Mega-chapter today for the 100th chapter! Enjoy.
(Word Count: 6,141)
The next two months of September and October passed by quickly after the opening of the Dueling Club. Between classes, homework, quidditch talk, and the club meetings themselves, the weeks seemed to blur together into one long routine. Hogwarts steadily shifted deeper into autumn as the days passed. The trees surrounding the castle had turned brilliant shades of gold, orange, and red while cold winds rattled the windows nearly every evening. The castle itself became colder as the chilly wind seemed to seep into the stone itself. However, the classrooms themselves somehow felt warmer because of it. Fires crackled in every fireplace, students crowded together in common rooms to escape the cold, and the scent of pumpkin pastries and cinnamon drifted constantly from the kitchens if a student was lucky enough to pass by.
Those lucky Hufflepuffs.
The Dueling Club had become wildly popular. Harry had honestly expected the initial rush to mostly consist of students just wanting an excuse to throw spells at each other. Sure, there were many students that only showed up to see what the fuss was about, but students from every year kept showing up week after week. Some came because they genuinely wanted to learn, while others came simply because it was entertaining watching their classmates trip over themselves or getting a spell to the face.
Flitwick handled everything wonderfully. He kept the atmosphere energetic and encouraging while still drilling the fundamentals into everyone relentlessly. After the first month, the first years were still mostly practicing the footwork and simple sparks spells while the older students had slowly started moving into more advanced practice like working on getting their first spellchain put together.
Harry found himself spending much of the club correcting posture and demonstrating how to stay on the move while maintaining their casting over and over again. It turned out most people had terrible instincts when it came to fighting and, like Daphne that first day, would freeze in order to cast their spells.
Daphne on the other hand, like Hermione when she was first learning, picked it up rather quickly.
"You know, if you mastered the protego, you'd have a pretty good shot at placing in the top 10 in a tournament," Harry commented as he practiced with her.
"I have no interest in actually competing, Harry," Daphne huffed, "And what do you mean 'a good shot' at the top 10? Look at them." She gestured over to the upper year students practicing the spellchains. "I can't even point cast yet, nevermind silent casting. I doubt I'd even win my first match."
"Those are the NEWT students. I'm talking about the U15 tournament. Only a handful of them know point casting, so they barely have a proper spellchain going, and only a handful of them know protego or the shieldbreaking charm. You learn that, and like I said, you've got a good shot. You're better off than you realize, just with these fundamentals. You're doing great," Harry said.
Daphne's cheeks colored slightly at the praise, but she nodded cooly, "Well… Thank you. You've been very helpful."
"Of course."
Lockhart, unfortunately, remained a constant presence during every meeting. Flitwick never officially allowed him to teach, but that did not stop the man from wandering between students offering his usual terrible advice. Flitwick had tried talking to the vain man, but Lockhart was too thick-skinned and just kept showing up. Most of the students seemed to have caught on that he wasn't the best source of advice when it came to dueling, so they would just smile and nod before going back to what they were doing.
~~ ITW,H ~~
Outside of classes, Harry had dedicated himself toward a goal he had made since he first achieved his level 4 Occlumency. He intended to memorize the entire Hogwarts library.
The process itself was fairly straightforward. Thanks to his perfect memory, he did not actually need to sit down and carefully study every text normally. Instead, he simply took books one by one, rapidly flipped through the pages while absorbing the contents into memory, then returned them and moved onto the next. The process was only slow because Hogwarts' library was enormous. Even going through dozens of books a day, it was unlikely that Harry would be able to complete his goal by the time he graduated.
Still, progress steadily accumulated day after day.
He had also gotten a permission slip from Dumbledore himself to visit the restricted section. He would alternate from the regular shelves to the books in the restricted section. For the days in the restriction section, he would focus on curses and counter curses.
Seeing him bring stacks of books to and from his table, Madam Pince had started eyeing him with suspicion. She had taken up the habit of checking on him every so often to make sure he wasn't doing anything wrong with the books. He could spot her watching him like a hawk from afar. It was kind of creepy to be honest.
Hermione noticed what he was doing the very first time he showed up with an armful of books and started flipping through them seemingly without even reading a word. When she realized what he could do, she became extraordinarily jealous.
