Ululatum in tempore Tempus
Chapter Three
"The big day has come, my friend!" Alice threw her arm around James' shoulder, remarkably successfully considering the significant height difference between the pair. "Excited?"
"You know it, Allie! We're going to change the world!"
"Yeah! That is, if we don't literally destroy it or get arrested."
"Always a little ray of sunshine, you are." He chuckled and shook his head as she attempted to skip off ahead of him, only to realise that in order to remain invisible she'd have to keep pace with James. The concern was a little unnecessary really, the Full Moon is always the easiest night to sneak out on. The teachers had to prioritise the dungeons where the transformations were taking place. One could never be too careful though. Once they reached the whomping willow, Alice levitated a stick and launched it at the knot near the base that would freeze the violent branches.
"After you, good sir!" She said in an overly plummy accent before bowing and flourishing her hand towards the damp passage entrance.
"Why thank you, my Lady!" He made an attempt to enter the tunnel gracefully but slipped on a rather suspiciously slimy tree root and tumbled down.
"Tally ho!" Alice cried before diving in after him and landing atop him in a heap of rotting leaves.
"Bloody hell, Allie are you trying to kill me?" James asked incredulously, spitting flecks of dirt and leaf from his mouth.
"Bugger. You've got me. I was hoping to use you to revolutionise time travel and then kill you off so that I could take the credit all to myself. Guess I'm busted…" She snickered quietly as she dusted herself off and trotted off into the darkness, expecting James to follow her. He didn't. "James? I was just kidding; I'm not actually going to kill you." She called out into the darkness, fumbling for her wand.
"Arghhhhhh!" James hollered right in her ear from beneath the cloak. Alice shrieked loudly, striking out at random. "Oomph." James wheezed and the cloak slipped off him as he doubled up. "Now look what you've done! It's up to Al to carry on the family name now! You've ruined us!" Alice tutted, snatching the map out of his back pocket, and rapping him on the top of the head with it.
"Silly boy." She muttered, smirking and tossing the map into her bag. "Now, I'll be able to see if you're sneaking up on me." James groaned and dramatically limped after her, wining about being sterilised. Luckily, he had a miraculous recovery when they reached the shack and immediately began bossing Alice around. Naturally, she ignored him, and seated herself at the piano stool, taking a moment to tighten the strap of her bag so that it wouldn't get in the way.
"If you're going to sit there, do something productive and play something pretty." She rolled her eyes and slammed her hands down on the keys making James jump."
"How about you ask nicely, Potter?" She smiled sweetly.
"Pretty please with chocolate frog cards and dumgbombs on top?" He asked batting his unfairly long eyelashes at her.
"Anything for you, Jamiekins. What would you like?"
"Er, what about that sad one you learned a few weeks ago by that Amber guy and then maybe Stairway to Heaven?"
"It's Amber Run Jamie! Uncultured pig." She muttered not so quietly.
"Alright, alright, Amber Run." He said smiling slightly as he worked. "And then we'll swap, okay?" Alice nodded, even though he couldn't see her and placed her fingers on the piano keys.
"I'll use you as a warning sign
That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
And I'll use you as a focal point
So I don't lose sight of what I want
And I've moved further than I thought I could
But I missed you more than I thought I would
And I'll use you as a warning sign
That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
"And I'll use you as a makeshift gauge
Of how much to give and how much to take
I'll use you as a warning sign
That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
"Oh, and I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
"And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me"
"Beautiful." James murmured when she finished and kissed the tips of his fingers with an over exaggerated 'mwah!' "Now do Stairway to Heaven." Alice complied, but did not respond. The song resonated deeply with her, though she did not know why, but it always left her deep in thought. When she finished Stairway to Heaven, she turned to face James and tried to shake herself out of her funk.
"Your go, Jamiekins. I want Lovely by Billie Eyelash and then you can play whatever you want after." James sighed in exasperation.
"It's Eilish."
"Yeah that's what I said." She picked up James' work where he left off, tutting when she realised that he'd left the hard but to her. She poured some fluid that they'd stolen from an old pensive that they found in the room of requirement and began stirring immediately as she gently levitated a broken time turner into the solution. The glass had a small fracture in it, rendering it useless to anyone who wished to use it for its intended purpose, however, as it still held its small portion of the sands of time, all they had to do was dissolve or melt the glass to release it. Simply breaking it would be far too dangerous, as if the sand was exposed to too much open air, it would lose its temporal abilities.
This part was the most dangerous. One slip and the consequences could be unthinkable. Alice took a shaky breath before hovering the time turner over the potion ready to plummet in at exactly the right moment. Alice had left the maths to James, knowing that arithmancy was not her strong suit. So, instead of running over the calculations someone else might, she simply prayed to any and all divine forces she could think up on the spot. James' fingers ceased on the piano keys, and the room fell utterly silent. Alice counted the seconds in her head and stirred once every second for forty-for revolutions before she dropped the time turner into the gloopy solution. She braced herself for something to happen, expecting the worse. When nothing happened for a few seconds, she turned around, throwing her hands up in the air, whooping loudly.
