Journey of Time
Breea
DISCLAIMER: All Harry Potter characters are property of J.K. Rowling, plot based off her books and also Timeline by Michael Crichton. And you never know when a quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer might jump in.
A/N: This is not altogether historically accurate. I did as much research as I thought was necessary but I didn't want to over burden that aspect, as this is only a fan fic.
Chapter 2Ginny had never felt every muscle in her body before. That was probably a good thing since it wasn't an altogether pleasant feeling. She wiggled her fingers and toes, heaving a sigh of relief; they were still there.
In a sudden burst of panic she realized she couldn't see anything, the world around her was still black. She was blind!
No, your eyes are closed, silly git, she thought to herself. Open them. Luckily, the voice in her head was still making sense because Ginny felt utterly confused.
She opened one eye. The pale blue sky filled her vision. Odd, she thought slightly dazed. I was inside. She opened her other eye. There wasn't a cloud in sight. And wasn't it nighttime? She lay still, staring up at the sky, lying flat on her back. Which, she realized suddenly, was extremely damp.
Ginny risked turning her head. She was definitely outside, lying in grass, somewhere unfamiliar.
Wait, she thought, sitting up abruptly. Her head whipped from side to side, her hair falling in her face. She hardly noticed. She stared hard toward the east. The morning fog was starting to lift and she could barely make out the faint outline of a castle. She was on the hill from her dream.
Ginny closed her eyes and opened them quickly. She did it again, slower this time. No, this was not a dream. This time, it was real.
Immediately she pushed herself to a crouch, watching the woods where Draco had appeared in her dream. He had been charging to kill her; the only reason she survived was the fact that it was a dream. Faced with this new reality, Ginny figured her best chance would be to run in the opposite direction if he actually appeared.
He never did.
* * * *
Ginny decided her best option would be to head toward the castle. She had no idea why she was in the middle of nowhere, but it couldn't be safe for her to be that far from Hogwarts. Plus, her entire nightgown was soaking and she was freezing, despite her sweatshirt and she felt naked without her wand. She headed east, the direction of the castle.
Right away she wished she had shoes. She had no choice but to cut through trees and the underbrush was sharp and unforgiving. Even though she was picking her steps carefully, her feet were sore within minutes. A deep sense of forbidding made her suffer silently, she had a feeling noise would be a danger to her.
She finally stumbled upon a road. It was actually more like two ditches worn into a cleared path of grass, but it seemed to lead straight toward the castle. Ginny was grateful she didn't have to walk through the forest any longer.
She had hardly taken three steps down the road when a boy of about fourteen burst forth from the bushes directly ahead of her, on the opposite side of the road. He was dressed in the strangest fashion, gray woolen pants and what looked to Ginny to be a beige tunic tied with a rope around his waist. A gray cap covered his hair and his shoes were made from pieces of brown wool tied around his ankles. Ginny noticed all this within two seconds.
He looked surprised to see her there. Another emotion showed plainly on his face – fear. "What are you doing?" He asked in the thickest British accent Ginny ever heard. "Off the road! They'll kill you!"
Ginny barely processed his words before he tackled her, knocking her into the bushes. He lay next to her, one finger to his lips to indicate they should be silent. Ginny decided holding her breath would be a good idea too.
She soon heard a sound that had to be horses. The sound was headed straight for them. Ginny had a sick feeling in her stomach. Why were there people on horses and why would they try to kill her?
An unfamiliar, male voice called. "Spread out! Surround the area!" It didn't sound like a happy tone.
Ginny heard the boy's sharp intake of breath and a quiet word she could only assume wasn't very polite. He motioned for Ginny to follow him.
They rolled onto their stomachs and began crawling through the underbrush, making as little noise as possible, away from the horses and searching men.
A sudden shout startled Ginny, causing her to jump and pause her crawling. From the sounds behind them it appeared they had been spotted. Ginny saw the boy pop up ahead and sprint away without a glance behind him. Unwilling to lose him, Ginny risked jumping up herself and running after him.
The horses were obviously faster than them, but harder to maneuver in the underbrush. Still, Ginny knew they were being gained on and she was already beginning to tire. She kept her eyes on the boy's hat ahead of her, pushing herself to keep up.
Suddenly, the hat disappeared. Ginny stopped running where she last saw it, panting in an attempt to catch her breath. She could hear the horses not far behind her.
