When Harry woke up again, Ron was once again sleeping next to him. The sight of his friend sent the memories of the past few hours rushing back through Harry's head. What had Sirius said again? Didn't you learn this in that orientation Hermione was talking about yesterday? That's right. He was meant to have gotten an education… And it turned out Hermione didn't just read all the things that Ron knew from growing up with magical parents, and she didn't just automatically understand everything the textbooks were "building off". In hindsight, it was actually kind of obvious. And while it was, you know, painfully embarrassing that Harry had never noticed, at least it proved that he wasn't completely stupid in all areas, they'd just forgotten to sign him up for a class. And with that same hindsight, from the future, there was the question of whether or not this had all been a manipulation from Dumbledore. Probably actually.
It was curious how after only 3 hours, the past seemed to be changing. What would happen if Harry changed it so much it became unrecognisable? What if more people ended up dying? What if more survived? Harry didn't know how long he lay there, staring at the ceiling, questioning what exactly he could do without changing things too much. The battle in the ministry had to happen, the people had to know the truth, but at the same time, Sirius couldn't die. For the wellbeing of everyone at Hogwarts, including the teachers, Umbridge had to go. But hopefully so would Professor Trelawney. That last one wasn't important.
Harry should probably learn what all the muggleborns had APPARENTLY all learnt at age 11, and what all the other kids had learnt since early childhood. He was tempted to grab a sheet of parchment to write this all down, but on the off chance that someone walked in, I'd probably be safer to keep it in a charmed journal and write in a safe location. A newspaper headline of BOY WHO LIVED CLAIMS HE IS FROM THE FUTURE - WHAT WILL THE ATTENTION SEEKING MENACE DO NEXT was not exactly on Harry's plan. It was around then that Mrs. Weasley walked in, "Get up! Breakfast was made 20 minutes ago!"
Harry jumped up immediately, eager to get his thoughts off possible futures that could end with everyone dead. Ron didn't move.
Mrs Weasley just yelled again, "Ronald Weasley! Wake up right now, it's 9 o'clock."
Ron just mumbled, "It's the holidays."
Maybe this wasn't the best move as a friend, Harry ran out of the room.
In his defence, he had been waiting in bed for… an unknown period of time, because he had quite honestly forgotten how long he slept at that age, and was just waiting for someone to "wake him up." It was surprisingly boring to think of all the ways he could mess up in his trip of doing everything again.
He rushed into the kitchen to see practically everyone already around the table, with their plates in the sink. Lovely, so he could have left the bedroom an hour ago.
"Late start today Harry?" Hermione said. She looked… Happy about this for some reason. And not because she was teasing him. It was something else. Suddenly, it clicked, she was WORRIED. She was happy that he hadn't woken up early again.
And that was why he didn't sleep in as much as Ron did at this age wasn't it. Combined with the Aunt Petunia scheduling. He quickly sat down and just grabbed an apple.
"Um…why is everyone still here?" he asked.
Remus smiled, "We have a meeting soon. We thought we'd stay here while we waited for the others to arrive, you and Ron could have some company while you ate."
Harry's gaze dragged along the people at the table, all staring at him. "Sorry Remus," he said, "I think all you've achieved is making everyone really weirded out."
"Well we could take advantage of it, right Harry? Ask some questions?" Hermione said.
Harry felt a bit like Hermione was leading him around, but then again, it was probably a bit necessary. Harry kind of knew the main focus of the Order of the Phoenix now, the prophecy, but he still had more questions, like, "Why aren't you doing anything publicly?"
He'd asked this before. The answer had seemed fine then, but he hadn't realised how many lower ranking order members there had been. Sirius began telling him the exact same thing he'd said last time, when Harry interrupted, "There aren't very many wizarding people, and they're all extraordinarily gullible. Couldn't you just fake Voldemort being back publicly."
Mr Weasley looked at Harry in shock. "Harry, that's exactly what they're accusing you of doing."
"So?" Harry said. "That doesn't matter. You don't have to hurt anyone. Just shoot up dark marks. Do minor property damage in muggle areas, and then volunteer to fix them in two seconds with magic. Get Mundungus to terrify people, pretend to be working for Voldemort. If there's enough 'evidence' and you report it in various newspapers without saying it's Voldemort, people will put the 'pieces' together."
Mr Weasley still looked horrified, "Why would you do that?!"
Snape's voice came from the door, "As much as I am loath to admit it, Potter has a point. If people believe there is a threat, they will try to attack it. We might truly be the source of mild terror, but the general population might find the true threat in their searches."
Well that was awful. Harry's only support, Severus Snape. What a lovely concept.
Sirius piped up, "Well now I have to agree with Snivillus, which is obviously a travesty, but my godson has a point. It isn't possible for us to win this war alone, and the people clearly aren't just going to believe what Harry says, we need evidence, even if it isn't real."
Well that was better, in terms of who was supporting him. Hermione began to support Harry's idea too, which was nice, even if she had even less say in the matter than Harry. Some of the older Weasley's began arguing too. Saying that, "This was exactly the behaviour the government was accusing them of, and it made what they were saying true."
In return, Harry said, "No, see they're accusing me of being attention seeking, this is for the greater good."
The room froze.
Tonks piped up, "I think this is just a Slytherin vs Gryffindor thing isn't it?"
Harry's heart skipped a beat, but he just said, "Um… there's only one Slytherin here."
Tonks rolled her eyes, "Thinking wise, Harry. The Weasley's are very traditionally Gryffindor usually, they want to fight. They want Voldermort to get out there so they can spell him in the face. That's what you're usually like."
"Hang on a minute - " Harry said. Tonks pressed a finger over his lips.
