The Sand Phoenix
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!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you so much for your kind feedback!
On Harry's tenth birthday, Fred and George Weasley gave Harry a dog, stating that even if he could not take his friends to Hogwarts with him, he could always take his dog.
"He's a crup..."
"... and we've named him Cronus…"
"… which is the name of the Greek God for time," they added, grinning, causing Harry to stare at the dog in confusion.
Cronus was very cute. His fur was white, brown and black, he had a funny face and dark brown eyes that reminded Harry of chocolate.
'I took the liberty of bonding to you,' Cronus informed him, telepathically.
"That's great. Thank you very much," Harry replied, causing Cronus to tell him that he would also be able to speak with him through telepathy.
From that time onwards, Cronus accompanied Harry and Albus everywhere. Even when they had to go to school, the puppy was allowed to come and sleep under their desk.
When his Papa, however, suggested that Harry should practise taking the dog with him in his phoenix form, Harry laughed in disbelief.
"Papa, why would I want to take Cronus with me in my phoenix form?" he asked, incredulously.
"Won't people think Harry's crazy if they see him flying around carrying a dog with him?" Albus agreed, causing the adults to smirk.
"That would be unfortunate," Draco agreed. "There might be occasions when Harry has to flash somewhere and might want to take Cronus with him."
"Oh all right," Harry said in understanding.
Albus nodded. "Oh well, that's true. Can Harry take me with him then, too?"
"Sure," Draco replied, shrugging. "You just have to grab his tail feathers to flash with him. It might afford quite some magic for Harry to take both you and Cronus with him though."
"Let's practise on our way to school tomorrow morning," Harry decided, causing Albus to chuckle at the idea of so much trouble just to replace a three-minute walk by flashing.
HP
The adults decided to only speak with Harry about his ability and at the same time necessity of time travel at the beginning of the summer holidays before his eleventh birthday, even if Harry, his wife, Draco and Severus had spent years preparing for that time.
On the first day of the summer holidays, older Harry and Severus took Harry and Albus to The Rolling Freezer as Astoria Zabini's ice-cream shop was called. At eleven o'clock in the morning, the shop was still not overly crowded, and the four wizards nestled into a corner, while the boys were eagerly discussing the menu. Once the children had received their ice-cream and the adults their Latte Macchiato, Severus cast a Silencing charm around their table, giving older Harry a reassuring nod.
"Harry," older Harry hesitantly began to speak. "We need to speak with you about something." Seeing both children hang on his lips, he continued, "As you know, your Animagus form is that of a sand phoenix."
Harry nodded, glancing at Albus.
"A sand phoenix has the special ability to not only flash from one place to another but also through the sands of time," older Harry continued, causing Harry to give him a questioning look.
At the same time, Albus let out a huge gasp. "Is that why you have the same name and look the same?" he blurted out, causing Harry to stare at him in confusion.
'Oh Merlin, Albus must be highly intelligent to make the connection so quickly,' older Harry thought.
He gave Albus a short nod, before he explained to his younger self, "When I fetched you here at the age of five, I took you nineteen years into the future."
The boy stared at his father in disbelief. "Papa," he asked, hesitantly, "do you have the same name as me because you are me then?"
"Yes Harry, I'm your older self," his father admitted, giving his younger self a worried look, half-covered by a smile.
"Dad?" Albus asked, turning to his father, "Are you my older self then?"
"No Albus," Severus replied in a soft voice, "I'm your father."
'Oh no,' older Harry thought. 'We should have left this conversation to our wives. Neither of us is good at this, even if we had years to plan this conversation.'
"Anyway," he spoke up, again, "It's necessary that you attend Hogwarts nineteen years in the past."
"No," Harry refused, vehemently.
"Then I'll go with Harry," Albus immediately said. "I'm not going to attend Hogwarts without Harry."
The two fathers exchanged an exasperated look, before Severus reminded Albus that he would only be able to go to Hogwarts in a year's time.
'Harry, just agree to everything. I have a plan,' Albus telepathically informed his friend, who gave him an unobtrusive nod before turning back to his father.
"So what? I have to flash nineteen years into the past to go to Hogwarts?" he asked in a small voice, tears welling in his eyes. "Can I come back here during the holidays then?"
"Of course Harry," his father reassured him. "You can come back at any time. If you spend time here, you just have to see that you arrive back at about the same time, so that no one misses you. Maybe Uncle Severus, your Mum or I will go to visit you from time to time to help you with things," he added, pensively.
"All right," Harry replied, recalling Albus' instruction. "Mummy will be at Hogwarts, won't she?" he suddenly remembered to ask.
His father let out a deep sigh. "She won't be the headmistress yet. Professor Dumbledore is still the headmaster at that time and then Granny Minerva. But Mum and all of our other friends will be students. You already have a lot of friends in that time; it's just that they're all the younger selves of the people who you know here, which means that they don't know yet."
"Uncle Severus," Harry addressed the Potions Master, "will you be a student in that time, too?"
