One Night Can Change Everything

by glitterfairyshells

An after Hogwarts fic. After the Final Battle, Harry does something that he shouldn't have done with his best friend and disappears. A year later he returns to the Wizarding World. We follow his life as he learns how that one night changed everything. CoM

38. Chapter 37 Harry's Pensieve

A/N:

Disclaimer: I had a dream last night that Harry Potter and his friends belonged to me. Sadly I woke up this morning with nothing but a purple, pink and silver bedroom, a pink mobile phone, loads of clothes, all of theFriends episodes on VHS and the Harry Potter books and DVD's so I took that as a there is no way on this earth that I own them!

Summary: Harry has defeated Voldemort and he leaves the wizarding world after graduating because all is not well there. He returns after a year and discovers that his life has changed dramatically. Theres a new enemy but who is it? There's also romance in his life and he has to learn to live with the fame and fortune that he has gained since leaving Hogwarts. How will Harry deal with all this and his best friends upcoming wedding all at the same time. Harry learns that One night REALLY can change everything in a persons life.

Apparantly authors can't reply to the reviews they get now. It so sucks big time. Anyways thanks for reading and reviewing and if you have a question then email me at tonks182003 at yahoo dot co dot uk (just remove the words and put the actual signs in) and I'll email you back.

Anyways now onto our feature presentation. Here's Chapter 37. Enjoy!

Oh and most of this chapter is rom the books with exception of the changes, sixth and seventh book scenes coz I wrote them way before HBP came out.

---

Chapter 37 - Harry's Pensieve

Over the next few weeks Ellie, Cady and Peyton would disappear for hours on end and no one would know where they had gone.
One afternoon Ellie asked Peyton if Harry had shown her her Grandparents.
Peyton nodded.
"Do you ever wonder what else is in there?" Ellie asked.
"Of course I do but he won't show us, it's as though there's things he doesn't want us to see in it or something" Peyton replied.

"I think we should go into the pensieve and see what other memories are in it."
"When?"
"Now, he's not in his office, him and Ginny have gone into Hogsmeade for a romantic dinner, they'll be gone for hours."
"I think we should let Maddy in on this as well" Peyton said.
"Why?" Ellie asked.
"She is our sister whether we like it or not. She needs to know about his past as much as us."
"Ok then but we have to go now."
Ellie and Peyton walked over to where Maddy and Tasha were sitting.
Maddy saw them coming and said "yes?"
"Don't ask any questions just come with us."

On the way to Harry's office Ellie explained to Maddy what they were going to do.
When they got to the office they found that the door was locked.
"Alohomora!" Ellie whispered pointing her wand at the door.
The door clicked open and all three girls walked inside and saw the pensieve on the desk.
Ellie prodded the substance and held Peyton's hand, Peyton held Maddy's hand and they were suddenly all sucked into the pensieve.

The three girls found themselves in a zoo reptile house and they all decided there and then not to talk during the memories but to watch.

It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls.
Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.
Ellie, Peyton and Maddy saw a rather large boy with a scrawny skinny boy looking for huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.
The three girls all wondered what this had to do with their Dad.
The large boy quickly found the largest snake in the place but at the moment it was fast asleep.
The boy stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"Make it move" he whined at a man that the girls assumed was his father.
The older man tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.
"Do it again" the boy ordered.
The man rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring" the boy moaned.
He shuffled away.
A young black haired boy moved in front of th tank and looked intently at the snake.
There was no doubting who this boy was - he was an eleven year old version of their father.
The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes.
Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.
It winked.

