Chapter 2 A new Beginning

A/N: Buckle up everyone! It's time for a plot twist!

As Harry slowly regained consciousness, he was much too comfortable to even bother opening his eyes. Then it slowly dawned on him that he didn't remember going to bed. This was much too comfortable to be the sofa he last remembered sitting on. Did Kreacher put him in bed after he fell asleep? He did feel hungry but not as famished as he would have expected for having missed dinner yesterday.

It was a relief that the bedroom at least did not smell musty, Kreacher must have been keeping it clean. Although now that he thought of it, he did detect a slightly unpleasant smell, a familiar one in fact. It smelled like… the boys' dorm at Hogwarts!

His eyes shot open and the crimson and gold was clear despite his poor eyesight. He quickly sat up and put on his glasses. He was in the boys' dorm room! He looked around and confirmed he was alone. He examined his hands and found them to be youthful and familiar. He checked himself and he had fresh wounds consistent with the final battle.

What the hell? He'd like nothing better than to dismiss his most recent memories as a dream but it had been unlike any dream he'd ever had. Even the vision that Voldemort had sent him hadn't been as in-person and detailed as his memories of St. Mungo's and Daphne Greengrass. He pinched himself and he was definitely awake and where he had originally expected to find himself.

Then he noticed his Mokeskin pouch still around his neck and found the Elder wand hidden within. He still felt a little disoriented and uncertain from waking up in two different years on two different days but this was his chance to do something to prevent the Elder wand from getting anyone else killed as it had earned its nickname of the Deathstick many times over. Was putting it in Dumbledore's crypt really wise? Someone could figure out it was there and who they needed to defeat to make it theirs.

He needed a better solution than before after his… whatever it was… had made him question his original idea. He still felt his conclusions from his memories were right. He was too isolated and Ron had let him down, even Hermione had let him down a few times although not as blatantly as Ron. He needed a bigger circle of friends and a real plan for his life. A plan that would ensure what he remembered would never come to pass. He couldn't bear the possibility that things would regress within his lifetime like that. He could not allow that to happen!

First things first though. He took out the Elder wand and felt it practically humming with power in his hand. He might be the first Peverell descendant to hold this wand since the death of its first owner so it might work better for him than any other. He could feel the temptation to keep it but he didn't dare, it was too dangerous. He decided to snap it – if he could that is.

He nervously licked his lips as he slowly moved the wand into both hands and started to bend it. He then forced himself to jerk the ends together to get it done and it snapped but it was not without consequences. He felt an incredible surge of magic and closed his eyes to ride out the storm. His entire body was tingling with power but then things got even stranger as he heard a voice in his mind.

Greetings, Descendant, and thank you for freeing me from my prison. I grant you the boon of my magic and knowledge of wandlore and enchanting as I will not need it in the next life. The next life that I will finally get to enjoy thanks to you. I, Antioch Peverell, will forever be in your debt.

Harry felt the presence of someone all around him and ventured a thought in response.

I thought I was descended from Ignotus Peverell.

You are, young one. I never got the chance to have children due to my own stupidity but you are descended from my parents so I count you as a descendant of mine. You are lucky that you have Peverell blood, by the way. If you hadn't, you would not have survived snapping my creation. I will never forgive myself that my only legacy was that damned wand that brought so much death to the world.

I also leave you with a warning: do not attempt to recreate the Elder Wand. I was a fool and in my hubris thought nothing of the bond between the wand and myself. I felt my brothers pass on long ago but I was bound to the wand and had to witness the devastation I had brought to the world with my idiocy. Have better goals than I, my descendant, and do not repeat my transgressions.

Harry had begun to hold his breath, dreading that the cloak he'd used for years held the soul of his long-ago ancestor but if Antioch's brothers had passed on….

So, your brothers' souls are not attached to their creations?

No, they were not as foolish as I but do not follow Cadmus either. He delved too deeply into Necromancy and he lost his sanity as a result. Be like Ignotus, the youngest yet wisest of us. Farewell, Descendant, I must journey to the next adventure now.

He no longer felt the presence and the tingling of magic had seemed to subside. He was astonished to find he had knowledge of runes, arithmancy and enchanting. He even knew a lot more about wands, including how to make one. Such knowledge might be useful in the future but he would heed the warning and be careful. He would not be making any Elder Wands. He had just gotten rid of one.

