Chamonix
November 27, 2006
"You're leaving already?" Dumbledore frowned, standing at the threshold of Harry's room.
Harry turned to him, pulling his satchel onto his shoulder. "Yup. We did what we came here to do."
"But you have not yet defeated Voldemort," Dumbledore argued.
Harry smiled, feeling like a parent dealing with a petulant child. "We didn't come here to defeat Voldemort. Merely to find his Horcruxes so we could resolve the birth rate issue."
"But do you truly think that will be enough? That he won't simply create more?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'm sure it's not. But once the Horcruxes are destroyed and we're able to prove Hermione's theory — that the birth rate decline was caused by Voldemort's influence on Hogwarts — we'll be able to leverage the full might of the WEA." Harry walked towards Dumbedore, gesturing for him to move as he headed to the living room to meet up with Ginny.
Dumbledore walked beside him. "But is that wise? Voldemort is not to be trifled with."
"I know. That's why we will use the proper resources to deal with him. We have an entire military body that's fully capable of handling a situation like this," Harry explained, his voice betraying his frustration.
"But the prophecy—"
"Seriously? What's with this prophecy?" Harry exclaimed.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, his glasses dropping to the tip of his nose. "Prophecies have been a staple of magical society since the dawn of magic. To ignore one, to try and act as though it doesn't exist, is naïve."
"What about acting as if it's the only thing that exists, like you have, sir?" They reached the living room, and Harry noticed Ginny sitting on the couch, pretending to read but sneaking glances his way. Harry had, for the most part, held his tongue the past couple of weeks, acknowledging they needed Dumbledore's help. Now, however, he was frustrated and wanted answers.
"I have merely been waiting—"
"But why? Why not help fight? There were many times we could have used someone like you in the WEA! Someone well respected across the magical community. But instead you hid out here in a chateau, completely ignoring everything going on in the world!" Harry argued.
"You do not understand." Dumbledore shook his head.
"Then explain it to me."
"Apologies — I was unclear. I don't believe you are capableof understanding," Dumbledore clarified.
Harry blinked and started laughing. "That's amazing. When you don't want to explain something, you simply state that it's above my comprehension. Try it anyways. Go on." Dumbledore gave Harry another sad look. "Or, I guess I'll be hard pressed to explain to the world why you've been hiding out here all these years."
"You believe I'm worried for my reputation?" Dumbledore offered a slight smile.
Harry shrugged. "You're all over the history books. I assume that's not by accident."
"Perhaps in another lifetime I was concerned about such things, but I no longer dwell on such trifles."
"Well, then just try me. For my own peace of mind," Harry suggested, sitting next to Ginny and gesturing for Dumbledore to join.
Dumbledore finally relented and began, "This world we live in, it's not the right world. Something happened many years ago that altered it. I have sacrificed my friendships and my reputation so that I could ensure that I would be here when the Chosen One came to be. I did this because I believe that she will bring the world back to what it once was."
Harry blinked. "You think she'll what, reverse time, change whatever you think was altered?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Or some variation thereof. Time travel has long been wielded within the magical community. Typically it has been used for more practical purposes, but there have been tales in the past of time travel taking a witch or wizard back substantial distances through time."
"So, your translation of 'restore what was lost' is literal?" Harry clarified.
"Yes," Dumbledore said slowly.
"That's absurd," Harry pointed out.
Dumbledore shook his head. "I told you, you wouldn't understand."
"That's the thing, I do understand. You aren't quite that unique, sir. I've met many politicians, lobbyists, and other influencers who have espoused similar ideas. They long for a time from the past; they long for it so much that they believe it's something worth returning to, even though to do so would often be to the detriment of otherswho were not so well off," Harry answered.
He had dealt with similar declarations from the Isolationists and Separatists; they believed that since the past was better for them, it was better for all. It ignored the strides society had made towards equality, and the positive influence the magicals and non-magicals had on one another to reduce prejudice. Instead, they focused solely on a perceived loss of personal freedoms.
"This world isn't sustainable," Dumbledore argued. "Beyond the birth rate issue, my understanding is the world is at war with itself. How long until the Muggles and the wizards destroy each other? Our worlds weren't meant to collide!"
