The Secret's in the Telling
A little girl with bushy hair swung back and forth as high as she possibly could. Her mother stood smiling watching her.
"Mum…I want to be a pilot." The little girl called as she closed her eyes pretending to fly.
"But my dear you don't like heights." Her mother's melodious laugh filled the park.
"Then what will I be?" Her mother merely smiled at her daughter as she stopped the swing by sliding her feet slowly. Her mother bent down in front of her daughter, a loving smile written across her lips.
"Que Sera, Sera, my dear."
-x-
Hermione Granger awoke with a start raising her hand out in front of her as she realized the room she was in was not her own and had never been.
The moon's rays smiled and danced upon her ivy skin, revealing herself to be the only one in the bed chambers. She turned her hand so that it would face up and upon speaking an ancient word, held a ball of light within her hand. It's glow rushed the room lighting every dark corner within it.
She slowly pushed the sheets of the bed away from her body. Her shoulder protested and she winced grabbing the injured body part and allowing the light to extinguish.
"Kate?" Her body tensed causing the pain to increase. "I had hoped…" The voice faded as she lifted her hand once more holding the ball of light, revealing the familiar face of an elderly friend.
"Albus?"
"Yes…Much time has passed." She frowned and pushed the ball of light to hang above them sufficiently lighting the room. "Though it seems I am the only one affected by time's fingers."
She took in the elderly man's appearance. Gone were the auburn locks and the near clean-shaven face. Though his eyes still held the same wondrous twinkle, it was now pained and clouded by memories that would never leave them. How she felt his pain. Present now were the snow-white locks of her mentor. The long beard which was thrown over his shoulder at the prospect of a feast and the half moon spectacles which rested upon his crooked nose.
"Time affects all things, Albus. I included."
"I have healed your wounds to the best of my ability as I did not know when nor how they occurred. Though, as experience has taught me, you will not share the details of your struggle with me." Albus changed the subject as she moved her legs to the side of the bed noticing she was in a white cotton nightgown.
"How long have I been under your watchful eye?" She countered with her own change of subject.
"Four days, Kate." She knew as she stood shakily upon her legs that after that amount of time Albus felt he deserved an explanation of what had harmed her so severely. She also knew that he certainly did not expect it from her.
Making her way toward the mirror she pulled the nightgown off her shoulder revealing the now scars caused by a werewolf's claws. She ran her fingers softly down each scar adding them to the others she had collected before fingering the tear drop ruby she wore around her neck.
"Kate…" Albus whispered as though reminding her he was still present.
"You know all you need to, Albus." She turned and raised a brow to him.
His eyes twinkled in curiosity though he nodded. "Perhaps, though I am always in the business of knowing more."
"Yes, yes, working in a pesky school will do that to you." She smirked as he nodded obviously noting the fact that she had stated so before he could explain her whereabouts. "If I am correct we are residing within Hogwarts at the moment are we not?"
"Indeed." He nodded.
"I am unfamiliar with these rooms." She touched the stone looking at the paintings of a woman she had never known. "These were added much later."
"How do you know?" She turned to Albus knowing his eyes would follow each action closely.
"Do not play stupid with me old goat. It doesn't become you." She smirked at him slightly before fingering the jewel around her neck in thought.
"How many times have you seen?"
"Dozens, tens of hundreds." She closed her eyes as though trying to go over each jump in time she had ever come upon.
"And the Jewel?"
"Why are you prying this from me?" Her eyes opened in a furry. "You know more than you let on, you always have. I know this you, Albus. This is the first you I met. A wizened wizard, a mentor to follow."
His eyes narrowed as he listened. "You may look the same, but you have changed. Hardened."
"I have seen many times before you and after you, not all were as pleasant as my time with you."
"This is why you never loved me the way I had wanted, hoped for." She watched as he reminisced. His eyes closed as he looked down to the stone floor.
"I never meant to hurt you. You became a brother to me, a support I could lean on."
"But you never thought to tell me!?" He growled. "You never thought to explain that you were some sort of time traveler? Do you understand what happened after you left?" There was deep pain in the elder man's features. Pain that she had witnessed in him when he was younger, after the death of his sister.
"Tell me." She whispered kneeling in front of the broken man. "Tell me what happen after I left?"
His hands tightened to fists. "I thought it had been him. I thought he had taken you in spite. I wouldn't join him and he was angry for it. I had thought this was his revenge. At the prompting of the entire wizarding community I fought him. I took the wand and I was ready to kill him." His voice had died to a whisper. There was anger and anguish deeply written on his features. He was reliving every moment after her departure.
"He cried out, pleaded with me to believe him. I was enraged. How could he have taken you? How without my knowledge had you been kidnapped from me?" He looked to her, anger in his eyes. "But you hadn't, you simply left."
"It's not that simple."
"Perhaps not." He sighed. "Grindlewald first told me about the jewel. Standing there defeated before me. It's how he saved his life and simply became imprisoned within his domain. He didn't know much, but enough for me to establish a foundation of information on. "A jewel to take you away" is what he called it." He pinched the bridge of his nose.
She fingered the jewel, knowing it held many names and sayings. Many feared it, others welcomed it. She, she saw it as her duty, one she could not shirk.
"With the help of the Flamels and a certain friend of yours, I came to the only text carrying the name the fates first gave it."
"The Tempus Jewel." She whispered.
-x-
Author's Note: I've had this laying around for quite a while, I'm ashamed to say. Fulfilling Destiny may be on hold indefinitely. I lost my drive to write it so maybe at some point I'll take it up again. Tell me what you all think. I haven't written in a while.
