Out of Nowhere

Disclaimer: The characters held within (save Leah) are not mine. They belong to the lovely JK Rowling (who isn't the devil, she's brilliant!!) and I am not making a profit, nor is any kind of copyright infringement intended.

A/N: I've debated on post this story here, because it's kind of similar to Desity Black's 'There's no Place Like Hogwarts', a story I highly recommend you read, it rocks!! Anyway, I've been asked to post it here, so I have. ATM, the rating is mostly for language because our OFC swears like a sailor (or if you're English, she swears like a trooper =D), but there will be lots of pretty sex in the subsequent chapters. Leave me lots of reviews and let me know what you think! Also, this is my first OFC story, so if she's 'mary sue-ish', I'm truely sorry. =D


They all stood around her bed hoping that she’d soon wake. No one was really sure what to make of this young woman and her sudden appearance at the edge of the forbidden forest. Hagrid had been working in his pumpkin patch when something shiny caught his eye. When he went to investigate it, he noticed it was a backpack. The silver zipper was catching the sunlight just right to make it gleam. The bag itself wasn’t what caused the half-giant to almost trip over himself, though. It was the young woman lying face down in the grass under it that did. When he turned her over, it was apparent that she was still breathing, but both of her knees were scraped up, as was the side of her face, and her left eye had a large bruise around it.

Hagrid scooped her up and ran to the infirmary. He got her into a bed before he made his way to Dumbledore’s office to inform him.

It had now been almost twenty-four hours since she was found, and no one knew anything more than they did when she first arrived.
Dumbledore was speaking softly to Poppy when the patient began to stir. The young woman stretched herself and groaned loudly before opening her eyes. She sat there for a moment looking at her audience with disbelieving eyes. She assessed her ‘captors’. There was a giant of a man with long, scraggly hair and a beard that would have looked like a Hell’s Angel had he not had such friendly eyes. There was a tall thin man who looked older than Methuselah, and was wearing a garish purple paisley…robe? Then there was the nurse in her uniform, with that silly looking hat. Finally her eyes settled on the last occupant in the room. He stood apart from the others and wore a scowl on his sallow face. A single long slender finger rubbed across his almost non-existent bottom lip in thought. He wore long black…robes? Suddenly, understanding dawned across her face and she said, “Just fucking great! I’ve died and gone to Hogwarts! I knew that Rowling woman was the devil! Now I’m going to be a pawn in her sick game!”

The four others in the room were all taken aback at her outburst. “Oh close your mouths; you look like fish out of water!” She snapped before taking a deep breath.

She closed her eyes and counted to ten, willing her temper down. When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Dumbledore and smiled. “So,” she asked sweetly, “who’s mind fucking me this time? Hmm?”

Snape, still in the shadows, snorted as Dumbledore stepped forward. “My dear, I have no idea what you are talking about. You are very much alive and as for this ‘mind fucking’, as you put it, I can assure you no one is doing that either.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Is that so, now? Well, I’ve got to piss, where’s the bathroom?”

Poppy, still speechless, pointed to the bathroom door. The young woman, who was over a head taller than Poppy, hopped out of bed and strode to the open door paying no heed to the open back of her hospital gown. When she got back, she crawled back in bed and covered back up. Looking around at the group, she asked, “If I’m not dead, and I’m not being mind fucked, where am I then?”

Dumbledore smiled. “I’d like to ask you a few questions, first, if I may. Then we can get down to the business of where you are, how you got here, and how we get you home.”

The young woman rolled her eyes and then shrugged. “Whatever you want. Just remember, I’ve got to be back at work on Monday, and I’ve got a feeling this is a mind fucking. This is strangely reminiscent of something Mike would do. When I get my hands on him, I’m going to tie him up and pluck his balls hair by hair with rusty tweezers.”

Severus Snape strode forward at the threat to this unknown person and towered over the woman. She looked him up and down appraisingly and stared into his dark eyes and batted her eyelashes at him. Dumbledore cleared his throat and she looked back at him. “My dear, what’s your name?”

Rolling her eyes again, she said, “Jo, as in Jo Mama,” then she smirked at the old man.

He gave her a bewildered look said, “Well, Jo…”

She smacked herself on the forehead and interrupted him saying, “My name’s Leah. That was supposed to be an insult. Proceed.”

“Um…Leah, my name is Albus Dumbledore and you are indeed at Hogwarts. The question is how you got here.”

