Hi all, having time to write and writers block being gone is a wonderful thing. I hope you're happy too. I know that some of you are having problems following the different timelines, and to help with this, I am going to post the different timelines and the distinguishing parts of them on my Facebook page (MuttNFeathers). Should you not be on facebook, please PM me and I can paste it into a message.
Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing, MNF
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Time War | ||||||
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Category: Pre-OotP, Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: Drama Warnings: Intimate Sexual Situations, Mental Abuse, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use Rating: R Reviews: 15 Summary: REPUBLISHED 5/2014 The final story in the Continuum/Ranimer/Growing Up with Mum and Dad arc. Can the Marauders and their children stop time from spiraling out of control or unleashing a fate worse than Voldemort in time? Please read the previous stories first so the time-travel aspects make sense. Hitcount: Story Total: 64710; Chapter Total: 2437 Author's Notes: |
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Chapter 16: Three Birds in a Cave 7 January 2064 Fairer Garden Isle of Skye, Scotland Mornings were usually very quiet for Sirius Black. He was up before anyone else; someone had to let the large Wolfhounds, Moonfoot and Pady, out. The pair lumbered out into the mist, walking the short distance to their run. Sirius hadn’t hooked the pair up on their leads in years; the neighbour who had insisted on it had moved last summer. It wasn’t like Sirius could tell the old woman he had charmed the garden to keep their pets, and numerous great-grandchildren, in. The dogs had a doggy-door they could use on their own, but they still waited until they heard him on the stairs. It was more routine than anything else now. Sirius put his kettle on, started the coffee pot for his wife, read through the headlines of his many daily papers and scratched his own belly. James had pointed out the strange behaviour while they were at Hogwarts, but it was Remus who pointed out that he was simply giving himself a belly rub. The Animagus had decided long ago that the ribbing he took for it was worth his moments of comfort. Though he had already been made aware of it, because he sat on the Council of Thirteen, he read through the official announcement of the elections for a new Minister for Magic. He noticed his grandson’s name was being bantered around; which made him proud. Having both Potter and Black blood in him made the man a rather predictable choice; having both a grandfather and grandmother — one from each side of the family–who were past Ministers made him a wise choice. He’d be anxious to see what the boy would choose. He was somewhat sceptical of politics and politicians; Sirius doubted he would become one himself. “Boy,” Sirius scoffed aloud at his own thoughts, “he’s in his fifties! They’re getting older, just like you are.” He had never really worried about his age, as he had lived far longer than anyone would have predicted when he was in his teens. Hell, he’d expected a member of his family to have offed him before he was twenty. A slam of the front door alerted him that one of his great-granddaughters had left the house. Two of them, Anna and Kyra, were in their last semester of their Charms Mastery, and would leave over the coming summer. New members of their large family would come and live in the house with their great-grandparents, ensuring their Nanny Winnie was never alone. In return, they had immediate access to the wealth of knowledge the couple had. He didn’t know why she’d left, but it didn’t surprise him that one of the girls would be leaving so early. What did surprise him was the chime which alerted him that his wife was ready to come down the stairs; he’d not heard the bed chime go off. With the weaknesses which wracked his wife’s body he and James had charmed nearly everything so that she had help when she needed to move. She’d hoped that Disapparation would help, but Winnie’s magical core was so powerful and unpredictable that when she’d tried to go from one floor to the other, she blew the ceiling out from the room she was headed to. Walking with assistance, or being carried, was the most prudent of ways for her to change locations. Sirius charged up the stairs to keep Winnie from attempting them on her own. “I never heard the charm go off,” he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her now tiny waist. The injuries and illnesses she’d sustained had made her once small but athletic frame brittle and slight. “You shouldn’t have gotten up without me.” Winnie shook her head lovingly at her husband even as she moved to kiss him. “I was feeling good this morning,” she said when her lips had released his. “I’m not a