It was then that his brain switched tracks, from focusing solely on Beorn to what was going on around him. He looked at Narcissa, his eyes widening, before turning to his trunk. Leaning against its outside were Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape, inside it he could see a sea of faces. Two stood out.

"Mione? Remus?" He gasped and fell on his backside.

"Oh, so very elegant, Potter." Snape shook his head.

"You should know better than that, Severus. Potter's never do elegant, not on the ground, anyway. A broom in the air is a different barrel of puffskeins." Remus chided the potions' master, a faint smirk on his face.

Harry however just sat there, not sure what to think. He'd been here for two weeks. 'Was two weeks long enough to lose your mind?' He wondered. All he could do was look at them and blink. Were they even real?

"Oh, honestly, Harry, get up off the ground, it's wet and you're covered in… what exactly are you covered in?" Hermione demanded.

"Orc blood." Harry replied, automatically doing as she said. He climbed to his feet, looked down at himself and grimaced. "Urgh… Gross…"

"Why don't you shower, Mr Potter? I shall stay with your friend." Narcissa Malfoy offered. "I doubt that he'll wake inside the next six hours, but I may be wrong. He is considerably larger than these potions are designed for."

"Come on, Harry, this way." Hermione beckoned and he followed blindly. She led him into the trunk and then off to the right, through a large bedroom and into a luxurious bathroom. "You shower and I'll get some clothes out for you." She pushed him in the direction of the shower.

Half an hour later, he stumbled from the bathroom, wrapped in a thick and fluffy towel, to be greeted by Dean and Seamus sitting on the huge bed.

"Hey, Harry, come on, get dressed. We've got a lot to go over." Dean stood up and dragged Seamus with him. "Chop, chop, mate."

Once dressed, Harry left the bedroom, only to be tackled by Hermione.

"Oh, Harry, it's so good to see you!" She beamed at him.

"Yeah, same here. Only… How the bloody hell did you get here?" Harry asked, after spitting out a mouthful of her hair.

"Oh… um… I…" Hermione didn't know what to say.

"She stuffed us in your trunk, Potter. How do you think we got here?" Draco drawled.

"Malfoy?" Harry blinked a few times.

"Yes, Potter. The big space that she never showed you? Big enough to fly in? It's two hundred and fifty acres. Plenty big enough for each of us to have our own cottage. And still only see the others when we want to." Malfoy explained.

"Malfoy?" The tone of Harry's voice changed, it was clear he was asking a different question, a slightly threatening question, but those watching weren't sure what the question was.

"I said I would, Potter, and I meant it." He was remembering a letter that McGonagall had slipped him, in it, Potter had begged him look after Hermione and had threatened to sic Luna and McGonagall on him, if he mistreated her.

"Okay then. So…? Who's here?" Harry asked and everyone turned to look at Hermione.

She huffed and shook her head but began to answer. "When I left you at the Ministry, that first night, I went back to Hogsmeade and Aberforth Dumbledore told me that Kingsley wanted to see me right away. There'd been survivors, but the Ministry's position meant that they would either be executed or have their cores bound and their memories wiped. Kingsley suggested that…" for the next hour Hermione told Harry what she and the others had been doing. And who had followed him.

Harry spent a few minutes clutching at this person or at that one, the twins a shock to his heart, but a good shock. He cried at the loss of Tonks, sad that little Teddy would grow up without his mother. Remus told Harry, that while he'd loved her, he hadn't been in love with her, that was what he'd tried to explain to Harry when he found them at Grimmauld Place. Marrying her had been a mistake, yes, but that over the length of her pregnancy they're come to an understanding. Neither of them regretted marrying, but they both considered it more of an arrangement than a love affair. But Remus would never regret it, it had given him Teddy.

"How many know? Outside you lot here, how many know?" Harry asked.

"Outside of us?" Hermione tilted her head. "Croaker, Kingsley, Flitwick, Pomfrey and Ron."

"Ron? You told Ron?" Harry squawked. "But you couldn't tell me?"

"I didn't tell Ron, he figured it out for himself." Hermione huffed. "That was why he was staying away. He said… he said he needed to learn how to accept the blame for his own actions and not to try and blame someone else, and that if he'd come with us, he knew that sooner or later, something would happen that he wouldn't be able to cope with and he'd try an blame you. He felt it was better for both you and he if he didn't get involved. He's been seeing a mind healer, but…? This is Ron we're talking about."

