Title: Retrograde
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Harry's trial before fifth year goes differently because someone knows more than they should about Harry. Time Travel Fic.
A/N: some people have questioned why no one besides Hermione has recognised William Tenor is Harry Potter. Hermione is the person who knows Harry the best, aside from Amelia, and Hermione recognised his voice because she is hyper aware of him. As for everyone else, Harry is seven years older, has a different build, different haircut, his scar hidden by makeup and different glasses. If you have never worn glasses or known someone who does, changing glasses can make someone look completely different. Same with hairstyles.
A/N2: There are another two songs to be added to the soundtrack for this Story. Both of these themes are for Amelia during the years between Harry disappears in 1972 and returning in 1996. For her low, depressed moments the theme is 'My Immortal' by Evanescence. For her more wistful moments where she just wanted to see Harry again, the theme is 'Beam me up' by Pink.
Harry watched as the Fifth Year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws filed into the classroom. Harry still could not explain why the Slytherin and Gryffindor had so many classes together with their animosity, and so few classes with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. As such, Harry had mixed up the scheduling for the First through Fifth Years. First, Third and Fifth Years had Gryffindor paired with Ravenclaw while the Second and Fourth Years they were paired with Hufflepuff.
He was leaning against the teacher's desk, having rotated the sheath of combat knife to lay flat against the desk to avoid it digging into his side. On either side of his desk there were large white sheets that covered… something about six feet tall. He fingered the hilt of the combat knife as he noticed the dynamics of the class. While the Gryffindors were in a fairly cohesive group while there seemed to be a bit of a split in the Ravenclaws, with a single blonde-haired girl, who was wearing some… interesting jewellery, was seemingly ostracised from the rest of the House. The blonde ended up sitting with Ginny Weasley rather than with another Ravenclaw. When he took the role, he learnt the girl's name was Luna Lovegood.
"Alright, today's lesson is going to be a little different than you would be used to from previous years." Harry said. "Everyone relies on their senses to navigate the world. The problem is your perceptions can be fooled or simply wrong."
There was a slight pause.
"It could be Nargles." Luna said, gaining derisive groans from the other Ravenclaws.
"Miss Lovegood, you should know better." Harry said, causing some cruel grins. "Nargles only affect emotions. It is Wrackspurts who are more responsible for clouding perceptions."
"What?" one Ravenclaw girl exclaimed. "Loony is right? Nargles exist?"
"Of course they exist, though they are invisible, so people think they don't. A bit like Thestrals. Those you can ask Professor Hagrid about." Harry replied. "Ten points from Ravenclaw and detention for insulting another student, Miss Skinner."
The class went silent for a moment at that.
"As I said, your perceptions can be fooled. Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And just because you see something doesn't mean that's what it is. Let's take today's lesson. They are probably the oldest entities in the universe, and they go by many names. The Lonely Assassins. The Weeping Angels."
Luna pushed her chair back and stepped away from the sheets flanking his desk.
"Don't worry, Miss Lovegood. I would never bring a real Weeping Angel into the School. These are simple conjured likenesses that will be dispelled after the class." Harry reassured the Blonde, who reluctantly sat back down. "Miss Lovegood is right to be afraid. There have only been four people in Human History who have faced Weeping Angels and were still around after the encounter. One was Miss Lovegood's ancestor. He used the experience to crate Time Turners, and it drove him insane."
"How did they lead to Time Turners?" Ginny asked.
"The Weeping Angels are the only Psychopaths in the Universe that kill you kindly. They simply zap their victims back in time and let them live to death, feeding on the temporal void created from that person being removed from the timeline." Harry explained. "In a moment I will reveal the two faces of the Weeping Angels. I have conjured these one to show you as no pictures exist. That which holds the Image of an Angel becomes an Angel."
"If there are no pictures, how do you know what they look like?" A Gryffindor boy asked.
"He's one of the four, obviously." Ginny countered.
"Actually, no." Harry replied. "But my mentor is one of the four. He showed me the same way I am showing you."
With that Harry pulled the sheet off what it was carrying. What was revealed was a statue resembling a female in a long dress with wings out of her back and her hands covering her eyes.
