13th November, 1977

The four Marauders were making their way back to the Gryffindor tower after another late night trip around the castle. Remus kept checking the map to make sure the coast was clear and they didn't need to throw the cloak on, and Sirius, Peter and James walked ahead, snickering and bumping each.

Sirius had been unusually subdued for the last month. After their encounter with the oracle, he seemed to retract from his usual flirting and the female population of Hogwarts had noticed. He'd dropped the girl he'd been casually seeing the day after the vision, and when questioned about it by his friends -Peter not included, since he hadn't been present when they'd found the oracle -had admitted that 'it feels like cheating'.

Remus had, oddly, agreed with him. He himself had been harboring a small crush on a Ravenclaw in his Arithmancy class since the beginning of the school year, but he hadn't been so much as looking her way after the vision.

A girl who knows about my condition, became an animagus and takes care of me during the transformation and around it. He had never thought it'd be possible. A family. Children. Pup.

A sudden flash of light startled all of them and they held their wands up, looking upward in the direction of the flash.

They all gasped as a body started falling from a staircase above their heads.

James reacted fast, casting a cushioning charm on the stone right under where the body was falling, and Sirius followed suit by slowing down the fall. Remus cast a strong levitating charm to assist his friend and make sure the body hit the cushiony surface softly.

The four of them approached the unmoving lump on the floor. A dark school robe had wrapped around it in the fall, preventing them from identifying the student at first. But it was wearing the school uniform, just like theirs except for the lacking trousers.

A girl, then.

James kneeled beside the body and tugged the robe away from it, unwrapping her so he could see if she was hurt, or dead.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed she was breathing and no injuries aside from some scrapes in her hands and legs, typical of a regular fall. Yet, she was unconscious. He figured the scare had knocked her out.

"Oh, Merlin." Sirius' voice caught James' attention, and he looked up to see his friend's pale face, Remus looking just as shocked next to him.

"She isn't dead, don't worry. She's breathing." He assured his friends, and touched the girl's shoulder to see if he could shake her awake. He stopped, though, when he noticed her tie with Gryffindor colours. He'd never noticed a girl like her in his house. And she didn't seem much younger than him.

"Bloody hell." Remus' words startled him. His friend never cursed like that, except in very intense situations. Something this certainly wasn't.

"Recognize her?" Sirius muttered.

James frowned. He didn't. "I've never seen her before, but she's wearing Gryffindor colours. Do you know her?"

"I do." Remus nodded, gulping, and shared a look with Sirius, who nodded too.

"What?" Peter inched closer, peering at the girl's face. "Never seen her before, myself. But she's pretty." He grinned and leered.

"You know her?" James frowned. How could his friends recognize her, but not him?

"I think we need to take her to the Infirmary and get Dumbledore." Remus spoke up, still pale. He moved then, stepped closer, crouched beside James and tapped the girl's cheek, with no response. He didn't hesitate to lift her up in his arms and head downstairs, Sirius right beside him.

James and Peter stared, shocked, for a couple seconds.

"What in Merlin's name…?" James muttered before following after them. "What's going on, mates? Get Dumbledore? Do you realize how screwed we will be?"

"We have to do it, Prongs." Sirius replied, shocking his best friend even more with his somber tone. "She shouldn't be here, and she's unconscious."

"Who is she, anyway?" Peter struggled to catch up, his legs much shorter than his friends'.

"Danny." Remus and Sirius responded in unison, making James gasp and almost trip.

"Who?" Peter frowned, out of the loop, glancing from one friend to the other.

They hadn't told Peter about the oracle. James hadn't looked into it, and after returning to their dorm that night, Remus and Sirius had decided to keep it to themselves. They wouldn't see into it again, but Danny, their future, was something they didn't want to share with anyone else. It was their secret, and though James knew, they weren't ready to tell anyone else, not even Peter.

If nobody else found the oracle, they would be perfectly happy about it. It didn't look like anybody could find it, anyway. They hadn't been able to do it again. Remus, Sirius and James had returned once to the place where they'd found it, but found it completely empty. No oracle to be found.

Madame Pomfrey gasped and almost tied them to a bed each after they turned up so late to the infirmary, an unconscious and unknown girl in their midst, and telling her she'd fallen from the staircase above them and hadn't awakened on the way.

