Old Parchment and Green Ink

Old Parchment & Green Ink

by lelalee83

Chapter Four: Old Enemies, Old Friends

This was completely different than the last time he had travelled with a Time-Turner. He had only gone back a few hours then. But now...

Harry could sense himself moving in a rearward direction, and it felt as though he was riding his broomstick facing the wrong way; wind was ruffling his hair and clothes from behind. He could see shimmering colors shooting past his eyes and hear the erratic breathing of his friends, but he couldn't move at all. His hand was stuck fast to the Time-Turner‘s chain.

And then they all lost their balance as the sensation abruptly stopped. Hermione fell backwards into Ron, who had been directly behind her, and Harry fell to the ground on their right, while Luna did the same on the left. They were a hopeless tangle of arms, legs, cloaks, and backpacks.

"That went well," breathed Hermione, sounding as though she had left her voice back in Professor Trelawney's tower room. She rose shakily to her feet, stepping on Ron's hand in the process. "Sorry!" she said apologetically as he grimaced in pain.

"Ow!" shouted Harry, as Ron jabbed him hard in the chest with his elbow.

"You're on my hair," stated Luna, staring dreamily at Ron. He quickly rolled away from her, and flattened Harry in his haste.

Finally, they all got to their feet, Ron looking embarrassed and Harry looking squashed. Luna merely appeared normal, or, as normal as was possible for her.

"We're in Professor Trelawney's classroom," said Harry, trying to smooth out his rumpled robes.

"Actually," replied Hermione, glancing around, "what will be her classroom in fifty-two years." She lifted the Time-Turner over her head and put it in her bag, then turned to face them. "So where do we go from here?"

Ron sighed. "I wish we'd thought to bring the Marauder's Map."

"I forgot about it," replied Harry, "because you were throwing your dirty underwear at me."

There was a snort of laughter and Ron spun around towards Hermione. She was trying, unsuccessfully, to hide her amusement. "Fling them about so openly, do you?" Ron's face turned a comical shade of red.

"Harry was annoying me!"

Unable to contain herself any longer, Hermione dissolved into a fit of giggles.

*****

It was midday, and the heat was making Ginny feel very lethargic and dull. Insects kept buzzing about her ears and she tried, unsuccessfully, to swat them away. She thought of blasting them with her wand, but she didn't think Draco would like that; she'd probably end up blasting him in the back of the head.

Shortly after the poisonous berry incident Draco had found some wild strawberries; they had picked as many as they could carry. That had been hours ago, and now Ginny was hungry again.

She was about to say so when Draco stopped suddenly, standing completely still. He slowly raised a hand and motioned for her to stay where she was.

Carrying on the stifling air, issuing from the thick undergrowth about five metres away, was a gentle rustling noise like wind through the trees. But the wind wasn't blowing.

Ginny's heart beat loudly in her chest. She watched Draco with wide, frightened eyes, praying that nothing would happen to either of them, especially not to him because then she would be left alone. It seemed several minutes had gone by, but still nothing appeared from the bushes.

Draco took a step back from the rustling leaves, his wand raised. He hesitated. One second...two seconds...

Suddenly, something sprang out at him and he fell onto his back with a loud thud.

Ginny screamed.

*****

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Luna made their way down from the North Tower as quietly as they could. Each was wearing their black school robes to hide their 20th century style clothing, in an effort to hopefully blend in.

Hermione had cast charms on the boys‘ hair, making it part on one side; it didn't work so well on Harry's, but it was a slight improvement. Ron's hair actually looked quite handsome, and Luna lost no time in telling him so.

"You can't wear that necklace or those earrings," Hermione said irritably, eyeing Luna's orange radishes and bottle-caps. "They're too conspicuous, someone will notice them."

Luna shrugged and took them off. "I don't think anyone will notice them at all, but if you say so." She slipped them into her pocket.

Harry grinned at the expression of disbelief on Hermione's face.

It was easy enough, finding the Great Hall. There were still four House tables, and the ceiling was still enchanted, but there was no High Table. Harry assumed the teachers ate their meals in a separate room, perhaps the one he had been told to go to after his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire.

And there was Armando Dippet, the current Headmaster. Harry remembered seeing him when he had been taken into Riddle's memory, and then later in Dumbledore's office. The frail, old man was coming out of the door behind where the High Table should've been, corroborating Harry's assumption. He headed towards the corridor to the dungeons and disappeared from sight.

"Where is everybody?" asked Ron, glancing around the near-empty Great Hall. There were a few students lolling about, some of which where lugging trunks behind them or levitating them out the door.

"It's July the first, remember?" answered Hermione. "All the students are probably boarding the train home."

"Then we'd better hurry," said Harry.

