Thank you, every one of you, who have read this story so far and to every one of you who took that extra minute to review. Thank you zeynel

Harry Potter and the Trip to the Past

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Chapter – 21

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Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape walked out of the Headmaster's office after Lucius slammed the door behind him. Snape did not speak a word but led a willing Malfoy to the dungeons and into his chambers. Snape went directly to his cabinet and took out a couple of glasses and poured the red elf made wine and silently handed one glass to Lucius, who had thrown himself in a very un – Malfoyish way on the sofa.

'What happened, Severus?' Lucius asked him after a silence that became slightly oppressive. Snape was not saying anything; he was simply sipping his wine and looking sympathetically at Lucius, willing him to speak first.

'Today morning?' Snape asked him and continued when Lucius nodded. 'Well I noticed something was amiss when the old loony got up suddenly and started walking swiftly towards the main doors of the Great Hall and halfway he broke into a run. I got up and ran to see what it was that could rile up the old man so. I was not disappointed initially, Lucius. Only a bit later it turned rather frightening.

'The Weasley girl was screaming that she would kill Potter; this I heard from Dumbledore and Potter, really that boy is so lucky, I wish he would fail somewhere, really. He threw a curse and avoided the Avada no less, how I really don't know and fired a stunner, but before he could do more, Dumbledore himself fired a stunner at the girl. A few minutes later, the ghostly form of a young boy rose out of her and vanished. Dumbledore said that was our Lord while he was very young.'

Lucius paled and was sweating profusely as Snape's explanation went on and by the time Snape finished, he was trembling, a far cry from the Lucius Malfoy the world knew.

'Lucius? What is the matter? Did that elf harm you?' Snape asked him, leaning forward in concern. Lucius hesitated only for a minute.

'Severus. I think I am in trouble. I placed that diary in her Transfiguration Book. That was a diary our Lord had given to me. It was an extremely dark object and I wanted to be free of this if there were any checks by the aurors, since this showed up under the auror scans. Now it looks like…' Lucius hesitated for a second and looked into Snape's eyes and trembled. 'What is it Lucius? You don't have to tell me if you must not. I understand out Lord will be angry if you reveal what I need not know.'

Those were the right words to say and Lucius shivered once more, 'Looks like a horcrux, Severus and it seems to have been destroyed, because I could not find anything magical in that diary, let alone traces of dark magic.' Snape stared in apparent shock. 'What a horcrux. Lucius are you sure?' He asked and sat back when Lucius nodded his head.

Snap was silent for sometime, before he answered, choosing his words carefully. 'I think you should somehow plant the suggestion by means of an anonymous letter to make the aurors search your house and pour some dark magic into a diary which looks like the one destroyed and let them take it. That way the Dark Lord will be angry, but will not be able to accuse you of having deliberately destroying the diary. You can tell our Lord that this Diary was something different; a dark object that you made on your own to cause trouble for Arthur in the Ministry, only it backfired on you, just in case he comes to know of this incident. What do you think?'

Lucius looked long at Snape, whose face was bland as he sat back looking very matter of fact and slowly Lucius nodded. 'I think I'll do that. But Severus, I can count upon you not to reveal…'

'But of course Lucius. You have my word.' Snape said sincerely and Lucius got to his feet, with a small relieved smile and walked out after thanking Snape, a determined look on his face and looking more like the Lucius Malfoy of old.

Snape heaved a sigh of relief as he watched Lucius Malfoy walk out of his rooms to do just the thing Snape suggested. Snape hoped this would be fine and would not mess up the timeline and create more problems. He cursed a bit, Harry was not telling him anything much and it was frustrating him. Well, he would have to try and put some more questions to Harry Potter if he needed to make sure his actions would not harm the original timeline.

His thoughts went back to the time when Harry had almost broken down and he sighed. He very much hoped Harry would marry Ginny. He would not wish what he had gone through seeing Lily with James Potter on anyone, not even Voldemort, Snape decided as he remembered the jealousy and the bitterness that had welled up in his heart, when he saw them together. James and Sirius made sure they never hexed him or the others in front of Lily and she had been taken in by that, thinking James Potter had changed, he thought angrily.

Snape sat still for a minute, before the memories of those days came back as always. Lily had been happy. That was what hurt him, he had realized later. She had been truly happy with Potter of all people and had a living proof of that love in Harry James Potter as well. He had almost lost his mind when he came to know they were planning to marry.