A hand snaked up and grabbed her ankle, startling her. She would have cried out had she not already been terrified. She looked down and met a set of gray eyes. It was the boy. He motioned for her to quickly join him.
It was an alcove in the ground just before the land dipped into a valley. The alcove was unobservable unless you know exactly where to look. Ginny ducked in next to him. There was barely enough room for two of them.
Before she could think, the hoof beats were on top of them. Ginny didn't even dare to breathe. The horses stopped, right above them. Ginny could hear the men talking in low voices but she couldn't make out the words. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting down her rising panic. Please make them leave, please make them leave, she thought, repeating it over and over in her mind.
And they did. After what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes, the men on the horses split up, some doubling back, others continuing on. Ginny made a move to get up but the boy grabbed her arm, stopping her. He shook his head. Ginny sat back with resignation. They would wait.
Ginny tried to be still and quiet. Inside her head was anything but those two things. She was trying to process what had happened to her in the past hour but was failing miserably. None of it made sense, where she was, whom she was with and what was happening. It was all to confusing for her head to make sense of.
After a half hour of sitting in silence, the boy made a motion to let her know it was safe to move. Ginny crawled out of the alcove and into the cool air. It was dusk; she could see the sun sinking low in the purple sky to the west. She looked toward the castle and noticed they were considerable closer than she thought she would be. She turned to ask the boy what he knew but he had a finger to his lips again. It wasn't safe to talk yet. She nodded to let him know she understood. They began walking carefully toward the castle, keeping their eyes and ears open for any sign of the horses or their riders.
* * * *
By the time they reached the castle it was dark out. Luckily, the moon was bright and gave plenty of light to see by. Ginny was desperate to ask the multitude of questions that were piling up in her head but stayed quiet, waiting for the boy's signal that it would be okay to speak.
Ginny stared ahead of them at the castle. It looked…different. Maybe it was the moonlight, or the ordeal she was going through, but she could have sworn it looked different. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was.
The boy walked straight up toward the front door where there were two guards. He spoke with them briefly before motioning her to follow him in. Ginny did, feeling basically numb at this point from the cold.
Wait, she thought, looking over her shoulder as she walked through the doorway. Guards? There aren't guards at Hogwarts, but the thought died as she looked around the entrance hall. This was definitely not Hogwarts.
When she had last walked through the room it had been decorated in the four colors of the four houses, wizard paintings that were constantly on the move, and white marble staircases. Now, less than 24 hours later to her, all stairways were gray stone, the paintings were nowhere to be seen and the four house colors were absent. Instead, the room was decorated with maroon tapestries that hung from the ceiling and she was blinded by the gold gilding on everything around her. This couldn't be the same castle.
The boy turned around, taking his hat off as he did so. Ginny bit her bottom lip to suppress her gasp of surprise. He was not a he at all. He was a she. Her long, white gold locks fell from the cap past her shoulders and her smile was definitely feminine. Ginny marveled at how she could have thought this girl was a boy in the first place. She was beautiful.
"It's alright, it's meant to confuse," The girl motioned to her hat which she had thrown on a nearby table. Ginny had a hard time making out her words, her accent was so thick. "My name is Isabel Despencer," the girl paused to see if Ginny recognized her name. When Ginny made no acknowledgement, the girl bristled a bit but continued on. "Daughter to the Earl of Winchester, who's home you are now in," She took in Ginny's disheveled, wet, unsightly clothing as if for the first time. "I take it from your appearance that you are a bit lost, no?"
Ginny nodded, not ready to trust herself to speak. She could feel her grip on reality sliding as the acidic taste of panic rose in the back of her throat. What was this girl talking about?
Isabel smiled, not unfriendly. "We will help you," She told Ginny. "Follow me,"
Ginny mutely followed her up the staircase that should be familiar but was distinctly not. Isabel went in the direction of Gryffindor tower but turned off into a hallway that Ginny had never noticed. Somewhere in the back of her head she recalled the castle liked to shift and change but it seemed so eerily still that she quickly pushed the thought away. This wasn't Hogwarts, she reminded herself.
Isabel pushed open a door and motioned Ginny to follow her in. Once inside, two women, dressed in white cotton dresses with blue aprons, rushed over, immediately fussing over Isabel. They talked so fast Ginny could barely make out but a few words. "Oh, milady…out in the cold…dangerous times…pretending to be a boy…" The women were scolding as they petted Isabel's hair and clothes worriedly. Isabel stood patiently withstanding their prodding and reprimands. The women stopped only when they finally noticed Ginny. "And who is this?" One asked, hurrying over.
