Destiny Denied

Hermione was staring at Leo, waiting for her to finish. Her sisters were waiting with baited breath as well, and Luna seemed mildly interested. Leo was staring at the ground, muttering things to herself, her eyes slightly widened.

"What is it? Lenore, what have you figured out?" Hermione asked.

"Everything!" Leo said, and left the Drawing room at a bit of a jog. Somehow knowing where Malfoy would be, she took the stairs to the basement, and sure enough, found him sitting at the dining table, with his usual book and freshly poured cup of tea. He looked up at her, a smile in his eyes, and quickly back to his book again.

"So am I getting everything right this time?" she asked. Malfoy looked up at her quickly, shock in his expression, but looked back down at the pages. He sighed slightly and laid the book down. He looked back up at her, meeting her eyes. A long moment passed in silence before he took a breath, gathering her in with his eyes; appraising the situation now in front of him.

"You've never figured it out before," he said.

Leo was shaking with comprehension, and crossed the room to sit directly across from him. "How many times have you gone back?"

"This is the fourth time," he answered, his voice low and vulnerable sounding. It was not full of any of the reservation Leo had noticed in it before.

"Why did you keep going back?" she asked, folding her arms and leaning against the table. Malfoy looked at her for a moment, a sort of sadness behind his eyes.

"The wrong people kept dying," he said quietly.

Leo took a deep breath before going on. "We were married, weren't we?"

They simply looked at each other, before Malfoy nodded slightly, and finally looked away from her eyes. "That's why you know me so well, why you're so nice to me."

"Believe me, I wasn't the first time around," Malfoy said, closing his book slowly.

"I believe you," Leo smiled slightly. "How long has it been? How old are you really?"

"Thiry-five," Malfoy answered. Leo nodded, adding this to her memory, in case it would help her figure anything else out.

"How long were we married for?" Leo asked next.

"Almost three years," he said again, sadness hiding in his voice. He looked down into his teacup. Leo recognized this as a way of avoiding her eyes, as she had done the exact thing to him once. She didn't blame him; she was quiet as well for a moment. It was strange for her to be sitting across from someone she considered fictional for seven years, only to find out that, only days ago for him, she had been his wife, carrying his child. It was all so melodramatic, that Leo could hardly believe it and was waiting for the 'Days of Our Lives' theme to start up.

She was quiet for another moment, then outstretched her hand, putting it on top of his. "We have to tell Hermione," she said.

"I know. Let's go," he said quickly, standing. He left his tea and his reading on the table, and started for the stairs. He seemed quite eager to get it out into the open. Leo stood swiftly to follow him, and found herself a few paces behind, until they reached the hall outside the drawing room.

Malfoy turned towards her, a bit paler than usual, "Would you like to do most of the explaining?"

She looked at him for a moment, "Well, I can preface it, but I haven't figured everything out. You'll have to fill in the gaps." He nodded, and Leo wrapped her hand around the snake head door knob, twisting it open. She heard the murmur of conversation die as she entered. Nine faces watched them as they entered; Harry, Ron and Bill had joined the rest.

"I can explain what's going on," Leo said, then realized that actually, there wasn't that much that she had figured out, not that concerned the rest of them. She had squared away her own strange experiences in the Potterverse, but not the main problem.

"Well I was hoping so," Hermione said. She had been testy since her return from Hogwarts that evening. "That's why I asked the others to join us." Malfoy shut the door behind them, drawing attention to himself accidentally.

"Draco's been going back in time," Leo blurted out, not sure how to begin.

"What?" Cathy and Hermione asked in unison.

"It's true," he said.

"That's why he calls me Leo, because... though I've only known him for a few days, he's known me for..." she trailed off.

"Ten years," he answered.

"Holy sh-" Anna started, but Tawna clapped a hand over her mouth. Malfoy smirked at her a bit. So did Ron.

"Ten years? Malfoy... why?" Hermione asked.

"I used your theory. The first time you brought Leo here, things didn't turn out so well. And by not so well, I mean Potter was caught and murdered," Malfoy began. Harry raised his eyebrows at this, and Leo couldn't tell whether the reason was surprise or trepidation. Hermione looked engrossed with his explanation. "You had wanted to go back, but I stopped you."

"What do you mean? How did you-" she stumbled over her words.

"After Potter died, you three told the rest of us what you had been working on," he motioned towards Ginny, Luna and Hermione. "You had taken the Order to the Department of Mysteries and you were going to use the Time Source, but I stopped you."

"Why?" she asked.

"You were distraught, Granger, you were in no shape to go back and manipulate the past. That, and... no one was sure whether or not using the Time Source as a giant Time Turner was actually going to work. And well, I was more expendable then you were, Headmistress," Malfoy said. "So, you got it going, I pushed you out of the way and jumped in. I reckon you were quite flustered, but there was nothing you could do about it," there was a bit of a smirk on his face. Leo was glad that she had not had to do very much of the actual explaining.

"So that was the first time," he said. "The second time, things were a bit peachier, lasted a lot longer than the first time."

"How long was the first one?" Ron asked, sounding quite surprised that there was more than one trip.

"Almost two years," he said. "The second was three, and the last one was almost five."

"We were here for five years?" Anna asked.

"No, not you, just Leo," Malfoy said. "This is the first time she's ever brought in back up."

"No wonder it always took so much longer," Leo mumbled under her breath. Malfoy must have heard her, because he turned and smiled broadly at her. She blushed slightly and looked away.

"Moving on, the second time around, you died Granger. I figured since I had already done it once, I might as well go back and try it again. The third time-" he stopped suddenly and they all looked at him. Leo then understood why he had paused. She slipped her hand into his, which caused the entire room a great deal of surprise.

"Last time I died," Leo said. "And we were married."

"What!?" Cathy and Tawna cried. Hermione and Ginny looked just as stunned. Anna, however, smiled.

"The second Muggleborn wife... that was you!" she said. Malfoy nodded.

"Everything suddenly made sense Hermione, when you told me that Draco had only been married once, I realized it. The pieces just all fell together," Leo said. "The night I got here, I noticed the wedding rings on all of you, even Malfoy. I also saw that he knew I saw his, and took it off afterwards. The way he talked about his second wife, and most importantly, the way he's changed. You know what he was like at school with you. That's the Draco Malfoy I thought I knew, but that's not the one I met. He was so completely polite and considerate towards me... and with all the other things, I just added it all up; I knew," Leo explained.

"Wait, if you're future Malfoy, where's present day Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"On Holiday in Marseilles, but under the Imperius Curse," he answered nonchalantly.

"You put yourself under Imperio?" Anna asked, sounding aghast. Malfoy cocked an eyebrow; he seemed greatly amused by Anna.

"Wasn't that hard, this is the third time doing it," Malfoy shrugged.

"Well then," Hermione sighed after a moment. "You can help us then, Malfoy, had we figured out what had gone wrong any of the other times?"

"No, not that I know of," he said. Leo suddenly realized that he had not let go of her hand since she had grabbed it. "You were getting stuck on the fifth and sixth year."

"Sixth year hasn't been released," Cathy said.

"Leo was here long enough for it to be published," Malfoy said simply.

"What if it didn't happen then?" Anna asked suddenly. "What if it was earlier?"

"What do you mean?" Cathy asked. "The end of fourth year?"

"No, you're still not thinking back far enough," Anna said.

"How far do we need to think?" Hermione asked, looking quite excited.

"What I mean to say is, maybe it was more than one thing," Anna said.

"I get it," Leo interrupted. "A chain of events; and the synergy of it has screwed it up so complexly that we haven't been able to untangle it."

"Exactly," Anna smiled, looking pleased with herself.

"Then let's see if we can find it," Hermione said, and with a wave of her wand, she conjured an enormous blackboard. Using her wand like a piece of chalk, she began to scribble down their ideas. "What are the things we know went wrong?"

"Losing the Burrow," Ginny said. Hermione wrote it quickly.

"Hagrid," Harry added. That went onto the board as well.

"How about Umbridge being at the school at all?" Anna suggested, and Hermione feverishly added that to their list. They began to toss out their ideas, all things that seemed either unpleasant or unfortunate.

"Sirius," Leo added quietly.

"What if we go so far as to say... Voldemort coming back at all?" Harry offered to the room. They were all quiet for a moment.

"That would mean that he would have had to die completely the first time," Cathy said.

"Even then, there are all the other things in your first three years... he would have found a way eventually," Anna said. Harry nodded slightly.

"That is not the point!" a male voice shouted.

"You listen here, Black," another raised voice returned. They all turned to see Severus Snape, and Sirius Black, standing behind the couch, deeply absorbed in a good row.

"Now you listen to me, Snivelus, just because I am stuck here, without my name cleared, does not mean-" Sirius started.

Snape rolled his eyes, "Not this again."

