Another World

Harry and Ron sat in the common room waiting for Hermione and Ginny until almost midnight, by which time they were rather concerned. Almost everyone else had gone to bed, and still there was no sign of either of the girls. Ron had wanted to go to their head of house after ten o'clock, but Harry thought that was a bit imprudent.

"He's killed them both," muttered Ron at half past ten.

"He's looking for somewhere to hide the bodies." Eleven o'clock.

"He's burying them out by the forest." Half past eleven.

"He's standing back and admiring his work." Midnight.

"Fine," sighed Harry, "we should probably alert Professor McGonagall then."

"About time," said Ron shortly.

To Harry's credit he did not suspect the potion master of murder, but he had once served a marathon four hour detention with another professor and would have been extremely grateful to anyone who might have rescued him.

As they rapped on Professor McGonagall's door, Harry tried to think of a way to phrase the situation so as not to annoy her or sound childish.

"Potter. Weasley. Have you any idea of the time?" she questioned as she answered the door in a long tartan housecoat.

"We're sorry, professor, but Ginny and Hermione haven't come back from their detentions with Snape yet. We were worried," said Harry.

"What time were their detentions?" she questioned.

"Seven o'clock, professor," answered Ron, looking at her expectantly.

"I will look into it, but in the meantime I suggest that you two both go to bed," she told them with a stern look.

"You'll make sure they're all right?" questioned Ron, who perhaps had a slightly larger stake in the matter than Harry. Ginny was his little sister after all.

"Of course, Mister Weasley. Now return to your dormitory," she said before closing the door and going to throw some robes on.

As they returned to the common room, Ron asked, "Why don't we just find them on the Marauder's Map, put on the invisibility cloak, and go fetch them ourselves?"

Harry sighed. They had been caught out after hours twice that year already, but for stupid reasons: getting food from the kitchens and visiting Dobby the house elf. If they were caught again, it would be serious.

"No harm in checking the map," said Harry, waffling as he thought of the girls all alone in the dungeon with Snape for such a long time.

"That's the spirit!" said Ron as they dashed up the stairs and into the seventh year dorm.

Pulling the map from the chest at the end of his bed, Harry tapped it with his wand and said, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

"Okay. Where are they?" asked Ron in a whisper.

"I don't see them. Or Snape," said Harry, peering at the map.

"Are you sure?" asked Ron.

"Look yourself! They aren't on Hogwarts grounds," said Harry.

"Where are they then?"

"I don't know."

"Harry, what are we going to do?" asked Ron .

"Should we go to the dungeons and investigate or should we tell the headmaster? Either way, we're in for trouble."

"Dungeons, Harry."

"Right."

Hidden beneath the invisibility cloak and carrying the Marauder's Map, Harry and Ron made their way quietly to the dungeons and the potions' classroom where Ginny and Hermione were supposed to have served their detention that evening. The halls were only naturally empty after midnight on a school night. Even Mister Filch and his cat were in bed. They stole quietly through the halls until they reached their destination.

Inside the classroom, they could hear voices talking. Harry glanced at the map. It was Dumbledore and McGonagall.

"Albus, this isn't funny! Two students and a professor are missing!" said McGonagall.

"Have the kitchens been checked, Minerva? It is a serious question," said Dumbledore.

"I sent one of the house elves, and I don't think he will find Severus there."

"I don't know ... Remus Lupin hasn't been seen since a quarter of eight himself. Perhaps they are all there together."

"I find that even more unlikely."

"One likes to be optimistic from time to time. Very well, Minerva, alert the faculty and form search parties."

"You think they are somewhere within the castle grounds?"

"Severus would never leave the grounds without alerting me."

"What if they didn't go willingly?"

"Be sensible, Minerva! We would all be dead already if someone could just waltz into the castle and waltz out again unchallenged with two professors and two students."

"You're certain?"

"Quite."

"I should assemble the search parties then. Excuse me, Albus."

Ron and Harry edged close to the wall as Professor McGonagall swept out of the classroom. Her face looked more pinched than usual. She was worried about her students, past and present, not to mention her colleague Professor Snape. Of course, she would never have admitted to that last bit, not even to Albus, but she was concerned about Severus too.

They waited until she was gone to step into the classroom, knowing the Dumbledore would be far less displeased to see them out after curfew.

"You are certainly getting good mileage out of your father's cloak, Harry," said Dumbledore, looking pointedly over his half-moon glasses.

Removing the cloak, Harry said, "Thank you, professor. Can we help with the search?"

"You know it isn't polite to eavesdrop."

"Can we, professor? Ginny is ..."

"Your sister. I understand, Ron, but the last thing we need is more students out of bed on a night like this."

"Isn't there anything we can do to help?" asked Harry.

