The others often that her head was too far in the clouds, that she never focused, that she was too spacey, too airy, too 'out there'. When she'd started dating Luke in her sixth year, everyone told her they wouldn't last because he didn't really love her because he couldn't really love her—Luke Brenning was just using her because she was naive.

She didn't know, even now, if that was necessarily true, that he'd used her, but the relationship didn't last. Afterwards, Lucy stopped dating altogether, stopped seeing love and bright futures wherever she went. Part of Lucy's innocence was destroyed at the hands of love. Or, what she had presumed was love anyway.

But now, at twenty-four years old, she thought she'd found love for real this time. It was real, this time, she told herself. They were meant for each other. She wouldn't tell her family and friends, though, just in case they tried to say the same things they'd said about Luke. She would wait a while longer before letting anyone know.

Lucy wouldn't let anyone ruin her this time.


"Hey, can you watch Ruby for the weekend?" Lucy asked her over the Floo network, flashing Roxy a friendly smile that would bring anyone to their knees in agreement. "Fulfil some of your godmother duties? I'll love you forever and buy you lunch for the next week if you say yes. Oh, please, Roxy? She's a very good baby, hardly ever cries."

Roxy rolled her eyes. "I never officially said yes to being her godmother, you know." But she was going to say yes no matter what and Lucy knew that she was going to say yes; there was really no point in fighting it.

That was how she found herself now, sitting on the bedroom floor at her flat, staring at the four and a half month old who laid quietly on a blank, only occasionally kicking her legs in the air and making a gurgling noise but otherwise staying much calmer than Roxy expected of an infant as young as Ruby.

She'd never imagined that there would be a baby living with her, even if it was only for a weekend since she wasn't a big fan of small children.

The thought reminded Roxy that she hadn't even bothered asking Lucy what she was doing this weekend that prevented the older girl from taking care of her own daughter. Whatever it was, though, Roxy would have probably still said yet, but that didn't mean that she wasn't bewildered by her own mistake of forgetting to ask ahead of time.

What was she even supposed to do with a baby? Sure, Lucy had given her enough formula and nappies for each of Ruby's meals and she assured Roxy that the infant wasn't particularly fussy, as babies went, but Roxy knew almost nothing about how babies worked. What if Ruby got sick? What if she wouldn't go to sleep and cried through the whole night?

Or, worst of all, what if the Faceless One or a minion of his showed up at the flat and tried to hurt Ruby or Roxy, taking advantage of their situation?

So she was more than a little on edge at the moment, which was why Roxy was sitting on the floor and watching Ruby's every move, just in case something happened. Roxy herself had not done more than blink or yawn or stretch her arms for several hours, too busy keeping her eyes on Ruby the entire time to make sure she was fine.

There was a knock on the door just then, making Roxy jump and Ruby let out a small noise at the suddenness before settling calmly back on her blanket, unimpressed by her unofficial godmother's erratic and nerve-wracking behaviour.

"Hey, Rox? Can I come in?" Aniya's voice was muffled by the door, though her usual happy tone was not hindered in the slightest by the layer of thick wood that separated her from the occupants of the bedroom. "I made sandwiches if you're interested and I brought some pre-heated formula for Ruby. I figured it's time enough for both of you to have a proper meal."

Roxy turned to look at the clock on her desk, mildly curious and realised that it was just past eight-thirty at night. She and Ruby had been sitting in her room for nearly three hours.

"Come on in," Roxy called back to Aniya; hearing the door click quietly as Aniya pushed it open and smelling the sandwiches her flat mate had prepared, Roxy felt her stomach grumbled as it finally noticed that she hadn't eaten anything since lunch more than eight hours ago.

Aniya smiled at Roxy, settling down on the bed and handing over the tray of sandwiches before she scooped Ruby into her lap and started feeding her from the bottle of formula in her hands.

"So how is baby-sitting going?" she asked Roxy, who shrugged uncertainly in response. "Well, she's still alive and in one piece, so you can't be doing too terribly. Yet, at least."

Roxy rolled her eyes. "I haven't moved from this spot since we got home because I'm afraid if I do, she'll roll off the bed and crack her skull open or something equally as awful."

"I think her skull is fine," joked Aniya, running her free hand over Ruby's head and giving her flat mate a teasing smile. "Relax, Roxy, you'll do well. There's not much you can really do to mess up a four month old in only forty-eight hours anyway. It's not as though you can teach her dark magic in only one weekend, so I doubt there's a whole lot else you can do to make a real mess of things before Lucy comes back."

