"I'm thinking I should take that volume back up, crack its spine and refresh my memory," River murmured, oblivious to the stares she was receiving. The sage had scurried from the room as fast as she could, leaving River's stunned companions behind.
"What?" Inara asked, voice strangled.
"Sometimes even I need to read to help remind myself," she said, looking up from the book she had retrieved from the sage's shelf.
"What was that all about?" Jayne thundered.
"Someone needed to remind her of her duty," River replied placidly, tracing the book's cover with her fingers. "It's been five hundred years, after all."
"What happened five hundred years ago?" Ginny asked, voice faint. "Why didn't she want to help me?"
"She believed it would do more harm than good to send you back," River said primly. She moved to the shelves and found another small volume. She took it down to read.
"You never seemed... like that before," Jayne said somewhat lamely.
River looked up in surprise. "No?" He shook his head. "Oh. Perhaps my speech was too altered."
Jayne didn't seem to accept that explanation, but he let the topic drop.
Ginny had been turning over the sage's words in her mind. "I don't understand how sending me back would be harmful. That's where I've got to be."
"There must be a reason," Inara temporized.
"Some feel that removing then re-inserting someone into the time stream is harmful. You would pollute it with knowledge from the future. That was certainly your intent," River stated. "In her mind, you were always meant to be here. You were always meant to fail."
Ginny's eyes were wide. "That can't be true."
"I think you are exactly where you are meant to be, in the time you were meant to be." River opened the larger of the two books in her hands and looked at the glyphs on the pages. It looked like she could read it. "Sometimes things happen for a reason. Patterns and loops, whorls of fate. Nothing magic is by accident, but by sheer force of will."
"You think so?"
"I know so. That's what magic is. At its core is the ability to manipulate time and space and matter, making it dance to your will."
"Dance?" Inara asked, voice laced with confusion.
River did a pirouette as much on pointe as she could do in combat boots. "Yes."
"So does this mean you're magic?" Jayne asked after a moment.
"I don't know. But I know other witchy things."
Jayne looked to the door uneasily. He didn't like how long it was taking the sage to return. He watched River blithely take two more books from the shelves, wondering what she was up to. It might not be a good thing to leave a psychotic psychic alone in a library.
"What's taking her so long?" Ginny asked, echoing Jayne's unspoken thoughts.
"She tarries until she can work up the proper courage to refuse us again," River said, turning. She had the four books in hand. "Here, shrink these to size. I have what we need to begin again."
"You're going to take them?" Ginny asked, horrified.
"She's not reading them, so she won't miss them." River winked at Jayne. "This would not be proper crime without theft."
Jayne frowned. "It wasn't supposed ta be crime, though." He looked around, eyes falling on the desk. He caught sight of the richly decorated objects casually laid out. "I don't suppose they'll miss a thing or two, though."
"We can't!" Inara hissed, rushing to Jayne's side as he began to pocket items.
"They are actually very necessary," River insisted. "We cannot operate in a vacuum."
"What vacuum? What operation?"
"We will send Ginny back ourselves and correct the time stream."
Inara was deathly pale. "Is that even possible?"
"We send her back where we found her, by the well. It's the last vestige of the castle."
"Might be nice, livin' in a castle," Jayne mused.
"It's drafty in Gryffindor Tower," Ginny replied automatically, dazed. They were going to send her back. She would be able to go home again.
"Ginny?" Inara asked, voice almost fragile. She was frightened of magic, having grown up with stories of spells gone wrong. "We shouldn't..."
"Let's do it," Ginny said, looking at River and Inara. "Let's fix this."
Mr. Universe's moon was quiet and still, echoing with painful memories. River pointedly did not speak with Wash's ghost, who had been uncomfortable with returning there. Ginny hadn't been to the bridge at all, so River was unable to tell if she was the only one able to see ghosts. Ginny had spoken of the House ghosts at Hogwarts, but magic worked differently. River's gifts were a hollow shell compared to Ginny's magic, even in its muted and subdued capacity. If she had the same ability to manipulate matter... Well, that was likely what the Academy had been trying to recreate. Imagine a troupe of psychic and magical assassins. Imagine the damage done without a touch, without a trace to track down.
