September 4th 1917

Dear Tommy,

I feel like I'm dreaming.

It feels unreal that you'd return my feelings. I'm sure Ada's already written to you, but I think I must tell you that I actually passed out upon reading your letter.

Though, to be fair, I don't think it was your declaration of love that got to me.

Only a moment before, Polly came into the kitchen and announced I had a letter from you. To our surprise, Thomas-J called out 'Dada'. You can assume correctly that we were all shocked. I'd never referred to you as 'Dada' to him so we were confused as to where he'd learnt that.

Poor Mary got all confused you see. I told her I named him after his dad, which is true, his birth father is also called Tom and in her mind, she just made that connection to you. You are the only Thomas she knows, so Thomas-J must be your son.

Perfect logic to a seven-year-old.

I'm not sure how this makes you feel but every time he sees your photograph or someone mentions your name he calls out 'Dada'. I could try to get him to stop, but I can see a determined look in his eye and I don't think it wise to fight a ten-month-old over something like this.

Please don't be angry.

I'll leave you knowing that Thomas-J and I will be waiting for your return.

With love, always and forever,

Romy xx

He couldn't handle it.

How could he handle it?

For years he'd been sacrificing himself in France, making decisions that should have gotten him killed, taken bullets and wished to die, and now he had a beautiful woman waiting for him and a baby that called him Dada.

"You alrigh', Tom?" Arthur asked, sharing a smoke with him as he took in the watery eyes of his younger brother.

"He called me 'Dada', Arthur," he said, the shakiness of his voice not lost on either of them.

"Yeah? That's good right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, Arthur, it's good."

"I just gotta make sure you get outta 'ere now," Arthur joked, bumping his shoulder into his brothers as they stared up at the dark skies pondering when they'd return to their family.

The Ministry in nineteen-seventeen was an empty, cold and horrible place.

As in it literally gave me goosebumps when I walked down the corridors and tried to find Phineas.

Why did he bother asking me to meet him in his office only for him not to even be there? Newt hadn't even been there either and now it was pissing me off.

I didn't have the time to wander around the Ministry in search of him.

"Thank god I found you, Phineas, I've been looking for you for—" I gasped as he grabbed hold of my arm and apparated out of the Ministry. "What the fuck! Why did you do that?" I asked, stumbling down the hall of my house as he let go of me.

"There was someone looking for you," he said, waving his wand and casting a few charms over the house. Not that the house needed them, I'd already covered it in spells and they were probably bigger than the ones he was using now. "I've never heard of him before, said he was a Nott but I know all the Nott family and he's not one of them."

"Wait, what? Did he tell you his first name?" I asked, my blood turning cold. He couldn't possibly know I was here right? How would he know the exact date?

"Sebastian Nott, he said he was looking for you, said he's been looking for you for over a year."

"No," I cried, stumbling back into the hallway, my back hitting the wall as I felt my heart hammer in my chest. "Thomas." I didn't spare Phineas a look as I rushed into the kitchen, startling Polly and Ada and rushed to Polly, carefully taking Thomas-J from her arms.

I pressed my lips to his head and cradled him to me, closing my eyes in relief that he was still here.

"What's wrong?" Polly asked, rising from the table and glancing at Phineas with a frown.

"That's what I'd like to know, Polly," he said, closing the kitchen door behind him and casting a silencing charm.

"You must have realised that I'm not ... normal for a witch in this time, Phineas," I said, keeping my face buried against Thomas-J's head. "Polly and Ada already know this but I'm from the future, twenty-forty-seven to be exact. There was a wizard that rose to power using dark magic on two different occasions. He killed a lot of Muggles and a lot of muggle-borns. He believed in finding a way to live forever. He was eventually killed in nineteen-ninety-eight. About a year ago, in my time, his teenage self was following me and it shouldn't have been possible, but Sebastian Nott stole a time turner from the Ministry and went back in time and brought him forward to the future. I was sent back in time to prevent anything from happening to him as a baby. That's where Merry came into the story."

