Walking Across Time

Chapter One – Tempus Clock

"I had to transfigure my lungs to become self-sustaining, Albus," Harry said to Dumbledore's portrait. "A bubble-head charm no longer works because there is no oxygen to be filtered."

"Lemon drop, my boy?" the portrait said.

"Did you know I found Hermione and Ron's remains the other day?" Harry continued while wiping his sting gun with a rag. "I think they were burned at the stake some weeks before the cataclysm. I found their rings in the ashes."

"Death is the next greatest adventure," the portrait said.

"No, it is certainly not," Harry looked up, his gaze hard and unforgiving. "Say, Albus, do you know how your precious Severus got killed after he ran away from the Dark Lord?"

Harry didn't wait for Dumbledore to reply. "He got lynched by angry muggles. Isn't that funny?"

Harry lifted a twelve-inch oak wood wand for the portrait to see.

"Do you think that if Snape had his wand he might have gotten away from the mob?" Harry smirked disturbingly.

"It's Professor Snape, Harry," the portrait corrected.

"Whatever, he's dead. There's no harm in calling him Snape or greasy git or giant bat," said Harry who was now looking through his extremely compact backpack. "Hey Albus, where did I put the Tempus clock?"

"Lemon drop, my boy?" the portrait asked.

"No, the Tempus clock," Harry said.

"Lemon drop?" the portrait said again.

"You're repeating yourself again, Albus," Harry looked at Dumbledore's portrait with tired eyes. "Defective, that's what you are. Magic is leaking out of this world."

Harry finally took out a withered old clock from his backpack. Harry fingered the chain and turned the dial six times before putting it around his neck.

"Albus?"

The portrait stayed silent. Its owner had stopped moving long ago. Magic had started to leave after the area been "cleansed" by the muggles. Now Dumbledore's portrait was going to be silent for the rest of eternity.

"Albus?" Harry repeated a tad nervously. When the portrait didn't answer, Harry resigned himself to the loss of another. It wasn't the first time he had lost Dumbledore anyway.

Harry shrunk the portrait and put it in his backpack. He stood in what was left of Hogwarts' Dungeons. The castle above had been completely levelled by the muggles. Harry fingered the chain of the clock again.

"Am I fated to remain alone?" Harry wondered before activating the Tempus Clock.

He disappeared in a flash of yellow and what was left of the rest of the world crumbled around the light.

In another temporal space, a seventeen-year-old boy with jet-black hair appeared at King's Cross carrying a backpack. He fixed his slightly skewed glasses and bent down to pick up a newspaper.

The teenager glanced at the date written in cursive. September 1, 1939.

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Author's Note: and that is the first chapter. Are you intrigued enough to leave me a review?