'This is a LOTE'

Belonging to Time

AU 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 didn't realised Voldemort had a spy in Hogwarts and was trying to steal a dangerous artefact.

Chapter Twenty

Deciphering Harry

November: 1011

Harry packed a trunk of things to take with him to visit Princess Jaylynn 'Gills'. Then, he was off. He took a Portkey to the castle, where he was greeted by servants. They wore a white uniform with the green crest of the king, the crest of their families, and for those who were witches and wizards, they wore crests displaying the area of their expertise and any special talents that they had.

"Her Highness had been looking forward to your arrival for weeks," said one with Tobias stitched onto his uniform. Harry was sceptical as to what good this would do. The majority of the population was illiterate to anything but rune, with mainly witches, wizards, and Royals or Lords, etc, being able to manage most basic language. It was a far stretch from the future, where almost everyone could read and write to a level that was rarely reached in this time.

Gills, it seemed, had indeed, been waiting for Harry. "Harry!" she cried, running towards him and almost knocking him over with a hug. Harry straightened up.

"Hi Gills." He said casually to the short eleven year old. "What's up?"

Gills had actually been to the future, and she knew all about Harry's abilities, as they had practically grown up together and been with each other through all their life changing ordeals. She and Harry had had many adventures together, both in the past, future and present. Gills had even met Hermione a few times, being introduced as Harry's cousin, Zara Evans. She had red hair like Lily Potter had, so this was a believable story, however, Hermione had been severely disappointed to learn that she could not read very well.

"What have I told you about that nickname?" she said sternly, her hands on her hips.

Harry shrugged, laughed, and then said, "That you really wish you'd never gotten turned into that fish?"

Gills nodded. "That's right!" she replied, laughing with him. "So, what magic are you going to teach me today that I will probably never be able to perform?"

Harry went into a long winded explanation of how it was in fact possible to turn lead into gold, and how. Gills, who didn't really understand the science of it, looked confused. Harry sighed. "You know what Gills, I give up."

He got out a leaden dove. "Here. Hold this in your hand." He told her.

She grabbed it in her dainty fingers. Harry relaxed into the pool of his magic, using it to magnify it until he could see each and every atom. He used minute bits of magic to manipulate them, and he pulled away leaving it as a shining gold.

"Keep it," he told her, getting out another lead dove.

"Your turn."

"Harry," she said sighing. "You do know that I am almost a squib, don't you? I didn't, after all, get into Hogwarts."

Harry snorted. "It would have been beyond easy for you to have gotten in," he told her, then switched to the modern way of English that they both favoured. "You father just wouldn't have let you come. That's why I'm here. You have to learn everything in three weeks."

Gills looked at him. "Well, maybe not," he admitted. "But you would have gotten in easily."

She looked at him through large eyes, which were at the moment purple, due to Harry's spell. "How do you know? I've never been able to manage a skerrick of magic in my life."

"You must have! It's written all over your aura," he said firmly. "Now, hold that dove, and sink into you magic, and imagine it turning into gold."

Gills tried. She truly did. But the leaden bird stayed the same.

"I GIVE UP, HARRY!" she shouted in frustration. "I CAN'T DO MAGIC!" The flowerpot exploded.

"Well, that looked like magic to me." Harry told her.

Gills blinked. She looked at the exploded pot, then grabbed Harry's hands. "I did magic, Hazza, I did magic!"

"Yes, Gills, you did magic. Now. Let's go and get you a wand."

"But Father…"

"Oh. Yes. I forgot. I haven't said 'Hello' to Uncle Gaz yet."

Gills shook her head. "Uncle Gaz indeed. You would be the only one that can get away with that, wouldn't you?"

Harry bobbed his head in agreement.

The throne room was magnificently decorated. The room was about as big as the great hall. The grout between the creamy marble and gold tiles was covered in pure gold. Around the edges of the room, there was a green marble tile trimming about 60 cm (approximately 24 inches) from the wall. All the servants had to stay behind this line, in their green and white outfits. There was a red velvet rope situated just above this line, held there by strong magic charms, which Harry himself had had a hand in. The ceiling, although not as nice as at Hogwarts, was a magnificent series of golden and marble arches and domes. Running down the walls were portraits of former Kings and Queens, along with their years of reign in Anno Domini terms. Gills' mother was in fact in one of these portraits. She'd died four years before, at the same time as Gills had been kidnapped, which had lead to Harry's rescue of her and subsequently his Honorary Knighthood.

