"Miss Coulson?" Dumbledore called again as Bess opened the door which led to the staircase. When she turned back and shut the door, he said, "it would be best if you were to keep the information I've shared with you private for now."

"Why?" She asked quietly - she was keen to tell Sirius, James, Remus and Lily everything.

"Because, Bess, that is the second time that you have avoided mentioning Peter Pettigrew in relation to the Order of the Phoenix. That, combined with your knowledge of the war to come... I don't think it would take a genius to work out that he will become-"

Bess sighed. He was right. "Maybe. But not yet. Not until nineteen-eighty. He... he has the potential now, but he's not... he's not evil yet, he's just... calculating and... he'll do anything to survive," Bess said quietly, but loudly enough for the headmaster to hear. "If I can get the others on their own, could I explain?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said slowly, "I suppose so, but on the condition that they do not mention anything to Mr. Pettigrew. Do you think you could manage to get them to agree to that? After all, Mr. Pettigrew is one of their best friends."

Bess nodded and smiled sadly. "I think so. If... if I can come up with a good enough lie..." she replied, before opening the door again and stepping into the moving staircase.

She knew that if she were to tell them everything, they either wouldn't believe her, or they would immediately sever their friendship with Peter. She didn't want either of those eventualities to come to fruition - either way, she didn't want that to happen - knowing about Peter and what he would become would break all of their hearts.

"Love? Everything okay?" Sirius asked, as Bess came in to view of the hallway.

Bess, whose face had fallen into a morose expression as she'd left Dumbledore's office, couldn't help the grin that spread quickly across her face as she saw her boyfriend waiting for her. She nodded and practically ran down the remaining stairs, barrelling in to him, burying her face in his jumper as his arms snaked around her. Taking multiple deep breaths, she revelled in his scent - chocolate, rain and cologne mixed together - and sighed deeply.

"That bad?" Sirius chuckled as he tried to move backwards slightly to make room enough to see her face, but she held on tightly.

"Mhmmm," she replied, before hugging him even tighter. After a moment she pulled away and looked up at him. "I have so much to tell you, but I can't yet. There are too many eyes and ears..." she said, making eye contact with a shifty looking portrait.

Sirius followed her gaze and nodded. "Whenever you're ready, love, I'll wait."

"Just need to find somewhere secluded I think..." she replied and trailed off, biting her lip as she tried to think of a time when the boys weren't all together.

By the time Bess fell into bed that night, she hadn't found a moment to talk to anyone about what Dumbledore had told her, and instead of falling asleep, she spent most of the night staring at her ceiling and crying as the truth of her situation sank in.

xXx

The next day was the first Gryffindor Quidditch game of the year, which meant that everyone was a bit... occupied, so Bess still couldn't speak to any of her friends about what she'd learnt. Still unable to stop thinking about the events which led to her being in this world, she found herself getting more and more frustrated, angry, and upset as the morning went on. So, when Grace grabbed her before she entered the Great Hall for breakfast and told her something, her feelings manifested as outward anger towards James and Sirius for the first time.

"Are you kidding me?" Bess asked incredulously, raising her voice slightly to make sure James heard her anger as she sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. James, dressed in his Quidditch robes, had been in the middle of explaining to a captive audience that the Tutshill Tornadoes were the best team in the UK, and that if he got scouted for them at some point, it would be the highlight of his career.

"What? The Tornadoes are-"

"I'm a Muggle-born and even I know that the Prides decimated in the sixties and that the Tornadoes haven't been good for at least five years!" she huffed, screwing her face up slightly and tilting her head to the side. She was baiting him, and she knew it. She also knew that if she kept putting down his favourite team, he'd get upset.

"The Prides? Come on! McCormack's overrated," James replied with a glare, raising his hands and rolling his eyes.

Bess' mouth dropped open as she stared at James. "She played for Scotland thirty-six times!"

"Yeah... Scotland," he replied in an annoyed tone as he reached over to scoop a massive amount of strawberry jam before dropping it onto his toast.

