The-Boy-From-The-Future

Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Harry Potter or other associated characters and ideas.

Chapter 4

"There's something…off about that new boy, you know, Professor Snape's nephew." Hermione Granger frowned as she neatly skewered a piece of fish and potato on the end of her fork.

"Wha' d'ou mea'?" asked Ron around a mouthful of salmon.

Hermione just shot him a patient look across the table and waited for him to finish chewing.

Ron swallowed and then repeated, "What do you mean? I mean, apart from him being related to the greasy git." Hermione thinned her lips for a moment before she deliberately turned her attention back to Harry.

"Well, for a start, he actually, well not quite defended you, but...he took the blame for the explosion in Potions this morning," started Hermione, clearly warming up for a long discussion. However, she was interrupted.

"Hermione," said Harry, "We've been through this, someone did chuck a daisy root into my cauldron, and it definitely came from Schwarz's direction. Maybe he just felt guilty for nearly killing the class?"

"Are you sure you didn't muck the potion up by yourself, Harry?" said Ron. At Harry's offended, "Hey!" he quickly added, "Well, maybe your hand slipped or something…"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "No, Harry definitely didn't make any mistakes; I checked it throughout the brewing process and it was perfect, so the explosion definitely wasn't Harry's fault. What I'm curious about is the reason for Schwarz to take the blame."

The three pondered her words in silence after that. But as they left the Hall, Harry swept his eyes over the Slytherin table and noticed that neither Schwarz nor Malfoy were there. He spotted Crabbe and Goyle quite easily, as well as Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, but there was no sign of either of the boys.

He shrugged internally, why did he care what either boy was up to?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Schwarz, I swear on Merlin and all my ancestors, Malfoy and Black, if you don't get this ridiculous hex off me-"

"Shush, Draco," said James distractedly. "I'm trying to remember the counter-curse, but it's a bit difficult with you whining all the time."

Although he looked as if he wanted to continue, the glare that Draco was sending his way was enough to stifle any further witty retorts.

"Well?" said Draco, after a few more minutes of impatient silence where James swished his wand in odd patterns.

James bit his bottom lip worriedly and glanced up at his new friend.

"Well, thing is, if it's right, then you go back to normal, no more polka dots or red and gold." He did not elaborate, so Draco was forced to ask, with forced patience, "And if it's wrong?"

"You get black and yellow stripes and since it's the only thing I can come up with at the moment…"

Draco stared incredulously at James before taking a deep, overly theatrical breath.

"Do it," he said, screwing his eyes up as if expecting a painful blow.

The next moment Draco felt a gentle tingling all over his body. He strained his ears to catch stifled sniggers but, not hearing anything for the next minute or so, he braced himself and cracked open an eye.

Black…sweet Salazar, I'm a Hufflepuff, he thought morosely until his brain processed the fact that the sleeve he was squinting at was entirely black and not at all punctuated by canary yellow.

His eyes flew open when he heard what sounded suspiciously like a muffled snort and he was met with the sight of a pained James Schwarz, who upon noticing Draco's annoyance, burst out into loud giggles.

"Oh Merlin, you actually thought I'd turn your robes…" another giggling fit cut him off.

Draco's eyes narrowed and he sniffed imperiously.

"Of course not, don't be silly, Schwarz. I had complete faith in your abilities."

James responded with a smirk and looked down at his wristwatch.

"Come on, Spots. Time for dinner," he said, getting up and moving towards the door.

"What do you mean, 'Spots'?" snapped Draco.

"Actually, we're late. No wonder I was feeling hungry," said James airily, striding confidently through the corridors towards the Great Hall and completely ignoring Draco.

"Schwarz," growled Draco threateningly.

James turned to respond with a cheeky smirk and walked straight into his father as he turned round the corner.

The two collided with a painful thud, and James leapt back, holding a hand up to his temple, partially mirroring Harry, who had an equally painful throbbing on the bridge of his nose.

"OW!" said Harry through his fingers. "Thab hurb'd."

James just glared at Harry as Ron and Hermione caught up. Upon seeing Harry with blood streaming through his fingers and two Slytherins on the scene, Ron whipped out his wand, Draco just a beat behind.

"Are you alright Harry?" asked a worried Hermione exactly at the same time that Ron muttered a spell under his breath, which he aimed at Draco, seeing as James was slumped against a wall with his head cradled between his hands.

Draco deflected the hex with a quick "Protego," and followed up with "Confundo." Ron ducked, the curse dissipating on the stone wall behind him and returned with "Expelliarmus."

However, at that exact moment, Draco shouted out the same spell and they were both hit at the same time; their wands flying out of their hands as they were thrown backwards to land painfully on their backs a few feet away.

