The first chapter of my new fic as always pat re on supporters get chapters early to thank them for their support. chapter two is already there for people who can't wait

CH1

Harry's arm was starting to ache. He had been in Ollivander's shop trying wands for a while now, and every time he waved one, something weird would happen and Mr. Ollivander would snatch the wand away while mumbling something. Harry was getting worried about all the damage he was doing to the shop, but the more wands they tried, the more excited Mr. Ollivander seemed to get.

"Bloody 'ell 'Arry. Most people don' take this long to find a wand, you must be destined for something special," Hagrid stated.

At those words, Mr. Ollivander's eyes lit up, and he ran to the back of the store to collect a wand. "I wonder. Yes, this could be just the one. Holly and phoenix tail feather, give it a try Mr. Potter." Harry took the wand and instantly this one felt different, he felt it connected with something inside him, and it felt warm in his hand. "Excel-" Mr. Ollivander started to say but was cut off.

Suddenly Harry burst into flames. He didn't know how or why, all he knew was it was painless, and that despite the flames nothing was burning. A few seconds later the flames extinguished as quickly as they came, and Harry was standing there shocked and scared by the experience while Hagrid and Ollivander just stared at him.

"Well, I have never seen a wand connect to its wizard that strongly before. But, I think we can expect great things from you Mr. Potter. For your wand to react like that, it must be a sign," Mr. Ollivander said, but Harry was only half listening as he stared at the wand in his hand. "But it is most curious that you should get this wand, Mr. Potter. Most curious indeed, when it was its brother that gave you that scar." He said as he gently brushed Harry's fringe aside, revealing the only part of Harry's looks that Harry thought looked cool. "The phoenix who donated the tail father for your wand gave two feathers, just two. One went into the wand you hold in your hand, the other to the wand that did so much damage." A sad look came over the man's face as he continued to speak. "If I had known then what that wand was going out into the world to do, I never would have sold it."

Harry was shocked by the revelation that his wand was related to the wand that killed his parents, but as he felt the connection to his wand, so new to him but at the same time so right, he decided he didn't care. He was related to Aunt Petunia, and she was a bitch. 'You can't help who you are related to, but you can make a choice to be better.' The thought echoed through his head. He had heard it somewhere before but he couldn't remember where; however, he always took solace in the thought that he didn't have to be like the Dursleys, and now his wand didn't need to be like its brother.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry arrived back at Number 4 with his new magical books and equipment. He didn't know how, but somehow the Dursleys had gotten there first, considering Hagrid had taken their boat and left them in the old lighthouse with no way back to the shore.

When Harry walked in, his uncle was angry, and when he saw Harry he turned that anger on him. "Boy! Do you have any idea what you have done? Left on that goddamned rock with no boat to get back! £5000! £5000 that fucking ass wipe charged me to get us back to shore." With that, he backhanded Harry, sending him backwards over his new luggage. "Where am I supposed to get £5000 from!"

Harry didn't say anything. The fact that £5000 was also what Smeltings charged per term, meaning his uncle could easily afford it, was irrelevant to trying to avoid his uncle's rage. Seeing what his uncle was about to do, he curled up in a ball,and just as he expected he felt the impact of his uncle's foot on his back. Harry screamed out in pain and tried to scramble away, only for the enraged man to catch his collar and throw him back to the floor. Unfortunately, young Harry didn't have the wisdom of experience to buy himself a wand holster or sleeves tight enough to tuck his wand up his arm, so he did what many of the other kids he had seen with sticks over the years did when they were pretending they were swords. He had tucked it into the waistband of his trousers. That would have been fine if Harry hadn't just landed on it. There was a sound of snapping wood, and for the second time that day Harry was engulfed in fire.

-ϟϟϟ-

Suddenly Harry burst into flames. He didn't know how or why, all he knew was it was painless, and that despite the flames nothing was burning. A few seconds later the flames extinguished as quickly as they came, and Harry was standing there shocked and scared by the experience while Hagrid and Ollivander just stared at him. Harry looked around, wondering what had happened; just a few moments ago, he had been back at Privet Drive while his uncle had been in another of his rages.

