Chapter Text
Magic had been trying to preserve what She could of the previous timeline in hopes that She would be able to siphon Her strength from the new one to the first to stabilize it and just have an alternate reality. The closer time got to catching up, though the original was only moving at a crawl comparatively, the harder it was for Magic to hold on. By the time the discrepancy almost two decades, twenty-two years to be exact, She realized that She wouldn’t be able to hold them both. She had seen Her chosen mourning the loss of their friends and family, and since She wouldn’t be able to bring them home someday, She would try something else. Yes. Yes, that could work. But only if She did it fast. Before She lost any more strength in the original reality. And She wouldn’t be able to bring them with mature magical cores. But it was the only way.
Those who were present at the formation of this new timeline had a thin thread of magical connection to it. Those who had magic /to/ connect. She would even grab the two ‘extras’ since she could. Seven magical souls were pulled through the rift before Magic let go of the original timeline. They were reverted to stable, yet immature magical cores, and placed in the best place for them. A place where Magic’s chosen would find them in a couple years when they had the next phase of their destinies.
The last thing Stefan Salvatore knew, he was under the hood of his brother’s car trying to restore it, feeling like he could at least do some little thing for the brother he’d treated so horribly even though it was too late for anything more. The last thing Elena Gilbert knew, she was in a nice herbal hallucination of her lost love. The last thing Jeremy Gilbert knew he was driving down the road to visit his sister, much as he hated being out from under the bubble that dulled his hunter instincts. The last thing Alaric Saltzman knew, he was hitting the bottle in his apartment, failing to get drunk thanks to the vampirism. The last thing Caroline Forbes knew, she was having lunch with her mother outside the Mystic Falls border. The last thing Luke Parker knew, he was on a date with a particularly hot guy. The last thing Liv Parker knew she was serving drinks at Scull. Suddenly, all of them found themselves standing in a group of other people. People that they quickly realized were kids. And no smaller than themselves.
Caroline was the first to figure something out as she recognized eleven year old Elena and eleven year old Jeremy, though they shouldn’t have been that age at the same time. “Elena? Jeremy?!” she asked incredulously, hearing her own voice sounding so much younger, and figuring that she must be the same age as them.
“What the hell is happening?!” one of the boys with the said in alarm.
Elena scrutinized him for a minute before she recognized his eyes and the furrow in his brow. “Stefan?!”
It took a minute for ‘introductions’ as they figured out who everyone was at this age before their attention was drawn by a booming voice saying, “A’ight now, we got everyone? Let’s head on ter the boats. You’ll get yer first look at Hogwarts soon.”
“Oh…em…gee!” Caroline gasped in a whisper.
“This cannot be happening,” Jeremy said incredulously as the rest of the first years started moving.
“Maybe we’re having a mass hallucination?” Ric wondered. Or he’d made more progress than he thought getting drunk, but even that wouldn’t explain /this/.
“I think it’s more likely something magical,” Luke said wryly.
“We may as well play it out and see what happens,” Liv shrugged. “At least until we figure out a way out.” If they wanted to get out. She’d just been bought another eleven years of life, assuming they were eleven years old now. She wasn’t sure she /wanted/ to leave.
“Then we better hurry up because we’re getting left behind,” Elena pointed out, prompting them all to run to catch up with their year mates.
The trip across the lake in the boats were spent between gaping at the beautiful castle, and for some scanning the faces of the other students looking for anyone they might recognize. Hagrid didn’t look too much like the actor who played him in the movies, but he was close enough to the book descriptions of his character. He was rather distinctive though. Still, they might be able to recognize /some/ people by their descriptions. They didn’t see a skinny bespectacled boy with messy hair and a scar on his forehead. They didn’t see any redheads at all. They didn’t see a girl with bushy hair and buckteeth. Maybe they were in a different year then. Or even the year they came from instead of going back to the nineties.
They forgot that idea though when they were met by McGonagal, who was recognizable enough even before she was introduced. As the ‘deputy headmistress’. Which meant that it wasn’t after the books when she would either have been headmistress or retired. They listened to the ‘your house is your family’ speech that some of them had memorized and then were left in the antechamber for a few minutes. They were even more sure that they’d gone back in time for this when Dumbledore was at the head table. Some of the other teachers were recognizable enough too, but not all of them. And then the sorting was started as they were welcomed to the nineteen ninety to ninety-one school year. A year before Harry Potter would start.
The sorting started with Marcus Belby, then Katie Bell, Eddie Carmichael, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecome and finally Caroline was up first of the group. A moment later she was beaming as she headed for the Hufflepuff table. Elena, on the other hand, burst into tears as she was sent to Slytherin. As much because of what the hat said about her as the house. Jeremy directly after her was sent to Gryffindor with a grin. There was quite the wait before the next of their group, Lucas Parker who went to Ravenclaw, followed by his sister who joined Caroline in Hufflepuff. Another shorter wait before Alaric joined Luke in Ravenclaw and Stefan joined Elena in Slytherin with a penseive frown.
They all found trunks with all the necessary supplies, including their new wands, waiting for them in their dorms. A gift from magic to welcome them to the only remaining timeline. The next morning after breakfast, the seven of them met up to compare notes on what the hat told them about their new circumstances, having talked about more than their own sorting in the process. They were all reeling over the fact that their reality or timeline or whatever they wanted to call it was erased now. That none of them had been born in this timeline. Their families never even existed. Stefan had grieved yet again for his brother who, this time, never even had a chance to live. Just as Caroline did for the mother she would never see again.
They all had people to grieve for really, but those two hit hardest. Elena and Jeremy had lost all their other family a long time ago, but at least they still had each other. Luke and Liv had each other too, and had never really been close to the rest of their coven, being set apart by their destiny and treated like tools by their father. Magic didn’t have them told that some of the people they were grieving for were there in that world. They would find that out in time. When they were adjusted and comfortable in their new circumstances. And hopefully had a chance to consider the lessons that She’d had the sorting hat give them so that they wouldn’t continue hurting Her saviors.
The seven of them did settle in well at their new school. They may have had the memories of their adult selves, but they had the maturity and mentality of eleven year olds so that they could relate better to their peers. They still kept in touch with each other, especially the two sets of siblings, and Elena with Caroline as practically siblings, but otherwise they drifted apart more with the house divides. Even the siblings didn’t manage to stay /that/ close, but they made more of an effort. They all embraced their second childhoods though, and especially their chance to learn magic.
Their first year was relatively peaceful, aside from the few crappy teachers, but their second year, when Harry Potter started, was much more difficult. Mostly because of what they knew was going on behind the scenes. The school as a whole wasn’t affected /too/ much by the whole thing. They were dreading their third year though, but had no idea how to fix it. Or even if it /could/ be fixed or if it would play out regardless. This year had played out just how they remembered with only minor changes to account for their presence. Such as Jeremy being in on the whole dragon smuggling and part of the associated detention in the forest. Little did they know that help would be arriving for the start of their third year. Very familiar help.