A Haunting Past
Remus Lupin woke up abruptly. He put his hand to his forehead, feeling perspiration forming. He couldn’t believe the dream he had just had. It wasn’t the first time he had dreamt it. He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He put his head in his hands, sighed, than ran his hands through his sandy blonde hair thinking. He slowly got of bed.
‘Before I can go anywhere, I have to find a pair of clean pants...there is no way I’m walking around exposed. Who am I kidding? I live by myself,’ thought Remus as he bent down and picked up a pair of boxers off the floor, pulled them on, and walked to the bathroom. He turned on the water and splashed his face with the cool water.
‘It’s not suppose to be like this,’ he thought to himself. ‘Why am I dreaming this dream? I’m not suppose to have feelings like these...towards her. This is irrational; completely crazy!’
He looked up into mirror. His face seemed to have aged more in the past year. With Voldemort back and powerful, and Sirius gone, everyone was strained, but to his dismay, the strain and anxiety seemed to have taken life away from his features.
‘I need to get a hold of her before things turn bad,’ Remus thought to himself. He knew what would happen if he didn’t do anything. He would fall in love with a girl that he wasn’t suppose to fall in love with. It would alternate history. He knew tampering with history was dangerous; he had told her that before. But what happened, or is going to happen, was an accident. She didn’t ask for it to happen; neither did he. But he knew if he changed what was going to happen, what the world, as he knows it of today, would be a disaster.
‘But if I don’t stop her... She doesn’t need the confusion and I don’t need the pain,’ Remus thought resentfully. “But...if I do try to stop her, neither one of us will be hurting or find ourselves in an awkward situation.’
Remus rested his hands on the counter and looked hard in the mirror. Pondering his options for a few minutes, Remus pushed off the counter after coming to a conclusion. He knew it might change the past and alter the future, but it was a risk he was willing to take. But he had to get to her in time.
He walked back into his room and looked at the calendar. ‘September 21, 1997.’ Glancing down at his watch. “Shit,” Remus muttered. “It’s almost quarter after ten. It’s too late.”
“Hermione?” Ron asked, who was sitting on the couch next to his best friend, Harry.
Hermione looked up from her book at her friend. “What Ron?”
“May we ask you a question?” Harry asked.
“Sure, and you just did.”
Harry picked up one of the pillows from the couch and threw it at Hermione. Hermione caught the pillow just before it hit her face and laughed. “You know what we meant, ‘Mione!” Harry scolded playfully.
“I know what you meant,” Hermione said with a smile on her face. “So what is your guys’ question?”
“You remember you had that Time Turner back in third year?” Ron asked.
“Yeah. What about it?”
“Why do you still have it?” Harry asked, holding up a necklace that had a small hourglass hanging from the chain. Ron looked at Hermione with a perplexed expression on his face.
“Okay, one, how did you guys get that?” Hermione asked.
“You left at the table during lunch,” Ron answered.
“All right, that was my fault,” Hermione said to herself, she then focused back on the two boys, “Okay, and two, for your information I’m doubling up on classes again...”
“Hermione!” Ron exclaimed. “You did that four years ago and you said it yourself that you didn’t like it!”
“Ron, I just want to take a few more classes, that’s all,” Hermione said, putting her book down and standing up. “Is there a crime for that?” She put her hands on her hips and put all her weight on her left foot.
“Well,” Harry started, “it might do you some good staying Azkaban for awhile.” He and Ron smirked.
Hermione picked up the book that she had put down and threw it at her friends. It hit Ron in the shoulder and the two boys stop laughing. “That isn’t very funny!”
“’Mione, we’re just joking!” Ron said, rubbing his shoulder. “You didn’t have to throw this...” Ron held up the book.
“Well, it wasn’t funny at all,” Hermione stated. She walked over to the boys, grabbed the book from Ron and the Time Turner from Harry, and walked out of the common room into the hall. She opened up the book and pulled out a little sheet of parchment and began to read it.
Hermione,
Sorry if this gets to you after school started but I needed to tell you that just to be careful with the Time Turner this year. You never know what will happen when you go back in time.
Take care,
Remus
Hermione shoved the letter back into the book. ‘He knows I know the rules. He makes it sound like I’m going to wreck something when I go back.’ Hermione shook her head, disregarding Remus’ letter. She had a Muggle Study lesson to get to. She slipped the necklace around her neck and was about to turn the minute hourglass over when she felt the portrait door open behind her, knocking her to the ground. She looked up to see who was there, but everything was spinning around her. ‘Oh no,’ Hermione thought, ‘what happened?’