October 31st , 1981. Halloween .

"NO! Let me go!"

"I cannot do that."

"Release me, Dumbledore! I demand it!"

"I cannot do that, Sirius," Dumbledore repeated.

"But Lily and James! I can help them! There might still be time -"

"You cannot help them!" Dumbledore thundered. "They're gone!"

"NO!"

Sirius howled in his anguish, hot tears rose boiling behind his eyes and burned on his cheeks as they spilled out. His flesh switched to fur and back as he lost control of his Animagic. He took two fistfuls of Dumbledore's robe and clung to him for dear life, fighting the sorrow coursing through his veins. His knees gave way and he fell, pulling Dumbledore into a graceless arc as Sirius crumpled at his feet.

"They're gone," the old Headmaster echoed in a far gentler tone. "There's nothing we can do."

"But how?" Sirius sobbed. "I never gave away the Secret! I swear I never ..."

"I know, and I believe you," Dumbledore consoled in a firm manner. "But someone did. We must determine how ... but also who."

"Do you have a suspect?"

Dumbledore drew a deep breath. "Only two did not respond to my Protean message. The Longbottoms were one, but I fear that they are unable to respond. Rumour has it that Voldemort sent the Lestranges to Kent. I am concerned for Frank and Alice. If Bella has gotten her hands on them, well ... you know how much your cousin likes to play with her food before she eats it. I am heading there now ... hopefully I may be in time to prevent her devouring the main course."

Sirius scowled bitterly as he stood up again. "And who was the other?"

"Only one other response did not reach me at Brompton Road," Dumbledore began gravely. "The only person who did not reply was ... Peter."

Sirius blinked in heartsick shock. "Wormtail? No. Impossible."

"My message was received by all I sent it to," Dumbledore argued softly. "Peter is the only one yet to reply. I will give him time but ... I am fast losing hope."

"Peter would never ... he's too ... he wouldn't ..."

"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Alright, Sherlock, let's say you're right. What can I do?"

"You must go to Godric's Hollow, right now," Dumbledore insisted. "I have sent Hagrid to protect the village, but he will not be able to know the exact location of the Potter's cottage. But you do. Whatever is happening, despite these changes, your Fidelius Charm remains active. You must reach Godric's Hollow while you still remember where it is."

"And I'm to get baby Harry?" Sirius confirmed.

Dumbledore nodded. "Not only that, but you must - and this is vitally important - you must recover a wand that will be with Harry somewhere in that house. It is made of holly and has a Phoenix feather core."

"What's so special about that?"

"It is a wand that came from the future," Dumbledore replied cryptically. "It is also the brother wand of Voldemort's own. Harry used it to kill him tonight."

Sirius stumbled back in shock. "Kill him? Dumbledore - Harry's just a kid! A toddler! How could he have defeated the greatest Dark Wizard since Grindelwald?"

"I don't have all the answers to that question," Dumbledore confessed. "Know only that he did. Harry's act was no coincidence tonight. James has been conditioning him for weeks to be able to cast Expelliarmus with that wand. There is something about Harry and that spell - particularly when used against Lord Voldemort - that makes it able redirect Avada Kedavra. It has saved his life before ... in the future. It has saved his life tonight."

Sirius sat down on a nearby wall and rubbed his temples. "I don't understand any of this. My head hurts. So you're saying ... Harry can survive the Killing Curse?"

"Only when cast by Tom Riddle, and only when one of them uses - or is in possession of - their brother wands."

"And that Harry has done this before? In the future?"

"On at least two occasions. And it is that vital occurrence which would, I think, have made all the difference," Dumbledore replied.

"The Power of Three!" Sirius exclaimed suddenly. "Three duels ... in three different time periods ... using the same spells and the same wands ... it creates a paradox between them!"

"Now who is playing at being Mr. Holmes?" Dumbledore smiled benignly. "I surmise that at some point in his life Harry will come face to face with Voldemort again. Indeed, I have been told that he does."

"By that Master of Time Hermione character?"

"The same," Dumbledore nodded. "She reasoned that for Harry to survive tonight he would have to be in possession of a power that Voldemort knew nothing about - a highly personal variant of Expelliarmus. His signature spell, if you like. Powered by his inherent goodness - a power that Voldemort knows not."