"Our worlds weren't meant to do anything!" Harry exclaimed. "The world isn't 'wrong;' I can't believe that. So what if something happened in the past? This is still our world. Is that why you've holed up here? Because you knew that if you actually lived with the people and saw the children being born, you wouldn't be able to go through with changing the past?" Harry struggled to fully grasp how someone could have the audacity to simply erase the world as it existed.
"It is for them that I seek to do this! It is for all of those who've died – the billions who have perished since the Event," Dumbledore argued.
"But you've been hiding since before the Event. If you took the prophecy so seriously, then why didn't you try and stop magic's 'great reveal'?" Harry pointed out.
"That part of the prophecy was incredibly vague. It was not clear who would be responsible for it or when it would occur."
"But, had you stayed, perhaps stopped Voldemort, then wouldn't there have been a reasonable chance the Event wouldn't have occurred at all?" Harry argued.
"That is not how prophecies work!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
"Alright, let's pause for a moment." Harry stood up and paced. "Let's say that Hermione has some unique ability to travel through time. What happens to the rest of us?"
"We would all be here – but our lives would be richer."
"I don't think so," Harry started. "The non-magicals have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about time travel. They have books, movies, you name it. They've theorized something called the Grandfather Paradox."
"I'm familiar with it," Dumbledore drawled.
"Good. Well just to make sure we're on the same page, if someone were to go back in time and kill their own grandfather, then theoretically that would mean that they wouldn't exist to go back in time in the first place. So, you have a paradox, two things that can't possibly exist at the same time. How can time travel occur then? The second you go back in time and change something substantively, you will remove the event that motivated the time traveler in the first place. So, once again, you have a paradox."
Harry froze for a moment. He looked at Dumbledore, his eyes wide. "Is that why you have been out here all alone? Did you think that if you were the time traveler that you could avoid a paradox by simply existing out here, ensuring you didn't have excessive interactions with people?"
Dumbledore blinked, appearing genuinely surprised. "That is quite a leap Harry."
"Hmm. I'll take that as a 'yes.' That being said, there is a way time travel could work, without any fear of paradox. Are you familiar with quantum physics?"
When Dumbledore shook his head, Harry continued, "I'm not going to be able to describe it as well as someone like Hermione probably could, but what quantum physics tells us is that anything that can happen, will happen. Maybe not in this world, but in another.
"Consider a decision you make; perhaps you have to decide whether to go left or right. If you go left, you get into a car accident and die, whereas if you go right, you find true love. Quantum theory posits that both worlds exist. It suggests that there are an infinite number of worlds, based on the endless possibilities.
"Non-magicals have theorized that the second you go back in time, you're in essence creating a new world. You're not overwriting this one, or correcting it. You're simply starting a new game and ignoring the one already in progress. So, tell me, if you go back in time and create a new world, then how does that help us here?" Harry finished.
"I've noticed a few things in your speech Harry," Dumbledore started. "You refer to 'theories' and 'posits.' I assume that the Muggles who developed these theories have been unable to find evidence to support them."
"I told you. I'm not an expert. Just conversational on the matter." Harry shrugged.
"Well then, unless you've encountered a time traveler, you have only theories and 'what if's', whereas, in the annals of wizarding history, we have evidence of time travelers – first- and second-hand accounts of their adventures. Perhaps in this instance, you can trust that wizards know what's best." Dumbledore smiled.
Harry shook his head. "I can acknowledge that magicals have successfully used time travel, whereas non-magicals have merely theorized it. But for that reason alone, I'm more likely to believe the non-magical explanation. You see, I've spent most of my life with non-magicals. I went to a mixed secondary school and have worked in politics my entire adult life. For non-magicals, they have to go through every step to get things to work. They can't just wave their wand. Which means they're meticulous. So, when they consider things like physics and time travel, they don't just say 'well, we can do it, so we did,' or a variation thereof; they research. They seek evidence and develop formulas and argue and debate," he explained, though Dumbleore appeared unmoved.
"Alright." Harry nodded, shifting tactics. "I'm going to pretend for a moment, for the sake of argument, that you're correct. That when you go back in time, it will be to this world and that it will be rewritten. How can you ensure it will be better?"
"This world is dying! The magical nexus in Hogwarts is failing! You wish to put a band-aid on the problem, but what happens when that's not enough? We've failed – this world is a failure!" Dumbledore's eyes flashed in anger.
