Disclaimer: I own nothing but the obvious, the rest belongs to JK Rowling.
Authors note: Enjoy!
-Chapter Eleven-
"Please don't go mummy!" Anna clung onto Blaise's leg.
Blaise had tears running down her face as she leaned down and looked her daughter in the eyes. "I have to honey," she said.
"Will you come back?" the little girl asked and sniffed.
"Perhaps I will," she shot a quick look at Harry before turning back to her child, "But I will always love you, remember that alright?" The girl nodded and sniffed again.
Mr and Mrs Zabini stood in the corridor as well. Mrs Zabini had tears running down her face and Mr Zabini was holding on to her.
"Take care of yourself, Blaise," Mrs Zabini said and wiped some tears away. "You too Harry, take care of you both."
Harry nodded and smiled. "You will see each other again, I guarantee that."
Blaise lit up. "Y-you mean that? I will see them again."
"Of course you will, I never said that this would be a permanent arrangement." Harry's eyes twinkled happily at the joy that he saw when Blaise hugged her mother, father and child.
"Hear that honey? We will see each other again!" Blaise hugged her girl tightly. "Take care will you?"
"I promise mommy." Anna hugged her mother back as hard as she could. Then she glared at Harry. "You better watch out for mommy, or I'll..."
Harry smiled again and beckoned the girl towards him. "I will take care of her, and here's a thing for you." He said quietly and gave her a hand- mirror. "This isn't an ordinary mirror, you see. Whenever you want to speak to your mommy all you have to do is open it and say her name-"
"Which of them?" Anna asked just as quietly. Her eyes were glowing with excitement now.
"Blaise Zabini," Harry replied. "I will give the other one to her once we get to our destination, and first thing she'll do is call you."
Blaise, Mr and Mrs Zabini hadn't heard a word of the conversation, but they had seen that Harry gave Anna something and that the little girl lit up like a Christmas tree. Then she threw herself at Harry and hugged him tightly, but when they asked what had been going between them, both refused to say anything and shared a wink.
Blaise shook her head with a smile. "Whatever you did Harry, I thank you for it," she said as she watched Anna clutch something to her chest.
The green-eyed man just smiled to her and held the door open. "Ladies first."
She glared at him. It appeared as though his ability to avoid things hadn't been hurt by the 6000 years of sleep. "I really hate it when you do that." She said as she stepped out on the pavement. Then she turned back again. "Take care of her," she said to her parents. "And yourself."
"Don't worry honey," Mrs Zabini replied and sniffed. "We won't let Bob get her or the house. You take care of yourself now."
Blaise sniffed as well then hugged her family one last time, before she straightened up and tried to call up her Slayer-mask of toughness. "Right," she said to Harry. "Lets go. We still need to visit the Slayer University and copy as many books as possible. If what you say is true, that the school doesn't exist in the future, then we'll need every kind of help we can get."
Harry nodded, winked one last time to Anna and led Blaise down the street, into a back alley, and from there they Apparated to Amsterdam.
-------------------------
****Year 8002****
Nicholas put the last book on the shelf and looked around at his work. He had spent most of his time since they woke up from the Sleep categorizing and adding the newest books to the Hogwarts library. Not that there was much to be done in that department, but still it had taken two weeks to finish.
He sighed and smiled. At least he couldn't complain about his life being boring.
"Hey, Nick!" Draco came striding into the library.
"Yes?" both Nicholas and Nearly Headless Nick the Ghost said at the same time.
"Which one of us do you want?" Nicholas continued.
"The live one." The blond Slytherin replied.
Nearly Headless Nick scoffed. "Just because you're dead they think you're worthless."
Nicholas looked closely at the ghost. "Your application for the Headless Hunt was denied again, wasn't it?"
"As a matter of fact," the ghost began angrily, "it was." He finished pathetically.
"There, there," Nicholas tried to comfort the Gryffindor House ghost. "Why don't you start your own club? Like Nearly-Headless Hunt or something?"
Nearly Headless Nick blinked. "Hmm, that might be something..." he flew off muttering.