Lily had never spoken to him after that night. Not once in the two years and after they left Hogwarts he had never even seen her. And then she had died. And he had been the cause for it. Snape's face twisted in a very horrible way as the guilt burned into him as if new. Why did he have to take the damn Prophecy to the Dark Lord? And why did Potter of all kids have to be born on the last day of the seventh month and why oh why did the bloody James Potter not listen to Dumbledore and make him the secret keeper instead of choosing Black and the rat of all people? Even after they were warned, they could not protect themselves.

Snape snarled as he thought of Peter. But then he sagged again. While his mind could come up with many reason that were perfectly true, his heart would never listen and there it was he, who was responsible for the death of Lily and for the breaking of her family. He wondered how Harry was able to stand talking to him when Harry knew that it was because of him his parents died.

At that time the floo turned green and Snape looked up, schooling his face into blankness and stood up as Dumbledore's head appeared. 'Can you come up for a minute Severus? Has Lucius left?'

Snape sneered. Dumbledore had called him, because he had known Lucius left. He nodded silently and walked to the floo to take a pinch of floo powder and waiting only for Dumbledore to withdraw his head, Snape threw the floo powder and stepped into the fire. Time to report to Dumbledore, he thought, about what Lucius said.

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Sirius and Remus were having their lunch in Diagon Alley, planning to go to a meeting in the afternoon, when Hedwig flew into The Leaky Cauldron and landed on the table, holding out her leg. Sirius grinned at Remus, his eyes brightening as he untied the letter on Hedwig's leg and opened it. His smile abruptly turned into a frown and then a scowl. He stood up abruptly, throwing the letter towards Remus and strode to the fireplace, throwing a few galleons on the counter for Tom.

Remus, in the meanwhile had hastily stood up reading the letter as well, and his face too, showed the sudden tension as he finished the letter, running to the fireplace, just as Sirius was throwing a pinch of the floo powder and stepping into the fire, shouting 'The Three Broomsticks'. Remus followed suit and soon they were running on the road that led from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. Sirius opened the gates, just as Lucius Malfoy was finishing his talk with Snape, and ran inside.

Sirius ran through the main doors and the stairs to the Headmaster's office, missing Lucius Malfoy who was just stepping out of the dungeons. Sirius ran to the gargoyle and stopped, his chest heaving with all the exhaustion. It took a few minutes for him to get his breath back and he spent the next few minutes trying all kinds of wizarding and muggle sweets. The gargoyle finally opened to Mars Bars from Remus, and Sirius now with another burst of energy ran up the stairs and opened the door, without even knocking on it.

They opened the door to see Snape step through the fire with Dumbledore standing near it. Dumbledore turned with a slight frown which turned to a smile as he saw Sirius and Remus rushing in.

'Hello Sirius, Remus. This is indeed a pleasant surprise.' Dumbledore exclaimed walking over to his chair and sitting down, gesturing Sirius, Remus and Snape to sit down as well.

'Tea?' he asked to an almost bursting to ask questions Sirius.

'No Albus. We received a letter from Harry today afternoon saying that he was attacked by Ginny Weasley of all people and he says she was possessed and the killing curse was not her fault. The killing curse, Albus? Just what is happening here? That elf was correct. It said horrible things would happen in Hogwarts and asked Harry not to go. Right, now I've made my decision. Harry as of this minute is with drawn from here. No more.' Sirius was panting once again and his eyes looked bleak as he whispered, 'I can't lose him too, Albus. He's all I've got.'

Albus smiled gently. 'I know, Sirius, and I was so worried yesterday, when I heard Miss. Weasley shout at Harry. I cast the stunner that stopped her and then a few minutes later, Voldemort came out of her body and vanished. She was apparently possessed. The elf was Lucius Malfoy's and it came here along with him today and there was a piece of cloth in that diary that he gave to the elf and he unintentionally freed it.' Dumbledore's eyes were smiling along with him, as he remembered the scene in his office a little while ago.

'So it was Malfoy. How dare he?' Sirius asked outraged, Remus and Snape simply sitting and watching; Remus with a worried look and Snape with an unreadable expression, that was mildly sneering.

'It was Malfoy indeed and I have warned him, I think he will not try anything like this again.' Dumbledore said soberly.

'Wait a minute, Albus. You said Voldemort came out of her body. How was that?' Sirius asked and they listened to Dumbledore's explanation, as he told them the events of the last day and a half. He did not mention his suspicion that it may be a horcrux and Sirius did not catch on to it either.

'How is Ginny Weasley now? It must have been horrible for her. I would also like to see Harry, if you don't mind Albus. Just to see for ourselves, that he is fine.' Sirius told him and stood up, preparing to see Harry, his face a bit more cheerful now. He smiled his thanks to Dumbledore and nodded once to Snape, who did not acknowledge it, and rolling his eyes Sirius, and Remus smiled at Albus and went away.