"It's just a statue." One of the Ravenclaws said. "I've seen dozens like it."
"That is the point." Harry replied. "That is part of their defence mechanism. While they are called 'Weeping Angels' that's not why they hold their hands over their eyes. Whenever they are observed by any living entity, even each other, they instantly turn to stone, because let's face it, who's going to attack a statue and you can't kill a stone, but they can't attack you either. But then you blink or look away and they have you. In the time it takes you to blink, they can move a few hundred metres. That was what it looked like three hundred metres from Professor Miller. Then he blinked."
Moving to the other drape, he removed it. In basic form it was the same as the first statue, but instead of standing upright with hands over its eyes, it was reaching forward, its fingers extended into claws reaching out. The face was in a furious expression with the mouth open, the jaw pushed forward, and filled with razor sharp teeth.
"That was when he finished blinking, which is a third of a second, he saw that. The hands two inches from him." Harry concluded.
There was silence for a few moments as the class let that sink in.
"If they can't even look at each other, how do they reproduce?" Ginny asked.
"Good question." Harry replied. "No one knows. Like I said they are one of the oldest races in the universe, so how they came into being is a mystery. Some believe that they can reproduce in the minds of other sentient races. 'That which holds the image of an Angel becomes an Angel', some have theorised that this applies to people. The theory is that if you stare too long at a Weeping Angel and you become one yourself, making the best defence against them a dangerous proposition. Another theory is that they are the outcasts or punished of another Ancient Race, undergoing a process that turns that race into Weeping Angels."
"How do you avoid them if they can move so fast? Wouldn't they just follow you till they get you?" Luna asked.
"Well, generally they can't really go into heavily populated areas, as there would always be someone observing them, so they would be stuck as stone." Harry continued. "Also, they tend to have specific hunting grounds, usually isolated and derelict, but not wilderness, areas. A statue in the middle of a virgin forest would raise a major flag, but in the garden or halls of an abandoned mansion or monastery would not garner a second thought."
Harry looked at his watch.
"Ok, that's about it for today." He concluded. "Your homework is to come up with three strategies to confront an enemy, any enemy, which can be used against an enemy that can confuse your senses. Invisibility, camouflage, whatever."
Amelia apparated from the departure point of the Ministry and into the corridor outside their apartment. She opened the door to find Harry, still dressed in his 'Teaching Attire', standing there waiting with a cup of coffee in his outstretched hand.
"I felt you coming." He said with a smile.
"Oh, I love you." Amelia said.
"I know." Harry replied.
"I was talking to the coffee." She shot back with a smirk.
"There's the sassy Hufflepuff I remember." Harry said, wrapping Amelia in a hug, which she relaxed into.
"How was class to…." Amelia began but then stopped in mid-sentence. "Wards. Bones Manor."
In an instant, gone were the playful couple and instead they were hardened warriors. Amelia removed her outer robe, revealing professional but unrestrictive clothes underneath, with her Wand and Combat Knife nestled under her arms in a shoulder harness. She grabbed a length of string from her dressing table. Returning to the living room she drew her knife into her left hand, with the string already partially wrapped around her left hand, and her wand into her right. Harry had his Juniper and Horned Serpent Wand in his left hand and his pistol drawn in his right.
Amelia quickly wrapped the other end of the string around Harry's left hand. With a nod from Harry, she tapped the string with her wand and they disappeared from the Apartment. The appeared in one of the inner rooms of Bones Manor and full awareness of the Wards slammed into Amelia's consciousness as the single use emergency portkey dissolved.
"There's a lot of attackers." She observed. "They are pushing the normal wards hard."
"Shut them down, Lia." Harry said. "Then let's take it to them."
Amelia nodded and then activated the War Wards. The War Wards reinforced the normal Wards, introducing new offensive Wards, which electrocuted four of the attackers when they cast their next spells with enough force to leave charred corpses in its wake. A few attackers tried to escape, either by Apperating or by Portkey, only to find new Anti-Apperation and Anti-Portkey Wards that extended several hundred metres beyond the normal Ward line.
"Let's go." Amelia said.
Then Harry and Amelia went hunting.
TBC…
A/N: The Weeping Angels are from the new Doctor Who.