Veritas et Tempus

The timeline for this story is figured by the fact that Nearly-Headless-Nick’s death-day was in 1492 and it was 500 years ago, therefore the Chamber of Secrets was in 1992 and Harry was 12 at the time. Therefore this is set in 1995 during Order of the Phoenix time. Also I’ve determined that Sirius was locked up in 1982 when Harry was 2 (Well, he was hardly caught exactly a day after the Potters were killed.) and got loose in 1993, therefore spending 11 years in Azkaban. Also JK mentioned in an interview that Snape was in his mid-thirties. That would mean that since Sirius and Lupin are around the same age (Give or take a year.) by Order of the Phoenix time they would be 37 (That’s just my estimate. They’re probably 38 or so but that would make them 40 by the time of the Seventh book which would mean that they weren’t… obviously… in their thirties anymore.) . Also, it would have it that Lily and James Potter died in 1981 when Harry was one year old, meaning Harry, Ron and Hermione were born in 1980 when James and Lily Potter were 22 while Ginny was born in 1981 (Estimating by Sirius and Lupin’s age.) And all of the old crowd (Lupin, Black, Potter, Evan, Figg and Pettigrew.) were born in 1958. Totally confused? Good, my work is done. Just thought later when you look back on this timeline everything will make a little more sense.

Anything Quidditch has been checked in Quidditch through the ages which if you like Harry Potter and/or are a charitable person you should get it because it’s for Comic Relief - a very good cause.

Chapter One

The Many Issues of Ricki Bell

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” -Steve Martin

“Harry!” Harry looked around the crowded platform of nine and three quarters curiously at the shout of his name. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Hermione a little way off, waving at him. He turned his head just in time to see Hermione being rammed into by someone, tripping, and accidentally striking a tall red haired woman on the head with her suitcase. She admitted a very unladylike yelp and tumbled to the ground in a flurry of feathers, cat hair and yowls from Crookshanks, whom she’d fallen over.

As he pushed over, he could see the woman bending, pulling Hermione to her feet and smiling a lopsided grin at her as she dusted her down. Crookshanks had recovered instantly and was now rubbing against the woman’s legs as if she was an old friend. She blinked furiously at him and shooed him away, whispering some rather colorful language under her breath as she glared at the friendly feline.

“Thanks, Ma’am,” said Hermione breathlessly.

“Not a problem, Hermione!” she replied, disappearing into the crowd without a backwards glance (Although, it probably wouldn’t have been possible, as the woman was loaded up with two trunks, a briefcase, an owl, and what looked suspiciously like a bag of dungbombs. Hermione couldn’t help but stare. Partially wondering who she was and how she knew her name, and partially wondering what in gods name she was planning to do with those dungbombs.

“Weird,” she said to herself, scratching her head and staring after her. Harry tapped her gingerly on the shoulder, having made his way closer to her. “Harry!” she said happily, swinging around and nearly catching him in the stomach with her suitcase as she hugged him. He choked, not expecting the outburst as his glasses were pushed askew.

“Hermione,” he said pointedly. “You’re standing on my toe.”

Hermione had definitely grown during the summer, having gained a good four inches; she was now an inch taller than Ron (Much to his annoyance.) Her normally frizzy brown hair was at shoulder length, having been longer before, and a fringe he either hadn’t noticed before, or was new too, rested on her forehead. (A/n: Americans call ‘em ‘bangs’ according to Sho-san. No offence to any of you, but I really don’t like that word so I’m sticking with good old fringe.) Harry, on the other hand, hadn’t grown at all. He still had unkempt black hair that seemed to annoy him without ending, still had adorable bottle-green eyes that really should have made women fall at his feet (Unfortunately, though, they hadn’t so far.)

Ron was also his same self, freckles strewn across his cheeks and nose, and the same well-meaning look on his face as always. He’d been just a little way behind Hermione, having seen the scene about a mile away. “Ron!” Hermione said in the same air and hugged him too, ignoring Harry’s last words. It was about a second after that that Harry finally realized that Hermione had pushed Crookshanks into his arms while he’d been distracted.

