'This is a LOTE'
A Tale of Two Times
Snatched through time at birth, Harry becomes a time traveller. He discovers this at five when he meets his real parents, and goes to Hogwarts prepared... but he hadn't realised Voldemort had a spy in Hogwarts and was trying to steal a dangerous artefact.
Chapter Fourteen
Tribal Harry
Unknown Time: Unknown Month
Cecil and Róisín were introduced as visitors from another tribe, Winona and Yuma. There were three other children their age, whom they played with for the duration of their stay. At first they had difficulty understanding what was going on, and the Shaman had to translate for them all the time, but after about two weeks, they had got a basic hold of the language, with their magic filling in the gaps. Of course, it was extra hard when you could hardly see anything, but luckily, the spell was wearing off, and they could now see a vague veil of colour and movement. There were only a few things that stayed completely clear, Pilan, for example.
Of the children who they played with, Nova was the quietest and most brooding. Paytah and Mahala informed their two new companions that she had used to be more bubbly and bright, but when it was discovered that she had 'Shaman Power', it was decided that she would make a good sacrifice for the Moon Goddess. The next Moon Festival as only a few days away. Cecil and Róisín realised that they would probably be sacrificed as well, as 'the more powerful the sacrifice, the kinder the Moon Goddess would be to them'. The Moon Goddess looked after well, everything. They had two gods, the Moon Goddess, and the Sun God. The Sun God made sure to chase off the darkness, and the Moon Goddess did everything else.
Nova understood that the sacrifice was for the good of the tribe, but no-one in their right mind looks forward to their own death. And no mother in their right mind looks forward to their child's death. Nova's mother, Zaltana, was in her right mind, and although it could mean that she was sacrificed instead of her child, she would save Nova. The visitors with pale skin were also to be sacrificed. Though Winona and Yuma were fairly happy within the tribe, Zaltana was sure that their mother was missing them dearly.
Zaltana pondered. And pondered. And pondered. Finally, Zaltana made her decision, and not a moment too soon. That night would be the Moon Festival. 'Nova! Winona! Yuma!' she called to the three younglings. 'Come here'
'What do you want, Zaltana?' Cecil asked her, pausing between his words to consider what he was saying.
'You must go, now. I have found where Shaman Pilan has put your things. Follow me, we must hasten.'
The men had all gone out hunting, and the Shaman had gone with them to increase their luck on the day of the Moon Festival. The women were all making things for the Moon Festival, and the children were playing in the other clearing. No-one was there to see them sneak into the Shaman's Tent, Podi the Monkey had gone with Pilan, leaving all their things unguarded. It appeared that Pilan had had no idea what to do with any of it, as it lay untouched in the rucksack.
'Are you coming with us, Zaltana?' Róisín had a far better grasp on the language than Cecil.
'All I ask is that you look after Nova. Take her away and don't ever come back, can you do that for me, Winona, Yuma?'
Cecil swallowed, before replying in clumsy tribal. 'Will we die if we stay?'
'Yes.'
'Zaltana, we can try. But, just so that you know, you can come.'
'I'll just be a burden.'
'You won't, truly!' Róisín protested fiercely.
'I have to stay here'
Cecil and Róisín looked at each other for a moment, before coming to a simultaneous decision, and ripping their luminous bracelets off their wrists, shocking Nova and Zaltana. The twins hadn't let anyone near their bracelets. Protecting their bracelets had been like protecting their lives. As soon as the bracelets were off, they stopped glowing, and a very serious looking boy appeared. "Cecil? Róisín? Are you okay?"
He pulled them behind him and drew out a stick of wood. "Hazza, it's okay! We're fine!"
'Winona? Yuma?' Zaltana was utterly confused.
'Hold on, we'll explain in a minute!' Róisín said hurriedly.
"Then why did you remove your bracelets?"
"Because if we stay one more night, they are going to sacrifice us and Nova to the Moon Goddess."
"Who's Nova?" Cecil indicated the dark haired, dark skinned little girl that was besides him.