Harry stared.
Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching.
They weren't.
He looked back at the snake and winked, too.
The snake jerked it's head towards the boy and his father, then raised it's eyes to the ceiling.
It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: I get that all the time.
"I know" Harry murmered through the glass, he looked at though he wasn't sure that the snake could hear him.
"It must be really annoying."
The snae nodded vigorously.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass.
Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.
"Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"
As the snake shook his head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.
"DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"
The boy named Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.
"Out of the way, you" he said, punching Harry in the ribs.
Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.
What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second the scrawny boy and the boy named Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.
The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.
As the snake slid swiftly past Harry and the girls, it hissed something at Harry then slithered off.
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.
"But the glass" he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

The zoo director himself made a tall thin woman a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again.
The scrawny boy and Dudley could only gibber.
As far as Harry and the three girls had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in the large man's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while while the other boy was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

But worse of all, for Harry at least, was the scrawny boy calming down enough to say "Harry was talking to it, weren't you Harry?"
The man waited until Dudley's friend was safely out of the house before starting on Harry.
He was so angry he could hardly speak.
He managed to say, "go - cupboard - stay - no meals" before he collapsed and the thin lady had to run and get him a large brandy.

"Who are those people?" Maddy asked.
"Aren't those the Muggles Dad lived with while he was at school?" Peyton replied.
"Yup, shhh" Ellie said as the scene changed and they found themselves in a wooden hut that appeared to be in the middle of the ocean.

The three girls heard a deafening noise.
BOOM!
Dudley jerked awake.
"Where's the cannon?" he asked stupidly.
There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room.
He was holding a rifle in his hands.
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"
There was a pause.
Then -
SMASH!
The door was hit with such a force that it swung clean off it's hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.
His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling.
He bent down, picked up the door and fitted it easily back into its frame.
The noise of the storm outside dropped a little.
He turned to look at them all.
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.
"Budge up, yeh great lump" said the stranger.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face.
"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby" said the giant.
"Yeh look a lot like yer Dad, but yeh've got yer Mum's eyes."
Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune" said the giant.

He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.
"Anyway - Harry" said the giant, turning his back on the Dursley's, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat for yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box.
Harry opened it with trembling fingers.
Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.
Harry looked up at the giant.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The giant chuckled.
"True, I havn't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.
"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
His eyes fell on the empty grate with shrivelled crisp packets in it and he snorted.
He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat; a copper kettle, a squashy packet of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs and a bottle of some amber liquid which he took a swig from before starting to make tea.
Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.
Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six, fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little.
Uncle Vernon said sharply "don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."
The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' any more, Dursley, Don' worry."
He passed the sausages to Harry.
He then said "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are?"
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Call me Hagrid" he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."
"Er - no" said Harry.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry" Harry said quickly.
"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows.
"It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learnt it all?"
"All what?" asked Harry.
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"
He had leapt to his feet.

In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut.
The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.
"Do you mean ter tell me" he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - abou' ANYTHING?"
"I know some things" Harry said. "I can, you know, do maths and stuff."
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said "about our world, I mean. Your world. Yer parents' world."
What world?"
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "mimblewimble".
Hagrid stared wildy at Harry.
"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad" he said.
"I mean they're famous. You're famous."
"What? My - my mum and dad weren't famous were they?"
"Yeh don' know... Yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"
a braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"
"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh" said Hagrid. "Harry - yer a wizard."
There was a silence inside the hut.
Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.
"A wizard, o' course" said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good un' I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a Mum an' Dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."
Harry stretched out his hand and took something that the girls recognised as a Hogwarts letter and read it.
"What does it mean, they await my owl?"
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me" said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a carthorse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl, a long quill and a roll of parchment.
He scribbled something down then rolled it up, gave it to the owl, went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm.

Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen faced but looking very angry, moved into the fireplace.
"He's not going" he said.
Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him" he said.
"A what?" said Harry interested.
"A Muggle" said Hagrid. "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."
"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish" said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard, indeed!"
"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on.
It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.
"The she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"
Harry had gone very white.
"Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that he scared the onlookers and that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.
The anger faded from Hagrid's face.
He looked suddenly anxious.
"I never expected this" he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.
"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can' tell yeh everythin', it's a great mys'try, parts of it..."

