CHAPTER 1

The Department of Mysteries was dark and quiet. All but abandoned. The ministry was in ruins… indeed much of the world was as well. Harry Potter, after being brutally injured and incapacitated by Voldemort in what would have come to be known as the last stand of the ministry, had there been any survivors, before Dumbledore was able to get back to the ministry to help during that cold day when Bellatrix stupefied Sirius, causing Sirius to fall through the veil.

After Voldemort won the battles in the ministry, his first act was to cast his flame whip and sear Harry's unmoving body again and again. Then when he'd had enough, only then would he cast Harry through the veil. His second act, was to begin systematically assassinating muggle world leaders, however, due to an oversight on his part, he neglected to consider the fact that while muggles did not have magic, they were very capable of laying waste to much of the planet.

As the world leaders throughout Europe and then Asia began to go silent, the US, in a show of what would have been a historic cooperation any other time, with the remnants of Russia and China, began launching nuclear weapons everywhere that magicals were suspected of being. Places where their satellites never showed anything out of the ordinary. Places their cameras never showed anything out of the ordinary. Knowing that the magicals were systematically exterminating the muggles of the world, they knew they were unlikely to win, however all they could try to do was hope for a stalemate.

War never changes. Voldemort did not and would not grant their wish, calling their bluff… unfortunately for all the people of the world, that was no bluff. However, it turns out that nuclear fire could destroy a horcrux. Through sheer dumb luck, All of Voldemort's horcruxes were cleansed in nuclear fire, with all of them being at, or very near to ground zero for a blast.

The magical wars raged in the radioactive ruins for years. Fires burned for years, even decades after, especially in London where a nuclear warhead crashed through the roof to the Goblin's caves under London, annihilating the Goblins. Rumor was that a nuke actually punched through the crust of the earth with how deep the Goblins had burrowed in to the ground. London was mostly a semi-radioactive volcanic caldera. Elsewhere, indeed worldwide, meager crop yields, polluted water supplies, limited fish and other game, plus the now ever-present fallout, the earth was nearly barren, in many cases more resembling muggle pictures of Mars or Venus instead of the earth we knew. The number of people world-wide who would see the sunrise on this morning, the first day of the year 2042, was in the lower double-digits… and only one of them, unbeknownst to her, was a magical.

Daphne Greengrass had most of Britain to herself. She knew of a small tribe of muggles far to the northwest of Ireland, that she mostly avoided since they found out she was a witch, damn this mark still permanently tattooed on her forearm. Not for the first time she cursed her father for being a member of that group and forcing her to be press-ganged in to their cause, branded like cattle. Never mind the fact that the choice to power the mark was to either kill a few muggles (something she couldn't bring herself to do, even with the alternative) or give up something that should've been a gift to whoever she saw as worthy, and not to whoever the former Dark Bastard wanted to curry favor with. Curse his soul, and curse her father for putting her in that position.

The muggles, at least, didn't venture anywhere in to the London ruins, or even into Britain, looking for her, and the ruins of the ministry gave her some protection from the elements and radiation, things to keep her mind occupied, and plenty of good pre-war food, potions, and other supplies still preserved… more than she would be able to eat assuming she lived to her 150's.

She spent most of her time near the bottom of the ministry searching the records, occasionally venturing in to the Department of Mysteries to test her theories. While all the time turners were destroyed, she had a theory on how she could send info through time, however her tests have not yet been successful. She's sure it's only a matter of time. Time. She could appreciate that irony.

She would often doze off in the veil room. She figured if anyone did somehow get in to the ministry, worst case, the veil would be a better choice than anything any other survivor would likely do to her.

She was awoken from her sleep by some strange disturbance from the veil. There was a strong breeze flowing outward from it, along with some blueish electrical discharges from within. Drawing her wand, setting up cover, she crouched just to the side of it and far enough away, she hoped.

Suddenly a weird distortion formed inside the veil, it was kind of like a brightly glowing blue watery looking substance within or ever so slightly in front of the veil. It grew, as a giant sphere, to fully block her view of the veil, then faded, leaving an ever so slight hemispherical indent in the ground. Curled up inside was… really? None other than Harry Potter… but he appeared to be around her age. Daphne knew he was killed, if not by Voldemort, then certainly in the magical wars. If not, he surely would've come here in search of answers before, right?

Confused, Daphne grabbed her medical supplies, and began casting the few medical diagnostic spells she knew on him. She had to know how this happened. The only conclusion she could draw was that he was asleep, though it was more like a coma than normal sleep. She got almost no magical readings, though with her current wand not a good match, she couldn't tell why. Her healer's instincts made her think that he was suffering through the biggest case of magical exhaustion she had ever seen. However, she believed her eyes, he had somehow traveled through time, and it was somehow connected with the veil. She chuckled darkly to herself, thinking that it would just figure that she would learn more about the veil as the last witch on earth. While she had no desire to travel further in to the future, however one or two extra, and knowledgeable, wands in the past… she could hopefully prevent this mess from ever happening.