"Well, I have never seen a wand connect to its wizard that strongly before. But, I think we can expect great things from you Mr. Potter. For your wand to react like that, it must be a sign," Mr. Ollivander said, but Harry was only half listening as he stared at the wand in his hand. It had broken, he had felt it, but now it was whole again and he was back in Mr. Ollivander's shop. "But it is most curious that you should get this wand, Mr. Potter. Most curious indeed, when it was its brother that gave you that scar." He said as he gently brushed Harry's fringe aside, revealing the only part of Harry's looks that Harry thought looked cool. But Harry's thoughts were more on how he had gotten back here - had he time travelled? "The phoenix who donated the tail father for your wand gave two feathers, just two. One went into the wand you hold in your hand, the other to the wand that did so much damage." A sad look came over the man's face as he continued to speak. "If I had known then what that wand was going out into the world to do, I never would have sold it."

Harry paid for his wand for the second time (with the same money as last time) and followed Hagrid out of the shop. The two went back to the Leaky Cauldron and Hagrid prepared to go out into the muggle world and arrange transport for Harry back to the Dursleys. Harry knew how that would turn out, Hagrid would arrange an expensive taxi, and Harry would have to face his uncle again. He had to do something. He looked around himself and saw that there was a sign with room prices on it. He did some quick maths in his head and the cost to stay here for the last month of the summer was nothing compared to what he had seen in his vault.

"Mr. Hagrid-" Harry started, but he was interrupted.

"It's just Hagrid." The giant of a man reminded him.

"Right, Hagrid. I can't go back to Privet Drive." Harry was nervous, if this didn't work he knew what was waiting for him

"Yeh have to go back 'arry, where else would yeh go?" The big man was obviously trying to do what he thought was the right thing. Harry considered trying to tell him what his uncle was like, but he had tried that before and had the scars to remember the punishment Uncle Vernon had given him.

"But there is no one there. The Dursleys are halfway across the country, and it will take them some time to get back," Harry explained, hoping that the confusion that the man had with the London underground was universal to all normal means of travel. "I will just get a room here for a few days until the Dursleys get home, and then go back." This was, of course, a lie; he wasn't going to go back there for the rest of the summer, but Hagrid didn't need to know that.

Hagrid eventually agreed after a conversation with Tom, the toothless bartender, and Harry had a room booked and Hagrid was gone. Harry made a second trip to Gringotts and withdrew enough gold to cover his room, breakfast, and evening meal from now until September 1st, and after paid a very happy Tom, who seemed equal parts happy to have a paying customer for a month and happy that said customer was the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry spent the summer eating two good sized meals every day, reading through his new books on magic, and getting to know his new owl, which he decided to name Hedwig.

-ϟϟϟ-

December 25th 1997 home of Bathilda Bagshot

Harry grabbed Hermione as he dove to the side, as the snake that had been an old woman only moments before tried to bite the who seemed to be the last person on earth that he could trust. Hermione's reflexes were brilliant; even as he pulled her out of harm's way the amazing witch in his arms was casting a spell at the snake.

'Bombarda!'

The spell missed, but thanks to Harry so had the snake. The only problem was a spell like Bombarda was not a good spell to use indoors, as the results tend towards bringing down the house, in a literal sense. Harry, Hermione, and the snake were suddenly buried in the rubble that had once been the home of one of Hermione's favourite authors.

Harry and Hermione weren't trapped for long, though, as when Harry (who was still holding onto Hermione) tried to move, he heard a crack of wood from the wand that was still in his hand, and then the two of them were engulfed in flames and vanished

-ϟϟϟ-

For the third time in Harry's life (at least from his point of view), he was standing in the middle of Olivander's engulfed in fire that did no damage and caused no pain. Only this time, he wasn't alone; in his left arm with her arm around him was Hermione Granger. An eleven year old Hermione Granger, who if Harry was right ,hadn't met him yet. He was trying to figure out what to say, not only to Hermione but to the two adults who were staring slack jawed at the two of them. That was, until Hermione's brain caught up with her sudden change in reality.

