Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Chapter 2 - Welcome to Diagon Alley


"Let me see if I understood," Carlisle was sitting across the table from Bella, both drinking the blood he had stored ("Believe me, you can find anything in Knockturn Alley, Isabella. And I mean anything"), "You are from the future. My future, where I knew you as a human."

"Exactly. Oh! And you had golden eyes. Something about feeding exclusively from animals and such. Because you didn't want to hurt humans.", she shrugged.

Carlisle looked down at his cup and the blood in there.

"It's not as if I'm killing people to get this blood. I don't even think vampires in the magical community have the need to kill anyone to be able to feed when there are people who are willing to sell some of theirs, or even exchange for rare potions ingredients or free treatment...", he was thinking out loud, "But I also understand the appeal of being able to go outside the magical community and see the rest of the world without attracting unwanted attention with our red eyes."

It wasn't difficult to imagine how stifling being restricted to the magical community could turn out to be, and Bella knows how their views on dark creatures won't be changing anytime soon, it was a miracle that Carlisle managed to keep his job as a Healer at all. It certainly helps that there are very few competent Healers and that Carlisle's personality makes him well-liked among his coworkers, with him always ready to take on some of the worst shifts and help in brewing potions.

"And you said I had a son. An adult son. Merlin, that's weird.", Bella wouldn't call Edward an adult, he still acted too much like a teenager to be seen as an adult. Not that she was one to point at his faults when Bella herself acted pretty much the same when they were together, "I'm not old enough to be a father to anyone!"

"You know... I never got to ask your age. You certainly don't look to be old enough to have five children, but one never knows with this being the 17th century and all.", she was messing with him, and the mild glare that he sent her proved that he also noticed how she enjoyed seeing him in the middle of some existential crisis.

"I'm twenty-three, Isabella. In no way am I old enough to have children. I'm barely out of Hogwarts! I had just finished the Healer training and started on St Mungo's when I was bitten and now, I have to come to terms with the idea of having children."

"It's not all bad," she said patting his shoulder and trying to sound sympathetic (she failed), "Your children are great, and some of them became my friends. Your wife was also amazing, so stop whining.", he batted her hand away but she noticed the corner of his mouth turning upwards just the tiniest bit and she decided to take that as a win.

"Fine... If you are saying then I guess I have no other option than to wait and see if you are right."

"And when I am right you will have to pay me in blood pops."

"In what?"

"Don't worry, they will be invented in a few centuries."

...

"My mother was a witch and my father an Anglican pastor. You can imagine how well it went when he found out she was a witch. I was lucky to get away with my life...", they sat on the roof of the Leaky Cauldron, watching the nightlife in Diagon Alley, warm orange light spilling out of windows from stores that were nearing closing time, people walking home from their various jobs, others talking about something or other.

"I'm sorry to hear it."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know. But I still feel sorry. No one should have to go through that.", she said with a small shrug, "I... I never told my father I am a witch."

Carlisle turned his face towards her, watching her for signs of distress maybe? She has no idea.

"Why not? Was he anything like mine?"

"No! No... Charlie, that's my dad's name. He's a police officer. Something like an auror? I guess it doesn't exist yet... He is also a very pragmatic and rational man, the kind that would refuse to believe in magic even if I were to perform it in front of him. If I told him he would either have a heart attack or think I was crazy." She laughed trying to imagine his face, but the laughter slowly turned into sobs as she burrowed her face into her hand. She felt Carlisle's arm hesitantly wrap itself around her shoulders, pulling her to his chest as if he weren't sure how to comfort someone, especially since from his point of view they have only known each other for one day if one doesn't take into account the days she spent transitioning into her undead life. "I should've told him, Carlisle. He deserved to know but I was too much of a selfish scared child to tell him the truth. And now... And now it will be centuries until I can see him again. Until I can talk to him without fucking the timeline even more."

It was such a weird thing, to cry and not be able to shed actual tears. Thankfully Carlisle seemed to understand and didn't say anything to the way she didn't move out of his arms. He just held her for as long as it took until she stopped crying.

"If you look at the bright side, you are immortal. This means that even if it will take centuries, you will be able to see your father again. You haven't completely lost him, Isabella. You will simply have to be patient."

