[X] I will try again – Go back one more hour and try to catch Pettigrew before he does whatever he is trying to do in Lupin's chambers. This was the most obvious choice, even if you asked yourself why Future-You had not done so himself. But you needed to keep in mind; this version of Pettigrew that you were looking for also owns a Time Turner.
I don't think there is as much of a risk to fail inside the stable loop as outside. Especially seeing as Harry and Black were struck by the werewolf?
[X] Trust in Yourself – Your Future-You had given you a clear command. He had been in the exact same situation you were in right now, but he had chosen to let Pettigrew do whatever he had wanted to do and attack at the exact moment that he showed you. He had likely gotten the same instructions from a future version of him and so on. An infinite number of stable loops that some version of you, in a faraway time had created for a reason. This had to be the best possible solution, if any version of you had settled with it.
[X] Trust in Yourself – Your Future-You had given you a clear command. He had been in the exact same situation you were in right now, but he had chosen to let Pettigrew do whatever he had wanted to do and attack at the exact moment that he showed you. He had likely gotten the same instructions from a future version of him and so on. An infinite number of stable loops that some version of you, in a faraway time had created for a reason. This had to be the best possible solution, if any version of you had settled with it.
I don't know the full scale of how time paradox works in this verse. And nobody can force me to touch the cursed child in order to gain insights.
[X] Trust in Yourself – Your Future-You had given you a clear command. He had been in the exact same situation you were in right now, but he had chosen to let Pettigrew do whatever he had wanted to do and attack at the exact moment that he showed you. He had likely gotten the same instructions from a future version of him and so on. An infinite number of stable loops that some version of you, in a faraway time had created for a reason. This had to be the best possible solution, if any version of you had settled with it.
I don't know the full scale of how time paradox works in this verse. And nobody can force me to touch the cursed child in order to gain insights.
I have not read the cursed child. Which means no one should be expecting any of that influencing the story. I had a few interesting things set out for a time war, but it seems we will not be seeing them the way the vote went!
I have not read the cursed child. Which means no one should be expecting any of that influencing the story. I had a few interesting things set out for a time war, but it seems we will not be seeing them the way the vote went!
To be honest the main problem I have with the Time War is that, for all I know, Timeturners don´t work like that... They follow Novikov Self-Consistency Principle (basically the effect of the time travelers in the past has already become part of the history
So we cannot prevent Pettigrew to throw Putin at the Trio because it already happened... There is no timeline in which Lupin never went to the Shrinking Shack and IIRC the consequences for trying to alter the past are dire...
Now I would like to know what will happen next because even if the path seems straightforward there are only one time turner and two time travelers, which means that at some point Pettigrew will lose the time turner (and I hope that we can get it)...
And even if we have to leave Pettigrew to escape for now, there is no indication that he will be able to escape permanently because thanks to Talaria, the map, and the googles tracking him down should be pretty trivial...
No, when one of the participants is a talented kid who (admirably) is set on resolving the situation without anyone dying tonight, and the other is a dark wizard (one of not particularly powerful, but still better not to underestimate him) who has no qualm about killing or harming children (or anyone else truly)...
No, when one of the participants is a talented kid who (admirably) is set on resolving the situation without anyone dying tonight, and the other is a dark wizard (one of not particularly powerful, but still better not to underestimate him) who has no qualm about killing or harming children (or anyone else truly)...
Hey, we are fighting a werewolf twice tonight with a severe handicap, we are anything bur a coward (so much so that the sword of Motherfucking Gryffindor would drop at our feet if we had the hat close by)
But even Jacob should be cautious when dealing with the Space Time Continuum...
Read through all the threadmarks. It's a good quest. Interesting.
Jacob should throw a party sometime where he invites all his friends to it to let them know he values them all and what they offer him.
The Ravenclaws that look out for him. The Slytherin girl who challenges him. The Hufflepuffs who aid him in his endeavors conveniently. Nally who helps him out in exploring and brings him food. Girzum who is bound to his will by a ancient dark power.
Have them object to him that 'Friend' and 'Minion' are not interchangeable despite his very logical arguments that they are.
