At the end of June, James asked Sirius to visit Mercuria and wait for news. "It could be any day now that Harry is born. I want you both to come to Godric's Hollow while Lily is in hospital. So be prepared to start immediately". Sirius had barely arrived in Antwerp when James' message called him back. They dashed to Godric's Hollow where they found James in an euphoric mood. "It all happened really quick. Unbelievable. Harry is the most beautiful baby in the world. You just cannot imagine how wonderful he is". James opened a bottle of champagne, and they drank to the health of mother and child. Then James said, "To celebrate let's go for a ride on my broom". He took his flying gear under his arm, and they walked through the sheep meadow to the edge of the forest. Before Mercuria mounted up behind James, she glanced at the back of the house and noticed that they had forgotten to turn out the lights. Sirius watched in amusement as the two of them took off and shot across the meadow before disappearing from his sight for a short while. As James landed his broom next to Sirius, the two friends took Mercuria into their midst, put their arms around her shoulders and all three chanted, "Happy Birthday, Harry", at the top of their voices as they trudged back to the house.

Mercuria stayed behind when James and Sirius paid Lily and Harry a visit the next afternoon. She picked up her sketchbook and went to sit in the living room. On her way there, she slipped and threw a flowerpot of orchids off the windowsill. Cursing loudly, she cleaned up the broken pieces and the potting soil. The plant itself could not be saved either. All the flowers had fallen off. Mercuria sat down at the table and began to draw. Around eight in the evening, the two friends returned. Both were completely exuberant. Sirius sat down next to her and said, "Harry is so beautiful. I hope that you too will meet him soon. It's an incredible feeling to hold such a small child in your arms. By the way, he looks like his father. The same jet-black hair and the happy expression on his face. But he has your eyes. Yours and Lily's".

In his excitement, James opened another bottle of champagne and they toasted again. "You may have wondered why I invited you both here. Because of Harry's birth, of course. But for another reason, too". Mercuria and Sirius were surprised. James hesitated for a moment before he continued. "Some time before I married Lily, I came into possession of an artifact by accident. A piece of jewellery that looks like a pinecone. According to the note that came with it, it was on its way to Voldemort. I had visited Dumbledore at Hogwarts and was on my way home when I encountered a Death Eater who immediately attacked me. We fought a duel, and I was able to overpower him. Among his belongings, I found the piece. I have been studying it ever since. I don't know what it's good for, but the Dark Lord obviously misses it a lot, because I've heard through different sources that he's desperately searching for it. After the various attacks on us, I gave it to a neighbour for safekeeping. The Millers down the road. Muggles. If anything should happen to us, Mr. Miller will send the piece to Mercuria in Belgium. I've thought long and hard about who would be most suitable to hide the piece from Voldemort. You, Mercuria. You can't be obliviated. And you live abroad. So, if one day you get a parcel with this jewellery, you know that we are dead. Keep it safe then". "Why me, why not Sirius?". James was irritated. "He might be dead as well". Mercuria did not know what to say to this. Although Sirius regularly informed her about the events at home, until that moment she had never truly realised that Sirius and her family were constantly living in mortal danger. She frowned and sat back thoughtfully.

Sirius leaned back in his chair. "You know what? There is something I have wanted to tell you for years. Only the time never seemed right. Now it is, I think. James, you told me some time ago that I could work as a seer. And I replied that I was allowed a very brief glimpse into the future. Remember when I asked you if I could come with you to your parents' home after we graduated from school? And you told me you were going to visit Lily's parents instead? My question was a test. To see how trustworthy this was". He took the letter out of his pocket and handed it to James. When James finished reading it, he asked, "How did you come by this letter?". "Owl post. About two weeks before the end of term". James nodded. Mercuria had been frowning at him the whole time. When he handed her the letter, she skimmed it hastily. James and Sirius tensely followed her every move.

