Author's Note: Okay, it took a bit longer than I planned, but it's up now! heheh. I sat down at my computer today, after a horrid little episode after dinner when I had one of my reactions to my salad lettuse. Yeah, I'm allergic to fruits and veggies (and peanuts) - I've got OAS (Oral Allergy Syndrome). Horrid nuisanse that is, let me tell you.

Anyway, rambling, I sat at my computer, armed with nothing but a bowl of ice-cream (not Florean Fortesque's, unfortunately) and my mind. This is the result. I don't know where the whole 'Muggle film' thing came from, I guess I had brain freeze, but . . . yeah, well, just read!

Chapter Thirteen: We Can't!

James stared in absolute horror at the tall, raven-haired boy on the ground in front of him. He was still on the ground himself, glasses awry on the bridge of his nose. He slowly reached up and fixed them, hoping that the two people in front of him would vanish when his full sight was restored. They didn't.

He shot a sideways glance at Lily, who was standing stock-still a few inches behind him. By the look on her face, he would guess that she knew a bit more about these two strangers than he'd originally thought.

Harry picked himself up off the cold floor, rubbing his forehead absent-mindedly. He didn't take his eyes off James' face as he stood, James mirroring his actions. Harry was a few inches taller than his sixth-year father, something both didn't fail to notise. Harry finally broke eye-contact to turn and help Ginny up off the ground. When everyone was standing, Harry and James took up staring at each other again, and Lily and Ginny did the same.

No one spoke for several minutes, the seconds ticking by silently. Finally, when she couldn't take the mind-numbing silence anymore, Ginny spoke. "Sorry for running into you."

It sounded pathetic, and they all stopped their staring match to look at her. She looked down, a sheepish look on her face, cheeks burning scarlet. Harry put his arm around her, trying to expel her embarrassment while, at the same time, attempting to sort out the confusion ravaging his mind.

Lily, shooting a quick glance at James, stepped forward, eyes wide. "James and I . . . that is . . . we have some . . ." She looked over her shoulder at James, who jumped to her rescue.

"Questions - we have some questions that you need to answer."

Harry and Ginny started, sharing a look of utmost terror. Of all the things that they could have run into during their little escapade, they had to run into Lily and James. They both knew that they couldn't answer questions - if Harry's parents found out anything about the future, they wouldn't be Harry's parents in the future.

"Well," Ginny said slowly, choosing her words carefully, "what would you have questions about?" They all knew perfectly well what they had questions about.

James looked around quickly. They were standing, in full view, in a deserted hallway a few turns away from the Great Hall. He looked at his watch, saw that breakfast would be ending soon, and cursed. The corridor would be flocked with students soon, and they wouldn't have any privasy. "Look, we can't talk here. Let's go someplace more private."

"The hospital wing?" Lily suggested, remembering that Harry and Ginny had been sent there by Dumbledore the day before. She wondered, briefly, why they weren't there now.

"Oh," Ginny sighed. "We just came from there! Do we have to go there, of all places?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. "We aren't going anywhere, Gin. We can't answer their questions."

James narrowed his eyes as well. Lily and Ginny were struck by the severe similarities in the glaring pair. "And why can't you answer them? You don't even know what we were going to ask."

"I have an idea, actually," Harry said, voice low. "Sorry, but we have to go. C'mon, Gin." He took her elbow and pulled her along, not looking back at his shell-shocked parents. Ginny staggered, caught of guard, before righting herself and following.

When they'd been walking for a few minutes, and were positive that Lily and James weren't following, they pulled on the Invisibility Cloak. The breakfasting students in the Great Hall were beginning to walk to their first lesson, and Harry didn't want to be seen.

They pulled the hospital doors open as quietly as possible, yet quickly. The bland room was like sanctuary after their 'exciting' walk around the school.

"You know," Ginny whispered, as they sat behind their curtain, plopping on the firm beds tiredly, "I am actually glad to be back in here. The boring walls are so comforting."

Harry didn't respond, he only stared at the ceiling. How things could have gotten so much worse he hadn't the slightest, but they had. Not only were they stuck in the wrong time, with people who were currently dead in their own time period, but those people were suspicious and asking questions. They wouldn't be able to leave the hospital wing for a while.

"Harry, I think, maybe, it would be okay to hear their questions. We could answer them if they're safe, and ignore them if they're not."

He turned his head slowly on the bed to look at her in surprise. "Ginny, we can't answer anything. If they find anything out about the future, then —"

"Yeah, yeah, 'the future will cease to exist' and 'time will drastically be altered beyond recognition'. I'm tired of everyone's explanations sounding like one of those Muggle movies dad loves. What was that one . . . the one with the crazy-haired man?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Crazy-haired man?"

She nodded, trying to recall the title of a film she'd watched a few years ago, when her dad had finally managed to work his ancient videocassette player that he'd taken apart and reassembled. She'd only managed to sit through half before falling asleep, however, much to her father's disappointment. He'd broken the tape player the following day, when he accidentally put the tape in backwards, thinking that was the way to rewind.

"Back to the Future?" Harry supplied half-heartedly, wondering when their conversation had fallen so far off the mark. Hadn't they just been discussing their current problem? Leave it to Ginny to take your mind off any majour issue, Harry thought, a small smile coming across his face.

Her eyes brightened. "Yes! That was it, I think. Did you ever watch that?"

He sat up on his elbow, eying her playfully, forgetting their past conversation. "Yeah, I did. I grew up with Muggles, remember?"

"Yes, I knew that, Mr. Smart-aleck. I was just asking, because that movie reminded me a lot of our current situation."

"Really," Harry said, trying to recall what the movie was about. He'd only been eight when he'd seen it, when the Dursleys had allowed him to watch the film in one of their rare moments of goodness. He remembered the gist of it, the teenage boy transported back in time and having to make sure his parents fell in love. He went rigid remembering that detail. "Ginny . . ."

"What?" she asked. She looked up at him curiously, recognising the change in his tone.

"Do you think . . . maybe . . . that Dumbledore sent us here . . . on purpose?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows, thinking. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

"Not right now, you aren't!" A rough voice cut into the quiet of the room, jolting Harry and Ginny out of their thoughts. They whipped around, eyes wild, and found themselves looking at nothing but the curtain around their beds. Only now did they realise that it was being held open by something, something invisible. It dropped and the air wrinkled before they stared into the determined faces of Lily and James.

RoW: I'm hoping to get the next chapter, much longer than the last two, up tomorrow. I won't have brain freeze, then either! :D

On a side note, who saw My Boy Jack on PBS Sunday? Daniel Radcliffe was amazing, and I'm not just saying that because I'm his fan, he was honestly good. Rudyard Kipling was a fascinating person, great story behind him and his family.