November 1977

As Rosalee pulled Remus into the Room of Requirement, he stared around at Dumbledore's Army's training room in awe. "What is this place?" Remus asked.

"The Room of Requirement," Rosalee replied. "It's unplottable and only appears to those who truly need it. This is where I disappear to. This is where I spend my time when I'm not with one of you boys. I hide here when I feel like I can't take things anymore. It's the only place in this castle that's not filled with strangers' faces." She turned around and faced him. "Or the faces of people I know who don't know me anymore."

Remus frowned. "What does that mean?"

Rosalee sighed. "I'm still not sure I should tell you everything," Rosalee mumbled.

He stepped forward, taking her face in his hands and making her look into his eyes. "You can trust me," he gently reminded.

Rosalee took a deep breath, taking hold of his forearms as he held her face. She said nervously, "My name's not Rosalee Dumbledore. It's Winters, Rosalee Winters. I'm a Muggle-born."

Brows knit in confusion, Remus said, "That's what you were so afraid to tell me? I don't care that you're Muggle-born. Why would you have to lie about that?"

Rosalee shook her head. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," she said softly. "I'm not from France. I spent 6 years already at Hogwarts before I arrived here, and over half a year on the run from Voldemort by myself. I don't know if my parents were murdered or not. I've fought in battles against Death Eaters alongside the Order of the Phoenix. I've flown on the back of a Thestral, which I can see now."

"How could you have done all those things? What is your connection to the Dumbledores?" Remus asked, brushing a falling piece of hair out of her eyes.

Shaking like a leaf under his touch, Rosalee answered, "Because I'm a time traveler. A curse broke my hour-reversal charm and sent me back twenty years. I'm not a seer, but I'm starting to have these freaky visions of moments I've already lived through, but they're getting worse because I'm seeing things I wasn't there for and the people in them are starting to talk back to me. Memories are getting jumbled in ways that don't make sense, and it's terrifying."

"A time-traveler?" Remus repeated skeptically.

"Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but it's true."

"How do I know that you're telling the truth this time?" Remus asked quietly.

Rosalee shrugged. "I suppose you can't until something I tell you happened in my past happens in what's now our future."

Remus thought for a minute, then let go of her face and walked around the other side of her, inspecting the room more. "What is this place?" he asked. "I mean, ok, it's the Room of Requirement, but what is this specifically?"

"Dumbledore's Army's headquarters," Rosalee answered. "My generation wasn't allowed to join the Order of the Phoenix, so we formed our own order and called it Dumbledore's Army because that was exactly what the Ministry feared."

"You were fighting the Ministry of Magic?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Indirectly. They were meddling with Hogwarts."

"So, all this stuff you say you did. That's why you're so good at dueling? That's why you have the panic attacks and the visions?" Remus asked as he approached a Death Eater dummy, examining it in utter fascination.

"Yes," Rosalee said just loud enough for him to hear. Remus wasn't reacting quite how she'd expected, so she wasn't quite sure what to make of his expression.

Remus tilted his head, then turned around. "What happens between me and James?" Rosalee looked momentarily confused. "The thing you were about to yell at me about the other night, then stopped. The thing from the future. What happens?"

Trying not to let tears form in her eyes, Rosalee tried not to blink as she said, "James and his wife were hiding from Voldemort under the Fidelius Charm, but his Secret Keeper gave him up to Voldemort. They were both killed, and his son was sent to live with Muggle family."

"Merlin's beard," Remus said, color draining from his face. "James was murdered?" Rosalee nodded, unwanted tears building in her eyes. "W-who was the secret keeper?"

Rosalee hesitated. "It wasn't you," she said slowly. "I don't know if I should tell you. I don't want to ruin your friendship."

Remus snapped, "If one of them is going to hand James over to Voldemort then you'd better damn tell me. I don't want to be friends with someone who's going to betray us later."

"Remus," Rosalee said cautiously. "If I tell you, then there's no hope of saving him from being taken in by Voldemort. If you push him away now, he'll become a Death Eater for sure."

"So you'd rather I just be deeply suspicious of both Sirius and Peter for the rest of my life until one day one of them shows their true colors?" Remus growled.

"No," Rosalee said heatedly. "I want you to be nicer to them than ever. The whole reason he'll betray James is because Voldemort makes him feel wanted when you boys don't, so if you'd just treat him better…"

"You honestly think that whoever the rat is can be saved by a little niceness?" Remus mocked.

