Desiring Other Times

Chapter 17 – Tribulations

Disclaimer:

Tin Woodsman: If only I had a heart!

Scarecrow: If only I had a brain!

Cowardly Lion: If only I had courage!

Me: If only I owned Harry Potter!

All: But we don't!

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I may not have been alive for very long, so I can't really say dramatic things like 'All my life…' or 'When I was young…' Why is it that you need to be old to be dramatic?

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"This is the end, Boy-Who-Lived." Crabbe intoned rather dramatically, and swiped at me, his swinging arm and fist glowing blue. The corona of azure blurred his arm, and I realised in a split second that he was getting faster.

I ducked, and his arm swiped at the tips of my hair, and we all stood there shocked as several locks of gold-tipped brown hair floated through the air and gently fell to the floor. Well, all of us except Crabbe, that is.

"My hair!" My hands instinctively reached upwards to where I knew would be a practically flat cut, and I only just dodged in time to evade Crabbe's next swing, this time at my torso.

"Fuck your hair, Jeremy! Just hit him!" Neville tried to sweep Crabbe's legs from under him, but Crabbe barely budged.

The door slid open, and Ginny and Luna stood there. Luna was rifling through her Quibbler, and was (for some odd) reason ripping out the pages. When half the pages had been removed, she reached into the magazine, and pulled out…

A hammer. A giant sized hammer. A giant metal hammer, the sort you see in cartoons like the one Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner were in.

Somehow, she managed to lift the hammer up above her head, and was in the process of bring it down again, this time onto Crabbe's head, when he dashed at her, intent on incapacitating her before she could attack.

"Unf!" Neville tackled Crabbe, but Crabbe continued to move on, dragging Neville along. Ginny and Ron also tackled him, and I kicked at Crabbe, aiming at the base of his spine.

Crabbe continued to move too fast for me to kick him (he just managed to avoid my foot by a few millimetres), and even the added weight of Ginny, Ron and Neville couldn't stop him. Pulling a fist back, we watched in almost slow motion as the hammer's head came down, down, down and his fist pulling back, back, back.

"Just what is going on here!" A rather officious voice demanded.

WHAM! The hammer made contact, and Crabbe crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Fighting on the train!" Cho Chang was horrified. "That's it, I'm speaking to your Head of House-"

"Cho, he was going to kill us." Ginny lifted up Crabbe's arm, the one with the torque wrapped about it.

"I don't see how one third year could manage to kill three third years and two second years." Despite what she said, Cho stepped into the cramped compartment to have a closer look at the torque.

"It sucked the magic out of the air, Cho." Ron got up from under Crabbe. "We couldn't use magic, and somehow, I don't know…"

"…somehow, that… that whatever it is, um…" I ran a hand through my hair, and experienced a moment of severe disorientation when my fingers suddenly passed into air a whole lot sooner than they should have. Then I remembered how Crabbe had given me an impromptu haircut. "Look at this. My hair, it wasn't like this. And he like, I don't know, swung his arm and I ducked and his arm you know, it was glowing and it fricking cut my hair!" A little frantic that my haircut was now ruined, I babbled on. "And when it was sucking in magic, those eyes there," I pointed at the snake's head. "They glowed green, but then when he started punching at us, they glowed blue and so did his arms."

Cho paled. "His arm did that to your hair?"

I nodded.

"Well…" A moment of hesitation, but then Cho moved to ease the torque off of Crabbe's arm. She conjured a bag, placed the torque in it, then bound Crabbe up. "I… I suppose he may have been trying to kill you." She conceded.

Coincidentally, the train slowed to a stop. Cho craned her neck to peer out the window. "Ah, we're there. Come with me." She flicked her wand and Crabbe floated into the air. We exited the train, with many of the other students wondering why one of the Slytherins was bound up.

Goyle elbowed his way through the crowd, and stood before Cho, growling a little. "Just why have you got him tied up?"

Some people gasped when they realised Goyle had put together a sentence. That made sense. But our little group of five had already been shocked enough that we merely accepted it.

"I am taking him to the Headmaster. He is to be charged with attempted murder." She added when Goyle didn't move. More students gasped, and some pointed outright at me, gossiping already.

