Secrets of the Past

Secrets of the Past-Chapter 3

Richards led her Lily back into the Leaky Cauldron. He sat her at an empty table by the windows showing Diagon Alley. It’s so beautiful in the fall, she thought to herself while Terrence went away for some drinks.

Lily was off in her own little world when Terrence came back holding two mugs with foaming liquid inside of them. “Butterbeer,” he smiled at her, “warms the heart and soul.”

She looked back up into his warm blue eyes and smiled. “Thanks,” she mumbled quietly.

“I would have gotten you something stronger, but right now, you don’t really look like you need it,” he laughed at his own little joke.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while after that. Lily kept running her fingers over the scratches in the wooden table and Terrence was staring quietly out the window. It was Terrence who broke the silence first.

“Come with me.”

Lily looked up in surprise. “Come with you where?”

“To my home, back in Scotland.”

“Why?”

“I just want you to see it for a while, unless, of course, you couldn’t use the vacation.”

He seemed to be looking right at what she needed. She really had no way to get a room for the night; after all, she only had about 2 galleons to her name. And she would need new clothes in the morning, but I highly doubt he is the kind that just keeps a load of woman’s clothing, just in case. She laughed at herself. Besides, what harm could it do? She might as well.

“Ok,” she looked back at him and smiled.

“Splendid! You stay here and I’ll go up and get my things and check out. We can take the Floo back to the castle.”

Castle? She wondered to herself. I like the sound of that.

She heard Richards grab the two mugs and set off towards a bartender. She recognized him as a very young looking Tom, who would eventually take over as the innkeeper to the Leaky Cauldron. She smiled at her little discovery.

Lily stood up and decided to walk around the inn for a bit. She noticed all the strange creatures that usually hung out here, a woman—dressed in black robes, a black shawl, and a black scarf and veil draped over her head—was eating blood lollipops. Lily shuddered. Vampire, she thought, they must not have had all the restrictions at this time. Keeping on that line of thought, she still wondered what year it was. It’s not like you could just randomly go up to a person and ask what year it was, only in movies did that work. They’d think you were nuts. Still, praying that the Leaky Cauldron might have a calendar somewhere, she looked around at the mostly bare walls.

It took her a while, but eventually, she spotted a shabby calendar but the entrance to the back of the small pub. She walked over to it and almost screamed out in surprise.

October 3, 1948! No way! Ohhh, wait until I get my hands a hold of James. Ten years back my a—

“Ready?” Terrence extended a hand to her. She quickly stomped that train of thought and took his hand as he led her over to the fireplace.

“When you step in, just yell ‘Apradium!’ and it will take you there.” He looked back at her and she nodded.

Apradium? What kind of name is that?

“Ok, I’ll go first,” he said. Taking a pinch of the magical powder, he threw it into the flames, stepped forward with his bags and yelled, “Apradium!” Terrence was gone in a flash of light.

Ok, let’s do this. Lily stepped forward and followed suit. She noticed a few of the men grinning cockily at her, and she began to feel a little nervous. She quickly threw the powder into the fire, breathed in, ready to speak, but she got a mouthful of ash and soot. “A-a-apradum!” she yelled, and walked into the fire.

~*~*~*~

It was a wild ride, whirling through past so many grates. She didn’t even have a clue which ones led to where. She began to feel the warm butterbeer she just downed threatening to come back up, when she was pitched forward into a dark room.

“Uf!” she landed face first onto the ground. A scream was soon followed and she looked up. What she saw almost made her butterbeer come up.

A man, dressed in black, was advancing on a woman in the corner, wand out. The woman was backed into a corner. What Lily saw, but only from a light coming into the window, was that the woman was badly beaten on her face and arms. She did not have a wand, and was trying hopelessly to kick the man back.

Lily, fumbling in her pockets for her own wand, soon stood up. That man in the cloak looked up at her, surprised, and before he had time to yell a curse at her, she yelled, “Stupefy!” and the man was unconscious on the floor.

The woman herself then looked up to see Lily standing there. She screamed once more, and abruptly passed out. Lily had no idea what to do. Who is that? She wondered, looked at the man on the floor. Well, whoever he was, he just tried to kill this woman. So picking up the man’s wand, she broke it in half, leaving him with no way to suddenly wake and place a spell upon her. Then, she looked around at her surrounding.

Outside, she could see nice little house, organized in straight rows on the street. She could see it was night, since the streetlights were on, and there was a car parked in the driveway. That was the only normal thing about this house.

Looking around inside, Lily saw numerous wizarding things, including book, parchment, quills and ink bottles, a cauldron in the corner, and a vacant owl cage sitting on the desk on the side of the room. She went over to the woman to try and wake her up.

