Chapter 13: Trouble and Tests

Disclaimer: Song and dance same as every other chapter, I do not own Harry Potter or Bioshock.

"Fancy meeting you here."

He was in trouble.

Oh dear was he in so much trouble. Elizabeth was here, he had avoided Filch and now he had run straight into Elizabeth. "Get up." She ordered and Harry slowly did so before she grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him away. "What on Earth are you doing out here now!?" She questioned sharply as he struggled to keep hold of the invisibility cloak, it falling off his form and he quickly stashed it away.

"I was checking on something." Harry said evasively and She turned to look at him with another frown.

"Checking on what?" She practically growled out as she stepped into a classroom, pulling him with her and shutting the door behind her.

"I... don't really want to say." Harry admitted sheepishly and she started to glare.

"Speak now Harry." She stated forcefully and Harry looked around behind her, not wanting to look her in the eyes. He shuffled slightly trying to think of a way to get out of this but he didn't want to lie to Elizabeth.

"I was... walkingintoablatanttrap." Harry muttered quickly and quietly and Elizabeth looked in confusion as she tried to decipher what he said.

"You're going to have to repeat that." She said with a slight shake of her head, he wasn't going to get away with things that easily and she was already annoyed enough with what had happened earlier in the day with Narcissa.

"I was... walking into a blatant trap." Harry repeated, slower but still quiet but she did hear what he had to say.

"You were doing WHAT?" She almost shouted and Harry flinched, both at the tone and the fact that he really didn't want another professor might hear and he might not be able to get away with what he had done.

"Blaize, he purposely set me up with a challenge." Harry explained calmly, in for a penny in for a pound, "he insulted me, I shrugged it off. He insulted you, I shrugged it off." He paused again, he could have sworn he saw a slight tinge on her cheeks but in the darkness it was hard to tell. "He came after me again and I did nothing." Harry said angrily, the thoughts of everything that Blaize had said getting under his skin as he thought back. "And then he insulted my mum. So I hit him." The look of anger on Elizabeth's face faded away. "He challenged me to a duel, the trophy room at Midnight."

"And you went." Elizabeth said, she could feel the anger building up again, the fact that he would do something so stupid just... if she didn't have better self-control she would have probably slapped him.

"I knew it was a trap but I had to take the risk. I had my cloak to get there and back and if he had set up a trap I would have been gone before he even realised. I didn't expect it to be Filch that he turned to. Figured he'd believe he was too above talking to the Caretaker." Harry admitted with a shrug. "I also didn't expect him to lock the door. Creepy and disturbing is an understatement." He shuddered, mental images of the old stranger danger films that were played in Primary School came to mind.

"Harry... What possible reason could you have even thought that this was a good idea? You know someone is out to kill you! You know that there are people that would like nothing more to see you injured or worse." Elizabeth gripped his shoulders, shaking him slightly. "How can we look after you if you don't look after yourself?" She chided and he ducked his head, feeling embarrassed. "There are so many things going on and throwing yourself into needless danger is just putting yourself and others at risk." Harry stood there silently and she could see him practically shaking. Whether from anger or him being upset she couldn't tell but she realised how the things she had said could possibly affect him. "And yet I can't tell you off for it would make me a hypocrite." Elizabeth said with a sigh causing him to look up in shock and confusion. "You have the weight of the world on your shoulders, everyone expects so much from you for a name." She knelt down in front of him, looking at him with a look of seriousness on her face. "I know what that's like. You know that I know, so understand this when I say it, Don't act like this Harry. Don't take risks that don't need to be taken. It can only end badly."

"But I can't just let them get away with what they say."

"I'm not asking you to do that." Elizabeth replied with a smile that hid something behind it, Harry blinked seeing a shadow of something pass across her face. "I'm asking you to think. I'm asking you to take advantage of what you've got and if need be run rings around him. Don't play into his game, set the stage for your own plans." Elizabeth stopped and Harry found himself looking at her in shock. "What? you didn't think I'd say walk away did you? A problem can only be solved by dealing with it. But you and I have all the time in the world in this." She said the two smiling at the open secret between them. The smile dropped away and Harry turned serious, knowing what Elizabeth was about to say next. "Now... you've been caught outside your dorm; I really can't let you get away with that... there's enough talk about bias." She said knowing full well that others were more than willing to try and cause problems if they could get away with it. "So I'm going to have to give you detention."