Sirius had pulled his wand, but Tawna mumbled, "Jeez, Snape was greasy."

Both Snape and Sirius halted their argument and turned and looked at the rest of the room as well. Everyone stood motionless, simply staring at the others. "They can see us," Leo muttered.

"You again," Sirius said, looking at Leo. She felt her heart leap into her throat. She had seen him before in the Drawing Room, in the exact spot he was now. It had not been a hallucination after all, and now it had been proved.

"What is-" he started, but just as suddenly as he and Snape had appeared, they were gone again. Leo turned excitedly to Hermione.

"See? I did see him earlier, and I saw James on the second story landing!" Leo said.

"James?" Ginny asked, sitting up a bit straighter. Leo turned to her, finally dropping Malfoy's hand and going into her robe pocket. She pulled out the small black book and opened it to the page with Harry's parents, and Ginny's son.

"Look, he's what, three in this picture? When I saw him the other morning, he was much older than this, at least twice that size," Leo said, pointing to him. Harry had leaned over the couch to look at the picture, as if he was making sure that Sirius and his son were still there. Leo handed it to Ginny, who was looking curiously at it as well. Unfortunately, they were both still in the picture.

"Einstein," Tawna blurted out.

"What?" Ron asked.

"The Theory of Relativity," Tawna said.

Hermione gasped, and everyone looked at her, though she was looking pointedly at Tawna, "The Space/Time Continuum!" she said. Tawna burst into her trademark smile, and nodded excitedly.

"I understand now! Malfoy, you said you've gone back three times, right?" Hermione asked. He nodded. "And each jump back was a sizable amount?"

"Right, at least two years each time," he said.

"Think of time like a piece of fabric. Just because you are looking at, or living in, one part of the fabric, doesn't mean that the rest of the weave before and after don't exist too," Hermione explained. Everyone acknowledged silently, so she continued. "No one has ever traveled that far back, that many times before. There's no documentation on what could happen, in fact, I don't think anyone's ever bothered to give it a second thought. Yes, that must be it," Hermione was talking to herself now, more than the rest of them.

"Care to enlighten us, Granger?" Malfoy asked.

"Weasley," she said quickly, not even noticing. "You all understand that time is like cloth, right? Well, there is a fold in that cloth, or a rip, or a little of both, I'm not Einstein, so I'm not entirely sure, but something has happened to it. It's become so worn out from repetitive, extreme time travel, that the fabric is unraveling," she explained.

"I thought it was folded," Anna said.

"Bear with me," Hermione said sarcastically, and it was the first sarcasm Leo had heard from her. "That's why we just saw Sirius and Snape just now." She pulled up the bottom of her robe, revealing pants underneath, but stuck her finger through a button hole. "There's a tear in that fabric, maybe more than one, and that's why both parties could see each other."

"That would explain Buckbeak, too," Ginny said. Hermione seemed confused, but Leo knew precisely what she meant.

"Maybe because he's an animal, the rips have affected his memories," Leo said. She turned to Malfoy. "Did I ever meet Buckbeak on the last times?"

"Are you kidding?" he chuckled. "He loved you. You used to sneak him out and fly him on rainy days. It's the only time Granger would get mad at you."

"Wait a minute," Tawna said darkly. "Are you saying that the Space/Time Continuum has holes worn in it?"

"Basically, yes," Hermione sighed.

"That can't be good," Ginny said.

"No, definitely on the not good list," Leo said.

"That only means that we might have problems going back again, we might only have one more chance..." Hermione said ominously.

"Or what?" Harry asked. "I know there's an 'or else' at the end of that."

"Or, well..." she trailed off. "Theoretically... the Universe could collapse." There was a long moment of quiet, in which everyone found a nice piece of the floor or their neighbor's shoe to stare at open mouthed. Collapsing Universes had a tendency to awe.

"Then we better figure out what the hell went wrong originally," Malfoy said.

"I hate to admit it, but you're right," Hermione said. "Which means that we also need to figure out what went wrong the last times you went through Malfoy, or it could happen all again and ruin our chances." With her wand, Hermione turned and drew a line down the middle of the chalk board.

"Snape," Cathy said suddenly. Everyone turned and looked around the room, thinking perhaps that he had appeared again in another hole in Time. Leo, however, knew that Cathy was onto something. She knew her too well, and knew the look on her face meant something was going on.

"It was Snape, what went wrong; he did it," she said, her face lighting up. "The chain reaction of badness!" Cathy said, getting to her feet and walking towards the board. She motioned towards all the items on the list.

"Most of these moments, they're 'Oh no!' moments, right?" She asked, addressing her two sisters and Tawna. "When we read these, we got that feeling, right here," she said, holding her stomach. "These are the things that started something else, that made something else terrible. So what's the first moment when you felt that? The first bad thing that made you feel... well, hopeless, helpless... both."

Leo was reaching through her brain, thinking of all the things she wished had not happened in the books, and one was predominant, but only involved a black veil. "Come on guys, think. Snape!" Cathy cried.

Anna gasped, "When he outted Lupin!"

"Yes!" Cathy pointed excitedly at Anna, then turned towards her older sister. "Think of it, Leo! That was the first 'Oh no!' moment, wasn't it?"

"I think so," Leo answered, and now she was trying to imagine what would or wouldn't have happened if that event had not taken place.

"But if he hadn't done that, Lupin would have been there for our fourth year, which would mean that Harry wouldn't be in the Tri-Wizard Tournament," Hermione said.

"I'm sure Barty Jr. would have found a way regardless, but-" Cathy started.

"Lupin would have left anyway," Anna said. Cathy smiled and nodded in recognition. "Think of what he was like," Anna began. "He didn't drink that potion that night, and he could have hurt someone, most likely a student, so he would have removed himself from that situation in case something like that ever happened again."

"No one could guilt trip like Lupin," Harry added.

"Exactly!" Leo said, "He still would have resigned, but if his resignation was for personal reasons, not because of Snape letting it slip to his students, Lupin would have been able to come back later... maybe even-"

"Fifth year," the Lector sisters said in unison.

"No Umbridge," Harry said with a smirk, though Leo noticed that Malfoy wore a very different expression when they mentioned Umbridge around him.

Hermione was writing feverishly now on the blackboard. It was to continue like this for hours on into the night, until the clock in the drawing room chimed one hour past midnight. By then Ginny and the others had excused themselves, and Luna's ghost had floated out of the room with a dazed look on her face. Hermione decided then that it would be best to take a break for the evening, and get some well deserved sleep. She had then gone all the way upstairs, where Ron was undoubtedly already asleep. Anna had gently bullied Cathy into a piggy back ride to their room. And though it was only down the hall, she was asleep by the time they arrived. Leo was sure to pull back the covers, and tuck her in snuggly once Cathy had set her down. Tawna was the next to fall asleep, quickly removing her shoes and crawling into bed silently.

"Is it strange to feel so at home here?" Cathy asked Leo, long after the other two had fallen asleep and the lamps had been turned down. Leo paused before answering, having been facing that question since she arrived.

"I don't know," was all she said in reply. Within a few minutes, Cathy's breathing had become rhythmic and soft, but Leo was still wide awake; her brain reeling from the wealth of information tonight. She suddenly realized how dry her throat and mouth felt from the discussions of the evening, and decided to make her way, once more, down to the kitchen for a glass of water before tucking in.

Though she should have been used to it by now, she was surprised to see Malfoy still awake, reading the same book he had been every time she caught him. He glanced up at her and smiled, but this time it was a very different type of smile, maybe somehow more genuine than the ones preceding it.

"Burning the midnight oil?" she asked, sitting down next to him. He had his cup of tea, and a silver teapot on the table in front of him. Leo grabbed the pitcher of water still on the table from dinner, and Malfoy conjured a glass for her. She thanked him before she spoke again, "What are you reading?"

"Tatum West, very much the Ayn Rand of our world," he answered, showing her the spine of the book. Leo smiled.

"She's one of my favorite Muggle authors," she said. She didn't know exactly why she specified between Wizard and Muggle, but once she thought about it for a moment, Jo Rowling was actually a Witch, so perhaps the distinction did come in handy.

"I know, this is your favorite book...." Malfoy paused, and the two exchanged glances. Leo was curtly reminded that she meant much more to him than she had originally thought. She also realized that she had put her hand on his forearm when she reached for the water. She was just thinking of removing her hand, though she had to force herself, when Malfoy spoke.

"You read it first, said it portrayed all of the social injustice in the Wizarding world, among blood purity and gender. You tried to make me read it for months, but...." He trailed off again into silence.

"You just started reading it, didn't you?" Leo asked, deciding not to take away her hand after all.

He smirked to the side, slightly bashful, and turned to look at her properly, "The day before I came for you." Leo reached up and pushed some of his champagne blond hair out of his eyes. Sitting this near to him, she could see the fine lines developing around his eyes, and see that his skin looked a bit more worn from stress than a younger man's did.

