It would be a lie to say she had not been greatly affected by the loss she suffered.

It was different in a way to Molly's grief, so great and gut-wrenching that the woman seemed almost like a shell of herself for a while, only managing to make it through the day without breaking down because of her children, Arthur being her pillar of support.

Jacob's grief was a silent one, a very deep sense of loss that made the man more quiet than usual, rarely smiling anymore, and focusing wholeheartedly on his work for the first few weeks. Lucy was also affected, she might've not been as close to them as her husband, but they were important people in her life, and there was no doubt she loved them.

Her grief, however, had a sense of self-deprecation tied to it. Gardenia did not realize how much she had come to care about those two wizards until they had no longer been around. Knowing that she didn't manage to prevent their deaths made her want to cry all over again. She felt useless, what use was knowing things if, in the end, nothing would change?

In a sense, she knew it wasn't her fault, that the ones to blame were those that pointed their wands and uttered the killing curse, but it was one thing knowing something, and another to actually feel it. No matter how many times she tried to rationalize that she wasn't to blame, her feelings seemed bent on staying the same.

She clung greatly to Fred and George in the aftermath of the news, her attachment to them increasing more than she ever expected. They were surprisingly helpful, somehow they always knew when her mind wandered and ended up trying their best to make her laugh, and their innocent obliviousness to the world around them made it so she could almost forget about it all as well.

Time passed, and before she knew it, news of the Voldemort's defeat reached her ears.

The sorrow she felt for the Potters was not personal in the same way as for her uncles, but it was there all the same. Gardenia wished things could've been different, but that was something she knew changing would not work, so she settled for the next best thing.

Proving Sirius Black's innocence.

She had a vague plan in mind, there was not much she could orchestrate still being a toddler, but she would be dammed if an innocent man spent more than a decade incarcerated.

Not to mention, she didn't really want a mass murderer traitor living in the same house as seven children for twelve years, even if it was in Animagus form.

So Gardenia began to plan.


It was a cloudy day when the first piece of the puzzle necessary for things to work out the way she wanted was put in place.

Gardenia, being at the Burrow, where she was more often than not ever since the war ended and her mother felt safe enough to reopen her plant shop, was sitting in one of the well-worn couches in the living room, a baby Ginny by her side nestled in the crook of her arm, and an open book in her lap.

The older girl doted on the only girl of the Weasley family, the redhead quickly making her way into Gardenia's heart, even though she was realizing it didn't take a lot for that to happen.

Gardenia took to caring for her with absolute ease, and she knew that was in part because once she had been an older sister, although her gut feeling also told her it hadn't been for long.

Even though Ginny was probably a little too young to really understand the words being read to her, being only six months, Gardenia was not deterred. She was only four years herself, well, her body at least, but Gardenia could only take so long pretending to not know the alphabet before she cracked and started truly reading, much to both of her parent's delight. Four years was young to start reading, but not unheard of, and she wasn't bothered by being labeled a prodigy when she started reading actual books instead of the basically purely pictures ones, as long as she could read the thing herself and not have to endure torturous lessons on basics.

It was during her reading one of the stories of Tales of Beedle and the Bard that she heard a commotion, and it was far from a surprise when she saw Fred and George in the middle of it.

"But Perce, why do you get to have him?" She could see Fred pouting at his older brother.

"Because I'm the one that found him!"

"We helped you catch him!" Came the exclamation from George.

"We should get to have him too."

"You two are just going to train him to play tricks on other people! And mum said it takes responsibility to have a pet, and she always says I have loads of it!" Percy stumbled on the word about the trait he was so proud of but seemed unbothered by that. Although still only six, he was already shaping up to be the most responsible out of the Weasley brood, Bill and Charlie included.

"We can have that as well," Fred argued. "Just tell us how."

"It doesn't work like that!"

"What are you lot fighting about?" She inquired, interrupting the arguing, and George quickly ran up to her and explained.

"Percy found a rat in the garden, and me and Fred helped him catch it, but he's saying that he should be the one that gets to keep him as a pet." By the look on the boy's face, he wanted her to side with them on the matter.

She frowned, knowing exactly who they probably found. "Why would you want a rat? They're dirt animals."

"We can give a bath so he'll be clean," George looked rather proud of his use of logic.

