I apologize for the delay on this chapter. I was on a school trip to the capital for the past three days, so I'm publishing the chapter as soon as I possible. Enjoy! (and review?)
Time Warp
Harry Potter wakes up one morning in the body of his ten-year-old self. This time around, he declares, nobody is going to die! (That's a lot harder than you think, Potter. People shouldn't meddle with time.)
IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: When there is a time skip it can be assumed that during that time something equivalent to canon is happening without major changes. As Harry doesn't want to compromise his future knowledge, he will be attempting to keep as much things the same while keeping as many deaths from not happening.
Book 2, Chapter 2: Dobby's Warning; Chapter 3: the Burrow; Chapter 4: at Flourish and Blotts
Warp 1, Year 2 (part 1), Chapter 7: Familiar Places and Faces
When Harry reached his room he was fully expecting to see Dobby sitting on his bed, and the gasp of shock was purely acting. "May I take your coats, Mr and Mrs Mason?" he heard Dudley's voice travel up the stairs.
He turned to Dobby and hissed, "Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" His voice was quiet and controlled, and he kept his ear's attention on the going-ons downstairs, knowing he had to make sure the Dursleys didn't notice anything was up.
"Harry Potter!" Dobby shrieked with happiness. "I'm just Dobby, sir, Dobby the house elf."
Harry was always one who didn't speak ill of the dead; he'd completely forgotten how annoying Dobby really was. "Be quieter! This isn't the best time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom— if you'll come back tomorrow when Vernon isn't making the "biggest deal of his career", I will gladly hear you out. Just not now," he tried. Petunia's high, false laugh sounded from the living room and Harry doubted Vernon could've made that deal even without the cake-incident.
"Dobby has come to tell you, sir… it is difficult, sir… Dobby wonders where to begin…"
Harry groaned, of course Dobby wouldn't leave until he'd completed his goal. "How about at the beginning?" he said sarcastically.
"Of course, Dobby will start at the beginning, sir. Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts!"
"Right," Harry couldn't help but laugh. "That's not really the beginning… if that's anything, it's the end. Sit down and explain," the words were out of his mouth before Harry could remember what Dobby's reaction would be.
"Sit down? Never… never ever…" he wailed and Harry cringed. The voices downstairs faltered; he glanced nervously at the door and then back at Dobby.
"Sorry, but be quiet and get to the bloody point!" he whispered harshly.
"Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard— like an equal—" Dobby didn't take Harry's order to be silent and Harry was fearing Vernon bursting in at any moment.
"Are you not an equal?"
"No, sir, Dobby is a house-elf—" Harry didn't want to have to deal with the explanations of what a house-elf is, so he cut Dobby off with a quick hand movement.
"Will you please get to the point?"
"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."
He didn't know what to do from here. He knew not to question a house-elf protecting his master's secrets— especially if said master is Lucius Malfoy— and he really didn't want to agree or disagree with him. He knew the consequences. "You mean like the plot last year to steal the Philosopher's Stone and revive Voldemort." He tried hard to punctuate it like a statement, but Dobby took it as a question. Dobby opened his mouth to speak and then turned and began to bang his head against the wall and after a couple of bangs he yelped.
It was suddenly silent downstairs. "Dudley must've left his television on, the little tyke!" Vernon laughed it off, and Harry quickly picked Dobby up and shoved him in the closet.
"Shut up, stay still," he ordered quickly and lay down casually onto his bed as Vernon burst through the door.
"What the devil are you doing up here?" Vernon said through gritted teeth. "I was about to say the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke and you ruined it! One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy." The plump man stomped out of the room and Harry rolled his eyes. How did this ever intimidate him?
He let Dobby out of the wardrobe and sighed. "Dobby, I don't think I can agree to this. You see, my Aunt and Uncle just love to get rid of me, and would pretty much force me out of the house on September First now. If I don't go, I'll be homeless." It wasn't quite true, but Harry hoped that it'd do the trick.
It didn't. "It would be safer out there then in Hogwarts."
Harry was one stupid reply away from banging his head against the wall. "Dobby, use your brain here— don't try to save me! I can deal with it! I faced Voldemort himself last year! I think I can deal with whatever is being plotted this year."
"No, no you can't, Harry Potter. It's dangerous—"
"I'll carry a mirror around with me to look around corners, all right?" Harry snapped, quickly getting impatient.
