'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 Fifteen

Giving Harry

September: 1991

They had been at Hogwarts two weeks, and it was suddenly Hermione's birthday. Harry, Lilly, Louise, Greg, Masobelle, Shane and Susan all realised at the same time that they hadn't got her presents. And it was her birthday the next day. Hermione was in the library at the time, and they were all sitting by the lake and chatting. Harry was the first to realise. 'Oh sheet,' he signed forcefully.

'What?' the rest of the group from St Hedwig's signed back.

"I forgot to get Hermione a present!"

There was a brief pause. "Bugger!" the rest of the group shouted at once.

Harry bit his lip. "Well, we can't not get her a present." he said. He was sure that he would be able to get her a present, but the others, well, it was a pretty big problem.

He thought hard for a moment. "Okay, who wants to sneak into Hogsmeade?"

"Harry!" Susan scolded. "How do you propose we do that?"

"Well, there're plenty of secret passages out of the school."

"But Hogsmeade has like, no variety!" Masobelle protested. "I can't but her a present unless we can go to Diagon Alley as well." She waved her hands and said it with such conviction that anyone would be convinced the world would end if she had to shop in Hogsmeade for a birthday present.

"Merlin, Bellé, you'd think you'd be happy to go to Hogsmeade."

"Well I'm not. Big deal."

Shane snorted. "It is a big deal. How do you expect us to get you to Diagon Alley? And won't people kind of guess that we are skipping school?"

"No-one will know the difference." Harry looked around quickly, and, sure that no-one was watching him, he morphed into someone who was taller, got rid of the scar, and basically turned himself into a man who looked nothing like Harry did.

Lilly, Louise, and Greg had seen him do this before, but the others hadn't. They gaped a few seconds, before simultaneously exclaiming "I didn't know that you were a Metamorphmagus." Harry just grinned in his new shape.

"Now you have a supervising adult." He paused, fishing for his wand.

He pointed it at them. "Specto Adultus!"

"Now you have a group of adults." He grinned.

They looked at each other. "Hazza, how did you get so bloody smart?" asked Lilly obtrusively.

"I just am." He grinned cheekily.

He nullified the effects of the spell, and motioned for them to follow him. They made their way in a winding line toward the dungeons. As they drew closer and closer to the forbidden area, the others were getting steadily more uneasy. Apart, of course, from the ever energetic Lilly.

He came to a sudden halt in front of a wall. "Helga Hufflepuff." He intoned in a bored voice.

There was a shimmering quality to the wall, which faded and solidified into a picture after about ten seconds. "Hello Harry!" Helga said cheerfully. Rowena waved, smiling brightly. Cecil and Róisín were sitting on her lap, both of them yelled out at Harry.

"Hello! We haven't seen you in aggges."

Harry looked at them warningly, and Rowena scolded them for 'being rude.' They both knew what she meant though and smiled innocently. Covering for Harry, Rowena spoke. "A week is a long time for them,"

"Yeah. I know. Anyway, can I come through?"

"Sure." The wall shimmered again, and they faded away, revealing a long corridor. There was a small wooden cart sitting at the start. It was similar to the Gringotts carts, but slightly larger. They all squeezed in upon Harry's order, and the cart was off. Once it was moving, they asked Harry how he knew the people in the portrait. He just mentioned that he'd found it a few weeks back, when he had gotten lost. They seemed to accept it. Harry had often gone off and used the excuse that he had gotten lost. He never really explained what happened when he did.

After about two hours of travelling at a constant speed of 120 km per hour, Harry and the others were starting to become Uncomfortable. "Stop." Harry ordered the cart, staring at it in disgust as they piled out in the middle of the tunnel. The others all wondered off, looking at and talking to the paintings on the wall. They all were pleased to have someone other than themselves to talk to, and talked animatedly. Harry surveyed the cart and muttered a few well chosen words at it. The cart immediately formed into a box with wheels. It was long, and thin, allowing for space at either side of the tunnel. It had a simple wooden door. From the outside, it looked unremarkable. He rounded the others up, and once he had done a quick head count, ushered them back onto the cart, or train, and jumped back in himself, shutting the door behind him. His companions were now seated on plush red chairs, like what you'd find in a personal aeroplane in a movie. There was a small table in the middle of the room, which, strangely enough, seemed to be square. Underneath the chairs, there were drawers, and above, there were cupboards. There was a door which led to another room, in which there were tins of food and some boiled sweets. There were also a few things which were less likely to keep, which all had preservation, and in some cases, cooling charms. There was a box of soda, bags of crisps, and some milk and milk arrowroot biscuits.

They were much more comfortable for the rest of their journey. The good thing about Harry making it more luxurious and closed in, was, with the help of a charm on the carriage, they could move at speeds of 500 km per hour, without even noticing it. For them to notice that they were even moving, they would have to go at 1000 km an hour. It wasn't long before the cart stopped. Lilly made for the door, but Harry stopped her. "Wait."

