"2102?!" Crystal's mouth fell open as she eyed the Hufflepuff girl who spoke. That was much further in the future than she had anticipated! She had thought maybe a hundred years tops. "Well, that explains why it took so long to get ahold of you all! We're trying to transcend over 200 years here!" she informed them all. She had many questions - 90% of which were not nearly relevant at all to their current predicament, so she had to restrain herself.

She turned back to the Divination professor. "I can already feel our connection getting weaker. Quick, everyone, tell me - what are you all experiencing? Symptom wise, if you will. Does that make sense?" she asked the group at large. She wanted to make sure it was the same things she had been reading about. If they weren't...well, then they were back at square one, and she wasn't sure how much help she would be.

For a moment she forgot what was going on. She had fallen quiet though her hands never left the others. She watched the spirit in front of her and listened carefully. The class seemed to be enjoying the lesson and she was glad their energy was working so well. As she glanced around checking on the students she realized the Headmaster was there and that other man.

This couldn't be a lesson if they were here. What was... her eyes fell on her reminder paper in front of her. Oh, yes, that was what they were doing. "200 years" Cassie nodded trying to wrap her head around it. She did know the professor from portraits and books, but she hadn't realized just how far apart they were. She was brought back into the room and not her thoughts when the professor said the connection was getting weaker.

"Yes, we, well..." What were their issues again, "Memory loss is one and being transparent is becoming an even bigger issue." She glanced around the room for help since her memory was not doing her well at the moment. "What is going on? Is it something you have seen in the past before?"

Isla had just finished calling on the spirit for the second or third time when things really started happening. On one hand, she was kind of freaked out about summoning a spirit. Exactly who were they summoning? Not every dead person had been a good person when they were alive. But on the other hand, her adrenaline rush had her all excited about the possibilities.

WHAT WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN?!

She watched the small light get brighter and brighter, and she blinked at the blinding flash that came next. A second later, a full person was just...there. Uhhh...okay. HELLO.

Isla braced herself for who-knew-what, but then the spirit smiled, and the second year relaxed. She still scooted a little closer to Kitridge, though. So...this lady had been trying to reach out to them for weeks. Well, she could have been a little louder about it! They'd only just heard her, right? Whatever. She was here now, and hopefully she had some kind of magical solution to whatever it was that had happened to them.

"Hello, Mrs. Crystal Divine," she said, with a slight hesitation in her voice. Mrs. Crystal? Mrs. Divine? Just Crystal like they were lifelong friends? Okay, then. Whatever floated her boat. So...they were from the future? What did that mean?! She knew what the word future meant, but had they taken a trip back in time or something? WHERE WERE THEY?! She tried to answer about they year they were in, but for some strange reason, she couldn't find her voice. She was just too nervous.

Kitridge filled Crystal Divine in on all their symptoms, and Isla just nodded along. "We've lost all our magic, and the whole world disappeared," she said in a whisper.

....200 years???

Someone get him out of here--them, too, all the students and staff and the this castle and the poor elves--get them out. The more he listened to the back and forth between the others and this Crystal Divine was the clearer of a picture he was beginning to have of this situation. There was something...an old memory that was fleeting. If he was right, this gradual getting lighter and lighter that they were doing....it wouldn't stop until....

Oh Merlin, get them out of here.

She was beginning to lose whatever connection they'd breached.

"How do we fix this?" He asked, ignoring the question of symptoms. Cassie and Bellchanin had already given a few. They were running out of time, not only here but in general. There was something in the back of his mind that told him he knew what this was...but not for the life of him could he remember. It was important. Circe what he'd give to know.

"Can you get off a message? What do we have to do??"

Aboli's mind started whirring as soon as the woman explained she was 200 years - Aboli was assuming BEHIND them. That meant...there'd be 200 years time for them to figure out a solution...and the solution could come from the research from THIS very meeting!

