I'm Dead

A Bloody Day

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing how to get the eight time travellers back to their own time. It was agreed that it would be a long process, perhaps taking several weeks, as it wasn't as simple as a broken time turner. They were no closer to finding out what this ancient curse on the necklace and the jewellery box was, or who could have cast the curses on them. They were so many questions to be answered, nobody knew where to start. The Auror who'd been sent to France to check up on the jewellery box had reported back to the Order, telling them that the box was missing from everywhere they searched there as well – Fleur Delacour's house where she lived with her parents, her grandparent's houses, previous homes and businesses. They'd even searched Beauxbatons for it, somehow managing to get past Madame Maxime's security. This meant they didn't have any means of investigating the objects further – they only had the cursed versions. Several people were even willing to agree that the necklace and the jewellery box simply didn't exist in 1995, but nobody saw how that would work, since they were both antiques.

All this took them up to half past nine at night. The people from the future were flagging; they'd been through quite an ordeal in the space of one day, as had everybody else, and it was decided by Mrs Weasley that they, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George were to go upstairs and get an early night ('And no arguments!').

Rose, Lily and Victoire were put in Hermione and Ginny's room, Hugo and James were sharing with Harry and Ron, and Albus and Scorpius bagged a room to themselves that was actually quite clean. Teddy stayed up a while longer with the adults (Victoire had been ready to fall asleep on her feet, so she'd gone upstairs instead of staying with her husband) and finally fell asleep on the couch in the living room, with Remus and Tonks crashing with him as well. By midnight, the house was still and silent.

. . . / * \ . . .

Ron opened his eyes wearily, and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 2:27am. Throwing the covers back, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He crept out of the room as silently as his lanky figure would allow. Shameless snoring was coming from the direction of James and Hugo's beds.

Walking down the hallway, Ron headed towards the bathroom, shivering in the cold as goosebumps prickled on his bare arms. A thin sliver of yellow light fell on the carpet as he approached the bathroom. Someone was in there. The door was slightly ajar, and Ron could see a brown-haired boy standing at the sink.

'Hugo?' he whispered, pushing the door open. Hugo whipped round, and visibly relaxed when he saw Ron. 'You ok?'

'Hi,' he whispered back. 'I'm fine.'

'What are you doing up?' Ron asked.

'Nothing,' Hugo said; Ron noticed he was covering up his nose.

'OK then,' he shrugged. 'D'you mind –'

'Oh, yeah. Night,' Hugo said, slipping past Ron out of the bathroom. As he passed by him, Ron noticed a thin trickle of blood seeping through the fingers clutching Hugo's nose.

Ron just shook his head, and locked the door. Poor kid, he thought, I'd hate to get a nosebleed in the middle of the night.

. . . / * \ . . .

The next morning nearly everybody was up at a reasonable time. As the clock struck 10:00am, the only ones still not up were Ron, Hugo, James and Scorpius.

'Go and get them up, would you, dears?' Mrs Weasley asked. 'I don't want them missing breakfast…'

'They wouldn't survive the day without breakfast,' Victoire said, pretending to be horrorstruck, but it really was the truth.

Fred, George and Ginny decided it would be hilarious to wake Ron up using his greatest fear. 'RON, THERE'S A SPIDER ON YOUR HEAD!' the twins yelled in his ear, while Ginny made her fingers crawl across his face like a spider. Ron shot up and shrieked – yes, shrieked, like a girl – 'WHERETHESPIDERGO?' and fell of his bed. Hugo and James sat up groggily.