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Chapter One

Beyond Space and Time

V3

"But even if You-Know-Who drops dead right now, we'll still be under the threat of expulsion from Umbridge!" Seamus was moving his hands emphatically, in a way to show how deadly serious and frustrated he was. "She's the worst threat right now!"

The entirety of the D.A. had already finished, either having succeeded or simply given up in casting their Patronuses. Some had already left, but most had stayed. They were either standing or sitting, on the ground or on a chair, but they were all listening to the conversation. It was getting a little heated.

Dean shook his head. "But if Umbridge was to drop dead right now, then we'd still have Voldemort. Either way, we've got trouble."

"If Umbridge was to drop dead right now, Merlin don't forbid it, then we'd still have Fudge to deal with," said Seamus.

"The whole Ministry, really," Astoria Greengrass chimed in, as her sister, Daphne, braided her hair.

"No," said Hermione, "I'm fairly certain the majority of the Ministry is uncertain as to which side they should take. That said, I have to say I'd rather have Voldemort drop dead now than Umbridge."

"Yeah, well," said Ron, "Voldemort is on a quest to kill every muggle-born there is, isn't he? Of course you'd prefer him dead first."

Hermione didn't seem to be sure whether or not Ron was backing her up or not.

Seamus scrunched up his face and sneered at Ron. "Haven't you paid attention to how Umbridge treats Firenze? Or Hagrid? You think she isn't a blood bigot as well?"

"Yeah, but mate," said George, "she isn't exactly trying to kill them, is she?"

"That you know," said Seamus, stalking toward the bookcases. "She might want to, for all you know! He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has a bit of a target on his head, doesn't he? Umbridge doesn't. He's powerful, but he's got limits. Not that Umbridge doesn't, but she's got authority, and that's just it. She's a sort of lawful evil." He started pulling books out, glancing at them, and shoving them back onto the shelf.

"What are you—" Hermione started, but Seamus interrupted her.

"I'm looking for something I haven't already fucking read, okay?"

Hermione held her palms up in peace.

"She's a sort of lawful evil," Seamus continued, turning back around. "He-Who-Must — ah, blast it — Voldemort can't just show up at the Ministry and whisper sweet things in Fudge's ears, make the Daily Prophet say all those horrible things about Dumbledore and Anna, can he?"

"He could if he took over," said Dean. "He could simply Imperius Fudge to do those things anyway."

Seamus rolled his eyes with a dramatic swing of his head. "Yes, but that's not the situation now, is it?"

"It could be," someone said.

Seamus's eyes nearly bulged out of his head with his irritation. "Yes, yes, it could be. Anything could be. The point is, that as far as we know, Fudge and Umbridge are at the top of their little scheme and no one is pulling the strings. Because I think we can all agree that if You-Know-Who was, that it'd be a whole lot worse. Agreed?"

There was a general murmuring of agreements.

"Right," said Seamus. "So tell me who's really more dangerous at this moment. Voldemort, who is in hiding and can only do so much, or Umbridge, who has the ear of Fudge and can sway half of the damn public? Who, at this very moment, is more likely to cause harm to Anna? Voldemort, who might be only in hiding for a long-term gain, but is nonetheless in hiding and isn't going to be knocking on Hogsmeade's doors anytime soon — or, is it going to be those impressionable morons who live in Hogsmeade, believe everything the Daily Prophet says, and are more than willing to jump into that nasty mob mentality?"

Anna blinked, coming out of her thoughts. She had been staring at the wall as she sat on her couch, paying only some attention to the conversation.

"This is getting dramatic," she said to Hermione, who was sitting on the same couch as her. "Impressionable morons, nasty mob mentality. Bless them, they're sounding like Dumbledore."

Disapproving of her mockery, Hermione pursed her lips. "And what do you think?"

Anna shrugged. "Evil's evil."

"Yes," said Hermione, "but which do you think is worse?"

"Who cares?" said Anna. "It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?"

"There's definitely no point in debating about it. All these details, levels of severity, where you feel the need to decide which is worse, which is more evil, which is more of a threat, then it just comes to the point where both are so terrible that it doesn't matter anymore, where it's evil regardless of the degree, when either one — greater, lesser, middling — is to such a magnitude that they should all be dealt with. And preferably swiftly. Which one goes first just depends on which is easiest to get rid of."

