The light entered his eyes as he gained consciousness. He looked up from where he was laying. Four walls limited his vision of the purple sky overhead. He used a bit of force in his hands and sat up. He looked around to see himself surrounded by walls of dirt.

“How odd...” he murmured. His gaze shifted towards his legs. He felt slightly surprised. He then traced his legs back to the rest of his body. His body was in the same state as his legs as well as his hands. He raised his arms and looked at them. He had a thought and touched his face. But he couldn’t feel. He sighed and looked up again. He focused on the purple sky closely. It was just Wisterias hanging overhead. He felt amused.

He looked at the walls again. They were at least 6 feet tall. He wanted to climb over the walls to gaze at the world beyond but shook his head. It might be a bit difficult to do that with his body. He looked at the Wisteria again, his vision of it limited by the walls. The purple fires in his eyes danced, agitated. He inwardly let out a breath of air. There was no use being stuck here. He might as well try. He stood up and reached towards the wall. Just as he was about to start climbing, sounds of leaves rustling accompanied by footsteps came from over the wall. He stopped what he was doing and looked to where the sounds were coming from.

“Oh!” a feminine voice full of surprise rang out followed by the sounds of hurried footsteps. By the sound of it, he deduced that a woman was coming towards him. After a while, the footsteps slowed. He looked up to see a woman peering down at him. Her eyes widened in surprise. He did not feel that it was strange and indifferently asked, “Could you tell me where I am, miss?”

The woman had brown hair and forest-green eyes. She had a small mole under her alluring red lips. Her initial surprise had changed to a more intrigued look. But he didn’t care about that.

“You’re on 『•••••••』. It’s the year 『•••』.”

He inwardly frowned. He didn’t know why but he felt that he had suddenly become a bit too old. He shook his head, removing these thoughts from his head.

“Who’s the emperor of 『•••••』?” he asked.

The woman tilted her head in confusion, “That empire has been gone for almost three centuries now.”

“!!!” he felt shocked. He started at the woman. After a while, he hung his head, “I-Is that so?” He did not know why but he felt grief as though he had lost something precious.

As he was wallowing in his sorrows, the woman spoke, “You keep asking me a lot of questions, but now it’s my turn.”

He looked up at her. She asked, “Who are you?”

“I do not know.”

“Are you from 『•••••』?”

“Maybe.”

“How did you end up like this?”

He looked at her with a strange gaze, “What do you think?”

The woman giggled, “Sorry, sorry, that was a strange question.”

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Don't know. Just roaming around.”

“Is that so? So, where’s your family?”

“My dad's dead. My mother's back home. Brother's in the military.”

“Don't you have a husband or a lover? I don’t think it’s safe for a young lady like yourself to be walking around.”

“It's not a problem. I’m powerful, you see?” She puffed her chest with pride, “I just killed a few bandits on my way here.”

He sighed, “So unladylike.”

The woman pouted, “I am a proper lady. You don’t even know how many men want me.”

“But they always run away after seeing your nature.”

She gasped in shock, “How did you know?”

He chuckled, “Who knows?”

“Hey! You’re not so down anymore,” she said with a smile.

He inwardly smiled, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“So...how long will you stay down there?”

“Well, I was going to come out but you found me before I could.”

“Oh, where will you go?”

“Where can I go?” he inwardly rolled his eyes.

“Oh, sorry,” she giggled.

After thinking a while, he opened her mouth, “Say, wanna go with me?”

“Huh?”

“I was going to go journeying. But it became boring and lonely. Now that I found you, my trip won’t be lonely anymore.”

“Wai-”

“Besides, where can you go?”

He fell silent. She had a point. But he still had his reservations about bothering someone he met just a few minutes ago.

“Come on. Please~” she looked at him with her big round eyes, “Pretty please~”

He started at her. After a while, he sighed, “Fine...”

She clapped her hands, “Yay!” She reached out her hand. The wind blew and the Wisteria swayed, filling the air with its sweet scent.

He grabbed her hand, not knowing the misfortunes that would follow.

