A/N: Many, many thanks: Snakeborn, Universal Hope, encantada, Emi-Bum, Secret Thought, Gaerwen, sweet-essence03, All-American Vampire, little mimi, shadowglove, kat6528, Twilight Elf-Maiden, PapayaCrazy, professionaldooropener, Reanna1102, teneraestnox, Mrs Pierre Bouvier, keeper of the heart, CardboardCreative, Kitty0617, sarklover826, Sophiax, lilpeng1, Shaghai Honey, princess of slytherin, PhanPhic-adict and Ms. Dwyn Snape. (dances around room) 306 reviews! Oh, I owe you all a surprise on Saturday if I hit 325! It will of course be in the spirit of Christmas too. Thanks again!
This chapter has some explanations and some more Christmas fun... enjoy!
Chapter 24 – A Gift Under the Tree
"So, might I inquire what you have in these bags?" Tom questioned.
"Gifts for my friends," Hermione answered simply.
"For your friends?" Tom repeated, sounding a bit hopeful.
"Yes, my friends," Hermione laughed. "And if you're hinting at whether or not I got you something," Hermione continued as the portrait of the Fat Lady came into view. "Then the answer is... maybe."
She laughed and grabbed her bags from him, whispering the password to the Fat Lady so that Tom couldn't hear. The Fat Lady scowed at Tom and swung forward to admit Hermione, swinging shut quickly. Tom grimaced at her and shook his head before walking away.
Back inside Gryffindor tower, Hermione was already up in her dorm, dumping her things onto the bed. She magically locked the door and pulled out the packages. She smiled at the colorful paper each gift was wrapped inside and then sat down to take a break. She sat wondering how she was going to get Dumbledore's to him, and Hagrid's as well. That's when she remembered that she had to be getting down to dinner.
Hermione quickly stuffed the packages into her wardrobe and locked it magically before rushing out of Gryffindor tower for dinner. She made it there just in time as the food appeared and she took her seat next to Tiffany and Sandie.
"Where have you been?" Tiffany quizzed.
"Oh, nowhere," Hermione huffed contentedly as she began serving herself.
They were five minutes into dinner and Hagrid was nowhere to be seen. She had begun to think that he wasn't going to show up. 'Maybe I should sneak down to the kitchens' Hermione thought to herself. 'If he's there, I'll eat dinner there with him.' She no sooner thought this when she looked up and saw him standing in the doorway to the Great Hall.
She waved him over and Sandie gasped when she saw who Hermione was waving over. Sandie shook her head frantically and hissed at Hermione, but she paid no attention to Sandie.
"Are you crazy?" Sandie snapped quietly.
"What?" Hermione asked innocently as Hagrid neared them. "Be nice."
Hagrid stopped and looked around, Tiffany and Hermione parting so that Hagrid could sit.
"Pull up some bench, Haggie, 'ol pal," Tiffany grinned.
Hermione nodded her agreement and patted the space between her and Tiffany on the bench. Hagrid sighed and sat down, the table pushing away from them a bit as his stomach hit it. Hermione just smiled up at him as he still towered over her.
"So, how's it hanging up there?" Tiffany asked as she began piling things on Hagrid's plate.
"Fine. And yeh?" Hagrid replied.
"Just dandy," Tiffany responded as she poured Hagrid some pumpkin juice. "Missed you lately. I haven't seen you in the longest time."
"Oh, I've been 'round," Hagrid sighed. "Been doin' a lot er gardenin'."
"Great, great. You know, I always said that ever since you started taking care of the school gardens, the pumpkins were magnificent and the squash... best I've ever had," Tiffany chatted.
Hagrid blushed and Hermione smiled into her spoon of mashed potatoes. Hermione looked across the table to Sandie who rolled her eyes and got up from her seat to go join Brian down at the end of the table. What was her problem?
Hermione then noticed the problem. People were staring. And pointing. And whispering. And Abraxas was on his way over to the Gryffindor table. Hermione stood up and he stopped across the table from her, a smirk on his face.
"I thought they expelled you... giant filth," Abraxas sneered.
"Go back to your table," Tiffany snarled as she placed a hand on Hagrid's large forearm as he bowed his head.
"Shut it, feather brain," Abraxas snapped. "No one aske-"
"And no one asked you to be over here," Hermione butt in. "Now leave."
"Haven't you learned your lesson... or do I have to call Marsayus over here?" Abraxas shot.