"But I could easily sneak away under the cloak and then you could deny all knowledge that you saw me." Harry suggested and she shook her head.

"That would work if you hadn't removed the cloak as I was pulling you through the corridors." He cursed as she said this, realising that was true, "but the detention I'm going to give will be one that I think you'll like." She said with a smirk.

Harry suddenly felt a nervous chill that went straight down his spine.

Somehow he didn't think he was going to like it.

HPCVHPCV

The next morning a very tired Harry dragged himself to his classes, he had returned to the dorm at about two am after Elizabeth had both chewed him out and then told him what he'd be doing for the detention. Surprisingly he was looking forward to the punishment.

Having witnessed him opening the door to escape, she was now going to start teaching him how to properly use it. More to focus on the fact that if he wasn't careful the door he could open could lead to a completely different Hogwarts and he wouldn't realise it until he was too late and then he would have to find his way back home. She had mentioned briefly about there being a way to tell, you always knew where home was instinctively but there was always a chance to get lost.

"Enjoying your last meal Potter?" Blaize questioned, and Harry looked at him blankly for a moment, yawned and turned back to his breakfast without responding. "Hey, I'm talking to you."

"No, you're talking at me. Slight Difference," Harry responded with a dismissive wave as he continued to focus on his food. "Not expelled, your plan failed, good game and all of that. Better luck next time." Harry said before looking at Terry. "So, Herbology, do you think Professor Sprout is going to have us continue with the Puffapod?" He asked completely ignoring Blaize. The Slytherin slowly steaming as he was ignored.

"Maybe but I heard someone dropped the seeds... the Greenhouse is kind of a mess apparently. I think she's actually going to move onto the cutting spell today."

"Huh, you'd think a spell so effective at cutting things like plants would be taught early on?" Harry questioned smirking slightly as he saw the increasingly angry face of Blaize.

"You weren't paying attention to the early parts of the year were you?" Terry responded teasingly, "she explained why we can't because there are a lot of plants that could be damaged by the magic, or affected in some way from it being used on them." He explained and Harry let out a small 'oh' of understanding and acknowledgement.

"Makes sense I suppose... magic mixing with magic."

"Don't you ignore me!" Blaize snapped and Harry turned his head to look over his shoulder.

"Hmm? Sorry Blaize, I didn't think you were actually still here." Harry admitted, lifting his legs and spinning around on the bench so that he was leaning back against the table and looking at the Slytherin. "I thought I'd give you the same level of respect that you apparently show me." Harry said with a slight tilt of the head as he studied Blaize. "You make a challenge and then you break your word, I have no interest in dealing with you anymore, your word is worthless to all those you stand with and all those you stand against." There was a collective gasp around the nearby area as the words that he had said sunk in. Harry had essentially called Blaize an oath breaker. A person's word had value in the wizarding world, to declare someone untrustworthy was an insult that many took seriously.

"How dare you Potter. You have no right to say that about me."

"True or False, you challenged me to a duel after I punched you for the comments you made about my mother." Harry said calmly and Blaize glared.

"True." He begrudgingly admitted, he knew that if he lied then no doubt Harry would push for the conversation to continue at the Portraits of which none held any kind of sympathy or loyalty to him or his family.

"True or False, you specified Midnight at the Trophy Room?"

"True." Blaize said a sudden smirk on his features.

"You didn't turn up and set Filch on me instead after all he even said himself 'as we were warned', true or false?" Harry questioned again in amusement. Blaize smirked in response and knew that he could twist this.

"False."

"And even now you can't tell the truth."

"Prove that I was the one who told him and not the Portraits that were in the corridor where we had this conversation." Blaize countered back and Harry blinked, surprised that he had come out with this bit of a challenge.

"Hmm, good point." Harry said thoughtfully as he ummed over it a second before smirking again. "Because of his choice of words, it wasn't 'they' it was 'he' so if the portraits were trying to get both of us in trouble it would have been 'they' as you can tell." Harry commented and Blaize resisted the urge to growl in pure frustration.

"Besides Potter, I never said which night the duel would take place on. I only specified a time."