She had to fix this. She had to rediscover time travel. She had to make sure Potter lived. She had to get his help. Suddenly, she felt that she had more than just a concept… she felt she had the beginnings of an actual plan.

For now, she must protect Potter and ensure he feels safe if, no, when he wakes up. Deciding on an immediate plan of action, she took him to the Ministry's Mess Hall's Admin Offices. Deciding that is close to where he will want to go, after all from her memories from Hogwarts, Potter, or was it Weasley, never mind… One of them ate more food than should've ever been humanly possible. And food was typically the best cure for magical exhaustion.

Tidying up the disused office for the Head Chef, she levitated Potter to the couch in that room, lit a lamp so he wouldn't be in the dark when he awoke, and then set herself up outside that room in the former Undersecretary of the Kitchens office. Setting another lamp above her so that Potter would see her if he woke before she did, and if she didn't wake up from the unfamiliar noise.

Wow, it's been a while since she had anyone else to talk to, even if he was a Gryffindor. Would he recognize her? Would he even want to help, after all it was Malfoy's very un-Slytherin tactics that always kept Potter away from helping any Slytherin students back then. From his clean and, mostly, groomed appearance (discounting the Potter cowlick), what was decades ago to her could even potentially have been only days or even hours to him. Grabbing her medical supplies, she decided to cover the mark on her wrist with a bandage. While she knew she was going to need to get Potter on her side, and lying to him was not the way, she knew she needed to be the one to tell him and would need to set the stage properly for that uncomfortable conversation.

It was with these turbulent thoughts bouncing in her mind that she finally dozed off.

The next day, the door to where she put Potter was still closed. Quietly creeping over, she opened it, and peeked in. Seeing Potter still in the exact place she left him, she shut the door and went back to the desk to begin planning.

Over the time she's spent here, she'd been researching as much as possible. She knew she was close, as she was able to repair one time-turner, however it only had the power to go back a few hours. Useful, but it wouldn't have the power to go back as far as she, no, now as they would need.

While she was thinking, she had a tendency to doodle on the sides of the pages… looking down at it finally, she'd realized she had drawn the symbol of Grindelwald.

As that thought entered her mind, the door to where she had placed Potter flew open. "Daphne! It's you!"

"Excuse me, Potter?"

"Daphne, you did it. Or you will do it. Time travel. Look!"

As he handed her a time turner, "You modified it, or well will modify it. Look, you left a mark on it."

Looking at it, she saw 'DG + HP: Save The Future' engraved on one of the rings of it.

"Wha—How?"

"You were the top Arithmancy student back in your Hogwarts days. I just supplied the right kind of magic, with a bit of help from the Veil. You gave me this also, in case you didn't believe me." Handing her a ring, the ring of the house of Greengrass. "You told me that there is only enough power to send one of us completely back. As-is so to speak, or both of us mentally back. There wasn't time in the future, to talk it over with you, and future you told me to wait for this trip back, to give this to you, to let you make the choice, because if this trip doesn't, this next trip will almost assuredly cause a paradox. I've gone back a total of 8 years now, my first trip was 1 years, this trip was another 7 years back, the next one will be 49 years, something to do with some arithmantic principles and the phase of the moon… please don't ask me how. The only caution you said was do not do this more than 3 times, and the next time will be my third. Each time has been a factor of 7 in years though, so that makes sense, a fourth trip would send me so far back that, well, who knows what could happen. I just know if I add my magic to the time-turner as it's spinning, then as it's spinning, I fall through the veil at the right moment, it sends me back."

"I haven't seen the sky in so long, it's always hazy at best to massively overcast at worst. I've long since forgotten even what phase of the moon it is out there. And if your next trip is 49 years… 49 squared would be 2401… that'd put you BCE, you could actually BE Merlin! Ha! That would probably make me Morgana. You're right though, entirely too far back. I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel. And the wand. And potions. Plus, there'd be no way we could ensure that we could prevent everything from repeating."

"Looking at your, erm, notes, looks like you're being affected by my magic already."

"What do you have to do with Grindelwald?"

"Before that was the sign of Grindelwald, it was the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. I am, well, the Master of Death. You had thought that because of that, it was only my magic that would allow the veil to work this way."

"How can this work? What will happen to us?"

"If we both go, then you had predicted that at worst case only some of our memories and magic will go back, though some of what we carry may appear near us as well, that's hard to predict. You had a theory that the Deathly Hallows would come right to me wherever I am, while other things would likely be lost. We'll wake up on whatever day this is 49 years ago in our then current body, but with our memories as they are right now. If just I go back, then there, well, I'll have a younger brother."

