Author's note: I own nothing but the plot.
The corridors seemed empty, and apparently, all the talking explanation took a lot longer than anyone thought as the moon was rising in the sky. The sky was lit up with stars through the skyscrapers, and obviously, a metropolitan town surrounded the castle. The streets were well lit, but still, you can see the night sky as if you were in the wilderness.
Sam noticing their looks, answered the question they didn't voice.
"Since this country is built directly on magical ley lines and natural energy. The country, for the most part, is unable to create light pollution. Or any pollution in any case." Both Hermione and Harry nodded in understanding. Only left to their thoughts as they walked through the castle corridors.
That explains why the air feels so clean here. Harry thought, realizing not for the first time that they were essentially wholly and utterly separated from a world that they have always known, unlike the magical world that they are part of in Britain that's right next to the mundane world this was completely separated something entirely unlike anything they've ever seen. Enough for the first time didn't a speck of anxiety rushed through him. There was so much riding on this plan, so many variables, but at least it was just the word of a supposed seer, and she showed me the future I would live and the lack of care and heart. The fact that accidentally Fred and George had proved the vision of this future wasn't an overactive mind or some delusion she created for herself but something that is concrete, and she took the time to help him. The biggest reason was the true root of it is why they got involved. Harry could tell that she has pride in Avalon; it clears she swore allegiance, and she keeps her word. Even with the promise of money and titles. It didn't seem enough; even with her powers of foresight, why would she risk herself for strangers. Why put herself on the line for Hermione and Harry at all?
He had to ask; he had agreed to do it, so had Hermione, but he wanted to, but he did know he needed to ask her.
Katherine started to hang back a second Lola, Sam gave a raised eyebrow, and Hermione seemed to protest, but Lola seemed to tell with her gestures that it was private.
Finally, alone in the hall as they already down a flight of stairs, in the corridors. Harry turns to her, and she raised an eyebrow expectedly considering what she said before; she was probably wondering why he didn't ask this earlier.
"Why are you doing this? Truly. Be level with me here; it can't just be nuclear winter. There is more than that. This could go horribly; I can tell by subtle fidgeting. It could be vital that you need to help Hermione and me directly. Involve us so closely to the problem that we won't sabotage the plan or go off the script you laid out vaguely." He said, looking at her waiting for an answer.
"I figured you wanted something more concrete. Out of you're and Hermione, you would be more distrusting of the two than I expected. "
"Do you want my personal reason for caring? I can see on your face that my explanation of the fact and the reasons I gave were not enough for you.
"Okay, the honest truth? Do you ever wonder where seer gets the gift of sight? It seems like something that shouldn't be handed out willy-nilly; that's because it's not."
He made the motion allowing him to continue with his hand knowing it was better to hear her out the interject and slow her down when we are tight schedule.
"The gift of sight is usually given to those whose word can do the best in the given moment, vessels of divine intervention. To make my power this powerful, this precise is that the balance of reality is wrong and messed and needs direct influence. Fates didn't give me the gift of sight for me. They're usually the ones who hand it out. No, this time, death intervenes on behalf of who you are and that there was no way you would get out from under the old bumblebee's thumb."
"So, you're doing this because death the entity asked you to?"
Katherine looked at Harry; if he didn't realize she was constantly wearing a mask, she would fit right in with Malfoy's toadies. Eyebrow raised, condescending smirk firmly in place nose in the air like she thought she was better than everything around her. It was the look on her face that relayed that there was a seriousness in her words.
"Death said it themselves save my old friend. Let him know freedom from the viper pits and sheep's pen. Death made one thing very clear: he would free me from the gift once I accomplished the future you deserve. Simply that." Her tone was soft but clear. Very committed and ready like a steadfast soldier. But the way she said it, the way she looked out away from me, maybe a tiny thread of worry come over him push just something about her tone.
"Please tell me that you aren't saying you die after I get my happily ever after. I don't think I could live with that on my conscience." Harry sounded nervous, shocked, and even a little terrified at the thought he just had.
"Wait, what?" Katherine, for the first time, seemed to be surprised what he asked. A wry smile was appearing on her face.
