Memories that hurt
The corridors echoed with his footsteps as he strode toward his goal. To look at him, one would see a tall thin man in his mid-twenties with dead looking emerald eyes. His stride showed no hesitation giving him an air of a man with a purpose. Approaching a gargoyle statue, the man starts to hiss in a snakelike manner. The statue springs to life and jumps to the left revealing a doorway which the man walks thru with obvious relief despite the stench of moldy parchment and mothballs. The tension that had caused his shoulders to be so clenched drained away when he heard the voice of his best friend and wife.
"Harry, is it done? Did you bury their remains at the remains of his home?"
"Yes 'Mione, Ron and Luna's bodies are now buried near the remains of the Burrow. How goes the research into that artifact he told us about?"
Hermione sighed with obvious exhaustion. She bends over her notes saying "I don't know where he found out about this device, but the problem is that Dumbledore's library contradicts itself repeatedly on this topic. One book says that the device was used to trick victims into sacrificing themselves to the Dark Arts. This book says that the device was designed to help the Goblins win the war in 1354. The only fact that these books agree on is that the first real sighting of this thing happened in 1066. The Normandy invasion and its confusion caused the records of the device to fail. The next reliable recorded sighting was when the Spanish King Philip sent the Armada to invade England, after that it showed up again when Napoleon was making an effort to destroy the British mainland……"
Harry interrupted "Is it just me, or does this device reveal itself only when the British magical nation is threatened with destruction?"
Hermione's head shot up in surprise "What!?!"
"Yes, the Time Savior only appears when the British magical culture is in danger of disappearing. It was built by Merlin when he failed to stop Grorgeal from using Morgan to destroy Camelot." Intoned Ron, the third member of the Golden Trio, floating thru the wall and settling in the middle of the room. Both of the living members of the Trio were glad that Ron's ghostly form was from before he was Imperioed and not the ragged form that he was when he died.
"Wait Ron, Merlin beat Grorgeal and freed Morgan, didn't he? I remember that much from History of Magic, I actually liked that part of the class. If Professor Bimms had told us more about Merlin and other great wizards, then I might have stayed awake longer than I did. All those Goblin Rebellions put me to sleep and ticked me off. The Goblins deserved respect and should never have had to fight to earn it." Asked Harry as he went to give Hermione a shoulder message to try to lessen the stress there.
Hermione looked at Harry with gratitude and love in her eyes. "Yeah Ron, Merlin freed Morgan and then went to kill Grorgeal. He never failed and Camelot never was destroyed. What are you talking about?" 'Harry, do you think that Ron's mind is ok? He was insane before he killed himself.' Sent Hermione towards Harry thru the bond that they had built before their wedding almost 3 years ago.
'No idea, 'Mione. I saw the Imperous curse breaking just before he took the gun off you and used it on his own heart. I think he knew that he wouldn't stay free for long, so he made his choice. Also, the fact that he was the one to kill Luna made him believe that he deserved to die.' Replied Harry in the same manner, to Ron "What does this device do? How do YOU know about it? And what use is it to us?"
Ron looked like he would have a red face from frustration. With an obvious effort to control his temper, he spat "This device, the Time Savior, allows a powerful," points at Harry "or an intelligent" points at Hermione "witch or wizard to send their souls back in time in an effort to save the magical community. Merlin sent me to offer it to you and to give you the information needed. The situation here is even worse than it was in Merlin's day. The Muggles are starting to notice the war and beginning to make preparations to fight the Death Eaters. If they do that, then they will enslave the magical community. If the British magical community is discovered, then the whole magical world will be discovered and taken over. Someone has to stop Voldemort before it is too late."
With that, Ron sinks down until only his head is above the floor, glancing at the couple who were squirming under his glare.
"If we had some backup, we would go and raid the Riddle Manor and kill him. But we are still waiting for Madame Maxime to come back, or to see if there are any other survivors of either the DA or the Order that will help us."
"Harry" Ron looked like he would rather be anywhere but there "you and Hermione are the only surviving members of the DA and the Order. Hell, at the moment, you two are it when it comes to trained personnel with any experience past O.W.L. year. That is unless you want to count the Death Eaters, of course. The island is sealed off magically to any non-Muggle without a dark mark, so any foreign allies that you might have are never going to show up." Ron's ghostly face shows that he wishes that he wasn't the one to deliver the next bit of news. "Voldemort is right now living in Hogsmead waiting for you to leave the ground to apparate so he can kill you. He doesn't know about your phoenix form, either of you. I was able to keep that knowledge away from him, even if it cost me Luna's life and my own at the end. But it would be a fair trade if I can help the two of you stop him."
Both Harry and Hermione look with horror because of the sheer passion in his voice.
'Harry, should we do this? It sounds if Ron has lost his marbles.'
'But think a chance to go back and stop all those deaths. It is a gamble, but a very good one at that.' "Ok Ron, no offence but could you tell us how YOU know about it."
