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A Matter of Time	By : AdaraB Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 7796 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything in the Harry Potter universe. I own nothing and I make no profit off of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter 1 – The Ruins

The day began as days always had, with the rising of the sun, and would eventually end as days always did with the setting of the sun. It’s what lay between the hours of dawn and twilight that make each day unique, this day was no different.

It had started out as a promising day. The sky was a pristine blue with hardly a cloud in sight, the scent of onion grass, dandelions and buttercups in the air. There was a light breeze that caused the grass and weedy flowers to dance on this mid October day. The sun was warmly shining down, creating abstract shapes on the ground underneath the occasional misty cloud. The temperature had not yet gone frigid, making it a very pleasant sort of day. Walking through the Ruins located in northern Scotland, you could almost feel a presence from whatever royal, lady or lord that had once graced the ornate structure. Presently, you could barely tell that the structure had once been something to really behold. Of course, the Ruins held a mysterious attraction to who ever came near them. This attraction, although quite strong, had nothing to do with why people were drawn to it in the first place. Up until the early 2000’s, no one was remotely aware that this castle even existed. It was as if it appeared out of nowhere, as if someone had not wanted it found. The Ruins, which were never given another name as no records could be found of who owned it, came in quite handy for the people of Scotland. The tourist attraction was astronomical; many paid a lot of money to step where royalty may have once stood.

This particular day found a group of American tourists combing the Ruins for their own enlightenment of the ancient structure. The group consisted of mostly middle aged married couples who now spend their time traveling since their children have finally flown the coop. There were however a few young people, three to be exact. Young to the middle aged that is, as they ranged from seventeen to twenty years old. It was one of these young people that would live a life that would seem impossible and would be difficult to even comprehend at the moment. The three young girls, the best of friends but exceedingly different in mannerism, enjoy traveling imensly. They found this particular guided bus tour on the internet at an extremely affordable rate considering it is geared towards the forty plus generation. They were due to leave Scotland the next day and were disappointed that they would be leaving so soon seeing as their entire trip was building to this day when they were able to visit the Ruins, the most talked about topic in their European History class at John Hopkins University. Most of their friends back home were obviously jealous of the girls’ trip, but seeing as they spent more money on booze than they could keep in the bank; well it was their own fault.

It was around two in the afternoon when the sky to the west started to darken that the girls decided to take a bit of a breather. They had until six o’clock to examine all they could about the mysterious Ruins. At the present time they sat on the soft green grass under a tree by an enormous lake that seemed to be a bit unnatural as it was black and seemed to vibrate with life instead of waving in the gentle breeze. The girls found the lake a bit odd but decided to ignore it.

“So what do you guys think so far?” Taylor asked as she leaned back against the tree.

“It’s so much more than I thought it would be; I mean the Coliseum was nothing compared to this. The castle must have been at least five stories given how tall that tower is, maybe even more.”

“Okay, okay, we get the big picture Mel. Must you ramble on all the time?” Asheligh asked laughingly.

“Oh shut up, I’m just excited. It couldn’t hurt for you to be a little more enthusiastic you know.”

“I am enthusiastic; I just know how to not spew it over everyone else.” Ashleigh said with a sarcastic grin.

“Alright, now enough of the bickering, you two are starting to sound like my parents. I took this trip to get away from them, not to have you reenact their many squabbles.”

Melissa and Ashleigh looked at Taylor with shocked expressions, unbelieving that they were just compared to Taylors forever fighting parents.

“I can’t believe you just said that.” Ashleigh said with laughter in her eyes. “When did you decide to grow a back bone?”

Taylor stood, flicking her shoulder length blonde hair and replied, “When the two of you started to get on my nerves more than usual,” she stated, and with a smile she walked away.

“Well it’s about time.” Melissa commented as soon as Taylor was out of ear shot.

“You’re telling me, I was constantly afraid that I was going to offend her in some way just by being my lovely sarcastic self.” Standing up and stretching her five foot six inch frame, Ashleigh said, “Well I’m off; I’m going to look around at the top of the hill in the Ruins if you need me.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m going to sit here a few more minutes but I’ll see you back at the bus at six. You may want to get your umbrella off the bus before you head up there, those are storm clouds.” Melissa said pointing to the west.

