Changing the Past by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: Can't stand the suspense of the last cliffhanger? Find out what happens in chapter 12...-
Harry stood up and ran over to the door, heart thumping. “What?” James asked, suddenly alarmed. “Did you forget to tell Sirius something?”
“No,” Harry said breathlessly, throwing open the door again and whipping out his wand. “I think I saw a rat slip out the door, just now.” He sprinted down the spiral staircase, in search of the culprit. Finding none, he spun around in circles a few times in the common room, looking, drawing stares from others. James also came down from the dormitories, breathlessly looking around, as well.
“I’ll go search the Hospital Wing,” James muttered, and ran out of the common room, in search of Peter. Harry ran out as well, down to the library, to inform Sirius of what he’d seen.
When he wheeled around the corner to the library at last, after being reprimanded by Madam Pince for running, he spotted Remus, sitting quietly and doing homework. “Hey, Harry,” Remus said, acknowledging Harry and returning to his work. “Need something?”
“Where’s Sirius?” Harry demanded, breathing hard.
Remus looked up again. “Haven’t seen him at all today,” he replied. “What’s up? You look like you’ve just sprinted through half of the castle.”
“I have...” Harry began, but just then, he saw Sirius walk casually into the library. He ran over to him, panicking slightly. “Sirius!” he exclaimed.
“What?” Sirius asked. “I thought I was going to tell Remus about the...”
“Forget that for now,” Harry said quickly. “We have an emergency...after you left, I saw a rat slip out of the door. A rat.”
Sirius’ eyes grew wide. “You don’t mean...”
“Is someone going to explain, or do I have to wait until you finish your little conversation?” Remus said loudly. Harry and Sirius ignored him, and sprinted out of the library, amid more shouting of protest from Madam Pince.
They didn’t stop until they reached the floor on which the Hospital Wing was. As they ran for the entrance, James walked out casually, and upon seeing them, walked over to them. “Relax,” James said, putting up both hands to signal them to stop. Harry and Sirius skidded to a stop, breathing very hard.
“Where “ Peter “ not in “ library “” Harry wheezed.
“Guys, I just saw Peter in his bed in there,” James explained calmly. “Madam Pomphrey said he’s been sleeping for nearly two hours now.”
“He must’ve “ been “ faking,” Sirius breathed, gasping.
“Couldn’t have,” James said, sighing. “She’d just given him Sleeping Potion. Said that he’d been up all night coughing and needed sleep. No one can withstand a Sleeping Potion. He hasn’t left the Hospital Wing.”
Harry didn’t understand. “Rats don’t just happen into boys’ dormitories!” he exclaimed, getting his breath back. “Especially at Hogwarts!”
“Well, I don’t know how, but it must’ve just been coincidence,” James said, shrugging. “I even asked Travis Holliday, the second-year in the bed next to Peter’s, and he said he’s been sleeping the whole time, too. There’s no way he could be in two places at once.”
That seemed to be enough for Sirius, but Harry couldn’t quite get over it. However, he had no reason to suspect Peter now, so he let it go for the time being. Meanwhile, he decided to take Hermione up on her offer to teach him Memory Charms. He caught up with her in the library, and, incidentally, she was reading a book called Memory Modification for the Magically Impaired. “Hey, Hermione,” Harry said quietly, and Hermione jumped; she’d obviously been reading without interruption for some time.
“Oh, hello Harry,” she sighed, rubbing her eyes.
“Why the sudden interest in learning so fast?” Harry asked. “We don’t have to do the lessons right away...”
“Well,” Hermione said, sighing and looking suddenly serious, “after the incident with Snape, I figured it was best for you to learn as quickly as possible, just in case you do something that forces you to get back into the future as fast as possible.”
“Fair enough,” Harry said, shrugging. “How soon can we start?”
“Whenever you’d like!” Hermione exclaimed excitedly.
“Good,” Harry said quickly. “How about tonight?”
***
At seven ’o clock, Harry walked into the Room of Requirement, where he found Hermione reading her textbook again. In fact, the walls were lined with bookshelves full of books about memory modification, and “ to Harry’s surprise “ a house-elf.
“Hermione?” Harry asked, and she looked up and smiled.
“What is it, Harry?” she asked brightly.
“Why is there a house-elf here?” Harry asked her. “Am I going to be practicing on him? I thought you were against house-elf mistreatment!”
“First of all, it’s a she,” Hermione said, and the house-elf glared at Harry. “Second of all, I do believe in promoting the welfare of house-elves. And third, you’ll be practicing on me...Tipsy here is just going to be here to make sure you don’t accidentally wipe my whole memory. House-elves can restore memory, you know.”
“O-kay,” Harry said slowly. “So, what should we do first?”
“Well, first of all,” Hermione said, launching straight into her “lesson”, “you need to learn the basics. For instance, in order to modify certain parts of a memory, you need to know exactly what you want to change.”
“Easy,” Harry said simply. “My meeting him.”