Draco watched the ghost go and shook his head. "That guy gets more and more mental for every day that passes. Now, I have a job for you!" he poked Nicholas in the chest. "I want you to go to Hogsmeade and check out if all the secret passages to and fro from the school still are there. If they are, fix them up a bit and put wards so that we know when someone or something enters. If they aren't create new ones. Got it?"
"Yep!" Nicholas replied with a grin. "This ought to be fun."
"How's that? I just gave you one of the more boring jobs."
"Severus and the Fatsy Squadron are by the Shrieking Shack." Nicholas grinned even more and Draco grinned right along.
"Now I wish I had taken this job!" the blond man complained before sending Nicholas off.
Nicholas laughed and walked outside. He waved to Shadow who was having a jolly good time being admired by the current Care of Magical Creatures class. The griffin waved back with his tail, his eyes twinkling merrily. The people in the class turned to see what the griffin was looking at, and Ron – who was the current teacher – barked an order. The Hogsmeade-people jumped and quickly turned around again pretending not to have done anything.
He reached the gates and slipped outside. Taking a deep breath Nicholas continued towards Hogsmeade with the Forbidden Forest to his right. He liked to take these walks. They were calming and he could let his thoughts fly wherever they wanted. It was wonderful not having to worry about wars, fights, the Order, or anything else. Just like Harry was home in the air, Nicholas was home on the ground.
"Nicholas!" Neville's voice came out of the Forest, quickly followed by Neville himself. "Were are you going?"
"To Hogsmeade to check out all the secret passages."
The gentle Earth Elemental smiled. "I'll accompany you then, I need to deliver some plants to Severus. You wouldn't happen to know where he is? All I know is that he is with the Aurors and the Phoenix Agents."
Nicholas pointed. "There they are, he's trying to toughen them up so that they don't jump at their own shadows. The Shrieking Shack has been transformed into something like a 'Haunted House' thing the muggles have in amusement parks and so on. You know, the place they go to get scared just for the fun of it."
"Yes, yes, I know of those. Harry dragged me to one once." Neville shuddered. "I could barely control myself and hex everything in my way."
"So how did you get through?"
"I had my eyes closed and my hands on Harry's shoulders. He led me through. We went in groups see, and everyone had to put their hands on the person in front of them – on their shoulders that is. Harry was first." Neville shook his head. "The man didn't even blink."
"That sounds like Harry alright!" Nicholas smirked. "Hello Severus."
The Potion Master literally snarled at Nicholas.
"Anything wrong?" Neville asked. "Where are your students?"
"Locked them all up in the Shack."
Nicholas blinked. "Why?"
"They didn't want to enter."
"Knowing you and probably what you did to the house, I wouldn't want to enter of my own free will either." At that moment they heard a high pitched shriek from the Shack, and Nicholas winced. "That proves my point."
The Earth Elemental sighed. "Severus, you know these people are scared of spiders. Go easy on them, will you?"
"Once they get out." Severus replied.
"Better said if they get out."
"If they don't get out, I'm going in and giving them something to really be frightened of."
"I was afraid of that. Well, I got to go and check out the secret passages." Nicholas nodded to them both and moved towards Hogsmeade and Honeydukes. He had just opened the door when something crashed right into him, sending them both to the ground. "What the bloody hell?!"
A young witch hurriedly stood up and brushed herself off. "Oh, I am so sorry!" she helped him up. "I didn't watch where I was going. So sorry!"
"Hey, calm down, nothing to it." Nicholas replied and watched as she bent down to pick up her purchases. He quickly got down to help her. She wasn't heartbreakingly beautiful, but there was something about her that he liked very well. "I'm Nicholas Wolf."
"I know," she smiled at him and her brown eyes danced merrily. "I mean, who doesn't?"
He smiled as well. "You might know me, but I don't know you milady."
She laughed at that. "Oh, I am no lady, but my name is Isabelle Curtis."
Nicholas bowed to her and she laughed again. He offered his arm to her and she giggled but took it. Together they walked through Hogsmeade, Nicholas having completely forgotten the reason he was there in the first place. All he wanted to do was be with Isabelle Curtis.
-------------------------
Eminor and Cassar were once again standing at the edge of the forest looking down on the elven capital.
