Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. That honour resides with someone far richer than I.

"You are Cordelia Anne Bode of number five Daisy Lane, Fulham, London, correct?"

"Yes."

The memory hit Cordelia like a brick and her breath caught in her throat as she realised the identity of the intruder

Kieran Karkner knew where she lived and she had been stupid to think she'd seen the last of him.

Making sure to be as quiet as possible, Cordelia took a step back onto the staircase keeping out of sight of the open doorway to her room. She continued in this fashion until her bare feet felt the cool floorboards beneath her skin and she turned away, running quickly to the phone and she picked it up, hesitating before dialling.

Who could she call? Her friends didn't own phones, her family were not safe and the police were not equipped to deal with a fully grown wizard. She hovered in place, panic seeping through her chest as she recognised the severity of her situation. Kieran Karkner was looking for one thing, and it wasn't in her room.

Her brain screamed 'GET OUT' and Cordelia listened. She ran out of the kitchen and back into the hallway, staying completely silent the whole time. She ran to the door, twisted the knob and-

It was locked.

"Alohomora," she whispered frantically. "Alohomora! Alohomora!" But the lock didn't open. Someone must have shut it by magic.

She twisted around, searching desperately for the key, tears blurring her vision. Halfway back to the kitchen door Cordelia stopped in her tracks, heart beating fast; the noise emanating from upstairs had ceased.

Dread filled her stomach as she tilted her head upwards to see the man of her nightmares standing tall at the top of the stares, a manic glint in his eyes.

"Hello Cordelia," he said smoothly, taking one step towards her. "It's been too long."

"JAMES!" yelled a voice from below. "Come downstairs please!"

James sighed as he heard his mother's beautifully melodic beckoning. He rolled over and placed his feet on the floor of his room, knowing it would be foolish to ignore her. The view from his bedroom was very beautiful, looking over a green field complete with rolling hills and a small Quidditch pitch and it was this that he looked at when he quickly got dressed just in case any of his family were over.

He walked into the kitchen, ruffling his already messy hair and saw his mother's face. "It wasn't me."

Ginny seemed to be trying not to smile at his automatic response. "I'll be the judge of that shall I?"

"So what did I do?" asked James curiously, searching his mind for anything he could have broken; the past weeks had been surprisingly prank free.

"Nothing," said his mother with a mischievous grin. "I was just seeing what you thought you did but anyway, it's nearly eleven in the morning and you haven't done anything these holidays except fly and eat; it's not how a son should behave."

"Okay," replied James slowly, still in the dark about why he had been summoned.

The front door flew open and Albus rushed into the room. James took one look at his scruffy hair and raised his eyebrows. "Been reuniting with Mya I see," he said knowingly, smirking at Albus' blush. Ginny looked suspiciously between her two sons.

"Who's Mya?" she questioned, advancing towards the older one, knowing Albus could be very tight-lipped at times.

"Er …" started James, watching his brothers furious head shaking over his mother's shoulder. "A someone?"

"Claps for James everyone," said Albus sarcastically, walking into the kitchen. "She's just a girl around the corner."

Ginny tilted her head, thinking hard. "The girl who James used to jump out at from behind trees, curly hair?"

"That's the one," replied Albus. "And I would appreciate it, my dearest mother, if you could never speak to her. Please?"

"Why?" Ginny pouted, turning back to James. "Do you think I'm embarrassing?"

Both boys looked at each other and erupted into a chorus of "Of course not!" and "You're the coolest person we know!" to appease their now laughing mother.

"Lucky save," she said, flipping some eggs over in a pan. "You two are going to be the death of me."

"And we haven't even begun to talk about Lily yet," exclaimed James, knowing the amount of trouble his sister caused rivalled even his reputation. "Did you hear what Hugo and Lily did to Dan Baxter after he tried to feel up Lily while he was seeing Roxy?" When they both shot him blank looks he continued, "They studied him for a while until they realised he ate lots of yoghurt, like with every meal, so, every day they weighted the ladle heavier and heavier so he got used to the weight, and then a couple of days before the end of term they just, took it off. He hit himself in the head with a gold ladle and was splattered in yoghurt and he had absolutely no one to blame; I think it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen."

All three of them were laughing uproariously as the last two members of their family entered the kitchen from the yard; they had clearly been playing Quidditch. The youngest child swept her fiery red hair over her shoulder and stole James' toast.

