The Time Travel Crew

Chapter 19: A lot of excitement for Filius and Neville

Friday arrived and Filius was as ready as ever - a few dark spells and a cursed ring were nothing when faced by three of the five best teachers of Hogwarts.

Breakfast on the first day was an amusing affair for four of those professors, for Filius, Pomona, Minerva and Severus couldn't help but watch young, slightly bossy, Hermione Granger talk non-stop to Harry.

When Harry seemed to be close to breakdown (being so close to such a close friend and yet not being able to tell her so was torture, Filius assumed), Filius noticed Draco get off his seat and walk up to Harry. He greeted Harry and then said something - probably rude - to Hermione who stalked off with her nose in the air. This earned Draco a reproachful frown from Harry, but the former simply shrugged and said something to which Harry shook his head in resignation.

Draco sat besides Harry as though it was a routine he had been following throughout his life. The Gryffindors sent Draco dark looks but Draco simply ignored them. Filius came to the conclusion that the brave at hearts were a bunch of hypocrites, for now the house table policy was all but abolished. A month into the school and students would sit wherever they wished.

Ron Weasley, who sat opposite Harry, decided to take things a little further and put his displeasure on Draco's presence at the Gryffindor table rather vocally. Harry in turn, much to the surprise of Filius said something biting to Ron whose face turned a brilliant shade of red.

The next day however, Harry got Hermione and Ron to become friends and all was fine.

The friendship between Neville and Justin too was accepted by one and all.

The friendship between Draco and Harry, however, made the first scandal among the students of Hogwarts for the year - Harry being who he was and Draco the son of a suspected Death Eater. Many times, in a matter of a few days, they had been warned by the older members of their houses about the dangers of being friends with each other, but did they listen? No.

Just the previous day, Filius had the opportunity of eavesdropping on Percy Wealsey who was trying to knock some sense into Harry.

"Don't you realize the name of our house is at stake, Potter?" he said. "Why do you have to be so selfish? There are many other boys in your own year of your own house willing to befriend you. Take Ron Weasley for example."

"I thought this school has something called House United for a reason, Prefect."

"That's -"

"And I'm not being selfish... Your being mean!" Harry said angrily. "Why can't I make friends with the people I want to be friends with? I make friends with those who will not use me because of my fame!"

"I know that, Potter!" Percy Weasley said equally as angrily. "And five points for talking to a Perfect like that! I'm sure my brother will not use you as you seem to think some people would."

"Your brother has friends of his own, Weasley. Granger is more than enough for him. Oh yeah, and I'm not worried about him using me... It's you! Your ambitious, pompous, egoistic nature will land you in serious trouble, mark my words."

"How dare you!" Percy roared, but Harry stormed out of the room and left Filius who was outside the door to give the pompous redhead something to think about.

Life had been hectic for the crew, for keeping Dumbledore oblivious and placing those spying charms on their two most favourite Death Eaters and taking turns in spending odd hours watching over them, while they went about their daily routine, was ridiculously tiring. Over that, they had homework to go do or in the professors' case, mark.

Severus had given them the news that Lily had already received four letters of complaints from some of the Hogwarts students who weren't in favour of Harry befriending Draco and according to the Potions Master, Lily simply laughed and fed the letters to her blazing fireplace.

Speaking of Severus, Quirrel had begun taking an interest to him, for the two of them could be seen having a chat quite often in the corridors. What they said could never be heard but the students came up with various conclusions, some ideas were atrocious enough to make Severus blush.

Now, the said turbaned clown entered the Great Hall for breakfast and immediately, Pomona pulled out a seat next to her and called Quirrel forward. The man could do nothing but obey.

"Oh Quirinus, good morning!" Pomona said cheerfully.

"G-g-good morning, P-Pomona."

"I hope your ready today for some serious mushroom collecting!"

"Of c-c-course." Quirrel stuttered as his quivering hands pulled towards him a bowl of porridge.

"That's great!" Pomona said with great enthusiasm. "Please meet me in the entrance Hall at eight o'clock tonight!"

Filius had to bite down a snigger as he thought of all the traps he'd set up in the the forest with Severus - safe enough to leave them unharmed but annoying enough to delay them quite a bit and dangerous enough to, if possible, frighten the daylights out of Quirrel.

The day went on without any problem which was a common occurrence ever since the House United became a part of the students lives at Hogwarts...and it was a mystery why Harry's and Draco's friendship wasn't approved by them. It wasn't any of their business as it was.

At the moment, Filius stood invisible to the students hurrying to get to their houses before curfew and Quirrel as he waited for Pomona to arrive who did so at eight o'clock sharp. After exchanging a greeting, Filius watched the evil actor follow Pomona through the dark grounds... And as planned, Draco and Neville discreetly followed, invisible to Quirrel and Voldemort.

Harry and Justin on the other hand were - after a good dose of Polujuice - patrolling the corridors as Severus and Filius respectively. Minerva had made it known that she was retiring early that night after a full day of helping Filius out with his mystery job.

