Chapter Text
This is not what Frank had planned. He didn’t mean to make such huge mistake, he didn’t even knew how the fuck he did it. I mean, time travelling is a big thing, you know? specially for him, a rookie in the magic world with no experience and, to be honest, really bad grades. People usually described him as a young man who didn’t do any justice to the expected raw talent that his last name supposedly gave him, which was obviously not flattering at all but he was used to it, he knew he was not good and that worried him even more. Where was him? Or more importantly, when was him?
He stared at his surroundings a little bit, still laying on the floor, with his back pinning of pain and trying to recognise anything at all. He relaxed when he did. He was still at the academy! He could recognise those papered walls anywhere, with the antique floral pattern and gold details that shined with the sun that was pointing at him and the walls directly through the large window. When he got up from the floor he felt taken aback. Even though the walls and also the floor were the same, the rest of the room was nothing he had ever seen. The decor was unknown for him. For the disposition of the room, he could guess it was a bedroom, with a bed, a closet and some kind of desk with a weird chair that moved when he sitted on it and freaked him out. Frank stood up immediately and put himself on his knees to see what made the chair move. He saw some kind of futuristic wheels and a quite simple mechanism that made it move easily with no danger of losing balance.
“Amazing,” Frank whispered to himself.
He kept walking around the room and stopping himself to curiously stare at some objects he didn’t quite recognise. As a wizard, no matter how bad he was, it didn’t really shocked him to see so many new things, he expected it since he apparently managed to time travel to God knows when, but it still amazed him how many weird and functional things he kept discovering. He didn’t dare to leave that room. What if someone was out there? He didn’t describe himself as a coward, but he had to admit that, for the first time in a while, he had no idea what to do and he was scared of getting discovered by some futuristic killer monster.
He didn’t hear anything coming from outside the room so he started overthinking about his situation, as everyone in his position would do. First thing he immediately thought is how much he hated his roomates. They always made fun of him because his magic level was low. Frank tried so hard, studied endless nights at the library, knew every spell he had access to by memory, but at the moment of practice it just didn’t work. They weren’t mean though, they were all friends and he knew they did it to tease him, but sometimes it was all too much.
They had challenged him to time travel when Frank told them about a spell he found in the depths of the library. Time travel spells were known only as a myth, and they didn’t even got teached at the academy since they were supposed to be pure inventions of the deranged part of the magic community. Well, apparently they are not, Frank thought mockingly to himself. He stared at himself in a high quality mirror that lied on a wall, a thousand percent better than the bored metal mirror he had back in the academy. On this one, however, he could see every detail. It was also quite large so he could see his whole body. He cringed when he got closer and saw his messy hair, long enough to almost cover his eyes. His clothes, a fancy red silk shirt with a classic bow, formal high waisted pants and an open black robe on top, looked nice on him, he wasn’t going to be humble with that one.
Frank was a confident boy no matter how bad he was with magic. He liked looking good and making his own clothes was one of his favorite hobbies besides music. He smiled at his reflection and fixed the bow that was about to untie. He started questioning himself if he should stay in whichever year he was in or if he should come back and tell his roommates he was fucking right. He was there already, he thought, and it would probably be the last time, so he decided to stay at least for a while and wander around the academy to see what it had become with the pass of the years, because it definitely had changed.
Frank was almost sure about his decision when he heard steps coming closer. They were distorted so he at least had time to think fast. He then decided to go back to his own year and not risk to fuck the timeline or some shit like that by getting discovered by who knows who. But first he needed prove to show to his roommates. He had to think really fast so he ran as silent as he could from where he was standing to the marble desk across the room. The steps were getting closer and Frank panicked, stumbling with his own robe. He felt like the most stupid foozler person ever, specially because of all the noise his short but heavy body made when facing the floor.
“What the fuck,” he heard a voice say. The steps of that person were faster now and before he knew it, there was a boy with way too red hair standing under the door frame with a confused and panicked face. Frank tried to react so he stood immediately and took a random object from the table without looking, hoping it was something not already seen in his year, which was quite possible.
“What the fuck, man!” The boy said.
