Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Ten - A Simple Accident
"Miss Granger, how did you get that bruise on your cheek?"
Both Harry and Hermione paled as the rest of the class turned to look at Miss Granger. Harry muttered an expletive under his breath as he saw the Galleon-sized bruise on the left side of her face.
Hermione muttered nervously, "Er, you see…"
"Did someone hit you, Miss Granger? You don't have to be afraid to tell me. That sort of behavior is not tolerated here."
"No, no," she said. "What happened is…"
"It was my fault," interrupted Harry, who was a much better liar than his girlfriend. He looked sincerely sorry. "I was running in the hall and accidentally knocked her into a wall." He looked at his girlfriend and sincerely said, "I'm sorry you got hurt." He then turned to the teacher. "I know running in the halls isn't allowed, so tell me my punishment."
McGonagall seemed torn on what to do. It sounded like a simple accident, and that Harry had learned his lesson. She decided to consult the victim. "Miss Granger, what sort of punishment do you believe Mr. Potter deserves?"
"None, Professor McGonagall," she responded quickly. "Harry didn't intend any harm toward me. He wasn't trying to push me and certainly not trying to bruise me. He feels bad enough about this as it is. I'd like to just drop the matter and begin our lesson."
Minerva smiled at the girl's thirst for knowledge. "While I agree with you that Mr. Potter had no malicious intent, I feel that he should receive some punishment for running in the halls." She turned toward him. "One point from Gryffindor."
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Immediately after class, Harry and Hermione went to the owlry, where Hedwig flew directly to Harry.
"Hi, girl, it's great to see you," he said, stroking her feathers. "I was wondering if you would mind carrying a letter from Hermione to her parents."
The owl moved her head down a bit, nodding in the affirmative. "Thanks, Hedwig," said Hermione, pulling a note out of her pocket and tying it to her leg. He then took the Time-Turner off his neck and put it around Hermione's before giving her a quick peck on the lips. "Here you go. Do I need to explain how to use it?"
"Not hardly."
As soon as the snowy owl flew away, Harry commented, "I wish I'd realized that all I had to do to keep her happy was to send Hedwig off with another letter whenever I wanted to use a different owl for something important." He turned to his girlfriend. "Are you ready?"
In response, Hermione grinned and closed her eyes in concentration. Harry watched as the love of his life morphed into a beautiful great horned owl with brown and white feathers.
"I wish my form could fly," commented Harry as he tied a note to Wings' leg. The pretty owl seemed to smirk at him. "Just remember to get it to Kingsley at exactly 9:43. That way he'll be too late to interfere with us and too early for Barty Sr. to hide his son's body. The owl nodded and flew away, stopping to peck him lightly on the cheek.
Once Wings was out of sight, Harry turned around and walked out of the owlry, opening the door to run into, "Hermione. I'll never get used to this. How'd it go?"
She glanced around to make sure no one could see and gave him a peck on the lips. "Perfectly," she said happily. "I even watched Shacklebolt pour veritaserum down Winky's throat." She paused, frowning. "I wonder what's going to happen to her."
"Probably get the sack," said Harry, shrugging. "She'll manage like she did last time. Maybe I'll see if I can hire her in awhile if she hasn't found a new master, once this mess is cleared up."
Hermione sighed, "I suppose she'd never accept pay, and would be insulted if you offered it."
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "You won't hold that against me, will you?"
"No," she sighed. "I understand." Then, changing the subject, she said, "Hopefully, without Crouch around, Sirius will be set free."
"Hopefully," he echoed her.
They then walked together toward their next class, chatting amicably, when they were accosted by three hoodlums.
"Ah, Potter and the Mudblood," declared Draco. "I should congratulate you, Potty. You finally started to give the Mudblood what she deserves." He indicated her bruise, and then motioned to Crabbe and Goyle. "Maybe we can add more bruises."
Harry and Hermione were both summoning their special wands out of their invisible holsters when a female voice called out from behind them. "Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle! Twenty points from Slytherin - EACH! Along with five detentions each with Mr. Filch!"
Harry grinned as he watched Professor Vector, the new Head of Slytherin, discipline her students.
"You are a disgrace to the Slytherin House! I don't know what Snape taught you, but when I was a student, the Slytherins weren't a bunch of arrogant bullies trying to pick fights with people! By the way, you may not have noticed it, but Potter and Granger already had their wands in their hands, ready to curse you three into oblivion, and I just saved you a trip to the hospital wing! Ten points to Gryffindor for being prepared."
