A Tale of Two Times

Snatched through time at birth, Harry becomes a time Traveller. He discovers this at five when he meets his real parents, and goes to Hogwarts prepared... but he hadn't realised Voldemort had a spy in Hogwarts and was trying to steal a dangerous artefact.

Chapter One

Travelling Harry

1981-1985

Harry James Potter. There was nothing especially spectacular about the name, after all it was pretty plain. The name could belong to anyone, and of course, since it has been mentioned, it obviously does.

The simple name of this young boy instilled hope into the hearts of witches and wizards all over the world. But to the Dursleys of no. four, Privet Drive, it instilled only hatred and disgust.

For these Dursley's, are not the most desirable beings on the planet, and Harry has the poor fortune to be related to them, and be placed in the care of these horrible people, if, of course, you could call them that. For surely, people who could treat their own nephew, or cousin; depending on which of these despicable Europeans you were referring to, as if they were lower than dirt could surely not be human.

But despite the fact that these relatives of Harry's were possibly of another, more brutal race, the fact remains, that he has had the misfortune to have lived with them, and the fact remains that they mistreated him.

Harry himself would not have known that he was being abused, for he was too young, and he had been living with it for longer than it was possible for him to cast his memories back.

Harry lived under a strict set of rules, and breaking them was punished as though he were a major crime holding up a bank or some such. Or as much of the equivalent of that which the Dursleys could manage to inflict on him without actually killing him.

Some of the things he was forbidden to do were just plain ridiculous. For example, he was only allowed to wash once a week, supposedly since his presence in the shower forced his strict aunt, Petunia, to clean it. For the fact was, that if her poor son, Dudley, went in the shower after Harry without the contraption being properly decontaminated, he might catch some disease that Harry appeared to have.

Another stupid thing that the Dursleys had was a stupid rule about was questions. Harry was prohibited from asking them. He had only ever asked one question in his miserable life. "Where did I get my scar?" He had been answered by Aunt Petunia flipping the bacon onto his cousin Chrysanthemum's plate, and handing him a burnt piece of toast.

"In the car crash where your parents died," she had told him grudgingly. "And don't ask questions!" Since Harry had adhered to this abominably ridiculous rule, and treasured his only knowledge of his parents in his heart, drawing on it in his darkest times, using it to somehow comfort him.

Although his Aunt Petunia didn't like him, she tolerated him. Her husband, Vernon, a beefy man, did not have the same tolerance as his wife, and as 'boy, which was what he called Harry, was 'abnormal,' in his terms, he made him work hard, and at the tender age of four, the young boy could often be seen slaving away at the stove, cooking for the family, or weeding the garden in the blistering sun.

Though the Dursleys didn't know it, this was good for Harry, and taught him life's lessons very effectively.

These life rules were what Harry referred to as, 'Survivors'. The first of the survivors was that you must always be polite, for impoliteness would earn you a beating. Another was that hard work got results. That was from his weeding experiences. He eventually became so efficient at the art of weeding that he could do the whole garden in ten minutes. From his cooking experiences, he learnt that pain was something that was to be ignored where possible. When Harry had first learnt to cook bacon, hot fat had splattered all over his arms, face, and into his hair. He wiped it immediately from his face, but didn't get to his arms in time, where the scald marks were visible for weeks after.

He learnt, all in all, to be strong, in stay out of everyone's way, and although the Dursleys couldn't see it, he had become the model of perfect behaviour.

While Dudley screamed for sweets when they stood in line, and Aunt Petunia only shushed him, if Harry so much as looked at the tasty snacks and various sugary beverages, she wound slap the back of his hand, an his eyes would return to the floor, with a muttered sorry. Chrysanthemum, only a year younger than Harry and Dudley, would watch wide eyed as her mother dealt this injustice.

Though despite the Dursley's every attempt to quash his spirit, Harry wouldn't allow for it. He was a courageous, intelligent, caring, boy, who had learned to fight, though not directly. He learned to be cunning, yet his loyalty in those who were kind to him never disappeared. Such was his loyalty, that Harry's cupboard teemed with spiders who were kind to him, and he learnt, instead of speaking English most of the time, to speak the spider speech as his mother language, clicking his tongue to get the correct sounds.

