“Remember, no matter if we fail or succeed back in time, do NOT ever look into your other self - if you do unpredictable things might happen” - H. Granger

 

Hermione's warning ringed in Harrys mind as he recalled the previous night and somehow he knew he fucked up - he had seen his other self.

He was nervous the whole day,but it looks like nothing happened, so he went back to sleep - Sirius was safe now and he had exams soon, and another dull summer with Dursleys awaiting….

His worries persisted for days, weeks, but as nothing seemed to happen they  disappeared from his mind, new problems occluding them to the back of his mind - Dursleys, quidditch cup, triwizard tournament, Voldermort…

That’s how the boy woke up, still with memories of Cedric's dead body engraved in his mind. Voldemort's resurrection ritual, the fear of the future to come.

 

‘It's basically a yearly occurrence at this point’ though Harry, ‘first the Quirrelmort, then the basilisk, then the time trip saving Sirius. Now Voldemort's return…. My life was never easy’

As he was lost in thought he did not notice that the clock on the hospital wing’s wall seemed to tick a bit more slowly as the world slowed down. Only minutes later as his thoughts started getting sluggish he tried snapping his eyes open and looking around - tried as his body barely obeyed the orders. They did open, but barely as if in slow motion.

There were transparent clocks of various types in Harry's vision - old grandfatherly ones, electronic ones, all sizes from large to small - the boy was shocked and tried to do something, anything, shouting for help first came to his mind but alas his body was seemingly frozen still, his eyes were already frozen, with eyelids stopping mid-blink. He was seemingly frozen - all the world was quiet, non-moving, only the illusory clocks in his vision moved slowly, and eventually inching towards midnight.

 

As all handles aligned at midnight there was a sort of clicking sound. The same he heard when he needed to rewind some old clocks at Dursleys. Then his vision shifted - the clocks started going backwards of all things. His body eventually started walking - backwards. The rewinding sped up as he saw and felt all what happened in last year. He could only feel nauseous by various images flashing past him and his body experiencing the pain, the wound of the past while he could only watch with no control.

 

Voldemort's return, Cedric's death, triwizard tournament, Quidich cup, Dursleys, Dementors, His godfather…

 

And finally the journey through time, the one he took with his friend Hermione to save his godfather. It stopped at the moment he saw himself across the lake. His other selfed smiled creepily. Seemingly to mouth some words. He somehow understood the - “Do NoT mEsS wItH TiMe!”.

 

*CLICK*

 

Then he found himself somehow back at control of his body and started puking on the ground. Out of the corner of his eyes he seemed to see his friend rushing over in concern. 

 

“Harry!”

 

*Subsisto nauseam* - a white light flashed from Hermione's wand as Harry's nausea somehow disappeared and she looked at him with concern. She also pulled out a bar of chocolate and shoved it to him.

 

“Are you OK?” she looked at him in concern. “This is a charm I found during some light reading in the library, it’s supposed to remove nausea, thought it could help with dementor exposure too”

 

Harry was confused looking at his friend as she seemed… younger, like a whole year younger since he last saw her. But remembering the scenes he saw he somehow knew - he was back in time. Either that or he finally went crazy. He took the chocolate and started munching on it - screams of dementors across the lake and a beautiful glowing stag jogged his memory of this event.

 

“Thanks, mione. You won’t believe what I just saw, what I have been through, just because I accidentally glimpsed myself across the lake”

 

“HARRY POTTER” - His talk was cut short as his friend's concern quickly morphed into fury. “Did you forget all the warnings I mentioned a few hours ago? And kept mentioning every so often? What have you done?”

 

“I’m sorry” - a quiet apology went out from his mouth as he looked down sheepishly.