Goyle seemed ready to lash out, but Montague appeared at his shoulder and placed a restraining hand on his shoulder. He shook his head, and the two disappeared back into the crowd. Cho went to tell Hagrid about Crabbe, and he sighed, shaking his head a little grimly. Then he pulled out a wand, pointed it in the direction of the castle, and murmured something. A silvery bolt of light shot out of the wand and disappeared through the trees.

A lot of things had happened in the last few years – when Draco and the Basilisk had been, well, for lack of a better way of putting it, blown up, the Diary he had been carrying had somehow escaped unscathed. Dumbledore had gotten a look at it, and word had spread that it was a Horcrux, for one Tom Marvolo Riddle. The Soul Magic in the book had protected it from the Soul Magic of the failed (well, not failed but double-edged) attack Harry had performed, and all sorts of red tape and bureaucracy had to be waded through until they had managed to prove that Hagrid hadn't been the one that opened the Chamber of Secrets more than half a century ago. Apparently, Hagrid had been given holiday classes to teach him all that he had been unfairly denied.

It was a quiet trip back to the castle, sitting in the gently swaying carriages. When we alighted from the carriages, Cho beckoned us to her, and we followed her. McGonagall was waiting, her face locked into a stone mask. "The Headmaster is waiting," was all she said.

We hurried after her, arrived in front of the stone gargoyle, ascended the stairs and entered Dumbledore's office.

"Mr Potter, Mr and Miss Weasley, Mr Longbottom, Miss Lovegood, Miss Chang…" he murmured from his seat behind the table. "…and Mr Crabbe."

"Prefect Chang, do tell us what occurred." McGonagall stood behind Dumbledore, and waited patiently.

"I was on patrol when I heard swearing and the sounds of a scuffle. I entered their compartment and found Luna Lovegood about to hit Vincent Crabbe with a hammer, Vincent Crabbe about to hit her, Ronald and Ginevra Weasley and Neville Longbottom hanging on to him and Jeremy Potter behind Vincent Crabbe."

"…was there anything particularly strange about the scene?"

Cho paused. "Vincent Crabbe's body was outlined in a blue light. And some hair was strewn about the room." She added, almost on afterthought. The professors glanced at my hair.

"Mine," I conceded ruefully.

"Mr Potter, perhaps you can tell us what happened."

"Well… um… The three of us, Neville, Ron and I, we were in the compartment changing. Well, we'd finished, but yeah. And then Crabbe came in, and he did something weird, lifted his arm, and the snake-"

"What snake, Mr Potter?"

"Oh, this." Cho opened the bag and dropped the torque onto Dumbledore's desk.

Dumbledore's eyes widened as he realised what it was.

"Well, that snake, and um… the eyes? They glowed green and all the magic in the room got sucked in or something, so we had to put our wands away."

"How did you know it siphons off magic, Mr Potter?"

"Er…" I hemmed and hawed for a bit. "Um, well, before, when they were in the compartment with us-" I gestured at Ginny and Luna. "-it was kinda crowded, so I expanded the space. When he did whatever it was, the room shrank again."

"Mr Potter! Performing magic-" McGonagall was interrupted by Dumbledore.

"Minerva, I do believe that the holidays have ended. The rules only state that they can only perform magic during the term. Technically…" he trailed off and McGonagall's lips tightened into a thin line, although she seemed a little relieved.

Dumbledore turned to look at me again. "Do continue, Mr Potter."

"Well, he said something like 'This is the end' or something like that, and he swung his arm-" I imitated what Crabbe had down. "-and his arm was glowing blue, and so were the snake's eyes. I managed to duck, but well, I kinda didn't duck low enough and got myself a haircut."

"Ah. That would happen, considering…" Dumbledore prodded the torque with a thin pointing rod – not a wand, just a thin stick like a conductor's baton. "And…?" he prompted.

"Well, I don't remember what everyone was shouting, but Crabbe kept trying to hit me, and so Ron and Neville and I tried to well… um… beat him up? But yeah, we couldn't even stop him or anything, and then the girls came in and Luna did something weird and the hammer came out and then… um… Crabbe tried to go for her, so the rest of us tackled him and I tried to kick him, but I missed. Then Cho came in and Luna hit him with the hammer."

"Hammer, Miss Lovegood? How did you come by a hammer?" Dumbledore looked curiously at Luna.

"It was a giant hammer," added Cho.

"A giant hammer," he amended.

Luna held up the rather mutilated Quibbler as answer. McGonagall rolled her eyes, and Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Ingenious. Hiding a tool of defence within a magazine."

