Making sure the boy who lives, actually does...

Chapter 4: Ferret Face...


\"Headmaster?\"

The knock and question came upon Albus\'\' door\'s rather late that night. His blue eyes were bleary and his eyelids were feeling rather swollen. He\'d fallen asleep at his desk again. He wiped the stray drool from the edge of his lips and cleared his throat while rubbing his eyes.He tried to distinguish whose muffled voice that was behind the door in front of him, but still in a sleep grogged haze mere called out.

\"Come in.\"

The now tall Ron Weasley walked in, looking rather shaken and clutching a small piece of parchment in his white knuckled hands. His years of Quidditch had made him lean and muscular, he didn\'t even resemble the wiry, permanently bewildered boy Albus had met in his first year. Ron shut the door behind him and marched up to Albus, his eyes wide with fright.

\"I knew you\'d be able to help.\" Ron said shakily, \"Headmaster, I\'m afraid something terrible has happened.\"

Albus\' sleep fogged head instantly cleared, his heart doing a decided flop in his ribcage. As Headmaster he was responsible for everything that transpired at Hogwarts, and the fact that Ron was so solemn was great cause for alarm.

He straightened his spectacles and motioned for Ron to sit in the chair ajacent the desk that he sat behind, looking decided wary. Ron slid into the chair, his right leg bouncing up and down absently as he glanced around the office with a pensive look on his face.

\"Mister Weasley, what are you talking about?\"

Ron suddenly thrust the parchment he\'d been holding under the older man\'s nose. Dumbledore realigned his glasses and then taking the parchment from the redhead squinted down at it.

\"Ah, the Maurader\'s Map.\" Albus said with a small chuckle, \"I remember this. What\'s the trouble about? Has it been insulting you? I\'m afraid they do that from time to time Ron, Professor Sna-\"

\"No.\" Ron interuppted, \"Here.\" He said shakily, pointing to the map. Several dots were scurrying about on the floor and Albus could only look to Ron and offer a slight shrug.

\"I see nothing Mister Weasley.\"

\"That\'s just it! Nothing!\"

Dumbledore gave Ron a confused look and frowned deeply, several creases now starkly evident on the pale forehead of the Headmaster. Ron was positively shaking now, looking a mixture between confused and angry.

\"Mister We-\"

\"Hermione and Harry!\" Ron shouted frantically, \"They\'re nowhere! The map, it says they\'re nowhere. They\'re not on the map!\"

Dumbledore gave Ron a severe glance, wondering if the boy wasn\'t up to some Fred and George persuasion. He really hadn\'t time for jokes this late at night.

Hermione and Harry? What would they be doing off Hogwarts grounds? Surely Miss Granger had enough sense not to do something that stupid and Potter...well, the boy was reckless at times he supposed, but only when he needed to be.

\"Are you sure you didn\'t miss their leave Mister Weasley?\"

\"That\'s just it.\" Ron said with a exasperated throwing up of his hands, \"I left for the kitchens to get a snack and when I got-\"

\"You snuck into the kitchen?\"

Ron stopped his speech mid-sentence, looking to Albus in dull shock. Was he really interrupting his tale to berate him on taking food from the kitchen after hours? He was aghast at the older man\'s nerve, here his friend\'s had disappeared into thin air and Albus was concerned with a missing cake?!

\"Yes, I snuck into the kitchen!\" Ron said, rushing on with his story. \"I got back and they were gone.\"

\"Are you sure they weren\'t just playing a prank?\"

\"They\'d be on the map.\"

\"Or sneaking off school grounds?\"

\"I\'d expect that from Harry, but Hermione going against the rules?\" Ron said in gruff disappointment with Albus\' suggestions. \"After she just got Head Girl? I think not. If anything she\'d talk Harry out of doing something so stupid.\"

Albus grew grim, nodding his normally beaming face with a slight frown. \"I see.\"

\"I haven\'t any clue about where they are.\" Ron said lamely, collapsing into the chair as the light went on in Albus\' eyes. \"I can\'t find Hermione, Harry or...\" he suddenly grasped the parchment back into his grip, scanning it lightly and added the last name with a grimace,

\"And no Draco Malfoy.\"

* * *

The three of them fell to the ground with a mighty thud, the time turner that Hermione had slapped in her current time now smashed to the ground in a thousand pieces as they three of them fell atop each other, Harry was at the bottom. His glasses were pushing painfully into his cheeks and he rushed to push the other two off of him.

\"GET OFF!\"

Hermione was sandwiched in the middle and trying to push the still dazed Draco off of her. It took him a full minute to understand where they were and when he did he was horrified.

