The Pauper's Time by Jardyn39
Summary
Harry is shocked to learn that his friend Carmen, a young witch prodigy, is missing along with the book and watercolour he'd bought her as souvenirs of a day trip to a times past event. The only clue appears to be in the puzzles Carmen created for Harry, which indicate she may be trapped in a time long ago. Will Harry and Hermione risk becoming trapped in a paradox themselves as they try to find her? Will Harry stop scratching for long enough to understand the plan and what will Mrs Mopp think this time? Sequel to "The Golden Serpent."
Prologue
This story is a sequel to "The Golden Serpent," and begins a short while after that story ends.
It's not essential you read that story, but it may be helpful to know…
Carmen Callidus is a witch prodigy who has just turned nine years old. She recently spent a few weeks at Hogwarts while her parents were kidnapped. Her favourite subject was NEWT level Potions and she gladly gave her expert advice to her fellow classmates. A number of Prophecies have been made about her, and Harry inadvertently fulfilled the first while teaching her duelling. Hermione worked out a way to get her parents freed.
Peter Hammond is a character introduced in "The Hunter," and is a Muggle policeman nearing retirement who helped Harry and in whom Harry confided before introducing him to Dumbledore. Hammond is an acute observer and a clever and experienced investigating detective, but knows very little of the magical world. He has an authoritative manner and once gave Minister Fudge a dressing down for his failure regarding Harry.
Chapter 1: Advice
Harry Potter quietly slipped open the letter he'd received at breakfast and began to read. It was morning break and he was waiting for Hermione in the courtyard.
The letter was from Carmen Callidus, a witch prodigy that had spend some weeks at Hogwarts during the autumn term just past.
Carmen had written fairly regularly to both Harry and Hermione since she had departed. Her letters to Harry usually began with a short resume about how her parents were, what she was doing, the books she had read, the things she'd been told off for most recently and her latest considered opinions on Harry's love life.
Harry smiled reading the long list of potions that she'd mastered since her last letter. These included notes of the things she'd discovered that weren't mentioned in the potion preparation instructions, which Harry had already found very useful.
Carmen had been kind enough to review the NEWT Potions syllabus completely and although Snape clearly suspected he was getting outside help, he hadn't caught Harry yet.
Harry was sure that Carmen's crib sheets weren't technically cheating, but Snape was bound to make something of them. He was sure Snape was setting potions tests that were designed to trick Harry into making a mistake, although he was getting better at reading the instructions before proceeding these days.
Harry turned the page sideways. Carmen always decorated the margins of her letters with various drawings and short jokes.
He turned the page and skipped past the extensive list of things she had recently been told off for. These were invariably for almost causing accidents either creating the advanced potions or the commotion caused by her actually using the potions. Carmen never actually hurt anyone but there were a few near misses, and usually Carmen herself was the one at risk.
Carmen had developed a taste for loud explosions, something Harry discovered first hand when he mixed as directed the two preparations she'd sent him a short while ago. Harry made a note then to make sure never to introduce her to Fred and George. He hadn't been hurt, but was rather deaf for a few hours. At least he couldn't hear what people were saying about his singed hair.
Harry read on and sighed inwardly. This time Carmen had written almost a foot on her favourite obsession, besides potions. He had regretted mentioning anything, but struggling to find something to write about, Harry had barely hinted at what was troubling him.
Harry wasn't proud to taking such advice from a nine year-old, but he had to admit his options for obtaining advice were rather limited.
Harry unrolled the scroll right to the end and a separate piece of parchment fell out. He caught it and held it up. Carmen invariably included a puzzle she had created for him to solve. This one was a cryptogram consisting of a table of letters which made up a square twelve characters by twelve. The last one she'd sent him like this was about a quarter of the size and turned out to be a rude limerick.
That last one also included instructions and hints how to get started. This time there was just the puzzle. Presumably, Carmen thought Harry should have got the idea by now.
Harry was just wondering how he was supposed to solve it when he looked up to see Hermione walking towards him, smiling widely.
He hurried to put away the letter. It wasn't the puzzle he was hiding, just Carmen's advice.
"Hi," said Hermione brightly. "I see you got another puzzle!"
"Yes," admitted Harry with a shy smile. "Carmen obviously thinks I've nothing better to do."
"Well, I think it's nice she goes to all that trouble."
Harry nodded and hoisted his bag onto his shoulder, and they walked together to Transfiguration.
*
Harry closed his bed hangings and retrieved his letter from Carmen. He dropped the puzzle to one side and continued reading Carmen's letter.
