Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there are multiple deaths of the same character mentioned as well as canon typical abuse of authority and manipulations. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: The ending of this is deliberately vague. It can be seen as yet another death, but it is equally possible that it's the same ending as the movie Splash.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Inevitable; True Colours; Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Gryffindor MC; Slytherin MC; Magical MC; Magical MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Ethnic & Present; Setting Sail; Hold the Mayo; Sliding Scale; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Feathers & Such; Short Jog; Bucket List (Y); Green Ribbon (Y); Greatest Gift (Bailey)
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): Oneirology (Task#3: Write about wanting to escape a situation.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [190](A beach); 365 Prompts [38](Justice); Scavenger Hunt [02](WC over 1K); Days of the Year [March 20th](someone doing what makes them happy); Hot Tea [05](Mermaid AU); Black History Month [02](Helping someone escape); National Weddings Month [04](Proposal); Crochet Week [02](Joining something); Penguin Awareness [11](Amused); Colours [13](Violet); Flowers [02]("disappear"); Crystals & Gemstones [14](Confident); Tarot Reading [09](End of Difficult Times); But Can You Spell It? [O](Ocean); Trope Zone [Time Loop](Phrase)
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [1B](Dusk/Sunset); Set [3D](Sea/Ocean); WiB [5C](Sacrifice); Vocab [3B](Knob); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Wi Mic 1](Mermaid AU); Fire [Hard](Taking the High Seas); Chim [Karma](Copper); Hangman [04](Neurodivergent); Hunt [Wi WD](Autism)/[Su Set](Train); Garden [Bed Types](Sea/Ocean)/[Chore List](Shouting/Yelling)/[Plant Types](Strangers)/[HPverse](Train)/[Word Song](So Incredible)/[Rose Types](Shipwreck Free)/[So Many Fandoms](Harry Potter);
Prompt Harvest [Settings](Sea/Ocean)/[Settings](At Sunset)/[AU](Merperson AU)/[Tropes](Time Loop)/[Trope](Race Bend)
Representation(s): Autistic & Desi Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Merperson Blaise Zabini; Time Loop
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Ariel's Temptation; Sailor Delight; Second Verse (Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Most Human Bean; Muck & Slime; Hot Apple; Morrigan's Tentacles; One Man's Cow; Inky Shadow; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Triton's Domain); Chorus (Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; No Touchy; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Messing with Morlocks; Turtle-Duck; Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird; Some Beach; Getting On; Not Mozart; Hot Stuff; Mermaid)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3(Toad); SN(Rail; Spare); FR(Satisfaction; Evolution); O3(Orator; Oust); FIN (Fioriture; Ensanguine); War(Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY(Ntaiv; Enfant); Measure(Ennui; Bisect; Rampant); Wings(Ichthyology); Share(Passacaglia; Ameliorate)
Word Count: 1979
(^^)
Shipwreck Free
(^^)
The loop always started the way.
It sort of ended the same way, too, because Harry would always pass through the de-colored King's Cross Station between however the loop ended and the loop restarting. Most times, Dumbledore was there to meet him and offer a few words of questionable wisdom. (Never anyone else, though, which Harry thought was odd even if it wasn't any odder than being stuck in a time loop to begin with.) But the only thing that the ends of the loop always had in common was that he died in some way. Harry had lost track of how many ways that he had died, just like he had lost track of how many times he had done so.
It just didn't seem to matter, not when every time he died, the loop would restart.
And every single time it did, he would find himself right back in his cupboard, once again a week or so from turning eleven and being punished what he now understood was a bout of accidental magic. Aunt Petunia would let him out to cook breakfast. Dudley would show off his new school uniform, including that stupid stick with its stupid knob on the end. Uncle Vernon would order Harry to fetch the post which would have his first invitation letter from Hogwarts in it.
The first dozen cycles, Harry had tried to change the way things had happened with the clarity he had gained from hindsight (foreknowledge?). For a while, things would go differently. Certain events seemed to be fixed points and would happen in some form even when he tried to prevent them, tacking the timeline in place like it was a physical cord. No matter what he did or didn't change, he would always end up dying before he graduated Hogwarts.
Sometimes, it was sacrificing himself for the Greater Good, just like Dumbledore had planned for him.
Sometimes, the deaths were less noble.
Like the cycle when he had challenged Ron to a game of Chubby Bunny and had spectacularly lost when he had choked to death on a marshmallow. That cycle was also the one where Harry had been closer to the Weasley twins and the main beta tester for all their products.
Less said about that cycle, the better.
Whatever was causing the time loop wasn't dependent on Voldemort. Harry had managed to get rid of all his Horcruxes multiple times. Even the cycle where he had managed to do it before Voldemort could be resurrected, Harry had still died before the end of his seventh year and had found himself back in King's Cross unable to move onward—only back to the cupboard to do it all again.
He was trapped just like a mouse in a maze.
And just like said mouse, he had no understanding of what the scientist running the experiment wanted.
"Fuck it," Harry decided as he got of the train after finishing his fifth year for the umpteenth time. He had already shifted things slightly by picking up the prophecy while he was at the ministry building for his sham of a trial for underage magic. No prophecy to guard had meant that the Order hadn't wasted a year guarding something that had already been spelled so that only two people could touch it.
Harry had had to suffer through a month or so of Snape's violations disguised as Occlumency lessons, but saving Sirius was worth that and so much more. Once Harry had realized that Sirius' death was not one of the fixed points, he had made certain to save his godfather every single cycle. Most loops, Harry even managed to get him legally free even when he failed to bring Wormtail to justice. Oddly enough, that was only ever possible after Sirius escaped Azkaban.
Harry never could get him a trial while he was still in the custody of the UK Ministry of Magic.
