Author's Note: For all of you too lazy to read the Author's Note at the beginning of Chapter One, the reason that there is no mold (A.K.A. "fluff") between Arkarian and Isabel is because this fanfiction, although it may be taking place during Harry's seventh year, is only after the FIRST BOOK of the Guardians of Time trilogy. Which means that Arkarian and Isabel have yet to hook up. Which means Isabel wouldn't go snogging Arkarian the moment he pulled up, like she might have done in The Key. Again: this fanfiction takes place after The Named, but before The Dark. It takes place between The Named and The Dark. The reason Rochelle is there is because I have taken a literary liberty and had her finish her debriefing early.

I'm sorry if this chapter is so short; I know I haven't updated in a while, and I know this chapter sucks, so I apologize! I just got off for winter break, so I should have more time to update later, but right now in my time zone it is 4:25 so I am just going to post this and hope that all of you don't hate me... there's not many people who read Guardians of Time as it is, so I don't have many readers anyway!

And now on to the story...

Rochelle wasn't sure if she should punch Isabel or not. The healer looked like she was going to have a heart-attack from all of the stress she was going through. Rochelle knew Isabel was having a hard time deciding—it was written all over the girl's face! And because Isabel was so distracted, Rochelle was picking up each and every one of her thoughts:

Brother—boyfriend—crush—brother—boyfriend—crush—brother—boyfriend—crush—DUH!

Isabel suddenly knelt next to a screaming Harry, placing her hands on the boy's head. Rochelle rolled her eyes; Isabel should have figured out earlier who she was going to heal, but no! She had forgotten who this mission was about: Harry Potter. It wasn't about Matt, as much as Isabel might love him as a brother, or about Ethan, as much as Isabel had a crush on him—although there Rochelle could sympathize with the healer.

Rochelle shook her head, trying to clear her mind from all of the stray thoughts the surrounding people were shoving into her head:

What's going on?

What's wrong with Harry, Ethan, and Matt?

Oh my god, are they hurt? Should I help?

This was bound to happen now that Dumbledore's dead…

What, something ELSE is happening to Potter? Merlin, how much more can happen to that kid?

"Could you all just learn Occlumency or something?" Rochelle shouted, standing up to face everyone with clenched fists and gritted teeth. Then, hearing everyone's new, suspicious thoughts, Rochelle muttered, "Can't you see how much they're in pain? What if all of your thoughts are contributing to their apparent headaches?"

Silence.

Rochelle marveled at how easily all of the young witches and wizards had screened their thoughts. Maybe living at Hogwarts isn't as bad as I thought it was, Rochelle thought. At least here, everyone knows how to silence their thoughts.

Harry sat up, panting for breath. Without hesitating, Isabel immediately crawled over to heal Matt. Rochelle went to help Harry collect himself.

Harry was glaring at Rochelle when she knelt next to him. "I thought you guys were supposed to help protect me," he muttered, noticing all of the eyes on them. "Aren't you supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening?"

Rochelle glared right back at Harry, matching the intensity of his accusation with that of her anger. "We're here to keep you safe from Lathenia. That wasn't Lathenia."

"Oh, so if I just have a stroke or something then you're just going to stand there and let me die?"

"Of course not!" Rochelle gasped. "What do you call this? Isabel just healed you from Abbas occisor, one of the deadliest poisons in the world! Do you call that 'letting it happen'?"

"Well then how do you know it wasn't your goddess?"

Rochelle, still glaring at Harry, replied matter-of-factly, "First of all: I am the only of Lathenia's soldiers to ever specialize in poisons, because of my skill with my hands. Secondly: Shaun was the one who delivered your drink. Shaun would never do anything for Lathenia, no matter what she offered him as a bribe or threatened as blackmail, and Shaun is most definitely not a member of the Order. Thirdly: we were told specifically that Lathenia herself would be coming on this mission, and Lathenia does not work so indirectly as to use poison. She likes to face her victims herself and watch as she kills them slowly… a little like your Dark Lord, if you think about it."

