CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TIME AND DEATH
"Miss Weasley. Miss Weasley.." a voice called out from the far end of the room.
Rose suddenly jerked at the sound of her name, and found herself facing a number of heads turned in her direction. She had wandered off into her thoughts while the older wizards discussed their problem.
"Miss Weasley. Professor Kai was wondering whether you have experienced any abnormalities in your magical prowess without the aid of your wand?"
Rose who had snapped out of her musings, which she was quite happy to get out of, since she had imagined Bernaby Lancelot torturing her into insanity, replied "You mean accidental magic done without my wand?"
When Mr Lancelot nodded she thought about the question laid before her.
She hadn't performed any magic lately now that she didn't have her wand with her. But despite her growing annoyance with Scorpius she hadn't done any accidental magic either. And if indeed, as the Professor said, they were now to happen more frequently, the pretty girl with the chocolate brown hair now sitting opposite her with her hands placed neatly on her lap, would have been on the floor resembling a dung beetle.
However there were times when Rose did feel like the magic residing in her had changed ever so slightly. She had been feeling slightly more confident than lately even without her wand. And at times she felt as though enveloped by a blanket of electric charge. But this had never manifested itself in the form of accidental magic. Again the proof was the unharmed blonde sitting beside her gawking at Roslyn.
When Scorpius gave the same answer to the question that Rose was asked earlier, Mr Lancelot smiled and told them that was all and that they could retire from the meeting.
"Do not worry in the slightest dear children. Now that we have discovered the nature of the problem, we can no doubt find a way to get thee back to where thou belong," said Mr Lancelot warmly.
Rose, quite grateful to leave to avoid the pointed stares she was receiving from every inch of the room, smiled weakly and followed Scorpius out of the room, who on the other hand didn't even wait for Mr Lancelot to finish speaking to scurry from sight. But it was on her way to the door that she realized something. She turned around quickly and said,
"Professor Kai. If I may ask you a doubt, what caused the portal to be created?"
Professor Kai, to Rose's surprise, looked slightly taken aback. Although Rose later dismissed it thinking that it was more because of her untimely questioning than the nature of the question itself.
"The portal was created because you turned the time turners back and did so while you were crossing the veil. Time is a powerful force - twisting it around while in the presence of another powerful force, namely death, caused the portal to be opened," he said calmly.
Rose looked a bit unconvinced but didn't argue and took her leave from the room.
Mr Lancelot walked her out of the room kindly while maintaining a broad grin. Once he closed the door behind him, his smile faltered instantly. The same thing happened with all the eight wizards sitting in the room.
"So," spoke the Headmaster from the other end of the room, as Mr Lancelot sat back down. "How grim is it, Kai?" he asked Professor Kai, while looking grave.
"Quite," he replied. "Their situation seems hopeless," he said, now a slight crease adorning his forehead.
"I thought so. Such dangerous manipulation of time and death couldn't be without its consequences," said the Headmaster while rubbing his white beard.
"But surely thou could think of something," spoke Mr Lancelot, looking extremely crestfallen. He had expected Kai to deliver a spell and solve the problem in a jiffy.
"We can get them back. There are ways. It is the price we must pay for it, that will be challenging," he replied.
"They passed through the fabrics of death while pushing the limits of time. They are only alive now because they turned back time to cheat death. However, from where they come from, they have already died. In short they left behind their souls when they passed through the veil,"
The room was so tense with what Kai had just said that none of them even dared to breathe, willing Kai to go on about this miraculous development.
"A portal's creation is marked by an event. I told the young lady the portal was opened because they played with their time turners. I lied. The portal was created because they died at the same time they turned back time. It might appear as though Time won and caused them to cheat Death. But the truth is that Death was the powerful of the two,"
"If we are to return them to their time, assuming of course that they would be alive once they return to their time, we will have to imitate an exact set of events that led to the creation of the portal through which they travelled to reach here,"
Several of the wizards gasped. Then finally Mr Lancelot said "You don't mean we should…"
"Yes. Two people will have to die in order for two souls to leave the present," he said plainly.
There was again a few minutes of silence, draped in consternation. Each of the wizards was wearing an expression of horror.
"Is there no other way, Kai?" asked the Headmaster worriedly.
"There might be. But it is hard to say. Like I said previously, very few wizards study this. I would have to correspond with a few of my colleagues to see if there is another way. Meanwhile, make sure this does not reach the ears of Bernaby. He might not hesitate, like we do, to commit murder to leap into the future,"
Mr Lancelot immediately spared a glance at the windows, as though his brother might be eavesdropping right behind the curtains.