"HEADMASTER! Maybe they've figured it out from this meeting and have left instructions somewhere around here!" she cried, suddenly, realizing that her outburst MAY prompt the lady to disappear - but it didn't matter! They were SAVED in her mind already! As long as this lady was truly from the past and NOT from the future!

DID NO ONE ELSE REALIZE THIS?!

200 years, eh? Sunny had his suspicions, but they were only suspicions until now. He needed to jot all of this down before it was too late and the memory escaped. The weatherman quietly listened as he let go of Cole's hand and began taking notes in his trusty notebook.

Something about this wasn't adding up. If this was, indeed, what he feared it was... Then they were in for a load of trouble. "Why didn't the spell work?" He asked himself in frustration as he read over the facts. Gee wiz. What a conundrum!

A bit startled at the sudden outburst from Aboli, Isla jumped a little and gave the girl a wide-eyed look. Huh? What was she talking about? Isla had so many questions. Who figured it out? Left instructions where?

But then her outburst also got the second year to thinking. "Two hundred years ago? Hmm... That's weird. Remember that time those ghosts kept flickering in and out in the Great Hall?" she asked. That had happened, right? She hadn't been going insane and imagined it all had she?

"One of them dropped an article on the ground about Queen Victoria's death, and it just so happens that she died two hundred years ago. So...those ghosts were from two hundred years ago, too, she said. Had this spirit been their professor? WEIRD. It's like everything that was happening to them connected to two hundred years ago. "Come to think about it, Sir Nick seemed to know all those ghosts, too. He could see them and talk to them. Maybe he knows something." She followed that up with a shrug. Her memory was so foggy that maybe none of this had ever even happened to begin with.

Ewan watched as everything unravelled in front of his eyes, his mouth slowly opening to resemble a fish as the ghost started to talk. “200 years?, he mumbled to himself, still unsure how he felt in that exact moment. Surely it couldn’t be true?] Did that mean she was from…1902? How did she know they’d been experiencing problems?

Shivering slightly now, the prefect wrapped his arms around himself and rubbed them in an attempt to warm up as he caught the end of what Professor…Uh…thingy had said about their symptoms. Memory loss…yeah, that although it wasn’t until his eyes went back to the headmaster again that he fully took in the gravity of the situation. He seemed…panicked possibly? Or it could be something else completely. Honestly, the man was pretty hard to read but something about his expression just seemed off. Either way, he was glad that their school leader was cutting to the point. How exactly could they fix what was wrong?

And then there was the weatherman who just seemed nonplussed at the whole situation. Ewan did not trust him.

Either way, he was all about action. All about trying to find a way to solve the problem and what Aboli was saying seemed to make sense to him. Sort of. If this person was from the past, which he still wasn’t sure he believed, then surely, they could have solved the problem and left clues for them to find the solution themselves? “I think you might be on to something Aboli. Maybe the answers are around the school somewhere. Although, it’s a big place. Where would we even start?”.

Then there was the book that the ghosts dropped! He’d forgotten about that! “You’re right Isla! Are those ghosts still around here somewhere? I mean, we could talk to Nick but if we could talk to them, maybe that might help more?”. He was all for talking to Nick but if he could get the info from the horses’ mouth, he’d prefer to do that. Although, if he was being honest, he had no idea where those ghosts were or what happened to them? Oh, the joys of memory loss.

Bernie was just kind of staring, her mouth hanging open, at the ghost lady. She was feeling a bit hopeful that they might get out of this, though she also had no idea about the ideas her classmates were spouting off. For one, Bertoli was YELLING about a meeting, and Bernie didn't know what that was about. Another thing was Island and Evan talking about ghosts, and to be honest Bernie's eyes might've glazed over a bit as she tried to remember if she'd even seen Sir Nick this year. She liked his half-decapitated head.

Anyway, uhhhhhhhhh? Bernie blinked a few times and looked to Professor Kitridge. Please hold this call, she thought to herself. She didn't WANT the spirit lady to disappear yet. She WANTED the lady to tell her how to end this!!!!

