A/N: I'm super sorry for the delay! In my bad defence, making up a time-travel plot that zig-zags paradoxes is harder than it sounds. Or maybe I just don't get this timey-wimey stuff.

"…dad?"

"Mr. Potter? Mr. Potter!"

"James, what did you do!"

"Daddy!"

"Oh no no no, where are we?!"

"Dad, DAD!"

…sweet Merlin, his chest. Harry groaned then winced at the movement, eyes shut tight and shouts ringing in his ears. It felt like a bludgeoning charm had hit him. Or a herd of hippogriffs. Things were black, though, so that was nice.

"Daddy daddy daddy!"

"Dad, can you hear me!?"

Someone was shaking him. Multiple someones. He opened his mouth to tell them to shove off and let him die in misery, when the voices properly hit. His kids were shouting. They were scared. Suddenly, the confusion and pain didn't matter. Not when his children were terrified.

Harry prided open his eyes, fighting against the blurriness and struggling to sit up. What he first saw were his kids kneeling over him—worried but unharmed. Scorpius was there too, next to Albus, looking the most concerned of them all. What happened? His mind was foggy. They'd been in the living room, he remembered that. Then James…something about James. Who was also now looking at him in horror.

He glanced around, bewildered. This wasn't his house. This wasn't his living room. It was familiar in a way, like a faint, morbid scratching in the back of his head.

"Are," Harry coughed, struggling to get his breath, "are any of you hurt?"

"Just you, Mr. Potter. Sir." Scorpius said with an unnecessary wave at his chest. "The time-turner exploded against you, so I guess—"

"I'm sorry! Genuinely, honestly sorry." James was ruffling his hair, an odd nervous note in his voice. "You're going to ground me? Hey, that's cool. But I'm sort of maybe panicking here about what the hell happened—"

"Have you seen this room?" Lily's words flowed over the others. Having determined that her dad wasn't about to die, she'd turned her attention to more important things. "Ooo, it's brimming with magic! Those trinkets look like fun."

"No playing with the creepy looking things!" Albus said, voice raising in pitch and volume. "Scorp, stop calling my dad 'sir'! James, shut up! Dad, are you okay!?"

Harry had fallen silent at the kids' exclamations. Everything had come rushing back at the mention of the time-turner. Because, he recognised this room. He knew the objects, armchair, the molting carpet: they had to get out.

"I'll be fine. Lily," at Harry's tense tone the overlapping voices halted, "all of you, don't touch anything. Scorpius, you said the time-turner was destroyed. Are you sure it's gone?"

"Yes sir. Sorry sir."

"Lovely." Harry winced, trying to properly stand with his aching body. "James, give me a hand. Albus, Scorpius? Search around for the time-turner, to be sure. Lily, there should be floo powder in the red pot on the fireplace. I need you to get it for me."

"How do you know—"

"You said not to touch—"

"KIDS, NOW." Harry gritted out against the pain, trying to inspect the room more closely. It was darker than he remembered, grimmer. Not much looked like it'd been cleaned up. He could faintly hear voices coming from the kitchen—most of which he recognised with ease, nearly half of whom should be dead. "I can barely walk, let alone apparate us out. Lily, the floo!"

The time-turner must have taken them back years. It sounded mad, but he knew it was possible. He'd been warned about it. But he'd been so sure his home office was safe…and had forgotten his kids were attracted to the most dangerous thing in the room. He shoved this and his growing panic away, because they were stuck somewhere in time. They had no way to get home and Grimmauld Place hadn't been renovated yet. Albus Dumbledore was in the next room.

They had to leave. They had to leave right now.

"I need the powder!" Harry straightened into a wobbling stand, eyes still squeezed shut against the pain. He barely kept his balance between James and the couch (Not his couch: the old, moth-bitten monstrosity that Sirius had lit on fire Christmas his fifth year). Faint laughter came from the kitchen. Even after all this time, he recognised Fred's and George's overlapping voices with ease. "The Leaky Cauldron, that's where we can go. Lily, where's the powder!"

"…dad?"

