Veritas et Tempus

Chapter Five; Curiouser and Curiouser.

Murphy was an optimist – O’Toole’s Law

***

As Harry dreamed, the image got clearer and clearer. He could now see both people in perfect detail. His mother, always looking so distressed, red hair and wide, frightened green eyes above her freckled cheeks. She would be talking to a boy with coppery brown hair, soft brown eyes, which looked quiet, but as if he could do something drastic if pushed to it. There was an air of instability around him. As far as Harry knew, his name was Anshar, and he'd managed to figure out that they were both sixth years. This was his fifth nightmare about them. Each time he'd found that he'd been sleepwalking.

"Anshar," Lily whispered, her eyes full of tears as she reached out to touch Anshar's shoulder. Anshar pulled out of her reach, looking as though he wanted to cry, but couldn't find the tears for it. He looked like a little lost boy, and the look Lily gave him was one of apologetic sympathy, and pity.

This must have been before Lily had met James, although Harry had a feeling it wasn't so.

The voice that came from Anshar's mouth was choked, and forced. The tears he wanted came, unbidden, sliding down his cheeks.

"If that's how you want it. Do you really love James more?" he looked as though he knew it all along, but wanted an answer so desperately, to confirm it. Lily looked at him, slightly startled.

"Oh Anshar, don't you understand? Fate will keep us together, even if time keeps us apart! " Harry could understand that she was trying to comfort Anshar, but didn't make any sense of the words. She cheated on my dad while they were at Hogwarts?

Anshar bit his lip, and leaned against the windowsill, a closed, determined look on his face.

"Then I have two words for you, Lily Evans." Anshar pulled himself onto the sill, a mad smile on his face through his tears. His eyes were bright and alive, and he obviously had a plan. Harry felt himself leaning forward anxiously. In each of these dreams he was the invisible third figure, never seen by the other two, or paid heed to.

“Good bye." Anshar pushed off of the window and threw himself backwards out of the window. Lily let out a bloodcurdling scream and ran across the room to the window, eyes wide in fright.

Harry found himself standing beside Lily, looking down. All he could see of Anshar was a small; inch tall figure sprawled on the ground. He'd committed suicide.  All that Harry could hear in the silence were Lily's hauling sobs.

As a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, Harry Potter fell to the ground in the common room. One of his hands was on his heart, the other on his forehead. His breathing was dragging and shallow.

"Oh ... my... lord," he whispered in horror, not believing what he'd dreamt. He realized with a jolt that he was in his robes, and with another jolt that he was soaked through to the bone, and shivering. This was the third time he'd woken up dripping wet (although the weather was stormy outside lately, he doubted there was a big enough leak in the ceiling of the dorm to induce this state) and the fifth time he'd been sleepwalking.  This time made up his mind. Sooner or later, he'd have to tell someone.

***

"Water quenches fire."

"Water condenses to steam."

"Steam is blown away by wind."

"... The wind card? That's not fair, Sirius, you know nothing can beat wind!"

Harry recognised both voices in the Defence against the Dark Arts office. One of them was undoubtedly Ricki Bell's, and the other Remus Lupin's. He found himself wondering what on earth Lupin was doing there, but remembered that Lupin was Sirius's friend (Of course) and also that Sirius was not a qualified Defence teacher and must have been getting help from somewhere. This also set his mind wandering into the thought 'Who taught Sirius to act like an ordinary woman?'

"Harry Potter, are you going to stand outside that door eavesdropping on us or are you going to come in?" shouted Ricki's voice. Harry jumped, and opened the heavy oaken door. Sirius (looking as Ricki Bell) was holding a large deck of cards, with his other hand on a card on the table. Lupin was going through a smaller deck, looking as though he was trying to find a certain card.

"Aha! Earth is wild!" Lupin held up a brown card marked 'The earth card,' and picked up the card from Sirius's hand. Sirius frowned as Lupin threw down the Earth card.

Throwing a light blue card down and taking Lupin's card, he proclaimed 'Salt neutralises Earth.'

"Damn. Salt. Forfeit." Lupin sighed in defeat.

