Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
Chapter 4: Back at Hogwarts
Harry woke up the next morning, or at least he thought it must be morning, since the sky looked the same as when he went to sleep. Just that mutted tone of light grey with no cloud in sight.
"Does it never get dark?" he muttered before standing up.
"I can't wait to get to the castle..." Harry then got ready and continued his walk at a brisk pace.
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After walking what felt like forever, Harry was getting very tired and was considering stopping for some rest when he finally spotted a castle in the distance.
"Yes! I made it." He hollered with pure joy.
Harry didn't think he had felt this happy to see that castle since his very first day of school, all those years back.
With renewed energy, he continued walking towards the castle, thinking about how he was going to explain what happened at the Ministry.
The castle was getting closer and closer, and he could now spot the train station with clarity.
"Just a bit more," he told himself.
The station was in the middle of a small forest, and once he made it past that, he crossed the bridge and was once more at the gates of the castle.
However, he noted that there was an eerie silence at Hogwarts, and Harry was fearing for the worst.
He had to use all of his force to push one of the doors open enough for him to enter.
And then, he found himself running through the entrance hall and making his way to the Great Hall, where he would surely find some students.
Harry had completely forgotten his exhaustion and was looking around frantically, trying to spot someone in the hall or hear anything at all.
This castle was never completely quiet, not even during classes.
He turned a corner and entered the Great Hall.
"No…"
Harry rubbed his eyes and looked again… still empty.
"This is not possible, not here…" Harry refused to accept this reality.
Ignoring his aching legs, he kept going and started opening all of the classrooms he came across.
"Hello? Is there someone here? Please, anyone!" Harry yelled with desperation, but no one answered his call.
Right now, he would even be happy to hear Draco Malfoy coming up with some mocking joke at his expense.
He went to the Gryffindor dorms, but as soon as he stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, Harry noticed that it wasn't moving.
"Lady? The password is Orange Sorbet… Hello?" He gently touched the portrait.
He then looked around at the other paintings, and they were all still, like normal muggle paintings.
"Open!" Having completely lost his patience, Harry slammed his hands against the painting one time.
"I SAID OPEN!" He slammed them again.
He then repeatedly hit the painting while yelling at it to open, venting his frustrations.
The sound of fabric being torn could be heard, and Harry looked up to realize that he had ripped apart the painting, revealing the wall behind.
But there was no entrance, just a brick wall.
Harry made an exasperated sound and left the place. There was one last location that he had to check, and for that, he would need to reach the seventh floor.
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"Urgg...now this." Harry groaned.
He was forced to stand before the moving stairs as they were now out of position for him to get up, and refused to move.
As he was wondering how he was going to reach the next floor, he heard a loud rustling noise, and when he looked up, he saw the stairs moving once more.
"Whoa!." Harry gasped in surprise at something he had seen hundreds of times, because at this point, he had already become convinced that the castle had lost its magic. But thankfully, this was not the case.
He then looked at the stairs and smiled, thinking that perhaps there was still hope.
Harry rushed to the seventh floor and arrived at the entrance of the Headmaster's office, guarded as always by a gargoyle.
"Hello? Can you talk to me? Please. I need to see the Headmaster," Harry asked.
There was no response.
"No… please, open." He put his hands on the gargoyle and tried to move it, but it didn't budge.
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"What am I supposed to do now?…" Harry had been sitting in front of the entrance to the Headmaster's office for at least an hour, not sure what to do next.
The gargoyle didn't respond to his calls, and no matter how long he waited here...no one else had shown up.
"What if I'm the only person left in the world?…" He wondered with dread.
" Sigh...if only Ron and Hermione were here… I'm sure Hermione would say something like—" Harry's eyes opened widely.
"Of course! The library! Maybe there is something there that can help me explain this situation!"
He stood up and grabbed his belly.
"Maybe I should eat first… It's weird, I haven't eaten all day, but I'm not particularly hungry."
He shrugged and decided to eat anyway. The last thing he needed was to get sick when there was no one to help him.
After eating his last sandwich, he went to the library.
"It seems like a different place when it's empty." He comented while walking inside.
It was a good thing he remembered how the books were arranged, thanks to all the times Hermione had dragged him there.
Harry managed to find several books on the subject of time-related magic. He was convinced that this mess was started by those Time-Turners breaking.
"Maybe if I learn how those things work exactly, I'll know how to reverse this."
The idea seemed simple enough, but Harry knew it was not going to be easy.
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"Ugh." Harry dropped his head in defeat.
"I'm tired of this… I need a break." He had been reading for hours but hadn't managed to find anything useful.
The books talked about the dangers of time travel, some theory mixed with speculation, and the mention of some experiments performed by the Ministry in the past, but nothing that he could actually use.
But he wasn't giving up. Hogwarts was filled with information, and he was bound to find an answer eventually. So he couldn't give up just yet.
To clear his mind a bit, Harry decided to do something he had been wishing to do for months.
He entered the office that had been used all year by Umbridge.
The place was very tacky, the walls filled with pictures of cats, and everything was pink.
Harry started to inspect the room and didn't take long to find what he was looking for.
Sitting on top of a shelf, Harry spotted the familiar object and pulled it down, holding it in his arms once more.
"I missed you!," Harry told his beloved broom.
The Firebolt was covered in dust, but other than that, it appeared to be intact.
He was about to leave when he remembered something else. Harry opened the drawers until he found the blood quill that was used to torture him during the year.
His jaw clenched in anger at the memories. He then took the quill with both his hands and snapped it in half.
He then stood there for a moment, looking at the broken quill before he took his broom and left the office.