FAN FICTION AU AND TIME TRAVEL
Flipped
Summary
Female Harry Potter (Juniper) wins the war but the cost is too much so she performs a ritual and performs dimension travel after much research when she is 24. Her counterpart is Cordelia Faye Black, the daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy. Has memories of both the worlds. Lives in France. When Juniper (Harry) seeps into consciousness, she is 14. Born on Beltane. Thus even though she is a girl, she has a high standing among the Blacks. Has gone to Beauxabatons for her first three years. Born on May 1, 1927. Start school in 1938. Goes to Hogwarts in 1942. Meets Tom Riddle. (Romance and power play)
Disclaimer: The characters and the world in the story belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not earning any profit from it.
Note: I have been a fanfiction reader for quite a lot of years before I gave this fic a shot, so if you see any ideas seeping in that I do not openly acknowledge, just let me know and I will add the credits. I have read too many to keep a track of them but I will try my best.
1) The idea of totems belongs to Catsarecool who is writing A Maurader's plan .
2) The basic idea of dimension travel comes from Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning by Aariya07. You will see quite a few similarities in the first couple of chapters but it diverges after that.
3) This is a gender bender. Harry was born a girl as Juniper Anastasia Potter. Everything is as it is in canon except for her romances. This is not because I don't read slash or like it. You will see a lot of them in my favorites but because I don't think that I could do justice to that genre and because I want to do this. If you do not like such fics, do not read. Please do not flame. I will welcome criticisms, I know I am not perfect, just don't meaninglessly bash me for nothing.
For your references
"Talk"
"Thought"
"Parseltongue"
Previously…
Cordelia buried her head is his shoulders, sitting on his one side, her fingers knotted in his hair and one pressed in the small of his back, "You are fine, I am here." She kept muttering into his ears until he calmed down. She did not stop when she felt hot tears on her shoulders. She did not stop when Tom grabbed her and buried his head in her hair. She did not stop when his hands tightened around her as if he was afraid that she was not real. Hours passed.
Chapter 9: The Time Turner
Tom's POV
"Dementors are the worst creations of magic. They are cursed and they are horrible and to be able to withstand the attack of so many…" She trailed off.
Then, there was utter silence and all he could hear was their breaths and heartbeats against each other.
They did not move away from each other. There was silence for another few minutes.
Cordelia did not urge him to talk, she just pulled the chocolate near, tore a small bite and placed it near his lips. He took a hesitant bite but felt warmth surging through him. He looked into her eyes, their foreheads were an inch apart, and he grimaced and rested his on hers. Tom hated being touched, but somehow with Cordelia, it just came to him naturally.
"I did not think I would ever be that miserable." He said slowly, looking up. She did not do anything, not a tightening of arms, nothing, but looked at his face with a composed look.
"I have been miserable, more than I can remember, more than I want to remember, in that hellhole. It was…" He stopped for the lack of a word, "They say dementors make you feel as if you will never be happy. I never thought I would be happy. I hoped but I am a realist, I know certain things, I stopped believing in the just world a long time ago… I.."
Cordelia stayed silent, her grip firm, but she looked him in the eye. Tom swallowed. He did not speak anymore. It was then that Cordelia broke the silence, "There are places darker than one can imagine and dementors make you live them. It might be in your head but it is more real than things you see and know to be real. They drew to you because your life has scars. Dementors suck on them. It just means you have seen more of dark than most people do at a tender age. It might make you feel weak but it is also your biggest strength that you have seen so much and lived. Don't take me wrong. It does not excuse what happened to you and with you. It should not have. Children should never have to see things that aren't ..."She paused, perused her lips, "Children need not be brought up inside a bubble, that is dangerous, but if you expose them to the darkness of world before they can understand things, it's not right, it's not fair. Now people might say that be a man, life isn't fair. But that doesn't excuse it. You went through something and nobody has a right to undermine that, not even you. Life may not have to be fair, but you have every right to grieve or complain about when it was not fair to you. You may not want to and that's alright, it's your grief, and and it's your right to deal with it the way you want. But know this, you might think that I don't understand, but I do, maybe not the way you may want me to, but I understand and I promise you, you are not going back there. We are going to get your inheritance, we are going to do every goddamn thing we have to do to make sure that you don't have to go there. You don't have to talk. I will not ask you to. But I will be there, by my life, I will be there for you, whether you need me or not. I might be a cunning pureblood that you might not want to trust but know this, I can make the world cry for people that I care about. And I care about you, you may not like that too, but you will just have to deal with it. " She said slowly, her voice strong and tears sprung from her eyes by the end of it. She hastily wiped them away and gave Tom a weak smile, her eyes still glistening. "Eat more chocolate, and take some Dreamless sleep potion. You need rest. We will think about dealing with the school later."