After her futile attempts of slapping the woman gently, Lily pointed her newly purchased wand at the woman. “Enerverate,” she said quietly. The woman’s eyes looked up at Lily and almost passed out again. Lily gently held on to her and the woman started backing away and said, “It’s ok, that man over that is passed out, there’s nothing to worry about. But I need your help. I don’t know what to do with him.”

The woman looked over to where Lily pointed and gave a muffled scream. She looked up again at Lily, “He tried to kill me! He did! I can’t believe it! Why would he ever want to kill me?”

“I don’t know, what’s your name?” Lily asked gently.

“Arabella Figg, and I want to report this man immediately!”

“Are you a witch?”

“Gee, how could you tell?” the woman asked sarcastically.

“Well…I…er…”

“Do you need some more Floo to get to where you were going?”

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mi—“

“No, not at all, child. I’ll sort this mess out, and you just get to where you were going. It’s in the vase on the mantle, help yourself. Thank you, deary, and have a nice trip.” She got up and went into the other room, leaving Lily to wonder in what she just said.

Well, might as well get out of here. Terrence is probably getting worried.

Sitting up, she dusted off her worn jeans and sweater. She went up to the fireplace, lit a small fire, and threw in a handful of it. Ok, let’s get this right now. “Apradium!” she yelled, and is a whoosh of flames she was gone.

~*~*~*~

“Uf!” came the familiar sound of Lily landed from the Floo. I have really got to work on those.

“Where have you been?” Richards questioned her, as he got up off the couch and ran over to her.

“Er…I said the wrong name, fell out at the wrong grate, and something I had to take care of was there, so I had to take care of it.”

“Take care of what?” he asked her again.

“There was a man trying to kill Arabella Figg!” she exclaimed.

“And you stopped him?” he asked, almost like chastising her.

“Well, yes, what was I supposed to do, just sit around there and watch it happen?”

“Y—no, you did the right thing. It’s ok. Let’s just…get you situated here. Nelly!” he yelled, and a house-elf—wearing a sack with holes for the legs, arms, and head—came trotting in. “Will you please escort Ms. Evans to the room I have arranged for her?”

“Yes, sir,” she bowed slightly and took Lily’s hand. “Right this way, miss.”

Lily followed the house-elf throughout the twisting castle halls. Was it her imagination, or did Terrence actually seem mad that she stopped the man from killing Arabella?

“Right in here, miss,” the house-elf bowed her in, and quickly walked away.

Lily walked through the stone doorway to her room and a sharp intake of breath was heard.

This room was beautiful. She looked from the white fur rug next to the canopy bed with a silk green bedspread covering it beautifully, to the tapestries on the wall, green mixed with silver, to the beautiful widows in her room showing the full moon rising over the rolling hills of Scotland.

She walked over the rug and her feet almost disappeared, the rug was so deep, and soft. She wasted not time in throwing her shoes off and stepping on the carpet, like a little kid finding something new. She was giggling by now, as she went over to the armoire, crafted in a dark wood of some sort, and opened it. She was very surprised when she found that it was stocked full of dress robes and silk slippers, all very beautiful. Ok, why does he have a supply of woman’s clothes and somehow why am I not surprised?

“You like?”

Lily jumped about a foot into the air. Standing in the doorway was Terrence, dressed in, what looked like, black silk pants and a black shirt. The colors blended perfectly with his smooth black hair and pale skin. It seemed to bring out his blue eyes even more.

“I—I—Why do you have a supply of woman’s clothing in here?” She surprised herself by asking that question, and surely surprised him to. When she looked up at him, his eyebrows were arched and he laughed out loud.

“Well, I did have a mother, you know. When she passed away, I kept her things, and I put them in this room. You look like you could fit into them anyways.”

She looked back at the lovely dress robes. Just the idea of trying all of them on was sending shivers up her spine. They were so beautiful, each looked like it was hand-woven, and all were the softest to touch.

“This—this is too much. I can’t possibly thank you enough for it.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” he smiled to her. “I believe she had some pajamas in here, you could borrow them if you would like, I don’t think you brought any bags with you,” he stopped to smile at her shocked face, “and then we can go downstairs for a drink if you like. You are looking much better, by the way.”

She blushed at his compliment, and then started rummaging through the clothes. There was a particular silk robe that caught her eye as she took it. It was a lovely emerald green color, tightened at the top, then flaring out at the bottom. It had lovely embroidery on the top part, and at the bottom it was just sleek and smooth.

