“Do you remember what you called me earlier, when you woke up?” Lily asked and Harry groaned inwardly.

Harry sighed. ‘What was he supposed to say now? He had really screwed up this time by calling Lily ‘Mum’, hadn’t he?’ “Sorry, I…” he started to explain, feverishly thinking of a half-way reasonable explanation when Lily interrupted him.

“I thought so anyway. I can’t explain properly, but I felt so close to you that somehow I knew that you are my child,” Lily told him and added, “And I must say that I’m very proud that I’ll have you as a son in the future, and I love you very much.” She leaned over and pulled Harry into a slight hug, while Harry feverishly tried not to flinch away. He finally relaxed, leaned into the embrace and hugged his mother back – for the first time since he could remember. They intimately talked until Salazar and Severus arrived with their freshly brewed potion.

“Here, Harry, drink this. You will, however, need another dose in about six hours,” Salazar said, holding a phial to Harry’s lips. Noticing that Harry’s limbs were not shaking as much as before, Salazar gave his son a contented nod and quickly waved his wand over him to check on him. “You seem to be better now; nevertheless, try to sleep for a while.”

Harry obediently closed his eyes, and Lily and Severus silently followed Salazar into the Sitting room. “Salazar, do you think it will be all right for him to stay in Slytherin during the nights?” Severus asked worriedly.

“No, I do not think it will be all right. Seeing his condition, I am inclined to keep him here in our quarters. Maybe he can spend the evening – or at least some time every day – in the Common Room, and he should change tables between Gryffindor and Slytherin at meal times, but it would be much too dangerous for him to have a vision while being in Slytherin with all the Death Eater children.”

“Have you already told him that?” Lily asked cautiously.

“No.” Salazar sighed. “We will have to discuss this when he wakes up. I did not imagine that his visions would be so bad; otherwise we would have spoken about it before.”

When he was told, Harry didn’t take this decision very well but it was not as if he couldn’t understand it. The Death Eater children really couldn’t know about his visions. The small advantage they had over Voldemort with the mind connection would be gone if one of them sent world to their parents. He could, of course, stay in Gryffindor, but if his visions continued to happen as often as they did recently, he would feel safer here with his father. If he stayed in the dormitory, everyone would just make a fuss over him and not be able to help anyway.

He thought about the whole thing and finally, he decided to just spend the evenings with his friends. As he would probably only stay for a year, it wasn’t important for him to get close to the whole Slytherin House or to the whole Gryffindor House. He would meet the students of his year in class anyway, so it should just be all right to spend the evenings with his friends.

When Lily, Severus, James and Remus came to visit him after dinner, they agreed on his suggestion to meet at the Snape quarters every evening in order to do their research and homework together. On Saturdays and Sundays they would go and explore the castle during the evening hours.

-----

Lessons were not so different from those in the future. So far, Harry hadn’t had any problems with classes nor with his classmates, but that changed on the Sunday two weeks into the term. The five friends had agreed to meet directly after lunch in Harry’s room, so Harry had a few hours left to spend on his own. He considered visiting one of the common rooms, but his father told him Poppy had given him orders to take Harry out so that he would get some fresh air. However, when they were half way around the lake, their walk was interrupted by a white phoenix Patronus that told Salazar he was expected in the Headmaster’s Office immediately.

“Harry, I don’t like leaving you along like this,” Salazar said worriedly.

“I’ll be fine, Dad, really. Look, I’m going to sit here, near the Entrance Door,” Harry replied and sat down to read his book, hoping his father would return soon.

However, a few minutes later, Sirius and Peter came out of the Entrance Doors and saw Harry sitting there on his own. For the whole two weeks since the beginning of term, Sirius and Peter had been more than jealous of Harry. First of all, he was the son of a teacher and had the privilege of having his own room in the castle. Secondly, he had managed to steal Sirius and Peter’s best friends, James and Remus. The two boys seemed to be spending much more time with Harry, Lily and the Slytherin Snivellus than with them, and this enraged the two boys immensely.

Harry, who was still engrossed in his book, was oblivious to the happenings, even as Sirius pointed his wand at Harry, said an incantation, and suddenly Harry hovered in the air upside down. After a few minutes, Harry was on the verge of crying. What had they done to him? He could hardly breathe anymore, and he really didn’t know how to help himself. The idea of doing wish magic didn’t even come to his mind, which was fully concentrating on trying to breathe. Just when he thought he was going to suffocate, Severus came by, looking for Harry, and cancelled Sirius’ spell before he pointed his wand at the two culprits, sending a very strong Expelliarmus spell at them, so that they both landed in the lake.

When Severus rushed over to Harry, seeing that he could hardly breathe, he said, “Let’s take you to the Hospital Wing, Harry. Are you hurt?”

“No,” Harry moaned, “I’m fine… just can’t breathe… need my teddy,” and fingered for his robe’s pocket.

