Translations: see bottom of chapter.

And I'm fully aware that first person, past tense is considered by some people to be a stupid thing to write in but I'm trying anyway.

Internal monologue

"Dialogue"

Chapter 1

I woke up to the sound of tapping on the skylight, feeling very odd but too tired to care.

Less than a minute later I stared in disbelief at the letter in my hands.

I mean what self respecting, _ year old, nerd hadn't read Harry Potter but this was beyond weird, it had to be a joke, the owl staring at me contradicted that theory ever so slightly.

From what I got from the Hogwarts Letter in my hands, and my knowledge from the books, I was expected on the first of September, six days before the start of the school year.

I checked the calendar on my laptop and was both shocked and not shocked. I'd gone over two decades back in time, which made my laptop the most advanced piece of technology on Earth but that wasn't important.

I then, somehow only then, noticed that I wasn't quite myself.

First and most importantly, I hadn't had to duck when standing in my room, having apparently shrunk from my previously impressive height to about 1 meter 60 cm, a bit bellow my height from year 6. Definitely a change of age.

I guessed that meant it was the break before year seven then.

Well fuck you too fate, I put effort into those A-Level's

Well I couldn't moan too much, I'd been transported to one of my favourite fictional universes, but it was more the principle.

Getting back on topic, other than what may have been a confirmation of either deities granting wishes or multiversal reincarnation theory, a la Tanya the evil. I had been accepted into the Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry, something that shouldn't exist.

"Can you wait here?" I asked the owl, it nodded in response with a hoot.

I rushed back too my bed, grabbing a pen from the messy floor and scuttled back. I then tore off a strip of parchment from the first page, the acceptance message, and penned a reply, asking for another owl in two days because I'd need to ask my mother about this, tying it to the owls' leg.

I maneuvered my way over to the ladder down from my attic room, descending and heading to my mothers home practice, she did herbal medicine.

I found her writing down some recipe or another, a load of herbs and plants I had no clue about.

"Alex (obviously shortened), can I talk to you for a second?" I asked tentatively, not knowing how similar magic me was to regular caffeine-free me.

"Ja, Fabia? Etwas spät um erst jetzt auf zu wecken, eh?" replied Alex, turning in her seat, looking at me inquisitively.

"This letter just arrived by owl. You remember the Harry Potter books, right?" I replied, putting the letter on her desk and giving her some time to read each part of it.

"Harry Potter?" asked Alex, she gestured for me to expand on the subject.

"Doesn't matter. What do you think of these letters?" I asked, deflecting the question with another.

Over half an hour later

"Du solltest das machen was du glaubst ist fürs beste." Was honestly not the answer I had expected, on the other hand, I'd been a rather mature, calm person most of my life, which apparently transferred over to this universe.

It obviously showed on my face from my mothers slight smirk, something I'd have to fix.

"You've already thought about this haven't you? Little Ränkeschmiedin (curved smith i.e. Curly word-smith)" She said knowingly using what was certainly not an endearment I'd thought I'd hear from my mother.

"Kann sein. Darf ich gehen?" I asked in german, hoping to appease my mothers constant wish for us not to get too rusty.

"Ja ja." She seemed pleased at my forethought.

"Shall I go tell Milee that I've been accepted into a special school, obviously leave out the magic part until I find something he can do too so he isn't a pain about it?" Thinking my brother would be more manageable if I found something magic for him to learn too.

"Gute idee." She agreed, sitting back and adopted a thinking face, the conversation over unless I had another question.

I left the room, heading towards the living room to find my brother, the prat playing an early copy of legend of zelda he won, on our ps3 turned SNES.

Time to act, well only kind of.

"Milee, Milee I've been picked up by a fancy boarding school in Scotland, isn't that amazing!?" I shouted, timing it so he got jump-scared into dodging a attack which would have hit him otherwise, a talent I'd developed over time specifically to piss him off immensely.

He paused his game as his heart rate began to slow and turned to me, eyes wide.

"What?!" he screeched, his voice cracking part way through.

"I just found out I've been cherry-picked by a private boarding school." I bubbled, only having to lie about the words if not the attitude.

