Author's Note: I'm still doing edits. No MAJOR changes this chapter. Just imagine me sitting/laying here and banging on my keyboard while listening to heavy metal while head banging.

Reviews: As ever reviews are greatly appreciated, though flames are not.

Amelia just about jumped out of her skin at the hard thumping someone was giving her office door. She cast her eyes down to the day planner which had been affixed to her desk, mostly in the hopes of figuring out just who she was scheduled to meet who was apparently so unhappy with her.

The planner was enchanted such that anything written by her or her secretary would automatically show up on both copies of the schedule. Apparently, her secretary was as alarmed by the visitors as her seeing as big red letters were scrawled across the planner writing the words THE DWARVES ARE HERE AND THEY ARE NOT HAPPY!

She couldn't help but pale slightly at that. They had indeed been expecting a response from the Dwarves for some time; it appeared that response had finally arrived. She cleared her throat and called out, "Yes, come in please?" then stood to greet them as the door swung open a little harder than was strictly speaking necessary.

Three Dwarves, as that was definitely who these beings were, marched into the room. All three wearing the sort of armour which was all but ubiquitous to their people, though that of the one in front was clearly more ceremonial in nature. She didn't let that fool her though.

Dwarven armour was tough, easily capable of shrugging off all but the most intense curses entirely due to the extensive enchantments Dwarves worked into their creations. And she also knew that, despite its weight, the armour likely wouldn't slow those wearing it a jot.

She offered a slight smile, and bowed slightly at the waist, "Ah greetings, you must be the representative from Clan Rakhor?"

The lead dwarf, the only one of the three not wearing a helmet was a surly faced individual with pale, tattooed skin, with deep black hair and beard. His grey eyes surveyed her sternly before he offered a somewhat stiff bow in return. "Madam, Amelia Susan Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for Great Britain's Land Above." He greeted formally, his accent suggesting he didn't speak anything other than Dwarva on regular basis. "I am given to understand that you have in your custody a member of Clan Rakhor. It is the demand of my clan chief that she be released immediately or else efforts shall be made to enact sanctions by the Dwarven Kingdom."

She managed to avoid blanching at that. Though the Dwarves were largely isolated from the "Land Above" as they called it, they did trade in two very critical resources: Gold, in quantities great enough to rival what the goblins provided, and gems. Specifically the kind of gems used in a number of enchanting and rune crafting rituals. Gems which only came from a handful of deep vein lodes far, far below the surface. The Goblins preferred remaining closer to the surface for trade reasons and thus only had access to a single relatively small lode of these gems. Losing even a portion of either the Gold or the Gems from the Dwarves could easily cripple their economy and enchanting industry.

"Of course, may I say though that your clanswoman is not in fact being imprisoned—not by us at least." He raised a brow at her, though he remained silent allowing her to explain. "We recovered her from a raid site and brought her here for treatment by our medics."

The Dwarves glare didn't abate much at that, "If she is injured, then why was she not treated by your healers at Saint Mungos?"

She could understand his concern. "Her injuries seem limited to malnutrition, however as you likely know there is an unfortunate…bias, amongst some against non-humans. We brought her here as I did not wish to take the risk of her being denied or given unsatisfactory care."

The Dwarf glowered at her unconvinced for a time before nodding sharply. "If she confirms what you claim, then perhaps we might approach these matters differently. However I must insist on seeing her immediately."

She nodded and stepped out from behind her desk. "Of course, if you will follow me?" She then led the way out of the room and down through the departments offices to the med-bay on the main floor.

Currently there were only two patients in the room in question. The first, an Auror who had received minor injuries after a scuffle with a criminal in Diagon Alley. The second of course was the Dwarven clanswoman. She turned at the opening of the door and noticeably brightened when she saw who had accompanied the director.

She hopped down off the examination table and hurried over to the delegate, where she paused, bowing slightly with a smile before thumping a fist to her chest. Then came the surprise, when she closed the distance and hugged him. Amelia was surprised at the tears in both Dwarves eyes. Their people were typically a very stoic and reserved race.

The pair eventually parted slightly, the delegate holding the clanswoman at arms length, and then proceeded to speak with her for a time in the gravelly language of their people. She spoke back and they appeared to be comparing notes, though Amelia couldn't say for certain, she didn't speak Dwarva herself.

Eventually the delegate turned to her and nodded in satisfaction. "Apologies Madam Bones. It was not an intended deception, however you should know that the clanswoman you rescued is my daughter. She went missing some months ago, and we have dearly missed her."

