A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews and enthusiasm guys! I'll try and keep up a good pace.

…

Callie and Marie, following a long recovery period, had been immediately taken to Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall led them there herself. Despite her mixed feelings about the mysterious appearance of the Squid Sisters, she found herself endlessly amused by the reaction they had to the castle around them.

Callie could not stop looking at each and every one of the paintings that lined the walls, poking and prodding each one. Each of the occupants were quick to voice their displeasure, but one, apparently of a man who had spent his life studying magical sea creatures, followed along as best as he was able, scribbling furiously on his piece of parchment.

"Callie, please." Marie said exasperatedly, trying to mask her own awe and wonder at their surroundings. "Leave the pictures alone."

"But they're moving, Marie!" Callie protested, eyes wide. "These are just pictures, but they're moving!"

Callie had always been the artsy one. She had even represented Art for a splatfest they had hosted once. Marie shook her head, trying to keep her head on straight.

"How is it done?" Callie asked McGonagall curiously. "Is that something you teach here?"

McGonagall shook her head. The girl had been pounding her with questions ever since she woke up. "I am the Transfiguration professor." She said. "You would have to ask Professor Snape for specifics about the moving picture potion. I understand that it's quite simple to make."

"I'll ask Professor Snape then." Callie said, nodding furiously. "Where is this person?"

"Callie, slow down." Marie told her. "You're giving me a headache."

Callie did not slow down. Instead she launched into her next questions. "What's Transfiguration, then?"

"It is the art of turning an object into something else."

"Oh, like what?"

"Well…"

A nearby suit of armor rattled. Callie jumped, placing her hand on Marie's arm. McGonagall smiled.

"Perhaps a demonstration?"

She waved her wand, and in an instant, the suit of armor had become a large flamingo. Callie yelped again, jumping backward, and even Marie looked a little unsettled. With another wave of her wand, the suit of armor regained its previous form.

"That's so cool!" Callie gushed. "I've never seen anything transform like that in my life!"

Marie shot her an incredulous glare, and Callie, having realized what she had said, fell silent, embarrassed. McGonagall did not miss this, and decided to ask a question of her own. "What is it?"

"Callie's being an idiot." Marie told her, in that dry, almost bored sounding way of hers.

Callie flushed. "Am not!" She insisted. "I didn't think about it, okay?"

The girls began to bicker quietly among themselves, and McGonagall's question went unanswered. She had not the time to press them more on the issue, however, as they came to a stop in front of the Headmaster's door.

"Kalamari."

The statue rose upward. The girls gawked at it, again taking aback by the magic of the castle.

"The headmaster will be waiting for you upstairs." McGonagall informed them. Callie's face fell.

"Awwww, Minnie, you're not coming with us?"

Marie almost laughed at the expression on McGonagall's face. She had clearly not been called Minnie in a long, long time. "I have business of my own to attend to, I'm afraid." She said. "Besides, the Headmaster wishes to speak with the both of you alone."

Marie nodded, her expression grim. Callie however, nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, but we'll see you later, alright? Don't be a stranger!"

She waved warmly after her as she stepped away down the hall. Marie frowned at Callie.

"Please, Callie…. Restrain yourself. We don't know what we're dealing with here."

Callie grinned at her, and shrugged. "We won't know if we don't ask questions!" She chirped. "I thought you scientists knew that."

"I'm not a scientist, Callie." She told her, exasperated. It seemed that Callie had also not forgotten that particular Splatfest.

"Well, we're not going to learn anything if we be all quiet and contemplative, right?" Callie stepped up onto the stairs of the statue, casting a look back at her. Marie nodded.

"Yes… that is true."

The girls, although they had time to discuss the situation at hand amongst themselves, still understood very little as to where they were or how they had come to be there. The places and people here were unlike anything they had ever seen in their lifetime.

Only one thing seemed to stick out to Marie. She wondered if Callie had picked up on it as well.

The Squid Sisters climbed the spiral staircase and approached the door. Callie was all set to barge in, but Marie stopped her just in time, and issued a knock.

"Come in."

The girls did.

Sitting behind the desk was their gracious host, Albus Dumbledore. Marie, not forgetting her manners, issued him a polite bow. "Thank you so much, Professor, for letting us stay here and recover." She said. Callie clumsily imitated the movement, her face flushed.

