The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing how to get the eight time travellers back to their own time. It was agreed that it would be a long process, perhaps taking several weeks, as it wasn't as simple as a broken time turner. They were no closer to finding out what this ancient curse on the necklace and the jewellery box was, or who could have cast the curses on them. They were so many questions to be answered, nobody knew where to start. The Auror who'd been sent to France to check up on the jewellery box had reported back to the Order, telling them that the box was missing from everywhere they searched there as well – Fleur Delacour's house where she lived with her parents, her grandparent's houses, previous homes and businesses. They'd even searched Beauxbatons for it, somehow managing to get past Madame Maxime's security. This meant they didn't have any means of investigating the objects further – they only had the cursed versions. Several people were even willing to agree that the necklace and the jewellery box simply didn't exist in 1995, but nobody saw how that would work, since they were both antiques.
All this took them up to half past nine at night. The people from the future were flagging; they'd been through quite an ordeal in the space of one day, as had everybody else, and it was decided by Mrs Weasley that they, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George were to go upstairs and get an early night ('And no arguments!').
Rose, Lily and Victoire were put in Hermione and Ginny's room, Hugo and James were sharing with Harry and Ron, and Albus and Scorpius bagged a room to themselves that was actually quite clean. Teddy stayed up a while longer with the adults (Victoire had been ready to fall asleep on her feet, so she'd gone upstairs instead of staying with her husband) and finally fell asleep on the couch in the living room, with Remus and Tonks crashing with him as well. By midnight, the house was still and silent.
. . . / * \ . . .
Ron opened his eyes wearily, and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 2:27am. Throwing the covers back, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He crept out of the room as silently as his lanky figure would allow. Shameless snoring was coming from the direction of James and Hugo's beds.
Walking down the hallway, Ron headed towards the bathroom, shivering in the cold as goosebumps prickled on his bare arms. A thin sliver of yellow light fell on the carpet as he approached the bathroom. Someone was in there. The door was slightly ajar, and Ron could see a brown-haired boy standing at the sink.
'Hugo?' he whispered, pushing the door open. Hugo whipped round, and visibly relaxed when he saw Ron. 'You ok?'
'Hi,' he whispered back. 'I'm fine.'
'What are you doing up?' Ron asked.
'Nothing,' Hugo said; Ron noticed he was covering up his nose.
'OK then,' he shrugged. 'D'you mind –'
'Oh, yeah. Night,' Hugo said, slipping past Ron out of the bathroom. As he passed by him, Ron noticed a thin trickle of blood seeping through the fingers clutching Hugo's nose.
Ron just shook his head, and locked the door. Poor kid, he thought, I'd hate to get a nosebleed in the middle of the night.
. . . / * \ . . .
The next morning nearly everybody was up at a reasonable time. As the clock struck 10:00am, the only ones still not up were Ron, Hugo, James and Scorpius.
'Go and get them up, would you, dears?' Mrs Weasley asked. 'I don't want them missing breakfast…'
'They wouldn't survive the day without breakfast,' Victoire said, pretending to be horrorstruck, but it really was the truth.
Fred, George and Ginny decided it would be hilarious to wake Ron up using his greatest fear. 'RON, THERE'S A SPIDER ON YOUR HEAD!' the twins yelled in his ear, while Ginny made her fingers crawl across his face like a spider. Ron shot up and shrieked – yes, shrieked, like a girl – 'WHERETHESPIDERGO?' and fell of his bed. Hugo and James sat up groggily.
'Whu goon un?' James asked, his words incomprehensible. He saw Ron on the floor, groaning in pain, and cracked a smile. It didn't matter why he was down there, just the fact that he was in pain seemed to be hilarious to James.
In Al and Scorpius' room, Scorpius wasn't even snoring. He was completely and utterly dead to the world – in fact, if someone who didn't know any better walked in they'd think he was dead. That fact that he was extremely pale and you could hardly see him breathe when he was sleeping didn't help. James and Fred had started a rumour that Scorpius was a vampire in Scorpius' third year at Hogwarts. There were many jokes that amused them no end that nobody else really got.
Albus and Rose tiptoed into Scorpius' room, not that there was any need for it, and on the count of three, ripped back the duvet that covered the lump they supposed was Scorpius. A whoosh of freezing cold air followed this, and Rose had to stifle her giggles at the sight of Scorpius lying there in his bright green boxers. (AN: Yum… lol. And yes, I've decided Scorpius wears bright green boxers. Deal with it.)
