A/N Ok, so I skipped a few years, who cares? Yes well this is a bit scary...Harry meets his parents when they are the same age as him? How? Well, you will see..and imagine all the things he could tell them, he could start some trouble, end a few friendships, perhaps make a few... Hermione, however, refuses to let him mix with the past, but will Harry take her advice? Sorry it's slow at first, but stay tuned...promise it gets better.
**DADA=Defense Against the Dark Arts
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry sighed. The start of a new year at Hogwarts, his last. He sure would miss it; he was feeling rather depressed at the thought of leaving, especially since he still had no idea what he wanted to do afterwards.
Hermione seemed to know what he was thinking, "Oh, cheer up, Harry," she said. "You have all year to decide what you want to do. I've already looked into several different job types, one of which you may--"
"Ahh, shut up, Hermione!" Ron spat this statement in a rather annoyed tone. " You could get any job you want, and Harry's good at Quidditch, I'm good at nothing. But I'm planning on just enjoying this year...and then worrying."
Hermione seemed willing to argue this point, had Harry not made a comment.
"I agree with Ron. Oh, look at the time! Better get to first period class, what is it?"
"DADA," replied Hermione, "a new teacher."
"As usual," Ron muttered under his breath.
The three continued to chat as they walked down the winding corridors towards the DADA classroom. When they reached, they all filed into the room, choosing seats near the front so that they could see better. Harry cast his eyes around the room for a sign of the new teacher, but couldn't see him anywhere.
Finally the whole seventh year Gryffindor class had been seated inside of the room. Harry was puzzled. Everyone was silent with anticipation as simultaneous thoughts ran through their heads. Where was the teacher? Surely he'd be here by now?
In the opposite corner of the room, a girl rose silently from her seat by the window and headed for the front of the room. She stood behind the professor's desk and proceeded to flip through the black teacher's manual.
When she found the page she'd been looking for, she stopped. She looked up, her eyes met theirs, and she addressed the class. "Velcome, I am Provessor Blud."
Harry and the rest of the students gaped in amazement. This couldn't be the new teacher! She had to be nearly the same age as them. Yet there she stood, gazing defiantly back at them through dark eyes. There was something Harry didn't like about those eyes, they seemed to follow one wherever he went, and they had almost a reddish tint when the light reflected off of them. Her pale face was wreathed in long, black locks, and she wore a rather uneasy smile.
The class was stupefied. Indeed, the only one who didn't look alarmed was Hermione. She seemed to glow with respect for the young teacher.
The professor began to speak again. "You may be vondering how I come to be here. Or vy I vill only be here for vun year. I graduated from ze Durmstrang Institute two years ago, and now I student teacher here. Only for vun year, though, zen I vill go to learn elsevere. My apologies, my Englesh, et es very poor, and my accent thick, but I sink you vill manage to understand me."
The class nodded. They could understand her. To Harry's surprise, Ron had his hand raised. This was an extremely unusual occurrence, partially because Ron rarely paid any attention in class, and also due to the fact that the teacher hadn't taught them anything yet.
"Yes?" the professor glanced up from her attendance sheet.
"Um well," Ron squirmed nervously in his chair, "don't think me rude or anything, but at Durmstarng, don't they teach the Dark Arts?"
"Yes," she replied calmly.
"Well, um, if you know black magic, then why are you teaching us how to ward off dark wizards? I mean, rather backwards, isn't it?" Ron put in hastily.
The class began to speak out, some of them in agreement with Ron, some of them not sure what to think, except that Ron was rude.
"Vell," the class quieted down as the teacher answered. "Zat es a very good question, Mr., um, Veasley. But who vould be better to teach DADA than vun who knows the vays of dark vizards?"
"Oh, I see, you, um, have a point there," Ron stammered meekly, "I'll just be quiet now."
She smiled at him before continuing, "Today, class, ve vill be taking a little sidetrack, I think. You see, ven I vas looking through the cupboard to find the old lesson plans, I found zis." She dramatically removed the cover from what looked like a giant crystal ball. "Is it not amazing?" she added smiling.
