Bad Karma

Chapter 1: Meetings and Memories

Hermione woke up lying half atop Charlie with Harry behind her a few feet away with his arm at an odd angle. Her head hurt and she felt around for the time turner, but all she found was shattered glass and a broken chain. Charlie’s arms were wrapped tightly around Hermione and she slowly sat up one hand holding her head.

She looked around to determine where they were and found herself on Hogwarts grounds. More specifically on the Quidditch field. She turned back to Harry and tried to see if he was okay, but all she could tell was that his arm appeared to be broken. Thankfully she saw his chest rise and fall. Letting her know that he was still breathing so she checked Charlie’s pulse, but couldn’t find it. Hermione didn’t want to panic so she calmly moved her head closer and heard his shallow breathing.

“Harry. Charlie. You guys have to wake up before someone sees us.” Hermione whispered loudly.

“You’re a little late for that Ms. Granger.” The voice came out of no where and Hermione got the shock of her life.

“Dumbledore?!”

“I’m glad to know that you didn’t fall too hard on your head.” Dumbledore chuckled at her dumbfounded expression. “How is Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley fairing.” Dumbledore asked.

“They’re fine. I think Harry’s left arm is broken, but they’re sleeping.”

“Very good. Why don’t I send them to the hospital wing?” Dumbledore levitated them with the flick of his wrist and them were gone. “Now why don’t you come with me and I’ll help you get settled in while you tell me how you got here.”

“But first can you tell me what year we’re in?” Hermione asked as she looked around, trying to determine for herself how far into the past they went.

“The year is 1977.”

Hermione calculated quickly in her head and whispered to herself. “Marauders.”


“Pardon me?”

“Nothing,” and Hermione began to explain to Dumbledore the extent of the war in the future. He didn’t want to know how it got there because he didn’t want to unintentionally change the future worse.

“That is something I wasn’t expected to happen.”

“It’s something that definently came to a shock to all of us. We had thought that we had had enough to finally defeat Riddle, but we overestimated our resources.” Hermione said sadly as she relived the painful memory of the their accomplishment and than the night she returned to 12 Grimmauld Place.


ooooFlashbackoooo

Hermione had been so excited that they had finally finished their secret meeting. She had been doing research with Remus for the last six months and when Remus had told her that they were finally finished the smile never left her face.

From the beginning only a select few heard anything about what they were doing; Harry, Moody, Charlie, and Neville. The research Hermione and Remus had worked so hard to perfect was to open the veil so people like Sirius could be free.

Harry had been brought into it because he deserved to know that there was a chance they could revive Sirius and maybe his parents. Moody had been involved because with his overly cautious mind he looked at things from all angles. Neville had unintentionally walked in on a private meeting and the best way to keep his silence was to involve him. Charlie had been brought in on Moody’s request. He thought it would remind Charlie how to use his mind to the best potential.

So that was how they were chosen and because of Hermione and Remus’ findings they all had to take a trip to the Department of Mysteries in the dead of the night without anyone’s knowledge.

They had packed up their belongings and had quietly left. When they had gotten to the veil Hermione and Remus had set up their equipment while Moody and Charlie watched the door. Neville and Harry had stood back to watch since both of them had lost very important people in their lives.

“Are you sure this is going to work Remus?”

“Hermione we have worked too hard for it not to work. If this works than a lot of very special people will get the chance to live that was stolen from them.” Remus’ face was filled with pride and he was looking straight at Hermione.

Hermione nodded, “I know, but I don’t want to let anyone down.”

“I’m not saying it will work the first time or even the second time. What I’m saying is that with the research we have done there is a chance we can change so many lives for the better. We talked about that when you first came to me with the idea.”

“I know, but--”

“No buts. Where is the young lady that fought with me for a month before I finally agreed to do this with you?”

“I’m still the same person Remus, but I’m a little nervous of the outcome.” Hermione glanced at Harry.

