~~~Fawkes Shares His Adventure~~~
I suppose it all started when I chased after a wayward toddler in my tour group at the Portrait Gallery. I have always been drawn to the gallery and visited often. But the section of the gallery to which the child ran is not on any of the guided tours I'd been on and I'd been on many tours. As I picked up the giggling boy, I heard an echoing giggle of someone older. I turned around expecting to see that one of the older children had perhaps followed me but instead I thought I saw movement in a picture of a girl.
When I stepped closer, the toddler waved at the picture and squealed, 'Pretty!'
The girl in the picture giggled at that and waved back to the child. I do not think he saw her or if he did, he didn't respond to her. But I almost dropped him in my shock. I had heard of magical portraits which moved and spoke but we all believed that it was just myth or the Wizarding equivalent of Muggle television.
Anyway, once I got over my shock, I began chatting with the girl. The paintings in that section have no labels but she told me that her name was Ariana Dumbledore. She told me about her brothers, of whom she was very proud. She also knew random bits and pieces about history but not much. I don't think she's…normal. Anyway, after a while, the little boy began to get restless and cold. We were both cold which I now believe was because of ghosts around us but back then I couldn't see them. Back then, I wasn't as strong magically as I feel now.
You see, until three years ago, everything beginning with your story, was quite different. You didn't disappear from the Hogwarts corridor as it says in the Prattler, you died in the Fiendfyre. My ancestor from your time, Draco Malfoy, caused your death when he refused to let go of a Time Turner on a long golden chain he had found in the Room of Hidden Things aka the Room of Requirement. Harry Potter tried to save you by throwing the chain but Draco resisted on reflex. Draco did not hate you or want you to die and in fact spent his entire life in regret.
On the other hand, despite the fact that he tried saving you, Harry Potter apparently still hated you for killing Albus Dumbledore. Trying to save you was just his reflexive "hero complex" as Lucius, Draco's father, described it to me. Potter hated you and, after he destroyed what he thought were all the horcruxes and then Voldemort, he decided to destroy everything that he knew of that belonged to you. When Dumbledore's portraits tried to get him to see reason, he became convinced that during your tenure as Headmaster, you used Dark Magic to manipulate or somehow infect the portraits of the Hogwarts Headmasters. He soon convinced the Wizarding world of your guilt and all of Dumbledore's portraits – and most of the contents of the Headmaster's office – were also destroyed.
Harry Potter had gained a lot of power after he defeated Voldemort. He quickly became the youngest Minister for Magic and with the help of his friends and fellow heroes, Ronald and Hermione Weasley, he reformed Wizarding Britain and welcomed Muggleborns and their families to attend Wizarding schools from as young as age 3 or once their magic had manifested. In five short years, his changes were deemed such a success that he was invited to give speeches around the world.
By the time Voldemort reappeared in the year 2008, the only person anyone would turn to for help was Harry. His memories of his conversations with Dumbledore were revisited and reviewed by key figures but no one could figure out why Voldemort had survived. Harry concluded that there was another horcrux and while the few he confided in about horcruxes went searching for it, he hunted Voldemort.
In 2012, a young Muggleborn Daily Prophet reporter by the name of Clement Longer – yes, the same name as the Prattler Muggle reporter – realized that Voldemort's appearances coincided with Harry's. Harry was travelling the world and so was the terror of Dark Marks in the sky. There was a lot of speculation about what that could mean but some people began to suspect that Harry was working with the Dark Lord. They accused him of doing it to increase his fame on an international level.
An influential Muggle politician who had unknowingly married a Squib and had a magical child – much to his disgust – united the world's Muggle armies. With his partner in crime, his pureblood wizard brother-in-law, he charted a plan of action. Their first target would be the Minister for Magic and his companions. Harry did not defend himself. Though he did dispel a Patronus warning to Hermione and Ron, they had already been assassinated. The newlywed Weasleys would leave behind a young daughter, Rose, my ancestor.
The Muggle politician immediately betrayed his brother-in-law. They had agreed to kill all Muggleborns but instead witch-hunting was reintroduced. By 2014, Wizards the world over were voluntarily submitting to oppressive pureblood regimes which ceased absolutely all positive contact with Muggles. But during Harry Potter's short but influential time as Minister, he and Hermione were able to show the benefits of adapting some ideas from the Muggle world, as had been successfully done in other countries such as America. Not only did these joint projects make a lot of money in the wizarding world, but also in the Muggle world. So the separation was not absolute and a few wizards were given special permission to live among the Muggles. Officially they were spies but in reality, they were just businessmen.
