The rain pattered on the roof and rolled down the window panes of the cottage and Sasha pulled the blanket up further around her. The outside world was bathed in a thin mist. Even inside, Sasha could feel the cool humidity of the forest that surrounded them. It felt refreshing and crisp; a welcome change from the smelly and busy streets of London.
Tom entered the room, running a hand over his face. "I just don't get it." He said, beginning to pace the way he always did when he couldn't solve a research problem. "I have tried literally everything I can think of and it's still not working."
"Maybe it's not possible." Sasha said, looking up from her place on the couch.
Tom let out a growl of annoyance. "It's not that." He complained. "I just can't figure it out."
Sasha propped herself up some more and patted the couch next to her. "Why don't you take a break." She said. "Maybe it'll clear your head."
Tom snorted, walking over to the glass doors that led out onto the back porch. Sasha sighed and stood up, wrapping the blanket around her. She walked over to her husband and wrapped an arm around him. She felt his body relax as he wrapped an arm around her and she melted into him, resting her cheek on his shoulder as they looked out at the forest outside.
"It's times like these I wish I could just tell you what the problem was." Tom sighed. He had been an Unspeakable, an employee of the Department of Mysteries for almost 5 years now and Sasha had yet to get the slightest clue as to what he was working on. His work was top secret such that he could be sent to Azkaban if he ever dared tell another person, even his wife, what he was doing.
Sasha squeezed him gently. "On your deathbed, you have to tell me everything." She said.
"Why are you so sure you'll outlive me?" Tom asked, with a low chuckle. She knew he was terrified of death more than anything else.
"I don't want to." Sasha said. "It's easier to be the one who goes first."
Tom planted a kiss on her head and Sasha smiled.
It had been three days since they had escaped their busy London lives to take a small "vacation" at Sasha's parents' cottage in the countryside. It was really only a vacation for Sasha though because tight deadlines at work kept Tom cooped up in the study for the greater part of the day. Sasha's work in the Muggle Liaison Office was less invasive of her life than Tom's was, but she knew Tom would not have it any other way. He loved his work with an uncommon passion that bordered on obsession.
"Are you hungry?" Sasha asked, looking up at him. She could tell from his faraway expression that he was still thinking about whatever mystery he could not solve.
Tom looked down at her, his eyes slowly focusing on her face. "No, but I know you are." He said, and Sasha rolled her eyes.
Even without Legilimency, it seemed he could still read minds. Especially hers.
They sat down for dinner regardless, with Tom merely picking at his food. He stared off into space in between bites, clearly still thinking about his problem.
"You'll figure it out." Sasha said. "You always do."
Tom raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Of course I will." He said, with a certainty that bordered on arrogance. "But that will only happen if I act as if I won't."
Sasha laughed and Tom shook his head. "I'm serious." He said. "Overconfidence is the most limiting handicap in existence."
"Well it's a good thing you're such a humble person." Sasha teased.
Tom finally cracked a smirk at this. "It's not arrogance if it's deserved." He said, and Sasha nearly choked on her food as a laugh escaped her.
"Right, okay. Sure." Sasha said, rolling her eyes. This was such typical Tom. It was hard to know which was larger - his arrogance or his fear of failure. In any event, they probably stemmed from the same source.
"I'll eat this later." Tom said, pushing away the plate. "I'm really not hungry."
Sasha grabbed his arm as he made to stand up. "Don't stay up too late." She said. "If you're not in bed by midnight I'm coming in there even if that means I'll see all of your secrets."
Tom sighed. "Fine." He consented reluctantly. "You just miss me that much, then?"
"You haven't been sleeping enough, Tom." Sasha chided. "You know this isn't good. Come on. You can't keep putting work before your own health."
"But just to be clear, you do miss me though right?" Tom asked, his eyes dancing with mischief.
Sasha let out a snort of amusement and leaned forward to kiss him quickly on the lips. She ran her hands through his hair, her nose brushing against him. "Of course I miss you." She said, knowing that however jokingly he asked the question, deep down, he wanted the reassurance.
"But I understand you have to work." She said, pulling back. "And I have a book to finish." She added, glancing over at the novel she had left on the coffee table.
"Okay, just 3 more hours." Tom said. "And then I'll be done for the night."
Sasha nodded. "Okay, love you."
