REBEL REBEL

Chapter FOUR: OUT OF TIME

I.

NEVILLE, MICHAEL AND I left the Gryffindor Common Room and I returned his cloak to Neville, who took it as I apologised, offering a meek "sorry" by way of comfort. Michael performed a spell to clean up Neville's nose, and apologised too.

Neville was the first one to make small-talk by way of conversation, "Hey, Hurst? A word."

Michael looked at me. "Go on," I said. "It's fine."

"He doesn't know?" Neville said, once Michael left, realising something. "That you're from the future, I mean."

"No. The fewer people that know, the better. You can't tell anyone about this."

"Have you always been from the future, or is this just a recent thing?" Neville said. "I have so many questions, I'm still trying to get around the fact that time travel is possible for more than a few hours…"

"Well, it was a bit more complicated that, and I've been back from the future since this year. You say Harry's been fine up until this year too."

"Ever since the school year started, he's been a bit different. I just didn't want to admit it until now. Did you find any proof that you were looking for?"

"A blank diary," I said. "Nothing in it, it was just… empty."

"That's odd. Although not uncommon. Did you write anything in it?"

"I didn't have the time."

"Sorry. I can have another look-"

"No, Harry already suspects you," I said, as we walked down a corridor, ending up at a clock tower overlooking the castle grounds. "He's setting up the Defence Club to try and ward out any potential spies, traitors. He might even find it odd that you didn't go to the Room of Requirement with him."

"Even with the broken nose?"

"Especially with the broken nose," I said. "We're in dangerous territory here, Neville. It could be anyone in that body right now. Literally anyone. I haven't even got a clue."

"Who was it in your timeline? You never found out?"

"I'd rather not say anything about the future," I said. "I don't want to risk changing it in case it creates something worse, and I let something slip that ends up working against us."

"What could be worse than You-Know-Who winning?" he still believed that that was where I was from.

"I could think of many things," I said. "Especially if what half of what I've heard is true."

"Fine. Keep your secrets. What's your next move? You can't go to the club."

"Why not?"

"He'll spot you. He'll work out who you are and then that's it," said Neville. "It's a trap."

"Neville, my friend," I said, even though I was well aware that we weren't even friends, barely acquaintances – if that, but it felt good to have someone on my side, at least for now. "There's no other way I can see that we can get that information. We can't kidnap Harry. We can't talk to Ron and Hermione about him. They'll be harder to convince than you."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. This is a Harry who knows exactly what they want to hear," I said. "Look. He's playing up Ron's hatred of Slytherins. Hermione's penchant for extra work, by forming the club and putting in extra commitment. Gryffindor's sense of community by uniting you all together. It's us against the world, and all that. So the only way, the only option that we have right now is staring us slap bang in the face."

"What's that?"

"Harry is setting a trap," I said, moving away from the clocktower and heading away from Neville. "We're going to spring it. Do me a favour, Neville. Don't tell anyone, right? Not even Dumbledore."

"Wait!" Neville called after me before I reached the stairs. "Who says Harry hasn't come back in time to stop you, and not the other way around?"

I paused for a moment and thought about it, and put on my best 80's movie bad guy voice. "Because, my friend. If I came here to stop Harry – with all the knowledge of what's to come in the future – I would have already done it by now."

II.

I met up with Michael around the corner to find that he'd been waiting for me out of earshot. "So are we doing this?" Michael said, asking me. "Like, really doing this?"

"Yeah," I said. "We're infiltrating the Defence Club."

I was careful not to call it Dumbledore's Army. Very careful. There was already one person too many who knew my secret, and Neville had raised my worst fears – what if people believed that, when the truth came to light, that Harry had come back to stop me and not the other way around? Everybody had heard of The Boy Who Lived before. Everybody had known what he did. Nobody had heard of Tommy Hurst. At least I could take some comfort in the fact that once this was over, one way or another – that would be the least of my worries.

Music was playing when I returned to my quarters in the Ravenclaw Common Room and I realised how lucky I was to have a secluded room compared to that of Gryffindor, imagine living with the same seven people in the same space for seven years? It would be a nightmare. Especially if you didn't like one of them. Thankfully, Rowena Ravenclaw understood that everyone had their solitude, and I found out that Terry Boot was the one listening to the music when I got here. I hadn't spoken to much of the other Ravenclaws, and it seemed that old Tommy hadn't either, because Terry didn't notice the difference. "Fancy a game of chess, Thomas?"