"Oh come on! Don't loose that easily! Why am I doomed to be the best Elements player Hogwarts has ever seen?" Sirius sighed in exasperation.

"Sirius, you were never the best Elements player of anything. All right then. Water dissolves salt." Lupin placed a dark blue card marked 'the water Card.' on the table. Sirius blinked at it, as if not expecting it at all. He then picked up a card 'The steam card,' and placed it on top of Lupin's.

"Water condenses to steam," he said solemnly.

"Sirius, you can't reuse the same move twice, and you know it! Play fair!"

"What are you accusing me of?" Sirius said innocently, although he handed his cards to Lupin.

"So, Harry, what's up that you're sneaking around at this hour?" an idea seemed to strike Sirius. "Please tell me you played some prank of unspeakable horror on Filch?" Sirius looked at him hopefully, but Harry shook his head, not even a ghost of a smile on his face.

"I kicked Mrs. Norris on the way, if it's a help," he said. Both men gasped, looking at him with a gaze of utter wonderment and awe.

"You kicked Mrs. Norris?" asked Sirius in faint amazement. "You've just achieved the dream of every person in this school," he shuffled the cards in his hand and placed them back in a packet. He then took a match, struck it off of the table and lit another candle. Beforehand there had only been one candle on top of a large wardrobe, shining on the office and reflecting off of the one mirror that Sirius tended to keep away from view. He'd figured out that if he looked in a mirror, even if he was Ricki Bell, he would appear as Sirius Black (Which was rather a startling sight to him, especially when he was wearing one of the godforsaken dresses Arabella had insisted on.

The office in itself, which seemed to change every year, was now full of pictures covering an entire wall. He could recognise some people in them. His parents, Remus, Pettigrew... and for some reason that escaped him... Doris Crockford, Dedalus Diggle, Gilderoy Lockhart and Rita Skeeter all in a group photo. A small smile threatened to spread on Harry's face as he noticed that Gilderoy was very subtly pushing everyone else in the picture out of view.

"Professor Lupin, I haven't seen you in ages, how are you?" asked Harry, at a loss of words. He couldn't find the words to convey his problem at the moment, so he figured he should make small talk.

"He's making small talk," said Sirius instantly. "Something's wrong."

“If you need some time alone I’ll –“ started Remus. Both Harry and Sirius looked at him and yelped ‘No! It’s alright!’

“I need both of your help… see…” started Harry difficulty.

“Well, spit it out.”

“I’ve been having these dreams –“ started Harry.

“Oh… well, that’s perfectly normal for a boy your age,” said Sirius.

“Not those sort of dreams!” said Harry crossly. Remus fought back a chuckle.

“Dreams about my mum… and some bloke called Anshar,” he confessed finally. Sirius blanched, Remus fell out of his chair. Harry had always been under the assumption that Remus Lupin was unshakable – but apparently he was wrong.

“Anshar Nuqam?” asked Sirius suspiciously.

“I don’t know… She never said his second name. Every time it happens I sleepwalk… one time I woke up in the owlery, and another time I was absolutely drenched from head to foot. Another time it happened in Potions… I came to my senses standing in front of a quite annoyed Snape, who I’d apparently hit in the face…” Harry trailed off. Lupin shook his head.

“Anshar Nuqam…” he muttered softly. “Anshar Nuqam committed suicide in his sixth year, Harry, I don’t know how you could be…”

“And your mum… Well, I suppose it would have come to your attention sooner or later,” said Sirius. Remus raised an eyebrow, clearly telling him ‘I don’t like what you’re thinking!’ “Lily … well… in her sixth year she was with two people,” said Sirius slowly, and difficulty., choosing his words carefully.

“She was told by both of them to choose, and in the end she obviously chose James. Anshar always was a little unhinged. It drove him mad, and so, as far as we can gather, he committed suicide…” Sirius trailed off, before starting again.

“Anshar also formed the Order –“ he began. “Sirius, I think that’s enough to tell him for one night!” said Remus suddenly. Sirius looked sheepish and fell quiet.

“Well… if you want I could attempt a dreamless sleep potion… although I may end up poisoning you,” Sirius offered. Harry shook his head, feeling no less knowledgeable than before.

