Hi everyone! ÜÜÜ Before everything else, sorry for the typos in grammar… I DON'T know why I hadn't noticed those before now… Anyway, if there are any mistakes, please forgive me… it's no picnic to be typing 10 pages a chapter, you know ÜÜÜ Ok??? Thanks!!! ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
My birthday was nice… people I didn't expect to know or remember did! yay Ü And what did I get for my birthday??? LOTS of Harry Potter stuff!!! ÜÜÜ Yay!!! ÜÜÜ Life is good… Wow, I'm not that opinionated now… Some readers there might be happy now! Hehehe ÜÜÜ
Oh yeah, I'm listening to the Spider-man 2 OST right now… a bday present ÜÜÜ I was also given a HUGE card! My old classmates wrote on the inside and all…
Oh yeah, thanks again for telling me to join the paper! ÜÜÜ I get to spend all my free time in the office… ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ hehehe ÜÜÜ
To my reviewers:::
Roletta: Thanks!!! Ü gaia of earth, huh??? Hm… ÜÜÜ
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Chapter 12: Going Into the Forbidden Forest
In the past...
Hermione woke up early Tuesday morning. They were given the day off on Monday to get ready, and she had already prepared everything. So she decided to send Harry and Ron their pendants. She was wearing her pendant already; in fact, it looked good with her white sleeveless V-neck top and blue bootleg jeans, which she Transfigured from her robes. She also Transfigured her school robes (which she also bought at Hogsmeade; something I forgot to mention before Ü hehe Ü) into black shoe boots. She got out her parchment, quill and ink and wrote:
Hey, Harry, Ron and Draco!
This is probably the last letter I'm going to be sending because I'm going into the Forest today. I've prepared already; I just hope my partner for the project (who's Sirius, by the way) has too. If he hasn't, I'll strangle him!!!
I went to Hogsmeade yesterday to buy some food, and I also dropped by the store where I bought the first pendant. I'm already wearing mine; so here's Harry's and Ron's pendants! Always wear them, and as much as possible, try to stay out of trouble. I have to go now; bye! Ü
Hermione
She flattened the pendants, sealed the letter and got up to find Sir Nick. Fortunately for her, he was in the common room. She quickly asked him to send the letter before anyone saw him leave (the common room was still empty); and he left immediately. She sighed, and got her backpack, which she Transfigured from one of her uniform skirts. She went down to the Great Hall and started on some toast with butter and jam. She didn't have to worry about preparing anymore; she had done everything yesterday. Brian and Sebastian joined her, and they chatted as they ate.
"You guys are gonna be leaving today," Brian complained. "Now who am I gonna hang out with?"
"I dunno… why don't you flirt with your fan club?" Sebastian teased.
Brian grimaced. "No thanks, yuck! I don't even know why I've got a fan club!"
"You don't like having a fan club, whereas other guys would be so elated to have someone worship them?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"You think it's fun to have a fan club? It isn't; it's like you've acquired a group of stalkers!" Brian said loudly in exasperation, causing a group of girls nearby who were gazing at him a while ago to look a little hurt, but happy that he had referred to them. (Bimbos. c)
"Hm… you've got a point there," Sebastian agreed. "My fan club a group of girls sigh even seems to like my new hairstyle. group of girls sigh again And that's a big understatement," he said, shaking his head. Hermione laughed.
"Aren't you guys scared about going into the Forest?"
"A bit; who knows what's in the Forest, right?"
"Yeah, but I think you'd be fine."
"I guess."
"Hey, you promised to tell me why you were a week late for school!" Brian cut in.
Hermione told him and Sebastian about the giant squid story, telling them what she told Lily in the Three Broomsticks.
"Wow," Sebastian finally said. "You must be the 1st person to have been attacked by it."
"And that makes me really special, it really does," Hermione said sarcastically. The 2 guys laughed.
"Yeah it does!" Brian said with a big grin. They finished their breakfast, and the 7th years left to line up in the entrance hall, Professor Sprout's instructions. Hermione and Sebastian got up from the table.
"Bye Brian," Sebastian said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"Yeah… see you in late February!" added Hermione.
"Good luck guys, and take care!" Brian called amidst the clapping of the other students in the Hall. Hermione and Sebastian smiled, then left the Hall together.
--
Hermione was standing in the Entrance Hall, nervously pacing when Sir Nick arrived.
"Good luck," he whispered, inconspicuously thrusting a piece of parchment into her hand.
