Even i'll be holding on
to the times it all seemed gone.
When all the problems seemed solved.
Days your back breaks,
and only black is in your heart,
even I'll be holding on.
When I'll be holding on
When I'll be holding on
You've got your hands behind your back
You've got your hands behind your back
dSz
A feeling of dread settles over me as I dive into the water to save Ron. Part of me questions whether a school for children would really hold a contest where someone could quite possibly die, but then I remember that this is Hogwarts. This is the same school that held a deadly basilisk in its basement. This is the same school that had a gigantic three-headed dog guarding a precious stone from an evil madman. This is the same school that hired a werewolf to teach its students.
As I make my way through the chilly water I wonder how in the world I ended up here. What brought me to this point? What started me on this path?
Did it start with the letter addressed to the cupboard under the stairs? Did it begin with the killing curse? Was all of this set into motion when a small boy was sent back to an orphanage year after year? Or is the origin of all of this, of everything that's happened, sometime farther in the past, so far back that it may even have been forgotten?
I can't think about this anymore. I can't let my mind wander. I see Ron up ahead. He's tied up next to Hermione. I know what I have to do. I need to stop thinking so I can complete the task set out in front of me.
I've got to save them, there's really nothing to think about...I've just got to.
dSz
dSz
January 2? 12:30AM
Hogwarts
The castle swirled around us as the hourglass spun out of control. I swayed slightly as everything around me came back into focus. Severus snatched the time turner away from me with an angry huff.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" he snapped, "Are you trying to get us killed? Or perhaps you'd like to tear some type of hole in the space time continuum?"
"Space time whats it now?" I asked in confusion.
"Nevermind that now," Severus growled, "We need to get out of the castle and figure out how in Merlin's name we're going to get back to our own time."
I glared at him in indignation. "But we haven't even been here that long...or back...here now...o you know what I mean."
"All I know is that you are a fool and I was a fool to agree to this little adventure."
"Would you stop already?" I sneered, "I didn't twist your arm you know. You agreed to do this and now you want to bitch?"
"And that's another thing," Severus spat in response, "Must you curse constantly. I know Americans are rude and brash but I..."
Snape's ranting was cut off by the sound of quiet footsteps attempting to sneak up on us from behind. We both froze in response and Snape made a move for his wand, nearly dropping the time turner in the process. Luckily I noticed in time and snatched it away quickly, shoving it into my pocket and out of sight.
"Hold it right there the both of you," the young man ordered calmly, "Make no sudden moves and slowly turn around to face me please."
As I began to turn around I noticed that Snape's hands were shaking considerably. I gave him a questioning look but he refused to meet my eyes, instead his gaze remained centered on his feet. A thin sheen of sweat had collected on his forehead and I don't think I'd ever seen him so rattled.
A young man with short black hair and dark blue eyes stood in front of us. His eyes were drawn into narrow slits as he eyed us cautiously. The wand in his hand was stretched out in front of him as still as stone. I noticed that his attention wavered slightly when he noticed the scar on my forehead.
"Do you recognize him?" I whispered out of the corner of my mouth. When I recieved no response I chanced a look at Severus. I was dismayed to find that he was still sweating and trembling.
"Now, if you two would please explain what you are doing wandering the castle it would be most helpful," the boy stated calmly. "I know you," he said as he flicked his wand at me, "are not a student here, and you," he continued as he flicked his wand at Severus, causing the professor to flinch uncontrollably, "are not a professor and you are too old to be a student. So explain yourselves."
The boy seemed familiar to me for some reason. He wore Slytherin robes and a prefect badge was pinned to the front. I opened my mouth to spill out the mother of all excuses when Severus suddenly dropped to the ground clutching his left forearm.
Snape's face contorted in pain and the black haired boy and I took a step towards him to try and figure out what was causing his sudden fit. The moment that the boy and I moved closer to Severus I suddenly felt a strange tingling in my scar. I paused in mid-step, slightly confused and surprised at the strange sensation. At the same time the young man took another step toward Snape and in doing so, took another step toward me. My scar exploded in agony and I screamed in response, clasping both hands to my forehead to try and ease the pain.