"You told them yet?" Lily asked her mother, gesturing towards the three men in the room.

"I was waiting for your father but now he's here we are going to eat breakfast-slash-lunch together," said Ginny, grabbing her plate and walking into their medium sized dining room which doubled, on occasion, as a meeting room for Harry's auror team and a place for Ginny to interview people for her articles. "Well," she began in a businesslike voice, looking around at her family. "We have come to discuss an important matter concerning you children. You all are dating in a matter of form whether it be picking through suitors," she looked at her daughter, "in the process of finding your feelings for a certain friend," she glanced at Albus, "or doing something? … even though nobody has any bloody idea what's going on," she finished, shaking her head at her eldest. "So we," said Ginny, peering at her husband who took a nervous gulp of coffee and spluttered dramatically, "fine, I thought it would be prudent to take you through a few-." She stopped abruptly as her offspring jumped off their seats in unison.

"No," said Lily frantically. "I'm not having this conversation."

"This," said James, waving his hand around at the table. "Can never happen; I have a reputation; I can understand Albus needing this but not me."

"Goodbye," said Albus simply, attempting to walk out of the room.

Ginny looked bemusedly around at her children, pleased to see their reactions. "Oh all of you sit down, we're not having that conversation," she said, hearing them sigh in relief. "Yet," she added in a mischievous undertone. The three of them lowered themselves cautiously back to the table. Their father's shoulders were shaking with the effort not to laugh.

"James, I don't think you should compare yourself to your brother, I believe he is doing considerably better in the dating department," he said to a heavily flushing James.

"I-, that's preposterous," said James indignantly. "I'm doing just fine thank you."

Lily smirked and leant towards her brother. "So if I were to write to a particular prefect right now and ask whether she is your girlfriend she'd say …?" she said slyly.

"I- … You're being-, … can't even," stuttered James. "Oh, shut up. Cordelia and I are exactly we're we want to be."

"I'd believe that," said Albus, tilting his head appraisingly at his older brother. James shot him a grateful look before he continued, "If I didn't hear your dreams every night."

If James was embarrassed before it was nothing to how red his face was at his brother's insinuation, especially when in front of his parents. He began to lean over the table to hit Albus over the head but was interrupted by Harry.

"Weren't you saying something Ginny?"

"Ah yes," said his mother. "The whole point of this conversation was to ask whether you boys would be okay with Lily's boyfriend staying with us for a while."

"No," said James and Albus in unison.

Lily laughed. "She's only asking you so you feel included, he's coming anyway."

"But," started James, pointing to his dad. "Do you want to see the man who's with your little girl?" His sisters face grew stormy at the word 'little' and James did not continue.

"I'm not going to say it wasn't hard," said Harry, rubbing a tired hand over his forehead. "No thanks to that tally you sent me a couple of weeks back. But we have to be accepting of Lily's choices."

"Fine," said Albus, standing up and grabbing his empty plate. "Do what you want but have fun convincing all of mum's brothers that their youngest niece is dating and snogging," he looked at James, "how many?"

"Thirteen," replied James, torn between anger at the figure and pride in his detective work.

Albus nodded and stalked out of the room to go upstairs. They heard his music turn on above their heads to confirm he was in his room.

"So are you fine with it?" asked Lily again. She looked less defensive this time almost… pleading. Lily never displayed weakness, she thought it was unbecoming of any girl.

James sighed heavily. "Fine," he said, copying his brothers resigned attitude. "As long as he doesn't share a room with you I'm good."

"Oh no," cried his father, sitting up straight. "No, no, no, no, no. Definitely not. What kind of father do you think I am?"

"A father who's easily manipulated by his youngest child," replied James shrewdly, exiting the room to the sounds of his mother checking to see if his dad had had a heart attack.

He walked back up to his room and lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He had been trying not to think about Cordelia over the holidays because he didn't want to suddenly apparate to her house when he was feeling impulsive. It was safer to put her out of his mind, but at night, he couldn't really stop where his brain went.

So now his whole family knew he'd been having questionable dreams about Cordelia Bode.

Brilliant.

And Lily had a boyfriend who for some reason really had to stay over. It was strange, to say the least; Lily had never really expressed interest in her boyfriends except as a light relationships and yet, she didn't seem to care anymore for this new boy so what had changed?

