A long and deafening silence followed his words. The confusion on Minerva's face did not disappear but intensified even and was accompanied by a wariness that made Harry cringe.

"What?" she asked quietly but without much emotion in her voice. His heart was beating fast against his chest, and he didn't know if the lack of emotion in her reaction was a good sign or not. He silently begged any higher might that Minerva would understand why he had done it, nothing more. She had the right to be hurt and angry and everything, but he hoped she would understand when she heard the whole story.

"I travelled in time, I'm not the Harrison Potter you think I am," he paused, not exactly knowing how to continue, but at his words, the witch beside him had turned her head to look at Albus quietly asking the Headmaster if Harry was telling the truth.

"Yes, he is telling the truth, but I'm the only one who knows," Albus answered her, and Minerva looked back to Harry. The confusion had vanished, but now she hid her feelings behind an unmoving mask.

"Who are you?" she asked, and Harry wanted to answer, but it was Dumbledore who spoke first.

"I think it will be better if you have this conversation alone, you can-" but Minerva interrupted him, her eyes not leaving Harry's, and there was a part not hidden by her mask because he could see the hurt she felt in her eyes.

"No, I want you to stay. You're the only one who knows if he is really telling the truth."

"Who are you?" she asked again, and Harry took a deep breath to calm himself down a little, with no success. Still, he began to speak, his eyes holding the glance of Minerva's eyes.

"My name is Harry James Potter. I'm the son of James Potter and Lily Evans, born on July 31th 1980. Voldemort went after them because of a prophecy made about him and me, naming me as the only one who can defeat him. A year later, on October 31th his hunt came to an end when my parents were betrayed, giving him the chance to murder both my parents...when he tried to murder me, the Killing Curse reflected. He unwillingly turned me into a Horcrux but was forced to flee on the verge of death, only surviving because of the other Horcruxes he had created." Harry paused and gave Albus the time to confirm his story until now.

"I became famous as the Boy Who Lived. Albus brought me to my Muggle Family, where I grew up being abused and neglected, not knowing about our world, what my parents or I were, being told they died in a car accident. That only changed when I got my Hogwarts letter. I attended Hogwarts and started to learn everything about the Wizarding World and had to stop Voldemort from coming back two times. But in my fourth year, he rose again, and the Second Wizarding War began. It took us three years to defeat him and the lives of many good people, who died fighting him." while he spoke, memories flooded his mind, memories of Cedric, Voldemort, Umbridge, Sirius, Albus, the Horcrux hunt and the battle, memories of all the people who had lost their lives.

"We lived in peace for a decade, rebuilt the Wizarding World and did our best to heal the wounds Voldemort had left in everyone. I was working as an Auror and in 2008, one Unspeakable, Severin, wanted my help in the Department of Mysteries. He tricked me and sent me back in time. He and an Unspeakable here discovered a hole in time and used me to test it. I was sent back here to fight Voldemort again. They said that they did it so I could save some people, but now I realize all they did was forcing me to stand by and let history repeat itself. They informed Albus of what they did, using my originally dead uncle as a cover, telling him I volunteered. Now I'm here without friends and family. Everyone I loved is either not born or can't know about me."

"You know what happened then, since the day I arrived here was the day I had the interview with Albus. But whatever these two bastards did wasn't as foolproof as they thought. When I watched the meeting, I wasn't attacked by another Death Eater. I was somehow pulled in between times, I could see what happened in my old timeline, but my body was still at the mansion. I- when your other self arrived in the old time, and I touched her I- heard you screaming and immediately I searched for a way back. When I kissed the other Minerva, I was suddenly back in the forest and did exactly what I told you before. I only wanted to get you out of there." Harry told her. Minerva had closed her eyes. Her mask was crumbling; a mix between hurt, betrayal and worry flickered across her features.

Carefully he reached out, and his heart was speeding up again, beating so hard in his chest he was sure the other two could hear it. Again Harry begged. He wished for nothing more than for a spark of hope that he hadn't destroyed what they had beyond repair. And when he laid his hand on top of Minerva's, to his great surprise, she didn't flinch back or pull her hand away from his, but she also made no attempt to hold his hand. He could only hope that this might be a sign that she didn't hate him.