"That was a complete waist of time," Cassar said. "Nothing has been changed as far as the government is concerned."
"Oh, it isn't so bad old friend," Eminor replied with a smile. "At least we got to know that the current leader of the elves is a queen by the name of Terra."
The other elf nodded. "True, so how do we get in. I bet all the gates are guarded even better than they were in our days as there are so many species coming and going all the time."
"Mhmm, that's true, but there are some secret passages that only I know about." Eminor replied and started to walk. However, he still kept at the edge of the forest.
"We're not going into the city?"
"Nope."
"And what about these secret passages you mentioned?"
Eminor smiled. "Just a few things I added after getting to know Harry better. I meant to tell my children about them, but as I never had any..." he shrugged.
Cassar shook his head. "And whose fault is it that you had no children, Your Majesty? You broke one of the rules of the elves when you refused to marry young Miss Brigitte all those years ago."
"She had freckles," Eminor protested.
"Might I be so bold as to point out that you yourself have some freckles?" Cassar said dryly.
"Here we are. The secret passage into the castle." Eminor mentioned to an old weeping willow.
The other elf rolled his eyes at the change in subject, but followed his king to the tree's trunk. The tree's leafs hid them all around from prying eyes. Eminor put his hand on the trunk and whispered something quietly so that not even Cassar could hear him. A small door opened in the trunk of the tree and the two elves quickly entered the steep corridor revealed beyond. The door closed after them and not a trace of it could be found from the outside.
The old willow tree proudly hid its secret as it had done for 6000 years, and as it would continue to do for the rest of its life.
-------------------------
That's that. What do you think?
Thanks to:
OnceUponADecember31, Chicken Stars, athenakitty, Arizosa, MusicStarLover, WolfMoon, gaul1, KaLeigh1, Akvar, Kevin-McKay, Jess16, HarryPotter21, Andine, vyul, misty43, Haunting Darkness, Nasser Himura, persona non grata, howling wolf1, insanechildfanfic, Mr. Happy Java Man, The Lady Reaper of the Shadows, SSSRoaB, ColdFlameX, Rhinemjr, Alicia, Kitch and potterfanxp123.
Authors note: Enjoy!
-Chapter Eleven-
"Please don't go mummy!" Anna clung onto Blaise's leg.
Blaise had tears running down her face as she leaned down and looked her daughter in the eyes. "I have to honey," she said.
"Will you come back?" the little girl asked and sniffed.
"Perhaps I will," she shot a quick look at Harry before turning back to her child, "But I will always love you, remember that alright?" The girl nodded and sniffed again.
Mr and Mrs Zabini stood in the corridor as well. Mrs Zabini had tears running down her face and Mr Zabini was holding on to her.
"Take care of yourself, Blaise," Mrs Zabini said and wiped some tears away. "You too Harry, take care of you both."
Harry nodded and smiled. "You will see each other again, I guarantee that."
Blaise lit up. "Y-you mean that? I will see them again."
"Of course you will, I never said that this would be a permanent arrangement." Harry's eyes twinkled happily at the joy that he saw when Blaise hugged her mother, father and child.
"Hear that honey? We will see each other again!" Blaise hugged her girl tightly. "Take care will you?"
"I promise mommy." Anna hugged her mother back as hard as she could. Then she glared at Harry. "You better watch out for mommy, or I'll..."
Harry smiled again and beckoned the girl towards him. "I will take care of her, and here's a thing for you." He said quietly and gave her a hand- mirror. "This isn't an ordinary mirror, you see. Whenever you want to speak to your mommy all you have to do is open it and say her name-"
"Which of them?" Anna asked just as quietly. Her eyes were glowing with excitement now.
"Blaise Zabini," Harry replied. "I will give the other one to her once we get to our destination, and first thing she'll do is call you."
Blaise, Mr and Mrs Zabini hadn't heard a word of the conversation, but they had seen that Harry gave Anna something and that the little girl lit up like a Christmas tree. Then she threw herself at Harry and hugged him tightly, but when they asked what had been going between them, both refused to say anything and shared a wink.
Blaise shook her head with a smile. "Whatever you did Harry, I thank you for it," she said as she watched Anna clutch something to her chest.