"Now who's talking like Dumbledore?" teased Hermione.

"I'm the leader of a group called Dumbledore's Army," sand Anna, and she noticed everybody was listening to her now. "Enough of this. Voldemort, Umbridge, Fudge, whoever — they all need to be dealt with. Would dealing with one over the other first prove to be beneficial? Maybe. But you're just wasting time. Do any of you have any ideas on how to get rid of Umbridge, or are you all still just as useless?"

"We finished with the Patronuses for today," muttered Seamus.

"And yet, you still haven't actually produced one."

Seamus grimaced. Dean smirked with satisfaction.

"And you, Dean," continued Anna, "you call that a Shield Charm? The tent in Seamus's pants when he watches me when he thinks I'm not looking could break through that like it was drywall."

Seamus turned nearly purple, and Dean gave a sad little laugh.

"We can't all be as good as you, you know," said Fred teasingly.

"Yeah, not all of us practice this stuff against the real thing regularly," said George.

Anna gave a little considering tilt of her head. "I am rather incredible, aren't I?"

The twins grinned, as did a few others, and Anna did her best to do the same, but it came out weak and forced. It had been a long time since she had truly smiled... must've been before the graveyard horror... The dead eyes of Fleur Delacour flashed in her memory.

"Right," she said. "I suggest we turn Umbridge into a toad. I can do it, I'm the best at Transfiguration here." Hermione coughed. "Then we'll put her in a room with Trevor." Neville coughed too.

"That's barbaric," said Padma. "Forcing her to — well, it's far too excessive."

"Technically," began Hermione in a tone they all recognized, "toads don't breed like that. But yes, I quite agree. It'd be too much."

"Didn't you want to give her to the centaurs?" said Anna.

"Centaurs don't do that!" said Hermione.

"According to muggle mythology —"

"That's muggle mythology —"

"So you admit muggles are inferior?" said Anna. "And therefore, coming from muggle parents, your opinion is also —"

Hermione smacked her across the back of her head while the group laughed. Astoria especially couldn't contain herself.

"Are you sure you all don't want to join Umbridge?" said Hermione. The effect was immediate: everyone sobered and Hermione gave herself a satisfied smile. "Good."

"We could just butcher her," suggested Anna, receiving mostly looks of horror. "Or we could kidnap her and have someone pretend to be her with Polyjuice Potion... Act just outrageously enough to get sacked, but not too much to be unbelievable... I volunteer. I'll pretend to run away and then take over as Umrbridge."

"You would have far too much fun with it," said Hermione as the others seriously pondered this idea.

"I deserve a bit of fun," said Anna.

"You get your fun every D.A. meeting."

"I do enjoy making fun of children."

"Yet, somehow," said Hermione, "you're the most childish of them all."

"Am not," said Anna.

"You two are very adorable and all," said Daphne in a bored tone, "but are we done or not?"

"No one's stopping you from leaving," said Ron, glaring at her.

"I don't want to leave if Potter's going to teach us anything else today!"

"I'm not," interrupted Anna before the two could go at it. "Let's wrap this up, you all, so Ron and Daphne here can get a room."

Daphne snorted and Ron reddened around his ears. But before either of them could say anything more, the door of the Room of Requirement opened slightly, but everybody heard it. Not wasting time to even close it, Dobby rushed over to Anna, two of his eight hats falling off in his sprint.

"Anna Potter, ma'am, she be saying — she be saying we is not to warn you, ma'am," the elf said shakily. "But — but…"

"She?" said Anna sharply, standing up. "Umbridge? What's she done? Dobby?"

The elf tugged on his ears, as distressed as he was when he tried telling her about Lucius Malfoy's plan on opening the Chamber of Secrets. "Anna Potter, ma'am…"

"Is she coming?" Anna's heart gave a hard little push at the thought of it. "Dobby, answer me, is Umbridge coming? Someone close that door!"

Dobby tried to kick himself and ended up falling to the floor in his attempt.

"Close the door?" someone said.

"Shouldn't we be leaving?!" another spoke.

When nobody moved to close it, Anna growled impatiently, pulled out her wand, and gave it a sharp swing at the door. It shut with force. A second later, there was a thud from the other side. Someone had been running to enter at the last second. She was right to not have sent everybody out; they would have been quickly caught.

