Summary: Harry and Hermione alter the timestream and prevent Pettegrew from escaping, thus clearing Sirius's name. Since they altered their own future, they also prevented their copies from needing to travel into the past in the first place. They have become permanent duplicates of the "real" Harry and Hermione. Revealing themselves is too risky. They choose to change their names and appearances so they can enroll in Hogwarts, befriend their copies, and help them fend off Voldemort's yearly attacks.
Slash warning.
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Ships: Keep in mind there is an extra Harry and an extra Hermione. Ships in bold are endgame.
Harry'/Hermione'
Sirius/Remus
Harry'/Hermione
Harry/Hermione'
Harry/OC Delacour
Daphne/Blaise
Ron/Lavender
Harry'/Tracey
Draco/Redemption
Harry'/Theo
Harry/Parvati
Hermione'/Tracey
Hermione/Draco
Harry/Draco
weird Harry/Draco/Hermione love triangle
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Chapter 1: The Wolfsbane Potion
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"Hermione, I'm telling you, we have to try! We can't let Pettegrew escape this time!"
"No, Harry! I've told you! We can't change anything we've observed!"
Harry was pacing back and forth in the Forbidden Forest. Hermione, arms crossed, was leaning against a tree. Buckbeak was snapping at bats and digging for rabbits and the like, not a care in the world. Their copies had just gone down the passage under the whomping willow. They were waiting to save Sirius from Flitwick's Office, but not until the right time.
"Look, you heard Snape in the infirmary before we backstepped. He set the wolfsbane potion on Lupin's desk. If we can just go get it and bring it to Lupin in the shack… that's all we'll do… then Lupin won't transform, the rat won't have an opportunity to run, and Sirius will be proved innocent and freed."
"Yes, but Harry, if you and I make it so that there is no reason for our copies to use the time turner in the first place, then we'll probably cease to exist… because we'd have never arrived in the past. Don't you see? We'd be eradicating ourselves from the timeline!"
"Okay, but that Harry will get to have his godfather back! You and I will live on through our copies!"
"Harry, your asking me to kill myself. We don't even know if your plan will work! Pettegrew could still get away…"
"Hermione, if we fail you can personally strangle me… we'll both be dead anyway either way."
"Is that… is that really what you want? You want to sacrifice this version of you so that the other version of you has a happier life?"
"Yes! And we prove Sirius is innocent in the process! I'm sorry that means you will die as well. Look, Hermione, if you're not okay with it then-"
"Let's do it," Hermione interrupted.
You'll…you'll do it?" Harry's eyes widened when his brain caught up to his ears and realized that she had agreed.
"Yes, Harry, I'll do it. Ever since you jumped on that troll's back in our first year, I've known there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for you. I'll do this for you. Who knows… maybe we won't succeed and our doubles will still go back in time and all will be fine. If that happens, we'll just go rescue Sirius from Flitwick's Office like we originally planned."
"There's no time to lose! Look, there's Lupin. Snape will be along shortly."
Harry and Hermione mounted Buckbeak and flew up to Lupin's office window. There it was, the wolfsbane potion, sitting on Lupin's desk in one of Snape's preferred unbreakable glass potion bottles. He'd even labeled it so there was no chance it was the wrong potion.
Harry clambered into the office window, pocketed the potion, and then climbed back out to Buckbeak and Hermione. When they arrived back near the whomping willow they caught sight of Snape entering the passageway.
They sneaked along the passageway behind Snape and spied on their past selves and all the adults through the wall through a broken slat in the woodwork. When Harry's copy stunned Snape, Hermione used the confusion to toss the bottle right at Lupin's feet. Lupin, and everyone else, assumed Snape had brought it along and had just dropped it when Harry's copy had stunned him.
Lupin recognized the potion, remembered the day, and downed it quickly. Since he now knew, or rather remembered, that he'd be transforming soon, he knew he couldn't be the one to bring Peter in tonight. He needed Snape awake and listening if he wanted to get Peter back to the castle. Even as a sane wolf, he shouldn't be roaming the grounds.