"Thank you, Professor," said Harry, barely suppressing his laughter at the look on Draco's face as he saw that they did indeed have their wands at the ready.
"Goodbye, Draco," said Hermione as she and her unofficial boyfriend walked off. Once they were out of earshot, they laughed heartily at Draco, Crabbe and Goyle's predicament, realizing that Vector was right about them being a disgrace to the house known for producing clever people. They knew that Tom Riddle would never have acted like Draco Malfoy. Not to excuse Snape in any way, but they did realize that whatever evil things he did, he had managed to effectively dumb down the Slytherin house. They just wondered if it was on purpose, or just an unintended side-affect of his excesses.
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The next morning, Harry and Hermione had made sure they would receive the Daily Prophet, and were not disappointed in the article Rita Skeeter wrote. Above a picture of Barty Crouch Sr. sitting bound to a chair in courtroom ten was the headline:
Bartemius Crouch sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss for heinous crimes!
By Rita Skeeter
Some of you may remember that the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation Barty Crouch had a son who turned out to be a Death Eater who participated in multiple crimes in You-Know-Who's service and supposedly died in Azkaban.
Yesterday morning, Senor Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt discovered evidence that proved…
The article went on to describe how Jr. was broken out of Azkaban and was recently killed. Fudge had hurried up the Crouch trial in an effort to stop the press from finding out, but apparently Skeeter had been buzzing around the Ministry at the time and got the story. For a change, she didn't have to make things up to keep the story as cruel and vindictive as possible. The article did mention that the elf was given clothes throughout the process, though she didn't go into any details about that, so Harry decided what he would do later that day.
Harry and Hermione were alone in the Room of Requirement when Harry called out, "Winky the House Elf, can you hear me?"
Nothing happened for about ten seconds. Harry was about to call a school elf to help him contact Winky when she popped into existence with a very loud noise. She was crying and trembling as she held onto a glove that had obviously been given to her the day before. "You is calling Winky," she sobbed, "the disgraced elf who couldn't protect Young Master?"
Harry knelt in front of her. "Not a disgraced elf. The noble elf of a once great family that has recently disgraced itself. It wasn't your fault." Harry was relieved that Winky didn't seem to realize that he was the one who'd killed Barty Jr.
"No. Master is a good wizard."
"He's not your master anymore," interrupted Harry while Hermione silently watched. "I'm Harry Potter. Would you like me to become your new master?" he asked gently.
Winky looked completely flabbergasted as she gazed into Harry's face. "You…you wants Winky?"
He grinned at the hopefulness in her eyes. "Only if you want to be my elf."
"Winky does. WINKY DOES!!!"
"Then, how do you become my elf?" he asked, not sure if there was some kind of ritual.
"You is taking Winky's right hand." He obeyed. "Now, you is saying `Winky is my elf.'"
"Winky is my elf."
"Harry Potter is my master," the elf said solemnly, and then a white ball of light formed where their hands met and flashed for a moment, bathing the entire room in bright light before it was gone in a blink. "Now, we is bonded. What is master wanting?"
"First," said Harry, "I want to introduce you to my friend, Hermione Granger. You will obey her like you would me." After a moment, he added, "Unless she contradicts me," causing Hermione to stick her tongue out at him before smirking.
"It is being an honor to be meeting Harry Potter's Grangy."
"I'm glad to meet you as well, Winky."
Harry then said, "While I'm here at Hogwarts, there won't be that much for you to do, so I suggest you work with the other elves in the kitchens for the time being. I'll call you whenever I have a specific task for you to do."
"Oh," added Hermione. "If it's possible, don't tell anyone who your master is. He's kind of famous and doesn't want other people to know about his personal business."
"Winky understands," she said, after seeing Harry nod in agreement. She then popped away.
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The weeks passed quickly after that, with still no definitive word about Sirius or Pettigrew, despite Mr. Crouch being taken out of the picture. The only thing Kingsley could reply to their inquiries was that Fudge was taking the suggestion for Black and Pettigrew's trial under advisement. Shacklebolt went as far as to suggest that if they planned anything illegal, that though he'd be sympathetic, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, and didn't want to know about it.
When Halloween arrived, Hermione found herself paired up with Ron Weasley for the Charms lesson in which Flitwick went over the levitation spell. However, this time Hermione didn't comment on Ron's failures as she did last time, knowing that he wouldn't take it well. Both Harry and Hermione also waited until someone else performed the spell before they did. Consequently, Ron didn't make any comments about Hermione being an absolute nightmare. Harry had already fixed it so no one could say she didn't have any friends. They were happy to note that Neville had performed the spell before class was dismissed.
