"Willy Wonka's Ever Lasting Gob Stoppers," Dumbledore spoke clearly to the stone statue. He was walking about ten paces ahead of us to show us where exactly his office was. As if we didn't know already.

"So that," I spoke to myself, writing it down on my hand, "is the password, have to remember that." It would definitely come in handy in the future. "Wait, so Willy Wonka was a wizard?"

"Willy Wonka isn't real, Hunt. It's most likely that Roald Dahl, the writer was one," Hermione answered from beside me, her know-it-all attitude kicking in. While we were walking behind Dumbledore she had grabbed my arm and simultaneously, I won myself five galleons. It was not that hard to guess Dumbledore's age. He should have been around 136 years old right now. That is considering he was 100 in Riddle's memory and he had taken me exactly 50 years back.

But anyway, that was beside the point. We entered the gargoyle after the old coot. But, I needed to know if I was right, because if I wasn't, it wouldn't be fair play.

"How old are you, headmaster? If you don't mind me asking," it slipped out of my mouth sounding a little rude. After a slightly bruising slap on my head from Hermione, I mumbled a sorry. It didn't come out right but Hermione was satisfied.

"Oh, I do not mind," Dumbledore answered me over his shoulder as he led us inside the same office before I had destroyed it. "I will be experiencing my 137th winter this year. It is quite insignificant if you ask me." He sat behind his desk as he gave out the information. We were too excited to sit, but when he asked us to, it was only the polite thing to do.

Apparently Fawkes was not present, but I refrained from asking why because that would give out too much information. Hermione had once happily supplied me with the 'curiosity killed the cat." She had promised to tattoo it on my forehead if I pulled any stupid stunt after I had accidentally called all our dragon relatives to Grimmauld Place. That day, we learned that dragons could change what their bodies looked like. By the end, they changed themselves to what looked like somewhat human forms.

Hermione and I took a tentative seat on the chairs (that tried to swallow us whole, I might add).

"Alright my friends," Dumbledore began, "what was it you would like to talk to me about? I would very much like to hear an explanation of the spectacle created Mr. and Ms…" he trailed off. Right, name sharing had yet to occur between us.

"Ahhh… I'm Harmony… Astray, and my brother here is called Hunter Astray," Hermione offered the information. I mentally patted her back proudly. She had picked names that weren't far from our real names, so even if we accidentally slipped in the name calling, we didn't look suspicious. I swear if she wasn't my best friend, she would definitely have my heart.

"Well you see Headmaster, we were portkeying to the auror training program in the ministry but they unknowingly handed us the wrong portkey." We were staying as close to the truth as we possibly could without giving away any real information. We weren't lying (yet) but we weren't exactly telling the truth either.

"Oh, please elaborate. Where exactly did you end up when the portkey made you land?" Dumbledore asked eagerly. He was sitting perfectly still with his hand on the table. Wait; let me rephrase that for you. He was sitting still with his unburned, perfectly limbed, and absolutely free of jewelry hand on the table. Okay, so may be this really was 1977. The concept was a little hard to accept (I had been avoiding thinking of it in such definite terms even after seeing Sirius). But with a life laid out the way it was, it wasn't really a break down surreal moment.

"We landed in a sort of chamber inside the Whomping Willow. I didn't even know there was a Whomping Willow here, much less that it was mostly hollow," I finally lied outright. My lying had always been convincing, a gift from the Dursley's after their beatings (I got so good at lying to myself that my body was completely unharmed that every part of me would function astoundingly well even when I was an inch from death).

"But now that we are here…" Hermione continues, staring at the old coot, "Could you set us up with a job? I mean we really didn't want to join the auror forces, so this could give us a reason to reject the 'invitations,' if that is alright with you… sir." She truly was the brains of the team we had going.

Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to update. I didn't know how to proceed with this chapter. I was just a little disappointed with how it turned out. But this is an important part of the story so you need to read it if you want to understand the story. Thanks for reading. Bye