A/n: Hi all, sorry for the posting delay, I had a nuts weekend. From this point on I will be attempting to post regularly every Sunday and reply to reviewers around the same time. As always I love to hear your feedback and thanks for reading!

Chapter four:

It was Saturday, and she was not even supposed to be here. Nevertheless, Lily was sitting at her desk in the D.O.M, calmly listened to today's list of things that must be dealt with immediately, drinking her morning tea and thinking wistfully of breakfast.

"…and Johnny Shunpike was spotted in Nocturne Alley earlier today, trying to fence a vase that is either a very good forgery or something that belongs in a museum. Specifically, the Wizarding History Museum in London." Mr. Sands finished.

Lily frowned. "Really? I thought Johnny was still in jail."

"He is, mam. We checked. The vase is also still in the museum, but Mr. Springs informed me next week that it will be stolen on Tuesday."

"Ugh… Dear Johnny, why did you have to pick a life of temporal crime?" Lily moaned, putting her head into her hands. "I could have left you alone if only you'd taken up being a swindler or a mugger or something, but no. It had to be time travel. I suppose it figures, with what we got up to in school… I don't have the time for this. And if I use a time-turner every time I say that I'll look eighty by the time I'm forty. Agent Springs will work Saturdays, put him and…er. Put Springs and Willbe on it, will you? I know Springs is usually a lone wolf regardless of protocol, but his competence should balance out Willbe's lack of experience and I don't have any normal partners available."

Mr. Sands frowned, opening his mouth to fill the air with recommendations against that particular action when the door banged abruptly open, revealing Mr. Sands, this one with five o'clock shadow and a rumpled tie.

"Mam? Malfoy Manor is full of elephants and everything of value on their grounds has mysteriously disappeared. The elephants are also about to disappear, most likely in a puff of tangled timelines." The second Mr. Sands said in his usual even tones. "The you from 6' Oclock says that you should go personally.

Lily sighed. "Fabulous. Marvo strikes again, I assume. I'll need a partner- Sands, go Floo Mr. Tick, would you? There's a man who doesn't mind over-time."

"I already did, Mam. He's waiting for an explanation outside."

She stood up and groaned. The Mr. Sands from six o' clock wordlessly handed her a second cup of tea and she rallied herself enough to march into the main office shared by the Agents and walk up to Snape's desk. He looked up curiously and she managed a tired half-smiled.

"So, Mr. Tick, I need to go question a furious Lucius and Draco Malfoy about something they probably find tremendously embarrassing. I'd really appreciate your presence, partially because I'm required to have another Department member present at questionings and partially because they probably still think you're dead- nothing like a good shock to distract someone into an honest answer." She grinned. "What do you say? I won't force you to face Lucius if you don't want, but it'd make my life easier."

Snape looked considering. "Lucius is a difficult man to get answers from even in a good mood, and I would be unsurprised if he already knew I am alive- the man's information gathering abilities border on the uncanny. I am unsure how Draco will react to me-the last time we met was in a gathering of the Inner Circle. But if you wish, I will come."

She nodded sympathetically. "I'm afraid I do- protocol requires two agents and my available choices are you, Nick and Gears because if I leave I have to have Sands here to be in charge. Nick is too Gryffindor by half, and while Gears is an excellent agent when it comes to bizarre calculations and understanding multi-dimensional paradoxes, I'm not sure his people skills are up to this particular challenge."

He nodded in agreement. "Very well. Let's go."

Lily and Severus walked in through the open front door of the Manor without being questioned, which was proof in itself that something unusual was going on. Lily had expected that any unusual elements would have disappeared by now, since that fit the pattern of the previous cases and it seemed unlikely that there would be two burglars whose operation included a time traveling elephant.

However, Lily's expectations in this case were very wrong. The sound of disgruntled trumpeting and heavy stomping echoed from the vaulted ceilings, and everyone in the manor was dealing with the noisy unexpected in their own way. House elves inefficiently shooed elephants into other rooms or tried to levitate them out, which only resulted in terrified elephants and damage to the house as there were no doors big enough to fit the beasts. Narcissa, Draco and Astoria were all running around demanding answers, bellowing orders and having hysterics in turns as though trading the roles between them. Lucius was verbally abusing a group of Aurors in a menacing hiss in the parlor, and Scorpius watched the entire scene from the indoor balcony, laughing hysterically.

Lily grinned up at him as they passed, heading directly for the little group of Aurors being accused of everything from incompetence for allowing the grounds to be burgled and not taking the case seriously out of prejudice.

"The only reason I wouldn't take this case seriously, Malfoy, is because your living room is full of elephants." Said the amused voice of her uncle Ron. Oh, perfect. Just what she needed.

