Blessed Chapter 5: Temporal Anomaly
Disclaimer: I own nothing expect the original plot of this story. I do not own Harry Potter or Final Fantasy 13-2.
3rd Person P.O.V
He wandered aimlessly in a plane of darkness as ribbons of purple fog circled around him. He strained to hear something; anything in the distance but his ears felt plugged, and all that he was hearing was static. He searched in the distance but the space seemed to go on forever. It was different than the plane where he had met Hope but Harry could tell that this area was not a part of his world. It felt different… the air was filled with this electricity…Harry stepped forward and heard the sound of his shoes hitting the non-existent floor. Why would he possible hear shoes? He was dreaming wasn't he? He hadn't worn shoes to bed.
He looked down towards his feet and noticed they were covered in cloth and binded by chord to make moccasins. As his senses slowly returned to him he noticed coldness on his left forearm which upon future inspection he found to be a metal arm band shaped like a snake that slithered around hs arm from his wrist to his elbow. He looked to his clothes and was appalled to notice his stripped pajamas had been replaced with the strangest of outfits. His jet black pants fit loosely around his things and his tight fitting white shirt seemed rather plain until his turned his head to inspect his back where cartoon black wings were sewn into the otherwise snow white fabric.
"Hope?" Harry called half-heartedly still clinging to the notion that just like his last strange dream, Hope would come and they would figure a way to get out of there. Harry went quiet for a few moments as he stilled his breathe and perked his ears. He didn't receive any sort of reply for quite a while until he heard a faint voice call in the distance.
"What?" Harry called as he couldn't quite make out the muffled words.
"You know Hope?" a soft female voice asked.
"Yes…." Harry replied tentatively as he begins to hear footsteps behind him approaching quickly. He chooses not to turn around; all he did was stand and wait. Then she stepped out in front of him and all he could see for a moment was a flash of light. But when he finally focused he saw a tall, graceful figure standing before him. She wore a white dress with red ribbon wrapped around the waist, accessorized with gold armlets and a silver necklace. Her light blue eyes stared into his own as she inspected him curiously and hesitantly lifted his bangs up to reveal the scar etched into his forehead. Everything about this woman seemed bright, almost as if she were her own source of illumination. If Harry didn't know better he would have thought she was an angel; no a goddess. He didn't dare move.
"So, Hope did find you, huh?" she smiled lightly as she released his hair. "I'm glad. I was so worried he might have gotten lost in the Historia Crux."
"How did you know Hope was coming to find me?" Harry asked his muscles relaxing. There was that feeling again; that trust he had felt when he met Hope. He remembered Hope had told him of a friend that also had strange dreams like him. Perhaps this woman was….
"Serah?" Harry questioned.
"Yes, how did you know?" Serah asked as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"Hope told me he had a friend whose powers started with strange dreams like mine. He also told me her name was Serah." Harry replied.
"So you're like me then? That's strange…. honestly out of all the people I know that possess these powers, I'm the only one who's ever had the dreams. I wonder why it is that you have them, then?" She mumbled to herself as she crossed her arms and titled her head.
"Um, my name is Harry by the way, Harry Potter." He introduced extending a hand for her to shake. She took it willingly, smiling pleasantly as she did so.
"It's nice to meet you." She commented as she broke the handshake. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
"Why is that? Do these dreams happen a lot?" Harry questioned as he prayed in his mind that the answer would be no.
"Constantly." Serah answered grimly.
"Well at least I wouldn't be the only one here." Harry commented trying to be positive. Suddenly the edges of his vision began to blur and the plugged feeling returned in his eardrums. Serah seemed to be moving further away from him and when he stumbled forward the gap only grew.
"What's happening?" He shouted to Serah's retreating figure.
"You're waking up!" She yelled; the words seemed distant and floated in the air like thick fog. Just before Harry exposed his eyes to the harsh morning light, the last thing he heard was Serah soft voice saying;
"I'll see you soon."
"Harry?" he heard Ron call as slowly the red-head's freckled features came into focus.
"What time is it Ron?" Harry groaned as he begun roll out of bed and uncoil his muscles.
