Time and love don't mix

Okay, lesson learned. Don't touch shiny stuff.

Harry and Bathilda Bagshot went up the stairs, while Hermione and Cassia were inspecting the ground level of the historians house.

Hermione picked up a book, while a magnificently decorated hour glass caught Cassias eye. She slowly walked towards the object, looking at the golden, swirly decorations on the hour glass, while trying not to trip over some of the random stuff on the floor.

The sand in the hour glass was silver, the frame bronze and all over the frame and thin glass were the golden decorations. It glowed faintly, in a way, that reminded Cassia of morse code.

.---- ----. .---- ----. --... --...

She never really learned morse code, but she wrote down the code in her notebook, just in case it would be important. She picked the glowing after the longest pause as start.

Cassia was often described as curious, not in the way Hermione was, she was only curious about things that seemed interesting, and the hourglass definetly sparked her interest.
So,o f course, she couldn't resist touching it.

When she held it in her hand, it started to glow in a blinding orange light and Cassia closed her eyes.

Suddenly sge didn't feel the floor beneath her anymore and wind churned around her.

But then, everything stopped and she fell.

The redhead landed on her right side, dislocating her shoulder. She hissed, but didn't want to show, that she was in pain.
Cassia opened her brown, doe-like eyes and saw a familiar man with a long, white beard and blue eyes behind half-moon shaped glasses look at her confused.

She sat up straight and gasped. "Who are you and how did you enter this castle?", Dumbledore asked warily. Cassia just stared at him, until she couldn't restrain herself anymore. "You should be dead.", she stated bluntly. That didn't help the Professor's confusion, but he seemed to have decided to wait for an answer, as he didn't say anything.

Cassia looked at the room and suddenly realised, that she was sitting on top of the headmasters desk. Immediately, she jumped into the chair, her brother had sat in so many times.

When her eyes fell on the Professor once more, she realised he had asked her something. "Uh, excuse me, I can get distracted easily, what did you say, sir?" The headmaster just sighed. His suspicion of the girl in front of him being a deatheater lessened, but she still could be under some spell, wich would explain her getting distracted easily, if she wasn't like that normally.

"I asked, who you are and how you entered this castle, since I've never seen you before and you obviously didn't walk through the doors.", he repeated calmly.
"My name is Cassia Potter and I've got no clue how I got here. Since you don't know me and not seem to recognize my name, I guess I accidentally time travelled. Wich year is it?", she answered cheerfully.

Shocked, Dumbledore looked at the young girl. "It's the first September, 1977. The students are sceduled to arrive in three hours." "Great! That means- I probably shouldn't tell you." "When were you, before getting here? And when were or will you be born?", Albus asked calmly, ignoring the mumbling of the young girl. "I will be born on the eighteenth of August, 1979 and I was transported here, probably by ol' Bathilda's hourglass here,", she said, holding up the hourglass she still held in her hand, "from christmas eve, 1997. Could you help me get back? You're the smartest and most powerful wizard of the last centuries, after all."

While the Headmaster blushed slightly, he didn't believe Cassia's words about him being that powerful, after all, there had been another. "I could try, but I don't have that much free time on my hands. What did you mean when you said, I should be dead?" Cassia sighed, mentally cursing her idiocy, though she was grateful she had only slipped up in front of Dumbledore, who could take the news. "Because, around half a year before i went here, you died. The whole wizarding world mourned your death, especially my brother, who admired you like so many others." Cassia got sad, thinking about how Harry had taken the death of his mentor and how he had wanted to visit Godric's Hollow, partly because Dumbledore had lived there. A single tear rolled down to her chin and dropped onto her black shirt.

After a few minutes of silence, Dumbledore asked: "Did that hourglass do anything, before it transported you here? Was there something written on it, for example?" "No, but it glowed, morse-code like. Here, I wrote down the code to decode it later, but I didn't get the chance.", she told the old man and gave him her notebook.

Next to some random notes, the name Ignotus Peverell and a drawing of the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, the dots and lines didn't seem out of place.
Dumbledore flicked his wand and a book landed in front of him on the desk.

After a few minutes he said: "That means 1 9 1977. Our current date. Maybe I could try to figure out how to send you to the correct year, but it might take a while to learn how this hourglass works." He did look genuenly sorry, that he couldn't help Cassia on the spot, but she didn't mind. With a big smile she jumped up and exlaimed: "Thank you! Thank you. I am so greatful." "Under one condition.", the old man added. Cassia's expression didn't change, she trusred her headmaster, his condition would make sense. "Prove, that you're not helping the death eaters. For all I know, you still could've made your story up and this hourglass is simply a portkey." The readhead nodded, approving of the condition.

"Legilimancy. You could- no. That wouldn't prove anything, if I was capable of Occlumency... maybe the pensive? Ah, but memories can be changed.", she thought out loud. Then, her eyes fell on an old hat. "What about the sorting hat? I don't think occlumency works against him and his judgement is trustworthy." Albus nodded slowly and gestured for Cassia to put on the hat.

Cassia Potter, huh? From the future indeed. Fought against Voldemort for half of your short life. Daughter of James and Lily... interesting. I knew they'd end up together! Orphaned at just two years old. You took great care of your brother. Cassia sat silently, while the sorting hat looked through her memories. Another tear escaped.
She wanted to get back to her baby brother, she needed to help him defeat Voldemort and she needed to protect him.

"She's a trustworthy Gryffindor.", the Hat told Dumbledore. "Alright, then we should discuss the details. Since I won't be able to fix your situation fastly, you should probably stay here and go to school. We just need a coverstory and a fake name." "I don't think we need a fake name. Potter is a quite common name among Muggles and Cassia is nothing out of the ordinary either. My parents are the australian couple Jean and Bilius Potter, both Muggleborn. I have a younger brother named Harry. We were on vacation in Surrey, visiting my mothers family when we were attacked by deatheaters. We got separated and I was on the run for a month, until you found me. Now you're letting me stay at Hogwarts to be safe while you're helping me look for my parents and brother.", she said simply.

"And you just thought of that?" Cassia shrugged and then winced. "Yep. I used to think of stories a lot to entertain Harry. Often I wanted to be fast, especially when he was sad. When we got older I made them more and more believable, so I'm used to thinking on my feet. School helped too, I guess. Making up excuses for missing homework isn't as easy as it seems.", she explained. Dumbledore ckuckled. "I know it's not that easy. Now, you should let Poppy have a look at your shoulder, it seems rather painful. I will get you all your supplies in the meanwhile. You'll stay in Gryffindor for the time being and you should come here every friday evening because of the time-problem." "Yes, sir.", she replied obediently and quickly left his office for the hospital wing.