Chapter 7

June 2022

Hermione and Ron Weasley stepped into Gringotts. They would have been much rather somewhere else, doing something to find their daughter who had disappeared without a trace one week ago but there was nothing they could do and so they had decided to investigate the mysterious vault that had somehow come into their possession instead.

They showed the letter they got from Gringotts to one of the goblins and were lead into an office. In the office sat no goblin but a very old wizard. He introduced himself as Mr. Blacksmith and offered them a seat. The couple sat down on two chairs in front of his desk and waited impatiently for some kind of explanation.

"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I assume you are here to inquire about vault number 522?" the man asked.

"Yes, that's right" Hermione confirmed.

"Vault number 522 was opened in May 1981 by a young woman who told me to transfer the vault into the possession of Ronald and Hermione Weasley in July 2022. I still remember it quite well because it was such an unusual request. The vault holds only letters, mostly addressed to you" Mr. Blacksmith explained. "Do you want to go and retrieve the letters from the vault?"

"Do you know the name of the young woman?" Hermione asked puzzled.

Who would have written letters to her and Ron when they were only one year old? And how could that woman have known they would marry eventually? This was getting more and more mysterious.

"Black, Rose Black she called herself" the old man replied.

Hermione startled. No, it couldn't be. How would her daughter have ended up so far in the past? And why would she call herself "Black"? Surely it was just a coincidence and she was grasping at straws.

"Yes, please show us to the vault" Ron spoke up for the first time.

13th December 1975

"What do you mean 'it won't come off'?" Rose asked surprised.

"This isn't a normal ring. It's the Black family's engagement ring. The ring is enchanted so you can't take it off on a whim. Also it's enchanted to resize itself to fit you. It has some protection charms, too. This ring has been passed down in my family for centuries and is really old, one of our family heirlooms. The last one to wear it was my shrew of a mother" Sirius explained.

"But I thought you can't take it off? How can you have it if your mother is still alive and married to your father?" Rose wondered confused.

"You can take it off when we are married, just not before. If you took your ring off before our wedding it would mean you broke our engagement. We would no longer be engaged and I would have to marry Bella. It's actually a good thing we both need to take our rings off ourselves at the same time because this way my family can't force us to break our engagement if we don't agree."

"So what you are actually saying is a normal ring wouldn't do? I have to wear this one?" the red headed witch summarised.

"Yes, and I will have to wear its counterpart" the Black heir confirmed.

"Alright" she sighed. "Go ahead."

"Rose Nymphadora Weasley, would you do me the great honour of marrying me?" he asked and got down on one knee in front of her.

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics but answered nonetheless.

"Yes, I will marry you, Sirius Orion Black."

He looked surprised that she knew his second name but kept quiet while he slipped the ring onto her finger. Then he gave her the second ring so she could slip it onto his finger. He stood back up and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you for doing this. I know you don't particularly like me but I will make it up to you somehow" he said sounding unusually serious.

He would have liked to kiss her instead of just hugging her but he knew it would only make her angry. Instead he decided to get to know his fiancée better. Maybe she would warm up to him if they managed to just talk civilly for a while.

Dora and Sirius talked for about half an hour. Dora was carefully avoiding everything that had to do with the war because it wouldn't do to slip up and tell him something he wasn't supposed to know. Sirius and his friends were too involved in the first and second war to tell him any details without potentially changing the outcome. Instead they talked about their likes and dislikes, their friends, teachers and school subjects.

After half an hour they had to part ways to avoid being out past curfew. They went back to their common rooms where their friends were already waiting for them. They had decided to tell only two other people about their engagement – Lily and James. To keep anyone else from finding out Sirius had put a concealing charm on their matching rings. Dora didn't like lying to her friends but she knew it was better this way.

When Sirius entered the Gryffindor common room he was immediately accosted by James.

"How did it go?" he asked impatiently.

Sirius pulled him upstairs to their dorm to talk in private.

"Surprisingly well although she had a few surprises for me in store" Sirius finally answered James' question after he had locked the door and cast a privacy spell.

"What kind of surprises?" James asked intrigued.

"Dora is not who she pretends to be. Dora isn't even her real name. She's actually called Rose."

"Why is she pretending to be someone else? Does Dumbledore know?" James asked sharply.

"Yes, Dumbledore knows, at least that's what she said. I don't think she's lying, the story she told me is too crazy to be made up" Sirius said.

"Alright, tell me this crazy story" demanded now excited again.

"Ok, she's a time traveller, from the future. She had an accident with a time-turner and somehow ended up here" Sirius told him the short version of the story.

"You are kidding me, right? Now tell me the real story" James insisted.

"That is the real story. She even told me some details" Sirius replied.

"What kind of details?"

"For example she knew of the Room of Requirement. She said her parents and uncles told her about it."

"So that she's from France and went to Bauxbatons was a lie as well?"

"Yes, her real name apparently is Rose Nymphadora Weasley and the Weasleys have always lived in Britain and sent their children to Hogwarts."

"So she's a Weasley? A Pureblood? Then why would she pretend to be a half-blood if she wasn't? Especially now?"

