Chapter 1: Future Past
A handsome young man with emerald green eyes sat in the last compartment of the fifth carriage of the Hogwarts Express. He occasionally cast resentful glances at the closed door, then turned away to the window. But the scenery floating behind him could not hold the young man's attention, so he turned his head towards the door again and again. He waited. Finally, an hour into the journey, he had had enough of waiting, and the boy squinted his eyes angrily. The colour of his iris was no longer pure green, it was now joined by blood-red sparks and at that moment the door flashed with a pale blue light, signifying the removal of the protection. The next second it was pulled aside and three guys piled into the compartment. So different, but with exactly the same tired, irritated expression on their faces.
- I'm sick of this!" the brown-haired boy said in a manner that was unusual for almost all Hogwarts students, but quite familiar to those in the compartment.
- You don't say," a second boy with dark red hair agreed, sitting down next to him. The third young man with unusual, platinum-white hair sat down next to the green-eyed boy in silence. He looked at him and sighed doomedly.
- Harry," the blond said in his usual manner, "don't tell me you're offended.
The redhead and the brown-haired man immediately stared at the man their friend had called Harry.
- I don't have to tell you," the brunet snarled back at him and turned away to the window.
Red immediately rolled his eyes.
- Harry, mate, you know it's not our fault," he said conciliatingly.
- I've been waiting for you for an hour," the green-eyed boy said resentfully.
- But you've had an hour of peace and quiet," the blond almost sang.
- That's right, no one interrupted you, no one pulled you, no one forced you to do anything," the brown-haired boy said.
- And I still have that stupid mudblood's squealing in my ears. "Ronald Billius Weasley, we're going to go and find Harry Potter right now," the red-haired boy mimicked Hermione Granger's voice very similarly. - And she wouldn't listen to anything, she was as stubborn as a hippogriff. I barely managed to get out of there. Thanks to Neve.
- Merlin, that idiot Parkinson calls me by my full name when she's trying to get me to do what she wants. It's like she and dirty-blood Granger were born by the same witch," Draco shrugged.
- Well, Malfoy, you're still lucky," the brown-haired man snorted irritably. - I had to listen to your sister, Ron, and the rest of her friends spouting their nonsense for nearly an hour.
- I admire you, Longbottom," the blond said with a grin. - It takes a lot of willpower not to get them all in Mordred's granny's arms.
- It's not willpower," Neville said with a kind of wistfulness in his voice. - It's just that Harry took my other wand away from me on the platform.
The green-eyed brunet snorted. He'd stopped being angry at his friends for having to wait so long after he'd realised what they'd already been through.
- You did the right thing," he said, smiling venomously, "or you, Nev, could have set us up, and then more attention would have been paid to our humble personalities. Which, as you yourself realise, is highly undesirable.
- Yes, I know, but sometimes I just want to curse them," Longbottom shook his head dejectedly.
- Well, that's all well and good. But let's talk about what we're going to do this year," Ron said, reaching for the backpack they'd packed with food before leaving for the station....
* * * * *
All the way to the arrival of the express train at the station in Hogsmeade, the boys talked about what they would have to do this year. No one disturbed them, no one distracted them. Students passing by their compartment didn't even try to look in. Why not? Because there were distraction charms on the door. How do the future fourth year students know about these spells, which take place in the seventh year? The answer is simple yet extremely complex. As is the answer to the question: why are Potter, Longbottom and Weasley friends with Malfoy.
* * * * *
10 June 2010.
Four young men in an extremely shabby state sat around a small fire built in a cave. They would have a hearty dinner tonight, as Harry was finally able to regain his strength and flipped over to get some food. Yes, these two weeks had not been easy for them without the help of the one they had unhesitatingly named their leader. Though for one of them, a man with red hair with strands of grey, Harry Potter had been a leader, a friend, a brother, for nearly twenty years. For the second, a brown-haired man in his thirties who had more grey hair than any other old man, Harry Potter had been a good friend and role model since his school days. And for the third, a blond man, who also had grey hair, but it was almost invisible in his almost white hair, Harry Potter had been a rival and almost an enemy since the same school days. But now they were united, forgetting all their differences. They had managed to unite to survive. To repay those who harmed them. To repay them as they deserved.
30th October 2000.
All the newspapers of the magical world exploded with sensational articles about Harry Potter, the Dark Lord's victor, being imprisoned in Azkaban for repeatedly using torture and death curses on a number of light wizards.
28 September 2000.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, aspiring aurors, were sent into the Muggle world on this day to work undercover. The job was unexpected for the young men, but they were able to handle it rather quickly. Thanks to this, a Muggle terrorist group, led by one of the Death Eaters who had escaped magical justice, was neutralised. A week later, Ron and Harry returned to the magical world and learned that their friend, the quiet and unconflicted Neville Longbottom, had been sentenced to life in Azkaban for the brutal murder of Dean Thomas and his wife Zhou Chang. While looking into the case, Harry and Ron learned many unflattering things about the veterans of the last war with Voldemort. The ones they considered their closest, the ones they trusted unconditionally. Harry had sent a friend to the Muggle world to prepare their escape routes. In the meantime, he himself got to the bottom of the information that was being guarded like the apple of his eye. That's when he was caught. After that there was a farce called a trial.
