Disclaimer-JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. I don't own anything from this fantastic universe.
The next morning Eddie pinched himself one more time to make absolute, one hundred percent sure that he was not dreaming. In fact, he was indeed in the Hufflepuff dormitory. He then smiled inwardly, bliss and anticipation bubbling in his chest, as thoughts rushed into his head about all he was going to do. He again brushed away the tinge of nervous fear, not allowing it to spoil this fantastic morning.
He put on his Hufflepuff robes for the first time (finally, not just a Halloween costume) brushed his teeth, and made his way down to breakfast.
Outside the Great Hall, he met up with the others, and they talked for a bit, agreeing to go down to Dumbledore's office after classes. They split after that and each pair went to their own house table.
"Who're they?" Ernie MacMillan asked when Eddie and Lily had sat down and started munching on toast.
"Those are our friends," Lily began, "each from different houses."
"You're friends with Slytherins?" Ernie asked.
"Yeah. No problem with that, right?" Eddie asked.
"None indeed!" said a rather cheery voice. Eddie looked up to find Professor Sprout, timetables in her arms. "Now here are your schedules for this year, I do find they come in rather handy. You have me this afternoon in greenhouse one." She left to sit at the High Table with the rest of the staff. Eddie looked down and saw he had some classes with every house, which pleased him but disgusted Ernie.
"Let's hope your friends are alright, I can't stand that Malfoy bloke."
Their first class was double Charms with the Gryffindors. He saw Tom and Natalie get up from the Gryffindor table, took a bite of his waffle, and got up.
They soon realized that despite their expansive knowledge of the series that they had no idea where the Charms classroom actually was. They figured they'd eventually find it, and they were right. However, they only just barely made it to class. Walking into the room was another jaw-dropping experience, one of many they had and would have that first week. To think they were actually taking classes at Hogwarts of all places. Tiny Professor Flitwick took attendance, and began the lesson, which was on Lumos, the Wand-Lighting Charm. Out of the four, Natalie got her wand first, and then Tom. Eddie was last, but managed it at least six times before the class ended.
After that they had their first break period, which they had once a day except Wednesdays, on which they had double Transfiguration and double Potions. Those classes were only held once a week, the others were held twice. They met up with the Ravenclaw and Slytherin facet of their group, and found out they suffered through double History of Magic. Sean was almost falling asleep.
"So, how was it?" Eddie asked him, smirking.
"Absolutely illuminating," Sean said sarcastically. "The Gargoyle Revolution of 1911 was so interesting."
"Well, it was cool when Binns came through the wall at the start of class," Claire said, yawning.
After that, Eddie and Lily followed Claire and Sean to Herbology, where Professor Sprout guided them through the different plants they would be learning about. They spent much of that first lesson taking notes on these plants. When the day was over, they met up again (Natalie, Tom, Nathan, and Victoria had Defense Against the Dark Arts) and set off for Dumbledore's office.
When they reached the place, they attempted to guess the password for a long while until Lily found "Chocolate Frog" and the gargoyles sprung apart.
Eddie could tell that each one of them was as nervous as the other. They would, in another few moments, be meeting Albus Dumbledore, the greatest sorcerer of all time. His hands trembled slightly as thoughts driven by nerves rushed past his head. Would they be able to communicate the truth effectively? What if Dumbledore simply thought it was a practical joke? What if they missed some vital point? Beyond all this he had a heightened feeling of excitement. He had dreamt for years of having at least a glimpse of the Wizarding World and of as much as seeing Dumbledore, but the prospect of now actually meeting and talking to the great wizard sent up jolts of electricity through his spine, and he shuddered involuntarily.
They climbed the long, winding staircase until they reached the brass griffin knocker. Eddie took a deep breath, and knocked three times on the old oak door. All eight of them were biting their lips, wondering if the headmaster was even in his study at the moment.
"Enter," they were greeted with.
To their immense surprise, McGonagall was also in Dumbledore's office.
"...the Gringotts break-in might have something to do with the-"
"Albus!" McGonagall shushed the headmaster, and pointed at them.
"I believe they know what we are talking about, Minerva," Dumbledore said, to their shock. Eddie could feel the others stiffening at this thoroughly unexpected response from the Headmaster.
The two professors turned, and before either Eddie or anyone else could say anything, Dumbledore asked them, "Do you know anything about the Sorcerer's Stone? Please be honest. You will not get in trouble for it, I assure you."
