Right, yes, still here. Was kinda lacking in the motivation department; although I know where this story is headed, I still have to get the drive to type it out. Usually fics are my inspiration… *glances at a certain Parallel author* ^^

To anon… I totally forgot about that, hehe ^^; Thanks for bringing it to my attention, though I'm going to ignore that technicality, k? (Also… if absolutely no electronics work, how does Colin annoy everyone with those pictures?)

***

Chapter 25

Heero, Duo and Wufei sat in the Great Hall until Trowa and Quatre found them, rather than walk around blindly looking for their Care of Magical Creatures class. Fred had been there, and they'd sat with him, listening to him as he explained about his assistant job.

"They almost had a heart attack when we came back," he said, grinning wickedly. "I don't blame 'em, really. We were th'best tricksters in the school."

"Did you play pranks on people?" Duo asked suddenly. Fred nodded enthusiastically. "With a ghost to help?"

"Nah, that's Peeves. We have nothin' to do with him, he's just a bother. You run into him already?" The twin asked. Duo and Wufei smirked.

"Yeah, you could say that," Duo responded mysteriously. Wufei didn't respond, instead turning to one of Fred's Charms textbooks and scanning the pages.  "So, Flitwick lets you handle the people having trouble with the spells, right? What're the tricky ones?"

Fred quickly rattled off a continuous stream of charms as Duo blinked in shock. Heero smirked at him once Fred had finished; the redhead hadn't even paused for breath.

"He put you to shame," Heero said mockingly. Duo scoffed.

"Please, Heero. Nobody can outmatch me. Although…" Duo trailed off, arching an eyebrow at an innocent looking Fred.(1) He opened his mouth to speak, but somebody shouting Heero's name caught his attention.

"Heero!" It was Quatre, looking as if he were gliding as he made his way across the room. Trowa followed close behind. "You're back!"

Heero nodded and allowed a tiny smirk to grace his lips. The blond grinned. "Draco got Zabini pretty good. It seems Zabini hit a sore spot and Draco threatened him pretty badly."

Heero snorted. "If I decide to get back at him I won't be stopping at threatening." His eyes narrowed. "He attacked not only myself but Duo as well. I don't appreciate any type of attack made on my team."

Fred sat and blinked at them all, marveling at how quickly the mood changed when they were around.

"So, what's next?" Duo questioned. Trowa spoke up.

"I have History of Magic." Wufei nodded, indicating he had that class as well. Heero thought about it.

"I'm fairly certain I had Astronomy next," he said distantly. Duo looked at him, concerned, but Heero seemed to shake it off quickly enough. "Yes, Astronomy, but not until much later."

Quatre nodded. "Me, too. What about you, Duo?"

"History, I think," Duo muttered, frowning. "Laaaame."

Fred chuckled, causing them to look at him in carefully masked surprised. They'd almost forgotten the older redhead was there. "Binns pro'lly wouldn't notice if you were there or not."

Duo looked instantly curious. "Really…" he drawled, making a point of pausing to think about it. He glanced at Quatre with a smirk; that look, however, quickly changed to surprise when he saw the blond thinking it over as well.

"Actually… I had wanted to get up to that library Hermione keeps talking about. If we're going to learn more about…" his eyes flickered to Fred and back quickly. "…that woman, we'll need to do some research."

"Oi, you lot trying to skip out on Binns' class?" Fred demanded, looking serious.

"We have to do an important assignment and need to skip that class! I'm sure they'll understand!" Quatre exclaimed dramatically. The blonde turned on him with pleading eyes, while Trowa's behind him dared Fred to argue. The redhead, for his part, seemed not to notice the intimidating glance and merely beamed.

"I'm kiddin', I'm kiddin'! Do you think I'd really tell you about Binns and then rat you out" Fred chuckled.

Quatre huffed and Duo rolled his eyes. "How do we get there, then?" Duo asked. Fred gave them a quick description of the route and the five took off quickly, wanting to be far away in case someone decided to look for them.

***

"I feel bad," Quatre muttered as they climbed yet another staircase. Heero looked at him questioningly. "For skipping class on our second day," he elaborated.

"Technically," Wufei cut in. "You aren't skipping class, as you have this period free. Heero as well."

Duo grinned. "It's just as well… at least now I'll be doing something useful instead of falling asleep in some History class."

"You never know," Quatre mused. "Wizarding History could be interesting."

"Any History I could have learned I can easily find out myself," Duo pointed out. "You know, since we're headed to the library and all."

They rounded yet another corner and found themselves at the library, and they entered silently. Wufei stopped and looked surprised, causing the others to look as well.

There, sitting calmly at another table, was Fred.

"How did you…" Duo started, walking towards the redhead. He paused, taking a closer look before grinning. "Ah, hey there George."

They other twin looked up and beamed at them all. "Hello you lot. What're you up to?"

Duo winked conspiratorially. "We're skipping class. Shh."

