Chapter 22 – Playing Catch-Up, Yet Again

Odin led us back to the ninth-floor apartment, where we had stopped for food. The intelligence told us that the apartment was safe and that we had already laid claim to it, so it was ours for at least a day. The apartment had two bedrooms. Hermione and I claimed the one with the night view. I immediately lay down on the bed and reached for Yggdrasil, using the same Black Stone which Odin had chosen as safest.

My first question to Yggdrasil was "when are we?"

We were three weeks before leaving home to return to Asgard. I asked whether it was possible for Yggdrasil to deliver both my first message, and the one I was about to dictate, to Harry immediately without causing a rupture of time. Yggdrasil thought this too much risk for a personal message.

"These are not 'personal messages'! They are essential intelligence reports. Frijjo and Vili plan to kidnap Adrienne. They will probably try to do it prior to the time I left home. Harry and his aurors need to protect Adrienne. As far back in time as I can get that warning to him, the likelier that Adrienne and her child are free and alive. This is life and death. Harry is a responsible person. He heads our government. He will keep a secret from me to protect the integrity of time. He won't risk disaster."

Alright, I will deliver your messages as long ago as possible. There might be a way I can deliver them weeks before today. I will tell Harry the importance of secrecy. You must make the danger very clear in the message you are about to give me. He is afraid of displeasing you. He won't just accept my statement of necessity. You must tell him that you will forgive him for keeping the secret and that your safety depends upon his secrecy. He must reveal the secret to none, except Ron.

I readily agreed to this arrangement, giving a quick summary to Hermione.

"I think that's a very wise approach and am happy that Ron can know. If you are willing to allow me to listen in on your message, I will add specific comments for Ron."

Together we described everything which had happened, going into great detail on Frijjo's powers and treachery, the questions around Odin's true and fake stones, what we knew about Ve's fortress, the skirmish between Vili and Frijjo, and our plans to return to the far past, both for more exploration and to retrieve the rest of our party. We told Harry about the importance of Boldgog's eggs and that we needed to deliver them to schoolboy Hagrid – well at least one of them. We weren't sure what should be done with the second. Surely the Aragog clan would never have begun with a single spider – both a male and female were needed. We told the lads how much we loved and missed them and begged for a detailed message back from them. Oh yes, no confirmation, Hermione would bring back samples for one of her uncle's professor friends to analyse, but it was time to consider how to prepare Draco and McGonagall for the possibility that Narcissa had been murdered. Their choice if they thought it best to wait. We told the lads in six different ways that they absolutely must not mention either of the two messages to anyone, especially to me and Hermione, no matter how awkward it became and no matter if we both thought they had become awful husbands.

As soon as we sat up upon our beds, Odin was standing at our door and clapping his hands together, demanding our attention. "Lots of problems, many possible actions, great confusion; we need a strategy session"

We followed Odin to the sitting room. As soon as we entered the room, Baalak presented me with a wooden box. It was the size of four of my fists laid side by side. I lifted the lid. It was filled with spider silk.

"Your eggs!"

"Yes, it is not safe for me to carry them. You must keep them safe and deliver them to your world. Your Hagrid will care for them."

"That's the strategy!" Hermione told Odin. "We must go back in time, before Frijjo or Vili do. That means the purple ribbon and the ancient seid-space must be very well guarded. We will have to travel to Asgard and deliver that message personally. We should leave at once."

"We promised a one-day head start to Frijjo."

"She has proven herself to be a dangerous, psychopathic, villain. You promised her. I did not. Baalak certainly did not. She tried to murder him, just an hour ago."

"I fear we will have future dealings with Frijjo and Vili. They have been intertwined with my life for millennia. To keep the truce, we must behave honourably. How else will they trust us?"

"Who cares if they trust us. I certainly don't trust them. They've only given us a month to live in any case. Less for the spiders. This fight has moved to the past and we must move with it. My husband and Harry are at risk, along with Adrienne and her child, and undoubtedly Madam Bones. I won't let them be killed, because you don't think it fair to act now. Murderers don't deserve 'fair'."

"I sort of agree with Hermione. Anyway, if you promised on behalf of all of us, we promised to give a day's head start after they leave - right after breakfast tomorrow. We will go, return, and give them the head start you promised, but what would be truly dishonorable would be to not warn our friends that Vili is loose and coming after them, way back in time, or on the purple ribbon in our time, or on Asgard in our time. It wouldn't be fair not to warn the spiders at another attempt at their extermination by Frijjo. I say we leave immediately. I've got the genuine stone. Will the intelligence allow me to leave? Will the rest of you be safe without the stone if you stay in this apartment until breakfast? Can I Apparate from here and back to here, since I've already been here, and I hold the stone?"

"I think the answers are all yes, but we must ask the intelligence."

We did. It also gave all yeses. Odin stayed. The rest of us Apparated to the pyramid between worlds, then took the exit to Asgard, said hello to Yggdrasil, Apparated to the purple ribbon, back in time, to our friends sitting around the well in seid-space and inside Yggdrasil at the time of the great forest fire. We warned all our friends and allies. We had the spiders and our forces from our camp on Asgard reinforce those positions. Baalak had two dozen spiders delay their departure for their new world, in order to beef up the guard in seid-space.

I knew that Hagrid had been expelled in 1943, I thought in the Spring. I realised that I didn't know how long it took for an Acromantula egg to hatch. I asked Aagog. She was uncertain, she mumbled, finally confessing "my parents think me too young to be told such... sensitive things. I think it is about four months. I think the eggs must be kept warm before they hatch. It is wise that you keep the box inside your jacket."

