Hello All It is I, KingofShadowedOnes bringing out something I normally don't do. A CHALLENGE FIC! I was reading over RhysThornbery's Number 48 when I read that he was listing a challenge, and for once reading a challenge inspired a plot bubble that actually began to grow and warp into an actual story. This is a time warp with a twist ladies and gentlereaders, and as such I want to keep those twists twisty, as of yet I only have one pairing set in mind and that wont happen for a while now. So fair warning on the front end there will be dark themes, very dark. I won't show anything overtly graphic one way or the other when it comes to said themes, I will even post warnings about them at the beginning of each chapter that they are hit on as well as before each section, there is almost always important plot points in these sections though so if it does trigger I am deeply sorry but I'm not writing those themes because I enjoy them but because they are key to the plot.

Anyways so, One little thing before we begin, the Harry that is portrayed in this story is a cannon Harry Potter with a bit more experience on him, he is not a god level spell creator that can rewrite the rules of magic with the snap of his fingers or a metamorphmagus or someone who can control dragons with his pinkie finger, thats just silly. He is how ever a Master of Death, a seasoned Auror who grew up in combat, one who controls the Elder wand, and despite the best efforts of many a survivor.

ON WITH THE SHOW!

Harry Potter and the Second Chance

Prologue: When an End is the Beginning

Harry Potter looked at the lifeless body of the one man who had ruined his entire life, they had thought they had won fifteen years before, by all rights they should have. Then one day while Harry was in his office he got the call, someone had hit his home, it was during summer so all of his children were there along with his wife. Ginny was able to get one of them before she was over run and her and the children were killed, they were never able to find the man that did it. Not long after Ron was killed in a back ally while he was on assignment, close range Kadava from a throw away wand. Hermione was hit not long after, Neville, Luna the list went on and on. Harry Potter watched as his friends dropped like flies, even Draco Malfoy of all people was killed, at least the man had been a better father then his own allowing his own son to get to a flue fast enough. It was from the young Malfoy heir that he was able to finally figure out the coordinator, HE had returned.

There was another attack this one was a sucker punch to all of wizarding Britain, Hogwarts was wiped off the map, a condensed ball of Fiend's Fyre and several Dragon Flower bombs had destroyed every stone and everyone within it, all of the teachers as well as the full student body simply gone A full generation of Magicals just disappearing in a single night. Harry started fighting back at that point, going after known dark wizards until he found a harder lead. It lasted four years and now in his late twenties Harry had changed. His scar had all but faded while his bright green eyes lost much of their laugher and joy his springing step turned into the low slinking movements of a wild predator. It had taken him much more then he cared to admit to finally hunt down the snake. Tom looked even less human then the previous time they met scales and covered the Dark lord and the slit Irises even more pronounced. Thomas Riddle was indeed no longer human.

When they started their final fight though Harry proved how much he had learned over the years that Tom had been gone. It was truly a short and brutal fight Harry throwing multiple chains of magic out of his wand even as he focused wild magic through his off hand. The dark lord was over whelmed from the beginning; Harry didn't simply kill him though, that would allow for the soul to move on to most likely yet another horcrux. Harry pulled the snake closer and closer until he could use his last ditch weapon, a blade that he had hunted down, one that had a thirst not for blood but for souls. The short sword was no more than 24 inches long but it was long enough that when Harry lunged forward and planted the blade into Voldemort's heart with his full strength that the bastard was caught well and good to a nearby yew tree. There was a flash of light and the crystal on the blades hilt glowed slightly, Harry fell backwards and took in a deep sigh it was finally done. Then Harry threw his head back and screamed as tears rolled down his cheeks, he had won but at what cost anyone whom he loved or cared about was dead. It seemed like days but Harry's Lament carried on, his magic ran around uncontrolled and untamed lashing out at anything that seemed to get into its way. Finally it burned out everything around him, the odd bits of strange colored lightning flashed around the ground branching out from his own position but Harry took a deep breath and strode off for the second phase of his plan.

