Chapter Text
“AVADA KEDAVRA!”
Harry watched as Professor Dumbledore fell to the ground, time slowing to a crawl. He felt his mentor’s spell keeping him in place fail. Quickly readjusting his hold on his invisibility cloak, Harry descended to where the headmaster’s body lie. There was a time for mourning, and a time for action. Now was the latter, but the young man simply couldn’t force himself away. This was the man who was meant to help him stop Voldemort. The man who ran the Order of the Phoenix, and the head teacher at Hogwarts. The only man Voldemort feared. Yet here he was, lying on the cold ground, with his heart stopped; killed by someone whom he claimed had his complete trust and confidence.
Harry felt tears falling down his face. Drying his eyes on his sleeve, he noticed a faint glow emanating from the professor’s body. With Dumbledore’s features slipping, melting into a new man. His bear darkening, and shrinking down to barely a few centimeters, with his hair doing much the same. His wrinkles disappeared, and his features shifted minutely. A sudden gasp for air erupted from this new person, who had seemingly taken Professor Dumbledore’s place.
“Goodness me, that was a dreadful experience!” proclaimed the professor’s replacement, as he sat up.
“What? But, who… who are you? What happened to Professor Dumbledore? And… and how did you survive?!” Harry stumbled over his words, panic rising in his chest.
“Regeneration, Harry,” Fake Dumbledore, as Harry had decided to call him, said. The words echoing in Harry’s mind. “I’m not exactly human, as I’ve been pretending to be. I promise I still am Albus Dumbledore, the same man you knew to be your headmaster. Well, same person, different face,”
“How is that possible? How do I know you’re still Professor Dumbledore?” Harry rose his wand to the obvious fake.
Fake Dumbledore gave his pupil a grave look. “In your first year here, I told you I knew that by sending you to live with your aunt and uncle, I knew was I condemning you to ten dark years. And your third, I allowed your friend Miss Granger to use a time turner to take every elective. I then gave not quite so express permission to use said device to save your godfather, Sirius Black. Do you believe me now? I am Albus Dumbledore, I promise you that, Harry. Let’s you and I go up to my office, and we can have a chat.” Harry simply nodded.
Teacher and student walked in silence to the gargoyle that stood watch over the headmaster’s office. “Acid Pops,” the professor intoned, causing the gargoyle to make way for the pair. As they entered the office, Dumbledore sat in his grand chair behind his desk, and motioned for Harry to take a seat. “Now, I’m sure you’re very curious, indeed, about what happened back there. Allow me to explain myself, and I shall allow you any questions you may have, within reason of course. First, as I said earlier, what occurred was known as Regeneration,” the word again echoed in Harry’s mind. Though for what reason, the boy had no idea. “You see, I am not human, Harry. I am, in fact, a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey.”
Time Lord. Gallifrey. These words, Harry knows these words. He doesn’t know from where, or what they mean, but he *knows* them. Echoing through is very soul.
“We use regeneration as a way of postponing our death, with every cell in our body reviving itself, and, at the same time, changing our very being. A small price to pay, but it is a fact of our biology. As for why I am on earth, and a school headmaster at that, is a long story.”
“My people were at war with another species called Daleks, some of the most evil creatures in the universe. Their sole purpose is to destroy any life form that isn’t Dalek. So we went to war, across all of space. And all of time. The Last Great Time War. Eventually we locked the war into a single point in time. The entirety of the war, all happening all at once. I managed to escape this time lock, and hid myself with a device known as the Chameleon Arch. The chameleon arch rewrote my very DNA, hiding me among the humans, as well as giving me false memories. I recovered my own shortly before I finished my own schooling here. And thus, we are finished with my tale.”
Harry digested this information. But so many words resonated with him. Echoed in his mind. Regeneration. Time Lord. Gallifrey. Chameleon Arch. Time War. Dalek. He knew these words. He knew them! But all he could think of was….
“Professor, how exactly did you recover your memories?” the boy intoned.
Dumbledore’s eyes seemed to light up. “Ah, that is a good question. You see, when we undergo this procedure, we hide our memories, our essence, in a small device that looks not unlike a fob watch.”
Fob watch. Harry fingered the watch he had in his pocket. One he’d had since he was a child. The one possession that was always his, and never Dudley’s.
“Open it. Open the watch. Reclaim what is yours. Your memories, your life. OPEN IT!”