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!
Harry was just about to flash away, when he heard a sound from Pomfrey's office and immediately changed back into his human form. 'So much about attending the Order meeting,' he thought, feeling extremely annoyed. He closed his eyes in exhaustion after the transformation and slept through until the healer woke him up in time for breakfast the next morning.
During Quidditch practice in the evening, when he again had to spend two hours in the dormitory together with Remus, he used the time to teach his friend the Patronus charm, and by the time Professor McGoangall came to fetch Harry for their talk with Dumbledore, Remus was able to cast his wolf Patronus. Needless to say that Professor McGonagall was not very pleased to be greeted by two Patroni, a wolf and a phoenix, when she entered the room.
The Gargoyle in front of the headmaster's office was back to sweets and opened on 'Gummy bears'.
"Hello my dear boy, how are you on this fine evening?" Dumbledore queried gently, offering him a lemon drop.
"Fine, Professor. How was your Order meeting?" Harry replied, politely declining the sweet.
"Ah, I believe that it was a full success, don't you think so Minerva?"
"Yes, Albus, I think so, but maybe we should just show Harry your memories in the Pensieve, before talking about details?" his deputy suggested.
"That we shall do my dear," the headmaster replied, slowly.
The Pensieve was already waiting on the table, and Harry reluctantly entered after the two professors. He found himself in a circle of about twenty persons back in the office, which he had just left. Most of the people seemed well known to him; however, they were much younger than he remembered them or – like in case of the Potters – were parents of people, whom he associated with the Order. 'Aww, these are my grandparents. Maybe I'll get a chance to know them here in this time,' he thought, smiling. The Weasleys were accompanied by two infants. 'How cute Bill and Charlie are. I have to tell them when I'm back.' It was great fun to watch the people he knew so well in the future interacting here in this time.
Harry also had much to laugh about Fawkes' antics. While each member of the new Order of the Phoenix was sworn on the Order, Fawkes sat on the shoulder of the new member and trilled a phoenix song, which didn't only sound beautiful but also very calming to Harry's ears. Each of the members received a necklace with a phoenix pendant, which was supposed to warm up to alert the owner, whenever Dumbledore needed the Order to convene immediately. He only had to grip his own pendant and whisper 'Phoenix emergency'.
'That's a good idea,' Harry thought, 'even better than the coins, which we used for the DA last year.' Dumbledore very carefully explained about Harry and his connection to Voldemort without revealing the fact that he came from the future. The members were very pleased to hear that they had been able to save so many lives at Diagon Alley the other day, just because of a vision of a student, who was on their own side. An hour later, Harry left the Pensieve together with his teachers.
"Now Harry, what do you think?" Dumbledore asked eagerly.
Harry remained thoughtful for an instant, thinking, 'I can't tell the professors that I'm mainly amazed how cute and young the people are, whom I know from the future.' "I can't tell you much about the issues discussed at the Order meetings in the future, because I didn't attend any so far. I know that you were thinking about letting me into the Order, but you couldn't because of the protests of Professor McGonagall and Molly Weasley, who were always very protective of me and seemed to think I should rather try to lead a normal student's life."
"All right, my boy. If you remember anything else, you can always come and speak to us," Dumbledore said kindly. "Now, seeing that curfew has already passed..."
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"I'm sorry, Professors," Harry quickly interrupted the headmaster. "There's something which I'd like to discuss with the two of you. It has nothing to do with Voldemort or the Order but is more of a personal problem."
McGonagall threw Harry an enquiring look. "Of course, Harry, what's wrong?" she asked in a much softer voice than that, which she tended to use recently.
Harry cleared his throat to win time, while he feverishly wondered how to explain his problem to the teachers. "Err..." He explained the story of the pink rabbits and his getting sick with panic every time he had to transfigure something in their class and told them about Remus' possible explanation, which sounded very reasonable. He also spoke about his unwanted manifestation of wandless magic. When he finished, Harry sighed and sat back in his seat, averting his eyes to the floor.
Professor McGonagall beat Dumbledore to an answer. "I believe that Mr. Lupin is right. You have to get your magical powers under control. If you don't mind, I will teach you two or three times a week. Come to my office after the last afternoon class tomorrow. Until then I'll compare our timetables and make a suitable plan."