But despite the friendship of the spiders, Harry needed human company, and yearned for love. The spiders just weren't enough, and he was horribly lonesome.

And this is where our story starts, on another lonely day, with five year old Harry.

'Arathla,' he said to the spider, who clicked back an answer which only Harry seemed to understand. 'You've lived here as long as I have, I know, but you must have had a mummy and a daddy once, right?'

Arathla clicked a yes.

'What is it like? What is it like to have people love you? Arathla, is it nice?'

Arathla clicked a yes. 'It is the most wonderful thing, Harry; it feels so safe and warm. It's magical.'

"But Arathla, there's no such thing as magic." Harry protested. That was one thing the Dursley's had managed to drill into his mind.

Arathla scoffed. 'Of course there's magic, Harry. That's just what the humans want you to think. Look around you. I bet you could make some magic in here.' Arathla crawled onto his hand, and waved her two foremost legs about in frenzy.

'Could I?' Harry sniffed.

'Sure,' said Arathla, 'just concentrate on what you want.'

Harry closed his eyes, and thought really, really hard of love and his parents.

When he opened his eyes again, he wasn't in his cupboard anymore. Instead, he was in a richly decorated room, on a soft bed. Exhausted and disorientated, young Harry curled up to sleep.

June: 1005

A man in gold and red robes walked up with a woman, whose robes were blue and bronze. "That was a wonderful feast, don't you agree, Rowena?"

"You only think that because Gryffindor won the house cup, Godric."

"Well then, I have every right to be pleased, don't I?" Godric said, causing Rowena to raise her eyebrows.

"Oh Godric, you are a strange one, aren't you?" she laughed, shaking her head, then leaned over to kiss him lightly on the lips.

He took her hand, and opened a door. They both stepped in.

Godric began to unbutton his robes, but gave a start. "Rowena, who's that?"

"What? Godric, you must be seeing things, no-one else can get…in…here," she trailed off, having followed Godric's gaze and seen Harry. "Harry!"

Harry opened his eyes blearily at the sound of his name. "Who you? Where I?" he asked. Then, "Arathla? Where are you?"

A spider crawled onto his hand, and clicked something. Harry sighed in what seemed to be relief. Rowena took a step towards the frightened boy. "Harry, do you remember me?" she asked in an almost pleading tone.

Godric looked confused. "Rowena–"

Harry shook his head slowly to Rowena's pleading. "Never seen you in my life."

"But Harry, you must remember me, your mother, please!" she begged.

Godric stared at Rowena, and found his voice. "His mother?" he asked uncertainly.

"Oh, Godric! I'm so sorry!" she wept. She looked at him with pleading eyes. "Your son." She managed to say, and burst out crying again.

"What? – Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

She sniffed, looking into Godric's sorrow filled eyes. "I couldn't. Merlin – Merlin was going to take him. Remember six years ago when I went to travel for research purposes? Well, I lied. It wasn't really research. I visited Merlin, because – because I was pregnant!" she wailed, crying again.

"But why?" asked Godric, once again.

"Father – father made a deal with him. In return, Merlin asked for my first born child." Rowena wept.

Godric looked horrified, and his eyes flickered over to the child on the bed. His child. Harry was clutching a spider, looking absolutely terrified. Seeing Godric looking at him, Harry clicked at the spider, and the spider clicked back. Then Harry did something Godric had been trying to do for years, and had finally concluded was impossible.

He disappeared.

Harry had made himself invisible, without a wand. Rowena stared too. They saw the dent in the bed move a bit, as it moved to the edge. Then there was nothing else, and after a moment they heard a sniffling cry from under the bed.

"Harry?" called Rowena, crawling under the bed. "Dear, where are you?"

Harry didn't answer, but his quiet sobs, which were actually quite loud in the otherwise silent room, did.

Rowena located him in this way, and gathered the invisible boy in her arms, and crawled back out. "I have him," she stated.

