Personal Note: (Ignore if desired) Well, the dates turned out fine, but she told me she wasn't interested. It sucks, but I'm a grown man, and if she isn't interested, then its not what I want either I suppose. Cuz I want that Emily/Harry romance, you know. Yeah, you know, she gotta be kinda crazy AND passionate and those things don't come from indifference. I appreciate the time she spent with me though, in the end she helped give me the closure I needed from my last relationship. I feel unburdened, not really free, but just as though the weight has been taken away. That, in and of itself, was worth the disappointment.

A/N: Anywho, we are back at it and the fun times keep coming. We start to draw from plot points earlier in the series that I have left dormant until now, so things should tie together in an interesting manner. Ciao.

Chapter 2

"I'll be taking that." As Emily spoke the words, the elder wand was wrenched from her daughter's fingers. "Sit down, Delphini."

"But, mum, list-"

"No, you listen to me. I understand that you are very upset, but your father did NOT kill me. We will figure things out, and we most certainly," She directed a pointed stare at her husband, "will not be leaving."

Harry had the decency to look sheepish. Hopefully, she thought, he was over the initial panic of their daughter's news. She needed him clear headed if they were to figure this out. Only he would know what his motives were in the future, and even then, people change with time.

"Start from the beginning and leave nothing out."

"What do you mean?"

Emily sighed, certainly her daughter was not this thick. "The beginning of this whole fiasco. We need information if we wish to ascertain what exactly happens."

Her daughter wore a pensive look, before speaking. "There isn't much I remember to be honest. You weren't really home all that much, but the times you were, were always happy times. One day, you and dad, went out somewhere. I was left with Uncle Draco." Harry snorted at this, but didn't make any comment. "I was there for three days, and uncle hadn't heard a thing from you. The two of you were only meant to be gone for one day, and I started throwing tantrums on the second day."

Delphini sighed, "Finally, on the night of the third day, dad came home. He pulled me to him, and hugged me close. I asked where you were mum, but he didn't answer me. He just kept hugging me."

She turned to her father. "I remember being so confused. Finally I stopped asking. It wasn't until weeks later that I over heard you talking to Uncle Draco, that I found out the truth. He asked you what happened to mum and you told him that you had killed her. That she was never going to come back. That she couldn't come back. Not again."

"I never really understood everything that you said that night, but I got the gist. Something happened that night and you killed mum. I don't know what it was, so I planned to come back and get her as far away from you as possible."

When her daughter finished speaking, Emily waited patiently for more. But when it was obvious that more was not coming she frowned. The girl knew practically nothing. How on earth were they going to figure this out with so little to work with?

"So you literally only know that your father kills me, and that's it? What about the date? What is the date on my tombstone?"

"Dad never had you buried, and I never asked why."

Emily turned to her husband. "Harry if I died, would it be reasonable to assume you would hold a funeral, even if you were the one to kill me?"

Harry, slightly shocked that he was being brought into the conversation, paused before answering. "Er, well, yeah, I think I would. Some sort of ceremony, at the very least."

"Something of which, if Delphini does not remember, we can assume never happened. Therefore, I most likely am not dead."

Emily was about to make further conjectures, until she noticed her daughter's face take on a dark hue. Right before the screaming started.

"SO WHAT?! YOU JUST ABANDONNED US FOR A DECADE THEN? IS THAT WHAT YOUR TRYING TO SAY?"

The girl drew another breath, but Emily had already silenced her so when her mouth opened she did nothing more than wheeze.

"I said nothing of the sort. Calm yourself. Though I may not have given birth to you yet, I am more than old enough to bend you over my knee, do you understand me?"

Emily watched in awe, as her daughter's features lightened almost instantly, the anger seeming to fade in mere moments as she nodded her assent. She was somewhat disturbed by this until her husband spoke.

"Wow, she takes after you all right. Rage and fury one moment, calm and poised the next."

She glared at him, but knew he was right. She had a remarkably powerful amount of control over her emotional state. It shouldn't be too shocking her own offspring show similar skill, but to witness it was unnerving.

