A/N : I'm sorry the chapters are short and this was a long time coming, I've been helping a friend move house and with that and work, I've not had much time for anything, apolologies for any mistakes, I just wanted to get this out. Eventually I'll go back and correct/change bits anyway. I hope you like the new chapter. Thanks for all the follows, faves and reviews.

Chapter Three – The First Night

The first thing he noticed was the absolute synchronicity of the two older sisters, the bludgers were more of an annoyance than a threat and he was already on the back foot, not really ever having to handle the quaffle and fly. The brooms had great acceleration and maneuverability but lacked the blistering speed of his Firebolt. He threw the quaffle to Narcissa who tore off down the left side of the pitch, both Andromeda and Bellatrix hot on her heels. Harry followed as fast as he could, Bella blocked her path allowing Andromeda to overtake and come at her head on, as Andi bore down on his partner, she appeared to panic and dropped the quaffle. His seeker instincts took over and he pushed forward into a steep dive, he caught the quaffle and pulled up sharply. With the 3 girls now behind him he accelerated towards the hoop and chucked it in for an easy 10 points.

After the easy goal things got competitive really quickly, despite being sisters they gave no quarter, they took serious advantage of his reluctance to give his absolute all. With the score line at 50 – 20 even Narcissa began to show her ruthless side, aimed mostly at Harry, she had no intention of losing, spurred on out of equal parts fear and respect for his team mate he counter attacked with renewed vigour.

He couldn't find a chink in his opponent's armour and frustration was getting the best of him, he flew as fast as he could towards Bellatrix, she swerved at the last minute as Harry dived, Andromeda tussled with her youngest sibling who managed to emerge from the fracas with the quaffle in hand, they had managed to pull it back and eke out a small lead, it stood at 70 – 60 and both teams were showing signs of fatigue.

Things had taken a turn for the desperate and tactics had become increasingly Slytherin, surreptitious wand use was now the norm, thankfully nothing that would seriously wound, a bright flash caught his arm as he made a dash for goal and an intense feeling of vertigo swept over him, the quaffle was dropped as he clung to his broom with a grim determination. The spell wore off and with only a miniscule pang of guilt he shot Andromeda with a tickling hex, he shot Narcissa a smug smile as the witch drifted lazily down to the ground laughing all the way.

At 90 points each skirmishes became more important than possession, scoring goals had long been forgotten, and that was when a loud bang reverberated all around and looking up towards the noise brought all proceedings to an abrubt end. The unmistakeable shape of Druella Black was marching in their direction with a look of thunder on her otherwise perfect features.

So caught up in their game they had missed the repeated summons for dinner, They were all shocked at how much time had passed, offering up sincere apologies to the Black matriarch seemed to melt the icy atmosphere a little, they walked sullenly behind her back towards the house. Lost in his thoughts, Harry wondered whether this was changing things in his time, would his appearance in this time even register with the sisters, would a recollection of this cause evil Bellatrix to stay her hand if she cornered his friends in the Ministry. Hermione would probably have done a wealth of research prior to receiving her time-turner and would no doubt have continued researching long after, what he wouldn't give to be able to talk to her right now.

Absent mindedly he ran his fingers through his messy hair, he had been sweating from exersion and hoped Mrs Black would allow them to freshen up before eating, all three girls were sporting the windblown look, he'd only ever seen Narcissa as an adult, with her immaculate clothing, and not a hair out of place. As he thought about the brief glimpses he'd had of her a dull throbbing had begun to emerge behind his eyes, he removed his glasses and rubbed them with the balls of his thumbs to no avail, he placed his glasses back on and adjusted them for comfort.

Back inside they were dispatched to their rooms to make themselves presentable, although no threats were levied at them, the promise of something awful, should they not be compliant, hung unspoken in the air, the girls, obviously used to this scurried off, their mother's face softened slightly as she looked at him, she summoned an elf to escort him, turned gracefully and walked away.

Halfway up the stairs in the main hall he felt light headed and grabbed the hand rail, the little elf carried on for several steps before realising they were no longer being followed.

"Is the young master ill? He looks awfully pale"

Harry motioned with his hand that he just needed a minute, he felt his nose running and wiped at it with his hand, there was a small amount of blood on the back of his hand, he couldn't remember the last time he'd had a nose bleed, perhaps during a fight with Dudley. The kindly elf produced a handkerchief and handed it to him, with each wipe there was less and less blood until just a few pink spots gave any indication something had happened.

The sensation passed almost as soon as it had begun and he felt like his old self, satisfied that his charge wasn't about to drop down dead, the elf continued on. In his room he pulled out fresh clothes and headed for the bathroom, he had never showered so fast in his life, he dressed quickly and made his way downstairs.

A door opened as he approached the stairs down to the entrance hall, and the distinctive mop of black curls came into view, her face split into a broad smile.

"Bloody good match, typical that mother would ruin it before we could finish, a rematch is in order"

He imagined that whichever part of his brain that dealt with the affect of his time travel was doing overtime as it worked hard to stop him losing his sanity, he decided that he could manage if he treated the younger sisters as seperate to the women they would become, good and evil, although in Andromeda's case she was just neutral, unpeturbed by his silence she carried on talking.

