Chapter 133: Back in Those Olden Days
"Do you think Rowena is the Rowena Ravenclaw?" Stefanie asked. The girls had already chosen their beds and kept their clothes and toiletries in the cupboard. Since they did not know exactly how long they would be staying in this era for, might as well as just enjoy it.
"It could be." Lily answered from the bed across her. "Unless Rowena is the most common female name in this village."
"It's hard to say; besides we're not even sure of her family name." Arabella commented. "But the possibility is high. Doesn't this whole inn and room decor remind you of Hogwarts?"
"It certainly does." Lily agreed.
"We walked past a blacksmith shop making swords; do you think we can find Godric Gryffindor there?" Ginny asked as she suddenly remembered something. She knew about the existence of Gryffindor's sword since she had actually seen it before.
"There is?" Stefanie asked in surprise. "I don't remember ever seeing it."
"Yes, Harry pulled the sword out from the Sorting Hat when he tried to save me in the Chambers of Secret." Ginny told them.
"Never heard Harry mentioned that." Lily frowned slightly, thinking back of the conversation she had with Harry and James the night before.
"It wasn't exactly a happy memory for him coming to face Tom Riddle-" Ginny started.
"Tom Riddle, the one who opened the Chambers of Secret way before our time." Arabella gasped in realization. "Who is now – Voldemort." Their faces paled slightly at the mentioned of Tom Riddle.
"Ginny, please carry on. We want to know about it." Lily asked. Harry certainly had a terrible life in Hogwarts, coming to face with Voldemort and Tom Riddle.
"Well, alright. Actually it's my fault when Mr. Malfoy ("Lucius", Stefanie spoke loudly with a tinge of anger.) slid Tom Marvolo Riddle's diary into my cauldron when I was eleven. That diary turned out to be a horcrux which preserved Tom Riddle's sixteen-year-old self."
"What's a horcrux?" Lily asked.
"Oh well, this is very very dark magic." Ginny went on explaining what horcrux was and continued telling the story of the chambers while the other three listened attentively, asking questions now and then.
X
"Let me just go and get some information from Ro!" Sirius argued. "I'm almost positive she is our Rowena! And she might just lead us to our Godric and then da-da we found the Salazar!" He exclaimed and jumped out of his bed.
"So you intend to go up to her and say 'Hey Ro, guess what? I'm from the future, about a thousand years later. Here to find my old school founders. And one of them is you! Surprised?'?" Remus joked. "Magical, yes. But this is really absurd for someone who never heard or done anything like this before."
"Besides that, she will think you're some insane person and we all are in the same gang as you. And she may just get aurors, or whatever law enforcers, here to capture us." James told him. "Then that's not exactly helpful as I don't think Slytherin will be in the prison or the law enforcer."
"Now, both of you have got a point there." Sirius sat down on the center stool and nodded his head in agreement. "So what can we achieve by sitting here in our rooms and enjoying the ancient wood as furniture?"
"We're trying to settle down so we can get started shortly." Remus shook his head and laughed at Sirius' humoring question. "First of us, we better change our clothes to something more in style." Remus pointed out. Their tee-shirts and denim jeans with track shoes would make all of them stood out like sore thumb. He transfigured his clothes to duplicate something like what those youngsters in the village wore. "Try this, it's quite comfortable actually." A simple light brown loose-fitting v-neck having frayed edges that looked slightly worn, a pair of slightly over-sized trousers in a darker brownish shade with a pair of boots that looked as though it was made of cloth made Remus looked just like one of the villagers in Hogsmeade.
"You look just like them!" Sirius gushed. "No one would be able to tell that you're not a villager here, judging from your clothes." He stood in front of a mirror, though not as clear as our modern ones, and transfigured some new clothes. "So what do you think?"
"Isn't that a little too loud?" Harry commented in between laughter. Everyone knew Sirius loved attention, but the clothes he transfigured made him look like an alien instead. He was wearing a fiery orange shirt that was rather body hugging but had some artificial holes on it, along with a pair of brown straight cut pants. In fact, his outfit looked so mismatch and terrible was just an understatement.
"We know that you've got a great body to show, but please go for something soft and simple." James laughed. He was wearing something very similar to Remus now since he had not much idea how the clothes there should look like.
"You two definitely have similar taste." Sirius had already re-transfigured his outfit to copy Remus but had a dark shade of gray. "Just like father and son." He laughed at James and Harry. Both of them were wearing identical khaki-colored outfits.