“Hello there,” Frank answered, trying to smile as confident as he could knowing he probably looked like a complete weirdo by comparing what he was wearing with the other boy’s clothes, a black shirt with some weird face drawn with different red shades and some ripped pants. Was he poor? Frank thought as if that was any of his business. He shook his head and started to verbalise the same spell that took him to whenever he was, moving his hands in the directions he learnt by memory a couple days ago. The other boy, however, was making a lot of questions and he said something about calling someone, but Frank couldn’t quite understand because he was trying to focus so he could go back and not make things get worse.
The other guy wouldn’t shut up and Frank was starting to get irritated, but he tried to ignore the other boy’s panicked voice. When he felt his body levitate, he knew he was about to start travelling in time again. He apologized to the guy that was staring at him with a surprised face and then started thinking about the year he wanted to travel to, which was to the exact moment when he left. A weird feeling took power over his body and he could no longer see or hear the voice of the young way-too-red-haired man. Everything was black and his body collapsed. His mouth said words he couldn't understand and his hands moved in ways he had never learnt, by themselves. A couple seconds later, he felt a heavy pain on his back, again, as he felt in the floor of his room from what felt like a quite high height. He was stunned and felt a lot of pain and fatigue. I guess travelling in time twice a day can make me feel hurt, he thought. He tried to take away the pain and when he opened his eyes, he saw all of his roomates staring at him in silence, with thunderstruck looks on their faces.
“I told you, motherfuckers,” Frank claimed with a raspy voice, while raising his hand so everyone could see whatever he took from the desk of the futuristic handsome stranger. He had never felt more exhausted in his whole life.
Multiple excited voices started talking, or well, yelling at him and he just smiled, satisfied with himself.
Gerard was so confused he couldn’t move. Who was that?
He walked to the bed. It wasn't even his room, it was one of the guest’s ones. Gerard was aware of magic because he was a wizard himself, but he had never seen something like that. That boy with fancy clothes wasn’t someone he expected to find in his house. Gerard’s mother always told him when there was someone visiting. He first thought maybe she forgot to tell him, even though she was a control freak and that was quite impossible, but the face of the guy, all panicked as if he just got caught doing something bad made Gerard confirm the other guy wasn’t supposed to be there. He started yelling as a mad person. What else was he supposed to do? It was a stranger in his house wearing weird clothes and acting strange.
Gerard really tries to forget about the boy, but he still pops into his mind when he least expects it. It’s just how peculiar the other had been. He had looked like he was from another decade. Frank shaked his head when that idea crossed his mind. Time travelling was impossible, he knew it because he had tried and it would never work. The other guy had left with nothing but a single pen and a couple of apologies, which was kind of weird. If I was a time traveller, Gerard thinks, I would take with me more than a simple pen.
He goes to bed thinking about the mysterious boy while his head is spinning because of all the alcohol he drank with his friends in the main room of the big house. He doesn’t like the feeling and he still doesn’t understand where did the boy go. Gerard had seen disappearing spells, teletransportation spells and all the similar kinds, but he has never in his life seen something like that. The halo that surrounded the guy when he started levitating was something else. That kind of magic he has never seen and that made Gerard feel anxious. Will the guy ever come back? Gerard surely hoped so.
“Fucking Frank, you fucking did it! We thought something went wrong, you disappeared for more than 30 minutes!” Ray yelled at Frank as soon as everyone in the room calmed down a bit. Frank explains in detail everything he saw. Even though he had just been in the future no more than half an hour, it was more than any of them or any nearby wizard has ever achieved, for what they knew. Frank also confirmed, as it was said in the ancient book that he kept under his bed, that you can not be in two timelines at the same time so all the time that he passed in the future also passed in his own timeline.
“He was so odd! He had red hair!” Frank says when Amos asked him if he saw someone.
“Hey! That is not so weird,” claims Klaus, a ginger that is probably the nicest out of every single person inside the room, including Frank himself.
“No, Klaus! I mean like red red,” explains Frank and points at his own shirt. “Like this red.”
Frank keeps talking and everyone is so interested in him that they sit in a circle around him while he talks about the few things he saw. They are mostly interested in the boy though, so he tells them as much as he could.
