World Enough and Time – Chapter Five
Meet the Press
"Is it true, Ginny?"
"Is what true, Romilda?"
"You know… is it true that Harry has a hippogriff tattooed across his chest?"
Lily choked on her cereal and bent over her bowl, coughing. A hippogriff? Who was this girl?
Thankfully, her rather loud display went unnoticed by the girls she was eavesdropping on. Lily was only a few seats down from them at the Gryffindor Table, which was still rather empty as it was early. Romilda, who Lily thought she had seen hanging around the Common Room (staring at Harry), had been pestering Ginny with questions about her newly acquired boyfriend for the last quarter of an hour and it seemed the subject had taken a rather ridiculous turn.
Chancing a look over at the two girls Lily saw that Ginny was doing a much better job of hiding her mirth than she was her own. Although, Lily noticed, Ginny's nose was twitching – something that was a giveaway that she was trying not to laugh.
"Well? Is it true? Or, don't you know?"
Lily continued to watch out of the corner of her eye and saw Ginny's eyebrows raise, her expression still one of vague disinterest. "No, Romilda, Harry does not have a hippogriff tattooed across his chest," she scoffed. "Don't be stupid."
Romilda's face went rapidly from interest to disappointment to a challenging sneer. Ginny seemed oblivious to this however, as she turned her attention back to her breakfast.
"And you're sure? Because I heard from Anastasia who knows Katie Bell's sister who said that Katie told her—"
Ginny looked up from her toast and cut Romilda off. "Whatever you've heard is a load of rubbish. Harry does not have a hippogriff tattooed across his chest." She smirked. "And I know this because it's actually a Hungarian Horntail. Much more macho, don't you think?"
Without waiting for a reply Ginny stood from her seat and flipped her long hair over her shoulder as she left the Great Hall leaving a crestfallen and jealous Romilda Vane in her wake. Lily meanwhile was in quiet hysterics again and trying to hide her wide grin in her goblet of pumpkin juice.
This was not the first conversation that Lily had shamelessly listened in on lately. In fact, she was making it something of a habit. She was particularly keen on observing her teenage parents who, since becoming a couple, seemed cheerfully oblivious to anything going on around them. Not that anyone was paying much attention to Lily anyway these days - it was easy to listen in. While her arrival had initially been a subject of mild interest her presence was now accepted as normal. She was still the quiet, recently-orphaned girl who kept to herself and preferred it that way and Lily was not going to any lengths to amend this notion.
Every once in a while she would find herself in brief conversation with someone she recognized, someone she knew, and it was these moments that woke Lily from her pleasant dreams of home and put her right back in the nightmare of the past few weeks. When she made eye contact with Harry or Ginny or anyone else she knew there was no recognition in their faces and she had found that to be surprisingly painful. Harry did not hug her. Ginny did not kiss her on the cheek. Any time she had any actual interaction with either of them (rare as it was) she felt horribly out of place.
Most of her time was still spent in the library, although any enthusiasm for her research had long since dwindled to nothing. There was no quick fix to her problem and the more time that she spent there skimming passage after passage the more Lily thought that it may never get fixed at all. Time seemed to be creeping by these days, as if refusing to return her to where she belonged.
Lily glanced down at her watch before remembering that it was still acting strangely. No matter what she tried, her watch continued to tick away in the wrong direction, a fact which made it increasingly difficult for her to get to class on time. But despite this, Lily continued to wear the watch and care for it as it was now one of the few things she had from home and therefore all the more precious.
The Great Hall was filled with students now, many of them rushing to get a bite to eat before class but Lily was done eating and so she grabbed her bag and stood to leave. She walked leisurely towards the Entrance Hall, then up the marble staircase, then towards the steps that would take her to the Charms corridor, thinking the whole way about hippogriffs and Hungarian Horntails and smiling.
