Part Three

Time Change

Prologue: Stalker

That's why we won't back down
We won't run and hide, yeah cause
These are the things that we can't deny
I'm passing over you like a satellite
So catch me if I fall
~Satellite by Rise Against

I can hear voices from the room next door and I sigh, walking down the hallway with my usual limp. After all these years, these long long years, I still can't walk properly. It doesn't help that I am now forty seven and not as young as I once was.

The door to the room is closed but I can hear bickering voices and I rap on it lightly with my knuckles, pressing my hip up against the door. The voices immediately quiet and I smirk.

"Ron, Harry, don't think I can't hear you in there," I call out, "Shouldn't you be in your own room?"

The door opens slightly and out peek two boyish faces. One of them has dark red hair, the other dark brown with black highlights. Both of them have green eyes.

"Mummy," Ron whines, his dark brown hair falling into his face, "Hermione won't let us go. She kept arguing with us."

"Hermione," I sigh, opening the door wider to see a girl with equally dark red hair and dark brown eyes standing there with her arms crossed in front of her (burgeoning) chest, her foot tapping against the floor. Another girl with dark red hair and bright green eyes sits next to her, meekly staring at her shoes.

"Mum," Hermione snaps, blowing a strand of her red hair out of her face, "I'm sorry, but we deserve an explanation!"

"For what?" I sigh, sitting down on one of the two twin beds in the room.

"We're going to Hogwarts tomorrow," Hermione continues, "Hogwarts."

"Yes, and?" I smile at her as Harry and Ron hover by the door.

"So everyone will know about the war but us!" Hermione groans, "I don't want to be the only one who doesn't know simply because her fool of a mum-"

"Mione!" Ginny gasps next to her.

"First off," I sigh, "You won't be the only ones. Everyone in your year was born the year after it ended- and no one wanted to relieve it once it was done. Second off, your cousins Carlie, Desmond and Renee-"

"Are in our year and don't have a clue either," Hermione rolls her eyes and deduces.

"Nor do Scipio and Christopher," I mutter, "And they're younger."

"Look, its hard being the youngest in the family, alright! In a family of TWELVE. CHILDREN." Hermione repeats, for probably the millionth time in her life.

"I know sweetheart, but your older siblings were ready to learn-"

"WHEN THEY WERE ELEVEN! LIKE US! And never mind Alice and Nate, they lived it-"

"And wish they hadn't!"

"I want to know why my sister cries herself to sleep every night!" Hermione stamps her foot on the ground again and I sigh, burying my face in my hands.

"Did your-"

"He said nothing to me. Not like he had to!" Hermione continues to glare at me.

A knock issues on the door and I look up to see my husband standing there.

"Everything alright?" he asks calmly, smiling at me slightly before turning to Hermione, "Shouldn't you be calming down, not riling up? You have to catch the train tomorrow."

"Oh please. If I sleep late you can just take us up there, it's right down the bend," Hermione spits out before walking to her bed and sitting on it in a huff.

"Mione," Neville groans, sitting next to me as we both turn to her, "Please. Talk to us."

She shakes her head, her wild red hair moving back and forth.

Neville whispers in my ear, "Did Uncle Wilfric have something to do with this?" And I shake my head quietly.

"She was freaking out about the sorting tomorrow," Ginny begins.

"Gin!" Hermione whines.

"They want to know, and I want to sleep- I, unlike you, am not so sure about getting into Gryffindor so I want to have enough time to not toss and turn tonight. Anyways, she was freaking out about the sorting tomorrow so I asked her what was up, but then I found out that it wasn't just the sorting she was freaking out about-"

"What, sweetheart?" Neville and I ask in unison.

"And obviously, Harry and Ron can't sleep next door either, and Hermione freaking out brought them in here," Ginny finishes.

"OK," I sigh, "Harry, Ron, sit down. I guess you're all just going to be exhausted on your first Hogwarts train ride tomorrow." Harry and Ron look sheepish as they sit on the carpet.

"What else were you freaking out about?" Neville asks Hermione quietly.

"Alice having more kids," Hermione mutters. Neville and I look at her in shock.

"What? Why?"

"I just- I don't understand- she and her husband been together since she was fifteen and he sixteen. How have they managed to stay together that long? What brought them together? I know it was something in the war but no one tells me anything."

"Nate and your sister-in-law have been together almost as long-"

"They also were brought together through the war! Maybe not as directly because it was after the fact but I know that's the truth! Mum," Hermione sighs, "I think I- we- deserve to know what happened to all those aunts and uncles we know by name but don't know by face because they're dead."

I groan softly, "Sweetheart, I agree. But you have to understand- war stalked me and your father from the time we were kids until just recently. It followed us. Just recently we got out of another war! Luckily we weren't as integral of a part of that one- that was all cousin Albus's crowd, but-"

"Exactly!" Hermione insists, "We grew up with that war!"

"It didn't affect you much-"

"But we knew about it, we heard about it from Alice, Nate, Kylie, Jethro, Severus, Richard, Augusta, and Luna, not to mention all of our cousins and aunts and uncles and-"

"Fine!" I throw my hands up in the air, "But I can't tell you about it. Love, you don't understand. I don't want to relive that war. Your father can tell you," I pat Neville's slightly greying head fondly and walk outside, looking back on my family, "I can't do it anymore."

I close the door behind me and slide down against it, leaning against the wall to listen as my husband's voice begins.

"We married soon after your mother came home…"

AN: Well this is… surreal… I don't think I ever get the chance to update twice in one day. Thank you all for reviewing so quickly! Wow. That's amazing. I still haven't moved yet xD

Special Thanks to Bubbles of Ebil, Royal Shadow1, Sexii-chan, and IloveNerds543. It's amazing how quickly you reviewed, but I won't be able to update this quickly for a long time… I have maybe one sentence written of chapter one? I'll reply to your reviews soon!

Four reviews though are still required for the next update! Thank you all for your interest in the story!

Review and hearts to all of you guys!