"You have a job?"

"I didn't think I needed to say it about thirty times, dear— yes, I have a job! I wouldn't've had the nerve to go over here if I didn't. Satisfied?"

"Not really. You have a job, and yet you don't have any money?"

I came suddenly to the conclusion that things would have been much easier if I'd gotten an advance out of them. Unfortunately, it had been far too long since there wasn't a price on my head, and that had made answering "Help Wanted" adds just a shade on the difficult side. "Yes. It's been a long trip."

Rosmerta raised an eyebrow. I grumbled "You have no idea how long," under my breath too low for her to hear. The redheaded woman— interesting how both the people who had been prodding my with questions I didn't have good answers for today were female and fire-haired— nodded slowly. "So you don't have any money but you have a job?" she asked again.

I sighed at the circularness of this conversation. "Yes. I believe I said that— several times, in fact. Look, if you're not going to believe me it's just down the street." I grinned at her, hoping to call up some of the old charm. I was sure it hadn't gone entirely, it was just too rusty because all the females my age I'd been around anymore knew exactly what I was trying to do.

Rosmerta still looked skeptical.

I sighed. "I really don't want to spend the next two weeks camping out in the Forbidden Forest," I announced.

"So you're telling me you can't apparate somewhere?" she added.

I cast my mind around for any place where I could apparate and stay, but obviously I came up with a blank— to everyone I'd known in the seventies I was sixteen. "Well, I could apparate somewhere but it wouldn't do me any good," I said finally.

It took a couple more questions about my credit— all of which I was sure I'd already answered— before she gave in, thankfully— to say the very least, the Forbidden Forest beat Azkaban but definitely does not count in the list of most pleasant experiences in my life.

Once certain I was alone I could really concentrate on what had gotten me there— I didn't want someone to overhear in case I started talking to myself. Pretty slowly, I started to reconstruct the Department of Mysteries. We weren't anywhere near the prophecies, but we'd apparently been far too late to head them off early. Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix, and some of the other escaped Death Eaters had been there.

Tonks had headed off Bellatrix first— it took me a minute to remember what had gotten her out of the fight. Hopefully it wasn't too serious; but I think she was just unconscious. Moody'd been the first of us out, which was something of a surprise— in his prime he'd have been the last one left standing. One of them was still after Harry and Neville Longbottom. Well, Harry, really, but it'd taken both of the boys to get him off. Dolhov finished with Moody and went after them, from when I could make out.

I'd gotten the one I was after off of me by then, and we all knew that Harry and Neville were getting by in a duel half on pure luck. I'd gone after them. Harry'd actually dispatched Dolhov with the body bind— now that he wasn't being choked I guess he could think straight. The third Death Eater to come after them— Bellatrix— had to get through me first. I'd told Harry and Neville to run for it then. Course, Lucius Malfoy had gotten in the way until Remus had tried to handle things. Kingsley was still fighting one of the original Death Eaters he'd attacked, and to say the least the Department of Mysteries wasn't the best place for an all out wizarding battle. . . .

Dumbledore'd finally shown up— that stopped most of the fighting, but it'd've had probably taken Voldemort to stop Bellatrix, so we were still at it on a dias. I'm not about to deny I hadn't been enjoying myself to some extent— like I told Lily, I'm a hell raiser anyway, and Bellatrix being family I had a special animosity towards her. She was after me with something red— the only red I could remember then was a stunner, and somehow I had my doubts she'd been using that. It wasn't the killing curse, though; that's green and besides, she must've hit me— else I doubt I'd've run into anything.

But what had I run into? I sat back a moment, trying to remember what room we'd been in, but the fact that I knew almost nothing about the Department of Mysteries didn't help things any. It was pretty empty, otherwise there would have been even more mayhem in there, but I doubted there would have been nothing. What had happened was coming a little clearer, especially before. I thought she'd hit me with a spell, I'd fallen, and then . . . the next thing I'd remembered was waking up with a headache with Lily leaning over me.

What had been in that room? I tried to rewind my memory to we'd come in— I could remember Harry, Neville, a bunch of Death Eaters . . . and a pretty big room with some kind of arch in the middle, draped over with black cloth. Had she pushed me through that?

Well, everything in the Department of Mysteries was dangerous, I knew that much, so the veil must've been some kind of experiment. Funny how it wasn't with other things on time; goodness knew they were probably trying to make sense of time turners and Shrinking Solution and anything else that changed age or time. The fourth dimension— funny how that theory came to me now.

Well, at the very least it was a little confusing— I may have been twenty years before where I was supposed to, but I wasn't a wanted man anymore, which results in more than a little more freedom to get out and figure things out without relying on other people's reports. Granted, being twenty years older than most of the people I knew literally for the rest of my life was going to end up an interesting experience.

As far as I was concerned, some idea of how I got here was going to have to stay good enough— as far as everything else, I'd deal with it as it came.

Author's Note: Short chapter. Buffer chapter— in essence I wrote this purely to clear two things up before I got into the main plot. I also wrote the majority of that while pouring over my copy of the fifth book, so yes, it was kind of technical. I think that since I've got that mystery solved, though, I can get onto the more interesting parts of the story— in other words, the actual plot. I'll reintroduce Lily and maybe the teenage Marauders next chapter (if no for the boys, the chapter after that), and then we can continue through until I get Sirius back to where he should've been (skipping years in the process, but that's because the main plot concerns mostly who we've already met). As for my reviewers— thank you very much! CountessMel, I must confess to not having a clue as far as what you're talking about, so if you care to explain. . . . Well anyway, all comments are still appreciated (I know I say that in every A/N, but that's because it's true), so let me know what you think! Cheers! — Loki