Harry Potter and the Amulet of the Moon

Chapter 7

Out of Place

The next month flowed as smoothly as Harry had hoped events would when he decided to take the group to the island. True to his word, George worked hard, and any jokes he made were entirely humorous, none with a sharp edge to them. Everyone (including Harry) learned how to cook, and new friendships formed, as the tent-sharing situation encouraged those who lived together to get to know each other better.

It was mid-November, but the weather was still pleasant most of the time; people were joking that the island would spoil them for typical English weather. One Monday morning, everyone was sitting around the table waiting for breakfast, which was being prepared by Luna and Ernie. The conversation at the table turned to the topic of Dark wizards.

"So, Kingsley," asked Corner, "what would you say is the toughest thing about catching, and dealing with, Dark wizards? And what, if any, is the difference between a 'Dark wizard' and just a normal wizard who went bad?"

"One question at a time, mate," joked Justin.

"I think I can remember both of them," grinned Kingsley. "And they're good questions, actually--"

"Funny," interrupted George, "I was just thinking those exact same questions!"

"It doesn't surprise me at all," said Kingsley, now deadpan. "To answer the second question first... not everyone agrees on the nomenclature--some Dark wizards deny that they are, and some claim the term who don't really merit it--but we generally consider that someone is a Dark wizard if they've studied Dark magic, use Dark magic a fair bit, and adopt a frame of mind that we would normally consider 'evil.' It's not really a black and white thing; there are plenty of shades of grey. As for normal wizards who go bad, we could say they're potential Dark wizards. To really be a strong Dark wizard, they'd want to study it. You can do mental exercises to get you into the right frame of mind, and certain spells are conducive to that. So, it's at least partly a matter of your intentions. If you have a lot of anger and hate, and you let that dominate you, you're well on the way."

"If you only knew the power of the Dark side," breathed Dean, in his best humorous imitation of a villain. Harry and Justin laughed, but Hermione shrugged, evidently not knowing the reference. Justin took a few seconds to explain it to everyone.

"I saw those movies, actually," remarked Kingsley, surprising Harry. "It's not so strange that I would. I was undercover in the Muggle world, and in that situation, you should know the culture. I can even explain cricket."

"I never understood that," volunteered Harry.

"Don't worry about it," advised Kingsley. "But Dean, that's not too far from it, actually. Sometimes I wonder whether hidden wizards are contributing to Muggle culture, because various ideas mirror ours. Substitute 'magic' for 'the Force,' and you're not far from our culture."

"Actually," said Justin, "I watched those movies a few years ago, and I was wondering something about the line that Dean mentioned. It suggests that the Dark side, Dark magic, is more powerful than the 'regular' one, I guess, the good side. I've heard that mentioned in the magical world as well. Do you think there's any truth to that?"

Kingsley nodded. "I've heard that too, and here's how I would answer that: I'd say it's true to a certain extent in a self-evident way. It's like saying that the Reductor Curse is more powerful than other spells because it destroys things. Well, yes, of course; that's what it does. The question is, is destroying things what you want to do? So, we could say that it gives you great power, but not the kind of power that people like us would want.

"The other question is, would a Dark wizard's Reductor Curse be any more powerful than mine would be? We can't be certain, because scientifically valid tests can't be done, but I'd bet large amounts of gold against it. It just makes no sense to me, and I have dueled more than my share of Dark wizards. Now, Voldemort was super-powerful, but he was like Dumbledore, a once-in-a-generation exceptional talent. That kind of talent can bring great temptation, if your life didn't go all that well."

"What was it," asked Justin, "that made Voldemort go one way, while Dumbledore went the other?"

Harry found himself answering before Kingsley had a chance. "A compulsion for control. Like Kingsley just said, his early life wasn't that good. I'd guess that when that happens, you want to control everything in your life, to stop things that you don't want to happen. Most people can't; it just so happened that Voldemort could, and he did. I think he just got used to the idea that he could, and should, control what he wanted to, and the notion of ethics never really stuck with him. Dumbledore had equal power, maybe more, but he rarely used it, because he knew he shouldn't control what wasn't rightfully his to control. I think this gets into what Kingsley's often saying about morality, which is the main thing that separates us from Dark wizards."

Kingsley looked very impressed. "Maybe the only thing. I'm surprised you know so much about Voldemort. Was it from Dumbledore?"

"Pretty much."

"Are you going to tell us about it sometime?" asked Seamus.

Harry nodded. "It's too long to tell now, but sure, sometime this weekend."

"Anyway, yes, Harry is very right," continued Kingsley. "And that kind of lust for control gives a wizard high motivation to work hard, to make the most of his ability. Most normal wizards don't do that, because it's not necessary. So, Dark wizards seem more powerful than they are. Not every Dark wizard, though, but definitely some.

"Now, I haven't forgotten the other part of Michael's question--"

"Funny, I already had," put in Corner.

"About catching Dark wizards, what's the hard thing about that. I've already talked about that a little, said that the important thing is psychology, knowing what the person might do, understanding him. That comes into play more often than dueling, subduing someone by force--"

"I kind of meant, the capturing by force thing," clarified Corner.

"Okay. Well, the most important thing is of course the anti-Disapparation spells. Now, there are two ways to prevent someone from Disapparating. One, the jinx, is a spell aimed at a particular person, and if it hits them, they pretty well can't get away. Only if the caster is a very weak wizard and the target is strong does the target have any chance to get away.

"The other type is a field, affecting a certain area. The good thing about this is that while the jinx can be blocked, the field can't. The bad thing is that, naturally, the field isn't as strong as the jinx, and the target can sometimes Disapparate away. The field reduces the chance that he can Disapparate at all, and increases the chance that if he does, he'll get Splinched. So, you just make it riskier for the target to Disapparate.

"Now, Harry and I were planning to get into this later in the year, maybe a few months before we're all the way back to when we left. I planned to say, and will say now and remind you again later, that I've used the field far more than the jinx. If it's only one person, and you can hit him with a spell, why not Stun him instead of preventing Disapparation? Occasionally you might need him conscious for some reason, but still, you're safer either Stunning him or putting up the field. He can run out of the field and then Disapparate, but we'll be getting into issues like that later. But if you try to jinx him and he blocks it, then he can just Disapparate away. So, the field is your best bet. We'll be practicing this, of course, when the time comes."

"But you said there was a danger of Splinching," pointed out Parvati. "Wouldn't it be pretty bad if that happened here?"

"Not at all," responded Kingsley. "Hestia and I know how to easily pull someone out of a Splinch; it's something every Auror needs to know. We're hoping it does happen during the training, so we can teach that as well." Ernie and Luna brought large platters of food over; a large bowl of fruit was already on the table.