"And now what? I was going to school in the future... I was so certain that I would be undergoing an apprenticeship in healing or something like that coming the next year and then I managed to send myself back in time!"

"Well...", he said while his fingers started playing with her hair in soothing motions, Bella could bet that he used that to calm down children in the hospital and the thought made her smile, "You could stay with me. There aren't any women who work as healers as of now. Not with how society currently works, but it doesn't mean I can't choose whoever I wish as my apprentice."

Bella was out of his arms and looking into his eyes in an instant when she heard his words, trying to discern if he was serious or not.

"Do you mean it?"

"I wouldn't offer if I didn't, Isabella.", he smiled at the way her eyes got that light back into them.

...

They hadn't gone back yet, and the sun was coming out finally. They spent the night between silences, only breaking when she decided to share a thought, or by her silent sobs whenever Bella would think of her parents and friends she wouldn't meet for centuries to come, and even then... Would they accept her with the way she looks now? With what she has become? Her mother would be easier, Renée is a witch, she knows accidents happen when dealing with magic and she also knows about magical creatures and that there is always the risk of becoming one. But what about Charlie? How to explain what he saw when she disappeared and all the changes? For all the Gods' sake! She looked more like Carlisle now than she did her own parents!

The sunlight crept up on them and Bella waited for the sparkles so her puzzled look was justified when she saw nothing happening. She was still deathly pale, but other than that, neither she nor Carlisle were sparkling.

"What is it?", Carlisle asked, looking at Isabella and her confusion when she held her hand under the sun, "Curious why we aren't burning?"

"More like curious why we aren't sparkling..."

"Oh... So you know about mundane vampires," his comment got her attention, "Remember how I said my father was an Anglican pastor?" She nodded so he went on with his tale, "He would hunt witches and vampires, preaching about the evil and demons and all that nonsense. I came back to see him on his deathbed, it was his last wish and I knew I wouldn't be able to go on with my life knowing all he wanted was to see me one last time. It was as much closure to me as it was for him. So I went," he said with a shrug, "When he saw me, he begged me to finish his job, to hunt the nest of vampires he found. I almost couldn't believe that he only wanted to see me for that. However... If there was a chance that one of the vampire clans were found by mundanes it could end in a bloodbath and get wizards mixed on the ordeal. So I agreed, although I was only doing that so I could find them first and tell them to relocate to somewhere safer." His fingers were back to playing with the ends of her hair as if he was trying to soothe himself with the distraction, "It goes without saying that it wasn't the nest of one of the pure-blooded that I found on that evening. It was a mundane vampire. His skin was nothing like ours, it was stone-like, with no hint of flush underneath from consuming blood, crazed red eyes, and no fangs. I learned that some call them Cold Ones, an apt name when taking into account how cold their skin feels. It bit me. And then I burned."

Isabella's red eyes studied his face, as if only now by the light of day she started to notice how different he was from the other Cullens. They were all incredibly beautiful that was a given, but Carlisle didn't feel like a statue when he hugged her earlier trying to comfort her, he felt... He felt just like anyone would. He wasn't icy cold but she had written that down to them being the same temperature, now she was starting to think that he had never been that cold, not even in her human memories from all the times she ended up in the hospital. He didn't sparkle, neither did she and although they are both what could be considered fledglings amongst vampires, there wasn't any uncontrollable bloodlust. Yes, they were thirsty earlier but the blood he had at hand was enough and the smell of the other humans in the inn wasn't as tempting as the younger Cullens led her to believe it would be. Nothing was making sense...

"When I woke up, I was something in between a Cold One and a Pure-blooded. Carmilla, she's the leader of a pureblood coven in Norfolk, she called me an abomination," he saw Isabella opening her mouth to disagree but cut her short, "It's okay, she wasn't wrong in that assessment, Isabella. If we were mundanes we would be turned into Cold Ones because of the venom, however, our magical cores did what they needed to preserve themselves. I'm sure you felt it too while transitioning."

"It was like my core and the venom were fighting each other for dominance until they started to work together.", she said.

"Exactly. My theory is that our magic is our essence, much like the soul is the essence of a mundane. However, magic is sentient, it can be harnessed by a witch or a wizard, but it can't be totally under our control. To save itself, magic embraced the venom and turned us into the closest thing it knew: a Pure-blood Vampire."

