A/N: Wowww- I filled you all with so many promises didn't I? My goodness. I can only apologise that I'm only just uploading the second chapter- life just got in the way there for a moment! I swear the next chapter will be uploaded before, or at the latest, by Sunday- I PROMISE! But anyway, enough grovelling- here's chapter two. Hope you all enjoy x
A Timely Solution
by ACircleHasNoEnd
When Molly finally woke up she stared at the ceiling, attempting to blink back her memories. They came back to her slowly; her internship, the tour of the Ministry, the Department of Mysteries, clocks falling to the floor, the freckled boy disappearing right in front of her eyes… Molly sat up with a shock. She wasn't in the Ministry anymore- she was in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.
"Oh, shit," Molly whispered to herself as her mind began to whirr- the Time Room had exploded, there had been a mistake and suddenly people had popped into nothingness.
It was very possible that Molly had time travelled.
She leapt out of bed and rushed to the window, inspecting the familiar countryside for any signs of change. The Whomping Willow. It wasn't there. That meant that she had travelled back in time at least 46 years. Molly held onto the window ledge as she stared at nothing. She didn't really know how one was supposed to react in a situation like this- of all the lessons that her parents had taught her over the years, none of them had ever covered how to cope when you're accidentally spat out in a different century.
"Miss?"
Molly turned around to see a Mediwitch standing there, accompanied by two teachers that made her face drain of colour. "What year is this?"
"It's 1944." Professor Dumbledore said.
She couldn't quite believe it. She was currently sitting in front of Albus Dumbledore and Armando Dippet (both of whom were supposed to be dead), 73 years in the past with absolutely no idea what to do. She was most certainly out of her depth.
"What is your name?" Professor Dumbledore asked in that same gentle voice as before.
"Molly," she hesitated to provide her surname, she couldn't be a Weasley when she was pretty sure her great-grandparents were probably at school at this time. "Molly Mason," she heard herself say as her mother's maiden name popped into her head.
"You should be in bed," the Mediwitch scolded. She retrieved a thermometer out of her pocket and placed it in Molly's mouth. "How do you feel?"
"Erm, I don't think I have a simple answer to that question at the moment, sorry." She replied honestly- Molly felt all sorts of panicked, upset, terrified, sick and confused at once.
The Meditwitch's face softened as she guided her back over to the bed, "well, my name is Madame Lombeaux, I'll be in my office if you need anything."
"How did I get here?" Molly asked.
"You fell out of the sky into my transfiguration classroom, actually." Professor Dumbledore replied, "it all happened rather suddenly but you were very badly injured." Molly could still feel a dull ache in her bones.
"Are you in trouble, my dear?" Professor Dippet enquired with a sense of urgency, "are you on the run from Gr-Grindelwald?" The name made him wince and wring his hands together.
"I don't know," was all she could say, her mind was still whirring. She hardly knew anything about time travel- she knew that Aunt Hermione had once owned a time turner, she knew that all the time turners had supposedly been destroyed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and she knew that one should never meddle with time but when one is spat into a different century with no idea of what one should do surely one can be expected to ask for help?
Dumbledore eyed her carefully, this dead man, this man whom her cousin Albus was named after, this man who had been headmaster at Hogwarts when her parents were at school, hewas now sat in the same room as her, as real as life, staringat her. She knew that Dumbledore had been a good wizard (and although his treatment of her Uncle made his reliability dubious) she still decided that he was the man she could trust. She didn't know if she could say the same for nervous Headmaster Dippet.
"I need to be honest with you, now," she whispered, "I've reached a bit of a conundrum, I'm afraid. You see, I haven't got a clue why I'm here, how I got here and I don't really know where the hell I stand on what I can and cannot tell you."
Dumbledore nodded, "I understand."
Armando Dippet looked between the two of them like he did not understand one bit, "care to explain, Albus?"
"Molly is not from our time, Armando," he stated, as if there was nothing wrong with that statement at all. "Have you travelled quite far? You don't have to tell me how many years."
She swallowed, "yes." Seventy-three years, she thought. "I'm from a different century."
"Merlin's beard!" Armando muttered. "So this has nothing to do with Grindelwald?"
Molly managed a smile then, "I assure you, this has nothing to do with Grindelwald. There was an accident at the Ministry."
"Goodness…"
"And so you are here," Dumbledore seemed perfectly fine with all of this even though Molly was internally screaming. "Well, Molly, I suppose we should go about getting you settled here, I think that is the only solution for the time being. I assume you attend Hogwarts in the future?"
