Time Twisted Fate

Chapter 3 ~ How Time Works

After a Second year lesson, Lila slipped through a side door and onto the magical lift that saved her walking nine floors, and cautiously lifted herself out of the window seat at the top. Then, she went into her room, and looked through her things for her photo album. It contained the only picture of her mother her father had ever possessed, and stared at it. The woman in the picture smiled and waved at her. She now looked oddly familiar. She looked like that boy, Draco......... no. It wasn't possible. Was it?

Lila closed the album and threw it into the largest pit of her trunk, as if she never wanted to see it again. Rage filled her at what her father had done to her mother. It was worse than killing her. And he made her watch the whole thing. She had to force herself not to scream at the sight. Her mother had been happy in her new life, husband, one-year old kid, they were all annihilated.

Lila's memory wandered from this time, and went to the past. It was one of her first times using the time turner and she hadn't been too sure. It was the day after her sixteenth birthday, and her father had allowed her to use it.

*FLASHBACK*

After the dizzy sensation of whizzing through time, she arrived in a bush, outside a house. She could recognize the woman in the garden as the same one from her photo. She was only three years older, at the latest. So her mother had abandoned her time, and her baby, to come to here. Then Lila's eyes clouded, as she saw the sight that she had seen so many times before. The hooded ones. Black hoods and a black mask covered the people that everyone, everywhere, feared. They were feared enough in Lila's own, original time, so how much terror had they caused with more years?

It was then that Lila realized that she didn't know exactly how many years she had traveled into the future. Sinking back into the thick bush, she fiddled with the time turner until it said. Seventeen years from her sixteenth birthday. Her father was now thirty-three. And causing more pain than years of war. This approach was one that Lila hadn't seen before, a direct approach. The apparent leader simply walked up to the front garden and blasted the gate away. As if he knew where Lila was hiding, he walked up to her and hissed,

"Ah, here's my pretty little daughter, the day she went time exploring." Lila knew at once that he had changed. He roughly pulled her out of the bush and threw her to one of his minions. "Keep hold of her. I want her to know what happens." Lila knew that struggling was no good, so she just went limp. By now, the family enjoying a picnic in the back garden had heard the sound of the gate being destroyed, and had hurried out to the front. The husband gasped, and his wand hand shook. The woman hugged her baby tighter, but stood firmly and greeted the monster that Lila knew as her father.

"Tom." He laughed.

"Ah. Cassandra, my LOVE," he said sarcastically. "You still remember me. How charming. I see that your new Time Era has provided you with all the things that I could not. A husband AND a baby? My my, you have done well." The hood dropped, and the mask was removed with pale fingers. The man who emerged from it was distorted, and Cassandra gasped. "I see you have noticed my facial changes. Now note that my name is Lord Voldemort. NOTHING ELSE." He spat at her. Cassandra was at least fifteen years younger that the hideous being who claimed to be her former lover, due to the fact that she had moved herself fifteen years into the future, hoping to never meet her ex again. However, now they had met, the age gap had widened, and 'Tom' no longer cared for her anymore. So he got rid of her.

*BACK TO THE PRESENT*

Forcefully jerking herself out of the nightmare she had had for a year now, Lila tried to find something to take her mind off her mother. She decided to look around the common rooms. This time walking, Lila strode quickly to the Gryffindor common room, which was the closest, and muttered, 'Wugglemump' to the Fat Lady and entered. Since during her own time at Hogwarts, she had had private tutoring, this meant that Lila didn't know what any of the common rooms looked like, so she was amazed by what she saw.

However, she decided not to show it, and wandered aimlessly around, hoping someone would notice her. Luckily, they did. "Oy! Over here!" hollered Harry over the noise of Fred and George blowing up someone's homework. Gratefully, she leapt over someone's stray boots and made her way through the chaos to Harry and his friends, who were playing Exploding Snap.

"Hi," she said cheerfully, settling in on an armchair.

"Hi. Returned Harry, and introduced his friends. "Umm........ This is Ron, and Hermione." The other two deserted their game and greeted her.

"Umm......... hi......... Professor," muttered Ron, not quite comfortable being in the presence of a teacher, even if she was the same age as them. Lila snorted.

"I'm only 'Professor' during lessons, and my name's Lila. Lila Ri- LaRousse." Hermione looked at her.

"Ri? What where you going to say then?" Lila bit her tongue and quickly searched for an excuse.

"I was going to say Rebecca, but since I have four middle names, I decided to just say my surname. Anyway, my FULL name, is Lila Rebecca Amy Cassandra Xanthe LaRousse." Thankfully, Hermione seemed to buy it. That should teach me to be careful! Thought Lila. "So, anyway, please don't call me professor, it sounds so weird. To everyone, I'm just Lila." Ron nodded. "Umm......... by the way, I was wondering, well, could you like, update me on stuff, coz well, I've just skipped thirty or so years of life, and I uh, somehow think that my broom isn't the fastest in the world anymore.

As soon as she got onto the subject of brooms, both Ron and Harry were only too happy to talk. Hermione, meanwhile, disappeared and then reappeared with a large, dusty old book, and was scanning it for something. When she had found it, she slammed the book down onto the table and glared at Lila.

"I know who you really are."