Future Nostalgia / Harry Potter Fanfic

The First Quidditch Match

Hermione and Estella soon devised a very clever method of communicating the time and date of the next meeting to all the students in case they needed to change it at short notice, because it would look so suspicious if people from different Houses were seen crossing the Great Hall to talk to each other too often. They'd given each of the members of the D.A. a fake Galleon (Ron became very excited when he saw the basket at first, convinced that she was actually giving out gold.

"You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" Hermione said, holding one up for examination at the end of their fourth meeting. The coin gleamed fat and yellow in the light from the torches. "On the real Galleons, that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting he'll change the number on his coin, and because we've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."

A blank silence greeted Hermione's words. Hermione looked hesitantly at Estella, who looked just as confused at the faces upturned toward them.

"Well, we thought it was a good idea," said Estella uncertainly, "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there? But...well, if you don't want to use them..."

"You can do a Protean Charm?" asked Terry Boot.

The two nodded. They'd divided the coins into an equal numbers and charmed them.

"But that's...that's N.E.W.T. standard, that is," he said weakly.

Estella shrugged uncomfortably as Hermione modestly said, "Oh...well, yes, I suppose it is..."

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" he demanded, staring between the both of them. The hat sat on her head for ten minutes before it made a decision to place her in Gryffindor; apparently, she fit each house.

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," said Hermione brightly, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of assent and everybody moved forward to collect one from the basket. Harry looked sideways toward Estella.

"You know what these remind me of?"

"No, what's that?"

"The Death Eaters' scars. Voldemort touches one of them, and all their scars burn, and they know they've got to join him."

"Well...yes," said Estella quietly. "That is where we got the idea...but you'll notice we decided to engrave the date on bits of metal rather than on our members' skin..."

"Yeh...I prefer your way," said Harry, grinning, as he slipped his Galleon into his pocket. "I suppose the only danger with these is that we might accidentally spend them."

"Fat chance," said Ron, who was examining his own fake Galleon with a slightly mournful air. "I haven't got any real Galleons to confuse it with."

Harry grinned at her. "Ravenclaw's missing out," he said, smirking.

Estella hit her shoulder against his and blushed. "Harry!"

October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds, and driving rain, and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces. The skies and the ceiling of the Great Hall turned a pale, pearly gray, the mountains around Hogwarts became snowcapped, and the temperature in the castle dropped so far that many students wore thick protective dragon skin gloves in the corridors between lessons.