The Plan shouldn't have been as simple as it was. Time was a messy thing, not linear, not straightforward as turning matchsticks into needles, or following the recipe for Felix Felicis. It infuriated Orion many times during the process. As a Slytherin, he was ambitious, but even he thought that Connor, with his mind working a mile a minute, and Ophelia, with her clever hands and smarter mind, were slightly insane for even contemplating The Plan. He hated his sister, Bianca, for her constant loyalty and belief in the fact that it would work.
He hated himself more for agreeing to The Plan.
The Plan was this - a modified time turner filched from Harry Potter's desk at the Ministry, the visit disguised as a talk about what grades would be required to join the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and a couple of years of tinkering with it to make it go back further than a few hours. The charms required for this were of Connor's doing - despite the recklessness the Gryffindor sometimes showed, especially when running late to classes or deciding that he needed to kiss Orion 'right now or I'll explode', when it came to spells he had a gentle hand, the intensity in his eyes and how precise he was with wand movements and pronunciation, was breathtaking and much too attractive. Ophelia was the one who actually created the spells, made sure they couldn't interfere with the already delicate magic of the time turner, and had spent months in the library, poring over books to find the right balance of magic, even persuading Professor Flitwick to sign a slip permitting her to look at books in the restricted section.
The main part of The Plan, the actually charming and how, exactly, they were going to change anything, was done once Orion, Ophelia and Connor were out of school. Bianca didn't take as much part in this, having only found out of it over the summer and now was intent in studying for her NEWTs, training for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and trying her best to not get another detention for physically assaulting a student who made the stupid decision of insulting her family while she was in earshot. She made great input when it came to people who should be involved - not all light, not all dark, but those who deserved to know. Whose families would be affected, whose lives would be changed forever, who deserved to change what their supposed destiny should be.
When Bianca turned eighteen, when Orion and Ophelia were nineteen, twenty for Connor, The Plan was set into motion. They felt like maybe they needed more time, or at least Orion felt that way, but Ophelia didn't want to delay - the risks of waiting longer outweighed the risks of doing it then, before someone else could find out and stop them. It had always been dangerous, for wizards and witches to meddle with time, and what they were doing was creating a separate timeline, a separate universe so to speak, and trying to make that one better than this. No one in this time line would note their absence, it would be as though they had never made this choice, used this spell. Life would continue on in the predestined route, whilst the four of them tried to rewrite the destiny in another. If fate were a person, they would be heavily unimpressed with the goal, but it was too late to turn back now.
So, with a murmured word and a twist of a time turner, the four left, to write their own destiny, with the help of some others.
Xooox
The first encounter Remus Lupin had with the dangerous side of magic was when he was bitten by a werewolf. The night would always haunt him, sometimes he would still wake up feeling Fenrir's teeth in his shoulder.
His parents had tried to find a cure, had made themselves poor in an attempt to cure an affliction that would be with Remus for the rest of his life. He loved them for it, but nothing had come of it. He still got to go to Hogwarts, though, thanks to Professor Dumbledore, and he would never be able to thank him enough.
However, Remus truly thought this would be the most dangerous thing that magic would be able to do.
He and his dorm mates had woken to find themselves in some room, disarmed and in the presence of students and graduates and teachers. The only people who were awake Remus didn't recognise.
Two of them sported black hair, looking similar enough to be siblings. For a brief second when the boy of the duo glanced over, Remus felt as though Sirius was looking at him from his brother's face, and it was jarring. Black - pure blooded and racist, and though it was cruel to rope all the Blacks into that stereotype, he could feel the growl rising in his throat. A protective thing. The girl who had to be his sibling paused in her discussion with the second girl, the one who looked Korean, with a darker complexion and eyes so dark they were almost black, turned to follow her brother's gaze. She let out a startled noise when she noticed Remus was awake, before her entire being relaxed as she made her way over to him. Remus could feel his hackles rise, and she raised her hands to show she was unarmed.
"Easy, we're not going to hurt you." She lowered herself slightly, and it was only then Remus realized he was sitting on the floor. "Should've expected you to wake up sooner, but Connor miscalculated. He usually does." The final boy, dark skinned with cropped hair, let out a noise of discontent which the girl ignored. "I'm Bianca. My brother is Orion, the other girl is Ophelia. I'm sure you worked out which one Connor is."
"You're a Black." Remus felt like that was important to point out, noted that Bianca bit the inside of her cheek as though to bite back a scathing comment. "What sort of Black are you?"
