Disclaimer 1: I, unfortunately, do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter. That particular world of brilliance hatched form the mind of J. K. Rowling. The title for this fic, taken from Dr. Seuss.

Disclaimer 2: For Round 3 of the Quidditch Fanfiction League Competition (Season 2).

Team: Falmouth Falcons

Position: 2nd Chaser

Round Theme: Historical AU fic

Position Theme: Establishment of a Democracy

Round Prompts: (word) Hardened; (word) Indisputable: (word) Bold.

xX All The Places You'll Go Xx

The rules for Time Traveling, as they were given during orientation, were simple really.

1. Do Not Panic.
2. Do not, under any circumstance, drop your wand.
3. Do not draw attention to yourself.

And that was it. Severus was sure there were more, but those seemed the most important and immediate to get out of the way, it seemed. Either that, or Unspeakables really were scatterbrained and couldn't come up with more pressing regulations.

Understandably, he was quite apprehensive about this entire endeavor. Time-Traveling, was simply not heard of. At least, as something that was actually possible, even through magical means. It didn't help ease matters that the ability to travel through time, was such a tightly kept secret, that he had no means of reading about it, before he was thrust into a practical lesson.

The fact that one of his ex-students, a girl still under twenty, was to be his guide, made matters all the worse.

But given that there weren't very many people in the world with the ability to jump through space and time, there really wasn't much of a choice on the matter.

X

"OW!" Tracey cried as she crashed into the stone wall of a building. She just managed to throw her arms up and catch herself against the wall, but the momentum of her fall, plus the added weight of another body crashing into her back, still made for a considerably painful impact.

"Oh no!" she wailed mournfully as she heard the familiar sound of a stick of wood meeting cobblestones, before a faint pop that alerted her mind that they were now lost AND stuck.

"Where the bloody hell are we?" she heard the person behind her ask in familiar velvety tones as they used her body to push off, before hands realized they were touching her and flew off her.

"I don't know," Tracey gritted as she was able to get off the wall and right herself. She stared rather bemusedly at the now full skirt that she was wearing. Feeling her constricted waist with her hands as she tried to straighten her spine and not wince at the pain in her roughed-up hands, she found that her breathing was somewhat constricted.

Am I wearing a bloody corset? Tracey wondered as she looked down at herself, finding that she was wearing a pale blue dress, with frilly sleeves that came down to her elbows. She frowned at the delicate lace around her neckline and at the ends of her sleeves.

Her hair, she could vaguely feel was pulled back and into some kind of pinned up bun.

"My guess is somewhere in the late seventeenth century," Tracey hazarded drily before turning to glare at the man in black. He seemed to be wearing some tight, thick, black leggings tucked into knee-high leather, riding boots. He wore a black coat, and what looked like an equally black, form-fitting vest over a white, puffy shirt. His hair was tied back with a ribbon she assumed was black, as she couldn't see it.

The charmed tattoo of a clockwork cog that was placed on all time-travelers had adjusted them to be dressed in a fashion that was appropriate for the time period.

"What the hell were you doing, thinking about Dinosaurs?" Tracey had to contain herself from shouting. Nearly being eaten by a T-rex would do that to you. She'd barely been able to open another portal before she and Snape became reptile food.

Snape flushed red, but his gaze hardened as he stared down at her.

"I was under the impression that time-travel was extremely difficult to control, and that it would take more than concentration to open a portal anywhere," he retorted coldly.

Tracey glared up at Snape. Truly, time-travel was a difficult and mysterious matter. Thus far, only a handful of people were born with the capability to achieve it.

But in order to open a portal, one not only had to think about a time period they wished to travel to, but they actually had to have a feel for the era. Nine times out of Ten, a traveller arrived at a completely random destination. Half of those times, the time they traveled to was no further than a year into the past.

Crossing both time and space... was extremely rare.

Somehow, Snape had managed to land them in a time and place where Dinosaurs thrived... on his first time-traveling excursion.

Of course, they hadn't been there fore more than ten minutes before coming across a t-rex. Which led to a mad dash and Tracey opening a portal while on the move. Hence, their crash-landing into wherever the hell they presently were... in the past.

X

"How could you drop your wand?" Snape asked incredulously as they marched out of the space between two buildings where they had turned up in broad daylight.