"Perhaps the two of you could go to your common room and wait there to see if Miss Granger and Miss Weasley return on their own accord."

"But, headmaster!" Ron objected.

"Mister Weasley, rest assured that every staff member will be gotten out of bed to look for your sister, Miss Granger, and your professors. Everything possible will be done to find them," said Dumbledore with a note of finality.

Harry and Ron nodded with a certain resignation. Something about the headmaster could always make them feel like fourth years again. Harry tossed the cloak over them both, and they trudged from the dungeon. They had no idea where to begin looking for the four missing students and professors themselves or they might not have returned to the Tower.

"If only we had some kind of clue," sighed Ron as they collapsed in front of the fire in the common room.

"Don't worry, Ron. Dumbledore is doing everything he can," said Harry.

"But what if it isn't enough?"

"Ron, if you have any ideas, tell me and I'll go along with them."

Ron sighed heavily and said, "I only wish I had an idea. The map says that they're not on the grounds, so it seems that we're at an impasse."

The castle and grounds were searched thoroughly until dawn touched the horizon that morning and the professors were forced to call off the search and prepare to teach their classes, leaving Dumbledore, Mister Filch, Mrs. Norris, and Professor McGonagall, who had canceled her classes in deference to her duties as the head of Gryffindor house, which included her responsibility to find her missing students.

But as the morning began, they were no closer to locating Hermione and Ginny or Remus and Severus.

Albus and Minerva strode through the dungeons, watching young Slytherins pass by with concern replacing their normally contemptuous facial expressions. It could not be easily said that they did not care for their head of house. Many of them saw a strong defender and a role model in Severus Snape. And it bothered and frightened them that something could happen to him.

"Where could they have possibly gone?" questioned Minerva quietly as they walked.

"This castle is a mysterious place. There are rooms and corridors that disappear and reappear at will. Have I ever told you about the ..."

"Yes, Albus, you have," interrupted Minerva. "But if they stumbled into one of these rooms, why haven't they stumbled out again? And why was Remus with them, if they are indeed all lost together?"

"Who's to say, Minerva? We must remember that Severus and Remus are both very capable, and Ginny and Hermione are not helpless either. It may be up to them to sort this out."



Hermione awakened to the sound of Ginny giggling as she watched Professor Lupin conjuring breakfast for all of them. Severus was standing the doorway to the storeroom, which connected his private rooms, his offices, and the classroom, reading or perhaps pretending to read while rolling his eyes at Remus and Ginny. Hermione yawned and stretched before joining them. They had moved the writing desk away from the wall in order to use it as a table.

"It isn't much, but this sort of thing isn't exactly my specialty," said Remus, gesturing toward the breakfast and managing a smile.

"It will have to suffice until we can find a way to get to the kitchens without being killed," said Severus, closing his archaic potions' tome.

"And as you've said several times, so often in fact that I could hear you even after I dozed off, dealing with those monsters is my job, isn't it?" asked Remus, motioning for them all to have a seat.

"Touchy, aren't we? Does it have anything to do with the moon that will be rising tonight?"

"Ironically, yes," said Lupin, who had noted that morning when he had peered into the corridor outside that there was no sunlight and probably no moonlight either. Hermione could have confirmed that for him. But still he felt the pull of it. He felt the wolf already tugging at his mind.

"Tonight's the full moon!" exclaimed Ginny, dropping her fork with a loud clatter.

"And tomorrow night and the night after, but Severus has potions made up for me already, so don't fret about it, Ginny," Remus told her with a warm, comforting smile.

"I wasn't worried. I just forgot," she said, blushing slightly.

"Trusting," chuckled Severus darkly as he helped himself to some of Remus's conjured toast.

"He has earned our trust," said Hermione.

Severus looked at her for a moment and asked, "Are you implying that I somehow haven't?" There was something like hurt in his eyes.

"Not at all," she replied sincerely. "Why do you ask?"

"I sometimes wonder," murmured Severus with a shrug, turning his full attention to his food.

Hermione couldn't help but to feel a little guilty for her off-hand remark, which had only been intended as a defense of lycanthropic Remus and not as an insult to Severus. It had simply been interpreted badly.

"I do trust him. Mostly. I trust him not to kill us all or hand us over to Voldemort. And isn't that enough? What more does he want from us? From me?" she wondered as they ate in silence.

After Remus had magically cleared the table, he looked at his three companions and sighed. Severus was brooding over dark things, some related to their predicament and others not, but it was written upon his sallow features in an indelicate hand. Hermione was contemplating something as her brow was furrowed. Remus suspected that it was what she had read in the history book or questions derived from that source. Ginny was watching them and himself, watching just as he was and perhaps wondering if those gathered around the makeshift table were equal to the task ahead of them. Remus smiled softly as he realized how alike they were. Watchers and observers, seldom playing the active part that others were so desirous of.