Lupin revived a now wandless Snape, silenced him when he began to protest, revealed Peter, and then explained everything to Snape and the children in the room.
"Please, Severus," Lupin concluded, waving away the silencing charm. "This is the man that betrayed James and Lilly. Lilly was your friend. I know you didn't get along with James and Sirius but please, for Lilly's sake, help me bring Peter to justice."
Snape looked enraged but nodded curtly at Lupin, avoiding looking at Sirius altogether. "Very well, Lupin. You and Black stay here. It is my understanding that he was a way to avoid being killed by you as a werewolf?"
"Oh, but Snape, you brought me my potion. I've already taken it… see?" Lupin held out the empty bottle.
"So I have…" Snape said, hiding his confusion as he took the empty bottle from Lupin. "You have my word that Pettegrew will be taken straight to Dumbledore and these three students will be escorted back to the castle. My wand please?"
Timidly, Hermione's copy, who had recovered Snape's dropped wand, approached him and handed it back to him. He stunned Pettegrew, then hit him with a leg locker curse, the full body bind curse, and also wrapped him up in ropes and chains with the incarcerous curse. Then he conjured a stretcher for Ron and led Pettegrew and the students back to the castle, leaving Lupin and Sirius in the shack for the time being since taking Sirius to Dumbledore was not safe until Pettegrew was in ministry custody.
Harry and Hermione hid under the invisibility cloak in a corner as their copies walked past. They watched in horror as Lupin transformed but this time he retained his mind thanks to the potion. Then, Harry and Hermione, leaving the cloak behind for their copies to recover later, snuck out of a window. Hermione took Harry's hand to steady herself as she exited the shrieking shack. After they were both out the window, Hermione didn't allow him to let her hand go. Harry simply nodded and they began walking into the woods to find a place they wouldn't be found…to find a place to die.
Hermione pulled the time turner out from under her robes. Most of the sand was at the bottom already. "Harry, when this sand runs out, our copies should use the time turner to backstep… but now due to our interference… they won't. Harry, when this hourglass runs out… I'm almost certain that you and I will cease to exist."
"I'm sorry I got you caught up in this* Harry said, stroking her hand with his thumb.
"Harry, there's a reason I did this… there's a reason I would have done anything you asked of me. I love you. I don't know if I love you like a sibling or like a potential partner… but I love you, Harry Potter."
"I love you too, Hermione. I feel the same way. My feelings for you are confusing, but before we die, I do need you to know that I love you too."
She stopped walking and pulled Harry to a halt. "Then kiss me, Harry. Please. Kiss me like it's our last night on earth… because we've only got about five minutes left by my count, and there's no way I'd rather go out than in your arms."
Harry bit his lip, hesitating just a moment. What did he have to lose? He leaned in towards her and enveloped her lips in a gentle, tender kiss while wrapping his arms around her. Hermione ravenously pawed at him drawing him closer and she ran her tongue across his lips. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about this. If they weren't about to die he definitely wouldn't be kissing her.
However, since the end was near, he wanted to at least experience a proper kiss before he died, even if it was with a girl he now firmly realized he thought of as a sister… not a potent partner. Harry responded to Hermione's enthusiasm by sucking on her chapped bottom lip. He added some tongue to the equation and smiled into the kiss. The experience was incredibly enjoyable, even if it was quite odd. He was happy to share this one last experience with his good friend.
After some time they came apart. They watched as the sand in the hourglass was nearly finished. "Good bye, Harry," Hermione said, shedding a tear."
"Goodbye, Hermione…"
The sand finished flowing and two things happened simultaneously. The time turner Hermione was dangling in front of both of them suddenly exploded into a gold sort of dust that scattered into the wind and dissipated. At the same time, Harry felt a terrible pain in his scar. He screamed and fell to his knees as his scar opened up and began to bleed black ichor.
