Changing the Past by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: This chapter was so fun to write, because it just seems to highlight how mysterious Dumbledore is...you people might wonder why Dumbledore would do something like what he does in this chapter and the next one (Ch. 17-18 are basically 2 halves of 1 long chapter), but that's just who he is. Hope you like it!
On Saturday morning, Harry and Ron woke up groggily at the same time to the sound of a large CRASH. James, Remus and Sirius were all packing to go home for the holidays, and Sirius had accidentally knocked James’ suitcase on the ground, starting a small feud that was soon quelled when Remus scolded both of them.
“Good morning to you, too,” Ron mumbled, rolling over in his four-poster.
“Sorry about that, Ron,” James said, and Harry realized that James was in no hurry to apologize to him. On the contrary, James seemed to make the most noise when walking past Harry’s bunk. After James “tripped” and crashed into the foot of Harry’s bed, shaking the whole structure, Harry had had enough.
“Do you mind?” he growled. He grabbed his wand and glasses from the bedside table and pointed the former at James, who scowled.
“Don’t have a fit,” James said coldly. “I’m finished now.” Harry, who had had no intention of cursing James, lowered his wand as James closed his trunk, dragging it from the room down to the common room. Sirius, who had no vendetta against Harry but was vastly more loyal to James, followed him without a word to anyone, trunk bumping along behind him.
Remus, however, hung back to talk to Harry. “Harry, I just want you to know that I don’t have any kind of problem with you,” he said, getting right to the point, which Harry appreciated about the werewolf. “I “ erm “ actually think it was good for you to show James that he’s not invincible.”
“Erm...thanks,” Harry said, nodding, not quite sure how to respond. Ron, however, found no problem in speaking his mind.
“Can’t a bloke sleep in on a Saturday without people holding conversations five feet away?” he muttered, rolling over once again. Remus laughed, and he finished packing as well, closing his trunk and walking towards the door.
“Have a good holiday, Harry,” Remus said to Harry, walking from the room promptly to meet with his friends again. Harry, who was already sitting up with his glasses on, determined quickly that he wouldn’t be able to sleep any further, and got up to change. He went down to the common room, where it was completely deserted except for Hermione, who was working on something at a table.
“Hermione, we don’t have any homework over the break!” Harry exclaimed. “You can’t be serious!”
“It’s not homework, Harry,” she said without looking up. “I’m writing a list of students that you seem to want to eliminate.”
“Is now the time to worry about that?” Harry asked, exasperated. “It’s nearly Christmas.”
Hermione rounded on him angrily, surprising Harry. “I don’t know about you, Harry, but I want to go back to our time,” she said. “I’m homesick! All these people leaving for the holidays reminds me of my own parents, and I just want to see them again, and...” Her anger soon abated and became hysteria, and she choked back tears.
“Okay, okay!” Harry said, surprised at her outburst. “Forget it, then. What were you saying?”
“Well,” Hermione said in a shaky voice, “I have eleven names down-”
“Eleven?!” Harry exclaimed. “I only wanted Snape, Peter and Bellatrix gone!”
“I included all the future Death Eaters,” Hermione said matter-of-factly. “I’m assuming that you’ll want to get rid of as many as possible.”
“Oh,” Harry said quietly. “But I thought you didn’t want me to be changing anything here!”
“I don’t,” Hermione replied. “But I know that I can’t stop you from doing anything, so I may as well make sure you do it without getting arrested, which you were lucky to avoid with Snape and Peter.”
“Dumbledore already said he’d take care of the future Death Eaters,” Harry explained quickly. Of course, he had no intention of giving the power to Dumbledore, but he was trying to get Hermione off his back.
“In that case, I’ll just give the list to him,” Hermione said, putting her quill and ink back into her bag, which, despite the holiday, was stuffed full of various things. She then took the list, stood up, and walked from the room. “Might as well go now,” she added right before she disappeared through the portrait hole.
About half an hour later, while Harry sat sleepily in front of the fire, Hermione returned. “Dumbledore has a message for you,” she said, smirking. “He said to tell you, ‘Soon’.”
Harry groaned. He had hoped that Dumbledore would take a long time to come up with a plan, and even if he had wanted to go back so soon, he would’ve thought that figuring out how to convict thus-far-innocent students and get them sent to Azkaban would take a while, but then again, this was Dumbledore they were talking about. “Okay,” he said, sighing, and Hermione, satisfied, went back up to the girls’ dormitory, leaving Harry by the fire, cursing Dumbledore for his intelligence.
***
On the whole, the Christmas holidays were very uneventful. James, Sirius, Remus and Lily had all go home to their families (or, in Sirius’ case, James’ family), so Harry, Ron and Hermione passed the time by exploring the large castle. Fortunately, James had left the Marauder’s Map in the dorm, which Harry found beneath a loose floorboard under James’ four-poster, and they took time to examine the various passageways that had been destroyed, covered or caved-in by their time. Harry followed one that had yet to be mapped, but quickly turned around when he found himself in a crowded cellar in a back room at the Three Broomsticks.
