Ted didn’t say a word. None sprung to mind, except for possibly “NOOOOO!” and somehow, it didn’t do what he had just done justice. Instead, he staggered backward, collapsed to the ground, and retched again and again until his body shook with dry heaves and the pool of vomit had flowed and merged into the mess of blood and brains. Only then did he pass out, spread across the evil-smelling puddle.
When he opened his eyes again, a minute later or maybe an hour, Ivy’s worried face was floating above his. “Ted, you…” she whispered.
“I know,” he said, turning his face away. There was something almost harsh about his tone, something bitter and thoroughly unTedlike.
“I was going to ask you if you felt all right,” said Ivy. Her gaze was steady, and Ted realized that the dried tears on his face weren’t hers. They were his own.
He sat up, and Balthazar’s body was gone. He didn’t even want to think about exactly how it had been moved, or who had done it, or where it was now. The pool of filth had been cleaned up, too, and Ted mentally thanked whatever brilliant wizard had invented the Evanesco spell.
“This isn’t safe for you,” Ted croaked. “You heard Balthazar. I’m a monster.”
“No, you’re not,” said Ivy calmly. She pulled off Ted’s filthy and torn shirt, leaving him bare-chested and shivering. “You never planned to kill him.”
“Monsters don’t plan,” snapped Ted. He stared at Ivy and felt horribly ashamed, not just for killing Balthazar, but for snapping at her. He’d never done that to her before”or to anyone, for that matter.
Ivy was silent for a moment, and her face was sad. “What happened to Mr. Sunny-Side-Up Optimist?” she asked quietly. “You’ve always been so sure of yourself. You even got Arden to believe that she was a human being. Don’t tell me you let one sick cannibal change all of that.”
Ted couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Hadn’t Ivy seen what had happened? Without even thinking about it, he’d killed someone. That was all there was to it.
“This is a battlefield,” Ivy continued. “People are dying. You saw your own mum kill Nott. My dad’s going to kill Voldemort. Uncle Ron’s going to kill three people. They’re not monsters.”
“Ivy, I was so mad…” Ted was crying fresh tears now, without shame. “I’ve never been mad like that before…”
Ivy’s expression didn’t change at all. “I think a monster wouldn’t be mad,” she said. “He’d be calm about killing someone, wouldn’t he?”
Ted knew he didn’t deserve any of what Ivy was saying to him. He felt like a Death Eater and an animal and a traitor. And it sounded like she was trying to convince herself just as much as she was him. “Listen, my dad told me, it’s your choices that make you who you are, not your abilities,” Ted said. “I can be a good person, I know I can. But I… I made the choice to kill Balthazar instead… so everything he said was true.”
“I’m not going to try to convince you anymore, then,” Ivy told him. “I just have two more things to say. You didn’t mean to kill him… it was an accident… but you’re still so upset about it. A monster wouldn’t be, and a monster wouldn’t care whether he was a monster or not. Balthazar was one, and you’re not. You think that because you killed someone, you’ll do it again …I know that’s not going to happen. You’re so scared, there’s no way you’re ever going to do anything like that again.”
Ted opened his mouth to speak, but Ivy cut him off.
“And you didn’t attack him for no reason. It wasn’t even self defense… You were defending me. And if Balthazar hadn’t died, I would have… or I’d be a werewolf, too. You’d never call me a monster, would you? If I’d died, you’d feel even worse than you do now.”
Ted stayed silent, curled up on the ground, but her soft voice was like water dripping gently but persistently on a rock. After awhile, it began to make an impression.
“Balthazar wasn’t expecting you to try and knock him over. No offense, but he’s… he was a lot bigger than you. He was off guard. You were only trying to protect me, weren’t you?”
Dumbly, Ted nodded.
Ivy hugged him, and Ted let his head rest against her shoulder as she had rested hers on his shoulder so many times. “I’m not saying it’s a good thing that Balthazar died.…I’m still really scared… and I know I’m going to have nightmares about this. But… it wasn’t evil. You’re not evil, Ted.”
Ted could almost believe her. Everything she said made sense in a way. But she hadn’t been him him, and she hadn’t known how he’d felt. He hadn’t felt human. He knew he’d only let the wolf in him take over because Ivy was in danger, but that didn’t make it any less true that he’d given wolfish side free reign yet again… and every time, it got worse. He wasn’t even seventeen yet.
“Listen to me,” said Ivy. “You always make me feel better. You always protect me. You don’t need to get so defensive when I’m trying to do the same for you. I don’t really need to be protected… I know you know that. But even if I don’t need it, I like it. I can’t believe how lucky I am that you care that much about me. Emma would kill me for admitting it, but it’s true.”
“I know you don’t need to be protected,” Ted said at last. Ivy was stroking his hair, gently touching his torn and mangled temple without the slightest sign of disgust. He remembered how she’d once cringed at the slightest glimpse of it. “You’re brilliant at magic, definitely better than me. You’re an Animagus, you lived through the Cruciatus curse twice, you’re one of the bravest people I know… But I’m just always so worried something’s going to happen to you.”
Until that day, Ivy had never seen Ted cry. In fact, she’d never really seen him sad”sympathetic, yes, but never sad for himself. It was strange and disconcerting to see someone who had been nothing but happy and optimistic as long as she’d known him so completely devastated.