"You've changed so much," she said softly.

He was quiet for a moment, his eyes closed as her hand was still rested on his cheek. "How would you know?" he finally asked, slightly sarcastic. She somehow knew he was hiding his emotions again.

Leo sighed slightly, feeling both annoyed and endeared by this. "I can feel it," she said. They were both silent for another moment, before Malfoy opened his eyes and caught hers. He looked at her for a moment, before Leo felt the knot in her stomach grow unbearable.

"I'd better get to bed, I'm sure Hermione has plenty planned for me tomorrow," Leo said, holding onto her glass firmly, and standing from the bench.

"I'd better get some sleep as well," he said. "I'll walk you to your room." There wasn't much escorting, as Leo was walking in front of him most of the time, contemplating her feelings and the strange onset of them. She kept bouncing between a familiar comfort and an intense infatuation, and it was no good for her heart or thoughts. Or her stomach, for that matter.

Within only moments she was back outside the room where her two younger sisters were sleeping. She turned around to say goodnight to him properly, but found him smirking slightly. Somehow it gave her the courage to reach up quickly and kiss him on the cheek.

"Good night Draco," she said, and turned around to enter the bedroom quickly, as she could feel her cheeks becoming quite red. He grabbed her arm and turned her around, looking at her intently. He looked at her for only a moment, but Leo felt her stomach take flight again. His grey eyes flickered down to her lips, and she knew he was about to kiss her. She hoped strongly that he didn't, for fear she might do something embarrassing, like kiss terribly, or drop her glass of water, or wet herself.

"Good night Leo," he said in reply, and kissed her quickly on the forehead before turning and nearly running up the stairs. Leo stood outside her door for a moment, hands shaking, before she finally let herself into the room. She was quite pleased with herself as she finished her drink and climbed into bed. Somehow, though she was not yet twenty, and under experienced, she had managed to make a hardened, thirty five year old man act like a teenage girl. She sighed happily, savoring the kiss on her forehead in her own juvenile way, and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Not surprisingly, Leo was the last to wake up. She tried to look at the clock on the bed side table, but it had four hands and what looked like the twelve zodiac symbols. She wished that another familiar feeling would help her somehow remember how to read this kind of clock, but to no avail.

She slowly got out of bed and decided to head to the drawing room, where she was sure she would find her sisters and Hermione. Sure enough, as soon as she came near to the drawing room, she heard the familiar cadence of her sisters' voices.

"Has she really only read our fifth year once?" Hermione asked, sounding slightly frightened of the answer.

Anna and Cathy were both silent for a moment before an answer was given. "She couldn't read it again," Cathy finally said.

"Not after what happened at the end. Her book was a mess, the last seventy-five pages or so, were all wrinkly from crying on it. She took it pretty hard," Anna said.

"She cried?" Hermione asked.

"Loads," Cathy answered. "We would find her just sitting alone, crying."

"Or we'd be watching a movie, and she would start to cry when it wasn't sad at all. Usually if it was funny," Anna explained. "We would ask here what was wrong, and she would just say-"

"Sirius," the sisters said in unison. Leo felt a heaviness on her chest again. In the fourteen months since she had read the book, she had managed to finally move on. It was only since Christmas that she had been free from the random attacks of emotion for Sirius. She had felt foolish enough, becoming so worked up over someone she thought to be fictional, but now, to have the sorrow heavy in her stomach again, she felt even more foolish because he was real. It was worse that she had never really known him.

Without waiting to overhear anymore of their conversation, and feeling full fledged mourning sweeping over her again, she decided to head down to the kitchen. She was sure no one would be there, and she was right. The only person in the kitchen was Dobby, clearing the breakfast dishes. He bowed deeply when he saw her enter.

"Good morning Mrs.," he said, bowing so low that his nose almost touched the ground again. Leo smiled slightly, wondering if the same thing that happened to Buckbeak because of the time travel had happened to Dobby as well.

"Good morning, Dobby," she smiled, sitting at the table.

"Would Mrs. like some breakfast?" he asked.

"Sure, but do you have any coffee?" she asked. He nodded, and after another bow, scampered into the kitchen. He reappeared soon, and set down a tray, with a mug full of black coffee, and sugar and cream. He disappeared into the kitchen again, and Leo prepared for her caffeine fix. Working at a coffee shop had turned her into a java junkie. She was looking into her cup, holding it with both of her hands, but seeing in her mind's eye the grey eyes and dark, feathered hair of Sirius Black. It was so strange to her to be feeling the way she had felt the summer before, when she had read of his death. To know that it had actually happened made it hurt again, and hurt more.

While her thoughts had been preoccupied by Sirius, once again, and her coffee cup had been warming her hands, Dobby had set down a plate of eggs and potatoes on the table in front of her. She looked up, surprised at how much time had slipped away as her thoughts wandered.

"Oh, thank you so much, Dobby," she said, not realizing that she was actually hungry. He also set down a fork and napkin, and she eagerly began to eat her breakfast. He started for the kitchen again, and Leo called him back.

"Do you know what happened to Kreacher?" Leo asked. Her thoughts had naturally turned to him from Sirius, and she had a few questions still plaguing her from the release of book five. A very different, almost angry expression crossed Dobby's face.

"Dobby did not like Kreacher at all. Kreacher serves my old mistress now," he said begrudgingly. Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Kreacher works for Narcissa Malfoy?" she asked. Dobby nodded. He bowed slightly and started to leave again, but Leo called him back once more.

"Dobby, did Dumbledore hire you after Kreacher left?" she asked.

"No, Mrs., Dobby came on his own to help defeat the Dark Lord," he said. Leo smiled at him, ignoring her breakfast for the moment.

"You're so noble, Dobby," Leo said. He thanked her and bowed again, this time nearly putting his forehead on the floor. "I need to ask you though... when you arrived, did you clean out Kreacher's quarters?"

Another aggravated look arrived on Dobby's big-eyed face. He seemed to be getting properly mad now. "Kreacher was a terrible house elf!" he cried. "Potions things all over, as if he was a suitable wizard."

Leo could feel herself sit up a bit straighter, it was as though a chill had just gone down her spine. She was terribly afraid that her suspicions and theories from her Muggle days of speculation were true. "Do you remember what ingredients he had, Dobby? It wasn't sneezewort, lovage or scurvy-grass, was it?"

"How did Mrs. know what Kreacher kept?" he asked. Leo felt like she might burst, but not from satisfaction or the onset of knowledge.

"That's all, Dobby, thank you for breakfast," she said, suddenly feeling not hungry at all. Dobby excused himself and bowed his way into the kitchen. Leo hung her head, feeling a weight in the bottom of her stomach. She had always hated Sirius's death, but she had only suspected foul play, she had never expected a conniving house elf to have made up either a Confusing or Befuddlement Draught. Leo pushed her coffee away from her as she worked out the details in her mind. She had shared her theory once with Cathy, but had not mentioned it since. Though Sirius had been house bound, and was worried about Harry, his actions before and during the Department of Mysteries incident were uncharacteristic. She had always thought it strange that Rowling, or rather, Trelawney, had mentioned only that specific Potions lesson in the entire fifth book. Leo knew Sirius would not have been so careless to taunt Bellatrix during their duel, and now, knowing that her suspicions had indeed been fact, she felt even worse. It was bad enough that Sirius had been so carelessly murdered during a duel, but to add to it that he had been, in essence, poisoned, was unbearable.

Leo poked at her breakfast for a few minutes, mulling her thoughts. She finally pushed it away, and returned to her room to dress. She saw that Dobby had set folded laundry on the beds for them all; many colors of robes for each of them. This cheered her up slightly, as she was ever so grateful to get out of her blue robe, which was beginning to carry a strong odor. She looked through them all, but finally chose a green robe, with beads and embroidery embellishments around the closures and neckline. Leo ran her fingers through her hair, trying her best to tame it, before she started out of the room. She was just approaching the Drawing room, when she heard the pop of an Apparation inside.

"Kingsley, what's the-" Hermione started, but she was interrupted.

"There's a traitor in the Order, we're no longer safe here," he said frantically. Leo stepped into the Drawing room, her eyes wide. "Voldemort knows our location, we must go to Hogwarts immediately. I'm sorry I can't say more at the moment, be safe, and I'll join you at the school later," he said.

"You be safe too," Anna said calmly, though Leo could hear the underlying panic.

"Thanks, Sprite," he said, and ruffled her hair before Disapparating. Hermione looked up at Leo, asking for her help silently.

"I'll go look for people in the kitchen," Leo said. Hermione nodded, and they both started out of the Drawing Room at a jog. Leo, however, turned on her heal quickly, and pointed a stern finger at her younger two sisters. "You stay here, don't - move," she commanded. They both nodded, their faces growing pale.