"Um…" Eddie wasn't quite sure how to word his reply. He knew Dumbledore wouldn't trick him, so he said, "yes, actually, this is what we were trying to talk to Professor Dumbledore about. You see, we -" he indicated the rest of them, "we aren't from here."
"What do you mean by that?" McGonagall asked them, understanding that the group did not mean that they weren't from England.
"We… are from an alternate timeline, one where the Wizarding World does not exist, and is written as fiction."
Eddie felt his fingers going numb as he spoke, his nervousness heightening, afraid to think the two professors would scoff at such a silly claim. Part of him didn't believe it himself, so why should they?
"Fiction?" Dumbledore asked. The bewilderment in his voice made Eddie question this whole endeavor further still.
"That's right. The story follows the adventures of Harry Potter in his time at Hogwarts, from his first year to his seventh year. See, in that timeline, Harry survives Voldemort's Killing Curse in 1981. There are seven books, one for each year, which ultimately get adapted into films."
"Yeah," Nathan spoke up, "and that there is a lot of chaos we need to warn you about."
"Such as?" McGonagall asked him, throwing half a glance at Dumbledore, torn between amusement and sheer disbelief.
"Well, this year, um, Voldemort tries to steal the Sorcerer's Stone. Through one of the teachers."
"What!?" McGonagall cried, clearly aghast, forgetting all her demeanor as a strict professor.
"Well, currently, he's hiding under Professor Quirrell's turban."
"He's kind of possessing him," Lily interjected.
"Very well. Now, is he stopped? If so, how?" Dumbledore asked. Eddie felt a bubble of pride in his chest seeing how quickly the old wizard was grasping this story, which must be tremendously fantastic for him. And with that, he felt his last doubts about Dumbledore's believing this story slowly disappear.
"Yes. By Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger." said Sean.
"He's defeated by Harry when he touches him. Lily's protection," Victoria told the headmaster.
"You know about - but that didn't work." Dumbledore now had the familiar twinkle in his eye, and they could see that he was thoroughly enjoying this.
"Indeed we do. You explain it to Harry when he's sitting in the hospital wing after he saves the Stone. And by the way, Lily's protection only failed because Voldemort used an unusual amount of hatred and anger in his curse."
"Okay, proceed," McGonagall told Eddie, shifting herself uncomfortably, yet forced to believe them because Dumbledore clearly did not seem to have any doubts.
"In Harry's second year, the Chamber of Secrets gets opened."
McGonagall's mouth dropped open, and she turned sharply to look at the Headmaster. Dumbledore, however, did not seem moved, and simply continued scrutinizing them with his twinkling blue eyes.
"By Lord Voldemort, again, I presume?" Dumbledore asked. Eddie suppressed a smile seeing how nonplussed the other professor looked.
"Yeah. This time he acts through someone else. Ron Weasley's little sister, Ginny Weasley. He kind of has a habit of possessing people."
Dumbledore smiled warmly. Then he asked, "Now, how exactly does Lord Voldemort possess Miss Weasley?"
"Through a diary he wrote when he was sixteen…" Eddie finished.
Dumbledore looked up sharply, and scrutinized Eddie with his piercing gaze. There was a stunned silence for a while, an extremely uncomfortable, tensed silence. The old Headmaster then nodded slowly, his eyes the colour of steely blue, and which carried a fierce expression. Eddie tried with all his might not to lower his gaze, and that seemed to take all his energy. Then, after what seemed like years, Dumbledore turned away from him, to look at the wall, and Eddie almost let out an audible sigh of relief.
"How on earth does Miss Weasley come to have such an artifact?" McGonagall asked, finally catching up with the truth, and coming back to her old strict self.
"I was just getting to that," Eddie told her, finding his voice again, as Dumbledore continued to stare at the wall. Eddie continued, preferring not to question him, "Lucius Malfoy. He slips into her cauldron in Diagon Alley in one of her textbooks. You might want to send a Ministry official to investigate."
"Will do," McGonagall said, her voice steady, though there was a look of concern spread on her face.
"Third year, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban, but he's innocent in reality. The real culprit of Black's crime was none other than Peter Pettigrew. He has been hiding as well, as Ron Weasley's pet rat for ten years. Scabbers, they call him now," Eddie explained.
His declaration invoked another length of silence. McGonagall stared at her feet, taking it in. Dumbledore was still busy with scrutinizing the wall, and Eddie had to suppress the urge to call him.
"Merlin," whispered McGonagall, ending the silence. She was now pale as a sheet. "Albus, send an owl to the Ministry in the morning. We cannot have an innocent man in Azkaban." Dumbledore merely nodded, still quiet.
