Changing the Past by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: Here's a nice treat for you...just before the queue closed today, this was validated! Enjoy, and I hope you'll be reading DH in about 30 hours' time... oooh, I can hardly stand it!!!
During his second detention, Harry kept his distance from Lily, not wanting to push things too far. Who knew what would happen if he didn’t get out of the way and let James marry Lily? Not only that, James wasn’t speaking to him, and he needed to make sure he wasn’t on his father-to-be’s bad side. Instead of working towards Lily, Harry slowly scrubbed in a line towards James.
“James?” Harry said tentatively, watching his teenaged father scrub the floor wordlessly. He waited for an answer, and not getting one, he decided to continue. “I know you’re probably mad that I’m getting in the way between you and Lily...”
James finally looked up to meet his future son’s gaze. “I’m not mad,” he said, sighing. “I’m just curious as to why you want to be with your mother if you don’t want to change that part of history?”
It was a valid question, and Harry sighed. “Well...” he said, thinking quickly. “I just want to get to know my mum more. You know, before she’s actually my mum, and she doesn’t want to open up to me as much.”
“No,” James said firmly. “Don’t lie to me, Harry. You and I both know there’s something more there. And I’ll let you decide what you want for your future, and if that means getting together with Lily, that’s your loss.” With that said, James picked up his things and moved to a different spot of the hall.
Harry contemplated that thought, a new idea suddenly formulating in his mind. If that means getting together with Lily... What if he did? It was crazy, but it became clearer as Harry thought it over more. What if he stayed in the past forever? He wouldn’t have to worry about Voldemort anymore...he could be with his loved ones...Lily would no longer be his mother, but his wife...This is crazy! Harry thought, shaking the thought out of his head. You hardly know her, and you’re thinking of marriage? She belongs to James!
Harry battled with his mind for much more of the night, and finally, at three in the morning, they were finished. Everyone had formed blisters on their palms from scrubbing for so long, and they slumped against the wall, exhausted. As if on cue, Filch unlocked the doors and walked into the hall, examining their work. “Good work,” he said curtly. “You may all go now.” Relieved, everyone trudged out of the hall to the dormitories to sleep.
As everyone was walking sleepily towards their beds, Harry contemplated his next move. Should he tell Ron and Hermione of his new plan to stay behind? Or would he even do so at all? He made the decision to not tell Ron and Hermione until he was sure what he would do, but he knew he needed to first learn how to perform adequate Memory Charms before he did anything rash to give himself away. He decided that, at breakfast, he would confront Hermione and ask her for help.
***
“Actually, Harry, I’ve already looked into the matter myself,” Hermione replied after Harry had asked for her help in learning Memory Charms. They were in the Great Hall, and Harry had just joined Ron and Hermione for breakfast.
“Really?” Harry asked, surprised. “I thought that you wouldn’t want to help, after...well, you know...” At this, Ron turned a delicate shade of pink, hiding his face by leaning over the table.
“Well, I figure that if you’re going to change the past, and I can’t stop you, I should at least make sure you don’t screw everything up,” Hermione said, somewhat cheerfully. She pulled a large book out of her bag and dropped it on the table, making everyone around them jump. Hermione turned pages in it until she found the marked page, then showed it to Harry.
“It’s fairly complicated,” Hermione said, pointing out the various instructions to Harry, “but nothing you couldn’t handle. You already know the incantation, of course “ as Lockhart tried to use it on you before “ but in order to only eliminate parts of one’s memory, you have to take certain precautions first.”
“Such as...?” Harry asked.
“Well, like making sure you don’t erase the important parts of a memory,” Hermione told him. “Imagine if you wiped out James’ entire memory of academics in his sixth year. He would have to retake his sixth year, which certainly wouldn’t appeal to Lily. Speaking of which, have you told Lily anything?”
“No,” Harry murmured. He was trying to get around to it, but he just couldn’t muster up the willpower to break their relationship thus far.
“Well, then you should concentrate on only James for now,” Hermione said. “As long as no one else finds out your secret, you should be fine with just James. Now...”
And Hermione proceeded to give Harry an overview of the complications surrounding the spell. Harry tried to pay attention, but he found himself looking around restlessly, looking for an excuse to leave the table. “...so as you can probably imagine, you must be very careful,” Hermione finished breathlessly. “Does that make any sense?”
“Yeah,” Harry said quickly, not looking at Hermione. “Listen, could we practice this later, like in an empty classroom or something? I should be able to practice while I’m learning.”
“Of course!” Hermione said brightly, earnest to teach Harry something. “I have a lot of homework today, but maybe another night, after I’ve read up on it a bit more, we could...?”