Using the Gaunt and other pureblood families as examples, Hermione had also pointed out the dangers of inbreeding and the benefits of embracing Muggleborns. So, after 2014, in a perversion of her intentions, Muggleborn children were kidnapped from their parents and raised in Wizarding orphanages. Mixing with or marrying Muggles was forbidden on penalty of death while marrying Squibs was encouraged in the belief that this might awaken some latent magic. Instead, by the early 22nd century there were more Squibs than wizards and witches despite the influx of Muggleborns. Worse, Muggles were still giving birth to witches and wizards and these children were often magically stronger than purebloods. Squibs, who were considered expendable if caught by Muggle authorities, were forced to work as Muggle health professionals, social workers, teachers and policemen in order to most easily identify and kidnap magical children.
This caused resentment by Squibs that they were so easily sacrificed and chaos among the Muggles whose CCTVs recorded the kidnappings and other crimes but found that their indictments were not deterring further thefts. Soon, the Muggle armies of the world once again united against magic, buoyed by their easy success with killing the Golden Trio in 2012. This united army, called The Administration, was based out of London because that is where the seat of Wizarding power was also located. The Administration began to take control by destroying the City in order to build purpose designed barracks. Entire neighbourhoods were bombed because though the Muggles still could not see places hidden by magic, they do see when people suddenly disappear. Any area where magical presences were suspected was labeled for destruction.
Some of the wizard 'spies' like my ancestor, Abraxas Malfoy, revealed themselves to Muggle historians and aestheticians desperate to save historical buildings and works of art. Together they created the districts like Glorious Glamorgan. But while cooperation saved buildings, it could not save Magic, and by the end of the 23rd century, Magic was believed eradicated worldwide.
When I left here three years ago, there were only two wands, not ten, one of which was found in a Muggle art display. There were only five magical families including mine. Each family lived in a flat in #7 The Circus and we lived as wealthy Muggle Corporates. Marriages were arranged with the known magical families around the world. My mother was from Australia and my father's sister was sent to marry someone in India. This kept us from becoming inbred Squibs, but only just. People also migrated when they neared 80 years old. While Muggles now regularly live to be 100, we still live longer and age more slowly. Our elders migrating to new distant communities not only kept from drawing unnecessary attention but also helped with maintaining relationships. For centuries we kept below The Administration's radar by being model Corporates, even occasionally using what little magic we had to identify and betray rebel resisters in order to show our dedication to the regime.
Our only social venue was Spinner's End. After you died and Potter began to destroy your things, Draco Malfoy saved your childhood home, moving it onto the Malfoy Estate. We did not understand why Abraxas Malfoy salvaged it but it was among the first places he moved into Glorious Glamorgan. As I mentioned before, I have always loved TALAC and visited it many times. With magic, we can simply summon any book we want so cataloguing like Muggles do was never a priority. But I love order – cataloguing, labeling, indexing…the cottage was my playhouse and my parents let me organize at leisure. In the process I found miscellaneous items of interest.
One of these items was Draco's last diary. In it was a letter from you to Harry Potter, charmed onto a Muggle photograph of his mother and a long letter from Harry himself. It seems that the reason he had not fought or resisted the Muggle army in 2012 was because of the message you charmed the photograph to reveal only when he was genuinely ready to hear it. He willingly gave in once he knew he was the final horcrux. How Draco knew he was ready to hear it and convinced him to visit the cottage and not destroy it is unclear. What I do know is that Draco wrote of his guilt at not having made more of an effort to get the photograph to Harry earlier. Considering how powerful Minister Potter was, I doubt a disgraced Malfoy could have done anything earlier. Nevertheless, a year or two later, Draco charmed the Time Turner choke him to death, leaving behind his wife and young son, Scorpius Severus.
When I met Ariana's portrait and heard her many tales about her brother, Albus Dumbledore's constant wish to undo the past, I myself became obsessed with trying to do the same. As far as I knew, I was the strongest wizard alive and Draco's diary had remained hidden in plain sight for centuries until I found it. I felt I was destined to change history. I had little magic but I did all I could to strengthen it whenever I could escape the watchful eyes of the others at #7 The Circus. One day a spell I was trying to teach myself went awry and I accidentally damaged the floor of a bedroom at The Spinner's End. Trying to repair it, I noticed something shiny between the floorboards. It was the infamous Time Turner and a note too damaged to read.