Gryffindors had Charms with the Ravenclaws, which Lily generally enjoyed. If nothing else, the larger than usual class made it easier to pass the time unnoticed. She usually chose a table in the back among various Ravenclaws that she did not really talk to and who, in return, did not talk to her. And so she was understandably surprised when someone took the seat next to her with a cheerful greeting.
"Hello, Lillian."
Lily paused in pulling her wand out of her bag and looked up to see Luna sitting down, a smile on face and her gaze directed toward one of the large windows on the far side of the room.
"Hello," she said and smiled easily in return. Lily had spoken with Luna on a number of occasions by now and found her company some of the easiest to tolerate both because she was not particularly close with the Luna from her own time and because the other girl's demeanor was as odd as Lily felt when conversing with anyone from this time.
"I normally sit over there by the window," Luna pointed across the room, "but there's a group of nargles hiding in the curtains. I didn't think you would mind if we shared."
Lily passed over the mention of nargles and said, "Of course I don't mind." Luna smiled and stowed her wand behind her ear before turning to watch Professor Flitwick. The tiny professor was taking roll while a boy from Ravenclaw handed out thick, heavy textbooks. Lily glanced at the one in front of her with a dubious expression on her face. Their assignment, as detailed by Flitwick, was to charm wings onto their book and coax it into flying.
When Professor Flitwick was near the end of the roll and called, "Ginny Weasley," Lily glanced casually in Ginny's direction. She was distracted, giggling with a group of her friends. One of them nudged her and she chirped out, "Here," before turning immediately back to the girls she was chatting with.
The classroom was filled with chattering students as they all set to work on the spell. Lily was pleasantly surprised when, on only her third try, her book sprouted white, feathery wings and lifted itself off the table. She smiled as she watched the book do a few little circles in the air. Luna was watching her own book, now adorned with scaly, purple wings, hover up near the ceiling.
A moment later Lily's concentration was broken by a commotion at the front of the room and her book's wings vanished. The heavy tome fell back to the table with at loud bang that went entirely unnoticed in the room. Professor Flitwick had just leapt from behind his podium, barely dodging a lopsided, one-winged book that zoomed past him and collided with the window. There was silence for a few seconds before the professor emerged again, tousled and flustered. The rogue book lay twitching on the floor. A few people laughed.
"Miss Weasley!"
Lily's head jerked towards the object of Professor Flitwick's reprimand and saw Ginny, her wand still held in the air, a slightly guilty expression on her face but her lips tugging into a smile. Her friends were giggling again but as Flitwick made his way over their table Ginny's smile fell.
"Sorry, Professor."
"Perhaps you would be able to concentrate better, Miss Weasley, at a... different table."
Ginny did not argue but gathered her things and got up to follow as Professor Flitwick led her away from her friends. Lily continued to watch as Ginny made a face over her shoulder and the group of girls behind her started giggling again. Lily realized too late that Flitwick was leading Ginny over to where she and Luna were sitting and hastily returned her attention back to her book as Ginny sat down. Luna smiled serenely, gazing between the two red heads.
"Hey, Luna. Lillian."
Lily half-heartedly returned the greeting and noted that there was no sign of embarrassment in Ginny's voice. She did not seem to mind that she had disrupted the class, which was once again filling with the sounds of practiced incantations and general chatter.
Although she had successfully completed the spell just a few moments earlier Lily now found it hard to concentrate between Ginny's presence and Luna's long stares at the two of them. She hoped that the Ravenclaw would not notice that she and Ginny had precisely the same shade of red hair.
With a sigh she rested her chin in her hand and waved her wand at her text book with much less enthusiasm than before. Ginny noted her dour expression.
"I agree," her teenage mother said in response to her sigh, "Class has been dreadfully dull today, hasn't it?"
Lily did not have to look up to know that Ginny was smirking but she did anyway. She could think of nothing to say in response. Luna did not have the same problem.
"I think it's rather fun. I'm quite fond of my book." And indeed it seemed that Luna's still-flying book was quite fond of her as well. It was hovering contentedly by the blond's right ear while she petted it absentmindedly.
