'This is a LOTE'

A Tale of Two Times

AU 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 didn't realised Voldemort had a spy in Hogwarts and was trying to steal a dangerous artefact.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Fighting Harry

March: 1012

"Uncle Gareth, please?" Harry looked him in the eye. King Gareth looked squarely at Gills, and handed Harry the key.

"Hide it, please," he begged. "I never want to know where it is. It would be too cruel to Jaylynn."

Harry nodded, already thinking of a place where King Gareth would never find it.

March: 1992

There was about 100 square metres of dirt, with a little green plant protruding from the soil about every thirty centimetres. Susan took one look at them and clamped her hands firmly over her ears. Shane, Hermione and Harry noticed this and copied. Masobelle, having gone first into the room, stepped forward and stood on one of the plants. Almost instantly, a long and eerie wail was emitted from the dirt. Harry, Hermione, Susan and Shane felt dizzy listening to it with their ears covered. "Bellé?"

There was a silence. "Bellé?" Masobelle was standing right in front of them, but she wasn't moving. Harry poked his wand in each ear in turn, whispering a spell. "Desino Salvus,"

Pointing his wand at himself, then her ears, he signed to Hermione 'May I do a spell so you won't hear?'

Hermione signed back her assent, and asked the others quickly, signing to him that Shane and Susan would like him to do it for them too. Then, standing over the strange, unidentified plants, he stared into Masobelle's eyes. He breathed out a sigh of relief. 'She's still alive, just… well, paralysed.'

'Great,'

Harry nodded. Putting his wand in her ears, he muttered the spell to block out sound and motioned for the others to follow him after placing her in a more comfortable position on the side of the room. 'But Harry,' Hermione signed. 'We can't just leave her here!'

Harry sighed, and waved his wand in the air, writing out his answer. 'She'll be fine, and besides, she wouldn't want Voldemort to rise again just because we waited for her to become unparalysed,'

And with that, they proceeded easily to the next task.

"Isn't this the forbidden forest?" Shane asked once the localised silencing charm had been removed.

Harry frowned. "I think it is. This must be the part where our magic warned Greg and I off."

Hermione's sharp eyes scanned the area. "This is Pomfrey's obstacle. She was pointing to a silver, conical object with grooves down the side. She indicated that there was one in every corner. Looking carefully, Harry could see a fine silver web spread all over the ground.

"We have two options," Harry informed them. "Either I levitate you across,"

"Or we Travel?" asked Hermione hopefully.

Harry shook his head. "Sorry. Still not working. Our other option is to pretend we're monkeys and climb across."

"Levitate." The three others said as one.

Shrugging, Harry told them to wait. After climbing across the trees himself, since he was unable to levitate himself, he levitated the other three over without any hassle. "What's next, Suzie?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"Doesn't sound promising," Hermione muttered, kicking the base of the tree.

"Oi!" Harry shouted, startling her. "Don't kick that! We need to climb up that!"

"Climb up it?" Hermione gulped, looking at the 100 meter high tree.

Harry nodded. "It's not hard." He hoisted himself up onto the lowest branch, and waited for the others to follow him. After climbing for about fifteen minutes, he came to a trapdoor. Peering in, he sniffed.

"Rotten wood. Doesn't help. Okay, guys. I'm going to jump down. If it's safe, I'll call up to you." They gave him the thumbs up, and he pinched his nose, before jumping as if it were a lake he were going into, not a musty tunnel. When he emerged from the other end, seeing nothing immediately going to attack him, he called up.

"It's an underground room of some sort. Not very big… I'd say a square prism, 3 meters long and wide, 2 meters high. There're roots and stuff growing in the walls. Come down,"

There was a whoosh of air and Shane appeared, closely followed by Susan and Hermione. "There," Susan was pointing to a box near what appeared to be the exit. "That's the strange thing I saw."

Suddenly, the 'strange thing' appeared. Because it had seen Harry first, there was a flash of green light and Godric lying dead on the ground. "Boggart," he choked, turning away to regain his composure. "Riddikulus!" There was an ear splitting crack and it turned to Susan.

The room turned even darker than it had been before, and not a single thing was visible. "Riddikulus!" she shouted, copying Harry, a hint of panic in her tone. The darkness vanished, and she breathed a sigh of relief, and Hermione stood up to face it.