"Hmm, never thought about it like that. It'd be nice finally take a dirt nap." She said a soft smile and her eyebrow twitching.
"Wait, are you suicidal?!" Harry's as big as saucers as she casually talked about dying like she was talking about going out on a stroll.
Katherine starts laughing so hard, snorting from laughter, "damn, I forget..." she said between breaths.
"That's the problem with perfect sight! I know the humor of the future! I sound suicidal, maybe slightly insane. Jokes like that are a riot in the future! Be prepared for your kids to make jokes like that." She said with a snort. She seemed to try to slip her cool and callus mask on, but it was cracking. She took a breath, the smile finally fading from her face.
"You are adorable Harry Potter. Thank you for the concern but trust me, I'm OK." her voice still slightly shaky. she said with a small smile on her face.
"Okay, I meant that death would take his gift back so I can experience my life as it happens. Life with no surprises sucks so much. Knowing so much that you know how your love life with just about any given person really sucks." She gave him a look like she knew how Sam felt and was acting like she didn't.
"Knowing my sister and I died because the other half of our souls died? doesn't help either." her tone didn't match the way her body reacted as her fist shook slightly.
"Wait, what?" Harry's voice shook, and his skin took a very pale sheen to it.
"Yeah, not being with the person you're meant to be with always has repercussions. I was able to delay my sister's death by a broken heart. I had to use potions to keep her alive right now. She has a giant crack in her heart, and her soul and magic are so weak. Worse, she has been this way for two years since she has been like this. Which had left her comatose initially. She took her latest round of potions, but her heart is weakened. Right now, Lola is only an inch from death at this very moment; the only thing that has kept her from looking weak, fragile is knowing we are changing the past. Doing something to save people, we both just want to help people." She, with a melancholy sigh looking at the tapestry on the wall depicting some ancient treaty.
"So those unfortunate and unnecessary deaths don't happen. So, she is fighting the effect of losing a soulmate she never met and never knew. But..." She said, looking up, a frown marring her face. This is the first time in days her face has been expressive, showing how she felt instead of keeping her emotions behind a safe, not even her eyes giving away how she felt about what she knew.
It's like Tonks and Penny Haywood being forcefully having their relationship destroyed and sabotage.
"Wait, Tonks had a girlfriend?" Harry sound more curious because Tonks herself was a bit of a mystery to him he knew tidbits but not enough about her. she never talks about anything too big, not Hogwarts or her personal life; it seemed to be about shenanigans she pulled at the Auror academy and the wacky neighbors of her nothing more substantial than that.
She nodded, her eyes still sad. "The repercussions can be felt in the afterlife. Tonk's complete confusion about the last three years of her life, when she was asked about what she had done or had been doing, she was confused kind of out of it or like she was waking up out of a deep dream. She was asking about her fiancé Penny to Death himself." She said with enough honesty and sadness where he was wondering where this woman, Penny is and why Tonks never talks about her or about her Hogwarts days.
"Penny herself was popular during her Hogwarts days. She kept that popularity and has notoriety as an up-and-coming potion mistress, well-liked, and her family was incredibly connected in Wizengamot; if they had married, they could have changed the black lineage forever. Their children would be kind and sweet.
"Kids?!"
"Your nephews and nieces. You're a black by your father's side, after all. The beauty of being a Metamorphmagues is able to change to makes themselves another gender down to a genetic level, no sperm donor needed." she said with a delighted smile, then it fell. A frown was taking its place.
"While beside Tonks was a man, Remus lupin, who she eloped with, sometime in the summer of 1997."
"Wait! what !?" Harry felt his mind melt from what he heard. Remus married Tonks?! What kind of future is this! Remus once said he didn't want to get married to burden anyone else or for the stigma it would cause someone for being attached to him. And he would've known Tonks since she was a kid; I distinctly remember her calling him uncle! How sick and twisted was Dumbledore? Why did it matter to Dumbledore about other love live mines or anyone else?
