AN: The second book and year of my Phoenix Potter series. Please review, I'd appreciate feedback. :)

Disclaim: I was not the person who thought up Harry Potter, and do not own him or his world. Merely playing.

There is a room inside the Department of Mysteries that is very special. Very special. Not many people know about it, and of those who do, many do not know its actual purpose. The room is older than the Ministry itself. Many wizards and witches have no idea that that room was responsible for the creation of the Department of Mysteries. In fact, no one outside of that room has any idea of exactly why the Department of Mysteries had been started. The history books all claim different origins.

One book claimed that the second Minister of Magic had it created to control certain magics, like Necromancy, and many of the Darker Arts, so Dark that most modern magical societies no longer know of them. A different book claimed that the Department started as a research department for research the Ministry didn't want anyone to know they were working on. A third claimed that the Department actually controlled the government, and the rest of the ministry was merely a decoy.

The second theory was the most prevalent. Many wizards and witches wondered about the research that was going on in the Department. It was a popular thing to speculate about in groups. Anyone who actually worked in the Department were only allowed to smile and say 'no comment' if they were ever approached by anyone wanting to know.

But the real story was very different. Very different.

Time does not work in that room. Never had, never will. It is outside of Time's domain so that any attempts to change the path of Time can be stopped. There is a book in the room which knows the history of the whole world, and would activate when something major did not go the way it was suppose to. After that, the two Unspeakables in the room have a certain amount of time to act before Time completely unravels and the universe is destroyed.

Most often, the book was empty and silent. Not this past year, though. In the past year, many events had happened that weren't suppose to. The two Unspeakables in the Room were trying to figure out what event had changed the world. They weren't having much luck. They had the histories of three of the people mentioned in the book over the past year. Amity Fear, Ginevra Weasley, and Ronald Weasley were all easy to find information on. The two Weasleys' father was a member of the Ministry, and none of their history had been blocked or erased. Amity Fear, having spent some time getting schooling in muggle schools had been a little bit harder, but it was still possible to get. They had tentatively determined that Gilderoy Lockhart was not actually a player despite having been mentioned, as he was now suffering from amnesia and unlikely to interact with the world in a meaningful way again. That left the last two Potters: Harry and Phoenix.

They had been trying to get a hold of the histories of those two for the past year, and hadn't had any luck. Someone was blocking them in the Ministry, someone with a lot of power. They had their suspicions on who it was, but the other members of the Department hadn't made any inroads in getting the information they needed. So the information on the Potters was scarce. They had the the Potter history up until the family went into hiding, and some of their history at Hogwarts, but the two Unspeakables knew that they were getting doctored information. After all, the past year had seen the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, and not a single mention of that was in Hogwarts records. So, they were taking the information on the first year of Harry Potter with a grain of salt, and had someone on rumor patrol.

All of this was unfortunate, because the Unspeakables were almost positive that one of the Potters was involved in the origin point, the moment responsible for the divergence of Time, from what it should be, to what it was. The two Unspeakables were making as much progress as they could, but they spent most of their time watching the book, hoping and dreading that the quill would come to life.

They would not have to wait too much longer.

Time gave wizards a Room, and some token items to keep them happy and to stop them from messing with her. She allowed the wizards to 'invent' Time-Turners. There was a safety built into them, that the wizards themselves were unaware of. The only thing that one could do with a Time-Turner was what had already been done. The only problem is that there were a few people who were born with the ability to change Time. Her sister Fate had done that, in a fit of anger that Time had determined how everything would go, and did not give her much room to play.

Fate gifted a few people the ability to change Time every so often, in an attempt to recreate the world. If those people ever managed to succeed, Time would unravel, and Fate would be able to recreate the world the way she wanted it. It lead to a bitter rivalry between the two sisters, and to Time giving humans the Room she was not in. It was the only way Time was allowed to counteract Fate's activities.

For those few people, Time-Turners would not have that safety built in. Rather, it would be built in, but it wouldn't affect them. Which is how one of the Dark Lords the world doesn't remember managed to change the past.