"No," Severus replied, sighing, "At that time, I was the Potions professor at Hogwarts."
"You'll see, everything will turn out well," older Harry said, reassuringly, knowing that he still had to tell his younger self a lot about the war and his years at Hogwarts.
HP
"Let's only tell him what's necessary to know for his first year," his wife instructed him later the same evening. "We shouldn't bother him with the war yet, considering that he's going to come home during the holidays anyway."
"You're right as always," Harry replied, smiling, before his smile turned into a mischievous grin. "Come with me," he said, gently pulling her towards the bedroom. "Jamie is going to miss Harry so much, maybe we should work on another baby to keep him busy."
"If that's the only reason…" his wife protested, glaring at him.
"Of course it's not," Harry reassured her, gently capturing her mouth with his lips.
HP
During the following weeks, Harry and Severus took much time to speak with Harry about the past. While Severus gave him a global overview about Death Eaters and their activities, Harry specifically told him about his first Hogwarts year and showed him the most important scenes on a tablet PC. At the same time, he suggested better solutions to the problems than how he had dealt with them. Finally, Draco taught Harry about several features on the tablet PC, which he had developed for Harry's use at Hogwarts, for example, against Professor Quirrell's secret guest.
Eventually, Harry also told his younger self about Horcruxes, however, reassured him that he would not have to worry about them, as Draco had written a program, which would be able to summon and destroy them with a few clicks on his tablet PC.
"Will I be able to do that, and when do I have to do it?" Harry asked, uncertainly.
"Not before the beginning of your second year, and your mother and I are thinking about accompanying you to the past for that event," his father promised. "If not, we'll teach you exactly what to do, when you come home next summer."
HP
On the day before Harry's eleventh birthday, which was a Sunday, Draco and Aunt Tracy, whom Harry knew to be the healer at Hogwarts, visited Gryffindor Manor right after breakfast, and Harry's father and Draco ushered the boy into his room, closely followed by Aunt Tracy.
"Harry, we told you about the Horcruxes, right?" older Harry asked, causing the child to nod in apparent apprehension.
"Good. Now, what we did not tell you so far, and let me assure you that I only found out about it when I was seventeen," older Harry continued, "that there's a Horcrux hidden behind your scar." Ignoring his younger self's gasp, he explained, "During the last couple of years, Draco has not only invented an App to summon the Horcruxes to a certain place, where another program can cast a spell to destroy them, he also wrote a program to eliminate the Horcrux from your scar."
"All right," Harry replied, seemingly frightened.
"Harry," Draco spoke up in a soft voice, "as you can imagine, we had no way to test the program, so I can't promise that it'll really work."
"Okay," Harry voiced his understanding.
"I'm here to closely monitor you," Tracy spoke up, reaching out to take Harry's hand. "If you feel pain, just squeeze my hand or tell me, so that I can give you a potion."
Harry hesitantly agreed and observed with mixed feelings how Draco pulled his tablet out of his robe pocket and after a few well-placed pats on the touch screen gave him a sharp look. "Are you ready, Harry?" he asked, gently.
"Yes," Harry replied in a barely audible voice, knowing that he could fully trust Draco.
An instant later, he felt a huge amount of pain, which subsided as quickly as he squeezed Tracy's hand, and after a moment, a black cloud erupted from his scar, which his father changed into cow dung before simply vanishing it with a flick of his wand.
"That was all, Harry. You did that very well," Draco commended him, causing Harry to smile.
"Thanks Draco for taking it out," Harry replied, noticing that he felt better than ever before.
HP
Later the same day, when his parents' friends joined them together with their children, Albus pulled him aside. "Let's go for a walk with Cronus," he suggested, and Harry immediately agreed.
"Harry, I promised that I was going to make a plan," the younger boy told him, wearing a mischievous look.
"Yeah, right, what is it?" Harry asked with interest, giving his best friend a curious look.
"We must practise, so that Cronus and I'll be able to both go with you when you travel back in time," Albus blurted out. "I'll go and attend Hogwarts together with you in the past."
"Oh that's great," Harry replied, feeling very happy at the idea. "Won't Uncle Severus and Aunt Amelia be worried when you just leave with me though?"
"No," Albus replied, firmly. He chuckled. "I've spoken with Uncles Fred and George, and they have promised to help. When your Dad…err, oh well, when Uncle Harry travels to the past to buy your school supplies, he's going to take them with them. They told him they want to do some shopping in that time, but in fact, they're going to buy my school supplies. If my parents are going to be worried, they will tell them where I am," he added, grinning.
"Wow, that's so cool," Harry replied. "It'll be great if we can attend Hogwarts together. Won't it matter that you're only ten though?"
Albus shrugged. "No one knows anyway. If anything happens, my parents are already adults in that time. I think Mum's not the Minister of Magic yet then, but the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Oh well…" He slowly trailed off.
"Mum and Dad told me that I'm not supposed to tell anyone that I know them from this time though," Harry said, pensively.
