FAN FICTION AU AND TIME TRAVEL

Flipped

Summary

Female Harry Potter (Juniper) wins the war but the cost is too much so she performs a ritual and performs dimension travel after much research when she is 24. Her counterpart is Cordelia Faye Black, the daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy. Has memories of both the worlds. Lives in France. When Juniper (Harry) seeps into consciousness, she is 14. Born on Beltane. Thus even though she is a girl, she has a high standing among the Blacks. Has gone to Beauxabatons for her first three years. Born on May 1, 1927. Start school in 1938. Goes to Hogwarts in 1942. Meets Tom Riddle. (Romance and power play)

Disclaimer: The characters and the world in the story belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not earning any profit from it.

Note: I have been a fanfiction reader for quite a lot of years before I gave this fic a shot, so if you see any ideas seeping in that I do not openly acknowledge, just let me know and I will add the credits. I have read too many to keep a track of them but I will try my best.

1) The idea of totems belongs to Catsarecool who is writing A Maurader's plan .

2) The basic idea of dimension travel comes from Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning by Aariya07. You will see quite a few similarities in the first couple of chapters but it diverges after that.

3) This is a gender bender. Harry was born a girl as Juniper Anastasia Potter. Everything is as it is in canon except for her romances and nineteen years later. This is not because I don't read slash or like it. You will see a lot of them in my favorites but because I don't think that I could do justice to that genre and because I want to do this. If you do not like such fics, do not read. Please do not flame. I will welcome criticisms, I know I am not perfect, just don't meaninglessly bash me for nothing.

4)This is a gender bender. I will bend gender roles like clay, considering it is based in 1940s. :D


For your references

"Talk"

"Thought"

"Parseltongue"


Chapter 4: 544 years old rule and 900 years old History

Tom's POV

The Quidditch trials for the Slytherin team happened on Saturday in late afternoon.

Cordelia had pulled 'As the king, you ought to come' card on him. He had glared at her but it did not seem to have an effect. Well, he had brought it upon himself. She, unlike him, thoroughly enjoyed Quidditch. He did not see why.

They both had carried their books in the stands and she had soon deemed the trials to be boring and started telling him the history and development of Quidditch, which he found more fascinating than the sport.

They both had finished all the work and had read ahead too.

Cordelia was telling him fascinating bits about the history of Beauxabatons and French wizardry, when Alphard and Anastius zoomed by the stand and came to a standstill.

"We are the beaters!" Alphard exclaimed happily.

"Well, you were always more brawny, cousin!" Cordelia bit her lip as she stifled her laughter. "Of course, you made it. I have ever seen a toddler use his fists so enthusiastically. Especially when Walburga threw a hissy fit, you always hit away the stuff she started throwing out." Anastius guffawed out, Riddle looked amused.

Alphard turned red at the mention of that, "And I did it to save the others..." He did not look pleased.

At that Cordelia burst out giggling. It was a soft, melodic laugh and her eyes were dancing with sparkle.

"What is up with Flint?" Her laughter subsided and her brows furrowed.

"We cannot find a good seeker,"Anastius shrugged, "They are decent, but you know...Lestrange has tried out, even though he has the built of a keeper or beater,"

"I doubt he would be good in even those positions, He is too stiff," Cordelia said dryly.

Alphard and Anastius's brows shot up and they gave a scared side glance to Riddle.

Riddle looked at them with a raised brow but he did not look bothered by her jab.

"The team line up is fine, I mean Flint is good, Oree and Abe work well with each other, Burke keeps up. You two make a good team but you realize that Burke looks almost disinterested. He would rather study and both he and Flint are going to leave next year. You should ideally be training reserves and here we are short on actual playing team. The odds do not look that good to me." Cordelia said bluntly, raising a brow at them.

"I did not know you were good at Quidditch plays, Cordelia. That is an astute observation, but what do we do about it?" Anastius looked impressed.

"Improve the team. I will not have Slytherins lose in a game." Tom said with disdain. Cordelia gave him an amused look at his 'helping' answer.

"Quidditch cup counts for a good per cent of the house cup. A win in one has resulted in a win the latter almost in 98% cases." Cordelia put in, "It is very simple, find a good seeker."

"Well. What are the odds of having one seeker in 100 odd people, who were all raised to be purebloods and thus do know how to ride a broom?" Alphard mused out loud.

"I would not be so presumptive." Cordelia said in a clipped tone. She beat Tom to it whose face had gone rigid at the assumption.

