Forever Ago

Chapter 5: Visions

"I have it my lord."

"You have done well. Bring it to me. You will be greatly rewarded for this. Whatever you desire shall be yours," Voldemort said lazily. A man wearing the black robes of a Death Eater approached. He handed Voldemort an old, tattered book. The cover was faded, with an embossed ebony title, Le Voile Noir Vivre Mourir. Voldemort seized the book and ran his hands over it, stroking its cover. The Death Eater bowed and started to back away, his grey eyes down cast.

"I do not believe I dismissed you. Give me your arm."

"Y-yes, my lord," came the nervous reply.

"You need not fear. Today, I'm a pleased with you." Voldemort reached out and pulled the man's sleeve up, revealing the dark mark. The Death Eater flinched in expectation. Voldemort smirked wickedly and pressed his hand down on the dark mark until it burned black.

"I have summoned the Inner Circle. We have this to celebrate," Voldemort said as he held up the book. All around, Death Eaters appeared out of thin air. They quickly formed a circle with Voldemort at the center. Anticipation was thick in the air.

"My followers, you have done well. The attack on the Department of Mysteries was successful. Young Malfoy has brought me a book that may contain the key to eternal life. I shall reward him accordingly, a reward all of you will share. Everything else we acquired is nothing to this. This book is the key to our victory over all impurities. Today, we will celebrate. Let the entertainment begin!" Voldemort snapped his fingers and a family of muggles materialized.

"Crucio," Voldemort whispered lazily. A little girl no older than five began to whither on the ground; her parents started screaming. Voldemort could be heard chuckling as they shrieked.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Er, Harry, are you alright?" Remus asked just before Harry fainted.

"Peter go get Madame Pomfrey and tell her what happened," James directed. Without question Peter ran toward the Hospital Wing, Remus joining him. James began to mutter a spell to check Harry's vital signs.

"Why don't you levitate him to the hospital wing?" Sirius said.

"I could, but we don't know why he fainted. It might be dangerous to try and move him. I checked Harry's brain activity level and it--"

Sirius let out a cough that sounded like 'showoff'. Lily rolled her eyes in agreement with Sirius.

"As much as I hate to agree with Sirius, stop showing off and figure out what's wrong with him," Lily said sternly, but with amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Lily, how do you put up with this arrogant, arrogant, man?" Sirius joked, patting James on the back. James ran his hands through his hair, messing it up.

"Oh, he's easier to control this way," Lily joked back with a smile.

After a few minutes of investigation James decided there was nothing wrong with Harry. "This is really unusually. He seems to be perfect health. His level of brain activity is higher than normal, but that wouldn't cause him to pass out."

Lily touched James's arm and asked, "What do you think is wrong with him?"

"I don't know, but I hope they hurry back with Pomfrey. Good thing Moony went, with the way Peter feels about Harry he might have gotten 'lost' on the way," James muttered darkly.

Abruptly, Harry bolted upright grasping his left arm, "Whasgoinon?"

"Slow down. Are you alright? Look at me," James said.

"What! Why?" Harry said, looking down immediately. He knew eye contact was required in order for a person to perform Legilimency. He automatically started clearing his mind trying to protect his mind with Occlumency. After years of constant threats, Harry had grown a bit paranoid.

"I need to see if you have a concussion. You did just fainted," James replied. "You guys might as well go to class. We'll be alright," James said to Sirius and Lily.

"You sure James? I don't want to miss the excitement. Strangers fainting, mysterious diseases." Harry and Lily rolled their eyes at Sirius.

"Fine, I could use the help," James said smiling mischievously.

"That's right. You may be in Healing Studies, but you still need me, I am always needed," Sirius said with playful arrogance.

"Hey, I'm fine," Harry suddenly cut in. "Really, this happens from time to time. I just forgot to take my potion. I get really bad...dizzy spells...when they hit me they knock me off my feet. You guys can go. Really," Harry unsuccessfully tried to persuade them. "The potion I need is just up in my trunk. I can go get it, and I'll be fine." Harry had been taking a potion since the end of his fifth year that suppressed the bond between him and Voldemort. He had eventually learned a little Occlumency, but it took too much concentration to continuously control the link. Snape had finally modified an existing potion to create the encubra potion, to diminish the connection between Harry and Voldemort. Even through Voldemort had been killed nearly a month ago in Harry's time he still had some vials of the potion in his trunk left over from when he need the potion.