"What is wrong with the two of you?" the boy whispered softly as he regarded us both with keen interest.
"Mr. Riddle, is there a problem?" a familiar grandfatherly voice called out from down the hall.
I watched with half-closed lids as Riddle turned to speak to Dumbledore. The hallway began to look hazy and slightly angled. I tried to call out to Severus but he had already passed out on the floor.
With trembling hands I began searching for the time turner but my mind was already so far gone that I couldn't remember where I had put it. I pointed one trembling finger at Dumbledore and muttered a half-hearted "obliv" before joining Severus in the darkness.
January 2? 7:00AM
Hogwarts Infirmary
The sound of rustling off to my right caused me to awake with a start. A gentle hand on my shoulder pushed me back down into the hospital bed and I looked up into twinkling blue eyes. Dumbledore sat back in the chair next to my bed and watched me with barely concealed amusement.
"I can explain..." I began but he held up a hand to interrupt.
"No need to explain Miss Riddle, I know why you're here," Dumbledore stated knowingly.
It took me a moment for his words to register in my mind. My eyes widened in surprise as I realized the enormity of what was just said. I opened my mouth to ask how he knew who I am but my attention was drawn away by someone moving around in the bed across the room from my own.
"Where the bloody hell are we?" Severus grunted angrily as he pushed away the white blankets covering him and slowly rose off the bed.
"I'm surprised at you Professor," Dumbledore commented, "using such language."
"Professor?" Severus questioned in confusion.
"You are the Potions Professor at Hogwarts are you not?" Dumbledore asked offhandedly.
"Well of course..." Snape's voice trailed off into silence.
"Who are you?" I asked as I eyed the supposed headmaster suspiciously. This didn't seem to be the Dumbledore that I knew.
Dumbledore let out a loud sigh as he slowly leaned back into his chair. "That is a very long story."
"We have time," I stated while fingering the time turner in my pocket.
"Of course," he replied calmly, "plenty of time."
"The first thing I must tell you might seem unbelieveable but I ask you to please bear with me," Dumbledore began as Severus crossed the room to sit next to me. "Albus Dumbledore died in a battle five years before Harry Potter was born."
"What!" Severus and I both exclaimed at the same time.
"Then you're not really Dumbledore?" I questioned pensively.
"I am the Dumbledore that you know," the old wizard replied, "Well, that's not exactly true. Actually you've met many different Dumbledore's from many different times."
Severus and I gave him a confused look. "Perhaps you should start from the beginning," Snape offered and I nodded in agreement.
"The beginning...that is a difficult place to start. I can scarcely recall how all of this started but I will try my best. To the best of my knowledge this started when Albus Dumbledore was hit with a killing curse from the Dark Lord Voldemort. The wizarding world was thrown into darkness..."
"But that never happened," Snape broke in.
"I assure you it did," the headmaster continued, "but you would not know it because in your time Dumbledore still exists, in your time these things never came to pass."
"I don't understand," I commented, "How could this happen but not happen?"
"Please allow me to continue. I assure you that I will answer your questions the best I can once I am finished." Severus and I both nodded in reply. "Albus Dumbledore was already gone from this world by the time I was born. The world I was born into was not the one that you would remember Professor."
"The world I was born into was a dark place, a place of persecution. Where blood purity was the only thing that mattered and muggleborns were considered to be a threat instead of a miracle. Luckily I am a pureblood so I was saved from the worst of things."
"I went to this school," the old wizard stated fondly, "I remember imagining what Hogwarts could have been if only Albus Dumbledore hadn't been killed. I imagined how things might have been different."
"I worked very hard in school, learning everything I could in an effort to become more powerful so I could someday defeat the Dark Lord. I was at the top of every class and after I was done with my schooling I was offered a position in the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable."
"Of course I jumped at the opportunity. Around this time I also gained a new friend, most would call him a pet but he is so much more than that. A phoenix came to me one evening and bonded with me. I knew almost immediately that it was Albus Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes."
"But..." Severus began to interrupt once again.
"Please Professor, allow me to continue. As I said, this is a long story and I'd hate to become sidetracked before getting to the end." Severus bowed his head in acceptance and motioned for him to continue. "Thank you. Now, where was I...o yes, Fawkes came to me and when we bonded he placed a single idea in my head."
