Chapter 19: The Tyranny of Evil Men

Draco did the same transfiguration downstairs with Dumbledore's body as he had with Voldemort's. Harry had gone quiet, only nodding when reminded to help put the room back together. There wasn't much they could do about the structural damage—holes in walls, and the like—but the Shack didn't actually look or feel much different than normal after clearing the metallic tang of magic out of the air.

"Where's your dad's Cloak?" Draco asked Harry.

"He'll have tucked it below the Whomping Willow."

"Let's go, then."

In all honesty, Draco didn't mind Dumbledore being removed as an obstacle for tonight's job. He also couldn't say he was upset in the slightest to have had a hand in Voldemort disappearing. Harry likely didn't consider himself worth feeling anything north of rubbish, but they had somehow managed to make something out of a terrible situation. What Harry said after hitting Voldemort with the Killing Curse was correct: relieving Voldemort's body of its soul fragment was nothing new for him. It just hadn't cost Harry his mother this time. In hindsight, Draco couldn't believe they hadn't actually planned this—or at least considered it—in the event Voldemort needed to be summoned as a helping hand.

They reached the Whomping Willow. James' Cloak was balled up tight in the nook of a root. Draco threw it around his shoulders, followed by the hood once Harry was similarly covered by his own. They climbed out. All Draco could hear was the wind rustling distantly through the Forest's trees. There were few enough clouds scattered across the sky for the moon to light the empty grounds.

Harry took Draco's hand, and they headed off for the castle. They ended up inside the north tower. Like when they'd come to see about the Vanishing Cabinet, they ducked into Classroom One. With their Cloak hoods pulled down, Harry stepped closer so that Draco could put the Spacetime Turner around his neck.

He didn't make to move after time had halted for them. Draco turned his face toward Harry, his thumb finding cheek after gently cupping Harry's jaw. A kiss seemed to melt them to an equal degree, however chaste it was.

Draco studied Harry as best he could in the near-complete darkness. "The shock seems to be wearing off."

"It's. . .whatever," Harry replied. "I was prepared for the possibility Dumbledore wouldn't stand down. It's like you'd said: he was never much a fan of handing over one teenaged boy to save the wizarding world."

"We did our best." Draco removed the Spacetime Turner from around Harry's neck. "It's all we can say at this point."

"Yeah."

Harry pulled Draco by hooked fingers toward the classroom door. While they headed up the spiral staircase, Draco started to wonder ahead on what they ought to do with Dumbledore and Voldemort. They hadn't planned to walk away from the Shack with any bodies.

They came out on the fifth floor, headed southerly for the eastern tower, and then made a right. Moonlight streamed through the windows, and reflected off the immobile lake below. At the southern tower, Harry led Draco up two more floors. The staircase came out close to a long, narrow corridor. At the end of it, the portrait of a woman snoozed in eerie stillness.

"This is as far as we can get without running time," Harry said.

Draco was already halfway to digging the Spacetime Turner back out. "Come here."

When they jumped back up to the fourth dimension, the woman in the portrait started to move again. Her shoulders rose and fell in time with her snoring. She was ignorant toward Draco and Harry fully covering themselves with the Cloaks again.

"Thaumatagoria," Harry spoke up at her.

The woman gave a sleepy snort without opening her eyes. "Exceptional, dear. . ."

"Stay quiet," Harry whispered to Draco. "There might be students in the common room."

Draco crept through the hole, being mindful that the bottom of his Cloak didn't flutter upward to reveal a foot. Sure enough, what looked to be a couple seventh-years worked on homework in the squishy armchairs by the fire. One glanced up, but dropped their gaze again with a broad yawn.

Harry pulled Draco toward a staircase. The signage on the doors started with sixth-years, seventh, and then rounded back down to first. Harry opened the one for the fourth-year boys and led Draco inside.

There were five beds—all of which would be empty behind their curtains. As soon as the door was shut, Harry's head appeared.

"I'll take my dad's Cloak back to the Whomping Willow," Harry said. "I shouldn't be long."

Draco nodded.

Harry went invisible again after stuffing James' Cloak away. The dormitory door briefly opened, and then Draco was alone. He waited until Harry's footsteps faded away before taking off the Spacetime Turner. It caught the moonlight as it gently swung from the chain, and then glowed with a wave of Draco's wand.

