DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. Looking forward to the next movie! Yeah, Fanfiction – a great place to stretch your imagination and enjoy someone else's creativity too! New Movie coming in April! Hurrah!
Chapter 2: An Earlier ConversationWalking outside the castle, Remus Lupin and Harry Potter walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest so their conversation would remain private.
"A time-turner is a magical device that allows a wizard to backwards in time by one or two hours. That's the maximum time that the ICW and the Unspeakables will admit to because messing with time is extremely dangerous – at least in theory," Remus said. "I can't imagine that the headmaster would give one to a student. There're requirements for proper cleansing and monitoring…"
Remus paused and pulled a journal out of a bottomless pocket in his robes and then he leafed through it for a minute. "Here it is. There was an experiment by some American wizards with time turners in the Pacific Northwest in a secret laboratory under a mountain. They messed up time and the whole mountain erupted in May 1980."
"That was before I was born," Harry stated.
"And the ICW demanded that all wizard labs above active volcanoes be shut down and all experiments with time be abandoned."
Astonished, Harry asked, "An active volcano? Why would they be sitting on a volcano?"
"The theory is that a connection with the core of our planet provides fresh magic. That's why so many wizards live around the volcanoes in Italy and Sicily," Lupin explained.
"You know, Dobby always says that wizards are stupid," Harry snarked.
"So Dumbledore's not trying to blow up Hogwarts," Lupin said. Looking at Harry he asked, "What do you think he's up to?"
Waving his hand to dismiss the question, Harry replied, "Who cares. I'm more worried that my friend – such as she is – will be hurt by using this time-turner. She looks like she doesn't sleep anymore."
"Would Miss Granger listen to your worries?"
"No. I'm just Harry Potter to her and she feels like she has to correct my homework."
"How about Professor McGonagall?"
"No. McGonagall doesn't have any time for anyone with problems. She's doing three jobs already."
"And doesn't pay attention to the Lions unless it's about Quidditch."
Harry paused while Professor Lupin walked on for a minute. Noticing the young wizard had stopped, the professor turned back and asked, "Harry?"
The teenager looked up and Remus was surprised by the look on the young wizard's face – without a doubt this was the son of Prongs planning a prank. And Harry Potter also had the brilliance of his mother.
"Hermione believes every word out of Albus Dumbledore's mouth as though they were Merlin's dictates. And she worships books – everything in books is real and the truth."
Remus asked, "How can you get Albus to write about the dangers of time-turners?"
Smirking, Harry replied, "Deniability Professor Lupin. You can't know my secrets. The headmaster can ask about them and you'd have to answer truthfully."
"Just don't kill or maim anyone," Remus stated firmly.
"How about someone's reputation?"
"That's fair game," the werewolf acknowledged, thinking about his own reputation being destroyed several times by thoughtless gossip.
"I'll tell you later professor," Harry said before he turned and ran back toward Hogwarts.
Remus Lupin watched the pup run toward the castle and then stepped into the forest where he found the Grim waiting patiently.
"Hey, Padfoot. How are you today?" Remus asked as he pulled food from his pockets to feed the giant dog. "Still hanging around Hogwarts but not able to shift back into human form? Probably best if you stay in your Animagus form around the Dementors, Aurors and students."
SCENE CHANGE && Padfoot and Dementors.It was the end of the school year and Professor Lupin hurried to pack away the computer and other equipment – the full moon would rise shortly. If he had to apparate away from Hogwarts to the safety of a secure location without returning to the castle, he couldn't take the chance of someone stumbling upon the muggle devices in his quarters. He hurried because he had to find Padfoot before he transformed into Moony for the evening.
There was distinctive pop beside him, and Remus looked over to find the house-elf Dobby standing beside him. The house-elf appeared regularly around Harry while in his quarters and made certain 'Mr Harry Potters' had tea, biscuits, potions, and clean robes.
"Mr Harry Potter's Wolfie Uncle forgets to drink his potion to make moon smile all night," the elf said thrusting a potion bottle into Lupin's hands.
"My wolfsbane potion," Remus exclaimed. "Thank you, Dobby. I got to go find Harry…say, do you know where Harry…Mr Harry Potter is right now?"
While Lupin drank down the potion, the elf replied, "Dobbys can find Mr Harry Potters anytime, anywhere."
"Where is he?" Remus asked as he shrank the last piece of equipment. Dobby snapped his fingers, and all the shrunken devices were neatly packed away inside his trunk.