"What's it called?" He asked, having calmed down a bit.

"Some stupid name, like Hogwarts." I answered, I saw his eyes widen in recognition.

"You know." I stated, dropping the exited attitude in a millisecond.

"What?" He exclaimed, shocked that I'd noticed.

"I can read you like a book, and you know it. If I was actually an 11 year old girl then I couldn't, could I?" I asked rhetorically, he also changed his attitude, but to more of a smug one.

"HA, you're a prepubescent girl now." He laughed, realising exactly what would annoy me more I.e. the age over anything else.

"I do believe you mean witch." I cut through with a vicious glint in my eye.

He gulped.

Then looked a bit dejected.

"If you're nice I'll get some cash and buy you runes and arithmancy books, squibs can do that if I remember correctly." I conceded, perked the prick right up.

"Really?" He asked, not believing for a second there wasn't a catch.

"I checked the date on my laptop, which is oddly un-effected by the tech conversion that appears to have taken place, the books are right about to happen. That means there will be death eaters. I need you to protect our mother and maybe even Aaron and Sophie if she's born to the right time scale. Therefore you learn the magic, live the magic and can write an impenetrable ward in your sleep by my sixth year, do you understand?" I ordered, both of us already having come to the conclusion that I had always been the better planner and more paranoid of the two of us.

"Your half?" He asked simply, knowing the stakes.

"In summary: Befriend the light side, learn everything I can, find the room of requirements and work my, now metaphorical, balls off." I sighed, his giggle not going unnoticed. "I know what will happen where far better than you do so I should be able to integrate myself. If I can I'll prevent some deaths, and prepare Harry and the rest better than they were before."

"Good, so I hold down the fort and learn what magic I can to protect our near and dear. Simple and to the point, so unlike your usual stuff" He commented, trying to get a rise out of me even then.

"I usually don't perform too well under the pressures we've faced before, but this, this is me in my element. And you say being a nerdy fanfiction writer is a bad thing." I sent a mild glare his way. "Seriously, I know more about every fictional word we've heard of than you do combined and then BAM, Hogwarts letter, we're 25 years in the past and I'm a girl."

He smirked, knowing me well enough to feel at least slightly assured from the truth about what I said.

"I'll also be requesting an inheritance test from the goblins if I can, see if we have any cash from an old family. If we don't then I'll convert pounds, it's 5 to 1 galleon, and I haven't bought the trampoline yet so I have at least £90 to spare on gold coins. I'll try to persuade my guide to help pay for some stuff and buy the rune books first, that should give us a good start, I'll read it first and see if there's a copy in the library, then send it to you via school owl."

He just nodded.

"I'll be sending a reply to McGonagall in two days, she, or another teacher, should be here soon after that. Act like you don't know of magic. I'll try to find an In with the teacher, get an informant of some kind. We'll mail each other and go from there." I finished, slightly out of breath.

"Any advice?" He asked, for once dead serious.

"If you can, find or design the runic version of the protean charm so we can have instant communication note books. Also try to see if you can get into some form of runic technomancy."

I ramble okay?

"Oh, and get a gun at some point, I'll help with that during the holidays if you can't before then, etch the casing and internals to hell and back after that. You need something that can kill a wizard in one shot through a protego duo at the very least and can fire several time quickly, I'd recommend some form of lightning enchantment to cause spasms to prevent casting if it isn't an insta-kill." I added, giving him a look that said all that was needed about the necessity to kill.

"If I can, I'll find a way to expose your future runic skill to the order and have you and mum moved to *mumble, mumble*,"

I tried and was unable to glare at my lips, "Sirius's house."

"Good. We have a plan, if anything develops unexpectedly then we reconvene in your room in the holidays and go back over it." A glint developed in his eye. "If you're still you, does that mean you're a lesbian?"

At my suddenly red face he burst into laughter, lightening the mood noticeably.

END OF CHAPTER 1

*Translations:

"Yes Fabia? A little late to be waking up know eh?"

"You should do what you think is for the best."

"Maybe. Can I go?"

"Yes, yes." (often assumed to mean fuck off/I'm not listening, but not really)

"Good idea."