Leo took the steps two at a time, and reached the basement quickly. She didn't see anyone immediately. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone down here? Dobby?"

"Yes Mrs.?" he asked, emerging from the kitchen.

"We're not safe here, anymore, the Dark Lord knows where we are, we need to go to the school immediately. Is there anyone else down here?" Leo asked, too concerned to realize that she had referred to Voldemort as 'the Dark Lord'.

"No, Mrs., there is no one else down here but Dobby," he said, his eyes the biggest Leo had seen them over the past few days.

Leo nodded. "All right then, we're meeting at Hogwarts, go as soon as you can," she said, and ran back up the stairs. She was just rounding the corner into the Hallway, when she came crashing into Malfoy.

"Careful," he said hastily, catching her before she fell backwards. He was holding onto her arms. "We need to go, are you ready?" Leo nodded wordlessly, and they started back towards the Drawing Room. Cathy, Tawna and Anna were all still waiting in the places Leo had left them, but they all looked much more nervous than they had only minutes ago. Hermione was not far behind, with Bill and Ron in tow.

"All right, we can only floo to Hogwarts through the Master Fireplace upstairs. Tawna, you remember?" she asked. Tawna nodded feverishly. "All right, you go, Ron will take you." Hermione turned towards Anna and Cathy, "Muggles cannot floo on their own, they must be accompanied by a Witch or Wizard. Malfoy, I assume you'll take Lenore?" she asked.

"Of course," he said, though there was no trace of sarcasm or cynicism in his voice like Leo would have thought there to be.

"Let's go then," Anna said, grabbing Bill's hand and leading him out of the room. Cathy followed quickly, and the other three were not far behind.

The entire group was running up the stairs, taking as many as possible at a time, until they were in Master Bedroom. There was a flash of light, and they all realized that Ron and Tawna had just been through.

"Come on," Malfoy said, grabbing Leo's hand. However, she jerked it away.

"No, my sister's go first," she said. Bill didn't wait another moment, and scooped Anna up into his arms. He shifted her weight to one arm and grabbed a handful of floo powder.

"I've just thought of something, I'll be right back," Malfoy whispered, and started back out of the room, passing Harry and Ginny on his way.

"Is everyone here?" Ginny asked, starting to take a step back.

"They've gone," was all Hermione said, as she and Cathy waited for Bill and Anna to clear the fireplace. The flames calmed quickly, and Hermione and Cathy went next. Ginny stepped up to the mantel after that, grabbing a handful of floo powder. As she was going, Harry outstretched a hand towards Leo.

"Let's get you out of here," he said, his green eyes boring into hers.

"No... that's all right," she managed to say. "I'll wait for Draco." Harry nodded, and stepped towards the fireplace. He reached his hands towards the floo jar, but didn't put it in quite yet.

"I'll wait too," he said. Within moments, they heard Malfoy running up the stairs. He looked slightly winded when he arrived, and had ink smudges on his fingers.

"Did everyone else go through all right?" he asked.

"Yes... it's just the three of us now," Harry answered. Though the situation was terribly dire, Leo couldn't help but think that Harry must have said that in horribly tacky smut fics just before the juicy scenes happened. She hated it when her mind wandered at the most inappropriate times.

"Hogwarts, the Headmaster's office," Harry said, and followed everyone else to the school. Leo suddenly realized that she would finally be arriving at Hogwarts. She only wished it could have been for better reasons.

"Our turn, love," Malfoy said, wrapping and arm around Leo's waist and dragging her towards the fireplace. Leo heard the casualness in his voice as he called her by a pet name, and reminded herself quickly of the time travel.

"Flooing is quite dizzying, but unfortunately the most basic method of unplanned travel... so, I've got to hold on tightly to you, and try not to move too much. You might want to hold your breath, and keep your eyes closed," Malfoy explained hurriedly.

"I know," she said in reply, and waited as he reached up and grabbed the powder. He threw it into the flames, which became an emerald green color, and stepped in. He outstretched a hand to Leo. She looked at the flames hesitantly, and reminded herself that it wouldn't really burn her. She took a deep breath, and stepped in quickly, wrapping her arms around Malfoy's neck. He put his arms around her, and hooked his fists together in the small of her back.

"Hogwarts, Headmaster's office," she heard Malfoy say loudly. The spinning began immediately, and she tightened her grip on him. It was warm in the floo network, and there was a massively strong wind. To be honest, she felt as though she was falling, and spinning, which was very unpleasant for her stomach. Leo wished that she had thought to tie back her hair in someway, as she knew it was becoming full of tangles and soot.

Suddenly, there was a pair of icy cold hands around Leo's waist, and she was jerked backwards. Malfoy was caught by surprise, but instead of letting go, held on more tightly, pulling her towards him. This caused the two of them to hit a wall they could not see, and bounce back off of it into another one. There was another hard tug around Leo's middle and she was pulled back, the back of her skull coming into contact with something hard and sharp edged. There was instant blinding pain, and she saw little red dots floating in front of her eyes. Her arms became limp and with one more hard pull and another knock to her head, this time to the side of her face, she was pulled away from Malfoy, and felt herself tumble onto a cold, hard floor.

She opened her eyes slowly and couldn't see right away. Beyond the blackness and the red spots at the edges of her sight, anyway. She was still lying on the floor, and she could feel something wet and sticky pooling underneath her head. A grunt escaped her lips, not so much out of pain or discomfort, but out of annoyance at the inconvenience of a severe concussion.

"Look what we have here. Chain her up, boys," an icy voice said, and without needing to see him, she knew to whom it belonged. Both of her arms were seized, and she felt herself being dragged along what she realized was a stone floor. Her arms were both brought above her head, and her wrists clamped into cold metal cuffs.

"You would be Lenore, yes? The little piece of Muggle trash I've been hearing so much about?" Leo's sight was coming back, and she could see Voldemort's red eyes.

"You would be Voldemort, that story book villain I've read so much about. Shouldn't you be twisting a mustache and tying me to railroad tracks?" Leo asked. She figured she was going to be killed anyway, she might as well get in a few good jabs to boost her ego before she went. It seemed to have worked, because the smug little smirk he had been wearing on his nose-less face had completely disappeared.

"Crucio," he said bitterly. Leo knew in that moment that Trelawney had never been under the Cruciatus Curse before she wrote the books. It was indescribable pain. Pure pain. Leo could hardly keep her thoughts about her, and was trying desperately to remember what Harry had done under the curse. The trouble was that the sound of her own screams kept interrupting her thoughts. Then, suddenly, it stopped.

Leo fought to catch her breath, and almost regained it, though the pain in the back of her head had been amplified, and she felt something wet trickling down her neck. Harry had been right, Leo thought as she tried labouredly to breathe though her ribs were resentful; the Dark Lord didn't need anything else to cause pain, the Cruciatus Curse worked just fine.

"How are you feeling, dear? A little more cooperative?" Voldemort asked.

"In order to cooperate you'd have to proposition me first," Leo snapped. It was most likely her tone that had earned her another round of Crucio. But at least the score was Leo-2, Voldemort-0. Well, except for the whole 'being tortured' thing.

Voldemort was looking at her expectantly now, and Leo hadn't realized that severe pain caused you to both shiver and sweat profusely, simultaneously. He was simply staring at her, smirking slightly, and Leo realized that the only thing he could possibly want from her was information on what they had all discovered. As soon as she began to think this, Voldemort smiled ever so slightly.

"Go on," he said, kneeling down in front of her. Leo closed her eyes and began to immediately think of nothing but a brick wall. She focused on it intently, picturing every detail of the bricks, the white mortar between them, and the grainy texture. She could clearly see the bricks' staggering patterns.

She felt a hard slap across her face. This succeeded in jarring her thoughts, but she did not begin to immediately think of their accomplishments. Instead she was just focused on the fact that she had been slapped by Lord Voldemort. She thought of maybe chuckling at this, but when she opened her eyes again, and saw his cold glare, all thoughts of more mocking left her head.

"I'm not in an accommodating mood, girl. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll simply kill you and take your little sister. Twelve year olds succumb easier to torture, and know that I speak from experience when I tell you this," he said. It was all very methodical and detached, with absolutely no hint of passion or expression in his voice. He was the most frightening sort of villain, and Trelawney had not captured that in the books, not his true essence. He was the kind of villain with no conviction. It was not whether there were distinctions of right and wrong, or that he really got pleasure from it. He simply did it; his only goal to reinforce his own superiority.

"Leave my sisters alone," Leo said, trying to sound as threatening as possible. She had only succeeded in keeping her voice from shaking.

He was quiet again, and Leo closed her eyes, quickly remembering to think of the brick wall. This time however, there was a door in the center of it. The door began to open, and inside Leo could see the Drawing room, and all of them gathered around the blackboards, with their notes and the books spread out on the floor. She realized what Voldemort was doing, and snapped the door shut, imagining a bolt on it.

