Disclaimer: Not mine

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Rose Potter sat up in the disturbingly familiar dark and surveyed her cramped surroundings, after which she calmly - after uttering a string of expletives which a Lady should never use in public under any circumstances whatsoever - considered her situation lying in her dark and dismal cupboard. The cupboard which she'd hoped to never see ever again. Ever. She fervently wished that she wasn't actually dead, because if her afterlife consisted of one of her most hated places on Earth, especially after all the crap she'd gone through in her life, she would destroy Death itself. (She didn't know exactly how she would do that, but that wasn't really the point at this awful moment in time.) If she assumed that she was in fact alive, then the facts would need to analysed carefully before coming to any conclusions.

First fact: she was now in a body that appeared to be of a pre-Hogwarts age, her obviously malnourished body not telling her exactly how old she was. Second fact: the magic that she could feel within her was partially blocked. Third fact: she was back with the horrid people that Albus too-many-names Dumbledore had somehow considered to be a loving family to grow up in. (She snorted at the thought.) From these facts, Rose could tentatively conclude that she was definitely alive and had somehow time travelled, though this particular instance of time travel had seemingly only displaced her adult mind and memories.

This led to another conclusion: she now had the ability to change and fix the timeline.

As an Unspeakable Rose had extensively studied both magical and muggle theories pertaining to time travel and the supposed rules associated with it. The methods, circumstances, the issues that would result from it ... Rose had researched it all, as the Unspeakables had long since discovered that the occurrence of time travel was indeed possible, it was just impossible to control and direct. At the moment it was, anyway. However, all the scenarios that Rose had imagined generally conformed to the idea that two copies of the same person, as in two separate and distinct bodies, would exist in the same time and place simultaneously. Such a situation would cause all manner of paradoxes and untold nightmares, which was generally why the sane witch or wizard - as in, nobody at all in the Department of Mysteries - vehemently stayed away from attempting to understand and direct time travel.

But as of right now she was an adult mind in a child's body. One single body. She could act without fear of acting against herself as there was only one version of her right now. (And yes, she knew full well how convoluted that explanation sounded.)

She felt a stir of excitement from the thought as a shit-eating grin worthy of the Weasley twins overtook her face. She could save people from being murdered by an insane wannabe dictator. She could free Sirius from both the physical and mental prisons he was currently trapped in. She could fuck with Dumbledore to her heart's content. Her grin shifted to a Slytherin-worthy smirk at that last thought; Dumbledore wouldn't know what had hit him after her magic was unblocked. Rose now had the ability to legitimately deal with Voldemort while messing with the old goat for everything he had done to her.

She sat up quickly and cursed under her breath as she smacked her head on the low ceiling, wishing desperately for a light in the dismal space. When her magic responded and a small but noticeable Lumos activated she could have cheered. Her magic, while still blocked, could be used wandlessly, and with no method of tracking wandless magic she was going to have an easier time when it came to using it. It seemed as if that her magic still responded to her memories; she had the knowledge of how to use her magic in the most efficient manner and using it was like muscle memory. She instinctively knew how to harness and direct her magic, even if she currently only had the blocked core of a child.

As Rose lay back on the ratty mattress beneath her she thought about the events that had managed to send her here. Time-Turners, she thought. Using her Occlumency she went over her memories of the explosion with a fine-toothed comb. They were the ones building the new Time-Turners for the department. Were the objects that hit me part of the Time-Turners? Her musing of the explosion was cut short by a horrific realisation.

"Dobby!" she gasped. She instantly sat up and didn't even bat an eye as she once more managed to hit her head in the same exact spot on the low ceiling. Her eyes welled up with tears at the thought of her faithful friend dying in that accident. Years before he had narrowly escaped death in both Malfoy Manor and the Battle of Hogwarts where he had helped lead the Hogwarts elves into battle. Her other elf Kreacher hadn't been so lucky but he was remembered as a hero for fighting the Death Eaters and protecting the students with his magic, managing to take down a dozen enemies before falling himself.

A loud and familiar crack permeated the air of the cupboard, and right before her at her feet stood Dobby, clothed in his old dirty pillowcase from the Malfoys. His tennis-ball green eyes however shone with confidence and happiness when his eyes met those of the young girl in front of him.

"Miss Rosey Potter!" the elf exclaimed as he jumped forward excitedly, and the two met in a warm embrace which reaffirmed the master-servant bond between them immediately.

"Dobby? I don't get it. How are you here? What about the Malfoys?" Rose reeled off question after question hoping that this wasn't a dream, that she had at least one friend with her during this crazy adventure.

"Dobby was with Miss Rosey when she fell through the curtain, then suddenly Dobby is with bad masters again, and Dobby remembers Miss Rosey being Dobby's master. Bad masters seem younger than before, so Dobby thinks time is different, then Dobby hears Miss Rosey calling for Dobby, so Dobby comes here." Dobby explained quickly, looking inordinately proud of himself.

"Dobby, I think we've time travelled. We're back to the period before I went to Hogwarts. Will you help me change things?" she asked her friend seriously.