When she looked up, she was highly agitated. "You're with me just because of that letter? And I thought you really loved me". She turned away from him with a sullen expression on her face and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Sirius tried to take her in his arms, but she pushed him away. "Go away. I don't want to see you anymore. Get out of my life. You bloody wizard rabble". "Curey, please believe me. I didn't mean to hurt you. Ever. And I'm with you because I love you. It's true that if it hadn't been for that letter, we never would have met. But it had no influence on my feelings for you". "I don't know what you're up to. Did you forge it with magic?". "Curey, I did not forge that letter. I told you how I received it two weeks before I left Hogwarts. It was delivered by owl post. This letter was the reason I accompanied James and Lily when they visited your family in Cokeworth. That is how we got to know each other". "Is that so? And why does it say that whether you like me or not, you must keep in touch no matter what, so that I will do what you want me to do? Did you think it would be easier on you if you crawled into my bed, like you do with that Yaxley woman?". James looked at his friend appreciatively. The fact that Sirius was involved with Lysandra was news to him. He had been asking himself for quite some time already, who could be the source of Sirius' information. Mercuria continued to shout. "But perhaps that's exactly your modus operandi. Perhaps you are nothing but a bloody gigolo". She paused, startled, and raised her hands in front of her mouth. Sirius felt as if he had been punched in his stomach and he thought he was going to choke. An unbridled rage rose inside of him, and he saw red. Roughly, he grabbed Mercuria's shoulders and pushed her violently against the wall. With a highly flushed face, he hissed, "If that's what you really think, then pack the hell up and get the fuck out of here, right now. Before I forget myself." Mercuria's voice trembled and he saw the shock on her face, "Please, I'm sorry. That was wicked of me. I shouldn't have said that. I don't know what made me say it. Believe me, I'm sorry. Honestly". Sirius closed his eyes, bend his head and took several deep breaths. Slowly, the red haze dissipated. Then he nodded and forced himself to smile. "Okay. I guessed you'd get mad when you read the letter. I admit that you can draw wrong conclusions from it. That's why I didn't show it to you earlier. But it wasn't like that." He looked down at her. Had she always been so small and fragile? In his perception she had seemed his equal. He bowed towards her and kissed away the tears that rolled from her eyes. Mercuria embraced him. "I know that. Believe me, I know it wasn't like that. I didn't mean to hurt you. Please forgive me. Please, let's think about the letter. And why I wrote it".

Sirius thought he had misheard and said hesitantly, "Now I'm all confused. You say you wrote the letter?". Mercuria agreed eagerly. "Yes, it is my handwriting. It has changed but the main features are still there. The wording is yours, so I assume you dictated what I should write". "You have no doubt about this, right?". Mercuria shook her head vigorously. "No, I'm absolutely certain". Sirius pulled her back to the sofa and slumped heavily into the cushions. He buried his face in his hands and contemplated what he had just heard. James and Mercuria waited patiently without a word. Finally, Sirius looked up. "This changes everything. I've been so daft. So far, I've assumed that I wrote and sent the letter on my own. And that the only reason we both met at all was because of it. But now that I think about it, I should have realised from the beginning that things simply couldn't have been like this. The reason why I know that you can draw Wizarding portraits is because you and me will be together in the future. The letter says 'you will gain some additional years full of love and happiness' and this was possible only because compared to the original timeline we advanced the date of our first encounter". He cast a guilty look at Mercuria, who put her hand on his thigh and said, "And as a result, we will be together for at least another twenty years". Sirius nodded. "But what does that mean now?".

James had been sitting in his chair, watching them closely, ready to intervene at any moment if the situation got out of hand. Now he leaned forward and said, "Let's proceed step by step. The first question is: Is time travel possible? Obviously yes, but how?". Sirius nodded. "When I asked Dumbledore about it, he said that there is only one way. You need a time-turner". "Time-turner? And where do you get one?". "Nowhere. It's the same as with an Animagus: they are under strict control of the Ministry. The Ministry has created all the known pieces itself and guards them closely. But while a very skilled and determined wizard can become an Animagus without anyone noticing, as the Marauders proved, it is impossible for most wizards to create a time-turner. According to Dumbledore, it is an extremely complicated mechanical instrument, much like a watch. It cannot be fabricated by magic. Only a very gifted precision mechanic can create such a piece. And I assure you, there are few, if any, of those in the Wizarding World. If we used a time-turner to send the letter, it must have been an illegal device from abroad".