'Would you have some tea, Severus?' Albus asked him, pouring a cup for himself, when Snape shook his head.

'It was Lucius, Dumbledore. It was he, who placed the diary into the Weasley's girl's cauldron.' Snape hesitated a bit here. He had wanted to talk to Harry before he reported to Albus, but Dumbledore had called him quickly. Snape was in two minds about informing Dumbledore about the horcrux. Dumbledore was waiting patiently for Snape to speak again, and Snape squared his shoulders and looked at Dumbledore.

'The diary apparently was a horcrux.' He said blandly, watching as Dumbledore choked on his tea. It was not every time that he could surprise him, and Snape felt an immense satisfaction.

'What? Who told you that? Lucius?' he asked, his desire to have tea, apparently all gone.

Snape nodded. 'Yes, Dumbledore it was he. This diary kept popping up in his scans and he was worried that if anyone from the Ministry would come, this could not be concealed. So he decided to place it in the Weasley girl's book and hoped that it would get her into a lot of trouble.' Snape shuddered. 'I thank Merlin, that the Dark Lord did not possess her the way he possessed Potter. It would have destroyed her.'

Dumbledore nodded his face very serious. 'Indeed, Severus. We must be thankful for that. So Voldemort has made horcruxes. I have suspected it for sometime now; this proves it.' Dumbledore sighed. 'Poor Harry. He has such a task in front of him. We must make it as simple for him as we can, Severus.'

Snape nodded and stood up when Dumbledore nodded back at him and with a twist of his feet he billowed away to the fireplace and went back to the peace of his dungeons to wait for Harry Potter.

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Just after Lucius Malfoy had left, Molly and Arthur Weasley had tackled Harry and had apologized to him, making him feel very embarrassed. He brushed it all off and could not help leaning into Molly's embrace when she tightly hugged him, pouring all her gratitude into the hug. She was still crying terrified at what might have almost happened. Her daughter might have even been kissed or sent to Azkaban for the rest of her life had Harry pressed charges. Instead, it had been this remarkable boy who had spoken so confidently and assuredly for Ginny.

Ginny herself, was crying and looking very frightened. She had had a crush on Harry for as long as she could remember and now, she had almost killed him. She shuddered in self-disgust. Harry, she knew would never look at her even in friendship and he would never talk to her as he did in her dreams. She bent her head down in a gesture of defeat and tried to stop crying and thinking about anything and everything.

Thankfully the bell had rung then and all of them left the elder Weasleys and went to their classes, silently and very subdued. Ginny was excused from her classes and she went with her mother to The Burrow to recover and also to give the other students time to forget. She would return after Christmas.

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Sirius and Remus, after their meeting with Dumbledore had walked through the School, searching for Harry until they realized he was probably in his classes. They came to the main doors and decided to wait for classes to get over for the day and meet Harry and only then leave Hogwarts. They sat down on the steps of the main door and whiled away the afternoon, discussing what Dumbledore had told them. As soon as the bell rung for the last class, Sirius called an elf and asked it to call Harry to them.

In a few minutes, Harry came running along with Neville and Hermione, looking very anxious. 'Sirius, Remus, what happened? Are you both fine?' he shouted as he screeched to a halt, panting heavily, looking at both of them deeply.

"Harry, we are okay. We came for you. I got your letter today and we've been here since. I wanted to see you if you were okay, and Remus and I decided to do just that before we left. What happened, yesterday?'

So Harry once more launched into the story of what happened yesterday and answered as many questions as he could and satisfied them finally, with Neville and Hermione helping him.

'Harry, listen to me carefully. I want you to stop your friendship with Malfoy. It was his father who was responsible for the diary and I am afraid his son will be no better.' Sirius told him, his eyes and face not ready to take no for an answer.

'Sirius, if Malfoy even shows a bit of anything bad, I'll simply break off with him. I swear. Please believe me on this one. I won't take any risks and you can ask Neville and Hermione here. He has been very nice Sirius, and I don't want to blame him for the sins of his father and break off with him. Please.' Harry pleaded with him. Half an hour of much pleading and arguing, Sirius sighed at Harry's stubbornness and his refusal to see any sense in Sirius's words.

He looked helplessly at Remus and then sighed and shrugged in resignation. 'Be careful Harry. And don't let him get too close.' Sirius warned him. 'Sirius, he's good. He's a very nice guy. He is not like his father and I've already promised you I'll break it off if he becomes like that. Don't you worry, okay?' Harry reassured him and then waved goodbye to a very unsatisfied Sirius and a slightly worried Remus, and turned to see Draco walking out stonily towards Harry.