The British Ministry of Magic was at one point the point of envy for many of the Magical worlds other communities, but that was before it had been attacked again by Voldemort. Unlike before he wasn't concerned with ruling but simple terror and destruction something he was quite skilled in. Harry ignored all of the marks of the battle though and checked his pocket, pulling up an item that looked similar to a time turner Harry sighed in relief that it hadn't been cracked during the fight. The black sand and silver metal of the device weren't the only differences, it one read the runes inscribed they would find a very different command sequence not for a short period of time but for years of it, enough to send him back to fourth year, and hopefully that would allow him to stop Voldemort from ever fully returning. Harry made his way down the set of steps that would lead him to the department of Mysteries, as he went he adjusted the time turner to the proper day, the weekend after his return from his third year. Pushing open the door Harry stopped and simply stared at the archway that held the ever moving Veil of Death. The image of Sirius falling through the archway stuck to his memory another death that would be avoided. Taking a breath Harry closed his eyes fixing everything that had happened over the past almost twenty-five years into his mind, when they opened he clicked the turner in his hands and started to sprint head first into the Veil.

-Elsewhere-

Harry Potter looked up at the almost sterile white ceiling above him, the incandescent lights above his head buzzing ever so slightly as he realized that he was simply letting his head roll backwards and that he was not lying down but simply sitting, in a rather uncomfortable chair actually. Harry brought his head up and looked around it looked like a reception area in some government building, tacky carpeting and disgustingly uncomfortable blue plastic chairs included. Harry also noticed the woman across from him. Blonde hair up in a pun held in place by a pen and what looked like a wand, her blue eyes were locked on the screen in front of her while her fingers flew over the keyboard on her desk.

"Alright Harry," her voice caused him to freeze as she looked away from her computer screen and her fingers folded in front of her as she tilted her head slightly and smiled at him. "Would you care to explain to me what the hell you think you're doing to my timeline?"

Harry's answer was to do his fish impression, as one would expect it didn't have the desired end result.

"Because Harry, I don't think you completely understand what you're doing what you've even done this far has thrown everything off, do you know how hard it is to rewrite history to explain the survival of certain prehistoric reptiles that lasted to the modern day which you left from? Or that the Ottomans were in fact still around and still to this day a major political player that controlled the entirety of the Middle East as well as several colonies in Africa… No? I didn't think so. Now then Harry James Potter what the Hell have you been thinking?"

"That I couldn't have let all of my friends die… that I couldn't have let all this have happened for nothing…" Harry's response caused the woman to stop and sigh as she rubbed her face pinching her nose for a second before hitting a few key combinations and stood up.

"Follow me Mr. Potter, I believe that we can have a compromise… so long as I can get back before the Americans try to over throw the British 25 years to early." As she walked she motioned Harry to a door, as he walked towards it he passed several other people talking to someone across the screen from them. Harry froze Sirius Black sat facing a man who had similar features to the woman he had been talking to, Harry made a step towards his godfather only to have a hand rest on his shoulder. Turning Harry saw the woman shake her head. "No Harry, you can't interact with him… not if what we're going to do is going to work."

Harry followed the woman back into the back part of the building and down several hallways until they were standing in front of a doorway. A pair of guards stood in front of the door, they raised a matched pair of heavy looking rifles only for the woman to raise her hand, the two then stood aside and one reached behind himself grabbing the knob of the door and opening it for them allowing them to enter.

"You were smart in figuring out that you needed to use the Veil Mr. Potter, the temporal difference between the two versions of yourself would have caused an event horizon to happen and that would have been the end for this timeline as well as the 6,423,632,143 other timelines that have a version of you in it." Harry looked around as they walked through the room, doors everywhere of all shapes and sizes, runes marked all of the door frames but even with his own expanded knowledge of the art that he mastered post Hogwarts Education he couldn't make heads or tails of what they were for.

"Where am I…" Harry kept gawking as they walked much to the amusement of the woman that was leading him around.

"Harry this is the Department of Fate, more specifically you popped into the Department of Death's Office we had to come over here because I think that If I can fully separate you from the other timeline I can prevent the early coming of the Zantharian Republic, that would mean the needed longer amount of time for the UN to progress and change into a proper world government allowing for the first contact to go over smoothly and allow for a rapid advancement of Earth in the Galactic-Political spectrum." The woman stopped in front of a door, a soft stain on the wood and a brass handle gave it a warm and inviting look. "I need you to go through the door now Harry, this will give you the second chance of a life that you were after while also allowing me to…"

Before the woman could finish the entire complex started to shake and buck sending Harry not forwards but backwards into the door behind them as Harry fell the door seemed to open.

