Reshaping Destiny
Author: Lahore Ajnabi
Summary: Harry dies after a very mediocre life and is appalled he didn't do better, so when Death gives him a chance, he grabs the opportunity to go back. HP/DG Time-Travel to Sixth Year.
Chapter 2: The Return
Things went sideways with Harry's plan almost right away. It is one thing to know that you will experience something and quite another to actually experience it. He didn't know whether he had picked or visualized the wrong moment, or if Death had been off by a few seconds, but he went back in time to a few moments before he could cast Sectumsempra on Malfoy rather than after, and since he was too busy spilling his guts on the flooded bathroom floor from having his consciousness slam into his younger body, Malfoy succeeded in casting the Cruciatus Curse on him. As a result, he was screaming and rolling on the floor in his own sick, with the feeling of white hot knives digging into every inch of his skin. He wanted to die again, he just wanted to die….
Dimly, he was aware of Moaning Myrtle screaming and Snape bursting in and then everything went black.
He floated in and out of consciousness several times. Madam Pomfrey woke him up - he had been moved to the Hospital Wing, he realized - to feed him various foul-tasting potions that he struggled to keep down. Dumbledore was there with McGonagall, and then again with Snape. Ron and Hermione came to visit him and Hermione held his hand. He gave them a weak smile and pretended to not be able to stay awake lest he burst out crying for reasons entirely unrelated to the lingering pain from the Cruciatus. One time he smelt Ginny's perfume and kept his eyes firmly shut.
When he finally woke up properly, the bright morning light was streaming in from the windows in the Hospital Wing. He groaned and sat up and promptly retched all over his bedsheets. Madam Pomfrey came running in and with a quick flick of her wand, she had cleaned the sick off of his sheets and handed him a glass of water. His throat burned as he gulped it down and his hand shook as he handed the glass back to her.
"Good, you're awake," she said, performing some diagnostic spells on him. "How are you feeling?"
"Like death ran me over," he rasped, without a trace of irony. "What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," said Madam Pomfrey, frowning. "Professor Snape brought you in. You were passed out in the second floor girls' bathroom and were showing obvious side-effects of the Cruciatus Curse. No one knows who cast it and Moaning Myrtle is nowhere to be found."
Harry's mind reeled. That wasn't possible, Malfoy had been right there when Snape barged in, actively holding him under the Cruciatus. Why would Snape lie but still save Malfoy? Wouldn't he know he'd be exposed the moment Harry woke up?
"I'm not sure," he said out loud. "I… the last thing I remember is going to dinner." He hoped that was right, at least, he had no idea what he had been doing the day of his confrontation with Malfoy.
"Well, let me get you your potions," she said, getting up. "I do have some more bad news for you unfortunately, Mr Potter. Based on your symptoms you were under the Cruciatus for at least a couple of minutes." She gestured towards his trembling hand that was still holding his empty glass. "You won't be able to play this Saturday, I'm afraid."
"Play?" he asked, confused.
She frowned at him again. "The Quidditch game against Ravenclaw, remember? I'm surprised you didn't ask me about it already, that's most unlike you."
Ah. He had completely forgotten about that game. He hadn't actually played it since he had been in detention for almost killing Malfoy the first time around and the kiss with Ginny after… Well, he tried to suppress that memory anyway.
"That's all right," he said with a weak smile. Madam Pomfrey shot him another surprised look but she didn't say anything.
Harry settled back into his pillow to think. He knew being under the Cruciatus felt like an eternity, but he had been under Lord Voldemort's Cruciatus for longer and not felt as bad after. It was more likely a side-effect from his time-travel, but obviously he couldn't say anything about that to the school nurse. Physically, he was still in pain. He had struggled to take the glass of water from Madam Pomfrey and she had to help him with his potions.
Mentally - he wasn't really sure. On the one hand he felt sluggish and foggy. Some memories from his Sixth Year came to him unbidden, clear as day, and others he couldn't remember at all. What on earth was he doing in most of his classes? What homeworks did he have due that he hadn't even started? And what was he going to do now?
The original plan had been to come back in time to right when he had cast Sectumsempra on Malfoy. With him being a social pariah, he would have more room to move freely but now, he would be the victim and, judging by the pile of sweets and gifts at the foot of his bed, the center of attention again. The clarity he had felt in the afterlife was no longer with him. He had a dim idea of what he had wanted to do when he picked this time, but the exact sequence of events that would follow? He found his mind unwilling or unable to grasp it.
Ron and Hermione came to visit him again as soon as classes were over. Ron wanted to know everything that he remembered and Hermione clucked disapprovingly but half-heartedly at his pestering - clearly she was curious too.
"Dumbledore was right upset about it," said Ron sagely. "Put the entire castle in lockdown while the teachers searched everywhere. You sure you don't remember anything mate? Any kind of clue?"
