Twist of Time

Harry watched with a saddened look on his face as he saw Sirius, Dumbledore, an unconscious Pettigrew and Fudge all disappear up the revolving staircase.

It was odd how much a person's life could be changed by such a short amount of time. Harry had become on orphan in less than 10 minutes, and now he had a new Godfather, and he had captured his parent's murderer in less than an hour. Time was tricky like that.

"Come on, Harry," Hermione urged him, just as the stone gargoyle slipped back into place, and Harry noticed for the first time that she was carrying almost all of Ron's weight. "We need to get him to the hospital wing."

Harry turned to her and nodded, heaving some more of Ron's weight up on his shoulders and they started towards the large staircase in the main hall that would lead up to the hospital wing. They had just reached the bottom step when Harry suddenly remembered something.

"Hermione?" he asked her quietly. "What about Snape?"

They both cranked their heads around and saw that their Potions Professor was floating lazily a few inches from the ground, still knocked out cold.

Harry looked back at Hermione and saw she had a distant look of worry in her eyes when she saw Snape. Surely she wasn't feeling sorry for him now?

But, thankfully, Hermione just smiled as she looked back at Harry and said, "I suspect he'll be awake in a few minutes anyway. He wasn't really hurt much was he? Best just to leave him there."

Harry nodded with a grin and they both put their combined strength into hoisting Ron up the stairs and into the Hospital ward where a very disgruntled Madam Pomfrey came bustling out towards them.

"You three! I saw you near the Whomping Willow out there! It's not safe? What did you think you were doing? You could have been kill-"

She stopped short as she finally noticed Ron's lack of conciseness and at once, hoisted him up with her wand, floating him gently over to the nearest bed, thankfully not asking any questions. Harry didn't want to relive the story all over again just yet.

"Frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't you, Mr. Potter," she said with a slight grin as she got some potions out of a cupboard and began tending to Ron's leg. "You always seem to come here when you're in a fix. But," she sighed, looking over at Ron, "This isn't too bad. He'll need to stay here overnight, of course, and maybe through tomorrow, depending on how he feels when he wakes up, but I daresay-"

"You mean you can't make him wake up now?" Harry interrupted her earnestly.

Madam Pomfrey gave him a peculiar look. "Well I could, but he would be in a great amount of pain if I did, besides, it's late and you two should be getting off to bed already anyways..."

She bustled them out of the ward and slammed the door behind them.

Harry looked mournfully back through one of the small windows and could just make out Ron's carrot top head on the hospital bed.

"You alright, Harry?" Hermione asked timidly. Harry nodded, forced a grin and started walking with her to the Gryffindor dorms.

Thankfully, Hermione kept her silence during the walk. Harry could tell she was probably bursting to talk to him about everything that had happened but something was holding her back. Whatever it was, Harry was grateful. It wasn't that Harry didn't want to talk to someone about it. It's just that he didn't think he wanted to talk to Hermione about it. He had been hoping that Madam Pomfrey would be able to mend up Ron just there so that Harry could talk to Ron. It was much easier to talk to Ron about things. Whenever Hermione was around Harry always felt clumsy and seemed to always make an idiot of himself. He didn't quite know why this bothered him so, but there were too many things in his mind at the present time to bring girls into the jumble.

Hermione gave the password to the Fat Lady and they both stepped into the Common Room, looking around at all the empty chairs and couches. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Hermione finally turned to Harry.

"Well g'night, Harry," she said, trying to sound cheerful, but Harry knew she was still very worried about him.

He smiled back. "'Night, Hermione."

He saw an odd expression flicker across Hermione's face as he said those words and she seemed to be deliberating something in her mind. Just as Harry was about to turn to go, Hermione suddenly reached up and pulled him into a hug.

Not quite knowing how to react, Harry awkwardly put his arms around her back and patted her gently. It felt kind of good to be hugged. Mrs. Weasley had given him hugs before. But this wasn't a motherly hug. It was something altogether different, that Harry was sure he knew nothing about. When she pulled back, Harry saw a few tears glistening in her eyes. He gave her a puzzled look.

"I'm here whenever you need me, Harry," she said softly to him. "I'm your friend too."

And on that note she turned quickly and raced up the stairs to the girl dormitories.

