Fate

Chapter 43 - Try to Move On

Not attempted since the days of Merlin, and indeed not able to be carried out, time travel is one of the most obscure branches of magic that is known to Wizarding kind. Sparse records from Merlin himself (through oral dictation to close friends) had this to say on the outcomes of Time travel:

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A common nature of law, this principle in no way is excluded from the branch of magic known as time travel. Attempting to travel through the space time continuum is not a task tot be taken lightly. Everything you say, everything you do, every person who sees your face will cause a change, even if it only lasts for a split second. Time is not to be taken lightly and actions will always, always produce a different outcome than before. It is impossible to travel through time and not change something."

Merlin recounts the tales of the few known times that he used his spells to travel through time on the distant and now lost city of Avalon. He claims that the future would have turned out quite differently had he not made those trips. Differences from King Arthur's reign all the way down to Merlin's favorite hat are outcomes from his time travels to the past. Indeed, Merlin also makes the claim that, were it not for his traveling, the magical community in and of it today would not exist.

"I once traveled back to the time before me when witches and wizards were common among the planet and the dominant species, if you will. The very act of seeing my ancestors and others like me restored our very existence here on earth when I traveled back to my own time. Having once been the only living wizard on the planet, I now know the consequences that could have come if I had not made that trip."

Merlin here refers of course to the myth that he was once the only living Wizard on the planet during the days of King Arthur in England. This of course is proven false due to the fact that the Wizarding community is so numerous today. But could Merlin's trip to the past actually have been the real turning point? We may never know.

"Harry?"

Looking up from Dimensions of Reality, Harry seemed to force a smile as he saw Ginny sit across from him on the couch.

"Find anything?" She gave him a halfhearted smile as he pulled his legs up, making room for her to sit. The common room was quiet and still, most of the students enjoying the weather outside on their last day of school.

"A few things," Harry sighed, "but I doubt we'll ever understand what really happened."

"You might as well try to move on," Ginny suggested, reaching forward to grab a random Witch Weekly that was sitting on a side table. Flipping through it and making a few disgusted faces, she set it down again and turned to face Harry.

He wasn't smiling.

"What?"

"You think I should forget?" His voice was low and soft. "Just forget everything?"

"Harry," Ginny leaned forward, taking one of his hands. He didn't look at her. "I have two lives running through my head. Two sets of memories that I am finding harder and harder to sort out...Sometimes..." She sighed, leaning back and letting go of his hand. "Merlin, sometimes I just want to forget one of them."

"And you think I don't?" Harry countered back, feeling his temper rise. "It's like two sides of the spectrum with me! Hell on earth with the Dursleys and probably the closest thing I'm going to get to Heaven with Sirius and Remus..."

"So why are you still trying to figure it out, Harry?" Ginny countered. "You've been given this wonderful life! This second chance, or whatever, and instead of taking advantage of it, you've spending every waking hour today trying to solve a mystery again!"

Harry stood up, stepping away a bit with his back towards Ginny but not saying anything.

"You can stop being the hero, Harry!" Ginny stood, boring her eyes into Harry's back. "You can stop trying to make it all right again! It IS all right!"

Harry whirled around quickly, his eyes flaming, causing Ginny to take an involuntary step back and fall back down onto the couch.

"No." Harry's voice was cold...chilling. "It's not."

Without another word he turned and stormed out of the common room, leaving a very confused Ginny behind.

She sat up; blinking a few times to make sure he was really gone before flopping back down onto the couch, heaving a sigh.

What was going on with him? He seemed so happy only hours ago when he saw Sirius' memories...Ginny remembered the way his eyes lit up when he finally found out how much his Godfather really cared for him...

She sat up again, looking over at the book he had been reading which was now tossed unceremoniously on the floor. Reaching down, she picked it up, lying on the couch and flipping through a few pages till a passage caught her eye.

Often in Merlin's records he gives signs of regret about things in the past that he could not change, no matter what.

"Certain events and people are not meant to be changed at all. This can be attributed to what many call 'fate' and others call 'destiny'. Some people are just 'meant' to die and others are just 'meant' to live. Critical events throughout history cannot be altered, for upon them lie the seeds for heroes and villains, good and evil, right and wrong. For their must be opposition in all things, and the good in the world must be weighed against something equally as evil."

