Merlin's Portal and the Tales of Time
Author's Note: Wow! You like this story, huh? It was an experiment, I didn't know if I would continue, but I guess I will, thanks for all the nice things you said!
Disclaimer: If I was J.K. would I be writing fanfiction? Heck no! I'd be wallowing in my piles of money and writing the NEXT HP book for all us loyal HPFREAKS!
Chapter Four
James was sitting on the couch, looking into the fire. "Uhm...can we sit here?" Ron asked hesitantly. James glanced up...Ron and Hermione were standing over him, looking at him expectantly.
"Oh, yeah, sure." He turned back to the fire as they sat down. After a long moment he asked, "Have you ever seen things...like, things from the past?"
"What?" Ron looked at him. "No, not really. Why?"
"In Divination, what happened...I was seeing Remus, and Sirius and them, and they were talking to my...well, you know. Harry. I don't know how, but I saw it."
Hermione looked at him strangely. "You...you saw him? Do you think it's because you're connected somehow, what with the portal?"
James shrugged and leaned back. "I don't know. All I know is I'm going to try and see if I can somehow communicate with him. Maybe if we can do that, we can figure out a way to make it so we change time..."
Looking nervously at him, Hermione shook her head. "I don't know, it seems pretty dodgy."
James stood suddenly. "Listen, I'm not going to die and my best friend isn't going to jail. So don't try and convince me not to do what I'm going to do...if it changes the future, we can deal with it, but I am not going to just stand by and let things happen!"
"Okay..." Hermione looked down at the floor. Calming, James sat back down, brooding.
"So...Quidditch season starts soon." Ron said, ready to change the conversation. "Harry's supposed to be captain, know. So you'll be taking his place...he's a seeker, though..."
James looked up. "Seeker? I can't play seeker. I'm a chaser."
"I know." Ron sighed. "My sister Ginny is reserve seeker, she'll take his place. We have an empty spot on the team...the beaters are Seamus and Dean, from our dorm, and the other chasers are Colin Creevey, a sixth year, and his brother Dennis, a fifth year. I'm keeper."
"Really?" James grinned. Ron's tactics appeared to have worked. "That's great...I can't wait to get started. What type of brooms do you have now?"
"Well, Harry has the best type of broom in the world, but he took it back in the past with him. So I guess you can get a Nimbus Extreme, unless you want to shell out a hundred fifty galleons for a Firebolt."
"What? That must be some broom." James sighed. "Just thinking about a broom that costs that much makes me dreamy..."
Hermione shook her head. "Quidditch obsessed...like father, like son."
James turned to her and grinned. "Hey, I wouldn't have it any other way."
************************************************************************
James yawned as he sat down at the breakfast table. "Pass the salt, will you?" he muttered wearily. He blindly thanked the person that handed him the salt and dug into his breakfast.
"Morning." Hermione said cheerfully as she sat beside him.
"Yeah...okay." James muttered back. Hermione frowned.
"Not a morning person, are you?" she asked. James just moaned and took a large swig of pumpkin juice.
"Hello." Ron walked over. Having seen the previous exchange, he didn't direct the greeting to James but to Hermione. She smiled at him.
"Good morning, Ron." She sighed. "Can you believe that it's going to be our first potions class of our last year this morning?" she said.
"Yeah...no more Snape after this year." Ron said happily. "It'll be like a lifelong vacation."
James spat out his juice and looked up. "We have Snape this morning?" he said, now wide-awake.
"Yeah. Actually, it's a double period, we have it till lunch."
"Oh...great." James said, shaking his head. "This is going to be fun."
"Uhm...you aren't going to try anything, are you James?" Hermione hissed, looking around. "I mean, he can take points from you now. He..."
"Listen, I know Snape." James said evilly. "Trust me."
"Yeah...that'll be the day." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
They made their way to the dungeon slowly, bypassing the Slytherins. When they got there, the classroom was mostly empty. Snape looked up sharply as James sat, Ron and Hermione on either side of him. "Potter..." he hissed. "Amazing...how little things change over the years."
"Are you kidding?" James snorted. "You look like hell, man. What've the years done to you?" Then, as if in a spurt of sudden realization, James smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh, sorry chap, I forgot, you always did look like the rear of a troll. Well, then, perhaps things don't change."
"Enough!" Snape snarled, slamming a fist on the table. "Ten...no, twenty points for disturbing a teacher."