"We'll keep our heads down, figure out this mess." He tried to reassure himself as much as the kids. He didn't notice that everyone else had fallen deathly silent. "We'll get the hell out of Britain, at any rate! Hopefully the war hasn't exploded yet. But it'll be alright. We'll, we'll work out something."

"Dad," a murmur. Harry opened his eyes and saw James' serious gaze was locked on the doorway.

Harry followed the stare and felt his panicking mind go blank. Lily had never made it to the fireplace. She was floating, bundled tight in conjured ropes, and silently swearing as she tried to kick and bite her captor. Sirius Black had a wand at her throat. In any other circumstance, Harry would have been stuck on seeing his godfather: disheveled, breathing, alive. But there was a wand indenting his baby's neck.

Sirius stared back at them, glare lethal. "HOW DARE YOU! Sneaking in here, wearing the face of James Potter!"

Albus was the first to snap out of his shock, taking a furious step forward. "Let go of my sister, you bast—"

"Albus! Don't go nearer!" Harry shouted, not taking his gaze away from the wand pointed at Lily. "We don't want any trouble. Please let her go. This was an accident and I, I know this looks bad…"

"'Bad' doesn't begin to cover it," Sirius glared. "You're Wormtail, aren't you? The only one stupid enough to sneak in here like this, looking like that." He spat at Harry. "When I thought you could sink no lower."

Harry stared, Sirius' earlier words smacking into him. "I'm not James Potter."

"Of course you aren't, you filthy rat!"

"I mean I'm not pretending to be…that is…" Harry fumbled, thoughts a mess.

"Oh, oh wow." The actual James Potter (albeit the Second) gave a stifled choke, realisation dawning. "That's, is that—?"

"Uh," came Albus' faint voice, angry albeit confused, "maybe?"

"We are dead!" Scorpius moaned. "So absolutely dead. Mum's gonna kill me! We broke time!"

"Mmm MMMPPHHH!" Lily exclaimed, legs kicking furiously.

"All of you, SHUT UP!" Sirius roared, jerking his wand.

Then just when it couldn't possibly get worse, the cavalry burst through the door: wands in white-knuckled grips and gazes violent.

Oh no. No no no.

"Kids? No sudden movements." Harry raised his hands appeasingly, swaying on his feet. His chest was now more numb than anything, but he felt nowhere near up to defending all of them. He was also very much struggling to come to terms with this. "Or any movements. Don't say anything."

"WE COME IN PEACE!" Scorpius hollered, arms flung in the air. Albus groaned with his arms half-heartedly raised. James choked back a laugh, though was still eyeing his bound sister and her captor incredulously.

"Yeah, sure." Harry went along with it, doing whatever it took to get the wand away from his daughter. "Peace. As an olive branch? My wand is—"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Came five different cries. Their wands spiralled off and were nimbly caught.

"—up my sleeve. But you can disarm us, that's fine." Harry kept his arms raised. He tried to keep his mind focussed on getting the kids out of here in one piece and not on who, exactly, he was talking to. He could have a mental breakdown once they were safe. "We aren't Death Eaters, there was a mishap with a time-turner. We're not looking for a fight! You have my daughter tied up—"

"INCARCEROUS! WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"

Suddenly, all the time travellers were bound in thick ropes and floating. Harry swore as the ropes pulled at his wounds. The few members of the Order of the Phoenix seemed more satisfied, though he tried to ignore how weirdly alive some of them were. Though, Remus Lupin was white as a ghost. Albus Dumbledore didn't seem much better, and Severus Snape was as pale as ever. At least Molly and Arthur merely looked younger and more furious.

"Dad," James stressed, tugging against the ropes as he wiggled three feet off the ground, "dad."

"Not good, very not good!" Scorpius was muttering, staring aghast at Albus Dumbledore. "Is it just me or is that the Order of the—"

"QUIET! Everyone? It's fine. We should all calm down." Harry bit back his panic and the receding pain, keeping his voice as neutral as he could. He caught sight of the teenagers behind the adults and tried not to gawk at how tiny Ron and Hermione were. "You feel better having us tied up? I can't blame you, this is weird. It's fine."

"Dad!"

"DAD!"

"MMMMPPHH!"

