The Malfoy Project

𝟏𝟎𝟑 - 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

༻⚜༺

Ernie and I were drunk long before the bottle had run out, the sickening result of a lack of sleep and food coupled with a lingering hangover from the night that had passed. Except this drunkenness was different. Last night had been effervescent, a depressing event made somewhat jubilant by kinship and laughter. Now, in the empty Hufflepuff dormitory, stifled by the summer heat, the biting hot liquid sinks to the bottom of my stomach and settles like cement.

It did not help that I was a sad drunk and Ernie was a happy drunk. In a sorry attempt to lighten the mood, he kept trying to make jokes and chuckling at them in a way that made me want to smash the empty bottle over his head. I could not understand how he could make jokes while Ainsley's on a train towards a lifetime prison sentence. I might have said something to him then, and I might have not. I don't remember. All I knew was that when I looked down, the Time Turner was in my hands, cold against the raw cut on my palm.

"What're you doing? Take that off, mate," said Ernie, immediately alarmed.

"I need to see her." My alcohol-engorged tongue could barely form the words. "One hour. That's all I need. One hour."

"You don't know what's happened in the last hour." Ernie was dead sober now. The visible anger on his face made him look almost vicious. "Just you being there again could change something for the worse, you know that."

My chest hurt and my brain was foggy and it felt like I would die if I did not go back and tell Ainsley I loved her. I was not in the mood to listen to logic right now. I slipped the chain around my neck. As I picked up the pendant, Ernie shot forward and grabbed it out of my hands. With one firm tug, the chain snapped and slithered off my neck. It hung from Ernie's closed fist like a dead snake. His eyes focused on the device in his hand before travelling back up to mine. His jaw clenched in resignation, and then he turned on his heels and ran from the room.

I tore after him, chasing him through the tunnels that led to the Common Room. He sprinted well ahead, fast as a hare, too fast for my alcohol-leadened limbs. He threw open the door at the end of the tunnel, the burst of light temporarily blinding me. Using his free arm, he swung himself easily over the couch and cleared the coffee table with the same ease. He tossed the Time Turner into the cold ashes of the fireplace and pulled out his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" 

The wand flew out of his hand but in a blur of motion, he snatched it back mid-air just before it hit the ground. My drunken astonishment gave him an extra second to refocus his aim at the Time Turner again.

"No!" This time I physically lunged at him. For someone so gangly, Ernie put up a great fight. His arms twisted this way and that like they were made of rubber, swinging the wand out of my reach each time I tried to grab it. Frustration quickly overtook me, and I lifted my knee and kicked him squarely in the stomach. He fell to the floor with a groan and curled up in pain, but managed to pull himself close enough to the fireplace to retrieve the Time Turner. I placed a foot on his right shoulder, with just enough force to pin him down but not actually hurt him, and got to work prying open his fists.

Just then, there was a loud rattling as the entrance door shivered open. I let go of Ernie and we scrambled to our feet. Shock does not even begin to describe what I felt when I saw Ainsley standing there. 

She looked a state. Her hair and clothes were wind-blown, her cheeks glistening a bright, fluorescent pink. She was staring uncomprehendingly at Ernie and me, probably because we looked no better.

Meanwhile, Ernie did not miss a beat. "Ah, Ainsley!" he called, as if she had just returned from a quick walk. "Bored of the cheese and mountains already?"