"Not a thing," lied Harry. He didn't want to point fingers at Malfoy till he knew what game Snape was playing.
"I wonder if they obliviated you," speculated Ron, and Harry's mind went reeling again. Could Snape have tried to obliviate him?
"Oh Ron," said Hermione. "Professor Snape said he heard Harry screaming until a couple of seconds before he went in."
"I mean, how long do you think it takes to obliviate somebody?" countered Ron. "You just point your wand and say obliviate, even the wand motion isn't that complicated. I reckon it'd take way less than a second."
"It takes a minute to focus on what you want to remove," said Hermione patiently. "Otherwise Harry would have ended up like Lockhart. He doesn't look like a blubbering mess to you, does he?"
"Maybe Snape lied then," said Ron darkly. "The bastard, maybe he was in on it…"
Harry smiled weakly and listened to his friends bicker. If he remembered, right about now was when they had started to have real feelings for each other. Within a few years, the trio would be less of a trio and more of Harry just tagging along with them feeling awkward, but for now he could sit back and enjoy his friends.
Ginny came to visit him a couple of times alone and he pretended to be asleep each time, but the third time she came with Katie Bell and Demelza Robins in tow and he felt it was as good an opportunity as any to get it over with. Demelza, shy as ever, stayed in the background but Katie rushed forward to give him a hug, perhaps sympathizing with his ordeal after her own. Ginny attempted to hug him too and he didn't know what to do so he just froze and she backed off frowning.
"At least you didn't have to spend months in St Mungo's," said Katie, after an awkward pause. "Do you think you'll be okay in time for the game?"
Harry had to break the news to them that he couldn't play, and after the appropriate lamentations of unfairness from them (Merlin, were teenagers really that shallow?), they wanted to know what the plan was.
"I reckon Ginny will have to play seeker and you can pull Dean in to replace her as a chaser," said Harry. "Give 'em hell, Ginny!"
He gave her a small smile and she perked up. This isn't my Ginny, he had to remind himself. It hadn't worked for them, but he could still be polite to her. Besides if he was outright distant, it would just attract the wrong sorts of questions.
Dumbledore came once to check in on him, blackened arm hanging loosely by his side. Harry avoided his eyes and told him what he had told everybody else - that the last thing he remembered was going down to dinner.
"Did nobody see who it was?" Harry asked him, eyes downcast. "None of the ghosts or portraits? Not even a house-elf?"
"None," said Dumbledore gravely. "Of course, since you were right next to the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, it's possible that someone came up from there and attacked you. Of course, it does beg the question: why would you have gone inside the girls bathroom in the first place? Regardless, rest assured Harry, I've added some rather prodigious charmwork to ensure that if the Chamber is ever opened again, I am alerted immediately."
"Would it make sense to, you know, go in and see?" asked Harry. "I can open the entrance for us…"
"Alas, if someone did come in from there, they may have left traps in place, and I will not risk you for that, my boy," said Dumbledore, stroking his beard. "No, you are far too important. What we have must suffice."
That seemed a little suspicious to Harry, but he let it go. Part of him wondered if Dumbledore was complicit in whatever Snape was up to. He would never have suspected Dumbledore when he was actually a Sixth Year, but he had seen and heard enough about the Headmaster's dirty laundry since that it cast a seed of doubt in his heart.
His final visitor that day was Daphne Greengrass. Well, she wasn't there to visit him really. She came in, and with a polite nod to him, went straight to Madam Pomfrey's office. After a short consultation with her, she was on her way out and he couldn't help but call out to her.
"Greengrass! Hey, Greengrass!"
She paused. "What is it, Potter?"
He searched wildly for something to say. "Take some candy with you," he said, gesturing towards the pile next to his bed, which was significantly smaller since Ron had been at it. She looked uncertain, so he added, "I don't bite. Chosen One's honour."
She grinned at that and walked toward him to grab a box of Chocolate Frogs. "Thanks Potter, my sister really likes these."
She made to leave so he quickly said, "I didn't know you had a sister."
"I do," said Greengrass, turning back towards him. "Her name's Astoria; she's a Fourth Year. I wouldn't expect you to know. It's not like we've talked before."
Harry winced. "Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.
She waved her hand at him. "It goes both ways," she said. "But it's good to see you're doing better. The Cruciatus really does a number on you." A slightly faraway look crossed over her face. "Anyway thanks for the chocolate. I had best be off."
She left, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts and his heart beating faster than usual.
AN: In case it's not obvious, Harry chose to go back in time to the "Sectumsempra" chapter in HBP, which is around May 6th according to the Harry Potter lexicon. It allows Harry a couple of months to lay the groundwork at Hogwarts for whatever he plans to do over the summer, but obviously it'll be a little tight now with his plans gone awry.