Thank you everyone who has read this story so far and thank you everyone who has taken that extra minute to post a comment. Thank you dschlac and Donald McLeod

Harry Potter and the Trip to the Past

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Chapter – 5

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In the evening Remus excused himself for about half an hour and went out. They had spent the whole afternoon and a good part of the evening with Remus pouring all kinds of information about the Wizarding World to Harry who was listening intently and asking all kinds of questions.

The only ones Remus wouldn't answer were why Sirius was ill and why Sirius and Remus had not come to visit with him all these years. He had only smiled sadly when Harry had questioned hesitantly and had promised Harry that he would have his explanations once Sirius was well enough to talk important issues.

Harry did not ask again and he took out his One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phillyda Spore and started reading. This time around Harry wanted to be ready for Snape and if he could he wanted to make sure the man would not only not die, but also not kill Dumbledore and make himself the most hated individual on earth other than Voldemort, until the war was over and everything came to light.

Harry sat there with his potions book and was also wondering if Gringotts had been broken into. He decided he must ask Remus about wizarding newspapers so that from tomorrow he could start reading them. Harry wondered if Hagrid had been there in time to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone.

Harry sighed. He had changed everything so much already that he knew there was very little hope that everything would remain the way it did. Harry was brought out of his melancholy thoughts by the arrival of Remus who entered holding a small box and Sirius who was coming down looking a lot fresher than when he had gone up.

Remus went straight into the kitchen smiling at Harry and a minute later Sirius came into the room looking all refreshed. Harry felt like pouncing on him and hugging him tightly, but restrained himself and instead smiled widely at his Godfather.

"Hello Harry, fine? Settled down here?"

"Yeah Sirius, I have." Harry replied quietly, his green eyes sharply assessing Sirius's gaunt and pale face. Sirius smiled at Harry and ruffled his hair with too thin hands and pulled him up to his feet, "Come on. Remus," he called out, "Can we come in now?"

"Come on in." was the answering shout and Sirius took Harry to the doorway and then went behind him and shut Harry's eyes, propelling him slowly forward into the kitchen.

A few steps later Sirius removed his hands from Harry's eyes and both Sirius and Remus shouted at the top of their voices, "Happy Birthday Harry!"

Harry was shocked. He had truly forgotten his birthday after his grouse in the morning at the Dursleys and when Sirius had closed his eyes, Harry had thought he was going to show him another bit of magic. Harry did not know what to say. He stood there feeling a bit overwhelmed that Sirius had taken so much effort after probably waking up the day or two before.

"Thanks," he stammered and both men saw the emotions run through his eyes and they scowled simultaneously. "Surely your aunt made cakes for your birthday Harry?" Sirius asked gently.

Harry went a beet red and he slowly shook his head. "No, but I helped her make cakes for Dudley's and uncle Vernon's birthdays." He told them shocking them.

"What!" Sirius roared, "She never made a birthday cake for you, the bloody hag. Just wait until I am better," he would have gone on in this vein, but Remus cut him off, "Calm down Sirius." He said sharply but Sirius was too angry to take notice.

He had been there for only five minutes and he had seen how eager the Dursleys had been to throw Harry out and how eager Harry had been to get out of that house. Petunia's parting shot had been to ask Harry to stay in the School all year and to tell him, not request him to keep Harry for the summer until he could get back to School again.

"I will take care of them Remus." Remus was disturbed by the anger he saw there and wondered what had happened at the Dursleys. Harry had not spoken about them and Sirius had come back very quickly with Harry, in about fifteen minutes. "I will hex them." Sirius's eyes took on a different type of glint. "Maybe a nice muggle prank with a spell in it. Yeah, that would be fine." He was now nodding to himself for a minute before he shook his head as if trying to clear it and turned to Harry with a wide smile.

"Come on Harry. No need to talk about those worthless hags. Cut your cake, it looks delicious and then you can open your gifts." He said gaily to Harry, who noticed along with Remus the angry glint that had not quite vanished from his eyes.

