The Founding of Happiness
by Healer Teddylonglong
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!
Giving Minerva a terrified look, Harry replied, "I will do whatever I can to help, but please tell me exactly what happened and what it is you need me to do."
"Harry," Minerva sighed, "once a year, you put the Charm on the castle and the grounds, so that nothing happens to the people who look at Amaterasu and into her eyes, don't you?"
"Yes, of course; I always do that on the first of September," Harry replied, alarmed. "What happened?"
"Professor Dumbledore went into the forest to visit Löwi and his family the other day, and Löwi saw the moment the Headmaster met Amaterasu's face in a small water pool and collapsed on the ground. No, he is not dead," she added at a glance in Harry's terrified face, "but he's petrified, probably because he didn't look at her directly but only saw her eyes in the pool of water. Fortunately, it was raining cats and dogs that day; I remember that I scolded him for heading out into the forest on such a day, but he insisted that he wanted to visit the griffins."
"Oh well, so I just have to go back and place the Charm on the school, the grounds and the forest. I have no idea why it has worn off so early though," Harry replied, feeling slightly relieved because he could easily help the headmaster on one hand but worried about the Charm on the other hand.
"Maybe you didn't put as much magic into the Charm as you normally do," Minerva said softly. "However, you don't have to go back to the past. I'd rather want you to flash three months into the future. Pomona is just raising mandrakes, and in three months' time, they'll be ready to harvest them and make a potion from them..."
"Ah, the mandrake draught; I know that one," Harry replied in determination. "Very well then, tell me exactly where and when I'll get either the potion or the mandrakes, and I'll go there right away. After re-applying the Charm to the castle of course," he added as an afterthought.
"Let's say, flash to the first of December, and I'll have either the mandrake plants in your room or the potion, depending on whether Severus will have the time to brew it or not being so close to the end of the term." Minerva said thoughtfully.
"If he doesn't have the time, I'll brew it. That's no problem," Harry quickly reassured his colleague. "All right, I'll renew the Charm, and then I'll leave for the first of December. Perhaps Amaterasu has an idea as to why the Charm has worn off so early. Otherwise, I'd have to flash home and ask Salazar." With that Harry flashed back to his room, pondering if he should take a nap first. 'No, I have to get over that as soon as possible to ease my mind,' he thought. 'Instead, I can take a Pepperup potion, so I'll be able to summon strong magic in spite of being tired.'
He summoned as much magic as he could and spoke the incantation his father had taught him so many years ago, before he collapsed on his bed and slept for eight hours straight. 'I still have to find out why this happened,' he remembered when awakened from the much needed nap, and, knowing that it didn't matter when he flashed to the first of December, he headed straight to the Chamber to speak with Amaterasu.
"Do you have any idea why this could happen?" he asked his large friend, who anxiously shook her head, keeping her large eyes tightly closed as she spoke with Harry.
"Pleassse Harry, do make sure it won't happen again. I don't want to kill the studentss or teachersss here. This is so horrible; I don't want to be a murderer."
"Don't worry, Amaterasu. You can open your eyes now. I already renewed the Charm. You're not a murderer. It's not your fault, and I'll speak with Dad Salazzzar as soon as I have the opportunity," Harry promised as he crouched next to the basilisk on the floor and gently caressed her face, making a mental note to talk about the matter when he flashed to the past to take Godiva home. Relieved that he had managed to reapply the Charm, before anyone else had been hurt, he returned to his room and flashed himself to the first of December.
A phial with the finished mandrake draught was sitting on his table. 'Thank Merlin,' Harry mused, mentally preparing himself to flash back right away. Concentrating on the day, from which he had just arrived, he flashed straight to the hospital wing and handed the phial to Madam Pomfrey, who pulled him in a bear hug as soon as he had transformed back.
"Thank you so much, Harry. I really appreciate being able to help the Headmaster three months earlier than I would have been normally been able to," she sighed in apparent relief.
"You're welcome," Harry replied and turned to his girlfriend, pulling her into a long kiss as the Mediwitch bustled away to administer the potion to the petrified Headmaster.
ハリーと幸せの願い
As soon as he was released from the hospital wing, Dumbledore called Harry into his office to discuss what he would need to teach his classes. "You need an office as well as a classroom that meets your needs. Shall I also arrange for teachers' quarters for you?" the Headmaster asked gently, but Harry gratefully declined.
"Thank you very much for the offer, Headmaster, but my parents' quarters are my home and I don't need anything else. It would be nice though if the entrances to my office and to the classroom would be near the rooms I already occupy."
"Of course, Harry. Why don't you just speak to the house-elves and give them detailed instructions? As the owner of Hogwarts you'll be able to give them orders as well as I am," Dumbledore said, and his eyes were twinkling with joy as he called, "Sunny!"
In the blink of an eye, a small elf popped up, bowing deeply. "Good morning, Masters Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Harry. What cans Sunny does for Masters?"
"Sunny, from today onwards, you will solely be responsible for Professor Potter. You'll be his personal house-elf," the Headmaster told the elf in a soft voice.
Harry observed in amazement how a huge smile spread over the young elf's face, and Sunny bowed deeply towards Harry.
