Title: Bonds of Time II: Fighting Fate
Summary: Book 2 in the Bonds of Time Saga. Bond-Mates Harry and Ginny Potter seek to change the future for the better. Weddings, pregnancy and romance looms on the horizon, but so does Death, loss and sacrifice. How can you win when you're fighting against Fate? Years 3 and 4 with AU and Canon moments
Rating: M
Warnings: Book 3 and Book 4 Changes, Time-Travel, Soul-Bond, Character Death; other individual warnings labeled with each chapter.
Ships: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Sirius Black/Amelia Bones, Remus/Tonks, Neville/Luna, Dobby/OC (Melina), George/Angelina etc.

Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns the characters and the world of Harry Potter. I do not. I just write stories based on her lovely books. No copyright infringement intended.

Author's Note: This first chapter is written for the sole purpose of meaning to confuse you. It is meant to make you think right up until you get to the final chapters of this book. It is written much differently than any other chapter in my story, for the sole purpose of being very confusing. Next chapter will go back to normal.

This is also probably one of the funniest chapters I've ever written.

Chapter 1
The Three Wise Men

In Great Britain, on the great continent of Europe, located on the tiny green and blue planet of Earth, the magically-gifted humans known as wizards, witches and Squibs lived in relative secret. A few Muggles – otherwise known as non-magic folk – knew about the existence of magic simply because their offspring had the rare gift of becoming a Muggleborn witch or wizard.

In Northampton, England, a young witch and wizard – exceedingly more gifted than that of a normal witch or wizard, though few people knew why – chased each other around a swimming pool behind a large Manor house, laughing and splashing each other.

Another young witch – one of those aforementioned Muggleborn – was reading a book about Time-Turners, while lounging in her hammock in the backyard of her house in Oxford, England.

Just south of the small village of Ottery St. Catchpole, also in England, another young wizard was flying on his new broom, which he had acquired the previous year as a gift, around a small paddock near an oddly shaped house. To the west of the same village, a young blonde witch was fishing in a stream near another oddly shaped house.

In Sussex, a young wizard was working in his greenhouse, pouring dirt dragon dung fertilizer into a few potted plants, that would soon fill with seeds that would grow into magical plants and herbs.

In London, a wizard and witch couple, who would be getting married in the near future, were walking hand-in-hand down a cobbled street in the marketplace known as Diagon Alley. They were doing a bit of shopping for their upcoming wedding, while on lunch break away from their very important jobs.

In Scotland, in a castle that was also a school, known as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a very old wizard, the headmaster of the school, was writing a note on a piece of parchment. His graceful phoenix was fast asleep on its golden perch near the headmaster's desk.

It was Thursday, July 1st, in the year nineteen-ninety three, and at exactly twelve sixteen in the afternoon, these nine individuals looked up toward the great blue sky for a mere moment, before they returned to whatever it was they were doing. And none of them knew why.

Of the millions of humans, be it witches, wizards, Squibs or Muggles that inhabited the earth, there were exactly one-hundred and three of these people, magically gifted or not, who at least had some kind of theory over their short lifetime as to why these nine individuals looked up in the sky at this very moment.

It is theorized that when you look up in the sky for a nanosecond of time, and not know you are doing it, it is because you actually realize that somewhere in the great universe, someone is staring back at you.

Of course... everyone on Earth – besides those aforementioned one-hundred and three people - forget that they are being spied on by someone they cannot see, exactly one nanosecond after that nanosecond they looked up in the sky.

The great voyeurs are three legendary beings known as Fate, Time and Death.

Although these three beings are not human, they do think of themselves as three men. Why three men, and not three women, per say? Simply because they like the title "Three Wise Men" and believe it makes them sound exactly as powerful as they are.

Fate, dressed in a red, hooded cloak that covered every inch of his form, and otherwise indistinguishable, believed he was the most powerful of the three. In fact he also believed he could not be overpowered by anything, especially the mortal humans of the Planet Earth. Nobody could cheat Fate. Yet there were several that have tried in their small existence. Most recent in mind came four different mortals.

First, the infinitely annoying Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel who had tricked and teased and cheated Fate to the point that they had lived more than six times that of a normal Muggle, and more than three times that of a normal magic-user. He had given both of them a gift that they had all their lives, and yet they still cheated him by creating that abysmally annoying stone! It was finally destroyed and Fate won out, but still... it was very annoying.

Lastly, Harry and Ginny Potter. However, they weren't as annoying as the Flamels. They were actually adorable in their throes of young love. But they were still annoying and oblivious. A recent conversation Fate had witnessed came to his mind.

