Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am in no way associated with JK Rowling or Warner Brothers.
A/N: It should be noted that apparition doesn't exist in this story.
Chapter Two: Reflection
Time Unknown, Date Unknown
Amelia Bones' Perspective
I awoke to a completely different house than I was just in moments before blacking out, and yet it was familiar. I looked up to see the sun shining in and that I was the only one awake so far. The, whatever it was I saw, was gone. We were all sitting on furniture that was shaped like a crescent shaped sofa around an armchair. I then did a double take. There were two additional children on the sofa, both were girls. One had blonde hair, and the other had dark brown hair.
As I took in my surroundings I realised that this was our house, at least our house before I moved in with Sirius. That was when a woman came in from the kitchen. She was wearing a white hooded robe with leaves ranging from spring to fall assembled all over it from many different trees and flowing behind it creating a sort of cloak. She had silvery hair that reached her shoulders, pale skin, and light blue eyes. I went to grab my wand but then thought better of it seeing as I was at an informational disadvantage and for all I knew this was someone who owned our house prior to us moving in. she came and sat down in the chair in the middle of the sofa and waved a hand waking everyone else up, bar the kids.
"I assume you have questions like what did you see before you blacked out, who I am, and how you got here?" she asked.
We could only nod.
"Well, suffice to say I'm the reason you got here, what you saw before you blacked out, and as for who I am, my name is Dakota. I'm what you might call a shapeshifter." she said. "However, I'm not human, I'm actually a wolf that can use magic. I learned to shapeshift into a human when I was very young and grew up around both wolves and humans. I eventually taught the other wolves and now our entire pack knows how to do this. I also was born with the rare ability to see into the future and as I grew older I learned, through an old forgotten tome, I discovered how to travel in time. My form of time travel is rather limited. You can't go forwards in time, only back. For this reason, I rarely ever use this form of time travel. Only my pack elders know of this knowledge, and now you. I brought us ten years into the past because you would have been killed by twenty or more death eaters coming to kill you. As for why ten years, the house wasn't moved into until tomorrow, which avoids complications with other families, or your past selves."
"Why are you here though?" Emma asked, who still appeared a little frightened about the mysterious woman or wolf. "I mean what difference would it have made to you if we lived or died in this attack?"
"I was upholding a promise I made to two sets of parents in secret. Harry's, and Daphne Greengrass', the blonde pup. The other girl was adopted by Daphne's parents after her's were killed by death eaters. Her name, is Tracey Davis."
"But the Greengrasses were affiliated with the death eaters!" I exclaimed.
"Most were." Dakota said, "But Daphne's parents refused and knew that they would be targets and so they began searching for a means of protection, much like Harry's parents. They both ended up using a spell that made a prayer to my pack. Most of my pack wanted to ignore it but I was one of the few that remembered that if we heard it, then the magic of our land had judged them to be needing assistance, and not wanting to take advantage of, or enslave one or more of us. It is of course within our right to leave it be, however, I wanted to find out why someone would be calling us. It was after all, a spell I created, and secretly sent to every country in the world. The tomes that contained it were designed so only those who were most desperate, and who the tome found worthy would be able to find it. I went to the Potters first who were already in hiding at the time. I listened to their story and told them I was willing to help them, and that there was one other family that had requested my help. They told me to go and see the other family before coming back for them. They were convinced their fidelius charm would protect them better than following me to the other family. I went to the Greengrasses and talked with them and discussed what I discussed with the Potters. I would bring them back with me to my homeland where they would be allowed to live with my pack. They agreed and were packing their belongings up when the death eaters came. Their last wish was for me to take their children and leave them. I never even got the chance to argue as they were killed right in front of me. I grabbed the two children, jumped out of the window, and fled into the woods that surrounded their house. By the time I reached the Potter's house they were dead, and Harry was nowhere to be seen. I started trying to pick up a scent and that scent lead me first to a house in Surrey that had sickening wards surrounding the house. The scent eventually led me to your house where death eaters were approaching your house. I came in through the back door in my true form, and brought us all back."
I asked the question that must've been on everyone's mind, "What happens now?"
"Well you can't stay in England for the next ten years, if you ran into yourself you would go mad. If you want to, I can take you to where I was going to take the Potters and Greengrasses."
"And where is that?" Sirius asked, a little miffed at being told he couldn't stay in England.
"I understand your frustration at the situation, but isn't it better than being dead?" Dakota asked.
