It's Time

“There's been a disturbance!”
The Unspeakable looked up, shocked from his desk in the very depths of the Ministry of Magic.
“Time has been altered! All agents on Red Alert!” The magically enhanced speakers blared.
Alan Garvey leaped to his feet, checking his robes for his wand. He'd only had three Red Alerts during his work as a Unspeakable, and he knew the rarity of them. The last had been a small child playing with a spare Time Turner, and once a wizard had been experimenting with a potion and had dropped a Time Turner into the cauldron by mistake. The result had been catastrophic, and the man had died as a result, his remains presumably being sent to the Dark Ages. The scariest by far was a large Chinese Dragon that had worked its way under a wizards house that he was trying to transport. When the dragon snorted, the wizard dropped his Time Turner, transporting the house, dragon, and the wizard to five year prior. The dragon had flown into a rage, trashed the house, and eaten the wizard before a Retrieval Team could get to it.
Time Travel was no joke.
Alan raced to the emergency Floo that would take him to the Head Unforgiveable's office. He was one of the last to arrive, and he breathlessly fixed his askew glasses and stood to attention. The Head was already talking.
“-Felt in the American branch, and it's path lead directly to Briton! We believe the person, persons, or object is somewhere in Ottery St. Catchpole! We must prepare and set off a Retrieval Team at once!”
The balding Head Unspeakable paced in front of the line of wizards, ranting on and on. Alan kept his eyes forward, barely blinking. This was as hard as the bloody Muggle Army, he thought bitterly.
Soon a Retrieval Team was assigned, and Alan was a part of it. He struggled into the dragon hide protective suit, lacing up the thick boots clumsily.
Twenty minutes later they were off, Apperating into the foggy June air.
~ ~ ~
Percy knew immediately that they weren't in the same place anymore. They weren't even in the same country.
The faint energy from the gods was gone. The only godly energy he could detect was coming from Annabeth, who was staring down at him from her spot sprawled across his chest. He gulped, looking to the side.
They were in a kind of field. It was around mid morning, the air was warm and muggy. Birds sang, the breeze brushed gently through the trees. It all looked normal to Percy.
He met Annabeth's gaze again.
“You're a complete IDIOT!”
Percy groaned, and Annabeth rolled off of him. She sat up on the grass, hugging her knees. Her hair was sticking up like she'd been shocked, the curls frizzed badly.
“Honestly Percy! I thought that you were getting over all that! You've gone and landed us in another time, and I know next to nothing about time travel!”
Percy put his head in his hands. He'd really screwed up this time.
Annabeth was pacing back and worth, gripped her burnt hand with the other and mumbling under her breath. Percy's hand burned and throbbed from the magical burn. He knew Annabeth's would be hurting far worse, as she had no resistance to burns and heat.
“What're we going to do?” Percy said finally. Annabeth sighed.
“All we really can do is find somewhere, a town or something. We can't travel back to our time, it takes powerful magic to go to the future.” Annabeth answered.
“But what happens if we do something we're not supposed to do?” Percy asked. “In Back To The Future, he almost kept his parents from getting together and he almost didn't get born!”
Annabeth winced.
“That movie was SO fake. Look, I don't know anything about time travel except for some basic theories. One is that everything we do here will cause a butterfly affect, and we'll irrevocably change the future for the worse or better. Another is that we can't go into the future, but we can wait it out until our present selves are born, then when the moment arrives that we go back in time we'll merge and continue on. And the last I know of is that everything we do is fated, and it won't cause a change to the future because everything that's already happened to us happened because we went back in time and changed it.”
Percy stared up at her. “If I at pretend to know what you're talking about will you forgive me?”
Annabeth let out a scream of frustration. “Why do I even try with you?!”
Percy grinned up at her. “Because you love me?”
He didn't mean for it to come out as a question, but it did. Annabeth's face softened. “Yes, I do love you, you big idiot. C'mon, we need to find civilization.”
They set off.
~ ~ ~
Harry smiled across the diner table at Ginny as Mr. Weasley prattled on about automobiles. Bill Weasley had recently taken the test, so he would blend in more with the Muggle world while he was on business. Mr. Weasley was ecstatic about it.
Ginny rolled her eyes at Harry and took a bite of the potato soup Mrs. Weasley had prepared.
Harry looked around the table. To his right was Ron, who was stuffing his face with bread and soup, concentrating only on his food. To his left was Hermione, looking tired and hungover from yet another all nighter. She'd been preparing to take her entrance exam to go into training as a Healer, and the long hours that she studied were showing.
Harry excused himself a little later, feeling antsy. He wasn't used to feeling like this, like he had a million possibilities ahead of him instead of a bleak future of fighting Voldemort. He had more time on his hands now to just think, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it.
He wanted to become an Auror, that was certain. He had the grades for it, and the reputation. It was something he'd always wanted.
He walked through The Burrow's backyard, kicking at a rock. A gnome scuttled across his path, and he considered throwing it out of the garden, but it squeaked and vanished under a bush.
It was getting dark. Harry lit his wand with a murmured, “Lumos.”
He reached the gate of the garden, and opened it. He hadn't explored the village of Ottery St. Catchpole by himself before.
The Burrow was located at the end of a lane, which was about two miles long. It then turned onto a road, which went on for another mile until the village was visible. Harry walked the distance easily, ambling along.
It was weird not to feel threatened for once, he mused. Nothing was against him, except a few rouge Death Eaters. And even they were so heavily watched for that there was almost no chance of one ever getting near him.
It really was dark now, and Harry almost turned back, the trees on either side of him feeling suffocating. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
A stick snapped behind him, and Harry spun, wand extended in front of him.
“Honestly Percy, you have no sense of direction! Look, here's a road!” A girls voice called.
Harry jumped behind a tree just as two people came into view. The first was a tall, curly haired blond, who was followed by a tall black haired boy who slouched, his hands in his pocket.
“Whatever, Wise Girl,” The boy said. “What're we supposed to do now?”
“Find an inn I guess, and find out the year,” The girl said.
Harry barely dared to breathe. How did they not know the year? It was 1999, the year after Voldemorts fall.
“Maybe we should call Chiron?” The boy Percy, Harry presumed asked.
“Percy no! He wouldn't know us! We can't do anything that might change anything until we figure out how this is going to work!”
“How what is going to work?” Percy asked.
“I still haven't figured out if time is fated, or if anything we do will mess something up! If we see or talk to Chiron now, he won't know who we are and we'll set off a chain reaction that might doom everything we've ever known!”
Harry slapped a hand over his mouth. Time Travelers. Not very good ones, obviously, but Time Travelers.
“But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Percy asked.
“I don't know.” The girl said, sounding defeated. “Until we figure out how to get to our time, we're stuck.”
Harry made a split second decision. He stepped out from behind the tree, right into the strangers path.
“My name is Harry Potter,” He said. “And I think I can help you.”

Notes