If I owned Harry Potter then Harry and Hermione would be married and probably running a detective agency or Hermione would teach History and Harry would teach Charms at Hogwarts and they would both spend the summers doing various adventures Indiana Jones style. Sirius and Remus (neither of whom are dead, they're residing under a fidelius charm on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean) would play paper, rock, scissors and the looser would be the headmaster of Hogwarts while winner would be DADA teacher and deputy headmaster. Tonks (also not dead but actually on the tropical island) would spend her time between working at Harry and Hermione's detective agency and impersonating Minister Luna Longbottom whenever Minister Longbottom wants to go off and search for strange creatures with her husband who would be on the look out for new and interesting plants. Fred (tropical island!) and George would play paper, rock, scissors at the end of every month and whoever lost would get to run the joke shop for the week while the winner would get to teach potions at Hogwarts.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
He looked and saw that Ginny too had just been sorted into Gryffindor. She made a beeline for a cluster of other new Gryffindors and then Harry sighed in relief. At least he had not changed that much and hopefully what had happened wouldn't change events very much or he was going to be in serious trouble.
When the feast was over he felt Hermione grasp him tightly by the arm and he winced. While he wanted time to try to figure out what that strange brown stuff had been and why Luna had been sorted into Gryffindor this time around, he knew that Hermione would wait no longer for answers. They made it into the Gryffindor common room before her curiosity finally overcame her,
"Well? What's been going on Harry?" Hermione demanded and Harry looked around. There were several students lingering in the room, catching up with their friends from last year.
"Do you have the translations still?" he asked her and an irritated look flickered across her face before she nodded.
"Good, bring them and come with me. I don't want anyone to over hear what I'm going to tell you." She frowned but nodded and disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitory for a few minutes. When she returned, she had a messenger bag over her shoulder and nodded in Harry's direction.
"You must be back here in one hour!" Percy called after them, a disapproving look on his face. Harry ignored him and pulled Hermione through the halls. They kept going until they came up to the fifth floor and Harry began to pace.
I need a place where no one will over hear us. I need a place that Hermione and I can talk without being interrupted. He thought this over and over again until finally the door appeared and Hermione let out a soft gasp. Harry pushed open the door and looked around the room.
It looked very similar to the Gryffindor common room, but smaller and instead of the bright red of the common room it was a dark, richer red. There was a painting of Hogwarts above the fireplace. Harry took one of the squishy red chairs and Hermione took the other and gave him a piercing look.
"What is going on Harry?" She demanded and Harry paused. He wasn't exactly certain how to explain what had happened. It had been easy enough to tell the twins, but Hermione was different. She probably knew all the reasons why what had happened was impossible and she would want more answers than he had. He was going to need her help even more than he would need the twins, he knew that. Even with memories from the future, one wrong move and they would all be useless but Hermione wasn't hindered by the knowledge of what might happen. She would be able to see things without relying on the memories or on potentially false impressions of people based on what they didn't do yet.
"First, was there anything strange about the journals? Did you write in them at all?" he demanded of her and she narrowed her eyes but she answered.
"Yes, I wrote some notes in the margins and the only strange thing about the journals was that many of them were written in languages that I've never seen before. Now, tell me what's going on." Harry let out a small sigh of relief and then he went back to trying to figure out what to tell Hermione. He sat up in shock as he realized he had almost forgotten about occulemency.
"Hermione, if I tell you this, you need to promise not to look Dumbledore or Snape in the eye, promise me!" Harry said quickly and Hermione pursed her lips and glared at him.
"Harry, please tell me what's going on."
"Promise me." Harry demanded while his mind still raced to figure out what he could say to Hermione so he could convince her what was going on and not sound crazy. Hermione sighed,
"Fine Harry, I promise I won't look at Professor Dumbledore or at Professor Snape in the eye." The flicker of disgust that crossed Harry's face when she called Snape a professor did not escape Hermione. She opened her mouth to again demand an explanation of her friend when he interrupted the inner argument she was preparing to use against him,
"There's a basilisk in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and unless I can find a diary with a piece of Voldemort's soul in it, it's going to probably kill a lot of people." Harry blurted out before his mind fully made up how to explain things to his best friend. She stared at him and then frowned. Then Hermione stood up and moved until she was able to put her hand on his forehead. She pursed her lips,
"You don't seem to have a fever." Harry turned red as she got very close to his face, "Your eyes look normal." Hermione stood straight and took his hand, "Come on Harry, I want Madam Pomfrey to take a look at you. There's obviously something wrong. Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Hermione, I'm telling the truth!" Harry protested as she tried to pull him along to take him to the hospital wing.
