Disclaimer: Nothing of Harry Potter belongs to me. Only the plot.
Forget praying – we need a miracle.
The Slytherins climbed the stairs silently, one behind the other. Draco came to a stop on the top of the sixth floor corridor, thankful that the staircases hadn't switched whilst they travelled there. He heard, rather than saw, Blaise, Pansy and the Slytherin whose name he was uncertain of.
"Name?" he demanded somewhat unceremoniously.
"Daphne. Daphne Greengrass," her head bobbed in time as she answered.
"Right. Ok then, Daphne, you take the sixth floor on the left wing of the school, Pansy, you take the right. Zabini and I will go to the seventh floor and I'll take the left and him the right. Meet back at the Astronomy tower in an hour. Don't bother looking in every classroom, they are only Hufflepuffs after all," he finished, looking expectantly at them.
The two older Slytherins nodded, they were used to following orders from the almighty-Draco-Malfoy. Daphne however looked a little uncertain. "What do we do if we run into something bad?"
Draco rolled his eyes. He didn't know where they were but if he was stuck with a drip like this Daphne girl appeared to be, it could be a very long time.
"Put your wands into the centre," Hermione commanded. Ron, Harry and Ginny complied. "Now we're going to stick together, but in case we get separated this spell will be of use."
"What does it do?" Harry asked curiously, watching the wands glowing slightly where their tips touched.
"It works a bit like a four-point spell, but slightly different. Instead of pointing north on command, if you say one of the person's names whom it's been joined with then it should point in their exact direction," the brown-haired witch explained. "Convergo," she muttered.
The four wands peaked with a burst of light, before returning to their normal state. Ron watched his carefully. Small beads of light emitted from the end of his wand at intervals.
"So it's like a… tracking spell?" Ginny asked, watching her wand as well.
"Yes," Hermione agreed. "Just more specified."
"So, where first?" Ron asked, scratching his head dazedly.
"The library, I guess," Hermione replied. "It's as good a place as any."
Ginny fell into step next to the brown haired Gryffindor, and two boys paired up behind them.
"The library, who would have guessed," Ron mumbled. "Who died and made her queen anyway?"
"No one, she was always been in charge," Harry replied, in an equally low voice.
"I can hear you!" Hermione called over her shoulder.
Both boys started, before a fond smile crossed their faces.
"So where do you think we are?" the redhead asked, trailing his fingers absently along the cold stone of the wall.
"Well," Harry pondered. "It's certainly Hogwarts, but different… colder. If it wasn't so far-fetched I'd say we were in the past or the future or something. But that's too crazy – even for us."
Ron considered this for a second. "I guess we'll find out soon enough. What do you mean 'even for us' anyway?"
"Just that seven years ago I didn't know such a thing as magic even existed, and then I was suddenly plunged into this weird world of incredible things. Who's to say that wizards can't time travel as well?"
"Because of all the paradoxical consequences! It was outlawed at the beginning of the twelfth century and the punishment was a Dementor's Kiss, just because it was so dangerous!"
Harry raised an amused eyebrow. "I think that Hermione has had a definite effect on you."
Ron blushed but managed to shrug it off. "Well you can't spend seven years with her and not be effected."
"Tell me something I don't know," Harry agreed.
The four students continued along the corridor to the library, unaware of the dark shapes that haunted the shadows they left behind.
The Ravenclaws stood at the entrance to the dungeons. Everything was pitch-black, as far as they could see in every direction.
"Why are there no candles?" Sally-Anne asked, trying to keep the squeak out of her voice.
"Maybe Snape isn't about," Sam shrugged. "Which is good news," he added. "Well, how about we split up into pairs and cover the dungeons as quickly as possible?"
Sally-Anne shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea. I mean look at it," she gestured to the surrounding darkness. "We'll all get hopelessly lost!"
"No, Sam's right, we need to divide into pairs or we'll be here forever. Think about it logically," he told the dark-haired girl.
"Lumos Complate," Luna announced, making them all jump. Her wand tip light up light a spotlight, blindingly bright in the dark.
"Cool," Sam said absently.
"Right then, Sam you can go with Luna and Sally-Anne and I will go in a pair. "If you get into trouble, send a warning beam and put up a strong shield until we come and find you."
Sam, Michael and Sally set their wand tips alight with the Lumos spell as well before advancing forwards to the first fork in the corridor.
"Why do you hate me?" Sam muttered to Michael, gesturing to Luna.