The green-eyed man just smiled to her and held the door open. "Ladies first."
She glared at him. It appeared as though his ability to avoid things hadn't been hurt by the 6000 years of sleep. "I really hate it when you do that." She said as she stepped out on the pavement. Then she turned back again. "Take care of her," she said to her parents. "And yourself."
"Don't worry honey," Mrs Zabini replied and sniffed. "We won't let Bob get her or the house. You take care of yourself now."
Blaise sniffed as well then hugged her family one last time, before she straightened up and tried to call up her Slayer-mask of toughness. "Right," she said to Harry. "Lets go. We still need to visit the Slayer University and copy as many books as possible. If what you say is true, that the school doesn't exist in the future, then we'll need every kind of help we can get."
Harry nodded, winked one last time to Anna and led Blaise down the street, into a back alley, and from there they Apparated to Amsterdam.
-------------------------
****Year 8002****
Nicholas put the last book on the shelf and looked around at his work. He had spent most of his time since they woke up from the Sleep categorizing and adding the newest books to the Hogwarts library. Not that there was much to be done in that department, but still it had taken two weeks to finish.
He sighed and smiled. At least he couldn't complain about his life being boring.
"Hey, Nick!" Draco came striding into the library.
"Yes?" both Nicholas and Nearly Headless Nick the Ghost said at the same time.
"Which one of us do you want?" Nicholas continued.
"The live one." The blond Slytherin replied.
Nearly Headless Nick scoffed. "Just because you're dead they think you're worthless."
Nicholas looked closely at the ghost. "Your application for the Headless Hunt was denied again, wasn't it?"
"As a matter of fact," the ghost began angrily, "it was." He finished pathetically.
"There, there," Nicholas tried to comfort the Gryffindor House ghost. "Why don't you start your own club? Like Nearly-Headless Hunt or something?"
Nearly Headless Nick blinked. "Hmm, that might be something..." he flew off muttering.
Draco watched the ghost go and shook his head. "That guy gets more and more mental for every day that passes. Now, I have a job for you!" he poked Nicholas in the chest. "I want you to go to Hogsmeade and check out if all the secret passages to and fro from the school still are there. If they are, fix them up a bit and put wards so that we know when someone or something enters. If they aren't create new ones. Got it?"
"Yep!" Nicholas replied with a grin. "This ought to be fun."
"How's that? I just gave you one of the more boring jobs."
"Severus and the Fatsy Squadron are by the Shrieking Shack." Nicholas grinned even more and Draco grinned right along.
"Now I wish I had taken this job!" the blond man complained before sending Nicholas off.
Nicholas laughed and walked outside. He waved to Shadow who was having a jolly good time being admired by the current Care of Magical Creatures class. The griffin waved back with his tail, his eyes twinkling merrily. The people in the class turned to see what the griffin was looking at, and Ron – who was the current teacher – barked an order. The Hogsmeade-people jumped and quickly turned around again pretending not to have done anything.
He reached the gates and slipped outside. Taking a deep breath Nicholas continued towards Hogsmeade with the Forbidden Forest to his right. He liked to take these walks. They were calming and he could let his thoughts fly wherever they wanted. It was wonderful not having to worry about wars, fights, the Order, or anything else. Just like Harry was home in the air, Nicholas was home on the ground.
"Nicholas!" Neville's voice came out of the Forest, quickly followed by Neville himself. "Were are you going?"
"To Hogsmeade to check out all the secret passages."
The gentle Earth Elemental smiled. "I'll accompany you then, I need to deliver some plants to Severus. You wouldn't happen to know where he is? All I know is that he is with the Aurors and the Phoenix Agents."
Nicholas pointed. "There they are, he's trying to toughen them up so that they don't jump at their own shadows. The Shrieking Shack has been transformed into something like a 'Haunted House' thing the muggles have in amusement parks and so on. You know, the place they go to get scared just for the fun of it."
"Yes, yes, I know of those. Harry dragged me to one once." Neville shuddered. "I could barely control myself and hex everything in my way."
"So how did you get through?"