\"Ah!\" Draco yelped as he jumped off the pile of writhing Gryffindor\'s, looking at them in shock. \"I touched a mudblood.\"

\"Oh just shut up Malfoy!\" Hermione sneered as she and Harry staggered to a standing position. Her stomach was still churning from their journey and she glared openly at both of the boys she was with. \"This isn\'t the time.\"

They stood shakily, looking to the room they were in, knowing full well they\'d actually traveled to the past. Hermione felt her stomach drop as she viewed the broken time turner once more and shook her head darkly.

\"That\'s just splendid.\" she said roughly, \"Now we have to find Dumbledore and get a new time turner...that is if we can find him.\"

Draco suddenly wrinkled his pale nose, looking around at the darkened they were encased in. Were they really in the past? He frowned and looked to the clean room in disdain, it felt like mudblood territory. His father would be disgusted.

\"Where are we?\"

Hermione rolled her eyes, for a Head Boy he was becoming an utter dolt. \"Where do you think ferret face?\"

\"I don\'t know Mudblood,\" he snapped, drawinarerarer to her. \"Why don\'t you enlighten me and Potty?\"

\"I know where we are.\" Harry said softly, gazing around at the room. \"We\'re in the past Head Girl room.\"

The three of them fell silent, looking to the once familiar Head Girl room. Hermione saw the different layout, the bed that was decorated with red and yellow stripes.

Malfoy wrinkled his nose in distaste for the array of collectibles, deeming them tacky on sight. How anyone could live in a room filled with books and bright colors was sickening.

Hermione couldn\'t help but survey their surrounding and noted with great pleasure, the extensive amount of books on the shelves and felt herself going closer in curiosity, seeing the impressive titles and realizing that she had several of the same volumes. She viewed the shining prefect badge, gingerly placed in a small stand up box for viewing and decoration.

Parchment littered her desk, as did books and Harry found himself thoughtfully looking to her writing, noticing the way she wrote was almost identical to his own. He felt a sense of kinship then, felt that this really was where he belonged and that this trip had been worth it, if even only a few moments.

The large closet at the end of the room stood half open, skirts, cloaks and ties were hung up neatly and orderly, much like Hermione\'s own wardrobe. Draco went around the room sneering and prodding at things on occasion, his eyes fell on the closet and then he took a sweeping look at the room.

\"It\'s ugly in here.\"

\"Shut up Draco.\" Hermione said absently looking at a book, as if it were habit. He frowned at her but said nothing, instead surveyed the room and looked absently at Harry a moment before going back to surveying the room in all it\'s Gryffindor glory.

Harry ignored Malfoy\'s idiotic comment, satisfied with walking around the room and taking it all in. His fingertips trailed along the cottony feel of the bed\'s blanket, the smooth desktop. He smiled softly, holding in the tears that threatened to fall. He refused to let Draco see him cry.

He saw a small picture of his mother Lily with some other girl, smiling and waving at the camera. He felt his heart skip a beat, it was as if she were waving right at him.

\"She was pretty.\" Draco murmured, looking at the picture in mild interest. \"Whoever she was.\"

Harry made a horrified face, looking to Draco in mute horror.\"That was my mother!\"

Draco\'s face went a sickened shade of green as he shook his head. \"I wasn\'t serious.\" he sputtered, moving away from Harry and slightly shuddering in disgust.

Harry shook his head and placed the picture back on the dresser top. He looked around the whole room, the soft smell of perfume playing about around them. This was where his mother slept, this is where his mother studied, this is whe-

\"I can\'t believe you did this Harry.\" Hermione said furious to Harry as Draco sneered self-righeously from a few yards away. Harry sighed and tried to ignore her nattering. He wanted to remember all of this without her annoying screech in the background.

\"We have to go find a new time turner! We don\'t even have our wands and you know what\'s going to happen when we get back? We\'re going to be expelled! Dumbledore is-\"

\"Just shut up Hermione, will you?!\" Harry seethed angrily, \"I\'ve only a little time here, at least let me enjoy it while I can!\"

Hermione\'s mouth snapped shut in humiliation, if Draco hadn\'t been watching the whole thing she wouldn\'t have cared, but he was. He stood with arms crossed and that superciliously sneer upon his pale face and she felt it along with the misguided anger at Harry. She suddenly whirled around and glared at Draco who was still smirking.

\"And you? What is wrong with you ferret face? Why would you come along anyway?\"

Draco sneered, \"I have my reasons.\"

Hermione was about to continue on her lecture of Draco\'s idiocy when there were sudden voices outside the door. She felt her blood run cold as the two voices grew louder.