Dobby just stared at him, and then shook his head. "Harry Potter has left me no choice."
Shit! Harry grabbed Dobby and Dobby yelped. The hero covered the house-elf's mouth and held him tightly. "Now you listen to me, Dobby. I can handle it, and if you dare do anything else I swear I willtell Malfoy about the… enlightening news you've given me."
Dobby paled, and disappeared. Harry carefully crept out of his room, listening for disturbances downstairs. He crawled down the stairs, skipping the creaky ones; he poked his head into the kitchen and eyed Petunia's stationary pudding. The time-traveller let out a sigh of relief, though he expected Dobby to try again before the summer was over. That was something he wasn't prepared for. He climbed cautiously back up the steps and into his room.
Two days later Harry was running around the house stopping Dobby from charming things and causing enough mayhem for him to be expelled.
So far he'd gotten three warnings from the ministry (which he sent a solemn reply about a house elf trying to ruin his life and a picture of Dobby performing a hover charm on the television set.) He promised he had everything under control and there was no need to inform Lucius Malfoy. Mafalda Hopkirk was surprisingly kind about the issue— apparently she was a bit of a mistreated-house-elf activist— and Lucius Malfoy was not informed.
Harry heard a crack and ran into the living room to see Dobby performing Expulso on the living room couch. Harry talked the elf quickly and cast reparo right before the Dursleys came rushing into the room and Dobby disappeared again.
Harry rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders before retreating to his room. "Alohomora," he mumbled, pointing his wand at Hedwig's cage. He quickly wrote a letter to Draco Malfoy explaining the situation and requested for him to control his house-elf.
He walked down the stairs to see his Aunt and Uncle glaring at him. "Yes?" he inquired with a lopsided, nervous smile.
"Boy, what has been going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know what we mean," Vernon growled angrily. "There's been strange things happening, and you've been acting even stranger than usual!"
Harry looked away from the red-faced man. "I don't know anything about it." Harry looked back up to them and walked into the kitchen. "What would you three like for dinner?"
It was three days after his birthday and he was quite excited to leave Privet Drive. The day was uneventful besides Hedwig's return with Malfoy's reply that Harry shouldn't try to change anything, but because the mayhem hadn't happened in the first timeline he didn't mind telling Dobby to leave Harry alone the rest of the summer. What was eventful was the night.
Harry was woken up late that night (or early in the morning, maybe) by Ron Weasley tapping against his window. Harry's eyes snapped open immediately and he walked over to the window and opened it. "Ron?" he questioned. "How did you— what the—" he was, of course, referring to the flying car.
"All right, Harry?" Fred asked curiously. It didn't have the tone of worry Harry remembered from last time— this time there wasn't bars on his window— and George nodded in concurrence.
"What's been going on? Why haven't you been answering my letters? I asked you to come stay over about twelve times! And with Dad's announcing all those warnings from the Ministry… you know we're not supposed to do spells outside of school! Anyways, we're taking you home with us now."
Harry smiled, "Good! My stuff is locked up in the cupboard under the stairs, though…"
"Don't worry 'bout that!" George laughed, "Me and Gred here can pick locks muggle-style!"
Harry nodded as they two climbed in the window and Harry opened his door for them to hurry downstairs. Harry took Hedwig's re-locked cage and passed her into the car. He collected his other miscellaneous belongings after and passed them to Ron before rushing down to help Fred and George lug up his other things.
They loaded the car and closed the window behind them before taking off again. Harry looked over to Hedwig and then to Fred. "Can we unlock Hedwig? She's been cooped up there all summer."
"Sure!" and Fred began to work his lock-picking on the padlock. Soon, Hedwig was soaring beside them, like a ghost against the dark night sky.
Harry pointed out there visibility after a couple of moments, "If we're seen—" and the twins turned on the invisibility booster.
"So, what's the story, Harry?"
"A mad house-elf doesn't want me going to Hogwarts this year. Apparently it's too dangerous. He's been trying to get me into enough trouble with the ministry they'll expel me or something," Harry summed up nicely.
"Very fishy," Fred said bluntly.
"Definitely dodgy," George agreed.
"I recon somebody sent him as a joke— nasty rules those house-elves have to abide, can't do nothing without their master's permission."
"Can you think of anybody who has a grudge against you?"
"Yes," Ron said at the same time Harry said, "No."
