Summary: We meet Tonks, Harry gets a present from everyone's favorite venerated Virginian, and Hermione, Susan, Anthony, and Padma begin to discuss plans for Christmas break . Meanwhile, back in the past, Ben Franklin and Richard Henry Lee team up to accomplish a certain goal.

A/N: Hey guys! So sorry that I have not updated this story! I have been really busy lately. Oh, and for those of you who have been wondering where the hell Susan is in the story, I forgot to add her in in the last few chapters. I am currently in the process of fixing that extreme oversight.

Chapter Eight: George's Gift and Mystery Madness

Harry Eugene Flitwick skipped down the corridor, his book bag bouncing against his leg. He felt the wind through his hair as he felt absolutely carefree for once. But he would not be for long.

Suddenly, he collided with something -someone, rather- which sent himself and the person he had ran into sprawling onto the floor.

"Hey! Please watch where you are going!"

Harry stood up, and after brushing himself off, offered his hand to the witch, who took it. He pulled the witch up, and was finally able to get a good look at her. Clearly, she was a Hufflepuff (if the color of her robes said anything), and her robes contrasted greatly with the violet purple hair she was currently sporting. She slightly glared at him as she gathered up the books that had fallen out of her arms.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about that!" Exclaimed Harry, as he picked up a rather worn copy of George Washington: A Magical History Exposed and handed it to her, smiling at the picture of his ancestor that donned the front cover.

"It's okay. I was not looking where I was going anyway." The girl admitted bashfully, grinning as she ducked her head.

"Neither was I," Chuckled Harry. "Say, what is your name anyway? I have seen you around before, but I have never had time to actually talk to you. For some reason you look familiar to me."

"Oh, I'm Nymphadora Tonks, though you should probably just call me Tonks… unless, of course, you want to get your ass kicked."

Harry's mind whirled. Tonks… Tonks… where had he heard that name before? Then, he remembered that day at Gringotts, when he had become Head of House Washington and discovered all of the Betrothal Contracts he had. Nymphadora Tonks had been one of the names on them! Hmm… if he was indeed to get married to this spunky Hufflepuff one day, it was probably a good idea to get to know her first.

"Oh ho! A feisty one! I like you. Before you ask, I am Harry Flitwick, by the way." Harry rushed through his words; being around Tonks already gave him butterflies in his stomach.

"Nice to meet you, Harry Flitwick."

At lunch that day, Harry introduced Tonks to his group of friends, and they all took to her immediately.

Soon, Tonks and the other group members were joined at the hip, never seen by themselves.

~Scene Break!~

The Next Day

It was a yawning group of eleven and twelve year olds that made their way down to breakfast the next morning, sitting down at the Ravenclaw table. From across the way, Draco and Tonks winked at them, and Harry waved.

Breakfast was drawing to a close when finally, the post owls swooped in, bringing mail to their respective owners. Harry was pleased to see Hedwig, who was clutching two letters in her beak. As he relieved his familiar of the burden she bore, he listened to Hermione and Susan debating about whether the American Revolution or the American Civil War was more interesting and which was more crucial to American history. He opened the first letter, which was in an envelope of yellowed, old parchment and began to read.

From the Commander, Army of the United Colonies, In New York, to my future Heir, Harold Eugene James Flitwick.

Dear Harold,

You may be wondering how and why I am writing you today. The "How" part of that question, you can find the answer to if you lay hands on my personal journal, the true one. As for the why, that will be explained… eventually.

I just wanted to say that you have been doing very well, and are on the path that History wants you to go on. In your ever-bright future, I see happiness and joy for both the Wizarding and the Non-Magical world.

However, this letter is not all sunshine and daisies, as you future people say. You see, I wrote you today to tell you of two tasks that I wish you to accomplish.

One of them is as follows: bond with your betrotheds. Miss Granger, Miss Tonks, Miss Patil, Miss Delacour-Lafayette, Miss Greengrass, and Miss Bones will be great supporters for you, and you will need them if you are to survive the ordeals that cloud your future. If you do not bond with them soon, the potential for that bond will fade over time. It is with the utmost urgency that I order you to do this.

The second one is probably the most simple one I will give in my career as a General: prepare yourself for the future. Train yourself both physically and emotionally, in magical subjects and non-magical subjects. In all fields, from Politics to swordplay. You never know when you may need those skills. Trust me when I tell you that.

Please follow all of these requests. I beseech you to do so.

Oh, and before I end this letter, there is also a special little something that ought to give you a little spark of hope and protect you at the same time in the other envelope.

Your humble and Obedient,

G. Washington

PS: I may be meeting you sooner than you would think.

Harry was speechless. How did George manage to write him? The Boy-Who-Lived was also awed when he read the line "I may be meeting you sooner than you think!" Did that mean he was going to die? He honestly did not know. Oh well. Now to see what the other envelope from him was. He just knew it would be good.

Hands shaking, Harry began to open the second envelope, carefully taking the paper apart. He reached his hand inside the envelope, and pulled out… a drawing.

Eyes widening, Harry admired the intricate detail and depth of the design, noting every last thing on the page. The drawing showed an older version of him, Hermione, Susan, Padma, Tonks, and another girl he did not know yet, standing in a room he knew to be the Oval Office in the White House, with their arms around each other and smirking at him. He noticed Minnie, Filius, Eugene, Scarlett, Ragnok, and another man he did not know standing off to the side, smiling as well. The drawing was done on colored pencil, and it was of such a level that Harry could only dream of reaching. Awestruck, Harry folded up the drawing carefully and put it into his book bag. Thank God, nobody else in the hall had noticed this little… moment.

Shrugging, he and the gang walked to class, pushing the morning's events to the backs of their mind for now.

