Harry was rubbing his forehead - he was back at the Burrow and what a welcome back that was…. Mrs Weasley, who did not travel with them, was already waiting for them at the entrance when they arrived, a mix of fury and worry on her face. Then all of them were on the receiving end of her shouting and bickering, followed by hugs, then an apology for Harry - Molly did not know he was hurt, followed by more shouting on why they did not protect their guest, and why Harry was separated from them… 

 

Still no one could find any faults with his restroom excuse, then getting lost in the chaos - Mrs Weasley initially bickered on why the boy got into fights in the first place, yet a timely retort of ‘should I just let them cut me to pieces or fight back in defence?’ saved the black haired boy from more lectures of his behaviour..

 

What followed back inside were even more questions about Victor Krum and his riot adventures - Ron was especially curious about the world's current best seeker. Hermione, similarly to Molly, was giving speeches on what he should have done - namely seeking cover and escaping, not going to fight.

 

After such an eventful night Harry’s head was now faintly throbbed in pain, he sighed and relaxed in his bed, deciding to go to sleep early - thankfully Ron stopped his bickering and was now playing chess with Percy, giving the boy a much needed silence. Harry did take some muggle painkillers recently - unfortunately wizarding kind did not have much of a shelf life, hence he needed to wait for muggle ones to kick in, sure they were not as fast working as magical ones, but they did the job.

 

He laid there with his eyes closed, and eventually his headache ceased, yet as he was about to drift to sleep an irritating sound brought him back to reality.

 

Opening his sticky eyelids the boy quickly identified the source - there was an owl at the window, he grabbed his glasses from the bedside drawer and with an irritated growl got out of bed.

 

Now with glasses on he could tell whose owl it was - it was a familiar owl from his friend Daphne. The boy let the creature in, seemingly not noticing his irritation easing and his face relaxing. He took the owl snacks bag from the window still and poured a small pile to the owl, then unfolded the letter, eyes quickly running across the lines - a small smile spread on his face - it looks like he would be meeting Daphne before the train - then he scribbled an affirmative response and sent the owl on the way.

 

The boy was back in bed,a peaceful smile on his face as he finally drifted to sleep.

---

Dumbledore was an early riser - perhaps due to old age, perhaps out of habit, but  he was usually already wide awake even before muggles went for their morning jogs or dog walking activities.

 

Today was largely any different, on the first crack of dawn, the headmaster's eyes opened, a lazy hand wave was all he needed for his pyjamas to morph to his attire for the day, an animated toothbrush to brush his teeth, a flying water sphere with a just right amount of soup mixed in to scrub his body with a sponge and wash the sleepiness from his face. 

Yes, after so many years Albus simplified his morning routine somewhat - it used to annoy him of wasting take just doing the same thing over and over again - so he took some time to develop a few spells for that, then optimise them over the years… and now all it took was one wave of his arm - he was not even concentrating on the magic at hand, not anymore - the action engraved in him as a habit.

 

The all freshened up headmaster looked towards the Fawkes perch - the bird was not there yet - unlike the punctual headmaster, his familiar lived a more random life, being a magical phoenix the closed windows and doors in the office was hardly a challenge for the bird to bypass as he pleased.

 

Dumbledore just shrugged and went to his desk - he initially planned to flame over to the great hall for breakfast, in case Fawkes was there, but he might as well just eat at the office - it's not like he had anything to say to the teachers at the great hall today - they would have a meeting later for school affairs later anyway.

 

Soon the headmaster sat in his armchair, silently drinking his steaming hot lemon tea along with some lemon biscuits, a nearly empty plate which used to have dozens of pancakes lay empty near his side - Hogwarts elves' cooking was as great as usual.

 

While eating he mused over the recent events - yes the riot was something he did not predict so he did have to read all the reports about it. Unfortunately the ministry investigation took their sweet time - so after confirming the key point - ‘no one died’ headmaster just went to sleep.

