Harry Potter and the Nature of Time:
Harry woke up that morning to the sound of the slight rustlings of his roommates. Seamus and Ron were muttering sleepily about the lousy day they had yesterday and how today would probably be more of the same. Harry rubbed his eyes and pulled aside the curtains around his bed. The room was its usual chaos of clothes and books strewn about, Quidditch posters haphazardly hanging from the walls and candy wrappers strewn about. It was the familiar mess of always. Harry put his feet onto the floor and shivered from the cool feel of it between his toes. He yawned and muttered greetings to Ron and Seamus before going over to his trunk to pull out his school robes. He stood briefly in front of the mirror and half heartedly tried to tame the shock of black hair that stood up in all directions around his head. Giving up quickly, he merely ran his fingers through his hair, grabbed his books and made his way down to the common room with Ron and Seamus.
Once in the common room, they met Hermione, who had been up early studying for a possible quiz in History of Magic, and Ginny, who had only just emerged from her dormitory. After muttering more groggy early morning greetings they all made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
After sitting down and having some pumpkin juice and toast, Harry began to awaken to the rest of the world. He looked around and smiled at the familiarity of it all. It was so comfortably predictable. Dumbledore was at the Head Table with the other professors. Draco was muttering to his cronies about some way new way to make Harry's life miserable. Ron was scarfing down food as if he hadn't eaten in weeks while Hermione was nibbling on a bit of toast as she leafed through her Arithmancy text. At the next table over, Harry could see Luna staring at him rather dreamily over her latest upside down edition of the Quibbler. Above him, the owls were swooping in with their usual early morning mail.
It was all so comfortable, so familiar, and so homelike. His life would be drastically different after graduating from Hogwarts. He turned his thoughts to the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw that weekend in order to keep his mind off the unpleasant idea of leaving the only home he had ever known.
"Harry, let's go or we will be late for Divination!" said Ron.
Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed one last slice of toast for the trip up to the Divination tower. This was one aspect of Hogwart's that he would most definitely not be missing. Together the two boys trudged up to the stuffy room and sat down in the back of the class. Ron was chattering animatedly about the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw but Harry was only half listening. He did his best to at least nod and agree occasionally with what he thought Ron was saying, but he felt as if he were walking through a slight haze and the warm fire and muggy scent that pervaded the room did not help him to remain alert.
"Good morning class!" said Professor Trelawney. "Today we will be discussing something slightly different. Now, you all understand that the art of divination is the gift of understanding what is to come. But what few people know is that to understand the future we must know the past. History has a way of repeating itself. The ancient muggle civilization of the Maya believed that time was cyclical. They believed that the world was created and destroyed several times over. By communicating with and understanding the past worlds, along with an advanced study of the celestial bodies, the Maya came up with a cyclical calendar that was extremely accurate. Today we will be studying that very calendar to see if we can make any connections between the past we know of and the future which remains clouded. If you would please turn to page 394 in your…"
The other students in the room groaned collectively, but Harry was just happy that Trelawney wasn't predicting his imminent death by some new method. Harry opened his book but the words swam before his eyes. He closed them only for a moment and felt himself slowly drifting off to sleep. He could hear a voice calling to him.
"Harry Potter," said the voice. "Harry Potter the time has come for you to understand the future."
"What? Who's there?" asked Harry. He felt himself being sucked into a different place. It was different but it looked so familiar. He found himself standing in Professor Dumbledore's office behind the large desk. The paintings on the wall were the same, some were snoozing, others were muttering to themselves. The books on the shelves looked as they had before Harry had lost his temper and gone on a rampage through the office. Everything looked as it always did, but something felt very different.
"Professor Dumbledore?" he asked tentatively. No answer. He tried again; still no answer. Someone was sitting in Professor Dumbledore's large chair. Harry moved closer to the desk.
"Err… excuse me, sir?" Harry said nervously.
The figure in the chair looked up but did not acknowledge Harry's presence. He seemed to be deep in thought. As the man turned his head toward him, Harry gasped. There was a long thin scar that ran from above the left eye to the cheek below it. The scar had healed long ago and gave the man a rugged look, but his green eyes still held deep gentleness. As the man turned his full face to where Harry was standing, Harry was so startled that he took a few steps back and almost tripped over a pile of books near one of the shelves. The unruly black hair on the man's head had parted slightly revealing a very familiar jagged scar above his right eye. Harry reached up and touched the identical scar on his own forehead and understood that he was seeing himself in the future.
After the initial shock, Harry moved nervously back to the desk and waved his hand in front of the face of his future self. No reaction. Perhaps he was only meant to observe. Meddling with time is a serious thing, as he and Hermione had learned in his third year trying to save Buckbeak and Sirius. But how was he supposed to leave this place he wondered? Perhaps it was more like a pensieve, where one observes without interacting and is then removed from the memory.
Harry was startled from his musings when the door creaked open. "Professor Potter, I found him," said a short squat woman in professors' robes.
"Ah yes, thank you, Nerissa. Please have him come in. And could you have one of the house elves bring tea?"
"Yes, of course." She turned and walked back down the steps.
"Thank you Nerissa."
A moment later a young, thin, brown haired boy in Gryffindor robes appeared in the doorway. "Please, come in Daniel."
Harry smiled as the boy shuffled his way into the office, staring at all the instruments and the paintings as they muttered and pointed at him. The boy made his way over to one of the large cushy chairs in front of the Headmaster's desk and sat down. He looked very small and intimidated in the large chair that nearly engulfed him; his feet barely touched the rug under his chair. He seemed so small; he must be a first year, thought Harry. Harry was wondering if he had looked so small in his first year when a small framed photograph on the headmaster's desk caught his attention. The photo was one of Ron, Hermione and himself on the last day of term of his first year. It sat beside his favourite photo of his parents. Perhaps he had looked that small his first year.
