*Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and ideas….and the plot bunnies in the corner. Please don't sue, I'm a poor college student that has no life and way too many video games.*

"It's funny when people discuss Love Marriage vs Arranged Marriage. It's like asking someone, if suicide is better or being murdered."

Enchanted

Tom had always been an early riser, working at the Leaky Cauldron he had to be. Many a Witch and Wizard rose with the sun and liked to begin their day with breakfast at his establishment or the entrance to Diagon Ally. Because of his job he met very normal and very strange people and he took it all in stride. Some he was sure he would be quite happy to never have the displeasure of conversing with ever again. But on this sunny Wednesday morning he greeted three people that left him reeling.

It was just half passed a quarter to seven, or so his clock read, when three small cloaked figures entered his tavern. They were small, almost small enough to be goblins, but those secretive conniving creatures would never use the entrance from the Muggle world if they could avoid it. They were also too tall to be Fae, well the kind he met anyways, so Tom approached them cautiously, not quite sure how to great them and what customs to abide by since he found himself unable to classify them.

Luckily he didn't have to wonder for long.
At his approach the three figures reached up and removed their hoods. The sight before him stunned Tom momentarily before his manners kicked in and he was able to greet them. "'Ello there, what can Tom do for ye today?"

He tried to keep his voice light and carefree while trying to sound like he wasn't prying. From the amused look on the girl's face in front he wasn't as successful as he had hoped.

"We require a room for an unspecified amount of time," the boy just behind and to the left of the girl spoke, voice arrogant and full of confidence and regality. Children, they were all just children, no older then ten or eleven at least. But they were by far the strangest and most enchanting kids he had ever come across.

Their hair was blonde, no not blonde…it was silvery white, even more pale then the Malfoy's and that was saying something. The girl's was long and perfectly straight. It reached the small of her back and several inches from the end it streaked and faded into a deep ocean blue. The two pieces framing her face were also the same glorious color. He didn't know if it was a charm or Muggle hair dye but it looked oddly natural and very fitting.

The boy who had just spoken had his hair cut very short and styled in a pixie puff sticking straight out in soft spikes that were tipped a dark forest green. The other boy next to him had the same strange hairstyle except his hair ended in a red that was so dark it was almost burgundy.

Their skin was so very pale, almost unnaturally so, with a fine delicate bone structure and large vibrant aquamarine eyes. The triplets, because they were obviously the same age and siblings, looked almost Veela, but somehow he knew that they were not.

He was staring, he was aware of it, and Tom cleared his throat to cover his embarrassment. "A room ye said, just thee one?"

His question was an innocent one, but when it remained unanswered he somehow felt as if he had unwittingly offended them. Clearing his throat again to ease the tension he continued. "Alright, that will be ten sickles for the week. Breakfast is on the house, but the other meals and any drinks are not."

The girl handed him the required payment and Tom went behind the counter to retrieve they key. They were strange and enchanting and he knew there was something about them, something special and very dangerous. They looked far too ethereal to be Muggleborn and Tom would bet every penny he owned that they were Pureblood through and through. It was in how they acted, there stance and ramrod straight posture. It was even in how they addressed him. If they weren't Pureblood then they definitely had fantastical creature blood in them.

His second assumption seemed to 'fit' less then his first, but Tom knew almost every Pureblood family, out of necessity of course, and not one came to mind when he looked at them. They were definitely British, if not born then at least raised, so that narrowed down the families. But still, the closest he could come to would be the Malfoy's and he knew that that wasn't right.

As the cold brass key settled into his palm, Tom's mind was going a kilometer a minute. Most didn't know that the friendly Barkeeper was actually a member of the Order of the Phoenix. His job was to gather information and remain undetected. It was amazing how loose people tongues became with a meal in their stomachs and Butterbeer in one hand. The subtle compulsion charms designed as art helped as well.

It was with this mindset that he returned to the children. He needed to phrase his next few questions very carefully. Tom fingered the plain metal band on his ring finger and he felt his charms activate. He didn't think they worked for the Dark Lord but one couldn't be too careful in these dark times.

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Daemion watched the slightly overweight man waddle off to retrieve their room key. He was taking his sweet time about it too, the once Slytherin Prince thought to himself. looking down upon himself he sneered a very Malfoy-esque sneer at his body...this had not been part of the plan.

Lunette had told them that they had ended the spell 3.27 seconds outside of their allotted two minute window. Sighing in annoyance, Daemion tried to bring his mind back to their current situation and the Barkeeper who was taking far too long to retrieve a single key.

It was just 3.27 seconds, an insignificantly small number, a tiny fraction of time, but it was apparently more than enough to screw up their entire plan. They would have to reassess the situation and come up with a new strategy...soon.

They had planned to cast their physical, magical, and mental forms into a different reality, a slightly different dimension that had a similar but different history. But that 3.27 seconds had messed it all up. The spell had cast their magical and mental selves where they wanted-needed to be, but it seemed their physical selves had gotten splinched along the way. It was 1991, summer, sometime in June, and he was eleven years old for Merlin's sake.

They had planned for changes; Voldemort being alive, possibly more powerful, Dumbledore maybe being dead, others being alive, some being innocent, others guilty…to name a few. And they were prepared to deal with them, but as adults, not as children. What could three pre-teens do?

