Disclaimer: I own nothing. . . well okay I lied. I own MYSELF and that's it.
Summary: When a young witch is sent back fifty years in the past she doesn't know what to think, yet alone what to do about the horrible events that she knows are about to take place at Hogwartz for the first time. To make mattes even worse, she's continually paired in classes with the man that she's been researching for six months and the one that's causing all of it.
Chapter one: Accidents Happen
"Hey Krys, I was doing some research last night." Rose said to her friend in a hushed whisper as she tucked a strand of her long curly brown hair behind her ear.
"What about?" Krystal asked in a bored tone. If she knew Rose then it was probably something strange like the Chamber of Secrets. Rose was always becoming interested in things that no one else was, like what happened to Tom Riddle that lead up to him becoming Lord Voldemort for one. Seriously though Krystal highly doubted that anyone else would care at all why he became a cold blooded killer just that he was one now and they needed to find a way to get rid of him.
"Same thing as last week." Rose answered excitedly. She knew that Krystal didn't like it that she had developed a strange desire to research about Tom Riddle, but she couldn't help to want to tell her anyway. She didn't think that even Harry and Ginny knew this fact.
Again?" Krystal whispered, annoyed. How did she know it was going to be about him again. "You need to stop this Rose. If someone found out that you're doing this research you might be targeted for knowing too much." Krystal had a very good reason to be worried. She'd already caught Goyale looking at the book that Rose had been looking through for information about Riddle after she'd put it back and lets face it something is definitely up if Goyale picked up a book that he wasn't required to.
"Yes Again." Rose whispered back, hardly able to keep from grinning. "Just listen, I got this information from an old school report. It turns out that around the same time that Riddle was setting the basilisk out on all of the muggle borns he was over heard telling a girl in his house to stop medaling in affairs that she knew nothing about. My guess is that she knew what he was doing and tried to get him to stop." Rose barely managed to keep her voice soft so that no one else heard about it, since no one except the Golden Trio and those close to them and Ginny knew that Ginny had been under a spell and set the basilisk loose on the students of Hogwartz her first year after writing to Tom through the diary.
"Whatever. Great theory, now if we don't get back to work Flitwick is going to give us detention for sure." Krystal said, eager to get off the subject of Tom Riddle a.k.a. Lord Voldemort and back to their charms class.
"Oh alright. . . I take it we're working in pairs again." Rose commented as she glanced around the room and noticed that everyone was working in twos.
"Yes. Who's going first, me or you?" Krystal asked already knowing the answer. Rose was best at Potions and Transfiguration while Krystal excelled at Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. All in all they made for a pretty even team, even if they were a little of an odd pair.
"You of course." Rose replied stepping a few feet back away from Krystal to give her some room. She then put a hand to her Slytherin green and silver tie out of habit before remember that she'd taken the necklace that she usually wore off this morning.
"Okay ready." Krystal asked, pulling at her own Gryffindor red and gold tie since it had been bothering her for some time now. when Rose nodded she performed the charm only to realize too late that she'd messed up as bad as Neville did in potions.
Rose's eyes widened in alarm as the spell hit her and she suddenly got the feeling of falling as white light surrounded her, she'd watched as the rest of her classmates had performed the charm and knew that this wasn't supposed to be happening. From what she'd seen she was supposed to experience a slight giddiness similar to what she usually felt when she drank a two liter of Mountain Dew, not this
When her friend disappeared after the spell was cast Krystal didn't know what to think. What spell could she possibly have said? Would they have to file a missing persons report? She hoped not. What if she'd sent her to a different country by mistake? Thoughts like these ran through her head for about fifteen minutes before Professor Flitwick brought her out of her worrying thoughts.
"Got the spell wrong did you Miss Loughman?" Professor Flitwick asked, noting that Rose was no longer there. She nodded and Flitwick sighed before continuing. "Well then you better come with me Miss Loughman, the Headmaster will want to see you." he stated as he turned to the door and led Krystal to the Headmasters office.
As she followed the small Professor to Dumbledore's office Krystal couldn't help but get nervous. What had she done?
"Lemon Drop." Flitwick said, standing before a stone gargoyle. The gargoyle turned to reveal a spiraling staircase. "Just go up those stairs and into his office, he'll be waiting for you inside." Flitwick stated before leaving Krystal there.
With her legs feeling like they were going to give out beneath her, Krystal did as she was told, and sooner than she would have liked found herself in Dumbledore's office, sitting in front of his desk.
"Do you know why you are here Miss Loughman?" Dumbledore asked, the ever present mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"Because I got the spell wrong and my friend disappeared." Krystal mumbled, her head bent with her blond hair covering her face so that Dumbledore wouldn't see her look of shame.