"Ah, I think I see where you are going," Sirius replied, pacing as he processed the idea. "And because he had already twice survived Voldemort by using Expelliarmus against Avada Kedavra, on the third occasion he would actually beat him with it."

"The Power of Three," Dumbledore smiled. "But, curiously, his final defeat happens in the future, but the special power of the spell has to begin tonight."

"Even though it started in the future, and the effects travelled backwards through the space-time continuum to now, getting stronger as they did," Sirius mused. "So that by the time the future duels happen, Harry is protected by the super-charged Disarming Spell! It's a perfect circle!"

"I had no idea so you were so versed in temporal dynamics," Dumbledore mused. "I must confess myself impressed."

"I live alone. I watch a lot of late-night documentaries! I also love a bit of sci-fi!"

Dumbledore chuckled deeply. "As do I. The non-linear nature of time and existence has allowed this. But it is where I feel the perversion of it is happening, also."

"Go on."

"If we assume that all this began in the future," Dumbledore started. "Then not only does Harry's ability to defeat Tom Riddle come from there, but whatever changes are happening to us must also originate at some distant point. The Time Witch, Hermione, made it clear that changes were happening in her world. And that a major one caused her to act ... at the risk of damaging Time itself to put it right."

"What major change?"

"Harry didn't remember that she was his wife."

Sirius blinked. Hard. "Harry didn't remember the love of his life? The one he was blessed to be with? He didn't remember that they were married?"

"Or that they had children, who he didn't recognise as his own, either," Dumbledore confirmed. "That's what set Hermione on this path. To find out who had made changes to her life and when. She traced a strand through history. It links somehow to the Weasley family, and the girl who her Harry was convinced he was actually married to. Hermione didn't give me any more details than that. She said that was not my part of this puzzle to solve, that she was giving that task to someone else."

"So what's my part in it?"

"You must recover that wand," Dumbledore insisted. "It is of paramount importance that you do. I know it is difficult, but forget baby Harry for now. Leave him with Hagrid. He'll be safe with him. The wand must be your priority. Lily and James' lives depend on it."

"I ... what? I don't understand. You said they were dead."

"They are ... for now," Dumbledore returned. "But their spirits reside in that wand. When Harry casts it against Voldemort for the final time, the circle will be complete, and they will return to help Harry finish the job, destroying the evil of Tom Riddle for good. We can only hope that the wand survives intact until that fateful duel."

"We'll see that it does," Sirius announced decisively. He pulled his cloak tight around his shoulders and threw a leg over the huge motorcycle parked at his side. "I'll head to Godric's Hollow now. Where should I tell Hagrid to take Harry? Hogwarts?"

"No, he must first head to his Aunt in Privet Drive, Surrey."

"Not Petunia!" Sirius cried. "Dumbledore, she hates the boy, almost as much as she hated her sister. Not quite as much as she hates herself - for not having magic - but still ... you cant leave Harry with her!"

"There is a protection enchantment that I must complete," Dumbledore explained. "Lily knew all about it. It will keep Harry safe from any real harm until all this blows over. We must tidy up the world, round up the remnants of Voldemort's followers. Harry will not be safe until we do so, and he will not be safe with us as we carry out the task."

Sirius fumed, but he saw the logic. "There will be those who might seek revenge on the boy, is that what you mean?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Or those who may see him as a replacement Dark Lord. For now, Harry will be safer away from the world of magic."

"Safe - where Petunia Dursley is concerned - may be a relative thing," Sirius warned darkly. "I hope you know what you are doing, Albus."

"It will all be well ... I've written her a letter," Dumbledore replied confidently.

Sirius remained unconvinced. "So, you are for Kent?"

"I am," Dumbledore confirmed. "I can only hope that I reach the Longbottoms in time. I do not think I can bear to lay eyes on another child butchered by Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Then go," Sirius urged. He kicked the engine of his motorcycle to life. "I will find the wand and deliver it to you later."

"Good. And Sirius - if you run into Peter Pettigrew before I do, try not to kill him. He is innocent until proven guilty. Right now, all I have is a theory about him that happens to fit the facts."

"As you wish," Sirius grimaced. "But if you do find him, hold him until I get there. Whatever his reason, that is one rat's tale that I will be very interested to hear."

"Right. You stand guard at the gate. Let no-one pass," Sirius demanded. "I'll head inside and find the baby."

"Gotcha," Hagrid nodded.