"Who didn't seem even to know who he was?" Katherine continued as if Harry hadn't spoken. Considering I was right behind her in line, ready to talk with death myself. A river of falling tears as I had lost my sister, who was already gone ahead to the other side. After keeping her alive for the last three years at that point when out of the blue, my own heart gave out. I was shocked down to my soul to hear that was the cause of my death and that of my sister? Was that the other half of me died, and that's what killed my sister too. We lost our soulmates that we never met, and at the loss of them, our souls couldn't handle it, and we died from the lingering pain of what just happened. I was never told who it was; it was a surprise for me to find out.
Harry was mesmerized, realizing Lola was and has been in this state for over a year at least and had been able to smile, knowing that she is on borrowed time. And the person keeping her alive was her sister. And she had already foreseen herself dying too, lived through a reality where it had if the way she spoke hadn't made that incredibly clear. If she doesn't get involved as well.
"I swear death has the oddest sense of humor I have seen. And I'm not allowed to see who my or my sister's soulmate is. He says that should be the one surprise we need for now. She said to look to the ceiling looking for answers, but none seeming to appear.
"Like I said earlier, it's more than you who had their lives ruined by the manipulative old bastard. Including some of the most beautiful couples to ever exist just because his romance with a roguishly, handsome, fascist bad boy failed like they always do. Selfish bastard." She said with a tone like if she could spit acid at Dumbledore, she would and gladly.
"What?" He was confused, trying to figure what she was talking about specifically. He knows she's talking about Dumbledore but with who?
"We have time; we discuss this later." She said in a way that seemed to show that while we were the same age, she was mentally as old as Nicholas Flamel. She said in a way that seemed to indicate that while we were the same age, she was mentally as old as Nicholas Flamel. Her stance and eyes of a trained warrior who has seen things she should have never see. Starting to walk a bit of their way from the position they are in the hall.
"Feel no pain or remorse for this 'blessing' of mine; it will help more lives to sleep better. If I couldn't handle the gift, someone else would have it and would be tasked with saving your narrow butt from even more suffering than you have now." She said with an offhanded kind of cheekiness. He didn't expect an unexpected chuckle was coming from him.
"That's rude! We aren't that familiar with each other to talk like that!"
Katherine laughed. "I won't apologize, just like I won't stop humming songs you won't hear until your middle-aged get used to it." She said, sticking out her tongue, her eyes sparkling. "You heard me, now let's go;" she started her humming an unfamiliar tune that seemed too fast to be considered music.
"You can't be serious!"
"I could sing it and confuse you more!" Her smile seemed to get bigger.
"I have a lovely voice, but I don't want to make our dear Hermione think I'm serenading you." She said with a smile similar to a cat who ate the canary. So impish that it seemed more natural on her face the more she spoke.
"Humming is fine." Harry seemed to be blushing a deep red, he said in a nearly begrudging tone.
"That's a good boy. Let's go onwards to the past." Harry kept with her at her, walking faster than before, taking more and more stairs. Catching up with Sam and Lola, who seemed too slow so that they both could catch up to the group.
"Thanks for waiting on us. A giant smile in their direction." As they finally started picking up the pace and Sam's face seemed to have a very heated blush.
"All right, Sam, you know you have to be the one to convince the guard to be at the ready that's why we got you that letter. Are you ready for that?" Katherine said there was a tinge of concern in her voice but only a little.
"More or less, the letter is in my pocket. I'll be waiting on you to tell me that you have taken them down. " Sam said matter of factly.
"We should at least give Harry a passphrase, for when we go pick him up, he might not recognize us."
"Does it have to be specific, or can it something only we would know and understand a phrase that's sung"? Katherine had mask firmly back on the lack of teasing or humming. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't believe she had ever done it at all.
Lola looked mirthfully.
"What do you have in mind?"
"~You're welcome, you're welcome~ should be the passphrase."
"How far into the future is this movie musical?"
"Twenty years, give or take a few months!" she said, her voice betraying nothing and stating it like it was fundamental truth.
"Merlin," Hermione said softly. Not really believing what was being said with a slight shock.
"I nearly went with something like Ragnar the red; it reminded me of Moron." She said that made it clear whom she was talking about cause a smile to rise on both Hermione and Harry's faces.