She was trying so hard to put herself in Ted’s shoes and say what she knew he’d say to her if it had been Ivy in his situation… but she was so confused and still so frightened that the boy she knew so well had killed someone with his bare hands. He wouldn’t do it again, she knew… but there had been so much blood, brains everywhere, and the savage, inhuman look on Ted’s face… it was all so horrifying and unfamiliar.
Werewolves turned violent as they came of age. Why hadn’t Ted told her? She could have helped him. She could have grabbed his arm and reminded him of who he was, brought him back to his senses whenever he had a wolfish moment. They could have talked about it together. It could have even brought them closer together. By trying to handle it himself, he’d put everyone else in danger.
Balthazar had been wrong. Ted would never hurt Ivy. He would never kill or eat humans just for the sake of it. He wasn’t a monster. Ted was sensitive and sweet and gentle, and maybe a bit more aggressive than he’d been before, but it was nothing inhuman, and nothing that they couldn’t both adjust to. Emma and Jordan certainly weren’t monsters, and they could both be more than a little aggressive. Haley had once tried to kill her own brother, but she was definitely human.
Ivy was scared, and there was no way to deny it. She was scared that Ted was going to turn seventeen in just a few weeks. She was scared of what might happen to Ted, and scared of what he might do, and scared that other people wouldn’t understand him. She was scared that he might make a mistake that could get hi in serious trouble, and scared that he might never be his happy, carefree old self again. But she wasn’t scared of Ted.
Ted with his long, thin limbs and long, shaggy hair; his childish light blue eyes and his bashful, single-dimpled smiles, his warm voice and his warm hugs; and his gawky, goofy mannerisms was nothing to be afraid of. And no more was the lanky, big-pawed, floppy-eared, soft-furred wolf with the gentle blue eyes and wagging tail that he became on full moons. He was just Ted, and she knew that whatever other people might say, he couldn’t do anything that could ever harm her. After all, she knew him better than anyone else.
She didn’t say any of this. She didn’t want to talk, and besides, she knew Ted understood. He might deny it himself, but he knew she was right. Instead, they sat in silence together, Ivy holding Ted like a mother cradling a sick child. The battle was still raging on, more gruesome than ever, but they didn’t pay it any attention.
“Ivy,” Ted said at last in a hoarse, cracked voice, “Why are you doing this? Aren’t you scared of me? I mean, I’m scared of me, and I’m me.”
“Don’t start saying that,” said Ivy. “Don’t you trust me at all? I promised I’d never be scared of you, remember? Do you really think I’d promise something if I didn’t mean it.”
Ted smiled weakly. “Oh yeah, I remember… you said you’d never be scared of me unless I was singing.”
“And I can probably learn to tolerate your singing, too,” Ivy replied softly. The Cruciatus Curse changed people. The first time, it had changed her into a meek and terrified wisp of a person. But the second one had made her braver. She wasn’t afraid of pain, and she wasn’t afraid of rejection, and she certainly wasn’t afraid of Ted. What couldn’t kill her made her stronger.
“So, you’ll stick with me?” asked Ted. His tone wasn’t flippant at all. It was a timid whisper, and his eyes were wide and hopeful.
Ivy stared at him, so vulnerable and afraid. How could he think for a second that she’d abandon him? She was silent for a long minute, then finally she said, “I love you, Ted.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get a word out, Ivy kissed him. Ted couldn’t imagine it was very pleasant for Ivy, as he’d just thrown up not long before and his breath had to be truly rancid, but he didn’t care. Fireworks were going off inside his head. “I love you, too,” he said, his voice shocked. “I love you, too.”
He wasn’t good with words, so he didn’t use any more. Instead, he settled back into Ivy’s arms, still weighted down with horror and sadness, but buoyed by hope.
She loved him. He’d just killed someone, he was acting like a pathetic child, she was seeing him at the absolute worst he’d ever been, and she still loved him.
Ted knew he’d made some extremely big mistakes and done some outrageously stupid things, but there was one thing he could be proud of. He had excellent taste in girls.
“Voldemort should show up any minute,” Jordan muttered from beneath the Invisibility Cloak. He’d seen Ivy’s leg break and Emma get attacked by Bellatrix Lestrange. Cecilia was immobilized and Anatoly was unconscious. Tyrone had run off toward Emma, and was probably… tending to her, and Ted… Jordan hadn’t seen Ted in awhile.
He hoped Ted was okay. He could generally look after himself, but he had this crazy suicidal notion that he had to fling himself in front of every attack that came his way. And if Ted wasn’t all Ted anymore, then things could get messy if he got of control.
Of the time travelers, only Haley was still fighting, and she looked like she was getting exhausted, bloodied cuts covering her body. The entire trip had been a disaster. Everyone was getting hurt, the whole battle was nothing but utter chaos. Why had Jordan let other people come with him? He knew that there was safety in numbers, but he was sure he could have managed on his own.
“Avada Kedavra!”
Jordan’s head jolted upward and he started. Rodolphus Lestrange had directed his wand at Haley…
A hand grabbed her and pulled her to the ground in the nick of time. The curse whizzed over her head, hitting a tree and instantly turning it into a dead stump.
“Nothing broken, I hope,” said Anatoly cheerfully, helping Haley up. “I think I pulled you down a mite too forcefully. What can I say, I don’t know my own strength.”
“You’re… you’re supposed to be unconscious!” said Haley, pointing to him.
“Yes! Isn’t it fascinating how I can manage that and talk and save your life all at the same time?” laughed Anatoly. He was grinning. “That Stunning spell never hit me. It bounced off my glasses, can you believe it? I don’t know why your brother went for contact lenses.”