Harry could see that no one had any idea what it was, except for perhaps Hermione who was waving her hand so vigorously it was about to fall off. "Please," she asked the teacher, "I've never seen one of those before! Is it a large crystal ball? What is it?"
Professor Blud laughed good-naturedly at Hermione as she explained. "Ahhh, vere I come from these are very well-known magical objects, though zey are rare. Obviously, the legend is not a prominent in zis country. Zis is a memosphere. One of ze three legendary globes that control ze earth. Ve vill not talk about the ozers now, since there is only vun of each, but zere are three memospheres in ze universe. You can imagine my surprise ven I find zis powerful object locked avay in ze cupboard."
"It has ze power to show you ze past, it has been very useful in trials to prove vat happened at ze scene of ze crime. Like all of ze legendary spheres ve know very little about it. I vill pass it around so you may see it, but be very careful vith it, if you break it, it cannot be repaired."
They began to pass it down the first row of chairs, Neville wisely not touching it. When it reached Hermione she gasped in awe "Why, I can see things it! It looks like me when I was very young!"
The teacher smiled, "yes, it vill show you past vents in your life but zese events cannot be reached or altered by zose on ze outside, all you can do is vatch."
Harry gulped as the globe was passed to him; he hoped it didn't show him his past; there were certain parts he really didn't want to see. He took it reluctantly from Hermione and gazed deep into the swirling depths.
To his relief, a peaceful scene greeted him inside. He saw his father pacing across a tiled floor. Beads of perspiration dripped down his tired face, he jumped at the slightest noise. A door opened to his left and he was nearly bowled over with shock.
"Mr. Potter," a voice called from inside.
"I-is she okay?" James stuttered. "Lily, I mean, and the, is, is, is---?"
"Everything is alright, Mr. Potter, come in and see for yourself."
Harry watched as his father entered the room. Inside it was practically bare, typical hospital quarters. The prominent piece of furniture in the room was a bed. Harry's mum, Lily was sitting up on, she looked even more tired than her husband, but extremely happy.
"Hello, James," she said, "it's all okay, come see your son."
"My- my son? I'm a father? Oh god!" James sat down hard on the end of the bed.
"Let me see him, Lil. Is he handsome?"
"Just like his father," she replied, carefully handing James the small bundle in her arms.
"Ahhhh, look at the little guy! He does look just like me! But he's got his mummy's eyes!" James cooed.
Baby Harry began to cry, so James gave him back to Lily. "Doesn't he like me?" James asked worriedly.
"Oh, don't worry, James, he's just tired. What should we call him?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Let's call him....Harry."
"Mr. Potter?" Harry snapped back to reality. "I'm glad zat you enjoy ze memosphere, but I sink et es long past ze time to give it to Mr. Veasly."
The class laughed as Harry handed the globe over to Ron. Harry felt himself go red, and immediately became very interested in a stain on the wall.
After class, Ron and Hermione began questioning Harry about what he had seen in the memosphere that he found so interesting.
"Hey, Harry, that was weird, you just staring really hard into that thing for ten minutes!" exclaimed Ron.
"Yeah, Harry, what'd ya see?"
"I saw my parents, it must have been on the day I was born, and they..." his voice trailed off as he was once again lost in thought.
As they entered Great Hall, a swarm of owls was swooping down upon the occupants of the four house tables. The three looked for a sign of a letter for them, but they couldn't find Hedwig or Pig in the cloud of owls. They sat down at the table and waited until all the of the owls had cleared, but still there were no letters.
Harry slumped dejectedly in his chair. Ron leaned over to whisper something to him. "Wasn't Sirius supposed to send you a letter on the first day of school?"
"Yep," Harry sighed, "maybe or forgot, or maybe it's coming tomorrow."
"Harry!" Hermione waved her arms around excitedly, nearly knocking Ron out of his chair. "Sirius! Do you remember what Professor Blud said?"