"Harry, what's going on? Weren't we just…" Hermione's words trailed off as she took in the sight of Harry in front of her. It wasn't the seventeen year old Harry that she had come to know, but the eleven year old Harry that she would meet on the Hogwarts Express.

Harry didn't know what to say. He wanted to reassure Hermione that he had experienced this once before, but also he didn't want to say anything to alert the adults. The first time this had happened, he had kept quiet because he was worried he would be thought of as crazy or sent back to the Dursleys, but now, with everything he had heard about the laws of time travel from Hermione after their little adventure at the end of their third year (and how with this new type of time travel Harry could change events, unlike what you can do with a time turner), he didn't want to be dragged off to an Unspeakable lab where the best they could hope for was to be Obliviated of the time travel and returned to his relatives in the hope of preserving a timeline, or worse magically dissected so they could understand how to recreate the phenomenon.

He was saved by Mr. Ollivander. "Miss Granger, vine wood and dragon heartstring, 10¾ inches, a good wand for transfiguration."

"Mr. Ollivander! What's going on? How am I suddenly at Diagon Alley? I was just at home then suddenly I was here." Hermione said, sounding confused. But while Hermione really was confused, Harry could also tell she was lying. For one, he had known her for years as one of his closest friends (and more recently his only friend, as he remembered Ron's betrayal), so he could tell when she was lying. For two, she had already called him Harry and the Hermione of this time hadn't met him yet.

"I think it's my fault, I just got my wand and gave it a wave, and then there were all the weird flames and you were suddenly here, I could feel something flowing from me into the wand." Harry hoped that he could convince them that it was just a strange case of accidental magic. Phoenixes could fire travel, after all.

Olivander looked at Harry critically, and Harry thought the old man was going to call him out, but instead he said something that pulled Harry's ass out of the fire. "You know, I think Miss Granger was the last one to try and use that wand last week when she was here for her muggleborn orientation. Phoenixes can travel by fire and take people with them, and Mr. Potter's wand has a phoenix feather at its core. It's possible that when Mr. Potter bound to the wand, there was enough energy for the residential magic of the feather to bring Miss Granger here."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. "We need to call Miss Granger's parents. If she suddenly disappeared from her house, then her parents must be worried. I think I saw a pay phone near the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron."

He was just about to pull Hermione out of the shop and rush off to where he had remembered there was a pay phone, which he learned when he stayed in the Alley for the first time after his first incident with his wand, when Mr. Ollivander cut him off. "Mr. Potter, while your idea to contact Miss Granger's parents is indeed a good one. I need you to pay for your wand first." Harry handed the man a stack of 10 galleons before grabbing Hermione's hand and pulling her out of the shop. His plan was simple, if he overpaid then Hagrid would probably stay to collect Harry's change, and if he didn't then Harry would only be out a few galleons. He got lucky, as Hagrid stayed to collect the change, giving Harry a few precious minutes alone with Hermione. He pulled her along the Alley at a run (ignoring her protests) and then through the Leaky Cauldron to muggle London. Harry took Hermione to the phone booth that was about 150ft from the pub and, as it was unoccupied, pulled her inside.

"Harry, will you stop this, please?"

"Sorry Hermione, I just needed to speak to you alone for a few moments, and this is all I could think of." Harry panted, a little winded.

When Harry called her Hermione, she relaxed. "So you are my Harry then? The one I spent the last few months on the run with?"

Harry nodded, and Hermione threw arms around him and did the impersonation of a boa constrictor that is a Hermione hug.

"Hermione… air… need… air…" Harry choked out, only half-joking. She relaxed her hold and Harry gulped down lungfuls of air.