Memory loss, transparency, loss of magic - it was all fitting in with the weather phenomenon that Crystal had been researching. She looked back at the man who was definitely the Big Boss Man judging on how he commanded the room and nodded at him. "Quite right. We need to figure out how to get you all out of here," she said with a sigh. A Herculean task, truly, but she was willing to help as much as she could. They were all quite lucky she was so in tune with her Inner Eye, otherwise the disruption they'd caused in her dimension might have gone completely unnoticed.

"You're all fading away and not remembering things because, quite simply, you don't belong in this time period," she explained, trying to be as direct as possible, all the while knowing she could vanish out of this room at any moment if their connection was broken. "Think of it as...two timelines trying to exist on top of each other. There's a weather phenomenon - a magical storm of sorts - that can send whole buildings off their timeline and into the past. Or the future. Because you don't belong in this time, you're being pushed out of the timeline to correct the imbalance," she told them all. She hoped that made sense. She also hoped that they all made the connection between the storm and their little time traveling adventure. Oh, how she wished she had all the time in the world to interview them and learn more about what had been going on! What was the storm like? Had they seen the ghosts or shadows of any other students? How severe was the memory loss? It wasn't fair that Crystal had no time to ask questions!

She turned to one of the other men in the room (Sunny Raine) and wondered if he was a professor, raising an eyebrow. "I'm afraid I can't confidently answer that question," she told him. The energy in the room was starting to get a bit...LOUD as everyone started talking at once. She looked back at the Boss Man and raised her voice, hopefully drowning out the chatter that was going on around them. She could feel the connection starting to thin...

"My best guess is the spell you tried to use didn't work because it wasn't correct. There IS a correct spell out there, I know there is - my research indicates that people have successfully been able to return to their previous timeline, I just don't know WHERE the spell is," she admitted. All the accounts she had found so far had been frustratingly vague. "So, find the spell, and you'll all return to your appropriate time. And you'll have to act fast," she added, biting her lip. Even in her ghostly form, it was obvious the Divination professor was nervous for them. She didn't want to come straight out and SAY it, but....they all knew what she was getting at, right? They knew what would happen if they DIDN'T find the right spell...right?

"I will do everything I can in my current time to help, though!" she added with a friendly smile, just as her projection flickered for just a moment. She didn't have a lot of time left....

Isla still hadn't processed the whole two hundred years thing. The thought was in her mind, but she had no idea how it connected to anything. She just knew it did connect...somehow. She turned her attention to Ewan when the older Ravenclaw agreed with her. "Oh, you're right! Maybe the students from the past know something about the spell we need!" she said, perking up. She had a newfound hope that this could be fixed after all!

But then their spirit friend spoke up again, causing Isla to quieten down and look toward her. Wait...WHAT. They had gone two hundred years BACK IN THE PAST?! Her parents didn't even exist yet...and Isla did! WEIRD. Oh, and Queen Victoria had just died, and...those flickering ghosts...it all made sense now! On their timeline, they were just enjoying a meal in the Great Hall!

Speaking of that moment... "Sir Nick knows something about a book," she suddenly remembered. Her memory was foggy, though. What was it he'd said to them? She and Fiona had been sitting right there when it'd been said. "He said to...tell Alfred...that his book was...in the library..." She looked toward Ewan and Fiona. They'd been there, too. Maybe they could help her remember.

The Snakette’s facial expression by now had relaxed; she certainly had stopped gaping. But still, she couldn’t quite keep the surprise away completely when Divine said that. Wow. Two hundred years? She was stunned. In any case, Claudine would continue to remain silent despite all the questions asked. It made no sense answering and she failed to remember something correctly. No, she’d only speak unless needed, which was more than she could say about a particular second year Slytherin who seemed to love to hear herself speak. Ismay, was her name?

