A/N: One of the six Christmas "gifts" I put together for a member of a club I was involved in two years ago. This story was one of the easiest I had written in this collection, probably because I know enough about Harry Potter to have felt comfortable to write this. I did have to alter the telling of the story, to fit an idea I had, but I thought it came together alright. Not as good as I think it could be, but after coming back to it after almost two years of letting it sit, I only found minor alterations to be made. NOTE: This story contains elements from both the movie and the book, and should be taken as AU.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters or ideas created by J.K. Rowling. I only borrowed them for the entertainment and amusement of my audience.
SUMMARY: When Lucy wakes up and begins wandering the halls of a mystical castle, she finds herself in a world blurred between fantasy and reality.
SPOILERS: May contain spoilers for the entire series.
GENRE: Fantasy
RATING: PG
DEDICATION: To Lucy, for loving something that I knew enough about to write a story for her.
DATE: December 24, 2009
::~*~::
Lucy strolled along the dimly lit corridor in the mystical castle. She couldn't remember how she had gotten to where she was, but she had woken up only moments before at a dead end. Upon waking, and not seeing anyone or anything, she had gotten to her feet and started walking. At that point, any direction seemed better than none at all. She had come across a window and, peering out, she had seen parapets and turrets reminiscent of a castle. Of course, the sheer size of the building was enough to assure her that she was, indeed, in a castle. That had been ten minutes before. In the intervening time, she had not come across another living soul.
Getting just a little worried, she picked up the pace and started jogging down the hallway. Sprinting around the corner, she crashed into another human being, the first person she had seen in this place, and fell to the ground.
Lucy shook her head to clear the stars circling it and then focused her attention on the person in front of her. He had fallen backwards and landed on his backside. Having pulled himself back up to a sitting position, he glared at her. Lucy's mouth fell open in shock. This boy had shockingly red hair, blue eyes and a dusting of freckles across his nose. He was dressed in a black robe that was open down the front, revealing black slacks and a white shirt that had the top two buttons unbuttoned and was untucked from his pants. A scarlet and gold striped tie was slung around his neck but not tied.
"You're…you're…Ron Weasley!" she stammered.
He was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure. "Wow! That's a first. Usually it's 'Harry Potter' that everyone recognizes," he muttered. He had started gathering up a bunch of pieces of parchment and books when he suddenly stopped. Lifting his eyes up to see her, he asked, suspiciously, "How do you know who I am? Have we met before?"
Lucy still hadn't gotten over her shock, but she managed to utter, "But…you're…you're a character in a book series. My favorite book series, actually. You can't possibly be real. This has got to be a dream." The last was said more to herself then to him.
He had finally gotten all of his stuff into a pile in front of him, but instead of gathering them into his arms and getting to his feet, he stared at Lucy as though she was crazy. "You're off your rocker, you are. This is no dream. I'm as real as you are." To emphasize his point, he reached out and poked her shoulder. She felt it.
"How did I get here?" she asked in confusion. She glanced quickly around the empty hall, but if she was looking for the answers there, she didn't find them.
"What do you mean 'how did you get here'? Aren't you a student here? If not, you could be in big trouble for sneaking into the castle. Though, I would be very interested in learning how you accomplished it."
Lucy opened her mouth to argue the point, preparing to point out that she had no clue where "here" was (though she had a very good suspicion, based on the conversation she'd just had), but a voice from down the corridor stopped her.
"Ron! What are you doing on the ground?" a girl's voice echoed along the empty walls. Lucy peeked around Ron and studied the girl hurrying towards them. Bushy brown hair, large teeth, an annoyed look on her face – Lucy knew exactly who she was, too. Hermione Granger. Regardless of the particularly strange situation she found herself in, Lucy was getting rather excited. Here was Ron and Hermione and she was most likely in Hogwarts. Of all places!
Lucy snapped out of her euphoric daze as Hermione reached them. "Honestly, Ronald! What is going—" she stopped as she finally caught sight of Lucy, who was still on the ground. "Who is this?" Her question was directed towards Ron. Lucy couldn't be entirely sure, but she thought she detected an underlying jealous tone in Hermione's voice.
"I have no idea. I didn't have a chance to get her name," Ron said irritably. He got to his feet and picked up his stuff. Lucy noticed that Hermione was wearing a very similar outfit to Ron's, but her robe was closed, hiding her clothing beneath and her tie was still secure around her neck.
Lucy got to her feet and stood in front of the two students. She was close to Hermione's height while Ron towered over them both. Sticking out her hand, she said, "My name is Lucy and I have no idea how I got here. In fact, I have no idea what happened shortly before I came to be here."
