Author's Notes: I was going to wait till I had a longer segment to post this, but then I got lazy. At least it's consistent this way.

Also, it turns out that while it's perfectly acceptable for a painting to remain untitled, it's not okay for a story, and so, as you may have noticed, this fic is being tentatively titled 'Misconceptions.' It might get changed if I think of something better.

Chapter 5:

The dungeons dissolved around them to be replaced with…(Harry staggered as his feet hit the ground,) more dungeons. For a moment Harry thought the portkey hadn't worked, before he recognized his Potions classroom. He groaned; Snape was the very last person he wanted to see right now.

He looked around at the others, all three of whom had fallen onto the stone floor, and were now getting up with sour looks on their faces, rubbing various bruised body parts.

"Let's go," he said, and walked briskly towards the door. The hallway was empty and the torches were extinguished; it looked rather abandoned, and, more importantly, Snape-less. Harry strained his ears but heard nothing.

The others came up behind him. Silently, he opened the door and led them down the longer, darker, and more circular path out of the dungeons, but also the one that didn't take them past Snape's office.

"Wait a minute," said James after a while, apparently regaining his confidence now that he was on familiar ground. "Why are we going this way?"

"Because I say so."

"But there's nothing down there except that old hall of armor…"

That made Harry stop in his tracks. He'd found out the entrance to the secret passageway he was planning on using through the Marauder's Map. If James didn't know about it, did that mean that he had led an impostor into Hogwarts, or that they simply hadn't discovered it yet? And if so, would Harry showing it to them now change the past?

As if introducing them to Snape wouldn't change anything, thought Harry sarcastically, in addition to bringing up a lot of unpleasantness and possibly revealing Snape's true political allegiances to potential enemies. And Dumbledore'll probably Obliviate them anyway…Sufficiently justified, Harry turned around and, without saying a word, swept back the tapestry that hid the secret passageway, and motioned for the others to go through. Dumbfounded, undoubtedly at the possibility of somebody knowing Hogwarts better than they did, they followed him inside.

After a long, dark, and cramped journey, during which Harry was unable to concentrate on anything due to the constant thumps and muttered curses emanating from behind him as his companions knocked into the walls and each other in the darkness, they finally came out near the Divination classroom on the first floor, and Harry, deciding it was wiser for him to find Dumbledore alone, rushed them inside.

"You stay here," he said, "and I'll get Dumbledore." The others, apparently too shocked at finding themselves in a forest clearing, didn't argue. Harry hurried back out of the room, slammed the door behind him and muttered 'colloportus' before he realized he didn't have a wand. Slightly disconcerted, he sprinted up the marble staircase and up towards Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore would figure this out. Although Harry knew that the Headmaster wasn't infallible, he also knew that he was as close to it as it was possible for a person to be, and he knew from hard experience that the sooner his current problem came to the Headmaster's attention, the better. The possibility of Dumbledore being absent didn't even enter his head.

He was within sight of the stone gargoyle and severely out of breath when he heard his name shouted out behind him, and turned around in time to be swept into a hug by a very bushy-haired and very hysterical Head Girl.

"Harry! We were so worried! What happened? Are you all right? You didn't come back so we went to look for you and we couldn't find you, and there were all these tracks in the snow! We tried to contact Dumbledore at Hogwarts but he wasn't there and then Mr. Weasley came home and said there'd been another attack on Azkaban and Dumbledore was helping out the Aurors, so I apparated but Ron had to stay back, you know how he is with apparation and there's all those wards around Azkaban – he must be so worried! -  and then by the time I found Dumbledore he said you were already at Hogwarts and he sent me here to see if you were all right," she sobbed. "Are you all right, Harry?"

"I'm fine, Hermione. Where's Dumbledore?" asked Harry urgently.

"He had to stay at Azkaban. The Death Eaters had the Dementors with them and the Aurors couldn't handle it alone… I kept on thinking something bad was going to happen to you…"

"Wait," Harry stared at her, momentarily distracted. "You apparated to Azkaban? During a Dementor attack? Hermione, are you crazy?"

