Author's Note: I have to apologize for the long wait on this story. I sort of got side-tracked with a couple other projects. I really do want to get this done. I HAVE REWRITTEN THE ENTIRE STORY to add a few characters and some new information. I promise to try and update all my stories more regularly... but sometimes I get pulled into a project and lose myself in it for a while.

I know both Malfoy and Professor Snape are a tiny bit AU in this chapter, but I think it's necessary to show who they are inside.

For my readers who enjoy this, and my other stories, you can now find them under Sailor Silver Ladybug!

Chapter 9
Aftermath

Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Mamo

Chibi-Mamo stared at his twin. Never before had he felt so angry. It had been almost four hours since she had used the brooms. His mother had almost died before they could be born. She had told Chibi-Usa no, and Chibi-Mamo had tried to tell her no too, but she couldn't listen.

He had just come from seeing her. His father was carrying her to Professor Dumbledore's office to be healed. That worried Chibi-Mamo. He wanted to know what was wrong with his mother.

"Do you remember what Auntie Puu told us?" he asked. "About how one act could change the future?"

Chibi-Usa nodded. She peered up at him under her long eyelashes and he glared at her.

"And do you remember your promise? That you wouldn't disobey again?" he asked.

With a sniffle, his twin nodded again.

"Then why? Why did you do it?" he asked her, his voice rising a little.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I just... I wanted to, and I didn't think."

"Well, you're NOT THINKING almost got our mother killed... again!" he yelled.

Helios approached the two of them and tried to get between them. Chibi-Mamo glared at him. The dream guardian had no right to interfere. He would automatically take Chibi-Usa's side, as always.

"I'm sure Chibi-Usa's sorry," he started and Chibi-Mamo snorted. Just as he'd suspected. True to form the young man thought an apology would solve everything.

"Sorry doesn't always cut it Helios, and you know it. You know what happened, even if they don't. You say it so often I have it memorized. Time moves differently in Elysion. Right? So you already KNOW! You know what happened because of it! You know he took mom, what he did to her!"

"Shhh!" Helios said, and Chibi-Mamo realized he'd still been shouting. He looked around and made sure none of the older teens were around.

"Look," he tried, now in a quiet tone, "Our mother has been harmed, and even though I know Chibi-Usa is sorry, that doesn't change the fact that she could have died, and so could our mom, conveniently before we're even conceived. You know it doesn't happen until they're back in Tokyo. You could have wiped us and all our brothers and sisters from existence."

Chibi-Usa was sobbing now, but Chibi-Mamo wasn't done. "Chibi-Usa, you know how much I love you. We're the oldest, and we were alone with just each other for so long. But we have a responsibility, and you know it. There will come a day when you and I have to rule the Solar System." He sighed and patted her on the arm.

"Our parents wont live forever, no matter how much we wish they could. And maybe it isn't fair to expect so much of us yet. I mean we were stuck as six-year-olds for hundreds of years, and we've barely had a chance to grow and change since then, but you and I both know our parents had to pick up their responsibility young as well. As unfair as it might be, we have to grow up and be who we are."

Chibi-Usa threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I keep hurting her, and I'm so sorry, but it doesn't fix it, and I don't know what to do!"

"Last time we were both very young... at least mentally and emotionally," he conceded. "And this time you didn't consider that anyone would get hurt but yourself. But Chibi-Usa, you need to always try and obey them. They want us to be safe. And they usually have a reason we can't figure out because they're older. They've seen more. I wish I could go back and erase what happened, but I can't. So I want you to promise me, that if you feel like disobeying, you'll come to me and talk. We can figure it out together."

Chibi-Usa sniffled. "I promised daddy I wouldn't disobey again."

"Then I promise you, I'll help you keep your word." Chibi-Mamo hugged her tightly, then pulled back to look at her. She nodded.

Helios came forward again and took her hand. "Would you like my help too?" he asked.

Chibi-Usa nodded.

He felt a bit annoyed. He tried not to, but he felt like the dream guardian was trying to steal his sister away from him. He wondered again if he would ever find his own soulmate. With a sigh he turned away and led the way back to their common room.

