Chapter Text
Rhea screwed up.
She should have checked the area thoroughly instead of just glancing briefly around. Now, she's been discovered, looking very suspicious might she add as she had her wand trained on two random people. Well, two random people who were in front of her were somehow now right behind her.
Karma is the worst.
Did she like, piss off some god in a different time? Because, honestly, that is sounding incredibly probable now, and Rhea's ninety percent sure that whatever god or divine deity was laughing at her pain right now.
Welp, Rhea thinks, time to lie.
Rhea forces herself to stand up, unflinching even in the face of all her goddamn problems. She turns towards Lily Evans and James Potter, intending to go on a professional rant telling them why she was there (all lies, of course).
Apparently, since everything else in her life is messed up, fate decides to be merciful to her and give her a break.
"This isn't what it looks like." The words are out of Rhea's mouth before she even has a chance to think about it.
Ha. Merciful, never heard of that.
Screw this.
"This isn't what it looks like."
Lily narrows her eyes at the woman, recognizing her as Rhea Esmeray, the Ravenclaw girl. Esmeray cringes back at Lily's piercing gaze, opening her mouth to speak again.
"I didn't mean to say that." Esmeray looks like she wants to crawl into a hole and die right at that moment. "Or that." Lily guesses that Esmeray did not want to say those things, not just from what she literally just said but from the look on her face.
Esmeray sighs, long and drawn out. "This conversation is not how I planned it going."
"Planned it going?" Lily repeats, confusion lacing her words. Esmeray doesn't respond, instead, she takes to saying words that should not be coming out of a teenager's mouth. Somehow, her voice sounds very familiar when she's cursing out literally everything that exists and has ever existed. Lily could have sworn that she had heard her Esmeray's voice before…
Oh.
Oh.
Lily stared at Esmeray, calculating. She had the same cloak that James' mysterious savior wore that both James and Lily had gotten a glimpse of. Of course, many people have the same cloaks, so it's illogical to base Lily's theory fully on that.
Lily had heard Remus Lupin, James' friend, mumble something about a Hufflepuff girl named 'Maia' or something after the whole capture the banner affair. He seemed a little annoyed, but Lily had just brushed it off as an incompetent student in one of his classes, as he likes to complain about occasionally. Honestly, how would be the connection between the girl in front of her and the so-called 'Maia'? Apparently, there is, or might since Lily could be wrong (though she normally isn't).
Even when Esmeray came to Hogwarts was suspicious; it was literally in the middle of the school year. Who transfers to a new school in the middle of the year?
And, probably the most ground-breaking evidence for Lily's theory, she curses a lot more than any normal teenager should. She also sounds suspiciously like the person in the Whomping Willow when cursing.
Lily could be wrong about this (completely and utterly wrong about it), but if she's right, then at least some things about her life can be explained.
So, Lily steels her nerves and pushes away her doubts, and asks the million dollar question. "Are you the one who's been interfering with our lives?"
And the minuscule pause was an answer enough.
Rhea is going to be honest, and she is normally honest with herself: she's freaking out a bit.
It might just be shock since Rhea has experienced going into mind-numbing shock multiple times in her life when she thinks she's having a panic attack. But honestly, Rhea thinks she might actually be having a panic attack right now.
She should have known that Evans would be smart enough to realize her plans eventually, maybe not fully, of course. She's the kind of person to see two and two and make four. She really shouldn't be surprised, which she's not at least she thinks she isn't but who knows?
But then, after that statement, Evans seems to take Rhea's small pause (which she took to internally scream but Evans doesn't know that) as an initiative to keep going.
Which did not help Rhea's internal panic.
Rhea suddenly gets the phrase 'I saw my life flash before my eyes', but it's taken a literal sense here as she listens with dawning horror as Evans list her many, many mistakes.
It's really something, not something good either, in Rhea's humble opinion, to have something list out all your failures in a monotone voice.
While Evans talked, Rhea could feel the blood draining from her face, but she held on to a tiny sliver of hope: the fact that Evans didn't seem to have any idea of Rhea's...time-related situation. Good, that's good, Rhea thinks as she finally gets a grip on her emotions. I can just defuse the situation, no problem. They don't have to know why I'm here, along with how I'm here.