"That I was in love with the memosphere?" suggested an annoyed Harry.
"No, listen, this is really important! She said that the memosphere tells the past and shows things that happened!"
"Well ,duh! I think we got that much out of it. I mean Harry and I pay enough attention to know--" Ron snapped at her.
"Shut up, Ron! This is really important! She said that it was often used in courts to determine who was guilty or innocent!"
"Yeah!" shouted Harry, suddenly catching on. "That thing can prove that he's innocent!"
"And then he'll get let off and you can go live with him instead of those bloody Muggles!" Ron finished.
"Now, Ron, I'm sure Harry loves his aunt and uncle, very deep down, perhaps, but he still...." her voice trailed off as Harry shook his head in disagreement. "Very, very deep down?" Harry shook his head again. "Well, you still shouldn't say things like that, Ron. Well, I've got to go to the library, see you all later."
"Always has to have the last word, doesn't she?" Ron said to Harry as they watched their friend stumble down the halls with an enormous pile of books in her hands.
****************************
The fire in the Gryffindor common room glowed cheery and bright as our three heroes sat around it, chatting, and doing their homework. All through the day, Harry had been formulating a plan in his mind, and now he brought it out in the open. He knew he'd need their help if he wanted to get away with his brilliant scheme.
"Right then," he said aloud, "I've been thinking about that memosphere. We should steal it."
"Harry!" Hermione shouted in alarm, causing half of the common room to stare at them.
Harry lowered his voice and continued. "No! Not steal, just, um, borrow without asking. Come on, to help Sirius? Please, we don't want him living in exile for his whole life!"
"I'm in. But how will we get it? We don't even know where it is." said Ron.
"I'm sure that Professor Blud put it in her office. A valuable thing like that. We have the invisibility cloak, we can sneak down tonight!"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't think this is such a good idea, guys. Remember what the professor said? They know very little about the hidden powers of the...."
Come on, Hermione, if the professor told you to jump off a bridge 'cos it'd help you learn, you'd do it. Now, are you with us or not?" Ron interrupted.
"Ok, I guess so, as long as Harry takes his cloak I think we'll be safe."
**DADA=Defense Against the Dark Arts
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry sighed. The start of a new year at Hogwarts, his last. He sure would miss it; he was feeling rather depressed at the thought of leaving, especially since he still had no idea what he wanted to do afterwards.
Hermione seemed to know what he was thinking, "Oh, cheer up, Harry," she said. "You have all year to decide what you want to do. I've already looked into several different job types, one of which you may--"
"Ahh, shut up, Hermione!" Ron spat this statement in a rather annoyed tone. " You could get any job you want, and Harry's good at Quidditch, I'm good at nothing. But I'm planning on just enjoying this year...and then worrying."
Hermione seemed willing to argue this point, had Harry not made a comment.
"I agree with Ron. Oh, look at the time! Better get to first period class, what is it?"
"DADA," replied Hermione, "a new teacher."
"As usual," Ron muttered under his breath.
The three continued to chat as they walked down the winding corridors towards the DADA classroom. When they reached, they all filed into the room, choosing seats near the front so that they could see better. Harry cast his eyes around the room for a sign of the new teacher, but couldn't see him anywhere.
Finally the whole seventh year Gryffindor class had been seated inside of the room. Harry was puzzled. Everyone was silent with anticipation as simultaneous thoughts ran through their heads. Where was the teacher? Surely he'd be here by now?
In the opposite corner of the room, a girl rose silently from her seat by the window and headed for the front of the room. She stood behind the professor's desk and proceeded to flip through the black teacher's manual.
When she found the page she'd been looking for, she stopped. She looked up, her eyes met theirs, and she addressed the class. "Velcome, I am Provessor Blud."
