Chapter One: Creating a Plan
Disclaimer: I burrowed them… So what? Just play nice and don't sue, K? Really they are JKR's.
"It's bound to work master. We are certain to have the Potter boy. With him out of the way the wizarding world… the muggle world…. Why the world in its entirety is yours to control."
"And Lucius, your certain your son will not rebel in his works…"
"Why of course. The boy hates Harry. As much as you do master-'"
"Fool! No being on this godforsaken planet loathes the boy as I do. Not one soul had to live as a parasite on the bodies of the serpent family- the only family I had at times. Yes they remained loyal to me, when you would not suffer through Azkaban for me, they gave lives endlessly until I could inhabit something larger and more powerful. But I forgave you and openly accepted you back to me. Wormtail! Yes it is you who will decide who at Hogwarts shall be deemed worthy, if not Malfoy's son."
"Ye-yes ma-ma-ma-master."
A man in thick heavy black robes pulled himself from where he had been standing in a tight circle of men surrounded by a larger one. Each step he took was jerky and forceful looking, seeming as if it were dangerous task that meant life or death. He finally made it to the center where a man much taller than he in a hooded cloak of a similar black silk that hid most of his face except for two glowing large blood-red eyes and a mouth of fang like sharp teeth. Next to him stood another mere member of the inner circle, pale with dark eyes and a scowl so deep it looked as if had been set that way for years, almost liked carved stone. His eyes traced menacingly over 'Wormtail' as the member of the dark service was so often called.
The new man beneath the hood shivered, quickly hoping that his robes were thick enough to not let anyone else notice. He bowed heavily, his head ranging around the same height as the upper hems on the long robes the other men wore, and he got on to one knee, never glancing up. As if the hood was to heavy to lift off with one hand he grasped both sets of fingers around the edge, only feeling the touch of the worn old fabric with one set. The other glittered of a strange metal and powerful magic. He pulled back the hood and the moonlight fell over his strangely aged features for such a young man. He ran a quick hand through his thinning hair.
"Ma-m-master, I am not sure it should be me who-"
"Silence Wormtail! You have spent three years at the castle they call Hogwarts. Certainly you didn't spend it all as a rat. Now tell us who it shall be!" Wormtail whimpered knowing that much of that time he had spent sleeping and hiding away from everything under the boy's bed. He strained hard to properly remember something, anything at all that would impress his dark lord.
"The potions master!" he spit out rather savagely, then quickly raised his head to make sure that the man he was preparing to sabotage wasn't there to hear it. The potion master's angry face flashed through his memory.
"Relax Peter, he isn't here." Came the smooth drawling voice of Lucius. "Tell us the importance of him, behind his back… just the way you always do." Peter moaned but vengeance fought it's way back.
"The Malfoy boy, my lord, has a terrible fondness of him… he would not be a likely candidate for this j-job."
Malfoy snapped shut his mouth and stared at Wormtail with hungry and hateful eyes making Wormtail squirm and look downward. He breathed in a shocked gasp as a snake the length of two and a half broom sticks and as thick as his upper arm in most places and thicker yet in others slid over the shiny surface of his boots each of it's thousands of scales rattling as it passed over the top of his boots. It glittered like a blood-bathed sword in the brink of the night.
He jetted his eyes away from this and instead looked upward at the jeering crowd of Death Eaters who knew that if their son was picked it would mean that they would instantly be moved to the greatest evil's inner circle. He looked frantically around at the entire circle gazing inward at him with power-hungry eyes blazing under the hoods.
"Cr-Crabbe and Goyle mas-t-ter," Wormtail whimpered out frightened, knowing since they were the biggest as were their fathers that he would be safest with them on his side and not looking to kill him at the first possible chance.
"Both?" Voldemort asked.
"Y-yes they are equal in b-brute strength and w-would n-n-n-ever turn against y-you, my lord." He did not wish to mention that they would never think to turn against him because they didn't think much at all.
"Very well, Wormtail. The plan shall be put to action by those to students. You may return to your places. I need to speak with Goyle and Crabbe."
"Th-Thank you mas-master."
Snape sighed and wiped the back of his palm against his sweaty forehead. The dungeons were at a bone chilling, teeth chattering temperature, but beads of sweat formed on his temple instantly, making it seem that he had never wiped them away in the first place. He knew that for certain the Dark Lord and his followers were planing to kill Harry. The problem was the question of how. They wouldn't tell him. They were obviously aware of his disloyalty to their side.
He had wished death upon the Potter boy countless times hadn't he? Well who wouldn't after the rivalry he had been through with the boy's father over Lily? And then that terrible accident. He had wished it but instant cold regret followed. Just as it had begun to throb in his head robbing him of all of his thoughts of security the night the Dark Mark had been placed on his arm. Was it really that if the boy died that Voldemort would be able to take reign and rule the world? Was it in truth as the Dark Lord promised every meeting at his castle like mansion?
He pulled his mind from these thoughts as the large heavy oak door swung open to reveal the usually posh lord-like face of Draco Malfoy. He too looked under a great deal of stress, and clenched in a tight fist was a small sheet of thick and expensive parchment.
"Draco, what is it?" The Professor stared with high concern at his favorite student. His lips were pulled so tight they had become as white as the knuckles on Draco's fist. He had a terrible clue on whom the letter was from and what was to be read off it.
"It is from Father." Much expected, the answer was leaving no effect on the older man's face. The young man looking near sixteen and holding a light of terrified fear in his eye, swallowed visibly and handed it to the other.
Draco,
You have failed me, and hid the truth from me and for that you will be punished severely. Terrible it was, to have your fault on whom to console with brought to my attention in front of the entire Death Eater society. It was dear Peter who has told us all of your need and respect for the filthy betraying Potions Master. For your mistake I was so luckily forgiven by the ever patient Dark Lord and his minions. However, you will not be so… lucky shall we put it? Wish to run and hide? You have no choice as I have cursed the letter to destroy it's self in five minute of opening, initial opening. (You can not try your stupid tricks and close and reset this one as I have discovered you have done with the other. Even if your filthy Professor gets his hands on this it will not be around long enough to show the head master. As a closing note, pack your things, I feel it is time for you to transfer to Drumstrang.
