"Everything I do, I'm gonna think of you.
Don't know what else to do
You got me, you got me, baby"
--CHAPTER FOUR--
July 21, 1977
Thursday
Walking down the corridors with Dumbledore was a strange experience for Arabella. She never thought Dumbledore himself would be escorting her to her very own private chambers, where all the other Hogwarts teachers resided. Arabella knew that this wasn't an official teaching position, but she also never thought she'd live long enough to fulfill a lifelong dream of hers.
Joe and Mia Goldstein would have been so proud of their baby girl. Arabella knew that her parents always wanted her to take a position at The Quibbler because, like her parents, Arabella had a talent for writing. Whether it be short stories or poetry, you name it, Arabella could write it. But like a true Hufflepuff at heart, Arabella loved helping people. When she was at Hogwarts, people would often find her tutoring younger and older students alike. It didn't matter what house they were in or who their family was; if she could help, she would. That's why everyone loved her. Even though Arabella did mark a few boxes of being a stereotypical Hufflepuff, she had many qualities from the other houses. She was a hat stall, after all.
Arabella had a knack for teaching. She was patient, and it didn't matter how long she had to stay in the library for her schoolmates to understand their homework problems. So when Dumbledore offered her the chance to tutor students, she was instantly hooked.
Once Dumbledore showed her to the room, he said some things about the kitchens and how he would owl Arabella about their next meeting, and if there was anything that Arabella needed, she shouldn't hesitate to message him. After he said all of that, he left Arabella to her own devices.
When she entered the room, Arabella thought it looked fairly dull. There was a small kitchen with a living room right next to it. Then Arabella walked through the other door, which turned out to lead to her bedroom. It had a large king-size bed and a small desk with writing stationery. The room also had a small bookshelf and dresser with drawers to store clothes and such.
Due to the room being in the dungeons, Arabella had a nice view of the black lake. She could see little fish swimming around and the giant squid that was currently trying to rile up the merfolk.
Arabella had to admit that the room was large and quite comfortable, but it was missing color. With that thought, she used magic to change the color of the bedspread and the curtains to a lovely sage green color. Then she moved back into the living room and made both the couch and the armchair change from black leather to a corduroy light brown color. Moving on to the kitchen, Arabella realized that she had no food, and she made a mental note to go to the kitchen sometime later. Arabella placed all her books on the shelves and the little clothes she had put in the drawers. Arabella looked around the room and finally flopped down on her bed.
Since Arabella got to 1977, she barely had any time to think about her situation. It was insane and she never in a million years thought she would be living in the 70s. Arabella felt so out of place. She didn't belong here. Arabella longed to see Ron, Hermione, and Harry again. Every time she would close her eyes, she saw their faces, which made her miss them even more. She wondered what happened when she left.
Would they have won the war? Would Harry have died? Or was all their effort for nothing?
Arabella Goldstein felt utterly alone in this world, and she wondered if it was always meant to be that way. Her always ending up alone. Maybe the universe did hate her and wanted to make her suffer. Maybe it was karma coming back to bite her. And the worst thing was that she couldn't tell anyone. No one could understand what Arabella was going through.
She was all alone.
----
July 29, 1977
Friday
As days went on, Arabella had spent the majority of her time going to the library and reading every book about time travel, but nothing noteworthy came up.
She visited the house-elves in the kitchens and made sure to spend time with them, seeing as they were her only company. Arabella had met about a few dozen house elves by the time the week ended, but she had gotten relatively close to one named Rosy. They would spend hours upon hours talking about everything, and sometimes Arabella would read some of her short stories to her.
Currently, she was strolling through the corridors, bored out of her mind. She had already caught up on all her work. Arabella had written every important detail she could remember. From Horcrux locations to the major deaths that happened during the first wizarding world. Dumbledore had left her with all the work; it kept Arabella's mind occupied, and she didn't have time to think about her loneliness.
Just as Arabella opened the door to her room, a fantastic idea came to mind. She could spend the day in London, with Dumbledore's permission, of course. Arabella was in dire need to go shopping. She had barely any clothes left. It would give her a chance to get out of the castle and see London in all its 70s glory. She also needed to pay a visit to Diagon Alley because she was running out of books and needed to go to Gringotts.
With this plan in mind, Arabella decided to write to Dumbledore and ask for permission. She could only hope he would say yes.
After about twenty minutes of waiting for a reply, a gorgeous Patronus taking the shape of a phoenix sored into her room. It made its way to Arabella and began speaking in Dumbledore's usually cheery voice.
"Miss Goldstein! I hope you have been having a good week. Personally have been enjoying the new candy I got, acid pops. Delicious candy indeed, I must go and thank the man at Honeydukes that told me about them. Anyways, as for your request, I think it would be okay to go out to London. Make sure you go straight to Diagon Alley, and if you need any assistance, please contact me immediately. Please make sure you are aware of your surroundings; you can never be too sure. I hope you enjoy your day out. Good day!"
----
Arabella could cry out of excitement. She was so happy to be able to go out and do something normal. She hadn't been out in ages since being on the run from the ministry.
She got ready in record time, deciding to wear her black jeans and a band t-shirt. Arabella was thanking her stars that it was a Beatles shirt. She didn't want to explain why she was wearing a shirt of a band that didn't exist yet.