"Yes, I was due to start my seventh year in September."
"What house are you in?"
"Ravenclaw."
"Then, Professor Dippet, I think the best solution would be for Molly to take her seventh year and carry on with her education, don't you?"
"Yes…yes, Albus. Of course, that would have been my suggestion too…"
Molly honestly did not know how she was supposed to carry on as normal. It all seemed utterly bizarre to her as the Head of Ravenclaw House, Professor Merrythought, escorted her from the Hospital Wing for the first time since she had arrived. How on earth was she expected to just function like normal? How could she carry on studying for her NEWTs in a different decade like everything was fine when in reality she didn't have a home or a family or even an identity. Molly breathed slowly, trying to subside the queasy feeling in her stomach.
They walked into the Ravenclaw common room and a silence fell around them, only broken by the occasional whisper. Molly could hear her heartbeat in her ears.
"We'll have to say that you're family were caught up in one of Grindelwald's battles and somehow you ended up here." Dumbledore had told her. "Don't be too specific, people will be satisfied with an answer like that during these dark times."
Molly thought of this now, as Professor Merrythought introduced her to her fellow Ravenclaws. "This is Molly Mason- she will be studying here for her seventh year. I hope you will make her feel welcome. Millicent," she summoned over a tall girl with wild curls. "Molly, this is Millicent Bagnold, she's Head Girl here at Hogwarts and one of your new roommates. Millicent will be looking after you whilst you get settled in- I know you'll be in good hands with her."
Millicent smiled at Molly, "it's a pleasure to meet you." She held her hand out towards her.
"H-Hello," Molly stuttered; she was in shock- this was Millicent Bagnold, future Minister for Magic and a particular idol of Molly's. "It's so wonderful to meet you."
She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
As soon as Professor Merrythought left, the common room erupted.
"What the hell happened?!" Millicent asked excitedly, "you just popped out of nowhere!"
"Yeah, and it's impossible to apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds." A small girl in round spectacles not too dissimilar to Harry's noted.
"What happened to you? You were bleeding everywhere."
"Is it something to do with Grindelwald?"
"Where are you from?"
"What school did you go to before?"
Molly started to panic. She really wanted to go home then. "I-I-"
"Guys!" Millicent addressed the large crowd that had formed around Molly, "give her some space, she's clearly been through a lot, let's have some consideration, for Merlin's sake."
Molly smiled slightly. "It's okay, I'd be just as curious as you are." They looked at her expectantly but she didn't know how to begin.
"Here, come and sit down," she was guided over to one of the plush blue velvet sofas.
Molly really did not know how to explain herself.
"So are you on the run? From Grindelwald?" The girl with the round spectacles asked (Molly now knew that she was a fellow seventh year called Barbara Inglebee).
Molly smiled weakly, "no, no, I don't think he cares about me very much."
"Well, he must have cared enough to send you all the way from Europe to Hogwarts." Millicent pointed out as she sat on the edge of her bed in her pyjamas attempting to brush her frizzy hair. "I tell you," she shook her head, "only a really powerful wizard would be able to do something like that."
"I don't think he really meant to do it. His magic must have got out of control or something, I don't really remember…"
"Of course, of course," Millicent smiled, "we should stop harassing you, shouldn't we really? I'm sure you don't want to have to relive what happened to you." Her smile was sadder now in reference to the part of her convoluted story that involved all of her family dying. She supposed in a way they were- they certainly didn't exist… Molly felt her throat constrict at the idea, her eyes grew hot.
"Barb," Millicent began, noticing that Molly was upset, "I think it's bed time, don't you?"
Molly pulled the blue covers up around her and turned onto her side as she felt the tears well in her eyes.
Molly stared up at the blue star-patterned canopy above her head for what felt like hours. She had woken up from a troubled nights sleep thinking that everything had been a terrible dream- but when she looked over to the other beds and saw that it wasn't her cousin and best friend, Victoire, sleeping in the bed opposite her but instead the future Minister for Magic, she fell back onto the mattress feeling rather empty. She really wanted to go home.
The first day was the hardest. Molly kept forgetting where she was, walking into classrooms expecting to see her teachers when instead she found teachers that had been dead for twenty years. Plus, people wouldn't stop staring.
"Don't worry about it," Millicent whispered as they walked to Potions past a gaggle of gossiping Gryffindors. "It'll calm down eventually."
"Everyone must think I'm a freak."
"No, you just happen to be the most exciting thing that's happened around here for a while."