"And what about the young lady?" asked a squeaky voice, which belonged to a small portly wizard crouching out of a chair beside the Headmaster. "Why did we see such varied effects on the magic of the witch and the wizard?"
There was a murmur among the room, while each of the wizard remembered that they had indeed witnessed a marked difference in the way the wands of Rose and Scorpius had acted.
Kai joined his hands together and placed them on his lip while resting his thumbs on his chin. He took a while pondering over the question, and as he spoke the murmurs in the room subsided at once.
"The magic of a wizard does not merely reside in his or her wands. When we enunciate a spell, it isn't just the words or the actions that determine the effectiveness of a spell. It is also, as you know, the magical power of our souls that result in the efficacy of a spell,"
"From what I gather, the gentleman and lady did not fall through the veil at once, but each fell through the veil at different times. Mr Malfoy fell through first and lingered on behind the veil, for a tad bit longer than the lady before she had the sense to turn back the time turners,"
"Does that mean the veil acted upon the boy's soul before he came here?" asked Mr Lancelot quickly.
"Yes, that is my guess. If they both fell through the veil at the same time, they would have exhibited the same results while performing that spell. What was curious was not that Miss Weasley's enlarged object was larger than usual, that is to be expected considering she fell through the portal. It was the fact that Mr Malfoy's magic was normal and didn't seem to be affected by the powerful effects of a portal. The portal works on the magic imbibed in our souls. The boy's soul has been tampered with, which is why his magic has been subdued as well, "
"Is that bad?" asked the rotund gentleman sitting opposite to Mr Lancelot.
"It most certainly is. Should we successfully send these children back home, there is always the uncertainty as to whether they are alive in their time. However in Mr Malfoy's case, chances are he would most likely have gone through the veil. His soul was already being ripped from his body as time worked its effect and caused them to travel here. He is at a greater risk of being dead than Miss Weasley,"
These words seemed to hang in the air like the terrible odour of a pungent gas. Wizards all around the room were rubbing their foreheads and wringing their hands. It seemed to the Headmaster this was enough information for one meeting, for he spoke next,
"I am guessing this is it then," he said while rising from his seat. "Let us part in the hope that we can find a solution to this enigmatic problem as soon as possible. I will intimate thee on the next meeting soon. Meanwhile Irwin, I would advise thou to not entertain too many questions from the children. It is better they are unaware of just how grievous the situation is. Let them worry as little as possible,"
Mr Lancelot nodded obediently and all the eight wizards got up from their chairs and walked out of the room, their heads more heavier and their faces more lined than when they walked in.
Rose was standing in front of the mirror processing everything she just heard. The facts didn't register entirely in her mind yet. All she knew was that there was trouble brewing and that perhaps she had underestimated the situation at hand.
So they had fallen through the portal. A portal which opened because she turned back their time turners, while falling though the veil. Although, she was still curious of the expression on Kai's face as he explained it, it didn't bother her too much since the end result was that they were stuck in the 17th century.
Rose was almost annoyed over the way they were asked to leave the room, before they could hear what the wizards had planned to do to fix the problem, or what approach they were going to take to do so. Rose felt angry at being treated like a child, she was after all only a few months away from being of age. But most importantly shouldn't they have been allowed to listen through everything they had to say, considering how this concerned them the most. Did they expect them to act foolishly once they knew what this was all about?
Feeling extremely angry, she walked towards the wide open window and looked down the grounds. The sight outside did nothing to please her mood as her eyes fell upon the figures of Scorpius and Roslyn who were engaged in an animated conversation. No doubt detailing the various ways in which she could cook porridge, thought Rose scornfully.
Rose had been quite shocked to see that none of the things that were said in the room earlier seemed to have affected Scorpius in the slightest. In fact he seemed so unaffected by their problem, that once out of the room, he started discussing the various career options he could choose from if he were to stay in the 17th century.
With the number of things annoying her mounting up, Rose threw one of her pillows at the door. She then started venting her frustration by kicking and throwing all the things that were lying next to her. But before she could do damage to a book lying on the floor, she suddenly remembered that she had one more question to ask Kai.
Her wand had acted differently from Scorpius'. Did that mean the portal had affected her more? It certainly seemed that way. And although at the time, she appeared smug at knowing this, mostly for the sake of annoying Scorpius, she wondered now whether she should have considered it a good or a bad news.
Her thoughts were interrupted next by sounds of giggling coming from the grounds below. Rose peered out the window and saw that Roslyn was laughing , no doubt at a joke Scorpius had just cracked. Must be about how your blondeness is actually a sickness Malfoy, thought Rose while fuming.