Finally, Severus helped him to find the teddy and held the inhaler out for him until Harry’s breathing evened a little. Then he suggested, “I don’t know what you think, but I want them to be punished so that they never, ever want to do such a stunt again. I will take you to the Headmaster or to Professor McGonagall; which do you prefer?”

Harry protested, saying that he just wanted to return to his quarters; however, Severus pulled him to Minerva’s office, where he told the story, while Harry still had to concentrate on his breathing.

“Is that true?” the professor finally asked Harry.

“Yes, Professor. I just thought I was going to die when Severus arrived and cancelled the spell,” Harry admitted in a small voice.

McGonagall was so angry that she sent a house elf to fetch the two boys immediately, shouted at them for five minutes about people going to Azkaban because of killing others by a prank, and finally told them they were suspended for a week and would go home tonight.

“Please, Professor, that’s too hard. Don’t send them home please. I don’t think they intended to kill me,” Harry said timidly. “Couldn’t you just take points from them and tell them not to do it again?”

Minerva thought for a moment, until she replied, “All right. You can thank Mr. Snape for not being suspended. You will serve detention for two months. Come to see Mr. Filch every evening after dinner, and he will tell you where you will serve your detention. And 50 points each from Gryffindor. Moreover, if you ever do something like this again, you will be expelled from Hogwarts.”

-----

A few days later, Harry had an idea. He spent his lessons thinking about it and was lucky not to get into trouble because of his inattentiveness. When he was sitting together with his friends in the evening, he suddenly said, “I think I have an idea.”

He told the others about it, who sat there stunned until Severus stated, “I think that’s it! Let me get Salazar.” He then told his older self about Harry’s idea, and Salazar was impressed too.

“I believe that could be possible. Let me talk to Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall about it; maybe they have something to add. Now, you should try to invent it. You have to draw a sketch of it and to think about how to produce and control it. You could look for one of the hidden, empty classrooms that are far away and not used any more, and use this room, as it has to be quite huge when a full grown human being has to fit in it.”

“That will be possible by wish magic, won’t it?” Harry asked, feeling a little unsure about the whole matter.

“Yes, I believe it will be possible; however you cannot do it all at once, because it would take too much magic,” Salazar warned his still too naïve son.

The next evenings, the five friends spent the time drawing pictures and plans of a possible machine that would fit their purpose. As they had spent every Saturday and Sunday evening exploring the castle, it was not difficult to find an empty and completely unused classroom for their use. One day they had, by chance, found a never used corridor after a portrait that opened on ‘landscape’. And this corridor led straight to a locked door. However, Harry flashed behind the door and managed to open it from the inside. The door led to a never before used classroom. When they left the corridor, they had left the classroom door open in any case.

-----

A few days later, Harry’s scar suddenly started to hurt during a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. This time, he wasn’t pulled into a vision, he could just feel that Voldemort was very happy about something, and his head hurt terribly. In order to suppress the pain, he closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on secluding his mind to prevent himself from getting a vision. Therefore, he didn’t hear his father calling his name three times.

From far away, he suddenly heard Salazar say, “Detention tonight after dinner, Mr. Snape, for not listening at all in my class. For homework read chapter three in your books and write a summary. You are dismissed.”

Harry went through the rest of his lessons feeling as though he was trapped in a dream.

-----

When he showed up in his father’s office for his detention in the evening, his father asked, “What happened this morning? Why were you so inattentive in my class?”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Harry apologized immediately. “I had a vision. No, it wasn’t exactly a vision, just… um… he was very happy about something and my scar hurt so much in your lesson that I just couldn’t concentrate.”

Salazar nodded his understanding and relented, “In that case, it is all right. If you were ill this morning, you did not deserve a detention. You are free to go.”

Harry thought for a moment. “Dad?” he asked hesitantly. “Do you have a few minutes for me?”

“Of course, my son. What’s wrong?” Salazar replied.

“We have found a room, and I’d like to show it to you. I’d like your opinion, so I can be sure it’s a suitable place for our purpose. If you had a few minutes, I could flash us there.”

“All right, Harry, but only if you are sure you can manage to flash us safely.”

Harry nodded, transformed into Breeze, and flashed them into the empty corridor, where he transformed and entered the classroom.

“The room looks suitable enough, but where are we?” Salazar commented, looking around as to assess where they were.

Harry grinned. “Do you know the portrait of Frederic the Tiny on the fourth floor? This room is behind the portrait.”

Snape gave him an astonished look and shook his head. “I am sorry, Harry, but although the room seems adequate, you will have to search for an empty room far away from everything. You cannot do this in the middle of the school, you know. As I know the dungeons very well, I am capable enough to show you an adequate room far away from everything else if you cannot find anything else suitable. However, we should take your friends with us. Let us return to our quarters. It’s still early enough for an expedition to the dungeons.”

The five friends walked through the dungeons behind their Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. A long way back, the doors had ceased to be on both sides of the hall, which had become narrow and clammy. However, the way they were walking on was not the only one. A few times, corridors had branched off on both sides of the way they were heading to … where? Although Harry loved damp places more than too dry rooms, he was slowly starting to have breathing problems. His head hurt, and he slowly began to worry where they were going.