"Minerva, I can assure you that Harry was telling you the truth. What he said is a hundredth per cent conform with what the Unspeakable Chronos told me. I also suspect that somehow he and his partner had something to do with what happened to Harry because Chronos fled when he got notice of my arrival in the Department of Mysteries."

Suddenly Minerva stood and took a deep breath, "I- I have to go." she turned around and went to the fireplace through which she quickly flooed to her office. Both wizards were silent for a few minutes. Neither of them was ready to say something with Minerva gone. Harry laid his head in his hands before running them through his hair, staring at the front of Dumbledore's desk.

"I had to tell her, Albus...I couldn't lie to her anymore, not when she went through this."

"I understand, Harry. You don't have to explain yourself to me. But I think you should talk to Minerva alone." Albus said, and Harry sighed before he got up.

"Thank you, Albus." with that, he also vanished through the fireplace.

When Harry arrived in her quarters, he was met by silence. He saw her standing before a window with her back towards him. He stayed where he was, he wanted to give her space.

"Minerva? Can I talk to you?"

"I-" she spoke up, but no other words followed for a few moments. "I think I need some time to think about everything, Harry," she answered, and Harry swallowed, but then again, she had the right to think about everything she had heard this evening.

"Of course, you can have all the time you need. I-" he wanted to say I love you, but he couldn't say it, not at this moment, not because his feelings had changed, but because Harry didn't want to put even more pressure on Minerva. He didn't want her to feel forced into anything when he had all but stained their relationship.

"Good night," he said instead and left her rooms. As he made his way towards his own chambers, Harry felt strangely relieved despite what had happened. Harry didn't regret telling Minerva the truth about him, she had deserved to know it, and it felt good that he didn't have to lie in front of her anymore. He'd rather not be together with her than being a couple and lying to Minerva, even though Harry worried about what Minerva was going to do, give him another chance or deciding he had betrayed her trust beyond repair.

Harry was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't even notice he had arrived in the corridor of his quarters until he nearly walked past them. Upon entering, Harry paused for a moment and sighed. Not bothering to turn on the light, he got out of his outer robe throwing it over his sofa, leaving him only in his shirt and trousers. After all these years, Harry still preferred Muggle clothing under his robes.

He went over to his liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of Gin. Standing in front of one of the windows in his living room, watching the dark grounds trying to think of something else and with the taste of the alcohol, a memory invaded his mind. It was the one of his twenty-fifth birthday when he had been gifted a box of Blast Ended Gin from Hannah, who had invented the drink as the new owner of the Leaky Cauldron naming it after the damned Blast Ended Skrewts Hagrid had bred in their fourth year. Ultimately turning him into a fan of Gin itself and, funnily, many others as it became one of the most popular drinks at the Leaky Cauldron.

Suddenly the sky opened up, causing the full moon to enlighten the dark grounds causing Harry's eyes to catch some movement in the dark near Hagrid's hut. For a moment, he tensed, but then he recognized the shapes. A stag, a wolf and a big black dog all made their way into the forest, and probably there was a traitorous rat with them. For a moment, Harry thought about turning into his own Animagus form and following them but then decided against it.

Harry emptied his glass, poured another one and then sat down in front of his piano. It turned out he wasn't in the mood for any piece, in particular, constantly abandoning the ones he played before they ended. Harry just played tunes that came to his mind, and after a while, his thoughts wandered back to Minerva. His fingers began to hit the keys, lead by the emotions he felt when he thought of her. Before Harry knew it, he had created a piano piece that described what he felt for Minerva, and he ended up playing it again and again until the sun started to rise on the horizon.

At the beginning of the new day, Harry stopped playing and went to take a shower. Trying to focus on something else, he thought about the training of his parents and their friends. He had memorized most of the Auror training methods, but what he lacked was material. Some of it he could compensate with the Room of Requirement, but even the room had its limits. As Harry wanted to avoid an awkward situation at breakfast, he called a House elf and asked him to bring him a small breakfast he ate in his quarters, coming up with a training schedule for his five students.