She lay back on the bed with her fingers laced under her head and laughed. “Let me guess, Albus, Severus, Poppy, and Hagrid. Right? Next thing you’re going to tell me is that McGonagall is off on holiday in Nepal climbing Everest. Look, people do not fall down steps and into children’s books.”

The four exchanged puzzled glances. “Children’s books?” Dumbledore asked.

“Now I know this is a mind fuck! There’s not a single person in this world who doesn’t know about the Harry Potter books!”

Snape growled at the mention of Harry Potter. Leah looked at him and smirked. Poppy and Hagrid both were still staring dumbfounded. “Ok, look, I’ll go right along with this charade, but right this moment, I’d like something to eat and something to wear besides this gown. With the back open, my ass gets cold.”

“Certainly, Miss Leah,” the old man smiled, “what would you like?”

She taps her chin in thought for a moment and then smiles. “Well, since it’s summertime and it’s so warm, I think I’ll have something light. I’d like a salad with fresh dill, a bit of tarragon, a couple of feverfew leaves, and some parsley. I’ve got to keep my iron up or I’ll be anemic!”

At this, Snape raised an eyebrow. This young woman knows a bit about herbs. That’s interesting.

In no time at all, there was a large salad sitting in front of her and she devoured it. With a loud belch, she patted her stomach. “That really hit the spot! Now, can I put on some clothes and get the hell out of here? Hospitals give me the heebie jeebies.”

Dumbledore gave her the bag that she had with her. It contained her belongings, including her freshly cleaned and repaired clothes. “I’ll just change in the bathroom if you don’t mind. Be back in a jiff!”

She hopped from the bed, still not paying any attention to the fact that her whole, naked, backside was bared for all to see and she slung the back over her shoulder and made her way back into the bathroom.

Leah took off the hospital gown and dug her clothes out of the bag. She slipped on her underwear and put on her bra. As she hooked the back of her bra, she looked up into the mirror and screamed.

The blood curdling scream that came from the bathroom caused everyone in the infirmary to jump, except for Snape. Poppy ran to the door and threw it open. “My dear child, what’s the matter?” She asked with concern in her voice.

Leah was standing there looking down at herself in a state of shock. Looking into Poppy’s eyes, the young woman grabbed her own breasts and said, “I…they’re gone!”

The medi-witch looked at her and raised an eyebrow before closing the door. “What are you going on about child?”

Looking down again, Leah said, “My boobies, they’ve shrunk. I’ve shrunk! I’m skinny again!”

“Shrunk? I don’t understand what you mean.”

Leah sighed and with a hint of panic in her voice said, “What day is it?”

“It’s June the fifth. Why do you ask?”

“What year?”

“1997. Why does that…”

Leah looked up with wide eyes. 1997? No, it’s 2005. I’m twenty-five. If it’s ’97, then that makes me…”

Leah’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. When she finally came to, Leah was back in the hospital bed with her gown back on and her bag at the foot of the bed. The only two people there were Albus and Poppy this time. She looked from Albus to Poppy and burst out in tears. Between sobs they made out phrases like “can’t be seventeen” and “not going through this again”.

Albus put his hand on her shoulder and immediately the young woman leaned into his body, sobbing harder. Finally, no more tears would come and she quieted down. She wiped her nose on some tissue that Poppy gave her before saying, “I’m not really sure what’s going on. This can’t be 1997, but when I saw myself in the mirror I couldn’t help but know that it was. I’m two inches shorter than I was and I weigh about fifty pounds less! I’m skinny again.”

Then, she took a deep shuddering breath and began babbling, “Ok, so I fell, and I ended up here, in the past. Time travel isn’t possible. Ok, so maybe it is possible if there’s a rip in the space time continuum. That still wouldn’t explain how I ended up in Scotland. Maybe there was a rip here too and I traveled through. No, that’s not plausible. I…”

“My dear, why don’t we start from the beginning. What is the last thing you remember?”

Leah stopped her babbling and looked into Albus’ deep blue eyes. “I was finished with class for the day. I’m a grad student in college, and I left the building with my bag. Five steps from the bottom, I stepped wrong, twisting my ankle and I fell. I’m such a klutz! I’m always falling or running into stuff.” Tears welled up in her eyes again as she looked between the two.

“I need a cigarette. No, wait, if I’m 17 then I won’t start smoking for another year and a half.”