Alphard begun to say something but one look at Cordelia's warning look promptly shut him up.

"Also, you are miscounting, you have 60 people to search from. The rest are females, and as far as I know, females have never been a part of the Slytherin team. Trust me, I researched after Burga's jab that day. "Cordelia said vindictively.

"You sound like you want us to lose." Zabini said in a wry tone.

"I am being realistic chaps," Cordelia did not even look affronted.

Tom looked at her and raised a brow.

"You can have bad chasers and keeper but a seeker is what matters the most. It tilts the entire game. How can you hope to improve the team if somebody does not point out the faults?" Cordelia said nonchalantly, "You guys need to pull your act together! The people trying out are horrendous..."She gave one look to them and looked at Riddle," Are you done with your equations in Arithmancy? I think that Mr. Monroe has given us a flawed problem. I have tried to solve it with multiple ways and the variables cancel each other out, I wanted to check if I copied the problem right or if you had any other suggestions to solve the problem. I completely forgot to bring up the problem last night"

"She gave the problem set on Friday at 2, that was like 29 hours ago, you are already done with it." Riddle raised a brow.

"As if you are not done," She scoffed.

"I am not done with the last one..." Riddle acquiesced.

She gave him a triumphant look.

"We should be packing up. It is getting dark. Cordelia, my lord."Anastius said.

Just then, shouts rose from the center of the field.

Tom gave a pointed Look to Zabini.

"Stay here, Alphard, I will find out."Anastius said quickly and bounded towards the rest of team.

He returned in a jiffy, looking annoyed, "Lestrange let out the snitch . The trials were supposed to be with practice balls. The snitch is now lost. Renatus, I am afraid is not up for the task for finding it at all and Burke says it is too dark for him, and we cannot lose it. It is school property, we will come out looking as incompetent." He swiftly said, while trying to keep the despair and disdain in his voice away. "Where in the world do we even look for it?"

"Well, you should start with the top of the lake, the snitch is fluttering in the center ..."Cordelia said in a matter of fact tone.

All three boys immediately looked towards it.

"It is, but how?" Anastius looked flabbergasted

"Well it is a golden ball against the sky. It gives a distinctive shine, not that hard to keep track of. It was near the Keeper's post when you guys started arguing." Cordelia shrugged, looking up for a moment from the piles of parchment in her arms.

"Call the rest of them here," Tom said succinctly.

After five minutes of listening to various suggestions that everybody had, or rather the accusations that flew around, Tom had enough.

Cordelia merely looked amused.

"Well, I do not fancy falling in the lake, I will come out looking as an idiot. The house of Lestrange will value its heir more than a puny snitch. My allowance will take care of it." Lestrange argued back.

Cordelia let out a light chuckle.

"You have any problem with that Black!" He sneered.

"You do not need to fall in the lake to display your idiocy and incompetence, Lestrange. Everybody present in the field has already bore witness to that. I am merely charmed by your efforts to completely ignore your fault and revert the responsibility to finances. How Slytherin!" Cordelia said with a brilliant smile. Her sarcasm was not lost on anybody. Riddle smirked and the rest of the team sniggered.

Renatus turned red and flapped about like an unruly fish, "Do not meddle in things you cannot understand Black. You are just a pretty face. I doubt you even know what end of broomstick comes in front, much less to go and catch a snitch."

"I am flattered you think I am pretty" Cordelia said dryly, "And as for the rest, is that a challenge, Heir Lestrange?"

He just sneered.

Cordelia threw a questioning glance at Riddle. He gave a nod.

"Well in that case, accepted. Abraxas, may I borrow your broom?"

All her cousins began to say something to prevent her from taking off but the looks on Cordelia and Tom's face silenced them.

Cordelia took off with such an easy grace,

"My lord, "Abraxas began with fear.

"Have some faith Abraxas. If your cousin can ride a hippogriff and land unscathed, I dare say that she can handle a broom." Tom cut him off and gave him a look.

"And as for you Renatus, I do not think I gave you any leave to challenge her like that. We will address your insubordination later." He threw Renatus a death glare.

"My lord, she insulted me." Renatus looked stricken.

"And you brought it upon yourself with your idiocy. She is not a part of court and she does not bow to me like the members of court and yet she followed protocol and asked my leave to even accept your challenge, when she did not need to. And you did not think about the potential conflict within the house when you issued a non-sensible threat and challenge to a woman no less." Riddle said scathingly, "Now spare me your theatrics, I have a House member to be concerned about"

Cordelia was zooming about the night sky. Her eyes shone and sparkled from a far.

