Only Time Will Tell
Chapter 15
Absolutely Right
Annie, Sirius, and Charlie stared open mouthed at the person who seemed to have materialized before their eyes only moments before. Peter looked very confused, the plan had been to not say anything about where/when they were from. Ron smiled sheepishly.
"Uncle RON?" Sirius managed to stutter out. Ron frowned slightly, being called uncle was very odd, especially when the person who was calling him uncle looked a lot like Harry.
"Well, in my time I'm not your uncle yet, nor your father." Ron clarified. "This is my friend, er, John Brown." Ron hesitated, perhaps it was best to leave out Peter's name in all of this. "And we've come from the year 1996 accidentally while trying to find a way to the year 1974. It's a long story, perhaps we can talk about it some other time. Did you say you know how we can go back in time?"
He got absolutely no response from them after he said this, the future generation was too stunned for words. Annie blankly nodded after a moment or so. "Did you say 1996?"
"Yea, I did." Ron replied, but looking at his daughter a sudden emotion overwhelmed him. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME DURING THE LAST 25 YEARS OF MY LIFE?!?!"
"What?" Charlie asked, startled by Ron's sudden outburst.
"What am I doing right now in my life? Where do I work? How are my parents? What happened to Voldemort? When did I fall in love with Hermione? And how's Harry? Is he good?" Ron began to ramble, asking so many questions his poor children and nephew could hardly begin to answer. "Harry and Ginny? How did that ever happen? And where's Dumbledore? He's not dead, is he? Or what about-?"
"Ron! Remember what you told us when we came to the future, about too much information?" Peter reminded him, and Annie, Charlie, and Sirius watched Ron's mood change drastically.
"WAIT! DON'T TELL ME! I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" Ron hollered, covering his ears just in case anyone was going to shout a response back at him. "Oh my God, we're in the future! I shouldn't have seen you, now I know about my children, and my wife, and my sister, and Harry and, and, and-"
Again Sirius, Charlie, Annie, and Peter stared at Ron as though he were nuts. "Uh, er, Dad, or uh, Ron? Maybe you should just calm down for a moment." Charlie suggested tentatively. Ron had flinched when he had called him "Dad."
"Oh, well, yea. Sorry about that, the shouting I mean, it's just a bit unusual, seeing you all here." Ron muttered embarrassedly. "Now, perhaps you all could show John and I how to get back to our own time?"
"Yes, of course. It's just outside, not far from Hagrid's hut." Sirius reassured him, and Ron's face lit up when he heard Hagrid's name.
"Hagrid! He's still here! That's great! I bet you three spend a lot of time with him, just like Hermione, Harry, and I did." Ron told them in a much better mood as they exited the common room.
"He doesn't actually live there anymore. He, Madame Maxime, and Grawp travel quite a bit educating giants about the new laws put into place for their protection. When he isn't traveling, they live in the cabin in our forest." Sirius informed him.
"You have a forest?" Ron asked incredulously.
"'Course we do, it's your forest too." Charlie told him, and Annie interjected.
"Aurors get paid very well, didn't you know?"
Auror! He, Ron Weasley, was going to be an auror? A rich Auror with a forest! That was definitely something to look forward to. "How is Grawp, anyways?"
"Same as usual, always reading, just as intelligent and well-mannered as ever." Annie replied, and Ron nearly fell over. Intelligent and well-mannered? Reading? Surely they meant another Grawp!
Just then, they heard footsteps coming from the other end of the corridor. "Quick! You can't be seen!" Charlie hissed urgently, and there was a mad scramble to get behind a tapestry. Ron was about to duck behind it when the person spotted him.
"Weasley! What are you doing there?" Ron froze, he recognized that voice. Sure enough, Ron turned around to face none other than the Severus Snape of the year 2021.
"Follow me, Weasley." Snape told him imperiously, and Ron gulped. Following him meekly, Ron wondered how he was going to get out of this one, without Snape finding out that he was not Charlie Weasley, who Snape obviously thought he was, but Ron from the past.
"What are we going to do?" Peter asked the others in a worried whisper behind the tapestry.
"I don't know, but we've got to get him out of here!" Annie squealed, watching from the opening Ron being led away.
Sirius tried to keep a grip on the edge of the pipe. Ginny hovered safely in the pipe, but Sirius had no means of levitating himself, and so he remained on the ground, trying to get a hold of the edge of the pipe opening. He pulled himself a little ways up, unable to use his feet with the floor and the wall so slippery with slime. He managed to get his head peeping over the edge, looking as if he were attempting some strange looking chin ups. Sirius found he was unable to get any further than that, and so he remained there for a moment, straining to keep himself up, before he gave up and slid back down the wall, arms and hands aching.
Running start, he decided, and he backed up against the opposite wall and transformed into the dog. Bounding towards the opening, Sirius let out a mighty bark and sprang as he neared the pipe opening. The front half of him made it up to the pipe, his hind legs flailing against the slick stone to find some sort of leverage. Finally, with one final kick, he made it into the pipe. He remained panting there for a moment, still a dog. He turned his attention to the unconscious Ginny, and nuzzled her hand with his cold nose. True, he had gotten into the pipe, but not even his doggy paws could help him climb a slippery pipe.