Harry sighed in relief, giving the teacher a grateful look. "Thank you very much, Professor," he said in a small voice.
Dumbledore laughed. "Now, we can't have you miss all of your Transfiguration classes because you're afraid of transfiguring rabbits, can we? I will teach you myself in wandless magic. Wandless magic is a very rare gift, and I am the only one at this school who is capable of it to a certain extent. We shall meet here every Saturday and Sunday evening after dinner. Does this match your plan?"
"Yes it does, Professor. Thank you very much," Harry replied, really appreciating the professors' offers.
Dumbledore looked at Harry thoughtfully. "I'd like to ask you one question Harry. When you conjured your Patronus at Hogsmeade, it took the form of a phoenix. Do you know why your Patronus has this form? As you probably know, every wizard has a different form of Patronus, and in most cases it is an animal that has some connection to the wizard."
Harry sighed and slowly shook his head. He did not want to reveal his secret, at least not yet. "No Professor," he said, trying to keep his voice firm. However, seeing both teachers look at him closely, he hesitantly continued, "While I was in the future, my Patronus always took the form of a stag, and I was told that it was the symbol of my father, because his Animagus form was a stag, but as you saw in Hogsmeade, now it all of a sudden has changed to a phoenix."
The professors looked at Harry in surprise. "I've never heard of a change of the Patronus form," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "However, I haven't heard of someone travelling into the past either." He cast Minerva a questioning look, receiving a smile and a short nod in return, before he continued to speak.
"Harry, we'd like to tell you something equally personal, but we don't want it to be revealed to anyone in this time. Maybe in the future it will be okay, but that we will decide when we meet again in the future. Can you promise to refrain from telling our secret to anyone in this time?"
Harry looked at the two teachers in surprise. "Of course, Professors, I promise not to reveal your secret to anyone," he promised, sincerely.
"Harry, you will understand why it's so important not to speak about it with anyone, if I tell you that your mother doesn't know about it, although it concerns her as much as it concerns you," Dumbledore said in a stern voice, causing Harry to quirk an eyebrow at the headmaster.
'What could that be?' he wondered.
Dumbledore continued, "Harry, the power of wandless magic as well as a certain affinity to phoenixes are a speciality of Merlin's family. Merlin had a phoenix familiar." He looked over to where Fawkes was sitting, and Harry interrupted him.
"That was Fawkes, wasn't it?"
"Yes Harry, exactly. And Merlin was the only known Animagus, who was able to transform into a phoenix before myself, although I'm a fire phoenix and Merlin was an ice phoenix. Now, the Dumbledores are descendants of Merlin, which explains why I possess some of the qualities, for which Merlin is famous. But it's not only me, who is a direct relative to Merlin; you're one as well my dear boy."
Harry nearly choked in surprise. "But how..." he slowly trailed off, looking from Dumbledore to McGonagall in confusion.
Both professors smiled at him. "Considering your reaction, I suppose that I never told you about our relationship before. Is that correct?" Dumbledore asked, gently.
Harry shook his head, stunned. "But Professor, I don't understand," he finally voiced his confusion. "You always told me that my Mum's sister Petunia was my only living relative and that it was the reason why I had to live with her, even if it was living hell for me. Are you related to me as well, sir?" he asked, feeling slightly betrayed by the old wizard.
Noticing that the boy was getting upset, McGonagall carefully laid a hand on his knee. "Harry, stay calm please. Albus must have had his reasons for that, although I probably never liked it," she said in a soothing voice.
Harry looked questioningly at his head of house.
"Harry, when was it that you vanquished Voldemort?" the headmaster asked, gravely.
"A week before I came here," Harry replied, sighing.
"And that week you spent in the hospital wing, didn't you?" Dumbledore recalled.
"Yes" Harry replied, sounding very annoyed. "I came here on my first day of classes after that."
"So you see we didn't have any chance to speak to you in private after Voldemort was gone," Dumbledore said, absentmindedly popping a lemon drop into his mouth. "That's the reason why we didn't tell you anything about our relationship in the future. Do you know about the relationship between Minerva and me?"
"No Professor," Harry replied, glancing astonished at the teachers. "I always imagined that you behave like a couple, married for a long time," he blurted out, blushing deeply.