----------------------------------------

Sol woke up with a start. He rubbed his eyes and looked a bit groggy. He looked around. He was in his room and was sitting at his desk. The book in front of him was about magical devices. He looked at the page he was on. It had a small pool of saliva on it.

“Ah, shit!” he wiped the corner of his mouth and sure enough he had drooled. He grabbed his wand and flicked it at the page. The saliva floated off the page. The page dried off and became good as new. He put away his wand and looked at the page again. He sighed ruefully.

Haah~ the laws of time in this world are so fucked. And the time turner proves that. ‘Your past self can’t see your future self.’ It’s not that there is anything wrong with that, it just makes things a bit inconvenient. Any change in the past has to look like a force of nature. Others can see your future self and nothing will happen because they won’t think you’ve gone back in the past; there isn’t anything proving it. However, your past self can’t see your future self, why? I can believe if it was because two of the same people can’t exist at the same time but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least not here. There hasn’t been a lot of experimentation with time in this world not are there any records of it. In a world with the Polyjuice potion, when one sees themselves, the first thing they’ll think of is someone impersonating them. Oh...wait! Is that it? Time would only break if someone knows you’re time traveling. If you were to see someone impersonating you, you’d catch them. If they can’t escape, then it’ll be real easy to know whether they are in disguise or not. But what would happen if you knew your future self was here? Would all of time break? Seeing as how this world still exists even with the time turner here and how the warning also exists, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Then would it only remove the traveler from all time periods?

Bang!

A grey owl smashed headfirst into his window. Sol kept the window closed so no sudden breeze would mess up his notes.

“Jesus Christ!” he stood up with a start. He opened the window and stuck his head out. The grey owl flew into his room passing his head and perched itself on Sol's drawers. Elaine hooted and glared at the owl from her perch on Sol's desk.

“Why did they send Errol here?” the gray owl was named Errol. He was the Weasley's owl. The owl was a bit challenged. As evidenced by how it smashes headlong into windows. It also dives into the table in Hogwarts whenever they were eating, making a mess of everything. He looked at the owl, it had a letter grasped in its talons.

He reached his hand out to take the letter. However, Errol kept a firm grip on the letter. Sol kept on tugging on it.

“Let go, you bloody bird!” he pulled one last time with a bit more force and wrested it out the owl's grip. He opened the letter which had rips on it. He read the entire letter and frowned. He fell deep into thought and trashed the letter.

So, Harry didn’t reply to Ron's letters, huh? And he wants me to check him out because my house is next to him. But the question is, why should I care? It’s not like he won’t come to Hogwarts this year. If not then how will the plot progress?

Knock! Knock!

There was a knock on his door. “Yeah?” he called out.

“There's a Hermione on the phone for you,” his mother's voice came from outside his room.

“Huh? What's she calling me for?” he pondered out loud.

“I don’t know. Why is she calling you?” his mother's tone seemed a bit off when saying that.

Sol left the room after shooing Errol out. He headed downstairs and into the living room where the phone was. On the sofa, he saw his mother looking at him with a suggestive look and raised her eyebrows. He glared at her, “What are you thinking?! She's a junior!”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She covered her mouth as she mock-gasped, “Oh my!”

“Can't you find someone better to pair me with?” he headed towards the phone.

“Like who? Katie?”

“At least Kate's not my damn junior,” he spoke through gritted teeth.

He picked up the phone, “Yes? Hello, this is Sol speaking.”

“Hey, Sol! It’s me, Hermione?” her childish yet scholarly voice came from the speaker.

“And what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Harry isn’t responding to our letters. Ron must’ve told you right.”

Sol's expression stiffened. He felt a troublesome request coming.

“And?”

“I want you to check on him.”

He sighed, “I-I’ll think abo-”

“I also told Katie to ask you,” the smugness in her voice could be felt over the phone.

“What?! Why'd you have to tell her?”

“Because I know you won’t go otherwise.”

“You could’ve just asked Ron. His family has a flying car. He could just fly to Harry.”