She nodded amiably, she could just imagine how she'd feel if that happened to Susan. "I understand."

"May I ask the exact circumstances which led to you finding my daughter?" he asked curiously.

"Of course. We had been given reliable intel that House Carrow had orchestrated an attack against myself. Upon raiding their estate, it was found that they had a fortified room in their basement. We opened the room and found your daughter among the many held prisoners there," she explained easily. "It appears that the Carrows have made a business of the illegal trade in sentient flesh."

His eyes flashed darkly. "And this was what these beasts had intended for my daughter?"

"It would appear so…"

His expression continued to darken, before he growled something clearly vitriolic in his native tongue. "I thank you, Madam Bones, for ensuring that we were made aware of our clanswoman's plight. However I'm afraid that the situation requires that I must bear ill tidings in return." He growled, turning to face her more fully. "For their actions, actual and intended against Clan Rakhor, and by extension against the Dwarven Kingdom, these…Carrows are now subject of a Dwarven…well, the word does not translate easily into your language, but the closest words would be 'honourable grudge or feud', he admitted. "As such they are declared anathema, and we are required to demand satisfaction for their crimes against us."

Seeing her alarmed expression he continued. "Should the wizarding world sufficiently handle the issue, we shall look no further. However, should they fail to do so, Rakhor and by extension the Dwarven Kingdom will be forced to extend this…feud, to include the Wizarding World as a whole. The kidnapping, imprisonment and trade of a Dwarven noble clanswoman, or indeed any Dwarf is utterly unacceptable, and shows a distinct disregard by your world for those who dwell Below." He huffed a sigh, and gestured dismissively to her. "I have delivered my warning. Do with it what you will…Now, I must ask that you allow myself and my daughter to depart unhindered."

Amelia blinked in shock in the aftermath of that ultimatum. "O—of course, just follow me. I'll make sure your departure goes smoothly."

She led the way out through the building but stopped when they arrived at the doors. "If I might ask representative, just what might the Dwarven Kingdom consider a fitting punishment for the Carrows?" She needed to know so that they did not fail to meet the requirements of ultimatum.

He stopped briefly to consider her on his way out the door. "Death, the punishment for such crimes is death."

Amelia sagged as the door closed behind him, it was going to be a long night. She needed to inform the Minister of this as soon as possible. It was then that a device hooked to her belt decided to start beeping and alarm, and she cursed under her breath. A long night which was looking like it might get even longer.

Hermione laid a hand on Harry's shoulder as he set down the bags he'd been carrying on the counter. It was actually a somewhat novel experience. As much as the Dursleys enjoyed making him do the hard manual labour they neither took him shopping for groceries nor did they allow him near their food except to cook it. Apparently afraid he might steal it from them.

"Harry, we have to talk, now, before this goes any further," Hermione explained urgently.

His attention diverted by her tone his eyes flicked to her in concern. Something had clearly been worrying his friend for a while. "Alright, what is it? Do you think we're in danger here?"

She shook her head uncertainly. "I—No, I suspect not, but I feel that you should be prepared to be surprised. If Rose is who I think she is…" she ventured unevenly.

He looked at her, concerned by the hitch in her voice. "And who do you think she is?"

Hermione hesitated, "I'm afraid to say honestly. Will—Will you just trust me, and not freak when she shows up?"

Her friend looked her over seriously. "Am I going to be happy or upset upon meeting this person?"

She shrugged helplessly. "If I were to guess…assuming I'm right, a little of both, with a bit of confusion thrown in too?"

He sighed tiredly, it was not normal for Hermione to be this circumspect about things which were clearly important. But if there was one truth in his life it was this. "I trust you, Mione, I just hope you know what's going on, because, right now? I'm confused as hell," he muttered.

She offered an uneasy grin. "I know, and I'm sorry Harry. But if I'm right…"

Whatever she had been planning to say was cut off when the door at the far end of the room opened, causing them to turn and look. Kate stepped through talking idly with a woman trailing along in her shadow.

Harry's eyes widened in recognition and he didn't hear a thing the Canadian girl said. His breath caught in his throat staring at the woman who was supposed to be dead.

Rose Bevans finished washing off the grease from working on the truck, before she followed behind her daughter as they headed back to the office space and the kitchen within. "So...did your favourite celebrity explain why he was travelling halfway around the world by any chance?"

