Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine and never will be. The entire Harry Potter universe and its contents belongs to J.K. Rowling. (Heaven help me if I ever claim to own it.)
Chapter 2: What He Left Behind
I probably wouldn't be this way,
I probably wouldn't hurt so bad,
I never pictured every minute without you in it,
Oh you left so fast...
LeAnn Rimes
“Probably Wouldn’t Be This Way”
“I will return shortly, and your son should be here soon.”
A door opened and closed somewhere, but she wasn’t paying attention. Gemma breathed deeply and tried to steady her shaking hands. She had finally given in and broken down, but it was harder she found to pick up the pieces and to make it all right again. Nothing would ever make it all right again.
Voldemort was back. Sirius, Dumbledore, James, and Lily were dead. Alice and Frank were permanently incarcerated in a psych ward, while Peter had betrayed the Order. Snape had murdered Dumbledore; the one man Voldemort feared was dead.
She clutched herself, suddenly light-headed and fought devastating waves of nausea. There was nowhere to run. Voldemort had her family within his reach. What could she possibly do?
Gemma stood and staggered over to the rubbish bin, knocking books off their shelves. She trembled and emptied the contents of her stomach into the bin. Breathless, she stumbled over scattered books to settle herself back into her chair.
It had been a long time since she had felt this kind of fear. Life in Salem, Massachusetts had been surreal and jarringly different from things in Britain. Yet people had heard of the Dark Lord returning, life in the States had not been so chaotic. There were no peddlers in the once crowded streets of abandoned strips. There were no extra security measures or stories of tragedy everywhere you turned.
Sure, Magical Security was now limiting travel between other countries and the United States more than ever. Yet people in the U.S. went blissfully unaware of what made petrified people lock their doors in Europe. Voldemort was back and with a vengeance.
Gemma buried her face in her hands. She thought back to when the days when she had been happiest“-her Hogwarts days. That would be the closest her life would ever get to perfect. Her whole world had revolved around her friends, Alice, Lily, Serenity, and her boyfriend.... A faint smile crossed her lips. Sirius had always been known to break the mold.
Sometimes she felt she could still see him standing in front of her, laughing and reaching out to touch her face. Gemma could get lost in dreams, blurring the lines of what was real and what wasn’t. She was losing her mind. She knew it, and she loved every moment of it. It was all worth it if just to see his lopsided grin again. Perhaps, she would have been better off never knowing him. Then again, she would have never had the chance to know exactly how much she could love.
She was a wreck without him. Why should she struggle to keep her life going? Even though she had managed without him for over sixteen years, that had been when she thought he was guilty.
“You’ve always had such a big impact on everything, haven’t you, Sirius?” she murmured into the thin air. The smile faded from her lips. “You left me with a fatherless son and didn’t contact me, even after you escaped from Azkaban, and yet... I can’t find it in my heart to hate you.” She took a deep breath, feeling the rough dryness in her throat. “You always had a big impact on things, especially me.”
“Mum?”
She stopped and snapped around to face her son standing in front of the door. His expression was impassive. She gave him the pleasure of a half-hearted smile.
“Do you always have to talk to him?” he asked.
“Y-yes, yes, I do.”
Her son slowly stepped closer and took her hand. He squeezed it, and Gemma felt an old warmth return to her body, remembering why she had made it through all those years.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Harry sat pressed against a cushion staring at the tan envelope in his hands. Ron and Hermione were seated opposite of him waiting. They were all on the Hogwarts Express and could feel the jittery shaking of the train on the tracks.
“So...,” began Ron, “what d’you reckon is inside?”
“I dunno,” answered Harry.
“Well, then what are you waiting for?” asked Hermione. “Open it, Harry.”
Harry undid the clip at the top of the envelope and shook it. Something silvery strung on a chain popped out along with a folded piece of parchment. Ron and Hermione seized the spots next to Harry, staring open-mouthed.
“What is it?” said Ron, staring at the chain.
“It’s a pendant,” murmured Hermione, picking it up to examine closely.
Harry wasn’t listening, but was instead opening the piece of parchment:
Dear Harry,
If you are reading this, I can only assume it is under the correct circumstances. For what you hold is imperative to achieving what you set out to do this very year. Lord Voldemort is gaining in power as the year progresses, but I had hoped that wouldn’t be necessary to do what I am about to do. My trust is lies with you, Harry.