"Two of my dearest friends have already tempted Fate and lost that battle," Albus Dumbledore had said, "I would not want it to happen to you as well."

"We know we probably cannot control Fate, Professor," Harry replied, "But we are most certainly going to do our best to change things for the better."

Control Fate? Ha, indeed Harry was right. You could not control fate. Tempt Fate, indeed you could, and as the old wizard had said, Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel tried and failed. But Harry and Ginny Potter wanted to try to change things.

Fate wished them luck. They wanted to tempt him, change things he had planned, when he had given them this wonderful gift they shared! How rude of them! Fate rarely handed mortals gifts, and these two were trying to change his mind!

Sooner or later, he would show them exactly why it wasn't nice to mess with Fate.

The second being of the Three Wise Men, the only being not wrapped in a cloak, was known as Time,, also known as Father Time, due to his long white beard and old appearance. Sometimes the name of "Father" annoyed him. He could have appeared to be a teenager if he wished, but he wished to look as ancient as he was. Age showed wisdom. He believed in that.

Time, like Fate, was also annoyed with Harry and Ginny Potter. They believed they were changing him. He could not be changed! He always went in a straight line. Yes, he may leap forward or backward at any one moment, but he never bent or swayed. He was not a flexible being. If he went backwards, he would start a new line, a new path that was predestined. But those old paths they left ALWAYS went forward... so called time-travelers just stopped existing in the timeline they had come from, but it did not stop. He did not die, he only changed and moved on in a new line.

Why didn't petty mortal humans not understand that?

He had also given them gifts. Time-turners were a specialty of his. A favorite necklace of his that he gave to the mortals when he was bored many earth years ago. However, he did not create the so-called Time Pool. That was not his gift.

He looked over at Fate. The pool was his gift. Time had nothing to do with it.

Death, black-cloaked and the skeletal, grasped his scythe between his skeletal fingers and spun it around. With his free hand, he moved a tip of his skeletal finger down a long list of parchment. When he reached a name, he would spin this scythe. If the metal tip of his scythe pointed to the north, the mortal human he was pointing at would live until he reached their name again. If the metal tip pointed south, the human would die. It almost always moved north or south. Death was only annoyed when it pointed anywhere besides north or south. That usually meant they were cheating Death... moving toward the life beyond death before they were snatched back into life. He HATED when that happened. That was why he gave those magically-gifted humans the gift of the Killing Curse. The scythe would always point south on those humans.

Well... almost always.

And that was why Death was annoyed with Harry and Ginny Potter. Harry had survived his gift at least twice and Ginny had been pulled back from the life beyond death quite a few times.

Even if nobody had tried to kill Harry Potter with Death's gift, Death would still be annoyed with him. Simply because he was a descendant of one of the most three despicable mortals Death had ever come across – the Peverell brothers.

The day the Peverells cheated Death, he was extremely bored. He had seen the three brothers walking along a raging river, and had spun his scythe three times. All three times the scythe pointed north. He felt absolutely cheated that he had not claimed at least one of these brothers. So he played a little game with them, and gave them three gifts that were still a part of the world. The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak.

Those pathetic mortals tried to collect all three of these objects because they believed they could "master" Death. Death had no Master. Death WAS the Master. But Death was also impressed when the humans found all three objects that he had given out. He liked seeing them reunited. He was always happy to see them reunited. So happy he even gave the owners of all three a pass-by when it was their time to die. They did not cheat Death, or Master Death. He let them live... simply because his three gifts were being cherished.

And yet they were also seen as myths to ninety-five percent of the magic-users on Planet Earth. Those five percent were far too few of numbers to believe in his wonderful gifts.

That also annoyed him.

One other thing annoyed him as well. The name "Death Eaters". He did not want to be eaten!

"I'm bored!" Fate said, moaned, "Can I give two people another Soul-Bond?"

"No!" Death boomed, "Your pathetic Soul-Bond makes the bond-mates cheat death – cheat me!. They cannot die unless both mates die at the same time. My scythe CANNOT choose two people at the same time. It is impossible!"

"And yet you achieved it with Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel," Fate said.

Death mumbled something incoherently. Fate put a cloaked arm to his hood.

"What was that?" Fate asked.

"They died because you assisted me," Death muttered.

"Time, please record this moment," Fate said, "Death complimented me."

"You two are so annoying," Time said.

"Oh, look, look!" Fate said, "My two favorite mortals! That was sarcasm by the way. What are THEY doing?"

Fate pointed his cloaked arm at a large television screen embedded in the table the three beings were sitting around. The television showed dozens of small screens of mortals the three beings were spying on at the time. With a simple wave of Fate's cloaked arm, the screen only showed Harry and Ginny Potter. Harry was leaned up against the wall of his swimming pool, and Ginny had her arms around him, kissing him.

