Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…
Placing: After the war - could be canon…
Just an idea I had, nothing more.
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1975
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When Percy woke up, something was different. For a moment he contemplated on it, then he frowned.
Audrey and Molly were gone.
Gone.
Not there anymore.
Lost to him.
Gone, simply gone.
And it hurt to think that.
Then an other part of strangeness entered his mind. For some reason, his bedroom had changed… And if that wasn't oddly enough, it was also occupied by Harry Potter, reading the newspaper.
Percy blinked and rubbed his eyes. The scene didn't change.
So he cleaned his glasses.
No, still the same.
"What by Merlin and Morgana are you doing here?" Percy finally said, and then winced. His own loud voice had given him a headache.
Harry looked up from the papers.
"I'm contemplating how we managed to screw up that much while drunk," he answered.
"Huh?"
And Harry threw him the papers.
"Today's newspaper," he said. "Look at the date."
Percy blinked, but in the end did as he was told.
March 24, 1975, it read.
Percy stared at it.
"You're joking," he finally said faintly and then looked up at the other man – just to close his eyes in dismay. "You're not," he groaned.
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Hmmm, I wonder how you guessed that, Percy," he said snorting.
"It's simple," Percy answered, this time slightly sneering. "You've clearly inhaled some time sand considering that you suddenly look like seventeen and not the thirty-nine year old I knew. I guess I can be happy that you at least didn't eat some of it even if you clearly decided to sniff on it quite thoroughly."
"Who said I didn't eat some?" Harry replied while rolling his eyes. "For all you know I might have, after all, we were both dead drunk."
Percy sneered at that.
"You would be dead if you had, Potter," he answered. "Inhaling time sand de-ages you, eating it ages you. If you do both, you die." It was long habit of censoring his language that kept the 'moron' in.
Harry frowned at that, but then nodded.
"I guess it would have been a slow and agonizing dead," he mused. "At least now I know what happened to Lestrange in my fifth year…"
Then Harry shrugged.
"But then, I wasn't the only one who was stupid enough to sniff on the time sand," he said and Percy's eyes widened.
"You're joking," he whispered. Harry grinned.
"Nope. You, my dear brother-in-law look like a eighteen, maybe nineteen year old. Seems as if it was you who decided to take a deep breath and not I."
Percy nearly fainted at that exclamation and then forced himself to sit up and stumble to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
Harry bloody Potter was right. Obviously Percy had been the one who had taken a really deep breath.
"Sh –" Percy started just to stop mid-word. Audrey would have killed him if he uttered that word anywhere near his daughter. Then he remembered that his daughter was dead and instead of a swear-word, tears emerged.
He sniffed pitifully while trying to stifle his tears, but in the end, he just gave in. The headache he had didn't help his condition at all…
A warm hand clasped his shoulder.
"'S all right, Perce," a voice murmured. "I know exactly what you feel."
And Percy couldn't even object because Harry had lost his family as well.
"Maybe, if we change some things –"
"We can't!" Percy immediately interrupted. "We can't interfere, Harry! If we do, who knows what will happen to our future!"
With that Percy angrily tried to rub his tears away so that he could look at the other man.
"If we change anything, anything at all, our future might never happen!" he added finally when he gave up on his senseless task. "We can't even tell anyone that we are from the future because if we do, we will be subjected to our law! We will end up in Azkaban!"
"So what? We will sit here – here, where we might be able to change something – and do nothing?" Harry replied outraged.
"Yes!" Percy answered. "That's exactly what we will do. Nothing."
"Great," Harry replied sarcastically. "So you plan us to just sit by and watch everything happen again. We watch your uncles die, my parents, Fred, Ginny, Audrey, Molly, James –"
"Alright, alright! I get it!" Percy said bitterly. "But think, Potter! Damn it, think about it! If we do something and help my uncles – who says that I'm marrying Audrey in the end? If you grow up with your parents – who says you will be close enough to Ginny in the end to marry her? Who says that it will all turn out all right if we change everything right now? For all we know we both could end up never been born just because we decided to meddle with time right now!"
That stopped the rant of the other.
"You're right," he said with a sigh. "It is a risk."
"Yes, and a damn great one, Potter," Percy replied while rubbing his face, not caring that he was rubbing the rest of his tears everywhere on it. "Adding to that, that we don't have an identity and the risk of being found and thrown into Azkaban by the ministry – believe me, Potter, there's no way we could win in the end. And even if we do meddle and everything happens exactly the same as it should have – they won't be ours anymore. Ginny, Audrey, the kids… they will be the other Percy's and the other Harry's. Not ours. Ours are dead. Dead. Gone. Vanished –"
"I know," Harry said while they both emerged into tears again. "Believe me, I know."