Further down in the chamber, Harry and Tom appeared to be evenly matched, dodging spells with agility, and hurling them back with equal ferocity. Harry was slightly surprised that 17 year old Voldemort hadn't used Avada Kedavra yet, and he highly doubted the reason was he didn't know how. Something told Harry that Tom was holding back. This did not bother Harry, as he too had a plan formulating in his mind. James continued to watch the duel in awe, amazed at Harry's skills.
"I tire of this, you are a worthy opponent, Harry Potter." Tom told him after rolling to avoid a hex. "Unfortunately, the foolish who dare to challenge me don't stick around for too much longer. It's been a pleasure, I assure you. AVADA KEDAVRA!" No more holding back now!
Harry, who had been anticipating this for some time now, shouted, "Expelliarmus!" much at the same time Tom had opened his mouth. If priori incantatum had saved him once, perhaps it would work again, he disparately hoped as the spells collided in midair.
The effect was almost instantaneous. The wands became joined by the golden beam, and the dome of light encompassed Harry and Tom. James was very confused. His son and this wacko Slytherin had brother wands? Tom was aghast at what was going on, but Harry just smiled at him calmly. If only he had a way of informing James of the plan! Oh well, he decided. James is pretty quick, he'll catch on… Harry hoped.
The beads of light began to trickle towards Tom's end. He really hoped Sirius had been right about this, the Sirius from his fourth year, that is.
"What's going on? How can we share wands? What the-" Tom shouted in bewilderment, staring at the wand (which was Harry's) he was clutching in his hand. Harry was curious to see the spells come out of the wand, his own wand, but he knew that in order for his plan to work, he had to break the connection before that. The beads slipped closer to the end of Harry's wand, any second now they would make contact. Harry watched tensely, concentrating on getting them a little closer. The bead of light touched the tip, and Harry yelled in fury, swiping the wand in his own hand as severely as he could.
The connection remained, and Harry swished the wand again, flinging Tom into the wall of the chamber. It took Harry a moment to figure out why it took Tom such a long time to slide down to the floor, and he realized that they had been floating in midair from the connection. The beam connecting the wands flickered for a moment, as if the reception was unclear, and then vanished completely. Harry slowly came to the ground, landing on his feet beside James.
"What did you do?" James asked in astonishment, the both of them staring at the heap on the floor that was Tom, unconscious.
"Someone told me that you could use the connection formed from brother wands as a sort of slingshot thing if you did it at the right time. Yea, we have brother wands, Tom and I." Harry added, and James nodded vaguely at this news "We should go find Sirius and Ginny, we still have to find a way to get out of here."
"Oh, er, Right." James finally answered, still staring at Tom. "What about him?"
"I think he's just unconscious, he'll come to in a bit. Being the heir of Slytherin, he can get in and out of this place however he wants, so he'll be fine in a couple of hours or so." Harry shrugged, as they began to hurry towards the exit.
Back in the chamber with the rodent skeletons, James and Harry found Sirius and Ginny in the pipe, Sirius as a dog, and Ginny still unconscious.
"This is going to be tricky, getting out of here." Sirius informed them after becoming human again. "And where is our dear friend Tom?"
"Harry bashed him against a wall, and he's out cold, for now at least. Are you sure there's no other way out?" James asked, ignoring the amazed look on Sirius's face.
"Last time I was here, Dumbledore's phoenix got us out. This time we'll have to climb, I think." Harry told them seriously as Sirius pulled him up to the pipe, James following.
"I really like your kid, James." Sirius muttered to James, and James nodded with pride. Harry took no notice of this but went straight to Ginny's side.
"What's wrong with her?" He gasped, taking her hand and trying to rub warmth into it.
"I dunno, I've never seen that spell before." James responded as Harry sat on the slimy floor and took Ginny gingerly into his lap.
"What spell was it?" Sirius asked, as he had been stunned when Tom had cast it.
"Innundo, or something. Whatever it was, it was certainly dark magic." James answered, and Sirius swore loudly, his voice echoing off of the stone sides of the pipe.
"What? Do you know that spell?" Harry accosted Sirius urgently.
"You're forgetting who I'm related to, and that I am a Black." Sirius replied shortly. "We need to get her back to Dumbledore, and fast."
And, needing no further encouragement, the three boys began to climb the plumbing of Hogwarts with Ginny carried by Harry. It was slow and tedious, often one of them would slip and have to retrace their steps. After the better part of an hour, however, James reached the enterance back into the bathroom, and pulled Sirius, Harry, and Ginny out.
"Back to the Time Chamber!" Harry reminded them, and they set off to find Dumbledore and the hourglass elevator thing.
As they hurried through the corridors, Sirius couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Harry carry Ginny in such a tender fashion. James looked at him quizzically, giving him a sharp look that now was not a good time to have a laugh.
"You know what Harry reminded me of just now, carrying Ginny?" Sirius asked James. "You, carrying Lily after she fell in the lake in our third year."
James glanced at Harry and Ginny again, and was startled that he hadn't seen the similarity beforehand. Both Ginny and Lily had red hair, the same petite form, and there was no questioning the resemblance between Harry and James.
"You're right, Padfoot. You're absolutely right." James agreed, shaking his head in wonderment at what this coincidence (was it just coincidence?) could mean.