"You're so unfair," Hermione groaned dramatically as she dropped into the chair across from him. "Do you have any idea how much I wish I could do that?"
Harry looked up from the book in amusement. "You already read faster than almost everyone in the school."
"That is not the point and you know it," Hermione huffed irritably. "You don't even have to study anymore! You just absorb things like some sort of magical sponge!"
Harry laughed softly. "It's not quite that easy. It doesn't mean that I automatically understand the theory in the text. I will still need to delve into the text and try to wrap my mind around what is being said."
"Yes it is," Hermione accused immediately. "I watched you memorize an entire book on advanced arithmancy in under two minutes last week. And write a paper on it."
Harry winced slightly. "Like I said, I need to go through and try to understand it. That was me writing out my thoughts about it… okay, it does help a lot."
Hermione slumped across the table while glaring at the towering stacks of books beside him with naked jealousy. "You know, normal people actually have to work for their grades."
"It's not my fault they don't master occlumency. I did a whole PSA and everything last year. You could do this too, if you continued practicing," Harry pointed out.
Hermione immediately perked up slightly at that. The frustration on her face shifted into a conflicted look as she considered the possibilities. Harry could practically see the gears turning in her head. On the one hand, she would be able to quickly memorize any book she read. On the other hand, there was that weird fluttering feeling of embarrassment she got at the thought of Harry using Legilemency on her.
"Can I really reach the same level of occlumency as you did?" She asked slowly. "Aren't you a natural Occlumens? Doesn't that… I don't know, make it come naturally to you?"
"Just because it comes naturally to me, doesn't mean that it's not teachable. There's no reason you can't reach the same level… in a few years," Harry replied honestly. If anyone can naturally develop Occlumency to this level without the help of a system paving the way, it would be Hermione. Not that she would need to go at it alone. He would help every step of the way. "Occlumency is, at its core, mastery over your own mind. Once you get skilled enough, you can begin to interact with your own subconscious, which is what allows you to remember the things you haven't consciously learned or tried to remember. This is how I can just look at a book and then later recall that moment, thus 'memorizing' the book."
Seeing she was still conflicted, Harry leaned closer conspiratorially, "And I intend to have this whole library in my mind before I leave Hogwarts. I'll have all the books available to me anytime I want."
Hermione stared at the stack of books beside him, and around her at the thousands of shelves filled with magical knowledge, for a long moment before letting out a deep sigh. She shoved down the fluttering in her stomach. Knowledge was simply too important.
"Fine," she grumbled. "We're practicing again tonight."
Harry grinned victoriously.
~~ ITW,H ~~
Several days later, on September 19th, Harry greeted Hermione that morning with a cheerful "Happy Birthday, Hermione!"
Hermione froze midstep, looking at him in shock before smiling broadly. "You remembered my birthday?"
He grinned wryly. "After missing your birthday last year, there's no way I would forget it again this year." Early in their first year, Harry hadn't yet gotten his objective memory, so even though Harry theoretically "knew" Hermione's birthday, details like that were easy to slip by without him realizing. He hadn't realized he had missed it until the end of the month. He snuck out to Hogsmeade that night to buy an armful of chocolate to make it up to her. Looking back it made him a bit sad to think that she just stayed quiet and thought that he hadn't cared… Well, up until he dropped all the chocolate he had bought into her lap.
Harry grinned and pulled out a huge basket of chocolate from underneath the table. "Here's your birthday chocolate!"
Hermione laughed, "Harry, that's way too much chocolate! I can't possibly eat all of this!"
"It's got a freshness charm on it to keep it preserved for as long as you want," Harry said.
Hermione clutched the basket and looked like she was holding back tears. "Thank you, Harry."
"Oh, chocolate's not the only thing you're getting. That's just the warm up. I've got your actual present, and the presents from your parents, Sirius, Remus, and the Tonks, but we can go over those later tonight after dinner."
"Oh, Harry, the chocolate's already too much, you didn't ha—"
"The chocolate's nothing, Hermione. Don't worry about it. Besides, you know I'll be snitching some for myself anyway," Harry scoffed.
Hermione laughed, somewhat guiltily and mildly bewildered, at the thought of receiving so much. "Well… okay," she said quietly.