Harry then smiled as he realized she’d done the same thing to Ron, who was now holding her suitcase without realizing it. “Why Ron!” said Hermione, with a pleased tone. “Thank you so much for helping me carry that!”

Ron looked down and realized what she’d done, sighed, and dutifully tucked the suitcase under his arm. Harry suppressed a snort at how utterly like a downtrodden husband he looked like at that moment (In fact reminding him of Richard from Aunt Petunia’s favorite television show ‘Keeping up appearances.’) as he began plodding towards the train. Hermione walked happily beside them with a sunny smile on her face, clearly looking forward to the new term of school.

“So, what did you do all summer?” asked Harry lightly. Hermione sighed an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes.

“Well, we didn’t actually go anywhere, so I took a road trip down to Stonehenge.” It only took a second for her face to light up and begin babbling about how very fascinating Stonehenge was, with all of its history, and reminding them that it was mentioned in ‘Hogwarts, a history.’ And asking if they knew that it was actually originally in Ireland, and that it was moved during King Arthur’s time. Ron and Harry inwardly groaned and prepared for the good hour they would now have to endure hearing about a bunch of boulders.

That is, if Fred and George hadn’t chosen that exact moment to appear.

“Tally-ho, Pip pip and Bernard’s your uncle!” said George in a pleased tone; sneaking up on Ron and making him jump out of his skin.

“In English, we say ‘Good morning,’” Fred supplied. “You won’t believe what we just heard!” the two then said, reminding Harry strongly of Aunt Petunia, after hearing the latest gossip of the day, which was usually outrageous and impossibly fake. It involved the stuff of soap operas, usually. Ron sighed.

“What?” asked Hermione expectantly, seeing that the twins may as well burst with the information soon enough.

“Detentions have been outlawed?” guessed Ron.

“You can get good grades by pranking?” guessed Hermione.

“Mc Gonagall’s decided she likes you after all, and is in fact a great patron of practical joking?” guessed Harry.

“No! Our very favorite care-taker,” started Fred.

“And his very favorite cat,” put in George.

“Has retired!” they chorused. Harry’s eyes widened, and Hermione dropped the book she was holding. Ron laughed out loud with an air of relief. The widened smiles on Fred and George’s faces told him that that wasn’t all of the news. George was fidgeting restlessly while Fred was tapping his foot and whistling.

“Go on, what else?” asked Hermione finally, a smile upon her face.

“PERCY is taking over for him!” laughed Fred. The two of them collapsed into hysterical roars of laughter until they went red and lost their breath. Ron’s eyes widened. “What?” He asked dubiously. Hermione began to giggle but hastily concealed it as a very loud, very obvious, hacking cough. Harry wondered what on earth to make of this news. It would make things easier to sneak out at night, granted, but Percy took great pride in his work and was sure to do the job better than how Filch had done it, even without Mrs. Norris. This meant that Percy would probably be up at night making sure no-one was awake - it would be harder to sneak past an able 19 year old - But then again, he wouldn’t be as prone to giving detentions.

Harry blinked, realizing that Hermione was waving her hand in front of his face.

“Earth to Harry! Mayday, mayday! We’re going to be late, hurry on.” Both of his friends gave a sharp tug and sent him right through the barrier. Both of them hustled him into the train as a whistle blew over the platform.

 

 

They had to go right through the train to find an empty compartment, as Hermione picked up where she left off on her long-winded speech on Stonehenge. Eventually, they found Dean, Seamus, Neville, Ginny and the red haired woman from before playing Snap to the very back of the train.

“Hello,” said the woman cheerfully. “Ah, we meet again, Miss Granger.”

Hermione went beet red and glared at the teacher, half angry because she couldn’t figure out how she knew Hermione’s name (And it was very rare for Hermione not to be able to figure out something.) and half angry that she couldn’t remember the woman’s name so that she could come back with a witty retort. The woman looked rather friendly, with ever so slightly slanted blue eyes, red hair like Ron’s tied neatly up in a bun and oval glasses that rested on her nose, magnifying the freckles on her face. She looked about the same age as Lupin, really.