Lean groaned and flung herself down on the bed. “I truly am in Hell.”

AFter several minutes of clear dispair, Leah sat up, squared her shoulders and set her jaw. “Ok, so if I’m 17 again, I’m going to need lots of physical stuff to do.”

Dumbledore’s eyebrows furrowed at the last request. “What do you mean physical stuff?”

“Exercise. Work. Well, really anything that exerts me.”

“Why?”

Leah smiled sadly. “This body has a very high metabolism and if I don’t exhaust myself during the day, I don’t sleep. I’ve got a couple of papers to write for school, so being awake won’t be too bad. I’ll go insane if I don’t have something to occupy my time awake at night.”

“I see," replied Dumbledore who raised an eyebrow at Poppy.

“Now, I’m going to put some clothes on and I’d like the grand tour.”

She didn’t give either person there a chance to answer her before she was up and in the bathroom. When she walked out, she was wearing a pair of baggy hip hugging cargo pants, and a tight black strappy tank top, with a pair of wicker platform sandals. She finished brushing out her long mousy brown hair and threw her brush back in her bag before slinging it over her shoulder. “Ok, let’s go!”

Poppy and Dumbledore exchanged a glance and he led the way from the infirmary. “There are a few things I don’t understand, Albus. Firstly, I’ve still got all of my knowledge of my twenty-five year old self. Secondly, I’ve still got both of my tattoos and my bellybutton ring. I didn’t have any of them at seventeen. But, this is definitely my seventeen year old body. I don’t have the catch in my knee from the cartilage that I tore playing basketball in my freshman year of college. And, I don’t have the screw in my ankle from the car wreck I was in when I was twenty-one. Why do you suppose that is?”

The older man sighed. “I’m not really sure. This whole situation has me perplexed. For no apparent reason, other than you fell, you’ve managed to get past our protective wards and, if what you say is true, you’ve come back in the past. Something doesn’t add up.”

She snorted. “You can say that again! So, where are we going?”

He smiled down at the young woman. “Why I’m giving you the grand tour. We’re heading to the Great Hall right now.”

“Cool,” she answered just before she mis-stepped and almost fell down the stairs.

With a speed that belied his age, Dumbledore reached out and grabbed Leah’s arm before she went tumbling down the stairs. “Watch yourself.”

She looked at him with a blush staining her cheeks. “Thank you. I am such a klutz. And to think, I took ballet for almost five years! What would I be like without it?”

They both laughed at her last comment. The two walked in companionable silence for the rest of the way to the great hall. Leah would find something interesting in one of the paintings or ask about the whispering suits of armor. When they made it to the great hall, Albus threw the doors open with a grand flourish. Leah gasped as she looked around. “It’s beautiful! And the ceiling really is charmed to look like the sky outside! I could stare up at it all day and night. Ok, so where to now?”

Albus smiled and led her through the rest of the castle, except the dungeons. Leah was in love with the castle and said as much. They were at the top of the astronomy tower looking out over the grounds when Fawkes appeared with a note for Dumbledore. He read the note quickly and motioned her to follow him.

When they got back to his office, he had a visitor. He stood about six foot one and had long sandy blonde hair and warm brown eyes. He stood to greet Albus and stopped, looking at Leah. “Please accept my apologies, Albus, for interrupting your time with your guest.”

Dumbledore waved him off. “Not to worry, Remus, we were almost finished with the tour of the castle.” Turning to the young woman to his left Albus said, “Leah, this is Remus Lupin. He’s going to be our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this coming year. Remus, meet Leah. She arrived here yesterday by means we still aren’t sure of. But, we are being diligent in trying to get her back to where she should be. Now, is there something I could help you with?”

Leah and Remus both stood there looking at each other as Dumbledore motioned for her to sit. She sat on the couch behind her and smiled warmly at the werewolf. He flushed deep crimson and turned to the Headmaster. “Actually, I just wanted to double check with you and make sure that it was ok for me to start moving in. Grimmauld Place is a bit big for just me and it’s rather lonely.”

“You know that you don’t have to ask, Remus. You are faculty, so you can reside here at any point in the summer,” he answered with a benign smile.

As he got up, Remus shook the Headmaster’s hand and thanked him. Before he left, he bowed his head toward Leah and she again smiled at him causing him to turn that lovely shade of red once more.