Runes lit up inside the casing. Draco had seen these particular ones enough times to confirm without checking his journal that they remained in the same universe. He hadn't expected much else. They didn't know anything about the future of this timeline, so everything they did defaulted to the actions required to keep them in place. It wouldn't even matter if killing Dumbledore and Voldemort shifted them somewhere else. They had still done it. To have to return to the correct timeline in order to try again for Ron would only mean it had been for nothing.

Draco hung the Spacetime Turner around his neck again and cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. The windows were a good size for somewhere to sit. Draco conjured a cushion and slouched with one foot rested on the opposite side of the stone frame. This dorm was two, maybe three storeys below the astronomy tower's top. A class would be due to start once midnight hit. With the window open, Draco could hear a much younger Professor Sinistra addressing her class. Torches went out as telescopes started their skyward point.

Draco stiffened when the dormitory door opened a while later. Apparent-nothing slipped through, and then Harry's head reappeared. He looked around the room until Draco cast a silent finite incantatem on himself.

"All right?" Draco asked.

Fully visible with his Cloak away, Harry leaned against the wall beside where Draco's foot rested. "Kind of a redundant question, isn't it?"

Draco shrugged. "I suppose."

"Budge up, would you?"

Draco shifted instead to sitting with his legs pretzeled. That left enough room on the ledge for Harry to join him. Their knees touched once he'd settled in a mirrored position. Harry sighed as he rested the back of his head against the frame. He closed his eyes briefly in a lengthy blink, his stare long on the other side of it. It directed somewhere toward Ravenclaw Tower.

"Harry," Draco eventually spoke.

Harry made a noise of acknowledgment in his throat.

"After earlier. . ." Draco paused. "I wouldn't blame you if you chose to be Obliviated, regardless of what Theta says."

Emotion flickered across Harry's face before his brow furrowed. His gaze came to Draco, head lolling with it.

"No," he said. "I wouldn't do that."

"You wouldn't rather forget?"

"Why? Would you?"

Draco shrugged. "It only feels surreal, to be honest. The Shack is like a distant dream already, and I can say from experience that that feeling is only going to grow stronger when we go home. Once again, Dumbledore will have died in 1997, and Voldemort in 1998. Ron will be alive and well, with no memory of this place. This universe will feel as if it never even existed."

"So why would I choose to be Obliviated, then?"

"I'm telling you I wouldn't take it personally, if you did. We found a way to sort ourselves out if you don't have the choice, so. . ."

"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think I could live with it," Harry replied. "Ron's always been the most important person in my life. He was the first family I ever had. He was my first real friend."

Away from the immediate situation with Dumbledore, a dull ache was more free to weigh down Draco's heart when he heard that this time.

"Ron stuck with me through everything—the war, and all the other bollocks that came with being around me." Harry looked back out the window. "Now that we're adults and life is kind of normal, it's easy to take that for granted. It's been hard these past few weeks not seeing him, especially when it hits all over again that he's technically dead. If I went home without him, it would be to tell everyone—and telling them he's gone would make it real, you know?"

Draco pressed his lips.

"I really could have just lost my best friend," Harry quietly continued, that lengthiness returning to his eyes. "When we were younger, Ron never thought he measured up to anyone around him. I guess we all had those moments. The thing is, I never understood it when he did. I never saw that. Ron meant too much to me. I guess now I know just how much, and you know what? I'm okay with that. Ron would probably be appalled that I was willing to duel alongside Voldemort, pull the assist on Dumbledore being murdered, and cast a Killing Curse at anyone. I love Ron though, so everything I've done to get him back is absolutely worth it to me."

Draco rested a hand on Harry's knee. His thumb moved mindlessly over his trousers' fabric. "Anyone would be lucky to be your friend. Usually people will only go this far for blood, if even that."

Harry assessed Draco, after which the ghost of a smile manifested. "You wanted us to be friends once."

Draco scoffed. "Literally once."

"That's why I have such a hard time believing you fancied me at Hogwarts, if you didn't really like me."

"That was irrelevant to the matter." Draco returned Harry's smile. "I was more taken by the possibilities of what fun we'd have if given the chance to corrupt you."

"What's the verdict, then?"

"Assuming I managed?"

Harry's amusement flickered. "You don't think you did, after all this?"