"Oh, I'm sorry, please, go ahead. Tell me a made up history where England's won a cup for the last... hmmm... fifty years?" Bess asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning her elbows on the table as the crowd around James dispersed, probably to gossip about how the Gryffindor captain was getting into a spat with one of his friends.

James narrowed his eyes and replied, "Fine. I'll admit, England haven't been too good, but if they just rejigged the team again, I think they have a good chance next year."

"I guess... they'd need a pretty big rejig though. Maybe nineteen-eighty-two?" she asked in a mocking voice.

"Maybe..." James replied slightly dejectedly as he took a bite of his toast. "I guess you're right about the Tornadoes. They've just been my favourite team since I was little..." James said, trailing off and sighing deeply.

"Ready, Cap?" Scott asked as he walked over, stopping just behind James, who nodded and jumped up. Just before they left, Bess fist bumped Scott and wished him luck, before returning to her pastry as the glare returned to her features.

She felt sick, her head was pounding from all of her crying the night before, and her anger wouldn't leave her.

"You really hate the Tornadoes that much?" Remus asked quietly, as Peter and Sirius walked into the Great Hall, just about catching a slightly dejected James to wish him luck. "Because that was kind of harsh..."

"Nah. The Tornadoes rock, and he's right about McCormack. She's incredible, but since she retired from active play the team's really gone down hill," Bess said in an emotionless tone as she reached over to grab the jug of orange juice.

"What? What was all that about then?" Lily asked quietly. "You practically bit his head off."

Bess glared at Sirius as he sat down across from her. "Grace told me something interesting this morning."

"About what, love?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow when Bess' glare intensified and she stood up, abandoning her pastry and taking her book with her.

She stepped over the bench and replied, "About James' pre-game plan to distract the Slytherins? Stupid me for thinking you just happened to want to kiss me around the time the Future Death Eaters of the United Kingdom walked past..."

She heard Sirius groan as she walked over to sit with her dorm mates, and Lily followed, saying, "I promise I had no idea..."

"I know. Don't worry. I'm just..." Bess sighed, "I wasn't in the best mood this morning anyway and then I found out..."

"Found out what?" Jo asked.

"Sirius and James thought it would be funny to try and put the Slytherins off their game today," Bess began.

"Like every game, Merlin's sake. What did they do?" Jo asked.

"Well, my Valentine's Day present kicked arse of course, and James noticed that the Slytherins were so incensed that they missed about half an hour of their practice on Sunday because they were too busy chatting about it. Well, this is what Grace told me anyway, which is why I don't know much more, just that Scott told her that apparently James was laughing in the changing room about the look on their faces whenever Sirius kissed me on Wednesday, and then she said she noticed that Sirius has been-"

"Upping the PDA! We noticed that too! I thought it was about Valentine's Day..." Mary added.

"So did I. But it makes sense. He kissed me in front of Regulus yesterday," Bess said, taking a piece of toast and beginning to rip it to pieces.

"Have you talked to him about it?" Lily asked quietly.

Bess crossed her arms. She knew she was partially overreacting to the news, but couldn't help it.

In turn, the girls sent Sirius glares down the table, and Bess watched as he rolled his eyes in annoyance and stood up, before storming off to the pitch.

"He does know that's a dump-able offence, right? Using you like that?" Solstice asked, and Bess scoffed and gave her a look. "What? Derek and I are-"

"Wrong for each other? He's an arsehole and you deserve so so so much more. He wouldn't keep messing you around if he saw the look on Andrew's face whenever you walk into a room..." Bess said, rolling her eyes and pointing over to Andrew Jacobson, a seventh year Hufflepuff. She thought for a second she'd messed up, but Solstice turned to Andrew and sent him a small smile before turning around, blushing slightly.

xXx

It seemed that the match was going to be a good thing for Bess' nerves and anger. Her anxiety was peaking and causing her to have near-constant heart palpitations, but the crowd's excitement and adrenaline fed in to her, and she couldn't help but smile slightly at the crowd's chants.

"No signs today?" Jo asked as they sat down in their seats. The game wasn't due to start for another five minutes.

She shook her head and sighed, "Didn't have enough time... I had some other things on..."

