Twist of Fate

1. What happened?

August 1976

What happened?

My head seems to burst. I don't remember what happened, I only remember a beam of light and then the total darkness. Ah what a headache!

I open my eyes and find myself lying on concrete, more precisely in the middle of a road. Where the hell am I? Maybe I've traveled through time? Nah it's not possible. The time turner only takes you back a few hours, so I can't be far gone.

Slowly I get up being careful not to fall due to the severe headache due, I assume, to the fall. Around me I cannot recognize anything at all. I am no longer on Privet Drive.

I walk down the street and all I see are houses I don't recognize. There is not even an indication to understand the city or at least if I am still in the UK.
In the distance I see on the ground what seems to be a newspaper and I decide to approach it so as to find something that tells me where I am and especially what time I am in.

On the front page I immediately notice a news that strikes me particularly: "Massacre of a local family. The victims are a man and a woman of respectively 40 and 38 years and their daughter of 12 years. It is assumed that the victims were killed in their home but so far there are no traces of either the killer or significant injuries on the victims' bodies."
This news sounds familiar to me and it has death eaters' signatures everywhere. Surely they have something to do with the murder.

I look better at the page and I see the date on it.
28 August 1976
How is that possible? How did I go back so many years?
1976... the year my parents are still alive. The year I was not born yet nor my parents were together. This should be the year where they begin their sixth year at Hogwarts. Maybe I'll get to meet them for the first time in my life. I really hope so.

Not knowing where I am exactly, I decide to make the wisest choice: wait for the Knight Bus and go to the Leaky Cauldron. From there I can easily get to Diagon Alley and above all I have a way to contact Dumbledore. Someone will have an owl to lend me so I can send him a letter.

I'm sitting on the edge of a sidewalk when I hear in the distance a deafening noise that only indicated one thing: the arrival of the Knight Bus. In fact, as I said, in a matter of seconds the bus stops in front of me.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go" says a man getting off the bus "Where are you headed?"

"The Leaky Cauldron. That's in London."

"Have you heard that, Ernie? The Leaky Cauldron, that's in London" the man laughs along with the old man behind the wheel "Hop in and make yourself comfortable"

The trip was the same as I remember. Same speed and above all the same safety.

"Here we are, the Leaky Cauldron" says the man as I get off the bus and in the blink of an eye the Knight Bus disappeared.

I am in front of a wooden door with the name of the restaurant on it. I slowly open the squeaky door and approach the counter to ask for a room for the night.

"Hi, I wanted to ask if it was possible to have a room for tonight," I tell the man behind the counter that I recognize as Tom, but he doesn't know that because I'm not born yet at this time.

"Certainly. Follow the lady who is there at the window and ask her to show you room 107" he tells me pointing a lady in her sixties sitting reading a book near the window alla finestra "Here are the keys"

I thank Tom and I approach the lady.

"Excuse me, the man behind the counter told me to ask you for my room," I say after calling her with a tap on the shoulder.

"Of course, dear" and she heads for the stairs until she brings me to room 107.

Before she goes, I take the opportunity to ask her something else.

"Do you happen to have an owl to lend me? I urgently have to send a letter to a family member"

"Yes, just open the last door at the end of this corridor. There is the owl that we use for emergencies" she says and then she heads out.

I take a pen and paper and begin to write the letter to Dumbledore explaining in detail my situation and hoping above all that he will believe me.

Once the letter is finished, I close it well and go to the room that the lady has indicated to me to send it. Inside the room was an owl locked in a cage. I open the cage, put the letter between the beak and whisper "for Professor Dumbledore".

Now I just have to wait for his answer.

The answer is not long in coming because the next morning I woke up with the owl next to the bed and with an envelope in his mouth.

Dear Mr Potter,
when I read your letter, I was shocked by the situation and confused by how this could have happened. Don't worry because I believe in your words and your common sense. It would not make sense to invent such a story because it would be surreal. It is surreal.
I'll be expecting you at Hogwarts tomorrow morning so as to verify in person your story and deepen the topic on what we will choose to do in view of the beginning of the school year. And also on what to do to send you back in your timeline.
I look forward to your visit.
Best regards, Professor Albus Dumbledore.

I guess it's time to go home.