Hermione clapped her hand over James' mouth as he opened. "No...let that one go, you hear me?"
James sighed as she took her hand away. "And it was the perfect opportunity, too." James said with regret.
************************************************************************
"What classes do we have today?" Harry yawned as he sat down at the table.
"A late sleeper, aren't you?" Lily chortled. "Breakfast started a half- hour ago."
Harry shrugged, unwilling to answer. The truth was, he hadn't slept much the night before, and hadn't gotten deep into sleep until just before dawn. The nightmares, it appeared, weren't getting any better...and if they wouldn't go away twenty or so years in the past, Harry didn't know where he'd have the pleasant absence of their nightly torture.
"We have Muggle Studies." Remus said, glancing up.
"Oh, really?" Harry glanced at his schedule. "I've never had it before. I took Divination."
"I wish I had." Sirius said forlornly. "I was forced to take Muggle Studies because Remus and Lily said I needed to 'challenge' myself. Too tell the truth, I think I would have been perfectly challenged in Divination."
"Come on." Lily snorted. "You do nothing in that class. Repeat after me...nothing."
"Exactly." Sirius grinned as Lily tossed a crust of toast at him, which he caught in his mouth and spat out on his plate.
"Good dog." She said absently.
Harry only managed to get a few bites of sausage before the owls swooped down from overhead. This was another thing Harry missed...Hedwig. Unlike his trunk, he couldn't exactly have shrunk her. He only hoped that she had somehow gotten somewhere safe.
But as he glanced up, he saw a large package heading his way. He gasped and scooted back when the package landed before him on the table. "What's this?" he said in wonder. Sirius snorted.
"It's your mommie's care package...well, actually it's your grandmum's. She sends one to James every two weeks."
"What's it got?" Harry asked.
"Toothbrush, sweets, soap, and sweets, a fresh change of knickers, and then there are the sweets..."
"Stop thinking about it Sirius." Lily commanded. "You're drooling."
After running the package back up to his dormitory, Harry started walking down the long hallway to the Muggle Studies classroom. He wasn't worried overmuch about this class, seeing as how he had spent ten years of his life plus every summer since in a muggle home, but it still made him slightly nervous to walk in and suddenly see a television sitting on the desk...such a thing seemed so out of place within Hogwarts that it was like being sucked out of a dream into reality.
"What?" he said suddenly, glancing over. "Snape has this class?"
"Yeah..." Remus said in disgust. "He's the only Slytherin that even takes the class. Don't know why."
"Probably to make muggle-torturing easier later on when he gets his after- school job." Sirius said with irritation.
They sat down in the back, in the farthest corner possible, and Lily showed him the way the four had devised to talk in class (Peter hadn't taken Muggle Studies, and in fact had taken Divination). Under each desk was a small platform used to set one's books on. It had quickly been discovered that, by placing the note on this platform, one could perform a levitation charm and retrieve a letter without the teacher being any the wiser.
Harry talked for the first half-hour of class this way, but soon the night caught up with him and he became quite drowsy. He slipped away and in a moment some very familiar voices came to him.
'Sorry sir, I didn't mean to spill my Transmogrifying Tonic on Malfoy, it slipped...'
'Potter, I will see to it you are severely punished for this...I recognize your antics when I see them.' Snape said icily.
'Look what you've done now." Hermione said nervously. 'James, please, be more careful...'
'Yeah,' Ron chided, 'though it was funny to see Malfoy's head swell to twice its size...'
Harry jerked up suddenly, realizing who the voices belonged to. He glanced around the room quickly, but it was as it had been when he dozed off. The teacher continued droning on and on, and a note in front of him loudly proclaimed that, "SIRIUS BLACK, REMUS LUPIN, AND JA---ERM, HARRY POTTER ARE THE SEXIEST MEN ALIVE!"
************************************************************************
Harry sat in front of the fireplace, wondering. He watched the flames rising high and low in the grate, reflecting on what had happened. He had been half-asleep...could he somehow have really connected to what James was experiencing, in Harry's own time? There was only one way to find out...he slowly let himself drift away, focusing on hearing his father's voice one more time...
************************************************************************
James sighed as he slouched down on the overstuffed chair, looking broodingly into the fire. It had happened again, today, when he had dozed off in Transfiguration...he had just seen Harry come into focus when he was awoken by McGonagall's angry snorting, and had lost contact. He watched the fire burning in the grate and let himself fall into the darkness, not knowing what to expect...
