.
Into Your Gravity
Chapter Two: Wrackspurts
On the bridge, levitating because we want to.
When the unknown will surround you,
there is no right time.
Levitation - Beach House
Luna reached the large, oak doors of the castle and pulled one open, the great door swinging silently on its hinges. She stepped into the warm entrance hall and heard the familiar sounds of student voices spilling out of the Great Hall. She crossed towards the doors leading to the Great Hall, her soft footsteps on the stone floor echoing. Just as she reached out to open the door, a voice behind her said, "May I help you with something, miss?"
She turned towards the speaker with a smile and her mouth popped open in surprise. "Oh!"
Albus Dumbledore stood across the entrance hall from her. A crowd of nervous-looking first years was behind him, some of them leaning around him to get a look at her. His beard and hair were a deep auburn, and much shorter in length than she had ever seen them before. "Miss?" he repeated.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Her heart leapt - could he be alive? She took a step toward him. "Your hair is lovely!"
Some of the first year students laughed. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and peered over his spectacles at her, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. "Thank you," he said. "I'm afraid I don't know your name."
Luna hesitated. "You don't?" She tilted her head to the side, furrowed her brow, and twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. "I'm Luna Lovegood."
Dumbledore inspected her a brief moment. "Well, Miss Lovegood, I would like to extend a warm welcome to you to join us for the Start-of-Term Feast. Our first year students here," he said, gesturing a hand towards the young pupils behind him, "are about to be Sorted. Following the feast, if you would be be so kind as to meet me with me for a cup of tea, I would be most delighted."
Luna nodded, though she was somewhat puzzled. Perhaps this was the work of Wrackspurts in her brain. Perhaps they had taken advantage of her moment of confusion on the train to further discombobulate her. Continuing to twirl her hair, she said, "Thank you, sir."
As Dumbledore led the first year students into the Great Hall, Luna followed. She looked around the Hall, oblivious to the curious stares of the assembled students at each of the four tables. Her eyes found Gryffindor table and scanned each side of the table - then each side again. Not seeing her friends there, she made her way to Ravenclaw table out of habit and dropped into an empty seat next to a raven-haired girl she didn't recognize. In fact, she realized as she looked down the long table of Ravenclaws, she didn't recognize anyone at all.
Shaking her head in an attempt to clear the Wrackspurts, she resigned herself to at least having an interesting research opportunity which she could present to her father at a later date when the confusion had passed. "Hello there," she said genially to the girl with the black hair.
The girl had been gawking at Luna's clothing and snapped her mouth shut. "Erm, hello. How do you do?"
"Full of Wrackspurts, unfortunately. And you?" Luna said. She reached for a goblet of juice and missed the look of bewilderment the other girl shot at her brunette friend next to her.
Further conversation was cut short as a wizened man rose from the center of the teacher's table and the students fell silent immediately. The old man was wearing navy robes which appeared to be made of velvet with an intricate gold trim, his white beard neat and well-kept. He smiled at all of the students with both pride and benevolence in a way similar to a father looking at his children, then spoke in a deep, dignified voice. "It is my sincerest pleasure to welcome you all back to a new year at Hogwarts!" He looked around at them all, eyes moving from one table to the next. His eyes lingered for a moment on Luna, who, having not changed into her school robes in all her confusion, stood out in her bright yellow sweater like a dandelion amongst the sea of students in black. He continued, "In these dark times, both within our own world as well as that of Muggles, it is more important than ever to uphold the traditions of this school, and produce well-trained, well-educated, and competent witches and wizards. I am sure you will all make us quite proud. Now! Please, let the Sorting begin!"
The elderly man sat down to respectful applause from the students, and Dumbledore led the first years up to the front of the hall where the Sorting Hat sat quite still atop a three-legged stool.
An expectant hush settled over the Hall, and Luna leaned forward to listen to the Hat. As everyone watched, the Hat stirred, then opened its rip near the brim to sing.