"Sir! Sir, I don't think—"

"The ropes are fine," Harry stressed, gaze back on his squirming daughter, "and I'll answer any questions you have. With Veritaserum, Legilimency…you can interrogate me all you want and I won't resist! But these are children." An idea sparked. "We've made no move to attack you, hmm? We could've just popped in the wrong floo. How about you give us a gesture of good will. That's my daughter Lily. She's not even old enough for Hogwarts. Just get that wand away from her neck, that's all I'm asking for."

There was a thick silence. Wands were still drawn and fiercely pointed, but they swayed at his words. Molly Weasley seemed especially torn, glancing at the furiously (silently) screaming Lily with searching eyes. After another moment she nodded.

"Sirius," came Mrs. Weasley's belligerent call.

Sirius sent her a disbelieving look. "She isn't actually a child."

"Sirius!"

"You can't be buying this."

"Sirius Orion Black! She's tied up and harmless, you can take the wand away from her throat." At Molly's sabretoothed expression Sirius finally hesitated. At Dumbledore's slight nod the animagus relented.

"Calling her 'Lily'?" Sirius raged at Harry. Though, as he was sending her floating back to them, Harry almost didn't care. "You're a piece of work!" He turned to Dumbledore with a glint in his teeth. "Can I handle the interrogation? I'm sure there's thumbtacks somewhere in this place."

Harry didn't pay attention to the threat, too busy looking over his furious but unharmed daughter. She was still silenced, but he didn't overly mind this. Lily was the most likely of the kids to say something that wouldn't be taken well.

"As for you! 'Your children'?" Sirius strode forward, glaring daggers at Harry. "That's rich. The nerve of you, breaking in and impersonating James. You blasted rat!"

If he had a therapist, they'd have a field day with this. "Again, I'm not James Potter. Nor Wormtail. I…I'm uh…oh boy."

"How did you get in here?" Dumbledore's gaze was narrowed. "How did you come about this address?"

"How would we know!" James launched right back, shaken from his shock. "We were bloody well in our living room!"

"JAMES! All of you, not another word." Harry gave them a pointed look. He was quite possibly in shock, but held onto enough sense to know not to annoy the people with wands.

"Transfiguring Death Eaters to look like children," Sirius was musing with a dark grin, "not a bad idea. Horrifically executed. What, you think stealth means you should start shouting like banshees when you break in, and do this looking like a man long dead?"

"I'm, I'm not…" a headache thudded away. Harry cast aside the very horrible implications of this and pushed away the mental scarring to deal with later. He sought Albus Dumbledore's keen stare. "My name is Harry James Potter. These are my children and my son's friend. There was an accident with a time-turner and we didn't mean to come here! I promise you, I'd prefer to be basically anywhere else."

A stiff silence was followed by Sirius' incredulous laughter as well as chuckles from the others. Dumbledore's lips continued to thin.

"Your sister Ariana." Harry changed tactics, not thinking about anything but keeping them from being hexed. "You still feel an incredible amount of guilt about her. Maybe it's because you don't know if it was your spell that killed her, but I'm pretty sure it's because you weren't part of her life before she died. Aberforth's never forgiven you for either."

Dumbledore took a step back, stunned. Harry swallowed and shifted targets. "Snape, you're in love with my mum. Always have been. But you blame yourself for her death because of the prophecy and, as penance, protected me."

Severus Snape shifted from an angry scowl to shock, but Harry kept going.

"Molly, you've always kept Fabian's broken watch. Arthur, you're hiding most of your levitating car experiments from your family. Err, I'm sorry for spilling the beans."

"Remus," Harry paused at this pale face, thoughts flying to Teddy and dear Merlin his godson, "you've always thought your father knew too much about Fenrir Greyback. Your name's just a bit too on the nose." He tried to block out the hurt look the man sent him and wondered if he should have repeated Andromeda's musings.

"Ron, you're in love with Hermione. Hermione, you have nine in-depth plans to become Minister of Magic—ten, if you include the lousy one about flobberworms and banana peels. You're also in love with Ron, but you're stubborn and needed better proof than that." Harry swallowed and strode on. "George, Fred? You had a betting pool on if your sister would be in Slytherin. Not many bet against it." Ginny gave an indignant squeak at this. He glanced at her, paling as something hit him. He'd been inundated with so much else he hadn't fully grasped it until this moment.