"No," Rosalee said. "I think our rat can be saved by love. If we just showed him more love maybe he wouldn't grow to hate us and resent us so much."

"Rat," Remus chewed on the word thoughtfully. "So it's Peter."

Rosalee huffed. "Don't you dare be anything but nice to him," Rosalee said angrily. "He's still a sweet boy, and he deserves a chance to be a good man. If you're the least bit cruel to him, you'll be taking away his only chance at feeling loved and accepted by us and the Order, and then it will be your fault if James dies and Sirius goes to Azkaban for it."

"What? Sirius went to Azkaban for James's murder?"

"He was thrown in jail without a trial for being a Death Eater and a mass murderer," Rosalee said sadly. "He was framed by Peter."

"I killed them; why didn't you stop this… Sirius was the man in the vision in Azkaban that talked to you, wasn't he?" Remus said, pieces starting to click together in his head.

"Yes."

"You switch back and forth between calling James and me by our first and last names. You knew us when we were adults?"

"I never knew James; I was friends with his son. They look so much alike, sometimes it's easier on me to call him Potter so that I don't accidentally call him by his son's name. But yes, I did know you. You were my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher when I was a third year. You taught me how to banish boggarts and all sorts of other creatures. You taught me that werewolves weren't something to be afraid of. You taught my friend Harry how to cast the Patronus Charm, and he, in turn, taught the rest of us. I've seen you in battle, and I've seen you over Christmas at my boyfriend's house. I've seen you fall in love with someone else…" Rosalee trailed off, realizing what she'd said.

"I fall in love with someone else?" Remus asked quietly.

"That's up to you," she whispered. "I didn't exist in your life then like I did now, so I don't know who you're going to fall in love with now."

Remus stared at her for a moment, and she fidgeted with the sleeves of her Gryffindor sweater nervously. Her chocolate brown roots had grown out several inches, her hair now brushing her collarbones instead of her chin, and the blonde ends had turned brassy and dull. She felt oddly aware of this as he took her in, contemplating her. Finally, he said, "I want to fall in love with you."

Rosalee stood stunned, then stuttered, "Are — are — are you sure?"

Remus closed the space between them, took her in his arms, and kissed her hard. Her hands automatically reached up and tangled in his shaggy light brown hair and tugged her closer to him. He grabbed her hip with one hand and pulled her flush against her, deepening the kiss. Rosalee couldn't help but smile against his lips as he kissed her. When they broke apart, both breathing heavily, Remus said huskily, "Yes, I'm sure. I don't even want to know who that other girl was. If Peter isn't the same as when you knew him, then I'm not either. I want you." Rosalee's smile widened as he continued, "I don't care about what happens in the future as you remember it. I want you, and I want to get to know you. Tell me everything there is to know about you, Rosalee Winters."


By the time Rosalee and Remus returned to the common room that night, they were looking distinctly disheveled. They'd spent a couple of hours just talking before the night had devolved into an intense snogging session. As they stumbled through the portrait hole, their hair was a total mess, Remus's tie was half undone while several buttons on his shirt were still unbuttoned, which he was working on fixing. Rosalee's cardigan was inside out and one of her knee high socks was scrunched partially down her calf. A catcall from the other side of the room caught their attention, and they saw James, Sirius, and Peter waiting for them in the otherwise empty common room in their pajamas by the fireplace. "It's almost one in the morning, you naughty children," Sirius chided, grinning like a cat who ate a canary.

"Yes, you left us here way past curfew without even so much as a note, not even appearing on our map," Peter added.

James threw an arm around Sirius's shoulders and teased, "Your mother and I have been up all night just sick with worry."

Remus rolled his eyes and said, "Guys, really, cut it out."

The other Marauders snickered. James said, "Well it certainly looks like you two had fun."

"We had more fun than you've ever had, I'm sure," Rosalee teased back.

Remus burst out laughing as James pouted. After a moment, he recovered and spout back, "I will have you lot know that Lily Evans agreed to go on a date with me today. I'm going to be taking her to Slughorn's Christmas party."

"Well, what do you know," Remus said. "Does that mean that hell also froze over today? Because I didn't think she'd say yes until that happened."

James glowered at Remus as his friends all laughed. "Back to how I'm Head Boy and our favorite little Prefect just came back to the common room with a girl well past curfew," James threatened.