Hermione reluctantly shook her hand before taking charge of the situation. "What we need to do is speak to Professor Dumbledore. If anyone can figure out how you got here and how to get you home, it's him. Unfortunately, he's not here at the present time." She said the last with an obvious bitter hatred in her voice. Lucy had a sinking feeling that she knew who Hermione's bitterness was directed towards. "We should go to Professor McGonagall."
"Wait! If we go straight to McGonagall, then she'll send me home and I won't get to explore this amazing castle. You have no idea what kind of a dream come true this is for me to be here. Please don't take it away from me," Lucy pleaded.
A careful perusal of their faces and she could see that Ron was weakening to her request, but Hermione still stood rigid and determined. "If we get caught giving you an unauthorized tour of the castle, we could be expelled, or worse, if 'she' catches us. And, I can assure you, we have much more to lose then you do."
"Oh, come on, Hermione. Who could it hurt? Besides, we've done a lot worse then give an intruder a tour of the castle and we're still here."
"That's exactly my point, Ronald! You said it yourself, 'intruder.' We're prefects! Our responsibility is to report things of this nature to the staff. And with things as they are right now, we can't be too careful. She needs to go to McGonagall."
"Hello! I'm still here. Right in front of you. You know what? I don't want to get anyone in trouble. Why don't you just take me to Professor McGonagall and she can sort it all out. As long as you don't take me to Umbridge."
Ron and Hermione both started at that name. They tensed up and flushed red with hatred towards her very name. Hermione sighed and then motioned for Lucy to follow her. Hermione led the way down the hall with Lucy next and Ron tagging along at the rear. They winded their way through countless corridors and even up and down a couple of staircases (unfortunately for Lucy, none of them moved). Lucy stared awestruck at everything around her as they walked along and tried to commit it all to memory. It was all strange and intoxicating at the same time. She still had trouble adjusting to the fact that the people in the picture frames were moving...and talking to her!
They were walking down a long, wide corridor when Hermione stopped abruptly in front of the others. Putting a finger to her lips, she indicated they should be quiet. From down the corridor and around a corner, they heard voices, two to be exact.
"Honestly, I don't know what has got into the students these days. I think Dumbledore has gotten too soft in his old age and it's past time for him to retire. He lets these students get away with too much trouble-making. Of course, Cornelius himself agrees wholeheartedly with me and we have certain plans in motion to get this school back up to par. It's truly horrifying how much work we have to do," a high-pitched, squeaky female voice said in a self-important tone of pompous declaration.
"I couldn't agree with you more," a lower male voice responded. "I often think fondly of the punishments that used to be inflicted on troublemakers of old. I really think we should bring those punishments back, especially with Potter and his gang of rule-breaking and rowdy miscreants." He chuckled, but it came out more as a wheezing cough then anything resembling a chuckle.
Hermione grabbed Ron and Lucy each by the elbow and hurried them through the nearest door...
::~*~::
...right into the Room of Requirement where a DA lesson was in full swing. All of the students stopped what they were doing at the abrupt entrance. Patronuses that were gallivanting around the room fizzled out as the three newcomers were stared at with wide-eyed confusion.
A boy with brown hair, and green eyes and a very famous lightning-shaped scar on his forehead pushed through the throng of onlookers to where Lucy, Ron and Hermione were standing.
"What's going on?" he asked, with a suspicious glance towards Lucy.
Hermione quickly spoke, even while casting worried glances over her shoulder at the door, "We almost got caught in the corridor by Umbridge and Filch. She was saying something about plans put in place to push Dumbledore into retirement."
"Which would no doubt toss her permanently into the Headmistress' position here at Hogwarts," Ron cut in. Hermione glared at him for interrupting her.
Harry, for there was no doubt that it was him, was still staring at Lucy. "Who are you?"
"I'm Lucy."
"She's not a student here, Harry," Hermione stated. "She somehow came to be here. She doesn't know how and we just happened upon her down one of the corridors. We were on our way to McGonagall's office, when we had to cut in here to escape Umbridge's notice. I don't think she saw us. At least, I pray she didn't see us."
Harry nodded at that and then gave instructions to everyone else to continue what they were doing. Lucy, despite the potentially dangerous situation she was in, was on cloud nine. She watched with unabashed interest as, in a flurry of wand movement and incantations, blue and white Patronuses erupted from wands all over the place. It was completely magical and Lucy didn't spare a second thought to the irony of that thought.
"I'm positive that we can trust her. Besides, she doesn't even have a wand. What danger can she possibly pose to ourselves?" Lucy couldn't help overhearing their conversation. She wasn't sure how she felt about their distrust of her, but she had to admit that they had good reason. They didn't know her; they had never seen her before prior to about thirty minutes ago. She hoped that there was something she could to do to let them know she could be trusted.
"I've got a really bad feeling about Sirius," Harry whispered to the other two. "Something terrible really is going to happen. And soon."