She would have been truly dangerous if they had been able to unlock the secrets to magic.
River led the way to the stone well, still full of water. Ginny shivered at the sight of it, an innocuous pile of rock that had nearly killed her. She still remembered kicking against the dark water, lungs filling with fluid and heart filling with panic. She remembered thinking she was about to die. "It looks like Trelawney's tower," she murmured. Then she looked up at Mal and Zoe, who were watching her warily. "But smaller. Kind of."
"That a person?" Zoe asked. Her voice was full of harsh edges and pain, and Ginny hadn't felt comfortable asking after its source.
"Was, I guess. She taught Divinations." At their blank look, Ginny hurried to explain. "The ways to tell the future. Tea leaves, crystal balls, tarot cards, dowsing... We all used to say it was all rot, but she might have been right after all. She once told me my future was full of travel and water, and that I had to be careful of water."
"Your element is fire," River said, extending the shrunken books toward Ginny. "Of course you would have to be careful of water. But it will also have to be careful of you."
"Engorgio," Ginny said, pointing her wand at the books. They enlarged to full size in River's hands, and she could hear the gasps from the others. Inara and Jayne had seen what magic could do, however weak it was. The others hadn't.
"Can we do this?" Simon asked, brow furrowed. He turned to each of the others in turn. "I mean, she's the only one that's magic, and she's the one that has to go back. How will the rest of us perform the spell if we haven't got any magic?"
"We'll have enough," River said with certainty. "We can do this."
Sometimes I think I'm dreaming, Ginny thought, watching River begin to chalk a large circle around the well. She remembered Hermione doing the same thing – it had been three weeks ago, Ginny wanted to say, three weeks and five hundred years – and the sound of chalk on stone was somewhat comforting. Ron, let me do this. You won't get it right, and something will go frightfully wrong, Hermione had said.
Yes, something had all right.
But maybe something good would come out of it. Ginny thought of the kiss she had shared with River, the memory of Draco the other girl had pulled from her lips. Her lips ached to be kissed again. She closed her eyes and thought of Draco. Maybe he loved her after all. Maybe River would find happiness with someone like Jayne if he couldn't be the one for her. Maybe Kaylee was right, and it was all a function of time and patience. Maybe the three weeks she had spent in time and space would help her realize all that she could be.
She wasn't as weak as her family sometimes thought she was. She wasn't the one that had to be hidden away so Harry could go off and save the Wizarding World. She wasn't the one that had to be left behind because she couldn't contribute.
Ginny opened her eyes and saw River chalking glyphs around the circle. They were the same as Hermione's glyphs, and her wrist movements were the same. Who had River been descended from? Would it be too much to hope that something of Hermione had survived five hundred years? Would it be too much to hope that something could be done to save the past?
Sometimes it's a girl that's a savior, not a boy, River had said. She had also been certain that Ginny had come to the future for a reason.
River held the book in her hands and began to chant, the same way Ron had done. Even so, you're not the same. Nothing's the same. I'm not the same girl that came running forward. The girl that's racing back is different, sure she can win this.
River met Ginny's eyes as she chanted, and the others were clustered behind her. Ginny could see Serenity behind them, and she could remember the feel of the bed she had slept on for the past three weeks. It had felt like the Burrow when she was caught up in dreams. It had been a home of sorts, someplace safe to be.
I've lost myself again but found a friend to understand and wrap me up and keep me safe and this time I know I won't get hurt...
The spell lines rose from the floor, much as they had five hundred years ago when Ron had chanted the spell. River's voice was sure and clear. She knew what she was doing.
Tom, I won't let you break me. It doesn't matter what name you have now or what you look like. It's over, it's done. I won't be frightened of you anymore.
The spell lines rapidly shrunk inward and wrapped themselves around Ginny.
