And the Third Chapter. This becomes the Halloween that was thought of and promised back in Chapter 6 of Second Chance
Through the Looking Glass Chapter 3: Camping in the Great Hall
(Characters featured prominently: Gryffindor fifth years, Frank Longbottom, Alice Prince, Professor Packard (Ancient Runes), Jebidiah "Cookie" Farnsworth (sixth year Hufflepuff), Amelia Bones, Edgar Bones)
(Halloween, the evening before Hogsmeade kidnapping)
Harry looked down gloomily, as he sat down for supper at the Gryffindor table. He never looked forward to Halloween anymore, despite the urgings of others. The day held nothing but bad luck for him. The troll in his first year. The first petrifications victim in his second year. The torn up portrait of Gryffindor tower in his third year. His name coming out of the Goblet of Fire in his fourth year. Umbridge nearly catching Sirius through the Floo in his fifth year. And add to that streak that (according to the old Sirius of his time anyway, as told during the Christmas holiday) that Voldemort had come for his parents that very night oh so many years ago...
Yeah, he wasn't going to look forward to the day, no matter what the Marauders tried to tell about the annual Halloween prank, where all four Marauders planned a massive one that usually affected over two-thirds of the school.
Surprisingly, though, the rest of the day had gone smoothly. No trolls. No attacks on the towers. No petrified cats hanging from the wall chandelier, no death tournament he would be forced to participate in...
That often meant the event would only get worse later, considering all those bad things had happened during or after supper. He was even warier considering no pranks from the Marauders had happened yet at all. And that meant none. No small hex of a student that annoyed Sirius. No jinxing Snape for bad-mouthing James. No hair changing charms for any of the houses. No single prank had been performed all day. And that was not the Marauder modus operandi.
Before Harry could take a single bite to eat, though, Dumbledore stood up. "May I have everyone's attention, please?" His voice was as soft as if he merely spoke with a man in a quiet room, but instantly all talking from the four tables fell silent.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said genially. "As many of you know, the Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw dormitories and common rooms are currently suffering from a very peculiar problem: a very strong stench of dung bombs lingers in the rooms entirely, the beds in the Slytherin dormitories are covered in slime, the Hufflepuff dormitories have their floors turned to ice, the Ravenclaws dormitories all have a dozen occupied bird nests in them each, and all taps for water and all shower heads release only stinksap instead of water." Harry glanced behind him to see Sirius and Peter snicker away, and Remus suppressing his own grin. His father was too busy staring at Lily to notice.
"Unfortunately," Dumbledore continued as most of the three affected houses glared in the Marauders' general direction, "whoever performed this prank," here Dumbledore gave a knowing glance in the Marauders' direction, but continued unabated, "did too good a job of it, for even with the help of the House Elves, and Professors Flitwick, Slughorn, McGonagall, Sprout, and myself, we are unable to undo either the stench or the modified taps. In fact, I'm afraid we cannot undo the enchantments that cause either to linger until tomorrow in the early morning."
Many students started whispering in dismay at one another at the situation, but fell silent again as Dumbledore held up his hand. "As such, you will all be sleeping in the Great Hall tonight, in Wizarding Tents handed out to each house and year group. And before you ask, yes, the Gryffindors will be joining us. We cannot leave a house out of this wonderful opportunity to go camping."
Many students started chattering excitedly with one another. Aside from waiting at events like the Quidditch World Cup, and searching for Snorkacks, most of the Wizarding world rarely went camping, from what Harry overheard. Even if they went to a Safari, most wizards and witches Apparated or Portkeyed to the nearest hotel. As such, most people here would be excited to sleep in a tent. The Marauders sat there rather gloomily, like Harry himself now, or complaining with one another right with the few Gryffindors who would rather sleep in the dorms than in the tents. Dumbledore, though, smiled widely as he stared down at the Marauders. Harry chuckled, realising this was Dumbledore's subtle way of getting back at the Marauders for causing them so much work.
"Now, unless anyone has further urgent questions," a hand rose up from the Slytherin table, interrupting Dumbledore's attempt at a dismissal. "Yes, Miss Wilkinson?"
"Why can't the tents be divided by sex, rather than by year?" The seventh year girl asked. "I... I have some people in my year I don't get along with very well."