Lucius
"How long has the letter been open?" Snape spun quickly to Draco.
"3 and a half, sir." Draco watched, amazed, as with a flick of his wrist Dumbledore was summoned through the fireplace.
"You called, Servus?" The headmaster let his old hands brush some of the soot from his robes but did not waste time, knowing that only for emergencies was this method used to summon him. Snape thrust the letter into the oldest man's frail fingers and he scanned it over quickly. He sighed as it became transparent and then disappeared completely leaving his hands empty of all but the cold still air hanging thick around them.
"It would have been enough, wouldn't it?" Draco asked, anger flaming in his eyes that were usually icy gray. "It would have been enough to trace it back to him and send him to Azkaban. He would never talk to me or lay a hand on my mother again, right?"
No one answered. His questions turned stale holding their place unanswered.
"Is there nothing we can do Headmaster?" Servus finally asked raising his head to look in to the old man's eyes. The old man was peering off into a shadowy corner how ever.
"What exactly are you doing present here at this time, miss Weasley?" He asked startling the other two.
She stood so that her pale skin that wasn't being masked by the shadows was dimly glowing in the moon light.
"Looking for Merlin," she said with a bit of cheek.
"Don't play stupid with that kind of nonsense girl! Merlin has been dead for centuries!" Snape spat out bitterly. She shrugged pushing a lock of crimson hair behind her ear and let out a small whistle. A powder gray cat with eyes the same glass bottle blue as Dumbledore's swiftly dashed over with a quick leap was in Ginny's arms. If she was lying she obviously played the part well. A white t-shirt and long blue pj pants framed her slim body.
"Miss Virginia, if you will sit here silently than I will finish up with them and you will have a little chat about punishment for being awake and out of dormitories at this time at night." She followed Dumbledore's instructions and sat on a nearby table scratching at the pepper gray ears of Merlin, her cat.
"At the time I can think of nothing possible to do about it except perhaps play that it never came…"
"That wouldn't work. Father puts locating devices on my mail so that I am certain to get it." Draco grumbled, sending envious glances in Ginny's direction as she played carelessly with her cat.
"There is no spell strong enough that I can think of to bring it back, even temporarily." Snape racked his brain for possible solutions.
"What about potions?" Ginny offered up, sitting up a bit and stopping her humming of The Weird Sister's newest hit, 'You light my fire, I kindle your flame'.
"It has to be there to pour it on, you can't just produce a replica… Do you not listen in class?" Snape yelled, more aggravated that his own subject couldn't produce a working solution, than at Ginny in general.
Dumbledore though had a small twinkle in his eye.
"Don't be daft! I know that! I mean use a time turner and invisibility cloak. Make the potion before hand and then slip an invisibility potion on the letter, take it from Dumbledore, slide it under the cloak, and add the second potion to it when it becomes visible again. That's all!" She smiled as the realization wore onto the other's faces.
"It would take a long time to brew and then we would have to wait forever to get back to the present time." Snape scowled at realizing this problem.
"No you're wrong." She stopped for a second to see his reaction and take in the moment that she had told her least favorite teacher that he was wrong. "If we take the time turner and flip it in the reverse direction it takes you into the future. According to A Time of Travel by Harloy Shorthand, when the time turner was first created it had the ability to go forward and backward. Since then the ministry put spells on them to stop people from going to the future. We just have to break that spell and we've got it made."
She laid back down on the table holding the squirming kitten above her as she went back to her light singing. She was conscious though not visibly showing it that the others were staring at her.
"Just a spark, some smoke in the dark, a bright blue flame, you are mine to tame…" Snape snapped his eyes away from her temporarily. She was smart, and had a true talent in potions though he would never have admitted that to her. Clever as the Granger girl at times. He could see no problem with her solution…
The doors flew wide again and in walked a girl in a pink nightgown of rich silk. A pug-like sneering face held it's self atop it, like a glowing crystal ball atop a blue velvet tablecloth. Right now neither of the two were sounding too appealing, accept that a crystal ball might be able to tell them if their plan would succeed.
"Miss Parkinson, please tell me why you are up this late and here now?" Snape had always admired the way that the headmaster could keep his voice so calm when people interrupted him as they did.
Pansy gawked at him as if the answer should have been so obvious. "Looking for Draco. And why is she here?" Pansy strode forward and glanced at the headmaster before glaring at the girl lying on hard wood table. Draco's high cheekbones turned a dark crimson and he looked away, with a different kind of anger in his eyes.
"What is it that you want with Draco at this time at night?" Snape asked, barley interested usually with student's affairs. This one how ever struck him as quite odd. Ginny thought so as well as she turned her head towards Pansy to watch her squirm as Ginny smiled hungrily Draco. Pansy squealed looking incredulously at Draco and then Ginny. She pushed her own frail framed body between the two of them and backed up against Draco. Looking positively unhappy with this arrangement he backed away, making her fall into a chair.
"Draco, what are you doing here? With her?" Pansy's voice quivered a bit as she spoke this, still ignoring the professor's question.
"Miss Parkinson, I would like to ask that you settle your affairs with Mr. Malfoy at a more convenient time… Perhaps in the morning." Draco nodded, agreeing with Dumbledore.
She began to protest, but a high pitched hiss reached her ears. She turned around slowly to see Merlin with an arched back and sharp nails.
"Little demon!" She whispered it with much fear and the cat moved closer. "Again!" She shrunk back and slipped down in her chair and then burst out of the room with the cat nipping menacingly at her heels.
"So that's where he's been all evening." Ginny peered off after them with grim satisfaction. The professor let a thin-lipped smile of amusement escape his face. Dumbledore let out a small chuckle before realizing that a complaint would be cast in the morning about it, and word might possibly get back to her father.
