Journey to the Bottom of the Castle

"Right," Harry said as the three of them waited for somebody to come and let them into the Gryffindor Common Room. "We might as well continue trying to figure this out while we wait. What happened next?"

"We got up from the table and headed to Potions," Hermione replied.

"And I grabbed a roll for the road," Ron added fondly.

"…Right. Anyway, I remember we saw Malfoy and his little bodyguards as we were on the way to class," Harry recalled.

"No," insisted Hermione suddenly. "We saw Neville, don't you remember?"

"Oh no," said Ron, sounding a bit angry. "It was Ginny, snogging Dean in the corridor again! That's completely inappropriate, the way they-"

"Couldn't have been, I'd remember," Harry interjected before he realized what he'd just said. Hermione looked away suddenly, trying to hide the grin on her face.

"What d'you mean you'd remember?" inquired Ron.

"Erm, just that… I mean… You hate it when you see them together! I'm sure it would have been the topic of conversation for the rest of the walk to the dungeons."

"Well, my apologies for being concerned about my little sister! Dean's all wrong for her!"

"That's not what I meant! I agree with you, it's just-"

"Oh, leave the girl alone, both of you!" Hermione interrupted. "This isn't the time, something strange is going on here. We all remember the walk to Potions class differently. Why is that?"

Before either of the boys had time to reply, they could see Professor McGonagall heading up the staircase. They stood, ready to get into the common room so that they could officially settle down somewhere to try and sort out the giant mystery that surrounded them.

"You three again?" McGonagall asked with an exasperated sigh. "What are you doing outside the common room?"

"We, erm, couldn't remember the password, Professor," Harry replied.

"Of course. With everything else that's happened today, I'm not even going to question it. Come on, then."

Professor McGonagall let them into the common room and announced that the castle was safe and troll-free before leaving again.

"What were you three doing with Professor McGonagall?" asked a wide-eyed, youthful version of Dean Thomas.

"I was just wondering that myself," announced the 5th year installment of Percy Weasley.

"Back off, Perce. It's none of your business," muttered Ron.

"Oh, really? Is it Mum's business, then?"

"Nobody likes a snitch," Fred Weasley said as he suddenly showed up to join the group.

"It's no wonder you haven't got any friends," added George Weasley from Fred's side.

Ron sighed. It was incredibly strange to see his family members as they were so many years ago. They seemed so old back when he was a first year, but now that he was mentally older than all three of them were back in 1991, he couldn't get over how childlike they seemed. And under normal circumstances, Percy's threat to tell Molly that he was up to something would have concerned him a great deal. However, things being the way they were, he couldn't care less.

"I was in the bathroom when Professor Quirrell came to warn you all about the troll," Hermione spoke up. "Harry and Ron went to warn me, and that's why we were late coming up to the common room."

Ron supposed that telling everyone the original story from this day during their first year was the easiest thing to do at that point. Why hadn't he thought of that?

"You can spare us the lecture about how we should have told a teacher or something, McGonagall already gave us that one," Harry added, almost coolly. He'd had no real problems with Percy when he was 11. In fact, Percy really seemed to like him. But the Percy he knew from his own time had abandoned his entire family, and Harry with them. Somehow he was unable to resist feeling resentment toward the 15-year-old version because of this.

"We're all a bit tired after all of this excitement, if you will just excuse us…" Hermione covered quickly.

"I didn't know those two were friends with Granger, did you?" asked Fred.

"No, I didn't," replied George. "When did this happen?"

"You know, recently. See you later, then," Ron said quickly. The three of them went off in search of a quiet corner or sitting area before anybody had a chance to say anything else.

"It's a bit strange, seeing them all so young like that," Hermione commented once they were all seated.

"It's a bit strange seeing us so young like this," Ron pointed out.

"Everything about this is a bit strange," Harry clarified.

"Why would somebody mess with our memories of walking to class?" asked Hermione, getting them back on topic. "Why that memory? And why make us all remember it differently?"

"And how do we figure out what really happened?" Harry inquired.