"What was it?" I asked curiously.
"It was a well known fact that Albus Dumbledore was a very powerful wizard, comparable only to Merlin himself. So how was it possible that Tom Riddle, a much younger and more inexperienced wizard, was able to defeat him. That question always bothered me and Fawkes urged me to find the reason why."
"I knew that Tom had studied with many dark wizards all over the world and I knew that he had used certain dark spells to increase his powers and knowledge quickly and effeciently," he continued, "The problem, as I saw it, was that there are no spells that are not dark that can produce the same results. So the only solution I could think of was to go back in time and train, away from the watchful eye of Voldemort and his Death Eaters."
"As you two now know, a time turner is not the most accurate device for time traveling, but it was the best I had at the time. So I began to make short journeys into the past, study for a short time and then return. The downfall with this was that my training went terribly slow and overall I made little to no progress. Luckily there was a witch who worked with me at the Department of Mysteries who was obsessed with the idea of time travel. It seems the young woman's mother died when the young woman was just a child so she wanted to find a way to go back and save her mother."
Snape gave Dumbledore a puzzled look. "Why would a time turner not be sufficient for such a thing? All she needed to do was go back to when she was a child, correct?"
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "That is correct but the first time she attempted to go back she came to a startling realization. When she went back she did not take into account where she would arrive. It just so happened that when she arrived her mother was walking down the stairs in their home. When she popped in her mother was so surprised she tripped and fell down the stairs, hitting her head and passing away soon after."
"Her mother died because she went back in time!" I exclaimed.
"Exactly," Dumbledore replied. "She found out that due to her actions in the future, her mother was killed in the past. The real problem came when she went back once again to try and stop her former self from going back. Instead of being able to stop her former self, she nearly went insane."
"After that she waited for the timeline to smooth out once more before beginning work on a new invention, something that would revolutionize time travel. The idea behind this invention was linking all instances of a magical aura so that when traveling to a certain time, each instance of that person in that time would be linked together. What she created was this."
Severus and I both eagerly leaned forward to get a good look as Dumbledore pulled some kind of necklace out of his pocket. He held it up for the both of us to see. It was a small golden bird on a long golden chain. The coloring of the feathers gave it a soft red glow.
"It's a phoenix," I stated assuredly and Severus rolled his eyes.
"You are correct, it is Fawkes to be exact," Dumbledore replied excitedly, "That young witch was so enamored by Fawkes that she based the design on him, he is such a handsome bird after all." There was a small burst of flames as Fawkes suddenly appeared on Dumbledore's shoulder. He rubbed the bird's head fondly and Fawkes let out a small trill of joy which instantly seemed to lighten the mood in the room.
"Right after this necklace was created, a plan was hatched by a small group of wizards and witches who were prepared to fight against Voldemort and his followers..."
"The Order of the Phoenix," Severus interrupted in an awed tone.
"One in the same," the headmaster replied with a smile tinged with sadness, "It was her idea actually. She was such a clever witch, it was a horrible loss to the wizarding world when we lost her."
"Lost her?" I questioned timidly.
"There was a spy in our group," he responded sadly, "He did not have enough information about our operations to be much of a threat but he did discover one vital piece of information. The witch who created this necklace was actually a muggleborn posing as a pure blood."
"Once he told Voldemort this, the witch was caught and executed. It was a horrible blow to our efforts and to me..." The old wizard's voice trailed off into silence as a pained expression appeared on his face.
"You loved her, didn't you?" I asked.
"Yes, I did," he replied with a small nod, "I also put great trust in the wizard who turned out to be the spy, even though most of the order tried to tell me that he could not be trusted."
"Who was the spy?" Severus questioned tentatively.
Dumbledore shook his head. "It is not important now."
"Who was it?" Severus ground out angrily. Dumbledore shifted in his chair and their eyes met.
"Severus Snape, Potions Professor at Hogwarts."
My eyes widened in surprise and Snape appeared to be in shock. I went to put a hand on his shoulder but he jerked away from me as if I was on fire.
