Sacred is the Windswept Time

Nineteen: In the Darkness There are Dreams

Harry's eyes fluttered opened and he looked around at comfortable but unfamiliar surroundings, and then he noticed the broken doll in his hands and felt oddly guilty about it. Then there was shouting, the shouting of a little girl.

"Mummy! Harry broke my dolly! He killed her!" the little girl wailed.

"Bloody hell Harry, if you knew she was going to go daft over a stupid doll why'd you pull it's head off?" said another voice, this one familiar though slightly different, and then Harry looked up and his eyes widened as he realized just who was sitting on the floor staring up at him with large mischievous grey eyes.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously and the younger version of Draco Malfoy looked at him in confusion and then Harry felt as though he were being tugged from his body and swept up into another setting.

This time he was out in someone's back garden, and there was a broom in his hand, he smiled at the familiarity of a broom, and then he heard a voice that made his heart stop and then swell.

"Now Harry, you're a Potter, so I know this'll come naturally to you. We can't have Draco being a better flyer than you now can we?"

Harry turned to his right and met the hazel eyes of his father and tears rose unbidden in his eyes and then he was swept up and away into another scene.

He was in an elaborate bedroom with dark blue curtains and carpet, the large four-poster bed done in royal blue and silver trim with dark blue velvet bed curtains and Draco sitting across from him on the bed, and looking at him with a smirk, and oddly enough he was smirking back, and a few minutes later, Lucius Malfoy burst into the room and looked at the bed, and then he was yelling like mad.

"DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY! How many times have I told you to leave your sister's kitten alone! IF she'd wanted a turtle, she would have gotten a bloody turtle to begin with! And wipe that smirk off your face or so help me! THAT'S IT YOU'RE GROUNDED! And you, Harry, I'm going to tell your father that you helped him!" Lucius roared.

Harry couldn't help it, seeing Lucius so irate over a kitten being transfigured into a turtle was too much. He burst out laughing, and this only succeeding in turning Lucius beat red and making him even more irate as he took a deep breath and stalked out of the room before he did something he would later regret.

Harry fell back on the blue bed, laughing like mad, and Draco hovered over him and looked down at him, concern written all over his face as he asked, "Have you gone mad then? I can't believe you just laughed at my dad. You do know that this is all your fault."

"Really?" Harry managed to wheeze through his giggles.

The eleven-year-old Draco nodded, "Yeah, you were the one that went through his library and found the spell. You turned Snowball into a turtle, not me. I don't know why he thought I did it. And, bloody hell, Potter! I'm going to be the only one grounded my first two weeks at Hogwarts and its all your fault! I should have made Blaise my best friend instead of you!"

And as Draco pouted Harry sobered and then looked at him. "I'll be grounded too you prat. Your dad is going to tell my dad, and I'm just as good as dead."

This didn't make Draco pout any less and then Harry was being swept away again until he was in a familiar place, seated in a compartment on the Hogwarts' Express. However instead of Ron or Hermione sitting across from and beside him there was a young Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy. Suddenly the door to their compartment swung open and there stood a tall, gawky ginger headed boy dressed in clean but shabby clothing, and Harry knew him immediately, and before Draco could open his mouth and insult the boy, Harry said, "Ron, bloody hell, it's been ages, come in and have a seat mate."

The ginger headed boy looked at Harry oddly, but shrugged and took a seat next to Blaise, though he looked a bit uncomfortable when he laid eyes on Draco. Harry leaned forward and held his hand out to the boy. "Hey I'm Harry, Harry Potter, these are my friends Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini."

Ron simply nodded and replied, "I know who you are. If I'd known this was your compartment I probably wouldn't have opened the door, but there was nowhere else to sit."

"It's okay, you're welcome to join us any time," Harry said and both Blaise and Draco gave Harry funny looks.

"Really?" Ron asked incredulously and then his eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. "Say, how did you know my name?"

Harry smiled. "We knew each other in a different life. So let me guess, you're destined for Gryffindor? It's a tradition for you right?"

