FicWad: fresh-picked original and fan fiction

"I don't think this is the room," Harry said, using his wand to illuminate the area. He was about to turn away when some glittering gold caught his eye.

There on the shelf in the corner were three rows of familiar looking hourglasses of varying size. A plan formed in his head. It could potentially rip the universe apart and was outrageous to even consider. But what did he have to lose? If he managed it he could change everything!

Hermione was looking at the rare books on the other side of the room, Ron was poking at a some sort of brain in a jar of liquid with his wand and Luna and Ginny were around the corner.

/Good, none of them are watching/. Harry scooped up arow of the different sized hourglasses and looped their chains around his neck.

He was about to take the next row when Ron let out a yell. The brain had latched onto his arm. Ron flailed and the brain flew from his arm and smashed through the remaining time turners, destroying them.

Harry cursed silently. He had been busy trying to aim his wand at the brain and wasn't able to react fast enough. Tucking the time turners into his jumper, he cast a quick concealment and unbreakable spell on them.

The group moved to the next room. It was enormous - filled with hundreds of rows of 10 storey high shelves. On each shelf there were hundreds of dimly glowing spheres.

/This is it/.

"Come on, Sirius should be in this room."

They split up into two groups after Harry told them what row number to look for. They all arrived at where Sirius was supposed to be at the same time.

He wasn't there.

It's a trap. Harry wanted to scream at himself for being so stupid. Why had he believed Kreacher?

Before any of them could move, there were multiple pops. The Death Eaters had arrived. Their pearly white masks shone ominously in the low artificial light.

"Give us the prophecy, Potter," the silky voice of Lucius Malfoy said.

Harry had a blank look on his face. What is he talking about? He voiced this thought.

Neville's spoke up hesitantly, "I think he means this one, Harry."

Harry glanced quickly at Neville. He was pointing at one of the spheres.

"It-it has your name on it," Neville said quietly.

Harry quickly looked back at Lucius. "Get it yourself," he said defiantly.

Some laughter broke out amongst the Death Eaters.

"Why would I have waited until now, if I could have taken it at any time?" Lucius said.

The gears turned in Harry's head, "I'm not letting you have it."

"/Avada Kedavra!/"

The sickly green bolt erupted from another Death Eater's wand. Harry managed to sidestep it just in time, forgetting that Ginny was behind him. It slammed into her and she slumped to the floor, lifeless.

Ron cried out as his sister died before his eyes. He pointed his wand at Harry.

"You! It's all your fault!" he cried, tears forming.

Neville wasted no time in firing curses at the Death Eater who had killed Ginny. "/Reducto, fessus, clavus offigo,putresco, detrunco," /he said with such speed that the colours blended together. The first spell's aim was true and it collided with the Death Eater. His ribs caved in and were pushed out the other side; heavy droplets of blood coated the mask of the Death Eater behind. His right lung was pushed through the hole that was created, dangling and barely attached to his trachea.

The other spell to hit, 'clavus offigo' drove a steel lance through the Death Eater's chest. It penetrated through his body, piercing his heart and pushing it a metre outside of his body. His heart had been ripped from the aorta and blood was spurting out of the gaping cavity in his chest. The heart was dripping onto the floor, creating a small pool of crimson liquid. The man fell to his knees, took one last shuddering gasp and fell face flat on the ground, driving the spike further through him.

The heart on the spike slid down, leaving a trail of red.

Neville fainted at the gruesome sight and Hermione and Ron looked rather green. Luna was nonchalant as usual.

Harry was surprised that the gore didn't affect him that much. Ron screamed out suddenly, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The familiar green light shot from Ron's wand and impacted Harry. Harry stood, shocked.

The Death Eaters laughed uproariously. Calming himself, Lucius spoke, "You have to mean it, Weasel. Like this. Avada Kedavra."

Ron dropped dead. Harry couldn't bring himself to feel sad -Ron had just tried to kill him after all.

Hermione had tear tracks along her face. Luna was nonchalant.