Harry cut the cake blushing furiously; he was too old for this, after all. But a warm feeling enveloped him, taking him by surprise, when Sirius had roared at the Dursleys on his behalf.

All of them had a piece of the delicious chocolate cake and then went to the drawing room where many gifts had been placed on the centre table. Harry had stood there in shock, his memories going to Dudley's birthday when he had gifts just like this, all heaped on the table.

Harry suddenly felt very happy and he turned a beaming face to Sirius and Remus and thanked them both very shyly. "My first presents. Thanks so much. You have got me so many. You needn't have you know. The cake itself was great and would have been enough Sirius."

Sirius's face had gone red once again when Harry had admitted that these were his first gifts and he had looked at Remus who was also shocked and both men nodded, a fact Harry noticed and it totally shocked him to feel so good. He had forgotten the hurt he had had inside because of his so called family's treatment, Harry thought ruefully and now he realized it did feel good to have someone angry for him.

In his other life, only Hermione had understood the extent to which he had been neglected and hurt, even though Ron had rescued him in his second year from the Dursleys and knew he was not being treated well there. But Ron was always a bit thick when it came to emotions and had cursed the Dursleys and left it at that. He could not understand how much the lack of belonging had affected Harry. Now in a strange perverse way, Harry felt thrilled by the anger Sirius and Remus were showing on his behalf.

Harry went to the small table and started opening his many gifts. There were books, a magical watch, a photo of his parents, Sirius and Remus together, robes, a wand holster and many pranks from Zonko's.

Harry looked for a long time at the photo and then smiled at Sirius and thanked him and Remus for everything. The three of them had the cake and a light dinner Remus had whipped up and after a hilarious couple of hours, Remus shooed Sirius to rest again. Sirius who was beginning to look haggard, left hugging Harry tightly and whishing him a happy birthday once more.

Harry cleaned up everything and watched when Remus cleaned the dishes with magic. "Remus, can I also try a cleaning spell with my wand?"

Remus thought only for a second before he nodded. Grimmauld Place was very heavily warded and there was no way anyone would detect underage magic and he knew Sirius wanted Harry to learn all the basic spells before leaving for Hogwarts.

"Not today, though Harry. After I finish here, I will give you a brief description of spells and the way to hold your wand and the importance of correct pronunciation; things that are very important for getting the maximum effect of any spell you cast. Then you may read your Transfiguration and Charms text for introductions tonight. We will begin from tomorrow, alright?"

"Great!" Harry told him beaming before running off to get his books. Remus came to the drawing room in about five minutes and took Harry through the basic introduction to magic and half an hour later Harry bid goodnight to Remus and went up to his room and spent the next three hours going through the Self Updating Book of Spells and also his Transfiguration and Charms books just in case Remus would question him about it the next day.

Harry slept well for the first time since he came back to the past, his last thought being that maybe he could just do it this time too and with far less casualties.

He woke up early the next morning and ran to the bathroom to wash and was soon bounding down the stairs. Remus and Sirius were not awake and Harry poked into the cupboards and using a minimum of wandless magic, he did not dare to use his wand in case Remus or Sirius would come in and soon had a huge breakfast prepared.

He sat down and ate until he felt food was coming out of his ears and slowly removed his wand and opening his Self Updating Book of Spells and keeping it conspicuously open on the table, Harry pointed his wand and cast a warming spell on all the dishes. Then he went to the drawing room and sat there with his potions book once again.

Harry had also bought a lot of potions books from Flourish and Blotts and also from the book shop at Knockturn Alley. He was now wading through the One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and was planning to read a lot more once he had finished with it. He had also bought the Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, and he fully intended to learn that as well, preferably before he started School.

Of course being thirty seven helped in understanding concepts and made it a lot more interesting, Harry decided. He was reading for about half an hour when Remus and Sirius came in. They looked at Harry reading a potions book of all things and stared at him open-mouthed, their good mornings withering away.