"Like 8:30ish…" Ron replied with a shrug, his voice still heavy with sleep.
"What do you mean 8:30? Hope's probably already waiting for me!" Harry exclaimed as he tripped over a pile of clothes on the floor as he scrambled to grab the things he needed for the day.
"Harry relax, it's the weekend. No normal person gets up before 9:00. Hope's probably still sleeping." Ron reasoned as Harry ran frantic around the room rushing to get ready.
"Not Hope. He said he was researcher and even when I first met him in the Historia Crux he looked perfectly trimmed; not a hair out a place." Harry countered.
"And…. what does that have to do with anything?" Ron asked confused.
"That seems like the type of man who gets up early in the mornings." Harry concluded as he finally finished getting dressed.
"Whatever you say mate." Ron said as he followed Harry out of the room.
"On the other hand…." Harry trailed off as him and Ron began to make their way down the stairwell to the common room. "Hope seems nice enough so it's probably not him we should worry about getting mad at us. It's Hermione; she seemed really upset yesterday. Well I mean more than usual."
"She has a right to be I guess." Ron commented. "We're all freaked out. We're used to Voldemort coming after you because face it; it happens pretty much every year. But this Caius guy…. We know nothing about him. I think that's what would scare Hermione the most. There's no book out there that will tell her what to do. No matter how much she reads, she can't get the upper hand."
"That's probably why she wants us to get Hope on board as much as possible. He's our best and only source of information and for Hermione, information is power." Harry extended as they entered through the threshold into the Gryffindor common room.
"There you are!" Hermione sighed as she charged towards the boys; Neville and Ginny in tow. "Where have you been?"
"Ron didn't wake me up." Harry explained as he raised his hands in defense. "Has Hope come yet?"
"No, he hasn't." Neville replied with a nervous look in his eyes.
"What did I tell you Harry? Man's probably sleeping in like any normal human being." Ron interjected.
"Now's not the time Ron." Ginny chided her older sibling.
"Hey are Fred and George here?" Ron asked as he scanned the room for his brothers, expecting them to be lurking in a corner somewhere. But there was no one to be seen. The group found themselves conveniently all alone in the common room, which was quite peculiar, usually the early birds would be returning from breakfast by now.
"Believe it or not they're already up." Hermione informed. "They went to get breakfast about a half an hour ago."
"Strange… it's weird for them to want to miss out on the fun." Harry remarked. Almost as if summoned by the comment, laughter sounded from the portrait entrance to the Common Room.
"Oh we didn't miss out on anything." remarked Fred between laughs. Everyone shot around to face the twins as they strolled casually into the common room but what they didn't expect to see behind them was Hope; with a shocked look of trauma plastered on his face.
"Hope?" Harry asked unsure how he should interpret his elder's expression.
"What did you do to him?" Ginny exclaimed as she pointed an accusing finger at her brothers.
"Nothing really," Hope assured snapping back into reality as he realized how the situation appeared. "It wasn't them."
"It would seem that Dumbledore forgot to mention that the doors to the common rooms come with passwords." George explained as he grinned from ear to ear finding the situation far more hilarious than it should have been.
"Nor did he mention that the painting could talk." Hope added the sour expression returning to his face.
"What happened?" Ron asked curious to what the twins were getting so cracked up about.
"Hope was having a little trouble with the Fat Lady, you see. He insisted that Dumbledore had given him permission to talk to Harry because he was the last one to see the device. Good cover-up by the way, that'll stop people from asking questions." Fred began.
"But she was having none of it. He kept on trying to tell her but she just wouldn't let him in. Stubborn lady she is. But Hope just kept on being so polite about it. We watched for a good five minutes and we eventually took pity on him and let him in." George finished.
"And that's why I was so late. Sorry about that Harry." Hope apologized.
"It's really no problem." Harry assured glad that he didn't miss his meeting with Hope. "But didn't you and Dumbledore talk last night? Wouldn't he have taken you to his office?"
"Yes…." Hope answered hesitantly not sure if he wanted to know where this conversation was going.