Harry and the rest of the students gaped in amazement. This couldn't be the new teacher! She had to be nearly the same age as them. Yet there she stood, gazing defiantly back at them through dark eyes. There was something Harry didn't like about those eyes, they seemed to follow one wherever he went, and they had almost a reddish tint when the light reflected off of them. Her pale face was wreathed in long, black locks, and she wore a rather uneasy smile.
The class was stupefied. Indeed, the only one who didn't look alarmed was Hermione. She seemed to glow with respect for the young teacher.
The professor began to speak again. "You may be vondering how I come to be here. Or vy I vill only be here for vun year. I graduated from ze Durmstrang Institute two years ago, and now I student teacher here. Only for vun year, though, zen I vill go to learn elsevere. My apologies, my Englesh, et es very poor, and my accent thick, but I sink you vill manage to understand me."
The class nodded. They could understand her. To Harry's surprise, Ron had his hand raised. This was an extremely unusual occurrence, partially because Ron rarely paid any attention in class, and also due to the fact that the teacher hadn't taught them anything yet.
"Yes?" the professor glanced up from her attendance sheet.
"Um well," Ron squirmed nervously in his chair, "don't think me rude or anything, but at Durmstarng, don't they teach the Dark Arts?"
"Yes," she replied calmly.
"Well, um, if you know black magic, then why are you teaching us how to ward off dark wizards? I mean, rather backwards, isn't it?" Ron put in hastily.
The class began to speak out, some of them in agreement with Ron, some of them not sure what to think, except that Ron was rude.
"Vell," the class quieted down as the teacher answered. "Zat es a very good question, Mr., um, Veasley. But who vould be better to teach DADA than vun who knows the vays of dark vizards?"
"Oh, I see, you, um, have a point there," Ron stammered meekly, "I'll just be quiet now."
She smiled at him before continuing, "Today, class, ve vill be taking a little sidetrack, I think. You see, ven I vas looking through the cupboard to find the old lesson plans, I found zis." She dramatically removed the cover from what looked like a giant crystal ball. "Is it not amazing?" she added smiling.
Harry could see that no one had any idea what it was, except for perhaps Hermione who was waving her hand so vigorously it was about to fall off. "Please," she asked the teacher, "I've never seen one of those before! Is it a large crystal ball? What is it?"
Professor Blud laughed good-naturedly at Hermione as she explained. "Ahhh, vere I come from these are very well-known magical objects, though zey are rare. Obviously, the legend is not a prominent in zis country. Zis is a memosphere. One of ze three legendary globes that control ze earth. Ve vill not talk about the ozers now, since there is only vun of each, but zere are three memospheres in ze universe. You can imagine my surprise ven I find zis powerful object locked avay in ze cupboard."
"It has ze power to show you ze past, it has been very useful in trials to prove vat happened at ze scene of ze crime. Like all of ze legendary spheres ve know very little about it. I vill pass it around so you may see it, but be very careful vith it, if you break it, it cannot be repaired."
They began to pass it down the first row of chairs, Neville wisely not touching it. When it reached Hermione she gasped in awe "Why, I can see things it! It looks like me when I was very young!"
The teacher smiled, "yes, it vill show you past vents in your life but zese events cannot be reached or altered by zose on ze outside, all you can do is vatch."
Harry gulped as the globe was passed to him; he hoped it didn't show him his past; there were certain parts he really didn't want to see. He took it reluctantly from Hermione and gazed deep into the swirling depths.
To his relief, a peaceful scene greeted him inside. He saw his father pacing across a tiled floor. Beads of perspiration dripped down his tired face, he jumped at the slightest noise. A door opened to his left and he was nearly bowled over with shock.
"Mr. Potter," a voice called from inside.
"I-is she okay?" James stuttered. "Lily, I mean, and the, is, is, is---?"
"Everything is alright, Mr. Potter, come in and see for yourself."
Harry watched as his father entered the room. Inside it was practically bare, typical hospital quarters. The prominent piece of furniture in the room was a bed. Harry's mum, Lily was sitting up on, she looked even more tired than her husband, but extremely happy.
"Hello, James," she said, "it's all okay, come see your son."
