'This is a LOTE'

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 Sixteen

Handy Harry

October: 1991

Hermione was panicking. "We'll be late for Transfiguration!"

The rest of the class didn't seem to care. In fact, the majority of the class seemed to think that this was a great thing, even if it meant being stuck in the classroom with Parry for a while.

Unfortunately, well, unfortunate for everyone but Hermione, it wasn't like that for long. "Okay," said Parry commandingly. She had thrown some Floo powder into the fire. "When I call your name, you will get in and shout out Transfiguration Classroom, or Potions Classroom, depending on where you go next."

"Persephone Aagesen, Christina Adamson…"

Harry was beginning to get bored as Parry called out their names. He decided to play a prank. Signing quickly, he conveyed his idea to Louise, who looked delighted at the very thought. Unfortunately, Hermione wouldn't join them, and they had no way of contacting Shane and Masobelle, as they'd already left.

Finally, they called out Harry's name. "Andrew Poll, Harry Potter…"

Harry walked forward. "Transfiguration Classdoom" he intoned. No-one seemed to notice that he had said it wrong, but there was a swirl as Harry was dragged through the flu network, and finally deposited somewhere in the dungeons. He sat down and waited for Louise, and about ten minutes later, she came through.

"What took you so long?"

"What took me so long? Well, Ben choked while he was saying it, and guess what? He ended up in the potions room, and we were all waiting for him to come back, for like, five minutes. And Parry talks so slow!" she complained.

"Ben who?"

"Todd."

Harry snickered. It was a well known fact that Ben's name wasn't Ben. His middle name was Ben, well, technically Benjamin, though it was Ben for all intents and purposes, but his parents had been extremely drunk when they'd named him (or something) and they'd given him the same last name as first. Todd Benjamin Todd.

Louise started to mimic Parry. "Todd, whoops, I mean Benjamin Todd, Lisa Turpin, Caitlin Vine, Louise Walters." she simpered.

Harry laughed at the impression. "Okay, what do we do now?" Louise asked.

Harry shrugged. "We can't go to Transfiguration."

"Yes we can!" Louise said indignantly.

Harry simply motioned toward the ever growing mass of carpet. Louise shrugged. "Lets swim through it!"

Harry sighed. "It'd be so much more fun if Lilly and Greg were here. But Hermione would probably tell us to go back to class."

"Well, why don't we get Lilly and Greg." Suggested Louise reasonably.

As if they'd heard, Lilly and Greg appeared at the other end of the corridor, chatting together. Greg had a white bandage wrapped around his fist.

Lilly looked up, and gasped in surprise at seeing a huge wave of carpet coming toward them, and her twin and friend right in its way. "Hazza! Lou! Look out!"

They whipped their heads around, and saw the mass of blue carpet. They got up and started to run. Greg and Lilly joined them when they reached them, and the carpet followed not long after.

"So," Harry panted. "what exactly were you doing down here and out of class?"

"Oh, we had potions. Our cauldron exploded and Greg's hand got covered in potions. He had to go to the Hospital Wing, and I went along for the ride. He told us to come back afterward to clean up, and he'd write us a note for the next class." Lilly explained while she was running.

After a while, everyone but Harry seemed to be tiring. Finally, he gave in. "I'm with Louise," he told them.

"Huh?" Greg and Lilly said simultaneously.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, and they all halted with him. "Orbis" He said loudly, and a few seconds later, a bubble appeared in his hand. He jammed it over Louise's head, where it settled and turned blue. Louise took a few moments to get used to it, and Harry proceeded to make one for Greg, Lilly and himself.

By the time each of them had a bubble crammed on their head, the carpet was not a millimetre away from then. In fact, it consumed them not even a second after they were done. There was a long silence as they all scrambled to find each other. Once they had, everyone but Harry started to panic. How were they to breathe? Harry tapped their bubbles, and breathed out slowly and heavily. He screwed up his nose when it fogged up, and wiped the outside clean with his hand. This also caused the inside to be cleaned. "You can breathe." He informed them, and his voice sounded kind of muffled.

The panic receded and they started to 'swim' through the carpet, which was very tiring.

"To the potions lab?" he asked.

Lilly nodded, but then remembered that he couldn't see her. "Yes," she told him thickly.

He mentally mapped out where they were, and began to make his way toward the potions laboratory. About an hour later, they seemed to have reached a place where there was no carpet, and their heads popped out the side. They looked at each other, with amused/confused expressions on their faces. They were about six foot off the ground. There was no way around it. Harry gave his hand a slight wave and was jolted out of his 'cocoon.'

He then motioned toward the others with his hand, and they came shooting out and landed softly on the floor. Before he gave them a chance to say anything, he swung open the door, and they all trotted in.

