Do Not Read (For Personal use Only)

June 10 1942

A resounding CRACK echoed through the main hall of Hogwarts causing students and teachers alike to look towards the source of the sound. Rather than a spell or hex they saw a single man kneeling on the stone. The dragonhide robes he wore were tattered and smoking, his hair scorched to a bare buzz, and blood trailed faintly from various scuffs on his face.

A shattered wand fell from his hand to clatter on the floor, and as if it were a signal everyone started to move.

"Prefects, please escort your housemates to your dorms." Headmaster Dippet announced from where he stood at the head table. "Please, hurry now."

There was a scramble as the students moved to do just that. Only one of the prefects stayed behind, a raven haired witch who was well upon her way to becoming Head Girl, Minerva McGonagall. She had already reached the man, snatching away the broken remnants of a wand with her left hand, whilst casting a series of diagnostics charms with her right.

The teachers didn't even wait for instructions having already been told what their duties were if the wards had been breeched. Dippet led them to the battlements, thinking himself that it was unlikely that the wards were breached, that this was an attack, but it was too much of a risk not to suspect that Grindelwald was making his move finally upon Britain. Only Dumbledore remained behind to gauge the threat that the strange presented.

"Your diagnosis Miss McGonagall?" He asked in a deep rich voice as he reached the pair.

"He is magically exhausted sir, suffering from the after affects of the Cruciatus curse, and has broken bones and internal injuries from dozens of additional curses. There are also indications of several rituals in his magical aura which I am unfamiliar with, nothing dark, but very powerful rituals." Minerva looked up with a frown furrowing the brow of her young face. "I'm also getting some strange readings regarding his age, but truthfully it is irrelevant, he needs a healer immediately."

"Mmm, indeed." Albus intoned, his wand flicking almost absently. Minerva's head jerked up as the incantation passed his lips, almost inaudible. The body on the floor began to glow a bright blue, not the color of pure 'Light' Magic, but neither was it the deep purple of 'Dark' Magic either. A tree sprang up out of the glow and a branch began to pulse with light before another lit as well.

"Merlin's charm, Professor?"

"Yes Miss McGonagall, I did not think I would ever have need of it, but as you can see our guest is a dimensional traveler." Albus sucked softly on the lemon drop in his mouth, mulling over the fact that the figure was also seemingly a time traveler as well. It seemed to prove his own thoughts on time travel, but that was not pressing at this time. A flick of the wand summoned a gurney under the injured man, lifting him from it in the same position he had fallen in. "And now we shall take him to Poppy."

Chapter 1

I awoke in a room with a familiar ceiling. Hogwart's infirmary, I knew it well given all the time I had spent inside it during my years of schooling. There are three thousand four hundred, and sixty four hand-fitted stones that comprise it. I knew each one like I knew the back of my hand, and they hadn't changed since the founding.

When though, now that was a question that was tickling my mind.

Not because I had purposely tried for time traveling, no Voldemort and his goons had chased me into the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries before everything well and truly hit the fan. I had been trying for the 'Door of Mysteries' as I had found the key for it. One last try to end Voldemort's reign of terror over the British Wizarding World. That bid had failed.

"Ah, you are awake. I will make it a point to not doubt Madam Pomfrey's medical predictions again." The voice that spoke from my blind side was strong and vibrant, and all, all too familiar. I tried to jerk out of bed, to get away from, and turn towards the threat but all I received for my efforts was pain screaming across my body.

"Easy there, you have had quite the beating, and your wounds have not fully healed." The voice that I recognized as Albus Dumbledore spoke from just beside my ear. I turned by head so that the milky white of an eye given to blindness was not the only one that could bear on him. "Ah, I see, you are blind in that eye. I will remember to sit on the other side then."

"W..." The beginning of the word came as a dry rasp out of my mouth, and the figure that was entirely too young to be the Headmaster that I remembered thankfully held a glass of water to my lips. The liquid tasted as I thought it would after trekking across a desert, a taste of life itself. "What year is it?"