"He be chasing Grim out of grounds with Bottomless Pit Weasel," Dobby explained. "Dobby not knows if this be funs or adventures or dangerouses."
"The Grim?" Remus asked. Grabbing his wand and a large dog collar with special runes carved into the buckle, he said, "Dobby Elf, take me to your Mr Harry Potter."
Harry and Ron dodged the giant dog again by running around the large shrubberies on the lawns of the castle.
"He'll eat us and gnaw our bones!" screamed Ron. Harry tripped and fell to the ground, but Ron kept running, leaving his best mate behind to his fate. The Grim bounded around the large bush and leapt forward, landing just beside the prone Harry Potter, and then proceeding to lick his face over and over.
'What's going on?' Harry wondered. The Grim sat down on his haunches and laughed as close as a canine can to the human expression of laughter.
There was a loud pop attracting the attention of both the wizard and the Grim. Professor Lupin appeared with a shy Dobby behind him.
"Padfoot! What are you doing here?" Remus asked the Grim. The dog rose and ran to Lupin's side for a head rub while Dobby popped from the side of the professor to Harry's side to check the teenager's state. The elf helped the boy back to his feet, banished the dust, and verified that his wizard was well.
"Professor…is that your dog?" asked Harry.
"I've known Padfoot for a long time," Remus replied. "Now, the moon is getting ready to rise and I've got to leave before I start to transform. You get back inside the castle."
"Where's Ron?"
"Point me, Ronald Weasley," Remus commanded and followed his wand pointing to a tall tree. The red-headed Gryffindor was under the bushes at the foot of a tree closer to the castle, and Harry hurried over just as the air turned terribly cold. The horde of Dementors supposedly guarding Hogwarts had gathered above them.
Harry's Patronus shot out of his wand as Professor Lupin levitated the petrified Weasley out of the bushes. With a Wingardium Levios charm cast on the boy to make him float along, Harry ran for the castle with his Patronus following overhead while he pulled the floating Ron along by the end of his robes. Behind him, Remus slipped on a pair of special glasses and bent down to fit the dog collar around the neck of the Grim.
Not willing to deal with the silver Patronus of Harry Potter again, the Dementors swooped down on the wizard and the Grim. Both figures carried souls that they could devour And while there was something more about each one that made them hesitate briefly, the bravest Dementor dove onto the figure of the man and grabbed him by the shoulders.
Suddenly, a very strange series of noises filled the air around the pair as the Dementor was lured in closer and found itself trapped. Instead of the soul of the man being sucked out, the Dementor struggled and found itself sucked into the sound and fell into an unknown existence. In just another moment, the bright orbs of the souls the creature had sucked out of wizards and muggles lay on the ground, glittering in the twilight.
Free souls available on the ground drove the other Dementors into a frenzy, diving down to feed on the orbs. But the figure of the wizard stood over the glowing souls and grabbed one Dementor after the other to stare at them while that strange noise filled the air. Each Dementor fell to the ground, dissolving into nothingness and freeing more souls. The Grim took only a moment before joining the battle, leaping onto the Dementors as they dove close to the ground. The dog's large jaws ripped off limbs and savaged the creatures while that strange sound issued from the collar around his neck, dissolving each Dementor into nothingness.
(The strange, alluring noise is the sound of the dial-up internet. Search for it on or another service if you've never heard it or forgotten how it sounds. The Dementors are captured by the sound and sucked in.)
As the moon rose, the werewolf transformation came over Remus Lupin, but the dark creature continued battling the Dementors that dove down, trying to capture the freed souls. Padfoot and Moony destroyed the entire horde of Dementors that had hovered around Hogwarts for the entire school year. The freed souls rose slowly from the ground and passed through the two magical creatures who saved them from being sucked up by Dementors for a second time. When the last Dementor had dissolved away and the little globes of souls had disappeared, Padfoot and Moony padded their way into the Forbidden Forest to find a comfortable place to pile together and sleep for the rest of the night.
Reaching the safety of Hogwarts, Harry didn't stop pulling Ron along though he allowed Prongs to dissipate. Outside the infirmary, Harry set Ron on the floor before pushing the door open and calling for Madam Pomphrey. After hearing Harry's explanation of Ron being frightened by a large spider, the matron fed him a calming potion, dismissed his rambling about a giant dog, and sent both boys back to the Gryffindor tower. During their trip from the infirmary to the dormitory, Harry and Ron went up one staircase as Professor Snape came down another looking for the missing DADA professor.
