Piper started off slow, with roasted chicken, carrots, and real potatoes. She was halfway through dinner when suddenly-

"Duck."

She told Ron, blurting the word out of nowhere. Ron had a chicken leg in his mouth that he was obviously busy with. He raised a brow at her.

"What?" He asked with his mouth full.

"Duck!"

She said again, more urgently this time.

"No this is chicken." "I think she means-"

SMACK.

A wad of mashed potatoes hit Ron in the back of the head and his expression crinkled with displeasure.

"Well." Piper said with a shrug. "I told you to duck."

"What's the matter, Weasley?"

Came a new voice. He sauntered over to them and towered over Ron.

"Got something in your hair?"

"Go away, Malfoy." Harry snapped.

"What's this? Got a new friend? Picking up strays now, are we?"

He looked to Piper, who shot him a narrowed eyed look. She had always been good at reading people and this boy read as just one thing, trouble.

"And just where did you come from?" He asked, leaning down to her. She looked at him and studied his eyes.

"You're late." She told him simply.

"I'm what?" "You're late,"

She said again as if it were the most obvious thing in the world at that moment.

"Late for what?" "I don't know."

She added, this time her voice was distant and a bit dazed.

"But you do. You're late for something."

He glanced at his wrist and then back at her. His face contorted into a scowl and then he marched off, leaving the four of them alone.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked. "Do what?"

"First you told Ron to duck before we even knew Draco was going to do anything, and then you knew he was late. How did you know?"

"I dunno." Piper shrugged. "I just knew. Like it was obvious. Is that a witch thing?" Hermione shook her head.

"Not normally, no.

"Oh..." Said Piper and her demeanor deflated.

⋆｡°✩

There was something, in the corner of her eye, as she listened to Hermione speak, babbling on and on about what her small predictions could make her. Piper's eyes drifted from paying attention to Hermione to something that vanished just outside of the great hall.

"What are you-" Hermione began and Piper stood.

"I saw something."

she said simply, her gaze was completely distracted and focused on the doors of the great hall.

"This way." "Piper wait!" Harry stood and urged the others to follow.

"You don't know your way around the castle. You could get lost." Harry added and they followed Piper out of the great hall. Piper looked both ways once in the hallway.

"This way." She said as she followed the trail of a shadow.

"What are we following?" Ron asked with a groan.

"I don't know." Piper replied, focused on finding what she saw.

"You don't know?" "But I know I saw something."

"Piper..."

"Wait!" She stopped dead in her tracks and put her arms out to stop the others behind her.

" There."

She said with a nod of her head. Before her was yet another ghastly green crack in the wall. This one was larger, stronger. She could feel the power seeping from it, greater then the last.

"What is that?"

Harry asked and Piper let out an exhale.

"Another one."

She said and extended a hand to the green glow but she hesitated, remembering how the previous ones sucked her in.

"These cracks keep appearing all across time. Where ever I go, the cracks appear."

"Do you think they're connected to you?" Hermione asked. Piper's hand fell.

"No. I don't." she said.

"I think... I think they are linked to something else. They make a path and I just end up following it. I don't know why or how."

"They could be dangerous." Hermione warned.

"Or they could be for my good." Piper said.

"They could be a way home..."

And in a snap she extended her hands back out towards the crack and jumped towards it.

"PIPER NO!"

Hermione screamed but it was too late. The green consumed her and once again she was lost to time and space as she was transported somewhere new, again.

⋆｡°✩

There it was, that ringing again. Piper's eyes were screwed shut as she tried to wrestle with her hearing aids to get the piercing sound under control. It was easier this time, as she had been anticipating it this time. Her eyes opened and daylight surrounded her. She was outside and she adjusted to the new lighting and to her dismay, she wasn't home. She was in the shadows of the castle, Hogwarts castle.

"Did you just-"

She looked up, a girl looked down at her. Her robe was accented with yellow instead of red or green. Her hair was cut short and scuffs of dirt marked her clothes and face.

"Did you just come out of the ground?"

She asked and Piper looked down. There, marking the earth was yet another green crack. She looked back to the girl.

"Uh." she began. "Yes?"

"PiPER!"

Racing down from the castle were two familiar faces. Sebastian with Ominis trailing behind him, wand outstretched to guide him down the steps. The girl looked over her shoulder and saw who was coming. She sighed.

"Sebastian Sallow." She turned back to Piper.

"I should have known. Roped you in on his dark magic tricks did he?"

"no... dark magic? What's-" "you're finally back!" Sebastian added.

"Where did you go?" Ominis asked.

"Piper?" the girl said.

"That's your name then? What are you some kind of new Slytherin?"

"Slyther-what? I don't slyther..."

"Piper's not a Slytherin." Sebastian said.

"She's- I don't know."

"Well, Piper, I'm Poppy. It's nice to meet you."

The girl, Poppy, introduced herself with a smile and all Piper could think of was that horror video game with the toy factory.

"Poppy...?" "mhm!" Poppy smiled.

She seemed much nicer than the horror game that came to Piper's mind.

"Professor Black has asked to see you, Piper."

Ominis spoke up and Piper looked at him and Sebastian.

"Who?" "The headmaster."

"Yikes, he's bad news!" Poppy said as she looked at Piper.

"Best of luck to you. I'm off to tend to some beasts." she gave a wave and walked off.

"What does the headmaster want with me?"

"He said something about a test."

Piper paled.

"I don't test well." She blurted out.

"It's why I'm a painter and not an astrophysicist."

"a what?" Sebastian asked .

"Never mind that," Ominis continued. "It's not like a physical test like you're thinking, I don't think. He wants to know more about you. Why you're here. What brought you here."

"Oh." Piper said softly with a nod. "Oh okay. Let's go then."

⋆｡°✩

Professor Black was just as Poppy said and Piper feared, bad news. He seemed to have a bad attitude about literally everything. His office, however, was where she had been earlier-later?- with Harry, Hermione, and Ron when she was talking with Dumbledore. Only this time it didn't have as many portraits and trinkets.

Professor Weasley was there too. She seemed much more cheerful than Professor Black, but that wasn't saying much.

"I have heard stories," Professor Black began, his narrow face looked down at her with a frown.

"Of a seer coming to Hogwarts in a time of need."

"A seer?"

Sebastian asked, he and Ominis had escorted Piper to the headmaster's office and still stood by her side.

"There are texts, ancient ones that I have never made sense of but Professor Onai of divination believes you,"

He looked to Piper,

"Show the signs of a seer." "Me?" Piper asked, dumfounded.

"I'm not a seer. I'm just a painter, and a mediocre one at that."

"Paint for us then."

Black commanded.

"Um. what?"

"You heard me. Paint for us."

"why?"

"How did Onai say it?"

Black looked to Professor Weasley who began to recite words told to her by the divination professor.

" And they will be branded by the castle between the eyes, they will carry time within their hands and will be delivered to you from a plain beyond your understanding ."

"The text of the seer."

Black identified her words and looked back to Piper.

"You came here from a far away place we have no understanding of. You possessed a time turner upon your arrival. Care to explain the first bit? I have an inkling you have some sort of an idea."

"The castle." Piper breathed.

"I- this castle. I don't know how or why, but I've been painting it for years. It pops up in every composition somehow. I can't explain it."

"Which is why, I want you to paint for us." Black continued.

"You want me to prove it?"

Piper's brows knit together in confusion.

"Yes." Black replied. "I must be certain."