Anna stood and stared at everybody, her mind whirling but coming up with nothing.

"Anna?" said Susan, visibly shaken. "What do we do?"

Anna turned on the spot and shot a ball of fire at list of all their names pinned up the wall, the DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY at the top quickly blackening and shriveling.

She couldn't think of what to do. Was there any hope of them all getting out of this? She looked around the ground below her, but could not find Dobby. He had apparently left, the little bastard.

She needed a way to get everybody out. It would be a disaster if Umbridge was to find a way through that door, and at that precise thought, there was an even heavier thud on the other side of it. An explosion of some kind. She had to decide now, she absolutely needed to get herself and everybody else far, far away from here, where Umbridge could never —

The ground lurched, the room shifted, and she thought for one moment she was having another panic attack, but it couldn't be, not this quickly —

She fell when the ground disappeared, and though she was too caught up in her own nausea to notice everybody else's, somewhere deep within her whirling — literally whirling — mind, she was sure everybody else was also feeling as though they had disappeared from existence, become a part of a void — and a horrifying thought hit her. What if she had just asked the Room to Vanish them all?

Then there was darkness as she collapsed on what felt like grass, and a fresh breeze swept through her black hair. She inhaled deeply. Though air within Hogwarts wasn't thick or unpleasant by any means, it certainly wasn't like this. She wasn't sure if the air outside of Hogwarts was this clean. Then her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, and she saw she was in a forest.

Though not like any forest she knew. Roots of trees sprouted from the ground and dove back into the dirt like one of those classic paintings of sea serpents; and an eerie mist had creeped in at the edge of the shadows, trapped by the ground and the nearly impenetrable treetops. Only the faintest light shone through them, allowing just enough light for her to see around her.

"Anna?" called out a voice in the distance. "Anna! Where did she go?"

Anna propped herself up on her elbows and sighed. With her wand still in her hand, she gave it a little twirl upward. Gold sparks erupted from the tip and flew up, fairly high, only stopping due to the treetops barring them passage to the sky.

"Anna?"

"Anna, is that you?"

"What the hell happened? Are we in the Forbidden Forest?"

"What if that's not her?"

Anna got up and made her way toward the voices.

As someone very familiar with the Forbidden Forest, she could safely say that this was most definitely not it. Regardless of the vibe the name gave, the Forbidden Forest didn't necessarily feel forbidden. It certainly didn't feel evil, Anna thought, clutching her wand tight as she took in more of her surroundings.

After passing by a few trees, she saw them, all together next to a tree, some leaning or sitting on one of its roots sprouting from the ground. Many of them looked frightened. Something caught her attention then from the corner of her eye. She paused, blinking, and looked to the dark trees. Anna wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she had seen something move in the shadows...

"Anna!" said Hermione, catching sight of her. She had twigs in her bushy hair. "Thank goodness. What happened? Where are we? Why weren't you with us? We all appeared here fairly close together, we thought that maybe you had stayed behind —"

"Hermione," said Anna, reaching the group. "I'm fine. We're fine."

"But where are we?" Hermione took a look around, as though the answer would be engraved into one of the trees. "This isn't the Forbidden Forest, is it?"

"Nah," said Fred.

"If it was," said George, "we'd know, trust us."

"Yeah," said Ron, "we'd know too. We've been in there enough."

"Not all of it," said Hermione. "Neither have you two, Fred and George."

Anna pointed her wand at the leaves above.

"Incendio," she said, and from the tip of her wand burst a fireball large enough to swallow an entire human. It shot through the treetops, leaving a circular glow from the burnt leaves, and journeyed into the night sky above, never hitting a ceiling.

"What's that mean?" said Lavender.

"It means we're definitely not still in the Room of Requirement," said Padma.

Anna dropped to her knees, placed her wand on the ground, and pushed her fingers into the dirt. It felt different from the Forbidden Forest as well. The Forbidden Forest's dirt pulsed with a certain kind of magic, not clean but not dirty, something like tap water, and this was not it. This dirt felt like poisoned water.

"Are you communicating with the forest?"

Anna looked up at Luna. "What? Of course not."

"Oh." Luna looked genuinely disappointed. "I thought you were."

Anna shook her head with dismissal and looked to Hermione.