They were all enchanted by the wall. It was a swirling pink mass. Lilly reached out to touch it, and Harry grabbed her arm. This cause Greg to grab Harry, and Louise to grab Greg. Now, the swirly pink thing was not an ordinary swirly pink thing.

When Lilly touched it, it turned bright green, and Harry jerked her away in a panic. Her fingers went dark black, and she whimpered. Harry shoved them all out of the room, and pulled her hard. By the time that she'd gotten out of the room, her whole hand was black, and she was crying from the pain, and biting her lip.

Harry was panicking, the wall was obviously cursed. He lashed out with his magic to stop the curse from spreading, and luckily, the sheer power of the magic that he was using was able to slow it down, and hopefully, he would be able to find a cure before she was killed by the spell.

He thought quickly, and, just for appearances, he created a duplicate of himself that looked like one of his alternate identities, and said to himself. "Harry, you stay here. I can handle it."

"But Coby," he moaned to himself. "I really, really, want to come!"

"Harris-y James Potter! You are staying here."

"No!" finally, 'Coby' gave in, and he travelled with them to the headmasters office.

Professor Dumbledore was in the middle of a chat with Snape. He was startled by the sudden appearance of the Traveller with Harry Potter and Lilly Walters, or was it Louise?

This was the same version of the Traveller who had travelled to Snape's seventh year.

"Mr May, what can I do for you?" The Traveller was always angry if someone used his first name without permission, and Dumbledore had never been granted permission. In fact, very few people were granted permission.

Coby looked at him pensively. Harry was impatient. "Cobe, we don't have time! Hurry! Please!" he begged, belting his leg.

Snape waited in sick anticipation for Coby to get angry at the boy. "Hazza, let me handle it." He simply told the irate boy.

Harry wasn't happy, but had to comply with his older self. Snape and Dumbledore looked stunned. The Traveller had basically just allowed the boy to treat him with disrespect. No-one had ever treated the Traveller with any disrespect, and gotten away with it.

"Professor Dumbledore, I understand what you are protecting behind that wall, but you could have at least locked the door? One of your students," here he motioned to Lilly, "Mistook it for the potions classroom, after swimming through a sea of carpet, and as you know, it draws people to it. So, naturally, your student touched it."

Professor Dumbledore's face paled. "Which student?"

"Lilly Marie Walters. Lilly, show him your hand."

Lilly stretched her hand out obediently, and Dumbledore saw the blackened arm. By now it was halfway to her elbow.

"So Dumbledore, I hope you have a cure?"

Dumbledore's face whitened still. "There is only one cure." He choked out hoarsely. "We'll have to chop off her hand. Now, before it spreads even further."

"WHAT!" Harry exploded. "Coby, can't you do something?"

Coby shook his head. "Lilly, I am really sorry. Harry, you do a numbing charm. Make sure that it's strong. Preferably wandless."

Harry stared at Coby. "COBE! Didn't you say not to tell them?" he said, nodding his head at Dumbledore and Snape. Both were looking on with their mouths slightly open.

"Harry, we haven't got time now, okay. Just do what I say!"

Harry pouted, but muttered the charm anyway. "Amoveo Morsus!"

A dull grey ball of light appeared in his hands, like a weightless orb. He held it in one hand and put it to Lilly's arm where it was crossing between black and the normal, paler colour of her flesh.

"Lils, do you want me to blind you for a moment?" he asked, his voice filled with sympathy.

Lilly's face had by now paled to the extent where she looked like she'd never seen sunlight in her life, and she was growing slowly greener. She nodded her head weakly, not really wanting to see her hand being cut off.

Harry whipped out his wand. "Caecus!" Two pale green beams of light came from his wand and flew straight at her eyes. They were automatically clamped shut, blinded, and reopened. Lilly clamped them tightly shut anyway, shivering at how creepy it was to have her eyes open but not being able to see.

Snape and Dumbledore continued to gape. Not only had Potter just done a curse that was mildly dark, but often thought to be impossible to master until you were at least 50. And Potter was hardly eleven.

Coby nodded at Harry, seriousness captured in his now ice blue eyes. "Hold it there."

Harry held the numbing ball with both hands, and chanted softly, as the ball grew in power and size, and lighter in colour until it was completely white. It emanated a coolness, numbing Harry's hands at the same time.

Coby used his index finger to trace a line around Lilly's arm, about a quarter until her elbow, where the rest of her hand would be removed. There was about two centimetres of clean flesh being amputated. Beneath that was a dead black hand which looked a bit like it was a bit of charcoal that had been carved into the shape of an outstretched hand.

Coby began on the spell, closing his eyes t bring the power to the surface, continually tracing around her arm, falling into an almost meditative state. "Aveho mundus, aveho tersus!" He whispered softly and repeatedly.

Warning: Skip if squeamish or under 14.

