Chapter Three

It had just gone past midnight.

Harry had entered the Ministry with relative ease.

He did so under cover of a Disillusionment Charm.

That and the scent and sound removing charms made slipping passed the sleeping guard incredibly easy.

“Thank Merlin for times of supposed peace” Harry thought.

He walked towards the lifts.

A quick Notice Me Not prevented the arrival of the lift from rousing the guard from his sleep.

And from there it was a simple task of heading down towards the Department Of Mysteries.

He moved slowly so that the distortion around him would be kept to a minimum.

“Man, I miss my cloak” Harry thought.

Alas he wouldn’t be getting that back until Christmas.

Prior to coming Harry had charmed his glasses.

This enabled him to see whatever defences the D.O.M had.

“After all, it’s not like I have Malfoy bribing the Unspeakables to avoid the place this time, is it” Harry thought.

He used a few hints and tricks he learned from his time studying in the Auror Academy as well as things he learned from Bill Weasley.

This enabled him to slip by the defences.

His first task was retrieving the Prophecy.

“This way I can make sure Dumbledore wasn’t leaving any of it out” Harry thought.

Finding the Prophecy was relatively simple.

He simply followed the path his Fifth year self did.

“The Pensieve is already paying for itself” Harry mused.

The Prophecy Orb was exactly where it was before.

He picked it up and quickly placed it into his newly charmed bag.

His next goal was to conjure a fake and leave it behind so nobody would be any the wiser of the fact the Prophecy was missing.

With that done he headed towards the Time Room.

His goal this time was to pick up a Time Turner.

He needed one to stretch the time he had before Hogwarts to its absolute limits.

This way he would have enough time to be able to train his Occlumency before he arribed at Hogwarts.

He knew this would be his only chance to get his hands on one due to them being so heavily regulated.

Unfortunately these were kept behind some glass that from what Harry saw in his glasses were charmed with an alarm.

And there was simply no way of bypassing said charm.

“Gonna have to do this quickly,” Harry thought.

A quick Tempus Charm told him it was almost exactly an hour since he had infiltrated the Ministry.

A careful Exploding Curse shattered the glass.

He made sure only to harm the glass this time and not the Time Turners within.

The moment the glass shattered the alarm began and the D.O.M.

If Harry was close enough he would have seen that the lifts had been put on lockdown essentially trapping him in the D.O.M

This however wasn’t Harry’s first rodeo.

He remained calm and collected.

His hand quickly plucking one of the Time Turners off the shelf.

He carefully placed its chain around his neck and spun the item back just once.

It immediately went into effect.

The world spun backwards around Harry.

When the process was finished the Time Turners were back behind their glass.

The alarm was silent.

And Harry was free to leave the D.O.M without anyone any the wiser.

“This was so much easier than that potion” he thought.

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Granted it had its fair share of limitations.

The most important being you are unable to change history with Time Turners.

“But then again the potion was a one use thing” Harry lamented.

Should he try it again his very soul would be damaged.

“And seeing what became of Voldemort with a damaged soul I don’t think so” Harry mused.

He then left the Ministry walking again and passed the sleeping guard.

The entrance/exit he used was one he was shown by Robards in his Auror training to avoid the press and the public.

They needed to do that when it became clear Harry’s fame would be a hindrance to the daily operation of the Ministry otherwise.

Once free of the Ministry Harry then Apparated back to the Dursley’s backyard in Privet Drive.

The Dursley’s were thankfully fast asleep at this time of night.

Thus they didn’t detect Harry letting himself in through the back door.

He made his way up the stairs to Dudley’s second bedroom.

Which while hidden behind the charms Harry had placed would remain completely undetected.

Harry quickly entered his tent.

And the moment he did so he smiled with relief.

Hedwig was sat on her perch staring at him.

“Hey girl” he stroked her plumage in just the way he knew she liked.

She affectionately nipped at his fingers.

Being reunited with her was possibly the best thing that had happened since being back in time.

