"I'll send you a memory for the pensieve." The girl smirked.
"Ooh… ooh, yes, that will work nicely." Paddy nodded. "And if they catch you?"
"They'll know it was me, they'll just never be able to prove it." The girl laughed.
"Oh, dear…" Paddy sighed.
1st September 1992.
Paddy apparated he and his daughter, and her Familiar, to platform 9 ¾ early enough in the morning that they were fairly confident that the un-time-turned Dobby wouldn't be looking for a Harry-Potter-that-was-no-longer-Harry-Potter-but-was-now-Titania-Grimmley and a way to block him/her from entering the platform. And sure enough, Titania was safely ensconced in a central carriage, talking to her father from the door, when four of the five Weasley children entered the platform.
"Time to go…" Paddy nodded to the next compartment. "You'd best get a seat, kitten."
"Love you, Da." Titania whispered in return.
"Same here, kitten." Paddy gave her one last hug and stepped back. "Go on, now."
"Yes, Da." Titania smiled and blew him a kiss before turned and heading into the compartment that currently housed her trunk and Apollo, as he roosted on the luggage rack.
"Hello ickle firstie. Who are you?" The pair of identical, or almost identical, redheads looked on as she settled into the seat and the fiery coloured hawk flitted from the rack to her shoulder. "And who is that?"
"I am Titania Grimmley and this is my Bonded Familiar, Apollo." Titania smiled at the pair.
"Bonded…" Said one twin.
"Familiar…" Said the second.
"According to Headmaster Dumbledore, yes." Titania nodded.
"What sort of… Is it a hawk or a falcon?" The second twin asked, tilting his head enough for Titania to see the difference between he and his twin. He was Fred.
"Apollo is a he and he is a pyrehawk." Titania corrected.
"Aren't they like phoenixes?" George asked. "Phoenixi? Phoenix-i?"
"A bit. Pyrehawks don't die and get reborn like phoenixes but they do live longer than other hawks or falcons and one Bonded as a Familiar will live as long as their witch or wizard." Titania answered.
"Wicked…" Fred whispered.
"What else?" Lee asked from the corner of the compartment.
"Apollo likes to sleep in a fireplace, I have to keep a fire lit all year round, even if it's just embers and coals. He likes hot water and will often take a shower or bath with me." Titania blushed as she told the older boys this. "He can set his feathers alight if he gets really angry or frightened, or if I get angry or frightened, he'll react the same way. If he's trying to protect me, he can spit little fireballs."
"Like a dragon?" Fred asked, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, kind of. Not as rough, more like a ball of flames than a tongue or spout but he's really good at aiming. He can hit a single flower on a bush, from ten feet away." Titania said.
"And he's really Bonded with you?" Fred was keen to find out if there was a chance that the bird was free.
"He is, he's mine and I'm his." Titania watched as Fred pouted a little.
"And are his feathers magical, like a phoenix's?" George asked.
"Yes and no." Titania said. "They are, but as he's Bonded with me, I'm the only one that can access that magic. The Headmaster said that I should get a custom wand made using one of Apollo's feathers as the core, but Da won't let me do that until I'm in fourth year, he doesn't want me losing control of a custom wand."
"Ooh, no. Not good, that." George grimaced. "Ken, our dormmate, got a custom wand in first year and… Yeah, losing control of a custom wand is bad." Fred and Lee nodded with him.
"Don't be doing that." Lee warned.
"No. I won't."
"So, if he weren't Bonded to you, anyone could use the magic his feathers hold?" Lee asked.
Titania shrugged. "Not really sure, but I think so. There's so little known about their magic, it's hard to say for sure. I do know that their feathers can make excellent quills but if you want to keep them for any length of time you should put them in a quill-grip, you can't re-sharpen them, once they lose a point. And you can't burn them, fire doesn't do anything."
"Huh…"
"What about…?" for the next few hours the three fourth year boys grilled Titania on her Familiar and when they found out about the collection of other magical birds that flocked to her, on them as well.
Titania remembered that Harry and Ron had taken the Weasley's car and flew it to Hogwarts, but she didn't react when Percy came through and told the twins that he couldn't find Ron on the train. That gave her a break while the three boys went with him to do a more detailed search.
When they stumbled back in, a minute or two after it was announced that the Express was ten minutes from Hogwarts and dug around in their trunks for their robes, before heading off to the bathrooms to get changed. As they went out, Fred offered to lock the compartment, so that Titania could get changed in the compartment, she'd be able to unlock from the inside but no-one would be able to unlock it from the outside.
Seeing the castle lit up against a Scottish summer night's sky was always something that Harry looked forward to and Titania was no different. It lifted her heart and Apollo, from his preferred perch on her shoulder, gave a quiet 'scree' of transferred pleasure.
"Wow…" An awed Ginny Weasley was seated in front of Titania while a dreamy Luna Lovegood sat beside the once-Harry-Potter.
"It's beautiful…" Luna whispered and clutched at Titania's hand.
"It is." Titania added, squeezing the other girl's cold fingers.
Titania ignored McGonagall's lecture on 'your House is your family' and focused more on the odd feeling she could sense emanating from the surrounding stones. It took a few minutes before Titania realised it was caution. The castle was warning the students that something was wrong, but it seemed that only Titania and Luna were aware of it.
"Do you feel the cold?" Luna asked. "Is it nargles or blibbering humdingers?"
