Constants and Variables

A Harry Potter/Bioshock Infinite crossover.

Summary: Avoiding Dudley's gang, Harry stumbles across something he never thought he would find. What changes will it make to his destiny.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own Bioshock Infinite, each belongs to their respective owners.

Edited 24/09/2016: Rewrote the Lutece Conversation to fit more in with their personality rather than focusing on just one quirk of the characters.

Chapter 1: Letters and Runes

What happens when you dont take the path that's expected.

What happens when you stray off the beaten track?

What happens when you look back and think of the path that you could have taken?

What happens when you get to look at all those other paths?

Harry sat in an abandoned house, the owners had disappeared a long time ago, word was that they had moved home but there had been no signs of a moving company and their car had just been left out front but no signs of foul play and the people of Privet Drive, intent to have a 'normal' life had pretty much just ignored it. From this it remained abandoned with warnings to never come into the house. The curtains were closed, the garden overgrown and the condition of the house deteriorating from neglect.

It was by chance that he was here. He was going to stay away from the house but it had been his only escape, his only reprieve from the daily dose of Harry Hunt that Dudley and his gang had started so long ago. Chase the 'freak' and if you can catch him then you get to beat him up. But Harry was quicker than his cousin and his friends and had managed to avoid them and now he sat in the dusty room, he had looped around the house into the garden and was surprised to find the back door was unlocked. Entering he had called out but no response came, no one had been home. Walking in slowly, he looked at the dust covered floor and the tracks that he made in it as he moved, looking around there had been no signs that anyone else had been here in a very long time. With a sigh of relief, he pushed the door shut and walked through the house, looking at the faded furniture, running a hand across the surfaces wiping away some of the dust as he made his way to the living room, brushing the dust off of his hand as he did.

A TV, a bookcase, a sofa and a couple of chairs. Idly he walked forwards to the TV, pressing the button to turn it on not expecting much of anything and the idea that it wouldn't work was confirmed as the TV remained off. He sat on the floor, he could have taken any of the seats but he found himself sitting in the middle of the room, eyes shut and breathing deeply as he tried to focus. It was from a book that he had picked up from the library, one on meditation to help calm the soul and focus himself. He had recieved a few strange looks from the Librarian when he had been seen reading it btu she didn't say anything. Recent Days had been hectic for Harry. Letters addressed to him had appeared almost from out of nowhere. At first it was just one, a single letter through the post addressed to him with the details of where he slept written in ink. It had been heavy a didn't feel like paper.

'If only Dudley had kept his mouth shut then perhaps he would have seen what was inside the letter. But instead he had to open his fat mouth and mention the letter.'* Harry thought bitterly before stopping that train of thought and letting it slide away into the blackness of nothingness. It didn't do to dwell on what couldn't be changed. He was stuck with them and he would be for years to come. His parents dead and no other living relatives that he was aware of, not including Marge and her hellish hounds. But he'd rather live on the streets than put up with her for any prolonged time period. More letters turned up over the next couple of days, first two, then four, then eight, they doubled every day, appearing in more and more unique places, tied to milk bottles, under the wipers on his Uncles car and even wrapped around the eggs inside the carton that contained them. All the while he had been unable to claim even one of them. His Uncle had taken to making sure Harry was either unable to get out of his new room, having been concerned about people knowing he had lived in the cupboard under the stairs for the better part of ten years, he now had the smallest bedroom in the house. It had amused Harry at the glimpse of a letter that they were now addressed there as well.

He was curious as to who was so desperate to get in touch with him and if they were that desperate why didn't they just try to get in touch themselves? they knew enough about him to know where he slept and they had enough time to write so many letters and deliver them and yet they couldn't think to turn up themselves if they were that eager to get a reply.

A creak of a floorboard and Harry opened his eyes, it was possible it was just the sounds of the house that hadn't been maintained but he didn't take any chances, standing up he brushed the dust off of himself and walked over quietly to the doorway he had come through.