"You were up super early though," Lily said quickly, glancing at Bess, who grimaced.

"Needed to go for a walk. Didn't really fancy bumping into any Slytherins. Not today anyway, so I went before breakfast," she replied, and Lily nodded, turning back to the pitch.

As the days grew lighter, Bess had started to find time in the mornings before breakfast to go for long walks, clearing her head and keeping her anxiety and panic at bay. On the weekends she normally found time during the late afternoons, when everyone else was occupied, but today, with the match, she didn't think she'd get another chance.

"Is it really bothering you? The Sirius thing?" Lily asked in a loud whisper, as the crowd around them began to chant for the Gryffindor team. "Because I'm sure they didn't even think about it like that, it's just something they do - throwing off the competition. Happens all the time."

"Would you be happy if James did that to you? Using your blood status as a way of riling up the competition?" Bess asked with a frown.

"I don't think they thought about it like that..." Lily replied slowly. When Bess raised an eyebrow she sighed and said, "no. Okay? No. I wouldn't be happy about it. But maybe they didn't think you'd mind because you're so laid back..."

"Lily. You shouldn't defend them. Joke or not, there's no excuse for-"

"Is there something else going on?" Lily cut over her, and Bess rolled her eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me! There must be! It wouldn't have bothered you before Christmas!"

Bess' jaw clenched and she replied angrily in a low tone so that only Lily could hear her, "Maybe not, but before Christmas I didn't know that I was the one the Death Eaters tortured. Or that they carved Mudblood into my arm. Before it was something that happened to Daphne and that was horrific and upsetting in itself, but I could compartmentalise that. Knowing it happened to me... it's like I'm going through the grieving and anger process all over again. And honestly? I'm done with people using me."

"What? What d'you mean it happened to you?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Dumbledore told me last night, it's why I wanted to talk to you all yesterday but James was asleep already," Bess replied angrily, glaring at the boy's head in front of her. "And you're not allowed to tell anyone else this. Dumbledore told me not to say anything," she added, remembering what he'd said.

"Bess-" Lily began.

"I don't want to talk about it. Not here. Not now," Bess said, raising a hand, before turning back towards the crowd. After a moment she sighed angrily and said, "toilet," before she dodged out of the row of Gryffindors and headed towards the stairs.

"You alright here, Coulson?" Bartie asked, as he leant across a barrier and called down to her as she reached the middle of the stairs.

"No, but I'll be fine," she replied for the millionth time, and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. It really was becoming her catch phrase.

"Not staying?" he called back.

"I'll be back in a minute I'm sure," she called up before turning and running down the rest of the stairs, leaving the stadium just as a roar sounded. From outside, she could hear the commentary begin, announcing all of the players, and tried to tune it, and the screams, out as she walked away.

She didn't know where she was going, just that she needed to walk, and so she kept going and going until the feeling in her chest began to subside a little. As she turned to return to the castle, she came face to face with- well, face to belly, with Hagrid.

"Alrigh' there young Bess? 'aven't seen yer in a while now! All recovered after yer fall are yeh?" he asked, and Bess couldn't fight the smile as it transformed her features.

"All fine and have been for months!"

"Then why haven' yer visited me then, eh?" he asked with a grin and a wink as Bess managed to force out a laugh. "Not feelin' up ter the game?" Bess shook her head, her face dropping slightly as she gulped and looked to the ground. She could have hugged the game keeper when he said, "well then. Abou' time we 'ad that cuppa then eh?"

Bess sent Hagrid an appreciative smile as she walked over to him and they headed off towards his hut.

It was there, holding a gigantic mug filled with tea, and dipping rock cakes into the sugared drink to soften them enough to eat without breaking her teeth, that Bess began to let herself think about other things for a few hours, rather than the onslaught of confusion, upset and pain that she was currently feeling.

Hagrid and she spoke about life at Hogwarts, classes, the Marauders, teachers, and the castle grounds, and before they even realised it, it was already getting dark out. Hagrid offered to walk her back to the castle, but she knew that he had rounds to complete before dinner, so she sent him off towards the Forbidden Forest as she began to walk back up the grassy slope towards the entrance.