Harry spent the next few minutes talking to her.

It reminded him heavily of all those hours in isolation during the summers.

Where all the company he had was Hedwig.

It amazed him how he could almost understand her.

Something only possible because of the Familiar bond that was shared between them both.

Having it back in place was incredibly soothing.

“How I coped without it I have no idea” Harry thought.

And as though reading his thoughts Hedwig leaned into his hand.

It was essentially her way of giving a hug.

He vowed there and then to never let anything happen to her again.

After fussing with Hedwig for a while Harry got down to business.

He didn’t have time to learn Occlumency in the slow controlled way.

Not even with the Time Turner.

As such he was forced to once again use the quick and dirty method that Snape went with.

Because of that he had to use the Time Turner to be in two parts of the room at the same time.

One however would remain under Disillusionment Charms to remain unseen by the other.

The Disillusioned Harry would then cast Legilimency at his visible counterpart.

They did this until Harry began developing the shields required to kick his other counterpart out of his mind.

The migraines he suffered were unreal.

Each day was borderline hell for him.

But he did what Harry Potter does best.

And that is persevere.

Slowly his mind got used to the process of Occluding his thoughts and memories.

He did however discover the link between him and Voldemort was as strong as ever.

Thus proving that he was once more a Horcrux.

Thankfully he could Occlude his mind from the shard of Voldemort in his soul.

And also defend the link it formed with what remained of the main piece of Voldemort's soul.

To say Harry was relieved would be an understatement.

And thanks to the Time Turner he managed to complete his Occlumency training with an entire week to spare before he was due to go to Hogwarts.

Harry obviously used that week to rest and relax as much as possible.

He did things he never had time to do in his previous go around.

This included things like going to the cinema or other such enjoyable activities.

His favourite turned out to be Go Karting or riding the rides at a Muggle fun fair.

Then there were the days when he simply relaxed on the beach enjoying the summer sun.

Or going to museums to look at art and other interesting things.

All in all the final week was one of the best of Harry’s life

Unfortunately even with the Time Turner stretching the week to its absolute limits it had to come to an end.

And thus September 1st came around.

Harry packed up his school supplies.

He had them shrunk and kept in his pocket.

He sent Hedwig on ahead.

She had in her possession his wand.

This way he failed to comply with the requirements of the Magical Contract.

And as such he should remain untraceable.

“Besides its not like I’m going to need my wand any time soon anyway” Harry thought.

He then quickly Apparated right onto Platform 9 ¾’s.

That way he would avoid meeting the Weasley’s all together.

And if that didn’t do the trick the fact Harry chose to arrive a few hours early most certainly should have.

The Weasley’s were almost always chronically late after all.

And as such Harry would have time to claim a compartment and remain undetected for the time being.

Sadly he couldn’t ward it without his wand.

“Note to self work on wandless magic” Harry thought to himself.

After all it would do him well to have something to fall back on should he ever be disarmed for any reason.

Harry quickly locked the door to his compartment.

He then pulled his trunk from out of his expanded bag.

He then quickly changed into his as yet unsorted school robes.

Once he was dressed he settled in.

He spent the next while reading some of his school textbooks and their supplementary texts.

As he did so he scowled, realising just how little of it he remembered from the first time around.

“Yeah definitely not wasting my time not trying again” Harry thought with sadness.

It didn't help that Dumbledore wanted him to be dumb and lazy.

And he had fallen into the old man's manipulations hook line and sinker.

“Besides, if I really do want to be Riddle’s Equal this time I really have to pull my finger out” Harry told himself.

Thus it became another vow he was determined to keep.

With that in mind Harry focussed on the texts with a renewed focus.

So much so he quickly lost track of time.

Enough so he missed the scowling form of Molly, Ron, and Ginny entering the platform.

He only paid marginal attention when he realised the train was moving.

Other than that his attention was devoted to his school texts.

And thankfully he remained blessedly alone in his compartment while doing so.

And so Harry began his journey to Hogwarts.