Author's notes: Thanks for all the reviews! I will probably reach 100 today if YOU will review…
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Very sad, I know.
Chapter 16
Hermione giggles!
Harry found himself staring up at `Buzzy' Dumbledore. He was staring up because he had stood up when the young man had entered then fallen on his backside in absolute shock. His wand drifted down and Harry couldn't help but shake his head in confusion.
"How can YOU be Dumbledore when you're only eighteen? You've lost your beard! What's Fawkes going to say?" Harry was rambling under his breath and he shoved his wand behind his ear very like Loony Lovegood.
Hermione of course seemed to take everything in stride. Her brows were crinkled in worry for Harry, but things like these were bound to happen in a Magical society. She'd figure it out and get things righted, that's what she did in life. She didn't want to think TOO hard on it at the moment, however, because it made her head hurt a little and she felt a slight bit queasy over it all anyway.
"You two look like you need a nice cup of tea." Dumbledore smiled patiently and waved his wand to create a simple Tea table with bread and butter and a chipped but pleasant mixed setting with a steaming Teapot. Such a British resolution seemed to brace Harry and Hermione quite a bit. Apparently, it didn't matter WHEN you were, as long as some things never changed.
The two nodded wide-eyed, and found themselves sitting across from a man they knew but barely recognized. He had waved the rest of the House away with them grumbling under their breaths and then turned back to focus on the quiet couple. Harry didn't know what to do, so he shrugged and ate some buttered bread.
"Murrmph." Harry acknowledged his thanks with the manners of most sixteen year old boys.
Hermione rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Umm. Well, …Buzzy. Ahem. We are just a little confused here."
Harry nearly choked up bread when he heard her call him `Buzzy'. Just the thought of addressing the elegant masterful wizard they knew as `Buzzy' seemed to make bread want to come out of his nose.
"Do you think you could be kind enough to give us your full name, `Buzzy'?" Hermione was staring daggers at Harry hoping he wouldn't interrupt everything by choking to death.
"My pleasure. I am Dumbledore, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, at your service." Buzzy was busy putting seven cubes of sugar into his tea and smiled happily at the brown-haired girl.
Harry gulped in air and swallowed some shockingly hot tea in one swallow. Blowing from his mouth to cool his scalded tongue, he leaned forward and pulled a pack of frayed cards from his back pocket. On one card was the twinkling eye of the same wizard in front of him, but much older and greyer. And, well. Bearded.
"Great Merlin!" Dumbledore's eyes grew wide as he read the name listed on the card. The picture figure was pointing at his younger counterpart and rubbing his eyes in disbelief. Buzzy's mouth dropped as he recognized himself in the faded and older wizard.
"My word, I need a haircut!" Buzzy dropped the card and stared back at the two students in confusion.
"And who are you?" His calm demeanor was broken and he was slowly but surely shredding his bread into crumbs.
Hermione looked at Harry and winced. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a card as well. On it was a photo taken of Harry in one of his more distracted moments. It was a Chocolate Frog card listing Harry Potter as the `Boy-who-lived' and all his accomplishments including fighting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for the Sorcerer's Stone and even his Quidditch statistics. Harry of course had never seen this.
He was absolutely mortified.
"Where did you get this!??" Harry's voice got shrill and panicky.
Hermione wrenched it out of Harry's hand and politely handed it to their host.
"Ron didn't think you'd like to know about this, so we always checked before we gave you Chocolate Frogs. Haven't you noticed he eats other things now? Ron knew you'd go spare."
Harry stared at his girlfriend in disbelief then buried his face in his arms on the table with a groan. "I am never going to live this down, am I."
"Probably not." She said with a shrug.
"I'm Hermione Granger. I'm a sixth year just like Harry, and we both attend here at Hogwarts. Just not now."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Hogwarts ball that she had carried for so long and handed it to Dumbledore. Inside the ball had become misty and hard to make out any definite shapes.
"This used to look like a tiny Hogwarts inside. We had it in our hands and we must have said something to trigger a time spell. I wish Professor McGonagall was here to explain it. She's always been so good with these things." She sighed quietly then continued to drink her tea.
Harry was marveling at how well Hermione was taking all of this. That was Hermione for you. He finally sat up and took a deep breath. He didn't know why they were there, but they might as well get used to the situation until they could find a spell to send them back. Or. Send them forward as the case may be.
Dumbledore was still staring at his own Chocolate Frog card front. He seemed captivated by the smiling wizard who looked a century or more older than he was right now. He started to turn the card over to see his own accomplishments, but Harry stopped him and gingerly took the card out of the questioning wizard's hand.
"It might be best to know only what you need to know at this stage. We don't know how such information could harm."
"Or help." Dumbledore stated while eyeing the card in Harry's hand.
"That's true, Harry. Maybe we're here to fix something that we've already fixed in the past! Maybe we must do something before we go back." Her eyes brightened and he could tell she was wanting to go to the library to research the idea. His head was starting to hurt again.
Dumbledore's eyes looked concerned and he was biting his tongue as if he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should.
"May I see your wand, Harry?"
Harry shrugged and handed his wand over to the man he knew he trusted. Dumbledore tapped his wand against Harry's and whispered, "Virtuos" making both wands glow bright blue for a moment. Dumbledore paused a moment as if listening to his wand then he turned to the couple and smiled.