Haley giggled. “Jordy likes to look pretty,” she said. “But, wow, you were lying there this whole time pretending you were knocked out?”
“Waiting for the opportune moment,” Anatoly replied brightly. “You see, I am a Slytherin. I’ve realized that sometimes, it’s safer to play dead and not bother sticking your neck out ‘till you have to. Jordan seems to have had the same idea with Cecilia.”
“Yeah, I think he’s a Slytherin trapped in a Gryffindor’s body,” sighed Haley. “My brother’s a certified nutcase, but I love him anyway. Want to go fight more?”
Jordan shook his head as Haley and Anatoly sprung back into battle. Anatoly Capshaw was eccentric to say the least, but he was a better man than Jordan gave him credit for. He’d have to thank him for saving his sister.
Actually, Jordan and Haley were getting on suspiciously well lately, especially during this battle. He had to wonder whether it could possibly last.
Jordan didn’t have time to get philosophical, though, because Rodolphus Lestrange was still shooting off Killing Curses left and right, making it difficult for anyone to simply sit there and think. The green light illuminated the square… the spell hit a man from behind who was dueling with Peter Pettigrew…
Ron Weasley lay dead on the ground, his eyes blank and empty and his mouth gaping open in his last scream.
Jordan’s first thought was, “Hmmm… he doesn’t wear glasses, how could the spell have bounced off him?” He’d seen the battle before in the Pensieve, and he knew that Ron didn’t die. Of course he couldn’t die. He went on to marry Hermione and become Deputy Head Auror and raise Emma. Then Jordan realized that things weren’t like they’d been in the Pensieve. There hadn’t been a Jordan or a Haley or an Ivy or a Ted or an Emma or a Tyrone or an Anatoly or a Cecilia to change the course of events.
Jordan had warned that meddling with time could have disastrous consequences. They’d meddled with time, and sure enough, the consequences were disastrous, all right.
People were gathering around Ron’s dead body now. Jordan couldn’t watch them, couldn’t bear to see his father and mother and Aunt Hermione… especially Aunt Hermione…
Already discombobulated and light-headed enough as it was, Jordan suddenly had a vision. It wasn’t so much a normal vision as a string of events, almost a slide show of the new future.
Ron was dead. Hadrian Bellowes was Head Auror. No one had stopped the attempt on Harry’s life that had made Ron a national hero. Harry had been killed. Jordan and Haley had no father, and Holly and Jonathan were never born. Hermione was married to Terry Boot. Emma didn’t exist… No one had caught Malfoy the night of the ball in fourth year when he’d tried to break into the school. He’d killed Hermione and several students on his way toward her. No one had dueled Ophidias the night Malfoy was defeated”he’d slipped away and never gone to Azkaban or changed his ways. Haley had been the Hogwarts Triwizard Champion. No one had stopped Tancred Apple, and he’d escaped. Tyrone had gone through nineteen girlfriends in three years, and slowly gained such a reputation as a shallow, arrogant flirt that he’d gradually lost all of his friends and admirers and simply became a school laughingstock. Gryffindor had lost the Quidditch Cup…
“Of course, you’re Bellowes’s hero now that. Of course, you’re Bellowes’s hero now, especially since Ron died. And, yeah, everyone pretty much hates you, especially for what happened to Emma Weasley…” echoed Haley’s voice.
It was all Jordan’s fault for getting into this mess. Once again, he’d ruined everything. Ron didn’t die in Azkaban. “What happened to Emma” had nothing to do with Tyrone and a forest- visions weren’t guarantees. The future could change. And now, it had changed.
He imagined a world with no Ron, no Hermione, no Harry, no Emma. He would remember Emma. Haley and Ted and Ivy and Tyrone and Anatoly and Cecilia would. But to everyone else in the world, Emma Weasley would have never existed.
He’d gone back in time to save Ron and help Emma. Instead, he’d let Ron die. He’d let Emma lose her hair and become paralyzed, and now he was deleting her from history.
There was no Emma, with her bold brashness and her scary proficiency at hexing, her Quidditch skill and her devilish sense of humour, her pretty face and her foul mouth, her painfully honest comments and her blatant lies about her feelings.
Jordan grasped the Time Turner around his neck. He still had it with him. He could gather the rest of his friends, go back in time an hour or two so that they’d only briefly come and then gone again. He would never know whether Snape had been good or evil, but there were more important things by far”like lives, for instance.
Beneath the cloak, he crept up behind Haley and whispered in her ear, “Haley”it’s me, Jordan. Meet me behind the house to your right, and bring Anatoly.”
“Jordan, where are you?” hissed Haley, whispering several inches away from her brother’s ear, but coming very close to biting his nose by mistake. “Uncle Ron just died!”
“I know,” said Jordan. “We’re going back. I’ll get Cecilia and take the spell off of her. You find a way to get Ivy, Ted, and Tyrone… but not Emma, that’s important. Tyrone’s back there, and I think I know where Ted and Ivy are.”
As the words left his mouth, a phrase flashed through his mind, a simple sentence that he couldn’t believe. But his visions didn’t lie.
Ted just killed a man.
Jordan waited behind the house, the cloak pooled in his lap. There was something truly weird about being able to see himself again, he’d gotten so used to wearing the cloak. Cecilia, who was still pale and shaken-looking, was sitting mutely near him, as was Anatoly, who kept chattering on about something or other that Jordan wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to.