Albus glanced at his cousin, rolled his eyes, and threw the duvet back over Scorpius again before she could do anymore ogling. The pair began hitting him with his own pillows, taking turns to whack his face.
'Ow – ouch!' they heard eventually, after about five minutes of this. 'My face! My nose! You're gonna bruise it! Who is that?'
'Morning!' Al said cheerfully.
'Nice boxers,' Rose giggled. 'Very macho.'
Scorpius shrunk under the covers so only his eyes and the top of his head were visible, and the strands of platinum blonde hair sticking up randomly. 'What the bloody hell did you need to do that for?'
'We didn't need to,' Al grinned, and they both left the room quickly, leaving a fuming Scorpius alone.
When everybody was finally downstairs and had eaten, Mr Weasley, Tonks and Bill hurried off to work, and Remus to do something for the Order. Discussion soon turned to what they were going to do today.
'Quidditch,' most people suggested, but as they weren't anywhere near a Quidditch pitch and Sirius wasn't allowed out of the house, that was out of the question.
'How about we all help with –' Mrs Weasley started, but was cut off by her son.
'No cleaning, Mum,' Fred said. 'I found out yesterday I'm going to die, do you really want me to waste a few precious days on cleaning a house that will never be clean even if we use Kreacher's head as a toiletbrush?'
Mrs Weasley burst into tears. Fred's face fell as he realised what he'd said. 'Oh – no, Mum, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that - I didn't think – Mum, please don't cry.' Fred awkwardly tried to comfort his mother, who only sobbed harder at the reminder that her son was going to die.
It took ten minutes to console Mrs Weasley, though nobody really felt as upbeat as they had done just a little while ago.
'Will Mum and Dad be missing us back home?' Lily asked suddenly.
James frowned. 'Wouldn't time just kind of, stop, for them? Until we get back or until… we catch up with our normal time.'
Teddy nodded. 'I think James is right.'
Everyone stared at him like he'd grown an extra head and was doing the Irish jig.
'Well, he might be,' Teddy reasoned, and everybody breathed audible sighs of relief, at which James huffed. The world wasn't going to end, after all. 'Either time is frozen for them, or they're going ballistic as we speak. It depends on the curse, I would think.'
'Does anyone have a mobile phone on them?' Rose asked. Scorpius looked at her oddly.
'A what?' he repeated.
'It's a Muggle device,' she explained hastily. 'Vic's got one and so have Hugo and I.'
'I want one, but Mum doesn't trust them,' Lily complained, looking pointedly at Ginny. The girl in question looked bewildered, eyes wide.
'I'm not your mum yet, remember?' she reminded Lily. Lily made a 'harrumph' noise and crossed her arms – this obviously was not a good enough excuse. Rose giggled.
'I haven't got mine on me,' Victoire said, patting her jeans and checking her pockets.
'Neither have I,' Rose said.
'I do,' Hugo said, producing his slim black phone. Scorpius regarded it with caution, as if it might explode any second. 'Although, to be honest, I don't know if it's possible to get a signal twenty-odd years in the past… in a house surrounded by magic… which is actually hidden from sight.'
'Just try it, Hugo,' Albus sighed impatiently.
'I'll call Dad, he'll shout less,' Hugo decided wisely. 'Mum will probably throw a fit and end up in St Mungo's, or something.' He had forgotten Hermione and Ron were in the room. The latter glanced at Hermione, who avoided his eyes. It was strange to be talked about like this.
Hugo held the phone to his ear once he'd chosen 'Dad' from his contacts list, confusing Scorpius even more ('Are you supposed to talk through your ear?'). Half a minute later, he shook his head. 'Doesn't even recognise the number,' he told the group.
'To be honest, I would have been surprised if it had worked,' Teddy shrugged. 'We can only hope that they don't know we're gone.'
'Teddy…' Lily said slowly. 'We're not going to be stuck here forever, are we?'
'Course not, Lilyflower,' Teddy reassured her, managing a smile that seemed to put her at ease. He exchanged a look with Victoire, and her eyes widened as she realised that Teddy didn't have a clue what they were going to do.
'Right, well, we just need something to take our minds off this,' Mrs Weasley said as brightly as she could. 'It's a lovely day, after all!' People glanced towards the window above the sink, which was blacked out. A thin sliver of natural light fell through it, but that was it.