"The forth and fifth year project can be moved up I suppose so that we can postpone your travels, Draco, until we can unlock the time turner to be able to cast a spell on the letter." Dumbledore spoke and Snape and Draco just nodded. Ginny watched as the meeting returned to its sullen state after a brief bit of comedic relief. She was slightly disappointed as both of the Slytherns had looked human and worth being around for a moment or two.
"…We will start preparation in the morning. Ginny, can you be here at 6?" She blinked twice and shook her head to make sure she had heard correctly. They wanted her help.
"Ye-yeah, I'll be here." She spoke looking down and around her, carefully avoiding their faces.
"Good!" Dumbledore looked cheerful and quite awake but she was suddenly so sleepy realizing that she would have to get up at six. It was already… what… one thirty, two? "Let's get some sleep then." She walked off and up toward the Gryffindor corridor, only pausing briefly when called by Draco.
"Yes?" She prepared herself to be morally beaten about her hair, and poverty, her large family, being there when she should keep her nose in her own business, and anything else he could think of at the moment.
"Thanks." That was it. With that he turned and walked off, leaving her dead in her own footprints, staring after him.
She finally caught herself as she felt Merlin rubbing against her legs in tight figure eights. She laughed as she noticed a piece of pink silk in his mouth. She picked him up and slipped back to the nearest window. She summoned an owl (something she had taught herself to do the previous year) and put a rush request for Griffin hair. She had been running low and so had Snape she noticed last time that she had been in his store closet for two hours on a dare.
She turned on one heel and began her way back to the commons.
***- in other parts of the castle.
"Why were we chosen rather than Malfoy you think?" Crabbe said as he reread the letter sent to him and Goyle. He held the black bottle with a watery solution in it tightly. The pale gray stopper looked carved out of bone with a skull and snake chizled in it. He smiled and turned to his best friend.
"I think its because he the master isn't being trusting him." (A/N their grammar is bad on purpose. No I am not that stupid!) Goyle and Crabbe grinned feeling that they were truly being sly and crafty to have come up with such an elaborate answer. Just then Draco walked in.
"What have you two been up to in my lack of presence?" Draco clearly had noticed their hands hidden behind their massive backs but clearly thought that it was normal stuff. "Sneaking off to the kitchen I see. Chocolate cake, Goyle? How many though?" He pointed at the thick icing covering the lower half of the living rock's chin. He laid down on his bed watching Goyle shake his boulder size head in denial. Crabbe sent him an elbow to the stomach that would have knocked anyone else out. Goyle glared at him but then smiled guiltily showing his cake ice-cream and other desert covered teeth.
"Very well." Draco plummeted off to sleep leaving the other two to bustle about.
***-
"So do they like their new captain and new keeper?" Hermoine asked as the two other boys stepped through the portrait dirt covered and exhausted. Both looked as if they had won the wizarding lotto.
Hermoine sat patiently awaiting their epic and exaggerated tale of this night's occurrence. Quidditch practice. Lupin followed them in, just as dirty and happy. For each house an adult had been hired for security this year, due to the recent uprising in Voldemort. Lupin had been picked for Gryffindor and when he had to go watch while the team practiced, he had obviously been asked to substitute for a missing player and had played the part well.
"And professor, what did you play as?" Hermoine asked resting her history book on her lap and looking up at his goofy, wild grin.
"It's no longer professor, as I am not one. Just Remus… or in the case of tonight, I am Alicia." His grin grew even larger as he added the last bit. Fred and George, both heavily splattered and caked in mud, raced over at hearing this.
"Oh Alicia Spinnet, there is something I must tell you. You look so beautiful tonight…"
"…I thought I just might die when you rode past me on your broom…"
"…You are ever so graceful…"
"…And amazing…"
"…And perfect…"
"… Would you do me the great honor as to be my wife?" Both twins had wrapped him in their arms and were inching closer with puckered lips as he tried to back off. Just as Ginny came in.
"Please don't let me interrupt anything," she said with a wry smile, while the twins backed off and pretended to be embarrassed.
"Where were you Ginny?" Ron had suddenly lost his cheerful attitude and was staring at her with silted eyes.
"Looking for Merlin." She strode passed him, the cat trailing obediently at her side, acting as if it would never run off.
"Which boy, may I ask, was helping you look for Merlin?" Ron stood, showing her that he was still several inches taller than she was. As if that had any effect on her!
"Let's see… DUMBLEDORE and SNAPE, you Moron! I was not out on a midnight escapade as you always enjoy claiming I am. Doubt me, Brother? Take out that godforsaken sneakascope you gave Harry and I'll say it until I turn blue in the face. I was not out with anyone, and if I had been I would not have come prancing into the commons pronouncing my presence with comments as I did!" She levitated her feet a few inches of the ground, something no one else in the room could do, and bellowed in Ron's face. Then stalked off through the girls' dormitory.
"Somehow," Lupin began with a small laugh lightening the mood, "I can't see Professor Snape looking for anyone's cat." Everyone laughed and he pulled out his wand and transfigured his face temporarily into Snape's. Everyone gasped then laughed some more as he bent down and crawled on the floor looking for an invisible something.
"Here Kitty- Kitty- Kitty!" The rest of the Quidditch team plus Hermoine burst into gales of laughter. He gently grasped Hermoine leg and lifted it looking underneath her sofa. She giggled terribly.
"Girl!" he cried standing up quickly, and forcefully pulling Hermoine up. She accidentally fell into him a little. "What is that cat's name? Ah… Rose petal that's right." He turned Snape's face into a ugly sneer and cried out 'Rose Petal where are you?' He suddenly turned back to his normal self and fell on to the couch with warm laughter. The twins applauded him.
"That was dangerous you know?" Hermoine began, but stopped her usual lecturing face and smiled. "What if your face got stuck like that forever?"
He looked horrified for a second then laughed.
"Think of what she said though…" Harry said, thoughtful for a second before allowing him a mischievous grin. "If what she said was true then Creevy and Neville are the least of your worries Ron." He put his wand to his face and changed to Dumbledore.
He took Hermoine's hand and stood her up.
"Love, true love, is a once in a lifetime thing. Ginny, we must seize the opportunity…" The whole room laughed and pretended to be sick. "Age is of no matter to me…" he added just before turning back to a flushing and laughing Harry.