 

Yes he did see a lot of mentions of the dark mark - but frankly it was simply a spell, heck even he could cast it - it was basically some sort of custom firework Voldemort designed, entwined with the mark on his followers arms.

 

Glancing at his reports pile he saw he had quite some pages to read - he sadly nodded his head, unexpected events like this are outside his predictions - hence the extra material to read. Looks like the fantasy novel he started last weekend would have to wait…

 

A familiar ding interrupted his thoughts and he looked towards the window - it was just the daily prophet flying inside, bypassing the wall. 

 

Yes flying he ordered the newspaper to some abandoned muggle postbox - which he charmed so that anything addressed to him would transfigure into a bird and fly to him - he even added some nifty charms on top, granting it ability to bypass walls, invisibility from muggles and most wizard kind, even simple detection spells to filter out harmful letters - it was worth the time as he frankly had quite a few dozen of subscriptions, Daily Prophet was just the only daily one.

 

Unfolding the newspaper Albus took another sip of lemon tea - the sweet-sour taste feeling as refreshing as always in his mouth. He glanced at the front page in amusement, wondering what bullshit cover up would the riot get. 

 

So far the photo did not disappoint him - it was of a death mark rising in the sky. Chuckling he started reading.

 

He chuckled seeing the all familiar death eater attire, yet the article wrote ‘too excited and drunk spectators started causing chaos’. 

 

Going over the first page he noted it summarised the major events quite well, albeit they could have focused more on the riot, not on the tournament activities. Looking at the headings of articles he noted that the rest of the paper only had two more articles of news - other being usual propaganda for business advertisement or just events he frankly did not care about - he could live without knowing who won Witch Weekly's most charming smile award this year.

 

One of said articles was a detailed cover of the quidditch match, with photos of key moments, Albus pondered and decided to skip it too - he had seen so many quidditch games in his life, and he doubted anything could surprise him anymore.

 

The other article seemed intriguing - “Heroes of the riot” - page two he noted.

 

Another greedy gulp of tea later, Albus turned the page, then looked at the full title as his eyes bulged out and he spat the liquid out and started coughing.

 

The title of the second page article read ‘Heroes of the Riot Wand and Wand Together: Potter and Krum Face down the rioters!’

 

Albus did a reread, then another - the title did not change, he even noticed a large photo of Krum striking down a death eater with a sneak attack, and another of Potter dropping a… piano on top of another black hooded figure - it was a bit blurry with cracked edges - a clear sign of cruciatus after-effects on memories - well hardly anyone knew this fact.

Dumbledore just felt a headache approaching… He glanced towards the looming pile of reports on his desk - it looks like he has some reading to catch up on.

---

It was a usual morning in the Burrow - Weasleys running around, eating a large breakfast with a variety matching even  the great hall feasts. There were pancakes, bacon, sausages, salad, various juices, teas, even coffee for Hermione - she taught Mrs Weasley how to make it just a few days ago, and now it even had a small drawing of Hermione's cat made from foam on top - Harry had to admit, Molly was an amazing cook.

 

The black haired boy was happily snacking on a small mountain of pancakes himself, suddenly he had a bad premonition and felt foreign, yet familiar magic coming towards him.

 

Panicking he looked towards the source - he saw an unfamiliar owl bringing a red letter to him. A howler! - his eyes bulged out from realisation, glancing around he saw that no one else noticed it yet, so he excused himself and went outside, his slow walking picking up speed as he even jogged to the edge of the Burrow wards.

 

The letter dropped and started flying towards him, glancing around he noticed Fred and George coming towards him - they likely noticed his unusual leave and decided to tag along, they had sheepish smiles on their faces - seemingly having noticed the red letter as well.

 

Harry braced himself, blocking his ears - he knew howlers were loud enough to be heard anyway.

 

“BOO!”

 

The boy was shocked, that… did not seem like an usual howler did it? Not hearing any more sounds he carefully unblocked his ears - now he could hear a normal volume of laughter - one he was quite familiar with - his godfather, Sirius Black!