Ginny caught Lily's eye and started laughing and Lily could not keep a smile from her own face. As the class continued Lily found Ginny's perpetual good mood to be unavoidably contagious and twenty minutes later she found she was actually enjoying herself, talking and laughing with the other two girls as if nothing was wrong.
But of course, something was wrong. Everything was wrong. But maybe it was getting easier to ignore.
By the end of the class Lily had managed to successfully complete the spell three times and Luna was helping Ginny coax her own book into flying. It's large butterfly wings were bright and colorful but it remained stubbornly on the table.
"I just don't seem to have much luck with this one," Ginny said with a shrug as Luna murmured quietly to the text book. She looked up, her blue eyes sparkling with mirth.
"Don't worry," Luna said, entirely straight-faced, "I'm sure Harry would be happy to help you practice it later."
At this Lily actually saw her mother blush. It was not often that that happened. And Lily was once again reminded why Ginny was in such a constant good mood lately. It was strange to think of her parents starting to date. It was even stranger to think of them ever not being together. Even though she was forever hearing stories about her father's Hogwarts days, of his various exploits with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, in Lily's mind Harry and Ginny Potter were inseparable, even through time.
Apparently, she was not.
She had drifted away from them, from her brothers, from her cousins, from her friends, and it had happened so easily, almost as if nothing were keeping her there. Lily felt a lump form in her throat and there was a tingling behind her eyes.
Her brief moment of contentment had been shattered as soon as it had come and for the last few minutes of the lesson Lily did not speak at all but stared at the table in front of her, tracing her fingers around the aged stains of ink and cracks of spellwork gone awry. If Luna or Ginny noticed the sudden change they did not say anything but continued to talk and laugh with each other. When Professor Flitwick released them Lily practically ran for the door, not caring who she bumped into or who saw the tears in her eyes.
Albus was missing his sister terribly.
However right at that moment he was finding it hard to concentrate on anything but the commotion around him. He was too distracted by all the noise, the shouting, the scraping of chairs, the tears. It was always an affair at the Burrow - there never seemed to be enough room to contain all the energy of so many people. Today it was especially so because in addition to the large crowd there was a heavy sorrow and the beginnings of panic filling the space.
Al was the only occupant still in his seat and he was going largely unnoticed by the rest of the kitchen's occupants. The Weasley household was filled to the brim with family members – Al's aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, brother, grandparents, Teddy. It seemed everyone was there. Everyone but Lily.
In all the confusion Albus took the opportunity to slip outside into the garden.
Just over half an hour ago he and his immediate family had arrived at the Burrow to find the rest of the family gathering as well. His mother had rounded them up, making floo calls and sending owls and when everyone was finally present his father had, to the best of his ability, shared the news of Lily's disappearance. The idea was that with more people working on the problem the faster the could solve it – such a diverse range of expertise and experience could surely come together to solve this one very complicated issue. His dad did not want Lily's absence to become public knowledge but with nothing to go on and nowhere else to turn he had confided in those closest to him – the Weasleys.
Al shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to the crooked fence that lined the back garden. Swinging one leg over he hopped up and sat along one of the sturdy wooden posts, his head down and his shoulders slumped. He could still hear a general clamor of voices behind him but it was all mixed together now – just a noise – and his thoughts settled back to Lily and how (he would not think if) they could get her back.
"ENOUGH!"
Al jumped at the sudden shout from the kitchen. Turning to look over his shoulder he saw his dad standing, his hands in the air, and everyone else staring at him. He started to talk and even though Albus could not hear him he did not look away. The expression on his father's face was both furious and captivating and he felt transfixed in spite of himself.
He could see his grandmother crying. She was leaning into her husband's shoulder, her body shaking with tears. Aunt Hermione looked suspiciously close to tears as well but she remained perfectly upright, listening intently. She and Uncle Ron had already heard the news of course, and he was sure that she had been steadily working since then. Uncle Ron, next to her, had his arm around her shoulders and his face was stoic, his jaw clenched.
