A Future Threatened

A Future Threatened

by Winnie Matthews

* * *

Chapter Ten

Susannah sighed as she sat in the living room, flipping through pages in some history books. Hermione had insisted that they might find some idea of what Voldemort had used from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw if they looked through the history books and tried to find something that they used. "This is ridiculous," she muttered, not loud enough for Hermione to hear, but Ron scowled.

"Watch your mouth, kid," he said out of the corner of his mouth. "Hermione and Harry might be on your side, but I'm not. Whatever you're up to, I'm going to find out and then I'm going to turn you over to the Ministry in a heartbeat."

Choosing not to reply, Susannah glanced back down at the book that she was reading and caught a sentence. "Hey, look at this," she said suddenly and Harry glanced over to her. "'Along with the sword that was his trademark, Gryffindor also had a magnificent shield. When he died, it was given to his son, James. It continued to be passed through the generations until 1903, when it was put into the British Wizarding Museum. However, it only remained there for less than half a century, for it mysteriously disappeared in 1950.' 1950," she repeated, looking up at her father. "That was a couple of years after Tom Riddle left school."

Harry walked over behind her and looked over her shoulder at the book where she got the information. "Sounds like the right year," he admitted. "Is there a painting or something of it?"

"No, but we could probably go to the Daily Prophet and look in some old newspapers," Susannah answered once she checked. "If something of Gryffindor's was stolen from a museum, then there was probably an article on it in the paper, along with some pictures of it. They usually print stuff like that in there."

"Would they even still have newspapers from almost fifty years ago?" Hermione wondered.

"They should, Hermione," Susannah answered placidly, a small smile appearing on her face. "The Daily Prophet's records aren't supposed to be destroyed for another five years."

Harry snorted and Hermione shook her head, looking as though she were trying to decide whether to be amused or angry. "Very funny, Susannah," she said, her eye narrowing as she looked at her.

"Whatever," Susannah said, waving her hand carelessly. "You guys keep working on this, I'm going to head over to the Daily Prophet and see if I can find the article on the shield there."

Looking up at her, Harry asked, "Are you sure that you don't want either one of us to come with you?"

"I'm sure," Susannah said, smiling at him. Deep down, she was touched by her father's concern. Sure, he didn't know that she was his daughter, but she did know and that was all that mattered. "I'll be back in a few hours."

Without another word, she got up off the couch, grabbing her cloak and headed outside. As she slipped it on, she pulled out her wand, keeping it steady at her side as she headed down the street, her emerald green eyes sweeping her surroundings as she walked.

It had been over a week since her aunt had found out who she really was and Susannah still wasn't sure whether she had done the right thing in telling Hermione who she was. Or rather, admitting to who Hermione had asked she was. But then again, Susannah thought bitterly, Hermione knew the truth even before Susannah had told her. She had just needed her to confirm it.

What was going to happen once her dad found out the truth about who she was? He already kind of suspected that there was more to her reason of coming back to save the future than she was telling him.

But, honestly, what was she supposed to do, walk up to him on that very first day that they'd met and say, "Hi, I'm Susannah, your unborn daughter from the future and I came back to save you and Mum from dying"?

And what was he going to say once he did find out? She couldn't keep the secret from him forever, not now that Hermione knew and she's promised that she'd tell him once he found out that Ginny was pregnant. Pregnant with her, at that very moment.

She was just glad that Ginny wasn't here with her dad, because it was going to be weird, seeing her mum when she was pregnant with her.

"Susannah."

Stopping as she heard someone say her name, Susannah turned around, half-expecting it to be Harry, insisting to accompany her, or even Hermione. But it wasn't either one of them; it wasn't even Ron . . . it was somebody who Susannah had nearly given up hope of ever seeing again . . .

"Sirius?"

* * *

"How do we even know that we can trust her, Hermione?" Ron demanded, looking furious. "I mean, all that we really know about her is that she popped up her from the future and started playing with people's lives because You-Know-Who is has taken over in the future."

"And shouldn't that be enough to trust her?" Hermione pointed out quietly. "Ron, Susannah has risked everything, literally everything, just to save Harry and Ginny's lives. I would think that her trying to save your best friend and sister would be enough to make you trust her. What more do you need?"

Ron coloured deeply. "Well, she still should have told us that we were married and had a kid," he muttered. Hermione sighed; did he still think that Jeremy was innocent, after everything that they had seen? He had tried to kill Susannah, or take her back to the future. She wasn't sure what he had been attempting to do, actually, but it wasn't good.

"She certainly couldn't tell you, Ron," Harry said without looking up from the book. "You know that she can't tell you anything that will mess with the future. If you know too much about the future, you won't be able to live out your lives the way that you should."

"You're starting to sound like Dumbledore," Ron groaned. He wasn't expecting an argument with them about Susannah.

"Not to mention," Hermione said, adding to what Harry was saying, "that she probably didn't tell us because she didn't want us to feel obligated that we had to get married and have a son. Just because it happened in her future doesn't necessarily mean that it was our destiny. Like how it probably wasn't Harry's destiny to die fighting Voldemort."

Ron stared at her. "So you don't want to get married and have Jeremy?" he asked in a sullen voice.

"Honestly, no, not after my first impression of him," Hermione answered quietly, flipping through her book. "Oh, here's some stuff on Ravenclaw. Let's see here, she was hardworking--"

"Oh, can we drop this stuff for two minutes!" Ron exploded. "Am I the only one who is seeing anything wrong with her? What, she can't fix stuff in her own future that she has to come back and change it? And why don't you want to have Jeremy? How do we know that he wasn't it the right at the shop?"

"Ron, we need to find the Horcruxes," Harry said firmly, "since at best, I only have about six months to live. And anyway, let me ask you something, has Susannah ever given us any reason for us not to trust her?"