"Now, Harry, I've been giving a lot of thought to your problem and I've taken a straw poll of Mum, Dad, Mrs Mopp the cleaning lady, Mr Hamble the next door neighbour and his daughter, and Mr and Mrs Smith who run the local shop."
Harry groaned quietly. Did all these people really have to know? Did they really have a cleaning lady called Mrs Mopp?
"No, Harry, of course I didn't tell them who you were. Actually, I'm pretty sure Mum guessed, but the others have no idea, honestly."
Harry snorted.
"Anyway, they all think you are being a bit stupid about this. So what if you made a complete idiot of yourself? Hermione is still talking to you, isn't she?"
There was no arguing with this. Yes, he had made an idiot of himself. Yes, Hermione was still talking to him.
Harry read ahead by a few paragraphs to the point where Carmen had stopped telling him he was stupid.
"I'm sure that one day you'll look back at this and laugh. Actually, everyone else thought you'd probably continue to be mortified, but what do they know?"
He decided he needed to skip ahead a bit further when he glanced over at the puzzle sheet.
For an instant, he thought he had seen a word in amongst the jumble of letters. He picked the paper up and scanned the letters again. Nothing, although he was sure he had seen something.
Maybe he was looking too closely. He placed the sheet of paper to one side where it was before and tried to casually glance at it again. Still nothing.
He tried again, moving the paper slightly. He was sure the word was in the lower quadrant closest to him.
He tried again and suddenly saw it. Running diagonally backwards was the word, "HARRY."
Harry pressed his finger on the start letter and scrambled to find a pencil. He marked the start lightly and joined the five letters.
He realised why he hadn't seen it before. The line of letters was not only backwards but it also had a kink at the end.
Harry started from the "Y" and looked for another word. There! He drew a line and the sentence said, "HARRYISAEDSWQ"
He'd gone wrong. He started again from the "Y".
He found another. This time the sentence began, "HARRYIDOHOPEYOUASKFORHELP"
Harry grinned as the message revealed itself.
"Harry, I do hope you ask for help doing this puzzle. Then someone else will know that Harry loves Hermione. Love from Carmen."
Harry laughed out loud.
"You okay, Harry?"
"Yeah, Ron, fine thanks," Harry replied pulling the hangings aside and folding up the puzzle sheet. "I just worked out Carmen's latest puzzle."
Harry got up and placed the sheet in his trunk with the others. He'd write back to her tomorrow.
He climbed back into bed and continued to read Carmen's letter. Her last few paragraphs actually contained some advice that might actually work. Everyone, including Mrs Mopp the cleaning lady, thought so too.
*
"Um, Hermione?" asked Harry nervously. They had just finished Charms and were the last to leave the classroom as usual, since Hermione liked to leave the cupboards tidy.
"Yes, Harry?" she replied closing the last cupboard door.
Harry hesitated and Hermione looked at him quizzically.
"I was wondering, that is, if you'd like. I mean, Mrs Mopp thought you might like."
"Who is Mrs Mopp?"
"Carmen's cleaning lady, of course," Harry replied with a small grin.
Hermione laughed.
"Okay, Harry, just what does Mrs Mopp the cleaning lady think?"
"It wasn't just her, all of the people Carmen consulted thought so too. It was unanimous."
"Will you be getting to the point anytime soon? I'm not concerned for myself but there's a class of Second Years due in any moment."
"Would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday?"
"I'd love to, Harry. The only thing is, would you mind if we did something different from last time?" she asked with a wide smile.
"Well, if you insist," he replied. "Of course, you can always change your mind. I mean, it's really no trouble for me to make a complete prat of myself."
Hermione laughed and kissed him lightly on the cheek before quickly scooping up her bag and exiting the classroom.
*
The next day Harry received another letter from Carmen at breakfast. Actually, it was a letter addressed to both him and Hermione inviting them both to attend an event that she had been badgering her parents about for ages.
Harry handed the small invitation to Hermione and said to the waiting owl, "Sorry, but we can't reply right now. We'll need permission to attend."
The owl had obviously been told to wait for a reply.
"Here, Harry, write Carmen a short reply promising we'll respond as soon as we can," Hermione said handing him parchment, ink and her favourite eagle feather quill from her bag.
"Thanks," said Harry, hurriedly scribbling a short note.
Harry rolled up the note and offered it to the owl. It immediately grasped it and took off into the morning sunlight. He watched it enviously as it made its escape. He would have loved to fly off as well, but this morning they had Potions.
"Come on, Harry. You know how disappointed Carmen would be if you were late," said Hermione with a grin.
*
"Calm down, Harry," said Hermione as they walked to the Headmaster's office at morning break.