"Merry knocked the time turner when Romy was trying to get her to safety and they ended up being sent a further ten years in the past. That's when they met us," Polly told Phineas, carrying on for me when I stopped. I sat down at the table, holding Thomas-J to me as I tried to calm myself down.

"Was the man, the dark wizard, was it Thomas-J?" Phineas asked, and I could tell that he'd managed to figure it out for himself.

"He's not the same now," I said, feeling myself get defensive of my son. "In the original timeline, he didn't know love. He didn't have anyone because Merry still died during his birth. He was left in an orphanage and was bullied by the children there. He only ever felt normal when he was at Hogwarts and even then he was more intelligent than the other students. He's never experienced what love is and it turned him cold. Look, that's not the point, I need to get rid of Sebastian Nott before he takes Thomas-J away from me and does damage to the future."

"You know," Phineas said as he settled at the table opposite me and waited for the teapot to pour him a cup of tea. "I'm happy you're not my sister. Too much drama."

We were on complete lockdown. House arrest. No correspondence. Floo network blocked. Wards on the house.

No one in and no one out.

Newt was still living with us and on Phineas' orders, he was to work from home while he tried to find out how to lure Sebastian from the hole he'd disappeared into.

It wasn't too bad at first, but we were all slowly being driven insane by Phineas' rules and I doubt we'd last much longer without stepping foot outside. Three weeks was too much, even for me.

Luckily, Newt had the idea to add an extension charm onto the cupboard under the stairs and had created a garden inside there. It seemed logical in his mind after arguing with Polly about taking the children into his suitcase and playing ground quidditch with them.

She wasn't keen on them being in there with Klaus the HIppogriff.

"Are you sure you can't tell Tommy?" Ada asked, tapping her pen on the side as she tried to write a letter to her brother.

"I don't want him to worry," I said, writing my own letter to Tommy telling him that we were trying to plan Thomas-J's first birthday party.

It was going to be a fairly small event with Harry, Phineas, Ellanora and Anastasia joining us. Phineas was going to escort Ellanora here and then go and retrieve Anastasia from St Mungos while Newt apparates to Harry's and bring him back.

"What's going to happen if something does happen to Thomas-J? What if something happens to you?"

"I'm currently pretending I can't hear you, Ada. I don't want to focus on all these possibilities when we need to concentrate on staying safe."

"Well, why can't you just make a trap? Lure him out and capture him?"

I paused at her words and pondered over her idea. It wasn't a completely stupid idea and it could have the potential to work. Phineas wasn't going to agree with it and neither was Polly, but if it solved our problem why couldn't we try it?

"No, absolutely not," Newt said from the kitchen table, obviously not as oblivious to us as I thought he was. "You are not flaunting yourself out there on the off chance it will lure Sebastian out of hiding."

"I think it's a marvellous plan."

If Newt thought Phineas and Polly were going to be on his side, then he was going to be disappointed.

Phineas readily agreed, putting a plan into motion a few seconds after he heard of Ada's idea.

The plan was for me to make more appearances in the wizarding world. Show my face in diagon alley with Newt, have lunch with Phineas after coming to his office at the Ministry, visiting Anastasia at St Mungos' and be caught having high tea with Ellanora in the fancy tea place outside of Oxford.

The plan did not involve me leaving the house and visiting the soldiers at the hospital.

"Have you seen Finn?" Ada asked, coming into the kitchen and frowning when she couldn't find her brother.

"Is he in the cupboard under the stairs?" If Papa Harry heard me saying that he would have smirked. He once threatened Uncle James with the cupboard under the stairs. James wasn't tidying his room and he wasn't listening to Nanna Gin - everyone was scared of her - so Papa threatened to move James bed down there.

"No, Newt locked it this morning when Matthew was found trying to drown Mary."

In a normal world that would have been worrying, but after spending three weeks locked in the house without anything to do it didn't even reach the top ten worrisome things the kids have done.

"Well is he upstairs in my room? He goes there to read cause it's quieter. You should check under Thomas-J's crib, he can fit under there and he likes playing with his marbles under there," I said, rising from my seat and peeking out the window that overlooked that back garden hoping he hadn't disappeared out there.