And, of course, since everything else in Rhea's life is pathetic, something just had to intervene.
Rhea saw the white skull mask and immediately punched it.
James wasn't expecting any secrets to be unveiled today, but, to be fair, he also didn't expect Evans to actually accept his date proposal. James also wasn't expecting to have a stranger with a white skull mask lunge at them, so honestly, James doesn't know what to expect anymore.
Esmeray punches the man in his stupid, masked face and grabs their wrists tightly before speeding off, away from the man. Cursing along the way which seems to be a common occurrence that James can't help but be baffled by. Seriously, the amount of vulgar language that comes from that girl's mouth is, frankly, astounding in its own right.
Also what's astounding is Esmeray's tight grip on his wrist which is starting to hurt enough that James is a little concerned if she's cutting off his circulation, which is starting to seem probable now.
Lily seems to be experiencing the same thing by the way her face twists uncomfortably. "Um, hey-" Lily starts, only to falter in shock as a familiar light shoots past them. Esmeray looks back at them for a moment, then she turns her face back towards the front, going even faster than before. James didn't even know that was possible.
"No time to explain," Esmeray says, seemingly not bothered by the speed they're going at and how quickly the man-no, scratch that, men; there's more of them-seem to be approaching. "All you need to know is that the people behind us are evil. Avoid them or fight back, whichever is fine, just don't get yourselves killed. That would be terribly inconvenient," she whispers that last part, but James hears her. He decides to not comment on it.
Lily, wisely, closes her mouth and jerks her hand away; James doing the same. It's difficult keeping pace with Esmeray, but they managed. Ten minutes of straight running later, they finally take a break. James and Lily are gasping and panting from exhaustion, chests heaving, but Esmeray seems relaxed, even if her shoulders are tense and her stance screams that she's ready to run if needed. James decides to not comment on that either, how she's so prepared, or at the fact that her chest is also rising and falling quicker than average.
Esmeray peers over the large rock they're perched behind, eyes scanning around the landscape. Seemingly satisfied, she turns back towards Lily and James, who stare at her in confusion.
Esmeray clears her throat, looking nervously behind her, her fingers twitching. "So," she starts, "I imagine you have some questions."
"Yes," Lily replies slowly, "I have a few."
Esmeray holds up her hand. "Before you go on an inevitable rant again-" Lily makes a face at the word again. "-I'm going to summarize everything, okay?"
The two nod, curious. Esmeray takes a deep breath, checking behind her again. "First things first: I'm from the future."
Silence.
"Oh," Lily breathes. "That makes...sense, actually."
Esmeray looks surprised. "I didn't think you'd take it so calmly. I expected more objects being thrown and like, death threats."
"Um," James pipes in, a little confused, "Why would we threaten you?"
Esmeray shrugs. "I dunno." And that was that. "Anyways," she continues, "something...happens in the future. Something awful. I can't go into detail since it could change the events that I'm trying to turn out better, but I can tell you that the people of Hogwarts have a big role."
"In what whatever you're doing, I suppose?" Lily questions, nodding along.
Esmeray nods back and James decides to ask a few questions. "Is your real name Rhea Esmeray?"
She nods again. "You can call me Rhea if you want. It's awkward for me for people to call me by my last name all the time. Bad experience with it."
James didn't push, and neither did Lily. They both know not to poke at people with less than great pasts. "Another question," Lily says instead. At Rhea's encouraging nod, she asks, "Who were the people behind us ?"
Rhea tenses a bit, looking behind them yet again. "Death Eaters," she responds after pausing for a few moments. "They're Death Eaters."
"Aren't those followers of Voldemort?" Lily asks and Rhea nods, not surprised at the fact that she knows them. "Strange. I didn't think he had too many followers. Why are they following us?"
Rhea pauses again before shrugging. "I think it's more like following me. Long story short, I stole a precious item from them in the future and they wanted it back. I think they came to take it."
"But how did they come back in time? How did you come back?"