"So, as I was saying, capturing them isn't really the hard part," went on Kingsley. "The hard part is finding them. Most people go quietly when we find them, partly because--"

Harry was suddenly walking through a field in the countryside, Ron to his left and Hermione to his right. They all stopped, looked at each other in astonishment--

"--make it a criminal offense to resist being taken into custody--"

Kingsley stopped speaking as he swiftly noted strong reactions coming from most everyone at the table. "What the hell was that?" asked George.

"I was back at Hogwarts," said Neville. "Binns' class."

Seamus nodded. "Me too."

"I was at St. Mungo's," said Cho. "At least, I'm pretty sure I was."

Harry stood. "Everyone who was suddenly somewhere else, raise your hand." Almost everyone did so. "Everyone who wasn't..." Only Kingsley and Hestia put their hands up.

"Oh, man," said Ron fearfully. "This can't be good."

Hermione spoke up. "For us, this lasted only a second or two. How about everyone else?" Nods and affirmations confirmed that all had had the same experience. She turned to Harry. "Maybe we should find out where everyone was, what they were doing."

Harry nodded. "Ron, Hermione, and I were walking together outside, I'm not sure where. Probably England, though. Everyone else?"

One by one, everyone said where they'd been. Padma and Terry had been in the same class, and Parvati had also been in History of Magic. Except for that, everyone had been in different locations.

Harry turned to Kingsley and Hestia. "And as far as you were concerned, we never left?"

"Nobody moved," affirmed Kingsley.

"I saw a few people look surprised," put in Hestia. "It was so fast, by the time most people reacted, they were gone."

"So," asked Corner, "did we change places with the versions of ourselves that are currently in England?"

"I hate to say it, but that's at least the obvious conclusion," said Harry. "Did anyone see anything that would disprove that idea? Like, you were someplace you're sure you've never been?"

Silence was his answer. "What could have caused this?" asked Dean.

"Harry was warned," said Hermione, "that disruptions to space/time could cause..."

"Weirdness," suggested Ron.

"Not how I would have said it, but yes," agreed Hermione. "Now, it's pretty clear that there hasn't been anything like that, with the exception of Fawkes taking Harry back to see Dumbledore. We assumed that it was okay because Fawkes did it, and this doesn't prove that wrong, but now we have to at least consider the idea that it could have something to do with it." She looked at Harry apologetically.

Harry tried to push down the sting of the notion that his decision could have caused a real problem, but he tried to push it down. I'm the Leader, he thought, I have to look at this analytically. "What's done is done, of course, but I can't say you're wrong. I still don't think it was Fawkes, though." Looking around the table, he saw doubt on the faces of some.

"I don't like to ask this," said Hermione nervously, "but it should be asked. George, can you imagine any possibility--"

"I've been thinking about it already," he assured her. "I swear to Merlin that nothing happened there that had the remotest chance of causing something like this."

"I didn't think so," she replied. "And you didn't have to swear to Merlin, you know."

"I was just emphasizing--"

Corner talked over George. "Unless someone who knew George was there went to England, and distributed information that could already have changed the timeline."

"Records show that there was no travel between England and Australia during the time Voldemort was in charge," pointed out Harry.

"No travel by wizarding means," pointed out Corner. "But we all know about Muggle airplanes--"

"No way a wizard would've done that," asserted Seamus.

"And no way would the Fosters have given anyone that information," put in George firmly. "These were good, solid people, the kind who you know are going to do the right thing. I wouldn't have told them the whole story if they weren't. And they knew what was at stake, they knew very well not to say anything. And they were the only ones that knew I was there. It just makes no sense that it could have come from that."

"Still," said Corner, "like with Harry and Fawkes, we have to consider every possibility, no matter how remote. Sorry, George, I don't mean to be a pain."

George shrugged. "I'm not bothered. But there's just no way. I'm sure of it."

"There's another question we need to consider," said Hermione. "And that is, why is it that everyone was affected except for Kingsley and Hestia?"

"I was wondering about that," said Kingsley. "We have to look at the ways that Hestia and I are different from the rest of you. Let's see, there's our age... we've been Aurors..."

"Harry's officially an Auror," pointed out Ron, "even if the rest of us aren't."

"Good point," agreed Kingsley. "She and I are the only two who aren't DA members, or who didn't go to Hogwarts in the past two years."

"You were off the island for ten days... oh, wait, so was Harry," realized Neville.

"Yes, I already thought of that," said Kingsley. "Anything else?"

Nobody spoke for a few seconds. "You and she are the only ones who were Aurors before I became Leader," suggested Harry. "Or, let's say, our... counterparts... I mean, in November 1997, you're the only two from the island who were Aurors. If you see what I mean."

Kingsley gave him a quick grin. "The time thing makes it difficult, I agree. And everyone, let's eat our food while we think. No point letting it get cold." People started taking his advice as he continued. "You're right, Harry, and while it doesn't seem likely that it has to do with being Aurors, who knows, it could be anything. And we do need to think about it in terms of the time we're in, as well as the time we came from."

They considered the question while they ate, and after ten minutes, most of the food was eaten but they were no closer to an answer to the question. "Looks like the age difference and the fact that you've all been at Hogwarts lately are the leading contenders as explanations of the fact that this happened to you and not Hestia and me. Of course, we can't conclude anything."

"And of course," added Terry, "it wouldn't do us much good if we did know."

"It couldn't hurt," said Hermione. "And the next question is, is it going to happen again?"

"One question has a lot to do with the other," suggested Kingsley. "I would think that that's quite unknowable at this point. But we do need to consider what to do if it happens again."

"Obviously," said Harry, "try to do nothing that has any possibility of changing the timeline as it happened. Or, you could say, do exactly the same thing you did before in that situation."

"There's not really enough time to do anything different," pointed out Padma.

"Unless the time we're there gets longer," said Hermione.

"There's a scary thought," said Ron. "Harry, Hermione... was one of us carrying the Horcrux? I didn't notice, if it was me."

The other two shook their heads. "It was such a short time," said Harry. "You're right, one of us must have had it. Unless it came here... no, but the clothes stayed with the people, so... what happens with that, anyway? Is it just that our consciousness makes the transition? Or just our bodies, but not our clothes? I mean, not that I know much about it, but I thought part of our memories were stored in our brains, and so to have the same memories, we would have to have the same bodies. Is that right? Hermione?"

She shrugged. "Much as it pains me to admit that I don't know everything, I don't know much more than you do about this. Anyone?"