Harry looked to his remaining friends. They looked at each other for a few seconds and then sprung into action. Harry managed to catch Lucius off guard with a Reductor curse he had deliberately mis-aimed. It hit his arm and exploded it in a shower of blood and bone. A sharp piece of bone jutted out from the remaining stump. It quickly coloured red as blood dripped from his arm. He cast a flame curse at it, cauterising it carelessly. Some flesh burned away and the bone blackened but his wound had stopped leaking.

The distraction gave Harry the time he needed to fire off ashrapnel curse. Bits of white hot metal shredded Lucius' face and neck, ruining his visage forever. One piece lodged itself in his throat and another sliced through his jugular. Blood gushed out of his neck as he struggled to breathe.

He died bathed in his own blood.

Ron had been hit by some stray curses, mutilating his dead body beyond recognition. His head had toppled off and some blood drained out of his neck.

Hermione had been bound by ropes and lay moaning piteously on the ground. A couple of Death Eaters were forcing themselves on her, ripping away her clothes and opening their own robes.

Luna was fighting the only other Death Eater. Harry quickly revived Neville. Neville came to his senses quickly and jumped up, momentarily surprised by the chaos, and ran and tackled the Death Eater raping Hermione.

Neville slugged the Death Eater in the face until he had been reduced to a bloody pulp. The Death Eater was definitely dead. Harry, meanwhile, took on the other one. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to cast the castration hex on the Death Eater while his manhood was in Hermione's mouth.

The Death Eater screamed as his testicles were ripped off and he pulled away from Hermione. They fell off into her mouth as the Death Eater bled to death.

Hermione gagged on the nut sack and vomited but because she was lying down on the floor, she suffocated on her own vomit and died before Harry was able to do anything about it.

Neville was running towards him and tripped over Lucius, impaling his eye on the spike through the man he had killed earlier. His eye burst in a spray of juice and the spike went through Neville's brain, killing him instantly. It went all the way through his skull splattered blood and brain matter all over the floor. Neville slid down the spike, pushing down the heart even further before coming to a rest where the spike was wider than his eye socket.

Harry turned away. Luna and the Death Eater she was fighting were nowhere to be seen.

"Luna!" he called out.

Her voice floated from behind one of the shelves, "Over here, Harry."

When he found her, she was standing over the body of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"What happened?"

"I bumped the shelf accidentally and she got hit on the head with a prophecy orb."

Harry blinked.

"She might wake up soon," she said.

Harry looked at Bellatrix lying on the floor.

"/Reducto/,"/ /he muttered, aiming straight at her heart. Her chest exploded, splashing Luna and Harry with bits of flesh. The Reductor cratered the floor below and Harry realised he had made a bad mistake.

"Let's go!" he shouted. He turned to Luna. "Luna?" Her body lay on the ground and her blonde hair was quickly becoming saturated with red. A glass ball was rolling away from her body slowly.

Harry bent down and put his fingers to her neck. No pulse.

He sighed. He hadn't had enough time to save any of his friends.

What am I talking about, I have all the time in the world, he thought, remembering the time turners he had stolen.

I may as well go back as far as I can. So much has gone wrong. But if I am going back that far, I might need some money.

His mind made up, he rushed out of the Department of Mysteries just in time - the Order was arriving.

He reached the atrium and was running as fast as he could toward the entrance. Suddenly, he stopped and whacked himself in the forehead. There were dozens of fireplaces surrounding him.

He lit one, threw in some Floo powder from the jar on the mantle and was soon hurtling to Gringotts.

He fell clumsily from a fireplace in Gringotts, robes covered in soot. Brushing himself off as he stood up, Harry oriented himself. He was in the main hall of Gringotts. He walked to the closest teller, surprised somewhat that the bank was still open at nine o'clock.

"Hello, could I speak to ..Griphook?" he asked, saying the name of the only goblin he had met.

The goblin gave a sneer. "Griphook is dead." He bared his bloodied yellow teeth, "I just ate him."

Oh.

"Okay, then. Could I see how much I have in my vaults?"

The goblin gestured to a small golden spike. Harry pricked his finger on it and squeezed out a few drops onto the small gold plate in front of the spike.

A piece of parchment was ejected from a slot on the goblin's desk, which Harry took.

Harry James Potter, Forty Seventh Duke Potter

Account balance:
Vault 7 - 14,940,384g 3s 5k.
Vault 687 - 29,900g

Vault 7 contains stored assets valued at approx. 9million galleons.