Isabel looked at Ginny expectantly. Ginny realized she had to answer this question. "Umm, Ginny," she answered stupidly, looking at the woman who rushed over. Curiously, she began to poke at Ginny much in the same way she had Isabel. The woman looked up at Ginny's name.
"Ginny?" She repeated, saying the word as if it were unfamiliar. "Are you from far away, my dear?" She asked, tsking at the dirtiness of Ginny's appearance.
Ginny looked at Isabel helplessly. She didn't know what to say and she was desperately afraid of saying something wrong. Isabel smiled at Ginny's expression and gave her a small wink.
"I'm afraid, Magilda, that Ginny has lost her memory. I found her wandering in her nightclothes and all she could recall was her name. I fear she is lost," Isabel informed the woman by Ginny, appearing sympathetic.
Magilda was taking Ginny's cardigan off before Isabel finished. "Well, you poor child," She said in her thick accent. "A hot bath and a good meal should help. You're as skinny as a fence post, how long have you been lost?"
"I-I don't remember," Ginny stammered uncertainly. This seemed satisfactory, however, as Magilda began busying herself with making two baths in two large wooden tubs in the middle of the room and didn't ask Ginny any more questions. The other woman began helping.
Isabel walked over to Ginny, her gray eyes searching Ginny's face. "There is more going on here than appears," She said quietly, more of a statement than a question. "But I think you are as confused as I am. At least your face says so," She continued as if talking to herself. "You are just lucky I found you before de Ferrers' men did,"
Ginny looked at her questioningly, but didn't get a chance to speak. The baths were ready.
* * * *
Ginny had never been bathed before. Well, maybe her mom did when she was a baby, but not since Ginny could remember did she have some one stand by and help her. Magilda was her assistant, the other woman, whose name turned out to be Hannah, helped Isabel. Soap, washcloth, towel, whatever she needed, Magilda was ready with it. And yes, it did strike Ginny as odd to take a bath in the middle of a room next to another girl in another bathtub, but at this point, everything was odd. Ginny had stopped processing the oddities long ago. She had a theory about what was going on but she couldn't bring herself to make it a fully formed thought. The idea alone was scary.
The clothing that Magilda brought for her was enough to confirm her suspicions, however. A long embroidered gown was laid on a nearby table as Ginny was helped into so many undergarments she couldn't remember the names of all of them. There was a debate about the corset, since she was already rail thin, but her chest was lacking enough that, in the end, it was decided she would benefit from one. Ginny didn't even have time to object, they strapped her in and cinched her tight before she could process what they said. Their accents were making their words hard to decipher.
The dress was beautiful; green velvet that complimented her eyes, a high waistline and gold embroidery. The length was a bit long, it looked as if it were made for Isabel, which it most likely was. Magilda slipped green slippers that looked like ballet shoes on Ginny's feet before sitting her in a chair. Magilda's expert fingers twisted and pulled and yanked her hair until after a half hour Ginny thought she must be bald. Her entire scalp was burning but when Magilda held the mirror in front of her face Ginny thought it was all worth it. Her hair was twisted elegantly into braids that encircled her head with a few stray hairs in curls around her face. Ginny had never thought herself as beautiful, but this person in the mirror was definitely close.
As Ginny followed Isabel, who was stunning in a gown of blue, similar to Ginny's, her thoughts raced. I'm back in time. I'm in some other century, she thought. The words rang in her head, leaving her with an empty feeling in her stomach. How was that possible? Time travel? That was a myth, a fairy tale.
Her thought process was interrupted by the entrance into the Great Hall. There was no enchanted ceiling, there was not a head table and the four house tables she was used to. There was one long table, covered in a white tablecloth, with golden plates and wooden utensils. Golden candle bras held the candles and the walls were covered, again, by elaborate tapestries.
There were already people at the table. The two men stood when the girls walked in, the lady remained seated. Ginny couldn't hold her gasp in when she looked at the two men. The youngest, closest to her, was none other than Draco Malfoy.
A/N: Please review, it makes authors happy!!
Special thanks to: Archer for being truthful and Kity and Ally for being my first reviewers ever! J