She made him sit down in her office and tell her everything about his memories as well as his nightmare he had the day before. Harry was surprised to notice how much it helped him to talk about the things he didn’t even want to remember. After talking with Poppy for about an hour, he felt much better.

“Alright, Aunt Poppy, thanks for talking to me. It really helped a lot,” he said, sending a grateful smile to Pomfrey, who ruffled his black hair and sighed.

“Harry, you know that you can come anytime. I am always here for you to listen. Now, I will accompany you to your quarters.” They were just about to leave, when Ron and Hermione entered the Hospital Wing. Harry followed Madam Pomfrey out of her office to his two friends. Ron was spiking green boils on his right arm, and Hermione explained that a potion they had just been brewing had swapped over his arm. It only took Poppy two minutes to heal Ron’s arm, because the boils already began to fade as soon as she put the healing cream on the arm.

“Alright, you may return to your class,” she said and turned to Harry, when Hermione suddenly asked,

“Oh please, Madam Pomfrey, we didn’t have a chance to talk to Harry in months; could we perhaps stay for a few minutes and talk to Harry?” Pomfrey frowned and glanced at Harry, who was looking at her pleadingly.

“Alright,” she agreed, “until this lesson is over. Harry, you can take your friends over to your room if you wish.” Harry nodded and motioned to his friends to follow him.

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“Harry, I haven’t seen you at all except from Transfiguration class; how are you?” Hermione asked immediately. Harry sighed and replied,

“I am fine. In the morning, I assist McGonagall with the classes, and in the afternoon, I am grading papers. As I am still getting memories back, I normally have to stay in our quarters. And in the evening I have discussions with McGonagall, before Ginny comes to stay until curfew. Therefore, there is really no time to go and meet you. However, perhaps you could come and visit me when you have a free period in the afternoon?” Hermione frowned and asked,

“Do you think we will be allowed to come to the teachers’ quarters to visit you?” Harry gave her an annoyed glance and said,

“As I am living there at the moment, yes, of course.” A few seconds later, he was pulled into a memory.

An about twelve year old Harry was sitting in Potions class, Anna to his left, Ron and Hermione to his right side. Suddenly Harry noticed that Ron whom he was watching while brewing his own potion was starting to stir clockwise, which he knew was wrong.

“Ron,” he hissed, “you must stir counter clockwise!” He had not noticed that his father was standing behind them and nearly fell from his chair, startled, when he heard the teacher’s voice.

“Mr. Snape-Dumbledore, I already told you before to concentrate on your own potion.” A few minutes later Harry saw that Ron was going to put the wrong ingredient in and could not refrain from whispering,

“Ron! No! The eggs first.”

This time his father was really fed up and said, “Mr. Snape-Dumbledore, this is the third time that you disturb this lesson. Detention with me at 7 o’clock tonight.”

When Harry came back to reality, his friends were watching him worriedly. “Harry, are you alright?” Hermione asked him anxiously and Harry nodded, before he went over to Pomfrey’s office to get his potion. She ordered him to lie down on his bed and didn’t even reprimand Hermione and Ron to go to their classes, when they immediately sat down on both sides of him. They spent the next hours talking, until Harry fell into the next memory.

Harry and his friends were about 14 years old. He, Anna and Ginny met with Ron and Hermione in front of the huge Entrance Door. It was dark outside, and they tried to be as quiet as possible, because it was already after curfew. Harry was carrying a huge basket filled with butterbeer and other delicacies Dobby had given him. They went over to the lake and had a nightly picnic, which was great fun and ended with Harry falling into the lake. Harry swam back to the edge immediately and told his friends,

“Come in for a bath; it’s great in here!” They didn’t even have to think about it – taking their robes off, the other four followed Harry into the lake for a swim, which they enjoyed greatly, until suddenly a tall figure towered over the edge of the lake saying,

“If you are sure that you are clean enough, please get off the lake, dry yourselves and return to your dormitories, before anyone notices your absence.” With this, the tall figure retired in the direction of the entrance door. It didn’t take them more than two minutes to do as they had been told, and nobody spoke a word until Ron stated,

“That was your father, Harry.” Harry nodded mischievously and they walked back to the castle giggling and chattering.

While Harry was watching the memory, Hermione had gone to call Poppy, who gave him another strawberry potion and motioned him to stay where he was. After a glance on his watch, Harry told her, “I am sorry, Aunt Poppy, but I have to return to our quarters, because I have to finish the grading, which I couldn’t finish yesterday.” Pomfrey only scowled at him and said,

“No, Harry. You will stay here at least until dinner. I will speak to Minerva about it.” Ron laughed at Harry.

