Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter no matter how much I wish I did.

Chapter 1

"Victoire!" called a loud, insistent voice, "We're going to be late!"

The person in question, a pretty girl of about nineteen, sighed at her reflection in the mirror. She quickly combed through her strawberry blonde hair with her fingers, pausing when she caught sight of her ring. An engagement ring, to be more precise. Happiness bubbled in her stomach and an irrepressible smile emerged on her face as she thought of her boyfriend – no, her fiancé. Even though they had been engaged for months, every time she thought about their wedding she felt just as giddy as the day he had proposed.

"Victoire!"

She jumped as her mother's voice broke into her thoughts once more.

"Coming!" Victoire yelled, rushing to grab her shoes before running down the stairs.

She smiled sheepishly at her family when she realized they had all been waiting for her before they floo'd to the Burrow.

It was the beginning of another disgustingly hot summer and just like every other year, her huge family was throwing a Welcome-Back-From-Hogwarts Party for the younger kids. Victoire, who had graduated two years previously, was looking forward to seeing the many cousins she had missed throughout the year. It was also a good chance to see her fiancé, Teddy, although she already saw him often enough. But still, she thought convincingly, he's been so busy lately. It would be alright to spend the majority of her time with him.

Inwardly laughing at her self-justifying argument, Victoire stepped through the green flames.

When she arrived at the Burrow, the party was already in full swing. Her Nana Molly had heaps of delicious food set out on tables around the yard and most her family had already arrived. In fact, it seemed as though only her Uncle Percy's family and her Uncle Charlie were missing. In all likelihood Uncle Charlie would not show up. He rarely came to such events as he was always preoccupied with his dragons. And Victoire would certainly not miss her Uncle Percy's stuck-up and snobbish daughters, though it was a shame her Aunt Audrey was not there. How snooty Uncle Percy married someone as lively and funny as Aunt Audrey was something Victoire would never understand.

Victoire searched through the crowd, grinning when she spotted Teddy across the yard. Realizing her family had already dispersed, Victoire began to make her way towards Teddy. She paused here and there along the way to chat with various relatives, but made it to him without wasting much time.

Teddy was talking with Lorcan Scamander, who was just back from his fifth year at Hogwarts. The two of them would have been harder to find if it weren't for Teddy's bright blue hair.

She walked up to them and greeted Teddy with a small kiss and gave a simple hello to Lorcan. She looked around for a moment, searching through the nearby faces – where one Scamander twin was, the other was not far behind, and Lysander was rarely seen apart from her sister Dominique since they had begun dating over a year before.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Victoire said as Teddy settled his arm around her.

"Not at all," Lorcan grinned. "I was just telling Teddy the vacation mum has planned for next month. We're going to the Alps, to look for – "

He was cut off by his brother, who appeared from within the crowd alongside Dominique.

"Come on," Lysander interrupted. "James and Fred found a purple gnome! You have to come check it out."

"Do you think it could be a …" Lorcan's voice drifted away from Victoire and Teddy as he was dragged off to see the gnome.

Teddy chuckled, turning to look at Victoire.

"How was your weekend, love?" he asked.

"It was alright. Mum and I stopped by the baker to choose a cake."

Noticing the slight worry on Teddy's face, Victoire laughed.

"Don't worry, it's chocolate. Did you really think we'd pick anything else for a chocoholic like you?"

Teddy relaxed as he said, "I knew I shouldn't have worried."

"Right," Victoire said teasingly. She put her arms around his neck before continuing, "You want to know what would have made my weekend even better?"

"What?" Teddy asked, his voice low and husky.

"If I'd been able to see you."

Victoire blinked in surprise as Teddy suddenly pulled away from her, looking guilty.

"Is something wrong?" she asked hesitantly.

"I – yes – no – sort of," Teddy stuttered, running his hands through his hair nervously. "Look, Victoire, we need to talk."

Victoire's eyes widened in horror.

"You are not breaking up with me." Victoire did not like the way her voice cracked.

"No, of course not," Teddy hurriedly assured her. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"'We need to talk,'" Victoire quoted him, her voice still sounding a trifle hysterical. "No one ever says that unless they want to break up."

Teddy grabbed her wrists before looking her directly in the eye and saying, "Why would I ever want to break up with you? You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I just want to talk with you."

Victoire relaxed against him. "Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Now come on, we can't talk here."

Victoire let him drag her off, getting more and more curious by the second. What could Teddy have to say that needed this much privacy? And it had something to do with why he could not see her over the weekend…

Teddy stopped only when they could no longer hear the sounds of their family at the Burrow. He quickly glanced around them, as though making sure no one had followed. He then turned back to Victoire before running his hand through his hair. Victoire began to wonder if this was a nervous habit of his. It was very rare that he was nervous around her, she who had known him since he was less than a year old, and therefore it made sense that she had not noticed it before.