"We didn't die!" James cheered loudly, striding across the room to double high-five Alice. Their celebrations were short-lived, however, cut short by James' eyes widening in fear. Panicking blindly, Alice placed her hand on his chest, pushing him forcefully.
"Depulso!" She cried, launching him through the flimsy, rotten wall and out of the building, before taking a running jump at the hole James made. For a moment, she thought she might have been fast enough. That thought was fleeting though, as she was surrounded by bright, white hot heat and pressure. She screamed, although no sound came out. Her ribcage was being crushed, and it was squeezing her lungs, her heart. She couldn't breathe at all as splinters of the cauldron and the glass from the time turner tore at her skin from every direction. She was being simultaneously stretched and crushed, her skin was burning and becoming raw and unbearably hot.
Just as suddenly as it began, it was over. The heat receded and Alice was left exposed on the cold, damp ground. Her clothes were torn and singed, as was her skin, and her breath came out in rattling gasps. She stared up at the sky, focusing on the glowing moon, high in the sky. She vaguely thought that it had been heavily overcast before they went into the shack. And yet, as she lay there, she could see all of the stars in the sky. She hazily connected the dots to make as many constellations as she could remember. There weren't many. Her mind was clouded by pain that refused to abate in the slightest. Not even the cold seeping into her bones from the wet leaves beneath her could numb it. She was so very exhausted. She thought that she really ought to stay awake, she ought to force herself up off the frigid ground and call out for James. James. She knew all of this, yet she was becoming so very comfy on the ground. She felt as though she might be sinking into it. She thought it rather convenient since she was probably going to die before morning. Who knows what damage has been done? Her lids determinedly lowered, and the moon and stars became blurry. In the distance, she heard a sound that was suspiciously like the howling of a wolf.
In the wee hours of the morning, four ragged and exhausted boys emerged from the base of the whomping willow. One was barely conscious and being supported by two of the others stirring only occasionally. As soon as they reached open air, he raised his head wearily.
"Can you smell that? I can smell blood."
"I think that's your own blood you can smell mate." The boy to his left said, his fatigued voice gentle and sympathetic.
"No! It's not mine. Padfoot!" He looked frantically from side to side, breathing heavily. "Padfoot, what if-"
"Don't even say it! We didn't leave the shack last night, Remus. It's okay." Padfoot responded, his tone sure and comforting.
"Someone's still hurt." Remus responded, turning his head every which way, trying to figure out where the scent was coming from. He turned his head almost all the way around, making it crack jarringly, and whimpered when he saw her. A young woman was laying sprawled out at the edge of the forest. Her skin was deathly pale against the blood pouring from her nose and ears. Remus tore himself away from his friends, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He collapsed to his knees at her side and frantically felt for a pulse in her neck. He found it and choked out a broken sigh of relief.
"She's alive! Quick! We have to get her to Poppy!" The other three boys quickly leapt into action, levitating her carefully and sprinting to the hospital wing. Poppy let out a broken scream when he saw the girl dumped unceremoniously on the bed. Moments after they arrived, Remus fainted, landing heavily on the flagstones.
"He didn't…?" She couldn't even bear to let the words leave her lips. Padfoot rounded on her, his eyes blazing with a mix of fear and exhaustion.
"Of course not! Don't even think it."
"Oh, thank Merlin!" She gasped out, levitating Remus onto a bed and moving to tend to the unknown woman's strange wounds.
The ceiling was very white, though it had several large cracks running through it. The light flowing across Alice was white too, and she thought that perhaps he really had died. She couldn't hear anything, and she couldn't move at all. Her hair was surrounding her head like a matted, clumpy halo. Alice also couldn't help but notice that she was really, incredibly hungry. She felt like she hadn't eaten in several days. She tried to raise her head, but it refused to co-operate. She tried to cry out, but her throat was so parched that she couldn't make any sound come out except for an eerie rattle that served to further convince her that she had perished.
She laid there for what felt like hours, aching to move, to see or to hear. She silently begged for some small sign that she was alive other than the growing pit in her stomach, and the ache in the space between her ribs. She fell in and out of consciousness until her salvation came in the form of an elderly, wizened man, who looked as though he had been elderly and wizened his whole life, and he would continue to be so for the rest of everyone else's lives too. He had small crescent shaped glasses perched on a crooked nose, and a politely curious expression on his face.
"Poppy, dear, I think our most curious friend here could do with a touch of something to wet her lips, perhaps?" He suggested in a quiet voice that was so smooth that Alice felt it went straight into her head without asking her ears for permission first. A woman who Alice assumed was Poppy placed a gentle hand on the back of Alice's head and lifted a small cup of water to her lips. She drank greedily, relishing the feeling of the cold water washing over her tongue.