Harry smiled, leaning forward. "But we did that. This world isn't some experiment, or an accident. This world is the culmination of every decision ever made up until this moment! To ignore that, to simply just hope to rewrite it ignores that we did this! Success or failure, this was us!"
Dumbledore interjected, "But what if we have a chance to fix it? Imagine a world where you could have gone to Hogwarts! Where you could walk down Diagon Alley and Apparate at will and live your life in peace?"
Harry's smile broadened. "That's it – isn't it? That's why you sent us on a scavenger hunt. It's been bugging me since we got here – you could have easily gone and retrieved all of the Horcruxes, and it was quite clear that you had an idea of where they were. But you didn't. Instead, you had us research and figure out where and what to find.
"But now it makes sense! You wanted us to walk down Diagon Alley and feel nostalgic, or go into Gringotts and regret the absence of magical creatures! Or see Platform 9 ¾ and wish we had gone to Hogwarts." Harry shook his head. "I remember walking through Diagon Alley and thinking that I missed the unique magic of the place. But I never once thought that meant we should return to what the world was like before!
"We may not have magical alleys – but we have mixed magical / non-magical night clubs. We have hundreds of genres of music now. There is no longer prejudice related to magical blood! Sure, there may still be a few of the older generation who whisper behind closed doors, but we've accomplished in fifteen years what once seemed impossible!" Harry finished.
"But what about all the death? The violence! You yourself were the victim of two assassination attempts. How can you want a world like this? What does some music mean when you consider the lives," Dumbledore argued.
Harry sat back with a glint in his eye. "You think we can't get back what we've lost. You think that the only way forward is back. But I believe, if we work hard enough, if we work to find Kallipolis, we can be better. We can be more than we were."
At Dumbledore's frown, Harry continued. "The philosopher Plato wrote about Kallipolis – a hypothetical utopian city. He theorized what would make such a city utopic, or what made it and its people just. I disagree with Plato's personal notion of Utopia, but I've always found the concept of Utopia itself quite fascinating; the idea that there's something perfect out there.
"You act as though you know what Kallipolis looks like, what Utopia is, and that by going back in time, or somehow fixing a mistake in the past, you can take us there. But I don't think that's how it works.
"Kallipolis doesn't exist. There is no Utopia. Even Plato admits, by the end of The Republic, that it, too, would fail. But do you know what I think? I think there's value in trying to find it. Every day, people make mistakes, sometimes extraordinary world-changing mistakes. But we can recover, and I believe we can move forward and learn from them. There are fundamentalists who would, if given the chance, destroy the entire world. But they are not us. They are not our world!"
Harry took a breath and continued, "The point of everything isn't to reach Utopia, or to return to some mythical point of perfection in the past. It's about the search! We dream of a perfect world, and we work to buildit. And do you know what? When we get there, we'll probably discover that, too, is not Utopia, and we'll work to build it again! It's about having faith in our future, that the world is not destined to fail, and that we can overcome our current problems and be stronger for them! That we'll learn something and be more just, be better people at the end of the day. I've seen it in this world; I've watched London evolve from a war-torn city to something remarkable!
"I met a man fighting to bring back sports. Because he learned that recreation, the ability to live, is something of value. That's something we're working on as a society – moving from surviving to actually living. And it's a hard transition, but I have faith we'll get there! I think it's horrible that so many people died, but I think we can make our world better at the end of the day. I think the magical and non-magical working together has already yielded some of the most extraordinary things, in just fifteen years!
"I believe that the hardships we've faced as a world will make the world all the stronger. Taking it back, going back and trying to reset the past, would make our lives worthless. It would make the deaths, the suffering, meaningless.
"I think, Dumbledore, that you are wrong." Harry smiled.
The room was silent for a moment, Harry's words hanging between them.
"You are quite the orator Harry," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. Harry took the compliment for what it was, knowing full well Dumbledore was too stuck in his own beliefs to be truly moved.
"Sir," Harry's voice was calm again, "before all this is over, there will be a fight. Perhaps you would consider coming out of retirement to help."
Dumbledore chuckled. "I don't know how much fight I have left."
Harry shook his head. "You know, this place–" Harry looked around, "it's like your own little Hogwarts. You even magicked Ginny's room to keep the boys out. You miss it, whether or not you acknowledge it. I'm not suggesting you need to fight. Just consider helping."
