The train ride back to King's Cross was a lot less quiet than the trip to Hogwarts. But Frisk had to force herself to focus on her friends. Her mind was elsewhere. At least there wasn't a dementor on the train out, since it was assumed Sirius Black was going to take another shot at Harry Potter. Outside, the snow covered British landscape rolled by.

"What's gotten into you, Frisk?" Opal asked finally. The four friends had taken a private box together. "You've been acting strange since yesterday in the great hall."

Frisk had gone back and forth since making the discovery. She wanted to tell them. How could she offer support to others, without seeking it herself? She didn't want to tell them. The more people who knew, the more chance her abandonment of Asriel would get back to Mom. She wanted to tell them, they were her friends. No, it was better if she got Sans's opinion first. But she wouldn't lie. She couldn't do that.

"C'mon Frisk, what's up? Why is the idea of time travel so important to you?" Ginny asked. "It's not like you can go back in time."

Frisk got up, and shut the door to the private box. "I need you to promise that what I tell you won't go beyond the four of us. It's really important." The other three girls nodded. Frisk recapped the story that Ginny had already heard for Luna and Opal, again omitting the fact she could go back within her own time line.

But the explanation of 'Determination', and the True Labs, that was all new. Luna caught on the fastest. "So the flower wasn't just some flower that was given the will to live, was it?" Luna asked.

"You're right," Frisk agreed. "The flower's original seed was brought to the underground when Asriel carried Chara's body back home from the surface. When monsters die, their bodies turn to dust. Asriel's dust covered the seeds..."

There was quiet from the others. "What would it be like," asked Luna, "to wake up, and find you've traded arms and legs for a stem?"

"It was worse. He didn't have a soul. He couldn't connect with other people any more. He did some... pretty awful things," and she told them about the true final battle. "I know he remembered his own compassion, when he felt how the souls he had absorbed felt about me. So, after shattering the barrier, he returned the souls, and set the human ones free."

"Then he changed back to Flowey," Luna reasoned.

"I need to find a way to save him," Frisk whispered.

"Are you trying to change the past?" Opal asked.

"That doesn't work," Luna said. "You change the reason you went back, and then you don't go back, and then Time gets mad at you."

Frisk had to take a second to work out what Luna meant. There was something in Luna's inflection that made it sound like she thought Time was a sentient force. While that didn't seem likely, she didn't think she wanted to pursue that idea at the moment. "I don't want to change the past," Frisk said, "Not really. I want to bring something back from the past. Asriel's soul."

Luna gave Frisk a look of mild curiosity. Opal simply stared. Only Ginny acted with complete surprise. "His soul? How does that work?" Ginny demanded. "How are you going to get hold of someone's soul and bring it back through time?"

"With monster soul magic," Opal said with dawning realization. "Like you showed me a few weeks ago," she said, describing the encounter with Mr. Filch.

Luna had sat up, looking genuinely curious. "Can we see?"

Frisk looked at the others, and stood, checking outside the box to see if there was anyone passing by. Again she focused on bringing her soul to the surface, and the bright red light soon came into view. After a few moments, the echo of Frisk's magic caused the other girl's souls to come into view. Opal's light blue was first, Luna's was next, a deep, dark, sea blue color. Then, with a bit more coaxing, the forest green of Ginny's soul completed the quartet.

Luna cupped her hands, giving Frisk the impression that she was holding the soul in them. Her face mimicked Frisk's look of determination. After a few seconds of demonstration, when Frisk let her concentration lapse, Luna's soul stayed visible. "Daddy says I wear my heart on my sleeves, is this what he meant?"

"Kind of, I guess," Frisk said, impressed that Luna learned that quickly.

"So when would you get his soul from?" Opal asked.

"Right after he died," Frisk said. "Monster souls don't live on after death like human souls do. But with Boss monsters, like Mom, Dad, and Asriel, their souls survive for a short time. If I can reach it, and find a way to keep it safe, I can bring it home."

"But when is that?"

"I don't know," Frisk admitted. "I need to find out when Asriel came through the barrier. Surely the ministry would have something on that happened. He was attacked by someone, and someone had to make note of it, right?"

"Seems likely," Ginny agreed. There was quiet as the girls digested this. Luna's soul continued to shine, tinting the room in deep blue light. "If there's anything I..." Ginny began.

"We," Opal corrected.

"If there's anything we can do to help, you will let us know, alright Frisk?"

"Thanks," Frisk smiled. "I still need to find out how Hermione actually travels in time. I don't think she's going to want to share it."