Ginny. He didn't have a second time-turner. They had no way of getting back home.

The younger Ginny was staring at him, confused and lowering her wand. For a long moment Harry could only stare back, mind numb along with his chest. He missed his wife in all the details of this girl who wasn't her.

"Ginny," Harry's voice became softer, "my younger self reminds you of Tom." She gave a start, wide eyes frantically searching his. "It's okay! It's okay, really. That changes in the future. After you get to know me properly, that is." He forced on a smile. "It turns out, I'm nowhere near as suave as that git."

Ginny gave a nervous laugh. She stowed her wand away without hesitation.

"Did you just giggle?" James gaped at her. "This is too weird. Dad, dad! Did you see that?"

Albus sent his brother a look. "That's what you're focused on?"

"I'm a bit overwhelmed!" James said about the crowd, shaking his head. "Good thing Lily's silenced, or we might've actually been cursed by this lot."

"James," Harry gritted out. "There's a time and a place."

Albus sent an apologetic glance at his peeved sister. "He has a point. If she went on about fairy wings, fair enough. But if she started squealing about dark mag—"

"AL!" Good lord, his children. At least Scorpius had enough sense to shush. Though, seeing as how the boy was gaping at Dumbledore, maybe he was in shock. "We're back in time in July 1995. Could you not make them think we're Death Eaters? Things are bad enough."

Albus frowned. "July 1995?"

Scorpius started making pointed noises, flinging his head wildly between Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black. Harry was really starting to like the boy.

"Ooo," Albus said slowly. "Got it. Why July?"

"We're still in Grimmauld Place," Harry said dourly. "Pre-renovation. My younger self isn't here gaping at us, which he would be, but he only arrived at the start of August. Hold on, is it 25th July?" There wasn't any disagreement so he took it in stride. "Same as back home. We came back an exact number of years. Fan-bloody-tastic."

Dumbledore had overcome his surprise and was back to staring at him in grim suspicion. "This 'proof' is still—"

"You met Tom Riddle when he was a boy!" Harry knew he'd regret this later. But the stress of the situation added to a mound of unresolved feelings at seeing his old Headmaster in the flesh. The words burst out with little thought. "A lonely, misguided kid in an orphanage. Was he a psychopath? Sure, no doubt. But you've wondered, haven't you? If you hadn't been suspicious of his every move, if you'd even attempted to 'guide him to the light'? If his first introduction to the wizarding world hadn't been you setting his possessions on fire? Yeah, I know he bloody well stole the things. I know all of this because, in my past, you showed me memories of that meeting."

Dumbledore seemed more thoughtful. Sirius more furious. "Are you sympathising with that monster?"

Harry resisted cursing. "Poor choice of words, sorry. But honestly, could I say anything that would fully convince you?"

He was met with a mixture of contemplative and hardened stares.

"Which would be a no. Great." Harry cast aside any attempt at preserving the future: he'd surely already bungled that up. "How about Veritaserum. Or Legilimency. Only on myself, do you hear me! Whether you believe me or not, they're children. It isn't safe to use that on them."

"DAD—!"

"MMPH!"

"SIR!"

"All of you," Harry turned a stern gaze to the four protesting kids, "no matter what happens, are going to stay quiet and behave."

There were gulps (from Scorpius), grumbled agreements (from James and Albus), or muffled shouts (from Lily). Harry figured this was as good as he was going to get, especially as Dumbledore was nodding.

"Look at it this way." Harry was now tightly tied to a chair. The Order surrounded him while the other captured time-travellers remained bundled up in the air. The 'present' children had been tossed out of the room by the adults. Severus Snape looked overly eager and Harry was nervous he was about to be poisoned. "Either I'm lying or I'm not. If I'm a Death Eater, you'll find out soon enough. But if I'm telling the truth? Asking me detailed questions about the future is a very, very bad idea."

"That won't be a problem," Sirius said tightly as Snape brought out the Veritaserum (Harry hoped that was actually truth potion).

