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!
When Dumbledore left the room, Pomfrey shouted after him, "Albus, in case they even think about requiring Harry's help, tell them that he's not allowed to do any magic for the next two weeks!"
McGonagall sat on the chair Dumbledore had just vacated giving Harry a worried look. "Harry, is everything all right?"
Harry slowly opened one eye and mumbled, "Did they tell you?"
"Yes Harry, Poppy told us, and I'm very glad that she's willing to teach you, so that you don't deplete your magic using healing magic," his grandmother replied in a firm voice.
"We've talked about it", Pomfrey interrupted her, "but Harry still has to think about it, and at the moment, he's too tired and just needs to sleep."
Harry shook his head. "No Madam Pomfrey, I don't have to think about it. What you told me really came as a shock, but of course I'd like you to teach me. I've always wondered why you gave me this book about Natural Healers for Christmas."
Just then, Dumbledore returned. "They want Harry to come and heal someone in the ministry, Arthur Weasley, an inspector in the Care of Magical Creatures Inspection Office, who has been bitten by the snake earlier, and they still couldn't manage to get the venom in order to make an antidote. But as Slughorn spoke to the Aurors the other day, they know the story about Harry healing Slughorn…"
Harry didn't wait for Dumbledore to finish, jumped out of his bed, pulling his robe over. "Come, Granddad, where do we have to go? I'm sorry, Madam Pomfrey. I have to go. Mr. Weasley is my best friend's dad."
Poppy shook her head annoyed and said, "Harry, you must be careful; your magic powers are still very low – don't put yourself into danger!"
Dumbledore and Harry hurried into Pomfrey's office and flooed to the Ministry of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures Inspection Office. Many people were already waiting for them and rushed them to an office, where Harry saw Mr. Weasley lying on a sofa. He hurried over to his side and took his right leg, which seemed to have been bitten, in both hands. He sighed thinking, 'Maybe I should have killed that stupid snake in the first place. How many people will I have to heal who've been bitten by her?' He sent all the magic that he could summon through his hands into Mr. Weasley's leg, before he lost consciousness.
Mr. Weasley relaxed and started to fuss over Harry, but Dumbledore just made a Portkey to the Hogwarts hospital wing, lifted Harry into his arms and said, "I'm sorry; I have to bring Harry back to Hogwarts immediately."
A moment later, they landed back in the hospital wing, where Pomfrey put him into the bed he had been occupying earlier and immediately began to fuss over him. Finally, she said, "I hope that he'll recover completely. This time, he's not only asleep, but in a coma, and I don't know when he'll wake up."
This time Harry was lucky, because Severus and Lily spent every free minute talking to him, and after only a day, he slowly drifted from the coma into a disturbed sleep, and after another day of rest, he finally was allowed to return to his dormitory and attend classes – under the condition to take it easy and not to do any magic for two more weeks.
HP
Fortunately, during the next weeks, there were no Quidditch matches, and the next weeks passed uneventful, so that it was not too bad for Harry not to be able to use magic. His only problem was that he had missed so many classes and still had to catch up. This time, he had exactly two weeks to prepare himself for the magical part of the tests, which were due during the last week before the Easter holidays.
"Harry, take it easy," Lily told him one day, "You don't have to take so much stress about these exams; even if you don't do well on your NEWTs, you'll be able to re-take them in the future anyway, won't you? It's more important to recover completely."
When they arrived at the Transfiguration classroom, James leaned over to Lily, Remus and Harry and asked, "My mum asked if you would like to come with us again for the Easter holidays. What do you think; Are you up to coming with us?"
Harry sighed. "I'd love that, but I have holiday lessons with Madam Pomfrey every day," he replied in disappointment.
Lily took in the sad look on his face. "Will the lessons take the whole day? Maybe you can stay at the Potters and just floo here every morning or every afternoon for your lesson?" she suggested, giving him a questioning look.
"Yes, Harry, that's a good idea," Remus added, and Harry promised to ask the healer right after the class.
'I don't even have to floo; I can just flash here and back, so it'll be much easier,' he thought.
Poppy was very happy for him and agreed to have the lessons every morning from nine to noon, so that he could just flash to Hogwarts after breakfast, and if he was too tired to flash back, he could always use the Floo. His great grandparents also agreed with the plan, and this time even Severus was allowed to join them.
To Harry's relief, he did well in all his tests, and he felt very contented with himself.
Soon, Saturday morning came and they boarded the Hogwarts Express once more. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were waiting for them at Kings Cross, ready to take them all to Potter Mansion with a portkey.