“So was he attractive?” asks Amos.
“I mean, he got an unusual aura going on around him and he dressed strange,” says Frank. “But yes, for sure, he could be considered a good-looking person.”
“Oi! Do not come with that rubbish! You did liked him, didn’t you?” says Arthur between laughs.
Frank blushes and laughs.
“I am simply intrigued, you gibface. You do not get to see a person from the future every day,” Frank claims. He’s about to keep talking but Sr. Clifford knocks the door and then opens it. Amos, who had the object in his hand, hides it immediately.
“It is time to sleep, young people. Stop making so much noise and do not forget tomorrow is Saturday so you do not have to attend to any classes.”
"As if we would dare to forget that!" says Frank and everyone around him laughs more or less nervously.
They all lived in the private and selective Magic Academy of the Afternoonified. There were only 8 bedrooms with a maximum of 6 people living in each. The sons and daughters of the most exclusive and richest families studied here. You entered for the money, not the abilities, unlike the public magic academies, and that's exactly why Frank could actually get in. If it was a matter of magic level, he would probably be in the worst academy.
All of the students were around the same age, from 16 to 21 years old. The thing is, in magic school, you didn’t finish at a determinate age, you left the magic academy you studied at when you reached a certain level and your magic passed a quality control. You had until your 21 years to reach this level and meet this requirements, and if you didn’t, which was not really usual, you could pay a lot of money to the academy in secret so the would pass you, which was usually the measure rich families used, or loose your wizard tittle.
Frank had seen a lot of people come and go. He had been in the same academy for years, only seeing his parents in the festive seasons. He was friends with all of the students, he was popular, he was easy-going, everyone found him funny and entertaining. He was also the soul of the party, since one of his parents business was a whiskey factory and he always had at least 5 bottles of the alcoholic drink saved on his private cabinet, and his bedroom, big enough and the one he shared with his best friends, Amos, Ray, Klaus and Arthur, was were the parties were usually thrown at the academy.
“We can not tell about this to anyone,” whispers Frank to the now dark room.
Everyone agrees, whispering their agreement as soft as they could.
“I want to do it again,” continues speaking Frank.
They are all already laying on their beds, but when they hear Frank’s worried voice, they decide to sit and stare at him. A deep silence settles in the room and Frank is about to regret saying anything when Klaus starts to speak:
“Then do it on Saturday night,” he says, confusing them all a little bit. “I recommend it because it’s the only night Sr. Clifford doesn’t check if we are asleep or if we are in our beds since it’s our free time. In case you spend too much time in.. the future, you won’t be in danger of getting discovered. And we need to establish how much time you are going to spend there, or then, so we don’t freak out thinking something went wrong like we did this time.”
Frank gets up from his bed and sits besides Klaus. Klaus looks at him with eyes full of fear and worry. He’s always been the responsible one, the father of the little group they had.
“I will be alright, chuckaboo,” Frank tells him, trying to take all his nerves and worries away. He strokes Klaus ginger hair softly. Even though Klaus was so responsible, Frank had always wanted to give him joy. The ginger always looked so worried about everything, so anxious it made Frank’s heart hurt. Those eyes hid a lot of suffering and Frank could see it, only making it worse. Frank wanted to protect him from the cruelty of their world. Meanwhile, the rest of the young wizards looked at them with affection. They knew Frank and Klaus had a really close relationship, even thinking they were dating, and some of them still thought the same. Frank and Klaus both denied it between nervous laughs when they asked them in the middle of one of their famous parties, and since the hypothetical couple had seemed so awkward, they never dared to ask again.
“Just be carefull,” whispers Klaus, moving towards Frank’s soft touch on his head. “And avoid getting seen by people, that could result in bringing very bad consequences.”
“I will avoid getting caught by anyone,” Frank assures him. “I will be carefull. I have read about this subject, I know what I can do and what I can not.”
That part is true, he knew everything about time travelling, he got obsessed with getting as much information as he could when he found that precious book, but Frank knew he already did something wrong. He knew he was not supposed to get seen by anyone at all.