Harry looked at his future self; he was shuffling some papers on his desk and had not yet even bothered to look over his glasses at the boy sitting in front of him. Harry thought this was quite rude of him, not to even acknowledge the boy. Finally, after the boy began to fidget, Headmaster Harry folded his fingers and stared over his glasses at the boy.
"Daniel, do you know why you have been called here to see me?" said Harry seriously.
"No, sir, I haven't done anything. I was merely trying to get my friend's cat back, she was terribly upset. Maxwell is so mean to Emma because she's muggle born and he turned her cat purple. Emma was so upset, and so Jack and I decided to go and find him; her cat that is, sir."
"No, Daniel, that's not why I called you here to talk to me. You are new to the magical world, is that not right?" The boy nodded and Harry continued, "What do you know of Baldorian?" he asked, looking at the boy closely.
"Only that everyone says he is the most evil wizard since Voldemort. Others say he is worse, all I know is that my mother is terrified whenever someone mentions him."
"Has she told you why she has such fears?"
"No, sir, I suppose it is simply because he is out to get revenge on muggle-borns," said Daniel as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"I see. Well, I suppose that will be all, enjoy your term Daniel," said Headmaster Harry.
"Thank you sir," said Daniel as he stood up to leave.
"Oh, and Daniel?"
"Yes Headmaster?"
"Stay away from Maxwell. He is only out to make trouble. Remember, it is our choices that make us who we are," said Harry with a twinkle in his eye and a slight smile playing upon his lips. "I suppose we will be seeing more of each other from now on. If there is anything you need, please feel free to come to me."
Daniel smiled weakly and nodded. "Goodnight, sir," he said and turned towards the door.
Harry was still standing beside the bookshelf he had nearly tripped on, and Headmaster Harry was still sitting at his desk with a serious look on his face. Just then, a crack was heard and an old house elf popped into view.
"Dobby! You didn't have to come. You should have sent one of the younger house elves," said the Headmaster. Harry was surprised to see that Dobby was still around and working contentedly in the castle.
"It is no trouble for Dobby, Headmaster Potter. Dobby is pleased to bring Headmaster Potter his tea, sir."
"Dobby, how many times do I have to tell you? You are an old friend, please, call me Harry!" said Harry with an exasperated smile.
"Yes, of course, Headmaster Potter. Does the Headmaster need anything else with his tea?"
"No thank you Dobby. But I would greatly appreciate it if you went and got some rest Dobby."
"Headmaster Potter is too good to Dobby sir!" squeaked the little house elf as he bowed until his nose nearly touched the floor. Then, with a loud crack he was gone almost as suddenly as he had appeared.
After Dobby had gone, Harry turned his attention to his tea and treacle tart. He was muttering something about missing dinner again and it being a long term. After finishing his second treacle tart he looked up at one of the paintings.
"Ah! Albus just the man I was wanting to talk to!" said the Headmaster. Young Harry was surprised and turned to look in the same direction that his future self was looking in. There on the wall, was a large painting of Albus Dumbledore.
"Yes Harry. I'm sorry I seem to have lost one of my socks in a painting down at the Ministry of Magic and the Minister wanted me to stay and chat a bit."
"I wanted to speak to you about Daniel Waikely," said Harry from his desk.
"Ah yes the young first year. He reminds me a lot of someone I once knew," said the old Headmaster with that familiar twinkle in his eyes.
"Yes, well Albus that's what I wanted to speak to you about. I suppose you were listening in the day that Parvati came to tell me of the prophecy she made."
"Yes, I must admit that I was not dozing."
"Well, what do you make of it? Do you think it is possible? He is just a boy."
"Just a boy who bears a striking similarity to someone else who was once just a boy," said Albus' painting. Albus looked down at the look on Harry's face. "That is what you are afraid of is it not? That boy will suffer the same things you had to suffer?" he asked gently.
"Yes, I do not want him to suffer as I did. It was not the life of a child," Harry said bitterly.
"If it is his fate, there is nothing neither you nor I can do to change that, Harry. All you can do is help him as much as you can. No one knows better what he is facing than you Harry."
"Yes, you're right Albus. I only hope that he understands. I want to be completely honest with him; however, his mother sees things a bit differently."
"History has a funny way of repeating itself. Things will work out, but remember, our choices…"
"…make us who we are," said Harry with a smile. "Thank you Albus."
"Of course, Harry, anytime," said Albus with a smile and a twinkle.
Headmaster Harry turned his attention back to his desk and began shuffling through more papers. Harry felt odd after witnessing the scene. In some ways, he felt a surge of hope; he would live to become Headmaster of Hogwarts. However, another wizard would rise up and become as evil as Voldemort. He suddenly felt overwhelmed by the futility of it all.
Suddenly he began to hear a voice urgently calling to him once again. "Harry! Harry! Wake up! Trelawney is asking you a question!" said Ron's voice near his ear.
Harry jerked his head up.
"As I was saying Mr. Potter, who came up with the concept of cyclical time?" asked Professor Trelawney over her large glasses.
"The Maya, Professor," mumbled Harry.
"Yes, that's correct. Now class, as I was saying…" said Trelawney surprised that Harry knew the answer in spite of the fact that he was sleeping.
"How long was I asleep?" asked Harry.
Ron looked at him inquisitively. "What do you mean? You had barely closed your eyes. Are you alright mate?"
"Yes, Ron I'm fine. Interesting stuff isn't it? The Maya," said Harry with a small smile.
"Yeah, as much fun as having Draco over for tea!" Ron said aghast.
Harry didn't notice. He was too busy wondering about the future.