Then the door became glass. Leo imagined large steel bars over it, and saw herself rise from the couch inside the Drawing room, and pull shut a shade, stretching it nearly to the floor. She bent down and tied it to a hook on the bottom of the door. Leo heard a real sigh, and could feel Voldemort stand up and move away. Before she could open her eyes and gather the surrounding visually again, she felt her body screaming underneath Voldemort's wand. She was under it the longest this time, her back arching against the post she was chained to. Her legs were struggling against the stone floor, trying to move away from the pain.

Once it finally stopped, Leo found her neck completely limp, in fact, it was hard to feel any of her body, and she wondered briefly if she had died. But she soon felt herself breathing, and realized it was just that her vision was nearly completely blacked out. The last thing to return was her hearing, buzzing with the sounds of the voices of the Death Eaters, and the excruciating pain in the back of her skull.

"No, there's no use, she's too stubborn. We might as well just kill her and take the school. There's little time left now, she's not important," she heard Voldemort say. Leo muttered, it was all she could muster.

"What?" Voldemort turned his back on his followers and approached Leo again.

"Why didn't you just take Harry? We all flooed, why grab me? Why not just grab Harry and be done with it?" Leo asked resentfully.

Voldemort began to laugh at her. However, it was not the high pitched, cold laughter that was described in the books that Leo could never imagine. It was cold all right, but dripping with mocking and malice. Low pitched and deriding, it was easily one of the most frightening sounds Leo had ever heard.

"My girl, I've waited twenty four years to kill the little bastard, I can wait another hour," was all he said, and deliberately avoided answering her question. He stood, still with a smile on his face, and nonchalantly said to Bellatrix Lestrange, "Kill her."

She grinned and stepped forward, pulling her wand from her black hooded cloak. Leo struggled, trying to inch farther away from Bellatrix as she approached. She was raising her wand. "Avada-" Leo turned her head and flinched, waiting for the rest of the curse.

"Wait," Voldemort said. "I've got a better idea. Go fetch... it," he said. Bellatrix, who had looked confused and a bit disappointed when she had been stopped, was now smiling more maniacally than before. She left the room quickly and so did Voldemort. Leo could still hear them talking in undertones outside in the hall, but could not make out what they were saying.

Movement caught her eye, and she turned her head to look to the side. She had been too preoccupied with her own torture to realize that there were two other people in the room. Two other women to be precise. Leo forced her eyes to focus on the moving one, the one trying to get her attention.

Leo licked her lips when she was finally able to make out the woman's face, "Mrs. Ro- ...Trelawney?" she asked. The blond woman's thinning, dirty face cracked into a smile.

"I knew you would come and save us Annabelle, I saw it," she said weakly, almost so quietly that Leo could barely hear her. She looked at her for a moment, and had thought to correct her, but recognized the other, emaciated woman. She had black hair, with two streaks of silver, one at each temple. Her face was bruised and dirty as well, and she had dried blood running out of her nose. She was currently unconscious, and by her gaunt face, Leo could tell she had been here a while. They knew that McGonagall had not yet been killed because she had not appeared in Harry's book, but Leo silently wished that she had been; it would have been easier on her.

The door opened again, and two nameless, non-descript Death Eaters entered the room, both holding potion vials. The thinner of the two stepped towards Leo, carrying a vial full of a black liquid. What struck Leo about it was the color. It was as if it were glowing. There looked to be purple light shining off of it, but she knew it was impossible. Another pair of Death Eaters approached, splitting again and the other bottle arriving in front of McGonagall. Leo began to struggle away, trying to move around the post. However, the empty handed Death Eater grabbed her roughly, tilting her head back. The black potion approached, and Leo clamped her mouth shut, clenching her jaw as tightly as possible. The Death Eater behind her pinched her nose shut, but Leo was determined not to submit to this trick, and would rather pass out from lack of oxygen. However, they quickly recognized this and placed her under the Imperius curse.

Her mind suddenly felt as if it were underwater. She was weightless, but more importantly her thoughts were weightless. Open your mouth, don't you want a drink? She heard a voice in her head, and felt her jaw open slightly. She was trying to remember exactly what had been transpiring, and what was going on before she felt this incredible freedom inside her own head. Then, as if in answer, there was a horrible, stinging taste in her mouth. She then remembered she had been put under an Unforgivable Curse, and grasped desperately at the reality ahead of her. She was trying to make her arm move, to swat away the potion bottle, but she realized too late that she was chained. Her thoughts came rushing back to her, and it was if she had been reunited with her body. There was still a terrible aftertaste in her mouth, and some running down her chin. She spat out what was still coating her mouth, and heard roaring laughter from the Death Eaters.

"Chain them together, and we'll send them back... a little care package," Voldemort said. The Death Eaters unchained Leo and dragged her to the center of the room, where she was soon joined by McGonagall, who was foaming at the mouth, and choking slightly. Trelawney, on the other hand, was unscathed. Voldemort raised his wand however, and remedied that. Trelawney let out a blood curdling scream as he began the incantation. Leo had not read of it, but there was a flash of blinding light and she turned her head away. There was a squishing sound, and Leo felt something of a strange texture against her arm. She turned and looked, mostly because Trelawney had ceased screaming. Leo however, quickly took over for her when she saw why.

"Portus," Voldemort said casually, while the rest laughed at Leo. She felt a tugging, whirling sensation start in her stomach. Leo realized he had turned their joining chain into a Portkey. Leo landed in a heap with the two witches, and felt some of Trelawney bush against her cheek, leaving blood behind. Leo didn't even realize she was still screaming, until she felt the need to breathe again, upon which she quickly began to cry.

It only took a matter of minutes for the others to appear at the top of the Grand Staircase. Leo had not even bothered to look around the great hall of Hogwarts. She felt a pair of cold hands on her shoulders, and heard Harry's voice. The chains were gone and Malfoy was pulling her up off the floor.

"Are you all right?" he asked frantically. Leo did not answer but simply wrapped her arms around him tightly, and continued to sob.

"Oh, God," Harry muttered, sounding both horrified and disappointed. Leo looked up from Malfoy's chest.

"Hermione, keep the girls up there," Harry called. Leo looked up to see that Anna, Cathy, Tawna and Bill were at the top of the stairs with Hermione.

"He's turned her inside out," Harry muttered to Ron.

"Damn it," Ron said. Leo looked at Trelawney's inverted body with wide, unwilling eyes, and noticed and her lungs were still struggling with breath, and her heart was beating erratically.

Leo tried to say something to draw their attention to it, but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was sick. She turned around and fell to her knees, so not to vomit on the other two bodies, or any of the three men in the Entrance Hall with her. Harry knelt next to her, quickly pulling her soot and blood filled hair away from her face until she was finished.

"Diffindo," Malfoy said, sounding greatly disgruntled. Instantly, the rasping sound Trelawney had been making ceased. Harry helped Leo to her feet, and held on to her arm tightly to steady her so she would not fall again. She turned her tear stained face towards he sisters, only to see that Cathy was incredibly pale, and her mouth was slightly agape. Anna had her face buried in Bill's chest, and he was trying his best to sooth her, stroking the back of her long hair.

Harry pulled out Le Livre du Mort from his pocket and opened it. Leo looked down at it with him, and they both watched, as Trelawney and McGonagall were added to the Great Hall picture, between Snape and Lupin. The two exchanged sorrowful looks.

"Let's get you to the Hospital Wing," Malfoy said to Leo, coming up next to her and wrapping an arm around her waist.

"What about the bodies?" Ron asked, starting up the stairs with them.

"Leave them, we'll clean them up later tonight," Harry said, still arm in arm with Leo and helping her up the staircase. Silently, both Harry and Malfoy lifted her over one stair, and stepped over it themselves. Leo wished she could have shown the appropriate affection for the trick step, but could not at that moment. She was, however, more than eager to let Harry and Malfoy nearly carry her to the Hospital Wing, as her legs were beginning to shake more than ever. She was dreading the long walk up to the third floor, where the Hospital Wing had moved during Harry's fifth year, but apparently had moved back to the first, because it was the first set of double doors on the right.

Malfoy and Harry quickly maneuvered her to the first bed near the door, and Hermione set to work looking through Madam Pomfrey's office and stores. Ginny sat down on the bed next to Leo as Harry removed her shoes for her and tucked her into the bed. Malfoy, on the other hand, had stepped away, and was pacing on the other side of the Wing, his hair messy and sooty in his face.

"What happened to your head?" Ginny asked, pulling her wand from her robe.

"It got knocked on something when I was pulled out of the floo," Leo answered. The entire back half of her head felt larger than the rest. The weight of her hair wasn't helping the pain, either.