But Sirius was now safe in southern France, living it up on a beach with Remus.
Voldemort had not been resurrected either as far as Harry knew. The ritual he preferred would have been impossible even if Harry had been inclined to fall into the Tournament trap. Destroying Tom Riddle Jr's bones had been one of the first things that Harry did after getting his wand for more loops than he really cared to think about. Same with gathering up and destroying the soul bits in the Horcruxes as they became available.
(Nagini wasn't actually a Horcrux, and neither was Harry. Turns out that already occupied vessels couldn't host slivers of another soul. Harry resolutely ignored the implication of what that meant in connection to Dumbledore's plans and manipulations.)
"Fuck it," Harry repeated as he took off towards the barrier at a fast clip. Tonks and Moody called out to him, probably planning to give Uncle Vernon the same speech about treating Harry better that always give at this point in the timeline (no matter when he met them or what had happened before). This time, Harry was determined that it wouldn't be needed.
He might not be of age in either the muggle world or the magical one, but he knew from other cycles that his age mattered less than other factors for determining if he was adult enough to make certain decisions. Having sat his OWLs now (and he knew that he had passed them all, too, because he had had plenty of time to study now), he was allowed to discontinue formal education if he so desired. The whole tournament fiasco also meant that Harry was considered a legal adult in the eyes of the law.
He had never taken advantage of those things before. He had always dutifully returned to the Dursleys when he was told and had stayed until he permitted to escape. He accepted that he wasn't really a member of any family—not even one with Sirius and Remus, who had been so close to his parents. He had accepted that Hogwarts was the only school he could attend, no matter how he knew just how out of date all the courses were. Not to mention that he often bored from having already learned the material.
But no more.
He was not going to run the maze this time.
He was done dancing to the piper's tune.
If everything held, Harry had less than two years to live. There was no Voldemort. Sirius was free and alive. Should someone push him on it, Harry could set his NEWTs for nearly any subject right then and still pass them. Not that he needed any career that might require the scores, given how extensive his inheritance was.
So he was going to take those years and actually live.
Or maybe Sirius had the right of it and relaxing on a beach was a good idea.
Luna once described the island that her mother had grew up on. It had sounded heavenly. And a magical veil that predated even the oldest of Unplottable charms sounded perfect for hiding from Dumbledore and his Order. Not to mention that Greece (at least the magical side of things) didn't like working with the UK on anything, which meant that they would have a rough time of it if they tried to go through legal channels to get him back.
It was perfect.
Harry disappeared into the busy crowd of King's Cross Station, evading both the Order and Uncle Vernon.
It was time for a vacation.
(^^)
Harry had to admit that this was his best idea in an immeasurably long time. Greece was just as grand as Luna's stories had made it seem and just so incredible to experience. Even better than the beautiful beaches and blue sky stretched over an even bluer ocean was the way that he didn't stand out as much as he did back in England. No one thought twice of his sienna skin and blatantly mixed heritage when he was walking down the streets. No one acted like he instantly suspicious just for existing, even if he was still darker than those born locally.
And why would they? Turkey was as equally close the island he had chosen as the main coast of Greece. A good portion of the local population had the same dark skin that he did. His eyes still drew the same amount of interest that they usually did, because green eyes were still unusual, but that interest felt different than it had back in England.
Everything felt different here.
The waves whispered to him whenever he stood on the beach, especially as the sun sank below the horizon like it was doing then. Something called to him from the depths. He could almost hear the singing, even if it did sound discordant like it was slightly out of tune. In fact, it sounded almost like the way the merpeople of the Black Lake had sounded once Harry had submerged the egg under water.
Harry came back to himself waist deep in the salty water. He shook his head to clear out the foggy tendrils still wrapped around his mind. The Hogwarts merpeople had never had that effect on him. After that first burst at the Quidditch World Cup the first time around, not even veela had affected him like this. His heart pounded in his chest like he had just pulled up from a dive on his broom.
The ocean glinted like copper in the light of the setting sun.
No, wait, that wasn't the ocean. It was something lifting what looked like a tentacle out of the water. Harry didn't move as even more tentacles lifted out of the water briefly before disappearing again. Whatever it was, it was definitely coming closer at a quick pace.
Less than ten meters away, a human figure seemed to breech the surface. Water streamed off of the man's tight braids and black skin. Swirly patches of delicate-looking scales were scattered over what was visible of his body, the copper glistening bright and distractingly against the nearly true black of the man's skin. It wasn't until Harry noticed the vivid violet of the creature's eyes that he recognized him.
"Zabini?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Zabini replied. A tentacle of the same metallic coloring as the scales lifted out of the water to slap the surface. "You are a long way from where I would expect you to be. Especially without a chaperon. Did you have a falling out with the Weasleys?"
"Not that I know of," Harry answered honestly. He truly didn't know. He had all of his mail going to a specially prepared box that he planned to have sent to him at the end of each month, at least for the first few months. He knew that the Order would be looking at him, war or no war, and they would use his friends again, just like they always did. "But then again, I haven't picked up my mail recently, so I could be wrong."
"Running away?" The grin on Zabini's face shifted the would-be taunt into a shared joke as much as the confident air that he radiated did.
"What can I say?" Harry shrugged nonchalantly, the motion making the water around him splash. "Sometimes I just want to disappear."
"I can help you with that," Zabini said, like the implied proposal wasn't the greatest temptation that Harry had ever heard. Without even knowing the details, Harry trusted that Zabini could do just that and that if Harry took him up on it, then things were never going to be the same, not ever again.
It sounded just as perfect as running away to Greece had in the first place.
Harry took Blaise's hand and let him lead him down into the ocean depths.