"It is almost like she is born to fly." Flint murmured.

She was above the lake. She flew with the easy grace that she always carried herself with and then she chased something for a bit and then went into a steep dive.

"She is going to sink into the lake." Burke exclaimed.

But she pulled just above the surface of water and her feet hovered above the surface by a couple of inches. She raised her hand and something glinted in it.

"She caught the snitch." Alphard spoke in wonder.

She flew back at twice the speed towards them, easily got off the broom and offered the snitch to Flint, "Secure it," and gave the broom back to a speechless Abraxas.

She turned around and gave a small smile, "Well, all the best for finding a better player. I shall take my leave." She summoned her things and started to turn around towards the stairs.

"Ms. Black!" Tom called out.

"Yes, Mr. Riddle." She turned around. Her face held a different sense of peace. She gave a small smile to him.

"You are the new seeker of the Slytherin team." Riddle said. Lestrange looked murderous, and the others were gleeful.

Cordelia did not refuse or accept. There was not even a twitch on her face, "There has never been a women in the Slytherin team since the conception of Quidditch formally in 1398. 544 years."

"Well, it was their loss if any of the women played like you." Riddle said evenly. "This goes against the supposed tradition, but I believe that you and I both agree that Slytherin follows a lot of stale traditions which are better discarded aside along with several Olde magic which should be reinstated. This would be the beginning. I doubt anybody in the team disagrees but I will let Flint make the final call since he is supposed to be the captain." He looked at Flint.

"When can you begin?"Flint smirked.

"Hell yes," Alphard exclaimed.

Lestrange was silenced with a look from Riddle. And he was not a part of the team anyways.

"We need to win. Slytherin is ambitious, we know how to achieve our goals. It would be foolish to not allow you." Burke seconded Alphard's opinion.

Cordelia cracked a small smile, "Very well, keep me updated on the practice schedule."

She curtsied and nodded towards Riddle and left.


Cordelia's POV

On Sunday, the news of Cordelia's appointment should have spread like wildfire but it was still a closely guarded secret among the team and Riddle and Cordelia. One thing was granted, Slytherin did keep secrets better than Gryffindor ever did.

Apparently, the team considered her an ace up their sleeve.

The team had not shown much emotion in front of Riddle, except for Alphard but later around dinner, they had caught up with her. Flint had picked her up and squeezed the life out of her in a hug and blabbered about where she had been the entirety of his life. He looked mighty pleased. Burke had affectionately ruffled her hair and patted her on back, thanking her for allowing him to drop a position and play chaser and to keep her flying up.

Orion and Alphard looked ecstatic. Orion did not stop talking pompously and Alphard was gushing. Abraxas was more mellowed, he had buried his head in her hair and whispered his congratulations in a whisper and then went on to commend her about having kept such a secret from such a Slytherin family, and apologized about the way things were and said firmly that she should not have had to hide her talent on broom just because she was a girl.

To say that Cordelia was touched was an understatement. She had gotten slightly teary and hugged him tighter, but when they both separated, their masks were back in place.

Anastius had just looked at her starry eyed and claimed that she was his favorite player from right now and how he was proud of having her in the team.

She had just smiled and shook her head in exasperation and then thanked all of them for welcoming her.

On Sunday afternoon, Flint had announced the news to the rest of House in Riddle's presence. Most of the house had taken it in silence, but there were curious looks, Dorea looked very pleased and she nodded proudly at Cordelia, Walburga was scandalized, Lucretia gave her a small smile, though it held confusion. The House was warned to maintain the secrecy.

Riddle looked stoic and impassive though he did invite her to sit with the court and present what she wanted to do with Binns.

The Court was torn between having a decent teacher and having a free class to sleep in. Abraxas supported her, Orion too hesitantly did it. The rest of the court followed. Lestrange had some severe problems with the arrangement. He voiced his opinion, very harshly, "She is a pampered little lass, what does she know of politics?" And some other garbage about her.

It was Abraxas who beat Riddle and Cordelia to retort back at him. Anastius Zabini followed soon after.

Riddle had a satisfied look on his face.

Now Cordelia was confused, "Riddle could not have warmed up to her so quickly, could he?"