He felt a new responsibility now, not only to use his new knowledge wisely but also to try to make the world around him better. Becoming an Auror wouldn't do now. He had to have more influence than that and the seat on the Wizengamot from Sirius had been valuable in the future he'd seen. He must keep it and learn how to use it wisely. How though?

He went through his morning routine lost in thought. His new knowledge gave him several ideas for making money but that is only a small part of what he needed to accomplish. He was not going to be happy with money in a world like the one in his dream or vision or whatever you want to call it. His primary goal had to be to prevent that future.

All of that thinking had gotten him nowhere, though. He had no idea how he could learn something that was unlikely to be in a book, not with the way the old families seemed to operate. That also left Hermione out as she wasn't raised in the magical world any more than he had been. Perhaps Neville?

He arrived at the great hall and looked through the open doors. He scanned the Gryffindor table and didn't see Hermione at all. He concentrated on the cluster of Weasleys and didn't see her but he did see Ginny sitting there, staring into space as if she were angry with the world. Her expression was strikingly different from the remainder of her family, they looked grim. He nearly shivered at her expression, which combined with her seemingly calculated response to seeing him again made him reluctant to approach her. Her passion had been enticing but it seemed to be absent now and replaced with something much less attractive.

That seemed to lend credence to his dream – or whatever that had been. He spotted Neville and thought to approach him but he seemed to be engaged in a serious conversation with… was that Hannah Abbott? Now that he studied them, it certainly looked to be a private, intimate conversation so he wasn't going to be the third wheel.

That forced him to scan the rest of the hall but the occupants of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables didn't strike him as welcoming. Then he saw the lone occupant of the Slytherin table and his heart did a flutter. She looked furtive and worried, as if she didn't feel that she belonged and he could understand that feeling, having felt that many times in his life. Even though she was staring at her plate with her head tilted down, she was still attractive. She'd been so helpful in his vision/dream and he'd seen her helping yesterday. Was that really only yesterday?

He decided that was where he wanted to go and made his way over. When she first noticed someone approaching, she slightly cringed and he nearly faltered in mid-step. However, when she looked up to see who it was, her eyes widened and her surprise was nearly comical. He smiled at her and finished his approach to ask quietly, "Care for some company?"

Her deep blush was her only initial response but then she managed a still somewhat wide-eyed nod of assent. He tried to give her a reassuring smile and then busied himself selecting his breakfast items to give them both a chance to calm down. Once he had started eating, he allowed himself a side-eyed glance at her and he saw her peeking curiously at him as she picked at what was left of her meal.

Since it was his idea to approach her, he ought to try to get to the point even though he wasn't quite sure what the point was himself. "I saw you yesterday, I wanted to thank you for helping."

She blushed in response and said softly, "I was just doing what I could."

He gave her a more direct look to make his next point. "That's more than a lot of people did." To soften it as she looked uncertain, he asked, "Are you planning to become a healer?"

He saw the answer in her eyes before she even spoke. They just seemed to light up with eagerness. "Yes. I managed to intern with Madam Pomfrey this year." Her mood darkened as she quietly added, "I learned a lot about counter-curses."

It must have been ugly here this year. He vaguely wondered if that explained the change he saw in Ginny. "From what I've seen, I think you'll be a great healer." It was more from his dream/vision than yesterday but it was true in his mind.

She blushed a little but mostly she beamed at his praise. "Thank you. It's what I've wanted to do my whole life."

He decided to take a chance. "Do you know of a book or way for me to learn about being on the Wizengamot?"

She got a little wide-eyed again but recovered quickly. "That is closely guarded information kept within families."

She must have caught his disappointed look because she continued quickly. "If you'd like, I could teach you what I was taught. I'm the heir for my family…" She drifted to a stop uncertainly so he gave her his best smile, which made her smile back.

"I'd appreciate that very much. If you need any help, I'd be happy to return the favour."

She shook her head no. "Friends don't need to owe favours…."

Her eyes grew wide again, probably at seeming presumptuous was his guess so he spoke up to reassure her. "Friends… I'd like that."

She answered with a brilliant smile, things were certainly looking up.

Sybill Trelawney did not grace the great hall with her presence often as it didn't fit the persona she needed to portray. This day, however, was special. She would have come down to see the results of her efforts of the night before anyway but the moment she felt Antioch Peverell's soul being freed, it became imperative to see how it might affect her plans. Pushing her gift into someone's dreams was always difficult and draining but sometimes drastic measures where required. Luckily for her, her exhaustion would likely be mistaken for her being hung over.

