I. late, late, late!

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Chapter One:
Late, Late, Late!

    

    

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Thursday,
September 1st,
1977.

    

The moon and the stars: That was what Archer Reyes was dreaming of.

     It was like he was floating in the abyss of space, completely weightless. The moon was next to him, so big and so bright against the darkness surrounding it. It was beautiful, like nothing Archer had ever seen before. He had seen the moon from Earth, obviously, but this... This was an entirely different thing. It was beautiful.

     And the stars... the stars were so close—so close he could almost touch them, his hand reaching out, reaching, reaching. And they were so close, now, closer than they had ever been, and in one desperate attempt he lunged through the air, his fingers itching to touch the stars. It was as if time had slowed down.

     Then the stars were lightyears away, no longer within his reach, getting further and further away as he floated there helplessly. But now he no longer felt weightless, instead it felt like he was falling, falling, falling through the abyss, his stomach churning with fear. The stars all around him started to fade and he was plunged into darkness.

     That was when he woke up.

     It took Archer a minute before his brain caught up with the rest of him. The harsh sunlight streaming through his bedroom window was a stark contrast to the darkness of his dream, and his eyes remained shut for a while until he dared open them, allowing them to adjust to the light. Rolling over, he hugged the sheets off his bed closer to him to preserve warmth; he didn't want to get up quite yet.

     His brown eyes drifted to the clock hanging on the other side of the room. It read half past ten. Archer stared at it for a few moments before it finally sank in. "Fuck," he said, eyes widening in panic. Then it really hit him: he only had half an hour to get to the train. And he hadn't even packed yet. "Fuck!"

     Ripping the sheets off of him, Archer stumbled out of bed, his mind running a mile a minute as he simultaneously began to get dressed whilst also trying to recall what he had to pack. He let out a groan of annoyance when his mind drew a blank, the only thing he could come up with was everything—he supposed that wasn't far from the truth, considering he'd be at Hogwarts for the entire year. Ugh. Think, Archer, think!

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