I had friends here. They protected me like family. They were better than you were. I won't be afraid of you, Tom. I won't hide anymore. I'll do what needs to be done to take you down. I know your weaknesses...
The spell lines pressed inward, pushing out her breath. She thought they looked like letters, but she wasn't sure what words they were spelling out. Maybe it was a trick of the mind as she lost oxygen. It hadn't looked like letters the last time.
And then the spell lines whipped out as she lost consciousness.
"Someone care to explain what in blazes is goin' on here?!"
Ginny rolled over onto her side and then pushed herself up onto all fours. She opened her eyes once she realized she was kneeling on stone.
She was in Great Hall at Hogwarts, kneeling within Hermione's old spell circle. The chalk was faded, and one of the walls had been completely blasted away. It hadn't been like that before! she thought in a panic.
The Serenity crew was standing around the faded circle, the ship just behind them all in the courtyard. Ginny looked from their confused and angry faces to the destroyed castle around them. "What happened?"
River shut the book after she looked over the spell. "Your friend did not understand the full effect of the spell she had chosen."
"Say what?" Mal thundered. "You sayin' we're stuck here, now?" He didn't even wait for her reply. "Oh no, that ain't happening. We're finding someone magical here to send us right back to where we ought to be."
"We ought to be right here," River said placidly. She smiled at the captain and then turned to Ginny. "The spell brings participants where they need to go to fulfill their destinies. Ginny was meant to come forward in order to bring us back."
Mal stalked forward and grabbed the book from River's hands. Simon rushed forward to defend her, but Kaylee pulled him back. Mal squinted at the text. "What in blazes does this thing say? I can't even tell what are letters."
"It's written in ancient Greek." River said placidly. "I can also read English, Latin, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Esperanto."
"What's Esperanto?"
"Some made up language," Jayne supplied helpfully. All eyes swung his way. "What? Mattie an' I learned it as kids. Was fun confusin' folks back home."
River grinned and took the book back from Mal. "Languages are delightful things, full of stories within the text and context. I have always enjoyed the form of language as much as its content and means of delivery."
Mal shook his head, regretting he had even asked. "Lookit, we can't stay here."
"We have to find out what's happened since I left," Ginny said, voice firm. "I obviously didn't come back to the same point in time. So something needs to be done. I can't imagine that we're so far into my future that there's no magic."
"That means what?" Zoe asked, checking for her pistol at her hip. She looked at the missing wall with a weary look. "If your magic can do that..."
"But everyone's vulnerable to something," she insisted, taking out her wand. "I've been taking lessons from Tonks..." She muttered something subvocally, and a ghostly image of a map appeared in front of her. There was a group of blue dots off to the left of it. "There's some people out there we might be able to talk to. Hopefully it's even one of ours."
"What in Buddha's name is that?" Zoe asked, hand securely over her pistol.
"It's a map that tracks whoever might be close by. Death Eaters with the Dark Mark would show up red. Neutrals are blue and known Order members are white."
"So this blue thing could also be people that don't have that mark," Mal said, eyes narrowing. "It's a neat trick, but can still fail."
"Yes, but it's better than nothing," Ginny insisted, dropping her wand. The map vanished. "The dots are in the kitchens, so I doubt it's too many unaffiliated Death Eaters. It's likely the house elves still hanging about."
"The what?" Mal asked, blinking.
"It's best if I show you. Oh, and mind the portraits. They move and talk, too. It's a little odd if you're not used to magical portraits." Ginny paused. "Some of them might know what's happened here, too."
Most of Serenity's crew blinked in surprise, but followed Ginny. This was her world, now, and she would know what was safe and what wasn't.
River danced along the stones, as best as she could in her combat boots. When she tried to take them off, Simon absolutely forbid it. Kaylee shook her head at River, and patted her shoulder gently. "We'll get you some dancing shoes somewhere, okay?" Kaylee had offered. "If there was a battle here, you'd never know if there was splinters or glass or something."