'Quidditch!' James said immediately.
'James, we've already said, we can't play Quidditch, we don't have the space,' Teddy sighed irritably.
'We could,' Hermione said suddenly. 'If we… yes… that might work…'
'Hello?' Ron waved his hand in front of her face. Her eyes snapped back to him.
'I was just thinking we could enlarge one of the bigger rooms – isn't there that massive spare room on the third floor? – and transform it into a Quidditch pitch,' Hermione explained. 'But do you really want to play Quidditch that much?'
'Yes!' James exclaimed. 'I'm suffering from… Quidditch-withdrawal.'
'Really?' Rose asked in a concerned voice. 'That sounds serious. Maybe we should take you to St Mungo's, where there are conveniently no Quidditch pitches or broomsticks within sight, and have them drop a Quaffle on your head multiple times to knock some sense into you.'
James glared. 'It is serious!' he protested, turning to everyone else. 'Aren't I right?'
Harry, Ron, Sirius, Fred and George nodded their agreement. Ginny looked genuinely torn, while everyone else rolled their eyes. They all (save for Hermione and Victoire) loved Quidditch, but James was… well, obsessed.
'Right, well, let's turn this house into a Quidditch pitch!' Sirius said eagerly.
'We can't keep it like that, Sirius,' Hermione pointed out.
'I know,' Sirius scowled. 'But it's been ages since I played. I'd die to get on a broom again.'
'Well, I think we should at least wait until Mr Weasley, Bill, Remus and Tonks get back,' Hermione said. 'We can't do magic, anyway, we're underage.'
So the rest of the day was spent cleaning Grimmauld Place – Mrs Weasley wasn't letting them get off on that one – but with the arrival of the eight time travellers, it was actually fun for once. It was the perfect opportunity to just talk and for the 1995 people to get to know their future kids and what life was like – what all their friends did, what happened to their teachers and so on. They had enough sense not to ask awkward questions. It was an odd moment when Albus revealed that Voldemort was defeated – a mixture between elation and sadness, because while it was the best news anybody had heard in a very long time, especially after the events of fourth year, and they had been expecting it, they also now knew the costs of the war and their victory.
Mr Weasley, Remus and Bill got back mid-afternoon. Tonks had been held back at work. After James had explained (begged) their Quidditch pitch idea, Mr Weasley and Bill had been all for it, but Remus wasn't so excited.
'Do you know how absurd that is?' he tried to tell Sirius. 'And where are we going to get so many broomsticks from? And equipment? And why bother?'
But seeing how excited his best friend was to finally play Quidditch again, Remus gave in. The magic required to turn the biggest spare room into a Quidditch pitch (a small version, of course) was complicated and advanced, but between them, the adults managed to produce a temporary pitch that was perfectly capable of being played on. Harry had his Firebolt with him in his room, but everyone else had to have conjured-up broomsticks. They weren't amazing brooms, but then again, they had literally appeared from thin air. Sirius found an old set of Quidditch balls in the attic, and sooner than anyone expected, they were all set up to play.
The team captains were, after much arguing and shouting, chosen as Bill and Rose. Rose played Keeper, and she chose Fred and George as her Beaters, Scorpius, Lily and Ginny as her Chasers and Harry as her Seeker.
'Rose!' Albus gaped at her, looking deepy offended. 'I feel betrayed! I'm your best friend!'
'Yeah, but Uncle Harry's the one with the Firebolt,' she shrugged, causing everyone to crack up.
This left Bill, who was playing Chaser, with Remus and James as his other two Chasers, Ron as his Keeper, Albus as his Seeker and Hugo, Sirius and Teddy as his Beaters, as they had one too many people.
'Wait, our team is all guys,' Hugo said. 'I say we swap James for Lily.'
'No! No way is James corrupting my team!' Rose cried.
'Fine, have it your way,' Hugo said, 'but don't throw a tantrum when we win.'
'Hugo!' Rose yelled. 'Take that back right now! If that was intended to be sexist, I swear I will –'
'Let's play,' Bill said quickly. Victoire, Hermione and Mr Weasley, who were sitting on the sidelines looking bored already (or Victoire and Hermione were) looked at them.
'One, two, three, blast off – I mean, go! Or fly – or something,' Victoire called, looking confused.
'That'll do, Vic!' Teddy grinned, as the fifteen players shot up into the air on their brooms. Ron and Rose flew to the hoops on either end of the mini pitch, and the rest circled the pitch. Hermione, Mr Weasley and Victoire – after much struggling – released all the balls and went to sit back down and watch the game.