 

Eventually the laughter died off as Sirius regained his composure. His normal volume voice then spoke to Harry - “Oh I’m sorry Harry, Dobby told me all about the championship, I am so proud of you!  I would appreciate it if you send me a letter if something similar happens again you know… I was worried for you….  By the way, how did you like my howler?”

With more chuckles the letter disintegrated into magical particles, then more laughter followed - this time it was the twins, from afar he could see other Weasleys and Hermione incoming - perhaps they did not hear the whole letter, but they at least heard the ‘boo’. Harry himself was beet red from embarrassment. He had to admit, his godfather was and still is a great marauder.

---

A quiet pop sounded as the golden trio materialised at the Diagon Alley, grinning Harry turned to his nearly green friends.

 

“So how do you like side-along apparition?”

 

Ron just belched as he tried his best holding in his puke. Hermione looked a tad better as she even managed to let out a sentence with a weak voice - “Is it always so…. Horrible?”

 

Harry was amused with his friends conditions - he remembered feeling similarly on his first portkey travel - “Yes, I used to get green too, but frankly side-alonging is worse than doing it yourself”

 

A minute later colour returned to his friends faces.

 

“Do you have any place in particular you want to visit?” - Harry asked his companions - “We will still need to pop over to Kings Cross to board the train”

 

The due slightly paled from the news - who knew apparition was so nauseating?

 

“I am suddenly so grateful that you took our trunks with you, Harry” - Hermione gave a brief glance to Harry’s pocket trunk, where all their baggage rested - if not for that they would have needed to pop over to the Burrow first and pick up their stuff… 

 

“Yes, thanks for that pal” - Ron was the same, yet his gaze seemingly had a spark of jealousy for this fancy trunk.

 

“You’re welcome!”

 

Ron looked at the ground, mildly embarrassed - “ I just came over to experience apparition… And keep you company Harry, I will just follow you“

 

“If we have nothing to do we can always just browse books in the bookstore… ” - Hermione offered, she too just wanted to experience apparition herself, and skip the crammed taxi with Weasleys too.

 

Harry rolled his eyes - “Feel free to browse the books, I will come back to pick you up, I am heading to the Green alley myself, you see I have an appointment to keep”

 

“Green alley?” - Hermione's confused expression was a delight to see, it was a rare occurrence for the girl to not know something.

 

Meanwhile Ron looked shocked and horrified by the fact - “Isn't that owned by some Slytherin family? How can you possibly go there, Harry?”

 

Harry just rolled his eyes, noting he was doing that a lot these days - “Yes Green alley, it's quite near here, their library has some different shelves than the one here in Diagon” - Harry could already see Hermione’s eyes sparkling - “And Ron, it is owned by a magical family - same as Weasleys - just because most family members happen to be from Slytherin does not make it evil in any way”

 

“But it's Slytherin! Of course it's evil! Most dark wizards are from Slytherin!”

 

Harry and Hermione shared a sigh, a brief exchange of glances determined their speaking order of trying to bring more sense to their red headed friend.

 

“But Ron, as you mentioned most dark wizards are from Slytherin - which means some are from Gryffindor and other houses!”

 

Ron was now mouth agape, trying hard to process the words, yet finding no fault in their logic - “Surely not Gryffindor!” - he glanced at the girl nicknamed ‘know-it-all’.

 

Hermione nodded her head - “I am afraid so Ron, I remember reading about a few of them in ‘Hogwarts a history’, and there are also dozens of dark wizards who’s identifies remain secret to this day, but it is known they were from Hogwarts”

 

Ron seemed lost for words, so Harry drove one more argument in, which should work for this family boy - “You know, roughly a quarter of ministry employees are from Slytherin - your dad’s coworkers, surely they  can’t all be bad people, you know? Just because they were in the Slytherin, I don’t remember your father arguing with anyone other than Lucius Malfoy, which looks like a more personal grudge, is it not?”

 

It took a minute for Ron to digest what he heard, he weakly nodded his head - perhaps finally convinced.