For a moment they held onto each other, grieving, but then Harry freed himself from Percy's grip.
"So… what will we do now?" he asked the other man.
Percy shrugged.
"Search a lonely house in the muggle world and live out our lives there?" he suggested.
Harry just raised an eyebrow.
"We don't have any identifications for the muggle world," he reminded the other man. "We also don't have any muggle money."
"Well, we could go to Gringotts –"
"No identification in the magical world," Harry reminded him. "And we're definitely not able to do an inheritance test or something like that…"
"Shit," this time even the reminder that he shouldn't swear anywhere where his daughter could hear him wasn't strong enough to stop the swear-word from escaping. "So… you're basically telling me that we're stranded in a time we don't exist yet with no identity or way to live a legal life."
"Something like that," Harry said. "And now?"
"Now we're going out and search for a good place to kill ourselves. Seems the logical choice to do," Percy answered.
"And break my wedding promise to Ginny to live my life even if she should die before me? Not gonna happen, Perce," Harry replied.
"So… what do you want to do, then? Live in Knockturn Alley with the outlaws?" Percy asked coolly.
"If I have to," Harry replied shrugging. "But I thought more in the line of finding a way to obtain some forged documents and then start living in either the muggle or the magical world."
"Muggle," Percy said immediately. "We can't interfere with the happenings of the magical world – do you have forgotten?"
Harry rolled his eyes at that.
"Alright," he said. "Muggle."
Then he hesitated.
"Perce," he finally said slowly. "Just a question… what happens if you're branded as an Unspeakable… does it still… count… here, in the past, I mean?"
Percy stopped at that question and his eyes widened.
"How do you know I am an Unspeakable?" he asked distrustful.
Harry blinked at that in surprise.
"You are?" he asked wide-eyed.
"Sure," Percy said. "I was undercover until the end of the war but… didn't you ask me because you knew I was one?"
"No," Harry said, shaking his head and then wincing when his head protested the movement. "I didn't know you were. I just ask because… well… I am."
Percy looked at him as if he was stupid.
"You're Head Auror, Potter," he said. "You can't be Unspeakable and Head Auror!"
"But I am," Harry replied shrugging.
"No, you can't be," Percy said while trying to shake his head – just to stop when his headache worsened. "You wouldn't have time to be an Unspeakable and the Head Auror. All the research an Unspeakable does –"
"I'm a field agent," Harry corrected him. "I don't do research."
And that explained it all for Percy. Of course Harry had to be a field agent. They wouldn't have been able to end up in the time room if they weren't both registered as Unspeakables…
"We activated the time room," Percy groaned.
"Huh?"
"We're both Unspeakables. If we hadn't been we would have been able to enter the time room, but we wouldn't have been able to activate it because it is tuned to the mark of an Unspeakable. Since we are both branded as one, we could activate the room itself," he said. "We must have been standing in the room while activating it – that's the only explanation how we ended up that far in the past and with enough time sand in our lungs to de-age us. I must have been the one to activate the room – so I lost a few more years than you because I inhaled the sand first. And in the end, we simply left the ministry and came here. We're marked as Unspeakables. The first marks came up with the Department of Mysteries itself, so the marks have always been keyed in. No wonder we could come and leave without setting of any alarms!"
"So we wouldn't even be here if one of us hadn't been an Unspeakable?" Harry asked. "Bloody hell…"
They looked at each other.
Then Percy shrugged.
"At least we now know exactly how we ended up in the past, I guess," he sighed.
"Yep," Harry said and then crooked his head. "Now we just have to find out if the mark of the Unspeakables still counts in the past."
"Of course it counts!" Percy said with a snort. "It's not bond to the time we live in but to the Department itself. As long as the Department exists, we're part of it – if we don't stop working there or are fired, that is. But then we would also lose the mark, so the question is mute…"
Harry thought that over.
"So… since we didn't hand in our notices and weren't fired, we're basically still working there – even if we're back in time now?" he asked. "Now… should we be glad that we're at least registered with the Department of Mysteries or not?"
Percy frowned at that.
"Good question," he finally said sighing. "I guess it was good for us until now because we weren't seen as intruders, but then, still working there has its own troubles for us…" And he meant it.
The Department of Mysteries was built on different levels. Normally, only the immediate superior and the Department Heads knew the names of their subordinates. The superiors were the one to hire their subordinates and a contract ensured that the names of the Unspeakables didn't get out and that the Unspeakable himself wouldn't step out of line. If the subordinate advanced the former superior would be sworn to secrecy or in some cases even oblivated. Basically, the higher the Unspeakable was in rank, the more names he knew and the stricter the contract he was under, all while the less people knew his true name.