For all I knew, Tommy could have been an avid chess player and I was not, so I had to sit down and join in. Ominously perhaps, the music playing in the background was The Rolling Stones' Out of Time, the strings version, and I wondered if it had been a deliberate choice or whether or not it was just on the radio. "Sure, why not."

"Good," Terry said. "You know, Tom. We haven't played a game in a while. I'm looking forward to beating you again."

He took white and I took black, and we started our moves with ease. He was no Ron Weasley and neither was I, so we made several errors along the way, and eventually, pushed back into a corner, I found myself faced to face with the prospect of losing. "What do you want to be when you grow up, Tom? I haven't asked you this before. I'm doing a survey."

"I don't know," I said. "I haven't really thought about it."

"Well, that's odd. A Ravenclaw usually has their whole life planned out ahead of them by now," said Terry, and I realised my potential mistake. Terry studied me. "I mean, Michael wants to be a lawyer. In the muggle world. How boring can that be? We have others, I mean, obviously Cho wants to be a Quidditch Player. Jeremy wants to be a librarian. But you? No idea at all? You can't just… make it up as you go along, you know. Life needs a plan if you're going to get from point A… to point B. Bishop to F5. Check."

"You see, sometimes it's better not to have a plan," I said. "Plans can go wrong. Sometimes disastrously so. Nobody in life is where they want to be when they were five. If I was, I'd be in NASA astronaut training right now, or a magician."

"Don't you mean-"

"Not a wizard. Magician," I corrected him, knowing where he was going. "Card tricks, and all that jazz. I loved them when I was younger. Case in point. The art of distraction is a subtle one, one that not taken seriously, can lead to glaring difficulties. See, take this game for example. You've been investing all your energy in creating a plan to box in my King. Every move you've made has been telegraphed over and over again. So I've been baiting you."

Terry studied the board, and his eyes widened. "Knight takes Bishop, at B2." I said, triumphantly. "Check, and mate. Sometimes even the best plans in life fail. Therefore – it's better to have no plan at all. Night, Terry."

Terry was still looking at the board, wondering how he could have lost, by the time I was in bed, dreaming of a world that I could never return to.

III.

It seemed the longer I spent at Hogwarts, the more I was starting to run into canon characters. After befriending Neville Longbottom and playing chess against Terry Boot, I felt like I belonged – Neville and I bonded over a mutual passion for Herbology at lunch, it turned out that the class was something I'd taken a liking to which was odd considering I was never a fan of biology, and I even played Quidditch against Cho Chang in the lessons that I had during that year. Granted – Cho was so good Madame Hooch had put us all on one team and had us try to get the Quaffle off her, to which none of us managed, and after almost falling off my broom two times and almost being sick three, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that if I was going to stay in this world then a Quidditch megastar, I was not going to be. Terry had raised a valid point though – if there was no return home, I needed a Plan B. Hell – I didn't even know the status of my parents in this world, and I felt it was something that I should investigate, especially when one sent me a letter.

Dear Tommy, it read:

I'm just writing in to check that everything's alright. I know you're having fun at the school up there, but you haven't written to us in a while and I'm just checking in to see that everything is okay. Reya is well, she's looking forward to starting Hogwarts next year. And Allie is performing well in her Auror training. Controlling two magical kids is harder than we could have ever expected it would be, but it helps that the third is grown up and we rarely ever see them. As for your mother and I, we are doing well, working in the law enforcement has its ups and downs, as you're well and truly aware of, whilst mum's teaching has reached all new heights. With Christmas approaching, feel free to get back to me with anything that you want, and I'll look into it for you. Non-magical is easier, but I have a few contacts in the wizarding world.

Love,

Dad.

The letter hit me harder than I realised – I had two sisters, Reya and Allie. Allie was a freaking Auror, Reya was coming to Hogwarts next year. How was I supposed to hide who I was from them? Michael hadn't mentioned them much at all, so maybe I was in the clear – but family always saw through you and my disguise would be up with in seconds. I felt that I had to write back and did so almost instantly, even though I'd never met the man before.