Arabella quickly got her bag and her boots and headed for the castle doors. Hogwarts' ghosts already knew who Arabella was due to the various chats she had with them the days prior. When she saw Nearly Headless Nick waiting for her outside the castle doors, he reminded her to be back by sundown and to be very careful. A message that Dumbledore most likely gave to him. Arabella said goodbye and was on her way.
She decided to walk to Hogsmeade and enjoy the scenery. Hogwarts had always been beautiful to her, but the last time Arabella saw the castle grounds, it was in ruins. She missed the rolling hills and the breathtaking view of the black lake. From the path she was walking on, she could see Hagrid's hut and made a mental note of visiting him.
Once Arabella got to Hogsmeade, she went straight to The three broomsticks knowing they had a fireplace connected to the floo network. After saying a quick hello to a very confused Madam Rosmerta, she got into the fireplace and said very clearly, "DIAGON ALLEY," making sure she didn't make the same mistake Harry did back in their second year.
Arriving in Diagon Alley, Arabella noticed that the wizarding community didn't change over the years. The majority of the stores were the same, only with different types of advertisements for new products or old products in Arabella's case. The street was alive with witches and wizards shopping and having a great time. It was a very different scene from the last time she saw the alley.
Since her whole family died, her parents had left Arabella with the family fortune. Before they left for the hunt, Arabella went to Gringotts and got as much money as her little pouch with an extension charm could carry, and it was a lot. So, Arabella made her way over to Gringotts bank, where she was going to open up an account of her own, seeing as she didn't exist in 1977.
Arabella was greeted with dozens of goblins working in their individual stations once she walked through the familiar gold doors. She walked over to the first available worker she could find.
"Hello, I would like to open my first account."
Without looking up from his work, the goblin said, "Name?"
"Arabella Goldstein."
"Why don't you already have an account?" he said irritably.
"Well, I just moved here from America, and I don't have family here, so I don't have an account."
Arabella was getting annoyed since the goblin wasn't even looking at her, and she was being very polite. After a few more rude questions, Arabella was able to open an account and was showed to her vault to make a deposit. Thankfully, the vault was nowhere near her parent's vault, seeing as they would have been living in London for a few years now. After making her deposit and exchanged a few of her galleons for muggle currency, Arabella apparated to a park near muggle London.
Arabella was shocked.
This London was so much different from the one she remembers. The atmosphere was vivacious. People were all over the city, going to work or going out, seeing as it was Friday. Muggles were lounging on street corners basking in the summer heat. Music could be heard from the crowded pubs and restaurants. People everywhere were wearing bright, fun colors as well as neutrals like soft browns. Arabella saw bell-bottoms and loose-fitting blouses everywhere. Men and women all having fun without a care in the world. Arabella had forgotten what it was like in the real world.
Arabella knew that the park she had gone to was very close to a shopping area called Covent Garden. She remembers going to the colorful place when she was a kid with her parents or Hermione and her family.
She entered the first clothing shop she found and saw that everything was a lot less expensive than the things she remembers buying in the 90s. With that being said, Arabella managed to get several pairs of trousers and jeans. She also bought a few shirts and blouses for work. Then she went over to the store's dress section and got a few sundresses because it was the middle of July and the weather was very hot, even in Scotland.
After paying for everything, Arabella walked out of the store with several bags of clothes in her hands. People would give her strange looks because 1) she was dressed differently from everyone else, and 2) she was a 5'4 petite girl carrying bags of clothes that she could barely handle.
Walking down the street, Arabella across a shoe store and decided to go in because her boots were starting to get holes in the soles from so much use. Inside the store, she got help from the nice lady behind the register with sizing, and Arabella walked out with a new pair of black doc martins and a pair of white high-top converse. Overall, she was thrilled with her purchases that day.
After a few hours of mindlessly walking around and shopping in different little second-hand stores, she decided to go back to the leaky cauldron and get dinner before going back to the castle.
When she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, Arabella took a seat in a booth in the far corner and brought out a book she had bought a few hours earlier at a muggle book shop. It was called One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, she thought it was very fitting for her current situation. Arabella had decided to get the Spanish version since she wanted to brush up on her mother's native language. Deciding to order some pea soup, Arabella quickly ate and left to go back to the castle after an hour of relaxing in the small pub.
----
A few hours later, Arabella sat on her sofa debating the pros and cons of cutting her hair. It was around midnight, and she was starting to get delirious. Arabella wanted to change. She was trying to let go of her past, and the first step was letting go of her hair. She had never done it before since her mother always insisted on cutting it herself. After a long 30 minutes of arguing with herself, she decided to throw all logic out the window and cut it. Arabella was ready for change as if going to the 70s wasn't a significant change already, so, she took out her wand and began cutting.
Hair circled her, and when she was done, Arabella was too scared to look in the mirror. Once she mustered enough courage, she looked in the bathroom mirror and gasped. Arabella's once long hair that reached to her lower back was now reaching up to collar bone. It wasn't short, but it was a length of hair she never had seen on herself.
Arabella found herself crying on the floor of her bathroom, not because she didn't like the haircut but because it was the last piece of herself that hadn't changed since she got to 1977. She cried for her old life. She cried for her family.
Arabella was scared.
She was scared that she would fail everyone for the second time. That she would let everyone die for a second time. She was scared for the mission she was about to embark on, finally feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders.
A/N- marauders next chapter:)
till next time,
Mira
someone new by banks