A little tugging at my stomach and we were standing on the purple ribbon. I knew not to move. I saw no spiders, but knew they were hiding nearby.

Yggdrasil helped us calibrate our position on the purple ribbon. We just had to move a foot and a half farther from the tee. Yggdrasil said good. We churned, a wave of ripples passed through my entire body, and then my feet fell six inches to stone. My eyes saw only darkness, I smelled mustiness, and then the pyramid lights came on. Hermione, Aagog, and I had Apparated to the Hogwarts pyramid. I didn't want to be responsible for an ahistorical waking of my Black Stone, so I immediately Apparated us to the Gryffindor common room. Fortunately, it was empty. It was night. It was imperative that we figure out exactly which night this was. Wrong time would be as bad as wrong place. If we were caught here by the wrong person, this might also prove to be the wrong place.

"What are we doing?" I asked Hermione. "We can't just wait here for Hagrid to arrive back from break, can we. I was racing out of fear and just wanted to DO SOMETHING, rather than Odin's passive granting of a head start to Frijjo. Calling Harry accomplished that. We need to be back in the fortress before morning, or there certainly WILL be an explosion and we'll be blamed."

"I don't care about that, other than not wanting to see Odin lose face in front of that bitch. We don't know exactly when we are here. We don't know if the dorm rooms are occupied or the students are gone. I don't feel safe just leaving the eggs for Hagrid to find, even if we leave a message. He's so big, I'm sure his bunk will be obvious. It still seems wrong to travel back in time to take that big a risk. We have no idea where he lives, so we have no way of reaching him until he returns to Hogwarts."

We checked the Witches' dorm rooms. They were empty, except for one Witch. It wasn't unusual for a few students to not return home for winter break. No reason to trust this Witch. I drew back the bed curtains and examined her. She did look vaguely familiar.

"I think it's Professor McGonagall," Hermione gasped.

The sleeping Witch stirred. I 'Off!'ed her. Nothing malicious - I wanted a chance to think and decide a next step with Hermione, before the possible-McGonagall awoke, saw us, and forced the issue in a bad direction.

"She might not even be McGonagall. She certainly looks similar, but how do we know what McGonagall looked like at this age. Dumbledore was a professor in 1943. We could try to talk to him in private. Not now, I have no idea where his apartment is, but he'll come to the Great Hall for breakfast. We can catch him on the way in or follow him when he leaves. That's less complications, since he's dead in our world. I at least had little interaction with Dumbledore. I know it's not the same for you."

"That's fine, I choose Dumbledore. Let's at least check this girl's trunk and find out who she is. She's out cold. I'm going to take some hairs. One of us could always breakfast in her place. Don't worry about when we arrive back at the fortress. We must go through Yggdrasil and can make up any time we spend here. It's going to be hard to Apparate there accurately enough in time, anyway. That's a serious problem we should have thought about before deciding to deliver the eggs right away. We were stupid."

Hermione got the necessary hairs. It didn't take much investigating for me to find 'Minerva McGonagall' emblazoned on the side of her trunk - bright green paint.

"It's her," I told Hermione. "Should we check the Wizards' dorms. "I wonder if Witches are allowed entry in this time. Hagrid might be in his dorm. We don't know if he had a home to go to at break time."

We walked very quietly up the stairs to the Wizards' dorm. The stairs did not prevent our passage.

We quickly found Hagrid's over-sized bed. It was empty. There would not be a quick, easy solution to our problem. We did find two boys who were spending the winter break at Hogwarts. One of them was Tom Riddle. I 'Off!'ed both boys. I was in shock. Riddle was not a problem I was prepared to face. What was he even doing sleeping in Gryffindor?

"It looks like Headmaster Dippet decided to put all of the students staying in school into one House for the holidays. Riddle was an equally big shock to me. You were right to use 'Off!'. I know the two words I wanted to say to Tom. They might save a lot of people who were killed by Tom. It might even be justified to change history in order to prevent Tom ever having the chance to become Lord Voldemort, to let Jaden and Dilys live a normal life, for Harry not to have been a sad little orphan. I just have this nagging feeling that Frijjo used her seid to save us for this exact moment. I believe she has a reason to want us to kill Voldemort. We could prevent terrible things from happening, but somehow, I fear that guarantees Frijjo's victory over all of Odin's worlds. I don't even understand how that is possible, but I know I'm right. Frijjo knew we were coming here tonight, and she knew what we'd find."

I shivered. "This is all too convenient, isn't it? If we kill Riddle, this other poor, anonymous lad will be blamed for an Unforgiveable crime, won't he? We don't even know who he is."

"Yes, I did also consider that. We're in a trap. I'd prefer that these two and McGonagall be at breakfast. Otherwise, the faculty will investigate and discover that all three students were overcome by the same unknown curse. We must wake them at dawn. We can't wait for the curse to wear off. We can silently remove our curses from the boys and Apparate away, before they see us. One of us is going to have to be McGonagall at breakfast, talk to Dumbledore, and trust him to fix things. I think I understand her a little better than you do."

Hermione checked the unknown kid's trunk. "Ebenezer Eldicott. We still don't know who he is."

"I'll guard Gryffindor, while you impersonate McGonagall. We can use our rings to hide in the secret exit from the Common Room to Peverell space."