Dumbledore smiled sadly. "Alas, while that would admittedly have been my own first choice as well, the tents aren't that large, and we don't have that many tents to divide between you all. However, if people can get a Wizarding Tent here before Curfew and are willing to share with your dorm mates and willing to sacrifice the use of a school one for Miss Wilkinson and her friends, feel free to owl your families or friends who own one."
A dozen students scattered throughout the hall chattered excitedly, while many people groaned. Unless someone's family lived in Hogsmeade, practically next door to the castle, no one could likely get a tent here before curfew, as curfew was only two hours away, the owls would take too long, during the war the Hogwarts Floo was charmed so it only allowed people to talk with others, rather than allowing things and people to pass through as well (a security measure to prevent people from smuggling in illegal objects, or to stop Death Eaters from being let in by a sympathiser), and no shop in Hogsmeade sold tents like that this time of year.
"Now, any further question that can't be asked of another teacher and would require the attention of the Headmaster?" Dumbledore asked loudly. "After all, the longer the heads of houses and I are here, the longer it will take to undo the enchantments and the longer it will be until you can return to your dormitories." Many people who had moved to raise a hand lowered them, realising their questions weren't important enough they couldn't be asked of another teacher. Dumbledore smiled genially at them. "Very well. You aren't prohibited from going to the common rooms and dormitories to retrieve the essential sleepwear and other items, but you should be informed that the stench is still quite strong and will permeate you in seconds, and is quite uncomfortable to smell. Curfew is the same, but instead, people will gather in the Great Hall, rather than returning to their common rooms. And now you are all free to leave."
Indeed, many students rose from the table in their excitement to leave, and as soon as the last person touching them left, the tables and benches disappeared, and a little over two dozen tents appeared in their place. They were divided and identified by coloured numbers floating over them: one for each year, and each house. As such, there were four ones, four twos, and so forth, the numbers either red with a golden edge, green with a silver edge, yellow with a black edge, or blue with a bronze edge.
Harry briefly returned to his dorm to grab his version of the cloak and map and things too important to leave laying about, as well as his pyjamas and locking his remaining stuff up in his trunk. As much as he trusted the professors and the Fat Lady, he didn't want anyone getting any funny ideas and try and go through his stuff. Usually, he was there, or the Marauders were, and the five of them (himself from his time at the Dursleys, the Marauders from too many pranks suffered from one another at night) were ingrained light sleepers and would always wake up whenever the dorm door opened. But now, with the Gryffindors ordered to sleep in the Great Hall, Harry wasn't taking any chances.
To his surprise, Vinnie came up halfway through as well. He hadn't expected the others to come until later. "Securing your own stuff too, huh?" Harry asked. Vinnie nodded.
"I have too much experience with the Marauders nicking my stuff for a prank not to do this," Vinnie said, as he gathered up a bunch of Potion ingredients and muggle tape and tossed them in his trunk. Harry held his breath when he actually glimpsed sticks of dynamite in there, complete with fuzes and such, in addition to the now-finished alarm-clock bomb from the first history class, as well as an old bomb from very far in the past, likely even from the time of the Golden Age of Piracy: a featureless black sphere except for a small stud on top with its own fuse. If anyone set Vinnie's trunk on fire, it would likely blow up the entirety of Gryffindor tower, if not much more. Fortunately, it soon closed after Vinnie tossed in a couple of matchboxes and scissors.
"You looking forward to the camping in the Great Hall?" Harry asked.
Vinnie paused before answering. "Well, I know one thing for sure. With the Marauders' antics, they'll keep us up all night."
Harry nodded. There was no denying that. Harry and Vinnie finished around the same time, so they walked down back to the Great Hall together. Various people sat on conjured benches, chairs, or couches in front of a small scattering of campfires as they arrived, likely created to truly simulate an actual camping trip. Of course, they could've just sat outside on the grounds for that, but Harry stopped trying to figure out Dumbledore's logic a long time ago. Harry and Vinnie moved to a fire made in front of the Gryffindor fifth year tent, which included all of said fifth years, as well as Frank and Alice sitting on Neville's left, and Amelia and Edgar Bones sitting on Frank's other side, an empty spot left next to Amelia. Harry sat down next to her, only to hear a loud farting sound as he did.
Moliere immediately collapsed on the floor behind him, rolling on the floor and laughing his arse off, and Harry looked down at his seat, and rolled his eyes as he saw Moliere had snuck a whoopie cushion onto it just as Harry had sat down.