[ ] Trust in Yourself – Your Future-You had given you a clear command. He had been in the exact same situation you were in right now, but he had chosen to let Pettigrew do whatever he had wanted to do and attack at the exact moment that he showed you. He had likely gotten the same instructions from a future version of him and so on. An infinite number of stable loops that some version of you, in a faraway time had created for a reason. This had to be the best possible solution, if any version of you had settled with it.
Present Date: 16th June 1994
Current Wand: Fagus wood, Phoenix feather core
Your eyes followed the time traveling dot of Pettigrew as he moved out of Lupins chambers and past students and teachers on the floors, who were all returning from dinner. No one turned around to the fugitive among them. The rat moved through the castle without any care.
The Animagus transformation was difficult to argue for in terms of returns in time invested, but for Sirius and Pettigrew both, they had been unexpected advantages for the cards that they had been served by destiny. You followed Pettigrew's dot around for twenty more minutes. He soon moved into the Gryffindor common area, into a room where you suspected the beds for the third-year boys to be, because Longbottom's dot was already in place and stationery, when Pettigrew entered.
Most of the other Gryffindor names were still in the Common Room when Pettigrew moved from his place at the door. He closed in on Longbottom, stayed next to him for a few moments and then darted out of the room again.
Neville Longbottom did not move. He had neither reacted, nor noticed what had just happened. But you suspected that he would wake up without a wand in the morning.
You reached for the Time Turner on your neck again and bit your lower lip, deep in thoughts.
The rat had created a stable time loop just as you had and by what you knew, yours was completely reactionary to his; he had brought Lupin back to save himself and you had combated that by throwing the werewolf back in time. The fact that it happened only after Pettigrew had disappeared himself, made you believe that it was part of your trick.
While both of you had a time traveling tool, he did not know of your involvement in his shenanigans. This was your most important advantage, your edge over him. You were itching to use it to bounce on him, travel back in time more and attack him before he went to Lupin the first time … but there was one problem with this line of thoughts.
You were having the idea now. Which meant that you would have that specific thought every instance of this loop. And still, the previous version of you had decided to give you clear instructions to not do that and instead continue with the stable Time Loop a version prior to him had created.
You would not trust anyone else with their opinion, when you could see a better path in front of you. But you had to trust yourself in this, right? If you had decided this was the right path with more information than you had accessible right now, it must have been the better move.
Sighing, you finally stood up. Pettigrew was moving through the castle again, probably to find a place to hide until his time had come to free the werewolf.
You watched out for the castle surroundings and found Potter, Granger, and Weasley in Hagrid's Hut. They were sitting together with the giant professor. While you remembered Hagrid to have mentioned them before, you did not know that they were on good terms with him.
Your eyes focused on the dot among them that interested you most; the other version of 'Pettigrew' was sitting with them. With the map in your hands, you climbed invisible stairs into the sky again. Soon you were walking above the trees again.
The next name you found was that of Sirius Black and very curiously, he was very close to the Hut, sitting among trees and probably waiting for the group to leave. There was a whole lot of secret plans and sneaking involved in this particular time travel odyssey.
The group of Gryffindors stayed long enough with Hagrid, for you to comfortably reach the Shrieking Shack. You moved inside the empty building and put the map on the single table of the living room. On the other side of the map, a different version of Pettigrew hid in a corner near Lupin's domicile, waiting for his moment of action.
You took the time you had at hand to assess your wounds. The worst part was the sharp pain in your side. It was very clear that at least one of your ribs had snapped in the fall. It made breathing difficult and painful. For the rest, blood had stopped seeping from the wounds on your arms, leaving dark stains in your clothes and on your skin. The blood was drying up, but the burning sensation had only increased. It was rather annoying but not a true handicap for the rest of the night. Touching your face, to check for the injuries you winced and felt the tender flesh where the fall from high up in the air had scratched you open.
You knew that you needed to tend to your wounds, but you didn't have anything on you that could help you. Taking a deep breath, you tried to steady your nerves and shut the pain out.