Now the only thing he really needed was one of the Auror Training Dummies, which had been invented in 1975 and had been still in use in the Training when Harry had been trained as an Auror. With a few minor upgrades over the years, but the original ones still had the same purpose as the new ones. These dummies were highly charmed objects so that they, depending on the year of training, could reproduce jinxes and curses which had been cast on them before, like a real enemy in battle. But there was one problem, the person responsible for the dummies was none other than Alastor Moody.

So when Harry was finished for the day, having no lessons in the last period of the day, he ate an early dinner in his office. He had also skipped lunch for the same reason he had skipped breakfast. Harry walked down the pathway to the Gates so he could apparate to the Ministry. Unknown to him, a pair of green eyes watched him walking away from a window on the first floor.

Upon his arrival in the Ministry, Harry was greeted with its usual hectic atmosphere and made his way towards the elevators with a big group of Ministry employees. Finally, in the Auror Bureau, he was welcomed by several people and not really knowing them, he simply waved his hand at them or gave them a polite smile.

That was until a door at the end of the corridor opened, and it turned out it was the door to the office he had searched for.

"Potter! What the hell are you doing here?" the younger version of Moody barked while he limped out of his office and towards Harry. He looked like the Moody he remembered. The only difference was that he had not as many scars, a normal nose, and his hair was not completely white. But personally wise, he surely was still the same.

"I need to talk to you about something, Sir," Harry said, not sure how his old self would have talked to Mad-Eye, so he decided on a more formal way, he was confident that Moody wouldn't hesitate to make him run laps or something for being disrespectful.

"Hmpf, I thought your new purpose in life was trying to teach ungrateful little dunderheads magic," Moody grumbled at him with one raised eyebrow.

"That's sort of the reason I wanted to talk to you Sir, could we speak for a moment?" Moody only turned around with a grunt and walked back inside his office.

"What are you waiting on?" Harry shook his head, trying to continue looking serious but barely succeeded. He hadn't realized until now how much he had actually missed Mad-Eye. Once he stepped inside the office, the door closed and immediately locked itself, and he was face to face with Moody's wand.

"Who are you and don't even think about lying to me, or you'll end up faster in Azkaban than you can say trial!" of course, this was bound to happen. Harry sighed inwardly and raised his hands in surrender, a second later, his arms were tied to his body by robes.

"Please let me explain, there is no need to imprison me or anything-"

"I will decide about that! Who are you?" fuck, he hadn't planned on telling more people than necessary, but Mad-Eye sure as hell wouldn't buy his lies. Harry was also convinced that Moody wouldn't turn him in or anything if he knew his secret. He was also sure he wouldn't tell, which might be helpful in the future.

"Do you have Veritaserum? I won't resist it, and otherwise, I'm pretty sure you won't believe me. If you want, you can contact Dumbledore and ask him if what I told you is the truth." Harry said calmly.

"Your either very smart or very stupid," Alastor said and moved towards his desk, his magical eye surely watching him and catching the slightest movement he was making. Moody returned with the truth serum and stood in front of Harry, his wand pointing at his chest. "Open your mouth." Harry did as he was told, and Mad-Eye let three drops fall into his mouth. A slight foggy feeling overcame Harry, but he was still fully conscious.

"Who are you?"

"Harry James Potter and Harrison Potter. My Parents are James Potter and Lily Evans."

"How can you be Harry James Potter and Harrison Potter?" Moody asked, slightly confused. He knew Harrison had a younger cousin named James who, to his knowledge, was still in school.

"I was born as Harry James Potter to James Potter and Lily Evans in 1980, but I was sent back in time in the year 2008 and am now Harrison Potter who originally died in 1977." now that was truly surprising if what this Harrison or Harry was telling him was indeed the truth.

