Trapped In Time: Love's Secrets

Chapter One

          “So Jason was looking through the Harry Potter catalogue and saw a time turner. I joked that I wanted one” Twenty four year old, mother of one, Alissa chuckled to herself while talking online to a longtime friend. “He must have read my mind or something because he made mom pick one up when they went to Potter Land.” She didn’t include that not being able to afford to go herself had been devastating.

          “Bahaha, now if only they worked eh?” Shannon replied. As big fans of the bestselling book and movie franchise, the girls had often joked about going back and trying to save some of their favourite characters.

          “Well, see, that’s the thing…” Alissa wrote out slowly, preparing for what she was about to reveal.

          “What they made real ones now and are selling them to kids all over the world? ROFL” Shannon grinned as she wrote out the laughing reply. They had this kind of friendship, where they always teased and joked. Even when inevitable arguments occurred, it was quickly forgotten.

          “…well… I don’t know about that, but I think mine works” Alissa knew she sounded completely crazy, she knew Shannon probably wouldn’t take her seriously. Heck, who would? You didn’t just start time travelling randomly and expect people to believe you. She had just received her time turner necklace, as a four month anniversary gift from her husband and had jokingly put it on and turned it back one turn to find herself barreling through time, while all that had happened in the last few hours whirled around her.

          “OMG hahaha, have you been drinking you freak?” Shannon barked out a laugh but also worried her friend might be serious. Or trying to be serious anyways, since time travel didn’t actually exist.

          “Look, I know I sound crazy, and I’ve been thinking about this all day. I have an idea, save this conversation okay? If you save it to Word off Facebook, it will show the times we wrote. Make sure you go back far enough to catch when we last talked though.” Alissa had been trying to figure out how to prove this to Shannon all day and hoped this would work.

          “Okay” Shannon answered and actually considered for a moment if she should really go ahead and do it. Alissa wouldn’t know if she had really done it, she could just play along. Oh whatever, like it mattered, she could just delete it afterwards; might as well humour her friend. “Kk done” Shannon checked to be sure she had the time stamp dated the night before, when they last talked, included in the document.

          “Alright brb then” Alissa typed out and with a bit of worry she turned her time turner just half a turn. She didn’t have the hang of this yet, but in the book, three turns had taken Hermione and Harry back about 6 hours. So if her math was right and one turn equaled two hours, then half a turn should be an hour.

          Shannon was sitting online, as usual ignoring work she had to get done to play games and watch the last Harry Potter movie where her favourite character sacrifices himself and proves he was the brave, loyal and strong one all along.

          Bling! Her speaker chirped and the blue flashing on her screen indicated someone was messaging.

          “Hey face!” Face was a nickname used with affection between her and Alissa, an online friend for so long; Shannon couldn’t remember when they met.

          “Hey, shh you’re ruining Snape’s part in the movie gawd” Shannon joked, glancing back and forth between the computer at the desk and the old behemoth of a TV to her left.

          “Well maybe we can change that” Alissa said and Shannon laughed. They always discussed their plan to go back as if it were a real possibility. Completely sure that when they saved the lives of their men, they would be loved and appreciated, of course. Fictional characters had no say in their feelings!

          “Yep, and then I’ll seduce him and have tons of little greasy black haired children” Shannon teased and beamed at the computer. Of course Snape would love her if he existed, I mean come on let’s put “opposites attract” to the test!

          Over the course of an hour, the two girls once again hashed out the details of what they would do if they could go back the twenty or so years and get into Harry Potter’s world; if it was real of course.

          “Okay, now do me a favour and save this whole conversation to a Word document face” Alissa wrote. “Make sure all the times are in it and dates and everything. Don’t argue, just do it then I’ll tell you why in a few seconds.”

          Shannon eyed the computer screen as if making the face directly at her friend instead of an inanimate object but sighed and did it anyways. “Okay done.”

          “And 3…2…1...” Alissa counted down and Shannon worried her friend was finally going crazy; it was inevitable one of them would eventually go off the deep end. “Okay, now, go in to your documents and there will be another one just like this, check out the dates and times, tell me what you think” Alissa wrote out with shaking fingers.

          Shannon’s reply was a long time coming and Alissa worried if maybe she had fainted or was trying to work out all the ways what she was seeing could be possible. “What the…” Shannon finally wrote, “How is this even…did you hack into my computer or something?”

        Alissa grinned to herself and set about again, trying to convince Shannon that yes it was possible and they had just proven it and they were off to the Britain to find their way to Hogwarts! “Besides, you know I don’t know the first thing about hacking into a computer” she added with exasperation.

          “There is no way I can afford to go to the freaking UK, and you can’t either” Shannon finally typed out, thinking that even if the time turner was a big joke and Alissa had somehow set this all up, a trip to England would be nice. Maybe she’d find the actor who played Snape just to gape at him in awe. She had after all loved him in every movie he’s ever been in, could be fun to meet him! And her “stalking” skills were a real skill her friends often joked about. She met the three Princes of England and the Backstreet Boys just by taking a bus into the city of Vancouver, Canada and walking wherever “felt right” so hey, what was finding one actor in all of England?

          “I know, I was thinking about this too. So… I’m going to sell my car” Alissa wrote reluctantly.

          “WHAT??” Shannon even said it out loud for added emphasis, though she knew no one could actually hear her. That car was the only way Alissa and her family were making money.

          “Look, I know it’s crazy, but I believe in this and you’re coming with me. Melissa was even in on the plan and if all goes well, you won’t actually be gone long. If we can’t find what we’re looking for, you’ll be back in a week and she can watch both places for that long anyways.” Melissa was Shannon’s younger sister and between the two of them, they had two houses full of dogs and cats. When one went away, the other would watch both houses. It was the only way they could have mini vacations or go visit their mom who lived a few hours’ drive away.

          “Er… okay then…see you tomorrow?” Shannon didn’t believe this was happening but Alissa wasn’t being deterred so she’d just have to go along with it. “I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow night…” Not sure whether she would actually find her friend at the airport, she asked about flights and verified them online and even asked Alissa to post a picture of her online ticket receipt. It all looked real, so Shannon wrote her dad and asked about a ride to the airport the next night.

          “Perfect timing too! School will be out soon we know just where to start! We won’t have to go to Scotland until we try out plan A” Alissa wrote excitedly, her whole body shaking right down to the tips of her fingers. She was really going to do this; she was going to save Sirius Black! And if she didn’t… well… then she was going to have some explaining to do to her husband and family when she got back.