She stopped. "Specto Adultus!" Once again, they looked like older versions of themselves. He morphed into the same person he had while he was on the grounds, and after doing a quick check to make sure that they had all been hit by the curse, he ushered them out. They emerged into the store room of The Travellers Legends. The sun shone through a window and straight into their eyes. They blinked for a few minutes, wondering why on earth someone would keep the curtain open at that time of the day, because it couldn't be doing them any good. The sunlight would only damage some of the more delicate products.

Passing it aside, the group left the shop, and began to wonder around Diagon Alley. Lilly and Louise bought Hermione a really great present, but it was kind of expensive, so they'd had to buy it together instead of apart. Harry was slightly annoyed that he hadn't gotten to it first, but just sighed and moved on. Greg bought Hermione some hair colouring potion, so that she could dye her hair. She'd been expressing a desire to do so a few months back. Those who hadn't gone to St Hedwig's with them were surprised. Hermione hardly seemed the type to want to do something that out there. However they were getting used to surprises, and they just accepted this. It was probably Lilly and Harry rubbing off on her, they thought. They were by far the most hyper of the group.

Harry ended up buying her a sparkly robe that shimmered in the light. It had auto fit charms on it, and once it was fitted, it would allow any amount of growth. Of course, it was terribly expensive, but Harry didn't even make a dent in the Travellers vault.

Masobelle got her a pendant with a magical jewel on the end. The jewel could be charmed with many charms, and it would absorb them and use them when they were needed, so Masobelle had the attendant place an advance shield charm on it so that HHHermione would always be protected.

Shane was having difficulty choosing what to get Hermione, and so was Susan. Susan was the poorest of the group, and couldn't get expensive presents like the rest of them, so Shane asked her if she'd chip into his present. She agreed happily and they ended up buying her a book. However, it wasn't a normal book. It would talk, and yell at anyone who tried to read it without permission, and growl if it was treated badly.

Just as they were on their way back to the tunnel to Hogwarts, they crashed into a hooded figure. "…damn staff!" it muttered, before moving off. Harry and the others looked at each other confusedly.

They shrugged and moved into the shop, sneaking back into the passage, and slipping into the cart. About half an hour they were back at Hogwarts, and their presents were wrapped and hidden.

The next day, Hermione woke up. Except, things were a little different. Seven people were crowded around her bed. "Happy Birthday!" they cried.

"Thanks guys." She said. "But like, don't we have to go to breakfast?"

Harry shook his head no. "I got the house elves to bring breakfast up here."

"House elves?"

Harry nodded. "Jerky," he called. A small being with huge brown tennis ball sized eyes and greenish skin appeared.

"Yes sir?"

"Just stay here for a second." He turned to Hermione. "This is a House Elf. It does all the work, cooking, cleaning, etc."

Hermione gaped for a few seconds. "Um. Can you send it away, please?" she murmured weakly. Harry obliged her, and they started to give her her presents, and the incident with the house elf was forgotten.

She was delighted with her hair dye potion, and promptly drank it. It was after she had done so that Greg explained how it worked. It would, for a year, effectively give you the power to Metamorph your hair. After that, your hair colours would fade. Harry instructed her quickly, and not moments later, she had blue streaks in her hair. She loved the robes that Harry had given her, but refused to try them on yet. She wanted to wait until the right occasion. She did, however, put on her pendant from Masobelle. She promised that she'd test the lengths of the pendant's ability when she had time, and opened Shane and Susan's present, and gave them both huger hugs when the book spoke to her. She was delighted with it.

But her favourite present was yet to come. Lilly and Louise apologised, but their present was arriving at dinner. Hermione was fine with it, but she was insanely curious.

"So, how was your day, Mione?"

"It was great! It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had!" she gushed, the smile covering her whole face.

"That's good." He said. "Do you want anymore ice-cream?"

Hermione nodded, and Harry handed her another bowl. Their whole group was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, and they were all pleased that Hermione had had such a great day. Except, they were all waiting for something.

They didn't have to wait very long. Just as they were about to be dismissed, a great white owl came flying through the owl and landed on Hermione's shoulder.

"Happy Birthday!" Lilly and Louise chorused.

Hermione looked owl on her shoulder, and smiled. "What should I call it?"

"It's a her." Louise informed her dryly. Hermione hardly seemed to notice.

"Well then, um… I know! Hedwig. Because we went to St Hedwig's." she explained. Her suggestion was met by smiles, so it was decided. Hermione's snowy white owl was Hedwig.

Harry trudged up to the common room, and gave the password. He slumped in his chair as he watched Hermione nagging at Dray to study. Although Dray wasn't his best friend, or even in his group of friends, but they were still friendly enough. Dray was friendlier with Ald, strange as it was. Harry had kept pushing them together, and eventually they had spoken to each other properly. They'd been friends ever since. Dray was adamantly refusing, and kept turning back to his game of exploding snap with Luke Zeller.