Lucy had a sudden, brilliant idea. Spinning around, she walked the few steps over to where Harry, Hermione and Ron were huddled. "I know you don't trust me and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how I can gain your trust. I was telling Ron when we bumped into each other in the hallway, that in my world, where I am from, you're all just characters in a book. And I can tell you exactly what's going to happen before the year is out." Lucy just then noticed that the room was deathly quiet again. Apparently she had spoken a little louder then she had anticipated and everyone was hooked on her every word. Turning around to address everyone, she was about ready to tell what she knew when a loud crashing sound echoed behind her. Wide-eyed, she turned with horror to the trio. "Oh, no! You have to get out of here! Now!"
"What are you talking about? What's making that racket?" Hermione, regardless of her minutes' earlier defense, was looking at Lucy as if she had just confessed to being Voldemort's personal spy.
"Somebody betrayed you to Umbridge. It wasn't me. It was a member of your Army who is not here now. If you don't get out, there is going to be some serious trouble with Umbridge. She is not a woman to cross and I'm sure you know it. I'll hold her off. You have to go, though."
"You said you know all about us from your books," Harry said. Lucy nodded. "You probably know all about this room." Lucy shrugged, but nodded. The banging continued in the background. "Then you forgot one vital piece of information. This room only has one door. The door which they are presently trying to knock down."
Lucy smiled with a mischievous glint in her eye. "No, I think you forgot one vital clue. This is the Room of Requirement. It molds itself to what you require; what you need. Find a way to make another door."
Harry and Ron both looked confused, but Hermione was determined to rise to the challenge. She was skeptical about whether the room could actually shift with people in it, but she figured she could give it a shot. The very least that would happen was that they would get caught. She was sure they could get out of whatever trouble they found themselves in. They'd done it before.
"Hey, look!" a voice shouted from the rear of the room. "A door!"
Everyone crowded around the newly discovered door that was hidden behind a bookcase. Flinging it open, Harry discovered a long, narrow, dimly lit passageway. Not sure what was at the end of it, but figuring it was much better then facing Umbridge, he stood back and told everyone to go. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Lucy were the last to disappear through the door and Hermione grabbed Lucy and pulled her through just as the main door exploded inwards.
"Run!" she shouted and they tore off down the passage.
::~*~::
They must have been running for ten minutes before they came to another door. The rest of Dumbledore's Army had been far ahead of them, so by the time the four of them reached the door, there was no indication of where the rest of the group had gone off to. As it was the only door, Ron pulled it open to show another dark, though larger, passageway in front of them. There was a damp, claustrophobic feel to the place and it took a few minutes before Hermione determined that they were in the dungeons.
"Oh, great," Ron whispered. "As if Umbridge wasn't bad enough, now we run the risk of getting caught by Snape."
"Oh, come on!" Hermione fiercely whispered back. They crept slowly and cautiously along the corridor, but they managed to escape without getting caught. The trio decided to take Lucy back to the Gryffindor common room so that they could find out what she knew and then decide how best to approach McGonagall about everything. Once they arrived in the common room, they were relieved to discover that there was no one else around except for Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister. They all gathered around Lucy, who had collapsed on the couch in front of the fireplace.
"Okay, something is wrong here," Lucy commented. "You said Dumbledore was already gone when you wanted to take me to McGonagall, but Umbridge just now discovered the Room of Requirement. That doesn't make sense. According to the book, that was the event that was supposed to result in Dumbledore leaving Hogwarts, not before. Why did he leave?"
"The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was getting paranoid about Dumbledore creating an army to depose him," Ron said.
"He made what you'd call 'trumped-up' accusations against him. What's so stupid is that many people sided with him against Dumbledore. And, of course, no one cares what us students think. Slytherin students would be the only people to slander Dumbledore; most everyone else would stand behind him," Ginny said.
"Dumbledore said he would never be far from Hogwarts and then he disappeared in a blaze of bright light when the Minister's men came to forcefully remove him. Harry here was the only one of us who was with him when the accusations were made," Hermione said.
"But, that's not what the book said happened. If that's the case, I have no idea what else is different and I don't see what the point is in telling how things are supposed to happen."
"'Books? How many are there?'" Neville inquired. He seemed really intrigued by the fact that books were written about their lives.
"Seven total. And the event that just happened takes place in the fifth book," Lucy replied.
"Well, as we are getting towards the end of the series, by your count, we should be getting closer to the final confrontation. A book series, logically, will not end without everything being resolved," Hermione pointed out.
"You do have a point," Lucy said and she turned to look at Harry but still addressed the gathered group, "but each book corresponds with one year of the seven that Harry spends at Hogwarts. Well, is supposed to spend at Hogwarts. He doesn't come back for his seventh. Actually, neither do Ron and Hermione."
Harry had been silent thus far and finally he spoke. "Regardless of how different recent events have transpired, I think you should tell us about what is to come."