Kate shrugged. "Hadn't gotten that far actually. I only really got his last name just before coming to grab you. He's super nice, mom. I think he and his friend are running from something though, because they asked I keep it all on the down low."

Rose nodded appreciatively. "Smart thing getting out of Britain I say. That country was going downhill fast back when I was there, and nothing I've heard since has made it sound like that has changed."

"Mom!" Kate groaned rolling her eyes wearily.

"I know, I know," Rose chuckled in amusement as she ruffled her daughter's hair. "I harp on about it. It's just really discouraging. Those arseholes killed your father and brother, and they're still walking around free to wreck other families too. If these two kids have the good sense to leave that life of fear behind, I'm all for helping them run, honey."

Kate nodded and pushed open the door back into the kitchen proper and led the way over to their guests. "Hey you two, I'm back, and I got my mom! Mom, this is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Harry, Hermione, this is Rose Bevans." Kate stepped aside and swept out her arms to include both the teens and her mother in the gesture. It took her a moment to realize that Harry had gone completely still and Hermione was just nodding with an expression torn somewhere between disbelief, astonishment and satisfaction.

"Mum?" Harry whispered blinking.

"What?" Kate asked, cocking her head in confusion. She looked from Harry to Rose and her mouth popped open in surprise..

Rose, was staring at Harry one hand stopped, gripping the door jam tightly and the other clutching her chest over her heart. Her face was frozen into an expression of complete shock. Her eyes had widened and her breathing rapidly picked up to the point of hyperventilation.

"Mom?" Kate asked stepping forwards and reaching out tentatively, worried at the sudden change in her mother "Are you alright?"

Rose's hands started violently shaking, with the jerking shudders quickly spreading across the elder woman's entire body. Then, much to the shock and horror of her daughter and the two other teens, Rose screamed bringing her shaking hands to her head, doubling over still shuddering violently all over.

"Mom!" Kate cried out in shock rushing to her mother's side.

Behind her, unheard as she focused on her ailing parent, Harry shouted, "Mum!" hurrying over to Rose and Kate, Hermione following close behind him clearly startled by the turn of events.

"Mom, what's wrong?! Mom!" Kate yelped frantically, only to give a start when Rose abruptly stopped screaming and collapsed bonelessly onto the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Her mother gave a few further violent twitches and her eyes continued to move, darting back and forth unseeing, but she otherwise had fallen completely still.

"Kate," Hermione said her voice unnervingly calm while still maintaining a strange urgency about it. "Something is very wrong here. Is there another adult magical in the area? Or a magical hospital nearby?"

Kate shook her head trying to fight off tears and panic. "N-no, no hospital. The closest proper hospital is in Ottawa, but I can't Apparate yet and we don't even have a Floo!" She sucked in a deep breath as an idea popped into her head when she considered the rest of Hermione's question. "Winter! Old Lady Winter is nearby! She's about a ten minute drive further outside of town...!"

"Then let's get her to Winter." Hermione reached out and clasped Harry's shoulder, squeezing it gently. Until now he had been completely silent, kneeling and just staring down at the woman beneath him with an odd sheen in his eyes. "Harry, I need you to help me get...Rose to the truck. Okay? Can you levitate her to the truck—Harry?"

He gave a jerk, "Hm—What?" Harry asked startled, blinked up at her seeming to focus on Hermione's voice as Kate grabbed her keys and slipped on her coat.

"The truck, Harry. I need you to levitate Rose to the truck."

"Rose? But she's—"

Hermione shook her head emphatically. "Harry, we don't know with absolute certainty exactly who she is, Harry. I have a good idea of what is happening but we need to get her to help first. Okay, come on Harry I need you focused."

He blinked hurriedly rapidly regaining control of himself. "Right. Um—Okay. Truck. Got it, right." Harry swept to his feet and pulled out his wand.

"Kate, grab a jacket for your mother," Hermione said, turning her attention to the other girl. "Are you okay to drive or do you need me to?"

"I thought you said you didn't know how," Kate said her hands shaking slightly.

Hermione nodded agreeably. "I know the principles behind driving and I have done so before with my parents. Just like you, I don't have my license and I am used to driving on the other side of the road, but if you are uncomfortable driving at this time it would likely be safer for us if I did."