"Fourth year is when Voldemort returns," Lily said. Dumbledore turned his head at this, to look at Lily. He looked like he had aged ten years in the ten minutes he had spent scrutinizing the wall. "Kind of a big deal, considering Fudge doesn't do anything about except write a smear campaign against you and Harry, for saying that he's back. The Triwizard Tournament returns, and, um, Harry's name gets put into the Goblet of Fire even though he's underage, and there are four people in the tournament instead of three, It goes okay until Barty Crouch gets murdered by his son, yes, he's still alive, he's posing as Mad-Eye Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The next year, the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Dolores Umbridge, is hired as the Defense teacher but doesn't let the class use any spells for fear that you're going to train an army for an assault on the Ministry to seize power, and punishes Harry for telling the other students that he returned. By means of a blood quill, no less."
"A Blood Quill?" McGonagall asked, shocked. She had heard about those when she was very young. Her parents had joked with her about it, saying that they would use it if she stepped out of line. Quite the method for keeping children in line with the thought - she credited it to why she was so stern - but actually using it? The thought sickened her.
"Then sixth year...uhh...no offense, Professor Dumbledore, but Professor Snape kills you," said Claire awkwardly.
"Oh?" asked Dumbledore, mildly amused. Eddie smiled at how simply he took the idea of his death. "Now why and how would he do that?"
"Well, in the summer, before school," Victoria began apprehensively, unsure if she really wanted to be the person to tell someone exactly, in detail, how they would die, "You're looking for Horcruxes, and he has seven of those." Dumbledore's brow furrowed in concern. McGonagall looked even more horrified. Eddie remembered Slughorn's reaction when Voldemort had even floated such an idea, and wondered how badly Slughorn would have taken it if he ever found out that Voldemort had gone through with the plan.
"So that's how he survived. I wondered…" Dumbledore trailed off, clearly in deep thought.
Taking a deep breath, Victoria, now reaching the end of her story, began to talk quicker now. "So, in seventh year...well...it wasn't very good. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione were off hunting the other Horcruxes…Voldemort has taken the Ministry, and.." she bit her lip, "Hogwarts. It's...completely terrible there." She looked down, almost ashamed of what would transpire even though she would have nothing to do with it. "A lot of people die, I'd- I'd rather not say who…" she sort of lost her voice, grasping the fact that these were real deaths to these people.
"Calm down, Miss Parker. We will try our hardest to prevent those deaths, I assure you." Dumbledore said comfortingly. "Everything you have said is true?"
"Wait, give us some Veritaserum," Eddie asked, so there would be no doubt in the professor's minds.
"Very well," Dumbledore said. Eddie couldn't deny he was mildly surprised at how the Headmaster still insisted on proof. Dumbledore then proceeded to send for Professor Snape.
"Yes, Headmaster?" Snape drawled when he entered the room. Eddie shivered a little at the aura Snape cast over the room. It was almost unsettling to even stand next to him. Snape then noticed Eddie's little group. "What are two of my students doing here?" he demanded, glaring at Sean and Claire.
"Oh, nothing, Severus. I needed some Veritaserum for some private matters I needed to talk to these children about. Nothing serious."
"But, Headmaster, if it is Veritaserum you require-"
"Nothing, Severus," Dumbledore said a little more sternly.
Each one of the group carefully measured and drank one drop, when Snape had turned on his heel and left the office after providing Dumbledore with the potion that he carried in his robe pocket. The old wizard then repeated the question to them.
"Yes," each of them answered.
"Merlin's beard," McGonagall said.
"Now, we will try to stop everything as best we can," Dumbledore told them. "We cannot fire Professor Quirrell without proof. That will have to be handled on its own, as well as the Chamber of Secrets incident next year, as the Ministry is not likely to conduct a search on Malfoy Manor, given that Cornelius Fudge is an excellent friend of Lucius. We can, however, force them to give Sirius a proper trial. As you may know, Black was sent straight to Azkaban without trial by Barty Crouch Sr. I can assure you that Veritaserum will be used. He has suffered far too much. I do not believe we will be able to cancel the Triwizard Tournament, and I see no reason to, having no Harry to have his name put into the Goblet of Fire. Everything else, would, of course, rely on Voldemort's return, and therefore is not necessary to worry about, as of now. You may go," he said, beaming at all of them. Also, I will award you fifty house points each for everything you have told us tonight. Good luck." He added, and opened the door, guiding them out.