Once you caught up with your emotions and the stress again, you walked over to the table. You found Potter, Granger, and Weasley near Hagrid's Hut, now walking slowly back to the castle. Just behind them was Sirius Black. He was probably in his dog form still, because the Gryffindor dots gave no indications that they had seen someone following them.
As you watched the dots on the map, realization sank in that you were in the middle of a very high stakes game of cat and mouse. You took a deep breath again. There was no player with complete information at the table. But in a war with mostly blind chickens, you and a version of Pettigrew had turned the game into chess with the advantages of knowledge that both of you had.
You could almost see him across from you, letting the chess pieces all fall into place in their natural order, before he countered with his queen to win it all.
Had your past self seen this so clearly, too? The closer you got to the destined time point, the less sure you were about your decision. A visualization of an ocean inside your head gained traction again. Self-doubts were arising through the void of emotions and the water began moving.
Instead of falling for this moment of mental weakness, you distracted yourself with action instead. There were things to do.
You turned around, surveying the room. What did you know? The group was destined to arrive inside this very room in the upper floor. Pettigrew, Black and the Gryffindors. Then Lupin would attack, and the first victim would fall out of the window on the western side of the room.
The glass window was still closed shut, so you opened it with a simple: "Alohomora." Walking over to it, you leaned over and out of the window to look at the ground below. It was a long fall. But you had decided to keep everyone alive in this ordeal, so you raised your wand again.
"Spongify," you said this time. The ground did not look different afterwards, but you knew that the spell had worked.
You turned around and walked over to the map again. Pettigrew was moving through the castle again, preparing to free the werewolf soon. You also saw yourself sitting in the owlery and Black running away from a group of Gryffindor that was following him. Pettigrew's dot was now directly in front of Black. Had he been caught in rat form by Black?
It did not matter to you, the only thing that was important now was that they were closing in on your position. You looked at the castle again to see Pettigrew close in on Lupins room. The other version of you would notice him soon.
You pulled the map from its place, folded it up and put it back into your pocket. From here on you knew everything that was about to happen. Your heart was beating quickly. Were you had expected assurance, you felt more doubt instead. There were so many moving parts and such a small margin of error for the few seconds between Pettigrew disappearing into the past and you saving Harry Potter from a werewolf attack.
And then afterwards, there would still be one Pettigrew unaccounted for. And he would have a Time Turner himself. How in the world would you catch him, if he could just flee from you by jumping back in time?
By then, you would have lost your own Time Turner and no possibility to follow him.
This plan of yours was reeking of holes and possible avenues of failure. And what about Snape? Would he come at the exact time that he showed up last time around? You took out the map one last time, as you jumped out of the window and looked at it. The Gryffindors and Black were going to close in on you in less than a minute now and Pettigrew was standing right in front of Lupins room.
Which meant, Snape should be starting his journey soon as well, right? But once you found him in the catacombs, there was nothing outside the norm for him. He was sitting in his classroom, probably preparing one of the exams. No one was close to him. So, how would the professor learn of the attack that was about to happen?
You folded the map together with his classroom looking up at you and climbed upwards, your feet secure on solid air. A few moments before a large black dog arrived at the Shrieking Shack with a rat in his mouth, you were standing on the roof of the building already, hiding and waiting. You did not dare look over the rooftop, but you heard the shouting as the Gryffindors closed in on the building below. And then, they entered the building below. You heard more shouting and movements but were not able to make out any words from below.
You watched the silver figures through the walls of the building, when you saw Sirius Black transforming into a man. Weasley was the first to react and pull his wand out, but he was soon enough physically overpowered by Black. When Black got his grasp on that wand, the fight was over. Just a moment later, both Granger and Potter had lost their wands, too.
Then you saw Black pointing his new gained tool at the rat and a transformation ensued.
"Right about now," you whispered to yourself and started tracing the familiar movements, walking on air next to the building on the west side that would block a soon arriving Pettigrew and werewolf from seeing you.
F – O – R – E – S – T
You spelled the word out with your steps once, then moved back to the starting point and walked it down again in big letters. There was still no confidence in this. It felt like you were trusting in someone else, that you could not clearly understand even this late into their plan.