"Come on now, Kat; you know they've never even heard of the elder scrolls series! They aren't gamers! And you told me Skyrim is fifteen years away! Also, it is nice to make a passphrase about beheading loud, lying, bragging redheads. But it's impractical and confusing."
"It's still better than the last passphrase; I still can't believe that will be a hit song in the future," Lola said with an eyebrow raise to her sister, snickering, but her face didn't show she found any of this funny.
"Hey, firework is a catchy song!" Katherine said she said with annoyance the mask she wore cracking.
"I know I heard you sing it even though it will not be a thing till we're in our thirties." She said with a huff.
Watching the sisters act their age talk about a time so far, they couldn't really imagine, but something one of them is seeing with clarity. It was the first moment where the veil of maturity and wisdom beyond their age seemed to fall, and they were still clearly acting their age for once the banter that what you expect from sisters. Hermione watching with interest, not really having siblings, much less a sister, watched the whole thing unfold with longing. That made Harry's heart clench similarly.
"Now come on, no more future talk."
"But I want to talk about YouTube?!" Katherine with a whine that he hadn't heard before.
"I swear if you go on a spiel about learning computer coding now before the boom, I will throw you out the window," Lola said with ever suffering groan.
"But I want to destroy Bezos! The man will destroy us all!" Katherine said with a groan.
"Sure, sure," Lola, Not really understanding or seeing what was so important that her sister was saying. Like Lola was used to her sister saying very random but exaggerated things.
"This is why my stock portfolio is going to have Apple and Microsoft stock getting in on the ground floor to make that sweet cash now while the time is right!" Katherine said we could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
"But come on later, we got to move," Lola said.
They walked for so long silently, so many dungeon floors and rows of guards and knights.
"Please move. We have clearance."
They moved without a word, conceding to Lola's word. Katherine and Sam nodded in thanks, but Lola seemed to strut right through, not minding if she annoyed them or thanking them.
The room was obviously the proper base of what the castle was built around to protect. The room looked like a cave crystalline structure, the pattern and seemingly recognizable to Hermione.
She was wholly consumed with reading each rune as they appeared before her. The amazement was taking center stage as Harry could tell her mind took every detail with great interest.
The room was made with hewn rock walls, probably as untouched as when the castle was built around it.
Through the ground in front of them was another thought all together made of pure obsidian. Glimmering and shining with the crystals rising from the obsidian floor, the glowing runes creating a pattern and written on nearly surface of the room.
Glowing with blue light with what Harry thought is called bioluminescence. The room was resounding with the castle catacombs; there was no window, but the crystals seemed to be embedded in the wall. Giving of eerie light that worked better lamp might have.
Sam coughed and spoke up with a rather loud voice, louder than he had been the whole time.
"The Time Star gains it's from the power of Ley lines and the moon itself to do what it does. The crystal structures you see in front of you run through the castle themselves, a part of the foundation and support beams that hold the castle upright and vitally protected from any attacks, so even though it's housed and protected by the castle, it's as much a part of the castle as the castle is itself absorbing ambient magic and moonlight in need to power the Time Star.
Sand seemed to collect on the ground and was summarily sent away by a collecting system along the corner edges of the room. This cavernous room is exactly as it was discovered. With only two editions, the building of a door and castle surrounding it, and the system collecting and retrieving the sands of the time to room produces weekly.
"The Time Star wasn't created by human's hands same could be said about many of the magical curiosity of the world. But existed before the castle, the very first queen of Atlantis saying it drew her to it, and she had the men and women of the new nation build a castle to protect it. As something told her that if others saw it, they would destroy it.
"The Time Star is nothing like either of you expected, I'm assuming."
"I assumed it would be closer to the stone henge, yeah."
"The walls of the cavern seemed to be made of the same stone as stone henge at least," Harry said, which caused Lola to chuckle. While everyone was pensive, lost in their thoughts.
Once this was done, there is no backing out, but I doubt anyone who is something they are contemplating this the last chance we have.
They both nodded, with Harry feeling surer about this than any time since he had when he accepted.
