Within ten minutes, the trio arrived at the door of a three-story home. The lawn was taken care of to the extreme, and there was a large garden that was planted underneath the two front windows. The house was a deep blue with shutters that were a lighter blue. They could see the clean, white curtains hanging on the windows on the inside. There was a tiny yard in the back that was blocked off by a small, white fence. Just from one look a person could tell that the people who live in this home knew how to take care of themselves, and possibly other people. They had to be warm-hearted and loving because of how spectacular the garden looked.
“Alright. You all ready to meet another infamous Black?” Sirius said, sarcastically. Elladora and Snape nodded, and the three began to walk up the four stairs to the front door. Once again, Sirius rang the doorbell and patiently waited for someone to answer.
After a few seconds, a young man opened the door. He looked to be in his twenties, and had to be very athletic. He had the infamous straggly, black hair and blue eyes that set apart many of the people in the Black family. The man smiled at the three strangers on his front step.
“Can I help you three with something?” he asked.
“Actually, I’m pretty sure you can,” Sirius stated. “You see, my name is Sirius Black, this is Elladora Black, and this other man here is Severus Snape.”
Sirius watched as Phineas had the same reaction as his brother Arcturus had just hours before. He could tell that Phineas didn’t believe him, but he understood why he wouldn’t.
If three people came to my door saying they were people who I was related to, I wouldn’t believe them either. I mean, come on, there’s another Sirius Black that is dead, and Elladora is still alive in this time period, only older, Sirius thought to himself.
“That can’t be true. You can’t be Sirius Black, and you can’t be Elladora.” Phineas said obviously getting aggravated. “It’s impossible. The Elladora I know is my Aunt Elladora, but you can’t be her. She’s much older than you are. And the only other Sirius Blacks I know are my brother, who doesn’t bother with me, and my Uncle Sirius, who passed on when he was only eight.”
Sirius knew this was going to happen. He prepared himself for this, and he knew he was going to have to explain everything once again.
“Alright. I’ll explain this to you the same way I explained it to your brother, Arcturus. I am not from this time period, and neither is Elladora. I was hit in the head, and when I awoke, I was in the year 1871. This is the time period in which Elladora lives. She is twenty-one, and I am thirty. This other man next to me is Severus Snape. He is from the same time period I am, and we’ve known each other since we went to Hogwarts. We’re not friends, and we have never been friends, but we are on the same mission.” Sirius took a breath, and then continued. “We were hoping that you could possibly help us.”
Phineas took the information in, and thought about it before he made any decisions. His wife was inside, and he didn’t know how she would react to three strangers coming into her home. She had a big heart and would never turn away someone in need, so he decided that it would be best if he let them in.
“You can come in. My wife is in the other room, so we’re going to have to explain to her what is going on. She doesn’t mind helping people, but she also doesn’t like having strangers in the house. Seeing as how, technically, you’re both family, I don’t think she’ll mind.” Phineas stepped aside to let the trio in, and nodded at each of them as they passed.
The inside of the home was much like the outside. It was easy to tell that it had been lived in for some time, but it still had the essence of a couple’s first home. To the right was a neatly kept library that had many shelves full of different books, and to the left was what looked to be a study of some sort. There was a well-kept, mahogany desk that had many stacks of papers on it, and two comfortable looking brown arm chairs.
As they walked through the house, they could smell the sweet smell of cookies baking in the oven. The aroma filled most of the house, and the parts that they couldn’t smell it in smelled like freshly cleaned laundry.
Sirius, Elladora, and Snape followed Phineas into the part of the house that smelled like cookies, and into the bright, clean kitchen. A woman who was of a medium build, and who had long, silky blonde hair was standing by the counter putting the freshly baked cookies onto a plate. She looked up when she heard someone approaching the doorway, and smiled.
“Asterope, my dear, this is Sirius, Elladora, and Severus. They’ve come here to ask us for our help,” Phineas said, as he walked over to his wife and gave her a kiss on her cheek.