Remus' face was stony, surprising Pomfrey. She'd cared for the boy for over six years, and he was always warm with her because of it. "Oh, and call Dumbledore, he needs to know about her. Now."

15th November, 1977

Danny felt the sunlight on her face, way too harsh behind her closed eyelids, waking her from what she believed was the best night's rest she'd gotten in months.

She groaned and turned on her side, about to tell Hermione to close the curtains, when she heard a voice whispering harshly.

"Madame Pomfrey, she's waking up!" A boy hissed. It sounded familiar, yet not.

She blinked, the light too strong on her sensitive eyes, and made out the shape of a boy, a familiar mess of dark hair on his head.

"Baby bro?" She croaked, her throat like sandpaper. Why was her mouth so dry? Why was her head pounding? "What happened?"

"Baby bro?" The boy turned to look back at her, some shuffling and other shapes turning up around him. She could barely see through the blurriness, but she recognized his hair, and he was also wearing glasses.

"Why am I at the Infirmary?" She pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes, curling into herself, confused.

"You fell over the staircase." Another voice spoke up, and she tensed. She knew that voice. It was different from what she remembered, and her memory struggled to put a name on it, but her heart leapt in her chest. Who was it?

She tried to open her eyes, squinting against the light, but footsteps and a rustling sound made the figures in front of her straighten and step back.

"Step back, for Merlin's sake, let her breathe!" Pomfrey's motherly voice arrived and a white-robed figure stepped between her visitors and her bed. "Out, all of you, go tell Dumbledore she's awake."

Reluctantly, the visitors moved away, and Pomfrey closed the curtains around her bed. Danny blinked up at her, watching the matron cast a series of diagnostic spells over her. The young girl frowned, had Pomfrey dyed her hair? She remembered more white streaks on her temples, and she'd spent enough time at the Infirmary to have become quite familiar with her.

"What happened?" She asked again when she could keep her eyes open.

"Well, apparently you fell down from a staircase to the level below. Good thing those boys were there to halt the fall, or you might not have woken up. You were still unconscious. Diagnostic charms showed your body is exhausted. Severe lack of sleep, and a big strain on your magical core. What were you doing?"

"I was going back to the dorms. I was… kept busy until late. Professor Dumbledore will excuse me being out after curfew, don't worry. But… I don't know, I was exhausted, I tripped and then the staircase started moving and… I remember falling, and a flash of light, but…"

"Poppy? May I?" Dumbledore's voice came from outside the curtains, and the matron jumped.

"Oh, Albus, of course!" She pushed the curtains aside and let the headmaster pass, but she frowned and looked at something outside the curtains. "Don't you lot have anywhere to be?"

"We found her, we just want to know how she's doing." Her brother's voice came from outside, making Danny frown. It was different from what she remembered. Was something wrong with her head? Had she hit it in the fall?

"You'll have to wait outside, then. I'll tell you when it's alright to visit her. I won't have you eavesdropping here." The matron scolded harshly and shooed them away, footsteps moving away dejectedly.

"Good afternoon." Dumbledore greeted her, sitting in a chair next to her bed.

"Afternoon? I was unconscious all morning?" She tried to sit up on the bed, her head spinning a bit.

"You were unconscious for a day and a half, my dear." The professor studied her face, curiosity glinting in his eyes behind the half-moon glasses.

"Oh, Merlin, no wonder Harry didn't want to leave. He must have been worried sick." She groaned and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. "You didn't write to my parents, did you? Mamá would have been banging on the door by now…"

"I'm afraid I didn't know who to write to, dear. I don't know who you are."

She paused, looking up and frowning. "Very funny. You've known me since I was a baby. You've known my parents for years."

"I'm not joking." He tilted his head, his face openly inquisitive.

"Oh, Merlin." Her eyes widened. "Madame Pomfrey! Something's wrong with Dumbledore!" She called out, the matron immediately stepping through the curtain, ready to treat the old headmaster.

Pomfrey stopped the moment she saw the headmaster just the way she'd left him, giving her a surprised look, but shaking his head to indicate he was alright. When she put her hands on her hips and glared at the young girl, Danny rushed to explain.