"Hermione," she said, "do you know of any spell that'll tell us where we are?" Hermione shook her head. "Then Fred, George." The twins raised their eyebrows, looking ready to do whatever she asked. "Could either of you Apparate to Hogsmeade or something?"

Fred frowned. "We could try. But if we're really far away, and we try to Apparate that far…"

George made a grim noise of agreement. "We'll Splinch ourselves, no doubt about it."

"Damn it." Anna stood and looked around. "Nothing for it then. I asked the Room for a solution and it gave us this."

"What now?" asked Tracey Davis.

"Is this everyone?" Anna asked Hermione.

"It is," said Hermione. "I counted." She began pointing to everyone. "All four Weasleys, you, me, Luna, Dean, Seamus, the Patils, Lav and Nev, Katie, Susan, and the Greengrass sisters. All seventeen that had stayed after the lesson."

"Saving us for the last, Granger?" said Daphne with halfhearted disdain.

Knowing all this was the result of some massive problem she had likely created, and not wanting to deal with it quite yet, Anna ignored the others and looked up at the stars. There seemed to be something odd with the picture, but she couldn't figure it out.

Something was seriously wrong. She was rifling through her memory to think of any other magical forest in England — this place was magical — but could not think of any. Had she ignored too much in school, or were there truly no other magical forests in the country? If so, if her guess was correct, then it was entirely possible that they had been transported to another country.

"Can't Anna send one of those Patronus messengers?"

The Black Forest in Germany, perhaps? It wasn't necessarily magical in the same sense that the Forbidden Forest was, but it did have magical creatures in it. Vampires, bowtruckles, erklings, and the like. She couldn't remember what other things lay in the Black Forest, but if this was it, she wasn't particularly worried. She doubted it would be as dangerous as the Forbidden Forest.

"— Transfigure something into an owl and send it with a letter?"

"No, no, our owls are magical and you can't create magic through Transfiguration. It's one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration!"

"What about Anna?"

"What? Stop putting her on a pedestal, she can't defy the laws of magic!"

Anna heard something just then. A branch, a tree, something wooden, creaking and groaning in a way that was not natural, as though someone, or something, was bending it deliberately.

And then there were crows.

A whole murder of them, big and black, cawing, appearing from seemingly nowhere other than simply above. The screams from the less brave of the D.A. echoed as the crows swooped down and flew right into their group.

Anna swiped her wand at them — "Immobulus!" — and every one of them stopped in mid-flight and fell to the ground. The D.A. stared at their immobilized forms, a few of them still shaking, many turning their heads swiftly left and right.

"What was that?" Ron asked, flabbergasted.

Hermione stepped closer to Anna, her wand pointing at the crows. "Why did they attack like that? Crows don't do that."

Anna felt uneasy as she looked around and the rest began talking again. Hermione was right. Crows didn't do that. Maybe on their own, if one got too close to their young, but not as a whole group, suddenly, out of nowhere, for no particular reason. She suddenly wished she hadn't put off learning permanent protective enchantments.

She waved her wand in an uneven circle, letting loose her Patronus, a silvery doe. Everybody stopped talking at the sight of it, but she, Anna, spoke:

"Professor Dumbledore," she began, "I... well, I need help. We need help. You see, I was in the —" She cut herself off. Informing Dumbledore of what had happened, including the fine details, it could all be very bad.

"Anna?"

She looked to Hermione. "If Umbridge is with Dumbledore now, I can't send this Patronus." She gave a swing of her wand and the Patronus vanished. "No, Professor Dumbledore won't do." She recast the Patronus and began again. "Sirius, listen, put down the dumplings and pay attention. You know that dueling club thing I started? Yeah, well, Umbridge found out about it, but that room I used? The Room of Requirement? I asked it to hide us... and, well, it sent all of us into some forest. Not the Forbidden Forest."

She hesitated, unsure if she should say in front of the others that she was fairly certain they were no longer in the country.

"Send a Patronus back, preferably telling me how the hell to figure out where I am," she finished.

Satisfied, she let the doe run off. Only it stopped some twenty feet away, turning its head left and right, apparently confused as to where to go. Anna frowned. What was it doing? It had never had this problem before. These Patronuses needed one to know where the person generally was, so did this mean Sirius wasn't at Grimmauld Place at the moment? Or even in London?