Harry was horrified. "So, what are we going to do?"
"Zaltana, that's Nova's mum, wants us to take Nova home and look after her."
"Cecil, Mum has enough to worry about without"
"But Harry, she'll die if we don't look after her." Róisín cut in.
Harry thought for a moment, then sighed.
"We'll work it out with Mum and Dad. Tell Zaltana that we'll make sure Nova is safe."
'Zaltana, My brother says that we'll make sure that Nova is safe.'
'Thank you so much!' Zaltana wept.
Harry grabbed Nova's hand, and Cecil and Róisín gripped his shirt.
September: 1011
After taking the age retardation spell off the twins, he turned to Godric and Rowena.
"Mum? Dad? We have a situation"
Nova was looking scared, and let go of Harry's hand, turning to Róisín. 'Where are we, Winona?'
'We're at my home. We escaped from the tribe, you won't have to be sacrificed anymore. And when I'm here, my name is Róisín, not Winona. Yuma is Cecil.'
'Alright.'
Rowena noticed the little black girl. "Harry? What's this?"
Harry took a deep breath. "Well, I gave Cecil and Róisín a Merlin lesson." Rowena looked reproving, but didn't say anything, instead motioning for him to go on. "Basically, I set them loose in a forest and told them to find their way out. They had bracelets, which they have to take off if they were in any real danger. While they were in the forest, they found a tribe, and the tribe took them in. However, tonight, they were going to be sacrificed along with Nova here unless I came and got them. I couldn't leave Nova behind, and her mother begged me to take her." It was a white lie, but he was sure Zaltana would have begged if he'd refused.
Rowena's face softened. The situation of a mother begging for their child to be spared touched her heart. She turned to Godric. "We can't just leave her," she pleaded.
Godric didn't really want another person in his house, someone who he hardly knew, someone who could hurt his family. Why, the girl didn't even know English yet. They'd have to teach her everything. But on the other hand, it was a little girl, very much like his own, and his family seemed to be attached to her already.
"Are you sure that you can look after her? You already have enough to do and with the baby,"
"Godric, I'll be fine. Harry can help, and I'm sure that Helga and Salazar will help too."
"Okay then. She can stay."
Róisín jumped up and down and turned to Nova. 'Did you hear that, Nova, you can stay! Of course, you'll have to learn English and everything, but you can stay!'
'I can?'
'Yes! Is it not great?'
The next few weeks were very hard for Nova. Firstly, she was adjusting to a whole new culture, with no-one who she loved near her. Of course, there was Cecil and Róisín, but they were just friends. Then she was adjusting to a new language, and also the way the castle moved all the time was very disconcerting.
Whereas, Cecil and Róisín had had each other, and they'd been able to speak something fluently with the Shaman, not that he was all that great, but they'd been able to speak it fluently and fast. Cecil and Róisín, though they were smart, had never really gained a proper fluency of Tribal. The Tribe had not moved and tents had not changed places every few minutes, and there hadn't been 100 people, including students, teachers, and hired help. There had only been about 50, and they had only needed to know a few of them, and they all looked different. To Nova, all the people looked exactly the same. Then there was the matter of clothing. Nova wasn't allowed to wear her deerskins any longer, and she had to go and get some robes from a place called Diagon Alley. It didn't help that everyone had two names, and some of them had three or four! Nova only had one name, all the people in Nova's tribe had only one name. And depending on where she was, people had to be called different things. And people called her many things. One of the more common was something called a Mudblood, and a Nigger. Both these were cruel terms. One was apparently because her biological parents weren't magic, and one was because of the colour of her skin.
When people teased her about this, at first, she didn't know what to do, so she cried. Then they called her a cry baby Mudblood Nigger. After this incident, Harry reassured her that they would get their own back, and that her dark skin was beautiful, as was her tightly curled black hair and dark brown eyes. Soon the insults were like water rolling off a ducks back, and they ceased when they realised that she wasn't reacting. She was relieved, because she wasn't sure that she could ignore them for much longer.