“That’s true. But why would we need a flying car when we have a Sol?”

“You-” Sol felt aggrieved. Did they think of him as a servant who responds to their every call?

“You should get a letter from Katie tonight.”

“Haah~” he sighed.

“Goodbye! And you better check on Harry.”

Du. Du. Du~

Hermione hung up, leaving Sol utterly incensed. Sol put the phone down.

Click!

“What happened?” his mother worriedly asked.

“Nothing. It seems no one can contact Harry. So they asked me to check up on him,” Sol answered truthfully.

Her eyes lit up, “Ooh~ Harry Potter?”

“Yeah.”

“Go and see what he's up to. And if possible invite him to our home.”

“Wha- why?”

“I mean, I want to see the boy who lived,” his mom said sheepishly.

“Calm down, mom. He's the ‘boy who lived’ not the ‘boy who killed You-Know-Who’. He's not any different than a regular boy. Only slightly malnourished.”

His mother pouted but then mischievously grinned at him, “I bet you'd go straight away if it was Katie who was asking you.”

Sol was expressionless, “Do you think I'm a five-year-old? Why would I even fall for this type of provocation?”

His mother sighed, “If you were a normal boy, you would’ve fallen for it.”

“So you’re admitting that you did use reverse psychology on me.”

“Please get Harry,” facing his mother's pleading eyes, he was speechless. He really didn’t want to do it. Yet when he thought about what he did last year, he felt that he should make some amends. He thought for a long time before sighing and helplessly raising his hands, “Fine, I’ll go...”

“Thank you,” she got up from the sofa and planted a kiss on his cheek. He smiled.

“Let me cook something delicious,” she excitedly declared heading to the kitchen.

He shook his head and left the house after midnight much to his mother's ire for making her food go cold.

It was a solid fifteen-minute walk from Sol's house to the Dursleys. So it gave him ample time to appreciate the suburbs during the night. It was the second half of August and his third year at Hogwarts was approaching. He had an idea of what his third year would bring. As well as the fact that he could now choose the subjects he wanted to study. He had a lot of things on his agenda. But he didn’t forget to enjoy life and take breaks. He regularly played with Faye, his sister. She had grown bigger, now resembling a one-year-old. Actually, she was one year old. Her birthday passed a few days ago. They celebrated it within the family.

As Sol was reminiscing of these things, he quickly arrived at the Dursleys' house. Their car as always was parked on the driveway. He looked at their house.

He activated Mana Eyes. His eyes started glowing purple. He saw Harry's mana signature inside one of the second-floor rooms around the back of the house.

Sol looked around. There was a man in his thirties walking on the opposite side of the street. Sol waited for a while. Once he determined that there was no one, he quietly went up to the front door and took out his wand.

He swished it at the lock on the door, “Alohamora!”

Click!

The lock opened and Sol twisted the doorknob and quietly went in. He looked around once he was inside. It looked exactly the same as when he came here a year ago. Though there wasn’t exactly a reason to change a good interior. There was the passageway to the dining and living room and the staircase that lead to the second floor. He looked at the cupboard underneath the stairs. He smiled as he reminisced the events from a year ago. After all was said and done, he quietly proceeded to the second floor. He came to the room that was at the end of the second floor. He could see Harry's signature inside the room. He twisted the doorknob and went in.

He went inside and closed the door behind him. As he turned around, a small figure apparated in front of him. It had long pointy ears, a long nose, and large eyes that seemed to bulge out its sockets. It also wore dirtied white rags on its body.

It pointed a finger at him, “Who is this sir?”

Sol was stunned. What the hell is a house-elf doing here?

He quickly regained his composure. “You ask me to introduce myself yet you don’t even have the decency to introduce yourself?”

Now it was its turn to be stunned, “S-Sir is right.” It trudged around and went closer to the drawers Harry had in his room. It then held his head with its hand and slammed it into the drawers.

Bang! Bang!

“Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!” the house-elf named Dobby reprimanded itself.

Sol panicked and took out his wand. He cast a Regnum Ignotum within the room. He then shot a glare at Dobby, “Oi, you twat! Stop it!”