Roxy said nothing, her mouth full of sandwich as she watched Aniya continue to feed Ruby. Then, swallowing what was in her mouth, she took a deep breath, steeling herself to tell Aniya what she'd seen in her dreams concerning Ruby.

"I had a weird dream while at my grandmother's house last week," she began nervously, hoping Aniya wouldn't think what she was about to say was absolutely crazy.

Aniya raised her eyebrows, curious. "Oh? You know, they say in Divination that every dream has a meaning to it that's connected to real life, like a big black dog to symbolise death or dreaming of going to space when you really just want more adventure and excitement in your life."

"Well, I don't know if I necessarily believe in all that dream stuff, but I can definitely tell you that what I saw last week in my dream was probably connected to real life, though maybe not my life right now. See, I saw Ruby—" Roxy gave the infant a wary look, "—except that she was an adult and was running around the destroyed streets of Diagon Alley. She warned me that the Faceless One would attack us before I turn twenty."

"Oh, wow," Aniya replied, humming thoughtfully as she hefted Ruby up in her arms and patted the little girl on the back until she burped. "I didn't realise that you were able to see into the future, too. Do you suppose that there's Seers' blood in the Weasley family as well?"

Roxy shook her head. "I don't think so; I've just been having the same dream over and over, always about the forgotten ruins of Diagon Alley, which I've seen several times since last summer. But this is the first time I've actually seen anyone else or spoken to them about what's going on."

She decided not to tell Aniya about seeing the fake Freddie in previous dreams until she could understand his existence in the dream for herself. No need to further complicate things by throwing in false versions of her brother.

"Perhaps..." Aniya mumbled to herself before looking back at Roxy. "I don't really understand it all myself, but that's not what's really important here, is it? If the Faceless One is going to attack us by the end of September, then we need to warn the others and start preparing for war, don't you think? Though isn't it interesting that Ruby was the one to speak to you in that strange future? Do you suppose she has the power to See what is to come or what has already happened like Lily can do? It would make sense, inheriting the skill, passing it on, mother to daughter."

"Lily isn't her mum," replied Roxy almost on reflex, having grown used to telling herself that in the past several months. Give it another year or two and she might actually start to believe it.

Aniya blinked slowly at her before shrugging. "Okay, but still, we should warn the others, don't you think? I mean, it's only fair, isn't it?" She frowned, looking down at Ruby, who yawned, her little hands balling into fists as she started falling asleep. "It's weird to imagine Ruby ever being an adult when she's so young now."

The infant cooed in response; Roxy merely continued to silently inhale the sandwiches that Aniya had brought her, wondering what they were going to do next.


When Roxy woke up the next morning, she rolled over onto her side and blearily opened her eyes, taking in the sight of Ruby's empty crib, though still too caught in her sleep to process what she was looking at. Roxy yawned, stretching, and let her surroundings slowly sink in while she tried to wake up fully.

Then, just as she realised that an empty crib meant that Ruby was missing, she jumped up in shock and rushed over to the abandoned bassinet, an expression of pure horror on her face. She looked around the room frantically as though she would somehow magically conjure up the little girl by wanting it badly enough; unfortunately, Roxy did not have the power to summon infants on pure willpower, so she threw open the door to continue her search.

"Hey, Roxy," Aniya called cheerfully from the kitchen, followed by a happy gurgling noise. "We're in here—Jo got called into work, so she's been gone for a while, but I was thinking maybe we could take this time to introduce Ruby to some wholesome muggle culture."

Sure enough, the infant was sitting calmly in a high chair, propped up by pillows as Aniya held her bottle up for Ruby to suck on.

"Sorry for scaring you first thing in the morning but I could tell that she was about to start crying and wake you up, so I figured it would just be easier to get Ruby and start feeding her now rather than let her get upset and make a huge fuss."

"Mm." Roxy shuffled past the table, making a face at the baby as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and placed two pieces of bread into Aniya's weird machine that she called a 'toaster', then shuffled back to the table, setting her breakfast down and pouring herself a cup of milk, wrinkling her nose distastefully at the sight of Aniya's orange juice.

"What a wonderful morning person you are," Aniya joked, which prompted Roxy to make a face in her direction as well. "Very mature. Between you and Jo, though, how did you two ever wake up in time for class?" Aniya shook her head playfully. "I'm almost surprised you even woke up at all."

"Mornings are stupid," Roxy muttered in reply, scooping a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. "Mornings are for people who have too much time on their hands. I'd rather take advantage and sleep in as long as possible."