The day progressed largely the same as any other day, aside from the fact that Hermione would be greeted by students with a "happy birthday," leaving her more and more bewildered. "What's going on? Since when did so many people know my birthday?" She asked him.
"I don't know," Harry shrugged, playing it off. "Maybe you've made a good impression on them?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.
He just gave her a wink.
She rolled her eyes and walked off muttering.
Later that evening, Harry was walking back to the common room together with Hermione. They had just finished with one of their occlumency sessions, which they had picked back up and now practiced at least once or twice a week.
As they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, the Fat Lady saw them coming and automatically swung the portrait open, and hurriedly ran out of frame. "That's weird," Hermione said with a frown. "I've never seen the Fat Lady do that before. I didn't even know she could open the way without the password. Where do you think she's gone?"
"Maybe she needed to be somewhere?" Harry said casually. "Come on, let's get inside."
Harry went first and quickly stepped to the side. Hermione followed close behind and—
"Surprise!"
Hermione froze as poppers burst and showered the room in colorful streamers.
The entire Gryffindor common room had been transformed. Floating candles drifted lazily overhead while enchanted streamers in red and gold hung from the ceiling and wrapped around the banisters. A massive crooked banner reading HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE stretched over the fireplace while nearly the entire Gryffindor house crowded the room cheering and clapping.
Harry had started planning a surprise party for Hermione's birthday the week before together with Neville, Ron, Lavender, and the rest of the girls that shared a dorm room with Hermione. However, the news somehow spread—probably from Lavender—and soon the smaller party Harry was planning had quickly become a house-wide event. Gryffindor students didn't need much of an excuse to party, and a birthday was more than reason enough.
Lee Jordan was somehow hanging upside down off the staircase railing, being held by the legs by Fred and George. The second years, the ones that knew Hermione the most, were front and center. The upper years were in the back already beginning to break out some smuggled butterbears and even some firewhiskey. In the portrait above the fireplace, the Fat Lady was waving excitedly.
Hermione stared at the packed common room in complete shock.
"This is… for me?" she asked softly.
"Well yeah," Ron said from beside the present table. "Who else would it be for?"
Hermione looked around again, visibly overwhelmed now as more students started wishing her happy birthday from all directions.
"I just…" She blinked rapidly behind her hair. "No wonder everyone was wishing me a happy birthday! Did you do this?"
"Oh no," Ron whispered to Harry. "Why's she crying?"
Ginny immediately smacked him upside the head. "Because she's happy, you prat."
Harry stepped beside Hermione and gently bumped her shoulder. "Happy Birthday, Hermione."
She looked up at him, eyes shining. "You organized all this?"
"Not exactly," Harry admitted. "I was planning a much smaller party for just us second years. I think Parvati and Lavender spread the news to the rest, then Gryffindor collectively decided any excuse for a party was a good excuse."
"That is absolutely true!" Fred called proudly from across the room.
Hermione laughed softly despite herself and quickly wiped at her eyes. "This is ridiculous."
The rest of the night was spent with music blaring loudly, Hermione opening gifts, and dancing. For Harry's gift, he had gotten her a first edition copy of Hogwarts: A History, signed by Bathilda Bagshot herself. When she realized it was a first edition she squealed and jumped around excitedly. That earned him a bear hug from her. As the night dragged on, Harry watched Hermione laughing together with Lavender, Parvati, Kellah, Eloise, Sally. It was the biggest smile he'd seen on her in weeks.
~~ ITW,H ~~
The Room of Requirement had become one of Harry and Hermione's favorite places over the past several weeks. Most evenings, the room transformed itself into a comfortable study area complete with armchairs, bookshelves, and warm lighting while they practiced the basics of Occlumency together. Oftentimes, Harry would have the house elves deliver a large pot of hot chocolate for them to drink together throughout the evening.
"Alright. Just like before, I will try to find the memory of… let's say our time together in Place Cachée," Harry said.
Hermione's stomach dropped and did a hundred somersaults for some reason. "Um, can we do a different memory?"
Right. Harry mentally slapped his forehead. Using the memory of their shopping trip alone in France as the target was just asking to uncover some hidden thoughts he didn't want to address yet.
"It doesn't have to be that memory. Do you have a memory you want me to use?"
"Can it be the lesson from class this morning?" Hermione suggested.
