"You can't just say something like that!"
"Well… you're one to talk Potter! You're a Metamorphmagus!"
"You're married to Hermione!"
Iolanthe Potter, seven-year-old and newly adopted daughter of Catherine Potter and Luna Lovegood, watched as her new mother and the blond man talked loudly at each other. They weren't yelling or fighting, Luna and Neville had assured her of that, they were just talking loudly at each other. There were also some wild hand gestures being made and they were both standing now.
"What does it matter if I married her? I love her." Blond man, "Draco Malfoy" Luna supplied, said whilst raising his chin slightly.
"My Hermione would never do that!" Catherine said. "You're the last person she'd marry!"
"Well, that's the point, I didn't marry your Hermione." Draco said. "I married my Hermione."
"That doesn't change anything."
"It changes everything. Like how my version of Potter wasn't a girl nor was he a Metamorphmagus."
"Well… dammit." Catherine said as she sunk down to the cushions of the couches that they were all sitting on.
"Bad word Catherine." Luna chided.
"There have been stranger pairings." Neville offered. "Draco and Hermione from his world work pretty well together."
Catherine snorted at that.
"I'd like to point out that you still haven't explained your Metamorphmagus abilities." Draco said. "Its extremely rare in my timeline and I doubt that it's any different here."
"I was born with it, I had to learn to control it early on." Catherine said, shuddering a little as she spoke.
"Mmm, bad time with your muggle relatives?"
"Is that a common theme among the timelines?"
"Almost always is." Neville said. "You'd be surprised how many ways they could change things up."
"Great, really inspiring Nev." Catherine said.
"Can we meet the other versions of ourselves?" Iolanthe asked. The whole concept sounded cool and having more friends who were also herself sounded super cool!
"Unless they pay us a visit, then no." Catherine said. "You're too young to start timeline traveling."
"I wouldn't say that as fact." Neville said. "There is a rumor that there's a six-year-old Master of Death wandering around."
"Six years old?!"
"Yeah, I recall that her name was Josephine or something like that." Draco said as he took a seat down next to Neville.
"It appears that your reasoning for not letting Iolanthe timeline travel is not as sound as it once was Catherine." Luna said.
"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side." Catherine said.
"I am. I just want to make things a little more interesting."
"That's a very Luna Lovegood thing to do." Neville said.
"Aye, it certainly is." Draco said.
"What happened in your timeline?" Catherine asked, somewhat cautiously.
"…you don't want to know." Was Draco's reply.
They all fell into an awkward silence for a moment. Iolanthe couldn't quite understand why it was awkward though. All the adults were looking at each other with weird looks on their faces. Nobody had even said anything awkward in the first place. Unless Draco Malfoy's timeline was really that bad that this was the reaction to just hearing mentions about it. Maybe they shouldn't visit that one.
"Alright, I think we can call it a night." Neville said, breaking through the awkwardness, and stood up. "The goblins have a number of rooms set aside for the Master of Death Club to use. We'll reconvene tomorrow."
Now that Iolanthe was thinking about it, it was rather late, way past her bedtime in fact. Her body let out a yawn all on its own and soon enough she found herself being led by Neville towards the rooms with her new mothers. They found the rooms to be rather nice looking, and she went to sleep knowing that she wouldn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to cook breakfast for the entire family.
"So, Metamorphmagus?"
"Its not as exciting as it first sounds."
"Changing your appearance at will? Sounds damn interesting if you ask me. Damn useful as well."
"I have to have constant control of myself less I unconsciously change my appearance."
"Doesn't sound that different to CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
"Oi! What the fuck are you doing?! Iolanthe's trying to sleep in there."
"The walls are very thick in here, and they're charmed to let no sound pass through, so we're fine."
"Still, my point stands, and really? Constant Vigilance? Moody just as mad as in your timeline as he was in mine?"
"You bet, though he did shout it a lot more, and he had both eyes."
"Really? My Moody only had one eye, that's why we called him Mad-Eye Moody."
"Well, in my world he was just Moody."
"Maybe we should visit your timeline soon, sounds like a right place to be."
