celestial {genderbend}

four

  A older man came through the fire. A long, white beard hung from his chin, down to the mid of his robs, and his hair a matching white, down to his shoulders. Half moon spectacles sat on the edge of his nose.

  "'Bout time, Dumbledore," mutters Moody. The man pretends not to hear him.

   "In my years of research, I always found time travel quite interesting. May I speak with Harry, Hermione, Ron, Hazel, Rosalie, and Henry, please?"

  With a bit or arguing, the others were pushed out of the room. The ropes were gone, and the three rubbed their wrists.

   The Golden Trio sat across from the flipped, and Dumbledore sat at the head of the table.

   "Now, alternate realities, in my own personal opinion, are a branch from time travel. As two of you may know, there are plenty of rules to traveling back in time, or even to the future." Hermione and Henry blushed.

   "The same goes for alternate realities. Every decision you make causes different events. As an example, one timeline is if you had said yes to my offer of a lemon drop, and one is no

    "Then, the choices following have a separate timeline. Confusing, yes? Well, it appears you have managed to hop from one timeline from another. Though I cannot figure out how, we do know something—something is different from the events of your timeline, Harry. Something is different—not including your genders."

   Rosalie looked confused. "What do you mean by that?" Ron nodded in agreement.

   "Someone close to you has died, perhaps. Your mentality about something is different?"

   Hazel shook her head. "Everything seems the same here?"

   Henry stayed silent.

   A sense of dread filled the two girls. "...Henry?"

   His breath quickened. He thought he could hide it for a bit longer, but then this entire disastrous situation happened. How was he supposed to get himself out of this now? What was he supposed to say?

   "Henry, what aren't you telling us?" Rosalie whispered. His aura had changed. The once happy boy who always had his nose in a book was different. Henry's walls were up. He was distant.

   "I was holding off as long as possible to tell you two," he said, almost not audible. Hazel and Rosalie gripped hands under the table, fearing the worse.

  "It started his summer, before I had left," Henry started, scratching his face. "My mum was talking about a death she heard about from the paper. I wasn't feeling well that morning."

   "I didn't have an appetite, so I didn't really eat breakfast. I was rereading one of the books I had gotten last Christmas, and I began feeling faint

   "My whole body was on fire. I had called for my dad, as my mum had just left for work. He ran up the stairs, and he said I was crying. I don't really remember it all that much. It only comes back in flashes."

   The anticipation was building up in the groups chest. Even the original trio had a bit of anxiety for the boy.

   "Dad had taken me to the doctor, and Mum left work immediately. It felt as if I was in there for days. The pain...was excruciating."

  "...Henry?" Rosalie murmured, as Hazel stayed silent, fearing the absolute worse.

   "I'm dying, Rose."