A Twist In Time

Accidentally Taken Back

"You can't do this!" Dora exclaimed looking around the room as if she expected our brothers to react the same way. "Why are you letting her do this?" she asked our parents before rocking the baby in her arms as he fussed.

"I have to, Dora," I said, brushing my hand through the blonde hair of her daughter. "If I don't everything will change. You wouldn't be born, Chloe and Harry wouldn't be here. What about Remus' boys? Do you think he wants them to disappear? It's not me you need to worry about."

"We're not happy about this, Dora," Dad told her, but you could hear the finality of his voice. Mum and dad had argued about this for the two days while Harry, Ron and Hermione got everything sorted. "We won't even know she's gone if everything goes to plan."

"When do you leave?" Arthur asked, resting his hand on my shoulder as he tried to fight off his tears. It wasn't a secret that Arthur was my favourite brother.

It probably had to do with the three-year gap between us and the way he looked out for me when I first got sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts. I was happy Uncle Al was the first member of the family to be sorted into Slytherin, no one really thought any different of it when it happened to me.

"In the morning," I told him, seeing the fear and sadness cross all their faces. "You won't even know I'm gone." It was true, but I might have aged before I returned. What was going to happen if I returned to this time but a year passed? Would I come back to this exact time and this exact age?

"Have you got everything you need?" Dora asked, the natural motherly instinct coming out.

"Papa's sorting things with Ron and Hermione. Pops wanted me to go and see him and Mamie before I left though." I glanced over at the clock and pursed my lips. It was getting late and while I wanted to spend more time with my siblings, I knew I didn't have a lot of time left. "I'll be back before you know it," I told them, apparating from the spot and landing down the pathway from Shell Cottage.

"Romy, sweetheart, is that you?" Mamie asked as she waited by the door. I realised she must have been waiting for me to arrive.

"It's me, Mamie. Is Pops here?" I replied, shuffling through the sand and over the cobblestones and into her waiting arms. She smelt the same as always, like the sea and of her favourite perfume. It was a comforting smell.

"He's waiting in his study." Over the many years of her living over there, her English had improved remarkably according to Pops. Dad once told me he found it hard to understand her when she was shouting because her accent washed out her words, or she started speaking French.

"Romy, darling, I've got something for you," Pops said as I entered and closed the door behind me. He waved me over and gestured for me to sit down next to him. In his hand was a necklace and hanging from the silver chain was a flat white circle with a protection rune inside. "I've been working on this for the last two days." He slipped the necklace over my head where it settled under my shirt between my breasts. "We can't be there for you when you go back, but this should help protect you while you're gone."

"I won't be gone for long, Pops, you won't even know I'm gone." I felt like the more I said it the more I believed it. Hadn't we as a family had bad luck with time travel?

"I worry about you, Romy, I always have," he admitted running his hand through my strawberry blonde hair. Normally I supported the Weasley Ginger, but I was more feeling sentimental and had the same hair colour as my siblings, a mix between the red and Mamie's perfect silver-blonde.

"Because of my gifts?" I asked knowing he had always worried about my visions. He'd always been concerned, especially when I tried to limit my use of my metamorphmagus unlike dad and his mother. I didn't like being different.