Ron smiled proudly, "Hasn't been a Weasley that wasn't sorted into Gryffindor... But hasn't been a Malfoy that hasn't been sorted into Slytherin either."

Ron eyed Malfoy up and down and then had the decency to blush.

Draco couldn't help it and snapped, "And just what is wrong with Slytherin? It's a house like any other. I don't know why everyone thinks Slytherins are bad."

Ron shrugged. "I just heard stories is all."

"Well mate," Harry said putting a friendly hand on Ron's knee, "It's time you made up your own mind on certain things."

Harry was about to say something else when a girl with bushy brown hair and warm light brown eyes burst through the door asking after Neville Longbottom's toad, Trevor. Harry grinned at her and invited her to join them and she sat down and after introducing herself as Hermione Granger went on and on about all the textbooks they needed for class, and she had them all pretty much memorized, which didn't surprise Harry a bit.

He was happy in the company of his old friends and rivals turned friends, it felt right, but still he hadn't seen Sirius and he wondered why.

Suddenly he was being swept away into another moment in time. He fell; landing sharply on his feet and all around him it was dark. He looked up and the moon was full. His heart skipped a beat as he heard several howls, werewolf howls. Harry swallowed thickly and took the time to look at his surroundings, checking his sleeve and finding his wand he took it out and was careful to make as little noise as possible.

He heard a twig crack behind him and turned quickly. He sighed with relief at the sight of a familiar black dog.

"Sirius?" he asked, and within moments the dog was Sirius and he slowly approached Harry, shaking his head.

"I swear, boy, what are we going to do with you? You know you aren't supposed to be out this late at night to begin with and on the night of the full moon... You nearly gave your mum and dad a heart attack and what's this I hear about Cho Chang? Care to talk about it? You know there are other girls you can take to the ball. What about that Hermione?"

"Hermione's already going with someone," Harry said with a sigh and fought the urge to reach up and touch Sirius' cheek.

Sirius nodded and then grinned. "Well, if there aren't any girls left, take a bloke."

"The one I want to ask would just say no, so what's the point?" Harry whispered.

Sirius sighed and clapped him on the back as he led them out of the forest and suddenly he spoke up as they were stepping out of the Forbidden Forest. "And who were you planning on asking Harry?"

But before Harry could answer him he was being swept up into another current of time, and it was swirling faster and faster around him. He saw moments with his mother and father. He smiled at moments with Sirius, and laughed at the antics of Remus and Severus. He could hardly believe the amazing lives they had all lived, and yet Sirius didn't have anyone, at least as far as Harry could tell. And Harry was surprised to find how close Sirius and Lucius had grown, and marveled at the adorable girl just a year younger than him with her long ginger hair and their father's hazel eyes, Evelyn, and he was proud as she was sorted into Gryffindor, and then a couple of years later there was Daniel with his mop of dark hair and green eyes, who looked so much like Harry, and was sorted into Gryffindor with Evelyn. He could hardly believe that he had a brother and sister, and then there was Castor Malfoy a couple of months older than his sister who was sorted into Slytherin, and Selene Malfoy a few weeks younger than his brother being sorted into Gryffindor much to her father's displeasure, though it was obvious that Lucius was still proud of her.

There were tons of parties and balls, many happy memories, like how he won the House Cup for Slytherin by catching the snitch while Draco, playing keeper, kept the Gryffindors from scoring with his skillful guarding of the rings.

Harry was also surprisingly studious, and gave Hermione a run for her money in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and Potions. He also had a better mind to avoid Divination, as he doubted he could handle all that exposure to incense another go around.

And then it happened...

It was Tuesday, and Harry wasn't all that fond of Tuesdays, and it was his seventh year. Unfortunately for the last few weeks Neville Longbottom had been his Potions partner, and Neville was still quite abysmal with Potions though he did well in all of his other classes. They were making the Sleeping Draught for Prophetic Dreams. Thyme somehow ended up in their potion and Harry was doused with it once again. It was scalding for a few minutes, then he heard Severus roaring at Neville's incompetence, and finally there was nothing but darkness...