The train continued on its trek through the British countryside. When they finally arrived at Kings Cross, Luna said goodbye to her friends, going to meet her father, standing on the platform. It was then Frisk suddenly realized that she didn't know how she was going to meet her family. They were going to pick her at King's Cross, she knew that. But for the first time since she was dropped off, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

"What's that?" Ginny asked.

"You've never seen a mobile phone?" Opal asked. "It's, uh, a muggle communication device. They contact other mobile phones. But they don't work in Hogwarts, there's too much magic. Does it work here?" Frisk shook her head. "Guess you'll have to go up to the station."

"There's my family," Ginny said, nodding towards the crowd of redheads.

"And there's mum," Opal said. "C'mon Frisk," They said together. The three of them looked at each other, then laughed.

A red headed man with a smiling face, and a tall, athletic brown haired woman approached the girls from opposite direction. Ginny introduced Mr. Weasley, and Opal introduced Ms. Oxtoby. They shook hands. Frisk introduced herself, and she could see Mr. Weasley's mouth pop open in excitement, before remembering himself.

"Frisk needs someone to stay with her while she finds her family," Opal told her mother, "Can we help?"

"Of course," Ms. Oxtoby said, smiling.

"That's for the best," Mr. Weasley said, grinning down at his daughter. "The twins have got Percy riled up already." He nodded at Frisk and Ms. Oxtoby, "It was a pleasure to meet you two. Hopefully we'll have a chance to meet again."

They parted ways, Ms. Oxtoby led the girls up through the barrier into the busy King's Cross station. They looked around for a moment, then inconspicuously blended into the crowd.

"Do you have a signal... you clearly do," Opal said. Frisk was already dialing Toriel's number.

"My child!" Toriel said immediately upon answering. "We are outside in the loading area, in Papyrus's car." Frisk relayed this information, and they went out to meet them. It was easy enough to find, Papyrus's red convertible, his pride and joy, stood out among the other vehicles. The rear driver's side window rolled down, and Toriel's smiling face appeared behind it.

Ms. Oxtoby took this in stride. "Ms. Dreemurr," she said, walking up closer, as Frisk piled her school things into the trunk of the car. "Opal has told me all about Frisk, one of her best friends."

"Oh, Opal? Frisk told me a lot of about her, too. You must be Ms. Oxtoby," Toriel said, her muzzle breaking into a smile. "Frisk has been especially thankful for her help during flying lessons." A car behind them expressed dissatisfaction with them by blaring the horn. "We need to move before we are told to move... but would you be willing to give me your phone number?"

Ms. Oxtoby beamed at her.

The monsters of the underground weren't particularly religious, but the idea of a shared day to be with family and friends, as well as exchange gifts, was something they were enthusiastic about. "And we might as well use the day the humans have," Toriel had said, "It's a good way to fit in."

Dad, on the other hand, wasn't there when Frisk got home. Mom didn't know where he was, and this didn't make her happy. "This is the third... no, fourth time. And it's always around a visit," she complained.

The first few days of the holidays were, naturally, full of bustle. The Dreemurr's current home was just outside of Greater London, and this would have made Christmas shopping hard for monsters, but the house had been hooked up to something known as 'The Floo Network'. This allowed them direct, any time connection to the Leaky Cauldron, and meant they could travel without the Ministry needing to shadow their every step.

With the help of her friends planning, Frisk was able to get her shopping done in a reasonable amount of time. She added a Weird Sisters album, for Napstablook, and floundered on something for Mettaton. In the end, Toriel suggested a gift certificate to Twiffit and Tatting, for clothes for whatever body he tried next.

What she hadn't done was think of what she actually wanted herself. This distressed Papyrus most of all. "You are my favorite human in the world! Surely I must get you a truly epic gift!" Mom, on the other hand, apparently had gotten something for Frisk already, and her smile when asked about it was a borderline taunt. She had clearly enjoyed herself.

Almost everyone was there on Christmas Eve. While the ghosts opted to spend the day with each other, Undyne, Alphys, Sans, Papyrus, and Toriel were all there. Toriel, with Frisk as her eager young cooking cadet, handled most of the preparation. Papyrus was allowed to assist, as long as he followed Toriel's instructions exactly. Undyne, however, was kept as far from the kitchen as possible.

Frisk was kept busy, everything from helping with turkey, to measuring sugar, to retrieving eggs from Toriel's new refrigerator, then separating them. The chocolate bar was still there, Frisk noticed, it was a little further to the back now, but it was still there.

They were about to sit down to dinner, and Frisk was about to despair, when there was a knock on the door. She tore from her seat, and raced to the door, believing it could only be one person. She was right.

In the doorway stood Santa Claus. Well, okay, it was someone even better. It was Asgore dressed up in a Santa outfit. "Dad," Frisk said, holding out her arms.

