5th Sept 1992
Hogwarts
As Teddy and I ran our usual morning circuit, I ruminated back on the excitement that took place yesterday. Dinnertime saw the arrival of a trio of Aurors accompanied by Madam Bones. The surprise only grew when the Ministry personnel headed for Ronald Weasley and asked him to hand over his pet rat, which had begun to struggle mightily in the boy's grasp by then. Before Ron could comply, Scabbers bit his finger and tried to run.
Nobody had been prepared for what happened next. A flash of blue-white light erupted from Dumbledore's wand, and suddenly in place of a scurrying rodent, there was a man...a short grubby-looking man with thin hair and a bald spot. He looked around wildly for an escape route amidst the shouts and screams that filled the Great Hall, but his efforts were rendered futile when he was hit with a pair of stunners. After he was knocked out, the Aurors cuffed him and levitated his limp body out of the Hall.
The entire episode flabbergasted the student populace, especially the Weasleys, who couldn't understand why Scabbers would suddenly turn into a middle-aged man. No official answers were given, but it was generally agreed that it had something to do with the Weasley twins, no matter how vehemently they denied it.
Dumbledore had then called Harry aside and told him about the whole affair regarding Sirius Black and how he had been framed by Pettigrew. Harry, of course told me, Neville and Hermione everything later that night and thanked me for proving his Godfather's innocence.
And speaking of Harry, here he comes followed by his extremely talkative shadow, Colin.
"Good morning, Harry. What are you doing up so early on a Saturday?" I said.
"Go-good morning, Ben," Harry yawned.
Then I noticed the scarlet and gold robes he was wearing. "Quidditch practice?"
"Yeah," he groused.
"See, that's another reason I don't go for the tryouts - crazy team captains," I pointed out. "Good morning, Colin," I said to the smaller gryffindor.
"Good morning, Ben," yelled the ever excitable boy. "Are you going to the pitch, too?"
"No, I'm just finishing my morning run. Might show up after breakfast, though. Good luck, Harry."
"Bye, Ben," said Harry heading towards the quidditch pitch with Colin in tow.
After a quick breakfast, Hermione, Neville and I headed for the quidditch pitch. There we saw Colin enthusiastically beckoning us from one of the highest seats in the stands.
"Hi Colin. Where's Harry?" said Neville as we neared him.
"He's still in the Changing room," he informed us. "I'm hoping to get some good shots of the team in the air. Quidditch sounds awesome, doesn't it? My brother would be so excited about it! Oh, and I wanted to show this to you all!" He pulled out a photograph and started brandishing it in front of our faces.
It was a black-and-white picture that showed moving versions of Harry, Neville, Hermione, me and Colin standing in front of the fountain in the courtyard. As we watched, picture me raised 🤘 behind Harry and Neville's heads. Laughingly, both of them did the same to me while Hermione shook her head in fond exasperation.
While we were occupied by the photo, the gryffindor quidditch team came out of the changing room. Harry spotted us and made a beeline for us on his broom.
"You guys done?" Neville asked.
"Haven't even started," Harry complained.
"Are you kidding me? It's been over an hour! What were you guys doing in there?" I said.
"Oliver was boring us to sleep with his new training program," he replied dismissively, before making his way back to the pitch.
As the team took to the air, Colin started clicking pictures madly. "Look this way, Harry! This way!" he cried shrilly. In response, Harry turned his broom and flew as far away from Colin as he could. Okay, I like the little guy, but maybe he could tone down the enthusiasm just a little bit.
"What's going on over there?" said Neville, drawing our attention to the entrance of the field.
"What are the Slytherins doing here?" Hermione frowned as several people wearing green robes entered the field with broomsticks in hand.
"Let's go take a look," I said, watching the Gryffindor team descend to confront the newcomers. All of us, including Colin made our way down to the pitch.
"What's happening?" Neville asked Harry as we noticed Malfoy standing nearing Flint.
"What's happening, Longbottom is that everyone's been admiring the brooms my father has gifted the Slytherin team, thanks to me becoming their new seeker," said Malfoy smugly, pointing to the seven brand new Nimbus 2001 broomsticks held by the Slytherin team.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," retorted Hermione sharply. "They got in on pure talent."
Malfoy's smug look turned into an ugly scowl.
"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," he spat.
BANG!
There was a flash of white light, and in the place where Malfoy had been standing, there was a little white ferret, shivering in the grass. Everyone silently turned to look at me standing with my wand out and pointing at said ferret.
"Uh, uh, uh...." I said moving my wand to point at Flint and his cronies, "unless you want to join your new teammate down there, I suggest you keep your hands away from those wands, boys."
They slowly moved their hands away from their pockets, while looking at me warily. "Good," I remarked before turning to the ferret who was trying to run off.
