Author's Note- I know, I know. It has been 9 months since I updated. I had given up on this, but I think I'll be working on it again. I believe that I, in a depressed rage, threw away my handwritten rough draft of this story. Luckily I still remember the basics of what I intended for it. Here goes nothing….

The light of the sun glinting off the white sand and blue water was enough to blind Harry. His eyes took what felt like ages to adjust. Once he could see properly again, Harry noticed that he was on the same beach that he had landed on the first time he arrived in Paradise. Next to him, Remus and Sirius were having the same feeling of déjà vu. They all sat there for an immeasurable length of time, letting it sink into their minds that the three of them really had travelled back to an unknown point in the past.

Claire had explained to the three of them that time travel to any point more than a few weeks back was very unpredictable and that there was no way that she or anyone else could know exactly how far back they would be sent. The trio had taken her warning seriously, but knew that it would be worth it. They trusted her when she told them that time magic had a way of working out so that those who knew what they were doing when meddling with it were usually sent to where they needed to be.

That didn't mean, however, that the realization that they truly were in an unknown time was a very good feeling for any of them; they all sat around in a daze as the knowledge hit them.

Remus was the first to snap out of the daze. He immediately cast a charm that would cause the time and date to be written in the air in large, floating numbers and letters. WEDNESDAY. 19. 11. 1986. 6:31 PM.

The three men stared at the information disbelievingly.

Sirius was the first to be able to croak out a response to the information. "Eight years? We went back eight years? I don't believe it."

Harry was not sure what to think of this turn of events. He was expecting to go back no more than two or three years. "I'm only supposed to be six years old. I don't even know about magic yet. There is a younger version of me that is probably sitting in my cupboard at the Dursley's right now. This is weird, and I'm not entirely sure I like it."

"Hey, don't worry about it. There is a younger version of me sitting in a cell in Azkaban right now. I say that we just take these years that we've got and make them count for more than they did the first go. Alright?" Sirius was determined to make this trip to the past a useful one, and if the three of them sat there allowing the knowledge of where the other versions of themselves were at this time to overwhelm them he knew that they would never get anything done. They were here for a reason, and he wasn't going to allow them to forget about it.

"Sirius is right, Harry. Let's get out of here and go find Zac. Remember, he told us to find his younger self and give him the letter explaining what our plan was." Reminded Remus, who was always the one to remember and stick to the plan.

And with that, the three were off. They walked the familiar path to the Ames' home, all the while wondering what exactly this trip into the past would bring.

.

Zac and Violet Ames were delighted to see their beloved nephew Sirius.

They had been quite concerned when he had not shown up to visit them back in 1981 when they had made plans to spend Christmas together. Over the years, they had made many attempts to contact him, all with no success. Violet had been distraught at first, believing that he'd been killed in the war against that Dark Lord he'd told them about. It took months before she stopped breaking into tears every time she thought of him. Eventually, though, they moved on and accepted that Sirius was most likely gone. Violet made a point of maintaining the purple roses that Sirius helped her to plant as a small memorial to the nephew she loved so much.

It came as a wonderful surprise to the both of them to know that he was not dead and that the war he'd spoken of so many years ago had ended. Their joy of the reunion was marred, however, by the realization that he had spent the years he was missing from their lives locked away in the wizard prison Azkaban, haunted day and night by the despicable creatures known as dementors.

Their pain at his suffering turned to pride in him for doing the incredible and escaping the prison, a feat no one believed was possible, and that pride became wonder as they were informed of some of the circumstances of his arrival at their door on that November day in 1986.

"I did think it was a bit odd when you introduced a boy Harry's age as your son when I knew you didn't have a child five years ago, and it was a bit strange that you look so much older than you did the last time I saw you. So Claire really goes into working with manipulating time? Interesting." Zac and Violet were taking the news that Sirius, Remus, and Harry had come back in time to see them fairly calmly, even though they imagined that there was a lot more to the story than they were being told. After all, who goes to the trouble of going back in time just to get their child an education? They knew there must be something special that made it so important for Harry to get a magical education away from Hogwarts, but the two knew that Sirius would explain himself eventually and didn't pry.

"She seemed to enjoy her work, and she's clearly quite good at it since she managed to send the three of us back all this time."

"I'm sure she will enjoy her work. Claire is far too brilliant to stay in any field of work that she doesn't have a passion for. Now, it's getting quite late; might I suggest that we retire for the evening and work out the finer details of this arrangement tomorrow?"

Violet's statement made it clear to the time travelers exactly how long their day had been and they happily followed her upstairs and collapsed onto the beds they were shown, where they each fell into a deep slumber.

.

Harry's dreams were filled with glimpses of events that he couldn't recall ever happening, places he couldn't recall ever seeing, and people he couldn't recall ever meeting.

A tall man with an Australian accent showing a dark haired boy a strange looking animal and the two of them looking at it like the most incredible piece of art they'd ever seen.

Two dark haired teenagers playing a furious game of a sport Harry vaguely recognized from the television at Privet Drive.

Two beautiful blondes, one male and one female, on a Quidditch pitch. The male was down on one knee, and the female was glowing with joy as the male asked her something that Harry couldn't quite hear and then stood up to embrace her and slide a sparkling ring onto her finger.

A teenager whose appearance couldn't seem to stop shifting running through a forest and only stopping when they found a dying young dragon that appeared to be screaming in pain.

A teenager who couldn't sleep wandering the halls of a castle late at night.

Two men, one older than the other, sitting across from each other at a cluttered desk and planning something important.

A classroom full of students in their late teens or early twenties all working on some of the most complicated potions Harry could have possibly imagined.

A young man reaching into a pile of ashes where a bonfire had once stood and grabbing a small, circular piece of metal which he then tied to a conjured bit of cord which he tied around his neck as a necklace, a keepsake.

When he awoke, Harry did not remember anything he'd seen the previous night. He simply had a vague feeling that he'd had a nice dream that he didn't want to wake up from. He felt more well-rested than he had in a long time, and the sunshine warming his face as he woke left him feeling like this would be a good day.