Dumbledore gave Harry a slight nod, which was frankly more than Harry had expected. "The thing is Harry," Dumbledore said slowly, "prophecies really are tricky things..."
"Is everything alright?" Harry asked Ginny, his hair askew.
They were waiting outside for Dumbledore to finish the portkey that would take them to London. Since their call with Hermione and Draco the night before, Ginny had been quieter and more withdrawn than usual.
"Yup. Ready to go home." Ginny smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Are you sure?" Harry pushed, and Ginny swallowed, her smile faltering.
"It's just—" she started and bit her bottom lip.
"Ginny." He grabbed her hand and turned her chin so she had to look him in the eye. "What is it?"
"Watching you the past few weeks... it's been—" she tried to explain. "This is too hard!"
Harry chuckled at her frustration. "Come on, what is it? You can talk to me."
And that was the thing, Ginny thought. She could talk to him. Usually it was seamless, the conversation naturally flowing from one topic to the next, with enjoyable silences mixed in where appropriate. His voice — his words, his intelligence — was one of her favorite things about him. "What happens to us when we get to London?" she asked.
He blinked and took a step back, furrowing his brow. "I guess I assumed not much would change. Other than we won't be living in an old wizard's house, and we won't be hunting Horcruxes."
"But what are you going to do?"
"I have some thoughts." He frowned.
"Harry, you're an incredible man," she started. "I've seen you do some of the most amazing things. I saw you convince a Goblin to listen to you. I just watched you argue logic with one of the greatest wizards of our age; and while I may be biased, I believe you won. You have the most amazing ability to understand people: their motivations, their fears, all of it. But what's astonishing is not that you can do it. It's that you don't use it for your benefit, you use that ability to make the world a better place.
"They don't make people like you. There's a reason you're so beloved; because you are earnest and because you make those around you better. Look at Daphne Greengrass! What if she had never met you? She would have likely spent her life following in her father's footsteps. She would never have fought for you, and what you believe in. What would the world be like then? But she is who she is because she has you.
"And that's what I'm struggling with—" Harry looked ready to interrupt so she put up a hand and continued, "Not the Daphne thing; I trust that you are just friends. It's that the rest of the world needs you. Because you're right, Harry, there are no quick fixes. If we want the world to be better, we need you. And this past month... it's been incredible. But it hasn't been real. We've been living in a bubble, and I'm just worried about what happens once we're back."
"Can I say something now?" Harry asked softly. She nodded, and he grabbed her hands, his eyes boring into hers. "I don't know what's going to happen. I do know that I don't want to give up on us. I think whatever this is, it's worth fighting for, just like the world is."
She smiled sadly. "Harry, I don't think it's so simple. I'm a Corps Officer. And I didn't just join the Corps on a whim; it's been a dream of mine to be a Corps Officer since I was a girl. I can't just settle in London and be there, waiting for you."
"I'm okay with that," he reassured her.
"Are you really? Corps assignments can last any length of time. Who knows when we'll get to see each other!" she pointed out.
"What if I followed you?" he suggested.
She laughed. "You can't do that! It's like I said, the world needs you."
"So you don't think we're worth it?" He frowned, dropping his hands.
"I think—" she considered her words carefully, "that there are more important things than you and me."
He shook his head. "You know, that's what my father told me that night, when we went to Weasleys." Harry flared his nostrils, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Ginny shook her head, "I don't mean it like that. This is coming out wrong. I don't mean you don't deserve love; you do! But there must be someone who can be there for you. Who will be happy to share you and who won't be an obstinate Corps Officer hell-bent on a personal career."
"But what if there isn't?" he asked softly.
"It's a big world out there, Harry." She smiled.
Before he had a chance to respond, Dumbledore was back with that familiar-looking piece of candy. "It has been a pleasure," he said to the pair, with a certain amount of sorrow in his eyes.
"Thank you, sir. And please, think about what I said," Harry said with a nod.
They said their good-byes and left, the swirl of magic landing them in the London apparition zone.
London
"Harry Potter?" A soldier called out. Harry and Ginny turned to see a couple of Corps Officers headed their way, their hands on their wands.
"We've been asked to bring you in for questioning regarding illegal portkey activity. Please come with us…"