He took up a position as an impassable barrier, between the two yew trees that flanked the garden gate to the cottage where the Potters lived. Or, as Sirius considered miserably, where they had died. He wiped angrily at a fresh surge of tears as he left Hagrid behind and made his way towards the shattered house. He stopped before crossing the threshold. He didn't think he could do this.

James and Lily would still be inside ... dead. He wasn't sure if he was ready to see that. To finally accept it.

He fell to his knees, weeping freely now. His fingernails became claws and he scratched bitterly at his own skin. He had to feel something that wasn't this abject wretchedness, this impossible pain. He couldn't process it. James and Lily, dead. Just gone like that. His best friend, and the wife that Sirius had come to view almost as a sister.

He wasn't sure he knew how to go on in life without them.

But he knew that he must. There was a child inside and he was in danger. A child that would change the future, that would end this darkness for good, and meet the girl who would help him put all this right.

Sirius took a raspy, steeling breath and looked up at the full moon overhead.

"Get up," he commanded himself, his voice shuddering in grief-stricken determination. "Harry needs you. So man the hell up."

Sirius rose from the ground, drew his wand and stepped forward firmly. The house was ruined, that was the most stark realisation. James must have put up one hell of a fight. Sirius ground his jaw in bitter admiration of his lost friend.

"I hope you put the shits up him, James!" Sirius spoke out powerfully. "Snake-bothering old bastard!"

Sirius picked his way across the debris-strewn living room, the broken kitchen and the dining room, which looked oddly intact. It was in breathtaking contrast to the destruction elsewhere.

"They cant have made their way in here," Sirius mused, looking around with a frown.

And then he realised ... where was the body?

The battle looked to have been confined to the kitchen and the living room, but as he reached the foot of the stairs - which were as neat and ordered as if they hadn't been used that day - Sirius realised that James' body was missing. That angered and confused him in equal measure.

The answers must have been upstairs, so Sirius padded slowly up the carpeted steps and headed towards the nursery at the far end of the landing. Slowly, with nervous movements, he pushed open the door...

And he lost his breath at the sight.

For the bodies of James and Lily were there, laid out side by side as if they were sleeping on the floor. Someone had even closed their eyes for them. Voldemort's body was there, too, kicked roughly against a wall and away from the cot beneath the window.

A cot that had a figure standing over it.

"Stupef -" Sirius tried to cry, but before he'd even finished the spell he was hit with a Shield Charm so powerful it pushed him back into the hallway and pinned him against the wall there.

"I'll let you go in three seconds," a cool female voice told him. "But if you raise your wand again I will have to Disarm you. And if you wake baby Harry I will get very cross with you, Sirius."

Sirius blinked in shock. "You know my name?"

"No, that was just a wild guess!" came the sassy reply.

Sirius couldn't help but smirk. He was still pinned back, but he didn't feel in any danger now. "You have me at a disadvantage, in more ways than one. Can you at least give the name of the witch who has finally managed to tie me down?"

The witch tutted good-naturedly. "You are an arrogant scallywag in any time period, aren't you? Very well, my name is Hermione ... Hermione Potter."

Sirius sucked in a stunned breath. "You? You're the Hermione? You're the Time Witch?"

Hermione turned to him with a curious expression. "Time Witch? Hmm. I sort of like that. But I'm just a gifted witch with an affinity to Time Magic, really. I don't need a title for it. I'm not like him."

And with that she spat angrily at the corpse of Tom Riddle, where it was contorted at awkward angles against the wall.

"Can you tell me what you are doing here ... tonight, of all nights?" Sirius asked.

Hermione gave him a simple, old-fashioned sort of look. "Someone had to come and look after my future husband until you arrived. He's just a baby, you know."

"Then you knew I was coming?"

Hermione sighed patiently. "If we start down the road of 'what I know' we'll be here for eons. Oh, forgive me."

And with that she released Sirius from her Shield Charm. He straightened out his robes and joined Hermione at Harry's crib.

"How is he?" Sirius asked, looking down at the baby.

"Unharmed, apart from his scar," Hermione replied, smoothing the lightening-shaped cut on baby Harry's forehead. "I've cleaned it out as best I could, but it needs time to seal on its own. And he needs a feed. I was going to do it myself but ... that would be a bit weird."

