A/N: I don't own anything
A time she couldn't have known, a memory trapped behind the glass of the mirror, trapped in paint upon canvas, a costume party she ended up at, a wrong turn down a candle lit corridor, smiling at a woman in yellow, a golden mask her face, flowers in her hair.
She wakes, wondering if it was only truly a dream. Sitting up, stretching, a single yellow flower falls into her lap, the flower the woman had tucked into her hair with a quick kiss on the lips, a soft promise that maybe somehow, someday, they'd find their way back to each other. Hannah picks up it up, twirling the short stem between her fingers, sighing wistfully.
Not a dream, but not something that happened in the waking world either. She tucked the flower into her hair, smiling slightly, humming the music from that night, as she dressed in her uniform, tying her Hufflepuff tie around her neck and realizing with a jolt where she'd seen that face before, that smile, those eyes. Forgetting to put on her stockings, her shoes, she rushed from the dorm room down the hall, pausing at the portrait of Helga Hufflepuff.
It had been her, the woman she'd danced with, the one who had kissed her so sweetly, who had tucked the flower in her hair. Hannah touched her fingers to her lips, kissing her fingertips, before pressing those fingers to the painted lips on the portrait, causing the painted Helga to smile and blow her a kiss back. Hannah's face flushed slightly, knowing it wasn't possible, that time travel wasn't... it wasn't possible, was it?
But the flower proved it had happened, something had happened, and she was determined to figure out what it had been, and how to make it happen again. Her heart demanded it, she couldn't be in love with a portrait, no, she'd find a way back to Helga, back to those sweet kisses, those tender arms. She grabbed her bag, still barefoot and made her way to the library to either do research or see if Hermione was there and willing to help her.