Shingo's Plan

The twins and Helios hadn't realized Shingo, Hotaru and Takeo were listening. The three of them had been searching for the others to tell them that Helios would be staying in Shingo's room. Somehow, before his sister had even been healed, the room was already set up for the strange boy wearing a golden horn. He wondered if the kid was part unicorn.

But then he'd overheard their conversation. They all had. And it concerned him. Something was going to happen. Some man was going to take his sister and hurt her. Over my dead body, he thought desperately. He had heard bits and pieces over the past few weeks from Ami and Rei.

Enough to have an idea what the kids meant when they said she would be hurt. But that was before Shingo learned of it. Soon enough they would return to the normal world of Tokyo, where things like communicators worked. He rubbed his hands together as he searched for Setsuna and Artemis. Together, he thought, the three of them could come up with something that could track his sister anywhere, and anywhen.

He wasn't the Keeper of the Chronicles for nothing.

The Curse

Albus Dumbledore watched as Mamoru gently set Usagi down in one of the chairs by his desk. Both teens looked nervous, but it was Usagi who spoke. She sounded weak and tired.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her voice shaking from exhaustion. "I didn't realize she would disobey, but I should have. I didn't mean to break the promise." Fawkes moved from his perch and into her lap. He snuggled in and curled up to sleep.

Mamoru nodded. "I should have considered it myself."

Dumbledore smiled at both of them. "Children misbehave," he said, trying to make sure they realized he wasn't angry. "She's nine," he smiled, then remembering the letter from the future, he added, "at least mentally she is. Many of the eleven year olds who come to school misbehave constantly. Matter of fact Usagi, your cousin Harry only became a Seeker for the Gryffindor team because he misbehaved and used a broom after Madam Hooch specifically said not to." He chuckled.

"You aren't angry with us?" Usagi asked, sounding surprised.

"No, but I do ask that you discipline the girl somehow."

Mamoru nodded, "I've been thinking about that actually. She's sort of terrified of Professor Snape, so I was hoping she could do a detention with him."

Dumbledore laughed. "I doubt he'd mind. Hold on," he said and sent his Patronus to ask.

Usagi watched the silvery phoenix fly through the doorway, then peered down at Fawkes. "It looks just like him," she whispered.

"I met Fawkes shortly after I left school," Dumbledore explained. He didn't go into detail as it was a long story. "My Patronus is formed from him because I identify with him. I wonder what yours would be."

"A bunny," Mamoru said, and laughed. "She adores them."

Dumbledore nodded. If it made her happy, then it might just be. He'd watched her, and though she was the most gentle person he had met since his own sister had passed, she also had a hidden depth of strength and resolve, and would fight for what she believed in, not unlike her cousin.

Snape's Patronus returned the message that he would be happy to do the favor for Usagi and Mamoru. Dumbledore hid a smile. Snape seemed to like the girl, and she saw something in him her cousin was blind to. His pain. Dumbledore knew it well, and wished he could heal the ache, as he wished for Harry. But it wasn't to be.

Mamoru smiled at the bright, silvery doe. Dumbledore wondered what the boy's Patronus would be. He shook his head and changed the subject.

"Madam Pomfrey tells me you've been cursed. Do you remember it?"

Usagi shook her head. "I don't think so. I probably would have remembered someone pointing a wand at me," she said.

"Not if someone tampered with your memory," he told her. "Shall we look?"

She nodded. Fawkes woke up and almost seemed to glare at him before he moved back to his perch.

He went to his cupboard and brought out the Pensive. Then Dumbledore stood over the teenager, his mind whirling as he put his wand to her forehead. He searched for a particular memory, and found it, hidden and damaged, in the back of her mind. He pulled it out and let it flow into the Pensive.

"Are you prepared?" he asked her, slightly worried. She still looked so pale.

Usagi nodded. "I am. I have to know."

Mamoru and himself helped her lean forward and together they disappeared into the memory. At first it seemed they were trapped in a grey smoke, and then he was with her in a hospital.

