4.Superficial Examination of the Future

The group of four arrived at the room before the rest of the students and Lune snuck off to change her clothes as the other students filed in and took their seats. After a few moments, Lune reappeared in a moon- embroidered skirt, as well as a short burgundy sweater that exposed a white t-shirt underneath. Her hair neatly straitened and covering one of her eyes. She glanced over the students quickly and an empty seat next to Draco caught her eye.

"You're... Draco Malfoy, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know? Oh, you're Soleil's friend aren't you?" He asked.

"I'm Soleil's best friend, yes. But you don't have to get to cocky, she didn't tell me anything about you." She replied with an amazed and amused look. Harry, Ron and Hermione along with many other Gryffindors began to giggle.

"You look like your father, did anyone tell you that?"

"I get it all the time."

"Get it from Soleil yet?"

"No."

"Aren't you lucky. It'll start soon. Speaking of Soleil... do you have any idea where she's at?"

"Why would I know?"

"Ohh, I don't know, maybe because you wish you were good enough to be her boyfriend?" She mused with slitted and sad eyes.. At this, everyone that hadn't been laughing began.

"I don't like you at all." Draco said sourly.

"You will eventually, don't worry." She answered. Just then, the doors opened and Soleil entered, with everyone watching her. "Speak of the Devil. Where've you been?" Lune asked her.

"Who are you? My mother?" She asked with a smile as she walked to her seat.

"Close enough. Just wanted to make sure you weren't slicing some poor little Hufflepuff up in the broom closet." Soleil laughed. "You think I'm kidding." Lune replied very seriously.

"Harsh. If you must know, I was downstairs. Hagrid was showing me the Defense Against the Dark Arts Room. It's nice."

"Glad you're happy. Okay." Lune turned to the class. "We'll start with whatever you all want to start with. Any suggestions?"

"Do you think we could do crystal gazing?" Hermione asked, raising her hand. "That's where I gave up last time."

"You gave up on learning??" Soleil asked sarcastically. Lune glared back at her evilly.

"Yes Hermione, we can start there. Soleil..."

"Yes?"

"BE NICE." Soleil rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Everyone can go and get a crystal ball off of that shelf over there and bring it back to your seat." Lune said to the class. She then turned back to Soleil and replied coolly.

"You should really give her a chance, she's not that bad, and she's really smart. You should give all of them a chance." With this she turned back around to the class, who had all settled down. "Tell me what you know about crystal gazing." She said.

"Lots of thinking." Ron answered. Hermione looked at him as if he were a pathetic animal and added, "It takes a lot of concentration. You have to look into the crystal, but you have to empty your mind first so that you don't see something that your imagination wants you to see. That's why there are only a few people who can crystal gaze and get an accurate portrayal of the future."

"Good. I'm impressed Hermione. As an example class, Soleil will you demonstrate?"

"Sure. Why not?" She asked with a sigh. She looked very carefully into the ball for about 3 minutes before she spoke. "Quidditch game. Slytherin versus Gryffindor, 110 to 35 in favor of Slytherin. Slytherin's beaters are making a bloody mess of everything, snitch... umm.. Harry gets it. Gryffindor wins." She looked up. "Have I told you how much I hate knowing the future?" All of the Gryffindors smiled while the Slytherin's scowled along with Soleil. She turned when she heard their moans.

"What are you moaning at?" She asked, speaking directly to the Quidditch team. "You're the ones who can't play Quidditch to save your pathetic little lives."

"It's alright Soleil. I think you've proved more than a hundred times that you can always change the future. You have to keep in mind that it is our choices that decide our fate. That happens to be something that some of us learn easier than others. How about you Harry? Do you want to try?"

"Alright." He stared at the crystal much longer than Soleil had. Inside, the smoke had begun to spin and form two miniature female figures, when they came into focus it became obvious that they were in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Their entire bodies looked like shadows and there were many horrified students lining the walls. While the bodies were dark, the eye sockets were glowing a horrid red color and everything around them was glowing. He could see Dumbledore in the background, but it didn't look like he was doing anything about the abnormal monsters. Harry's face turned and twisted in horror as blinding light shot out of them and directly at him. He didn't know if he was seeing this from his eyes or someone elses.

"Do you always see things from your eyes?" He asked Lune as calmly as he could.