"Dumbledore has a bunch of paintings in his office. Wouldn't you have seen them?" Harry finished.
"Wait a moment. You're telling me that Professor Dumbledore had all of these paintings in his office listening in on what we were saying?" Hope enunciated. This was not good news. Now anybody could know about his past, all they would have to do is ask the paintings. "I thought the reason Dumbledore took me to his office is so I could talk to him alone."
"Well they were probably asleep." Neville reasoned trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room.
"They sleep too?" Hope asked in disbelief as he released a sigh. It looked like his secrets were going to be safe for at least a little longer. "Magic is so different here."
"You can use magic too, Mr. Estheim?" Hermione questioned her eyebrows rising in surprise.
"Yes. But as I said my magic and your magic are quite different. The magic I do is mostly elemental magic with a few offensive and defensive boost spells. Our magic is basically for battle purposes only while yours can do a variety of other helpful tasks as I understand it. In addition there's a lot more people in your world that know magic. I've never had to worry about magic interfering with my equipment before and now while I'm here at Hogwarts…. nothing works."
"You said that your type of magic was only used for battle Mr. Estheim…." Hermione commented. "Does that mean you're a solider?" She asked hesitantly.
"I guess you could say I was…. in a way. Not in any normal sense." Hope answered as he trailed off. "That's another story for another time I'm afraid, for somewhere much more private than here. I had given up magic when I became a researcher but now it looks like my circumstances have changed."
A drawn out silence followed. Harry knew that he himself trusted Hope for whatever strange bond seemed to link him and all the other time travelers. But some of his friends didn't seem to feel the same connection. Harry inwardly sighed when he saw Hermione narrow her eyes in suspicion.
"Either way I really should remember my manners. I haven't introduced myself yet although you all seem to know me. I am Director Hope Estheim. Where I'm from I'm a researcher who studies space time anomalies, or in other words the gates like the one that appeared here and their effects. I hope I can be of some assistance to you in the future." Hope introduced extending a hand for the adolescents to shake. Each teen in turn shook the researcher's hand and supplied their names. Hope didn't pause however until he shook the hand of Hermione Granger. Hope could see the masked suspicion in her eyes. She may have been smiling and shaking his hand but she didn't trust him yet. Hope had to acknowledge this girl was clever, and cautious in matters of the mind. Exactly the type of person he would want on his team at the Academy.
"Anyways I don't think that most of us have eaten breakfast so why don't we grab so food from the Great Hall?" Harry suggested. "We can go outside after words with our food. We shouldn't get overheard there."
"Sounds good to me." Hope nodded.
"Alright let's go!" Ron cheered. "I'm starving."
"The amount of manners you display in public amazes me, Ronald." Hermione scoffed.
Once the group had finally made their way to the Great Hall, Hope separated from the crowd and went to grab his breakfast. He didn't want to be seen too often with Harry and his friends; it would cause too much suspicion. But it didn't take long before Professor Umbridge intercepted him on his way back from the staff's breakfast table.
"Might I ask where you're going, Mr. Estheim?" She asked feigning innocence. Hope knew that the professor was all too aware the children surrounding them had quieted down to listen to their conversation.
"I'm starting to investigate the device today. I'm about to interview the students who last saw it."
"Well why wouldn't you ask the staff? I'm sure they would be more than happy to answer your questions." She smiled as she pointed towards the gate. Hope briefly acknowledged that a cluster of staff had been stationed beside it to stop curious students from getting to close. It was almost as if they were expecting Caius to come out at a moment's notice.
"Well I thought that since the students have some time off, now would be the most effective time to question them. I'll interview the staff starting after classes on Monday when the students are busy." Hope replied.
"I see. What an effective planner you are Mr. Estheim." Dolores complimented falsely, her eyes betraying her fake politeness. What was she trying to do? Hope knew that Dolores wouldn't kick him out of the school but she was clearly trying to turn the school against him. Hope cast a sideward glace at the students surrounding them and noticed how they all had started to lose interest; he knew he had won this fight.
"Good day Professor." Hope said as he began to make his way back towards this doors where he knew Harry would be waiting for him.
