After a few minutes, he gained consciousness again. However, something was not right. His field of vision had been greatly expanded, and it felt as if he had wings. He looked at himself and saw many white feathers.

“A phoenix! You are a phoenix!”

“An ice phoenix. Lots of white feathers and a few green ones, cool!”

“A magical animal. That’s great; I didn’t think that was possible!” His friends were beaming at him. Finally, Harry realized: If he were able to become an animagus, he would be a phoenix! That would be wonderful. He’d be able to fly without a broom. Harry was so happy.

“Please, please, you have to teach me,” he said as soon as he was back in his human form.

“We will do that, and we will start tomorrow evening,” his father said, fully understanding his friend’s excitement.

Over the next weeks, his friends helped him every evening with his Animagus practice, and twice a week Harry practiced together with Lily and Severus. Lily was training to become an owl and Severus a snake.

-----

It was Friday morning, and Harry was sitting in transfiguration class. Harry was again dreading the correct transfiguration from button to just one rabbit. His stomach was churning and he was on the verge of throwing up, when the professor called, “Mr. Potter please.”

Harry summoned all this courage to configure his button, and three pink rabbits were running around his table.

Professor McGonagall nodded her approval and vanished the rabbits. “It was not your turn yet, Mr. Pane, but very nice transfiguration indeed. Now, Mr. Potter please.” Harry sat back relieved.

-----

The sun was shining brightly for the first Quidditch game of the season, which was a resounding success for the Gryffindor team, who beat Hufflepuff 270:40. The party in Gryffindor Tower was loud and lasted half the night, but in spite of the Marauders being there, Harry missed some of the atmosphere the Weasley twins used to bring to their victory parties.

-----

On Sunday morning, Harry decided to go for a walk around the lake. He sat down at his favourite spot under a tree and thought about his life in the past and in the future and wondered if he was going to change the time line even unwittingly just by being in the past.

Suddenly he spotted something on the other side of the lake – a scene he knew too well. Sirius and James were picking on Severus, while Remus was sitting beside them reading a book.

The Marauders didn’t know what happened to them when Harry rushed over and shouted, “Stop bothering Severus IMMEDIATELY or you will get to know my bad side!”

“What do you have to do with Snivellus?” asked Sirius.

“He is my friend, and you will never be able to understand why, if you don’t try to get to know him.”

“He is a Slytherin and you can be sure that in the future he will be kissing Voldemort’s feet.”

“Come over here, Sirius, James and Remus. I have to tell you something. Now!” Harry waved his wand and put a silencing charm around the four of them and Severus. “Listen very well, because I will only tell you this once. I have come from 20 years in the future. I know everything that will happen in your lives during the next 20 years. In the future, Severus will be on my side, but your good friend Peter is going to betray Lily and James to Voldemort and will bring Sirius to Azkaban for that.”

“WHAT!”

“That can’t be true!”

“Really? That means... what is your real name?” James glared at Harry.

Harry snorted. “My name is Harry James Potter... Dad.”

“So you are my son???” James beamed. “Who’s your mother???”

“I will let you figure that out for yourself... Dad” Harry laughed.

“And Sirius and Remus are my godparents, but I must tell you that I cannot be proud of parents or godfathers pestering other students all the time. I am your friend here and now, but I am also Severus’ friend!”

“Do you know all of us from the future?” Remus asked.

“I know you quite well, Remus, but I can’t tell you any more, I’m sorry. I am not allowed to talk about the future, so please don’t ask me anything else. But please, even if you don’t want to be friends with Severus, at least behave civilly towards each other.”

With that, Harry countered the silencing spell and pulled Severus away. As soon as the Marauders turned away, he performed three obliviating spells and mumbled so that only Severus could hear it, “I’m sorry Remus, Sirius, James, but I had to do that“.

Severus smirked. “You are full of secrets, aren’t you? Will they remember anything about it?”

“They will only remember not to trust Peter fully but to trust you.”

“I have to thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome Severus.”

“You still wanted to tell me what happened on Wednesday to prevent you from showing up for Charms.”

Harry chuckled. “First of all, the night before that was the full moon. I spent the whole night thinking about letting them know that I knew about Remus or not; I only slept for about an hour that night and woke up with a horrendous headache. Then I went to Transfiguration and we had to transfigure buttons into rabbits and I just felt sick.”

“We had to do that as well. What is the problem with transfiguring buttons in rabbits? Not that I am very good at it, but...” Severus lifted one eyebrow.

Harry chuckled again. “On the day before I arrived here, just before the horrible Potions lesson with your future self, which brought me here, I had Transfiguration and we had to do exactly the same thing. At that time, I tried, but instead of transfiguring the button into one rabbit, I managed to get a few dozen of them. McGonagall was very annoyed having her classroom overrun by at least 50 rabbits, and I had to transfigure each of them back, one by one. However, the main point is that I hate attention. Your future self always calls me “attention seeking brat” because I always get so much attention. I don’t want that, and here, so far, I am just a very normal student, without any specialities, just like anyone else. I have never been so happy in my life before. You can’t imagine how afraid I was to lose this just because of this stupid Transfiguration!”

