Chapter 7: The Past Will Haunt You

AN: Edited 08/10/2006. Next is a new chapter!

Nope, no fireplace, and definitely no floo powder. This was the third place she had searched, and still nothing. She wondered where the hospital kept all of its floo powder. Maybe she could ask for some. But where? She sighed, giving up, and exited the room.

She was being silly. The hospital wasn't just going to keep a pot of floo powder lying around for mental cases to use—and they probably wouldn't give any out to patients for safety reasons. Hermione sighed. She'd probably have to owl a wizard family and ask them to send her some. Maybe Ron would be able to help her, now that she knew he had come to this universe with Harry.

Frowning at the lack of options, she trudged back to her room. On the way down, she spotted the waiting room where concerned relatives and friends would usually wait. However, the room was empty. 'Perfect,' she thought.

Walking into the room, she saw the scrawny fireplace that was supposed to warm the room. On the mantel, there was a small pot that read, 'One pinch, one knut'. Hermione frowned. She hadn't brought any money with her. Believing that wizards were like muggles in more than one way, she started searching the ground. Surely wizards dropped knuts like muggles dropped their coins.

A rotten sandwich and a half-eaten blood pop later, Hermione found a knut behind one of the uncomfortable chairs. She went over to the pot, dropped the knut in, and grabbed a pinch of powder. Before she threw it in the fire, she wondered what name to call out. As long as the Potter's didn't have any other relatives, she could say 'Potter House'. However, if they had named their house differently or there was more than one Potter house, she wouldn't get anything.

Throwing the powder in, she said hesitantly, 'Potter house'.

Kaylee was sitting on the piano bench staring at the piano. Harry had said that the piano had given him certain memories, ones that he hadn't shared with Kaylee yet. Kaylee didn't know what they were, and she couldn't figure out how the piano would give him these memories.

"Hello? Is there anyone there?"

Kaylee looked around for the voice, and then made her way to the fire. Someone was trying to fire call.

"Yes, this is the Potter residence. Do you want to speak to dad?" she said, looking at the girl in the fire. She looked familiar, but Kaylee couldn't remember who she was. Her brown hair looked very ragged, like it hadn't been brushed for a while, and the girl's face was pale and drawn, like she hadn't gotten enough food lately.

"No, I need to speak to Harry Potter. Does he live here?" she asked, her voice filled with hope.

"Yes, just a sec—he's up in his room reading," she said, leaving the girl's head in the fire and going upstairs to get Harry.

Harry was looking through the huge book about the Ministry, trying to find a way to get to the Department of Mysteries. He knew he couldn't just walk in and ask to see the prophesy level. It wouldn't go over too well with the people at the Ministry.

"Harry? Some lady's in the fire, says she needs to talk to you," Kaylee shouted up the stairs. Harry set down the book to go see who was asking for him.

When he walked into the piano room, as he had named it, he recognized the face in the fire immediately.

"Hermione!" he said, running over to the fire. Her face was pale, her hair a mess, but he was so glad to see her alive (and NOT in a coma).

"Harry? Oh thank goodness, I was afraid I had the wrong house. Who was that girl, Harry?"

"She's my sister, Kaylee. Mione, are you still at St. Mungos?"

She smiled, obviously pleased. "Oh good, you knew what I was talking about. I tried to make it easy for you to understand, but I was afraid that you wouldn't know who sent the letter, or if you did, you would have no idea what I was talking about. Have you seen Ron?"

"Yeah, at the beginning of summer. We were both dragged to Hogwarts. Apparently, I kidnapped him at the end of the year, and his father thought I had put some kind of spell on him. I don't think Mr. Weasly's too happy with me right now. I haven't seen Ron since then."

"Oh Harry, I don't know what we're going to do. From what I gather, you're not too popular around here, especially with Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore. They've both been to see me, and neither held you in a good light." She looked at him, her face filled with an emotion Harry couldn't read. "I honestly don't know what to do, other than to try and convince Dumbledore," she said.

Harry sighed. "I don't think Dumbledore is going to be easy to convince. I talked to my parents, and I think they believe me, but I'm not sure. I know that Kay believes me, and probably Tom too. Tom's my brother," he said, seeing her questioning glance.

Hermione bit her lip, obviously thinking for another way to get home. Harry hesitated to speak—Hermione probably wouldn't approve of his idea to break into the Ministry. She looked up and saw his face, and immediately frowned.

"What? What is it?" she half asked, half demanded. "You know something, don't you?"

"Er—not really. I just...well, I can't figure out..." he paused, remembering that he had yet to tell Ron and Hermione of the prophesy. "...um, how to owl Ron without his family noticing," he finished lamely, hoping Hermione would buy the excuse. She looked skeptical, but gave him an answer.

"Well, I suggest you wait until everyone's sleeping," she said. "That way, nobody will notice except Ron."

Harry nodded, and then heard voices in the other room. He frowned, not expecting that many people to be home at the moment.

"Hey Hermione? There's someone in the other room, I've got to go," he said.

"Alright, I'll do some research on alternate universes and owl you with anything I find," she said. "Harry—be careful around Dumbledore for now," she added, her face filled with worry. "I think he suspects you to be a death eater, and you wouldn't want to be stuck in Azkaban."

"Don't worry Hermione—Dumbledore doesn't scare me," he said laughing, and then smiled at her exasperated face. "I'm sorry 'Mione, I'll be careful, I promise."

Harry walked into the other room, and nearly jumped when Ron tackled him.

"Ron, mate, er...good to see you too," he said, confused as to why Ron was acting like he hadn't seen him in years.

"Harry—you have to get out of here! I heard my dad and Dumbledore talking on the Floo and they're gonna send you away to some school! I dunno what kind of school, but it didn't sound like your dad would be too happy with Dumbledore. I think it's a school for reforming death eaters!"

