*NOTES* Wow it has been a while. Classes really got to me lately and they don't seem to be letting up. England is amazing though so I guess I got a good trade off. Enjoy the chapter.
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Two days, forty-eight hours, two thousand eight hundred and eighty minutes, One hundred seventy-two thousand and eight hundred seconds…All those calculations were the amount of time I had with my boyfriend. Scratch all of that, I thought, forty-seven hours, now.
Forty-seven hours wasn't enough time. As I laid on the hospital bed curled up into Ron's body I stared at the clock willing it to stop. Willing it to give me more time, but it was futile because no one, not even my mother, knew how to make time stop.
"Hey," a groggy voice whispered in my ear. I turned my head and saw Ron's crystal blue eyes staring at me. My eyes burned as the tears welded up, and I fought so hard to hold them back. "Hey, Jillie, you don't cry."
"Apparently that changes with time changes," my nose was beginning to run and I buried my face in the pillow. Ron shifted my body and buried my face into his hospital gown. "You being here is wonderful, but it is a mistake."
I don't know how long Ron held me as I cried, but eventually I began to relax. "One big mistake," I said softly.
"Hey, that isn't how you are suppose to treat the man that loves you."
"When did you become a man?" The giggle that escaped my raw throat hurt.
"About the same time as when you became weepy." His eyes crinkled as he smiled, "I've missed you."
The hospital wing at Hogwarts is a very nice place to have a make out session but you must be wary of visitors. Since it was Saturday and neither Ron nor I had anyone to visit us we decided to enjoy the benefits of some alone time. What one must be careful to remember is always expect the unexpected.
"Jillian, Hermione asked me to come and get you. She needs help on a thing for arithmancy class. I never thought I'd see the day where Hermione openly asked for help, but she even admits that the French have much more talent in arithmancy." My father's voice came from somewhere near the curtain. "Oh…Hey get off of her," came the next words Ron and me heard.
"Da….Harry," I said with a shout as Ron was roughly pulled off me, and I was pushed to one side.
"Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm okay," I said in a huff. "Do you think I go kissing guys I just met? Ron is my boyfriend."
The look on my father's face was reminiscent of when I told him that Ron and I were dating, the first time. It was a mixture of confusion, fury, and sadness. The overall effect was slightly funny.
"Jillie this is so unreal. I mean he looks exactly like…" At this I slammed my hand over Ron's mouth.
"Sorry about him Harry. Sometimes he forgets that people don't like to be gawked at." I was pretty sure I was red in the face from already being embarrassed, and now I just upped it by adding anger to the mix.
"When can you help Hermione?" I could see the impatience in my Dad's eyes. He really wanted this war over with.
"I'll be there soon," I replied and with that he turned to leave.
"Leaving so soon," Ron said with a raised eyebrow. He had so much of his mother in him and so much of his father too. Sometimes it was uncanny, but at this moment I felt a little dizzy. "Jillie, what is it?"
"You just look so much like your father. If it wasn't for the hair and the eyes I would say you were Neville. And I feel like…we don't have enough time." With one peck on the lips I left Ron sitting on the hospital bed.
One hour and one shower later found me in the library. Hermione had marched straight up to me in a frenzy. Apparently she thought she had screwed up the whole equation somehow. After working for an hour I realised she had done nothing wrong and the soul removal equation was in fact right.
When I was thirteen my mother had given me a copy of her arithmancy works on souls and told me to memorize them. After a whole year of just the basics, in class, and working on more complex equations during my spare time I could have taken the NEWTs and passed with flying colours. But the work I had been told to learn was a curse and not the blessing I thought it was.
"Here you are," Hermione jumped a foot as the voice of Ron Longbottom sounded five feet away. "I've been looking for you the past twenty minutes."
"You should not be out of bed yet." I snapped at him and then turned back to the equation. Quickly I scribbled the next step down for Hermione and then rolled up the parchment. "Let me guess," I handed the rolled parchment to Hermione while avoiding Ron's eyes. "You escaped the hospital wing."
"How did you find the library without a guide?" Hermione asked her eyes narrowing as she spoke.
Ron looked around nervously and then down at his feet. Jillian could tell he was searching for an answer and I wanted desperately to help him, but I could not figure out how to answer this question. "I…um…"
"Oh good you found their table," came a voice from the back. "I wasn't sure if you would, but since you've found Jillian I suppose we should be on our way." Jillian let out a sigh of relief as Uncle Remus came around the corner. "Jillian, are you coming?" Stuffing everything into her bag she began to move towards Uncle Remus and towards Ron.
Once they were five minutes away from the library Jillian started to thank Uncle Remus. "It was no big deal," he said simply. "I assume this is the boy who has captured your attention?"
"Uncle Remus," Jillian slipped her hand into Ron's hand. "Meet Ron Longbottom."
"Ron?"
"Yes Uncle Remus," Ron quietly responded.
"Oh not another one," Remus said loudly as he led the both of them to his office.
Once in the safety of Remus's office Jillian started to attack Ron with questions. "Is mom and dad okay? How much has the future changed? Why only 48 hours? How are the twins? How is Penny surviving?"
"Your parents are both fine and they said you haven't been here long enough to change too much of the future. Uncle Remus's life turned out differently they said."