"Draco Malfoy!" Ron insisted, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"Malfoy doesn't hate me. Not enough for him to do something like that, anyways."
"Draco Malfoy? Not Lucius Malfoy's son?" George inquired.
"How many other Draco Malfoys are there in our year that aren't fond of me?"
"I heard Dad talking about him." Fred started.
"He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."
"And when You-Know-Who disappeared—"
"—Lucius came back saying he never meant any of it."
"Load of dung."
"Dad recons he was right in with You-Know-Who's inner circle."
"Well," Ron cut in, obviously not liking the subject, "I'm glad we came to get you, anyway. I was getting really worried when you didn't reply. At first we thought it was Errol's fault—it wouldn't be the first time he collapsed during delivery— so I tried to borrow Hermes, but Percy wouldn't lend him to me, said he needed him—"
Life at the Burrow was so routine that Harry all by forgot the act he was putting up— sure, he was a couple feet shorter and Ginny couldn't be in the same room as him without blushing a dark red and wasn't able to actually speak with him, but it was still just like home. Things that had shocked and amazed him the first time around wouldn't even cause him to bat an eyelash this time.
The Wednesday after they received their Hogwarts letters they all crowded around the kitchen mantelpiece and Mrs. Weasley took the flowerpot filled with floo powder and offered it to Harry. "Guests first," she said with a welcoming smile. "Oh, and Arthur, we're running low, we'll have to get some more today."
Harry absentmindedly stuck his hand in and took a handful of powder, threw it into the fireplace. "Diagon Ally," he managed to walk in and say before he remembered that he'd never used the floo before.
"He's never travelled by floo before," Ron commented questioningly to his family as they disappeared.
"He probably knew it instinctively—"
"— like he seemed to know everything else around here—"
"— because nobody told that kid how to do anything—"
"— and he didn't question anything either—"
The rest of the Weasley family blinked, took in what the twins said, and shrugged. "Can't leave him waiting there," Molly said as she pushed Ron in next, while Percy mumbled, "Potter is a strange one."
The rest of the Weasley family came into the Leaky Cauldron one by one, and Harry greeted them with a wave. "Took you guys long enough!" he laughed.
From across the pub, a familiar (to Harry, at least) voice laughed back, "Like you can say anything! You fell out of the fireplace! Just like his father, that one," and Harry looked over to see Remus Lupin sipping on a cup of tea. "Hello Harry," he greeted him.
"Hello sir," he said, noting carefully not to call him Professor.
"Oh, Remus!" Molly called. "How are you? We haven't seen you since… well, ten years ago! Would you join us today?" and Arthur nodded in agreement.
Remus gave his typical reply, "Oh, I don't want to impose."
"Nonsense," Molly gave her typical reply. Harry didn't know if it was out of a friendship or some kind of pity she has for lonely people, but he was grateful for it, because he knew nobody could argue with a doting Molly Weasley. "You wouldn't be imposing at all!"
Remus put his cup down and walked over to the group. "Well, if you're sure," he shrugged. "Nice to meet you," he said to the Weasley children and Harry, "I'm Remus Lupin, and you are?"
"Percy Weasley, Mr. Lupin. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"I'm Ron, and the shy girl over here is Ginny."
"I'm Forge, and this is my twin—"
"Gred Weasley at your service Mr. Lupin."
The door of the pub opened and Harry recognized the people entering as the Granger family. Harry tuned quickly, and waved them over, forgetting to introduce himself— he hadn't needed to introduce himself to anybody at all since he was eleven the first time around. "Oh, Hermione! We're over here!" he called to her.
He turned back to Remus and smiled. "This is Hermione Granger, Mr. Lupin," the name felt weird on his tongue, "and these are her parents." He motioned to the three people walking over to them. "Hermione, Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger, this is Mr. Remus Lupin."
"Hello Mr. Lupin."
"Now that we're all here we should hurry along. Remus, can you watch Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Arthur and I will take Ginny to get her wand and robes. Percy, keep the twins out of trouble. We'll meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour," Molly organized. Everybody nodded and walked in different directions.
The Golden Trio met up with Neville in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies and then headed over to the bank for Harry to retrieve some money. When they entered Harry's vault Remus smiled, "The Potter Vault seems to still be full," he laughed.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, scooping up some gallons and tossing them into a pouch. "Would you like some, Mr. Lupin? You look like you need some new robes…" he felt bad that he hadn't offered the Weasley family charity, but he knew they wouldn't accept so he hadn't bothered. Lupin was probably unemployed at this point though.
