Potter47
~Part One~
The Shadow of the Past
"Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us."
~ Wilde
~ Chapter Four ~
See If You're Human After All
Harry and Ginny were back in their rooms, atop Gryffindor Tower. They did not have anything better to do.
What is one supposed to do when transported through time? Harry pondered in his mind. Probably try to get back to where one started, right? How?
That was where they were stuck. They had no idea how to get back. Hell, even Dumbledore had no idea how to get them back, and he's supposed to be the greatest sorcerer in the world.
That triggered something in Harry's brain.
"You're not," he had said.
"Not what?"
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so..."
Harry kept having these flashbacks. Every few minutes, some train of thought would trigger something. A memory of the Chamber. He could only imagine how much worse it must be for Ginny, who had known Tom Riddle for an entire year, not just one day.
Ginny. Were there any coincidences in Harry's life? It seemed as though Fate had decided that the two who had a past, in the past, had to live through it again. Harry shook his head. Even his thoughts made no sense.
Though it did get him wondering. What if it had not been Ginny that had come with him to the past? What if it had been Ron? Or Luna? Neville or Hermione?
He almost laughed at the thought of Hermione being transported to this time. He could just imagine, "Well, at least we finished our OWLs..."
"What?"
Ginny stood in his doorway, leaning against one side of the frame. "Did you just say, 'At least we finished our OWLs? I didn't take OWLs, remember?"
Harry realised he must have been thinking aloud. "No, I was just thinking out loud. Didn't even notice you were here. Hermione probably would have said that, if she had come back here."
"Right," she nodded. "Try developing an inner monologue," she suggested.
"Right."
"You hungry?" she asked. "We could go down to the kitchens. I'm starved."
Harry suddenly realised that he was indeed hungry. When was the last time he had eaten?
"Yeah, I'm hungry, too."
They went down the stairs and, thankfully, found an empty common room. The corridor was also empty, and they made their way down toward the kitchens...
...which were not empty.
There was one human occupant in the room below the Great Hall. One, black-haired occupant, who looked oddly like Harry. Exactly the person they did not want to run into.
"What do we do?" asked Ginny hurriedly, as the two stood behind a large cabinet.
"I have no clue -"
"Mr. Potter! Miss Arden!" A small house elf, a few inches shorter than Dobby, stood in front of the two, successfully exposing their presence. Riddle's gaze flew from the food in his raised hand, to the cabinet where they had been hiding. His eyes never left Harry's face. There was almost a hungry look in them.
"Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes - how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes, how -" Riddle's eyes had glinted, "how she didn't think the famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her...."
Harry once again shook himself out of his thoughts. He wished he would stop doing that.
"What would you like Mr. Potter? Miss Arden?" the elf bobbed at their knees.
"Er..." said Harry, "just some sandwiches."
"Who are you?" said Riddle. He stood up and came closer to them. "You are not Potter and Arden, I know that. I've caught those two out at night far too many times. They don't move like you, they act differently. You seem to be more...cautious...yes that's it. Cautious."
Harry swallowed. He was sure it must have been audible. He looked to Ginny, to see if she had any idea of how to deal with the current situation.
Ginny did in fact seem to have a plan. Harry was not sure it was exactly the best of plans, but it was a plan.
"You do not know, Tom?" she asked innocently.
"How would I know?" asked the future Dark Lord.
"Well," she said, "I thought that you were the Head Boy, and all. I would have thought you would know who most of the students were." She looked between the two black-haired boys. "Especially the ones who have uncanny resemblances to yourself."
Harry had absolutely no idea what Ginny was planning on doing.
"I do know most of the students," said Riddle. "And I do not know you two. Who are you?" He almost seemed nervous. As though the two of them scared him. Harry blinked, and was sure he had imagined the moment of weakness.
The Riddle that stood before Harry did seem quite unlike the one from the diary in Harry's second year. That Riddle had been fully confident, and sure that he could not fail. This Riddle that Harry was looking at...he seemed more...human. Harry never thought he would be describing the Dark Lord with the term human. It did not usually fit.
Ginny smiled sweetly. "I'm Ginny. This is Harry. Pleased to meet you." She held out her hand. Harry was now sure that Ginny was the best actress that he had ever seen. This was the boy that had possessed her...made her open the Chamber of Secrets. And she was going to shake his hand? She was acting absolutely friendly to the future Dark Lord.
He stared at it, brow furrowed, as though unsure what she expected him to do. She slowly pulled it back.
"Right..." she said. "Well, now you know who we are, we know who you are, and that house elf is going to hurt itself if you don't take those sandwiches soon, Harry."
He jumped, turned around, and took the sandwiches from the elf, whom was slowly rocking back and forth, waiting. "Thanks," he muttered.
Both the elf and Riddle stared at Harry. "Thanks?" asked the elf. "No one has ever said thanks to...to Wobbly before! You are a great wizard Mr. Potter! A truly great wizard!"
Harry winced. If this elf lived in the same time as Dobby, he was sure they would start HEAP, or House Elves Adoring Potter.
Riddle was still staring at him. The cold gaze lowered to Harry's robes, and Riddle started to nod. "Of course. A Gryffindor. Who else would thank a house elf?"
"A good person, Tom," said Ginny. "A good person would thank a house elf." She thought for a moment. "Dumbledore would thank a house elf."
Riddle's posture straightened. He turned to Ginny.
"Well, Ginny, Dumbledore's a fool. He still thinks that Hagrid was innocent."
"What?" asked Ginny. "Innocent?"
"The Chamber of Secrets, idiot. Where have you been? Hagrid opened the Chamber two years ago."
"And you got a 'Special Award for Services to the School,' two years ago, correct?" said Harry. "For catching him?"