Dear Dad,

Send my love to Reya, Allie and mum for me. Reya better be in Ravenclaw when she joins, I feel like she'll do well here! Sorry I haven't written – my studies have started to prove to be more intense than usual this year but I am coping fine. I won a chess game for the first time in a while, too! I beat Terry. In terms of presents, I'll leave it up to you. Nothing too fancy. Just keep it a surprise. Thanks, and let me know if there's anything that you lot want. I'll try to make it back for Christmas, too.

Tommy

I had no intention of being here by Christmas, so hopefully the normal Tommy would be restored by then. But now I realised what I'd just told Michael, previously due to the lack of contact with family I had no stakes in this world, nothing for Tommy to live for – I'd thought he was an orphan, so, perhaps unfairly, I felt that I could get away with putting his body through hell if I wanted to. It wasn't mine. That was rather selfish. I realised that now. I should have checked before I considered throwing myself off the tower, in one of my stupider moves that I was thankful Michael hadn't made public knowledge. Now, with Reya, Allie and Tommy's parents potentially losing someone dear to them: I couldn't afford to see Tommy die. No, the task grew all the harder for me in that split second from when I opened the mail that an Owl, which I guessed was also mine, sent to me.

Ginny Weasley found me and Michael in the owlery where I was returning my letter, and kissed Michael, both their hair blowing in the wind. It was a passionate lovers' kiss that made me uncomfortable to be witnessing. She'd come alone, and I noticed that she hadn't brought anyone with him. "Thank you for wanting to come to the Defence Club with us," Ginny said. "I'd go alone, but it's better with you two. The lesson starts soon. I can show you where it is. How are your parents, Tommy?"

"They're fine, thank you," I said. "How're yours?"

"Good. Holding in there. It helps that they have the house to themselves now every child is at Hogwarts," said Ginny. "It got a bit crowded with us all there."

"I can imagine," I said. "Let's hope Harry's as good as everyone says he is."

"Oh, trust me, he is," said Ginny. "We already had a small lesson with him, just the Gryffindors. He's scaringly good. I wouldn't want to be the one to challenge him to a duel, that's for sure."

That felt like an ill omen. Like if this were a book, that would be the moment of foreshadowing. A sense of unease hung over me as I posted my letter. There were stakes now. More stakes than ever before. I couldn't let Tommy die. I had to find another route home. Maybe an exorcism? Maybe… maybe. It wasn't that simple anymore. I supposed it never was.

(You don't know what's going on,

You've been away for far too long,

You can't come back and think you are still mine,

You're out of touch, my baby,

My poor discarded baby,

I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time)

IV.

The Room of Requirement resembled a fighting pit, and I realised that I was walking into a deleted scene from Fight Club. By the time we'd got there, two students were already duelling, Katie Bell and Zach Smith, who had surprisingly come considering I remembered vaguely his objections about the club from the book. Harry was giving them hints and tips about what to do from the side-lines, more like a boxing trainer than a school teacher, and was baiting the crowd at the same time. This was very different to what I imagined. "Good, good, Katie, watch that, now, catch him off guard," he was saying. "That's it, keep going-"

Zach was on the floor, and Katie struck again, leaning more into the ruthless side of things than I would have expected from her. Zach recoiled angrily, struck by a blow. "What the hell do you think you're doing? This was supposed to be a friendly bout!"

"There are no friendly bouts in real life, Zach, it's my job to prepare you or that," Harry said, like he was J.K. Simmons in Whiplash ramped up to eleven. "You're going to have to accept that not every spell is going to be aimed at you to sting. It's going to be aimed at you to kill. You're lucky that wasn't a Killing Curse. If it was, you'd be dead. Hell, Katie could have killed you five times already – she just missed a few places where she could have cast a spell. You're useless."

"He's never been this obvious before," Neville whispered behind me. "This isn't Harry. This is something else. It's cruelty. I thought this club was meant to be about optimism. But even Katie's used darker curses than I would have imagined her being capable of."

"Well done, Katie! Next up, come on, Ravenclaws have to do better than that," Harry said, holding her hand up in the air in jubilation to mock cheers. "Come on, give me another Raven. Give me another, yes, I know – let's see. We have a Thomas Hurst here, don't we?"