Hermione smiled weakly, wiping at her eyes, "I'm okay, Harry… What happened?"

Not quite satisfied with her response, but faced with more pressing matters, Harry reconsidered his options. He had no way to contact Dumbledore at the moment, but Hermione was here, and while she wasn't a perfect substitute, Harry desperately needed a second opinion. "Hermione, do you have a wand?"

"Yes. Why - Harry!" Alarmed now, Hermione nevertheless followed as Harry dragged her back downstairs. "What – Where are we going?" she managed to ask as they hurtled down the marble staircase.

"Hermione," panted Harry, as they neared the Divination classroom. "Now, don't get alarmed, but I portkeyed some people to Hogwarts with me."

"What…?" Harry slowed down as they reached the door, hoping that his 'guests' hadn't decided to go wandering anywhere. He took a deep breath, tried to open the door, and found that it was locked. Momentarily stunned, Harry just watched as Hermione took out her wand and muttered "Alohomora."

The door sprang open, and Harry pulled her inside. All three of the people standing among the trees in the room looked up at them.

"Who's the girlfriend?" said Sirius, smirking.

Harry stared at him for a second before realizing he was still holding Hermione's arm. He dropped it promptly. "This is Hermione," he muttered, and Remus immediately looked interested.

"Harry, who are these peo-" and then she got a good look at their faces; her eyes went wide, her jaw fell open, and she stared at them for a full thirty seconds, which, Harry thought, was a lot less time than what it had taken him to get a hold on the situation. All three of them stared back. Then, all of a sudden, Hermione shut her mouth, grabbed Harry, and pulled him back out of the room, shutting the door behind them. "Harry…" she began, almost pityingly, "they can't be real."

"They can do the Animagus transformation," said Harry, annoyed at her tone.

She seemed to consider this. "They could be an illusion…"

"They could," Harry agreed, "although I don't see what the point of that would be. Listen, Hermione," he said hurriedly, "I don't know why exactly Voldemort would want to bring them here –or now, rather- but we know this is something he's capable of, so I don't think we can just dismiss it outright. Remember all the fuss the Order and the Ministry made over the disappearance of all that stuff from the Department of Mysteries just after fifth year? And then recently they found that four-year-old version of that Muggle writer in London, and then the Ministry had to spend all that time sending her back? Nobody could see the point of that, either, beyond just being a new, insanely elaborate way to mess with Muggles and pester the Ministry… but what if it was a test run? What if what Voldemort really planned to do was to bring my father, Remus, and Sirius up from the past? –And Pettigrew, too, they said Pettigrew was with them, but I didn't see him- I don't know why exactly he'd do it, but I can think of several nasty possibilities-"

"Of course," Hermione whispered suddenly. During his speech she had looked increasingly disconcerted, but now she was gazing vacantly into space. Startled, Harry fell silent. "I always wondered, you know, what would make someone betray their friends of over seven years like that, but if Voldemort brought him to the future… and he could have kept him here indefinitely, nobody would have known…" She looked up at him. "Anybody would have given in eventually… and Voldemort already knows he will, it's only a matter of patience for him."

As her reasoning finally caught up with him, Harry felt sick. "So you think it's possible?"

Hermione only shrugged helplessly. "That still doesn't explain about the others… If it really is them they must have had their memories modified, or else Remus would have mentioned this before now, and Sirius… We need to see Dumbledore."

Being the same one he had reached independently earlier, Harry was somewhat reassured by this conclusion. "What about them? Do we just leave them here? Maybe we should stun them…"

Hermione looked hesitant. "We don't know how long it'll take us, and stunning isn't permanent. It'll probably be better if we just lock them in again." And with that she took out her wand and cast the Locking Charm back onto the door.

"Right," said Harry, glad to have a clear course of action again. "We should go see Fawkes. He can send a message to Dumbledore. Come on, Hermione."