Tyrone had stomped over a moment before, shouting, “You better have a pretty good reason for me to come over here and leave Emma all alone. Haley wouldn’t stop tickling me until I promised I’d go see you. What the heck is it?”
“I’ll tell you when everyone else gets here,” Jordan replied coolly, fixing dark eyes on the assembled group.
They sat in silence for a moment, then at last, Jordan turned to Cecilia. “I’m… really sorry,” he said, choking over the words. He didn’t apologize often. “I brought you here even though you’re only in third year, then I let you lie there through the whole battle… I should have known better than to do something so idiotic.”
“It’s okay,” Cecilia said, and her voice was tight and quiet. “I was the one who said I’d come, anyway. It’s my fault.” She paused, took a deep breath, and blurted out, “I saw my mum and dad…”
“I know,” replied Jordan. Cecilia didn’t need to blabber on about her feelings, about how wrong she’d been about her parents, about how they were true heroes and deserved more respect. He’d seen Neville and Luna survive the Killing Curse, and no human being could possibly ever call either of them pathetic again after seeing that sight.
It took much longer than Jordan had expected for Haley to arrive with Ted and Ivy, and when she finally did, Jordan was both concerned and repulsed by Ted’s appearance. He was as white as whipped cream, his face smeared with blood and his hair damp and sticky with sweat and even more blood. His chest was bare, and in the daylight, it was all too easy to see how sticklike his arms were and how visible his ribs.
But the most disturbing part was the way he clung to Ivy, as though he needed a tether to the earth. His expression was weary and hard. Ivy limped along with her broken leg bound up in magically-conjured bandages, but Ted didn’t have the strength anymore to even try to carry her.
Jordan didn’t have to ask to know that his vision must have been true. Ted had killed a man.
Jordan himself hadn’t become a full-blown Seer until his seventeenth birthday. Now Ted was nearly seventeen as well, and it couldn’t have been much different with werewolves. It only stood to reason that this would happen sooner or later. But… it was Ted…
“Just a minute,” Jordan said to the rest of the group and turned to Ted. “It’s possible to perform Occlumency against yourself,” he murmured, his voice hushed and serious.
Ted looked at him blankly and emotionlessly. Jordan knew that look. He’d worn it hundreds of times, and it never meant anything good.
“I use it when it would be highly inconvenient for me to have a vision”the Seer part of my mind gets shut off from the rest of it. I can teach you to use it to block the wolf side of you. That’s probably what your father’s been doing all along without knowing exactly what it was. It’s really not difficult at all once you become accustomed to it.”
Ted didn’t look up from the ground. “Thank you,” he said almost inaudibly, but his face looked marginally more hopeful, and he squeezed Ivy’s hand as they sat down on the ground next to the rest of the group.
Jordan hoped that Occlumency would help Ted. It was rather disconcerting to be friends with and have his sister date a homicidal werewolf, although he would never dare say that out loud. And not just because he was afraid Ted would rip his throat out.
“Well,” Jordan addressed the group as a while, “no doubt all of you saw my Uncle Ron die.” His voice was far too brisk and business-like. “Not only does that change the entire future, it means that if we return to our time, Emma won’t exist anymore. She’ll have never been born.”
There was a predictable cacophony of voices, but Jordan simply talked over it until it subsided. “The solution is to go back in time, just a bit, and change things so that we only came here for a short while. Ron didn’t die in the real battle; something about us being there today changed things. I was stupid to meddle with time anyway. I thought I couldn’t make a mistake because of my Seer, but I overestimated my own abilities.”
Ivy raised her hand patiently.
“Yes?”
“Make sure we don’t go back too early. I don’t want to erase the part where Ted talked to his dad,” she said.
Ted raised his head. “But nothing I said to him was tr””
“Shut up,” Haley told him sharply. “Don’t be like that, or I’ll tickle you.” She glared. “Anyway, I’m agreeing with Ivy. At least that way one person in the Lupin family would end up with some sense knocked into him.” She looked exceedingly cross, but Ted’s expression didn’t change. Jordan had to concede that moping was a lot less attractive when someone else was doing it.
“But why isn’t Emma here now?” demanded Anatoly. “I mean, I’ll be honest, I’m not overly fond of the girl, but I think she’d be able to handle the fact that she’d have never been born if we didn’t change the past again.She’s a tough little cookie”
Jordan smiled slightly. “Whenever I decide to be altruistic, people always assume I have ulterior motives,” he sighed. “Emma’s lost all of her hair, and she can’t use her left side. That shouldn’t have happened to her. Instead of forcing her to live like that for the rest of her life, wouldn’t it make more sense to go back to when we first got here, pick up Emma from the past”well, this is the past, but the earlier past”and bring her back healthy?”
Haley whistled. “Too bad you didn’t find out you were a Seer a few years ago! You’d be doing nice stuff all the time!”
Tyrone bobbed his head. “I think Emma would definitely approve. She was pretty freaked out, last I saw of her.”
“Let’s go, then,” said Jordan, and pulled out his Time Turner. “Now, if you””
He was interrupted by the sound of a painfully familiar voice wailing, “DAD!”
Emma had escaped, as all wild creatures inevitably try to do. She wasn’t content to sit and wait behind the house while Tyrone and the rest of her friends abandoned her. Somehow, she’d managed to drag herself, with only one working arm and one working leg, into the middle of the battlefield.
Her face was ashen and crumpled, and she looked worse than ever as she stared at the corpse of the boy who should have grown up to be her father.