Hermione screamed as she saw Harry in pain. She dropped to her knees and hugged him. "Harry, I'm sorry… I'm sorry… it will be over soon…"
Hermione held him tight, closed her eyes, and waited. Surely she would begin to feel pain as well. Surely Harry was imploding and she was soon to follow…
Then suddenly, out of Harry's scar burst forth a black specter made of thick smoke. It screeched and screamed and then dissipated and died. Harry finally stopped his screaming.
"What the fuck was Voldemort doing in my scar?" Harry shouted.
"That was Voldemort?" Hermione said in a panic, surprising herself that she was able to say the name. Something about facing death made the madman much less scary. "How do you know that was him? I thought you were dying because we broke the time stream!"
"It was him. That's what he looked like when he came out of Quirrell two years ago!"
"Why aren't we dead?" Hermione said, still panicking. "Oh gods, are our copies dead? What if the three of us were sitting in the infirmary just now and then Ron watched the two of us explode like the time turner just did? I thought we were the doomed copies, but maybe they were! Oh no, we've killed them! Harry, we have to get back to the school!"
The two began sprinting back to the shrieking shack.
"How did he get into my scar? I feel fucking awful… and yet I feel amazing. It's like I've had a headache every day for as long as I can remember… and suddenly my headache is gone. I've just realized that my head was sore literally all the time but I didn't even realize it hurt until the pain went away and I had something to compare it to."
"Harry, that can't have been Voldemort. Maybe it was a memory of him? You know, like the memory in the diary? Maybe when he gave you the scar he left a bit of himself behind?"
"Yeah, maybe… when it died it did look kind of like how his shade died in the Chamber of Secrets. In the Chamber, Tom Riddle kind of just evaporated like that specter thing just evaporated…"
"Right. You said that when Voldemort left Quirrell, that version of him got away. This thing didn't. It definitely died. It can't have been the same shade that was in Quirrell our first year. The other one… the main one?.. It's more powerful than whatever was in your scar."
The pair clambered back into the shack and got back under the cloak. They briefly checked in on Moony and Padfoot who were spending the night together in the shack just like old times. Harry and Hermione scampered back down the tunnel back to the school.
Hermione panted as she caught her breath. "We need to figure out where our copies are and see if they are dead or alive. If they died… I think we should tell Dumbledore everything."
"Okay, and if our doubles are fine?... Then what?" Harry retorted.
"I don't know," Hermione squeaked.
They made their way to the hospital wing and found Pomfrey tending to Ron. Their doubles were also there as well as Dumbledore and Snape. Pettegrew was bound, stunned, and paralyzed in another nearby bed. He was being ignored for the moment.
Harry silently convinced Hermione to inch closer to see what the group were talking about. They were behind a privacy curtain and also still under the cloak but now within earshot.
"... And you expect us to believe that it just bursted out of your scar?" Snape was saying coldly.
"Yes!" Harry's double said from the bed beside Ron. "It happened just after you left to get the potions to fix Ron's leg."
"And you say it looked like like Voldemort when he left Professor Quirrell?" Dumbledore asked softly.
"Yes!" all three teens responded at once.
"What does it mean, Headmaster?" Pomfrey asked Dumbledore.
"It is my belief that the night Harry survived the killing curse, a small part of Voldemort's soul became dislodged from the rest of his soul and attached itself to Harry. The main part of his soul survived via the use of mysterious dark magic. That main part is the part of him that was possessing Professor Quirrell. Of this much I am certain. From here on, I can only speculate."
Dumbledore continued. "It appears that this smaller part of his soul, the fragment that was residing in your scar, Harry, has been destroyed for some mysterious reason. I have a few theories as to why this may have occurred."
"We know that your mother granted you some protections when she sacrificed herself to save you. Perhaps that protection has been working to expel this bit of Voldemort from you all this time and it finally expelled him. Or perhaps the amount of love you hold within you for the people in your life simply became too much for the fragment. We cannot know for certain what caused the soul shard to die. I urge you to not trouble yourself too much about it, Harry. I will research this further and tell you more if I am able to discover more."