HP
Before calling the House elves to carry their baggage up to their rooms, Mrs. Potter asked them how they wished to divide the rooms. Would Remus and Harry want to share a room again? Alternatively, would they like single rooms? Harry glanced at Remus and Severus and asked, "Would it be possible that we shared a room all together, I mean Remus, Severus and I? The room is so big that it shouldn't be a problem, provided that Remus and Severus don't mind." He gave his friends a questioning look.
"The house-elves can easily add one more bed. That's not a problem," his grandmother reassured him, gently. "Remus and Severus, what what do you think? You can have a room of your own like Sirius, James and Lily."
"No, let's stay all together, all right Severus?" Remus suggested and Severus nodded in agreement.
HP
Harry was the only one in the kitchen early having breakfast together with Mrs. Potter at 8:30, while the others were still asleep.
"How are you Harry?" his grandmother asked. "Madam Pomfrey has sent me an owl to tell me about what happened to you between Christmas holidays and now. She also told me about your lessons. How are you feeling about this 'Natural Healer' thing? I mean, on the one hand, it's a very useful and great ability to have; on the other hand, as far as I know you, I can imagine that you hate the special nature of it as well as the attention you'd receive if you used it."
Harry sighed. "Exactly, and I already had to use it in front of others. I was called to the ministry to heal Arthur Weasley, who will be the dad of my best friend in my time, so I just had to go and do it. Anyway, I better transform and leave now. I'll be back sometime after 12 o'clock."
"All right Harry, be very careful please. And if you're too tired to transform later, just come home by floo," his grandmother replied, placing a kiss on his forehead, before she released him, smiling.
Harry nodded and transformed into Icicle. He flashed straight into the hospital wing. It was still a little early, but Madam Pomfrey did not care and immediately began with their lesson.
She brought a dummy and laid it on a bed in the fortunately empty hospital Wing, before she applied a small scratch on the dummy's arm using her wand.
"Heal it," she then instructed Harry, smiling.
Since it was only a small scratch, it did not afford much magic, but he still had to learn just how much magic was necessary to heal certain things. It was really difficult, especially as he was anxious to deplete his magic again, even if he felt assured knowing that Pomfrey was watching him like a hawk. Nevertheless, he was knackered, when Pomfrey released him at twelve o'clock.
He inwardly sighed in relief, when Poppy said, "All right, Harry, that's enough for today. Considering that it was the first time, you did very well, and I am sure that by the end of the school year you'll be perfectly capable of controlling your healing magic. Very well indeed. Twenty points to Merlin House." With that, she released him to return to Potter Manor for lunch.
HP
When he arrived at Potter Manor, his grandmother was just preparing sandwiches with Chicken Teriyaki for everyone, while his friends were looking in from the veranda.
"Hey Harry," Lily shouted in apparent excitement, when the white phoenix came into view.
"How was it?" Severus asked and Harry transformed back and headed outside quickly, noticing that it was still quite cold just wearing his school robes.
"It was brilliant, and I think this is going to help me a lot, plus Madam Pomfrey is a very pleasant teacher," Harry replied, happily.
The whole first week passed by in exactly the same way. Harry really liked his Healing lessons, although they were as tiring as they had been on the first day. The afternoons were mostly spent outside in the big park, and Harry enjoyed himself very much. In the evening, he had to do his homework for the Healing course, which consisted of reading the book about Natural Healers which Pomfrey had given him for Christmas. He tried to read one chapter each evening, so that he would be able to finish the book during the holidays.
HP
On Saturday evening, when everyone was sitting in the parlour reading or talking, Harry excused himself and said he was going to bed ignoring his friends' disbelieving looks. He went up to their room, where he took a small bag out of his luggage, enlarged it and smiled mischievously, looking at the colourful Easter eggs in the huge bag. Taking the bag onto the balcony, which was overlooking a part of the garden and the lake, he used his wish magic to distribute the Easter eggs into the grass all over the park. Afterwards, he produced parchment and a quill out of his bag and scribbled onto the parchment, 'The Easter bunny was here – who is going for an Easter egg hunt into the garden?'
He charmed the parchment to show up on the kitchen table at 6 o'clock on Sunday morning and went to bed, even if he was much too excited to sleep. What would his friends say? During his last summer at the Dursleys, before he was taken to Hogwarts with pneumonia, he had a job at the bakery in Little Whinging, where he often talked to a young man, who was an exchange student from Germany. And he had told Harry about this German Easter tradition. He was quite sure that the Marauders would not know about it, and in any case, they were going to have a lot of fun in the morning.
And fun they had. Fortunately, the weather was good, so that they spent the whole morning in the park looking for hundreds of chocolate eggs.