"Love you." Tom repeated, planting a kiss on her head before disappearing back into the office.
Sasha didn't realize when she fell asleep on the couch, covered in a blanket with a half opened book on her lap. She did realize it when a loud bang echoed through the room and the couch disappeared from under her.
Crashing down onto the floor, Sasha's eyes flew open as a scream escaped her mouth.
"Sasha!?" She heard her mother scream even as her father's worried face came into view.
"Mom?" She looked around herself in confusion, her tailbone hurting terribly. Why were her parents here? They were supposed to be in London. Had something happened-
"Stupefy!" Tom screamed suddenly, emerging from his office. Sasha's eyes widened and she screamed as Tom stupefied both her parents, controlling their descent as they collapsed.
"TOM!" Sasha cried, aghast, as she tried to scramble to her feet. She had to be hallucinating.
"Listen, they're not your parents!" Tom said frantically, panic written across his face. "Well, they are your parents but not the ones you know-"
"What are you even saying!?" Sasha cried, looking down at the unconscious Muggles on the floor.
"Look around yourself!" Tom cried, throwing his arms out wide and gesturing around them. "Does anything look strange to you?"
Sasha looked around herself, realizing slowly that the room she was in was decorated very differently than it had been before. Where the couch had been there was now a rich red carpet. Where their wedding photos had been on the wall, there were now photos of Sasha as a child.
Sasha looked back at Tom, her heart beating wildly in her chest. "What did you do?" She breathed, her voice barely above a whisper.
Tom shook his head, his hands shaking. "I'm so sorry, Sasha. I'm so sorry-"
"What did you do!?" Sasha cried, her terror turning to fury.
Tom looked like he was going to be physically ill as he ran a shaking hand over his face. "I think...I think we're in a parallel universe."
Sasha stared at him dumbly for a moment, as if he were speaking gibberish. "We're in a...parallel universe?" She repeated dully after she found her voice again.
"Yes." Tom said, his jaw set in a hard line.
"This is what you were working on in there?" Sasha asked, taking a step towards him. "You were trying to find parallel universes or something?"
"Not find them." Tom corrected. "We were testing time turners to see if they could be used to alter the course of history and create parallel universes."
"Are you sure we're not just in the past or something?" Sasha asked, looking at the red carpet. "This carpet was here when I was a child. And these photographs-"
"We're not in the past, Sasha." Tom said, walking over to the table and picking up a newspaper. "Look at the date."
Sasha took the newspaper from him and felt her hope die. She let it fall and then looked at Tom. "So how do we get back?"
Tom was silent and Sasha grabbed his arm, pulling him around to face her. "Tom!?" She cried. "How do we get back!?"
He let out a shuddering breath and swallowed hard. "It's not easy." He said, and Sasha felt her heart skip a beat.
"What do we have to do?" She asked, breathlessly.
"We need to find a time turner for one." Tom said, turning away from her and beginning to pace.
"What about the time turner you were experimenting on?" Sasha asked. "Is it still with us?"
"It's in the other universe." Tom said without looking at her.
"Okay, did anything other than the two of us come with us?" Sasha asked.
"Our clothes and our wands." Tom said.
"That doesn't make any sense." Sasha said.
"I was afraid something like this might happen so I charmed our clothes and wands to be registered as part of ourselves-"
"I'm sorry, you knew this was a risk!?" Sasha cried.
"A small risk!" Tom said quickly. "Infinitesimally small. I was paranoid for even thinking of it but Waldregger told me it had happened before and he-"
"It happened before?" Sasha shrieked.
"Yes." Tom said. "To another wizard. He returned eventually but it took him 20 years to figure out how to get back. He found his alternate self and performed an elaborate spell on his two selves with the help of a time turner."
"So you're saying we have to go find parallel versions of ourselves and convince them to help us get back to our own universe?" Sasha asked, and Tom nodded.
"And you're sure it'll work?" Sasha asked, and Tom let out a frustrated groan.
"Of course I'm not sure." He snapped.
Sasha ran a hand over her face and struggled to rein in the blistering anger she felt. She looked down at her unconscious parents. Whatever they did next, they had to deal with them first.
"They're going to wake up soon and remember that their daughter's husband from another universe has cursed them." She said.
