January 8th, 1349

I made it to France at last today; it would have been sooner if I had not stopped to try that ritual. It would have been faster had the ritual not failed so miserably.

I can still feel it pulling in the back of my mind, the Calling, trying to force me back but I won't go. Besides it is getting weaker the farther away I am from father. I simply must not do any Magic until it is gone, not after the last time. I cannot afford for him to find me again, I just can't.

I must find somewhere to hide for the next few years; maybe I'll disappear into the non-magical world. Father will never be able to find me there. In fact none of Father's or Brother's people will. Yes that is what I will do and then once the Calling is gone, once I'm 21, I will search for this man who has invaded my dreams.

Chapter 3

I awoke screaming. After all these years the memory still haunts me; watching the green light fly towards him, him turning to me and smiling then seeing him fall and then the same green light coming towards me. I always awake before it can hit, but I know it never did, no matter how much I wish it had.

"BANG!" the door slammed into the wall.

"Are you ok?" my mother asked as she panted for breath having, probably, just ran all the way upstairs from the kitchen.

"J…ju…just another… uh… bad dream." It was Monday morning and since arriving in this time yesterday I have been woken up four times by different dreams.

"Oh? Want to tell me about it?" All I can do is shake my head; there is no way I can tell her about my dreams. "If you need someone to talk to you know where I am. Ok? Come on we have to get you to school."

"Mum."

"Yes dear?"

"Can, can you take me somewhere after school? Please!"

"Well that depends, darling. Where is it that you wish to go? You know I will always take you to the library."

"No mum, it, it's not the library. I want to go see a different school."

"A different school, but you love your school you are always talking about how much fun it is talking to Helen, how great school is."

"Mom, she's my teacher and I don't love the school I love learning, so none of the kids will talk to me." It is weird how many things you want to remember fade away with time but the stuff you don't you remember forever. I remember every time I was being bullied with crystal clarity but I can't remember anything else from all my school years before Hogwarts.

"Oh. Ok love." She tried to hide it but I could see her rolling her eyes, she may be my mother but I could tell that didn't help her believe me. "Fine dear, where is this school?" And at that I squeaked and scampered across the room to where I had left the journal the night before. Then flipping quickly through the pages until I found the right one; and then I told her the name that the strange neat writing spelt out.

"Oh well, that isn't that far I suppose." She relaxed slightly as my face broke out into a huge smile. I could feel my cheeks growing numb as I was unable to wipe the smile from my face.

May 9th, 1354

It's my 21st birthday and the Calling has stopped, it has been a mere whisper the last two days. And today, today I am free, today my Guardian can no longer marry me off, today I am free to live my life my way. Today I will begin searching for that man who is continually in my dreams and premonitions. I will find him and I will find out more about this… stone.

She took me to see the school after, well, school. As we pulled up we could already tell that the school would be empty of students. But as we were entering the building I ran straight into a young girl. Both of us stumbling, she regained her footing while I crashed to the ground. The girl stood smiling down at me, her strawberry blond hair falling over her shoulders in straight strands.

"Hermione Granger?" Her beautiful green eyes sparkled below her thin golden eyebrows.

"Do I know you?" I asked. She laughed, the sound came from deep in her throat, and it was a beautiful and reminded me strangely of Harry.

"No you don't know me, but I know you." Then she held out her hand and pulled me back to my feet. "Best friend of Harry Potter, brightest witch of her age, the holder of my journal." My mouth dropped open in shock. Her journal, her journal? "Yes it's mine," it was like she could read my mind, or maybe just my facial expression. Then I felt a hand grip my shoulder and I glanced back to see mum looking down at me.

"Who is this honey?" The blond girl smiled before stepping forward and holding out her hand to shake.

"Sorry, I'm Alexandra." Mum looked at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to continue but she didn't.

"Hello," the deep voice drew me from my thoughts, it was the first time I noticed the elder man that accompanied this Alexandra. His eyes were a misty grey and seemed to look right through me while still looking out at something no one else could see, it was very peculiar. His auburn hair fell into his face coming just shy of those strange eyes. I watched transfixed as he looking down tenderly at the young blond five year old. He looked at her the way I used to see men look at their newly wed wife or lover. Glancing over at her I could see the same look in her eyes as she looked back at him. "Is this her?" Alexandra nodded before glancing back at me.