"99% of the time. Why?"

"Oh.. I was just wondering."

"What do you see Harry?"

"The Great Hall. I don't know what's going on though. Sorry." He said.

"Look at me Harry." He complied uneasily. Lune studied his eyes carefully. Their normal green color had turned to gray. "Soleil."

"Yes your highness?"

"Take him, do something about his eyes. I don't know what he saw, but we'll need to find out. He's horrified."

"Well just remember Harry." Soleil said, taking his hand and pulling him up. "You can almost always change what will happen in your future." She walked him out of the room caringly. Once they were in the hall, Harry began to ask questions.

"How will you and Lune find out what it was I saw?"

"You saw an image. You learned occlumency at one point didn't you?"

"Yes. Last year, but I was no good at it."

"It doesn't matter it'll help you understand. You know that you can't read a person's mind to learn the words that they're thinking. Instead you can pull images from their mind into your own mind, right?"

"Yes."

"So me or Lune, or any of the teachers here can easily see what you saw." Harry stopped short in the middle of the hall.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to my room. I can take care of you for a while. Get your eyes back to normal first." "Good."

"Why?"

"I just have to ask you to do something once we get there."

"Alright. I'll do almost anything you ask me to." They reached the room within 10 minutes. Soleil quickly pointed Harry toward a chair when they walked in the room and walked over to a bookshelf on the other side of the room, that she began to sift through. "So what was it you had to ask me Harry?" She asked.

"It's just that... you said that any teacher could read my mind and see what I saw."

"Uhh huh."

"You know who has had a tendency to read my mind to."

"Who? Voldemort?"

Harry looked shocked, yet nodded in agreement. "Well than keep him out of it. Now I see why they tried to teach you occlumency."

"I had to learn with Snape. Like I said, I'm horrible at it."

"Well then I'll help you." She finally opened a book and Harry read the title from the other side of the room, squinting to read it correctly.

"Quidditch Rules, Tactics and Special Moves? How's that going to help me?" He asked her. She dropped the book in the chair next to him, revealing a small metal safe inside the thick book and walked to the other side of the room yet again to get a saucer from her miniature kitchen area. She rejoined him and unlocked the little safe that had a lock on it resembling the one on her door. Inside was a small vile of powder, as well as one of liquid. She mixed a ratio of the two into the saucer and handed it to Harry.

"Drink this Harry. You'll feel a lot calmer and your eyes will come back to color." She sat herself on the floor in front of his armchair.

"The thing I wanted to ask you..." He said as he sipped the mix.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"I don't want anyone to see what I saw. Well... If anyone has to see it, I'd like you to."

"Why me?"

"A few reasons, one being that I don't want adult teachers to see it, or Lune for that matter because I don't want her to analyze it. Although you might... Also because you're the defense against the dark arts teacher and Lune says that you know everything there is to know about defending ourselves." He paused. "Will you look at it, and keep it between us please?"

"If that's what you want, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Even if it ends up being something that could get me killed?"

"Sure."

"Okay." She stood up and looked down on him.

"Do you want me to go ahead and see what I can do?"

"Please."

"Alright, hold still so that I can see. All you have to do is think about it." She put her hand on his forehead and closed her eyes. After seeing the exact thing as him, she pulled her hand away and stepped backwards with a confused look on her face.

"What do you think? Can I keep that from happening? I think it was killing me."

"No. Trust me, it wasn't killing you." She sat on the arm of his chair, her calm manner re-established except for the hint of hesitance. "Harry, I can tell you exactly what that was, but you would have to keep it between us and not tell anyone including Dumbledore that I told you."

"I promise I won't." He said almost pleadingly.

"Those shadow figures were two of the four Hogwarts guardians. If you were to see them up close and personal they would look like normal people... except for their eyes. The guardians are not supposed to be known, so they appear as shadow creatures in books and crystals to all except those who have already seen them. It would be my guess that you saw the Slytherin and Gryffindor guardians, since they are the stronger of the four, and they always work side by side."

"How long have they been around? Where did they come from? Are they ghosts?" Harry was now alarmed and puzzled.

"No Harry, they're not ghosts."

"So then, they're normal humans?" He countered sarcastically.

