Live When There Is Time

The next day Maia was not feeling particularly better. After the supper she had been again escorted with cold courteousness to the chambers, where she had been subjected to three hours of cloths swirling around her as a magical seamstress had given her best. After that the evening had been nauseatingly boring as she had had no one to keep company. Among the many things she strongly had taken to dislike in this era was the company of her own thoughts. They continued on the same cheerless lines of depression and loneliness. Whoever was the idiot who said that there was always a ray of light at the end of the darkest tunnels, Maia would have gladly strangled. The only light she would ever see was probably an oncoming train.

Today, having decided that anything was better than the chamber she had with cautious excitement hazarded to leave it and prowl the hallways just like in the "proper" Hogwarts in her right time. She had not been supplied a new dress yet, so the rosa one was slowly starting to feel comfortable, adjusting to her body. Yesterday during the meal it had given her an itch right in the side, where a seam pressed to her skin. Godric Gryffindor had been trying to make conversation with her, slowly and clearly pronouncing Latin. The situation had been more than surreal. Her cheeks were aching from all the wide smiles she had been throwing right and left. Well, mostly to the left, after she had been admonished by Slytherin only to show favour to the students in the Slytherin table. The boys, apparently, had been drinking to her honour every other moment.

Her features crumbled in a relaxing frown she wandered around the empty corridors. Everyone was in class, so she had no need to stress about her mannerisms. The people portrayed in tapestries were more than kind, women smiling widely and proudly showing off their babies or handiwork and men striking more imposing poses to appear valiant. There was a bittersweetness to this, too. Many of the portraits in the modern Hogwarts had been her friends and she had even visited some of them regularly. Now they were gone, too. On the other hand, she was rather glad that there was no sign of Sir Cadogan.

Out of impulse, she decided to find the staircase she had fallen from. She wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe she could find gratefulness at her sudden rescues, when seeing the drop she had escaped. It was comforting, how similar the castle was to her time. Of course most rooms came and went on a whim, but the corridors lasted. Tracing her steps she came to in front of the Great Hall. She could almost recall the taste of the jelly.

Gathering the folds of her dress out of the way she began to run, emptying her mind of all time frames. She almost hoped to see little sniggering Gryffindors and Peeves. Their lack didn't stop her however, and she accelerated her pace. Up and up the corridors she went, and finally panted to the staircase. Now her shoes were fastened with some sort of a buckle, so there was no dangerous flapping. Also, her shoulders were free of the weight of her schoolbag which had probably disappeared somewhere in the mists of time on her way through them. She started hopping up, two steps at a time and the pain in her side was welcome, realizing her mental pain and dulling her mind. All there was, was pain and speed... and then it was over. She had reached her destination, the door of the Transfiguration classroom.

Sweat was trickling down her sides and vanishing into her clothes. Her heart was beating loudly and her ears ringing. No wishful thinking or self-deception would get her out of this mess. Maybe she hadn't deserved it, maybe she had. That was of no consequence. Here she was. Here she was.

At this point she was leaning to the wall and was calmed by the cold stones she could feel even through the thick wool. She knew she should keep going as she had no idea what the time was. She had no watch, of course, and clocks weren't that essential here. The day was divided to hours and vigils, as in the antiquity. Hourglasses were used, when it was considered necessary. Probably there was a one great hourglass in every classroom, carefully observed by students as the time flowed away, grain by grain.

The door on the other side of the hallway opened, awakening her from her musings. A loud chattering could be heard, as a large group of male students started to pile out of the room. They stopped abruptly, though, as they noticed her. Maia had frozen against the wall, realizing her mistake once again too late. The girl and the boys eyed each other, desperate wariness on other side and gleeful curiosity on the other.

Maia collected herself enough to try to stalk away and look like that was what she had intended to do. One of the boys, after a whispered and urgent negotiation failed her attempt. He strode hastily in front of her and bowed deeply. This gave the other boys time to assemble around her, blocking with startling efficacy all possible escape-routes.

Feeling like a lamb surrounded by wolves Maia resigned to her fate. She would have to socialize and do it in a Byzantine, high-bred way. The silence stretched and she realized the boys must be expecting her to react to them in some way. A smile would have to do. Were these boys even senior Slytherin students? If they were not, she would see to that they would come to know the fear of Salazar Slytherin. There is nothing more cheering than a shared misfortune.

