As we walked in silence, I kept my eyes on the back of Snape's billowing robe. It kept me from having to make eye contact with any of the students on the way to wherever we were going. As we descended down into the castle and it gradually got darker and spookier, I began to panic.
"Sir? Where, exactly, are you taking me?"
"To get answers, Miss Branson."
"And we have to come all the way down here to do that?"
He stopped so fast I almost ran into him. "I've been given strict instructions by our Headmaster and you are in no position to question those instructions. I think it best for everyone that, from this point on, you only speak when spoken to. Is that clear, Miss Branson?"
"But--"
"Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." No matter what I knew about this story, I was starting to hate Snape.
He spun around and continued to walk toward what ended up being his classroom. "Sit," he ordered as soon as we walked in, pointing toward a large, brown leather chair that was sitting off to the side of his dimly-lit room. With a flick of his wand, the door shut and locked behind him.
"I'm a bit scared, Professor," I admitted, hoping he'd tell me what was going on.
"As you should be."
Well, that didn't help me feel any better. "What are you going to do?" They'd already given me the truth serum, so I racked my brain for another potion he might be about to force on me.
"Since you claim to know what's going on here, I assume you know what Legilimency is?"
"Oh, no. You're going to read my mind."
"You are so naive," he scoffed. "What do you know about Legilimency?"
"Well, I know you're a skilled Legilimens and that you end up using it on Harry to teach him Occlumency so he could keep Volde--He Who Must Not Be Named out of his head." Yes, being on this side of the story, I was afraid to say his name.
Snape's expression wavered, but only for a moment. "How do you know these things?"
I swallowed hard. "I think you're about to find out, aren't you, sir?"
He yanked a chair from beside the table at the center of his room and slammed it down in front of me, quickly taking a seat in it. "I want you to look into my eyes and clear your mind of all thoughts. Don't fight me because you can't and it will only become painful for you."
Before I knew what hit me, I was gone, seeing flashes of my life play like a movie inside my head, one after the other. I was little, running through the grass with Apple. In the next scene, Apple was crying and I was comforting her. Then, I was reading my first Harry Potter book. Sarah Dupont was laughing at the new shoes Mom had bought me, which I loved. I never wore them again, after that. Dad was yelling at me for making a bad grade. We were all laughing at my grandmother because her teeth flew out of her mouth when she sneezed. The laughing turned to sobs because we were all crying at her funeral. I was reading Harry Potter, again. My dog died. Another Harry Potter book. Mom was hugging me. Dad squirted me with the water hose. We were all riding in the car, tired from the long trip. We were at Universal Studios. I was in Diagon Alley--the fake one. We were riding rides. We got on the ride that had transported me here. I was falling... falling... falling. I was on Oliver's broom. I was in the hospital wing. I was with Oliver at the Owlery. We were in the dark, heading to the real Diagon Alley. I felt my heart racing as he held my hand.
Then I was back, in the leather chair, breathing as if I'd just physically done all the things I'd seen inside my head. "Please, don't do that again." I felt a tear run down my face, some of the sad memories still lingering.
"How can this be?" He stood up and crossed his room, only to turn around and pace back and forth. "Even in our world... you shouldn't be here." He changed directions but kept pacing. "And those books. I can't see inside them." He stopped and looked at me. "What do they contain? Does he return?" He quickly crossed the room and knelt down in front of me. "Does... he... return?"
I knew exactly who he was talking about. "Um... I don't think we need to talk about this."
He grabbed my arms, shaking me slightly. His grasp didn't hurt, but I still felt tears well up in my eyes like it had. "The books I saw with Harry's name on them. They are of things that have come to pass?" he questioned.
"Yes. Well, they have where I come from. Here, though, I think it's happening, now. Somehow, I'm in the books."
"Tell me about them."
"Well, the first one starts now, Harry's first year here at Hogwarts. They follow him through all his years at Hogwarts."
"Why Potter?"
"It's his story."
"So, they are biographies of his life at Hogwarts?"
"No, the story is entirely fiction, made up by J.K. Rowling. Actually, it's one of the most well-known children's stories of all time. Everyone that I know has heard of it, either from the books or the movies."