"Which one?" A fiery eyebrow rose suspiciously.

"History."

George smirked. "Ah. That explains it. You'd be sleeping in no time… but why would ya come here? You'd think if you were skipping you wouldn't voluntarily study…"

"We have to do some research," Wufei supplied easily. It was a good enough excuse; he simply didn't elaborate on what kind of research they'd be looking up. Heero veered off in one direction, Trowa another, and the other three branched off from there. Within half an hour they'd scoured the entire library.

The entire library, that is, except one section. They stood in the center of the room, glancing over at the carefully labeled "Restricted Section".

"So, find anything other than 'time travel isn't possible'?" Heero asked. Duo rested an elbow on the Japanese boy's shoulder and sighed dramatically.

"Not a thing. Although, it did say you could slow time to do stuff. Nothing detailed though."

"Same here," Quatre said grimly.

"It seems the students aren't supposed to learn about things like that," Trowa mused, thinking about his own lack of findings. "They probably keep everything useful under lock and key."

Heero, who had made no move to shake Duo off, looked at the Restricted Section carefully. "We'd need a distraction to get in there," he reasoned. He glanced at the violet eyed boy, who beamed.

"One distraction coming up, man," he chirped cheerfully, glancing back at the librarian, who was watching them carefully. "So, let's spread out, shall we? Going numerical or alphabetical?"

"Alphabetical," was Heero's response. "That means you're up, Barton."

Trowa merely nodded his assent and moved to the rack of books nearest to the doorway. The others slowly spread out, except Duo, who stayed in the middle of the room and surveyed it quietly. Suddenly he sprang to life, no doubt catching the older woman's attention. He marched towards the Restriction Section with no sign of stopping. When he was in the doorway he heard a shout.

"Stop right there!" He turned slowly, innocence radiating from every pore. Duo slowly, cautiously made his way to the woman. He smiled once he reached her, strategically placing himself where she'd be angled away from the others.

"Yes?"

She frowned. "Young man, did you not see the sign? That is the 'Restricted Section'. You are not allowed in there."

Duo's jaw dropped and he gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't even realize! I'm not in trouble am I? Oh no, oh no. I've been trying so hard not to get in trouble! I, I just started here yesterday and it's all so overwhelming and I didn't even realize I was going into an area I wasn't supposed to and I'm really really sorry please don't get me in trouble!"

The librarian blinked in shock.

Duo plowed on. "I mean, I know it's your job and all to rat people out and to keep, uh, order in this fine, fine library but ya know… I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding and there's no reason to go around telling people since there was no harm done. Like McGonagall, because she'd really rip my head off, and having my head ripped off would be rather unpleasant considering it's kind of attached to my neck, but I suppose if you had to then I guess having my head ripped off would be the right thing to induce. By the way, I'm Duo Maxwell, happy to meet you." He shoved a hand out in front of the blinking woman, smiling brightly.

"Er…" She shook her head slightly. Coming back to herself, her frown returned, ignoring Duo's offered hand. "I am Madam Pince. Do see that you do not enter that area in the future, Mr. Maxwell."

Duo beamed. "So you're not gonna get me in trouble? Oh thanks, lady, I reeaally appreciate it! I mean, I've been having sooo much trouble you wouldn't even believe it! That Snape guy's out to get me, ya know, sending me up here with no idea where things were and how things worked and asking me to find some muskroot potion thing or something. Man, it's about enough to drive a guy insane!" he finished explosively. Madam Pince stared at him hard before coming out of her daze again. She frowned, again.

"Mr. Maxwell, it would do good for you to remember that this is the Library and you are to use a quiet voice while here, understood?"

Duo continued grinning. "Yeah, sure. I think I like you lady. Thanks!" He skipped away, virtually brimming with joy, to where his comrades had set up a table and were busy pouring over large, dusty books in front of them. Madam Pince merely sighed and went back to work.

George, however, continued staring in shock.

As Duo had been cheerfully entertaining the librarian with… himself, Trowa had disappeared into the Restricted Section only to appear seconds later with a large book in hand. Next, Wufei had disappeared, taking a fraction more time to reappear. Quatre was next; he'd taken less time than both Wufei and Trowa. Finally Heero disappeared, and had come out carrying two books, taking longer than the others because of his differed load.

This had happened in less than three minutes.

George blinked again.

There was something really, really strange about these new students.

***

"Got something," Trowa murmured, placing a finger on the sentence he was reading and looking up at the others. They mimicked him, placing fingers on their own books and looked up as well.

"Yeah, me too," Duo said, equally quiet. They'd done their best to avoid attracting Madam Pince's attention, since they were currently in possession of a few restricted books at the moment. The librarian seemed to be avoiding looking at them, however, and Duo could only assume it was because she didn't want to attract their attention.

