The Mistake and the Cunning Plan

Harrry stared at Salazar, intrigued at what the plan might be. Unfortunately he was not warned of what was going to happen next and it was a great shock when the founder of Hogwarts decided to send a blast of light from his wand to the Horcrux, which then shot back at both himself and Harry. Instinctively, Harry took hold of the cup as he felt that similar sensation of travelling. He only hoped that it was in fact time travel and not that Salazar had cast a random spell on them that was about to send them towards certain doom. He would have been a lot more confident that he knew where he was going if he was with Dumbledore…but Dumbledore wasn't even born yet. What an amazing thought that was, when he himself had seen the greatest wizard in the world die right in front of him. Even now, not knowing quite where he was going or what was happening to him, the only comforting thoughts were those that included Dumbledore. He was no longer afraid of dying but only of dying before his time. There were things to be done and that were his to do, claimed the day Voldemort marked him. However, Harry's reflections were interrupted by his body colliding with the floor of Professor McGonagall's office. When he examined the room, everything seemed to be as it should be. After the several visits to this office, Harry should indeed have known what it looked like. There was even a small tin of biscuits as usual. One large problem at this stage however could be identified – Salazar Slytherin was not supposed to be in 1997.

Realising his mistake, he tried to laugh it off but was soon distracted and repulsed at the Gryffindor colours painted on the walls of what he considered to be his office. He looked as though he expected a lion to jump out and roar at him, which caused Harry's mouth to form a slight smile for the first time in a while. "What's happened to my office?" he hissed, his green eyes flashing furiously. Harry couldn't help but snort with laughter at the comical performance before him. He had certainly not expected Salazar to be such an amusing man, whether the humour was intentional or not. Also, for some reason he had assumed that he would look almost exactly like Voldemort. He did indeed have some of the snakelike features that people associated with the Dark Lord and Harry did know that he was also a parselmouth. However, he looked like neither Voldemort nor Tom Riddle.

"Excuse me?" Harry recognised the woman's voice as McGonagall's. Both he and Salazar had ignored the tabby cat that had sat upon the desk and now took the form of Harry's transfiguration professor.

"Professor McGonagall-"

"Explain yourself, Potter," she demanded, squinting as though there was something about him that looked slightly different, "I would be very interested in knowing how you managed to get from Gryffindor common room to my office."

"I wasn't in Gryffindor common room," Harry replied, perplexed. He looked around for Salazar but he appeared to have vanished. He decided that was good, for it would only cause more confusion if he had to explain why one of the school founders was hanging around when he was supposed to have died centuries ago.

"Potter, I saw you enter the common room with Black, Lupin-" Harry's mouth dropped open as he suddenly realised what must have happened.

"What year is it?" She looked at him as though he was mad, and he didn't blame her. He was beginning to believe it himself.

"1977…Potter, is everything alright?" It was 1977…Dumbledore was alive.

"Sure, sure…can I speak to Professor Dumbledore please?" It was only then that he began to consider what he should do. Of course Dumbledore would probably be able to transport him back to the future before you could say lemon sherbet, but was that really what he wanted to do? Voldemort could be stopped. His parents could be saved. If he remained in 1977 he could bring justice without Voldemort even knowing of his existence. The only problem was that he already knew that Dumbledore would warn him not to attempt changing the future. Forming attachments of any sort with anyone in the past would be dangerous and he had already bumped into Salazar Slytherin and a younger McGonagall. It was a difficult decision to make. Maybe he could try to talk to Dumbledore about the future, even if he just gave the smallest hints of what might happen. He knew he would be unable to see Dumbledore for only a moment, knowing that when he got back home the headmaster would be dead. He couldn't just do nothing when he was so close to being able to make a difference. Perhaps this was the only way to win.

"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is away at present. He shall return in a couple of days. Now, will you kindly stop avoiding the question of why and how you arrived in my office?" Harry recognised that he had a choice of either telling the truth or pretending to be his father for a limited time. "Some sort of speeding spell," he replied, "Quite oddly I think it was Peter that managed it." He tried to look shocked, knowing all too well that Wormtail was the most unlikely and least capable of all the Marauders to have cast such a spell. He yawned deliberately, hoping that she would just send him back to the common room and then remembering that he would not be able to enter it. Strangely enough, he didn't think that the password needed to enter Gryffindor common room would be the same in 1977 as in 1997. However, he got his wish as she then decided to hurry him away. He wasn't sure quite how late it was or whether the time travel had somehow made him this tired. The whole experience seemed so surreal, knowing that he was within the same walls as his parents and that they were the same age as he was. Even the fact that they were there, regardless of their ages, was amazing. He flinched as he felt a cold hand pull him back, causing Salazar to chuckle.

"Why did you disappear?" "I didn't think it would be a good idea if that woman saw me. After all, I'm surely supposed to be dead by now…then again you're not even born yet. We should work on getting you back to where you came from. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst we'll be able to use a time turner…" Harry had never imagined Salazar as being so talkative but he did ramble on sometimes, usually when he was panicking.

"Look, I…erm, don't think I should go back just yet." It was so difficult to say, although he didn't know why. He considered that it might be the fact that he knew time travel was so dangerous when you attempted to alter past events. He pictured Hermione telling him this, missing her, Ron, Ginny and everyone else more than ever. He was unsure how long he had been missing – travelling very quickly through several centuries was very confusing.

