ii. isn't time travel illegal or something?

She turned around and furrowed her brows in confusion. "Who are you?"

The woman standing in front of her wore a white dress that made her look like she was floating while walking. Her hair was black, completely straight, and reached to her shoulders, and her eyes were a deep ice blue. That woman was literally the definition of beautiful.

"I? Why I am Línnea. But you may know me under the name 'Death'", the woman said.

"Death? But I thought you were male", was Harriet's protest.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. And that brings us to other things…" Línnea sighed. "You were so naïve, and you still are. I can't blame you of course, but still."

"What do you mean?"

"You mean besides the fact that Dumbledore was just an egoist getting away with law-breaking just because he's Albus Dumbledore, Ronald Weasley fed you love potions and cheated on you more than once, and his mother had all that planned from the day your parents died."

���Sorry, Línnea, but I just can't believe that. I mean, Dumbledore was a great man. Sure, he made mistakes, but he had his reasons and apologised appropriately. As for Ron, he's my husband, we've known each other for 25 years now. Why would he feed me a love potion? And Molly? What would she have to say in her son's love life? They're my family!"

"See? You're so na��ve you don't even notice it when you're told." Línnea sighed. "Guess I've got to go over every little thing they did until she understands…", she muttered under her breath before looking at Harriet again.

"Really, Harriet. You're 36 years old, yet you can't even tell when your husband of 18 years cheats on you. Let me give you some names…Lavender Brown, Pansy Parkinson, Cho Chang, Hermione Granger — though she was actually raped by him —, and a few others I'm not going to name right now."

Harriet was now looking like a gaping fish. Lavender Brown? Ok, she was already used by him to make Hermione jealous. Pansy Parkinson? Hadn't Ron always been so brattish about Slytherins? And Cho…figures. What a bitch. Cheating on Cedric with Roger Davies…but Hermione? Raped? Why the hell would Ron rape his best friend? And besides, Hermione was happily married to Viktor Krum. And she lives in Bulgaria, so how would Ron even get to her?

"And then there's Dumbledore. Now, with what he did — according to Ministry law and Hogwarts rules — he should already have been sentenced to life in Azkaban even before your parents died. And before your first year he would have gotten the Dementor's Kiss."

Harriet's eyes widened. She couldn't mean that. What could Dumbledore possibly have done that would make him deserve-

"How?", she whispered. "What has he done? And why?"

Línnea looked apologetic as she started to speak. "Let's start in the beginning.

"First, while for a good cause, the Whomping Willow is a very illegal plant. You may not know it, but simply for selling the seeds for that tree you could get a sentence in Azkaban. Not to mention that it has actually killed and maimed students already."

Harriet paled. "What? I know that kids played around it to find out who could get nearer to it, but I only got told that one child nearly lost an eye, but nothing else."

Línnea nodded sympathetically. "I know. One first year muggle-born named Rose Evans got killed because she didn't know that it wasn't a normal tree and just tried to walk past it, while another first year pure-blood named Elizabeth Potter lost an arm, broke her skull and fell into a coma. And that was only two days into September. The tree had only been standing for two weeks at that time."

Harriet paled further. She couldn't believe that her parents had other siblings. No one had ever told her about them. But she supposed Dumbledore would have had to tell her where they were and stuff like that, but since that man liked to keep secrets, the case was clear.

"Second, don't you think that your parents could easily have hidden in Potter Manor or something, instead of in an old cottage with nothing more than a Fidelius?"

As Harriet began contemplating that, she realised that everything Línnea said was the truth. Well, she didn't know about the first point, but apart from that…why should she lie? She was Death, and Harriet was dead, so what reason was there to lie to her?

"The wards around Potter Manor are so complicated, the counter-spells for them are only available in the Potter Family Grimoire. Thus, no one but Potter Family members are able to retrieve the spells for raising or lowering the wards. You must know, the Potter's are widely known for their ability in Arithmancy. You know, spell-crafting and such. But Warding is also a strong topic within your family. It is just too unfortunate that your grandparents died too soon to teach your father."

"Wait, what happened to them?", Harriet asked.

"They were attacked in their home."

"But didn't you just say that no non-member of the Potter family could lower the wards?"

"Yes, but…" Línnea trailed off as her eyes widened. "That means a Potter must have been one of the attackers."

Harriet smirked smugly. "And you didn't know?"

Línnea glared at her. "I apologise, but I'm not all-knowing!"

"But you are Death. And therefore, you should know everything about people's deaths, shouldn't you? I mean, how else would you have known that a small first year managed to kill me?"

"My father was in charge until he died two years ago, so I couldn't have known that. Besides-"

"Did you just say that your father died? You can actually die in the Realm of Death? I assume that before you were in charge, that your father was Death, so Death can actually die?"

Línnea rolled her eyes. "Look. That's a long story, but can we just please get back to the actual point of this meeting?"

Harriet rolled her eyes right back at the other woman, but nodded.

"Good. Now, where was I?"

"I believe the last thing you mentioned was that the wards at Potter Manor were far safer than the cottage in Godric's Hollow."

"Thank you. Now, onto our third point. The Prophecy. I know for a fact that you know about Snape telling Voldysnort about it?"

"Yes, but…Voldysnort?"

"Come on! I mean, people snort through their nose, right? Well, the thing is, Voldemort does not-"

"-have a nose. Ok, ok, I get it. Continue, 'Nea."

"'Nea?"

"Línnea is too long."

"Ah, that explains it", Línnea said with just a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "Anyway, job interviews are usually held in the Headmaster's office, right?"

Harriet nodded. She knew that because her job interview for the DADA post was held in the Headmistress' office, and from a memory she knew that Trelawney's was, too.

