Bess, August, 1977 - RECAP

Not even the blinding light of the late-afternoon sun, which was stronger than usual, as if sending its beams straight down from the heavens, could dull her happiness.

But then it did. Well, it clouded her vision. The light blinding her, she grimaced and stumbled slightly. She stopped and reached into her jacket pocket to try and pull out her sunglasses.

She could still hear chatter from the open window, but it now sounded like it was underwater.

She gasped as a bright light hit her and she felt like she was floating.

She barely noticed her bag fall off her shoulder.

She saw another flash, as if the sunlight pulsed, and felt pain shoot throughout her body, engulfing her in more fire than she'd ever felt before. She tried to scream but nothing came out as the pain in her head burst from the back to the front.

A moment later her vision faded to black. A weightlessness overcame over her body, and a fuzziness overtook her thoughts, calming her and making her feel as though she were floating above the clouds.

The pain fell away.

Bess, ?, ?

Bess groaned. Another bad dream. Another nightmare to try and get her mind around. But she didn't want to - she just wanted to sleep again. So she simply threw herself around a little in an attempt to go back to sleep. She smiled and rolled her eyes when she felt something poking at her ribs, and assumed that she'd rolled onto Sirius' arm. Or more likely, his wand. It wouldn't be the first time he'd fallen asleep whilst learning a new spell and not put his wand away.

Shifting this way and that, she tried to dislodge the offending item, but with no luck.

"Sirius! Move your stuff!" she whined, pushing her arm out. But instead of feeling a person, her hand connected with the softness of a pillow.

She groaned again and rolled onto her front. She stayed there for a moment and then sighed deeply and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. "Pup! Come back to bed, okay?" she called, yawning.

When he didn't answer, she let out an annoyed huff and sat up properly, ready to go on a little boyfriend hunt. Her eyes still half open, she yawned, stretched, rubbed her face roughly, and then stood.

But when she opened her eyes completely, Bess was confronted with a magnolia coloured wall, rather than the white of Sirius and her bedroom. Her eyes widened and she gasped in a breath. Where was she?

"Oh god," she whispered, turning to look for a door. Was she captured? she wondered. The last thing she could remember... the last thing she could remember was Move On Up... and walking. And then pain. God, the pain.

Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, her eyes found the white ceiling, with an all too familiar dark splotch in the corner of the room. She recognised it immediately as the mark of mould which she'd cleaned from her walls in her rented accommodation back... back in her own world.

Gasping, her eyes wide, she looked down at her clothes. If it was a dream... if it was all a dream... Sirius... James... Lily... Remus... then she knew she'd have woken up wearing her ratty pyjamas. But when she looked down, she was fully dressed in the green wrap dress, jean jacket, and white trainers.

She punched herself in the chest in her haste to grab her necklace and winced in pain as she pulled at the silver chain, revealing a small black carved dog hanging from it. Padfoot.

She barely contained her anguished cursing.

Tears formed in her eyes, but then a voice in the back of her mind commanded her attention. Figure out where you are, why you're there, and how to get out.

Looking around the room, she was confronted with new posters and different bedding. When her senses came back to her completely she could smell a faint whiff of aftershave mixed with sweat. A boy's room now then.

She didn't stop to ponder too long upon the largest question in her mind - what happened when you just disappeared? That, she decided, could be answered later.

Turning around and around, she tried to figure out whose bed this was now. But she didn't recognise the young man's face which smiled out of most of the stationery pictures littered around the room.

Dead end. Okay... look for the next best thing. When are you? she asked herself.

From the look of the bare streets which she could see through the large window by the bed, it was no longer January 2016. When she'd gone to sleep originally, she'd heard students heading for nights' out at clubs or bars or pubs, all calling to each other and laughing as they went. Some wearing heels, some wearing flats, some wearing trainers or smart shoes. But all either covered in jumpers, coats to be handed in at coat check, or their alcohol blankets and the promise of a shared taxi ride home.

In the minute she allowed herself to stare out of the window, only one person walked past, and they were dressed in jean shorts and a t-shirt.