Harry quickly schooled his expression into blandness, inwardly worried about what Draco had heard and how he took it. 'Can I talk with you for a minute?' he asked.

'Sure Draco.' And Harry walked a little away from Neville and Hermione and Draco too, left his friends who were looking worried and came over to Harry.

'Why did Black and Lupin tell you to avoid me?' he asked his face white and pinched. Harry looked at him for a long minute and then quietly told him what happened. Draco had come there at the end and had been shocked to hear Sirius and Remus tell Harry to stay away from him. He was even more shocked by Harry's response. Harry had told them, he would break it off, if Draco would become like his father. That had made Draco very confused and hurt. He had almost shouted at Harry, but all this time with him, had made Draco realize that Harry was not a person to talk lightly. So he had pushed down his anger and had asked him what the matter was and why suddenly the Malfoys weren't good enough for Harry and his Godfather.

The reason shocked him beyond anything. His father had been responsible for placing a dark artefact that possessed a student and had tried to kill Harry. Had anybody else told Draco negative things about his father, he would have hexed them and become their enemy. But this was Harry; who would never lie to him. He knew that instinctively and he somehow trusted Harry on this. And he did not know what to say. He stared at Harry feeling extremely mortified and wondering why in the name of Merlin he had asked Harry anything at all in the first place. He should have known Harry would have a reason for everything.

'I understand if you'll no longer want to be friends.' Draco told Harry, his voice all strained as he spoke the toughest words that almost broke him.

'Why should I not be friends with you Draco? I told Sirius and Remus that I'll stay away, if I feel you were trying to harm me. Not otherwise. And I know you'll never do that.' Harry told him, looping his arm into Draco's and smiling at him. Draco was stunned. Harry believed that he would not harm him. He was so confident about Draco and was willing to be friends with him, even if his father had tried to kill him. Draco felt very bitter as he thought of his father, but he pushed those thoughts down and decided to think about them later.

'And besides, you warned me, you know. That helped as well. But I could not tell them that, because you told me to keep it a secret. Come on. Let's go down to the dungeons and help Snape. He'll kill us otherwise.' Harry told him and refusing to talk further about what happened with Ginny, Harry led them all down.

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It was after these classes that Sirius and Remus had met them and Draco confronted him. After sending them away and talking to Draco, all of them trooped down to the dungeons and knocked at the door. Snape opened it and asked only Harry to come inside and shut and warded the door, disregarding the protests made by a slightly daring Hermione.

Snape after warding the door, waited for Harry to start his work, watching him all the while. Harry took his time, before he came to Snape's desk and sat down in the chair opposite Snape, and softly told him everything. Snape in turn told him what Lucius Malfoy had said, and Snape's own suggestion and then there was only silence.

'Now that all this drama is over, how is the potion coming along? Call Hermione and the others once in a while, Dumbledore will get suspicious otherwise.' Harry told him, and looked in shock, as Snape rolled his eyes, in an entirely human and unSnapeish way.

The next few weeks went by smoothly, with Ron and Draco being extremely subdued and not talking much or even hexing each other. Harry decided, it was a good side effect of a bad event and let it be. Ginny was in the Burrow and Harry enquired after her periodically and Ron always answered with a blush and a hushed whisper that she was fine. If Draco was with Harry, he would glare at him, but as Dumbledore had told all of them, Draco did not know or have a clue about his father's activities, and the fact he was very quiet, made the Weasleys quiet too.

Holidays came upon them and all of them spent it in the School, reading, exchanging gifts and working everyday on the potion. Draco, refused to go home, and wrote his father, saying that he wanted to be here, because of the potion.

The weather was now very cold, and it was snowing almost everyday and a bone chilling January gave way to a very wet February. Harry was breathing a sigh of relief about the normalcy of the days going by and after the nervousness and the tenseness of the first three months, the two months after the diary was destroyed totally opposite and Harry very much enjoyed it.

Ginny was very stilted when she came back scared and a shadow of herself and it was only now, after almost two months that she was settling down into any kind of normalcy that a first year should have had in the first place. February came and went and now there was the suppressed excitement about the potion.

The potion would be ready by the first week of March and all students both purebloods and muggleborns were equally excited at what they would find; the muggleborns to which family they would belong to and the pureblood, hoping their families had not been responsible for squibs. There were fierce arguments on both sides that only increased in intensity as the countdown to the first of March began.

Snape had brewed the two potions perfectly and in the last month, he pestered Harry to tell him about Harry's mother. 'I really do not understand your childishness in hiding this. I am going to find out anyway. Why can you not tell me now?' he had demanded rather petulantly of Harry, who had grinned at him, but had refused to say a word. Snape had been furious, but could not do anything at all.

