A/N: OMGosh OMGosh OMGosh! We're at part 90! Hurrah! Guess what? The first time I posted any part of this was on May 5, 2022. I posted like, the first 40 parts all in one day. Then, 'cause I was super impatient, the next bunch on May 8. Then everything was supa' spotty, and sometime over the summer I began to update frequently. You probably didn't want to read all that, so now back to your regularly scheduled entertainment.

Era Damon White**

Tom looked better after going through the memory, though tears were running lines down his pale cheeks.

"Era," he said, a little thickly, "You know how much I love you, right? Cause I don't think I have any words great enough to express it."

"I do, sweetheart. And imagine your love, then triple it, and you know how I feel for you."

They embraced, Tom's chin nestling just over Era's shoulder as if he were made to fit there. Era gently rubbed circles on his back, and just held him for a while. He could barely think of anything past Tom, but he knew the others were probably worried.

"Tom?"

"Era?"

"Do you think you'd be ready to go back to the infirmary now? The others are probably worried."

Tom sighed, a long, drawn out breath, and said, "I guess. But Era, I really need to thank you. You do so much for me, and I don't feel like I give anything back."

"Sweetheart, you give me so much happiness. Being with you, every moment is like its own little miracle, every word a treasure, every kiss a gift. You are my heart, and my soul, and always on my mind. What more could you possibly give me? And how foolish would I be to ask anything more of you?"

Tom pulled back to look into his eyes, and in them Era saw more unshed tears, "How did I end up with a mate as perfect as you?"

"Tom, I'm not perfect. You have to understand that. When I'm mad, I can do very bad things. When I'm crossed, I can become cutthroat. When I see something I want, I obsessively work to get it. When I have secrets, I'll usually keep, them, sometimes at the expense of others. What I want is for you to accept me for who I am, my flaws, faults, and quirks. I'll understand if you can't promise, but will you please try?"

"Of course I accept you for who you are!" Tom exclaimed, eyes wide, "And I didn't mean it like that when I said perfect. I didn't mean I see you as an entirely flawless person. I'd never put that sort of pressure on you, and anyway, how boring would a person have to be to be perfect? I like the ways you surprise me, and every time I see you for being yourself, I'm grateful. Because I know you trust me, and it helps me believe we could actually be together."

"Sweetheart, we are together. You and me, Severus, and Lucius, all of us are in this together, and I love each of you more dearly than the stars at night or the dawning of the sun each morning. Everything you are, everything you will become, and all that you have the potential to be. . . it's inspiring. I love you, Tom, and I want you to be mine forever."

"I already am."

"As I am yours, dear heart."

They went back into the infirmary, hand in hand, their hearts shining in their eyes.

Lucius and Severus looked extremely relieved to see them, even more so seeing how at peace they were. Lucius had immediately sprung up and embraced the both of them, while Sev hung back a bit, waiting patiently for his turn. Which, of course, came the next second.

"So how's Harry doing?" Tom asked, no sign of tears left in his beautiful crimson eyes.

"Much better," Sev said, "He's breathing easily, and Poppy says he's out of any real danger. She's also putting nutrient potions into Harry about every five minutes, as often as she can. You lost a lot of weight," Sev reprimanded. 

Era scowled a bit down at his shoes and mumbled, "I've been busy. And Metus attacked me."

"Metus?" Tom said, confused.

"Who's Metus?" Lucius asked at the same time.

"He's no one," Era said lazily, drawing a semicircle with his toe, "It's just a name I gave for the general bad things that happen. You know, like giving all the things you want to damn to hell a name, so I can just say, 'damn Metus' instead of 'Damn Dumbledore' 'Damn time-loops' 'Damn fatigue' 'Damn boring classwork'."

Era peered through his lashes, and was about 52% sure he'd convinced them by elaborating on his quirk. He wasn't ready to tell his mates about his 'little problem'. After all, it wasn't something he could solve, not even something his eccentric parents could, so there was no way that they would be able to help him enough to counter the fear he had of Metus discovering his mate's knew about him, and then digging deeper to discover they were his mates. If that happened, then wouldn't Metus go after them?

He refused to allow that to happen. He would rather die a million times than allow a single harm on their heads to be damaged. He suddenly recalled something he'd said though. Damn time-loops. It wasn't the loop part that had caught his attention though. It was the time bit.

Era had come back from the future, a future that no longer existed, so he had no reason to go back and complete the loop so there would only be one copy of himself in existence. Of course, Harry or he could go back in time, but then there would be three copies of them on the world.

He nibbled at his lower lip in thought. Some how, he'd need to disappear. Obviously, the easiest method would be to die, but then Harry, the true Harry that would remain, wouldn't have all the memories he'd shared with his mates.

Oh, and then of course, there was the small matter of his mates being out for his blood if they discovered that not only did he die again, but that he killed himself. On purpose. That for sure would not go over well, even if it was the right thing to do. So what to do?

Era could lie to them, but he didn't like lying, and he'd already lied to them about the whole Metus issue, and was not looking forward to having to repeat such a thing. He could of course have both copies of himself doing different things at the same time, then sharing the memories with one another, but that seemed wrong. It would be a perversion of nature, and of time.

With a sigh, he looked up to find all three of his mates just staring at him. He met their eyes, flicking his own from set to set, them growing larger at the doubtful looks in their faces. Did they know he'd been lying? Which was worse, fessing up to the time problem, or to Metus?

Definitely telling them about Metus. That would endanger them. So, it looked like he had to share about his split personage situation.

"What're you hiding?" Tom asked suspiciously, red eyes narrowing.

