The Red Skies Above

Chapter VI

Hermione hissed to get my attention, and began to go through the bush hiding the crack. As I slunk in to follow her, I emerged in not a dirty crack, but in a chamber around four feet tall and wide, lit with gems that shone as we walked past. Looking behind me, I saw that the crack leading here was only about a foot wide. The gems alternated from onyx to ruby to amethyst, going up and up quite steeply with the tunnel. And then, suddenly it evened out and I could see a red light.

The red light turned out to be the light of the fire in the common room showing through the skirt of the most beaten up of the armchairs.

Crawling out, I saw the Gryffindor common room for the first time in almost a decade. The fire was ablaze, and I could see piles of paper that were no doubt homework that some foolish student left out over night, thinking no one would come into the common room that night that would take them. They were stacked on the table, but some of it had spilled over into a dustbin.

I turned back to the couch only to see a human Hermione standing in front of me. I turned back into a human, loving the feeling of having thumbs once again. "Are you ready?" I asked her. She nodded her head after a bit and explained to me her plan.

"Go get your younger self and meet back here once you have him. Make sure that no one notices that he's gone or that what seems to be a twin of him is taking him from the dormitory. Go fast," with that she turned and ran up the flight of stairs to the girls' dormitory.

I ran up the stairs on the opposite side of the common room taking the steps three at a time. I passed the first, second, and third year dormitories, and slowed my pace slightly until I reached the top of the stairs with a plaque that said, "Seventh year boys," and opened the door.

I immediately got hit with a wave of memories of Harry and me when we first got to Hogwarts, after seeing Hermione petrified, and in sixth year when all hope seemed lost and he had actually cried on my shoulder. I shook my head to rid me of the memories and headed towards the mess of snoring red hair in the corner.

Taking out my wand from the pocket of my jeans, I muttered, "Lumos," to spark a small light from my wand so that I didn't cast a spell on the wrong person. Drawing closer to my bed, I whispered, "Silencio," and the snoring immediately stopped, although my younger self's mouth moved along mutely to the no longer existent snoring.

"Wengardium Leviosa," I ordered, and my younger limp form was lifted from the bed, dropping sheets as he went. I grabbed his wand from the bedside table and stuffed it in his shirt pocket. With my right hand I opened the door behind me, while with my left wrist still throbbing from the fall at Grimmauld Place, I guided the floating Ron down the stairs.

About two minutes after I had reached the common room again, Hermione joined me with a floating bubble containing the younger Hermione above her head, still fast asleep. "Should we wake them?" I asked as Hermione she guided the bubble around her younger self to hover above one of the couches.

"I guess," Hermione replied, "Although we'll have to sound proof this room so that no one will hear them scream from shock. Trust me. Back then, I would have screamed at the top of my lungs if I saw myself standing before me, if I didn't go mental first!"

"You're right. Sileas," I muttered in front of the closest window. A glob of black goop shot out of my wands and stuck onto the window with a sucking sound. I repeated the process for every on of the windows or doors in the room. "We're fine, now. This stuff will sound proof the room and prevent everyone from entering or exiting until I remove it. You can wake yourself now."

"Dirumpioulos," Hermione said, and her bubble popped, dumping the young Hermione on the couch. I lowered my wand, setting my younger self on the ground, restoring his ability to make noise, and signaled to Hermione.

All at once, Hermione tickled the young Hermione's palm and I quickly whispered into Ron's ear that there was a huge fury black spider crawling on him. As soon as this was done, young Hermione shot up laughing and Ron opened his eyes and tried to get the "spider" I had told him about off of him.

Upon seeing their faces staring back at them, Ron let out a long stream of threats mixed with curses and young Hermione screamed the most high-pitched shriek I had ever heard.

"Who are you, mate, and I don't want no tricks!" Ron shot at me as I cringed at his horrible grammar. "If you're a bloody Death Eater, well know this: we've faced your beloved You-Know-You seven times and we still aren't dead. That means you'll have no bloody luck with doing us in all by your bloody selves! Where's my bloody wand anyway?" The last bit was to himself as he searched his maroon pajamas for his wand.

I grabbed his hand as he searched his last pocket and made him look me in the face. "Look. I'm no Death Eater. Trust me, I'd rather be quartered then be one of those monsters. I'm actually someone you know quite well, alright? So you can stop yelling now."

Ron, however, just shouted at me again. "Am I really supposed to believe that? If you're no bloody Death Eater then just who are you? I'm not that stupid! Honestly, the only ones I know quite a lot about are Harry, Hermione, my family and myself, and if you're Fred or George, you'll be receiving quite a good thumping!"

All through out my conversation with Ron, Hermione had been trying to calm her younger self down, but to no avail. Finally, Hermione snapped and began yelling at her younger self. "This is silly! Hermione, you've faced countless creatures and curses, not to mention half of the Death Eaters and a few thestrals, a werewolf, a dragon, and a giant and you've never screamed this much at them! Hush now, girl!"