"Don't threaten me, Malfoy!" Hermione growled. "Now... do as I say and leave!"
"Sit down and shut that hole in your face, Mudblood!" Malfoy hissed.
"Don't call her that," Hagrid boomed.
"Oh, yeah, don't want to get you mad... might sick your little pets on me," Abraxas taunted.
Hagrid had apparently had enough as he stood up quickly, the bench thrusting back from his force. He reached across the table and snatched Malfoy up by the shirt collar. Malfoy squealed as he was pulled off his feet, his knees coming to rest on the table in Sandie's abandoned plate.
"Hagrid!" Dumbledore called as he rushed down the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. "Hagrid, stop!"
Hagrid immediately let Abraxas go, causing him to fall forward, his face coming to a stop just above Hagrid's heaping plate. Dumbledore quickly ushered Hagrid back and to the Great Hall doors, whispering something to him. Hagrid bowed his head and walked out quickly.
Hermione turned back to Malfoy who was cleaning off his pants and scowling at her. She shook her head and narrowed her eyes on him as Marsayus Rosier walked up with Antonin, Liber, and Mulciber.
"Dirty Mudblood," Liber mumbled.
"Filthy really... hated touching her," Rosier chuckled darkly.
Hermione felt a red hot fire rise in her chest and an itching at her palms. Before she knew what was happening, she whipped out her wand and pointed it at them. In a split second, yellow canaries darted from the tip of her wand and began attacking the group of Slytherin boys.
"Miss Granger! Cease this!" Dumbledore ordered as he came back to her.
He pulled out his own wand and waved it, the canaries disappearing in a small pop, yellow feathers sticking to the boys and floating in the air. Hermione tucked away her wand as she turned to Dumbledore, yet her eyes where still on the boys.
"I'm afraid I'll have to take points for such a foolish thing. In front of everyone, Miss Granger... you should never hex or curse another student. Thirty points and detention this Friday," Dumbledore scolded.
The boys scowled at her and walked over to the Slytherin table.
"I believe you should go up to Gryffindor tower now," Dumbledore sighed as he looked over the now glaring boys.
Hermione held her head high and walked past Dumbledore to the Great Hall doors. There stood someone she hadn't expected to see. Tom. She slowed and walked past, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. Her lips curled into a smirk and Tom shook his head while fighting off his amusement.
Harry felt the flutters of consciousness returning to him and he soon felt shaking hands around his upper arm, pulling at him and trying to tug him up.
"C'mon, Mr. Potter," McGonagall panted, finally pulling Harry to his feet. "I believe we best get Miss Weasley upstairs to a bed."
Harry opened his eyes after squinting and then turned to where he knew Ginny was still laying. She was still out and she looked completely serene as she lay there. Harry walked over and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her upstairs with ease. He laid her in Ron and his room upon Ron's bed, pulling the door shut behind him as he went back into the hallway.
There, Kingsley Shacklebolt was helping Arthur pull Mrs. Weasley to her feet and McGonagall was shaking Ron awake. Harry walked over and helped Ron to his feet and Ron began questioning what they all wondered.
"Dumbledore. Did... you all see him too?" Ron inquired as he looked around the group while rubbing the back of his head, messing his red locks. "Where is he?" he asked when no one answered.
"I'm right here, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore's voice carried over to them.
He was standing at the kitchen doorway and he was looking rather chipper for someone who was supposed to be dead. What was he? He was certainly no ghost. Could it be possibly for all of the to be having the same hallucination? No.
"Dumbledore?" Harry spoke softly, uncertainly. "But I saw you-," he stopped here as he forgot what he was going to say. "I saw an attempt on your life."
"That you did, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore nodded. "If you all will step into the kitchen, I believe I have some things to explain to you."
Dumbledore pushed open the door and held it there, watching everyone file in slowly past him. They gathered around the table and waited for Dumbledore to speak. He walked slowly over to the head of the table and stood there, surveying them all with twinkling baby blue eyes. He opened his mouth to speak when the door opened.
"You'll never guess the kind of strange dream I had. I mean, you'll never believe i-," Ginny Weasley stopped here as she looked up.
Her eyes landed on Dumbledore and those sitting at the table and she nearly collapsed to her knees. She was caught though. Harry's quick Quidditch reflexes saved her as he jumped up and threw his arms about her to keep her from dropping. Ginny paused for only a second before finishing her sentence.
"It... Dumbledore? You mean to tell me... it wasn't a dream?" she breathed in a surreal sort of tone.