"Voldemort sends his Death Eaters to do his dirty work all the time."

Rochelle pointed at Harry's scar. "Did he send a Death Eater to come after you?"

"I thought you hadn't read the books?"

"Just because I didn't read the books doesn't mean I didn't watch the movies. The beginnings of the movies, at least; I kinda fell asleep towards the middles; I had missions all of the nights I tried to watch them, and when you've got a mission you get really tired."

Matt sat up, holding his head in both of his hands but otherwise looking fine. Ethan, however, suddenly stopped screaming and went limp.

"Ethan?" Rochelle whispered, her breath seeming to have been pulled out of her body by an invisible force. "Ethan?" Rochelle crawled over to where Ethan was lying limp on the floor, and put a shaking hand to his neck. "He's got a pulse," she sighed, and then looked up at a frozen Isabel. "Heal him now!"

Isabel, pulled from her stunned trance, immediately knelt by Ethan and put her hands on his head to begin healing him. Hermione came to kneel beside Ethan, remembering that she was supposed to be Ethan's girlfriend.

Two spots of wetness appeared on Ethan's cheek: tears. Rochelle lifted a hand to her face and realized that they were her tears! When had she started crying? Why hadn't she noticed it before?

"Come on, Ethan!" Rochelle whispered urgently, not really caring that other people were watching her cry. "Wake up… I know you're alive, you have to be alive… please be alive!"

"You know, for some reason I thought Heaven would have less U-No-Poo and more clouds." Ethan, despite holding his head and squinting in obvious pain, was smiling up at Rochelle.

SMACK!

"You idiot!" Rochelle screamed before wrapping Ethan in the tightest hug she could give, immediately regretting slapping him. Then, pulling away with an extremely red face, she screamed, "How could you not realize the butterbeer was poisoned? You idiot! You KNEW it tasted funny, but you didn't do anything! You idiot! You almost died! You idiot! If you weren't alive I'd kill you!"

"And I'm an idiot?"

"You idiot!"

"But I'm a living idiot; that's the part that counts."

SMACK!

"You idiot!"

"Could you yell in this ear next time? I think this one's gone deaf…"

Rochelle went to slap Ethan again, but was held back by Isabel. "If you slap him again, it'll be your fault if he dies," she warned.

Rochelle ignored this advice and turned back to Ethan, but he was now being hugged tightly by the bushy-haired Hermione. Rochelle nearly shoved her off of Ethan, but then the sensible part of her mind that had gone on vacation seemed to come back.

It was right that Hermione was embracing Ethan. She was supposed to be his girlfriend, after all. Rochelle really had no right hugging and slapping and being angry with him. If anyone, it should be…

SMACK!

"What did I do?"

"You idiot! You let them go ahead and drink the poisoned butterbeer and then went and made a joke about the whole thing!"

Ron looked very confused. "So I'm not in trouble for having perverted thoughts?"

SMACK!

"You are now!"

"Well then which is it: the perverted thoughts or 'letting them drink the poisoned butterbeer'?"

SMACK!

"Both!"

"As much as we enjoy watching little Ronnie-kins get beat up by his girlfriend," a red-headed man in a dragon-skin jacket said amusedly, "we really need to send these boys to Saint Mungo's or something."

"Those were some nice hits though," an identical man commented, kneeling to help Harry to his feet.

Rochelle just stared at the two identical men. "Who are you?"

Two identical smiles flashed, and two voices answered simultaneously, "Fred and George Weasley, owners of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!"

SMACK! SMACK!

"You immature idiots!"

"Did you hear that, Fred? We got a whole adjective added in!"

"She must really like us, George."

SMACK! SMACK!

"What is going on here?" Rochelle looked up, this time to see Professor McGonagall glaring down at everyone. Then, not waiting for an answer, Professor McGonagall grabbed each Harry, Matt, and Ethan and Disapparated, taking the three boys with her.

The Weasley twins looked amazed at the language that poured from Rochelle's mouth once McGonagall had Disapparated. "She must really like McGonagall, Fred."