1. Ash Grey
Harry set the firewhiskey down on the table. Swirling the contents he had poured in his glass, he watched the light dance through the liquid. The house around him was quiet, too quiet in fact but he liked it that way. The remnant noise of the war ringing in his ears more than made up for the silence.
The war had been hard. All of his family had died or lost one of their organs. Fred Weasley had died. Ginny Weasley had died. Remus Lupin had died. And as if Death hadn't taken enough from him, one of his people, had wasted away as he had watched, helpless and screaming.
Hermione Granger had died.
Ron hadn't even known until after the dust misplaced from the war had settled. He had looked at her broken body, seen Harry's blank face and turned away. That was four weeks ago.
Harry had been lauded and carried around as the savior but only he knew the price he had payed for saving the rest of the wizarding world. Harry looked at the case file saying Tom Riddle on the table. For a few weeks a risky, dangerous and completely irrational plan had been brewing in his mind. He could just hear Hermione screaming at his stupidity. But he was a Gryffindor. They were nothing if not that and so much more. With Hermione's voice ringing in his ears, he threw drowned the glass, picked up the file and walked towards the drawing room of Grimmauld Place. The house was dark but that was alright, Harry thought wryly. It certainly reflected his inner emotions if nothing else.
In the drawing room, the table was filled with papers. Pages filled with diagrams, numbers and symbols related to time and blood magic littered the floor. Harry picked the ones nearest to him and set the file next to it. The fire crackled feebly in the hearth. Harry was to go back in time. He was to adopt Tom Riddle and stop him from becoming a Dark Lord that killed millions from wizarding Britain. Sounded simple when you said it like this.
But no, Harry had planned. He had planned meticulously, combing through the details with a fine-toothed comb. He had planned because Hermione had. He had planned because she wasn't there anymore. Gathering the papers and files, he stuffed them into the trunk placed in one corner of the room. This trunk held the items that would help him in his time travelling journey. His cloak, his heir ring, money, appropriate clothes and so on. The photographs stashed in one compartment of the trunk would be the only proof of his memories.
Wearing the clothes he had picked from researching about Tom's time and sending Hedwig permanently to the Weasleys with a letter that said he was on a retreat, shrunk the trunk and placed it in his pockets. Glancing around his godfather's house and his time, he activated the time turner setting it to 24 December 1930.
The Time Turner Spun.