The Founding of Happiness
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Time travel!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter!
Older Harry landed directly on his bed, put his younger self down, and jumped to the floor, where he transformed back. With a well placed wave of his wand pointed to his younger self he said, "Scourgify," which immediately cleaned up the sick that young Harry had made on the bed.
"Thanks," younger Harry mumbled, blushing terribly.
"It's all right, little one. Now try to sleep for a while; I'll wake you up on time for your Sorting."
While his younger self was asleep, older Harry entered the quarters of his parents Rowena and Godric in search for the Grey Lady, the ghost of Rowena's second daughter, Lily's younger sister Helena, who was hovering in front of the book shelf in the living room. "I brought my younger self here; he's so afraid of everything that is to come that he made himself sick."
"I will accompany him to his Sorting," the ghost promised and made her way into Harry's room.
Harry carefully shook his younger self's shoulder. "Harry, you have to get up; the students are going to be arriving any moment now."
Harry gave him a bleary look and quickly scrambled out of his bed, before he noticed the Grey Lady and gave her an astonished look. "Mum?" he asked confused.
"No dear, I'm not Mum Rowena; I'm her daughter Helena," the ghost replied with a comforting smile.
"Lily's little sister?" Harry asked, amazed. "Wow, you were only two weeks old when I left."
"Oh, the students are already boarding the boats. Now let's go downstairs, so that you can join them in time for your Sorting," Helena told him.
"Here Harry, you have to put this over your clothes," older Harry told his younger self, handing him a school robe, and Harry quickly put it on before he followed the ghost down the stairs, while older Harry flashed back into the past to fetch Löwi.
The Grey Lady motioned the child to stand in an alcove near the place where the boats were just arriving, from where she could watch the first years enter the castle. "Now Harry, they're coming in. Join them now. I'll wait for you in the Great Hall. Don't be afraid; everything will be fine."
Harry gave the ghost an uncertain smile and hesitantly joined the other first years, climbing up the stairs together with their group. He felt that his stomach was getting slightly queasy again, but when he realized that nobody seemed to take any notice of him, he slowly began to feel better. Professor McGonagall greeted the students, made them wait for a few minutes, and finally led them into the Great Hall.
"The ceiling is charmed to look like the sky," a girl with bushy brown hair that was walking beside him told him.
"Yes, it's amazing. Professor Ravenclaw invented the charm," Harry whispered back.
"Oh, do you know about her? Have you read 'Hogwarts: A History'?" the girl whispered, impressed. "Oh, by the way, I'm Hermione Granger," she continued, while they were waiting for the Sorting to begin.
"I'm Harry Potter," he whispered back to the girl, who really seemed nice.
"You're... you're Harry Potter?" she asked, totally in awe. "I read everything about you, Harry. You're famous."
"Oh please, forget about that. I'm just Harry, all right?" he replied, giving the girl a pleading look, while he noticed that his head was beginning to hurt.
"All right, Harry; can we be friends?"
"I'd like that very much," Harry replied, just when Professor McGonagall called the girl's name.
Twenty minutes later, Harry was the only student left, noticing that the teacher gave her list a confused look. "What's your name?" she asked in a sharp voice, stepping over to Harry.
"Harry Potter, Professor," Harry replied in a small voice.
"Ah, yes of course," the teacher replied after getting a good look at the boy. She turned to the Headmaster. "He's not on my list."
"That is because he didn't reply to our letter," the headmaster replied, looking at Harry with apparent interest.
"It matters not that he did not reply to your letter, he's my heir, and I want him to be sorted immediately," the Grey Lady spoke up, hovering next to Harry, who was starting to feel really unwell.
"Of course we will sort you, Mr. Potter," the Headmaster replied gently and motioned him to sit down on the stool that the Sorting Hat had been placed on.
As soon as Professor McGonagall had placed Sopho on Harry's head, he could hear a small voice. 'What am I going to do with you? You belong to all Houses, don't you?'
'I think so,' Harry thought back, feeling utterly confused.
'All right; you have your own room here at Hogwarts anyway,' the Hat concluded and spoke up aloud, "I cannot sort him. He is the heir of all founders and belongs to Hogwarts, not to only one single House."
Harry pulled the Hat off and handed it back to Professor McGonagall, who gave him a comforting smile and said in a gently voice, "Please take a seat at one of the House tables and come to see me right after dinner, Mr. Potter."
"All right, Professor, thanks," Harry mumbled and turned to the House tables.
"Here Harry!" a voice called him from the Gryffindor table, and Harry gratefully followed the voice to the girl he had talked with before and sat down in the empty seat next to her.
'What am I going to tell the professor?' Harry thought feverishly, pushing around the food on his plate and ignoring his surroundings at the same time.
"Harry!" Hermione's voice penetrated his ear. "Are you already asleep?"
"Ah, I'm sorry; I'm really tired tonight," Harry replied quietly, trying to concentrate on the conversations that were taking place around him.
"Where are you going to stay?" one of the funny twins with red hair, who were sitting opposite of Harry, asked.
"I'm not sure. The professor just told me I should sit down anywhere and come to her after dinner," Harry replied, slightly uncertainly. 'Am I going to stay in my own room?' he wondered. 'That would be absolutely brilliant.' He was pulled out of his thoughts, when one of the older students, who was sitting next to him, introduced the teachers, and Harry quickly followed the student's finger to the head table.
Suddenly, a harsh pain shot through the scar on his forehead and Harry noticed a black figure at the head table giving him a menacing glare. 'That must be the git of a Potions teacher, Professor Snape,' he mused, glad that his older self had informed him about several things.