"I assume you'll be in Slytherin at Hogwarts, father said that you'd been home schooled, you fly really well, you should have been on my team, we would have destroyed Cissy and Andi"

Harry had never been truly comfortable around members of the opposite sex, the yule ball debacle was still fresh in his mind. Hermione didn't count, she was his friend and as close to a sister as he was ever likely to get. The Black sisters were incredibly beautiful, Bellatrix was the more obvious, she practically flaunted it, Narcissa was effortless, she reminded him of a Veela but without the magical ability to thrall all men, Andromeda was more like Hermione, pretty but deliberately understated. He really should try and add to the conversation instead of walking alongside her looking gormless.

"I think you fly superbly, do you play for your house?"

"Yes, I'm Slytherin chaser, what position do you play?" and there was that smile again.

"Seeker"

"I should have guessed, you are quite scrawny, no offense"

"Ah there you are! Hurry up, dinner is waiting"

"Yes mother"

Bella rolled her eyes and the sound of footfalls on the staircase heralded the arrival of the other two.

Dinner was a lavish affair, they were even allowed a small glass of elf wine, it was sweet, very easy to drink, impossible to pinpoint any one flavour and Harry suspected that it was pretty potent, he could feel how flushed his cheeks were.

When the dessert platters had been removed and the plates scraped clean he felt sated and sleepy, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the adults, the girls received kisses and hugs before being shooed off to their rooms, Harry got a peck on the cheek and a handshake, he bade Cygnus and Druella good night and ambled back to his room. The bed was refreshingly cool as he slipped beneath the sheets, they were soft and carressed his slightly feverish skin, no doubt an after effect of the alcohol, before long he was fast asleep.

Harry woke suddenly and gasped in pain, his body ached and he was cold, the surface he lay on was hard, he felt around for his wand, the feel of it in his hand brought him some comfort. He had a nagging sensation of deja vu, he gently touched his head, the lump was there, still tender, almost like it was fresh and his hair was matted with blood. Blie rose in his throat and dread settled deep in his guts, he felt around and pulled himself up, a thin beam of light showed him the outline of a door, this had already happened, was this a dream then? He staggered over to the door, gripped the handle and took a deep breath, the alarm blared loudly as it had before, he was prepared for it but it didn't make it any more pleasant.

This time he didn't collapse into a heap, he willed his eyes to adjust to the bright light and held his wand tight, the alarm ceased and the voices of two men grew louder as they approached. He took a second to pinch himself hard on the arm, all that did was hurt, the door opened and two people he recognised stepped inside, instead of being faced with a boy curled up tightly on the floor, they now stood staring at a boy who looked pretty beat up and pointing a wand in their direction.

The minister acted first and spelled to disarm, reflexively his shield charm bloomed from his wand tip and it bounced harmlessly away. The duel, if you could call it that, lasted mere seconds, he was too tired to mount a challenge and they had no intention of harming him, so there he was again, in a full body bind being examined and questioned.

The rest of it played out almost exactly the same as the first time, everytime he tried to analyse the events in any kind of depth he would find the beginnings of a headache forming behind his eyes, he had no idea if it was related to his accident or possibly a self defence mechanism. Thinking about that reminded him of how Ron had been after Hermione and he had gone back to save Sirius, he possessed all of the memories of both sets events, whereas Ron only remembered one set of events leading up to his stay in the hospital wing due to his broken leg.

There was no need for an elf escort as he surprised his hosts by finding his way around easily, after the initial tour, he also didn't see Narcissa that time, he wasn't sure if that was a significant change or not. The sisters were met in the same way and after his chat with Cygnus he ventured out into the grounds to play some quidditch. In a move that would have him crowned king of the snakes, he used his prior knowledge to deliver a crushing defeat to Bellatrix and Andromeda, he tried not to look too pleased with himself, Narcissa was doing enough of that for both of them, their opponents took their defeat badly but were complimentary about the manner of their defeat.

They had barely left the pitch before all animosity was forgotten and the talk turned to an animated blow by blow account of all the best moves of the game.

Druella stood in the entrance hall, pleased with their timely arrival, but less impressed with their dishevelled appearances. With a 15 minute deadline to get ready they didn't hang about, he bumped into Andromeda as he headed down to dinner and they chatted about flying and their favourite subjects as they walked to the dining room.

Harry ate until he was fit to burst, he took his time drinking the wine and the effect on him was greatly lessened, after the girls had headed off to bed and Druella had excused herself, he followed Cygnus out of the room. He moved swiftly and quietly for such a big man and harry had to call out to him, he paused halfway through the door to his study and regarded the young boy with curious eyes, Harry could have sworn there was a flicker of something in their depths, but he couldn't be sure.

"Could I please have a moment of your time?"