Presently, Harry stopped analysing the room right down to the stained glass windows, and turned to the King.

"Wassup, Gazza," he joked. King Gareth III looked at him sternly.

"Harrison Deogol–,"

"Fine, fine. Hello Uncle Gaz, how are you?" his voice seemed to be painted as he spoke. It just wasn't him.

"I'm well, and you?" replied Gareth politely, as if he hardly knew him.

Harry shrugged, flipping his hands up in an 'I don't know' kind of gesture. "Can't complain," he said finally.

Gareth smiled, and they shook hands. "Good, good. Now, what would you like?"

"Gills just blew up a flowerpot, so I thought that I'd take her to get a wand."

The king blinked. "Jaylynn did that?"

Harry nodded to the stunned king.

"Well… Alright then. But take Edward."

Gills snickered. "I still can't believe that Edward changed his name from Ramsey Smith to, well, Edward Warden, just because it meant 'Rich guard who is a guardian," she whispered to Harry. Harry nodded, what kind of person changed their name just because of a temporary job, after all.

He would only be able to do the job for two more years, before the King decreed that he would be too old to be any use. However, until then, Edward was Gills' bodyguard. After the attempted kidnapping, Gills hadn't been allowed to go anywhere without a bodyguard, and Ramsey Smith had been perfect for the job. Pleased to get away from his name which he hated, he had it changed in the eyes of their King.

There was a mad rush to look for Edward, whom they eventually retrieved from an outhouse, and then, after Edward checked he had all his weapons, and Harry had gotten them into more modern 'get ups' and removed Gills' tiara, they went to the future.

August: 2012

Edward had never liked this part of the job. He found that the jeans and t-shirts that he usually ended up wearing ridiculous, and thought it inappropriate for Gills to wear pink sleeveless tops in the middle of the summer, with three quarter length pants and sandals, even though most of the people were wearing much more revealing outfits, as it was 2012. Harry simply ignored it. "You should see 2020!" he exclaimed. "Not even I go there any more."

Edward didn't look like he ever wanted to see 2020. In fact, he looked kind of strange with his entire weaponry stashed up his shirt, and baggy jeans which were sitting far too far below his waist, in his opinion. He grumbled for ten minutes, before even getting ready, eventually obeying so he wouldn't lose his job or head. It didn't help his self esteem in the least that Gills and Harry were laughing at him.

They eventually made their way through The Leaky Cauldron, emerging into Diagon Alley. Ignoring Edward and Gills' excitement at seeing all the new shops, he headed for one of the most ancient shops in the world.

Ollivanders.

Harry didn't know the new Ollivander, a young man in his twenties named Luke, but he was sure that he would be able to get a great wand for Gills from him.

"Hi. This is Zara Evans," he told him.

Luke Ollivander nodded. He looked her up and down. "How old is she?"

"Eleven and five months."

He went over to a corner of the shop where Harry could see that there were a fair few boxes missing from. "A lot of shorties coming in these days," said Ollivander conversationally, while Gills glared at him. "Here, try this one. 10 inches, unicorn hair and yew."

Gills tried. Nothing happened. "Hmmm…" said Ollivander. "I was quite sure. Never mind, Zara, what can you tell me about yourself, things that you are associated with…"

"Well… er, my name means Princess, I was born on the thirteenth of July, er… I live in a palace… er…"

Ollivander surveyed her. "Which subject most interests you for when you go to Hogwarts, then?"

"Er… well, I er… defence?" Gills said, posing it more as a question than a statement.

Luke nodded. He went and got out three boxes. "All 10 and a half inches, oak and phoenix feather. Give them a wave."

Gills picked up the first one tentatively. She dropped it straight to the ground after several other wands went crashing off the shelves and onto the ground.

Luke simply smiled and motioned for her to go on. She picked up the next one, and her hair turned pink. "Cool!" she said. "I want this one!"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Just try the next one, Gills."