When she reached the courtyard she realised she was being watched, and turned around suddenly, raising her wand in the air. It was the second time that day that she'd been surprised by someone, and as the first had been Hagrid, she was willing to bet that the second wouldn't be so friendly.

"I just wanted to talk to you. Dumbledore said that you spoke last night?" Selket called, as he raised his hands and slowly walked towards her. When she didn't lower her wand, he said, "I would never harm you, Bess, I promise you that."

"But that Muggle? I thought you were an Auror. A Dark Wizard catcher. Not a murderer," Bess retorted angrily.

"Sometimes the job calls for them to be one in the same," Selket replied, coming to a stop in front of her.

"Tell that to Alastor Moody," she replied, remembering that Moody tried everything to bring someone in alive if he could.

"You sound a lot like Jasper," Selket replied with a frown.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It's not. He just has a... black and white view of the world," Selket replied quietly.

"By black and white, do you mean to say that he wouldn't kill a Muggle?" Bess asked angrily. "Did you even care about what you did, or was it all for some twisted greater good?"

"Sometimes you need to compromise your morals to save lives. If I can just explain, I think you'd understand."

"Why?"

"Because you deserve to know how we sent Daphne to your world and you here. I owe you that much at least," Selket replied, tilting his head to the side. For the first time since she'd known him, he looked less round in the middle, and more in control of himself. He was looking at her in the eye, and didn't seem upset or hesitant to speak to her.

Bess blinked rapidly as she tried to think of something, anything to say. "I thought you couldn't stand to be around me?"

"Yes. But Albus told me that... he told me that you do remember some things. And I realised that you deserve to know what we did, and why," Selket reasoned.

Bess frowned, her eyes filling with tears, and she bit her lip. "I don't know if I want to-"

"You do. If I'm right, I won't make it to the safe house at the end of next month. So it's either now or never," he replied.

"I don't- I don't know..." Bess said quietly.

"This is the only time I will offer," he said firmly.

Bess lowered her wand slightly and nodded. If she was being honest, she didn't think he'd make it to the safehouse either. "Okay... okay tell me."

xXx

Neither Selket nor Bess spoke as they walked into the Entrance Hall and began to climb the stairs, leaving the cluster of cutlery and chatter of students echoing out of the Great Hall behind them. It was only as they sat down in his office that the silence was broken by Selket.

"I'll start at the beginning, then shall I?" he asked rhetorically.

"No, please, start at the middle. Confuse me further. I dare you," Bess said sarcastically, before she bit her tongue and glared at the table in front of her, twirling her wand in her hands.

The familiar feel of magic running through the long wooden stick was the only thing keeping her grounded in that moment as she tried to gulp down the terrified feeling seeping into her heart and mind as she realised that she was in Selket's office and no one else knew where she was.

Selket sighed and adopted a rather vacant expression as he clasped his hands together and stared at the ceiling above Bess' head as he began to speak. "In July, the year you came here, I was called to Lucas Grouse's house. I- I called him Luke... Well, Luke's sister was a squib, which you know now?" Bess nodded and Selket continued, "and her husband was a Muggle. They had one daughter, Daphne.

"When Daphne was nine, she began to have these dreams. She thought they were just coincidences at first, but then they became more and more frequent. To the point where she'd tell her mother something, and the next minute it would come true.

"Lydia knew immediately what was happening, so called Luke, and he assessed her. He spent the next six, seven years teaching her how to hone her powers and see anything she wanted. Anywhere she wanted, and any time she wanted. Daphne was incredible. Her magic though, wasn't as good. As her seeing abilities grew, her magic waned, as if they were intertwined.

"But she wanted to go to Hogwarts, she wanted to go so badly. But her parents knew about the unrest coming in the wizarding community. They'd heard rumours of You-Know-Who, and Daphne had told them what was coming, so they refused to let her come to Hogwarts when she was eleven, but they got her a wand in Diagon Alley, and Luke and her continued their sessions to hone her seeing abilities, while I began to teach her on some of my days off.