"That's going to take him ages…" Harry winced.

"It is." She agreed. "Now enough about us, you can talk to us individually anytime and get more information. Tell us about you and what happened here."

"Well… the veil spat me in the air, not high, just a few feet, but I managed to tuck and roll and not get hurt, which is good. Then Beorn turned up and-"

"Beorn?" Dennis and Colin both spoke at the same time.

"Uh… yeah. Beorn."

"Um… can he really change into a bear?" Natalie ask after raising a hand.

"Yes, he ca- How did you know?" Harry started to answer and cut himself off mid-word.

"Beorn the skin-changer is a character out of JRR Tolkien's Lord of The Rings series, Potter." Snape was the one to answer, the wizarding raised looked confused and the muggle raised looked simply stunned.

"Character? Hemione?" Harry frowned.

"Tolkien wrote a number of books, Harry. Fiction books, extremely popular fiction books." Hermione obediently answered. "The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series, being the most popular."

"Okay, so… how does that affect us?"

"It depends on when we are, do you know the current date?"

"Nope."

"Tempus et locus," Hermione told him, "is the charm, Harry."

Harry flicked his wand from its holster, into his hand. "Tempus et locus." He said clearly.

4.27pm.

3 July 2941.

Beorn's Hall,

Beornings,

Middle-Earth,

Arda.

49°27'59" N, 7°57'15" E.

"Okay, we have a problem." Hermione said after studying the floating letters and numbers.

"Why?"

"2941 is the year The Hobbit was set in." Hermione screwed up her face as she answered.

"And?" Harry demanded.

"Muggle raised? Hands up who's read The Hobbit?" Hermione asked. Colin, Dennis, Natalie, Dean and Justin responded by raising a hand. "Did any of you bring a copy with you?" All five nodded. "Excellent, with the copies I brought, we have eight. I'll give you a broad outline, but if Lady Magic brought us here, I can't see any reason why we have to let things go as they do in the books. We can-"

"Mr Potter? Your friend? He's waking." Narcissa called and Harry abandoned the conversation to dart back out of the trunk to Beorn's side.

Back in the trunk, Draco sidled up to Hermione. "Why can't you do a training memory of this book?"

Hermione looked at Draco and her head tilted in thought. "I probably could… but… if I did… or what about… hmm… Let me think on that for a bit, Draco, I'd have to get it just right…"

"What about doing it like one of our weekly briefing sessions?" Dean asked.

"Ooh, that might…" Hermione kept muttering as she walked into Harry's library and began scribbling away on in a notebook.

Outside, Harry knelt beside his friend.

"Beorn? Beorn? Wake up, please, wake up." Harry begged.

"Hmm? I am awake, little cat." Beorn rumbled and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked at Harry before glancing over Harry's shoulder. "Who are they and where did they come from, Harry?" His voice was tired and weak.

"They were in my trunk apparently. They're my friends from Hogwarts." Harry answered.

"They are Hogwarts?" Beorn asked.

"Yes. Well… A good chunk of it, anyway."

"Help me sit up?" Beorn's manners were very much the same as Hagrid's and his heart was just as large. Harry had been around Beorn enough to know that magic was not the answer to moving the man, right now.

"Bill? Charlie?" Harry called the redheads. "Give me a hand? Snape, Remus? A chair suitable, please?" A few exchanged glances, a muttered spell and some Weasley heft… and Beorn was seated in a semi-reclined deck chair.

"I like this chair." He nodded and ran his hand along an armrest before looking up at Harry. "Will you introduce your friends?"