"Thanks," she whispered back. Sir Nick nodded, and with a smile, entered the Great Hall. Hermione walked a little way away from the crowd that was assembled and sat at the foot of the stairs. She opened the letter, which said:
Dear Hermione,
Good luck and take care in the Forest, although I'm sure you don't need the luck; you have your pendant, your knowledge in spells and a capable partner to help you out. Don't starve yourself, okay? And don't go looking for Aragog! Bye!
Harry
Dear Hermione,
I didn't like your spider! It wasn't funny when it moved! Beware of ARAGOG! ('Oh Ron," Hermione sighed.) Oh, and Grawp's still in the forest, right? Oh yeah, he isn't, but still be careful! Always keep your eyes open; and remember Moody: Constant vigilance! (I remembered this from JKRFan4Life! Ü)
Ron
Dear Hermia,
Take care of yourself, okay? Potter and Weasley have been going on and on about a stupid spider; but you've been warned by them already, right???
Oh, and tell me if your partner does something to you, okay? Always be careful in the forest and keep your wand at the ready!
Draco
Hermione smiled at her friends' advice. 'Wow, no smirks this time,' she thought, referring to Draco's letter. She quickly bewitched the parchment to look like a textbook extract to everyone else, and joined the crowd. When she had fallen in line, Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Valmont (Head of Slytherin House), and Dumbledore arrived.
"7th years, please follow me," Professor McGonagall said, leading them out to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The other professors trailed behind the students, muttering about things.
"Do you all have your food and drink?" The students murmured their assent.
"What about extra clothes? You were allowed only one extra set." The students said yes.
"And the jars?"
"Yes, Professor."
"If you have prepared everything, then you should all enter the Forest now, by pairs. Good luck to all of you," said Professor Dumbledore. The Heads of Houses were having some last-minute conversations with their students when Professor Dumbledore motioned for Hermione to join him. She moved aside, away from the whole crowd.
"Miss Granger," said Professor Dumbledore in a low voice so no one could hear, "I will just owl you when there has been a discovery."
"Okay Professor."
"In the meantime, please stay alive; we don't want anymore incidents like the giant squid, do we?"
"No we don't," grinned Hermione.
"Again, good luck, and I hope to see you in February."
"Goodbye Professor!"
Hermione ran to her partner, who was wondering where she was.
"Where have you been?"
"Professor Dumbledore talked to me. You got what I asked?"
"Everything. Shall we go now?"
"Yeah, we still have a treehouse to build."
"I still can't believe we're going to build a treehouse," Sirius said as they walked to Professor McGonagall, who was seeing the Gryffindors off.
"Actually Mr. Black, that is a clever idea. There are thestrals though, but I believe Hagrid has trained them already. Did you think of it?"
"No, she did," Sirius said, jerking his thumb at Hermione.
"Very good, Miss Felton. For that I am already giving you points."
(Psst… ÜÜÜ Just so you know, they are given or deducted points, like in Hogwarts, but the total number of points is equivalent to something. 300 points – Outstanding, 250 points – Exceeds Expectations, 200 points – Acceptable, 150 points – Poor, 100 points – Dreadful, 50 points – Troll (haha! Ü))
"How many, Professor?" Sirius asked eagerly.
"We are not going to tell you; now you'd better go in. Good luck, both of you."
"Thanks, Professor," they said in unison. Hermione took a deep breath, and looked over at Sirius, who was giving her a 'shall-we-go-in-now?' look. Hermione nodded, and together, they walked into the forest.
--
In the present...
"I think Hermione's in the Forest now," Harry said.
"Of all the crazy projects, I really don't understand why they had to make them go into the forest!" Ron said angrily.
"Maybe the teachers then were lazy," Draco offered. "They just wanted to make the students do the dirty work. Think about it. Wouldn't the teachers have gone in there themselves to retrieve plants themselves? They can't be that old."
"But then they'd be staying there until who knows when, Malfoy."
"They could just go in there when they need them, right?" asked Draco.
"…"
They were back in the Department of Mysteries library, reading books and stuff. Ron was reading a book which focused on the theories of time rips (when you go back in time. If any of you've read Animorphs, then you should know about Sario rips ÜÜÜ hehehe Ü My concept here may or may not be like the one in Animorphs, but I think they're somewhat the same… Ü).
"Hey…"
"What, Ron?"
"We have to hurry to get Hermione back."