"Weird?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. "Breastfeeding my own husband? That's fraught with all sorts of psychological trauma, don't you think!?"

Sirius chuckled as he understood. "I see what you mean. And the kitchen was wrecked. If there was any baby food there it's gone up in flames."

"Precisely. Speaking of flames, I have a job for you," Hermione replied. She crossed to Voldemort's corpse, giving it a good kick just because she felt like it. "When I'm gone, you need to burn this. Scatter the ashes as far and wide as you can. Vary the locations, tell no-one where you do it. If I get back to my time and find there's a shrine anywhere, you and I will have a serious falling out!"

"Why do I get the impression that I don't want that!" Sirius chortled.

"Now you're getting the idea," Hermione smirked back.

"I can see why Harry married you," Sirius chuckled. "If he grows up anything like James, you'd be just what he liked. You're so much like Lily it's unreal."

Hermione smiled warmly at him. "I consider that to be a compliment of the highest order, by the way. Maybe you aren't so hopeless after all!"

They laughed together a moment, then Sirius turned to look at the bodies of James and Lily.

"Your doing?"

Hermione nodded. "It'll be easier to transport them like that."

"Transport?" Sirius queried. "Are you taking them somewhere?"

"Not so much somewhere ... but somewhen," Hermione replied confusingly. "I have to take their bodies into a sort of temporal flux. They will exist outside of time and space as you might understand it. It is where they will stay until Harry brings them back out in the future."

"I didn't understand a single word of that," Sirius moaned.

"I know," Hermione smiled sadly. "But you will ... when you go to that place."

Sirius swallowed deeply. "Me? I'm going to go there?"

"Yes," Hermione replied simply. "I'm telling you this only so that you wont be afraid when it happens. The one thing Harry always fretted about was how scary it was for you ... when you died for him. This way, he'll know you weren't frightened when it happened."

"I ... I died for him," Sirius breathed, his heart pinging against his throat. "When? How?"

"I cant tell you that," Hermione shot him down. "In case you try to contrive it at the wrong time. Just know that at some point, quite a way in the future, Harry will be in dire need of rescue. You will go to give aid, and in a battle with Dark Forces, you will be killed. You will fall through a unique archway and it will take you into the realm that I will soon take Lily and James."

"Will they be there? In this weird dimension?"

"Yes, waiting for you," Hermione smiled. "Don't be afraid, Sirius. It wont hurt, and Harry will bring you back shortly after he revives his parents. We will all see each other again ... so long as Harry fulfils his destiny with this."

Hermione reached into her robes, and handed over the gleaming Holly and Phoenix feather wand. Sirius took it covetously.

"Harry was still holding this when I arrived," Hermione told Sirius, before smiling fondly at the slumbering infant as he babbled in his dreams. "You must make sure Dumbledore gets it now. He'll give it to Ollivander at the right time and make sure the cycle continues."

"You mentioned cycles - and that my death had to happen at the right time?" Sirius quizzed. "What does that mean? What if something happens to me before that?"

"Try to make sure it doesn't!" Hermione quipped. "Try and keep yourself alive until then! Did Dumbledore show you his Time-Turner?"

"Yes he did."

"And did he tell you how they were first invented? Or by whom?"

"Alchemists, he mentioned alchemists," Sirius remembered.

"The fundamental Masters of Time," Hermione nodded. "They are manipulators of it. Altering natural processes of refinement to achieve perfected states, things that nature would take an incredibly longer period to do. But true alchemists are not concerned with the physical ... their Work is all spiritual. Alchemy is an arcane art at its core. Gold, elixirs, Philosopher's Stones ... all by-products for the base and limited.

"True alchemy transforms the soul ... and a true alchemist never works alone."

"Ah, I think I get it!" Sirius exclaimed. "You are an alchemist ... or you and Harry are!"

"Precisely," Hermione smiled. "I Mastered Time when Dumbledore gave me his Time-Turner, Harry Mastered physical alchemy when he earned the Philosopher's Stone. Then we embarked on a life-long journey of Love and Enlightenment together to complete the upper, spiritual Work.

"And we are far from done. Which is why I am so cross and furious with whoever it is that is fucking with my life! Forgive me, I don't swear that often. But I am very cross, Sirius! Very cross, indeed!"

Sirius wanted to laugh, but thought better of it. "So, my death is part of this process?"