“It’s alright, Harry, we are going to stay with you. Tell us more about your old time line and the time you spent in the past. We want to hear everything.” Hermione nodded her consent.

They talked until Lily came looking for Harry shortly before dinnertime and took him back to their quarters for dinner, after Ron and Hermione promised to visit him, whenever they had a free period in the afternoon. During the last weeks, Lily had been taking turns with Severus, so that one of them could always have dinner at home with Harry and Marina. Harry ate his dinner very quickly and went back to his grading immediately afterwards, so that he had just finished the last parchment, when Minerva entered their quarters. Harry sighed inwardly; he would have finished earlier if the thought about something he wanted to discuss with his grandmother had not been popping up all the time.

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After they had discussed everything concerning the tests, which Harry had been grading and his animagus classes, Harry asked his grandmother,

“Granny, I am sorry, but I have to ask you something about Quidditch.” She nodded and looked at him expectantly, so he continued, “Have I been organizing tournaments with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang in the last years?” Minerva sighed. She was not supposed to talk to Harry about it, was she? He had to get his memories back on his own. But if she didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t be able to fix appointments before the end of the school year. Reluctantly she replied,

“I am sorry, Harry, for not replying immediately. You know, that I am not supposed to tell you anything, but that you have to get your memories back on your own. But I will tell you concerning the tournament, because it is time to arrange everything. Yes, since you have invented the tournament, we have had it every year except from two or three times, and it has always been organized here at Hogwarts and has taken place here at our school. Therefore, I would appreciate if you could organize it as well for this year. You should have the names of the people you always approached at Beaubatons and Durmstrang, although I don’t know where you have this kind of information – maybe you should have a thorough look through your drawers. You have been Quidditch captain for the Hogwarts team for more than two years now, so you have already organized the tournament twice – or even three times when you count the first one in the past.” Harry sighed and said,

“Oh, in this case, it is good that we talked about it; otherwise I would not have known. Tonight I will have a look at my desk, and I hope that I will be able to find some data about whom to contact. I know that I have taken copies of the whole conversation with the other schools in the past, but I don’t know if I did that in this time line. Maybe I should talk to Julia about it. She once told me that I always shared my strategies and everything else about the Quidditch teams with her.” Minerva nodded.

“Then it would be the best to ask your sister apart from looking into your drawers. I will leave you to it now; I have to discuss something with your Grandfather. Good night, Harry.” Harry used the rest of the evening until Ginny came to visit him to have a thorough look into the drawers of his desk. And luckily, he found a pack of parchments with the whole communication concerning the Quidditch tournaments of the last two years. He also asked Ginny about the tournament, but she didn’t know anything, except from the fact that Harry had been organizing the whole event. When she asked him,

“Are you going to organize a tournament this year as well?” he nodded.

“At least I will try; I hope it is not already too late to get appointments with the other schools.” After Ginny had gone back to Merlin House, he copied the first letter twice, one copy for each school, only leaving out possible dates for the tournament, because he had to discuss the dates with the Headmaster first. Maybe he could ask his parents about the dates and only contact Albus for approval later? He went over to the living room and sat down in front of the fireplace. Severus and Lily, who were both grading papers in their offices, came over as soon as they spotted Harry. He smiled at his parents and told them,

“Mom, Dad, as much as I appreciate to have you here beside me, you don’t have to interrupt your work because of me; I’m fine.” Severus, who had brought his parchments with him, smiled mischievously and said quietly,

“Harry, I can grade the papers here or there; as long as Marina is in bed, I don’t mind.” Harry smiled gratefully at his father and said,

“I have something to discuss with you anyway. You know, I have to organize the Quidditch tournament, before it will be too late to get appointments. Unfortunately, I only remember the tournament, which I arranged in the past, but not the tournaments of the new time line. Granny has told me a little, but I still need some help. I found copies of the parchments from the last years, so I have already prepared the first letter to the other schools, and I just have to fix possible dates for the tournament. I know I have to get them approved by Granddad, but I thought maybe I can just decide on the dates with you. What do you think?” He noticed his parents exchanging a small glance, before his mother hesitantly started to talk.

“You see, Harry, your father and I have discussed this item a few weeks ago, and we both came to the conclusion that it would be better for you not to organize a Quidditch tournament this year.”

