章 27: Surprise Enlightenment?!

Cross appeared behind Harry and Hermione, who were hiding behind pumpkins. The two didn't notice him, until he squatted behind them and whispered "Don't scream unless you want your past selves to find you."

Hermione and Harry jumped, scared out of their wits. Hermione whispered angrily "What are you doing here?!" Cross said "I was going to watch Buckbeak's executions for... Well anyway, I saw you two and your past selves so I thought I'd tag along. I have nothing else to do and staying in the castle is really getting boring."

Harry quipped "I thought you were just a nerd." Cross retorted "Coming from you?" Harry turned back saying "Fair enough." Cross smirked and felt it was fun to act out every once in a while.

Harry said "That's Pettigrew!" Hermione stopped him and Cross said "Oh? You know?" Harry looked at him and said "You knew?!" Cross nodded and said "I knew the first time I saw the rat. I only knew he was an Animagus though." Harry turned back and Hermione moved to the side before throwing a rock and breaking a vase.

Cross looked at Hermione in confusion and Hermione threw another rock, hitting Harry in the head.

The Harry in Hagrid's shack looked out the window and saw Dumbledore and two other men before moving.

Hermione said "They're coming, go into the woods!" the three went into the woods and hid behind a tree as the past Ron, Harry, and Hermione hid behind the pumpkins. Hermione looked at herself and mumbled "Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?"

Harry pulled Hermione out of the way and their past selves looked back. Before running back up the hill towards the castle.

Harry, Hermione, and Cross moved towards Buckbeak and Cross asked "You're saving Buckbeak?" the other two nodded and Cross snapped his fingers as he cooed "Come, Buckbeak. Here boy." smacking his lips together making kissing noises.

Hermione and Harry looked at him strangely and Buckbeak chirped before walking towards Cross, nuzzling against his face happily. Harry took the chain off the post and they escaped into the woods, disappearing from Hagrid's shack.

A while later

Cross was sitting on Buckbeak's back as they walked through the forest. Hermione and Harry were talking and stopped when they could see the Weeping Willow. Cross stroked Buckbeak's neck and said "Lupin's here too? Oh and Snape..." his eyes narrowed on Snape and Hermione sat down as she said "Now we just wait."

Cross asked "What were you guys doing before?" Harry explained "Sirius Black is my god father and they were trying to kill Peter Pettigrew because he betrayed my parents, giving out their location to Voldemort. When we got out of the Weeping Willow, Lupin transformed into a Werewolf and attacked us, Sirius fought him off and almost died from a Dementor attacked but we were saved by an unknown Wizard, which I believe to be my father."

Cross nodded and said "And then?" Hermione said "And then? Are you not surprised at all?" Cross replied "I knew Lupin was a Werewolf.. As for Sirius Black, I'm mildly surprised" lying through his teeth. Harry continued "When I woke up in the hospital, they had already taken Sirius and were about to give him to the Dementors. So were gonna save him."

Cross nodded and said "Oh. Good luck to you then." Harry said "Thanks." Hermione was speechless and said "You're not going to help?!" Cross looked at her and said "Why would I help? I owe someone a favor but it's neither of you. Speaking of which, you still owe me a favor."

Hermione suddenly remembered and said "Right.." after which she mumbled softly "How can I ever return your favor when you keep saving me..." Cross heard her but said nothing, he looked at Buckbeak before waving his wand and shrinking him down, placing him in his beast bag and walking to the side.

He was out of sight and jumped into his bag, disappearing before landing on the ground.

Buckbeak looked around curiously and Cross said "Find a nice place Buckbeak." Buckbeak chirped and flew off to an empty space, under the watch of Blue, Carl, and Selena.

Cross threw an Atmospheric Charm at him and the area Buckbeak was it changed. Tall grassy mountains sprouted from the ground and the trees in the arena vanished. Buckbeak was thrilled and nested on top of a mountain, before resting.

Cross fed all the beasts before leaving the bag and putting it back on his back, walking back to the other two.

Harry was talking about what he saw at the lake "It was a massive Dragon! I really think it was my dad, Hermione." Hermione said "But Harry.. Your dad is-" Harry cut her off and said "Dead. I know, but I just felt like it had to be him!"

Cross only came when Hermione spoke and didn't hear the first part.

Hermione looked over and said "Here we come." Harry pointed at his past self and Sirius as he said with a smile "You see me talking to Sirius there? He's asking me to come and live with him. When we free him, I won't have to go and live with the Dursleys anymore, it'll just be me and him. We can live in the country! Some place you can see the sky, I think he'll like it after all those years in Azkaban."

Cross looked at Harry and felt pity for him. Poor kid, didn't know his parents and from the sound of it, his uncle's family are real assholes. Cross forgot that he didn't know his parents either.

Hermione said "Let's go." Harry nodded and they left, Cross followed them at a leisurely pace, wanting to see where this goes.

They stopped in a bush and Hermione startled howling. Cross was alarmed by this clearly mad woman and covered himself in Dark element string, disappearing into the darkness. Harry said "What are you doing?!" Hermione replied "Saving your life."

Werewolf Lupin turned around and bolted towards Hermione and Harry, who immediately started running for their lives as Lupin chased them. Cross stood by the side, invisible, as he watched Lupin go before going in a different direction.

Cross came to a frozen lake with Sirius and Harry on the other side. He looked at Sirius and felt that he could repay the favor of the information by saving his life. Not a bad trade for Sirius.

Cross was still invisible as he pointed his finger out and whispered "Expecto Patronum." a bright silver swirl formed and a giant dragon flew out, flapping it's wings and blowing away all the Dementors, saving Sirius and Harry's life.