“Well…. Oh, Harry, do you know how to play Elements?” asked Sirius, holding out his set of cards. Remus rolled his eyes and grinned. Sirius was still persistent in finding someone who could beat him at Elements.

“No,” said Harry, leaning over to take a look. “How do you play?”

”You don’t know how to play Elements? How much have these muggles been mistreating you?! If chess is the sport of kings then Elements must surely be the sport of… something higher than a king!” gasped Sirius. “Tell him, Remus.”

Remus looked around. “I’m going to give you some firm advice, while it’s still of use to you, Harry,” he said. Harry straightened up and nodded. “He’s the devil, Harry, run fast, run far!”

“Oh knock it off, Remus!” muttered Sirius crossly, half quite insulted that no-one had taught Harry to play Elements, half annoyed that a beginner certainly couldn’t beat him. “I see you’re still waiting on that spine donor!”

“What’s so good about Elements?” asked Harry naively. Sirius – still carrying on with his melodramatics – put a hand to his heart and gasped in horror.

”What’s so good about Elements…” Sirius echoed, shaking his head. “Elements has been played since the very beginning of magic! It’s the oldest, most skillful game you’ll find around! To use Tina’s wording – it rocks!”

”You sound like you used to work advertising Elements cards…” Remus pointed out, trying not to laugh at the dramatic demeanor, even though Harry seemed to be taking it quite seriously.

“Nah, used to work announcing the news on WWN – ‘til I got fired for that prank, that is,” Sirius said with a small, half smile.

“What’d you do?” Harry asked, curiosity setting in yet again.

Sirius put on a credible announcers voice. “It’s Six O’ Clock, and time for the evening news on the WWN! Our main headlines today, a ship carrying screaming yoyos to Japan sank – 56 times! The minister of magic put his back out today while playing piggy back with his three year old daughter. He fell off. St. Mungo’s report his condition as stable. In other headlines, a dog was let into the main Auror office at the Ministry, and bit a first class Auror. After injections and treatment, the dog is reported to be okay,” he paused. “Then they cut me off,”

Harry and Remus were already laughing over what he was saying.

***

"Okay, today's lesson might be a bit... scary. Anyone of the faint of heart is excused from the class," Ricki grinned as she wrapped a chain around the doors of the wardrobe beside. Everyone looked at it in slight fear, except for Hermione, who was smiling and not paying attention to the lesson.

"Think it's a boggart again?" whispered Neville, a small hint of confidence in his voice.

As if to squash the thought of it being a boggart, Ricki Bell pulled down the shades, making the room instantly pitch black. There was one loud gulp throughout the classroom.

"Right," said a tall shadow in place of where she had been. "I'm going to tell you a ghost story."

"Um... what?" asked Hermione's voice sceptically, as the noise of a book being snapped shut sounded. There was then a yelp of pain in Ron's voice. Hermione had snapped her book shut and trapped his finger in.

"You'll see. Just trust me, I know what I'm doing," Harry couldn't help but think this was the same 'I know what I'm doing,' as Seamus would say while trying to transfigure water into rum, before he burned his eyebrows off.

Ricki lit her wand, whispering the spell very softly to make the light come as only a very dim glow that rested under her chin. The classroom had never looked so ominous as it did then, and by the light they could see a demented smile on her face, and a wild look in her eyes.

Harry had to shut his eyes and remind himself who Ricki was, to prevent himself from having a messy accident.

"The story I'm about to tell you," she whispered in dark tones, a deliciously creepy quality in her voice. "Is true. It's about the last Defence teacher in Durmstrang."

***

"- and how do you think I know this story?" asked Ricki, as her story drew to a close. Harry, who hadn't opened his eyes since the start of the story, could feel someone clinging to his arm in terror. He felt a bit shaky himself, in fact.

Before she could answer herself, the wardrobe burst open. The girls screamed, and there were a few yells and some rather explicit swears in an Irish accent.

"It's Professor Malkovich!" screamed Parvati, ducking and hiding under her desk. Harry opened his eyes as the pain in his arm became intense, whoever was clinging to him was digging their nails in. hard. Looking to his shoulder, Harry could see that it was Hermione, staring in horror at the large hulking figure in front of the wardrobe. A small jolt went up his spine.

