Harry Potter and the Changing of History
By: Kari Phillips, Danielle Line, & Ginger Muse
Additional Help Provided by: Donald Brooks, Sandra Charpenter, Brent Sloan
Chapter One: Owls
It was a gloomy day at number four, Privet Drive. It had been raining for two days and Harry Potter, the boy who lived, had been stuck in the house the whole time. He had not heard from any of his friends since the last day of school, and Hedwig has been gone for four days now. He doesn't worry about her being out so long because he is used to her taking forever to get back. But on that cold, wet night she returned with four other owls with her.
Harry opened the window and let Hedwig and the other owls into the room. Two of the owls he recognized. One was Pig, Ron's' owl and the other was one of the school owls from Hogwarts. He had no idea who the other two belonged to or who sent them.
Harry reached for Ron's letter, took it off Hedwig, ripped it open to read the shortest letter he'd ever seen Ron write him.
Harry
Something has happened and mum and dad will be arriving shortly to pick you up.
Ron
Harry was stunned by Ron's letter. 'What's happened that's so bad that they have to get me immediately?' He put Ron's letter down and read the letter from Hogwarts.
Harry, there's
been an attack. I want you to go and stay with the Weasleys. I will
be there later on to fill you in. Don't be too worried, and don't do
anything rash. Albus Dumbledore
Harry slowly sat down
on his bed as he reread the letter from Professor Dumbledore. His
mind was working hard trying to understand the meaning of the
contents of the letter.
'Attack on whom? Where?'
He stood up and began to pace the floor.
'How can I act rash when know one tells me anything.'
He crumbled the letter in his hand, as
he grew madder with each passing moment.
There was a loud hoot
and his eyes followed the sound to see Pig and the two remaining
unknown owls were still perched on his window sill.
One of the unfamiliar owls' was a beautiful Eagle owl that looked like it belonged to a rich family if you went by its extravagant collar. The other one was the complete opposite. It looked wild and dangerous. And he somehow got the feeling that this owl didn't bring good news.
Harry noticed that Pig also had a letter tied to his ankle, which was unusual considering he had already gotten a letter from Ron. He opened the letter from Pig and saw that it was from Ron, but dated 3 days ago. Pig must have gotten lost. It was the usual chatty, when are you going to be able to come stay with us letter. Harry knew that Ron wrote this letter before the attack or whatever it was happened. He couldn't decide which letter to open next. The one from the rich owl, or the one from the dangerous owl.
He decided to get the bad news first. He very carefully untied the letter from the dangerous looking owl. As soon as he did, the owl snapped at him and flew to get some water in Hedwig's cage. Harry was too busy opening the letter to shoo it away.
He opened the letter with tremulous hands. It was from Hermione. Harry felt a tight pain in his chest when he recognized her handwriting. It wasn't her usual neat, perfect handwriting, either. He could tell that she was terrified when she wrote this letter.
Harry, I'm so sorry. I
don't know what happened. I was on the way home with my parents when
we were attacked. He has me Harry. He hasn't told me what he wants. I
found this owl; well it kind of found me. It had a quill and
parchment with it. It was really strange. I thought about it for a
while, and I don't think it's a trap. I know the owl is bad looking
but it's been really nice to me. Bringing me bread and water. It's
helping someone and I have no choice but to trust it. I don't know
what Voldemort wants with me, other than to get to you. Please don't
come after me. Let the Order handle it. I'm begging you Harry. I
couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. I've got to
send this letter out. I've already been here for two weeks. I think.
Got to go. All my love, Hermione.
Harry
was almost in tears when he finished reading the letter. Voldemort
had Hermione. His worst fears had been realized. He didn't know what
he was going to do, but he knew he had to help her. He had to get her
back. He looked at the other owl. And then he looked closer at the
owl's collar. And he saw something that made his skin crawl. A name.
Malfoy.