Removing the spell from Delphini, she continued thinking aloud. "So if I am correct, and I am alive in this future, what keeps me from home? Obviously, its something you are aware of Harry, especially seeing as you stated I was dead. What do you think would be grave enough for you to say such a thing?"

"I honestly don't think I ever would. Not if I knew you weren't dead. I wouldn't give up hope that you wouldn't find your way back to me."

"Hmm, a conundrum. You wouldn't kill me, I honestly believe that, but what if I did something very bad? What would you do?" Emily smirked, "Just how would you punish me?"

"Eww." Judging by her daughter's sound of disgust, her sultry tone clearly was portrayed well.

"Oh hush, your sixteen, you know you didn't grow on a tree."

Harry coughed loudly, and spoke over her. "Well, I don't really like discussing this, considering I had never thought to reveal my plan to you. Its really the worst case scenario, after all."

"Out with it, come on, Harry. We don't have all day."

He laughed at her, "Judging by Delphini's story, we have a minimum of eight or so years before this happens. So I think we do have all day, just about. Anyway, my plan Z, I guess you could call it, would be to destroy your body and place your soul into a form that can't hurt anyone or anything."

Emily looked at him coolly. "So, you'd just get rid of my body and stick me inside of some, lesser creature? Barely alive? That's cruel."

Harry nodded to her. "It is. But if its something I have to do, then I will. Also, I wouldn't tell our daughter that I did it to you, I'd rather tell her you were dead."

This quieted the room. No one said anything as they each mulled over the conversation thus far.

Delphini stood, "So, what? That's it? Mystery solved? If I go back to my time now, will things be different now that you know the future? Mother will suddenly have been with me this whole time?"

Emily snorted, derisively. "Time travel on such a scale that you have spoken of is impossible in this day and age. So we have no point of reference on whether or not the timeline can change in such a manner. Even with m-" She stopped speaking in a huff. "Even with my knowledge on time travel, we have no idea what the outcome could be." She fervently hoped that no one caught her potential faux pas.

Delphini took her seat again, seemingly oblivious, but it was, not suprising, her husband who was looking at her strangely. Harry understood her more than anyone else, and he knew that she was suddenly hiding something. However, he seemed loathe to confront her about it in front of their daughter.

"Then, I suppose I'll leave." Delphini said quietly. "I'll go home and if things aren't different, then I'll come back."

Emily gave her daughter a hard look, "You should not fool around with time travel Delphini. The potential repercussions could wipe you from existence, even more so if you count the fact that you are interferring with your parent's lives."

Her daughter looked at her with such a look of longing it mad Emily's hearth ache. "Sometimes, mother, the risks we take are worth it for the reward." The words were just over a whisper and the pain the sentence held was felt by the entire room. Emily once again found herself making her way to her daughter, hugging her tightly.

"A child should not take risks for the sake of their parents. It should be the other way around." Harry said this from his chair. Emily assumed he was still rather uncomfortable with this entire thing to physically intervene. To be honest, Emily herself was amazed at how quickly she had latched onto Delphini. Though it had been Harry who had stated that he wanted children and not her, she found herself already deeply attached to the young woman before her. Maybe every woman had such maternal instincts somewhere inside of them.

Eventually Emily did have to let go. Though she would never admit it to anyone, even Harry, she felt her eyes burning at the upcoming separation. The poor girl had been apart of her life for a mere two hours and Emily didn't wish to let her go. Still, the time had to come, and she reluctently let go.

"I'll see you in a few minutes. Either when I get back to the future or when I come back a second time. If I don't come back, at least you will know everything is fine. I'd like to say I'll miss you, but... for me, we won't be separated for long. I'm sorry." Delphini seemed to feel her Emily's turmoil and tried her best to placate her.

Emily, not wanting to appear so fragile, responded. "We'll see you when we see you, Delphini. Whether in a few minutes or a year, we'll find each other again. Take care." She handed the second Elder wand back to her daughter. "Make sure you apologize to your father when you give this back to him."

