A Twist In Time

And It Comes To An End

"I've 'eard some interesting things from my kids," John said as I joined him in the private room at the Garrison.

It was a relatively quiet evening and I was surprised John had even asked me here. While we were on good terms - he could never thank me enough for getting him out of France, though he did feel guilty about leaving his brothers and comrades behind - we never went out of our way to speak to each other in the two weeks I had been back.

"Ah. I can only assume what it is they've been saying," I muttered, taking a sip of the whiskey Harry had given me upon my arrival. Since my return, John's children had been spending more time with me then they had with their father.

After his first nightmare on my return, Polly was at the door with the children in tears. Apparently this time, he'd gone into the children's bedroom and scared them. She didn't want them spending the nights at Watery Lane.

I was happy to have a full house again but I knew John resented that his children preferred to stay at mine.

"They've been talking about things you do. They call it magic and I've heard Ada and Finn talking about it with Polly. Polly said I had to talk to you." He paused as he took a long drag of his drink, his face turning into a frown. "I remember you, you know. You thought I was knocked out but I could hear you and there was a time I caught sight of you. I know what you did for me. Getting me sent here."

This was not how I expected John to be. From the glimpses at the children's memories and the ones I'd seen from Ada and Polly, he never spoke like this. He was smart and I think he didn't know what to do with it so he hid it.

"I'm a witch, John. If you don't believe it, you can come back to the house and I can show you," I told him, not bothering to beat around the bush. He was going to find out sooner or later. Come November when Tommy returned, I'd be telling him the truth so there was no point keeping it from John. "I'm not the only one, John. Your bloodline comes from one of magic too and I have my suspicions that your children might have magic in them, but we can't usually tell until their eleventh birthday."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they get invited to practice magic at Hogwarts. It's a school to help hone their magic and to teach them spells." I was confusing him. "Let's not worry about that, John, We've got a couple of years before any of that and I'll be here to help you."

"Fucking hell."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dumped that all on you. I'm a little nervous."

"Because your boy looks like Tommy?"

"You noticed that?" I fidgeted in my seat as John smirked at me and shrugged.

"I spent a couple of weeks with him before you returned. He calls Tommy his dad, but I know it's not possible for Tommy to be his dad. Yet he looks like him." John tilted his head to the side as he fiddled with his toothpick. "Has it got to do with magic?"

"I don't want to confuse you anymore, John, but yes. It has something to do with magic."

True to my word, I introduced John into the world of magic.

He wasn't naive to it. Considering Thomas-J was already showing signs of magic and John had walked in on him levitating a few of his toys more than once.

The next step was having him enter the house. He said a cold shiver went up his back when he stepped over the threshold, an indication that he'd been accepted by the wards.

He'd been introduced to the magical creatures quite fast. The Jarvey's were running circles around his feet shouting curse words at each other and Grey was flying around the kitchen while Newt was busy trying to gather a Niffler that was running across the kitchen.