child, Sirius. When I feel strong enough, I am to do what I can. Always wanting to protect me…” “Because it’s what I do best.” “No, what you do best we can’t speak about with our great-granddaughters up and about.” Sirius smirked at her. “Then tonight, my sweetest lover, I will astound you with my most profound prowess,” Winnie giggled. “You’re still the master of the over-confident statement I see,” she said with a warm, loving glance and the stroke of her hand against his cheek. He leaned in for another kiss when he heard the front screen door slam again. “Ah, come my love, and let us break our fast together.” ***** “You know, if you keep spoiling me with such extravagant breakfasts, I’ll never want to go back to work,” Sirius teased his wife. Winnie had sent their great-granddaughter into town to purchase croissants and fresh butter. She had also brought out some of the homemade raspberry jam they and their second eldest son, Ethan and his partner, Aaron, had made the previous summer. They were eating on the screened in porch, which Sirius had charmed to be warm enough, despite the midwinter chill. “Perhaps I think it’s time you cut back at the Ministry,” she quietly said. “Let one of the boys take your seat.” “Winnie, we can’t do that, and you of all people should know why,” he reminded her. “The Black family is on the Council of Thirteen; a seat which I hold until I die. Only medical or mental maladies would allow me to step down.” “Perhaps I need to go into those books and find a loop-hole,” she said with a sigh. “I feel the need to travel again. Perhaps going somewhere warm and dry?” “We could go to the high plains in Peru? Visit our friends, do some sight-seeing? It is summer there.” “That sounds wonderful. This is why we make the perfect couple; you always know what I need and how to give it to me,” Winnie replied, love written on her face. She leaned forward and he wrapped his large hand around the back of her head so they could share a kiss. What started out quite innocently quickly turned far more passionate, his tongue swiping along her bottom lip before sliding in to tangle with hers. Unfortunately, their snog was interrupted by her need to cough. What had started off shallow rapidly devolved into a deep hacking, shaking her delicate and weak frame. Sirius stood and steadied his wife, one hand splayed across her back, his body pressed against her hip and side, while his other arm wrapped around her waist. Her lungs had never recovered fully from being crushed by the rubble of the owlrey during the last battle. Her younger brother, a physician renowned for his work synthesizing Muggle and magical medicine, suggested a lung transplant for her. Winnie hated that someone would need to die for her to continue to live. Sirius seated her back in her chair when the fit ended, and she looked at him and sighed. “Don’t say it. I’ll call Haf and see when he can schedule the procedure. I don’t understand why they can’t synthesize a new set from my own tissues? It’s what they did for my vertebrae.” “Winnie, they need healthy tissue to work with,” he reminded her, still holding both her hands. “You haven’t any left.” The pair said nothing aloud, although Sirius sent his love and comfort through their magical bond. Winnie closed her eyes and let the love of her husband wash through her. As she opened her mouth to say something, a loud noise caught their attention, making them both shift to face the door. Standing there, not quite completely corporeal, was a much younger version of Sirius. “Sirius, what year are you from?” Winnie asked. “How are you here? Where is my counterpart?” “Little One, let the man speak,” her Sirius reminded her. “I’m not entirely sure how I’m here,” the younger man said. “All I know is I was in a deep trance that Moony put me in, and I was concentrating on finding one of you. I thought I might make it to the twenties. Guess we overshot that one, huh?” “Only by about by about forty years,” the older man answered with a chuckle. “Why are you here?” Old Winnie implored. “It’s my wife…she’s gone.” “What do you mean, ‘gone’” Sirius asked. “How did she disappear?” “She didn’t disappear, she’s just gone!” the young man said in a raised voice. “Sirius, love, come and sit down,” Winnie said with a soothing voice, and sent him some love through the same bond she used with her older version of her soul mate. “What does it mean that she’s gone?” Young Sirius took a deep breath, and looked into the elderly woman’s eyes, imploring her to understand what he was about to say. “She fell and hurt her head. We got her to St. Mungo’s, and they healed the small fracture to her skull; but she isn’t there. I can’t feel her, she registers no thoughts and none of the Mind Healers can get past her Occlumency shields. She is simply gone.” “Do you register her magic?” older Sirius asked. “Some, but she’s certainly not at full strength. I’m actually a bit