[AN - A lot of the current couples will NOT be together till the end of the fic. So, this fic has been AU since the beginning of fourth year.]

Chapter One

It was an Ace of Spades. This caused Death to smirk and Magic to groan.

My first move, I shall do now. My second, I will keep for later.

Death picked up the King, Queen, and right-hand side Bishop. Death stood and walked about a million chess boards down the line. As an afterthought, he grabbed a strange winged piece. Death placed them on a board with two white Kings and two white Queens. My first move is completed.

One white Queen looked kind and warm. The other white Queen looked intelligent and harsh, but accepting all the same. One white King had an air of bravery and welcoming. The second white King seemed haughty and sly, yet understanding and amusing.

This is going to be an interesting round. Magic muttered. Death moved the winged piece.

*PAGE*BREAK*

[AN - The nicknames are Marauder-style, animagus-based.]

The ten people that made up the 'Panthera' [Pronunciation - Pan-th-e-ra] group that fought against Voldemort stood there. They were a rag-tag, but strong none-the-less, group.

Thera, or Harry Potter, was the leader of the 'Panthera'. Near him was his girlfriend (they had pretended to break up with each other) Ginny Weasley, or Chine. After a while and a few pranks and a bit of good natured prodding, everybody had conjured and put on robes.

Ron Weasley, Night, and Hermione Granger, Spotter, were arguing over something trivial, this was quite common for their peculiar boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Neville Longbottom, Gryff, and Susan Bones, Pounce, were just holding hands, watching their friends with amusement.

Draco Malfoy, Gone, and Luna Lovegood, Lupine, or, for short, 'Pine, were snogging in the corner. Hannah Abbot, Laa, and Daphne Greengrass, Kit, were doing likewise. [AN - Yes, I'm doing a lesbian relationship. Deal with it.]

All of their activities were interrupted by when three flashes of light appeared. Within a millisecond, all ten wands were out and the 'Panthera' were in a fighting formation.

When the light faded, three figures stood there.

"Well, hello!" A girl said, "Welcome to the Time Guardians' corner of Limbo!"

"Limbo, as . . . in . . . the . . . muggle game?" Night asked. With her off hand, the one not holding her wand, Spotter whacked him over the head.

"Night, they're obviously talking about Limbo. The plane of existence and existence of nothing and everything." She rolled her eyes at Night.

"Right you are, Miss Granger. Oh! Where are our manners? I'm Talon." He motioned to the only one of them who had not yet spoken. "That's Zinnia." Tipping his toward the third person. "And that's Lightning."

"Now that at least one of you understands what this place is, we can get to the tricky part." Zinnia said. The 'Panthera' lowered their wands. They knew that once they were offered an explanation of where they were and what was happening, they could assume these three people were not a threat. It would be silly to tell people important info or fake important info when you were just about to kill them, right?

"So, there are two entities, Death and Magic, who control our world." The 'Panthera' nodded in understanding. "Currently the entity on your side is Death. He wants Mr. Riddle, Tommy-Boy, in his realm. Tommy-Boy was supposed to have died a while ago, but Magic had him escape Death using the Horcruxes." Lightning told them. "The way they battle it out, manifests as a game. Do you know chess?"

"I sure do!" Night exclaimed proudly.

Talon took up the narrative. "But they play it with modifications. Through a Game Deal, one of the modifications, Death was able to get two moves to anything! So, for his first move, he decided to send you, the 'Panthera' to the past. Using us. We are beings called Guardians. Guardians are beings that are charged with the duty to protect, control, and balance their element, or part, of the composition of the Universe."

Zinnia explained. "There can only ever be one Guardian of something alive at a time. The exception being us. Time has always had three Guardians, one each for the past, present, and future. But, as Time is an exception, there can be more than one Time Guardian of Present could be in one place, because Time Guardians can time travel and Time Guardians will always die in their Home Time (the time in where they were born). After they die in their Home Time, a new Time Guardian equivalent of them will be born."

Lightning picked up. "But, Guardians are normally magical as well as being a Guardian, so there is a school, Ketokee's School of Magic and Guardianship, in your Home Time that teaches both. Right here, right now, in this portion of Limbo (the portion that belongs to us), there are thirteen Guardians, including us."

"We're Guardians?" Kit asked, wonder coloring her voice.

"Yes, you are." Lightning continued. "Death told us to tell you to not worry about training your Guardian powers, that you would be able to train them after Death's second move."

[AN - The way to say what someone is a Guardian of can be written in two different ways. ie: The Time Guardians and the Guardians of Time. I prefer to use the first because it is shorter.]

Talon then specified what the 'Panthera' were Guardians of. "Susan is the Guardian of Space, space is the existence of area or room for something to exist in. Neville is the Void Guardian, void is the existence of nothing. Daphne is the Guardian of Ether, the lower parts of space and the upper parts of the atmosphere. Hannah is the Guardian of Light and due to light's connection to color, the Guardian of Color and Illusion. Draco is the Guardian of Darkness. Luna is the Water Guardian. Hermione is Guardian of Water. Ron is the Fire Guardian. Ginny is the Guardian of Earth. Harry is the Guardian of the Composition of the Universe, also, Guardian of Balance as the Composition of the Universe retains Balance through its Guardian."

"Guardians use their element, or part, of the universe to protect themselves, protect their element, to keep balance and to work for what they believe is right." Zinnia concluded.

Lightning said. "And now, we will send you back in time. See you soon!"

All three chanted. "A second chance is due, in the past, they shall renew!"

*PAGE*BREAK*

The 'Panthera' awoke. There was only one word any of them could say and Kit said it for them all. "Wow!"

Spotter jumped up. "Okay, when and where are we?"

"Let's go try to find a familiar landmark." Thera suggested.

They trooped through the forest. What they saw when they reached the edge of the forest amazed them. It was astonishing. Not the dark, dreary place they remembered, in fact, it was gleaming. The sun rose behind it, making it look fairytale-esque.

It was Hogwarts.

The 'Panthera' took off turning into their non-magical animagus form (except for the ones who only had magical animagus forms). they got closer, planning to inspect Hogwarts to find out the era they were in.

Thera had no non-magical animagus form. So, a phoenix took flight from where he had once stood. A male hawk with feathers so bright red it was almost impossible and a loon who's brown feathers looked almost frizzy joined him.

A lark who had been Hannah along with the gryffin that was once Neville rose up with them. A runespoor quickly slithered across the ground, a sign Draco had transformed. A dog, it's fur so blond it was close to white, streaked across the grass below the flying animals and next to the runespoor.

A rabbit looked out of place upon the red mountain lioness' head. Suan gripped as hard as she could to Ginny's with rabbit paws. Moments later Daphne the King Cobra slithered onto Ginny as well.

The odd assortment of animals swiftly continued towards Hogwarts. Arriving at the door, the large animals took cover as the loon, lark, dog, rabbit, and King Cobra went to spy and information gather.

Hannah, the lark, swooped into the Great Hall. Luna, Hermione, Susan, and Daphne went in different directions, to a common room each.

*PAGE*BREAK*

Luna, Hermione, Susan, and Daphne were the first back. Daphne reported. "The dorms seem to look like they would a day or two after school ends."

"Same here." Hermione, Susan, and Luna chorused.

After a few minutes, A wide-eyed girl, Hannah, approached the other 'Panthera' members. "Guys," Hannah said, "I know what time period we're in."

Daphne hurried to Hannah, kissing her shaken girlfriend.

"When are we?" Harry asked in his 'Report' voice.

A melodic voice sounded from behind him. "You're in our time." The group turned to see four majestic figures.