The four of them made a dash out the huge, oak front doors and into the warm sunshine.

*****

The thing that had hurtled out of the bushes was pale and smallish; it was about the size of a baby centaur. And then Ginny stopped screaming long enough to realize that it was a baby centaur, with a short tail and curly white-blonde hair. It was laughing.

"I scared you, I scared you!" he said, giggling madly. "You should've seen the look on your face!" He pointed at Ginny with a fat finger. "And yours!" He stamped his tiny, hoofed feet in amusement.

Draco picked himself up off the ground and dusted his clothes off. He turned around to face Ginny, still breathing unsteadily. "I'm alright," he said. All she could do was nod.

"Of course you're alright, silly!" said the little centaur. "I didn't even touch you. You fell on your own."

Draco said nothing, but two pale patches of pink had appeared on his cheeks.

"My name is Firenze, by the way."

*****

What was it that Professor Dumbledore gave you, Ron?" said Harry, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "You put it away so quickly I didn't get a chance to see."

"It was a Sneakoscope."

Behind Ron, Luna giggled under her breath.

"Why did Dumbledore give you those silly old cards?" asked Ron, scowling, as Luna moved to pass him. "Did he think they'd be useful?" He snorted with laughter.

"The Tarot is a big puzzle, Ronald," said Luna as they joined the queue of students waiting to board the train. "During the Middle Ages, when it first appeared, there was a tendency to build up synthetic symbolical or logical systems of the same sort as the Ars Magna method created by Ramon Llull."

"I must've missed that lesson," said Ron, rolling his eyes at Harry.

Harry grinned. "Or you were sleeping."

"Probably."

"But," continued Luna, unperturbed, "creations similar to the Tarot exist in India and China; it's also evidently connected with the Ancient Mysteries and the Egyptian Initiations. Although the aim of its author or authors is quite unknown, there is no doubt that it is the most complete code of hermetic symbolism we possess."

"Rubbish," said Hermione under her breath, so that only Harry heard her. "It's just a silly deck of playing cards."

"Although it's represented as a pack of cards," Luna continued, as though she had heard Hermione's comment, "the Tarot really is something quite different. It can be "read" in a variety of ways."

"I'm sure it can be," said Ron, "but who cares?"

Luna opened her mouth to retort, but Hermione interrupted. "Look, we can get on the train now."

"Finally," breathed Ron.

*****

"What did you say your name was?" asked Ginny, staring at the little centaur as though she'd never seen one before.

"Firenze," he repeated, grinning again, and then added in a singsong voice, "And I know where you two are from."

Draco moved to stand beside Ginny, his hands shoved into his pockets. "Obviously, that would be Hogwarts," he said softly, the blush staining his cheeks only just beginning to fade.

Firenze turned to look at him, his grin disappearing to be replaced by a very serious look. "Of course you are. Only it's the Hogwarts fifty-two years from now, isn't it." He hadn't asked, and stared at Draco in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. "I read it in the stars."

"Did the stars tell you how to send us back?" said Draco, his tone coarse.

Ginny frowned at him. "You don't have to be rude to him."

Draco opened his mouth to retort, but Firenze interrupted him before he could.

"He's going to catch you if you stay in the forest. I can help you."

*****

Tom blended in with the students on the platform, speaking to no one. There was nothing left to do now but slip away into the trees on the other side and find the girl.

A flash of red from the corner of his eye grabbed Tom's attention, and he turned. It wasn't the girl. It was a boy, and Tom realized, with a surge of satisfaction, that the boy very much resembled his quarry. There were three others with him: a girl with her hair pulled back into a very bushy ponytail, another girl with stringy, shoulder-length blonde hair and a wistful expression, and a boy with semi-messy black hair and round glasses. There was something about the black-haired boy that drew his attention.

Well, at least this will make things easier for me, thought Tom. I'll follow them instead and find out where exactly in time they came from, who they are, and whatever else I can learn. I won't have to hunt for the girl after all. They'll lead me to her.

*****

Draco and Ginny followed Firenze through the thick tangles of undergrowth, under the giant trunk of a fallen tree, and over a clear, tiny stream that bubbled merrily. They rested there for a few minutes and drank. The water was icy cold. Firenze told them the other

centaurs liked it that way.

After another hour of walking, they came to a small clearing. In the centre of it was a stone pillar, crumbling from years of exposure to rain.

"You Wizards can Floo, Portkey, or Apparate to get wherever you want to go," said Firenze, turning to face them. "This is how we travel from one place to another."

"How does it work?" asked Ginny, taking a step closer to it. Draco followed, staying directly behind her. She looked at him over her shoulder. "Don't worry, Malfoy. I'll protect you." He scowled at her.