After a month, Nova had adjusted quite well to her new lifestyle, however, and the only thing that she really missed was her mother. Her father had always been rather brutal, and, as she'd revealed to Rowena, he'd been the one that had said she'd make a good sacrifice. Then, she defended him by saying that it was only because she had a gift.
She really enjoyed her lessons, attending them with an almost fanatical zeal. She was attending all the lessons with Cecil and Róisín, and she could at least half communicate with them. While she was coming along quite nicely with her English, she hadn't fully mastered it, and in the meantime, she had been teaching them more tribal. They were both fluent by this point. Her favourite lesson was by far transfiguration. Though she couldn't do any practical, as Rowena and Godric were refusing to let them get wands, she still enjoyed watching Cecil and Róisín turn things into other things. It was in one of these lessons that she revealed what her gift that had almost had her killed was. She was a natural Animagus, and could turn into a butterfly at will.
However, it was obvious to everyone that Cecil and Róisín were happier, having someone other than themselves to talk to and play with, so after a long talk, Godric, Rowena, Helga and Salazar decided to employ a full time child carer, and they brought other young magical children to Hogwarts. Sometime just after this, Helga realised that she was pregnant. She was overjoyed, as she had always wanted a child, though she was frightened, because last time she'd gotten pregnant, she'd had a miscarriage. Rowena assured her that it would be alright, and they did a spell to see how far in she was. She was three months. Rowena, in the meantime was six months along, and getting very large.
They had to employ someone else to take Charms and Divination, as she was just too large and delicate to be in class still. "It won't be long until we'll have to do the same for you, Helga," Rowena gushed excitedly.
Helga was positively glowing. "Just as well Salazar is good at Potions, otherwise we would never get someone to fill the post. Potions Mastery isn't very popular these days as an occupation."
"Yeah," Rowena agreed, laughing. "Imagine if Salazar got sick or something. You of course could take Transfiguration, but we'd never get a new Potions master."
"I know, but Harry could take me back to double up lessons."
"Only as a short term thing, though."
"Yeah."
Harry, on the other hand, was breezing through all his lessons. Although in the past there were 40 lessons a week compared to the 28 in the future, he knew most of the material. Actually, everyone knew most of the material. They were merely going over it to make sure that they did.
Harry was sitting watching Roswyn study. He had finished his long ago, and was trying to convince her to help him with a prank.
"Aw, Rossy! Come on, have some fun!"
"That's easy for you to say. If any of us normal people try to have fun, Peeves ruins it."
"He's not that bad, Ros."
"He's absolutely horrible!"
"You don't know that. Here, come with me."
He got up, and Roswyn immediately was at his heels. They made their way through several passages, before appearing in a small room. "Oy, Peeves!" he shouted loudly. "C'mere!"
They sat down to wait for a few moments, then with a little puff, Peeves appeared. "Hazza!"
"Hey Peeves. Look, I have a problem."
"Anything you need, Haz Haz."
"Do you mind, Peeves? It's Harry, or Hazza."
Peeves gave a long suffering sigh. "Yes Haz."
"A!"
"Hazza."
"Good. Anyway, Rossy here thinks-"
"Roswyn or Ros, not Rossy!"
"Fine, Roswyn then. Anyway, Roswyn here thinks that you're no fun."
Peeves looked insulted. "ME! NO FUN!"
"Peeves, shut up."
Peeves promptly obeyed.
"Anyway, since Ros thinks you're no fun, we have no choice but to corrupt her."
"Yes!"
"Corrupt me? Harrison, that doesn't sound fun."
"What have I told you? It's Harry in the very least. Hazza wouldn't kill you either." He shook his head and muttered under his breath. "No one ever just wants to call me Harry or Hazza. Why the hell did Mum call me Harrison anyway?"
"Because it sounds nicer than Harry or Hazza?" Peeves offered cautiously.
"Probably. Anyway, Roswyn, Peeves, we aren't here to discuss my name. Oh no, we are here for a much more serious reason."