Remus grabbed Hermione’s chin so she would look at him. “He will be disappointed but we already explained to him that there is a possibility this wouldn’t work. There is nothing to worry about either, he won’t blame you.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s your best friend Hermione and he is the one that praises your skills to anyone who will listen. He is the first to say that you are the brightest witch of your time.” Tears threatened to fall as Remus spoke. “Now why don’t we try this and see if it’ll work or not before we make assumptions.”

“Okay.”

Hermione took one quick look at Harry and he gave her the thumbs up. When Hermione had turned back to the veil Remus had already enlarged the cauldron.

“Pour in the pre-made potion Hermione. It has to start simmering.”

Hermione nodded. “Okay Remus as soon as it starts to bubble you have to add the final ingredient and than I start chanting.”

Remus watched the cauldron closely because timing was everything. Hermione opened the book to the correct page and mentally prepared herself. She had already magically and physically prepared herself the entire day by meditating constantly and conserving her magic.

“Hermione?”

“Yeah?”

“Get ready.” Hermione nodded and glanced at her friends. They all gave her encouraging looks and she sighed. It was now or never. “It’s time Hermione.”

Hermione gulped and began to chant. “’From dawn to dusk spirits rise and fall. Those meant to pass and those stuck in time. Lost they are to the darkness within. Stolen of the chance at a full complete life. Those meant to live and those meant to die. Separate and take your rightful place. Move on and pass or come before us in your corporeal state. Come before us and take your rightful places.’”

Nothing happened and Hermione wanted to cry, but Remus didn’t give her the chance to. “Again Hermione. Keep chanting and don’t stop until I tell you.”

“’From dawn to dusk spirits rise and fall. Those meant to pass and those stuck in time. Lost they are to the darkness within. Stolen of the chance at a full complete life. Those meant to live and those meant to die. Separate and take your rightful place. Move on and pass or come before us in your corporeal state. Come before us and take your rightful places.’” Nothing happened again, but Hermione kept going.

Just when she started the to chant again the ground shook around them and Hermione stopped her chanting. The ground continue to shake, but only Hermione seemed to feel it.

“Hermione don’t stop.” Remus said.

“Remus?”

“What Hermione?”

“The ground is shaking around me.”

That got Remus’ attention as well as everyone around her. “What are you talking about?”

“The ground around me is shaking. I think I upset something.”

“Either that or it’s actually working. Hermione we did it!” He looked ready to grab her and spin her around.

“We don’t know that yet Remus, so don’t touch me yet.” Remus nodded.

Finally the ground stopped shaking, but the veil was beginning to change colors. This time the changes around Hermione were seen by all. Everyone could see the once black veil change colors. From brown to red and from red to white.

“What’s going on?” Neville’s voice was shaking. He was frightened about what was going around him. “Why is it white?”

Remus was in shock. He had no idea what was going on. When he and Hermione had done research they had thought that the spirits would come out from the veil. Either to go to their right place or stay on Earth. What was happening now was beyond his comprehension.

Hermione was in the same boat as Remus, but she had left room for error. She had known that what she and Remus had found wouldn’t be the only thing to happen. The veil would fight back or at least make her job harder.

The veil was an iridescent white and the ground surrounding the veil was vibrating. “We don’t know either Neville.” Hermione didn’t take her eyes off the veil. It was like turning your back on an enemy. “If things go bad I want you guys to leave.”

“Hermione we’re not leaving you. None of us are.” Charlie answered from his place by the door and Moody grumbled his agreement.

“Thanks guys, but I want you all safe. I don’t think Remus or I would have enough time to make it out of here, but I know you all will. I need you guys to survive.”

Neville was the one to speak up this time. “We need you to sur--”

Expect Neville was interrupted when the voices within the veil wailed in agony, startling everyone.

“Why are you hurting me?” The veil seemed to speak.

Remus gulped. “We--”

“Not you!” it screeched.

“We’re not trying to hurt you. We’re trying to give people a second chance.” Hermione tried to explain.

The veil didn’t respond, but a gust of wind blew at Hermione and she almost fell into the veil. “You have no right!”

“What right do you have to hold these souls against their will?!”

