Chapter 6: Hitch in the Timeline

"Close your mouth, Potter," Draco hissed.

Potter openly gaped at the boys. Draco himself had never been so excited to see Weasley. The significance of this teenaged version of him to Draco's work couldn't be understated.

Weasley, James, Sirius, Lupin, and Wormtail all turned toward the western courtyard. Sirius glanced over his shoulder, then double took. He fell behind the others, gaze on Potter.

"All right there, Granddad?" Sirius called. "See something you like?"

Draco worked to keep his expression straight through a snort. Sirius' friends all wheezed with laughter. James grabbed him by the elbow and tried to tug him on.

"Bloody hell, Padfoot," he managed.

Potter's lips had parted again, and the rate at which he blinked denoted a shortage somewhere in the brain. He shook his head sharply.

"You're a cheeky little cunt," Potter called back in the same insolent tone. "I'll give you that, mate."

The boys' laughter all cut short, and they slowed to a stop. Sirius looked back over his shoulder. They all exchanged glances, then changed direction. As they approached, Sirius slipped his hands into his trouser pockets.

"So, what's this?" he asked. "I don't reckon Death Eaters are allowed on grounds."

Potter gave him a stern look. "Do you really think we would have gotten this close to the castle, if that's what we were? Who are you, anyway? The security detail? You look a bit young for that."

"And a bit small," Draco added in a thoughtful tone.

Sirius sized Draco up. "You look an awful lot like my cousin's slimy fiancé."

Draco hummed. "That wouldn't be some bloke named Lucius Malfoy, would it?"

"Yes," Sirius replied. "Know him then, do you?"

"This is the second time I've been mistaken for him. Alastor Moody said the same thing yesterday, when we met."

"So you're not Aurors," James mused. "What are you? And why are you here?"

"We're Unspeakables," Potter replied. "We have a meeting scheduled with Dumbledore. I'm Scully, and this is Mulder."

Draco dipped his chin at the lot of them before mirroring Sirius' lax stance, hands in his coat pockets. "Do you boys have names, then?"

Sirius, James, Lupin, and Wormtail each introduced themselves. Weasley raised a hand in friendly greeting at the end. "Ron Prewett."

"Prewett," Potter repeated thoughtfully. "Who're your parents?"

"You're barking." Weasley scoffed and elbowed Lupin, who grinned too in amusement. "Gideon and Amelia."

"Ah," Potter said. "Right."

"So what do Unspeakables want with Dumbledore?" Wormtail asked. "Is he in trouble, or something?"

Potter laughed. "Bold of you to assume that even if he was, we could do anything about it. Sorry, though. That's our business alone. It's not for someone your age to be involved in."

"Hey." Sirius swelled in silly indignation. "I'll have you know that as far as people go around here, we're quite mature."

The other four boys burst into laughter, which made it less suspicious when Potter did the same thing. Even Draco couldn't help but smile. He slid back the wrist of his coat to check his watch.

"Scully, we ought to be on our way," he said, then nodded again at Weasley and his new gang of friends. "It was a pleasure to meet you all."

The five headed off toward the western courtyard. Draco poked Potter in the ribs to prod him on.

"Well," Potter said.

"Indeed." Draco paused. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your current level of cocked-up-ness?"

"I'm all right." Potter tugged at the neck of his undervest shirt. "I'm keeping it in mind they're all different boys from who I knew in our own universe. Honestly, I'm just happy to see them living like they ought to have. Finding Ron was a nice bonus. What exactly does it mean that he's a Prewett?"

"I have some floating ideas for detail on how integration must work, based on that back there." Draco jerked his head behind them. "I'll need more time to think on it before I can come up with anything concrete. If we don't catch sight of Yaxley as another student here, we might be able to extrapolate a theory into finding him elsewhere."

"That's good." Potter paused. "Er. . .I just thought. How exactly are we going to get Ron out of here, if this universe has built him an entirely new life? He believes he belongs here. Seeing us didn't seem to give him any kind of notion to the contrary. No déjà vu. . .nothing."

"I'll have to think about it."

Dumbledore's return letter had proposed they meet in the Entrance Hall. It was nice and cool in there, especially compared to outside.