"Sure," Harry smiled. "Alright, here I come. Are you ready?" At her nod, Harry pointed his wand at her and cast. "Legilimens!"
Hermione had improved a great deal since the last time they had practiced occlumency. As soon as his legilimantic probe entered her mind, he found nothing but a blank slate. With a nudge to force some memories forward, Harry encountered some resistance. He kept increasing the pressure until Hermione couldn't hold him back anymore.
Memories flashed in quick succession. Harry ignored them, and called forward for the memory of the lesson. After a brief moment of rest, Hermione's resistance redoubled in effort to force his probe out. Because Harry was only using enough effort to challenge her, she succeeded. His probe was pushed out, and the connection broke.
Hermione cheered. "I did it! I actually did it!"
"You're doing great, Hermione," Harry encouraged. "Let's keep at it a few more times. This time, I won't tell you when I begin. You'll have to try to sense me in your mind on your own. Over the next few times, I will be more and more subtle so you'll need to focus to sense me."
She nodded, eyes filled with determination. "I'll do my best."
They stared into each other's eyes. Harry gave it a moment, long enough for Hermione to begin wondering if he had already done it without her noticing, before silently casting Legilimens.
'Oh, Merlin! He hasn't already cast the probe, could he?' Hermione nervously shifted in her seat across from him.
To make his move a bit more obvious, Harry pushed to bring up thoughts that didn't really have anything to do with her current train of thought. 'Wait! You're in my head!' Hermione thought, grinning at him victoriously.
They repeated the exercise several more times with Harry using more and more subtle techniques, until the constant eye contact was really beginning to get to the both of them. Rather than another legilimantic probe, Harry found himself just staring at her eyes.
'Woah, they're so beautiful.' Hermione's thoughts snapped Harry out of it, and he realized that she had fallen into the same line of thought. She had gotten lost in his own eyes.
"Hermione? Are you okay? Harry asked, feigning oblivious.
Hermione snapped out of it, and blushed furiously. "I think I've had enough practice for one day." She stood up and basically ran from the room. Outside the room, she paused to brace herself against the wall to steady her beating heart. 'Merlin, what's wrong with me? I need to do some reading about this. This is not normal. Should I send an owl to Mum?'
Still inside the room, Harry sat there, his own heart beating quickly. Unbidden, the memory of what he saw in the Mirror of Erised came to mind. Hermione, draped on his arm, looking at him with those same big brown eyes. He groaned and flopped down on his back with an arm over his eyes. 'What am I doing? These stupid hormones.'
~~ ITW,H ~~
One afternoon near the end of October, Harry found himself outside on the grounds playing football with Dean, Seamus, Ron, Neville, and several other students who had grown up in the muggle world. There were a handful of wizardborn students that were curious enough to join in, though they remained utterly baffled by the entire concept of kicking around a ball on the ground.
The days were getting colder, so this may be one of the last times they would be able to play a game of football in the field. Pretty soon, it would be too covered in snow to play anything.
"You're telling me you can't use your hands?" Ron demanded after missing the ball for the third time.
"It's called football for a reason, Ron! That's literally the point," Dean laughed.
"Why not? It'll be a lot easier! I can't run and keep the ball with me without my hands!"
"Because that would be cheating!"
"Then why can he use his hands?" Ron asked, pointing to the goalie.
"He's the goalie. You can think of him as the keeper in quidditch. They're allowed to use their hands."
Ron looked unconvinced by this explanation. He kicked the ball to Dean. "Here, you show me then!" Dean then proceeded to demonstrate some dribbling, easily running to the other side of the field with the ball.
Ginny had eventually found her way into the game halfway through and immediately turned into an absolute menace. She was smaller than nearly everyone there, but she moved fast and played aggressively enough that nobody could safely ignore her, else they get kicked in the shins.
Harry was fairly certain she bit Seamus at one point after he stole the ball from her, though Seamus denied everything afterward while Ginny wore an expression of perfect innocence.
The game eventually dissolved into complete chaos once Fred and George arrived and started commentating from the sidelines like sports announcers. Lee broke out his microphone he uses to announce the quidditch games.
"AND POTTER PASSES TO WEASLEY!"
"WHICH ONE?"