"It didn't feel like a sacrifice to me at the time, though looking back, I spent so many years teaching her, I think I may have forgotten to continue to live. Everything became about keeping her safe. Luke and I would spend our days at work finding ways to feed the information she'd told us in to our notes, our conversations, our work. It became an obsession to help as many people as we could. We saved countless lives, but we also allowed the deaths of many wizards and witches. We couldn't get to everyone, we told ourselves, and some people had to die for Daphne to be able to help save the others.

"But no matter what we asked her, she was never able to tell us what happened beyond Christmastime nineteen-seventy-five. We didn't think about that. For years, we worked tirelessly. We had one goal and only one goal - keep Daphne safe, and save lives.

"And then Daphne sat us down in July nineteen-seventy-five, and told us she'd been reading about ways to leave our world. We thought she was talking about suicide at first, but then we thought she was crazy when she talked about travelling between worlds. It was only when she brought us notes on fairy tales, and myths that we began to realise she was being serious. By then, her mind was set. With or without us, she'd be carrying out her plan.

"We didn't believe any of it at first, but then she told us what she'd seen. She saw us... she saw us completing the ritual which would send her to the other world."

Bess took in a deep breath and asked the question she really wanted to know, "How did you do it? What was the ritual?"

Selket sighed and shook his head slightly. "It was... look, I'm not proud of what happened, but Daphne told us she saw it. She... she said that-"

"Please just tell me," Bess cut across.

Selket took a moment before he nodded. "It was... the ritual started with blood. We needed... we needed a gallon of blood from a Muggle. And then... and then we needed two drops which were taken from a dying Muggle. So it's not even like we could just steal from a hospital or something... I'm... I'm not proud of it. In fact, it makes me sick. So sick. But... but Daphne told us that was the only way, and we didn't want her to do it on her own.

"So we... Luke and I did what she asked. We helped her to brew the potion and draw the runes around her, and then we added the drops of blood and... and she drank it. She repeated a phrase-"

"Volo vivere ibi," Bess whispered.

"How did you know that?" Selket asked, his eyes wide and his expression frantic.

"It's from a fairy tale..." Bess replied slowly. "Please, tell me the rest."

"Uh- uh- I- yes. Uh- she- she drank the potion and said those words, and then there was a golden light. It was... it was like pure sunlight. We thought we'd done something wrong, until suddenly it just vanished, and she was gone."

"And then I arrived?" Bess asked quietly.

"Yes. Two days later, Luke woke up and went downstairs and found you lying in his lounge. We'd told Lydia and Michael that Daphne had gone for a trip somewhere, so they weren't surprised when Luke brought Bess... you... home. He- he-" Selket sighed deeply. "When we found out that you possessed powers, but not the sight, Luke was relieved. He said it meant that we could get rid of you. But I asked for more time. I found out more information. I searched Daphne's things and found her notebook. She'd written the processes in it. The way that she could complete the ritual, and there, underlined, was a single sentence.

"She'd just written, When I leave, Elizabeth will take my place. Forgive me. I knew then that she'd been lying to us for years. She did know what happened after she left. She knew that if she left, you'd come to our world. That's why I was so intent to help you. I told Lucas, and he was infuriated. He said that Daphne had tricked us both. He said that the only way to ensure that no one found out what we'd done was to try and get you to somewhere safe.

"When you started saying that you didn't want to go with him, he put you under the Imperius curse. I- I think that's why you screamed so much when we first got to you. It wasn't just you screaming, it was Luke trying to suppress his own pain, and accidentally transferring it to you. As he screamed in his mind, you screamed out loud. It's why you didn't fight back. He was a strong wizard. He kept the curse on you until the moment I went to him to tell him that I'd obliviated you."

"Oh my god. That's barbaric! That's- that's awful!" Bess cried, sitting forwards in her seat and covering her mouth with her hand. "Why would he do that?"

"Bess. To Luke, his word was gold. And he gave Daphne his word that he wouldn't tell a soul where she had gone," he replied.