"Where are we?" Tom asked quietly.
"They call it the room of hidden things. I did not want to take you to infirmary. Too many questions and I don't trust the rest of Slytherins just yet. So, the dorm was out too. I asked elves for help. They told me about this. It is also called the Room of requirement, quite a nifty enchantment, it becomes whatever you need. We can use it for our plans but that's for later. You need rest, you are exhausted and emotionally drained." She said softly, disengaging her arms from his torso and head and pulling the chocolate bar.
"What happened?" Tom asked, not commenting on her speech at all.
Cordelia had a very patient bone in her, she offered him the chocolate which Tom took without further ado.
"I was walking back. . ." She told him the entire story, including the part where she let Evelyn keep her memory. Something told her that the Ravenclaw was loyal to Tom.
"You fought dementors!" Tom's voice was subdued. He was though nibbling through the chocolate.
"Kept them at bay is more like it." She shrugged. Making it sound low key, "I am good at the charm. Anybody is, once they get the hang of it and I made it a priority long ago."
"You used an injection?" Tom's voice was slightly doubtful.
"Hey, I learned it properly in a French hospital, okay. I did not do it without knowing what I was doing." Cordelia seemed slightly offended.
"I didn't mean to insinuate..."Tom's voice cracked, and he looked worried, he didn't have words but Cordelia's finger found his lips anyway. She pressed her lips gently and firmly to his cheek, "Jeez, I was ...I did not mean it Tom, I was joking but now is probably not a good time. It is your right to know how I healed you and if I did it right."
Tom just looked at her.
"I did something wrong..." She trailed off, "Look I am honestly very bad when I am emotional, so you will have to forgive me for being so forward and I will try not to..."
"What are you talking about?" Tom said slowly. He looked very sleepy.
"Aren't you mad?" She asked.
"I am, but not at you. You…" He began.. "I can't…" He paused again. He sniffled and then looked at her, "I don't know what I did to endear myself to you…I probably didn't do anything, you are just this nice..." He trailed off. "Thank you." He said a while later.
She didn't say anything, just kissed him on his forehead and smiled like an imp. She gave him the bottle for the Dreamless sleep and patted her lap, " Use me as a pillow in case this doesn't give you much relief."
Tom had finished the potion in one swig without protest and slumped against her lap without much thought. He slept for 10 hours. Cordelia had herself curled up after watching over him for six-seven hours. She woke up as the Sunday night was about to begin and She felt herself wrapped around Tom as he was wrapped around her but he was starting to get restless.
It took a while before he woke up completely. Cordelia had run quick diagnostic charms on him to make sure his system was fine.
She had pulled out a food basket out of her trunk. Tom had really looked intrigued at the undetectable extension charm at it and the compartments. She had given him a quick tour of the apartment inside it just to keep his thoughts distracted from his misery.
She told him about the French store that did it and how they won't have too much time in the winter with everything else lined up, they could probably owl order him one.
They had sat quietly at the two chair dining table inside it and quietly ate the muffins.
Cordelia had brought up how Dumbledore would be very suspicious by their absence in the Halloween dinner.
"Old coot." Tom had muttered.
"I have a solution." She had placed, serving more tarts on his plate.
"How can we possibly go back in time again?" Tom had asked.
"You have the solution. We go back in time. I would not have thought of that so immediately." She said, pausing to swallow her French macaroon.
"What? Wait! Are you saying we can go back in time," Tom had looked incredulous, "That is highly convenient?"