Delphini nodded before standing up next to her mother and making her way towards Harry. She bent down low to whisper in his ear, and Emily didn't have the faintest idea as to what she told him. But she saw him tear up and quickly stand to give the girl a strong hug as well. He let the tears fall and while he did whisper, the words were not silent enough to escape her hearing.

"I love you too, Delphini. Even if I've only known you for an hour, its true." Trust in Harry to love someone immediately, Emily thought. While she was greatly attached to the girl, it was Harry who already loved her wholeheartedly. Another by product of his upbringing, true, but the sight of the two of them warmed her heart. This would one day be their family.

Delphini broke the embrace and Emily saw the tears making their way down her daughter's face and she realized that this was as emotional for her as it was for them. She nodded to them both before making her way to the door and leaving just as quickly as she arrived. A part of Emily strongly wanted to make her way to a window and watch the girl leave, but she knew that the less knowledge she had about Delphini's way of time travel the better things would be, so she stay where she was.

Harry had no such compunctions though, and made his way to a window after a few moments pause, only to return to the living room moments later, saying, "She's already gone."

He made his way to her and they sank into the couch behind them. The stayed silent for a brief moment, before Emily turned to her husband and said something that floored him.

"I want a baby."

He looked at her, eyes widening to a ridiculous degree. He then laughed, open and loud, for several seconds. "You know, I was just thinking the same thing."

"We'll have to work hard, but I'm certain if we conceive Delphini now, we can get our future plans sorted before I become incapacitated."

He grinned at her, then asked, "Are you... er, well, is your body ready? To have a child, I mean? I know its not, well, its not a normal body, so..."

She grinned back at him, "Yes, just a spell I have to remove and then things will resume their natural course immediately. Though pregnancy isn't a guaranteed thing, love. We might have to try more than once." She gave him her signature look, letting him know exactly what she wanted.

He suddenly put an arm around her waist and pulled her on top of him as the two of them spread out along the couch. 'Well,' she thought, 'I suppose a trial run on the sofa isn't a terrible idea.' The two of them were kissing heavily and their clothes were quite askew in a few minutes and they were so caught up in the moment that the two of them didn't hear the door opening.

"Eww, you two are so gross!" Emily wrenched her lips from her husband, quickly pulling her hand out of his trousers, as she looked up to see Delphini looking at them. Well, she wasn't really looking at them, the girl had her face covered by her hands.

"If you didn't want to be grossed out, then maybe you shouldn't have come back in time to the night of your parent's wedding, Delphini." Emily said shortly. Delphini continued to keep her face hidden as she slowly turned around. This was the second time that her daughter had interrupted their attempts at sex and Emily briefly wondered if it was going to a recurring theme. Certainly one single child wouldn't interfere with her personal activities with her husband too much, right? Emily pulled herself off of her husband and made certain that they were both decent, and addressed the young woman.

"I take it, that due to your reappearance, the future is still unfavorable."

"Oh, um, yes, things still aren't what I wanted."

Had Emily been any other person, she'd have accepted her daughter's pause as a normal response for a child who'd just walked in on her parents trying to go about her own conception, but Emily was a bit paranoid. When she heard someone pause, she suspected betrayal. Of course, this was her very own daughter, so her thoughts didn't go straight to the deep end, but she did think the girl was hiding something. So, she said the first thing she normally did when she suspected someone of lying to her.

"Do not think you can lie to Lo- damn it, to your mother, Delphini. I always know."

She watched as the young girl looked very surprised. She didn't try to respond so Emily pushed further. "Tell me the truth."

"Someone told me not to go back to the future."

Emily was thrown off course by that. If her daughter was to be believed, then someone had intercepted her right outside their own house, because Harry had looked outside moments after her departure and said she was gone. Some one who knew the entire situation intimately. There was only one person who fit this description and Emily knew it immediately.

"Tell me Delphini," she locked eyes with her daughter. "What exactly did my future self tell you when she stopped you from returning to your own time?"