She and Albus walked from his office to the great hall. It was now time for supper. There was a small round table set up with six chairs. Leah sat next to Albus with Remus on her right and Poppy to his right with Severus sitting on the left side of Dumbledore.

Supper appeared and everyone tucked in. The conversation was light and pretty much meaningless. Remus finally turned to Leah and asked, “So, how are you finding Hogwarts?”

She smiled at the werewolf. “It’s actually a bit surreal. Everything about this place is just amazing. But then, it’s not every day I fall down the steps at the college and wake up in a story book, either.”

Remus gave her a puzzled look. “A story book, what do you mean?”

With a chuckle, Leah began to explain, “Well, this place, Hogwarts, is the setting for a very, very popular children’s book or rather series of books. They are referred to as the Harry Potter books. Basically, they follow Harry from the time he’s eleven and gets his Hogwarts letter until his seventh year. They chronicle his trials in fighting the Dark Lord. I think the timeline is something like from 1991 to 1998 when he will graduate. I think the author is a genius. With her books, she’s gotten a generation of children to read. That’s no small feat.

“Anyway, I’m going off on a tangent here. So, I left class and being the complete and utter klutz that I am, I fell down the last five steps and woke up here, in 1997.”

By this point, the whole table was listening to the tale she was relating and Snape said, “Yes, it seems that Miss Leah here is seventeen again.”

Leah narrowed her eyes and looked at the dark wizard. “I’m twenty-five!” Her expression softened as she looked back at Remus, “I came from 2005. I’m in my seventeen year old body. When I first woke, I was sure that my best friend was trying to mind fuck me.”

Remus choked on the sip of pumpkin juice he’d just taken. In between coughs he asked, “Mind what?”

With a chuckle, Leah handed Remus another napkin to wipe his chin. “Mind fuck. Basically, it’s a game my friends and I have been playing since we were about sixteen. There are five of us. The other four get together and plot against the fifth one. We’ve done various things to each other. Once, we left my friend Mike in a cemetery all night. He has this weird thing about dead people and ghosts. Another time, they kidnapped me from my room at midnight and left me in a patch of woods with a cryptic note. They wanted to see if I really could navigate using the stars. They knew I’d follow the dog star, Sirius, to the edge of the woods and then get myself home. I found my dad’s four wheeler and flashlight with a note that said, ‘You’ve been mind fucked.’ And that’s how we got the name of the game.

“So you can see it wouldn’t be hard for me to deduce that this might be some elaborate mind fuck. Except, now I know it’s not. I’ve somehow managed to come back in time and when I did that, I re-inherited my younger body with all of the alterations I made to it over the years and without all of the injuries I’ve inflicted on it. And for whatever reason, I’ve managed to keep my twenty-five year old mind.”

At this admission, she looked at Snape and again narrowed her eyes. Dumbledore smiled and announced that supper was over and that he had much to accomplish before he went to bed. Everyone left the table as Leah slung her back over her shoulder and jogged to catch up with the older man. “Albus, where will I be staying tonight? You haven’t mentioned any rooms or anything. Also, what about clothes? What I have on is all that I have.”

He patted her on the shoulder and said, “Follow me my dear.”

Leah could see that twinkle in the old man’s eyes and suddenly she got the impression that this wasn’t boding well for her. As they walked deeper into the castle, it occurred to Leah that she was not anywhere that was familiar.

They stopped in front of a large portrait of a beach at sunset. Every few minutes, a dolphin would break the surface of the water and make a splash. Dumbledore said the password and walked in. The room was brightly lit with thousands of candles and sitting in a velvet chair to her right in front of a large hearth was Severus Snape. “Fuck,” she muttered.

Dumbledore smiled toward the dark man who looked up from his book and rose to meet the pair. “Severus, I need you to house Leah for a night or two until she gets acquainted with the castle and we can get her her own set of rooms.”

Snape’s lips were let in a thin line and his face a scowl. He took off his reading glasses and rubbed the bridge of his overly large nose. “Absolutely not, Albus. I will not have her encroaching upon my solitude. This is unacceptable!”

“Don’t worry my boy; it won’t be for more than a couple of nights. Thank you Severus.”

With that, the old wizard smiled and walked out leaving Snape and Leah standing there gaping like fish. “Just kill me now! Fuck,” she muttered again before she sighed and rubbed her temples and Severus growled in frustration.