The time-travellers had already been searched. There had been some odd looks for the bezoar, knives, lockpick, Invisibility Cloak, back-up bezoar, transfigured wands, and minimised broomstick hidden in Harry's pockets and the sole of his left shoe. But it was nowhere near as bad as the looks his kids got. Compared to the mound of prank objects, magical candies, and quasi-illegal potions from the young Potters (as well as the salamander that had crawled out of Lily's sock), Scorpius' minimised books on quantum space and his assortment of colour-coded quick-quotes quills barely got a glance.

"It will be a problem!" Harry tried again, salvaging anything he could from this. His chest no longer ached but his nose was horribly itchy, and it was the repulsive cherry on top that he couldn't scratch it. He also felt bad for even thinking about this, but it was better than contemplating the unfolding disaster. He was also losing circulation in his arms. Sirius had taken a savage glee in tightening the ropes. "Let's say you find out I'm really me. Cheers. But that already tells you stuff, doesn't it? So you wouldn't want to ask me what I do for a living, or how the war turned out, or what the world looks like—"

"Would you shut up?" Sirius said irritably.

"—or who dies, because let's face it, you know some people must have died. Me talking about that could easily change the future. Which is what I don't want to do. I can't imagine anything worse, and since we came back all that's been running through my head is how insanely horrible it is to mess with time! …and how Hermione's going to kill me when we get back. And my wife. My wife is definitely going to murder me." Harry gave a plaintive glance around the room. "Actually, is Hermione or McGonagall here? No, okay. Dumbledore? Closed time loops: do you know if they're always a thing?"

"Not always a thing," Scorpius chimed in, sounding nervous. "Sorry, sir."

"Enough with the sirs!" was Albus' (the younger's) grumble.

"When aren't they a thing?!" Came Harry's slightly panic-driven voice.

"According to Croaker's Law," Dumbledore answered slowly, "going back further than five hours risks shifting the timeline."

Harry stared at him with newly budding horror. He was so distracted that he didn't protest Snape jabbing Veritaserum into his mouth. But then—the itchiness in his nose faded. His side no longer hurt and he couldn't feel the ropes. He sort of realised his eyelids were drooping and that his kids sounded annoyed (about something?), but it was all hazy. Thoughts slowed and lapsed over one another in dull chunks.

An angry Sirius Black came into view, mouth in a thin line. "What is your full name?"

His mouth and head were filled with cotton. The words came from somewhere, but he was only dimly aware of them. "Harry James Potter."

The shocked silence was only broken by the time travelling children's cheers. Sirius stared at Harry, unnerved.

"What," the older man swallowed and repeated the question, "what is your full name?"

"Harry James Potter."

"When were you born?"

"31st July, 1980."

Sirius paused before biting into the questions with a new fury, jerking back to life. "Who are your parents?"

"Lily and James Potter."

"Who's your godfather?"

"Sirius Black."

"Where did you grow up?"

"#4 Privet Drive, Surrey."

"When were you born?" Sirius snapped again.

"Sirius," Dumbledore stepped up, speaking over Harry's monotone response ("31st July, 1980"). He was as shocked as the rest, but was now eyeing the newcomers with delight. "There is no doubt as to the truth."

"Veritaserum can be overcome," Sirius said instead. His gaze held a hint of doubt when he glanced back at Harry.

"No, it cannot." Dumbledore knelt, coming to Harry's eye level while the latter sat unmoving. "Hello Mr. Potter, my apologies for all of this. But I do have a few further questions. You said there was an accident with a time-turner. What was it? Details are quite welcome."

"An experimental time-turner was brought to the Ministry by Draco and Astoria Malfoy," Harry said simply, not reacting to Scorpius' gasp. "It had the capacity to go back years and Mrs. Malfoy was concerned about having it. For safety, it was given to me and I locked it in my home office. My house is heavily protected, but I overlooked that my kids might get at it. James found it and, when he tried to give it back, the object was dropped and broke. Next thing I remember was waking up and being back in 1995."

"What date did the 'time-turner accident' happen in?"

"25th July, 2018."

