Harry swallowed."Hello, Professor Dumbledore."
Dumbledore gazed at Harry with a bemused expression. Unlike the others, he did not take Harry for his father. "Curious." He pushed his half-moon spectacles further up his nose. "Quite curious."
"Professor?" Harry asked questioningly.
Dumbledore seemed to break out of his trance. "Oh, why of course. Sit down, sit down." He waved his wand and a purple. Plushy sofa chair appeared behind Harry. "What was it you wanted?"
Harry sat down hesitantly, unsure what to make of the Headmaster's reaction. " Um, yeah. Well Professer, I'm from the future." He winced at how that sounded, but Dumbledore merely smiled, nodding, waiting for him to go on.
"From the future." Harry repeated, just so Dumbledore would understand.
"Yes, I thought something like that." Dumbledore's brow creased. "Was it a time turner or something of the sort?"
"A spell that went wrong actually." Harry was a bit alarmed at how calmly Dumbledore was handling this. "We were supposed to bring someone back from the dead, Siriu—I mean yeah, and it brought us here."
"When was this?"
Harry took a deep breath. "A-a few days ago actually. The day before the Gryffindor—Slytherin match. We didn't tell anyone because we didn't, well, want to cause a big commotion. Hermione, my friend, she's a genius and she was working on how to get us back. Then she found the same book that got us here in the library of this school so we thought that would get us back."
Dumbledore nodded passively. "I see."
"Do you?" Harry burst out. "How can you be so calm about this?"
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "What's your name?"
"Harry. Why?"
"Harry. . . ."
"Harry. . .Potter."
Dumbledore smiled. "Ah, Potter. I thought so. Well Harry, I'm guessing the problem is you're finding it hard to leave for some reason."
Harry looked down. "Yeah. That and the Death Eaters. See, I have to go back. Voldemort is going to get very powerful in a few years, and I'm the only one who can stop him in the future."
"Tom," Dumbledore murmured wearily. "I thought so."
Harry hesitated, unsure whether he should interrupt. Presently Dumbledore looked up again and smiled that same reassuring smile that Harry was so used to. "So you aren't sure if you want to go back."
Harry nodded. "See, there's a lot of people here that I'll never. . .see if I go back and. . .it's just hard." He looked up suddenly. "Wait, what if I sayed here and just killed Voldemort?"
Dumbledore sighed. "History is a tricky business. As much as it pains us, a wizard cannot change history that much without consequences. Who knows. Maybe in the resulting chaos someone wouldn't be born. Maybe you wouldn't."
Maybe Hermione or Ron wouldn't. Harry remembered what Mrs. Weasley had said about hasty marriages during this time period.
"It is your choice to make," Dumbledore said cryptically.
Harry frowned. "Yeah, but I don't know what I want!"
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "So the choice is where to stay here in comfort or got to wherever you came from to fight Tom, or Voldemort as he's choosing to call himself. Which do you think is better?"
Harry sighed. "Obviously everyone's going to want me to go back or else the Wizarding World will fall to pieces and there's no one else to fight Voldemort."
"Don't think about what everyone else wants. What do you want?"
Harry frowned. "It's kind of dangerous for you to tell me to choose for myself. That's why I came to you! Obviously I'd want to stay here."
"But do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is it like you, Harry, to choose that first choice?"
Harry closed his eyes in frustration and almost immediately opened them again. "You're right." He said slowly. "I—I can't do it. I'd never be able to live with myself if I stayed in here in comfort knowing thousands of people are dying and I could have done something about it."
Dumbledore didn't say anything, only smiled.
Harry let his realization sink in and sighed again. "Wow, so this is it." He thought some more and nodded, standing up. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'm going back. It's the right decision, something I think my parents would be proud of. It's—it's what I want." He swallowed unsteadily and looked at Dumbledore who was still gazing back passively. "Wow, I feel like you know me or something. . .but you shouldn't; not yet."
Dumbledore smiled. "Maybe I do. Lucky guess."
"Professor?" Harry asked in confusion.
Dumbledore's smile softened. "You are very much like your father Harry."
Harry was so used to this statement that he almost didn't realize how strange this was coming from a man of twenty years before.
"It's James and Lily isn't it? You've got your mother's eyes."
Harry smiled wryly. "So I've heard."
Dumbledore nodded. "Your parents were great people. I'm sure you'll do marvelously. . .in the future."
Harry swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "Yeah I know. Professor Dumbledore? Thank you."
Dumbledore nodded again and Harry turned for the door.
There'd be a lot of goodbyes to say.
Sammi met him outside the door. Harry could tell by her face something was wrong. "Harry. . .They're in the Hospital Wing!"
I know this is short. but I'll try to update soon.
This is my RIP tribute to Albus Dumbledore.
And as you can see, Harry's decided to go back….but how will the other's take it?
And I also realized I'm not putting in enough Hermione/Sirus. Heh heh, too much time away from my story and I'm forgetting what I started with. (2 years!) Ah well, I'll do my best.
Thank you to the following Reviewers:
Hotkat144: I think you deserve some kind of award for being the only reviewer to stay through both hiatuses….
PyroAngel8605: Heh well, apparently they didn't want to cause too much commotion. Too late. XD
qt4good: Thanks! I'll try to be better at updating!
lilyre and livvyg: That made me feel so happy, that someone likes one of my OCs.
Lolizz: I'll try to!
Natalie: Ah, you have the answer.