"Movies?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, books, movies, Funko Pops, games, cards, candy, clothes, an entire amusement park. Harry Potter is everywhere."
"Then answer my question, Miss Branson. Does the Dark Lord return?"
I shook my head. "I'm not telling you that. What if I change it? What if the things I say change everything?"
"It depends on how the story ends, Miss Branson, and that's something I need to decide for myself." His words made me think about his death. I doubt that would be something he'd decide needed to happen, in the end, but we--the readers--knew it did.
"Well, it... it ends really good, however, there's a lot of pain and loss up until then. But some of that has to happen for it to end the way it does. I'm afraid I'll change it. What if something I tell you causes you to react differently and it changes things? What if Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone becomes Harry Potter and the Turban King?"
"The sorcerer's stone? How do you...?" He stood up. "This is far more involved than I could ever have imagined. Come with me."
Once again, everyone looked at us as we passed, so I kept my head down, trying not to listen to the whispers. After the memories I'd just been forced to relive, I couldn't take it... any of it. By the time we walked into Professor Dumbledore's office, I was in tears, on the verge of ugly crying.
"Professor Dumbledore, I know you wanted to separate yourself from the issue at hand, and for good reason, however, this is far beyond anything I could've imagined. This girl has the power to either save or damn us all and, at this moment in time, I haven't a clue as to which."
Dumbledore leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his desk. "Willow, please have a seat." He motioned toward a colorful glass bowl sitting in front of me. "Have a lemon drop. I'm sure it will lift your spirits. They always do mine in times of worry."
"No, thank you." Then I realized what I'd just refused. "On second thought...." I took one. "Thank you." He was right. It did make me feel better.
"Severus, would you like one?"
Snape whipped his robes around and rushed to Dumbledore's side, ignoring his offer. "She knows about the sorcerer's stone. How could a muggle from America who just arrived know about such things? How can she read about a story that has yet to happen?"
"Calm down, Severus. You, of all people, should be accustomed to matters such as this."
He crossed his arms. "We have never experienced a matter such as this." His voice was low and monotone. "You can't possibly say that in all your years at Hogwarts you have ever come across someone who appears to have traveled here from the future. Not even Professor Trelawney could possibly foresee the things this muggle child knows."
I felt compelled to remind him I wasn't a child but let it go. There were more important things to worry about, right now, than how he perceived me.
"This is true," Dumbledore replied as his eyes sparkled back in my direction.
Snape glared at me for several seconds, like all of this was my fault, before looking back at Dumbledore. "I'm unable to see what is in these books she speaks of, only that she's read them. I think we need to extract her memories."
"That would be a great invasion of her privacy, Severus. I'm not willing to do that, just yet."
"Just yet?" I asked, but they ignored me.
"Unless there is something inside those particular memories that will help us get her back to where she came from, there's no need. Knowing the future will only inhibit our abilities to live in the present, possibly disrupting the course of time. That, my dear friend, could be catastrophic."
"Or," Snape argued, "it could save us all the pain she said we'll endure if we let things continue as they may. We've seen the devastation and loss of life he can cause. Why let history repeat itself if we can change it?"
"But can we change it?" Dumbledore asked, fiddling with a small contraption on his desk that looked like the solar system. "And if we can, should we?"
He stopped one of the planets from moving, but the others kept rotating around the small glowing light of a sun in the center. After several seconds of silently watching the planets in their orbit, I knew what was going to happen.
"They're going to collide, sir," I said, even though I assumed he already knew.
"Exactly," he agreed, and they did, causing a tiny explosion on his desk. "We may prevent one catastrophe from happening, but it can indeed cause more, even greater, catastrophes to occur. That's why time mustn't be meddled with. It's a fickle thing." With one flick of his wand, he fixed his miniature solar system. "I would like to know, however, why you would bring up the sorcerer's stone." He was looking at me, so I knew I was the one he was waiting on to answer.