"One would assume that a time without a date would mean the closest time available that is correct to the time set." Harry responded with an air of dismissiveness as he turned his back to Blaize knowing that it would anger him. "But if that is the way you want to play then fine, name a date and I shall attend. The only question is; will you do the same? Of course, we could just call this a complete misunderstanding, a heat of the moment thing where our mouths got the better of us and you can walk on your way with no problem." It was a bluff on Harry's part, he had no want or drive to duel Blaize, the guy was just not that important at the moment in the grand scheme of things. He had been doing a lot of thinking, not just since last night but ever since this whole situation with the Tears and the travelling had developed, he had ideas on what he wanted to do with it, he had plans that made him smile sometimes it freaked a few people out how a stray thought would cross his mind that he could do with the power and they'd see him smile almost at random.

"Whatever Potter, you're not worth the time anyway." Blaize said in a tone that tried to convey aloofness yet only managed to increase the defeated tone as he turned and stormed off. Harry smiled and waved at the retreating form.

"Pleasant conversation Blaize, talk to you later." He called and turned back his attention to back to his food, looking at the looks he was given he started laughing again. Yes, times were good for Harry even with the undercurrent that was happening in the school. Times were good.

HPCVHPCV

Elizabeth was in Bathsheda's office, pacing as she tried to think about everything that had happened. She had been too relaxed, too overconfident and now she was paying the price of it. "Elizabeth you need to calm down... you're going to pace a hole in my rug." Bathsheda joked in a small attempt to lighten the mood. Elizabeth looked at her and Bathsheda held her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm sorry, but you need to calm down before you wear yourself out. I know you're not just asking to speak to me because of lessons." She said calmly as Elizabeth stopped pacing.

"She knows."

"She knows?" Bathsheda responded and Elizabeth nodded her head. "She knows what?"

"Narcissa knows..." Elizabeth repeated, trailing off and Bathsheda closed her eyes and sighed as she realised what Elizabeth was talking about.

"You're sure she knows?" A nod in response. "Well that's kind of horrifying to even think about." Bathsheda said plainly, "how did she even find out?"

"I screwed up, I underestimated the situation and didn't think things through." She explained nervously. "She asked to look into my family, I forgot to take something into account with it."

"And that would be?"

"They don't exist here." Elizabeth said revealing the secret to the second third person. Slowly but surely this was becoming the worst kept secret ever. Seeing the look of confusion and disbelief Elizabeth started to explain, "remember what I said before about the constants and the variables between universes back when we first met?" She asked getting a nod in response, "Where I am from, is a different time and a different place with a different set of rules. My father was one of those constants, there was always a man, always a city and always a lighthouse, the variation may change but there were always those three constants. This time, this place, there is no man, no lighthouse and no city and as such my father never existed in this timeline." She explained the circumstances, giving her a brief rundown of the dimensions and even offered to show her the sea of doors but Bathsheda declined at this time.

"So she found out you are not who you claim... well you are but you aren't." Bathsheda said trying to wrap her head around it. Elizabeth had mentioned alternate realities and that she could see and open windows into them but to say what she was saying, it was on a whole different level. "What happened then?"

"There was a meeting, you know I went to Hogsmeade yesterday?" She questioned and Bathsheda nodded, she had seen the woman leave yesterday morning and had seen her return but hadn't had the chance to talk to her and with the look of frustration on her face she had left her to herself to collect her thoughts. "It was to meet her, so she could tell me what she found or what she didn't find to be more exact. So she questioned me... in the back of my mind I had some ideas on how to cover things up, how to keep it hidden away and convince her she was wrong."

"What happened?"

"She drugged me."

"What!?" Bathsheda cried out in surprise, it was something that she did not expect Narcissa to do, at least not in such a way that Elizabeth could have known about it. "And she told you this?"

"She did, truth for truth, this is where I'm torn about this, I don't think she did this so that she could use it for nefarious purposes, she spoke about concern for her son, she had to know I wasn't a threat to her son."

"But still... to be so open in her response, that's very unlike the Black Family." Bathsheda commented remembering stories she had been told about the Black Family. "She commits a crime and she tells you?"

"Probably because she knows as I don't exist I can't do anything about it." Elizabeth responded and cursed her luck again. "But I think I've set something off... something that's going to change her attitude to everything." Elizabeth continued explaining, "Under the effect of whatever that was I told her and also told her I could take her to see what was to come."

"You were able to give extra details on top of answering the question?" Bathsheda asked, her mind trying to think of the potion that was used. "She didn't spare any expense with the potion then. It wasn't Veriatserum she used because you'd have answered succinctly and not been able to hold a normal conversation, so they had to use something much more, it can't be mixed with other potions..." Bathsheda trailed off, trying to think of any potion that could possibly be involved with that.