A crease appeared on James' forehead, but he said nothing. Mercuria said, "Okay. We wrote this letter because we were in a jam. We wanted to change something in the past to benefit in the future. But why didn't we just use the time-turner to change things? Why did we plan such a complicated endeavour?". "Using a time-turner is always a risk. And it's dangerous for two main reasons. One is that if you travel in time, you suddenly exist twice. As the person you are and as the person who has come from the future. If these two identities meet, the consequences will probably be fatal. For the second, you could change a seemingly small, unimportant event, but one that will gain on immense significance as the years go by". Sirius frowned. "I think we sent this letter because we were convinced that the side effects of our intervention would be very limited. We have just established that we will become a couple at some point in the future. But by the time we will have finally met, it may be too late to do anything about the casket". Mercuria said, "Suppose you are right. It must happen now. What do you do with a casket? You put something inside. This story is not about the casket itself, but about the contents. Our future selves either wanted to get hold of whatever is inside of it or they wanted to prevent someone else from doing so".

Sirius shook his head. "What are you trying to say?". "Sirius. Think about it. We're talking about caskets in paintings here. But when Rosier posed for his portrait, the real casket was next to him on the table. That's what this is all about. The real casket. And its contents". She filled her glass and lit another cigarette. "In this story, the time factor plays an important part". James tapped his armrest. "That's pretty obvious. After all, there's a time-turner involved." Mercuria frowned. "That's not what I have in mind. We're sending a letter back 22 years in time. Why? Because our goal can only be achieved in a fairly distant past. Otherwise, it would have sufficed to travel back a few weeks. Or back to when we actually met. Obviously, that was too late. Sirius receives the letter two years ago, when you were still at Hogwarts. But the portrait of his uncle wasn't painted until this year. I suspect it has something to do with my elopement to Antwerp. If everything had gone as I planned, in other words if you hadn't come to Cokeworth with James and Lily, I would have lived on the continent for several years and no one would have known my whereabouts. Chances are we originally met after I returned home at some point and visited James and Lily". James and Sirius nodded. James said, "That's how it may have been, no, that's how it must have been. What could have happened?". They pondered while Sirius filled their glasses and lit a cigarette. Finally James said, " Possibly the two paintings have a bearing on the matter. The portrait of Phineas was painted this year and still exists in 2000, that's for sure. But perhaps the Rosier portrait will be destroyed before you return from Antwerp. That would satisfactorily explain it all".

Sirius said to Mercuria, "Whatever the reason, now you have to learn to paint Wizarding portraits". "What is so special about them?". "The people in Wizarding portraits talk and move. They can even leave the painting and move to another one. I've never heard of a Muggle doing a portrait like that, but apparently you can. Otherwise, none of this would make sense. Have you ever done a painting before?". She shook her head. "Then you'll have to practise. That's why I made you visit all these museums. I don't want to invade Rosier's house and then we're stuck because it doesn't work out". Mercuria clapped her hands enthusiastically. "James, do you have a Wizarding painting? I would love to see one". James shook his head. "All I have are photographs. Hang on". He called out, "Accio photo album", and a thick photo album shot off from the sideboard into his lap. "Here, these are pictures from our wedding. People in photos move but can't talk though". Mercuria flipped the pages excitedly and laughed as the people in the photos waved at her. "Wow. You two look simply stunning in your dress robes. And Lily. She is so beautiful. It's a shame I couldn't be there. James, can't you take a picture of Sirius and me?". The men exchanged a look. Then James got up and left the room for a moment. When he returned, he carried a camera and took a few photos of Mercuria and Sirius. "Okay, I'll give it a shot. You wouldn't happen to know what kind of painting it is?". Sirius looked questioningly. "Watercolour, oil on canvas? Whatever?". He shook his head. "I suppose I should learn all those techniques then."