He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds and then said, "it begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"
"Who?"
"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"Gulpin' Gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort."
Hagrid shuddered.
"Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway."
"Now, yer Mum an' Dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the mys'try is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... Probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the dark side."
"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an' -"
Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.
"Sorry" he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer Mum an' Dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway -"
"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just like killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yer get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer Mum an' Dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches and wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

The scene changed again and the girls found themselves in a shop they recognised as Ollivander's.
"What was that?" Peyton asked.
"I think we found out why he was famous" Ellie replied.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as Harry and Hagrid stepped inside.
It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait.
Harry swallowed and looked at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling.
The very dust and silence in there seemed to tingle with some secret magic.
"Good afternoon" said a soft voice.
Harry jumped.
Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.
An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
"Hello" said Harry awkwardly.
"Ah yes" said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter."
It wasn't a question.
"You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."
Mr Ollivander moved closer to Harry.
"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transifiguration, well, I say your father favoured it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr Ollivander went up to Harry so closely that he and Harry were almost nose to nose.
"And that's where..."
Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.
"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it" he said softly.
"Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..."
He shook his head then spotted Hagrid.
"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"
"It was, sir, yes" said Hagrid.
"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr Ollivander, suddenly stern.
"Er - yes, they did, yes" said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though" he added brightly.
"But you don't use them?" said Mr Ollivander sharply.
"Oh, no, sir" said Hagrid quickly whilst gripping a pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.
"Hmmm" said Mr Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look.
"Well, now - Mr Potter. Let me see."
He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"
"Er - well, I'm right-handed" said Harry.

"Hold out your arm. That's it."
He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.
As he measured, he said, "every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."
The tape measure was measuring Harry on its own while Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do" he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor.
"Right then, Mr Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible, Just take it and give it a wave."
Harry took the wand and waved it around a bit, but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -"
Harry tried but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.
"No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, try it out."
Harry tried. And tried. Mr Ollivander seemed to be waiting for something.
The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.
"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Harry took the wand.
He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on the walls.
Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr Ollivander cried, "oh bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious..."
He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "curious... curious..."
"Sorry" said Harry, "but what's curious?"
Mr Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.
"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather - just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother - why its brother gave you that scar."
Harry swallowed.
"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remeber... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter... After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great."
Harry shivered.
He then paid seven Gold Galleons and Mr Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

The scene changed again and this time the girls found that they were on board the Hogwarts Express.

In the compartment they were stood in, Harry was sat with a red haired boy.
"You want to be careful with those" the boy warned Harry as he looked at a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once."
The boy picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully and bit into a corner.
"Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts."
They had a good time eating the Every-Flavour Beans.
Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one which turned out to be pepper.
There was a knock at the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry" he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up" said Harry.
"Yes" said the round-faced boy miserably. "Well if you see him..."
He left.
"Don't know why he's so bothered" said the red haired boy. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
A rat was snoozing on the boy's lap.
"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference" said the boy in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."
He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand.
It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.
"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway -"
He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again.
The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one" she said.
She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it" said the red haired boy, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then?"
She sat down.
The red haired boy looked taken aback.
"Er - all right."
He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl.
"Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learnt all our set books of by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all this very fast.
Harry looked at the red haired boy.
It looked like he hadn't learnt all the set books off by heart either.
"I'm Ron Weasley" the boy muttered.
"Harry Potter" said Harry.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"Am I?" said Harry.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me" said Hermione.
"Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

The girls exchanged looks and after a silence Ellie asked "was I like my Mum at her age when I was 11?"

"Yep but you have to throw in the nastyness, the Potter temper and the whole 'I'm better than you and Daddy likes me better than you and I go to Hogwarts and I'm in Daddy's old house' things in too" Maddy said.

Ellie glared at Maddy and Peyton coughed to get their attention as the scene changed again.

The girls found themselves standing on the Quidditch Pitch and looked up to see Harry flying on a Nimbus Two Thousand.

"Hey, Potter come down!"

It seemed as though the Quidditch Team Captain had arrived.

Both Peyton and Ellie were gawping at the cute, sexy fifth year boy.

"Ewww" Maddy said, "he's what - twenty four years older than me and Peyton."