Harry and Justin were doing their best to make the person they were disguised as look fatigued enough for a keen person to notice and subtle enough to preserve the pride of Severus and Filius. The real Filius waiting in the Entrance Hall was soon joined by the real Severus and Minerva and together they set out to Hogsmead from where they disapperated to Little Hangleton.

It wasn't for the first time that they visited this place, but it certainly would be the last if Voldemort like last time hadn't decided to hide out at his paternal home. The place gave Filius the willies.

With utmost precaution, together, Filius, Minerva and Severus brought down every curse put on the dank, filthy house and they entered it, clouds of dust dancing at their feet with every step they took. Cobwebs were in abundance in the small living room and the place smelt of mold and rot and the air was unbearably moist.

They moved in to the approximate place where the golden box had been hidden and Minerva vanished that particular floorboard. Beneath, a little away from the point they had assumed the box to be, was the golden box that Filius willed to open and Severus produced the fang he had carried with him. The three moved away from the box and with a swift motion of his wand, Severus had the fang pierce the stone on the ring... and the unearthly screams filled the stagnant air... And that was the end of the last existing Horcrux.

Without any warning, Severus produced an intensity of flames on the destroyed horcrux and within seconds, it and the box were a small pile of ashes.

"Why did you do that!" Minerva hissed indignantly.

Severus calmly vanished the fang to his cupboard back in his quarters and as he headed to the exit of the house, he said, "I, for one, don't deem it necessary for Dumbledore to approach me and ask me to kill him all over again."

"What did you use to destroy it so?" Filius asked curiously.

Severus turned to look at him and Minerva and said, "Properly controlled Fiendfyre."

Minerva gasped.

"Severus!" She said indignantly.

"Hold it, Minerva." Severus said as they had all stepped out of the disgraceful house, "I haven't finished."

Severus looked around the area with speculation and said, "Hmmm... This house doesn't seem to add much to the decor of this place, does it?"

Minerva groaned and then demanded, "And what do you think will happen when Voldemort finally sees the Muggle or maybe Wizarding newspaper and realises the house in which he kept a piece of his precious soul is burnt to the ground?"

"Oh." Severus said as his eyes widened for a small second. "Oh, all right."

With an annoyed huff he flounced back into the house and replaced the floorboard and came out shutting the door behind him. Then they disapperated to Hogsmead and as they walked up to the castle, they saw the dishevelled figures of Pomona and Quirrel walk up the stairs that led back to the Entrance Hall.

Filius pointed his wand at the twitching man's turban and loosened it a bit. With a squeal, Quirrel grabbed his head and ran up the marble staircase.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The weeks went on and classes as well of many sittings of House United had taken place which required a majority of the students to sit at their tables and participate in very creative activities, while the students of a particular year would have non-table activities. This in itself felt like a relief to Neville who was bored almost out of his wits having had to sit throughout the week learning things he was already perfect in.

The first years hadn't yet had a chance to participate in the non-table activity and now, the Christmas Holidays were over and this meant that the crew had accomplished a lot in four months - their accomplishments included keeping their families and loved ones first, and then every person they set their eyes on, protected.

Snape had already begun informing Dumbledore that his Dark Mark got agitated everytime he was near Quirrel and this set the old man thinking and giving Snape the task of keeping an eye on the dangerous man. And inspite of his busy schedule, Snape along with Sprout and her brilliant plants were able to invent a little less than perfect poison that Harry wanted.

Flitwick was able to enter the Ministry in broad daylight and blast apart Harry's prophecy and replace it by the fake orb.

It was a good thing Neville had Draco for company in his group, whose other members were Ernie McMillan and Terry Boot, for the rest of the school found it difficult to treat him and Harry nicely. Harry on the other hand had Justin for company and Neville thanked the forethought of the Heads of House.

It was brilliant, sitting in the open air and getting to know one another, which again had already taken place in the previous time but was fun nonetheless. Neville was a little envious of the sixth and seventh years for they behaved as though this was a part of them, as though they had a hand in it...

Terry and Ernie had warmed up to Neville and - by using just a bit of wandless magic - Draco too. And in order to test how well they were actually getting along, the Professors decided to host their first non-table activity of the year, with each year having a different challenge.

Today, the same second week of January, the first years were going to have a simple treasure hunt in the castle itself - well, simple for Neville, complex for Terry and Ernie. This was in fact a way Harry would refer to as killing to birds with one stone... test their newly formed friendship and get to know the castle better.

The ten groups of firsties now stood at the entrance to the castle where Professor Sinatra gave them instructions.

"There's nothing much to be told." she said. "All that you need to do is to pick out one one roll of parchment from this hat." She held out a black hat and once every group picked out a small roll of parchment she cleared her throat.

"Do not open the rolls unless I tell you to. The parchment rolls you hold, hold clues that will lead you to the second clue and so on until you find your twelfth clue that will ultimately lead you to a certain artifact that once you find will signify the end of your treasure hunt. The group that finds the artifact first will be declared the winner and will also have their names carved onto this artifact.

"You will have quite a lot of hurdles along the way and you may have to separate out. How and where you meet the other members of your group later will be up to you. Each team has a different set of clues that are all just and of the same level. You have until one o'clock to find the artifact beyond which the hunt will be declared null and void. So contestants, you may unroll your parchments... Now!"