Severus, who noticed Harry’s disappointed expression, interrupted Lily, saying, “Please, let me explain, Harry! Frankly speaking, we think that you are in no condition to pull the whole event through. First, you don’t have your memories back about the last tournaments. Secondly, the tournament has not taken place every year, so there is no problem to wait with the next one until next year. Third, you are still getting many memories, and your condition after viewing a memory is still quite bad, although your immune system seems to have improved a lot. It would be no problem, if you only played in the morning and didn’t participate in the other events at all, but as we know you from the past, you wouldn’t agree to that. In the past, you struggled to do everything, even if your condition was not good, and at the moment, with your memories still coming back, you cannot afford that. So we think it would be better not to organize a tournament this year.” Before Harry could counter anything, Lily added,

“Harry, I know that you hate to hear this, but before becoming angry at Severus and me, please remember that we love you very much and only want what is best for you!” Harry sighed. He knew that, but…

“Maybe I should delegate the whole team captain thing. I mean, I am not attending any practise; I am only going to catch the snitch in the matches. Shortly after I came back from the past, I have already assigned Ginny and Anna the Co-captainship; so maybe I should just make them captain and retire from the whole thing. Then I could arrange the tournament together with Ginny in her name and let her pull the event through. Next year, I cannot play for the teams anyway, because I will be a teacher. Therefore, it is just a matter of a few months anyhow, and I could still play in the matches until the end of the year. What do you think of that?” Lily and Severus viewed their son lovingly. They were so proud of him!

“Harry,” Severus said, “I think that would be a very difficult, but wise decision. Normally the Headmaster and the Head of House decide about the captainship, but if you already have nominated Co-captains on your own, I can’t imagine that Albus will not approve of your decision to make the Co-captains take over from you. And concerning Merlin House it should be Lily’s decision, but from the next year onwards you will be Head of House anyway, so there shouldn’t be a problem either. Lily?” He threw a questioning glance at his wife, who nodded and said,

“Harry, I agree fully with your father. I know that it is a very difficult decision for you, but I think it would be the best. Then you can just go to the matches to catch the snitch without any other pressure or responsibility, and you can still act as Co-captain and advise the captains if you want to.” Harry thought for a moment.

“Um… no. I would recommend the new captains a Co-captain, whom they of course do not have to take, but probably will take when I propose it. That would be Fabian Weasley for the Hogwarts team, although he is on the second team at the moment, and Julia Snape for the Merlin team. I would, of course, advise the team captains if they need my help, but nothing more.” Harry sighed. “I will miss Quidditch a lot; in fact I would have preferred to remain a student for the next year.” Severus laughed.

“Harry, how about playing on the teachers’ team?” Harry snorted and asked sarcastically,

“As what? Keeper, to catch the Quaffle instead of the snitch? I have never played anything but seeker, but I know for a fact that you are the seeker and a very good one as well.” Severus sighed.

“Harry, I could as well play chaser, in fact, I don’t mind at all, and you are a much better seeker than me. And Minerva is our team captain, but I cannot imagine that she wants to keep this position when she becomes Headmistress. So there is quite a possibility that she will make you the new team captain. Then you could ask the team for regular practises if you want to, or you could even organize a teachers’ teams’ tournament with the other schools or something like that, or put up a common Hogwarts team consisting of teachers and students in order to play against a team for example of the ministry or other magical organizations. There are a lot of possibilities to play Quidditch.” Harry gave his father a small smile and thoughtfully said,

“Alright, in this case I think I will also talk to Granny and Granddad about it tomorrow, and if they don’t mind, I will retire as team-captain from both teams.” With this decision, he went to bed, trying to occlude his mind from every thought of Quidditch or the Dursleys, before he tried to sleep. But unfortunately, he was not able to get an undisturbed sleep. He fell from one memory into the next during the whole night. At least, they were all positive memories about Quidditch, but it was not enjoyable. Fortunately, his father spent the whole night with Harry and fed him potions from time to time. Although when Harry asked him for a dreamless sleep potion, when he woke up after the third or fourth memory with a very bad headache, Severus declined and told him they could not always suppress the memories, otherwise Harry would have to suffer from them for several years. When it was time to get up in the morning, and Harry had taken the lemon potion in order to be able to attend classes in the morning, Harry was knackered.

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At breakfast Harry whispered to Anna and Ginny, who were seated to his left and right,

“If I retired as Quidditch captain, would you take over as captain?” Ginny was so startled, that she nearly choked on her pumpkin juice.