She pouted at him, but picked up the next one. As she did so she was flooded with warmth, and green and white sparks came flying from the wand tip.

"We'll take it," said Harry and Gills as one. Edward just stuck to looking out of place and uncomfortable.

December: 1991

Hermione walked into the room, humming to herself. "I'm dreaming, of a white Christmas…"

"Oh, hi guys," she said, cutting herself off. They all muttered hi, and went back to pouring over books about animagi.

As Marrok himself wasn't going to become an Animagus, he simply sat and thought at these meetings. He stared out the window at the pure white glistening snow. One day, it had just been cold, but the next, Hogwarts was literally buried in snow. Hagrid, who was the groundskeeper, had spent the whole day shovelling snow away from the doors, only to have it come back again the next night. Since then, someone had given him a handheld ball of fire, which would melt snow but not burn him. He used this to melt away large piles, then using a broom to sweep the slush to the sides. As he did this every day, and it froze over every night, by the end of the first week, they had magnificent arches of ice at every exit from the castle.

This eventually stopped the exits from becoming snowed over, and cooling charms had to be put in place to ensure that it wouldn't melt. As Marrok peered out the library window, he could not see the arches, as they were covered in snow. "I'm just going for a walk, guys," he said.

He left them to read their books, and got rugged up, before going outside, where he planned to ice skate. Unfortunately, he never even got that far. He stopped when he saw Hagrid's dog, Fang, with his tongue to the ice, whimpering and stuck. He got out his wand, performing a mild warming charm, but Fang, afraid of the stick that was coming near him, jolted away and left the skin of his tongue still stuck to the ice walls.

Marrok sighed. "Let's get you off to Mr Hagrid, then," he said mildly.

He grabbed Fang by the collar, and Fang kept struggling against him. He could probably smell the werewolf, thought Marrok resigned. He struggled along with Fang, eventually reaching Hagrid's hut.

He knocked a few times, before the gigantic man poked his scraggly head out the door. "Who is it?" he asked with a sight accent.

"I'm Marrok Lopez, a student from up at the school. Fang was licking the ice arches, and his tongue got stuck to it. I tried to use a warming charm to uh, release him, but my… I scared him and he left the skin of his tongue behind." He explained.

Hagrid's beetle black eyes shone. "Ah, yeh'd be the werewolf then, would yeh?"

Marrok froze. "NO!" he protested violently and stiffly. Then, "I really need to go. Busy, you know." He hurried off, leaving Hagrid scratching his beard in the snow.

"I coulda sworn that that boy didn't want to talk to me about summat," he muttered through his thick black beard, confused. "Ah well, I got otha business to atten' to."

December: 1991

After Marrok's transformation in November, he had awoken to voices talking.

Flashback

"But the Staff is protected," said Madame Pomfrey. "How would I be able to protect it?"

"Ah, my dear Professor, I think you can find something yourself. Have it to me before next week."

Madame Pomfrey grumbled for a bit, "Fine." She muttered. "But Albus, you owe me one."

"What will it be then?"

Marrok still had his eyes closed, so he couldn't be sure, but it felt like she was glaring at him. "I'm going to use one of the Heart Starter Webs, and place it over the floor. If they don't know its there, they won't know what hit them."

"Excellent! Now, can you tell me where I can find Matthew? I need to get him to find something too…"

"In his office," said Pomfrey grudgingly. Marrok could just imagine the elderly headmaster skipping out in glee.

Marrok had quickly told the others. "Staff," Hermione muttered, biting her lip. "Staffs, staffs, staffs. I don't think I know of any staffs that could be needed to be protected so well."

"Neither do I. Any ideas, everyone?"

They all shook their heads. "Oh. Well." Harry paused, thinking. "Well, when Hermione, Lilly, Masobelle and Shane go home, they can see if they can find anything there. We will look around here, do some snooping and see what we come up with."

As the Christmas Holidays drew nearer, they were all deciding whether they wanted to go home, or if they were going to stay at Hogwarts for the break. Harry, Louise, Greg, Susan and Marrok were. Hermione, Lilly, Masobelle, and Shane decided to go home. Louise had decided that she'd stay because she didn't want to be there when their mum found out about Lilly's hand, and she certainly wanted to be allowed back. Lilly still hadn't gotten up the courage to tell her parents, and Louise didn't want to be there when she did.

