Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Guardians of Time. Those belong to my most favorite authors: JK Rowling and Marianne Curley.

Background information: This takes place in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's seventh year at Hogwarts, but only after the first book of the Guardians of Time trilogy. Rochelle has already finished her debriefing and is a full-fledged and fully trusted member of the Guard.

Anyone who has not read Guardians of Time must do so because it p\/\/0n5 Harry Potter.

"I still can't believe you went that whole year using a Time-Turner to get to all your classes!" 17-year-old Harry Potter remembered, walking back to the Gryffindor common room with his friends Ron and Hermione.

"The only difficult part was all the homework," defended Hermione.

"Yeah, that's why you were always so tired," Ron commented sarcastically. "Personally, I would hate having to constantly go back in time."

At that precise moment, three people seemed to fall from the ceiling, landing neatly on their feet in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Among the three newcomers there were two girls—one with blonde hair and brown eyes, the other with black hair and green eyes—and one boy with brown hair and blue eyes.

For a moment the two groups just stared at each other. Then the blonde girl turned to her male friend and tugged on his arm, exclaiming, "Ethan, he's real! Harry Potter is real!"

"Calm down, Isabel," the black-haired girl said to the blonde, rubbing her temples. "You're giving me a headache."

"Besides," Ron added unsteadily, "everyone knows Harry's real. He's 'The Chosen One,' isn't he?"

"Ron, there's something wrong with this picture!"

"Like what?" Ron asked Hermione, bracing himself for a long and complicated list of every suspicious aspect of these people, even though they were wearing Gryffindor uniforms and looked to be about their age.

"Like how, even though they look our age and their uniforms indicate that they are Gryffindors, we have no clue who they are? Or like how it is IMPOSSIBLE TO APPARATE INSIDE HOGWARTS!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned back to the three newcomers, different thoughts running through their heads. Harry suspected the three to be Death Eaters; Hermione wanted to know how they got into the school if they didn't Apparate; and Ron was trying to decide which girl was more attractive.

The other three people seemed struck dumb for a moment, until the boy asked Harry, Hermione, and Ron if he could speak with his two friends for a moment. Without waiting for an answer, the boy turned and gathered his friends around him, the three of them just barely speaking above whispers.

Ron offered Harry one of Fred and George's Extendable Ears, which Harry took. "Wingardium leviosa!" Harry muttered, giving his wand a swish and flick to send the Ear floating gently to the edge of the strangers' circle. Now he and Ron and Hermione were able to hear the conversation perfectly:

"Has this ever happened to you, Ethan?" the blonde girl asked. When the boy called Ethan shook his head, the blonde continued. "What should we do? Should we call Arkarian and go back?"

"No," the black-haired girl answered quickly. "We're here to protect Barry Smotter—."

"Harry Potter!" the blonde girl and Ethan corrected quickly. The blonde girl added, "You really should have read the books before coming on this mission."

"Whatever. All I know is that we were sent on this mission to protect that guy from Lathenia, and we have to do it. I know this isn't as far into the past as we're used to being sent, but failing this mission could still be disastrous."

"But it's only 1996!" the blonde said.

"But if Harry dies," Ethan considered, "he'll never defeat Voldemort, and even though Voldemort is a wizard he'll eventually move on to taking over our world as well. We have to help Harry Potter stop Voldemort before he becomes as powerful as Lathenia. We're staying, even if we have to tell them everything. Rochelle," Ethan said, turning to the black-haired girl. "What are you picking up from them?"

The girl Rochelle smirked slightly. "They're best friends, all right: I'm getting completely different thoughts from each of them. That kid with the black hair and the scar—."

"Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, him. He thinks we eat dead people—."

"You mean he thinks we're Death Eaters?" the blonde asked. When Rochelle nodded, the blonde explained, "That means that he thinks we work for Voldemort."

"Then we're going to have to explain everything about us to him, because he's got serious issues with Death Eaters. Anyway, the girl—."

"Hermione Granger! Didn't the knowledge dust teach you anything?"

"Shut up, Isabel. Hermione wants to know how we got in here if we didn't Apparate. She's itching to go to the library and read Hogwarts, a History to find out if there is any other way to randomly appear in the castle. And the red-head—."

"Ron Weasley!"

"I give up. You don't want to know what he's thinking about us girls, anyway." Rochelle's words cause a slight moment of silence.

The girl Isabel says in a small voice, "Well, in the sixth book, yeah he was a bit flirty…"

"Flirty!" Ethan asked. "Ron was trying to get the attention of every girl he met in Half-Blood Prince! Not to mention all the 'snogging' he did."

"You do realize that one of us," Rochelle pointed from herself to Isabel and back again, "is going to have to—."

"Yes, I realize that."

"Can't I finish a stupid sentence? I was trying to tell you guys something important!" Now Rochelle had the attention of both her friends. "They're listening to us."

Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle turned to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione looking at them with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "You're Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed. "Oh, I read your books before I came to Hogwarts! They're my favorite books!"

Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle all looked visibly surprised. Then Rochelle turned to Ethan and asked curiously, "We have a book?"