After a brief silence, Hestia spoke. "I'm pretty sure what Harry said is right, though I'm not certain. Which means, for example, that when he was there... the Horcrux inside him was here, not there."

Harry's eyebrows rose at the thought. "Not that it matters, though. We have to make sure everything happens the same way. Even if... remember when I stupidly said 'Voldemort,' and it got us captured? What if we're there when that happens? I have to do it again, because if I don't, it could easily lead to a time paradox."

"But will we recognize that exact time, if it comes up again?" wondered Ron.

"This is giving me a headache," muttered Harry.

"Well, look, this probably isn't worth dwelling on too much right now, any more than we already have," suggested Kingsley. "When we get further information, we can change our plans. Right now, if it happens again, the important thing to prioritize is keeping the timeline the way it was."

They soon went out to do the day's practice, which went well, as usual. Harry didn't see any sign of progress on the group spell, but he wasn't discouraged; he knew it took the Japanese children two or three years to learn it, so he would be patient.

After dinner that evening, Ron made eye contact with Harry, letting him know that he wanted to talk privately. They went to Harry's tent, and sat on the sofa. "Pretty good today," said Harry.

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "Well, except for this morning."

"At least it hasn't happened again yet," said Harry. "That's something."

"That's certainly looking at it optimistically," said Ron. "Look, there's something I wanted to mention. If this continues, and we keep getting sent back there... it could happen that we're there during the Hogwarts battle, and... we could be there, George could be there--"

"At the moment Fred is supposed to die," Harry finished the sentence. "Oh, God, I hadn't thought of that."

Somberly, Ron said, "I'd bet a lot of Galleons that George has. I mean, if you got teleported back to a minute before Sirius died, could you just stand there and let it happen?"

"When I think about that," responded Harry, "I find I can't definitely say 'no,' which I know I should. I probably would let it happen, because I did pass the Auror Leader test, but I hate to think about it. And I hate to think about George being put in that position. So, let's hope to God that doesn't happen."

"That's for sure," agreed Ron. They were silent for a minute. With a small grin, Ron asked, "So, how about a game of chess?"

Harry grinned in return, pleased that Ron had asked; it was the first time since the earlier incident. "Sure."

Ron waved his wand, Summoning the set from his quarters. "You can teach me some of what that master taught you."

"It wasn't that he taught me, since he never said a word the whole time once we started playing. He said it was up to me to learn, by observing my own mistakes."

"Well, whatever," said Ron, plucking the set from midair and starting to set it up. "Whatever it is you learned, then. Let's put that time you spent to good use." Harry tapped Ron's right hand, which opened to reveal a black pawn. Ron pushed the queen's pawn forward two spaces.

* * * * *

A week later, it was Harry's second time to help Luna with breakfast. They set out together, first gathering the fruit. Harry started to summon a large bunch of ripe bananas, but Luna stopped him. "People are getting kind of tired of bananas," she advised him. "At first, I'd pull down a bunch of twenty, and they'd all get eaten. After a month, it was less than ten. So, I decided to stop doing bananas every day."

Harry nodded. "I hadn't noticed that."

"No, most people wouldn't," she agreed, looking off into the distance as she spoke. "I do, since I clean up after breakfast every day. I see what's left."

"But aren't there some people who would eat bananas every day if they were available?"

She nodded. "Kingsley, Michael, Terry, Hermione, and Lee will take a banana every day if they're there. Angelina, Ron, and Ginny never take them unless there's nothing else."

Harry found himself impressed with her memory on the subject. "Yes, Molly did tend to have bananas around a lot. I think I remember hearing that she and Arthur liked them, and always tried to get the kids to eat them because they're supposed to be good for you."

"Oh, she's right, of course."

"I suppose Ron and Ginny had a few too many. But if you don't want to take the whole bunch down, why not send up a Severing charm, and take down only what you want?"

"I don't think my aim is quite that good," she admitted. "Is yours?"

"I think so. One way to find out, anyway. How many do you want?"

She shrugged. "Anything between five and ten is okay."

The bunch Harry was aiming at was about twenty feet off the ground. "Let's try for seven." He aimed, shot off the spell, and watched part of the bunch cleanly separate from the others. He caught it was a Hover charm in mid-fall, then directed it with his wand into Luna's basket. She picked it up, and counted seven bananas.

She slowly nodded. "I may make you come out here every morning."

It's nice to be needed, thought Harry, but I'm not going to go quite that far. "There's no reason you couldn't do it, if you just work on your aim, practice it a bit. I did a lot of aiming practice in Japan. I didn't use to be able to do that."

"Are you having the others work on their aim?"

"Not so specifically, but that wouldn't be a bad idea. I thought I'd just keep an eye on it when they practice."

They walked on, and came across several peach trees. "How are people on peaches?" asked Harry.

"If I just put them out there as whole peaches, almost nobody takes them. But I've found that if I take out the pit and cut them into quarters, people will take about two peaches' worth of quarters."

Good to know, thought Harry. Not exactly crucial information, but I guess if I was planning menus, I'd want to know what's popular.

Finishing up with the fruit and heading for the eggs, Harry wondered whether to broach with Luna something he'd earlier planned to: the fact that since he'd returned from being 'abducted' by Kingsley, he'd noticed that her behavior had been more 'spacey,' more distracted, than it had before. He'd hesitated to do so, because it wasn't to a great degree, and he didn't want to be seen as criticizing her.

But now he decided not to, mostly because even though she acted distracted at times, if she knew exactly who ate bananas and who didn't, it meant that her mind wasn't too far away. He decided to settle for a more general question. "Are you doing okay these days?"

Appearing only mildly surprised at the question, she answered, "Sure. Why do you ask?"

"It's just something I want to ask everyone from time to time," he improvised. "I'm responsible for everyone being here, and there could be things about living on the island that people might think wasn't worth mentioning, but could cause problems in the long run. So, I'm just wondering."

"No, everything is fine," she said casually. "I like being here; it's very relaxing. It's an opportunity that'll probably never come again, to spend time in this kind of environment, far from everyday life in the normal world. It's very beautiful here."

"And how are you doing with the tent-switching?"

"That's good, too. It helps you get to know people, so I like it."

"I wonder why Cho didn't want to do it."

Luna shrugged. "Everyone's different."

They came into view of the chickens, and

Harry was suddenly in a forest, alone. He looked around, but could see no one anywhere near him. He was wearing a fairly heavy jacket with a hood; he noticed that it was raining, and somewhat cold, much colder than it was on the island, but not atypical for a November day in England.