"Something's wrong with his memory! He doesn't remember me. Or he's not really Dumbledore!" She scuttled away from the man, searching around for her wand while keeping an eye on him. "Where's my wand?" When none of them made any attempt to move, not taking her seriously, she resorted to wandless magic, raising her hands in the way she had practiced so many times in the last four months and ready to battle. "Who are you? Madame Pomfrey, step away from him, he is probably drinking polyjuice."

They both watched her with increasingly grave expressions. Dumbledore analyzed her posture, his face more and more serious.

"Calm down, no one would dare polyjuice as Albus Dumbledore." Pomfrey chastised. "And it's not a surprise that he doesn't know you. You wear a Gryffindor tie, yet I don't recall ever seeing around before, and you're obviously not a first year."

Danny's hands faltered in shock. "What? I've been here every year since I started school, be it because I was injured, or Harry was, or one of our friends! You've kicked me out several times!" She tried to make her recall, but Pomfrey only exchanged a worried look with Dumbledore. "Ask my brother!" She flung her hand in the direction of the door.

"Who?" The matron frowned, glancing a bit over her shoulder.

"Harry! He was just here! Harry Potter?"

Madame Pomfrey's eyes widened at that, her eyes flickering to the door, while Dumbledore's face set in a contemplative expression.

"I believe I understand what is happening now." He nodded to himself and looked over at the matron. "I would like a moment alone with her, if that's alright. I will explain as much as I can later." He pleaded, and with an exasperated sigh, the matron left. Dumbledore proceeded to silence the area against eavesdroppers and gestured for her to sit on the bed. "There's no need for you to be wary of me, my dear. I believe I understand what is happening now, so I would like to ask you a few questions, if that is alright with you. I promise I haven't gone senile yet and that's not the reason why I, or Poppy, have no recollection of you."

Danny hesitated, but in the end trusted the headmaster, and the matron, and was too curious to not try to find out what was going on. She sat down at the foot of the bed, her body turned toward the old professor.

"I did ask who you are, but the young men who found you seemed to know your name and told me when they came to fetch me. Danny, I believe?" He inquired, and she nodded.

"Yeah. Harry found me, right?"

"I am afraid not, my dear. Which is why it's so odd that they knew your name." He mused and folded his hands on his lap. "I don't know this Harry either, your brother, you said?"

"But he was just here!" She pointed toward the door.

"We'll get to that in a moment. Now, is your name Danny or is it short for something?"

"Danielle."

"Well, Danielle. What year is it?"

"1996?" She tilted her head, confused at the question, and watched the man's eyes widen a bit. That was the most shocked she'd ever seen Dumbledore.

"Then we are in a bit of trouble."

"What?"

"It is the year 1977, Danielle. You seem to have been displaced in time." He paused and seemed to think over his next words. "Can you tell me what it is you remember about your accident?"

Danny couldn't answer. 1977? Had she time travelled? It wouldn't have been the first time, but she'd only gone back a few hours last time. If she really was in 1977, she'd gone back twenty years. None of her friends would be there with her, or her brother…

Her head whipped to the side, toward the door. "Was that James Potter? It wasn't Harry?" She didn't wait for confirmation, but gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. "It was Sirius. Sirius was here too, right?" She glanced at the headmaster for confirmation, who nodded silently, his brow slightly creased. "You said they found me? James and Sirius? Or was Remus there too?"

"And another of their friends, yes."

The shock fled out of her body and she tensed in sudden anger. "Pettigrew." She growled, hatred seeping out of her. She flew away from the bed, intent on reaching the door and the traitor, but found an invisible barrier preventing her from escaping the secured area. "Let me go."

"I don't know what your intentions toward Mr. Pettigrew are, Danielle, but you won't find him out there, and I must ask you to abstain from harming him. He's a student here and thus under my protection. The ones waiting to see you are only Mr. Potter, Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin, as you rightly guessed. Mr Pettigrew is currently serving detention. Now, it seems we are facing a difficult situation. You seem to have time-travelled. What do you know about time-travelling?" He gestured for her to sit again, keeping calm.

"It's extremely dangerous. It's only relatively safe to travel back around five hours, and one still has to be extremely cautious not to be seen by their past self, or change things that have happened, and thus change history. And the user should be careful not to let others know they are time-travellers." She recited, remembering what Hermione had told her three years before.

"You seem to be familiar with it." Dumbledore observed, his eyes twinkling.