Sirius opened his mouth to retort when I cut across him, "If she's right, and we have no reason to doubt her at this point, then we would be dead. We couldn't have fought the death eaters in ten to one odds." Sirius grudgingly agreed.
"I live not far from Anchorage, Alaska." Dakota said.
"How would we pay for it?" I asked.
"I will." Dakota said.
"But won't your past-self, wonder where the money went?" Emma asked.
"I did, but one of the elders in my pack told me not much longer from now that I hadn't done it yet. I can only assume I sent him a message so that he would be able to tell me." Dakota said.
"What about passports?" I asked, "We don't have any with us, in fact I think Emma and Petunia are the only ones that have owned a passport."
"Goblins can make them, for a price, which again I'll provide the money for." Dakota said.
"We'll pay you back." Emma said.
"It's really not necessary, you won't have the money to pay me back for a while yet in any case." Dakota tried.
"I insist." Emma remarked not budging an inch, "We may not be able to pay you back when we get there, but we can pay you back over time.
"Ok, ok, but only when you can afford it! I won't take money when you need it, although if you do insist on paying me back, I wouldn't mind a place to stay for the next ten years with the two girls." Dakota said seeing it was pointless to argue with Emma.
Emma looked at me, Sirius, and then Petunia. When we each nodded our agreement she said, "That would be fine."
"How long will it take us to get to the goblins?" Dakota asked.
"Well, to get to Gringotts from Southampton, it shouldn't take us much more than three hours." I said.
"How are we getting to Alaska though?" I asked.
"By plane." Dakota said. "We should probably visit a travel agent while we are in London, so we can get a ticket as soon as possible.
"Well, before we can get plane tickets, we will have to get passports, and before we can get passports, we will need a way to push the children." Petunia said.
"There's a John Lewis about fifteen minutes walk away." I said.
"I'll stay here if that's okay with you, I need a rest from all the running I've been doing. While I took the train early on, when I was being pursued, I didn't have much choice other than to run." Dakota said handing over three hundred pounds.
I nodded, accepting the money and putting it in one of my pockets, before saying "Petunia, Emma, and I can go pick up three double pushchairs."
As we set out I knew that once we left we wouldn't return unless we absolutely had to. Given what Dumbledore had done, combined with Voldemort and his death eaters, as well as the corruption that was rife in the ministry, hell the common population were extremely judgemental for the most part. Sirius and I had already discussed if we would leave the war, and England behind. We started discussing this shortly after we had rescued Emma and Hermione from a death eater attack. They had already tortured Emma's husband until he was nothing but an empty shell by the time we got there and were in the middle of forcing Emma's clothing off of her when we attacked. We barely managed to get her and her daughter out as just before the last death eater died, he or she had cast fiendfyre in the Granger's home leaving Emma's husband to be consumed in the flames. It was at this time that we offered to let Emma and her daughter Hermione stay at our home, to which she gratefully accepted.
Even after she and Hermione were settled, she still clung to us like a safety blanket. It took a year for things to settle down with Emma, although it was more a case of Lily helping to heal her from the traumatic events that she had gone through, since she was a mind healer. All James, Sirius and I could do, was to be there for her when she needed us.
After Emma had recovered from her ordeal we involved her in the discussions, seeing as she was practically living with us now. Emma said that she didn't care one way or the other as she had nothing left in England, apart from Hermione.
However, I was unsure whether I wanted to involve Petunia in those discussions yet. I knew it was wrong to judge her for something that wasn't her fault, but at the same time some of those insults had been directed at Emma specifically which had made her recovery process a lot longer than it should've been according to Lily. I decided to discuss it with Sirius and Emma later.
Sirius Black's Perspective
I sat back down with the kids having seen Amelia, Emma, and Petunia out the door, finally letting go of my emotions, and letting the tears fall over my fallen friends. I still can't help but feel that I'm responsible for this mess. I recommended that we use Peter instead of me or Remus, because it was so unlikely someone would ever suspect him, I honestly don't know what to do, part of me wants to stay in England after this time travel stuff is done, but a larger part of me knows that even with Voldemort dead, and I don't really believe that he's dead seeing as no body was recovered, the death eaters would get away with murder and worse. Most of the wizarding public ran when the death eaters attacked, and those that did fight back were either killed by the death eaters anyway, or were sent to Azkaban on trumped up charges, simply for defending themselves. I knew that things wouldn't get any better, any time soon. I barely registered that Dakota had sat down next to me.
