May 15th, 1992

Professor Quirrell had collapsed during his last week of classes, and been rushed to St. Mungos. The healers could do nothing to help him, and believed he would die within a few days. He could still remain conscious for a few hours at a time, but no longer seemed able to walk or use magic. This was the only reason he was still at St. Mungos.

A few days later, Fred and George entered the hospital with a transfigured wheelchair under an invisibility cloak, which they pushed as inconspicuously as possible. As they entered Quirrell's room, he spoke without looking at them, "I was hoping Harry was planning a rescue for me. I'm ready to go."

"Don't you want to know where you're going or what the plan is?" Fred and George asked.

"No. Anywhere is better than here. And it gives me something to think about. It's Harry's plan, so perhaps one last trip to Diagon Alley? No, that's not right. A trip to Hogwarts to watch one last battle between Chaos Legion and the Dragon Army. That I could believe. It may even cheer me up for time."

Harry had had a great idea, and had enlisted the help of several students and professors. He had been experimenting with leveraging his skill in transfiguration into producing permanent objects. In other words, building tools and fabrication equipment. Currently, a large machine occupied half of a classroom. It had been transfigured and assembled by about a dozen students, who were still hanging around, sustaining the transfiguration as needed and watching curiously eager to see what their work accomplished. Harry himself had transfigured a mold, which was currently inside the machine, growing a layer of synthetic diamond over its surface.

He had also asked Professor Flitwick about the charm used to make broomsticks, such as where he could learn it, and why some brooms were faster than others. Flitwick had told him that it was not a single charm, but a fairly complicated series of charms, and that the speed wasn't related to magical strength, but to which charms were applied in which order. The fastest commercial brooms were produced using secret family recipes. Flitwick had pointed him to a book that contained a set of spells for a basic broomstick, but strictly warned him not to experiment with it unsupervised, because getting the spells wrong could result in something that could speed away uncontrollably or be impossible to balance. After reading the broomstick spells and looking up what the individual spells did, Harry was surprised that, for once, something magic made sense: there was a spell that made the broom rotate with the rider's commands, to apply forces forward and backward to reach a desired speed, and to apply centripetal forces to keep the direction of travel aligned with the broom's pointing direction. The speed of the broom was then limited by the maximum force and the turning rate. Because Harry had significantly different ideas from other wizards about how flying objects ought to behave, he was no longer velocity limited. He performed a few tests with the spells on a ball of paper using a very low maximum force, and was satisfied with his Newtonian-broomstick spells.

Fred and George made it out of the building with invisible Professor Quirrell, getting a few strange looks, but no challenges. Quirrell's eyes lit up as he recognized the purpose of the object behind Harry, a transparent, elongated, faceted tube, about one and a half meters in width or height, and 5 meters long. The tube tapered to a point at one end, had three fins projecting from the opposite side, and two additional fins attached near the center. Harry's first spacecraft wasn't large or luxurious and could never take him to another planet, but it was nearly invisible, and perfect for watching stars.

While Fred and George strapped Quirrell into the five-point restraint on one of the padded chairs inside the tube, Harry made a note that something had changed. The sense of doom he normally felt around Quirrell was completely gone. After they had finished, Harry closed the hatch behind them, strapped into the forward seat, held the control stick and called "Up!". The broomstick/spaceplane lifted off and accelerated forward, slightly pitching back and quickly gaining altitude.

"I do appreciate the effort Mr. Potter," Quirrell said, "though it does take significantly more time than using a spell. And seems significantly less safe."

"I could never catch the words to that spell, or find it in the library, so I decided to go ahead with the hard way. This was something I would have had to figure out eventually anyway. I know some charms that will seal a leak, if necessary. And there's a portkey next to each seat which will take us back to the hospital in an emergency."

"How long before the transfiguration wears off?"

"Only the seats are transfigured. The rest is real."

"Impressive, Mr. Potter."

They sat silently for another few minutes, as Harry continued to accelerate and level out the vehicle. Eventually, he spun the vehicle to point away from the sun, using the rear hatch to shadow the rest of the cabin, then released the control stick entirely, and they were left weightless. Finally, he opened the Venetian blind-like assembly of ceramic tiles on the underside of the vehicle. Quirrell looked up at the stars, while Harry looked down and watched the Earth fly by.

A few more minutes passed, then Quirrel spoke, "I was planning to have you brought to me today. I wanted to give you this. You'll get more use out of it than I will" Quirrell pulled a key from his robes and released it. It slowly drifted to Harry.

Harry caught it, recognizing it as a Gringott's vault key. He was surprised, even though in retrospect, it seemed obvious. Quirrell had said he had no family, and Harry was the only person he seemed to like or even respect. And then, despite his best efforts, began wondering what treasures, and more importantly what books, were in Quirrell's vault.

Quirrell was watching Harry's expressions, and guessed what he was thinking. "Have you figured out who I am yet?"

"Some people think you're David Monroe. But he disappeared for a while, then reappeared just like the original Quirinus Quirrell, so he's probably another of your aliases."

"Obviously. Is that as far as you got?"

"Well, you're experienced at using fake identities, one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and have as much money as you need for expensive meals or bribing people into committing serious crimes. I've inferred that you're very old, to have had time to learn everything you know and do everything you've talked about. And you arrived at Hogwarts at the same time Dumbledore hid the Philosopher's Stone. You're Nicolas Flamel."

"Good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to explain that. So I suppose you're wondering about my library of lost alchemy texts?"

"Yeah... You agreed to let Dumbledore take the stone? And took the Defense Professor position? Why? Those choices don't seem very rational."

"I did not choose for this to be my last year. But even the Elixir of Life has limits. After enough centuries, its effects produce diminishing returns. I did not expect to live much longer, so when Dumbledore told me he suspected Voldemort could use the Stone to return, even a small chance that he was correct was worth taking seriously."