"Can I withdraw my entire account?"

The goblin snarled. "You may. It will cost you a 500 galleon fee to move to a place of your choosing. We can supply you with an enchanted trunk for an extra 500 galleons."

Harry nodded. "I'd like it in one of those trunks," he said.

The goblin snapped his fingers and not five minutes later, another goblin carried the trunk to where Harry was standing.

"It is done. Since you are no longer a Gringotts customer and are not looking to become a Gringotts customer, get the fuck out." The goblin pointed a gnarled finger at the door.

Harry picked up the trunk and almost fell over, not realising that it had been featherweighted. He left Gringotts with his new trunk and walked to the Leaky Cauldron. In the space behind the Leaky Cauldron, Harry waited for the gateway to Diagon Alley to close before he dispelled the concealment on the time turners.

Stuffing his wand in his pocket, he held tightly onto the trunk and spun the largest hourglass once. Time rewound in front of his eyes. Several cycles of day and night happened in reverse, Harry lost count after fifteen.

Eventually time slowed to the normal pace. It took a minute before Harry stopped feeling dizzy. Harry whipped out his wand, "/Tempus./"

An ethereal blue mist shot from his wand and formed numbers.

2127 19051996 47061

No one had ever figured out what the last five numbers meant but they were always the same. The time turner had taken him three weeks into the past. Not a bad start but nowhere near the amount of time he had wanted to travel.

Putting his wand away, he turned over the same hourglass half a dozen times. The world started to spin. He then did the same for the next largest one. The world spun faster. He did the same for two more time turners. The world had blurred into a single colour.

He spun the last time turner. The world seemed to be compressing around him. Abruptly, the world collapsed into him and exploded outwards again and stopped spinning altogether.

Harry fell to the ground, feeling sick. After a few deep breaths, he sat up. His chest was feeling warm - the time turners were incredibly hot. He ripped them from around his neck and threw them to the ground. They didn't break due to the charm he had used in the Department of Mysteries. Ignoring them for now, he drew his wand.

"/Tempus."/

The familiar mist erupted from the tip of his wand.

0927 230893 47062

What. /47062./

"That's different," he said to himself. He shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

It was still the same. Shrugging, Harry thought about the date instead. It was just before his third year at Hogwarts. That wasn't ideal; he had wanted to go back far enough to prevent the death of his parents.

He picked up the hourglasses - they had cooled down enough for him to touch them but noted with shock that the Sand of Time in all but one, the smallest, had been fused into lumps.

As far as he knew, they were useless now. The smallest one was even smaller than the one Hermione had, probably only capable of half an hour per turn.

Harry stepped into the Leaky Cauldron. It was reasonably busy. Most people had probably come for school supplies and stopped for some breakfast. Sitting down at a stool in front of the bar, he ordered some bacon and eggs with toast.

Harry looked around. Everything was the same but Harry felt there was something missing.

1993 is better than nothing, I guess. At least I'll be able to save Cedric and Sirius.

Sirius/. /The Wanted posters were missing.


Harry wandered along Diagon Alley, noticing several alarming differences, such as the coffee shop he had never seen before.

Harry entered the coffee shop and sat in the booth at the back. He needed to think.

A voice broke him out of his reverie.

"Hi there, what can I get y-"

Her voice cut off as he looked up at her. Her eyes were wide and Harry's breath hitched.

The waitress had wavy dark red hair and bright green eyes.

Harry opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. This girl was obviously too young to be his mother and on closer inspection looked quite different to Lily.

"Who are you?" she blurted out

"Harry. Who are /you?/"

The girl was silent for a moment.

"I'm Evie. What can I get you?" she asked

"May I have a strawberry shake, please?"

"Anything else?"

"No, thank you."

Evie delivered his shake a few minutes later, lingering for a few moments. As she turned to serve someone else, Harry made a decision.

"Evie, wait! When does your shift finish?" he asked

She had a puzzled expression, "In about twenty minutes, why do you ask?"

"I..er..would you like to get lunch..with me?"

Evie smiled, Harry's couldn't stop himself from staring at her rosy lips.