He was about to call out, then realized that it was a bad idea. He had no idea where he was, or how near he was to possibly being seen. He assumed that Ron and Hermione were, as he probably was, scouting the area; during the year they'd spent seeking the Horcruxes, they had split up occasionally. He wanted to find Ron and Hermione, but he realized he'd probably make things worse by looking for them. He stood still, determined not to move until he was back where he should be.

It was starting to dawn on him that this was taking a lot longer than it had last time, when

He was suddenly standing with Luna again. They exchanged a glance. "Hogwarts?" he asked her; she nodded. Without asking, he took her arm and Disapparated them both.

They appeared next to the table. Almost a dozen people were sitting there, and the rest were now leaving their tents. Waiting for Harry, nobody spoke.

"That was a lot longer than it was last time, maybe about ten seconds," said Harry. "Did everyone have the same feeling?" Nods confirmed his assessment. "Ron, Hermione, you were in a forest, alone?" They also nodded. "Was anyone somewhere they were surprised to find themselves?"

Dean and Justin immediately raised their hands. "I was outside a house I've never seen before," said Dean. "I have no idea where it was. I just stood there, waiting for it to be over."

"I was in the bedroom of my home," said Justin, "which of course isn't strange. But my shoulder bag was on the bed, and it had a fair amount of stuff in it, which didn't happen before. It was as if I was going to take some kind of trip." Harry winced at the now-certain knowledge that, in however small a way, the past had been changed.

"This is really not good," said Ron with deliberate understatement.

"No, it's getting serious now," agreed Harry. "Nobody else was in a situation they don't remember?"

No one else answered. "Seems not," said Kingsley. "I was out here with some of you, and again it didn't affect me or Hestia. Lee and Michael were asking rather loudly what was going on, and the others were confused, looking around. Padma asked Parvati if she knew what was happening; she said no. Padma asked me who I was. I told her my name and that I was an Auror. I wasn't planning on telling her much more than that, but she didn't have a chance to ask me any more questions."

Okay, thought Harry, time to analyze this. "Kingsley, your opinion, how bad is this?"

"As Ron said, it's pretty bad, and it has the potential to get quite a lot worse. Two events don't make a pattern, but the time was longer for this one, which doesn't bode well. If the times continue to get longer, it'll become more and more difficult--maybe impossible--to ensure that the timeline doesn't change. From what Justin said, it has already; the question is, will it change in a way from which recovery of our own timeline is impossible. As time goes by, the answer to that question will become clearer.

"We also have to make a decision about what to tell your counterparts the next time they show up. They're going to want answers--from their point of view, it might seem like they've been kidnapped--but I'd really rather not tell them that Voldemort is defeated, and Harry is leading a bunch of prospective Aurors on an island for training purposes."

"You could lie, say the same thing happened to you too," suggested Justin.

"Worth considering, but I'd rather not lie if I don't have to. Generally good policy, since backing up the lie can eventually put you in an untenable position. I'll spend some time today thinking of what to tell them if it happens again. The harder job is the one you guys will have. You could find yourselves in a position in which you have no idea what's going on, maybe you're with someone, and/or expected to do something, but you don't know what.

"As for what to tell them, it depends on who it is, whether you can trust them. Or, maybe your counterpart has already told them they were suddenly on an island, in which case the person will know when you seem out of place, not knowing what's going on. If you're lucky, you'll be alone, or in a situation like a Hogwarts class where no attention will be drawn to you. Everyone will have to make his own decision about what to do, in the situation."

Harry mentally cursed himself; going back in time was his decision, and whether by his actions or not, he was responsible for whatever damage would be done to the timeline. The fact that the portraits had foreseen no unusual danger in the enterprise didn't mitigate his feelings of responsibility. Again, he knew he couldn't linger on the idea, especially now. He had to think clearly.

"Okay," he said, "everyone has to try to remember what they were doing at about this time. For those who were at Hogwarts, it shouldn't be too hard, but everyone has to know what they're supposed to be doing at any given point, as well as possible."

Lee spoke up. "Um... not to be too gloomy, but isn't the timeline pretty well screwed up at this point? I mean, the first one, it was just a second, it didn't have to affect anything. But this one was so long it was impossible to ignore, and as Kingsley mentioned, those people may start talking about it. But we were those people, and I certainly don't have any memory of suddenly being on an island. So it seems to me that the temporal paradox has already occurred."

"There could be a tipping point," suggested Terry.

"I was thinking that," agreed Hermione. "There is a difference, but maybe not such a substantial one that it has to affect anything. To take an extreme case, let's say the next time we go, we find that one of our counterparts has died. I think we could all agree that that would cause a catastrophic time paradox, since if we died in the past--for us, that is--then we wouldn't be here now. But if nothing different beyond a certain point--the tipping point, as Terry said--happens, it may be that nothing has to change. So, we need to work to keep the damage to a minimum."

Harry again asked everyone to run down what they'd been doing when taken back, and winced slightly when George said that he'd been talking to Fred. He wondered whether he should have a private chat with George to see how he was doing with such a difficult situation, but decided not to; he had to trust that George would do the best he could.

After there was nothing more to discuss, Harry went back out with Luna to finish gathering the food for the now-delayed breakfast. As they walked toward the chickens, Harry muttered, "I can't believe this is happening."

"It'll be okay," said Luna serenely.

Harry glanced at her, surprised that even she could take such a blasé attitude. "Do you really think so?"

She shrugged. "What will be, will be."

Hard to argue with that, he thought. But the thing that worries me isn't whether what will be, will be; it's whether what was, will be.

* * * * *

The next few days passed slowly and uneasily; the mood of the group was one of waiting for the other shoe to drop. People talked about it occasionally, but no one brought up the topic of what had caused this predicament. Harry believed that it was neither Fawkes nor George; it had to be something else.

Harry decided to have everyone practice the group spell before the day's main training started. They spent fifteen minutes, and nothing changed, to Harry's lack of surprise. After Harry called a halt, Padma asked, "Do you really think this is going to work?"

Mildly annoyed at her attitude, he was about to respond when Ron did. "I don't think he'd be having us spend all this time on it if--"

"I wasn't complaining," she said defensively. "It just, I don't know, seems like we're getting nowhere with this."

Harry wondered if this was the kind of situation in which he was supposed to keep their spirits up. "I know I've already told you this, but I felt like I was getting nowhere with this after a few months in Japan, right up to the point where I suddenly got it. It'll come when it comes, and I certainly hope that everyone's giving it their best shot mentally."

"I am," she said. "I suppose it's easy to get discouraged. But I just had a thought. Maybe, as a separate exercise, you, Hermione, and Ron ought to try to do this spell yourselves, as a three-person thing."