Harry and Hermione stayed hidden under the cloak as the adults told the teens to get in their beds. The trio would all be spending the night in the hospital wing. Ron for his leg and Harry and Hermione's copies for their scratches from the whomping willow. Dumbledore and Snape left with Pettegrew, discussing Black's location and innocence.
Harry and Hermione snuck out of the hospital wing behind Snape and Hermione led them to an empty classroom near the library. Once they were alone inside, Hermione finally spoke.
"Harry, I don't know why we're alive, but I do have a theory about your scar. That soul fragment couldn't exist in two places at once past the time of divergence and it simply died. I don't know if the other time turner, the one around my copy's neck, also exploded like that soul fragment but if I had to guess I'd say it did."
"Okay, but if the time turner and the soul fragment couldn't exist in two places at once past the moment we originally time traveled, why can we?" Harry asked.
"Most of the material I've read suggests we shouldn't have been able to modify the timeline and still exist right now, but I remember reading one odd theory that was nothing like the other materials I read… It basically said that, in theory, a time traveler could get stuck in a different timeline if they modified events without their past selves finding out… you know, like we did."
Hermione continued. "You see, most of the cautionary tails I read talked about one of the copies attacking the other copy and, now that I think about it, all the tails I read talked about confrontations that happened during the overlap period. None of them mentioned copies existing after the overlap… since those copies… you know… shouldn't exist anymore."
"So, what, we're stuck in a different timeline than our original one? Is there another timeline out there that's just missing you and me? Can we get back to it? I know Pettegrew got away in that timeline, but still… if we don't belong here… we need to get home. God I'm so stupid, I'm sorry I convinced you to do this."
"No, Harry, we can't go back. That timeline was eradicated… or you could say it never happened. Alternate timelines simply are a way to refer to what could have happened. They don't exist simultaneously as other timelines. In this new timeline… the only timeline… it is as if you and I simply appeared suddenly to help our copies."
"So… what now? Do we tell our copies? Do we tell Dumbledore?"
"Telling our copies is still too dangerous, even if the overlap period is over. Who knows what they would do. We would never attack them but they could decide to attack us. And… I… I don't want to tell Dumbledore or McGonnigal or anyone. I'm too embarrassed. They warned me things like this could happen. I can't bear to see their disappointment if we tell them."
"So what? We run away? We change our names?"
"Oh God… yes, Harry, I think we run away and change our names. We could look into potions that could permanently modify our appearance. I know there are potions that do that… oh no, I'll never see my parents again. Oh Harry!" Hermione began to sob as she collapsed into him. He held her tight.
"I don't like the idea of just leaving our copies. Voldemort keeps showing up, Hermione. First the stone, then the diary, and now my scar… I don't want to leave the other Harry to deal with him. I can help. We can help. What if we came up with new identities and… and enrolled at Hogwarts as new people?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I suppose if we looked and sounded different then our copies would never find out…"
"Let's do it. Please," Harry begged. "We'll befriend Ron and the real Harry and Hermione and we will try to help them deal with Voldemort."
"I'll think about it, Harry… it does sound appealing… okay, first order of business. We need a safe place to hide until we get that potion figured out and change what we look like."
Harry and Hermione made their way up to their dormitories to shower and dress in clean clothes. (Their copies would be in the hospital wing all night and it wouldn't be the end of the world to be seen by someone else.) Harry left the cloak on his bed… well, his copy's bed. It was Harry Potter's cloak… and he was no longer Harry Potter… he was nobody.
It was a little past midnight when they met back up in the common room. Hermione owned four nice book bags and three nice purses. She'd decided to steal her two least favorite bags and her least favorite purse from her copy. She took the ones she liked the least because the other Hermione wouldn't miss them. She gave one bag to Harry to store the few things he was taking. They snuck to the passage hidden behind the one eyed witch and escaped the castle into Hogsmeade.
They transfigured their hair a bit to hide their identity and then used the floo in Honeydukes to go straight to The Leaky Cauldron in London where they got a room for the night under fake names; James and Tina. Exhausted, they both collapsed into the single bed and were asleep within minutes.
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