"I had to time-travel once a few years ago for… an important issue." Her eyes flitted back toward the door, where Sirius was likely waiting. She'd time-travelled to save his life, only to fail two years later. She blinked the tears back, and gulped, readying herself to talk. "You said they knew my name? How? I… I don't exist yet, in this time."

"That's what I'm wondering, too." He nodded, still as calm as always. "I will ask them to come in soon, so we can clear that up, but I must ask you something before. You seem to know Mr. Pettigrew, I assume he is around in your time. Whatever your opinions toward him are, you must refrain from revealing them to his friends, or me, or anyone." When she made to talk and complain, he held a hand up. "Time is a fragile thing. Revealing something that is yet to pass, something that someone is yet to do, could have catastrophic consequences. Your presence here is already a risk, but we should try to keep a sense of normalcy and help you fit in until we have a way to send you back to your time. You are currently stranded in a time that is not yours, and we're yet to find a way to send someone forward in time. Unless you want to be unable to return to your family and friends, you should refrain from changing the future."

She deflated, realizing the truth in his words. She couldn't warn them about Pettigrew. She couldn't warn Sirius about the night he was killed. She could do nothing to help them. Her eyes brimmed with tears but she nodded.

"I will have to ask you to take a Magical Oath, Danielle." Dumbledore added. She gasped, but nodded.

Dumbledore cancelled the barrier and privacy charm around their area and called for Poppy, who hurried back to where they were.

"Poppy, I am terribly sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to perform an Magical Oath between Danielle and I." He got straight to the point, making the matron take a step back. "Danielle seems to have been misplaced in time and has knowledge of the future that we need to make sure isn't revealed. I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't completely necessary, Poppy."

Danielle clenched her jaw but nodded toward the matron. "I don't think I can keep all I know to myself unless we do this." She admitted.

The matron seemed appalled, but ended up agreeing to it. Danny kept her jaw clenched the whole time, a headache building in her temples, her head swimming with everything that was going on.

James and Sirius. James and Sirius were out there.

And she couldn't save them.

A couple tears had escaped her eyes by the time the oath was over and Poppy retired again, Dumbledore patting her arm in an attempt at reassuring her.

"You are doing the right thing, Danielle. Now, we need to find a plausible excuse for your appearance here, and we might need assistance from the young men out there, since they were present at the time. Mind if I call them in?" He asked gently, giving her the chance to refuse, somehow knowing she was sensitive about them.

"Yeah, it's alright, we should get this over with as soon as possible." She nodded and dried her tears with her sleeve.

Dumbledore flicked his hand to open the door to the Infirmary, and a 'whoop' made them look over, seeing Sirius lying on his back, rubbing the back of his head. He must have been sitting with his back to the door. James and Remus peered from over their friend, their wide eyes set on Danny.

"Come on in, gentlemen." Dumbledore called them in, summoning three more chairs around the bed.

Danielle watched the three men stand and move into the Infirmary, her eyes moving from one to the other. Remus and Sirius looked different from what she remembered, but so much like the picture of the Old Order of the Phoenix photograph she'd seen last summer at Grimmauld Place. Moody had shown it to Harry and herself. Harry had felt so conflicted about it. Back then, she'd thought Sirius and Remus had looked very handsome in their youths. She did find them handsome at the time too, but there was a different air about them in the photograph. And James. He'd looked so much like Harry.

He looked so much like Harry.

The photograph will be taken four years from now, she thought.

"Sorry about that, Mr. Black." Dumbledore's words brought her out of her thoughts, making her realize she'd been staring at James. He was smiling sheepishly at her, and Remus and Sirius seemed to be blushing, oddly enough.

"No worries." Sirius shook his head at the Headmaster. "Is she alright?" He turned toward her. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, unable to speak. Sirius. It was Sirius. Sirius, who she'd seen die seven months before. She could still see him falling through the veil, Bellatrix's stunning spell pushing him backward, unconscious by the time his body vanished through the misty substance.

"Sit down, gentlemen. We have much to discuss." The headmaster indicated, making sure they were all sitting down before he continued. "Could one of you explain how you came across Danielle?"

"Well…" James started, and scratched the back of his neck. "We were… finishing our rounds, of course." He nodded toward Remus. "Sirius and Peter were helping us. Eight eyes see more than four, you know…"

Danielle snorted at that, making everyone turn to look at her. She shook her head and gestured for him to continue, trying not to laugh at his terrible lying. She noticed everyone's lips twitch even as they pretended to focus again.