"It is the year Nineteen Hundred and Forty-two." Dumbledore remarked, which explained his brown hair, and relatively unlined face. Hell the man was only seventy or so, and hadn't even defeated Grindelwald yet. "Now, I should say I understand you are from the future, or a version of it yourself. What year do you hail from?"

"Two thousand and seven." I said without even thinking about it. My eye widened in alarm and I looked at the glass that I had just been given a drink from.

"Just a precaution you understand. With Grindelwald moving on the continent, we must preserve our borders and Hogwarts in particular." Dumbledore stated in a very serious voice. I gave him a small nod, truthfully I'd have been hard pressed not to dose myself with truth serum if I'd shown up in my past. "Now, do you mean the Ministry of Great Britain any harm, or seek to harm the inhabitants of Hogwarts at this time?"

"N...Ye...Maybe." Stumbled out over my tongue and I had to think of that for a moment. The results of turthserum questioning weren't normally so gray. It was normally just a yes or no answer though one could speak in greater detail. Dumbledore was still regarding me calmly though he opened his mouth to speak. "I mean no harm to a legally formed government of Great Britain, or any harm to any moral inhabitant of the castle."

"That does set my mind at ease more than a one word answer. I dare say you might know of, or suspect some among the student body that would be willing to betray our country." Dumbledore stated, looking to his side at something only he could see behind the obscuring curtain. There was a mumble of sound that indicated some sort of eavesdropping charm was at play to keep me from hearing the conversation. "My associate has reminded me that there are two more questions I must ask before the serum wears out. What is your name? How have you come to this time?"

"Harry James..." I trailed off for a moment trying to gather my thoughts. There was a Potter Patriarch in this time. If I claimed that last name then I would be placing myself under his rule, and I had no way of knowing just how traditional things were in 1942. I hadn't paid much attention in history. That ruled out the Black line as well, which left only one. "Evans, of the House of Evans. As to how I arrived, I had the misfortune of fighting the forces of a tyrannical despot who had seized control of the Ministry in the Room of Time in the Department of Mysteries."

I paused, feeling that the truth serum was wearing off. So to was the strengthening draught that had no doubt been in the water as well. Why had they lost the ability to make potions tasteless, colorless and odorless in the future?

"I don't recommend that by the way." I gave a bit of a wan smile, feeling the strength leave my body, and pain and exhaustion grab hold again. My vision darkened, and I heard just a few words before all sense left me.

"Well that explains the words 'lawfully formed'..."

It was three days, or so they told me, before I awoke again. I don't really remember them very well even if I was supposedly awake and lucid at times. Recovering from curses and powerful magic is that way, and I still had the backlash of claiming the Evans line to deal with on top of that.

Still in three days a healer as skilled as Madam Pomfrey can do a lot. Even if the Madam Pomfrey wasn't the same one that I remembered from my youth. No this one looked enough alike to be hear mother, or knowing the Wizarding World her grandmother. Still the skills were much the same.

It felt nice to be able to get up and stretch, even if I was confined to some generic cast-off robes that Dumbledore had transfigured to my size. I had learned in the three hours that I was awake that this was not my world. That not only had I traveled in time, but I had traveled across it to another branch as it were. That was both comforting and troubling.

Comforting, because I didn't have to worry about my actions in the past changing my future. As Hermione had once told me, 'If you're ever in the past don't touch anything, don't do anything because you never know what your actions might cause'. I'm not entirely sure where she got that, especially since we had used time travel to our benefit in the past, well, future now, but I wasn't going to argue with her memory. I always lost.

Disturbing, because it meant that many of the things that I had taken for granted in my own knowledge of history were not true here. There was no muggle world wars, neither of them. Grindelwald had done something near the turn of the century that caused all the muggle's impressive science to slowly retreat. They were locked in the age of steam, electricity had stopped working the way they understood, and so too did many of their explosives and weapons. The sudden loss of those weapons, and the actions of Grindelwald shortly after had broken the Statute of Secrecy and catapulted the pureblooded Wizards and Witches of power worldwide to the top of a new aristocracy. Even what had once been the poorest of wizard families were rich members of the merchant class in this world.

An aristocracy I had claimed membership of myself by claiming the House of Evans as my own.