"You were always willing to go to the end of the world for someone you love," Draco said. "You were always fiercely loyal. It only seems different now because your moral imperative clashed with those who once lined up with you on that. Dumbledore, your father, and everyone else standing between you and Ron are all good people. So are you. . .just not here, in relation."

Harry considered it for a moment. "Put to words, that's pretty much the reason I decided to speak for you at your trial. I would have challenged anyone to do anything different, if put in your position without the benefit of hindsight. See how they act when it's their family on the line, or Voldemort breathing down their neck. Not very many ever had the misfortune to experience him as personally as you and I did."

"No."

Another silence passed before Harry spoke again. "So you believe that people don't really change? It's just that they look different based on the world around them, and how all of that relates to what they value?"

"That's a fair statement."

Harry started to play with Draco's hand. "So you don't believe you corrupted me because you just don't believe that corruption really exists."

Draco nodded. "Also fair."

Harry hummed.

"What about it?"

"If you don't believe there's such a thing as corruption, you must not believe in redemption either."

Distant torchlight sprung up in the corner of Draco's vision, on top of the astronomy tower. Draco glanced up in time to see a few heads retreat from the edge. It sounded like Professor Sinistra was dismissing her class for the night.

"No," Draco quietly replied. "I don't."

The night fell quiet once the entire castle had given to sleep. Draco and Harry sat in similar silence until a very distinct howl from deep within the Forest jogged them back into some sort of motion. They had two bodies to deal with, as well as the fact a furious Voldemort would soon begin his long journey back to power. Harry was very much of the opinion that they ought to try and right that if they could. It led to him sifting through Ron's trunk for a piece of parchment, quill, and ink.

"Wouldn't you rather the children be left out of it this time?" Draco had turned on the windowsill to better face the room, one foot dangling. "We shouldn't put it on them to stop Voldemort, like it was put on you."

"Adults are useless," Harry muttered. "I don't want to put it on my dad either, but kids are more open-minded. Even Dumbledore didn't want to believe that Voldemort has more than one Horcrux. He hadn't figured it out on his own, like back home."

"At the very least, we shouldn't be putting all of our eggs in one basket," Draco replied. "It wouldn't hurt for multiple people to know about the Horcruxes, so long as we can feel certain that information wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

Harry slowed a little in his search, then looked over. "Who do you think we should tell?"

"Moody and McGonagall."

Harry hummed. "You don't think us having been responsible for Dumbledore's death is going to cast doubt for them?"

"Moody already knows there's something strange about us," Draco pointed out. "It won't take much to convince him that we were full of it when we visited the Auror office that one day. As for McGonagall, she's Head of Gryffindor and Deputy Headmistress. She's already going to be dealing with Dumbledore missing come morning, as well as a student from her house—not to mention, said student's distressed friends. McGonagall might as well have something hard to refer to."

Harry bunched his lips off to one side as he returned to the window. "All right. . .so how can we piece all of this together?"

"I thought of a way to deal with Dumbledore and Voldemort's bodies, so we could try to tie it in with that, as well."

"Lay it on me."

Draco's idea wasn't by any means guaranteed to work, but that was the same for anything else too, really. Harry counterpointed a few of Draco's thoughts, and then they both agreed on what was probably their best chance to unload what information they could in the process of washing their hands clean of this universe. While Harry wrote the letter intended for James, Draco worked on Moody's. McGonagall's was essentially a copy, with the names changed.

James' went into his trunk. Dumbledore's transfigured body was included in the envelope containing McGonagall's letter. Moody would receive Voldemort's. Their wands would go similarly, both useless in this universe now that they technically belonged to Harry.

Draco tucked the two letters away in a pocket. He pulled his journal out instead, as well as the Spacetime Turner, to adjust the coordinates he'd intended to use for brief return to this universe after the job was finished. There was a bit more to do now than originally planned in settling their final departure.

"The boys can't be much longer," Harry said.

"No," Draco agreed. "We ought to get into position."

He put his journal and the Spacetime Turner away while Harry collected all five of the boys' wands. He hesitated when he found Ron's in his bedside table.

"It's actually his," Harry said as response to Draco's lifted eyebrows.

They cast Disillusionment Charms over themselves, and lingered close to the dormitory door. Draco's hand twitched when Harry's brushed against it. Draco squeezed tightly after they'd settled together.