************************************************************************
The two boys stumbled forward into the large, darkened room. James looked up in reverence at the ceiling that reached up so far, one could barely see the top. He let out a low, long whistle.
Harry glanced over when he heard the whistle and felt the blood rush from his face. He took a step back as he stared at him. "Dad?" he said after a long moment. James turned quickly to face him.
"You're...you're Harry!" he said suddenly. He rushed forward. "Wow...I mean, does this mean we can go back to our own times?" he said excitedly.
Harry didn't answer...he was staring at James in awe. "I...I don't know." He finally said after a long moment. "Where are we?"
James shrugged. "I don't know. But...look, behind you...where you came from. There's a door, and another one like it over here. Do you think we could just...I don't know, walk back into our own times?"
Without saying anything, Harry walked forward quickly, stumbling when he reached the midpoint of the room, where his and James' side met. He disappeared and in a moment walked straight out of the door from which he came. James' eyes widened. "We can't get through." Harry said. "You're...you're my dad!" he said excitedly.
"Yeah, I noticed." James said. He looked at the center. "Do you think I could get over there from my side?" he said. Harry shook his head. James walked quickly towards it, thinking perhaps it was like the wall at King's Cross...you had to take it at a bit of a run if you were nervous. But he too reappeared at the door. "What the he..."
"You won't get out that way." A voice chuckled. Both turned and stared at the figure that emerged from the shadow.
"Sweet bloody Merlin." Harry said in astonishment.
"Come now, that's not very nice." The wizened wizard chuckled. "My name is just Merlin...my first name is neither Sweet nor is it Bloody."
************************************************************************
In the same chair, twenty years apart, James and Harry both woke with a start, remembering the conversation with Merlin in the old room. And, if neither was mistaken, they had also realized one more thing...if they did things right, they would be able to change the past...but if it wasn't a perfect save, then the world was in grave danger.
************************************************************************
Hiya! What do you think of that chapter? I thought it was an interesting way to have Harry and James sort of meet. Tell me what you think, okay? I like reviews, I feed off them, please don't starve my ego!
Author's Note: Wow! You like this story, huh? It was an experiment, I didn't know if I would continue, but I guess I will, thanks for all the nice things you said!
Disclaimer: If I was J.K. would I be writing fanfiction? Heck no! I'd be wallowing in my piles of money and writing the NEXT HP book for all us loyal HPFREAKS!
Chapter Four
James was sitting on the couch, looking into the fire. "Uhm...can we sit here?" Ron asked hesitantly. James glanced up...Ron and Hermione were standing over him, looking at him expectantly.
"Oh, yeah, sure." He turned back to the fire as they sat down. After a long moment he asked, "Have you ever seen things...like, things from the past?"
"What?" Ron looked at him. "No, not really. Why?"
"In Divination, what happened...I was seeing Remus, and Sirius and them, and they were talking to my...well, you know. Harry. I don't know how, but I saw it."
Hermione looked at him strangely. "You...you saw him? Do you think it's because you're connected somehow, what with the portal?"
James shrugged and leaned back. "I don't know. All I know is I'm going to try and see if I can somehow communicate with him. Maybe if we can do that, we can figure out a way to make it so we change time..."
Looking nervously at him, Hermione shook her head. "I don't know, it seems pretty dodgy."
James stood suddenly. "Listen, I'm not going to die and my best friend isn't going to jail. So don't try and convince me not to do what I'm going to do...if it changes the future, we can deal with it, but I am not going to just stand by and let things happen!"
"Okay..." Hermione looked down at the floor. Calming, James sat back down, brooding.
"So...Quidditch season starts soon." Ron said, ready to change the conversation. "Harry's supposed to be captain, know. So you'll be taking his place...he's a seeker, though..."
James looked up. "Seeker? I can't play seeker. I'm a chaser."
"I know." Ron sighed. "My sister Ginny is reserve seeker, she'll take his place. We have an empty spot on the team...the beaters are Seamus and Dean, from our dorm, and the other chasers are Colin Creevey, a sixth year, and his brother Dennis, a fifth year. I'm keeper."
"Really?" James grinned. Ron's tactics appeared to have worked. "That's great...I can't wait to get started. What type of brooms do you have now?"
