a/n: Greetings to all! I forgot, I wanted to hand these out in the last chapter but it slipped my mind! (drags in a box overflowing with teddy bears) Every reader gets one! Someone on the other site I post this on was kind enough to remind me that I forgot to hand them out--oops! Teehee!Sadly I think you're going to need these teddys as the story comes to its close, so keep them nearby to hug and squish! Hurry forward and seize one that isn't pink and fluffy! .
Also, what excellent guesses you all gave! Some of you showed that you have the mind of an Auror, yet others showed signs of belonging to Professor Trelawney's fan club! Hopefully this chapter will clear a few things up for you…and keep those teddy bears close by, you might need them…
Disclaimer: For the twenty-sixth time, I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. For Merlin's sake, get that in your head! (stalks off)
Chapter 26: Explanations and Plans for Reparations
Claire stared at Robin as the stands in the stadium beyond erupted with the cheers of the Slytherins.
"What do you mean?" Claire asked, confused. "What 'work to be done'—?"
"Honestly, Woods, would you hurry up?" Robin said. She had spun around and begun to walk in the direction of the castle. "I'd like to get back to the common room before we get trampled by this lot…"
"But, you didn't explain yourself at all!" Claire called, running to catch up with Goblet of Fire still clutched tightly in her arms. "How did you manage to fix everything—?"
"Not now, you imbecile!" Robin said, throwing a look over her shoulder to see if anyone had overheard. Claire rolled her eyes; obviously, everyone was still at the Quidditch pitch, seeing as the gloating Slytherin team would no doubt be doing a lap of victory around the field.
"But—" Claire persisted.
Robin spun around and whipped out her wand so quickly that Claire hardly had time to blink before she shouted, "Silencio!"
Claire grabbed her throat. It felt as though someone had tied an invisible string around her vocal chords. She mouthed angrily at Robin, who stowed her wand back inside her cloak, smirking.
"I should have done that a long time ago," Robin chuckled to herself, beginning to walk again. "Would have saved us a lot of trouble—and don't even think about it, Woods, unless you want to find yourself Stunned."
Claire had been at the point of bending her knees to spring onto Robin, in order to aggressively demand the return of her voice. Robin, however, was giving the impression that she had eyes in the back of her head, for she had not even slowed down, but merely whipped out her wand again and pointed it over her shoulder threateningly. Grumbling mutely, Claire followed her up the stone steps and into the Great Hall.
They went all the way up to Gryffindor Tower to their dormitory, where Robin folded her Invisibility Cloak neatly into her trunk, seized a book from it's depths that had the cover 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi, and then proceeded to lead Claire down the staircase again and out the portrait hole.
Claire poked her sharply between her shoulder blades and gave her a look as if to say, "Where the devil are you taking me!"
Robin merely laughed at her and continued on her way down the corridor.
"Really, Woods," she taunted, "if I was worried about being overheard on the empty grounds, do you honestly think I'm going to have this discussion with you in the crowded common room? You're entirely too dense for your own good…"
Claire could have sworn her blood was boiling in her veins, but she had no choice but to follow Robin if she wanted her questions answered, or, for that matter, if she ever wanted to speak again.
Trudging up staircases, Claire was just beginning to wonder if maybe Robin was trying to lead her up to an Astronomy tower so that she could hurtle her off into the lake, when they passed a foggy window in which a tiny owl was pecking relentlessly, trying to get their attention.
"Aquinas!" Claire gasped, though no sound escaped her. She hurried over to the window and unlatched it so that he could come inside.
"Jeez, are you deaf!" Aquinas snapped at her. "I've been banging on every single window since you've been in this hallway! And I honestly didn't believe you could get any more—"
His eyes grew large as saucers as he spotted Robin, who was observing him yakking away with a mildly amused expression her face. She turned to Claire, her old smirk leaping back into place.
"I knew you were in trouble, Woods, but I didn't know you had caused enough problems to have an Observer tailing you," Robin said. Claire just stared at her with a quizzical expression, but Aquinas cocked an eyebrow curiously, as if wondering whether or not he should trust her.
Upon seeing the look on his face, Robin added, "It's okay, Birdo. I have the Gift, too."
"You'd do well not to call me names, twerp," Aquinas snapped back. On the contrary, his eyes had returned to their normal size again and he seemed more relaxed.
