It's Christmas Time Again: A Time-Traveling TMS Holiday Extravaganza

Christmas Holiday, 2012 (Part Five)

"DECLAN!"

The moment I walked through the door, I was accosted by a bone-crushing hug. A girl was wrapped around me, her black hair smelling like nice shampoo as it smushed into my face.

"YOU'RE HERE! It's been so LONG! Or - it seems like it has."

I squeezed away, out of her grasp, confused. But when I'd escaped it was only to gape at her in surprise. She looked so much like Harry, just - more feminine, with grey eyes and slightly larger than average front teeth. She had a gap between them that was endearing and her hair was wild.

"You look just like Remus right now." She whirled about. "Doesn't he look like his father?"

A man hovered in the shadow of the room, leaning against the wall, legs crossed at the ankle, arms crossed over his chest, features muddied by the darkness he stood in. "Indeed. You're positively monolithic." The voice was low, and gravelly. "Are you trying to make me look minuscule?"

The man pushed off from the wall and I realized he wasn't very tall at all. Already shorter than me and I had some growing still to do. He wore a pair of fancy shoes, too, with a small bit of a masculine heel. He was dressed quite smartly, actually - a vest with a fine paisley pattern over a solid black buttoned shirt.

He waked past me and took Dierks shoulders in his palms. "For Salazaar's sake, look at you."

"Reverted back to my so-called present age," Dierks said, shrugging.

"I hate it when you do that, it makes me look like a dirty old man," he muttered, and he took Dierks's chin in his palm and turned him, their lips connecting in a passionate press.

I blinked in surprise.

The woman grabbed my elbow, tugging me back, "You lot need a room?" she asked pointedly, rolling her eyes. The man with the vest gave her a rude gesture but Dierks laughed. She turned to me, "You hungry? We have quite a spread." She pulled me into a dining room adjacent, leaving Dierks and the other man in the foyer.

The hut was much bigger and finer inside than it looked from the pebble strewn shore. The whole place seemed to breathe - but the sound, I realized, was actually unsynchronized ticking. Every wall was nearly entirely covered with clocks. Clocks that hung on the walls and some which sat on little shelves. There were watches hanging from hooks, analog and digital faces; and on a table by the sunlit window that overlooked the sea, there was a large brass sundial, nestled among a plethora of hour glasses of all shapes and size, sands of varying colors sparkled as they slipped from one bulb to the other. Every clock in the place told different times and the ones that displayed dates showed different dates, too. I'd never seen or heard anything like the cacophony of the clocks in that room before and I expect I'll never see another thing like it again, either. A large cuckoo clock shrieked as a wooden bird shot from the door on a mechanical arm.

The center of the room was entirely filled with a huge table, heavy laden with loads of foods, as though they were in the middle of a great holiday feast. Dierks had said that this place was outside of time (ironic given all the clocks), but the spread made me wonder if it wasn't a holiday - Christmas or the like. Even Harry's holiday feast wasn't this expansive, though.

"Have whatever you want," she said carelessly, snatching up a tiny cake and popping it into her mouth as she sank into one of the chairs. "So what year are you joining us from today, Declan dear?"

"2012," I answered, shy but eying the food.

"2012!" She shook her head, still chewing - speaking around the cake, "My goodness. Such a long time has passed in the Real World."

"Are you Ottalie?" I asked.

She was looking down, dusting crumbs from her chest. At this, she looked up though and her eyebrows raised. "Wait. Is this the first time you're here in your timeline?"