After many heartbreaks and many losses, Aster Potter now has to go on a journey to the past to save her ancestors from the very man who is out to kill her. What better way to do it than to go back to the beginning, where their magic hadn't yet evolv...
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The next morning, Aster found herself standing in the same sombre place, surrounded by the gravestones of her loved ones. The air was cool and still, carrying a faint scent of rain that had passed through during the night. Dew glistened on the grass, like tears shed by the earth itself. The Potter family tomb stood before her, its stone façade etched with the names of those she had cherished and lost.
It had begun with Sirius. Even without a body to bury, she had insisted on honoring him here, where he belonged. Then Remus, dear Remus, who had suffered so much and found so little peace in life, finally lay with those who loved him as he was. She had placed him beside Sirius, knowing they were brothers in everything but blood. Her father, James, had been more family to Sirius than any of the Blacks ever were. Remus, who had been so cruelly treated by his own father, now rested with his true family.
The line of graves extended to friends who had become family, those who felt out of place in their own family crypts. Her husband, for example, whose memory still brought a fresh ache to her heart, lay among them.
"Hi, everyone," she whispered, sitting down in the middle of the gravestones that encircled her. She felt the weight of their presence, an invisible comfort. "I'm sure you're all keeping an eye on what's happening, so I don't think an update is necessary. Just as I'm sure you know what I'm about to do."
She smiled sadly, her fingers absently picking at the grass surrounding her. The green blades were cool and damp, a sharp contrast to the warmth of the tears that welled in her eyes.
"You all probably think I need to take some time to grieve for my children and Theo," she said, her voice trembling. "I couldn't agree more. But we all know the urgency of this situation. There's no time to wait . If he succeeds, there will be no Potter line. He will accomplish what he has always wanted, and if he does, there will be no Wizarding Britain."
Her words hung in the air, a solemn vow to the ghosts that listened. The wind stirred, rustling the leaves of the nearby trees, as if whispering back to her. She looked at the sky, where the dawn was breaking, casting a pale light over the graveyard.
"I wish I could stay here, with all of you," she murmured. "But I can't. Not yet. There's still so much to fight for, so much to protect. I won't let him erase our legacy. I won't let him win."
"I can't say I'm ready for this," Aster whispered, her voice barely audible in the still morning air. "I don't even know what I'm traveling back to. I can't speak their language, and I can't understand anything they say. Kingsley told me that if Dad were still here, he would have taught me everything I needed to know. He was still so in tune with his Nordic roots. I just view it as something else Voldemort took from me." She swallowed hard, feeling the familiar ache of loss constricting her throat.
"I really do hope I'm making you proud, Mum and Dad," she continued, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Sometimes it feels like one fight after another, and sometimes I feel like your sacrifice wasn't worth it. I know this isn't the life you would have wanted for me, but maybe in another life we could all be a loving family, Sirius and Remus included. Dad could be that overprotective father along with Sirius and Remus as those uncles who would grill every boy I bring home. Maybe you did that with Theo when we finally got together."