She lowered the book slowly, digesting the words.

A few sounds of laughter drifted from behind the entrance to the common room and Ginny looked around to see who was coming through. But as she turned, her eyes caught a paper lying on the side table that had been next to Harry.

As a few students started coming into the common room, she reached out, grabbing the Daily Prophet and scanning her eyes over the front page. A front page, no doubt, Harry had surly been looking at.

DARK MARK FOUND ABOVE HOMES OF THREE MINISTRY WORKERS

MINISTRY IN SHAMBLES - FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS REFUSE TO HELP

She slid back down to the couch, ignoring the students that were now pouring into the common room to get ready for the leaving feast.

YOU-KNOW-WHO STILL AT LARGE: SHOULD MUGGLES BE WARNED?

NO END IN SIGHT TO WAR STARTED LAST YEAR WITH THE RETURN OF HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED

A hand came up to her mouth as she felt tears prick her eyes and read the last bolded headline.

IS HARRY POTTER THE WIZARDING WORLD'S LAST HOPE?

Unceremoniously dropping the paper, Ginny rushed out of the room.

----

She considered herself a pretty fair authority on Hogwarts, but Ginny seemed to have met her match with Harry and despite her searching, she could find no trace of him.

However, she was unsure what she would say to him, even if she did catch up to him.

Hey Harry, sorry to hear about that Dark Wizard? You gonna kill him any time soon?

Right.

Ginny stepped into the Great Hall, the buzz of chatter around her as students gathered for the leaving feast. Her eyes strayed over to Ron and Hermione who were already sitting at the Gryffindor table, heads bent together as they whispered to one another. She grinned as she noticed their hands gripped together underneath the table. At least some things hadn't changed...

"Ginny?"

She whirled at the sound of her name, coming face to face with a man that she was getting to know better and better every day: Sirius Black.

He looked slightly confused and upset. "Have you seen Harry anywhere?"

Ginny shook her head. "I've actually been looking for him for the past hour." She paused and looked at him skeptically. "What are you still doing here?"

Sirius had the gall to look embarrassed, but it didn't last very long. "Remus and I are staying overnight to be escorts on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow."

"Escorts? Are things really that bad?" She started looking around the hall again, hoping to see the familiar tuft of jet black hair. She knew that it wasn't a requirement for students to come to the leaving feast (though few turned down the food), but it seemed like her last option in places to look for Harry.

Giving up again, she looked back up at Sirius when he didn't reply and saw that he was looking at the Head table where Dumbledore was motioning him forward.

He forced on a smile and looked back at her. "Best get to your seat Miss Weasley. I'm sure Harry will be along in a minute."

Doubtful, but obedient, Ginny went and plopped down next to Collin, drumming her fingernails on the table as Dumbledore went through his usual speech. She let his familiar voice glide over her as her thoughts still raced with ideas about where Harry could be. It wasn't like him to be gone so long and be unable to be found.

She knew he was upset, but was their something more that she missed? The newspaper headlines surly made an impact, reminding Harry that even with this "perfect" life he couldn't escape the destiny that the prophecy gave him. But going off to sulk about it again?

No, Ginny shook her head. This new Harry Potter had gotten over that stage. There was another reason for his absence, one that Ginny had yet to figure out.

----

Remus caught Sirius' gaze as he walked towards the head table, taking his place on the opposite end. By Sirius' clenched jaw and saddened look, Remus guessed that Ginny hadn't seen Harry either.

It wasn't like there was much to worry about. Harry didn't have any reasons for running off and doing something rash. More likely than not, he had simply gotten caught up in reading a book or practicing Quidditch that he let the time slip by.

He tried to pay attention as Dumbledore gave his closing remarks, graduating everyone on a fine school year and announcing the winner of the House Cup.

Humph, Slytherin. No wonder Harry didn't want to come.

His eyes scanned to hall to see if he could find anyone else who was missing who might be with Harry. Finding no one in Gryffindor, he looked briefly at the other houses, not expecting to find much since he knew Harry didn't associate with many of them.

He stopped at the Ravenclaw table, looking over it a few times and seeing, surprisingly that Luna Lovegood wasn't there. She had been in the DA...she had also been a part of the Department of Mysteries Battle.

"Something troubling you, Remus?" piped little Professor Flickwick, who was sitting next to Remus.

