The Changed Timeline
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Time travel!
"Come here, my faithful servants. I hope that you brought your sons along with some other students, who will be given the honour of receiving my Mark tonight. Afterwards, we will show the world a pleasurable Halloween feast at Diagon Alley. My most faithful servants, bring your children to me," Voldemort spoke to the Death Eaters who were gathered before him.
The Death Eaters, who were accompanied by their still unmarked children, stepped forward and bowed deeply, nearly as if they were kissing Voldemort's robe. He branded each of the new Death Eaters and conducted a personal ceremony with each of them.
"Malfoy Junior, what is your name?"
"Lucius, my Lord."
"Are you willing to be my servant in favour of the power over the world against the light?"
"Yes, my Lord."
He waved his wand over Malfoy and cast one of the unforgivable spells. "Crucio."
Harry began to thrash around wildly, his hand pressed against his scar. After a short time, Voldemort countered the curse.
"Why is it that you want to join my circle?" the evil wizard enquired.
"It is my greatest desire to serve you to gain full power over the world, my Lord," the boy replied in a thin voice.
"Then we'll test if I deem you worthy of my precious mark. Crucio." A short while later, Voldemort countered the curse, before he placed his wand on Malfoy's arm and mumbled an incantation in Parseltongue that caused the Dark Mark to appear on the boy's arm. "You're now a member of my servants. Prove yourself worthy of the honour. Crucio."
Harry was just watching the third student being marked, when Lily and Remus, who had been looking for him, found him in his bed. His scar stood deeply red on his pale forehead, and he was slightly moaning as he thrashed around wildly.
"Harry, wake up; what's wrong?" Lily asked in concern.
Harry groaned in pain, mumbling, "Go and get Dumbledore please. Quickly."
"I'll go", Remus said immediately. "Lily, stay here and keep Harry company." With that, he hurried dormitory.
"What's wrong, Harry? Is there anything I do for you?" Lily enquired, sitting down on the edge of Harry's bed.
Harry just managed to say, "I'm going to be sick," and Lily quickly transfigured a sock into a bucket, before Harry turned on his side and emptied his stomach of its contents.
A few minutes later, Dumbledore entered the room with McGonagall in tow. They hurried over to Harry. "Mr. Pane, what's the matter? Are you ill?" Dumbledore asked gently.
"His scar looks as if it was infected, and he's burning up, Albus; we should take him to the hospital wing," McGonagall said in apparent concern.
"No; I must tell you something, but only in private, please. It's very important," Harry requested urgently, shivering violently.
"Ms. Evans, Mr. Lupin, thank you very much for alerting us. Please leave us for a moment," the headmaster said, casting a silencing spell at the door, after the two students left.
"I had a vision. Voldemort is going to attack Diagon Alley tonight. You must alert the Order of the Phoenix and the Aurors quickly!"
The professors looked at Harry in disbelief. McGonagall whispered to Dumbledore, "He seems to have a fever. Maybe he is hallucinating?"
"No!" Harry insisted, getting upset. "Professors, please hear me out. I received my scar when Voldemort tried to kill me at the age of one. Since then, I've been connected to him through this scar, and I can often see his Death Eater meetings and other events. This connection also helped me to kill him in the future. Please believe me. He initiated several students as new Death Eaters tonight and told his followers that they were going to attack Diagon Alley later in the evening. Please hurry up and contact the Aurors."
The headmaster gave Harry an understanding nod and said thoughtfully, "As unbelievable as it sounds, Minerva, I deem Mr. Pane as very trustworthy and believe what he says. Therefore, I will contact the Aurors and some of our friends to meet them in Diagon Alley later. Please guard the school for me and take Mr. Pane to the hospital wing, so that Poppy can check on him." With that, he hurriedly crossed the room and left.
Professor McGonagall gave Harry a sharp look. "Do you think you'll be able to walk to the hospital wing?"
"I'm fine. I don't need to go to the hospital wing," Harry replied in annoyance.
The teacher glared at him and replied strictly, "Your scar looks infected and it's obvious that you're in pain. Either you will go to the infirmary with Mr. Lupin's and my help or I'm going to levitate you there. It's your choice."
Having known his head of house for a long enough time to know that she would not give in, Harry groaned and scrambled out of the bed. While Remus and the professor helped him to the hospital wing, Lily went to the Great Hall to fetch Madam Pomfrey.
Upon seeing Harry, the Mediwitch asked, "What have you gotten yourself into this time, Mr. Pane?"
Harry glanced at the healer in annoyance and mumbled, "Nothing; I'm fine. I just need a headache potion, and I'll be on my way."
Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes in annoyance, muttering something to herself as she waved her wand over him, casting a diagnostic spell. Finally, she said sternly, "No way, Mr. Pane. You can make yourself comfortable on that bed; you'll have to stay here for the night. And I don't want any more discussions, because I am the one to decide whether you're fine or not."
She made him drink a headache potion and a fever reducer, and Harry lay down in a sulk.
Professor McGonagall shook her head in annoyance and turned to the healer. "Poppy, in case you need me, I'll be in Albus' office, as he'll be out for a few hours. Please don't give Mr. Pane a sleeping potion, because it might be that Albus will need to speak with him later tonight."
"Well let me tell you something, Minerva, even if he's the headmaster, he can't come in the middle of the night to wake up my patients," Pomfrey replied sternly, before she shooed the professor and the students out of the wing.
Harry woke up a few hours later to several loud voices near his bed. He could only recognize two of them, those of Dumbledore and Pomfrey. "I'm sorry Poppy, but the Aurors have to talk to him now. I can't explain to them how we could know in advance what was going happen this evening. Mr. Pane has saved many lives tonight. Please allow us to speak with Harry for a few minutes."
