Through The Dark Mists Of Time..

"Wake up, boy."

Harry groaned, pushed his hair out of his eyes, and looked up. A fat face with a bristle moustache was peering into his face. Harry quickly sat up and put on his glasses.

"Hurry up and get ready," said the owner of the fat face abruptly. "We have to leave in half an hour."

The door was shut, and Harry was alone. He wondered what was going on. The vacations were almost over, and even if the Dursleys were going somewhere on a holiday, they wouldn't take him.

There hadn't been any talk of going anywhere during dinner last night. But as Harry had been sent to his room halfway through dinner (because he had not locked Hedwig inside her cage, she had flown inside the dining room and pecked Dudley), he might have missed hearing about it. Grumbling, he went into the bathroom.

~*~*~*~*~

"Master Malfoy."

"*Unintelligible sound made by Malfoy*"

"Master Malfoy?"

"###$$" (Swear word used by Malfoy)

"Master Malfoy, your father sent me to wake you up."

"Get the hell out of my room."

"But is Master going to-"

"I said, 'GET OUT OF MY ROOM!' Do you want me to substantiate with physical action?"

"Yes, Master Malfoy..I mean no, Master Malfoy."

"Then get your filthy face out of here."

The house-elf bowed and went out.

"Blast that house-elf!" said Malfoy, punching his pillow.

"What's the matter, Draco? Didn't get your beauty sleep?"

Draco jumped up with a start. Standing at the doorway was his father.

"Er...Good morning, father."

"Not a very good morning for you, is it?"

Draco didn't reply.

"Never mind. Get dressed and come down. I have something of importance to tell you." Lucius turned and left the room.

Muttering something (probably swear words) under his breath, Draco made his way over to the bathroom.

~*~*~*~*~

"GINNY! GINNY WEASLEY!"

"Mum! Are you trying to wake up the entire wizarding world?"

"That's enough cheek from you, Fred." Snapped Mrs. Weasley.

"Go see if Ginny is awake. Ask her to come down immediately!"

'Boy, Ginny must have done something bad. Mum sounds really mad!' thought Fred to himself.

He went into Ginny's room. The bed was crumpled, as if someone had been sleeping on it, and had just recently gotten up. He went towards the bathroom and knocked lightly.

"Ginny?"

No answer. He opened the door and went inside.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry gave a gasp as he stepped inside his bathroom. Being a wizard, he had almost gotten used to anything that the wizarding world might offer him: from Hippogriffs to Basilisks, from Portkeys to Time-turners, from moving portraits to Animagi, nothing could have prepared Harry for what was before him.

~*~*~*~*~

Draco Malfoy kicked open his bathroom door and gave a groan as he banged his toe too hard. He began to curse and then stepped inside. He forgot all about his pain as he stared at what was inside, his mouth wide open in shock and surprise.

~*~*~*~*~

"Ginny?" Fred called as he stepped inside the bathroom. "Ginny, where are-" he stopped abruptly as he looked around him.

~*~*~*~*~

A cyclone. Or, was it a whirlwind? Harry's brain ran through what he had learned about cyclones and whirlwinds at the Muggle school he had attended before he went to Hogwarts.

The fact he couldn't comprehend was,

'How was there a cyclone in his bathroom?'

His mind immediately jumped to Voldemort. Perhaps this was some sort of trap set by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But Voldemort would never dare attack him in the Muggle world... or would he? After all, he had killed lots of Muggles when he was at the height of his power. And last year, Harry had seen him emerge stronger than before.

Harry slowly backed away from the bathroom into his room. Was it his imagination, or was the whirlwind moving towards him? His hands groped the bed. Ah! Found it! He raised his wand and pointed it at the whirlwind, though he didn't have any idea of what spell to use. Before he could make up his mind, the whirlwind had caught him up, and he could feel himself going round and round. The room was spinning before him...

~*~*~*~*~

'Is this father's idea of a joke?' wondered Draco aloud.

His father was notorious for inventing new hexes and tricks, which he often used on unsuspecting visitors. Draco was usually let in on the joke, and he also helped his father invent new ones. But this was the first time the joke was on him. (Pun intended, actually)

Draco stared at the whirlwind inside his bathroom, wondering if it was really one of his father's tricks or if it was someone else's Dark Magic. Maybe it was one of the Dark Lord's methods to communicate with his Death Eaters.

Draco went into his room and took up his wand. He began to mutter a spell to summon his father, but before he could complete it, he was caught in the whirlwind. Draco shut his eyes and clutched his wand tightly.