You sighed, knowing that you had to trust yourself now that you had committed. Out of all players, you had the upper hand in this very moment, and you were about to use this to your advantage. But things were not exactly where they needed to be yet.
Snape had not moved one inch from his place, and it could not be too long before the time traveling Pettigrew arrived. The shouting inside the Shack was distant now, but you kept your eyes on the open window where Black would soon fall out of.
But as the seconds ticked by, nothing in Snapes vicinity showed any signs of change. He would not come by himself. The more time passed, the surer you were that it had been you who had contacted Snape to come.
But how? The future version of you would have taken the exact same time to come to this conclusion. But there was no tool at your disposal that could solve this for you right now. While you could communicate to your other self, how could you communicate with Snape that had no access to your map?
You walked the word 'forest' one more time and started from the beginning again.
In your mind, you went through the spells and tools available to you. But there was nothing. Not one spell that could be used for communication over long distances. While transformed animals could transport a written message, they could not act without your active command. How would you even attempt to navigate the castle without your eyes on them? Even with the map this seemed impossible and pointless to you.
"How did I do this?" You asked, staring at the dot of Severus Snape. Another word spelled, you turned around and did it again.
The transformations that you could create did not have any agency of their own. Only the Patronus Charm had that, but its incorporeal form could not transport a physical message …
"Oh!" This seemed farfetched, but it was the only idea that had some possible merit to it.
Coming to a halt next to the building, high up in air, the pain from your wounds was forgotten as you focused on the riddle at hand. You knew what needed to happen. Now, you had to make the fantasy come true. Closing your eyes, you concentrated, summoning all of your happiness and focus for a spell that was getting more familiar to you.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A silver wolf materialized in front of you, its head gleaming in the moonlight. The Patronus looked around for a moment before it took off, galloping towards the castle, because it knew that time was dire.
'Werewolf attack in the Shrieking Shack. Pettigrew, Black and Harry Potter. No meerpeople this time.'
You tried to be concise, not knowing how much of the message would travel the distance and watched as the Patronus disappeared into the night, feeling a sense of relief wash over you. One step closer to the resolution.
Then a howl went through the full moon night that made it difficult to breath for the fear it provoked inside you. Even after having fought the beast one on one, you were impressed at the presence it still had on you. One single werewolf was enough to provoke fear like no other beast you had ever seen before.
As you approached the point in time, which you had been destined for, your mind cleared. The waves inside your mind lost their potence, the water calmed down slowly.
Putting the map back into your pocket, you started moving one more time. You knew that only one person on this planet was watching you attentively in this very moment.
F-I-G-H-T
"And have fun with the broken rib, dear Jacob," you said to yourself smiling. The idiot did not know what was waiting for him. It was quite a headache to trust in someone else's plan, even if that someone was yourself.
Breath in.
You closed in on the building again, keeping the open window well in sight.
Breath out.
The insides were pure chaos now. The visible souls of your classmates were dashing around the room as soon as the werewolf jumped into their midst. Hermione evaded into one direction to hide behind the table you had used before. Only you knew that she had invited more danger, by shortening the distance between herself and a nearby cowering Pettigrew. Weasley and Potter jumped into the other direction. The werewolf ran right through the space they had just occupied and crashed against Sirius Black who was standing close to the open window.
Black was thrown out of the building. You knew that he would be hurt because there were few people who had a better grasp about how much momentum this werewolf could build up to. The fugitive fell out but he did neither crash through glass, and he would be surprised by the comfortable landing he had on the soft ground below.
"Immobulus," you said at the same time, that you saw Pettigrew attack Hermione through the wall. His small hands grabbed for her neck.
You did not wait for the spell to hit Black, before jumping into the living room. By the time, your feet hit the ground, Pettigrew had disappeared into the past to start the next loop. Your own Time Turner was already in the air, having been thrown by you before you cast a supporting spell: "Avifors!" White birds shot out of your wand.
And then you were back in the zone again.
Time slowed down for you as your mind caught up to its true potential for just a single moment. In this perfect state of mind, you could see everything at once.
Outside the building Black was hit by the first spell you had cast a moment before. He was blocked from further movement. The first player was out.
Time came to a complete standstill.
