CHAPTER 5: DISCOVERIES OF TIME
After supper that night, Hermione and Ron demanded to see this globe of his, so they clumped up the stairs and Harry pulled it and the letter out of his trunk.
It glinted in the dim candles in Ron's room, but still and quiet beneath the cool surface was the matte black as Harry had seen the night he had unwrapped it.
Hermione shook it and listened. No sound was heard except for a faint explosion from downstairs and a yell, which seemed to continue on for quite some time.
Ron grinned. "I guess Mum didn't catch George and Fred putting something into her dish water."
Hermione handed it back to Harry, who concentrated on it, staring into the seemingly impenetrable darkness within.
Ron glared at it for a moment before announcing, "I don't like it. It's just too dark, like it's hiding something."
"But what?" Hermione asked, biting her lip with concentration.
Harry held it up and brought it near a candle, but it remained just as dark as before.
Ron held out his hand and Harry placed the sphere into it, and Ron almost dropped it. "It's so heavy! It doesn't look as heavy as what it actually is."
He turned it over and around in his hand, but he couldn't see anything that would even hint as to what it was. With a sigh, he handed it back to Harry.
"It's really a mystery," Hermione sighed as well.
Harry narrowed his eyes as his scar twinged, and he wondered what Voldemort was doing that would drag this out so much. Hermione gasped, and Harry glanced up at her.
"What?"
"It--flashed," she said with a stutter that was quite unlike herself. "What did you just do?"
"I didn't do anything," he said back, looking down suspiciously at the lifeless globe in his hand.
"Do what you were just doing again," Hermione insisted. "Think about what you were just thinking about."
Harry didn't really want to go into detail about what Voldemort might be doing, but he did anyway.
Hermione sighed in exasperation after a few moments. "Well, I don't know what else to think. It was reacting to your thought a moment ago..."
Harry tossed it onto the bed, pushing his wand along the blankets, and sighed as well. "We'll just have to wait for Snuffles to explain it," he said, disappointed.
The sphere flashed, and, as if in response to the globe, Harry's wand sparked.
The trio stared at the sphere and the globe sparking together for a moment, and then Harry picked them both up, keeping contact.
The sphere flashed as his fingers touched it, and to his surprise it was warm. After a few moments, the sphere let out a snippet of phoenix song that drew Hermione and Ron closer to him. And then with a flash of green light, the inside of the globe exploded outward with a series of images…
"Run, Lily! Take Harry!"
"I love you, James--" She ran, but stumbled just outside. A high-pitched laugh echoed through the neighborhood, and her panic increased. She cooed softly to the bundle in her arms, which had started crying loudly, and turned around to protect her only son...
Another flash of green light--
And the scene changed to that of a frail-looking woman cooking in her kitchen, tutting and stirring soup on the stove. "It's all right, Dudley, your food's coming," she called toward the dining room, where a large boy sat at the table. He looked about eight or nine, and was glaring at her back in between proclaiming his hunger and slamming the table with his fork and knife. A smaller skinnier boy was sitting at the other end of the table, glaring at the fatter one. His hair was unkempt and stuck out everywhere, and his glasses were broken at the bridge. The fatter boy began to levitate slowly, so slowly that he didn't even realize it at first. He began screaming, and the woman ran in from the kitchen with her spoon, yelling at the smaller boy. He dashed beneath her wild swings, the fatter one fell back onto his chair, still yelling. The smaller one dashed out of the room…
Flash--
The smaller boy was back, a little taller and a little less gangly, in a room with a checkerboard floor. He looked worried, standing between two large pawns that glared down at him. Across the board was a smaller boy with red hair, furrowing his brow in concentration. To his left was a girl with bushy hair and glasses, who was watching him intently, a look of horror on her face.
"That's chess," he snapped at them. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me...that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"
"But--"
Do you want to stop Snape or not?"
"Ron--"
"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the stone!"
He moved forward, and the white queen pounced on him, dragging him off the board, unconscious. Harry moved forward, and the king threw his crown at his feet. They looked at each other for a moment, then back at their fallen comrade. "We've got to go on," Harry said...
Flash--
The taller boy was standing beside the lake, watching some shrouded figures surrounding two smaller figures. A small flickering white light wisped out of one of their wands, and slowly faded, inadequate. The taller boy pulled out his wand, set his mind on a certain thought, and cried, "Expecto patronus!" A silvery light not unlike the wisps he had seen moments ago shot out of his wand and formed a large horse-like animal that flew across the water, driving the large shadows away from the smaller figures.
The animal flew back across the water, hooves not even making the water ripple. The taller boy reached up to touch the animal on the forehead, and he stared at this stag in wonder and amazement. The stag dispersed into bright sparkles that fluttered around him for a moment, and then--
Flash--
The same boy, his legs quivering with exhaustion, staggered beneath a curse flung at him by a tall dark stranger with red slitted eyes, who drank in the cries of pain with excitement. "Do you tire of this, Harry?" He asked, his voice silkily deceptive, and released the boy from his wand. He staggered into the crowd gathered around them, and they pushed him back, as if repulsed by him.
