Only Time Will Tell
Chapter 20
Déjà vu And Predicaments
"As soon as your friend, my other self, came up through the trap door, I knew almost immediately what was going on." The Alternate Harry told a very stunned Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. "My father, Lord Voldemort, has kept me in my tower my entire life to protect me from an encounter with time, like the encounter he had a long time ago. He told me that one day, another version of myself might come and try to destroy me, and therefore, I must destroy him first."
"You destroyed Harry?" Ron bellowed, interrupting.
"He can't have destroyed Harry, otherwise, he would have been destroyed as well." Hermione snapped at him. "That's probably why V-Voldemort wanted Harry to destroy himself, so he wouldn't have to do it and risk the fulfilling the prophecy."
"So, when Harry stepped into the tower, I knew the time had come, that my father would want me to destroy him. I have never loved my father, though-" Alternate Harry continued his story, and this time Ginny interrupted him.
"He isn't your father, James Potter is. You-know-who murdered your father." She told him fiercely, and Alternate Harry looked taken aback.
"That's what the Other Harry said, too. Lord Voldemort has always told me that he is my father, but it doesn't matter. I've never loved him like a son should. He never gave me the answers to the questions I asked, about why I was really kept in a tower. So, I tricked him when I tricked you. I told Ron that the other Harry attacked me, but actually I attacked him. I then switched the clothes, and you all took me for the Harry you knew." Alternate Harry finished, smiling again at his own cleverness.
Ron and Hermione wore expressions of repulsion as the looked at him. But Ginny was thinking.
"That's why you've been so silent. And in the river, your life flashed before you the same way, because you hadn't traveled through time. And you couldn't speak Parseltongue because You-know-who hadn't given you his powers yet!" Alternate Harry shrugged.
"Stupefy!" Ron shouted suddenly, and Alternate Harry fell to the ground, stunned.
"Good thinking, Ron." Hermione said. "We have to go back to the alternate 1996 and rescue the real Harry before Voldemort realizes 'his son' isn't there." Ron moaned. Just when everything had almost been over…
"But how? The river doesn't exist in 1943!" Ginny reminded her, levitating Alternate Harry to take along with them. Hermione smiled with a glint in her eye.
"No, it doesn't. But Dumbledore and the Time Chamber do!"
And with that, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and unconscious hovering Alternate Harry began to climb the plumbing of Hogwarts, a few steps behind but safely out of sight of James, Sirius, the other Harry, and the unconscious hovering other Ginny. At one point, Hermione could have sworn she heard a reverberating cry from below, and quickened her pace. She didn't like being in this pipe that was home to a snake…
As soon as she had thought this, a loud crash echoed from behind them, and she, Ron, and Ginny whirled around to see what had caused the noise.
"Perhaps our friend Tom is waking up." Ginny whispered grimly.
"The sooner we get out of here, the better." Ron whispered back, and they set off climbing and sliding in the slick pipes again. After the party in front of them had climbed out, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Alternate Harry also got out and found themselves back in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"It's a good thing Alternate Harry spoke up before we modified Riddle's memory, otherwise we might not have been able to get back to alternate 1996!" Hermione exclaimed, and Ginny agreed. It was a scary thought, that they could have erased their Harry from time by obliterating the alternate universe they had created.
"Back to the Time Chamber!" the other Harry called from the hallway, carrying the other Ginny. Sirius and James followed him, and so did Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and unconscious Alternate Harry. As they walked, Ron and Hermione discussed something while levitating Alternate Harry along. Ginny had a feeling it was something to do with what they had seen in the future. Instead, she decided to listen to the conversation Sirius and James were having.
"You know what Harry reminded me of just now, carrying Ginny?" Sirius asked James. "You, carrying Lily after she fell in the lake in our third year."
James glanced at Harry and Ginny again, and so did the Ginny that was following them. She smiled as she looked at Harry. He was taking good care of her.
"You're right, Padfoot. You're absolutely right." James agreed.