"So what he's only twenty two years older than me then - brilliant father to my baby wouldn't ya think?"

"Shut up, look" Peyton said.

"Very nice" said the boy, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant... you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."

"I wouldn't object to that" Peyton said.

"Shhh!"

He opened the crate. Inside were four different sized balls.

"Right" said the boy. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."

The boy then spent the next hour or so explaining the rules of Quidditch which bored all three girls inmensely so Peyton and Ellie chose to stare at the Captain instead.

"Who was he?" Peyton asked.

"Oliver Wood, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and Keeper till Dad's third year" Maddy said as the scene changed again.

In the next scene they saw a troll attack Hermione in first year and Harry and Ron save her.

The scene then changed again and the girls saw that they were in a cold and dark chamber that seemed to be miles underneath the school.

"You!" gasped Harry.
The man smiled.
"Me" he said casually. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."
"But I thought - Snape -"
"Severus?" the man laughed in a cold and sharp way. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"
"But Snape tried to kill me!"
"No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch Match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a counter curse, trying to save you."
"Snape was trying to save me?"
"Of course" said Quirrell cooly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really... he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor winning, he did make himself unpopular... and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."
Quirrell snapped his fingers.
Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves around Harry.
"You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school at Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."
"You let the troll in?"
"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls - you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off - and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly."
"Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."
The girls looked at the strange mirror and wondered what it did.
"This mirror is the key to finding the Stone" Quirrell murmered, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he's in London... I'll be far away by the time he gets back..."
"I saw you and Snape in the forest -" Harry blurted out.
"Yes" said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me - as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side..."
Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it.
"I see the stone... I'm presenting it to my master... but where is it?"
Harry struggled against the roped binding him.
"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."
"Oh he does" said Quirrell casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead."
"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing - I thought Snape was threatening you..."
"Sometimes" he said, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions - he is a great wizard and I am weak -"
"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.
"He is with me wherever I go" said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I was travelling around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those to weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the Stone from Gringott's, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me."
Quirrell's voice trailed away.
Quirrell cursed under his breath.
"I don't understand... Is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"
Harry edged to the left, to get in front of the mirror without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over.
Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself.
"What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"
Suddenly a voice answered and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.
"Use the boy... Use the boy..."
Quirrell rounded on Harry.
"Yes - Potter - come here."
He clapped his hands once and the ropes binding Harry fell off.
Harry got slowly to his feet.
"Come here" Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."
Harry walked towards him.
Quirrell moved close behind him.
Hary looked into the mirror for a few minutes and Peyton made a mental note to ask her Dad what he saw in it.
"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"
"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore" he said. "I - I've won the House Cup for Gryffindor."
Quirrell curse again.
"Get out of the way" he said.
Harry started to walk away but he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.
"He lies... He lies..."
"Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"
The high voice spoke again.
"Let me speak to him... face to face..."
"Master, you are not strong enough!"
"I have strength enough... for this..."
Quirrell bagn to unwrap his turban.
After he had unwrapped it he turned slowly on the spot.
Both Peyton and Ellie screamed at what they saw.
Where there should have been the back of Quirrell's head, there was a face.
It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.
"Harry Potter..." it whispered.
"See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapour... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"
Harry stumbled backwards.
"Don't be a fool" snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..."
"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.
Quirrell was walking backwards at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.
"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."
"NEVER!"
Harry sprang towards the flame door, but Voldemort screamed, "SIEZE HIM!"
The girls watched as Quirrell put a hand on Harry's wrist and Harry struggling and yelling.
"Sieze him! SIEZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet, landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck.
Quirrell was howling in agony.
"Master, I cannot hold him - my hands - my hands!"
And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms.
Quirrell's hands were burnt, raw, red and shiny.
"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.
Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face -
"AAAARGH!"
Quirrell rolled off him and Harry seemed to realise something.
He looked at Quirrell then jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm and hung on to him.
Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off but couldn't.
Quirrell was shrieking and Voldemort was yelling "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

Then suddenly everything went black and the girls could see no more.
The memory then changed.

