Hogwarts: May 2nd, 1998

At twenty-three, Seventh Year Ravenclaw, Rieka Lestari did not care that she was different from everyone else.

She didn't care that she never felt like she had truly belonged anywhere; that she never did fit in.

As her hands clutched her adopted father's throat to try and stop the bleeding after Nagini had tried to rip it free, all that was going through Rieka's mind was the words that her father had told her so long ago. Words that told her she was special, and that he would do anything within his power to make sure that the Dark Lord would never get his hands on her. Though, despite her unusual abilities – even for a witch - they had to be locked away and kept hidden, even from herself.

But as Rieka muttered spell after spell under her breath, trying to keep the one person who had never failed her alive, the red head came to a sudden realisation that she trusted Severus Snape with her life.

That she had always trusted him.

From the very beginning.

From the very moment he had appeared in the doorway of the orphanage she had been living at since the age of one, all the way to the present as he lay dying in her arms after the Dark Lord and his snake had done their best to rid the world of his very presence, Rieka Lestari had trusted Severus to guide her and be there for her.

But now….

Now it was her turn to trust in herself and save the one man who meant more to her than anything in the world.

Rieka had waited for the 'Golden Trio' to leave the shack before making her presence known. The trio had thought her father dead, but the red head could tell otherwise. And although her father had been startled at first; feeling her presence gently brush against the dimming consciousness of his mind, he had grown serious rather unexpectedly.

Even through his pain, Severus Snape was a man of his word. The vow – the promise – he had made to her when Albus Dumbledore had performed their magical adoption hit Rieka like a heard of stampeding hippogriffs, and the spells died upon her lips as obsidian eyes met her sapphire blue.

Severus had, with great effort and difficulty, projected a memory to his daughter - one that had been hidden from all but himself and the late Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore – and Rieka let herself fall into his gaze; into his memory with a form of Legilimency that they had perfected over the years.

A form that made her occlumency walls seem like they were non-existent.

As Rieka's feet hit what looked to be solid earth, she looked around and found herself in a pub.

She was quick to realise that it wasn't just any old pub, but the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade.

The same pub that Professor Trelawney had prophesied Harry Potter and the Dark Lord's, or Tom Riddle's, fate.

Scanning the crowd, knowing that she was here for a reason and didn't have much time, Rieka spotted her father as he made his way towards the back where the private rooms where located. Following him, the red head found that Severus didn't look any older than she was, and as they came to a stop outside a door, realisation dawned on Rieka as to what she was about to witness.

There had always been one memory that her father had never shown her, and now she was finally getting to see it.

Though as a younger – and alive – voice of Albus Dumbledore and Professor Trelawney reached her ears, Rieka frowned; stepping closer to both her crouching father and the door as she realised that what she was hearing was not what she had been expecting.

"The children of a Phoenix, one raised by a Snake.

Hidden from the truth, and protected from the lies.

She will learn of their destiny from spoilers, slips, and fools.

At the end of time, and the beginning of her fall.

But with the Snake's setting sun, the Wolf shall be reborn.

And its path must lay elsewhere, beyond the distant stars.

The pull it must follow, or the universe will crumble.

As stars are going out and the worlds are becoming lost.

But with the Oncoming Storm, the Wolf shall remember its past.

Though the journey will be long; the road painful and twisted.

A child of time, a child of magic.

A Lord of Time shall be their Mate, but the Wolf Eternal shall be her fate."

As the last lines of the prophecy were spoken, Rieka's eyebrows furrowed in bafflement as she tried to comprehend what she had just heard. She was unsure as to what to make of them, and even more confused as to how it related to her.

She was no child of time – whatever that meant - nor did she believe she was a child of magic.

The red head couldn't see how the prophecy had anything to do with her.

Before Rieka could lose herself to her swirling thoughts, she found herself suddenly back in the shack, staring into the eyes of her dying father.

"I know it's confusing, Rie," Severus gasped out as she quickly returned to her efforts of trying to save him; muttering his own healing spell under her breath as she tried to stop the blood from seeping from the jagged, mutilating wound on his neck.

The prophecy didn't matter right now.

Not to her.

Only he mattered.

"Rie, look at me," her father rasped, and she shook her head, not wanting to admit that there was nothing she could do as she begun to mutter darker spells under her breath.

She would not let him die. "Rieka."

Severus placed a hand atop one of hers, causing the red head to freeze; her eyes snapping up to meet his.

"You need to go," he told her firmly as he could manage, but Rieka shook her head again as her blue eyes clouded with unshed tears.