"Harry, what happened and why aren't you freaking out, how did we get here and when are we, we need to know the exact date-" Hermione didn't stop to take a breath between questions, and would have kept on if Harry hadn't cut her off.

Harry smiled a little at Hermione, maybe it had been the effect of having so close a call, but Hermione hadn't been this energetic for a while And it was good to see his friend acting like herself again. "I'm not freaking out because this has happened to me once before, not long after I got my wand the first time, I think it has something to do with my wand snapping, as that happened both times. Since we were squashed together, you came along as well. As for the date, it's the 31 of July 1991. My 11th birthday is the day I got my wand." Harry explained in a far more calm manner.

"OK, what day of the week is it?" She asked.

"Don't remember, why?"

"My parents might be at work. I need to know where to call," Hermione explained.

They ended up having to ask a random passerby what day of the week it was, and the person told them it was a Wednesday while giving them a look that clearly meant she thought the children were being stupid. It was one of the days that her mother was home, so Hermione rang and found her mother frantically sobbing. Apparently, she had seen her daughter spontaneously combust a few minutes ago, and was not exactly happy with the experience.

She agreed to come to the Leaky Cauldron to collect Hermione. The two returned to the pub just as Hagrid was about to step out into the street to look for them. The three of them re-entered the pub and Harry gave Hagrid the same spiel about the Dursleys not being there that he did last time, so Hagrid agreed that Harry could stay at the Leaky Cauldron until his aunt and uncle picked him up. Hermione, who knew about his relatives, said nothing. That Britain was small enough that you could get to any part of the mainland from any other part in a day (a day and a half if you were going to the ridiculous extreme of the north Scottish coast from the southern tip of Cornwall), and Harry was talking like it could take a week, didn't even raise an eyebrow from the bushy haired girl.

Harry and Hermione took turns going out to see if Mrs Granger had arrived. Unfortunately, she turned up on Harry's turn but he got to watch the two Granger women reunite and got to witness firsthand where Hermione got her squeeze-them-until-they-surrender style of hugs. And as much as the older woman was relieved to see her little girl alive and well, Hermione was also relieved to see her mother.

Harry was then reminded that Hermione had altered her parents' memories and sent them to the other side of the world with new identities before joining him on his crusade. Something that was a longshot at fixing at best, and something that he knew Hermione regretted even if she believed it was necessary for them to be safe. At that moment, Harry vowed to himself that he was going to fix the future so that Hermione wouldn't have to give up her family again. He had a lot more information this time, and he had 4 years before Voldemort returned to find and destroy all the horcruxes. He knew where two were and had enough information to find a third. That left three to find, or two if Dumbledore had been right about the snake, as that wouldn't be a horcrux yet. He would need Hermione's help to put together a plan, but he didn't think his best friend would take much convincing. He laughed internally at the idea of convincing Hermione, she was probably already working on a plan wondering how to convince him.

Once Mrs. 'call me Emma' Granger had checked her daughter and discovered that she was perfectly healthy, she calmed down and ordered herself a stiff drink that Harry insisted on paying for, for two reasons. First, it was his fault that Hermione was here, and secondly (and far more convincingly) Emma didn't have any wizarding money on her, what gold they had was packed into Hermione's school trunk for her to take to school with her. Harry had gotten Hagrid to leave by stealthily reminding him that he had an important package for Dumbledore in his pocket. The half giant, realising that he was sitting in the pub with the Philosopher's Stone in his pocket, quickly made his excuses and left.

With Hagrid the loveable oaf gone, Harry and Hermione were able to arrange to meet up a few times before they went to school on the first, as the Grangers lived in London it wasn't far from their place to the Leaky Cauldron. Emma did ask about why he was staying in the pub rather than with his parents. However, when Harry told her that his parents were dead and his relatives strongly agreed with King James in regards to how people should "suffer not a witch to live", she had dropped the topic, though if the looks she was giving him meant anything like the one her daughter used, he suspected that he hadn't heard the last from her.

A/N

special thanks to

Jack Schriner