from Time to Time | Lucius Malfoy

Fallen through time

1747

I walked out of the room, still barefoot, and listened. Nothing to hear, where is everyone? Has class started again? Where are the teachers? I sighed, put my shoes on and walked down the corridor. I would definitely get a punishment such as detention or whatever for coming back without the so called muggle device but there was nothing I could do now, the thing was just gone.

The portraits on the walls watched me as I walked the hallways. They used to do that all the time but this time they also whispered. They reacted to me wrinkling their noses and rolling their eyes. A girl in one painting pointed out quite shocked that my style of dress was beyond inappropriate! I beg your pardon? What's the matter with it? My style of clothing? Girl, I'm wearing my school uniform! And I'm actually one of the few students here who didn't cut their skirts below the knees... Cheeky.

I kept walking quickly through the corridors when suddenly a bell rang, announcing the break. The classroom doors opened and a crowd of students stepped out of the classrooms. Did I miss something? Do we have a dress up like your grandpa week? The students leaving their classrooms were dressed strangely. I also noticed that there were only boys... Where are the girls? My school was mostly witches, most boys went to Durmstrang or Hogwarts. Most thought that Beauxbatons was an all-girls school, which of course wasn't true. Actually it was an all-boy school hundreds of years ago. Now we had only a few boys at the school but right now I felt like I was the only witch in the whole building.

The young boys all wore their hair long, tied in low ponytails at the back of their heads. Their trousers came down to their knees and they wore white stockings underneath. Their cloaks were long, reaching mid-thigh, and their shirts were edged with lace at the sleeves. What on earth is going on here? Wizards and witches dress different to muggles but we all wore uniforms at school. What the guys in front of me were wearing reminded me more of a play from a bygone era.

Some stared at me and started whispering and laughing. One pointed at me and spluttered, "Walking around in your nightgown, miserable bitch!" I couldn't believe it, what did he just call me? More comments from bystanders! I turned on my heel and ran down the corridor. Finally seeing the exit, I took a deep breath, ran outside, across the schoolyard, and down to the village, needing to clear my head.

Detention is certain, it didn't really matter when I went back to class, I would get at least 1 month of detention anyway I suppose. Then I thought back to the situation from before. That could only have been a bad joke? Is someone trying to make fun of me? Is this all planned? Haha, let's trick Cait? On the other hand, I didn't know any of the guys who had reacted indignantly to me in the hallways. That was pretty strange...

In the small village near our school there were a few shops, a small bar and a library. I liked hanging out in the library. Of course we had a library at school, it was also better stocked, but I liked the people who worked in the small library here in the village.

So when I arrived in the village I went to the small building. However, it turned out to be quite difficult, because everything looked different here than usual... The buildings looked like a film set. The street was roughly paved. People on the street were dressed strangely and again I was stared at.

"What's that about?" I snapped at a passer-by. It's enough for me now, people stare at me like an exotic animal, that's not normal? I wandered down the street and looked around, nothing, absolutely nothing looked like yesterday when I was here. I stopped and looked straight ahead and watched a carriage turning down a side alley.

At that moment I understood what was going on here. I must have... fallen?... through time. The people, how they were dressed... I guessed 18th century. How could that happen? I ran up to another passer-by and asked bluntly: "What year is it?" All I got in reply was a snort, the man turned and walked on. Further attempts to stop passers-by also failed.

I have to calm down, this won't work. You can't just walk up to someone and ask what year it is! It's like in one of those bad movies, if that happened to me on the street I wouldn't answer either. I took a deep breath and counted to 10. A little trick my aunt once showed me. It was extremely calming and makes anger, fear and insecurity disappear in no time.

1...I walked the streets

2... until I stopped in front of the church...

3... The plan for the fair!

4... I looked quickly at the board where the times of masses and deaths were posted...

5... But I couldn't really read what it said.

6... I looked around and saw an elderly lady standing in the church square with a basket full of apples.

7... I walked up to you and asked politely, "Excuse me, could you tell me what time mass is today and what day it is?"

8... "Oh my child, I guess you can't read, but of course you can! Mass is always at 5 p.m., today is April 4th."

9... "Thank you, what year is it?"

10.... The woman stared at me. Have I messed it up now? She looked at me for a long time and then finally said "1747. Do you want to buy an apple now?" I just shook my head and turned around and went back to the board.

I clutched my temple as I felt everything begin to spin. Wafts of fog formed around me, I had the feeling of falling again, my environment became distorted and I closed my eyes. When the feeling passed and I opened my eyes, I was still standing in front of the church in the village in front of our school.

"No school today?" the library clerk called out and smiled. She had just come from the bakery and her arms were full of sweet delicacies. "I finished early!", I told her and tried to organize my thoughts.

Back in my own time.

I was overwhelmed, how could this have happened? I couldn't really explain my journey through time, but then the scales fell from my eyes, I reached into my blouse and grabbed the pendant: the necklace! Naturally! Somehow the jewelry seemed to have catapulted me through time. Of course I didn't know how it worked. Yet. But I would find out in the coming days or weeks...