Time After Time

Enemy's of the Heir Beware...

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen.-Author unknown

Saturday awakened many early in the blustery morning with it's bitter winds and mystic howling winds. There was something in the air that morning as if the wind was trying to give a soft warning to tread cautiously for the day was bringing a considerable shock with it. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Annie sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall that frigid Halloween morning. Students visibly shivered as the owls flew overhead bringing the cold air and mail with them. As per usual many editions of The Daily Prophet were dropped by various owls on the house tables, but this morning the newspaper was the bearer of bad news, at least for one gryffindor and one ravenclaw...

Annie turned paler than usual and Harry literally choked on his breakfast. Ron pounded hard on Harry's back and Hermione looked on in concern as she pulled papers out of both Harry and Annie's hands and held Crookshanks in her other arm. She couldn't't fully understand what they were so gob smacked at since she wasn't raised in the wizarding world but she could sense it wasn't anything good...

"Peter Pettigrew's been spotted in Dufftown...?" Hermione spoke with longing question in her voice and then it clicked with her, "That Peter Pettigrew...?"

Annie, Ron, and Harry all nodded their heads to Hermione...

"I ruined his plans eleven years ago and now..."Annie started to mutter under his breath as Harry tried to make sense of the situation...

"But why would he choose now? I mean it's been twelve years since that night and..." He started out calm but got exasperated.

"And now you're not at home safe, you're at Hogwarts where anyone can get you." Hermione added logically yet not fully realizing what she said wasn't exactly comforting.

"Thanks Hermione, that makes me feel so much better..." Annie said sardonically.

"What's to be afraid of? He sounds like a real rat to me anyways." Ron spoke.

"You have no idea..." Harry said blankly as Crookshanks hissed and leaped off Hermione's lap and raced down the Great Hall and out the doors as if he was on a mission. What he was chasing... well as we all know, no one would quite figure out the secret hiding places of one Peter Pettigrew for at least another year.

"You know I hate to say it, but I kind of told you so..." Annie looked innocently up at the ceiling as she said this.

"The morning's still early, the day has time to redeem itself..." Harry spoke to soon and said this just as Annie lost balance and clumsily fell off the bench. With her hand motions being as dangerous as they are, she sent the pumpkin juice flying through the air towards the staff table and hit Snape in his large nose, spilling pumpkin juice all over him.

"Bullocks..." Ron said as Snape began to shoot daggers through his eyes at the foursome.

"He looks... angry," Annie tilted her head to one side and said decisively while Hermione stared at her with a hint of suspicion.

"Snape apparently doesn't care for pumpkin juice...this is a very very bad Halloween..." Harry said gravely and he, Ron, Hermione, and Annie sped to the exit and found unlikely refuge in the library. But something even more ominous and mysterious occurred when Harry and Annie chose to leave as Hermione and Ron attended Sir Nicholas' death day party, which Ron complained about the entire day.

Annie and Harry carefully walked out of the library as they balance both Annie and Mione's books in their arms, which quite frankly was no small feat. They reached half way down a forgotten corridor before Harry felt a twinge in his head and began to hear an odd noise invade his mind. It was a sound he wouldn't recognize until much later. Annie began to feel that strange feeling in her hands that she had on the train, an odd sort of tremor. It was foreboding and completely and totally scary to her, but for being so strange, it felt so right...

"Harry something isn't right here...Harry?" She looked over at her friend who was focusing intently on something she didn't seem to see. She gazed the corridor not seeing what she missed. She saw nothing, until Harry turned towards her with a pain stricken face. All he uttered to her was,

"Voices, I heard voices." The companions thought that was terrible enough, until they turned the corner and let out a collective gasp as they saw a terrifying, and literally petrifying site. The air smelled of incontrovertible doom as Annie and Harry turned towards each other expressionless as the saw the petrified bodies before them and the writing on the wall... "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED, ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE," Annie whispered the blood etched on the stone wall.

"I hate Halloween," Harry muttered as hundreds of students came around the corner bustling and happy from the Halloween feast. Annie gawked at the wall before her, trying to put the cryptic pieces together and she spoke breathlessly, accidentally backing into each Harry."Ditto."

Of course, of all people, Severus Snape would blame the duo for everything laying before them. But Dumbledore, the sometimes too trusting, but wise man that he was, sent the two on their marry way and warned them gently to watch out for eachother for something was coming and had a good idea what would come with it. Dark times were coming, and this was unfortunately, only the beginning.Harry, Ron, and Hermione huddled in a small, warm, moonlit corner of the Gryffindor common room. The sky held an orange harvest moon as a wolf cry could be heard over the chatter of those still awake. The evening's events had created a constant energy that kept even the drowsy awake.

"Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." said Ron apologetically as Harry recalled what happened in the corridor.