"Of course lad, come on in" he stepped aside and held the door open

The Black patriarch instructed Harry to make himself comfortable, he settled into the high backed, green leather chair and his host took his own chair and smiled genially at him. In the short time he'd spent in the company of Sirius, his god father seemed weighed down by the traditions of his family, all of the bitterness he'd harboured against his parents and their pure blood mania hadn't been lost on Harry. It was a dark side of the wizarding world he'd been quite ignorant of until the year Draco Malfoy called Hermione a 'filthy mudblood.' Voldemort was no different to many muggle despots who, over the years, had comitted atrocious acts against their felow man, and racism was nothing new, but there was something about the pure blooded ideology that seemed far more insidious to his mind.

Sirius had mentioned that Bella had been violent and unhinged, but he couldn't recall him ever voicing his opinion of her parents, something must have happened that triggered Bellatrix's decent into madness, but there was no evidence of it here, they seemed like any normal, loving family. He also couldn't explain his willingness to acquiesce to all the requests made of him. He had followed Cygnus blindly and all he had was a niggling feeling that he could trust him and that he would be safe.

As he wondered about his predicament his eyes wandered around the room, the portrait above the fireplace showed all five of the Black family, the girls were jostling each other while their parents looked on with a mix of amusement and growing impatience, they we a very photogenic bunch. The mantle had a few ornaments and trinkets adorning it, and most of the walls were covered in shelves containing vast amouts of books, most of the titles were in languages he couldn't comprehend, a few hinted at the dark arts and the rest seemed no more interesting than books on muggle tax law.

A clearing of the throat brought his gaze back to Cygnus, his eyes shone brightly and he smiled warmly before he spoke.

"I'm pretty sure you didn't follow me in here to admire my study, what's on your mind Harry?"

"I'm not sure, Sir, if you don't mind me asking, since I showed up in the department of mysteries, have you experienced anything strange?"

"Stranger than finding a teenage boy pointing his wand at me you mean?"

Harry looked abashed, "Yes, sorry about that" his large hand waved in dismissal.

"No need to apologise, if you must know, I have an acute feeling that some of our interactions have played out before, I can only guess at this point but somehow I'm a part of your timeline, I'd like to check something if I may"

The chair scraped loudly across the floorboards as he stood up, he took out his wand and Harry recoiled instinctively, he relaxed once assured that it was a simple, non invasive procedure. He uttered an incantation that Harry had never heard before, Cygnus' wand glowed brightly and began to emit a strange humming sound. As the wand was passed slowly over him, Harry was reminded of the 'wands' muggle security guards used in airports, the strange humming constantly changed in pitch, all the sounds seemed so random and the wand seemed to focus only on areas where he'd picked up skin abrasions. All of a sudden the wand stopped moving and the sound died completely, a small bottle was produced and he felt the wand tip pass along the back of his head followed by a tiny sting.

Sitting back in his chair and looking incredibly pleased, Cygnus held out the bottle for Harry to examine, it was firmly sealed and looked empty, he turned it over and over in his hands feeling foolish, hoping that he'd either see what he was missing or be told and put out of his embarrassment, then he did see something, smaller than a tiny bit of glitter, amazingly the bottle magnified the contents. Inside was a single golden grain of sand, embedded in his skin during the fight, that would explain the sting as it was removed.

"A single grain of time sand, I can only guess that you relived several hours over again" he nodded "each grain, as I understand it, has immense power, it is safe to assume that you would have relived that period of time over and over again while it remained within you, I shall keep this safe, it may hold the key to returning you to your own time"

"I had a headache and a nosebleed"

"Noc told me, I hope they will be temporary, a result of you being thrown so far back in time, you should go and get a decent nights sleep.

Those words were like the breaking of a dam, fatigue crashed over him and every limb felt cumbersome, he failed to stifle a yawn, he stood and said his goodnight.

"Harry, one last thing" he pulled the door shut again and forced his tired mind to pay attention "I think it would be safer for you to assume a different last name, I think Peverell will do, it's a very old family with links to many old and established families, I don't think anyone will pay it much attention, and I will push for you to be in Slytherin, the girls will take care of you and your association with us has its benefits shall we say"

He nodded and left the room, once out in the hall he fely as if a heavy weight had dropped into his gut, all the food he'd eaten felt like it was having a fight in his stomach. He made it back to his room without any incident and headed straight for the bathroom, he practically sprinted the final stretch and slid up to the toilet bowl on his knees.

Saliva hung from his mouth in thick ribbons, the stench of dinner revisited made him want to heave all over again but he knew he was empty. He fumbled for the handle and watched the foul contents disappear, he spat away as much of the viscous saliva as he could and pushed himself up onto shaking legs, he stumbled to the sink and turned on the tap, he splashed could water on his face and rinsed out his mouth, after he brushed and flossed, there was even a bottle of Mckinnon's Magical Mouth Wash, it was like scourgify in liquid form but at least he no longer had a sick taste in his mouth.

He returned to the room and peeled off his clothes, his skin was clammy but he didn't feel he had the energy to wash tonight. Once in pyjamas, he placed his glasses on the table beside his bed next to his wand and slipped beneath the covers.