Claire was completely lost at this point. She merely stared between the two of them, trying to ask what was going on, but to no avail; she still had no voice.
Robin nodded her head toward Claire and asked Aquinas, "Does she understand half of what I just said?"
Aquinas shrugged and replied, "I doubt it. She's a bit of a slow one."
"You don't have to tell me that," Robin said, glaring at Claire, who returned the leer in full measure.
"Why aren't you asking you're usual five thousand questions, oh ray of sunshine?" Aquinas asked her. "Not that I'm complaining, the noise level has dropped immensely…"
"I put a Silencing Charm on her," Robin answered for him.
Aquinas positively beamed at her before turning to Claire and saying, "You know, I'm not one to pick favorites" –Claire narrowed her eyes a bit further, so that they were reduced to mere slits— "but I have to admit, I like her better than you."
Claire stomped her foot in anger. Acting like a three-year-old was the only thing she could do without being able to use a few choice words at her two present companions. Why didn't anyone ever bother to explain themselves!
Robin walked to the nearest door, opened it slightly, and peered inside, saying to Claire and Aquinas, "Let's go in here, shall we? We have a lot to discuss and I don't want to be interrupted."
Aquinas turned to Claire, who stared right back.
"Well?" Aquinas asked her as if she was being stupid. "What are you just standing for? Use your nice long human legs and walk into the room!"
Claire rolled her eyes and did as she was instructed. It appeared that Robin had lead them into an empty classroom. Claire never did understand how whenever Harry and his friend needed one, an empty room always seemed to just appear right there. Apparently, Hogwarts was holding out for more students with the empty rooms Claire had come across so far.
"All right, I'll give you your voice back," Robin said, sighing as though this was a great disappointment, "but the moment you interrupt me, it's gone."
She drew her wand, pointed it at Claire, and shouted, "Voco!"
The invisible string around her vocal chords untied itself and Claire burst out, "Somebody had better explain to me what's going on or else—"
"—I'll curse you into the great beyond?" Robin finished for her, brandishing her wand under Claire's nose. But Claire whipped hers out just as quickly, jabbing Robin sharply between the ribs to get her out of her face.
"Yeah, I have a wand too, see," Claire said menacingly a Robin recoiled, rubbing the spot where Claire had poked her. "I'm not half bad with it either, so just watch your—"
"I do hate to break up this little fun fest here," Aquinas interrupted stoutly from his perch on Claire's shoulder, "but when we came in this—er—classroom, I think it is—anyway, when we came in here, we had an actual point…"
Robin stood up straight again and said, "He's right, we have some business to attend to…"
"But I don't understand why you can't just—OW! Aquinas, stop it!"
He was digging his talons sharply into her shoulder, saying, "She's trying to explain, my dear, but, you see, it's hard to talk over you when you're whining so obnoxiously. So just sit down like a good little girl and shut your pie hole."
Glaring at him and wincing at the stinging sensation in her shoulder, Claire lowered herself into a desk and turned her gaze on Robin instead.
"I'm sorry," Claire said, hardly meaning it.
"That's quite alright, Woods," Robin replied, flipping through pages in the book she had brought with her. "If I knew as little as you appear to know, I'd be a wee bit angry as well…
"Now," Robin said, "I'm assuming you want to know why Harry is alive and well, no thanks to you, am I correct?"
"Yes, I w—"
"Peachy," Robin said, slamming the book down on the desk in front of Claire to silence her. "We'll start there."
Claire peered down at the book across from her and saw that it was, contrary to the cover Robin had placed on it, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
"As you might remember, I don't know how much brain capacity you possess, but when you asked Professor Lupin to train you to ward off dementors several months ago during one of your detentions, he offered them to me as well," Robin began, hands behind clenched behind her back. Claire was almost certain she was clutching her wand, and not wanting to end up with arms sprouting out of her head, she merely nodded and let her continue. "Naturally, I declined his offer. I knew that if intruded upon such an important part in the novel, there would undoubtedly be serious consequences, as you demonstrated."
"I was just—" Claire began defensively.
But Robin held up a hand to silence her.
"I'm not the least bit interested in your excuses, Woods," she said coldly, "I merely wish to explain my own."
