Chapter Ten

Tick Tock

Part I

"Can we go somewhere private, then, sir?" Harry asked seriously, "I wouldn't want to Obliviate more than one person. It might be hard tracking them all down."

"Cheek, Mr. Potter," Severus chided uncertainly, "Follow me to my classroom if you must, and you can start serving your two weeks of detention tonight for your inveterate rule-breaking and back-talk."

"Perfect," Harry breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Professor Snape."

"Either you are a masochist or a very insolent boy, Potter. I would advise you stop talking before I prolong your punishment."

"That wouldn't exactly work very well if I were a masochist, though, now would it?" Harry smirked blithely.

Snape seemed slightly taken aback by the first-year student's informed rebuttal. Both wizards walked in silence the rest of the way to the Potions Master's laboratory.

"Very well, Potter, start scrubbing," Severus ordered, pointing to a set of dirty cauldrons in the far corner, "I would tell you not to use magic, but we both know you're incapable of the simplest of charms."

"But sir, you're wrong… that's not correct. I am not as inexperienced as you think I am. I need to speak with you to explain. I need my time turner back. I can't risk running into myself!"

"Good grief, Potter!" Snape groaned, "If you're so experienced, as you claim to be, perhaps you should have thought of the complications of time travel before you decided to meddle with that gadget. Come here, then, you stupid boy. Take a seat and tell me what it's going to take to get you out of this fix and I will tell you how many house points I will be deducting accordingly."

Harry didn't whinge at this threat. Severus could barely believe his good fortune. The boy seemed almost, dare he say, compliant!

"You might want to take a seat too, sir," Harry whispered, staring at the tabletop in front of him, "This is going to be a lot to take in."

Despite himself, Snape looked at the Boy-Who-Lived thoughtfully.

"Potter," Severus intoned softly, taking a seat, "If I find out you're lying to me about where you've been with that time-turner, rest assured you will pay."

"I promise you, Professor Snape, I'm not playing a joke at you. It might seem that way at first, but really, I'm not," Harry stumbled over his words while Snape continued to eye him pensively, "There is no easy way to say this, but…like I'm sure you've gathered, I'm not from this time. I'm still out of sync, see."

"So you say," Severus remarked wryly, "Go on."

"I've come from after the war, sir."

"What war, Potter? Merlin forbid you went back that far."

Harry blanched, remembering that the Second Wizarding War had not even started yet.

"It's not from the past that I've come, sir. It's from the future. Twice over, in fact. There's to be a war, beginning a few years from now. Voldemort comes back to power. In my time, I'm quite old. Nearly your age…"

Snape cast him a dark glare either at the use of the Dark Lord's name or at the insinuation that he was, as Harry so eloquently put it, quite old.

"It may have escaped you, Potter, but using a time turner does not affect one's own physical or mental age. Therefore, I know you are lying," Severus sniffed noncommittally, "Ten points from Gryffindor."

"De-aging potion," Harry explained himself, "It's because I took de-aging potion. That's how I got myself into this mess in the first place. See, several years after the war, I used the time turner to go back to my seventh year. I was taking de-aging potion so that I would look like a teenager again, to fit in. Tonight…or rather one night years from now, I accidentally took …er…take too much of it, and you catch me out of bed after hours and think that I've actually come from first year by accident, and so you send me back."

Severus looked at him quizzically.

"That is quite simply incredible, Potter."

Harry brightened, "Incredible, sir?"

"Yes, incredible, Potter. As in implausible. As in I don't believe a word you're saying. Another ten points from Gryffindor."

Harry's smile quickly faded.

"What can I do to convince you, professor?"

"Convince me?" Snape snorted, "I'm not sure you can, you stupid boy. You say you survive this war that is to come. You of all people. You survive?"

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Harry joked, "I am the boy-who-lived, after all."

"Incredible," Severus repeated, with something like relief coming out in his voice, "Tell me one thing, Potter. Humour me and I'll abstain from taking points from Gryffindor for the time being. Why do you go back to your seventh year at Hogwarts? Does the war end by then?"

"No, sir," Harry said quietly, "My seventh year at Hogwarts is at the height of the war. In fact, the first time around I did not even attend that year because, well, for lack of a better explanation I had better things to do."

"Whatever becomes of you then, Potter? A Hogwarts dropout! I can't say I'm overly surprised, although… I did think you might at least scrape by. What with the favouritism shown to you by all your professors, save me, you can't even graduate? That's somewhat pathetic, even for you."

"Actually, sir, I'm currently head of the Auror department. Well, I will be. Not that I expect you to believe that or anything."

Snape rolled his eyes. He was, after all, conversing with an eleven-year old boy, even if he did seem to be getting taller every minute…

"With such a cosy position, I'm surprised you even bother to venture back in time at all, then, Potter. Let alone to the 'height of a war' that ought to have killed you. Let me guess. In your infinite wisdom, you thought you could meddle with time in order to save someone from the carnage. I'm curious. Who do you go back for?"

"I'm not sure I should answer that question, sir."

Severus ignored him.

"Bless your little Gryffindor heart, you probably went back to save Ron Weasley, is that it? Or Professor Dumbledore?" Snape sneered.

"No, Ron doesn't die in the war and by that time, Dumbledore's already dead."

"Wait, Albus dies?" Severus suddenly seemed interested.

Harry didn't know whether to be excited or anxious at this sudden reversal.

"Does this mean you believe me?" he asked seriously.

"No, Potter," Snape spoke in a tone that edged on irony, "I am merely being curious."

"I don't want to talk about it," Harry explained, "As you can understand, it was…will be a very upsetting time for me."

"Of course. You being his Golden Boy," Severus said derisively, "You still didn't tell me who you go back for. Not that it's even possible for you to save them."

"I go back for you, professor," Harry admitted after a long silence, "I'm sorry, but you die…"

Snape's eyes widened and he let out an uncharacteristic gasp.

"What? Let me guess, you don't believe me?" Harry wondered aloud.

"I don't believe my eyes," Severus said softly, looking a now adult Harry Potter up and down.