Ululatum in tempore Tempus
Chapter Two
"Give me the damn cloak, Jamie! I'll look after it. We need to get the giant bogeys tonight!" Alice cried out in exasperation. "If you'd bloody remembered the signals you wouldn't even be in detention tonight, and then you could come with me." She muttered.
"It's not my fault, you did it wrong!" Alice sighed loudly and fixed her eyes on James.
"Give. Me. The. Cloak. Or we'll just have to wait until next month! You know we have to start brewing on the night of a waxing crescent moon, and that's tomorrow." She pointed out, raising her pale eyebrows at him in challenge.
"Fine. But if anything happens to my cloak or my map I swear, Allie, I'll shave you bald."
"I thought we agreed that we were sharing!" Alice exclaimed in outrage. Unfortunately, the effect of her wrath was somewhat hindered as she clutched her hair protectively over one shoulder.
"Fine, our map and cloak." James acquiesced, rolling his eyes.
"I'll keep them safe. I solemnly promise." She looked him dead in the eye and he nodded, flopping down onto his bed.
"I am not looking foreword to this detention." He sighed dramatically before glancing at the clock and immediately hauling himself back up for their afternoon lessons.
The plan was simple. All Alice needed to do was get to Slughorn's potions stores and procure a large quantity of giant mucus for their latest experiment. They figured that since giant snot had some regulatory properties when used to prevent explosions in volatile potions, it could allow people to travel a short distance back in time without tearing apart the fabric of reality. Alice and James hoped so anyway. The theory had yet to be proven, due to the consequences of meddling with time being- at the very least- a life sentence in Azkaban. If you survived.
Alice found Defence Against the Dark Arts boring, as did the children of most ex-members of the Order of the Phoenix. Particularly those close Harry. All of the children were taught defensive and evasive tactics as soon as they could toddle and clutch a quill like a wand. By the age of 6, James and Alice knew the movement and incantation required to execute every defensive spell and charm. By the age of ten, they could all could effectively disarm and disable an opponent with their fake wands. When they were finally allowed to buy and carry a wand, they were already highly competent in duelling, and when they were all together over the summers, their parents would stage fake ambushes to keep them on their toes. It was all good fun of course, the kids never took it too seriously, but it worked. Alice always stood out as the best at duelling. In her third year, she could have passed her N.E.W.T in Defence blindfolded and could take on multiple opponents at the same time. It all came with having the most paranoid extended family in all of Wizarding Britain. They called it the Moody method, and the grown-ups would all laugh nostalgically when Harry barked out 'Constant Vigilance!' in his bright purple head-Auror robes. The whole of Alice's class knew this, of course, Hogwarts students had been studying alongside the children of war heroes since 2009 when Teddy arrived at King's Cross with Andy. The professor did not know any of this though, and therefore had the audacity to try and reprimand her for not paying attention to his lecture on proper duelling safety.
"Excuse me, Miss-" He said quietly, staring pointedly at the game of noughts and crosses She'd been playing with James
"Longbottom, Professor." She scowled coldly as he laughed. This was possibly the biggest mistake he could have made. "Does my name amuse you, Professor Bletchley?"
"I am a few years older than your father, Miss Longbottom. We attended Hogwarts together." He said, looking around the classroom as though he was expecting the students to laugh. They didn't. "Do you not think you should be paying attention?"
"To you? Not particularly, Professor." Alice retorted coldly. James elbowed her hard in the ribs, a pointy reminder that she had an exceptionally good reason to avoid detentions. "Sorry. I'll pay attention." She muttered quietly, eyeballing at James, and rubbing her now slightly sore ribs.
"That's what I thought." He said mockingly as Alice scowled at the table, barely making any kind of effort to even pretend that she was paying attention to what the vile teacher was saying. Less than five minutes later, she came out of her reverie to find everyone standing up and pushing the desks and chairs to the side. Looking around sheepishly, she joined in, carrying her bag over one shoulder, and grabbing hers and James' chairs.
"Right everyone. Nothing to worry about, I will just be making a short assessment of your abilities. Please partner up and try to disarm your opponent." Alice immediately grabbed James.
"Want to put on a little show?" She asked, a mischievous smirk tugging at her lips. She watched as he walked over to the other side of the room and whispered in the ear of the student next to him, and then repeated the process with the Hufflepuff on his other side. When he had gained a nod of assent from both of them, he turned back to Alice and nodded, mirroring her impish expression.
"You may begin." Immediately red spells were flying across the room, being deflected every which way as the Professor moved his way down the rows observing people's stance and ability to cast defensive spells. As he neared James, the Hufflepuff boy shot an 'accidental' spell in Alice's direction. She deflected it back to him seamlessly, catching his wand as it was torn from his grasp. James then turned to the boy to his other side and nodded imperceptibly. They both sent different jinxes hurtling towards Alice, presumably under the guise of avenging the poor Hufflepuff who had been knocked down onto his backside by his own spell. Immediately, she threw up a powerful shield charm and disarmed them both. Within moments, Alice was holding three wands in her left hand, still maintaining the shield with her own wand in her right. When everyone in the classroom was either wandless, or clutching two wands, (or four in Alice's case) they were dismissed by a very disgruntled looking Professor Bletchley. Alice tossed James his wand and walked over to the pair that had been roped into their scheme.