They all stepped into the center of the room when the runic array seemed the most intricate and completed; the crystals appeared to focus on remembering we should be landing on January the first, 1989. We should see you by the first Sunday of the month or so. Sam has to wait until the ward stones are removed to help.
"Sam hopefully has his journal." As Sam smiled, waving his after putting away his.
"Wait, you never mentioned a journal!" Harry said the shock was cleat on his face.
"What's the journal for?" Hermione asked, her curiosity taking over. From the looks, her mind whirling with the possibility of what the journal could possibly.
The journal is to coordinate and talk to each other. I didn't mention it because it's the most challenging piece of runes work Lola and I have ever done or seen. Thone piece of rune work more intricate would be this room; imagine coordinating Four different journals to communicate with one another simultaneously. Without delay, even if all four people are writing at once. As well indicated, who is writing and why. For anyone, a journal like this would be impossible, like I'm talking about with making an incoherent gibberish mess that takes time and a way to distinguish the writer from one another. The research, the solution I had dip those journals in, was maybe six months of research and planning to make it work. But if we didn't have help, it might have taken decades to make something like this. Honestly, I am unsure if six months of working and refining it to be work ideally. I am still nervous that it might not work the way I want to act like it's perfect and ready for use. But I test all of them make sure to have a delete and personal conversations. Even going so far as to be able to relay. Even relaying realistic maps based on the location placed within the journal. Using the leylines to make pinpoint accurate geographical maps of the address. Adding the adding he latitude and longitude if you want to apparate, portkey, or use a carpet to the location. I lost sleep trying to get that function right.
"Six months…" Hermione said with whispered awe as she looked at the journal.
"I wasn't sure they would be done by the time of the trip, even with perfect foresight; these were a gamble to get the ingredients and components altogether."
"There was a lot of trial and error for them to be completed… I nearly gave up until I got a bright idea of using lapis lazuli to write the runes that are within the journal instead of rose quartz."
But that shouldn't be the focus right now."
Right, we have everything we need. Once this sequence starts, we can't stop or be interrupted in any way; everyone within this circle will be thrown back to exactly where our bodies were then as we aren't just going back in time but send our minds and souls with us. As the fact that everything and that timeline will be as if it never happened.
"Understood."
Hermione softly nodded Lola, and Katherine cut their hands on the central rune, letting their blood run on it. They explained that because it's ancient magic, it needs proof of good intent, and giving your blood freely was one of those things. Giving it free versus it being spilled because of violence is two different things. Impure or selfish intent, and it could go horribly wrong like the third team.
Earlier
The five of them as a group spent the last hour discussing the plan the amount of money that they had on hand. The potions, the ingredients, the recipes,4 suspicious notebooks that didn't acknowledge but check of as being there, the guitars, the weapons, and how they would be used in some way, shape, or form were all accounted for, in the bag.
"You know," Lola started, and Kat knew what this was about and wanted to facepalm. You're as blunt and open with your concerns as always. Knowing I had to address a concern that Lola has had since the beginning. Since I told the King And Queen to send us is the best chance they have. With Harry and Hermione there, I couldn't just ignore it and act like it's not a concern that doesn't matter even if it doesn't.
"Don't. It won't go wrong; all of us here just want to stop the loss of life and try to make things better for everyone."
"How can you be so optimistic after what happened to the third team?" "Wait, what happened to the third team?!" Hermione asked.
"Does it look like we're all plundering Pirates to you?" ignoring Hermione and harry at that moment knowing that I would be answering their questions.
"In case you forgot Lola, the third team was a bunch of mercenaries who didn't give a damn, and we're only in it for cash, and we're planning to not do a God damn thing when they went through The Time Star, and we're going to spend the next seven years stealing shit." She said with a hushed whisper that could all hear she was deathly calm, but they could all tell she was annoyed.
"Of course, when they did, it didn't work, and they were lost in the timestream," Katherine stated coldly, probably seeing it as a just punishment.
"The Time Star has a way of correcting mistakes with people who have selfish intent that would you use and misuse time travel for their own ends and selfish desires." She said with a raised eyebrow at the group.