"My- my son? I'm a father? Oh god!" James sat down hard on the end of the bed.
"Let me see him, Lil. Is he handsome?"
"Just like his father," she replied, carefully handing James the small bundle in her arms.
"Ahhhh, look at the little guy! He does look just like me! But he's got his mummy's eyes!" James cooed.
Baby Harry began to cry, so James gave him back to Lily. "Doesn't he like me?" James asked worriedly.
"Oh, don't worry, James, he's just tired. What should we call him?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Let's call him....Harry."
"Mr. Potter?" Harry snapped back to reality. "I'm glad zat you enjoy ze memosphere, but I sink et es long past ze time to give it to Mr. Veasly."
The class laughed as Harry handed the globe over to Ron. Harry felt himself go red, and immediately became very interested in a stain on the wall.
After class, Ron and Hermione began questioning Harry about what he had seen in the memosphere that he found so interesting.
"Hey, Harry, that was weird, you just staring really hard into that thing for ten minutes!" exclaimed Ron.
"Yeah, Harry, what'd ya see?"
"I saw my parents, it must have been on the day I was born, and they..." his voice trailed off as he was once again lost in thought.
As they entered Great Hall, a swarm of owls was swooping down upon the occupants of the four house tables. The three looked for a sign of a letter for them, but they couldn't find Hedwig or Pig in the cloud of owls. They sat down at the table and waited until all the of the owls had cleared, but still there were no letters.
Harry slumped dejectedly in his chair. Ron leaned over to whisper something to him. "Wasn't Sirius supposed to send you a letter on the first day of school?"
"Yep," Harry sighed, "maybe or forgot, or maybe it's coming tomorrow."
"Harry!" Hermione waved her arms around excitedly, nearly knocking Ron out of his chair. "Sirius! Do you remember what Professor Blud said?"
"That I was in love with the memosphere?" suggested an annoyed Harry.
"No, listen, this is really important! She said that the memosphere tells the past and shows things that happened!"
"Well ,duh! I think we got that much out of it. I mean Harry and I pay enough attention to know--" Ron snapped at her.
"Shut up, Ron! This is really important! She said that it was often used in courts to determine who was guilty or innocent!"
"Yeah!" shouted Harry, suddenly catching on. "That thing can prove that he's innocent!"
"And then he'll get let off and you can go live with him instead of those bloody Muggles!" Ron finished.
"Now, Ron, I'm sure Harry loves his aunt and uncle, very deep down, perhaps, but he still...." her voice trailed off as Harry shook his head in disagreement. "Very, very deep down?" Harry shook his head again. "Well, you still shouldn't say things like that, Ron. Well, I've got to go to the library, see you all later."
"Always has to have the last word, doesn't she?" Ron said to Harry as they watched their friend stumble down the halls with an enormous pile of books in her hands.
****************************
The fire in the Gryffindor common room glowed cheery and bright as our three heroes sat around it, chatting, and doing their homework. All through the day, Harry had been formulating a plan in his mind, and now he brought it out in the open. He knew he'd need their help if he wanted to get away with his brilliant scheme.
"Right then," he said aloud, "I've been thinking about that memosphere. We should steal it."
"Harry!" Hermione shouted in alarm, causing half of the common room to stare at them.
Harry lowered his voice and continued. "No! Not steal, just, um, borrow without asking. Come on, to help Sirius? Please, we don't want him living in exile for his whole life!"
"I'm in. But how will we get it? We don't even know where it is." said Ron.
"I'm sure that Professor Blud put it in her office. A valuable thing like that. We have the invisibility cloak, we can sneak down tonight!"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't think this is such a good idea, guys. Remember what the professor said? They know very little about the hidden powers of the...."
Come on, Hermione, if the professor told you to jump off a bridge 'cos it'd help you learn, you'd do it. Now, are you with us or not?" Ron interrupted.
"Ok, I guess so, as long as Harry takes his cloak I think we'll be safe."