"Neither." Titania answered automatically. "No mistletoe, no nargles. No starfruit, no humdingers. You've got radishes for earrings and I've got Apollo. Nargles don't like radishes and humdingers can't stand fires."
Luna's eyes widened and her head slowly turned to look at Titania.
"You… You… Can you see them, too?" She asked.
"No." Titania shook her head. "But that doesn't mean that they're not there."
"Really?" Asked a boy with a sneer on his face.
"Really." Titania answered. "Can you see the magic that those candles in the air?" She nodded through the open doors of the Great Hall lit by floating candles. "Or the magic that lets an owl know where to take a letter? Or what makes one wand choose you over another wand?"
"No…" The boy ducked his head a little.
"No, neither can I, but Mr Ollivander can see which wand suits which person and Headmaster Dumbledore can see the strands of magic that hold the candles and my Da says that owl trainers can see which owls are better for post owls and which are better for pets." Titania said. "Just because I can't see it, doesn't mean someone else can't. We haven't even started learning about magic, how can we say something doesn't exist? For all we know, the herbology teacher might grow nargles as pets."
Luna snickered. "I hope not. My daddy says, they like to make a play in the dragon dung."
"Ew…" The boy screwed up his nose.
"Okay, maybe not." Titania nodded. "But you get what I mean."
"Yeah, I get it." The boy nodded and nudged Titania to turn her to the front of the hall and McGonagall.
The witch was tapping the scroll in her hand against her other hand in an obvious gesture of impatience.
"Gather round." McGonagall said. "Thank you. When I call your name, you will come forth and I shall place the sorting hat upon your head and you shall be sorted into your houses." She lifted the hat as she spoke and turned to check the first name on the sheet of parchment in her hand.
"Michelle Bailey."
A black-haired girl glided forward with the grace of a dancer and sat delicately on the stool
"Slytherin."
"Amber Bryson."
A plump girl with light brown hair glanced shyly at her year mates as she moved between them to reach the stool.
"Hufflepuff." The hat called.
"Timothy Caldwell." McGonagall's gaze moved over the unsorted students
The boy that had been talking to Titania and Luna gave them a weak smile. "That's me." He whispered as he eased forward.
"Ravenclaw." The hat called.
"Colin Creevey."
A blonde boy stumbled forward with his head ducked and sat on the stool beside McGonagall.
"Hmm… Gryffindor." The hat called and the boy bounced to his feet and scurried over to sit in a vacant place at the Gryffindor table.
"Titania Grimmley." McGonagall said as Caldwell made his way to the blue and grey bedecked table.
"What have we here…?" Titania heard at the hat landed on her head.
"Good evening, hat." Titania said and opened her mind to the hat.
"Oh, my…" The hat whispered. "You have… well, I never… that is… my goodness… I… well…" The hat stammered.
"Yeah…" Titania sighed.
"Well… it seems that you knew where you were going to be sorted before your used those turners. I assume that you'll be putting them back so that Potter can summon them?"
"Yes, Dobby will do that tonight. I don't have to do anything other than have a note ready for Harry, next year."
"I see… Well, in that case… Gryffindor." The last word was said aloud, not just in Titania's mind.
"Thank you, hat." The blonde girl said as she danced off to the Gryffindor table and plopped herself down into the vacant spot beside Fred.
More names were called and more students sorted, until finally it was Luna's turned.
"Luna Lovegood." McGonagall called.
Luna edged away from the now small group of unsorted firsties and sat on the stool, looking at Titania with worried eyes. The hat opened its mouth and closed it, seconds passed before the hat opened its mouth again.
"Gryffindor." It said, and Luna bounced over to sit beside Titania.
"Silly old hat." The newest lion said. "It wanted to put me in Ravenclaw but I wanted to stay with my friends."
"And you told it that?" Titania asked.
"I did." Luna nodded. "It said, if I was prepared to argue with it, I was brave enough to be a lion."
"You argued with the hat?" Fred asked leaning towards them.
"No-one argues with the hat." George added.
"I did." Luna nodded, watching the last few unsorted students waiting for McGonagall to call their names.
"Yeah, you belong in Gryffindor, then." Fred said.
"Michael Apsley." The Professor called and a tall, for eleven, boy left Ginny and another girl, to sit on the stool.
"Ravenclaw." The hat said.
"Ginevra Weasley." McGonagall said.
Ginny moved forward, glancing at her brothers for reassurance but only managing to spot Fred, George and Percy. Where was Ron?
"Gryffindor." The hat said and Ginny joined the Gryffindor table, sitting opposite Titania and Luna.
"Hi." The redhead grinned, her face already showing the strain of having used the diary.
"Lacy McCloud." The girl responded to the call and sat on the stool. The hat's mouth opened and closed.
While it was discussing whatever it was with the girl, Titania looked around the Gryffindor table, wondering at the absence of Ron Weasley, until she remembered that this was Ron and Harry's second year. The year of Dobby. Dropped cakes, closed platforms and rogue bludgers. Maybe she would be better off to have 'her' Dobby not bring the time-turners back yet? No, better to get it over with, wouldn't want to forget and have to do it seconds before Harry called for them.
"Hufflepuff." The hat sighed.
"Well, that's done." Fred said.
"Where's Ron?" Ginny asked causing her brothers to look up and down the table.
"Oh, shit." George groaned.
"We couldn't find Ron or Harry on the train." Percy added. "They'll be in detention until next year."
"Not to mention mum…" Fred muttered.
"Oh, shit." Ginny whispered.