"It's ancient magic, don't you think it would have failsafe, but none of us here are really here for the money? Sure we're going to get a bonus, but that isn't the reason any of us are actually going to the past to fix things. We all have our legitimate reasons for wanting to do this. our intent is pure." Katherine said, her tone lacking any anger or emotion.
"I'm not worried about any of us not by a long shot, and neither should you, Lola." She said, ending the conversation as they continued with the planning.
Placing the blade to Harry, Hermione, and Sam to stab their fingers, allowing the blood to fall within the central rune that seemed to gather its idea on the intent finally.
The giant crystal that was resonating with a gold glow, everything seems to disassemble in front of their eyes, shattering to dust. The room seemed to create a speed wind flowing all around them; it was too much spinning. A bright light mumbled half-forgotten conversation was spoken, and then he only knew darkness.
New year's day 1989
Like a slap to the face, he rose from the floor, his mind going a million miles second memory of a life he hadn't lived yet flashed before his eyes. Tales of a future filled Harry's mind memories, visions of misery, agony, and manipulation. His hand had been gripping the door on his cupboard that desire to escape and get something from the fridge. Was it a dream? It can't be real that there are people out there who are going to save me? Then he felt warmth from his chest. Realizing that journal from my vision was right there, it was against his chest.
'Shit, it's real. It really happened!'
He opened it to the first page. Like he remembered he was told to do!
Katherine: Harry POTTER! Don't you dare despair; we will be there in a week, hopefully, less to come to get you out of Durzkban!
Lola: Kat, now you decide to be yourself!? You have been cold and robotic for weeks now. Now all of a sudden, you want to be miss positivity?!
Katherine: Nothing went wrong, of course; I am cheerful, sis!
Sam: You know we shouldn't fill a whole page of gibbering Hermione will see this in the morning if she hasn't already.
Hermione: Oh no, I'm watching the interplay between you three. It's fascinating, with no masks and unfiltered.
Lola: look at that, Kat; you have been discovered to have feelings; how do you respond.
Katherine: All I care about is getting him out of that hellhole. I need to pull our replicas from the bag, and we'll be there in three days with a place for you to stay.
Remembering, the pen for him to write with attached to the journal to respond back.
Harry: I thought you said you could convince your family to move?
Katherine: That would still take months of work and planning, and you need out now. I know where you are right now; you need help ASAP.
Lola: Now rest, Harry Potter, we will be there very soon.
He put the journal under his pillow, the promise to come and get him out there as quickly as they could. Hoping Petunia and Vernon don't decide just to burn my journal if he finds it. And if petunia finds she will rip it apart in front of me and call me a thief that I probably stole from Dudley's second room. Being locked up until the end of winter break if it is found or being beat until my body isn't worth it. Even if they promise to be here in three days, at least I need to make sure they don't see for that long as well. Not everything can go to plan even if she is a seer; it's just not possible. If there's anything, I've learned after what happened with the rat Pettigrew. Just being hopeful and have a solid plan isn't always enough for things to work out how you hope they would. No matter how foolproof or the chances you get, sometimes things don't always work out the way you want them to.
Unintentionally make himself sad, he felt himself sniffle tears nearly about to rise out of his eyes. Thinking about what he already went through and what he had just stopped from happening. The way Lola seemed so happy and positive when her sister is the only reason she's not knocking at death's door.
But the little burning with him, we have a second chance. A chance to stop things from ever getting that bad again. A chance to have equality and to end pureblood bigotry that exists once and for all. Obviously, out of the two governments, he would rather have the country in charge that has been able to function consistently and able to keep running since before written history. Able to use their ability to benefit the population, not the few with the biggest wallets. As well as the fact they were able to mix technology and magic. I'm sorry, knowing those will be the people in charge of magical Britain after living through the dumpster fire of the last three years bring on the true government of Avalon; they already sound like a fairer system than the one we have in place.
No matter what happens in the next week, at least, I have hope that I'm going to be rescued. A lot earlier this time around. Right some wrong and have a family sometime this year as long as nothing goes wrong.