Lucy sighed. "I don't know if I should. What if, in some bizarre way, I am rewriting the book simply by being here? I could screw everything up. Besides, some of the darkest trials that you will have to go through will help shape your future lives for the better. They'll make you stronger just by surviving them."
Harry considered her words, but Ron jumped on her last statement. "Do you mean to say that we will survive the final conflict?"
Lucy looked at each of them in turn before nodding. "You all will, but like I said, if things are changing, I can't guarantee that now. Especially since I just told you you would. Now it may inflate your ego, make you think that you're invincible and that could most likely be your downfall. Besides, while none of you will die, these next couple years will claim the lives of people very close to you."
Lucy leaned back on the couch. Leaning forward to talk almost conspiratorially to them had started her back aching. "If you really want to know what I can tell you, I will, but I don't think it'll be very useful."
"Oh, yes," Ginny breathed. "It would be nice to have at least a basic plan of what to do."
Lucy glanced at Harry, trying to make out what his feelings were on the topic. He nodded. Throwing caution to the wind, she decided to tell everything. If it changed anything, she prayed it would be for the better. "Well, for starters, don't go anywhere near the Department of Mysteries. Your friends will be right, Harry. It's going to be a trap and someone close to you will perish. Stay away from there. That's supposed to happen in the middle of June of this year, only two months away." Harry just nodded again.
"Next year, you'll be getting a new potions teacher-"
"No more Snape!" Ron exclaimed. "I think I'll die a happy person!"
"No, Professor Snape will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And speaking of Snape, don't judge him too harshly. There's too much you don't know. He was, is, and will always be Dumbledore's man. Just remember that, especially towards the end of your sixth year here. That's when you'll need to remember it the most, because his actions will contradict everything I just told you."
"That's quite a bit to swallow. I may need some time to digest that information," Neville said. Ron echoed his thoughts.
"Back to the new potions instructor, Dumbledore will have you extract information from him, Harry, and he'll use that information to find artifacts that will help to bring down Voldemort." There were gasps from the gathered throng. "Unfortunately, those journeys will weary him and in the end, he will fall."
"What do you mean by 'fall'?" Harry immediately came to life from the stupor he had been sitting in. "You don't mean-" he trailed off. Lucy sadly nodded her head.
"And the last thing you really need to know is more for the rest of you then it is for Harry himself. Whatever Voldemort," there were cringes all around, except for Harry, "tells you, Harry is not dead. That will come in the very end when Voldemort," more cringing all around, again, except for Harry, "tries to dispirit you with lies. Good will triumph. It always does. I think I even read somewhere that the night is always darkest just before the dawn."
"That doesn't seem to be enough information to plan an effective defense," Hermione said as she bit her lip in thought. "Can't you tell us more?"
"Oh, there is far too much for me to tell you right now, but I gave you all the things I feel you truly need to know. Your seventh year alone would take hours to relate, but the only thing you need to know is that Harry doesn't die. That knowledge alone should carry you through."
::~*~::
Lucy followed Hermione and Harry through the hallways to McGonagall's office. They had parted ways from the rest of the group shortly after Lucy had finished talking and Harry had insisted on accompanying them, if only to find a way to speak to Dumbledore. If anyone knew how to contact him, it would be Professor McGonagall.
They were only one turn of a corner away from McGonagall's office, when Lucy started feeling lightheaded. Immediately, her steps started faltering and she stopped to place her hand against the wall to keep herself upright. Harry and Hermione came to her side and asked if she was alright. That was the last conscious thing she remembered before slipping into darkness.
::~*~::
Lucy bolted upright in her bed. She was breathing heavily, as if she had just run a race. A quick pat down of her clothing revealed that she was in her pajamas, and a quick survey of the room revealed that she was in her bedroom. Collapsing back on the pillows, she tried to slow her breathing. It had all been a dream. A wonderfully thrilling dream. She could have sworn it was so real. Rolling over in bed, she caught sight of the fifth Harry Potter book lying on her nightstand. Grabbing it off of the nightstand, she started flipping thru until she came to a certain section of the book. Smiling, she sighed in relief as she closed the book and snuggled down in the bed sheets. Closing her eyes, she prayed for the dream to come to her again.
::~*~::
Half a world away, someone else bolted awake in bed. Jo sat up and grabbed the edge of her nightstand as she rolled out of the bed. She had been napping during the middle of the day after a really long morning. She had had the strangest dream. She had contemplated writing a fun little Harry Potter book from the eyes of a fan who had been thrown into the Harry Potter universe armed with the knowledge that the novels had given. The dream had given her a glimpse of what could happen and it hadn't turned out quite the way she expected. She would have to put a lot more thought into it before committing to anything. Sighing, she left the room in search of sustenance.