"And you're sure Annie didn't hear anything." Hermione asked inquisitively and concerned.

"I'm sure." Harry said distracted as he looked out on the night sky his thought's wandering.

"Enemies of the heir beware, what could that mean?" Hermione wondered outloud...

"Nothing good. Goodnight guys..." Harry muttered and walked away as Ron and Hermione looked on worriedly.

"Yeah, goodnight..." They replied back as they too decided it was time for bed.

The sound of a rap tap tapping on the frost covered window awoke Annie from her almost slumber. There was too much running through the corners of her mind, it was like her brain was running a marathon, but her body was saying no and making her lay there in her four poster bed silently as worries crammed every inch of her thoughts. Why did she feel a sudden feeling of silent doom about to pounce upon them this year? Would she get in trouble for the flying pumpkin juice of '92? Why did Hermione give her a knowingly suspicious look...? Why in seven levels of bloody hell was there an owl shivering at her window...?

She slowly climbed out of bed, her tired body mocking her the entire way to the frozen over window... How could it be so cold in October? The floor felt like ice on Annie's petite bare feet making her visibly cringe as she tip toed cautiously, as to not wake up her roommates. She opened the window letting the frigid cold air in, carefully untying the parcel from the owl's leg. She saw long, narrow, loopy writing addressed to her and she opened it revealing that Dumbledore would like to speak with her, and she could only hope it was simply a social call, but highly doubted that from Dumbledore at this time of night. So she put on her dressing robes over her pink and red flannel pajama bottoms and top and walked barefoot out of her dormitory. Annie lost her balance on the stairs leading down to the Ravenclaw common room, that was pitch black. What could Dumbledore possibly want at this hour? Annie stepped carefully out of the doorway of the common room and walked carefully, hoping not to be caught out of bed past curfew. Of course, she did have a note from Dumbledore, but she figured that wouldn't get her far with Filch or Snape if they were out in the corridors. Annie made her way down one of the main hogwarts stair cases, and to the gargoyle guard protecting the Headmasters office. She had heard many stories from her father and her Uncle James about their times spent being punished in the very office she was standing outside of. She felt the odd feeling that something, or someone was watching her every move and decided it best to just get this meeting with her headmaster over with as quick as possible. But how to get past the gargoyle...?

"Password?" The gargoyle murmured in an annoyed voice, as though she was waking him.

"Er...?" Annie racked her brain, had Dumbledore even given her the password...

"Er, is not a word nor password my dear, so I suggest you try again." The gargoyle spoke so arrogantly, Annie could've mistaken it for Snape or Malfoy.

"Not even a hint?" asked Annie, a bit of hope in her voice. "Alright fine, I suppose I will just have to guess won't I?" She waited for the gargoyle to confirm this, but no such luck. "Fine, you only speak when you want to huh? Okay, er... passwords... passwords... how about Godric Gryffindor? No? Transfiguration rules...? Kill the slytherins..?" She sat down on the cold stone floor and leaned back against the wall ranting off random words until she could find the password.

"Chickens, feathers, feather boas, tiaras, rhinestones." She paused for a second... "The Village People?" And the gargoyle practically leapt to the side and revealed the spiraling stairs that lead up to the Headmasters office. "Interesting man that Dumbledore." She climbed each steep stair with caution and was about to knock on the door but was then startled when she heard,

"Miss Black, you may come in."

"Strange, strange man..." She shook her head and then opened the door revealing a grand office of whirring instruments and multitudes of texts that reached from floor to ceiling. If she wasn't so distracted by wondering what the meeting was about, her mouth would've dropped in awe of the simple beauty of the room. Dumbledore cleared his throat as to pull Annie out of her awed state...
"Take a seat Miss Black." She could't tell if he was being stern or cordial, Dumbledore was a seemingly hard person to read. He wore an everlasting twinkle in his eyes and a mysterious sense of mischief, something the Marauders could't even express all of the time. There was never a time in Annie's mind that someone outdid the Marauders, which was truly saying something.

"What did you..." Annie began to ask the meaning of the meeting.

"I'm sure you're wondering why exactly I called you here, especially at such a late hour. I normally would not call this late, but with the goings of the coming days there is no time but the present to strengthen ourselves..." He spoke cryptically as Annie squinted trying to derive the meaning from his words. "As to what happened in the Great Hall this morning, Professor Snape, not knowing about your remarkable abilities, took great offense, for lack of a better term, to you throwing a jug of pumpking juice at his nose." Dumbledore chuckled kindly as he recalled the incident and Annie slunk down slightly in her chair in embarressment. "It was an accident, my dear, nothing more I'm sure." Personally, Annie thought she did Snape a favor, his broken nose actually appeared somewhat normal compared to his regular nose..."None the less, I believe it would be best if I helped you harness those new gifts of yours as the arise for the future, we never quite know what time will throw towards us." Except Annie felt he knew exactly what the future would bring. "So, with the permission of your father of course, I would like you to begin practicing your skills in a structured environment in my office once a week." said Dumbledore. Annie didn't see a problem with the idea. It would help keep her true identity a secret, something only extremely close family and friends knew.

