over his eyes and looked down.
"No peeking!" Harry said, when he saw Little Harry looking through the crack of his fingers, and took his wand out from his robes.
"Diffindo," Harry whispered, and waved his wand at the rip in the fence. Instantly, the rip grew big enough for Harry to crawl through. Harry pocketed his wand and dropped to his hands and knees, and began to crawl along the ground.
Once Harry crossed the fence, Harry used 'reparo' to mend the rip and then recast 'diffindo' to make a smaller hole for little Harry.
"Okay, open your eyes!"
Little Harry opened his eyes and cried out in surprise when he saw that Harry had crossed the fence. He ran to the fence and clung onto it with his little hands, his face pressed against the diamond holes.
"You did it!" he exclaimed.
Harry threw him a grin and waved his hand at him.
"Come through! Hurry!"
Little Harry wormed his way through the hole and ran to meet Harry. He took his hand and pulled him towards the small entrance of the decrepit tree-house.
"Welcome, to Harry's House!" he said happily. "See, you're allowed in, because your name is Harry too! It can be our hiding spot."
Harry nodded.
"Okay. Now how about that birthday song?"
Little Harry sat on the floorboards and put his hands on his lap.
"I'm ready," he said, with a serious expression on his face.
Harry wasn't sure how close he should get to his past self, but he felt the need to comfort him the way no other person did in his short life. He sat next to little Harry and pulled him to his lap.
"You've never had a birthday song." Harry stated. He knew this for a fact. His Aunt and Uncle never acknowledged his birthday unless they wanted to humiliate him with a square of bathroom tissue as a 'birthday gift'.
Little Harry leaned his head on Harry's shoulder and shrugged.
"Well, here I go... don't laugh at me." Harry said lightly, and drew in a big breath of air.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Harryyyy.... Happy birthday to you!"
Little Harry had his eyes tightly shut, as if savoring every moment of this new experience, and clung onto Harry's robes. Harry took the opportunity to quietly dig around his bag for something to give to Little Harry. All he had was a bunch of textbooks, parchment, quills, magical candy, and ink wells. Nothing too interesting for a kid, except for the candy, but that was too dangerous. Finally, he decided on a feather that Hedwig had shed. It was pure white, it shone in the light, and Harry had to admit it was an admirable feather. It would make a wonderful quill if it was cut just right.
But was it risky to give Little Harry something that he would one day own anyway? How did things like that work? He would have to ask Hermione.
Harry lightly tickled the edge of Little Harry's nose with the feather until he opened his eyes. His brilliant green eyes shone as he caught a glimpse of the pretty white feather.
"Happy birthday, Harry," Harry whispered into his ear, and presented his young self with the feather.
Little Harry froze, as if he was a stranger to these kind of situations (as he probably was), and just fixed his gaze on Harry's hand.
"It's from my pet bird. He's really nice, and I thought this feather would make a great birthday present to you."
Little Harry hesitantly reached for the feather.
"A-are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm sure." Harry said firmly.
Little Harry finally closed his small fingers around the feather, and began to softly stroke the sides of the feather.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Harry just smiled. It was a very simple gift, a gift that wouldn't impress anyone else but Little Harry, who had probably never received anything so magnificent in his life.
"You're welcome," he responded.
"I'm gonna keep this forever," Little Harry said loudly.
Harry didn't doubt it.
"Hey, so I'm sorry I left last time without food. And I'm afraid I don't have any food right now either. I'll be prepared next time, I promise." Harry said, feeling sorry that he would once again depart with a HUNGRY Little Harry.
"It's okay," he insisted. "The feather was enough,"
"Mm, still. What about injuries? Are you hurt anywhere? Any bruises? Broken bones?" Harry asked in a straightforward matter. Best to ask before he was whisked away again.
Little Harry suddenly looked frightened and scrambled backwards.
"N-no, don't heal me again," he stuttered.
Harry frowned.
"Why? What's wrong?" Harry asked, and inched towards Little Harry.
"No," he moaned. "Uncle Vernon told me I was a bad boy, a freak, for being fixed up. I tried to tell him about you - my angel - but he didn't believe me and... and..."
Little Harry hiccuped.
Harry knew what Harry would say next. He reached out to comfort him, hoping that he would be able to set Little Harry's mind to rest, but he vanished before he could.
Harry slammed a pile of dusty books right in front of Hermione and stood over her.
"I need to be prepared," Harry said loudly.
Hermione calmly set her quill down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"I need to be prepared for any event that could ever occur. I need to carry potions and food, I need to learn more healing spells, I need to learn glamour spells - for Merlin's sake Hermione, every time I drop by I leave him hanging because I'm not prepared."
Hermione beckoned him over to a chair.
"Okay, Harry, relax. We'll figure out a way for you to have those things on your body at all times, because judging by today's disappearing act, these events are random and completely unexpected."
Harry slumped into the chair, exhausted.
"Yeah. I bet I missed all my afternoon classes," Harry moaned.
Hermione nodded.
"Yes, you did. Ron said he saw you go into the bathroom, but after ten minutes, you still weren't out, so he went to look for you and found you missing. So we put two and two together and figured you probably went on another Harry adventure. We covered for you, of course. You're sick." Hermione added.
Harry let out a breath of air.
"Thanks, Hermione," he said sincerely. "You guys are the best,"
"Yes, except, we can't cover for you all the time. There was approximately two months between your first time travel, and today's time travel. So most likely, you'll be going on another sometime within the next two months."
Hermione bit her lip nervously.
"What if you disappear right in front of a crowd? Or in front of a Professor? How are you going to explain that?"
Harry shook his head.
"I haven't got a clue. But I did learn something new. The times don't match up. The time in Little Harry's world and my world aren't parallel. Like, today, it was Little Harry's birthday. That's in July. But in my time, it's still November."
Hermione looked thoughtful.
"So you can appear in any part of his timeline, regardless of the time in your world?" she asked.
Harry shrugged.
"I suppose. And though Little Harry may control when I come, I don't think he has any control over when I leave."
Hermione sighed in annoyance.
"This is just too inconsistent and random. There's no way we can predict when you leave, and what time you'll end up in the other Harry's time. If you had a warning, you could at least take cover and hide before you vanish."
Harry put his arms on the table and cradled his head in his hands.
"And I created a new memory for myself. My first gift was a white feather. I held onto it with my life. I bet if I went into my trunk right now, a dirty feather will be in there somewhere."
Hermione tutted her tongue and lightly slapped him on the shoulder.
"You really shouldn't be doing that. Something drastic is going to change one day, I just know it."
"I know," Harry moaned. "But how am I supposed to ignore his callings and watch him suffer?"
"You turned out okay without help the first time around," Hermione said.
Harry stared at her as if she had horns coming out of her head.
"You think I turned out okay?" he asked in disbelief.
Hermione scoffed.
"Yes, well, no one's perfect. But yes, I think you turned out fine."
Harry's eyes glazed over.
"I have problems, Hermione. I was abused and neglected. I don't call that fine."
Hermione's face softened.
"Of course, Harry. But - "
"I'm using this to my advantage, you know." Harry said softly. "If I had known half the things I do now, less people would be dead and Voldemort would be six feet under."
Hermione was glad Harry wasn't looking directly at her, or else he would have seen that her heart had plummeted and that a flash of fear had crossed her face.
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I'm glad people are enjoying the revised version better. Should I delete the old version, now that both stories have caught up to eachother? Thank you for reviewing! It really gets me pumped to write more.