"We were on the sixth floor, making our way to the Gryffindor tower, when there was a flash of light above us." Remus continued, sounding much more confident in his story than James. "We thought someone was trying to attack us, so we held our wands out, but then we saw her falling from the staircase above. James cast a cushioning charm on the floor and Sirius slowed down her fall. I levitated her a bit to make sure she hit the charmed floor and not the solid one, and then we brought her down here and went to tell you about it."

"I was on the seventh floor when I tripped." Danny nodded at Dumbledore, the place of the time-travelling accident was the same. She fell down from the seventh to the sixth floor.

The headmaster nodded too and looked back toward the boys. "And you all made sure to come tell me about her appearance because you knew she shouldn't be here, am I right?" He questioned, looking grave and making the boys squirm in place. Remus and Sirius exchanged a glance and then nodded. James was glancing from one to the other, his mouth pursed. "Can you explain how you knew who she was?"

"Well, you see…" Sirius started, fidgeting in his seat and throwing furtive looks her way. She thought he looked a bit flushed. "We had… we had seen her before. Not… not here. We… Merlin…" He scratched his head and huffed. "We found… we found something, a few weeks ago. It was… what did you call it…?" He looked toward Remus.

"An oracle, of sorts." He revealed, then bit his lip and glanced toward Danny for a second before looking down again.

"Yeah, that, an oracle. We… Remus and I looked into it. And we saw Danny." He flushed even more, having a hard time looking straight at Dumbledore. "We saw… snippets, of the future, or that's what we thought. We weren't sure. It seemed to be… quite far into the future. She was there, that's how we knew her name. And that's how we knew she shouldn't be here. She looked a good deal younger than us in the visions."

Dumbledore and Danny stayed silent for a good while, digesting that information. They'd seen the future? Danny frowned to herself. Whatever they'd seen, Sirius couldn't have seen further than 1996. And she thanked Merlin that James didn't seem to have looked into it. The furthest he could have seen would have been four years into their future. She felt her eyes burn at that and she kept her head lowered, not wanting them to see her face.

"Then there's no need to tell you that Danielle does not belong in our time." Dumbledore finally spoke, his voice sombre. "She has had a time-travelling accident, but it is a fact that must be kept from the rest of the school. We'll do our best to help her get back to her time, and I hope I can count with your assistance?"

"Of course!" "Yeah!" "Sure." Came the responses together, making Danny look up at their eagerness to help her.

"I will introduce Miss…" Dumbledore looked over toward her, frowning lightly. "How should we call you?"

Danielle thought hard about it. Keeping her real identity was important. Her father's family was known to Dumbledore, and he would most likely make the connection if she told him her last name, as could others. "Delacour." She responded with a perfect accent. Her sisters' family was not particularly familiar to British wizards. In fact, they were not particularly known to French wizards either, what with being considered half-breeds. "Danielle Delacour."

"Ah, French. Perfect. You'll be a transfer student." His eyes twinkled at that. "Now, Miss Delacour will be introduced as a French transfer student during dinner tonight. Does Mr. Pettigrew know about this oracle?"

"No. He wasn't there when we found it, and… we didn't tell him about it either." Remus admitted, then bit his lip. He didn't like keeping information from Peter. They'd always been able to tell each other everything, especially since they'd found out about his condition.

"I trust you will be able to keep the truth from him, then?" Dumbledore inquired with a quirk of his brow. "Nobody but you three, Miss Delacour, Madame Pomfrey and I will know about the truth of the matter, for matters of safety."

The boys hesitated but ended up nodding.

"Good. Then, to keep the matter of time-travel from the general population, we will need a plausible story to explain her presence here. Given the… situation in the outside world, it won't be too hard to believe that your family was attacked and you've been sent here to keep you safe. Is that alright with you?" Dumbledore asked her.

She nodded. "So the official story is that I'm an orphan sent here to be under your protection?"

The old wizard nodded. "We would usually need to have you sorted, but I believe you've already been." His eyes flickered to the tie on her bedside table.

"Yeah. Gryffindor." She nodded, keeping the truth of how much of a Gryffindor she was to herself.