"He's not with Newt in that bloody suitcase is he?" Polly asked her huff of annoyance enough to tell me that she was getting fed up with all the magical creatures around the house.

"No, he's in the living room reading to Edward and Katie," I replied, moving to peer down at a sleeping Thomas-J and paused when I noticed Finn's chessboard missing from the shelf. He normally kept it next to the photograph of Tommy and would only take it down on a Saturday when we went to -

"I know where he's gone," I muttered, grabbing my wand off the kitchen table and rushing down the hall, grabbing my coat on the way out. I magically became death to the calls of Polly and Newt as they shouted after my retreating form.

With a quick spin as I reached the side alley, with a pop and a stumble I rushed down the alley by the hospital and slowly made my way to the room that housed our friends.

As expected, Finn was sat at the bottom of Marcus' bed, deep in a game of chess. I didn't want to ruin their game, I didn't but Finn shouldn't have run off like that.

"I'm in trouble 'ain't I?" he asked as I settled on the bed next to him.

"Ada's been looking all over the house for you. We both know what Polly's going to say," I said glancing up to Marcus smiling slightly as he gave me a shrug.

"I got bored in the house."

"I get bored too, Finn, but we're not supposed to leave, remember?"

"Because that man's after you?" I really wish he wouldn't have said it out loud because these men were worse than old ladies waiting for a drop of news. I could feel all their eyes on me as I flicked my eyes between Finn and Marcus.

"Yes because Sebastain is after me. The reason you're supposed to stay in is so he doesn't use you to get to me," I said, nudging him slightly with my shoulder as he gave me a sad smile. "Finn, you know I don't want to keep you away from Marcus and the others. Katie cries every week when I tell her we can't come here, but if it means keeping you all safe, then we have to stop leaving the house."

"I think you should listen to Romy, Finn, it is after-all so easy to capture a muggle," a voice sneered from the doorway.

I flung myself in front of Finn as a flash of red light fired at us and was just able to cast the protego charm to prevent any damage. Firing off another spell, I blocked curse after curse while trying to move Finn behind me.

"You nearly ruined my plans, Lupin!" Sebastian snapped, his face snarling in disgust as he fired a slashing curse at me.

"You made a mistake coming here, Sebastian," I told him, flicking my wand to protect the soldiers as Sebastain tried to fire curses at them. "You've really pisssed me off and you will not like me when I'm pissed off!"

"Avada Ked—" he choked, blood spilling from his mouth as his wand slipped from his fingers and his hands gripped out his chest.

I gasped at the knife sticking out of his heart, glancing behind me to see Louis standing from his bed, another knife in his hand ready to throw. I was actually surprised to see that all of them had gotten into defensive positions ready to protect me if needed.

"Fuck," I said, realsing that this was a lot of damage caused because of Sebastian and I's duel. "Fuck."

"I could ... ha-have ... had ev-everythi-thing," Sebastian muttered, dropping to his knees and coughing more blood before he collapsed, his body stiffening.

It all felt anti-climatic to me. I was expecting this bog duel that would go on for at least twenty minutes and then a muggle had to put an end to it by throwing a knife. Huh, who would have thought that a muggle could outsmart a wizard?

"Is he dead?" Louis asked, an uncertain tone to his voice.

"I hope so," I muttered, taking a few steps towards him, my wand pointed at his body. I was not taking any chances.

Bending down, I nudged him with my wand before checking for a pulse. He was still warm but there was no heartbeat that I could detect. As I moved my fingers away, they slid over a thin metal chain. Pulling the necklace away from his neck, I swallowed my surprise at the time turner hanging from the silver chain.

Slipping the time turner from his neck, I shoved it in my pocket just in time for the door to swing open.

"Merlin's beard!" Phineas shouted, coming to a stop next to the dead body I was still crouched by. "You killed him."

"Actually, Louis killed him." I pointed to the man in question, who was still holding his knife. "Umm, sorry for the mess, you know with all the muggles seeing magic and all. Perhaps a few memory charms are in order."

"You make my job ten times harder, Andromeda," he muttered waving in Newt, who I hadn't even seen. "Take Finn home, we'll join you soon."