At her smile the leading boy offered her his arm, which she saw no option but to take. This she did, freeing her left hand, which she noticed still held her dress in a death-grip. In this company, then, she was proudly led through the corridors. When the journey didn't appear to come to an end, Maia started vaguely to wonder where they were taking her.

Well, that riddle was soon solved. The hideous gargoyle, which appeared around the next corner, indicated the room in which she had arrived a few days ago. The Headmaster's, or now the Founders' office. The boys pulled from a robe hanging next to it and she had the possibility to ascertain, that the stairs were the same as in future, only they didn't escalate. Now her other hand was suddenly supported, too. She felt like a spoil of war, being led like this, pinned in between two tall boys as well as being surrounded by them back and front.

The door at the top of the stairs was already open and as she was rushed in by excited adolescents she came face to face with three of the Founders. Mercifully, Slytherin was nowhere in sight. Maia wasn't sure, though, whether his presence wouldn't have been the lesser of two evils. The faces of the three adults expressed such triumph and obsessive curiosity that she feared she wouldn't come out of here in one piece.

Godric Gryffindor stepped forward, releasing her from her youthful escorts. His grip, however indicated that she wouldn't be going anywhere until curiosity was satisfied. Ceremoniously she was put to sit in one of the chairs , which last night had been in front of the fireplace. While Gryffindor had been tending to her, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had moved them with spells to rearrange them at another corner of the room. The boys, before getting a firm command to probably leave the room, were introduced to her. This was obvious as Gryffindor called them forth and each bowed to her, once again, while some harsh sounding syllables were uttered by Gryffindor. It came as somewhat a shock to her as one of them was actually his son. Slytherin would skin her alive. If she was in condition to be tortured after the inquisition of three she was about to be subjected. How did she get herself in these situations? It was almost tragic. She had as bad luck as the poor sidekick of Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle. And that was saying something.

Now Ravenclaw was shooing the boys out despite the imploring looks Gryffindor Junior kept giving his father. He just laughed and waved the youth out with a conspiratory glance.

So, Maia was left with Founders three, and she had their full attention. She was glad she had the excuse of not being able to communicate with them. How could they actually get anything out of her? She wondered, how she hadn't thought of that before and relaxed as much as her suffocating dress allowed. Hufflepuff had sat in the chair next to her and now with a wave of wand supplied them with fresh goblets of the horrible stuff Maia now was able to identify as mead. Well, as a picky and spoiled upper-class woman she was able to showily transfigure it to pumpkin juice. This she accompanied with a haughty glare at the lesser hyperborean barbarians around her. The actress cultivated during six years in Slytherin common room and as the only daughter of a family was rising her head. These people were no threat to her, if she thought about it logically. As snidely as Slytherin treated her, she knew of the high position he had placed her that he wouldn't easily allow any harm befall her. At least if that harm wasn't he himself.

Her behaviour had a different effect on all her observers. In the eyes of Gryffindor she could easily recognize a look, which she had seen on the faces of countless parents of the students of Gryffindor. T he look let her now that if Gryffindor was given a say on the matter, she would get a good hiding and taught out of her devious Slytherin ways. For a moment she was able to forget who the looker in fact was and just let her lips curl a bit in the ritual response.

As Maia contently turned from frowning Gryffindor to pay closer attention to Hufflepuff's uncomfortably amused face Ravenclaw took her by surprise and snatched the goblet, spilling some of the contents around. Paying no attention to Maia's silent and modern English swearing she just engaged herself in examing the drink. Maia decided to let the matter drop as Ravenclaw dipped her finger in the juice and concentrated on the dress, which now was decorated with two big wet splotches. Right now, she couldn't remember a single cleaning spell. That was because she had never really had any reason to learn them.

One of her friends, Decima Bullstrode had specialized in cleaning as a project in charms and was thus able to tend to the matter if something happened at school. At home, there were the house-elves. There was no need for a lady to know chore-charms, not publicly at least, as her mother so often had emphasized... would emphasize... argh, whatever. If she just could regain the control of her mind, things would run so much more smoothly and she really would be able to cope better. She had very scant medical knowledge and would have liked to know whether this was some kind of a shock or an unknown side-effect to time-travel.