Isabella studied her small hands under the morning light, she didn't feel any different from what she did before, her senses were stronger, and her movements too. Carlisle helped her deal with her newly discovered strength so she wouldn't tear through things or destroy her wand by accident. But there was no overwhelming thirst, no rage or confusion other than being in the past because of an accident and a time-turner that doesn't even exist yet. Although, when it comes down to her physical appearance...

"I don't look like myself anymore."

"I know... And I am sorry for that," he said, his fingers still in her hair, trying to braid a strand and failing in his attempt, "I think it's the venom and the magic, you know how Pure-bloods can turn wizards and mundanes? How they will get some of the clan characteristics even though they were not born in the clan? I think it is something similar, like your magic recognising me as your sire and bringing you into the lineage. I don't know."

It would make sense in a very crazy and messed up way. The other Cullens didn't look anything like Carlisle did, but they were mundanes before being turned, the venom made them into normal Cold Ones (and how fucked up her life has become that she would think of Cold Ones as being the normal ones?) while Isabella was a witch, so her magic would work around the rules to guarantee its own survival.

"Magic recognises you as my Sire."

"And you as my Progeny.", he nodded.

So they were both abominations.


Isabella tapped her finger on top of the table, it was a nervous habit she caught from one of her best friends, a pretty telling one, at least she wasn't bouncing her leg, that one was even worse (See? That's why she could never go against her sire in a game of poker).

"A... A witch? And Renée too...", the way the word witch came out of Charlie's mouth as if part of him believed in her and the other wanted to just go to bed and pretend it was all some crazy dream, "Bells, you disappeared. It has been almost two months! People thought you had died with all the other kids disappearing in Seattle and Jake... Jake was blaming the Cullens and now you are telling me that... That Carlisle Cullen and your Carlisle are the same person."

Jake was blaming the Cullens? Why would he do that? Yes, she did disappear in a weird way, however, the Cullens had been gone for months when that happened.

"Dad," she started, trying to sound as controlled as possible so he would calm down, "Yes, a witch. And yes, Mum is also one. I know it is a lot to take and I'm sorry that it took this long for me to tell you the truth, you have no idea how much this has eaten me inside for the past three hundred years," Charlie became paler when she said how long, "But I couldn't risk things going astray. Messing with time is risky, it could create a paradox. I needed things to happen in the order they were meant to happen so that I could go to the past. So that I would meet my Sire and he would save me from death via crushed time-turner. I lived a long life, Charlie. I saved people and changed lives and that would never happen if the accident never took place. Shit! I'm doing a very poor job of explaining things. Have you ever watched Doctor Who?"

The look on Charlie's face at her question was priceless, and had it been any other time she would be laughing and maybe taking a picture to send Carlisle's way, she could bet he would sigh but be relieved he wasn't the one she was messing with this time.

"That brit TV show?"

"Yep, that's the one.", she said, "In the show you have the Doctor travelling through time and space, but never into his own timeline because that would be asking the universe to explode or something. But that is not the point. There are these things, fixed points in time. Stuff that will happen no matter what. That needs to happen. Sometimes for a greater good, other times they can be as inconsequential as stepping in a puddle on your way to a grocery store," she shrugged, "My accident was one of those fixed points. I had centuries to think about that, you know? If I should change things, make sure I wouldn't be wearing the time-turner, or telling you about being a witch. But then I realised how selfish it would be. How many lives I would be sacrificing if I took that option? And what about my Sire? Could I do that to Carlisle? The bond between Sire and Progeny, Charlie... I can't describe it. And to take it away from him? From me? Just the thought of doing that would tear me apart."

"That doesn't sound healthy.", he commented while getting up and walking to the fridge looking for a beer, "Want one? Can you even have one?", he was unsure now that he knew she was a vampire.

Isabella laughed, partly in relief that he was treating her as the Isa he knew and not reversing to seeing her as Bella. She hasn't been that person in so long that it would feel wrong to be treated as her or to even try to act as Bella Swan, not after being Isa Cullen since the 17th century.

