Chapter 3
Alex stared, open-mouthed, at Dumbledore.

"What?" She finally asked.

"It sent you to the past." Dumbledore stated nonchalantly.

Alex bit her lip in thought. "So you're saying, Sirius is alive because this is the past?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"So I just messed up by acting like I know him."

Dumbledore nodded again.

Alex nodded her head slowly, still thinking.

"How far in the past?"

Dumbledore shrugged. "When your parents were your age I suppose."

"You suppose?" Alex asked unbelievingly. "What do you mean suppose? You did this didn't you?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I don't know where the card came from, you can't change the future without severe consequences, you know the rules, you've dealt with the time-turner, but what I don't understand is why this happened." Dumbledore put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Well whatever the reason you can't very well be using your surname. You can't act like you know these people; you can't interfere with how things will turn out as you know it. This doesn't make sense at all really."

Alex arched her eyebrows. "You're loads of help Professor." She said sarcastically.

He waved his hand. "Well, go about your business then."

Alex opened her mouth to protest as he walked away. He waved his hand again dismissively.

"What a load of sh-"

"Um…are you okay?" Alex spun around to see James Potter. Alex's heart skipped a beat. Ok, don't say anything stupid, you're not crazy…your from this time era ok, ok. Alex smiled.

"Yes, I'm much better now. I'm really sorry about earlier, I thought you were someone else… um…my name's…Alex Pot…ensifriedgoo…yea, Potensifriedgoo. I'm from Germany, exchange student."

James looked at the girl in front of him. Strange, she didn't even look German. James shook his head.

"Yea, hi, I'm James Potter. Nice to meet you." Alex smiled and nodded.

"Pleasure is mine."

During the welcoming feast Alex sat in rapt attention as James introduced her to more and more people she already knew. He went through the whole history of Hogwarts, she felt like a psychic. She knew everyone, all the history, everything that was going to happen, and more. She felt very bored.

"So, what is Germany like, I mean the schools there must be cool." Sirius was asking, forgetting the earlier awkwardness as he shoveled food in his mouth. Dinner was almost over.

Alex hurriedly thought up a plausible lie.

"Oh, I was homeschooled." Alex said quickly.

"So Dumbledore sorted you into Gryffindor then?" Remus asked, picking up a biscuit.

Alex nodded. "Yes, sort of a…short sorting hat ceremony thingy."

"So, tell me about Germany Alex. And is that actually your full name, you know, just Alex? And if you're from Germany, why don't you have an accent?" Sirius asked curiously. Alex searched for another lie.

"Um…Germany, it uh…it has a lot of rain and so it's green…" Alex looked uncomfortably around her. "And my name isn't just Alex, it's Alexia, but I don't like to be called that, and I don't have an accent because…um, my father isn't German and I uh…I just live with him in Germany, he home schooled me for the past couple of years." Alex sighed in relief. She always had been a good liar, but could she fool her own father…stop thinking that, if you're going to be here in the past you cant keep telling yourself you know them, you don't, James Potter is not your father, he's your new friend, get over the fact that your related to him damn it! Alex hated that little voice inside her head, but she knew it was right. So she tried to get into her role as Alex Potensifriedgoo, the student from Germany. She needed to research Germany; people seem interested in that country for some reason. Sirius was speaking again. Something about Honeydukes.

"Honeydukes? What about it?" Alex asked curiously, trying to act like she had no idea what was going on.

"Oh, that's a candy shop in Hogsmeade, it's a town close by, we get to go there every so often, but we know how to get there without passing any professors." Alex smiled. The Marauder's map, she knew only to well what that was. She knew exactly where the passage was, but she held her tongue and tried to force herself to eat her treacle tart.

"Do you want to go?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Go where?" Alex asked stupidly.

"Honeydukes."

"When?"

"Tonight."

"Um…ok."

"Excellent."

Oh great, she was agreeing to going on a late night escapade with her father and his friends. She silently damned herself again. Ok, she was going on a late night escapade with her new friends, good, that works.

"You might very well be the first female marauder!" Peter exclaimed. Sirius smacked him over the head.

"Not so loud dim wit!"

"Marauder?" Alex asked innocently. "What's that?" This was getting lame.

"Well, we're marauders, well, that's our group name. We like to take things to the limit, you know, stay out after dark, and walk around the grounds under the inv…." Sirius was cut off by James.

"We just like pushing the limit, that's all." James gave Sirius a reprimanding look. Alex knew Sirius was about to say the invisibility cloak, for she and Harry owned it now. Irony at its best.

"Can we at least tell her our nick names?" Peter asked.

James and Sirius looked at each other.

"You have to first swear that anything we tell you can not be repeated to anyone, ok?" Alex smiled.

"Cross my heart." The four looked at her strangely. "I promise I shall not repeat a single word." They nodded.

"Usually we wouldn't tell anyone these things, no one knows about the marauders, your just a trusting person, I don't know, It seems like I've actually even met you once before." James said quietly.

Alex choked on the pumpkin juice she had been sipping on. She wanted to scream to the world that he did know her, he was her father. She held back the forceful urge because that would just be weird, they were the same age.

"Um…I don't know, maybe I've seen you in Diagon alley or something."

They all nodded again. Ok…that was close.

At that moment a mad looking red head came storming up behind James.

"Why Lily, how good it is to see you again." James said brightly.