Harry had sensed them when they were descending the stairs and now he looked up and smiled at them. "Good morning Sirius, Remus. Today morning I performed my first bit of magic." Harry told them excitedly and they stared even more.

Harry dragged them into the kitchen hoping he was not over acting and showed them the dishes. "You made them all with magic?" Sirius gasped.

Harry had, with wandless magic but naturally he could not say so and he shook his head still grinning widely. "No, I made breakfast as usual, the way I cook at the Dursleys,"

"What! You cook at the Dursleys?" Sirius asked him his blue eyes clouding with anger.

"Er, erm, I… well Sirius I did. That's okay. What I meant to say was I cast this warming charm over everything using the Self Updating Book of Spells. See everything's warm." Harry finished proudly and looked expectantly at them, feeling a total fraud inside.

Remus leaned and at once touched the dishes and grinned at Harry, "Brilliant Harry." He smiled trying to divert Sirius's attention from the Dursleys. Sirius reluctantly touched the dishes and then sat down. "What book is this Self Updating Book of Spells?"

Remus and Harry filled him on all that they had spoken yesterday and Sirius was alternating between admiring Harry for going alone into Gringotts and Knockturn Alley and raging against the Dursleys. He was astounded at all that Harry had managed to accomplish and was proud of him and was sure he was a true Marauder.

They retired to the drawing room after eating and Sirius and Remus answered all questions Harry had about the Wizarding World. And Harry had a great many of them. Sirius and Remus answered Harry's questions until he asked the same questions he had asked Remus the day before.

"Why are you so ill Sirius? Is this why you never came to the Dursleys to see me and were my parents drunkards?" Harry had asked eliciting another horrified roar from Sirius and even Remus this time. Harry had shrugged. "Well that was what the Dursleys told me. They said my mum and dad were good for nothing freaks and so was I." Harry's tone was normal but he was red with embarrassment of saying all this aloud.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other before both of them told Harry about Voldemort, Peter, Azkaban, everything.

"I was released because someone knew about Peter being an animagus, that is he could turn into an animal at will Harry. Some witches and wizards have this ability and Peter was one of them. I was released some two weeks ago and I spent about ten days sleeping. Remus came here only two days ago, he had been hiding away, since James and I had shamelessly thought him a traitor because he was a werewolf," Sirius stopped there horrified at what he had just said. Remus looked equally horrified and he was moving away from Harry slightly when Harry caught hold of his arm and dragged him down.

"What! Remus you never told me. WOW! Can you transform now and show me?" Harry asked praying this would go well.

Sirius and Remus stared at Harry their mouths hanging in a very unattractive way that was making Harry want to roll on the ground with laughter and he thought of all kinds of things to keep his face from splitting into two.

"Er what Harry?" Remus asked him after a few minutes.

"Did I say something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? I only wanted to see a werewolf that's all." Harry told them in a small voice and was rewarded with a mighty hug from Remus.

"Hey!" Harry cried hugging him back.

"Thank you Harry." Remus told him, his brown eyes very bright. Sirius was also beaming now and together they filled Harry of why his statement about Remus was so startling.

"But Remus that's so silly. This is only a problem that occurs one day in a month. Why should you be shunned for that?" he asked seemingly bewildered and was rewarded by their happy laughter.

"That's what your father used to say. He used to call it my furry little problem." Remus told Harry and then they spoke more freely sitting together the whole day and long into the night, talking about Harry's parents, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, Voldemort, his death eaters and how Harry had defeated the darkest wizard and saved them all.

Harry was also properly baffled about the person who could manoeuvre the Weasley wards and capture the rat and instruct the Headmaster to set Sirius free.

"Whoever it was, I owe them a life debt Harry and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Else, I would not have been able to bring you here. Remus would have never come because he was thought the traitor by all of us and had hidden away and werewolves are really not treated well by the Wizarding World." Sirius finished sadly and all of them sat there deep in their own thoughts for a long time before going to sleep.

