A/N: Shorter chapters mean faster updates I guess.

Chapter 3

Delphini sighed. Her mother would know, considering that she was probably the only one with a time turner. Her father, however, looked at her mother in shock.

"Wait a second, your telling me after all the things I've heard you say about time travel over the years, you've done it before?"

Her mother didn't make eye contact with her father. "I have never time traveled before, no. However, it is quite apparent that I will do so within the next twenty-four hours."

Her father only gaped at her before his brain caught up with him. "You can only use a time turner for a five hour trip, not twenty-four. So what method are you using?"

Delphini watched her father grill her mother and was interested herself. She had a rather large knowledge on time travel, as she had been investigating ways to get to the past and save her mother and her father was correct. The time turners the ministry had were only capable of a five hour trip.

"I'm surprised you actually listened to Ms. Granger when she lectured you on them, Harry."

"It was a risky business, so I paid more attention than normal."

Her mother smiled. "The restrictions on time turners are ministry approved limitations, not limitations on the travel itself. An hour reversal charm that is deeply embedded within the magic that operates the turner, rendering it useless if removed."

"And you got around that, how?"

"Because I am Emily R- Potter. I can do anything."

Her father sighed. "Drop the bullshit Emily. If removing the charm renders the item ineffective, then not even you can get around it. You won't mess with temperal magic that deeply. What did you do, really?"

Delphini watched as her mother huffed in annoyance. "I didn't remove the charm, you are right. I altered it. Extended it to twenty-four hours."

"Why? And why do you even have a time turner in the first place?"

All of a sudden, the atmosphere turned tense. Delphini finally saw the anger she had always heard others talk about when they spoke of her mother. Something she had never been privy to as a child. Sure, her mother had gotten cross with her, but she had never seen such a cold reaction from her before. At least, not that she could remember.

"Some things, Harry, you don't need to know." Emily's voice was flat and icy, and the two other people in the room knew she wouldn't answer the question. One occupant refused to back down,

"The hell I don't. What do you need a time turner for?"

"Nothing. I once did, but things changed and I didn't make use of it. End of story."

"No, its not. What were you planning?" Her father wasn't going to let this go.

"Harry, I'm not a good person. All you need to know is that I didn't do what I had planned on doing. Please, drop this. Please."

Emily never thought the day would come where she would beg for something. She had told Harry every moment of her life until they met again when he was fourteen. But there was a breif period she didn't tell him about. The three or so months in between her revival and their time together at Hogwarts. She had told him about killing a handful of muggles but that had been all of it. She hadn't even gone into detail about it. How she imperiused them to kill each other before she broke the last one's neck. It had all been part of a terrible twisted desire she had developed to imprison Harry and abuse him. Torture him.

Those disgusting desires she had back then where so warped from the desires she held now. She had wanted to indulge in his pain, become his master and make him subservient to her. Even if it was only for a few days. That was why she had extended the limit on the time turner. To have more time in which she could satisfy her revolting cravings. Thankfully he had brought those horrible plans of hers down when he had confessed to liking her. And when he had, she had opened their connection to his emotions and she felt how beautiful his love was for her, even at such an early stage. His words changed what originally was her desire for control over him into a desire for his affection. For his love. And she finally had that. He had married her and was happy with her.

She would never tell him what she had once wanted.

She couldn't. It was unspeakable. It may very well change the basis of what they were together. He was so certain that though she was a terrible woman, she had enough goodness to deserve his love. She knew better, and if she spoke of her darkest moments to him, then he would too.

So she begged. And he finally relented.

"Okay. I believe you." His voice was no longer demanding. It was soft and mellow, soothing. "You never used it. And whatever you needed it for, wasn't that important. I'm sorry for pushing you."

She closed her eyes. Crisis averted. Hopefully this wouldn't crop up again in the future. She could now focus on the other predicament.

"Now, Delphini, please tell me what I told you."

"You just told me to go back inside, that things had not been resolved. I questioned you on the time turner you had, but you told me it wasn't important. You looked unhappy that I brought it up, but I guess that's obvious now. We hugged and you told me that you had initially missed something in our last conversation and you figured it out afterwards."

This struck a nerve, why didn't she just tell her daughter what she had missed and skipped over the process of figuring it out. Unless, in the process of figuring it out, she learned even more. Regardless, there was a simple way to figure everything out.

"Harry, be a dear and go to muggle London for me. I need you to pick up a few things."

He groaned. "Wouldn't it be more inconspicuous if you went?"

"Doubtfully as I am not a muggle, but regardless I don't care about being inconspicuous, Harry. I need a few things for a little side project, and despite my age, you are far more familiar with the muggle world."

"Okay, what do you need and what's the side project?"

"I'm going to construct a pensieve. Not a legitimate one, mind you, my craftsmanship isn't up to that level. But I can make a rudimentary replica that will handle the basic features. Like reviewing our previous conversation with Delphini here word for word and maybe even delving into her memories of the events in the future."

"Oh, don't one of your followers have one you can borrow or something?"

"I'm sure they do, however, I wish to keep all of this quiet. Just go get me some granite and a dozen bottles of hydroxyl alcohol."

"Hydro-what?"

"Rubbing aclohol will do. Its a common enough muggle item. Get me a dozen bottles of it. Enough to fill a pensieve of a similar size to tbe one you've seen in the past."

Harry just nodded and grabbed his coat and made to leave. Before he made it to the door she shouted out, "I need actual Granite love, not some knock off, so be certain you get the real thing."