“Emma, you idiot, what exactly do you think you’re doing?” shouted Jordan. His pity for her didn’t diminish his rage that she could do something so stupid as rush out into the middle of the battlefield when she was so badly handicapped.
Emma ignored him. Her face was frozen with horror.
“Emma, don’t be so stupid!” Jordan demanded, over Haley’s protestations.
At first, Emma made no reply, gazing at Ron’s body. But suddenly, her head snapped around and her eyes were blazing with pain and hatred and fury in addition to the glittering tears on her cheeks. “Don’t talk to me like that,” she snapped in a choked choice. “This is all your fault, you””
A green jet of light hit her from behind, framing her like a halo. She sprawled limply on the ground, bald and broken next to her father. Her wide brown eyes were as empty and glassy as a doll’s.
Jordan clenched his jaw, staring straight ahead at Emma, and willing himself to remain calm even though he wanted to scream and cry and fall to the ground like a child. He gorced himself to disregard his friends’ reactions and focus on the mission at hand. The plan was to go back in time and change things, and pick Emma up from there. They could still do that. If Ron could be retrieved, so could Emma. She was dead, yes… but only temporarily so. The only way to succeed was to stick to the plan.
His concentration was broken by Tyrone, thundering out onto the battlefield and wielding his wand like a medieval sword. “WHO DID THIS?” he roared in a terrible deep, booming voice that sounded like anyone’s idea of Judgment Day. “I’m going to kill you! I’m going to KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME!” He wasn’t roaring anymore… now he was screaming, hysterical desperate screams that had to be ripping his throat apart.
A Death Eater raised his wand, but Tyrone snapped it in half and flung the man across the field with a jet of red light.
“Tyrone stop that,” Jordan commanded. “Don’t you see, running out into the middle of the action like that is what killed Emma!”
“I don’t CARE!” howled Tyrone. He stared at Jordan with eyes so intense that anyone else would have looked away, then suddenly punched Jordan in the face with a sickening crunch, smashing his nose and sending blood spattering everywhere. His powerful muscles clenched, and every tendon standing out in his neck, he shouted, “You don’t understand ANYTHING! I don’t CARE anymore!”
“Episkey,” Jordan said calmly, trying not to let anyone see the tears in his eyes and his shudders of pain as his nose straightened itself. Behind him, Ted flinched at the torrent of blood. “You should care. Whatever Emma means to you, she’s gone. She doesn’t care about you anymore. Her body’s not worth throwing your whole life away.”
Tyrone’s body shook, but he didn’t say a word. He just backed away from Jordan, glaring like a panther about to lunge, then stormed off into the battle, shooting every spell he could think of and knocking down everyone”even Remus Lupin”who crossed his path.
When he reached Emma’s body, he stopped and dropped his wand. He didn’t yell or do anything dramatic, but simply stood there, staring at her masklike face. Then, his knees buckled a d he crumpled to the ground, with his head bowed over her. Her lips moved soundlessly, and he looked as though he were kneeling in church. Then, at last, his eyes wrenched open and he picked up Emma’s body and held it close to him, crying silently into her torn and bloodied shirt.
Jordan felt so hideously embarrassed that he had to look away, but it didn’t help”because all he saw then were the faces of Haley, Ivy, Ted, Cecilia, and Anatoly, and that was even worse.
“All right, Tyrone, enough of that,” Jordan managed.
“Jordan, are you trying to be as horrible as possible, or do you really not care about anyone else?” Ivy said suddenly. She had the palest, most pinched look about her that Jordan had seen, and her face was stained with tears, but behind the sorrow and shock in her eyes was an anger that reminded him very much of Emma. Beside her, Ted looked hopelessly wretched.
Jordan felt his eyes and his throat burning, but he forced himself to look at Ivy. “I do care,” he hissed. “Never say that again. I am trying to prevent more deaths. Tyrone is just as mortal as the rest of us.”
“Jordan in this is Emma we’re talking about!” Haley screamed hysterically, looking like she wanted to pull off his head with her bare hands. Anatoly was literally holding her back with her arms pinned behind her. He hadn’t seen her so upset since the day Ted was bitten.
Jordan sighed. If there was one thing he knew, it was that this wasn’t the last time he’d have everyone against him, and he didn’t have time to try to justify his actions. He took a deep breath, gripped his wand in his hand, and shouted, “ACCIO, TYRONE!” He was immediately rewarded with a two hundred pound Quidditch star hurtling through the air at light speed and staring directly into his chest, knocking him to the ground. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, the sight of Tyrone on top of the much smaller boy would have been hilarious, but nobody laughed now. Tyrone was shaking with grief.
“Right,” Jordan tried to say, his wind thoroughly knocked out of him by the impact. “Our plan from before still stands”travel back in time to prevent Uncle Ron from dying, and get Emma while we’re there. Everything will be fine.”
“How do you know?” demanded Cecilia. “How do you know we can bring back someone who died? That sounds dodgy to me. I’ve never heard of that working”you always hear about people who go back in time and die there.”
Jordan fixed her with his dark, solemn eyes. “That’s because they were foolish enough to go back alone. I didn’t make that mistake.”
“But you don’t know that!” shouted Tyrone. “It’s another one of your experiments again! We have to bring Emma’s body back with us!”
“No,” Jordan said firmly. “Can you imagine having to explain to Emma why we have her corpse form two hours in the future? This is absolutely ridiculous. I’m leaving now, and if you don’t want to come with me, I’ll leave you stranded here at the Final Battle. It is entirely your call.” He grasped his Time Turner in his hand and glared at the assembled group. Everyone stayed put for a few desperate seconds, then Anatoly stepped forward and shook Jordan’s hand.