"Of course, I will. Mione? Mione?" Harry called and Draco emerged with a still engrossed Hermione. "Hermione's writing, goodness knows what, but you'll always find her with a book or a quill in her hands, she's been my best friend for years. Draco's the blonde leading her. Behind them are… Guys wave when I call your names?" Most of them nodded. "Thank, guys. Behind Hermione and Draco are Dean… Seamus… Colin… Dennis… Oliver… and Natalie. Move over guys and let some of the others through. Thanks." He added when they all shuffled to the left. "Next we have… Luna… Neville… and… ooh, Neville your parents? Sorry Beorn, Neville's parents were badly hurt a few days after my parents were killed. Um… Alice and Frank, right?" Frank nodded and smiled. "Good, good. Then there's Angelina… Katie… Alicia… Fleur and Parvati. Shove along? Ta… Padma is Parvati's twin, Lavender… Euan… the red twins are Fred and George, don't bother trying to tell them apart, only a few of us can. Lee… Justin… Mr Ollivander… Headley… Move along, guys. Thanks. Bill and Charlie are the other two redheads… the ladies are Professor McGonagall and Mrs Malfoy, the man in black is Severus Snape, my potions master and the man with the baby is Remus Lupin and the baby is his son Teddy. Remus was my father's friend and Snape was my mother's." Harry beamed as Remus handed him Teddy and the little boy just smiled and blew bubbles at him. "Remus asked me to be Teddy's godfather." Seeing that Beorn didn't understand the significance, Harry added, "if something happened to Remus, it would fall to me or Hermione, who is Teddy's godmother, to take him in and raise him."

"Ah." Beorn nodded before frowning. "I do not have enough beds for all these people. I don't think I even have enough floor space for them."

"We came prepared. We have our own houses that we can shrink and put almost anywhere." Hermione offered. "Or we can stay in the Nest, just remove the pocket-space frame from Harry's trunk and put it somewhere."

"We don't need level ground, just space." Bill added.

"I do not have much space within my hedges." Beorn warned.

"That's not a problem." Bill said. "All we need is space, everything else we can provide, most of it is already in Harry's trunk, just waiting for him to open the bloody thing." The last little bit was directed at Harry in a mock snarl. Harry just laughed and waved at Bill.

"How much space?" Beorn asked, curious. "And how will you protect your houses?"

"We can put up wards to keep out any, that mean ill to those that live in them." Bill answered. "There's more to it than that, but I'd be happy to explain as we put them in place."

"I will listen. There is a valley, it is clear of tress, but has many rocks." Beorn gestured off to the south-east. "There is a stream over that way, leading down to it is a field that I have not bothered to clear of rocks. If that is suitable, you may use that."

Harry smiled to himself, not once had time been raised. Poor Beorn, Hogwarts was moving in.

Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, Harry reconnected with his friends. He got to know Draco, away from the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry, away from Lucius Malfoy's pureblood-mania, and he found that he quite liked the man. Seeing Professor McGonagall had had upset him, not that he didn't want her there, but that she'd felt the need to leave Hogwarts, only for her to tell him that they were as much a part of Hogwarts as Hogwarts was of them.

And she still had witches and wizards to teach. Remus, Snape, McGonagall, Bill, Charlie, Frank and Alice were their teachers and other than Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Fleur, Fred, George and Lee, the rest of them were still in school and McGonagall had been appointed as headmistress. Classes were the usual stable of Charms, DADA, Herbology, Potions, CoMC, Runes, Arithmancy and Transfiguration. History of magic was shelved as a standalone subject and combined with magical theory, into something that was more a discussion group than a structured class and as such, had pretty much anyone that felt like it, teaching. Charms, with Remus as teacher. DADA was, of course, Frank, as he'd been the Auror. Alice moved a glasshouse from the Nest and was using it as herbology space. Potions was Snape's domain, and no-one wanted to challenge that. Bill covered runes and arithmancy and Charlie was rapt to have hippogriffs for his CoMC classes. And transfiguration was always going to be McGonagall's class.

There was no schedule, as such. A class ran for an hour and everyone attended, regardless of what year they'd been in. The teachers kept track of who was learning what and who needed help where. It flowed surprisingly well. Harry was amazed to find that he was actually learning, not just getting by. It was a pleasant surprise.

Even Beorn would wander into the pavilion, which is where all but CoMC and potions classes were held, and listen quietly, much of it was beyond his understanding, but that didn't stop him from listening in. Ollivander gave them lectures in wandlore and wandsmithing, and taught Harry how to use his staff as a weapon, with Snape his sparring partner.

No-one, other than Bill, was too concerned about the 'no meat' condition of their stay, but after a quiet talk with Harry, Beorn was happy to amend that to be, no hunting in his lands. Go outside them and that was fine, but his lands were off limits.