The healer sighed in exasperation, before she finally relented. "Mr. Pane is not well, and he shouldn't be disturbed. The Aurors have exactly five minutes to talk to him, before I'm going to throw each of them out," she replied, sounding extremely angry.
Dumbledore stepped over to Harry's side. "Harry, my dear boy, I'm very sorry to disturb you. The Aurors want to thank you for saving hundreds of lives tonight. Could you please very quickly explain to them how you could know what was going to happen?"
Harry just finished his explanation, when Madam Pomfrey strode into the room and instructed the Aurors to leave.
Looking at the angered healer, the Aurors quickly thanked Dumbledore and Harry and hurried out of the room. Dumbledore lowered himself onto a chair next to Harry's bed and asked, "Poppy, what exactly is wrong with Harry?"
Harry sighed inwardly and averted his eyes to his bed cover, feeling very annoyed by the unwanted attention.
"His headache seems to have gone, but he seems to have a problem with his nerves. I don't know exactly what it is, but I don't like it."
Harry gave her an enquiring look. "Don't you have the Anti-Cruciatus potion yet in this time?" he asked in disbelief.
Poppy and Dumbledore exchanged a glance before Dumbledore asked, "What exactly is this potion, Harry?"
Harry sighed and explained, "The Anti-Cruciatus potion counters the effects of the Cruciatus curse. When I have these visions, I can't only see and hear what Voldemort and his Death Eaters do and say, but I can sense his emotions and feel every curse he casts on people. Unfortunately, he enjoys the Cruciatus curse very much, and I often have to suffer from it. Tonight, he cast it about eight times, each of them for a minute or two. It'll wear off in a day or so, but in my time, Professor Snape always made this potion for me. It's probably his own invention."
Dumbledore gave Harry a sharp look. "I don't think that it's already invented in this time. However, we can ask Severus. If he doesn't know it, do you, by chance, know how to brew it?"
Harry slowly exhaled the air. "I probably know the ingredients, because it was in my sixth year Potions book, but I don't know how to make it. Severus is so good at Potions though; I'm sure he'll be able to brew it."
Dumbledore chuckled as he commented, "You seem to have a lot of faith in Severus."
"Yes Professor. Even if he really hated me in my time, he managed to save my life several times," Harry said quietly.
"Very well then," Dumbledore replied and called his personal house-elf. "Twinkle!" When the house-elf appeared next to him, he said gently, "Twinkle, please go and bring Severus Snape to us immediately."
Shortly later, the elf re-appeared together with a very annoyed looking Severus.
"Ah, my boy, how good that you were able to join us. Thank you Twinkle. Severus, have you ever heard of the Anti-Cruciatus potion?"
"No sir. Should I know it?" Severus replied in surprise, quirking an eyebrow at the headmaster.
"According to Harry, you invented it. We just don't know exactly when," Dumbledore said gently.
"So you woke me up and brought me here in the middle of the night just to invent a potion, which I've never heard of?" Severus asked in disbelief, casting Harry a confused glare. He seemed quite annoyed, but when Dumbledore told him about Harry's vision and his suffering of the Cruciatus curse, he was suddenly fully awake and in Potions Master mode. He sat on the edge of Harry's bed. "Alright Harry, tell me everything that you know about it. Professors, you can leave us alone; this will probably take a while," he added, dismissively.
Harry looked at the headmaster in exasperation and asked incredulously, "Professor, I'm fine. It's nearly three o'clock in the morning. Don't you think Severus should go to sleep first? We can try to brew the potion after classes tomorrow."
"No Harry, we'll do it immediately. Just tell me as much as you know, and I'll try to brew your potion," Severus contradicted, firmly.
"All right my boys," Dumbledore looked at them contentedly, his eyes twinkling merrily. "You'll both be excused from classes tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning. Good night Poppy."
"Severus, you know my brewing abilities; so you can't rely on what I tell you," Harry said hesitantly, before he continued, "As far as I remember from a glance in my sixth year's Potions book, you need the normal basic healing potion as basis and have to add petals of the Syrian wildfire, cumberflow, lace fly wings, four drops of Jojoba oil and one drop of phoenix tear extract. That's all I know. I don't know how to brew it."
"That's all right, Harry; just with the ingredients that you told me you helped me a lot," Severus replied in a soothing voice. "Now go to sleep for a few hours. I'll try to brew the potion. Would you recognize it by the smell or the colour, or would you have to taste it to know if it was correct?" he queried, quirking an eyebrow at his friend.
Harry groaned. "Oh, Severus, don't ask me. You know that I'm a dunderhead at Potions. If it's very different, I'll probably know, but if it's similar, I'm not sure if I can tell the difference."
'Professor Dumbledore is a meddling old coot,' he thought in annoyance. 'It would be early enough if Severus brewed the potion for me in the morning. I couldn't imagine brewing a potion at that time of the night.'
Three hours later, Severus returned with three phials of potions, woke Harry up, and asked, "Can you recognize any of these?"
Harry sat up and looked sharply at each of the phials, noticing that the three liquids looked nearly identically. He sniffed at each of them, before he pointed to one of the potions, which had a slightly lighter yellow tone than the others and said, "I think it could be this one. Let me try."
"Only if you're relatively sure, Harry; otherwise I don't want you to try, even if it can't do much harm considering the ingredients," Severus replied thoughtfully.
Harry took the phial from his friend, gulped half of the liquid down, and visibly relaxed. "That's it. Thank you so much, Severus. I knew that you'd manage to brew it," he said gratefully.
Severus cast Harry a relieved smile and lay down on the bed next to him. "Let's try to get some more sleep, Harry; good night," he whispered, but Harry was already asleep.
However, only a few minutes later, Harry was pulled out of his sleep by a sharp pain in his scar.
tbc...
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