"The guys here sure dressed similarly." James commented dryly. "Wait till I check out their latest fashion. Meanwhile let's go for lunch first. I'm starved!"
X
"This doesn't look right, and it doesn't feel right!" Arabella shrieked. She was now dressed in a blue checkered dress that resembled a milkmaid, in modern times, right down to the white apron. "No, no, no." The four girls just burst into loud giggles once again. "I shouldn't have agreed to allow you girls to use me as a model." She muttered.
They had initially wanted to leave the room in their modern day clothes when Stefanie noticed that their dressing would stand out among the villagers. Hence, they decided someone should be their model to try out the clothes that they noticed the young ladies were wearing. In fact, they remembered Rowena's dress the most, but it would be awkward if all of them wore the same thing as her. Being the tallest and having the best figure, Arabella was targeted to be their model of the day.
"Get rid of this awful outfit." Arabella cried.
"I think I saw some girl wearing something like.." Lily strained her memory to remember what she saw earlier before they entered the inn. "..this." She flicked her wand and transfigured Arabella's dress immediately. She was now wearing a plain gray dress with a rectangular neckline and had an elastic band around the waist area. The corseted dress flared all the way until the mid-calves, enhancing both her cleavage and height. "The shoes were.." She waved her wand again and Arabella's track shoes now looked like it was made a cloth with a rubber sole.
"Not that this is good or anything, but it was better than the milkmaid dress you transfigured earlier." Arabella reprimanded in a joking manner. "But the corset is a little on the tight side." She turned to look at herself in the three-sided mirror which Stefanie had transfigured it for her 'modeling session'.
"Sirius will faint if he saw you in this dress." Ginny laughed good-naturedly. "Just tie up your hair into a ponytail and you'll look like one of the village girls."
"Now don't even mention anything about-" A series of urgent sounding knocks interrupted her.
"Must be the guys." Lily waved her wand to open the door.
"Wait! Don't let-" Arabella ran straight into the washroom. "anyone of them see me in this state."
"What happened to Bell?" Sirius asked immediately when he heard Arabella's muffled comment from the toilet.
"Nothing much." Stefanie said quickly. "So what's with your new outfits?"
"Don't you think we look so hot in them?" Sirius boasted. "Three-sided mirror, why didn't we thought of it." He went straight to the front of the mirror and looked at his reflection from all angles. "Not too bad for a start."
"We're trying to change here actually." Lily told them. The three other guys had already settled themselves onto the stools in the middle of the room.
"We don't mind, really." James teased and winked at Lily flirtatiously. No hormonal guy would mind watching girls change anyway.
"We do mind, really." Lily laughed. "And I don't think Bell would want to face anyone of you in her current outfit."
"Now that's something interesting." Sirius perked up when he heard what Lily just said.
"Don't try anything funny." Ginny warned Sirius teasingly. They all knew that Sirius would be dying to see Arabella in her outfit. The funny thing was they are both wearing a grayish outfit, though neither of them knew that.
"Guys, out!" Lily got up and started shooing the guys out of the room. "We'll be out in a few minutes."
"Aww, let me see Bell." Sirius pleaded and then said in a louder voice. "Bell, I know you're dying to show me your new outfit."
"No thanks!" Bell replied back. At least now they knew the washroom door was not soundproofed.
"Done." Lily closed the door after the three guys helped to drag Sirius out of their room. "Let's change and get out there to see the world."
"Are we seriously going to wear something like this?" Arabella asked. "Trust me! You'll die of suffocation before we get out of this inn."
"I supposed so, since I remembered seeing some of the ladies wearing this." Stefanie shrugged. "But their necklines aren't that low and the bodice weren't that tight." She waved her wand and loosened the 'lung-minimizer' for Arabella and increased it to a rounded neckline, covering her obvious cleavage.
"That's better. Thanks!" Arabella took a deep breath. "How did those ladies wear a corset and be so normal out there? I really find it hard to understand."
"Probably because we're not used to it." Lily adjusted the long sleeve of her pale yellow dress that covered nearly her whole upper body. "The girls must be really conservative to be so covered up." She cast a charm to allow ventilation through her dress so it would be more 'airy'.