Once the Hat's song was finished, Luna cheered with the rest of the students. And each time a new Ravenclaw was announced, she clapped extra hard with the rest of her House. Several of the other Ravenclaws near her raised their eyebrows, which she did not appear to notice. Throughout the feast, Luna chattered idly at the black-haired girl next her, whose polite confusion progressed at a steady rate into utter bewilderment as Luna discussed her thoughts regarding the Ministry of Magic's foul plot to replace all the galleons in Gringotts with Leprechaun gold for "nefarious tax purposes".
As the feast ended and students began filing out to go to their respective common rooms, Luna remained behind. She yawned and stretched, feeling a bit tired after such an unusual start of term.
"Tired, Miss Lovegood?" a voice asked behind her.
Luna looked up into Dumbledore's face, so different but familiar at the same time, and supposed she had rarely been so pleased to see someone. She smiled. "Well, I've had quite a long day, and as happy as I am to see you, sir, I'm quite certain you are just a byproduct of the Wrackspurts in my brain. Although," she continued matter-of-factly, "the whole thing is rather curious, as I've never heard of them causing quite such realistic hallucinations before. Perhaps I am particularly susceptible to their infection due to the roasted Dirigible plums my father and I had for dinner last night." She cupped one of her radish-like earrings in her small hand to show him as she mused.
Dumbledore smiled such that the wrinkles to the corners of his sparkling eyes deepened. "A possibility, certainly. I apologize for your fatigue. I do hope you are feeling up to speaking with me over that cup of tea, however."
"Oh, absolutely. A cup of tea sounds wonderful."
She stood up and followed Dumbledore out of the Great Hall, then up several staircases to his office. He did not lead her to the Headmaster's office, but rather an ordinary office in the Transfiguration department. He gestured to one of the comfortable chairs in front of the desk for her to sit, and as he busied himself with the kettle, Luna gazed about his office. Her line of sight settled on the enormous bookcase behind his desk, and she read with curiosity titles such as Animagi: The Complete Guide, Blast!: What To Do When Transfiguration Goes Terribly Wrong, and Transfiguration for the Advanced Performer.
Professor Dumbledore set a steaming cup of tea in front of her, then followed her gaze to the books behind him. "Ah! Most like a Ravenclaw," he chuckled.
Luna smiled and picked up her tea. "Thank you very much for the tea, sir."
"Certainly." Dumbledore seated himself behind his desk, then pressed his fingertips together in front of his face. "Now, Miss Lovegood. As compelling as your theory regarding the Wrackspurts is, I must suggest that perhaps something else entirely is occurring at this moment. Unless I am much mistaken, the Hogwarts you walked into this evening was not quite the Hogwarts you were expecting it to be."
"That's very true, sir."
Dumbledore nodded. "May I inspect the necklace you are wearing, Miss Lovegood? I noticed it when you were in the entrance hall."
"Of course." Luna lifted the gold chain from around her neck and placed the hourglass into Dumbledore's waiting hand.
He held the hourglass up before his spectacles, inspecting it for a moment.
"That necklace gave me quite a fright earlier this evening," Luna said. "I'm fairly sure it's one of Fred and George's new joke products. I will have to tell them it's quite good."
After another moment of peering closely at the hourglass, turning it back and forth to see all sides of it, Dumbledore lay the necklace out on the desk between the two of them. "I'm not certain who Fred and George are, I am afraid. This is no joke product, however. As I suspected, this is a very real Time-Turner, Miss Lovegood."
Luna tilted her head to the side. Her mind returned to what Hermione had shrieked at her the moment just before all this mess had started. "A Time-Turner?"
"Indeed. Would you mind explaining to me how you came by this necklace?"
She explained to him about getting on the Hogwarts Express, and how Trevor the toad had begun to choke on the Time-Turner. Her story took a detour as she discussed at length an interesting centaur-shaped spot she had noted on Trevor's back, which Dumbledore listened to with rapt attention. Then she finished her story by describing the sensation she had experienced following spinning the hourglass and how she had found herself on an abandoned train.
"And then you came into the entrance hall, where you were met by myself," Dumbledore finished for her.
Luna nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Curious. It is as I thought, then. Miss Lovegood, I do not suspect Wrackspurts are the cause of your predicament at this moment, but rather that you have gone back in time by using this Time-Turner."