"No." Dumbledore said briskly. "Because you sent her back in time."
"I. . . What?!" Krystal jerked her head up at this to peer into Dumbledore's smiling eyes. She couldn't even wrap her mind over the idea. How could she have sent her friend back in time without knowing it? And how far back did she go? It couldn't be possible could it?
"I can assure you Miss Loughman that it is quite possible for this to happen." Dumbledore said giving Krystal the feeling that he had read her mind which wouldn't have surprised her much seeing how she wasn't very good at occlumency. "You see the first time I actually met Miss Rohrer was when I was teaching transfiguration fifty years ago."
"Fi-Fifty years ago?" Krystal asked in shock, Fifty years ago was when. . . Krystal's eyes widened in realization "She's going to get herself killed!"
"Yes, I thought you might say that considering how reckless Miss Rohrer has been known to be, but you must consider something of great importance Miss Loughman." Dumbledore said knowing that Krystal was having a hard time accepting this.
"And- And what is that?" Krystal asked nervously she was almost too afraid to think about what her friend was about to do in the past.
"If it had not been for Miss Rohrer's recklessness more students would have been petrified and perhaps even more than one person would have been killed-"
"Myrtle." Krystal interrupted. The ghost's name a sigh on her lips.
Dumbledore nodded sadly before continuing. "Rose also informed me that Hagrid would be framed for something that he didn't do, though she would not tell me who had done it. I suppose she was probably afraid of changing the future."
"And you were able to piece the puzzle together from there." Krystal said tonelessly. "It's a shame that nothing was done about him."
"Yes, and I would have done something about it if your friend hadn't convinced me otherwise. You see Krystal, Rose pointed out to me that I shouldn't do anything because time is a very delicate matter and any small act could change it. She even went on to say that she'd be surprised if her very presence didn't change a few things and I believe she was right."
"What do you mean?" Krystal asked, suspiciously. She really didn't want to think about what her friend could have possibly changed. It just wasn't a very comforting thought if one thought about it for any length of time.
"Rose knew about all the things that Riddle was about to do, yet she still befriended him in spite of what she knew he would become." Dumbledore stated as his eyes clouded over in memory. "It's my belief that Tom Riddle would have been even more ruthless than he is had Rose not befriended him."
"Oh." Krystal said, finding nothing better to say. She knew that Rose knew that being nice to the future Dark Lord was not a good idea. She also knew that Rose would do just that because it was something that normal people wouldn't do because that's just Rose.
"Don't worry yourself Miss Loughman. You're friend will be in good hands for the most part." Dumbledore reassured Krystal when he saw the worried expression that crossed her face, even as he remembered a time when the young witch wasn't in good hands.
"You don't say." Krystal said sarcastically, fighting the sudden urge to roll her eyes. "I'm sorry Professor, but we both know that Rose will be anything but safe until she comes back. She has a reckless streak a mile long and what you've seen here at Hogwartz is just the beginning of it, I'm sure that you know about her research." Krystal stated knowing that as the greatest Headmaster that Hogwartz had ever seen there was very little that went on inside the school's walls that Albus Dumbledore didn't know about.
Dumbledore nodded, knowing that Krystal didn't know how right she really was.
"Then you should understand why I won't be able to stop worrying about her until she comes back." Krystal stated as she stood up and walked out of the office.
Dumbledore watched her go and smiled as he remembered everything that was about to take place for Rose, both the good and the bad.
Rose was happy when the spinning of sparkling lights finally stopped and she landed on solid ground, granted she wasn't very happy that she had landed painfully hard on her rear end but she figured that solid ground was better that falling through space because of her friends spell.
Looking around the room that she had landed in she noticed that not only was she still inside the castle but she was inside her common room. At first she thought that things seemed to look a little newer, but didn't pay much attention to it. As she put her duffel bag that she had been carrying with her on her shoulder and stood up she didn't noticed the boy that she had come close to landing on until he cleared his throat to get her attention.
Tom Riddle was surprised to say the least when a girl that was obviously from his house fell from the ceiling and landed in front of him, but as he watched the girl take in her surroundings he found something very peculiar. He didn't know who she was.
He cleared his throat to get her attention before speaking. "Excuse me, but who are you." Tom asked in the most polite voice that he could manage, it just wouldn't do to be cruel to this girl because odds were she wouldn't open that pretty little mouth of hers if he was anything but polite.
Rose didn't really pay much attention when she heard someone clear their throat, but when she heard a boy ask who she was she turned around because she didn't recognize the voice and got the surprise of her life. Sitting right in front of her on one of the leather sofas of the Slytherin common room was Tom Marvolo Riddle.