"MOLE!" Nearly everyone in the group admonished him, glaring at him for the bad, almost childish joke. Only Sirius didn't, the smile on his face betraying he found it amusing, too.
"Ah, forgive me," Moliere breathed, his French accent slipping through as he heaved himself back on his spot on the bench between Joshua and James, briefly lifting his omnipresent omnioculars to wipe tears of mirth away from his eyes.. "Ah could not rezizt."
"Of course you couldn't," Harry mumbled. Before any conversations could resume, though, a sixth year Hufflepuff walked by, pushing a cauldron on a small cart as he did. Harry instantly grimaced and tried to look away. He didn't know the 'puff's real name, but he tried to avoid him during the evenings. It wasn't that he wasn't nice. Rather the opposite: he had an energetic, wild personality Harry had seen sometimes in one of Dudley's cowboy movies, whenever he'd snuck a glance into the latter's room at least, and the 'puff always tried to help any younger years that he could.
No, the reason Harry avoided him then was because of the boy's cooking. He always tried to give people some of his own self-made food. And for all of the boy's cheerful personality, even Hagrid cooked better. Even Hedwig had balked at it and immediately flown off. And it was made worse because he always tried to give Harry and James extra large portions, because they were 'so thin that if they turned their heads sideways and stuck out their tongues, they looked like a pair of zippers'. And Harry didn't have the heart to outright say the stuff was horrible. None of them did.
"Here you go, Harry. Put some meat on them bones," Cookie said, as he shoved Harry a plate with a grin on his face. Harry pulled a face at it. From the way a Cookie had announced it earlier, it was supposed to be some sort of salad with escargots and Oriental spring rolls, but it looked like it was something a giant had scraped from its boot after stepping on a crowd. And smelled even worse.
He immediately cleared his face when he saw Cookie looking at him in puzzlement. He tried to smile. "Uh, thanks Cookie. It looks... Greasier than usual."
He knew most of the others didn't take it as a compliment, but Cookie immediately smiled as if Christmas had come early. "You like it?!" When Harry tentatively nodded, Cookie immediately grabbed the cauldron. "Then have some more. You still look too much like them zippers to me," he advised, as he upended practically a quarter of the cauldron on Harry's plate, so much that it actually dripped off the sides of his plate. He then walked off to give James a similarly sized portion.
A sigh came from quite closely, and Harry turned to see Moliere look at longingly. "I wanted the Escargots."
Harry grinned, and switched plates with the boy. "Knock yourself out, Mole."
Moliere now wore a look similar to Cookies, and immediately started eating, forgoing eating utensils provided with the plate and grabbing it all with his hands. Hermione winced in disgust, before turning to Ron. "I'm sorry, Ron. I thought you were the epitome of bad eating habits and table etiquette, and judged you accordingly. But it looks like I was wrong. There are worse eaters out there."
Ron winced himself upon seeing Moliere eat like that. "Hermione, if I ate half as bad as that for all those years, I have my own apologies to give to you."
"You guys sound pretty close," Audrey noted. "You must all know one another for a long time."
Harry was about to nod in agreement, then paused. Aside from the Marauders and Frank and Alice, every single person in the group was paying close attention to them, even Moliere through his attempts at eating. He considered his words carefully, knowing everything he said about his past travels would be closely watched and clearly remembered, and any inconsistency would be picked out near instantly. Like how the others did with convincing him to restart the DA in the middle of the Great Hall, he decided to stick as much to the truth as we could.
"Most of us do," he admitted. "Though we only really got close about four or five years ago now. Even Neville and I didn't really interact much together until we were like eleven or something."
Neville nodded knowingly, also realising they were at least trying to stick to the truth while giving their alibis for not attending Hogwarts, while the other four time travellers seemed surprised at exactly how closely Harry was sticking to it. Fortunately, the listeners didn't seem to notice, their attention on Harry as he was the storyteller.
"We all split up for our early years until we were eleven, so each of us could get extra tutoring on the types of magic we each had a natural affinity for," Neville explained upon their puzzled looks. "For Harry, that was Defensive magic, nonverbal magic, and an attempt at wandless magic. For me, it was Charms, elemental magic specifically, also nonverbal, and Herbology and Earth magic."