She walked up with her most carefully blank face on and said without a trace of humor, "Actually, it's just one elephant. And considering all it's been through or will go through today, I feel fairly sorry for it." There was a chorus of groans as the Aurors caught sight of her, Ron's being the loudest of the bunch.

"Not time travel." He said pleadingly.

"Obviously time travel, Weasley, why else would there be Unspeakables here?" Sneered Snape. All eyes turned to him and Lucius spun around on the spot, eyes widening and nostrils flaring.

"Severus." He said in a voice as close to shock as Lucius ever deigned approach. "I had heard rumors that you were alive, but I did not credit them. You are so young..." Lucius's silver eyes met Seveus's black ones, and the ex-Professor suppressed a shiver. Lucius was in his eighties now, and though he was a wizard with fine healers and thus looked younger than he was and would live at least another sixty years, seeing the nearly forty years Severus had skipped displayed on a friend's face was unnerving to him in a way that it hadn't been with Potter and Weasley.

"Since I do not require the constant explanations Weasley seems to, I will save us all some time and assume from your age and acquaintance with Miss Chime that it was time travel and as such cannot be discussed outside the Department of Mysteries." It had taken Lucius roughly ten seconds to recover from the shock of seeing Severus alive again, and now he had turned his still very sharp mind back the business at hand. "I assume you are here to address the theft?" He asked Lily, now completely ignoring the annoyed Aurors.

"Actually I'm afraid they are." She nodded at the Aurors. Ron puffed out his chest, and it took all her will power not to roll her eyes. "I'm here for the time traveling elephant- it's not usually here this long after a burglary, he must've done something differently this time. That, and information about-"

She stopped abruptly, eyes narrowing as she stared fixedly at something across the entry hall. Very quietly she said, "Lucius, have you always had a red and gold striped armchair in the corner of your green and silver themed nook over there?"

Lucius's head whirled around to glare in concentration at the offending piece of furniture. "No, Miss Chime, I have not." He said in suspicious puzzlement, and began stalking towards it.

As one, the Aurors took out their wands and followed. Lily and Snape were already on Lucius's heels, eying the armchair with distrust.

When they were halfway across the room, the armchair spooked. At first it scuttled across the marble floor on all fours, the wooden claw feet clattering and slipping awkwardly. They had nearly caught up when it suddenly reared up like a stallion and became a wizard in red robes who booked it as fast as you would expect from a man being chased by a team of Aurors, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape all working together.

"Hah!" Called Lily, pushing herself forward like a greyhound. "It's Marvo! SCORP, BLOCK THE EXITS!"

The Malfoy heir, still watching with amusement from above, lazily took out his wand and flicked it at the doors, which slammed shut with finality. The red and gold striped figure of Marvo Higgins spun around, eyes sliding from one part of the room to another as the Aurors surrounded him.

"Expelliarmus!" Shouted Ron, catching the wizard's wand neatly as it flew across the room.

Marvo, looking panicky, grabbed something from his pocket and held it aloft, shouting wildly, "Don't nobody move or I'll drop this and we're all done for!"

Every Auror froze, staring at the thief with apprehension.

"That's a radish." Pointed out Lily.

"That what you think." Said Marvo, grinning evily.

Lily eyed the object critically. "Yes, you're right. That is what I think. Accio radish."

The radish zoomed between them, Marvo trying vainly to hold onto it and the Aurors watching with baited breath. Lily caught it in her palm with a thunk and waived her wand over it interestedly.

"Yep, radish." She said, tossing it to the nearest elephant, and the tension in the room broke into relieved chuckles.

Marvo grinned weakly, eyes still flickering around at all the wands leveled at him. "Can't blame a bloke for trying, eh?"

"No, but I can blame you for burglary and the flagrant breakage of about fifty Ministry time travel regulations." Lily had just enough time to say, before It happened.

There was a sound like a freight train colliding with an impossibly large steel drum, a blinding flash of blue light and an almost solid wall of wind blasted from the center of the manor outwards, knocking everyone off of their feet. The elephants trumpeted in terror, the house elves screamed, squeaked and ran in circles and a man stepped out of the light and wind and looked curiously around the room. His eyes lit upon the elephant and he sighed in exasperation, though it was inaudible with the wind still streaming through the Manor.

"Good gracious. Why any man would do that to an elephant…" he tutted, just loudly enough for his words to be made out by those nearest.

Lily half sat, mind still stunned and hazy from the noise and flash, squinting at the man through the eerie blue light at his back. She could see only a silhouette, but it was enough to make her gasp in recognition.

The stranger turned to a wide-eyed Marvo Higgins and proclaimed in a loud, stern voice, "You, sir, have lost your right to be trusted with the care of this beast. The poor creature is clearly suffering from this outrageous treatment. While I admit that your inexcusable lack of judgment and morality are none of my affair, still I say: for shame, sir!"

