Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
The next day, Harry arrived at Dumbledore's office and stopped short when he realized that the door was open and Dumbledore was chatting with someone.
"Now see here Sirius, I understand that he's your godson but you said it yourself, you don't want to uproot him."
"Right, but he's not yours to choose what happens to him! It's the summer, he should be at home and able to walk about London-" Dumbledore's eyebrows drew in with frustration.
"Sirius Black, I distinctly remember telling you that Voldemort is at large once more. The times are no safer now than they were all those years ago when you heard James and Lily were going into hiding. Harry is in extreme danger if he leaves the grounds, you know this. Why are you so adamant about getting him to leave?" Sirius's shoulders slumped.
"You're right. I just waited for so long to be let out of that hell-hole that I didn't stop to think that life outside might still be dangerous."
"And more importantly, you have more healing to do with the mind healers at St. Mungo's. You have been going, haven't you?" A dangerous edge made its way into Dumbledore's voice, something that Harry had only heard once before when he told Dumbledore that Voldemort was back.
"I...I go twice a week."
"Sirius, you swore you'd go in four times a week like they recommended!" Sirius cowed in his chair like a child being scolded by their mother. "I demand that you go back to what the healers recommended and that you get Grimmauld Place cleaned up. No more dark magic artifacts, no more dark colours and most certainly get rid of the pests you've got crawling around there."
"The pests are gone-"
"Clearly not gone enough, that's a pixie bite I'm looking at on your arm and it's fresh to boot. You need to learn to care for yourself before you can hope to care for anyone else, is that clear?" Harry cleared his throat just then, not wanting to impose on their conversation any longer.
"Sir, I didn't mean to interrupt but-"
"Nonsense, it's time for our lessons anyway. Sirius just came to say hello before his meeting with the healers at St. Mungo's."
"I really should be going, but it's good to see you J-Harry. I'm sorry I'm not in better shape to take you in during the summers." The man Harry had met in third year was considerably better than he'd last seen him. His cheeks weren't so gaunt and his skin not so sallow but he was still too skinny for his height and obviously wasn't getting enough sunlight.
"Professor Dumbledore is right though, I like spending my summers here. I learn a lot more when it's quiet and I don't have to worry about a book I need from the library being checked out all the time." He was grateful when Sirius seemed to accept this and left. He liked the man, but it was a bit awkward talking to someone who seemed to want to take him away from the life he'd built for himself and couldn't completely tell the difference between him and his father. Besides, he was much too invested in the life of Tom Riddle to want to leave the castle for any length of time.
He and Dumbledore delved into memory after memory until Harry could barely think straight. He went to bed each night with more information on the child that became a monster right before his very eyes. He watched as Tom discovered more and more dark magic and he cried when Tom found a way to break his soul apart in an effort to remain alive under any circumstances. He cried harder when Tom killed the girl from the second floor bathroom and then again when he went to murder his father's family.
Harry's heart broke a little more each day for Tom as the two explored more memories. It wasn't until after Dumbledore admitted that Tom had found a way to split his soul several times in order to stay alive that Harry decided he needed a break. He told Dumbledore he couldn't come back the next day, that he needed a little while to process that information. Dumbledore understood completely and told him to take the time he needed.
The next night Harry was staring at nothing when an idea hit him. When he had been desperate for a friend, he had gotten on his knees and prayed that a guardian angel would appear and take him away. He'd heard the Dursley's talk about church and God and guardian angels; especially when Dudley had been young enough to believe in them. He had prayed so hard, despite not knowing how, and his prayers hadn't ever been answered. But if Tom prayed for a friend, for someone that understood him, would he have turned into the monster he had become?
He may not have been the best person ever, but he likely wouldn't have split his soul to gain immortality. Even if he still did all the horrible things he had done, if he hadn't split his soul he would at least be stoppable. But as things stood currently, he wasn't stoppable; he would simply come back to life. And with how terrified people were of him, it was highly unlikely that anyone would fight back time and time again to kill him time and time again. Everyone would give up long before then. And even if someone did decide to fight him again? What about the third time? Fourth? What was even stopping Tom from making more than seven?
Resolved, Harry got out of bed and went to Dumbledore's office. It was a long shot, but Harry had to at least try.
Dumbledore wasn't even dressed in his night clothes yet, he was sporting some canary yellow robes with mauve owls that shimmered as the light hit them.
"Harry, I wasn't sure I'd see you today. What's on your mind?" Dumbledore asked as he poured them both a cup of tea.
"Sir, do you happen to have any memories from Tom's childhood where he's praying?" After explaining what praying would look like, Dumbledore started shuffling through the tinkling vials of memories from Wool's Orphanage and eventually produced one.
"This might be one, take a look and see." Harry plunged into the memory with Dumbledore just behind him and the two watched as Tom waited for the light under the doorway to go out and then he got out of bed and kneeled down on the floor with his hands clasped. He couldn't have been more than five, maybe six.
"Dear God, if you exist, would you send me my guardian angel? It's lonely here. But if he's busy then I suppose he doesn't need to come. I just wish I had a friend. Everyone else has friends but me. Amen." The little boy climbed back into bed and curled up into a tiny ball before falling asleep.
The two landed back in their chairs and Harry looked up at Dumbledore with wide eyes.
