Never Alone
The Many Faces of Alan Rickman
Cnorth
Disclaimer: All HP characters belong to JKR. Alan Rickman belongs to himself. His various characters belong to their various people. You get the picture.
A/N: First of all, sorry for the long wait, again. I moved out of my mom's house, and it took me a while to get settled in, plus I couldn't afford internet right away. So, now that I have it back, I can post all that I got done, which is a good bit. I know a lot of you are confused about how time has changed so much when they have only been back in time for less than an hour. You will find out in this chapter. Also you will find out who Queen Robin is. Oh, yeah, and then I moved back into my moms house. Go figure.
Dumbledore eventually decided it would be best for each of the girls to join the house they had been sorted into in the future, leaving Sam alone with Lucius and Severus, since Draco had wandered off to the Quidditch pitch to think. She engaged the two in conversation, and quickly found out that neither one had any wish to support Pettigrew. Now all she had to do was engineer the man's escape, so that she could overthrow him and establish a base of power in this time. She already knew that Blaise was going to disable the time machine beyond repair, stranding her and her friends in this time, so she could begin immediately without fear of being whisked back into her own time. 'I'll call myself Robin, I think. After all, I was never fond of Bluebird, like that idiot nicknamed me, but I do like the thought of keeping a bird name.' She smiled inwardly, and slid out the portrait hole to the hallway in front of the Slytherin common room, casting a disillusionment charm on herself, shivering as the feeling of eggs breaking over her head washed her in a sense of security. Now she could begin her plan.
Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common room, the remainder of the girls were getting to know the Marauders, and Harry was watching his father closely. No matter what he knew about him, his perceptions were being changed by the second. James was very good at keeping people off balance, and though he didn't know that Harry was his son, it seemed like he suspected something of the sort, since every now and then their eyes would meet and James could clearly see the longing and sorrow in the boy's eyes. Hollie and Stacy were pestering Remus and Sirius, trying to convince the two to part with a few prank secrets, and Lori was getting the abridged history of Tom Riddle in this timeline. What it basically came across to her as was this: Tom Riddle isn't Voldemort because someone spelled the sorting hat to put him into Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin, and he made friends better there and wasn't forced to be a loner due to being a halfblood. He also fell in love with one of his housemates, and they married, but she died in childbirth and he came back to Hogwarts to teach. While this still didn't make complete sense to her, seeing as Riddle had been on the path to evil even before he entered Hogwarts (not to mention that, so far as she knew, no one else had come back in time this far), she continued listening, in hopes of learning something that might explain these discrepancies.
The two were deep in conversation when a witch in a painting walked by, and then walked by again, going in the same direction both times. Lori frowned, her sci-fi senses tingling.
"There's a glitch in the matrix, guys," she commented to Hollie and Stacy, leaving Lily in the lurch. The pranksters looked up, the boys confused and the girls suspicious.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked, not knowing what the phrase meant, since the movie obviously hadn't come out yet.
"We'll explain later," Hollie murmured, before dashing out the portrait hole to be followed by Lori and Stacy. Glaring after them, Harry followed. If they found a way back to their own time, he wanted to be with them, James or no. He wasn't about to be stranded here, even if he did get to know his parents better that way. Running through the halls of Hogwarts, he caught up with the three girls just in time to see Professor McGonagall walk around the same corner twice. His eyes widened, and he quickly got the gist of what the pranksters had been discussing with Lori, who for an American was a rather decent sort, even in Harry's slightly suspicious eyes.
Courtney zoomed around the corner from the Gryffindor common room, trying to find Jenny and Chelli. Being a creature of magic herself, she was unaffected by whatever effect the time machine had, and given what was going on, she thought it fairly safe to say that, this was some pretty major stuff. Her hopes were that those two would also be immune, or if not immune, then susceptible to remembering if she used her powers to draw them outside of the paradox, by briefly decreasing their sensitivity to magic. While Lori was oblivious to it, Courtney was well aware that Jenny and Chelli had indeed used Jenny's power over time and space many times over the year, other than just the time when Jenny got Hollie the Queen concert for Christmas. What she didn't know for sure, however, was how much of this current mess was due to the two being unable to grasp the seriousness of meddling with the past.
Unfortunately, the Harry Potter who was in this universe didn't have the Marauder's Map, and the Weasley twins, who had possessed the map last, had taken it with them when they left Hogwarts, stating that it was too dangerous to let the latest generation of pranksters have it, since they were likely to blow up the whole damn castle. So, she was on her own when it came to searching the castle high and low. She had thought about enlisting a teacher's help under some bogus cause, but was certain that somehow or other that plan would backfire on her. Especially if she had asked Professor Snape…she wasn't sure why, but the man truly disliked her, more than he seemed to dislike any of the other students, including Harry, whose father had tormented the man throughout his teen years. Maybe he somehow sensed how he had been completely outfoxed the night of Hollie and Stacy's spell gone awry, and that his favorite and least favorite student had ended up making out on his desk. Who knows. But the older man definitely had it in for her.
She groaned as he rounded the corner ahead of her, muttering under her breath. Unfortunately, she still didn't have control over her extremely volatile magic, and with a flash, the angel Metatron and Marvin the personality prototype android were in front of her as well, and the sound of a horse closing on her from behind made her fairly certain that Colonel Brandon was also present.
"Great, this is SO just what I needed right now," she said, irritated. The four looked curiously at each other, unable to make heads or tails of their similar appearances (except of course Marvin, who just had a remarkably similar voice to the others). Courtney took full advantage of this to grab the point of view gun from the depressed robot and dash away in a flurry of "Ohshitthisisgonnabegood!" feeling.