But the meeting ended with Burke, Abraxas and Rosier aiding in Research of the by laws of faculty appointment in Hogwarts and Anastius and Orion aiding in putting in the word with other heads of houses. Cordelia put in her two shoe by saying that they could use the betrothed or courting couples to pass along the information, like Lucretia and Dorea. The other houses would believe it if the information came for reliable sources like their close ones.

Riddle affirmed.

Zabini in the end roped her, Riddle , Abraxas, Burke and Alphard to play in a wizarding trivia board game.* It was nothing just a square intricate board with a small glass dome in the center.

"What exactly is this contraption?" Abraxas questioned, "I have never seen anything like it."

"I suppose we need to form teams. One team will ask the questions displayed in the crystal dome and one team needs to answer. We get points for correct answers. The dome will say if the answers are correct based on a rune and charm that will detect truth and confidence to an extent. The more points you have, the higher your chances of winning." Cordelia deduced.

"Yep." Anastius nodded. "So who is pairing up?"

In the end, they paired Riddle and her together even though Abraxas muttered about it being unfair. Anastius and Alphard paired themselves together for cheering and Burke and Abraxas were left to compete with the two prodigies

"Alright then, first question, Name the species on the basis of characteristics: pearly scales and pupil less eyes."

"Antipodean Opaleye." Riddle said in a bored tone and Cordelia chimed.

"Correct, "Abraxas grimaced.

"It is a dragon native to one of the penal colonies near the south pole." Tom answered the unasked question.

"Bingo." Cordelia beamed.

"The name of the creature often called the Lochness monster." Riddle read out.

"What is that?"

The game went on.

"Who started the cleansweep company?" Cordelia asked with a smile.

She and Riddle were winning. They had answered every single question including critical questions in spell theory, warding, healing, potions. Cordelia answered as much as Riddle did though she generally chose to answer more obscure ones or Quidditch questions. Her eye and speech for detail and the variety of her knowledge astounded Riddle. They had developed an audience. The entire upper years were throwing around bets and keenly watching. The audience were wondering if there would be a question that would stump the winning duo.

"Ollerton Brothers." Abraxas beamed, happy to be able to answer one question.

Cordelia nodded.

"Has the committee of disposal of dangerous creatures ever executed a hippogriff? If yes, when was the last time it happened?" Burke had a Cheshire grin on his face.

Cordelia knew that he wanted them to play a pass with this question. The pass was quite possible because it was a question about meaningless knowledge that was technically useless to Riddle or her.

All breaths were stopped. Riddle looked annoyed.

Everybody was convinced that their winning streak would halt with this question.

Riddle and Cordelia shared a look. She looked unconcerned, "Leave it to me, Mr. Riddle!"

She cleared her throat, folded her hands, and looked eagerly into the faces of the opposition with a big, mischievous, teasing smile, "The Committee of disposal of dangerous creatures has indeed ordered such an execution before. The most recent one being in 1772."

"Correct!" Abraxas said faintly.

"What?" It was Riddle and not the opposing team who exclaimed and looked at her as if she had grown another head, "Excuse my bewilderment, Ms. Black but how in the world do you know such random and useless bit of trivia?"

The rest of the house shared his sentiments.

"I read it once. It just lasted in my memory." She shrugged.

"All right, what does the eihwaaz mean?" She promptly asked.

Burke answered.

"Does the main line of Ravenclaw branch exists? If not, then who did it die with?" Abraxas asked. People perked up. It was a difficult question but the odds were Cordelia knew the answer.

"No, the main line of Rowena Ravenclaw died with Helena Ravenclaw, her daughter, who was killed by the Baron. However, Ravenclaw was actually a clan which was slaughtered in Mundane raids. Rowena was the only survivor. She met the other founders on run." Cordelia said automatically, blinking as if in a daze.

Abraxas twisted his lips and muttered something but then said aloud, "Correct."

The crowd went into chatter

"Lord Slytherin and Ms Black win." Anastius Zabini looked gleeful.

Alphard was amused.

Cordelia got up, curtsied to Riddle and thanked him for being her partner, curtsied to everybody else, pecked Abraxas on his cheek, consoling him, he hugged her back and they were muttering to each other, but all throughout she could feel Riddle's eyes on her.


Cordelia's POV

She met up with her cousins from other houses, and hung out with Dorea through dinner. She was avoiding Riddle. Avoiding him meant that he would get angry. His anger would get the best of him and she will wheedle out of his questions very easily.

Just as she was entering the girls' dormitory door, an arm in front of her stopped her in her tracks.