"Yes, please shut up," Aquinas said in agreement, tightening his grip on her shoulder once again. Wincing, Claire fell silent.
"Anyway," Robin continued, beginning to pace slowly between the desks, "I knew from observing you for nearly a month that you would not be able to resist the urge to learn this complicated, and clearly too difficult, branch of magic. I assumed you were going to take the lessons.
"Afraid that you were going to do this, I decided to somewhat indirectly inform you that I, too, am a fan of Harry Potter and a part of the story due to a Gift bestowed upon me several months ago. I carefully deduced a plan, assuming that you were going to somehow follow Harry into Hogsmeade in order to overhear him find out that Sirius Black is his godfather—"
"How could you have possibly known I was going to do that!" Claire said, torn between annoyance and astonishment.
Robin smirked as she replied, "As I've told you several times, Woods, you are entirely too predictable…So, while you were sneaking up into Harry's dormitory to 'borrow' his Invisibility Cloak, I nipped up to our dormitory to grab my own Cloak and follow you—"
"I've been wondering," Claire interrupted, receiving another glare and sharp twinge in the shoulder from Aquinas, "how is it that you have an Invisibility Cloak? I don't understand where you got it from."
Robin sighed, as if unable to understand how anyone could be so slow, but nonetheless explained, "When someone receives a Gift and is sent into the story, they also receive a crate of items to help them—er—more appreciate their stay at Hogwarts. I believe you received such a trunk a day or so after you arrived here? That is how you obtained your Rememberall, ominoculars, and Sneakoscope, correct?"
Surprised that Robin knew all of the items she'd received by heart, Claire nodded.
"Well, I too got a trunk full of useful things, including the Invisibility Cloak," Robin continued. "Needless to say, I did not get as many items as you did. An Invisibility Cloak is a rather rare treat, you see…Anyway, where was I? Oh yes—the Hogsmeade trip. Well, as you'll no doubt remember, you 'ran into me' in the village, if you'll pardon the pun. I allowed you to glimpse my head, feigned anger when you figured out that I had the Gift, and boda bing boda boom, here we are.
"So, now that you knew that I was also in the story, I could discuss the Patronus lessons with you more openly. However" –Her eye twitched.— "you took on the angle that I was trying to spoil your fun, and went to the lessons anyway. I sat in the common room the entire time, watching the words change themselves in the book as you foolishly went about trying to tackle the Boggart-Dementor. So naturally, I knew immediately the effect you had had on the books. Harry and Sirius were both dead. I knew that something had to be done—so the next day I went straight to Professor Lupin's office—"
"I knew it!" Claire explained triumphantly, glad that at last she solved some part of this mystery for herself. "You convinced Lupin to give Harry the lessons again, didn't you!"
Robin and Aquinas actually snorted with laughter at her suggestion. Slightly put out, Claire fell silent and waited for them to explain.
"Don't be ridiculous, Woods!" Robin replied as Aquinas steadily regained his composure. "I may have the Gift, but I can't just go parading up to my professors and demand that they give people private lessons just because I think it's a wise move. C'mon, how was I supposed to get Lupin to give Harry the lessons with out explaining that I knew the future, and Harry was going to be attacked by nearly a hundred dementors at the end of term and needed to know how to fight them? I mean, really…"
"Yes, c'mon, Claire!" Aquinas chimed in. "Use your head!"
Now that Robin put it that way, Claire had to admit it wasn't the best thought-out hypothesis she could have made. But still, wasn't it the obvious thing for her to have assumed?
"Okay then, sorry," Claire muttered. "But then—how did you manage to fix all of this?"
"I'm getting there," Robin said, resuming her pacing. "As I was saying, I went to Professor Lupin's office the following day. I told him that I knew that the lessons for you and Harry didn't go well because you told me all about it—Yes, I know you didn't actually tell me, but I wasn't about to show him that I had a book that told me everything about Harry's life, now was I?—Anyway, I told him that, even though he didn't want to put you or Harry through any more agony, he did give me his word that, if I were to change my mind, he would of course teach me how to ward off a dementor. Bound by his word, he had no choice but to give me a lesson in Patronus-conjuring."
"But I still don't get it!" Claire said, head in her hands, rubbing her temples in attempt to get the wheels turning in her brain. "How would you knowing how to conjure a Patronus save Harry? I mean, it's him that goes back with the Time Turner, not you—"
"That," Robin said, smiling in victory, "is where you'd be wrong, Woods."