The tremors calmed down and the woman looked around for Harry only to stop when she noticed the open door behind her. That would be very, very problematic…

-Diagon Alley, Present Day-

Harry James Potter fell on his back with a resounding thud and winced as he felt something pop. Springing up Harry looked around gathering his bearings, Diagon Alley. It was whole, no signs of attacks or even scars on the tilted buildings. Harry was smiling as he looked around, until he saw the date of a nearby Prophet. Walking over he pulled out a few sickles and passed them over taking the paper even as a group of girls walked passed him chatting like song birds, they looked like they would be going into either their fourth or fifth year in the coming September. Looking at the headline Harry tried to process the combination of things on the front page of the paper: Sirius Black still at Large; Students attacked by Dementors, Saved by Harriet Potter. Harry had to read over that line two or three times Harriet Potter, not Harry, Harriet. HE was never born in this life and not only that if his counterpart was going to be a fourth year coming up then that would mean that she wasn't even born until what? 2000… What in the Name of Dumbledore's sweaty Y-front was going on?

-Elsewhere-

The blonde woman from earlier was pacing in front of a large pair of double doors. Luckily she was able to prevent the loss of the foundation of the United States of America, despite the timelines best efforts mind you, she was also able to get everything else back on the right track with only some slight modifications but it was still all doing what it was supposed to. She had done her job. She had done it well too providing the circumstance of one blithering idiot, so why was she informed by her superior that her presence was requested upstairs. She had done her job, that single thought became her mantra as she heard the door open and she was motioned inside. It wasn't as intimidating as most people would think going in front of the Boss. Sure the man was powerful, in fact terrifyingly so but he would never threaten a hair on one of his people he was soft spoken a pair of glasses rested on his brow, it also didn't matter who you were he always looked the age that your father would be, the office changed also from what she understood when she and her work buddies exchanged drinks once they clocked out. To her the office was hard panel wood and a deep green carpet, the mahogany desk and comfortable looking chair behind it held a man who appeared to be in his later sixties balding slightly. The man looked up from the computer screen that he was looking at the reflection on his lenses showed what looked almost like a map with different placement markers on it. As she entered the room a big old Golden Retriever lumbered forward slowly the tail of the massive dog thumping into furniture as it made its way towards her.

"Ah Rebecca, thanks for making it here so quickly." The man hit a button on his desk killing his computer screen and he smiled at the sight of her scratching the dog. Standing the man made his way to one of the doors along the back of his office. "Come on now Rex, leave her alone for a minute it's time for peoples to have some dinner I'm sure that you have something waiting for you in the kitchen you old mutt."

The dog shot off through the open door at the mention of dinner much to the woman's amusement, it was always good to see the boss, the wait before hand was always much worse than when you actually interacted with him. Rebecca walked through the door the Boss following behind her.

"I'm sorry about the thing with Harry Potter sir, I was simply..." She was cut off when a hand was placed on her shoulder and squeezed softly.

"It's alright child, that wasn't your fault, my wayward son downstairs simply used a bit of his reserves to cause a bit of chaos, but I don't think he fully understood the possible side effects for what's done, but that's enough of that for now." The two had been walking through a hallway pictures lined the walls, the Boss was the uniting theme between all of them, he was in every picture smiling and with his arm around either one or a group of people they were heartwarming to look at how one man could seem to love everyone in all of those pictures. The two entered a small dining room. "You know how she gets when business is spoken about around the dinner table."

"But about Harry…" Again she was stopped by a hand.

"I think that if we give Mr. Potter a few days and check in on him we'll find that he will not want to leave, which is in all honesty one of the best things that could happen to him… and that world."

"You both know better, then to try and talk business at this table." The woman who walked out of the kitchen broke now argument as she put down a few plates of food, steam still rising from the potatoes and green beans as the sliced roast beef glistened in its own juices, "This is a place for smiles and laughter."

"Yes dear." The man smiled as he kissed the woman's hand and she sat down, the trio ate. Not long after the dog came in and curled up under the table it's large tail thumping slowly against the floor as the humans ate.

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