Harry stood, still in shock about what that was supposed to mean. He really didn't need the question about his feelings for Hermione to come up on top of everything else he was dealing with tonight. But as he finally sunk back down into his bed and laid a head on his pillow, he found that that was the only thing he was thinking about.

--*--

Harry's dreams were odd that night. Most of the time was taken up by the replayed scene of his parent's death. But now, every time he saw his father standing up to face Voldemort, Sirius showed up and together they were able to drive the Dark Lord back. Sometimes, Sirius wouldn't show up until Voldemort was already approaching Harry's mum, and then Sirius was able to beat back Voldemort single handedly. Then, there were times when Sirius wouldn't show up until after Harry's parents were both dead and Voldemort was about to kill Harry himself.

But the last time the scene played out, it was just as Harry had seen it with the dementors close to him. Sirius did not come in time...and this time it was Harry who had been killed, not Voldemort.

As Harry saw the flash of green streak towards him he let out a strangle cry before suddenly waking up, his eyes flashing open, but then closing quickly, objecting to the amount of light that he was letting in.

Harry tensely opened his eyes again and this time kept them open. He lay still for a moment, breathing heavily with the after effects of the dream and listening for other voices in the room. The sun was already very bright, streaking into the dorm through the windows, so when Harry didn't hear any noise, he figured the other boys must have been up already.

Tearing open his bed hangings and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Harry grudgingly got dressed (as slow as possible) and walked down the stairs, preparing himself as best he could for the details that Dumbledore would most likely give him this morning.

What Harry did not expect though, was to walk down the stairs and find the common room empty except for one lonely figure that was sitting with his back to Harry on the large couch in front of the fire.

Harry stopped as he realized who it was and his sudden pause made a stair creak and the person jerked around.

Harry felt an intense amount of relief as he saw his Godfather smiled broadly at him and stand up. Harry noticed that Sirius had gotten cleaned up at least. He had shaved his facial hair and cut his hair down to a respectable length. He was in a new set of robes and Harry could now finally see how this man was the best friend of his father. Despite that Sirius still had a deadened look hidden in his face, there was a twinkle of mischief in his eyes that Harry had often seen with Fred and George Weasley.

"About time you got up," Sirius finally said, with a wink, when Harry felt himself at a loss for words. "Of course, I've only been waiting for about a half an hour, but Hermione figured you would have been up by the time I got here. Dumbledore thought it would be better for me to come up while everyone's at lessons."

Another jab of something went through Harry as he heard Hermione's name and he wondered vaguely why he had not dreamed more about her last night.

"Sirius..." Harry said in awe. "How did you...? I mean, when did...?" he hesitated again to find the right words. "Did you get off?"

Sirius cracked a lopsided smile and nodded. Unmistakable tears filled Harry's eyes and before he knew it he had run across the room and enveloped Sirius in a strong hug. Harry felt Sirius slightly tense under the hug, but it was only for a moment. Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry and hugged him strongly back. This too was a different kind of hug than Harry had ever received. It wasn't a motherly hug. It wasn't anything like what had happened between him and Hermione last night...

It was a hug from a Father...

Harry blinked back more tears and pulled back, wiping his eyes and smiling.

"Sorry," he admitted, stepping back a bit. "It's just, after what happened last night...I figured I was going to be an orphan all over again."

A few tears sparkled in Sirius's eyes but he managed to not let them fall. He seemed to be studying Harry because his eyes were searching his face and he looked as if he was remembering something from long ago. And by how many times people had told him he looked like his parents, Harry was quite sure he was.

"My, gosh..." he murmured finally, flopping back into a chair that was behind him. "You look so much like your dad..."

Harry smiled and sat down across from him, not wanting to interrupt him.

"Your mom's eyes of course," Sirius laughed. "But I bet you hear that a lot don't you?"

Harry nodded eagerly. "But that's about all I hear. You're the only person I've met who really knew my dad, except for Remus of course, but he always seemed hesitant to talk about it..." Harry paused as a frown crossed Sirius's face. "What's wrong? Is Remus alright from last night?"

Sirius managed a smile. "Of course. It's not that at all. I was just remembering something..." he put a hand under his chin and leaned back, looking just above Harry, but far, far away from anything during the present day.

Harry waited a moment before speaking again, not really wanting to interrupt Sirius, but too excited to hold it in.

"What was he like?" Harry said in a soft tone.

Another smile blossomed on Sirius's face and Harry sat back and got comfortable as the stories began.