overwhelmed by the magic I have. I think that’s why I was able to come to you.” Both of the older Black’s nodded. “Was she upset when this happened?” “Yes,” Sirius admitted, “Harry and Ginny’s memories from their trip back in time had just returned, and Harry made a flippant comment about time travel. My Anwen didn’t take it well.” The older couple looked to each other, and a small tip of Winnie’s head let her husband know she had vague memories of this event as well. Old Winnie closed her eyes and reached for the hands of both of her men. She was thankful for the added boost of having both their magical essences to draw upon. She’d never done what she was going to attempt; she didn’t even know if she could. Searching through time and space for her counterpart, when she had no idea where her mind might be would be nearly impossible. Opening her magical eye, Anwen placed herself in a deep meditation. Using her husband’s heartbeat as her anchor, she sent her mind back to nineteen ninety-eight. She remembered so many versions of this year, although she’d worked hard to remember the one she and Sirius had lived. It was the year in which everything changed…Voldemort was killed, she was forever weakened, and Sirius became the statesman she knew he always would be. The Death Eaters were finally destroyed, although not soon enough; her little Ethan was kidnapped. Their family was completed with Stella’s adoption, and the Marauding family finally had the peace they’d spent two decades working for… It was a memorable year, although not one she would ever chose to repeat. Stretching to find her younger self, she located the body easy enough. Her children and extended family were surrounding her, Bas reading to her in French. How different a boy he was by having love all his life. Sirius was right, Anwen was not there; although a thin stream of consciousness was. Anwen Hodgson had learned Occlumency at a very young age, from Professor McGonagall and Alastor Moody. It was the later who taught her to build in a secret backdoor into her shields, so that if there were ever an occasion where she was blocking everyone, he would be able to enter. The conundrum here was that Moody was dead, and there was only one other person who could find this door, aside herself. Clearly, they’d not thought to contact her dear friend and mentor, Healer Weston. Winnie vaguely remembered that in this timeline, she was out of the country, teaching somewhere in an American Healer academy. Because she and Sirius shared their magic and they could communicate through their bond, she never shared how to locate this secret way into her mind. However, since this practice seemed to be something she and all her younger selves shared, old Winnie slipped easily into young Anwen’s mind. Thankfully, young Anwen had left her a proverbial “trail of breadcrumbs” to follow. The trail was short, only a few blocks through London, into the bowels of the Ministry for Magic, ending at the damned veil. This was one place Winnie had never wanted to return to for it represented the worst night of her life–but to save herself, she was going to have to relive her nightmare. The night her beloved fell beyond the veil was the worst Winnie had experienced in her more than one hundred years. Unlike the night of the Battle of Hogwarts, she and Sirius had been separated for the mission in this room, something they vowed to never let happen again. They were both somewhat unfocused because they couldn’t touch or even see one another. Additionally, Winnie was tasked with shielding, through her visualization magic, not only the Marauders, but the five students which Harry led into the Ministry that night. Then, as the Order showed up, she had to splinter her abilities even more. She heard Sirius taunting his deranged cousin, something only an idiot would do, making Bella go after him even more resolutely. Winnie couldn’t react fast enough and her hex sent him through the veil. Winnie didn’t see it as much as feel it. Half of her seemed to have been ripped away. Much like that night, Winnie was now going to have to pass through the archway, face those gnawing, scratching creatures which hovered near the gateway between life and death, and search out the essence that was her younger self. Thankfully, neither would be worldly, in the physical sense, so the wretched souls which gathered near the portal couldn’t really harm them. Winnie still shuddered when she thought of the wounds her Sirius had when she’d rescued him. Bowing her head and asking for guidance, Winnie slipped through the archway. There seemed to be many more of the soul-creatures hungrily staring out at the world of the living. Being like them, without a physical form, she moved through them unscathed. She heard whispers of her name, although she was Lady Black to them, so Winnie knew it was her younger counterpart of whom they were speaking. There