"Yes, it marks a transition from the beginning Black Stage, what we call the Nigredo," Hermione explained. "You are the quintessential Black Death, Mr Black! Harry will complete the Albedo - or White Stage - when Dumbledore dies. Then the Rubedo, Red Stage, will be reached when our friend, Ron, sacrifices himself to allow us to go on alone and finish the Opus. Win the game, just like in chess. Soul and spirit, leaving the body behind. As it must be for us all."

Sirius listened to the solemn words. He looked at baby Harry, full up with love for his Godson, and accepted his fate on the spot. He loved nothing else in the world now, besides that child. If he had to die to protect him then so be it.

"So I just have to stay alive until the right moment," Sirius nodded. "Any advice on that?"

"Go and find that rat Pettigrew and make it look like you slaughtered him," Hermione scythed bluntly. "Make it dramatic. Let them sling you in Azkaban for a stretch. Your Animagus form will keep you safe from the Dementors and you'll stay alive."

"Sounds a jolly holiday, that one, Hermione!" Sirius laughed. "Cant I just jet off to the Bahamas for a bit?"

"That's up to you," Hermione frowned sternly. "But if you decide to let one of Voldemort's unmasked minions run around freely and pose a threat to Harry for the next ten years, then you and I will -"

"Have a serious falling out, and I don't want that," Sirius sniggered lightly. "Got you. But why cant I actually murder Peter? I very much want to, you know, if he is behind this betrayal of my best friend."

"Because, he somehow makes his way into the hands of a woman that I loathe, one I suspect is behind the changes in my life," Hermione explained. "And she gives him to one of her children as a pet. I haven't found out about that bit yet, but I feel certain it's important. They protected a Death Eater for years and years. I have to know the reasons why."

"Then Peter did turn on us?" Sirius mused. "But how did he give away the secret of this place? I am the Secret Keeper."

"You were," Hermione agreed. "But at some point James and Lily changed it to Peter. Remember, for me, this has all happened before. In my timeline, James and Lily sacrificed themselves deliberately, to save the other children that Voldemort was targeting, knowing that he'd come for Harry eventually and that they'd come back in the future to help defeat him for good. I had no idea of my own role in it till Lily explained it all, years after they returned."

"How do you keep your head on straight thinking about this?" Sirius quirked. "I'm dizzy just listening to you."

"I have a remarkable mind!" Hermione grinned cheekily. "Harry says it's his favourite thing about me. That's explanation enough!"

"So, what will you do now, to get him back?" Sirius asked. "Dumbledore told me what happened to you in the future."

"I have to find the source of the disruption and eliminate it, but it's taking time," Hermione explained. "Luckily, time is something I have plenty of. I just have to be careful where I go and what I do. But I have to make sure there are some anchors in the timeline that remain the same, things that cant be changed. I went to see an older Harry recently just for that purpose."

"To do what?"

"I cant tell you that," Hermione smirked. "So don't ask again."

Hermione pulled out a pocket watch from her robes. It was a curious timepiece, for instead of hands and numbers, little rotating planets were spinning around the edge.

"It's time to leave," Hermione announced briskly.

She drew her wand and cast a spell in a language Sirius didn't recognise. Instantly, a split opened up in the fabric of the very air itself. It was blindingly bright. Sirius had to shield his eyes against it. He peeked through his fingers long enough to see Hermione float the bodies of James and Lily through the vortex to ... wherever it was ... that she was taking them.

Then Hermione crossed to Sirius. She leant close and placed a chaste kiss to his cheek.

"Goodbye, Sirius, Until we meet again. When we do, don't make out that we've met before. You might not remember me, anyway, if I fail in my mission. Oh, and don't forget to dispose of Riddle's corpse."

"Is there nothing else I can do? I feel so useless."

Hermione grinned at him. "You can always try and get me and Harry together sooner! You did try to pair us off, sort of, but maybe convince him to ask me to the Yule Ball we have in our Fourth Year at Hogwarts or something. I was dying for him to ask me, and I so wanted a snog with him that night. He looked so dishy! But he didn't ask his Godfather for any sage advice on the matter, so I was left very cross with him!"

"And - let me guess - I didn't like you cross?!" Sirius laughed.

"Something like that," Hermione smirked. "Goodbye, Sirius. Farewell."

And with that, Hermione Potter gave a small wave and disappeared into the ether.