He jolted when he heard a soft thump out on the staircase. Harry let Draco go, and Draco switched his wand back from his left hand. The sound of someone stumbling came from right outside the door, followed by shushing. Draco tilted his head back to make his breath less audible when the dorm door opened.

Four pairs of feet were visible, since the Cloak wasn't large enough to cover them all. The door closed, someone sighed, and the Cloak came off with a flourish. Ron fished a lump out of his pocket. He set it on the floor, and then Wormtail appeared as a boy again.

Sirius yawned widely and loudly. "Sweet dreams, all."

Harry's Disillusioned arm moved in the edge of Draco's vision. Draco wouldn't have even noticed it if he didn't feel the movement of air first, followed by subtle changes in the room. Harry went through the process of sealing the door shut and soundproofing the entire dorm.

He dropped his Disillusionment Charm after that, and Draco followed suit. Lupin, the one standing closest to them, gasped and jumped back when Draco illuminated the room's torches.

"HEY!" James bellowed, and leapt for his bedside table.

"Don't bother," Harry told him. "I have all your wands."

"Oy!" Ron blinked at them before gaping. "You're those Unspeakables!"

"Well, he's an Unspeakable." Harry jerked his head toward Draco. "I'm actually an Auror."

"Oh no," Wormtail groaned. "We're so busted."

"We aren't here for that," Harry replied. "I won't lie to you, though. You're going to wish we were investigating unregistered Animagi."

The five boys fell quiet. Ron and Sirius stood together in front of Draco and Harry, while Peter and Lupin hung back. James returned from his bed to stand at Ron's other side. None of them looked tired anymore. Uncertainty had taken over.

"We're going to tell you all the honest truth." Harry kept a calm and even tone. "We aren't from this time and place. We're from a different universe altogether."

Sirius frowned, taken aback. "Universe?"

"Dimension, if you'd rather call it that," Harry said. "Whatever makes the most sense to you."

"What're you doing here?" James asked, brow similarly furrowed. "And here, in our dorm?"

"Yeah!" Ron agreed. "How did you even get in here? And how did you know we would be gone? Or did you break in expecting to surprise us while we were sleeping?"

James and Sirius both took an uneasy step backward along with Ron on that note, sizing Draco and Harry up with new eyes. Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Versions of you exist in our universe too," he said. "We know what you lot get up to on full moons, so we knew you wouldn't be in here tonight. We didn't want to scare you any more than we already had to by just popping up like this."

"You know us?" Sirius perked, intrigued. "What're we like?"

"You're you," Harry flatly replied. "Look, just because we didn't mean to scare you doesn't mean you're going to be happy with what we're here to do."

What little bit of a smile had risen on Sirius' face fell away.

"Like I said, I'm an Auror," Harry told them all. "We're also from a year later than 1975. This whole war with Voldemort has been over for a little while, but some of his followers escaped arrest. My partner and I were chasing one, and he jumped through a hole that brought him here. Dra—er. . ."

Draco gave Harry a shrug for the near-slip on his name when he looked over, then turned to the boys. "When his partner fell through this hole, he became a part of your universe in such a way that he lives here no differently than anyone who actually belongs. None of you can see it. No one can except for us, because we know from comparing things with our own universe what's different."

"So. . ." Ron blinked as he thought that all over. "You want our help, or something?"

"We don't need it," Harry said. "We know where my partner is, and the time's come to take him home. He's one of you."

They all shared nervous looks again.

"What do you mean, take him home?" James asked. "Away from here?"

"Yes."

Sirius' eyes were wide. "To never come back?"

"Once he gets home, he'll return to who he's supposed to be," Harry told them. "He won't remember anything about this universe, or who he was."

It was Ron who voiced the dreaded question: "Who?"

"You."

Ron inhaled sharply through his nose, his freckles becoming more obvious as he paled. He took another half step away, and James and Sirius closed in tighter on him.

"Your real name is Ron Weasley," Harry kept on. "Molly and Arthur are your actual parents. You and I met on the Hogwarts Express at the start of our first year. We've been best friends ever since. We went through the war against Voldemort together, and then Auror training after that. You're married with two kids, and just turned thirty-one a few months ago."