"THE PRETTY ONE!" Lee answered, only to get smacked from both sides by the twins.
"OI! I'M ONLY JOKING! OW! STOP!"
~~ ITW,H ~~
As time went deeper into the month of October, Harry's mood began to get worse and worse. Although he no longer dreamed in the normal sense, he had a perfect memory and the season just automatically reminded him of those cruel memories. He couldn't bring himself to be very cheerful.
A few days later, Harry encountered Luna Lovegood sitting near the edge of the Black Lake reading upside down across a bench while her blonde hair pooled into the grass beneath her.
Harry stopped beside her. "Comfortable?"
"Not particularly," Luna replied dreamily. "The blood likes to rush to my head like this." She didn't seem particularly interested in explaining anything.
Harry laughed softly and sat down in the grass beside her.
Luna lowered her book slightly and peered at him upside down with those strange silver eyes of hers.
"You've been sad lately."
Harry blinked slightly at the blunt observation. "Have I?"
"A little," Luna said simply. "You've been getting sadder and sadder as the days go by. Is it because of Halloween?"
Harry leaned against the bench with a small sigh. "I try not to be. But I can't always help it. It's the anniversary of my parents dying."
Luna's expression softened immediately. "Oh. That makes sense."
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The wind gently rustled the grass around the lake while distant student voices echoed faintly across the grounds.
Then Luna suddenly smiled. "You should do something fun on Halloween."
Harry blinked. "What?"
"You should do something happy on Halloween," Luna repeated. Then she rolled off the bench, landing on her hands and knees onto the grass beside him. She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes. "Otherwise your brain might only remember the sad parts of the season forever. That wouldn't be very nice at all."
Harry smiled, "That's some good advice. I do have a divination ritual scheduled with Professor Trelawney, but perhaps afterwards, we can do something. Maybe we should sneak out to visit the shrieking shack, or the ghosts at the graveyard in Hogsmeade?"
Luna beamed brightly at him. "That sounds delightfully frightening."
Harry stood up, then offered his hand to help Luna up as well. "Do you want to take a walk in the forbidden forest with me?"
Luna accepted his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "That sounds nice. The trees have such nice colors this time of year. It's a shame it's forbidden. More students should be able to enjoy it."
"You're not concerned that it's forbidden?" Harry asked.
"No. I've been making an acquaintance with Hagrid and some of the creatures that live there. It's been quite lovely, really," Luna said.
"Perhaps when we're done with the walk, we can visit Hagrid. I could use some of his tea and rock cakes right about now."
~~ ITW,H ~~
Halloween morning arrived cold, grey, and miserable. Harry woke before dawn feeling unusually irritable. For several long moments, he simply stared up at the canopy above his bed while a familiar heaviness settled in his chest.
In his previous life, Halloween had been one of his favorite holidays. Now, it was one of the worst times in the year for him. The anniversary of his parents' deaths.
He rolled out of bed, and tried to make himself presentable for the day. Despite his efforts to appear normal, Hermione noticed almost immediately during breakfast. She looked sympathetic, but did not bring it up directly.
On top of his mood, the fact that this was Halloween, the night the diary-possessed student will write on the walls with blood made him feel a sense of anticipation far stronger than the months leading up to this day. Harry was now being extra vigilant towards everyone around him for any sign of the horcrux.
Hogwarts itself was beautiful. It was decorated to the nines with carved pumpkins everywhere and large cobwebs stretched across archways and windows, giving the castle a haunted feeling. The house elves really outdid themselves. The ghosts themselves were more festive and eagerly floated about. They had their headless hunt and a deathday party coming up, and they were just as excited for the night as the living.
Ginny found him shortly after lunch started.
"Harry," she said nervously while glancing around to make sure nobody else was listening, "You know how you told us to watch for the diary? I think we should check Colin. He's only been getting worse and worse."
Harry slowed his steps slightly. "He's still being bullied?"
He had hoped that by allowing Colin to take his picture when he was blue, and distributing it, he would gain a form of favorability among the rest of the house and the bullies would stop. Apparently, that wasn't the case. He hadn't seen any of it personally—if he had, he would have obviously put a stop to it—and admittedly, he had avoided the boy where he could. A sense of guilt creeped in. He should have done something more to help him.