James said: "Coming back to this letter. The instructions are clear. Rosier is a Death Eater. His ancestor may also have been supported wizard supremacy". "Possibly, but that is irrelevant". "Why?". "As Mercuria said, this is about the real casket. It belonged to old Rosier, and it's very likely that Jacques Rosier inherited it. But apparently, he won't have it in 2000 anymore. It might have been lost and we won't be able to track it down in the future. But for some reason we really need it. We conceived the plan to transfer the casket into another painting because we were very desperate. If the casket can no longer be found, then old Rosier's portrait might be the only proof of its existence. Anyway, the underlying idea behind it is obvious, namely to take the casket, the real casket that is, away from Rosier". James nodded. "Sounds logical to me. What about your uncle?". Sirius burst out laughing. "He's an outcast of my family because he stands up for Muggle rights. But he's also immensely rich, lives in a huge estate in Yorkshire and has built the second largest library in Britain. Every now and then my mother would secretly visit him and take Regulus and me with her. I suspect she was the only one in the family. It must have been hard for her to throw all convictions overboard. But everyone has a price, or so they say. She wanted to inherit him so badly. He massively enjoyed showing her around, watching her squirm and seeing the greed in her eyes, while he had already drawn up a will in Uncle Alphard's favour".

All three laughed. James resumed, "Ok, at some point in the future you want to transfer this casket from a Death Eater to a trusted family member. Probably to get your hands on the casket yourself. You're so desperate that you tamper with time. But still careful enough not to use the time-turner in your possession to travel back in time yourself and to change the past. Instead, you send a letter and hope that your younger self will solve the problem. And you were right, because until now everything has turned out according to plan. When you wrote the letter, apparently you were a happy couple. You were banking on the fact that you would fall for each other even if you advanced the date of your first meeting. That was perhaps the biggest risk you took when writing that letter. You only had a week to fall in love, and if things had gone wrong, your future would have been altered forever. I am positive of that. Everything you need to do now might look more dangerous at first glance, but it possibly isn't at all. Tell me, you are convinced that the information in the letter is valid, aren't you?". Sirius nodded. "Absolutely. So far, everything that was predicted has come to pass. Like me buying a motorbike, Mercuria's escape to Antwerp, your in-laws dying in a car accident, Harry's birth and everything else. You do know this yourself". James nodded, "Yeah sure, because these events personally affected the three of us and therefore you will still remember them twenty years from now". Sirius frowned and looked at his friend inquiringly. "Something's giving you pause, right? Tell me". "Listen. I guess that there was a third person involved". "What makes you suspect this?". James leaned forward, propping his elbows on his thighs and counting off on his fingers as he explained. "There are details in this letter that I find irritating. First, the time-turner. Few wizards know that it is possible to travel through time. At any rate, I have never heard of this until today. Time-turners are probably not directly classified as Dark Arts, but they are definitely precarious. Nevertheless, we can't rule out that you might possess such an instrument at some point, since you have connections abroad". James raised a second finger. "How do you know to get into Rosier's house without activating the Intruder Charm? Ok, you learn a lot from your underground activities. Perhaps even how to enter Rosier's property undetected. I'm sure you would remember that sort of information". Sirius nodded. James raised his third finger. "What I can't quite figure out, though, is how you know that the Rosiers won't be spending Christmas at home. Could Lysandra have told you?". Sirius shook his head. "She's never mentioned the Rosiers before. Yaxley doesn't seem to have any social dealings with them. As a Death Eater, he is in contact with Ewan and Philippe though. But the latter is dead, as you yourself very well know. I will ask her, but I don't think she can help here". James interjected, "And even if she did. This is a thoroughly trivial piece of information. Don't you think you would have forgotten about it straight away if someone had told you? Or do you remember with whom Peter or Remus celebrated Christmas four years ago?". Sirius snorted, "Probably with their parents. But I get your point. Even if someone told me where the Rosiers are spending the holidays this year, under normal circumstances I'd barely remember it twenty years from now. I overhear far too much really significant stuff to do so. You're probably right in assuming that there was someone else involved". James straightened up and exclaimed excitedly, "Exactly. Someone we're not even thinking about at the moment. Someone who is a supporter of the other side." Sirius looked at his friend in amazement. For a moment he mulled over what he had just heard. Finally, he nodded. James continued, "Twenty years is a long time. A lot of alliances can change in between. My advice is to find out who it was. It doesn't have to be right away, but you should start looking for that person as soon as possible. To know someone who possesses a time-turner should be valuable in more than one respect".