"You can argue later. The point is, what you just suggested, that's just manipulating the people. And Sirius Black might have defected, but that doesn't change who he was raised by. And I think we've all heard about Hermione Granger, and her 500 goals in life."
Harry just stared in shock.
"Mum and Dad talk about this a lot. The point is, your moral boundaries are at different spots. Some of you are prioritising the end goal, keeping the general population safe, some are prioritising not lying to innocent civilians."
Harry just rolled his eyes, "See, went you phrase it like that, lying to everyone makes a ton more sense. The government is always lying to everyone. I know it's annoying for us, but you can't deny it's effective."
"Harry," Tonks sighed, "What you just said is entirely a Slytherin idea."
Snape was looking vaguely confused in the corner, "I brought up this idea a month ago. Everyone said it was gross, wrong and immoral."
Immediately a cacophony of sound erupted. Harry screamed, "You know what, ditch that plan," with Sirius shouting beside him, "Because it was you suggesting it."
Similar phrases were echoed around the room.
Tonks screamed on top of all of them, "But clearly no-one has their priorities set straight. Severus Snape is a dick. We shouldn't throw this idea in the bin because of it."
Then Ronald Weasley walked into the room, his mother close behind.
He looked at the overwhelming chaos, "What is happening?"
Harry grinned almost maniacally, "I suggested something, we had an argument, but it turned out Snape suggested it around a month ago, so now we're all shitting on Snape and Tonks seems to be the only mature person here."
Ron looked to Hermione, who had just planted her head on the table. Harry shrugged, "Maybe her too."
Then the doorbell rung.
The room went silent.
Remus sighed, "I'll get that."
People awkwardly looked at each other in the silence that followed.
Eventually, Harry said, "I still think I was right."
Groans sprung up around the room.
Ron whispered in Harry's ear, "What did you say?"
Harry said back, "I suggested we faked Death Eater attacks to convince people that Voldemort was alive."
Ron looked blankly at Harry.
The boy out of time sighed, "That's what half the people at this table looked like when I said that too. It makes sense!"
It was then that Dumbledore and Remus entered the room. This was surprising only because Dumbledore usually came in with a dramatic entrance all perfectly timed. Harry supposed it'd be awkward if Dumbledore had to ask Remus to wait until the perfect moment to walk in.
Dumbledore looked around, before he said, "I understand that the children have been allowed in the meetings, however due to the nature of what we'll be talking about, I'd like all the students to leave the room. Whoever is in charge of them while they are here can make the decision of whether or not to tell them."
Harry found that he couldn't remember a meeting like this, but he couldn't have changed that much in the past morning. Had there been any strange mornings in Grimmauld Place? He was struck with a memory of Mrs Weasley meeting Dumbledore one morning, before hurrying all the kids into a room they were told to clean. Fred and George had spied on the meeting and refused to tell anyone else what they'd heard. At some point in the evening, Harry had heard Sirius and Mrs Weasley yelling at each other. He didn't remember what the date had been, or even what day of the week it was, but that must have been it.
He sat in his room and called out to Ron, "Want to explore the house?!"
Ron grinned, "Yes!"
They hurried to Hermione's room and didn't bother knocking on the door just opening it.
"Mione, we're looking around the house!"
Hermione looked at them blandly, "Ginny is right here."
Ron just nodded, "I am aware!"
Harry decided, in that moment, that future Hermione really was right, Ron did have the emotional range of a teaspoon.
Harry sighed, "Ginny can come too."
Ron's sister looked up from her book, and despite Harry's almost stalkerish obsession with her while he was on the run, he felt nothing. That wasn't to say he disliked her, in fact everything that he liked about her, he still liked about her, he just… didn't particularly feel anything romantic. Huh.
Anyway, Ginny said, "I do NOT want to hang out with my brother for the next hour, Hermione, you can go without me."
Hermione stood up, looking vaguely guilty, before leaving with the two boys. As they walked the halls of Grimmauld Place, commenting on strange decorations and almost vomiting at decapitated elf heads, Harry was struck by the realisation that the locket was probably still in this house. Trying to be casual, Harry said, "I think I saw a room with a ton of weird artefacts upstairs."
Ron's eyes lit up, Hermione looked sceptical, "I think this is what Tonks meant by you being reckless."
Harry just walked off, flipping Hermione off in the process.
"Rude!"
"You're walking with me aren't you?"
"Shut up! My need for social interaction has nothing to do with you specifically."
Laughter bubbled out of Ron as he hurried ahead, "I think I know the room you're talking about Harry. Don't worry Mione, I don't think it's dangerous, there was a lot of cutlery."
Harry adopted a spooky voice, "Who knows Ron, the teacups might break into shards and rain on top of you, cutting you until you bleed out."
Everyone looked around at each other.
"Too far Harry," Ron said, "Too far."
Harry rolled his eyes, "K. Oh look, we're here."
As Hermione commented on family mottos, and weird ass jewellery, Harry slipped his hand into a glass cabinet and pulled out a locket with an S on it. He slipped it into his pocket, and then merged back into conversation.
As they walked out of the room, Harry saw a painting of the Black brothers. They looked around 7 and 5 and while they both were dressed like Draco Malfoy, they looked more affectionate than Draco Malfoy had probably ever looked in his life. Well, maybe with the exception of his relationship with his mother. But ANYWAY, the two brothers were squeezed tight next to each other, Regulus kept on getting distracted by something Harry couldn't see and Sirius was getting progressively more and more nervous, trying to keep his brother still, and then the portrait restarted. A portrait imbued with less magic than a magically developed photo. Yet it captured the tragedy of the separation of brothers. Sirius had never known what Regulus did. He ought to.