Luke kept winning, due to the fact that he wasn't being distracted by Hermione. "Fine, fine!" Dray gave in. "but first you have to play wizards chess with me."

"Yeah, Hermione, it's really great! Give it a go. Please?" Harry begged, looking at her with puppy dog eyes.

"No." she said stubbornly.

Harry sighed. Time for reverse psychology. "Well, I suppose so. You probably wouldn't understand it anyway…" he trailed off.

The effect was instantaneous. "I would so understand it!" Hermione stood up, daring Harry to challenge her.

"No you wouldn't!"

"Would too!"

"Prove it!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Hermione sat back down at the table. Dray had been setting up the board while they'd been arguing. "Just tell the pieces where to go," Dray told her.

She nodded her understanding.

"Pawn to…" the game had begun.

Harry watched intently for about half an hour, occasionally giving Hermione tips.

Then, grinning in triumph, Dray moved his queen forward, and Hermione was in checkmate. "How the lleh did that happen?" Harry exclaimed.

Hermione shrugged. She couldn't believe that she'd been bested.

Dray just smiled and sat back in his seat. "Ald can't beat me either."

"Yes he can." Harry replied automatically. He'd travelled a few years into the future and watched them play a game a few weeks back. He distinctly remembered Ald gloating that he'd never lost a game to Dray.

Dray looked at him with curiosity written all over his face. Harry just smiled wanly and picked up a copy of the Quibbler. He turned to one of the quizzes. "What kind of friend are you?"

He quickly did the quiz, and read the description: Brave, loyal and kind. Your friends couldn't be luckier. If one of them turned out to be a werewolf or of niffler decent, you'd stick with them until you found a cure. Maybe you should ease up on your protectiveness of them though. You're acting like a Crumple Horned Snorkak in mating season.

Harry snorted out loud at the description, and handed it to Hermione, pointing out what he'd read to her. She sniffed. "Hazza, the Quibbler is full of rubbish. Everyone knows that."

Harry merely shook his head. "You'd be surprised at the accuracy of the articles, or, more precisely, their underlying messages."

Hermione didn't seem to agree with him, but nodded just to get out of an argument.

October: 1991

They had a very interesting lesson with Professor Parry.

"Now," she began. "We all know that there are spells which can only be done with a certain amount of training, or by certain people. These spells are ignored, the majority of the time. Most people believe them to be completely useless, like the plush carpeting spell, which can only be learnt by those of the Ravenclaw bloodline. This is because when Rowena Ravenclaw made the spell so she could have soft carpet in her children's bedrooms, she was very busy and forgot to use the code for it to be of public use. Now, I am going to give you 15 minutes to write down ten ways that you would use this spell defensively if you had the ability."

The students stared at each other for a moment. "She can't be bloody serious!" Shane exclaimed loudly.

"I am bloody serious, Mr Flamel. Unless you plan on visiting me for detention tonight, I advise that you try very hard to think of at least something."

Harry, Hermione, Louise, Masobelle and Susan all looked at him sympathetically. Shane grimaced and looked at the quill in his hands. Fifteen minutes later, Professor Parry called Shane up to the front of the class.

"Read out what you have for the class, please, Shane."

Shane gulped and got up. "Point 1," he began. "I believe that if you were duelling you could make carpet grow on someone's head."

There were a few snickers from around the class, but Parry motioned for Shane to continue.

"Point 2," he began again, his confidence growing. "If someone was trying to throw a curse at you, you could grow some carpet and make it like a shield. Point 3, if you were duelling you could grow some carpet on the floor and make them trip over it. Point 4, you could grow carpet on someone's hand to make them drop their wand." He faltered. "That's all I got."

Professor Parry looked at him, and sighed. "Those were all good points. Has anyone got anything different?"

No-one raised their hands.

"Alright then. Now, I want you to all learn the spell."

"But Professor!" Hermione interrupted, her hand flying into the air and waving.

"Yes Miss Granger?"

"What is the point of us learning the spell if we can't use it?"

"There is none."

"But…"

"Miss Granger, you will be learning the spell whether you like it or not. The incantation is 'Vestis Mollis Largior', and you should wave your wand in a circular motion."

Harry picked up his wand and swallowed. 'Concentrate, Gryffindor,' he told himself. He was fully aware that he couldn't get the spell.

"Vestis Mollis Largior!" he said, sweeping his wand around. A faint blue light appeared, but Harry quickly squashed it, hoping that no-one had seen him.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. "Potter! Come here and demonstrate the spell for us!"

Harry came to the front of the class. "Vestis Mollis Largior!" he said loudly, and waved his wand again. This time he made sure none of his magic leaked out. Thus, it appeared that nothing happened.

Professor Parry seemed disappointed and she told Harry to sit back down. None of the class noticed that the carpet outside was growing. In fact, by the time the lesson had finished, they couldn't even open the door because the spell had gone so far out of control. Everyone was stuck inside the classroom.

Revised: January 2006