Anyway, Triton had asked the most important question of all: how did they fix the situation? Abiola’s unnecessarily loud remark made Claudine jump slightly. She swung her gaze to glare at the older girl before refocusing on Divine. It was quite the fascinating thing, that explanation. Timelines, a magical storm… say! That would explain the clouds and sky earlier in the school year. It was only now that Claudine remembered it.

And Ismay was no big help, which was no fault of her, but because of everyone’s failing memories. Claudine wished she could blame that girl though.

Naya was speechless as the conversation went back and forth between the Divine lady, the professors and her classmates. Her eyes got bigger and bigger as more information was revealed. She looked at Cole in disbelief. This was TOO MUCH. It was like a bad muggle movie. They were going to fade away if they didn’t come up with a solution quickly.

The storm had done something crazy, like rip a hole in the space time continuum. Now the future was the past or the past was the future or.........oh who knew? The bottom line was they had to get back to their present.......somehow. This was all giving Naya a really big headache. Everyone talking at once was not helping the situation. She listened as everyone gave their theories on how to solve the problem. There had to be a way.

Fiona had been quietly observing the almost chaotic madness (well, that's how she would describe it) when something Isla said sparked a faint memory. "I did have a newspaper article about Queen Victoria. Isla mentioned Sunny Raine and him mentioning 'the storm of a century'. Er...there was a book owned by an Alfred mentioned."

She said this slowly as if trying to join the fragmented pieces of her memories back together.

"Students please try to keep focusing, we don't want to lose her." They were losing her and at a very important time. Cassie tried to concentrate to pull the energy as hard as she could. They needed to get the answer, but there was something the other professor had said. Spell and people were talking about book. It was becoming very chaotic in the room.

"Mr. weatherman did you not have a book or something?" Was that the book or was the one the students were talking about the one they needed. Her eyes were on Divine as she tried to figure things out and keep the connection, but it was not working. She was not concentrating enough for both. "Crystal, contact us in anyway you can if you find anything else that can help." She was feeling exhausted from all of this and knew it was only going to last a few more moments.

Speechless. What. Was. Going. On. Time travel? Timelines that were being pushed together? Going back to their own time? It made sense to him and yet, it just sounded so ridiculous that it simply couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be but what else could explain what was happening to them?

His eyes moved back towards Isla and he gave her a look, as if to say ”I remember!" which was somewhat surprising seeing as he remembered so little there days. “Maybe it’s still in the library? I mean, it’s worth scouring the whole place just to find out, right?” . They’d been somewhat unsuccessful the first time but maybe with more they, that could all change.

To say he wasn’t paying attention to the divination teacher now was an understatement. Sure, he didn’t want the crystal lady to leave but it sounded like her time was short anyway and he’d long since given up chanting and focusing. Oops.

Crystal could feel herself being tugged back into her own timeline. She hurriedly looked at the Divination professor again. She didn't have much time left.

"Start looking for things. There's a loose brick in the wall next to the door of the Divination classroom, on the left side right by the handle. I can leave notes for you there, they should be able to cross over and we can keep in touch that way," she explained. How exactly did that work? She didn't know, all she knew was that she'd read about solid objects being able to transfer between the timelines. Did any of this REALLY make sense in the physical sense? Of course not! Hardly anything at Hogwarts ever did!

"I'll let you know if I find anything!" she assured them all, and then, just like as if someone had shut off a television, she disappeared in to thin air.

Something was not adding up. "I had a book," he confirmed, feeling around his pockets to see if it was there. Nope not there. Not in his bag either, he made sure to do a check of that as well. Huh. Well this was weird, eh? He couldn't remember where he had put the book or who he had given it to.

"It was an old edition," he began to think out loud. "Maybe a systems update would do the trick, eh?" As in an updated copy. "The library sounds like our best bet." Not that he knew what anyone was talking about when it came to Sir Nick and Alfred. Who were those people and how would they know about it? He was just about to ask Ms. Divine when she disappeared. Well that was abrupt.