"And you're definitely sure he's in here?" A woman's voice asked, it was one he hadn't heard before, she sounded older than him but still relatively young.

"It's what the tracker shows, Number 30 Privet Drive." Another voice, another woman's voice, stricter and more seasoned. Harry shrunk back away from the door and into the room, glancing for another way out. "He had to have come here recently look at the floor." She added and Harry cursed the dust, his location would be easy to find. A door at the back of the room caught his attention... strange, he hadn't noticed it when he came in.

Unease settled in, the mysterious two that were apparently looking for him and trying to track him. Or the door that had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"Harry Potter?" The younger voice called out and Harry flinched and darted to the door. They knew his name, they could track him and now they were actively looking for him. he gripped the door handle and pulled it open, stairs leading down and he took them shutting the door as he moved. He heard the two voices on the other side of the door but couldn't quite clearly hear what they wanted as he moved quickly down the stairs. Below him was a blue glow, something strange was down here. he slowed down, being careful to not disturb anything, something wasn't right here.

Etched into the walls, the ceiling and the floor were symbols, symbols he didn't recognize, strange devices littered the room and Harry glanced around in confusion. What had been going on in this house? He walked forwards, there was something in the centre of the room, something hidden under a cover. Curiosity called his name, he took a step forward, slowly.

"Harry don't move!" The younger voice called, almost from directly behind him and he froze. "You're in danger." She said and Harry resisted the urge to run. there was panic in her voice. "That symbol you just stepped on was an activation rune." She explained with something that didn't make any sense to Harry, what was a rune and what was an activation rune?

"What does that even mean!?" Harry couldn't resist the panicked question as he looked down at the symbol that he had stepped onto.

"Runes, they're an alternate way to perform magic, or a very outdated way to write, each rune is a symbol and has a meaning. see how they're all over the room?" She commented slowly and Harry took full notice of the symbols, having seen them before but not knowing what they had been. "That Rune you're standing on means start or activate. It's not fully powered with you standing on it but I'd bet any number of Galleons that the moment you move your foot something will happen.

"Something bad?" He asked slowly, it sounded strange, a lot stranger than a prank could possibly be and the deadly seriousness in which she was speaking made him believe her all the more.

"Possibly, or it could just be a light switch. Whoever built this room liked their flashy appearances." She muttered the last part to herself more than Harry.

"Who are you anyway?" Harry questioned as she continued to study the runes.

"So that doesn't feed into the protection rune over there." She muttered missing the question as she traced the connection of runes. "Hmm? Oh sorry, I'm Professor Babbling." She said still distracted by the runes. "I teach ancient runes at Hogwarts." She explained calmly as if it meant something to him.

"Hogwarts?" Harry asked in confusion, the name had popped up before, on the seal of the letter but he didn't know much more than that.

"The School for Witchcraft and Wizardry?" She asked and Harry looked even more confused. "The place where your parents went?" She tried again and the blank look, alongside a look of surprise at the information about his parents made her pause, taking a deep breath as she tried to keep calm. "They didn't tell you did they?" She asked quietly. "They didn't tell you anything about your parents did they." She questioned and Harry went to speak but she held her hand up to stop him. "I'm sorry Harry, don't answer that just yet, I have a feeling I'm not going to like the outcome of this conversation and I don't want to screw this up because I'm angry." She explained and he slowly nodded. "The Activation rune loops around, the connection goes by the defensive rune, looking like it'd trigger the trap but there's a tiny gap in the connection." She muttered tapping her chin thoughtfully. It's not tied to the light or it would have been dark down here before you arrived." She continued to trace out the runic array. "It leads to the area under that cover." She muttered and stood up, carefully stepping around the runes. "The person who designed this was flashy and there is a lot of dangerous and deadly runes here but the connection is so basic. No interlocking runes that will trigger a chain reaction. No booby traps. Flash and no Substance, I'm almost disappointed."

