2017

"I -- I," Harry stammered, trying to think of anything he might need to do before he left 2017, "I need to say goodbye." His face turned red -- it was all he could think of.

"Oh, that's so sweet," said Ginny. "I'm so glad I married you," she told the adult Harry.

"Thanks," the adult Harry responded a bit awkwardly. 1991 Harry looked at the others for a moment, trying to think of what he should say.

"Well, I -- I just want to say goodbye to you all," he told them rather clumsily, "and -- and that it's really been... interesting seeing... all this."

"It's certainly been interesting seeing you," said Albus. "I always imagined that you were really brave and everything when you were my age."

"You did?" Harry asked in surprise. "Me?"

"Well, yeah," Albus said slowly. "I mean, I'd heard all the stories of what you did and I thought I'd never live up to that. I guess it was only natural for me to assume that you were... really something."

"Well, at least now I know I'll grow up to be really something," Harry said brightly. "If I can manage that, you certainly can." Albus grinned.

Harry took a final look at his future family. It was like seeing the future in a crystal ball -- did wizards have those? -- except that he was inside it and experiencing it. Was this the future he wanted? Yes, he thought, largely so. He couldn't think of anything his future self didn't have that he wanted. Most of all, he was loved and had a family. That was really all Harry had ever wanted -- the only way this future could have been better would have been if his parents had come back to life.

Harry turned to look at his adult self and they locked eyes. For a moment, the same pairs of brilliant green eyes stared into each other. Then, the adult Harry unexpected took the younger Harry in his arms, hugging him.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in outrage. "Don't you realize what that could have done? I mean, it could have been deadly for both of you!"

"Why's that?" asked 2017 Harry as he let his younger self go. "Besides, if it was, wouldn't that have created a paradox and stopped it from happening?" Hermione considered it.

"You're right, it would," she said. "If Harry died here, he wouldn't go back to 1991 and --"

"We get it!" Ron shouted in annoyance. Young Harry tried to think of anything else that he might need to do before he left.

"I have one more question," he said, turning to Ron. "Why'd you decide to marry Hermione anyway?" Ron considered it.

"You know, that's a good question," he said thoughtfully.

"You married me 'cause you love me, you idiot!" Hermione replied in exasperation. 2017 Harry, Ron and Ginny all laughed and Hermione grinned in spite of herself. 1991 Harry didn't know why, but this made him feel that all was well with his future. He could leave it now.

"All right, I'm ready," he told Hermione. "Take me back." Hermione took Harry's hand and pulled him through a blur of blackness and silence.

The next thing Harry knew, they were in a Muggle street somewhere. He saw a nearby Odeon Cinema advertising Veronica Mars: The Movie, The West Wing Movie, Friends 3 and Ally McBeal: The Movie. He heard a passerby mention to his companion that West Ham was going to be playing in Stratford at someplace called "Olympic Stadium" and he noticed a billboard down the road that showed a red-haired woman in her twenties singing on a stage. It was accompanied by the words "Bianca Ryan to Perform Live in London: 12 November, 2017".

"Uh... where are we?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"Tottenham Court Road," Hermione explained tersely. "It's where we're going to go back in time."

"W-why'd you pick here of all places?" Harry asked curiously.

"Never mind that now," Hermione said quickly. "C'mon, this way!" she said, pulling a still confused Harry down a side street.

"Where are we going?" asked Harry.

"I realized we needed somewhere secluded to go back in time and I remembered this place," Hermione explained as they reached a shadowy alleyway. "We hid here once twenty years ago -- well, for you, it'd be six years in the future, but for me it was twenty years ago. Now, be sure to hold my hand -- remember, I'm not entirely sure how this clock thing works."

Hermione turned the clock's knob a few times, not pausing any longer than five seconds between each turn, until the clock again read "MCMXCI". The ticking started and the ten seconds began. Then the silver burst of light came and threw both of them backwards into the alley wall. Harry sat up and looked around.

"Did it work?" he asked.

"Must have," Hermione replied. "Let's take a look at the street." They stepped forward for another look at Tottenham Court Road. It had most certainly changed -- there were no mobile phones in sight and the cars looked a lot more angular. The billboard was now advertising the film Silence of the Lambs and a red telephone box stood on a nearby corner. Harry caught a few notes of "Ice Ice Baby" coming from a 1989 Rolls-Royce Corniche driving past.