From the next day Remus started proper training of Harry's magic and he was amazed at how quickly Harry picked up everything. Sirius though, was a bit disgruntled at Harry's interest in potions and his enthusiasm for learning the subject.

Sirius and Remus had told Harry all about the professors in Hogwarts and Harry had sighed when they had come to Snape. "Snape is the potions Master Harry and he is a G.R.E.A.S.Y. G.I.T. Like that. You will lose interest in potions once you meet him." Sirius had laughed while Remus had smiled.

"Then how did mum study under him? You told me she was brilliant in potions and charms did you not?" Harry had challenged and Sirius had scowled but Remus had explained.

"Oh no Harry Snape was a student with us. At that time the Potions professor was a man by name Slughorn." Remus explained.

"And the git was horrible and a death eater to boot." Sirius had said very viciously not caring for the frown that Remus gave him.

"Sirius!" Remus's voice was reproachful. Turning to Harry Remus smiled a bit, "Well it should be obvious that we were not friends with each other Harry. Sirius and James especially were always at odds with Snape and all of us I am afraid fought a good bit with each other."

Harry finally understood the enmity. His father was jealous of Snape and had always been against Lily's friendship and Sirius who was closest to James Potter had taken his friend's side in this. Harry breathed out at the startling understanding. He now knew why his father had always decried Snape's contribution and had always made light of Snape's bravery. He had known about his father's jealously but now Harry knew there was an uncertainty along with the jealousy that made Snape, his father and Sirius fight so.

The same way Snape had belittled James and his son Harry. Snape was cruel and sadistic even after James died because James had got the girl and what must have made that so bitter was the fact Lily went out with James because of Snape himself. Harry shook his head trying to clear it of everything. He looked at them, both were looking uncomfortable and wanted to get out of this conversation and Harry really could not blame them.

Remus while very close to both Sirius and James, was not as close as Sirius was to James, and over and above that he was a werewolf who was shunned by one and all; while he never joined in James's and Sirius's ridiculing of Snape he never went against those who had not shunned him and had become animagi to be with him during his most difficult times.

Remus and Peter were more onlookers when it came to vicious Snape baiting because they never competed with Snape for Lily's affection like James did and while all of them played pranks on Snape, Sirius took it to the next level because he understood the jealousy James was feeling towards Snape. Remus did too, but he never participated in the vicious fights, only the harmless pranks. But James hated the friendship Snape had with Lily and he was unsure of Lily's feelings towards the Slytherin and Sirius naturally chose to side with his best friend and his brother in almost every way.

Even after Harry had yelled at everyone the day Snape's portrait had appeared in Hogwarts, only James and Sirius had tried swaying Harry's opinion. Not Remus and not his mother. He sighed and looked at the two silent men who were thinking furiously to somehow change topics and at the same time draw Harry away from potions and Snape. Well they need not worry, because if his other life was any indicator Snape would chew and spit him out this time too.

Harry smiled at Sirius and Remus and they grinned back relieved at Harry. The one thing they had not told him openly was the fact Snape had been friends with his mother and in fact had loved her very much. And they had glossed over their enmity with Snape. Harry was sure that while Snape was no bed of roses, two of the Marauders were no less than him and went out of their way to harass him.

"Well anyhow I love Potions and I am going to do my mother proud." Harry said smiling at both of them and they had no comebacks for that.

That month passed very quickly for Harry, Remus and Sirius, who was so much better by the time Harry was to leave for Hogwarts. Harry had been to Diagon Alley three times and they had all thoroughly enjoyed it. They had let their hair down and gone using various glamour charms and disguises daring the other to try and spot them. Harry had flooed while Remus and Sirius had apparated. Harry had whined and had wanted to learn apparition and Sirius had promised to teach Harry in about two year's time and had laughed at Harry's scowl.

They spent some time everyday in cleaning Grimmauld Place and Harry learned that Kreacher had been sent once and for all to Narcissa Malfoy to work for her. Sirius had expressively forbidden him to take anything from here and had also forbidden him to step inside Grimmauld Place.

