Hermione Riddle cursed. Potter was gone, and she didn't know where. But she couldn't worry over it now. She'd just have to wait for him to show again.

"Dobby!" she called. The elf scurried into the room. He was obviously not happy about it, but he was bound by the rules of his kind. If he was called, and within reach of the summons, he had to answer. Cringing, and wringing his hands, he made his way to her.

"What does Miss want?"

She sighed. She really didn't want Dobby, though he was a decent servant. He'd often served her at the Malfoys'. But that was before he'd been freed. Freed! By accident, but still freed. And worse, he was paid to work at Hogwarts. Paid and with days off. As if a house-elf really needed those rights! That wasn't why they existed. But he was the only one she knew by name.

"Stay here for now. I'll tell you when I decide what you're good for." The elf hung his head, and shuffled to a corner of the room.

 "Exceso Sonorus!" Riddle muttered, pointing her wand at her throat. "ALL FACULTY TO THE LOWEST DUNGEONS. IMMEDIATELY. DISOBEDIANCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED."

Within twenty minutes, all the staff were assembled in front of her. Many wore looks of confusion. Why had a student called them? And to an empty dungeon?

"Glad you made it so quickly. Dobby, bring it over." The elf emerged from the darkest corner, pulling something behind him. Gasps were heard and tears sprang to several pairs of eyes as the body of Albus Dumbledore came into view.

"There's going to be some changes around here." Riddle said simply, as the staff gazed at the body in horror.

Dobby had retreated a few feet away. Shaking his head sadly, he whispered, "Why? What has happened to you, miss?"

Riddle heard. Whirling around, she snapped, "What do you mean, elf?!"

"Miss used to be kind. Miss used to be friends with Harry Potter and his Wheezy."

"His what?" What was the elf talking about? First there was that strange look from Dumbledore that day in his office, then Potter…and now a house-elf? Maybe all the so-called "good guys" were going barking mad. She'd never been friends with Potter. Or his Wheezy, whatever that was.

"Never mind, miss." Dobby himself wasn't sure what was going on, only that this was not how things were supposed to be. He had a heavy sense that they never would be again.

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Halloween, 1987

Harry found himself in front of a rather modest brick home as a clock struck ten in the distance. Hearing a noise, he rushed to move around the corner, and then peered out.

Voldemort came into view. Which meant this house was his parents', and the Fidelius Charm was broken.

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Voldemort smiled to himself as he knocked on the door. He always waited for an invitation before entering. Just because he was going to kill someone didn't mean he wouldn't be polite until then.

No answer. Well, he'd tried. With a wave of his wand, the door opened.

"LILY! IT'S HIM! TAKE HARRY AND GO!"

"Now, really, James. Do you think that was wise?"

"If it keeps Harry from you," James growled. He pulled his wand from his pocket. "Expelliarmus!" Red light shot towards Voldemort, but he dodged.

"Avada Kedavra!" But James' reflexes were as quick as Voldemort's. He ducked and moved aside. "Potter, I have no time for this."

"Rictursempra!"

"Serpensortia!"

"Expelliarmus!" James cried again, with a quick glance toward the kitchen to see if Lily and Harry had escaped.

"Avada Kedavra!" James fell to the floor, a mingled expression of worry and defiance still on his face. "I told you I had no time for this." Voldemort turned away from the body and headed for the kitchen.

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Harry entered the house after the second explosion of green light. It only left him seconds to save himself, but he couldn't have entered any earlier. It would have been too tempting to save his parents.

He walked past the bodies quickly. Grief could come later, but if he allowed it now, it would kill him. Literally, since it would be a distraction.

Voldemort was in the kitchen, wand raised over a little boy, barely over the age of one year. He was so focused on baby Harry that he did not immediately register the presence of older Harry.

"Expelliarmus!" Unfortunately, Voldemort moved aside, and Harry missed.

"Well, well. Harry. So Dumbledore figured out a solution after all." Harry glared at him, but said nothing.

"Come to rescue yourself, have you? Come to be te great hero? Tell me, Harry, what makes you think you can save yourself if you couldn't save your friends? I assume you tried."

"No." But the lie was obvious.

"Or why you didn't try to save your parents? Why not attack me earlier, Harry? You'd have had a family."

"Because it would've altered the timeline again," Harry replied quietly. "You know that. And no one can predict what that future would've been like."

"But surely it would've been happier, Harry? Better. Except, of course, for the fact you wouldn't have your friends with you. You wouldn't have my daughter with you, not as a friend, at least."

"She's not your daughter!" All of the emotions that Harry had been suppressing rose to the surface. The pain and rage at the deaths that'd occurred, the fear, the worry, all of it. He wanted nothing more than to kill Voldemort at this moment, and as the thought entered his mind, the curse cam from his lips.

"Avada Kedavra!" Angry green light flashed from his wand, and hit Voldemort squarely in the chest.

For a moment, nothing happened. Voldemort sneered confidently at Harry, his red eyes glowing. And then the spell took.

It was nothing spectacular. Voldemort was simply there, sneering at him, and then he wasn't. His presence was there, the body was not.

Harry picked up his squirming younger self, and carried him to the door, exhausted. But there was still one thing left to do, before he left and returned to his own time. With a flick of his wand, and a muttered incantation, the house lay in rubble before him. Dumbledore had told him to do this, to eliminate any possible evidence of his presence.

He walked through the now barely existent structure, stepping over pieces of wood and other things, until he reached a safe spot to place baby Harry. It wouldn't have made sense to leave him at the doorway, for what baby could get through this mess on his or her own? He stood for a moment, just looking at the destruction caused tonight, then whispered the word that would return him to his own time, hoping that things had been fixed.