This has been the routine for the last few hours. Every time Rose sat down to ponder over their problem, she was distracted by Scorpius and Roslyn. Rose didn't understand why she was fretting about those two. She had, after all, been completely indifferent to any of Scorpius' previous girlfriends.
Rose simply couldn't understand why her mind was more resigned to thinking about Scorpius and his vain attempts to woo Roslyn, instead of worrying about whether she would ever get to return to her life in the 21st century.
"Rose. Father has asked us to make a trip to town, to purchase clothes for ourselves," said Roslyn.
Rose, who was still fuming with a lot of anger from earlier merely gave a hum and nodded her head without even turning back. She was standing in the garden outside looking at the flowers Roslyn had grown and had wandered off into thoughts which as usual began with the portal and ended in Scorpius and Roslyn.
Soon all three of them were dressed and ready to head into town. They were planning on walking through the forest, which was a short cut they always took to avoid prying Muggles.
"So, you've been awfully quiet. Accidentally performed a Silencio on yourself? Must keep you quiet for days, now that your magic has been enhanced," said Scorpius, while sneering.
Rose who didn't expect Scorpius to talk to her looked around. And sure enough she saw that Roslyn was busy chasing her chickens into their cage while Scorpius waited for her.
"How can you stand there and smile like that?" snarled Rose turning around and facing Scorpius.
"Why? Is today the world anti smiling day?" replied Scorpius while stealing a glance towards Roslyn.
"None of the things you heard today bothered you?" asked Rose, whose eyebrows were raised in an arc.
"Why I should I worry about something that I can't fix. You heard Mr Lancelot, they will try to do their best to fix it, so stop pestering about it," he jibed and walked away to help Roslyn catch one of the chickens who was rather reluctant to get into its cage.
Rose swearing under her breath didn't speak to him all through their journey. In fact she wasn't even walking by their side, but a few feet behind them. She suspected if they would notice her absence if she were to leave.
Rose snorted as she pried on the conversation in front of her. It was only now that she paid attention, she realized that Scorpius barely spoke a few words in the middle of his conversations with Roslyn. He spent most of his time nodding and saying things like 'I quite agree' and 'You're quite right', while staring at her like a love sick puppy.
"Father always buys me the best of things," she heard Roslyn say. "These are made from the finest silk.," she said while pointing at her own dress. "They have been hand woven by Chinese elves. My uncle Albert lives in China. He had it delivered from there,"
"Yes they are quite beautiful indeed," said a misty eyed Scorpius.
Rose had the sudden urge to rip the dress off Roslyn and strangle her with it. But then again, Scorpius might not object to it since he wouldn't mind seeing Roslyn naked.
Rose suddenly slowed down. She was sure that a pair of eyes were following her like always and had a pretty good hunch as to who it was as well. She stopped walking abruptly and started taking a detour. She could still feel the person following her despite taking a different route from that of Scorpius. Meanwhile, Scorpius and Roslyn kept walking, unaware that Rose was no longer behind her.
She didn't know why she was braving to tackle William Galehaut on her own. She might be carrying a borrowed wand, but what good would it do against someone who was receiving Dark Arts lessons from his father.
But for some reason Rose wasn't scared. He was after all the same age as she was. And something about the look she saw in his eyes, the last time they met, made her believe that he might not be as dangerous as he looked. All at once, steeling herself, she whipped out her wand and turned around with all the confidence she could muster.
But her arm, which was holding out the wand, lowered at once as she almost screamed at the sight in front of her.
She had expected to see a young man of her age, with wild hair and dirty robes, but instead she had to look at an even scarier man clad in the dirtiest set of robes Rose had ever seen. His face, in some ways, resembled that of Mr Irwin's, but his deeply revolting scars and his grimy skin, together with his yellowish teeth and his hungry stare made him look so evil, one would doubt whether the two were even remotely related.
Rose, without thinking twice, turned and ran at the sight of the man. She ran and ran till she could run no longer. Panting, she turned around to see that the man was nowhere behind her. She was terrified to find out that Bernaby was now spying on them himself instead of sending his son to do his dirty work. Did that mean that he knew about the portal or about how they got to be here? Also why hadn't he followed Scorpius instead of Rose? Was it because he was accompanied by Roslyn or because Bernaby had suspected that Rose was now magically more powerful.
Thoughts kept twirling in her mind one by one, as she took in deep breaths. Breathing heavily she sat on the floor, wondering whether Bernaby had disapparated. Rose was halfway through standing back up from the ground when a large dirty hand pressed on her shoulder, causing her to scream for real this time.
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