Harry raised his hand to his head in a mock salute before telling her, "Be back soon." When the sound of the door closing echoed through the house Emily motioned for her daughter to sit.

"Now that your father isn't here, is there anything that you feel you need to tell me? Something that you didn't wish to say before?"

Delphini looked at her mother and shook her head. "No. I've told you both everything, already."

Emily frowned. "I had hoped you were hiding some details from him. Oh well, I still need to construct the pensieve regardless, so its just as well that he is gone. So, tell me some of the theory's you have about my disappearance, Delphini. Do you still believe as you have that I am dead?"

Her daughter looked down, contemplating her answer. "I don't think dad killed you anymore, no, but I also can't believe he destroyed your body and put you somewhere else, mum. Dad... he changed, when you disappeared. He isn't the same father I had without you. He's always angry. He yells. Not at me, mind you, but he slips up sometimes and does it in front of me. He was never so angry when I was younger. I think if you were still there, in some form, he wouldn't have changed so drastically."

Emily sank into her chair. "Your father has a temper. I've seen it before. He and I have exchanged physical blows in the past, completely my fault of course. He is truly blameless for those outbursts, and I would never hold it against him. I am not, the easiest person to be with. As I said earlier, Delphini, I am not a good person, despite the fact I may have been a good mother. Tell me, what do you know of me?"

"Well you're the youngest Minister of M-"

"Never mind details of the future, but I do like knowing that little tidbit. I mean before your birth."

"Well, I know you met dad at school. I know you two fought a lot, but dad says eventually he realized he couldn't live without you. I know that he was in danger of dying to a dark witch, but you saved him on multiple occasions."

"Hm, so you know nothing, pretty much."

Delphini looked indignant. "I know you loved us very much. I know that despite what you think, you are a great person, mother. The best. Nothing could ever convince me otherwise."

"Even if I told you I murdered your father's family?"

Delphini's eyes widened. "Dad's parents died when he was a baby, there's no way you could have been responsible for that."

Emily now wore a sad smile. "You're more than old enough now to know the truth Delphini. I was born on December 31st, 1926. I am decades older than your father. I am also the dark witch known as Voldemort."

Delphini's face turned red as she once again started to lose her temper. Her voice shook as her octaves rose. "No, you're lying to me. Why are you LYING TO ME?!"

Emily simply turned her head away from her daughter and quietly asked for her to sit down. It took almost a full minute, but eventually her daughter complied with her request.

"I love your father very much, Delphini, just as I am certain I will love you in a similar capacity. But that love does not erase the person that I am. I once murdered over a hundred people in the span of a few minutes just to keep your father alive after I foolishly almost killed him. I don't regret the action even the tiniest bit, though it is something your father will never forgive me for."

She watched as her daughter's anger faded into grief. Soon the girl was crying. "Why? You're not... You're not that person."

"And by the time you're born, I may not be. Maybe motherhood changes me. Makes me into a good person, who is to know. I hear becoming a parent changes some people at their very core, and its possible that you are the cornerstone that sparks that change within me. But make no mistake, in the here and now, I am not the wonderful person you think I am."

Her daughter sniffled. She began to frantically dry her face with her robes, before asking, "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because in the event that we can not change the future, Delphini, you need to know that if your father did kill me, he probably had good reason to. I am NOT," She emphasized the word heavily, "saying that Harry did such a thing, but in the unlikelihood that he did, it was not some horrific act against me."

The room grew quiet, the only sound being an occasional sob from Delphini. "I don't want you to look at your father as though he is a bad man, Delphini. He is probably the most kindhearted man I have ever met. He is disgustingly, inherently good. So much that, I have become far less a monster than I used to be simply to be with him. It is the only way he can accepted me."

Delphini just nodded her head, not speaking. The conversation fell flat for several minutes until they heard the door opening as Harry returned.

"I thought the granite would be the easy part to procure, but I was sorely mistaken. Had to go to a home improvement store and buy it. Sorry it took so long."

"Its fine, love, thank you for getting me what I asked for. Just bring it all in here."

Harry walked into the room and all but dropped the materials when he saw Delphini's face. He rushed over to the girl, quickly dropping his face down to hers, Emily assumed, to more clearly see her tear stained face. While gently wiping at his daughter's face, he turned to Emily and asked rather cooly, "What did you do?"

Emily met his eyes, "I cleared somethings up about my past that I thought our daughter may not be aware of."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "Why the hell would you do that, Enily? Do you think that maybe, we didn't tell her those things for a reason? That we didn't want her knowing any of that."

Emily nodded to him. "Of course, but if we are going to figure out my disappearance we need to share everything."

Harry turned away from her, muttering, "Coming from the woman who refuses to spill certain secrets."

Emily didn't respond to his barb, clearly he was still rather annoyed by that. "Now that she is aware of my past, maybe she can shed more light on certain things."

"Well I bloody hell hope not. She better not be aware of anything like that seeing as she was only seven at the time."

"One can never be certain. Leave me alone for a moment while I construct this penseive. It won't last for longer than a day. The granite isn't very pourous, but it is somewhat absorbant and the alcohol won't last too long in the bowl I fashion even with certain spells to keep it in place."

She got busy, trying very hard to ignore the whispered placations she heard her husband giving their daughter behind her back. While she understood his horror, Emily always made plans for every scenario. And in case she was not able to be recovered in the future, she had to make certain her daughter no longer blamed Harry. She would make certain that they had each other's support.

Soon enough, the pensieve was ready and she turned to the two of them, while extracting the memory of their last conversation and placing it into the bowl.

"Let's figure out just what I meant when I said I missed something earlier."