This might be new to this lad, but Harrison had been one of his favourite recruits for a long time, and to him, Harrison was his protégé and hearing he would have or might already have died wasn't easy. It had already surprised him when Harrison had told him in a letter during his time off he would take the position of DADA Professor. Alastor had thought Harrison had only taken the job because he had a nearly unhealthy crush on Minerva McGonagall.

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Why were you send back then?"

"It was an experiment of two Unspeakables, one in this time and one in mine who decided I would be the best Person to send back and help to fight Voldemort."

"Why did you come here today?"

"I wanted to ask you if you could lend me a Training Dummy because I want to train my parents and some of their friends, as they want to fight Voldemort once they finish school." if Harry was anything like Harrison, then this didn't surprise Moody at all that he was training the people he held dear.

"Do you know how Harrison died?"

"No."

"Was it his decision to go teaching of yours?"

"I don't really know, but I think it was the idea of the Unspeakables. The real Harrison might have been already dead." having enough answers, Moody grabbed the antidote and made the man in front of him take a sip.

Harry felt how the truth serum's effect left his body, and then the ropes around his body vanished. "Thank you," he said and flexed his hands a little, looking at Moody, who sat down behind his desk.

"So you need a Training Dummy. You can have two if you return them by the end of the year. If not, I will put you through another three years of my training when you return."

"You believe me?" surprised that Moody believed him so quickly, Harry didn't realize the meaning of Mad-Eye's words until a moment after. "Wait, why wou-" then Harry remembered that Voldemort had jinxed the DADA position, something that had completely slipped his mind and that he probably had to leave the castle by the end of the year. He briefly wondered what his reason to go would be, but then he focused back on Moody in front of him.

"I do, you don't have a reason to lie, and even if you were so stupid of lying, I could find you in under ten minutes and throw you in a cell in Azkaban."

"Good point. Well, I promise you to return them to you as good as they are now."

"Fine, now get out of my office," Mad-Eye growled at him.

"How I missed your lovable nature," Harry replied, grinning, and Moody sent him a glare with his normal eye.

"Don't you dare to get cheeky now! I can still lock your sorry arse up!" Harry turned around but paused at the door once more.

"Just one question," he started and turned around once more. "how did you know something was off about me?"

"Years and years of experience and instinct." Moody said, thought about what he wanted to say for a moment and then added, "And because I trained Harrison for years and he was one of the best Aurors I ever saw, and he was a cheeky little bastard who didn't call me Sir since he finished his training."

"You also inspired me very much. I was an Auror in my old time too. But thanks for the compliment Mad-Eye."

"Get out, Potter!" Harry didn't need to be told twice, left the office, and went for the training hall at the other end of the floor. He hadn't planned on telling anyone any time soon, but at least it was Moody who, that Harry was sure of, would take his secret to his grave. Another thing this encounter did, was showing him once more that the 'foolproof plan' of Chronos and Severin wasn't nearly as good as they had thought it to be. He also had to find out more about Harrison Potter to avoid situations like this.

Arriving back at Hogwarts, Harry saw that he had about two hours left to prepare the Room of Requirement. So not to waste any time, he hurried up to the seventh floor and entered the room with the wish to turn into a training hall, picturing one of the Aurors, and when he opened the door, he saw an exact copy of the training hall he had wanted.

He then walked outside again and thought about another room attached to the already existing one through a door, and this time he wanted the room to mimic the Forbidden Forest. Walking back inside the room, Harry was pleased to see a door leading off the training hall. Opening it, he found himself standing in what could easily be the Forbidden Forest. Harry already knew about their duelling skills, but even knowing meany spells and being able to cast them wouldn't help you in a real fight if you lacked the physical abilities and were out of breath after three minutes.

Now that he was finished with his preparations, his thoughts immediately returned to Minerva and what had happened. How was she doing? A small part of Harry was, of course, curious about how she might have decided or at least to what she tended, but a bigger part of him was concerned about Minerva herself and her feelings.