"Who's Matthew?"

"Matthew who, Suzie?"

"That's what I want to know, Greg Alan Harwood!"

"Hey, no need to get stroppy."

"She means the one in the conversation that Marrok overheard."

"Oh. Well, I still don't know," said Greg testily to Hermione.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Mallee."

"What about him?"

Hermione was almost pulling her hair out in frustration. "Dumbledore obviously meant Matthew Mallee, the Astronomy professor.

"Oh."

Shane decided to join in the conversation. "How exactly could Astronomy protect some valuable staff?"

Harry shrugged. "He doesn't necessarily have to use Astronomy. When I discussed to him the changed positions of the stars over the last 1000 years after lessons one time, he invited me back to his office. He has a poster that says 'Duelling Champion of Godric's Hollow.' Apparently he won a duelling tournament in his neighbourhood when he was fifteen."

"And…"

Harry sighed in frustration. "He could have zombies charmed to duel us or something."

"HE CHARMED ZOMBIES TO DUEL US!" Harry slapped his hand over Lilly's mouth.

"Shh! I didn't say that. I just said he could have. But really, he couldn't have, because technically, they aren't zombies, as zombies don't exist, at least under the name of zombies…" he launched into a long winded explanation.

"Great. And why exactly did you say us?" hissed Louise once he had finished.

"Errr…"

Lilly rolled her eyes, waving her stump. "Get over it, Lou. He probably won't tell us anyway. Some major future secret or something."

Harry nodded wisely, or in what they assumed was meant to be wise, but really wasn't. "Now… back to staffs and animagi."

November: 1011

Two weeks later, Jaylynn 'Gills' Rex was bouncing around the palace happily, a ball bouncing in front of her, her wand drawn. Harrison 'Hazza' Gryffindor was following her, yet another exasperated sigh escaping his lips. "Gills, please."

"No."

"Gills, c'mon!"

"Nup."

"Pretty please with a Snitch on top?"

"Nope."

"Just stop bouncing the ball, damnit!"

Gills turned to look at him. "But, Hazza, if I did that, I wouldn't be able to annoy you," she told him with wide eyes.

Harry groaned. Just what he needed. "Gills, please."

Just then, they were interrupted by King Gareth walking into the room. "Ah, Harry. Just the person I wanted to see. Jaylynn, you can come too."

"Dad," she whined. "I dislike for myself to be a burden, but it is my wish that you would call me by the nickname Gills as do so many others."

King Gareth merely raised his eyebrows. "It will not do well for you to be so petty, Jaylynn."

He turned into a side room, obviously not meant for anyone but a select few to go in, owing to the state of it. There were plants growing on the walls and it all seemed slightly musty. At the end of the corridor, there stood a thick and heavyset square door, with the royal crest of arms on it. It had solid gold trimming the edges and plated on the front, with engraving done in a fine silver. He gave a wriggle of the door and punched in a magical code, and the door popped open.

"My personal assistant wizards for charms, divination, and potions just finished making it," he said proudly, indicating a small intricately designed looking key which seemed to be made of bland pewter.

It caught in the dim firelight light, reflecting shards of light back at them. It seemed to have an aura of powerful magic around it. Harry surveyed it thoughtfully, as the king reached out to pick it up. He held it up beneath their faces, dangling it from a solid silver chain, caressing it like a newborn child.

"This, my dear boy, Jaylynn, is the Key of Aeti'Quial."

Authors Notes:

Thank you once again, and I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. About the summary… is it helping? Please review if you like my work or if you have any ideas on how to improve my writing! Thank you!

The question for the early chapter is different today. You get a choice.
1. What do you think of Gills? Do you think she's a bit Mary Sue like? I'm worried about that… I'm working on giving her a fault. Well, bigger than being a weak witch and unable to read.
or
2. What do you think the Key of Aeti'Quial has to do with anything?

Chapter 20 (Deciphering Harry): Harry goes to stay with Gills and helps her realise her magical potential. Marrok has a run in with Hagrid that is more than meets the eye. King Gareth shows Gills and Harry an object that he calls the 'Key of Aeti'Quial'