"Much of my life as Cordelia has been, credit goes to the Blacks." She had said, dabbing her lips with a napkin, "But that is beside the point. This summer I convinced my Uncle to let me visit the ministry. Since my father has contacts in Department of Mysteries courtesy to his occupation, he got a tour for us. Now, the Department of mysteries is a funky place. They have got a whole room dedicated to study Time and its reversal effects and I had heard from very hushed and unreliable sources that they had a breakthrough recently. They managed to make a device that can reverse time. They are calling it Time Turners. Now, they were mass producing it when I went there, there were 13 pieces. But coincidentally, there was a fire in the department that day and when they were confused, I sneaked one in my pocket." She perused her lips, " Nobody knows about it. My dad was cursing the person into next week in his last letter. I can very possibly land in Azkaban for this or worse, take my family with me so we will have to be very careful, but yes, basically, we can go back in time." She looked at him and shrugged, then moved to puring herself a glass of water.
"You stole from the Ministry." Tom repeated, inclining his head like he could not believe it.
"I did, don't make me feel bad. They were going to store it as a trophy. Its better off with me. I was only interested in learning how to reverse engineer it but I used it once and it works. The only rule is we can't be seen twice. I mean there can't be twins of us roaming around outside where everybody can see and we can't see each other, I mean our past selfs as well. I first thought of going back in time and preventing the dementor attack entirely but it had too many risks. We can go back to 6 yesterday evening. It can go back up to 24 hours. If I recall correctly, I was still at the castle doors then. We will have to use disillusion charms and everything and get out of the room, as soon as I enter this room which was around 6:30, then we are game. We can basically go back to the common room since that is what everybody expects us to do and then we can attend the feast as usual."
"You stole from the ministry." Tom repeated in disbelief.
"Okay, continue making me feel guilty." Cordelia said with a fake smile.
Tom let out a light laugh at that.
"Nobody knows." He asked.
" I quite like myself out of the prison. I would prefer to keep it that way." She shrugged, "So.."
END OF Flashback
Cordelia's POV
And here they were, sitting a few feet from each other after the feast.
Tom was still a bit pale, being in a crowd had put him in edge and he was still losing his energy fast.
She had to intervene. She gathered her book, went across where Renatus was droning about something to Tom. Today, Tom was not even pretending to listen today but apparently Lestrange was really naive.
She plopped herself on the arm of the couch Tom was sprawled in. Tom looked so relieved that she almost laughed out loud.
"Ms. Black , I believe I was having a conversation with Heir Slytherin, It is not only rude, but.." Lestrange began in his pompous drawl.
"Politics can wait, our advanced arithmancy work, I am afraid not. At the risk of sounding a bit impolite, I will have to ask you to excuse us." She posed a fake smile.
"Of yeah, did a find a solution to that advanced problem Professor gave us yesterday. I think I have halfway through it." Tom played right along, completely ignoring Renatus for the moment.
"Oh no, I am at step 10 but I stopped trusting it after 5 so I am not sure, Can you take a look?" She pushed a scroll in his hand.
"Renatus, I really need to look at this. We will continue the conversation sometime later." Tom asked with a little doubt.
"Ah yeah sure." Renatus did not look happy. He left.
Tom made space for her on the couch and she sunk deeper in the cushions.
"What exactly has him so pissed off at you?" Tom asked after they were done with their silent mirth, "Thank you, by the way."
"Don't mention it. The conversation looked dull and beside any excuse to piss off Lestrange is game for me." She said, smiling at him, "And to answer your question, I am not sure. I think he liked me 'romantically' when we were kids, I was pretty, usually quiet, I think that he took that for subservience like people do to Lucretia, but I showed him up badly in this thing. In one of the society galas, he hit Abraxas and tried to pin it on Alphard. I was pissed, I was young, I first yelled the hell out, getting every adult's attention and outsmarting him verbally and when he would not stop his stupidity, I performed an extremely strong bout of 'accidental' magic, throwing him off his ass right across the room. He has never liked me since. Guess he did not appreciate my wit or power." She perused his lips, her eyes falling on Alphard and Anastius and smiling fondly, then looking at Tom.
"I thought you did not know what did it." Tom was smiling ear to ear.
Cordelia let out a musical laughter, then smiled the same fond smile at him, "That's just a figure of speech Tom," hitting him lightly at the knee.
Tom didn't react, he had a faraway look on his face but a slight smile.
Cordelia lightly punched him on his shoulder, 'What?"
"No, I am just imagining a little you, all angry, throwing somebody across room, with red cheeks in a little dress, trying to look intimidating but failing because of how utterly cute it would be." Tom cheekily said.