Kate considered that for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I'm okay. You might freak out if we hit the snow anyway, and we really need to go fast." She pushed out the front door and held it for the other two and her mother. Hermione draped the coat Kate held out over Rose as the woman floated and between the three of them, and before long her mother was draped across the backseat of the SUV. Kate climbed into the driver's seat and Harry got in the passenger side while Hermione climbed in the back with the prone woman; an uncomfortable fit, but it would do. Hermione pulled out her wand as she squeezed in and pulled Rose's head onto her lap.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked sharply as she pulled out of the drive.

"Just some diagnostic charms," Hermione muttered absently. "I don't know many healing spells true, but I can at least check to see if there is any sort of damage that shows up on the basic tests."

"Hermione, what is going on?" Harry murmured thickly. He had his head in his hands. Kate could sympathize with him on that account. She was really freaking confused right now and more than a touch scared.

"I'm not entirely certain..." Hermione admitted uneasily.

Harry sighed. "Then guess—please."

"I think...darn it, I'm not getting anything," the brunette scowled and put away her wand. "Harry, Kate, I think, that Rose is experiencing an acute reaction to atypical stimuli of some sort."

"Hermione!" Harry growled. "For the love of god, speak English! Please!"

Hermione grimaced, but seemed to take his tense attitude in stride. "I think, and I'm not certain here, that Rose may have been subject to a strong memory charm at some time in the past, and that seeing you has shaken something loose in her mind. Similar cases have been reported in the past if I recall correctly."

Kate snarled. "Did you know this was going to happen? Is that why you two came here? What the hell did you do to my mother?!"

"Kate, please calm down," Hermione said reassuringly. "I swear, we had no idea this would happen. We simply came here looking for someone who we had heard worked on a vehicle using similar magical techniques to those Harry's family used in the past. Harry also has a property out here which it turns out you've been living on. We had no idea who was here prior to showing up. Even then I didn't know that this would happen when I started having some suspicions on the drive out."

"Then what did you think would happen?" Kate asked with narrowed eyes. She badly wanted to hit something right then and the girl was being so damn calm about everything; it was infuriating!

"Honestly," Hermione sighed, then shrugged. "I thought, maybe, we were going to encounter Lily Potter living under an assumed alias having retreated from the magical world after a trauma of some sort, completely lacking nearly all knowledge of recent events."

Harry groaned. "Why didn't you say anything, Mione?"

She shot him a skeptical look. "I didn't want to get your hopes up for something which was rather exceptionally unlikely, Harry. What was I supposed to say?" she asked rhetorically.

Kate fell quiet and stayed silent for nearly ten minutes before she softly spoke again, "You think my mother and his mother are the same person?"

Hermione nodded. "Lily Marie Evans, Rose Bevans. Similar work technique. Living on an old Potter property. The two look alike, enough alike Harry recognizes her. Add to that, that she experienced a seizure or something immediately upon seeing him," Hermione said ticking off the facts on her fingers. "And I consider it extremely likely, yes."

"When you put it like that..." Kate whispered tiredly. She huffed a sigh then, louder this time, she continued, "But Lily Potter died right. It's how Harry is supposed to have survived the AK isn't it?"

"That's what we thought..." Hermione sighed nodding agreement. "I can't say I can explain that part just yet, I'm just trying to make sense of what we know. Hopefully this Old Lady Winter will be able to help your mother—maybe she can tell us more herself..."

"You said your mum doesn't like Britain?" Harry said. He had his eyes closed and was now leaning his head against the window.

She snorted darkly in amusement "More like she hates it but...yeah, pretty much. She never really told me why exactly. Judging by what little she has said, I just sorta assumed it was because my dad and baby brother died there and she left to get away from it all."

Hermione's head jerked up. "She said that? Baby brother?"

"Well, I call him my baby brother," Kate said. "He was about a year older than me, I think, but those Death Eater terrorist bastards killed him and my dad while he was a baby back before I was born. Mom didn't end up having me until she was already settled here."

"Timeline would still fit then," Hermione muttered to herself.

"We're here." Kate shook her head, pulling off the road and edging into the Inuit village. She stopped in front of a small house towards the outskirts and turned in her seat to look around at the others. "Only the chief and his sons know about Old Lady Winter having magic so don't do anything outside her hut."

Hermione and Harry both nodded. Harry squared his shoulders. "We'll carry her then."

Climbing out of the SUV, Kate quickly strode to Winter's door and loudly knocked while Hermione helped Harry get Rose out of the truck. The two teens reached her just as the door to the hut opened.