 

Hermione's voice slightly lowered as she saw Harry really regretting his actions and hearing his genuine apology - “Sorry? Sorry? You could have died Harry!, even I could have died. And while the time loop is not closed we might still die or something else horrible could happen. “ Then she seemingly went into her I-read-all-about-it-mione mode and started listing things- “According to Travelling Through Times, Butterfly Effect and a few other books I read, anything could happen. Seymour Heron mentioned that his companion that saw himself disappeared along with the original and no one ever saw him again.” Her voice lowered slightly as she went to more disturbing points - “Some other sources say that some wizards go through some sort of shock and end up in a magical coma; there's a whole section dedicated to trying to cure it at St. Mugos. Some other sources also mention a witch that went by Hazel Gnats who claimed to have seen herself - it appears she somehow became very smart after that inventing a lot of new spells and making tons of Galleons, but unfortunately a few months later she went crazy, muttering “not again” all over again and eventually passed away… “ She lowered her head seemingly over worried again as her anger somehow passed.

 

“I know I messed up. I’m sorryI don’t know if you believe me, but It seems that neither of those things happened, but it’s as if I went back in time. Like I actually lived through a year, and then something happened and now I’m back here” - Harry started off slowly, even started to recount the 4th year's events, but Hermione cut him off.

 

“I think you should tell this to the Headmaster, he might know better what to do” - Hermione looked sceptical as if not believing his whole story. “Also look - *tempus* - we only have 10 minutes to go back to the hospital wing unnoticed, before Dumbledore locks the door!”

 

“You’re right, let’s go” - Harry agreed as if out of stupor, his additional year of memories weighing on his mind.

 

The duo hid behind an invisibility cloak and hurried back to the castle. They barely made it back in time as Dubledore seemingly paused for a moment before smiling slightly at them as if he knew they were there, his glasses twinkling, before closing the door and locking it up. Harry was dead tired and just went to sleep - as he knew his questions could wait, the headmaster would converse with him tomorrow like last time. With those thoughts in mind he quickly drifted to the realm of dreams.

 

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“Harry, I’m glad Sirius' innocence has come to light, even I could not have guessed your parents switched Fidelius keeper at the last moment… Still it will take a while for the rest of the wizarding world to accept his innocence, as unfortunately Pettergews has escaped.” - Dumbledore stroked his beard as he looked at Harry still lying in the hospital bed. “Now I believe we have one more thing to discuss “ - his glasses twinkled - “Ms. Granger mentioned your time travel incident, can you recount it in more detail?”

 

“That's the thing Headmaster, I lived a year in the future,” - Harry started off slowly.

 

“Dumbledore seemed to look at him in worry - “It could have been real, do you have any means to prove your claims? Any events of significance?”

 

“I know things like the Quidditch cup being held this summer and triwizard cup being held next year”

 

Dumbledore pauses seemingly deep in thought, then slowly replied - 

“No… I suppose quidditch cup is public knowledge, but triwizard tournament is still not set in stone, thought it’s likely to happen, that's not something you should have known” - headmaster's eyes showed surprise for a moment before he composed himself - “but it is like the triwizard cup will be approved for next year, I suppose I should enquire if we won the cup? If we don’t win I suppose I could strive so that no tournament happens” - Dumbledory looked at Harry with his grandfatherly smirk on his face.

 

“We won headmaster” - Harry smiled too, but got sad the next moment - “but Cedric Diggory  died when Voldemort came back”

 

Dumbledore looked stunned for a moment before all his grandfatherly smugness seemingly evaporated, he suddenly looked serious, reminding Harry that yes this old man was the one who took down the previous dark lord - Grindelwald and fought against the last one - Voldemort as well. The headmaster seemed to look  straight in the boy’s eyes and enquired - “Tell me in more detail. When and How did he come back?”.

 

Harry somehow felt his gaze being pulled toward his eyes, like he was compelled to look there. Dumbledore’s eyes were light blue as usual, but there was a silver twinkle inside.

 

Just moments after prolonged eye contact Harry felt pain in his mind - it reminded him of the time his scar hurt when Voldermort resurrected. He felt as if something inside his mind was forcefully broken down, some sort of barrier. He saw the headmaster grunting in paint holding his head in his hands, his eyes glossy as if out of focus and then it happened again. The illusory clocks appeared in Harry's vision. The world started slowing down again. 