"Well, um..." I thought about what happens in the first book and if it was safe to tell them, but then I remembered who I was talking to. "Voldemort--" I covered my mouth like I'd accidentally burped. "I'm sorry. I mean He Who Must Not Be Named wants the stone."
"There's no need to apologize for using his name. It is simply a name, after all."
I still didn't want to say it; not here. "Anyway, Professor Quirrell is hiding him under his turban. He'll make his way into the dungeons, and so will Harry, who ends up with the stone. When Quirrell tries to take it, Harry will... well, he touches him. When he does, it kills him. Quirrell, not-" I lowered my voice to a whisper "--Voldemort. His spirit, or whatever he is, now, gets away."
Snape seemed irate. "We must pull this information out of her," he demanded before turning his attention toward me. "If that happens in the first book, what happens in the next one?"
I swallowed hard, knowing something very important happens in that one. "Harry unknowingly destroys the first Horcrux."
Dumbledore sat up. "The first Horcrux?" Snape seemed confused but remained silent.
"Yes, there are seven," I admitted, knowing I shouldn't but unable to stop myself. "The first is Tom Riddle's diary and the second is his grandfather's ring." Yes, it may help Harry and the entire wizarding world, but it could completely destroy Harry Potter as we know it. "I can't tell you any more. I'm sorry, but I can't. Like you said, time shouldn't be meddled with and there's no way I can tell you what I know without you acting on it in some way."
"But we must act," Snape argued, all the while Dumbledore eyed me without saying a word.
"I want to tell you everything I know but I'm afraid it will change the story forever." I waved my hands around at the things his office, as well as at both of them. "This story. As tragic or sad as some of it may be, it's still part of the story. We need those bad parts to get to the good ones."
Dumbledore leaned back in his seat. "You are so right, Willow. Sadly, we do need the bad to get to the good, at times." Snape started to say something, but Dumbledore held up his hand. "It is not up to us to decide if this is one of those times, Severus." He looked at Snape over his glasses. "We must let things happen as they may. As you said, she may very well hold the key to our world's salvation, however, who's to say that key won't also open a door that was never meant to be opened? A door that leads to an outcome far worse than the original? A door we won't be able to shut?"
Snape sighed and looked a bit defeated. "If that is all...." And with a flip of his robes, he walked out.
"You'll have to excuse Severus," Dumbledore said. "If you know what you say you know, then you should know why he is the way he is."
"Yes, but he needs to, I don't know, not be a butthole. I mean, yeah, I understand why he has to keep up this persona that he's still working for You Know Who and can't be all rainbows and butterflies, but dang. Why be so rude, especially to me? He doesn't even know me."
Dumbledore smiled, but his voice was stern. "Respect Professor Snape and refrain from calling him names. No matter what you think you may know of him, you can't possibly know his entire story from merely reading a book. Some stories are simply too much to tell."
As much as I adored Dumbledore, I could feel the power he possessed, which was extremely intimidating. "Yes, sir."
He looked at me over his glasses and I knew exactly what Harry had meant when he said he thought Dumbledore could read his mind because I could feel it, too. I didn't think he actually was, since nothing was happening--no memory flashes of my life assaulting me--but it sure did feel like it.
"I trust you, Willow, and will do everything in my power to get you back home, but I do have one question to ask."
Oh, no. "Okay."
"Where does Harry destroy the first Horcrux?"
I swallowed hard. "In the Chamber of Secrets."
"In the Chamber of Secrets," he repeated, his expression never faltering. "So, it will, indeed, be opened once again?"
I nodded. "I'm afraid so." I wanted to tell him everything else that was going to happen but resisted. I'd already told him too much.
"Very well, Willow. You may return to your common room. In the meantime, I will be working on how we're going to get rid of you," he added with a smirk.
"Thank you." I stood to leave but stopped at his door. "It ends well."
"Excuse me?" he asked, looking up from his desk.
"The story of Harry Potter... it ends well."
He nodded. "As it should."
And with that, I headed back to Gryffindor tower, keeping my head down and not looking at anyone, blocking out their whispers as I passed by. It's funny how I'd always wanted to live inside the world of Harry Potter but, now that I was here, I wanted nothing more than to go home.