Some students and staff occupied the Great Hall at the dregs of lunch hour. Draco watched with interest when a little gang of Slytherins emerged and turned toward the dungeons. Potter elbowed Draco, but of course Draco had already noticed Snape. The other three were Reuben Avery, Arnold Mulciber, and Marshall Wilkes.

Draco leaned closer to Potter and lowered his voice when they had disappeared into the dungeons. "At first glance, I'd say that Weasley and Yaxley didn't wind up the same age. I would have expected him to be hanging around that lot, were that the case."

Potter idly nodded.

Two more people approached from within the Great Hall. A significantly younger Professor McGonagall walked with a significantly more alive Dumbledore. Their conversation came to a stop as both noticed Draco and Potter standing there. Professor McGonagall bid Dumbledore a good afternoon and headed for the marble staircase.

Draco stepped forward to meet Dumbledore halfway across the Entrance Hall. As he extended a hand, an element of recognition slightly narrowed Dumbledore's eyes. Regardless, Dumbledore clasped Draco's hand as firmly as ever.

"Dumbledore, I presume," Draco said as greeting. "I'm Mulder, and this is my partner Scully."

"Pleasure." Dumbledore shook Potter's hand next. "And what might I do for you today?"

"We were hoping to gain access to student records," Draco replied. "Something has come up in our line of work, in which we need to locate someone. We cannot find any record of this individual elsewhere. Before we're genuinely grasping at straws, we thought perhaps we ought to try here."

"I see." Dumbledore considered Draco. "Who is this individual?"

"I'd rather we didn't speak about it in such a high-traffic area." Just as Draco said that, the castle's front doors happened to open. Some students flooded in.

"Why don't the three of us take a walk on the grounds?" Dumbledore suggested. "It's far too lovely a day to spend indoors. Is it not?"

"Whatever you prefer."

Draco wasn't thrilled to go back outside, for the heat. He could tell Potter wasn't either, when they shared a quick glance. On top of that, Draco's usual script with Dumbledore in these situations had gone off.

The three of them were like fish swimming upstream, passing through all the students that filed back for afternoon lessons. Some kids loitered over by the Quidditch pitch.

"Fox Mulder and Dana Scully," Dumbledore said in a thoughtful tone, breaking the silence between the three of them. "Funny, I tried last night after I received your letter to recall if you had studied here at Hogwarts. My memory isn't infallible, but student records confirmed that you've never attended."

"We attended Vandiemia together," Draco replied.

"Ah." Dumbledore nodded. "How long have you been in Britain for?"

"Five years, this summer."

"I see."

With all his might, Draco resisted allowing his brow to furrow. He'd had many different encounters with Dumbledore in this sort of situation, but none had ever gone so stiffly. Dumbledore normally never wasted time in showing intrigue about Draco's inquiries if it sounded like Voldemort was the person of interest. Dumbledore never led Draco in the opposite direction of his office, either.

Halfway between the castle and gates, Dumbledore slowed to a stop. Draco squirmed slightly, even though Dumbledore smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

"I believe it would be best that you two leave," Dumbledore said.

Potter blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"I would appreciate it if you left."

"Is there something wrong with us requesting student records?" Draco asked. "We would be more than happy to clarify any concerns you have, provided they fall within the scope of our confidentiality requirements—"

"No, there's no problem at all." Dumbledore's smile widened slightly, but the twinkle in his eye was gone. "I'm asking you to leave, however."

"Have we done something to offend you?"

"Please." Dumbledore gestured toward the gates. "Show yourselves out. I would appreciate that you refrain from future correspondence, as well. I daresay I needn't explicitly request you not return to Hogwarts."

He was so polite about it that Draco didn't know if he should take him seriously. Potter seemed of similar mind. He took a step toward the gate first.

"Good day, then," he said.

Dumbledore inclined his head. "To you as well."

Rather than return to the castle, Dumbledore remained where he was to watch Draco and Potter slip out of the gates. Not until they were on the other side of Hogsmeade, heading into the trees toward the cabin, did Potter speak again.

"What was that?" he asked. "Why did he give us the boot? We didn't do anything. You didn't look like you expected it anymore than I did."