"Did you kill Voldemort? The description of his body sounds more like a fire spell than a killing curse."

"I have made that observation myself, but do not know what truly happened. I had given up on Magical Britain, though I expected other countries to respond correctly after seeing Britain subjugated."

Another pause. "Anything else you want to get off your mind, Mr. Potter?"

"The sense of doom; the magical resonance... what do you think caused that?"

Quirrell chuckled. "I did that intentionally. To more students than just you. It amused me to watch the reactions, although most of them simply chose to avoid me. A part of my mind was very entertained by it. It also had the practical implication of allowing me to sense when those students were in danger. It is how I was able to rescue Mr. Malfoy."

"How do you think someone brought a troll into Hogwarts? And identified it as you?"

"The troll was already in the Forbidden Forest. People claim they know what species are and are not living there, but with Hagrid as gamekeeper, it would be naively optimistic not to assume every dangerous animal is represented there. Including trolls. I even saw a dragon egg there before classes started, which has certainly hatched by now. And framing me is easy: as no one was given my identity, the wards only know my current appearance. Anything that enters Hogwarts disguised as Quirrell will be identified as the Defense Professor."

"That does change things. I had believed a Hogwarts professor was most likely responsible, but if it's that easy to bypass the wards... It certainly opens the suspect pool up to people with more reasonable motives for wanting Hermione dead than any professors had."

"The motive has you confused, Mr. Potter? I thought it obvious: she was your most significant weakness. On one hand, you gave up a fortune to protect her, while on the other, you restricted your behavior according to how you believed she would react. You did not reach your full potential as a fighting wizard until confronting the troll. Though I did not anticipate the strength of your reaction: after you killed the troll, Trelawney prophesied that you would destroy the earth and stars."

"I told you I would never... So that's why you asked." There was too much information here, and took Harry another moment to process. "YOU were responsible for the troll?" Harry shouted, shocked.

"If you want revenge, justice or whatever you choose to call it, this is your last chance. In my current weakened state, you have more than enough power to use the killing curse on me if you choose. It has no complex wand movements, just aim and say the words."

Harry's consciousness divided into more parts than normal. Hufflepuff 1, "Don't do it. This is could be your last decision before becoming a dark lord. Or even destroying the planet, while Hufflepuff 2 opined "Hermione deserves justice." Gryffindor 1 interjected "Heroes have to kill sometimes. You all know that", while Gryffindor 2 added "Yeah, killing a dying man is SO heroic". Ravenclaw 1 commented "If we're going to go around swearing vengeance, we want to have a reputation for carrying it out." while Ravenclaw 2 stated "No, this is an unforgivable curse. There is no defense. If we do this, we have to hide it forever." Slytherin 1 said "The killing curse gets easier after the first time you use it. This is likely our best chance to start. It's a powerful tool to have access to" and Slytherin 2 said "He wants this. He doesn't want to die, and thinks ending up as a ghost here is his best option." Hufflepuff 2 responded, "Then maybe not killing him is the more appropriate punishment". And Hufflepuff 1 added "Although, maybe this will bring us some closure. Then we won't do whatever the prophecies think will destroy the world."

After Harry had paused, frozen, for a minute or so, Quirrell added "After the Hogwarts Board of Governors suspended the House Points system, it's highly likely that Dumbledore will award the House Cup to everyone, rather than no one. And I heard that the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Quidditch teams played a snitchless game to try to cheer you up a few days ago. Did you enjoy it as much as you'd hoped?"

"Avada Kedavra..." A green light left Harry's wand and struck Quirrell. He died with a strange smile. Harry floated silently for a few minutes, still in shock after everything that happened, angrier at Quirrell than he'd ever been at anyone, and also angry at himself for allowing Quirrell to manipulate him so easily. He had learned to use the Killing Curse, and perhaps taken an irrevocable step toward becoming a dark wizard, and at the same time, likely bound Quirrell's ghost to the spacecraft, such that Harry couldn't risk landing or crashing it, or his use of an unforgivable curse could be discovered. Quirrell would be left in an unused orbit, for decades if not centuries, with a clear view of the sky and no short term memory to allow him the capacity for boredom. Then Quirrell's voice "Well done. You should portkey back to the hospital with my body now. It will seem suspicious if you wait. But feel free to return any time you need advice, or someone sane to talk with."

12:30PM, October 7th, 1992

One of the 5th year Gryffindors slowly approached the head table. When McGonagall looked up at him, he spoke. "Is it true? About the prophecies that the world is going to end?" The other conversations in the hall had stopped. Everyone was watching.

"Since you all appear to be finished eating, I do have a pair of announcements." McGonagall stood and addressed the great hall. "First, last night, seers across the world relayed a prophecy, simultaneously, for the first time in recorded history. They claimed that the world ended some time last night. The consensus of wizards who study prophecy is that this is a metaphor for the world changing in an important way; the end of the old world and beginning of a new one. Some of them believe that change is the end of prophecy itself; that the world has now become too unpredictable, so no one and nothing could see beyond that point in time. They refer to this idea as the magical singularity, so you will recognize that strange phrase when you hear it. But since we are all obviously still here, doing largely what we were doing yesterday, there is no reason to be concerned."

She paused to allow them to absorb this, then continued, "Second, Hermione Granger will be resuming classes tomorrow. Headmaster Dumbledore has very, very, very thoroughly checked to ensure that it is really her. If you have any further questions, speculations or rumors, please feel free not to share them with anyone." She then walked out of the hall as the shouting rose to a volume such that no one could hear a single word, hoping naively that no one would suspect, as she did, that Harry Potter had broken time.