"You're expelled, Miss Granger!" McGonagall's voice echoed through the small room, before petering out. Hermione was shaking as she held up her wand and shouted out the spell. When McGonagall didn't disappear, she started to panic. Harry came up behind her and held her shoulders. "Think of something to make it funny."

She nodded resolutely, and pointed her wand at the boggart, no longer afraid. "Riddikulus!" McGonagall became a cat, and was mewing 'You're expelled, Miss Granger' at them. A giggle escaped her, and finally, it was Shane's turn.

He faced the boggart, gritting his teeth. The boggart quickly morphed into someone that none of them knew, and started calling Shane a wimp. Shane turned pale, and pointed his wand shakily at him. "Riddikulus!"

When the spell didn't work, he said it again, his voice still wobbling. He tried several more times, but was unable to master the charm, despite the hints that the others were giving him. "Come on, wimpy. You poor old Mummy and Daddy would be so ashamed of you…"

Shane was clutching his wand so hard that Susan was surprised that it didn't have his fingermarks gauged into it. Harry, deciding that Shane wouldn't get it, pushed him aside, the same image of Godric appearing again. After shouting "Riddikulus" one last time, the green light turned purple and made Godric turn purple too, and the others laughed loudly. The boggart vanquished, He slid down on the floor next to Shane.

"Shane?" There was a silence. "Are you okay?"

Shane shook his head. "Do you want to come to the next thing?"

Shane shook his head again. "Do you mind if we leave you here?"

Shane once again shook his head. Harry nodded, and patted him on the back. He, Hermione and Susan proceeded through the next door.

March: 1012

Helga hitched Alassë onto her hip and ran to Rowena and Godric's quarters. Crying. Rowena emerged with Maíread and gave her a questioning glance.

"Sal left when he found out," she said simply.

Rowena's face crumpled, and she enveloped Helga in a hug. "He took Nova too," Helga explained. "Said that she was powerful, and therefore worthy to be his protégé." Rowena rubbed her back.

"It'll be okay, Helga. If Sal thinks like that, then he's not worthy of having such a wonderful wife and daughter."

Helga nodded. Harry appeared and took Maíread and Alassë. "What's happened?"

Rowena made a face for him to be quiet, but Helga stopped her. "Alassë is a Squib, so Salazar left us. He took Nova, because she's more worthy of being his daughter. Also he-he-he told me he was having an affair!" she wailed. Harry stepped back, startled.

"With who?" Rowena asked gently.

"Pathros Fasset."

March: 1992

"HOLY MACARONI!" Harry yelped. Norbert was standing in the middle of a large chamber, at least ten times the size of the previous one. Although he was asleep, he was blocking off the far wall.

"There's another door behind him," Susan told them. "But how on earth will we get past a dragon?"

Harry chewed his inner lip. "I honestly have no idea."

"What about your sword, Harry? What will you be able to do to it with that?"

"I could stab its wing. Then it would wake up and maybe we could run through the door when it jumps away. But I would be much more comfortable if I had my own sword."

"Why don't you get it? And you have your own sword?"

Harry nodded. "Dad had it specially made. And I can't go get my own sword. Remember? My stupid powers aren't working."

"Still?" When he nodded, Susan smiled sympathetically.

"Do you realise we've gone from having nine to having three?" Hermione asked.

Harry glowered at her. "I was aware. I was merely trying to ignore it." Norbert gave a loud roar, signalling that he had awoken, and Harry jumped to avoid the flame that came shooting from his nostrils.

"We could do with an invisibility cloak right now," Susan muttered.

Harry jumped up and hugged her. "That's perfect, Suzie!" he kissed her on the cheek and suddenly vanished.

"Harry? Where are you?" Hermione asked.

"There," Susan pointed. "How'd you do that, Hazza?"

"It's a trick I learned before I even knew that magic existed. I never thought that it would come in handy except in wars, though. Can you distract him? Be careful."

Invisible, Harry snuck up on the dragon, while Hermione and Susan danced around in front of it, shooting little, annoying spells at it. Finally, Harry was underneath its wing, and when the great leathery structure came crashing down, he pierced it with the sword. Norbert let out a snarl of pain, and jumped away from the door. Thrashing around, he knocked Susan over with his tail, making a large gash in her shoulder.

"OUCH!" Susan screamed, clutching her shoulder as Hermione dragged her toward the door.