Harry had thought that it had been bad and that he had been feeling miserable when he had turned her down. But this, as expected, was way worse. He couldn't really blame it on anybody other than himself, maybe on the two Unspeakables, but they didn't make him fall in love with Minerva, for that Harry could only blame himself. Even though he felt like it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The only thing that stopped his train of thoughts were the voices he could hear outside. Taking a deep breath and refocusing himself, Harry went outside to greet his victims.

"Good evening," he said when he opened the door and was greeted by the sight of five confused looking seventh-year students.

"Hi, Professor." Lily and Marlene greeted him while the other three were only grinning at him in anticipation. Harry was glad to see that James seemed to be okay with Peter not being there. Maybe he realized that Harry had been right, and Peter just wasn't ready for this type of training. At least he was pretty sure James would realize this once he had finished the first training.

"Come inside before somebody sees you," Harry said while he stepped aside to let them in, and once the door had closed, he turned to face them.

"You might wonder where we are, this is the Room of Requirement, and if you walk past this piece of wall three times, thinking really hard on a thing you need, then, with a few limitations, the room will accommodate to or give you what you wished for. You can use this room in your free time and outside our training sessions and should do so. If you want to enter this room just think 'I want to use the Potter training hall'. Understood?" they all nodded and looked as impressed as Harry had probably looked when he had first been in the room back in his fifth year.

"And I hope it's clear that you won't tell one soul about this specific room, not even Peter, absolutely no one," Harry explained to them and saw a grim look flicker across James' face, but in the next moment, he seemed to have his feelings back under control.

"Now, let's start without further delays. I told you I would train you, so you'll know your way around in a real fight, and I intend on achieving just that. Well, as you see, you are in a training hall, this is the same training all that is used to train the Auror recruits, and it'll be just that hard."

"No spell knowledge is going to save you in a duel if you are out of breath and unable to duck curses. So the first thing we will do is train physically and get you in shape. Any questions?"

"No, I think the instructions were quite clear," Sirius answered, and the others nodded.

"Alright, then let's get started with a warm-up."

It had turned out to be the right way to start, just like Harry had assumed. Apart from James, who had a slightly better condition than the other four, they were pretty much on the same level and benefited from the physical training. After the first training session, they had been quite alright, but no later than the third time, they cursed him and his methods throughout the training. But apart from his own skills as a trainer, the often horrible news in the radio or in the prophet was enough to motivate each and every one of them.

Two weeks had passed since he had started training them, and every two days, they were in the Room of Requirement doing better and better each day. With the next session, Harry wanted to start their combat training to see what each of them had to work on.

Of course, Harry's own motivation in training was also because he had much less time to think about Minerva. She still hadn't talked to him about what had happened, which was slowly driving him mad, and so he used the training to occupy his mind and body with something else. The few times they had spent in the same room, mainly the Great Hall during meal times because Harry carefully avoided Minerva in the hallways, had been filled with silence between them. They both tried to keep up the facade, but at least their colleagues knew something was off.

These days Harry missed her even more than when he had turned her offer down to go to Hogsmeade together. Having already been so close to Minerva, even closer than before and now being so far away was torture, but one he had inflicted upon himself. Harry was still hoping that every day she would come by and talk to him, and with each passing day, it didn't happen he was hurting a bit more. And as strange as it sounded every night, he would play her piece on his piano as it was the only thing that made him feel close to Minerva these days.

Walking towards his quarters late at night on a Friday after intense training by himself, he only wanted to take a shower and then go to sleep and spent the whole next day doing nothing. Harry yawned when he opened the door to his quarters so that he didn't notice that he wasn't alone right away. But when his eyes caught the movement by his windows, he whirled around and immediately froze when he saw Minerva standing there.

"Minerva wha- Hello," Harry said quickly, interrupting himself before he could ask her what she was doing here.

"Hello. I came by earlier, but you weren't there so...I thought I'd wait for you. I hope you don't mind. I can leave if you're busy." her voice was steady but quiet.

"Please stay," Harry answered as quietly as her and made a small step towards Minerva. "Why did you come by?" he asked, his heart already starting to beat faster in his chest out of nervousness and simply because of his feelings for her.

