A Life in the Past

Harry wandered the corridors of the Weasley castle in the wee hours of the morning. He couldn't sleep. He was happy, confused, and upset, all at the same time. He was glad to have found Ron, but the fact that he was almost a thousand years in the past confused him very much, and he was disappointed that they had not yet found Ginny.

"Where goeth you?" said a little voice behind him.

Harry turned around. "Annabelle, what are you doing up?" he asked.

"I am coming inside from feeding the chickens," said Annabelle. "But you have no right to be here, not at this time. Where be Wilfred?"

"Er, he's asleep," said Harry.

"And where sleepeth Hermione?" asked Annabelle.

"Erm, in Wilfred's chamber," Harry replied.

"In the bed that is his?" asked Annabelle, wide-eyed, making her look like Ginny Weasley even more.

"Oh, er, Wilfred slept on the floor," said Harry. "He offered up his sofa and bed to us. I said he could sleep on the sofa, but he insisted I take it. A heart of gold, he has."

"I know," said Annabelle. "He be my brother. But not to speak ill of my dear sibling, but he be queer these days. He speaketh in strange ways."

"Oh, er, yeah," said Harry. "I suppose he does."

"And you as well," said Annabelle.

"Yeah, I do that sometimes," said Harry. "So you go to Hogwarts?"

Annabelle nodded. "I be starting my sixth year this year," she said.

"Oh yeah," said Harry. "I start my seventh after the summer."

"I have never seen you at Hogwarts," said Annabelle. "Why that be?"

"I don't know," Harry replied, trying to decipher whether or not to tell Annabelle that he was from the future.

"Would you like tea?" Annabelle asked.

"Oh, that would be nice," said Harry.

"Follow me," said Annabelle, leading Harry down the corridor.

Once in the kitchen, Annabelle immediately began making tea. Harry stood and watched her. He couldn't figure out whether she was exactly like Ginny, or the exact opposite.

"So, er, do you wake up this early every day?" Harry asked, trying to make polite conversation.

Annabelle nodded. "You be an early riser?" she asked.

"Not really," said Harry. "Unless it's for Quidditch practice, then I have to be up early."

"Quidditch?" asked Annabelle.

Harry kicked himself mentally, had Qudditch not been invented yet?

"I enjoy Quidditch," said Annabelle. "But the Muggles, they be suspicious."

"Oh, I know," said Harry, relief flooding over him like a warm ray of sunlight. "You have to be really discreet about such things."

"Yes, I quite agree," said Annabelle, smiling at him.

***

"Tired yet?" Draco asked. He and Ginny had decided to make their way to the Burrow while it was still dark, so that they wouldn't get caught by the Malfoy family of 1143.

"Nope," said Ginny. The sun was just starting to rise, turning her hair (which was uncombed and very tangled)Â a reddish gold colour.

"Not cold either?" asked Draco.

Ginny shook her head. "I've got a cloak, though," she said. "But you must be cold."

"I'm not," said Draco. "I'm fairly warm, actually. How much further is your burrow? I'm actually quite hungry."

"Me too," said Ginny. "I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"Quite the same goes for me," said Draco. "So where's your burrow?"

"We've still got a long way to go," said Ginny. "None of these surroundings look familiar."

"Obviously," said Draco. "This was just over nine hundred years ago, you can't expect it to look the same!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," said Ginny. "And Ron did say that the Burrow was a castle."

"I can't believe he had enough wit in that thick skull of his to write to you," said Draco. "He doesn't seem the organized type."

Ginny smiled at these words.

"Are you positive you aren't tired?" Draco asked. He didn't want to admit it, but he was actually tired, and he really wanted a rest.

"No," said Ginny. "Let's keep going, there'll be people out soon, I don't want them to notice me."

"Ashamed of me?" asked Draco.

Ginny shook her head. "Well, it's only that we're dressed so differently, we'd stand out too much," she said.

"Yes, their robes are so out-dated," said Draco. "And some of these Muggles are so very dirty."

"And that's another thing," said Ginny. "I don't want you to hurt the Muggles, and I'm afraid you will."

"It won't be my fault," said Draco. "They're just so stupid, aren't they?"

"Shut it, Malfoy," said Ginny.

"To conserve energy, right?" said Draco. "I know all about that. I don't like walking when I'm tired and hungry, makes me irritable."

"So you're tired?" asked Ginny. "Why didn't you just say so? You kept asking if I was tired, but you didn't once say that you wanted to take a rest."

"I'm not tired," said Draco. "Let's just keep walking."

"All right," said Ginny. "Do you think they had the Knight Bus in this era? Because that would just be simple."

"Yeah, it would," said Draco. "If we had a wand."