"You think you're telling the truth Harry, but what you just told me just isn't possible. Even with magic, no one can go more than a day into the past and even then it's impossible to place your consciousness into your former self's body. The mental and magical strain would cause the body to first go insane and then implode. And besides that, why would there be a basilisk in the castle? This was built as a fortress and a school, a pace where people, where children, are sent to be safe while they learned to harness their magic. And even if there was a basilisk, why would it be in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom of all places?"
"Why would I lie about this?" Harry demanded as she continued to try to get him to the door but he kept manipulating the room so no matter how far she pulled him along, the door was always further away.
"I know you're not lying Harry, or at least you don't think you're lying, I'm not sure how, but I know. But as I said, it's impossible, so I believe you probably had a very vivid dream or something like that and you think what you saw was real." Harry finally managed to wrench his hand from Hermione's grip.
"Hermione, I'm telling the truth. The basilisk is in the chamber of secrets and the sink that doesn't work in Myrtle's bathroom is the entrance. If you don't believe me then I'll show you." Hermione rolled her eyes and then said dryly,
"Fine, let's see this secret entrance to a place that people have been searching for since Slytherin died. But if we're caught and I loose points, get detention, or get killed then I hold you responsible." Harry smiled and helped her to collect the journals. Then together they snuck through the castle hallways. As they crept down a flight of stairs Harry stopped suddenly.
"I almost forgot." He muttered and he took the Marauder's map from his bag and pointed his wand at it.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He ignored Hermione's look at such a password and watched as the lines of ink began to spread across the parchment. Hermione stared at it in obvious amazement and Harry carefully studied where everyone was. Snape was in the dungeons, Filch was patrolling on the other side of the castle, McGonagall in her rooms, and the prefects were easy enough to avoid.
"Harry, where did you get something like that? It's very advanced magic!" Hermione hissed as he again began to lead her through the hallways.
"My father and his friends made it." He nearly stopped in shock as something suddenly connected in his mind. Scabbers! He hadn't seen the traitor since leaving the Burrow! He frowned and tried to figure out where the rat was as he and Hermione continued on to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He was broken out of his thoughts by the almost familiar sounds of Myrtle's wailing.
"Come on." Harry insisted as Hermione paused, a grimace on her face. They entered the bathroom and were almost immediately accosted by the unhappy ghost girl.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped at them, "Come to make fun of poor Myrtle have you?" she demanded.
"No!" Harry immediately gulped as he took a step back. He could just imagine the sort of noise she could make, immediately brining far too many people to them. Myrtle glared at them.
"This isn't the astronomy tower. Go snog somewhere else and leave me alone!" Myrtle hissed at them and both of the Gryffindor students began to blush brightly. For a moment Harry had a brief vision of kissing Hermione but he quickly banished it as he remembered that she was twelve still and he was sixteen, mentally at least. Though they were physically the same age, it would still seem rather wrong.
But in a few more years a little voice whispered in the back of his mind and he determinedly ignored it.
"Myrtle, we were wondering how you died." Harry told the pouting ghost before she could accuse them of anything else, or worse, alert others to their presence. Myrtle stared at the two of them in amazement and a grin blossomed on her face.
"Really?" she squeaked and he and Hermione nodded quickly. She floated down until she was at eye level with them, a silvery blush on her semi-transparent face.
"Well, I came here because I was so upset because Olive Hornby had been making fun of me. She was so nasty! I was crying when I heard someone hissing, a boy hissing. Well, I got mad and I came out of my stall to yell at them and I saw a giant pair of yellow eyes and then," she began to swell up in great self importance,
"I died." She said dramatically. Hermione shot a glance over at Harry who nodded at Myrtle.
"Thanks Myrtle, but, where did you see those eyes?" he asked and Myrtle shrugged,
"Oh, over there somewhere." She waved over towards the sink. Harry nodded and walked over to the sink. There was the little snake carved into the pipe.
"Open," he hissed as he imagined the snake to be alive. He heard Hermione and Myrtle both gasp as the sink moved to reveal the slide down into the dark depths.
"There's a basilisk down there, that's what kill you Myrtle." Harry said to the ghost girl who stared at the hole in amazement.
"Oh Harry!" Hermione gasped and he hissed at the sink again and it closed. Then he turned to her,
"The basilisk, the thing that killed Myrtle, is down there, and I don't have Fawkes or the sword of Gryffindor right now so I don't really want to go down there just yet. But do you believe me now?" Harry looked at her and she bit her lip, took a deep breath and then nodded.