"Does that mean I can move?" Harry asked and she shook her head.

"Not yet, there's still the unknown tied to the end of that rune, I don't want you moving until I know what it is."

"Is everything okay down there?" The elder voice spoke and Babbling stopped and cursed.

"Almost forgot about yet, Yes Minerva, we should be all OK in a minute or two," she called back.

"Who's that?" Harry asked as he tried to remain calm.

"Another Professor at the school, to you she's Professor McGonagall," Professor Babbling explained. "She teaches Transfiguration. An interesting class, I was terrible at it." She mused as she reached the cover. "Right, whatever that Rune activates or doesn't activate is underneath this cover. I'm going to vanish it; I don't want to risk the cloth disturbing any of the other runes as it moves away." She explained as she drew something that to Harry looked like a stick. She flicked her wrist, muttering something and the cover vanished with a small pop. "Huh, didn't expect that." She muttered as she looked down at what could only be described as a glass coffin. Inside a woman lay, dressed in a long blue skirt and white shirt, her hands clasped on her stomach as she looked to be resting peacefully. "I might be a few more minutes." She called up to Professor McGonagall as she frowned. "The Rune leads to a waking rune linked to this. Does that mean she's in some form of suspended animation?" She muttered, kneeling by the rune, "Wait, no it doesn't link to that rune. I may have underestimated whoever did this, that's impressively close." She spoke tracing the line from the activation rune as it passed mere millimetres from the awakening rune. "Harry, what do you know about the people that lived here?"

"Nothing." Harry replied slowly, still confused as to what was going on. "From what my Uncle ranted about they disappeared out of the blue years ago. They kept to themselves, My Aunt didn't like them because they were unusual." Harry explained hesitantly. "I didn't know where they worked. I don't think anyone did. They just appeared almost overnight and then disappeared in the same way." He explained and she frowned more, glancing up at him and then back at the rune array around the room.

"They just happen to move onto your street... That doesn't seem right." She knelt there, stationary, looking at Harry as she tried to piece the puzzle together 'They were definitely magical otherwise they wouldn't have been able to set up this extensive rune array, the wards around the street should have stopped any one with magic moving here, even parents moving with underage magic users, the latent trace would have stopped them from doing it. They arrived after the ward went up so they had to have been strong enough to work around them or... no wait, the runes in the ceiling, they...' the thought cut off as she realized what they had done. "Oh you magnificent bastards." She said aloud, standing up again and moving away from the Glass Coffin and moved away, looking up to the runes. "Deception, draining, cloaking, shadow, the runes on the wall are disguised to look like light runes on their own but taken in context. They were piggybacking off the wards. they managed to pierce them somehow and then use it to shroud themselves."

"Does that mean I can move again?" Harry asked, his leg starting to cramp up. He was used to standing quietly and not moving much but that was at the time when he knew he could move around at pretty much any time, now he was forced to stand still and he was trying to make sure he kept the same pressure on the rune which was starting to make his knee ache. It was amazing how much difference having to focus on doing nothing actually caused more pain and annoyance than just aimlessly doing nothing.

"Oh goddess! I'm so sorry Harry, it's the runes, I keep finding something interesting about them and getting side-tracked." She pulled herself away, a slight tint of red on her cheeks showing her embarrassment as she moved back to where she had been tracking the rune. She paused again as she heard footsteps from behind Harry and looked up to see Professor McGonagall walk into view. "Minerva, be careful where you step, the room is quite impressively set up." She called out and the woman in question nodded her head slightly, her stern features falling on Harry who had turned his head to look at the new arrival.

"I did not expect you to get into trouble before you started at Hogwarts Mr Potter, it seems your families habit of ending up in the worst possible place has passed on to you." She said bluntly a hint of amusement behind the statement.

"You knew my family?" Harry asked and she nodded her head.