 

The trio enjoyed a minute of silence. Until Hermione broke the silence - “So Harry, who is the friend you’re meeting? Is it anyone we know?”

 

“Daphne Greengrass”

 

Hermione just nodded - she memorised her classmates quite well, the girl was good, even better than her on potions!

 

Ron on the other hand was mouth agape once again - how easy it was to surprise this boy?

 

“That Daphne? The Slytherin Ice princess?”

 

Harry chuckled - he almost forgot his new friend had that nickname at school, then he  raised an eyebrow at his red-headed friend  - “You know of any other Daphne’s in our year?”

 

Not long after they finally arrived. Hermione was seemingly keen on visiting the bookshop and dragged Ron along, who initially resisted, well until Harry offhandedly mentioned that it has Chudley Cannons quidditch tournament records, with pictures of best game scenes - which he casually flipped through the time he was browsing all the books. Harry himself did not really care that much about this bottom ladder team, yet he knew his friend was a huge fan of it.

 

Now the boy was finally alone as he took the all familiar path towards the small cafe near the learning centre.

---

“And this concludes our pre-school meeting, now Filius do not forget that it's your turn this year to lead the first years to the hal for sorting and introduce them to school, while Ruberus will lead them to the gate and Minerva will organise the sorting as usual”

 

The staff meeting finally ended - Dumbledore popped down a lemon drop to relax as he followed with his gaze all teachers leaving the room, all but one.

 

“Anything a concern of yours, Severus?”

 

Snape’s cape did a dramatic flash as the greasy haired professor walked to his desk and dropped a newspaper on Albus desk, the familiar article open for him to see.

 

“Can you explain to me what the hell Potter has been up to?”

 

“Now, not to worry, Severus, Harry simply saved some muggles - nothing to worry about”

 

“Not to worry you say? I made an OATH to protect the boy, he could have died, I would be DEAD if that happened!”

 

Headmaster let out a tired sigh, then looked out of the window - “We both know Voldemort is coming back - we just don’t know exactly when this will happen, unfortunately I suspect it will happen soon” - he turned his gaze to the potions master - “so do you prefer the boy to be defenceless at the time the dark lord comes back for revenge or to be able to put up a fight at least?”

 

“But initially you said”

 

“SEVERUS, Calm down, the boy is well now, I suppose I should show this for you now if you’re going to over-react over every little thing” - Dumbledoer shuffled over a large pile of papers near him, then pushed a couple to now somewhat calmer potions master.

 

Curious Snape took a glance at both pages, he hardly showed his surprise on his face, yet Albus could tell he was mildly surprised, perhaps even impressed.

 

“Apparition and duelling classes finished at Green summer teaching centre with outstanding grades”

 

Another paper was pushed towards him - now surprise was clearly seen on Snape’s face as he read and reread that one.

 

“A return… on remaining Occlumency lessons fee as the professor HAD NOTHING LEFT to teach him?”

 

“Yes, curious indeed, don’t you think so? I know that professor myself in fact, a former war veteran” - he locked eyes with Snape - “I wrote to him to ask and he claimed the boy was a natural - his mind defences on par with mine, can you believe it, such talent? Still he had no defences whatsoever before summer”

 

Severus' face took a more serious look as he caught on to what Albus implied - “Do you suspect that the dark lord soul fragment… ?”

 

Dumbledore slowly nodded, with a sad look in his face - “It is a possibility, I am afraid we must keep him under watch even more now, while his actions does not suit Tom’s style it could be a ploy by him”

 

A silent minute followed, until Severus broke the silence - “If his defences are so good, how will we monitor his mind… condition?”

 

Albus let out a sigh - “Think Severus, his mind is well defended, yet all his friends are open for us to see - or do you believe Weasleys suddenly started learning occlumency?”

 

Potions master’s face twitched in response as Dumbledore continued his speech - “And prepare some more potent truth serum for this year - while one could in theory get used to regular one over the summer, not even I could guard against a truly potent one”

 

Severus let out a painful groan - while he loved brewing complex potions, this particular one was quite an annoying one - it would take him months to finish!