Aniya laughed and got to her feet, taking the now finished bottle from Ruby and moving to the sink to wash it out. "I used to baby-sit my little cousins all the time so I've had plenty of experience dealing with small children," she said casually, easily interpreting Roxy's questioning gaze.

(That or she was looking at Roxy's thoughts again.)

"You have cousins?" Roxy asked, surprised. No, she and Aniya had not been friends for even a year, but Roxy felt bad that she'd never thought at least once to ask Aniya about the rest of her family beyond her psychotic father.

"Mmhm, from my aunt—a boy and two girls, all a lot younger than me. Like Henry is...eight years younger and Kimi is...thirteen years younger? Then Leslie falls somewhere in between the two." She shrugged and set the bottle aside on the counter.

Roxy let out a forlorn breath of air. "I feel like you'd do better as Ruby's godmother than I would. You actually like little kids and you know how to properly care for a child, whereas I've never had any experience. Besides that, I don't think that 'godmother' is ever a duty that should be given to someone younger than the mother—especially a nineteen year old. And yes, I know you're nineteen, too, but that's beside the point."

She looked over to Aniya, who wore an amused expression; the shorter girl raised her eyebrows at Roxy, smiling. In response, Roxy rolled her eyes and sighed once more.

"Yeah, I know it's in his biographies and the history books and it gets brought up any time Teddy's in the papers, but this is different. Uncle Harry was a hero by the time he became a godfather. All I can do is screw up potions' ingredients and lose important documents."

"I think you'll be fine. I mean, if you really did see Ruby as an adult, she couldn't have suffered from anything too bad, so you must not have messed up her childhood, right?"

"Aniya," Roxy said slowly in a tone of exasperation, "I saw Ruby in the destroyed streets of Diagon Alley with monstrous wolf creatures all around. I wouldn't say that was meeting her in the best of context. For all we know, the whole place only gets destroyed because of a failure on my part! I could be condemning us all to die."

Aniya laughed and waved her hands at Roxy. "That sort of thinking is nonsense. In the grand scheme of time, you really aren't important enough to affect the entire future like that. If Diagon Alley is going to be destroyed, then there's not really much we can do about it. You're no more important to deciding the future than the flap of a butterfly's wings."

"Thanks for making me feel special."

"You're welcome. That's what friends are for, after all."


Later that day, with Ruby growing fussy and restless—like a normal baby for once—the two girls had decided to Transfigure an empty storage crate into a pram and take the little girl on a walk around the neighbourhood. After all, fresh air and sunlight was supposed to be good for small children and maybe it would tire her out enough that Ruby would fall asleep when they were done walking her around.

Ruby did not agree, apparently, as she squirmed fiercely while Roxy tried to strap her in and then began screaming, her gummy mouth spraying spittle everywhere a Roxy fumbled with the locks on her seat.

"Here, let me," Aniya said calmly, taking the locks and straps from Roxy. She knelt down and slowly eased the infant into her pram, coaxing her into staying still long enough for Aniya to get her into place, humming softly to Ruby and running her hands over the girl's arms and legs.

Ruby fell quiet and stopping wriggling, giving Aniya the baby's equivalent of a smile before laying back in the pram while Aniya got everything put together. After she managed to tug the last clasp into place, Aniya stood up and grinned at her friend, who stared back at her in awe.

"How do you do that?" Roxy asked breathlessly, shaking her head in amazement. "It's like you can control her thoughts to make her do what you want." She squinted at the other girl. "You can't control Ruby, can you? Or is that your secret—mind control powers?"

Aniya laughed at the question. "I'm not powerful enough to do anything like that, Rox. I can only see thoughts and memories—I can't manipulate them or anything. It's very unlikely that anyone can do something like that."

"Hm." Roxy made a face at her friend and took the handles of the pram, pushing the plastic contraption towards the front door. "Let's go for a walk then, Madame Baby Whisperer."

They carried the pram down the steps slowly, noting appreciatively that it was a rather sunny day, nice for taking a walk through the neighbourhood. There were others out in the street as well—witches doing their weekly shopping, wizards chatting on the street corners about politics, children running around the adults, yelling and playing. Teenagers free from school flew by on brooms that brushed against the windows of the flats they passed by and the owners of those windows threw them open to yell about the hooligans outside having no respect any more—back when they were young, children were seen and not heard!