"Do you want to have the work of feeding him and cleaning up after him? If he is your pet, it's your job to do all of that." It seemed those were the magic words to get the twins to reconsider because both of them scrunched up their faces.

"See, that's what I mean!" Percy sounded vindicated by the point Gardenia brought up.

Pausing a moment in what could be said to be contemplation, if Gardenia tough such a thing possible for either of the twins, Fred quickly bounced back. "Eh, could we borrow him once in a while?"

Percy looked like he wanted to refuse, but thought that maybe going along with their request would grant him the thing he wanted, and so he conceded. "Fine, but he's still my pet!"

"If that means we don't have to clean up after him, sure." Fred smiled impishly, a small dimple forming on his cheek.

Gardenia couldn't help but smile as well, but not for the same reason as Fred. Her plan could begin now, and she was rather looking forward to it.

"Oh, you're reading Gin the Beedle and the Bard?" George had taken notice of the book in her lap that had been momentarily forgotten. "Can you read the Babbitty Rabbit one, please?"

Due to Fred and George not being quite able to read yet, they were quite fascinated by Gardenia's ability to do so, and never missed a chance to hear her read something for them.

Giving him a gentle smile, she nodded, and both Fred and George settled themselves around her, Fred sitting next to Ginny, his sister giving him an adorable toothless grin, and George on Gardenia's other side.

Looking for the story that George requested, finding it quickly due to how many times she had read it before, Gardenia began the tale. "A long time ago, in a far-off land, there lived a foolish king who decided that he alone should have the power of magic."


It took a few weeks for the second piece of the puzzle to be put in place, but Gardenia wanted to make sure that it would have the greatest chance of success possible.

Her father worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, although not as an Auror, and that would actually serve her needs better. Jacob Fawley also held a seat in the Wizengamot, due to his family's hereditary seat. The Fawleys were part of the prestigious pureblood circle until before the war, the old family that helped shape much of the wizarding society being considered one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, even though that was quite the biased list. They were labeled blood traitors when her father, the heir to the House of Fawley married a muggleborn. Although he was now unwelcome at the events hosted by those with more extremist views, his political and financial power had hardly been affected.

That was the reason why, when she had supposedly woken up from a nightmare, she asked for him and not her mother.

"What did you see that woke you up honey?" He was seated at the edge of her bed, a kind expression on his features. Gardenia held in her hands a warm glass of milk, a standard when waking up from her nightmares.

She might fake prophetic dreams, but she did suffer from night terrors, ones that brought back memories of pain, blood, and death. The manner in which she had lost her previous life was not very clear, but contrary to most things she forgot, that was one she preferred being forgotten if her nightmares were any indication of what happened. They had apparently been triggered by Gideon and Fabian's deaths, for she didn't have them before.

"Daddy, is it possible for an animal to transform into a person?" he looked confused by her question but nodded.

"Yes, some people have the ability to turn into an animal at will. It takes years of practice though, and it's not very common."

"In my dream, Percy's new pet rat can turn into a man, he doesn't seem very nice, he's wearing old clothes that look dirty, and he tries to hurt Percy," By this point in her life, her parents know not to take her dreams as simply dreams, so her father contemplates her words. She wasn't done, however. "He keeps laughing and saying something about how he fooled everyone into blaming someone named Sirius, but I'm not sure what he means."

Her father's eyebrows rose, and he looked fairly spooked. "He mentions someone named Sirius?"

She nods with what hopefully looks like childlike innocence. "Yeah, but the words don't make sense. He's rambling about having been a Secret Keeper and betraying them, and that Sirius wanted to hurt him for it, but that he was smarter and fooled him by cutting off his little finger and running away."

It was as close to explaining word by word the situation as she could get. During the time since her last rendezvous with trying to change things, she had managed to sneak a read on one of the books her mother read about Seers and found some interesting information.

The type of Seer she was impersonating was considered a passive one, not truly having an Inner Eye with which to see the future and recite prophecies, but being able to access a form of it during sleep, and seeing scenes of possible outcomes as dreams. It was a branch of dream interpretation, but being more precise due to the Seer being capable of seeing actual scenes and not just things related to future occurrences. However, the Seer would not be granted knowledge regarding the things seen, so if someone that didn't know what an Animagus was, saw a person turn into a cat in one of such dreams, they would still be unaware of it, simply having the information but not the explanation behind it.