"What do you mean? We are hurrying," Draco said exasperatedly.
"No… it says here that if the person who had gone back, in this case, Hermione, is still stuck in the past at the time she fell into the Abyss, she would be eliminated. There can't be 2 Hermiones in the past. What's even worse is, if she's still stuck in the past when she's conceived, she would be eliminated too. Both of her."
A long silence followed those words.
"Potter, when were you born?"
"The year?"
"No, how many years after your parents left Hogwarts?"
"I think… a year after my parents finished school." (I think it makes sense; it follows Trelawney and her prophecy. If you guys want to, you could check and tell me if I'm wrong, ok??? ÜÜÜ Thanks! Ü)
"So… we only have a year?"
"This year, and a bit more before she disappeared," Draco finished. Ron's knees were shaking; he had to sit in a chair.
"But how are we going to finish all these books? No one else would volunteer to help us…"
"Maybe Ginny… but who else?"
"I think we shouldn't worry about that yet."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SHOULDN'T WORRY?! HAVE YOU GONE DAFT, MALFOY?!" shouted Ron.
"I think we should tell Dumbledore first. Weasley, copy those down; we can show them to Dumbledore and he can get people to help us or something," Draco suggested calmly, but one could see he looked afraid.
Ron started scribbling down the theories. Harry was pale. It was like he was in a daze. He then snapped out of it.
"Only 2 years… even less… Come on, let's go," he said determinedly. The other 2 didn't need telling twice; at once, they ran to the Office of the Minister, where they knew Dumbledore was staying. (That was creepy, the time thing!)
--
In the past...
Hermione and Sirius had been walking in the Forest for a couple of hours already when Hermione stopped.
"Wait," she said. Sirius looked at the tree she was pointing to. To her right was a massive tree, which had huge branches that spread out like it knew it was going to hold a treehouse.
"It's perfect," she breathed.
"I see what you mean. You stay here, and I'll get wood," Sirius said. He walked away from Hermione and into the deep part of the Forest. Hermione wanted to utter a warning, but she thought the better of it.
'Sirius can probably take care of himself… he and the other Marauders probably explore the forest every full moon or something,' she thought. With that thought, she sat down at the foot of the tree and started singing.
"On my own, pretending he's beside me…" (ha, here's a brainteaser! Ü evil grin props to the person who correctly guesses the song and the singer and from where! The person who gets it right gets a sneak peek of Chapter 14! ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ)
After singing that song, she started to sing some other songs. She was on singing the last song she could think of when Sirius returned with a pile of wood to march behind him. Hermione laughed and got up.
"Hi."
"I heard you singing."
"So?"
"What were you singing?"
"Oh, some Muggle songs that you probably don't know of."
Sirius shrugged, then turned his attention to the wood that were still marching behind him in place. With a spell, Sirius cut the wood into planks; then with another spell, he made them fly up onto the tree and assemble themselves to form a treehouse. 30 minutes later, the treehouse was finished.
"Wow," said Hermione, impressed. The treehouse had a dome roof, a small door and 2 windows. It was all held up by magic, so it was very unlikely that it would fall apart. Hermione did a little flick with her wand, and a wooden ladder appeared connected to the treehouse porch (yes, it has a teeny porch Ü) and landing at their feet.
"After you," Sirius said. Hermione eagerly climbed up the ladder and entered the treehouse. It had only two rooms: one the main room, and the other the bathroom. The bathroom had a chamber pot in it, a small tub with a faucet, a showerhead (cool for people who are supposed to be living almost… well, primitive :D) and a shower curtain. It also had a small sink. The main room had nothing in it, except 2 sleeping bags.
"Okay, it's pretty obvious that when we're not plant-hunting, we'll be doing most of our normal activities here," Sirius said.
"Yeah, and you didn't have to point it out, cause like you said, it's pretty obvious," Hermione replied.
"Just saying." Sirius muttered.
"Just making a point."
Sirius glared at Hermione, but she smiled sweetly back at him. This was perfectly normal for them, so they let that slide. Hermione unpacked the food, which were in containers.
"Where's your food?"
"Here," Sirius said, producing the food. Hermione enlarged them, then did a complicated spell. The food glowed momentarily as a result of the spell. Hermione was ecstatic; the spell worked.
"We're not going to have problems with food here," she announced.
"Really? I think we didn't bring enough food," Sirius said curtly. Hermione rolled her eyes. "What did you do to the food anyway? You enchanted them so they would get stuck in my throat and choke me to death?"