"Yes, she is the pivot by which fortune turns. She is the one who while help Rosabelle's son see what he must. She is the protector of the protector, for she will keep all right and the balance will no longer tip as it has been. She will see all that was hidden and she shall make right what the Dark Lord made wrong." She turned to me but her eyes were no longer green but a white and her pupils had grown large. She seemed to sway in time to some music that only she could hear.

"The Dark Lord? You know about him? You must be a witch then." I heard a gasp from behind me as the word witch left my mouth.

"Don't be rude! I apologize for my daughter, she isn't normally like this. Say you're sorry." I could hear panic in my mother's voice and it was getting stronger with each word, she was getting close to a panic attack. But I ignored her focusing instead on the witch and wizard in front of me.

Alexandra's laughter bubbled up again this time the man joined in. "You really are the brightest witch of your age Miss Granger or is it going to be Mrs. Weasley again?" The ice in her voice as she called me by my married name was as obvious as the sneer that suddenly presented itself on her face.

"No, I will never be a Weasley, not this time." And the smile was suddenly back on her face.

"Then it is a very… lucky thing to have met you Hermione Granger, very lucky indeed." She reached out her hand to shack mine this time and pulled me in so she could whisper in my ear. "My grandson is very lucky to have you as his friend, especially when my brother and sister's heir want him dead."

And with that both people turned to leave.

"Wait, who are you exactly?"

"I am what you say I am. I am a witch. And I shall be seeing you again Miss Granger, I have a feeling I will be seeing you again very, very soon." She said casually over her shoulder, I could hear mum's quick intake of breath before going back to concentrating on the little girl.

"That isn't what I meant! What is your last name?" I called just before they reached the door.

She turned around and smiled before whispering something. A wind picked it up and brought it to me. The name echoed in my ears as I watched them both walk out the door. But with everything that has happened the last few days the name didn't really shock me, but I knew that any other time I would have ran after them just to ask them questions, but I didn't. Instead I turned to face my mother and pulled her down the hall to the headmaster's office, begging to be able to transfer the whole way.

But in the back of my mind her name echoed on and on.

"Alexandra Raven Amelia Flamel."

April 12th, 1359

I'm in hiding again; I can't believe I actually thought they would stop looking for me once the Calling had stopped. No this is Father I am talking about, he will not stop looking for me until either I am found or one of us is dead and if it is him then Brother will just take up the search. The reason I am back in hiding is because I saw them the other day, why they were in France I don't know but I do know that they saw me just before I apparated. Why was I so stupid? Going out into a Wizarding town without knowing what all has been going on in the last few years. Luckily I got a hold of the local "Wizarding News" before seeing Father and Brother walking down that street. But I got away and that is all that matters, well actually I got away without a tracking charm which is far more important than just getting away.

My dream led me there. Maybe for once it was wrong, but I don't believe it is. I will have to go back there but first I must lead them away from here; make them think I am trying to get as far away as possible. I'll be back. After all I have this strange feeling that HE is in that town.

It's Wednesday now and I still can't believe that I switched schools yesterday. Ok I might have used a little bit of magic to speed up the whole process of convincing mum to let me switch and sure I used just a bit more to speed up the whole registration system but can you blame me? I am awfully glad for all the extra training I got after seventh year; otherwise I would never have been able to do all these minor charms without my wand; but still I wonder why no one from the ministry came, I will have to figure it out once I'm at Hogwarts. Any guilt I would normally have felt by my illegal us of spells was covered by the excitement I would be seeing Harry in just a few hours.

I haven't been able to sleep tonight so instead I have been sitting on my bed reading the next few entries of the Journal. It is rather interesting reading about Alexandra's life, but I was still distracted by what was to come.