"You crashed into me and sent me into a wall! How could I keep it in hand?! Besides, you dropped your own wand first," Tracey retorted irately, before casting her green eyes at the old lamp posts and pausing to consider them. They seemed to carry candles inside, so electricity hasn't been invented, Tracey thought.

"How is it, that you did not take us directly home?" Snape muttered, glaring at the top of his companions auburn head. He'd always thought Tracey Davis as a quiet and respectful runt. When had she grown so... bold?

Tracey didn't turn to look at the man as they wandered into a town square. Absently, she wandered over to where people were gathering, mindful not to trip on the voluminous skirt of her dress and noting that everyone was dressed in similar fashion.

She didn't actually have an answer for Snape.

Going home, or to the present, was the easiest form of time-traveling. Because it was a place one was so familiar with, not simply in mind, but body and heart... and because... it seemed the universe felt the need to set things right and automatically thrust them where they belonged.

So how they ended up here instead of home...

"How do we get home?" Snape asked after a few moments of silence, voicing the most pressing question that was truly plaguing him.

Tracey merely shrugged her shoulders, not really concerned as she tuned into to the man who stood on a wooden box, reading something before a building that appeared like a City Hall, to the handful of people gathered.

"Our Indisputable and Honorable leader shall fetch us," Tracey replied in deadpan as she listened to the words, her words so quiet only Snape could hear them as he stood quite close to her. "You know... I do believe that is the American Declaration of Independence..."

Snape turned from the girl beside him and listened to the words being read off a paper and frowned at the man on his soapbox.

"Brilliant," he muttered, only loud enough for Tracey to hear. "So we're in the colonies, at the brink of a war against Britain... just where every war veteran would like to be..."

Tracey couldn't help her lips quirking in slight amusement. The newly formed American Government was about to embark on a war against Britain.

And here they were... two English people who'd just survived one of the greatest wars of modern times... and one of them was a spy.

She supposed she could understand Snape's trepidation, as he had no idea how long they would be trapped in this time period. For herself, she'd travelled to various places and never been in the past for more than an hour, so she wasn't so concerned.

"You know... I was always morbidly curious about the Salem Witch trials. Perhaps this was simply as close to the time period as I could get..."

Snape glowered down at the girl. He hoped that whoever was coming to fetch them would hurry up already.

Though, he had no clue how they could even be located. Time and Space were too very vast concepts, how could the Ministry even begin to fathom where they were, or that they were stuck?

"Try not to think about it too much. That's the best way to deal, if you want your mind to remain intact," Tracey whispered to him in light and soothing tones, without looking at him. Her gaze was far too entranced by the scene before them, though Severus couldn't really fathom why.

Tracey sighed as she allowed the words being read to flow over her. "You know... not to sound like a traitor, but this... it truly is a lovely piece of history..."

Severus stared at the girl as if she were mad. He'd never known a woman to give a romantic sigh over history. Tracey really had to be one of those History buffs. A rarity amongst wizard-kind.

X

"Ooh, that was a lovely speech," a sing-song voice popped up beside Snape that he nearly jumped.

Turning around, he found himself staring wide-eyed at Luna Lovegood, who was dressed quite similar to Davis, though her dress was peach-colored with white. Her long, golden hair, was tied up and Snape found that the bun her hair was in, made her eyes look all the bigger.

"Miss Lovegood?" he questioned, drawing her pale-blue eyes to himself.

"Oh, hey Luna," Tracey greeted casually.

"Are you ready to go then?" Luna asked, gazing at them both expectantly. Tracey and Snape and proceeded to follow the young blonde away to a secluded place they could open and step through a portal.

"Lovegood is the leader?" Snape hissed at Tracey as they followed behind the blonde.

"Oh yeah.. Luna's been time-traveling since she was fifteen," Tracey replied as if the idea of the Loony girl being an expert was no surprise to her. "She's the one that's figured it out."

Upon noting Snape's pained expression, Tracey smiled and leaned into the man. "Try not to think about it..."

X

Home.

Snape never thought he'd be so happy to be home.

He was further relieved when he found his wand on the bed-side table.

So all things, do have a way of finding it back home, Snape thought drily as he picked up his wand.

After his first day as a time-traveler, with the sole purpose of doing so simply for research and testing, he wondered if it was all really worth it.

But then... he'd always been curious. And to be a pioneer in such a revolutionary area of magic... how could he keep away?

And to think... of all the places he could go and see.

How could he give up... all those possibilities?

END