"Sure, I'd like that." Harry's eyes snapped back up to hers. Her green eyes, he noticed, were closer to jade than emerald.

Harry grinned, "Great, I'll hang around until you're done."

Evie flashed him another smile and left to attend to a woman in the booth nearest to Harry.

For the next half an hour, Harry nursed his milkshake (with actual strawberries!) as he thought over some things.

Why does Evie look sort of like mum? Why did that number in the time change when it had remained the same for as long as anyone could remember?

Soon Harry was interrupted by Evie, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, I had to tell my godfather where I was going." She had tied her hair up in a ponytail and was no longer wearing her apron.

"Don't worry about it," Harry said, waving it off as he stood up.

"My godfather started this coffee shop after..after my parents died," she said, looking down.

"Hey," Harry said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder, "I think I can relate. My parents died when I was one."

Evie looked up, surprised by the revelation.

"Do you have any preferences?" he asked



She was momentarily confused, "Oh, right, um, I've heard that the hotel at the end of the Alley does pretty good lunches."


When they arrived at the hotel, Harry asked for a private table for two.

They were given a table on the balcony. It had a rather nice view, though Harry suspected that it was actually an illusion. There was no one else sitting up there and the weather was brilliant.

"So, Evie," he asked, "do you play Quidditch?"

Her eyes lit up, "I love Quidditch. I play as aChaser for Gryffindor at Hogwarts."

Harry was really confused now. He would have remembered her if she was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Speaking of Hogwarts, I don't think I've seen you around before," she said.

How can she have not seen me at Hogwarts?

"Uh yeah..I was..homeschooled by my...Aunt," he said quickly. He hated lying to her but he was beginning to suspect something. "My Aunt died a couple of months ago, so I was going to write to Professor Dumbledore to see if I could attend Hogwarts," he added, the lie rolling easily off his tongue.

Evie accepted his excuse and the two made comfortable small talk.

Harry learned that her name was Evelyn Potter but she preferred Evie. His suspicions had been correct and he had finally figured out those last five numbers. He also mentally thanked his parents for not calling her Harriet. That would have been weird.

The time turners had reacted in an unexpected way. He should have known using all of them at the same time was a bad idea. He theorised that he had broken some barrier and created a rift between his original dimension, number 47061 and a neighbouring parallel dimension, 47062, where a single difference had made all the difference - the so-called Butterfly effect. In this case, Harry guessed Lily had given birth to a girl, though she was born at four past midnight on August 1 rather than the end of July. This difference could have been caused by some other difference, however, and was something that he needed to investigate.

This had made the prophecy not applicable to her, assuming the prophecy was actually the same, and Voldemort did not target her specifically.

Evelyn told Harry about the adventures she had been on with her best friends, Neville Longbottom and Daphne Greengrass. Neville, Harry guessed, was the 'Boy-Who-Lived' in this dimension.

She explained that Neville was in Hufflepuff and Daphne was in Slytherin but they had met on the train and had instantly become friends and that friendship continued despite them being in different houses.

Some events were similar, though there were others that were completely different. Sirius, for example, had never gone to Azkaban because was never suspected of betraying anyone as he was only the secret keeper for the Potters and they had been at the Longbottoms' place when it had been attacked. They had left Evie with Sirius at Godric's Hollow that night.

This explained the lack of Wanted posters.

He was shocked to learn that Ginny Weasley had died in the Chamber of Secrets. Sixteen year old Tom Riddle had been defeated by Dumbledore when he emerged from the Chamber. Dumbledore had had Fawkes go into the Chamber to disable the Basilisk and retrieve Ginny's body. Ron Weasley blamed it on Evelyn because everyone had discovered she could speak to snakes when Gilderoy Lockhart held a duelling competition. He claimed that she was the Heir of Slytherin even after Dumbledore had told the whole school that it had been Voldemort.

Ron had been expelled after he attempted the Cruciatus curse on her. The Ministry could not legally send him to Azkaban until he turned 15, so until then they kept him in a holding cell in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Harry made a mental note to look up their ancestry, there was no other possible way Evelyn could be a parseltongue.