"No, we shouldn't," Albus agreed, his forehead scrunched in thought.
HP
On Harry's birthday, he received many items which his parents and their friends deemed useful for him to have at Hogwarts.
From his parents, he received his own tablet PC, and to Harry's surprise, it was not only equipped with the Wizardnet and everything else that was common in this time, but also with a new software made by Draco that would allow him to communicate with people through time.
"With the Timegate App, you'll be able to communicate with all of us here in this time," Draco informed him.
"And it works flawlessly," older Harry spoke up. "I've gone back and tried it out last week."
"Harry," Severus addressed older Harry. "If you go and give Salazar Slytherin one of these, I'll ask Amelia to see to it that Draco and you'll get the Order of Merlin first class for this invention."
Draco chuckled, while his friend rolled his eyes, pointing out that he should be happy with the portrait of the four founders in Gryffindor Manor.
"It wouldn't work so far in the past," Draco informed him, "as we need a certain amount of electricity present in the air to be able to re-charge the tablets by our usual spell. There's no electricity coming from muggle devices one thousand years in the past."
To Harry's amusement, Albus received his own tablet, as everyone still assumed that he would need to communicate with Harry through the device.
From Fred and George, Harry received a copy of the Marauders' map, and Harry and Albus leaned over the parchment with interest.
"How come that the primary school and the retirement home for teachers aren't on it?" Albus blurted out.
"Oh that reminds me, I should go to the retirement home and say good-bye to Granny Minerva and Granny Poppy before leaving," Harry suddenly said, causing his parents to nod and smile.
"The map was made by Harry's parents…"
"… and at that time…"
"… the primary school…"
"… and the retirement home…"
"… didn't exist yet," Fred and George replied in their funny sing-song that always made the children laugh.
"Your father set up both buildings after the war," Luna explained, giving Neville a dreamy look.
HP
During the following weeks, Harry and Albus secretly planned their departure to the past in detail.
"There's one problem," Albus said to Harry one day.
"Why?" Harry enquired, raising an eyebrow at his best friend.
"I think people have to pay fees to attend Hogwarts, but how can I do that, when my parents don't know in advance that I'm going to leave for Hogwarts next month?" Albus asked in apparent concern.
Harry paled at the news. "Let's go and ask Hogwarts," he then suggested.
"All right Harry, thank you," Albus replied, knowing that Harry was able to communicate with the castle, and the children had already snuck into the castle to speak with the kind, old lady a couple of times.
Together, they made their way through the shortcuts through Gryffindor Manor and hurried through the fortunately empty castle to the founders' quarters and right into the Parlour, which was the only room at Hogwarts where they could freely communicate with the castle. At all other spots, Harry would have to place his hand against the wall, and no one but him would be able to hear the castle's response.
Harry quickly explained the problem to Hogwarts, causing the castle to chuckle.
"Don't worry, I'll see to it that it looks as if his school fees were already paid when he arrives for his Sorting," she promised in a soothing voice. "I'll also see to it that you'll have the proper entry in the book of magical children."
"Thank you so much," Albus was the first to reply, and after some more minutes of talking with the castle, the two boys returned home to collect Cronus and visit the two pairs of nine-year-old Weasley twins.
HP
The nearer the first of September came, the more excited Harry felt. When his father announced that he was going to take him to King's Cross in the morning, so that he would only have to travel through time to get to board the Hogwarts Express, Harry protested vehemently.
"Thanks Dad, but I'll be able to travel from here," he said in a firm voice, hoping to sound more confident than he was.
"No, let Papa take you to the station and travel from there," his mother agreed with his father, causing Harry's thoughts go haywire.
'But how can I take Albus with me then?' he thought, before he realised that his parents would not be able to assess if he flashed to the past or somewhere else.
As soon as he was in bed and his parents had retired from his room, he switched on his tablet and whispered a short notice to Albus. "Wait in your room in the morning. I'll fetch you from there."
"All right. I can't wait to go to Hogwarts. Good night Harry," Albus replied, instantly.
HP
In the morning, Harry said good-bye to his mother and everyone else, promising to keep them updated through the Timegate App, and allowed his father to flash him and Cronus to King's Cross. He learned how to get onto the platform, before his father instructed him to change into his phoenix form and flash exactly nineteen years into the past.
"All right, Dad. I'll contact you later on," Harry promised and flashed away, thinking of Albus in his own room.
HP
"Thank Merlin here you are," Albus whispered. "It wasn't easy to sneak away from the primary school and return here."
"Ooops, sorry," Harry replied in surprise. "I didn't think about that at all. Now, let's go. Do you have your luggage?"
"Yes," Albus confirmed, showing Harry a shrunken trunk, which he kept in his robe pocket.
Contentedly, Harry transformed back into his phoenix form and, after making sure that Cronus and Albus grabbed his tail feathers flashed nineteen years back in time and to King's Cross at the same time, glad that he and Albus had used the last month to practise flashing through space and time on a daily basis.
tbc...
Thank you very much for your kind reviews!