"Alright, I think that would be good actually." Annie sat up straighter.

"I'm glad you think so. An owl will be sent to you within the week to schedule a lesson time. That will be all, goodnight."

"Thank you, goodnight sir." Annie rose from her chair slowly and made it towards the door.

"Tread carefully, Miss Black, for we can never know how haunted a chamber may be..." Annie turned back giving him a quizical look and left silently feeling that she was less scared of things to come before her meeting with Dumbledore than after. She was smart enough to know that terrible things were about to happen at Hogwarts, she just wasn't quite aware of what.

"He said, "Tread carefully, for we never know how haunted a chamber may be...' Which means..." Annie explained her meeting with Dumbledore to Hermione, Ron, and Harry, leaving out the actual reason for the meeting because Hermione didn't know about Annie being a haven.

"Dumbledore knows more about the Chamber of Secrets than we thought." Hermione concluded.

"Do you ever think Dumbledore knows too much?" asked Ron.

"No," Annie, Harry, and Hermione said bluntly at the same time.

"Knowing what the Chamber of Secrets is might help." Harry stated frankly.

"Every textbook we've checked says absolutely nothing... the only way we'll find out precisely what the Chamber of Secrets is, is to ask someone who knows." Hermione sounded puzzled.

"McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick, and Binns." Annie listed as she dazed off in thought. The others looked at her in confusion and she simply replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They'll know what the Chamber of Secrets is, the trick will be..."

"Who can con a teacher into telling them first." Harry finished as though he read her mind. Ron and Hermione looked at them strangely until Ron said...

"You two are bad influences," and shook his head.

As being the only student (Hermione included) that could stay alert throughout History of Magic, and having the class before the others, Annie was the first to be able to ask what the Chamber really was. That day, Professor Binns was lecturing on Goblin rebellions a rather dull lecture as always. Annie raised her hands and cleared her throat to get Binns attention seeing as he was so enthralled in his own lecture.

"Yes Miss... er... Grey is it? Yes Miss Grey indeed," Annie smiled a bit on the inside, Binns couldn't ever remember anyones name...

"Sir, could you possibly tell us about... the Chamber of Secrets...?" Everyone in the class seemed to jerk awake out of their history induced trances. Ginny even poked her head out of her diary.

"I deal with fact, Miss Grey, not legend, not folklore, nor song, strictly fact. If you would like to read such fables may I suggest a fairy tale..." Binns scoffed offended that he would ever be considered someone to tell anything but proven truth.

"Yes sir, but isn't the distinction between fable and fact quite frankly not destinct at all? I mean really all legends have some truth to them. The world isn't simply just black and white, truth and tale. And seeing as it is part of Hogwarts history and all..." Annie put so smoothly, and coyly that she could've passed for her father in his marauder days. Annie could have sworn she heard him mumble something about "Spawn of Sirius Black," "Evil child..." But she finally got her way.

Binns sighed in defeat, "Very well then, but I warn you this is a ludricrous legend."

"Only the best ones are..." Annie said back. The battle of words between Binns and Annie had caused the entire class of first years for once to be hanging on Binns' every word. When he looked around the room, you could tell Binns was thrown by having such attentive listeners and began the story, "Hogwarts, of course, was founded over a thousand years ago by the four greatest wizards and witches of their time. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built the foundations of Hogwarts together, free from prying eyes. For years the four founders worked harmoniously in educating children in their fine craft. But as in many groups throughout history, disagreements grew between them, dividing them through and through. Slytherin, wished to be more selective in the admittance process of students than the others. He believed as many do that magical learning and practice should be kept within all-magical and "pureblooded" families," Annie rolled her eyes at that. "After a while, there was quite a serious argument between Slytherin and Gryffindor, leading to Slytherin eventually leaving the school. It has been aluded that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sided with eachother disagreeing with Slytherin, while Hufflepuff tried to keep peace. These facts have been tainted and blurred by the erroneous tale that is the Chamber of Secrets. It is told that Slytherin built a hidden chamber in the castle that the other founders knew nothing of. According to legend, Slytherin sealed the Chamber so that none but his true heir could open it and unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were considered unworthy to study magic. It is of course, nonsense, seeing as the school has been searched over for the hidden Chamber for hundreds of years before us. A tale simply told to frighten the meek, and give the valliant an object to slay."

"What do you mean, 'the horror within?" Annie accidentally blurted aloud.