James let out a deep sigh and picked up a book sitting on his bedside table labelled 101 Ways to Increase Your Quidditch Skills; a gift from Cordelia for Christmas which was very thoughtful of her. There again! His thoughts had automatically drifted towards her; he didn't know whether to be pleased or not, it was very confusing.

Cordelia whimpered in fright and the hopelessness of her situation as she turned back around, shaking the door knob with all her strength, kicking at the wood to make it open.

A soft footstep sounded behind her and Cordelia whipped back around to stare him directly in the eyes. "Leave me alone," she hissed, pressing her back against the door. "You saw what happened last time."

"Ahh yes," said Kieran. "How's James?"

"Leave me ALONE!" shouted Cordelia again, furiously wrestling with the lock behind her. "Stop playing stupid mind games; I can't be controlled."

"You need to listen to what's happening outside of your little safety net," snarled Kieran. He tried to grab her arm but Cordelia, remembering her wand, poked it into his chest. "This is much bigger than me. Many people want the time-turner and if you don't hand it over, these people will kill you so you'd better just hand it to over now."

Cordelia stared incredulously at his outstretched hand, disbelief etched across her face. "Never. Abandoning your own team, Karkner?"

"They'll get their turn but this is the best offer you're going to get. Once you're dead, your connection to the necklace vanishes and then he will take it. He will kill you," said Kieran, a flicker of fear visible upon his face at the mention of the so called 'he', before being replaced with his menacing sneer. "Give it to me and you live, I have no interest in the soppy lives of teenage girls."

"No," stated Cordelia strongly, digging her wand deeper into his abdomen.

Karkner gave an insane laugh, throwing his head back. When he had recovered he retreated and drew his own wand, pointing it at Cordelia's stubborn form. "I said that was your chance. Remember last time you say? Well, as I recall, you were surrounded by aurors. Where are they now?"

The young witch opened her mouth to retort but realised that he was right. She had never been more alone. At least in the forest people had known where she was.

"You know what I didn't have last time?" asked Cordelia, thinking fast, calculating the distance between all of the windows and the staircase. Kieran raised his eyebrows, amused at her defensive stance. She took this opportunity and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

While Karkner was distracted trying to recover his wand which had flown into the living room, Cordelia ran towards the staircase with no particular destination in mind. As she reached the top step she heard him running after her, cursing and taking the stairs two at a time. She spun around and shouted, "Glisseo!" causing the stairs to melt into one another, making a ramp. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears, adrenaline rushing through her as she reached her bedroom door and slammed it shut, the vibrations sweeping into the floor.

"Colloportus," she said distractedly, pointing her wand at the door and hearing the satisfying click of the lock. She looked around her room to see what she had to defend herself with.

Don't be afraid to lean into your turns on the broom but always make sure not to lean too far because then you might find you have gone further than intended…

…Cordelia was great but… how long could he actually continue going after her? How much time could he give to one girl when, in the words of Fred, she would be a real catch in the future and she could really have anyone she wanted…

… if this happens, simply apply slightly more pressure on the broom with your hands to urge it to turn more precisely. This might vary with different models for example the Nimbus make is…

… and the whole time-turner business, there was no other words to describe it than… shitty. Really inconvenient and really crap. But, at the same time, would he have made much progress if they hadn't kissed in that corridor? A brilliant mistake to say the least…

… one must always make sure to know the positions of other players in any match; with the obvious exception of the seeker whose primary goal is one specific objective. The other players must know other positions so as not to disrupt any plans other players have; communication is of the utmost importance…

… something had to be done about it, the time-turner, not Cordelia… not yet at least. At the moment Cordelia was kind of like the seeker, she had one problem and one goal; she didn't have time for trivial matters like boys. Oh god, he thought suddenly, I'm turning into such a girl…

"JAMES!" echoed a loud voice from the level below. "Get down here now!"

"Coming," he yelled back, sliding off his bed, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu. "What is it this time?" he asked at the bottom of the steps, a slightly annoyed note in his voice.

He looked around. Something was wrong.

His father was standing in the middle of the room as a silvery light disappeared rapidly at eye level and before James could say anything, his mother grabbed his arm and looked him right in the eyes.

"You must stay here alright? Tell me you won't do anything rash," she said firmly.