"Y-yeah… thank you so much."

Dumbledore smiled. "You are very welcome. Please, have a seat."

He waved his wand, and two large, plush armchairs appeared out of nowhere. Callie gave an impressed sounding noise, but Marie kept herself silent. The two sat, and they stared at the man in front of them apprehensively. Marie was suddenly struck by that they had not been seated in front of a schoolmaster in over ten years. Things had changed so much for them since then… Time truly had flown.

"Now." Dumbledore said. "Callie, Marie… what has brought you here, to our school?" His voice was light and friendly, but Marie could sense an intelligent edge to his words. The Headmaster, in spite of all his wisdom, still had no clue as to what to make of them.

"Well…."

Callie looked hopelessly at Marie. How very like her. She was always expected to do the talking in serious situations, such as business dealings or the like. But when it came to socializing, she was the life of the party.

"We're not sure." Marie said quietly. "We should not be here. I know that much."

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

Marie hesitated, not sure on how to put this. "Perhaps we should start at the beginning." She said. "Callie, I think we should tell him about the Squidbeak Splatoon."

Callie spluttered. "W-what?" She looked genuinely amazed. "But-"

"He doesn't even know who we are." Marie told her. "There's no reason to protect our image. What we need to do is come forward with what happened."

She turned back to face Dumbledore, her face set. "Callie and I, in our day to day lives, work as idols in our city Inkopolis." She said. "But we also have another role. One that the public cannot know."

"We're secret agents!"

Marie shot her a glare. "I was getting to that." Callie smiled sheepishly.

"Secret Agents?" Dumbledore repeated.

"That's right." Marie said, nodding. "Our task is to protect the city from those who would harm it. Whether it's the Salmonids or the Octarains, we're the main force standing in between our society… and them."

"And sometimes we ARE the only thing." Callie said, scowling. "Mr. Grizz doesn't send people out to fight Salmonids every day for whatever reason, and none of the other Inklings notice or care when the Octarians pull something."

"Like they did the other day." Marie finished for her, nodding. Albus was listening to their speech, his hands folded, taking in all of this information. "It was Octavio who sent us here, Callie. I know it."

"Octavio?"

"One hundred years ago, our Grandfather, Cap'n Cuttlefish, defeated Octavio and sent he and his kind to live beneath the surface of the Earth." Marie explained. "We have been enemies ever since."

Her expression hardened. "In recent years, he and his followers have taken huge leaps to try and conquer our kind. Brainwashing, kidnapping, stealing our power, making horrible music…" She shook her head. "No matter what he tried to use to conquer us, it always ended in failure. In fact, we learned recently that the vast majority of Octarians don't even support him. He is forced to brainwash them to use for troops, but even then the Squidbeak Splatoon would crush him, time and time again."

"The last time it happened, Agent 4 and Marie did it all by themselves!" Callie said cheerfully. Marie winced, unable to admit out loud that she had been too busy fretting for Callie's safety to take to the field herself. Agent 4 had, much like Agent 3 before him, defeated the Octarians all by himself.

"But this time, the most recent time, it was Callie and I who took on Octavio." Marie said. "He was the one who sent us here. I'm sure of it."

"If I may, Marie." The headmaster interrupted. "But you keep saying you were 'sent here….' What do you mean by that, exactly?"

"You've noticed it yourself, Headmaster." Marie said, wincing. "My cousin and I are nothing like anything your people have ever seen. But you… you are something we are very familiar with."

She looked down, embarrassed. "From our Museums."

Silence filled the air.

"Octavio, somehow, sent us back in time." Marie said. "to a time before our kind walked the Earth, to a time when the last dominant species were still alive."

"Whaaaaaat?"

Callie looked flabberghasted. "Marie, what are you saying?"

Marie scowled. So she had not figured it out herself after all. "Do you remember what Octavio said to us before this all happened? How he was going to rewrite history and all that?"

"I never listen to a thing he says, Marie." Callie complained. "You know that."

"You should." Marie huffed, looking away, back to Dumbledore.

He had stood up, and had walked over to the window. He gazed out of it, and an overwhelming feeling of guilt welled up within her. Perhaps she should have stayed silent about manknind being extinct, after all.

"You say that you come from the future?"

Marie was surprised at how firm his voice sounded. "Yes." She said. "Over 10,000 years from now, I believe."