"Class we have another new student, two in one week this is a record. This is Miss. Hermione Granger," The teacher said, miraculously saying my name right after having butchered it for the last ten minutes in the hallway. Looking around the class my eyes fell first on the blond girl from the other day, Alexandra, and then on the small black haired boy with the tapped up glasses who seemed to be trying to sink through his chair.

At recess I walked over to them, despite all the people who tried to pull me into this game or that game, all the people who tried to warn me away from them. I was told twelve times that they were trouble, eight times that the boy wouldn't befriend me he was to stuck up for that and five times that Dudley would beat me up if I was seen talking to his freak of a cousin. All that from the same six people, not that it mattered because Dudley never showed up, no teacher yelled to tell me I had detention and Alexandra stood up and hugged me when I reached them. Then she turned to Harry and smiling said: "This is the one I was talking about, the one I met on Monday." And then Harry smiled up at me and I knew that everything would turn out alright this time though. This time I wouldn't let anything get between us.

April 16th, 1359

I found a newspaper today and I didn't even have to enter a town to get it, just scout around the edges. A gust of wind must have blown it from someone's hand because I found it flapping against a fence post and grabbed it up excited for news. I read every single page of that newspaper only to drop it as I reached the last page. There it was the one announcement I could never have expected. My Brother and Sister are getting married… To each other. Today.

This news put quiet a damper on what happened next. I found him. He must have been in his mid twenties, probably only a few years older than I am. The same auburn hair and misty grey eyes that I had been seeing every night in my dream. We even got to talk and I find him quite the charmer and terribly interesting. I fear that I am already falling for him after only one day, but then I suppose having his face follow me around for nearly 12 years doesn't help.

He invited me out for a carpet ride tomorrow and despite how much I regret not helping my sister I feel happy. I just hope that this works.

The years passed and we three became the best of friends. We defended each other from everything and everyone, even Harry's relatives stopped being so cruel after Dudley and Vernon ended up in the hospital for the eleventh time. I shared my story with their ever listening ears and so soon Harry also knew about my time-travelling. We spent every day together hanging out, studying and finally teaching Harry about magic. As time passed I could feel my magic growing and Alexandra decided to teach us what she could.

And then one day Alex sat us both down and told us her story…

"I came from one of the old families, the ones who created the Wizengamot. My uncle was the head of my family, well he wasn't really, no one was but he took up the role. Only one person in my family ever showed me a shred of love, my great-grandmother. I loved her too, as much as anyone can when they are so young. Then she died when I was three.

"I was sent away to Hogwarts at the age of eleven; back in those days' children would leave their families until the day they were to be married or finished their studies. So at Hogwarts I stayed until I was fifteen.

"My uncle was the one to decide whom I was to marry. Anton Malfoy. He was almost thirty five years my senior. I wasn't given much time to prepare-after all, mother could get anything I would need. So a month before my own wedding I was called home. At first I didn't know why but I figured it out, all the preparations were hard to ignore.

"I was exploring my uncle's house; after all I had barely been there, when I came across the library. I mean who knew that my family owned a library? Anyways, I decided to read the different titles in the shelves and I came across a most peculiar book. It was so dusty it was hard to tell what color it was. So I pulled it out and brushed it off. 'Grimoire'. That is what it said in bold silver letters on the front.

"I spent the rest of the day reading it. It was so large that I didn't even reach the section with spells that day; all I read was the family history, following the path of the Grimoire through my family since before Merlin. I found it amusing that Salazar Slytherin was skipped over. Both his father and his daughter held it but the Grimoire would not accept him. The Grimoire didn't follow any pattern that I could see, sometimes it passed to the eldest, sometimes to a lady other times to a male, sometimes it skipped a whole generation or more, but it did always pass directly down. It never backtracked; once it passed to one person it would always be passed next to their child, child's children or great-grand children, never to their nieces of nephews.

"To be able to read it the Grimoire had to pick you, bind with you in the same way that a familiar does. Otherwise, should you open it; the book would appear to be completely blank and would stay as such no matter how hard you tried to write in it. It even explained how to cast a spell to keep anyone from reading or writing on a book or paper, unless they are keyed in of course. I cast that very spell that night on my journal.