"What do you suppose they're doing?" asked Ginny softly.

"Who?" asked Snape.

"Them, out there."

"Oh. They stopped testing the wards hours ago," said Severus with a shrug.

"Perhaps they're sleeping. They do sleep, don't they, professor?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, fortunately for us, but I don't think I would count on it enough to venture out just yet," he replied.

"Indeed not." Snape said with a sneer. "But we were lucky yesterday. If that one had awakened any sooner in the library it certainly would have taken one of us."

"Taken?" questioned Ginny.

"Your esteemed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor would probably wish for me not to elaborate, Miss Weasley."

"You know. This is a bit ridiculous. I appreciate respect and deference as much as the next bloke, but we might be trapped here for days. My name is Remus. Her is name is Ginny. Her is name is Hermione. And yours is Severus. If we're going to form a working partnership, and we must if we intend to survive until the next dawn, then formality should perhaps be cast aside. Are we in agreement?" His tone was one of frustration and annoyance, which they had seldom heard the mild-mannered professor use.

"Well, we are in this pickle together," shrugged Hermione, looking at Severus and hiding a smile behind her hand. In her case he had already made that sacrifice.

"You are doing away with order and discipline, you know, but I suppose I can live with it on this occasion," said Severus sulkily.

Ginny merely nodded her consent.

"Right then. We are in a pickle. The worst one I have ever been in. So we must start finding our way out," said Remus with a nod.

"This has been bothering me for some time now. I trust everyone else has noticed it too. The furnishings and books and so forth all appear to be from the mid-forties, from about fifty years or so ago. Why is that?" asked Hermione.

"Could this place change every so often? You know, every hundred years or so?" questioned Ginny.

"While that would be an admirable feat of magic, I find it unlikely. What would be the point? To give the inmates here fresh reading material and new mattresses?" asked Severus with a derisive snort.

"Play nice, Severus!" chided Remus. "I would think that perhaps that the decor is a result of some event either here or in the outside world. A catastrophe or something," mused Lupin.

"Could it have had something to do with Tom Riddle?" asked Ginny sheepishly. "He was here during that time," she added.

"Even he would not be foolish enough to knowingly tamper with something like this. I doubt very much that demons recognize the difference between a pureblooded snack versus a ... less than pureblooded one," said Severus.

"Grindelwald?" suggested Hermione, remembering reading on the back of a chocolate frog card that the Dark Wizard Grindelwald had been defeated in 1945.

Remus and Severus shivered at the mention of the name. Before there had been Lord Voldemort, there was Grindelwald.

"Well?" asked Hermione.

"He was crazy enough, they say," Severus said.

"But Dumbledore defeated him ... so he was killed in nineteen forty something," said Remus, shaking his head.

"There were ashes. Or so I hear. But do you recall anything more than stories? Do you recall ever reading anything more than vague notions and dates on the subject of Grindelwald's defeat?" questioned Snape.

"No," said Remus and Hermione.

"So, let us hypothesize that he was imprisoned here, since Azkaban certainly could not have held him before the dementors were brought in. Perhaps a copy of Hogwarts from 1945 went with him. What this theory does for our current situation, I cannot say, but there you have it."

"Knowledge is power," murmured Hermione.

"And ... and he wouldn't still be here, would he?" asked Ginny, her freckles standing out against her pale skin.

"Not very likely. The other occupants of this improvised hell would have made mince meat of him long ago," answered Snape.

"At least we can be sure that Professor Dumbledore knows this place exists then since he defeated Grindelwald," said Hermione.

"True, but it may take some time before he realizes that we've been sucked into this realm. We must try to find our own solutions," said Remus as gently as possible.

"You really think the Founders left an escape route in this place?" asked Severus, glancing almost half-apologetically at Ginny and Hermione.

"For one reason and one reason only. Godric Gryffindor would have taken accident-prone and even curious students into account. He wouldn't have abandoned the hapless to certain death," said Remus.

Severus's lip curled into a sneer as he said, "I certainly hope your faith is not misplaced."



The day was wearing on and the four missing students and teachers were no closer to being found than the were when darkness still ruled the heavens. Albus Dumbledore was troubled, terribly troubled. He sat in his office, waiting for Minerva to return from conferring with Hagrid, who was quite distraught, and Mister Filch, who was feeling rather put out. If she returned without good news, then the headmaster would be divulging some information that, if he had his wish, would remain secret long after his time at Hogwarts ended.

A knock at the door caused the aging wizard to sigh.

"Come in," he called, leaving his desk.

