Chapter 4

In the past I had dealt with tyrannical teachers, giant spiders, dementors, death eaters and Lord Snake Face himself, and I would rather be battling any of them than deal with another moment sitting at this table.

After James sent a patronus to Alastor Moody, we all retired to the dining room to await his arrival. A cage was conjured for our rat friend and now all that was left to do apparently was stare at the strange ex-child at the table. All eyes were on me as we silently sat and waited for our guest of honor. I avoided the intense gazes of my family by tapping a hole into the ground with my heel and taking in the room around me. The family photos, the flowery wallpaper, and the painfully quaint embroidered Gryffindor lion in a frame on the wall.

It was strange to think such a warm home could have been for us. But there is no use thinking about that now. If everything goes to plan then Harry will get to keep this, even if I can't. Didn't? Semantics.

"And how exactly were you planning to end the war 'Oleander'?" Sirius was obviously still very skeptical if his sarcasm was anything to go by.

"I already told you, it would be better if I only had to explain myself once if possible. So let's just sit and stay shall we? At least until Moody gets here." The answering growl to my dog reference had me cracking a small smile.

The green roaring of the flames in the fireplace had me up and out of my seat in a second. Wand trained on the man before he had a chance to fully step into the room.

All too soon I was staring down the dangerous end of an old Auror's wand and we were at an impasse.

"Best be putting that away girlie, wouldn't want yeh getting hurt." It was nice to hear my old mentor's voice again even if it did come with a warning.

"Not before you tell me how you were hit by your first unforgivable."

He lifts one eyebrow in curiosity. "And why would I do that girlie?"

"So I know whether it's a death eater I have to dispose of or not." He looks even more confused at that. How would I know whether or not he was telling the truth? As far as he knew I was some random girl, and he wasn't yet the ex-Auror who told me that story.

"Just do it Boss, or we'll be standing here all night." Sirius interrupts. "She's stubborn our lady of perpetual mystery"

"It was on my first mission as an Auror. A dark wizard threw a very weak cruciatus at me. Had me for a couple seconds before my partner stunned him. I was in Mungo's for a couple of hours."

The story has me snarling "Wrong answer!" The tip of my wand beginning to glow a sickly yellow with the curse I was readying to throw.

"Wait! Hold your horses girlie! I was just testing yeh." He said, second arm raised placatingly. "Was me father when I was a young one, used the imperius on me to make me clean my room after I sassed 'im. Does that satisfy yeh girlie?"

More than satisfied, I start to relax my stance. As I lower my wand I can hear James whispering behind me, "So that's why he's like that." Causing Moody to huff as keeps his wand trained on me.

"Now who wants to tell me what in Merlin's name is going on here? I assume you've already guaranteed her story is genuine?"

James stands up and gestures to another seat at the table. "She's already voluntarily under veritaserum. Why don't you take a seat? We are all waiting to hear what is happening."

Cautiously Alastor moves to sit at the table. I follow his movements as I slowly return to my own seat.

"Now that that's settled, why don't we begin by filling us all in on how you got here Andy? And then we can get on to what you know about the war." Lily started.

"I suppose now is as good a time to start as any. As you probably guessed from my age and knowledge I am from the future. Or more specifically A future. The wording gets a little odd. But now that we have that out of the way let's get on to planning…"

"Woah woah woah! Care to elaborate on that?" James says, clearly upset. " My one year old daughter just grew into an adult in front of my eyes and now she's claiming she's the same girl traveled from the future. I'm going to need a bit more to go on."

I wince internally. It's been awhile since I've been around more people than Hermione. And the only thing I ever had to explain to her was my portion of the research. She should have been here to help explain this. My people skills are too rusty for this delicate situation.

"Look, the war was still going on in my time when a friend and I discovered a way to come back and fix things. We knew it was risky but if we were able to pull it off then we could end ol' Tommy boy before he could gain enough power. The spell required me to enter my own infant body as there can only be one of us in the timeline."

"But my research on time travel says that you can exist simultaneously with oneself under the use of a time turner." Interrupted Lily.

"Yes, and we tried to see if we could modify a time turner to send us back years but time turners only work in a loop. Whatever you affected in the past was already meant to have happened. We needed to sever our timeline completely and build a new one off of a certain point. In order to do that we couldn't affect time at all, instead we had to give someone the knowledge and power needed to complete the task. By combining my mind and magic with myself at a separate part of my own timeline I can change the future from within the present."

"Which means you had to pick a point in your own lifetime instead of returning to let's say when Moldyvorts was a baby to murder him in his crib?" Said Sirius.

"Right. But the rest doesn't make sense, how did you not use time travel to time travel?" Spotted Remus. I knew someone would bring this up, I just wasn't sure how they would take it.

"Our spell array was complicated. Instead of sending me through time we sent the spell. The spell would travel back and take with it my memory and magic, giving it to my younger self. But it would be too much for an infant to handle so we added in a modified aging charm. It would fast forward my aging process while keeping true to my own experiences."

"The scars…" whispered Remus.

"Yes, an unfortunate side effect of the spell."

"But if you just sent your memories, then where is your older self and how do you get back?" Moody says, jumping straight to the point.

I sigh, "There was only one thing powerful enough to power the spell. My soul." At this I hear gasps from around the table. "I died as soon as it was cast. There isn't any going back for me. And even if I was still on the other side, the timeline changed as soon as I arrived. There's no way to send me forward again."

"But if you can't go forward then our Andy is…" Lily covers her mouth to try and muffle the low wail that comes from her.

James races to her in alarm, dropping to his knees at her side. "What? What's happened Lils? What's going on?"

He turns to look at me for the answer. Filled with guilt I give it. "Your daughter is gone."