"Ah, Kate? What's got you—Rose! Well hurry on then, come in, quick." The elderly woman moved back and waved the trio inside. "What happened? Who are these two?"

Kate watched Harry and Hermione put her mother down on the cot the old weathered woman indicated and spoke, "Old Lady Winter, this is Harry and Hermione. They're magicals like us." Some of the tension left the old inuit woman and she heaved a quick sigh of relief bringing out her wand before beginning to cast diagnostics on Rose. Kate continued to explain while she worked. "Mom collapsed after having some sort of seizure or something when she first saw Harry."

Hermione took over, straightening after she finished settling Rose on the cot. "It may be possible that she is under a—"

"Memory charm, smart one aren't you?" the old woman finished, nodding sagely. All three teens flinched in surprise and stared at her. The woman chuckled absently. "Come now, you don't act as the only medicine woman in several hundred miles for nearly a hundred years without picking up a thing or two kiddos." Frowning the crone-like woman cast several more charms and Rose's forehead glowed blue for an instant before fading back to her normal pale complexion. "Hmm—well, this is quite powerful, perhaps the strongest I've ever seen, and expertly cast to boot. I might be wrong but it seems to me it has entirely suppressed her original personality and supplanted it with an artificial one nearly identical in every respect to the original except in the finest details."

Kate sat down in one of the old lady's comfortable recliners with a whooshing sigh and brought her knees up to hug them tight to her chest, dropping her head into the crook left between them. Harry also sat down heavily against the wall nearby. Only Hermione remained standing. "Why didn't we find out before?" Kate whispered disbelievingly.

Winter shook her head sadly. "Well dear, I'm not exactly in the habit of checking everyone for memory charms. Besides, Rose has never been sick in any way which would warrant a deep scan of her mind which would've picked it up. Even then this is very subtle, enough so I still probably would've missed it if she weren't actively fighting against the charm like she is now. If I had to guess that'd likely be why she collapsed on you. Her mind shut down non-critical functions from the strain of trying to break through such a powerful spell."

"What do we do?" Harry asked quietly, speaking to the old woman for the first time. "How do we help? We have to help her!"

Winter was silent for several minutes as she considered her options. Finally the old woman sighed shaking her head and turned to the teens. "I can probably wake her up, and can almost certainly prevent another attack. But that method would leave her original memories and personality irrevocably lost I'm afraid. I might be able to break the charm while she's out, with enough preparation. That would also effectively prevent another attack, true, however it's risky. There would be a chance of erasing most of her mind or even just all of the time after she was spelled."

Hermione sighed. "So either we completely kill Lily Potter, we leave her like Gilderoy Lockhart, or we kill Rose Bevans and leave Kate without a mother."

Harry shook his head firmly. "That's no choice. Get rid of the original memories and wake her up then. I'm not taking someone else's mother from them, just so I can have mine!"

Kate was trying very hard not to cry when to everyone's surprise the old woman started laughing. All eyes in the room turned to the old woman cackling away. "You are her son, boy? Truly? Rose's son?"

Hermione looked annoyed. "Well we're not entirely certain but most of the evidence is increasingly pointing to that fact being true."

"From before the charm then?" Winter said still laughing and wiping her eyes.

"Yes. I'm Harry Potter. We think Rose Bevans is Lily Potter. My mum," Harry said narrowing his eyes at the medicine woman in confusion and irritation.

"Oh well this is too perfect! But of course it makes sense!" Winter finally stopped laughing and started smiling while shaking her head. "She started fighting the spell when she saw you. Let me guess, you look like your father?" Confused, Harry nodded. He'd been told that often enough after all.

She nodded in agreement. "Recognition then. Ah, whoever cast this did too good a job of it then! By changing so few things it allowed her to link you with her old life and her mind rebelled against the false memories. Well that makes things far easier!"

Kate weakly lifted a hand. "Would someone please explain what's going on?"

The old healer walked over and patted the girl on the arm gently. "This gives us another option, dear. A ritual using a core 'Pillar' of Rose's new life to anchor the memories from after the charm and another 'Pillar' from her original life to anchor the memories from before the charm. I'm looking right at a son from before her problem and a daughter from after. That ought to work nicely yes?"

Hermione perked up and gasped, before gesturing excitedly. "That brilliant! If it works that would be excellent, what are the risks?"