“That would look gorgeous on you. I’ll leave you alone so you can change into it. I’ll be waiting outside for you,” he turned around and strode to the door, closing it firmly behind her. She couldn’t wait to try this pajama piece on. Struggling out of her clothes, she slipped it on, adjusting the shoulders a bit. She looked in the wardrobe again and found beautiful emerald slippers to go with it, and slipped those on also. When all was said and done, she looked at herself in the mirror.

“I am so taking this with me when I leave,” she smiled at her reflection and walked towards the door.

~*~*~*~

“Professor, do you have any idea where she went?” James Potter asked the Headmaster frantically.

“Actually, James, yes, I do,” sighed the old Headmaster, peering out of a window.

“Well…”

“Yes?” Dumbledore asked.

“Well where did she go?!” James could not keep the tone of his voice down as he questioned the man again. You can never get a straight answer out of this guy, James thought to himself.

“Well, I would believe that’s obvious.”

“What’s so obvious about it?” It was taking all James had in him to control his anger right now.

“She went back in time.”

“Well OF COURSE she went back in time! I’m asking back in time WHERE?!”  James threw up his hands in frustration.

“Well, James, be patient and I will tell you a story,” Dumbledore turned from the window to face the young man.

“I don’t think this is the time for stories, Dumbledore, we need to find out where Li—“

“James,” Dumbledore said quietly, but with enough force that James stopped talking. “This has everything to do with Lily, now, let’s get some tea and discuss the matter at hand.” He took James by the forearm and dragged him out of the classroom, and up into his office.

~*~*~*~

“You look…marvelous…” Terrence breathed when he saw her.

The robe clung perfectly to her curves, and the green coloring of the robe brought out her eye color to a deep, jade green. She blushed at the site of him.

“I feel ridiculous,” she stated, the blush rising further up her cheeks.

“No, don’t be,” Richards took her by the hands and led her downstairs to the bar. “What would you like, m’lady?” he asked, smiling at her.

“Oh, er…” the truth was, she had never really had alcohol before. She never bothered to try it. “Do you have butterbeer? I’m not really in the mood for alcohol…” she drifted off as he produced a small bottle of butterbeer from behind the counter.

“This has more alcohol in it then usual, I don’t really keep the lightweight stuff around the house, I do hope you don’t mind?” he asked, and she shook her head no.

She popped the top off the bottle and drank some immediately. She had been thirsty all hour, and she savored every drop of this.

Once again they sat in a comfortable silence. Lily, having maybe a bit too much alcohol on her first night ever drinking, decided to break the ice. “I remember this time when I went with Sirius to Hogsmeade in my fifth year at Hogwarts. He had gotten so drunk, I had to practically carry him back up to Hogwarts!” she laughed at her own story, but Richards eyes burned with curiosity.

“Lily, that’s twice now you’ve told me you went to Hogwarts. But I know you didn’t. I would have remembered seeing something as beautiful as you walking around the school, even if you were a Gryffindor. Now, please, tell me the truth, which school did you actually go to?”

Lily mentally kicked herself. Stupid! Slipped up again! I can’t believe this. “I…er…did…go to Hogwarts, maybe it’s just, you never remembered seeing me?”

“Lily, I was head boy, I knew everyone around school, I had to. And I know I would remember a beautiful redheaded, green eyed girl like you.”

“Terrence, I—“

“Why won’t you just tell me?” he said, controlling his anger the best he could.

“You wouldn’t understand…”

“How would you know unless you gave me a chance to understand,” he reached over the bar and took her hand. “Please, dear, just trust me.”

She looked up into his eyes again. A rich blue color stared back at her. He probably would understand, she thought to herself, and maybe he can help me with this…

“Okay,” she sighed, reluctant to tell him. “The truth…wow…” she laughed, “The trust is that I am from 1979, Terrence, I was transported here by a time traveling Portkey that I accidentally fell on and now I can’t figure out how to get home.” She laughed at the shocked look in his eyes. “Told you.”

“Time traveling Portkey?” Terrence asked curiously. “What’s a Portkey?”

“Well, it’s a little device that transports you from one place to the other. Kind of like Apparition, only underage wizards can use it also.”

A look of understanding crossed his face. “And you said you’re from 1979? How are you supposed to get home?”

“By the Portkey, but something about it isn’t working. It won’t transport me back. I don’t know why, it just won’t let me.”

Terrence was speechless. “Well, what do you plan on doing? Have you any money?”

“I had a bit of Muggle money that I traded at the bank earlier, but when I bought the wand, I had only 2 galleons left.”

“Then you shall stay with me.”

“What?” she asked, very surprised.

“You shall stay with me. I don’t mind having you here at all, I like the company, and we can figure out how to…to send you home together,” it took a lot to say the last part, he wanted her to stay here with him forever, never wanting to send her back home.