Alfred? Who was this Alfred? Claudine was lost though she managed to glare a bit at the weather fellow. She trusted him about as much as she had trusted him the first time she met him. But um… just how did she keep focusing when Divine was supplying them with some distracting news? Still… the third year did her best to help keep the connection strong.

It sounded like they would need to organise a search. But what would they be looking for? True, Claudine was further baffled but she supposed they’d know what they were looking for when they came across it. Even so, would the notes thing even work? Whatever. Claudine just wanted things to get started, and pronto especially since poof, just like that, Divine had vanished.

It seems you’re getting closer to the answer but in the next second, it will be clear you’re also getting closer to your end. Like a time that may remain in a few of your memories, there is a sudden feeling that the floor beneath you is falling. There is a harsh jerking in the room before a sudden stop and stillness.

Miss Divine isn’t looking too seeable anymore, is she?

The ghost isn’t the only one who’s surrendered to the effect of the free falling castle. You’ll notice that you now fade riiiiight to the brink of disappearance before coming back to the faint degree of visibility you’ve recently been sporting.

This happens ever so often, like you’re here then nearly gone then here once more. The occasional object falling through your hands is only the beginning. Best get a move on fixing things while you still can.

That was...loud. In the relative silence of this seance, Trent actually jumped when Sung yelled about a meeting. The other students? The ghost children? They’d given no indication they knew they were there but before he could properly consider the idea, Divine was going into further explanations.

Yes...it was beginning to ring a few bells, albeit softly and in the very far back of his mind but mixing timelines and a storm. Something...he was waiting for something from the ministry. Was it about this storm?

And who was Alfred? Malachi looked between the students as they began discussing a book and Sir Nicholas. The library? Sunny’s book—why, he had that right here. Oh, they were looking for a different book? Consider the man even more lost than he typically was these days. For a moment, Trent looked between Cassie and Divine, hoping one of them could clue him in on Alfred. His gaze turned next to Stormy Raincloud. Did he know Alfred? Had he snuck him into the castle, too?

Before the man could ask any of this, he felt his stomach fall and his head go tumbling with it. Malachi grabbed on to whatever he could, fearing the worst even before they settl—uuuuuhhhhhhhh where was his hand?? Where was his chest? His feet??? Why was Grandson not there anymor—oh, there she was. And there the rest of him was....and there was everyone else. BREEEEEAAAATHE.

Malachi sucked in a deep breath, having heard all he needed to. The man jumped to his feet in an instant. “We’ll look out for those messages.” He told the older divination professor. He grabbed the book he’d confiscated from Sunny, earlier. Wouldn’t do to leave it behind in case it vanished next. “I don’t know who Alfred is, but if you think that’s the answer, I guess we’ve got to head to the library. I don’t think I need to tell anyone—“ The book slipped right between his fingers and landed with a thud.

The concern intensified. He made several attempts to pick it up before his hand was solid enough to once again do so. “I don’t think I need to tell anyone we’ve got no time to waste. Let’s get moving.” To the library, if these kids were to be believed.

The thrill that this was such a success had fallen to everything that was going on around them. She didn't want Crystal to leave, she had so many more questions, but she was gone in a second. Quickly she had grabbed her quill while the others were talking about the book more and jotted down a remind to look for the messages. She felt they couldn't afford forgetting that piece of information.

Just as she was about to stand and say it was time to head to the library the room started to fall. She gripped the table, but her hand went straight through. She gasped as she looked around the room and couldn't find anyone even in the candle light. When they stopped falling she tried to look at herself, but all she saw was the chair.

No wonder Myrtle cried so much if this is how she felt all day long, every single day. No thank you, Cassie did not like this and breathed a little easier when she started to see herself again. "Headmaster why don't you head to the library and I'll head to the tower to see if any messages are there." It had been 200 years ago, even if they just spoke with Crystal if she had anything it would be there by now.