"But- but he let them hurt me?" she asked, as her face screwed up in anguish.

"Yes. He let them hurt you. He also died trying to stop it. You don't know what they did to him to try and get you to tell them something, anything. I think they wanted him to release the Imperius curse on you, but he wouldn't. He died protecting Daphne, as I think she intended him to," Selket said quietly, his own eyes filled with tears.

"You were on his side..." Bess whispered. "You let that happen to me."

"No, Bess, I wasn't. I got you those documents, I tried to get you away," Selket said quietly.

"But you didn't. If you really wanted to protect me, you wouldn't have told Delbert where I was," Bess whispered back.

Selket took in a deep breath. "He found us... just as Daphne left the world, he found us at Luke's house. He said he knew what we'd done, and that he'd moved the body for us. He'd traced it back to us easily. I- I had no reason not to trust him. We'd worked together for over twenty years. I thought he was a good man. So I told him what we'd done, and he agreed to help us. When you came along, he continued to help us."

"No. He continued to fool you. You told him when you were moving me. He did this to me because you trusted him. So how can I ever trust you?" Bess asked. "Like I would ever want to anyway. You killed someone, Selket, you killed someone. And I'm here because of it. Why am I even alive?"

"I don't know," Selket sighed. "In- in fact I do know. You're alive because of Serpen."

"Jasper? What're you talking about?" Bess asked, frowning up at the man.

"When we... when we arrived at the house, we were ordered to stay back. Delbert was one of the first on the scene and he and Poults told us not to go in there. But Jasper heard someone screaming, and he... he ran in. The dark mark was above the house, but we didn't know if any Death Eaters were still there. He got a right bollocking from Poults until the papers said he was a hero and the other Aurors stood up for him."

"What happened when he went inside?" Bess asked quietly.

"He found you, and Luke. He was on his own, and he had to choose between you both. He had to choose who to save," Selket said quietly. "He had to move one of you at a time because of the anti-Apparition wards."

Bess' lip twitched upwards as she said, "He saved Lucas, didn't he?" It was what she would have done as well. If she was screaming, she was alive enough. Lucas' was in so much worse condition than she was.

Selket's jaw tensed and he nodded slightly. "He got him out first. He was... he was in an awful way. I'm sure you- I'm sure you heard. I- oh Merlin. I- I can barely- I'm sorry. Look- Stronger Aurors than Jasper Serpen would have thrown up just looking at the scene, but he just picked up Lucas and carried him out of there. Then he went back in for you. That's why everyone thinks he can't control his emotions around you, and why he's spent the past year and a bit trying to keep you safe. Because he chose to save Luke, but you were the one who survived. He's got to live with that guilt for the rest of his life. What if he'd chosen you instead? Would we have had to obliviate you? Would you have stopped being in pain quicker? Would your injuries have been less severe?"

"You would've obliviated me anyway," Bess snapped.

"He doesn't know that," Selket replied. "And he never will."

xXx

A/N: hope you enjoyed the chapter! We're at Feb 19th 1977 now, and Bess won't be able to finish off Voldy until at least Aug 1978, and she's now absolutely freaking out because now the issue isn't so much Daphne coming back and Bess being sent back to her world anymore, it's more about Bess being kidnapped, tortured and potentially murdered to try and bring Daphne back... Eek! (followed by multiple swear words).

Thank you to everyone who's been reviewing - themugglepadme24, Ghost Claw 001, LeeForShort, Guest - (the chapters will be continuing to be a little bit darker from here on in as Bess navigates everything, but still with lots of fluff I'm sure! So glad you liked it!), CharlotteGryffindor, idreamtosmilealways and AvalonRivers.

And thank you to everyone who's reading, favouriting and following!

Btw, I don't know if I've ever said (so adding this here and to the start of the story as well) but this story is an amalgamation of HP novels and books, taking bits from each place, since there's so little about the Marauders, and things like Mudblood being carved into Hermione's arm is something that I wanted to include, but I know that's from the films not the books! Don't know if it matters to anyone really, but thought I'd point it out anyway. Then again, it doesn't really matter because this is already changing everything!