"Asgore Dreemurr," Toriel said, her voice indicating that she wasn't actually happy to see him. "Where have you been?"

Frisk, enveloped in her father's huge arms, felt him freeze up. "Doing something I had to do," he said. His voice wasn't cold, but maybe... fearful. "A place that I don't ever want to go back to." He looked away from Frisk, up towards Toriel. "Torii... sorry, Toriel, trust me when I say I could not be happier to be here."

That something in his voice caused Toriel's expression to soften. "Well, I'm glad you're here, tonight, at least. I was just about to serve dinner."

"I can smell it from here. I can even smell the snails."

"You can't show us the magic you learned?" Undyne cried out, when Frisk explained the underage secrecy act. "What's the point of learning magic if you can't share it with others?" Frisk agreed with her, but she wasn't in a position to actually do anything about it.

"I'm sure they have reasons for it," Alphys told her, putting her hand on Undyne's. "If human magic goes wrong, who knows what could happen?"

They hung around the dinner table afterward, just talking. The entire group hadn't been gathered like this, just relaxed with nothing else to do, since that day when they stood on the cliff outside where the barrier had just fallen, staring at the first sunset. They talked mostly about Frisk and Hogwarts, or else what this or that monster was doing since moving to the surface.

The next morning, however, was full of excitement. Undyne and Papyrus had brought a tree, and everyone, except possibly Sans, had lent a hand in decorating it. Now boxes, stacked upon boxes, all decorated with colorful paper, swarmed under the green needles.

Papyrus was the first one up, or perhaps he had never gone to bed. Frisk joined him not long after the sun had made an appearance in the sky. Undyne and Alphys came down from the guest room together not to long after. Frisk hoped she and Papyrus hadn't woken them up. Asgore arrived about that time, dressed again as Santa, and Toriel had come downstairs just afterward. "You want breakfast first, right?" she said.

Papyrus gave her the dirtiest look possible on his smiling face. Frisk managed a slightly more upset looking one, but only slightly.

"Well, I didn't really think so," she said, hiding her face with a paw.

Then there was only one person missing. And they waited, and waited. Snoring still came from a couch in the next room.

"It is ten o'clock! It is time to get the lazybones up," Papyrus declared, heading out of the room. Frisk suspected she would not be hearing the snoring much longer.

"Normally, I would tell him to let Sans sleep," Undyne said, grinning her infectious wide smile. "But today, I think I agree with Papyrus." This was punctuated by a crash, and a shout of surprise.

A minute or so later, Sans shuffled into the room, with Papyrus grinning behind him. "i'm up, i'm up, didn't have to shout," Sans said. But he was smiling. Granted, he was always smiling, but he looked happy.

"We should start with him," Frisk said. "Prove that there are some things worth getting up for." She fished around under the tree. She'd wrapped this box herself, so while she at least knew what she was looking for, it was buried in a huge stack of presents. Finally, she found it, a medium sized box, and presented it to Sans, who'd sat down on the floor next to his brother.

"hmmm. what could this be?" Sans asked no one in particular.

"Only one way to find out, Sans." Papyrus said, watching his brother eagerly.

Sans ripped open the package, revealing a camera box. "the argus 3000, the sorcerer's shutterbug," he read aloud. He turned the package over. "the perfect camera for the intermediate wizard photographer. records up to five seconds of images, and there's writing here: Because we should always have our memories," he looked up at Frisk, who gave him a hopeful smile. "Frisk," he said. "This is perfect. Thank you."

There were too many gifts for Frisk to remember all of them. Alphys got people electronics. For Frisk and Papyrus, she got refurbished Nintendo DSes, with copies of Professor Layton and the Curious Village, so they could solve puzzles together. For Undyne, not only a complete collection of "Avatar: the Last Airbender", but also an authentic Scottish claymore.

Undyne was more, well, physical. Frisk wound up with a Nerf bow and arrow set. "You need to aim with a wand, right?" Frisk didn't actually see what she got Alphys, and Alphys didn't show anyone else. But the reptilian monster's normally yellow scales went a bright red after seeing it. She and Alphys were both thrilled with the dragon books that Frisk had bought them. There were immediate plans to go find one.

Sans claimed to not know what to get most people, so he got nearly everyone gift certificates. Except for Papyrus, Papyrus got an Italian cookbook. "For the coolest brother in the world."

Papyrus, on the other hand, tried a bit too hard. He got Frisk a homework planner for school, as well as a pair of books called 'Bathroom Readers', collections of stories he thought were fascinating to read while busy. His brother got a book on cooking desserts... and an alarm clock.