Not a minute later, my mother was calling me to meet to a little girl called Nanette…a Corporate Muggleborn – possibly the first Muggleborn in centuries – who was brought to the Pub by her nanny who is a witch. Nanette had spoken to Ariana and relayed the message that I should return to TALAC. Then Nanette mysteriously added to me in a whisper, "You should also show take the pretty bijou. He needs it."
Knowing that if I was caught carrying a magical artifact, I would be 'reprogrammed' by your colleagues at Int-Sec, I said my goodbyes to my family. I knew it was foolish but I told them nothing, hoping to protect them. I hooked the gold chain of the Time Turner around my neck under my shirt and went to visit Ariana. But I will never know what she may have planned to tell me. Taking the device out to show it to her, I unintentionally touched the hour glass, apparently setting it off.
One moment I was in TALAC, then it felt like I was Apparating and I found myself in the study in Malfoy Manor. I recognized the room from a painting. I also recognized Draco who was wrapping the golden chain around his neck apparently about to kill himself. I panicked and tried to wandlessly Accio the device. Instead I triggered it and as I watched, 33 year old Draco Malfoy disappeared and I felt the tug of apparition again.
I blinked and realized two things in that instant. First, the décor of the study had changed subtly and second, there were now two of him – two older versions of him! These Dracos were twice as old and one 60-something year old Draco stood watching as the other 60-something year old Draco wrapped the chain around his neck and disappeared. Then there was only one Draco staring at the empty chair in shock. After a few seconds, he collapsed into his seat and swore, 'Merlin's bollocks!' and he careful deactivated the Time Turner by locking it.
I don't know how I knew but I knew instinctively that I had changed history in some way. In keeping Draco from killing himself at 33, he lived on at least twice as long. But here he was, 30 or so years on, and still trying to kill himself with the device so clearly the change wasn't completely positive. Perhaps I should have waited to find out what had happened differently but I was impatient. When a few minutes went by and I realized Draco wasn't about to do anything else, I used the magic I have always been exceptionally talented in – compulsion magic. I concentrated, willing Draco to use the Time Turner to go back in time and correct whatever mistake had driven him to suicide. I thought it wasn't working, especially when he simply jumped up and exclaimed, 'Broom…I'll need a broom!' as he ran from the room.
I left my hiding spot behind a statue and for about fifteen minutes, sat in the seat Draco had just vacated, wondering what I should do next. Then suddenly the Time Turner and the charmed photograph of Lily Evans in my hands disappeared and for the first time I was worried. I realized that in convincing Draco to use the Time Turner, I had probably changed history in such a way that the device was not in Malfoy possession in the future and consequently I would never have found it. I was centuries in the past with no way of getting back.
Scorpius Severus, an adult, not a young child as he would have been had I not interfered, found me when he Flooed into his father's study, intent on picking a fight over Draco's drinking and refusal to attend Harry Potter's memorial service. I explained who I was and that I had travelled back in time using a device which had now disappeared. They used Veritaserum, Legilimency and various interrogation techniques on me before accepting that I was telling the truth. Fortunately they did not connect my appearance with Draco's disappearance because Scorpius' wife, Rose, found a brief note Draco had apparently written explaining that he had borrowed Arturius Malfoy's broom because he was off to save the world.
I lived at Malfoy Manor with Scorpius, Rose and their son Arturius. History had changed – Voldemort had been reincarnated several times rather than returning just the once and possessing Harry Potter. Draco Malfoy hadn't killed himself, he had just disappeared with his grandson's broom. His guilt over what he'd done to you had made him an alcoholic and strained his relationship with his wife and son. But the guilt had also driven him to becoming Harry's Auror partner which, along with Scorpius' friendship with Albus Severus Potter and marriage to Rose Weasley, had done much to rehabilitate the Malfoy name.
And yes, I said Albus Severus Potter. Though Harry had still destroyed everything that was yours and Albus Dumbledore's in the first few years after the war, by the time that he and Ginny Weasley married in 2007, he no longer hated you. Through getting to know Draco at work and speaking to Narcissa before she died, he found out about an Unbreakable Vow that you had taken to protect Draco. Though he was still upset that you killed Dumbledore, he respected that you did it to save Draco. When he found out from Lucius' portrait that you had also begged the Dark Lord to protect Lily, he forgave you and named his second son after you.