Claire looked up in astonishment, her hair disheveled from running her hands through it so many times.
"Wha—?"
"I do go back in time with Harry and Hermione at the end of term, I do use the Time Turner, and I do help them save Buckbeak and Sirius," Robin said, spinning the book in front of her around so that Claire could read it properly. "And I'm not the only one, either…"
Claire took the book in her hands and read a couple of lines. She spotted her name on the page.
"Me?" she gasped. "I go back too?"
Robin nodded, smiling cleverly.
"Apparently, you're very good with Hippogriffs, Woods."
"Well—I guess that is true!" Claire said, smiling too. "When Aquinas and I were hiding out over Christmas I spent a lot of time with Buckbeak, so he knows me well and knows I'm trustworthy…But wait a minute, Robin. I'm still confused about something."
"I'm listening."
"Well, I'm assuming that you're the one that wards off all the dementors at the lake, right? Since Harry never learned how to produce a Patronus?"
"Yes?"
"But…What about the stag?" Claire continued, her brow furrowed in thought. "Harry sees the stag and he sees himself, he thinks he's James! How are we going to make sure that he still thinks its Prongs out there on the lake and not me and you?"
Robin sighed, shaking her head.
"In order to save his life and the plot of the next books, that minor detail had to be lost," she answered.
Claire gaped at her.
"Well, it's either I save him or no one saves him, Woods," Robin continued. "But that wasn't the point of me bringing you in here to explain this to you. As I said, we still have a lot of work to do."
"Yes?" Claire asked, wondering if she really wanted to here this.
"Well, I've only just had my first Patronus lesson," Robin explained. "I haven't perfected the art of it yet. In order to make sure I'll be able to do it properly by the end of this year, I'll need a lot of extra practice—way more than just lessons once a week with Professor Lupin."
"But the book says that you manage to do it just fine—" Claire started. But Robin was already shaking her head.
"As a result of me agreeing to take the lessons, I eventually learn how to do it properly, yes," Robin said, "but we must make absolutelysure that I can do it without fault. Otherwise it'll be Harry and Sirius that suffer because of it. Therefore, you're going to have to help me practice extra hard so I can do this. Agreed?"
Claire looked into her eyes. They were full of a fiery determination she had never seen before. She swallowed hard and said, "Sure, that's no problem. Is there anything else we have to do?"
Robin sighed again and straightened up.
"There is one more thing…it's pretty much solely up to you, though," she answered. "You have to make sure that you obtain your friendship with Harry. He trusts you, and you have to make sure that you give him no reason to stop trusting you, do you understand?"
Claire blinked. "No. I thought I was supposed to stay out of the books as much as humanly possible?"
"Well, things have changed, Woods," Robin said, withdrawing a very thin book from the inside her robes. "If Harry doesn't trust you, then you won't be able to convince him to trust me, we won't be able to accompany them to save Buckbeak and Sirius on the Time Turner journey, and I won't be able to teach Harry how to conjure a Patronus."
Claire was nodding along until the last part.
"Wait—why do you have to teach Harry—?"
"Because if I don't," Robin said, thrusting the thin book she had taken out of her robes at Claire, "this will happen."
Claire stared at it, recognizing the cover almost at once. It was Order of the Phoenix, except now it was thinner than a Curious George book. Wondering why this was, it suddenly dawned on her.
"Of course!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening in comprehension. "Harry and Dudley are attacked by dementors at the beginning of book five! If we don't teach him how to fend them off—"
"—then he might as well just leap out of a window now for all the good he'll be able to do when the time comes," Robin finished for her. She sighed. "I may have saved his life for now, Claire, but I only bought him an extra year. You understand now why we have so much extra work to do?"
Claire nodded, standing up and saying, "I'll do whatever it takes."
"Good, I was hoping you would say that," Robin said. She then turned her attention to Aquinas, who was still perched on Claire's shoulder, looking stony and determined. "You're name's Aquinas, right?" she asked him.
"It is indeed, Miss," Aquinas said with a small bow. Claire stared at him. She didn't know he was capable of being polite.