were also whispers of a girl, Anwen Hodgson; perhaps one of the versions of herself who died before she and Sirius had married. The gossip was that they were hiding somewhere, and these malevolent spirits seemed to want the twenty-something version of herself. Winnie was thankful for the disguise her age had naturally provided. Although she could not be injured, she had no desire to get into any sort of argument with these creatures. Once past the majority of the crowd, Anwen manoeuvred into a slight crease in the dark stone of the cave. Feeling her magic begin to deplete, she needed to get through this quickly. She looked again for the trail her younger counterpart had laid, and Winnie saw a small glowing mass of her own magic. She followed it, and was shocked to find the two younger versions next to each other, deep in conversation. *** Sirius senior felt his wife returning long before she squeezed his hand and opened her eyes. “I got her back,” she whispered before closing her eyes again. “Go to her,” the older man told the younger. “How can I ever thank you?” “Have a pint you know I’d enjoy,” the older man joked and the younger nodded before simply dissipating. The older man resolved to search through his memories before bed, seeing if he could learn about what happened next to that pair. His immediate thoughts were of his now sleeping wife in his arms. Lifting her body as gently as he could, he Disapparated them both to their bedroom. St. Mungo’s Hospital 9 January 1998 “The dead know more than I thought they could,” Anwen said quietly. She’d awakened the day before, vaguely remembering her return with Old Winnie and her time with her younger self. While everyone wanted to know what had happened, she wasn’t prepared to speak of it. Instead, she requested a day to gather her thoughts, and converse with Sirius about what he’d done. Now, with all the children sent home, the Marauding six gathered around Anwen’s bed. “What do you mean?” James asked. “They’re aware that many have died younger than they believed. Especially those who had sided with Voldemort,” she explained. “Some even knew that they had been pulled back and forth into different timelines, although they weren’t exactly sure why.” “You mean the Death Eaters are there?” Lily said with a chill going up her spine. “No, I’m quite certain there’s a special ring of hell for people like Bella and Lucius. No, they were people who might have done something for Voldemort — willingly or un — but who ended up as collateral damage. Voldemort didn’t believe in being faithful to anyone or anything, regardless of what the other might have dreamed was the truth,” Anwen said ruefully. “How can they be aware?” Remus muttered. “None of us is aware of the other timelines, except in retrospect, and even then the memories are imprecise and only half-remembered.” “Perhaps it has to do with the difference between the essence of being alive and that of being dead?” Eva postulated. “We could go see Old Winnie,” Remus said “see what she knows–“ “She’s in no shape,” Sirius interjected. “What she did used up a remarkable amount of magic. She probably saved your life.” The last words said with such devotion and love, it made his wife smile, albeit briefly. “No, Old Winnie got me out of there; it was the child me who saved me. There were whispers that I — the Anwen Black who was moving through time — was there; thankfully little Winnie covered me and hid me before anyone realized just who I was. She had even begun designing a plan to get me out of there, it proved vital to Old Winnie and her doing what she came for. Now, that little girl who killed herself because a broken heart saved my life.” “So we’re back to pondering the meaning of death in a world where time can be rewound and acted out again,” Remus stated softly. The group was exceptionally quiet, all thinking about another existential topic none of them had even considered. This war was making them all tired in every sense of the word. Sirius held his wife tightly to him, even though she was still in her bed, medical charms monitoring her breathing, heart rate and brain waves. He felt the despair of her soul, her renewed agitation at having to fight this way. He kissed her forehead and gave her his strength. “Whatever the meaning might be, we need to minimize our reversing of life and death. The last thing we need is to be fighting on two fronts. Especially if one of those fronts can only be accessed by near death,” Anwen said. After a few more seconds of quiet, the group went back to dissecting Anwen’s time away. The question nagging Sirius’ mind was how she ended up there in the first place. Her wounds weren’t so serious that she should have been between life and death. He looked up at his best mates, and between them they tipped their heads in understanding; conversation would be forthcoming. |
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