"Is it possible to send someone back that far into the past?" His heart was beating faster, he felt so close to finding a way to help Tom that he couldn't help getting his hopes up. The headmaster stroked his beard thoughtfully and, slowly, he nodded.
"I believe it would be possible. It would be incredibly dangerous though, there's a lot that would go into it."
"Sir, if we send someone back to him, someone to be a friend to him, we would likely prevent a lot of the damage he did. Maybe not everything, but we could at least make sure he doesn't feel the need to create horcruxes. He'd be stoppable, and if we can circumvent a lot of the other horrible things he's done as well then that's even better!"
"What is a guardian angel? I've heard of them but I'm afraid I never was much interested in religion."
"They're supposed to be angels chosen by God to protect the people on earth. Most adults don't believe in them but children often do, especially the ones in his position. They pray that someone will come and rescue them when all the adults in their lives fail to provide either a friend or a protector. These children often resort to asking for a guardian angel-their last hope, really. It's a cry for help, either physically or emotionally-he was basically begging an unseen and all-knowing force for a friend. If we send someone back in time to him then he'd likely do everything he can to follow the guidance given to him because this was his prayer answered." As Harry went on and on about the benefits of this idea and how one might gain his trust at that age, Dumbledore slowly folded his fingers together and rested his chin on them with a knowing twinkle in his eyes.
"Harry, time travel is incredibly dangerous. If you go back and, say, prevent your parents from meeting, then what? You will disappear and Tom will likely go insane regardless."
"But that's...you'd let me go back in time to help him?"
"Harry, you have a very unique position. You understand Tom on a level that I've never seen before. You're capable of getting into his head with only a few clues and while we don't have anything concrete, all of your circumstantial evidence supports itself through time.
"And anyone willing to do this must be aware that they'd be leaving their entire lives behind. I don't know a single witch or wizard that I would trust enough with the past to go back and change things that would be willing to walk away from their current lives." Determination flooded Harry the more he thought about it.
"I want to go. Sure, Hermione and Ron might miss me, but if time travel works the way I think it will then by the time Harry Potter is born, I'll have become a completely different person. Harry Potter will be able to live his life with his parents and with friends. The thing is, the present will cease to exist once I'm in the past and that means I have a blank slate to work with. We'd have to be willing to give up life as we know it-and all of the people as we know them-to create a better world. A world that doesn't need to fear Tom Riddle or ever hear the name Voldemort."
"And you're confident in your abilities to shape the world into a better one?" Harry nodded. He was terrified, incredibly terrified, of messing up but he had to at least try.
"I'm not losing anything other than you and some friends I get along with during the school year. I'd count Sirius, but I don't really know him that well and he's not exactly in a good place for me to spend more time with him anytime soon. But if I go back, then Harry Potter will grow up knowing his godfather. He'll likely grow up knowing his parents and having friends at a young age. He'll have a better childhood than I did and Voldemort might never exist at all." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and nodded.
"I shall do some research into these guardian angels and then I'll do some research into whether or not it's even possible. Take the next week to really consider this, and if you decide you might not be able to do it then don't worry too much about it. At the very least I'll have gained some more knowledge on the subject. Now, off to bed with you. Come back to my office next week after breakfast and we'll discuss what I've found."
Harry knew that Dumbledore meant it about not worrying about the situation too much but he couldn't help it. He fretted over the story he'd go back with, he wrote out plan after plan and crossed things out and rewrote until he finally was satisfied. It was a long shot, but magic worked miracles and if anyone would be able to help him make this work then Dumbledore would be the one.
Exactly one week later, Harry entered Dumbledore's office with his arms full of parchment sheafs. His fingers had been stained black for several days already and his stomach was growling but he couldn't wait any longer. Dumbledore was already sitting in his chair like he was waiting for Harry to walk through the door at any moment.
"Ah, early today! I had my suspicions I'd be seeing you before breakfast." With that, a plate with fruit and yoghurt appeared next to a goblet of pumpkin juice. Harry's stomach rumbled again, loud enough that Dumbledore started laughing. "Come eat, you must be famished. We're just waiting on Severus now." As if waiting for his cue, the door opened and Snape swept into the office, the door shutting on its own behind him.
"Headmaster, what's so important that you pulled me away from my morning coffee?" Snape sat down in the chair next to Harry's and crossed his legs, his face showing just how grumpy he was to have been interrupted this early in the morning.
"Never fear, Severus. I've got coffee right here, now drink and listen. Harry's come up with a rather brilliant idea regarding Voldemort." Snape's hand flinched ever so slightly, but Harry noticed because it prevented him from snatching the floating cup of coffee from the air.
"Yes, a rather brilliant idea. Are you familiar with the idea of a guardian angel?"
"Mmm, those mythical beings that fly from the sky to grant your every desire. Muggle rubbish, if you ask me."
"Precisely the ones! The idea is to send someone back in time to when Tom was a child and prayed for someone to be friends with him. We think that if he had been able to befriend someone like him, someone with magic, then he wouldn't have gone insane. He likely wouldn't have become Voldemort at all. But we need your help to do this properly."
"I don't work with time travel, you know this Albus. Perhaps an Unspeakable would be more beneficial to you."
"No, no you misunderstand. I need to know if it's possible to create a potion that will allow someone to grow wings." Snape spat out the mouthful of coffee he had in his mouth.
"Wings?! Are you out of your bloody mind?!"
"Retractable wings," Dumbledore corrected.