"Of course – a giant hammer from the astral plane is the only tool capable of stunning a Crumple Horned Snorkack, after all." Luna stated rather matter-of-factly and the rest of us blinked, then decided that any further comment on the matter would lead to us being confused.

"I see… Well, this-" Dumbledore lifted the torque with the thin rod. "-is a Dark Object, one that removes magic from the surroundings and gives the wearer certain… abilities, so to speak. I'm afraid that Mr Crabbe here will be expelled and charged with… what was it? Possession and use of a Dark Object, and Attempted Murder. Five of the latter, yes." He stood up, went to the fireplace and flung some Floo Powder in the fire.

"Cornelius Fudge!" He cried. "Your presence is requested immediately."

He stepped back, and then a spinning figure appeared in the fire, getting larger and larger until a full size Cornelius Fudge stepped out of the fire (not that he was very big to begin with).

"Albus? What is it I can do for you?"

"This boy here," Dumbledore pointed at Crabbe. "Has attempted to kill five other students with the use of a rather illegal Dark Object." He brandished the torque and hung it in front of Fudge.

"K… kill?" Fudge whirled about and spotted me. "Jeremy Potter? Oh dear…" He swung about, grabbed some Floo Powder, then hesitated. "May I?" Dumbledore nodded.

A few seconds later, a troop of Aurors appeared in the office, and they all took our statements, a copy of our memories of the event, and then they took Crabbe away, but not before they snapped his wand.

"Rest assured that he won't be coming out of Azkaban anytime soon, Albus. Attacking Jeremy Potter…" the last Fudge muttered under his breath. "I'll be going now, to ensure he gets a very uncomfortable cell."

Dumbledore instructed McGonagall to take us to her office, where she activated a plate and a jug that would be connected to the kitchens. The six of us (including Cho) sat there, eating sandwiches and drinking pumpkin juice.

"Why do you think he tried to kill you?" Cho asked. "I mean, I know you're Jeremy Potter and practically all the Slytherins hate you by default because of that, but… seriously, kill you?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he thought he could get away with it. And weren't you surprised that Goyle could put together a whole sentence? Crabbe could too, and boy…"

She nodded slowly. "I suppose… but he's what, thirteen? I had no idea a thirteen year-old could-"

Ron snorted. "Well, Draco Malfoy murdered twenty-seven people in his first year… wouldn't put it past one of his flunkies to be as homicidal as him."

Luna peered at us from over her copy of the Quibbler – somehow or other, she'd gotten her hands on a new copy. "Perhaps there's an infestation of Loopy Cranium Heckulls in the Slytherin dorms…"

"Loopy Cranium Heckulls?" Ginny stared incredulously at Luna.

"Loopy Cranium Heckulls," repeated Luna. "Each particular clan affects their victim's behaviour in a certain manner. Perhaps the clan that have built up their nest in the Slytherin dorms causes them to be homicidal?"

The rest of us just shook our heads and looked away. "Wish we could've gone to the Great Hall though, better food and all."

Cho rolled her eyes. "Not likely – they wouldn't want us turning up in the middle of the Sorting Ceremony or Dumbledore's speech. Bad impression and all."

"Still…"

McGonagall appeared again. "I have a message from the Headmaster," she declared, and we all sat up. "Unfortunately, Inter-House Quidditch will be cancelled-"

"What?" I shot up out of my seat, as did Cho.

"Allow me to finish!" thundered McGonagall. We sat down again. "Now, as I was saying, there will be no Quidditch this year because another, more important year-long tournament will be occurring." She looked about her as if checking for eavesdroppers. "Instead, the Triwizard Tournament will be held right here at Hogwarts!" She declared, although her cheer seemed a little forced.

"The Triwizard Tournament? As in the one that got discontinued because a Basilisk accidentally killed the judges?" I deadpanned, a little incredulous.

She paled. "Um, yes, but there won't be any Basilisks this time round. There is an age-restriction, as it is – only those that are seventeen or older may participate."

"Whaaat? But I wanted to enter it…" Ron grumbled a little but we could tell he wasn't really all that serious. The Triwizard Tournament – even if they hadn't been staged for a great many years – was renowned for the perils involved.

"So what schools are coming?" asked Cho.