Not only that, but he didn't remember Colin being bullied in the canon. If he is being bullied, then was this somehow Harry's fault?
"Well, that's the thing, I've never actually seen him being bullied. It's just what I've heard. You did tell us possible symptoms of this possession, and, well, Colin's only been getting worse. I think it might be best if we check around, you know? Just in case," Ginny said, biting her lips in worry.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, it's best to rule it out just in case. But if he doesn't have it, then that would mean this bullying is far worse than I thought, and we can bring it up with McGonagall."
Ginny smiled with relief. "Yeah, that sounds good."
"Want to come ransack a dorm room with me?" He asked.
Ginny grinned widely at that. "Yes!" Then she paused, "What about lunch? We'll miss it."
"Don't worry about that, I have a plan."
Together, they made their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Before they went up the stairs to the dorm rooms, Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
As the map filled out on the paper, Ginny looked over his shoulder. "Up to no good? That sounds like something the twins would say. What is this? Wait, is this a map of Hogwarts?"
"Yup. This was a map that my father, Sirius, and Remus created back when they were all in school. You may have heard the twins mention a Padfoot, Prongs, and Moony before? They were the pranksters of their time," Harry said, angling the map to show her better. "You can see where everyone is in Hogwarts at any time. They used this map to sneak around at night and avoid the prefects and teachers."
Incidentally, Harry glanced at the great hall. Everyone was crowded together there so the names were a mess, floating over and around each other. Incidentally, Harry also saw his own name and Ginny's name there.
"This is amazing!" Her eyes gleamed. "Would you mind if I borrow it once in a while?"
Harry grinned, "Sure, I don't mind." She likely had some mischief of her own she wanted to do.
He pointed out the Gryffindor dorm rooms. The boy's side was clear. "Looks like no one's there, so we can head in. When you're done with the map, you tap it with your wand again, and say, 'Mischief managed.' to make the map disappear. Otherwise, anyone can read it."
They went upstairs and entered the first year's dorm room. This was the same room Harry was in last year, so he knew it well. "It looks like Colin's camera case is there, so this must be his portion of the room," Harry pointed out the black case for a camera by one of the beds.
Over the next hour, they turned over every hiding place that could possibly hide a diary, the drawers, trunks, sheets, on top of the canopies, they even checked in the fireplace and under the floorboards. There was nothing.
"It's not here," Ginny sighed. "I don't know if I should be relieved or sad."
"Well, it might be on him. We could shake him down to check," Harry offered lightly.
"No, that's awful," Ginny said, but she was holding back a smile at the joke. "We should report the bullying to McGonagall. Oh, Merlin. We've completely ransacked the place! Lunch is almost over, and they could be here any second!"
"Don't worry. We've got magic, remember?" Harry waved his wand and all of the clothes and items strewn about everywhere gently floated back to where they were an hour before, leaving no trace of what they did.
Ginny's eyes widened. "Right! This is that quick-packing spell you mentioned before! I completely forgot about it. You'll have to teach me that."
"Sure. For now, we've got to get to lunch. Come on," Harry pulled her out of the dorm rooms.
"But Harry, by the time we get back there, lunch will be over already," Ginny said.
He didn't answer and just led them to a side room, which turned out to be a broom closet.
Ginny flushed.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"N-nothing. It's just… my mum warned me not to go into broom closets with guys," Ginny said, not meeting his eyes.
Harry bopped her on the head. "We're not here for that. Here, look," Harry pulled out the time turner and quickly gave her a rundown on what it does.
Ginny looked at him in awe. "We can time travel?"
Harry looped the chain around her neck. "Yup, this way we can go back to one hour ago and still enjoy our lunch."
Harry gave the time turner only one turn. There was no observable effect to the time travel, since this broom closet was undisturbed for the one hour they traveled, but when the time turner's spinning stopped, he calmly unlooped the chain around Ginny and tucked it back into his shirt.
"Did it work?" Ginny asked.
Harry took out the Marauder's Map, and revealed the map. "Yeah, it worked. See here?" Harry pointed to their names heading this way on the map. Their past selves passed right by them on their way to the common room.
"I want to see!" Ginny whispered excitedly. She opened the closet door and peaked around. Harry looked as well. They saw themselves, backs turned to them, walking down the hallway. "This is so cool."