What now lies in your possession once belonged to a very distant and long-dead relative of mine. This long-dead relative of mine certainly would not have this fall into the wrong hands. I hope you forgive me for asking but another favour of you, but I want you to protect this, Harry. You may wonder why I am asking this of you. Along your journey, I am sure you will find that this will help make your life easier. However, Harry, I expect you to follow the rules. I would not give you this if I did not expect this of you. Again, I am counting on you, Harry...
If you are at a loss and cannot fix what was, turn to the left and undo the undone. Each mark tells a tale of a certain year come and gone, each revolution a decade. Yet you can barely linger from sunrise to sunset. Good luck, Harry.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Harry blinked and read the last paragraph of the letter again. It still didn’t make any sense...
“Harry, look!” exclaimed Hermione suddenly. Harry turned to stare at the silvery pendant in her hand. On the chain hung a large ring capped with another held together with a small clasp. It looked as though it would spin, if not for the clasp. Thick lines were chiselled in at various intervals on the bottom ring while on the top a small triangle pointed down towards the lines.
“Do you know what it’s for?” Hermione asked hopefully.
“No,” said Harry, handing Ron the letter and took the pendant from Hermione, whom listened to Ron read it aloud. The lines on the ring were thin, but perfect. What bemused Harry the most was the clasp, which seemed like it did not want to budge. As he examined it more closely, he discovered two small letters intertwining, R, R.
“Is it me or do you think Dumbledore had gone off his rocker?” Ron asked to no one in particular, after he had finished reading.
“It’s you,” answered Hermione, seizing the piece of paper from him. “What does he mean by ‘turn to the left and undo the undone’? That’s impossible, unless you have a time turner or... something, but they’ve all been destroyed.”
“I’m telling you, Hermione,” insisted Ron. “He was going senile. How else can he just sound so serious and start talking nonsense?”
“That’s exactly it,” replied Hermione. “Dumbledore would never act this way about anything so serious.”
“Maybe, he’s talking in code,” Ron suggested airily. Hermione looked as though she could kiss him.
“Ron, you’re a genius!” she shouted.
“Yeah, I know, but I don’t know what took you so long to figure it out.”
“Harry, can I see that?” Taking the pendant into her hands, Hermione counted each marking on the ring. “‘Each mark tells a tale of a certain year come and gone, each revolution a decade.’” The excitement in her voice rose with each word she spoke. “Ten marks, ten years. One revolution, one decade. Harry, Dumbledore’s given you a time turner!”
Harry stared in disbelief at the gleaming pendant in Hermione’s hand. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m not,” said Hermione defensively. “Oh come on. Think about it, Harry. Why else would Dumbledore want you to follow some rules so badly? What else could possibly help you more? What else would Dumbledore want you to keep so secret? It’s very possibly last one in all of Europe.”
“But how can it be, Hermione?” Ron asked suddenly. “It looks nothing like a time turner.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” muttered Harry. Hermione frowned slightly.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “Look at it though. It’s not exactly young, is it?” Sure enough, the ring was scuffed in certain areas, and the silver looked tarnished. “It did mention a long-dead relative..., but I’ve never read about a time turner like this, and it’s so different compared to what came before today’s time turner.”
“Well, if it did belong to one of Dumbledore’s family, it would have to be different, wouldn’t it?” answered Ron.
“More importantly,” Harry began softly, “why would Dumbledore give me something like a time turner? He knew about the danger...”
“Maybe, he wanted you to change something, mate,” Ron suggested.
“Or he wanted you to find out something about the past,” Hermione whispered.
Harry fell silent upon this statement. To find out about the past. Harry thought about the fake horcrux packed away in the wobbly trunk on top of the luggage rack. Had Dumbledore been planning ahead for something like this...?
“What do you think, Harry?” asked Hermione tentatively, while Ron watched him closely.
Harry retrieved the envelope and dumped the chain and letter back inside. “Dumbledore wanted me to keep it safe, and it’s going to stay safe,” he muttered.
“You’re right about that,” Ron added, shrugging, but Hermione frowned.
“Surely, there’s got to be more to it than that,” she insisted.
Harry wouldn’t look at her. Somehow he felt he had said enough. Now he wondered why he had even brought it up in the first place.
“Harry?”