"We're not leaving you until Madame Pomfrey gets here," James informed him. He wasn't done showing off for Lily.

"That's right. You heard him," Sirius said.

"Well, if you two have it covered, I think I'll head to class. We're covering Hippogriffs today and I'd rather not miss them." Lily gave James a hug and left. James looked slightly disappointed. Harry stared at them in surprise.

"And that's why she's the Head Girl, no since of fun whatsoever," Sirius muttered.

"What's that?" James asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Sirius responded quickly.

"No, that," James said pointing at Harry's ankle with a confused look on his face.

Sirius burst out laughing. Harry pulled his knees up to his chest in reflex, which just caused James to start laughing harder, when he got a good look at Harry's ankles. Cautiously Harry look down not knowing what to expect. He realized he was wearing a pair of socks that Dobby had given him. His left sock had a picture of a Slytherin, who looked like Draco Malfoy, riding on a broom with the end on fire. At random intervals the person would chase the end of his broom in circles to try and put the fire out but end up catching himself on fire. Harry let out a sigh of relief and chuckled.

"A friend of mine made me these socks and is convinced they're lucky. I always wear them when I'm nervous," Harry explained. In fact, Harry wore them when he defeated Voldemort, killed Wormtail, and befriended a Sphinx. Harry was certain these socks were lucky.

"Why are you nervous?"

"Er, just so many new people, a new school, you know. I figured I could use the, er, luck," Harry mumbled.

"I certainly wouldn't call them lucky. Unless you think fainting and threatening our friends is lucky," Sirius said with more humor in his voice than anger. As upset as Harry was about the vision, he knew he didn't want Sirius angry with him the whole time he was in the past. Sirius was in a good mood, he decided, so he would take advantage of it. Harry mentally gritted his teeth decided to do what he had to do.

"I'm sorry that I lost my temper with P-Peter. Er, I've never had anybody invade my privacy like that before. No siblings or anything," Harry forced the words out of his mouth. "I didn't mean anything by that threat."

Harry saw James and Sirius exchange a dark look. Harry knew he hadn't convinced them.

"I'll...I'll give him a potion to get the ink off his face. I can be a bit judgmental a times. I'm going to spend they whole year with him, so I really don't want to get off on the wrong foot." James looked more convinced, but Sirius was still looked slightly suspicious.

"It's alright," James said. "Peter can be a bit annoying at times, but once you get used to him he's a good person, a good friend." Harry looked down and counted to ten in his head, concentrating on his breathing.

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Just a little dizzy, that's all," Harry lied and decided to change the subject. "So, why did L-lily run off like that?"

"I don't think Lily would miss class if Who-Know-Who attacked the school," Sirius said eagerly. Before he could continue Remus and Madame Pomfrey turned the corner and she started questioning them.

"What happened?" she asked Harry sternly.

"I got really dizzy and fainted. It happens from time to time that's one of the reasons my parents were afraid to send me to Hogwarts," Harry said, giving Pomfrey a meaningful look. James and Sirius missed the look. Remus didn't.

"James, did you take any of his readings?" Pomfrey asked James as she herself began to cast tests medispells.

"Yes, everything was normal except brain activity. The Cerveau test came up with a red aura, but I'm not sure why."

"Very good. You three boys should get to class now. I'll take care of Mr. Smith." Sirius protested that she needed help transporting Harry to the hospital wing, but was quickly silenced. Madame Pomfrey ushered them along ignoring Sirius's protests.

"Now, Mr. Smith would you please explain what is going on?" Pomfrey said firmly.

"Yes, but this might be better in private," Harry responded.

"You can walk?" Pomfrey asked strictly, but with hints of her usual concern.

"Of course, but this is, er, something only Dumbledore should know. He told me not to tell anybody anything."

"Very well, but since you did faint, you will wait in the Hospital Wing until he can talk to you." She pulled out some chocolate out from her pocket and handed it to Harry. They began to walk towards the Hospital Wing in silence.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Sorry we're late Professor. The new kid fainted," James explained.

"Nothing to worry about, you won't actually be meeting Hippogriffs until the next lessons, just copy the notes down from somebody," Professor Kettleburn said. Sirius, Remus, and James sat down next to Lily and Peter. Remus began copying Lily's notes while listening to Kettleburn. James and Sirius, however, weren't ready to start the lesson.

"Peter, how did you get here?" Sirius whispered.