"Depends what's happening," James retorted, staring pointedly at his father who was now taking the stairs two at a time to get, presumably, to his study.

Ginny urged her son to sit down and he did, but did not relax his posture, instead sitting rigidly in his chair. "Now, you mustn't panic, but we just received a patronus from Cordelia-."

"What!" cried James, jumping up. "What did it say?"

"If you would just sit down, your father has it under control," said Ginny in the voice that people daren't disobey. "Cordelia said that Kieran Karkner is at her house and," she pulled James, yet again, back down onto his seat, "she's alright."

Harry rushed past them saying, "I'm leaving, James don't you dare follow, she's fine, says she's locked herself in her room and her door knob is harassing him whatever that means, so stay here." He left, swinging the door shut behind him; a few seconds later they heard the familiar 'crack!' as he apparated away.

Ignoring the sounds of Kieran trying to climb up the staircase which would have been funny if the situation had not been so serious, Cordelia ran to her window and tried the unlocking spell again with no luck. 'Kieran must have placed a spell on all the exits in the house,' she thought.

She rushed to her trunk and forced it open, shifting aside layers of Transfiguration books and Potions ingredients to gain any inspiration on how to fend off her attacker. This search was fruitless and she ran a steady hand through her dishevelled hair.

A rattling sound was heard at the door and Cordelia's heart leapt into her throat, hoping to all things good and great that her spell would hold. "Stay away from me!" she yelled defiantly. Although the situation was dire, she found her mind oddly clear and she began, in the way she usually tackled problems, to gather ideas systematically and weigh their usefulness. An idea occurred to her and she stared thoughtfully at the window, wondering if anything could get any madder and if not, she might as well follow through with her crazy mind.

Noticing low muttering coming from the door, Cordelia's eyes widened; she couldn't recall hearing the words before so she automatically assumed dark magic which was a problem because she hadn't any experience with that sort of thing.

Her eyes flicked to her school robes, stuffed haphazardly into her cupboard, noticing the vivid red colour. "Confringo," she said to the door and heard a satisfying yelp as Kieran's hand was burned by the hot wood.

A nervous laugh burst through her lips as she heard her door knob cry, "Fuck off you bushy-browed bastard she's burning me bottom!"

She turned back to her original idea and stepped towards the window; a sliver of smugness in her feelings because Kieran had overlooked the muggle way. Never underestimate muggles.

Feeling a great sense of excitement too gleeful for her situation, Cordelia grabbed the metal lamp lying beside her bed and drew her arm back, smashing it with all her strength into the window. Not even pausing to notice the scratches on her arms from the glass, the witch used 'Tergeo' to clean up the remaining glass hanging onto the wood.

Just as she had poked her head out of the gap to see how far down the ground was, a humungous bang reverberated around her little room and Cordelia, far from turning around, used her the Gryffindor stupidity that had allowed her to enjoy the rush of danger, to think of the time her parents had taken her to the beach for the weekend as a surprise.

"Expecto patronum," she cried with purpose, watching triumphantly as her lioness ran off into the distance.

BANG

The second noise jolted Cordelia back to her sense and she twisted around and pointed her wand at the door, thinking hurriedly through all the spells she knew so she could delay her inevitable jump. Nothing occurred to her so she clambered through the window, her thighs pressing into the window sill as she rested precariously on the edge. Heart leaping to her throat and cursing everything in her life that had made her a bad flyer because then she might have owned a broom, she grabbed the top of the sizeable square and shifted again.

Her fingers gripped the top of the window firmly as she slid herself further to the end, noting that everything had become sharper; the sound of the cars in the distance, the beautiful smell of their jasmine flowers, the sight of her neighbour hanging up her washing - completely oblivious to the situation, and the feeling, the feeling of the chipped paint beneath her skin as she prepared to let go.

Cordelia's heart filled with dread as she heard another bang and the sound of her door swinging open. Her legs dangled precariously over the edge as she took a deep breath, reminding herself that the fall was only one story.

She pushed herself a few more inches forward before someone cried out. "Stop, he's gone!"

The voice shook Cordelia out of her determined mind and she twisted around to see a person framed in her doorway, Kieran Karkner nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately, she only had about a second to register that Harry Potter was inside her house before she slipped off the remaining ledge and fell, screaming manically, to the ground.

Authors Note: Any comments welcome and appreciated!