"You were in Grimmauld Place when this accident occurred?"

"Yes."

"Are you positive that you were not moved through space as well as time?"

"I'm certain."

"How much do you know about the mechanics of the experimental time-turner?"

"Basically nothing."

"Does this altered time-turner exist in this time?"

"I'm not sure."

Dumbledore frowned. "What do you mean?"

The words continued to roll off Harry's tongue. "Lucius Malfoy possessed it from the start of the Second War against Voldemort, but I'm unsure how long before that he had it." He vaguely heard a yelp from Scorpius.

"When did the Second—no, no. Don't answer that." Dumbledore sat back, gaze contemplative. "You do not wish me to ask any personal questions or questions about the larger war?"

"Yes."

"Was it truly, wholly an accident that you travelled back in time?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea how to return to your home?"

"Wait it out, try not to change anything else, steal the time-turner from Lucius Malfoy as soon as possible, and erase the memories we need to in order to not alter the future. Though I'm pretty sure that'd create a paradox."

"It hasn't escaped my notice there seems to be a young Mr. Malfoy in your party." There was an audible gasp from Scorpius. "Who is he? You said he was your son's friend. Do you believe he could cause any harm to the Order of the Phoenix?"

"This is Scorpius Malfoy, Albus' best friend," was Harry's reply. "He's an innocent twelve year old who got swept into this. He's a good kid. He's no risk to anyone and is under my protection."

Dumbledore turned back to the Order, almost all of whom had pocketed their wands and were staring at the time-travellers in awe. "Does anyone have remaining doubts?"

Sirius snorted.

"I see." Dumbledore returned contemplatively to Harry, who hadn't so much as twitched. "What is something that would convince Sirius Black of your identity?"

The answer flowed out without thought or concern. "Sirius would occasionally, accidentally call me 'James' when I was a teenager. Whenever he did it he'd look at me like I was someone else. That's why I never believed he would adopt me." The confession came out on fluffy clouds, cotton still holding back any inhibitions. "Even if Sirius was freed, he wanted a best friend, not a son. Definitely not me. We're the only two people who know this for sure."

Sirius made a small noise, eyes round and wide. His wand arm fell limp as another thick silence hit the living room. Dumbledore dropped his eyes.

"Where's," Sirius said at last, gulping back a frog in his throat, "where's the antidote?"

The potion was fed to him and Harry blinked back to reality, tasting something fowl in his mouth. His stare locked on Dumbledore's, his thoughts sped back up, and the last few minutes came back to him. He closed his eyes, refusing to look at Sirius or the Order. "Great. Now that I've humiliated myself, do you believe us?"

"Harry…"

"Sirius, whatever it is, I'm not in the mood." Harry snapped his eyes back open and twisted around as best he could to check over the children. "Call me Wormtail another time, will you? All I need to know is if you believe us and if we can get out of these ropes."

Sirius closed his mouth, swallowing thickly. But he nodded at Dumbledore, stumbling back as he did so.

"Finite incantatem," Dumbledore mumbled, his wand waving over them. As the ropes fell away from Harry's hands, he couldn't help but stare at the Elder Wand.

Oh hell.

"So, no one's gonna attack us?" Scorpius asked as they were released. Harry shook his head, forcing himself back into the present: even if it was the wrong present.

"Don't question it," Albus hissed.

Harry stood shakily, looking over the kids. They seemed relatively in tact. He turned back to the impossible sight and forced a smile. "Hi," he told the mixture of dead and alive people, hoping he sounded cheerful, "I know this is weird. It's extremely weird for me too."

Everyone was staring at him. Severus Snape seemed either murderous or shocked, he wasn't sure which. Everyone else was merely gobsmacked.

"Harry?" Molly said in a tiny voice, hands at her mouth.

"Err, yeah." Harry coughed. He could barely acknowledge his future in-laws, let alone the rest of the impossible people. Best to nip this in the bud. "Everyone's agreed I am who I say I am? Great. To sum it up? I don't want to be here and I absolutely don't want my children here. So there's two options going forward. One: all of you agree to a memory charm and we flee Britain. Or two: all of you refuse a memory charm, and we still flee Britain."