"Mr. Riddle." She gave a Cheshire grin even before spotting his face but turned around to face him.

"You owe me some explanations, Ms. Black." He said in a light tone, but the tightness around his eyes gave away his ire.

"Regarding what?" Cordelia feigned innocence.

"I dare say that I do not think that you are unintelligent, but in regards to your knowledge about certain topics, it unsettled me." He said in a tight tone, almost grinding his teeth.

"Nothing you would not find in some textbooks, the right ones, the ones that I assure you are permanent fixtures of pureblood libraries, especially the ancient and noble houses. I am sure once you obtain your title legally, you will have access to such a library yourselves." She said lightly.

"I doubt that the history of Ravenclaw house is so readily available, Slytherin still has heirs but his history is merely a legend, and his deeds, some may call them myth." Riddle retorted. He was controlling his anger, but his eyes had darkened and some of the anger seemed through the cracks in his mask.

"I know how important family histories are. I am afraid, I am not too sure about Slytherin, but he would have been devastated at the state of Hogwarts now. All of them would have been, the founders. Very well, the Blacks are distantly related to the Ravenclaw, or rather to one of the beneficiaries of Ravenclaw's inheritance. The name of the beneficiary is lost, much was lost. I chanced upon one old parchment in the main Black vault, and I found a poem on it. It is called the Claws of raven, written in old Gaelic. It might have been fictitious for all I know, but I love old languages and I translated it. The story was there, and when they posed me the question, I took a chance. I am afraid that I do not have access to it any more. Though the line of Ravenclaw is most certainly dead and it died with Helena Ravenclaw. Rowena was alive for some time, that much is known but she was sick. A journal was found by the department of Mysteries a while ago. It is under tight wards because of some magical information but my father works with them so he told me about the discovery since I am generally very curious. The game probably works with a complex truth detector and it knew that I was speaking the truth. I do not have anything else to offer you." She finished her monologue.

"That was a family secret that you revealed." He asked lightly. His anger was almost absent, instead he looked surprised.

"It is a family secret, yes! Not a closely guarded one, neither one that many take heed of. I assure you my cousins would know nothing of it, do not blame them." She said in a warning tone, albeit a light one.

Riddle's eyes flared. She had told that to him to protect her cousins, not to help him out.

"And what about the clans of Veela? They guard their knowledge closely and are very secretive." He said, his tone, hostile again, referring to one of the questions she had answered in the game.

"And I can be very persuasive." She said sharply, looking at him. Her expression less than friendly.

She sighed, "I understand, not knowing something irks you, because I happen to be like that too, however, I was brought up in the wizarding world. As biased and prejudiced it sounds, I have had more time interacting with it, therefore, I might know a tad bit more than you do. I repeat again, I will not usurp you, I have no intentions to. "She said, her tone softer towards the end. Combined with her musical voice, it was so soothing and so utterly believable, that Riddle found himself struggling to maintain his hostile demeanor.

He just nodded sharply.

"Good night, Mr. Riddle." She said in that same soft voice, and gave him such look of sadness that utterly confused him. And moreover, what confused him was that the sadness was directed at him.


Cordelia's POV

Quidditch Practices kept up. She did well in classes. She did talk to Riddle, a little but otherwise her social circle was wide. She kept up her interactions with Charles Potter, on behalf on her aunt. Dorea and he, both knew her purpose. She was tasked with validating their relationship, but Dorea was no longer worried since she knew Cordelia's take on it.

She spend her time with the team, practicing or just hanging out. She was close to Abraxas. She helped Orion out in Potions. She played games with Alphard and Anastius. She discussed quidditch plays with Filch and engaged in academic symposiums with Burke.

She even sat once or twice on the Gryffindor table with Sebastian and his cousin Brendon, who seemed to have a little crush on her.

She did discuss things with the court and Riddle about the state of History of Magic and they did some work, but still the contact was minimal between her and Riddle.


Riddle's POV

Riddle was annoyed. The nerve of that girl, to play games with him. She was working and talking with people, even him, but it was just work related now. Lost was the banter, or the witty jabs. It was becoming a pattern. Each time he expressed doubt in her, she decreased her interactions with him. She was still friendly, kind, nice, courteous and polite but something, her warmth was missing. And Tom was seething that he missed it. The easy concern in her eyes, the genuine warmth that he was recipient of a few times. What further irritated him was her expressing and giving that warmth away to others.

And he was getting annoyed with the recipients of the warmth, Alphard and Abraxas especially.