"Malfoy!" Harry read it over and over again just to make sure it was really there. He can't believe he didn't recognize it at first glance. As many times as he'd seen Malfoy getting packages from home in the Great Hall. A thousand thoughts went through his head. Is this from Draco? Did Lucius escape? Is his wife a Death Eater? Do they know what's going on? Do they want to help? Harry pushed that last thought out of his head. He knew that wasn't a possibility. He took the letter from the Malfoy's owl. It was all he could do for the moment. It took all of the decency in Harry's body and mind not to kill the owl on the spot. Instead he let it fly away. But it didn't. It seemed it was waiting for a response.
Harry opened the letter. It was what looked to Harry like a women's writing. It read something like this.
Harry Potter: We have something of yours. If
you ever want to see it alive again, you will do exactly what we tell
you. Don't tell anyone. Or we will kill it. More instructions will
follow.
"Not very articulate are they?" Harry thought to himself.
He noticed that the owl still hadn't left.
"What do you want?" he yelled at the owl. "They don't want an answer."
Then the owl did something very peculiar. It winked at Harry, then shook it's head. A small rolled up piece of parchment dropped from underneath the owl's collar.
He opened it up. It looked like it was from Draco.
Potter, The Death Eaters have Hermione. Don't
ask me why I'm telling you this. I have my reasons. I don't know what
their plans are yet. I've been sending her bread and water. And a
quill and parchment. She might have already gotten a letter to you by
now. I will try and find more out. I'll keep in touch. Don't
write me, I'll write you. Draco
Harry was to say
the least, stunned.
Draco Malfoy paced up and down in his bedroom at Malfoy Manor. He had taken a great risk in sending that owl to Granger knowing full well she would try and contact Potter and if he knew Potter, he was bound to send a note back to her. She would not know it was his owl unless Potter told her. He only hoped the Gryffindor was smart enough to keep that information to himself. Granger would never have taken the bread and water if she had known it was from him. But he did what he had to do to keep her alive. It was up to Potter to take the next step.
Meanwhile, back in Harry's bedroom, he was pacing back and forth trying to decide what to do. He thought he'd better write Hermione back first. He got out a new piece of parchment and his quill and sat down to write one of the hardest letters of his life.
Hermione,
Are you okay? Are you hurt? Keep taking the food and water from the owl. You are right someone is helping you. But I don't know why, right know. They sent me a letter saying they'd keep in touch. I'm sending you extra scraps of parchment. If you don't have anywhere to hide them, just send them back. I'm so sorry. He did this because of me. Dumbledore already knows. He's having me go to the Weasleys. I don't think Ron knows that it's you though. I'm not going to tell them that I'm in contact with you. It will only put them all in danger. I promise to do anything and everything in my power to get you out of there. I too, couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. Please write me back and let me know that you're not hurt. I promise you won't be there much longer. I need you to be strong. For me.
All my love,
Harry.
He found some extra pieces of parchment and a small bottle of ink and tied them to the owl's leg. He then ruffled around in his desk looking for something that he knew would help her. It was a picture of them in their first year. He didn't really want her to know that he made Ron leave the frame, but she was worth it. He told the owl to hold on, and ran downstairs to find some food to send her.
After the owl was all loaded up, it took off into the night and Harry silently prayed that it found her fast, and alone.
He sat down ready to write another letter.
Ron, I can't
wait to go to your house and talk to Dumbledore to find out exactly
what happened. Do you know anything about what happened or to whom?
Harry
Harry looked at the letter, and thought that
it was too short but he needed to find out if Ron knew anything about
the attack, with out mentioning that Hermione was the one that the
Death Eaters held captive. He folded the letter and thought about
putting it on Pig's leg, but remembered how he had gotten lost and he
couldn't wait to see how much Ron knew. So he tied the letter to
Hedwig and sent her off.
As Harry watched Hedwig go, he wondered if he would ever see Hermione again. He lay on his bed and prayed with all his might that she'd be safe and that he would be able to get her out of there.