Finally, dinner was over and while the other students left the hall, Harry slowly made his way to the head table. "Harry, my boy, how good of you to join us," the Headmaster called him over immediately. "Why did you never reply to our letter?"
"Letter?" Harry replied, feigning surprise. "What letter?"
"The Hogwarts letter," Professor McGonagall threw in.
"I never received a letter," Harry told them, glad when the Grey Lady, who was hovering nearby, jumped to his help.
"I brought my heir to the school since he didn't know how to get here. However, seeing that he is very tired and not completely well, I'd like to take him to his room so that he can rest. Minerva, do you have a few minutes to join us?"
"Of course," the deputy headmistress answered in confusion and followed Harry and the ghost out of the Great Hall.
To Harry's great relief, the Grey Lady led them straight up to Harry's room, before she turned to Harry. "Harry, I suggest that you tell the professor everything. She is completely trustworthy and I can assure you that she will keep your secret."
Harry gave Minerva an uncertain look. However, he remembered that his older self had always spoken very highly of the professor. He really seemed to respect the older woman. Harry let out a small sigh and motioned the teacher to sit down in the chair, which older Harry had pulled over to his bed earlier, and sat down on his bed, happily greeting Löwi, who had been waiting for him on his bed.
"Is that..." Minerva began astonished, and Harry interrupted her.
"A griffin, yes; it's Löwi, my familiar. Daddy Godric gave him to me. Oh well professor, I guess I owe you an explanation. It'll be a long story, and I'd like you to keep it a secret. I don't want anyone else to know about it, except for Helena of course; she knows everything."
"I promise, Mr. Potter," Minerva replied curiously, giving Harry an expecting look.
"I am a sand phoenix," Harry began, quickly transforming into his Animagus form and back. "A sand phoenix can travel through the sands of time. When I was a two year old baby, I wished to be with someone, who loved me, because my relatives were so horrible to me, and somehow I managed to use accidental magic flashing myself a thousand years into the past."
Ignoring Minerva's gasp he continued, "I grew up here at Hogwarts with the four teachers, who founded the castle, Mummy Rowena and Daddy Godric, and Mummy Helga and Daddy Salazar. I only came back to the future earlier this morning."
"You just flashed back a thousand years into the future and managed to arrive at the right place in the right time?" Minerva asked incredulously.
"Well, no, in fact I wasn't feeling well this morning and Mummy Helga forbade me to flash, so my older self, who had been visiting me for a few days since he remembered that he had to get his older self's help when he started Hogwarts, flashed me here," Harry explained, seeing that the teacher looked as if she didn't believe a word.
"I think you're hallucinating, Mr. Potter," Minerva finally said and leaned over to Harry to feel his forehead. "You're a bit warm, but not enough to cause you to be hallucinating," she continued thoughtfully.
"Can you fetch my older self, please?" Harry asked Löwi. "He promised to wait in Mummy Rowena's library."
The griffin dashed away, and Minerva gave him an amazed look. "Well, that's proof enough that you have been in the past," she told Harry thoughtfully. "There aren't any griffins around anymore."
"If you need a proof that I've lived in the past, let me show you this," Harry replied, walking over to his desk. He pulled out a parchment from the drawer showing it to Minerva. "When I was eight, I did a lot of tricks on Löwi and on my broom, and when I fell off my broom once, Mummy Rowena made me attend the first year's classes as a punishment," he explained, "and that's why I took my OWLs in the past just recently. However, according to my older self, most things are very different here in the future."
At that moment, older Harry entered the room, greeting the older teacher politely, "Good evening, Minerva."
Minerva glanced incredulously between the two boys. "You are the same person?" she finally asked.
"Yes," older Harry laughed, showing her his scar. "I came from a few years into the future." He gave his younger self a concerned look, taking in that he seemed to be dead on his feet in spite of having slept most of the day. "My younger self is not really well and needs to go to bed, Professor. May I suggest that we continue our talk in my parents' living room?"
"All right," Minerva replied. "However, I don't have much time. I need to finish the lesson plans, which I have to give out in the morning."
"No problem, Professor; I will flash you back in time, so that you'll have enough time," older Harry replied and turned to his younger self once more. "Harry, I will charm your door, so that Professor McGonagall will be able to enter in case she needs to look after you, all right?"
"Of course," younger Harry gave back and began to get ready for bed.
ハリーと幸せの願い
When Harry woke up in the morning, his older self was sitting on the edge of his bed. "Good morning, little one. You need to get up and head to the Great Hall for breakfast. Professor McGonagall knows everything about you and will help you whenever you need help."
"All right, thanks a lot for everything," Harry replied and gave his older self a grateful glance, before he jumped out of his bed and got ready for class. 'Wow, there's the Hogwarts crest on my robe now; it must have appeared automatically,' he thought amazed while he dressed himself.
"Harry, wait a moment," his older self suddenly spoke up. "Before you leave, I have to take you somewhere. There is something you need to do first, which I nearly forgot. Please hold on to my back feathers."
Harry gave his older self an impatient glance. 'What is it now?' he thought, annoyed. 'I want to go and attend classes. I'm looking forward to see how it's different to my normal time.'
However, he obediently grabbed the sand phoenix' tail feathers and felt himself being flashed back in time. This time it didn't last as long as the day before and Harry didn't feel sick when the movement finally stopped. He curiously glanced around only to see them standing somewhere in what seemed to be a back garden. It was just getting dark – or was it early in the morning and slowly getting light? Harry threw his older self a curious look. 'Where are we? And what am I supposed to do here?' he thought in confusion.