"No," Draco replied. "I didn't expect it at all. That's not how it's ever gone with him, for me."

"So what's different?" Potter shouldered off his coat. "Urgh, it's almost too hot to think."

Draco removed his as well. The first thing he did when they made it back to the cabin was dress down. Potter did the same, and ended up in his hammock before Draco came out of the bathroom.

He poked his head through the door. "Come in here."

With a wave of Draco's wand, the wall his bedroom shared with the sitting room changed from blank space to a blackboard. There was a box of chalk in one of the kitchen drawers.

"I wondered why that was there," Potter said.

Draco pointed at the sitting room chair, which faced the wall. "Let's start breaking all of this down."

While Potter dropped into the seat, Draco turned to the blackboard. In the top left corner he wrote:

Weasley - aka Ron Prewett, Hogwarts student approx. 15 years old
Yaxley - unknown

In the top right corner, he wrote Allies and Enemies in a two-column chart.

"Enemies is a bit dramatic, isn't it?" Potter asked.

"Do you have a better word?"

"Adversary, maybe? Obstacle?"

Draco erased Enemies and replaced it with Adversaries. Under Allies, he listed Department of Mysteries and Effie Potter. He put Dumbledore and Molly Weasley under Adversaries.

"Which would you put Moody under?" Draco asked Potter. "He's an ally for now, but I wonder how long that will last. He's too paranoid for our good."

Potter hummed. "Ally with a question mark after his name? I think it'll change if Moody and Dumbledore talk. Provided they're both in the Order of the Phoenix in this universe, that'll be sooner than later."

"I appreciate the proper terminology, Potter," Draco said as he put Moody on the board.

"It matters to you, so. . ." Potter trailed off. "If Dumbledore is—I don't know, suspicious?—of us, we could almost guarantee they'll have made contact before tomorrow."

"Were you close at all to Moody before he passed away back home?" Draco faced Potter again, free hand on his hip.

"Not really." Potter slouched down in his seat with his fingers folded over his stomach. His ankles were crossed on the tea table. "I always wanted to feel like we were, because I'd gotten along with him all right at Hogwarts. But. . ."

"Yes," Draco said. Potter didn't have to finish that thought.

"I'd still like to say I knew what he's like, if that's what you're really after," Potter continued. "He's not a difficult person to figure out. He isn't much different here either, as far as we've seen. Expect paranoia. He won't let anything just slide. Speaking also as an Auror, I wouldn't be surprised if we were lugged into an interrogation room the next time we visit the office—after any sort of tip-off from Dumbledore, mind."

For that, Draco switched Moody to the Adversaries list.

"The good news is, we no longer need to check in with Moody or Effie to see if Weasley has shown up," Draco said. "We can also strike Molly and Arthur as potential contacts. Weasley won't see them as parents. They're technically his aunt and uncle, here. Who do you think his mother is? Which Amelia?"

Potter pursed his lips and hummed. "The only Amelia of any significance I ever knew was Amelia Bones."

Draco addended Weasley's little profile at the top of the blackboard to include that. "Have you any idea what Gideon Prewett and Amelia Bones were doing in the mid-seventies, back home?"

"Gideon and his brother Fabian were both in Enforcement. Gideon was an Auror, Fabian a Hit Wizard. As for Amelia. . ." Potter squinted an eye as he gazed out the window in thought. "I'm not completely sure on that. She was Head of Magical Law Enforcement before she was murdered in '96. Twenty years before that, I couldn't say. She's not somebody I ever had reason to dig up information on."

Draco added Amelia Prewett and Gideon Prewett, and then Fabian Prewett for good measure, underneath Adversaries. He hesitated afterward, looking at the already sizeable list.

Potter spoke his thoughts: "Doesn't look too good for us, does it?"

"No," Draco admitted. "We've already misaligned ourselves with Dumbledore, the Head Auror, another Auror, a Hit Wizard, the woman who killed Aunt Bella, and then whoever Amelia Prewett winds up being. Very promising for our goal, indeed."

Potter laughed mirthlessly. "I suppose the full weight of that depends on what exactly we're going to have to do, to get Ron out of here. How do we reverse integration?"