The day after all the houses were moved from the Nest to the Hogwarts valley, as it had become known, Narcissa broached the subject of the werewolves. She'd talked to Severus… and Harry was still trying to get his head around calling the man, Severus… about the possibility of using the de-aging potion to counter the curse/disease, and he'd said that for the those bitten during the battle, it would definitely work if used in conjunction with a setting agent once the de-aging was complete. Remus was another matter, he'd been bitten as a child and while the potion would revert him in age, he had only been four years old when Greyback had attacked. Unless he wanted to grow up all over again, Severus would have to create an aging potion to go with the rest of the treatment.

Ten days, it took, just ten days and Severus Snape had eradicated lycanthropy and the fear that came with it. Yes, it was a stressful twenty-four hours, poor Teddy didn't understand why his daddy was gone, only that he wanted him back, but the potions couldn't be rushed. Six hours it took to de-age Remus back to the age he'd been when Greyback infected him. Then he had to stay like that for another six hours while the setting agent saturated his system, followed by a purging potion and another six hours to clear any remnants of either of the first two potions from his blood.

Then, and only then could he take the aging potion. But he'd thought about it, long and hard over the past week and a bit, how being the father to a lunar sensitive child was no easy task and at thirty-eight, he felt that cutting ten or twelve years from his age was going to make life a heck of a lot easier when it came to his raising his son.

Bill also took the chance to remove the taint of Greyback from his face, revealing a face that was handsome enough to make even his wife gasp. Fred joined Natalie, Katie, Colin and Parvati in de-aging the few weeks needed to take them back to the ages they were, during the week that led up to the battle at Hogwarts. But of course, Fred wouldn't do it without George, they'd been two minutes apart in age for their entire lives and that wasn't going to change, now. Nor would Parvati and Padma be separated, not by the likes of Greyback.

Yes, it had been a stressful twenty-four hours. But that was over, and things were beginning to settle again. Classes were underway and the younger students were having a grand time actually being able to relax into their classes, no longer did they have to worry about perfect marks or avoiding Death-Eaters, now all they had to deal with were the Professors that actually worked with them.

So far, not one person regretted the choices they'd made. Not one regretted leaving the wizarding world, even if all they did was stay in this little valley.

Seventeen days after Beorn have been injured and Hogwarts had invaded his lands, Bill warned them that someone had crossed the wards. Not just one person, but many, and in two different locations.

"It's time, to change a few things." Harry grinned. Hermione had given each of them a training memory, or a briefing memory more like, with a summary of Tolkien's stories. Enough that they knew what would happen if they didn't step in. "Riders up!" All they were doing today was surveillance, they needed to know more about what they were up against and to give each person the chance to concentrate solely on observing, Harry had attempted to form a mental connection with Buckbeak and explain to him what they would need. Surprisingly it worked and Hermione, Draco, Bill, Charlie, Remus, Severus, Oliver, Fred and George were mounted on some of the hippogriff mares, while Buckbeak carried Harry.

They were taking to the air in three waves, two observers and two protectors. Harry guarding Hermione and Oliver guarding Bill in the first wave, Bill would stay for the second wave and would guard Remus, while Draco watched over Charlie. And Harry would join the third wave, in which, Fred would guard Harry and George would guard Severus. The watchers were chosen for their observational skills, Hermione had the ability to focus so intently that it was like a version of tunnel vision, as a curse-breaker Bill was accustomed to carefully observing his environment, Remus had studied dark creatures and would know what to look for, likewise Charlie was used to dealing with dragons and watching for the tell-tale signs of explosions, Harry was a seeker and could pick up the smallest of details, while Severus had lived as a double agent for decades and was able to read a person's body language in minute detail.

It was hoped that this would give them the best analysis of what they were facing. Harry left the third wave and joined with Katie, Angelina and Alicia, who were on brooms and following the those on the second path. According to Hermione, that was most likely to be the hobbit and the dwarves. And as usual, she was right.

But instead of it being one hobbit, one wizard and thirteen dwarves… it was one hobbit, thirteen dwarves and two wizards.

Katie swung about and lined up with Harry, a few feet above him. "Harry, we've got a problem, Beorn's spotted them and said they were headed in slightly the wrong direction, if they kept going the way they were, they were going to miss his place, altogether. He's going to chase then onto the right path. But…"

"But…?"

"Angie says that there's a wizard from our world with them."

"Let's go and check them out." Harry sighed. "We don't need someone blundering in and ruining Hermione and Severus' plans."

"Cool. This way." Katie banked to the left and Buckbeak followed her.