"Ugh!" Fate said, "Completely irresponsible use of my Soul-Bond! Completely!"

"They're only... what's the word, Time?" Death asked.

"Snogging," Time asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Death said, "They're only snogging. I mean that isn't too bad. Why are you complaining. Because of their damn society and a perverted man who still has yet to show up on my list of who needs to die, they have to – what is the term, Time?"

"Sex," Time said, "Make love?"

"Make love, that's it!" Death said, "They have to make love in like... a little over two years from the current Earth date. That is a few Earth years before they did in the other timeline."

"Quit calling it a timeline!" Time said, "That annoys me! It is not a new timeline. It is a plaything of Red Riding Hood over there!"

"Um," Fate said, "it is a new timeline... they are back in time in their younger bodies."

"But with their older minds and magical core and memories," Time said, "My gift does not do that! That – that pool is your gift, not mine! I demand you tell them to call it a Fate Pool!"

"Yeah, yeah," Fate said, "They'll know... sooner or later."

"Sooner!" Time said.

"Or later!" Fate said, "Now, hush, they stopped... snogging or whatever you call it that sounds like a toilet plunger... plunging. They are talking... let's see..."

"We really do need to destroy that Horcrux soon," Ginny said.

"Ooh, they mentioned one of my gifts," Death said, "Let's do a drinking game? If they speak of one of your gifts, the other two have to drink."

"We don't drink... or eat," Time said.

"Do NOT mention eating around me," Death said, shuddering, "That damn name..."

"HUSH!" Fate said, "They are talking! They talk, you listen."

"We will destroy it soon, Ginny," Harry said, "But we also have to figure out how to do it while protecting the stone."

"Another gift of mine!" Death said.

"Shut... up!" Fate said.

"Children, behave," Time said.

"Oh, yes, the stone," Ginny said, "Harry? What exactly are we going to do about the wand? Dumbledore knows we're from the future."

"Stupid move there," Fate said, chuckling malevolently, "Very, very stupid!"

"These two don't even understand me – the concept of me," Time said, sighing. "They went into a Fate Pool... time has nothing to do with it."

"You're obsessed with that pool," Fate muttered.

"We'll get the wand... somehow," Harry said.

"You could always duel him," Ginny said.

"Ooh, I love that idea," Fate said.

"I am not dueling him, Ginny," Harry said.

"Ooh, he is SO annoying!" Fate said, "It is his choice not to duel Dumbledore, and I can't do anything about choice. Stupid rule..."

"We'll talk to Sirius about destroying the ring," Harry said, "Maybe we can do it this weekend."

"The week before his wedding?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, Ginny," Harry said, "Sirius is already sacrificing honeymoon time for the Azkaban mission."

"I like that plan, you know," Time said, "If they free the rat while they are on their honeymoon-slash-summer-vacation, nobody will even accuse them of being involved."

"Or will they?" Fate said, cackling malevolently.

"You scare me," Time said.

"More than I scare you?" Death asked.

"Yes," Time said, "You're skin and bones... without the skin. You just need to put on some pounds... by eating."

"QUIT SAYING THAT WORD!" Death said.

"Ugh," Fate said, "They're snogging again. Death, can't you do something about this... make someone die? Someone close to them?"

"Nobody close to them is on my list yet," Death said, "Well... there is one – not exactly related to them, but related to someone close to them – but they don't even consider that one family!"

"You're being annoyingly mysterious, you know," Fate said.

"I know," Death said, "Unfortunately, I cannot choose this person for my scythe until they make the solid decision this person must die."

"That annoying Choice again?" Fate said.

"'Yep," Death said.

"Blah," Fate said, "I'm bored again. Can I make another Soul-Bond?"

"NO!" Death and Time said.

"Fine," Fate said, "I'll do something you can't tell me to change. Something Harry and Ginny Potter will have not planned for. Hey... guys?"

"What?" Time and Death asked.

"Guess what!" Fate said "I'm not bored anymore!"

Hmm... what does Fate have in store? Well, I can't tell you yet, but if Fate is successful, I'll let you know.

This will probably be the shortest chapter in the entire story. This chapter exists because I needed a memorable first chapter for this story. Otherwise it just would have gone straight into what is going to happen in the next chapter.

Plus it was like... one of the funniest chapters I've ever written. These three characters are so funny. Will we see them again? Oh, you'll definitely see Fate again. The question is... do you want to see them all again? I could probably do something similar to the "Interlude" chapters in the first story.