"Why would somebody bother sending the three of us back here in the first place?" Ron wondered.

"What if we all three took turns telling our versions of the walk to class?" suggested Hermione. "Remember, use as much detail as possible."

"I suppose I'll go first, then," Ron offered. "Just to get it over with. There's not much to tell, anyway, the walk is only so long. So we left the Great Hall, I was eating my roll…"

"It's probably safe to skip that part," Harry cut in. "I remember your roll, you got the crumbs all down the front of your robes."

"I remember it too," Hermione confirmed. "What happened next, Ron?"

"Fine, I'll skip the one part of the story that leaves me in a good mood. Anyway, we were headed toward the dungeons. We were almost to the staircase that leads down and… Bloody hell it's so weird to be telling you this story, you were both there!"

"We're all going to have to get used to the fact that, until we get back to our normal time, everything about our lives is going to be extremely weird," Harry pointed out.

"I don't think it's possible to get used to weird, Harry."

"Says the one who didn't just find out that they were a wizard when they were 11."

"Point taken. Anyway, we were almost to the staircase and I saw… her snogging… him on a bench."

"You saw Ginny and Dean kissing," Hermione clarified (purely for the benefit of anyone who wasn't already aware, of course).

"Who's telling the story here?"

"I'm just saying, you may want to work on your use of pronouns. Just a suggestion."

"I'm trying to help us solve a mystery here, not publish a novel!"

"So they were kissing, we get it!" Harry cut in. "Moving on?"

"Thanks, mate," Ron said as Hermione hid a smirk. "So of course, I'm thinking, who knows what that guy's got on his mind? There's no way I'm going to let anyone mess with my sister! So I walked right up to him and told him that,"

"No you didn't, Ron! Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"How do you know, you don't remember any of this!"

"Ron!"

"All right, fine! But I would have, if that bloody owl hadn't flown into the window and distracted me."

"Hang on," Harry said suddenly. "I remember that owl."

"Really?" Hermione asked. "But then why don't I remember there being an owl?"

"I dunno, but at least more than one of us do," Ron pointed out. "Maybe we've finally found a clue."

"Or maybe somebody's just trying to mess with us," Harry chimed in. "At least 2 of our stories are completely made up. Maybe whoever made up these stories purposefully put a few similarities in the stories so that we would think they were clues, and be off their trail."

"Unfortunately, that makes a lot of sense," Hermione admitted. "But we don't have any other plan at this point. Keep going, Ron."

"Well, the owl distracted… them as well. Scared them, actually. They looked up, and saw us standing there for the first time. From the look of things they hadn't exactly been coming up for air much. You were whispering at me to get away from them, Hermione, and I think you were just kind of standing there, Harry. Anyway,… she started yelling at me for spying on them or something like that. Which is completely ridiculous! She's the one who was snogging in a corridor that I just happened to be taking to get to class. It's not like I follow her around or try to catch her-"

"You're digressing," Hermione cut in.

"Whatever. So she stormed off. I think she was kind of embarrassed, but anyone who's willing to snog out in the open like that shouldn't be surprised when people walk by and see them."

"Then I think it's safe to say that you wouldn't have been the slightest bit embarrassed had the situation been reversed," Hermione muttered.

"So they both walked off and then…," Harry prompted quickly, trying to move things along before his two best friends got into a row about Lavender Brown.

"No, just her. He awkwardly stayed behind. I think her leaving caught him by surprise, and he didn't realize what was happening before it was too late to follow her without it being awkward. Of course, it was awkward regardless. He just sort of said 'hi' to us quickly and then walked off," Ron continued.

"Poor Ginny," Hermione said with a sigh.

"Poor me!" Ron disagreed.

"Anything else, Ron?" Harry asked, not wanting to talk about Ginny and Dean's relationship any longer than he had to.

"Not much," Ron replied. "I was wondering what Dean could possibly see in her anyway, and Hermione was telling me I was being mean. But we weren't far from the classroom, so there's not much left to tell."

