If looks could kill, Tom Riddle would be dead by now.
“You idiot!” screamed a tall, dark haired girl.
“Sorry, McGonagall, I just tripped,” replied Tom smoothly. “Try to keep your big feet out of my way.”
“Sure, you tripped,” McGonagall snapped. “Somehow -- by pure accident, of course -- you broke my wand! This is the last straw, Tom. I don’t care if Slughorn and other teachers love you. I’m taking you to Professor Dumbledore. He’ll listen to me.”
She grabbed his wand, and with a wave of it,, Tom Riddle couldn’t move his legs.
“You know how easily I can get rid of this,” he said coolly.
“But you won’t,” said McGonagall. “Because you want to prove to Dumbledore that you’re innocent.”
She pulled out Tom’s wand and used it to push its owner along to Professor Dumbledore’s office. She knocked on the door, and at once, it opened.
“Nice to see you, Minerva,” Professor Dumbledore said mildly. “But I must ask; why do you have Tom here with you?”
“He broke my wand,” she replied simply, looking directly into her professor’s eyes.
“Come in, both of you,” Dumbledore replied.
Tom was relieved to see that he could move his legs again. He walked into Dumbledore’s office, being sure to add a bit of a limp to his walk.
“Sit down, please,” Dumbledore said. “Tom, I know that you are perfectly fine, so please stop limping.”
Tom scowled as he sat down on the other side of the professor’s desk.
“Tom, why are you doing this? This is the fifth time that I have had to hear complaints about you.”
“I have no idea,” Tom replied coolly. “I think the Head Girl does not like me. She’s blaming for things I didn’t do.”
“Why would I do that?” Minerva said, glaring at Tom.
“Both of you, please calm down,” interrupted Dumbledore. “We are going to have to find a way to fix this problem.”
There was a loud banging on the door.
“Come in,” yelled Dumbledore.
Professor Dippet was a short, frail man. He looked grave and was anxiously combing back his few remaining hairs.
“Albus,” Dippet said, “there is trouble on the third floor. Hagrid was found with some highly dangerous creatures in one of the broom cupboards. Please go and talk some reason into him. I know he greatly respects you.”
“Of course,” Professor Dumbledore said. “You two, stay here for now. I will be back shortly to fix everything up. Please do not touch anything while I am gone. Minerva, may I please see your wand. Professor Dippet might be able to repair it.”
Minerva handed Dippet her wand. She looked at Professor Dumbledore.
“You can have his wand too,” she replied, handing the other wand to the professor.
Dumbledore nodded. He left the office, with Dippet trailing behind him.
“That oaf has gotten himself in trouble again,” Tom muttered.
“Don’t say that about Hagrid. He’s a nice boy,” Minerva replied.
“Sure, if you think keeping werewolf cubs as pets is nice.”
Minerva rolled her eyes as Tom stood up. He walked around the room, touching all the little knick-knacks the professor had collected over the years. He paused for a moment at one of the tables.
There was a single gold hourglass on the table. One of those time-turners, he thought. Tom looked at, examining it closely. Should I pick up? Or should I wait till Dumbledore gets back?
“What are you doing, Tom? We aren’t supposed to touch anything in here,” McGonagall said sternly. She stood up, walking over to him.
“Don’t you dare touch that,” she said. “For all we know, that thing is broken.”
“I’m going to try it,” Tom said, picking up the object.
“No, Tom, don’t! It could be dangerous.”
“It’s none of your concern,” Tom replied, rolling his eyes.
Minerva grabbed the hourglass, trying to grab it away from Tom. Before either teenager knew it, they were sucked out of the room, and thrown into a twisting void.
Blurred images flashed before them. Minerva gripped Tom’s arm tighter as they flew through space and time.
With a loud bang, the two fell to the ground. Tom got up quickly, but McGonagall stood lying on the floor.
“What’s the matter with you?” asked Tom.
“It’s my leg,” she muttered. “I think it’s broken.”
“Well, try standing up,” Tom replied, apparently bored by the entire situation.
Minerva tried, but yelled out in pain. Tom just watched her struggle.
“Give me my wand,” he said calmly.
“Not over my dead body,” she snarled, clutching at her thigh. “Anyway, I gave Professor Dumbledore your wand..”
Tom turned in the opposite direction, and Minerva could hear him pacing. There were a few minutes of silence.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Minerva asked.
“No,” he replied.
“Well, do something,” Minerva said. “Go find some help.”