 

“As you wish, headmaster, and in case your worries come true..?”

“Then we would have to take care of him, Voldemort would lose his prophecy immortality and we would need to take care of both of them”

---

Daphne was in her casual wear, just sitting and waiting, then a smile spread on her face when she saw Harry coming from afar. She waited for him to get closer and notice her, then waved her arm for a greeting.

 

“Hello Daphne”

 

“Hello Harry”

 

The boy sat besides her - to the only other empty seat at the table.

 

“I thought you would introduce me to your friend? Where is she?”

 

Daphne just blushed - “She just realised that all of Chudley Cannons matches she only heard about during her summer trip have photos of key moments and detailed write-ups in the bookshop… And she was gone the next moment”

 

Harry was shocked for a few moments, until he broke out in laughter. Daphne gave him some time to stop laughing and looking at him, questions seemingly evident just from her glance.

 

“You see Daph, I came over with friends as well, they wanted to experience apparition, and guess where they are now… ?“

 

 “You don’t say… the bookshop?”

 

“Reading is something Hermione loves the most, so it must not be a surprise, yet for Ron… He only went there to check out the Chudley Cannons photos,,,”

 

Daphne was as if in a daze for a brief moment, then she gave the boy a sweet smile - “I guess they would get along then, so are we sharing a compartment on the express then?”

 

“Sure, by the way are you a Cannons fan as well?, we never really spoke much about Quidditch.”

 

Daphne looked around as if concerned that Tracey was back, then glanced back to Harry - “I am not a huge Quidditch fan - you could say I am a unwilling fan of Cannons coerced to by Tracey just so she would have someone to speak about it”

 

Harry grinned - “I can relate… Ron goes over that team for days, even at school”

 

His friend just chuckled in response. Their conversation flowed as they discussed what they have been up to over the past week - eventually discussing the riot events - Daphne was worried that he got hurt and got into danger, yet proud of him for standing up against those bullies. 

 

The time was moving toward - the express would be leaving soon, so they paid their bill and went to the bookshop, to look for their friends. Once there they found Hermione reading a pile of books, seemingly lost in them, after some brief introductions - being classmates the girls clearly knew each other - Harry packing her purchases to his pocket trunk and the trio went deeper into the bookstore where they could hear a heated discussion taking place.

 

Unsurprisingly, Ron and Tracey were discussing Chudley Cannons with great enthusiasm, more greetings followed and they went out to the street, where daphne touched Tracey and disappeared with a quiet pop. Harry similarly touched his friends on their backs and a quiet pop later he reunited with Daphne, near the train.

 

It did not take long to find an empty compartment, then relax as conversations started up - initially there was some sort of tension between Gryffindors and Slytherins, yet slowly they warmed up and just spoke casually. Not having interacted with other houses all that much, there were quite a few funny stories to share from their common rooms, their summer holidays, even just discussing various magical things or just their everyday lives.

 

Just as Ron and Tracey were about to start another long dialogue about why and how Chudley Cannons were the greatest ever team, the compartment door suddenly opened as the familiar blonde boy walked inside, two grunts behind him.

 

Ron and Hermione were giving the intruders hostile looks, Daphne and Tracey were quite neutral at seeing their housemate, albeit a bit upset by his impolite entrance, not even a knock!

 

Harry meanwhile just waved at the boy - “Hey Draco”

 

“Hello Potter” - Malfoy turned to his housemates - “Greengrass” - now his face seeming grimaced more and more with each name - perhaps based on their ‘blood purity’ - “Davis, Weasley, Granger”

 

Greetings were soon exchanged - to the shock of Hermione and Ron, no insults were thrown their way, not an usual Draco behaviour. Yet his gaze on them seemed to have a distinct look to it, as if labelling them - a Weasley, a mudblood, a half-blood. 

 

Draco turned to Harry - “So, Potter, are you participating in the tournament?”