The next memory that they saw was the opening of a chamber and they all looked at each other apparantly thinking the same thing.
"Did he look a bit older in that one?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, so if the other's were first year these memories must be from second year which means..." Maddy began.
"Which means Mum should be around here somewhere" Peyton concluded.
The memory changed again and they found themselves in a chamber that they had never seen before.
They watched as Harry fought a giant snake like creature and Peyton made another mental note to ask her father about this.
The memory changed again and the girls found themselves watching another Quidditch match but this time Harry had aged a bit more.

The girls watched as the Gryfindor team walked out onto the pitch to a tidal wave of noise.
Three quarters of the crowd were wearing scarlett rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them or brandishing banners with slogans such as 'GO GRYFFINDOR!' and 'LIONS FOR THE CUP!'
"And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled a boy that the girls recognised as their Uncle's Fred and George's friend Lee Jordan. "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best side Hogwarts has seen in a good few years -"
The comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end.
"And here comes the Slytherin team, led by captain Flint. He's made some changes in the line up and seems to be going for size rather than skill -"
More boos from the Slytherin crowd.
"Captains, shake hands!" said Madam Hooch.
Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hands very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers.
"Mount your brooms!" said Madam Hooch. "Three... two... one..."
The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air.
"And it's Gryffindor in posession, Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goalposts, looking good, Alicia! Argh, no - Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing up the pitch - WHAM! - nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by - Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina - nice swerve round Montague - duck, Angelina, that's a Bludger! - SHE SCORES! TEN-ZERO TO GRYFFINDOR!"

The match carried on and the time went by quickly, soon enough Harry had gone into a dive and was racing a blonde haired boy that the girls oddly recognised to get the Snitch.
Harry pulled out of his dive, his hand in the air, and the stadium exploded.
Harry soared above the crowd.
Wood sped towards him and siezed him round the neck and seemed to be sobbing unrestrainedly into his shoulder.
Fred and George then hit them and then the three Chasers joined them.
Tangled together in a many-armed hug, the Gryffindor team sank, yelling hoarsly, back to earth.
Wave upon wave of cimson supporters was poaring over the barriers onto the pitch and hands were raining down onto the team's backs.
Professor McGonagall was sobbing harder even than Wood, wiping her eyes with an enourmous Gryffindor flag; and there fighting their way towards Harry, were Ron and Hermione.
They were beaming, as Harry was borne towards the stands, where Dumbledore stood waiting with the enormous Quidditch Cup.
A sobbing Wood handed Harry the Cup and he lifted it high into the air.

The girls then saw memories of Harry talking to their Uncle Remus and two strange men and what they recognised as The Shrieking Shack, Harry in a gravyard watching a strange ritual taking place, Harry kissing a pretty girl under some mistletoe, their Uncle Remus and a strange man explaining something to Harry about their grandparents, the strange man dying and a man named Dumbledore telling Harry about a prophecy that had been made.

The memories then changed again and the girls saw a sixteen year old Harry laying on his bed at the Dursley's.

An owl flew in through the window and landed on Harry's bedside table.
The owl started to nip Harry's fingers to get his attention.
"What!" he snapped at the owl.
The owl stuck out its leg and Harry saw the letter attached to it.
He took the letter and quickly scanned it then screwed it up and threw it into the bin.
"What do they know?" he muttered, "they've got their perfect lives, Ron's got Hermione and Hermione's got Ron. They don't have the only father figure that they had left now dead or some insane wizard after them do they? They might as well just sleep together, put everyone out of their misery and have weird freaky sprogs."
Dudley walked into Harry's bedroom.
He looked around and smirked as he saw Harry laying on his bed looking like he hadn't showered for days or eaten since he got home from school.
"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness freak."
"Shut up."
"Still upset coz that murderer godfather of yours hasn't written to you?"
"He's dead."
"Still believing that lie are you freak?"
"He's dead."
"I don't think he cares about you anymore freak."
"HE'S DEAD!" Harry roared.
"So is that why you havn't been eating and you'e holed yourself up in here freak?"

