School...evil school. Evil writer's block too. I had a hard time getting started on this chapter. But I got it written...eventually. While I was trying to think of what to write for this, my mind kept on wandering to the world of Harry Potter and I found out something that may have some significance! (Watch it have absolutely NOTHING to do with Deathly Hallows once it comes out)
In Harry's second year, Tom Marvolo Riddle (VOLDY!) was 16 years old 50 years before. So Voldemort was 66 in Harry's second year. So when Harry finally battles Voldemort for the last time in the seventh book, Harry will be 17 and Voldemort will be 71. The numbers in their ages are the same, just reversed! Coincidence? I think not! (Or maybe it is)
Okay, enough with this random stuff. Time for the story...
-opungo
"Back inside the Room of Requirement, now!" Hermione hissed. She set off at a brisk pace down the corridor, Harry and Ron tripping over their robes to try and keep up with her.
They almost collided with her when she suddenly stopped in front of the entrance to the Room. She paced back and forth, a mixture of fury and disbelief on her face. When the door finally reappeared again, Hermione seized Ron and Harry by the front of their robes and shoved them inside.
They hardly had a chance to register that the room had become the D.A. headquarters again, when Hermione snapped the door shut and turned to face the two of them with her hands on her hips. Harry was strongly reminded of Mrs. Weasley.
"Which one of you did it?" Hermione demanded. Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances.
"Did what?" Ron asked.
"Did, whatever just happened to us…sent us to wherever we are-I…I can't explain. All I know is that we've traveled through time again. You saw what it was like outside the window. It was sunny, daytime, and it's a different season. Which one of you did it?" Hermione demanded for a second time.
Harry and Ron racked their brains in silence. Then a look of comprehensive horror dawned on Ron's face. Ron gulped and bravely muttered to a very livid Hermione, "I think it might've been me."
Hermione just stared at Ron, unblinking. Harry had the impression that she was trying her best not to curse or yell at the top of her lungs at Ron.
"Where…did…you send us?" Hermione asked slowly.
"The future."
"You WHAT?"
Harry leaped back in alarm. The way Hermione had just yelled seemed like a Fillbuster Firework had been set off.
"…I CAN'T BELIVE YOU RON…OF ALL THE IRREPSONSIBLE THINGS FOR YOU TO DO…DUMBLEDORE TOLD US SPECIFICALLY NOT TO MEDDLE WITH TIME!"
"HERMIONE!" Harry cut in. "We need to figure out a plan."
"Plan?" Hermione said shrilly. "I intend for us to go back to the past! That's the plan!"
"If you remember my story Hermione, I couldn't go back until I actually fulfilled my wish. It'll probably be the same for us. Ron, what exactly was your wish again?"
Ron sighed and said, "I just wanted for the three of us to go twenty years in to Hogwarts future. I just wanted to see how different Hogwarts was."
Hermione paced the room back and forth, deep in thought about the situation at hand. Finally she turned to them and said, "We're going to disguise ourselves."
"How?" Ron asked. Hermione looked at him as if he had just asked for the most obvious answer in the world.
"I know spells to change your appearance," she answered. "It's very simple. For me anyway." Hermione pulled out her wand and seemed to be thinking of what she should do to Ron and Harry to make them indistinguishable.
"Hermione, why do we have to disguise ourselves?" Harry asked.
"What if we have kids attending Hogwarts at this time?" Hermione demanded. "What if all of Ron's siblings got married and had kids? We can't risk having them recognize us."
Suddenly and swiftly she rapped Harry on the head with her wand. He thought she was trying to Disillusion him, but he didn't feel the same sensation. Instead it felt like the hair on his head was moving about rapidly as if it had become alive and his eyes kept going in and out of focus. He also felt as if he was unwillingly pulling faces.
"You look weird with blonde hair, mate," Ron said when the sensation had passed. Harry wished for a mirror and one appeared by his feet. When he picked it up and examined his reflection, it was not his own. He was completely indistinguishable from the normal messy black hair and green eyes. He now had dishwater blonde hair, brown eyes, his nose was slightly longer than normal, and his ears stuck out some.