Sam approached the tower where Peter Pettigrew was being held with caution, glowing with the success of the conversation she had just had with Lucius Malfoy, assuring he would never turn to the dark side. She definitely didn't want that…if he was evil, he would be too likely to try and challenge her power, especially now when she didn't have enough to influence policy like she truly wanted.
The tower was, of course, well guarded, but knowing that witches and wizards in this time were even less familiar with muggle tactics than the ones from her time (who still were incredibly dim), she threw a can of knockout gas (conjured by a spell she made up on the spot) around the corner, and was soon able to reach the door.
One quick "alohamora" later, Pettigrew was escaping, none the wiser to the fact that the guards hadn't just fallen asleep with the door unlocked. Sam followed from a discreet distance. If she worked things out just right, she should be able to get the credit for his defeat, and all of that power would be hers! Unfortunately, she would have to wait a little while at least, or no one would even realize the imbecile had escaped in the first place. And then, her reign would begin at last…
When the news of the escape reached the other girls, there was a major level of suspicion among them. It was weird enough that they had somehow come back to a past where Tom Riddle not only wasn't a dark lord, but to a world where Peter Pettigrew was…but this? That slimy scumbag could never have managed an escape on his own…I mean, yeah, he escaped from Sirius and Remus in Harry's third year, but this time there wasn't a werewolf trying to kill people distracting anyone. And when the canister of knockout gas was found and identified by none other than Lily, they didn't know what to think. Who would willingly break a dark lord out of jail? From what she had gathered, Pettigrew didn't have all that much of a following-clearly even those who would have turned under Riddle had more sense than to listen to that coward. Sam, of course, played along with the surprise and shock of her friends, managing to pull off her ditziest attitude without drawing any attention outside of Lori rolling her eyes. And when she took off that night, of course there was no one to say anything to her about it, since she was in the Slytherin dorms and safely away from the other girls.
Slipping on a heavy black velvet cloak, she blended herself into the shadows as she snuck quietly into the forest. A hooded figure awaited her there, Zabini's father, as it happened. Like his son, he was useful, but couldn't be trusted far. Having already graduated from Hogwarts, he didn't know anything about her, and as far as he knew, her name was Robin. Hardly anyone was fond of the idea of that weakling being a power in the wizarding world, so Sam found it no surprise that even evil wizards (not to be confused with dark wizards, who really aren't all bad (see entry for Malfoy, Draco…yummy)) were willing to join the cause of forming a new power base in this world.
Shortly thereafter, Pettigrew found himself surrounded in the middle of a café in Paris where he had apparated, afraid to stay in Britain. Sam (or Robin, whichever) cast a few light hexes to ensure he didn't escape, and then called the aurors, her cronies popping away just as the law enforcement began popping in. She smiled to herself. She was currently layered in disguise spells, looking like a 20-something sultry brunette with a slight similarity to Idina Menzel (from Wicked and Rent, of course). She allowed herself to be photographed as the aurors took their charge away, and sure enough, after apparating out mysteriously (using a borderline dark charm to conceal her destination), and returning to the school for the next two days of classes, she began reading in The Daily Prophet how quite a few people were wanting this mysterious and powerful witch to become the new Minister of Magic. Not entirely satisfied, she waited until a crisis arose with the current minister, then stepped in and handled it neatly. Of course, she did create the crisis herself, but who was to know? Soon they would all be so completely under her spell (metaphorically) that they would even depose the Queen of England so that she might sit on a throne worthy of her.
Back in the slightly-revised present, all hell was breaking loose. Colonel Brandon and Snape were dueling, wand to sword, while Metatron and Marvin looked on in undisguised nonchalance. After all, what should they care? It's not like they were the same person or anything.
Courtney, meanwhile, had finally found Jenny and Chelli, and hoping to fix her error, had dragged the girls to the four-part free-for-all. Jenny tried her magic, but apparently this was outside her grasp. Chelli, however, being the bright yet subtle girl that she was, had a better idea. She quickly explained the situation to Metatron, who used his angelic abilities to, shall we say, tamper, with the other mens memories, and send them on their way. He then disappeared, a very disturbing Dumbledore-ish twinkle in his eyes.
"That," said Chelli, "is a look I never want to see on a Snape-ish face again," and the other girls giggled and nodded. "What was it you wanted to see us about, Courtney?" she asked the pink haired mischief maker.
"Well, you see…this isn't the real timeline. It's messed up!" Courtney blurted, her concern for the bad situation overwhelming her 'tact and diplomacy' mode.
"Whaddya mean, messed up? Things have never been better! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, THE HILLS ARE ALIVE…WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!" Chelli caroled, in complete seriousness. Jenny looked on in amazement, before turning to Courtney, and nodding.
"I see what you mean. How do we fix this?" Her eyes told the other girl that she too remembered at least part of what was going on here, and even someone who had only known Chelli for a day in their own universe, much less been her best friend for years like Jenny had, knew that this perkiness and happy-go-lucky attitude were not normal. Sure, she could occasionally manage perky, but even then, it was tainted with her air of sarcasm, or a seeming of knowledge above and beyond what she was supposed to know. Never this bumbling, bright, airhead act that they were seeing before them. This was just too surreal, almost like the Utopia episodes of Charmed where you could get erased from the world for arguing. They quickly sent the other girl off on a random research project about alternate universes, and then headed off to find Joe. Between the three of them, Courtney was sure they could get to the bottom of things.