Inside the room, you could see that only Hermione had noticed your arrival. She looked at you but was clearly still in shock by the many things that were happening at once. Frozen in time, she stood in one corner of the room, no wand and now Time Turner in her possession. She was out of the game, too. Only three players left.
The birds that you had summoned, caught the Time Turner in their mouth as time started to move again in a very slow fashion, your brain was still working much faster than it had ever before. You looked past them and the werewolf who had almost reached Potter.
This was the first time that you gave him all your attention. His hair was messy, his skin pale. And while Harry Potter did not look as unusually thin as he had in first year, he was still far from bulky. A young teenager that would soon be mauled by a werewolf if things went sideways. But here, between two seconds you noticed the single-mindedness in his bright green eyes.
While Weasley behind him had been taken by surprise, Potter was right in the moment. The redhead behind him had his eyes closed and his body turned away from the inrushing werewolf. His arms were raised in futile defense. Potter on the other hand, was standing there purposefully. Even without a wand and with no sensible avenue to success, he continued standing between the attacking force and his good friend. He knew that he would lose the battle, but the realization did not change his resolve.
You had never seen this kind of bravery in someone your age.
The first second ticked by since you had joined them in the room. Your birds had almost caught up to the werewolf, the hourglass on the Time Turner was already being turned by one of them, while the others carried the necklace that would soon land on the werewolf's head.
It was guaranteed that Lupin would be thrown back in time. He could not evade your attack, but it was still up in the air if you would reach him in time to save Potter and Weasley.
The stable loop you had created was a competent one. It was maybe even the best possible outcome for this night, but it was not perfect and that had one simple reason; you lost the possibility to do another loop and correct things the moment you had to use the Time Turner to attack the werewolf before you.
Your Future-Self had called you into a time loop that he didn't know the outcome for, and you had followed. The werewolf was reaching the pair his mouth open and ready to bite into soft flesh.
Destiny was to decide if you were good enough to save the Gryffindors.
No further modifications to rolls, due to choosing the most difficult path:
'Alive and well - Prioritize keeping Black, Pettigrew and Lupin alive. This will impact the rolls against you. When one tries to get it all … one might lose it all.'
1d100+90 #Werewolf Attack HP = (19 + 90) 109
1d100+91 #Jacob Defense of HP (+5 Time Echoes - 5 Malus) = (10 + 91) 101
→ Werewolf attack is a success.
Harry Potter's eyes stayed on the werewolf, but instead of evading him, he pushed his friend behind him away.
A hero, in even the direst situation. Brave to a fault.
Neither strong enough, nor lucky enough to come out of its unscathed tonight, but a true Gryffindor.
Lupin reached Harry, a moment after your birds dropped the necklace on his head. You hesitated on activating the time jump because he was already in physical contact with Harry. You could not have them go back to the past together, because that would leave him behind alone and undefended.
And then you saw the werewolf bit down on Harry's arm, sinking his teeth deep into the flesh and making him scream in pain. Harry ripped his arm out of the werewolf's mouth and pushed himself away just in time for the last of your birds to turn the hourglass fully.
The werewolf disappeared into nothingness, just like Pettigrew had three seconds prior.
A scream from someone else, not Harry this time. He was stumbling back against the wall and fell past Weasley to the ground as he watched the blood gushing out of the wound in his left arm.
You were already running towards him, pulling your robe off and jumped onto the ground next to him.
"Granger" you shouted, pushing the pale Gryffindor against the wall behind him. "Professor Snape is outside. Bring him here." The robe went around Harry's arm once, then twice and a third time, before you tried to pull it tightly. You tried to put a knot into it to keep the blood from gushing out.
"Granger!" You screamed this time at the girl that was paralyzed and still in place. "NOW! GO!" Your loud voice seemed to snap her out of her stupor. Because finally, she got moving.
You failed on the knot and soon enough the blood pulsed out of the wound again. Harry's head fell on your shoulder as he lost consciousness. He was losing blood very quick, and you were completely failing in keeping him alive.
You looked up at Ron Weasley who was still to your side. He looked horrified.
