Chapter 18

This is here:

Harry took a few steps up the corridor.

"Please," he whispered.

Turning around he passed by the blank space of wall again.

"Please, I just need... I need..."

Passing it by a third time he stretched out his hand and touched the battered wooden door that had appeared there.

"Help me."

Then he twisted the handle and stepped through the door without looking back.

Nowhere:

There was no noticeable change in his surroundings as the world eventually stopped shimmering around Harry. He was feeling slightly dizzy, a little bit nauseous, but that was only to be expected after travelling back twenty-five years in time thanks to a spruced up hour glass.

He looked around; the bushes he was standing behind were maybe a little bit lower, a bit greener due to the season. The lake was glittering in the sunlight and the castle was looming over him. Harry was reasonably sure that he'd made it back to the right day. The only thing he could now do was to hope that the other Harry would turn up soon – because if he didn't then he was really, irrevocably stuck in this dimension with no way out.

He'd just started to grow nervous as a narrow, beaten door appeared in thin air in front of him. It opened a second later and he himself stepped through, looking suitably confused and carrying a wooden bowl.

"You made it!" Harry gasped as his counterpart started violently upon seeing him.

"Made it?" the other Harry repeated suspiciously. Oh, it was him all right: He was a bit smaller than the body he was currently inhabiting, and a lot thinner as well without the benefit of an extra layer of muscles thanks to daily Quidditch training. His hair was longer and as messy as ever; he was wearing old, faded school robes and the lightning bold shaped scar on his forehead was slightly darker than the rest of his skin.

"Into the past," Harry explained, "Didn't you – Didn't Hermione research the bowl?"

"I came through the Room of Requirement," the other Harry said, "I told it that I needed to go home. Why am I still on Hogwarts grounds?"

"You're in the past. Twenty-five years in the past to be exact," Harry said, "Severus figured out a way -"

"Severus! Where is he? Is he all right?"

"He's waiting for you," Harry said quietly, "He misses you."

The other Harry smiled wistfully. "I did as well. Your dimension scared me. Your Severus Snape is... dark."

"You've seen Snape? He didn't eviscerate you?"

"He's on our side. Or is that your side? He helped us to find another horcrux. But he's so bitter and angry. I don't understand him."

"I never could, either. And I probably never will, now."

"So what happens next?" the other Harry asked. "Why are we in the past and how do I get back?"

Harry quickly explained about the different dimensions, how splits occurred and how the bowl worked. The other Harry followed him intently, listening and nodding sometimes.

Finally he sat down cross-legged on the ground and put his bowl in front of him.

"Come on then. We have to hurry because we're screwed if we both stay here until Remus decides to intervene or not. Could cause all sorts of dimensional instability I'm sure."

Harry took out his own bowl and filled both of them with the water that Severus had packed in the bag. Flashes began to emerge in the depths of the clear liquid, snatches of colour, a blurred face, a bold of lightning. Then he gave the other Harry a bottle of Pepper Up potion and they both drank their share.

"Ready?"

The other Harry nodded.

"One... two... three!"

Harry opened his eyes wide and gasped as he couldn't turn them away from the bowl; his own green eyes were staring back at him out of the water and he couldn't move his head, wasn't even able to blink. The world went black around him.

He woke up some time later, grass tickling his cheek.

Sitting up, Harry could see himself lying on the ground a few feet away, still unconscious, dressed in jeans and stylish black robes. His hands flew up to his forehead; he could feel the achingly familiar ridges of his scar beneath his finger tips. Getting up, he looked down at himself. The ground seemed to be a bit nearer due to his shorter height; the bones in his wrist were more pronounced, his finger nails broken and dirty. He felt no pain in his back whatsoever, not even a lingering soreness.

They'd done it.

Harry hastily kicked both bowls over with his feet and watched as the water spilled from them and into the grass. He threw one into the bag he'd take home with him; then he kneeled down next to the other Harry, careful not to touch him. It was a paradox, both of them being in one place at the same time, in a single dimension that belonged to neither of them, not yet. He didn't want to make it worse by actually coming into contact with the other Harry; the magical consequences could be quite nasty.

"Wake up," he said and looked up as students started spilling from the castle, making their way towards the lake.

The other Harry stirred and his eyes fluttered open.

"We don't have much time, they've already finished their exams," Harry explained, "Your wand is in your pocket, Severus will explain to you why your back feels like one massive bruise and the Time Turner is pre-set. You can Apparate from Hogsmeade and Severus will be waiting for you at home. Take your bowl."

The other Harry complied, slightly dazed.

"Go," Harry told him, "Take care."

"You too," his counterpart whispered and spun the Time Turner. He quickly faded from view and Harry was left staring at an empty spot of grass.

The students were now close enough for him to hear their voices, laughing and teasing. There was a boy among them, his head buried in a piece of parchment, face obscured by dark hair. Harry's heart clenched at the sight of him.

Quickly picking up his bag he spared one last glance around him before grasping the handle on the door that would lead him home.

He stepped through; a moment later the door swung shut noiselessly and disappeared.