“Do you think I’m going to leave Dumbledore’s favorite girl here alone in woods? What happens if you get hurt? Anyway, I’d rather stay here, and take a closer look at that time-turner. I could probably fix it myself.”
“How can you be so arrogant?” Minerva asked.
Tom didn’t reply. Minerva could hear the light rustling of leaves, as though someone was walking on them.
“What are you doing here,” said a warm female voice, “and what are you wearing?”
Minerva struggled to get a better glimpse of the woman, but a sharp pain went through her leg at that moment, and she crumpled to the ground in pain.
“What year is it?” asked Tom cautiously.
“It’s 943 A.D.,” said the witch, puzzled by such an odd question.
“Oh,” Minerva muttered. They were one thousand years in the past.
“Ma’am,” said Tom, “we could really use your help. My partner here broke her leg, and neither of us have our wands on us. She really needs some attention.”
“Aye,” the witch replied, kneeling down next to the injured Minerva. Minerva tried to get a better look at the witch. She noticed that she had curly red hair, and was wearing golden robes.
She stood over Minerva, her hand on her leg. She didn’t say a word, but Minerva could feel the bones in her leg snap back in place. The witch stood up.
“Try to stand, m’dear,” the witch said.
Minerva managed to stand up, but she felt a little wobbly. She leaned against the trunk of a tree, trying to catch her breath.
“Thank you,” Minerva replied.
“Nay, it was not a problem” replied the witch.
“How did you just do that?” asked Tom.
“What do ye mean?” said the witch.
“You just did wandless magic. Only really good wizards can do that.”
“What rubbish are ye talking about? No one uses a wand here. Are ye sure ye are fine?”
“Yes,” said Tom politely. “The thing, my friend and I, we’re from the future.”
“What in the world do ye mean?” the woman asked.
“We picked up this object,” said Minerva, pulling out the time-turner. “Somehow, we ended up here.”
“Dear, dear,” muttered the witch. “Let me take ye into the castle. I’ll have me friend take a look at it.”
“Thank you,” replied Minerva.
The three of them walked out of the forest. Minerva took a step backward, gasping in shock.
“This is Hogwarts!” Minerva exclaimed.
“What do ye mean?” asked the witch. “It’s just an old abandoned castle. My friends and I are planning on starting a school here.”
“Wait,” said Tom, “are you Rowena Ravenclaw by any chance?”
“No, but that’s me friend’s name. I’m Helga Hufflepuff. How did you know that?”
“You’re famous in our world,” said Minerva. “This school you are going to build, it’s called Hogwarts. Everyone has heard of it.”
“Really?” said Helga excitedly.
“Yes,” replied Tom, “but please don’t tell your friends that. No one should know that we were here.”
“Of course,” she replied, leading them towards the castle doors.
Minerva could not believe that she was stepping foot inside Hogwarts. She looked around the Entrance Hall. It was just as big as it was now, just a bit dustier.
“Sorry, we’re still trying to clean everything up,” said Helga, leading up the familiar flights of marble stairs. After making their way through the corridors, they finally found their destination.
“Godric,” Helga yelled, knocking on the door, “ye need to see something.”
They heard noise coming from the other side of the door. After a few moments, the door swung open, revealing a man. His red hair was pulled back from his face, and his eye brown eyes looked curiously at Tom and Minerva.
“What is going on here?” the man asked, looking from to Minerva. “Come in my office, quickly.”
Minerva realized at that very moment that the room they were entering was actually Professor’s Dumbledore’s office. Godric Gryffindor sat in a large armchair, ushering Tom and Minerva to sit in two smaller ones.
“Helga, ye can leave now. I will deal with this.”
Helga nodded, waving to Tom and Minerva before she left.
“How did ye get here?” asked Godric.
“Well,” Minerva began, “it started when this idiot “” she pointed at Tom ““ touched this hourglass. Somehow, both of us were transported from Professor Dumbledore’s office to the forest.”
“We’re from the future, you see,” Tom said.
“Hem,” muttered Godric, “that object is extremely powerful. It transported you back in time by how many years?”
“One thousand,” Tom replied.
“I see,” he muttered. “I think I might be able to fix it. It might take me a few hours, but ye should be home soon.”
“Thank you so much,” Minerva said.
“My pleasure.”
Godric was staring at the object now, moving his fingers around the hourglass.
“Excuse me, sir,” Tom started, “but why does everyone here use wandless magic?”
“What do you mean?” asked Godric.
“I mean that I haven’t seen one single person here use a wand to perform magic. Almost everyone back from where we live uses a wand.”
“How dismal the future is,” Godric muttered.