He pulled her back in and closed the door, just in time for their past selves to turn a corner. If he hadn't, Harry would have seen them out of the corner of his eyes and remembered seeing them. Since he didn't remember that, he couldn't let themselves be seen.
Harry sighed. "The first rule of time travelling: never interact with yourself. Terrible things happen to those who mess with time." He really didn't want to directly piss off Fate herself. Changing canon was one thing. She had told him he could do that. But handling timelines and time travelling was one thing she explicitly said she enforced.
After their past selves were gone, they exited the closet and made their way back to lunch. "Remember, no one should know I have a time turner. Keep that a secret for me, okay?"
~~ ITW,H ~~
The rest of the day passed by quickly and soon it was time for the Halloween feast for dinner. The great hall was loud and warm and overflowing with floating pumpkins, enchanted bats, and long banners of orange and black. Off to the side, there were some singing skeletons that Dumbledore had hired for the occasion, and on the other side, Fred and George had enchanted some of the floating jock o' lanterns to sing several different songs entirely off key. Nearly everyone else seemed caught up in the festivities.
Harry himself ignored it all. He didn't have an appetite and merely sipped at his hot chocolate and watched the Marauder's Map he had hidden on his lap.
Most of the students were here in the great hall. However, there were still a handful of students that were off doing their own thing around the castle. There were more than a few couples hiding away in secret corners and closets to "celebrate" the holiday. Harry ignored them and focused on the names of those that were on their own. There were still plenty around the castle. He noted Luna was near the ravenclaw tower, heading this way, as well as Hannah who seemed to be coming from the greenhouses. Colin was also near the second floor.
He frowned. Was it really Colin?
He folded the map closed, and stood up. "I'll be right back," he whispered to Hermione.
He turned to head out of the great hall, but Hermione grabbed his arm. "Wait, I'm coming with you."
"No, Hermione, I'm just going to the loo," Harry lied.
She just gave him a look. "I'm not an idiot, Harry James Potter. I know you've been looking at that map. Something's going to happen tonight, isn't there?"
Harry sighed. "It'll be dangerous, Hermione. You should stay here. I can handle it on my own. I promise."
"If it's dangerous, then that's all the more reason why I should come," Hermione glared.
"I'll come too," Neville said. Even though they were talking quietly, Neville was right next to them and heard the whole thing.
Harry ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Fine. Come on." 'Before anyone else joined in.'
Just as the three of them exited the great hall, Ginny ran to catch up with them. "Where are we going?"
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "The diary is now able to fully possess whoever has it and should be making its move tonight. And by that, I mean right now. I'm going to confront it and hopefully get a hold of it tonight."
They gasped. "Already?"
This was becoming a mess. Whoever it was that had the diary, they were now being possessed by Voldemort. A 16 year old Tom Riddle, but he would still be cunning. It was debatable whether or not he could cast any spells, since he was only a fragment of a soul, but if he could, then it would be dangerous. Not only that, but the basilisk should be awake again. This was the first night that the OG Harry had heard the voice in the wall, leading him to the scene of the crime. Although the basilisk should be in the walls, and wasn't in the scene during the flashback showing the possessed Ginny, Harry didn't want to take any chances with an instant death snake.
Facing such danger, with his friends behind him, Harry took a moment to cast his divination spell to peer into the future a few seconds. This should give him a warning in case the basilisk suddenly decided to turn the corner and kill all of them.
"If I tell you to close your eyes, do as I say immediately. If you can't do that, then stay in the great hall," Harry said sternly.
Sensing he was dead serious, they gulped. They all nodded, so Harry turned and led the way to where the scene of the crime should be happening.
The castle corridors felt unnaturally quiet compared to the feast behind them. Distant music and chatter echoed faintly through the stone halls, but the further they walked, the dimmer and colder everything became.
As they approached the scene of the crime, the thick scent of blood came to them. They could hear a wet splashing sound echoing from around the corner. Harry froze midstep in shock from what he saw in his foresight. He gritted his teeth in anger.
"What is it?" Neville asked.
'I'm sorry, Neville.'
Harry clenched his jaw, pulled out his wand, and continued forward, rounding the corner.
There, writing on the wall with her hand covered in blood, was Hannah Abbot.