She pondered this for the smallest of moments before accepting it. "Interesting," she said, unruffled. "I've heard of Time-Turners, of course, although I've never seen one before. My father will be quite interested in this when I get back to my own time."
Dumbledore let out another chuckle, settling back into his chair. "I suppose I couldn't ask for a better response to having gone accidentally back in time than that."
"So, you teach Transfiguration right now, then?" she asked, eyes returning to the books behind him.
"I do. I must ask you, Miss Lovegood, as we discuss the situation you are in, that you do not reveal anything additional about the future to me. Although I am quite curious, it would be most unwise." He paused. "Not to mention a violation of a number of wizarding laws," he added as an afterthought.
"Certainly, Professor."
"I will ask, however, what year you happen to be coming to us from?"
"1997," Luna replied.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at her answer. "Oh, dear. I'm afraid you've gone quite a bit further back than you intended to go. Although, I suppose you did not intend to go anywhere at all!" he said in a cheery voice.
"What year is it now?" asked Luna.
"It is September of 1943, Miss Lovegood. I have always been quite poor at mathematics, but I believe that is fifty-four years in the past for you."
Luna was finding herself surprised today at a much higher frequency than her usual baseline. "Fifty-four years?" she repeated. "But I'm sure I didn't turn the Time-Turner that much! That's nearly four million hours, and at an hour per turn. . . ."
"Well, no. But Time-Turners are not really meant for going back such far distances. I imagine that spinning it continuously for as long as you did caused your Time-Turner to break." He picked up the hourglass on the desk and held it out to her in his palm. "Do you see how the glass is broken?"
Peering at the Time-Turner, Luna did indeed notice a long, jagged crack which had appeared in the glass. Luna traced the crack with a slow finger. "So...I'm here because the Time-Turner broke? And it threw me back in time?"
"I suspect so," he replied, laying the hourglass back down on the table. "Time is a mercurial master, Miss Lovegood." He took a sip of his own tea. "Now, then. Which House were you in, are you in, or will you be in, depending on how you look at it? I strongly suspect Ravenclaw." Once Luna had nodded, he continued, "Ah, of course. I knew it the moment I saw you. Well, then, you most certainly know your way to Ravenclaw Tower."
"Excuse me, sir?" Luna asked.
"You must continue your schooling, of course, Miss Lovegood. Your time in the past will not be wasted, not under my watch. Which year are you in?"
"Sixth. But won't I be going back to my own time?"
"Absolutely," he said briskly, "as soon as I figure out how to get you there. Now, make a list of your classes for me, and then off you get! I'm certain the sixth year girls will greet you quite warmly."
She took the quill and parchment he proffered to her and scribbled down her class list, feeling somewhat uneasy. Luna pushed the completed list back across the desk to him, and Dumbledore examined it through his spectacles. "Excellent! I shall alert Headmaster Dippet of this unusual situation, although I do think we should keep it quiet from the rest of the teachers. And of course, you must be discreet with the other students; any slip-up can have quite large ripple effects over such a great deal of time, you see. No one must know the truth. I will have your schedule and school robes waiting for you in the morning. The necessary books and equipment, too, although fortunately I see you made it here with your wand. I suppose you'd like some clothes as well," he said thoughtfully, taking in her outfit.
"What should I tell people when they ask me why I'm here, Professor?" she asked.
He pondered this for a moment, then his face brightened. "We will just tell everyone you are my Aunt Honoria's great-granddaughter, previously schooled in Koldovstoretz, come here for an exchange. Honoria was a spinster, but nobody need know that," he said with a conspiratorial tone.
"Koldovstoretz? But I don't speak any Russian!"
Dumbledore waved a hand at her protest. "Neither does anyone else at this school! It will be fine. Now, now, don't look so worried. It will all be well in the end. It always is." He stood up from the desk. "I bid you goodnight, and sleep well! You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow, and we wouldn't want you dozing off in your first day of lessons, now would we?"
Taking his cue, Luna stood up as well and moved towards the door.
"Goodnight, Miss Lovegood," he said, bowing to her over his desk as she opened the door and stepped out of his office.
"Goodnight, then," she said, and shut the door behind her.