As they crossed the last creek, Harry realised who the second wizard was and had to bite his hand to stop from swearing. Buckbeak however, had no such qualms, he screamed his anger at the wizard for abandoning him and swooped low, one carefully closed clawed foot whacking the wizard on the back of the shoulders and knocking from his feet. The wizard fell forward into a somersault and rolled back to their feet and kept going, while Harry managed to get Buckbeak to break off and head for the Hogwarts valley.

They landed and once the hippogriff came to a halt, Harry slid down a sweaty shoulder.

"I'll see to him, Harry." Charlie called and bowed to Buckbeak. The stallion was tired enough to bow back and just walk straight up to the redhead. "You go brief the others."

Harry stomped into the pavilion and took a seat on the speaker's platform and within a minute or two, everyone had gathered to discuss the situation.

"Hermione? Can you take a briefing memory from all the watchers, please? Then… we have another issue. We have the numbers wrong. The grey wizard isn't their only wizard."

"What?!" Hermione squawked. "That's not in the story. He's-"

"Sirius is with them." That was answered by complete and utter silence.

"Sirius?" Remus whispered.

"Black?" Severus grimaced.

Harry laughed. "If it makes you feel any better, Buckbeak walloped him on the back and knocked him ass over tea-kettle."

Severus snorted and Remus huffed.

"He deserved it." Remus smirked. "He kept Buckbeak locked up in Grimmauld Place."

"Ooh, that wouldn't have gone down well." Charlie winced.

"Oh, it was fine while Sirius was around, Beaky liked him and from what Hermione tells me of Hagrid's comments, Beaky wasn't all that attached to the mares that Hagrid had at the time."

"Yes, they were too closely related." Hermione explained.

"Ah, that's different, I had wondered why he was so comfortable here." Charlie nodded.

"I'm going to assume that, Harry, you are going to stay in Beorn's house, tonight?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, I'll go as Longfang and stay up in the rafters." Harry nodded.

"Take Buckbeak with you, Harry. He deserves to see Siri." Remus said.

"Will do." Harry waved and headed back to where Charlie was tending the hippogriffs. "Hey, Beaky? Wanna come and scare Padfoot?" He asked the stallion.

Harry wasn't really certain that Buckbeak actually understood what he was saying, but the stallion understood that he was asking something and wanted Beaky to go with him. Beaky nodded his head and attempted to preen Harry's hair, but as usual that only resulted in Harry's hair looking as messy as ever.

The two made their way up to Beorn's house and greeted the skin-changer as he went about his evening chores.

"Hey, Beorn. Got a houseful, huh?"

"Dwarves." The big man grimaced.

"Better dwarves than orcs." Harry said.

"I wouldn't let orcs near my house, and neither would you." Beorn huffed.

"Buckbeak and I are going to go in and watch them. Beaky will stay with the cattle and I'll roost in the rafters." Harry patted the grumpy man's arm. "You go and get some rest in the little house." The little house was what everyone had taken to calling the house the Beorn had built for Harry, even though Harry had moved down to Hogwarts valley to stay with Remus and Teddy.

"Thank you, my friend, I would rest much easier knowing that you are watching over my animals." Beorn gave him a small smile.

Harry just smiled and bent down, shifting into Longfang as he went. Then he and Buckbeak rounded the edge of the house to a second entrance. Harry shifted back to human form long enough to open the door and hear the snoring, then he was back to Longfang, to lead Buckbeak through the house and into the barn area. The stallion snorted softly at the noise, but carefully edged his way through the prone bodies until he stood beside Sirius, who as Padfoot was a whole lot bigger than Harry recalled. Harry assumed that was the difference in magic, here as opposed to magic on earth.

Harry spent the night perched in the rafters, just gazing at his sleeping godfather, he owed the idiot a swat, just like Buckbeak, the reckless prat had left him behind.

Morning came and one by one, the dwarves rose and headed for the kitchen area. They may have eyed off the food, but none of them touched a thing. When the hobbit, Bilbo, Hermione said was his name, joined the others, Buckbeak, nudged at Padfoot's tail.

Padfoot opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, then… he yelped and leapt to his paws, his hackles raised and his teeth bared, only to stop and tilt his head. He shifted back into Sirius and gaped at the sight in front of him.

"Buckbeak?" He gasped.