"'Time travel is not a wide practice, and is one of the more dangerous types of magic ever known to be used'," Trowa read aloud from the book. "It talks about how dangerous it is, but not why. It hints to a few ingredients needed. What about yours, Duo?"

Duo looked back down to the book Heero'd gotten for him. "It says that too, but it says that it's dangerous because somebody could get trapped in between the two timelines they were jumping and… well, split in half. And not in the make-a-double kind either… in the split-in-half-blood-gushing-everywhere kind. Yeah, kinda gross."

Quatre frowned. "You mean… if that woman had screwed up we would have been split in half?"

Duo grimaced. "Pretty much."

Various degrees of disgust showed up on the pilots' faces as they considered the possibility before returning to their reading.

"It's only been successful once," Heero murmured. "And the wizard that tried it ended up in a coma."

"Yeah, but that's this time," Trowa reminded them. "And we've noticed a great difference between our own time and this time. That woman could have collected texts from hundreds of years of advancements and done it pretty easily."

"And she just had to do it while we were arresting her," Duo muttered bitterly.

"She wanted to come back here for a reason," Wufei pointed out.

"So to find her, we need to figure out her reason for being here," Quatre said, frowning at his text and flipping the page.

"Well, what are the possible reasons?" Heero asked. "Why would someone come back hundreds of years, to this particular time?"

"Voldemort," Wufei said suddenly. "Maybe she wants to help fight against him?"

"But if he'd won, you'd think our time would reflect that," Duo muttered, looking at his text. "This thing says that he planned to get rid of the Muggles and Half-bloods. Wonky thing is… he was a half-blood. What a hypocrite."

Quatre sighed. "Most crazy dictators that want to wipe out a race are hypocrites."

"So we have Voldemort as a possible reason." Heero's statement brought them back to their discussion. "And we decided it was unlikely she was here to help beat him."

"So she's here to help him."

"Possibly," Quatre replied, looking at Trowa and shrugging. "She could have screwed up her years for all we know. Could be entirely coincidence that she happened to come upon this time. Maybe somebody here… killed her multiple-great grandfather or something."

"Quatre has a point," Wufei mused. "She could have entirely alternate reasons for being here."

Quatre opened his mouth to respond, but out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. The others noticed this and glanced up, seeing George standing slowly. They averted their eyes again.

"Coming this way?" Heero asked Quatre, who had the best view being directly across the table. Quatre nodded.

"Yeah, but he's trying to do it quietly. He's been glancing up at us a few times now."

"Prolly saw us pull that Restricted Section stunt," Duo grumbled. "Hope he doesn't plan on ratting us out, assistant or not."

"Flip to an inconspicuous page," Heero instructed, doing so at random. They followed at separate intervals so as not to look suspicious. By now they could all hear George's light footsteps, and moments later he was standing behind Wufei and Heero.

"Hey," he greeted quietly. Quatre and Duo looked up and beamed at him. "I saw what ya did earlier… that was pretty good."

Duo's grin widened. "Why thank you. I like to think so."

George smirked. "Well, you'll have to work on keeping her attention longer…"

Duo raised an incredulous eyebrow and Quatre snickered. "Oh, I could have kept going for a long time. However, it wasn't needed. One day, mister, you'll see my skills at full capacity," he promised. Wufei groaned.

"Look what you did," he complained glancing up at George. He opened his mouth to continue, but his eyes latched onto the paper George was carrying in his hand. It seemed to be a newspaper or sorts, but Wufei wasn't interested in that. What he was interested in was the picture on the front page.

"Let me see that," Wufei demanded, snatching the paper out from George's unsuspecting hands and looking at it critically.

"Oi," George protested. "All ya had to do was ask."

Wufei ignored him, eyes narrowing before a smirk spread across his face. He slapped the paper on the table.

"I found her."

The other pilots leaned forward, eyes widening when they saw the picture Wufei had been staring at. Quatre snatched it to turn it his way before staring up at Wufei.

"This is really, really lucky."

"Or she's being careless," Duo mused, leaning over Quatre's shoulder to see the woman.

In the center of the front page was the woman from the basement, only now she was wearing a dark black cloak. On her arm a mark was flashing dangerously.

"'Has the Dark Lord really Risen Again?'" Quatre read aloud. "'This woman was discovered on the outskirts of London practicing dark magic. When questioned by Aurors, she shouted 'The Dark Lord will kill you all!' and fled the scene, but not before our reporters could catch her on film. If you have any information regarding this woman, please contact…'" he refrained from reading the address, instead looking up at his fellow pilots.

"Well. That's interesting," Heero muttered, blinking in shock.

"Wow," Duo said. "That was easy."

***

(1) Is that possible? XD Well, he is a good actor I suppose…

So! We've found the evil woman… now, what's her plan? Why's she way back in time? What's it have to do with that mark on her arm?

I'd think it's fairly obvious o.o;

But don't worry… there are more plot twists on the horizon. And a few more HP characters. ^^