Title: Code of the Griffin
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.
"No, that's not what I'm saying." Sirius said to the three people sitting across from him in his apartment. "I don't want to disband the Ministry or the Wizangamont. What I want is the separation of the judicial branch from the Administrative branch. The Court system needs to be independent of the Politicians. Too often political agendas have perverted trials. Money thrown at the right people can condemn or acquit a person. A single witness can be enough to get a prison sentence."
The two Wizards and one Witch listened as he spoke, the Witch slowly sipping her tea, but Sirius could see he was starting to loose their attention. He slid the three briefing documents across the coffee table.
"Look, all my recommendations are outlined in the documents before you. Look it over and think about it. Thank you for your time."
He stood up as his 'guests' gathered their things, and the documents, then shook their hands and then escorted them to the fireplace to floo away. Making sure the fire was out after the last one left; Sirius began to wash up the tea cups that his guests had been drinking. Just as he finished drying the last cup the doorbell rang.
In an instant Sirius had his wand out. He moved into the centre of the room, with the sofa between him and the door. A quick wave and the door opened, a spell half on his lips which died when he saw who it was.
"Damn it Moony. What the hell are you doing here?" Sirius demanded, lowering his wand.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking. How are you?" Remus replied calmly, walking into the apartment.
"Shouldn't you be up at Hogwarts?"
Remus gave Sirius a look that conveyed amusement, frustration and surprise.
"Sirius, it's Saturday." Remus replied, shaking his head.
"Well in that case, let's go for Coffee."
Remus smiled as he followed Sirius out onto the street. Sirius' apartment was in a prosperous part of Muggle London. They walked to a nearby coffee shop and Sirius smiled to one of the waitresses as he walked in and held up two fingers, which got a nod from the waitress.
They sat down in a booth at the back of the café and did small talk for a few a minutes until the waitress delivered two coffee's, with a small smile.
"I come here every day." Sirius explained at Remus' glace. "So what's happening at Hogwarts?"
They sat for over an hour, sipping their coffee as Remus gave a rundown of the classes, Hermione's actions with the Bogart, the attack and Hermione's announcement, always making sure no one was close enough to overhear when they mentioned Magic.
"I can see why he married her." Sirius said with a laugh.
"Who married who?" Remus asked.
"You have to promise not to tell anyone what I am about to tell you." Sirius said, his face now with a serious expression. "I had to sware."
Remus thought for a second. There were very few occasions where he had seen that expression on his friend's face. One was when Sirius had declared that he intended to become an Animagus to help Remus. Another was the day James and Lilly had started dating.
"I sware." Remus said.
"In the future Hermione comes from she was married to Harry." Sirius said, before explaining what he had learned over Christmas.
Just as they were about to leave the waitress passed Sirius a scrap of paper. He read the note and nodded on his way out. He had been so busy with his political campaign, a night out with a beautiful lady was overdue.
"Fire Team One, Report." Harry ordered as he dashed towards the abandoned car, Susan close on his heels.
Susan fired off the last burst from her MP5, taking out an enemy and let the gun fall, trusting the strap to guide the weapon to her side as she drew her two pistols. Another enemy's head snapped back from Luna's sniper round. Harry and Susan hit the car, using it for cover. Harry had taken over command when Cedric got killed almost twenty minutes ago. George lay bleeding out in the open, having been hit as they crossed the courtyard.
"Two, this is One." Neville's voice came over the radio. "Ron is down. Fred is wounded."
Susan was shooting her pistols over the hood of the car. Neville popped out from around the corner of a building on the other side of the street, using it as cover.
Harry surveyed the situation and glanced at the satchel charge on his vest webbing.
"Cover me." He ordered, tossing his pistol to Susan, who gave him a look, knowing what he was thinking. "Just cover me."
Harry made a dash for the command centre's demountable building, firing off a burst from his P90. He got hit twice as he cross and fell, rolling under the demountable. He set the charge for two seconds, planted on the underside of the demountable and set it off.
The world exploded into white. Then the white faded to grey.
"Alright everyone." Hermione's voice cut through the now grey room. "Assemble in the Briefing room for a debrief."
Cedric, Susan, Harry, George, Fred, Luna, Neville and Ron all got up from their various positions around the simulation room and began to file into the briefing room, sitting around the room, with Hermione at the lectern.
"Ok, you have just completed a two week operation, with three distinct stages. Stage one was a nine day infiltration and surveillance operation, Stage two had your cover blown and was three days of urban escape and evade followed by stage three, a two day offensive to destroy defensive and command elements of the defending forces." Hermione began, before delving into a detailed analysis of the operation.