"Weasley," you said. "Make yourself useful and pull this." You pointed at one end of the robe around Harry's arm. To his credit, he reacted quicker than Granger and followed your command. Holding onto one end of the fabric, you had him pull at the other end. Once there was enough tension that the blood flow came to a stop, you said: "Immobulus."
Even after you dropped your end of the robe, the tension was kept in place. It took a moment for Ron to understand it, so he kept pulling his side for a few more seconds while you dropped back to your feet.
You were breathing hard, even if you had not done anything particularly straining. The eyes behind your goggles darted around the room. Snape and Granger were now entering from below. You ran over to the window that you had come in from.
"Wingardium Leviosa." You spoke.
Black flew into sight shortly after, and you moved him into the room, just in time for Snape to arrive at the scene. His eyes found yours first, with your wand in the air while you were dropping in a immobilized Sirius Black.
You did not say anything to the professor, instead you moved your head into Harry's direction. Snape's eyes widened when he saw the state his student was in. The Professor rushed over to Harry's side, his face a mask without emotions again as he quickly assessed the situation and began to work on healing Harry's wounds. You watched as he used his wand to stem the bleeding and close the wounds. You could see the relief on Ron's face as he watched the flesh close on the arm of his friend.
But when it almost looked as if Snape had been able to heal Harry, the wound started opening again and returned to its prior state even though Snape continued his spellcasting.
Dark Magic.
Snape looked up at you, his eyes filled with a new gained shock. "What did this," he asked you, ignoring both Granger and Weasley.
You only needed to say one word: "Lupin." And in the expression of your professor, you knew that he understood.
"Where is he?" Snape asked you then. His eyes were forcing themselves into your mind. You could feel the attack on your thoughts, but you let it happen.
"I made him travel back in time. I should be fighting him right around now," you said. "But Pettigrew is still on the loose." You saw him gain more understanding than just the words you had spoken. But you also learned something new that night; Snape was a master of Legilimency.
The professor turned to Weasley and Granger, "You need to get him to the hospital wing immediately." His wand moved once, and Harry started levitating. Right next to him, Sirius Black joined him in the air. "Go, now."
"And we," Snape said, looking at you. He was calm again, his expression void of agency. Signs of Occlumency that you knew from yourself. "Are going to fetch a mouse."
The intensity of this night is waking parts of your soul that had been dormant before. You are growing, but what is it that develops?
[ ] Magic Sense II – You remember feeling the magic of your brothers. There was warmth and familiarity. Underneath your senses there had been something else, waiting to wake. Your ability is starting to take form and get more sensitive. You sense more magic than before around you; it is like a vibrant sensation that fills the surroundings.
[ ] Spongify (Deep Understanding) - Transfiguration. The Softening Charm is a spell that softens a target area or object, making it rubbery and bouncy. Rare is someone with your understanding over the spell, you can hit large spaced at once, making your surroundings your domain. With good timing, you can even make attacks bounce back on the attacker. +5 to Defence Rolls.
Magic sense is good if we want to find things but being able to defend better is also something we need. Especially since our protagonist here seems to be getting in a lot of fights.
[X] Magic Sense II – You remember feeling the magic of your brothers. There was warmth and familiarity. Underneath your senses there had been something else, waiting to wake. Your ability is starting to take form and get more sensitive. You sense more magic than before around you; it is like a vibrant sensation that fills the surroundings.
[X] Magic Sense II – You remember feeling the magic of your brothers. There was warmth and familiarity. Underneath your senses there had been something else, waiting to wake. Your ability is starting to take form and get more sensitive. You sense more magic than before around you; it is like a vibrant sensation that fills the surroundings.
[X] Magic Sense II – You remember feeling the magic of your brothers. There was warmth and familiarity. Underneath your senses there had been something else, waiting to wake. Your ability is starting to take form and get more sensitive. You sense more magic than before around you; it is like a vibrant sensation that fills the surroundings.
[X] Magic Sense II – You remember feeling the magic of your brothers. There was warmth and familiarity. Underneath your senses there had been something else, waiting to wake. Your ability is starting to take form and get more sensitive. You sense more magic than before around you; it is like a vibrant sensation that fills the surroundings.