15 November 2000.
Ron Weasley was imprisoned in Azkaban on charges of aiding and abetting Harry Potter's desire to take the vacant seat of the Dark Lord and attempting to arrange his escape.
28 December 2000.
Draco Malfoy was taken into custody and transported to Azkaban the same day. His sentence was read to him already in his cell. Life imprisonment for the attempted murder of the Minister of Magic.
* * * * *
The cells of all four young men were on the same floor across from each other. As long as there were no guards, they could communicate. Azkaban, even without Dementors, was a scary place and the mages who worked there rarely performed their duties exactly, which was only to the advantage of the four young mages who had been innocently convicted.
As they chatted, the boys learnt the real reasons why they had ended up here. As it turned out, Neville had actually killed Zhou and Dean. But there were good reasons for this. The Thomas family had been experimenting on his sick parents, and when Lady Augusta Longbottom found out about it, they killed her right in St Mungo's.
Neville had taken his revenge.
Draco Malfoy had taken revenge, too. He attacked Kingsley Shacklebottom, but it was in self-defence and defence of property. The black-clad mage had decided that with his status, it was Malfoy's manor that would suit him for a place to live. Draco laughed as he recounted this. The laughter was due to the fact that he had managed to put several unbreakable, dark-magic curses on Shacklebot and activated the destruction function of the manor so that no one would get the estate.
Harry, with a bitter chuckle, recounted the information he had gotten to. As it turned out, Dumbledore and Gryum were alive and under their leadership, plans were being drawn up to destroy mages whose strength exceeded the average level. Beforehand, these mages were to be stripped of everything they owned. First on the list was Harry Potter's name, a dozen points down, to the young auror's shock, was the name of his best friend Ron Weasley, and right after him Neville Longbottom. There were also the names of some of his fellow students, most of whom were Slytherins.
Unfortunately, Harry didn't have time to look through the rest of the notes. The parchment describing a ritual that would allow the power of one wizard to be transferred to another had left him in a complete stupor. He had paid for it by finding himself bound and disarmed, in the crosshairs of the wands of his former and, until recently, dead Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Ginny Weasley, the girl he was about to propose to, Hermione Granger, his best friend, and several Aurors especially close to the old manipulator. Yes, he knew now that those mages were not worthy of being saved. And also now he could be sure Miss Granger hadn't spent all her free time studying for nothing. She was the one who had been working out the ritual for transferring magic.
Ron Weasley, with a grin as bitter as his best friend's, talked about what he had done and how he had made his way to Azkaban to get his friend out of there. As Harry was surprised to learn, the redhead had rented them a place in the Muggle world, put protection on it and sent a letter to the goblins describing the current situation.
The three prisoners were amazed that Ron had managed to break through Azkaban's defences, made it to the guards' office where he had shamelessly cast Avada on them, found the list of prisoners and the keys to the cells. He even managed to get to the floor where Harry and Neville were being held. It was there that he was intercepted by reinforcements.
February 2004.
Harry was beginning to be able to do some of the simplest wandless spells. The three other mages, now friends, felt hopeful that perhaps they might one day be able to break free. It was then that Harry began to explain to his friends how they could learn it too. But they hadn't succeeded so far.
November 2006.
The trio of prisoners began to learn simple spells. Harry continued to train, not only in wandless magic, but also in animagic.
March 2010.
Harry decided that they were ready to make their escape. The four muggles began to plan their next steps and then Draco revealed that the Malfoys had a secret hideout where they would be safe.
26 May 2010.
This day will be remembered by the magical world as the day of the escape of the new Dark Lord Potter and his henchmen from Azkaban, which in the process of this very escape became an ordinary stone structure, which lost all its magic and defences. Simply Potter during the apparition unknown to himself somehow connected to the magical core of the prison, which was fuelled by the magic of the prisoners and exhausted it to dryness.
After the apparition he collapsed unconscious and the three friends found a small cave where they spent the next fortnight. During this time Harry's magical power processed the magic he had received from Azkaban and merged with it, making it part of his host. After 14 days, Potter came to his senses, and the first spell showed him and his friends that the young man's magic level had become many times higher than it had been before.
11 June 2010.
The four mages were transported to the Malfoys' secret hideout. There, a month later, a very ancient and extremely dangerous for those conducting the black-magic ritual of returning to the past.
Apparently the higher powers had decided to give these four wizards a chance to live their lives the way they wanted. So Harry, Neville, Ron and Draco woke up early in the morning to find themselves in their old beds at the age of 14, but with all their knowledge, skills and magical power intact.
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