Make It Up As We Go
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. All Character's belong to JK Rowling.
Summary: After a horrific car accident, Harry is unwittingly transported back to his 5th year.
Harry Potter stepped into the taxi in muggle London and slouched back against the seat. He let out a sigh of relief. Often times Harry would take a taxi ride from one muggle destination to another in order to clear his head. Not that his head needed much clearing anymore. Since the defeat of Voldemort, Harry was happy to report that only normal problems plagued his existence, such as what to eat for dinner or dressing his children. Yes, Harry was finally leading a normal existence at the age of thirty-five.
Suddenly the car swung a quick left just as another car ran a red light. The sound of metal on metal was sickening. Harry was unfortunately sitting on the side of impact and was knocked out cold.
As he came to Harry blinked due to a blinding white light above him. He tried to move, but he could not get his body to budge. He called out and his voice answered him in an echo. As the white light subsided, Harry began to look around at his surroundings. He was most definitely in the car, but everything else around him had frozen. The cab driver was positioned with his head about to slam into the steering wheel. The driver in the other car was caught in a silent scream. People were stuck in mid walk on the sidewalks. Downtown London was in a stand still. Everything was frozen in time. Cursing his luck for always seeming to find himself in situations like these, Harry began to rack his brain on what could be going on now.
Deciding now was as good of a time as any, Harry started maneuvering his was out of the wrecked car. Starting first with his arms and then his legs, Harry slid his way out of the crumpled metal wreckage. Opening the other unharmed taxi door Harry took his belongings with him and got out of the car. Feeling a bit uneasy about the entire situation in which Harry found himself, he began to pace around.
"Hello! Is there anyone here?" Harry called out to the frozen city.
"Why yes, there is actually. How funny it is that you should ask." A blinding light began walking toward Harry. As the figure appeared, Harry had to shield his eyes from the light.
"Oh I am quite sorry about that," said the figure as the light dimmed and Harry stood up a little straighter, "I am not accustomed to dealing with your kind often. As you see there has been a terrible accident here. An accident that actually was not supposed to happen. You see this car crash killed you Mister Potter."
Harry's heart sank. All those years fighting Voldemort, fighting dark wizards, and now his years as an auror for the Ministry of Magic and here he was taken out in a muggle car crash. The irony of the situation was too much for Harry.
"So I am dead?"
"Not quite yet," explained the tall, thin limbed woman behind the dimming light, "Actually that is why I am here to talk to you. Because this was technically an accident on our part. You see you were never intended to be in that cab. You see that man over there," the figure pointed a finger towards a man near where Harry had originally hailed the cab. "That man was supposed to get your cab and die today. Not you. However, damage is done. Now, we have two options. Option number one – you die. Option number two, we transplant you into some other point of you life and you make sure that by the time you live this again you don't get into this cab." The woman paused for a moment to let the options sink in. As she waited she toyed with her long white blonde hair and smiled.
Harry was not quite sure what to do. Could it really be as easy as just going back in time a little ways and not hailing that cab? Should he just walk instead? The risk seemed fairly low and was intrigued as to why anyone would pick the option of death.
"Sure, I'll go back and just not hail the same cab." Harry gave the woman a small smile and waited.
"Excellent! We will provide you with a guide should things become confusing. Keep in mind that this guide will be hidden in an unlikely place."
And without so much as a chance to ask what on Earth he would need a guide for, Harry's world went black.
Harry came to blinking his eyes and looking down at a platter of food in the Great Hall. Harry continued to blink as he looked at his platter of food. He then turned and heard Dumbledore finish the end of the same speech that he had given Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. After the last words of the speech had been said, Harry looked around the room. Slowly Harry began to connect the dots on where he was, how he got there, and that this was going to be a lot more complicated than not hailing the same cab again. Anger boiled up inside of his chest. He was going to have to live through it all again! Again! All the fights with friends, all the deaths, all the hurts. Into what kind of hell had he just fallen? On that angry thought, Harry picked himself up and marched out of the Great Hall.
He could feel his friend's curious glances and could hear pauses in others conversations. Harry didn't care. He needed room to breathe. He was fifteen years old again and it was totally unexpected. How on earth was he supposed to respond to situations in the same manner as before if he knew the outcome? How was he supposed to pose as a fifteen year old boy at thirty-five? How was he supposed to sit by and watch those he cared for die when he already knew the answers to the problems they were facing? Harry took a deep breath and then another as he pressed his forehead against the cold stone wall. Anger swept through him again as he realized he had already changed the future by storming out of the Great Hall. Taking another deep breath, Harry turned around and walked back into the Hall to finish dinner with his friends.