~*~*~*~*~

Fred looked around at Ginny's bathroom, appalled at the mess surrounding him. All the bottles, soaps, etc. were strewn about on the floor. The shower curtain had been ripped apart, and there was no sign of Ginny. He looked down at something glittering on the floor. It was a single hair from a unicorn's tail, and it was sticking straight out from Ginny's wand.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry landed hard on the ground, thankfully on his feet. He found that he had landed on some kind of huge green field. All he could see was a wide expanse of greenery. He took out his glasses, wiped them on his T-shirt and looked around. To his surprise he found himself staring into a very familiar pair of chocolate-brown eyes.

"Ginny!" He moved towards her.

"What-" Before he could complete his sentence, he banged into-

"Malfoy!"

If Malfoy looked surprised, it was only for a second.

"Looks like you can't see straight even with your glasses on, Potter." He sneered.

He looked around, and his glance fell on Ginny. His eyes widened.

"Well, well. If it isn't Potter's girlfriend, what's-her-name Weasel."

Before Harry could make a really original remark like "Sod off, Malfoy" or "Eat dung, Malfoy", Ginny said, with an exaggerated imitation on Malfoy's drawl,

"Well, well. If it isn't Malfoy, the bouncing ferret. Of all the animals we could have got stuck with!"

Both Harry and Draco looked at her in surprise. They had never heard Ginny speak like that before. She would have usually blushed furiously, and more than likely would have made a commonplace remark like "Shut up, Malfoy." Instead, here she was, giving back to Malfoy in his own coin.

Before Malfoy could retort, there was a distraction in the form of a small house-elf running towards them.

"Master Malfoy. Master Potter. Miss Weasley," it said, bowing to each of the three, in turn.

Harry stared. How did the house-elf know their names? He was sure it wasn't Dobby, Winky, or any of the other elves at Hogwarts.

"The Great Four wish to see you," it said.

Harry looked at the other two, bewildered. He found his expression mirrored on their faces.

"The Great Who?" asked Draco.

The elf looked shocked.

"Master does not know who The Great Four are?"

"No, I don't." said Draco irritably. "Who the hell are they?"

"They are the four greatest wizards of all time," said the house-elf reverently. "And they do not like to be kept waiting," the elf said impatiently, with a glance at Malfoy.

Harry hurriedly intervened before Malfoy could say anything else.

"Err... We would be pleased to come."

The elf bowed. The three of them followed.

"Potter, do you know what that thing is talking about?" burst out Malfoy.

Harry resented Malfoy referring to the house-elf as 'that thing', but he made no comment on the subject. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"Beats me."

"Then why did you have to say, 'We would be pleased to come'?" said Malfoy in a sugary sweet imitation of Harry.

Harry glared at him.

"Look, we don't have any idea where we are. We're practically trespassers! The least we can do is to be polite and do what they ask us."

By that time they had reached a huge castle. Surprisingly, it brought up a faint memory to Harry. With a start, Harry realized what the castle reminded him of. It was exactly like Hogwarts.

This castle, however, seemed newly built. A moat and a drawbridge had also been added to the usual Hogwarts layout. Harry gazed along the grounds interestedly. Yes, the lake was there too! He was about to point out the astonishing similarity of this castle to Hogwarts to the others when a red-haired lady came running out of the castle towards them.

"You have arrived!" she said excitedly.

Before any of them could reply, a dark-haired wizard Apparated beside her.

"So, they have arrived." He said.

Harry wished fervently that someone would explain what was going on in place of going on about the obvious fact that they had arrived. Any moron could see that they were present. But present where? And why was that lady looking so pleased to see them?

"They must be taken to the incantation room," said the dark-haired man abruptly.

"But Salazar, surely we are not going to do it so soon! Why, they have just arrived. They need to rest, and have things explained to them," said the red-haired lady in a slightly pleading tone.

Harry's ears pricked at the name of 'Salazar.' Was it Salazar Slytherin? But Slytherin was supposed to have lived ages ago. What was he doing here, in the 21st century? Maybe this was Slytherin's descendant. But Harry and Ginny both knew the only heir was Tom Riddle, who had no family. This still left Harry with the original question of who the man was.

Harry looked at the black-haired man with keen interest. He really was a very handsome man. He was nothing like the statue Harry had seen of Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets. He was quite a tall, imposing figure.

Before he could reply to the red-haired lady's words, a house-elf, whom Harry hadn't noticed walking across the grounds, spoke. Harry was sure that it was different from the one that had brought them to the castle grounds.

"If you please, Master Slytherin, and Mistress Hufflepuff," it said humbly, bowing to the dark-haired man and the red-haired lady in turn, "Master Gryffindor and Mistress Ravenclaw are anxious to see the 'Young Ones'."

