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“Mallacht mo chait ort!”
Cursing Mundungus loudly did not make Minerva feel all that better, but the energy necessary to keep up the stream of words was enough to keep her warm during her walk in Knockturn Alley. The lousy wizard had been so kind as to chase a kneazel through a puddle, creating a mighty wave of murky water, drenching Minerva to the bone.
As could be expected she was not amused, though it was simply another note to the absolutely wonderful evening she had been having before. A storm had been brewing all week and Minerva had prepared some tea and scones to have a nice evening in her quarters with the company of Rowena’s portrait (and no, a portrait of a long dead woman was not her best friend, keep your nose out of other people’s business, Poppy). That was when Septima had stormed into her quarters, making Minerva spill her tea all over her dress, wailing about a must have piece of magic only to be found in Borgin and Burks.
Minerva could not care less about that artefact, nor that Septima wanted it, Septima could do with her money and time whatever she wanted. But no, she could not go and get it, Minerva needed to do it for reasons that escaped Minerva’s mind. But alas she cared about her professors and Borgin and Burks was not that far anyway.
It was the moment that Minerva opened the door to the dingy shop, that lightening crashed into the ground nearby and the world went black for a few seconds too long.
And it stayed black.
Minerva blinked and tried to force her eyes to see something in the all consuming blackness around her. The silence stretched as she tried to discern where she was, Knockturn it certainly was not.
A soft, scratching sound, as if someone was walking over an old wooden floor, could be heard behind her and Minerva swivelled around to face her opponent. A dark room and some eerie sounds were not going to spook her, or make her lose her courage over nothing.
A door opened and the glow of a candle illuminated the face of a woman around her own age with raven hair streaked with grey and pilled up high on her head. A face Minerva had grown all too familiar with over the years.
“Rowena?”
The woman moved closer and held the candle up higher to get a better look at Minerva’s face, her own looked far too worried for Minerva’s nerves.
“Am I supposed to know you? I thought the artefact would at least choose someone that I had met before, not that the king would care about that. Not that it matters, follow me.”
Minerva quickly followed Rowena as the other turned back around from where she had come from, all the while softly mumbling to herself. Too low for Minerva to hear more than a few broken sentences that did little to explain the situation she had found herself in. Though it seemed to come down to this.
She was in the past. The woman who had looked like Rowena Ravenclaw, looked that way because she was Rowena Ravenclaw. The ministry, or whatever it was called now, was much the same as in the future, dickheads. An “artefact” much like the one Minerva had been sent to Knockturn for was the reason for her venture into the past, and as far as Rowena knew, there was no way home. Its purpose had been to find a “perfect someone” for Rowena to enter holy matrimony in, as dictated by a new law that had been passed to ensure the survival of the Wizarding World.
And Hogwarts was haunted, and not in the cool unobtrusive way that Minerva was used to.
“You said you knew me in the future? That would explain the reason as to why you were chosen, though I am curious to what kind of relationship we had.”
They were walking through the hallways that Minerva vaguely recognised as the ones belonging near the Ravenclaw Tower. Rowena was showing her new home for the foreseeable future, while making small talk in an attempt to sooth Minerva’s ire before it would erupt. She was not at all amused to be brought to the past on one hand, though on the other, it gave her the perfect opportunity to get to know Rowena better in a way that was not at all possible in the time she came from.
Considering everything, she wasn’t certain yet if she wanted to shout in anger or joy, though the moment she would come face to face with one of those ministry rats the choice would be easy.
They had almost reached the door to the Ravenclaw Tower when a loud, loud moan disturbed the silence. And not one of those that Minerva had been hearing during her entire time in the past that were produced by the ghosts.
Nope, not at all the same.
It didn’t take Rowena any longer to realise that Minerva had stopped walking due to the sound, or a small smile appeared on her face.
“Nothing to worry about, unfortunately that is not at all unusual.”
Another loud moan filled the hallway and words that sounded remarkably like someone saying: ‘I’m going to fill you up so well, make your belly all big with our children’. Though she really hoped whoever it was had more class than to have some clandestine rendezvous in the hallways, and then didn’t even have the decency to keep it down.
“That sounded like…”
“You don’t want to know, but rest assured they’re both into it, nor would we ever tolerate it if that wasn’t the case. Now shall we continue on our way? The Ravenclaw Quarters are rather magnificent, or so I would say.”
Minerva didn’t think of protesting as Rowena gently lead her through the door and up the stairs towards her personal rooms.