Ricki eyed the huge figure in mild surprise, as if to say 'You're a bit early,' before she took out a large blue blanket, and hollered "CALM DOWN!" to the class.

She then tossed the blue blanket over the hulking figure's head, which gave out an agonising scream and fell to the ground with a crash. Everyone skittered away as it fell over Ron's desk, as he tumbled out of the way before it collapsed under the thing's weight.

"A bogeyman," said Ricki simply. "It hunts those who are afraid and feeds on their fear. Kind of like the opposite of a Dementor, but as well as feeding on your fear, it increases that fear. It can only come out when it's dark though."

"So why did throwing a blanket over its head stop it then?" whispered Neville. "Why didn't it just pick it up?"

"Ah, well. You all know that bogeymen disappear when you pull the blankets over your head, don't you?" there was a ripple of nodding, as everyone kept their eyes on the bogeyman.

"Well, what happens if a someone puts a blanket over a bogeyman’s head? Does it disappear? How can it disappear? It becomes disorientated, and doesn't know what it is. Cruel, I know, but the only way if you're in a fix... Dean, open the blinds like a good fellow." Dean rushed to obey Bell. The second the first ray of light touched the floor, as everyone shielded his or her eyes, the bogeyman disappeared, leaving the blanket to flutter to the ground.

There was a sharp knock on the door, making nearly everyone jump out of their skins.

Someone must have heard the screams – Well, it is a Defence class.

“Miss Bell?” without waiting for her to open the door, McGonagall let herself into the classroom, casting an eye around the sea of terrified faces. Bell smiled; “S’my name, don’t wear it out,” she replied. For all the fifth year class knew (besides one person) Bell hadn’t been taught by the strict witch and wasn’t aware of her attitude.

Surprisingly, she didn’t even receive a cold stare – it was actually a half sympathetic one.

“Ricki,” she said, her voice wobbling ever so slightly. Harry felt his eyebrows arch in surprise. “Albus would like to see you in his office – now, if possible,” said McGonagall unsurely.

“But this lesson is very important! They should have learned it in first year or second year!” said Ricki, desperation setting in rather quickly.

“I’m afraid it can’t wait!” McGonagall persisted. Ricki made a face of severe distaste – she really didn’t want to go. She felt at times like asking what religion this woman was – satanist? Then she had to remind herself that Minerva McGonagall didn’t need to worship the devil. He worshipped her!

“Looks like I’m in trouble, kids!” she said with a small smile. “And you thought you had it bad. Two galleons say I get a detention. Alright… you can go off early, but remember the homework!” Bell waggled her finger annoyingly at the class.

McGonagall opened the door and gestured for Ricki to follow her, who did with an immense look of horror on her face. Harry watched both of them leave, horror struck, guessing … if Dumbledore didn’t know before he certainly did now. Hermione tugged at his sleeve as she gathered up her books.

“You don’t think she’ll be fired, do you?” she whispered. Harry nodded forlornly. Fired was the least of his worries. Hermione flipped her tossed, bushy brown hair behind her ears with a short sniffle. Both Harry and Ron stared at her in surprise. Somehow – in the space of three minutes – Hermione had made up with Harry… and seen the good side of Ricki Bell!

“But that’s not fair! What could she have done?” asked Hermione.

As they walked out of the classroom, she pulled Harry to one side – they were heading for different classes next – he for Divination, she for Arithmancy. She only said four words to him, but the sheer impact left him dazed for the rest of the day.

“I’ve figured it out!” she said happily, before rushing on to the stairs.

***

Sirius found – to his immense displeasure, that he was actually shaking by the time they reached the office. He was holding the book he’d looked bogeymen up in one hand. “Terrifying Creatures and how to defeat them,” as McGonagall bundled him into the office – a circular room that was painted two different shades of green.

That’s strange, he thought, despite the impending doom hanging over his head, this place was blue two days ago.

“Miss Bell,” said Professor Dumbledore in a completely no-nonsense voice. He’d been terrified in this office so many times before in his school days, but that was nothing just compared to that tone of voice. “We shall drop our pretences. Who are you and why have you taken a job at this school”

Sirius near jumped out of his skin. He’d been so careful! Well… that was his way. Dumbledore usually used to give him a chance to explain himself, and he hadn’t since changed.

