| | II | |
Harry muttered the protection spell, over and over as black swirls of light surrounded the lamb as directed by Draco. He pushed the dark strings with his wand until they seemed entwined around it, and as he was about to suggest shrinking it, the door began to give way, Harry paused in his casting, Draco dropped his wand hand to rest on the taxidermy piece, and the wood gave way. In ran Granger, Weasley R, and Brown, all panting from the effort. They whipped their wands toward the duo and as they opened their mouths to shout a curse of some kind, there was a bright light and suddenly, they were all gone.
To an outsider walking into the room right after, there was complete silence in the room and no way for the five to have disappeared; this was, in fact, the case for Sirius Black, who had followed to try to kill Harry once again. He stood there, shocked and confused, until Lucius ran in and yelled a spell, casting green light towards the animagus. The battle continued, and far away – or rather, long ago – the case was similar.
The flash of light was replaced by distorted and flashing images of the manor being built, old houses ready for demolition, a small street with small houses, and countrysides, and then there was only darkness as the young adults landed on pavement with a thump. They all groaned and rolled around for a second, testing limbs for injury, but none of them were hurt. This lasted only seconds before the enemies made eye contact, reached for their wands, and looked around discreetly for any muggles; when there were none, all five leapt up and began shooting curses and hexes at one another; green and red light was shot around, but all missed, instead hitting plants and buildings which merely fizzled and released smoke. One tree in a pot unlucky enough to get hit by Draco's curse bent over itself and instantly died.
The curses flew for a few minutes before the casters grew tired. First Lavender collapsed behind the now-dead tree, and then Harry hid behind a dumpster to catch his breath. Next Hermione ducked under stairs, Stunning a few hungry rodents, and only Draco and Ron were left. Catching each other's eye, they soon came to a truce for the time being and quit the battle.
Soon the five sat together, panting. Draco soon began ranting, mostly to end the awkward silence that was sure to come, after they had all tried to kill each other. "Father would kill me if he knew I was sitting with a mudblood, a blood traitor, and... whoever you are," he jabbed a finger at Lavender, "without trying to curse them. Count yourself lucky he isn't here." Lavender sighed and flopped backwards to lean against the stone wall. Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione, who merely shrugged.
The group sat in two groups; the Death Eaters and the Order. They sat a few yards apart, and kept glancing to the other as if unsure if they would start the attack all over. Neither group would, however, because there were more pressing matters at hand.
When Draco stopped talking, Harry began. "I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we've completely traveled through time and-or space. And we're in an alleyway; doesn't that seem, I don't know, strange?" Draco shrugged this time and leaned back, closing his eyes. Ron, unlikely as it was, answered instead.
"It looks like we're in some old town." He seemed to be right. A carriage rolled by on a street nearby, the clopping of the horses hooves echoing through the small alley where they sat. Cigar smoke wafted through the air, thanks to a professional, detective-looking man who had just strolled by. They could barely see a few women in long dresses and bonnets walking together, holding baskets of fresh vegetables and bread for that night's supper. It seemed to be the perfect old timey town, but also an unforgiving one if any magic was found.
"I'm hungry," said Lavender, watching the women stroll past. Hermione, too, was watching the women, but with a look of awe and horror on her face.
"We've gone very far back in time. Lav, those women have no rights yet – they can't vote or anything! Oh, we do need to change, or we'll be hunted down and killed for being witches." The others exchanged eye contact before looking back at her.
"Herm, we wrote a paper on that in school. We could easily escape death, I mean, look at that one who let herself get caught a bunch of times... the Weird one," Ron told her, but he still looked rather scared.
"Wendelin the Weird," Draco supplied, and they all looked at him, causing him to flush. "The Salem Witch Trials always intrigued me," he muttered, looking down at his shoes. Hermione was the first to recover, whipping out a strange bag and sticking her whole arm in it even though it looked way too small for it. She fumbled around it in a few moments before cursing and whispering a spell, and a few garments flew out. She caught them easily; a water bottle and a few overcoats. The overcoats were very long, covering the females' ankles and to the males' knees, thanks to some wandwork from Draco. They removed the robes they had on and gave them to Hermione, who somehow stuffed them all into her bag.
They passed around the water bottle before leaving the alley. The sky was slightly overcast and there was a slight chill in the air now that they were in the open, letting the soft breeze wrap around them.