Harry just looked at him, shocked.

Cannon World, AU Harry

'The Rise and Fall of Voldemort'. Hmmm, interesting. The FALL of Voldemort.

Harry picked up the book, flipping through it as he walked through the rest of the store. 'I wonder what this book is doing in a Dark Art's book shop?' he wondered to himself. 'Probably just misplaced'.

A sinister voice broke his train of thought.

"Can I help you, sir?" a man asked from behind him. Harry frowned but didn't turn, not wanting the wizard to see what he was looking at.

"No, I don't require your help, thank you," he said rather sharply, hoping the man would get the hint and leave.

"Ah, well, we have several books that I believe might interest you, sir, if you are interested in the rise of Voldemort," he said, catching the title of the book Harry was holding. Harry's eyes narrowed—he didn't appreciate strangers butting into his business.

"I won't tell you again, sir. My business is my own, thank you," he said, turning from the man. The man slinked off to another part of the store, leaving Harry to find the books he needed.

Hmm, 'Powerful Dark Curses to Test Your Enemies' sounded good. After all, Harry believed you had to fight fire with fire.

AU World, obviously

"I'm sorry James, but we've had too many close calls with him. He's a liability to the school, and all of the students there. Albus couldn't find another way out, especially since the ministry is insisting that all Death Eaters be sent to Azkaban without a trial. Harry's lucky that they're not sending him to Azkaban," Arthur said, looking at a distraught James Potter. James' mouth was open in astonishment, and he was trying to find words to express what he wanted to say.

"But Harry's not a Death Eater! Well...er, not this...um," he stopped, at a loss for words. He couldn't tell Arthur that he thought his son was actually 'Harry' from a different dimension. They'd probably send him to St. Mungos.

"James, all he has to do is make it through the training. It's not nearly as bad as prison. Albus got the Ministry to agree to open this mini-school during this summer for Death Eaters who are still in school. If he completes the training, he's free to go," the red-headed man said gently. He knew how hard this must be on a father—he couldn't imagine what he would do if he found out one of his children was a Death Eater.

James was about to try again when Harry stumbled into the room, looking just as shocked as James felt.

"When am I going?" he asked, his voice a little on edge.

Arthur tried not to strangle the boy when he entered the room. This was the monster that had held his Ron captive, and that had tortured that poor muggle-born into a coma, and had—

"WHEN am I going?" he asked again, for no one had answered him yet.

"Mr. Potter, you will be sent to a school not far from here. The purpose of this school is to give you an extra education opportunity over the summer. You will have full access to a library—"

"With all due respect, Mr. Weasly, I already heard you talking earlier. Why am I going to some school with Death Eaters? And when are you going to ship me away?"

Arthur's face hardened when Harry interrupted him, but paled when he realized Harry knew what was going on. If word got back to Voldemort, their plan would be toast. He didn't know how Albus had slipped this past Voldemort (who pretty much controlled the Ministry), but he had, and now they had 'Ministry Orders' to send all suspected Death Eater children to a special reform school, out of reach from Voldemort for at least the summer. The goal was to try and get some of them to turn back from the dark and spy for the light. However, the suspected Death Eaters were just to think that this summer was an extra 'learning' experience that would help them succeed in their future goals.

It would not do for Harry to know what was going on. The information must be kept from Voldemort at all costs. Arthur pulled out his wand to obliviate Harry, but unfortunately he had forgotten that James, though working at home, was still the head of one of the top Auror division. He was stunned before he knew what hit him.

Harry looked at his dad, impressed despite the circumstances. 'Wow,' he thought, 'I've got a long way to go'.

Cannon World

Ron woke up to find his room a hideous orange—everything was neon orange! The walls, the sheets, even the posters up on the walls of the...Cannons?...were orange. The Cannons? He didn't like the Cannons, they were horrible. What kind of trick was this?

He got up, feeling a bit nauseous after seeing so much ugly orange, and hurried out of his room to get away from the sickening color. As he passed the twins' room, he heard an explosion, and ducked. Oh bully, this was his day. First, he wakes up to orange, and now Death Eaters were attacking his house.

He was still ducking on the stairs when Ginny came up from the kitchen. She looked at him strangely.

"Ron? Are you alright? Did the twins get you again with one of their experiments? Don't tell mum, she's already in a fit because of something they did yesterday."

She paused, apparently to think, and then continued. "Actually, it might have been the past couple of days. I think they gave some Grizzley's to the gnomes, and now they growl at everything that passes. It's quite annoying, actually."

She seemed to realize that Ron wasn't responding, for she looked down at him. "Seriously, Ron, are you alright? You look a bit...tired."

"I'm fine, just looking for my, er, quill that I dropped," he said, standing up and brushing himself off like nothing had happened.

"Hmm, ok," she said, looking at him strangely. "Oh, by the way, have you heard from Harry lately? It's been at least two weeks, and I heard mum saying the Order hasn't heard anything yet."

"Harry who?" he asked, wondering who Ginny was talking about.

"Um, Harry Potter, you know, boy-who-lived, your best friend for the last five years? Honestly Ron, just go see Mum, she'll fix whatever the twins did to you," she said, making her way up the stairs.

'Harry Potter? The Death Eater?'

Professor Dumbledore,

I'm writing to you because I don't know what else to do. My daughter, Hermione Granger, has slipped into a coma, and we can't figure out why. She was perfectly fine, and now she is unresponsive. We had our doctors look at her, but they can find nothing as to the cause of her being in a coma. Because it appeared almost like magic, we figured it must be magic. We need your help. Please.

Sincerely,

Dr. Anne Granger