It was, of course, very rare, and considering Gardenia was faking it, maybe it was indeed all a scam like so many people believed. But she needed at least her father to think it was true.

"Do you think the rat is can be a person Dad?" She tried to sound fearful. "If he is, you have to catch him so he doesn't hurt Percy."

She felt a bit manipulative at the moment, but it was for a good cause. Using a child's well-being was sure to make her father look into the matter.

"I'm not sure flower, but I promise I'll look into it."

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise."


Her father always kept his promises, making him pink swear was mostly just for fun, and a week later, when she went over to the Burrow, the first thing the identical faces that greeted her said confirmed her plan was working so far.

"Nia, you're never going to believe it! Remember the rat we found that Percy kept?"

"It turns out it was a wizard in disguise!"

"He was like Babbitty Rabbit, but she could turn into a rabbit, and he a rat!"

She was not even trying to keep track of who said what, just nodded along to their excited exclamations while they lead her to the kitchen. Usually, she made an effort to distinguish them, little details that if she paid enough attention she could clearly see, but when they were speaking so fast and without order, Gardenia just let herself be confused by who was who.

"Oh, Gardenia dear, you arrived at the perfect time, I just took this out of the oven." Molly greeted her with a smile, an apron tied to her front full of flour spots. There was a lovely smell in the air, and it didn't take long for the girl to figure out what it was.

"Apple pie!" If there was one thing that brought childlike actions out of Gardenia, it was that dessert, the one made by the Weasley matriarch in particular.

"Sit down you three, and I'll get slices for you."

Sitting in the kitchen table with the Weasley brood, minus Bill who had already started Hogwarts, Gardenia was very excitedly awaiting the promised pie, a perfect way to celebrate her father taking Peter Pettigrew into custody, which occurred after having talked to Arthur Weasley about the possibility of the rat not really being a pet, and having proved the assumption correct by means of an Animagus revealing spell. He did not mention the details about it to her, only that her dream had helped him catch a bad person and he was proud of her, but Gardenia could guess. The situation was now out of her hands, as she doubts she could intervene in the procedures of the wizarding law system, but she hoped a trial would be granted to Sirius to prove his innocence, since his main victim was very clearly alive and well, if only missing a finger.

"You really do like apple pie, don't you Nia?" Came the amused comment from the second eldest Weasley. "You're never this excited for much else."

She smiled sheepishly at Charlie but nodded. "It's my favorite food."

"It's a dessert," Percy corrected.

Fred frowned. "A dessert is still food."

"But it should be her favorite dessert, not food."

"She can have a dessert as her favorite food," George piped in.

The pointless argument was interrupted by the plates carrying the slices of the pie floating to settle themselves in front of each of them. Or it might still be going on, but at that point, Gardenia stopped paying attention to it in order to concentrate solely on eating the slice given to her.

She knows this absolute love for apple pie came from before, that when she was someone else, this was a common recipe for her mother to make, and the comfort that a slice of it could bring was almost impossible for any other food to match.

She heard the chuckle coming from her side which currently was not seating one of the twins, and glanced over to see Charlie smiling at her. "It's nice to see you so happy." If even he was commenting on her glee, apparently she really did not show much excitement over things. But what could she do, she didn't feel like doing so most of the time, and today she had double the reason to do so, with the arrest of a criminal and the presence of her favorite food, even if Percy seemed to oppose that classification.

Gardenia just smiled back at him turning back to her precious pie, and Charlie ruffled her hair, messing the ponytail that she sported. She slapped his hand away, trying to fix her honey-blond curls while frowning at him, but she wasn't able to maintain the expression for long before cracking a smile. At that moment, she realized she hadn't felt this happy in a while, maybe not since she had been reborn. The war was momentarily over, her plans had finally come to fruition, and she was surrounded by people whom she cared about.

Things were starting to take a turn for the better, and she couldn't be more glad.


.

.

.

We'll see just a bit more of her child years before she goes to Hogwarts, hopefully, this is enjoyable nonetheless.

The fall out from her recent actions will be seen more on the next chapter, this was sort of the catalyst to a domino effect that will change more things, although, in the grand scheme of things, not much will actually change.

Thank you so much HPuni101, Pamela Hutchins and FanFicEssie for your reviews, they really made my day sz

Thank you for reading!