"I had the distinct pleasure of teaching both of your parents for seven years." She explained and Professor Babbling called out to her.

"That's not a conversation we want to start now." She warned stopping at another run that ran under one of the legs of the table the glass coffin sat on. "Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy for you to continue talking but I've just found out what the rune is linked to."

"Is it dangerous?" McGonagall asked.

"Dangerous depends on how it works. It's a transference rune, I can't see what the final part of it is, it could be the transference of life, of power, of soul. It's linked to the woman in the casket and I can't tell which way the transference will happen. It could drain from Harry or it could be from the woman in the tube here."

"Does that mean she's alive?" McGonagall asked in shock, she had seen the woman as she had walked down but her primary concern had been Harry. "Is there some kind of stasis spell on her?"

"Yep, tied to the rune on at the base of the table. Perfectly preserved and held there, I wonder how long she's been there." She wondered as she looked at Harry who was looking ready to both bolt and ask a dozen or so questions. "This isn't the way the introduction to magic was supposed to happen, you get a letter and one of the Professors was meant to turn up and explain it to you fully and take you to get your stuff."

"But we received no response from you and came to find out why you were not responding to the letters." McGonagall explained and Harry glanced between the two of them.

"The letters were sent by you? What are they? I never got the chance to read them, my Uncle kept taking them away and destroying them." He said and he saw the start of a glare forming on McGonagall's features.

"That is why we came. Dumbledore wanted to send Hagrid who is a great person, but ask him to fully explain something and you'd still lose half the information." Babbling said as she finished with the rune. "Right, I think I can work with this. It's a Power Transference spell, but not away from you. We can't just deactivate the runes without activating them at least not without you standing there for god knows how long." She explained as she stood, dusting off her trousers. "The fun part is that it's also tied to the awakening rune, it doubles back on itself and passes through it. So the Power Transference will start and she'll wake."

"Will it hurt her?" Harry asked quietly. This was his fault, he shouldn't have run into the house, he shouldn't have hidden from the two when they had arrived.

"It's possible, there's interlocking runes all over the room, it would take months of standing there stationary to make sure everything would be deactivated and disabled." She explained and Harry nodded his head, hating this situation that he had gotten himself into.

Couldn't we activate the waking rune and get her out of there?" McGonagall asked in concern looking at the woman in the coffin. "If we can wake her and take her from the table then we could break the link half way." She suggested but a shake of the head was the response given.

"This connection is tenuous at best, disrupting it could cause a magical backlash and kill everyone here at this stage."

"So we just let a rune drain the life of this woman?"

"No, I have an idea." She said as she gestured at the runes around them. "All of the runes seem to be intertwined, they link back to her in some way shape or form. The power drain and the awakening are the earliest step. We could start the chain and hopefully sever the connection almost immediately. There will probably be some transference of power, who knows how that will shape up but we could break it before any permanent damage was done to either of them. In theory that is."

"In theory?"

"In Reality, I don't know what is going to solve the problem, the rune is half concealed so I'm only getting a hint at what is going to happen, not to mention there are probably others that are linked. Whatever sick bastard did this to the girl is to put it bluntly messed up." She said with finality.

"So how do we stop the transference."

"We apparate him out, to the street or perhaps even the garden, it should be far enough to break the connection."

"Apparate?" Harry chimed in and the two looked at him.

"Think teleporting, instant travel between locations."

"Won't there be a greater risk of splinching with the connection?" McGonagall questioned and Babbling nodded.

"The risk is there, but it's a guaranteed way to break the connection. I can do it if you want," She offered and McGonagall shook her head.

"No, I can do it. I just needed to confirm the risks."

"Risks?" Harry asked in disbelief. What the heck was going to go wrong now? It was bad enough that he was trapped in some kind of basement, it was bad enough that he was almost figuratively bound to someone, his foot on a switch that could possibly kill someone he'd never met before and now he heard that the way to break it was risky.