"The good kind." It was Orion who spoke up, not having moved from his spot. Now that Remus had seen Bianca up close, he could note the differences in them - freckles dotted Bianca's nose and cheeks, the tops of her shoulders, whereas Orion's skin was blemish free and pale. One of them spent much more time outside. "We're not going to expose your...affliction. Yes, we know, and no, we don't care." He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and snorted. "No one should give a shit, really."
"Please don't start ranting again." Ophelia asked, rolling her eyes. "We really should prepare for more awakenings. How many have we got?" Connor stood on his tiptoes and Remus caught sight of him mouthing as he counted people.
"Fifteen. Not including us."
"So nineteen." Ophelia's eyes narrowed. "Why did we not have twenty?"
"Because we don't need to stick to your 'rounded numbers feel nice' philosophy?" Bianca suggested cheerfully, and Remus let out a soft laugh when Ophelia flipped her off. He watched as Connor raised his wand and murmured soft words. Orion's eyes were fixated on his hands as he crafted seats, sofas and beanbags and armchairs. Doors followed, labelled neatly as rooms - kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and, strangely enough, requirement. In the centre of the circular shape he'd created with the seating, he crafted a table and, atop it, sat seven books, getting thicker the closer they were to the bottom of the pile. When he'd finished, he caught Orion's eyes and winked at him. Remus watched in fascination as Orion's entire face resembled the colour of the Gryffindor crest.
"Done." Connor took a seat on one of the sofas, joined quickly by a still red Orion. "Might as well take a seat, Remus - I can call you Remus, right? - there's room for four opposite me."
Remus did take a seat, watching as Bianca splayed herself out in a beanbag and Ophelia perched herself on the arm of the sofa Orion and Connor were sharing, proceeding to try and sort of Orion's hair despite his half hearted protests.
Remus was relieved that the rest of the Marauders awoke first, mostly grumbling with confusion. He watched as Sirius' gaze landed on Bianca, who offered a wave and a grin, and then on Orion, who was batting away Ophelia's hands with protests as Connor laughed. He seemed to linger longer on Orion, up until he spotted the eye colour and relaxed. Peter had managed to drag himself over to where Remus was sat, staring at the four strangers. James, contrary to those two, had made his way over to Lily, letting out a sigh of relief when her bright green eyes flickered open, a confused noise escaping her.
Remus took the time to take in the other members of the room, and felt himself internally wince. All four heads of houses were there, along with Professor Dumbledore himself, but that wasn't what had him grimacing.
Lucius Malfoy was well known for his stance against Muggleborns and Muggles and Half-Bloods and, well, pretty much everyone who wasn't a blood supremacist. Narcissa Black was no better, but she didn't have the bloodthirsty streak that Bellatrix had. Barty Crouch wasn't too bad, he supposed, but he hung out with certain witches and wizards that left a bad taste in Remus' mouth - fallen in with the wrong crowd, but Barty was a Hufflepuff, not a Slytherin, and gained some mild disdain for that.
Remus was, surprising even himself, worried about Severus Snape and Regulus Black. Mostly from how his friends would react to them when everyone finally came to - there was no love lost between the Black brothers, though they never antagonised other as much as preferred to ignore the other's existence, but Remus knew it would come to blows between James, Sirius and Severus. It usually did, although it had died down considerably after Lily and James got together.
Just as Remus suspected, even with teachers present, the three boys immediately reached for their wands, only to realise they were gone. He started when Ophelia cleared her throat and heads turned to stare at her. In response, she waved.
"Sorry about the rude awakening - you're probably confused. We don't mean harm, or have any malicious intent towards any of you. You are disarmed purely because of what we just witnessed." She raised an eyebrow, gaze catching on James, Sirius and Severus in turn. "If you behave, you may receive your wands."
"Who the hell are you?" Sirius snarled, hands clenching into fists. Regulus' eyes were fixed on Orion, wide and stunned.
"You're a Black." He managed and Orion's lips quirked up slightly.
"Your assumption is correct." He rose to his feet and gave a sweeping bow. "Orion Viktor Black, Slytherin graduate and heir to the House of Black. Or, well, I was." Remus watched as Sirius snorted derisively.
"The only Orion in our family currently alive is my father."
"In England, maybe. Across the channel there are more Blacks." Bianca rose to her feet, shaking out her hair and tilting her head back slightly. "Bianca Andromeda Black, Hufflepuff graduate, offered the position of Seeker for the Chudley Cannons in a desperate attempt to drag them out of the mud."
