SCION: Hi again!

ADRENALINE: Here's the second chapter of Tres Fatales. Sorry the quidditch scene is so short…

SCION: Adrenaline has a short attention span.

ADRENALINE: I do not! It just turned out to be short…

SCION: Like your attention span.

ADRENALINE: …what? Sorry, I was thinking about something else.

SCION: Enjoy the chapter!


Across the Expanses of Time
Tres Fatales
Chapter 2: Lost in Time

Sakura dropped onto the bench next to her best friend, Scorpius Malfoy. The Slytherins were used to her joining them for occasional meals, and after a few years of it, some of them had even softened towards her – even though she was a Gryffindor. This morning she looked especially out of place at the Slytherin table in her Gryffindor quidditch robes, her hair a deep crimson with sparkling gold streaks in honor of her house. Scorpius looked up from the book he was reading and his bowl of cereal.

"You didn't come to the library last night," he said mildly. "I couldn't tell you happy birthday. So happy birthday."

"The Headmaster wanted to see me," Sakura said in a low voice, brushing his implied complaint aside. "I want to show you something." She showed him the two wands Professor Potter had given her.

"These are just like yours," Scorpius said slowly. "Just like yours, except the marks on yours are red. Where did they come from?" Sakura explained about her meeting with Professor Potter, and the prophesy. "And you think these are intended for..." he looked into her face, "siblings, don't you?"

Sakura grinned. "You know me too well," she said. "Yeah, I do think that. It fits, right? And we must be reunited, according to the prophesy! 'To protect the future,' whatever that means." Sakura was nearly bouncing with excitement. "And they're somewhere in Japan! I was up most of the night researching where I'm going to look."

"Where you're going to look?"

"Well, of course!" Sakura exclaimed. "Now that I have a clue, a solid clue, I have to look even harder! I've never been able to find anything before, but I just know that I'll find something this summer! I really wanted to leave right then and there, but I figured I should stay for the rest of the school year..."

"Right then and there? And miss the last quidditch match of the season? Well, you wouldn't have had to face the shame of my catching the Snitch first..." Sakura hit him on the arm, and he laughed. "Just try to keep your head in the game and I'll try to make it look like it's hard to beat you." Sakura stuck out her tongue and jumped up as the rest of her team left the great hall. "Sakura," he said, catching her arm, "don't get too excited about this. You don't know exactly what you can do yet... You can go to Japan, but you can't go back in time. I don't want you to be disappointed if this is a dead end too." She gave him a radiant smile, and ran after her team. She didn't see the look Scorpius gave her as she ran out, or his hands clench, or him biting his lip as he looked down at his now-soggy cereal.

As the Gryffindor team met in the changing-room for their captain's pep-talk, Sakura tried to force her mind onto the game. It was difficult with all the new ideas racing each other in her brain, trying to get her attention. Maybe finally, finally, she would find out not only where she came from, but family she could belong to.

The team walked out onto the field. The Ministry of Magic didn't have any information on her, she knew that. The only thing they knew was that she had been on the list for Hogwarts. They mounted their brooms and kicked off into the air. Her orphanage had had no leads either. Sakura flew high into the air, higher than the chasers and beaters, to watch for the snitch. Scorpius was opposite the field from her. The orphanage hadn't even known where she came from, really, they had just found her on the doorstep when she was a baby. She swerved around and scanned the other side of the field for the snitch, but there was no sight of it yet. She had had such a burning inside her to find her family, or even just to know who they were, or had been, ever since she could remember. The more time passed the greater her desire to find out who she was became, but at the same time she felt more desperate, for with every passing year the chance of success became slimmer. Like the prophesy said, that part of her was being lost with time... Sakura started in surprise. Scorpius was speeding across the sky, the snitch zigzagging in front of him. She pushed her broomstick forward, tearing after them. If she timed this right, she thought, she still had a chance of catching it...

Scorpius' face was set in concentration. She saw his jaw clench, and was suddenly overcome with gratitude that she had someone like him for a friend -- someone that she could discuss something so important with, and someone who she could play against in quidditch with no hard feelings before or after. "You can't go back in time," he had said. The snitch suddenly turned, flying at an angle that suited Sakura better, but she had just realized -- had Scorpius understood better than she had? Was her family lost, not only because of time, but in time? The snitch flew right above her, and a second later Scorpius had passed her as a flash of green, his outstretched hand closing over the small winged ball. He held it high and the Slytherins in the crowd screamed and applauded.

Lost in time, Sakura thought. How in the world can I...