"Well, since Myrtle anyway," Barbara added.
"Can we please not talk about that?"
"M-Myrtle?" Molly enquired, knowing full well that they were referring to Moaning Myrtle who haunted the second-floor girls' bathroom. She stopped in the middle of the corridor, the realisation hitting her. Oh, shit.
Millicent and Barbara exchanged a confused look, "yeah, Myrtle Warren," Molly felt like she was going to throw up, her hands were shaking, "she was a Ravenclaw that died in a freak accident last year."
"A freak accident? You know it wasn't that, Mill."
They didn't understand, Molly couldn't even believe she hadn't put it together sooner.
"Well kind of, but I can't be bothered to explain properly now. That's a story for another day. Molly, what's wrong?"
Lord Voldemort was at this very school.
"Are you ok? Do you not feel well?"
Fuck, no, why now?!
"Oh, hello, Tom."
"Millicent, one of the Slytherin prefects needs to change his duty time for next week, apparently he thought it would be a brilliant idea to eat a random insect for a dare and now he's in the Hospital Wing."
Molly looked up in horror, this was Tom Riddle, this was Lord Voldemort; high cheekboned, neatly parted hair, rigid posture… she couldn't picture it then, that this was the boy that had ended hundreds of lives. This handsome boy was a mass murderer. The most feared person in wizarding history.
"Well, can't you sort it? I've got other things to deal with at the moment."
"Oh?" Tom looked at Molly then with a sort of amused look on his face- he must have been enjoying the sight of her quiet breakdown. She had to go before she started screaming and gave people more reason to gossip about her.
"I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me," her voice was timid and she refused to meet anyone's eyes, "I really don't feel very well all of a sudden."
"Shall we come with you?"
"No, no, it's okay."
The three of them watched as she rushed off.
Molly was sitting in an alcove just around the corner from Dumbledore's office. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there for- she had been too busy trying to wrap her head around the idea of her being at the same school as the dark wizard who had caused her family so much pain; the same pain which often awoke her father in the middle of the night, screaming about her Uncle Fred, the same pain that had denied Albus, James and Lily grandparents and-
"Miss Mason."
Molly looked up with a start to see Dumbledore peering at her over his half-moon spectacles. "Oh, hello, professor."
"Might I ask why you aren't in lessons?"
"I, erm," she sighed, she couldn't be bothered lying anymore. "I can't cope with this; I really really can't. I always thought I was strong, you know?" She rested her head against the wall. "Do you know, I've always wanted to be Minister for Magic," she sighed, "but these past few days have proven to me that I'm really not up for the job- to be the Minister you have to be able to cope in high-pressure situations and make good decisions when you're under pressure…it seems I'm not very good at that."
"Miss Mason," Dumbledore crouched down in front of her- she noticed he was wearing bogey green socks. "I hardly think there are many ministers- not even Mister Spencer-Moon-" he was referring to the current Minister, "who would be able to cope with being shot into the past with nothing to their name."
Molly thought about Kingsley Shacklebolt, her current Minister, and decided with a huff that he probably would have done just fine.
"You have only been here three days; you're still going through a period of understandable adjustment- you still have time to make the best of a remarkable situation."
She looked at him properly then. She took in his piercing blue eyes, his auburn hair and purple robes and she smiled. She wouldn't say it, but she felt so grateful that out of all of this she was at least in a time with Albus Dumbledore- she had always wanted to meet the headmaster that her family had raved about. "But why am I here?" She wondered aloud. "Of all the times I could have been sent to I've been sent to a time when Lor-" Molly stopped herself and sighed again. "I honestly don't know how I'm going to make the best of this, I feel like I know everything about everyone here. Why couldn't I have been sent to a less important time in wizarding history when all I had to worry about was whether my dragon's milk had curdled or something…"
Dumbledore laughed, offering her a hand up. "Unfortunately, there haven't been many times in our history that have been so simple." She stood and brushed herself off. "Remember something for me though: try not to overthink everything you say too much, remember that everything that is happening to you now has always been- that in your time, all of this had already happened."
Molly frowned, "so I can't change him…" she muttered to herself.
Dumbledore bowed his head in a nod, though she doubted he knew what the hell she was mumbling about. "The timeline- and your conscience- will stop you from doing anything that drastically alters things."
Molly scowled; so what was the point of her being there?
A/N: OOOO I've teased the tiniest bit of Tom here! I promise the next chapter will be filled with oodles of Tom Riddle! As always, let me know what you think- I'd love to hear your theories x