“How’s it going, Harry?” asked Seamus brightly. It was plain to see from the stack of cards in his hand that he was winning.

“Summer go okay, Ron?” asked Dean with a more dismal air. He was missing his eyebrows already.

“How was Bulgaria?” Neville asked Hermione just as cheerfully as Seamus. He was already out but clearly wasn’t paying attention to the game in the first place.

“Sit down, you three!” Ginny said sternly, pushing over to give them room. Harry smiled gratefully and sat down. Hermione didn’t pay attention but continued to stare at the new teacher, as if trying to figure out a tactful way to ask her name. Ron, on the other hand, asked straight out.

“What’s your name then?”

“RON!” squeaked Hermione, looking flustered.

“Oh never mind formalities! My name’s Ricki Bell. New Defense against the Dark Arts teacher.” Professor Bell reached over and shook his hand. She then pushed over further to make room for the two to sit down.

“Right, start again then lads.” Bell pushed her cards to the middle again, as did Seamus, Dean and Ginny. Neville shuffled them and dealt them out again to everyone with amazing speed for someone who just played snap.

"Alright then, now I’ve found out one thing about the cards. If you say a certain word while playing they’ll blow up immediately. So under no circumstances while you’re playing, say that word,” said Bell, picking up her cards. “The word is Serendipity.”

Bell groaned and smacked her forehead. Dean chuckled as Seamus burst into laughter. Hermione seemed very disapproving that a teacher would do such an idiotic thing with her time than to study Exploding Snap cards. Very carefully Bell pushed her cards well away from her into the center of the table, quite close to Harry. “Now, you also can’t say Velocity.”

Bell ignored it. “James.”

Bell reached over and took the cards out of Seamus’ hand, which hadn’t let go of them since she’d started listing these words.

“Idiotic Numbskull of a git.”

”Hey!” yelped Seamus.

“No, Seamus, it’s a sentence that makes the cards explode,” Bell said patiently. “Now, under no circumstances, say my middle name either.”

“What is it?” asked Ginny cautiously, immediately putting down her cards.

“If I told you I’d say it, wouldn’t I? Alright then.” Bell picked up her cards, smiling at them all. “I am the champion of Exploding Snap, I can tell exactly when the cards are going to blow. So just beware, right lads?” she said.

Hermione tossed in the first card, leaning away as if she thought it would explode. Everyone frowned at her and she let out a small smothered nervous giggle, still looking cautiously at it. Ron and Harry tossed one in too, calmly. Bell leaned very far back and tossed in her card, before putting her hands over her eyebrows. The pile immediately exploded.

 

 

“Oh frizzle,” grumbled Bell. Harry had given up on watching them play chess, after realizing how very boring it could be when one of them was absolutely hopeless at the game (That being Bell.) while the other was a genius at it. He was now looking out of the window at the star spangled sky and darkened fields that soon slipped into rocky mountain surroundings, grinning at the yelps of “Hey that’s not fair! Dirty rotten cheater! Go easy on me; I don’t know how to play this! … Okay, Kingmate. Is that a bad thing? Yes? Oh fiddlesticks…” from Bell and comments of “That’s how the game goes. I’m teaching you going hard on you. It’s all in the game. Yes, Kingmate is bad,” from Ron as he quickly beat Bell three times in a row with what seemed like great glee.

Hermione was a million miles away even though she was sitting right beside him, with her nose buried in an old book called ‘Great Witches of the Renaissance.’ That seemed awfully long and boring to him. She’d look up every now and then and exclaim, “Look at this! Wendelin The Weird was allergic to cats!” or something equally absurd that seemed extremely interesting to her and only her.

“Well then, Hermione,” Seamus would say with his eyes still firmly on the chessboard as he tried to guess what Bell’s next move would be. “All you have to do is get an allergy to cats and you could be Hermione the Weird.” To which Hermione would respond by biting that many great witches and wizards achieved many things even though they were labeled as eccentric. If that didn’t work she’d simply hit him over the head with her book and smile innocently.