"And it started out so well, Bee." Orion rolled his eyes. Bianca stuck her tongue out at him in retaliation. "Either way, half of us are introduced, so if you two would do the honours?" Ophelia sighed, but got to her feet.
"Ophelia Su, Ravenclaw graduate, half-blood. I don't have any fancy titles."
"And I'm Connor Fall. Graduated from Gryffindor and I'm Muggleborn...I think." Remus watched as Barty's eyes narrowed in confusion.
"You think?"
"Didn't know my dad. My mother didn't have magic, or not that I remember." Connor shrugged a shoulder. "I've sort of come to terms with that. Blood status isn't important right now - what's important is that we...well, we're from the future. Albus Dumbledore can confirm that." He turned to face the professor, who went still for a moment, before nodding.
"You're telling the truth...you also took precautions to make sure not to destroy...everything."
"That's Ophelia's doing." Bianca admitted, and Ophelia flushed. Lucius made the first sound he had since arriving, a derisive noise.
"I don't believe you."
"Your name is Lucius Malfoy, son of Abraxas Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy fortune and, since you are engaged to Narcissa Black, will have a small claim to the Black fortune." Orion rattled off, and Remus watched his grin grow cocky as Lucius grew paler. "Your wand is elm and dragon heartstring - or at least it is currently, the same as Bianca's. You're currently considering taking a...ah, mark, of sorts, both to prove yourself of worth and as it aligns with your ideals. I suggest you don't - that sort of tattoo cannot be removed easily."
"People have tried. It...doesn't work." Ophelia said, and her eyes involuntarily flickered over to Severus and Barty and Regulus, where they were huddled together on a sofa meant for two. With a flick of her wand, the seat was elongated and the wand disappeared up her sleeve. "But that brings us to why we're here. We're here to change the future. To fix what went wrong."
"The thing is, everything ended...half well." Bianca pulled a face. "But it could have ended better."
"In our timeline, over half the people in this room are dead. Or worse." Orion was blunt, and Remus felt his breath stutter. "They die too young or with things left undone, unsaid, or lose their minds, their family, their dignity, fighting a war they never should have to."
"You...You're talking about V-V-Voldemort, aren't you?" It was Peter who spoke up, who winced slightly at the name, but he had said it, and Remus was so very proud of him. Many spoke about Voldemort in hushed whispers, refusing to use the name - it seemed he, James and Sirius' disregard for the dark wizard had rubbed off on him. Orion's eyes widened, as though surprised, but it was Connor who answered.
"Yes. We are. On the 31st of October, 1981, Voldemort is supposedly defeated. The next day, a woman wakes up to find an orphan on her doorstep, a man is wrongfully imprisoned, and shams of trials are conducted, or not depending on who you are. And then, a decade later, some part of him is stirring, returning."
"But that's - that's dark magic. The darkest of it. How…?" Regulus was shaking, actually trembling in his seat. Remus watched Barty reach for his hand, squeeze it.
"That's where these come in." Ophelia leaned forward, tapped the stack of books with nails painted to match a sunset. Remus thought the clouds painted on her nails were moving. "These books detail the second rise and fall of Lord Voldemort. And you are going to read them. By doing this, and alternate timeline is in the making - one I and Bianca and Orion and Connor are stuck in. This time, people don't have to die, don't have to lose everything. This time, we can change everything - and you are going to help us." Her lips quirked up into a smirk, a devilish look that was surprisingly similar to the look James got when he had a particularly good prank in mind. "You don't have much say in this - time is frozen, and already the past is being altered. So, I have one question - who wants to start?"
XoOoX
Jesus Christ I haven't done a Reading the Books fic in a million years but I had the sudden urge to and here we are. For those of you who have read my fics before - don't worry, my others are still being written. I just...hit roadblocks a lot but I swear I'll update The Luck of Ronan Spire soon and the others have chapters in progress.
For those of you are new, hello, Harry Potter was probably the first fandom I got into and it holds a dear place in my heart. I hope my writing will do the characters chosen justice, and that my OCs and their stories receive a warm welcome. This will definitely take a while, but I hope to make it through all the books at some point, even if I skip less important chapters from later books and slow down over my least favourite, the Chamber of Secrets.
I did one of these for PJO/TMI years ago. My writing has improved since then, so hopefully this will be much better than that.
Until next time!
Jazz xx