Dobby straightened up and lost his dopey smile. He had come a long since the war, she thought; he had always tried to help her to the best of his ability but after the war he had started to think things through a little more (which she was extremely relieved over). "Of course Miss Rosey! Dobby is a loyal elf of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, and Dobby will serve Miss Rosey always! Dobby's bond with the bad masters is gone now!" Dobby stood proud and happy, and Rose couldn't help but think of the look on Lucius Malfoy's face if he ever found out that he'd lost an elf to The-Girl-Who-Lived. She'd pay good money to see that.

She inwardly snorted at the mental image and said to her faithful elf, "Thank you Dobby, I'm honoured to have you as my elf again. Firstly then, I want to get away from this house as soon as possible and go to Gringotts, so can you help me with some compulsion charms on my relatives and then Apparate me to Gringotts? After that I would like you get a Potter uniform as before and start getting The Pottery ready, but don't work too fast, I don't want you to rush yourself. I may need to call you from Gringotts or sometime after, so the same rules as before about breaks and punishments, okay?"

Dobby beamed at her and nodded his head up and down so fast it looked as if it would fly off. "Yes Miss Rosey!"

"Great! So first, what's the date?" Doing a quick Tempus charm she started laughing when she realised it was once more Dudley's birthday and the day of the ill-fated trip to the zoo. Not if I can help it. She considered the pros and cons of going or not, but realised it was the best time to sneak out and leave for good. It might have been entertaining to set a boa constrictor on her family like before but it wouldn't really serve any purpose. Other than her entertainment, that is. Today was the day that her Hogwarts letter would be coming and she could finally leave for her family's ancestral manor. A few minor compulsions on her relatives and no-one would know anything at all about the whereabouts of Rose Potter.

The tell-tale stomping of one Dudley Dursley on the stairs above her was the signal for the beginning of the end of the Dursley household for Rose.

"Dobby, listen carefully okay? I need you to become invisible and then compel my relatives to completely agree with all of my suggestions. Then after I leave the house, make them think that I have gone to live with a random cousin but don't give them any information on the 'cousin'." She glanced at him seriously and made the floating ball of light disappear, leaving the sad space in dank darkness once more. (How anyone could think that this was a suitable place to have a child sleep was beyond her. The Dursleys should be glad she wasn't going to have them arrested for neglect and child abuse.)

The elf nodded furiously at her - not that she could see him - and with a snap of his fingers he disappeared from sight just as Rose's horse-faced aunt opened the cupboard door shrieking about "Diddy's birthday" and "breakfast" or something. As someone with a long history of listening to and expertly ignoring bullshit, Rose immediately tuned out her relatives and went to the kitchen to cook a heap of greasy food that perpetuated her relatives' obesity. (Later Dudley's foray into boxing and other fighting would help him somewhat, but Rose wasn't going to help him get to that point by herself.)

After cleaning up a disgusting breakfast that she was once again denied and watching Dudley being spoilt into oblivion once more, the news came to the Dursley family that Mrs Figg had broken her leg and couldn't take care of Rose while the Dursley family had a fun day out together.

"I could go to the public library if you want. That way I won't be at Dudley's birthday with you and I won't be in the house by myself either." Rose thought that the reasoning was sound and wondered why she hadn't considered this plan of action the first time around.

Vernon's eyes narrowed and his mouth started to open before his eyes glazed over. Rose sneaked a glance at Petunia and saw the same expression mirrored on her face. They both opened their mouths and simply said, "Okay, then." Then they both turned around and chivvied Dudley out the house where they met his brat of a friend Piers.

"Well girl, off you go," Vernon threw at her irritably, coupling it with a glare. Even when she was leaving them for good he couldn't muster up the slightest attempt at civility. Wanker. Rose simply nodded at the arsehole and set off down the street with her hideous hand-me-downs and eighty pounds that she'd swiped from her aunt's secret stash earlier.

"Now, Dobby." She whispered to her invisible companion and knew that her relatives now no longer considered her a member of the household, thinking she had gone off to live with a random cousin. With every single one of them considering Rose to no longer be a part of the family, Dumbledore's blood wards would probably wither and die very soon. A moment later in an alleyway she and Dobby had Apparated into London near King's Cross, and Rose quickly went and bought some trousers, a shirt and some shoes. The outfit screamed 'boy', but considering she still had short hair from when Petunia had tried to shear it off it was probably for the better. With a cap to push her hair over her scar Rose thought that her disguise was as good as it was going to get at the moment, and walked casually over to the Leaky Cauldron.

Before she went in she removed her infamous and way-too-noticeable glasses, then she opened the door and crossed the bar at a leisurely pace so as to not draw any attention to herself, then waited patiently for someone to open the wall to Diagon Alley. After a few minutes a group of elderly witches came through from the alley and Rose slipped through the archway unnoticed as they walked through gossiping.

She looked around at the magical madness, grinning despite her blurry eyesight. She was back.

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Again not mine.

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