Her father's already dark gaze seemed to darken even more and his face cleared of all emotion. Rieka knew immediately that he was occluding, and she knew that if she didn't think of something soon, her father was going to do something instead.

But before she could do or say anything, the red head blinked when her father apologised to her.

"I'm sorry," Severus said before he begun to whisper a spell she had never heard before in a language that almost sounded like music.

Before she could figure out what her father was saying, however, Rieka stumbled away from Severus as if she had been hit; her eyes wide in alarmed surprise as red and blue ethereal tendrils of energy started to appear around her – surrounding her. She re-met her father's gaze, her own eyes seemingly asking the question she couldn't vocalise out loud, though something caught her eye and she looked down.

Her hands - which were still trying to stop her father from bleeding out – were glowing with the same ethereal energy, and the twentythree-year-old realised that the unknown energy was actually coming from her.

Had he….

"It needs to be fulfilled," Severus gasped out as his hand enclosed ever so tightly around hers, and as Rieka looked at him, she could see something flicker across his eyes. Something that told her that he believed in the memory he had just shown her more than anything, and that he would do anything to see it fulfilled. "Just…. just remember to be happy, Rie. If not for you, then for me. And never forget how much you mean to me."

A tear rolled down Severus' cheek.

"And that I will be with you, always."

"I love you too," the red head sobbed as she went to brush the tear away with her thumb. But the moment her unnaturally glowing thumb touched the salty liquid that made up her father's final tear, it glowed with a brilliant radiance before solidifying.

What was left resting in Rieka's open palm was a solid, crystallised tear that seemed to shine like diamonds.

Although when Rieka looked back up to Severus Snape – the only person she had trusted beyond anyone else - her own tears finally fell as she watched him take his last breath with a content look upon his face; knowing that his work upon the world was complete.

Before Rieka could mourn her father, however, the ethereal energy that was still swirling around her; building within her, brightened before exploding into a multitude of colours as a blue-fire phoenix landed on her shoulder.

As the light faded; the assortment of colours disappearing like dust in the light, Rieka Lestari vanished from sight with a deafening crack and a swirl of blue flames.


London: May 2nd, 1898

A forkful of food froze before an open mouth as a warbled cry rang throughout the house.

The utensil clattered to the bench forgotten – along with the rest of the curly-haired woman's dinner – as she rushed from the kitchen and into the living room to find a young woman with dirty, torn clothes and blood red hair passed out in the middle of the room.

"Thank you, Eildrim," the woman gave the phoenix a quick scratch and a handful of grapes that she had brought out earlier for his arrival before she turned her attention to the unconscious red head sprawled out on her carpet. The phoenix made quick work of the offering before he disappeared in another burst of blue flames – his job here now finished.

Pulling out a device from her pocket, the woman was quick to make sure that her unusually arrived, but very expected guest was not injured. "Oh, I'm sorry, Rie," she whispered as the device she was using to check Rieka for injures picked up the tear that the young witch had just obtained.

She quick, but carefully, picked the red head up after she was certain that there were no serious injuries and headed towards the main bedroom; not even surprised to see that the injuries Rieka had obtained during the war were already starting to heal as each scratch, cut, or abrasion glowed with a faint, pulsating red energy. Though the curly-haired blonde found that it was happening far slower than she remembered, but given Rieka's understandably exhausted state, it was expected.

The room she took the young witch to was rather simple; a large king size fourposter bed, a walk-in wardrobe filled with new clothes, a desk and chair, and a bookshelf filled with various books that she knew would help keep a mind as sharp as Rieka's entertained for hours. There was also a door that led to a bathroom - the woman having been rather thoughtful to have the house built to be rather 'ahead of its time' to provide some familiarity for the young witch who had just lost everything.

Carefully laying Rieka on the bed, the blonde was quick to get her cleaned up and changed into a clean set of comfortable clothes; carefully taking care of any noticeable injuries she could find to help speed up Rieka's natural healing abilities. She knew that the young red head would be awake soon, and that Rieka would be in enough stress after the ordeal she had just lived through that healing her own injuries would be the last thing on the red head's mind.

As she cleaned the witch up, the curly-haired blonde paused when she found the crystallised tear; smiling sadly at the last gift that Severus had given his daughter. She placed it carefully on the bedside table before she continued to make sure that her charge was comfortable and not in any danger from any unknown injuries.

When she was finished, the blonde having triple checked that Rieka had no injures that required immediate treatment, she turned back to the bedside table and picked up the tear.

It sparkled brightly – a rainbow of colours exploding from it as the light from the room hit it at just the right angle – and the blonde smiled sadly as she quickly fixed the tear onto the chain, knowing that Rieka never took it off. When she was done, she placed the newly made necklace back onto the bedside table, along with a letter from her pocket.