"I escaped my fate, barely but I escaped. Even took the Grimoire with me. I stopped to perform a spell that ended up not working and almost got me caught.

"Twelve years I stayed hidden as a muggle, twelve long tiring years. Then I met and married Nicolas Flamel. Shortly afterwards I worked out what the Grimoire was really telling me. I got the spell that had nearly gotten me caught before to work. It was simple: just cast it on a stone and when you want to use the spell, boil the stone. So simple. I just wish no one would have noticed the first change in our ages, I wish we didn't have to lie. We did and somehow it ended up in some school text that Nicolas Flamel had discover the Philosopher's Stone.

"Nicolas and I were in love and it was fantastic, we got to see the world together, staying always young and vibrant. Then almost forty years after our wedding I got pregnant and we were both terrified. After all by that point we didn't have anyone to ask for advice. In the end the healers said it was the stress that caused me to lose our first child. Our little girl

"We didn't try having another child for almost four hundred years. We were too scared of what would happen, but I wanted a child. So in the end we did try and we were given a beautiful little boy. He was the perfect mix of the two of us; with my blond hair and Nicolas's eyes. He was perfect and we named him Daniel Xenophilius.

"Life was good. We laughed for hours when I messed up on an age reversal and Dan ended up pretending to be mine and Nicolas's parent for a few years.

"I must be paranoid because I refused to let my son go to Britain for schooling. Instead Nicolas and I took turns teaching him. Each of us concentrating on the subjects we liked best and basically ignoring those we didn't. He, and later his sister, got very biased educations.

"Then we decided to have another little one. I wanted a daughter, someone I could pass my gifts to. After all, only females have the potential to be seers. Hopefully, if I have a daughter, she shall have a better way of communicating with her gift, dreams are a pain and hard to remember. And I got my wish. Fifty years after Dan's birth I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Nicolas used to joke that it was a good thing that our daughter got my eyes rather than our son; they were too feminine for a boy. She had my green eyes and Nicolas's red hair. We named her Rosabelle Lily, but we always called her Rose.

"She did inherit my seer ability and she got a much clearer communication as well. She was no profit, for which I am glad. Profits never remember their own predictions; never make predictions about themselves and others always take advantage of them. No, my daughter could read crystal balls and not the vagueness that I see when I look into them. She could see exactly what would happen. Sadly she had the same problem as I do, we can only see that which will affect ourselves or our descendants. I am very glad that I kept the material needed for every mode of predicting the future otherwise Rose might never have stumbled upon a crystal ball.

"Her first meaningful prediction terrified Nicolas and I. I used to sit with her in front of the crystal ball coaching her on how to use her gift, how to not just see what was happening but to hear as well. Until that day she had only predicted little things, unimportant things such as what we would have for dinner that night or what she would be learning later that day. Nothing important, nothing she couldn't have over heard one of the adults saying. But that day was different.

"She was looking into the ball when suddenly she went as stiff as a board. Whimpers escaping her mouth as she stared into its depths. "Child crying, mother dying. Green light. A wand of phoenix tail fall. Silence." Then she turned to me and asked the one question that no mother of a seer ever wants to hear: "Why do I die so young?" I could not answer for I had not seen what she had seen.

"As the years passed and she became more and more talented at reading the ball she started to see more and more. I still remember the day she came into the kitchen with that blank look on her face. "The man who will kill me was born today." I didn't doubt her. From that day on she spent more and more time in front of the crystal ball, it got to the point that had I stopped bringing her food she wouldn't have even noticed.

"Years passed and Dan married a young witch named Selena Lovegood who, unsurprisingly, was a seer as well, although she saw images on the wind rather than in dreams or a crystal. Then one day Rose gathered us all together and sat us down and told us what she had seen.