"Probably the mantel, then," Ginny said, pulling Leo's blood clumped hair away from the wound. Harry had since joined Hermione in the office just out of sight, while the others had all gathered around the foot of the bed. Leo closed her eyes, as Ginny's pawing was causing sharp pains in her head. She could still picture the dark, cold room easily, with McGonagall in one corner, and Trelawney in the other. She then realized something.

"There was no fireplace," Leo said.

"What?" Ginny asked, stopping for a moment to look at her.

"There was no fireplace in the room where I was tortured," Leo said. "There was a door out, and one small window at the top of a wall, but no fireplace."

"How the hell did he grab you from the Floo Network then?" Ron asked.

"He's got to be tapped into it; he's got a connection in the Ministry," Bill said.

"That's not really a surprise," Ginny said. "That just means we can't floo any longer. All of our travel is going to have to be prearranged."

"Which also goes through the Ministry first," Bill said.

"Damn it!" Ron muttered angrily under his breath. Bill sighed, and turned around, taking chairs from nearby beds and setting them up around the end of Leo's bed. Ginny had gone back to working on Leo's head, and had muttered some spell that had lessened the pain greatly. It was much easier to sit still after that. Harry and Hermione returned, with Harry carrying some clean white bandages, and Hermione holding a large vial of a purple potion, and something cloth to apply it with.

"Oh, no," Leo muttered as Hermione drew closer.

"Now really, Lenore, we must disinfect, especially after you were in the Floo Network. All that soot and ash... and hair isn't exactly clean to begin with," Hermione reasoned quickly. Leo pulled a face and looked at the bottle wearily none the less. "Oh stop whining, you know I'm right," Hermione said sternly.

"Whatever," Leo said shortly. "Just do it." Hermione dipped the applicator into the liquid, as Ginny pulled Leo's hair out of the way. Leo leaned her head forward a bit to let Hermione reach the back of her head easily.

"Cool, Leo! Your head is smoking!" Anna cried.

"And it stings too," Leo said through gritted teeth. It felt like Hydrogen Peroxide on steroids. Leo closed her eyes tightly, remembering that it was nothing in comparison to the pain she had been in only ten minutes before.

"How did you know what that was?" Harry asked, smiling slightly at this.

"Madam Pomfrey used it on you fourth year," Leo said through a clenched jaw. She didn't even want to begin to imagine how badly it would have stung if Ginny hadn't performed that pain relief charm on her.

"There we go," Hermione said. Leo raised her head and looked around the room at the attentive faces, and noticed that Malfoy had gone. She was slightly saddened by this.

"Healed as best as I can do," Ginny said, standing from the bed, and going towards a wash basin near Madam Pomfrey's office. She passed Malfoy on her way, as he came back with a small bowl and a clean set of wash rags. He set them down on the bed, and began to clean her face of soot and blood.

"I'd love to be able to take a moment out, but..." Hermione started, and conjured a blackboard.

"Bill and I will go collect McGonagall and Trelawney," Ginny said, and the two of them started out of the Hospital Wing.

Hermione waited until they were out of the room to begin again. "I think our first order of business is to pick out who the traitor is among us."

"Isn't it obvious?" Harry said quickly.

"What are you trying to imply, Potter?" Malfoy asked, turning his attention away from Leo for a moment.

"Who's been the one acting strangely lately, and it's a bit convenient that you know all of these things because you've 'time traveled'," Harry said heatedly.

"Harry," Hermione sighed.

"You saw Sirius and Snape," Leo interrupted.

"Oh come off it Potter, he wouldn't take me back if I handed you over to him personally," Malfoy said, his glare and his voice dripping with malice. He stood from the side of Leo's bed, looking more than aggravated. "And you know it."

"It's Tonks," Anna said suddenly.

"What?" They both asked, looking away from each other, though they looked like they were on their way to a good fistfight.

"Oh come on, you couldn't tell?" Anna asked. She looked around at the magical folk, but Cathy nodded in agreement.

"No, Anna, I think you're wrong this time," Hermione said. "Tonks is cool, she-"

"Exactly! She's way too cool! And besides, there are holes in her story," Anna said shifted her weight so that she was kneeling in her chair.

"What?" Ron and Hermione asked in disbelief, exchanging glances.

"How long has she been an Auror?" Anna asked.

"One year," Cathy answered. She had read book five the most. The rest of the witches and wizards in the room, though, were looking at her strangely, seeming to momentarily forget that time had passed much differently to the Muggles.

"And how long did McGonagall tell Harry it had been since they took an Auror in?" Anna asked again, explaining this slightly condescendingly, as if it were disgustingly obvious. Leo looked back and forth between Harry and Malfoy's faces.

"Three years," Cathy answered again.

"You're right!" Leo added in shock. She tried to sit up but realized quickly that it was a very bad idea. "Draco, is Tonks on speaking terms with your mother?"

"No, my Mother allied herself with-" but he stopped, a sudden look of realization on his face. "It is Nymphadora."

"She said, my first night here, that your mother told her you were on Holiday," Leo said, pounding a fist on her bed, slightly angry. She was angry at Tonks for betraying them, for Tonks being responsible for her own suffering, for the lives that Tonks sacrificed to Voldemort, but most angry that she could not accurately express her anger towards her, simply because she had limited range of motion. Malfoy sat back down on the bedside, and placed his hand on top of Leo's.

"You guys really trusted her?" Anna asked. "I never did."

"You never really knew her, Anna," Hermione said, looking like she knew it, but did not want to accept it. She took a seat at the foot of the bed, next to the blackboard.

"I read about Harry taking a bath, I think I can say I know everyone portrayed in the books," Anna reasoned, sitting back down in her chair and crossing her arms.

"You read about me taking bathes?" Harry asked, sounding slightly scandalized.

"Only the one with Moaning Myrtle," Anna shrugged.

"You took a bath with Moaning Myrtle?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No, I- Well, yes, but - What did Trelawney put in those books?!" Harry said, looking towards the three sisters, his green eyes widened behind his round glasses.

"We let Tonks know about our plans for Lenore," Ginny said as she and Bill reentered the room. They all turned and looked at them, quickly forgetting Harry's bathing habits as the two bodies were brought in. "She's the only one that's not here that knew about the girls."

"We've just realized that," Ron said, watching remorsefully as the corpses were floated to the end of the Wing. Tawna stood, with a calculating look on her face, and followed as Bill and Ginny put the floating stretchers on beds, and drew curtains around them.

"What's the matter, Tawna?" Leo asked, realizing that she knew something. Tawna did not answer at first, and Hermione and Harry followed the three over to the sectioned off part of the Hospital Wing.

"It's cyanide," Tawna said. At this Malfoy leapt to his feet and moved quickly to the other side of the Wing. "He poisoned McGonagall with cyanide..." Tawna mumbled, her voice shaking slightly. She reappeared looking paler than she had before, and sat back down in her chair at the end of the bed.

Hermione came back as well, also looking quite pale, "He's got Muggle poisons... he knows about Tawna."

Harry, however, looked quite angry. "He's mocking us," he said, his voice rough. "He knows we've got Muggle chemistry, and he wanted us to know that he has it too, damn it." The pit fell out of Leo's stomach as a wave of helplessness flooded over her.

"I'm useless?" Tawna asked, sounding disappointed.

"Tonks must have told him what we were going to use you're knowledge for," Malfoy said. Leo was still feeling an empty, hollow space deep in her chest from their impending loss. She felt a wave of cold run over her, and she shivered violently. But it didn't stop. She continued to shake slightly, as if her blood sugar was running low or she was desperately ill.

Harry was watching her carefully now, though his eyes and body language still suggested a great deal of anger, there looked to be a bit of concern as well. "What all did he do to you Lenore?" he asked.

"Just the fanfic standard, you know... Joss Whedon banter and a few well placed Cruciatus Curses," Leo shrugged, trying desperately to lighten the mood. Though she knew it was pointless, it was her only coping mechanism. It seemed to not be amusing to anyone else, except Cathy, who was wearing the tiniest smirk. Leo felt another wave of shaking and lightheadedness, and clenched her fists to keep her arms still.

"Lenore, are you sure you're all right?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide with concern. The rest of the room had gone silent now as they all watched her.

"I'm still a little shaky, but I think it's just because of Crucio." She answered, feeling as if she were trying to suddenly convince herself more than the others. She muttered, "That was terrible." Malfoy was still watching intently from a distance, his arms folded over his chest.

"You just look awfully pale, is all," Ron added. At this Malfoy took a sudden step forward, his expression worried.

"He didn't make you drink anything, did he?" his voice was suddenly panicked.

Leo looked up at met his eyes. She could feel the rest of them watching her, but she dared not look away from Malfoy in that moment. His face conveyed more than just concern, but fear. She nodded solemnly.

Malfoy swore, and turned and kicked over a bedpan. Hermione opened her mouth to scold him, but he turned around, "What color was it?"