"What's that?" asked Roswyn, while Peeves just looked excited.
"To plan a prank!"
Roswyn groaned and dropped her head into her arms. However, within a few minutes of Harry and Peeves discussing the pranks while she stayed silent, she slowly warmed up to it.
"We can't prank Mum or Aunt Helga. I wouldn't recommend Dad or Aunt Sal, so that leaves us with… Bellamont, al Parvin, Opinus, le Rowe-Ellison, la Corte, Andsaca, Prenestins, Martinez, or Fasset." he said, listing off the surnames of all their teachers.
"Well, Isobella Bellamont is nice, so we don't need to prank her Aunt, Jared le Rowe-Ellison is nice enough, and so is his father, so we'll skip Professor le Rowe-Ellison, I don't really know the la Corte cousins, but Professor la Corte seems nice enough. Cuthbert Ó Caollaidhe is a bit weird, but he's harmless enough, so there goes his relatives, Sibley Fasset is absolutely horrible, and her 'darling Uncle Daere' is a horrible teacher. I hate the Dark Arts. Or, at least, I hate them when he teaches them." Roswyn deduced. "So therefore, we should prank Professor Fasset."
"Great reasoning, Ros! We'll make a prankster of you yet. Next…what should we do?"
Many things ran through Harry's mind, including transfiguring his shoes into rollerblades, but then he thought that was too futuristic. Next he thought about using a mild Dark Arts spell to make him sing the Wizard of Oz, but once again that was too futuristic. He thought about other songs, but he didn't think that the effect would be the same.
"How about we make him proclaim his love for Professor al Parvin?"
"Nah, that'd be mean to al Parvin." He thought for a moment, but couldn't think of anything. "Peeves? Any thoughts?"
"Yeah, I could steal his wand."
"And replace it with a fake!" Roswyn agreed.
"Or we could spike his pumpkin juice with a truth potion, and make someone question him!"
"Or we could make him make random admissions about weird things!"
"Yeah, like, he could say…" Harry put on a really goofy voice. "I wish I had married a piece of slime. My brother did. He stole my piece of slime! I wanted to marry that it of slime!" Peeves and Roswyn were laughing.
"Anyway, a vote. Wand?"
Everyone put up their hands. It was decided, they'd switch his wand.
The next day was Friday, which was when they had Dark Arts. They had Herbology and DADA in the morning before Morning Tea, then they had Flying, Potions, Magical Theory and Charms, then lunch. After lunch they had a double period of Dark Arts, which finished at five o'clock.
When they were ushered into the classroom, Fasset called the roll as usual, sneering as some of the people came in late. "Today, we will be learning about the Dolo Pain Curses. They are a set of three curses, each designed to cause pain, each incantation is similar, yet each holds a slight different level of pain. The first is 'Dolor.' It is the least painful. The second is 'Doleo.' It is about twice as painful as 'Dolor.' The last and most painful is 'Dolens'. Dolens is three times as painful as Dolor.
"Now, we need a volunteer."
No-one raised their hands; the last volunteer in this class had ended up in the Hospital Wing. "You!" he pointed at the girl sitting closest to him. It was Penelope Hila di Puff, a Hufflepuff.
"You'll be our example today."
Penelope gulped and stood up shakily. When Fasset reached for his wand, he didn't realise he had a fake. He pointed it at Penelope "Dolor!"
Penelope blinked in confusion. "Dolor!" Fasset shouted again, louder. Still no result.
After his fifth turn, there were a few giggles spreading though the class. "DOLOR!" he yelled. Penelope giggled softly.
By the time he'd tried fifteen times, the whole class was drowning in laughter. It was topped off when his wand turned into a rubber chicken, which followed a gimmick he'd seen in a joke shop in 2000.
By the end of the lesson, Fasset was a laughing stock. Only di Mildura and Fasset Jr. weren't laughing at him, but then again, the terrible two had no sense of humour, so that didn't really count.
Nigger (Sometimes Niger) is a derogative term and I do not in any way condone its usage.
Revised: January, 2006