"No thank you, Harry. You seemed to have inherited your father's gift for charity though— he wouldn't stop giving me money for new robes and things back when we were in Hogwarts together," Remus refused as Harry expected he would.
Harry faked shock. "Oh," he said with a gasp. "You went to school with my dad?"
"Yes I did, Harry. He was a very good friend of mine."
"Really? Can you tell me about him and my mum?" Harry asked eagerly as they exited the vault.
"Well, your father was a real prankster. He, I, and two other friends of ours were always planning things, and we were always out after hours. He was smart and he made head boy in seventh year— in sixth he smartened up in attempt to win your mum's heart— and we went out with a bang! The lowest points any house has had in the history of the school!"
As they headed out into the alley Harry was bombarded by stories about the Marauders. Not once was Peter or Sirius mentioned by name, though. They were both the 'other two friends'. From the way Remus was speaking it was almost like he was James's very best friend instead of Sirius.
"We get to actually meet him! I mean, he's written almost the entire booklist!" Hermione squealed like a fan-girl and Harry and Remus rolled their eyes in unison.
"A fraud, I'll bet," Harry laughed. "I'm getting out of here. Nobody buy me any of his books, I'll deal without," he announced, hoping to avoid meeting Lockhart. "Come with me, Mr. Lupin?" He walked out, not awaiting an answer from Remus, who did follow him out.
Outside the shop he saw Lucius and Draco Malfoy walking towards them. Harry sighed. One catastrophe averted; another approaching fast at two o'clock.
"If it isn't Potter," Malfoy spat his words out and Harry raised his eyebrows.
"If it isn't Ferret-Boy," he retorted casually and rolled his eyes. "Piece of advice— stay out of that shop. I doubt you'll need those 'textbooks' for DADA."
"I wasn't planning on going in."
"Smart move, Ferrett-Boy."
"You'll never let that go, will you?"
"Nope!" and Lucius entered the shop, unaware his son had just spun around and walked off.
Remus blinked a couple times and then looked down at Harry. "Well, that was weird," he announced.
"No really, Mr. Lupin," Harry replied sarcastically.
"You know," Remus retorted, "I was referring to what you were saying too. And stop calling me Mr. Lupin. Call me Remus."
"I'm twelve, Mr. Lupin. I wouldn't feel right calling you by your first name. Do you, perhaps, have a nickname or something I could call you?" he really hoped that this would work. He'd love to be able to call Remus 'Moony'. The twins would be impressed that he knew a Marauder and because Remus didn't mention it outright there was no way for him to brag about it.
Remus didn't respond immediately. Harry suspected that he was thinking through giving him the name. Finally, he whispered, "Moony," he didn't expand right away, but Harry didn't say anything. "Your father would call me Moony, and he was Prongs."
"Moony," Harry repeated once it was clear that Remus wasn't going to say any more. "I like it. Can I have a name?"
Moony smiled at him a soft, fatherly smile. "We'd call you Prongslet when you were a baby, but if you ever achieve it then I'll give you a proper Marauder title."
"It?" Harry assumed itwas becoming an animagus. That was definitely something he'd have to learn. A Marauder title would be an honour.
"It." Moony confirmed in a finalizing tone that discouraged any future questioning.
There were sounds of a struggle from inside the bookstore. Screams of "Get him, Dad!" came from Fred and George; "No, Arthur, no!" from Molly Weasly; "Gentlemen, please— please!" from the shopkeeper; and finally there was a loud, "Break it up there, gents, break it up," from Hagrid. Harry guessed that Arthur and Lucius had just gotten into their famous fight.
Lucius stormed out of the shop seconds after the shouts became silent and Harry almost laughed at the sight of him. The Weasley family, Grangers, Neville, and Hagrid all hurried out of the shop moments later.
"I can't believe you missed that, Harry!" Ron cried and Harry rolled his eyes. After watching Molly Weasley kill Bellatrix Lestrange, watching Lucius and Arthur get into a harmless fight in a bookshop was nothing.
Then he realized that he'd forgotten to ask
Malfoy to specifically order his house elf to leave the barrier alone. Oh, well, Harry shrugged it off. He could still owl him when he got back to the Burrow.
