✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Stuck in the Past [Grindelwald]✔

10

Cruzio

Not even fully reappeared, Gillian already hurled the curse at a man with dark blond hair, who was about to duel with Hunter. Hunter had indeed found the wizard he was looking for, and he was right about his face. It was covered with scars. Burn scars and cuts. A rather unusual combination. Even among wizards.

"Let's see if this face looks like that in real life," after Gillian crouched down next to the man, she tapped his face with a glowing wand tip and tilted her head to the side with her mouth open in anticipation, "Less is sometimes more. So, were they just regular illegal magical objects or black magic?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man coughed but Gillian calmly twirled her wand with her fingertips and looked up at Hunter with the corners of her mouth pulled down, "Aurors you two don't seem to be either. So who are you?"

"Depends on what your answer is about to be," Hunter replied, taking the Time Reverser out of his inside pocket and dangling it down his chain, "Seen it before? For sure. What could cause one of these to stop working properly?"

"There's not much that can destroy them," the man answered hastily, fixing the golden pendant with his gaze, "Ancient magic protects the true magic within."

"We didn't want to know what can't destroy it, but...." in his other hand Hunter held his wand, pointed it at the man's face and held the dangling time reverser closer to his face, "..... what can cause it was the question. And now again. What can be the cause of this one not working properly?"

"The sands of time. It could be the Sands of Time," the dark blond huffed, and as Hunter lowered his wand, he cautiously straightened up, "It is possible, it happens extremely rarely though, that they (can) lose their sands. May I?"

"Here," as Hunter made no move, Gillian took the time reverser and handed it to the man, "Now please be more specific. Protected by ancient magic. So how is there anything wrong with the sand then? Ancient magic has its own rules, after all."

"Just because something is protected by magic doesn't mean that something can come to harm or be harmed in a non-magical way," in the faint light of the illumination, the fugitive wizard turned the glass and then pointed to a small crack in the hourglass, "There. Someone tried to repair it and used ordinary sand to fill it back up. Its balance was destroyed by this. It is not recommended to use this one."

"Great, and how can it be repaired?" probed Gillian, bobbing up and down uneasily, and began nodding thoughtfully, "Sand of Time can certainly be obtained from anywhere.  An all the world's product."

"Precisely not," the man replied, to which Gillian gave him a look that said she knew this herself and it had only been irony, "A broken time reverser is beyond repair. Once broken, it stays that way. I would strongly advise against using it. Who knows what the consequences might be?"

Sighing, Gillian stood up, put her wand away, and pulled the man to his feet. After several silent glances between Hunter and her, Hunter also put away his wand and gestured for the man to leave with a motion of his head as Gillian put her hands in her jacket pockets. Maybe, possibly, possibly, it could well be, possibly getting back home was a bit more difficult than expected, or at least hoped for.

Back in the city it took a good hour until finally a hotel was found. Surely there were far more and if there were, they had simply been more than poorly signposted. At the hotel, however, Gillian strolled over to the front desk, jingled her fingernails on the counter, and looked around. It appeared to be a hotel. One in nineteen hundred and twenty-two. So not really the real thing.

"Good afternoon," a man in a suit greeted Gillian, who had just come forward from a back room and folded his hands on the front desk, "How can I help you?"

"I'd like a room. A little bigger for two people. A suite preferably, if you have," humming Gillian went over everything again, snapping at the receptionist because the most important thing hadn't even been said yet, "For a week or so, possibly two. Do you have anything like that free?"

"One moment, I'll have to check first. There's a doctors' convention in town at the moment," at these words Gillian's eyes closed because it was getting better by the hour and there was no end in sight, "Two bedrooms, a bathroom and the kitchen is connected to the living area. This is the room I could offer you."

"Sounds good," fate had probably made an exception for once or simply had pity, there was no other way to explain the vacant room, "I'd need two chip cards if it wouldn't inconvenience you."

"Chip cards?" the man behind the front desk repeated somewhat irritatedly, looking at Gillian suspiciously and she didn't realize her mistake until it was long too late, "I can give you two keys. Before that, though, you'll have to sign in here, sign and pay in advance for the first two nights."

"Will you give me a pen?" while the receptionist took a pen from a drawer and placed it on the wooden board, Gill fumbled her wand out of her sleeve a bit and muttered a word, "Imperio."

"Miss, I am pleased to welcome you to our home," he gleefully flipped the book closed without an entry and took two keys hanging under Reception, which held out to her, "I hope you enjoy your stay."

Magic was something wonderful. And so sometimes it simplified life after all.