The feast that night was wonderfully uninterrupted, so the young couple, who were sitting next to Neville, was able to enjoy the feast, as well as the decorations. However, although neither would admit it, both were expecting trouble that never came.
After that, Harry and Hermione decided to target other free Death Eaters that they knew were murderers. These people had bribed and lied their way out of Azkaban and joined up with Voldemort the moment he returned. Harry and Hermione knew that the way to stop the proverbial dog from biting you on Monday was to kill the dog on Sunday, so they knew their mission, and began making plans while covertly observing the patterns of their targets using their Time Turner and Invisibility cloak.
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"Nervous?" questioned Oliver Wood as the Gryffindor team, including Harry, approached the pitch. It was November 9th, and they were about to face Slytherin.
"A little," Harry replied, though he wasn't nearly as nervous as he had been the first time he'd played this game. He was fairly certain that no one would enchant his broom this time, but was ready for it anyway. Minutes before, Hermione had reminded him to catch the Snitch with his hands this time, instead of his mouth.
"I was nervous during my first game, too."
This time, Harry didn't ask Oliver what happened. He'd learned his lesson the last time. After his final instruction to catch the Snitch or die trying, Harry mounted his broom.
"Welcome to the first Quidditch match of the year," announced Lee Jordan, "Gryffindor versus Slytherin!"
The teams were then announced and the balls released. Angelina Johnson got the Quaffle first. "…what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too."
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor."
That's about the only thing that happened exactly the way that Harry remembered it. He was glad to see that Quidditch matches were too random to repeat. All that it took to change them was for one person, even if it was himself, to fly in a different direction, and the whole game is changed.
However, one thing remained the same - Gryffindor destroying Slytherin. Oliver was definitely on his game that day as he blocked everything shot at him. Not that he had that many opportunities, since the Gryffindor Chasers were dominating the pitch.
When the score was fifty to zero, Harry noticed the Golden Snitch just above the Slytherin Keeper's head. At the same time, Katie Bell, Quaffle in hand, was approaching that goal. Harry noticed the Slytherin Beaters close together taking aim at her, so he aimed himself and shot in between the two, distracting them long enough for Katie to shoot. At the same time, Harry zoomed to the left hoop, reaching out his hand.
"She scores!" shouted Lee. "Sixty to zero!" The crowd was still cheering when Harry raised his fist in victory. "Is that?" Jordan said. "It is! HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!!!!" He was jumping up and down in the stands with McGonagall sitting next to him, shaking her head in embarrassment. "Gryffindor skunks the Slytherins - two hundred ten to nothing!!!! What a debut for Potter!"
Harry looked over toward them and noticed an unusually big smile on McGonagall's face before he felt two arms come around him from either side to pick him up. He grinned at the Weasley twins, but held onto his broomstick tightly with his knees. Most of the crowd was loudly chanting, "Pot-ter, Pot-ter, Pot-ter!"
With a huge grin, he held the Snitch up once more, to the crowd's approval, as they approached the rest of their excited team. Wood was ecstatic, shouting, "We'll get that cup! I know it!"
When they finally reached the ground, Hermione ran up to Harry and hugged him tightly. Their eyes locked. They came very close to kissing, but she looked down at the last second and let go. Hermione waited outside the locker room for Harry, and then they walked back toward the castle together.
"You did great out there," she exclaimed. "You haven't lost your touch. Higgs didn't even see the Snitch before it was in your hands."
"Yeah, that's it. I'd forgotten that Seeker's name. I wonder if Malfoy will still buy his position next year."
"Maybe not," she replied as they entered the school. "His father won't be there to buy the team."
"And Snape's not there to make sure he gets away with it," agreed Harry.
Looking around and lowering her voice, she said, "Are you ready for our mission?"
"I believe it's time to pay Goyle Senior a visit," whispered Harry, just before he and Hermione slipped unnoticed into an empty classroom and closed the door. They opened the door and left ten seconds later, each looking like the cat that killed the canary.