“Heh…” he said nervously, tugging at the long red hair at his shoulders. “Me? My name’s Ricki Aesus Bell, sir! Who else would I be?” he could feel sweat prickling on his brow.

That wasn’t a lie, Sirius thought, slightly confidently. That’s an anagram of Sirius Lee Black. The looks he was getting from both Headmaster and vie-headmistress were truly unnerving. The godforsaken blue robes he was wearing were constricting him… he couldn’t breathe! He could feel himself backing against the wall.

“There’s no use in lying,” McGonagall informed him shakily. Sirius tugged at his collar.

“How did you know?” he choked finally.

“Marianna Bell’s funeral. You weren’t there. We asked around, Katie and Janet Bell denied that you were any relation of theirs. Well – I was beginning to feel a bit odd – why would Miss Bell lie like that? I remembered that I hadn’t asked Minerva to do a background check – You didn’t go to Salem Academy, you weren’t born in London – Miss Bell, according to every record, Muggle and Magic, you never existed.”

Well, he’s got me there, Sirius thought. Although with all due respect, he really should have figured it out at the start of term.

“Alright… Ricki Aesus Bell never did exist! It’s an anagram,” Sirius took out his wand, as both teachers made to disarm him. He mustered a small scowl at them both, before putting Ricki Aesus Bell in the air in golden writing, then with a swish rearranging them to spell Sirius Lee Black. McGonagall ‘s eyes widened, as she looked as she was about to scream.

“Don’t scream!” he said urgently, waving his hands at her. “Please don’t scream!” To her credit, she didn’t, but still shook, looking even more terrified than he had felt earlier. He actually felt better now that it was out in the open. The courtesy he’d been raised to follow struck him right between the eyes, making him pull out a chair for her to sit down.

“If you don’t trust me, here,” he put his wand on the table and took three paces away from it.

“Sirius?” there was definite surprise in Dumbledore voice. Apparently something had struck him right between the eyes too. “Can you prove it?” he asked, slowly. Sirius patted around his person, trying to remember where on earth he had that – “Here!”

Sirius handed him the same letter he’d gotten a few days ago. The letter from Remus telling him that there was a meeting of the order and that he had to go if he didn’t want to be thought a traitor for the rest of his life.  He handed this to Dumbledore and looked at him apologetically.

“I would turn my body back to its original self but I’d feel a bit stupid sitting her in girls robes – not to mention I’d be crushed. I really didn’t mean any harm! I was just worried about Harry. There was no other way that I could think of…” he trailed off, finding he could think of no more to say.

Dumbledore eyes lifted from examining the letter. “Does Harry know?”

”Yes,” he nearly squeaked.

“I can understand your predicament – it’s quite an admirable thing to do so much for a loved one…” Dumbledore cast a glance at McGonagall, who was still shaking. “Although I believe we’d better explain to Minerva before she has a heart attack.”

***

Thank the stars for the holidays, Harry thought to himself as he walked out of his last class before Halloween. That class had been more alarming than the usual ‘Oh-my-dear-Harry-I-see-the-grim-in-your-Tea Leaves / Crystal Ball / Tarot Cards / Various Other Fortune Telling Implements Of Doom.’

This time, Sibyll Trelawney had seen a dark shadowing figure over Harry’s head (Anshar, he thought) a troubling mother figure (No prizes for guessing – although why this was in his dream was another thing entirely) a fretting father figure (groan – way too fretting) and a sudden trouble in Harry’s not too distant future. She also claimed she saw the grim – but he supposed that was a force of habit. He’d figured out that she was seeing Sirius.

“Well, Harry,” said Ron cheerfully. “We’re going to die. Isn’t that nice? Oh well, at least I achieved my life’s goal.”

“What’s that?” asked Harry with a smile.

“I fitted thirty Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans in my mouth at one time without throwing up,” Ron answered mischievously. Harry rolled his eyes but laughed anyway. As they rounded a corner Harry could nearly feel his ears pricking up at a familiar voice.

