Next Time Around

Time is relative...

'Oh of course Harry, I totally understand, but you will tel Dumbledore of what happened, right?'

'Yes of course.' Harry said, lying through his teeth as he gave her a simpering smile.

Ginny nodded and sat next to him. Oh no. This would be one of the times when she would sit next to him for hours on end asking him questions and he had to keep up the damn character for ages.

Well, at least it held him sharp. It was a good exercise in the prolonged wearing of a very mentally demanding mask.

'So Harry...'

After many torturous minutes that Harry could swear felt like hours, Harry was finally released from the interrogation. It was time for the last dinner he would have in this world, and he was determined to make the best of it. The company might be terrible, the food wasn't and he'd be damned to let such a lovely meal go to waste. Besides, he could perfectly well pretend not to hear people asking him stuff.

Harry looked out over the table. Everything he liked was on it and he felt his stomach grumble in impatience. With a wide smile, he dug in. Nothing like a homemade meal with all his favorites. And the compulsion potions the food was laced with were easily nullified with some simple parcle magic.

After a delightful dinner, Harry quickly made his way to bed. He almost cackled with glee, but managed to hold it in. Tomorrow...

As he lay in bed, he reflected over what would happen tomorrow. At one side, it meant changing the timeline in a way he saw fit- hopefully for the better-, at the other side, it meant abandoning everything he knew.

His last thought before he fell asleep was a small thank you to his Occlumency, because he was sure if not for that he would have stayed up for the entire night. He rolled over and fell asleep.

Harry's eyes snapped open. After a wandless tempus, Harry found it to be exactly six, just like always. As he was slightly jittery and he was reasonably sure no one would try to wake him for another two hours, he decided to release some pent up stress by working out.

So once again, he popped over to the dessert. There, he did some good solid working out and he conjured a dummy, made it look like Dumbledore, and proceeded to completely obliterate it with spells like diffindo, depulso, and bombarda maxima, But also some darker spells like sectumsempra or even crucio.

Satisfied for now, Harry left the dessert with an hour to spare. He quickly did a tergeo (cleaning spell) on himself to reduce the risk of anyone noticing something off, and hopped back into bed, hoping to get another bit of sleep.

About a hour later his proximity wards alerted him on someone opening the door, so he slipped into his conscious mind, carefully displaying the symptoms of waking.

It was Hermione it seemed, as he heard her voice trying to rouse him. 'Harry... Harry... wake up. We have a big day ahead of us.'

Harry masked a sneer with an over exaggerated yawn. Please, he thought, he might portray himself as slightly less intellectual than her, but baby-talk? Really?

He stood up and gave Hermione a soft, sleepy smile. Hermione smiled back and, one hand on the small of his back, ushered him into the dining room.

After a hearty breakfast, Harry started his preparations for the new ritual. He internally frowned, as he noticed that they had never told him how the ritual worked. He hated relying on others. Especially if those others were out for his total submission. He sighed. It wasn't like he could do anything about it.

The instructions he got were pretty much the same as last time. Clean up, no clothes... only this time, at the end he had to plunge the dagger in his chest. Now he wasn't afraid of death, but that would be a horrible way to go- suicide by failed ritual, he could hear them now-. So the nervousness he displayed was not far, if maybe a little exaggerated, from the truth.

Time flew, and before long it was time. Once again he walked his way to the dessert temple. Once again he ritually clears himself, this time with the help of untraceable parceltongue spells. And then it was time to go.

He walked into the room that was made for the ritual, situated right next to the previous one, with slight trepidation. Again, he was wished the best of luck by the Order, and left on his own. He had smiled back and thanked them, all the while hiding a triumphant smirk. He had successfully fooled all of them, even Moody, and now he was doing it his way. He let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

He examined the runes closely, seeing runes for protection weaved in with ones for teleporting, nullifying magical energy and a huge variety of others. Whilst studying the room, still in slight awe because of the brilliance of the wards and rune sequences created, he slowly walked over to the quarts pedestal. He couldn't get over the fact of how much it looked like an ancient sacrificial table, but ignored his doubts for now. He slowly stuttered to a halt.

He calmed his nerves taking a deep breath. Right, he decided, after this no more stupid risky Gryffindor moves. If there would be a move after this, he thought morosely. 

He shook his head as to rid himself from the nerves and this time walked all the way to the offering.

He carefully stepped onto the altar and lay himself down. After nicking his finger and painting the appropriate runes on his body, he activated the ritual by carefully pouring his magic into the runes made for that.

The room lit up a bit in a pale blue. Harry was sweating, his arms trembling as he poured as much magical energy into the ritual as he could. He pursed his lips, a stubborn frown on his face. He had to finish this, he thought, even if he did collapse from magical exhaustion later on.

It was a very strange sensation to pour all of his magical power in the ritual. He could literally feel it draining his power, just like how it physically felt when one was nearing fainting with exhaustion. He crept going though, forcing his magic through the runes.

As he was nearing the possibility of turning himself into a squib because of a depletion of his magical core, he finally saw one particular rune light up that showed he was almost done. As soon as he saw that, he collapsed, breathing heavily.

With the last of his strength, he grabbed a stronger hold on his dagger and brought it up to his chest. He smiled as he plunged it, with almost no resistance, directly into his heart.

Yup... I just gave you a cliffhanger. You're welcome. I hope you still enjoy the story and I will update soon (sooner if you review and vote ;-) ).

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