“Drop it, Hermione,” interjected Ron. “Obviously, he doesn’t want to talk about it.” He cast a look in Harry’s direction, while Hermione sighed. “I hope you know we’ve got your back, and no matter what happens you can’t make us run off like some little kids.” Harry looked up at him, and Ron blushed slightly. “Well, maybe Hermione will, but not me. I’ll stand beside you against a horde of Inferi, towering Dementors, stampeding Hippogriffs--”
“...All on a day when a pretty girl isn’t smiling at you,” said Hermione scathingly.
“Even going back in time,” Ron added in a voice barely above a whisper. This was followed by a tense silence.
“Err--don’t you two have to go meet up with the other Prefects?” Harry finally asked, suddenly feeling a strong desire to be alone.
“He’s right!” cried Hermione. “Ron, we’re late!” She flung herself out of her seat and at the door. “I completely forgot it. Honestly, I can’t believe...” She was out the door before they could exactly hear who or what she couldn’t believe.
Ron shook his head as he watched her go. He cast a furtive glance in Harry’s direction, but he knew Harry didn’t intend to say anymore. “Just know,” muttered Ron, “we’re on your side, mate.”
“Ron!” Hermione suddenly appeared in the doorway once again. “Are you coming or not?”
“I’m coming, Hermione, all right?” he huffed. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.” At that, Hermione seized him and promptly yanked him out the door, making sure he slammed his head. This triggered some less than polite words from poor Ron.
Harry shook his head and leaned back. Dumbledore had said that nothing was more important than finding and destroying the horcruxes. Harry knew it too, and yet all he had to go on was the message marked with the initials R.A.B...
But he didn’t even know who R.A.B. was.
All he did know was that this person had gotten to Slytherin’s locket before Dumbledore and him, leaving behind a message claiming the real horcrux would be destroyed as soon as possible. Harry wasn’t going to fool himself; he knew it was likely that R.A.B. had long since been dead. What about the real locket? Was it even possible it still existed? If it did, where was he going to start looking? What about the other horcruxes? Where were they? Questions like these were just a few that left him brooding about what he was going to have to do to get answers.
He was sure of one thing amidst it all; he was not going to involve anyone else. Harry sighed. Now all he had to do was to figure out how to change Ron and Hermione’s minds. Oh well, so much for being sure of anything...
Harry caught sight of the sunlight reflecting off the envelope’s metal clip. He suddenly felt disgusted and wanted to hurl it across the compartment. As if reading his thoughts, Hedwig, his snowy owl, eyed him reproachfully from her cage. An orange cat named Crookshanks looked up from his spot near the window, hissing warily at him. Ron’s feathery little owl, Pigwidgeon, tittered unhappily, sensing something was up.
“Oh, shut up,” he muttered. “It’s not as if I’ve done anything wrong.” The owls and cat looked anything but convinced. Harry stuffed the envelope into his trunk on the luggage rack, while the animals watched him suspiciously as though he were handling a murder weapon. Not until Harry sat down did any of them relax. Crookshanks, however, seemed smug as Harry wondered aloud how he was ever going to defeat Voldemort if he couldn’t even handle a few animals.
At that moment the door suddenly slid open and in popped a teenage boy and girl, loaded down with luggage. “Hi, Harry,” said Neville Longbottom, pulling his trunk over the threshold.
“Hullo, Neville, Luna.” Harry smiled at the sight of both of them, but looked warily over their shoulders.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you, Harry,” replied Luna, letting her luggage drop into a place near Crookshanks, who spat angrily. “Ginny would be with us, but she decided to sit with some people in our year in another carriage. Did something happen between the two of you?”
Luna Lovegood always had a habit of picking up on the most uncomfortable situations. Harry had known her for nearly two years, but she still managed to disconcert him. His love life had never been his favourite subject.
Neville, seeming to notice, asked, “Where’s Ron and Hermione?”
“They’re still with the other Prefects,” Harry answered, feeling a rush of gratitude toward Neville.
“So, what are you going to do over the summer? Gram is still determined go on holiday...”
Harry sat in his seat, grateful to be speaking about something other than horcruxes until Ron and Hermione arrived. Between the five of them, the hours seemed to slip away, but Harry still tried not to think about that afternoon when he had said good-bye to not just a good friend, but to his home and the person that had eased all of his pain...
A/N: Thank you so much for being patient... This chapter is finally completed! I'm so relieved... ^_~ Hopefully the next chapter will be along a little sooner. Again, thank you for the reviews....
Rediscovered by MysticFay
Chapter Notes: I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you. It's what you leave behind you when you go.