“I like the way you think,” he said simply, then looped the chain around his neck as well. Ted was the next to Jordan, moving as gingerly as a shadow, with Ivy following close behind. Then, Haley”still a complete mess”stepped in, hugging Anatoly tightly and possibly blowing her nose on his shirt. With a deep sigh, Cecilia threw up her hands and joined in as well.
But Tyrone still stood apart from the group, arms defiantly folded. “I’m staying here,” he declared.
“Emma would think that was idiotic,” said a low voice. It was Ted, speaking up at last. “Why would you miss your only chance to see her alive again?”
“You do realize that what you are doing is suicide, correct?” said Jordan flatly. “I know you’re only being dramatic, but we understood your point long ago. Come here.”
Tyrone stood like a statue for a moment, but at last stepped into the group. “You’d better be right this time,” he muttered, “or I’ll snap your neck.”
“You don’t mean that,” Jordan replied calmly, and twisted the Time Turner.
“Please let her be alive, please let her be alive, please let her be alive,” Haley was whimpering under her breath, racing up to the front of the group and scanning across the battlefield.
Jordan pulled her back by her collar as Ron ran right past the clump, waving his wand over his head. “We know that at our mission is at least partially successful,” he pointed out, inclining his head toward his uncle.
“HEY, LOOK!” yelled Tyrone. “SHE’S THERE! SHE’S RIGHT THERE!” Emma, long auburn hair and strength fully restored, was in the middle of the battlefield, dueling for all she was worth.
Anatoly grinned. “See, this boy is never wrong!” he crowed, holding up his hand for a high five and letting it hang lamely in midair as Jordan ignored him.
“We can’t all go get Emma,” he said. “We’re out there, too… I’ll get her myself, with the Invisibility Cloak. Otherwise, the Jordan from two hours ago will be confused. And Tyrone… no, you can’t come with me, but I’ll be right back.”
“Merlin’s adult diapers, I see me!” exclaimed Tyrone, peering from behind the house. His spirits were immediately back to usual, knowing that Emma was alive and well. “This is really, really weird.” He stared at the other Tyrone.
Jordan groaned. Knowing Tyrone, he could probably watch himself all day. The boy made Narcissus seem modest. “Please, let’s make this as quick as possible,” he said, pulling on the Invisibility Cloak. “Wait here”I’ll be back with Emma.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned back around to glare at Haley, although she couldn’t see him. “And no saying ‘is that really what my hair looks like from the back,’” he added sternly.
“You never let me have any fun,” whined Haley, sticking out her tongue.
Jordan had to admit, though, as he strode across the battlefield that it was truly strange to watch himself in action. He wasn’t particularly surprised by the way his hair looked from the back, as he already knew for sure that it was a disaster zone, but he was dismayed by how small he looked from the outside. He certainly didn’t feel that small.
It was easy to find Emma. She had just Stunned a Death Eater and was racing across the field in search of another victim, her long hair billowing out behind her. Before she could move on to a new dueling partner, though, Jordan caught her by the shoulder.
“It’s me, Jordan, under Haley’s Invisibility Cloak,” he whispered. He’d said those words so many times that day, it was becoming a catch phrase. He suspected that in the future, even when he was fully visible, he would find himself bursting through doors, proclaiming, “It’s me, Jordan!”
“You’re not Jordan, whoever you are,” retorted Emma, “because Jordan’s over there. Sorry.” She pointed toward the other Jordan with surprising composure.
“I’m from two hours in the future,” he said, throwing off the cloak and hoping the other Jordan didn’t see him. “We’re going back home now. Something terrible happens two hours in the future, and we can’t risk staying here any longer.”
Emma folded her arms. “Oh, yeah. Prove you’re Jordan.”
“Ask me anything.”
Emma’s eyes flashed. “All right then, what kind of underwear are you wearing?”
“Wha… but… that doesn’t count, you don’t even know what kind of underwear I’m wearing! How would you know I was telling the truth?” spluttered Jordan, turning a rather fetching beet-root colour.
“Because if you’re the real Jordan, I saw you bend down to pick up your textbooks earlier today,” smirked Emma. “Get a belt, boy, seriously. But come on, what kind of underwear?”
Jordan’s face flushed even deeper red. “Black boxers with monkeys on them,” he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Happy?”
“Lucky guess,” replied Emma. “One more question: what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
“That’s completely irrelevant!” snapped Jordan. “This is serious, and we haven’t got much time!”
Emma smiled. “I knew the real Jordan would say that. It looks like you’re the real thing after all. Now, what’s all this about something terrible happening?”
Jordan tried to explain, but he soon realized that it would take more time than he really wanted to waste. Instead, he simply mentioned something vague about how they had drastically altered the future and it was out of hand and told her he’d elaborate more once they were safely back to the present. Ignoring her streams of protestations, he practically frog-marched her over to the house where the other six were waiting.
As they drew nearer, Emma squinted at the despondant, shirtless Ted sitting on the ground and asked quietly, “What’s with him?”
Jordan sighed. “He killed a man,” he replied briskly.
Emma’s eyeballs threatened to jump out of her sockets. “Killed a”no way, Ted? How””
“I recommend you don’t bring it up. It’s a bit of a touchy subject,” Jordan said, his voice stiff.