"Simply smashing." Sirius agreed.

"Have you done something different today, you look positively blooming." Remus added.

"Come on Lily, Cat got your tongue?"

The four burst into laughter.

"It's not funny! You can't turn cats purple! It's not right!" Lily screamed.

"You're wrong though." James laughed. "It was funny."

Lily glowered. Then she noticed Alex.

"Oh, hello." She said, regaining poise.

Alex smiled and nodded.

"Are you new? I don't believe I've ever seen you here before."

"She's an exchange student from Germany." Remus said.

"Her name is Alex." Peter squeaked.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, Alex, it's nice to meet you. I'm Lily Evans, I'm in Gryffindor also. I think there is an extra bed in the dorm I'm in if you'd like to bunk with me." Alex smiled.

"That would be nice, Thank you. You all are making me feel so welcome here." Alex wanted to gag herself. She knew every nook and cranny in the whole school…this was absurd. Lily gave the boys a cheeky smile.

"You shouldn't hang out with these four. They're trouble makers. You wouldn't want to mix with them, they're horrid." Alex bit her bottom lip. Horrid was an amusing word to Alex.

"They seem alright to me." Alex said sweetly.

Lily shrugged. "Whatever." Then she walked off to the end of the table.

"What was that all about?" Alex asked curiously.

"We dyed her cat purple." Sirius said nonchalantly. Alex laughed.

"Classic." She stated.

"That's what we thought too." Remus snickered.

Back in the future….

"What are we going to do?" Hermione moaned. "This isn't ethical at all!"

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were sitting in the common room in their usual seats by the fire.

"'I just hope she chooses well' this is pure insanity!" Ron screamed.

Harry was silent. It was so weird sitting here without his sister. They had never been separated before…not ever.

"We can always research in the library about time traveling port keys or something, maybe there's a way to bring her back." Ron suggested.

Hermione's face lit up. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Ron began to roll his eyes then stopped. "Wait, why did I think of that?"

"Let's go then. Harry, go get your cloak!" Hermione whispered frantically.

Harry hurriedly got up and bolted for his dorm. In a matter of no time he returned with the cloak in hand.

The three of them tightly fit under the cloak and walked as quickly as they could down to the library. It was late so they had to be extra careful. They quietly threw off the cloak and began to rummage through the books. Finally, Hermione gave a small whispered yell that she might have found some things. She carried a stack of five or six books to a table and began to look through them by wand light. Harry and Ron grabbed a book from the pile and began to look too.

It seemed like hours of work went by before Harry signaled them over to his book.

"Hey, there's something about mirrors in here…" Ron whispered.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ron, you can't just assume with these sorts of things, is it something useful or not?"

Ron shrugged. "It just made me think of Sirius' mirrors. After he…you know," Ron looked at Harry awkwardly. He shrugged and continued. "Dumbledore gave you the other half, right? What if we could…you know, communicate with Alex through it?"

Hermione nodded, holding a book open. "It wouldn't hurt to try."

"It's worth a shot." Ron suggested.

"But I have th-"

"The other half?" Ron smiled. "I put it in Alex's trunk on accident over the summer before we left. I saw it and thought it was your trunk. I didn't think you wanted it left behind."

"So I have one half and Alex has the other?" Harry asked, in shock.

Hermione's eyes widened. "I don't know if that would be pure coincidence or fate."

Ron shrugged. "Dumb luck."

Alex walked with the marauders up to the Gryffindor common room. They all sat in front of the fire and talked about their plans about escaping to Honeydukes that night.

"So, meet us down here around two, ok? You have about six hours until then if you want to get some sleep or something." Alex nodded and went up to her dorm. Half way up the stairs she remembered that she might not be in the same room as she usually was with Hermione. She shrugged and went into the room she would have been in the future. To her relief, Lily was in there.

"Oh, hi. You scared me." Lily exclaimed as Alex walked through the door. There was no one else in the room.

"Do you have this place to yourself?" Alex asked her.

"Oh, no. My best friend Gemini stays in here too." Gemini. That was Alex's middle name. She didn't know she had been named after her mother's best friend…cool.

"Well, it's late; I think I'm going to turn in. Here…your bed is right there, all your stuff was moved there, I guess Dumbledore knew you were going to stay here." Alex nodded and found all of her stuff on the bed farthest to her right. That was where Hermione usually slept. This was too weird. She saw her cat curled up in a ball at the foot of the bed.

"Oh, by the way. Your cat is really cute. What's its name?"

"His name is Pepper."

"I have a cat too, it's a she. Her name is Morgana." Alex nodded and headed for the bathroom. She needed to douse her face in cold water. This was all too surreal. Her mother was in the other room; she would be escaping to honeydukes with her father like they were old pals. This was too much to handle. I'm meeting my parents for the first time, and they don't even know they're going to be parents. She shook her head. Realizing her pajamas were still in her trunk, she sighed and walked out of the bathroom. Lily smiled at her as she sprawled out on her bed, writing in a diary. Alex opened her trunk and heard whispering. She frowned. Now she was hearing things too? She rummaged through her trunk until she found the broken mirror. That's odd, She thought. Alex didn't remember putting that in her trunk. She grabbed it to move it out of the way when suddenly she screamed.

Lily jumped. "Oh my God are you ok!?"

Alex's eyes were wide as she saw Harry's image on the mirror.