Second Thoughts
He took a deep breath and glanced around the room. Everyone seemed to look at him, some directly, some conspicuously and some with their peripheral vision. They all waited for him to respond to the question, the person in front of him had asked.
Hermione Granger-Weasley, who was also nervous, repeated her question, "Are you sure, Ha-"
"For god's sake, Hermione, He heard you the first time. It's not as if you are confirming his dinner order, is it?" quipped Ron Weasley from beside the person to whom the question was asked, giving him a thoughtful look.
He bent low and murmured to Harry Potter, "come on, mate. Why the doubt? You are scaring her and, honestly, I prefer her angry over being scared."
Harry grinned a little at his words but he still felt odd. Perhaps it was the surprise that even though Hermione was the brains of this whole plan, or the rough exterior of a plan, they still wanted him to confirm the final action, or maybe it was the weird feeling of deja vu, the feeling that once again, he had to clean up the mess of this wizarding world but at least this time, he was not alone.
"It's not because I'm not sure but because what we are doing is not just breaking the laws of our world-"
"Yeah right, but when has it ever stopped us", Ron cheekily whispered to himself.
" -but it also breaks the laws of magic" Harry continued, and his glare at Ron, was the only indication that he had heard what he said.
" It's not just that. The truth is this spell is obviously only theoretical. Any of its applications are not recorded here and we really have no idea if it will work" Neville Longbottom picked up the thread and continued. He was the only one of the people in the room, who had a major reservation about going back in time to their 3rd year to change the events that happened. His reluctance stemmed from the fact that even though he had lost his whole family, he still had his 8-month old daughter, who was potentially, going to not exist if they did this.
"I understand that, Neville, but I, for one, have a hell lot of trust and confidence in the knowledge and abilities of Hermione Granger-Weasley" Minerva McGonagall replied softly from across the room.
Everyone turned to her, in shock, for one never heard the former headmistress of Hogwarts, to curse, let alone, in this exorbitant manner.
"Thank you, professor", Hermione smiled and then focused her attention on the other people in the room. The last of the Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix resided in the room.
She swerved her gaze in a corner from a desolate George Weasley to an uncharacteristically quiet Luna Scamander to the ever large Rubeus Hagrid in the other and asked "What do you think, Luna?"
"I think sometimes one must give up what one has for what one needs, especially if it is life", she stoically replied. No one bothered to ask her to enunciate what she meant.
Hermione knew that what they were trying to do seemed fantasy, even in the realm of magic. All the warnings that the Head of the Unspeakables and Professor Dumbledore, in her third year, had given came to her mind. They had searched for nearly years for this particular incantation, combing through the libraries at Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic and Grimmauld Place among others to finally find a scrappy looking piece of manuscript which had what they were looking for. The plan, in essence was simple, -'go back in time and prevent the second wizarding war and the deaths that followed, directly and indirectly', but, in reality, she had no idea if the comprehensive plan of actions they thought would work or not. Her musings were interrupted , like always, by an irate Ronald Weasley.
"I still don't understand what's the problem." He stopped a little at the glare Hermione was giving him but continued with a renewed vigour.
He slapped his hand on the table," Goddamn it, get your heads out of the sand. Look around us. The world is dying. Is this the future for which people died ? There is no semblance of order in all of Wizarding Britain. People are dying, left right and centre, which is not the work of some madman but of the whole freaking society. There is no ministry, fuck, there is NO HOGWARTS. The ruined rubble is just there. We can't do anything behind it. There is no Voldemort to stop. We all know this is beyond repair. I didn't go through all this bullshit in my life to finally spend my days in a dusty dungeon to hide from the bloodshed in the streets". Ron would have continued his tirade but was interrupted by his former transfiguration teacher.
"Mr Weasl- Ronald is right. It's unfair that I have lived for so long, while people now don't even reach adulthood. We have no choice. We have to do this." Mcgonagall then turned to Neville.
"Neville, I know that you have your daughter to live for and she means everything to you but is this world where you want her to live?" She softly asked.
"Professor, Hannah means everything to me... The thought of her not existing does not seem... right to me" Neville looked around "But you are right. This is not our world. This is not the world for which mum and dad died."
Harry patted Neville on the back and McGonagall addressed the trio.
"You must not be angry at Albus, Harry. He may have done what he did but he cared about you and all of us. You being angry at him would give away everything. Yet, you cannot tell Albus or me or anyone in the order the truth. Not in the third year, anyway."
Harry replied," Professor, I don't care about Dumbledore. The only thing that has actually kept me going till now is the fact that we can prevent all of this shit from happening. We are not going to mess this up. And even if we do-" Harry grinned and looked at Ron.