Harry was surprised to hear it suggested by one of the group; he'd had the thought, but decided not to pursue it because it could seem as though the three of them were shutting the rest out, or being isolated from them.

"Why?" asked Ron.

"Because Harry's said this spell needs a group feeling, and there was no closer group at Hogwarts than you three. You've got lots of experiences and feelings to work with. I really think you ought to give it a try, on a regular basis. If this is going to work, it might work with you three first, and that would give us added confidence that it could work with us eventually."

Scanning the others while she talked, Harry could see no opposition to the idea. "Okay, then. We'll just take a few minutes to get started on it now. You guys take a break."

Harry led Ron and Hermione to a spot about fifteen feet away from the others, in the middle of the field. "Okay, you know what to do," he said. "Think about all the stuff we did together, remember the feeling we've always had. Let that be going through your mind when we do the spell.

"Oh, and just for the heck of it, imagine that when you shoot, your spell is more in the shape of a corkscrew. It travels slower, but will fall in with the others. See the spell like that when it leaves your wand."

"Can I take a minute to get in that frame of mind?" asked Hermione.

"Good idea, let's all do that. Hold up your wand when you're ready."

A minute later, Hermione held up her wand, followed by Harry, and finally Ron. They fired the spells, and Harry was surprised to see all three spells shaped like corkscrews, moving relatively slowly. He was then at once very surprised, and not surprised at all, to see them fall in together and become one. An enormous, bright burst of light exploded and faded in front of them.

They turned to face each other. Impressed and pleased, they shared a smile. "Merlin's beard," they heard Corner exclaim, as further amazed commentary came from the group.

"Thanks, Padma, that was a good idea," grinned Ron when they'd reached the main group again.

"I didn't think you'd get it quite that fast," she admitted. "What did you do?"

Harry shrugged. "Same thing I'm always telling you to do."

"Let's try it again, another fifteen minutes," she said, now animated.

Smiling, Harry responded, "No, I'd rather do it the same way, in the same pattern. Slow and steady. It'll happen when it happens."

"The three of us are going to have to do some practice with this, with different spells," suggested Ron, who was clearly pleased. "We should know how they work like that, and what we're able to do."

"Good idea," agreed Harry. "Okay, let's assemble. We're going to work more on dueling."

"Where are Kingsley and Hestia?" asked Parvati.

"I'll call them when we need them, but first I want to do some review stuff, so I didn't want to bother them. Okay, now

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were back in the English countryside, standing in a semicircle. They exchanged unhappy glances. "Damn," muttered Harry.

"Look!" whispered Ron.

Harry turned and saw, ten yards away, two figures who couldn't be identified; both were wearing dark cloaks with hoods--one grey, the other black--and their faces were away from Harry and the others. Their faces were near each other, so it seemed as though they were talking.

"Who are they?" asked Ron. "What are they doing? This definitely never happened!"

Harry knew what he had to do. "Be absolutely quiet until I tell you otherwise," he instructed, emphasizing the order's importance with his eyes. He closed his eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds, even though they were whispering, he could hear.

"...barely trust me as it is. Even if I trust you, how do you expect me to be able to get them to trust you?" To his surprise, Harry recognized the whispered voice as that of Draco Malfoy.

The other speaker, he quickly realized, was Victor Crabbe. "Tell them I'm scared of the Dark Lord," he replied urgently. "Because it's true." Using his lie-detection sense, Harry understood that the statement was true. Well, obviously, he thought.

"Of course, we all are," responded Malfoy doubtfully. "That doesn't prove anything. If you're scared of him, you're going to want to be even more obedient, not go behind his back and try to join someone who's betrayed him. If he finds out you've done this, he'll kill you."

"All the more reason to let me join you! Draco, we've been together for years, since we were this high! You can trust me."

Harry felt a mild panic as his senses told him that Crabbe was lying. Worse, he had no way of knowing how long their conversation would take, and he could be whisked away at any time, unable to pass this information along to anyone. He considered interrupting their conversation, but he had no way of knowing how it would affect the situation; it would be very risky.

"I'm not saying I don't trust you," said Malfoy. "I'm saying that they're not going to, and I need them if I'm going to avenge myself on--"

"Don't say that! It's bad luck."

"I've already betrayed him, my luck's not going to get any worse. If you're that scared, then maybe you shouldn't come. Go hide, live off the land, stay out of trouble--"

"Just talk to them! If they'll trust you, they'll trust me."

As they spoke, Harry quickly conjured a pen and paper, and wrote, "Crabbe is lying. Trust me, I know. HP2." Folding it quickly, he wrote Malfoy's name on the outside and dropped it on the ground, to be found by their counterparts on their return. He'd wanted to write more, but if he were whisked back before he finished, the message couldn't be delivered.

"Okay, I'll talk to them. Meet me back here tomorrow, at this

He was suddenly standing with the trainees in the field, but their location was different; they had moved much closer to the table, and a few people were near the tents. Harry waved his wand, making the loud whistling noise.

"You could have just called us," said Kingsley humorously as he exited his tent. Seeing the people standing around and Harry's stern expression, Kingsley changed his attitude. "It happened again."

"Yes," said Harry. "Let's all have a seat. This one was much longer, maybe a minute and a half or so."

Harry got the stories from the others, keeping his for last. He told them that he'd overheard Malfoy and Crabbe, but not the specifics of how far away they were.

"So," he concluded, looking at Kingsley, "this is very significant, and I have to say that if we caused this, it's hard to say how. We don't know in what way Malfoy 'betrayed' Voldemort; it could be yesterday, for all we know. I suppose you could say that word got out from one of our counterparts about this change, and it somehow weirdly affected what Malfoy did. It seems really unlikely, but I'm not sure what the alternatives are, either."

"There's one," said Ernie, "that you've already discounted, but it would make more sense--"

"Dumbledore," cut in Harry, trying to control his annoyance. There's just no way he did anything different, he thought.

Ernie seemed to sense Harry's feelings. "He might have even done something unconsciously different, his fear of death--knowing he was going to die--might have made him more persuasive with Malfoy. Malfoy decides not to kill him, which a Death Eater sees. Malfoy's busted, there's no going back. So, he switches sides. Joins up with you, because you're the best hope of defeating Voldemort, and because you saw what happened, he knows you'll believe him. You, your counterpart, agrees to work with him because he may know things you need to know."

There was silence for a few seconds. "It makes sense," agreed Kingsley, with a look at Harry that communicated that Harry should at least consider the idea that Ernie could be right.