"Why didn't we both come back?"

"Your theory is that a merge would be a once in a lifetime thing because of the memories and magic merging, that's why we decided that only I would come here, then we would leave it to the you here to decide if you wanted to go in to the past or not. Remember, we would merge with our past selves, increasing our magic potential. We couldn't take the chance that too much would kill us and cause these events to repeat. No, we have to fix this, this isn't, this can't be what was truly meant to happen. The way those alien cuttlefish ships came down as I left the future was just… no. That MUST not happen. That was why you engraved the time turner and gave me the ring."

"That's true, if the ring was forcibly taken, it would have burned you. Even taking it off of my dead body would have caused pain to start with and eventually burned your finger off if you had dared to wear it."

"There are a few perks to wielding the three Deathly Hallows and being the Master of Death. The veil leads to Death's domain. I was given a choice to come back through, however I had no control over the when. Honestly, I'm thankful that someone I at least knew of and who wasn't immediately hostile was waiting for me in the future, though you never told me how you knew I'd appear there."

"It wasn't me, so I don't know."

"I figured."

"Look Potter, I don't, well, yet have any history with you. I don't know how long you were with future me. I will give you a chance, and together we can go into the past. It'll probably be easier if you have some backup."

"Speaking of, sorry for forgetting and being so informal, but you, please, call me Harry."

"Thank you, P-Harry. That was beginning to grate on me. Though I'd assume that you had my, future, permission, so I was trying to be considerate instead of snarky. There is likely something else that we should discuss…"

"I suspect I know what you're going to warn me of. We'll circle back to that in another moment please, first though, before I forget, here's the big rule of time travel we discovered. Well, we will discover. For every year you go back, do not use any magic for at least one hour per year. It felt like I used the cruciatus on myself when I tried. So, 49 years ago, it'll be just over 2 days with no magic once we get back. It's what, January 2040 now?"

"Right, so 49 years ago, it should be sometime around 1991 when we arrive. You came back around eight or nine hours ago; you were extremely magically exhausted. So, you've likely slept through most of those side effects."

"Right, now here's the catch, that may only be true when it's your complete self, going far back in time. As far as, well, the two of us know, no one has ever tried this. Just mentally going back could have no effect. We could know everything. We could know nothing till it gets closer to our current time."

"Good points to keep in mind. Worst case pain on magic, but should wear off after 2 days or so. Best case, no effect."

"Now, when we go back, around the time I think we'll arrive, I won't get my Hogwarts letter for a few months. My relatives won't understand how I'll know so much already. Hopefully I can get them to at least drop me off in Diagon. As much as I like using wandless magic, it does get tiring having to channel and focus the magic myself without a wand… and I miss my old wand, even if it doesn't compare to the Elder Wand."

"Your relatives?"

"I'll… that's a painful subject. If you really want to know, then I'll consider telling you, but, well, you're actually coming in to the past with me. Short version, they despise me for having magic, and detest all those who can use it. I was mistreated there. I'm really not looking forward to seeing them again. Necessary evil and all."

"So, Snape was wrong, you weren't a pampered prince?"

"That's putting it mildly. Repeat after me, Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. That's where I'll be."

"Right, I remember stories that you didn't live in a castle somewhere and really lived with muggles. Malfoy never believed it though."

"Future you told me that it was unlikely that I'd be able to see you in the summer, but, I'm sure we'll need to make some plans. First time around, I didn't know about magic until I got my Hogwarts letter. I was woefully unprepared for everything, and was really all but set up to fail. This time, I'm going to make waves and change everything. The disadvantage is some of my future knowledge will be ruined, however if I can walk the right line, then I think I can set myself up in a much better spot. And, especially since I can get one of the Deathly Hallows right away, I can…"

"Wait, you know where the Deathly Hallows are, well, will be, back then I mean?"

"Yes. I have them all now actually. One wand," pulling it from a wrist holster then almost reverently returning it, "one cloak," pulling it from his back pocket and partially vanishing before carefully folding it and returning it to his pocket, "and one resurrection stone," pulling it from his front pocket.

"Wow. And they'll all be yours once you get back?"

"I'll know where they are at least. Cloak I might not get till Christmas. Wand will take some work. The stone will be both the easiest and most dangerous, but as long as my magic is the same, the stone will come with me."

"Then how did you lose to Voldemort?"

"I didn't know, I mean really know what they were. Dumbledore kept too many secrets, and died with too much info known only to him. On one hand, I hate what everyone has been through, but I still want to make things better for everyone. Well mostly everyone, Voldemort will suffer my wrath. Besides, Dobby and Sirius deserved much better."

"So, I was offered by the Sorting Hat to go to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Where would be more advantageous for our plan?"