For almost a decade – not three years – I lived with the Malfoys. They bought me a wand and I learned a lot about magic from my ancestors' portraits and from the extended Weasley family. But no one could help me to find my way home. Not even Hermione who was a highly respected Unspeakable and walking fountain of information.
Then on the eve of Beltane in 2050, Arturius, who was as voracious a reader as his grandmother, Hermione, found a book in the Malfoy library that he thought could help me. In it was a ritual to be done on Samhain which reunited people with their loved ones in different locations. It included a variant of the Harmonia Necto charm that Draco had amended to repair the Vanishing cabinet. It would be risky and I would probably die but I had to try it because while I had grown magically stronger in the first few years, my health was beginning to weaken.
I also suffered from many nightmares… or memories or visions – I couldn't be sure. I worried constantly about having changed the past. Harry still gone and the Malfoys had finally stopped searching for Draco. Then Ron, who joined the Auror service after Harry's death, died trying to save some Muggles from rogue dark wizards, there was only Hermione left. With the Wizarding and Muggle worlds only too aware of each other and not co-existing peacefully, the Wizarding world put a lot of pressure on her, as the last of the Golden Trio and a Muggleborn, to be a leader and symbol of hope. I felt that I had killed Draco for nothing and worried about my family here in the future. I had no choice but to try the ritual.
We amended the spell to try to bind me with my family through time as well as space but knew it would need a lot of magic if there was any chance of success. So on Samhain of 2050, with the help of almost a hundred wizards and witches I had befriended (admittedly, most of them were Weasleys), along with a few Squib and Muggle Wiccan supporters, I went to Stonehenge and performed the ritual. As they chanted the spell I felt nothing, then a lot of pain as though my body was being torn apart, and then nothing. I thought I had died.
. I slowly regained consciousness and started feeling cold. When I could open my eyes, little Helen, the ghost child, was standing over me. I realized that she was a ghost, but unlike the ghosts I'd met in the 2040s, I could almost feel her body. I was confused but thrilled. I had never seen a ghost before my time travelling adventure and, if the spell had been successful, clearly I was in a future with ghosts. Magic must have been saved!
I was too physically weak to move around much but most of what I saw looked like TALAC. When I heard a tour guide in the distance, I realized that I was in TALAC and The Administration still existed. I found Ariana who greeted me and asked me about my trip. She remembered meeting me and meeting Nanette, but she could not remember when. This time she wasn't the only Wizarding portrait and the other normal portraits were able to confirm that Muggles suppressed magic and warned me to hide. I dreaded and still dread knowing what changes my interference caused.
Once the depressing reality sunk in, I lost all hope. I lay down behind the kiosk, prepared to die right there. And then you came.
As Fawkes neared the end of his tale, he rehydrated curry dinners for himself and his host.
"Well, that's my story," he concluded as he accepted a glass of wine from Snape.
Severus nodded and accepted the plate. The rehydrated food was sufficiently palatable and a welcome excuse not to talk. After dinner he prepared tea in silence, still absorbing all the information he had just heard. Offering a cup to his guest, they moved to his small sitting room. Severus sat in the chair facing his guest and sighed tiredly.
"So basically you remember two versions of history," he recapped. "In the first, before you went back in time, I died in the Fiendfyre, the Potter ego prevailed and the boy not only refused to listen to reason but also used his celebrity to become Minister for Magic." Here he stopped to snort. Wizards could be such dunderheads. He wasn't sure who was worst, an incompetent and delusional imbecile like Fudge or an inexperienced and impetuous boy like Potter.
Sighing, he continued, "Potter, who didn't realize he was a horcrux, was possessed by the Dark Lord. But Potter has an extraordinary ability to throw off possession and compulsion charms so the Dark Lord's possession was not complete, turning Potter into Jekyll and Hyde. Draco, who saved my house from Potter's destruction, finally gives the photograph of Lily to Potter who effectively commits suicide by Muggle. Draco blames himself for wasting time and endangering lives and commits suicide. A Muggle who outsmarted his idiotic wizard brother-in-law and orchestrated the murder of the Golden Trio begins hunting wizards. The magical community, mindless sheep who let a mere boy be their official leader, was only too happy to submit to some other puppet master who oppresses them and kidnaps Muggleborns, thereby provoking Muggles to retaliate. Muggles, also mindless sheep, allow The Administration to be formed in the 22nd century and by the 23rd century, magic is thought eradicated except for an elite few wizarding families in various countries who keep in touch to arrange marriages and retire but otherwise keep below profile."