Asterope smiled again then said, “Hello, dears. Would any of you like a cookie? They’ve just come out of the oven.”
Sirius smiled even though he had never actually eaten anything that a Muggle had made, he figured he would try one. He nodded and took one of the cookies off of the plate. They were still a little hot, but he didn’t mind. He took a small bite, and quickly swallowed it.
“These are delicious!” Sirius exclaimed. They were one of the best things he had ever tasted in his life. Asterope laughed, and offered Sirius as many as he liked while Phineas began to lead them all into the living room.
Sirius, Snape, and Elladora took a seat on the couch that faced two arm chairs that looked exactly like the ones they had seen in the study. Asterope and Phineas seated themselves across from the trio, and waited patiently for them to start talking.
“Maybe I should explain things to you, since Sirius here won’t stop stuffing his face,” Snape said, as he glared at Sirius, who had about three cookies in his mouth at one time. “Well, as he has already told you, we need your help. Just like Sirius, I, too, was hit in the head and ended up in the year 1871. Neither of us knows who did it, but we both received this letter.” Snape pulled the small, wrinkled piece of parchment out of his satchel, and handed it to Phineas. Phineas read the paper, and looked up, confused.
Snape sighed. “Harry Potter is a young wizard from our time. He is the only person who has ever survived the Killing Curse.” Phineas gasped at this, but Snape continued as if he hadn’t noticed. “The man who tried killing him is the Dark Lord. He is the most powerful wizard, and he has people who follow him and are known as the Death Eaters.
“We’re not sure, but we think that these letters are from the Dark Lord. Seeing as how we are now in the year 1910, we figured someone here may be able to help us. We don’t want to go back to our time period to do this because there will be many people there asking questions that we just don’t have the answers to.”
Phineas nodded, but Asterope still looked confused. No one had told her about the Time turner, or about anything else that had happened so far to the trio. There wasn’t much time, so Snape didn’t want to have to sit there and explain to her what had happened because Phineas already knew that much.
“How are we supposed to help you, though? This ‘Dark Lord’ is in your time, not ours, and if I’m assuming correctly, he hasn’t even been born yet!” Phineas said. He looked from Snape to Sirius, and back again waiting for one of them to answer him.
“Well,” Sirius began, as he swallowed the last bit of cookie he had in his mouth, “the only way we believe that you could help us is by trying to stop Merope Gaunt from giving Tom Riddle a love potion. We have to warn you, though, doing this could mess up a lot of things in the future, but your lives and your children’s lives and so on will be much better off if Tom Marvolo Riddle is not born.”
Phineas’s eyes widened, and Asterope gasped. They had been trying to have kids for almost a year now, and knowing that there was someone out there that was going to end up having a baby that would ruin their children’s lives was horrifying.
“What do we need to do?” Phineas said. Sirius smiled, and Elladora and Snape nodded their heads.
“First, we need to find a place that would have the address for Tom Riddle, and possibly even Merope Gaunt.”
Phineas nodded, and stood. The group walked out of the house and down the street. They were headed towards town, and Sirius had a bad feeling about the place they were going to.
They continued walking for another twenty minutes, when they finally reached a large, dull-looking building. They climbed the fifteen or so stairs that led to the doors, and went in. Asterope gasped at the sight, and Phineas started walking around the room. The building was completely filled with scrolls. Every one of them was on the ground; some were ripped, and some looked as if they had been burned. The entire room was a mess, and Snape and Sirius had an idea of who it could have been. Sirius sighed at the site, and for a brief moment he thought that he wouldn’t be able to find what he had been looking for all this time.
Out of nowhere there was a loud crash from behind them, and Sirius, Elladora, and Snape turned all at once, with their wands out and at the ready. A tall, pale, skinny man with a long, black robe was standing behind them. There seemed to be another person with him, but they were cowering behind him, out of sight.
“Voldemort.”
“Master.”