"It's simple, really. All you have to do is imagine your destination in your head, and it will transport you there. It's actually a combination of travelling by Portkey and Apparating."

"All we have to do is imagine our destination and touch the thing?" asked Draco.

Firenze nodded. "That's all."

Draco lightly poked Ginny's shoulder, and she turned around to face him. "I know where we can go. My grandfather owned a small cottage in Hertfordshire he never used. Father inherited it, or will in about thirty years. It'll be safe. We can stay there until we figure out what to do."

"Okay," Ginny said.

"Put your right hand on the stone," said Firenze, "imagine your destination, and instantly you'll be there."

Draco and Ginny slowly approached the stone. He looked at her, and she gripped his free hand tightly in both hers. His expression was set, unreadable. And then he reached out and touched the stone with his right hand. Ginny closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she gasped and let Draco's hand slide from her grasp.

*****

The quartet made their way along the train, avoiding the curious glances of older students who had thought they knew every face at Hogwarts. Harry led the way, periodically flattening his fringe over his scar out of habit.

"Excuse me."

Ron, who was at the very back of the group, ignored the girl who had spoken. He tried to push politely past her, but she purposely moved to block his path. He looked at her, letting his annoyance show on his face. "Do you mind?" he said. Ahead, the others had stopped and turned back towards the two of them.

"I don't believe I've ever seen you four around school," she replied, smiling at Ron. The smile did not look as though it was accustomed to being on her face. "What year are you all in?"

"Uh..." said Ron, looking towards Hermione for help. "Well, I've never seen you before either."

She shook back her long black hair and adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses. "I'm Mafalda Hopkirk. I've just finished my last year here, and I find it odd that I would never have noticed a gangling redhead." She turned to face the others. "Nor do I remember ever seeing any one of you."

"We're prospective students," said Hermione, hastily stepping forward. "We just came for a tour today and we're catching a ride back to London."

Mafalda raised an eyebrow at her. "Then why are you wearing the Gryffindor House crest on your robes?"

"We...they're-"

Luna interrupted her. "The Headmaster gave them to us. They all want to be in Gryffindor, and I want to be in Ravenclaw, if we decide to come here."

"Really?" Mafalda turned back towards Ron. "Which school have you been attending?"

"We weren't," said Hermione. "We were home-schooled."

Suddenly, the train gave a long whistle and lurched forward, causing nearly everyone to stumble. Harry caught himself on a door handle, grabbing hold of Hermione's arm in the process.

"Mafalda!" said a voice behind Ron, one that Harry immediately recognized. "I've been looking all over for you." Tom Riddle stood in the middle of the corridor, wand in hand.

*****

"I thought you said it was a small cottage, Malfoy!"

Draco began striding up the cobblestone walk. "It is," he said over his shoulder.

Ginny followed him, never taking her eyes off the impressive site before her. The cottage was three times as big as the Burrow. It was constructed of grey stone, with a sloping brown roof, and had several tall windows that flashed like dark jewels in the afternoon sunlight. She could see that it also had at least six chimneys. "Malfoy Manor must be positively gigantic if this is your family's idea of the proper size of a cottage."

"We Malfoys never do anything halfway," said Draco as Ginny came to stand beside him.

"Obviously."

Draco gave her a half-smile, and she smiled back. "Come on. I'll show you around."

*****

After first paying a visit to the kitchens, Draco showed Ginny the cottage grounds, which included a vast rose garden charmed to bloom all year round. They now reclined on large armchairs in one of the two studies.

"How come your grandfather never came here?" asked Ginny, taking a sip of her tea. She carefully set the dainty china cup back on it's saucer and looked at Draco. "It seems a waste."

Draco shrugged, turning his head towards her. "I suppose he didn't like the architecture."

"What's not to like about it?"

"It has a warm, comfortable atmosphere," Draco replied with a smirk. "Not his style at all."

Ginny didn't ask anything more. She took another sip of her tea, and then stared down into her cup, watching the amber liquid swirl around. Malfoy was still looking at her. She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. Why wouldn't he look away?

"Do you want to go to bed?"

"What?" said Ginny, her head snapping up and her cup nearly slipping from her hands.

Draco smirked again. Ginny wanted to pour the pot of hot tea over his head.

"Are you tired? I can show you to a room if you're ready to get some sleep."

Ginny set her cup aside, mentally slapping herself. I must be exhausted, she thought. My mind is jumping to conclusions. "Yes, I am tired," she said. "Aren't you?"

"Of course."

She stood up. "Then let's go to bed." A pause. She could feel her cheeks beginning to burn. What the hell is wrong with me?

Grinning, Draco nodded and led her from the room.