“Now listen here! You do not … and I’ll repeat this … not try out new hexes you’ve learned on the Hufflepuffs! Poor Hannah is probably up in the hospital wing at this very moment with those two missing fingers! What do you have to say for yourself?” Ricki Bell’s stern voice rang out. Harry peered around the next corner to see that she was lecturing Draco Malfoy.

“It was an accident,” Draco replied, looking as though this was just a bit of unwanted bother.

“It was a very purposeful accident! Look – I’m a human woman, but right about now I could kick a kitten into an electric fan!” Draco didn’t make any move to ask what that was, so Ricki seemed to settle under the assumption that he knew, although he still had a slightly puzzled look on his face.

“Don’t you have to keep direct eye contact the entire time you hex someone? Well…” there was, what appeared to the naked eye, a sympathetic smile on her face. If you knew her better, however, this was her disarming smile. “Since it was an accident… I’ll only take 30 points from Slytherin…”

“30 points?” he repeated, a mixture of surprise and astonishment on his face.

“That’s right, and count yourself lucky that –“ Bell paused as McGonagall walked past.

“Bell, is there a problem?” asked McGonagall, raising an eyebrow. Bell nodded.

”There is, actually. This boy hexed poor Hannah Abbot so that the poor girl was under the illusion that she’d lost two fingers!” Ricki replied calmly.

“Funny… I remember someone did that 25 years back or so,” McGonagall said, looking up at the ceiling coyly. A small blush rose in Ricki’s cheeks.

“And I’m sure they got points taken off of them,” she responded, a slight hint of sulkiness lacing her voice. Both teachers seemed to exchange some kind of silent message before McGonagall nodded “Carry on,”

“Well then, there’s nothing more to do. Now stay out of trouble!” said Bell sternly. As they turned in different directions, two small mutters could be heard. ‘Bloody Americans,’ and ‘Bloody Slytherins,’

Harry doubled up in silent laughter, Ron beat against the door in an effort to stop himself from exploding with pent up laughter.

“Oh, like you’re perfect,” Malfoy muttered, walking straight past them. As soon as he was out of earshot they collapsed, howling with laughter. A few passing Ravenclaws looked at them as if they doubted the two Gryffindors sanity, but didn’t pass any remarks. Harry was half relieved that Ricki Bell wasn’t exempt from the school, and half puzzled. He realised that lately, he’d been thinking of them as two different people.

“He didn’t really pass any remarks – did he? He’s losing his touch,” Ron commented as he got his breath back. That was another thing that puzzled Harry. Usually a situation such as that would have ended both Gryffindor and Slytherin boys in the hospital wing. To quote Alice in Wonderland; Curiouser and Curiouser…

As he puzzled over this, getting to his feet, a black, white and pink blur rushed past him in high heels. The blur screeched to a halt and took a few steps back – turning out to be a woman, who looked very stressed, and quite terrified. Her black hair was in a mess, blue eyes wide, breath coming in short sharp gasps, and a piece of parchment in her hand.

“Dae either of ye ken where I can find Proffessor Bell only...” she trailed off, looking at both boys with reverence. “Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, right?” she asked in surprise. They nodded.

Ye havnae changed a bit...och...well...gotten a bit taller…”she said, pinching Ron’s cheek (who grimaced) and ruffling Harry’s hair.

“Um…” said Harry.

“Ye dinnae remember me? My ma used tae baby-sit both of ye! Ye do ‘member mad auld Mrs Figg of Privet Drive? Mah name's Arabella...Aye, anyhoo, I need tae find Sirius right now!”

Ron looked at Arabella Figg as if she was mad, as Harry’s eyebrows arched in surprise.

“He went that way a little while ago,” said Harry dumbly, pointing down the hallway in Ricki’s direction. Arabella smiled at him and ran off again.

“Well…” said Ron, “That was unusual,” Harry agreed. The place was enough of a madhouse with that seemingly insane woman running around. She could hurt someone. One thing that struck him as odd, though, was the kitten she was holding. A small ginger one with big blue eyes… it seemed very young to be separated from its mother. Why did she want to find Sirius? … Why did she even know who he was as Ricki?