GREAT. Fiona and Ewan DID seem to remember a little something about what Isla was saying, so now that the second year knew she hadn't been just dreaming that entire moment, she felt a little better. It was scary enough to lose your memory without possible fake memories of flickering ghosts and kids named Albert popping up here and there.

She felt kind of bad when the Divination professor (the one that currently taught them and not the two hundred year old one) encouraged them to not lose focus. Sorry, SORRRRRY! Isla had never summoned spirits before, so she was a little rusty when it came to this sort of thing. Nevertheless, Crystal Divine was leaving them anyway, and apparently she knew a way to pass them notes through the bricks?! That could happen?! WEIRD!

Oddly enough, Sunny Winter and Headmaster Travis agreed with her on starting in the library. GOOD, because had she heard Claudette Bun's inner thoughts about her, she'd have made a face of victory in that girl's general direction. What was up with her anyway?!

...or down, because in the next second, they were all falling again, and then literally nobody was visible for a second or two there. Isla no longer had panic attacks about the situation. She'd gotten a little used to their transparentness in a weird sort of way. On that note, if they were heading to the library, then she was READY! Only...this time she'd stick like paper and glue to Headmaster Travis, because apparently that's what she'd done wrong last time.

So...which of these transparent figurines was Travis?

Oh, no. Oh, no. Up until that moment, Claudine had forgotten completely about this sensation. But as they suddenly experienced that falling feeling. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped Heats and the other student’s hands tightly but just as soon as it started, it stopped. She opened her eyes in time to look down at herself in time to see that she had almost completely disappeared before reappearing slightly. The girl was horrified. That was a sign. It definitely was: if they didn’t get a move along quickly, there would be nothing of themselves left to save.

Claudine wanted to bet that most of the students would want to go with Triton so she tried to seek out Professor Carmen. “Professor? Is it okay if I go with you to the Tower?” Who knew if she was looking at the woman though...

Heath blinked dumbly when Professor Divine - that was her name, right? At the rate he was losing his memory, he couldn’t be sure! - asked what year it was. Had they gone back in time? The spirit’s next words all but confirmed it. Over 200 years?! Did he hear that right? The sci-fi nerd side of him was intrigued by the concept of time travel. He had so many questions about how and why this happened, but that didn’t matter now. What did matter was that if they’d gone back in time, they weren’t dead. For the first time since he started turning translucent, he had hope that he might return to his family.

Heath nearly jumped out of his seat when Amidala started yelling about instructions. Okay, he had to admit, that was sound reasoning, but did she really have to scream it? Some of us were trying to maintain the connection with Professor Divine here! Then Isabella said something about ghosts and an article about Queen Victoria and… Heath was totally lost now! Was he there when that happened? He couldn’t remember anything about it if he was!

All the hope Heath had only moments ago vanished when Professor Divine said they were being pushed out of the timeline. How ironic… he’d spent his entire life fading into the background, and now he was about to fade into oblivion. Then what? Would his family forget he ever existed, or would it be as if he’d never existed in the first place? Before he could fully process those thoughts, Divine said something about a spell and a loose brick outside the divination classroom. Then she just vanished, and everything was falling and…

Where was Headmaster Thropp? Where was Professor Kenobi? Where was anybody? It had finally happened; they’d disappeared from existence, hadn’t they? Heath had all but resigned himself to his fate when the transparent forms around him reappeared, and he saw the faint form of Claudine beside him. Huh… had he been holding her hand this entire time?! There was so much happening that he must’ve forgotten. Sorry, Claudine! And sorry to whoever was on his other side too! Letting go of his neighbors’ hands, he looked at Headmaster Thropp (or at least the last place he saw Thropp) with grim determination, prepared to follow him to the library, until Professor Kenobi mentioned the divination tower.

Now he was confused! Were half of them supposed to search the library while the other half searched the classroom? If so, he’d rather go with Professor Kenobi! She was much less scary than the headmaster, but he’d do whatever he had to do to get back to the present!