"And where are you going? Come here," I said, applying a little Telekinetic Pull. It flew ten feet into the air, and fell with a smack in front of me, before levitating to my chest level.
"Draco, Draco, Draco...," I started in a patronizing tone, "ever since the first day we met, you've been an annoyance. But I have graciously overlooked that...after all, you've had the misfortune of being born to Lucius Malfoy, who has no doubt been giving you an education for years on how to be a professional arsewipe. So I have made concessions."
"However," I said with deliberate slowness, leaning over the cowering ferret, "there are some things that are just not done. Calling someone the M-word is one of them. And since mummy and daddy failed to teach you proper manners, that task unfortunately falls upon me. So here it is: if I ever see or hear you say that word again, there will be... consequences."
I subtly increased the force of gravity to lend weight to my words. Judging by the audible gulps around me, everyone got the message.
"Do you understand?" I asked the ferret that looked like it was about to pass out, "Nod if you understand." There was a furious bobbling of a furry head. "Good," I said, reversing the transfiguration.
With a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy reappeared, suspended in mid-air, before falling into a heap on the ground with his sleek blonde hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing. Looking malevolently at me with eyes filled with humiliation, he spat, "When my father hears about this, you will be expelled! I will make sure of it!"
"Yeah, I don't think so," I said nonchalantly. "Remember this lesson Draco, otherwise I'll be all too happy to reinforce it." Then I smiled and turned to the other players, "So, what's going on here?"
"We had the field booked for practice this morning and now the Slytherins are trying to steal it from us!" said Oliver. The other team members all nodded.
"We have a note from Professor Snape saying that we can use the field to train our new Seeker and work with our new brooms!" declared Flint, his team nodding behind him. He waved the note.
"Well, I don't see a problem, fellas," I shrugged. Both teams looked at me as if I were barmy.
"I'm sure that both of your teams need practice now that the summer holidays are over. Even professional teams spend a few weeks just reviewing their old plays, working the kinks out and getting back into shape before they try anything new at the beginning of their season. So, why don't you have a practice game? What better way to work off the summer doldrums than a jolly good friendly match!" I said, ignoring the evil eyes each team gave the other while the captains stared at me, aghast at the thought of cooperating.
"That's sorted, then," I said, then waited for a moment. "Well, what are you waiting for?" I made shooing motions with my free hand. "Get to it! Gryffindor can take this goal," I pointed to my left. "And Slytherin that one," I pointed to my right. "Go on. I have no doubt you all will have a fabulous time!"
Neither team was entirely happy with this, but the Gryffindors realised that in the presence of Snape's note, this compromise was the best they were gonna get. And as for the Slytherins, after witnessing my quick spellwork they were hesitant to disagree with me. Less than a minute later, both teams were on their brooms and in the air.
"That was brilliant, mate!" said Neville, as we made our way back to the stands. "But I have to say, today was the first time I thought you could be really scary."
"You thought I was scary?" I asked.
"Definitely," answered Neville while Colin nodded frantically.
"Good. A healthy amount of fear is good for you. Keeps you sharp, stops you from doing something foolish," I said easily. "Oh, and Colin, I want copies of those photos of Ferret Malfoy."
"You got it, Ben," Colin replied with a huge grin, having taken copious amounts of pictures earlier.
I turned to look at Hermione, who had kept uncharacteristically silent till now.
"Are you okay?" I gently asked.
"I'm fine. Honestly, I don't even know what that word means, although I could tell it was something really offensive," she said, brushing it off. "You could get into a lot of trouble if a professor saw you using transfiguration on a student, you know? You didn't have to do that."
"Yes, I did," I insisted. "It's a gentleman's duty to defend a lady's honour."
"Oh, I'm your lady now, are I?" Hermione said with a mischievous smile. "I suppose that makes you my knight in shining armour, Sir Benjamin Carter."
"Hmm, Sir Benjamin Carter," I mused. "I like the sound of that." We both chuckled.
It was hilarious watching the two teams trying to beat each other half-to-death without a referee to stop them, but no real harm came to any of them. The Slytherins needed weeks of practice before they could completely adapt to their new brooms, throwing off their timing and aim. They spent more time avoiding crashing into the stands and each other than trying to hit the other team. And those same handling problems kept the Slytherins safe from the Gryffindors — they were never where the Gryffindors expected them to be. Any accidents were just that. And in most cases self-inflicted.
After a couple of hours, both the teams having had enough practice for the day and not wanting to give up all their tricks, decided to call it quits.
"You missed breakfast, didn't you?" I asked Harry, as he hopefully looked across the Great Hall. Unfortunately breakfast time was over and the long tables were empty.
"Yeah," he sadly admitted.
"Honestly, Wood's a bit of a fanatic. Even more so ever since Gryffindor won the Cup last year," Neville remarked.