Rhea sighs. "I don't think I can tell you that much, sorry. I assume we came back the same way. But I don't think they're just here to take back what I stole." Rhea doesn't elaborate and James didn't have enough time to ask her about it as her eyes widen and she grabs onto his wrists once more, dashing away with the masked men straight on their heels.
"Duck!" Rhea yells, but James doesn't know if it's directed at him or Lily so when the burst of light hits him in the back, he feels himself falling forward with no control of his actions.
Rhea was so, so stupid. She should have known that the Death Eaters would find out where she went eventually and why she went there in the first place. Contrary to Rhea's belief, and many other rebellious wizards, they were not entirely incompetent, unfortunately. They had some somewhat decent ideas, uncommon as they were.
She shouldn't be surprised in the first place that they figured it out; she was expecting it. Her planning and preparation was all for naught when the moment finally came. And, to top it all off, Evans and Potter were right next to her, sounding like they were dying as they wheezed while they ran.
And then Potter got shot in the back.
Luckily, Rhea recognized the familiar soft blue light of the spell and knew it was just a simple Immobulus, but even with that knowledge, Rhea had a mini heart attack when Potter fell face first onto her back, making her stumble and lose her footing.
He's not dead, Rhea told herself to calm down. It did not work.
The Death Eaters were approaching quickly and Rhea had to think fast.
Observe, Adapt, Overcome.
Observe. The surrounding area was wide open, so hiding spots were a no go. A few miles away would be Hogsmeade, but Rhea was certain that Evans was not ready to go another round of running. Potter was out of the equation since he couldn't move or do anything. That means Rhea has one exhausted person and one immobilized person, both inexperienced in actual combat, hand-to-hand, and with wands.
The Death Eaters, who were only about half a mile away, most likely, were only trained in wand combat. Rhea knew this from her father's experience, who would complain about the fact that the spells were too easy for him (they weren't, he just liked to brag to others). They were wide and were, by the looks of it, all muscle which would make it hard to move quickly. They didn't know the terrain, didn't seem too smart either and had probably developed an overly large ego that Rhea was no doubt going to take advantage of. She needs all the advantages she can get, of course. The Death Eaters, though, had years of experience and muscle built up from enduring training from the Dark Lord himself. Whoever thought of this, they knew she couldn't overpower them with brute force if her small stature has anything to say about that. Power in numbers, too, as they say. Rhea could count fifteen well-built Death Eaters who looked like they could eat her alive. Oh, joy.
Adapt. On the other hand, Rhea could fight, wands or no. She's fast and flexible (she said a silent thank you to her past self who thought it'd be important to be small and did nothing to make herself taller or wider), and a quick-thinker. She, unlike the Death Eaters, knew the terrain fairly well, nothing too incredible, but useful nonetheless. Rhea, who has hardly any muscle since her younger self (and her older self) didn't care too much about strength, would no doubt be pummeled to the ground if she tried to confront her attackers head-on, with brute force. No, she had to use her mind. Rhea glanced over at Evans, who was propping Potter up against her, and Potter, who looked tired. Possible hostages for them to take said a tiny voice in Rhea's head, which she ultimately pushed aside. They'd have to get past her first.
Overcome. Rhea shifts her stance and pulls out her wand, not intending to use it all that much, though. Alright, Rhea thinks. Time to plan. Hit and run tactics could be useful, she'd definitely be picking them off one by one if she can. Thank Merlin that she trained herself to aim properly with all sorts of weapons. Rhea never left anywhere without at least four knives on her, but today she has seven knives (she had a bad feeling in the morning; she now regrets ignoring that feeling). Extra, perhaps, but she's really glad she did bring them. Seven knives meant seven people she can take down if she doesn't miss any of them, which is a probability. Eh, she always did work better in a high stakes situation.
She'll take out eh, at least five people with her knives, with two shots missing their targets. She'll tell Evans to carry Potter after charming him to make him easier to carry for someone who's as small as Evans. With that, she's killing two birds with one stone; the chances of the Death Eaters taking them hostage goes down if they are too occupied with Rhea and she won't have to worry about them getting hit or her accidentally traumatizing them.