"Bathsheda..." Elizabeth called seeing her friend trail off into her own thoughts. "Bathsheda... wakie, wakie." Elizabeth called again but there was still no response. She rolled her eyes, stepped forwards, leant over the desk and tapped her on the forehead.

"Huh? What? What did I miss?" She asked quickly, realising that she had zoned out.

"Nothing, I think I'm getting used to when you tune out everything around you." Elizabeth commented with a smile before the seriousness came back to her. "So I scared her, I scared her in a way that she couldn't predict."

"What did you do?"

"I took her to a possible future. A situation where Harry died and Voldemort won." There was a flinch from Bathsheda but Elizabeth ignored it. "I showed her how the wizarding world would be destroyed if Voldemort won, one of the variations anyway." Elizabeth added the last bit as she thought about it, the infinite possibility things were always ignored in aspects such as this.

"It was bad?" Bathsheda asked quietly, Elizabeth nodded in response not explaining anymore and that spoke more than words ever could. "I left before she could do anything else, not trusting myself to speak with the drug still in effect." Elizabeth finished as she sat down.

"How much of it do you think she'll listen to?"

"She was scared by what I showed her, she may try and dismiss it as an illusion, a spell that I cast but at the same time she can't because of whatever she used." Elizabeth smiled darkly, thinking back to the people who had manipulated her in the past and the person she had manipulated, the truth was a beautiful and terrifying thing. "Though I did say I'd still go to their house during the Easter Holiday."

"Really?" Bathsheda questioned after a moments pause, staring at the woman in shock. "That's kind of stupid isn't it?"

"Perhaps, but I feel I need to give her time to think about what I've shown her, hopefully the images she saw will shift her opinion."

"Hers maybe, but what about her husband?"

"Ah, I didn't think about that." She admitted hesitantly, Lucius had been a non-entity to her, she hadn't met the man, she hadn't interacted with the man and as such she didn't think about him in the slightest. "You think it could be a problem?"

"If she tells him about your abilities then I have no doubt." Bathsheda explained, "Lucius is one of the most underhanded people I've ever come to meet, as you know he managed to avoid going to prison for his part as a Death Eater, cleared of all charges but it's still there hanging in the shadows. The man is dark and if he knew about your power to its full extent then I have no doubt that he would try and bind you to his will."

"I'd like to see him try." Elizabeth practically growled, she wouldn't be bound, she wouldn't be restrained by anyone ever again.

"There are ways Elizabeth, ways that you don't know, a simple signature on an innocuous piece of paper could be the difference between freedom and servitude. A simple drop of blood in the wrong place and you could lose everything. A promise phrased badly could come back to cause you no end of trouble. Magic is beautiful and Magic is impartial but at the same time Magic can be one of the dangerous tools that ever existed." Bathsheda continued thoughtfully, "to go into the lion's den... wait wrong animal, the Serpents Lair regardless of how aware you are of the danger that you are in would be tantamount to suicide." Bathsheda pointed out. Elizabeth sighed, her shoulders slumping.

"If I don't turn up then there will be more problems, more likely she would lose whatever impact that I started and if she decides that she can change what she saw and still keep Voldemort in power then she may try to do it at her husband's urging." Elizabeth sighed again dropping into a chair heavily. "If I go I take a risk if I don't go I take a risk. What do you think?"

"With the ability to go anywhere and to any time? Find out where she went after your meeting, find out her feelings on the situation." Bathsheda said with a shrug. "Though jumping around like that could cause problems if you're spotted, you may even force her hand because of it in an attempt to call your bluff if she believes that you're following her to scare her more." Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "Your only plan may be to do what you said. I don't know, I'm a teacher not a strategic planner. Can't you just look into what would happen?"

"In a way I could, but the problem there would be what happened before that point I did that action, did anything else change? did the conversation happen differently? an infinite number of possibilities, an infinite number of outcomes." Elizabeth leant forwards, her elbows resting on the desk as she rubbed at her eyes, stifling a yawn of tiredness. "And then Harry being so damn stupid last night." She cursed, stunning Bathsheda again.

"What did he do to get you to actually curse?" Bathsheda asked, through the last several months that she had known Elizabeth she had barely heard her lose her temper outside of the incident with Professor Snape, now Harry had apparently done something stupid and it had caused her to snap like this.