"We can't leave you in here with a dragon," she explained. Norbert roared and let out another jet of flame, making Hermione twist in a strange way to dodge, and run extra fast for a second, scrambling through the door, Susan closely following her, and Harry slamming the door heavily and leaning against it once they were all in the room.

"That was close," Harry muttered, wincing as Norbert roared in a rampage in the next room. For the first time he noticed Susan's shoulder, which was losing a lot of blood. "Hermione, fix her." He demanded, as he pulled the grey numbing ball out of his pocket and reboved the bubble charm and made it bigger so that it would numb Susan's shoulder.

Hermione looked taken aback. "Harry, I don't know the first thing about magical first aid! How do you expect me to fix her?"

Harry groaned, bracing himself. "I was going to let you work it out for yourself, but umm… you'reanatuarlhealer."

Hermione's eyes blazed. "What?" she asked dangerously.

"You're a natural healer." Harry repeated slower, looking slightly afraid.

"HARRISON DEOGOL GRYFFINDOR! HARRY JAMES POTTER! WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS!" she roared. "I'VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT WITH YOU AND YOUR SECRETS! First you lie to me about who you are, and who marvin and everyone else is, then you don't tell me THAT YOU AND I ARE MAGICAL, THEN YOU DON'T TELL ME WHO YOUR PARENTS ARE, THEN YOU DON'T TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ABILITIES, THEN YOU DON'T TELL ME ABOUT ME BEING A NATURAL HEALER!" she burst out in tears. Susan turned away diplomatically. "I thought I meant more to you than that? Why did you have to hide all that from me?" she whispered.

Harry stared at her, stricken. "Nee…"

"Don't 'Nee' me, Harry!" she replied fiercely.

He dropped his sword on the ground, and walked over to where she was standing, and enveloped her in a hug. "Merlins beard, Hermione, no! It's not like that!" he squeaked.

"Then what is it like?" she demanded bitterly, pulling away. "I don't get it, Harry! You say you're my best friend but then you hide all these things from me."

"I was wrong!" he admitted, throwing his hands up. "I thought it would be best, but I was wrong. Hermione, you are my best friend. You always will be! I'm sorry. Truly, I am so sorry,"

Tears gathered in her eyes. "You mean that? Really and truly?"

"Really and truly," Harry affirmed, clasping her hand. Blushing, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. She flushed ten shades of red. Neither of them noticed Susan's mile wide grin. After about a minute, Hermione turned to Susan.

"Let's see your shoulder." Susan pulled her robe down slightly, so that Hermione had full access to the mauled body part.

"Harry?" she asked, still blushing. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I'm not sure, but Madam Dana says that you don't need training, but it's a lot harder without. I think you just have to concentrate on healing the wound."

"Madam Dana?"

"The school nurse in the past. She's a natural healer. Actually, come to think of it, you should take lessons. Do you know any natural healers that are alive at the moment?"

Hermione shook her head, concentrating on Susan's wound, wiping up the blood with a rag that Harry conjured for her.

"Well, I can ask Madam Dana if she'll teach you, if you'd like."

Hermione smiled widely at him. "Thanks." A few seconds later, Susan's shoulder was almost completely healed, but there was still a bit of scarring, which Hermione explained to her. Susan nodded, and they looked around the room to see what their next task was. Hermione let out a gasp.

"It's a sphinx!"

She had the body of a lion, with the head of a woman. "It's blocking the doorway," Susan said dryly.

"Obviously," the sphinx spoke. "I can only let one of you through, however you may all help with the riddle."

"Riddle?" Hermione asked, excited. Harry and Susan looked apprehensive. "Let's hear it!" Hermione continued, enthusiastic.

The sphinx sat on the ground, covering the doorway, and recited:

'First is the dawn of damage,
the thing at the end of concord.
Next is found in the middle of war,
the first thing you get from abhorred.
Third is the last object to shatter,
the second last thing of Dark Lord.
Last is the crowning of lark,
the beginning to killing if bored.
What is the answer, must I spell it out?
What could the world do without?

Hermione was scribbling on a piece of paper that Harry had conjured for her. "Nee?" he asked hesitantly.

She looked up. "Hmm?"

"Have you worked it out yet?"

Hermione looked shocked. "Of course not!" she furrowed her brow. "Dawn of damage?"

"The letter 'D'." Susan offered quickly. Hermione flashed her a smile. "Thanks, Suzie."

"Harry, you take the next bit." Hermione instructed bossily, ripping off a scrap of parchment and handing it to him. When he looked, he saw that it had the next two lines scrawled on it in Hermione's immaculate hand.