“They are here because they were sent here.”

“But why? Do you know why they were sent to limbo?” The veil didn’t answer. “You can’t answer because you don’t know why either. All you do is stow the souls that are sent to you, but for what purpose? How are you helping anyone?”

“I do what is expected of me.”

“Well I’m here to set the one’s free that deserve it.”

“Who are you to decide who deserves it or not?”

“I was hoping you’d be the judge.”

For a long while no one breathed a word as the veil contemplated Hermione’s request. At last the veil answered, “Come back to me in a few days and I will have your answer ready.”

“How will I summon you?”

“The same way will do.”

The veil returned to it’s original color and state and Hermione finally let her guard down. Just as she was getting ready to turn around Remus stopped her.

“Hermione! I want you to back away slowly, but don’t turn your back on it yet.” Hermione did as he
asked.

When she was far enough a way she turned to him. “Why did I have to do that? The veil already went dormant.”

“I didn’t want to take the chance. You angered it once so I wanted to make sure it didn’t turn on us.” Remus explained.

Moody slowly stomped over to Hermione. “That has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever had the pleasure of seeing missy. I’m proud of you, you accomplished what you set out to do.” He patted her swiftly on the back.

“Yeah, thanks Hermione. You actually did it and of course Remus as well.” Harry gushed.

“Don’t get too excited yet you guys. The veil still has to agree.” Charlie explained.

“Way to ruin a moment Weasley.” Neville laughed.

“I’m sorry, but it’s something to think about.”

“We realize that Charlie, but right now I think we need to get back to headquarters before it gets any later.” Remus exclaimed.

Neville’s astonished voice continued on. “Can you believe that the veil is actually real? I mean it can talk and everything. That is something I wasn’t expecting.”

“It’s something that caught us all by surprise laddy.” Moody said gruffly.

The six went back to headquarters with smiles on their faces and expectant hearts, but when they flooed to 12 Grimmauld Place it was eerily quiet. Something was very wrong about the whole thing. Remus and Moody took charge and split up into groups.

“Potter and Longbottom you’re with me.” Moody said and they went off to investigate the kitchen area.

“Come on Hermione, Charlie we’ll check upstairs.” Remus offered. They tiptoed upstairs, careful to miss the squeaky steps. Their wands pointed defensively before them and they could tell almost immediately that someone was dead.

Hermione could smell that death had settled over most of the rooms, the scent was absolutely unbearable. Which got her to thinking that no one here was alive or they would have said something by now.

They entered the first room on the right which happened to be Tonks’ room. There she lay sprawled haphazardly on her bed, her lifeless eyes staring straight up at the ceiling. Remus’ eyes welled up with tears as he saw his loved one dead before him. Hermione wanted to burrow herself in someone’s arms, but death was a big part of her life and she knew that she had to face it. She had to stay alert just in case Nymphadora’s killers hadn’t left.

Hermione and Charlie left Remus in the room to mourn. There were times that no one expected you to be okay immediately after and this was one of those moments for Remus. He had lost so many loved one’s already that he needed to grieve. They entered the room across from Tonks’ and it was Ginny’s room. The room was left untouched and they hoped that meant she was okay.

They went through the rooms one by one only to find the dead bodies of their friends and family. McGonagall, George, Hagrid, Luna, Draco, and Sprout were all dead. As they made there way to the end of the hall they turned around to return to Remus.

Hermione stopped Charlie from going. “I’m so sorry.” Hermione was referring to him losing George.

“Thanks. I’m just hoping that because the rest of my families beds are empty that means they made it out okay.”

“Me too. Come on, let’s go check on Remus.”

Charlie stopped her from moving anywhere. “I’m sorry, too.” Hermione opened her mouth, but Charlie put his finger over it. “I know you didn’t lose anyone directly, but you still cared about these people.”

Hermione nodded and they went back to Tonks’ room where they found Remus holding her dead body. Hermione walked over to Remus and slowly pried open his grip. “Come on Remus we need to find the others.”