She watched as he seemed unable to form words, beginning to say something, stopping, and then trying again. After the third time this happened, Victoire began to become impatient.

"Spit it out, already, Teddy," she said. As she waited a little longer, she began to giggle. "That rhymed."

He gave her a strained smile before beginning to talk, "So, you know how we're going to get married?"

He quickly put a finger over her mouth as she opened it to speak.

"That was a rhetorical question. And please don't interrupt," he pleaded. "Just hear me out."

"Fine."

"So, after I proposed, I started thinking," he said. "I realized that the day I marry you is going to be the happiest day of my life and I just wish…" He trailed off as thought unsure how to continue.

A gentle breeze blew past them, blowing a strand of Victoire's hair out of place. Teddy reached up and gently brushed it back before continuing, "I just wish my parents could be there. Or that they at least got a chance to meet you."

Victoire smiled sadly at him, knowing how much Teddy longed to talk to his parents. In that way he reminded her of Uncle Harry, who's parents had also died before he was old enough to remember them.

"What does that have to do with this weekend?" Victoire probed gently after a few moments of silence.

"Well, you know how I work in the Department of Mysteries?" he asked. "I found this book there a few months ago. It showed me this ceremony, and if I do it, we could talk to them!"

"Teddy!" Victoire said as she began to panic. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You can't – "

"Victoire, relax!" he exclaimed. "I told you not to interrupt. Let me explain and then you can decide if you still think it's a bad idea. O.k.?"

"O.k.," she said, deflating slightly now that she had been derailed.

"So," Teddy said. "This ceremony would not be bringing anyone back from the dead. Unspeakables use it to create a sort of… image… of someone who died, or the past form of someone who is still alive. That way we can talk to them and get a better idea of how history happened. Of course, this is all top secret so…"

Victoire sighed as he trailed off nervously.

"I won't tell anyone," she promised.

"Good," he grinned. "Anyways, it can only be used to bring someone back from a time at least a full year before they die, or before the present time. And you can use it on more than one person from many different times. So I was thinking, what if we tried it? They would act exactly the same way as they would if we time travelled back to their time, so we could really get to know them. And their real selves wouldn't remember it at all…"

Victoire felt herself giving in to the mad idea as she stared into his pleading eyes.

"But," she bit her lip before continuing, "Teddy, your parents wouldn't even know you yet."

"Well," he said tentatively, "I wasn't thinking about taking them from that time. I was thinking I could take them from when they were just out of Hogwarts. Our age."

Victoire narrowed her eyes. "They're not the only people you wanted to take, are they?"

"Well, no," Teddy said sheepishly. "I was sort of thinking we could take Harry's parents, Sirius Black, and Fred as well. I've always wanted to meet them, and if we're going to do this, we might as well take them all."

Victoire looked thoughtful. She, too had always wished she could meet these people, these heroes.

"There's only one problem," she said. "James and Lily Potter died before Uncle Harry turned two. And Sirius was killed before your parents and Uncle Fred as well. When did you say you wanted to take your parents from?"

"I was actually thinking of taking Dad, Sirius, James, and Lily from a year or so before James and Lily died," Teddy said. "I figured we could take Mum from the summer after she graduated from Hogwarts and Fred from a year before he died."

"You can do all that?" Victoire asked, astounded. "But that still doesn't help. It just means there will be more people who have no idea who we are."

"I had a plan for that," Teddy said. "A few years ago, a woman named Joanne worked for the Department of Mysteries. She used this ceremony without permission to write seven books. They're all about how Uncle Harry killed Voldemort. She got fired when she got caught, but I know for a fact she kept those books. I was thinking we could bring them with us and read them. Fred would already know most of it, but that would give the others an idea of what happened. And we don't really know what happened in that much detail, so I figured it would be interesting for us. While we're reading, we would get to know each other."

"You've really thought this out, haven't you?" Victoire mused. "Well it sounds alright by me. We'll just have to be careful and make sure you're not caught. We don't want you getting fired. Have you talked to this Joanne person yet?"

"Yes," Teddy said, grinning in success at having convinced her. "She's agreed to lend me the books. I have them in my flat. I also sort of set up for the ceremony this weekend."

Victoire laughed. "I guess I know why you were so busy now."

"So," Teddy said, "I was thinking we could do it next week."

"Next week?" Victoire asked. "But isn't that the week you're watching James and Al?"

"And Scorpius," Teddy said. "You know how he and Al stick together."

"Of course," Victoire said. "But how do you plan on taking them with those three troublemakers running around?"

"I sort of thought they could stay with us," Teddy said. "I know James and Al would love a chance to meet their grandparents. I thought we should invite Fred over as well, so he could get to know Fred… the older Fred."

"That's actually a pretty good idea," Victoire said. "And no one would be suspicious because Fred and James are always together."

"Exactly," Teddy agreed. "So, how does Monday sound?"

"Monday sounds excellent."

A/N: Please review!