"Well, Harry has the best type of broom in the world, but he took it back in the past with him. So I guess you can get a Nimbus Extreme, unless you want to shell out a hundred fifty galleons for a Firebolt."
"What? That must be some broom." James sighed. "Just thinking about a broom that costs that much makes me dreamy..."
Hermione shook her head. "Quidditch obsessed...like father, like son."
James turned to her and grinned. "Hey, I wouldn't have it any other way."
************************************************************************
James yawned as he sat down at the breakfast table. "Pass the salt, will you?" he muttered wearily. He blindly thanked the person that handed him the salt and dug into his breakfast.
"Morning." Hermione said cheerfully as she sat beside him.
"Yeah...okay." James muttered back. Hermione frowned.
"Not a morning person, are you?" she asked. James just moaned and took a large swig of pumpkin juice.
"Hello." Ron walked over. Having seen the previous exchange, he didn't direct the greeting to James but to Hermione. She smiled at him.
"Good morning, Ron." She sighed. "Can you believe that it's going to be our first potions class of our last year this morning?" she said.
"Yeah...no more Snape after this year." Ron said happily. "It'll be like a lifelong vacation."
James spat out his juice and looked up. "We have Snape this morning?" he said, now wide-awake.
"Yeah. Actually, it's a double period, we have it till lunch."
"Oh...great." James said, shaking his head. "This is going to be fun."
"Uhm...you aren't going to try anything, are you James?" Hermione hissed, looking around. "I mean, he can take points from you now. He..."
"Listen, I know Snape." James said evilly. "Trust me."
"Yeah...that'll be the day." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
They made their way to the dungeon slowly, bypassing the Slytherins. When they got there, the classroom was mostly empty. Snape looked up sharply as James sat, Ron and Hermione on either side of him. "Potter..." he hissed. "Amazing...how little things change over the years."
"Are you kidding?" James snorted. "You look like hell, man. What've the years done to you?" Then, as if in a spurt of sudden realization, James smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh, sorry chap, I forgot, you always did look like the rear of a troll. Well, then, perhaps things don't change."
"Enough!" Snape snarled, slamming a fist on the table. "Ten...no, twenty points for disturbing a teacher."
Hermione clapped her hand over James' mouth as he opened. "No...let that one go, you hear me?"
James sighed as she took her hand away. "And it was the perfect opportunity, too." James said with regret.
************************************************************************
"What classes do we have today?" Harry yawned as he sat down at the table.
"A late sleeper, aren't you?" Lily chortled. "Breakfast started a half- hour ago."
Harry shrugged, unwilling to answer. The truth was, he hadn't slept much the night before, and hadn't gotten deep into sleep until just before dawn. The nightmares, it appeared, weren't getting any better...and if they wouldn't go away twenty or so years in the past, Harry didn't know where he'd have the pleasant absence of their nightly torture.
"We have Muggle Studies." Remus said, glancing up.
"Oh, really?" Harry glanced at his schedule. "I've never had it before. I took Divination."
"I wish I had." Sirius said forlornly. "I was forced to take Muggle Studies because Remus and Lily said I needed to 'challenge' myself. Too tell the truth, I think I would have been perfectly challenged in Divination."
"Come on." Lily snorted. "You do nothing in that class. Repeat after me...nothing."
"Exactly." Sirius grinned as Lily tossed a crust of toast at him, which he caught in his mouth and spat out on his plate.
"Good dog." She said absently.
Harry only managed to get a few bites of sausage before the owls swooped down from overhead. This was another thing Harry missed...Hedwig. Unlike his trunk, he couldn't exactly have shrunk her. He only hoped that she had somehow gotten somewhere safe.
But as he glanced up, he saw a large package heading his way. He gasped and scooted back when the package landed before him on the table. "What's this?" he said in wonder. Sirius snorted.
"It's your mommie's care package...well, actually it's your grandmum's. She sends one to James every two weeks."
"What's it got?" Harry asked.
"Toothbrush, sweets, soap, and sweets, a fresh change of knickers, and then there are the sweets..."
"Stop thinking about it Sirius." Lily commanded. "You're drooling."
After running the package back up to his dormitory, Harry started walking down the long hallway to the Muggle Studies classroom. He wasn't worried overmuch about this class, seeing as how he had spent ten years of his life plus every summer since in a muggle home, but it still made him slightly nervous to walk in and suddenly see a television sitting on the desk...such a thing seemed so out of place within Hogwarts that it was like being sucked out of a dream into reality.