'Is she… are you related to Malfoy, the Dark Lord or Lestrange?' he had asked, 'or Merlin! Black?' he had asked his arms folded tightly across his chest and Harry had grinned. 'Okay, I'll not tell you.' He had said and Snape had sat down abruptly. 'What?' he had asked faintly, 'Lily is related to the Dark Lord?'

Harry had laughed aloud and had shaken his head, and had watched gleefully as Snape, got up and wiped his face. 'Then perhaps, she is related to Potter himself?' he asked Harry, raising one eyebrow, making Harry feel very envious of that ability. Much as he had tried, Harry could not do it as perfectly as Snape did, or so effortlessly.

'No, no, no Snape, I am not telling you. I want to watch your face when you find out. That will be my Patronus moment from then on. And if you get Dumbledore there as well, I'll even be able to get two to three Patronus with one spell.'

That had made Snape even more curious and he had almost begged. Almost, before he realized what he had almost done and had stormed off. From then onwards, Snape did not ask Harry about the potions at all, preferring to work in silence than lower his dignity in front of a boy who would not say a word.

The first week of March came by and everyone was excited and anxious and worried. Most of the Gryffindors who were muggleborns hoped they would not be related to the Slytherins, who in turn were hoping that no muggleborn would be related to them.

Lucius Malfoy and other pureblood Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws had already written to Snape and Dumbledore, asking him to call for a parents meeting and announce the results before them. The Ministry came to know through The Daily Prophet. The paper had received an anonymous letter from Harry and Snape, who had written a brief note on the first of March informing The Daily Prophet of the potion that was being brewed by the Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master Severus Snape, so that there would be no false reports of just which muggleborn would be related to which pureblood family.

The way Snape and Harry had worded it, made those at The Daily Prophet feel that it was from a Slytherin family, who was anxious to have The Daily Prophet also on the job, so that the Headmaster or anybody else would not tamper with the potion. From there it went to the Ministry who also came to Dumbledore and asked him to announce the results publicly for everyone to know.

By the end of the first week of March, everyone was talking only of this and Snape and Harry had chosen that Friday to test the students and let Dumbledore announce the results on Saturday.

On Friday morning, all the muggleborn students assembled in the Great Hall, and looked at the staff table eagerly. Snape was already there, with 2 huge cauldrons (having made all the three potions but having mixed them and placed them into two cauldrons) and many vials. Dumbledore was there and so were all the professors who also looked pretty excited as much as the students.

The professors decided to go in alphabetical order and started with Allen, Charles, a seventh year half blood. His father had been a muggle born wizard. He came up nervously and swallowed the potion and went to a large table where two large parchments were placed side by side. He pricked his finger and let one drops fall into each parchment. For a second nothing happened then, slowly the names started appearing to the fascination of the entire staff and Charles Allen. They started from his name and slowly went upwards, showing his parents, grandparents and so on.

His father was apparently descended from a wizarding family called Crestar, whose daughter had been a squib some two centuries ago and she had married a muggle and settled far away from the Wizarding World. Charles Allen was overwhelmed as he received his parchment and went back to his seat, where he was besieged by friends who wanted to know all about his wizarding roots.

Slowly all the muggleborns started going up to the staff table one by one and got their family ancestry chart and were proved that they too were only witches and wizards from sometimes known and sometimes unknown wizarding families and almost all of them moved to the muggle world because their ancestor was a squib.

Hermione's turn came and she went up, shaking with nerves and drank the potion and placed two drops of her blood on the two pieces of paper. The names started forming and some six generations earlier, was one Celina Black who had been born a squib and had married a muggle Evan Granger. It was from her genes, that Hermione's magic had come. She looked at Snape, who had seen the name of Black and was now sneering at her, and Dumbledore and McGonagall, who were smiling at her and Hermione felt all her emotions burst just like so many of those who had come before her, and she started crying, as Dumbledore, rolled the now dry parchment and gave it to her.

She stumbled and turned and ran to Harry and threw herself on him, sobbing in her excitement and a bit of fear that she had had thinking she may be related to evil wizarding families. Now that was not so, she was crying on Harry's shoulders in utter relief that she belonged to Harry's Godfather's family.

Then came Harry's turn. He smiled as his name was called out and walked smartly towards the staff table. He knew whose family his mother came from and he was neither excited or anything. He was watching Snape very closely, though.

A second after Harry's blood fell on both the parchments, the names started appearing. They went on quite a few generations back. And then Harry looked at Snape and Dumbledore as the wizarding name began to appear on the paper. Morgana Prince.

End of Chapter – 21

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