* * *

All she could do was stare at her beloved brother; he looked exactly the same as he had the last time that she had saw him before he died. Dark, messy hair that they'd inherited from their father, hazel eyes, green shirt, dark blue jeans, grey jacket . . . except for one difference. He was transparent, just as he had been back in Knockturn Alley.

"Sirius?" Susannah managed to say again. Taking slow, deep breaths, she walked towards him, trying to take his hand into hers. But of course, her hand passed right through him. Pain surged through her, but she didn't care.

"Is that really you, my brother?" she asked him, praying that this wasn't a dream that she was going to wake up from. Please don't let it be a dream . . .

"Yeah," Sirius said gently, reaching out and resting his hand above her cheek. "Yeah, little sister, it's really me. I'm here."

"But . . . but how?" Susannah asked, trying to comprehend this. She didn't understand how this was possible, didn't understand any of this. How could her brother be here, back from the dead? How could he possibly be here, now, in this time, with her?

"The connection," Sirius answered softly. Susannah let out a sigh. Of course, the connection between the two of them, what else could it have been? They were magically linked twins, separated at birth to stop Voldemort from ever finding out about the long lost Potter twins. Remus, Ron, and Hermione had agreed that the only way to keep him from finding out about Susannah and Sirius was to separate them.

Sirius was taken to be raised by their parents' friend, Neville Longbottom, and then later his wife, Luna Lovegood. Raised in the wizarding world, by a wizarding couple, hidden in plain sight.

Susannah, on the other hand, was placed in foster care, only to be adopted by a Muggle couple some years later. She had been hidden in the Muggle world, so Voldemort would never think of looking for her there.

But when they were eleven, they found each other and slowly began to unravel the mystery of their true heritage. Even then, they were forbidden to tell anybody about it, for fear that the story would come out and Voldemort would hunt them down.

Magically connected, they had found out that they could talk to each other without words--mind to mind--not long after they found out that they were twins. It came with consequences, though, because when two people were magically connected, they could feel the other's emotions as if it were their own. Even the twins didn't fully understand it.

"Did you know about Jeremy, Sirius?" Susannah asked quietly, still staring at her brother. "Is that why you're here, because he turned?"

"It's not the reason that I came into the past with you, but it's why I'm here," Sirius answered, leading her to a bench and sitting down. Susannah followed suit. "Jeremy's been taken captive by Voldemort; at least, that's what they think. They don't know yet that he's a follower of Voldemort in the future. In fact, they don't even know that he's from the future. He's still out cold from the shop last week. You hit him with one powerful jinx, little sister."

Susannah smiled. "Thanks," she said ruefully, pushing a hand through her dark hair. "But what do they want with him, if they don't know yet that he's a Death Eater? I mean, unless . . ." She stopped talking, an impossible idea forming in her mind. "They can't think that he'll stop Dad, do they?"

"Voldemort thinks that he's got some information on Dad," Sirius explained. "Which is why they're waiting for him to recover until they start torturing him for information. And if they find out about you, then you are going to have bigger things to deal with." Suddenly, he looked reproachful. "You shouldn't have left him in the shop, Susie," he said sternly. "You should've handed him over to the Ministry."

"And tell them what?" Susannah demanded. "That he's Ron and Hermione's Death Eater son from the future? How could they arrest him, when he hasn't even technically been born yet? Not to mention conceived."

"Yeah, about that . . ." Sirius gave her a hard look. "Ron and Hermione aren't together yet, are they?" Susannah shook her head. "Well, are you forgetting what--or better yet, when--things happened in our timeline? They're supposed to get married in about this month and then Hermione's supposed to get pregnant by the end of next month."

"And I'm really failing to see any problem with that right now," Susannah shot back, folding her arms across her chest. "Sirius, he tried to kill me! My own cousin just tried to kill me, Merlin only knows what he's done in the future; I'm sorry, but I'm not really seeing any down side to this."

Sirius sighed. "But when you change the future," he said patiently, "Jeremy isn't going to be that boy anymore. He's going to be different, good. And he's not going to remember that he wasn't. Maybe you should just work on getting him back to the future in such a way that nobody can come after you."

Susannah stared at him. "You're kidding, right?" she asked incredulously. "Write a spell to send him back? Just like that? Sirius, I've never just created a spell before. You were the one who created the spell that destroyed the dementors in the future, remember? Not me."

"It's not too hard," Sirius said dismissively. "All you have to do is get the wording right on which spell you want to create. And besides, you're the one who created those acid, smoke bomb, and explosive potions in the future. Which, by the way, you've decided to use here."

Deciding not to argue that point, Susannah said, "Even if I did create a potion or spell to send him back, Sirius, there's the problem of he's with Voldemort. Which means that there's probably about a million protection spells around the Riddle House or wherever they're at. Voldemort's more paranoid than Mad-Eye."

Sirius snorted, but smiled all the same. "Good point. Well, you could always sneak into the place; we both know that you can keep a low profile and avoid being seen when you want to," he said. "But there's a danger surrounding Mum, Susannah. I can feel it. If Voldemort finds out about her carrying Dad's kids--in other words, us--then she'll be in greater danger than I've told her. And if he finds out about you, then he'll just kill her to get rid of you."

"Yeah, well, what else is . . . new . . ." Susannah trailed off, staring at her twin. "Wait a minute--you told Mum?! About you . . . and me?"

"So?" Sirius said, folding his arms across his chest and grinning. "You told Aunt Hermione." Susannah glared at him, unable to come up with a good comeback to that statement. "And believe me, you've got to tell Dad . . . soon. And get Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione together."

Before Susannah could stop him, her brother was gone . . . just like that, simply vanished away. Without so much as saying goodbye. Just like before.