It was a normal day in Diagon Alley; no signs of a war about to be waged or a massive death toll at the hands of a sociopathic daemon could found anywhere today. Things were going exactly as they were expected to.

Aniya greeted everyone they passed, waving at them and asking how they were, how their day was going if their families were in good health. Roxy, on the other hands, couldn't help but be amazed by how many people Aniya seemingly knew. Personally, she hardly ever spoke to any of their neighbours unless she was forced to, but Aniya could put a name to nearly every face that crossed their path.

"Do you just know everyone or something?" Roxy asked jokingly. "I don't even remember everyone from our year's name and we only graduated last June. How can you hold so many names in your head all at once?"

Aniya shrugged. "I guess it's just easier for me. Though I will admit that sometimes I cheat and look into people's heads to pull out their names or what they're thinking about right then to make them feel more welcome and happy when I talk to them."

"How scandalous!" Roxy laughed at how silly it seemed, imagining Aniya digging through someone's mind just to find out how they were doing or their opinion on last week's game of Quidditch.

The two girls kept walking down the street, chatting quietly about the nice weather and the other people they saw on their journey; Aniya pointed out everyone they passed by, telling Roxy what they were thinking or what fresh memories were bubbling just underneath the surface of their conscious mind.

"See her?" Aniya asked, pointing at a tall black woman in her mid-forties who was sitting outside one of the flats, eyes closed and with a small child playing on the ground at her feet. Roxy nodded, looking at the woman thoughtfully. "Her name is Masika Strickland. She's forty-four years old, married three times, divorced twice, mother of four. She comes out here every day at the same time with her youngest in the hopes that something exciting will happen to her, even though it never does. Sometimes she reads muggle romance novels and dreams of finding someone like the men in her books even though she doesn't really believe in love any more. She's also thinking about divorcing her most recent husband and running away because he never comes home until late at night and always smells like someone else's perfume."

"Wow," Roxy replied, craning her neck to look behind her at the woman, wondering what kind of life she had lived to end up at this place in the world. "Your powers are amazing, do you know that, Aniya? Like, that is super weird, but also really cool at the same time."

Aniya grinned at her. "I don't need you to tell me that, I can see it in your head." The smile dropped slightly from her face and when she spoke again, her voice did not hold as much enthusiasm as it previously had. I can see everything in everyone's heads. Sometimes it gets to be too much, looking at what everyone else is thinking, what they're remembering—the endless cycle of meaningless thoughts over and over until I want to scream and bash my head into a wall to shut all the noise out for even a few minutes."

Roxy took one hand off the pram, squeezing Aniya's shoulder and giving her a consoling look. "I'm sorry you have to suffer through this. I'm sorry that your dad put you through all of this crap."

"Oh, it's not like any of this is your fault," Aniya said in an airy tone, shifting moods once more. She waved her hands at Roxy. "Only I never had the courage to tell him to bugger off, did I—and by the time I could have, the Ministry claimed him again, leaving me with nothing to say."

"Why was your father arrested again, if you don't mind my asking?"

Aniya shook her head, still speaking in a breezy, flippant tone that didn't quite match the words coming out of her mouth. "Just for what he did to us—and for continuing to practise dark magic when the Ministry ordered him not to back when he was first released. It was only because he was arrested this time around that they even learned about what we could do and they slapped more charges on him for attempting to create human weapons, which is unnaturally ridiculous when you stop to consider that the Ministry is doing the exact same thing right now and have been doing it longer, on a much broader scale than my father. I suppose they just don't want any competition for worst people ever is all."

She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked a little faster, shoulders hunched; Aniya looked like she wanted to run away or hit something, but she only gave Roxy a forcibly cheery smile, kicked at the ground, and muttered a quick curse at her father for existing.

Roxy, meanwhile, had no idea what she was expected to say in a situation like this, so she stayed quiet instead, keeping her hands firmly on the handlebars of Ruby's pram, not saying a word lest it made things worse.

"But who cares about him, right?" Aniya continued, smiling at Roxy while inclinations to murder danced in her eyes. "I mean, all that bastard ever did was ruin my entire life and set in motion a chain of events that resulted in Aleah being killed and Anarya going through what I'm sure is just unbearable suffering that no one should ever experience."

"Do you think he might have been trying to protect you and your sisters in his own twisted way?" Roxy asked cautiously. "Maybe h was trying to keep you safe, but this was the only way he knew how, even though it was wrong."