"Well, apparently you haven't done any particularly evil spells, though I should ask you about a student rooted in the lower stairs it seems. Your wand looks innocent of any wrongdoing, so I guess I'll have to trust you for now."
Harry stared at the man for a moment then dropped his eyes. "Yeah. You do that. To tell you the truth, you don't have that great of a record of being all that trustworthy, either." Harry hunched down in his chair and grimaced in frustration about the whole situation. He didn't need to be here! There were so many more important things to do than be mucking about in some stupid time spell. What if Voldemort attacked while they were gone? What if his friends go hurt because he wasn't there to help? He rubbed his arms with his hands to get rid of the overwhelming urge to throw something and break it just to feel better.
Hermione was staring at him strangely so, doing the only thing he could think of, he stood up and started to pace. He noticed the broom hangers in the corner filled with odd-sized brooms of various states of wear and the thought that his favorite broom hadn't even been made yet made him glower even more.
"He's a very touchy fellow, isn't he?" Dumbledore whispered brightly to Hermione over his half-full cup and saucer. Hermione couldn't help but giggle a little when she saw Harry give them both a dark look.
It was getting dark and the shadows were streaking across the walls in dark criss-cross patterns from the windows from the west. The Portrait hole had cracked open at least six times as different students checked in on the situation to make sure their head boy hadn't been cursed or murdered during tea. Dumbledore leaned back and stretched, his body making a popping noise as his neck apparently realigned. He apologized quickly citing a difficult class in Offence Training.
Harry turned to the young man with a startled glance, "Offence Training? Not Defence? We have Defence Against the Dark Arts but no training to attack. How much different is this time, anyway?"
Dumbledore's smile faded and a serious look made him look more like the old Headmaster than ever. He paused as if to say something, then shook himself and turned back with a polite smile to Hermione.
"I was delightful to have tea with such a lovely lady, Miss Granger." He bowed over her hand had gave it a very smart salute. Hermione giggled again causing Harry to look back at her in disbelief. Hermione was not a giggler. She has been known to giggle once in a while, but twice in an hour? Harry frowned at the very dapper young man and then walked briskly back over to stand next to his girlfriend.
"Yeah. Thanks. Tea was great." Harry growled.
Hermione hid her smirk as she recognized the jealous alpha male instinct Harry was starting to bluster with. She rolled her eyes and kicked the back of his shin to try to make him calm down.
"It seems we need to find accommodations for the evening for you both and I would suggest a new robe for Mr. Potter. It wouldn't do to be walking about without one. School rules, you know. Though how that would affect you I haven't the foggiest. It's not as if taking demerits from you causes Gryffindor to lose points, would it?" The Head boy turned to the ruby vase and stated, "Two points from Gryffindor for Harry Potter."
Two small rubies vanished from the jar in a puff of smoke.
Harry grimaced. He lost the House points even a hundred years ago. Lovely.
"Well, that's good to know. Hogwarts considers you to be true Gryffindors then. If you hadn't been the rubies wouldn't have gone. Too bad to lose two points with the race so close, but couldn't be helped. Besides, you did attack the whole house, so I guess its fair turn about, eh?" Dumbledore stared philosophically at the half-filled jar and shrugged.
"Miss Granger, you are welcome to stay in my room if you'd like…" Harry interrupted with an angry, "Hey!"
"…and I will bunk with the seventh years with Mr. Potter upstairs in the dorm." He carried on without pausing but gave Harry a smirking eye roll.
Harry harrumphed and took Hermione by the hand. "We've got to figure this out, `Mione! Who knows what could be happening while we are gone. What if there's an attack? People could be killed! I won't be there to…" Hermione stopped him with a hand pressed against his mouth.
"Harry. We are in the past. There is nothing we can do right now. We will figure it out. If something happens in the future when we aren't there the…headmaster," she paused here and gave a strong widened eye look out the side of her face, "…will be strong enough to handle it."
Harry grimaced then nodded his agreement. If there was anyone who could handle an attack it would be Dumbledore. He'd done it before and he could do it again. Harry rubbed his forehead wearily. It couldn't be later than six o'clock but he was positively exhausted. The good thing was Hermione seemed to have forgotten she was mad at him. He looked at her tired face and smiled tentatively and after a moment she smiled back. With a gentle tug he pulled her into a tight embrace.
"You could do much better than such a thick-headed moron, don't you?" He whispered into her hair.
"I like my men moronic, didn't you know?" she laughed gently as he squeezed her tightly to him.
"Mr. Potter! I have your robes right here." Floated a voice from up the stairs.
Harry snorted and continued to hold Hermione with his face snuggled into her neck.
"Harry! I think you are a little jealous of Buzzy, aren't you?!" She giggled again to his consternation.
"Preposterous! The man is over a hundred years old! He has a beard down past his navel and he has a kooky little fetish with candy! Why would I be in the least bit jealous?" Harry pulled back and gave a prim and stiff-necked impression of Percy Weasley.
Dumbledore bounded down the steps and gave Hermione an elegant and sweeping bow then held out his arm to her to hold.
"I would be delighted to show you to your bedchamber, Miss Granger." His eyes twinkled and Harry couldn't help but grind his teeth in irritation.
Hermione merely giggled.
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