"Okay, that's one story down. So far we know that there was an owl in both Ron's story and Harry's story that ran into a window, but I don't remember there being an owl at all," Hermione recapped.

"So in conclusion, we know nothing," Ron said, insightfully analyzing the data.

"We have two stories to go, maybe we'll figure something out. I'll go next," Harry volunteered. "We left the Great Hall, and Ron was eating his roll."

"Thanks, Harry. Acknowledging it is all I ask."

"We were heading toward the dungeons, and we hadn't gotten very far when we heard the voice of the little blonde devil behind us. He had his oversized, pea-brained bodyguards with him as usual."

"Typical Malfoy, he wouldn't dare try to act tough without them around," Hermione commented.

"Right. So we tried to ignore him, as usual, but he seemed pretty insistent on having a conversation. You know how he gets sometimes." His friends nodded. "It wasn't much of a conversation, of course. Pretty one-sided. He was saying something about how Slughorn is some crazy old fool, and has no idea how his misjudgments are going to come back to haunt him. He's gone completely insane just because he isn't wanted in the Slug Club. And this is just further proof that Malfoy is a Death Eater!"

"Harry-"

"Come on, Herminoe! He was basically threatening Slughorn! You said yourself that he wouldn't try to act tough without Crabbe and Goyle around. Well he'd have nothing to back up a threat toward a teacher without Voldemort behind him, or at least a few Death Eaters!"

"An empty threat! It had to have been. He has to say something, he's Malfoy. He's never going to just let the whole Slug Club thing go."

"Slug Club. What a bunch of rubbish," Ron muttered.

"Of course it is! What does Slughorn know?" Hermione said quickly. "But it's not rubbish to an insecure guy like Malfoy. His father's money and status is all he has, and now that his father is in prison, they won't get him anywhere. He has to feel in charge somehow, so he threatened Slughorn. Behind Slughorn's back might I add."

"When did you become such a psychiatrist, Hermione?" asked Ron.

"It's just about putting yourself in another person's shoes, Ronald. You should try it sometime," Hermione snapped.

"What did I s-"

"Look. All I'm saying, Harry, is that Malfoy doesn't seem like a likely candidate for being a Death Eater. Even if he is, nobody will listen unless you get some actual solid proof. Besides, this encounter with Malfoy might not have even happened, remember?"

"Fine," Harry said reluctantly. "Whether or not Malfoy is a Death Eater really isn't important right now anyway. So Malfoy said his bit and left in the direction of the dungeons, we rolled our eyes at him and waited for him to get far enough ahead before we started moving again. That's when the owl flew into the window."

"The crazy bird reminded me of Errol," Ron commented.

"Me too," Harry admitted. "But then that girl ran to the window to get him. You probably remember her, Ron."

"No, I don't remember any girl. Just the owl."

"There was just the owl running into the window, and then nothing? Nobody opened the window?"

"No, he fell a few feet and then flew off."

"Nobody went to check on it?" Hermione asked, horrified. "Well now we know Ron's story is fake. If there was nobody else checking on the poor thing, I certainly would have!"

"That's true," Ron said, sounding relieved. Presumably he was thrilled to think that this particular make out session between his sister and Dean was a work of fiction. "The founder of spew would never leave a clumsy bird unattended."

"It's not spew! It's… Oh never mind. Tell us about this girl, Harry."

"It was a Hufflepuff from our year. Hannah," Harry replied with a shrug.

"Hannah Abbott?" Hermione asked, suddenly excited.

"Uh, yeah."

"She's in my story too!"

"Really? That's great! Another possible lead."

"So, what does that mean? That we have to talk to Hannah? What could she possibly know about all of this?" Ron asked.

"Okay, so none of our leads are very strong. But at least we're figuring something out! I mean we've only been in this situation for a few hours now," Hermione pointed out.

"And once we explain all of this to Professor McGonagall, she'll get Dumbledore to help us," said Harry.

"What makes you think McGonagall will believe us? We're going to sound crazy to her," Ron said.

"She'll listen to us, Ron. She has to." Of course their professor would believe them. She'd never let them down before, right?