"It is believed," Binns paused, swallowing hard, "That there is to be a monster that only the heir of Slytherin can control within the Chamber. Something terrible, horrid... and deranged. If the likes of Dumbldore can't find it, I'm sure no one can."

"But sir, maybe, you know just thinking off the top of my head here," Annie cautiously began, "Since Dumbldore isn't related to Slytherin..."

"That is enough Miss Grey! Enough of your antics! Enough!" Binns went into a caniption fit...

"Pay up boys," Ron and Harry moaned as they handed Annie chocolate frogs, Hermione was smart enough not to enter the bet and smirked to herself as Annie shared her winnings with her.

"We always knew Slytherin was an old loony, but I didn't know he started all this pureblooded stuff. You couldn't pay me to be in that house. I don't know what I'd do if the sorting hat tried to put me into Slytherin." Ron stated. Hermione nodded in agreement, while both Harry and Annie looked down without saying a word. As they looked up they caught eachothers eyes and gave eachother an knowing look. They had both been offered the chance to be in Slytherin and now they knew it.

"If the heir of Slytherin is the only person who can open the Chamber, then the heir has been in the school since the beginning of the year." Hermione started.

"But not before it." Annie added deductively as she bit into a chocolate frog. They were in the bathroom of the scene of the crime. "It would have to be someone who either just entered the school this year, or had the chance to do something last year but didn't."

"First or second years..." Harry added in.

"Lets see, who do we know who's family are complete and total Slytherins and think muggle borns and squibs are scum?" Ron asked with a hint of accusation in his voice and him and Hermione turned to look at Annie.

"What are you all stairing at?" She thought for a second and opened her eyes wide in realization. "Oh you seriously don't think... I am not the heir of Slytherin! My family may believe in that load of crap, but I don't." Annie gathered her books and her bag and stormed out of the haunted girls loo. Harry gave his two friends a look that clearly said he was disappointed in them and ran off to go find Annie.

She ran through the bustling corridors, ignoring McGonagall's advisement to slow down. She didn't stop until the doors of the grand hall came into view. Annie pushed them open feeling the sharp wind hit her face as she walked at a steady pace towards something...
Harry rushed through the halls knowing exactly where his friend was going, he drew his cloak closer to his kneck covering his ears slightly as he walked outside towards the black lake.Annie shivered sitting in the cold, frost covered lawn. Harry walked up behind her and took off his own cloak draping it over her shoulders as her wild hair blew in the wind and sat down next to her. She sniffed her nose and wiped a stray tear from her face. Harry kindly looked out at the lake giving Annie time to pull herself together.

(vamp to when the sun comes up by John Legend plays)

"I'm not the heir of Slytherin." She said looking out at the lake.

"I know." Harry said simply.

"I'm not like the rest of the Black family tree..."

It's destiny that your next to me

"I know." The two had an understanding of eachother no one else had ever had.

"Look," Annie gazed up at the sky taking in a deep breath.

"What?" Harry mirrored Annie but didn't see anything.

"Snow..." And sure enough, flakes of white began to fall from the sky as they sat there and watched the snow fall.

It had become later in the month, more attacks brought more accusations everywhere you looked, unfortunately, Harry had been the target of most of them. His little secret about being a parselmouth had been unleashed in a dueling club put together by Lockhart and Snape.

"Watch out, Heir of Slytherin. Seriously evil wizard coming through." Fred and George shouted in the snow covered courtyard. Harry visibly cringed.

"Don't pay attention to them Harry, it's just their way of making things better." Annie tried to make him feel better but there was no use. "We all know you wouldn't do what this monster has done. The more you let this eat away at you, the harder it's going to be to beat this thing whenever it comes." Harry still looked like someone had ranover his puppy or something. He had all the reason in the world to be upset, but Annie wasn't going to let that ruin their year. "Harry Potter, stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop listening to what everyone else thinks instead of what you think, and stop making me feel like I need to write to your mother, because I will." She said in a firm, measured voice as they sat at a bench.

"Annie." Harry muttered.

"What!?" She said clearly annoyed.

"Thanks."

Authors Note: I apologize for getting this chapter out to you a month later than I wanted to! I caught a lovely case of writers block and couldn't think of what to write until yesterday. I hope you liked this chapter, I really actually ended up liking this one quite a bit. I'd appreciate your opinions on it (hint, hint) and if you visit my profile page there's a poll to vote on about this story, if you wish.

Thanks for reading, hope to see you at the next chapter!

P.S.: The fact that Annie likes history so much may hint at her future a bit...
And there is an intentional typo in this chapter, think of two words that sound the same and are spelt the same except for one letter. If you find it you may find a little bit about Harry and Annie's future. Let me know what you find and I'll tell you if you are right.