The tiniest of plans was forming in his head, which perhaps he had the truth serum to thank. In this time, Lucius Malfoy might already have the experimental time-turner. So Harry could steal it, screw the paradoxes, and get them all home. It was likely to blow up in his face, but this was what he did best.

"Flee Britain?" Remus Lupin asked in a faint voice. Harry forced himself to look at him. Remus had kept quiet so far, and he now realised why: the man was white as a ghost. "Ha—Harry, why would you do that?"

Harry stared at him for a long moment, thoughts torn from the time-turner. Sure, he was mortified because he was talking to a dead person. But he also couldn't believe someone had to ask him that question. "…Remus. Hi. Long time no see. As to why I'm fleeing Britain? My kids are here. Little mini-humans I'm in charge of." He gestured at them, in case anyone had missed the clear fact. Albus waved awkwardly and James helpfully pointed at himself. "As much as I want to get us home, I mainly want to keep us alive."

Molly took a step forward before freezing, quivering as though she wanted to hug him. "But Harry—my word, Harry!—you are absolutely welcome here. You and the children, of course." She gazed at him with shining eyes. "You've gotten so tall! You look wonderful, dear."

"Thanks?" Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "This isn't anything personal, Britain's just far too dangerous right now. So we're going to grab some international portkeys and—"

"Perhaps," Dumbledore spoke up, "you could think about this overnight? This is a large decision to make impulsively."

Harry let out a low exhale. "This is about the least impulsive thing I've ever—"

"We could talk." Sirius seemed the most surprised at his words, or that he'd cut in. He met Harry's reluctant gaze. "You don't have to stay for ages. Believe me, I get not wanting to stay in this wreck of a house." He sent the smallest frown at Dumbledore. "But you lot could stay for a bit. We could chat. Clear the air, ya know?"

It was something in Sirius' tone that made Harry hesitate. He had no desire to drag all of this to the surface and he'd rather attack a Hungarian Horntail than have a 'heart-to-heart' with this man. But, still. It was Sirius Black.

"Dad?" Albus softly spoke. Harry berated himself—right, think of the kids, flee Britain. "We could stay overnight. Work out plans and stuff."

"Indeed." Dumbledore agreed. Albus flushed. "Might I also mention, we could discuss time magic and ways of getting all of you back to where you are meant to be. There's a particular item of note that we ought to do soon." He met the reluctant wizard's gaze, something like understanding therein. "I give you my word it will have nothing to do with the war. Short of you having knowledge of an attack on Grimmauld Place in the coming days, you have little to lose by momentarily staying put."

…he was absolutely being manipulated by Albus Dumbledore. Again. It was a shame the older wizard made so much sense. Harry glanced over the kids. "What do you guys say?"

"I vote Siberia!" Scorpius said in a panic, waving his hand.

"I vote New York," Lily said quickly. "I so don't wanna be in the UK. Can we mess with MACUSA by pretending to be seers?"

"Siberia or New York, sure. But absolutely no to the last part. MACUSA's terrifying." Harry answered at once. He turned to his boys. "How about you two?"

James shifted. "I get that my vote should maybe not count. But I'm totally for staying in Britain. We could always memory charm people—err, sorry people. There's nothing too dangerous here for awhile, I think?"

Harry remembered being attacked by dementors. "Right," he said doubtfully.

"I'm also voting to stay here. Sorry Scorp." Albus shrugged. "Grimmauld Place is pretty safe?"

It was sort of safe, which Harry hated to admit. He turned to the Order. "I guess I'll break the tie. If you'll have us, we'll stay the night. But just the night! I do want to figure out the time magic nonsense."

Molly beamed.

"Excellent, I'm glad that's taken care of. Now, we do have a little bit of time, I believe." Dumbledore glanced at his pocket-watch. "I'll give you a few minutes to get your bearings," the Headmaster finished kindly.

Harry stared at him blankly as the older wizard ushered the Order towards the door, though only a few exited. Snape darted out with a scowl and backward glances. Molly and Arthur stayed, talking softly to Dumbledore. Sirius looked back and forth before ultimately staying, though he patted Remus' shoulder as he rushed from the room.