"I don't know. Maybe one of the Weasleys married a muggleborn or even a muggle. I heard Arthur is terribly interested in their contraptions."

"You could be right about that. Did she tell you anything else?"

"Well, she knows a few things about my family although she swears we aren't related. She somehow knew my middle name and she said Andromeda's daughter will have a son called Teddy who will marry her Cousin whose name I can't remember, but was definitely French."

"Did she tell you which year she is from?" James asked.

"No, but I would guess about fifty years from now. Andy's daughter is only three years old at the moment. It will be a while before she's old enough to have a kid and that kid is old enough to marry."

"Wow, that's a lot of time. Do you think she knows what will happen to You-Know-Who? She probably knows who will win the war" James said excited.

"Yes, probably but she won't talk about it. Something about messing with time and changing the future" Sirius explained.

"Damn, she could just tell us how to finish him off and save a lot of time and lives in the process" James complained.

"Maybe she doesn't know. She was probably born after the war ended...eh, ends, you know what I mean" Sirius mused.

"I think we should ask her. She could at least explain why she can't tell us certain things" James suggested.

"Alright, we will ask her next time" Sirius agreed.

"Will you tell Remus and Peter, too?"

"No, we agreed only to tell Lily and you because you are our best friends. I mean, Remus and Peter are my friends, too but we want as few people to know as possible for safety reasons, you know? Only Dumbledore, Dora, You and I know so far. Dora will tell Lily tomorrow but no one else will know" Sirius explained.

James nodded in understanding.

"Thanks for trusting me so much, Padfoot. I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Prongs, you are more of a brother to me than Regulus ever was. Who else would I want to be my best man? And I expect to be yours when you finally marry the lovely Lily."

"Of course, Padfoot. You are the brother I never had but always wanted."

"Ok, let's go to bed before this gets any cheesier" Sirius said and started to put on his pyjamas.

James laughed in agreement and followed his friend's example.

They reversed the locking charm and the privacy spell, slipped into their beds and went to sleep.

The next morning Dora was woken up by Becky. She had overslept and breakfast was nearly over. Quickly she got out of bed, dressed, washed and ran down to the Great Hall. She managed to grab an apple before she had to rush to her first lesson.

"Hey Lily, can I talk to you after classes? It's important" Dora whispered as the lesson was about to start.

"Sure, meet me in the library at 4.30pm" Lily whispered back and returned her attention to Professor Binns.

The day dragged on for both girls. For Lily because she was curious what her new friend wanted to talk to her about and for Dora because she worried about Lily's reaction to her news. Eventually half past four came around and they made their way to the library.

Lily arrived first and sat down at one of the tables near the entrance. She took out one of her books and started to read although she couldn't really concentrate and waited for Dora. She didn't have to wait for long. Only a few minutes later Dora arrived and led her to a table hidden in one of the many corners of the library. Then she took out her wand and used Muffliato so no one could overhear them and sat down next to Lily.

Lily watched her curiously. She didn't recognise the spell Dora had used but she knew now was not the time to ask about it.

"Well, there are some things I want to tell you, but I don't know how" Dora began, unsure how to continue.

"We are friends, aren't we? You can tell me anything" Lily reassured her.

"Ok, do you want the crazy story first or the one that's even crazier?" Dora asked nervously.

"I'm a Gryffindor, so give me the crazier story first" Lily laughed now even more curious than before.

"Alright" Dora took a deep breath, "My mother was a very intelligent witch. She always had the best grades at school and everyone always compared me to her. I got sick of it and decided I wanted to be even better than her so people would finally stop comparing me to her. So in third year I chose every extra class that was offered. My mother had done the same but she had dropped two of the classes again at the end of it. I didn't."

At this point Lily interrupted her. "How is that even possible? Maybe it's different at Bauxbatons but here at Hogwarts you can't take all of the offered classes because then you would have to be in two places at once. It's impossible."

"No, it's not. Have you ever heard of time-turners?"

"Yes of course but they are restricted by the ministry. They keep them in the Department of Mysteries and you can't get one without their permission" Lily answered.

"Well, I did as did my mother. The headmistress gave it to me at the beginning of my third year with the order to keep it a secret and to tell no one about it. I did and for two years everything went fine. I went to all my classes, finished all my homework on time and managed to keep the time-turner a secret even from my best friend. But then fifth year came and the workload became so much I had hardly any time to eat or sleep. My best friend begged me to drop at least one or two of my classes but I refused. I wish I had listened to him."

Dora was nearly crying now. Talking about Scorpius and her mother reminded her of what she had lost through her own stupidity. Lily hugged Dora to comfort her.

"What happened?" she asked after a while.

"One day after one of those arguments with my friend I was so tired and lost in thought that I started to play with my time-turner like you would with a normal necklace. I didn't notice until it was too late..." Dora trailed off.

Lily's thoughts were racing. Could it be...? That would be a crazy story indeed. There was only one way to find out.

"You are a time-traveller, aren't you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes."

A/N: Thanks for your reviews!

Exams are coming up but I will try to update regularly.