"So where are we, Eaters," muttered Lavender, looking towards Draco and Harry, not without a grimace. Harry gripped the wand in his inside pocket, gritting his teeth, hating that they were stuck with the Order of the Phoenix. Draco was right; Lucius would have a fit if he saw them now. Draco however, seemed unbothered and quite eager to answer her question.
"We're in the past! See, you threatened Harry's horcrux when you ran into the room with your wands and it felt threatened so it transported us all back in time. We Eaters cleverly invented it ourselves." Perhaps he wasn't all that unbothered after all, thought Harry, noting the tone in his partner's voice when he said Eaters.
Suddenly Draco stopped in his tracks and spun around to grasp Harry's head, leaning in to hiss in his ear, "Where is it? Where's the horcrux now? It should be here, right?" Harry put a finger to Draco's pale lips and smirked.
"Relax, Malfoy, it's in my pocket. I shrunk it while you fought Weasley." Draco released a breath and nodded, turning to continue walking. Harry quickened his pace to keep up, but slipped on a wet patch of cobblestone and collapsed onto the pavement in front of him. His face hit the hard ground with a smack, as well as a very clear crunch; his nose had broken.
Harry groaned and grasped his nose, feeling the warm, sticky consistency of blood. The air gained a metallic tang to the crisp scent, and the pavement now had an ever-growing puddle of thick red fluid. "Fucking unicorn blood, making me clumsy," Harry muttered, wincing as he touched his face. There was suddenly a presence in front of him, muttering a few curses and glancing around.
Draco shook his head darkly at Harry, who was much too distracted by the pain to notice. "Training for the ballet, Potter?" he whispered, winking at Harry, remembering their flying around as children. Harry let out a snort of laughter before whimpering quietly. Draco sighed again and muttered, "Episkey!" There was another crack as Harry's nose fixed itself, releasing one last jet of blood. Harry felt the newly-fixed nose, and when there was no pain, he smiled at Draco.
"Thanks, Malf- Draco. Scourgify," Harry murmured, lifting the blood and disposing of it. The two stood up to see the three members of the Order awkwardly watching and four adults rushing up to them. A monkey-like man with a thin, scraggly white beard wearing green rushed ahead of the others before grasping Harry's collar to growl at him.
"Salazar, put him down! For Merlin's sake, control yourself," muttered the woman in the long yellow dress, tapping on the man's hand with short bare nails, causing him to release. She nudged him softly out of the way to look at the younger ones, glancing around. Her gaze did not linger on the lightning bolt scar. Instead, she looked at Ron.
"A Weasley? Goodness, you really are travelling, aren't you? Soon there'll be Weasleys all over Europe!" She grinned and curtsied politely to them, which Hermione and Lavender returned, although they weren't sure whether they should or not. Either way, the woman was pleased.
"My name is Helga Hufflepuff. This rude man is Salazar Slytherin. My friends here," she gestured to a strict-looking black-haired woman wearing a blue dress and a burly red-bearded man in red, "are Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Griffindor. And right now we're working on creating a school of witchcraft and wizardry, so I hope you'll send your children there!" She grinned wider and the burly man, Griffindor, laughed.
"Gotta get news out somehow, eh, Helga," he teased, his eyes twinkling. "Lucky thing we made sure ya were really magic before we unleashed Hufflepuff on ya. Anyhow, you don't want to use that magic 'round here, these muggles're hell. Hey, why don' you come by my house, rest up, 's gettin' late. Ya can tell us all 'bout that fall o' yours, hey?" He gestured to them without waiting for an answer, and the founders all turned to walk towards a large house down the lane.
The travellers watched, stunned, as they watched some of the most important figures in history walk together. Harry suddenly realized where they were; Godric's Hollow, before it was named after the man they had just spoken to. This was the place he was born before it was even the place he was born, and that blew his mind. He also knew that he couldn't keep the horcrux in his pocket; it would grow back soon, due to his quick and messy spell.
The trio walked forward, and Harry waved them off; Draco, however, stayed. He looked curiously at the raven-haired man, his pointed face twisted into confusion. Harry, loud enough for the trio to hear, said, "I think I left something in the alley, I'll be there soon. It must have fallen out of my pocket." The trio looked back and nodded, but didn't pay much attention, instead following the founders as if starstruck. Harry motioned with his head at Draco back to the alley before rushing away, much more careful this time.