“What do you mean?” replied Tom, looking intently at Godric.
“Well, ye don’t need no wand to perform magic. They are useless. All ye need to do is channel ye magical energy on the thing you want to do. If ye want to do it enough, it will happen.”
“Really?” Tom asked greedily.
“Yes,” replied Godric. “Why don’t ye try some simple spells while I fix ye devic?”
Minerva looked over at a nearby desk. Wingardium Leviosa, she thought.
Nothing happened. She tried that several more times, but still nothing happened. She needed something more; something with a little more power. She tried picturing a flying desk, and with all her concentration focused on that stupid desk, she thought, Wingardium Leviosa.
The desk flew upward. Minerva’s mouth was open in shock. She moved her head to right and the desk flew in that direction. She pictured Tom’s face, and a grin appeared on her face as the desk hit into him. She quickly dropped it to the ground next to him.
“Good effort,” Godric exclaimed. Tom just scowled at her.
Minerva tried to do some other magic, but she was quickly distracted by Tom. He was staring intently at an old book. All of a sudden, the book burst into flames. Soon the flames were spreading from the book to the desk it was on.
Minerva thought about water, and a burst of water flew through her hands at the flames. Godric was doing the same thing and soon the flames were quelled.
“Be careful, son,” said Godric warningly. “You don’t want to do something like that again.”
Minerva glanced over at Tom. Her blood froze as she looked at his eyes. The once dark eyes were cold, and he had a maniacal smile on his face. That look would haunt her forever.
Minerva couldn’t focus on anything for the rest of their time with Godric. When Godric presented them with the repaired time-turner, Minerva couldn’t even thank him. She held onto one end of the hourglass as she and Tom went flying through the strange black hole again.
Back at Dumbledore’s office, it seemed as though no time had passed at all. Dumbledore was just entering the room when they landed with a crash on the floor.
“Is everything alright?” asked Professor Dumbledore.
“Yes,” replied Tom. “McGonagall just tripped over my chair, that’s all.”
But Minerva just looked at Dumbledore with a petrified look on her face. She didn’t say anything, but somehow Dumbledore seemed to know what had happened while they were gone.
“Here is your wand, Minerva,” Dumbledore said. “It should be in good working order now.”
“Thank you,” she muttered before running out of the office in silence.
* * *
Minerva sighed. This week had been one of the worst in her life. The Carrows were getting worse by the day, students were mysteriously disappearing from the school, and poor Pomona had been “accidentally” trapped by a Devil’s Snare. Luckily, Filius had been nearby and was able to get her out. Of course, it was all an [i]accident[/i]…but Minerva could have sworn she saw Crabbe fleeing from the greenhouses just moments before Filius had found Pomona trapped.
Snape had sent for her, and now she waited silently in his office -- the office that once belonged to Albus Dumbledore. It sickened her to think about it. The murderer of her beloved friend was sitting in his office, acting like the king of the world, or at least Hogwarts, anyway. Wasn’t that the same thing, after all?
The portrait of Albus looked down at her, a look of worry on his face.
“What is wrong, Minerva?” he asked quietly.
“Everything,” she replied. “The world has been completely turned upside down, the Order is running out of resources, and I don’t know what else to do to protect the students.”
“Voldemort has been gaining more and more power by the day,” he replied.
Minerva flinched. “Please do not say his name. You know that it has been made taboo.”
“What is Voldemort going to able to do to a portrait? Blast me off the wall?”
Minerva laughed in spite of herself.
“Sometimes, I wonder,” she muttered.
“It’s not your fault, Minerva,” said Dumbledore firmly.
“I should have been able to grab the time-turner from his hands. If he hadn’t have learnt about that magic, things might have been different.”
“No, they would not have been different. Tom would have gone to the Dark Side, with or without your help.”
Minerva just shook her head.
“Do you still remember how to do it?” asked Dumbledore curiously.
“Of course,” she replied. “It’s not a skill easily forgotten.”
Minerva glanced over at one of Snape’s books. It levitated in the air quickly, doing a loop around the room. Then it landed on top of the others.
“I never understood why you never used wandless magic more often,” said Dumbledore.
“I didn’t want to be tempted,” she replied. “Look at what it did to Tom. I don’t want that to happen to me. You would understand. You’ve never tried Dark Magic because you were afraid to be tempted.”
Dumbledore nodded mournfully from his portrait. “I wish I could say that was true, Minerva.”
Just then, Severus Snape entered the office, leaving Minerva McGonagall to her own confused thoughts.