While Harry spoke, Ron shook his head. He looked increasingly alarmed. "That's mad. How can you say I'm not real?"

"I'm sorry." Harry quietly sighed. "I know it doesn't seem right, because you have an entire lifetime of memories. We intend to prove it, however. We aren't going to make you all take us at our word."

"The way back to our universe is to construct what's called a rune annulus," Draco told them. "We're going to do it right in here. Whoever wants to come with us will see Ron become his real self, and then be brought back unharmed—"

"Unharmed?" James cut him off. "Not if we're going to be missing our friend!"

"Ron's right, this is mad," Sirius spoke. "You know, there's something odd going on here. You say you're from the future, and you really do look like Narcissa's fiancé. How do we know you're not full of it? All this bollocks about universes and dimensions. . ."

"Yeah, how do we know you're not lying?" Wormtail piped up from the back. "Maybe you just want to take Ron from us!"

"That's why we're offering to take any other volunteers," Draco replied, trying to keep patient. "You'll see with your own eyes. If we're mistaken about Ron, nothing will happen. Are you so confident he belongs here that you won't test it?"

"Why should we have to?" Sirius shot back. "If you're actually a Malfoy, I don't trust a single thing that comes out of your mouth! I know what the Malfoys are all about, and who they're in with."

Draco sneered. "Do you."

With a gasp, Sirius pointed at Draco. "That's the exact same way Lucius Malfoy always looks at me—"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Harry said while pinching the bridge of his nose. "We aren't trying to hide who we are from you—obviously, otherwise we would've disguised ourselves. Don't you think? We aren't telling you our names because it doesn't matter. Whoever we are in our own universe doesn't have anything to do with any of you, whether we're related or not. Just because Draco is a Malfoy doesn't mean he's actually your cousin's son."

"It matters when he shows up here, trying to take one of my friends!" Sirius bellowed. "How do we know you're not taking Ron straight to You-Know-Who, huh? How do we know that any of us who go with you won't just disappear along with him?"

"This isn't a negotiation," Harry snapped at him. "You're all wandless. You're all locked in here with us. Quite frankly, you have no idea what we've done to get here. Ron is leaving with us."

"No I'm not!" Ron yelled. "Fuck you!"

Wormtail ran for the dormitory door, and nearly fell back with the force he tried to open it with. "Bloody hell, they really did lock us in. Help! HELP!"

"It's soundproofed too," Harry spoke over Wormtail's fists pounding wood. "Come on, Peter. Back over here—"

Sirius lunged forward with a snarl. A quick flash of red light from Harry's wand hit him square in the chest. He was sent back, Ron and James each catching an arm.

"What was that?" Wormtail whirled around and clapped his hands over his mouth. "Is he all right?"

"Stunned," James replied with a glare at Harry.

"Look," Harry sternly said. "We could just as easily do the same to the rest of you and get this done. We could lock you in the bathroom, and drag Ron out of here kicking and screaming. Is that what you want? Or would you rather have some closure? Because believe me—and I'm telling you from personal experience—you really do not want to spend the rest of your life wondering whatever came of him on the other side."

A beat of silence spare the boys' laboured breathing passed.

"Can we, erm. . .?" Looking twice as awful as the full moon had already done, Lupin moved closer to where Ron and James eased Sirius down onto the floor. "Could we all just calm down, and—? Surely there must be something we can do. There has to be another option."

Harry shook his head. "There isn't."

"You're going to take our friend away, just like that?" Lupin asked, voice strained. "What are we supposed to tell his mum and dad?"

"My mum and dad," Ron repeated, then looked desperately back to Draco and Harry. "I can't leave them. Not like this. They—they won't even have a. . ."

He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"You won't know the difference," Harry told him. "When we go home, Gideon will be your uncle again. Amelia. . .honestly, you're not actually related to her."

"She's my mum." Ron's voice wavered, and his eyes started to shine. "You mean if I go with you, she won't even know who I am?"

"She knows you," Harry said with just enough hesitation for Draco to notice. "Like I said though, you won't know the difference. You won't remember that she was your mum. Molly is, and she would want you home if she actually knew you were gone. So would Bill and Charlie, and your other siblings. Your nieces, your nephews, your wife and kids."

"I don't know any of them." Ron harshly shook his head. "I don't want to go. Come on, there's got to be something."

Harry just sighed.