 

This time Harry tried shouting first as he felt the slowness. “Nooootttttttt agaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…..” 

But his voice trailed off until eventually stopping. The clocks all stopped at midnight again. 

Then as if rewinding a muggle movie scenes flashed in his eyes again. Chat with the headmaster, with Hermione, and the time trip. This time there was no creepy Harry smirking from the end of the lake - just like the first time he just saw his other self collapsing from exhaustion as his patronus started driving dementors away. As he was once again back in control he held in his nausea this time - it seemed weaker as he did not see that many scenes..

 

“Harry, are you okay?” - Hermione once again had this concerning look in her eyes and passed him a chocolate bar.

 

“I’m back, back again” Harry muttered, maybe with slight hope this time, surely they just spoke less than a day ago about time travel, surely she will remember this time? His eyes went from hope to sadness as his friend looked at him worriedly.

 

“What do you mean again?” - she trailed off with concern.

 

The discussion went very similar like last time - as Harry once found himself lying in a hospital bed.

 

Somehow the past story repeated itself - as soon as Dumbledore took a deep look into his eyes after mentioning Voldemort, the time slowed down again and Harry was sent back. This time he seemed to have an idea of what was happening. His mind wanted to reject such though - surely mind reading is not possible? Though he was not certain as this was a world of magic and he was quite new to it.

 

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“Hermione, can you not mention this to the headmaster?”

 

“But Harry, he is the most experienced wizard in this century, surely he could help you?”

“You see, the last time this happened I got sent back again as we started discussing this topic….”

 

“Shut up Harry!. You messed up and you know it, let’s just hope the headmaster can help us resolve this. Now let’s hurry, we need to be back in hospital soon!”

 

<><><><><><><>

 

Harry tried to avoid his future knowledge, passing it off as a dream, but the headmaster did not buy it. It’s like he knew he was being fooled, Harry never was a good liar. As he insisted on performing some diagnostic spells on him just in case. 

After all the spells he still caught his eyes, even as Harry tried hard to avoid his gaze, just to drop on his knees short after, holding his head as the world started slowing down once again.

 

<><><><><><><>

 

“Harry, my boy, can you open your eyes? I need to do some checks to see if this time travel incident affected you in any way” - Dumbledore's concern was felt in his voice, yet Harry kept his eyes closed.

 

“Can you promise me, headmaster, that you won't look me into the eyes? That seems to trigger the restart and brings me back in time”

 

“That won’t do my boy, how can I help you without knowing what exactly happened? Not to say I do not believe your story, but there might have been some things that you are simply too inexperienced to understand and hence missed seeing, but fine I can avoid your gaze today if you so wish, perhaps we can review your memories together in pensieve? I believe you know how that works?”

 

“Yes, headmaster, though I do not know how memories are stored in there” - Harry kept his eyes barely open, peeking at the grandfatherly person near his bed, hope rekindled in his voice.

“There’s no spell for that - you just need to think about the memory you want to view and slowly pull your wand from your temple” - Dumbledore explained slowly as he took a miniature pensieve from his pocket and expanded it to full size. 

 

“Ah, shrinking charms are such useful things”

 

Harry managed to get silvery liquid from his temple - he chose Voldemort's return as he felt that being the most important event he knew of.

 

“There Harry, now just drop it in here and we can view it”

 

Silver liquid was poured inside and the pensieve surface stirred, as if to show the preview of memory as usual, yet instead an image of clock appeared.

 

“Now this is most curious, I don’t suppose that is part of what you wanted to show my boy?” - Dumbledore had a curious look in his eyes as he glanced at Harry, noticing that the boy was in shock.

 

“No, this is, this is what appears when time goes back…”

 

“I don’t suppose it will happen if we view the memory then?”

 

“I do not  know…. It could….”