Sirius looked over at Snape, and glared. He knew that Snape was a Death Eater, but it disgusted him even more hearing him call Lord Voldemort ‘Master.’
A high-pitched, shrill of a laugh jolted Sirius out of his thoughts, and he continued to stare back into the eyes of evil. Everything became clear now, and he understood that he was right.
Lord Voldemort was the one that left them the note, and he was guessing that the man who was cowering behind him was Peter. Peter had to have been the one who hit him over the head and left him in the open field in the year 1871. He also had to be the same person that hit Snape in the head and left him in the woods.
The fact that Voldemort was the one that had done all this didn’t surprise Sirius. He had a feeling the entire time that he was the one behind all of it. Voldemort being there was just another thing that added to the realisation.
Elladora looked back and forth from Sirius, Snape, and Voldemort. She had no idea what was going on, but the one thing she did know was that this man standing before them had to be the “Dark Lord” that Sirius had been talking about hours before. By looking at him, Elladora couldn’t understand why anyone would be so afraid of him. He was an extremely skinny man, and looked as if anyone could just break him in half. The only thing worth being afraid of was his eyes. They were a bright red colour, and they seemed to pierce right through your head.
“Fancy meeting you here, Sirius Black,” Voldemort sneered. He began to walk closer to the group of people that were standing in front of the doors. Phineas, Asterope, and Elladora backed up behind Sirius and Snape, and waited to see what was going to happen. They both had their wands, so they were well protected, but they had no idea what they were up against. Sirius and Snape continued to stare back at Voldemort and didn’t notice when the three moved behind them.
“You know bloody well why I’m here. You’re the one who put me through all of this!” Sirius snapped. He moved forward towards Voldemort, but Snape stayed in the same spot he had been in.
“What, may I ask, are you talking about? I did not put you through anything. Yes, it has been a great plan thus far, but I’m not the one who did it,” Voldemort stated, as he continued walking.
This confused Sirius even more. He had been entirely sure that it was Voldemort all along. He had been sure that Voldemort sent Peter to hit him over the head, and leave him in the year 1871. Voldemort was the only one that would have done something so cruel.
“Well, then, who’s idea was it?” Sirius asked.
Voldemort laughed. “If I knew, don’t you think I would have done something by now? Instead of walking around this place, trying to find a way to get Potter’s wand and Potter’s hair?”
Sirius gasped, Snape’s eyes widened, and the three behind them looked at each other.
Voldemort is on the same mission? That can’t be true. He has to be the one that’s done all of this!, Sirius thought to himself. He shook his head, and looked back up at Voldemort, who was now standing right in front of him. By the look on Voldemort’s face, Sirius could tell that he was thinking the same thing. Neither of them knew why they were on the same mission, but they both had a feeling that they were going to have to work together in order to complete it or find a way out of doing it. He was, after all, the Dark Lord. Everyone was terrified of him, except for apparently one person; the person who sent them on this mission.
“Well, since we’re both probably thinking the same thing, what are we going to do?” Sirius asked.
“I don’t know what you plan on doing, Sirius Black, but I do know what I am going to do,” Voldemort replied. He had already made up his mind that he would not work with Sirius; no matter what.
“It’s funny you should say that because I just so happen to have an idea of how to actually get out of this ‘mission,’ but since you don’t want to work together, I guess you’re just going to have to work all of this out on your own.” Sirius motioned for Snape, Elladaora, Phineas, and Asterope to follow him, and he turned to walk out of the door.
Within a few seconds, Voldemort was standing in front of them. There was no way around him, but Sirius hadn’t really planned on leaving. He wanted the Dark Lord to think that he would leave him in this situation.
“So, you’re not going to tell me what this idea of yours is, are you?” Voldemort asked. He continued to stand in the group’s way while the man, who they could now tell was Peter Pettigrew, cowered behind a shelf that was filled to the top with extremely old books.