"Wait," I said suddenly at the mention of what Ron just said. "What do you mean "Uncle Remus's life turned out differently they said"?"
"Well," he said seeing my eyes turn anxious. "They can remember. Your dad said it was something about the power in them. No one else knows anything is different because to them nothing is, but your parents know something happened." Ron stopped for a second and made a face. "I think that was how he explained it."
"What about a ripple effect? Didn't curing Uncle Remus of his monthly habit make other things change?"
"I'm not sure," Ron was hesitant to answer. "What would be different?"
I smacked my head to my forehead as I sunk into one of the chairs that sat around Uncle Remus's desk. Of course Ron wouldn't know what could possibly be different because to him nothing was different. He didn't have the memories I had. My parents explained to me that if I made it back to my own time I would remember how things were when I left. I would have to adjust to all the changes I made if I even made any. Everyone else would not notice the changes I made because to them it would have happened 19 years ago way before I was born.
"Why only 48 hours?" I asked again as I felt the suddenness of it all.
"Because they said that was all the time you would need to get the information you needed for the next step of the
plot."
At this Uncle Remus sat up straighter, "Plot?"
"Yep, something about things now being out of order," Ron beamed as he said this and I stifled a groan. There it was the ripple effect in full contact.
"Did Professor McGonagall say where you would be spending the night?"
"In the hospital wing," I grinned at that thought.
We spent some more time talking in the safety of Uncle Remus's office. The talk was about Penny and his last year at Hogwarts. It wasn't until I asked who made Head boy and girl that I figured out what my parents said was going to change.
"Oh the head boy is me and the head girl is Penny," Ron didn't notice my far away look as he talked on about head boy duties.
"Oh no," I said suddenly. "Is Ernie Macmillan alive?"
Ron stopped talking and looked to Uncle Remus for a second. "No, he didn't make it."
"When did he die?"
"During the Halloween Hogsmead visit," Ron said simply.
"There is going to be an attack then?" Uncle Remus immediately sat up straighter at this. His face became pale and his eyes darted to the fire place. I could tell he was already forming a plan on how to inform the correct people.
"I have to get his badge," I suddenly bolted out of my chair at the thought that the Hogsmead battle had been pushed up. "What about Aunt Luna's dad?"
"Still as crazy as ever," Ron looked like I had suddenly sprout two heads. "Jillie…I'm here to give you two days of peace."
"Okay," I said as I leaned against the doorframe. "Two days of peace."
It took us a good thirty minutes to convince Uncle Remus to hold off contacting the Order of Phoenix until the day before the attack. It was extremely important that I was at the Hogsmead visit and close to Ernie before he died and if the whole Order was there I wouldn't be able to complete my task.
Ron and I took to walking around the lake as dusk settled around Hogwarts. I leaned into him as we walked. It felt good to know he was still alive…still my Ron. There were some subtle differences in his attitude but nothing major.
"How are the twins?"
"Good they love being in Gryffindor House," he said with a slight laugh.
"What," I turned and my eyes met his in confusion. "They were sorted into Slytherin."
"No," Ron said. "You are the only one in your family to be in a different house."
"Let me get this straight. My twin brothers, Mike and Adam, are in Gryffindor?"
"Jillie," Ron reached out and grabbed my arm to stop me from entering the Great Hall. "You don't have twin brothers. You have twin sisters."
There are moments that make the world stop, and this was not one of those moments. This was a moment that made the world speed up to such a pace that I felt dizzy, and before I knew it I had Ron pinned up against the wall my wand pointing at his throat. Unfortunately I picked the moment when everyone came spilling out from finishing dinner. "Who the hell are you?" I asked in a deathly whisper.
"Jillie," Ron gasped out as I held him firmly in place the tip of my wand glowing red.
"Mike and Adam are my brothers. I remember when they were born. I remember because I named Adam. He had a heart condition, and the healers didn't think he would make it, but he did." I tight circle had formed around us and I could hear Professor McGonagall trying to push her way through the crowd of bodies to stop me, but it didn't matter. "I couldn't have changed that." I said as I felt two hands pull me away from Ron.
My body seemed to collapse in on itself as I turned to fight who was holding me and saw my mum. Her eyes held the compassion I needed so desperately. My world no longer existed. When I returned I would be once again entering into any unknown situation with people I no longer knew. Would my own mother be different? In that moment as I looked at her eyes I knew that in whatever universe I was sent back to she would always be my mother. She would always be the person I told everything to, and she would always be my conscious. No matter what universe, I repeated to myself.
Slowly I turned back to Ron. I felt my mum's finger tighten under my shoulders for a second, and I relaxed at her touch. Closing my eyes for a second I relived all the moments Ron and I had growing up.
All the summers we would go flying in my back yard. The times we would build forts out of cushions and sheets during sleepovers when we were little. The train ride to Hogwarts when we became a couple. All those precious memories I had I filed away in the back of my mind never to be thought of again because my Ron no longer existed.
"Go back to where you came from," I said and then turned and walked through the crowd of people who parted like the red sea to let me through. It wasn't until I was in the Headmaster's office that I realised I had been led up there by Professor McGonagall. "Nothing will ever be the same."
She nodded as Fawkes came into the room and landed on my shoulder offering me comfort and warmth as my world slipped through my own fingers and down a drain.
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