"Well, no honestly, does age matter? Or just love? Not that I agree with Ginny and Dumbledore…" Katie Bell said.
"Oh yes, very much." Everyone turned to Fred to see if he was joking. His face was dead serious. "I prefer older girls…"
"Like dear Angelina, perhaps?" George asked poking him in the ribs. "I'd have to say I prefer younger myself, but if the right one came along I don't think age would matter. What about you Katie?"
She blushed, being a year younger than Fred, hearing his speech on girls, then having to be called upon next. "I prefer older guys, but I wouldn't mind terribly if they were younger. And how about Captain Quidditch?" She answered addressing Harry.
"Doesn't matter. I'm not that picky… And our keeper?"
"French… and blond." The boys whooped loudly, the tips of Ron's ears burned red. The girls scowled and turned to Hermoine. "Yeah bookworm, it's your turn, but don't be too truthful or they'll set Fang on ya." Ron cried out.
"I think that when Harry briefly turned into Dumbledore it made him wiser. I agree that true love is rare so seize the moment and age doesn't matter… Hey don't look at me like that. I wouldn't go as far as to do it with a guy that's a hundred and ten…" Hermoine blushed incredibly red.
"Woof Woof!" Cried out Ron in imitation of Fang waiting for comments to fly. They did but not as he expected.
"He's a hundred and ten?"
"What? That's crazy, how can you tell?"
"This coming from the girl that dated a world idol Quidditch player at least three years older than her… When we get back we'll talk to a dog-like professor who turned temporarily insane and transfigured his head into Snape's… Back to you Fred."
"George cut the sports commentary crap. I'm serious! And as you all want to know, Dumbledore's birthday is in three weeks, I overheard the faculty talking about it. He's currently expected to live till he's a hundred and fifty. Now back off!" Hermoine's face was no longer red from embarrassment but instead flushed from yelling.
"I've already got my present," Remus said breaking the awkward silence. "Socks!"
"Don't even think of changing the subject," Hermoine said looking up at him suddenly. "It's your turn."
"That's not fair, you all know that I don't date girls…"
"So than how do you prefer your guys?" Hermoine was determined to get some sort of answer out of him. The others smirked at her cheek and quick-witted response.
"You know I don't mean it like that, Hermoine. Girls don't just go around dating werewolves. It's strictly permitted to have a werewolf get married. Werewolves having children could get you into Azkaban, for life!-"
"Forget about that for one second." She had placed a cool comforting hand on his cheek to stop him from pacing. The others in the room were barley aware of what was going in the two's heads. Remus took her hand and placed his own over it where it lay against his face. His skin was like fire and hers like ice.
"It wouldn't matter… If I had the choice to date, age wouldn't matter." He said staring directly in her eyes. "Feelings would matter, looks wouldn't much, but even girls realize that slightly against guy's wills that looks are the first thing that enter their head when they meet a girl. Why else would girls wear makeup? Background, religion, ethnicity, none of that I would worry about. She would just have to care and be understanding, someone to lean on when things got tough, but someone that would come to me when they needed help…" He looked away towards the fire, dropping her hand, to hide a tear of frustration.
'Obviously she didn't know that it hurts to think of these things… Things I haven't and never will experience. She wouldn't have pushed had she known.' He ran a hand over his face and through his filthy hair in hopes to hide the wet patch on his face. Instead it had made it more evident smearing the dry caked mud on his face. When he turned back Hermoine wasn't the only one to notice.
"I am off to sleep, walk me to my bed Romeo?" Katie hooked George's chin with her finger, pulling him with little effort toward him. He caught on quickly.
"I am suddenly in the mood to write Angelina!" Fred cried and rushed to the dorm after him.
"Highly doubted, I think he wants to check out the other twin and his new girl or so it seems. Tag! Your it, and if you don't catch me by the time I get to our dorm, you… have to eat three of Hagrid's rock cakes next visit." Harry looked frightened by this and chased him after calling out 'three?' with much exasperation.
The common room was empty except for Lupin still staring at Hermoine, as she stared back.
"Look Profe- Remus. I didn't know-…"
"Forget about it." He pulled off the heavy red Quidditch Robes and was now wearing just his undershirt and some worn out jeans. He sat in front of the fire in the sofa next to Hermoine who had her book in her lap and was sitting Indian style surrounded by work..
'She's gorgeous. She has never had a problem with boys probably. She would never understand what I feel like.' Remus thought turning back to the fire. He fell asleep unaware that Hermoine wasn't reading or studying but instead staring at him. She knew his life must have been terrible and filled with tragedy.
'In truth,' she thought to herself, 'he is probably the kind of guy I would like, and would have wanted if I had been born in his time.' She rethought over his words carefully. His words were understandable, and those that a famous movie star would have said but never really meant as they dated super models.
***-
"Let's go to my dormitory to talk. The guys won't be too gossipy and the only other one that should be awake is Fred. They really don't mind girls being brought up there anyway, as it happens so often." George had taken her hand and led her into the boys 7th year dorms. He sat on his bed and patted the side, motioning her to follow. She did and he closed the curtain around them.
"That was so sad. He must feel horrible." She said as George sat with his arms wrapped around her stomach.
"It's not even his fault he's that way. What he's been through, I doubt I could survive his life." George said breathing in her vanilla smell. It was common yet mixed in with the dirt and grass from Quidditch, uniquely her own.
"What's strange is that Hermoine seems perfect for him…"
"Yeah but not everyone would be OK with the age difference the way we are…"
He gently kissed the back of her neck and she slid further into his support. She laughed as the kisses tickled her neck. Suddenly the curtain flung open.
"Rats!" Fred yelled along with a string of other colorful language. "I was hoping to catch you in the middle of something more… well SOMETHING. George you're a hopeless romantic, and sometimes it frightens me that we are twins."
George and Katie just laughed.
End of Chapter one.
A/N Are you curious yet how I'm gonna hook them up? Well? Are you? Review if I should continue!