"I am supposed to be good at Charms," Luna supplied for herself, as she dreamily took a bite from her 'Escargot sludge'. "As well as enchanting and a natural affinity for creatures of all kinds, both magical and non-magical. All were very educational experiences."
Ron shrugged sheepishly. "I'm not all that special like them. I'm only really good at healing and Transfiguration. Like James over there, the latter comes naturally for me. Well, unless being very good on a broom counts. My sister and I have that in spades."
Ginny shrugged. "Yep. My only real magical affinity is DADA, though. For the rest, I'm more of a jack-of-all-trades, as Hermione called it once."
Hermione nodded and spoke up. "I'm also quite good at charms apparently. And while I don't have the magical power to perform any of the following really well, I seem to have a natural understanding of the theoretical aspects of Arithmancy, Warding, and Ancient Runes of various Runic languages."
"How's that?" Vinnie asked. "From what you told us, you were muggleborn."
"That's our fault, actually," Harry said, pointing to himself and Ron before any of the others could make things awkward by not coming up with a good alternate story. He knew a situation like this might come up, where they'd have to share details on their journeys, and had been preparing for quite some time. "I needed to go to the dentist once, since my instructors were indisposed and couldn't heal it magically, and I was too young to do it myself. And Ron and his father, who's a pureblood wizard who also has a fascination with Muggles, wanted to see what a dentist was like, so they took me."
"And I was the kid of said dentists," Hermione said, catching on to what Harry and Neville were doing with the back stories. "They performed accidental magic around me that my parents and I saw, and it helped explain a lot of things. They offered us a place in their tutoring group that traveled abroad, and... well, here I am."
The others nodded in interest, and Amelia looked very contemplative. "Interesting. And at eleven you all met up again so you could all learn the other basic subjects together."
Harry nodded. "Yep. That's not to say we all got along from the start, though," he grinned. "As a matter of fact, Hermione and Ron constantly fought first few times they met. If I remember correctly, Hermione called Ron a 'biased, uneducated prat', while Ron called Hermione a-"
That was as far as he got before said students being described both dashed across the circle and tried to smother him with their pillows, their plates of sludge on the floor of the tent and forgotten. Both were blushing at their choice of words they described their younger counterparts. And inadvertently pushed so hard he toppled backwards, to the snickering of the others.
They did fail to take one thing into account, though: Neville had also been in their year back then.
"They only really became friends after they took down a mountain troll together," he said. Hermione and Ron's heads swivelled around, gaping (like most of the others) at Neville for revealing that, while Luna and Ginny shared a look before giggling together as Harry got back into his seat. Harry, fortunately, got the chance to breathe again.
"You what?!" Edgar asked. "A mountain troll? But you were eleven-year-olds, you barely knew any spells. How the hell did you manage that?"
Harry smirked, and recounted (a highly edited version of) the tale of how they became friends with Hermione: how Ron insulted her after correcting him on the levitation charm's pronunciation, her hiding in a bathroom on Halloween, the troll appearing during supper and the teacher supposed to defend them fainting at the news, them searching for her, finding her and the troll far out of the way of where it was sighted, Harry jumping on its back and sticking his wand up its nose, and Ron ironically defeating the troll with the very spell he was corrected on earlier.
"And Ron cast it on the club, swung it upwards," Harry made an excessive gesture, dramatising it for the audience, "before swinging it back down, letting it crash on the troll's head, and knocking it unconscious. We got Hermione out of there. Her rattled and covered in dust, Ron staring in amazement at his wand, and this wand," Harry held up his wand. "Covered in troll bogeys."
"And I made sure he washed that afterwards," Hermione said when except for Moliere all of them pulled disgusted face. "Thoroughly."
"She didn't even offer to help," Harry said cheekily. "OW!" Hermione smirked, withdrawing her hand from swatting his neck and moving back to her seat beside Remus from where she'd been standing, Ron following to his own spot a second later. Harry cringed, feeling his muscles had cramped up from the fall and the slap together. He tried to rub it discreetly, but evidently not discreetly enough.
"You alright there, Harry?" Joshua asked, getting up and standing over him.
"No, it's fine," Harry said immediately. "You don't need to-"
"Mm, hmm," the fellow fifth year hummed, clearly not believing it for a second. "Sit still for a moment."