She was with a young boy with red hair, who appeared to be a few years older than her, around seven or eight, her cousin Haruki perhaps. When he stopped at a nurse's desk to ask for directions the three year old Usagi had heard the sobs of a little boy.

Little Usagi peeked through an open door into a room, and seeing a sad little boy with raven hair and blue eyes, a large bandage wrapped around his head, she rushed to him. She laid her head over his knee, trying to comfort the crying boy, who looked to be around six or seven.

The boy stared at her in shock. "Who are…?" he asked, but the little girl stopped him.

"Don't cry. It's okay." Usagi's voice was high pitched.

"But my best friend is going to have to go away really soon. And there's nothing I can do to help him," the boy let a few more tears fall.

"Guess what? It's a special day. I'm a big sister now. My mommy just had a baby, so I brought these flowers to celebrate." The blonde child lifted up a bright red rose to him. "Here, it's for you."

"Wow, thanks!" The boy looked at her in wonder. "You're really nice," he said.

"Thanks," the girl said, and blushed. "Do you want to be my friend?"

"You mean it?" the boy asked, and she nodded wildly.

The older boy with red hair came into the room then and called for her. "Usagi," he said, "It's time to go see your new brother."

"Okay," she sing-songed. "I'll come back," she promised. She gave the black-haired boy another hug and went towards the older boy. Then there was a flash and a popping sound. All three children lay on the ground, both boys appeared to be sleeping for a moment before they stirred.

A much younger Lucius Malfoy stood over them. He pointed his wand at Usagi and the red-haired boy. "The Queen wants the two of you gone," he said, his voice almost soothing. "Avada Kadavra!" he nearly shouted. There was a flash of green light that sped towards the older boy. Usagi screamed and a bright silver dome appeared over them. The green light hit the dome and the light bounced away.

Lucius leapt to the side as his own curse came back towards him. Then he moved towards the boy with black hair. "No matter, the Queen wants you even more than she wanted my brother," he muttered.

Usagi, the little three year old blonde in buns and pigtails, leapt up from the floor and threw herself in front of the boy. "You can't take my friend!" she shouted.

The red head reached them and crowded in front of the other boy as well. "Help!" he shouted. "Someone help us!"

Lucius growled and lifted his wand again. "Infirmitas!" he shouted and a sickly yellow light came from his wand, heading for the three children, and then he disappeared.

Usagi moved so she was in front of the others, and the spell hit her on the back. She cried out, but a moment later a nurse came running into the room. Both boys were trying to catch her as she fell.

A shadow seemed to form in the corner and there was a whispered word. "Obliviate," came a voice, and all three children, and the nurse seemed to stand still for a long moment, before the nurse shook her head and picked up the young Usagi and carried her away, followed shortly by her cousin.

The memory ended and smoke filled their vision as they were pulled out of the memory and back into his office.

Healing Usagi

Mamoru was in shock. He didn't know if Usagi realized it, but that other little boy with black hair had been him, on the day his friend Fiore had left Earth, and shortly after Mamoru's own parents had died. He wondered why he hadn't remembered it. He stared at his fiancé in wonder.

"Well, now that I know what spell was used to curse her," Dumbledore said, brining him out of his reverie, "I have the counter-curse." He pointed his wand at Usagi. "Medicatus." There was a blue light from his wand and it took a long moment to run over Usagi, but then she seemed to breathe better, and sit straighter, and it also looked like she had more color.

"It was as simple as that?" she asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "So, how much of that day do you remember?"

"I've always remembered the little boy, and my cousin. But I don't remember any of the rest. Not the nurse, or the man with long white hair. I don't remember him attacking us at all. When I went back to speak to the boy he was gone." Usagi frowned and looked very sad for a moment. "I promised to be his friend. I failed him."

"No you didn't," Mamoru said, and she looked over at him. "You did become my friend, and so much more."

"That was...?" Usagi started, and Mamoru nodded. She threw herself into his arms. "I worried about you for so long. No one would tell me where you went!"

"I was sent to an orphanage that afternoon," Mamoru said. "Shortly after you left."

"Oh, Mamo-chan!" Usagi hugged him even harder.