Harry frowned at the last, wondering if it was near a full moon. Then again, he wanted to race away from time travel as well. Speaking of 'time', what had Dumbledore been on about?

'We have time before what? And "to get your bearings"?' Harry thought in disbelief. 'I'll get those bearings and shove it up his—"

Harry took a deep breath, trying to calm down. This was pretty much the worst time to face his lingering issues with Dumbledore. Besides, he had more pressing things to worry about. He turned to the kids, only to find they'd been staring at him. Apparently they'd been waiting to speak 'in private', because a rush of sound met him:

"We are so screwed!" Scorpius moaned to Harry, to the air, to a befuddled Albus (the younger). "We need to be in Siberia! Mr. Potter, tell me we aren't screwed!"

They were absolutely screwed. Harry diplomatically didn't answer and tried to give off a reassuring look.

"Holy Dumbledore, Holy Dumbledore!" Lily's hands were over her mouth and she was practically vibrating. "We cannot stay here, 'kay? That was actually the—and they cursed us—and daddy do you know who else is alive? Though that one's not good at all, because oh my god DAD! I wanna be a Dark Lord, not fight a Dark Lord!"

Harry internally cursed, only just catching himself before he said it aloud. Because she was right. That is, Lily was hardly ever 'right', she was vaguely psychotic. But Tom Riddle was alive, all his Death Eaters were here, and did he mention that Lord Voldemort wasn't in a shallow grave?

Albus was looking at him oddly. "Soo, I know there's a lot of other things. Because Lily's right and that's terrifying. But what were you saying about Sirius Black? Because, uh? Also, was that…did Severus Snape just…and was that Teddy's dad?"

Nope. Harry wasn't answering any of that either.

"Forget about that Al! Lils actually has a good point. And Scorpius might be right." James seemed exceedingly nervous. "Dad? I am beyond sorry. This got all messed up and, gah! I didn't mean to resurrect Voldemort, I swear!"

Finally, this was something Harry could answer. "You didn't mean to?" he said in a soft voice, quieting all the kids at once. "You didn't mean to steal a dangerous time-turner, then bring it to your younger siblings?"

James paled. "Dad, I swear I—"

Harry looked at the ceiling for patience. "You're smarter than this! How could you do this?"

"I—"

"Never mind, we'll deal with that later." Harry cut in brusquely, turning back and addressing all of the children. "Kids? This is a horrible situation, I can't lie. I'll figure out some way to get us home, but I don't know what will happen. Either way? You'll all be safe. I don't care if a war's raging out there." He looked at Scorpius, expression further softening. "Scorpius, I can't apologise to you enough; I had no idea you'd be near the time-turner. I'll try everything I can to get you back to your family. Until then? You're part of ours, and we'll all make it through."

He turned to the lingering and curious adults "You said that 'we have time'," Harry addressed Dumbledore. "Well, we're back in time. The only thing I want to get to is decades from now. Why're you in a rush?"

Dumbledore looked at him with a small smile. "I'm afraid I cannot help with tossing you forward decades. However, there is another brand of time magic we ought to quickly pursue."

Harry stared at him, waiting a long beat. Though it was Sirius who piped in. "Well? What is it!"

The Headmaster took another glance at his pocket-watch. "I believe," he mused, "we have roughly four and a half hours to set up a closed time loop. Best get moving, I say."

If Harry ever got out of this situation, he was never touching magical theory or barmy artefacts again. Let Hermione get bogged down with riddles.

A/N: J.K. Rowling put in multiple time travel theories into her series. This is typically frowned on (for obvious reasons), but I'm taking full advantage of it. Prisoner of Azkaban heavily implied that only closed time loops could exist. Cursed Child incredibly implied that the butterfly effect's king: that any minor change to the timeline creates chaos. Rowling tried to patch this up by saying that any time travel 5 hours or less could create a closed time loop; anything more creates an alternative timeline.

I'll ramble more about my own time theories in later chapters, but for now? These two rules leaves a loophole that this fanfic will be taking full advantage of. It's this question: what happens if you create a closed time loop immediately before the time you arrive far in the past?