The inuit woman shrugged. "Actually they would be rather minimal. If young Harry isn't related they increase somewhat, but considering what you've described, I find that very unlikely to be a problem. The ritual itself is amazingly simple. You just never really get lucky enough to have an important enough part of both sets of memories. There's nothing more important than a child though."

Hermione nodded slowly and turned to Harry and Kate. "What do you two think?"

Kate took a deep breath, glanced at Harry then nodded to Winter. "I say we do the ritual."

Harry readily agreed, looking relieved. "Yes. If there's a chance it could work we need to do it."

"Okay then. I'll make the preparations," Winter moved to a corner of her hut and started pulling out herbs and jars from the wardrobe.

Hermione looked around nervously. "Um, Mrs. Winter, how long will the ritual take?"

The medicine woman shrugged idly. "Oh only about a half hour I should think. Then another two or three for her to wake up. You can take her home right after the ritual though. I can tell you once we're done whether it worked or not and it would be better for her to wake up in someplace familiar anyway."

Hermione breathed out in relief and nodded. Harry looked at her curiously and

said, "Hermione? What are you thinking about?"

"Crookshanks and Hedwig, Harry. That's all. They're back at the hotel and if we were going to be here overnight I wanted to go and get them."

Kate shrugged. "We can pick them up on the way back to the house if you want. You two are staying over. No arguments. If Harry is my long lost, supposedly dead older baby brother he's staying at my home and not a hotel." She said that last part with a touch of her old roguish grin.

Harry chuckled. "Is it weird I like that title better than the Boy-Who-Lived?"

Hermione had to admit she'd never seen, or even heard of, a ritual quite like this. Oh it certainly appeared to share some characteristics with the rituals she'd learned about: semi-formal atmosphere, candles...or in this case oil lamps, and a ritual circle. But that was pretty much where the similarities ended.

Admittedly her knowledge of rituals was somewhat limited despite some concentrated research on her part. It was almost like wizarding Britain refused to discuss rituals outside of a very limited field of study. It was mildly distressing that the only rituals she'd been able to find instructions for in the Hogwarts library were fertility rituals for witches looking to get pregnant.

This ritual in front of them was a bit different. Rose...or rather Lily as they were now virtually certain who the woman in fact was, had been moved on her cot into the middle of the room and a ritual circle had been drawn around her. A process which would have possessed a touch more gravitas had the salt used to make the circle had not been the variety the local muggles used to melt snow and ice on their driveways.

The house's more traditional lighting had been dimmed or in most cases shut off entirely, and small, old style oil lamps with herbs mixed into the flammable fluid had been lit in their place, giving the room a slightly smokey cast and lending a slightly earthy smell to the air.

Old Lady Winter had taken to pacing around the inside of the circle a couple minutes ago, murmuring something in a strange guttural tongue Hermione suspected was whatever dialect the local Inuit used. All the while grinding some more herbs in a small mortar like dish before igniting them with a small flick of her fingers. That had actually impressed Hermione more than she'd expected; wandless magic was difficult and that the old healer used it so casually indicated she possessed more skill than might otherwise be obvious.

She had set the dish with the smouldering herbs on Rose's chest for a minute allowing the still twitching woman to inhale the fumes for a time before withdrawing it again.

It was here, as she handed off the now mostly burnt out dish to Hermione to set aside, that the aged healer paused, straightening, and muttering to herself before allowing her expression to clear. She startled them all when she clapped and smiled blandly at them. "Alright, that's everything, which brings us to the hardest part. Not that it's that harrowing...well, unless you're afraid of knives." She allowed casually shrugging. This garnered some worried looks so she explained. "Kate and Harry will need to stand in the circle for this, I'll cut both of Rose's palms, and one from each of her children, this will allow us to mix their blood...It's all about sharing magic and sacrifice you see. Fulfills the intent of the ritual nicely actually."

She waited until Kate and Harry agreed, albeit reluctantly in Harry's case, this had produced some raised eyebrows until he'd explained. "I've had bad experiences with people using my blood for rituals in the past." Not elaborating further, thankfully this seemed to be more than sufficient explanation for those who were not familiar with his history as she was. Harry still had the scar from Wormtail's knife Hermione knew.

Old Lady Winter nodded to herself considering, "Well I'm afraid the cut will need to be done without a numbing charm or any sort of anesthetic, the sacrifice you endure through pain will make the ritual that much more effective. The good news is I can heal it once the ritual is complete, and it needn't be very deep." She held out of a knife indicating one of them should take it.