"I always wondered about you," he confessed. "It's why I thought of roses... when I first transformed. Roses mean hope to me, because of you," he whispered, and kissed her gently.

He heard the sound of a nose being blown and looked up to see that in several of the portraits behind Dumbledore's desk the painted people were weeping. He smiled at them, then looked back down at his beautiful love.

"My Usako," he whispered.

Dumbledore wiped a tear from his own cheek as he settled back into his chair. "There are some things we should discuss. I'm sending for your man, Kunzite," he added.

Mamoru nodded. He'd recognized the man from the picture his friend had shown him. Usagi knew about it, but he wasn't sure if she had seen the picture. Lucius Malfoy had been working for Queen Beryl.

Malfoy's Misery

Few people liked or trusted a Malfoy. It wasn't their fault they didn't. The family wasn't known for fair dealings. Once, when he'd been a child, Draco had been very different from everyone else in his family. But over time he had watched the haughtiness, the disdain, and the cruelty and been trained to emulate it. Even now, he sometimes had to fight back the urges to be kind and play fair.

Faced with several new people this year, it had been a difficult thing for him to overcome his training and try to remember who he had once been. Because disappointing his father would not go well. He felt a sort of kinship with some of the new students. In particular the one called Kunzite. There was something about the man that reminded him of who he might have been.

He really wished he could run away from his father sometimes. It wasn't that he didn't love him, he supposed. But there were times when the man could be so selfish and cold that Draco wondered if he was loved in return.

He stared at the letter that had just arrived, and wondered how his father had learned of the presence of the Japanese students. Perhaps it was because of his time on the school board. Malfoy had been forbidden to speak of their arrival, but it was possible the schoolboard had leaked it somehow.

Draco though, wondered what to do. He didn't want to obey his father this time. It was true he didn't much like that Usagi girl, though she wasn't right about him... she wasn't! But there was something about Kunzite. Yes, perhaps there was darkness in him, but there was light as well. Something Draco could understand.

His father wanted Draco to curse Kunzite. None of the others. Just Kunzite. It made him wonder who the man was. Why him? Why not the leaders? Just who was Kunzite, really? He watched the man as he brought the young ones down to the dining hall, and caught the man giving him a look as though he wanted to come and speak to him.

He could tell his father he tried and failed... Draco sighed. He didn't know what to do. As much as he disliked that Usagi, he respected and even feared Kunzite. The man had terrified him, but had also shown an ounce of compassion, and had brought himself forward for discipline at the same time he'd brought Draco. That told him the man had honor.

And why would his father want him to get Kunzite outside the gates? Was he planning to send the dementors after him? Or attack him himself? That didn't make any sense. He watched the older teen and began to notice something he hadn't let himself see before. The hair, the eyes, the build. Kunzite looked like his father, and like Draco himself.

Could Kunzite be his brother perhaps?

A silvery phoenix appeared in the great hall and went toward Kunzite as he watched. Kunzite said something to it, and a moment later the other blonde, the one he was mated to, appeared, running into the room. He bent and kissed her and then disappeared. Draco wondered where he was going, and why.

Helios in love

Mamoru was still thinking about the meeting with Professor Dumbledore. The older man had a lot of wisdom and a good dose of humor. Kunzite had been upset, and Usagi as well, though more for him than herself. He was just glad he had been spared the loss of his Soul-Bonded.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Helios approached him.

Staring down at the blonde boy with the golden horn on his head, Mamoru felt a strange sense of recognition. The boy's eyes followed his future daughter the way his own followed Usagi. It irritated Mamoru. He hadn't even really gotten a chance to know his daughter, and all of a sudden someone was in love with her?

He waited for the boy to approach. He seemed rather shy, and quite respectful as he bowed and used the proper form of address.

"Ohayou gozaimasu Chibia-san," Helios said with a second bow.

"Good morning," Mamoru answered. The he frowned, "Now, about my daughter."

Helios sighed. "You weren't supposed to know I knew her yet. She's sort of... out of order. This trip was a result of a change in the timeline, and she was sent back... but to her, this isn't the first trip back in time. I met her on one of her previous trips. Your future. I cannot tell you more."

