A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, I wrote back to you at the bottom. Sorry for the delay, and I hope everyone had good holidays!



Voldemort's Worst Scandal



Chapter Six

Connections



Wormtail was preparing to leave the dismal hideout that Voldemort had so cleverly discovered so that he could go to the Malfoys' manor when Voldemort's voice again rang through the room. Wormtail cringed as it echoed and reverberated back to him over and over, so instead of the single cry of, "WORMTAIL!" It was, "WORMTAIL! WORMTAIL! Wormtail! Wormtail. Wormtail..."

"Yes, Master?" Wormtail replied, shaken. He despised the upcoming part in the conversation-the part where Voldemort spoke. He could never be sure of what Voldemort was going to say, and possibilities swam through his mind like a school of fish as he waited.

"Unpack the filing cabinet. I have a few more plans to add to the 'New Ideas/Untested Plans' drawer."

Wormtail sighed deeply and went over to their pile of unpacked boxes, getting out his wand and preparing to levitate the rusty gray filing cabinet over to Voldemort.

"Oh, and Wormtail?" Voldemort spoke yet again.

"Yes?" he replied.

"That's yes, MASTER."

From his dark, shadowy corner, Wormtail formed defiant fists with his hands yet said nothing except, "Yes, MASTER?"

"Use no magic."

"For what?" asked Wormtail incredulously.

"For bringing me the filing cabinet."

"Why?" Wormtail formed a fist again in anger.

"Why, MASTER." Voldemort corrected patiently.

"Why, MASTER?!"

"Because I enjoy seeing you suffer."

*******************************

Meanwhile, back at the cottage of Malachi and Allegra Antwerp, more than one thousand years previous to Voldemort and Wormtail's conversation, Ron Weasley was in complete and absolute shock.

"The year 987? It can't be! How is it that we've come to be in the year 987?"

"I haven't a clue. All I did was find ye in me field." Malachi answered. He looked slightly confused. "What year is it where you come from?"

Ron sighed, thinking very longingly of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of his classes (except Potions and Divination, of course), of the Great Hall with its many floating candles. "It was the year 1997," he began, and then went on to describe life at Hogwarts. Then he continued explaining how he ended up there.

"All I remember about before we arrived here is.floating, then the feeling that the earth was ripping apart and that I was getting sucked into.somewhere," he said, "then I hit the ground in your field. The wind was knocked out of me. I started to panic, once I got my breath back, because I had no idea where I was. Then I found Hermione, and I'm assuming that the impact of hitting the ground knocked her out.

"Since I had found Hermione, I was even more anxious because I knew we had to find shelter. It looked like a storm was brewing, for rain was falling harder and harder. I saw you, Malachi, moving in the shadows, so I figured I'd better get your attention, with or without the risk that you could be a foe. And here we are."

Allegra's eyes misted with tears and she quickly crossed the room and hugged Ron tightly. "I believe you," she said softly into his ear. "It's the craziest story I've ever heard, but I believe you."

"Well, there's one way to find out," Malachi said. "I'll be right back."

His chair creaked as Malachi got up slowly. He trudged reluctantly over to one of the many wooden cabinets in the cottage and opened it slowly. Malachi moved all of the bottles inside around and drew out a particularly threatening-looking one. It probably only looked threatening to Malachi, because he wanted to believe the story Ron told, but he wasn't sure. He wanted it to be true...

The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Malachi came back and said, "This is a truth potion. Veritaserum, to be precise. All you have to do is take a sip, and then you'll have to answer all of our questions truthfully."

"Okay," Ron agreed, inwardly unsure of it. What would a potion that was (to his body) over a thousand years old do to him?

But just as Ron was about to take a sip of the potion, Hermione stirred by the fireplace. Ron almost dropped the bottle containing the Veritiserum potion and leaped over to her side. A soft moan escaped her dry lips and her face, though still deadly pale, was beginning to regain color. Her chestnut curls hung limply, half-dry from the rainstorm she had been in previously.

But despite her rather unconvincing looks, Hermione's eyelids fluttered open suddenly. She looked around, confused, taking in the cottage and Malachi and Allegra. Then, seeing Ron hovering over her, she sat up abruptly.

"Ron," she said in a serious, please-tell-me-everything's-all-right voice, "Where are we?"

Ron took a deep breath. "I know this will come as a surprise, but I know you're the rational, smart one and somehow you'll figure everything out, no matter what. But before I tell you, I have to ask you something."

"What is it? Why do you have to ask me before you tell me where we are?" Hermione squinted as though she was trying to read Ron's expression through his eyes.

"Just trust me. What's the last thing you remember from before you woke up?"

Hermione's face clouded for a moment as she thought. "Well, do you mean before or after the world collapsed?"

Smiling wryly, Ron said, "Before."

"Um...the house-elf gave us butterbeers and then I just froze, and THEN that was when the world collapsed. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"Yes! Thank you so much, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. He threw his arms around her, glad to be able to remember what had happened to them. Hermione stiffly returned the hug and then knocked Ron back to his senses.

"So where are we?"

As Ron commenced to tell her about what had happened and introduced her to Malachi and Allegra, other things were happening in the world of 1997.