Al turned away, glad that he was not still in the kitchen to hear their discussion. He stared out at the tree line in the distance, the large stump sticking up in the field, the worn path and led down to the creek. Memories of he and Lily and James playing out here in the summers seemed to play out before him like a Muggle film. They used to play on the huge stump to see who could stay on the longest while trying to push the others off. Lily had broken her arm once. He remembered how terrified he and James had been to tell their parents and how Lily had hardly cried at all.
So consumed in his memories as he was, Albus did not hear the kitchen door open nor did he hear the footsteps of someone approaching him. He jumped when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder and spun to see his Uncle Charlie standing behind him.
With very little effort for someone in his late forties Charlie swung himself up onto the fence beside Albus and it creaked under their combined weights. They were silent for a few moments before Charlie spoke.
"I bet you've heard a lot of stories from your parents' days at Hogwarts, haven't you?"
Al nodded, looking down at the ground under him. He did not feel particularly inclined towards conversation at the moment but he was glad that Charlie had not started with, How are you holding up, or, Don't you worry, champ.
Al had always liked his Uncle Charlie. When he was little he and James had loved Charlie's stories about dragons and when he would show them the burn marks on his arms. He was forever the cool one, the adventurous one, always up for a laugh. He looked far more somber now than Albus had ever seen him.
"Did Harry or Ginny ever tell you about the Chamber of Secrets?"
This caught Albus by surprise and he glanced over at his uncle and furrowed his brow. "Not really," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I know Dad killed a giant snake and Mum was there but they didn't go much into details."
Charlie nodded, not looking away from Albus. He appeared to weigh his next words carefully. "Well, there was a bit more to it than all that."
Al resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I guessed," he said flatly.
A ghost of a smile flitted across Charlie's face before disappearing again.
"Did they ever tell you that your mother almost died that night?"
Albus blinked and opened his mouth but no words came out. He shut it again and shook his head. Charlie sighed and leaned forward so that his elbows were resting on his legs. He took a moment before continuing. "I almost lost my sister that night, Al. They told us she was gone. They actually told us she was dead."
Al could do nothing but continue to stare at Charlie, transfixed. Charlie was staring straight ahead but did not seem to be focusing on anything in particular, as though instead of seeing the woods or the field he was reliving that moment when he had heard the dreadful news about his little sister. Al had a fleeting image of himself in Professor McGonagall's office in the middle of the night. I'm afraid she's missing.
Charlie was speaking again and Al snapped back to the present. "Mum and Dad told us before rushing off to Hogwarts. Bill and I were the only ones out of school then so it wasn't hard letting just the two of us know. They said something terrible had happened and they had to go. Bill wouldn't let them leave until they told us that Ginny – that Ginny was…." Charlie paused, swallowed, and continued. "I've never seen Bill lose it like that. I really haven't. It—"
Again, Charlie stopped abrumptly. He sat up straighter and ran a hand over his face before turning towards Albus. "The point is that she wasn't really gone. Ginny was fine in the end despite what everyone had told us."
But Lily really is gone, Al couldn't help thinking and he felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. He did not want to voice such a thing aloud and waited for Charlie to keep talking.
"Your dad saved her, Albus. Even when we all thought – knew – that Ginny was gone, he went down into the Chamber of Secrets, a place that's not even supposed to exist, and brought our sister back to us."
At this point Albus finally realized where this whole story had been leading. He looked back over his shoulder through the Burrow's kitchen window. He saw his father standing, his arm around his wife, as those inside talked loudly amongst each other. Harry Potter was Al's hero in every way that a father is his son's hero, but at that moment, he was something more. He could not say why, but as he felt then that somehow, they would get Lily back.