"Take it easy, dear."
"I'd like to sit up." Alice rasped when the water was all gone.
"You need to rest, dear."
"I will… I just need to sit up, please." Poppy looked as though she would say no, but after a moment, she begrudgingly acquiesced and untucked the brutally tightened sheets. Alice immediately moved her arms, checking for injuries. Then, she slowly pushed herself up and rolled her neck, and then her shoulders before running her hands up and down her legs and taking some deep breaths to see how her ribs were. By all accounts, she felt fine. Her elderly visitor coughed politely, and she finally returned her focus to him.
"Good afternoon, Miss-?"
"Longbottom."
"Hello, how are you feeling Miss Longbottom?" He asked gently.
"Better than I was when I blacked out, I suppose… Yourself?" She asked tentatively, desperately trying to figure out why she recognised the strange man at her bedside.
"I am quite alright, thank you." Alice remained mute, unsure of how to respond. She recognised the room she was in; it was the hospital wing at Hogwarts - an area of the castle which she frequented. The man before her, however, remained a complete mystery. She knew she recognised him, but where from, she could not fathom. Her brain still felt obnoxiously foggy, an after effect of whatever potions she'd been given to heal her, she assumed.
"I'm not in trouble, am I?" She asked eventually, staring intently at the confusingly familiar face.
"I shouldn't think so. Unless you think you should be?" His lips twitched into an amused smile above his copious beard, and in that moment, it dawned on her. She recognised that face from several places, primarily from the chocolate frog card pinned to her wall, but also from various images of the Order of the Phoenix that her father had shown her as a child.
"Merlin! You're- that's impossible." He remained irritatingly impassive, gazing placidly at her as she struggled to formulate coherent sentences. "Professor Dumbledore?"
"You're correct. But why, might I ask, should that be impossible?" Alice's heart dropped all the way down to her feet and she struggled somewhat to breathe.
"Professor, might we continue this conversation elsewhere? I don't think this should be overheard by any unsuspecting ears." She whispered, her wavering voice barely audible over the pounding in her ears.
"I'm not sure Poppy would be agreeable, Miss Longbottom." Dumbledore responded with a concerned expression clouding his vivid blue eyes.
"Please, sir, it's urgent." He inspected her face for a moment before nodding sharply. The motion was birdlike, and the imagery was accentuated by his hooked nose. Alice might have laughed if she wasn't so frightened.
"Very well, we ought to inform Poppy that you're leaving." Alice nodded dumbly in response and watched as he swept through the gap in between the privacy screens in search of the matron. It must have been quite difficult to convince her because Dumbledore did not return for several minutes. When he did, he had a rather flustered looking Poppy in close pursuit.
"I really think you should stay here and rest." She fussed, trying to ease me back onto he pillows.
"No. I have to go to Professor Dumbledore's office. I'll be careful, I promise! I'll even come back later so that you can be sure that I'm still in perfect health."
"Very well. You'll stay the night too, though." Poppy finally relented begrudgingly and helped Alice to stand. "You were unconscious for a long time, dear. Are you sure about this?"
"Quite sure. I've experienced worse, I promise. I play quidditch, you see." Alice tried to smile reassuringly, but Poppy simply tutted disapprovingly and bustled out of the way to see if Alice could walk unaided. Alice took several confident steps around the bed, desperately trying to placate the matron so that she could speak with Dumbledore about her dire situation.
"Where's my bag?"
"Under the bed. Your clothes were unsalvageable unfortunately." Alice nodded glumly and glanced up at Dumbledore. "Alright then, off you go." Alice smiled weakly and reached down to grasp the handle of her bag. A wound on her shoulder twinged, but luckily Poppy was too busy muttering about stubborn kids to notice. When she had straightened up, she made an immediate beeline for the door, turning briefly to make sure that Dumbledore was following.
"Thanks for taking care of me, Poppy. I'm fit as a fiddle, see?" Alice said with a falsely cheery tone in attempt to placate the angry matron as Dumbledore strode gracefully to catch up. Her endeavour was regrettably fritless, and she decided that it would be best to flee before Poppy changed her mind. Dumbledore opened the heavy oak door, gesturing for Alice to pass though before him.
Her confusion only deepened further when she stepped into the corridor where she saw the smooth, untarnished stone of the corridor walls. They walked to the Headmaster's office in silence, Alice pacing quickly with furrowed eyebrows as she desperately tried to unearth a simple explanation for what was happening. She conveniently avoided the notion that she could have travelled back in time, the idea was too awful to fathom. Alas, she could not ignore the fact that as they journeyed through the empty corridors, all the signs pointed to that ghastly possibility.