"And that's absolutely correct. Minerva is my wife. However, barely anyone knows about it, and we'd like it to stay that way at least until Voldemort is gone forever. But concerning our relationship to you… The mother of Lily and Petunia is our daughter."
Harry jumped from his seat. "Pardon me?" he asked in disbelief. "But I thought Lily was muggleborn."
"No Harry, she's a Dumbledore like you, but our daughter is a Squib, and she hates everything that has to do with magic. She grew up here with us of course until she was eleven, then she went to a muggle boarding school, and when she became eighteen, she cut off all contact to us, so that Lily and Petunia don't even know that we're their grandparents."
Harry was stunned. "So you're my great grandparents? Is that really true?" he blurted out, incredulously. He looked at the professors with a combination of surprise and disbelief. 'That would be so cool,' he thought, 'even if strange.'
"Of course Harry, do you think the headmaster would make jokes about matters like that?" McGonagall asked back, smiling fondly at him.
"No, of course not…Ahem… Uh… Granny. Cool. I still can't believe it though. It'll probably take some time to get used to it. Anyway thank you for telling me. I really appreciate it," Harry stammered.
"The main reason for telling you this now is the fact that you're stuck here for an unknown time without any other living relative who can know about your identity and without anyone else to care for you. That's why we wanted you to know about our relationship," McGonagall explained, smiling at her great grandson.
"Another reason is the manifestation of your power," Dumbledore spoke up. "Lily has so far not shown any special power; her magic is not weak but it's more or less normal; in contrast to this, your magic is extremely powerful and you also have some of the famous Merlin powers. At some time in the future, after Voldemort and I are gone for good, you will be the most powerful wizard in the world; therefore, it's very important that you learn to control your powers."
McGonagall glanced at her wrist watch and interrupted her husband. "Sorry Albus, but it's already after midnight, and Harry has to go to bed."
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"No, please wait a moment, Professors," Harry spoke up hesitantly, uncertainly glancing up into his great grandmother's face. "After you told me so much, I think I have to confess something." Seeing that his great grandparents looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and expectation, he continued, "Please don't tell anyone, and please don't be angry at anyone. Can you promise me that?" When the teachers reluctantly agreed, Harry sighed and slowly began to explain, "Since Remus is a werewolf, his friends learned to become Animagi in order to spend the nights of the full moon together with him. James is a stag, Sirius a black dog and Peter a rat. Anyway, I asked James and Sirius to teach me, and they helped me to become an Animagus as well. At the same time, I am teaching Lily and Severus..." Seeing his great grandmother's angry expression, Harry slowly trailed off.
McGonagall cast Harry a livid glare. "Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have died trying," she said in a very upset voice.
"But nothing happened, and I only practised in the dormitory every evening when James, Sirius, and Remus were with me; only the last time I only practised with Remus. If something happened, one of them would have fetched you immediately. And Lily and Severus only practise together with me, so that I can get help if needed," Harry insisted.
McGonagall was not convinced yet. "Can you show us your form then? Have you already managed to transform completely? In such a short time?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yes, sorry. My form is an ice phoenix" Harry replied, changing into Icicle.
Fawkes greeted him happily, #Hi Icicle.#
#Hello Fireflight.#
#I've missed you at the Order meeting; why didn't you come?#
#Sorry, I was stuck in the hospital wing, I couldn't. But I will surely come the next time,# Harry trilled back quickly.
"So you're already friends with Fawkes," Dumbledore stated, chuckling.
Harry quickly changed back to his human form. "Yes, I visited him very early on Saturday morning and introduced myself."
Dumbledore smiled fondly at him. "Well done Harry, I'm very proud of you. One hundred points to Gryffindor for your brilliant Transfiguration work."
"Albus!" McGonagall blurted out in exasperation. "How can you reward Harry for putting himself in so much danger?"
"Ah, Minerva, but I didn't give him points for putting himself into danger but for managing to transform into a phoenix," Dumbledore replied calmingly, while he slowly popped another lemon drop into his mouth.
"I'm still too stunned but also impressed to say much about this, but you can believe me that we'll have a word about this tomorrow," McGonagall said strictly, turning back to her great grandson. "Anyway, I'm going to take you back to your dormitory now, and do not dare sleep through breakfast!"
Harry chuckled, thinking, 'Ah but that will be exactly what I'm going to do'.
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind reviews!