She had been raised solely by Sirius and Harry had to admit, Sirius had done a brilliant job. The extra ten years of healthy eating had her in a much better shape than he had been at 13.

Last year, he had visited Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing because he was skin and bone and his endurance had declined drastically since he had stopped being chased by his cousin. He had barely had enough energy to get up in the mornings. The kind nurse had supplied him with a course of nutrient and strengthening potions that had gotten him into better shape. Harry also exercised, both for Quidditch and his personal well-being. He had shot up to just above the average height for males by the middle of fifth year.

Harry and Evelyn talked for hours about their lives and life in general. Harry was amazed at how well they were getting along -he couldn't remember ever feeling this comfortable with anyone. Conversation for Harry used to be somewhat of a chore as it was always awkward and filled with uncomfortable silence. Growing up with the Dursleys had dampened his self-esteem and ruined his social skills, yet with Evie, conversation came naturally. It was nice to be able to just talk about nothing in particular.

He chuckled when she told him that she was rubbish at potions. In some ways she was eerily like him - she had many of the same flaws and quirks - but she was quite different as well - most likely influences from her friends and Sirius. She, for instance, followed a league Quidditch team almost as fanatically as Ron had but she couldn't stand tea, something that Harry couldn't live without. Harry had no explanation as to how she had ended up so similar despite their completely different upbringing.

Harry caught himself checking her out a few times. She had an incredible figure: even at 13 she was already well-developed. He knew he shouldn't have been looking at her in that way but couldn't deny that he was attracted to her. To Harry, she was the most perfect girl he had ever met, alike him and able to understand him in a way that no other girl ever would be. From what little anatomy he knew, Harry knew that half of his genes were exactly the same as half of Evelyn's, since they had likely been conceived at the same time and therefore had both come from the same egg. They were probably a lot more closely related than a normal brother and sister. Harry found that their being related didn't really bother him - he had never been properly taught what was wrong and right but he knew that what felt /right, /was.

Harry sighed to himself. If she knew the truth, she would probably see him as a brother and while Harry had always wanted a sibling, it would hurt to know that she would never like him in the way he desired.



Harry decided to just forget about it for now and enjoy the rest of his lunch date.


"I had a great time, Harry. Thank you," she said. They had lost track of time and the sun had already set.

"I did too; it was great to just talk. We'll have to do this again some time," Harry replied.

She grinned and said, "Are you free on Friday?"

Harry nodded, "I'll meet you at the coffee shop at 1?"

"Sure, maybe you can meet Sirius, you two would get along great," she said

Harry reached out and brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear. Evie blushed at the seemingly innocent gesture. He drew her in for ahug and pecked her cheek.

Releasing her, he said, "I'll see you on Friday. Goodnight Evie."



"Goodnight, Harry."


1992:

Neville entered his room, tired and sweaty from working in the greenhouse all day. He was shocked to see a house elf that he didn't recognise sitting on his bed.

"Dobby has come to tell the great Neville Longbottom sir that he must not return to Hogwarts," the elf simpered.

"What!? Why?"

"It is too dangerous. Dobby's master is plotting something." Dobby proceeded to bash his head against the wall.

"Bad Dobby, bad Dobby," he said.

Neville was just confused. "Dobby stop doing that! You'll wake up my gran. Who's your master?"

"Dobby cannot say but great sir must promise to Dobby that he will not go back to Hogwarts."

"I want to go back to Hogwarts, though."

"Dobby had thought that if you weren't getting letters from friends great sir would not want to return."

"Wait, how do you know about me not getting any letters?"

Dobby produced a stack of envelopes. "Give me those, Dobby!" Neville cried as he lunged at the elf

Dobby popped and appeared behind Neville. "Dobby will not give them to you unless you promise."

Neville drew his wand, "Dobby! I'm going to Hogwarts." He spun around. The elf disappeared.

Neville turned around again and thrust his wand forward, ready for Dobby to appear. Dobby appeared at that same instant and was impaled on Neville's wand.

Neville looked down his wand.

Dobby slid off the wand and dropped to the ground, brown blood oozing out of the hole where his wand had been.

"Whoops." At least he could read his damn mail now.

Log in to rate and review this story

You won't see stories with a lower score when you browse or search. Log in to adjust filter.