"Yes, I believe you," then a different look appeared on her face and she frowned slightly, "though I am disappointed Harry. Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them specifically says that a basilisk can be killed by the crowing of a rooster. You don't have to go through whatever you did the first time to kill it. What did you do by the way?" He stared at her for a moment and bit back a groan as he remembered that vital piece of information. He could just see the sentence on the crumpled piece of paper he had taken from Hermione's petrified hand the first time around. Hermione continued to stare at him and he was about to answer when Myrtle broke in and reminded them of her presence,
"How did you do that?" she demanded. Harry jumped slightly and turned to her as his mind raced for a reason.
"It was a spell I've been trying to develop to detect secret passages. Hassess." Hermione said quickly and Myrtle looked doubtful but she accepted it when she saw that Harry was nodding in agreement.
"I was just helping her to test it. I didn't want her to get hurt in case the spell didn't work out." Harry added quickly and Myrtle nodded and a sly look came across her face and she floated closer to Harry.
"I'm sure you were behind quite a bit of the real work behind the spell though and it was so brave of you to try casting it first." She simpered and Harry noticed that Hermione was trying to bite back a smile.
"Uh, well," Harry tried to think of something that wouldn't hurt Myrtle's feelings and then,
"We have to get going or someone might catch us and give us detention for being out after hours." Hermione broke in and she grabbed Harry's arm and began to pull him towards the door. The young wizard was now certain that she was the best friend in existence.
"Yeah!" he grabbed onto the excuse, "We don't want to get detention or loose house points. The Slytherins won the house cup for long enough." With that he grabbed Hermione's wrist and pulled her out of the bathroom before Myrtle could say anything else. As they snuck back to the tower, Harry tried to get his thoughts together but Hermione interrupted,
"Harry, how far ahead did you come from? How did you manage to come this far back, and merge with your past self, without imploding? Have you changed anything? Do you know the purpose of that brown stuff that was on the carriage? How did you find out there was a basilisk in Myrtle's bathroom? How did you kill it? Who had the journal the first time? How did you find the room of requirement? What happened that was so bad that you felt you had to come back?"
Harry paused for a moment before he finally answered,
"I've come from just after our sixth year. We were caught by death eaters and Voldemort killed me. I don't know why I didn't implode and yes, I've changed a few things." Hermione glared at him,
"Harry! It's forbidden-" Harry interrupted,
"Yes, I know that the Ministry has forbidden people to change the past. You get a time turner next year to take all the classes you wanted to take and you told me about the rules about time travel. But Hermione, I had to change things, Dumbledore died. He was murdered." Hermione gasped and she became pale.
"My godfather, did you know I have a godfather?" Harry went on without noticing Hermione's reaction, "He died trying to save me from my own stupidity and Cedric Diggory, Cedric died just because I was trying to be fair. Voldemort came back Hermione, and he's still out there now. I have to change that, I have to stop them from dying and I can't do it without your help. But if you don't want to help then I won't force you." Hermione stared at him before she grabbed him in a fierce hug. Harry was stunned for a moment before he gingerly hugged her back.
"How could you even think I wouldn't help you?" she hissed when she finally let him go.
"Now, answer my questions. I can't help if I don't know what I'm working with." Hermione demanded and Harry smiled brightly and he began to explain things in a low whisper as they walked hurriedly back to the Gryffindor tower. They couldn't see anyone in the hall but that didn't mean that there wasn't anyone there. Even if the hall really was empty, Harry didn't trust the portraits since they had little better to do than gossip and report about the activities of students.
They returned to the Gryffindor common room and discovered that it was empty. Then Hermione again grabbed him in a fierce hug.
"Thank you Harry." She said when she released him. He stared at her,
"Thank you?" he was stunned, "But I'm probably going to get you killed! Hermione, I shouldn't have told you anything but-"
"But I would have started questioning Harry and I would have found out at least part of it. Or I might have tried to turn you in as a polyjuiced imposter." Hermione interrupted and mentally Harry had to agree.
"And when Voldemort does come back then even if I wasn't your friend I'd be a target, probably even one of the first to go. I've read the books and I've stayed awake in history Harry, I know who he would come after first. So thank you, thank you for letting me help and thank you for being my friend Harry." Hermione told him and then she looked stern,
"Now, you're going to show me everything that you can do now and I'll teach you what I've learned from the journals so be prepared to get up early." She declared and he smiled.
"Thanks Hermione." He said and they parted to go to their respective rooms.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
And that's all I wrote, for now at least, now please leave a review and tell me what you liked, what I can improve upon and whether or not anyone is going to take up the challenges that I posted in the challenge forums because I really want someone to take one of those challenges
Also, go read Skullduggery Pleasant, it's a really good book and you'll be glad you did
-->