They reached the corner of the hallway right before the open landing above the Entrance Hall. Ginny instinctively paused, and threw out her arm to prevent Ron from stepping out into the open. Ron looked at her in a questioning way, but Hermione stopped and listened.
"HARRY!" Someone yelled from downstairs. Ron recognized it as his own voice.
"RON!" The Harry on the landing called down. The sound of people climbing stairs followed, and Ron, Hermione, Remus, and Peter stepped onto the landing. It really is weird to see yourself, Hermione thought, remembering during her third year when she had watched herself be beaten up by the Whomping Willow in another time adventure.
After the group of their other selves had hurried off, found Dumbledore, and had gone into the time chamber, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny (and Alternate Harry, of course) hurried after them.
Inside the time chamber, they listened to Dumbledore diagnose Ginny. Talk about Déjà vu! Ron thought to himself, remembering how it all had happened. As they heard Harry saying his goodbyes, Hermione felt her throat tightening again. They heard Dumbledore pull the lever, as he said.
"Off to 1996!"
And then they finally opened the door.
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter didn't realize they had entered at first, they continued to watch the hourglass where Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry had just disappeared. Dumbledore, however, looked at them in shock.
Wait! How did you? Why are you?" He tried to ask. The Marauders looked around to see what he was talking about. Ginny considered how weird this must be for them, after just saying goodbye, here they were again!
"It's a long story, but we went back to 1996, like you sent us. But we had actually changed it and created an alternate universe. Then we ran into Harry's alternate self, and Harry's alternate self attacked him, and told us that he was really Harry. So we took the Alternate Harry back to 1943 with us unknowingly, because we had to set things right. We just realized that he wasn't really Harry, but he was the Alternate Harry, and now we have to go back again." Hermione told them very quickly.
There was some stunned silence after this story.
"Oh, I see." Dumbledore said, a little uncertainly.
"So, you were in the Chamber of Secrets with us?" James asked. They all nodded. "Oh, that's cool."
"Is that Alternate Harry?" Sirius asked, pointing to the hovering unconscious Harry.
"That's him, all right." Ginny said, giving Alternate Harry a kick.
"And you're okay?" Dumbledore asked of Ginny. Ginny smiled and nodded. "Wow, this is exciting!" He remarked, his blue eyes lit up like a little boy's on Christmas morning.
"So, can you send us back, again?" Hermione asked, hopefully.
"Sure! Just step on up, again." Dumbledore opened the glass door, and they stepped inside the Time Elevator. "Off to 1996! Again!"
Hermione, Ron, and Ginny waved to the Marauders, all of which wore very dazed looks. The upward spinning began, the reverse whirlpool, and they were whisked away. While Dumbledore chuckled to himself, James marveled at what had just happened.
"Are you getting the feeling that we're missing out on this time adventure that is rightfully ours?" Sirius asked him.
"It certainly seems that way, Padfoot." James smiled. Sirius looked highly affronted at this.
"What if we followed them in the time elevator and then we-"
"NO!" Dumbledore, James, Remus, and Peter shouted at the same time, not caring what Sirius had been about to say. It was times like these, Remus had learned, that the best thing to do was to shut Sirius up before he got them into more trouble than they were already in.
"Don't you want to watch Harry kick his Alternate self's ass?" Sirius asked temptingly. James personally agreed that it would be an enjoyable spectacle to watch, but Dumbledore smiled and shook his head.
"NO!!!" Remus repeated, looking quite exasperated and trying to hide his own amusement as well.
As the spinning began to slow down, Ginny felt the limp form of Alternate Harry bang into her. They were back in the alternate universe of 1996.
"I really hate this place." Ron stated, meaning the grim Hogwarts under Voldemort they had arrived in. Hermione agreed.
The plan was to floo to Azkaban Palace, switch the Harrys and leave. They would return to 1943, switch the wands, modify Tom's memory, place him in the library, and go back to what would hopefully be the normal 1996 with only one Harry in it. It sounded like a good plan, but unfortunately, every plan has its flaws…
"Do you think Voldemort's at the Palace now? He said he would be coming later." Ginny asked as they roamed the Hogwarts corridors, searching for the classroom they had flooed from earlier.