The silhouetted figure raised a fist and shook it dramatically at the gaping Higgins before surveying the elephants with a critical eye, walking directly up to one of them and reaching up to grab something from its collar and throwing the object to the ground with a tinkle of glass. Then he grabbed the elephant's lead rope and lead the animal confidently towards the light and paused, looking over at Lily. "A pleasure to see you again Miss Chime, Severus. Do forgive my rudeness, but I must rush- You will meet me soon in any case. Oh, yes and 'look for the thing that isn't there, in the place of black.'" He turned away.

"Wait!" She called. But before Lily had finished rising to her feet to follow, both man and elephant were gone.

There was a brief absence of sound and then the wind ceased and the light went out. Ron said in a stunned voice from his place on the floor, "Lils? What the bloody hell?"

"Don't call me that at work." She said automatically, still staring at the place the man had vanished from. "And I would assume this is the start of a very intriguing acquaintance, even if he's prone to cryptic clues. Well, the start for Mr. Tick and I, anyway."

"Indeed." Snape said faintly, looking over at Lily. "The hat that he wore…"

"I would definitely describe it as a bowler." She nodded, and then slowly began to grin. Ron stared at her in bafflement.

From across the room, the indignant voice of Draco Malfoy called out, "Sorry to interrupt your little rest, Weasley,but may I point out that the thief is attempting to slip out through the kitchen and my living area still resembles the ruins of a circus?"

The Aurors sprang into instant action, Ron leading the charge to the kitchen after throwing an infuriated look at his school-boy nemesis, Lucius close at the Auror's heels. Lily brushed off her robes and cast a critical eye over the large animals around them. "If that man did what I think he did, Draco, in a few minutes your living room will be empty of everything except Aurors and broken furniture."

"Lucky me." Draco drawled. "What makes you think that that's the case, Li- oh, yes, Miss Chime?" He made the code name drip with irony, and Lily smirked fondly at him. To Snape's surprise, Draco returned it. Something about the expression on his godson's now middle aged face caused a flicker of remorse and nostalgia to come over him, and he cut in before Lily could answer.

"I should think it fairly obvious if one remembers the reason we are here." He said dryly. He cast a silent calming charm on the beast nearest him and approached it slowly, raising a hand to touch a small device hanging from its neck on a long chain, waving his wand at it and nodding. "As I thought- a contained miniature time-turner, spelled to turn once every few minutes and take the animal back a short while, to create the illusion of a herd of elephants while only having to feed and keep the one. Clever, if a touch insane."

Lily nodded. "That's a phrase that sums up old Marvo pretty well. I'm assuming, or at least really, really hoping that our mystery man took the most recent elephant, the one that had already been all the others. Otherwise we're in for an elephant related paradox, and who wants to deal with that?"

"Certainly not me." said Severus firmly. His eyes gravitated to Draco's, and both men kept their faces carefully neutral to cover how awkward they both found the situation.

Finally, Draco said, "I see you aren't dead."

Severus nodded stiffly. "Yes. I see you have a son." His eyes flicked over to Scorpius, who had descended from the balcony upon seeing that most of the chaos was over and was approaching them at a leisurely pace from the stairs.

"Yes." Said Draco stiffly. He drew breath to say something else, though even he wasn't sure what, when there was a loud crash and a chorus of cursing from the vicinity of the kitchen, the door bursting open to release a cloud of brilliantly purple fog, the sound of hacking coughs and Marvo Higgins. The man was grinning like the Cheshire cat and running for an open window so fast that his robes billowed behind him like a muggle super hero's cape. There was the echoing BOI-OI-OOOING of someone running into a hanging saucepan, and Marvo snickered out a "Nehehehe." before turning and seeing the four of them watching. "Oh. Bugger."

All four of them had wands to hand in an instant, Marvo dodging their stunners at top speed. Finally, Scorpius's shouted "Impedimenta!" got him in the leg and his running was slowed as though he was running through molasses. His hands, unfortunately, appeared to be working at normal speed and by the time Lily realized what he was reaching for under the front of his robes, he was already spinning the little gold time-turner backwards.

She managed to get close enough for her fingers to brush his robes as they vanished- close enough to see the turner spin once, twice, three times. She reacted instinctively, reaching into her robes to grab her own time turner and follow, not bothering to give an explanation.

Lily appeared in Malfoy Manor at eight 'o clock that morning to bellow "Stupify!" at Marvo Higgins just before he'd made it out the front door. She grinned in satisfaction as he colapsed and was just going to tie his wrists when she heard a sleepy voice came from behind her.

"Er. What the devil, Lily?"