Emma whistled through her teeth. “Yeah, well, I can imagine.”
As soon as they approached the house, Tyrone raced up to Emma and buried her in a rib-cracking hug. “EMS! It’s you! It’s you! You look gorgeous!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Jordan wasn’t surprised he wasn’t jumping up and down like Haley.
Wincing, Emma patted him awkwardly on the top of the head. “Er… down, boy,” she said, extricating herself from Tyrone’s grasp.
Cecilia elbowed Tyrone in the ribs. “She has no idea what happens in two hours,” she reminded him through the corner of her mouth, ever practical.
Emma looked deeply confused, but Tyrone stepped back, embarrassed. “Er, sorry about that,” he mumbled. “Got, you know, caught up in the moment.”
“Right, well, let’s go home,” said Jordan, clearing his throat. “It’s getting late. Come on.” He gathered everyone closer together, resulting in many stepped-on toes, and looped the long gold chain around all eight of their necks, resetting the dials to the date and time it had been when they’d left their time. It had seemed so long ago, which was odd, because it was actually so far in the future.
Time flew past the clump of eight, and it was not unlike standing in the middle of a multicoloured tornado while listening to a recording played backward. The twenty-three years whizzed past in seconds, and when the spinning cloud of time stopped at last, Godric’s Hollow was changed.
No longer a smouldering ghost town of ruined houses, it was the cozy village of manors that they’d been accustomed to their wholes. The house they’d been standing behind when they’d left 1997, previously a burned-out mess, was now a stately brick home with a swing set and a teeter-totter in the background.
Exhausted, Jordan flopped down on the grass, and the others followed suit.
“Now, tell me,” Emma demanded immediately, “what was so awful that you had to come and get me? I was the only one who didn’t come back from two hours in the future. What, did I, like, die or something?”
There was a strange silence. “That’s not important,” Ivy said.
“Okay, what does that mean?” Emma repeated flatly.
Jordan sighed. “It would be so hard to describe everything that happened,” he told her, “I think it’s important you know everything, but I don’t think any of us could possibly explain it. It would be so much simpler if I could just… show you.”
Emma was smart, and she caught on quickly. “You mean Telemency,” she said, putting air quotes around the word ‘Telemency.’ “Your brilliant little way of getting into people’s heads and messing with their brains.”
“Well… yes…”
“This is just great,” snapped Emma, throwing up her hands. “I get to pick between having some creeper dig through my brain or spend the rest of my life clueless about what would have happened. Is it really that hard to tell me?”
Just then, Tyrone had a cunning idea. Even Jordan had to admit that it was rather brilliant, though knowing Tyrone, it probably wasn’t necessarily intended as such. “Well,” said Tyrone slowly, “for starters, we snogged.”
“What?” shrieked Emma. “That’s not funny!”
“Since when is the truth funny?” shrugged Tyrone.
Emma stared desperately from person to person. “No fair!” she cried. “That’s not true, is it?”
Anatoly was grinning from ear to ear. “Sorry, but yes,” he said gleefully. “Extremely so.”
Emma’s horror-stricken expression was a textbook example of internal conflict. She closed her eyes, let out a deep, dramatic sigh, and shook her head. At last, she turned toward Jordan. “Go ahead,” she groaned, “do your stupid Telemency, or the curiosity will kill me.”
Jordan’s usually solemn face broke into a wide, genuine smile, one of those rare smiles that completely transformed every feature and made him impossibly beautiful. “So you do trust me,” he said.
“Not really,” Emma replied darkly, “But I’ll take my chances. If you muck around at all with my mind, I’m suing you for all you’re worth.” But she was smiling. It was hard not to when Jordan was.
“Tyrone, I’ll need to use your memory… if it’s all right with you,” Jordan told him. “I didn’t, er, see quite as much of what happened.”
“Or of Emma!” chirped Haley, and was immediately silenced by all of the daggers that the others were glaring at her. She elected to politely shut up as Jordan stared deeply into Tyrone’s eyes and bored into his mind.
He saw a tiny, bizarrely young Tyrone excitably holding his new baby sister, a slightly older Tyrone flying for the first time, Tyrone talking to a boy who… oh. Ouch.
Jordan watched in morbid fascination as memory after memory flashed by. Tyrone had gone to a Muggle school as a child, and had been teased mercilessly. Not only did he constantly forget it wasn’t cool to talk about magic as though it was real, he’d entered his awkward stage before any of the other boys his age were even close to adolescence. Unfortunately, traits that would be normal in a class of thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds got him mocked incessantly as a ten-year-old. The young Tyrone had been a gangly, cracking-voiced, pimply, and painfully shy boy who was almost as awkward physically as he was socially.
And suddenly, all of the memories switched to him at Hogwarts, popular, handsome, flirting, flying… crying like a baby as he clutched the letter bearing the new of his mother’s death…
Jordan let his mind pour into Tyrone’s, an action that he’d come to relate to putting two brains in a blender and pressing the ‘puree’ button. After a minute of chaotic confusion, his and Tyrone’s memories jumbling against one another, Jordan withdrew his mind, triumphantly bearing Tyrone’s account of the battle.
“Whoa,” said Tyrone weakly, clutching his skull and looking ill. “That was intense. I think I’m going to pass out.”
“Thanks, Tyrone,” moaned Emma. “Really, encouraging, that.”
“It’s not that bad,” Jordan reassured her.