The rest she'll take down with random spells, no killing, only harsh wounds to slow them down. If that doesn't work, then she'll resort to plan B. Hopefully, she won't have to do that.
Turning to Evans, Rhea stares into her terrified face. "Evans." The frightened girl looked up, head tilted to the side to indicate she's listening. "Think you can carry Potter?"
Evans hesitates, looking over at the pathetic heap who's only started slowly moving, before nodding, determined. She takes out her wand, mumbling a spell under her breath, and easily picks up Potter whose body was glowing a faint purple. Rhea gets over her shock and stares at Evans, muttering the plan to her. She didn't say anything at Plan B; don't need her to worry. Evans nods, shifting her position to run.
Rhea keeps her eyes trained on the rapidly approaching Death Eaters. She holds up three fingers, then two, then one. The moment the last finger goes down, Evans is rushing away to the field. The Death Eaters, predictably, run towards her, but Rhea shows herself.
Briefly, she remembers something her favorite trainer told her when she was younger.
"Now, listen, Rhea," said Mollie Serene, her eyes gentle yet her tone firm, grabbing the young girl's attention. "You listening, sweetie?"
Rhea nods, jumping in her seat. "Yup!"
"One thing you always have to remember when fighting anything. Person or other," Mollie says.
"What is it?"
Mollie smiles. "It's the most important rule you will ever learn. 'No plan survives contact with the enemy'. Don't ever forget that."
Rhea, it seemed, did the one thing Mollie told her not to do.
Lily ran.
She ran and ran and ran until it felt like her legs were going to fall off, and then she ran some more. She didn't think Rhea could fight the masked men herself, but Lily didn't know the woman all that well either.
She had to have some sort of fighting abilities, right?
Or else she wouldn't have stayed behind.
Or else Lily wouldn't have to turn around.
James felt like a feather.
Well, he felt as light as a feather, not a feather itself. He knew he was being carried by Lily (which he was trying very hard not to freak out about since holy crap he's being carried by Lily Evans).
He knew that Lily was running away from something.
He knew that Rhea had stayed behind to help them escape.
He also knew that they were in big trouble when Lily turned around.
Rhea was doing pretty well.
The moment Evans had bolted, Rhea unsheathed two of her knives from their comfortable place in her sleeves and threw them with deadly accuracy at the Death Eaters. The two knives hit two of the men in the stomach (not enough to kill them now, but Rhea takes no responsibility if they happen to die later on).
A few of the Death Eaters slow down, but most of them surge forward. Rhea throws two more knives (stomach hit, thigh hit), then another two (miss, stomach hit), then throws her last knife (miss but grazed him).
Rhea lets her muscle memory take over as the men charge towards her, whipping out her wand and shooting out spell after spell after spell. She took down three more Death Eaters with six spells, but she was quickly getting overwhelmed. There were still seven more left and Evans and Potter still weren't far enough away, and Rhea felt herself getting tired after fighting two at a time. They just kept coming. She would kick one down, flip over someone's back only to narrowly avoid getting punched.
She would punch one only for another to come and trip her, barely letting a moment's rest as his fist came down to meet her face. She rolled to the side, kicked one where the sun don't shine, and jumped over another again. Rhea could feel the air getting pushed out of her lungs despite her lungs trying to desperately get air back into them.
"Surrender and give us the Time-Turner or else," one of them said threateningly. Rhea could only roll her eyes at the unoriginal line before having to dodge another kick and a punch.
Rhea was tired. So what did she do?
She went to Plan B.
Plan B did not involve James Potter and Lily Evans grabbing her wrists and jerking her away from the fight.
James felt the spell wearing off quicker than before. Lily seemed to notice because she smiles, strained yet bright and pretty, and immediately whispers in his ear her plan. James could feel himself grinning with confidence as he felt the numbness fade away.
Feeling bold, he pulled Lily over to him and kissed her.
She was surprised, obviously. James, pulled back, still confident, and grinned at her.
"Let's go save the time traveler!" He exclaimed, and she got over her shock. She grinned back at him and together, they threw themselves into the fight.
Lily grabbed Rhea's wrist and pulled her along as she did to her. The cold air was chilling her to the bone, but she felt a rush of excitement and not even the cold could change that.