Okay, so it's summer. But when?

Adrenaline pumping now, her mind racing a mile a minute as it tried to formulate a plan of action, Bess did the only thing she could think of - she ran.

Waking up in her old university room was her saving grace - she knew how to get out of the house. She was used to rolling out of bed and legging it down the stairs to half-run to her morning lectures. She was also in luck that the new occupant obviously wasn't in. She was sure he'd be freaking out that a strange girl had woken up in his bed if he was. And, considering that it was summer, and UK universities broke up in May or June, which led students to head home on the most part, it was most likely that none of his housemates were in either.

So, after a quick sweep of the room to make sure that she was taking all of her things (her bag was mysteriously missing), she snuck down the stairs and out of the door.

It took her just five minutes to run to the nearest supermarket. She half-ran, half-walked up the road and tried to act as normally as she could when she reached the automatic doors. In her panic, she kept repeating to herself that she was safe, wherever she was. She knew this place. She knew this city. It was once her home.

"Oh my god! Bess! Hi!" a voice called, and Bess' head snapped up to see her old flatmate, Cara Jones, walking towards her from the car park entrance to her right. When Bess had left this world Cara and she hadn't been living together, but had been in regular contact - Cara was studying psychology, so they had lectures on a similar campus.

She'll have a phone, Bess thought, and immediately turned to face her old friend, smiling as nonchalantly as she could given her panic. "Uh- hey, hey! Oh wow! Hey!"

"Oh, sorry," Cara said, the smile falling slightly. "I thought you were someone else."

"No... uh- no, it's me,... Bess..."

Cara, frowned as she stopped in front of Bess. "Oh, you look... younger? How is that... sorry! I'm being rude!" She reached out a gentle hand to touch Bess' forearm in greeting. "How are you?" she asked. "I haven't seen you in a while!"

Bess nodded quickly and nervously tucked a curl behind her ear. "Yeah... I uh..." It was the oddest thing, talking to someone you used to know. It felt like a weird dream - having gone through everything she had, to now be back in her own world chatting to someone who had no idea of Bess' scars, life experiences, or the past few years.

"I thought you moved back to London already?" Cara continued, stepping back slightly, a funny smile on her face still, as if she wasn't believing what Bess was saying.

Oh. Did I? "Yeah, well... I uh... I thought I'd have a visit..." her voice wavered. How unconvincing.

"Oh, okay... well did you want to get a drink later or something?" Cara asked, raising an eyebrow, her eyes trailing over Bess' face. Bess could tell she recognised her. Was she really that confused about Bess looking younger?

"Uh... yeah... maybe... Uh, hey..." Bess said, plastering a smile onto her face and breathing in a deep, grounding breath. "Look, I'm so sorry... normally I wouldn't ask considering I haven't seen you in ages, but could I borrow your phone for just one second? I just dropped mine outside and it fell into the gutter, and I'm just so..." Bess held her hands near to her head and shook them as she grimaced.

"Sure..." Cara said, reaching into her pocket. "Yeah, no, totally! Here," she said, handing over her unlocked phone.

"Thank you so much!" Bess said in one breath, her face revealing her worry again.

"Are you okay?" Cara asked. When Bess nodded, she tried again, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Uh, no, I just... sorry... just trying to-" Bess replied absentmindedly, typing in the number. "I'm not sure if they'll be able to help, but it's the only number I know off-by-heart, so worth a shot," Bess said, with a weak laugh.

She gulped as the dial tone began, and listened in anxious anticipation for the call to connect. She could feel the panic rising in her chest and tried to breath in and out calmly. Cara's odd looks of worry weren't helping at all.

The click as the call connected sent a thrum of anxiety through Bess.

"Heh-lo!" the voice said, chirpily.

Bess' whole world stopped for a moment. All she wanted to do was be with Sirius. Be in his arms. Have him tell her she was okay. That everything would be okay.