Emma laughed sharply. “Yep, and that’s what the Healers at St. Mungo’s say when they’re holding a five-inch needle.” But she sat back and let Jordan stare piercingly into her eyes until he slipped through to her mind.
Jordan was enjoying getting so much Telemency practice in one day, and he was getting better. He knew how to navigate the mind now, and he was quicker. It was so much easier to get his wits back together and pull back out again as well, easier to distinguish his own identity from Emma’s. He knew, for example, that all of those shockingly lurid thoughts about Tyrone did not belong to him.
As the head rush of exiting Emma’s brain enveloped and disoriented him, though, he thought he spotted a strange, unbelievable scrap of a memory for a split second. He only just glimpsed it, but he could have sworn he’d seen something that couldn’t be right.
He put it from his mind, though, as Emma blinked in disbelief. The memory that Jordan had planted in her brain wasn’t like a movie that she could watch inside her head”it felt just like any of her other recent memories, embedded in amongst the rest of them. It was like a seamless skin graft.
Emma’s face was an interesting combination of humbleness, embarrassment, and shyness. They were three emotions that she rarely wore, especially not all together. She’d been bald. She’d kissed Tyrone. She’d been paralyzed. She’d kissed Tyrone. Her father had died. She’d kissed Tyrone. She’d died. She’d kissed Tyrone. It was far too much to take in all at once.
“So,” she said uncomfortably.
It was a gyp, she thought angrily, a total and complete gyp. To have a memory of being kissed by Tyrone, and the awkward scene of explaining her feelings without, technically, having ever done it. Now she would have to go through the whole ordeal twice. Maybe at least this time, she could be smoother with it.
“So,” she said again, advancing nervously toward Tyrone.
“What? How dare you say my kissing is only so-so!” Tyrone exclaimed in mock rage. He smiled a bashful smile. “Well? Do you think we should, you know, be an item?”
Emma tried to force herself to look him in the eye, but it was ridiculously difficult, like trying to touch one’s nose when hopelessly drunk. “You know, I’ve always hated the word ‘item.’ Like, if you’re dating someone, you’re not a person anymore, you’re just part of a couple.”
“Can we be two items for the price of one, then?” Tyrone asked, laughing nervously. Emma laughed, too, though Tyrone’s joke hadn’t been very funny. “What I mean is… you know, can we be boyfriend and girlfriend?”
Emma hugged him. “All right, but I get to be the girlfriend.”
Tyrone laughed, even though Emma’s joke hadn’t been very funny, either. “I pretty much took that for granted,” he said.
“We’ll be cool, though,” Emma stated. “We won’t be mushy and disgusting like some people.”
“Yeah!” said Tyrone. “Like those people who are always giggling with each other and””
“”finishing each other’s sentences,” supplied Emma.
Tyrone laughed. “Yeah, I hate that!”
“Me, too! And when they always agree with each other and get all excited about it!”
“Exactly!”
For some reason, Ivy was giggling uncontrollably in a most Haley-ish manner. Emma wasn’t quite sure why, especially since she was talking about overly sentimental people like Ivy herself. Emma had forgotten she had an audience, but she figured she might as well proceed”otherwise, she’d have to face an endless barrage of questions about what was happening between her and Tyrone anyway. Besides, Tyrone probably liked all the attention.
“I want to do a scientific experiment,” proclaimed Emma. “I want to see if kissing’s any better with two working arms and all my hair.” She kissed Tyrone, and Haley cheered manically and high-fived everyone sitting around her.
“Er, yes, I’d say it is,” said Emma, in a stiff, businesslike voice.
“Repeated trials make an experiment more accurate,” pointed out Tyrone.
Emma nodded sagely. “Mm. True,” she said.
They kissed.
“I’d say the results are still pretty inconclusive,” stated Tyrone.
They kissed.
“You’re a horrible kisser, you know,” said Emma.
They kissed.
“Nowhere near as bad as you,” Tyrone said.
“You’re the first person I’ve ever actually kissed, though, so I deserve some extra credit,” stated Emma.
Tyrone grinned. “Here’s your extra credit, then.”
They kissed.
“Hmm, you’re right, I think you need more practice,” Tyrone told her.
They kissed.
“Ah, yeah, that’s great. Let’s try it again to make sure it’s not just beginner’s luck.”
They kissed. Ivy and Ted exchanged glances that quite clearly stated, ‘at least we’re not like this.’
Jordan cleared his throat loudly in his typical party-pooping manner. “If you’re quite finished,” he said sternly.
Emma and Tyrone broke apart, giggling maniacally and sounding quite out of breath. It was sickening.
“I can’t believe I actually wanted you two to get together,” grumbled Haley. “You’re scary. And there are children here.”
“Hey!” exclaimed Cecilia. “I’m in third year. I’ve seen worse.”
Tyrone grinned his evilest of grins. “Yeah, we could be doing this,” he said, grabbing Emma by the waist and””
“NO, THANK YOU,” Jordan practically shouted. Only Ted noticed that he was trying his hardest to hide a smile, but Ted wasn’t in a very talkative mood lately, and wasn’t about to tell anyone.
“It’s high time we Floo back to school, if you don’t mind,” said Jordan.
“No, I don’t mind,” said Emma. “Please. Let’s go.”
Tyrone frowned. “Why the rush, Em?”
Emma pointed to the house next door. “That’s my house,” she said, flushing. “If someone doesn’t come running outside waving around a broom about in two minutes, I’m a hippogriff’s uncle.”
The door opened.
“Run,” Jordan commanded gravely.