"I had my eyes closed and my hands on Harry's shoulders. He led me through. We went in groups see, and everyone had to put their hands on the person in front of them – on their shoulders that is. Harry was first." Neville shook his head. "The man didn't even blink."
"That sounds like Harry alright!" Nicholas smirked. "Hello Severus."
The Potion Master literally snarled at Nicholas.
"Anything wrong?" Neville asked. "Where are your students?"
"Locked them all up in the Shack."
Nicholas blinked. "Why?"
"They didn't want to enter."
"Knowing you and probably what you did to the house, I wouldn't want to enter of my own free will either." At that moment they heard a high pitched shriek from the Shack, and Nicholas winced. "That proves my point."
The Earth Elemental sighed. "Severus, you know these people are scared of spiders. Go easy on them, will you?"
"Once they get out." Severus replied.
"Better said if they get out."
"If they don't get out, I'm going in and giving them something to really be frightened of."
"I was afraid of that. Well, I got to go and check out the secret passages." Nicholas nodded to them both and moved towards Hogsmeade and Honeydukes. He had just opened the door when something crashed right into him, sending them both to the ground. "What the bloody hell?!"
A young witch hurriedly stood up and brushed herself off. "Oh, I am so sorry!" she helped him up. "I didn't watch where I was going. So sorry!"
"Hey, calm down, nothing to it." Nicholas replied and watched as she bent down to pick up her purchases. He quickly got down to help her. She wasn't heartbreakingly beautiful, but there was something about her that he liked very well. "I'm Nicholas Wolf."
"I know," she smiled at him and her brown eyes danced merrily. "I mean, who doesn't?"
He smiled as well. "You might know me, but I don't know you milady."
She laughed at that. "Oh, I am no lady, but my name is Isabelle Curtis."
Nicholas bowed to her and she laughed again. He offered his arm to her and she giggled but took it. Together they walked through Hogsmeade, Nicholas having completely forgotten the reason he was there in the first place. All he wanted to do was be with Isabelle Curtis.
-------------------------
Eminor and Cassar were once again standing at the edge of the forest looking down on the elven capital.
"That was a complete waist of time," Cassar said. "Nothing has been changed as far as the government is concerned."
"Oh, it isn't so bad old friend," Eminor replied with a smile. "At least we got to know that the current leader of the elves is a queen by the name of Terra."
The other elf nodded. "True, so how do we get in. I bet all the gates are guarded even better than they were in our days as there are so many species coming and going all the time."
"Mhmm, that's true, but there are some secret passages that only I know about." Eminor replied and started to walk. However, he still kept at the edge of the forest.
"We're not going into the city?"
"Nope."
"And what about these secret passages you mentioned?"
Eminor smiled. "Just a few things I added after getting to know Harry better. I meant to tell my children about them, but as I never had any..." he shrugged.
Cassar shook his head. "And whose fault is it that you had no children, Your Majesty? You broke one of the rules of the elves when you refused to marry young Miss Brigitte all those years ago."
"She had freckles," Eminor protested.
"Might I be so bold as to point out that you yourself have some freckles?" Cassar said dryly.
"Here we are. The secret passage into the castle." Eminor mentioned to an old weeping willow.
The other elf rolled his eyes at the change in subject, but followed his king to the tree's trunk. The tree's leafs hid them all around from prying eyes. Eminor put his hand on the trunk and whispered something quietly so that not even Cassar could hear him. A small door opened in the trunk of the tree and the two elves quickly entered the steep corridor revealed beyond. The door closed after them and not a trace of it could be found from the outside.
The old willow tree proudly hid its secret as it had done for 6000 years, and as it would continue to do for the rest of its life.
-------------------------
That's that. What do you think?
Thanks to:
OnceUponADecember31, Chicken Stars, athenakitty, Arizosa, MusicStarLover, WolfMoon, gaul1, KaLeigh1, Akvar, Kevin-McKay, Jess16, HarryPotter21, Andine, vyul, misty43, Haunting Darkness, Nasser Himura, persona non grata, howling wolf1, insanechildfanfic, Mr. Happy Java Man, The Lady Reaper of the Shadows, SSSRoaB, ColdFlameX, Rhinemjr, Alicia, Kitch and potterfanxp123.