Remus nodded and calmly collected himself. “I’m sorry you guys had to see me like this.” He apologized.

“It’s not a problem Remus. We understand.”

He nodded. “And I’m thankful for that. How many dead?”

“So far everyone in the rooms were dead. We counted six; McGonagall, George, Hagrid, Luna, Draco, and Sprout.” Charlie answered.

“And the rest of your family?”

“Are unaccounted for.”

“Ok, let’s go downstairs and see what they found.” Remus led them back down stairs where they found the trio whispering in the threshold.

“What did you find?” Moody asked immediately.

Remus turned to Charlie. “Seven dead and no survivors. Tonks, McGonagall, George, Hagrid, Luna, Draco, and Sprout. What about you guys?”

“Everyone dead down here as well. All four people; Neville’s grandmother, Snape, Flitwick, Trelawney, and even Kreacher was killed.” Harry explained since Neville was softly crying.

“We have no idea where the rest of Charlie’s family is though. There is no sign of them.” Hermione exclaimed.

Moody’s eyes were cast to the floor as he spoke. “We can tell you the answer to that.” He slowly turned around to the library and limped away while the other’s followed.

Charlie immediately thought the worse, that they all didn’t make it and were all dead. What he saw wasn’t what he expected at all. Actually no one was expecting it.

There in the center of the room was a letter addressed to them all. “What does it say?” Charlie asked.

“Don’t know. I haven’t opened it, but I did a spell and it has almost your entire families magical signature. All except yours and George’s.” Moody explained. “Go on, open it.”

Charlie moved forward and picked up the letter from the floor. He broke the seal and removed the parchment.


‘Dear Charlie and others,
By the time you are getting this we will have been long
gone. When we were given this mission we had expected you all
home and in bed. What we came to discover was that you were out
and about after dark. We may never know the reasons you were out,
but we left you a present. As you may have already found the
whole house will be dead. We have been planning this for some
time now and as you may have guessed we are no longer fighting
for the light. We have joined forces with the Dark Lord. We have
finally understood what he was trying to teach us, but we were too
ignorant to see. Ginevra Weasley helped us see the light. You see
she had joined Lord Voldemort months before and has slowly shown
us the true meaning of becoming a Death Eater. We now realize how
wrong we were to assume that the Dark Lord was wrong. When in
reality he was right. Mud-bloods and Half-bloods are no match for
us Pure-bloods. Soon you will see what we see and you will refer
to the power that embodies the Dark Lord. We are sorry that you
have to be so simple minded Charlie and we hope that soon you will
choose the right side. We are sorry to say that George didn’t see
it the way we had hoped and we had to eliminate him as well.

With Love,
Arthur Weasley,
Molly Weasley,
Bill Weasley,
Percy Weasley,
Fred Weasley,
Ronald Weasley,
& Ginevra Weasley

P.S. I hope you’re happy Harry. You’re the reason I got to see a
whole new side of the Dark Lord. If you had just stayed with me
none of this would ever happen, but it’s not too late. The Dark
Lord has promised me that I could have you if you just surrender.
Give up and we can be together always. I will be wanting for two
weeks for your response. After the two weeks are up the offer is
no longer applicable. I’ll love you always.


No one said anything because they were so in shock by what they had just read. The Weasley’s, or at least most of them were the cause of the Order of the Phoenix’ downfall. They had turned and Hermione knew that Charlie and Harry were taking this the hardest.

Charlie had just lost his entire family out of no where. The betrayal was so inconceivable that the shock still hadn’t completely worn off yet and what Ginny had written to Harry. Trying to make him think that her betrayal was all his fault and than still say that she loved him was ridiculous. Not only that but Harry had lost the only family he had ever known. All he had left was the five people before him, that was all any of them had now. In that moment Hermione had never felt so lost and she knew that everyone else had to have felt the same in that one moment.

ooooEndFlashbackoooo


“We never made it back to the veil and I think it had already known that. The souls would have been sent to him because of whom they were killed by. He gave us false hope when he knew what we would return to.” Hermione explained and Dumbledore could see in her eyes how much pain she had endured.