"I know that look, Mr. Black." Dakota said.
"What look?" I asked.
"I've seen that look countless times before in my pack, but never as lost or conflicted as you look." Dakota said.
I decided to try and get over my grudge. "I got two of my best friends killed, and a third, I don't know where he is. If that wasn't enough of a screw up, I almost got my godson killed, and if it wasn't for Petunia who up until an hour ago I thought hated me. To top it all off, I find out that all of us including Petunia, were forced to act the way we did by someone we trusted."
"Well, answer me this Mr. Black, was there anything you could have done differently, with the information you had at the time?" Dakota asked.
I sighed and shook my head. "Secretly I'm glad we won't be seeing anyone from England for at least ten years, I don't think I could take it. I'm not even sure I want to return." I whispered.
Dakota only nodded.
One Hour Later
Emma Granger's Perspective
I wondered what we would do once we got to Alaska. I mean I have qualifications but I can hardly use them. Partly because I don't have them with me. But mostly because I can hardly say that I got my degree in the future.
"What are we going to do for jobs" I whispered as we waited in the queue.
"Probably menial jobs for the time being." Amelia whispered back.
"Would you hurry up?" someone hissed behind us, "You're holding up the queue!"
"Sorry." I said.
We handed the three double pushchairs over the counter and Amelia paid the three hundred pounds.
As we walked back home I found myself wondering what would happen back in our time when we were discovered missing. Probably nothing for me, I thought, considering to most of them, I'm just a disgusting creature at the worst, and an unimportant muggle at the best. Amelia and Sirius quit the ministry last week so they probably won't be missed either. Of the four of us adults, Petunia is probably the only one that might be missed, and only by Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix, well whatever's left of it.
As we turned the corner into the neighbourhood I couldn't help but get the feeling that this would be the last time I set my eyes on what had been my home for the past year.
Amelia Bones' Perspective
I unlocked the door with the key Dakota had given me and after we put the pushchairs in the closet we entered the living room.
Dakota was back in her wolf form sleeping by the roaring fireplace. Some of the kids were crawling around on the floor and playing with each other. Sirius was much the same as Dakota, only he was sleeping on one of the sofas. Where a chair had been before there was now a wooden table.
I sat down next to Sirius and watched as the kids played on the floor. Only Harry, Daphne, and Tracey weren't playing. Tracey was cuddled up against Dakota's fur while shaking like a leaf. Harry meanwhile looked like he was trying to comfort Daphne who was quietly sobbing into his t-shirt.
At that moment a soft blue glow started coalescing around Daphne and Harry. I couldn't believe it, I mean soul bonds were just a myth, but here it was, occurring right in front of us. I then saw Emma and Petunia starting to go towards the two.
"Emma, Petunia stop!" I exclaimed, knowing that from what I knew of the myths it could be very dangerous to try and stop or interfere with the process.
"What? Why!" Emma hissed back.
Seeing the blue glow fade away I leaned back in my seat. "They were just soul bound, meaning magic herself has bound them together for the rest of their lives. It's so unheard of the only recorded occurrence of this dates back to the time of Merlin and King Arthur. Our version of the events differs slightly from the non-magical version in that Morgan Le Fay was not an enemy of Arthur and Merlin, she was Merlin's wife. As the legend goes, magic herself visited them and bound their souls together. No one else could see her, but they did see a blue glow surrounding them for a few minutes. Some people say that one person did attempt to touch one or both of them and ended up being severely injured." I explained quietly.
"So, what happens to them now?" Petunia asked.
"Well, effectively they're married now." I said, "As far as I know it's permanent."
I looked up at a clock hanging above the fireplace and noticed it was half past twelve. If the house was being moved into tomorrow, we needed to be gone by tonight. The Leaky Cauldron was obviously out of the question as people would recognize Sirius and I, not to mention we could run into our past selves. Knowing we had to plan I decided to wake up Sirius and Dakota.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of this story. If you have the time please leave a review as it really does help keep me motivated.
For those of you who are also following my other stories, I am working on them. Their status can be found below.
Harry Potter and the Dragon Child: I am about a quarter of the way through the next chapter. It is a little slow going so please bear with me.
The End of Life on Mundus: I have probably three quarters of the next chapter completed. Part of it is proving rather difficult to put into words, but should hopefully be out soon.