Again, Harry struggled to be dispassionate, which he was learning was difficult when his pride or reputation was at stake. "Yes, I see that. But the problem is that I have memories that contradict this. I don't remember anything different on the day of Dumbledore's death--"

"You don't think you do," suggested Neville. "But what if your memories, any of us, have been changed due to what happened? We wouldn't know."

"But then I would remember Malfoy running around with us, which I don't."

"We don't know the speed with which the new memories would integrate," said Hestia. "It's a stretch, I agree. But this is such a rare phenomenon, we can't know how it'll work. Ernie's notion is worth serious consideration, potential holes or not."

"Okay," said Harry. "Well, I wish we'd brought a copy of the book that the three of us wrote, because we could compare it against--"

"Oh, we did," said Hermione happily. "I did, anyway. I threw it into the set of books I brought, in case anyone wanted to read it."

"Thank God. And thank you, Hermione," he added humorously. "And--"

"Would the book change?" wondered Ernie.

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's a fair question," pointed out Terry, noticing.

"That wasn't at you, Ernie," Harry said. "This whole thing just gives me a headache, wondering about stuff like that. Hermione? Would it change?"

"It might," she admitted. "Again, we can't know. That would be a theory, which we can't estimate the likelihood of. The idea is that every time something changes, not only do our memories adjust, but the whole timeline adjusts. Even if we wrote down right now which things contradict what we know, we can't be certain that that wouldn't change as well. Now, I disagree with Hestia that there could be some lag; to me, it makes logical sense that the timeline would adjust instantly, and there would be no delay. I can't think of any reason that there'd be some delay; there's nothing even theoretical that's consistent with that." Terry nodded his agreement; nobody else ventured an opinion.

"So," she continued, "Harry's point that we now remember contradictory things holds more water with me, and strongly suggests that the timeline isn't adjusting, and nothing has changed with us even if it has in the past. Which, I must say, isn't the best thing in the world either."

Terry nodded. "You mean, because the alternatives are either fluid adjustment or a catastrophic time paradox."

"Yes. We don't know what the threshold would be for that. Somebody dying who we know didn't die? Anything happening that would cause the situation as we know it now to become impossible? That's becoming more likely."

"I'd like everyone to write down the known contradictions, in any case," said Harry. "There's nothing we can do about the idea of the timeline adjusting, so it seems like we shouldn't worry about that. If it does, it does.

"Now, today was proof of the idea that these things are getting longer and longer, and that's likely to continue. Unless we can figure out a way to stop it--and I can't begin to imagine what that would be--sticking our heads in the sand and hoping to end up back here soon won't be an option. We're going to have to start being active participants over there, and we have to find out what's going on there, not just assume we know."

"Hestia and I are going to have to start talking to them," said Kingsley. "We didn't know it happened this time, but we'll have to tell them next time that we don't move, and ask them for information about what's going on over there."

"They may not want to give it," said Neville. "They may think it's some sort of Dark scheme."

"True. I'll do my best to be persuasive. If we can get them to update us every time, then you'll only be one switch behind, as it were. It'd help a lot. And Harry, you can help me persuade them."

"How am I going to do that? I'll be over there."

Kingsley gave him a small grin. "As the Muggles say, I'd like you to leave them a message."

* * * * *

Three days later, Harry was watching a few practice duels between Ron and Neville when it happened again. "Well, here we are again," said Harry.

"How long for this time?" wondered Ron aloud.

Kingsley, who was off to the side, walked over, Hestia behind him. "Everyone, my name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. Harry and the Weasleys know me, but the rest of you don't. This is Hestia Jones, also an Auror. She and I are on this island with your counterparts, but for some reason we don't understand, what's happening to them, and you, isn't happening to us."

"How do we know they aren't doing this?" asked Corner loudly.

"He's on our side," responded Harry, at equal volume.

"Are you sure of that?" pressed Corner.

"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry. "So, Kingsley, do you have any idea what's causing this?"

"No, we don't know. What we think--well, first, I should explain that we're from the future, at least, what would be the future to you. In early October 1998 we came to this island and went back in time one year, for training purposes. This is a kind of... elite group, for lack of a better phrase, based on membership in Dumbledore's Army. Not everyone was chosen or came, as you can see.

"Now, I know you want to know more, and I don't blame you. But the problem is that we're very worried about danger to the timeline, and if we tell you what happens in the future, it could utterly change, from top to bottom, which would cause--"

"A terrible time paradox," said Hermione, looking aghast. "Why in the world did you come back in time? It just seems... totally irresponsible! I can't believe I agreed to this!"

"Well, you did," Kingsley assured her. "Obviously. As for why, I'm afraid that's one of the things I shouldn't tell you--"

"That's pretty convenient," said Corner.

"It's also true," countered Kingsley, trying to hide his annoyance. "And we probably shouldn't spend much of our time right now debating it. Harry, there's something your counterpart wanted you to see."

Harry took his hand out of the Pensieve. "So," asked Kingsley, "are those your memories as well?"

"Most of them," said Harry. "The only one that's different is the last one, the one with Dumbledore. That's not the way it happened, for me."

"Until that point," pressed Kingsley, "was what happened pretty much the same, or exactly the same?"

Harry thought for a few seconds. "To the best of my ability to tell, exactly the same."

"Including the events of that day? Going out for that Horcrux, and finding the note? It would be important to know exactly what was the first event in this memory that was different for you. Was there any difference in what Dumbledore said to Malfoy, in that final scene?"

"Not that I can tell, no. In mine, Malfoy was able to Stun the Death Eaters on the scene, then Snape when he came in. But before that... I'm pretty sure everything is the same. This Malfoy... looked like he was thinking about doing the same thing, but waited too long."

"Okay," said Kingsley, wanting to press this Harry further, but knowing that time was limited. "Let's go outside."

Everyone was waiting at the table. "I saw memories of the other Harry's past," Harry told the other DA members. "They're the same as mine, up to the point when their Malfoy didn't turn against Voldemort--"

"Don't say the name!" shouted a panicked Parvati.

Harry rolled his eyes. "We're half a world away, nothing's going to happen. Anyway, that Harry left me a short message, apologizing for the lack of information, and asking me to cooperate with Kingsley and ask you to do the same, which I'm doing. He wants us to, every day, write a note about

* * * * *

Island Harry suddenly found himself sitting in a tent with Hermione, Ron, and Malfoy. He exchanged surprised glances with Ron and Hermione.

"Potter?"

"Yes?"

"You were in the middle of a sentence."

"Ah. No, you mean the other Harry Potter was in the middle of a sentence."

Malfoy sighed. "Well, some damn Harry Potter was going on about something. You're the ones they talked about? On some island?"