"Can we talk?" she asked back, and Harry nodded.

"Of course we can," he told her walked closer to her, again he hoped it was a good sign she wasn't backing away. "Do you want to sit down or have a drink?"

"Why now, Harry?" Minerva asked calmly, not answering his question. "Why did you tell me now?" Harry swallowed but looked into her eyes as he spoke.

"Because I couldn't lie to you any more, I didn't want to. Minerva, you are the most important person in my life. No matter what timeline, I can lie to everyone else but not to you. I want you to know because I can't do any of this without you," he paused; it was now or never, so he threw all precaution overboard. "Because I love you, I never loved anyone like I love you, with my whole heart and soul. I- I was thrown back in this time, and all I wanted was to go back."

"I saved the Wizarding World so often, it was my 'duty' to save it since I was a baby, and all I got in return was fame I never wanted. Fame that was paid with the lives of so many people I held dear, my friends, my family. I thought there was nothing this time could give me to make worth the sacrifice I had to make yet again. I might be able to talk to my parents, but not as their son, I'm merely their cousin or teacher. But then you walked inside that office, and we spent time together, and I got to know you and fell in love with you, and suddenly I didn't want to go back any more."

"Suddenly, there was something that made me think that I could do this, that I would be able to let people I know die if it only means I get to be with you." at this she gasped, and Harry saw the tears that had started to fill her eyes running down her cheeks.

"You can't-" she stopped, and Harry continued.

"I have to, with or without you. I can't save my parents, and in a way, that is okay. It would change time too much. Now I can help, but with them living, nobody knows what the future will bring and maybe it'll be even worse. I grew up without them once. I can do it again, maybe this time it won't be exactly like the way I grew up, maybe it'll be better. But they have to die." Harry told her and was now so close to her like he hadn't been in two weeks. He slowly raised his hands and laid them on her face, gently brushing the tears away with his thumbs.

"What if you and me being together is also enough to change time too much? What if it also causes more trouble and harm?"

"I thought about that every day since I found myself falling in love with you, and I realized that I don't care. I spend my whole life convincing myself that I didn't deserve this or that. I won't do it again, not this time. I deserve love, our love. I already told you I can give up anything and everyone, but not you. You already mean so much to me. Even if you don't want to be with me, then my purpose is to protect you with my life." they once again were silent, then Minerva closed her eyes and laid her hands on his chest.

"Do you hate me?"

"No." her words were barely above a whisper.

"And that is what drives me so mad. I was hurt by men so often that I swore to myself I would never let a man this close to me again so that no matter what he did, it wouldn't hurt me any more, and I could leave without a doubt. I was so proud to say I'm independent, that I don't need no man in my life. Then you came around, and suddenly it was like you lid a fire in me. I never fell in love that hard or that fast, in fact, you make me feel like I have never loved anyone before."

"I wanted to hate you, I wanted to be angry, how could you do this? How could you change me without even trying, without force? I don't want to be apart from you for one day; the last two weeks were hell I- the only thing I could think about was that I forgive you. But that voice in my head kept me from going to you. You lied to me, you told me that you are not the person I thought you were, and I can simply forgive you? I should be mad, I should feel betrayed and hurt, and in a way I am, but not as I should be! I feel betrayed because you thought you couldn't tell me and not because you lied to me about who you really are."

"How come it didn't change my feelings for you?"

"I don't know." they were looking at each other, and it was like they were looking at each others soul. In the next moment, he already felt her wonderful lips against his own, and as he wrapped his arms around Minerva and kissed her back, he swore to himself he would never let her go again. For she held his heart and soul and was the only thing that made him believe he could do it all again.

Hello again!

I really hope you like the way the chapter turned out! I tried my best. Please leave your opinion in a review!

The sad news is that this might be the last update for a while because I have final exams coming up and therefore don't have the time to write as much as I would like to do!

Still, I want to thank you again for every review you left and to everyone who favoured and followed the story! You are amazing!

Until next time

Patti