Harry was careful to memorise exactly what he was doing, as one day he'd have to do it. After about a minute of chanting, he opened his eyes, and removed his fingers from her slowly darkening flesh. He moved his index finger in a slashing motion against Lilly's skin, where a line had appeared. As he did so, the skin ripped and sewed itself back together again, but as he did it more and more often, it started to attach to either side of the arm. But that was just the skin. He did all the skin first, and then reached the muscles. He used the index finger of his other hand to slowly move her muscle to either side, pushing lightly. Soon the muscle faded below the skin, and all he had left was the bone. Grating away slowly at the bone, it was nearly ten minutes before the rest of her arm fell off.

Harry, Dumbledore and Snape fought not to be sick, and Harry concentrated extra hard on the numbing spell. There was a smooth bit of bone sticking out the end of her arm, for about five cm. Coby's index fingers went blue as he started chanting again, and he pressed them softly and gently against her protruding bone, pushing it back under the skin.

The other side of her arm resembled the end of a sausage, until Coby rubbed slowly at it, smoothing away the flaps and making it look more like the end of a pillow, though it was a bit of a sore comparison.

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He then finished the spell, and told Harry to remove the numbing spell. Harry pulled the ball away from her arms, and dropped it on the floor. Once the feeling had returned to his fingers, he put both hands above it and wriggled his fingers like kids did in plays to show that it was raining. The ball became steadily greyer as the magic flowed into his hands through ten different channels, one for each of his fingers. Eventually, it was as small as a marble, and almost completely black. Ripping the bubble that was still on his head, he shrunk it and pushed the little marble sized numbing ball into it and shoved it into his pocket. Then he retrieved the magic from the don't look curse, and Lilly could see again.

Coby leaned down to Lilly's eye level once Harry had countered the Caecus. "Lilly, are you alright."

Lilly whimpered and shook her head. "Hurts," she whispered, her eyes tearful.

Coby nodded. "I know. I once got stabbed in the abdomen when I was fighting in a war. It is going to hurt for quite a while, You aren't going to attend any classes until you're ready to do so, okay?" his voice was soft and tender, making Lilly feel safe.

Lilly, nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. Coby pushed her hair away from her eyes. "You're a brave girl, Lilly. Not many could be this composed when they've just lost their hand." He told her.

Coby stood up and turned to glare at Dumbledore. "In future, I expect that door to be locked. Nothing, not even alohomora should be able to open it." He said coolly. "We don't want to be needing any more hands, do we?" his magic pulsated softly around him, and Dumbledore swallowed. The Traveller had far more magic than him, it would not be wise to argue with him. He finally nodded.

At this, Coby decided it was time to be leaving. Just for effect, he drew his hands across the air, where a silver line shimmered steadily. He grabbed Lilly and Harry, pulling them through the slit. At the same time, Harry and Coby both travelled to pick up Greg and Louise.

Now the office was in a deafening silence, until one of the more quiet portraits spoke up. "If I were you, Dumbledore, Snape, I wouldn't tell anyone about Harry's wandless magic or relationship with Coby." There was a hint of a threat in the voice and they both whipped around.

"If you insist, Lord Gryffindor," Dumbledore said reverently.

"I do." Silently, Godric added to himself, 'If that barmy old man says a single word about my son…' he left the thought hanging, but the rest of the portraits in the office heard, and shuddered.

See, the thing was, portraits could hear the thoughts of any portrait nearby, but they were sworn to complete secrecy. It was impossible for an unvoiced secret to be revealed by them.

Safe in that knowledge, Godric turned to ponder thoughts about what Harry would have to experience that year, and was saddened. If he could only protect his beloved son.

Dumbledore and Snape stood to leave, wanting to get away from the scene as soon as possible. Neither of them noticed when they stood on the discarded black arm.

Once they had Greg and Louise, they travelled to the charms classroom, because they had been gone for more than one and a half hours.

"Excuse me, sir." Said Coby. "Sorry to interrupt, but a few of your students got lost." He pushed Harry and Greg forward. The two scuttled into their seats and tried to disappear from sight. Unfortunately, now that the Traveller had gone, they were on their own and the class had taken to staring at them. "That was bloody brilliant!" Boris Tanner exclaimed loudly, after a few seconds, jolting McGonagall back into teacher mode.

"That is quite enough, Mr Tanner. Potter, why did Walters not join us also?"

"Lilly, Professor?"

"Yes, Potter."

"Well, she accidentally had contact with a certain cursed object, and had her hand amputated. She didn't feel like classes." He replied scathingly.

McGonagall looked shocked, and shut up abruptly. Harry turned to Greg to try and take his mind of Lilly's hand, and signed. 'I really wish we had Professor Day for Transfiguration. Louise, Masobelle and Shane said she's more fun."

"I agree," Greg signed back and they turned back to their matchsticks. He seemed to think that Harry was joking about Lilly's hand, as did Shane and Masobelle, so they ignored it.

Revised: January 2006

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