"I did not know cute was in your vocabulary. I thought you hated mush." She looked at him like he had grown another head.
"I don't hate it. It just doesn't come ...naturally." His expressions darkened.
"That was callous of me. I am sorry." She looked down with a little shame.
"Don't worry about it. It is not your fault." He gave a slight, weary smile, then glanced at the clock, "I should turn in, I don't know why I am still feeling knackered."
"It is going to take a bit before you are back to your full strength. You used a lot of pure magic to keep the dementors away. I would give you more dreamless sleep but I don't want it to stop working entirely on you…" She trailed off, looking a bit guilty.
Tom grabbed her hand, "Hey! You did everything."
Cordelia just nodded and smiled, her face etched with uncertainty and worry.
Tom's POV
The Priest was chanting, Tom's hands were tied to the bed as the matron and two older kids from orphanage hovered over him, trying to exorcise the devil in him. The candle lights, the pain, the blood pouring out from nails in his wrists, as his screamed in the gag tied around his mouth.
Tom woke up with a start, panting, sweating. It took him a while to calm down. He drank water in gulps and lay down again, not willing, not daring to close his eyes, lest he had nightmares go again.
His head was burning. His eyes were too.
He heard the door opening, slowly. He sat immobile, his wand ready, It was Cordelia. He closed his eyes. He did not want her to see him this weak anymore and pretended to be asleep, releasing the hold of the wand.
He felt her cross the room, touch his forehead gently, her hand was warm. He felt that her brows furrowed. She stepped away for a little while. He felt a damp cloth on his forehead. It soothed the burn a little. He kept his eyes closed and then he felt a weight by his side on the bed and gently his head was lifted and placed into what he remembered as Cordelia's lap, her hands were in his hair, gently massaging his scalp.
He relaxed, unknowingly, unwittingly.
The next thing he knew was when he woke up the Monday morning. Cordelia was nowhere to be, but he had slept better than he almost ever did. Maybe it was a dream.
He found out that he was wrong when he felt her creep up in his room every night for the next 5 days and do the same. He didn't let her realize that he was up but he had a feeling that she already knew and was just giving him his space.
It was the sixth day when he found her sleeping, snoring slightly on the library book on a recluse table behind shelves in library that he got worried but he did not know how to quite voice his concern. He choked every time he tried to articulate what her care was doing to him. He did not quite understand what was going on for him.
He decided quite firmly during dinner that he would have to talk to her. She looked dead on her feet. The game was tomorrow morning. The training had stepped up this week, but she had still made time to sit with him individually, sit in the court meetings, they were closing in on the Binns issue and she had not missed a single class. She needed to sleep or else she was going to fall off her broom.
That night when Cordelia pulled his head on her lap and placed her hand on his forehead, he gently grabbed it and opened his eyes wide.
She didn't say anything, she was not startled but she was a bit surprised.
"You can't keep doing this!" Tom spoke softly.
"I …"She began, but Tom quickly got up, threw a silencing and locking spell on the door.
"I locked it with parseltongue."She muttered quietly.
Tom did not pay mind to it, "How many glamours are you wearing Cordelia?" He asked quietly.
She appeared confused.
"You are dead on your feet, you slept in the library. How many days are you going to go without sleep watching over me? " Tom said, his tone slightly angry.
"I don't sleep well sitting but I can manage, I..." She began.
"So you have not been sleeping at all… Cordelia, the quidditch match is tomorrow. I appreciate your concern for me…" Tom begun speaking heatedly.
"It will be fine, I am used to running on low sleep. We won't lose." Cordelia said slightly sharply.
"I don't care if we lose. What will happen if you are up there, flying on the broom and you experience fatigue? What if you drop down Cordelia?" Tom replied back passionately.
Cordelia looked stumped. Tom continued his ire, "I don't care about Quidditch. Never have. Yes, we need to win for the House cup but that does not matter if you are dying out on the field. You are sleeping tonight or I will ban you from stepping on the field tomorrow."
"Relax" Cordelia placed a hand on his chest.
"No, I am not. I didn't say anything in all the previous days because I didn't realize that you were not sleeping at all!" He threw a glamor canceling spell at her. There were bags under her eyes, her face was paler.
Tom's brows furrowed more, "What have you been doing yourself?" He lightly touched her face with both his hands, pushing her curls behind her ears.