"Just so you know, Sunny was your mother's and father's house elf until they died when she came here to work."
"Thank you very much, Headmaster. Hello Sunny, I'm glad to have you as my personal house-elf," Harry said gently. "Please do not bow in front of me. There is no need for that. I don't want you to call me 'Master' either. I'm Harry or in front of the students 'Professor Potter,' but not 'Master.' Do you understand me?"
Sunny hesitantly looked up into his face and the edges of her mouth pulled upwards again as she obviously relaxed at his kind expression. "Yes, err... Harry. I understands. You is very kind to Sunny, just like your mum and dad."
"Very well then, I'd like you to gather a few elves to help prepare my new classroom and my office. I'll go to my room and show you where I want to have the entrances in a few minutes."
"Thank you, Harry," Sunny replied and popped away.
"Now Harry, I know that you're still very young to take up a teacher's post," Dumbledore said slowly, "but I'm aware that you have the knowledge and the ability to fill the position. However, if you ever need help, feel free to come to see me at any time. I also wish you thank you profusely for your help. Poppy and Minerva told me that I'd still be petrified for three more months if it weren't for your assistance and unique abilities."
"No problem, sir, and thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to teach at Hogwarts, Headmaster," Harry replied gratefully. Even if he had his lesson plan worked out and not only his parents, but also Minerva and Severus had approved it, he still felt uncertain about teaching the students, especially the sixth and seventh years. "If that's all..."
"Yes, my boy, I believe the house-elves are waiting for you."
A few hours later, Harry's new office and classroom were made and prepared with the necessary furniture, and he pondered where he should begin to get them ready for the school year. 'Well, the classroom first,' he decided and began by putting up four life-size pictures of his parents on the wall behind the teacher's desk.
One of the side walls was covered by one huge magical window showing the view on the Hogwarts grounds. 'I have to do something different with that,' Harry mused and spent the next five hours on trying to arrange a new Charm. Only when Minerva entered the classroom, scolding him for missing lunch, he had just managed to properly complete the charms he wanted to apply to the window.
"What's that? Hogwarts of your parents' time?" Minerva queried, pointing at the charmed window with interest.
Harry chuckled. "Well, yes and no," he explained proudly. "In fact, the view alters between nowadays Hogwarts and that of exactly one thousand years in the past. It changes on an hourly basis, but it's a real time view, so if you wanted to watch me play Quidditch in the past, you could do so. You can also manually change the view by tapping your wand against the window."
"Harry, you're incredible," Minerva said, looking at the window in amazement. "I'll make sure to visit you here on Saturday mornings so we can watch the Quidditch matches together."
"Do you only want to watch those that Gryffindor won, or can you put up with a Slytherin win in the past?" Harry laughed. "I can still charm the window to show any other time by the way."
"Any other time? Well, your father was a good Quidditch player, too," Minerva said thoughtfully, "your birth father I mean of course."
Harry chuckled. "I heard that, but I have a better idea. The Gryffindor students would probably appreciate if they could see their head of house play Quidditch."
"Don't you dare show them such a thing!" Minerva said sharply.
"Why not? Poppy told me that you were the best player they had," Harry replied with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, resolving to do some research concerning the exact dates of certain Quidditch matches in the past. 'At least I know whom to ask,' he thought, chuckling inwardly.
After instructing him to not miss any more meals, Minerva realised that Harry still had a lot of work preparing his classroom and proceeded to help transfiguring tissues into items from the magical world nowadays, while Harry transfigured the equivalent objects from the time of the Founders.
"That should do, Harry, don't you think so?" Minerva finally said, glancing at her wrist watch. "It's time for dinner anyway."
"Thank you so much for your help," Harry replied gratefully, looking contentedly at the large shelf covering the wall opposite the window that held all the items they had just transfigured. "Please go ahead; I promise I'll be there in a few minutes."
As soon as the door closed behind Minerva, he grinned and conjured a photo frame right next to the door, before he fetched a few photos from his room that he had taken in the past with his magical camera. 'I'm sure the students will like these,' he mused as he contentedly looked at the photos in the frame, showing Salazar and Severus in a mock duel, Rowena and Minerva happily drinking butterbeer together and Poppy and Helga simultaneously casting spells at a dummy that exploded into millions of pieces. 'Well, maybe they'll get a laugh out of this one too,' he decided as he put a forth picture into the frame, showing Severus and himself running through the Great Hall as baboons, before Harry transformed into his phoenix form and Severus into a chameleon. Finally, they both transformed into their human forms for an instant, before the baboons were back again.
ハリーと幸せの願い
During the next few days, Harry remained very busy preparing for his classes, especially as he wanted to spend his evenings with Godiva, who was equally busy helping Poppy with her preparations for the new school year.
"I'm still unsure about teaching the students," Harry admitted to his girlfriend in the afternoon of the first of September. "The youngest ones in my classes are third years, which means they're three years younger than I, and the oldest ones are a year older than I. Will they respect me at all?"
"Oh sweetie, of course they will. It doesn't have to do with your age, but with your knowledge. Don't worry about that again. Try to relax. Shall we go for a walk?"