"Aquinas, can I trust you to make sure that Claire stays close to Harry, but not so close as to mess things up for us? I'm not saying this because I don't think you can handle it, Woods," she added upon seeing Claire's face, "I'm just saying this because I know it's going to be hard. Harry is already very fond of you, we have to be careful."
"I agree," Aquinas said with a nod. "I'll be happy to assist you two in any way that I can. That is my job, after all."
"Excellent," Robin said, clapping her hands together once. "Well, then we better get going back to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe we can start practicing some before we turn in for the night…"
January changed into February at an almost alarming speed. Claire was so busy helping Robin learn how to conjure a Patronus that her evenings were fit to burst, not to mention every time they were down in the common room she had to deal with Robin urging her to go over and chat with Harry and Ron (Hermione was buried under a pile of homework and still not talking to the boys after the Firebolt incident), which usually ended in her talking to them for the rest of the evening or playing one of the boys in chess. Despite all of this, Robin was urging Claire to pay extra close attention in classes and get all her homework done quickly, saying that no doubt one of their teachers might mention something that might prove useful to them later on in the year when things began to get tricky for them in the Time Turner sequence.
"Besides, it can't hurt you to get on their good side and stay out of detention, Woods, especially after all the commotion you caused in your first weeks here," Robin was saying, shooting wisps of silvery smoke out of the end of her wand up in their dormitory while Claire scribbled down an essay for Snape.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" she replied icily, scratching out something on her parchment in an irritated manner.
A couple weeks later, Claire was enjoying a rare peaceful evening in the common room, petting a purring Crookshanks near the fire when suddenly there was a great commotion over by the portrait hole. Craning her neck around in her chair, Claire saw Harry and Ron standing in the midst of a crowd, holding the most beautiful broomstick Claire had ever seen in her life. Then Claire remembered—Harry had obviously just gotten back his Firebolt from Professor McGonagall after it had been run though the mill in a series of anti-jinx tests.
"Where did you get it, Harry?"
"Will you let me have a go?"
"Have you ridden it yet, Harry?"
"Ravenclaw won't stand a chance, they're all on Cleansweep Sevens!"
"Can I just hold it, Harry?"
Claire was happily watching the Firebolt get passed around the room when suddenly she saw Robin sidling her way over to her.
"Drop the cat," she hissed, looking over at the boy's staircase anxiously.
Claire cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Why? He's not doing anything—"
"Drop it!" Robin insisted through gritted teeth.
Totally bewildered, Claire dropped Crookshanks down on the hearth rug, in which case he hissed angrily and trotted away over to Hermione's corner. Robin seated herself in an armchair beside Claire's, fingers clenched in her lap, still staring around as if waiting for something to happen. Taking the hint, Claire learned forward to ask what her peculiar attitude was all about, but Robin merely shook her head, staring even more determinedly at the boy's staircase.
A moment later, Claire's question was answered for her. There was a loud screaming coming from the boy's dormitories, and the common room fell silent, all staring, like Robin, at the staircase, wondering what was going on.
Ron came bounding into the common room, looking livid and dragging a bloodied sheet behind him. Suddenly, the reason why Robin wanted her to drop Crookshanks became clear.
"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!" Ron was positively roaring at Hermione.
Claire suddenly had an idea.
"Robin!" she whispered, though it was hardly necessary, no one could hear her over Ron's yells. "Scabbers! Wormtail is probably out on the grounds somewhere right now! What if we used you're Invisibility Cloak and my Sneakoscope and tried to find—"
"Are you insane!" Robin injected, looking angry. "Have you learned nothing at all about changing the events in the story! No, we're not going to go chasing after Pettigrew. We are repairing the damage you've caused and then getting out of the story for good before you have a chance to screw up anything else."
Claire didn't press the matter further as she leaned back against her chair. Something else was now on her mind; for as long as she had been in the story, she had never once contemplated going home, back to the real world. Was the adventure really going to end?
Robin eventually got up and retreated to their dormitory, leaving Claire there to stare into the fire, oblivious to the argument going on behind her and lost in her own thoughts.
a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAaaa! Was that long enough for ya? It was actually going to be a bit longer—but I decided to cut one part and put it in the next chapter instead. So…Are Robin's plans fool-proof? Is Claire going to be able to maintain her friendship with Harry but still keep a safe distance so not to ruin anything else? What do you think! Let's keep those guesses coming…