"And the witch, who was she?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"I would think that you would have figured that out by now," the old wizard replied solemnly, "She was, and always has been, the smartest witch the wizarding world has ever seen after all."
"Hermione," I gasped in awe and Dumbledore nodded in reply.
"Granger?" Snape asked in confusion, "Why would I do such a thing?"
The headmaster shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately I'm not the one able to answer that question. It was a different time then and the world was a different place."
As I watched the two men converse a thought began to form in my mind. I studied the way this Dumbledore spoke, the look in his eyes and I compared it to the Dumbledore from my time.
"If you're not really Dumbledore," I interjected, "Then that must mean you went back and traded places with the real Dumbledore, correct?"
"Exactly right. I traveled through time for many, many years until I was close to the age Dumbledore was when he was killed. I also changed my appearance to match his. Then I travelled to the day that it happened. My first plan was to save Dumbledore but I arrived just in time to see Voldemort and Dumbledore both utter the killing curse."
"After Dumbledore fell to the ground I created a diversion," the headmaster continued to explain, "and took his place in battle. Voldemort and his Death Eaters were completely confused by this. As far as anyone knew there was no way to survive the killing curse, but Dumbledore had just done it. They retreated immediately and from that time on I was Dumbledore and I was also the only wizard that You-Know-Who ever feared."
"It was sad really. I knew that all of my friends were gone because that timeline had been completely destroyed. But I took solice in the fact that I had created a new timeline, a better timeline. A question still remained though, how did Voldemort survive Dumbledore's killing curse."
"Maybe it wasn't powerful enough," I offered thoughtfully.
"That was my first idea as well but I had seen it and I knew that it was just as powerful, if not more powerful, than Voldemort's curse," he stated assuredly. "I decided that the Dark Lord must have found some way to protect himself from the killing curse."
"The prophecy," Severus interrupted and Dumbledore nodded in reply.
"At the time the prophecy had not been made yet," he responded, "When I eventually did hear it I finally understood and I began searching for the one who could defeat You-Know-Who once and for all."
"Wait one second," Severus interrupted, "How can you know all of this if it hasn't happened yet?"
"Because it has happened to me," Dumbledore replied simply, "I came back to this time to obliviate Tom Riddle and keep the two of you out of trouble."
"But how did you know?" I asked in confusion.
"I saw myself do it of course. At any given time there are multiple instances of me posing as Dumbledore and we are all linked. If I didn't have the necklace I probably would have gone insane a long time ago."
"So you've probably seen our future as well then?" Severus questioned.
"I have seen many different futures."
"Good or bad?" I asked.
He let out a loud sigh and slowly leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "Think about all I have done and the difficult decisions I've had to made. Consider how many lives I have ruined and the great sadness my actions have caused."
"So it is bad?"
"The future is whatever you make of it," he replied, "In total I have been travelling through time for well over a hundred years in an attempt to save it. Unfortunately I fear that this is my last chance."
"Why?" Severus questioned.
"There is a time in the future which I am not able to travel to," Dumbledore responded hesitantly, "I have tried many, many times but I can only go so far."
"Is there something wrong with the necklace? Maybe it's broken," I suggested thoughtfully.
Dumbledore shook his head. "No, there is nothing wrong with the device, the problem lies in the future itself. The reason I cannot go any futher into the future is because from that point in the future...there is nowhere to go."
"What!" Severus and I both exclaimed.
"How is that possible?" Severus asked anxiously.
"I'm afraid it is possible," Dumbledore replied, "If things continue on as they are, if the timeline continues as it is, then eventually it will end."
"What will end?" I questioned in confusion.
"Everything," he replied seriously as he looked me directly in the eyes, "There will come a time when there will be an end to everything."
dSz
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again I am so sorry that it's taken me so long to update, personal problems sometimes get in the way. I hope this chapter meets with everyone's approval. I worked very hard on it and I can safely say it was the most difficult chapter for me to write. I'm sure there will be more difficult ones in the future, but so far this was it.
Next Chapter: What's up with the scar? If Dumbledore's not really Dumbledore, then who is he? Also, another leap through time where Jenny and Severus find themselves smack dab in the middle of a fight they can't escape. They will make it back, but in what condition?