"When I came here Kreacher was muttering about what a blood traitor I was and how the Malfoys and Lestranges were the great ones. I was so angry that I told him to get off. Only I made sure he would never be able to come here and take anything from here. There are many dark objects here and the last thing I wanted was to gift all that to Malfoy who is already evil himself." Sirius had explained and Harry had felt relieved.

That was one obstacle down, though Kreacher had become okay later, he had killed Sirius first and Harry was glad the old elf would have nothing to do with Grimmauld Place and had joined happily in the cleaning of the extremely dirty Grimmauld Place. They had worked a partial transformation in the one month Harry was there and Remus had under Sirius's insistence that Harry needed both of them, made Remus stay at Grimmauld Place permanently.

Sirius and Remus slowly started healing the injuries they had inside them, of the last ten years and Harry was growing more and more confident he could pull it off. Harry's next thing on his agenda was to retrieve the Ravenclaw tiara from the Room of Requirement and then somehow tame or kill the basilisk and use its venom to destroy the horcruxes. Then Harry would have taken care of three horcruxes and he would have to wait until his second year to destroy the diary that is if Lucius Malfoy would repeat his actions of the past.

Harry had read and re-read both his potions texts and had also read a lot of other books. In his other life his mother had chided him gently for his nonchalant dislike of potions and had taught him the basics all over again and had made him understand the various properties of the different herbs and other potion ingredients.

She had made Harry work at for a few hours every weekend and had made him understand the importance of brewing good potions. While Harry was not an exceptional at potions and nor did he love it like his mother and Snape, he was not as bad as he was before.

In his other life his priorities had been to be accepted at least in the Wizarding World and solve his many problems as and when they cropped up and crop up they did with an intensity and regularity that was creepy. Also after his third year Harry had suffered almost constantly with Voldemort in his head and that did not make for an exceptional student. He was very powerful, Dumbledore had told him that, but he could not apply that power in a proper manner because he was constantly hindered all the time.

On top of that was he had been fighting blind most of the time with no or very little information. That didn't help either. Now he had the knowledge of his real age and Harry decided he was going to be brilliant. He would apologize to Hermione for stealing her place unfairly later if he could ever tell her about this coming back in time, he decided. He wanted to be a brilliant student and clever so that no one would even think of manipulating him like they had done before.

Everyone had used his innocence; his lack of Wizarding knowledge and the fact Harry had no one speak for him for their own purpose. While Dumbledore had manipulated Harry all for the greater good of course and Voldemort had tried his best to kill him, Harry himself had been given no choice in anything. From the day Harry's parents' had died he had been groomed by Dumbledore to take on the job of the Boy-Who-Lived. This time Harry would try his best to do things differently.

On the 1st of September, Harry got up early and went down to find both Sirius and Remus sitting at the kitchen table looking slightly down. The full moon had been only a few days ago and Sirius had bought the wolfsbane for him and Harry had seen the wolf. Remus had tried to dissuade Harry but Harry had crept in to the dungeons that had bars on the doorway and had sat with Remus and Sirius who had transformed into Padfoot, having a one way conversation with them.

Slowly Remus had allowed Harry to touch him through the bars and Harry had softly stroked him. Remus's eyes were so bright when he had looked at Harry and Harry could see the gratefulness to Harry not being scared. A little while later Harry had slept right there, leaning against the wall and when he awoke, he was in his bed and a very tired Remus was sitting in the chair next to him.

"Thank you Harry, but you need not have." Remus told him, implying that he understood Harry had wanted to show Remus that he had accepted the wolf.

Harry had grinned sleepily, "But Remus I got to see a werewolf." And had turned and snuggled down intending to sleep for some more time. Remus had laughed lightly before going to his own bed.

Now Harry was pouring an indecent amount of syrup on his pancakes and still Sirius and Remus were silent. "What is the matter with you two?"