"This really doesn't seem right." Lupin was trembling. "If one of you is a Malfoy, how are we supposed to trust that you're not just lying? How do we know you aren't just Lucius in some sort of disguise?" He looked to Harry. "And who are you, then? How come you won't just tell us? Why are you keeping secrets when you expect us to trust you?"

"We don't expect you to trust us." Harry drew a deep breath. "It's not required for what needs to be done. Ron is coming with us, no matter what. You can't stop us. The only thing you lot need to decide is if you're going to take us at our word that Ron will be all right, or if you'd rather see it for yourself."

"Could you revive Sirius?" Lupin asked.

Harry pointed his wand at Sirius. "Ennervate."

Sirius pulled in a long breath, then jolted upright into a sitting position before lightly grimacing. He rubbed his chest where Harry's Stunning Spell had connected.

"Clear the centre of the room," Harry told them all. "We need to set up the annulus."

"Still on about that, are you?" With some difficulty, Sirius got back to his feet. "What evidence do you have that any of this is on? What's up with the rest of you?" Sirius looked at James, Lupin, and Wormtail. "You're really going along with this? What about you?"

Ron was pale again, beginning to shake. "They're not giving me a choice, Sirius."

"Well, I'm not giving up that easily." Looking every bit the arrogant Black, Sirius lifted his nose and gazed imperiously past it at Harry and Draco. "I challenge you to a duel. Give me my wand back, and we'll settle this the honourable way."

"You're a fucking idiot," Ron said in a flat tone. "And you're not duelling an Auror and Unspeakable for my life. Bloody hell."

"And why not?" Sirius snapped. "Someone has to do something!"

Harry's lips quirked. "I'm not duelling you."

"Why not, scared you'll lose?" Sirius retorted, and then scowled at Draco. "Think it's funny, do you?"

Draco had tried to hide amusement with pinched cheeks. "Adorable, even."

"Duel me, then!" Sirius said. "Let's see what happens!"

Draco looked at Harry. "Can we just get this over with? We're certainly no match for a fourteen year old—"

"I'm fifteen!"

"I'm not duelling you, Sirius," Harry told him. "I'd rather not leave you blaming yourself for Ron being gone."

Sirius waved a hand and rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't have taken all of our wands unless you were scared we might overpower you."

"Yeah." Harry sighed. "You really got me there. Clear out of the way so that Draco can put the annulus down."

None of them moved.

"If I've got no choice. . ." Ron quietly said, then looked around at the others. "I don't want you coming with me. If they're taking me straight to You-Know-Who—"

"Don't be thick," James cut him off before looking urgently to Harry. "You said if you're wrong, Ron will stay who he is?"

"That's right," Harry confirmed.

"So they could be wrong!" James said to the rest of the boys. "And you said that if you were wrong, you'd let Ron come back. Right?"

"I don't think we got far enough to say that explicitly, but yes," Harry said. "If we have the wrong person, then this is where Ron belongs. It wouldn't be right to take him away."

"But what if they're taking him straight to You-Know-Who?" Wormtail interjected.

"Then we face You-Know-Who!" Sirius retorted.

Ron still shook his head. "How would any of your parents know, if you all die? I don't want that on me. Just stay here, I mean it."

"No," Sirius was the first one to say.

While they descended into an argument about it, Draco looked at Harry. They shared a mutual sigh. This was starting to feel like herding cats.

"Hey," Harry spoke over them all. "Move aside so that Draco can put down the annulus. While he's doing that—which takes about two minutes—you have a decision to make. Who's coming?"

James' eyes widened. "Now hold on—"

"No," Harry firmly said. "This is enough. If we wanted to hurt you, we already would have. You're defenceless right now, and nobody can hear anything from outside the dorm. We've explained everything that you need to know."

James moved to stand in front of Ron. "You say Ron's your best mate. What if someone came and told you he wasn't real, and they were taking him away? How would you feel?"

The tip of Harry's wand, which he'd been holding loosely toward the boys and now happened to point at James, trembled slightly. "I would be devastated."

Eyes shining, James dropped his voice to such a volume that Draco was surprised he even heard his next words. "I'm not blind, you know. I think I can tell who you are."

Harry froze.

"If I'm right. . ." James steadied himself. "You would really do this to me?"