"It worked!" Hermione said, relieved. "Look at the date on this newspaper." She was pointing at a newspaper with the headline "Turkmenistan Declares Independence from the Soviet Union". It was dated "Sunday, 27 October, 1991".

"Okay," said Hermione, pulling Harry back into the alleyway. "Now, we'll have to use side-along Apparation to go to Hogsmeade. From there, we'll be able to hike up to the school."

"Couldn't we just Apparate directly into Hogwarts?" Harry suggested.

"You can't Apparate or Disapparate on Hogwarts grounds," Hermione said in exasperation. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"You've never told me that before," said Harry, nonplussed.

"Oh... right," she said quickly, looking a bit embarrassed.

Seconds later, Harry and Hermione arrived in Hogsmeade. The village didn't look much different than it had in 2017. It struck Harry as rather odd that he had seen Hogsmeade for the first time in the future rather than in his own time. Of course, that wouldn't matter since he was going to get his memory of it erased anyway. Avoiding looking into the blinding sunlight, Harry glanced up at the village clock tower, which read 9:04.

"All right, now put on the invisibility cloak," Hermione told him. "We'll have to get closer to the school before we can go back another ten hours. You see, Time-Turners are drawn to certain predetermined places where the Ministry's decided to make you appear after going back. We'll have to get close enough to Hogwarts for the Time-Turner to draw us into to the entrance hall."

"Okay," Harry said, trying to understand all this, "why do I need the invisibility cloak, though? I'm back in my own time, aren't I?"

"Yes, but there are now two of you here," Hermione explained. "There's also two of me, of course, but I've aged twenty-six years since this time, so I wouldn't look like my 1991 counterpart anymore. The other you, on the other hand, looks identical to you and that could be problematic. Obviously, a strange woman can't just parade onto Hogwarts grounds either, but you're still the main concern."

"Okay," Harry said as he put on the invisibility cloak. Hermione waved her wand and disappeared.

"Hermione, wait!" Harry shouted in a panic.

"I'm still here," he heard Hermione's voice say. "I don't need a cloak to turn invisible -- that's why I gave it to you. Now, follow my footsteps."

Harry followed Hermione's footprints, which appeared out of nowhere in the muddy path ahead of him, away from the village. Once they were on Hogwarts grounds, Harry had to follow the movement her feet made in the grass. As he pondered how he had never crossed this familiar terrain under such bizarre circumstances, he heard a familiar voice.

"I heard you were great in Quidditch practice yesterday," it said. Harry spun around and saw it was Ron -- the eleven-year-old Ron of 1991... and he was talking to the other Harry!

"Yeah, but Wood kept us there forever," replied the other Harry. "It must have been midnight by the time he let us go. Something weird did happen to me that night, though. I wandered off into this corridor and I... I must have blacked out or something. All I remember is I had this... vision of a brown-haired woman pointing a wand at me and saying a spell -- I don't remember what it was. I guess it was probably just a hallucination or something. I was pretty tired."

"Yeah, that's weird," Ron agreed. "D'you think it could've had anything to do with that three-headed dog?"

"I don't think so," Harry responded. "Like I said, it was probably just my imagination. I mean, I had a dream back when I was with the Dursleys about a flying motorcycle and I don't think that had any basis in fact."

"That's true," said Ron. "I haven't heard anything about anyone enchanting a motorcycle to fly. But what d'you think the dog is guarding?"

"Dunno," Harry said tersely. The time-traveling Harry stared on as he watched himself and Ron walk off towards Hagrid's hut.

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever done," he fervently whispered in the direction of invisible Hermione. He felt her invisible arm grab him and pull him behind a clump of bushes. She became visible again and Harry took off the invisibility cloak.

"9:26," Hermione said, looking at her watch. "Well, guess we'll have to wait around thirty minutes before I can leave you here."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"This Time-Turner," said Hermione, holding up the hourglass, "can only go back by hour increments. Since you left shortly before midnight and it's almost 9:30 now, we'll have to pass the time you left by a half hour in order to reach it. Okay, here we go."

Hermione crouched down on her knees so that she was at roughly the same height as Harry and threw the necklace around both of their necks. She then turned the hourglass over ten times. The sunny Hogwarts grounds dissolved. Harry's ears pounded as a blur of colors rushed by him. He felt as though he were flying backwards very, very fast. Then he felt solid ground beneath his feet and everything came back into focus. He and Hermione were now standing in the dark entrance hall.