Instantly, the younger Hermione stopped screaming. "Who-How-Who are you? How do you know all of that? Are you a stalker? Ah! Get away from me!" The younger Hermione pushed Hermione away from her and stood back to back with Ron who had now found his wand.

"Hermione!" Ron shouted now that they were near each other. He wrapped her in a sort of protective embrace, making her head face away from us. He pointed his wand back and forth at us, as if daring us to come closer. "Don't look them in the eyes. They might bring you into a trance and make you believe them or something! She must have stalked you since you got to Hogwarts! I don't trust this one either. He says he's someone close to me. Wait-how do I know you're even a male?"

I merely took out my wand and tossed it to him. He caught it and looked, terrified at the perfect match between it and his wand. " I know this-" I began. "Because I'm you."

Ron's mouth dropped open, as did the young Hermione's. "You-you're who?"

"I'm Ronald Matthew Weasley."

The young Hermione pushed Ron away to get a better view of me. "But-but that's not possible! If you're Ron and he's Ron, well then one of you would have to be from another reality! No! That's - NO! That's even more impossible! There are no alternate realities! The only way that you even could be Ron is if you were from the future! But that's not possible either! You wouldn't look the same as he does now! You'd-" the young Hermione just stood there, looking from Ron to me and back.

"Well, you did have the right idea. We're you guys, only much, much older. This appearance is merely a Pollyjuice Potion. Dumbledore gave it to us," Hermione explained.

"Wait a minute," Ron ordered. "How do know you actually are from the future? What's your proof?"

Hermione reached into her shirt and pulled out the Time Turner while I reached into the rucksack to find the antidote to the Pollyjuice. I pulled out a vial of maroon colored liquid that seemed to have little lumps of something floating about. They seemed to be almost alive. Regretting it even as I did so, I downed the liquid, saving half incase I needed it later. Instantly, the horrid potion took effect and I was surrounded in a swirl of maroon smoke as I grew to my normal size and my hair grew out to its normal length, only to rest on my shoulders in the absence of a rubber band.

Ron and the young Hermione gasped, backing away slowly from Hermione and me. I laughed at their reaction as Hermione tried to hide a smirk. "Is that enough proof for you?" I asked.

Ron and Hermione just stood there transfixed. Finally the young Hermione spoke. "You-You are from the future. But-but-Oh, this is impossible! There's no way that you could really come here! I mean, even if you did find out how, why? What would be the point?"

The older Hermione answered, "I'm glad you asked, but it's not impossible, just extremely improbable. Our reason is this: tonight, once the Death Eaters attacking get within the castle-"

Ron cut her off. "What Death Eaters? What attack? You must be daft. There's no way they would attack Hogwarts!"

I grabbed him by the shoulders and steered him towards one of the windows. "Brace yourself," I whispered, and pulled off the black goo blocking out the sound.

Ron and the young Hermione gaped as they watched the spells from the Death Eaters break on the dome surrounding Hogwarts and protecting the students. The dome also seemed to block out the sound of the battle and slightly skewed the veiw.

Satisfied, I replaced the goo and turned Ron to face me. "Those Death Eaters and that attack," I answered.

"Erm-yes," Hermione continued. "Once that pops, the Death Eaters are going to storm the castle. We need you two to hide very well in the Astronomy Tower so we can pretend to be you-er-us-so we can protect Harry. You see, at your current age, there is no way you would be able to save him. Trust me. I found that out the hard way. Most importantly, don't let anyone see you, and don't get killed. Alright?" They nodded. "Good. Now get going!" She signaled to me and with a wave of my wand, the goo fled back into my wand.

Ron and the young Hermione set off in the direction of the Astronomy Tower and Hermione tossed me the vial with the Pollyjuice and I gave her the antidote back. Once I had changed to my younger self, I started running in the direction of the boys' dormitories.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

I yelled over my shoulder, "Do you expect me to fight Death Eaters in clothes about five sizes too big? I think not," and continued up the stairs. As I entered the dormitory, I headed toward my trunk, trying to ignore the loud snores coming from Neville's bed. Grasping my school uniform, I thought better of putting it on. If I was the only one in uniform, I'd be suspicious. I pulled on my pajamas instead and draped my school robe over my trunk.

Quickly, I retreated to my four-poster bed and threw the hangings shut. I slipped under the covers just in time to hear Harry awake with a scream.

I jumped right back out of the covers, deliberately mussing my hair as I went and ran to Harry's side. He was sitting straight up in bed and had sweat covering his body. Neville, Seamus, and Dean came over as well, woken by Harry's scream.

"What is it, Harry?" Dean asked, cautiously.

Harry turned to me, wiping sweat off of his forehead and managed to croak out in what sounded like a prophecy, "Voldemort has broken through."