“It’s not that simple, Harry,” Hermione told him. “If you got rid of all the parts of his memory, he’ll forget other parts, too. For instance, the lesson where we had to Vanish the rats and make them reappear in the cage...you and James were talking the whole time. If he forgets his conversation with you, he’ll only remember little snippets of the lesson, which won’t be good in the long run.”
“So, how are we going to avoid that happening?” Harry asked.
“Well,” Hermione said, “when you told me about Slughorn giving Dumbledore the fake Horcrux in sixth year “ OUR sixth year “ it made me wonder if you could put a fake memory in its place inconspicuously. I tested it on Ron yesterday “ I talked to him during Defense Against the Dark Arts, then modified his memory, so he remembered it so it was you talking to him, and not me.”
“No way,” Harry breathed. “You’re saying...it’s possible to change his memory completely so he remembers something else? Like talking to Sirius instead of me, or something?”
“Exactly,” Hermione said, nodding.
Harry grinned in spite of himself. “You really are the smartest witch I’ve ever met,” he said. “Of any age.”
“Oh, you don’t mean that,” Hermione said modestly, but her face had flushed with silent pride.
For the remainder of the lesson, Hermione had Harry practice the spell on her. The first few times, nothing happened. Then, on the seventh try, a golden beam of light hit Hermione, causing her to stagger back a few steps. She looked at Harry, confused.
“Harry? Where are we?” she said, looking around. “Are we still in Charms?”
With a sigh, Tipsy snapped her fingers. Hermione’s eyes slid out of focus. A few seconds later, she shook her head and smiled at Harry.
“That was very good for a first lesson,” she said brightly. “I couldn’t remember anything that had happened this afternoon. Now, try to modify my memory so I think it was Ron in here practicing with me, not you.”
Harry tried for a good half-hour to do this, but the only other thing he managed to do was wipe Hermione’s memory of the past three days completely clean, to be restored by another snap of Tipsy’s fingers. “I think we should stop here, Harry,” Hermione said, putting a few textbooks back on the bookshelves around the room. “We can practice another night. Just practice concentrating on what memories you want James to forget.”
This made Harry realize: he’d also told Sirius his secret. That meant he’d have to modify his memory as well. Exhausted, Harry walked back to the common room with Hermione, walking straight up to the dormitories to sleep.
***
The next day, in the afternoon, Harry decided to confront Peter. The smaller boy had been released from the Hospital Wing an hour earlier. He caught up with Peter in the hallway, walking towards the common room.
“Hey, Peter,” he called out, making Peter jump with fright. He turned around and saw Harry.
“Oh, hi, Harry,” he said. Harry could see that the boy was nervous about something.
“So...have a nice rest in the Hospital Wing?” he asked innocently.
“Oh, yeah,” Peter said. “I feel much better now.”
“Glad to hear it,” Harry said. “Didn’t you accidentally get an overdose of fumes from the Blast-Ended Skrewts in Hagrid’s garden when you snuck out a few days ago?”
“Yeah,” Peter said slowly. “Only I left that part out when I told Madam Pomphrey.”
“I see,” Harry said, nodding slowly. “Hopefully no one ratted on you.”
Peter turned his head sharply to eye Harry. “Hopefully,” he repeated, clearly suspicious of something.
“Yeah,” Harry said, sighing. “Well, see you, Peter...” With that, he walked away, leaving Peter looking slightly confused and suspicious.
However, as soon as he rounded the corner, Harry turned around and peeked around it, watching Peter intently. His suspicion of something going on as soon as he left proved correct...Peter glanced behind him, then transformed into a rat. Instead of scurrying away to another part of the school, as Harry feared, the Animagus just sat there, waiting.
After a good five minutes of waiting, Harry saw another rat come running up to Peter, squeaking. They squeaked a few times back and forth “ talking “ and Harry understood: he hadn’t seen Peter when he’d told Sirius everything...Peter had told another rat to spy on them! Harry was filled with horror as he realized the rat was telling Peter of his plan to get rid of him.
Suddenly, Peter was standing there again, and the second rat scurried away. Peter then pulled two things out of his pocket “ his wand, and the Marauder’s Map. Harry had forgotten about the map completely; it still belonged to the four friends. Peter muttered, “I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good,” and scanned the map. He suddenly stopped and stared at something, then looked up...straight up at Harry.
“You!” Peter hissed, pointing his wand at Harry. Harry stepped away from the corner nonchalantly, not worried.
“Me,” Harry said coolly. “Going to hex me, Wormtail? Are you afraid your master will be angry if I turn you in and you go to Azkaban for life?”
“I don’t care what time you’re from,” Peter snarled, “but you’re not going to turn me in. Not a chance. Expelliarmus!”
“Protego!” Harry yelled, pulled his wand from his pocket. He’d had his hand on his wand the whole time, waiting. The spell was knocked harmlessly to the side, evaporating against a wall.
