A/N: This is from the POV of Penelope.
Harry Potter and the Window of Fate
By Ron Potter
Chapter 3: The First Set of Windows
It feels so good to be back on the train with everyone. Everyone including Padma, Parvati, Ginny, Cho, Marietta, and of course Cedric Diggory who's now in his seventh year.
"Why are you repeating a year voluntarily?" Parvati asked.
"Let's see because I never took O.W.L.'s or N.E.W.T.s," I replied. "I was petrified for my O.W.L.'s and I was a school champion so I didn't have to take N.E.W.T.s."
"So you're going to take your O.W.L.'s this year?" Parvati asked.
"No just N.E.W.T.s," I replied. "I took O.W.L.'s two years ago in my sixth year."
"You know you don't have to take N.E.W.T.s," Cedric said playing with Cho's owl.
"I know but it's the only way I'll have a good chance at being a mediwitch," I replied trying to ignore Cho and Cedric. They just reminded me so much of me and Percy and he's only sent me three owls over the summer.
The train came to a complete stop outside Hogsmeade Station. The familiar voice of Hagrid was no longer there instead I heard a male voice a little bit older than me. So one by one we exited the compartment and then train. Ginny, Parvati, Padma went into one carriage and Cho, Cedric, Marietta, and I went to another carriage.
"Hey look, it's Viktor Krum!" Draco Malfoy shouted from somewhere to the right of our carriage. He and Viktor had become close over the last year. "Over there moving into an old cottage with some nutter old lady." I looked over the top of the carriage next to us and saw around the other side of the lake, a small cottage, and Mrs. Figg and Viktor moving in.
I got rather bored quickly. The conversation on the carriage was drowned by more kisses of Cedric and Cho. Marietta and I weren't the best at friends. Slowly the whole vision was drowning away and I was standing– no floating in a white padded room.
"Hello," I said hearing my own echo. "Is anybody here?"
"Yes Miss Clearwater," the pleasant voice of Dumbledore called. Dumbledore finally came into focus from a red window.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"This is wizard space," Dumbledore said. "It is much like the muggle dream world...well it is the muggle dream dimension. This is only one part of Wizard Space. We can communicate with the ones we've lost here and in some extremely rare cases change how the world works. For example this is what some muggles use in their dreams to conquer or fail. But only seers, oracles, spirits, and legilimency artists can transport here with another individual. Which is why I brought you here. You have been brought here to make a deciding fate for the Wizarding World: evil or no evil. The blue window leads back to evil. The red window leads to pure evil conquering."
I felt paused in time. According to Dumbledore this is where everyone goes when they dream. This is where we communicate Interglobal. This decision wasn't hard at all. I sort of swam over towards the red window, opened it, and crawled through it.
Suddenly I was back on the Hogwarts grounds in front of the castle, but it was very cold like dementors lived here. Surrounding me I could see completely destroyed carriages with the dark mark over each and the dark mark and the Slytherin symbol over Hogwarts Castle. A beautiful 17 foot long snake crawled around my feet not harming me nor did any of the other 20 foot long snakes and thousand dementors. I guess I've chosen the wrong window because up in the headmaster's office, I could see the body of Voldemort sitting there with his snake and a few hooded dementors.
I ran into the Castle, maybe some teachers were still alive and could help but the teacher's lounge corridor was blocked off due to a fire. I could make out Bill Weasley, McGonnagall, and Sinistra's dead bodies dismembered all over the floor.
Then I ran into the headmaster's office where all the portraits of previous headmasters looked frightened. Voldemort and his snake and death eaters were watching from the window upstairs. I made a quick sprint for Godric Gryffindor's sword but before I could reach the desk it sort of came to me and I was transported back to that Wizard Space where Dumbledore stood smiling.
"Nice work Miss Clearwater," Dumbledore said as his voice turned more sinister. "But I'm afraid Ravenclaw was the first to stand up to me." Dumbledore was changing slowly to an old man with a snake's head on his cane and long green and silver robes. "So you, the witness to seeing it all shall die now. Bye bye and tell Lily I hoped she would have been sorted into my house. Avada-"
I cut him off stabbing him through the heart. The basilisk blood on the sword made contact with his flesh as the body or image of Salazar Slytherin was deteriorating down to nothing. Just before he died he said a few words in parcel-tongue that I could understand as "The weapon is mine."
I woke up in the hospital wing surrounded by McGonnagall, Cho, Cedric, Marietta, Ginny, Harry, and Madam Pomphrey all looking terrified at me.
"What happened?" I asked barely able to remember a thing.
"You passed out on the carriage," Cho replied looking fearful and half about to cry on Cedric's shoulder. "Professor McGonnagall saw and levitated you here to the hospital wing. You've been out for an hour. The rest of the school's in bed."