"And how old are you, my dear?" He asked at last, everybody watching her with interest.

"Sixteen. I'm in sixth year." She bit her lip and looked toward the boys. "But… I'd rather be in seventh year with them, if that's possible." While she was in their time, she wanted to spend as much time as possible with James and Sirius, and Remus, of course. And if they couldn't send her back to her time… she didn't want to stay in school when they graduated and joined the Order. If she couldn't return to her time, she'd fight alongside them.

"Are you sure you could manage that?" The professor tilted his head.

"I'm always ahead in my subjects, and I bet I could even give seventh years a run for their money." She affirmed assuredly. "I'll be fine in seventh year, once I adjust. And I'd rather be with them in class than alone."

"And which subjects were you taking?" He summoned some parchment and a quill, which floated beside him.

"Charms, DADA, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions, Advanced Arithmancy and Ancient Studies." She paused, ignoring the interested looks from the boys. "And I was in the Quidditch team, but I'm guessing tryouts are over and spots are covered?" She glanced toward James, who she knew had been Captain.

"You're a Chaser, right?" Remus inquired, surprising her. Just what had they seen in their visions, and how much did they know of what was to come?

"Yeah."

"Well, one of our Chasers is rubbish, could we hold tryouts again?" James asked Dumbledore. "She didn't actually get a fair chance to try out."

"We'll see. Let's first get her settled into the school." Dumbledore's lips twitched in amusement before he rose, all the boys copying him. "I believe Miss Delacour would like a chance to freshen up. After that, I'll escort you to Diagon Alley to get you your school materials and necessities, and we'll return for dinner, if that's alright?"

"Yeah. I feel icky." She grimaced. "A day and a half, eh?" She scratched her stomach through the shirt. "I need a bath."

"If you will escort her to the Prefects' bathroom, just this once," Dumbledore spoke to the boys, but the words were obviously for everyone. "and then escort her to my office, I will be getting everything ready for Miss Delacour to be an official student here. I will see you then."

The boys stood still and silent for a bit while Dumbledore left, and Danny picked up her tie and sweater to pull them over her head. She looked around, not spotting her wand, until Madame Pomfrey came back, holding it out for her.

"If you get dizzy or faint, come back at once, alright?" She told her, then sent a firm look toward the boys, making sure they heard it too and nodded. "Now, go. Show her to the bathroom. But she's going in alone." She clarified, looking straight toward Sirius, who blushed bright red. His reputation wasn't helping him make a good first impression on the girl.

James snickered beside him, getting an elbow to his ribs, before Danny chuckled too and headed toward the door.

She knew where the bathroom was, after all.

Once outside, when the boys had caught up with her and flanked her as they walked, she took a moment to look from one to another and gulped, knowing she'd have a hard time getting used to being with them, like that. "Thank you, by the way." She spoke up, trying not to seem like she'd been staring. She tried to focus on James, maybe Remus, so she wouldn't start crying. "About the fall. You guys probably saved my life."

"Oh." James' eyes widened, then he grinned easily. "You're welcome. Anybody would have done the same."

She smiled back. He looked so much like Harry…

"So…" Sirius spoke up, drawing her attention to the other side, where he and Remus were walking. "You're a swot." He smiled broadly, charming and teasing at the same time.

Danny rolled her eyes at that and smirked. "And proud of it." She looked at him from the corner of her eye, face forward where the corridor met the staircase going up to the fifth floor. She could hear voices ahead, which meant they were about to come across some people. People who'd be suspicious if they saw the new student there. "Hey, James, do you have your cloak here? I don't fancy people staring at the new student yet. There'll be enough of that tonight."

Shocked that she knew about the cloak, it took James a couple seconds to respond. Then, he shook his head. "I usually keep it in the dorm, unless we're using it."

Danny huffed, stopped and looked to both sides of the corridor to make sure there was no one there. Then she moved to a small nook and cast a disillusionment charm on herself. "Think anybody will notice me around?" She spoke to the boys, even though they couldn't see her.

"How…?" Sirius gaped, his mouth opening and closing in awe.

"Told you I could give seventh years a run for their money, Pads." He could hear the smirk in her voice, and he smirked despite himself.

"Nobody will even know you're around, Danny." Remus nodded, smiling in her general direction. "We'll make sure nobody bumps into you. Stay close."