"Oh right, that's a good idea. I wanted to check on the ponies anyway," Harry remembered, causing the girl to roll her eyes in exasperation.
"Try not to think about your work for the next three hours," she admonished him gently as she pulled him out of the room.
"That's difficult," Harry admitted in a small voice, "I'm very excited. I'm glad you're going to stay here for a few more weeks though; I wished you could just stay here forever."
Godiva laughed. "I'm glad you think so, and I'd love to do so too, but as you know I have to take my NEWTs..." She abruptly interrupted herself as Harry pulled her into a long kiss.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Harry and Godiva watched the Sorting ceremony from the Head table, unobtrusively holding hands under the table. When the Sorting was finished and Minerva took the seat between him and the Headmaster, Harry felt himself slowly relax, until Dumbledore rose from his seat and introduced him to the students as the professor for the new subject 'Ancient Magic.'
"Professor Potter's Animagus form is that of a sand phoenix, which enables him to flash through the sands of time. Although he was born in the year 1980, he grew up with the Founders of Hogwarts one thousand years in the past. Therefore, he is the only person in the world qualified to teach our new subject," Dumbledore explained, causing Harry to groan inwardly as several hundreds of eyes turned towards him and the Great Hall erupted in applause.
"Thank you," Harry said, glancing around the hall. "Since my subject is new, I still have to figure out how my lesson plans will work, and I need your help. If you have any ideas or questions, feel free to talk with me at any time. My classroom as well as my office is on the same corridor as the hospital wing. You just have to go a bit further down the hall to reach them. I'd also like the opportunity to introduce my girlfriend, Godiva O'Connor. She is Professor Hufflepuff's assistant in the past, and currently she is visiting us as Madam Pomfrey's assistant for a few months before she returns to assist Professor Hufflepuff and to pursue her own studies."
Godiva received a tremendous applause, and Harry felt her squeeze his hand under the table. 'Oh, that was a good way to divert the attention,' he chuckled inwardly as the meal popped up on the tables.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Although Godiva suggested he should go to bed early, noticing that he was too excited to concentrate on anything except on the thought of if his classes would go well, Harry could hardly sleep that night. 'I shouldn't have agreed on Minerva's plan. I should have asked her to wait until after my NEWTs,' he mused as he finally drifted off to sleep when the first rays of the early morning sun began to rise over the trees of the Forbidden Forest.
However, as soon as the fourth year students came into the classroom, looking around in amazement and beginning to laugh at the pictures of their heads of house together with the Founders, Harry slowly began to relax.
He shortly explained his lesson plan to the students, before he curiously looked around. "Do you have any questions, before I give you a short introduction in the history of the time of the Founders?" he asked gently.
The students had many questions, mainly resolving about Harry's ability of flashing through the time, and as much as their queries annoyed Harry, he knew that he had to get through it once with each class to satisfy the students curiosity enough to be able to gain their attention to other things in their next class meeting. Fortunately, this plan worked out with all of his classes, and the students were eager to learn whatever he was ready to teach them. Harry quickly became used to being a teacher, and he enjoyed himself very much.
By the time Godiva asked Harry to take her home at the end of October, Harry felt comfortable enough to tell his parents that he loved being a teacher and allowing the students of the future to learn about the things that had been taught at Hogwarts since its conception.
"I'm very proud of you, Lufu," Rowena reassured him as she pulled him in a bear hug. "There is nothing I could imagine that I would have preferred you to do in the future. Thank you, Harry, for accepting the post Minerva offered you, and please tell her how grateful I am."
ハリーと幸せの願い
Back in the future, Harry missed Godiva incredibly. During the three months his girlfriend had stayed in the future, Harry had become used to spending the evenings with her, and all of a sudden, he felt very alone in his quarters. His friends still joined him from time to time; however, since they were busy with homework, while he merely had to grade homework, of which he didn't give out much, they could not spend as much time together as they had during previous years.
One evening, Harry invited his colleagues into his classroom after charming the magical window to a time Poppy had told him he could expect an interesting Quidditch match teachers versus students in her own time as a student at Hogwarts.
Harry and his colleagues watched the game playing outside the window in amazement.
Minerva played Seeker against Albus Dumbledore as the teachers' Seeker. After a while of playing in a snowstorm, she apparently saw the Snitch and pulled in a huge dive only to draw back up right before crashing into the ground. Albus, who followed her in a faint attempt to be faster, missed the time to pull up safely and transformed into his phoenix Animagus form, taking to the air mere seconds before he would have crashed into the ground.
An instant later, the match was over as Minerva caught the Snitch, and Albus stepped over to the girl, beginning to scold her for endangering both of them.
"I'm sorry, Professor. How was I to know that you were following me instead of the Snitch," Minerva replied shortly, before she transformed into a cat and dashed away.
"That was hilarious," Severus chuckled. "If I may request something..."
During the following weeks, the teachers made a habit of gathering in the Ancient Magic classroom to watch former Quidditch matches every Friday night after curfew. It was during the last week before the beginning of the winter holidays, when Harry brought the window back to its original state and retired to his room, not knowing that he'd spend the next few nights following a train thought he just wasn't easily able to shrug off.