Harry tried to protest, as both Edgar and Amelia shuffled a bit away from him to give Joshua some space. But Joshua grabbed both sides of his head. Before Harry could yell in indignity or pull his head loose, the other boy gave a few sharp pulls and twists Harry was very sure his head and neck weren't supposed to bend. Still, he was used to worse from Harry-hunting, Malfoy's attempts at hexing Harry, and had Voldemort's Cruciatus cast on him in fourth year, and Joshua had nothing on them. He didn't make a sound.
After about five such twists, Joshua let go, stepped over the bench between Frank and Amelia, and looked at Harry. "How about now?"
Harry tried to move his neck... And found all the pains from previously gone. He smiled. "Much better, thanks."
"How'd you learn to do that?" Hermione asked in curiosity, and most of the others (Lily and Audrey especially) leaned forward in interest as well.
"Known how to most of my life," Joshua answered. "Grew up with an Arapaho Medicine Man for an uncle,"
"Really?" Audrey asked in surprise. "You're a Native American?"
Joshua nodded, reaching into his jeans pocket. "Born and raised with 'em, mostly. My father was an army medic, and he settled down in the Kansas territory..." He finally found what he was looking for, a piece of paper, and unfolded it so they could all see. It showed a man who was indeed clearly military standing next to a Native American Woman, both of them smiling brightly as the woman held what must've been an infant Joshua in their arms. "After he met my mother," Joshua finished as he stopped showing it to them all.
"No kidding," Ron grunted, finally admitting defeat and settling Cookie's plate away from him, not a single bite taken from it.
"Nope," Joshua contradicted, pulling some sort of good-luck pendant with various animal skins from another pocket close to his wand. He pointed at two of them. "I got a sheepskin from Howard U, and a Bearskin from old Iron Cloud." He put the pendant back in his pocket. "Just as I was about to enroll into high school with a doctor's career in mind, I got my letter I was a muggleborn wizard. Now, my father's pretty open-minded, so instead of immediately enrolling me into Salem or Ilvermorny, he looked all the schools. Durmstrang in Norway, Beauxbatons in the French Pyrenees, Castelobruxo in the Amazon Rainforest, this Russian school called Koldovstoretz, Mahoutokoro in Japan, and the Uagadou School in Uganda are some of the ones he considered, before finally settling for Hogwarts," Joshua grinned, gesturing around him. "Most of you can attest for most of my life from there: I got on the express and immediately approached Madam Pomfrey for the requirements for a Healer's apprenticeship. I'm starting it next year."
"You all alright in there?" an older voice asked, and they all turned. Professor Packard, the Ancient Runes teacher, stood in the opening.
Packard wasn't too bad: an elderly chain-smoking woman even by Wizarding standards at a hundred and nine years old, she taught them Ancient Runes, though the class left a bit to be desired. It wasn't that she didn't know the subject. The thirteen masteries of the Runic Languages she'd fully mastered hanging behind her desk on the wall proved that. No, it was that she didn't enjoy teaching at all. Her face never lit up with joy whenever a student grasped a difficult aspect or frowned whenever someone made fun of the subject. She displayed no enthusiasm whatsoever. But unlike Snape, who had expressed his displeasure of teaching by Slytherin favouritism, verbal abuse, and untalented instruction, Packard displayed it by apathy. Pure and bored apathy. With maybe a few pinches of cynicism and sarcasm. The phrase 'then we're all gonna die', followed closely by her putting out her cigarette, was repeated so often whenever someone asked about what would happen if a particular rune scheme went wrong James had attempted to start a betting pool on how often they could get her to say it in a week.
Not very motivating to do well in class, but occasionally very amusing. Even if they occasionally wondered why the hell she was still there, although Remus figured that at her age she had nowhere else left to go.
"Yeah, we're alright professor," Harry said, and the others said something similar. Of all the Professors doing their rounds to ensure the children behaved themselves, there could be worse people to do so.
"Oh joy," she muttered.
"Anyone any leftovers?" Cookie asked, strolling by again. The response was much more apparent this time as everyone tried to get out of it. Audrey claimed to be watching her weight, Vinnie mouthed off he was still busy with his last portion, and Mary and Marlene claimed they might stop by for more later. Harry's favourite reaction was Moliere, who tried to hide under the bench since the Escargots were all out. But given his rather rotund stature, it drew more attention to him than hiding him. Cookie minded none of them, though.