"I…I was worried. I knew you were not sleeping well and the dementors worsened it. I had to do something." She said lightly, her shoulders sagging, her tired eyes widening.
"I appreciate it, I do. I don't think…..it doesn't matter. You can't keep doing this." He shook his head.
"I damn well can." Cordelia's jaw was set stubbornly.
"I am not asking you to stop." Tom said patiently, "I am just saying that we need to look at a more feasible solution where you are not killing yourself, trying to save me." His jaw was set as stubbornly as hers.
Her shoulders sagged in slight defeat.
"We are working out a schedule. That we will do later, you are tired and you are sleeping tonight. I am not wasting more time talking or sending you back to the girls' dorm. Sleep." Tom commanded.
Cordelia could not resist, she started laughing at his stubborn demand.
"I am serious." Tom said in a little irritated tone.
"That's my great Uncle actually." She beamed back cheekily.
Tom began, but before that Cordelia mussed up his pillow, took his blanket and sunk into the bed, "Happy."
"Very!" Tom said sarcastically, "I am going to read. Good Night," He added softly.
Tom had slumped on his desk by morning. He woke up as sun rose and the light distinctly reflected back from the window glass under the lake. He groggily opened his eyes, Cordelia was sprawled on his bed, breathing softly.
"Cordelia…" He softly murmured, "Wake up, you have the match in a couple of hours. You need to eat breakfast and..."
Cordelia mumbled something incoherent, squeezing herself into a fetal position and burying down further in the blanket.
Tom could not keep a chuckle inside. She looked adorable.
She made an irritated sound from the back of her throat.
Tom touched her hand and she woke up faster than lightning, her wand pointed at him, kneeling on his bed. Her eyes were wide, her long hair were completely tangled and she was in a pajama and a long half sleeved silk shirt. She looked haggard but still managed to look dangerous.
"Err…"Tom opened his mouth.
"Oh My Morgana, I am sorry Tom, I am very easily startled when I am sleeping uninhibited like this." She put down her wand, looking slightly dazed. Tom reckoned that was probably because she was still sleepy.
"That's okay. You need to sneak out or you will be late." Tom informed.
She just nodded, releasing her tight hold on the bedcover and getting out of the bed. She had a match to play and win.
As promised, here is the next chapter! The next update will on 26th. It will have the Quidditch match, which I believe some of you were waiting for. Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites.
To the guest reviewers of yesterday, thank you for the wishes and the praise. It helps me write better.
To Kassie Jean: I would have responded normally but you have your PM disabled. I understand that. I am not sure how to respond to your reviews. Cordelia is cut off from the rest of the world with no support system. If you would have read my comments below the chapter/interlude, you would have known that she only made the journey herself because she was a child of magic and could take the strain. Siddharth likely cannot. I am not giving more on this because it will give spoilers to a possible future arc of the story. I am also a bit confused about why you would want her to be all alone. She is alone, yes, but if there is a possibility of hope that she could see her loved ones again, why is that so bad? Just because she is here to save Tom and the world, does not mean that she has to give up everything. She might have to, but she is not bound to it. I guess it is my way for giving her a way out, away from Tom. What I meant to show was that despite the out, she would always choose Tom, because that is who she is, a self-sacrificing women, molded that way by her circumstance. Also, the interludes are an integral part of the story, and are not separate from it. Cordelia had and has an identity beyond Tom. She always will. Just because she loves him, does not mean otherwise. As for her locking away her emotions, she is focusing on Tom. What I meant to show was a literal version of shutting off your emotions when you mean to reach your goal. It never works. It probably will not work in her case as well, I say that in advance, she is going to break down before she intends to. But that does not mean that she would not try it. That is how real people work. Most real people cannot take all the shit in the world and do some good. I am just trying to show that a woman is allowed to be imperfect and still be likeable. I hope that answers your comments.
To Guest reviewer of previous week and for everyone concerned about the cat, Tom is imperfect too. Just a lighthearted way to show it. Also, a disclaimer, the idea comes from a slash Tom/Harry Time travel fic, whose name I cannot recall. I tried searching but could not find it. If anybody knows, please let me know. I will add the credits.
To Blerb, thank you. I am trying to make it detailed while keeping a natural pace. I am not sure if it was working but your review helps.
And PLEASE READ AND REVIEW