TigerWolf
Disclaimer: I burrowed them… So what? Just play nice and don't sue, K? Really they are JKR's.
"It's bound to work master. We are certain to have the Potter boy. With him out of the way the wizarding world… the muggle world…. Why the world in its entirety is yours to control."
"And Lucius, your certain your son will not rebel in his works…"
"Why of course. The boy hates Harry. As much as you do master-'"
"Fool! No being on this godforsaken planet loathes the boy as I do. Not one soul had to live as a parasite on the bodies of the serpent family- the only family I had at times. Yes they remained loyal to me, when you would not suffer through Azkaban for me, they gave lives endlessly until I could inhabit something larger and more powerful. But I forgave you and openly accepted you back to me. Wormtail! Yes it is you who will decide who at Hogwarts shall be deemed worthy, if not Malfoy's son."
"Ye-yes ma-ma-ma-master."
A man in thick heavy black robes pulled himself from where he had been standing in a tight circle of men surrounded by a larger one. Each step he took was jerky and forceful looking, seeming as if it were dangerous task that meant life or death. He finally made it to the center where a man much taller than he in a hooded cloak of a similar black silk that hid most of his face except for two glowing large blood-red eyes and a mouth of fang like sharp teeth. Next to him stood another mere member of the inner circle, pale with dark eyes and a scowl so deep it looked as if had been set that way for years, almost liked carved stone. His eyes traced menacingly over 'Wormtail' as the member of the dark service was so often called.
The new man beneath the hood shivered, quickly hoping that his robes were thick enough to not let anyone else notice. He bowed heavily, his head ranging around the same height as the upper hems on the long robes the other men wore, and he got on to one knee, never glancing up. As if the hood was to heavy to lift off with one hand he grasped both sets of fingers around the edge, only feeling the touch of the worn old fabric with one set. The other glittered of a strange metal and powerful magic. He pulled back the hood and the moonlight fell over his strangely aged features for such a young man. He ran a quick hand through his thinning hair.
"Ma-m-master, I am not sure it should be me who-"
"Silence Wormtail! You have spent three years at the castle they call Hogwarts. Certainly you didn't spend it all as a rat. Now tell us who it shall be!" Wormtail whimpered knowing that much of that time he had spent sleeping and hiding away from everything under the boy's bed. He strained hard to properly remember something, anything at all that would impress his dark lord.
"The potions master!" he spit out rather savagely, then quickly raised his head to make sure that the man he was preparing to sabotage wasn't there to hear it. The potion master's angry face flashed through his memory.
"Relax Peter, he isn't here." Came the smooth drawling voice of Lucius. "Tell us the importance of him, behind his back… just the way you always do." Peter moaned but vengeance fought it's way back.
"The Malfoy boy, my lord, has a terrible fondness of him… he would not be a likely candidate for this j-job."
Malfoy snapped shut his mouth and stared at Wormtail with hungry and hateful eyes making Wormtail squirm and look downward. He breathed in a shocked gasp as a snake the length of two and a half broom sticks and as thick as his upper arm in most places and thicker yet in others slid over the shiny surface of his boots each of it's thousands of scales rattling as it passed over the top of his boots. It glittered like a blood-bathed sword in the brink of the night.
He jetted his eyes away from this and instead looked upward at the jeering crowd of Death Eaters who knew that if their son was picked it would mean that they would instantly be moved to the greatest evil's inner circle. He looked frantically around at the entire circle gazing inward at him with power-hungry eyes blazing under the hoods.
"Cr-Crabbe and Goyle mas-t-ter," Wormtail whimpered out frightened, knowing since they were the biggest as were their fathers that he would be safest with them on his side and not looking to kill him at the first possible chance.
"Both?" Voldemort asked.
"Y-yes they are equal in b-brute strength and w-would n-n-n-ever turn against y-you, my lord." He did not wish to mention that they would never think to turn against him because they didn't think much at all.
"Very well, Wormtail. The plan shall be put to action by those to students. You may return to your places. I need to speak with Goyle and Crabbe."
"Th-Thank you mas-master."
Snape sighed and wiped the back of his palm against his sweaty forehead. The dungeons were at a bone chilling, teeth chattering temperature, but beads of sweat formed on his temple instantly, making it seem that he had never wiped them away in the first place. He knew that for certain the Dark Lord and his followers were planing to kill Harry. The problem was the question of how. They wouldn't tell him. They were obviously aware of his disloyalty to their side.
He had wished death upon the Potter boy countless times hadn't he? Well who wouldn't after the rivalry he had been through with the boy's father over Lily? And then that terrible accident. He had wished it but instant cold regret followed. Just as it had begun to throb in his head robbing him of all of his thoughts of security the night the Dark Mark had been placed on his arm. Was it really that if the boy died that Voldemort would be able to take reign and rule the world? Was it in truth as the Dark Lord promised every meeting at his castle like mansion?
He pulled his mind from these thoughts as the large heavy oak door swung open to reveal the usually posh lord-like face of Draco Malfoy. He too looked under a great deal of stress, and clenched in a tight fist was a small sheet of thick and expensive parchment.
"Draco, what is it?" The Professor stared with high concern at his favorite student. His lips were pulled so tight they had become as white as the knuckles on Draco's fist. He had a terrible clue on whom the letter was from and what was to be read off it.
"It is from Father." Much expected, the answer was leaving no effect on the older man's face. The young man looking near sixteen and holding a light of terrified fear in his eye, swallowed visibly and handed it to the other.
Draco,
You have failed me, and hid the truth from me and for that you will be punished severely. Terrible it was, to have your fault on whom to console with brought to my attention in front of the entire Death Eater society. It was dear Peter who has told us all of your need and respect for the filthy betraying Potions Master. For your mistake I was so luckily forgiven by the ever patient Dark Lord and his minions. However, you will not be so… lucky shall we put it? Wish to run and hide? You have no choice as I have cursed the letter to destroy it's self in five minute of opening, initial opening. (You can not try your stupid tricks and close and reset this one as I have discovered you have done with the other. Even if your filthy Professor gets his hands on this it will not be around long enough to show the head master. As a closing note, pack your things, I feel it is time for you to transfer to Drumstrang.