"You'd have to brace yourself. My timeline has gone a little crazy with the Longbottom-Hero-Worship."
"They're not worshipping the ground you walk on, are they?"
"I hope not. No, they just mob me whenever I show my face in public, and it doesn't help that I've got a cult named after me."
"A cult? I'm kind of jealous now."
"Please. I can't see anyone being happy with a cult of fanatical followers following them around. They chant my name in the streets Catherine. They pray over Neville Longbottom dolls."
"Neville Longbottom dolls?"
"It's a long story."
"We do have all night."
"So," Draco said as he clapped his hands together. "have we come to an agreement about the Dumbledore situation?"
Potter and Longbottom both looked at him over the rims of their cups of tea with narrowed eyes. The three of them had been at this for near an hour, charts and notes had been drawn and written out, three different timelines explained and discussed. Three variations of the events that they'd all lived through were laid out bare for them all, and whilst the main points had remained the same, there were still small differences.
One of the things that had remained the same however was Albus Dumbledore's role in it all.
"I'm still not convinced that he has a grand evil plan." Potter said. "He seems more misguided due to his age and becoming complacent."
"I need not remind you that he offloaded you onto those muggles of yours? Or that he has done so to Little Potter in this timeline as well?" Draco asked.
"We can't just go and confront him head on about it." Longbottom said. "That would bring up way too many questions and just make everything even more complicated than it already is."
"We could just kill him."
"We are not killing Dumbledore." Potter said firmly.
"He'd be out of the way though, and you have to admit that some of his plans were rather dangerous to the bystanders at Hogwarts." Draco countered.
"Yes, some of them were dangerous, but that doesn't mean we should just kill him. I should point out that he technically hasn't done anything like that in this timeline."
"Yet." Longbottom added.
"Really Nev? What would Hermione and Hannah say about this?" Potter looked between Draco and Longbottom.
Draco's thumb went to touch the wedding band on his ring finger whilst Longbottom blushed at the cheeks slightly.
"We're not a thing anymore Catherine." Longbottom said into his cup of tea.
"You're not? Oh." Potter cleared her throat.
"I'd like to point out that Hermione would agree with my plan." Draco said.
"Bullshit." Potter said. "The last thing Hermione would do is kill Dumbledore if she was in a position like our own."
"About that…"
"She has done it already, hasn't she?"
"Was that the Grindelwald timeline?" Longbottom asked. "Or was it the Triumvirate timeline between Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Riddle?"
"Neither… it was the one with Aberforth Dumbledore." Draco said.
"Hermione killed Aberforth?" Potter said.
"No, she killed Dumbledore, but only after things had gotten desperate." Draco explained. "Dumbledore was very… insane in that timeline. It had to be done."
"Well, we don't know anything about this Dumbledore yet, so let's hold off on the murder until we learn something." Potter said.
"He seems to be rather normal, concerning the other timelines that is." Longbottom said. "No major changes have happened after all, other than us being here and Catherine and Luna taking Iolanthe out of the Dursleys care."
"Which will remain like that until she gets her letter." Potter said quickly.
"You sure you want to put her through Hogwarts?" Draco asked. "Potters don't really have a good time concerning that school."
"And there's also the younger versions of ourselves that Iolanthe would have to deal with." Longbottom added.
"But its Hogwarts." Potter said.
"And? She can go to Beauxbatons just fine." Draco said. "Just change her last name and just like that she's completely safe."
"Also cover up the scar." Longbottom said. "Some muggle makeup would work best, no chance of it being found by any number of spells."
"That won't work. Her name's already been recorded down." Potter said. "Dumbledore would notice if it suddenly just disappeared."
"He might not." Draco shrugged. "Legally change your name and when she turns eleven just enroll her into Beauxbatons with said new name and you're golden."
"Beauxbatons does have a very good schooling system too." Longbottom added. "Did you meet Olympe Maxime in your timeline? You did? Good, then you know that she's a good teacher. And, for all that Fleur Delacour was a haughty, stuck-up prat, she was one of the best students that the school had produced. I mean, her grades were impeccable, at least in my timeline they were."