"I honestly have no idea. I don't even know if we've left yet for the Palace, or if we've even arrived!" Hermione replied, poking her head into a classroom. Ron scratched his head. Right, whatever Hermione had said…
Harry opened his eyes groggily. His head was pounding with a dull ache, and he wasn't exactly sure where he was. As he raised himself gingerly from the floor, he realized he wasn't wearing his clothes, but someone else's. As he stood up and looked at the chair lying upturned on the floor, all the events of the past few days flooded back to him.
…James and the Marauders in the hall… Snape's makeover… the Time Vortex… his mother, kissing him on the forehead… rescuing Ginny from Tom in the Chamber… saying goodbye to Sirius and his father… the Boy Who Had Never Been Born… staring face to face with himself…
Himself! Harry finally remembered. A jolt ran through his body as he thought this. His alternate self had hit him over the head with the chair! But where was his Alternate self now? And where were Ron, Hermione, and Ginny?
His scar twinged oddly right before the trapdoor flew open a few feet away from him. The one person who had always managed to make his life go from bad to worse climbed up and stood before him. Lord Voldemort had come to call.
"Hello, son." Voldemort said in a nasty voice. Harry shivered. "Is there something you wish to talk to me about?" Harry tried to clear his mind, he wouldn't have his thoughts invaded again… "No peculiar visitors, by chance?"
Harry mumbled a no, trying to empty his head. Voldemort smiled. "Very well then. Follow me."
Voldemort grabbed Harry's arm and thrust him down through the trapdoor. Harry's scar seared with pain, and with sinking realization, he found that his Alternate self had taken the wand as well. Two Death Eaters grabbed his arms, and began forcefully dragging him behind a striding Voldemort.
Harry weighed his predicament. He was in a "palace" of Lord Voldemort at full strength, surrounded by death eaters, on an island, in an alternate universe, with no friends and no wand. It did not look good, he had to admit. But there was one thing Voldemort didn't know, and that was that he didn't have a brainwashed Harry to fight, but an angry Harry ready for revenge to fight, he reminded himself.
While his feet scraped along on the grimy floor, Harry wondered what Voldemort was going to do with him. He also wondered what Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were doing just now, possibly not even knowing they had left with the wrong Harry. The Death Eaters flanking him jerked him painfully as Voldemort made a sharp turn into one of the side rooms. Gripping his arms tightly, they steered Harry into the room, and promptly tied him to an odd contraption on one of the walls. Voldemort smiled as he rolled up his sleeves and took out his wand.
"I'm surprised, Harry. I thought you would have told me about your encounter with time like I'd asked you to." The unfitting, shrill voice said from the powerfully built body. "After raising you all those years, the one thing I ask of you, you didn't do it for me." Harry cringed inwardly, being raised by Voldemort was not a happy thought. He wondered what Voldemort had wanted his Alternate self to do.
"All you had to do was hit him over the head with that chair, and then he would have been helpless. There were countless ways you could have destroyed him! Why did you do this to me, my son?"
At the last words, the contraption binding Harry contorted and pulled Harry's limbs in taut positions. Before he could even begin to comprehend why it was doing this, Voldemort hit him with the Cruciartus curse, and the reason became evident.
As Harry's body felt the stabs of pure pain, he was completely unable to writhe and at least feel as though he was fighting the pain. It, if possible, made the pain feel a hundred times worse. Voldemort was screaming something he couldn't understand over his own shouts of agony. Then, it all stopped.
Panting, Harry tried to raise his eyes to look at Voldemort. He felt almost nauseous with his scar searing, but was determined to see why Voldemort had stopped torturing him. Voldemort was looking at him with a horrified expression on his face, looking rather nauseous himself. He wasn't looking Harry in the eye, but he was unmistakably studying Harry's face.
"Th-th-that-" Voldemort tried to say, sounding almost fearful in what he was seeing. "That SCAR!"
