Beyond the Past
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other names, places, or ideas related to the world of Harry Potter. They are the property of J.K. Rowling.
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A/N I am soooooooo sorry for the long wait. I have been really busy and stressed with college auditions. They are almost over, so I am hoping to update more frequently. Again, I am really sorry. Well, read and enjoy (and review!).
Chapter 3: A Stiff Neck
Argus Filch arose early the next morning. He had lain awake all night and eventually the desire to sleep left him as he was enticed by that other sweet seductress: food. As Argus made his way slowly down to the kitchens, he could feel his sore muscles groan in protest. His night of tossing and turning had wreaked havoc on his body. The job of caretaker at a magical school such as Hogwarts was very physical and Argus' body usually needed every minute of sleep that it could get in order to repair itself in preparation for the next day.
Argus sighed. He loved walking along the deserted halls of the school during the early morning. He gingerly raised his arm and ran his hand through his tangled mane. He then let his hand drop to the back of his neck and he slowly began to massage his tense muscles. Argus let his arm drop in surprise as he realized that he was already outside of the kitchens. He rolled his head around his shoulders, hissing softly in pain as his neck screamed in protest. He then reached out his hand and tickled the pear, grabbed the handle as soon as it was visible and walked into the kitchens.
Despite the early hour, the house-elves were already bustling about in preparation for the morning's breakfast. One of the elves quickly spotted Argus and rushed over to him. In its squeaky and high-pitched voice, the elf asked, "Sir, whats can Worthington be getting yous?"
Argus smiled down into the face of his favorite house-elf. He loved the little creature's name. House-elves were usually known for giving their offspring short and snappy names. Someone had clearly forgotten to tell this to Worthington's mother, who also had a daughter that she named Chloetildge. "Well, Worthington," Argus replied, "today I would simply like some toast and coffee." The house-elf nodded and started to run away, anxious to please. This led Argus to shout after him, "Plain toast this time!" The last time that Argus had come down to the kitchens for an early breakfast, Worthington had brought along a selection of over twenty jams, ranging from the normal ones such as strawberry and peach, to the more unusual tastes of pumpkin and coconut.
Worthington came running back in to view, precariously balancing a plate stacked high with toast, a whole coffee pot and a very pristine mug. "Heres you are sir!" Worthington exclaimed proudly as he unceremoniously plopped the toast and coffee onto a small circular table near the entrance. Argus sat down in the chair next to the table with a sigh, his stiff muscles still protesting to any movement. He poured himself a cup of steaming hot coffee and took a long drag of it, practically scalding his mouth.
"Ahhh, thanks Worthington," he said to the little elf still bobbing up and down at his shoulder. "Not only is the coffee amazing…" he took a big bite out of his toast, "…as is the toast, but your service keeps getting faster and faster!" The elf positively beamed back up at him.
"Is there more thats Worthington could be doing for sir?" inquired the house-elf, with marked admiration. "Worthington woulds do anything for sir!"
Argus smiled again, the rarely used muscles of his mouth working slowly to comply. He shook his head and said, "No, I think that I am fine for now. Thank you." Worthington made a very low bow and turned away. Just as the elf took his first couple of steps, a thought came to Argus. "Worhington?"
The elf quickly turned around. "Yes sir?"
"Actually, I was wondering something." Here Argus paused.
The elf looked up at him expectantly for a moment before asking, "Yes?"
Argus shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I…was wondering if you could give me information. About someone here at Hogwarts."
The elf stuck his little chest our proudly. "Of course Worthington can be doing this!"
"Are you sure? I don't want you to get in to trouble."
Worthington looked around them shiftily, his curiosity piqued. "Worthington will not bes getting in to trouble sir! Nots unless Worthington be telling sir about other teachers or the headmaster sir! We house-elves is not allowed to talk about the staff sir!"
Argus nodded. "That's okay. I want you to tell me everything you can about Hermione Granger. She's in Gryffindor. Do you know who I am talking about?"
The elf nodded excitedly. "Alright then Worthington, it's time for you to earn your toga!"
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Half an hour later, Argus Filch left the kitchens knowing everything there was to know about Hermione Granger. As it was still quite early in the morning, the only other beings to be roaming the Hogwarts' halls were ghosts. Argus was in pretty high spirits as he pondered what Worthington had told him. He knew Hermione's weaknesses, her strengths, her passions, her most embarrassing moments, her secret dreams and ambitions, and everything in between. These thoughts were a great distraction as they banished his dreams from the previous night and worked as a stimulant to help him overcome his lack of sufficient sleep.