Tom turned back to look at her. "We need to wipe their memories." He said, walking over to kneel next to Sasha's mother.
"Fine, but don't take too much." Sasha said, coming over to supervise the job.
"Yes, yes, don't worry." Tom snapped. "Obliviate." He said.
"We should put them in their bed." Tom said, standing back up. "They'll think they just went to sleep for the night."
Sasha looked out the dark window and then glanced at the clock. It was almost 1 am.
Sasha nodded and quickly helped Tom levitate the two Muggles into their bedroom. They tucked them into the sheets, pulling the blankets up around them. Sasha smoothed the hair off her mother's face, her heart squeezing as a sudden fear that she would never see her own universe's mother again seized her.
"Come on." Tom said, gently placing a hand around her waist.
Sasha withdrew her hand and let Tom guide her out of the room.
It was raining as they scrambled down the steps of Sasha's parents' cottage, locking the door carefully behind them with magic. Sasha nearly slipped on the bottom step and Tom caught her, looking down at her.
"Where now?" Sasha whispered and Tom stared at her in silence for a moment, rain drops falling from his dark hair onto his face. They were both getting soaked but they were both far too preoccupied to care.
"How about we find shelter first." Sasha suggested. "It's the middle of the night. You haven't slept. We need to think this through carefully and figure out what kind of a universe we're in. Things might be different here, we have to be careful."
Tom nodded. "Okay, I know a place." He said, holding out his arm. "Come on."
Sasha took his arm and he spun, disapparating from the forest. They reappeared in Diagon Alley and Sasha looked questioningly at Tom.
"Don't look at anyone." Tom said, taking her hand and pulling her in the direction of Knockturn Alley. "We don't know who might recognize us."
"We could use some polyjuice potion." Sasha said, as they hurried over the cobblestone street.
"We'll get some." Tom said, as they turned into Knockturn Alley. Sasha bowed her head as they passed a seedy looking witch. It was bold coming to Knockturn Alley this late at night but, then again, Sasha was pretty sure the man whose hand she was holding was more dangerous than anyone they passed.
Knockturn Alley deserved its bad reputation, sure. But it was more than wealthy witches and wizards took it for as they hurried past with their noses upturned. It was the one place that took in those who were down on their luck. Sure, it wasn't exactly a good place to live, but it was better than being homeless. And, best of all, no one asked questions.
Tom pulled Sasha into a dark alleyway and stopped in front of a nearly hidden door. He raised a hand and gave three knocks. For a long moment, nothing happened, and then the door swung open and a burly man with a messy beard answered.
"What's cooking?" He asked.
"Pumpkin soup." Tom replied. The man eyed him warily for a moment and then nodded.
"Come on in." He said.
Sasha quickly followed Tom into a dingy stairwell, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dark as they climbed up the stairs. At last, they came to a red door that swung both ways. The burly man pushed it open and Tom and Sasha followed him inside. They found themselves walking through a tavern and Sasha looked down once more as they quickly passed through it, feeling a wave of relief wash over her as they came out into a quiet hallway.
The burly man led them down the hallway, passing numbered doors on each side. He stopped in front of number 7 and pulled out his wand and unlocked the door. The door swung open to reveal a dingy room inside.
"How you paying?" The man asked.
Tom pulled out a golden chain and Sasha realized with a shock it was her mother's necklace. He handed it to the man and the man nodded.
"This gets you a week." He said and then turned to leave.
As soon as he was gone, Sasha closed the door on the hallway and then spun around to glare at her husband.
"You stole my mother's necklace!?" She cried.
"Not your mother." Tom corrected, which only served to infuriate Sasha even more.
"Tom." She snapped, crossing her arms.
"How else were we going to pay for tonight and tomorrow and however long we're stuck here?" Tom said defensively.
"Well you could have at least consulted with me first." Sasha snapped. "What else did you take?"
Tom fished around in his pockets and pulled out a pile of glittering jewelry. Sasha took it from him angrily, laying it out on the bed.
"We can't sell these." She said, pushing a pair of earrings off to the side. "My grandmother gave these to her on her 16th birthday. And this..."
Sasha held up an emerald necklace. "My father gave her this on their wedding day."
"Sasha, we don't have any money. We need to eat. Do you want to starve?"
"We will find another way." Sasha snapped. "We'll find our alternate selves and they'll help us."
