Amulet of Time 3: The Wolf and The Pelican

Chapter 2: Remember Us?

As soon as all of the arrangements for school had been made, the four time travellers and Dumbledore headed into Harry's room, from where they took a pinch of floo powder each and threw it into the fireplace. Calling out their destination, they fell out of the fireplace in the entrance hall of Domus Corvus Corax and headed straight to the ball room, where several people were already waiting. Before they went through the door, the four teenagers turned themselves invisible and stood in the corner, waiting for the rest to arrive. Dumbledore, with Fawkes on his shoulder, sat at the head of the table and looked out over the assembled crowd. The teachers from Hogwarts were the last to arrive, Minerva, Filius and Hagrid looking at their watches to make sure they would have time to get back to the school before the students arrived. The four in the corner watched in fascination as Minh and Eustace entered. They looked so much older than the last time they had seen them. After all, they were twelve when they left, and were now forty three. When everyone was seated, the headmaster stood up to speak.

" Everyone, I am sorry for calling you here on such short notice, especially my fellow professors. I do know the students will be arriving in little over an hour, so I will be brief. While I was sitting in my office earlier a rather remarkable thing came to pass. Four former students of mine popped in to see me rather unexpectedly. Now, some of you will understand what is going on when you see them, and some of you will not. For those who have never met these individuals, or do not know their secret, I will allow them to briefly summarise their situation."

Everyone was looking at the headmaster in curiosity and confusion. After a few moments, comprehension started to dawn in the eyes of Eustace and Minh.

" Harry," the elf whispered.

" The very same," the boy said as he stepped forward, lifting the invisibility spell. Both Minh and Eustace were on their feet in seconds and embracing him tightly. Harry hugged back with everything he had, silent tears of happiness falling down his cheeks.

" Don't we get a hello?"

The three pulled apart to stare at Ron, who had a decidedly cheeky grin on his face. Minh and Eustace went to greet the other three while Harry composed himself. It seemed like only hours since he had parted with his two friends, and in reality it was, but he was still emotional. This was his family, after all. The family he had long wanted to know, but had never had the opportunity to meet. When everyone had said hello, the group turned to the rest of the Order, some of which looked shocked, and some of which just looked confused.

" Um…I suppose we'd better explain," Harry said, taking his seat to the right of Dumbledore. Many people gave him strange looks for his choice of seat. In all the time most of them had been in the Order, no-one had sat at Dumbledore's right side. It just wasn't done. Not one of them had earned the privilege of being the headmaster's second in command. A few of the younger members were going to protest that a mere teenager was presuming so much. However, before they had a chance to say anything, Harry stood up to address them all.

" Hello, my name, as you have probably guessed, is Harry. These are my friends, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Some of you will know me, and some of you will not. For those of you who do not, I will briefly tell you about my companions and myself. We are sixth year students at Hogwarts this year, but last year we completed our fifth year in 1944. This may sound confusing, but it is really quite simple. We are from the future. You may find this hard to believe, but it's true. Being members of the Order of the Phoenix, you are being entrusted with this information. As it is strictly Order business, it will be covered by the secrecy spell, so you will not be able to speak about this to anyone. I am not prepared to go into details about the future, as that may result in a disastrous change in time. All I will say, is that we are from the year 1995. We came here using a magic amulet known as the Amulet of Time. This is the third time period we have visited, the first being in the time of the Hogwarts Founders, and the last being the school year 1943 to 1944. We are capable warriors, so I want no-one to question our ability to fight, as we will take it as a personal insult. Do I make myself clear?"