"Your spoon," said Ginny. "Hold it out in your wand hand and see what happens."

Draco rolled his eyes, but still he held out the spoon in his right hand. Nothing happened.

"Well, it was worth a try," said Ginny when Draco looked at her as though she was a complete idiot.

They kept walking, through little patches of farm-land, over dirt-roads, and across unsturdy bridges until the sun was directly over-head, burning at their backs.

"Let's take a drink and have a short rest," said Ginny, when they reached a small creak. "We can't be too far now."

"So you are tired," said Draco. "I knew you would be. And as for not being too far, we could be even farther than we were before."

"How so?" said Ginny as she cupped some water in her hand. She splashed water over her face, then dried her face off on her cloak.

"Well, you could be leading us the wrong way," said Draco.

"Yeah," said Ginny. "But we'll get there eventually."

"Even if we have to travel all over England to do it?" asked Draco. "By that time, we'll be back in the present."

"England isn't that big," said Ginny. "And we couldn't live that long, anyway."

"What if we get trapped in Scotland?" said Draco. "And then they send us off to Ireland where they keep us as prisoners?"

"Okay, now you're just being negative," said Ginny. "There's no need for that."

"Who cares?" said Draco. "Just because I'm saying negative things doesn't mean they'll happen."

"Malfoy, you're getting annoying," said Ginny.

"And so are you," said Draco. "But then you've always been annoying."

***

"You remind me of a friend," said Annabelle to Harry.

Harry and Annabelle were sitting alone in the dining room. Ron and Hermione had said they needed some to talk, in private.

"Do I?" asked Harry. "Who?"

"He goeth by the name Edmund Potter," said Annabelle. "He actually be a friend of Wilfred."

"Potter?" asked Harry. "My name's Harry Potter."

"Perhaps you know him then?" said Annabelle.

"I can't say," said Harry, deep in thought. "Where is this Edmund?"

"He lives in a far village, not near here," said Annabelle. "I have never been there."

"Er, you remind me of a friend as well," said Harry. "Her name's Ginny."

"Oh yes," said Annabelle. "You did call me by her name."

"She's a great girl," said Harry. "Really sweet and caring."

"I remind you of her?" asked Annabelle in astonishment. "That is so very kind of you."

"You resemble her as well," said Harry. "It's really quite strange really."

"Where do you come from?" said Annabelle. "Hermione and you."

Harry thought it would sound a bit stupid to say, 'the future,' so instead he said, "A place not too far from here, but still far enough."

"What meaneth that?"Â asked Annabelle.

"It, er... it means I come from a different place and time than you," replied Harry. "But you've nothing to worry about."

"You cause me to be confused," said Annabelle plainly.

"If you look up at the stars at night," said Harry. "You're looking into what is to come. After I'm gone, you can just look up at the stars and know that I'm there."

"Stars?" asked Annabelle. "How know you about the stars? We cannot possibly know what they be."

"I know all about the stars," said Harry. "But there are things I should not say. I've said too much as it is."

***

Draco and Ginny had walked an entire day, they were tired and hungry, and much in need of a rest. The sky was darkening and the stars were beginning to dot the rising sea of darkness that was the sky.

Ginny and Draco were lying on the dewy evening grass somewhere in Newcastle some nine hundred years ago, looking up at the starry sky.

"You know what my grandma used to tell me?" said Ginny, breaking the comfortable silence.

"What?" asked Draco, turning himself to look at her.

Ginny turned her head to face Draco. "That the stars tell the future," she said. "She told me that there's somebody waiting in the stars for me. Her grandma used to tell her the same thing."

"Runs in the family?" asked Draco. "A thousand year old story that's been passed down from Weasley to Weasley?"

"I don't know," said Ginny. "Maybe."

"You know what my father used to tell me?" said Draco. "He'd say, 'Draco, don't ever pay attention to the ridiculous stories you hear. They'll only harm you and contaminate your young mind.' And then my mother would tell me a story about a dragon named Herbert."

"Really?" said Ginny.

"Yep," said Draco. "And the dragon stories were really quite stupid, I don't know why she ever bothered; her and my father would argue for hours after that, and then they'd go off, and tell me to go to sleep. I never did know what they got up to after they left, until that terrible night."

"What happened?" asked Ginny, her voice amused but at the same time a little anxious.

"I followed them," he replied. "No, not that,"Â he said at the look on Ginny's face. "It was the other thing."

"Oh no," said Ginny. "Thankfully, I've never walked in on anything of the sort. Well, there was Percy and his girlfriend, but that wasn't really that bad."

"Wasn't he the gay one?" asked Draco.

"None of my brothers are gay," said Ginny. "But yeah, that was him." She sighed, wondering if she'd ever see Percy again.