"Well, this is where things become less clear."

On the board, Draco wrote Recourse underneath Weasley and Yaxley's names. Beneath that, Delink Weasley and Yaxley with a question mark.

"Integration was only a theory for what might have happened to Weasley," Draco said. "I never had reason before—or really the means—to try and speculate beyond that. Now that we've confirmed integration as an outcome of natural travel to an alternate universe, we need to explore the consequences.

"We can't guarantee Weasley will return to himself by undertaking a structured return voyage." Draco sat down on the sofa end closest to Potter. "At least if Weasley remained Ron Prewett post-return, he wouldn't be harmed in the process. We would be able to bring him back."

"I wouldn't bank on being able to test that, in a practical sense." Potter's head lolled against the back of the chair as he turned it toward Draco. "What do you reckon Dumbledore's problem was? You said he's never done that. So what was different this time?"

"I wasn't alone, although I'm struggling to see what sort of difference that could make," Draco replied. "I've encountered recognition enough times with physical likeness to my father to comfortably say that shouldn't factor in either."

"Okay," Potter said thoughtfully.

"This universe has literally changed relative to our own to accommodate Weasley and Yaxley," Draco continued. "Because of Weasley, Gideon Prewett and Amelia presumed-Bones married and had at least one child together. We haven't been here long enough yet to explore what else might have been altered. How familiar are you with our 1975? Or the seventies, in general?"

"Familiar enough," Potter replied. "I could tell you anything about the absconded Death Eaters' lives as far as they're known, back to front and back again. A lot of that comes from the seventies."

Draco stood again. Under Recourse, he wrote Test if delinking is necessary. He drew an arrow from the previous point about delinking to that one. Beneath that point, he wrote Locate Yaxley. Draco stepped away from the blackboard and folded his arms as he considered it all from some distance.

"Might be worth solidifying our cover story," Potter suggested.

"Yes." Draco added that to Recourse. "It will help to have a story that doesn't waver at all, especially if we find ourselves attracting the attention of Enforcement. We could pass a copy to the Department of Mysteries in case anyone pokes around. They'll vouch for us."

"Like Theta did for you, about Nice?"

"Don't even start," Draco snapped, narrowing his eyes when Potter grinned.

"I'm only taking the piss." Potter pulled his feet off the tea table and stood as well. "I just thought of something. The best way to get Ron out of here would basically be a grab and run?"

"If we had access and opportunity."

Potter headed for the kitchen calendar. "Full moon's on the twenty-fifth. Two weeks away."

"What about it?" Draco asked. "Aside from Lupin transforming into a werewolf."

"When my dad was at Hogwarts, he became an Animagus along with Sirius and Peter," Potter said. "You heard my dad call Sirius Padfoot earlier, right? They've already managed it. And if those three are Animagi, I'd bet you that Ron is too."

"All right," Draco slowly replied. "And?"

"They went through all that trouble so that Remus wouldn't be alone." Potter returned to Draco. "That was the purpose of the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow. Remus would go there during his transformations. Once his friends became Animagi, they'd all transform and run around in the Forest."

Draco turned back to the blackboard. Under Recourse, he wrote: Snatch Weasley during full moon (Friday 25th).

Potter wrinkled his nose. "You couldn't make it sound nicer than that?"

"I could switch 'snatch' for 'kidnap', if you would rather," Draco offered. "Or 'abduct'."

With a dismissive grunt, Potter waved him off. "I guess it's what we're going to have to do, isn't it? As far as everyone here knows, he's just going to vanish."

"There's no point mincing words." Draco sat back down on the sofa. "Just because we remove Weasley from this universe doesn't mean it ceases to exist. The people here will live out their lives, much the same way we will back home. Even if they were told the truth, that Weasley had a family and a life to get back to, I sincerely doubt that would make this acceptable in their eyes. You're going to have to take one of your father's best friends from him. Gideon and Amelia Prewett are going to lose their son."

While Potter studied the blackboard, Draco studied him. He couldn't see his face given the angle, but Potter rubbed the fingers of his right hand at his side. Eventually, the whole thing clenched into a loose fist.