Lucius
"How long has the letter been open?" Snape spun quickly to Draco.
"3 and a half, sir." Draco watched, amazed, as with a flick of his wrist Dumbledore was summoned through the fireplace.
"You called, Servus?" The headmaster let his old hands brush some of the soot from his robes but did not waste time, knowing that only for emergencies was this method used to summon him. Snape thrust the letter into the oldest man's frail fingers and he scanned it over quickly. He sighed as it became transparent and then disappeared completely leaving his hands empty of all but the cold still air hanging thick around them.
"It would have been enough, wouldn't it?" Draco asked, anger flaming in his eyes that were usually icy gray. "It would have been enough to trace it back to him and send him to Azkaban. He would never talk to me or lay a hand on my mother again, right?"
No one answered. His questions turned stale holding their place unanswered.
"Is there nothing we can do Headmaster?" Servus finally asked raising his head to look in to the old man's eyes. The old man was peering off into a shadowy corner how ever.
"What exactly are you doing present here at this time, miss Weasley?" He asked startling the other two.
She stood so that her pale skin that wasn't being masked by the shadows was dimly glowing in the moon light.
"Looking for Merlin," she said with a bit of cheek.
"Don't play stupid with that kind of nonsense girl! Merlin has been dead for centuries!" Snape spat out bitterly. She shrugged pushing a lock of crimson hair behind her ear and let out a small whistle. A powder gray cat with eyes the same glass bottle blue as Dumbledore's swiftly dashed over with a quick leap was in Ginny's arms. If she was lying she obviously played the part well. A white t-shirt and long blue pj pants framed her slim body.
"Miss Virginia, if you will sit here silently than I will finish up with them and you will have a little chat about punishment for being awake and out of dormitories at this time at night." She followed Dumbledore's instructions and sat on a nearby table scratching at the pepper gray ears of Merlin, her cat.
"At the time I can think of nothing possible to do about it except perhaps play that it never came…"
"That wouldn't work. Father puts locating devices on my mail so that I am certain to get it." Draco grumbled, sending envious glances in Ginny's direction as she played carelessly with her cat.
"There is no spell strong enough that I can think of to bring it back, even temporarily." Snape racked his brain for possible solutions.
"What about potions?" Ginny offered up, sitting up a bit and stopping her humming of The Weird Sister's newest hit, 'You light my fire, I kindle your flame'.
"It has to be there to pour it on, you can't just produce a replica… Do you not listen in class?" Snape yelled, more aggravated that his own subject couldn't produce a working solution, than at Ginny in general.
Dumbledore though had a small twinkle in his eye.
"Don't be daft! I know that! I mean use a time turner and invisibility cloak. Make the potion before hand and then slip an invisibility potion on the letter, take it from Dumbledore, slide it under the cloak, and add the second potion to it when it becomes visible again. That's all!" She smiled as the realization wore onto the other's faces.
"It would take a long time to brew and then we would have to wait forever to get back to the present time." Snape scowled at realizing this problem.
"No you're wrong." She stopped for a second to see his reaction and take in the moment that she had told her least favorite teacher that he was wrong. "If we take the time turner and flip it in the reverse direction it takes you into the future. According to A Time of Travel by Harloy Shorthand, when the time turner was first created it had the ability to go forward and backward. Since then the ministry put spells on them to stop people from going to the future. We just have to break that spell and we've got it made."
She laid back down on the table holding the squirming kitten above her as she went back to her light singing. She was conscious though not visibly showing it that the others were staring at her.
"Just a spark, some smoke in the dark, a bright blue flame, you are mine to tame…" Snape snapped his eyes away from her temporarily. She was smart, and had a true talent in potions though he would never have admitted that to her. Clever as the Granger girl at times. He could see no problem with her solution…
The doors flew wide again and in walked a girl in a pink nightgown of rich silk. A pug-like sneering face held it's self atop it, like a glowing crystal ball atop a blue velvet tablecloth. Right now neither of the two were sounding too appealing, accept that a crystal ball might be able to tell them if their plan would succeed.
"Miss Parkinson, please tell me why you are up this late and here now?" Snape had always admired the way that the headmaster could keep his voice so calm when people interrupted him as they did.
Pansy gawked at him as if the answer should have been so obvious. "Looking for Draco. And why is she here?" Pansy strode forward and glanced at the headmaster before glaring at the girl lying on hard wood table. Draco's high cheekbones turned a dark crimson and he looked away, with a different kind of anger in his eyes.
"What is it that you want with Draco at this time at night?" Snape asked, barley interested usually with student's affairs. This one how ever struck him as quite odd. Ginny thought so as well as she turned her head towards Pansy to watch her squirm as Ginny smiled hungrily Draco. Pansy squealed looking incredulously at Draco and then Ginny. She pushed her own frail framed body between the two of them and backed up against Draco. Looking positively unhappy with this arrangement he backed away, making her fall into a chair.
"Draco, what are you doing here? With her?" Pansy's voice quivered a bit as she spoke this, still ignoring the professor's question.
"Miss Parkinson, I would like to ask that you settle your affairs with Mr. Malfoy at a more convenient time… Perhaps in the morning." Draco nodded, agreeing with Dumbledore.
She began to protest, but a high pitched hiss reached her ears. She turned around slowly to see Merlin with an arched back and sharp nails.
"Little demon!" She whispered it with much fear and the cat moved closer. "Again!" She shrunk back and slipped down in her chair and then burst out of the room with the cat nipping menacingly at her heels.
"So that's where he's been all evening." Ginny peered off after them with grim satisfaction. The professor let a thin-lipped smile of amusement escape his face. Dumbledore let out a small chuckle before realizing that a complaint would be cast in the morning about it, and word might possibly get back to her father.