“What happened to the other three?”

“We had been split into groups of two. Harry and I, Remus and Charlie, and Neville and Moody. We were all faced with people that we had a past with, but Neville didn’t take it so well. He confronted his parents’ killer and was consumed by revenge, leaving Moody to face the bundle of Death Eaters by himself. Let’s just say there were more than he could handle. Remus sacrificed himself so we could get away. It was something we were all prepared to do, to be honest I didn’t think I’d make it.” Hermione explained.

“Now to get this straight are we talking about--”

“Remus Lupin, yes we are sir.”

Dumbledore nodded in understanding. “I see. That definently sounds like something he would do, even now. Am I to assume you know of his condition?”

“Yes, since we’re such close friends we’re all aware of that fact. I realize that the Remus in this time isn’t so open to the idea of people knowing so we won’t get in his way.”

“That is all I need to know. Now, are you injured and in need of the hospital wing?”

Hermione shook her head. “I’m okay, but I want to check on Harry and Charlie later.”

“That can be arranged later, but first I would like to show you where you’ll be staying.” Dumbledore began to guide her through the school.

“Where will I be staying? I figured I would just end up staying in one of the common rooms.”

“You’ll have private quarters by the Gryffindor common room, but I don’t want to take the chance of the students overhearing you or your friends talking of the future. I’m already taking a chance, but this way you’re more isolated.”

Hermione understood where he was coming from, it was smart to keep them isolated but the student’s would talk. “What’s your reasoning for putting us apart?”

“You won’t be students at this establishment. You are Professors.“ Dumbledore explained.

Hermione nodded. “Ok, but where are we from?”

“Charlie will be from Ireland and you and Mr. Potter will be from France.” “Okay.”

“Here we are. Password is Change.” The portrait swung open to a large common room decorated in Gryffindor colors. “It would appear you are all fellow Gryffindor’s.”

“Yeah, we were all Gryffindor’s before the war.”

“You guys can’t be students since you are past the age of such. Does Charlie know how to fly a broom?”

“Yeah, he was the captain in his time.”

“Very good, he will be the flying instructor. Madam Hooch has taken a leave of absence for personal reasons. What were you and Harry’s best subjects in school?”

“Harry excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts and I excelled at everything but Professor Trelawney’s job.” Hermione said wryly.

“That’s good since I hadn’t found a Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts this year. I had been teaching the class with the help of a few other Professors in my spare time. You will be the Professor of Potions.”

“What about Professor Slughorn?”

“He had become unreliable as of late, but I haven’t found a replacement until now.” Dumbledore explained and Hermione nodded. “Okay, why don’t you settle down here for a little while and I’ll come back and get you in the morning.”

“Okay, when do I start classes?”

“Well tomorrow is Sunday so I’ll speak do you and your friends tomorrow about what the jobs entail. I’ll come get you to see them in the morning. How does that sound?” Dumbledore’s normally twinkling eyes were dull of any color.

“That sounds fine. I am a little tired.”

Dumbledore walked out of the room and walked in the direction of his rooms, but he ran into one of his students. “Professor, why are you out so late?”

“I was just helping one of our new Professors settle down James.”

“Oh, I didn’t know we were getting a new Professor.”

“Actually Professors James, we will be having more than one.”

“How many are we getting?”

“Three new Professors. For Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and Flying.” Dumbledore explained, “but I don’t want you to tell anyone.”

“Of course, but what’s going to happen with Madam Hooch and Professor Slughorn?”

“Madam Hooch is taking a personal leave for an extended period of time and Professor Slughorn is needed elsewhere.” Dumbledore explained. He knew that by telling James would establish his story, make it seem like this was a planned move instead of one made last minute.

“I see. Well I have to go back to the common room since I’m done roaming the halls. It was nice talking to you Professor.”

Dumbledore nodded and watched as James sped to the Gryffindor common room. He had his infamous twinkle shining brightly in his eyes, the rest of the year would be interesting with the three new additions.