'Next is the middle of war, the first thing you get from abhorred.' He considered the line, and cast around in his brain. "Well," he muttered. "Although war comes from hatred, I doubt that's what they mean." He looked over to where Susan was sitting a scrap of paper on her lap, puzzling over it. Then he turned to the other side of the room, where Hermione was sitting with a serene look on her face as she surveyed her part of the puzzle. Remembering how Susan had worked out the first part, he quickly scanned it. "I got my part!" he exclaimed. Hermione and Susan scrambled over to where he was sitting.

"What is it?" they asked eagerly.

"The letter 'A'. I think they all mean letters. They must spell something."

Hermione and Susan looked at their scraps of paper. "You're right!" Hermione exclaimed. "Mine says 'R'."

"And mine's 'K'." Susan interjected

"D.A.R.K. Dark." Harry said simply.

Hermione and Susan examined the riddle, before nodding approvingly. Harry got up to go tell the sphinx, but Hermione grabbed his hand to stop him. "Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Do come back." Harry smiled lightly, and promised her that he would.

Going through the newly opened entrance, Harry was surprised to find himself once again above ground. He grinned as he realised that he was surrounded by spiders. "Hello, I'm Harry Potter," he began clicking. The spiders suddenly seemed to multiply, listening to him carefully. "I'm in a spot of trouble. I'm looking for the Key of Aeti'Quial, have you seen it around?" There came a nattering of sound, but it was all so fast and quiet and unsynchronised that Harry couldn't understand it. "Sorry?" he clicked, "Look, can I pick one of you up, and you answer me?"

"Yes," came a chorus of voices. Leaning over, Harry picked up one of the larger ones. It was the size of his palm.

"I am Aradyv. We have seen the Key, Harry Potter. Aragog is looking after it for Hagrid."

Harry nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. "Aradyv, I really need the key. I'm not going to use it for bad – I'm going to stop someone bad from using it."

Aradyv nodded, as much as a spider can nod. "Like the bad man who came through earlier? He killed Araken, my brother."

Harry was quick to reply. "What did the bad man look like?"

"He had brown hair, a thin-ish face." Harry cut him off, nodding.

"Lynch," he said, more to himself than the others.

"We will take you to Aragog?"

Harry nodded, and put Aradyv back on the floor softly. The spiders started to make a formation and lead him further into the lair of Aragog. As they went further in, the spiders that they greeted became bigger and bigger, until finally, there was Aragog.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter," Harry began, trailing off as he realised who was trying to convince Aragog to give them to Key.

"Professor Kantooth!" the Professor turned around, and smiled evilly.

"You thought it was one of the others, didn't you, Potter? After all, who would suspect fantastic, teacher of the year, would be working for the Dark Lord?"

Harry shivered as Kantooth's eyes hardened. "No matter. You can be of use to me," he muttered.

"Aragog! Let me have the Key, now!" Harry shouted in spider talk. Kantooth looked at him in confusion.

"So you speak the language of the spiders, eh?" Kantooth sneered.

Harry nodded, feeling the power of Travelling coming back into his veins and almost sighing with relief.

Aragog had been thinking, but now he gave Harry and Kantooth an answer. "I will let you into the room with the Staff. Only one of you will be able to get it."

He shifted his massive body, and they saw a trapdoor. Harry, Travelling slightly to get a lead on Kantooth, was at the trapdoor and in second before Kantooth was. Kantooth didn't seem to realise how Harry had done what he had, which was a relief, as Harry didn't think that letting Voldemort know who he was would be such a great idea.

Harry breathed in, realising where he was. Kantooth frowned at him. "Master, where is the key?" he asked, whilst glaring at Harry.

A hissing voice, with a touch of Parseltongue edging the tone answered him. "Use the boy! The boy knows…"

"Potter!" Kantooth demanded, using a strange spell and making Harry walk over to where he was standing, causing a lot of pain. "Where is the key?"

Harry shrugged, while surreptitiously using a spell to dig a hole where he knew where the key was. "Suzie might have been able to tell you, but I can't see through solid objects!" he defended.

Kantooth began to scour the room with his eyes, stopping at anything that was slightly out of place. Harry caught the Key in his hand and slipped it into a time pocket. "Boy!" Kantooth barked. Harry jumped. "Where is it?"