"Oh, don't you worry, folks," he assured them, as he walked off with the cauldron on a trolley "It'll keep, and keep, and keep,"
Packard sighed and picked up Ron's abandoned plate. "Thank Helga I lost my sense of taste years ago," she said, as she tipped the contents into the fire. The others did likewise, all looking at the plates with looks of disgust on their faces, as it extinguished the fire.
It seemed to be some sort of signal, for all around the hall fires were going out, and students headed for their respective tents (or in the case of two, who'd gotten their tents before curfew, set them up with a flick of their wands). Harry cast a Tempus and looked in surprise. He didn't know it had been that close to Curfew. Amelia, Edgar, Frank, and Alice got up as well, with Alice moving over to give Neville and Lily some sort of goodbye.
"See you tomorrow at the carriages," he said, waving Amelia goodbye.
"See you then," she agreed with a smile and wave. "Bye."
He smiled as well, before she and Edgar jogged to the seventh year Hufflepuff tents. Frank and Alice, after a hug between Alice and Neville that got a few odd stares (considering all they knew of the relationship between those two was that Neville was the not-that-much younger brother of the guy she dated), and a kiss on Lily's cheek and a from-here-inaudible word of goodbye, headed for the seventh year Gryffindor tent two tents down the row. Shrugging, he and the others all walked inside.
This tent was larger on the inside than the tent Mister Weasley had borrowed for the World Cup, but to compensate for that it had, aside from the massive room they'd all be sleeping in, only seven different rooms, five of them bathrooms and two of them changing rooms for those that didn't feel comfortable doing so in front of others (like Remus, Neville, Hermione, and Peter), given it was a tent with both boys and girls and in case one couldn't do so in the bathroom. James, Harry, Ginny, Sirius, and Marlene had no issues with this, but that was only a small surprise. The Quidditch locker rooms were also communal, and if you have been changing in there since your first year you tend to get over any awkwardness rather quickly. Harry still tried to cover himself a bit when he changed, but that was more to cover the scars from the Basilisk, the Graveyard Ritual, and the Blood-Quill than any prudishness on his part.
James had no such prudishness either, and one glance had Harry looking away and rolling his eyes as James was bare chested and about to undo his trousers.
"Potter!" Lily called, who Harry noted amusedly was still blushing even as she tried to look away. But given the Tent had no other decorations aside from the sleeping mats, blankets, pillows, and doors to the bathroom there was little else to look at aside from their current 'tent mates', and most of them were finding this situation rather amusing, even if they were at least decent enough not to snicker and laugh at Lily's expense
"What?" James asked, deciding to humour Lily and keeping his underwear on, immediately changing into his pyjama pants. "The way I figure, the only reason you ought to be afraid of showing yourself is if you're ashamed of something," he grinned, buttoning up his shirt. "Something I'm clearly not, as you could've seen."
"Still," Lily persisted. "Not everyone wants to see that!"
"In the future you might want to?" James retorted with a smile, before heading into the bathroom Hermione was just coming out of, leaving a sputtering Lily behind. Harry rolled his eyes, resolving to talk to James about that maturity idea. He'd told James Lily had only started to like him when he'd matured a bit and grown up, but the latter had clearly latched onto the wrong part of that aspect, something that needed discussing.
Curiously, Sirius did his best to get in the bathroom before Luna, and locking the door behind him. The two hadn't spoken since the time Luna had snogged Sirius during the party a few days ago, and Sirius was doing his best to avoid her. Harry frowned, wondering what was going on. As far as he knew Sirius and Marlene weren't together, and the latter girl didn't seem upset by what had happened at all, so it couldn't be the fact they were together. In fact, Marlene had been more amused at the time than anything, being one of those wolf-whistling Luna for being so daring.
"Hey, Audrey?" Luna asked as she waited, distracting Harry and breaking his line of thought. "I know some about the other girls: Lily a social, bookwormish muggleborn (no offence meant, Lily), Mary a fashion-obsessed girl that loves to hear and spread rumours, and Marlene as the Quidditch athlete. But what about you, exactly?"
Audrey shrugged. "Not much to tell. My papa was a mechanic that used to work on cruise ships until he got my sister and me. And my mother... Let's just say that when they met my dad paid in cash. He was still responsible, though, showing up and supporting her when he learned I was his, and taking care and loving me as his own. But there was no romantic love between my parents at any point."