"Calm down?" Harry asked incredulously. "Why wouldn't I be calm, other than the fact that I've got another detention for not messing up my potion and actually looking like I might get something marked before it had it's usual little accident."
"Well, it might have been an accident, which would have been unfortunate because you need to know if the matured potion was correct as well."
They reached the Headmaster's office and Harry struggled to compose himself.
"Jelly Babies"
The griffin moved aside and they stepped onto the great circular moving staircase.
"How did you know the password?"
"I asked," said Hermione as she stepped onto the top landing.
"Where's the fun in that?" he quipped just before Hermione knocked on the door.
The door opened at once.
"Ah, Hermione, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Good morning to you both. How may I help you?"
"Well, Sir," began Hermione. "We've just received an invitation from Carmen Callidus to attend a fête on Saturday after next. She's been looking forward to going for ages. We were hoping you would give permission for us to go as well."
"Carmen was kind enough to write to me about it as well," said Dumbledore with a smile and holding up a large scroll. It looked like she had drawn him pictures of everything she especially wanted to see at the fête.
"I have taken the liberty of contacting your parents, Hermione, and they have consented to your attending the event if you wish. You may both go provided you agree to be accompanied by members of the Order."
They both nodded. Harry, who was amazed Dumbledore had agreed to him going at all, wasn't going to object to any condition the Headmaster placed upon them.
"Remus Lupin will be available and I'm sure he will be happy to attend. I would like at least one other to accompany you, but we'll decide who that will be nearer the time. May I ask, have you told anyone else about this?"
"No, Sir," they said together.
"Good. Please don't mention anything, especially your plans to be off school premises. Indeed, it would be best if you gave the impression that you planned to be here at school."
"Thank you, Professor," said Hermione, making ready to leave when she saw Harry wasn't moving.
"Am I putting people at risk by doing this?" he asked seriously.
Dumbledore smiled at him and said, "You'll only be away from school for a few hours. Provided we take sensible precautions there should be no greater risk than any trip to Hogsmeade."
Harry nodded.
*
As the day of their trip approached, Hermione was getting more and more excited about the fête. Carmen had sent her all the details she had and since Hermione couldn't speak to anyone else about it, Harry kept getting dragged off to a quiet corner to she could tell him her latest discovery from her own researches in the library.
Harry didn't mind at all, really. He always liked to see Hermione enthuse about things.
"Have you decided what you're going as, Harry?"
This question totally threw Harry.
"I thought I'd go as myself, actually."
As he answered he had visions of Moody insisting that he go disguised as some shrubbery. He wasn't sure a false beard would suit him.
"No, I meant what you are going to wear."
"Um, jeans and a tee shirt, I suppose."
Hermione looked at him incredulously.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Well, everyone else will be dressed up. You'll just feel out of place if you don't. Carmen and I are dressing up, and Lupin will as well."
"Does he know he's dressing up yet?" Harry asked with a grin.
"Well, no, possibly not."
"Okay, Hermione, whatever makes you happy. What do you recommend?"
She beamed at him before handing him a small slip of parchment.
Harry snorted when he read it.
"Oh, I won't feel out of place at all if I wear this!"
*
Harry and Hermione walked slowly up to the Shrieking Shack. They had spent the morning being fitted with their outfits in Gladrags for Carmen's fête next weekend. Lupin would have his fitting during the week.
As Harry paid for all three costumes he had wondered if he would ever have use for them again. He didn't begrudge paying, especially as Hermione was so enthusiastic, but he did wonder if they needed to be quite so authentic.
Hermione looped her arms around his middle and hugged him as they stood at the battered garden fence.
Harry looked down to see her looking up at him with concern.
"I'm okay," he whispered.
They stood quietly for a few moments looking up at the dilapidated and boarded up house.
"Do you want to get anything to eat?"
"No, not really," she replied.
"I don't mind going in there again, if you don't"
Hermione laughed and said, "That's very brave of you."
"I mean it. Or we could try somewhere else."
"I don't fancy the Hog's Head, not to eat."
"I'm not sure they even do food. I could bare Madam Puddifoot's if you wanted."
"No, let's go back and visit the kitchens."
Harry was rather grateful to Hermione as they set off slowly back to the school gates. He would've braved The Three Broomsticks for her, despite his considerable embarrassment every time he thought of that place.
They stayed for quite a while in the kitchens chatting to the elves.
At the end of the day, as he wrote his letter to Carmen, who had insisted being informed immediately about how things went, Harry was glad to report that he hadn't made a fool of himself.
He hoped Mrs Mopp and all the others would be relieved.