"'I saw my son, and husband, he was beautiful, mother, he had our eyes.' I can still see how her eyes shined as she spoke about him. Then she continued on to tell us about the problems Britain would begin experiencing soon. She called them the 'masked death', for that is how they always appeared, cloaked figures with white masks that were always killing. She told us about seeing another make a prophesy and about the only man who heard it all. How he would try and betray Nicolas and me, how he would betray Rose and her husband, how he would use anyone and anything against us in his quest for my stone. She talked for hours and hours and when she finally stopped. And we all sat there for what could have been hours or minutes. Then she asked, 'Will you help me?'

"We did. We found a couple of nice muggle families in London who were expecting children. We watched them all; we were even there when each child was born although the muggles wouldn't know it. Then we got some luck. One of the couples we were watching had a still birth. So Rose used the stone to change herself back to an infant and with some simple flicks of my wrist everyone believed that no still birth had happened, everyone believed that my little girl belonged to the Evans.

"I stayed long enough to hear what they named her, 'Lily', her own middle name. That was the last time I saw my little girl. A few years later Dan decided to follow in Rose's footsteps and return to magical England. I am just glad he took my advice. I am glad that he and his wife could hide in plain sight as Xenophile and Selene Lovegood.

"Nicolas and I have been keeping as close an eye as we can on what is going on here in Britain but it is not easy. At least Dan still tells us what is going on as often as he can. He and Selene have a beautiful baby girl. I have only met my granddaughter twice, but that shall change I am sure.

"Then I found Harry and I knew this was my chance to make it up to Rose for not being more helpful. I will make it up to her, my beautiful little girl."

Harry and I just sat quietly as she talked away, too afraid that she would stop if we interrupted her. It took a few minutes to gather our thoughts after she was finally done but then Harry spoke up.

"I have a family… that doesn't hate me?" His eyes were glazed over and a small smile was playing on his lips. Alex pulled her grandson into a hug.

"Of course we love you, your cousin will too, once she meets you. We are family, we will always love you." She said as she tightened the hug.

"The Dursleys," Harry started to say but Alex interrupted him. "They were never your family, dear."

I thought about leaving them to themselves for a while but I had my own questions to ask. "Alex, your story reminds me of what I have been reading in that journal that came back with me." Her laughed filled the room and attracted Nicolas to us. He stood in the doorway watching her with that light in his eyes, the light people get when they are looking at someone they love more than anything.

"That is probably because it is mine." Then she turned to Nicolas "can you grab it love? It's by the bed, top drawer I believe."

And sure enough the book he brought back was the exact same book I have read so many nights before going to sleep. She caught my eyes with her own and smiled.

Another year passed and shortly after my ninth birthday when we were searching Alex and Nicolas's library I came upon a dusty, old, leather bound book. That was the most frightening day of my life. It was the day that we learned about the old laws of Magik. Old laws that wizards would not get rid of even if they could and they couldn't.

"Listen to this!" I called and my two friends put down the books they were looking through to give me their full attention. "This book is about the different bonds that form between witches and wizards. There is this section in it called the Laws. Think it might be important?" I could see panic and pain in Alex's eyes.

"The Laws are what condemned me to the live the life of a fugitive for twelve years. They are what make wizards believe they have more rights than witches. Yes they are important but far more important is how to bypass them." Then she motioned for me to continue on. Harry seemed more interested as Alexandra spoke.

"It says here that magic acts much like genetics. There are Dominant and Recessive magic. Wizards tend to have more dominant magic although that does not give them much of an advantage as it is only dominant when around a witch or equal, 5% more powerful or, obviously, someone who has less powerful magic."

"Huh?" I stopped reading and glanced up at the male member of our group, he had his I'm-surrounded-by-people-who-are-way-too-smart-for-their-own-good look on. It looked kind of like one would look if they saw a fish trying to tango; mouth opening and closing, bug eyed.

"Well Harry, pretend that magic is measured on a scale of 1-100. If two magical beings of level 50 were to face each other in a duel with the same spell, the one with the stronger magical level would win. However, if a wizard of 50 were to face a witch of 54, the wizard would win because wizards are genetically 5% stronger. Therefore, the wizard's true level would be 55." Alex said as she climbed up a ladder to the top of the shelf and pulled out a thin book, probably less than 20 pages. Then, once she had both feet firmly planted on the ground, she handed it to Harry. I could just make out the title if I leaned back slightly and peaked over his shoulder. "The Average Ranking of Magical Creatures and How to Rank Witches and Wizards". "That should tell you a bit more about the real scale." Then she pointed back at the book that was still in my lap. "Why don't you continue?"