Minerva McGonagall had returned. Her face was drawn, and she looked to be at her wits' end. The day had already been a long one for her. She cared about all of students, but those missing were among some of her favorites, though she tried not to show it. Remus, who had been a shy and kind child, had been among the best she had taught during her long years of teaching. Hermione was exceptionally smart and brave. Ginny was a sweet girl and special to most of her house. Even at sixteen, she was still a kid sister to most of the sixth and seventh years. And then there was Severus, of course, who was never her charge, but who had been through so very much.

"Albus, there's been no luck," she said, taking a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing her right eye. "We've been over every inch of the castle and the grounds."

"Perhaps there is one more place that should be taken into consideration," said Dumbledore.

"Oh, yes, Hagrid and Filch have been sent to Hogsmeade. The Shrieking Shack will be checked too, of course," said Professor McGonagall.

"Minerva, this may come as something of a shock to you, but do you recall the strange circumstances that occurred during your sixth year?" questioned Dumbledore.

"That was the year that you missed teaching nearly half your classes because of Grindelwald, wasn't it?" she questioned. Stern Professor McGonagall immediately blushed as Albus raised his eyebrows.

"What a funny way of remembering it, but, yes, that was the year," he nodded.

"And what does it have to do with the disappearances?" she asked him.

"A memory charm was placed on you during the first week of May that year. At your request, I should add."

"Albus? It seems rather absurd to say that I don't remember being subjected to such a charm, but ..."

"I know."

"In fact I clearly remember having a wonderful time all that spring while you were away. I had a study group with several of my friends to keep us from falling behind in transfigurations."

"I am pleased that the charm worked so well, but since I placed it on you myself, I must dispute what you remember, or rather what you do not," said Albus gently. "It was a rather weak charm actually. I half expected you to break through it over the years, but you have never dwelled unnecessarily on the past."

"Thank you."

"But I have to remove it, Minerva, so that we may discuss another possible answer for our current crisis," he told her, drawing his wand.

"All right, if you think it's for the best," she agreed.

"Instauro!" he said with a wave of his wand.

Professor McGonagall swayed dizzily for a moment. Dumbledore caught her by the arm to prevent her from falling.

"It may not all come back at once, but that should do it, Minerva."

"Yes, Albus," she nodded. Frowning, she asked, "I went with you to fight Grindelwald, didn't I?"

"You managed to tag along," he chuckled. "Against my better judgment."

"I'll never be able to lecture Harry Potter again," she groaned, removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes. "Or Weasley for that matter."

"There, there, Minerva. You were very helpful. I would never have been able to defeat Grindelwald alone. I would have had to find Aurors to help me, and who knows what Grindelwald could have accomplished by then? You were an invaluable asset."

"It was horrifying, Albus, what that man had done," she said, shaking her head.

"I know," he agreed quietly. The things she had seen. That had been the chief reason she had asked him to cast a memory charm on her.

"And what you did to him ... it was only just. It was the only way. No mere prison could have held him, not even after you snapped his wand. And his followers ..."

"Terrible times. Terrible indeed. But you do realize why I wanted you to remember. It wasn't because of the blood or carnage or pain, Minerva," he said gently.

Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant.

"Albus, you don't mean that they have gotten inside the other place, the prison world, somehow! Everything about it was removed from the books! Not that anyone read those particular ..."

"Yes, Minerva, I fear that it is true. Our friends and students somehow managed to cross the barrier between our world and the demons' prison. And I do not believe that they will find it easy to return without some assistance from us."

"Is there any way for us to bring them back or to contact them?"

"The Founders may have left a way to reach the demon realm. I know that at least one of them was good at preparing for emergencies or the unexpected. But finding this method of communication may not be easy. I seem to recall that it had something to do with mirrors."

"And we must hurry! Goodness knows what must be happening to them in there."

"Yes, time is of the essence," Albus agreed. "I must locate a text that I saved from before the defeat of Grindelwald. Instructions, if you will."

"And I should ...?"

"Contact the parents of your students. Do not frighten them or tell them too much, but apprise them of the situation."

"Of course," she nodded, turning to go. She had been planning to do just that.

"Minerva, you haven't mentioned the kiss."

Her thin cheeks turned bright scarlet in hue as she turned again.

"All these years I thought you were barely aware of my ... of my school girl infatuation and now I find out that I kissed you! What the devil am I supposed to say?"

"I don't know, Minerva. I wasn't exactly expecting a thank-you, but some comment might have been nice," he said, his eyes twinkling, laughing, behind his glasses. He had been waiting fifty years to tease her about that, and he was going to enjoy it.

"You old rascal!"

"Who me? I'm just a defenseless old man."

"You? Defenseless? That will be the day!" she snorted before dashing out of his office.