James leaned towards his friend. "Enough of this. I'm in". His eyes sparkled with excitement. "Yes, I'll join in. Let's plan how we're going to proceed. We only have four days between Christmas and New Year. Not enough time to travel by Muggle train up North, which I would have preferred, because then we wouldn't attract anyone's attention. Therefore, we must fly. What are your plans?". "Like you said. We'll fly there. Pensouth is a small Muggle settlement. The Rosier's' house stands in a valley three miles out of town. I plan to park the bike at an abandoned farm, then turn Curey into a small dog, assume my Animagus shape, enter the Rosier's' estate and invade the house through the doggie door". "You cased the place?". Sirius nodded. "More than once in the last two years". James smiled. "Okay. Any obstacles?".

"Rosier's dogs. Dobermans. They are smaller than me, but there are five of them. It's hard to predict the outcome of a fight. Besides, I must protect Mercuria. Being a doggy, she is defenceless against the brutes". "I could wait outside the property until you finish them off". "Not a good idea. Only because of the dogs can we get into the compound without setting off the alarm. The one access that isn't included in the protective system is by a woodpile. There is a small gap in the protection, but only animals can get through. The dogs use to jump over the pile into the open area and back. If you wait outside the premises, they can easily attack you. One of them is enough to finish you off. No, it does not work that way. You have to stay close to me".

James chuckled. "One of the reasons I'm coming with you. Padfoot, you just need me". "But then there's another problem". "And what's that?". "Your antlers. The dog flap is large enough for me to squeeze through. With some difficulties, you can get through too. I've measured that out. It's going to be a little tight, but it should work. But your antlers just won't pass". "Then I will throw them off when the time has come. If I change back into a human and then assume my Animagus shape again, they'll have regrown. Padfoot, this is going to be exciting. I can't hardly wait. I'm telling you". For a moment they both shivered with anticipation.

Suddenly Mercuria said, "Do you know what I'm asking myself right now?". "Tell us". "The letter specifically mentions that James is the only one you may let in on this story. I understand why Lily shouldn't know. I guess that is because of my family situation. But what about your friends? I thought you guys were as close as brothers. Yet the letter explicitly states that they are not to be told under any circumstances. It even mentions them by name. I think that's kind of weird". James and Sirius exchanged a surprised look. Then they laughed. Sirius said reassuringly, "Love, don't worry. Remus isn't an Animagus. He couldn't help us here. And Peter worships the ground James walks on. But he'd be more of a hindrance to us. His Animagus shape is a rat. Besides, he's not much of a fighter. The dogs would make short work of him. I don't think there is anything more to it than that as few people as possible should be informed and involved. We will stick to that. Only the three of us must know anything about this". Mercuria nodded. "Okay. I'm going to bed now. Can you give me a copy of that letter?". Sirius duplicated the writ and gave it to her. "Good night". She softly kissed Sirius, stroked James' hair, and left the room. James watched her go and asked, "Do you think she'll make it?". "James, I've never been so sure of anything in my whole life. When she gets back home, she'll be painting pictures every spare second. Yes. She'll manage".

That night Sirius couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned restlessly in bed. When Mercuria had asked about Peter and Remus, he had defended them vehemently. But what if his future self knew things that had caused him to explicitly exclude them? Peter was certainly no menace. He simply wasn't gifted enough to do much damage. No, Peter he could disregard. But what about Remus? Remus was a powerful wizard and would certainly have been able to support them despite him being a werewolf. There had to be a reason why Remus should be excluded from the flow of information. Sirius felt the mistrust against his friend slowly creeping up within. He decided to keep a sharp eye on Remus from now on.