"Well, we were inviting Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, but it seems Durmstrang seemed a little unwilling to participate this time round…"

Neville sighed and shifted in his seat. "Probably because this school has a record of either making or breaking Dark Lords…" he muttered. "Considering Durmstrang's a bit of a Dark school…"

"Mr Longbottom, gossip is not encouraged at this school."

He shrugged.

"As I was saying, Durmstrang will not be coming this year. In their place will be…" She turned to regard Ron, Neville, Ginny, Luna and I with a more enthusiastic smile. "…Washington State Wizarding and Witchcraft Academy! I hear that Miss Granger, as well as several other underage students will be accompanying their nominated contestants. Beauxbatons is also bringing along a few of their juniors," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"Really? Hermione's coming back to Hogwarts?" Ron half-shouted, quite excited.

"Yes, Mr Weasley. Now, if you could please refrain from shouting…"

"Sorry," he muttered.

McGonagall glanced at the clock on the wall. "Well, if you've had enough, it's time for you to go back to your dorms." Cho nodded and she left with Luna, while we waited for Ron to grab a few more sandwiches 'for the road', or so he said.

When Cho had gone, McGonagall turned to the remaining four of us. "The password is 'Secretus Objectum'." We nodded and then left, hurrying towards Gryffindor Tower.

When we entered the common room, we noticed that nobody was there. "We must be early," murmured Neville. The fireplaces lit themselves as we entered, as did the candles in the chandeliers.

"Well, good night." I said to Ginny.

"You too."

The three of us (Neville, Ron and I) ascended the stairs to the fourth landing.

"Ah… nice… soft… bed…" I collapsed onto my bed.

"Heh, you got that right." Ron lay on his bed, leaning against his pillow, eating his last sandwich.

Neville looked up at the both of us from where he was kneeling next to his trunk. "Honestly, Ron, eating in bed? You'll attract rats like that, if you aren't careful."

Ron shrugged. "The house elves clean it up, so it's all cool."

"Yeah, but you have to sleep in the crumbs for a night. And what if that's all it takes for rats and cockroaches to turn up?" Neville was disgusted, as was I.

"Well, your choice. I for one am warding my things." Neville pulled out from his trunk a small glass tank, which seemed to be full of some sort of tentacle-like weed that gyrated in the water. He placed the tank on the windowsill that was behind his four-poster. He looked at the arrangement, then took down the tank, tapped the windowsill and applied a Space Stretching charm. Neville then put the tank back on the enlarged windowsill, hopped off of his bed and began pulling out more tanks from his trunk.

"Gran told me that if I could keep all of these plants alive – and breed them, if possible – for the entire of the year, then she'd let me get a glasshouse for myself." He sighed happily, then pulled out of his pocket a smaller plant. "Mimbulus mimbletonia," he informed us rather proudly. "Great Uncle Algie got it shipped in for me from one of his friends in Assyria. Apparently it's really rare, so I'm going to try and breed it. I'm going to see if Professor Sprout's got any tips, and maybe I could grow it for extra credit next year."

"Ah. That's… interesting." I said diplomatically. It was a particularly repulsive looking plant – for some reason, almost all magical plants were like that – and its capabilities were rather… distasteful.

"Does it do anything?" Asked Ron, in an attempt to seem interested in Neville's favourite pastime, Herbology.

"Of course! It's got this amazing defence mechanism. Do any of you have a quill? I'll show you-"

"Er, actually, Neville? I'd rather if you did it if it was uh… inside of a tank." I suggested, and he frowned in thought.

"Oh, whoops. I suppose that is an intelligent thing to do." He lowered the Mimbulus mimbletonia into a tank, put a quill in and sealed the tank. Neville picked up his wand, pointed it at the quill, and used a Moving spell to make it jab the plant.

Liquid spurted from every boil on the plant, thick, dark-green liquid that splashed against the sides of the tank rather violently. From the outside, it was if someone had suddenly painted the inside green – you couldn't even see a vague outline of the plant.

"Er…" Ron blinked. "I suppose it was good that you had it in a tank?"

Neville nodded vigorously. "Remind me never to do that while it's outside of the tank." He gingerly opened the tank, cleaned the tank, removed the quill and resealed the tank again. That tank joined the others up on the sill.

"God, if only Crabbe had tried to do that on the train…"

"We'd have gotten splattered too, Ron." I pointed out, and he shrugged.