Tom scoffed. "We can't assume they'll be so generous. And besides, we don't even know where they are."
"How hard can it be to find them?" Sasha asked, walking over to the tiny window that looked out on Knockturn Alley below. "In our universe, we both worked at the Ministry of Magic. Let's start there."
"Sasha, I don't think our lives are the same here." Tom said, shaking his head.
"Why are you assuming that?" Sasha asked, spinning around to face him.
Tom gave her a strange look and suddenly Sasha knew exactly what he meant.
"There were no wedding photos on the walls of your parent's cottage." Tom said.
"Maybe they didn't put them up." Sasha said, swallowing the fear that he was right.
"Sasha..." Tom said, and Sasha closed the distance between them. She kissed him because she could not stand the thought of them never having married.
"I love you." She said. "We're going to find our way back to our world, where everything is as it should be. And at least we're together. If you had disappeared and left me in our universe I really think I would have lost my mind with worry."
Tom pressed his lips to her forehead and then rested his head against hers as they hugged tightly. "I don't know what I would have done without you." Tom muttered against her hair. "But I'm worried I'm about to find out."
Sasha turned and kissed him on the cheek. "Me too."
When Sasha woke up and remembered where she was, she curled into a ball, wishing it had all been a bad dream. But no. The sun shone in through the window, blocked only partially by Tom's lean figure.
"Did you sleep?" Sasha asked, knowing the answer before he answered.
"A few hours." Tom said, turning back to look at her.
"That's not enough." Sasha said, rubbing the sleep out of her own eyes. "You're going to have to go back on the potion if you don't-"
"I got us polyjuice potion." Tom interrupted, gesturing to a cauldron that was now boiling in the middle of their tiny hotel room.
"Where?" Sasha asked, and then reached for her mother's jewelry, searching through it. "What did you exchange for it?"
"Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary." Tom said. "And I didn't pay."
"You stole it?" Sasha asked.
"Don't worry about it." Tom said dismissively.
"Imperio?" Sasha guessed, knowing she had guessed right when Tom gave her a shrug.
"You didn't want me to sell your mother's jewelry so what did you expect me to do?" He asked, and Sasha let out a groan.
"Merlin, Tom." She said, sitting up and massaging her temples. "If Dumbledore were here..."
"Dumbledore is not here." Tom snapped. "At least not our Dumbledore. And we are not involving any other Dumbledore in this."
"He might actually be able to help, you know." Sasha said, climbing out of bed to go examine the potion.
"He doesn't know anything about alternate universes." Tom said. "The less people who know we're not from this universe, the better."
"Thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts, Tom." Sasha said, with a mischievous grin.
"Good thing we're in Knockturn Alley." Tom replied with smirk.
"You're impossible." Sasha said, rolling her eyes.
Tom pulled out two strands of hair from his coat pocket. He held a dark one up to Sasha. "Emilia Trill. Department of Magical Transportation."
He carefully placed the strand of hair on the table and then pulled out another hair follicle. "Ernest Freningburg." He said. "Department of Magical Games and Sports."
He pulled out two Ministry of Magic badges with matching names and positions.
"I'm sorry how did you get these?" Sasha asked. He was just too good at this. It all came too naturally.
"They were getting their morning coffee before attending the Ministry. I recognized them from our universe. Predictably, they're in the same positions here as they were there." Tom explained.
"And how did you get their hair?" Sasha asked,
Tom hesitated. "You wouldn't approve."
"Oh yea, I know." Sasha said, rolling her eyes. "Tell me."
"They're going to go home today and take a nap. When they wake up tomorrow morning, they're going to forget they weren't at work today." Tom said. "And then they will continue on with their lives as if nothing ever happened. No harm done."
Sasha let out a sigh. "So imperio." She said. "Again."
Tom made no reply, pulling out two small goblets out of his bag. He poured some of the potion into each goblet and then put a strand of hair into each. Sasha's turned a deep purple and Tom's a bright red. They each picked up their respective cups and then clinked their glasses together.
"Cheers." Sasha said, and downed her drink.
The transformation was quick and soon Sasha found herself facing a balding red-haired man in his fifties. She looked in the mirror, finding her own reflection to be that of a 30 something year old witch with dark hair and green eyes.
She looked back at Tom. "Let's go find ourselves."