Harry reached for it first, holding the bone weapon gingerly. "Just grip the blade in your hand, it should be sharp enough to do the rest." The Inuit healer encouraged. He did so, only wincing slightly as a dribble of blood began to creep out between his fingers. He looked to her and waggled his eyebrows at her, indicating that it wasn't bad compared to some of the things he'd dealt with before.

Kate's response to gouging her own palm had been far less reserved, involving shaking her hand and cursing. Hermione found it funny how this simply seemed to amuse the old medicine woman. Taking the knife from Kate, Old Lady Winter had then carefully incised a couple of wounds onto Rose's palms. "Alright, that should do it, all I need from you two now is to clasp her wounded palm in your own. I'll do the binding and we'll be ready for the final step."

The woman waited until both teens had grasped their bloody palms to Rose's own before drawing her wand. Hermione hadn't noticed earlier, but the wand was clearly something of the woman's own manufacture, thought that didn't appear to diminish the craftsmanship. She desperately wanted to ask about its construction, but figured it'd be better to wait.

The healer drew her wand in a complicated pattern around each clasped hand, a thin filament of flame twisted out of the end of the wand and around each hand before fading away not unlike what Hermione had heard some magical vows appearing like. Here the Old Woman smiled slightly before drawing a chair from across the room and setting it at the head of the cot above Rose. She settled herself easily enough, despite her clearly advanced age and set her wand down on the edge of the cot beside her patient. Rubbing her hands a moment before bringing her fingertips to Rose's forehead and temples and massaging. Then the chanting started, once again it was in that language Hermione could not decipher. This process stretched for minutes before finally whatever she'd been saying came to an end.

Old Lady Winter leaned down and picked up her wand before briefly bringing it to Rose's forehead and tapping it once and incanting a single word. The ritual sealed itself causing Rose's sightless staring eyes to glow blue briefly, as all at once the tension left her body and her eyes drifted shut. Soon enough the ailing woman's breathing settled and Hermione was fairly certain she'd fallen into a fitful sleep.

The elderly Inuit woman pondered her work for a moment before nodding firmly and clapping her hands on her knees and pushing to her feet. "There, it's done. The rest, is up to her."

A third of the way around the world, in a small dingy basement office beneath one of a hundred or so government buildings crowding the British Capital, sat a computer. Admittedly this computer was somewhat more impressive than the dingy little office which it filled with its copious bulk.

This machine was tasked with a very specific purpose, which was not to be officially acknowledged by the British governing apparatus. Specifically this rather large and unwieldy machine was tasked with listening carefully to every phone call it could get it's grubby mechanical mitts on. Now for the most part this machine, with it's very specific task, didn't particularly care about what it was listening to, most of which was the equivalent of sophomoric gossip or the agonizingly boring day to day natterings of hundreds of thousands of people. What it was interested in was words, very particular and specific words which might have hinted that the conversation it was listening to might be something the local law enforcement or military would be interested in hearing.

Now on any given day the machine would hear a few of these keywords sprinkled throughout various people's conversations, but never in significant enough numbers or clusters to trigger its security protocols. However, every once in awhile it would hear something which would trip the preprogrammed threshold and it would then quite blithely forward the call to someone more well equipped to judge whether or not the people were talking about a horrible catastrophe in the local news or if they were planning on causing such a catastrophe in the future.

Now, there were actually a few computers like this spread about the country, each tasked with listening for different things, and it just so happened this particular computer sitting in this particular basement office was listening for a rather odd and eccentric collection of phrases. It had been a very long time since this computer had heard more than one or two of the words, and even then it was a rare thing.

However today was it's proverbial lucky day, because this vastly under-utilized, but nevertheless horrendously expensive, piece of hardware hit the jackpot. Dozens of words it was programmed to listen for cropped up all at once, all in one location, thus tripping the ever loving crap out of its programming thresholds and causing it to send a high priority message to the person tasked with monitoring such things. Had this computer been in anyway intelligent or self aware it would have been very pleased with itself. Well, up to the point ten minutes later when a bug crawled into its innards and shorted out a critical circuit utterly ruining its motherboard and giving it the computational equivalent of a fatal brain fart.

Still, not a bad day for a computer, especially one which had been tasked with the terminally boring task which this one had, and so it was that a particular Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan police force got a rather odd email with a rather extensive list of keywords which had been overheard.