“I think I’ll be fine, after all if it does rain I always have my trusty hood.”

Melissa just shook her head at her stubborn friend.

As Ashleigh hiked up the unbeaten path toward the highest point of flat ruin, she pulled out a grey elastic band from the pocket of her bright emerald green cotton jacket. With practiced ease and precision she pulled her thick, black hair back into a tidy, smooth ponytail. Reaching her destination, she took in the view it provided her. It was a desperately beautiful area. It was as if this castle was completely surrounded by mountains. Well, except for that area that was all forest. She and her friends had decided not to delve into the forest, all three agreeing that something didn’t feel quite right about the dense wooded area. The lake that looked so foreboding when upon it seemed much more innocent and beautiful from her vantage point. The views were so breath taking that they called to her camera. She swung her plum L.L.Bean book bag around her shoulder and dug out her camera which had happened to fall underneath her extra set of clothing, snacks, passport, envelope of money, and an array of personal toiletries. Finally feeling her camera, she pulled it out and zipped it up before swinging it back around so it could rest on both of her shoulders. It had everything she needed in case of an emergency. Except her umbrella of course which was deemed unnecessary seeing as it had started out as such a clear day. Looking to the west she saw the storm clouds were much closer than they had been only twenty minutes ago. Deciding she’d better hurry if she didn’t want to go slipping and sliding down the not so smooth hill, she took aim at the still present, beautifully unmarred landscape to the north, south and east.

After taking her fill of photographs she stored her camera safely away in her water resistant bag and began to roam around the Ruins hoping to find something of historical significance that no one else had been keen enough to find. She was the only one in the tour group of twenty six that had ventured up this far. Taking another look to the west, she noticed the darkening clouds were very close now, she could see the rain falling below like a foggy mist. She estimated that the clouds could be no more than a couple miles away and gave herself another twenty minutes. She looked down at the group through a glassless window and noticed that some of the older couples were already boarding the bus. Looking at her watch she noted that it was only 4:47pm. They had plenty of time left but would probably have to cut the visit short because of the weather. Walking on, she found few things of true interest. There were remnants of what looked to have once been tables or maybe desks since they were relatively short. There were however, no chairs that accompanied them.

Moving on to another room that she was not sure she should be in, as only half of the ceiling was intact, she saw a cabinet on the far wall. Carefully, she walked over to it and noticed it had an ornate carving of a bird she had never seen before but was sure had to be a part of the Greek mythology she learned about in one of her seminars. It couldn’t possibly have been a real bird with the extremely long and full plumage spouting from its rear. Slowly, as she opened the door, a waft of dust and mould hit her fiercely making her cough and blink rapidly as the particles circled around her. After she cleared the air, she searched the three shelves it held. There was a stack of yellowed paper that looked as if moths have gotten to it and a few broken quill pens as well as a dried up ink well on the top shelf. The second shelf held nothing but more stacks of the yellowed moth-eaten paper. Ashleigh was becoming suffocated by the overwhelming stench of the mold when something caught her eye. Peeking out behind a stack of paper was a glint of gold. Reaching in, she grasped the rounded object and pulled it out, discovering it was linked to a long gold chain. Dusting it off, she discovered that it was circular but not spherical. There were two flat golden rings circling a circular disc that had an hourglass in the middle surrounded by cut out stars. The outer rings had some sort of writing on them but she could not tell what it said. The outer most ring had a knob on either side of it. Placing the chain around her neck, she slowly walked from the room, never taking her eyes off of the miraculous thing she was holding. Returning outside in what had seemed to be some sort of court yard she sat down on what had once been a bench but was more like a slab of stone at the moment. Looking out to the west she noticed the storm clouds were almost upon her and started to head back down along the apparently much unbeaten path. Along the way she absently turned the knobs on the round structure she held in her hands not bothering to count how many times and not noticing any visible changes until the rain started pelting her and the scenery began to swim in front of her. Feeling dizzy she sat down as she pulled her hood up and closed her eyes.
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A Matter of Time