In that moment she knew just how much she'd changed. When she'd first arrived in Sirius' world she'd tried to find a way home. She'd convinced herself that she belonged in her own world, and that she would have missed her friends and needed to go home. But as she listened to the voice on the phone repeat their, "Heh-lo?", she realised how wrong she'd been. She never truly belonged anywhere until she fell into 1976. Now, she decided, she wouldn't give up. She wouldn't stop until she found out how to go back to Sirius. If there was a way that was.

Bess breathed deeply and said, as calmly as she could, "Hi Mum."

She'd forgotten... when she spoke to her parents she stood upright, and enunciated her words. Her voice turned as emotionless as she could make it, and she ducked her head slightly. All conditioned. All submissive. All frustratingly docile. Internally, Bess wanted to growl down the phone, she wanted to never have to rely on her mother or father again. But externally? Externally Bess turned back into her scared twelve year old self, and half-shut down.

She had no idea how Sirius had managed to stay so strong when confronted with his own mother, when all Bess did was comply.

"Hi honey!" Bess' mum replied, happily. Her jovial tone sent anxious shivers down Bess' spine - she'd never heard her mother this happy to hear from her unless they were in a group setting - her mum usually kept her enthusiasm for when she needed to look like a good mother to the outside world. "This isn't your number..."

"Oh- yes. I had to borrow someone else's," Bess said mechanically as she stared at the end of one of the closed check out counters, avoiding Cara's eye. "Mine fell in the gutter."

"Oh no! Do you need anything? Want me to send your father out to get you?" her mum asked in a concerned tone.

"No! I- uh... sorry... I mean... I- I-" Bess could feel the panic rising in her chest. "Nothing. Sorry." She hung up the call and handed a worried looking Cara her phone back. "Sorry... I uh-"

"Was that your mum?" Cara asked, raising an eyebrow. Bess nodded. And then Cara asked the last thing Bess had thought she would - "You're not Bess, are you?"

Bess blinked. Once, twice, three times. "I'm sorry?"

"You're Daphne, right? Bess' little sister?"

Again, Bess blinked.

"It's okay..." Cara said slowly, nodding. "Bess told us all that you might come here looking for her." Bess simply stared, and Cara continued, placing her hands out in front of her like she was approaching a scared and wounded animal.

"What do you mean? Why would she say that?" Bess asked slowly, trying to understand.

"She said that you've been out of contact for a bit, because you still live with your parents? So we said we'd keep a look out if you turned up looking for her. We all know what your parents are like... it's... we wanted to help."

Bess stared for a minute, her brain exploding, before she whispered, "Thank you." Cara had always been caring... but this?

Cara smiled slightly and nodded. "I honestly thought you were her for a minute. You look the same, just... younger. But she explained everything to us. She said that if you finally ran away from home then we could tell you where she was. Is that okay with you? Can I tell you where she is?"

Bess simply nodded. So her theory had been correct - Daphne had taken over Bess' former life. Swapped them both. And now it was time for them to meet. The voice at the back of her head told her that she was being crazy, that she couldn't trust Daphne, that she could get hurt or worse if they met. But all Bess could think in that moment was that she was going to meet the only person who knew how to get her back to Sirius. Daphne wanted to live as Bess. And Bess wanted to live with Sirius. As long as Daphne wasn't a sociopath... there was a chance that Bess could go home.

Cara's voice cut through Bess' thoughts. "Okay, she's in London. She's working for the government, and she's safe. Okay?" Cara waited until Bess nodded. "I have her number. Is it alright with you if I call her?" Again, she waited until Bess nodded.

The first try went through to a voicemail, so Cara texted 'Bess' instead. The real Bess and Cara waited together, sat on the plastic chairs by the taxi phone for half an hour before Cara's call was returned. After a quick chat, Cara slowly handed over the phone to Bess, and she placed it to her ear.

"Hi Bess," came a clear voice. Higher pitched than Bess, but with the same accent.

"Hi," Bess said, her voice wavering as tears filled her vision. She knew she couldn't call the girl 'Daphne' on the phone - it would confuse Cara too much.

"It's good to finally hear your voice. Shall I come to you, or do you want to come to me?" Daphne asked when Bess didn't say anything else.

"I want... I want to come to you. I... I..."