Time was watching the world, knowing that another changer had been born into the world. She wanted to take her Time-Turners back, to prevent the changer from getting a hold of one. Unfortunately after something was given to humanity, it could not be taken back. Like fire, magic, and the ability to think. Time could only watch, and hope that those in her Room would be able to solve the mystery.

She watched as her right hand finished unraveling. They had time, but Time did not want to lose any more of herself than she needed to.

Her sister had never won yet.

Phoenix "Skazzy" Potter has a secret. Well, she has many secrets. She's a witch, sister to the boy-who-lived, and probably-almost-definitely addicted to dreamless sleep potions. That last one is the only one she's keeping from her brother, Harry.

The two of them are magic users, going to a school called Hogwarts, and in two different houses at the school. Skazzy in Hufflepuff, while Harry was in Gryffindor. It had surprised both of them when Skazzy was sorted, or it surprised Skazzy when she was sorted, and her brother when he heard about it after the fact. Last year he had kind of crashed a car into the Whomping Willow, which was not a good thing.

Skazzy was going into her second year, and Harry his third. And they had run into a slight problem: teachers like to assign homework, and their guardians liked to pretend magic (and they) doesn't exist. Harry had snuck into the cupboard under the stairs where their stuff had been shoved after they returned home, and brought the books up so that they could do their homework.

Skazzy had run into another problem: if she did her homework at night and took her potions, she'd sleep during the day. And she meant sleep as in no-one-can-wake-her-up. Which is suspicious considering she wasn't suppose to have anything on her that would be able to do that. So she was spending every other night doing her homework, and not taking the potion, and being careful to not wake her relatives up.

Now, normal people in Skazzy's situation, living with people who hate you, would probably not want to wake up people who would yell and scream. Not Skazzy. She was just being careful for her brother. She had faced down a basilisk at the end of the last school, and was alive. Not unharmed, but alive. But after that, and the realization that when Harry turned seventeen they could leave had given her some leverage with her uncle.

In the year that Harry went to Hogwarts and she started, it happened. Skazzy doesn't like to think about it, but seeing as she's still having nightmares, it's kind of hard not to. Her uncle is aware of it. And when she came home this summer, with one eye swollen shut and a puffy line down her face, he turned to yell at her, and stopped.

Skazzy wasn't completely stupid. Her relatives may hate her and her brother, but clearly they are trying to keep the two alive. After all, there was plenty of chances for the Dursleys to kill Skazzy and Harry, but they didn't. With the taste of freedom in her mouth, she realized that it didn't matter what the Dursleys did. Vernon Dursley was marked for death because of his knowledge of it. Her eye said it, and he saw it, and he had been avoiding her as much as he could ever since.

Course, her brother was trying to be nice, and not scare the nasty people, and work with their rules, because he didn't want to get in trouble. Skazzy behaved for him. And Uncle Vernon knew that. And he wasn't happy, but what could he do? Anything more that he did would simply come back to haunt him. And Vernon Dursley was not a completely stupid man.

Thus, why Hedwig the owl was allowed out instead of being locked in a cage. He claimed it was because she made more of a racket when stuck, but he gave in when Skazzy turned to face him. She never thought she'd be grateful to a basilisk but she was.

Skazzy was a Hufflepuff. To most people, that meant she was loyal and hardworking. People might have said nice for other Hufflepuffs, but she had gotten a bit of a reputation for not being personable. It didn't really bother her. At the end of last year, she had been bitten by a basilisk, which caused her left eye to cease functioning, and left a long scar down the left side of her face. She had another one on her chest where she had also been bitten, but that wasn't on display. Yeah, the scar was definitely helping with keeping people away and scaring her uncle. It was quite a sight, to see a girl with red hair, and one green eye, and one milky blue eye with a scar. Well, once her eye was not swollen, people would see the milky blue eye. She had checked in a mirror a few days after she got out of the hospital wing at school to see what her eye looked like.

And it was fun annoying her aunt and uncle because they had to explain where and how exactly their niece had gotten that nasty, nasty wound. They usually ended up changing the subject.

Tonight was a homework night. Harry was working on History of Magic, and Skazzy was working on Transfiguration, one of her weaker subjects. She was distracted from doodling in the side of the book by her brother stretching, and looking out the window. And diving out of the way. Three owls collapsed on the bed, and Skazzy recognized two.