"Well, umm, it doesn't take two people to get a nurse, so I, umm, just went straight to class," Peter said nervously. Sirius rolled his eyes and just as he was about to retort--

"Please, Peter try to pay attention," Kettleburn admonished gently. They all settled down and began to take notes on Hippogriffs.

The peace lasted for about five minutes. They began to pass notes.

----What happened? Do you know if he will be alright? -Moony

----He said he'd be fine. Had a dizzy spell and fainted. Said it happened before. We should ask him more about it.--Prongs

----Something seems suspicious about him. We should keep an eye on him -Padfoot

"Boys, hippogriffs are dangerous. If you don't know how to behave around them you could get hurt. It's dangerous to look some animals in the eye, yet some are insulted if you do not. Should you look a hippogriff in the eye?" said Kettleburn. "Mr. Black?"

Sirius decided to take a guess. A hippogriff was part horse and horses are like cows, which are like bulls and he definitely wouldn't look a bull in the eye.

"Professor, you never look a hippogriff in the eye," Sirius said confidently. Some of the girls giggled. Sirius flashed a smile back at them.

"Not looking a hippogriffs in its eye is a sign of disrespect. You would likely be attacked if you approached one without meeting its eyes," Kettleburn informed.

"Some stupid half-bird horse thing? Attack me? I'm up for a challenge," Sirius joked.

Finally annoyed Kettlebrun said, "Please take this class seriously. If I had known how to approach a hippogriff I might not have lost my left arm."

The other students exchanged glances, but it wasn't enough to discourage Sirius in to listening. The class was held outside so they could have animals in it; however, Sirius took this as an opportunity to pull grass out of the ground and began to spell out 'I'm bored' with it. He poked James and pointed to his message. James chuckled, pulled out his wand and started to levitate grass over a Slytherin girl's head.

"What are you doing?" Kettleburn groaned. This proved enough of a distraction to cause James to drop all the grass on the girls head.

"Opps," James said, running his hand through his hair. The girl started shrieking about bugs. James glanced nervously at Lily and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drop it."

"James Potter, will you never grow up? You had better apologize," Lily said very annoyed; she hadn't been joking when she said it was easier to control James as his girlfriend. Sirius started laughing and the Slytherin girl started shrieking even louder with anger.

"THERE WERE ANTS ON THAT GRASS. I'M COVERED IN ANTS." With that she started scratching herself furiously. The harder she scratched, the harder Sirius laughed. Remus looked annoyed and picked up his textbook to read, distancing himself; Peter nervously glanced all around.

"Potter, Black, Pettigrew -detention, all of you, and twenty points from Gryffindor," Kettleburn said.

"Why me? And what about Remus?" Peter whined.

"I know you were involved in this and Remus wasn't, he never is. You always are, and if I hear one more word from you three, I'll take fifty more points." James and Sirius never behaved in Kettleburn's class. Peter was normally in on the joke, but more cautious, so not caught as easily. Subdued the Marauders finally settled down for the rest of the class.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Madame Pomfrey informed me you were feeling ill," Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Do you have something you need to tell me? Anything at all?" Dumbledore asked gently.

"Er, Professor, I-I'm not sure it's a good idea to tell you. I--what happens in the future... look I have these visions from time to time and I don't think it's a good idea for you to know about them until the proper time," Harry said. Dumbledore gave Harry a serious look.

"I shall of course trust your judgment in this mater. However, should you feel the need to talk, I am available." Harry nodded in relief.

They were still in the Hospital Wing, but Dumbledore had put up a Silencing Charm so nobody could eavesdrop.

"Since this wasn't a 'dizzy spell,' I trust you won't need any medical attention. I'm still running tests to find out why you are here. You haven't been sent by any of the obvious time travel methods, dark or light, so it might be a couple of weeks before I am able to determine anything."

"A couple weeks," Harry sighed.

"A few weeks isn't very long."

"Professor, I have a potion up in my trunk which helps stop the visions. I was wondering if I could go get it?" Harry asked.

"Of course Harry, and I have a game of chess I need to attend to. Young Professor McGonagall might be tempted to cheat if I leave her alone with the board for too long," Dumbledore said with a smile. Harry smiled back. Even twenty years younger, Dumbledore was still Dumbledore, even if he didn't like Lemon Drops yet. He stood up and Dumbledore watched him leave the Hospital Wing.

"I wonder why this child wants to stop his visions," Dumbledore murmured to himself. "Visions are a rare gift indeed. Harry Potter certainly isn't as ordinary as he pretends to be."