He shrugged. "Luck of the draw?"
Draco was bored and indignant. He couldn't decide which one he felt more. What right did Dumbledore have to send him on an errand around the school to find Hufflepuffs of all people? As far as he was concerned they could be lost forever, along with the Gryffindors. Ravenclaws he could deal with, as long as they did everything he told them to.
Ah, the Hufflepuffs weren't around here anywhere, maybe he should just go straight to the Astronomy Tower entrance. He looked as far as he could down each corridor, before making up his mind to go directly to the meeting place.
The Slytherin seventh year was bored of this silent school, with its shadows and draughts. At least when it was bustling with students these things were never noticed, even if Draco rarely agreed with any of them. If he was brutally honest, the place kind of spooked him… it was just so quiet.
He climbed the stairs to the Astronomy Tower ledge wondering if he was the first to finish his 'patrol'. If everything was how it used to be, the corners of the stairs and just inside the doorway would be littered with couples pushing their luck. Draco smirked, remembering a few experiences of his own.
He pushed the door open, only to be faced with a man. Draco froze, was it Blaise? And if not, who could it be. They were standing so still, almost like a… statue. What was it Dumbledore had said? A Memorial of some kind… maybe this was it. The Slytherin let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.
The moonlight from the open window slid across the room in strong beams, some falling across the statue. It illuminated a plaque beneath the stone feet; Draco moved forwards to read it.
'In memory of Tom Riddle, a respected and devoted student, R.I.P.'
"Tom Riddle?" Draco questioned himself softly. "Why does that ring a bell?" he moved to the window that overlooked Hogwarts towers and dips. The moon was shining brightly down; it seemed to bounce off the fog that twisted itself around the looming precipices of the school. The effect was stunning, and humbling, even for Draco Malfoy.
"No Hufflepuffs anywhere," announced a voice from the door. Draco looked up to find the Daphne girl looking at him.
He nodded once, sharply, before turning back to wrack his brains on whom Tom Riddle was.
"This is the memorial then," the younger girl said aloud. "Tom Riddle? Wasn't that Voldemort's real name?" Draco spun around, leaning his arms back with his fingers clutching the window sill. His knuckles were white
"Of course," he muttered. "That's why it rings a bell. When does it say he died?" he asked the girl briskly.
"It doesn't. Oh, but it does say he was fourteen at the time." She looked up, catching sight of the look on Draco's face. "What does this mean?"
"What does it mean?" Draco exclaimed. "What does it mean? It means that Voldemort never existed; it means that my father – our fathers – probably never crossed over into evil. It means that hundreds of muggles and muggleborns lived instead of died. It means that Harry Potter isn't famous!" he paused for thought, before voicing the last – and most important – consequence. "It means that we, you, I, Pansy, the golden trio, all of us, might not actually exist."
"There you are!" Ginny exclaimed, running through the stacks.
Four Hufflepuffs were gathered sleepily around a table in the far corner. Harry, Hermione and Ron followed, somewhat slower.
"What are you doing here?" Ron asked, looking warily around the dark and rather forbidding library.
Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott looked at them as though they were God's grace. "There are other people around! See we're not the only ones," she said to the other three. Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley rolled their eyes, but they looked quite pleased as well.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, echoing Ron's question.
"Well we realised there was no one else in any part of the Hufflepuff rooms so we came to the library to see if we could find any answers. Why where have you been?" Justin asked.
"Dumbledore," Harry answered slowly. "And have you found anything?"
"Yes," Ernie told him tersely. He held out a newspaper clipping for Harry to read. The Boy Who Lived skimmed it quickly, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"What is it?" asked Ginny, trying to read it over his shoulder.
Harry handed the slip of newspaper to her and Hermione and Ron crowded around as well. Ginny finished before the other two, she looked at Harry incredulously. "So… he never lived here? Well, not for long anyway."
"Apparently not," Justin chimed in, taking in the Gryffindors' reactions.
"But that means… so much," Hermione gasped, reeling from all the possibilities. "How can we have got here?"
"I don't know," Harry replied, still trying to get his around the fact that Tom Riddle had never turned into Voldemort.
Ron on the other-hand remembered the night before (had it only been then? It seemed like a year) and black-haired boy in his dream. Or, well, he assumed his hazy visions were a dream… he wasn't sure. What if it had been real?
Big thank yous to my reviewers Elle Blessingway and Sabine Strohem-Moss, you keep reading and I'll keep writing!
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