"Yep. That's us. So, did you get the note?"

Annoyed, Malfoy replied, "Yes, I did. And it's nice to know that you have such little regard for me that you think I can't tell that my lifelong friend is lying to me. I'm not an idiot, you know."

"Gee, sorry, Malfoy. How stupid of me not to realize that you had a built-in lie detector. I shouldn't have tried to help."

"Well, I'm not sure that I accept your apology," deadpanned Malfoy. "Can't you three tell if you're lying to each other?"

"Maybe Crabbe is just a bad liar," offered Ron.

"Could be," admitted Malfoy. "I think he'd normally be better, but he was under pressure. The Dark Lord must've threatened him, told him he had to convince me to let him join us, and that probably caused him to lie badly. I'd still be able to tell, but this was pretty easy. So, Potter, how did you know he was lying? How could you even hear us? Or did you know some other way?"

Have to do this again, thought Harry. "Do a Reveal Magic spell on my forehead."

Malfoy looked at him as if his rationality were in question. "Am I going to see some dirty picture? Or is this some variation on 'pull my finger?'"

"Just do it, Malfoy."

Malfoy did, and was clearly astonished at seeing the mark of the Auror Leader on Harry's forehead. "How..."

"Long story, but I shouldn't tell it anyway." He gave the same truncated explanation of what had happened as Kingsley was giving the other Harry. "The Auror Leader has certain enhanced abilities, two of which are keen hearing, and the ability to tell if someone is lying." Harry now found himself wishing he hadn't left the note, and therefore need to provide an explanation of what happened in the future, but he couldn't have known that Malfoy could tell that Crabbe was lying. I did the right thing, he thought.

"So, from our point of view, the most important thing is to make sure the timeline doesn't change. And that's in your interest too, because in our timeline, Volde--"

With lightning speed, Malfoy grabbed his wand and pointed it at Harry, who found himself Silenced. "Moron!" screamed Malfoy. "You absolute moron! That's the second time I've had to do that! If you're from the future, you should know that saying the name is like inviting death!"

Sighing, Harry touched his wand and canceled the spell. "You're right," he admitted. "I'm sorry about that," he added, looking at Ron and Hermione as well.

"Oh, good, you're sorry," retorted Malfoy with heavy sarcasm. "That'll be good to know when they're torturing us because I wasn't fast enough with my wand. Think a little, will you?"

"He said he was sorry," protested Hermione. "What more do you want him to say?"

"I want him to not do it anymore! I mean, what did the prophecy say? 'He is the one who can defeat the Dark Lord, provided he isn't so stupid that he gets himself and others captured before he can manage it?' Maybe you won't forgive him so quickly if you end up getting tortured because he couldn't keep his--"

"That's enough!" barked Harry, eyes flashing in anger at Malfoy.

Surprised, Malfoy glanced at Hermione, then back at Harry. "It happened!" he exclaimed. "That's what happened! And you forgave him? Very generous of you. If it was me, I'd never let him forget it."

"And that's one of the many differences between me and you," she said coldly.

"How did you work that out, anyway?" asked Ron.

"It's called being able to read faces, expressions," said Malfoy, feigning great tolerance. "For example, just by looking at your eyes right now, I can tell that you're a slow-witted dolt! And that's useful information."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, don't let it get around. I like to keep up appearances."

Malfoy's eyebrows went up a little. "Okay, I'll admit I didn't see that coming. I thought you'd go for my throat."

"My other self probably would," agreed Ron. "I've been trying to get over that."

"Good idea," said Malfoy. "It's a weakness. So, Potter, why don't you pick a phrase to use when you want to refer to the Dark Lord, so you don't get us captured?"

Harry recalled a conversation he'd had with Kingsley and a few American Aurors. "I'm going to call him 'what's-his-name.'"

"You really have to taunt him? I think it's bad luck."

"Didn't you taunt Crabbe for saying that?"

"I didn't taunt the Dark Lord, though. What's wrong with 'You-Know-Who?'"

"I don't like it. Too fearful. How about, 'The V-Man?'"

Ron grinned. "I like that, actually."

"Whatever, I'm not going to argue with you about it. Now, what were you going to say before I averted catastrophe?"

Harry paused to remember. "Oh, yeah, I was saying that in our timeline, what's-his-name ended up going to his great reward, so trying to match our timeline--the results, at least--is good for you too."

"Okay, sounds good," agreed Malfoy. "So, if you tell me what happened in your timeline, maybe we can make it happen."

"Well, I want to be careful with that," said Harry. "I worry that people here knowing could cause--"

"Harry," interrupted Ron, "hasn't the ship already sailed on that? I mean, look at how phenomenally different this is from what we were doing. Malfoy's sitting here with us, for one. Also, he said he saved you from saying the V-Man's name once before; maybe that would've been the time you did say it, so that's changed. I know the time is probably wrong, but you get the idea. Fixing this timeline would be like trying to fill a salt shaker by pouring it through the holes in the top."

"I think a better analogy," said Hermione, "would be herding hyperactive cats. The more you try, the worse it gets--"

"Because by all means, we'll defeat the Dark Lord by coming up with the perfect analogy," muttered Malfoy. "Let's continue wasting time with this."

"Anyway," continued Hermione, with an annoyed glance at Malfoy, "I was going to say, I think Ron is right, this is too far gone. Malfoy, have you been told how we're expected to defeat what's-his-name?"

Ron gave her a mildly disappointed look. "Sorry," she said with a light shrug. "Saying 'the V-Man' just isn't me."

"Yes, Potter told me about the Horcruxes. It didn't take me long to work out that he himself was one, which, brilliant analytical mind that he is, he hadn't thought of. But you clearly had, as you weren't happy with me for letting him know. We had an argument about it. I said, and still think, it's better for him to know."

"You wouldn't say that if it was in your head."

"Wow, your other self said those exact words. Some things haven't changed. But I'd rather know than not know; I could figure out how to get it the hell out of me. But maybe it's good that we have you here. How did you get it out?"

"I let V--" Harry cut himself off as Malfoy reached for his wand. "Sorry. I let what's-his-name do the Killing Curse on me."

Malfoy did a double-take. "Oh! Why didn't I think of that? Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! And of course by 'brilliant,' I mean 'idiotic.'"

"Yeah, I gathered that."

"Well, maybe it's not so good that we have you here. And how did it happen that he didn't actually do it?"

"He did," said Harry. Malfoy looked at Ron and Hermione, who nodded somberly.

"Okaaaaay... what the hell, I'll go along with this... and after you died, then what happened?"

"Obviously, I didn't die."