"We really must get out there to check out their fashion." Arabella joked. "We're so similarly dressed." Their outfits looked identical in the earthly shades of cream and beige colors. "Or at least hopefully similar to the ladies out there."
"Are you girls ready?" James knocked on the door again; they had been loitering outside their room for the last ten minutes waiting for them to get changed.
"Wait a minute, just double checking, our password is Hogwarts rules right?" Lily asked again just in case she might have forgotten.
"Right." Ginny opened the door and showed four very bored looking guys.
"Finally. We're hungry and starting to melt in this weather." Sirius complained as he led the way towards the eating area. It was obviously in the noon as the sun was glaring from the top of the sky.
"Nice dress." Harry told Ginny as they followed Sirius. "Maybe you should keep this dress with you."
"You don't look too bad yourself either." Ginny blushed slightly. Harry's v-neck shirt was loose fitting and exposed a little of his muscular chest.
"Why are you blushing?" Harry asked, totally clueless about what Ginny just saw.
X
"I think I must be paranoid." Remus frowned as he spoke. "I'm starting to feel that our lives are already changed."
"What do you mean?" Arabella asked. Sometimes Remus spoke in such profound manner that they found it hard to understand.
"What I meant is, our lives aren't the same anymore. Once we're done with everything here, our times would have changed. We might not be born to the same parents, nor the same place, or the same time anymore. I'm not sure either."
"Do you mean that we're going to live a very different life from the one we had?" Stefanie asked. The three of them were following the rest to the eating area and Remus was just sharing his thoughts.
"I supposed so. Let's just wait and see." Remus mustered out his most reassuring smile. "Meanwhile, I can smell the food already."
"Bell, come forward. Take a look at these gorgeous babes."
X
"What do you think they serve here?" James asked Lily in a light-hearted tone. "Think they have pies and croissants?"
"Why not?" Lily grinned. "I'm sure food has a very long history." Then she gave a pretended gasp and dramatized further by covering her mouth in horror. "You don't think they serve only veggies here do you?"
"That would be nice." James laughed. "We can just turn vegetarians for this trip." Lily preferred meat over greens, and her expression would be priceless if they could only eat vegetables while they were there.
"I don't think so." Lily told him. "I could smell roasted chicken now." They followed the rest into the eating area. Rowena was around showing Sirius to a table at a corner that could hold up to eight people.
"Please take a seat." Rowena ushered them to their table while they shared two to a bench on a large square table.
"Thanks." Stefanie took a seat beside Arabella, to save her from Sirius' merciless teasing for at least over lunch. Not that she looked funny or strange in her dressing; Sirius just enjoyed teasing her like old times.
"We've chicken, pork, beef, fish, potatoes and vegetables. What would you like?" Rowena asked politely.
"What's your recommendation?" Remus asked, since they were clueless how their food would look like.
"The fried chicken here is our specialty with fried potatoes." Rowena smiled.
"What is that guy over there eating?" Sirius asked, pointing to the guy on the next table.
"That would be fried fish with mashed potatoes and sauce." Rowena told him.
"I'll have that then." Sirius thought he saw the satisfied look on the man's expression.
"Make it two." James added.
"Make it three." Harry followed.
"How about we all have that?" Remus asked his friends. "It would be confusing for the lady if we keep adding to our order." Even Rowena laughed at his humor.
"I'm sooo hungry." Sirius mumbled incoherently as his face was flat down on the table. It was barely five minutes ago when Rowena took their order and went behind the counter.
"Any suggestions for our first stop?" James asked. A waiter came by with eight teacups and served them hot English tea.
"Shall we check out the blacksmith shop down the street?" Harry suggested. "It looks quite cool."
"Same sentiments exactly." Lily said excitedly. "It's not what we get to see every day."
"We should check out where future Honeydukes too." Remus asked. "After all, there's a connection all the way to Hogwarts."
"Perhaps we can find another of our founder there." Stefanie agreed. "Not anybody will be allowed to pave such a tunnel all the way into the school directly.
"Then perhaps we can check out the shack's location too. It's probably someone's house or something of that sort." Harry added.
"Here's your lunch." Rowena said chirpily as she handed eight plates of fish and potatoes out magically from her tray. "And the cutlery." She placed a basket full of forks and knives in the middle of the table. "Please enjoy your meal."
"Thank you." After sampling the first bite on the fish, they tucked into their lunch with full forced. Although the fish and mash potatoes did not taste like those they normally eat, it was nice to put it mildly, a unique taste of mixture of herbs.