Past Harry slumped to the ground and passed out.

Cross' ear twitched and he heard foot steps behind him, he immediately teleported away while he was still invisible.

Harry went to where the Patronum Charm was cast but felt nothing. He was confused and Hermione said "What was that?" Harry said "My dad, for sure!"

Cross brought Buckbeak with him and appeared behind Hermione as he said "What happened?" Hermione looked back and said "Where did you go?" Cross said "I ran away as soon as you started howling. I found Buckbeak by the way."

Harry was still looking at the spot Cross was just at. Cross kinda felt bad, giving Harry false hope but he wasn't going to say anything.

Harry and Hermione got on Buckbeak and Hermione said "Let's go back. Sirius is waiting in the tower." Harry said "Can't we just get him right now?" Cross tapped Buckbeak twice as he said "If you got Sirius now, then you would have no reason to go back in time which means that you both will cease to exist immediately."

Harry was stunned and Hermione nodded as she said "That's right." before Buckbeak flew off towards Hogwarts.

Buckbeak landed on a tower, Harry and Hermione got off and rescued Sirius before getting back on Buckbeak. Cross looked at Sirius before tapping Buckbeak twice and flying off.

Buckbeak landed in an old courtyard, Harry and Sirius got off. Cross and Hermione got off as well, but Cross held Hermione back and shook his head when she looked at him.

Cross turned around and stroked Buckbeak softly, thinking about something. He brushed his hand against Sirius' head before, everything he placed was gone and there were new wards, charms, spells, etc.

Cross didn't like that, not at all. Everybody's barrier has been broken already, which means that the mastermind, whoever it is, probably knows who he is. Cross' eyes narrowed, things were going to get bumpy in the future. They may not know he's an Elf, but they surely know he's faking his talent.

Cross calmed down and analyzed everything, this may not be a bad thing. Whoever it is may start making moves in the dark, pushing him to the spotlight to force out his secrets. There was also the flip side, they may just come after him directly.

Cross was angry, all this work for nothing. He'll continue to stay low-key, he wanted to see how he was going to get pushed into the spotlight. A cold sneer slowly formed on his face, if they wanted him to show off, he'll show off.

Sirius walked over and said "Excuse me, lad. Can I borrow him?" Cross looked into Sirius' eyes and sighed before nodding as he said "Bring him back someday. I'll keep him." Sirius smiled and said "No problem..." he paused before saying "Do we know each other?"

Cross shook his head and said "Not anymore. Farewell." as he slapped Buckbeak's behind, sending Buckbeak soaring into the sky before Sirius could answer.

Cross watched him go before seeing Hermione and Harry running inside, Cross sighed and followed them. He was in a bad mood and maybe making fun of Ron would make him feel better.

Cross trailed behind the duo as they pushed the door open to the infirmary and saw themselves spinning the necklace.

Cross looked at the past Hermione and Harry and his eyes turned vacant as he entered a daze. His hair turned Red to Black to White to Yellow to Red, in a cycle before an orange light burst out from around him, waving out from his body, fizzling out in a circle.

Cross returned from his daze and blinked his eyes in confusion before remembering what just happened.

Hermione shouted "Cross!" Cross looked over and said "What?" Hermione said "I called you like 10 times, your hair started changing quickly and you looked like you were in a daze! Are you okay?"

Cross looked around and said "Yeah. I'm fine. That was weird." Harry nodded and said "Extremely." Ron chimed "By the way, where the fuck did you three come from? Harry and Hermione were right here, then they were over there!"

Hermione said "Ron, are you loopy?" Harry added "Yeah, are you sure you're alright?" Ron said "Oi! Don't fuck with me, I know what I saw! Cross, you saw it too right?" Cross just shook his head. Ron started to doubt his own life, maybe he really wasn't okay?

Cross turned around and left the infirmary, going back to his room.

As soon as he got inside, he teleported to the Room of Requirement and held out his hand. An orange glow appeared and he touched the ground, an orange bubble appeared and expanded, turning into a dome.

Cross threw an apple, from his bag, inside the orange dome and it started rotting before turning to dust. Cross was shocked and mumbled "Time?!" he waved his hand and the dome disappeared. Cross pointed and an orange string came out.

Cross was silent and took back the string before merging with the clones. He sent them back out and tasked them to continue as he went to his room and sat on the bed, he opened his palms and an orange glow appeared in each palm.

He started studying the Element of Time, slowly getting used to it, so he use it easier. This could be a deadly trump card if used correctly, it could also speed up his training significantly.

And so, Cross spent the rest of the year, studying his Time Element and occasionally seeing Luna here and there, while continuing to be on the lookout for any suspicious actions by the teachers or anyone at Hogwarts.

Everything passed by suspiciously smoothly and Cross' 3rd year passed right by.

The night before they left

Cross appeared in the Room of Requirement and placed a Time bubble to slow down the time so the Clones could practice for longer while he was gone for two months.

Cross' proficiency with handling Time became somewhat better, he could slow time now, but only a little bit. Instead of 24 hours a day, if you were sitting inside the Time bubble you would have 36 hours.

The reason why the apple rotted so fast when he first tried was because he just set up a fast-forward time bubble, set to an extremely fast speed, even Cross didn't know how fast it was, but he was glad he threw an apple instead of testing it on himself. He might've been a shriveled old man if he stepped inside it.

After arranging everything, Cross nodded and left the Room of Requirement, going to sleep and leaving the next day with all his stuff packed.