Leo was shocked to hear him ask such a question, as the color had been what struck her most about the potion. And though she was under the Imperius Curse at the time of consumption, she had expected it to taste horrible. The after taste anyway. But the hue had surprised her.

"It was strange... a kind of glowing... black," Leo answered.

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth, and Ginny shook her head. Malfoy closed his eyes, breathing shallowly, as if trying to stuff down emotion.

"What?" Anna asked frantically. "What does that mean, what was it?" She sounded as frightened as Leo felt. None of the four Muggles knew what it was.

Malfoy cleared his throat before answering. "It was the Cunctor Poison."

"Poison?" Leo asked. Cathy had gone nearly as pale as Leo had, and looked to be on the verge of tears. Tawna, however, was crying already.

"It's one of the most advanced potions anyone can make. Twice as difficult to produce as a Wolfsbane Potion," Hermione explained, looking as though she too might cry.

Leo was trying quickly to wrap her mind around the fact that she had been force fed a poison. "Poison? If it was a poison, why am I not dead?"

"Cunctor is Latin," Tawna choked down her tears, but didn't bother to try and hide them. "It means slow moving, to delay something - make it linger."

Leo turned a terrified glance towards Malfoy. He seemed to be taken aback by the need in her expression, but understood immediately that she was looking for confirmation. He nodded his head, and Leo suddenly felt as though she could not breathe. She balled the sheet in her fists once again, and stared at a point on her knees.

"I don't know where on Earth he got it," Harry muttered.

"Snape," Draco said. "Though he made it with the intention of slipping it to someone else, he never got the chance. It was in his store cupboard when I took over the position. I dare say, an Auror would be able to get into the school nowadays without second thought. I just wasn't guarding my stores well enough," he sounded as though he was angry with himself. "I didn't even think to get rid of it this time."

"What's it-" Leo paused, licking her lips, and trying to ask the question without bursting into tears. "What's it going to do to me?"

Everyone glanced around, then Ginny came and sat on the edge of her bed. She took her hand silently, and looked into her eyes for a moment before she spoke. "First this, the shaking, like you've got the flu. Then you'll feel quite feverish, you're joints will ache, and you won't be able to move very much. After that you're muscles will become tense, and that's when you're closer to the end. You'll begin to have hallucinations, a few hours before you go," she explained.

"A few hours?" Leo asked. "How long does it take?"

"Four or five days," Malfoy said. He looked just as shaken as Leo's sisters. Leo turned to Ginny, who was still looking at her intently. It was plain that the war had hardened her, that her loss had changed her. But Leo could still see a flicker of compassion in her eyes, she was not as stone like as Leo had thought her to be.

Ginny squeezed Leo's hand, "You won't have to live through this. They will go back, and everything will change. The poison won't have time to take its full effect, I promise you." The rest of the room was quiet. Leo realized that she would not have to feel what it was like to die, but that she would not even remember this at all, and that terrified her more.

She felt Anna's small hands wrap around her shoulders, as she climbed onto the bed with her. Anna laid her head on her shoulder and whispered, "Do you remember what Sirius said to the Weasleys that Christmas when their dad was attacked?"

"There are some things worth dying for," Leo answered softly. She closed her eyes, trying to keep her tears down, but she could feel the warm salt spill down her cheek.

Ginny's grip on her hand tightened, and Anna kissed her cheek. Cathy and Tawna sat on the bed now as well, each trying to comfort Leo in some way, though the small bed was now impossibly crowded.

There was a long moment of silence, before it was broken by the slight creaking of the hinges to the Hospital Wing door. They all turned and looked to see Kingsley enter the room. He looked quite concerned, "I apologize for my tardiness," he said, then noisily tripped on the bedpan Malfoy had kicked a moment earlier. It clanged across the room and under another one of the infirmary beds.

Anna sat up, releasing her grip on Leo. "Hello Minister," she said, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Good Evening. Hannah, right?" he asked, though his face looked worn and grave.

"Sprite to you," Anna spat. "That's Tonks!"

Without a moment of pause or question, Ron raised his wand and yelled "Stupefy!" With only a tiny moment of surprise on his face, Kingsley fell to the floor. Hermione stepped forward and raising her wand, used an incantation the Muggles had never read of in the books. Kingsley's limp body slowly began to morph, changing shape and looking like a moving mass of liquid, until finally, there was Tonks, with a slightly rounder nose than usual and mouse brown hair. Hermione made a disgruntled noise and rubbed her temples.

"What should we do with her?" Ron asked, turning and looking at Harry.

He shrugged. "Stick her in the broom closet until we figure that out." Ginny smiled at this, and stood from Leo's bed to help Ron move her into the supply closet. Bill too rose from his chair and dug around in Tonks' robes, until he pulled out a wand and put it into the back of his waistband.

"Good way to lose a buttock," Harry commented under his breath. Bill pulled a face and sat back down.

"Enough about Bill's bum, we need to get back to work," Hermione said, and with a wave of her wand, conjured another infamous chalk board. But this time, instead of being blank, she had conjured the board they had been using at Finney Park.

"Even if it is a rather nice, leather clad arse?" Anna asked, with a wicked grin on her face. They all looked a bit surprised, except for Leo and Bill, who laughed knowingly and nervously, respectfully. Hermione just shook her head, though Harry seemed to laugh a bit as well. Leo was silently grateful that they had not all entirely lost their senses of humor, especially in this quite dire situation.

"All right, Malfoy, I think we need to know what's gone wrong this time as well," Hermione said, looking at the relatively empty half of the board.

He sighed heavily, still looking very agitated and worried. "Let's see... the Longbottoms, Tonks is a new development... but looking back on the others... she's been on his side for a bit of time now. Getting the other sisters was something that went right, I think."

"Shouldn't we be focusing on what we need to go back and fix? We're losing time here," Cathy said impatiently. She was sitting very rigidly on the edge of Leo's bed, looking quite protective of her.

Hermione nodded reluctantly in agreement. "Right.... We've figured out what the first moment was... or rather, what we think is the first moment. Can you think of any others?" she asked, turning towards the bed.

The three sisters were all quiet in thought for a moment, before slowly answering. "No, that's really the first time something felt... wrong."

"So we're starting with Snape?" Anna asked. "Outting Lupin."

"Right," Cathy nodded.

"Are you sure that's the first?" She asked.

"There were unfortunate, and upsetting moments, but nothing quite so gut wrenchingly wrong," Leo said. They looked at her as though she shouldn't be speaking; preserving her energy in some way.

"Cedric," Cathy said. "That was the next one."

"No...." Leo reasoned. "Again - it sucked - but it needed to happen, so that we could see how ruthless Voldemort was."

"This isn't Literature anymore, Leo," Tawna said sternly. Her cheeks were still damp with tears. Leo looked away from her angry black eyes.

"I know," was all she said.

"The persisting problem is still how," Bill said. "I don't mean to quash spirits, but it doesn't matter if we figure out what happened if we can't do anything about it."

Hermione turned and looked at Bill, looking slightly annoyed, but not necessarily with him, but more likely with the state of affairs. "We're going to go back and make sure that these things don't happen."

"How, Hermione?" Bill asked, his voice raising slightly. "If we're talking major time travel here - thirteen years - the circumstances that got you here will cease to exist, and then so will you." He argued heatedly.

"Bill's right, it can't be up to us to do it, we need to tell someone presently back there," Harry said, still looking very contemplative.

"That would be Dumbledore of course," Ron said, shrugging. "We go back and tell him what's happened. We can let him know about it all, and what to do, or not do, so we don't end up back here. Then, if we stop existing, at least the problem will have been fixed."

"But look at these things, Ron!" Hermione said, tapping the board with her wand. "A lot of this happens to Harry when Dumbledore's not around. We can't expect him to meddle so much... to make Harry open his Christmas gift fifth year... to - to make sure that Harry gets proper Occlumency lessons! That's far too much to ask of him."

"Too much?" Ginny's voice was raised. "Too much to ask that he make sure our families aren't murdered? That our homes aren't burned to the ground and our friends are tortured to death or insanity?"

"I didn't mean that, Gin," Hermione said, lessening her tone now. Ginny crossed her arms stubbornly, but said nothing else.

"Anna... Trelawney mentioned Anna in the dungeon just before...." Leo trailed off into silence. However, her quiet voice had commanded the rapt attention of the room.

"What are you getting at?" Malfoy asked, taking a step closer.

"Send Anna back... to, I don't know, watch and make sure," Leo suggested, now becoming excited with the idea.

"What, as a student?" Bill asked.

"Perfect! Send her back in time, have her be a student. She can keep an eye on Harry when Dumbledore can't, and inform him as well. It's perfect," Leo said.

"Not exactly..." Ron said. "She's a Muggle... I think they'll notice when she can't do any of her work."