"Oh, nothing of the sort," said Hermione, grinning. "Just something I learned. Go on and eat, it's safe!" said Hermione hastily when she saw Sirius warily looking at the food. She was hungry, so she got a cookie and ate it. Chew chew chew, then swallow. She smiled at Sirius.
"See?"
Sirius didn't stop to answer Hermione when grabbing food; he hadn't eaten breakfast so he was really hungry. So he ate and ate and ate. He had finished a plate of sandwiches in just a few minutes. (Wow ÜÜÜ) He looked guiltily over at Hermione; he failed to notice that food appeared onto the plate again. He was going to show the plate to Hermione, but when he did, he yelped.
"What the bloody hell did you do?!"
"I did a spell so when we finish off a plate of food, it'll restock itself," Hermione said. (Remember McGonagall in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry and Ron were told off about the flying car??? ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ)
Sirius looked at her, then at the plate. "I should learn that spell," he said thoughtfully.
"Right, so you would be even more of a glutton," Hermione teased.
"Well maybe you're secretly a glutton yourself, that's why you studied and practiced that spell!" Sirius teased back. Hermione just shook her head.
"Hey, why don't we visit the others?"
"Let's see…" Sirius pulled out a small mirror. "Prongs," he said. Hermione couldn't make heads or tails of what he said. She was surprised when James' face appeared in the mirror.
"Yeah?"
"How are you guys?"
"Well, we've made a house."
"Good. Can we come over?"
"Now?"
"Yes Prongs, now," said Sirius exasperatedly.
"Um, you can come, but NOT now… we're kind of busy…" James grinned, then his face suddenly disappeared from the mirror. Sirius and Hermione looked at each other.
"Yeah! Yeah! Come over! She's chucking things at me, quick!" James said, appearing once more in the mirror, panicking.
"Tsk tsk, James. That's what you get for being…"
"Such a prat?"
"Just the words I was looking for, Sirius," Hermione said casually. "Thank you."
"Well, what can I say? I told you I'm a genius," Sirius said proudly.
"Will you guys come here already?"
"One, You didn't want us to come a while ago. Two, we don't know where in the forest we'd be able to find you. What were we thinking? 'Oh, we're at Whomping Willow Street…'" said Hermione. "Three, we don't want to get hit by stuff. Four, you can deflect the stuff with your wand James, what's the point?"
"Girls… they always have more than one point," Sirius muttered. (That is SO true…ÜÜÜ)
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"What did you think? Definitely a no," Hermione said emphatically. James stuck his tongue out at her and ran away. Hermione and Sirius exchanged a look.
"So, can you also locate Remus and Peter?" 'I wonder why Ron and I never knew about this mirror… maybe Harry hadn't received his father's mirror… maybe he has, but he hadn't told us at all about it…'
"With the mirror? No, only James and I have these mirrors."
"And the Marauders' Map?"
"I guess… but wait, how did you find out about it?" Sirius asked suspiciously. Hermione shook her head.
"It's not important, so don't worry about it."
"Oh it is important to me, you know about a secret of the Marauders!"
"You'll find out… in time," Hermione said. Which was true; when she leaves the past, Dumbledore would perform the Memory Charm on all of them. Then he'd meet her, Harry and Ron in their 3rd year again, and he'd know that they knew about the Marauder's Map, why and how. Of course, when they meet in 3rd year, it's like they've met for the 1st time, but it was the same thing.
(by the way, I've decided NOT to write the part where James saved Snape's life… Hermione wasn't involved there, like what they do in the other fics. If Hermione was involved there and the Marauders' and Snape's and whoevers' memories of Hermione there should have been wiped by Dumbledore when she goes back, then they should've forgotten about that incident. The incident is mentioned more than once in the books though, so that means they still have memories of that event. So there shrugging Are you guys okay with this??? Tell me what you think… ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ)
"If you say so," said Sirius, grinning. He pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket.
"It's new," said Hermione, staring at it.
"Of course, what'd you think, we'd put the Marauder's Map on tattered parchment?"
'Well, it willbecome something like that…"
They both looked at the parchment: Remus was doing things with his wand (like the miniHarry in Book 3: "Dissendium." Remember??? ÜÜÜ), and Peter was sleeping; his still form of a dot had tiny Zs coming from it.
"Oh well," said Sirius, disappointed.