Throughout the entire adventure thus far, Harry had maintained a straight face. It had been difficult at times, such as when Snape had been given a makeover by his father, but up to this point Harry had not outright laughed. Of all the inappropriate times for Harry to start laughing, this was the worst. But at the disbelieving way Voldemort was looking at him, for some reason he started to laugh uncontrollably.
The Death Eaters standing guard by the door exchanged confused glances. The people Voldemort had tortured before had never laughed like this before! Even Voldemort looked confused. But he recovered himself swiftly, and bewilderment was replaced with rage.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?" He hollered, his terrible voice reverberating off of the stone walls of the room. Harry really had no idea, and was unable to stop. The guards stared at the laughing victim in a sort of stupor, and because of this, they were not as attentive at their duties as they should have been.
"HARRY!" Hermione squealed, walking into the unusual scene. Harry, still chuckling, looked away from the flabbergasted, angry Voldemort and saw Hermione, Ron, and Ginny standing before him. And a few feet behind him was his alternate self, hovering but unconscious. Harry was immensely relieved to see them there, though he wasn't sure how any of them were going to escape this alive after he had laughed so heartily at Voldemort. Hermione was looking a little unsure as well, and Ron was very pale next to her. Ginny, it seemed, had done some quick thinking.
"Innervate!" She said suddenly, bringing Alternate Harry awake. Whatever Harry had been hoping that she had up her sleeve, he had not been expecting or hoping for that.
Alternate Harry stood up and looked around the room in a rather dazed way. Voldemort was now staring at him much in the same fashion that he had been looking at Harry. Ginny took Alternate Harry by the arm and pulled him aside.
"Alternate Harry, your other self is about to be killed by the man you call your father. If he kills him, it will kill you too. Will you fight him with us, or are we going to have to let you get killed as well?" She spoke to him in a businesslike tone. Harry wasn't sure if this was a smart bargain, to hope that his alternate self that had hit him over the head with a chair would be willing to fight with him. Alternate Harry looked from Harry to Voldemort.
"All those years you've kept me locked in that tower, and you would never explain the real reason! I met these people today, and they were able to tell me that you wanted to kill me all along! YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!" Alternate Harry screamed, and he lunged for Voldemort.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny seemed to be forgotten for the moment, as Alternate Harry and Voldemort began to flail. Alternate Harry had taken Voldemort by such surprise when he lunged, that he had managed to wrench Voldemort's wand out of his hand, snapping what had been Harry's wand in two. The broken wand lay forgotten on the floor, near the two useless Death Eaters that were watching the spectacle. Ginny took this opportunity to run over to Harry, while Hermione and Ron stunned the oblivious guards.
"Harry, are you okay?" Ginny asked him breathlessly. Harry smiled.
"Yeah, I'm okay, Ginny."
For a moment, they just stared at each other like that, then Ginny hit herself on the forehead. The sudden movement startled Harry.
"I need to get you down!" Ginny said, and Harry also remembered that he was chained to the odd contraption.
With some help from Hermoine and Ron, Ginny finally got Harry untangled. Hermione immediately hugged him, sobbing apologies, and Ron looked immensely relieved.
"Oh, Harry, can you imagine when we found out-" Hermione blubbered, wringing her hands.
"I thought you were acting a little oddly, mate-" Ron clapped him on the shoulder.
"-we were about to switch the wands, too!" Hermoine continued in her frantic state of releif and contrition.
"-he really made you look like a nutter!" Ron said, a nervous smile of relief crossing his still pale face.
Harry nodded at them, and Ginny, who had been standing off to one side, came up to him. There was a sort of awkward pause, during which they both hesitated, then finally they threw their arms around each other and embraced. It shut up both of Hermione and Ron's babbling. Harry could feel warmth spreading throughout his body as he hugged Ginny tightly. He could smell her shampoo, like lavender, or jasmine.