"He got goaded into a trap, knowing full well that it was a trap and still went to it. The idiot almost got himself caught by Filch, if he hadn't tapped into the power then he'd have been caught and either expelled or in detention for so long he'd wish he had been expelled." Elizabeth said with a small chuckle, still amused at how she found herself talking about School Punishments even when she took into account that before this she had been fighting, fighting against Comstock, fighting against the Vox, fighting against Andrew Ryan and Atlas... now she was here in a school, acting like a teacher. It was a surreal shift in priorities for her.

"Are we sure he's in the right house? He's certainly sounding more like a Gryffindor." Bathsheda joked and Elizabeth rolled her eyes, it was a habit that she was seeing with students and professors alike, when they found someone showing a trait to a larger extent that didn't fall into a certain house the inevitable comment was that they were sorted into a wrong house rather than pay attention to the fact that a person was not just one defining trait. "But he tapped into the power?" a nod, "and are we always going to call it 'the power' because I've got to say it sounds so weird to refer to 'the power' like that. We refer to Magic as an independent entity as well, Magic just sounds slightly less bland than 'the power' when used though."

"I'll think of something, normally I'm only talking about aspects of it and don't refer to it as a whole." Elizabeth dismissed the suggestion as she thought about what she was going to do. 'Still too many things that I don't know about here... I didn't expect Narcissa to make the move she did, I still need to talk to Hermione and Ron, I'm surprised they have held off this long asking me about the events at Halloween, but then again there was the Quidditch incident a week later and I was pretty much ignoring everyone for the month from that problem.' She felt bad about that, it hadn't been her intention to not pay attention to anyone else but she had felt the need to try and keep an eye on him both out of concern for him and also in case there had been any effect from the use of the rift to save him, though now she had learnt that at least according to the Lutece's he had the power from the moment they awoke her just like she had gained magic when she had drawn on him through that connection.

"Did we ever learn who owned the house?" She asked and Bathsheda shook her head.

"I don't know who set it up but everything leads to fake names and dummy contacts, the only thing we have learnt about him is that he was a he. Other than that the neighbours don't really remember much about him other than he was possibly quite a well off business man that kept to himself. Just one day he didn't appear again and then over time people forgot about him. He's gone as far as people know though we've set up a few observation spells in case he ever returns." She stopped, glancing off to one side thoughtfully before looking back at Elizabeth. "I did clean up something that I almost missed when I went back to copy the runes." She smirked and Elizabeth looked confused, "the books you pulled in, we forgot to take them with us on that day, they were still sitting there waiting for me when I got went back."

"Oh, those... I remember those, I still have the Hogwarts: A History book in my trunk." She said thoughtfully. "Did we really leave the rest of them there?" She asked and Bathsheda nodded. "I suppose it's a good thing he never returned." She mused thoughtfully. If he had returned and seen the spell books regardless of the state of disarray and dust that was in the house, he would have known instantly that something was wrong.

"Not to mention the different bookcase, I first tried to revert it to what it had been but the magic just didn't work. I'm guessing it's because of what you did?"

"It was, I didn't change what was there but more swap what was there with something that could have been there," Elizabeth explained.

"So I had to transfigure it into the old one. I think I put enough magic in to it to make it stay like that but who know, either way the books I dumped back at my house and then the rest is what it is until we need to go back there."

"Why would we need to go back there if he's never going to return?" Elizabeth asked with a frown, supressing a shudder, she dreamt about that room, nightmares that she was never found, that she was trapped there until whoever this was returned. She thought back to when she first spoke to Bathsheda and McGonagall, she had claimed that she had been chasing someone, but that had been a lie, she wasn't chasing she was running away. Away from everything that happened to her to escape her own mistakes.

It was cowardly of her to run from her past but she needed to escape, needed to think, needed to sort things out and now she was tied to things that were happening here. Who knew what she was? was it because of her ability that she had been trapped like that or did they think she was magical? Something had drawn her there but she couldn't remember what it was. Something or someone. She sighed banishing the thoughts, time would bring the information back, time or travelling through the doors to go find out for herself. But she would wait to do that, she would take the chance of finding the information over time for now. "You're looking troubled." Bathsheda spoke softly, snapping Elizabeth out of her thoughts.