“You want to play that way, Potter?” Peter said, sneering. “Impediment-”
“Tarantallegra!” Harry shouted, waving his wand before Peter could finish the charm. Peter’s legs began dancing wildly about; Harry figured he would have some fun with the boy foolish enough to try to hex the Boy Who Lived. Peter groaned as he attempted to perform the countercharm, but was unable to steady his wand as he flopped about. Harry performed the countercharm for him, laughing as Peter fell over.
“That’s IT!” Peter screamed with anger, getting to his feet. “Crucio!”
Harry was so convinced that Peter was incapable of performing an Unforgiveable Curse, so he just laughed. He’d underestimated the smaller boy, forgetting that he was working for Voldemort. He began screaming with pain as Peter hit him with the curse.
“That’s right, Potter, scream,” Peter sneered. “Let’s see how long it takes before you snap...”
Harry was in such pain, he began not caring about anything else. He just wanted the pain to stop. Please, let it stop, he thought, not able to speak in his pain. STOP! As though his thoughts had been answered, the pain was gone...well, not quite. As he fell to the ground, shaking, he still ached all over. He cracked open an eye to see what the source of the disruption of the curse was. Lily was standing over Peter’s unconscious body, wand in hand, looking at Harry with concern.
“Harry, are you all right?” she asked, voice wavering in shock.
“Yeah...I’ve had worse,” Harry said, grimacing as he stood up again. He shook his head vigorously to shake off the fragile feeling all over his body.
“I can’t believe Pettigrew would use an Unforgivable Curse!” Lily said, shaking. “If I hadn’t been here to stop him...I need to go tell someone about this.”
“I’ll come with you,” Harry said. He walked over to Peter’s unconscious form, slinging the smaller boy over his shoulder. He walked behind Lily as she went to find a teacher. The nearest classroom was McGonagall’s, so they walked right into her office, where she was grading papers.
“Hello, Potter, Evans,” McGonagall said, nodding at them. Then she noticed Peter, and stood up. “Oh, my...is he all right?”
“Yeah, I’m sure he’s fine, unfortunately,” Harry said bitterly, dropping Peter unceremoniously into a chair. “He use an Unforgivable Curse on me.”
“He what?” McGonagall said abruptly, walking over to examine Harry. “Are you all right, Potter?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Harry said irritably. If only they knew what sort of stuff I’ve been through, they wouldn’t care about a little Cruciatus Curse, he thought.
“I saw the whole thing, Professor,” Lily said. “From what I saw, Pettigrew was intent on torturing Harry to the point of brain damage.”
“Oh, my,” McGonagall said, voice shaking. “Did you do anything to prompt Pettigrew to do this to you, Potter?”
“Well, ma’am,” Harry said, “I found out he was working for Vold “ uh, the Dark Lord “ and I told him I was going to turn him in.”
Both McGonagall and Lily looked incredulous. “Pettigrew...he is working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?” McGonagall said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Harry said, nodding.
McGonagall walked straight to her fireplace, throwing a bit of Floo Powder into the grate. “Dumbledore’s office,” she said, and stuck her head into the fire. After a few seconds, she withdrew her head from the fire, and Dumbledore stepped into the office.
“What is happening here?” he asked calmly, looking from McGonagall, to Lily, to Harry, to Peter, back to Harry.
“Pettigrew here attempted used an Unforgivable Curse on Potter here,” McGonagall said, “and Potter claims that Pettigrew is working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Now, of course, I don’t know if this is true or not, but...”
“I believe him, Minerva,” Dumbledore said immediately, and Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him. “I am going to take Pettigrew with me to the Ministry by Floo Powder, and I’ll ask you, Minerva, to keep this quiet with the other students. Although, you may want to inform Mr. James Potter, Mr. Black, and Mr. Lupin only. Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, I’ll ask you not to tell anyone else.”
“I can tell the other three boys,” Harry offered, and Dumbledore nodded to him.
“Very well,” the elderly wizard said. He hoisted Peter onto his own shoulder, yelled “Ministry of Magic!” and stepped into the fireplace, disappearing in a flurry of green flames.
“You may go, you two,” McGonagall said, signaling to Harry and Lily. “And remember, tell no one but those three.”
“Agreed,” Harry and Lily said together, and walked out of the office. After the door closed, they stood outside the doorway, intent on going separate ways.
“Lily, listen...uh...thanks,” Harry said weakly. “If it hadn’t been for you, I might’ve been tortured to insanity.”
“Don’t mention it,” Lily said. Suddenly, Lily leaned in and gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek. Blushing furiously, Lily then fast-walked away, disappearing out of sight.
Harry, who had been about to gone to find Sirius, James and Remus, now felt a very odd sensation in his stomach. His mother had just kissed him on the cheek! But, somehow, it didn’t seem to bother him. In a trance, Harry walked up to the Gryffindor common room, sitting in front of the fire and staring into the flames.
Once again, he didn’t know what to think.