"Thought so. I'll get Cara to give you some cash and get you on a train, okay?" Daphne asked, in the same calm, caring tone. "The 3.05 should get you in by five. I'll meet you at London Victoria. Don't worry about trying to find me, I'll come to you."

"You know?" Bess stopped and coughed to clear her throat. "I mean..."

"Yes. I knew it would be today. But there are a few possibilities about what's going to happen next, so I'm going to let you decide. Then you know I haven't manipulated the future. Whatever happens, we don't part as enemies, so you're safe. I promise I won't hurt you, and I know you won't hurt me. Now... the train. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah. That sounds okay."

At the station, Cara did as she'd been asked - she bought Bess a one way ticket to London, waited on the platform with her, and waved her off once she was on the train - Bess had asked to make the trip alone, and as much as Cara seemed reluctant to agree, she respected her wishes.

It was only when Bess was safely sat on the 3.05 to London that she let herself put her hand into her pockets.

Tears filled her eyes again when her left hand touched a ring, and she withdrew Sirius' signet ring from her pocket. She remembered him slipping it onto her left hand. His confident cocky assumption that she'd say yes one day to his proposal. She smiled and let out a cry filled chuckle when she remembered Peter's face - the annoyance it gave him when she'd been allowed to stay in their dorm room.

Holding it in her hand, she put her right hand into her other pocket, and withdrew two items. The first, her wand, wasn't a shock. She'd assumed it would still be in there, the large oversized pocket ensuring it didn't slip out. She waved it just in case, but of course, nothing happened.

The second object was a shock - the rune covered golden object. A little slice of home. A little slice of Sirius. Did the flat know? she wondered. Did it know that she would need this? Need something which hummed with magical energy? Because it did.

Her wand felt like a well crafted inanimate stick. A toy. A piece of Harry Potter memorabilia. But the golden object? It thrummed and hummed with magic when Bess touched the wrapper. The best way she could think of it was... it was like picking up her wand for the first time all day.

But when she pointed it and uttered a spell, just like with her wand, nothing happened.

Another mystery to solve.

She looked around, seeing that the carriage was mostly empty, and shoved the wand and object into her pocket again.

Settling back in her chair, she hoped against all hope that Sirius and the others had found her notebook. Not only did they need the information which was inside it, but Sirius needed to read her letter. He needed to know that she would try everything in her power to come back to him. He needed to know that she, after months of living without hope, had decided that come hell or high water, she would be coming back to him.

It was a peculiar feeling, trying to remember exactly what she'd written - it was like there were blocks there. She supposed that was due to the fact that she'd given Dumbledore the memory of her... the memory of... she couldn't remember. The worst memory had been removed from her mind, and now she couldn't...

Her head hurt from trying to remember, and so after a few minutes she gave up and turned to stare out of the window instead. All she knew was that something bad was coming for her back in Sirius' world. Which meant that she would make it back there. She had to for her visions to become true. This thought made her smile.

She also knew that Daphne would know more. She would know about what Bess would need to do to get back. And then Bess would get her memory back from Dumbledore, survive whatever was coming for her, and then she'd help to end the war once and for all.

She chuckled to herself - now she might have enough time to re-read the Harry Potter books and fill in all of the embarrassingly empty spots in her knowledge. She might be able to help more if she did that...

Staring at the rolling hills, she slipped the signet ring onto her left hand ring finger, knowing that whatever came next, Sirius would be with her.

A/N: Shorter than usual, but next chapter we're meeting Daphne (finally) so hopefully this is okay!

Thank you to everyone reading, following and favouriting, hope you still like it! And thank you to my reviewers, CharlotteGryffindor, Momochan77, Guest - (haha! I get that! That mini Bess interlude with Peter, Remus and Jasper was needed, and the Lily and James bits were because I just couldn't write Sirius. Too sad! Hopefully it'll all make sense soon), AvalonRivers, Ghost Claw 001, and BlueHairedRaven - (thank you, thank you! Again, we'll explore this more later. Sad, I know, but... yeah, we'll come back to that in a bit.)