The four present Weasley children and Hermione Granger sat still at the top of the stairs. None made eye contact, nor did they twitch at all when Crookshanks slithered past them and flicked his tail in their faces. The five teenagers were struck dumb and frozen by the information they'd been privy to through the morally questionable use of the twins' Extendable Ears.
"Bloody hell," finally breathed Ron, wide blue eyes staring blankly ahead. His comment startled the others into blinking as they slowly began to turn to each other.
"Do you think this is for real?" Ginny asked, hands clenched.
"But how could this be possible?" Hermione interjected, brow furrowed as she scanned through her memory for any information that might be relevant. "Time travel is only possible through the use of a time-turner and that only goes back hours, not years. On top of that, if she's telling the truth then that woman's from a completely different dimension! And that's—that's been theorized, but it's just not possible! How can it be possible?"
Ron shook his head. "Well she's here now. What do you think she meant about the war?"
Turning to her brother, Ginny asked, "Do you think she's going to change anything?"
Hermione shook her head again. "From a different dimension or not, meddling with the timeline is strictly forbidden. The Ministry would never allow it!"
"Who says the Ministry would have to know?" scoffed Ron, rolling his eyes.
"While this conversation is fascinating," began George as he finished rolling up the Extendable Ear, glancing at his twin.
"What the hell is Harry going to do when he finds out he's a girl?" Fred smirked, sniggering into his hand.
"That's ... going to be interesting," Ron agreed, nodding his head.
"But what's she going to do?" Ginny shook her head, slapping Ron's chest with the back of her hand.
Hermione looked conflicted as she nodded in agreement. "This could be very bad," she fretted.
"Or very good," countered George, nudging her with his elbow.
"Yeah," agreed Fred, "I mean, did you see her?" he grinned, waggling his eyebrows.
Ron looked immediately repulsed and began muttering about Harry while Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes at the elder wizards. Any retort was interrupted by the kitchen door slamming open downstairs and the woman herself walking out.
"You can't just go off on your own!" Sirius barked, following her out and gesturing wildly. He groaned loudly when his mother's portrait began wailing in response to his volume.
"Sure I can," Dahlia said, flicking her wand at the portrait and immediately silencing it, much to the shock and joy of the teenagers.
"Dahlia," Dumbledore called, following behind Sirius, "a day more won't cause any harm while we discuss –"
"Funny thing is, Professor," she interrupted, spinning around on her heel and placing her hands firmly on her waist, "if it was me, which as it so happens it is – male or not – I would want to be picked up first and be welcome to my own opinion while we have that discussion, not be picked up later when all those decisions have been made for me. Sir, I have nothing but respect for you, but there were decisions you made for me that I really wish you hadn't. Now, this kid has a chance, and a hell of a lot better one than I did. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pick Harry up and bring him back here, because I'm his blood and the blood wards will work for me."
"Noble as that is, Dahlia, you need a home to –"
"This is my home. And if Kreacher is anything to go by, my claim still stands."
"Well, this is my house –" Sirius stepped forward, feeling the need to make his opinion clear while they bandied about the right to his house without him.
"Sirius," Dahlia said, tilting her head towards him and levelling him with a raised eyebrow, "with me here and this as my home too, Harry can live here permanently and not have to ever go back to the Dursleys. Are you going to stand in the way of that?"
Sirius opened his mouth and paused. He glanced back at the headmaster, caught the eyes of the curious children on the stairs, and turned back to Dahlia with shrewd eyes.
"Guess not," he conceded, shrugging his shoulders and stuffing his hands into his pockets.
Dahlia beamed at him, at Dumbledore, at Molly Weasley in the doorway, and at the students on the stairs.
"Right then, I'll be off. See you soon. Blimey, two Potters under one roof. Been too long."
Dahlia blew out of the house and Apparated before anyone could say anything more. With a sigh and a distinctive twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore summoned a patronus and sent it away, then turned to face Mrs Weasley.
"I suppose we should organise the rooms for our guests then, wouldn't you say, Molly?"
It took no time at all for Molly Weasley to scold, coddle and rope the children into helping her like a well-versed veteran, shielding questions with responses telling them to wait for later.
Sirius ran his hand through his hair and glanced at his mother's portrait again. Shaking his head, he turned back to Dumbledore and was taken aback. Sometimes he thought he'd need sunglasses to deal with that man's bloody twinkling.
"So we're just going to let her go off on her own like that, are we?" he asked the old man.
Dumbledore smiled. "Nymphadora is on guard duty now, Sirius. It'll be fine."
Sirius was not reassured by the thought of his accident-prone cousin being the one to deal with this.
He shook his head again and walked into the dining room, and immediately poured himself a drink. While still hesitant and unsure about their new guest, he couldn't help but grin at the thought of Harry coming home. If Dahlia Potter could make that happen then he supposed she wasn't too bad, even if her entire existence was impossible. Still, she was right. It had been far too long since there were two Potters under one roof. Even though she was no replacement, he could see James clearly in Dahlia's reckless spontaneity and sudden determination to help.
Merlin help them if she turned out to have Lily's stubbornness as well.
Updaaate! Your continued enthusiasm and support is awe-inspiring ladies, gentlemen, and those who identify otherwise! I am but your humble servant (but like BBC!Merlin I'm smart-mouthed and stubborn, so that's fun, right?).