The chief inspector in question got these types of emails relatively regularly and always enjoyed trying to figure out just what the message overheard might have been before actually opening the recording in question.

If the good inspector had not already been in the know about what these words actually meant they might have given it up as a bad job as most of the words appeared to be gibberish. Still, given that the inspector did know what these seemingly nonsensical words meant they found themselves rather concerned that a message featured the following words and phrases: Blood, Muggle, Ministry of Magic, Aurors, Director Bones, Magic, Unholy and Voldemort.

On the basis of this rather odd collection the Inspector decided that it was time she made a rather important call.

"So...What shall we talk about?" Kate asked, once the silence which reigned supreme in the confined cabin of her truck had become too uncomfortable for the usually verbose teenage girl.

Harry, who was seated next to her in the passenger seat shot her a skeptical look and she sighed theatrically, bouncing a bit in her seat. "Come on, this silence is killing me, and if the success of the ritual is anything to go by, my mom is also your mom, so...dish?" When he remained uncertainly silent she sighed again. "Look, something simple okay, it doesn't need to be anything important, I'm just trying to get to know you a little better here, and the quiet really is starting to get to me. Like, why don't you tell me what your favourite sport is?"

Harry considered that then nodded, she had a point after all. "Quidditch, you?"

She glanced sideways at him as they continued to make their way across the sparse landscape towards town. "Hockey, not much call for Quidditch around here. You play it or just like to watch?"

"Play, I'm a-or rather I was a seeker for my House team back at Hogwarts." He admitted eventually.

"Yeah? Mom always used to talk about Hogwarts and Quidditch...You any good?" She asked, curious.

He shrugged noncommittally, earning a skeptical sound of amusement from the back drawing her eyes to the mirror to see Hermione smiling. "He's the youngest seeker in a century...and many claim the best. Scares the life out of me when he flies. Especially the year before last."

Kate noted the slight blush on her brother's face and smiled. "Oh, why's that?"

"That's the year we had the Triwizard tournament. Did you hear anything about that?" Hermione asked the younger girl.

Kate shrugged. "I heard they were holding it, sounded like insanity to me, but hey, what do I know? Didn't get any more details than that. News is pretty sparse up here."

Hermione nodded sagely. "Well it turns out your brother has just the sort of bad luck required to ensure he managed to get entered against his will in a tournament intended for adults."

Kate whistled wincing slightly in sympathy, glancing at the boy next to her who merely grimaced nodding. Hermione went on to explain. "One of the tasks was to sneak a golden egg away from a roosting mother Dragon-"

"What?" Kate barked, startled. "Are they insane?"

"That's what I asked..." Harry grumbled under his breath.

Hermione smiled grimly and nodded. "Quite possibly. Harry actually had an interesting strategy for it. He summoned his broom from the castle and used it to try and tease the Dragon away from the nest. Actually it was working quite nicely until the Dragon decided to just kill him and be done with it."

Kate looked sharply sideways at the boy next to her who groaned. "It broke its chains. I had to try and outfly it."

"What kind of dragon was this?" Kate asked amazed, and concerned at the same time.

"Horntail." Harry admitted shortly, as they pulled onto the street upon which the hotel was situated.

She hissed in sympathy. She'd never had formal classes in such things but she'd read plenty of books, and it was hard to read anything about Dragons without hearing about the most vicious breed of the lot.

"Harry managed to outfly it alright," Hermione noted, sounding a mixture of exasperated and amused. "He lost the dragon by tricking it into a maneuver it wasn't prepared for, ploughed it into the side of a stone bridge. Got the egg, though he was injured pretty mildly by your brother's standards actually."

"We were talking about sports…" Harry tried to cut in as they pulled up to the curb again.

"Alright alright," Kate said snickering slightly as she slid out of the driver's seat. "Hermione, do you mind staying to watch mom?"

The brunette nodded. "I can do that, probably easier than trying to move her right now."

Kate smiled wanly, she was much better than she had been, but she still wasn't entirely over the ordeal which had befallen her mother.

"So….why do you like hockey so much?" Harry asked uncertainly as he climbed out of the vehicle.

Kate laughed. "Because I get to hit people, duh!"

Author's Note: Thank you very much to Temporal Knight who helped a great deal with the writing of this chapter, and to Bearmauls who was recommending I rewrite this section to better fit the story.

Recommendation(s): Harry Potter and Futures Past by Driftwood1965, something which should in theory be restarting any time now….Unleash the INTERNET HORDES!