Harry was silent as he listened to her, as did most of the time travelers. Audrey continued. "Mum died in childbirth, so I grew up only with my dad and a half sister twelve years my senior from his last relationship. He originally wanted two sons, though. One to take up his machine shop, and the other to be a boxing champion." She empathised that last bit by taking up her rolled up blankets and punching it. "But he got my sister and me instead," she finished, as she rolled her blanket out and took off her boots, before laying down for the evening.
"Ah," Neville said uncertainly, having come out of the bathroom during the telling. "And, uh, your sister?"
Audrey grinned here. "She's twenty seven and oh, with a shot at the title next month," she told them proudly. "Anyway, I promised when I learned of magic that I would get him a flying motorbike, and that's what I've been working on since I got here: just finished the five year period of building the perfect one from the ground up. Now I'm busy all I need to learn to get it to fly."
"When you've figured out how to do it, can I get one too?" Sirius called from the bathroom he was in. "Always wanted a bike, and a flying one's even better."
"Only if you tell people I did the enchanting!" she called back. "No taking credit for my work!"
"Deal!" He called back, before they heard a shower turn on.
"Lobcock," Audrey muttered. "Anyway, once I finish Hogwarts I intend to head to the USA, and study up on Technomancy. Maybe even get Magicals to accept there are other ways to fly around other than brooms and carpets."
"Yeah, a flying Hogwarts express would be awesome!" Ron said in agreement. "I bet you'd make thousands of galleons doing that."
Harry grinned. His only experience with flying muggle vehicles so far was Mister Weasley's car and the very distant memory of Hagrid carrying him on Sirius' bike, but to fly the Express to the school instead of simply riding it there would be awesome.
The outside flap of the tent opened again, and Professor Packard looked in again. This time, though, she was dressed in a bathrobe, with round things in her hair Harry had seen Petunia use before but had never heard the name of, as well as a coloured cream mask.
"Still alive?" she asked. The others all nodded, while Hermione raised her hand.
"Professor, if it's not too personal to ask... Why are you wearing a bathrobe?" Her tone sounded hesitant yet curious.
Professor Packard huffed in annoyance. "Another time-delayed prank has nearly every Professor's office covered in dung, and all cupboards filled with class material has been spelled shut. Since only the headmaster's office was unaffected, we elected to sleep in the Hall with you lot and deal with it in the morning. As for the bathrobe... I sleep in the nude." With that bombshell, she walked off outside. Harry, and he was sure quite a few others as well, stared after her. A professor, forced to-
Something slapped into his face from the Marauders' direction, and he grabbed it. It was a blindfolding sleeping mask.
"You'll all want one of these," Remus said, cringing as he was handing them out to the others and tossing them to those not in easy reach. "We learned during our nighttime explorations that she sleepwalks. And she has been doing the nude-sleeping for decades, so..."
Harry immediately got the picture, and finished getting dressed into his pyjamas, a simple bland red pair with golden squares, and put the mask on top of his head. Vinnie was already dressed in his sleeping ware, a simple green tank top shirt and swimming shorts, and curiously (like Harry did to hide the Blood-Quill scars) sleeping with gloves on. His Potions Gloves, to be precise. He simply lay down on his bed, mask already over his eyes. The others all also lay down on some of the spots available, the others from the bathrooms and changing rooms doing so
"And as far as me goes..." he started, laying his head on his pillow with his hands crossed underneath it. "I just like to blow things up."
Joshua didn't seem to like that, walked over, and pulled the mask up so far the cords tying it behind Vinnie's head were stretched as far as they could go. "Come on, Vinnie," he said reproachfully. "Tell those kids the truth." Before letting go and letting it snap back onto his head. The snap was apparently so strong Vinnie's head bounced for a moment, before the boy rose his head in annoyance, the mask askew as it had landed on only one eye, the other on the cheek below.
Nevertheless, Vinnie sat up on his elbows and started telling. "After my grandparents from Italy moved here my family started a flower shop in Diagon Alley, a bit away from the Cauldron." Vinnie got up his hand and started counting off his fingers. "We would sell Roses... Carnations, Baby's Breath... You name a flower, magical or not, and we would sell it. One day, I'm helping with this order of making three hundred corsages for some Ministry-funded ball. You know, the ones they put on the wrist." Vinnie flexed his wrist to emphasize. "And from all over the country, hundreds of ladies come. 'Where is it?' 'When is it ready?' 'Does it match my dress?'" Vinnie rubbed his eyes in remembrance. "It's a nightmare. Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door in a store dealing with muggle appliances, a gas line or something, and BOOM!" Vinnie rapidly spread his arms and briefly stood up to bring home how powerful the explosion was. "No more Muggle Appliances." He rolled over so he was on his stomach, and leaned his chin on one hand as he gestured with the other with an unlit match between his fingers. "Blew me right through the front window." He lit the match, and held it in front of him.