"Well… I guess we should be kind of glad. We've still got our jobs – after all, the moment we came here we were instantly added as Unspeakables by the Department itself. Even if there's no superior for us, we are still part of the Department," Harry concluded.
"Yes," Percy sighed. "Just that it will be odd that nobody in the Department knows us – and that will make them weary of us in time, Potter."
The payment, days off and everything else was done magically. The Department itself registered its Unspeakables and added them to the registration if a new one was hired or stopped the payment if the Unspeakable was fired, died or stopped working there.
Of course, there were exceptions to that rule. People who broke their contract or people who were the official contact to the ministry were mostly at least known by their code-name.
"Well, not all Unspeakables are known…" Harry said. "There are some, like me, who don't work there daily and are just called in for a crisis –"
"And those are still known by the Department Head," Percy said. "Even the other field operatives are known to at least the Department Head and his Deputy, if not also to their other superiors –"
"There's still an exception," Harry insisted. And he was right.
They were solely known as the 'Ghost-unit'. Some of them were known by their code-names but mostly the other Unspeakables just knew that the code-name existed but not if it was currently used by someone. There was a known list of thirty code-names solely reserved for that unit – a unit that normally consisted of only a handful of people, so a lot of code-names were known but unused.
The Ghosts – like the 'Ghost-Unit' was mostly called – were the best of the best and all of them were a combination field operatives and high-security researchers. They had access to every part of the Department and if they entered a project they were always listened to because they normally knew best.
"Tell me, Perce," Harry said hesitatingly. "Now that our names are unknown – does that make us part of the 'Ghost-Unit'?"
Percy paled at that thought.
"I hope not," he said. "I've no wish to be drawn by the Department Head and then send into danger because I should know how to diffuse it best."
And that was the gist of it. If there was something the field operatives or sometimes the researchers couldn't do or couldn't find, the 'Ghost-Unit' would step in. The Department Head would simply request someone of the 'Ghost-Unit' that fit for the job and the Department itself would provide those that would be up to the task. The moment the Department Head chose from the files provided, the Department would alert them and they would show up to get the information for their task. There was no refusal. If you were chosen, you went when you were part of the Ghosts.
"Well, if you are chosen, you should know how to diffuse it best," Harry said shrugging. "The Department wouldn't propose someone who isn't up to the job."
"Still," Percy said. "We couldn't do it. We would change too much if we'd step in!"
"Then I think that we should find out how we are now registered in the Department of Mysteries," Harry concluded. "At least we've got a plan, now."
Percy send him a disgruntled look.
"In my opinion we should start to pray right now that we aren't part of Ghost," he said. "Because if we are, we can say good-bye to our known future!"
Harry shrugged at that.
"I still think we should first try to find out if we are part of them before we panic," he said. "And, just in case, we should obtain some forged documents. If we are part of the unit, we can still hand in our notice and search for another occupation."
Percy sighed at that.
"Alright," he said, then pulled out his wand. "Who goes first?"
Harry shrugged and pulled back the sleeve of his right hand to expose his wrist.
"I go since you've already drawn your wand," he said.
So Percy softly touched a slightly lighter part of Harry's wrist with his wand and said clearly. "Identification."
The scroll that was produced from the spell fell into his left hand.
Percy opened it and groaned.
"Unspeakable
Field Operative – Ghost Unit," the first two lines said.
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"I guess we were promoted?" he asked half-amused, half-afraid.
"I'd say we got several promotions at once," Percy said dryly. "And I was looking forward to trouncing my superior in a years time, yesterday… now my former goal of promotion isn't even worth mentioning…"
Harry snickered at that with a hysterical edge in his voice.
"Should I test yours, just to be sure?" he asked and Percy freed his wrist immediately. Just a second later Harry held a scroll in his hands that showed the first two lines – and those were, to Percy's utter regret, the same like on Harry's scroll.
"Merlin," Percy groaned. "That's too much. I need a drink."
"It's not even twelve o'clock."
Percy shrugged.
"Time travel. No identity in the past. Part of Ghost. Not allowed to step in if we want to regain our future. Our fam… family – no, I need a drink!" he said.
Harry sighed.
"If you put it like that," he said, then grabbed both scrolls and put them in Hermione's beaded bag. Percy was right. They needed a drink. Without one, the world wasn't bearable.
"But just one," he said sighing. "Who knows what we do if we're dead drunk again…"
If they just would have listened to him…
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Well, still inspired by 'Whiskey Time Travel' from Private Jenkins – even if I changed a lot already. xD
I hope you liked it.
Ebenbild