-----

The Halloween feast a few days later was not very different from those Harry was used to. But as he could not help thinking about what was going to happen in exactly 4 years, he couldn’t really enjoy the feast and decided to go to bed early. However, as soon as he was asleep, he began to dream. He found himself in a dark chamber and heard himself speak.

“My faithful servants come here. We have some new young students who will be given the honour of receiving my mark tonight, before we go to Diagon Alley and show the world how a Halloween feast should be celebrated later tonight. My most faithful servants please bring your children or wards to me.”

The Death Eaters who were accompanied by their children, who did not yet wear a Death Eater’s mask, came forward and kissed Voldemort’s robe. He branded each of the new Death Eaters and conducted a personal ceremony with each of them.

“Malfoy Junior, what is your name?”

“Lucius, my Lord.”

“Are you willing to be my servant for the power of the world against the light?”

“Yes, my Lord.”

He waved his wand over Malfoy “Crucio”.

Harry was thrashing around in his bed with a hand on his scar. After a short time, Voldemort countered the curse.

“Why is it that you want to join my circle?”

“Because I want to serve your power over the world.”

“Then we will test if I deem you worthy of my precious mark. Crucio.” After a few minutes, Voldemort countered the course, before he placed his wand on Malfoy’s arm and mumbled something in Parseltongue, so that the Dark Mark appeared on Malfoy’s arm. “Welcome to my faithful servants. I only expect the best from you. Crucio”.

Harry was just watching the third student being marked, when Lily and Remus, who had been looking for him, found him in his bed, thrashing around with a bleeding scar, and tried to wake him up.

“Harry, wake up, what’s wrong?”

Harry groaned and mumbled, “Go and get Dumbledore please. Quickly.”

“I’ll go”, said Remus, “you stay and look after him.” He ran out of the room.

“What’s wrong with you Harry? Can I do anything for you?”

Harry just managed to say, “I’m going to be sick,” and Lily quickly transfigured a sock into a bucket, before Harry turned on his side and got sick.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore arrived with McGonagall in tow. They hurried over to Harry. “What is the matter Mr. Pane? Are you ill?”

“His scar is bleeding and he is burning up, Albus; we should take him to the Hospital Wing.”

“No. I must tell you something – only the two of you please. It’s important,” Harry requested urgently.

“Ms. Evans, Mr. Lupin, thank you very much for alerting us. Please leave us for a moment,” the headmaster said before putting up a silencing spell after the two students.

“I had a vision. Voldemort is going to attack Diagon Alley tonight. You must alert the Order of the Phoenix and the Aurors quickly!”

The professors looked unbelievingly at Harry. McGonagall whispered to Dumbledore, “He seems to have a fever. Maybe he is hallucinating?”

Harry was getting upset. “No! Professors. I got my scar, when Voldemort tried to kill me at the age of one. Since then I have been connected to Voldemort with this scar. And I can often see his Death Eater meetings and other things when I am asleep. That is also how I managed to kill him in the future. Please believe me. He initiated several students as new Death Eaters tonight, and told the Death Eaters they were going to attack Diagon Alley later tonight. So please hurry up and contact the Aurors.”

“As unbelievable as it is, Minerva, I deem Mr. Pane as very trustworthy and believe what he says. Therefore, I will contact the Aurors and some of our friends to meet them in Diagon Alley later. Please guard the school for me and take Mr. Pane to the Hospital Wing, so that Poppy can have a look at him.” With that, he was on his way.

Professor McGonagall looked at Harry. “Do you think you will be able to walk to the Hospital Wing?”

“NO! I am fine. I don’t need to go to the Hospital Wing!”

The teacher glared at him and said, “Your scar is bleeding, you have a fever, and you are obviously in pain. Either you will go to the Infirmary with Mr. Lupin’s and my help or I will levitate you there. It’s your choice”.

Harry groaned and scrambled out of the bed. While Remus and the professor were helping Harry to the Hospital Wing, Lily went to the Great Hall to fetch Madam Pomfrey.

When she saw Harry, she asked, “What have you gotten yourself into this time, Mr. Pane?”

Harry mumbled, “nothing, I’m fine. I just need a headache Potion and I’ll be on my way.”

Madam Pomfrey quickly checked on him and said sternly, “No way. You can make yourself comfortable on that bed; you will have to stay here for the night. And I don’t want any more discussions, because I am the one to decide whether you are fine or not.” She made him drink a headache Potion and a fever reducer and Harry lay down in a sulk.

Professor McGonagall said, “Poppy, in case you need me, I will be in Albus’ Office, as he will be out for a few hours. Please don’t give Mr. Pane a sleeping Potion, because it might be that Albus will need to speak to him later tonight.”

“And I tell you, Minerva, even if he is the Headmaster, he cannot come during the night to wake my patients up!” With that, she shooed the professor and the students out of the wing.