It was a rare thing to see Argus Filch in high spirits. Indeed, it was quite unheard of to see him aimlessly wondering the corridors whistling. This is why Hermione Granger, who was also up early, did a double take when she saw who the joyful music belonged to. Upon seeing Argus Filch in such buoyant spirits Hermione became overwhelmed with shock and dropped the very large book that she was holding.
Argus jumped up in surprise after hearing a loud "thump." He turned around quickly and spotted a very scared looking Hermione. Argus had to quickly hide the smile that passed over his lips. "Granger," he sneered, "I can clearly see that you aren't as smart as some of the teachers say you are, otherwise you would have learned by now that you shouldn't be out of bed at…" he checked his watch, "four o'clock in the morning." An ashen Hermione only nodded. Argus continued with, "Well, it looks like you will be serving full day detentions on Saturday and Sunday as well. Go back to bed and don't forget to be down at my office at eight o'clock sharp." Hermione stood there mute for another moment before bending down to pick up her large book and running back up to the Gryffindor common room.
Argus smiled at her retreating form, enjoying the view. Well, he thought to himself, two more days with Miss Granger all to myself! As Hermione's form disappeared around a corner, Argus turned around and continued whistling.
XXX
Hermione made it back to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room with no further problems. The fat lady, thankfully, was in her frame. Unfortunately for Hermione, she was also snoring quite loudly. "Excuse me," Hermione said quietly. The fat lady continued right on with her snoring. "Excuse me," Hermione repeated louder. Still, the fat lady slept. "Excuse me please!" Hermione practically shouted. She saw the fat lady wake with a start, but then pretend to still be asleep. "Oh, no you don't," muttered Hermione under her breath. She then reached out her hand and started rapping quite loudly on the fat lady's frame. "I know you're awake so don't pretend you aren't! Don't make me take a page out of Sirius Black's book, because believe me I will!" The fat lady quickly opened her eyes at that.
"That's not a joking matter young lady!" the fat lady said in a sharp voice.
"Who said I was joking?" Hermione intoned sweetly. "The password's 'fwooper feathers.' Now open up!" The fat lady sighed as she had no choice but to swing forward and allow Hermione to climb through the portrait hole.
Hermione walked across the common room and flopped down into a chair near the fireplace. She stared at the embers for a while deep in thought. This project is going to get me expelled! She then sighed and opened her very large, very old book.
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"Hermione!" Harry Potter exclaimed as she came skidding in to the Transfiguration classroom mere seconds before the start of class. "Are you okay?"
Hermione took a few deep breaths before panting out, "I'm fine Harry, thanks." Harry and Ron exchanged a quizzical look.
"You don't look like you got any sleep Hermione. Are you sure there's nothing that you want to tell us?'
"I said I was fine Ronald!" she snapped back. Ron opened his mouth to say something else, but was stopped by the quick look that Harry shot him, which clearly said, "Just leave her alone, she'll tell us when she's ready." Instead of saying anything, Ron just shrugged. Harry was about to try and change the subject when Professor McGonagall entered the room.
"Good morning class," she said in her brisk manner. "Please pass in your homework." There was a great rustling as students dug in their bags to retrieve their parchments. Then they started to shuffle up to the front of the room to hand their essays to Professor McGonagall.
Ron and Harry were walking back to their seats when Ron froze suddenly. He had a strange expression on his face, which prompted Harry to ask, "What is it Ron?" Ron pointed to Hermione. Harry looked back and forth between his two best friends with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Hermione!" Ron said rushing towards her.
"Huh?" Hermione grunted.
"Didn't you do the homework?" asked a shocked Ron.
Hermione shot him a scathing look. "Of course I did!"
"Well," said Harry, who was catching on, "Aren't you going to turn it in?"
"What?" Hermione looked rather stunned. "Yes, I most certainly will!" Hermione quickly threw open her bag and pulled out a very bedraggled looking scroll. She then dashed up to Professor McGonagall, who was eyeing her with suspicion. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Professor!" Hermione exclaimed. The whole class, which had already returned to their seats, was watching with interest.
"It's quite alright Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall intoned rather loudly, before dropping her voice to ask, "Are you quite well Miss Granger?"
Hermione was rather taken aback by the question, but managed to nod and reply, "Yes, thank you ma'am." She then turned and walked back slowly to her seat.
While all of this was taking place, Harry and Ron were having a very nervous discussion. "Something is seriously wrong with Hermione!" whispered Ron urgently.
"Yeah," replied Harry, "I know. She was late to class and almost forgot to turn in her homework." Ron was starting to tick things off on his fingers.
"Not only that, but she only did one scroll! And it was in an awful sorry state. Besides, she is usually the first to hand her homework in. Not the last. Also—"
"Hold on a sec," Harry interrupted, "Only one scroll was required."