Sirius smiled, “You already said that you know what you’re going to do, so why would you need to know what my idea is? Unless you actually don’t know what you’re going to do.”
Voldemort stared back angrily. If there was one thing he hated more than Mudbloods and Half-bloods, it was people telling him that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Actually, if you must know, I do know what I plan to do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you. Plus, I think I have some information that you don’t have. Therefore, you should be the one trying to get me to help you, even though I would never stoop so low as to help the likes of you.”
Elladora was becoming impatient. The two men had been arguing for over fifteen minutes, and she knew that they didn’t have much time to finish what they came there for, so she decided she would try to compromise with the two of them.
“Excuse me, but I have an idea,” Elladora stated, as she pushed passed Snape and Phineas to stand next to Sirius. She looked from one man to the other, and then continued to speak. “Why don’t you just come with us and join in on our plan, instead of going off on your own and messing everything up for the both of you?” She finished, as she looked up at Voldemort who was staring at her in disgust. He thought it very strange that she was not afraid of him, and that she wasn’t intimidated in the least bit by him.
Sirius looked at Elladora and then back at Voldemort. He considered the idea of working with Voldemort insane and unethical, but after thinking about it, he decided that maybe working with him was the only way he could complete the mission, or at least avoid having to do it. He continued to stare at Voldemort as he waited for him to answer.
Voldemort sighed. “I’m not too sure about this, but if it means that there’s a chance we wouldn’t have to complete the mission, then I may actually take you up on the offer, Elladora.” Sirius and Snape were shocked that the Dark Lord was even considering working with them seeing as how he usually preferred to do things his way and his way only.
“Oh, very well, then. Why don’t we all get started on what we came here for? Severus, maybe you should look for any information you can on Septimus Weasley and Sirius, you should probably get started on looking up more information on anyone that may want to hurt Harry, besides this man right here.” Snape nodded, and began to search through the many scrolls that had been thrown on the ground in search of any information pertaining to the man called Septimus Weasley. Sirius also began to look up more information about anything that would help them get out of this mess.
Voldemort was ahead of Elladora, and began to tell Peter to search through the scrolls for anything that would help put his own plan into action. Sirius expected this much, and so he had Phineas and Asterope work with Peter in order to get an idea of what Voldemort was up to.
The group continued to look through the many scrolls in the room when out of no where there was a high-pitched shriek, followed by a man’s yell. Sirius ran over to where the screams came from, and he saw Elladora kneeling over a pile of broken gold and Severus was standing over her as he continued to yell.
“I can’t believe you did that! How clumsy can a person get?!”
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Sirius asked as he tried to catch his breath.
“Well, your bloody aunt here decided she would take it upon herself to grab my Time Turner, and now look at what she did!” Severus replied in a frustrating tone.
Sirius looked down at the broken gold on the floor, and he finally realised that it was the Time Turner Severus had been carrying with him. He groaned and began to rub his temples. They still had his Time Turner, but he knew that there was no way all three of them could fit under it at one time. He also knew that he didn’t want to have to make two trips every time they had to go to a new time period.
“This mission is getting harder by the minute. There’s no way we can continue to change time periods without another Time Turner!” Sirius exclaimed. Elladora looked up at him, and he could tell that she was crying moments before he got there.
“I’m so sorry. I honestly didn’t mean to. I didn’t know it was going to break!” Elladora cried. She stood to look at Sirius, then decided it would probably be best if she just went back to her own time. She opened her mouth to say this, but Sirius cut her off.
“No, it’s fine. We’ll find another way. There’s no way we can take you back to your own time period now. We still need your help, but this just makes it much harder than it had been.” Sirius forced a smile. “There’s one thing I know, and that is that Voldemort is going to be glad that we’re going to be stuck here for a long time until we can figure something out.”
Severus groaned and leaned against the nearest bookshelf. He crossed his arms and sulked like little boys do. Sirius glared at him, but sat down in front of the opposite shelf to think of a way out of this mess.