"Of course, because Harry Potter is so super-amazing that the Killing Curse has no effect on him. Right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'no effect.' Something weird happened, and even now I'm not 100% sure

He was standing near the common table, looking at the trainees. After a pause to get used to the fact that he was no longer speaking to Malfoy, he spoke. "Okay. Did anything important happen to anyone?"

George spoke up quickly. "I know you may not like this, but I told Fred that in my time he's dead, and it happened in the Hogwarts battle. I'm sorry, but I just can't stand there with him, talk and joke with him, and know that, and not say anything about it. I just can't do it."

There was silence around the table; everyone seemed to be looking at Harry for his reaction. "Well, I can't say I'm thrilled, but I can't say I'm terribly bothered either. As Ron pointed out a few minutes ago over there, things are now so hugely different that we can't exactly expect things to go just as they did for us. I still don't want us to go out of our way to make things any more different, but I understand why you did it. Anybody else?"

Dean spoke. "Justin and I were together, at Colin's home. He and Dennis want to do something about the situation; they just don't know what."

"I, my counterpart that is," added Justin, "had apparently sent Dean and Colin owls to keep in touch, knowing that Muggle-borns were in trouble in the new order. He invited us to stay for a few days. Apparently his family's pretty well-to-do, a big house with extra rooms. We told him and Dennis about this whole switching thing, but no details, and managed to avoid saying anything about his death."

Harry nodded, and thought for a few seconds. "You have my permission to tell him about that, especially since it's almost impossible it'll happen the same way anyway. I don't want anyone lying about what's happened. Hiding information is okay, but don't lie. We want the people over there to be able to trust us, and they won't if they catch us in a lie.

"Anyway... Dean, Justin, that may not be a bad idea. I'd encourage you four to stay in close contact. I'm not sure what would be a good idea for you to do, but it couldn't hurt--"

"Oh!" exclaimed Hermione, with an apologetic glance at Harry for the interruption. "They could focus on trying to figure out what's going on! Maybe they could get access to some information over there."

"That makes sense," agreed Justin. "Not that I'd have the first idea where to look, of course, but at least we're free, whereas most of you are at Hogwarts. Hermione, any ideas on where to look?"

She shrugged. "Libraries."

"But we can't--"

"I mean, Muggle libraries," she clarified. "Not that I'm optimistic about finding anything, but it couldn't hurt. But yes, I know very well that Muggle-borns can't operate openly in wizarding England right now."

"We could go to another country!" suggested Dean, looking pleased at the idea.

"That would make sense," agreed Terry. "It'd have to be English-speaking, so Australia or America."

"It shouldn't be Australia," said George. "I think I mentioned that George, my host there, said that it was a very young country in wizarding terms. They wouldn't have much experience with that.

"But he also said, and this is interesting, that he'd spent a while some time ago talking with an Indian wizard, someone who knew something about space/time issues. If I could contact him and explain our problem, he might be able to get ahold of that guy, and we could talk to him, or he could direct us to someone who could be of help. Either way, it's definitely worth trying."

"Sounds good," said Harry, "but I'm not sure about the idea of one of us leaving the island, then this happens again, and the person from the other side has no idea where they are, etc. You get the idea."

"How's this," suggested Kingsley. "I go with George to Australia, soon after one of the switches. They seem to be a few days apart right now, so it shouldn't be so dangerous. Even if it happens while we're there, I'm there to explain it to him. After we explain everything to the Fosters, George comes back, I stay, and follow up as needed. Think that would work, George?"

"I don't see why not," agreed George. "The only possible problem is that George, or the family, could be in the middle of helping someone else, or have some other project going. I know they'll help us if they can."

Kingsley looked at Harry. "No time like the present."

Harry hesitated. "A switch did just happen, but..."

George spoke again. "We can't do it this minute, though. They're a few hours behind us, and I wouldn't fancy waking them up. I'd give it a couple of hours at least."

"I'll use that time to think about it," said Harry. "We'll put off starting today's training while I do that. Kingsley, I'd like you to start preparing to go in case I decide to do that now, and I'd like you and Hestia to think about spells we're more likely to need on the other side. Things to help remaining hidden, staying out of sight, things like that. We'll continue training, but this situation is now our number one priority. Everyone needs to think about what they can and should do on the other side. Those of you at Hogwarts, the best thing you can do is avoid drawing attention to yourselves. I hope your counterparts aren't spreading the word about what's going on, because it could lead to danger if the Dark wizards found out.

"I also want to ask you to not say anything about anything I've told you about Malfoy, that is, the other Malfoy. I don't want anything like that to get out on the other side. My impression is that that Harry and Malfoy aren't exactly best buddies, but they trust each other, at least for now. I don't want to see that get screwed up over something unnecessary and avoidable."

Terry spoke. "Not about the Malfoy thing, but what about talking about this situation, those of us who are at Hogwarts, to the other DA members there? Padma and I were talking over there, we wouldn't mind taking Anthony into our confidence. Not only because he might have some interesting ideas, but also because we could leave messages with him, to tell our counterparts, and he could update us on what's going on. I think he could be trusted not to tell anyone."

"Of course," added Padma, "for all we know, our counterparts have already done that. Kingsley and Hestia, you should ask them next time who they've told. I hope they'll have some discretion."

"I think they'll know," said Neville, "that talking about it would bring unwelcome attention. Parvati, do you think Lavender could be trusted with this?"

Parvati hesitated. "I hate to say it, but her discretion isn't always the best. We may not have much choice, though. A Gryffindor seventh year should know, and she's the only one there. We'll see how it goes."

A few minutes later the discussion was over, and Harry went back to his tent to lie down and think. He found he couldn't escape the dread that this would end in disaster, and that by taking them back in time, he would be responsible. He knew it was unproductive to think along those lines, but he also knew he couldn't help it. It was hard to put aside such thoughts for long enough to think analytically about the situation.

He decided to follow Kingsley's suggestion to allow him and George to go to Australia immediately. He would have preferred to have Kingsley around to help communicate with their counterparts, but even the smallest chance to stop the switching would have to have priority.

His mind drifted to another doomsday scenario. Shaking himself out of it, he cursed himself again for having somehow gotten them in this position. I can't even go to a deserted island without something happening, he thought in frustration.

* * * * *

Next, Chapter 8, Keeping Secrets: Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to adjust to the very peculiar notion of being allies of Draco Malfoy as they struggle to determine the nature and cause of their predicament.

From Chapter 8: He gently nudged her head with his hand, and looked her in the eyes. "I swear to God, we're going to get you out of there. That's the first thing we do when we get back."