She thought it over for a minute. “Oh I don’t know…”

He laughed. “Oh come on Lily, what could be so bad?”

~*~*~*~

“I remember once,” Dumbledore began, James sitting right in front of him, “in Diagon Alley, I was picking up supplies for next year’s classes. I was only the Transfiguration teacher back then—“

“Back when?” James cut him off.

Dumbledore looked down on the boy and smiled, “Patience. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this, but I saw Lily in Diagon Alley. I remember it perfectly now. She called me Headmaster, and I didn’t know what she was talking about. I didn’t even know this girl!” He let out a small chuckle. “But now it all makes sense. I saw here there in 1948.”

“1948!” James leapt up to his feet. “I thought you said it would only go back 10 years or so?!”

“How was I to know that without physically trying it. I thought that because I didn’t think there would be enough magical energy to transport someone back that far. But apparently, I was sadly mistaken.”

“So, if she went back 29 years,” James counted on his fingers, “how long would it be until she came back here?”

“Well, to us, it could be a merely short time. A few hours or so, we could wait it out. For her, it would be 29 days of living in the past,” Dumbledore answered James, who sank into a chair.

“29 days, anything could happen in 29 days…”

~*~*~*~

“You know what? I want another one of these!” Lily screamed, laughing as she did so. If Terrence gave her this next one, it would be her 4^th butterbeer. Of course, Terrence, also laughing, reached under the bar and grabbed two more, one for him and one for her.

“Cheers, love,” they banged their bottle together and downed a half of each.

“This stuff is great!” Lily said, only slightly slurring her words.

“I know what you mean,” Richards said, then taking another drink.

“How many have I had now?” Lily asked him, trying to remember herself but failing horribly. They had been in the bar room for almost two hours now, the soft glow of the torches on the side of the wall, a fireplace roaring in one corner, two red leather chairs in front of it. Red tapestries now hung down from the ceiling covering half of each enormous window.

“Er…five maybe? Six?” he laughed.

She playfully hit him. “I mean seriously, I think I’ve only had two and I’m doing fine.” Except on this last part she almost fell out of her chair and Terrence and she started laughing once more.

Suddenly, Terrence perked up and looked serious. “Lily, I want to show you something, come with me.” He came around from the back of the bar and took her hand.

She let him lead her through the icy hallways, chilled with the autumn air. He guided her safely; she kept stumbling every few feet, out into the entrance hall, then through the doors outside.

Immediately she felt the cold hit her. “It’s too cold out here,” she said to him.  “Let’s go back inside.”

“Hold on, I just want to show you something.”

Continuing to hold onto Lily, he led her down past the castle to where there was a garden. Most of the plants were dying now, and the once green trees now turned colors of red, yellow, and brown. He led her over to a stone bench next to a fountain and gently set her down.

“Watch this,” he said to her, smiling.

She gazed up to where he was pointing to in the sky. It was a cloudy night and there were no stars to be seen. The full moon, rising steadily into the sky now, was the only visible light.

Terrence drew his wand out and pointed it at a batch of clouds. She heard him murmur “Depulsoaer,” and flick his wand in a pattern.

Looking back to the sky, she stared in astonishment. The clouds had visibly parted allowing a whole sky of stars to appear. He looked down on her and watched the shock pass across her face. He smiled then stood her up.

Holding her in front of him, he took her wand hand and held it with his. “Let me show you,” he said in a barely audible whisper. Taking her arm he controlled it, waving it in the same pattern he used. “Now, whisper the words,” he said, still holding onto her.

“Depulsoaer,” she whispered and watched the clouds retreat back, even further than what they already had. “This is beautiful,” she said, turning around to look at him.

“Just like you,” he replied back to her.

Terrence then grabbed Lily around the waist and pulled her close. She gasped in shock but did not push him back. Looking into her eyes, Terrence said, “Lily, I really like you. Please, stay with me a while.”

“Terrence, I—“

“I won’t take no for an answer,” he smiled down at the beautiful woman in his hands.

“I—“

He bent down right as she said the words and captured her lips in his. He didn’t know why he did this; he had only known the woman for a day! But this just seemed right, her being with him. Lily seemed surprised at first, but then kissed him back just as eagerly. He held her for a while there like that, varying the degree of kissing, soft light kisses, to rough, trembling kisses.

What am I talking about? I wouldn’t mind staying here! The thought raced across her mind. She pulled back, just a bit, and whispered one word in his ear, “Okay.” She looked back at his now smiling face and he kissed her passionately once more, keeping her warm in his tight embrace.