"What was that all about?" Neville asked when they were out of earshot of the Great Hall.
"Looks like Umbridge is trying to wage war." Hope admitted. "It didn't go very well for her though."
"Don't worry about the old hag." Fred assured as the group began to walk towards the grounds. "Nobody but the Slytherins listen to her anyways."
"Slytherins?" Hope asked.
"It's one of the houses in our school. When you first come to Hogwarts they sort you into a house. You can be a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff, a Gryffindor, like us, or a Ravenclaw, based on your personality. "Hermione explained as they crossed the threshold of the entrance into the castle and stepped outside.
"So does one of the teachers sort you? How can they tell what you're like if they don't even know you?" Hope questioned absent-mindedly as he inspected the courtyard. He marveled at the stone creatures that were carved into the fountain. They looked so real that they could jump to life at any moment. Knowing how things had been going for him so far in this world he didn't question that they could.
"Um they kinda have…. a hat that sorts you." Ron began as Hope snapped back to reality. "It sorta looks into your mind and knows what house you'd be best in."
"And of course it talks." George added with a grin.
"Is there anything here that doesn't talk?" Hope asked with a sigh.
"Anyways Hope." Harry cut off trying to get the conversation back on track. The group was now past the front courtyard and into the open fields of the castle's grounds. "Before we start asking you questions there something I want to tell all of you.
"What is it Harry?" Hope asked starting to become slightly concerned.
"I had another dream last night." Harry admitted.
"Another dream about Voldemort?" Hermione asked.
"Who's Voldemort?" Hope wondered.
"Remember the man that killed my mother? That's him. The 'Dark Lord', they call him." Harry explained. "But no, my dream was not about Voldemort. It was another dream like the one I had when I met you, Hope."
"What did you see?" Hope gasped.
"I met Serah." Harry stated as he looked Hope in the eyes to gauge his reaction.
"You can communicate with her in dreams?" Hope asked as his voice became distant. "Despite it being awful that you seem to be having these dream frequently now, it could be useful to be able to talk to Serah."
"Why's that?" Hermione inquired.
"She has much more experience with both time travel and Caius than me. If we ever run into a problem it'll be useful to have her as a resource." Hope provided.
"More experience than you? I thought you researched this stuff?" George grilled.
"I do but Serah has more hands on experience. She's had the power much longer than me and has been travelling through and fixing our timeline for quite some time. She's had more than her fair share of run-ins with Caius as well. In fact it was Serah who told me that I had the power." Hope elaborated. "So we should definitely ask her as many questions as we can. Harry, are you listening?" Hope asked as he waved a hand in front of the boy's vacant eyes.
"I feel like something's…..wrong." Harry said as he stared off towards the direction of the forest.
"I don't feel anything." Ginny remarked as her forehead creased.
"I do." Hope agreed as he suddenly felt a familiar energy wash over him.
"We need to go to the Forbidden Forest." Harry concluded as he began to sprint down a hill, his friends in quick pursuit.
"Um… if it's a forbidden forest perhaps we shouldn't go in?" Hope suggested.
"It's never stopped us before. Don't worry about it." Fred scoffed as he rolled his eyes. With that the group soon found themselves out of breathe as they arrived in front of the forest.
"Nothing seems out of the ordinary." Harry commented as he stepped on the dirt path that would lead him into the heart of the dark forest. Everything seemed normal, but he still couldn't the nagging feeling that something was wrong out of the back of his mind.
"Let's go in and check it out." Hope suggested as he pulled his boomerang out of the pouch strapped to his waist.
"What is that?" Ron asked as he tried to stifle a laugh. "You fight with a boomerang?"
"Trust me this boomerang can do more than you think." Hope assured as he briefly activated the electric shock function to prove his point. "I'll admit I modified it a bit."
"Hope?" Harry called in dismay as he rushed ahead into the forest in front of the others. "What is this?" At the sound of Harry's distress the cluster of people sprinted into the forest. What they found was certainly out of the ordinary. The forest seemed to abruptly stop and suddenly the trees were warped and clouded in a thick dark fog.
"A paradox." Hope answered grimly.