"What about the feast?" I asked.
"Everyone else went on without us," McGonnagall replied. "We had to stay here and make sure you were alright. We checked back at Professor Flitwick but turns out he had to give an important speech tonight."
"You can up dear now and go back to your dormitory," Madam Pomphrey said. "I found nothing at all wrong with you so you can everyone else here could go up to bed."
That night I felt like everyone in the dormitory was watching me carefully to see if I'd pass out again. It was much harder to go back to sleep too after I'd been in Wizard Space for an hour. I think I've only been asleep four hours before we all had to get up for breakfast.
"Cedric, what do we have this morning?" I asked buttering a roll.
"Defense against the dark arts with Professor Weasley… charms with Flitwick...and potions with Madam Delacour," Cedric replied looking up where Fleur Delacour sat at the staff table. "This afternoon we have transfiguration and magical medicine with Madam Delacour and Professor Snape."
"I thought Snape left," Marietta said.
"No he's just helping Madam Delacour with magical medicine," Cedric replied calmly. "Who would've though Snape...a mediwizard."
The bell rang at precisely 9:00 and everyone filed out of the Great Hall and to his or her first class. Cedric, Zacharias Smith, and I went up to the third floor in the cleanest and brightest defense against the dark arts rooms they've had. Beautiful lion curtains on each window, two glass chandeliers, no desks except four tables off to the side (with five seats each), each exit and entrance was welcomed by two of some kind of dark creature statues, and flying around the lights were tiny fairies giving the room a warming homey touch. Obviously
"Welcome to Defense Against The Dark Arts Seven," Bill Weasley said laying down his briefcase on his desk. "First thing I think we should study is the Imperturbable Charm. This may be a little advanced for some of you but it can come in handy. Now can anyone tell me what the charm does...Mr. Diggory?"
"The Imperturbable Charm is used on certain objects...mostly doors and windows… it's like a barrier charm that prevents anything from coming in contact with it. It was invented to promote privacy so no one can listen in on what's going on in a room."
"Correct– 10 points to Hufflepuff," Bill Weasley said. "It's not just used for privacy though. When I was in Egypt as a curse breaker on tombs, I found a lot of the tombs have been placed with an Imperturbable Charm so no one can get inside to it's treasures. The incantation for this spell is - - Miss Clearwater?"
"It's Imperbly Protega," I answered proudly.
"Correct– 10 points to Ravenclaw," Bill Weasley smiled. "Everyone take out a - - a - scroll of parchment." I took out a scroll of parchment out of my bag. "Now write something personal on it and please don't be shy 'cause no one will be able to see it until you lift the spell." I took out my eagle feather quill and wrote I love Percy Weasley. "Good now look at it one more time and pass your scrolls up to me on my desk."
I put my wand away and opened my scroll or at least tried. I tried pulling it open with so much force that it felt like my arms were going to fall off. Then I saw Zacharias Smith raise his hand.
"Yes My. Smith?" Bill Weasley asked.
"What does this have to do with defense against the dark arts?" He asked as we all looked up suddenly waiting for an answer.
Bill Weasley sat down at his desk, put his feet up on the desk, and laughed. "If you haven't figured it out yet, you'll certainly see once you open your scrolls, close it and pass it up to - Wow! Glad someone got it! 20 points to Hufflepuff Mr. Diggory!"
We all looked at the teacher's desk...Cedric was levitating his scroll over to the desk.
"Cedric...can you tell the class what you did?" Bill Weasley ordered smiling brightly.
"It was simple," Cedric replied. "I actually read Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7, which clearly contains this charm. I knew the counter spell as being 'Contega' simply the counter spell, which lifted the charm, then all I had to do was levitate it to the teacher's desk."
Back in the Common Room everyone was swept with work. It was hard to believe even Ravenclaws had a hard time with homework but Madam Delacour and Bill Weasley assigned some hard homework. You see for Madam Delacour we have to write an entire research paper (17 inches) on Gregory the Smarmy's life and another 16 inches about his Unctuous Unction. Bill had us write a short story or poem about when the imperturbable charm, engorgement charm, levitation charm, mummies and dementors would come in handy. How on Earth were you to come across a mummy and dementor using only three charms and no patronus.
"Cedric says it was easy," Cho said finishing off her essay on the properties of wolfs bane and bezoars.
"How would he know?" I asked. "I mean I doubt his father works with any mummies or dementors. And I'm pretty sure levitation, imperturbability, and enlargement isn't a typical thing in his department."
"Of course not with his father but Cedric did study all those terms last year for the Triwizard Tournament," Cho replied. "Like sort of to lift an imperturbable charm form me or something. Or to levitate the egg to him. Or perhaps the counter spell to enlarging things so he could shrink the creatures in the maze."
"Oh, right."