The air stuck in Draco's chest. The other boys fell equally quiet. They at least couldn't—and never would—comprehend the significance of James standing like this between a wand and someone he loved. Nor, how relentlessly Harry and Draco had hunted a teenaged boy.

Harry steeled himself with a slow inhale. "Clear the centre of the room."

"Didn't I raise you better than this?" James asked desperately.

Harry's shoulders rose and fell with his breath. "You never had the chance."

James' breath stopped on an inward hitch.

"You're going to survive this time." Harry's tone flattened from forcing his voice even. "I don't know if that means you'll still have me, but. . .I promise I'm not a bad person."

"Any son of mine wouldn't be like you, anyway," James said, cold. "He'd never be you, even if he was."

"No," Harry agreed. "Not if he has you and Mum this time."

A silence passed, in which James stared at Harry. He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as developing upset overshadowed his resentment. "I'm sorry, Ron."

"For what?" Ron nervously replied.

"I'm just sorry." James ran a hand through his hair. "Looks like this is kind of my fault."

"It's really not," Harry said. "It's nobody's fault. It's just how it is."

"That's pretty easy for you to say, isn't it?" James shot at him.

Crossing his arms, James moved back over to his friends. He kept his back to Draco and Harry, but a bowed head and wet sniffles as he toed the floor made it pretty obvious what he was doing. Sirius, Ron, and Wormtail eyed Harry critically, while Lupin put a hand on James' shoulder.

"You're absolutely sure that's who he is, James?" he asked.

James nodded.

"Then. . ." Lupin sucked in a slow breath. "If he's James'—why would he try and trick us about Ron?"

"They could still be wrong." Wormtail started shaking again. "We could go there, and Ron could stay himself."

Ron looked sickly from how pale and sweaty he was. "You don't have to come with me—"

"We have to see," Sirius practically croaked. "We have to know, and we're with you, Ron. The whole way."

A heavy silence fell. Sirius, Lupin, and Wormtail's faces lengthened, and more eyes started to shine. Sirius' face crumpled before he clutched Ron in a tight hug. James joined them, and then all five were a clump at the centre of the room.

Harry had bowed his head as he just focused on taking long, steady breaths. Draco touched his left hand to get his attention. Harry's eyes were crisp when he looked at him.

"You, me, and Ron," Draco whispered.

With a jerky nod, Harry cleared his throat. "I'm not saying it again. Clear the centre of the room."

The boys peeled away from each other, faces wet and breath short. As much as Draco wanted to get this over with, his chest ached as the lot of them finally moved aside. It wasn't right to see these boys give up. It wasn't right to have forced them to.

They watched Draco in defeated silence as he waved his wand to clear the floor. A couple rings laid down, and then Draco brought out his journal. He started placing runes.

"So, erm. . ." Ron quietly spoke, then cleared his throat. "What sort of runes are those? They don't look like anything we've learned in lessons."

"A more modern script," Draco replied with a glance in the boys' direction. "You learn them in the NEWT years, apparently."

Ron's face couldn't go longer as he watched the next rune Draco drew settle. "I can't believe I was worried about the homework for Tuesday."

Wormtail started to cry again, his breaths coming in gulps as he tried to hide it from the others.

Ron sniffled. "How does this circle thing work? What are the runes for?"

"They're coordinates," Draco told him. "Inside an annulus like this, they take you to other universes, and then times and places within those universes. You can use them to travel around inside a single universe as well."

"That's how you time travel?"

"One of the ways. There are a few different methods."

Ron chewed on his bottom lip while Draco carried on. "Will it hurt if I change into this other me?"

"No," Draco said. "We performed a test extraction with the Death Eater you were chasing. He didn't realize that anything had happened. As far as he knew, he was just suddenly back in London after having been in the south of France."

"Who was that?" Sirius asked. "The Death Eater?"

"Corban Yaxley. The one who disappeared in 1943."

Sirius breathed a little harder. "My mother and father were here when he did. The whole family still wonders sometimes what happened to him."

"I'm sure they do," Draco replied. "If your parents happened to be in the Slytherin common room on the Saturday morning before Corban disappeared, they might have seen us. The two visiting Unspeakables."

"They mentioned that there were some." Sirius looked alarmed. "Sometimes my father and Uncle Cygnus start thinking that maybe Corban disappeared into the Department of Mysteries. He did, then?"