"Fair enough," River had conceded. So she danced down the hallway in her combat boots, the skirt to her red dress filling out around her. Some of the portraits watched her, amused, and raced amongst each others' frames to talk to one another.
Ginny led them down the twins' entrance into the kitchens. Sure enough, there were a dozen house elves scurrying about, cooking an army's worth of food. Some of them stopped still once they saw Ginny enter the kitchens.
"Who are you cooking for?" she asked, looking around. "There are no students."
"Order orders," one of them piped up. "There must be food, there must be services. We place it on the table–" the elf pointed over to a large table off in a nook to the side of the kitchens "–and it goes where it is needed. Order Headquarters, Saint Mungo's, Ministry Headquarters. Whatever needs it at the moment."
Ginny's heart leaped. "Where was the last meal sent?"
"Can't tell. But there's another meal due! Must work!"
The elf scurried back into the kitchens, and Ginny smiled. She inhaled the scent of the food, mouth watering. There was an easy way to contact others, then. The table was likely spelled to receive foodstuffs only; she would never have allowed it to carry people, in case that would be a mode of attack. She still remembered the Room of Requirement ploy the Death Eaters had used, and had no doubt that the others did as well.
Ginny snatched up a linen napkin from the pile in the corner of the kitchens and Summoned ink and a quill. Once it zoomed into the kitchen, amazing Serenity's crew, she quickly wrote a small note on the napkin. She placed it on the charmed table and watched as it disappeared into flames to one of three destinations.
"A man destined to burn can never drown."
Ginny looked at River quizzically. You said I was meant for fire and I nearly did drown anyway, Ginny thought.
"Silver eyes won't drown, though they will come close," River murmured, turning to the kitchen wall. "It will certainly feel like drowning in oblivion, though he will be far from it. He fears for his soul. He fears that if that line is crossed, he will never return." She looked at a portrait and poked at the canvas. The portrait's inhabitants, a field full of wild horses, began to run about in frightened circles. They calmed down after a moment, and the head of the herd even let River stroke its mane gently. "This is a most curious kind of magic. I am quite intrigued by its manifestations. The artists certainly were able to change the laws of physics as well as space and time. Which all blend together in any event."
"River, stop touching that," Simon said, touching her elbow. Reluctantly, River dropped her hand from the painting.
"I hope they get here soon," Ginny murmured. "I can't tell how much time passed or if there's any kind of danger here."
"The red eyes... Red is for the fires that burn there, but he is not really full of life as he would wish to be. If no one else can see that he's human, then maybe he isn't, not really. He says he doesn't wish to be, but he does. There is no meaning if he isn't human, and there is no purpose to his struggles if he cannot outlast the last of the humans that had once mattered to him. He is very human, indeed."
Ginny shivered. "I didn't tell you anything about him."
"You didn't have to," River said with a smile. "I feel him here. His imprint lies within the walls of this space, in the air. He has left his mark and I can feel it."
"Can you not be so creepifying?" Jayne muttered, shaking his head. Ginny frowned at him, vaguely aware that Kaylee was as well. So much for that pairing, then. She had hoped that maybe River could at least get a date or two out of it, so she could see what it was like. It hadn't seemed like too much to ask for at the time.
River blinked owlishly. Ginny was suddenly reminded more of Luna, and hoped fiercely that her friend was all right.
There was a quick trio of popping sounds, and Ginny turned around.
They were greeted by a skinny woman with a ripped brown leather jacket over a black jumpsuit, purple hair and sparkling blue eyes. "Wotcher, Ginny," she said cheerfully, wand in hand. Two men in black suits were behind her, wands at the ready. The woman raised a hand to the two men behind her as she surveyed Ginny's companions.
"How long was I gone?" Ginny asked, forcing her voice into an even tone.
Tonks grinned rather rakishly. "Long enough to throw Ron and your Mum into a tizzy. Come on, then. We're off to the new HQ. Hermione's gone into a right fit, trying to figure out what happened. Nobody's been able to figure it out."