"Yeah," Sev and Lucius chimed in the next instant in unison.

In just about any other situation, Era would've found it amusing. Or cute. Or both. Yeah, definitely both. But not now. Now was time for honesty, which he was beginning to like less and less.

"So. . ." he began, but trailed off immediately, unable to find some clever way to pass it off.

"So?" Sev prompted, impatient.

"I kind of- Well see, I might have-" Era pushed out his lips in a slightly awkward irritated duck face.

"Era," Lucius sighed, "For Merlin's sake, just spit it out already. You know we're not going to let you off on this one, so better spill sooner. I promise to be less angry if you are more prompt."

Lucius was going to get angry? Oh balances, not again! It didn't matter what, Lucius would either end up screaming at him or slapping him in the face. Maybe both. No, if he said he'd considered killing himself to fix the flowing of time and nature, it would definitely be both, probably followed by Lucius killing him himself.

He looked nervously into the blond's expectant eyes, and felt every inch an eleven year old child, about to be scolded by his parent. So, he closed his eyes, making himself collect confidence in himself like a niffler on a bank robbing spree.

Then he began, "Well, you all know that I traveled from the future to come back and save myself, right?"

"Right," Tom said, at the same time Lucius nodded and Sev said, "Yes."

"Well, do you three know the rules of time travel?"

"Not really. They're kept pretty quiet. No one's supposed to time travel because of how dangerous it is, so they try not to tell us too much out of fear that they'll arouse interest enough to get people to study it," Tom explained.

"Huh," the veela said, "I'd never really thought about it that much. Of course, I always wanted a time turner, but I'd never really looked into them because when I was younger I just liked the idea of time traveling, of undoing mistakes. Then when I grew older, I decided that there were too many bad things that could result, and that it wasn't worth it."

"The point was so that you wouldn't look into it more. The Ministry is very tight-lipped about the things they don't want getting out," Tom said said philosophically, "It's the same with dark magic, only that's a relatively newer concept, and the information is too widespread to really cover up properly."

Era just tried to be quiet. Maybe if they kept talking, they'd forget about him and whatever he was hiding. Then he wouldn't need to say anything. Severus wasn't part of the conversation though, and he was watching Era's face.

"That's very interesting Tom," he said, "And I'd love to hear more about it later, but I think we should listen to the rest of Era's story first. Before we forget," he said, lingering on the word, at the same time he looked pointedly at Era, who was blushing and obvious now.

"Good idea," Lucius immediately said, jumping on the black-eyed man's too intelligent proposal.

"Well," Era began tentatively, "There're a lot of different aspects to moving through time, and I don't think this is the time or place to go into them fully. There are really too many rules to count, and I don't even know them all myself.

"Currently, the problem with that is I broke a rule, and while there are certain things protecting me from the direct repercussions-" namely that I have the Athena's Timepiece, which allows the user to break the rules of time without endangering themself or others -"There are still unavoidable consequences.

"See, I decided to come back after Harry had died, and I'd returned from Death as Era. The problem is, now I'll never make that choice again. I'm a permanent secondary me. Harry and I would both exist as long as we live, and that breaks the rules of time."

"Wait, I don't understand," Lucius said confused, "If that were true, then wouldn't- Never mind. I just am a bit muddled. So, after Harry died in the future, you came back in time, but stopped Harry from dying, meaning you, as Harry, would never go back in time again to complete the circuit? Therefore, you're you, but the child lying over there in the bed is an exact copy of you?"

"Yes, minus a few memories."

"Wow. Okay then. I'm just going to sit down now," Lucius said, dropping onto the bed.

"But what does it mean?" Tom asked perplexed.

"What does what mean?" Era asked, not understanding.

"How does that affect. . . everything, I suppose. Obviously, having you as the fifth person in our relationship would be difficult. I mean, having se- never mind what I was about to say. But you probably don't want to be romantically involved with yourself the way you are with Lucius, Severus, and me, and it would be awkward for us all to be saying how much we love each other but you and your other self just. . . I dunno, shunning one another?

"I'm not making any sense. This is so confusing to me, like, what am I even supposed to think? I don't know how to even articulate how I'm feeling, this is just super. . . weird. Are you able to make any sense out of my words?" Tom ended desperately.

Era sighed, and ran a tired hand through his dark brown hair, "Sweetheart, I wish I could make this easier for you, but it's not simply semantics that are the issue here. I've broken the rules of time, and that could have very negative consequences.

"It needs to be set right so that the flow of time can continue smoothly. If time's power is weakened, as it surely will be by my defiance of its rules, then time-loops, or the passage of time changing speeds, or a portion of the world could become frozen in a moment forever, never altering, could happen."

"What are you saying?" Sev asked, voice a bit more strained than usual, as if he already had a good idea of what Era had to do.

"I must resolve the blockage. I have to cease to exist, to put it simply."

A/N: How's everybody feeling? I almost didn't get this part out today because someone (again, not naming any names) still hasn't finished their summer work and kept falling asleep while they tried to do it. That meant it took longer than it should have to get the piece done.

I also posted a chapter to my other story, which is a werewolf BL that is off to a sort of rocky start. It's the only original work I currently have published, and it's like, really kind of pathetic. But, I have been posting every day (I only started it last week).

Anyhow, I'd been doing a word count every ten chapters, but I did some editing so they aren't quite accurate anymore. They'll still give a rough idea though.

Hope you liked the chapter, and hope even more that you'll share your thoughts on it with me. I need some SLEEP.

Word count 1-90=194,024