"Yes, I can have some alcoholic beverages but it's better I don't drink now, thank you though.", drinking didn't seem like a good idea while trying to explain things, "And I guess when speaking like this it does sound unhealthy, so let me put things this way: to me, Carlisle is my father and my son. He is my brother and my best friend. Our magical cores feel almost the same, like that of twins, as if they were once a single core that has been split in two.", Isabella was doing her best to put into words what they had become to each other during their undead life, "Although he was the one to embrace me, to turn me into a vampire, we are equals in this dynamic. We are also very close in age so that was probably the reason why."

"I'm sorry, what?", Charlie almost choked on his beer.

"Yeah... Maybe I should have explained better how a time-turner work," she sucked at this, maybe she should've called Carlisle to come back in town so that he could explain all of this mess to her Dad, "You see, by using a time-turner I'm basically adding more hours to my day, and I did that for almost three years since I was trying to get my mundane education at the same time I kept my magical one, so when one stops to calculate how old I actually am thanks to all the extra time added to my day I'm in reality twenty-one. So I guess you weren't that wrong in pointing out how I acted older than my peers.", she laughed.

Charlie wasn't laughing, he looked as if his brain were rebooting as he processed the information, his can of beer having been completely forgotten only being held by reflex.

"Twenty-one? We just celebrated your eighteen birthday months ago and you are... It feels like I lost three years of your life.", he swallowed hard the feeling that threatened to drown him.

"Oh, Charlie... I'm so sorry. I messed up so much. I let you down in ways that I can't fix, but I'm trying, I swear. I will spend the rest of forever making up for all the shit I put you through."

Her Dad sighed, finally getting a hold of his feelings.

"I... I can't say I understand, Bells." He put the beer on the table, dark brown eyes fixed on the red pair, "I thought I had lost you when you vanished like that. People wouldn't believe me when I told them what happened and your mother never explained anything. I was kept in the dark and that scared me, that hurt, Bells. I tried calling Isa... Calling you. I couldn't shake how much you looked like my Bells. And yeah... I understand that some things must be kept secret to protect others, I'm a cop, Goddamit!"

He got up from his chair, the movement pushed it away and the only reason it didn't topple over was because of the kitchen counter.

"But other than just being a cop, I'm your father! I deserved to know!"

"I know, Charlie... I know. But I had to wait. I couldn't risk you finding it out before the accident. Or are you honestly telling me you wouldn't try to change things in an attempt to save me?"

That made him stop.

She was right, and they both knew it. Charlie was her Dad. As a father he would do whatever it took to keep his daughter safe, he would've even moved away from Forks with Renée to somewhere sunnier where she would never meet the Cullens.

"Amongst the lives I saved... Among the people I met, young Renée was one of them. If I never went back, Charlie, I would also not exist. There would never be a Bella Swan. Remember when we talked about paradoxes and the universe going boom? Yeah... My life would be the one going boom. So I guess it still makes me a pretty selfish person in that sense."

It took them a while to calm down after that. Charlie was in his second beer by now and Isabella sat on top of the kitchen counter, playing with the ends of her hair in familiar motions.

"You said the doctor is close to your age? I thought he was like, thirty or something.", Charlie's voice cut through the silence making Isabella's eyes meet his.

"No, that was a lie so people wouldn't question too much about how he got to foster all those teens. Carlisle was twenty-three when he turned, and it had only been a year and a half when he turned me. So yeah, we are close in age but he's still physically older than me by two years. I wish you could have seen his face when I told him he would be a step-father to five teenagers. He freaked!", she had that grin in place and even Charlie was chuckling as he tried to imagine the poor man's reaction to the news.

"I mean, I can't blame him. If I was in his place and heard, at twenty-three that I would be a father to a brood of teens I would go into hysterics. Not that I was much older when you were born mind you."

"Yeah... Yeah. Oh... That reminds me. Carlisle sort own me a box of blood pops.", she was muttering to herself.

Charlie was shaking his head slowly as Bella started making plans to get her well-deserved reward for being right in guessing her Sire's future and her father could only send a prayer for Carlisle's sanity.

"Anyway... With him being... Well, what you explained he is to you, does that make him also my son?", he joked.

And immediately regretted said joke when Bella smiled at him like the metaphorical cat that ate the metaphorical canary.

"You know, I always knew you wanted a boy."