He couldn't help but smile down at his old professor. "Just looking around at the students...they've sure all grown up, haven't they?"

"Oh yes indeed," Flickwick agreed readily. "You should know yourself, being a student here once." He chuckled. "You and Sirius here make us all feel so old!"

"Well, we could be planting dung bombs under the head table and making the Slytherin's sing a choreographed rendition of 'I'm a Little Teapot'?" Remus grinned when Sirius turned and looked down the table, obviously having heard his words and gave him a mischievous smile.

Flickwick noticed too. "Oh goodness, Remus! Don't give him ideas!"

Chuckling, Remus turned away for a moment, fixing his gaze back on the Ravenclaw table. A thought struck him.

"Filius?" He still was getting used to calling the professors by their first names, even after so many years. "One of your students, Luna Lovegood, did you notice that she isn't here?"

Flickwick seemed to sober a bit at the name. "Miss Lovegood rarely comes to the leaving feasts, and if she does it's only for a short while."

"Why is that? Have you tried talking to her about it?"

"Oh, certainly, and she is a charming young lady, very bright when she chooses to be. Most of the students don't understand her most of the time because of her choice to speak in playful riddles."

"Riddles?"

Filius nodded. "Yes, quite strange most of the time, but Dumbledore agrees with me that se might have some ancient seer's blood in her, causing her to get confused with past and present some of the time."

"So why doesn't she come?"

Filius seemed to get even more sober. "I'm afraid most of the students, even in her own house, don't treat her very kindly. I saw her on my way down here and she calmly stated that she needed to hang up some posters to ask people to give her belongings back to her before the end of the year."

"You mean people steal her things?" Remus was appalled. How low had these students sunk?

"I have tried to find the culprits, but Miss Lovegood doesn't seem too interested in caring about her things. She simply posts flyers at the end of the year, asking for her belongings back."

Frowning, Remus turned back to look around the hall once more, still seeing no sign of Harry or Luna, for that matter.

Oh well, he thought, finally starting to eat his supper. If Harry's alone he probably needs the time, and if he's with Luna, perhaps she can help him come to terms with whatever is still raging in his mind.

----

"So why aren't you at the feast?" Luna asked candidly, her large eyes becoming very unnerving to Harry. He vaguely remembered this conversation going on before, but I would be different now that Sirius hadn't fallen behind the veil.

He shrugged. "I didn't feel like it."

"Your Godfather is there, and your uncle."

Harry was still getting used to the idea of people knowing Remus Lupin as his "uncle". He'd always associated quite a bit of hatred and resentment for the man in that position, but now having Remus hold the title, he felt more like he had a family.

"How do you know?" he asked suspiciously.

"I saw them," she stated, turning back to pin up another flyer. Harry felt another stab of pain that so much had been changed, but Luna had still lost her mother and her social situation wasn't any better. She turned back to him. "Seems like you should be happier to have them here with you."

Harry frowned, not sure what she was getting at.

"Your life could have been very different you know."

Managing to hide his bit of surprise, Harry looked away. "How so?"

"I think you know, Harry." Luna's voice sounded omniscient. "You're very lucky to have Sirius and Remus."

"I know." He looked back at her.

"You remember that night we went to the Ministry?" she began, and Harry wasn't about to interrupt. That was one memory that neither he nor Ginny had been able to come up with, and it annoyed them to no end not knowing the whole story. "You were so scared for him."

"Who?"

But Luna just continued. "You'd broken rules before, obviously, but I don't think any of us expected Hermione to be the one to play the dirty trick on Umbridge with the Centaurs."

Harry held his breath.

"And then when you finally found the prophecy...I think you were actually considering giving it to the death eaters to get him back."

"Who? Get who back?" Harry wanted to say Sirius' name, but he still wasn't sure.

Luna blinked at him curiously. "Why, Remus of course."

"Remus..." Harry whispered. He had gone to save Remus, not Sirius? Voldemort had lured him there with a different person?

"Harry." He looked back up at her. "The prophecy doesn't change who you are. It just changes what you have to do."

Ignoring the fact that Luna seemed to know a whole lot about the prophecy, Harry's mind whirled, trying to decipher Luna's mythical speech.

"You can change your past and you can get rid of some of the pain." She paused. "But you can't escape your destiny. No one can."