"Let's go down to the kitchens and get you something to eat," I said, before a thought crossed my mind. "Hang on, let me try something." I sat down on one of the long tables. "Um, Dinkly, can you get Harry something to eat, please? He missed breakfast, you see."
I waited patiently for a few seconds, while my friends looked at me strangely. After nothing happened, I shrugged. "Worth a shot," I said. Before I could get up though, a full English breakfast platter appeared on the table accompanied by a jug of chocolate-vanilla milkshake. I smiled back at my companions, vindicated. "Bon Appetit."
"So, what are we doing today?" asked Hermione as we sat down.
"We should go and visit Hagrid," said Harry, taking a bite out of a sausage.
"Good idea. We can do that now," I said. "And after lunch, we can go and check out our new clubroom."
"You finished it?!" said Hermione at once. Both Neville and Harry looked at me expectantly.
"Yep," I answered smugly. "Wait till you see it. It's mind-blowing."
Soon, we were once again out on the school grounds and making our way down the winding slope that led to the Gamekeeper's cabin. Fang's loud barks answered our knocks long before Hagrid even reached the door.
"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me," Hagrid smiled as he saw us, "come in, come in."
Inside we were surprised to find not just Fang, but also Teddy alongwith Rachel, Ginny and Luna.
"There you are! Where were you? I couldn't find you at breakfast," Rachel said to me at once.
"Sorry, Rachel, we had to take off early for Harry's quidditch practice," I shrugged and sat down on Hagrid's huge bed as there wasn't place anywhere else.
"Do they usually hold quidditch practice that early?" Luna asked, interested.
"No, that was just Oliver being a maniac," answered Harry, sitting down beside me and incidentally next to Ginny, who started blushing furiously and turned her head away.
"So, were you just watching them practice all this while?" asked my sister.
"Oh no, this particular practice session involved quite a bit more drama," said Hermione, while both Harry and Neville shared a laugh.
"What do ya' mean?" said Hagrid, putting down the teapot and offering us a plate of treacle toffee. Harry and Neville soon regaled our audience with the morning antics.
"You turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret?!" Ginny looked at me unbelievably while Luna and Rachel began laughing their hearts out.
"Serves the bloody git righ'," Hagrid said with a thunderous expression. "He should never have called Hermione that."
"I know. I normally don't bother with him, but this was a step too far for me," I said, forcefully chewing through the extremely sticky piece of treacle.
As we finished our tea, Hagrid invited us to check out the special pumpkins he had been growing for Halloween. In the small vegetable patch behind Hagrid's house were a dozen pumpkins the size of large boulders, and they looked like they weren't done growing yet.
"What have you been feeding them, Hagrid?" Neville asked walking around them, looking interested.
Hagrid looked over his shoulder to check that we were alone. "Well, I've bin givin' them...you know...a bit o' help..."
"An Engorgement Charm, I suppose?" said Hermione, looking amused. "Well, you've done a good job on them."
I noticed Hagrid's huge umbrella leaning against the back wall of the cabin... the one that contained the broken pieces of his wand. Poor guy, it mustn't have been easy for him to enroll in Hogwarts, being a half-giant and all. Merlin knows children can be cruel to anything slightly "different". And then that evil little turd Riddle had to get him expelled and his wand snapped. Talk about a hard life!
Then another thought struck me - in the original timeline, Hagrid was exonerated because another student was kidnapped while he was in Azkaban, thereby proving that he was not the one controlling the monster. Moreover, I'd bet anything that Hagrid was only allowed to teach COMC because Lucius Malfoy was no longer in the Hogwarts Board of Governors to make a fuss about it.
But now because of the changes I'd made, Hagrid's record will probably never be cleared of the false charges from 50 years ago. And there's no way Malfoy will let someone so loyal to Dumbledore, yet with a murky past gain a teaching position. Oh man, this is why I hate those stupid butterfly effects! I saved the school from being terrorised by a basilisk, but it may have come at the cost of Hagrid's happiness.
As lunchtime approached, we said our goodbyes to Hagrid and began our trek back to the castle.
"What have you girls got planned after lunch?" I asked the first year trio.
"Nothing much," said Rachel. "We were just going to walk around the castle...see if we can find one of those secret entrances Ginny heard her twin brothers like to use...check out the library, maybe. Why?"
"Well, if you don't have anything planned, you all are welcome to come and see our newly refurbished clubroom," I offered.
"Hang on," said Rachel with a frown, "I didn't know you were part of a club."
"I'm not. The room was given to me by Dumbledore for my experiments, but I didn't see why I couldn't also turn it into a place where my friends and I could hang out and have fun," I explained. "So, what do you say?"
"What do you think?" Rachel said to Ginny and Luna.
"Sure," said Ginny happily.
"I'd love to," Luna replied with a smile.
"Great," I said as we walked into the Great Hall for lunch.