"Or opens her mouth," Malfoy added. "She's American."

"That's nothing, I can fake an accent," Anna said confidently.

"Really?" Malfoy asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Really? Would you rather go back again?" Anna asked, faking Malfoy's accent perfectly. "I can be some posh witch... and I'm positive they won't notice my lack of magic. I can do the rest of the work and just be very very good with reports." Leo and Cathy laughed, and Malfoy, to his dismay, cracked a bit of a smile.

"I still don't know if that's the best idea...." Ginny said.

"It's the only one we've got," Harry said.

"Then let's do it, let's get back there," Hermione said.

"Wait, your forgetting again," Bill said.

"Forgetting what?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Time theory," Tawna started. "If Anna, this Anna right here, goes back from this point in time, she will cease to exist after she changes the first thing. The situation that got her here will no longer be, and therefore her as well."

"You've got to go back to before we were intercepted into the Potterverse," Leo said. Hermione looked a little baffled by the terminology.

"How are we going to believe it, though?" Cathy asked.

"Why don't we write a letter to ourselves, explaining it, and what's happened," Leo suggested. "We'll recognize our own handwriting, so we'll know it was us."

"That's brilliant," Ron said. "I think it will work."

"So do I," Harry said. "But who's going to go back in a time a few days and fetch you?" Hermione looked between him and Ron.

"Why don't the three of us go? I'm sure they'd really believe it if we showed up," Hermione said.

"It's true, we would," Anna said. She sounded calm, but Leo could see the excitement mounting behind her eyes at the prospect of being a Hogwarts student. "And then I'd be old enough for you," Anna turned and smiled at Bill.

"What?" he asked, seemingly clueless.

"Oh come on, Bill, aside from the Lolita under tones, there's chemistry here," Anna said with a wicked grin.

He was quiet for a moment, with his jaw slightly slack, "Are you sure you're only twelve?" he asked. Anna smiled even larger.

"Not for long," she winked at him.

There was suddenly a deafening crash from outside the window that made everyone flinch in surprise, and the Wizards all rushed to look out. Leo would have as well, but her legs were quaking terribly. "Oh shit," Harry said, "He's here."

"We've got to go now..." Hermione said, and with a wave of her wand she conjured a roll of parchment and ink with a quill.

"How do you keep doing that?" Cathy asked in amazement. "Aren't you getting tired or something, pulling these things out of the air?"

Hermione looked at her quizzically for a moment. "I'm not just creating them... that is exhausting. What I'm doing is pulling objects from a specific location."

"Oh," Cathy said in a small voice. Leo was already feverishly writing.

"You three go," Ginny said, looking at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Bill and Malfoy and I will go keep them off as long as we can." She looked fierce, but her eyes looked saddened. Harry's expression became distressed, but he quickly nodded, and pulled her into a kiss and a tight embrace.

"Everything will be okay," she said into his ear. He nodded and kissed her again, before she and Bill started for the door at a jog. Malfoy, however, stayed behind. Harry looked at him expectantly.

"Aren't you going to go fight alongside my wife?" he asked, his voice starting to heat. He motioned towards the door, urging him to go.

"And leave mine here defenseless?" he shouted back, indicating Leo. Harry looked at her for a moment, then back to Malfoy as if he'd love to disagree with him. "Look Potter, in another ten minutes, you'll be standing in an American Muggle home, in the middle of the night, taking a twelve year old back to before she was born to save your wife. None of us are going to live through the night, except you, because - like always - you're going to go and save the day." Leo could tell if it was an embittered rant or a pep speech, or perhaps a mixture of both, but either way it seemed to be the right thing to say to Harry then.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

"Almost finished," Leo said, writing rapidly and no doubt messily, to copy the chalkboard, on the scroll in her lap. She signed it with a flourishing motion, then passed the quill to her sisters and Tawna. The three signed, then passed it to Hermione's eagerly awaiting hand.

"Let's go," she said, and the glorious three ran for the door and out of sight. There was a long moment of silence, and the four Muggles exchanged wary looks. Malfoy sighed heavily and sat on the edge of the bed. Anna began to speak, but stopped short when she heard the noises from outside the castle. There were raised voices, and periodic explosions. They all looked frightened, seeing the different colored lights shining up through the windows. Cathy and Tawna grabbed hands, holding tightly to each other. Leo closed her eyes, and Anna laid her head on Leo's shoulder. Malfoy grabbed Leo's hand as well, and they all listened silently to the noises of the final battle at Hogwarts. There was the sound of another terrible explosion, and the outcry of a male voice. Leo held Anna tightly with her free hand as she buried her face in her neck, beginning to cry quietly. Cathy and Malfoy exchanged resigned looks, as all five realized that the valiant Ginny Potter had just met her end.

There was a series of flashing lights, then it all suddenly ceased. The silence rang through the Hospital Wing, and the entire castle seemed to be still.

"What is that?" Cathy asked, and they looked towards the window, seeing a ball of light growing closer. It met bay of windows at the end of the Hospital Wing, and the windows exploded. They all tried desperately to shield themselves from the glass, covering their faces with their arms and turning away. Malfoy, however, had pulled his wand just in time to protect them.

"Get up! Get up now!" he commanded, pulling Anna to her feet, then going for Leo. Wind whipped through the now gaping hole in the side of the castle. There was what felt like an audible growl from beneath them, as if the school were angry. Malfoy wrapped an arm around Leo's waist, and helped her from the infirmary. She was surprised at how terribly her legs were shaking as they ran for the door.

There was a pounding noise ahead of them, and Tonks burst from the supply closet, sending wood scattering out. Anna screamed, and she, Cathy and Tawna flung themselves against the opposite wall. Her right arm was extremely muscular, and had split the fabric of her sleeve. There was a popping noise, and her arm was back to normal, though she was still clutching her hand in a fist. She looked around quickly, and patted down her robe pockets to no avail.

She looked up desperately at Malfoy, "It's only a matter of time now, cousin." Malfoy had stopped, however, and was holding Leo up with one arm, and his wand in the other hand. They were all motionless for a moment, while Tonks and Malfoy stared each other down.

Malfoy raised his wand, pointing it directly at the center of Tonks's chest. "Look away girls," he said, then hastily added, "Avada Kedavra!" The Muggles didn't need to be told twice, and they all turned their eyes away. They heard her body hit the ground, and the castle started to shake again.

"Come on," Malfoy said, and they all ran out into the hall.

"Where are we going?" Cathy asked, looking desperately to both sides.

"This way," he said, leading them all towards a large door a few yards away from the Hospital Wing. He opened the door, and helped Leo through, passing her to Tawna and Cathy. "Stay in here, I'll be back soon," he said, and ran down the hall.

"Over here Anna, I want you guys to stay together," Leo said, trying to take a step on her own, and to her great surprise was able to manage it. Not easily, but manageable. "Get under the desk, I want you to hide under that big desk." There was a large, teacher's desk at the head of the class, and there were small desks and chairs pushed up against the walls.

"Cathy, you too," Leo ordered, pointing to the desk.

"No, Leo, I-" she began to protest.

"Just do it!" Leo said, pointing to the desk again. Cathy was just climbing under, when the door burst open again. The four girls all screamed, and looked towards the door.

"It's me, it's me - keep it down," Malfoy said, closing and locking the door with an incantation that none of them had read about before. He crossed the room quickly to the girls, encouraging them to hide. Once Cathy, Anna and Tawna were secure under the desk, Malfoy grabbed Leo's hand and led her towards the corner of the room, where there was another door. There was a terrible crashing sound, and Leo realized that it was the two doors in the Entrance Hall, slamming to the floor.

The floor was beginning to quake terribly now, and Leo's body was beginning to shake so violently that her legs were about to go out from under her. Malfoy seemed to realize this, and wrapped an arm around her waist. The ground gave a strong lurch, and they stumbled into the wall. A pocket of dust fell from above them, causing Leo to take a sudden breath inward, and close her eyes. She felt Malfoy's fingertips lightly brush her eye lids, clearing the dust away. He then muttered a spell she had never read of, and she felt the rest of the dust fall from her face.

Leo opened her eyes, to find that Malfoy was looking at her more intently, with more compassion and emotion that he had ever shown before. She also realized that their faces happened to be the closest they had ever been.

"It should be over soon," he whispered, though it seemed like he was trying to comfort himself as much as Leo.

"Do you still have my wedding ring in your pocket?" Leo asked softly. Malfoy nodded, and reached his free hand into the pockets of his robes, pulling out the silver, jeweled ring. Leo lifted her hand, letting him slide the ring onto her finger.

"Draco-" she said softly, about to ask for what he gave her anyway. He leaned his face closer to hers, sealing the space between them until their lips met.

THE END!!!

(more to come, you don't really think I'd leave it like this without an epilogue, do you?)