CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

PAST PERFECT

The four friends looked at their surroundings. It was dark, so it was difficult to tell how everything looked. It was more of a feeling than anything, sensing that there were subtle changes everywhere.

"Now we have to go back into the school to figure out where we are in time," Lionel said. "There's no other way..."

"Are you sure?" Wesley said with fear.

"Yeah, unless we have an appropriately-dated newspaper just laying around here out in the woods, that's what we'll have to do," Rose said sarcastically. "And we were trying to avoid being seen." She cuffed Wesley across the back of the head in frustration. "Brain-dead oaf!"

"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head. Abigail had felt like doing the same thing. Wesley very well could have ruined everything, and they didn't even yet know if they could make it back to their own time...

The ran for the school. A person who looked like a younger Professor Flitwick stopped them out on the Hogwarts grounds.

"Halt!" he said "What are you doing out of the dungeons? Vampires are about to attack the school! Go back inside, NOW!"

"Yes, sir!" They all said in spite of themselves. It was automatic. They hadn't wanted to get in trouble, so they continued to head back for the school's entrance.

"We can't go to the dungeons!" Wesley protested.

"Of course we can't!" Rose matched his volume. "But we had to give the appearance we were going to so we wouldn't get into trouble then, didn't we?"

"At least we know when we are now," Lionel said ominously. "The vampire war."

"That was twenty years ago, long before our time," Abby said. The four were now at the school's entrance, where a couple of very familiar faces stopped them.

"First years!" yelled Hermione-from-the-past.

"What're you doing out of the dungeons?" said past-Ron.

It was so disorientating seeing Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as their younger selves that Rose, Abby, Lionel, and Wesley all froze and stared.

"Well, don't just stand there," Hermione said. "MOVE IT!" She and Ron had pointed their wands at Abby and her friends in a threatening manner. They didn't need any more prodding. Despite their better judgment, they headed downstairs to the dungeons because it looked like they were about to be escorted there it they didn't go of their own accord. As soon as they were out of earshot, Rose started bubbling over.

"Those were my parents!" she squeaked.

"I know!" Abby said.

"That was so weird!" said Wesley.

"I think it was cool!" said Lionel. "It's too bad you couldn't you tell them who you are!"

The other three turned around and stared at him.

"Are you mental?" Rose demanded. "You could very well be changing your own future if you did such a thing!" Lionel shrugged.

"Don't blame me," he said. "It was Wesley who brought us here."

"Good point," Rose said, as she hit Wesley again.

They turned back around, continuing their way to the dungeons. "I wonder where my parents are right now," Lionel said. "I would love to meet them!"

"He really is mental," said Rose to herself as she shook her head.

"Shut up!" said Abigail. "I hear something!" The four friends quieted and slipped into Professor Malfoy's potions classroom. It looked different.

Abby peaked around the corner of the classroom and saw two people in the corridor. It was a teenage red-headed girl and another dangerous-looking man. The man had backed up the girl against the wall. Suddenly, she screamed. Without thinking about what she was doing, Abigail ran out of the classroom, pointing her wand at the dangerous man.
"Don't you dare hurt her!" she said threateningly. The dangerous-looking man laughed at her, turning away from the red-haired girl. His eye-teeth glinted in the torchlight. Abby gasped. Was this man a vampire?

"What are you going to do, point me to death?" he said derisively. He was not aware of the red-haired girl leaving her spot against the wall and retrieving her wand from where it had been dropped on the floor.

"FREEZE!" yelled the girl to him, as she pointed her wand behind his head. He whirled around, but it was too late.

"BOMBARDUM!" shouted the teenage girl. The vampire was hit full-force with the girl's spell and it caused him to fly into the wall. His body impacted the stone so hard that it crushed some of the brick behind him. Then the vampire, now unconscious, fell forward onto the floor, face-first.

Abigail was soon flanked by her three friends. The teenage girl was breathing hard, wand still held out in front of her with both hands.

"That was amazing," Rose whispered.

"Thank you," she said breathlessly. "If not for you, I'd be dead. But you really should be getting back to the Slytherin Common room now."

"Who are you?" Lionel said, voicing the words the rest of the friends had wanted to say. She looked at them oddly, as if not accustomed to people not knowing who she was.

"I'm Ginny Weasley, 6th year Gryffindor."