Mamoru nodded. "That much I understand. But I also know you are her soulmate. How can that be when you are so much older than her? You look perhaps... ten, eleven... and she hasn't even been born yet."

"Time flows differently in Elysion," Helios said. "It is the place of dreams. Sometimes dreams run fast, others very slow. I am not to old for her because I will be dreaming myself soon. I cannot say more."

Mamoru was more confused than ever. He just wanted to know if this boy was right for his future daughter.

"Was there something else?" he asked when Helios didn't turn away at the end of their conversation.

"There is something you and Usagi need to do," he whispered. "You have to come to Elysion. It doesn't have to be a long visit," he added. "It won't take much time at all, in fact. But it has to be done."

"Why?" Mamoru asked.

"You have a quest there, something you have to gain before it is too late. You have a battle that will come... later. You need what is there before you face it, and though the time is not now, you should be prepared."

"Helios, can you be a little more specific?"

The boy shook his head. "I'm sorry. You can only be told in Elysion. No one else can know what it is, or where it is. Usagi has already gained some of it... but without the rest, neither of you will be prepared."

"Then we will go." Mamoru frowned. "When?"

"Before you leave this school. I could take you now..."

Mamoru shook his head. "Not tonight. We have so many things that have just happened. And there is something I have to do."

Helios bowed. "Yes highness," he murmured.

Mamoru turned then and reached for Chibi-Usa's hand. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Though she was shivering and shaking in fear she grasped his hand and nodded. "Yes," she whispered. He really hoped she had learned her lesson now.

Detention

Chibi-Usa quaked with fear as she stared at the door. She looked back over her shoulder at the younger version of her father and squared her shoulders before she lifted her hand to knock. She would not disobey him again. She hadn't intended for her mother to be harmed. She hadn't meant for a lot of things to happen. She had to be strong.

The scary professor with greasy hair and the long robes that made him look like a bat came to the door and opened it for her, waving her inside. She looked back at her father one more time, and then followed the teacher.

"Two hours," the professor said to her dad, and closed the door.

She looked up at the man who had a huge frown on his face.

"This way," he said and led her to the back of the room where she saw several cauldrons. "You will be cleaning these for me, without magic," he said.

"Yes Professor," Chibi-Usa nodded, and set to work with a scraper tool and a scrub brush.

"Somehow I thought you would argue," Professor Snape said, his tone low. There was a hint of anger behind his words.

"I misbehaved. This time I'm paying the consequences." She shrugged her shoulders as she looked over at him. "I wont ever hurt my mother again," she added, promising herself as much as anyone. Her actions caused her mother pain so many times, she wondered how she could even still love her, and yet she did.

"I'm glad you understand," the professor said. "Sometimes we don't until it's too late."

Perhaps he wasn't so scary after all.

"Can I tell you something? If I do... you can't tell them. My parents I mean." Chibi-Usa stared at him for a long moment.

"Whatever is said in this room will stay private," he answered.

Chibi-Usa felt a level of understanding from him no one else seemed to share. "In the near future for my parents, but in the past for me, I did something. Something that didn't seem that bad at the time... But because of it my mother in the future nearly died, and the one now... she got hurt by someone, a man. She never talks about it, but sometimes I still see the fear and sadness."

Professor Snape nodded in understanding. "A long time ago, for me at least, I said something cruel to a person I loved very much. I was feeling hurt and angry. She turned away from me. After that I became involved with a very bad man. A few years after, when the woman I loved was married and had a little boy, I overheard something I shouldn't have, and told the bad man. I didn't know he would go after her and her family. So, you see, it's my fault that she died."

Chibi-Usa threw down the scrub brush and scraper and ran to him. She hugged him tight, like her mother hugged her when she was sad. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "At least I have my mother still. She'll never be like she is now... but she's alive."

"I get to see her eyes, at least," Professor Snape said. When Chibi-Usa looked up at him in confusion he stared down at her. "Her son lived."

Author's Note: I'm about to introduce a couple new characters in the next chapter, which is already half-written. I hope you enjoy them!