I nodded then went back to my lecture mode. "It talks about how this works in a bonded marriage but it doesn't explain what that is." I scrunched my nose up in confusion as I started to flip through the book but Alex stopped me by laying her hand on mine.

"A bonded marriage is a marriage between a wizard and two or more witches, often enough the witches don't have a say when they are bonded before they are 21. They are bonded while their Guardian still has full control over whom and when they marry. Their marriage changes nothing, usually their Guardian marries them off to the one who pays them the most or even as a bribe so that they can get more political power. That is what Uncle did to me. He wanted power and when someone offered it in exchange for my hand well he didn't even think about how it would affect me. That and I was grandmother's favorite and after she died without naming an heir he would do anything for the kind of power and money that the family had locked away. After I ran away the family was farther humiliated, no one else wanted to chance having their bride to vanish just days before their wedding. My uncle was furious, I know him, he didn't want there to be a chance that anyone of our 'proud' line would marry a muggleborn let alone a muggle and now there was a chance since no one would marry my younger sister. She ended up in a bonded marriage in the end. She ended up being my elder brother's first wife, not that it mattered too much as he married again so that she could have a lover while he kept his own man on the side."

"He married his own sister?" I asked. Harry could only stare at her in disbelief.

"Yes, they had twins: a boy and a girl."

"How do you know all of this? You always said that you never talked to any of them after you ran away." She smiled knowingly.

"I didn't, Wizards have had newspapers for far longer than you would think. And of course the disgraced Ancient and Noble House of Gaunt was still rewarded a half page for the announcement of the impending marriage and a quarter of a page a year later to announce the birth of their twins. I loved my little sister and if I could have stopped their marriage I would have but I didn't get a hold of the paper until the day of the wedding. Once a bonding happens there is no way to undo it without the death of one or the other and no matter how much I hated him I couldn't kill my own brother." She finished speaking and everything descended into silence. It is a relaxed silence the kind you can only have with people who know everything about you and still accept you.

Then Harry broke it. "Why is it important?" And we all glanced between each other realizing just how off topic we had gone. And suddenly we were laughing and every time we thought we were about to stop we would look at each other again and off we would go laughing harder and louder than before. This continued until we were too out of breath to continue. Then we three lay on the floor of the library catching our breath and as soon as we were done Alex sat up and looked down at our flushed faces.

"It is important because if done right the bonded can not only gain power but also share their power. It makes everyone involved stronger but if done incorrectly it can doom all within to a life that isn't worth living."

That is the day I started to think how to twist this to save my Harry. That was the day I started to wonder just how long I had been thinking of my best friend like that.

The Average Ranking of Magical Creatures and How to Rank Witches and Wizards

All things magical can be ranked on a scale of 1-500 and since everything has some speck of magic, whether it is just enough to live or not. As such everything can be ranked. This book shall tell you how to rank them and the average rankings for each or the more common beings.

This ranking ranks the maximum power available to whoever it is. This does not mean that they have access to it all at any given time. In fact it is not suggested to ever use all of this power for it will kill you.

Ranking is important when speaking about power but it is warned that dominance is just as important. You may be more powerful but there is still a chance that, should whoever it is you are fighting has more dominant magic, they shall win.

Average Ranking:

2-Muggles

10-Squibs

65-House Elves

90-Witchs

95-Centaurs

100-Wizards

250-Merlin

350- Phoenixes

400-Dragons

January 2nd, 1360

We were married today. We disguised my name so that my family would not interrupt, they didn't. I feel a little bad that I was not married under my maiden name but it is all for the best. Alexandra Perenelle is the name I used for our wedding, but I suppose it doesn't matter for I will never have to use my father's last name again. As of today Alexandra Gaunt is no more, as of today I am Alexandra Flamel a woman who married for love.