"There's no other way?" Potter asked. "What about delinking? You wrote it there, so it must be a thing."

"Theoretically," Draco said. "It could take years to sort out, although I suppose I could give it some sort of go if I had a Vanishing Cabinet on hand. They seem quite prime for accidentally slipping away."

Potter looked down at Draco. "We happen to know where two are."

"Did you hear the part where I said it could take years?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"We could put a time constraint on it, if you're willing to give it a shot."

"I don't know that you fully appreciate what an undertaking it would be," Draco said. "What we've learned thus far about integration is that it's possible for Weasley to essentially belong to two different universes. In the exact same vein that you know Weasley belongs back home with us is the same way everyone here knows this is where he belongs."

"But the librometer," Potter replied, eyes widening in panic. "It—"

Draco put a hand up. "Don't worry, I'm not saying that it's possible Weasley actually does belong here, and his life in our universe was the illusion. We've measured a deficit in energy back home, and a surplus here. We followed him. This life is the illusory one."

"All right." Potter's expression relaxed along with him. "Well, I would still rather make this as clean as possible. Won't you try delinking him?"

"Potter." Draco resisted rubbing his temples. "Listen to me. Weasley and Yaxley traveled here through a natural wormhole. You and I arrived through an artificial one. Artificial ones are akin to a shuttle. We were transferred as is. That's the only type that's ever been manufactured, at least to my knowledge. The one you're asking me to create is going to have to go beyond that. It could take years, and we might only find in the end that it's not possible. If it is, and this universe only sprung into being because of Yaxley and Weasley jumping into that Cabinet at my house in Nice, undoing the point of creation would destroy it completely."

"Then I guess there'd be nobody here to miss Ron, would there?"

"If we have the opportunity," Draco continued, ignoring that, "like when Weasley voluntarily leaves the castle for a nighttime stroll in two weeks, we ought to plan something around that."

"What if Ron doesn't reintegrate to our universe without doing this first?" Potter posed. "What if we take him to the travel room, and he's still Ron Prewett on the other side? Holding him captive doesn't sit right with me, and that entire adversaries list would be between us and him for a second go. We might not get a second chance. He could be gone for good."

Draco drummed his fingers on the sofa arm. "We could leave him in my office lab back home, where time is currently frozen relative to us. Weasley wouldn't know the difference, but it wouldn't change anything here. While we try to sort out delinking him, we'd still be up against that list of adversaries. It would be too much of a coincidence for us to have just appeared out of nowhere at the same time Weasley disappeared. There are four witnesses that we were talking to him just prior, and I can't say the Department of Mysteries would be impressed with the trouble we'd create either."

"What about leaving things frozen here, and trying to figure it out back home?"

"And leave Granger and their children hanging instead?"

"Another universe then, where we have access to your office."

"I am absolutely flattered you think another me would help."

Potter kept on thinking then, looking so upset and determined at the same time that Draco couldn't help but feel compelled. With a resigned sigh, he added under Recourse: Find a Vanishing Cabinet and explore delinking potential.

That seemed to calm Potter down.

"We don't need to find a Vanishing Cabinet," Potter pointed out again. "We know where two are. We could go by Borgin and Burke's, and see if they would sell us that one."

"I don't see why they wouldn't, if the price was right," Draco said. "I brought a key for one of the Malfoy vaults at Gringotts. We'd be able to take some gold without notice."

Potter stood beside Draco, studying the board anew with folded arms.

"We ought to come up with a concrete plan of action through all this," he said with a sigh. "There are a lot of maybes floating around."

"Right." Draco started a new section called To Do.

"Finalizing our cover story ought to be the priority," Potter suggested. "Knockturn Alley later, about the Vanishing Cabinet?"

"Tomorrow, I think." Draco wrote it down. "We ought to take the afternoon to let the dust settle. Something else might occur to us that renders a Vanishing Cabinet irrelevant."

"Like finding Yaxley, maybe?" Potter asked. "If we do, would we be able to use him as a test run for if delinking is necessary?"

"Potentially," Draco said. "We'll have to assess that once we know where he wound up. The slew of people in the way might be just as difficult to handle as the ones currently separating us from Weasley—and of a much less savoury sort."