"In a manner of speaking. He's alive and well back home, although Azkaban-bound. Death Eater and all, you know."

"Yeah," Sirius whispered under his breath.

Draco set the second-last rune into place, which was where he stopped. He looked at Harry. "It's ready."

Harry joined him at the centre of the annulus. "Who else is coming, then? Last call."

No one said anything until Lupin stepped forward. "We do it together. All of us."

The others nodded, some lips trembling even though they all tried to stand straight with their shoulders back.

"Let's go, then," Harry said. "It's time."

They all looked about to toss. With a deep breath, Ron crossed the line first into the annulus. The others quickly followed, as if afraid they might be left behind.

"Sit down," Draco instructed them. "Otherwise, you might fall over from how dizzy you'll get."

They didn't seem to trust the instruction, although tentatively followed suit when Harry lowered himself first. Draco placed the final rune, shutting them off from the universe and halting time as it naturally ran there. Sirius and Ron scrunched their noses up as they looked at the flattened dormitory. Their attention returned to Draco as he too sat down, beside Harry.

Draco extracted the Spacetime Turner. Some curious interest flickered through the boys as they looked at the flowing polychoron at the Turner's core. Lupin tilted his head, lips parting, as the runes reflected back onto the spherinder and gimbals.

Once they had settled into place, Draco turned them up to the sixth dimension. The coordinates dragged them off with various lurches of the stomach. As the boys adjusted to the sensation, their attention returned with dread to Ron. The Ministry's travel room manifested around them. As reality deepened, Ron started to breathe more heavily.

He disappeared. In his place sat someone twice his age with a beard not unlike Harry's. Ron wore an Auror uniform instead of the jumper and trousers he had been.

He scowled as his gaze focused on Draco. "Malfoy!"

"Ron," Harry quickly said as Ron readied himself to pounce. Arm in front of Draco, Harry stood up. "It's all right. He's helping."

"Helping, my arse!" Ron leapt to his feet.

"Just relax, all right? You've been away for a while," Harry told him. "It was Lucius at the house."

"Lucius," Ron repeated under his breath, head bowed and fists clenched. "Where's Yaxley? How long was I away? Is that a Time Turner? I thought they were all destroyed—"

"Ron?"

It was James that spoke. He, Sirius, Lupin, and Wormtail had all backed away toward a wall after rising. Their devastation deepened when Ron turned to face them.

Ron froze for a long minute, the whirring of his mind nearly audible as it worked to make sense of the situation. He looked back at Harry first, and then around the dimly-lit and red-tinged room. His gaze went to the blank annulus on the floor. It came next to Draco. Ron studied his uniform. The furrow in his brow deepened as he gave the Spacetime Turner a longer study.

"They were right, weren't they?" James spoke again. "You don't remember us at all."

Ron opened his mouth a few times, then looked to Harry for help.

Harry rubbed his neck. "Er, just make yourself comfortable for a few minutes, would you? We need to take them home."

Ron drifted toward the wall behind Draco and Harry. With folded arms, he peered past them at the boys. His uncertainty turned to discomfort when they all started getting emotional.

"You really took him away from us," Sirius spoke through a series of gasps. "You really did it."

"I told you what was going to happen," Harry replied as he and Draco stepped back into the annulus. "Come on."

The boys resigned to it. They looked absolutely exhausted, depleted, and everything in between.

Ron had taken a leaned position against the wall. He flattened along with everything else once the last rune was placed. Draco turned them off for the other universe.

The dorm reappeared. None of the boys seemed capable of moving. Harry stood so that he could extract their wands from a trouser pocket. He separated Ron's, Voldemort's, and Dumbledore's out, and then tossed the rest onto the closest bed.

"Off you go, then," Harry told the boys.

Their legs didn't seem to want to cooperate. Draco went about changing the runes again, hesitating when James stopped. He stared at Harry, expression inscrutable. Then, after bowing his head, he just kept on toward his bed. James had only taken a few steps before he froze and flattened along with everything else.

Harry rubbed his face, pushing his glasses up when doing the same with his eyes.

Draco sighed. "It's done."

"Not quite," Harry said. "This night isn't over yet."

"Right," Draco quietly replied at the reminder of everything yet to do. "A few more miles to go."