**********************

Wormtail cowered in the dark wood-paneled study of Lucius Malfoy. He had just explained the story of what had happened when he put the poison into the butterbeers, and Lucius was about to explode.

"YOU did WHAT with my SON?" Lucius roared. "MY only HEIR? The HEIR of MALFOY ESTATES?"

"It wasn't intentional, sir, believe me!" Wormtail explained. "I must have mislabeled the bottles when Master made me! He is seeing what it was that young Draco drank at this moment!"

"I don't care, you whimpering, blithering, idiotic excuse for a Death Eater! That is my SON and I want him BACK!" When Wormtail tried to speak again, Lucius raised a finger to silence him. "I have had enough!" and with that, he shouted, "Crucio!" and Wormtail collapsed in agony.

After the curse ended, Lucius said, "Now what was the message that the Dark Lord had for me?"

"I-I w-w-was to bring y-y-y-you b-back to him," Wormtail stuttered, still very much in pain and taking deep breaths as he tried to regain his composure.

"Well, come then," Lucius said, and with a *pop* they both Disapparated to Voldemort's lair. Upon their arrival, Voldemort had some news.

"Well, fortunately, I have discovered the identity of the potion which careless Wormtail placed in the Gryffindor (and Slytherin) butterbeers. It was Portkey-in-a-Jar, (A/N: see bottom for full description) which I am sure you are both aware of. It has taken them to sometime in the past," Voldemort said.

"But when, Master?" Lucius asked. "What date in time?"

"I was just getting to that part, Lucius. We only had ever had 3 Portkey- in-a-Jar bottles. Therefore we have three different dates. One is 1692, one is 1254, and one is 987. We shall have to try and discover which one it was, and then both of you will go back to their time and bring back Harry Potter and Draco."

"What about that Mudblood, and the Weasleys?" inquired Wormtail.

"Kill them. We have no use for them. But I fear that you will have to go back to all of the times I stated above, for that will be the only way to find them. You will take with you a detector device, which will find Harry Potter. Whichever time he is in, the device will go off," said Voldemort.

"But how will we find the others?" asked Wormtail.

"Wormtail, Wormtail. Must I explain everything to you with such clarity? Wherever there is Harry Potter, his little comrades are sure to tag along."





*****************************



"So where's Harry?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Well..." he said.

"Where's Harry?" she repeated.

"You see..."

"I said, where is Harry?" By now her voice was down to a deadly whisper.

"We can't find him," Ron admitted, knowing better than to defy Hermione when she spoke in that tone of voice.

"You can't find my boyfriend? You can't..." she appeared about to break down but then got ahold of herself. "We'll find him."

"Okay, whatever you say. Just keep thinking about what happened to us and I'll do all the worrying about Harry."

"I know what happened," Hermione concluded confidently after a long pause. "Someone tampered with our butterbeers and so when we all drank them, they took us here. The question is what the potion was that they put into the butterbeer."

"And what about the necklaces?" asked Allegra.

"They all are connected by the animals. Mine has an owl, for example, and on the back are the other animals but not the owl. Ron's is a hawk, and it has all the animals on the back besides the hawk. So the hawk represents him, the owl represents me, the deer is Ginny," explained Hermione.

"Then who are the dragon and the lion?"

Hermione thought for a moment, then said suddenly, "Does Draco have one?"

They checked, and sure enough, Draco had a necklace of some kind of silver metal, with an onyx stone. The animal was a dragon.

"So the dragon is Draco." Said Hermione.

"And that means..." Ron started.

"Harry's here somewhere!" Hermione hugged Ron tightly. "He's the lion, it symbolizes his bravery and Gryffindor and power and everything. I'm sure of it. And Ginny's the deer, so it symbolizes her gentleness and healing. I'm the owl, so it symbolizes my brainpower, magic, and secrets; Draco's dragon symbolizes intelligence, protection, and ferocity. And Ron, your hawk is for strength, messenger, and decisiveness.

"And the stones...the blue topaz on your stone, Ron, means it promotes peace, calms emotions, and promotes forgiveness-which you need to cure your jealous tendencies. The rhodonite on Ginny's symbolizes the ability to remain calm in arguments and lovingly resolve disagreements-she needs that because of her fiery temper. The jade on mine means it's protective and lucky and symbolizes wisdom and mercy-I always need luck and I have knowledge, but I feel that I have yet to acquire wisdom. And the onyx on Draco's is protective, releases old relationships, and keeps away negativity. He needs that to be able to forget what his father has been teaching him all his life and be friends with others. Also I think he needs protection from himself sometimes.

"So the stones are powerful and help us to overcome our faults!" Hermione concluded finally.

"Where did you learn all that?" Ron asked, staring open-mouthed. Allegra and Malachi were also impressed.

"My aunt was always interested in meanings of things," explained Hermione, "and she gave me some books on the subject."

"When you said she was smart," proclaimed Malachi to Ron, "You didn't say anything about her being a genius!"





A/N: Portkey-in-a-Jar is a Dark Side equal of a Light Side Zonko's joke shop souvenir. It takes the drinker to a random point in time (the year is put on the jar label)



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