"Well, there's always tomorrow. So why don't we… start looking for plants?" asked Hermione, pulling out a small backpack. Inside were the jars, plant names (they didn't need the research anymore cause they had memorized it by heart already), a small plant clipper (aka scissors), and a quiver.
"What the hell are you going to use that for?" asked Sirius curiously.
"Well, seeing that there's nothing better than added protection, I brought these," said Hermione, fingering an arrow. "Speaking of which…" she did a series of spells, each flashier than the one that preceded it. Soon the house was waterproof, Imperturbed, and invisible (when you're in the house, you're also invisible).
"Now no one can find us; even the ladder leading up here is invisible!"
"Even to us?"
"Oh," said Hermione. She did another spell. "Invisible to everyone except us."
"Like thestrals, huh?"
"Mm-hm…"
"Well now that we can't be found, we're safe!"
"You forgot about the dangers down there," Hermione reminded him. "That's why I brought these," gesturing to her bow and arrows.
"But we can escape," Sirius reasoned. "You're forgetting I'm- "
"An Animagus. No, only I can escape, I have this," she said, showing him her pendant. "You don't. Even if you turn into a dog, you're still vulnerable."
"And you think you're protected by that?! I know for a fact that it's a fluke, doesn't protect you from anything!"
"Well that's because it works when you really want it to, not like the way you think it works, automatic," Hermione countered. "Now then, shall we go plant-hunting now?"
"Auto what? Never mind…" Sirius muttered in response to Hermione's amused grin. "Uh, can we just take in the beauty of Mother Nature first?" Sirius asked. Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I mean, we should check which places look dangerous and which don't so we know if we should go together or could go alone."
"Good idea," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Okay. But what are you going to use to protect yourself?"
"My Animagus form. And you your crappy pendant," Sirius chided.
"To each his own," Hermione said, shrugging. "Okay, let's go!"
--
In the present...
It was after lunch, and the three guys were back in the library. They already told Dumbledore about the situation, and he said he would work something out.
"What did he mean when he said he would work something out?" Ron asked, buried in a book dedicated to clock concepts.
"I dunno… but Dumbledore always manages to figure out what to do," Harry said, reading about the history of time recording (the sundial, etc.).
"Hey Potter…"
"Yeah?"
"You wanna know what Hermione's doing now?"
"How?" Harry said eagerly. Draco held up a book about Pensieves.
"We need a memory of someone of that time…"
"Lupin!" said Ron loudly. "He might help us!"
"Right Ron; he should 'remember' things now that Hermione's there… we could ask him to store his 'memories' in the Pensieve so we can see!"
"Well what are you two idiots waiting for? Come on," Draco said. Ron and Harry stared.
"Well, I want to see Hermione too, you know," he said.
"Oh. Right."
"And you should, since it was your idea."
"I'm a genius, aren't I?"
"No, you just got it out of the book."
"Don't mess with me, Weasley. You might wake up one day to something more terrible than 2 days ago (if you didn't get it, Sunday was Ron's spider day Ü)," Draco said calmly.
Ron's ears turned red. (They always do!) "so it was you who did that?!"
"Did I say something like that? I'm afraid not. Well, hurry along now," said Draco. The three ran out of the room and went to the Office of the Minister again.
--
Oh thank goodness! I'm done with another chapter! ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ hehehe Ü I'm still listening to the Spider-man 2 OST… what can I say??? I'm a certified rock fan! ÜÜÜ
Another plus is that I've started to use Autocorrect on MSWord for shortcuts… I get to type faster now, which means less of the aches in the hands (or wrists) and butt! :D hehehe Ü
If you guys were wondering why I decided to continue my fic, it was because I suddenly got inspiration after seeing a bunch of Harry Potter merchandise on sale one day… ÜÜÜ And now that my computer's fixed (and for good, I hope), I think I'm going to be updating regularly! :D But I WON'T update if no one reviews this… even just one review! That's all I'm asking… Ü
Hm, my birthday… what did I do??? Well, I ate a lot of stuff which me feel slightly queasy the whole day :D my bad Ü
Well, I guess that's all for now… I guess I'm gonna check out my huge card and my Harry Potter stuff again… maniacal :D hahaha!!! ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Remember, if you want to be nice and send me a birthday gift, all you have to do is REVIEW. That's all, thanks!!! ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ Sure, my bday was ages ago, but if you still want to send something… what's stopping you??? :Dumbledore Only 35 lousy reviews… waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Ü
Ü rochena Ü