Harry shrugged. "I told you, I can't see through solid objects. I don't know where it is."

"The boy is lying," a hissing voice came almost immediately.

Harry shivered. "Where's you dirty little master, Kantooth?"

"How dare you speak of the Dark Lord, dirty little half-blood!"

"Let me handle it, Kieran…" the hissing came again.

Harry whirled around. "Where is he!" he asked angrily.

"Let me speak to him!"

Kantooth look afraid, and pulled up his sleeve. Pressing a black mark upon his forearm, a shadowy figure emerged in the room, like a ghost. It was Voldemort. Harry clutched a hand to his forehead.

"Potter… you have been an obstacle in my path too long! You have the Key, and I will get it, once I kill you! Kantooth, get him!"

Kantooth leapt forward, and clutched Harry's arm. He hissed as their skin made contact. "Master! I cannot touch him! Master!"

"You useless fool, Kantooth!" Voldemort shouted, and pushed him away. Grabbing his wand, he levelled it at Harry. "Avad-,"

Harry cut him off, "You know," he drawled. "You'll never get it off me once I'm dead… I don't think that anyone will ever be able to get it of me, once I'm dead."

Voldemort turned to face Kantooth. "Is this true? Is the boy capable of such a spell?"

Kantooth nodded, and Harry grinned smugly. "No matter," Voldemort said, contemplating. "Potter. I have an offer for you."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "What is it? Join you and I'll be rich, famous and great? Oh, yeah, I'm in!" he said sarcastically. "In case you haven't noticed, I have everything I could ever want!"

"Your parents, Potter. I could bring your poor mudblood mother and muggle loving fool of a father back."

Harry threw back his head and laughed. "You wish, Mouldy!"

Voldemort lost his temper and Harry's world dissolved before his eyes.

May: 1992

"Harry?" Harry stirred. "Harry?" His eyes slowly opened.

"Hermione?" he asked groggily. Hermione flung her arms around him.

"Harry, you're awake!"

Harry frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've been in a coma since March!" she exclaimed. "Everyone's been so worried."

He looked around. "Where are they? When is it now?"

Hermione patted his pillow and sat back in her chair, prepared to explain everything that had happened since March.

"When you and Kantooth were in the cave, Voldemort got angry and let out a lot of his and Kantooth's magic. Kantooth died, and you were sent into a coma," Hermione explained.

"It's a good job that you managed to keep the key out of Voldemort's reach, but Professor Dumbledore is still looking for it." Harry grinned at Hermione cheekily. "Once he finds out that you're awake, he'll probably come and try to find out.

"In the meantime, Susan and I decided that the best thing would be to head back, and get everyone to the hospital wing or at least slightly healed. Shane just needed an anti-shock potion and some chocolate, whereas Masobelle needed some complicate potion that not even I've heard of. Marrok was fine after his main wounds had been healed, and so was Greg. Lilly and Louise, of course, had nothing wrong with them. As we came up to the gates, Dumbledore entered, I think he used the same spell as you did. We told him what happened and he hurried there, letting us through and sending us to the hospital wing.

"Rumours have been flying around all month, though. Some people think that Kantooth was eaten by a massive plant, which then started on you, but you got out in time, so you were only in a coma."

Hermione rolled her eyes, and she and Harry said as one, "DENIAL!" before bursting out in laughter.

Hermione grinned at him. "I was worried, you know," she said softly, before, "I thought you were going to miss out on your exams!"

Harry moved to hit her, but was struck by a jolt of pain running up his arm. "Ow!"

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, but was cut off by Madam Pomfrey.

"MISS GRANGER! I told you to tell me if he woke up!"

Hermione gulped as the strict matron glared down at her. "I just wanted to talk to him!" she yelped.

"You can talk to your boyfriend when he's not sick, Miss Granger."

Harry and Hermione began to protest. "He's not my boyfriend!" Hermione corrected.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Harry exclaimed, scandalised.

Madam Pomfrey raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.

Authors Notes: Though it may not seem like it now, I am completely unsure of the final pairing. By final I mean, what the pairing will be in seven books time. I can guarantee that it won't be whatever it will be in canon though. Also, that One Shot you've all been begging me for, can be found in my profile under "Belonging to Time, A Glimpse In Time" as will be all future one shots. Um, Forum, also in profile, check it out…

Concrit appreciated. And did anyone besides alayneni guess who the spy was?

Until the epilogue,

Sarah