Hastily, Terry untied the string and opened the parchment and Neville read it over his shoulder:

'I have an eye that always lets me see,

A regular gathering of learning bees.

But today, from my line of sight I view,

your most probable second clue!

So hurry!

Climb the stairs of marble,

But remember,

To pass this test, unity is vital! '

Neville put on a thoughtful stance. "So it tells us to climb the stairs. Well that's all I can get from it."

In reality, Neville knew a couple of more clues, but he preferred to shut up as he watched Hermione rush into the great hall followed by the irritable members of her group. Neville had noticed their annoyance increase over the last two meetings and he could only hope they wouldn't have an argument by the end of the day.

"A regular gathering of learning bees," Draco said. "Could it be a classroom? Like where we or the other students visit often?"

"That means we will have to start searching all the classrooms of this castle!" Ernie said with defeat. "We don't even know half of this place."

"Wait," said Terry. "We're missing something important."

"The unity bit?" Ernie said.

"No no." Terry said. "I mean that is important of course, but we're missing the first and the third sentence. I-I mean, we know we must be united, we know we need to climb the marble staircase there, we know that's the place where we will get the next parchment and we know it's somewhere in a classroom!

"What we don't know is where the classroom is, right?"

"Yes." Draco said slowly. "So?"

"So," Terry said, "we need to think. There is something, probably something cockeyed that can see this classroom with one eye but now it can also see a note too?"

"Couldn't it be a painting?" Neville said not daring to give a further clue. "A cockeyed wizard or witch?"

Draco gasped so realistically that Neville was almost fooled.

"Could the note be talking about the one-eyed witch?" he said.

"Is is a painting?" Neville said.

"Is it around a busy classroom?" Terry said.

"I don't know." Draco said, "But I heard the Weasley twins talk about it yesterday."

"Are you sure it's the right place?" Ernie said in a pessimistic tone.

"Let's get there and see, eh?" Draco said. "If we remain here, we won't get anywhere! Everyone's already gone!"

"On which floor is it?" Terry said.

"Let's ask someone." Neville said and as of on cue the Gray Lady came through the wall.

"Are you sure we can ask for help?" Ernie said stupidly.

"They didn't say we couldn't ask for help." Terry said.

And so they approached the ghost who not only gave them the direction, but also followed them as they hurried to the statue of the one-eyed witch.

"What?" Ernie panted in indignation, for there wasn't any classroom opposite the witch, but a cracked old shiny armor!

"All this trouble for nothing." Draco huffed.

"Why don't you try viewing it from the witches point of view?" Helena Ravenclaw suggested. "Your clue does speak from her line of sight, doesn't it?"

"Oh yeah." Neville said in realisation.

Quickly, he climbed up the statue, imperceptibly using wandless magic to keep the statue from toppling over with his weight (Neville was as plump as he was in the previous time, though taller) and stared at the armor.

"What?" Terry said impatiently. "What do you see?"

"I see a reflection." Neville stated as he squinted his eyes. "Oh! It's a reflection of the History of Magic classroom down -"

"Yay!" Ernie, Terry and surprisingly Draco yelled and shot off to the door of the classroom down the corridor, leaving Neville to get off the statue himself.

"It's here!" Ernie exclaimed. "The next clue! In the keyhole!"

"Really?" Helena Ravenclaw said as she glided to the other boys, leaving Neville to shake his head in amusement. But she didn't leave them until the end of the contest... she followed them (or lead them, if Neville was honest with himself) to the seventh floor, then the great Hall, the dungeons, Gryffindor Tower, Trelawney's tower, greenhouse two, the Owlery, the Quidditch pitch, the infirmary (an irritable Madam Pomfrey was not very welcoming), the trophy room (my, that was a tricky one) and finally the Astronomy Tower... And mind it was because of the Ravenclaw ghost that they won.

Was is cheating? No. They hadn't asked her to follow them... Yes, that's what she did, she followed them around the place, dropping a few clues when she found them making no progress... so all in all, there was no cheating.

Later, Neville would realize that each group of first years had a ghost accompanying them, a direct order from the headmaster himself for fear that they would get lost or hurt.

But now as Neville watched their four names magically engrave themselves on the large goblet they found on the tower, he heard a Professor Sinatra's magnified voice say, "The contest is over! Come down to the Entrance Hall immediately!"

Stomach rumbling after all the effort they put in the hunt, by running up and down the stairs of the castle, the four tired boys and an elated Helena made their way down stairs only to be stopped by a small commotion at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the Astronomy Tower.

The sight that met Neville drove all thoughts of a delicious feast in the Great Hall, making room for doubts about their cover being blown, for, before him was a worried and furious Dumbledore and McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and Snape and Justin and Anthony Goldstein and Theodore Nott all bending over a dead turbanless Professor Quirrel, with glassy eyes and a bleeding mess of a head and... by his side, lying motionless - giving no indication of him breathing or not, practically making Neville want to fall to his knees and start sobbing - was, Harry.

To be continued...