"Please... join us, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore offered as he gestured to the space of bench from which Harry had just leaped out of.
Harry and Ginny sat down, squeezing in on the bench with Ron and Arthur who sat squeezing his wife's hands upon the tabletop. She looked awfully pale and McGonagall, who sat next to her, didn't look much better. Shacklebolt on the other hand looked confused, as though he was trying to understand an Arithmancy problem to which there was no answer.
"How did you get here?" Ron finally asked.
"I, Mr. Weasley, came from a far place beyond all reason of mind and understanding of life," Dumbledore began. "I was given what some would call a second chance."
"But how?" Harry inquired as he narrowed his eyes in befuddlement.
"By the rearrangement of time," Dumbledore spoke simply.
"Rearranging time?" McGonagall repeated. "But that's-"
"Against the law?" Dumbledore chuckled. "Now, Minerva, when have you ever known me to really follow the law?"
She didn't answer, just sat there staring at him with a half confused, half disbelieving expression.
"A very smart young lady helped me to realize that our future is in grave danger... and to leave it in the hands of a young boy who's means of guidance is in a distraught way was quite the plea for destruction of our world," Dumbledore informed.
"Hermione," Ron whispered.
"Exactly," Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Miss Granger is in the past with my younger self and she brought some interesting facts to my attention... like my own death. Knowing full well what was to happen, I managed to change time... a foolish thing some may say, but a needed one others realize."
"That explains why Snape is in jail," Ginny gushed, speaking for the first time since entering the room.
"Yes... with the rearrangement of time comes the affects upon others that your changes have. Severus Snape tried to kill me, but I escaped after calling out to someone for help. And with the help of a certain young man, one Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley would consider an enemy, I was able to overcome Snape."
"Draco Malfoy?" Harry breathed in incredulity.
"Precisely. Mr. Malfoy saw the wrong doings of his future and decided that the side of the Phoenix was one more suited for him. He, however, was not rewarded too grandly for that. You'll find that our young Mr. Malfoy no longer exists in this time," Dumbledore continued.
"You mean... he's dead?" Minerva questioned.
"I'm afraid so. As for Severus, he was caught and convicted with an attempt on taking my life, therefore forced to live out a sentence in Azkaban, which I'm sure most of you know. Now that I had survived the attack, my history was rewritten and your memories changed to allow that... hense your pains and the shudder of the world around us," Dumbledore explained. "But I warn you... we must keep this a secret. It's of the gravest importance that no one but those in this room know of my return... this way we have an element of surprise upon the enemy."
Everyone nodded and something in each of them rose out of their chests. A feeling rekindled. A feeling a burst with new light and force. A feeling of hope.
Abraxas, Antonin, Liber, Mulciber, Black, Avery, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle entered the Slytherin common just after dinner. Abraxas was still seething about how 'outrageous' it was that Alice Granger got away as easily as she did, and Antonin, Liber, Marsayus, and Mulciber were all nodding their agreement.
"It's a shame that you're whining like you are... really makes you look quite pathetic," Tom droned from his chair across the room near the fireplace.
Antonin, Liber, Rosier, Mulciber, and Abraxas all shot looks at him, most looks of shock, but one a look of contempt. Tom smirked snidely and picked at a piece of torn leather upon the arm of the chair as he continued to speak.
"You should all know, that when you let her embarrass you... it embarrasses me in turn."
Tom stood up and walked toward them. Liber, Rosier, and Mulciber all stepping to their right to let Tom pass as Antonin moved to his left, but Abraxas stayed put. His eyes were narrowed upon Tom in a look of pure malice that made Tom give a snort of laughter.
"For someone who just got humiliation handed to him on a silver platter by – what is it you call her... a Mudblood – you sure are cocky," Tom hissed.
A growl issued from deep in Malfoy's throat as he stepped to his left somewhat reluctantly and glared at Tom as he passed.
"Oh... and don't forget," Tom called to the boys in the room. "My common room on New Year's Eve."
Tom walked out after saying this, a smile spreading on his lips as he recalled the look of hate on Malfoy's face. That felt so grand to him to see Malfoy angered like that while he found amusement in the situation. Tom watched with a bit of a bounce in his step back to his common room, and when he entered, he headed straight for his dorm to write down the events of the day. But on his way there, he noticed something. Something that was quite out of the ordinary.