"I can end it quickly, Harry. Come, face your death," he mocked, eyes dilating with excitement. "Face your death like your father did..."
The boy moved behind a large headstone, cowering and clutching at his head. His wand dangled almost uselessly from his hand, but after a moment's hesitation, he took it firmly and cast himself around the headstone.
The two combatants shot their wands at the same time, and the beams connected into a single gold band. Strings of this band shot out around them, enveloping them within a circle of golden light.
Flash--
Older again, and perhaps a little better groomed, he stood, nervously toying with his wand. He was in the back of an empty classroom, waiting for someone. The door opened slowly, and she walked through, her body draped with a large cloak with a hood.
"What do you want?" She demanded, hiding her eyes from him.
"Why did you do that to him?" He snapped, all nervousness hidden suddenly beneath his passive face.
"He deserved it!" She snarled back, pulling the cloak closer around her.
"And now, I've got to go rectify the situation and deal with you," he growled, as if he were speaking to a little child who had taken her father's wand and turned her brother into a toad.
"Don't talk to me like that."
"And why not? When you're behaving like a spoiled rotten brat?!" He immediately backed up, his brow furrowed as he bit his lip. "I didn't mean it like that..."
"Oh, really? How did you mean it, then?" Her eyes flashed within the shadows of her hood. They flashed red with fire...
"Have you been doing that the entire day?" He asked, taking off in an entirely different path.
"More or less, yes."
He ground his teeth and grasped her left arm, pulling the sleeve up. "It's getting bolder... We don't have much time."
Flash--
A single sentence cried within a blaze of fire and green light: "Snakes don't like fire, and phoenixes do!"
The phoenix song played on...
Hermione was the first to break out of the trance the globe had flung them into. She leaned back against the wall as the last note of the phoenix song died away. There were tears in her eyes as she put her hand on Harry's shoulder.
Ron had his eyes closed, trying to savor the phoenix music.
Harry was staring at the sphere, his wand on the floor where he had dropped it. Apparently, his dropping it had stopped the sphere from shooting further into his future.
Harry shook himself and reached down to grab his wand, being careful not to connect the two things again.
"Wow," Ron whispered opening his eyes, and the other two nodded in silent agreement.
After supper that night, Hermione and Ron demanded to see this globe of his, so they clumped up the stairs and Harry pulled it and the letter out of his trunk.
It glinted in the dim candles in Ron's room, but still and quiet beneath the cool surface was the matte black as Harry had seen the night he had unwrapped it.
Hermione shook it and listened. No sound was heard except for a faint explosion from downstairs and a yell, which seemed to continue on for quite some time.
Ron grinned. "I guess Mum didn't catch George and Fred putting something into her dish water."
Hermione handed it back to Harry, who concentrated on it, staring into the seemingly impenetrable darkness within.
Ron glared at it for a moment before announcing, "I don't like it. It's just too dark, like it's hiding something."
"But what?" Hermione asked, biting her lip with concentration.
Harry held it up and brought it near a candle, but it remained just as dark as before.
Ron held out his hand and Harry placed the sphere into it, and Ron almost dropped it. "It's so heavy! It doesn't look as heavy as what it actually is."
He turned it over and around in his hand, but he couldn't see anything that would even hint as to what it was. With a sigh, he handed it back to Harry.
"It's really a mystery," Hermione sighed as well.
Harry narrowed his eyes as his scar twinged, and he wondered what Voldemort was doing that would drag this out so much. Hermione gasped, and Harry glanced up at her.
"What?"
"It--flashed," she said with a stutter that was quite unlike herself. "What did you just do?"
"I didn't do anything," he said back, looking down suspiciously at the lifeless globe in his hand.
"Do what you were just doing again," Hermione insisted. "Think about what you were just thinking about."
Harry didn't really want to go into detail about what Voldemort might be doing, but he did anyway.
Hermione sighed in exasperation after a few moments. "Well, I don't know what else to think. It was reacting to your thought a moment ago..."
Harry tossed it onto the bed, pushing his wand along the blankets, and sighed as well. "We'll just have to wait for Snuffles to explain it," he said, disappointed.
The sphere flashed, and, as if in response to the globe, Harry's wand sparked.
The trio stared at the sphere and the globe sparking together for a moment, and then Harry picked them both up, keeping contact.
The sphere flashed as his fingers touched it, and to his surprise it was warm. After a few moments, the sphere let out a snippet of phoenix song that drew Hermione and Ron closer to him. And then with a flash of green light, the inside of the globe exploded outward with a series of images…
"Run, Lily! Take Harry!"