\"I don\'t see why you\'re being so difficult about all of this.\"

\"Oh just sod off Potter!\"

The three of them shot looks of equal horror and under Hermione\'s hissed command followed her into the nearby closet. Harry did so willingly, but it took Hermione\'s dragging to get Draco inside. He had been about to insult her mudblood qualities when the door swung open and she grasped his collar and tossed him in along with them.

The three of them fell silent, looking through the small crack in the closet door and holding their breath as they scrunched near the back, hoping the woman didn\'t notice that her closet door was now almost firmly shut.

\"That James Potter.\" The girl said ang as as Harry\'s breath caught in his throat. His Mum was talking about his Dad, this was a strange feeling to encounter as he looked at the contorted anger on his mother\'s face. Her cheeks were crimson and she looked near tears. His father had done that?

She tossed her books onto her bed and smashed her fists against the desktop as the door behind her slammed shut. Hermione nearly jumped at the sound as they watched the irate young woman in fascination.

She was a pretty girl, evidently in her seventh year. She had rosy cheeks, long reddish hair that hung at her slim waist and large green eyes that sparkled. Harry\'s eyes. Lily. She doffed her cloak while still seething and looked past furious, Harry was captivated. This was his mother.

\"If I have to put up with him one more time...ugh...just because he\'s Head Boy...why did he get it anyway? I worked so hard for my position...he just sashays around here all the time, bloody Quiddditch and his stupid hair. It\'s so unfair!\" she continued along her room, muttering to herself in fury. Harry absently smoothed hwn hwn hair, feeling a small flush starting at his cheeks and neck. His mother didn\'t even like his dad?

\"And that Lucius.\" she nearly screeched in anger, Draco\'s eyes suddenly peeled at the mention of his father, his heart skipping a beat. His father was here.

\"If I ever see that ferret face again I\'m going to...Oh...I don\'t even know.\" She collapsed onto the bed as Harry contained a smirk. Some things never changed.

Hermione meanwhile was pensively thinking of a way to get them out of danger. Perhaps they could find the past Dumbledore? Would he be of any assistance? Or perhaps they should find the Headmaster of the past. Hermione was mostly worried about being seen by people, she hated to go rooting about in the past, they were sure to screw up history in some way.

Now with Draco in tow this whole situation had escalated to a full out emergency, whilst she had some reason over Harry, Draco merely didn\'t care or follow instruction. Not only was he a stubborn prat, he\'d evidently come along for alternative reason\'s the other two knew nothing about. This was worrisome. Surely he\'d come to see his father as well, but, Hermione could barely hold in a shudder at that thought. Two Malfoy\'s.

She viewed absently as Lily fell into the chair at her desk, pulling out some parchment and scribbling something hurriedly. The frustrated tears slipped down her cheeks and she hurriedly brushed them off of her burning cheeks. One tear fell onto the bright white parchment she wrote upon and she wrinkled her nose in distaste as she saw the ink around it smudge. Hermione noted that from where she was viewing, it appeared as if she and Harry had almost the same writingtherther scratchy and almost illegible.

Frowning Lily finished off the note with six eyes watching her and blowing on it to aid the ink drying faster, she folded it neatly, pressed her seal in it and whistled for her owl. It arrived quickly, hooting cheerfully and landing on her shoulder. She laughed gently and digging around in her desk found a package of Botts Beans.

\"Here you are.\" she said as the owl plucked a purplish one from her hand. It chewed thoughtfully as she placed the letter in one waiting claw. It grasped the parchment and took flight around her room, gently floating near her head as it waited for her command.

\"Severus Snape.\" she whispered gently to the owl, giving a sad look out the window as she watched the bird zoom out. Her light eyes followed the bird\'s venture until it had flown around the other side to the Slytherin Boy\'s Dormitory and then she whirled around.

Why\'s she writing to Snape? Harry wondered to himself, I thought she hated him...he called her a Mudblood.

Before Harry could deliberate on this any longer, Lily had stood and was now removing her robe and moving to the closet. Harry\'s eyes widened and even Hermione was at a loss. Lily was suddenly in front of the wardrobe, folding her robe absently and reaching for the doorknob.

Oh
L
Lily\'s hand was on the doorknob of the wardrobe.

Hermione\'s heart was pounding furiously fast and she didn\'t know what else to do. They would be caught. They would be expelled. This was the end of her wizarding career as she knew it.

The doorknob was turning.

Hermione closed her eyes, praying for a miracle as Harry and Draco in an odd form of combined panic exchanged worried looks. Just as the door was about to be pulled open, there was a knock at the door.

Thel brl breathed collective sighs of relief, their heartbeats slowing down as they saw Lily back away from the wardrobe and head over to the door. She pulled it open to reveal a rather handsome looking man with lighter hair and a days worth of stubble on his chiseled face.