 

Harry smiled in response - yes it might have been under wraps the first time, but the Triwizard Cup was well known for him, the time traveller! Heck he even knew all the tasks in advance! - “Of course, you can look forward to me winning the thing if I manage to get in!”

 

It was amusing to see everyones shocked faces, yes not even Daphne knew of the tournament this year, others were similarly confused, not knowing what they were speaking about. And Draco was shocked for the sole reason Potter knew about it! He silently checked and his occlumency shields were still in place, no sign of breach. He shrugged it off, assuming it was Dumbledore who spread the news to his ‘golden boy’.

 

“We will see, Potter”

 

And just like that the trio of intruders walked out of their compartment, the duo of Goyle Crabbe did not utter a word during their visit, which was hardly a surprise, the two buffoons were more muscle than brain.

 

Harry was now all alone to explain about the tournament to his group of friends, he realised that was why Malfoy had an amused smirk leaving just that…. 

 

“What tournament are you talking about?” - As expected, questions started pouring in, Hermione asked first, and the boy saw others were listening with keen attention.

 

“Ah you haven’t heard of Hermione? Triwizard cup is being hosted again this year”

 

“THAT Triwizard cup? Where do students actually die?” - his bushy haired friend clearly read a lot about this… 

 

Loud gasps were heard from the others. Then a lecture by Hermione followed of why Harry should not join a tournament with such a high death rate and her complaining on why they were even holding such a dangerous tournament. Ron joined the discussion claiming he was going to join as well, Daphne just facepalmed, she knew Harry was somewhat reckless, but seeking death….

 

They eventually rationalised that fourth years had no place in the tournament - probably some seventh year Hogwarts champion, Harry just smirked - they would learn with time.

 

Discussion steered to more casual topics as the journey continued and it was soon time to change their clothes, shortly after all robed young witches and wizards sat in Thestral pulled chariots, travelling to the castle, discussion somewhat stopping as they would need to part ways at the great hall - sitting on your house table for school events was one of the few Hogwarts rules.

 

Harry absentmindedly gazed out of the window looking towards the great castle getting closer. ‘‘I guess I am back to school’ he mused.

---

Department of mysteries, the time chamber was as silent as usual - well if you ignored the constant ticking of various clocks.

 

Today was the day Saul Croaker confirmed the condition of the returned time turners from Hogwarts and sent out any needed ones for promising students. In fact he had a brief meeting with Ms Mcggonald this morning to receive the no longer needed turners, it was only now that he actually had the time to inspect them.

 

It was frankly a yearly routine for him, looking over the list he was sad to see that less and less students were asking for time turners each year - inwardly pondering if this was an issue with the declining quality of students, or perhaps declining quality  of education at Hogwarts - Dumbledore did remove a lot of interesting subjects from the curriculum… 

 

Picking up one particular time turner he noticed it looked quite old, while in fact according to records it should have been fairly new, heck according to records it was made by him two years ago. He stopped his checks in confusion, then cast some of his personal spells for diagnostics - time magic was a complex thing.

 

“Interesting, over a decade, yet with student limitations of 6 hours a day, even accounting for extra 6 hours every four travels due to time travel does not account for such a large usage per year”

 

A brief glance at the list he murmured under his nose - “During the first year it was here in department, its usage classified, yet it could not have been more than a few years of extra time - it is simply not powerful enough for more!”

 

Another glance at the list he checked the student name -  “Hermione Granger, your time turner seems to have messed up the time somehow… Estimated to be 7 to 9 years older than possible… which means… “ - his eyes widened - a rare occurrence for unspeakable - “A time loop!”

 

He sighed - a mess up of this scale meant more paperwork for him, yes even unspeakables had a boss, someone they had to report to. 

 

Saul also felt a headache incoming, time loops were his least favourite occurrence in his post - various actions like reading the mind or just simply speaking with someone who knew the issue could trigger the restart with him none the wiser. 

 

Flipping through the manual he found the spell he was looking for - the only way for him to pass a message along through time, to the holder of the time turner, at the start of the loop.