"Why are you two so insistent that I send her to Beauxbatons?" Potter looked at them suspiciously.
"Because it would be so easy, and it would fix all of our problems." Draco said.
"Most of our problems, not all, just most of them." Longbottom said. "Look Catherine, just change her last name to Dubois or some other common French surname and ship her off to Beauxbatons, and that way we can hunt down the Horcruxes without endangering her."
Potter remained silent at that. Longbottom sighed as he took a sip of his tea. Draco played with his wedding band some more and his mind wandered towards his wife. He'd need to visit again soon, for all that she understood the demands of his position, there was only so much she'd deal with before she would demand that she see him.
"I can't make that decision for her." Potter said after a moment. "It has to be Iolanthe's choice of where she wants to go to school."
Draco suppressed a sigh and simply nodded at that.
"Well, let's just hope she likes French."
"Is that…"
"Yes, it is."
"But… how did you get it?"
"Oh, I just walked in and plucked it from the shelf."
"That didn't set off any alarms? Nothing? You just waltz right on in and took it from the shelf?"
"Yes."
"…"
"Is that really all the reaction I'm going to get?"
"…"
Neville Longbottom looked down at the diary-horcrux that sat on the table.
"Did you really just walk into the Malfoy Manor and take it off a shelf?"
Draco just rolled his eyes and nodded.
"I don't know if that's impressive or worrying." Neville said. "Either this timeline's got a wizarding population that has really shit wards or we've gotten so good at finding and taking horcruxes that it's not even funny."
"I vote for the latter." Catherine said as she glared at the diary-horcrux with such hate that Neville wouldn't be surprised if the thing burst into flames at any moment. Neville hadn't hated anything like that in a long time, and the last time that had happened was when he was still a horcrux.
"We don't have any basilisk fangs on hand, so I guess its going to be Fiendfyre." Draco said.
"In here? That could destroy Gringotts." Catherine said.
"Not exactly." Neville said as he took out his wand to levitate the diary-horcrux into the air. "The bank is a lot bigger than we know about, and it goes deeper than they tell us." He walked slowly towards a room that was so warded that he could feel his skin prickle from the magic surrounding it.
"Ah, the kill room." Draco said as they walked up to the solid stone door. It looked rather ordinary. Plain stone showed nothing different other than the fact that there were warning labels in half a dozen languages carved into the stone itself.
The door was opened slightly and the diary-horcrux deposited into the center of the room. There was nothing else within and Neville closed the door so that there was just enough room for his wand to stick inside. He gave Draco a look and the other man had his wand at the ready. Catherine just looked between the two of them before realization dawned on her and she hastily took out her own wand whilst curing under her breath about crazy wizards.
Casting Fiendfyre was always draining and required too much intent for Neville to be comfortable with, but sacrifices had to be made and one less soul fragment of Voldemort around the better. His grip around his wand was firm and as the words ripped from his throat and the Fiendfyre blasted into the room he felt Draco throw up shields and readied to pull him out when the cast was over. Catherine helped pull the door shut as Neville's wand finished sending the flames and Draco bodily pulled him backwards.
The stone door slammed shut and Catherine threw up wards and charms and whatever else she could think of. The flames of Fiendfyre were so hot that it could be felt through three feet of stone. There was an explosion of darkness that shook the floor, and they didn't need to check to know that the horcrux had been dealt with. Horcruxes always went out violently and Voldemort wasn't one to do anything calmly.
"Alors, vous en avez traité deux jusqu'à présent?"
Catherine Potter just looked at the other woman sitting across from her with confusion on her face. She didn't speak French and apparently the other woman found it amusing as she grinned at her and giggled in a way that seemed both elegant and reminded her a little bit of Fleur.
"What?" She asked in English.
"Sorry." The other woman, Sabine Potter, Master of Death and so on, said in an accented voice as she smoothed out the dress she was wearing as she set down her cup of tea. "I do it with all the other versions of ourselves when we first meet."
"A lot like Fleur." Catherine said and that got a raised eyebrow from Sabine.
"You know Fleur?" The way she said the name seemed to indicate a lot more than Catherine was understanding.