But Dobby kept on slamming his head on the drawers.

“Huh?! Who's there?” Harry woke up with a start. Dobby and Sol both looked at Harry.

“D-Dobby has woken Harry Potter up...” he lamented. He started to bash his head on the drawers again and repeated ‘Bad Dobby’ over and over again.

“Jesus Christ!” Sol hit limits and flicked his wand at Dobby, “Petrificus Totalus!”

The house-elf immediately stiffened and fell to the ground with a thud! Sol tucked away his wand and looked at Harry. “Say, you up for a chat?” he asked and sat down on a chair near Harry's desk.

Harry was still having trouble processing the entire scene. Everything happened a bit too suddenly and he was still a bit groggy from being abruptly woken up. So all he could say was, “What?” in a slightly sleepy voice.

“Dude, wake up.” Sol waved his wand in front of Harry's face and a small spray of water came out from its tip, wetting Harry's face. Harry rubbed his face, trying to dry himself off. In the process, he became fully awake.

Harry rubbed his eyes and looked at Sol, “W-What are you doing here, Sol?”

“Ron and Hermione are awfully worried about you. They told me you haven’t replied to any of their letters.”

“Uncle Vernon doesn’t let send letters to them. And they didn’t send- wait, did you say reply?”

Sol nodded, “Those guys have been sending letters to you all summer.”

“What? I haven’t received any of them.”

Sol held his chin with his hands. After thinking, he shifted his gaze towards the petrified Dobby on the floor. He pointed at him, “Is this your house-elf?”

“N-No,” Harry shook his head, “I haven’t even seen him before.”

Sol smiled, “Thought so. Your missing letters might have something to do with him.”

Harry looked at Dobby, his eyes carrying a bit of resentment.

Seeing this, Sol called out, “Stop assuming. Hear him out. He might have a good reason.”

Harry calmed down. Sol took his wand out and waved it at Dobby. Immediately, his limbs relaxed and he got up from the ground.

“Oi, Dobby! Tell Harry what you’re doing here.”

“Ah, ah, Harry Potter is awake,” Dobby gasped.

“Yeah, no shit. After you slamming your head- oh, by the way, slam your head on anything and I’ll freeze you, got it?” Sol shot him a glare.

“Y-Yes.”

“No, sit down or stay standing and tell Harry why you're here.”

Dobby looked at Harry and squirreled, “Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter. Harry Potter must not go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.”

Hearing this Sol laughed, “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“And why does sir say that?”

“It's fate,” Sol said indifferently, “Even if you tried to hide his friend's letter from him, Harry will still end up going to Hogwarts.”

“What?!” Harry looked at Sol and then back to Dobby.

Dobby laughed uneasily, “Now, Harry Potter mustn’t be mad at Dobby,” he reached into the back of his rags to bring out a stack of envelopes, “But Dobby hoped that if Harry Potter thought that his friends had forgotten him, he might not want to go back to school.”

“Dobby, give me those letters!” Harry demanded.

“No!” Dobby stuffed those letters back into his rags and dodged Harry who tried to grab him. He then made a beeline towards the door only to be blocked by a wall of pale-blue flames.

“Stop running, Dobby,” Sol smiled, “Regardless of him thinking his friends had forgotten him or not, he would've still gone to Hogwarts.”

“W-Why is that, sir?”

“It's because- oh yeah, don’t try to apparate out of here, my magic covers the whole room. Yeah like I was saying, it's because for him it's still better to be alone in Hogwarts than to stay here with his Uncle's family. Isn’t that right, Harry?”

Harry replied in a sullen voice, “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Just give him those letters Dobby.”

Dobby looked at Harry with his large round eyes. He then reluctantly got the stack of envelopes from his rags and gave it to Harry, “Here you go, sir...”

“That’s better,” Sol waved his wand at him, “Petrificus Totalus!”

Dobby stiffened again and fell to the ground with a thud!

“What did you do that for?! And how did you use magic outside school?” Harry asked.