"Did you have to make my ears stick out, Hermione?" Harry demanded. Even his voice sounded different.
She didn't answer. Instead she rapped Ron and herself on the head. Harry watched as their appearance changed before his eyes. Ron's hair changed to brown, some of his freckles disappeared, and his big hands and feet seemed to be more proportionate to him.
Hermione gave herself straight dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, and Harry swore she grew at least half an inch. They all looked perplexed at each other. It was strange to see themselves like this.
"What now?" Harry asked.
"We go to the Headmaster's or Headmistress's office and say we're new students," Hermione said simply, her voice slightly higher than normal. "I'll do the talking, you two can just sit there and talk when it's appropriate." Three sheets of parchment appeared and Hermione tapped each of them with her wand, making words and lines appear on them. Fake records and grades, Harry guessed.
"We'll need to find someone that might know the password," Hermione said uncertainly, removing her Hogwarts robe. Harry and Ron did the same. "Let's go." She pulled the door of the Room of Requirement open. Harry and Ron quickly followed her out and through the school to Dumbledore's office.
They didn't meet any students on the way. They guessed they were either in lessons or it was a weekend and they were in their common rooms. One student however, didn't seem to be and they accidentally rammed in to her while turning a corner.
"Sorry," all three of them apologized at once. Harry knew almost at once that apologizing wouldn't help them very much: there was a Prefect's badge on the girl's robes.
"Who are you three? I don't remember seeing you around here," the Prefect girl demanded. She had her hands on her hips and looked quite bossy and pompous. All this combined with her curly red hair made Harry think of one thing: she was a Weasley.
"We're new," Hermione said at once. "We were just trying to find the…the…"
"The Headmistress?" the Prefect girl finished. "I can show you to her office and give you the password. Follow me." Looking very important, the girl set off down the corridor, behind tapestries, and up staircases until they finally reached the gargoyle to Dumbledore's office.
She said Headmistress, Dumbledore's not the Headmaster anymore, Harry reminded himself.
"Wattle bird," the Prefect girl said. The gargoyle immediately sprang to life and leapt aside to reveal a revolving staircase leading upwards. "Just straight up the stairs. Her name's McGonagall. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to patrolling the corridors. Students act so immature on weekend. I'll never understand it." Shaking her head, the Prefect girl walked down the corridor, leaving Ron, Harry, and Hermione to leap on the revolving staircase.
"She's a relative of mine, I'm sure of it," Ron said when they were on the staircase. A look of disbelief came on his face. "No-I don't believe it! I think that poor kid is Percy's!"
Harry stifled his sniggers as Hermione knocked on the door. "Enter," came McGonagall's voice from within. She was sitting at Dumbledore's old desk, writing something on a piece of parchment. She stopped, however when she saw the three.
"Hello," Hermione said nervously. "We're new students."
"Names?" McGonagall asked.
"I'm Helen Grant," she said at once. Hermione must've been thinking of names since she had disguised them. "These two are Henry Perkins and Robert Williams."
McGonagall nodded and with a wave of her wand, three chairs appeared in front of her desk. They all sat down in a chair, trying to look as if they had never seen her before in their lives.
"Here are some papers from our old school that should explain what our grades are and other information you might find necessary."
McGonagall examined all three of them for a minute.
"Everything seems to be in order," she said placing the papers aside. "Now just to sort you in to the houses. There are four: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."
McGonagall walked over to the shelf and picked up the old and battered Sorting Hat and placed it on Hermione's head. Harry saw her gripping the arms of her chair very tightly. After a minute the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry jumped. The hat seemed a lot louder in Dumbledore's office. McGonagall took the hat off and placed it on Ron's head. Harry now understood why Hermione had been gripping the chair so tightly, she was probably pleading that she be put in Gryffindor again. Ron, appeared to be doing the same.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted. Ron looked relieved as the hat was taken on his head and placed on to Harry's.
You're name isn't Henry Perkins. You're friends have already revealed their secret to me. Now, where to put you? Same house as last time?
Yes, Harry thought to himself. Please put me in Gryffindor.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat shouted.
"Tell me what subjects you're taking," McGonagall said. "and I'll show you where Gryffindor tower is."