Three hours later, after the debrief and the team had showered, they gathered at the portal.
"Ok, we have reached 1:1 temporal ratio. On my mark, Hogwarts time will be seventeen Thirty hours. Ready, Ready, Hack."
A quick succession of beeps sounded as everyone reset their watches to Hogwarts time.
"Well, that was a long three hours." Ron said, sarcastically.
Thanks to the temporal dilation field of the chest, as far as the rest of the school was concerned they had been gone no more than three hours, rather than the two weeks of the exercise.
"Move out to Dinner." Cedric said, leading the way out of the chest.
Harry, George, Susan and Luna all trudged wearily in through the main doors, the morning sun pouring through the doors as if in mockery of their exhaustion. They were all dressed in full combat gear, with the now useless night vision goggles pushed up onto foreheads or hanging by straps around their neck.
"Alright everyone, Safety them." Harry ordered.
The four of them proceeded to remove the clips and magazines from their guns, and then clearing the chambered rounds. A quick succession of clicks ensued as each of the fire team pulled the trigger five times, their weapons pointed at the floor, to confirm that they were unloaded. Clips were placed in pockets, George's large drum magazine was secured in its own special pouch on his belt, and then the process was repeated with their sidearm's.
As the safety procedure was completed, Harry saw Hermione and Cedric coming down the main stairs. Both were dressed in Order uniform and Cedric was receiving back a stack of signed documents from Hermione. She signed and handed back the last as they reached the foot of the stairs. Cedric saluted, which Hermione returned, and then marched off down one of the corridors. Something welled up inside Harry, a feeling he could not put into words.
"Dismissed." Harry ordered, before heading over to Hermione to give his patrol report.
George headed up the main stairs towards the Gryffindor common room, while Susan and Luna linked arms and went to the Great Hall for breakfast, just like typical girls their age, only the combat clothing and weapons, Luna's long barrelled and scoped sniper rifle slung over one shoulder while Susan's MP10 hanging from a strap clipped to her vest, ruined the innocent image.
Harry stood at attention and snapped a salute, which she returned.
"How was the patrol?" Hermione asked, indicating he should walk with her as she started towards the Great Hall.
"Mostly uneventful. The Centaurs are on the alert. We encountered two of their patrols." Harry reported.
Hermione stopped, just short of the doors to the Great Hall.
"Two Patrols? Where?"
Harry pulled out his field map of the Forbidden Forrest, the clear plastic cover slightly dirty but the map was still clearly visible.
"First patrol was in Sector G9, grid square 42, 26. Right here. There were seven Centaurs. Frienze was one, and he told me the stars said something was coming. The second was in Sector F12, grid square 01, 65. That was only five Centaurs. One was only just past foal. She took a shot at Luna, but missed. When they saw who we were the apologised. Mirath, the one who took the shot, gave Luna one of her Clan badges as recompense. Luna is now allowed to any Clan Sandarth meetings she chooses to attend and will be welcome in Mirath's herd territory and village." Harry reported, before shaking his head in exhaustion and disbelief. "Luna liked it. She said she was either going to attach it to the stock of her L96A1 or her book bag. It's a toss up."
Hermione gave a slight smile as they finally entered the Great Hall.
"That's our Luna." She said.
Luna and Susan had joined Ron and Neville at the Order of the Griffin's table. The girls where animatedly describing the two encounters with the Centaurs. Hermione gave a headshake and a slight chuckle at the girls' antics. For some reason he could not understand, the way Hermione chuckled made Harry feel both sadness and a sense of loss.
The sun shone down on Hermione, the smell of the lake and grass filled her nose. She was resting with her head resting in Harry's lap, as he stroked her hair. An engagement ring on her hand but no wedding ring.
"You're losing him you know?" harry said.
She looked up into his eyes, her runners and jeans scraping the grass releasing the smell of chlorophyll. He was just how she remembered him… At age twenty.
"I know. But you must be safe." She replied.
"I'm not Harry." He replied. "This is only a dream."
Birds launched themselves off the lake as the sun touched the horizon over the water, bathing the area in a golden glow. Harry kept gently stroking her hair as they watched the water fowl do their evening areal dance.
"Can I keep you safe and not lose you?"
"You have to let Harry be Harry. And you need to figure out who you are." Harry replied.
Hermione nodded and lay still for a few minutes.
"I miss who he becomes." She said. "Can we pretend for a while?"
The Harry nodded and leaned down and kissed her. Then the world slipped away in a recollection of what was.
TBC…