"Lost in thoughts, thinking of the house, that room." She said quietly, the Professor nodded her head and Elizabeth gave a weak smile. "I'll deal with it." She dismissed and Bathsheda frowned.

"You should talk about it... it won't help to keep it bottled up."

"I will, just not now." She said as the bell rung. She stopped in shock, cursed and looked at Bathsheda. "I've got to get down to the dungeons now... I'm going to be late." She said quickly standing up, "talk to you later?" She asked and Bathsheda, still thinking about what Elizabeth was going through she nodded distractedly as the woman exited the room making her way down to potions as quickly as possible.

She arrived at the Potions lab, out of breath and slightly drained from running, stopped at the door to collect herself, straightening her robe and taking a deep breath she pushed open the door, entering the room.

Everyone turned to look at her, she didn't spare a glance at the students and looked at Professor Snape. "Apologies for being late, I lost track of time while discussing something with Professor Babbling." She said politely to Snape.

"Well, I'm glad you can make time for us in your busy schedule." He responded and Elizabeth gritted her teeth, not wanting to rise to the bait. "You already know what the class is so I suggest you start doing your task." He finished, returning to what he was doing and Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

The rest of the lesson continued as if she hadn't been late, the students paid attention and got on with the work, there were comments from Snape directed at the students but he largely ignored Harry as he worked. Idly, Elizabeth let her mind wander back to the argument that she had with Snape and how he had acted from that day on. He was still cold, abrupt and rude to nearly everyone that wasn't a Slytherin student, including Harry and in fact, Elizabeth didn't think he would have changed at such a simple thing. But something else had happened and since the end of the holidays he had been indifferent to Harry, not polite and warm but less harsh and more inclined to just ignore the teen rather than go out of his way to goad him. She smiled slightly, the change was nice, it would do him good in the long run and would stop future aggression from building up.

As the day progressed, her thoughts drifted through to the 'detention' she had to do with Harry later. She had a plan to try and see what he could do, it would require her to possibly take him to the sea of lighthouses. She paused that thought as she tried to think. This was a different place, a different time a different set of rules. Would it be lighthouses here? She tried to think back to when she had come here, it had been a blank to her, maybe something that she had unconsciously done to get away from everything to do with Rapture. When she had taken Harry to Rapture she hadn't gone through the pathways, she just opened the door straight to Rapture, skipping the middle step so to speak, so what would be the result of this excursion? The doors were locked in the sea and they could only be opened by people like her and the Lutece Twins. She was going to see where he wanted to go with the power. She would act as an advisor and he would lead the way but she would make sure that he came back to where he was supposed to be.

That's if he could. First she'd have to test him on other aspects, the ability to manipulate rifts to what could have been was there, but what about the ability to open doorways in their entirety? to step through into another location with an idea of what possibility you wanted. It would be interesting to see if he could do it and where he would take them. Second would be to find out where he would want to go. She had a few ideas and inclinations about the choices he would want to see but at the same time she realised that some of those doors were better left shut for now. Finally, she'd have to keep an eye on how drained he was, she knew the rifts could be tiring to open when not used to them, she knew that the doorways could be even more draining but he was also stubborn and generally not willing to show when he was suffering.

With her thoughts distracted she was on autopilot for the rest of the day, she answered when spoken to by others but her heart wasn't in it. That evening she was in Bathsheda's office again, waiting for Harry to turn up. As someone who was now in the know she was here to watch what happened to make sure they didn't actually kill themselves, though she would be unable to follow them if they did progress through the rifts her mind would be struck by the changes in an attempt to comprehend what was going on. It would be the same thing that happened to Booker when he was brought through by the Lutece Twins. The brain would try to bring understanding to what was there. Even knowing about what was going to happen before hand was no guarantee that she would be able to travel safely. The clock ticked onwards and she glanced at Bathsheda who was sat behind her desk again, writing away at a student's homework. "Much to go through?" Elizabeth asked, she hadn't really paid much attention to the coursework that the elective classes took simply because she wasn't involved with any of it but the smile that Bathsheda had gave the answer away pretty quickly.

"Not really, the joys of an elective class, its smaller in size and the people there generally want to do the work and put the effort in. Less work with better detail." She responded as she scribbled a note on the side of the parchment. "Not to say there aren't people who pick the class for the wrong reason but it shows in their work as they do, many of them either drop the subject to take another free period or before the end of their third year they ask to change to a different class."