"The forth and fifth year project can be moved up I suppose so that we can postpone your travels, Draco, until we can unlock the time turner to be able to cast a spell on the letter." Dumbledore spoke and Snape and Draco just nodded. Ginny watched as the meeting returned to its sullen state after a brief bit of comedic relief. She was slightly disappointed as both of the Slytherns had looked human and worth being around for a moment or two.
"…We will start preparation in the morning. Ginny, can you be here at 6?" She blinked twice and shook her head to make sure she had heard correctly. They wanted her help.
"Ye-yeah, I'll be here." She spoke looking down and around her, carefully avoiding their faces.
"Good!" Dumbledore looked cheerful and quite awake but she was suddenly so sleepy realizing that she would have to get up at six. It was already… what… one thirty, two? "Let's get some sleep then." She walked off and up toward the Gryffindor corridor, only pausing briefly when called by Draco.
"Yes?" She prepared herself to be morally beaten about her hair, and poverty, her large family, being there when she should keep her nose in her own business, and anything else he could think of at the moment.
"Thanks." That was it. With that he turned and walked off, leaving her dead in her own footprints, staring after him.
She finally caught herself as she felt Merlin rubbing against her legs in tight figure eights. She laughed as she noticed a piece of pink silk in his mouth. She picked him up and slipped back to the nearest window. She summoned an owl (something she had taught herself to do the previous year) and put a rush request for Griffin hair. She had been running low and so had Snape she noticed last time that she had been in his store closet for two hours on a dare.
She turned on one heel and began her way back to the commons.
***- in other parts of the castle.
"Why were we chosen rather than Malfoy you think?" Crabbe said as he reread the letter sent to him and Goyle. He held the black bottle with a watery solution in it tightly. The pale gray stopper looked carved out of bone with a skull and snake chizled in it. He smiled and turned to his best friend.
"I think its because he the master isn't being trusting him." (A/N their grammar is bad on purpose. No I am not that stupid!) Goyle and Crabbe grinned feeling that they were truly being sly and crafty to have come up with such an elaborate answer. Just then Draco walked in.
"What have you two been up to in my lack of presence?" Draco clearly had noticed their hands hidden behind their massive backs but clearly thought that it was normal stuff. "Sneaking off to the kitchen I see. Chocolate cake, Goyle? How many though?" He pointed at the thick icing covering the lower half of the living rock's chin. He laid down on his bed watching Goyle shake his boulder size head in denial. Crabbe sent him an elbow to the stomach that would have knocked anyone else out. Goyle glared at him but then smiled guiltily showing his cake ice-cream and other desert covered teeth.
"Very well." Draco plummeted off to sleep leaving the other two to bustle about.
***-
"So do they like their new captain and new keeper?" Hermoine asked as the two other boys stepped through the portrait dirt covered and exhausted. Both looked as if they had won the wizarding lotto.
Hermoine sat patiently awaiting their epic and exaggerated tale of this night's occurrence. Quidditch practice. Lupin followed them in, just as dirty and happy. For each house an adult had been hired for security this year, due to the recent uprising in Voldemort. Lupin had been picked for Gryffindor and when he had to go watch while the team practiced, he had obviously been asked to substitute for a missing player and had played the part well.
"And professor, what did you play as?" Hermoine asked resting her history book on her lap and looking up at his goofy, wild grin.
"It's no longer professor, as I am not one. Just Remus… or in the case of tonight, I am Alicia." His grin grew even larger as he added the last bit. Fred and George, both heavily splattered and caked in mud, raced over at hearing this.
"Oh Alicia Spinnet, there is something I must tell you. You look so beautiful tonight…"
"…I thought I just might die when you rode past me on your broom…"
"…You are ever so graceful…"
"…And amazing…"
"…And perfect…"
"… Would you do me the great honor as to be my wife?" Both twins had wrapped him in their arms and were inching closer with puckered lips as he tried to back off. Just as Ginny came in.
"Please don't let me interrupt anything," she said with a wry smile, while the twins backed off and pretended to be embarrassed.
"Where were you Ginny?" Ron had suddenly lost his cheerful attitude and was staring at her with silted eyes.
"Looking for Merlin." She strode passed him, the cat trailing obediently at her side, acting as if it would never run off.
"Which boy, may I ask, was helping you look for Merlin?" Ron stood, showing her that he was still several inches taller than she was. As if that had any effect on her!
"Let's see… DUMBLEDORE and SNAPE, you Moron! I was not out on a midnight escapade as you always enjoy claiming I am. Doubt me, Brother? Take out that godforsaken sneakascope you gave Harry and I'll say it until I turn blue in the face. I was not out with anyone, and if I had been I would not have come prancing into the commons pronouncing my presence with comments as I did!" She levitated her feet a few inches of the ground, something no one else in the room could do, and bellowed in Ron's face. Then stalked off through the girls' dormitory.
"Somehow," Lupin began with a small laugh lightening the mood, "I can't see Professor Snape looking for anyone's cat." Everyone laughed and he pulled out his wand and transfigured his face temporarily into Snape's. Everyone gasped then laughed some more as he bent down and crawled on the floor looking for an invisible something.
"Here Kitty- Kitty- Kitty!" The rest of the Quidditch team plus Hermoine burst into gales of laughter. He gently grasped Hermoine leg and lifted it looking underneath her sofa. She giggled terribly.
"Girl!" he cried standing up quickly, and forcefully pulling Hermoine up. She accidentally fell into him a little. "What is that cat's name? Ah… Rose petal that's right." He turned Snape's face into a ugly sneer and cried out 'Rose Petal where are you?' He suddenly turned back to his normal self and fell on to the couch with warm laughter. The twins applauded him.
"That was dangerous you know?" Hermoine began, but stopped her usual lecturing face and smiled. "What if your face got stuck like that forever?"
He looked horrified for a second then laughed.
"Think of what she said though…" Harry said, thoughtful for a second before allowing him a mischievous grin. "If what she said was true then Creevy and Neville are the least of your worries Ron." He put his wand to his face and changed to Dumbledore.
He took Hermoine's hand and stood her up.
"Love, true love, is a once in a lifetime thing. Ginny, we must seize the opportunity…" The whole room laughed and pretended to be sick. "Age is of no matter to me…" he added just before turning back to a flushing and laughing Harry.