“You are going to WHAT?” Anna asked unbelievably. Harry shook his head and hissed,

“Quiet! I don’t want everyone to know although I am not sure yet. I am just thinking about it. But it would help with my decision if I knew whom I could rely on for the rest of the year. As I cannot attend the practise, I am not much use to the teams anyway. And I have to leave both teams this summer in any case. Until summer, I will continue to play seeker of course, but only in the matches, not in the practise. Normally the Headmaster and the Head of House choose the captains, but as I have already nominated you as Co-captains, Dumbledore won’t do anything against it, and my mother has already agreed. And I have already thought of new Co-captains: Julia for the Merlin team and Fabian Weasley for the Hogwarts team – but that is of course up to you to decide; this is just an advice.” His two friends threw a glance at each other, and Ginny whispered,

“Alright, Sweetie; it’s your decision. We don’t want you to retire, but if you think you have to do it, we will take over for you, and concerning the Co-captains, you are right and we will probably do as you suggested.” Anna nodded her consent.

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With a relieved expression, Harry thanked them and went to his first Transfiguration class. In the last lesson before lunch, he had to teach the 7th years’ class, and Harry was just leaving the classroom together with the students, when Minerva came back to the classroom and asked, “Where are you going?” Harry turned to her and explained,

“We are going out to the grounds; sometimes it helps to try to transform at a different place, and I can’t imagine a better place to transform into an animal than beside the lake. It’s alright to do so, isn’t it?” McGonagall laughed surprised and said,

“Of course Professor Snape-Dumbledore, go on with your lesson. I think it is a good idea and I hope it will work for many of the students.” Harry took his class outside, sat in front of them and told them to watch their left hands. Then he held his left hand up for the students to see and transformed only the left hand into one of his white phoenix wings.

“Now, look at your own left hand and imagine it to be the left hand, foot, wing or whatever your animal has instead of a human hand. That is the first step, and it should be possible for most of you.” This time, ten students were able to transform their hand, and a few students begged him to stay with them on the grounds until after lunch, so that they could practise a little more. Harry laughed and agreed, but announced,

“The class is officially finished. Those, who want to leave, are free to do so.” It was pity enough that he couldn’t simple add special evening lessons to the official Transfiguration classes. Suddenly he had an idea. “Are any of you staying for the Easter holidays?” he asked, and watched the astonished faces looking at him. “I mean,” he explained, “if some of you stayed here during the holidays and have time, which you don’t need for the preparation of your NEWTs, we could have additional classes during the holidays. We had to do them in the morning, however. If you stay here and are interested, just come and talk to me.” By then, the students had began to talk to each other eagerly. Apparently, his idea had been a good one. However, a glance to his watch showed him that lunch was over and it was time for the students to head to their next class. He quickly dismissed them and went back to their quarters to get a head start on the grading.

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Shortly after Harry had started to read the 5th years’ homework, Dumbledore and Marina entered the quarters and came into his room immediately. Albus did not waste time to ask sternly, “Can you imagine how worried your parents were, when you did not show up for lunch?” Harry frowned and said,

“I am sorry, but my students didn’t let me go. But you just could have asked Granny, she would have known that my students did not show up either, and she even knew where we had our lesson, so it would have been no problem to find us.”

“Minerva finally told them, but you cannot keep your students over lunchtime; they need to eat lunch, and you have to eat too.” Albus, who normally was so calm and never got upset, was getting a little angry, and Harry got annoyed as well.

“I – did – not – keep – them! They kept me! And I told them they could leave anytime to go and eat lunch, but you know, they want to manage the animagus transformation, and they are aware that they don’t have much time left until their NEWTs. I even had to disappoint them by telling them that I cannot arrange evening lessons for them, because I can only teach in the morning. A part of them is even thinking about spending their Easter holidays here in order to have animagus lessons in the morning. Anyway, may I go on with my grading now please? I want to finish it quickly in order to take a short nap, because I could hardly sleep last night.” Albus sighed and said,

“Don’t you think you should eat something first? And then take a nap, and afterwards grade the essays? I am sure Minerva does not want you to do her work although you are tired.” Harry was getting impatient. His grandfather could be as unnerving as his grandmother could. He decided to ignore the last suggestion, turned back to his desk and the task ahead, and continued to work, until Lily came into his room an hour later.

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“Hi, Mom, what are you doing here?” Harry greeted her astonished. Lily smiled at him and said,

“I have a free period and just thought to come and look after you. Have you eaten lunch?” Harry shook his head and replied,

“No, Mom, I am not hungry; I’m too tired and my head hurts. I just want to finish these parchments and then take a nap.” Lily glanced at him piercingly, put her hand on his forehead and said firmly,

“No Harry; I want you to go to bed and take a nap now. You are tired and feverish and need to rest, before the memories start again. Get ready for bed, and I will fetch a potion for you.” Harry frowned, but by now felt too tired and achy to contradict his mother and just obeyed. He downed the potions Lily brought him and was asleep within seconds. Lily tucked him in and stayed with him for a while, and by the time she had to leave for her next lesson he was still sleeping peacefully. Fortunately, he didn’t see any memories, and by the time Severus came to wake him up in time for dinner, he felt very refreshed. After a quick dinner, he continued the grading. However, he still had not finished everything, when Minerva arrived shortly after dinner.