“That’d be great,” Harry said. He got up from the table and walked out of the Hall for Charms.
As the day went by, Harry felt very lonely. Ron and Hermione were content with being alone, the Marauders weren’t speaking to Harry, and he didn’t want to spend any more time with Lily for the time being. Harry went through the day, very bored, and unable to concentrate. It wasn’t until Potions, when Professor Slughorn told everyone to get a partner, that Harry interacted with anyone.
Ron and Hermione paired up, of course, as did all four Marauders with each other. Lily joined with one of her friends, which left Harry alone. For the first time, Harry had no partner. “Mr. Potter...no partner, then?” Slughorn boomed. “You will work with...Severus.”
Harry started when he heard this. Me and Snape, work together? he thought with disgust, then an evil thought came to his mind. Why not give Snape a little trouble for the six years of misery he’d caused Harry at Hogwarts? He nodded and walked over to Snape’s area, the latter looking utterly revolted to be working with a Gryffindor.
“Hi,” Harry said. “I’m Harry Potter.”
“So I’ve heard,” the young Snape muttered, burying his nose in his textbook. Harry knew he was writing something, and he was interested to see the “Half-Blood Prince” at work.
“So...” Harry said slowly. “I’ve heard you’re good at Potions.” Snape said nothing. “Pretty good with spells too, I understand,” Harry added. “Levicorpus, Sectumsempra...”
This caused Snape to slam his book closed and glare at Harry, who looked unfazed. “How did you know about that?” Snape growled menacingly.
“A certain Prince told me,” Harry said casually, making Snape sniff his nose suspiciously.
“If you’re reading over my shoulder,” Snape muttered, “you should know that those spells are only for my eyes, not yours.”
“Will your Master punish you for using them?” Harry asked. Snape stared at him, horrified, then slowly returned to his book, nervously closing it tightly so only he could (barely) see. Harry smirked.
The potion they were supposed to be making was fairly complicated, so Harry just sat back and let Snape do most of the work, which was fine with both of them. As Harry watched Snape carefully but quickly stir and mix ingredients in the cauldron, another sinister idea forming in his mind. He grabbed a pile of the nearest ingredient to him, which happened to be dittany, and dropped it into the cauldron when no one was looking.
The result was instantaneous. The potion turned brown and bubbly, and it started pouring over the side of the cauldron. “What?!” Snape said, not knowing what had gone wrong. They both pushed their seats back as the potion began spilling all over the floor. Slughorn strolled over as quickly as he could and Vanished the potion.
“What happened here?” he asked. “I’m afraid that there is no more time to finish this, boys. You will have to fail this potion.”
Harry was quite pleased by what he’d done, but Snape looked livid. He had apparently never failed anything at Potions before. When the bell rang, Harry instantly jumped up, put his stuff in his bag, and headed up to the common room for break, where Snape could not confront him.
“Harry, what was that all about with you and Snape back there?” Ron asked, as he and Hermione got to the common room behind him.
Harry smirked. “I decided to have a little fun with the Half-Blood Prince,” he replied coolly. Ron laughed, but Hermione looked concerned.
“You should be careful with what you do, Harry,” she warned. “You don’t want to cause too much trouble.” Harry laughed; she had no idea what he was planning for Snape, and hopefully she never would.
“Lay off of him, ‘Mione,” Ron chastised, clapping Harry on the back. “Wouldn’t you want to get a little revenge on someone who made your life horrible?”
“No!” Hermione replied indignantly, and it was Harry’s turn to laugh.
“Your loss, then,” Ron said simply. Hermione huffed and walked out of the common room, mumbling something about the library.
“At least she’s useful there,” Harry commented, watching her go.
Ron cleared his throat. “So...Harry...” he asked nervously. “Have you talked to James about changing anything yet?”
“Yeah, I have,” Harry told him, making Ron’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “In fact, we already have a plan for getting rid of Snape.”
“Excellent!” Ron said, smirking. “What’re you gonna do, blow up a potion in his face?”
“Nope,” Harry said. He then proceeded to tell Ron about their plan to let Snape die “accidentally” by werewolf. Ron nodded slowly.
“You know, if it was anyone else, I might actually worry about that,” he said. “But it is a bit...well...immoral, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Harry said glumly. “But it’s a small loss compared to four loved ones dead and a Dark wizard after me.”
“True, that,” Ron commented, nodding again. “Well, do you have any idea when Sirius is gonna talk Snape into following Lupin into the Whomping Willow?” he asked.
“A couple of days; a week at most,” Harry said casually.
“How do you reckon?” Ron inquired, confused.
“Simple,” Harry said, leaning back in his chair. “I’m gonna tell him to.”