Save point loaded!
Harry fell backwards with an aborted scream, landing on the hard floor of the Great Hall. The entire hall jumped in alarm, heads swiveling to where Harry lie on the ground. "Miss Potter?" Dumbledore asked, making his way down- the slip of paper in his hands forgotten. "Miss Potter, are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Harry replied shakily. The red-orange of the flames still imprinted in his vision.
"Do you think you're well enough to stand?" he offered his hand, which Harry took- standing slowly. "I think a trip to Madam Pomphrey's infirmary would not go remiss," he stated, "Miss Granger, would you take your friend there?"
"Of course, Headmaster," Hermione replied, already getting up and taking Harry from Dumbledore.
"Thank you, Miss Granger," the headmaster replied. He made his way back to the podium, next to the Goblet of Fire. "Now, what was- ah." He looked down at the slip of paper in his hands- before pausing. "Oh dear. It seems our fourth, unexpected, champion is currently out of the room."
"Who is it?" someone shouted from the Gryffindor table.
"Rose Lilian Potter," Headmaster Dumbledore announced.
...
Harry might have made a mistake. A big mistake. One that cost him his life, but… he's back here again- granted not exactly- but back to the choosing of the champions ceremony. He had no doubt that his name came out the goblet of fire- it happened the past two times- but here he was in the infirmary being checked over by Madam Pomphrey.
"...no lasting damage," Madam Pomphrey was saying, "but you're going to have a nasty bruise on the backside of your head, Miss Potter." She handed him a potion, "Drink this to help with the pain, and this salve should be applied carefully for the next day until it's gone." Harry downed the potion and had Hermione help apply the salve to the back of his head- which was complicated because of all the hair in the way. Madam Pomphrey left them soon after, to go check up on the only other occupant of the infirmary.
"Do you ever feel like the world has it out for you, Hermione?"
"Sometimes, but then I take a look at your life, and realize the world has it out for you, Rose."
Harry sighed. So his name's Rose in this world, huh. "I'm from the future." Better to rip it off now, because he has a feeling it's going to be like this for a very long time.
"What?"
"Well, more like I'm from a future. Where I was a guy, and lived until the end of the twenty-first century. And I recently just died again. As a Harriet Jamie Potter."
Hermione was silent for a few seconds. "Yeah, I think you hit your head a bit too hard, Rose. Get some sleep so it heals faster." Hermione turned around and walked out of the infirmary.
"Should've expected that, honestly," Harry said to himself. Sighing, he decided to do as Hermione said and drift off to sleep, but- BANG! The doors to the infirmary shot open again, exuberant voices making themselves known.
"Extraordinary!" the familiar, annoying, voice of Bagman exclaimed. Then a spell shot out of Madam Pomphrey's office, silencing the man. The school healer then stalked out and started berating the man; but behind Bagman, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall along with a few others walked in.
"Good evening, Miss Potter," Dumbledore said kindly as he approached Harry's bed- Professor McGonagall trailing.
"Hello, Headmaster," Harry greeted back.
"Sadly, this isn't a friendly checkup- I have most grave news."
"Was my named pulled from the goblet?"
Dumbledore's bushy eyebrows rose. "How did you know?"
"Figured. I'd hoped for a calm year this year- no DADA teachers out for my life, no genocidal maniacs after me, no trouble from anything- but alas."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, it does seem that trouble finds its way to you. I was going to ask if you had put your name in the goblet- but judging from that confession, you were not the one to do it."
"I have enough fame as it is, Headmaster, I don't need winning a death tournament to be added onto it."
Dumbledore chuckled again. "Quite. Well, we've only arrived to give you the details of the tournament like we had with the other three champions." Dumbledore called over Barty Crouch Sr., who then explained the details of the tournament.
Eventually, all was explained and the officials left, Professor Dumbldore remaining behind to talk with her a small bit more.
"Miss Potter- Rose, are you alright?" the Headmaster asked, the twinkle of his eyes diminished at the seriousness of his question.
Harry sighed. Albus Dumbledore was a complicated man, in his world. When Harry found out how much of a hand he had in his life, he was angry. He cursed and berated the old man hundreds of times- but eventually- eventually Harry understood. Albus Dumbledore was not some smarmy politician nor some puppet-master controlling everyone behind the scenes. No, Albus Dumbledore was an educator- a teacher- who was put in hard and harder situations. He tried his best, and everyone treated him like a savior for standing up against an old love.
Harry understood, in the later years of his life, that he and Albus were more alike than they realized. Especially with all the expectations placed on them by the world they lived in.
"What… what would you do, if you found yourself stuck in a time loop," Harry started. "That you returned to the same exact point in time after you died- but things have changed. In the first loop, you were a man and lived to nearly a century old; in the second, you died to dragon fire before your fifteenth birthday. What would you do, if you became a girl, no older than sixteen, and didn't even know what to do."
"I'd do my best, Rose, and I would suggest you do the same." The old headmaster took Harry's hand into his own, patting the back of it. "I do not understand what you are going through, but I believe you can accept yourself and make it out better for it. Do not forget your experiences; learn from them, and grow from them. Keep those you held dear who no longer remember you dear to your heart. For it is your memories that keep them alive."
Harry- Rose surged out of bed, hugging the old man. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, my dear girl," he replied just as softly as he hugged her back.
hehe. on AO3 i've got entire ANs that go over me gushing about the last chapter and a bit of this chapter and plans for the future. i suggest checking it.
but the main point i want to bring over is to suggest tropes and those tropes' tags. because i want to use them in this story.