"RON!" shouted both Harry and Hermione. Harry scrambled over, although he still held a hand over his bleeding nose, hot on Hermione's heels. James had also moved over to Draco's side, albeit slower than Hermione and Harry as he was still feeling woozy.

Fortunately, both Ron and Draco were only slightly stunned and had no serious injuries. Both found their wands and were quickly on their feet again.

Unfortunately, Professor Snape chose that very moment to make an appearance.

"Well, well, Potter. Brawling again, I see," he said, completely ignoring the fact that Ron and Draco had unsuccessfully tried to hide their wands. He sneered when he saw Harry's bloody nose. "You'd better get that nose seen to, Potter. Detention with Mr Filch tomorrow at seven. Oh, and thirty points from Gryffindor for instigating a fight in the corridor."

"That's completely unfair," blurted out Ron, before either Harry or Hermione could stop him. "It was Schwarz who started the whole thing, not Harry."

Snape's sneer disappeared and instead he looked murderous. "Twenty points for talking back to me, Weasley, and you can join Potter tomorrow evening."

Draco was smirking triumphantly at the three Gryffindors as he twirled his wand in his hand. However it disappeared when Professor Snape abandoned the usual script.

"And don't think I didn't notice you Schwarz. I'd have hoped that Mr Malfoy would be a good influence on you rather than the other way round. Though I suppose with your father that would have been too much to ask, wouldn't it?" said Snape nastily as he swept past the five, his gaze lingering significantly on Harry.

Once Snape was out of sight, James rolled his eyes at Draco and said, "Come on, let's go eat, then I need some headache stuff from Pomfrey."

Three pairs of eyes followed the two Slytherins as they walked away, one of the Slytherins completely dumbfounded. A heavy silence hung in the air. It was Hermione who broke the silence.

"I wonder who Professor Snape was talking about," she said slowly with a gleam in her eyes. Ron and Harry frowned at her, as they hadn't caught the significant look that Snape threw in Harry's direction.

"What do you mean Hermione?" he asked. And then in a strained voice as he touched his nose tenderly, he added, "And can you explain on the way to Madam Pomfrey?"

Hermione nodded.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Hermione didn't actually do much explaining on the walk to the hospital wing. In the end, she found herself examining theories in her mind and discarding them one by one until she was left with the most plausible theory.

Harry and Ron had noticed her reluctance to share the half thought-through idea, and so the short journey was instead filled with Ron's descriptions of Fred and George's new products.

However, once they left the hospital wing, Harry's nose perfectly mended with the tap of a wand, Hermione reached a conclusion. To the aggravation of her two best friends, she refused to talk to them in the corridors and insisted on returning to Gryffindor Tower before she would say anything.

The Common Room was nearly full, but the three managed to find a squashy sofa and some large cushions by the fireplace.

"Alright, I know this sounds completely crazy, but well, at first when Professor Snape made all those snide remarks about Schwarz's father, I assumed it was some sort of family feud, Schwarz being his nephew and all." The others nodded.

"But the thing is, Professor Snape doesn't have any siblings, according to Lavender." At the smiles playing on Harry and Ron's lips, she hastily added, "And Seamus and Neville."

"Oh." There was a short pause.

"Maybe it's his cousin's son," said Ron in a surprisingly reasonable tone.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I thought about that too, and actually, that's how I originally thought they were related. But then just now in the corridor, when he started making all those snide remarks about fathers and such, he looked straight at Harry. Almost as if he were talking about Harry or someone close to him."

Now it was Harry's turn to shake his head. "He always taunts me about my dad, Hermione. It's not a new thing."

Hermione was however, adamant that she was right. "No, the thing is, I think he was talking about Schwarz's father. I'm also fairly certain that Schwarz is not really his nephew. I noticed him staring at you when he was talking about Schwarz's father, Harry-"

"Hermione, are you trying to imply that Harry has a long-lost twin brother or something?" said Ron, half-laughing.

"No, Ron. Look, do either of you know any German?"

"Umm…no, Hermione. And why are you changing the subject?"

"I'm not changing the subject. I'm taking a very logical route," said Hermione.

Her two friends looked at her sceptically.

"Schwarz is a colour…Harry, didn't you do a modern language in primary school?"

"Erm, yes. French, in Year 6."

"Oh…alright then. Anyway, as I was saying, 'schwarz' is the colour black in German."

However, she was met with blank stares.

"Oh, honestly; who did Professor Snape absolutely hate while he was in school?"

"Well, my dad, Prof - Remus, Sirius -"

Harry's eyes widened in tandem with Ron's.

"Sirius Black," they said.

Hermione nodded triumphantly.

Right, this chapter's shockingly short, but there have been difficulties trying to plan out the rest of it, and then when it came to writing it, everything seemed so stilted. Hopefully it's readable, and the next chapter will be longer and of better quality.

Thanks for reading and please review!