After class that day, Harry, Hermione, Tonks, and Susan decided to go to the Library. Chatting excitedly about the new material they were learning in all classes, the unstoppable quartet made their way up numerous staircases. Somehow, it had slipped their minds that the staircases changed when you least wanted them to.

The staircase suddenly started to move.

"What the bloody hell is happening?!" Harry exclaimed, holding onto the railing as he felt the ground move beneath his feet.

"The staircases change, remember?" Hermione reminded him, smirking.

Harry playfully glared at her. "Gee, thanks, Miss Smart Alek." Susan and Tonks just stood there, sniggering. The staircase, meanwhile, stopped moving.

"Let's go through that door. I wanna see where it leads!" Interjected Susan, gesturing at the door the staircase had stopped at. Hermione, Harry, and Tonks, nodded, following Susan as she opened the door, which groaned as it was pushed open. They entered the corridor, and were immediately enveloped in the embrace of darkness.

"Spooky. It looks almost like your stereotypical American Haunted House on Halloween." Harry commented, staring around the long hallway. Hermione giggled, and he grinned at her. (When they were younger, they had gone Trick-or-Treating together numerous times; It helped to take his mind off the fact that his biological parents had died on that day.)

"True," Sniggered Hermione, smiling.

Tonks, with a confused expression on her face that actually looked quite cute on her, commented, "I do not even want to know what the hell you two are talking about."

"That's right; you do not." Chorused Hermione and Harry, while Susan just giggled into her hand.

They walked down the corridor for some time, until….

Meow!

"It's Filch's cat!" Gasped Hermione, paling.

"RUN!" Exclaimed Susan, and the quartet ran toward the nearest door, which was at the end of the corridor. Hermione performed the unlocking charm, and pulled everyone inside, which turned out to be a BIG mistake.

"Ugh, some icky liquid stuff just fell on me!" Exclaimed Susan, poking the liquid that was on her shoulder. It continued to fall on her, which caused her to look up.

The source of the liquid: a drooling three-headed dog.

"Um, guys, you might want to take a look at this…" Harry trailed off, pointing at the monstrosity of a beast that loomed over them, baring its teeth.

"AHHHHH!" they screamed, and Hermione performed an Unlocking charm on the door.

"Between Filch and death, I'll take Filch." was her explanation, and all the others agreed with her as they ran out, luckily avoiding the caretaker as they raced back to Ravenclaw tower.

"What-was-that?!" Harry panted as he fell onto his favorite chair in the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that something is fishy here. And I am determined to find out what it is. Did you see what the dog was standing on?" Hermione asked. Susan, Tonks, and Harry shook their heads.

"Nah, I was too busy with its heads." Harry said in response, and Hermione tut-tutted at him.

"It was standing on a trapdoor, you idiot. It's guarding something. Something important."

Benjamin Franklin rolled his eyes as he gazed listlessly around the chamber in which the Congressmen of the Continental Congress were meeting. Today was just like any other day. Boring, boring, boring. One argument after another. Ben decided to do the smart thing and take a nap. Surprisingly, he actually had a dream to go along with said nap, and he remembered it for the rest of his life.

In the dream, he was on some school's grounds. The school (if you could call it that, it looked more like a castle than a school!) looked nearly destroyed, and all around him he could see fellow wizards and witches fighting one another. He was drawn to one young man in particular, whom he saw battling a white-skinned, red-eyed monster of a human being. Edging closer so he could hear better, he began to pick up some of the dialogue.

"It's over, Washington-Potter! I AM THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO LIVE FOREVER! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!"

"It is never over, Tom. It is only over when I defeat you, which I shall do to-"

Washington-Potter was cut off as the Killing Curse was shot at him, and he toppled to the ground, lifeless. All around him, the battle stopped, as the Wizards and Witches of the light stared at their dead savior. The scene changed, and Benjamin saw this "Tom" sitting on an obsidian throne, watching two figures in black robes and white masks torture a young girl that actually bore some semblance to him; maybe she was one of his descendants?

"Holly Franklin-Flitwick, tell me something: Do you really think you could stand against the might of King Voldemort?"

Once more, the scene changed, and Ben saw first-generation witches/wizards, half-bloods, non-magicals, and creatures alike tortured and prosecuted because of the King's reign. Soon, Voldemort and his Death Eaters were the only life on Earth, and they slowly began killing each other out of boredom, until there were no more human beings left on the planet. A soothing, yet loud, voice began to speak, the being's words reverberating throughout the newly desolate planet.

"Benjamin Franklin. Listen carefully, and listen well, for I have one mission for you. If you accomplish this mission, you will be able to prevent this destruction you currently see from happening.

The mission is quite simple: find a way to send yourself, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, and John Adams to the year 2014. Yes, I know it sounds impossible, but nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it and work towards accomplishing the goal. These people, not only the students of Hogwarts School, but the whole world, need your help once more to protect the country for which General Washington and others are currently fighting. I implore you to accept this task. Do you accept the mission that I am presenting to you today?"

Ben nodded firmly. "Yes, I do. I will endeavor to accomplish it to the best of my ability."

"Excellent. Now wake up, and do not tarry, for time grows short with each passing day."

Franklin woke up, and the day in Congress continued on as normal. Little did he know, Jefferson, Richard, Washington, and John were all just waking up from a similar dream, a dream that would change history forever.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's note: Hey guys! I finally got over my writers block for this story! Soo, anyways, the little scene with Ben and the voice at the end was setting up for the 4th year sequel, Welcome to the Future, Congress, a crack fic which I have already been working on.

If anyone has any questions as to why the heck a certain thing is the way it is, or how an event happened, such as Washington managing to send a present to his Heir 200 years in the future, I will give you one answer: Do not think about the how or the why too much. Just go with the flow here, people, and DO NOT QUESTION LE FABULOUS MOI!