“I am sorry, Granny, Mom made me take a nap and I overslept, so I still have not finished the parchments,” he apologized to Minerva, who just smiled and replied,

“Don’t worry; we don’t need them tomorrow but the day after. And if you cannot do them tomorrow, I will finish them in the evening. It’s no problem at all. But your mother said you wanted to discuss something with me about Quidditch?” Harry sighed. He had not thought about Quidditch at all during the day.

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“Alright, but maybe we can talk in front of the fireplace and have some tea?” he suggested, hoping that maybe his parents would join the conversation to make it easier for him. Minerva nodded and left his room, and Harry sat on the sofa next to Marina, who was doing a puzzle, while Lily was watching her. Harry told his grandmother about the conversation he had with his parents the previous evening and about the decision, he had finally made. Minerva threw him an astonished glance and asked,

“Is that what you really want, Harry?” And Harry, feeling comforted by the presence of his parents, as Severus in the meantime had come out of the potions lab, replied,

“I don’t really want it, Granny, but I just think it would be better for the team and also for myself. And anyhow, I am only in the teams until summer, because after the summer I won’t be a student anymore, will I?” Minerva, who had been watching him closely, sighed and said,

“Yes, Harry, that is true. I am sorry, but I completely forgot about that. After the summer you can play on the teachers’ team; you just have to discuss with your father who is going to be seeker.” Severus laughed and told her,

“We already discussed this yesterday evening, and if you as captain don’t mind, maybe I could replace Filius Flitwick as chaser from now on.” Minerva smiled at him.

“Filius will be glad to be replaced; he wanted to quit the team years ago, but we kind of forced him to play all the time. So Harry will be our seeker; that’s good. I mean, he has never lost a game so far. With Harry in the teachers’ team, the students won’t have a chance.” She seemed very pleased with this decision and smiled mischievously. “Anyway, Harry, you have to tell Albus about it and give him the names of the new captains.” Harry nodded and promised,

“I will tell him tomorrow.” Harry unsuccessfully tried to hide a big yawn and remembered something. “By the way, Granny, the 7th years’ are very enthusiastic; they didn’t want to finish the lesson today, and they were even begging me for extra lessons during the evening. As I had to decline the latter, I promised them morning lessons during the Easter holidays in case they were staying here during the holidays. Today ten students managed to transform their left hand, which is a great success compared to what we managed so far.” McGonagall seemed to be amused, and when Harry asked for the reason, she said,

“You seem to be very proud of your students; I know why they are so enthusiastic – lessons are fun when you have a good teacher. But they don’t have much time left until the holidays, only the rest of this week and the next, because during the week after we will have tests. By the way, during the tests week, you can take the mornings off; it is not necessary that we both sit there and watch them writing their test.” Harry listened astonished, thought about it for a moment and finally nodded.

“Maybe that’s good. I thought, maybe I should try for about a week, not to suppress the memories at all. I mean, I want the rest of the memories to come quickly so that I can forget about the whole thing; in fact I had planned that for the holidays, but when I have to teach the 7th years’ during that time as well, I can very well use the test week, when I don’t have to go to classes. As I am here at home anyway, I can grade as many tests or homework as you want me to; I have lots of time.” Severus nodded affirmatively and said,

“Harry, although I think this week will not be funny, in my opinion it is a very good idea. That is also the reason why I did not give you a dreamless sleep potion last night; we cannot suppress the memories all the time. These memory problems should be over after the summer holidays, otherwise you won’t be able to fill a whole teaching position from September onwards.” McGonagall interrupted him and shook her head.

“Don’t worry about that now. When he still has problems in September, I will share the position with him like we do it at the moment; that’s no problem at all.” Harry nodded and gave her a thankful smile. Severus nodded satisfied too and asked,

”Did you have any memories today?” Harry shook his head.

“No, Dad. I hope I won’t get one after another tonight like last night; I was so tired and achy all day, because I couldn’t properly sleep but had to view that many memories during the night.” Harry sighed and glanced at his watch. It was nearly curfew, and Ginny had not come yet. Maybe Quidditch practise had taken too long tonight. But then he remembered that it was Thursday – there was no Quidditch practise on Thursdays…