In the usual Hogwarts kerfuffle of students and disasters on the last day of school, Professor Severus Snape gave up his search for the wolf and the missing students. If the werewolf ate Potter and Weasley, it would mean the end of James Potter and Remus Lupin certainly, and if Snape got the newspapers to spin the story properly, it would be the end of Albus Dumbledore for certain. He returned to his quarters for a drink.
'Can I make it to Paris before the Aurors arrest Dumbledore tomorrow? The death of Harry Potter in the jaws of the werewolf that Dumbledore brought to Hogwarts – that'll make a great headline.'
Closing the door to his quarters behind him, he reached for the bottle of Fire Whiskey. (Snape never spent funds for the good muggle spirits. Cheap wizard spirits were adequate). Severus Snape was curious about potions and investigated everything about ingredients and the process of brewing a potion. He also was meticulous with cleaning up the work area and all instruments used after brewing a potion. But his curiosity didn't extend to caring about students and certainly not to a mangy werewolf.
SCENE CHANGE: Summer 1994On the Hogwarts Express travelling back to London, Harry spent most of the trip seated beside Neville to avoid sitting beside Ginny. On the other side of the compartment, Ron and Hermione bickered about summer plans.
"Ron, I don't want to come to the Burrow. I want to see my parents! It's been six months…"
"Yeah, but they're muggles. Whatcha got in common with them?"
As she stomped out of the compartment, Hermione shouted, "More than I do with you, you moronic idiot! And now, you've got me repeating myself, you idiotic moron!"
"Mental that one, don't you think Harry?" asked Ron, wondering what he's said that set the muggle-born witch off. With his sister still in the compartment, the youngest Weasley brother knew better than to make some remark about 'witches'.
"Harry, you should come to stay with us this summer," Ginny said, attempting to sound sultry, a tone that didn't work for the girl who'd just turned thirteen.
"Sorry, Miss Weasley, I have to spend the summer with my relatives according to the headmaster."
"But they're muggles too," Ron observed. "Why would anyone want to stay with muggles?"
Thinking about his efforts to create the fake Dumbledore proposal that convinced Hermione to stop using the time-turner in April, Harry thought about his later discoveries in the library – in the section reserved for professors only, under his cloak of invisibility, Harry had found the cache of old essays and examination papers – the top ten from each class for the last fifty years. He'd had to leave shortly after finding them when Dobby warned him that Professor McGonagall was approaching, but Dobby was able to return later and copy all the parchments for Harry and store them inside a bottomless bag the elf requisitioned from the Come-and-Go room.
This summer, he had a gold mine of resource material to study and catalogue. He considered the challenge before him, 'I just need some way of getting it into the computer without me having to rekey every word. Even Dobby needs sleep so he can't do it.'
At the station, Harry walked out of the platform and quickly found Vernon Dursley waiting quietly for once. The man didn't remark on the missing trunk, owl, or funny robes. (Before the train arrived in London, Harry changed into some decent muggle clothing provided by Remus after the last full moon.)
Uncle Vernon was very quiet in the car and when they drove passed No.4 Privet Drive, Harry found his uncle beginning to smile. The Polyjuice pants wore off just as the car pulled into the garage at No.13 Fulford Road and Remus Lupin grinned.
"You should see your face!" the werewolf told the teenager.
"What was that?" demanded Harry, his wand in his hand and pointed at his former professor.
"A masterful prank!" the older wizard replied. "Remember I told you I'd arrange things you're your aunt and uncle. They're glad to be rid of you and yet you're still within the wards of their house. Fulford Road is a cross street, and you are safe here from your relatives and any Death Eaters running around."
"Yeah, but I need to change my pants," Harry said. "You scared the 'you-know-what' out of me."
When Remus opened the door, he welcomed Harry inside where the teen found the giant dog asleep on a thick mattress on the living room floor. Dobby came into the lounge and hugged his Mr Harry Potter and welcomed him home.
"Dobby? Padfoot?" Harry asked as hugged the elf and then began scratching the shaggy head of the giant dog.
"Yeah, I picked him up in the Forbidden Forest this morning. We apparated here and Dobby gave the dog a bath in the backyard. Then we fed him and let him settle down for an afternoon nap."
"Professor…"
"I'm not your professor anymore, Harry. Call me Remus or Moony."
"How about Uncle Moony?" asked Harry.
"I'd like that."
"Vernon said there were chores to do."
Remus smirked, "Your elf will let not you do anything like mowing the grass. The chores I have in mind are computer work, your regular homework, and brushing the dog at least once a day."
END OF CHAPTER