So I had choices. I could jump headfirst into this world, even though it was all new and unfamiliar to me, or I could take other steps that would see that I had at least Hogwarts as a foundation to my new life. One of the few things that actually made it through my battle and the transfer across time and dimensions whole was my ring of Dark Arts and Defense Mastery. It was proof that I had gained through trial and tribulation a knowledge equal to that of a Master of not only Dark Arts, but the Defense against them.

Strangely enough, as if by coincidence Hogwarts was looking for an additional member of the staff to teach a class much like the DA had been. Not a DADA class, but a class that would be a primer to magical combat. The British Ministry was raising an army, and they weren't alone given what was going on just across the channel.

If there was one thing I knew well it was combat.

"It is good to see you up and moving around." Dumbledore said from just behind my shoulder and I turned to face him slowly.

He was standing on the far side of the hospital bed I had vacated just a few short minutes ago. It was his second visit of the day, the first having been when he had dropped off the robes for me to wear while I was still unconscious. With him though was someone that I should recognize, but couldn't quite put a name to a face.

She was tall for a woman, even from the time that I was from, nearly six feet in height, and perhaps three inches taller than I could claim myself. Curly raven tresses framed a sharply featured face, and green eyes only slightly less vibrant than my own gave me their own appraisal.

"Minerva McGonagall, may I present to you Harry James Evans of the House of Evans." Dumbledore moved his hand in introduction, and I barely manged to hold back an open mouthed gape of shock. Albus continued even as his eyes twinkled in amusement at the shock which was obviously poorly concealed to him. "Harry Evans, I present Minerva Aynslee McGonagall of the House McGonagall."

"A pleasure." I stated, giving the young woman who in another timeline was to become my Transfiguration teacher and Head of House a deep bow.

"Perhaps." Minerva stated in the clipped tones that I knew so well even as she dipped in a curtsey.

"Well now that you are introduced..." Albus said, a quirk of a grin on his mouth. "I expect you will wish to proceed to Gringotts to claim your family keys and rings, and to do some shopping at the very least. Minerva has offered to accompany you on this trip, as she has some personal business of her own to see to."

"Yes, I do wish to get a wand at the very least." I stated waving my hand a bit to set the bed into motion of making itself. It was a blatant display of power, but I wanted Albus to be at least respectful of me. "Things are much harder without one. I believe I will also need one to interview for the Combat Professorship."

"Indeed." Albus said after a short silence which had both of my visitors looking at me in a much more intrigued light. "You will want to procure a sword as well, and if I might inquire as to why you wish this position? I know I should wait and ask when you are formally interviewing, but I find myself personally curious as well. I would think that you would want nothing more than time to settle in to your position in this world."

I was glad he didn't bring up going back, and insult my intelligence. I might not have been as bright as Hermione, but even I knew that there was no feasible way of recreating what happened to me. Blowing up the Room of Time might work, but then again it might have been the interaction of a handful of unknown curses reacting with the sand of time that caused my trip. Besides it was doubtful to the extreme that the Ministry would even let me try. Even if they did, what did I have to return to? All my friends were dead, and Voldemort held unswayable rein over the entire Wizarding World. Sure I had kept trying to overthrow him, but that was more of who I am, than what I thought I could accomplish.

I'd be damned if I ever bowed before a monster like that.

"Hogwarts was the closest thing I ever had to a real home." I stated, looking away from the pair. I couldn't bear to see the looks in the pairs eyes, not when their older counterparts had been so fundamental to that feeling in my past. "Being here, even if everything is different still gives me a sense of comfort, an anchor to hold to."

"I see." Dumbledore gave a soft nod and stepped back. "I shall leave the pair of you to it then. Please see that Miss McGonagall returns prior to the evening meal, as the castle will be going into lockdown at that time."

"I shall endeavor to do so." I stated, stepping around the bed and politely offering my left arm to the far too young Minvera. Bloody hell, I was years older than her now! "Shall we?"

"Yes." Minerva stated in another clipped tone, though this was warmer than the last. Still she looked at my arm as if was going to bite her for a long moment before taking it.