"My father is no better than people like Itawa or McClane, using children for their own purpose, their own personal war without giving any thought to the children they hurt in the process! I'm not someone else's weapon, Roxy, and I don't want to be used without my permission! Can't I be independent for once without some adult trying to convince me that what they want to be done will be fulfilled in my best interest?! I know they're lying to me, I know none of them care about my well-being!"

"Aniya," Roxy muttered urgently, tapping her friend's arm. "Aniya, people are looking at us. You're yelling—they're staring at us, Aniya."

And people were staring, pausing mid-stride or mid-conversation to turn in their direction, but it was not like how one stopped to watch a spectacle unfold. They had been waiting for something—an opening of some sort—and Aniya had given it to them by yelling.

Roxy grabbed her friend, wanting to pull her off the street, but she had realised the enormity of the situation a moment too late and so, was too slow in stopping a middle-aged wizard wearing dark blue robes from pulling out his wand and sending part of the building above them flying into pieces, causing a chunk of brick and stone larger than her torso to fall in their direction, making Roxy scream and pull Ruby's pram out of harm's way.

"Get out of the bloody way, Aniya!" she yelled in the direction of the smaller girl, but Aniya had frozen in place, stuck staring at the falling rubble as it came down on her.

Aniya collapsed to the ground, causing Roxy to scream again, but she could do nothing as the people on the street ran at Roxy and Ruby, pulling them away from where Aniya was lying prone, still and silent. Their attackers moved like people possessed, their eyes blank and motions sluggish and harsh. The people were silent—too silent for any normal human to ever be, as though their breath had stopped and their hearts were no longer beating.

A woman in her late twenties or early thirties stepped from behind the man who had blown up the building. She was of Asian descent, undeniably beautiful, average height, with steely grey eyes and a cold smile; the woman wore a simple black dress and as she approached Roxy's direction, it became clear exactly who this woman was: Trinh Itawa—the girl who was supposedly destined to lead the army against the foes of Project Starkid in just a few year's time.

Trinh turned her cruel gaze towards Roxy, lips curling into a smirk. "So you're the one I've been warned about?" She looked Roxy up and down, then laughed. "You certainly don't look like much and I don't sense any great power from you. How could one so weak pose any sort of threat to me?" Trinh turned slowly to look in the direction of Aniya's motionless body. "Your friend there, however—oh, she certainly does have the sort of power my army needs."

"You can't touch her!" Roxy yelled, trying to move toward her friend but finding that she was too to Ruby's pram, frozen in place like everyone else had been earlier.

"Oh can't I?" Trinh smirked down at her, chuckling coldly, before glancing towards the man in the blue robes. "Be a dear for me, will you, and fetch the girl you threw so carelessly into the rubble? And is she's hurt in the slightest, I'll slit your throat, understand?" The statement made her laugh. "Well, I'll do that anyway, but I'll make you conscious the whole time if she's hurt."

The man nodded listlessly and shambled towards Aniya, as blank and empty as everyone else on the street. He leant over and scooped up her small body and shuffled back to where Trinh was standing, holding the girl up to indicate she was still breathing.

"Good, I'm glad you aren't entirely incompetent," she snapped. "Now, little Roxy, I suppose that it's time that I and your little friend here were off. Good-bye, Roxanne Weasley. I'll enjoy killing you after the war, watching you on your hands and knees, begging me to show you mercy just before I end your miserable, pathetic excuse of a life."

She grabbed the wrist of the man holding Aniya and Disapparated, leaving Roxy to stare after them in horror, unable to do anything about it.

Slowly, the other occupants of the street came back to their senses, shaking their heads and looking around at their surroundings with expressions of complete and utter confusion. A few noticed the destroyed section of wall and began to mutter nervously to their neighbours about dark magic and the return of dark lords.

Roxy, her paralysed body coming unstuck without any warning, clung to the pram and nearly collapsed from sorrow; Ruby let out a small wail, as though it had just occurred to the infant that her newest favourite person had been snatched away from her and she was now stuck with Roxy, who didn't know what she was doing.

"Aniya!" Roxy sobbed quietly, laying her head on the handlebar of the pram. "Aniya, Aniya, come back—please, Aniya, please, I'm begging you, come back/"

But Aniya did not come back—could not come back—because she and Trinh were long gone, leaving Roxy by herself to cry bitterly, not paying any attention to the strange looks she was being given by the few other people in the street who weren't currently panicking about evil magic consuming the streets of Diagon Alley once more.

Her friend was gone—Merlin only knew where—and Roxy knew her heart was going to crack from the pain of it if she didn't make everything right.