"And you know how Dumbledore always seemed to know that someone was at the door before they had the chance to knock?"

Harriet nodded again, not knowing where this was going.

"When Trelawney started speaking that prophecy, what makes you think Dumbledore didn't know that Snape was right outside the door?"

Harriet furrowed her brows in thought. She definitely knew where Línnea was coming from. Dumbledore did mention something about him trusting Snape with his life once. Or twice. Maybe even once each year. Or every time they talked? Let's just stick with the fact that he had to tell that to people quite a lot. Now, what does that say about Snape, if all Dumbledore did was try to convince people of Snape's loyalties?

"I see you know what I mean, which is good. Because the next point is the night your parents died. What do you know about that? Maybe you can figure it out yourself what was wrong then."

"Well, I know that Hagrid took me from the house and brought me to Privet Drive, where Minerva and Dumbledore were already waiting. Dumbledore talked about how my parents were dead and — against Minerva's word — lay me in my relatives' doorstep…" Harriet trailed off. "In the middle of the night, at the beginning of November, when in the muggle telly rain was foretold. With nothing more than a jumper and a blanket. And a letter to explain everything to Aunt Petunia…but…why? Why would he do that?"

"That I can not tell you. Maybe he didn't want to hear your aunt reject you in his face, maybe he just knew what was going to happen, but didn't want to hear it, likely we will never know. But that is besides the point right now. How did Dumbledore know about you parents' death? And how could he possibly tell that you were still alive? Last time I checked you were 15 months old when he tried to kill you. Not even old enough to raise your hand to say 'Protego'. Not that that would have worked anyway."

Harriet shrugged. "And what about your parents' wills?", Línnea continued.

"They had wills?", Harriet asked, surprised. Línnea looked shocked.

"You mean that old coot didn't even tell you that? No one did? Ok, well, I guess I understand Dumbledore. He never tells anyone anything. But the others should have mentioned something."

"Why? What more was there than Mum and Dad giving money and other stuff to their friends and me?"

"Maybe the fact that…oh, I don't know…Dumbledore witnessed the writing of the will? Or the fact that Voldemort cast the Fidelius Charm to make Pettigrew the Secret Keeper? Or the fact that there were seven people that could have taken care of you, first of all Sirius and Alice Longbottom as your godparents. And not to mention the fact that it was expressed that under no circumstances should our daughter be raised by Petunia Dursley née Evans and her husband."

"And Dumbledore knew?"

"He knew. And the blood wards. Did you know that Petunia isn't even your biological aunt?"

Harriet was shocked. "What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is that your aunt was adopted because your grandparents thought they couldn't have a baby. So they adopted Petunia. But two years later and they got twins, Rose and Lily."

By now, Harriet was shaking with rage. "Did he know? Did Dumbledore know about Petunia not being related to me?"

Harriet hoped not, but unfortunately, Línnea nodded sadly.

"I will kill him!", Harriet said through clenched teeth and only now seemed to remember that Dumbledore was already dead.

"And you will get the chance." Harriet looked at her companion in surprise, curiosity and shock. "You will, trust me. Or didn't you save a hippogriff's life and your godfather's soul?"

"But that was just because-" Harriet stopped, registering what she was saying. "-because of Hermione's time turner. Do you mean to tell me…"

Línnea nodded. "Yes. I mean to tell you that you have the chance to go back in time to change everything."

"But isn't Time Travel illegal or something? Or did I miss something important?"

"Actually yes, you did. While Time Travel should be illegal, you can't be punished for it."

"Why not? You just said it was illegal."

"Yes, but I didn't say that people knew about you being a time traveller. And besides, what can they do? In the time where you died, they can't punish you because technically you are dead. And in the past they can't because you technically didn't at that time use Time Travel. And besides, it is only illegal so long as you use a time turner." Línnea winked cheekily.

"Do you mean because the others are just safe enough to use, or because nobody knows of another method to do it?"

"The latter."

"Explain", Harriet demanded. "And besides, what was that about Ron and Molly again?"

"Alright, alright. I am Death, I can do what I want. So I am going to send you back in time. More precisely, into your six-year-old body. You could still change enough that the abuse won't affect your magic, and you can go to Gringotts to let your blocks be removed."

"What blocks? And can the goblins remove the horcrux, too?"

"You didn't know about the blocks? Merlin, you are oblivious to everything. Let the goblins explain. And yes, they can. But since I doubt the goblins would believe a six-year-old girl saying they have a horcrux in their head — even if it's Harriet Potter — you'd have to tell them about your time travel."

"I can do that." Harriet nodded.

"Alright. And then you could take an Inheritance Test, so you can actually see how man vaults you have and from what blood lines you come from."

"Al…right", Harriet said slowly. She could see where this was going. Suddenly, her face brightened up. "Could I change my name?"

"What?"

"You know, say I came from the lines…what, Gryffindor and Malfoy. I don't know. Could I for example say I wanted to be Harriet Malfoy or Gryffindor instead of Potter? Or even a different first name?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I'm done being Harriet Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived. I could just somehow make Harriet Potter go missing, while my new identity would be controlling."

Línnea was still sceptical. "And what, pray tell, would you do about a living? A six-year-old can't very well just buy a house or rent a flat."

"Maybe not, but I recall you mentioning something about Potter Manor?" She raised an eyebrow at Línnea's dumbstruck look.

"Ok, are we done now? No, we aren't. Far from done, actually…"

"How much has that bastard done? And could you please just tell me about Ron and Molly?"

"First, he's done far too much. And second, I'll tell you when we come to about sixth year or something. Now, shut up and listen. No interrupting until I ask for questions. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."