"Well, no honestly, does age matter? Or just love? Not that I agree with Ginny and Dumbledore…" Katie Bell said.
"Oh yes, very much." Everyone turned to Fred to see if he was joking. His face was dead serious. "I prefer older girls…"
"Like dear Angelina, perhaps?" George asked poking him in the ribs. "I'd have to say I prefer younger myself, but if the right one came along I don't think age would matter. What about you Katie?"
She blushed, being a year younger than Fred, hearing his speech on girls, then having to be called upon next. "I prefer older guys, but I wouldn't mind terribly if they were younger. And how about Captain Quidditch?" She answered addressing Harry.
"Doesn't matter. I'm not that picky… And our keeper?"
"French… and blond." The boys whooped loudly, the tips of Ron's ears burned red. The girls scowled and turned to Hermoine. "Yeah bookworm, it's your turn, but don't be too truthful or they'll set Fang on ya." Ron cried out.
"I think that when Harry briefly turned into Dumbledore it made him wiser. I agree that true love is rare so seize the moment and age doesn't matter… Hey don't look at me like that. I wouldn't go as far as to do it with a guy that's a hundred and ten…" Hermoine blushed incredibly red.
"Woof Woof!" Cried out Ron in imitation of Fang waiting for comments to fly. They did but not as he expected.
"He's a hundred and ten?"
"What? That's crazy, how can you tell?"
"This coming from the girl that dated a world idol Quidditch player at least three years older than her… When we get back we'll talk to a dog-like professor who turned temporarily insane and transfigured his head into Snape's… Back to you Fred."
"George cut the sports commentary crap. I'm serious! And as you all want to know, Dumbledore's birthday is in three weeks, I overheard the faculty talking about it. He's currently expected to live till he's a hundred and fifty. Now back off!" Hermoine's face was no longer red from embarrassment but instead flushed from yelling.
"I've already got my present," Remus said breaking the awkward silence. "Socks!"
"Don't even think of changing the subject," Hermoine said looking up at him suddenly. "It's your turn."
"That's not fair, you all know that I don't date girls…"
"So than how do you prefer your guys?" Hermoine was determined to get some sort of answer out of him. The others smirked at her cheek and quick-witted response.
"You know I don't mean it like that, Hermoine. Girls don't just go around dating werewolves. It's strictly permitted to have a werewolf get married. Werewolves having children could get you into Azkaban, for life!-"
"Forget about that for one second." She had placed a cool comforting hand on his cheek to stop him from pacing. The others in the room were barley aware of what was going in the two's heads. Remus took her hand and placed his own over it where it lay against his face. His skin was like fire and hers like ice.
"It wouldn't matter… If I had the choice to date, age wouldn't matter." He said staring directly in her eyes. "Feelings would matter, looks wouldn't much, but even girls realize that slightly against guy's wills that looks are the first thing that enter their head when they meet a girl. Why else would girls wear makeup? Background, religion, ethnicity, none of that I would worry about. She would just have to care and be understanding, someone to lean on when things got tough, but someone that would come to me when they needed help…" He looked away towards the fire, dropping her hand, to hide a tear of frustration.
'Obviously she didn't know that it hurts to think of these things… Things I haven't and never will experience. She wouldn't have pushed had she known.' He ran a hand over his face and through his filthy hair in hopes to hide the wet patch on his face. Instead it had made it more evident smearing the dry caked mud on his face. When he turned back Hermoine wasn't the only one to notice.
"I am off to sleep, walk me to my bed Romeo?" Katie hooked George's chin with her finger, pulling him with little effort toward him. He caught on quickly.
"I am suddenly in the mood to write Angelina!" Fred cried and rushed to the dorm after him.
"Highly doubted, I think he wants to check out the other twin and his new girl or so it seems. Tag! Your it, and if you don't catch me by the time I get to our dorm, you… have to eat three of Hagrid's rock cakes next visit." Harry looked frightened by this and chased him after calling out 'three?' with much exasperation.
The common room was empty except for Lupin still staring at Hermoine, as she stared back.
"Look Profe- Remus. I didn't know-…"
"Forget about it." He pulled off the heavy red Quidditch Robes and was now wearing just his undershirt and some worn out jeans. He sat in front of the fire in the sofa next to Hermoine who had her book in her lap and was sitting Indian style surrounded by work..
'She's gorgeous. She has never had a problem with boys probably. She would never understand what I feel like.' Remus thought turning back to the fire. He fell asleep unaware that Hermoine wasn't reading or studying but instead staring at him. She knew his life must have been terrible and filled with tragedy.
'In truth,' she thought to herself, 'he is probably the kind of guy I would like, and would have wanted if I had been born in his time.' She rethought over his words carefully. His words were understandable, and those that a famous movie star would have said but never really meant as they dated super models.
***-
"Let's go to my dormitory to talk. The guys won't be too gossipy and the only other one that should be awake is Fred. They really don't mind girls being brought up there anyway, as it happens so often." George had taken her hand and led her into the boys 7th year dorms. He sat on his bed and patted the side, motioning her to follow. She did and he closed the curtain around them.
"That was so sad. He must feel horrible." She said as George sat with his arms wrapped around her stomach.
"It's not even his fault he's that way. What he's been through, I doubt I could survive his life." George said breathing in her vanilla smell. It was common yet mixed in with the dirt and grass from Quidditch, uniquely her own.
"What's strange is that Hermoine seems perfect for him…"
"Yeah but not everyone would be OK with the age difference the way we are…"
He gently kissed the back of her neck and she slid further into his support. She laughed as the kisses tickled her neck. Suddenly the curtain flung open.
"Rats!" Fred yelled along with a string of other colorful language. "I was hoping to catch you in the middle of something more… well SOMETHING. George you're a hopeless romantic, and sometimes it frightens me that we are twins."
George and Katie just laughed.
End of Chapter one.
A/N Are you curious yet how I'm gonna hook them up? Well? Are you? Review if I should continue!
TigerWolf