She had seen many futures from this point and the worst was when he kept the Elder Wand. The ones where he hid the wand in Dumbledore's crypt varied widely in the end but the best ones were always when he snapped it. Thus, this was a very promising beginning.

She was so fed up with maintaining the persona of a dotty woman with a drinking problem. It had limited her options a bit but it was better than being a pawn for either Dumbledore or Riddle, she'd seen the unfortunate results of that in her visions. She was so relieved that she could retire from being a professor at Hogwarts and focus on getting the future to go to her liking.

She was also truly tired of having her nudges to the timeline being circumvented by Dumbledore and Riddle may they both rot in hell for what they had done. And when she finally did begin her final adventure, she was going to have words with fate for choosing her as the vessel for that horrid prophecy that ruined and ended so many lives.

Powerful meddlers may have forced the issue to be resolved with so much bloodshed but she'd see to it that a new age of prosperity would follow it. Most of the inhabitants of the magical world may be sheep but even sheep deserved some peace. She also intended to see to it that Harry Potter had a much happier life to make up for all of the pain fate had put him through.

For nearly two decades she had wondered if her gift was really a curse. She had foreseen the second war and powerful currents of future events going through Hogwarts so she was intent on inserting herself as a professor. She'd even arranged a vacancy for the position of Divination professor. However, she knew that if Dumbledore knew of her true talent, he'd either keep her far away from Hogwarts or insist on adding her to his chessboard.

She had intended to show a little talent but seem too dotty to be a threat. Then fate had stepped in and created a mess that resisted all of her efforts at untangling it. She had tried to warn that silly Harry Potter to focus on the threat of Voldemort but he insisted on being obtuse and lazy. Even her prophecy about the traitor hadn't worked. Thus, she had taken more drastic steps to nudge things her way this time.

She had inserted his present self into a scene that his future self had found himself in. The future Harry had stormed out of the hospital, insulted everyone and gone in search of more firewhiskey. He hadn't even cared about being assaulted or saved; his world revolved around drinking himself to death. He had continued his clueless path and reaped what he had sown.

Hopefully, this had been enough of a shock for the boy to finally look around and take control of his life. Ginny Weasley may have had a crush on Harry Potter but the year up to the final battle had forced her to confront the fact that the real Harry Potter wasn't the personal hero that she'd built up in her head. Her ordeal had also changed her life goals.

Since she had his attention, she'd decided to use him and it took him over a year for him to realise it, clueless as he was. He'd found out the hard way that when it came to picking a side, most of the Weasleys had chosen their true family, not an "adopted" orphan. It had all been downhill from there. At least the Granger girl had finally seen the situation for what it was and left. Too bad she'd been kidnapped and killed like that.

She hoped her actions that night had set the boy on a new path and when she saw him enter the great hall, she took great interest but dared not look directly at him. She'd never seen a magical aura so bright, it even eclipsed that of Dumbledore. He was almost certainly the most powerful wizard on earth, which made it doubly important for her to put him on the right path.

She finally smiled as he made his way toward the lone Slytherin eating by herself. They would make a formidable pair in righting the world and if they needed a nudge, she'd find a way to give it. She knew that Daphne would be bright enough to recognize an opportunity, even if Harry did not.

She glanced over at the Gryffindor table and the look of disgust on the face of the youngest Weasley as she glared at Harry was almost enough to make her shiver. She had to keep her away from Harry, she would be a horrible influence on him. Her meddling had delayed Harry Potter so he'd seen the annoyed Ginny rather than the one still ready to feign affection for him. That part had worked very well indeed but she'd need to keep an eye on her, Ginny could still be a danger.

She turned back to the Slytherin table to peer through the brightness and saw Harry listening intently to whatever Daphne was saying. Her gift was even more erratic when she was tired but her curiosity was too great, she had to try. She closed her eyes and peered into the future for some hint of how their relationship was likely to go at this point. Merlin's pants!

She turned her face down to hide her blush. Well, now she knew why they often had so many children in her visions! Then she wondered if she might spare some time to find herself a lover in addition to pushing events as she wished for them to go. Yes, she decided that she deserved to have some of what that lucky Daphne Greengrass was going to get.