"Yeah, you and I know that mate, but to Hermione when a teacher asks for one scroll, she usually takes that to mean two." Harry nodded in understanding. "Also," Ron continued, "I didn't see her at breakfast this morning or at dinner last night or at all yesterday afternoon! I know for a fact that she wasn't in the library all of yesterday, because I asked Ginny, who was! She said that she didn't see her."
"Well what should we do?" Harry whispered. Ron just shrugged his shoulders as Hermione slid in to her seat.
XXX
"Wow" Harry exclaimed as he walked out of the classroom a while later. "I don't usually enjoy Transfiguration, but that lesson was so, erm…so…"
"Bloody brilliant! Interesting, fascinating, best one ever?" interjected an excited Ron.
Harry smiled. "Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. The way things just blow up if you do it wrong! Volatile metabolic mutations are the best thing that we've ever learned! What do you think Hermione?" There was no answer. "Hermione?" Harry and Ron began turning around looking in all directions for their friend. Harry looked quizzically up at Ron. "Where is she?"
"I dunno," Ron replied as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, she couldn't have gotten past us—we would have seen her. So let's retrace our steps, she's got to still be in this corridor." Ron nodded his head in consent. The two boys began to trek back down the hall, slowly calling out the name of their friend.
After a couple of minutes, Ron called out a very pitiful sounding "Hermione" which was quickly followed by a disgruntled sigh. "Harry, this is ridiculous! She's clearly not here!"
Yeah, I know. That leaves only one place that she could be—back in the classroom." Despite how wonderful the lesson had been, Ron looked rather glum at the idea of willingly going in to a classroom outside of class time.
"Okay," he mumbled and the two boys approached the closed door to the classroom. They stood silently in front of the barred room for a moment. They turned to each other, nodded, and Harry reached his hand out and briefly and timidly knocked on the door. There was a slight pause before the door was opened by an unsmiling Professor McGonagall.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," she intoned in her stern voice. "I was wondering when the two of you would notice the absence of Miss Granger." She nodded towards a desk. Following her gaze, Harry and Ron saw Hermione asleep, her head resting gently on her arms. Harry turned back to McGonagall.
"Professor, I—" he began before being cut off.
"I don't want to know anything Mr. Potter. Just make sure that Miss Granger is alright." Harry and Ron both nodded.
The two young men walked over to their slumbering friend. Harry reached out his hand and gently shook her shoulder. "Hermione," he called. She continued to sleep. He shook her harder. "Hermione," he said with more force. Still, she did not even stir.
"Oh please," mumbled Ron to himself before yelling "HERMIONE WAKE UP NOW!" Hermione woke with a start, while Harry and Professor McGonagall glared at Ron.
"Was that really necessary Mr. Weasley?" asked a less than impressed Professor.
Ron had the grace to look slightly embarrassed, while murmuring something that sounded an awful lot like "Well it worked didn't it?" Professor McGonagall pinned him with her shrewd stare. Ron began shuffling his feet nervously. Meanwhile, Harry was helping a startled Hermione out of her chair.
"What happened?" she asked thickly.
"You fell asleep, dear," McGonagall told her in a softer, soothing tone. Hermione nodded. Then it hit her.
"I missed a whole class period! Oh, no, oh, no. I'll never make it up!" She began to look around frantically.
"'S'okay Mione," Ron said brightly. "Harry and I took good notes. You can copy them." He shot a smirk at Harry. It felt good to reverse their roles once in a while. Hermione smiled.
"Thanks guys! You're the best!" Harry and Ron smiled sheepishly.
"Alright now," the Professors brisk manner was returning. "You better hurry along to your next lesson—oh you have a break right now, correct?" The trio nodded. "Well, than hurry along to your break." The three friends smiled at her then began to head out the door. "Oh, and Miss Granger," she called after them. The three friends stopped walking. "Do try and get sleep before my class." Hermione blushed and nodded mutely. Then she and her friends slipped out of the door, closing it softly behind them.
They walked silently down the corridor for a couple of minutes before Hermione started rubbing her neck. "Merlin," she whispered. "I can't believe that I fell asleep in Transfiguration! I missed a whole lesson, and now my neck hurts like the dickens." Harry and Ron simultaneously stopped walking, forcing her to do the same. Hermione looked back and forth between the grim faces of her two best friends. She opened her mouth to say something, but was forestalled by Harry, who quickly cut in with,
"Hermione. You've been looking ill since we got back to school a week ago, you haven't been in the common room at all, or seemingly the library either, you've been almost avoiding me and Ron, and now you fell asleep in class. Tell us what's going on!"
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A/N: Okay, that's it for now. I'm really sorry it took so long to update. I will try to get the next one out sooner. Now that you've read, please review!