“Dad?” he asked, breathing heavily.

“Are you all right, Harry?” Salazar asked, stopping his fast pace immediately.

Harry nodded and asked, “Is it still far, Dad?”

“Where are we going?” James asked curiously.

“And where are we? I mean, the Slytherin dormitories are already under the lake, and we are much deeper here,” Severus added.

Snape sighed. “I am sorry about not telling you in advance. The place where I am taking you is over there.” He pointed to a door that was just a few metres in front of them. “This is the most distant room Hogwarts has. It must be under the far end of the lake, I suppose. And I am relatively sure that nobody knows about it, because I discovered it on my own, and at that time, the way here was so dirty and dusty that I am sure nobody had come here for at least a hundred years. I know that it is far to walk here; however, once Harry knows this place he will be able to flash you here. But only one or two people at one time, Harry.” He eyed his son sternly.

Behind the door was a large room with a stone floor, reminding Harry of the one he used to see in his visions. With a flick of Snape’s wand, small torches lit along the walls.

-----

During the next weeks, Harry flashed over to the room every second night. However, his father and his friends, especially Lily and Severus, had insisted that he had to take two of them with him each time he flashed there. In the meantime, they had decided on one of Harry’s sketches of a machine, which looked like a mixture of a rubbish machine and a concrete mixer. He and his friends took a lot of tissues with them, and Harry, Salazar, and James had slowly started to transfigure tissues into parts of the machine. Remus kept an eye on the technical part and watched closely to make sure Harry and James assembled the machine parts correctly, while Lily and Severus practised transfiguring tissues and kept an eye on Harry to prevent him from using too much magic at once.

Harry sighed. ‘Is this really going to work?’ he wondered. And what could happen in the worst case scenario? As Lily and Severus didn’t let him do a lot of wish magic at once, it would take him another six weeks to complete the machine. Maybe he should come here and work on it every evening.

Fortunately, the others agreed to increase their travels to the far away dungeon room, and after three weeks and a lot of hard work, the machine was finished.

“How can we test it to see if it works?” Lily asked excitingly.

“We can just put a rat in it,” Severus answered without even thinking about it.

“How can we put something in it at all? There is no opening or such,” Lily enquired confused.

Harry sighed tiredly. “I have to make a Portkey and portkey the rat into the machine. However, we should enlarge a rat before we do that, otherwise we won’t know properly if it worked as rats are too small.”

“Do you know how to make Portkeys?” James asked astonished.

“Yes,” Harry replied, “Professor Dumbledore has taught me how to do it.”

They agreed to perform the first test immediately. Harry made a Portkey using a ribbon while Severus left only to return a few minutes later with a stunned rat. Remus enlarged the rat until it was the size of a sheep and Harry fastened the ribbon around the rat’s tail. Then he thought the incantation and the rat vanished from view. Now Harry pressed the green start button at one side of the machine, and the machine began to rotate. After two minutes, a red light flared and Harry used wish magic in order to transfigure the remaining of the rat into cow dung, which shortly afterwards appeared in a drawer beneath the green button.

Severus quickly cast a ‘Scourgify’ spell on the cow dung, which vanished immediately. Then he looked at his future son and said, “Congratulations, Harry! Now, what do you think; shall I look for another rat, and you flash to get your father and Professor Dumbledore here, maybe Professor McGonagall too?”

Everyone agreed, and Harry quickly flashed home, transformed and talked to his father, who pulled Harry into a hug and whispered, “Congratulations, my son. I am so proud of you!”

Harry flashed both of them to the front of the Headmaster’s office. When the door opened for them, he noticed that Professor McGonagall was there as well. ‘That’s good. It’s such a waste of time to tell the story more often,’ he thought contentedly and spoke to the teachers about what they had achieved. Finally, they managed to show their experiment with the second rat to the teachers without problems.

“Very good,” Dumbledore complimented the five friends. “However, are you sure that the interior is large enough to accommodate Voldemort?”

“Yes, sir,” James replied. “It is 2.20 m x 1 m x 1 m, so several people would fit in actually. However, we will have to do a few more tests and some fine tuning. For example, we have to check the remaining of the rat before Harry turns them into cow dung to confirm that the remaining are scrambled enough in order to really vanquish Voldemort.”

“All right,” Harry agreed immediately. “Then we will return here tomorrow after the Quidditch tryouts, if that’s all right with you.”

During the next days, they did several tests and were nearly finished with the machine and ready to proceed to the actual planning of the event, when something unforeseen happened. Harry had just taken James and Remus to the room and was now on his way back in order to get his future parents. However, he must have not been concentrating enough for an instant and arrived somewhere he didn’t recognize at all. ‘Where am I, and how did I manage to get here?’ he thought frantically and transformed back into his human form in order to explore his surroundings. He was in a room made of stone like the room he always saw in his visions. And suddenly he heard a voice.