HP
On Sunday evening, when they were lazily sitting in the parlour, having eaten too many of the delicious chocolate Easter eggs, James suddenly asked, "By the way, the Easter egg hunt was really funny and a very good idea… but… tell me, who came up with that?"
Everyone went quiet and looked at each other in clear expectation. Harry grinned inwardly, before realising that Severus, Remus and Lily were looking straight at him. "What?" he asked innocently.
"What are we going to do tomorrow? Are we going out in the park during the full moon?" Lily successfully changed the topic.
"Yes, of course," Sirius beamed, and everyone agreed.
"By the way," Remus asked suddenly, "what about playing Quidditch tomorrow afternoon? As we're six people this time, we could have two teams of one Chaser, one Keeper and one Seeker each. What do you think?"
"Yeah," Sirius cheered, "That's a good idea. Who is going to play together?"
Harry chuckled and suggested, "Let the captains choose. James can choose one team, and Severus can choose the other."
James nodded with apparent enthusiasm and said, "All right, I want Lily on my team."
Severus quirked an eyebrow in silent question before stating, "Okay. I choose Harry."
Harry stared at him in confusion. "Err, Severus?" he blurtet out. "I'm sorry, but I can't play anything but Seeker; I've never played any other position."
Severus merely cast him a smile and said, "I know, but I can play Chaser as well; so you'll be the Seeker."
It was James' turn again, and he chose Sirius, so that Severus and Harry got Remus as Keeper. Severus chuckled, whispering to his two teammates, "Does James really believe that he has any hope of winning? With Harry as Seeker and Remus as Keeper, they don't have the slightest chance."
His friends chuckled, as they mounted their brooms. They played three matches, whereby each of them lasted between five and ten minutes before Harry caught the Snitch, and during that time, Severus always managed to score at least five times, while Remus efficiently saved every Quaffle that came in the vicinity of his hoops. After the third match, Severus told them, "It's no use playing like this. Remus and Lily, could you perhaps change teams? Then it would be more equal with the better Keeper on one team and the better Seeker on the other team."
Remus and Lily immediately agreed and changed their positions, but against Harry as Seeker they never had a chance. In order to win, they had to score at least 16 times, but Harry always caught the Snitch too quickly. It was much fun for everyone in any case.
Finally, Harry asked, "Do you think we could play a match during the night? Would I be able to catch the Snitch?"
The others were silenced by this question and just stood there staring at Harry. Finally, James grinned and said, "I don't think it would be possible, but we should try to do it at Hogwarts. There we should have more light than in the park here."
HP
When the moon became visible, it was a beautiful night; there was not a cloud in the sky, and the park illuminated by the light of the full moon was gorgeous. They flew and played around near the lake and just enjoyed themselves, before James transformed back, went into the house and came back with a tray full of butterbeer and Muggle potato snacks. They all transformed back and enjoyed a late night – early morning snack. Even Harry, cuddled between Lily on one side and James on the other, heated up by the butterbeer, was not freezing this time.
While they were enjoying their snack, Harry had an idea. "I know what we should do. I can just charm the Snitch and the Quaffle to be fluorescent – maybe a pretty light green/orange combination and we should be able to see it in the dark. Let's try it out during our next full moon night," he suggested.
When the others went to bed at 7 o'clock, Harry decided to go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast, as he would be too tired later if he went to bed just for an hour.
Before heading upstairs, James told Harry, "Don't let her make you practise too long today; Mum is going to take us to Diagon Alley in the afternoon!"
"Wow, that's cool," Harry answered happily, as he readied himself to flash to Hogwarts a little earlier than usual.
HP
After their visit to the magical shopping street, Harry decided to sit down and arrange the dates for two weekends with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. He finally decided on April 20 and May 25 and sent a quick note to his grandfather for approval before fixing the exact dates with the respective schools.
Both teams were going to arrive in the evening of Friday, April 19. Hogwarts would play Durmstrang on Saturday morning, and the game Durmstrang versus Beauxbatons would take place on Sunday morning, before the guests were going to leave in the evening. In the same way, they would come back on Friday the 24th of May for the last match Beauxbatons versus Hogwarts that was scheduled for the 25th of May. A huge dance ball with the presentation of the Quidditch cup would be the climax of the tournament, and on Sunday, all students would have the chance to accompany their guests from abroad to Hogsmeade.
Harry was quite content with his plan, and when he presetented it to his friends, everyone agreed that it was briliant.
James' eyes glowed with joy hearing Harry's explanation.
"A dance ball? Lily! Would you please accompany me to this ball?"
Lily almost fell off her chair in surprise and only managed to say, "Um… eh… ball?"
tbc...
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