When she finished, the curly-haired blonde then left the room, returning back to the kitchen to grab her dinner and placed it into a takeaway container from one of the cupboards. Giving the room that Rieka was resting in one final glance, the blonde smiled wistfully.

"Good luck, Sweetie," she whispered before revealing a vortex manipulator on her wrist and put in where she was heading next.

The same moment Rieka's eyes opened, there was a flash of blinding light in the kitchen and the curly-haired woman was gone.


Rieka shot up in the bed she found herself in; confusion and alarm warring inside her as adrenaline chased its way through her veins. Her heart was beating quickly in her chest as her once sapphire blue eyes – now a silver-grey flecked with red specks – darted around the room.

An unfamiliar scent reached her nose, and the witch wondered if there was anyone else around. Though the thought only had her heart racing even more as memories of where she had just been hit her like the Hogwarts Express and realisation set in that she was in an unknown location with a possible threat nearby.

A small voice in the back of Rieka's mind questioned that if she was truly in danger, why had she woken up in a bed in a clean change of clothes with a few of her more serious injuries having been tended to. But Rieka ignored it as she moved off the bed as quietly as she could.

She had just placed a foot onto the carpeted floor when something caught her eye and she noticed the tear of her father's on a chain sitting atop an envelope.

Frowning, the red head scanned the room; her silver-grey eyes looking for anything that looked out of place, or a possible threat as her ears were straining to pick up any noise outside of the bedroom she had awoken in.

But the only sounds that reached Rieka's ears were the sounds of her own heart as it pounded away in her chest, and the ticking of a grandfather clock in another room.

Nothing else.

Looking back to the envelope and necklace, the red head carefully reached out to grab the chain, only to pause before her fingers touched the polished silver as she cast a few detection spells to make certain that it was harmless. Rieka was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't notice she had performed each spell not only wandless, but that her magic now held a faint red hue to it.

But the moment the small, crystallised tear was in her hand, it was like everything that the twenty-three-year-old had just gone through hit her all at once.

He was gone!

Tears that barely fell while she was trying to save her father's life fell unchallenged and almost unnoticed as her mind was filled with everything she had lived through in the last year.

The hunting.

The chasing.

The being chased.

Her heart constricted as the face of her father flashed across her mind and Rieka curled up on the bed as her sobs only grew louder with each painful memory; her hand closing tightly around the necklace as she remembered every painful thing that had happened.

But nothing hurt more than having seen the realisation dawn in her father's eyes before the bastard who called himself Lord Voldemort cut his throat and then proceeded to set his familiar upon him repeatedly.

The way he had looked at Potter; knowing that the boy – no matter how much Severus might have detested him – was truly the last thing her father had of the woman he had once loved and lost.

When she had made her presence known to her father, having been thankful that he had taught her to block her mental presence from his, she had seen that he had been surprised before the emotion was suddenly replaced with anguish, and then sheer determination. The words he had spoken to her – knowing that they would be the last words she would ever hear from him.

Her hand tightened around the crystallised pendant, the knowledge dawning her that it was the last thing he would ever give her, and it caused Rieka to let out an anguished cry as her body was rocked with pain and heartbreak as she thought about the man who had saved her life.

The man who had become far more than just a father; but a close friend and confidant.

Severus Snape had been Rieka's rock. Her safety net or pillar of impossible strength in a world that had treated them both so poorly.

That had treated them both so wrong.

And now….

He was gone!

The red head curled up even tighter on the bed as she grieved the man she had lost, and it wasn't long until she fell into a restless sleep; her hand still clenched tightly around the necklace as her mind remembered the man who had done everything within his power to keep her not only alive and safe during a time when even his own survival was never guaranteed, but cared for and loved as well.

Severus looked up from his desk with a raised eyebrow as one of the charmed windows in his private quarters opened, allowing an owl that was as black as midnight to enter. A small, exceedingly rare upwards turn of his lips – which to Second Year, thirteen-year-old, Rieka Snape was akin to a grand smile – appeared in his lips as he watched his daughter effortlessly shift back; a far larger smile on her lips as she did so.

"I did it!" the red head exclaimed as she launched herself at her father, and the usually stoic man was quick to catch her, returning her rather energetic hug without hesitation.

"I never doubted that you couldn't," he murmured proudly into her hair.

Rieka pulled away from her father so she could see his face, her smile still going strong as she asked a little hopefully, "Can we now take flights together?"