These musings had once more made her forget herself and she had fallen to a ruminative silence, head bowed and staring at her hands on her stained lap. One more lesson was added to her crash course on startling awakenings as Hufflepuff firmly shook her shoulder. Her head snapping up with a crack she blinked a couple of times at the wizened blue eyes in front of her. A paper was thrust to her hands and she looked at it uncomprehendingly for a moment. Then the spell ended and she realized it was a scrawled note in Greek. Panic engulfed Maia. Idiotic, pompous Salazar Slytherin, so high and mighty, assuring her that no one here spoke or wrote Greek!

Greeting.

I, Mistress Helga Hufflepuff and my friends and colleagues, Lady Rowena Ravenclaw and Lord Godric Gryffindor welcome you to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and are pleased to have this opportunity to make your acquaintance more closely. Lord Slytherin must be a great and educational companion for a young lady, as he is your guardian. However, it came to me that perhaps you would also like to spend your time observing lessons or just enjoying a lunch in a select lady company. We would like to make you feel very welcome as your visit is truly an exciting occurrence. We rarely have Byzantine guests among us and there is of course always the possibility of an advantageous friendship with a British gentleman. And I and my protégés would like to arrange a celebration in your welcome at Hufflepuff tower. The same honour is requested by Lord Gryffindor and Lady Ravenclaw.

Maia looked up to see three sets of expectant eyes focused on her. Surely they didn't think she could possibly agree to this kind of thing. And without Slytherin present? She had been under the distinct impression that there was a very rigid code of conduct in this time. Something was not quite right with the situation. They had practically cornered her. And why had the boys dragged her here on sight?

Whoever said that life had been more simple in the olden days was thoroughly wrong. She had been violently knocked off her effortless existence to some sort of a continuous spy-game without written rules.

Well, clueless was always a good approach. She shrugged, hoped it was a valid gesture in these times, and thought feverishly of some way to tell them "no way" politely. "In your dreams" would do as well.

Seeing her indecision Hufflepuff smiled in a way not similar to the sheepish image Slytherin students traditionally held of her and picked up a stylus and some parchment. Proceeding to scribble a few words with a careful hand she then held it in front of her. A text in an unknown language, which left quite a lot of options. Maia would have recognized only Greek and Latin. Through smiling lips the older witch carefully pronounced an archaic version of a much-used translating spell. She herself had applied it during her two days in the past on the books Slytherin had given her. The smile widened as her understanding must had shown on her face, damn her uncontrollable features! The text, now in fluent classic Greek said "like this, my lady."

Tentatively Maia took the stylus from all-too-helpful looking Gryffindor while Ravenclaw was sipping the pumpkin juice and in turn having an amused expression.

Out of reflex she almost bit into the head of the utensil, a nervous habit she had, but stopped in time.

Venerable Lord and Ladies...

Probably writing in as ridiculously pompous fashion as possible would pass as decadent Constantinopolitan style. As it was, she truly had no option but to see this through. In her best hand she continued to draw the Greek letters on the soft parchment.

I thank you for your kind offers. However I cannot possibly not negotiate this with my cousin. As you said, he is my guardian and knows what is suitable for a young lady in this fascinating country and what is not. Thank you also for the refreshments, even though the lovely drink seems to disagree with me. The young men were also most helpful in escorting me here. It is regrettable that my skills in Latin are so humble, otherwise I could have informed them that I was only searching the way to my cousin's office as I wanted his company.

It was easier and easier, the more she wrote. That, however, was all she dared to risk. When she was raising her wand, the door opened without a knock and slid open with deceptive silence. Though it wasn't flung open, it stopped abruptly and with force near the wall, as if unable to hit it. Considering the person who had just stepped in, it probably was the state of affairs. Slytherins, no matter how enraged, probably didn't slam doors to walls.

"Sobrina!"

Maia's eyes met those of Salazar Slytherin across the room. The tense posture of his neck and the blank, icy look in the eyes, grey with dark rims she noticed, promised no good things in the future. She averted her gaze and drooped her head. The other Founders looked a bit irritated as Slytherin strode through the room and took the note by Hufflepuff from the table and her note from her slack fingers.

Skimming them through he gave her almost approving look and then turned his attention to the others. There was no potion now, so she had no idea what passed between them. It seemed the other didn't get a word in edgeways before Slytherin ended his speech with a brief bow and with one of those seemingly polite, "helping" grips hurled her by elbow out of the room.