The entire trio, Harry, Ginny, and even Malfoy, gasped. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin! These were the founders of their own wizarding school. Harry and Ginny glanced at each other nervously. Confusion, bewilderment and uneasiness had written themselves boldly across their faces. Even Draco was doing his best to keep his cool. Before any of them could voice their thoughts, the red-haired lady (whom I'll start referring to as Helga from now on) said,

"Oh, yes. We'll bring them in right away. Come, children."

The last bit was addressed to Harry, Draco, and Ginny. Draco looked like he was going to protest, but seeing as the others were already halfway over the drawbridge, he thought better of it. He followed the group silently.

Harry had an odd sense of deja vu as he stepped inside the castle. It was astonishingly similar to Hogwarts, and at the same time, dissimilar too. For one thing, it was not as big as the school they attended. From the outside it looked to be the same size as Hogwarts, but inside it was surprisingly smaller.

Helga and Salazar led them through a long, ornately decorated passageway. Harry found himself in a very familiar setting. This was Dumbledore's office!

For a moment, Harry simply stood dumbstruck. The blonde-haired man sitting at the table was certainly not Dumbledore, and the phoenix Fawkes was completely absent, as was his cage. In fact, there was nothing here that had been in Dumbledore's office.

Harry had been so sure that this was or had been Dumbledore's office. Harry had visited it a number of times in his second year at Hogwarts. This was the room the Headmaster occupied.

What WAS going on? What was this castle, which reminded him so well of Hogwarts? Where was Dumbledore, and how were the founders of Hogwarts here? The blonde-haired man spoke as if in direct answer to his thoughts.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, my Young Ones!"

"Hogwarts?!" said Draco, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "But this can't be-"

"This IS Hogwarts. This is out wizarding school, the very one that took so many long years for us to build to perfection," interrupted the blonde-haired man, who was, apparently, Godric Gryffindor.

"But then...where is Dumbledore? Where are the other teachers?" asked Harry, his brain in a whirl.

"I have no idea who Dumbledore is, nor do I know who the 'other teachers' are, but I believe I can hazard a guess as to where they are." said Godric Gryffindor. "They are probably in the Hogwarts of the future."

"Hogwarts of the future?" blurted Ginny. "Do you mean that this is...Do you mean we're in-"

"The past?" Draco supplied the final words to her question.

Godric nodded his head, smiling. "Yes, my Young Ones, you are very much in the past. I'm sure you'll want to know all about it, but I have been given strict instructions to tell you nothing before you have eaten something and refreshed yourself."

He beckoned the house-elf. "Show them into the Great Hall. Rowena will receive them there."

The trio followed the house-elf, quietly even bursting with questions. As soon as they were out of earshot, Ginny burst out, "The past! But how-"

"It was obviously the whirlwind that brought us here," said Draco in an annoyingly superior voice, as if he couldn't believe that Ginny was so naive.

Then he seemed to think better of his reply, furrowing his eyebrows. Perhaps he had been too quick to speak. The others had never said they'd seen a whirlwind.

"Obviously it was the whirlwind," retorted Ginny, clearing up any of Draco's doubts. "What I meant, and what you obviously did not have the mental capacity to figure out, was why the whirlwind brought us here."

Cutting off a sniping remark from Draco, Harry announced that perhaps they'd find out soon. They were at the Great Hall. As they entered Harry was again struck by the similarity.

'It looks exactly like the Great Hall at our Hogwarts,' thought Harry.

This was the same Hogwarts, after all. But there were a few differences that didn't take Harry long to notice. There were tables for teachers and no house tables anywhere. There was, however, one long table that ran the length of the centre of the hall. A slender, raven-haired lady occupied a chair at the head of the table. She rose as they approached and said in a positively musical tone,

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Hope the travel wasn't too uncomfortable?" Not leaving them with the chance to answer, she continued, "Only three of you have arrived? Where is the fourth one?"

She turned to the house-elf. "Ask Godric to come, now," the woman said in an imperious voice.

Something in her voice was so commanding that Harry immediately turned to go call Godric. It was only Ginny clutching his hand and whispering fiercely, "Harry, what do you think you are doing?" that made him stop. It was like being in the presence of a veela. You wanted to do anything that might please or impress them.

"Sit down," the woman, whom Harry assumed was Rowena, said.

She seated herself at the head of the table. Harry and Ginny sat to her right, while Draco sat to her left. As soon as they were seated, the house-elves brought the food to the table.

Harry marveled to himself at the array of elaborate-looking dishes set out. The house-elves began to serve them.

Harry found himself thinking of the Hogwarts of the future, where all one had to do was look at the plate and say the name of whatever food item he wanted at the feast of their fourth year. Things were quite different in the past, and they were soon to find out exactly how different and difficult the past could really be.