The walk through the castle to the main entrance was completed in silence. I felt like there were things that she wanted to say and ask, but wouldn't so long as there were other ears around. Given the penchant for gossip to travel the castle faster than light in my day, and the likelihood of it being the same now, I didn't blame her. Plus there was quite the walk from the entrance to the edge of the apparition wards which would give us time to talk if she so wished.

It seemed my thought was right as she began to speak as soon as we had passed through the doors. "Harry, may I call you that?"

"Only if I can in return call you Minerva." I replied, and was shocked by a shy smile.

"Minnie, please. Minerva makes me look for which parent or Professor has called for me." Minerva held my eyes for a moment before a faint blush colored her cheeks and she looked away. "If I may pose a question that has to do with the business I am pursuing today?"

"Of course Minnie, but I must ask in return that you side-along me when we apparate to Gringotts. I'm half afraid I'll splinch myself by apparating into wards I don't expect." I gave her a grin of my own, and felt a thrill as she smiled with some genuine mirth. She slapped my arm with her free hand.

"As if I would let that happen." There was a moment of shared grins before she looked away again. I must admit that though it was strange to be looking up into her youthful face from so close, it was also quite familiar. "Was... Was I married in your future?"

In that one question I learned a lot about the young woman at my side, who I was still having trouble as seeing as a separate entity from my transifiguration teacher. Of course the question helped quite a bit. I learned that she knew of my status here in their world, possibly because Dumbledore had told his favorite student, but more likely because she was there when it was found out. Additionally I found inside her a insecurity that all young women seem to have, the fear that they would never find a match.

It saddened me that I had to confirm that fear.

"No, I am afraid to say that you were not married, nor had you ever been so." There was a soft gasp beside me, and Minerva stumbled slightly and grasped my arm all the tighter to keep upright. I hurried to give her some sort of comfort. "I can't say that you were never to be married. The time between now and the time that I departed in my world was quite turbulent. One war after another in the magical world."

"I see." I heard the faint hint of tears in her voice, and the shaken breath that she drew only confirmed it. I had never been good at comforting women, not even Hermione who had been my closest friend and confident for a number of years after Ron's death, and before her own. After a moment she seemed to gather herself. "I must say that though it is bad news, it is not really a surprise."

"It isn't?" I asked, somewhat taken aback by the self-loathing in that statement. This young Minerva reminded me quite a bit of a mix of Ginny and Hermione. Strong, self-assured, and driven. I found it quite unthinkable that she would be as shunned as her voice hinted.

"Yes, it is. That I am a woman and a chaser on the quidditch team would be bad enough, but on top of that I am the most freakishly..."

I cut off her tirade right there. "I would thank you to never use that word before me again, and most especially not when referring to yourself or others."

"Unusually tall woman at Hogwarts." Minerva finished up, my own sharp voice having startled the clipped harsh tones completely out of her own speech. Her whole body was tense, and the faint remnants of tear tracks still ran from her eyes. "I have spent nearly my whole life being an outcast because of my gender and my house placement, and now I have no reason to believe that it will be anything but more of the same sort."

"Then, what are you going to do about it, Minnie?" I asked stopping short of the apparition ward and turning to face her. I waved around us. "If you didn't know of it, you would have continued on the same course you have chosen, but now you have a choice."

"My choice is entirely dependent upon your own." Minerva shot back at me, her eyes boring back into mine. She chewed visibly on indecision before continuing. "All I can do is ask, no I will beg you to please not make the decision in haste."

"What decision is that?" I asked, my heart lodged in my throat. I knew that this would be one of those things that I would question for the rest of my life, and I hated that I was always called on to make these decisions on the spur of the moment.

"There is an outstanding marriage contract between the House of McGonagall and the House of Evans." Minerva stated softly, refusing again to meet my eye. She looked pointedly over my shoulder, her face set as if in stone. "When you register at Gringotts you will be presented this contract and will have to chose to wed me, or demand other recompense from my family for the service that demanded this payment."

That rocked me back on my heels. I had not been aware that there was any outstanding agreement between those two families until now. Then again it could have been that my mother had already absolved the agreement, or that some preset amount of time or generations. It was probably the latter I realized looking at the woman before me.