Riddle turned to Harry. "How on earth did you know that?"
"I got one too." Why am I saying this? He's probably going to kill us if I say this.
"For what?"
Stop talking!
"Catching you."
Professor Snape sat at the high table, in the Great Hall, of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had been informed of the events of the previous night. That Potter and the Weasley girl had been transported back through time. He knew what that meant.
The wizarding world was short one saviour. Word could not get out. Panic would break loose.
Like that would happen. The wizarding world didn't give a damn about Potter anymore. They thought he was insane. Sure, some had been convinced by his interview in the Quibbler, but not all. They did not know that they were all but doomed if Potter could not get back. They did not know of the prophecy. Not many people did. But Severus Snape sure knew. He knew better than anybody.
And for now, he was in charge of Hogwarts. Ha. That's what the Ministry thought at least. They did not know that Dumbledore was back in Hogwarts, sitting in his office, just like always. They did not know that while Snape was sitting in the headmaster's chair, because of the absence of McGonagall and Umbridge, that he was most certainly not running the school.
Incompetent fools. The lot of them.
"Snape's in charge?" said a clearly outraged Ron, when he, Hermione and Neville sat down at breakfast. "Where's Dumbledore?"
"Ron, think." Hermione almost laughed at the idiocy of that statement. "Dumbledore's still on the run from the Ministry. Snape's next in line after McGonagall, since he's the Potions Master. What did you expect?"
Ron answered only by buttering his toast.
"Dumbledore's probably in his office. He's probably still in charge, just not publicly. Don't worry, it's not as though Snape's going to be unfair since he's supposedly headmaster for now."
"Of course he is!" said Ron. "He's Snape!"
"Just because he's Snape doesn't mean he's unfair."
"Yes it does!"
"You are an idiot! Snape had been working for Dumbledore for how long? Fifteen years? He's a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore trusts him. Stop treating him like he's evil!"
"But he is!"
She stuffed the toast in his hand into his mouth. He choked.
"What the hell was that for?"
"For being an incompetent nincompoop!"
"What?"
"Exactly!"
At the head table, something quite unexpected happened. The Potions Master snorted.
Riddle's eyes blazed. "You what?"
Harry decided that he couldn't very well take it back now. "I caught you."
"Caught me doing what, exactly?" Riddle took a small step forward. He seemed to have an idea. Not too good for Harry, since he had no such thing.
"Opening the Chamber. Framing Hagrid. Killing Myrtle. Setting the basilisk on the Muggle-borns." Harry met his eyes unblinkingly. Ginny was sure that her companion had lost his mind.
"I knew something was different about you! You're from the future aren't you?"
He glanced between the two pairs of eyes, and seemed to read an answer.
"Well," he said, taking another small step forward, "you most certainly, will not be going back."
Riddle grabbed Ginny's arm, pulled his wand, and called, "Tempus Fugit!"
Pain coursed through Harry's head. He fell to his knees, his hands gripping his forehead. His scar had not hurt so badly in quite a while...if ever. It was as though a part of him had been ripped away, and his head was slowly following.
After a few moments, the pain lessened...not by much...but Harry could open his eyes.
A feeling of dread began to build inside of him. He was alone. Riddle was gone. Ginny was...
And where was Ginny?
He pulled his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.
Then, as he drew level with the last of the pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry had to crane his neck to look up at the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
Harry most certainly did not need to see that right now. Ginny had disappeared. Again. He needed to find her. Again. Riddle had her. Again.
Deja vu was becoming a common occurrence for Harry Potter.
If Harry had not been Hermione's best friend for five years, he would have been positive that they had disapparated.
But you could not apparate or disapparate, on Hogwarts grounds. Even in nineteen forty-five.
And they had disappeared. Vanished. Gone. Nowhere to be found.
And it was entirely Harry's fault.
"The headmaster would like to speak to you, and Weasley, after breakfast," said Professor Snape, leaning slightly, and speaking in a whisper. "The real headmaster, of course."
"Okay," said Hermione. "Do you think he had an idea about how to get them back? Professor?" she asked.
Snape looked at her oddly. "How would I know, Miss Granger?" he asked. "If he told me, why would you need to see him? That was a stupid question."
She looked down at her plate. "Sorry, Professor."
"The password is, 'Nil Desperandum.' Fitting, don't you agree?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes."
He stalked away, robes billowing behind him. It seemed odd to Hermione that anyone could be fooled into believing he was the Headmaster. He did not act the part at all.
She turned her eyes back to her food when she realised she had been staring. Ron was sitting next to her still, and seemed to be thinking something over in his mind.
"What?" she asked.
"What did he mean? Nil Desperandum?" His face bore a puzzled expression, as it so often did.
"Do you know anything, Ron?" she asked.
He didn't respond all that quickly.
"No?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.
"I know some things!" he said defiantly.
"Yeah," Neville, who had been quiet since Snape's appearance, piped up. "He knows loads about Quidditch."
Hermione had a smug look on her face.
"Not helping, Neville," Ron hissed.
"Sorry."
"It's Latin, Ron," she said, as if it were obvious. Actually, it was.
"Yeah?" Ron gestured for her to continue.
"'Nil Desperandum' means 'Never despair.' You really should know that. Most spells are Latin. And that's a common phrase."
He looked incredulous. "Snape said that?"
The 'Tempus Fugit' spell is from B.L. Purdom's 'Psychic Serpent' series.
Read that if you want to know what happened to Riddle and Ginny.
On second thought, read that anyway. It's better than this.
~ Next Chapter ~
Riddles in the Dark
"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
~ Tolkien
~ Coming Soon ~