"Is that easy to do? You'd be almost a year behind everyone else if you did."

"The changing of classes doesn't happen often but the ones that do generally switch to what would be considered an easy class that they can coast through for the rest of the year. Divination as you either have the talent or you don't have the talent to be able to see. If what you said was true about your abilities, you could probably ace the class with barely any effort. What was it you said? an infinite number of possibilities?" Elizabeth nodded her head, "that would mean an infinite number of predictions for you to draw on to complete the work. And they'd all be true... from a certain point of view."

"I don't think I'd have the patience to deal with the woman though." Elizabeth said honestly, "from what I've heard from some of the others she's a fraud who likes to... I really don't want to say it; you probably already know." Elizabeth finished with a look of frustration, she had heard the rumours that Trelawney was a drunk who many considered that her visions were just delusions caused by the amount she drinks. There were other rumours that floated around about drug use to help 'open the inner eye' but again she tried to distance herself from it, until she dealt with the woman in person she wouldn't pass judgement, but she hadn't even seen the woman at this point in time. When she had asked McGonagall about it, she had been told that she barely leaves her tower, the classroom that she taught in was essentially her living room.

"I know those rumours. She's not as bad as people make her out to be, but she can be a bit... out there for lack of a better phrase." As seven hit the clock in the office dinged and there was a knock on the door, "enter." She called out and the door opened, Harry walking in. "Good Evening Mr Potter." She greeted with a cool look at him. Harry stopped in surprise at the tone. "Did you really go to a midnight duel that you knew was a trap?" She stated upfront and bluntly. Harry looked at her in embarrassment. "Yep, you did." She said and laughed. "I don't know whether to shout at you or just set Elizabeth on you again." She said and Harry cringed, apparently her words the evening before had sunk into his head. "Now I'm only here to make sure you don't blow yourself up with what you're going to do. Elizabeth is running the show." She said gesturing to Elizabeth who stood off to one side.

"Ready to begin Harry? this won't be easy for you to do." Elizabeth said, walking over to him. "We're going to just push on as far and as fast as we can."

"I understand." Harry responded simply and Elizabeth turned away from him, gesturing at the room.

"How many tears can you see in this room?" She questioned. Harry looked around, studying things intently, looking for the tell-tale shimmer. As he focused on them Bathsheda watched, looking at the spots where he was looking. in the spots she thought she could see something there.

"Six." Harry spoke, "the bookcase, the window, the door, the fireplace, the desk and the light." Harry said and Bathsheda chimed in.

"I can see three... how can I see three?" She questioned and Elizabeth looked a bit surprised at the revelation.

"I thought that was only a side effect of the Lutece Twins machine..." She muttered thoughtfully before speaking up and explaining her thoughts. "Where I came from, the Lutece Twins created a machine that opened the rifts, I thought that the reason people that weren't like myself or Harry could see the rifts was related to the machine being used making the area unstable and more prone to create tears... I guess it's not just that but our ability to use it that causes it."

"If I can start to see them, should we be concerned about them opening up around the School?"

"While they may start to appear around the school, the most anyone would be able to do without a lot of effort would be to look through it, to see something or hear something depending on what it is that opens. There was a man named Fink who used a few of these tears to create things that wouldn't exist for several years. I guess with the two of us using the tears and opening the doors we're doing what the machine did." Elizabeth hazarded a guess, to be honest she hadn't really thought about what it would take for them to start being seen by people who didn't have access to the ability, she hadn't really thought that many people could see them in Columbia, if it wasn't for a few of the kinetoscopes she wouldn't have known. There hadn't been many people that weren't trying to kill or capture them to stop and ask a dozen questions about everything. A lot of what she had worked out upon leaving was guess work, educated guesswork but guesswork nonetheless. All seeing did not mean all knowing.

"Then we'll start with the first part, Bathsheda, any rifts that you do not want us to open?"

"The bookcase, There's several rare books on there that I really don't want to take the chance of losing. The desk as well unless you tell me the window is to a bunch of already marked essays." She added jokingly and the two shared a slight laugh.

"Okay, Harry start with the window, what do you see?"

"It's similar to what happened when this power first started forming, a slight change to the curtains, a design change on the window as well."

"Okay then, open it up." She commanded and Harry did so, the blue curtains that had been there were now a dark red colour, the window had gone from a simple cross design with four panes of glass to one with a diamond design across it. "How did it feel opening it?"