As they entered the alley, Harry grabbed out the horcrux and held it in his hand, pointed his wand and it, and muttered a spell. It grew back into its normal size, which Harry and Draco lowered evenly to the ground. Draco grabbed Harry's arm before he could continue, pinning him against the wall.
"What're you doing, Harry," he murmured, resting their foreheads together. Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Draco silenced him by smashing their mouths together and rocking his hips forward. Harry gasped and responded with enthusiasm, and soon they were a strange mess of tongue and hands all over. Draco ran his slender fingers through Harry's messy locks, before lowering one hand to his hip.
"I think the real question is what you're doing, Malfoy," Harry muttered as best he could as Draco lowered his mouth to his neck to kiss softly. He groaned quietly, relishing it as best he could in a dark, cold alley that was quickly darkening. "I, for one, need to hide the horcrux so that nobody can steal it as we sleep." Draco rose his head, a dark need reflected in his eyes.
"We're in a society where this isn't allowed, Potter. I don't know when we'll be able to do this again, especially with those three lurking about. Come on, we'll be quick." Harry soon gave in and they moved farther back to enjoy each other's company one last time for a while, and quick they were.
Draco knocked three times with the brass lion-shaped knocker on the huge front door of Griffindor's house. It was a large, brick home, or perhaps limestone magicked to look like brick; gray showed through in some spots. The door and window frames were seemingly cherrywood, and the roof was an ordinary slanted black roof. Each window boasted black shutters and flowers, and the lawn was neatly trimmed with flowerbeds bordering the house, possibly the work of Helga from what they knew of her. It appeared to have many rooms, but it was impossible to tell from outside.
Harry attempted one last time to fix his tousled hair, but to no avail; Draco, too, was having trouble re-taming his usually perfect strands. They gazed at each other, still basking in the afterglow, when the door flew open and Godric Griffindor himself interrupted. He grinned widely and ushered them in, seating them at a large mahogany table where the other already sat, stuffing their faces. Harry and Draco sat next to each other next to Hermione, who was the only one eating gracefully, shooting glares of disgust at Lavender and Ron.
A bowl of steaming stew was placed in front of each of them, smelling amazing. As the two began, they realized that it didn't only smell amazing, it was amazing. It was hearty, with tender beef, small chunks of potato, and chopped up carrot. The gravy broth was seemingly from scratch and was better than any stew they had had before.
Soon all of the bowls were empty, and the founders, sitting at the other end of the table with Godric at the head, chuckled to themselves. This time, Ravenclaw spoke.
"Good, isn't it? That's Helga's special recipe, she makes the best food of any of us. That's probably due to her wit in herbology, hm, dear?" Helga and Rowena smiled at each other and Helga nodded.
"It's my family's recipe, but it'll be served at our school for sure!" The five travellers looked at each other uneasily; the house elves certainly didn't make the stew at Hogwarts to the full potential, which was disappointing, really. It would probably break Helga's heart to hear that.
"So, what're yer names, young uns?" Godric boomed as he stood to retrieve bottles of alcoholic Butterbeer from a cooling cabinet. He took out a few frosted glass mugs as well, pouring the drinks into them before grabbing two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine. He Wingardium Leviosa'd it all to the table, the wine to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and Butterbeer to the others.
Harry cleared his throat and pointed to each person as he named them, respectively, "I'm Harry Potter, and this is Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Lavender Brown, and Ron Weasley. We're travellers, see, and we've been lost for ages... where are we, may I ask?"
Godric took a large swig of his drink before answering. "Yer in Mellington, boy. Potter and Malfoy, eh? The Potter's 're just here in town, an old family fer sure. You related?" Harry's mouth suddenly went dry. His family, here? He could meet them? Not that it would do much good, in his position, but...
Godric cleared his throat, forcing Harry out of his thoughts. "Oh, er, yes. I'm a distant cousin, see, left to see the world and travel. Back now, though," he said nervously. Would Griffindor be able to tell he was lying? But if he could he didn't show it, just took another swig, and the others followed suit.
They stayed up a bit longer, talking about the future Hogwarts (not that it was named yet, though Hermione suggested the name) and the journey, which they couldn't tell much about. Soon they split up and the men all went to one chamber and the women to another. Draco and Harry snuck into the same bed eventually and vowed that they'd figure out the predicament in the morning, when they'd had time to think.
And taking a swig each of unicorn blood once Ron had fallen asleep, the couple turned in for the night, unsure but certain that they'd get home.