At Three, Everything Starts or Ends

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Well, guess what, I don't own these two great creations.

The title for this installment in the Halfa and Serpent Chronicles and the toaster incident was created by jeanette9a.

Ashes in Time

"My lovely rossignol," came a soft whisper in his ear. The voice had a lovely dreamy quality to it, not like Sam's dark humor. He opened his eyes to see a girl a year his junior with scraggly dirty-blonde hair and silvery blue eyes smiling down at him. He yelped in surprise.

"My name is Luna Nightingale," she told him. "I would have been a Scamander, but then I met you, my lovely rossignol." Her silver and glass radish earrings twinkled in the moonlight filtering through the blinds. "You need to go into the other timeline and get Harry back."

"He's in his room listening to the radio, and hopefully, doing Professor Binn's assignment," Danny said. He cocked his head slightly and glanced at the clock. It read 8 pm. Both of them had been sent to bed without supper for destroying the kitchen while trying to catch a ghost cat which kept popping out of the toaster along with the toast...

He groaned. "So, where do we begin?"

"Here," she said, opening a portal.

"Took you long enough," an annoyed tone assaulted his ears when he stopped to rest against a low wall in Magnolia Crescent.

Harry took a deep breath, turned, and faced his tormentor. "Why are you following me? Wasn't the stupid ghost cat popping out of a floating toaster from Denmark or me blowing up my Aunt Marge bad enough? I'm lucky if they don't expell me from Hogwarts!"

The ghostly teen floated backwards, his emerald eyes hurt and sad. "I'm here to take you back home. I'm really sorry, Harry. The toaster was an accident."

"I am not going back there," Harry said, jabbing the air in the direction of of Privet Drive for emphasis. "They hate me there and make my life a living hell."

The ghost shook his snowy locks and looked over his shoulder. "I tried, Luna, but he's hopeless."

"My little rossignol, we'll have to simply try another point in the timeline," a dreamy voice responded. Harry looked around for the speaker, but saw nothing.

The ghost gave him a pitying look and sighed. "Okay," he said, before disappearing into the night air. Harry turned around and caught the eye of a big black dog.

A faint snapping crackle and then he was...

"Ouch!" Harry hissed as the book Hagrid sent him nipped his hand. "Where did I put that blasted belt?"

"Here." A white glove handed him his belt. "Please tell me that's not the new textbook for Care of Magical Creatures."

Harry turned around the face the speaker and a boy around his own age, glowing softly around the edges, spoke again with that strange echo. "I'm Danny," he said, introducing himself. He had snow white hair and glowing green eyes.

"I take it you used to go to Hogwarts?" Harry asked the ghost.

"Still do," Danny answered, laughing a bit. "I guess that explains why Mom put them in separate ecto-containment units." He gestured at the book.

Harry frowned. "Who are you?"

"I'm Danny," the ghost repeated. "Want to see where I live?"

"Anything is better than staying here," Harry said, looking around the sparsely furnitured room. "I should leave my aunt and uncle a note."

"Don't bother," Danny told him. "You'll be back home before they even notice you're gone."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"My beloved rossignol, the portal is unstable. We went back to an earlier time than we were supposed to. You must come back before it closes," came the silvery voice Harry remembered from his dreams.

"We're coming, Luna," Danny called back over his shoulder, grabbing Harry. The world around them blinked.

Harry fell out of the portal in a run and had to roll to one side to avoid colliding with Danny's human form. "What the heck was that?" he demanded.

"A very pissed off Ember," Danny, leaning up on one elbow, replied. "You had to insult her, didn't you?"

"Do what?" a woman asked, as the lights in the basement lab flickered on. "What are you boys doing downstairs. I thought I made it clear you were being grounded."

"Insulted Ember," Danny answered, launching into the story.

The woman listened thoughtfully, as the strange human-ghost boy talked. "So, let me get this straight. You went to sleep, instead of doing your summer school work. A girl from the future named Luna wakes you up and sends you on a wild goose chase into an alternate timeline to find your brother. How did this happen, exactly?"

"Featherhead," Danny said, looking at his brother. "There's apparently a few unknown functions to the ecto-radio. " He scowled in the direction of the portal. "Thanks a lot, Luna!"

"Who is Luna?" Harry asked, rising to his feet. "Who are you people and where are we?"

"Home," the woman replied. "Lost his memory?"

"Yup," Danny acknowledged, looking at the wall clock. "He should be getting it back in 5, 4, 3, 2..."

Harry screamed, clutching his head, as memories came flooding back. "FEATHERHEAD, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU AGAIN!"

Danny clonked him over the head with a thermos. "Never mind that. Wait until you see this." He handed him the Daily Prophet, which Jack had been reading earlier. Harry grinned to see his friend Ron and his family waving with the pyramids in the background.

"And you have some early birthday gifts to open," Maddie added, noting Danny looking wistfully at the portal. "You can open them in the morning. Absolutely not, young man."

Danny guiltily rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, ma'am."