'And it's Ginny away with the Quaffle!' Victoire shouted. 'She's speeding towards Ron – pass to Lily – wow, they do look really similair. It's going to be hard to keep track. Anyway, Lily still has the Quaffle – James dives in from above her and snatches it from her. James Potter now with the Quaffle – or in possession of it, or something…'
While Victoire struggled with her barely adequate Quidditch vocabulary, James was flying towards Rose, dodging Ginny, Lily and Scorpius with three quick turns. Before anyone had time to react, James had crashed headfirst into Rose and neatly put the Quaffle through the hoop.
'JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!' Victoire shrieked. 'I saw that! When we get home, Aunt Hermione and your mother will be hearing about this! And that goal didn't count, by the way – is it a goal? Is that what it's called?'
Rose was making some rather interesting hand gestures at James, and Scorpius was yelling at him.
'Back to the game!' Mr Weasley said hurriedly.
Rose's team were awarded a penalty for James' foul. Ginny took it, putting it neatly past Ron through the left hoop.
'10-0 to Rose's team!' Victoire shouted.
In the next five minutes, Ginny scored once more, Lily once and Scorpius twice. It was now 50-0 to Rose's team. Bill's team were losing badly already.
'And it's James with the Quaffle, Potter speeds up the field – please don't try to kill Rose again, James, attempted murder never looks good to a potential employer – and he scores! Fifty-ten to Rose's team! Er – Teddy – what are you doing? Oh, Teddy, are you sure you want to play? I really think it would be safer for everyone if you didn't.'
After ten minutes and more ruthless but excellent flying from James, Rose's team still led ninety-sixty. 'Fred, George, NO ASSUALTING THE CHASER! Did Rose tell you to do that? AND NO ATTACKING THE KEEPER EITHER!'
Ginny sped past Remus and before he could blink, the Quaffle had vanished from his arms. Ginny put one past Ron again, but only ten seconds later Bill scored past Rose, then again, then again. It was now one hundred-ninety. Hugo whacked a Bludger in Scorpius' direction, and the Quaffle he'd been flying towards just slipped through of his fingers, giving Bill a perfect chance to snatch it. He scored the fourth goal in a row, making the score one hundred-one hundred.
'Wait – is that the snitch?' Victoire asked suddenly. 'It is – it's the snitch, and Harry's seen it! Harry Potter's after the snitch! Oh – sorry, Harry, shouldn't have said hat… no, Al, he's making a bogus dive! Don't fall for it! Turn around! Oh, crap.'
Harry and Albus were now hot on the heels of the Snitch, both constantly overtaking each other.
'It's a game of cat and mouse now,' Victoire was shouting. 'Come on, Uncle Harry! I mean, sorry, Al, Dad - I just want Rose's team to win – Harry's caught the Snitch! Or is that Albus? I can't see from over here, they look exactly the same!'
A few seconds later, someone shot up into the air, holding the Snitch in their fist. Now Victoire could see the broom properly. It was a Firebolt.
'HARRY POTTER'S CAUGHT THE SNITCH!' she yelled. 'ROSE'S TEAM WINS! Bad luck, Al – wait, what's wrong with Lily?'
Lily wasn't concentrating on her flying – she was slowly falling to the ground. A couple of people flew to help her. Once on the ground, Victoire, Hermione, and Mr Weasley rushed over to them.
'What's wrong?' Hermione demanded.
'She's bleeding,' Ginny said breathlessly, one arm around the girl's shoulders. 'Quite a bit.' Lily's hand was covering her nose, and blood was seeping out of it. It wasn't gushing out, but still, it looked to be a fair amount.
'James hit her,' Albus accused angrily. The other players were landing now and coming over to see what was wrong.
'I didn't hit her on purpose!' James protested, looking genuinely scared for his little sister. 'It was an accident, and it wasn't even that hard, I swear!'
'I don't care,' Albus scowled. 'Lily's hurt, and it's your fault, accident or not.'
Victoire had gone very pale. 'Blood…' she said slowly, staring at Lily. 'Need to… go…'
She ran from the huge room, and Teddy grimaced. 'Sorry, she hates blood,' he apologised on behalf of his wife, and jogged after her to see if she was alright.
If the vomiting noises they heard in the distance were any indication, she really wasn't.