After Lily had practically fled from the Charms classroom she hurried through the crowded corridors wanting nothing more than somewhere to hide and cry. She was jostled by students bustling about between classes and the general clamor of chattering students and shouts all turned into a kind of buzzing in her ears. As she strode quickly through the halls she scrubbed at her eyes to wipe away the tears pooling there, frustrated that her emotions had been so unpredictable lately. The only silver lining to this was that it fit her cover story perfectly. Any oddities in her behavior – such as running out of class practically in tears – could be attributed to the recent "loss of her parents."
Sometimes she was fine, she thought she was adjusting, but sometimes – seemingly at random – something would happen that set her off. It was no easy task, adjusting to living twenty years in the past.
The days were not as unbearable as they had been at first and she was not so cripplingly awkward most of the time. She had actually been cheerful not ten minutes ago. Why had the thought of her parents getting together done this to her? Maybe it was because it had hit home yet again that so many things she remembered, took for granted, so many people she knew – they had not happened yet.
She needed to get away.
Lily continued to roam the corridors, not caring where she was going or whether she was going around in circles. She was trying to find somewhere to be alone but walking through the increasingly vacant halls seemed to be helping. Her pace slowed as did her breathing.
I need somewhere to be alone.
As she thought this a door appeared to her right and Lily jumped back against the opposite wall. She was momentarily startled so badly that she held her breath and did not move. And then she stepped away from the wall and turned around to see the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, which she had passed twice already. Spinning to face the other way, her hair flying over her shoulder, Lily looked back at the door in the wall and almost laughed in relief.
The Room of Requirement! Of course!
Her father had told her about the Room of Requirement, though something had happened to it in the Battle of Hogwarts and it had never been the same afterwards. It had not occurred to Lily to even look for the room. She had forgotten that here, in nineteen ninety seven, the Room of Requirement was in perfect working condition.
With a broad smile on her face Lily stepped forward and flung open the door. Immediately fresh, cool air reached her and she breathed in deeply. She hurried inside, closing the door loudly behind her and nearly laughed as her thoughts rapidly pulled her in a hopeful direction.
Anything you need, she kept thinking. This room gives you anything you need.
That's what her father had told her. She leaned against the door she had come through and closed her eyes. It was quiet in the room, but a peaceful quiet rather than an unsettling one. It was the sort of quiet found in the very early morning. It was calming.
I need somewhere to sit down, she thought experimentally. A second later she peeked open one eye and then the other and could not suppress a cry of delight. Just in front of her stood a velvety red armchair with deep cushions – the sort found in the Gryffindor Common Room. She reached forward to touch it. The fabric beneath her fingers was the softest she had ever felt. She sank down into the chair and closed her eyes.
A room that gives you anything you ask for. The hope bubbled up inside her again. Anything she needed…
Her heart started to beat faster and Lily got quickly to her feet, unable to sit still for a moment longer. If this worked… she could be home any second now. She could see her parents again, her brothers. She felt certain this would work. Still pacing Lily tried to take a deep, calming breath. She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes and thought, I need to get home, to get back to my own time. I need a way to get back where I belong.
Her heart was beating in her throat. Her eyes were still closed. She stopped pacing. Lily had never wanted anything more in her entire life.
Finally she opened her eyes and saw that the room was exactly the same. The red chair was still there, the same cool, fresh air filled the room, but nothing else did. Lily spun around, searching every corner, every crevice of the empty room, but it was just that. Empty. Her hopes plummeted and she felt sick to her stomach. But maybe… she held onto a sliver of hope.
Perhaps it had worked. She could walk out that door and right back into her own time. She needed it and that was exactly what the room was for.
Desperate, Lily sprinted to the door and flung it open. The corridor looked the same but that did not mean anything. She ran out into the hall, her feet pounding on the stone floor, her bad banging against her hip. As she turned the corner she ran straight into someone going the other way and fell to the floor. When Lily saw his face her heart sank even further than she had ever known was possible. In front of her, still standing and rubbing his shoulder, was a sixteen-year-old Draco Malfoy. She let out the smallest moan of despair. Her limbs suddenly felt like lead.