Fawkes struggled between his desires to laugh and to dispute Snape's over simplistic summary of history. Opting to refill their tea cups instead, he replied simply, "Yes."
"Then, in this version of history you caused, you go back in time and save Draco from killing himself which results in him living almost 30 more years during which time he becomes an Auror and Potter's partner no less. Together they fight the Dark Lord who is able to return time and time again, growing more powerful and globally popular even as he becomes less sane. Draco has still saved my house but, instead of giving Potter the charmed photograph of Lily as I told him to, he ends up losing it to some Muggle reporter who writes that ridiculous article about me. Potter gives himself up willingly as a sacrifice and is killed, this time by the MLE, therefore ensuring that the Dark Lord will never return once killed. But Draco is still suicidal so you convince him to use the Time Turner. He returns to 1998 and somehow saves me from death by Fiendfyre and instead sends me to the future. You tell no one where he's gone but they don't really care because he's such a depressed and depressing alcoholic."
"He…they…yes," Fawkes replied, wanting to defend his ancestors and the results of his actions but unable to find real fault in Snape's synopsis. From everything he had learned while in the past, it seemed that he had led Draco to live an additional three decades of misery during which time he would lose his parents, his wife and for all intents and purposes, his son. By the time he disappeared with his grandson's broom, Potter, the only person who still tolerated Draco, had already been assassinated. It gave Fawkes only small comfort to fantasize that his compulsion charm only worked so well because Draco had likely been willing.
"But once the Muggle's article made knowledge of horcruxes public knowledge," Snape continued, "wizards and witches the world over began making horcruxes. This led to chaos within the Wizarding world which spilled over to the Muggle world where Muggles, now that they know of horcruxes, conclude that the only way to safeguard their own safety is to annihilate entire Wizarding communities using their military technology. With time, their militaries grow into The Administration which not only seeks to eradicate magic but also controls Muggles. This time the genocide takes two centuries longer and is evidently less successful as there are more hidden magical communities today than before you changed history. At least in this country."
Fawkes gasped as he listened to the second history. Stuck as he was in the 2040s, he hadn't known how the changes he had caused led to a future where The Administration still existed. He shuddered at the thought of multiple split souls. After the Prattler article about horcruxes came out, Hermione had predicted just such a future and by the time that he left, the Unspeakables regularly held raids – even of Malfoy Manor – to seize any book with instructions on making horcruxes. He missed 'Aunt 'Mione' and wondered if history recorded what had become of her.
"It is fascinating how much changed and how much stayed the same," he mused aloud.
Severus nodded his agreement. "The means by which men pursue their vices may have changed over the millennia, but the vices and consequences of pursuing them, remain the same."
They sat in silence, Severus continuing to mull over the changing histories, and Fawkes fiddling with his no longer functional comm.
"Why did it bring me here and now?" Snape's whisper sounded loud in the silence. "How does a device that can transport someone in increments as small as a minute as it apparently did with Draco, also transport me so many centuries into the future? I wish we knew how far into the past Draco went. I never guessed of his existence before I was transported here, yet he must have been at Hogwarts in 1998 order to save my life."
He fell silent a moment longer then shared his thoughts aloud once more. "How did it end up transporting you to the right time and the right place? Malfoy Manor is…was not in London. Why didn't it transport you to somewhere in London? What is that device?"
Fawkes had no answer but he had wondered the same when Hermione had shown him etchings of other Time Turners and told him about her own experiences with the devices.
"Do you still have it?" he asked Snape.
"Yes. I keep it in a protected box under a stasis spell to ensure it does not accidentally transport anyone or itself."
Fawkes nodded in response and settled back into contemplative silence.
"Severus," Fawkes began timidly, cautioned by tales of Snape's vicious tongue that he had heard from the man's contemporaries, "was I wrong for changing the past? I felt so sure that I had to do it before and even now I sometimes think that I was born to do it…and yet you are here and The Administration is still here and…"
"In the words of Oscar Wilde," Snape replied, "the one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it."
A/N - There you have it. I hope it wasn't too wordy or confusing. Time travel is hard enough to write without going and changing the past *facepalm*