Ron continued, "We have a secret do-over available" and then grinned at Hermione.
Hermione snapped, "WE DO NOT HAVE A DO-OVER. As I have told you two dunderheads a hundred times, the time turner which my child-self has, is a last measure, an emergency plan. There is a limit to how much we can poke around in time"
Percy Weasley, who until now was silently sitting in the room, reinforced Hermione," She is right. There is a limit to how much you can rely on time travel."
Percy was the one who had the most knowledge about time turners since her late wife Audrey worked in the now-destroyed Department of Mysteries.
"When you travel through time, you poke a hole through spacetime to go to another point in time. If you keep tearing more holes, at some point, the whole spacetime gets torn apart and becomes unstable. That's the reason why only the three of you are going and not more of us. What is unsaid is that this also means that you can't do this again. This is our only chance"
"Damn Perce, you have still got the goods to lecture on everything" George Weasley muttered from the corner. Percy's ears turned red and seeing danger, Ron intervened. "Got it, Perce. No do-overs. We won't mess it up."
He then addressed Hermione. "What about you-know what in his head" He gestured towards Harry.
"Ron, I'm pretty sure that the horcrux will be there, since we are entering our bodies of that time. Our magical ability and knowledge will carry over but our current reflexes and muscle memory will have to be developed. That being said, we will have to only somewhat change the event of our third year. It's our only advantage. The more we only minutely change the events, the more we will be able to predict what happens. I will have the time turner on my person but like I said-"
"Yeah yeah, we know but do try to change events alright. That's the whole bloody point." drawled Seamus Finnigan. He was obviously drunk and Percy promptly patted his head and sent him back to sleep.
"So, can you remove the horcrux when you get there?" Neville enquired.
"No. I mean, there is a reason why you are only supposed to make inanimate objects as an horcrux. Every process will eventually kill Harry or maim him beyond repair." Hermione replied.
"Wait a... minute, this means that...no... you would have to bring Voldemort back" Neville angrily retorted.
"Don't be a prat, Neville. We won't bring Voldemort back" Ron started which made Neville's expression somewhat calm, "That job will be done by his crazy followers, we will, however, have the front row seats" Ron continued.
"This is not a joke, Ron." Neville's face was rapidly becoming a shade of red at Ron's cheek, which a tomato would be proud of.
"Mr. Longbottom, calm down. Voldemort obviously will have to return. You can't kill him without returning him to his body. We can't take the risk that if we ignore his spirit form, some babbling bumbling band of baboons won't idiotically follow him and bring him back. And you Mr. Weasley, need to realize the gravity of what you are about to do. My only advice will be to listen to Ms. Granger and maybe, just maybe, this will be a success" McGonagall reprimanded them both.
"Harry, at some point you must reveal your true identity to an adult, since you three will be only 13 years old. You have to do it before the Triwizard tournament begins so that the moody impersonator does not succeed in his plan" McGonagall continued.
"This is confusin me. Ye wer sayin that ye will let the stinkin nutter brin back you-know-who and now ye want to stop that death eater who was mad-eye?" Hagrid asked.
" We will let Crouch bring back Riddle, but we will moderate how and where it happens. Hermione had an idea but depending on other factors, we will think of how to do that when we get there" Harry replied.
"Well, that makes some sense, doesn't it? It will be difficult but I know ye three, ye will be able to do it. Hogwarts will look so different then, quidditch and everythin." Hagrid started to revel in nostalgia.
Ron was clearly getting impatient. "Okay, let's do this, we don't have much of a window anyway. And we don't want anyone freaking out" He glanced at Hermione. "The Zouwo tail will rust in nearly 4 hours now and the phoenix tears which, by the way, were very hard to get and-"
"We get it, Ron. Let's do this", said Harry
"Close your eyes and take deep breaths. Don't panic. Right...we are going to the 3rd of August, 1993. Ron, you will be at the burrow and Harry, you will be with theā¦. Dursley's. Try not to blow up your aunt, this time, we can live without the attention." Hermione said as she started the incantation with a swish of her wand "Itenerantur Tempus Maxima..
Harry tried to block out her voice and the sounds around him and closed his eyes, waiting to go back.
"Having second thoughts?" Ron whispered to him
Harry replied, "Nope, nerves. You know, like you get before a quidditch match."
Ron grinned and muttered, "Here we go-
"-again" Harry completed.
Author's note:
I hope you liked the chapter. If you have any suggestions or any reviews, please feel free to tell me. I will try to write another chapter in a week or so.