 

“Well, do you want to test this theory of yours? But of course us Gryffindors never lacked the braveness for things like this… ”

 

“Wait! What if it does, how do I prevent you from trying to see it again, the next time?”

 

Dumbledore paused, almost touching the memory, then smiled.

 

“You could say ‘Twix’ - it's sufficient proof of the future, it’s actually a muggle chocolate bar I was fond of recently and I was planning on setting my office password to it for the next few weeks… ”

 

Harry just nodded as the headmaster entered the memories, then reached out to touch the silver liquid as well, only to stop midway as the now familiar scene resurfaced again - the time slowed down.

 

<><><><><><><>

 

“Twix”

 

“I’m sorry? What do you mean my boy?” - Dumbledore had a shocked look on his face as he eyed Harry in a different way than usual, there was…. Suspicion of sorts? He also seemed to avoid his eyes, instead gazing thoughtfully at his scar… 

 

“This is my proof of the future, headmaster, you told me yourself to tell this, oh you also mentioned this will be your office password soon”

 

“Calm down Harry. Yes I suppose I was planning to use that password and I don’t suppose you suddenly became a master Legilimens or deviation expert to have such knowledge ....”

 

“What is Legilimency?”

 

“Ah, it’s an art of reading and invading the minds of others, it’s strictly regulated by ministry and only allowed for mind healers and interrogations by aurors. It’s not something we teach at Hogwartz, it’s almost classified as dark even, very few people ever learn it, one of the ones I know being great at it was Tom Riddle… or should I say is?” - trailed off headmaster as he suddenly gazed into Harry's eyes… There was suddenly a lot of pain as Harry held his head in a headache.

 

“I’m sorry my boy, but I must check that he did not take control of you, it’s all for greater good, just bear with it, I will remove those painful memories later…”

 

Harry clutched his head in pain as he felt headmaster quickly walking along in his memories, but eventually he reached a point where his time travel incident happened - headmaster opened his mouth as if to say something than clutched his head as well - with even more force than Harry, as the world slowed down again… 

<><><><><><><><>

 

Harry had enough of this and decided that this time he won’t tell a soul a thing. Maybe this time he would not be brought back to this moment again and so soon. He needed some time to think things over and apparently his most well-read friend could not help him out much.

 

Instead of his usual time rewind story he just casually asked his friend - “Say Mione, have you ever heard about Legilimency?”

Hermione looked at him with a look that expressed wonder for his lack of knowledge - “Yes of course, have you never heard about Occlumency and Legilimency? Occlumency is the art of protecting the mind while the other one is attacking the mind, which allows reading minds, as far as I read it’s illegal and can only be used by certified medi witches to cure mind ailment, it’s said master Legillmens can invade unprotected minds with just a look into the eyes. Occlumency on other hand is legal, but I could not find a book anywhere that teaches how to actually do it, perhaps it’s dangerous for underage wizards and was put in a restricted section?” - She pondered seemingly deep in thought, missing Harry’s eyes flashing with brief surprise and realisation, then as if remembering something Hermione asked back - “why do you ask?”

 

“I just suddenly got curious, I never heard about those things, I should definitely read up a lot more about the wizarding world, could you recommend some good books about it - it’s not like I have anything else I can do at Dursleys in summer except reading. I somehow have a lot of time in the summer that I’m not using properly?”

 

“Yes!” - his friend replied, thrill and excitement clearly felt in her tone - “Well starting first, have you read Hogwarts: a history? How about 100 charms every wizard should know?....”

 

The discussion followed all the way to the hospital wing, Harry thought he could write a book just listing all suggestions as he realised just how well read Hermione was - he knew she read a lot, but he never knew she read THAT much.

Harry made a mental list of things to read as he drifted off to sleep. The next day the talk with the headmaster happened again - Harry just did the same things as usual, only trying to think about the first Sirius rescue, now aware that the headmaster could surf his mind when he wanted. Harry made sure not to think of any time travel problems when he gazed into the headmaster's eyes through conversation.  And this time nothing happened - the time flowed on.