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It was the same day, in fact during the Quidditch match (thanks to the Time Turner) when Harry and Hermione (under the Crouch Invisibility cloak) followed Goyle Sr. to a muggle neighborhood. They silently observed him walk into a muggle cinema for a matinee showing of what would definitely be considered a `chick flick.' Hermione insisted that they pay for tickets before sneaking into the film under the cloak (so they wouldn't be spotted by Goyle). Hermione was enjoying the movie while Harry watched their target pull his wand out and point it at the attractive woman sitting alone in front of him. He tapped Hermione's shoulder in time for them both to hear the word, "Imperio," muttered before the victim's eyes glazed over.
They were silently revolted as they watched the woman stand up and leave with Goyle following her. Hermione muttered, "I was enjoying this movie," as they followed Goyle from a distance.
"We'll watch it later," Harry hissed as he hurried her.
Once they went outside, it didn't take a genius to see they were headed straight for a hotel on the other side of the street.
"That monster!" hissed Hermione as her face turned red. "He's probably been doing this for years!"
"I'm sure he has," muttered Harry.
"She's wearing a wedding ring," Hermione said as Harry got his wand out of its holster.
"Let me do it," she asked, with a scary expression on her face. Without saying a word, Harry replaced his wand back where it was stored. "Keep your eyes out for muggles."
"The coast is clear," whispered Harry after taking a look to see no one was paying attention.
Goyle stepped onto the street to cross it when Hermione performed a powerful banishing charm on a parked car he was directly in front of. It moved forward at about one hundred kilometers per hour for the three feet between it and Goyle Senior, before ramming into him. His now broken body was hurled about ten feet and fell to the ground. The woman's glazed expression turned into confusion. She looked around and started walking as fast as she could toward the theater, while putting her credit card back into her purse, wondering why she'd removed it. A crowd began to form around the bloody mess that used to be Goyle.
"He's dead!" someone shouted after feeling for a pulse.
"I hope the person who owns that car has insurance," Harry muttered.
"I'm sure they do," said Hermione before putting her wand away. "She had her credit card out."
"Probably to pay for the room," said Harry.
Hermione looked even madder. "But don't you realize…when they get their bill…she'd never be able to keep it secret from her husband!"
Harry, having caught on, was now as angry as Hermione. "He'd divorce her for having an affair."
"I'm just glad we stopped him," she said, obviously trying to calm down. "Now, we need to see that movie again."
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Harry and Hermione almost felt guilty when they saw how devastated Gregory Goyle was after being informed of his father's death, but they knew that they'd made the world a better place - with one less rapist/murderer. A few days later, Hermione determined that the lemon drop Harry had taken from Dumbledore did indeed have a mild calming draught mixed into it. They were relieved that it wasn't anything stronger.
Goyle was the first of many Death Eaters that would meet with fatal `accidents' over the next year. Early in December, Walden Macnair suffered an `accident' when a beast he was supposed to kill apparently killed him. Harry and Hermione planned that the executions would occur under very different, unpredictable circumstances, and very few people noticed the pattern, or even suspected they were anything besides accidents. However, one person did.
Professor Dumbledore was in his office speaking with his Deputy Headmistress. "I'm going to have to put Severus under a Fidelius Charm. Barty Crouch Jr., Goyle, Macnair. All of these deaths have led me to one conclusion. There is a very clever vigilante out there who is killing the Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban."
Minerva commented, "I don't think there's any reason to interfere with his work. He's not giving them anything less than they deserve."
Sighing, Albus said, "I reluctantly agree with you, and hate to admit that I feel better with them off the street. Therefore, I decided not to inform the Minister of my suspicions." He took a deep breath. "However, it is quite conceivable that this vigilante will group Severus with the rest. Therefore, I must do what I can to protect him."
"I understand."
"Now, onto other matters. Is Mr. Potter returning to his relatives for the holidays, or is he staying here?"
"Actually," she replied. "He informed me that he has accepted an invitation to spend the holidays with the Grangers."
Frowning, Dumbledore replied, "That's not good."
"Why ever not?" asked Minerva, now appearing angry.
"It's not safe there."
"Safe from what?"
"Death Eaters," he answered as though it were obvious. "I must put a stop to it."
"You'll do no such thing, Albus! First of all, the Death Eaters won't even know Harry is there, and secondly, they're probably too worried about this vigilante to bother with Harry Potter."
"But…"
"I know you've already had harsh words with him, but you will NOT interfere with his friendships! He's told me some of what the Dursleys put him through, and we both know I warned you about them! Finally, he's finding a bit of happiness, and I will not have you ruin it!"
Sighing, Dumbledore relented. "Very well. I will not interfere with his Christmas plans, but he will have to return to the Dursleys this summer."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she replied.
"Yes, we will."
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