"I love you, James--" She ran, but stumbled just outside. A high-pitched laugh echoed through the neighborhood, and her panic increased. She cooed softly to the bundle in her arms, which had started crying loudly, and turned around to protect her only son...
Another flash of green light--
And the scene changed to that of a frail-looking woman cooking in her kitchen, tutting and stirring soup on the stove. "It's all right, Dudley, your food's coming," she called toward the dining room, where a large boy sat at the table. He looked about eight or nine, and was glaring at her back in between proclaiming his hunger and slamming the table with his fork and knife. A smaller skinnier boy was sitting at the other end of the table, glaring at the fatter one. His hair was unkempt and stuck out everywhere, and his glasses were broken at the bridge. The fatter boy began to levitate slowly, so slowly that he didn't even realize it at first. He began screaming, and the woman ran in from the kitchen with her spoon, yelling at the smaller boy. He dashed beneath her wild swings, the fatter one fell back onto his chair, still yelling. The smaller one dashed out of the room…
Flash--
The smaller boy was back, a little taller and a little less gangly, in a room with a checkerboard floor. He looked worried, standing between two large pawns that glared down at him. Across the board was a smaller boy with red hair, furrowing his brow in concentration. To his left was a girl with bushy hair and glasses, who was watching him intently, a look of horror on her face.
"That's chess," he snapped at them. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me...that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"
"But--"
Do you want to stop Snape or not?"
"Ron--"
"Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the stone!"
He moved forward, and the white queen pounced on him, dragging him off the board, unconscious. Harry moved forward, and the king threw his crown at his feet. They looked at each other for a moment, then back at their fallen comrade. "We've got to go on," Harry said...
Flash--
The taller boy was standing beside the lake, watching some shrouded figures surrounding two smaller figures. A small flickering white light wisped out of one of their wands, and slowly faded, inadequate. The taller boy pulled out his wand, set his mind on a certain thought, and cried, "Expecto patronus!" A silvery light not unlike the wisps he had seen moments ago shot out of his wand and formed a large horse-like animal that flew across the water, driving the large shadows away from the smaller figures.
The animal flew back across the water, hooves not even making the water ripple. The taller boy reached up to touch the animal on the forehead, and he stared at this stag in wonder and amazement. The stag dispersed into bright sparkles that fluttered around him for a moment, and then--
Flash--
The same boy, his legs quivering with exhaustion, staggered beneath a curse flung at him by a tall dark stranger with red slitted eyes, who drank in the cries of pain with excitement. "Do you tire of this, Harry?" He asked, his voice silkily deceptive, and released the boy from his wand. He staggered into the crowd gathered around them, and they pushed him back, as if repulsed by him.
"I can end it quickly, Harry. Come, face your death," he mocked, eyes dilating with excitement. "Face your death like your father did..."
The boy moved behind a large headstone, cowering and clutching at his head. His wand dangled almost uselessly from his hand, but after a moment's hesitation, he took it firmly and cast himself around the headstone.
The two combatants shot their wands at the same time, and the beams connected into a single gold band. Strings of this band shot out around them, enveloping them within a circle of golden light.
Flash--
Older again, and perhaps a little better groomed, he stood, nervously toying with his wand. He was in the back of an empty classroom, waiting for someone. The door opened slowly, and she walked through, her body draped with a large cloak with a hood.
"What do you want?" She demanded, hiding her eyes from him.
"Why did you do that to him?" He snapped, all nervousness hidden suddenly beneath his passive face.
"He deserved it!" She snarled back, pulling the cloak closer around her.
"And now, I've got to go rectify the situation and deal with you," he growled, as if he were speaking to a little child who had taken her father's wand and turned her brother into a toad.
"Don't talk to me like that."
"And why not? When you're behaving like a spoiled rotten brat?!" He immediately backed up, his brow furrowed as he bit his lip. "I didn't mean it like that..."
"Oh, really? How did you mean it, then?" Her eyes flashed within the shadows of her hood. They flashed red with fire...
"Have you been doing that the entire day?" He asked, taking off in an entirely different path.
"More or less, yes."
He ground his teeth and grasped her left arm, pulling the sleeve up. "It's getting bolder... We don't have much time."
Flash--
A single sentence cried within a blaze of fire and green light: "Snakes don't like fire, and phoenixes do!"
The phoenix song played on...
Hermione was the first to break out of the trance the globe had flung them into. She leaned back against the wall as the last note of the phoenix song died away. There were tears in her eyes as she put her hand on Harry's shoulder.
Ron had his eyes closed, trying to savor the phoenix music.
Harry was staring at the sphere, his wand on the floor where he had dropped it. Apparently, his dropping it had stopped the sphere from shooting further into his future.
Harry shook himself and reached down to grab his wand, being careful not to connect the two things again.
"Wow," Ron whispered opening his eyes, and the other two nodded in silent agreement.