"She had forgotten to translate the rest of the directions from the ancient Greek," River supplied helpfully. All eyes swung toward her, but she smiled easily. "It sends the participant where she is most needed, not where she wants to go."
"I suppose there's names and whatnot we'll be collecting?" Tonks asked, eyeing them all. The two men behind her eyed everyone warily, hands tight around their wands. Mal didn't like the way they looked, but figured that the wands could probably spell more damage to them before he even got his gun out of his holster.
"There's a reason and a purpose, and all things have come round the way it should be. We all will serve a means and an end," River said with a friendly smile. She rushed forward and extended her hand. It startled the two men, but Tonks held her ground. "River Jade Tam. I am most pleased to meet you, Nyphadora Tonks. We have traveled a great way by most difficult means, even for the spell."
The woman flushed as she shook River's hand. She was aware of the stares of the others, and was used to it even as it made her uncomfortable. "Right. River, then. I'm Tonks, though, if you don't mind."
"Won't it be Lupin?" River asked quizzically, cocking her head to the side. Tonks glared at Ginny, who looked just as amazed.
"All right. You've got a lot to answer for," Tonks said to Ginny. There was an edge to her voice that wasn't there before, but it wasn't out of meanness; now she was down to business. Mal and Zoe were comforted by that tone; they were used to dealing with the law. Jayne bristled somewhat, and Simon and Kaylee just seemed confused. Inara appeared resigned, and merely kept her hands clasped in front of her. "Gather up, everyone. I'm sure there's a good reason for all this, and we're going to find out. The room we're going to is charmed six ways to Sunday, so don't think of trying anything silly."
"What does being charmed mean?" Simon asked, confused. Kaylee shrugged in confusion while River giggled behind her hand. Simon shot River an annoyed look, but remained silent. Simon was sure that River didn't have any sense of the gravity of the situation.
"Ginny, did you bring us a pack of Muggles?" Tonks asked, taking something wrapped out of her coat pocket.
Ginny flushed but stood her ground. "There is more to this crew than you would think just looking at them. You of all people should know that about looks."
Tonks looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. "Right then. I'll let you do the explaining once we've gotten there."
One of the men in the black suits looked at Tonks. "You better know what you're doing. We know nothing about them."
Ginny's eyes flashed. "I'm a full member of the Order. I trust them with my life. They saved me from drowning and they know how to handle themselves."
Mal and Zoe exchanged looks. Jayne did his best to look menacing, staring at the two men in black suits, hand over the gun at his hip. He knew his best girls were locked up tight in his bunk on Serenity, which wasn't that far away. At least he knew these strangers couldn't go getting into his things at their leisure. Mal had made sure it was harder to break into Serenity, and Kaylee had installed time-controlled locks on everything. The ship should be locked up tighter than a drum by the time the strangers tried to look in.
"Right, then," Tonks said, voice deliberately cheerful. "Gather up, everybody linking hands. Once I touch the Portkey, we're set to go."
"Portkey?" Kaylee asked, looking around. She linked hands with Simon and River, who grasped Ginny's hand as well. Inara caught Simon's other hand, and reached out for Zoe. Zoe linked to Mal, who wound up linking hands with Jayne. Tonks linked an arm with Ginny and caught up her other arm with Jayne's. Tonks gave a meaningful look to the two men in black. "Hey, aren't they coming with us?"
"They're going to check out the perimeter. Hogwarts has been abandoned since the attack a few months ago. We'll want to be sure that nobody followed you here."
"Trust us, lady," Jayne began, shaking his head. "Ain't nobody could've followed us from where we came from."
"Just the same, we're going to be safe." The two men left the kitchens, and then Tonks smiled at everyone. "All righty, then. Here we go."
She let the cloth drop from the portkey, an old beer mug, and grasped it by its handle. There was an odd tugging sensation from everyone's bellies, and then time and space seemed to contort around them again.
River's laughter was the only thing left behind in the kitchens.
***
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