"A trilogy!" Hermione exclaimed. "Guardians of Time! The first book, The Named, was my favorite." Then Hermione turned suspiciously, looking at Rochelle. "But you're still alive…"

Rochelle gave a bark of laughter. "Yes, I'm actually very happy about that."

Hermione shook her head. "But then if you're still alive… what book are you from and who summoned you out of your book?"

The three Guardians stood staring blankly at the girl they had always read to be intelligent, now thinking that maybe JK Rowling had confused the definitions of "intelligent" and "completely insane."

"We haven't been summoned out of a book…" Ethan said slowly, looking at the equally confused Harry and Ron. "We've been sent to protect Harry from Lathenia—the ultimate evil."

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "Voldemort is the ultimate evil. He's trying to take over our whole world, using any means necessary! He's even got the giants and werewolves working for him, and he's using the Unforgivable Curses!"

Ethan, Rochelle, and Isabel all scoffed at this. Ethan replied to Harry: "Come on. Voldemort's a mortal wizard, so he needs a wand and verbal incantations to work his magic. Lathenia is the Goddess of Chaos; she's an Immortal and she doesn't need to brandish a stick every time she goes about killing people. And whereas Voldemort is messing things up for you in your present, Lathenia is messing with our pasts. She can make it so that any one of us was never born in the first place."

Harry's eyes widened. "Are you trying to tell me," he began asking Ethan slowly, "that there is someone out there worse than Lord Voldemort? The man who murdered my parents and tried to kill me? The man who has murdered countless others? The man who has torn his own soul into seven pieces and scattered them to prolong his life?"

Ethan walked forward to look Harry in the eye. "Yes. I am talking about the woman who sent someone to kill my sister. The woman who sent someone to try to kill my father. The woman who has tried many times to kill me. The woman who killed Isabel—granted me and Arkarian did bring her back—. The woman who has killed countless others. The woman who would gladly kill her own brother if it would mean gaining power. We're here to protect you from this woman." Ethan turned to Hermione. "We were dropped here by Arkarian to make sure Lathenia doesn't do anything to prevent Harry from fulfilling his destiny in the prophecy—."

"How do you know about the prophecy?" Ron asked incredulously, taking his eyes off Rochelle for the first time since the Extendable Ear had first been put to use.

"We've—or, rather, Isabel and I—have read your books."

"We have BOOKS!"

"It's one of the best-selling series in the world. Nearly every… Muggle… has read your books. I don't know a single person who does not like the Harry Potter series."

"Mate," Ron said to Harry, stunned, "you're even famous with the Muggles!"

"You will be," Isabel corrected. "The first book won't be published for a few more years. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Or, in America, they'll call it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

"The Philosopher's Stone!" Harry exclaimed. "I saved that from Voldemort in my first year!"

"There will be one book for every year you spend at Hogwarts. Or for every year you spend at Hogwarts and the year after you come of age as a wizard; we don't really know yet because the last book hasn't been published yet." Isabel spoke with an excited tone in her voice. "I still can't believe I'm meeting Harry Potter!"

"I can't believe I'm meeting Ethan Roberts!" Hermione said in the same tone Isabel had used. "You are so… I don't know! AWESOME! I love your character in the books! Could we talk about them together sometime?"

"Sure, but not right now," Ethan said, getting down to business. "While we're here, I need to tell you what is going to have to happen. You know who we are now. Or, Hermione does. Ron, Harry: I'm Ethan. This is Isabel, and that's Rochelle. Rochelle reads minds and has an analytical sense of touch; Isabel's a healer and has psychic abilities; and I can move objects at will and create illusions and have an amazing instinct."

"Well that was blunt," Rochelle commented. "'Hi, I'm Ethan, and I have an amazing instinct!'"

"Just wait 'till I get going," Ethan said to the girl with a smile. "Also: we're here to protect you, but we're not as dense as the Ministry of Magic is. In other words, we're not going to advertise our presence. No one else is going to know who we are or why we're here. We're going to pretend to be your boyfriend and girlfriends—."

"What!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione asked at the same time.

"I am going to pretend to be Hermione's boyfriend—yes, Ron, that's what I said and there's no point in pretending you're not upset with that—and Rochelle is going to pretend to date Ron—Rochelle, don't make that face—and Isabel is going to pretend to be Harry's girlfriend—Harry, if it would make you feel better we'll explain who we are to Ginny."

"Wait a minute!" Ron exclaimed. "You can't just go on assigning us dates!"

"Would you rather Lathenia just come and kill off your best mate?"

"No!"

"Then shut up and shod off. And take Rochelle with you."

Scowling, Rochelle took Ron's hand. "If I catch even one thought about me or my body coming out of your head, I am going to throw you off of the Astronomy tower."

"Harry, you'll have fun with Isabel. She'll do anything if you make her feel like you're challenging her abilities."

"Hey!"

"Just go with Harry, Isabel. We've got a job to do."

"And that leaves you with me!" Hermione said excitedly. "Come on; I'll show you where Gryffindor Tower is!"