Asgore had brought Toriel a beautiful bouquet of flowers, that he had grown himself since coming up from the surface. For Frisk, a Swiss army knife. "They're useful," Asgore told her, "And not everything has to be magical."

Toriel had made Asgore a butterscotch cinnamon pie. It wasn't the only one she had made last night. But this one was for him to take home. Frisk got a math book on algebra. Apparently, Toriel was upset that some of the basic skills weren't being taught at Hogwarts. It wasn't until Frisk promised to at least try to learn some that Toriel pointed out there was one more present in the back of the tree.

It was a long, rectangular box, about Frisk's height, wrapped in dark blue paper, adorned with silver stars. Frisk carefully removed the paper to find the contents. It was her very own broom, a 'Nimbus 2001'. "It may not be the fastest thing in the sky," Toriel told her. "But it's supposed to be remarkably stable." Frisk simply stared. She didn't have anything she could say, so she simply walked over to hug her mother.

After the thank yous and hugs were exchanged, it was picture time. Sans simply had to try out the new camera, and Toriel, Asgore, and Alphys also had older, non-magic cameras they also wanted to take pictures of everyone with.

Breakfast? They'd get to that eventually.

A few days afterward, Frisk and Sans were walking down the road to the local Burger King. Frisk had tried for days to set this up, and Toriel had finally acquiesced. Frisk was bundled up in a new coat, and Sans had his hood up, covering his skull, and (for a change), long pants. He was also wearing a scarf, so you had to be right up next to him to tell he wasn't human.

If it had been anyone else, it would have felt weird to take someone out to lunch with a gift card they gave you for Christmas. But it had come from Sans, so it somehow felt normal. Frisk was the one who went inside. She was getting a junior cheeseburger, while Sans got a Whopper, extra mustard, extra extra ketchup. Frisk wasn't sure his burger was going stay together, but that was how he wanted it. "it's good grub," said Sans, "but it ain't grillbys."

"Where is he, anyway?" Frisk asked.

"got some space in diagon alley," Sans reported. "setting up beneath some shop or other. he'll have a kitchen, his bar, some tables. even making room for a band. heh. it'll be an underground music scene."

Frisk laughed.

"so," said Sans as they walked back home. "what'd you want talk about?"

That's why she hadn't wanted Papyrus with them, and Frisk cut straight to the point. "Human magic can go back in time. You could use it to power your machine."

"oh. that's it?" Sans asked. "i kinda gave up on that."

"But I haven't," Frisk said, and, as they trudged through the cold English countryside, she detailed her plan to save Asriel.

"hm. solid, as far as it goes, kiddo. but you're missing one detail." Sans's eyelights glinted.

"That's why I wanted your help, Sans," Frisk said. "What did I miss?"

"when's your destination?" Sans asked. "when will he get his soul?"

Frisk blinked. She hadn't thought about that. "If I bring it to him now..." she started.

"then you get flowey with a soul. that's probably safe to bring out of the underground, but is that what ya actually want?"

"No," Frisk said. "But if I bring him his soul when he was Asriel, just before the barrier was broken..."

"do ya remember that from the first time through?" Sans asked. Frisk shook her head. "then you're risking a trip down paradox lane. you don't want to do that, trust me on that one, kiddo."

"Could a monster soul..." began Frisk.

"no chance. a single monster soul, even a boss monster soul, couldn't let asriel regain his normal form. it took all seven souls the first time, right?"

"Would he need to keep them? If he had his own soul back, and was already Asriel, would it be strong it enough to sustain him?"

"dunno. probably. but how are you going to get seven souls like that? you remember what it took for flowey to pull the souls from the monster of the underground." Sans was quiet for a moment, and his eyelights winked out. "You're not thinking of doing anything rash, are you?"

Frisk shuddered, shaking her head violently. "No. Never. Asriel would never forgive me if I hurt anyone to help him. And if he did... I don't think that I..."

"yeah, you're still you, alright," Sans said, and his eyelights reignited. "it'd just take so much power to rip an involuntary soul out of its body..."

An involuntary soul? "But what about a voluntary soul just giving Asriel... a starting push? Would he need to absorb it?"

Sans reached into the food bag to retrieve some french fries, and chewed them, considering it. "That might actually work, kiddo. You'd still need seven... but seven voluntary human souls, then capping it with his own? Yeah, I think you might be onto something. But Frisk, there's one other thing you've missed."

"What's that?"

"What are you going to do with the other soul at that point in time?" Sans asked.

Frisk looked at Sans in confusion. "What other soul?"

"You remember. When Asriel died the first time, he had another soul inside of him. That's how he got across the barrier."

Frisk gasped in sudden realization. There was another soul, and she did know who it belonged to. A thought blazed into her mind.

Chara isn't worth it.