"I'm leaning towards going Slytherin, since the hat originally wanted to put me there. Two reasons I did not was because my first meeting with Draco Malfoy left me, underwhelmed to put it nicely. Then Weasley's tirade on how every dark wizard is always from Slytherin… never mind that being a parselmouth Merlin would've been a Slytherin! Plus, I'm still one as well, and I wonder what secrets that I could find there."

"Very well. I'll still try to go Slytherin, and I'll give you a chance Harry. This needs to be a joint effort though. I know originally it was, well, it always just seemed to be you. You have backup this time. Competent backup. I would definitely rate myself higher than a Weasley. Make certain you understand that. I will not allow this future to come to pass again. We will probably have to train and rebuild our physical strength too. That will take time. Will probably need to practice spells again also. And we won't want to appear too advanced, so watch it when doing anything windlessly, or silently for that matter."

"Excellent points. I will try to remember. Ironically future you told me something similar. Also, I plan on getting my first Hogwarts letter this time, instead of making them send Hagrid. Let's target meeting up in Diagon a bit after noon on the day the Hogwarts letters come."

"That makes sense, they're sent all on the same day every year, July 24th. What time do we need to start our trip?"

"As close to 7:43 AM tomorrow as we can manage. Your calculations estimated that it would be a smoother ride for us and less chances of us going back to far, or not far enough then. You warned that minutes could translate to months, even a year or two in either direction."

"You just traveled through time, your magic will be off and will not give an accurate time if you cast tempus. That at least was always true with regular time-turner use, that effect would normally clear up around 48 to 72 hours after, but we don't have that much time. My wand was lost a long time ago, haven't even been able to cast tempus in a while with this wand I found, my wandless magic has been even more worthless. I thought it had to do with how devastated our planet is. No life, no magic. Let's see… The Room of Time was destroyed. I think anyways, I was never able to get in, some kind of force blocks me. I also wasn't able to access the Chief Unspeakable's office, so, Director of the DMLE's office? If any room in the ministry will have a still working clock, that'd probably be the easiest one that we could probably get access to."

"Worst case sunrise time was around 8 or 8:05 AM… later than we should be, but like I said, worst case."

"Ok, to the Director's office!"

After a lot of effort, they were able to get in, found a working clock, and sync up. "Ok, so, best thing for us is to get some rest. Time travel will really wear you out. I pretty much jumped back as quickly as I could, and you saw how I was just wiped out."

"One more thing Harry. You have to… you deserve to know. My wrist…" She trailed off as she unwound the bandages concealing the Dark Mark.

"We talked it over; I mean future you. I know all about what your mum did."

"My MUM? No, she was brilliant. It's my father, curse him. He's the one who offered me up like a slab of meat to the Dark Bastard."

"Huh. Weird. Maybe I'm misremembering? Possibly confused by the time travel? I don't know? I was pretty sure you said your mum though."

The next morning, both woke early. Not knowing what to expect, they both ate a hearty breakfast from the, still tastily preserved storage, in the ministry café. Both cleaned themselves up as best they could, not wanting to risk bringing anything to the past that could ruin their plans. Meeting up in the veil room with Daphne's modified time turner, they both knew it was getting close to the time. Looping the time turner's chain around them both, Daphne asked, "How many spins?"

"Only seven, believe it or not. Let's move closer to the veil. After you are done winding it up, place it in the palm of my hand, grab my other hand. I'll be channeling a lot of magic through it. As I start to falter, you'll have to channel your magic in to me. At the last minute, one of us needs to pull the other through the veil. If you feel like you're going to collapse, just remember to hold on to my hand. Also… I have no idea what this'll feel like, but I'm not expecting it to be pleasant as normal time travel isn't the most pleasant. You'll feel really stiff and very cold as we start moving back farther than the time turner would normally let you go."

"Ok, let's go before either of us talks ourselves out of this."

"Ok. I have all three Deathly Hallows with me. I think we're ready. Spin it up, please."

As the time turner started spinning, a pale blue light, almost like an arc of electricity, started flashing between the chain and the arch surrounding the veil. However, as it was happening outside of the chain, Daphne and Harry were unable to see it… from their perspective, everything outside shimmered and froze exactly where it was. As they traveled backwards, unknowing of the devastation they were causing, Harry began pushing his magic in to the time turner. Farther they went, they were starting to see flashes of devastation in the veil room, but as they would blink, it would be gone from their perspective.

Five years… Ten... Fifteen… Twenty… further and further they went back. Harry's magic nearing its end, Daphne somehow knowing, she began pushing her magic in to Harry, finally she too was drained. With a last gasp, they both collapsed, falling in to the veil.

Nothing. Everything. The brightest light ever. The deepest darkness ever. They saw glimpses of everything. Then saw nothing. Finally, they truly heard nothing as they fell unconscious.

Their last thoughts as they fell into darkness were roughly identical, "When are we…"