"And what do we have here?" Voldemort's cold voice said with amusement, and Harry's insides chilled. In the excitement of seeing his friends, and hugging Ginny, Voldemort had been the last thing on Harry's mind. He reluctantly let go of Ginny, who turned and stood defiantly by his side. Alternate Harry was struggling futilely against the two reawoken Death Eaters who had him pinned.
"After all these years, during which I learned that I had chosen you as my equal in another life, during which I waited for you to walk into your own destruction, I should have seen it all coming!" Voldemort said excitedly out loud, though only making sense to himself. "I never thought it, but then I couldn't," He mumbled happily to himself.
"He sounds like you, Hermione, when you're on the verge of a break through!" Ron whispered in Hermione's ear as they waited tensely for Voldemort to clarify. Hermione emitted a slight giggle out of nerves, though it got caught in her throat and she immediately stifled it.
"We're alike in many ways, Harry." Voldemort said finally, to the group this time. "You can deny it all you want, I can deny it all I want, but it's the truth. Parselmouths, half-bloods, magically gifted, we even had brother wands in that other life! I thought you would be above the petty game of foolish 'true love' with another, but I guess we're less alike than I thought." Ginny blushed crimson next to Harry, but Harry didn't notice.
"I guess you're a fool after all, like that old fool Dumbledore, with ideas of love and goodness." Voldemort continued. "I should have seen sooner in this life and the other one, the one way to completely destroy you is to destroy all those around you!"
Voldemort was pacing almost lazily, the resemblance to how Tom Riddle had spoken in the Chamber not long ago was uncanny. Harry clenched his fists, as Voldemort's words rang in his ears.
"I think I'm doing pretty well so far, don't you think? Let's see, your mum's gone, your father too, your godfather, that other friend of theirs, Dumbledore might have cared for you too, if he had ever met you, and that oaf Hagrid, of course." Voldemort ticked off the people on his fingers, a delighted but demented smile on his face. "And now some new people to add to the list! Where to begin?" He sized up Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, all of whom had their wands out, but Voldemort was still too dangerous to take on like this, even without a wand. "Silly question! If there's one thing we need to get rid of, it is certainly true love!"
And with that, Voldemort summoned a wand from one of the Death Eaters so quickly, Harry almost didn't see it fly through the air. But equally as quick, Harry lunged for Voldemort in a way very similar to how Alternate Harry had. Voldemort had a hand on the wand, but so did Harry. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were about to aid him when a red jet of light narrowly missed Hermione's head. The Death Eater that still had a wand seemed to have figured out what to do with it, and Ron and Hermione turned on him, instead. Meanwhile, Ginny picked up a large crate that was lying by the door, and charged.
"Harry, look out!" She called as she pelted towards where Harry and Voldemort were struggling over the wand. Harry obediently jumped out of the way, and Voldemort held the wand triumphantly over his head for a moment before Ginny rammed the crate forcefully into his stomach. With a loud "oof!" he toppled over, tripping Hermione in the process. While Voldemort tumbled head over heels across the floor, Ron reached to help Hermione up.
"Hermione, is that-" Ron asked in awe. Hermione looked down at the ground that she had just gotten up from, which Ron was pointing at. Sure enough, a gold pocket watch was lying there, right where it had fallen out of Hermione's pocket only a moment before. "Has it been in there the entire time?" Ron asked weakly, and Hermione picked it up, nodding sheepishly.
Harry had picked up the wand that Voldemort had dropped and was pointing it at the heap that was Voldemort on the floor. Alternate Harry was still struggling against the remaining Death Eater that Ron and Hermione hadn't taken out yet, and Ginny took out her wand and pointed it at him.
"Harry, Ginny! We've got a time turning pocket watch! We can leave, now!" Hermione called out, throwing the chain around her neck and Ron's. She began to set it as Ginny hurried over. "Harry, come on!"
Harry stepped closer to Voldemort, who was back on his feet. "We'll settle this next time, I suppose." And with that, he darted back and stuck his head under the chain as Hermione shouted the incantation.
"Reloj Vicus Eo!"
And once again, with another blinding flash of light, the scene around them was gone.