"Errol's not dead, right?" she asked, slowly moving towards the owls.

"Doesn't seem to be," Harry answered, putting the owl in Hedwig's cage so he could recover. Skazzy glanced over at the clock.

"Oh, happy birthday. Didn't realize it was tomorrow yet," Skazzy said, giving her brother a quick one armed hug. "What did you get?"

"Give me a moment," Harry said, pulling the package Skazzy had reached for out of her hands. She pouted, but leaned against the wall. "Ron's family won a jackpot, they're in Egypt. Got me a sneakascope. Suppose to tell me when someone untrustworthy is around."

Harry set it up on his desk, where it remained still.

"Good to know we can trust each other," Skazzy said as they looked at it. She had been a bit worried that it might go off because of her secret, but guessed that since she wasn't harboring any thoughts to harm Harry that it wasn't going off.

"Hermione's in France, and got me...a broom servicing kit? Awesome!" Harry softly exclaimed. He enjoyed a sport called quidditch and played seeker, and enjoyed flying around on a broom.

Unfortunately, this had been the only communication they had with their friends. Harry had agreed to not send letters with Hedwig, and made sure Skazzy didn't, and the one time one of his friends called the house, well, it wasn't pretty. So Ron must have warned the other people they had given phone numbers to to not call. Both Harry and Skazzy were a little upset at that, since the two others would have known how to use a phone.

Harry picked up the last package. The writing was recognizable as belonging to one Hagrid, gamekeeper at Hogwarts. He started to unwrap the present when it began to move.

"Hagrid wouldn't send you a dangerous creature, right?" Skazzy asked, as she looked around for a weapon.

"I don't think so. But he does think a three headed dog is cute, and claims Aragog won't hurt people," Harry said, eyeing the package warily. He poked it, and it seemed to snap, as if it had jaws.

"I got the lamp," Skazzy said holding it over her head and prepared to whack whatever it was. Harry counted to three, and ripped the paper off the present. Both Potters froze when it was just a book, which than turned on its side and scuttled away. Skazzy lunged after dropping the lamp on Harry's bed and managed to grab the book. Unfortunately, she didn't weigh much and the book was fighting her, and moving her across the floor. Harry grabbed a belt and between the two of them, they managed to get the belt around the book and bound it.

"Why did he get you a biting book?" Skazzy asked, as they both paused to see if anyone had heard the scuffle. Harry shrugged. He looked at the card that Hagrid had sent.

"Says I might find it useful," Harry answered, staring doubtfully at the book.

"Maybe you can try to send the book to an enemy, and it will eat them?" Skazzy suggested, also staring at the book.

"Monster Book of Monsters. Doesn't seem like a book to send to an enemy," Harry said. Skazzy shrugged.

"Alright, we can ask him when we see him," Skazzy said. They turned towards the other two letters the owl had. One of them appeared thicker than the other one, and it turned out to be for Harry. Each Potter took their letter and opened it. Skazzy scanned her letter, noticing that whoever their defense professor was this year, had assigned what seemed like a useful book. Granted, their last professor had assigned his own books as textbooks, and it turned out he didn't actually do anything in the books so almost anything would be better, but still.

Harry sighed. Skazzy looked up.

"What?" she asked, concerned. Harry shook his head and tossed his letter to his sister. She read it.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock.

Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.

A list of books for next year is enclosed. Yours sincerely,

Professor M. McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"Ah, well, that might be problematic?" Skazzy said, meeting her brother's eyes. She glimpsed at the clock behind her brother. "Two am, want to call it?"

Harry nodded, putting his birthday cards from Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid standing up on his desk. He grinned, looking at the cards. Skazzy smiled, and the two got into bed. Skazzy waited until she heard her brother sleeping than grabbed one of her potions. Just one dose couldn't hurt. Plus she needed it. Now one dose only kept her sleep dreamless for about six hours. She drank it, put the bottle back, and went to bed. It took her about ten minutes to fall asleep. She missed the owl that flew in, dropped two letters on the desk, and flew out.