"Harry, Merlin met me on the other side and asked me if I wanted to stop all the deaths. I told him, of course. He touched my forehead and all the information was suddenly there. Then I turned around and showed up here in a state that would not frighten you. That is why I look like this and not how I looked when I died. I can tell you anything about the device that you want to know, just ask. This is a chance to stop everyone from dying the deaths that they didn't need to suffer. The only problem is the fact that the two of you will remember what happened and if Merlin is right, suffer from the occasional nightmare. That plus you would have to hide your knowledge if you wanted to stay free from profit-seekers."
Hermione took out a fresh piece of parchment and prepared herself to take notes. When she was ready, she asked "Ok Ron, what is required to use this Time Savior, how far back can it send someone, can it send all three of us back?"
"Dying is required to send one back, so I can't go with you. It can send you as far back as the time Harry received his scar. That is a pivotal temporal event, so it can't be changed."
For the first time in years the light of hope showed in Harry's eyes.
"You mean to tell me we can save Sirius, Lupin, and Dumbledore? We can save Ginny, Neville and Luna? And the rest of the Weasleys? And how do we have to die?"
At the mention of Luna, Ron's eyes seemed to gain both a shadow of remorse and a glaze of hope. "Yes, you will have the chance save us all, myself included. The method of death is something that I really don't want to tell you two about."
The two living voices chime "Why?"
"Because Merlin told me that it hurts worse than the Cruciatus Curse cast by Morgan La Fey herself. Because of the amont of pain involved and the fact that the memory of the pain goes back with the person in time might cause the person to go insane at the point of arrival. That is the reason you didn't go back, isn't it Professor Dumbledore? You know, back in the 1940s."
"Yes, the fear of going insane was the deciding factor against my usage of the Time Savior. It disappeared from this very school after the Allies successfully pulled off the D-Day invasion. Before that I had planned to use it if things got really bad or if there was little hope of the war ending on the side of the Light." Albus Dumbledore responded from his portrait on the wall behind Hermione.
"You mean you of seen this artifact before it showed up here last night Professor Dumbledore? You know what it takes to use this thing? What powers it?"
"Hermione, the magic that is in the user that is released at death powers the artifact and it uses a soul draining knife to remove your soul from your body to send the soul back in time. That simple stabbing causes the consciousness that is transported back to run the risk of inducing insanity in the less experienced mind are you willing to risk it? Another thing, Ron, the nightmares would be at least twice a week if not more frequent."
The two living people looked at the representations of the two wizards and then at each other. The scraping of quill on parchment was the only sound heard in whole office. Harry places his hand on his wife's to stop the writing and looks her straight in the eyes, looking for hope, horror or whatever the offer of going back would bring.
"How far can this artifact send us? I mean, it would be fairly useless if we were sent back only one year, wouldn't it? And how far away from past selves can we be from our point of death? And would 'Mione and me still have the bond, because I can't see ever living in silence again I would go insane. And just how much can we change?" asked Harry in tone that showed just how desperate his heart had truly become. "And if we go far enough back, will I have to return to the Dursleys again? Because I can't see myself ever returning there unless I had something to keep me sane in that hell after knowing what love is."
"And I can't send him into that environment alone. Harry is my husband, my lover, and my best friend. I can't just send him back to a place that caused him so much pain and scarring. It has been nine years since the three of us left that house, and he is still suffering from the abuse they piled on him. There are still times when he will flinch away when I reach to touch him because of them never showing him any affection."
"What do you mean, Hermione?"
"Ron, Harry never knew the difference between the motions of a hug and a slap. He never saw the former and the latter was seen all too frequently by his eyes and his body Ron. They nearly broke him after our second year, remember? If you had not rescued him, he would have been broken and nowhere near capable to keep the knife away from his own wrist." At this Harry straightens up and opens his mouth, but "And don't you dare deny that Harry, I have seen the scars you bare, both from them and the ones that YOU put on yourself!! I refuse to let you return to that if we go far enough. Just how far back are you thinking of sending us, Ron? Because anything more recent than our fourth year and that Triwizard tournament would be wasteful, don't you think?"
Both men, the living and the ghost, looked at each other with panic in their eyes at the sheer ferocity flashing in Hermione's eyes.
"Harry, she's your wife. You calm her down, would you please?"
"Ron, answer her question, how far back can we go with this thing?" snarled an obviously impatient Parselmouth.
The ghost of Ron Weasely did what neither of the Potters thought was possible; he paled to a point that he was nearly invisible. To any other ghost, it would have been something to gossip about, but no ghost saw this strange occurrence.
"To be completely honest, no one knows. Merlin designed the Time Savior to send the user back to a time when it thinks that the most could be done to change events. The only thing Merlin told me was that you can't change major temporal events, so Harry; you HAVE to receive that scar. Sorry man, no way around it. If I had to make a guess, I would say sometime in our third year."
The portrait on the wall raised his eyebrows and asked "Why your third year? What happened then that would have changed all that has happened since?"
"Wormtail. If we stopped him from escaping then, he would have never been able to bring Riddle back to life using my blood. We would have the opportunity to gather the Horcruxes and avoid the hunt. That would have the added bonus of not having the Weasely wedding attacked and maybe save your sister's life, Ron."
"Ok, Harry, Hermione, are you willing to go back in time?" asked the portrait and the ghost at the same time barely audible because of the sudden hammering on the words surronding the fallen school.