"You seem very happy to go away from here." Sirius asked him scowling and Harry grinned.

"Hey! I will miss both of you more than you will miss me, Sirius. To tell you the truth I really don't wanna go." Harry whined and looked at them. They were still looking down.

Sirius looked deadly serious. "Remus and I will miss you terribly Harry. It seems such a long time until Midwinter."

Harry's green eyes softened, "I know Sirius." A few minutes later Harry looked at both of them and grinned widely. "Why should I go to Hogwarts anyway? I have got you and Remus to teach me everything and I am sure I can take the OWLS and NEWTS on my own. Please," Harry pleaded hoping this would get Sirius out of the funk he was in, "Please Sirius, say I can stay back here."

That brought Sirius and Remus out of their depression. "What!" both of them exclaimed simultaneously. "Of course you must go Harry. You will be back in no time for Yule. Hogwarts is fun. After all, your father and all of us found each other only there." Remus told him looking worried and Sirius nodded his head in agreement.

"You will come back before you know it Harry. It is only three months and a bit for Midwinter. We will have a lot of fun and we will write everyday."

Harry agreed reluctantly, "Okay. But you will write everyday and I will write too and soon I will be back won't I?"

Remus and Sirius agreed and then all of them took the old paper and portkeyed to an alley near King's Cross. They walked for about three minutes to the station and went to the barrier feeling very nervous. He would be seeing Ron and Hermione and the action would start the moment he crossed the barrier.

The Harry who had come to the station in the other life had been a thin, anxious, abused boy praying for acceptance in the new world he was going to enter. This Harry was still very thin but he was not the worried, scared boy he had been. He was confident and knew almost everything about the Wizarding World that was there to be known and was strong enough to take anything that may be thrown at him, head on.

The three of them walked to the barrier and there Harry's heart stopped. The Weasleys were just before them. Percy and the twins were not there and so Harry assumed they had gone inside.

"Ron you take your sister's hand and walk through it dear. I will come right after you." Mrs. Weasley was telling Ron, who had a smudge on his nose. He nodded to his mother and took Ginny's hand and walked through the barrier and then Mrs. Weasley went in.

"Wow! Sirius, is that the barrier you were telling me?" Harry asked him, slowing down a little, giving the time to the Weasleys to go inside.

Harry had decided this time he would not be the pure Gryffindor Boy-Who-Lived. Instead he would try and unite the Houses as much as he could. For that he had to be seen alone in the beginning and try and mingle as much as he could with everyone. Last time Harry had not known anyone else apart from Ron and Hermione and he had the 'Gryffindor' label stuck to him because of Ron, who was never going to see any good in any Slytherin and anyone who would not come inside his preconceived notions and ideas.

To counter that Harry had to meet Ron in a different manner so that Ron would be convinced about Harry's views and ideas instead of blasé ones like all Gryffindors are good and all Slytherins are evil ones.

In his other life Ron had seen that point of view but that had come after years. Even with Snape's portrait he had not the right attitude. Hermione and Harry had to really work on Ron before he was anywhere near mild acceptance of a Slytherin. Harry and Hermione had never told Ron of the many meetings they had had with Malfoy. Harry now wanted to avoid all the politics of that time.

With that in mind Harry walked in between Sirius and Remus into the barrier and slowly went in. It was so crowded that Harry could not spot the Weasleys and he was grateful for that.

Harry had his trunk shrunk and had told Hedwig to fly to Hogwarts and had shrunk her cage as well. He hugged Sirius and Remus, promised to write them everyday and received their promise to reply his letters everyday and pulled his hood up and got into the train.

A minute later there was a loud horn and Harry leaned from a window and waved wildly to Sirius and Remus. A second later he saw Ginny crying and waving to Ron, Fred and George. Harry looked at her for a second and then turned his attention to Sirius and Remus who were running towards him. He grinned widely feeling very warm and safe in their love and continued to wave until he could see them no more.

End of Chapter – 5

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