Harry was woken up a few hours later by several loud voices. He could only recognize two: Dumbledore’s and Pomfrey’s.

“I’m sorry, Poppy, but the Aurors have to talk to him now. I cannot explain to them how we could know in advance, what would happen tonight. Mr. Pane here has saved many lives tonight. Please let us talk to him for a few minutes.”

“Mr. Pane is not well, and it is not alright to disturb him. So the Aurors have exactly 5 minutes to talk to him, before I will throw each of them out.” Madam Pomfrey sounded very angry.

Dumbledore approached Harry. “Harry, my dear boy, I’m very sorry to disturb you. The Aurors want to thank you for saving hundreds of lives tonight. Could you please very quickly explain to them how you could know what would happen?”

Harry just finished his explanation, when a very angry looking Matron came over and shouted at the Aurors, “OUT OF HERE, NOW!”

The Aurors thanked Dumbledore and Harry and hurried out of the room.

Dumbledore sat down on a chair next to Harry and asked, “Poppy, what exactly is wrong with Harry?”

Harry looked away very annoyed.

“His headache seems to have gone, but his fever is not completely down, and he seems to have a problem with his nerves, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I don’t like it.”

Harry looked at her inquiringly. “Don’t you have any Anti-Cruciatus-Potion yet in this time?”

Poppy and Dumbledore exchanged a glance before Dumbledore asked, “What exactly is this Potion, Harry?”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “The Anti-Cruciatus-Potion counters the effects of the Cruciatus curse. When I am having my visions, I cannot only see what Voldemort and his Death Eaters say, but I can feel his emotions and feel every curse he places on someone. And as he enjoys the Cruciatus curse very much, I often have to suffer it. Tonight it was about eight times, each of them maybe a minute or two. It will wear off in a day or so, but in my time, Professor Snape always made this Potion for me. Probably it’s his own invention.”

Dumbledore gave Harry a piercing glance. “I don’t think it is already invented in this time. However, we will ask Severus. If not, do you, by chance, know how to make it?”

“I probably know the ingredients, because it was in my 6th year Potions book, but I don’t know how to make it. Severus, though, is so good at Potions; I’m sure he will be able to brew it.”

Dumbledore laughed. “You really seem to have a lot of faith in Severus.”

“Yes Professor. Even if he really hated me in my time, he has managed to save my life several times.”

“All right” said Dumbledore. “Twinkle!” With a pop, a house elf appeared next to him. “Twinkle, will you please go and bring Severus Snape to us immediately.”

A minute later, the elf re-appeared together with a very annoyed Severus.

“Ah, my boy, how good that you can join us. Thank you Twinkle. Severus, have you ever heard of the Anti-Cruciatus Potion?”

“No. Should I know it?”

“According to Harry here, you invented it – we just don’t know exactly when.”

“So you are saying you woke me up and brought me here in the middle of the night just to invent a Potion I have never heard of?” Severus glared at them. He was quite annoyed, but when Dumbledore told him about Harry’s vision and his suffering of the Cruciatus curse, Severus was fully awake and in Potions master mode.

“Alright Harry, now tell me as much as you know about it. Professors you can leave us alone, this will probably take a while.”

“Professor, I’m fine. Look, it is nearly 3 o’clock in the morning. Don’t you think Severus should go to sleep first? We can try to brew the Potion after lessons tomorrow.”

“No Harry, we will do it now. Just tell me as much as you know and I will try to make your Potion.”

“Alright my boys,” Dumbledore beamed at them “but you will both be excused from classes tomorrow. I will see you in the morning. Good night Poppy.”

“Severus, you know my Potions abilities, so you cannot rely on what I tell you. As far as I remember from a glance in my 6th year’s Potion book, you need the normal basic healing Potion as basis, and have to add petals of the Syrian wildfire, cumberflow, lace fly wings, four drops of Jojoba oil and one drop of phoenix tear extract. That’s all I know. I don’t know how to brew it.”

“It’s okay, Harry, just with the ingredients you told me you helped me a lot. Now go to sleep for a few hours. I will try to brew the Potion. Would you recognize it by the smell or the colour or would you have to drink it to know if was correct?”

Harry groaned. “Oh, Severus, don’t ask me. You know I am a dunderhead in Potions. If it’s very different I will know, but if it’s similar, I don’t know if I can tell the difference.”

After about three hours, Severus returned with three phials of Potions, woke Harry up and asked, “Do you think you recognize one of these?”

Harry sat up, looked piercingly at each of the phials and sniffed at each of them before pointing to one of the Potions. “I think it could be this one. Let me try.”

“Only if you are quite sure. I don’t want you to try anything, although it cannot do much damage with these ingredients.”

Harry took the Potion from him, gulped about half of it down and visibly relaxed. “Thank you Severus, I knew you could do it. Thank you!”

Severus gave Harry a very relieved smile and lay down on the bed next to Harry’s. “Let’s try to get some more sleep, Harry, good night”, but Harry was already asleep.

Harry had only slept for a few minutes when he woke up by a sharp pain in his scar.