"What?" he said suddenly, glancing over. "Snape has this class?"
"Yeah..." Remus said in disgust. "He's the only Slytherin that even takes the class. Don't know why."
"Probably to make muggle-torturing easier later on when he gets his after- school job." Sirius said with irritation.
They sat down in the back, in the farthest corner possible, and Lily showed him the way the four had devised to talk in class (Peter hadn't taken Muggle Studies, and in fact had taken Divination). Under each desk was a small platform used to set one's books on. It had quickly been discovered that, by placing the note on this platform, one could perform a levitation charm and retrieve a letter without the teacher being any the wiser.
Harry talked for the first half-hour of class this way, but soon the night caught up with him and he became quite drowsy. He slipped away and in a moment some very familiar voices came to him.
'Sorry sir, I didn't mean to spill my Transmogrifying Tonic on Malfoy, it slipped...'
'Potter, I will see to it you are severely punished for this...I recognize your antics when I see them.' Snape said icily.
'Look what you've done now." Hermione said nervously. 'James, please, be more careful...'
'Yeah,' Ron chided, 'though it was funny to see Malfoy's head swell to twice its size...'
Harry jerked up suddenly, realizing who the voices belonged to. He glanced around the room quickly, but it was as it had been when he dozed off. The teacher continued droning on and on, and a note in front of him loudly proclaimed that, "SIRIUS BLACK, REMUS LUPIN, AND JA---ERM, HARRY POTTER ARE THE SEXIEST MEN ALIVE!"
************************************************************************
Harry sat in front of the fireplace, wondering. He watched the flames rising high and low in the grate, reflecting on what had happened. He had been half-asleep...could he somehow have really connected to what James was experiencing, in Harry's own time? There was only one way to find out...he slowly let himself drift away, focusing on hearing his father's voice one more time...
************************************************************************
James sighed as he slouched down on the overstuffed chair, looking broodingly into the fire. It had happened again, today, when he had dozed off in Transfiguration...he had just seen Harry come into focus when he was awoken by McGonagall's angry snorting, and had lost contact. He watched the fire burning in the grate and let himself fall into the darkness, not knowing what to expect...
************************************************************************
The two boys stumbled forward into the large, darkened room. James looked up in reverence at the ceiling that reached up so far, one could barely see the top. He let out a low, long whistle.
Harry glanced over when he heard the whistle and felt the blood rush from his face. He took a step back as he stared at him. "Dad?" he said after a long moment. James turned quickly to face him.
"You're...you're Harry!" he said suddenly. He rushed forward. "Wow...I mean, does this mean we can go back to our own times?" he said excitedly.
Harry didn't answer...he was staring at James in awe. "I...I don't know." He finally said after a long moment. "Where are we?"
James shrugged. "I don't know. But...look, behind you...where you came from. There's a door, and another one like it over here. Do you think we could just...I don't know, walk back into our own times?"
Without saying anything, Harry walked forward quickly, stumbling when he reached the midpoint of the room, where his and James' side met. He disappeared and in a moment walked straight out of the door from which he came. James' eyes widened. "We can't get through." Harry said. "You're...you're my dad!" he said excitedly.
"Yeah, I noticed." James said. He looked at the center. "Do you think I could get over there from my side?" he said. Harry shook his head. James walked quickly towards it, thinking perhaps it was like the wall at King's Cross...you had to take it at a bit of a run if you were nervous. But he too reappeared at the door. "What the he..."
"You won't get out that way." A voice chuckled. Both turned and stared at the figure that emerged from the shadow.
"Sweet bloody Merlin." Harry said in astonishment.
"Come now, that's not very nice." The wizened wizard chuckled. "My name is just Merlin...my first name is neither Sweet nor is it Bloody."
************************************************************************
In the same chair, twenty years apart, James and Harry both woke with a start, remembering the conversation with Merlin in the old room. And, if neither was mistaken, they had also realized one more thing...if they did things right, they would be able to change the past...but if it wasn't a perfect save, then the world was in grave danger.
************************************************************************
Hiya! What do you think of that chapter? I thought it was an interesting way to have Harry and James sort of meet. Tell me what you think, okay? I like reviews, I feed off them, please don't starve my ego!
