Draco and the Old Man

Eight

"What date is it?" Draco asked like he did every morning.

"Tuesday, the 14th of April, 1998." Draco's roommate of five weeks told him like he did every morning. The old man had become the only person Draco had talked to during his five weeks. "When are you going to accept you're in the past?"

"I'm not in the past." Draco was always in denial. "I'm just drunk. I'm always wasted anyway."

"You haven't touch any alcohol in all the time you're here."

"We live behind a bar! I serve drink nightly, Aberforth, how do you know I don't take a sip here and there."

The Old Man, Aberforth, sighed. "I tell you the same thing every morning, and you deny it the same way." he said "Until you find a way to get yourself home, you need to live here in the past. You're the one who time traveled, yet I'm the one who understands."

"I'm going to go study." Draco grumbled. As much as he hated it, Aberforth was right. He moved away from the breakfast table, dropped his plate in the kitchen, and moved to the little study that Aberforth had graciously let Draco take over for the time being. The desk was littered with papers and books.

Draco sat down. He tried to straighten up the papers, but quickly gave up. He grabbed the book he had been reading the previous night and flipped through the pages.

"The concept of time travel has always been one fantasized by both muggles and wizards alike. Wanted for the chance to go back to yesterday to fix a simple mistake, or to go back and meet those long deceased. It hadn't been managed for the longest time until the start of this century until the italian alchemyst, Giovanni Morani, invented the small device known as the time turner, able to take you back in time several hours at a time. Longer times, such as several day, months, or even years, had not been studied or even proven by any modern day devices. There has, however, been two multiple cases where an individual stated their modern day as half a century into the future, but sans plausible evidence, they were written off as several old crackpots.

"Multi-year time travel has of course been attempted by several wizards. None of which, however have been successful. Some rumors have surfaced from the Rocky Mountains in western to mid North America of a spell being developed to be casted on unbeknownst victims, sending them to the past anywhere from twenty to seventy years. Proof of such claims has not been demonstrated nor has it been approved under the Safe Spells Regulation Act of the UNWA (United Nations of Wizardingkind Alike)"

If only Draco had thought first before condemning himself and the two kids he sent God knows where, or at least put down the glass so he could remember what book he had found the stupid spell in. These books that Aberforth had gotten for him were all vague and of no use to him. He was lost...

***

"Did you say 1998?"

"I did." The old man turned on another light. He looked back to Draco and his face soured, his browns furrowed, and he looked confused. "You're not Draco Malfoy." he said.

"Yes I am. Why would you say that?"

"You are obviously not seventeen. You've got to close to forte or fifty! Sure you've got a likeness to the boy, maybe you're a relative, but you're not him."

"I'm not even forty!"

"You aged horribly, then." the man threw another potion at him. "Drink. You really are drunk."

"I am Draco Malfoy. Why would anyone accuse themselves of being me?" Draco laughed. "But last I checked, it was 2015, not 1998."

"Are you trying to tell me you travelled in time?"

"Is that not what you just told me?" The old man leaned forward and into more of the light.

"You're Dumbledore." he gasped in realization at the man's face. "But no... I killed... I saw Snape... You're dead!"

"You must be referring to my brother." he said softly. "I'm Aberforth, not Albus Dumbledore."

"Oh, you're alive." Draco calmed down. He said that no nonchalantly.

"Do you know many dead people, Malfoy?" Aberforth asked bitterly.

"Some..." Draco said quietly. "I've seen a lot of death."

"Well, death man, so have I," Aberforth started raising his voice, "now you better sober up and get things together because you need to get home and you can't time travel drunk."

"I- I don't know how." Draco admit reluctantly.

"Then you need to be sober to find a way to get you home."

A/N: Happy new year everyone! A lovely January first to all you. -J.C