\"Hello Remus.\" Lily said somberly as the three in the closet looked on in wonder. This was their Professor Lupin? He seemed so shy, but handsome. He was a peaky looking young man and although tall and lean didn\'t seem to fit into his own body. Lily looked to the teenage boy in front of her. \"What can I help you with?\"

\"Hello Lily.\" He said in a soft voice, ever the gentleman. He was a friend of James and therefore expected nothing but hostility. As usual Lily had seen past that and was being as polite as she could muster.

\"I wanted to apologize for James today-\"

\"Couldn\'t apologize himself could he?\"

Remus went ashen as he tried to search for the right words. \"He didn\'t think you\'d see him. Lily he\'s truly sorr-\"

\"No need.\" Lily interrupted with a wave of her hand. A small scowl entered on her pretty features as she spoke next. \"That\'s just how Potter is, isn\'t it?\"

Harry\'s stomach did a flip as he watched and heard his mother speak so furiously about his father. Had he been that horrible? What could he have possibly done?

\"He feels really bad though Lily,\" Remus said anxiously, \"I swear. He\'s-\"

\"I don\'t want to talk about it Remus.\" she interrupted again stubbornly, folding her arms over her chest and looking to the floor. She was furiously shaking her head slightly and her voice was laceth pth pity. \"He was really horrible to Severus today. So horrible.\"

Hermione felt a pang of sympathy then for her Potion\'s professor, Harry had told her of hast ast and how he suffered. She understood his hatred for Sirius and she knew that he had done his fair share of being a prick. But sitting there in the closet and listening to Lily talk, Hermione couldn\'t help but start to despise James.

\"But it wasn\'t just James. Sirius and I-\"

\"James Potter can think for himself can he not?\" Lily demanded furiously, moving towards Lupin as he backed away slowly. \"He thinks he can swagger about talking about Quidditch and acting like a snob to everyone else. You and Sirius and that little prat that follows you around are no better.\"

\"But Lily, you\'re not even listening!\" Remus said adamantly, he tried to speak rationally, appealing to Lily with logic. He knew how much James\' actions had hurt her and he desperately wanted to make peace.

\"If you\'d just lis-\"

\"I\'m sick of listening,\" Lily said pushing Remus out of her room and looking at him with fury. The words she spoke next hurt Harry more than he could ever explain, and hearing them from his mother\'s lips were more crushing a blow than ever thought imagined.

\"I hate James Potter.\"

With that she slammed her door in Remus\' face and whirled around furiously, her heart pounding from the confrontation and a grimace on her face.

The three in the closet hadn\'t even had a chance to panic when Lily suddenly rushed over to the closet and threw the doors open to reveal one scared Malfoy and Granger and one emotionally crushed Harry Potter.

__________________________________

author\'s notes: Well well well...seems that some of you just couldn\'t wait for the next installment. LOOK WHAT YOU\'VE DONE TO ME!!!

I awoke this morning to the feel that I was being watched, this intermingled with the pungent aroma of carrots being blown into my face help rouse me awake. With one eye open I blurrily viewed the large white bunny seated on my chest and staring at me with beady pink eyes.

\"What do you want?\" I started to ask grouchily, preparing to push his smelliness off of me. It\'s quite an unsettling thing to wake up to, a giant rabit staring at you and all. I hadn\'t even gotten \'you\' out of my mouth when I suddenly realised I couldn\'t move. I looked to my arms, they were held down by bunnies.

\"W-Why are you all here?\"

\"We were sent by Zorie\" The ringleader squeaked out, smiling evilly, (well as much as a rabbit can smile anyway.) and all I could do was shake my head, (as they were pinning the rest of me down.)

\"YOU CAN\'T MAKE ME WRITE!\" I spat furiously, refusing to be a slave to my inner wants and the demon bunnies atop of me.

\"Well.\" he continued lazily, (at least I think it was a he) \"Either you write another installment by this late morning or....we take all your Alan Rickman movies and chuck them!\"

\"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!\" I howled in anguish as panic overwhelmed me. Too long had I worked for that collection. Too often had I rushed into run-down video stores panting, \"Do you have Closet Land?\" and having the storekeepers give me bizarre looks.

So you see my dillema. Either give the bunnies what they want to save my collection and in turn have them room with me for God knows how long....or abandon the story and lose my Alan collection.

Damn you Alan Rickman.

On a side note: Thanks for all the reviews, I\'m actually having quite a fun time writing this one. Yes, I keep getting overwhelmed by more and more plot bunnies, but as long as they don\'t touch my Alan Rickman paraphenalia (sure I spelled that wrong) I\'m fine. cheers. holden.