After about ten minutes, Harry returned to visibility, very slowly. At first he was transparent, and five minutes later, he was fully visible. He looked at the people who were staring at him.

The woman had thick red hair, which fell to her waist, and porcelain features. Her lips were cherry red, and perfectly shaped into a wobbly smile. She had tearstains on her cheeks, but her eyes were what surprised Harry the most, they looked exactly like his own, perfectly almond shaped and brilliantly green. They were slightly red, but they were twinkling happily, and Harry felt compelled to smile, so he did.

Next he looked at the man. He looked like a replica of Harry, apart from his eyes. His eyes were shining amber, and he looked very sad. His messy black hair looked like he had been fighting with a wild animal, which he very well might have been. He had a thin face, with childish bone structure. He was quite tall though, unlike Harry, but then again, Harry could grow. His facial features were schooled to look perfectly calm, but Harry could see the conflicting emotions in his gaze.

"Who you?" he asked.

Godric looked at Rowena, and she nodded her head almost imperceptibly.

"My name is Godric Gryffindor. This is my wife Rowena Ravenclaw. Who are you?" he asked kindly.

"Harry."

"Harry who?" asked Rowena.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never really told me much about Mummy and Daddy. I wasn't allowed to ask them questions, so I dunno." He said.

"Do you live with your Aunt and Uncle? Why?"

"Mummy and Daddy died in car crash, long time ago. I got this scar then," he said proudly, and jabbed his forehead.

"What's a car?" asked Godric, before Rowena could stop him.

Harry looked incredulous. "A car, you know, for driving in. Take you places."

Rowena shot a look at Godric. "Harry, what is the date?"

"July 31st, 1985." Harry looked confused, surely they would know the date, Harry always knew the date, even after long periods in his cupboard.

Godric gaped, and Rowena didn't even bat an eyelid.

"Harry, you must be exhausted. Perhaps we could explain it all to you tomorrow?" she asked, and Harry consulted with the spider that he kept with him all the time, and nodded.

"Arathla says that that will be okay." He said.

"Who's Arathla?" asked Godric before he could stop himself.

Harry raised his eyebrows delicately, in an exceedingly grown up manner, and pointed to the tarantula on his shoulder. Godric was by then past being surprised, and answered with a simple, 'Oh.'

Rowena then proceeded to create a room and a bed, and sent Harry in, but not before kissing his cheek goodnight, much to his confusion. He knew that Aunt Petunia always kissed Dudley and Chrysanthemum goodnight, but he thought that was something you only did if you loved someone, and no-one loved him.

There was ten minutes silence before Harry's breathing became even.

"Rowena." Godric's voice was low and serious.

Rowena turned away, muffling her voice in her pillows. "Yes?"

"Explain, please."

She sat up and looked Godric in the eyes, and started to tell the whole sorry tale. "I suppose I should start from the beginning. When I was six, my father, who, as you know, is a wizard, feared that I was a Squib. I hadn't shown any signs of magic, and I was depressed. Father got Merlin in, in the middle of my depression.

"Merlin explained to father that there are two types of Squib – the type that truly doesn't have any magic, and the type where their magic was either too volatile or too powerful, or both, that it hid itself away. My problem was obviously the latter. Without proper training, I might have killed an innocent.

"Merlin promised to remove the blockage on my power, though he said that he would think of a suitable price once the job was done. He put a limit on it which would last until I was old enough to learn magic. It was two years afterward, when Merlin came back, that he decided he would take Harry. Father asked him to begin his instruction of me, yet he did not let father know of the price, nor did father think to enquire. He taught me magic for seven years, and father still refused to ask him the price. I could not ask, for back then women had less status than men, and it would have been overwhelmingly rude for me to do so. On my fifteenth birthday, knowing that my greatest wish was for a family, he informed father and I that the price would be my first born child.

"Father agreed wholeheartedly with him, saying that he was being extremely generous. Because of my wishes for a family, I myself was against it, and tried to sway Merlin's mind, as I had come to know him very well over the years. But he, in his infinite wisdom, said that he knew of somewhere that would take my child in.

