Chapter Four

"I don't understand why you said we would meet him," Ginny said. She was sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks with her brother Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Luna.

"Yeah. He probably wants us all together so he can insult us in a group. Kill five owls with one spell," Ron said.

"I don't know, Ron, he seemed different. Kinder. More human," Hermione said.

"If you say so."

"Guys," Neville said, nodding his head towards the door that had just opened. Harry walked inside looking around. Spotting the five people he was most happy to see, Harry quickly made his way to the table.

"Hi," Harry said cheerfully when he approached the table.

"Let's get this over with, Snape," Ginny said.

His heart breaking at hearing Ginny speak to him with such contempt in her voice, Harry pulled up a chair and sat down in between Ginny and Hermione.

"Why did you want to see us?" Ron asked bluntly and with a sneer that Harry only saw him have when talking to Malfoy.

I guess that I'm Malfoy to them in this world. He is my brother in this world, Harry thought to himself.

"Okay. I am not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to come right out and say this. I know who you think I am. But I am not who you think I am. I am from a world where we are all friends, where I am The-Boy-Who-Lived, where I have the scar, where my parents died to keep me alive, where Ginny and I are engaged." The five other people at the table just stared at Harry with frowns and scowls.

"You expect us to believe you?" Ginny asked, skepticism and hatred in her voice. "You hate us. You spent your whole life making ours miserable. Your day at school wasn't ever complete unless you and your brother had tormented us in front of the school. Let's go, guys. I knew we shouldn't have come," Ginny said, pushing out her chair and standing up. Neville and Ron followed, but Luna, who did not seem to know what was going on as usual, and Hermione remained seated.

"Wait!" Harry said, standing up, desperate not to let this chance escape him. "I have proof."

Ginny, Neville, and Ron turned simultaneously to face Harry.

"Okay. Prove it," Ginny said, crossing her arms across her chest.

Harry pulled out of his jacket pocket the picture of the six of them in front of the Hogwarts Express and the Time-Turner that he and Ginny had found in their real world.

"Here. Look. This was taken at the end of our last year. Hermione, Ron, Neville, and I had gone back to school and finished our last year and graduated with you and Luna."

Ginny took the photo from Harry, her eyebrows furrowed.

"It looks real," Ron said, peering at the picture from over Ginny's shoulder.

"It could be a trick. He somehow magicked himself into the photo that the five of us took," Ginny said, still suspicious.

"Ginny, please sit down and let him try to explain," Hermione said. "I think he might be telling the truth."

"You do?" Harry asked, thankful that at least one of his friends believed his story.

"Yes, I do. But you have to explain further."

"I can do that."

"Ron, please," Hermione said, looking at her boyfriend.

"Alright," Ron sighed and sat back down at the table.

Neville followed suit and Ginny reluctantly did the same.

"Okay. If you really are our friend, then why do we hate you?" Ginny asked.

"Because I messed up my timeline. In my real world I was cleaning out my Hogwarts trunk and I found this Time-Turner," Harry said, holding up the necklace, "and Hermione told me to put it away but I put it around my neck and it turned accidentally and I ended up in 1975. I watched my dad – James Potter – torment Snape and watched Snape call my mom – Lily Evans – a 'Mudblood' and I knew that he called her that out of embarrassment and I told him to tell her that he loved her. But that was never supposed to have happened and so Lily never married James and I ended up Snape's son instead of James Potter's and Neville became The-Boy-Who-Lived and all of you guys hate me," Harry concluded, breathing heavily.

"You accidentally turned back time," Ginny said skeptically, raising her eyebrows.

"It's possible, Gin," Hermione said. "Especially with the Time-Turners that turn back years. They are very sensitive. The slightest movement could turn back a year."

"Okay. So why did you want to see us?" Ron asked.

"Because this isn't my life. I want to be with you guys. You are my friends. The ones I love." Harry turned his head to Ginny as he stated the last part.

"But it is your life. It's the one we've always known it to be," Neville said.

"So you're saying that you won't help me fix this? Get the real world back. My world. Neville, wouldn't you like to have the pressure of being the hero lifted off your shoulders? Wouldn't you like someone else to be stared at all the time? Someone else's life to be constantly reported about in the papers? Hermione, are you telling me that you have no idea how to fix this?" Harry said, looking Hermione in the eyes with desperation.

"Harry, I don't know what you can do to fix what you already did but to go back in time again and change whatever you did that changed your timeline," Hermione said, sadness clear in her eyes and voice. "And that could be very dangerous. You could mess up so much more than you already have."

"So I have to live with what I've done? I can't. I won't marry Pansy Parkinson. I won't have Malfoy as my brother. And as nice as it is to have my mom alive, I will not have Snape as my father!" Harry said loudly and hysterically.

"Alright," Hermione said. "We'll help you."

"We will?" Ron asked, staring at Hermione.

"Yes," Hermione said pleadingly. She stared around the table at her friends. Harry held his breath hoping that Hermione had enough influence over Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville.

Neville spoke first.

"I think we should help."

Ginny's eyes widened at her fiancée.

"You do?"

"Yes I do, Ginny. And not just because it would be nice to be a nobody instead of the famous Neville Longbottom but because I know what it's like to speak the truth and to have no one believe me. I know what it's like to be so desperate to be believed that you would do anything in your power to show the world the truth. I'll help you, Harry."

"Thank you."

"So how do we do this without screwing up more than what has already been screwed up?" Ginny asked.

Harry's heart filled with happiness at hearing that the five people he loved most in the world were going to help him get his life back.

"We ask Dumbledore, of course," Luna said in her usual dreamy tone that suggested this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That would be a great idea, Luna," Ron said, "except that he's dead."

"I know that, Ronald. But he is the only one that might be able to help us. So, we should ask Dumbledore," Luna stated.

"But if he's dead, how do we talk to him?" Neville asked.

"The portrait," Harry said.

"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed.

"But how do we get into Hogwarts? It's the middle of July," Ron asked.

"Who's the headmaster here? In your world?" Harry asked.

"Your dad. I mean, Snape," Hermione answered.

"Well then, I'll just ask him to let me in," Harry said.