"Yummy." Sirius was finishing his serving rather quickly. "Who wants more food?"
"Me." James swallowed his food before talking. They were hungrier than they thought and ate up their food real quick. "Shall we order some roast chicken with fried potatoes or something?"
X
"Swords for you?" A deep husky voice asked them. The eight of them had just entered the blacksmith shop and was astonished by the interior of it. It was a simple-building two-storey building from the outside, but the interior was a totally different thing. It was huge!
"Oh, no. Thanks for asking but we just come in to take a look." James told the man in shadows.
"You all come in here just to take a look?" The man emerged from the shadows and stared at them strangely. "I don't remember seeing you all around here." With the help of candles, they could see that he was the same man they saw earlier in the inn.
"Sorry, are we disturbing or something?" Remus asked politely. "We're tourists and found that your shop is rather enticing."
"No, it's alright. I remembered you all from Cozy Inn." The guy gave a warm smile. "Ro told me about you. Welcome to Hogsmeade."
"Thank you." The rest returned a friendly smile. "So is this your shop?" Sirius asked. "It looks really cool!"
"Thanks. This is actually my dad's shop. Just helping out here." He gestured them to a corner table with some benches for a seat. The clanging sound of metals continued on magically although there was no one at work inside now. "My name is Dric. What about yours?" They took turns to introduce themselves and felt rather comfortable in the dimly lit shop.
"Despite all the hot coals and everything, we don't feel any bit of heat around." Arabella told him. "Must be some good cooling charms."
"Oh yes. It's an absolute must." Dric laughed. "Feel free to take a look around and see if any of the swords and daggers captures your attention." He pointed to the walls where row of swords and daggers were lined neatly.
"Thanks for your hospitality." Dric went back behind to continue his work while leaving them to look around at the weapons collection.
"Godric!" A female voice called from some distant away.
"Yes, Mother. Just call Dric." And Dric disappeared into the door at the far end of the room. They exchanged a similar look and nod before walking out of the shop.
"That can't be a coincidence, right?" Lily asked the moment they were a few steps away from the blacksmith shop.
"We're on the right track, I supposed." James spoke with a newfound optimism. "Shall we go to Honeydukes?" It was a clear afternoon at Hogsmeade and relatively packed with villagers all around the place. "It's a little hard to hold a conversation here."
"It would be that way." Sirius raised his hand above them and pointed to his left. They continued walking against the flow of traffic towards the supposedly Honeydukes shop.
"Well?" James was the first to speak while the few of them stood in front of the supposedly future Honeydukes. "It seems like no one is staying here."
"That's true." Sirius shrugged. "Let's move on to the shack." He led the way further down the street.
"There is this crazy idea popping in my head right now." Lily told James. "I was thinking that we should buy over that empty house. For all you know, we could be the one building that tunnel to Hogwarts." James shook his head and laughed at Lily's wild imagination.
"It's definitely not build by us. Since this is the first time we traveled through time back here. Technically it's not possible. But I like your way of thinking." James placed his hand across Lily's shoulders as they moved on, following Sirius' lead.
"So, this is a school." Stefanie commented as she read the wooden signboard. "School of Zar." The building in front looked similar to the rest of the houses in Hogsmeade except that it was slightly bigger.
"This school definitely doesn't emit a good aura." Arabella looked around the building; it seemed to carry a trace of eccentricity that they could not pinpoint on.
"Let's go in and take a look." James pushed open the creaking gates and walked in with Lily close beside him. The door into the school was just ahead.
Knock. Knock. They waited for awhile and tried to hear if there would be any movements.
"Yes?" A masculine voice called out from their back which gave them a fright.
"Sorry to disturb. But we saw that this is a school and-" Harry was speaking politely as be was nearest to the strange young man.
"You all are too old for this school. Go away." He interrupted curtly. They quickly apologized and made their way out of the wooden gates before it slammed magically behind them.
"That was rude, considering this is a school." Ginny commented loudly after they were back to the crowded area of Hogsmeade.
"What do you say if we get back to the inn?" Lily suggested. I got a hunch that he's Salazar Slytherin and I hope I'm right. "To discuss or something?"
"Great idea." Stefanie seconded. "It's getting cloudy." With that, they walked briskly back to the inn, with lots of questions in mind.