He could still excuse Abraxas. He was useful, loyal and intelligent but he could not see one redeeming quality in Alphard. He was too loud and brash to be in Slytherin and he constantly got on Riddle's nerves.

Riddle's arm was just twitching to hex the hell out of him. If it were not for his mountainous self-control, he would have already given in to the temptation. However, that did not mean he was not thinking of a long term solution to the annoyance or he constantly did not fight a battle to just curse the hell out of the youngest black in Hogwarts.


Cordelia's POV

The fourth week at Hogwarts was almost on an end. Cordelia had adjusted to this new place fairly well. She liked the Professors of this time better though, they were intellectually more stimulating. The classes were also of higher standard. She had a nice group of friends and well, her family.

She had not been sure of being a part of the Blacks. She had expected as much but they were a kind and loving family beyond the public exterior and the naive blood purism and even that was not so extreme. Even the Slytherins were normal people here.

Yes, there was a war out there and people were tense. But it had yet to touch Britain so a sense of security covered the castle. People were not that worried. It had not reached Asia or France or Britain though Grindelwald was killing people left and right in other parts. Cordelia thought about doing something for the same, but she was playing a dangerous game and revealing herself or exposing herself to such danger was not an option. Her body was younger and yet to go through the majority. She was powerful and had the expanse of great knowledge at her hand, but she was not at her best yet. Grindelwald will have to wait. She had not time traveled for him. She had come to seek the other budding Dark Lord in Hogwarts. She liked Tom Riddle, she just wished he was not so suspicious. But well, you could not have everything.

She was just musing over him and the discussion and plotting on the post of History of Magic, as she absent mindedly entered the common room. She was lost in her thoughts, when she saw Lucretia and Dorea's worried voices shook her out of her reverie.

"Oh, thank goodness, you are here Cordelia." Dorea's entire visage was exuding anxiety.

"Why, what is wrong, cousin?" Cordelia's entire demeanor changed. Her voice was sharp.

"Anastius and Alphard were fooling around as usual. They said something. I think they might have insinuated something that did not settle well with the Heir Slytherin. He took offense. He cursed Zabini on the spot and he was about to curse Alphard but something stopped him. Zabini is not faring well, He is ..."Dorea trailed off.

"Where is Alphard?" Cordelia's voice was sharp.

"That's it. He would not listen, at all. We tried to stop him. Riddle stormed off and said that nobody was to disturb him. Alphard went after him to apologize to get Zabini a respite. But Heir Slytherin, he looked murderous, Cordelia. I am not sure if he wished to be found…"Lucretia's anxious voice filled in the rest of information.

"Listen to me, I will make sure he returns here, Alphard, that is. Ground him. He or Zabini are not to leave the common room. Request one of the Quidditch team members to request food from an elf. This does not leave the common room, or preferably the team and the Blacks. If people were there in common room, try and ask them to keep it quiet,"

"There was no one, just us, the two idiots and Riddle. And you are the first one to return." Lucretia said hurriedly.

"Good. Take care of it, I will find Alphard." Cordelia said.

"Corrie. Riddle was using parseltongue in his curses." Dorea's eyes were fearful.

"I assure you Dorea, my family's life is more important than a secret. I will bring back our brother." Cordelia said softly and left. Her eyes conveying more unsaid things to Dorea, she would not let Riddle harm her brother merely because she was being gracious to Tom.


*NOTE: The idea of the board game and one question (hippogriffs) comes from Lydia-kitten's Wand Cores. I am afraid I don't remember the Chapter number. I will look at it and update this. But go on and read it, it is a fantastic fic, if unupdated for a long time.

AND BREATHE, this is my second cliffie, I know. Rest easy and wait for Saturday. The next update will be a chapter and not an interlude.

To the guest reviewers

anon: Here is the next update. I will update every Saturday in case people missed that in my previous chapters. I cannot update earlier than that because I lead a hectic life. Period. And the biggest reason is that I don't wish to take a prolonged hiatus in case things get even more hectic. But thanks for the review. :) I am glad that you are liking it and that the tempo of the story makes you want to read more of it.

Seirei: Thanks for the review. I did enjoy the trip. :). Also, there are no interludes scheduled for the next update so it is going to be more Tom and Cordelia. I think her other relationships in the AU are just as important and so is her past life in 2004 because they affect things in the AU.

Unnamed Guest: Thanks for the review. Reviews like this make my day. :D

And all of you, my readers, thanks for your love and support.