"Well—no. You're right. They're not normal humans." Soleil repositioned herself again and Harry realized that he would be here for a while. "The guardians, are summoned at times of need." How can I possibly explain something like this to him? Soleil thought to herself. "Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw guardians are always around because they technically are normal humans... just with a few more "powers" we'll call them. They change consistently because they have to blend in with the other students, and once your over 20, you can't really pull off student."

"So then, it's kind of like a family job? Passed down through the generations?"

"Sort of. They have no family ties though. As you could probably guess... Maybe I should just explain the other fundamentals of guardians to you before I go and explain the passing on of duties to you?"

"If you insist. But you're coming back to it if you like it or not."

"Fair enough." She compromised. "The 2 minor house guardians—"

"Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw..." Harry clarified.

"Right. They possess a few powers that normal Hogwarts students do not, like the power to apparate...but for the most part, their knowledge of magic equals that of the teachers so that they can act in desperate situations. However, the chances of Hogwarts students seeing a minor house guardian take action are slight, because they only manage smaller cases. If a minor house guardian were to go up against any random death eater, chances are they would have just sealed their fate to death and torture."

Harry winced. "If they're Hogwarts guardians then why are they so powerless."

"Think about what I've been calling them."

He thought for a moment, draining his brain of the image of death eaters. "Minor house guardians?"

"Bingo. They're the minor of the four, they have less powers. If a situation were to come up in which a more powerful defense system was needed, the Slytherin and Gryffindor guardians would be summoned."

"Summoned? Why summoned?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"I was confined as a child. Didn't get out much." He smiled.

"So I've heard. Anyway, these two guardians are summoned because they are never changing. The same guardians will be holding the positions for all time, unless a Hogwarts headmaster frees them or they are killed. Of course, it would be a pretty stupid thing for a headmaster to do to free his security device."

"What happens if one dies?"

"Well... An ancient prophecy said that there would be three guardians in each position over time. When one died, another would be born with the powers of the last plus some. The third and last of each house would be bordering immortality if not claiming it, and hopefully be as powerful a force of good as Voldemort is a force of evil. Therefore, if one dies, seeing as Hogwarts is on its last one for each house... I think we're pretty much screwed. That's why they only come out when we need them the most, or threats are the strongest. To preserve their youth, when they are not on duty they are locked into a parallel dimension where time does not exist. This way its as if they're sleeping."

"Would I know if they had been summoned?" Harry asked.

"It's doubtful." She sighed. "But it's safe to bet that if they're not already here, they probably will be if Voldemort attacks again. You just need to keep one thing in mind in regard to your vision Harry..."

"What?"

"The guardians are there to protect Hogwarts, it's students, it's teachers and especially you. You are destined for great things Harry, and those guardians are going to make sure that you stick around to carry them out." She smiled at him earnestly.

"There is just one thing that bothers me about this summoning."

"Yes Harry?"

"If they aren't summoned for 20 years, do they miss everything that happens then?"

"I would suspect. From what I have heard, those who summon them have to clue them in after every awakening—Harry?! WHAT'S WRONG?!"
Harry had turned albino white.
"What if—he—what if HE—tapped into my head and just heard everything you just said..." He stood up uneasily. "Hogwarts entire defense..." He seemed terrified once again and was falling into a panic as well as literally falling to the floor.
"HARRY! Snap out of it." She said firmly at first, then sweetly as she dropped down next to him.
"Harry, he wasn't possessing you then. I would have spotted it. Trust me, you're fine..." She paused and a look of sadness and pity crossed her face. "It really hurts me to see him do this to you Harry." She said, placing her hand on his cheek.
His mind had begun to play tricks on him. He was imagining a white light protruding from her hand and soaking through his skin, returning his color and forcing him to be calm. It was like taking an instant pain killer. His eyes began to zone out, when her heard her voice. It was lighter and airier than he had remembered it. "Come on. We're going to take you back to the dorms." She put her arm around him and pulled him up, willing his legs to move. On their way out of the room she grabbed a vile and handed it to him.

"You are going to drink this, then by the time you get to the dorm and get into bed, you'll be asleep. The image will be taken from your mind along with this phobia of being possessed." She walked with him to the dorms and the last thing he remembered was Soleil propping him against the archway to the boys dorm in the Gryffindor common room, then everything went hazy.