"All right, all right," Remus said, raising his hands in surrender as he and Rosalee walked over to them and sat on the couch in front of the other three boys. "You win."

Sirius asked, "So I guess this means you two talked through things?"

"Yes," Rosalee answered. "I've confided everything in Remus, and he's promised me that he'll never tell another soul."

"Oh, come on," Sirius whined. "Remus, please tell us? Please, please, please, please, please —"

"I can't," Remus said. "I promised the girl I love that I'd not talk about it, and I won't."

James put a hand on Sirius's shoulder. "All right, I think we've given them a hard enough time tonight. Let's go to bed, yeah?"


The following Friday, Sirius and Rosalee sat silently in Divinations class. Rosalee looked anywhere but at Sirius, as he'd been intentionally ignoring her ever since she'd told Remus everything. Professor Murray was rambling on about palmistry, and Rosalee had never so badly wished she still had hold of some her ex-boyfriend George's Skiving Snackboxes. Finally, Murray said, "The rest of our class time will be spent reading each other's palms, and I expect three feet of parchment on my desk on the subject on Monday."

Sirius held out his hand to Rosalee without even looking at her. "Take your best shot," he mumbled.

"Sirius, I —" Rosalee started, but he interrupted her.

"Let's just get this done, yeah?" Rosalee nodded, then took his hand. Staring down at the palm of his hand, she traced his lifeline with a fingertip, barely brushing his skin. She felt him shiver at the slight touch. Suddenly, Rosalee's own skin felt like ice, and Sirius's hand felt like a ball of fire in her hands. Sirius frowned and his eyes snapped to her as he asked, "What the hell is happening?"

Black smoke licked at the edge of her vision as Rosalee answered, "I don't know."

The world faded away again, and the room turned into the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries as colors and sounds screamed back into oversaturation. Spells and curses were flying everywhere, and she still had hold of Sirius's hand, who was glancing around in confusion. "Where the hell are we?" Sirius exclaimed as he watched Dumbledore rounding up nearly a dozen Death Eaters.

Rosalee groaned, "No, no, no, how are you seeing this too? You can't see this!"

Sirius nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard his own voice, though a bit rougher and more mature, shouted, "Come on, you can do better than that!" That was when he saw an older version of himself dueling his cousin Bellatrix LeStrange and the Cruciatus Curse that hit him square in the chest and pushed him into the Death Veil, a mix of horror and shock in his eyes as he fell back and disappeared under the veil.

"No!" Harry shouted, throwing himself in the direction of the veil.

A much older-looking Remus Lupin threw himself in front of Harry, grabbing him tightly and yelled, "Harry, don't. He's dead, Harry; he's gone. We can't save him."

Rosalee and Sirius could hear Bellatrix's cackle across the chamber as she defeated an Order member whose name Rosalee didn't think she'd ever known. She ran from the room with Harry chasing after her. "James, wait, don't —" Sirius began, but then the black smoke overwhelmed the two of them again and dropped them back into their Divinations classroom. Head whipping around to look at Rosalee, Sirius demanded, "What the hell was that? Did I just watch myself die? And why was James so much younger than me and —"

"Sirius, Rosalee hissed. "For once in your life, it would be better if you could just shut up and at least try to be discrete." Sirius sat back quietly in his chair, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at her. She whispered, "Yes, you just watched yourself die, although I'm not sure how you saw it too. That wasn't James, that was his son, your godson, and you were the only father he ever knew. That's the kind of stuff I see every time I have a vision, and it's horrible. I hate it. I don't want you knowing the things I see because you'll spend your life being reckless and stupid thinking you can't die until the moment I saw, but the fact is that I see something a tiny bit different almost every time, sometimes small changes, sometimes big. The fact is that just because I've seen possible moments from the future doesn't mean that it can't be changed so just forget it."

"I can't just pretend I didn't see that, Rose," Sirius said softly.

"Ok, so don't. But don't let it take over your life," Rosalee pleaded. Sirius nodded, then took Rosalee's hand to attempt to read it with considerably less accuracy.


Reviews, please! I read a comic strip called Pearls Before Swine at work today that basically said that creative people create because they crave the attention that comes from an audience to fill a long-standing need for acceptance and admiration. It then proceeded to compare creative people like me to strippers, and I died laughing. But the first part is true! I NEED reviews! I need attention and admiration, folks! So leave a review, please.