Her question had Severus' smile fading somewhat as he reminded her, "We still need to be careful, Rie. There are many eyes and ears in this school, and despite the Headmaster's assurance, I would rather not put your safety at risk." He wasn't happy that he had to keep his daughter a secret from the world, but it kept her protected; kept her safe. And Severus Snape would do anything to make certain that his daughter survived this war.

Despite his words, Rieka's smile didn't fade. "We have Christmas holidays coming up in a few weeks, and I, uh…."

The thirteen-year-old lost a bit of her wind, trailing off as a look of uncertainty flashed across her eyes before she dropped her head forwards and hiding her face behind a curtain of blood red hair. It was a habit her father realised, much to his private amusement, she had picked up from him.

Though instead of pointing out something that would have been rather obvious to anyone who actually knew his daughter, the ravenhaired wizard just raised an eyebrow. "Hrn?" he questioned, waiting for his daughter to re-find the Gryffindor courage he knew was lurking somewhere inside her.

Rieka lifted her head slightly so she could look through the curtain of hair that was covering her face. She was unsure as to how her father would react to what she wanted to tell him, and as her hand went to one of the pockets on her robes, Rieka bit her bottom lip. "Dumbledore helped me find a way to be able to see you more often," she finally told her father, and she could see suspicion flare to life in his eyes as she handed over the item she had retrieved from her robes pocket. "He managed to get Amelia Bones to create this after swearing her into secrecy."

Severus' eyebrows knitted together in suspicious curiosity as he looked at the item his daughter had given him. It was a necklace with a small pendant on it. It didn't seem like anything that he would deem suspicious, until he flipped the pendant over and read what it said.

NOX
Familiar To
Potions Master
Severus Snape

The sound of Severus' laughter filled the room as he pulled his daughter into another hug. "How you never got sorted into Slytherin, my dear daughter, is beyond me," he chuckled.

Rieka beamed up at him, thankful that he wasn't upset as she felt the worries she had previously harboured fall to the wayside. "I don't have to be in Slytherin to be cunning and sly," she retorted with a giggle.

"You're a cheeky little snake," Severus stated as a proud smirk worked its way on his face, "That hat must have gotten it wrong."

A thoughtful expression appeared on Rieka's face. "The hat actually couldn't place me," she admitted before her expression turned more confused, "It said that I could be put anywhere. That someone like me didn't belong to just one house, but held the characteristics of all four."

Severus' smirk softened into a small smile as he looked down at his daughter. "It spoke the truth," he told her, "You have the heart of a lion, the loyalty of a badger, the mind of a raven, and the cunningness of a snake," he said as he turned Rieka around so he could place the necklace around her neck. "And you already know that it wouldn't have made me any less proud of you if you had ended up in any of the other houses," he added before he grimaced, "Even if it had been Gryffindor."

The moment the clasp was closed; the necklace secure around Rieka's neck, the pendant changed and the writing disappeared. In the place of the small dog tag was now a small silver wolf, and Rieka frowned as she looked at it.

The moment Severus secured the necklace, the pendant changed and the writing disappeared. In its place was a small howling wolf's head. Rieka frowned as she looked at it, not having known that it would do that.

Seeing her expression, her father explained his thoughts on why the pendant would have changed. "Amelia is a smart witch. She would have charmed it so that it would change depending on what form you took. Why don't you shift to test it," he told her.

Rieka nodded and took a few steps back from her father. Her eyes closed as she focused on her animagus form, going through the motions of what she had been taught in her mind, and when Rieka felt as though she was ready, she gave into the owl. The changes happened rather quickly, and Rieka found that the ground was shooting up towards her rather quickly as she became smaller. Feathers sprouted all over her body, and she felt her bones shift and crack painlessly as her arms changed to wings and her feet suddenly started sprouting razor sharp talons. A strange sensation overcame her face as her nose and mouth fused before extending out to form an equally sharp beak, and when she opened her eyes, they were like twin suns; the gold of her eyes a stark contrast to the pitch-blackness of her feathers.

Finding that she now had to look up to her father, Rieka flapped her wings a few times before she took off; landing on Severus' shoulder not a moment later while being mindful not to grasp him too tightly with her talons.

The moment she was settled, Severus conjured a mirror and allowed her to see her necklace, of which Rieka found that what he had said to be true. It now displayed that she was Nox, his familiar.

Rieka let out a happy hoot as she took off, circling the room as the sound of her father's chuckling washed over her like a warm hug.

She now had another way to spend more time with her father.


It was hours later when Rieka finally awoke.

Her eyes were puffy, her throat sore, and the red head let out a groan as she rolled over on the bed; not wanting to wake up, but knowing that it was futile to try and continue to sleep.