Harry...no Haydn looked as disturbed by the events as he himself did, with a dash of shock and a sprinkle of disbelief to go on top. Lunette on the other hand, looked calm, collected and strangely pleased with herself. Daemion did not want to know...seriously he didn't.

Finally the older man started to return with their room key and the once Malfoy was looking forward to a long bath and eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Later, after they had all rested, they could hash out a new plan.

That idea was quickly dashed from his mind as his magic pulsed restlessly in his blood and left a tingling sensation on his skin and it took everything in his power to keep his tattoos hidden. Magic danced upon his fingertips, practically throbbing and pleading to be used. He resisted the impulse to hex the man before him into the next great adventure.

Persuasive Magic had just been used...no, activated. His Occlumency shields snapped into place so quickly that he left himself reeling from the force of it. He felt Haydn tense next to him as his brother's own mental shields strengthened. Lunette was the only one unaffected and in fact she looked completely at ease.

Daemion cast his sister a curious look before raising an inquiring eyebrow at Haydn. Haydn just minutely shrugged a shoulder before shaking his head just slightly in a negative. He had no idea what Lunette was playing at either, but was inclined to let her continue her little game.

They discovered somewhere in the middle of their sixth year, Luna's fifth, that their sister was actually quite adept at Politics, much to everyone's surprise. That, of course, would be a story for another time.

She clearly knew something they didn't, like she always seemed too, and so they were content to let her run the show. Everything Luna had always done or ever said was carefully planned and executed masterfully, and it seemed Lunette was going to set something in motion. The two boys just hoped that it wouldn't have severe ramifications later on. But they both trusted her implicitly, and besides, the Persuasion Magic couldn't effect them with their Occlumency shields in place.

Tom didn't seem to notice their reactions and Daemion thanked Merlin for their luck. The owner of the Leaky Cauldron handed the rusty brass key to Lunette and the game began.

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Tom placed the room key into the girl's lily white hand. She took it gingerly, closing her fist around the small brass object as she clasped her hands loosely in front of her, the perfect picture of eloquence. Her large blue green eyes sparkled in amusement and her pale pink lips turned upwards in a somewhat gracious smile.

"Thank you, Tom." The girl's voice was like water flowing calmly over rocks. It was gentle, calm, captivating, and slightly dreamy. Tom felt himself smiling back before he remembered he needed to subtly gather information from them.

As he straightened, Tom began his pseudo interrogation. "Will yer parents be needin' a room when they join ye?"

It was an innocent question, staged as an adult inquiring to the whereabouts of their guardians. And it was a reasonable question as well. He hoped to get a family name and possible location, but he was also generally very curious. Where were their parents?

Tom watched their reactions closely, just as he had been trained, and he suddenly wished he hadn't asked after all. The two boys were displaying complete apathy where before he had detected quiet annoyance and slight fatigue. No emotion was shown upon them anywhere. It was as if they had placed a blank porcelain mask upon their faces.

The child he had addressed the once seemingly innocent question too, the girl, had a look of graceful sadness. He wasn't sure an emotion could be graceful, but there it was. Her pink lips lost the graciously polite smile, her eyes filled with grief and became downcast and lidded as her arms wrapped around her torso as if to comfort herself.

Tom had a moment of panic as he thought the girl was going to start crying, but she took one deep, body shuddering breath, straightened her spine, hands again clasped together in front of her, and her eyes once again met his. Never before in his fifty-nine years had he ever seen a child collect themselves as quickly and efficiently as she did.

His slight empathy had allowed him to feel some of her emotions. His ability, though small, was extremely useful for one in his business. It allowed him to recognize when someone wanted company, or a friendly ear, and even when one didn't want to talk. Those were the people he usually approached, they normally had very useful information.

Tom could sense that the children didn't want to talk about their parents, but from the almost overwhelming amount of grief he felt from the girl, he could understand. Whatever had happened to them must have been very, very bad.

"I'm afraid," the girl began in her ethereal voice, though now it was laced with whisperings of sadness. "That our parents," she almost choked on the word, "will not be joining us."

Tom smiled sadly at the three children and inclined his head in understanding. "Guardian then," he was trying to be cheerful and break through the heavy cloud of grief that was hanging over the group. He could tell from the atmosphere that he didn't succeed.

"No," the girl child spoke again, the two apathetic and stoic boys flanking either side of her. They appeared threatening despite their age and stature, or lack of. "And Tom," she continued when he pulled his eyes away from her 'bodyguards' and met her vibrant blue-green ones. "I accept your apology."

Tom swallowed the apology on his lips as the girl gazed at him with dreamy and slightly cloudy eyes. It unnerved him greatly. "Thirteen," Tom's voice cracked a little halfway through and he swallowed the lump in his throat and took a deep calming breath to slow his racing heart. "Room thirteen," he tried again, making much more sense the second time. "Up the stairs, down the hall. It's the last room on the left."

The children turned to leave, the one with red in his hair going first, followed by the girl and then the last boy gave him a piercing look before trailing after the others. Just as they reached the stairs Tom called out to them. All three stopped simultaneously and turned back to face him.

"Wait, I didn't catch yer names?"

The girl just gave him a wistful and somewhat unsettling smile before replying, "I know."

Moments later they disappeared to the second level and were locked away in room thirteen, down the hall, last door on the left.