"Not even going to apologize for nearly knocking me over?" Malfoy sneered at her but Lily was not paying attention. She stared ahead, not seeing Malfoy, or the two nervous first year girls behind him. There was only one thought in her mind. It didn't work. She was still in the past, still trapped there.
As Malfoy continued down the corridor, the two girls trailing behind, Lily pulled her legs in towards her chest and rested her forehead on her knees. She felt cheated, and though she had not even remembered the room's existence until a few moments ago it felt as though her last hope had just slipped through her fingers.
A few days after the family meeting at the Burrow James was back at work. The initial shock of Lily's disappearance had now evolved into a fierce determination to get something done, a feeling that had been echoed in the rest of his family members. And while his work in the Experimental Charms Department was not necessarily going to be very helpful he resolved to use his resources there any way he could to help his sister.
As he strode purposefully through the Ministry Atrium he tried to focus on his most recent project – recovering magically erased memories - rather than dwell too much on Lily. In holding with his father's wishes that they keep Lily's disappearance from becoming common knowledge he had to try and act as normally as possible. He did his best to ignore the witches and wizards bustling all around him but the close he got to the lift the harder this became. A crowd was rapidly forming around one of the floo grates. Among the usual bustle of Ministry employees there were photographers and a number of witches and wizards with parchment and quill in hand. There were a few bright flashes as cameras went off and James slowed his pace, standing on tip toe to try and see what all the commotion was about.
"What's all the fuss," the disgruntled voice of Edmund Perkins asked from James's left. He turned to see the man glaring over at the spectacle and he readjusted his glasses. James shrugged. A woman he did not know turned around.
"It's one of the Unspeakables," she whispered conspiratorially. "Apparently one of them went missing a few days ago."
"That's nothing unusual," James said, raising his eyebrows. "Working in the Department of Mysteris, strange things are bound to happen." It was true. Unspeakables got up to all sorts of dangerous and secretive activities. No one but members of the Department knew exactly what they did there but there could be any number of reasons for his absence.
The woman turned to face them fully, pulling her purple cloak more tightly around her. "Well, it's the memory loss that got the press interested. One of the journalists for the Daily Prophet tipped everyone off to it – don't know why, you'd think they'd love the exclusive. It's been a madhouse around here the past few days."
Beside him Perkins seemed intrigued by this news but James merely rolled his eyes. All these journalists were clearly digging for a story where they were not going to find one. The Unspeakables were just that. They were not well known for their willingness to give interviews. His own department worked more closely with them than most and even he knew next to nothing that went on there. James groaned when he realized that Experimental Charms might yet get dragged into this mess, especially considering what he and his colleagues had been working on.
The crowd across the Atrium was continuing to draw attention and James fought to make his way to the lifts. He nodded to the woman in the purple cloak and waved back at Perkins.
"See you, Potter," Perkins called loudly over the increasing noise. James entered the nearest lift and before he had even turned around a woman with straight dark hair entered after him, an eager look on her face. After the first two floors they were the only two people left on the lift.
James glanced over at her and saw that she was carrying a roll of parchment and a quill was sticking out of her handbag. He scowled. A journalist. She was probably in her forties, though from the excessive make-up she wore he guessed that she would never admit it. Her skirt was awkwardly shaped to her figure and her perfume was making it hard for James to concentrate. He felt like his brain was filling with smoke. He noticed her furtive glances in his direction although she was clearly trying to be subtle.
When the lift finally arrived at James's level he was only too glad to get off. But the moment he stepped forward the woman said, "Oh, you work on this floor, do you? Well, how lucky for me." And she stepped off after him.
James gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore her as he made his way to his cubicle. When it because clear that she was going to follow him James came to an abrupt halt and turned sharply.
"Do you mind?"
"Not at all," the woman replied with a wide smile that stretched out her thin lips. "Pansy Parkinson," she offered, a hand held out for him to shake. He did not take it but she did not falter. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."