"Yes, sir." She saluted, then realized they couldn't see her. Even then, they chuckled and kept walking, and she hurried after them, clutching James' and Remus' cloaks so they knew where she was.

Remus as a prefect, James as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain and Sirius as man-whore all knew the password to the Prefects' bathroom. Sparkly citrus. They stood guard on the door while Danny went into the empty pool-like bathroom. She washed as thoroughly but as quickly as she could, casting a tooth-cleaning charm and scourgifying her clothes before she noticed the bundle that had appeared on a counter near the bathrobes, with a fresh uniform and a basic but new underwear set.

Once clean and collected, hair spell-dried and ready to face the world, she was about to head out when she heard voices outside the door.

"What are you really planning?" An unfamiliar female voice was asking.

"Nothing, really!" James' voice answered. "We're just escorting a new student. Dumbledore asked us to."

"Yeah, right. You've been behaving lately, Potter, and I really thought you'd changed. So you better tell me the truth."

"He is telling the truth, Lily." Remus' voice answered instead, and Danny's heart leapt in her chest. Lily. Harry's mom. "There's a new transfer student. She had a bit of an accident on her way here and Dumbledore asked us to help her around. We have to escort her to his office when she comes out."

"Really?" Lily's voice was still unconvinced. "A transfer student? Where is she transferring from?"

"Beauxbatons." Sirius answered this time. "She'll be in our year, and she's been sorted into Gryffindor. They'll introduce her during dinner tonight."

Danny made her way to the door, having collected her dirty clothes and put her robe back on. She downsized the clothes so they'd fit in her bag and strapped her wand to her thigh before opening the door, just as Lily seemed to be ready to talk again.

She had Harry's eyes, but for a moment Danny thought she was with Ginny. Not only for the fiery hair, but the fire in her eyes. Lily, just like Ginny, was a force to be reckoned with.

"Hi." Danny smiled lightly, trying to push the conflicting emotions inside her deeper down. "I'm Danielle Delacour." She extended her hand to Lily, who stared for a moment before catching herself and taking her hand to shake. "And you are…?" She pretended not to know, despite a little voice inside her jumping up and down screaming Lily, Lily Potter, Harry's mom, I just met Lily!.

Lily looked her up and down for a moment before her eyes stopped at her face. "I'm Lily Evans. Head Girl. Welcome to Hogwarts. They just told me you're a transfer student?"

"Yes. I just transferred from Beauxbatons. I need to be meeting professor Dumbledore now, but if you'd like to come along, I would love to know more about classes here?" She invited the girl, a renowned student for her intelligence.

The girl brightened, nodding before she frowned and tilted her head. "You don't have a French accent."

"I'm half and half." She smiled easily and started walking, Lily beside her and the boys behind them, watching and ready to intervene. "And everybody in my family is a polyglot. Was." She frowned. She had no family there. Her parents would be dating and they didn't know her yet. They were both a few years older than Lily and James. And Fleur would have just been born, she'd be only a couple months old.

"She just lost her family, Lily." She heard Remus explain lowly to the redhead, whose eyes widened and proceeded to apologize.

"No, don't worry, it's not your fault, and I'd be curious too." Danny waved away her concerns and smiled sadly. "But, yeah, we spoke several languages at home since I was a baby."

"That's so cool." The redhead smiled a bit too and adjusted her hold on her bag, a nervous gesture. "If you have any trouble catching up on the subjects or getting used to different terms, tell me? I'll be glad to help you."

"Thank you, Lily." Danny nodded. Indeed, Lily was a lovely witch, just as she'd heard everyone say in her time. Kind, smart, very talented. No wonder everybody loved her.

With the witch tagging along, Danny couldn't cast the invisibility charm on herself again, and thus had to endure the stares her presence with the Marauders and Lily caused in the people they encountered in the corridors. Lily took the role of guide and directed the group downstairs, and Danny couldn't tell her she knew the way to the Headmaster's office well enough. James ended up moving ahead to walk beside Lily, the pair of them holding hands by the time they reached the Gargoyle and said their goodbyes.

"We'll see you at dinner, then?" Sirius asked before she stepped beside the Gargoyle to go up the moving stairwell.

"Yeah, I'll see you all later. Save me a spot?" She smiled over her shoulder and moved onto a stone step, quickly disappearing from their view.