"For a long time, I vowed not to have a family," she smiled up at him, her eyes watering. "That's why I hadn't been married before I met you. I figured, when I married you, that maybe I could get away from Merlin and his stupid deal. That was useless. He knew I was pregnant before I did. So, I decided not to tell you. I knew that I would find it more difficult to give up the child at the end of it if you knew about it.

"Then I tried to forget. But, Godric, something like that is hard to forget. I loved him so much, but I knew I could never have him, because Merlin had sent him to the future, where he was out of my reach." Rowena was crying freely into Godric's chest while she mumbled out her story. "I didn't want to go through that ever again, so I made sure I wouldn't get pregnant.

"If Merlin sent him to the future, then how on the flat earth did he get here?" Godric said to Rowena, who just shook her head.

"I have no idea. The only one who can tell us that will be Merlin, because Harry is so young that he wouldn't understand," she said quietly. "And we're not asking Merlin, he'll only want to take Harry again." She added fiercely.

But however, they did not need to inform Merlin, as he already knew. When they woke up the next morning, the elderly wizard was sleeping in his rocking chair, rocking away at the side of their bed.

"Merlin?" asked Rowena.

"We meet again, child."

"What are you doing here?" asked Godric.

"You don't mean to tell me you didn't notice Harry was here?" asked Merlin in mock sincerity.

"NO! You can't have him!" Rowena cried fiercely, standing in front of the door that lead to Harry's room, and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I wasn't here to take him, my child. I am merely here to discuss him," he said, explaining to her patiently. She glared at him, and conjured up a chair, sitting down right where she was, barring Merlin's way to the door, despite the fact that he had made it clear that he didn't want Harry.

Godric didn't move from the bed.

"Now, I believe you are wondering how Harry got from 1985 to now? Yes? Good. I can explain that. Harry, along with being extremely powerful, was born in this time, but upon his birth, was moved to another. This abnormal situation gives a person certain – advantages. He has the ability to travel to any time, place, or person, at will. This ability will need to be controlled. Also, you will have noticed the scar on his forehead, the one in the shape of lightning?"

They nodded the affirmative.

"That scar was given to him by Salazar's heir, as is my understanding. This happened when the killing curse failed to kill." Merlin smiled, and confirmed their suspicions that he was off his rocker, despite being on a rocking chair.

"Now, here's the interesting part. The curse backfired, and knocked Tom, also known as Voldemort, out of his body. Voldemort wasn't killed though, despite popular belief. He'll find some way to get back. Anyway, that somehow gave Harry a scar. This scar gives Harry some of the abilities from Voldemort, like Parseltongue, while connecting his mind to that of Voldemort. It'll be a good idea to teach him Occlumency. The other ability, which he has naturally, is that he is a Metamorphmagus.

"Anyway, back to the story. Harry's adoptive parents were killed, and it was left to that old fool Dumbledore, to decide where young Harry would be cared for. Dumbledore sent him to his only remaining relatives, in order to set up blood wards, which wouldn't work, but he thought they would, anyway, young Harry used the first of his three amazing abilities to get here.

"You see, he wasn't being treated entirely properly at the Dursley's, and he longed for his parents, who he thinks were killed in a car crash, and before you ask, a car is Muggle technology which is yet to be invented. In actual fact, Lily and James Potter were killed by Voldemort in attempt to kill Harry, because of some prophecy by a faulty seer. She mixed it all up, confusing us all. But back to where he longed for his parents. His pet spider, Arathla, told him that all he had to do to do magic was to think really hard of what he wanted, and he wanted his parents, thereby appearing here."

"Is that all for now?"

Rowena nodded. "Yes," said Godric.

"Well then. Goodbye Rowena, goodbye Godric." He kissed Rowena's hand, and then shook Godric's. "I don't suppose that you'll let me see Harry before I go?"

"No, no, no and NO!" shouted Rowena, and Merlin laughed.

"I was just trying to get a rise out of you, anyway," he said, before disappearing.

"We really need to set up Anti-Apparition wards," sighed Rowena.

Then Godric thought of something. "What are we going to tell Helga and Salazar?"