Dean was having a heated argument with Ginny over Quidditch (Which was rather unusual, No-one had thought Ginny wasn’t into Quidditch. It seemed she had a passion for it.) According to him, Norway should have won the world cup, since they kept switching players positions. Ginny insisted that it was perfectly by the rules and that Portugal won fair and square.

“What do you think, Professor?” asked Ginny finally. Bell looked up from the board. “Hmm?” she asked.

“You must have seen some great Quidditch matches in your day. I mean, you were alive for the ’88 Harpies game, weren’t you? Surely you must have at least read about it!” said Dean earnestly. Bell looked slightly embarrassed, as she coughed loudly and smiled a wobbly smile at Dean and Ginny, who leaned forward attentively.

“Actually I was… in… America at the time! Subscribing to the Prophet wasn’t really practical, since I’d get it three days late anyway,” she said finally. Ginny sighed and Dean groaned, looking a little disappointed at this fact.

"Although I was around for the 1968 Falcons vs. Catapults game, which sounds a little like that,” Bell said compromisingly. Ginny and Dean’s attention snapped right back to her.

“Wasn’t Dai Llewlyn playing in that game?”

“And Kevin and Karl Broadmore?”

“That’s right, both of them. Karl and Kevin Broadmore both got suspended from the game for Blagging, Bumphing, Blurting and Cobbing. All in five minutes flat at the start of the game.” Bell smiled at the memory of it. A sudden shiver passed through her, and she closed her eyes as the train shuddered to a stop.

“Surely we shouldn’t be there yet?” asked Hermione, looking up from her book.

“We’re not,” stated Bell as she got up quickly.

“Is anyone getting a horrible sense of Déjà vu of second year?” asked Ginny shakily, squeezing Ron’s arm so much it caused him to emit a very high pitched squeak of pain. Seamus and Dean nodded as the dim light around them flickered out.

“Lumos,” whispered Bell, holding her wand high above her head. As Harry was the only one sitting close enough to hear, he was the only one who felt very un-nerved as he heard Bell muttering under her breath. ‘You didn’t do anything so they can’t drag you off… They can feel fear so don’t be afraid… If you’re not afraid they can’t tell who or what you are…’ Hearing this he shifted away from her feeling slightly paranoid.

The compartment door slid open and Harry was suddenly aware how close Ron and Hermione were sticking to him. He could hear very faint screams in his head, like a badly tuned radio. He tried to block them out so that he could hear what Bell was saying to the Dementors that had just entered. He closed his eyes and concentrated closely to what Bell was saying.

"Sirius Black's not here, I would have thought it was obvious! Go on, scat!" she said in a shaky voice to the hooded creatures with a great flourish of her hands. They didn't seem to be listening to her. "Right, you've got three seconds!" she squeaked, brandishing her wand threateningly. They weren't listening at all this time. A cold wave of sickening sadness passed over Harry. Ginny was crying next to Ron, and Hermione's breathing was obviously very forced, she was breathing through her teeth. He could hear the screaming getting louder; he didn't think he could stand it much more.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" yelled Bell loudly. A large silver dog shot out of the end of her wand and charged the Dementors right out. It disappeared into thin air as with a twisted smile Bell pocketed her wand again. The lights slowly flickered back on.

"Everyone okay?" she asked, looking over everyone's heads. Ginny ceased her wails that had practically terrified Seamus, who’d thought it was a Banshee crying instead of just Ginny. Dean nodded, trembling all over and tugging at his hair distractedly. Bell grinned at them all. “Lighten up!” she said happily, delving into a handbag that seemed small but looked as if if she tried she could fit the Taj-Mahal into it, before producing a large slab of chocolate. “Never hurts to be prepared,” she said, breaking it up.

Bell handed a piece to all of them and smiled earnestly, before mumbling, “I’d better see how everyone else is faring. Alright?” They nodded mutely as she made her way out. Harry was severely beginning to wonder about her. She was strange, no doubt about that, but she was also very fun and down to earth (For a teacher, at least.) and there was also an awful sense of Déjà vu around her that confused him. Although, he reminded himself, a lot of this is like third year. She probably reminds me a bit of Lupin.