Bound By Blood (Muggle Meets Magic #2)

TWENTY FOUR - The Mysteries Of Time

Eleanor and I spent the entire afternoon bundled under our warm robes, watching Oliver and his neighborhood friends practice quidditch in the Ambleforth's massive yard. The rolling hills seemed to go on forever, coated in a thin layer of winter frost, and trees surrounded the property line, creating privacy. Off on the right-hand side was a massive lake, also coated in a thin layer of frost. Eleanor insisted that it would be frozen solid by the time Christmas day came, and we could go ice skating on it.

Oliver and his friends were actually quite good—apparently Oliver was on the team, but I wouldn't know. I could barely keep track of the Hogwarts quidditch games, let alone the players.

As we sat watching from our perch on the frosty hill, a house elf delivered us a basket of gloriously warm mince pies, appetizers that were still hot from the oven, and two steaming mugs of nutmeg and cinnamon hot chocolate (that Eleanor promised wasn't spiked with sleeping draught).

I relished the feel of the warm food and drink against my ice-cold fingers, but after an hour of watching the boys play quidditch, my thoughts began to drift back to Callie. I couldn't help it—watching quidditch reminded me of her, and she was still out there somewhere, probably with Lucas.

Guilt plagued through me at the thought. I should have done more to help her.

"What's wrong?" Eleanor asked finally, noticing my glazed expression as I stared out at the quidditch game.

I jolted out my thoughts.

"Oh, nothing," I said quickly, shifting my sitting position. Eleanor gave me a withering look.

"Don't give me that," she insisted. "Come on—just tell me."

I hesitated, but then it all came spilling out. I explained how I was feeling, and added,

"Am I just being silly? She's my best friend, after all... I find it hard to believe she'd really do this..."

Eleanor wore a pondering expression.

"Well, I don't know Callie very well... but she certainly seemed fond of you during our first year," Eleanor replied. "So, she's either a very good actor... or she's under the influence of some powerful dark magic. It's very possible that Lucas, or a more powerful witch or wizard had her under the Imperio curse."

"Imperio..." I repeated, remembering how familiar it sounded.

"It's an unforgiveable curse. People use it to force other people to do their bidding."

My eyes lit up with recognition—Lucas had used it on me the day before. It had made me feel so strange...

"It seems unlikely that Lucas could cast spells at that level—"

"—he can," I confirmed, and filled her in on what he'd done to me. Eleanor's eyes widened with shock.

"Well, that's still unusual. He would need years of experience in the dark arts alone... and he's only at a third year student level."

"You know, Veronica and I were talking about this a few weeks ago," I said, as I thought back. "We thought he might be using an aging spell to get around the Ministry's measures of underage use of magic outside of Hogwarts... but it seemed too unlikely, too much hassle..."

"An aging spell wouldn't increase his spellcasting skill level," Eleanor countered.

"No..." I agreed. "But using a time turner to practice magic would. Except, the Minister of Magic told me that going back further than 5 hours usually resulted in catastrophic consequences. She was surprised that I came out of it unharmed. And Lucas didn't appear to be showing signs of extreme aging... not even by a few months, or years..."

"Well, time turners are also supposed to be destroyed," Eleanor replied. "So the whole thing is fishy, really. But perhaps Lucas figured out a way to cheat the time travel system and only use it to his benefit. Maybe the two time turners you guys had aren't even originals—maybe they're more recently crafted..."

I considered her words, but at that moment, Oliver and his friends chose to fly their brooms down just a few feet from us, and dismount.

"It's getting dark, and that wind is picking up," Oliver said, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm up from the icy cold. "Let's head back for dinner."

***

At dinner that evening, Eileen Ambleforth asked if the three of us could go into town the next morning and run some errands for her. Eleanor and Oliver groaned, but agreed reluctantly.

I, however, was quite eager to see the town Eleanor and Oliver lived in—especially since it was another wizarding one.

After dinner, as we were trudging upstairs after eating our share of turkey and pudding, I asked Eleanor what kind of chores we'd be running.

"Oh, no, that's just code to get us out of the house," Eleanor explained.

"Yeah, she does it every year," Oliver added, from my other side. "It's so that we can go out and buy dad Christmas presents without him knowing. It's not a very good lie though, the house elves do all of our year-round so he's bound to have caught on by now."

"It's kind of a nice tradition," I said, with a smile.

"Yeah, well..." Eleanor huffed. "It would be nicer if dad didn't also pretend there was a Bring-Your-Kids-To-Work day a week before Christmas."

"Which conveniently gets us out of the house a second time to get Mum a Christmas gift, but results in us having to hang around town all day so she doesn't ask why we've come home early."

Eleanor laughed as we turned down the hall towards the bedrooms. "Yeah, we tried to come home early once and Mum went off at us for not taking dad's job seriously enough. Hey, remember when Brianna smuggled home that artifact that nearly bit her hand off?"

There was a sudden silence, like all the air had drained out of the room, as they both remembered their sister was no longer with them. Oliver cleared his throat and averted his gaze to the floor.

I quickly stepped in to break the silence.

"What does you dad do for work?" I asked curiously.

"He works at the bank with the security team," Eleanor replied. "It's mostly goblins who work in that department... but his expertise is useful for them."

"Well, anyway, it could be fun going into town tomorrow," Oliver chirped up finally. "We can show Alyssa around, I suppose. But make sure you dress appropriately," he insisted to me, as we came to a stop outside Eleanor's room.

"I will, I will," I promised, rolling my eyes. Oliver waved us goodnight as he continued down the hall and disappeared into his room. Eleanor's bedroom doors swung open invitingly.

"Did you want to play some exploding snap before bed?" she offered, but I suddenly found myself far too tired for it.

"Actually no... I think I'll have an early night," I told her. "I'm still trying to catch up on sleep after all that time travelling... I wonder if this is what jet lag feels like?"

"Jet-what-now?" Eleanor asked, frowning at me, and I shook my head.

"Never mind. Goodnight," I told her, and by some miracle, I managed to find my way back to my guest room without her help or needing to summon a house elf (Eleanor had appointed Pennene to me).

Like Eleanor had said, my guest room was very nice—a very lush, comfortable queen bed was center of the room, and among it were tasteful furnishings such as an armchair and a dresser. It felt like a very fancy hotel room more than somebody's home though—as nice as the Ambleforth Manor was, I missed the cozy comforts of my parents' house. Even Hogwarts had more charm and character, with all the castle elements and enchantments within.

Exhaustion had indeed caught up to me quickly, and as soon as my head touched the pillow, I was out like a light.