They all stood there, watching her Patronus repeat its head turning, and doing absolutely nothing else. A full minute passed. Murmuring began when the second minute came by. Anna, feeling ever more uneasy, approached her doe.

It was almost robotic, the swiveling of its head. It was as though it was stuck on a loop and when she tried to command it to move, it would not do so. And when she summoned another Patronus and repeated the message, it did the exact same thing. Stood there, looking back and forth, eerily.

A tingle shot up Anna's spine. Her Patronus had never done this before. It was as though it couldn't go to Sirius.

Then she heard it again. A branch, a tree, something wooden, creaking and groaning in a way that was not natural, as though someone, or something, was bending it deliberately. And in the distance, just barely visible through the mist, something stood.

She froze, but the others, still whispering and muttering, were apparently oblivious.

The thing — for she knew not what else to call it — was tall. At least nine feet. It looked like some kind of forest scarecrow, with a deer skull for a head and limbs like branches.

And the way it moved — it was so unnatural it sent shivers down her spine. It walked near the tree closest to it, keeping its sinister face staring in her direction. Anna had the terrible feeling that it was gazing straight into her soul, and that she was being judged.

When it disappeared behind the tree, it did not come back out. Hermione noticed Anna's petrified state.

"Anna?"

"We need to go," whispered Anna.

"Yes, but where? What direction do — Anna, what is it? What did you see?"

At Hermione's words, the rest of the group quieted. But Anna didn't answer her. She pointed her wand at the tree the thing had disappeared behind, and with a flash of bright light, blew it to pieces.

"Anna!" said Hermione as others gasped.

As the bits of the tree fell back to the earth, it sounded as though they were groaning, deeply, as though in pain. Yet the removal of the tree did not show her anything. That thing was simply gone.

She turned back to the group. "Listen — listen, I said — we're being watched — stalked — possibly hunted." Hermione grasped her left arm tight, so Anna used her wand to point in a random direction. "I'll lead the way, but you're all to follow, got it? Stay close. Those who can perform the Shield Charm stick to the outside, those who can't on the inside."

There were a lot of mutters and questions, but they did as she asked, and Anna took the lead. Her wand remained out and ready, the Shield Charm on the tip of her mind.

As they walked, the forest around them creaked and groaned, something noticed by the whole company. It was becoming livelier. The transition reminded Anna of herself in the morning, lethargic at first, but eventually up enough to annoy Hermione and jinx annoying little kids. It was the next step that worried her though: she usually went and ate afterward. Anna quickened her pace.

"Anna?" Hermione said from next to her.

"I think this forest's going to eat us."

"What?" said Hermione incredulously.

"Later."

"Sorry," said Hermione. "It's just — no, you're right."

Eventually they came across not exactly what Anna had been hoping for, but something good enough. A cave. It would at least provide safety in the form of walls and only one entrance for anything malicious to enter through. Or so she hoped.

She hurried them all inside anyway. "Go on, in, in — Astoria, quit trembling and — oh, for the love of — Daphne, drag her inside, will you? Hermione, go throw some bluebell flames around, light the place up — and can you make them a warm color? Blue won't boost anyone's spirits."

Anna slashed her wand at the nearest tree and cut through half of its branches.

"Accio!" she said, Summoning a dozen of them. "Fred, George, take these inside and Transfigure them into some furniture." She Summoned a dozen more. "Hermione, turn these into beds."

Once they were all ushered in, Anna took one last look outside. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat. That thing, unnatural in its shape and movement, was standing some few trees away, still as a statue, staring.

Anna almost lifted her wand to try and attack it, but she had no idea if simple fire would affect it. And even if it did, was it worth the risk of a counterattack? No, she decided, it wasn't. She'd set up a guard for when they slept — it would probably just be her — and would leave it at that.

"Anna?" came a voice from within the cave.

"Yeah," she answered, not taking her eyes off the creature. "I'm coming."

Anna glanced up again at the stars, the terrible distant celestial bodies which said something sinister of their situation. She entered the cave, which was lit with floating orange flames and already had Transfigured cushions and beds and whatnot lying around. Grabbing a chair, Anna settled down by the entrance, her wand in her hand, her mind whirling, and prepared for a long night.

And then she realized what was so off about the stars, and her stomach felt as though it had been flipped upside down.

She couldn't recognize a single constellation.