She turned to find Scorpius watching her bemusedly from an arm chair with an untouched silver breakfast tray on the table next to him, holding a cup of tea. He was an amusing sight for anyone used to his usual impeccably groomed state, with his platinum hair tousled, chin unshaven and wearing a ridiculously plush brocade bathrobe with all the haughtiness of a king despite being barefoot and bleary eyed.

"Oh, hey Scorpius. Since you're here, do me a favor? When I disappear in three hours, tell Mr. Tick that I caught Higgins at eight 'o clock and he's to meet me at the ministry, will you?" She asked, removing the time-turner from the thief's neck and casually patting him down for anything else interesting.

He rolled his eyes. "'Since I'm here?' In case you hadn't noticed, this is my house, Lily, not yours. But fine, yes, I'll tell whatever Unspeakable that you've caught Mr. Stripes there."

"Great, thanks." Lily attached a port key that went directly to a detention cell in the department of magical law enforcement to Marvo's robes, tapped it with her wand and muttered "Portus."

Lily straightened once Marvo had disappeared, brushing off her hands and saying cheerfully, "Well, that's him sorted, though I still don't know what he's done with your patio things, the albino peacocks or the quiditch gear. Or will do, rather."

Scorpius blinked, pushing himself to his feet. "He's going to have stolen my broomstick?" He said, affronted. Having a friend who controlled time-travel for a living permanently effected one's tenses.

Lily considered. "Well, now I think about it… the report didn't actually mention your broom. I believe it wasn't in the shed for some reason."

Her friend smiled slyly. "Ah. You know, I think the old Firebolt 80 has been pulling a little to the left, I better take it in to the shop." He said decisively. "Everything else, fine, whatever, temporal continuity blah blah blah. But… I'm doing you a favor with telling Mr. whatsit about this later, right?"

Lily took in his calculating expression with mild interest. "Yes, and?"

His eyes turned pleading. "Could you see to it that Grandfather's peacocks are tragically never recovered? I've hated the damn things for as long as I can remember. They walk around all cocky like they know something you don't, and they bite and they make this noise…" He shuddered, and Lily laughed.

"I'll see what I can do. You going to eat that bacon?" She motioned at the abandoned, still untouched breakfast tray. She never had managed to get her own this morning.

He picked it up protectively. "Yes."

Seeing her expression, he sighed. "Oh, fine. Hey, Boffy!" A house elf appeared, looking attentively at the youngest Malfoy. "Bring another tray up, will you? And some more tea." The elf nodded efficiently and vanished as Scorpius handed his tray over to Lily with ill-grace.

Lily grinned and collapsed into the arm chair next to Scorpius, taking the tray with enthusiasm. "Lovely. Got any pepper?"

Lily took her time getting back to the Department, chatting with Scorpius over breakfast and then Flooing her father to explain why Marvo Higgins was in the cells for a crime he had not yet committed and that yes, Harry still had to send out Aurors when it happened. She timed her arrival at the Department so that she arrived one minute after she and Severus had left, since she didn't recall seeing herself around. She busied herself with paperwork until Snape arrived to fill out their joint report for the incident.

The two of them sat and filled out forms in studious silence for a few mintues before Lily leaned back in her chair, stretching, and asked, "So, how'd it go with the Malfoys after I left?"

He looked reflectively at the ceiling. "Strangely. Once Scorpius had the good grace to inform us that the criminal we'd been chasing had been apprehended hours ago, I spent several long, long minutes attempting to explain to Weasley why searching the grounds would not be useful, after which he and Draco very nearly had a fist fight. Eventually Lucius ordered Weasley's team to remove themselves or face legal action. Then Narcissa cornered me and asked me to tea, very pointedly. I am unsure if she genuinely wishes to socialize, to grill me about my true loyalties in the war, or to poison me inconspicuously." He said dryly.

Lily shook her head. "Nah, if she wanted to poison you she'd never do it on her own property. Probably she just figures you're one of the few people who'd understand their position back then and not judge them for it. The Malfoys helped dad a bit at the end, so they're not really popular characters with either side now. Rich old pure bloods are a dying breed, I think her social circle is fairly small these days. She's even had Andromeda and Teddy over for dinner once or twice since they're the only other Blacks left. I'd say it's probably safe,"

Snape nodded once. "I will keep that in mind. Do you have any other assignments for today?"

Lily looked pensive. "Well, I don't think so. Nothing that's come up yet. Oh, actually." She smiled ironically. "Why don't you go look for 'the thing that isn't there in the place of black'?"

"Hmm. Well, I suppose I have little else to do. Very well. If you need me you shall find me in the D.O.M.'s secret library."

"Lovely. I'll join you there once I'm done with this, I have to be here until six anyway, for temporal continuity." She replied.