"What? We need to get you back as soon as possible," Salazar insisted, "You can't go about changing the future-"

"Says who?" Harry spat, "You-you haven't been where I've been, you haven't seen what I've seen and you don't know what's coming!" Salazar was quietly fuming at the sight of this disobedient youth and yet he somehow admired the way he stood up to him, and no doubt anyone else.

"How curious," he hissed to himself, unaware at that moment that Harry was also a parselmouth.

"What's curious?" Salazar grinned. The boy was apparently a Gryffindor, at least according to his uniform, but a parselmouth as well. Was it possible that the two of them were related? Yet Harry had spoken of his rather wicked sounding heir, so clearly if there was a connection the boy didn't know about it.

"You are," he replied simply, still smiling at him. He couldn't help but want to know more about the boy now. Perhaps it was because he had never met another parselmouth before or because he had never seen anyone so passionate about anything…except Godric. He argued with Godric so much over, well, nothing. It was hard to tell who was the one who started it because neither of them argued so much with anyone else. Helga was too good natured to ever want to fight with anyone and Rowena was usually absorbed in study. Salazar didn't often have any need to speak with the other professors and Godric considered himself above them, not in a way in which he would be unpleasant to them but in which he would usually ignore them unless they firstly addressed him.

"If you tell me what is so terrible," Salazar said softly, "I will consider what we may be able to do here. But you must tell me absolutely everything you know about what is occurring now and what relevance it has to 1997." Harry was astounded by the sudden change of Salazar's mind – that was so Gryffindor. That might have been what made him feel so much more comfortable talking to him. He felt able to pour his heart out to the man that he had deeply despised in 1997, met several centuries ago and was now with in 1977. He didn't leave out a single detail. It would have been hard for anyone else to tell the story as fully as Harry did, but then it was his history and something he could never ever forget. He was sure that even one of Lockhart's memory charms would not let him forget the terrible years he had lived through. By the end of it he looked so worn out that Salazar felt obliged to offer him a hug but then thought better of it. Though it might have seemed like they had known each other for years during this discussion, they hadn't. He couldn't believe what he had heard of Lord Voldemort. He was sickened to know that he would one day be responsible for the life of such a wizard. It was true that muggles were not his favourite people in the world but he would never have tried to massacre them. From what he gathered from Harry it seemed that wizards and witches were no longer persecuted in the way that he knew. Muggle-born children were admired by their parents for their special powers…it all sounded so much better, or at least it would have done if Voldemort and the death eaters were wiped out of the equation. Harry's parents would die and they were here right now, with the boy who would effectively become their secret keeper and murderer. It was natural that Harry would not want to go back and leave things as they were, but was it right to change time? He also had to admit that he had no idea how to get back. He had already been clumsy, missing the destination by twenty years and even though he tried to suppress his emotions he had to admit that he had been touched by his story. Every little fact had been presently so delicately and with such care – the way in which his parents died, how he was made to feel by his muggle relatives…everything.

"I'll help you," Salazar told him, "I know how you feel." However, he was not quite so willing to explain his private thoughts and memories as Harry had been. He had no reason to discuss them and Harry had no need to know anything about his feelings. His tendencies to keep himself to himself had often proved difficult when forming relationships with anyone. He could not understand why he should be so open about his emotions or why he should tell anyone every insignificant event in his life, when it made absolutely no difference to the present. Of course there were always witches that were more than happy to have one night stands or even short term relationships with him, frowned upon by the muggles of course, but he could rarely maintain a good friendship with either a man or a woman and had never been able to have a serious romantic relationship. He was glad when Harry did not question him.

"But where should I start?" Harry asked, counting off the events chronologically, "My parents?"

"I thought you might think that, but I have a better idea," he said silkily, "The so-called Professor Snape."

"What?" Harry was outraged, "Why on earth would I even want to talk to him? He KILLED Dumbledore!"

"Exactly, but that is in the future. You are to make an attempt to prevent that event." It made perfect sense but Harry couldn't be sure that he could manage holding a conversation with him, knowing what he had – would – do. Then again, his father had been a bully at school but from what he had heard, he had managed to change. It was only fair to assume that Snape might, surely? It was just so hard.

"Sometimes you need to listen to your head, not your heart," Salazar warned him, "Think about how you can prevent the murder rather than punishing him for something that he has yet to do." Harry's insides squirmed as he remembered what must have been one of Dumbledore's favourite things to say to him – the greatest power of all was love. Salazar was right in that Harry did need to use his brain, but he needed his heart to forgive. He had been obsessed with revenge but the answer was not that, but love and forgiveness. Yeah right. He rolled his eyes.

"How do I go about this then?" he asked, unable to think of a way in which he might enter Slytherin common room without knowing the password. Then there was the problem of him being a Gryffindor from 1997.

"It appears to be the beginning of the year," Salazar commented, pointing at the large "Welcome back" banner, a true waste of parchment if there ever was one, "Which suggests that it is likely that students are not yet settled, and Dumbledore himself is going to be a couple of days late back!" Harry grinned, seeing where this was going.

"I'm sure that between us we can think of a suitable story."