"Easy enough." Harry stated as he looked at the other tears.

"Good, its developing quickly... let's leave the door, people will ask questions, try the fireplace." Elizabeth ordered and Harry turned, looking at the fireplace he pulled open the tear, the fireplace remained largely unchanged and for a moment he thought he had failed but then he noticed what the actual difference was.

Instead of the Hogwarts crest that rested above the fireplace it was a different crest. Something he did not recognise and from the looks of it neither did Bathsheda. She stood up, walking around to the fireplace, looking at the crest, tracing it with her finger. "That's... I've never seen that crest before... Why would it be here?"

"A different ownership for Hogwarts that brought about change? a time when Hogwarts decided on a different emblem? There are many possibilities." Elizabeth said as she watched the Professor studying it, the witch summoning some paper and a piece of charcoal, making a rubbing of the emblem.

"Still, there's something about this emblem... it's got to have some meaning, I'll look into it." She said stepping away from the fireplace with the imprint in her hands.

"It may not have any meaning here; it may never have come to be in this time. Don't be surprised if you don't come across anything." Elizabeth forewarned before turning back to Harry. "Okay, enough rearranging the room, we're going to move onto a bit of a different task. I want you to open up a doorway to somewhere."

"Somewhere?" Harry asked and Elizabeth nodded her head.

"Take what you know about rifts, and apply it to a mental picture, picture where you want to go, focus on that thought and let everything else guide you to do it."

"Will we be able to come back if I do this?" He asked hesitantly and she nodded her head.

"I'll get us back, you don't have to worry about that, though if I'm right, I think you'll be able to find your own way back even if I wasn't out there. At least I was always able to back then." She trailed off in thought realising that her own theory had a hole in it. She had initially thought that she had been drawn back to where she was from because it was where she originally came from, a sort of resonance with the place that she came from, but there was a hole with that theory just on the grounds that it wasn't where she was originally from. She corrected the theory though, realising it was less that it took her back to where she thought she was from due to some unseeable connection but more due to the fact that it was what her mind considered home, it was all she had ever known as being home.

"Right, I can do this." Harry muttered as he closed his eyes, a look of deep concentration crossing his features as he turned his attention to the side, away from Bathsheda and Elizabeth. Ahead of him, appearing in the room, a bit away from the Fireplace that he had changed, a circle area started to open, behind it, a corridor could be seen, it was stone, similar to Hogwarts, in fact several of the suits of armours were also there and some of the paintings. Harry opened his eyes, let out a small tired sigh of breath and Elizabeth walked over, patting him on the shoulder before they stepped through the passageway it closing behind them leaving Bathsheda alone in the room.

"Huh, goodbye to you too..." She trailed off, she had seen through the hole that he had opened and had recognised the corridor in question. "He didn't..." She muttered in realisation and then started laughing. "Oh that clever little brat." She muttered under her breath, shaking her head as she chuckled slightly.

In the corridor in question Elizabeth and Harry looked around, "I didn't expect you just to bring us to Hogwarts from Hogwarts." She said and Harry shrugged.

"I wanted to find out what was at the end of the corridor that everyone wants to keep a secret." Harry said with a shrug as he walked towards the door that led to the Forbidden Corridor. "So I focused on something, a reality where the item was there but the traps weren't." Harry continued as he pushed open the door to an empty room that would at one time hold a Cerberus, but now it was just an empty room.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? I'd like to know as well but this isn't what I intended for you to do with your powers." Elizabeth pointed out as she followed him into the room.

"I don't plan to take it, I just want to see what it is, after that I'm more than happy to leave and go somewhere else."

"In that case... shall we get this over with?"

And they entered the corridor to find out what would await them.

TBC

Happy New Year everyone and lets hope it's a good one in the long run.

Unfortunately my plans failed heading into new years. I planned to try and push on ahead with the writing but to be perfectly honest I think I burnt out a little bit. The joy of working retail. At the moment I'm half way through chapter 15 and I'm sitting on one sentence just waiting for that little spark of inspiration to kick in and drive me forward.

It's sitting there, I can feel it at the back of my mind but I just cant grasp that thread of thought to push on. Which is sad really considering it was the part of first year I was really looking forward to writing… Well one of them, the other part being the Forbidden Forest Detention… I have plans with that one :D