"HE'S DEAD AS IN WILL NEVER COME BACK. NOW GET OUT DUDDERS!"
Dudley waddled out of the room and down the stairs.
Harry flopped himself down onto the bed and wiped the tears away from his eyes.
"Sometimes I wish I hadn't been born, I hate this prophecy."
Harry and the girls could hear Dudley talking downstairs.
"Three, two, one" Harry counted.
Sure enough on one Harry heard Uncle Vernon shout downstairs.
"BOY!"
Harry sighed and got up off the bed and walked out of the room.

The memory changed again and this time the girls were in the Gryffindor common room where Harry was talking to Hermione.

"Mi?"
"Yes Harry?"
"I think I like Ginny."
"WHAT!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"I think I like Ginny" Harry repeated.
"How? In what way?"
Harry mumbled something and looked down at the floor.
"Pardon Harry, I didn't quite catch that."
"In the way that you like Ron."
"No offense Harry but shouldn't you be talking to Ron about this? I mean she is his baby sister."
"No way, he'd knock my block off and not to mention that he'd threaten to chop my nuts off if I went near her and I happen to like them thank you very much."
Hermione laughed.
"Harry, he's only like that with Ginny's other boyfriends because he thinks that only one guy is perfect for her."

"Who?" he asked.
"Harry are you thick as well as blind? It's you, you dope!"
"Hey, who are you calling a dope?"
"You" Hermione said calmly.
"Shut up, you twink!"
"Don't call me a twink."
"Don't call me a dope then. What do I do?"
"Speak to Ron."
"Yeah, in a million years."

The memory changed again and Ron was talking to Harry.
"Harry mate. I'm so sorry."
"For what?" Harry asked.
Ron looked away.
"Ron?" Harry asked warningly.
"Well um. Errr. You know I'm telling you this for your own good and coz you deserve to know and your heart doesn't need to be broken again don't you?"
"Yeah. Just tell me."
"I'veseenginnywithdeandownbythelakesnogginglikethere'snotomorrow" Ron said very fast.
"Huh? Slow down."
Ron took a deep breath.
"I've just seen Ginny with Dean down by the lake snogging like there's no tomorrow. Sorry."
Harry looked disappointed then looked at Ron and shrugged.
"Tis ok, I didn't like her that much anyway."
Ron looked at Harry as though he didn't believe him.

The memory changed again and the girls were in a room where Harry and Hermione were snogging on a sofa.
Peyton laughed and said "looks like someone's gonna be made tonight!"
"Shut up" Ellie snapped.

"Mi?" Harry said pulling away and looking at Hermione.
"Yes?"
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course you silly bugger."
"It's just one night. Right? No strings attached and after this we both move on with our lives?"
"Yeah."
Harry stood up and held out his hand and helped Hermione up.
They walked through a door and the girls followed them.
Harry was stood in the bedroom with his shirt off and was hunting for something.
"BUGGER!"
"What?"
"I've got no protection."
"Harry calm down. I'll do the charm. Now come here."
Harry took off his trousers to reveal his boxers and went over to Hermione.
"Now where were we?" he said.
Hermione grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down on top of her and continued to snog him.

Suddenly the girls felt as though they were being pulled out of the pensieve and they found themselves back in Harry's office.
Harry was looking at them very angrily.
"What did you see?"
"Nothing" Ellie answered.
"What. Did. You. See?" he repeated.
"Nothing."
Harry sighed and looked at them.
"Forget everything" he said, "and no questions" he added afterwards while looking at Peyton, "go to bed."

The girls walked out of the office and back to the common room.
They then went to bed but couldn't forget what they had seen in the pensieve.

---

You see that little button down there. Well it's lifelong wish is to be pushed. You know you want to make the button happy. So grant it it's wish and push it to leave a review! DUN DUN DUUUUN! What will happen at the Talent show? Find out in the next chapter which will be up Wednesday.