"But it would've been funny. Oh wait, we would have looked pretty crap too. Ah."

"Dumb ass."

"I am not a dumb ass!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are… oh forget it." I rolled my eyes. I got up from my bed, and laid a hand on my trunk. It had actually been Harry's, but after everything that had happened, I had gotten possession of it. Opening the sorcerer's trunk to the first compartment, I pulled out my toothbrush, toothpaste and a cup.

The door opened, and Seamus, Dean and Henry stepped in. "Jeremy? Ron? Neville? Where were you? We saw Goyle try to threaten Cho or something, and then you lot disappeared."

"Ah, here and there. Crabbe tried to kill us, and Dumbledore had him expelled."

"Really?"

"He tried to kill you?" Henry was shocked.

"Uh-huh. And Fudge says he's going to try and keep him in Azkaban for as long as possible."

"Freaking Boy-Who-Lived…" muttered Seamus, but he grinned. "Well, it seems like none of you are dead, so I guess all's well that ends well."

"Yeah – but hearing Crabbe and Goyle actually speak almost gave me a heart attack."

"I know! Who knew they could actually think?"

Laughter, and we continued to chatter about Crabbe and Goyle, Neville's make-shift glasshouse, the Triwizard Tournament and when the other schools were – or more specifically, when Hermione was – arriving.

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Author's Notes:

1. Hair – Crabbe's fist had enough 'energy' that if he were to swing his fist, it could cut through solid rock like well, a hot knife through butter. Here, all that's blocking his fist is Jeremy's hair, and off goes the top of his beautiful locks…

2. Quibbler – I mean, seriously, reading the magazine would probably make you liable to getting beaten up. So why not provide your readership with a tool of self-defence?

3. Prefect – I was going to have Percy be the prefect, but then I realised that this was in the Goblet of Fire period. And Percy's gone and graduated. So it had to be someone who was in fifth year or above, and Cho's well, in fifth year in GoF timeline. And I do believe she's a prefect. I think.

4. Loopy Cranium Heckulls – creatures that are a little like bees in that they have a hive mentality. Each hive generally brings a unique 'mental instability' to their victims. If they exist, that is.

5. Juniors – in the movie for GoF, Fleur's little sister Gabrielle tags along for some really odd reason. Perhaps it was the script writers' way of filling in a little bit of farfetchedness in the novel (where Gabrielle appeared from seemingly nowhere). For this AU, everyone's bringing their flunkies, and Hermione's one of the juniors that are coming.

6. Tanks – in canon, he seems more like an afterthought that brings some depth to some parts of the story. In this AU, Neville is actually friends with the main characters. As such, Neville has started to chase after the things he wants, and that includes pursuing his 'hobby' of Herbology. The Mimbulus mimbletonia makes an early appearance (in canon, it appears in OotP).

7. Trunk – Harry's possessions were obviously returned to the Potter family. Jeremy decided that if no-one was going to use Harry's sorcerers' trunk, he'd take it for himself.

8. Henry (Other-Harry) – he isn't playing much of a major part just yet, but rest assured that he will come into the spotlight in the next chapter.

9. I'm being cheap here, and now… Harry has his magic back? What the? Do note that I'm not actually being 'weak' – there is a specific difference between regaining his magic and the situation Harry finds himself in now. This is significant to the plot in the third arc, so keep reading!

10. I made a mistake about the etymology for Jeremy. At least, Jeremy may be an evolution of Jerome, but the base is more likely to be 'Jeremiah'. Jeremiah the Prophet was originally protected during his early years of being a prophet, but with the death of King Josiah of Judah (his 'connection' in high places), his position as a prophet led to him being vilified by the religious and civil leaders that came into power. In DOT, this parallel will be explored to a greater degree, but I can't say too much or I won't be able to shock you with my next plot twist!

11. Forgot to do the etymology for Henry, so here it is – According to tradition, Nicholas Breakspear, an English cardinal who became Pope Adrian IV, encouraged the Swedish king Eric to cross the Baltic with a strong force in 1155. His goal was not only to convert the heathen but also to gain economic and political ends. King Eric defeated the Finnish tribes but was not able to make his conquest permanent. An English clergyman, Henry, who had been bishop of Uppsala in Sweden, remained in Finland. He was slain within the year and subsequently became the patron saint of the city of Åbo (Turku in Finnish) and of all the Finns.