"It was like a sign from God. I found myself, in that boom."
Harry was about to ask further, but they were distracted by odd sounds. During Vinnie's retelling of his story, Moliere had brought in a large plant pot as tall as Joshua and twice as wide as Slughorn, and begin digging, omnioculars and light still on his face despite his pyjamas. After they morbidly watched Mole dig around in the pot for another half minute the French kid finally stopped, clicked off his light, and chuckled.
Ron slowly looked from Moliere to his fellow year mates. "So what's Mole's story?" he carefully asked.
"Trust me on this," Joshua broke in before any of the others could answer, a traumatised look on his face. "You don't want to know," he immediately pointed with his wand to Lily, Mary, and Audrey, who had since gotten into their own sleeping clothes, Audrey and the two Muggleborns amusedly as simple as Vinnie's with only a tank top and shorts as well despite Lily's protests of James showing too much, compared to the pureblood and/or prudish Hermione, Ginny, Marlene, and Luna, who all wore pyjamas covering their entire body, sleep masks, and slippers.
"Lily, Mary, Audrey, don't tell them," he ordered. "You shouldn't have told me. But you did. And now I'm telling all of you, you don't want to know."
And with that, after a brief time where the last few stragglers (Harry included) did their business in the bathroom, they all got to sleep.
Or tried to.
"Remus, move!" Sirius heatedly whispered.
"You move!" Remus returned with a similar whisper. "Your elbow keeps hitting my side!"
"I'm practically against the wall here, Remus! It's you that needs to move!"
"You have three feet between you and the tent wall, damn it! I have Peter and Ron on my other side! You move!"
"You know I need to move around in my sleep! You move!"
"The only ways I can move would make the others suggest one of use is either getting hands-on or giving Oral Sex, Sirius! So if you don't' Move- OUCH!"
"Oops, my elbow shot out a bit too low!" Sirius apologised, his tone saying he was anything but sorry. "Do you now see why you-"
"Shut up!" Twin voices called, and Harry was at least a little bit reassured it came from both Lily and James. Maybe there was hope after all if they worked together to try and keep the piece.
Sadly, that didn't mean the argument ended.
"You shut up, Prongs! Sirius keeps trying to hit my sensitive spot!"
"You deserve it!" Lily called, her voice now loud enough to actually be considered talking. Harry groaned silently and folded the cushion over his ears. Why couldn't he sleep as deeply as Peter or Ron?
"Sirius, something's poking me in a rather awkward spot!" Remus still whispered. "Kindly turn around, or I'll cast a shrinking spell at it before you can blink!"
"That's my wand, you naff!" Sirius retorted, and Harry closed his eyes as he could actually see the outline of Sirius reaching into his pants to do so. There were things he didn't want to see his godfather do. "Look!"
"Please don't tell me you keep it there simply as a response to a pick-up line about toys or rockets between your legs!" James whispered. "I told you many times that is the worst way to pick up ladies!"
"Well, considering you still haven't picked up Lily after four years of trying I'm not relying on your expertise!"
"OY!" Once again came the twin calls from James and Lily.
In the midst of this argument, Joshua got up and headed to the bathroom, followed not-so-subtly by Audrey a bare ten seconds later. Harry sighed, and sure enough, the sounds of two people having sex soon came from said bathroom, loud enough to even stop the argument between Lily and James, and Sirius, and Remus, to have all of them looking over and listening in interest.
Harry got up, tiptoed over those asleep to said door, and slammed his hand on it, making the sounds stop. "I don't care what you do in there, but at least have some common courtesy for the rest of us and cast silencing and privacy charms."
"Sorry," came the twin calls from the other side, followed by the sound of incantations, and them being cut off halfway as the silencing ones took effect. Harry grumped, and got back to his mat, ignoring the slight glare Sirius gave, and the slightly grateful one everyone else awake gave him, and laid down to sleep.