Her eyes begun to water once more when she realised that she was still clutching the necklace tightly in her hand; the crystallised tear having left an indentation in her palm from where she had held it while she had slept. But Rieka blinked rapidly and denied her tears the ability to fall. She unclasped the chain and placed it around her neck, reclasping it closed and letting out a slow breath as the cool metal slowly warmed against her neck. It fell on the outside of her shirt, sitting just above a second necklace she owned.

Her hand came up to the other necklace, her thumb running over the intricate designs of a wolf, snake, and phoenix that had been engraved on one side. It had been something she had owned for as long as she could remember, and it wasn't until Severus had explained what each animal meant did Rieka realise the significance behind why she had been found with it.

Though it was only now after seeing the prophecy that Rieka was realising how her father had known that the snake and the phoenix had represented her parents; the red head having known just who the wolf was supposed to represent.

It was the meaning behind her name, after all.

But there had always been one thing that Severus had never been able to tell her, and Rieka frowned as she flipped the pendant over. Her thumb ran idly over the strange circular pattern on the other side, and like always, the red head couldn't help but feel as though the design seemed familiar. She just could never figure out why.

Shaking her head, Rieka let the pendant fall back against her chest as she turned her head back to the bedside table, remembering that the necklace hadn't been alone. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she realised that someone had known she would be appearing wherever she had appeared. She could still smell an unknown scent in the air. It was female and mostly human. But there was something inhuman about it. She cast her hand over the envelope, checking it for anything sinister, and Rieka really couldn't fault her over-cautious behaviour.

She had just come from a war...

When her scans once again came up empty – not even finding any trace of who could have left the envelope – Rieka carefully picked it up and opened it.

Rieka's eyebrows shot upwards, although a small frown tugged at her lips when a small, emerald-green wallet fell from within the far smaller and thinner envelope. The red head just stared at the wallet before her curiosity finally got the better of her and she picked it up and flipped it open – only to blink in confusion when all she found it contained was a blank piece of paper.

"How peculiar," Rieka muttered as she turned her attention back to the envelope and the letter that lay inside, hoping that it might hold some clues as to what was going on.

Rieka,
I know that you're probably rather confused as to what is happening right now, but I want you to know that you're safe. You're on Earth, and it's the same day you would have left the other universe... though not the same year.
The house you are in has been left for you until you no longer require it, and it is safe to ward around the property if you would like. I know that you'd have hundreds of questions zooming around that mind of yours – the most likely one being, 'How do I know you?', but all I can say in response to that is time is rather complicated.
You may have never met me, but I have met you multiple times. And although it may be a long while before we meet face to face, I want you to know I am a friend.
The small wallet you would have found with this letter will help with any documentation you might need. It's called Psychic Paper, and all you have to do is think of what you want to show someone and it will appear.

Rieka's frown only deepened as she glanced back to the seemingly useless wallet and her eyebrows knitted together as she thought hard about what she wanted to appear. Though her expression became confused when nothing happened.

The red head turned back to the letter, wondering if whoever had written it would explain why it wasn't working.

And now you're frowning as the paper didn't do anything. And if I know you – which I do –you're occlumency walls would be hindering your ability to read it.
Yes, I know about that, so stop frowning at this letter. I know about your magic... and about other things that you'll come to learn in due time.
But enough about that. I mentioned that it wasn't the same year. It is, in fact, the 2nd of May 1898.
I know, I know.
Why in Merlin's name did you appear at this time and not later?
It was necessary. Time is a delicate thing, and certain things need to follow the order in which they had already happened.
I know you will begin to realise that you'll know things you shouldn't; as well as do things that you once thought were impossible. Again, I cannot tell you why, so stop scowling. It's not good for your skin.
You will find out in due time.
There is a library off from the living room that is full of books that you should be quick to acquaint yourself with as soon as possible, and if you'd like a place to start, I'd suggest you might want to start with Earth and the way it is run in this universe as I know that it'll be considerably different to what you're used to. More so as this Earth holds a small understanding of aliens, along with the organisations (like Torchwood) that work to 'protect' this people of this planet from those said aliens.
I have no doubt that you will be suspicious of this letter, along with myself. But I hope that you'll at least consider what I have written before throwing it in the bin or incinerating it.
I wish you all the best, Sweetie, and I can't wait to meet you.

Rieka reread the letter three times before she stopped, still rather unsure as to what the person was talking about.

Different Earth?

1898?

But they weren't the only concerns the red head held. She was also wary about whoever had left the letter. They had known far too much about her, and Rieka was unsure if she really could trust a word written... or the person behind the letter.

"I can't wait to meet you either," she murmured, her nose wrinkling as she pondered just how long a 'long while' was going to be.