"Yeah, she married Bill in my timeline."
"Oh." Was all that Sabine said and brushed back a lock of raven black hair from her eyes. It was curled in a way that Catherine never did and looked like it was nearly glowing.
"Don't tell me that you…"
"Oui, it seems that you are not as shocked about it as I had hoped." Sabine said with a grin, her finger playing with the wedding band, and Catherine's eyes were drawn to it by the motion.
"It seems that every timeline is different no matter."
"Well, that is the nature of the timeline, it is always different." Sabine lifted her cup of tea and took a sip, somehow not leaving a smudge of red lipstick on the porcelain as she did so. "Though there are inconsistencies among the timelines. We Potters have a tendency to save people."
Save people? Once Catherine actually thought more on it she did see that there was merit to that point. She did have a saving people tendency. Though apparently not enough of one to join the Aurors. She still did join the Ministry even if being an Unspeakable wasn't so much about saving people as experimenting with magic.
"And there's also our choice in partners." Sabine continued. "Its almost always someone who we've met during our years at Hogwarts. Though there are exceptions."
"Are you saying that you didn't go to Hogwarts?" Catherine asked.
"Non. I went to Beauxbatons for all seven years."
"Is it… would you say it's a good school?"
Sabine looked at her with a curious expression for a moment and it made Catherine fidget slightly. This level of scrutiny had mostly been something that didn't faze her but somehow this was. Maybe it was because Sabine was a literal different version of her, one that seemed to have so much more poise and control than Catherine did. She remembered that Fleur always felt the most sophisticated of the bunch whenever they had family dinners at the Burrow.
The woman across from her exuded the same feeling.
"If you are speaking about Iolanthe going there… then I would say that it is only good for her if she were to live in France." Sabine explained. "The girls there can be quite vicious when they want to be, and the smallest thing can set her apart from the rest. Her accent will be noticeable even after years of living only among the French. Her scar will be noticeable as well." Sabine gestured to the very faint outline of the lightning bolt upon her own forehead.
"We removed the horcrux already." Catherine said. "And the diary is already gone with Neville and Draco's help."
"Mmm, that is good. Riddle's soul containers are a nuisance to deal with at times though if you've already taken care of two of them then that means there's a good possibility that the locations of the rest remain consistent with the baseline."
"Baseline?"
"Oui, there is a baseline to the locations of horcruxes, and they are usually all in the same places. Regulus Black probably retrieved one of them and has given it to his house-elf. The Ring will probably be in the shack and Hufflepuff's cup is probably sitting in Lestrange's vault."
Catherine nodded at that and thought about the horcruxes. The inner workings of different timelines didn't really make much sense to her, and she still had no grasp of how to actually travel to and from different ones. Apparently, she'd learn the skill eventually as everyone else in this club did it almost without effort. Sabine hadn't even been in this timeline until an hour or so ago.
"Getting back to the original line of conversation, Hogwarts is part of who we are, but Beauxbatons does have much to offer as well." Sabine said and stood, Catherine standing with her as well, the two looking vastly different from each other to any passerby. "She may very well want to go to neither and choose America or some other place to go for her schooling. Whatever the case is all you need to do is be there for her."
"I just… I just don't want her to have to go through what I had to." Catherine said with a sigh.
"Dumbledore is just misguided Catherine, he means well in the end, but he's hung up on the past. If you truly don't want her to follow in your footsteps, then sending her to Beauxbatons under a different name is the better option." Sabine said and gave Catherine a quick peck on the cheek. "Dubois or Michel are good surnames to pair with Iolanthe. Common enough to overlook."
Catherine nodded at that and watched as Sabine took a step back and flashed a grin before she simply disappeared. There was no snap or crack like an apparition produced. Nothing like a portkey or using the floo network either. She was simply there for one moment and then the next she wasn't. No flash of light or muttered incantation either, just snapped out of existence, and Catherine stood there for a moment in shock before regaining herself.
Timeline travel was going to be added to the list of things she'd need to learn eventually, so she might as well add it now.
It looked damn impressive after all.