I was slightly alarmed by the fact that he addressed me by name. "We do."

"Good, good. Don't worry, it's nothing personal, most of the Ravenclaws have already duelled today," said Harry. "This is going to separate you into advanced, medium and beginners training. I've put most of the third years or less in beginners. Do better. Katie, take a rest, you've earned it. I'm pitting you against Hermione Granger."

Frak. So much for my plan to avoid getting into a fight against her. What was Harry doing? This would only flair up divisiveness between the group. Hermione's bushy hair was more prevalent than in the film, her teeth larger. She was taller, too – five foot ten. "And… let's get ready to rumble!" Harry announced like a wrestling referee. "Go, go, go!"

I fired the first shot, which Hermione countered with ease. The backwards repetition of spellcasting had me surprisingly be capable of holding my own, using spells that I knew from the books more than anything else, but I was distracted, more and more, by Harry – he was watching on from the side carefully, like an observer. He had fallen silent – as if he was making mental notes in his head. And then, I realised what he was doing – why he was getting every student to fight each other. He was working out their moves, their plan of attack, everything that they relied on in battle. If he knew what they were going to throw against them he'd know how to react when exposed, hell, I probably would have done the same thing in his position.

So, I knew what I had to do, no matter how much my pride would be wounded. I let myself lose. Hermione caught me with a stinging hex as I dropped my guard, and after I recovered, I joined Neville and Michael on the side. Michael was with Ginny so I talked to Neville. He spoke first: "Why'd you lose so quickly?"

I explained what I'd just realised to him and his eyebrows widened. Neville shot a glare over at Harry, who was egging on Ron and Ginny as they fought each other. I watched him like he was feeding off the fight, glowing with excitement and hunger. "We have to underperform. Deliberately."

"That shouldn't be hard."

"Neville, you're better than you give yourself credit for," I said. "But, either way, we need to get into this place afterwards again."

"Why's that?"

"If I was secretly hiding something, where would I hide it?"

"In a room that can transform into whatever you want it to," Neville said. "You're going to stay behind after."

"Yeah."

"What if he discovers you?"

"He won't," I said. "But he's got to be hiding something somewhere, and if the book in Gryffindor Tower was a decoy, it's here."

The lesson continued, and by the end, we were all tired. I noticed Harry never fought, he stood from the side-lines, simply watching. The constant observer. "Great job everyone!" Harry said, aloud. "Same time next week?"

There were murmurs of approval and hardly any of dissent. As the students began to file out of the room, I reluctantly followed, but did my best to hang around the corridor until I was sure all the students had gone. Waiting behind, I approached where I'd been let in and walked up and down, thinking, If I were Harry Potter who was not a Harry Potter, what would I be hiding? Where would I be hiding it? Over and over again until a door opened up, and I was let in, to be rewarded with nothingness.

The room itself was dark. There was nothing there. What if that room was Harry's secrets? What if he had none? Lights, I requested, and the room obeyed. They shot forward like it was descending down a corridor, and eventually, at the end, there was a box with a keyhole, and I had the key in my pocket. Something heavy at least, that had not been there before. I did the only thing I could have done, opened it up, and found some scrambled letters there, ripped out of a page and scattered in the box. Discarded, as if waiting to be put together. I realised, all too late, who had done this trick before, what was coming with the letters, their inevitable re-arraigning and recoiled in horror at what was coming next, what I knew – had to come next.

And then: the clapping of hands. Slow, and steady, sarcastic and rewarding, that caused me to spin around, looking for a source, looking for anything where they were coming from, to find that the source was right behind me, sporting not just one but two wands in his hand, his – and someone else's. My worst fears were realised as I recognised the distinctive core of that particular wand and who it belonged to. There was only one person who I knew in the whole of the Harry Potter world that possessed a weapon like that.

"Bravo, Mr. Hurst. Thank you for walking right into my trap," said the voice of not Harry Potter, but Lord Voldemort. "Now then, it's time you told me who you are."

TO BE CONTINUED…

Might as well get the revelation out early! There's no sense in prolonging it when there's only a few answers that it could really be. I've already written Chapter Five as things stand, and let me tell you now, it's a big one. Full steam ahead from here on out.