However, the message from Dumbledore left Harry pondering what he could possibly mean. All of the future Death Eaters still at Hogwarts had stayed at school for the holidays (“Their dads are probably all too busy,” Ron quipped), and Harry wondered whether he had a plan or not.
He had to force the thought aside, however, as Christmas day finally arrived, and he, Ron and Hermione awoke to find a small stack of presents for each of them. “But who would still be here to send us things?” Hermione wondered aloud as they sorted through the piles. Between them, they had about ten gifts.
“We each got one from Dumbledore,” Ron commented. “I wonder what they are...?”
They decided these gifts first. Each had received a “Dark Arts Defense Packet”, which contained several items, such as a spellbook on defensive spells, as well as several lethal-looking items that they did not recognize. Hermione went straight for the manual, and Ron and Harry read the note that came with it: Keep this nearby. You will need it in the near future.
“Blimey...does he expect us to get attacked or something?” Ron said, rereading the note and examining the items.
“These packets were banned from sale in 1983,” Hermione said aloud. “I remember reading about them in our time. These items are used for combat with Dark witches or wizards, and they ended up killing a lot of people that other wizards or witches had grudges against.”
“I can see why,” Ron said, eyeing a large grenade-looking ball that, according to the manual, cast over a hundred curses on the person it was thrown at.
Harry was deep in thought. “You don’t think...is Dumbledore planning an attack on the Death Eaters or something?”
“That would be suicidal,” Hermione pointed out. “Not to mention pointless. It obviously has something to do with the future Death Eaters here, or else he would have done it without our interference anyway.”
“We’d better keep these nearby,” Hermione said. “If he has something up his sleeve, we need to be ready, and I don’t think it will be pretty.”
They opened their other gifts, which were from the Ministry (a packet about self-defense against Dark wizards similar to the ones published back in 1996) and one each from all the teachers welcoming them to the school with a packet of sweets. They put these away, storing the Dark Arts Defense packets safely under their beds.
When they walked into the Hall, they were surprised to see the headlines of the morning’s Daily Prophet:
DECK THE HALLS WITH NEW PROTECTION
Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft of Wizardry, yesterday announced his Christmas present to the students of his school: a new level of security about the castle.
“There have been several incidences involving Dark magic concerning our fair school in recent weeks,” the 136-year-old wizard told the Prophet. “On Christmas night, the magical protections surrounding the school will be temporarily taken down in order to install new levels of heightened security about the castle.
“The protections will be down for less than an hour as the new-and-improved protections are put in place. Manual protection “ otherwise known as Aurors “ will be in effect during this period of time, in order to prevent an attack. “The protections will be in place by midnight tonight.” (ctd. page 8)
“You don’t suppose this has anything to do with the gifts he gave us?” Harry said to Ron and Hermione, confused. “Why would he change the protections? They’re perfectly all right!”
“I don’t know,” Hermione said. “Unless...but no, that can’t be...I’ll be right back.” She unexpectedly got up and left the table without eating, and Harry and Ron watched her run out of the Great Hall.
“Beats me,” Ron said before Harry could say anything. Harry frowned, but decided to eat and deal with it later.
They didn’t see Hermione for most of the day after that. Dumbledore announced the change in protection that would happen “sometime after dinner” to everyone a few minutes after she left, and Ron and Harry looked for her for most of the day, not succeeding.
After dinner, as Ron and Harry watched curiously from a window on the second floor, Dumbledore walked out onto the grounds. He pointed his wand at the sky and made complicated wand movements, causing a golden web to form over the entire school. It promptly faded away, and they assumed the protections had just been dropped. Then, to Ron and Harry’s great surprise, he Disapparated.
“How did he do that?” Ron said, alarmed. “Hermione’s been bugging us for years saying that we can’t Apparate at Hogwarts!”
“That protection must have been lifted, as well,” Harry said, shrugging. They walked back into the Great Hall, where the students had been ordered to stay during the hours of the swap of protection. The students had their faces pressed against the glass, also looking where Dumbledore had been moments ago. Suddenly, everyone screamed: a hooded figure appeared in the center of the hall, and drawing his wand, magnified his voice for all to hear.
“The battle is nigh,” he said loudly. “All those faithful to the Dark Lord must join him or die.” With that, he Disapparated, leaving the room to total chaos.
“What does that mean?” Ron asked Harry nervously. “‘The battle is nigh’?”
“It means,” said Hermione, who had just walked in, “the Death Eaters are coming to Hogwarts.”
Author’s Note: Oh, boy! Battle scene coming up! What do you think will happen? I know (obviously)...can’t wait for you to read it! Please review!