Under his Christmas tree that the elves put up every year was a package. A package wrapped in emerald green with red ribbon tied around it and a red bow on top. Holly surrounded the bow and a tag hung from the ribbon. It was flipped backwards and Tom walked over cautiously to it. He knelt down and flipped the tag slowly, reading the neat scrawl upon it. To: Tom, From: Alice, Merry Christmas!
Tom picked up the package and shook it, a dull, clunking rattle came from inside and then there came another sound. A twinkling sound, like that of a snow globe or music box. Tom moved the package away from his ear and stared at it in wonder. What had she gotten him? And more importantly, why had she gotten him anything?
"Have you seen that huge rat?" asked a maintenance wizard at the Ministry of Magic.
"Nope, sorry," replied a passing Ministry worker.
The maintenance wizard continued down the sixth floor corridor in search of a large gray and light brown rat. He passed by Arthur Weasley who nodded and raised a hand in greeting as he entered his office, the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. He grabbed his coat which was heavier than he remembered it being that morning when he left the Burrow for work.
He shrugged it off, figuring that it was just from a hard day's work that he was tired and it seemed heavier. He tossed it over his arm and put on his hat before walking out of the office. He went down to the Atrium of the Ministry to Floo his way back to the Burrow, and then to Grimmauld Place.
Voldemort sat in his high backed arm chair, glaring into the fire. Something was amiss. First Snape disappears from his very sights and now that little Malfoy brat comes up missing. Voldemort's glare turned from the fire to the copy of the Daily Prophet, where on the front cover, a picture of Narcissa Malfoy flailed about in hysteria.
'Fool' Voldemort thought angrily. 'You're not fit to even be part of my Death Eaters. Blabbering to the paper like that... you could very well destroy everything.' He grabbed the paper and threw it into the fire, watching Narcissa's crying figure turn black and shrivel in the flames along with the rest of the paper.
"I'm so close to finding that Granger girl... no one, and I mean no one had better blow this for me," Voldemort growled as he stood up and moved to the mantle place where a picture of Hermione sat.
What was she trying to do in the past? That answer was still not clear to him. First Severus disappears, no doubt something she did that affected the future time, and now Draco Malfoy. What was she trying to accomplish? And most important to him, what was she doing to him?
He recalled then, the way he had felt when he woke early that morning, at four in the morning to be exact. He was in a cold sweat and his head was throbbing with a blinding force. Something had gone terribly wrong. He had a nightmare that Dumbledore was alive again. But he couldn't be. Severus killed him.
But look what happened to Snape. And Granger was in the past changing things. She had to have done something. He felt a familiar thing rising in him. Anger. But it felt weird to him all the same to be mad at her. Lately he had felt the strange feeling that he deemed affection for her.
Well, there was no more of that. This Muggle-born girl was treacherous. She did have a power and that power was like fire. It would burn her sooner or later and cause the burn of her whole world. Soon to be his world. He had to get back in time and stop her from changing anything more.
In that moment, he felt an exhilaration. Feelings lately forgotten had returned to him. Revenge. Anger. Hate. Jealousy. He felt all these toward her at that moment, and weirdly enough, it sort of made him sick because deep down in the very blackest and secret depths of his heart, he felt a love for her still.
"Molly! Kids!" Arthur called as he entered the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and tossed his coat upon the table.
"Ah, Arthur," Dumbledore chimed as he entered the kitchen with sweeping strides. "I'm afraid you've missed them. Molly took the children and went to Diagon Alley for some shopping."
"She went alone!" Arthur half gasped, half yelled.
"Oh, no, of course not. I wouldn't let her do that," Dumbledore chuckled. "She took Minerva and Kingsley Shacklebolt with her."
"Fine," Arthur sighed as he sat down at the table.
"Tea?" Dumbledore offered with a wave of his wand. "It's rather good with lemon drops in it."
"Oh... uh- s-sure," Arthur replied in a rather distracted way.
He was staring at his coat pocket. He could have sworn he just saw it move, but he was tired, so maybe his eyes were just playing tricks on him. He shrugged it off and looked away to speak with Dumbledore. But as he looked away, the pocket did indeed move, and from it's depths came a foul creature.
A whispered pink nose appeared first, sniffing the air as two shape teeth poke up as well. Then came two beady black eyes and two front paws that gripped the top of the pocket. One of those paws was missing a toe. The rat held back a squeak of shock as it dropped back into Arthur's coat pocket.
It had seen Dumbledore and began breathing heavily. Its master was not going to be happy about this, not happy at all.