“Taking a big risk using it. Don't try to do what I did. You'll be expelled before you could say Expelliarmus. And he was hellbent on not letting you go to school. If I had dispersed my magic from the room right now, he might've done something to not let you go. Like, messing with Dudley or your uncle.”

Hearing that, Harry fell into deep thought. After a while, he shook his head and directed his focus to the envelopes in his hands. He started to unravel the rope that was used to bind the stack together.

“Not now, read it later,” Sol stopped him.

“Later, why?”

“Because we’re not staying here for long.”

“Where are we going?!”

“My home.”

“At this time of the night? No, wait, why?”

“Ron told me to come check up on you. Also, my mother told me she wants to see you. So pack your bags.”

“...Okay let me turn on the lights.”

“No! You crazy?! Your uncle will wake up.”

“With the noise we’ve been mak- hang on, why haven’t they come yet?” he looked at Sol, “You didn’t do something to them, right?”

Sol started acted aggrieved, “You don’t think I would do something to defenseless muggles now, would you?”

“I do.”

“Touché,” Sol grinned, “but I didn’t. I just set up magic inside your room so no sound goes out. Now, less talking and more packing.”

And so they started packing.

As Sol stroked Hedwig who was still in his cage, he spoke again, “Pack everything, you won’t be returning here until summer of next year.”

“I guessed so.”

After a while of silence and the sounds of packing, Harry spoke, “You really love your mother, don’t you?”

“Huh?” Sol was caught off guard.

“I mean, you came all the way here just because your mom wanted to see me. And don’t say that Ron told you, you wouldn’t have come if only he asked you. So, I’m just saying, you must really love your mother...”

Sol scoffed, “Well, who-” Sol shut his mouth as he fake coughed.

“Yes?”

“You don’t need to think about it. Just take it as being worried for a friend,” Sol shrugged it off.

“Is that so?” Harry turned away from Sol, a smile unconsciously creeping upon his face.

Sol sighed in relief. Was about to ask Harry, ‘Who doesn't?’ Thank God.

When everything was done packing, both Sol and Harry looked at the pile of heavy luggage in front of them.

“How’re we supposed to get these out without waking the others up?” Harry asked.

“Leave it to me,” Sol took out his wand and waved it at Harry's luggage, “Reducio!”

The suitcases shrunk down to the size of Harry's palm.

“Put them in your pocket and let’s go,” Sol said as he grabbed Hedwig's cage with him in it.

Sol then walked towards the door and undid the wall of ice in front of him. As he was going to grab the doorknob, Harry asked, “What about him?”

He turned around to look to where Harry was pointing. Oh right, Dobby.

“Don't worry,” Sol waves his wand at Dobby and then tucked it away.

“What did you do?”

“Placed a tracking charm on him so that I’ll always know when he’s within 100 meters of me.”

“And is he going to stay like this?”

“No. The petrification will wear off in about 20 minutes.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Now, then let’s go.”

“Wait!”

“What now?” Sol was getting a bit annoyed now.

“Are we going to leave without saying anything?” Harry asked worriedly.

“Do you think they’ll let you leave if we announce it?”

“No, I mean what if they call the police when they see I’m gone?”

Sol laughed lightly, “Do you really they care enough about you to do that?”

Harry glared at Sol. Sol raised his hands helplessly, “Fine, fine. I’ll just-” Sol looked at Harry's desk, “-write them a note.”

He then walked towards Harry's desk and grabbed a quill and some paper. He dipped the quill in ink and wrote something on the paper. After he was done, he tossed the quill and ink bottle to Harry, “You forgot to pack these. Keep them in your pocket.”

Harry caught them and did as Sol said.

Sol put the paper on the table and left the room, “Come on, let’s go!”

“Okay!”

The two of them quietly snuck out of the house. Sol locked the front door behind him as Harry took a deep breath. He smiled as Sol walked past him.

“What’re you doing? Come on!” Sol beckoned.

“Right!” Harry followed Sol, leaving the suffocating atmosphere of the Dursley home behind.