"Thanks for your help, boys." She grinned, handing them their wands.
"That as bloody brilliant, Longbottom! I couldn't have kept hold of my wand even if I hadn't wanted to teach that smarmy bastard a lesson!" Alice threw hear head back and laughed, walking off to join her best friend. Looping her arm through his, they continued off down the corridor to their potions lesson with Slughorn.
After a double potions lesson and a heart dinner of shepherd's pie, James had to report to the Head's office for his long detention. In the time between the end of diner and curfew, Alice had lots to do. Firstly, she had to set up some kind of distraction at the end of the corridor from Slughorn's office, finish the homework that was due earlier that week, and get the girls to lie for her should someone suspect that she might be the perpetrator of the theft that was going to ensue that night. Firstly, Alice planted a significant volume of modified dungbombs at the entrance to the dungeons which she could activate on her way past later that night. The modifications meant that no amount of magic would rid the corridor of the foul smell, it would simply have to pass on its own. In a stroke of genius, Alice had cast a reworked version of the gemino charm, meaning that any spells cast to try and clean up the mess, would simply make it twice as large. That ought to keep him occupied. When she had finished, she traipsed off back to the Gryffindor tower to bribe the girls. If she could be quick, she'd have enough time for a game of chess with Lily before she had to tackle the mountain of homework she'd been resolutely avoiding all summer.
Alice crept down the corridors, map in hand. She had not in fact completed any of her homework, instead, she got side-tracked being defeated repeatedly at chess by Jamie's little sister. The castle was always eerily quiet at night. She soon reached the potions corridor, though, and it was time for the fun to begin. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a rather sturdy looking clothes peg, and fixed it over her nose, effectively preventing the foul odour of the dungbombs from effecting her work. Then, she stood a short distance away and fired a jet of magic into the nest of bombs starting a chain reaction. Within minutes, Slughorn was waddling out of his office, wearing a night cap and full robes. Alice crept into his office and stope the large ring of keys from his desk before sidling back out again. She paused for a moment to watch the chaos and then took off down the corridor to the largest of the school's potions stores. It only took her a few moments to locate the large jars of giant bogeys which she pocketed carefully. After pausing to check if Slughorn was still busy attempting to clean up the mess, she began opening doors at random in search of other useful supplies, and leaving useful cupboards unlocked.
Her fun stopped short when she opened the last and most unassuming door in the corridor. It was entirely empty except for one trophy hidden in the topmost corner. As Alice reached to grab it, she heard Slughorn ambling back down the corridor, muttering vibrant curses under his breath. Alice temporarily forgot she was invisible and hastily closed herself into the cupboard, only to curse her stupidity a moment later. She emerged, checked both ways and then dashed to the storeroom, shoving the correct key into the lock, and bounding off down the corridor, straight through the green smog. It wasn't until she got back to the Fat Lady that she even realised that she was still clutching the illusive trophy in her hand. She lifted I to her face, squinting to read it in the di lighting.
Hogwarts Quidditch Record 1977
Seeker: Mary McDonald
Chasers: James Potter, Conor McClaggan, Josephine Wrench
Beaters: Sirius Black, Alice Longbottom
Keeper: Andrew Wood
Captain: James Potter
Alice furrowed her eyes in confusion. Her father had always made an effort to teach Alice and Mavis about their grandparents, and he'd not once mentioned that she was on the quidditch team as a beater! That was her position too. Why hadn't he mentioned it when Alice made the team in her third year? She had been so excited to tell her family, and she thought that someone would have thought to tell her, especially considering how frequently people who knew the Longbottoms in their youth felt the need to tell Alice that she is just like her namesake.
After several minutes, Alice lowered the hood of the cloak a little and whispered the password to the Fat Lady. Deep in thought, she entered the cosy common room where a small fire still glowed in the fireplace.
"What bloody took you so long? I was starting to get worried!" Alice started at the sound of James' harshly whispered voice and dumbly handed the trophy to him.
"Confused." Was all she said, unloading her pockets onto the low coffee table near the best armchair and sitting down. "Why didn't I know that gran was a beater?"
"Maybe your dad didn't know? I mean he was quite young when they were sectioned, wasn't he?" James said gently, taking the cloak from her shoulders and shoving it in his pocket.
"Maybe." Alice murmured with furrowed eyebrows. "It's not a big deal, it's probably nothing at all, it just weirded me out a bit."
"Get some sleep, love. You'll feel better about it in the morning." He smiled warmly, squeezing her shoulder.
"Thanks, Jamie." She cracked a smile and he nodded kindly before scooping the jars and map into his hands.
"Go on, bed." He called over his shoulder and retreated up the stairs. Alice sighed and grabbed the trophy before hauling herself up to her dorm. She collapsed into her bed, exhausted, but did not succumb to sleep until a mere few hours before sunrise.