When they finally skidded to a stop, Rhea was gasping and panting like crazy. Her scarf had been pulled away in the fight and was nowhere to be seen. She had multiple bruises lining her arms and legs that were already turning purple. Her shirt was ripped at the hem which showed off a massive cut that didn't seem too deep but was still bleeding. At Lily's questioning gaze, Rhea simply said, "Lucky shot."
Silence.
Then James burst out laughing which caused Lily to start laughing. Rhea even cracked a smile before wincing and placing one hand over her cut and one on her neck.
Lily was immediately on guard. "Are you okay?"
Rhea waves her off, but her muffled grunts were an answer enough. "'M fine. Just tired."
Lily looked up at the hand that was settled on her neck. "Um," Lily starts, stumbling over her words in her shock, "y-you're neck is glowing."
Rhea nods and smiles sadly. "Time's up, I guess." Rhea tries to stretch as she stands up, but winces and decides against it.
"Time's up?" James mirrors.
"Yup," Rhea says, sighing. "I knew it wouldn't last a full year." She waves her hand in the air slightly, her body glowing the same way her neck was. "It's been fun. Gotta head back to my time now."
"W-wait!" Lily startles. Rhea pauses. "Um, thanks."
"Thanks?" Rhea asks, confused and bewildered. "I don't think I did anything to deserve thanks."
Lily smiles slightly. "You traveled here, risked your life, and almost died protecting us. That's thanks worthy."
Rhea smiles back and nods to James. Lily gets an idea and takes out her wand, mumbling a spell, and a camera comes shooting into her hand. Rhea grins, as does James, as she takes the picture. "Thanks, Evans. Take care of each other. Oh, one more thing." Rhea hands James a small package and whispers something in his ear. "You guys are cute," she coos as she disappears, leaving two very embarrassed teenagers in her wake.
"Um," James starts, looking at Lily as they travel back. "Lily?"
"Yeah?" She hums back softly. She startles when James shoves the same package Rhea gave him. "W-What's this?"
James rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "I, uh, got it for you for the date." He shrugs helplessly. "It got lost during the...um thing."
Lily stares at him then she starts opening the package. Her hand trembles as she takes out a simple necklace that said Lily Evans in bubble letters with colored vines draped around the design.
Lily smiles as she puts it on, turning to James and throwing her arms around him, surprising him this time.
If they held hands the rest of the way back to Hogwarts, then, that'd be their secret.
Rhea felt her head pounding and she's still not quite sure if it's because she landed head first on the cobblestone ground, or if it's because of the whole 'I-just-got-thrown-back-into-the-future' thing. She thinks it's probably both.
She hears footsteps coming towards her, but she doesn't have the energy nor the strength to get up, so she just lays there, looking dead to the world. The footsteps stop near her head, and she's suddenly overwhelmed by fear. If she's back in the future (technically it's the present; Rhea's so confused), then the Death Eaters have surely caught up to her. She's going to die, might as well accept her fate.
"Hey, are you okay?" The male voice is soft, concerned, not at all what she expected a Death Eater to sound like. It also sounds familiar, but slightly disoriented.
"Harry, I don't think she's okay." That's a female this time. Rhea feels someone help her up, and suddenly she's faced with three people: a red-head, a teenage woman with a concerned face, and a James Potter look-a-like.
Harry. Harry as in Harry Potter.
Harry Potter as in James Potter's son, who never existed in her time.
Rhea was definitely going to start breaking down right now. Harry Potter's looking at her strangely, and Rhea thinks it might be because of her numerous bruises and tears sliding down her face.
He looks confused. "You look familiar," he muses. "I think my parents had a picture of you somewhere..."
"Harry, don't confuse the poor woman," the woman scolds lightly.
"No," Rhea says hoarsely, her voice dry. "Your parents are James and Lily Potter, right?"
Harry Potter nods. "Yeah...?"
Rhea smiles, his face blurry through her tears. "I was a...friend of your parents. I helped them get together since they were so oblivious."
Harry Potter smiles and laughs, and the other two crack smiles. Rhea thinks that today, today is a good day.