"We need to talk about this." I said, taking her elbow firmly. I gave her no chance to protest, but stepped across the apprarition ward with her in tow, and turned in place.

We disappeared with a soft crack, a testament to both my control and power with that form of travel, and reappeared a endless second later from the void before an old Roman manor house. The walls were overgrown with ivy, hiding the salt and pepper colored gneiss blocks from view. It was a manor I'd only been to once, because it had been destroyed by Voldemort's forces shortly after I arrived.

"What... where?" Minerva's flustered voice sounded beside me, and her eyes alit on the squat stone structure before us.

"Evans manor, Minnie." I replied, almost absentmindedly. There was something different about this place, something had changed in the sixty years that lay between now and the time when I had visited it in the future. It seemed less abandoned, if that was possible for a property that had lain unclaimed for over a century. The sharp crack of an arriving elf gave the reason for that.

"Oh, it is a master! Welcome, welcome! I is Frody." The house elf, Frody, wore his tea cozy in a manner much like a toga. It was clean and well embroidered, but I guess given the lack of people to serve that the elf would have time to make himself something decent to wear.

House Elves, I had learned, were bonded to a property in the absence of a family. It made sense, I guess given that my mother had visited the property at least once or twice before she died that any elves in residence had bonded to her, and left the absent manor. I wondered what had happened to them, had they been killed trying to protect her and father from Voldemort? Had she held the same beliefs as Hermione and freed them?

"Why are we here?" Minnie demanded, ignoring the vibrant elf that was before her, and turning a glare on me.

"Well I needed to get the signet ring before seeing the Goblins." I replied stepping into the open doors. The front foyer was clean, and everything in view was in good repair. The paintings were dormant, but that was likely because of charms laid on them by the elves to keep them from going insane with the absence of human company. "It is not wise to wholly trust the Goblins to act in a trustworthy manner without proof that you have a right to lay claim to a vault. Besides we need to talk, and I very much doubt you want anyone overhearing our discussion."

I looked up at her and gave her my best piercing glare. Truthfully I was far from angry with Minerva, but I needed some time to gather my own thoughts before anything could continue. I also needed her to be truthful with me, so that I could make a decision that would satisfy us both.

Not to mention I really needed that signet ring.

I had learned from Voldemort's own efforts at trying to lay claim to the Gaunt and Slytherin vaults that the Goblins were very reluctant to allow claims to be laid on long defunct vaults. The monies in those vaults reverted to Goblin oversight when there were no claimants, and the Goblins outright hated to lose any control they had over coin or the power that said coin gave them in the wizard economy.

Voldemort had smashed aside the barriers they put before him with pure power, but I was reluctant to go that route. He might not need them, but I didn't want to earn their ire unless it was absolutely necessary. They'd at least respect me if I showed up with the Evans signet ring.

"Frody, are there any other elves in residence?" I asked, stepping forward and placing my hand on the door. It cracked open, recognizing my right to enter, and I put off bonding the wards to me at the current time. The manor likely came with associated lands, perhaps even an abandoned village, and I did not have the time to receive the landgift at the current time. It was likely to knock me out for days, if not weeks.

"Yes master! There is sixteen elveses and eights childrens nots able to works!" Frody said nodding his head frantically as I stepped inside the open doors, drawing Minerva with me. I blinked at that. That was a huge number of elves, and given their penchant to only expand their population as needed to adequately clean any and all houses, argued for a village, and quite a large one at that.

"Very well then. Frody could you show us to a sitting room, and have one of the elves bring us some refreshments? Tea and biscuits if you can, please draw the money from the house account if necessary to purchase them." I said, quickly rushing ahead and giving him permission to buy the things. Frody had started wringing his ears, which was a sure sign that the items I asked for were either missing, or had expired long before even with preservation charms. "Please bring me the signet ring once the tea has arrived as well."

Minerva was thankfully quiet while Frody led us to what was likely the ladies bower. The decorations and furniture were archaic, but the flowers that wreathed the room were freshly cut, and pointed to either rushed work by the elves, or a daily routine. My bet was the latter.

"Now," I said after all but pushing Minerva into a seat, and taking one across a small table from her for myself, "tell me why you want me to accept the contract."