"10,000 years…"

He nodded, as if to himself. "Tell me, what did this Octavio do to travel back in time in the first place?"

"He had a ball." Callie recalled, hand on her chin. "It was a bright blue, swirling ball… you could see things inside it, if you looked hard enough."

"He called it a time orb." Marie said.

"He called it a GREAT Time orb, as I recall."

"I thought you said you didn't listen to what he says?"

"A time orb…" Dumbledore murmured. "Interesting…"

"Does that ring a bell, Professor?"

"It does."

He moved back to his desk and sat down. "Here in this time, we have time travel of our own. But it is heavily regulated by our government, and for very good reason. Meddling with time itself is very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed."

"You have time orbs of your own?"

"No. We use Time Turners, things that are designed to relive hours that had gone past. But there are deliberate limitations in place that prevent traveling back days or weeks in the past. A time orb is an object with no such restriction. It can create a pathway between two different times, no matter how many ages have past. Ten thousand years would be nothing for it."

"But where would Octavio get something like that?" Callie asked, nonplussed. "We've never seen him use anything like that before!"

"There's no telling… there's a lot about the Octarians we don't know." Marie said, frowning deeply. "Albus, please… be honest with us. Is it possible to return to our time?"

Albus lowered his head, thinking deeply. "The time orb creates a single pathway between two different eras that will remain for as long as the ball itself remains intact." He told them. "If the ball breaks before the two of you return home… it will be impossible to return you to your proper time."

The girls looked at each other, horror on their faces.

"Octavio has to have it." Marie said immediately. "There's no way he would smash it, just like that…. Would he? What if he needed supplies or soldiers from the future?"

Callie bit her lip so hard that purple ink ran down her neck. "Are you sure?" She asked reluctantly, shyly. "He did say that he wanted to rewrite history… maybe he wants to start fresh."

Marie stood up, suddenly agitated. "Is there nothing we can do?" She lamented, as she paced back and forth. "Are we stuck here?"

"Where are going to go?" Callie asked her timidly. "If we can't go back home, we're-"

"As long as you desire it, Hogwarts shall be your home."

The girls started, surprised, at the man in front of them.

"No, Albus, we can't…."

"I doubt this Octavio will stay silent for long." Dumbledore told them. "I will keep my eyes and ears open for any oddities… and believe me, I have many of them. And when I do find him, I will let you know."

"You're really going to let us stay here?" Marie asked, amazed. "But what about your students?"

"They have seen stranger things than a couple of Inklings." Dumbeldore told them, with a smile. "You will be more than welcome here, I'm sure."

"Dumbledore…."

"Now." He said, getting to his feet and walking around the desk. "Perhaps we need to find you some rooms, and perhaps some real food. The other teachers, I'm sure, will be interested in meeting you."

"That's right!" Callie said, giving a sudden start. "I need to ask Professor Snape about that potion!

It was ink-credible. Marie thought to herself, as the older man and Callie descended the stairs, laughing among themselves as if they were old friends. How such a kind old man could make a horrifying situation as this seem almost pleasant.

Someday, she would repay Albus Dumbledore for his kindness.

…

A/N

Hmmm, I I was planning on doing a lot more in this chapter than just dumping a whole lot of exposition on you. I can't say I'm as pleased with this one as I am the last. At the very least, I'm making this crossover seem more interesting than you would think initially…. Right?

For those wondering, Agent 3 is an Inkling Girl and 4 is an Inkling Boy. Have you read Heroes of Inkopolis? They're basically them. I wouldn't have bothered mentioning them at all if Splatoon 2 didn't outright acknowledge Agent 3 still being involved with the Agents, making me imagine that Agent 4 will stay on as well. But since they're player avatars and not actual characters, it's REALLY hard to justify putting them into a fanfic, since it feels like I'm just shoving in my OCs even though they are…. TECHINCALLY… Canon.

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews. SparkleGlacier, ImpsWithHats, ultima-owner, Crazy Dragon Ninja, and Xforgamerx are complete studs and studdessses. You guys rock, and are the main reason the second chapter came out so soon! Even if I couldn't thank SparkleGlacier through PM for reviewing because he/she had his/her PM system turned off… which I wasn't even aware was something you could do.

So what do you guys think is going to happen next? I doubt ANY of you know. 😉