"It's a risk that can be fixed quickly and painlessly, there will be just a weird numbness if splinching occurs. Nothing to be concerned about." Babbling said quickly without actually explaining what Splinching was. "Are you ready Minerva?" She asked and McGonagall nodded her head. "OK, on the count of three, Harry I want you to step off the rune."

"Right."

"One." She started slowly, glancing between Harry and the girl. "Two." She looked to McGonagall who was already in position to get Harry and vanish. "THREE!" She called out and Harry stepped off the rune. Her eyes darted to his feet and widened as she saw an addition to the rune. "Oh... crap." She muttered as a blue dome formed over Harry and the glass tank. "Don't touch him!" She called out as McGonagall went to grab him to apparate out. "There was another part to the rune under his foot, it's a shield rune, it'll block practically anything." She explained as the lines connecting the runes started to glow. "Power Transfer in two." She whispered in defeat looking down as the line hit the power transfer. A white beam formed between Harry and the girl, energy shifting towards him. "Awakening rune in three." She said and like clockwork the woman's eyes snapped open, she gasped for breath, her hands snapping up and pressing against the glass, pressing against it trying to push it open. Professor Babbling had left the lid on, not so much to trap the girl but to prevent activating any booby traps. But it was sealed, looking at it properly she saw it was sealed with no way to get oxygen in. She was going to suffocate.

If she ever found out what sick person created this Runic Array she probably would horribly murder them in a set of Runes just to see how they would feel. She moved her wand and banished the glass, the woman pushing away, off of the table, dropping to the floor as Harry cried out in pain. She looked around the room, the lighting runes flickering which shouldn't have happened. as she glanced up she saw the area that was getting darker wasn't because the lights were dimming. There was something blocking them, lines of what appeared to be energy were forming and opening up revealing objects and places. Water started to fall through one of the tears from another she could hear the sound of rock music, another the scene of a well maintained Garden. What power did this girl have? What was going on? She scanned across the runic array, there were more containment runes, stabilization runes, everything seemed to lead towards her being kept in here specifically for someone to walk in and have this happen. Who was She!?

"Bathsheda! Get her out of here!" McGonagall snapped her out of her thoughts and she could have kicked herself for this. She wanted to help Harry and here she was dallying with the Runes instead of taking advantage that the girl was not contained in a barrier. She turned, moved quickly and grabbed the girls arm, picturing the location of the garden outside and apparating with a deafening crack.

The two fell into the garden, dropping to the overgrown grass with a soft thud. the woman panting as she caught her breath, dealing with the connection severing. Professor Babbling gave herself a pat down to make sure she was still in one piece and smiled as she realized that she was fine. "Are you okay?" She asked looking across at the woman.

"Who... who are you?" The woman asked weakly, struggling to catch her breath as she sat up, hesitance and confusion on her features, a hand pressed against the ground to steady herself.

"I am Bathsheda Babbling, I'm a teacher," She said, not knowing if the woman knew of magic. "And yourself?"

"Elizabeth," She said slowly reaching up and brushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. "Where am I?"

"Part of me was hoping you'd already know, what's the last thing you remember?" Babbling asked and Elizabeth frowned.

"I was looking for someone, trying to fix a mistake. I remember checking a house and then nothing." Elizabeth explained, rubbing the back of her head, feeling a phantom pain. "I think I was knocked out by something." She whispered. "What happened to me?"

"This is going to sound strange, you were put into stasis, placed in that glass tube and left there, we don't know what happened after that until Harry stumbled across you." Bathsheda started to explain, "It was purely by chance that we even found you. If Harry hadn't gone down there we never would have known you were there."

"By Chance?" A male voice asked.

"Or by Fate?" A female voice asked and the two jumped at the sudden intrusion of voices. Bathsheda quickly grabbing her wand and pointing it at the two new comers who stood in older style clothing, the man in a brown suit and the other in a white blouse and long brown skirt.

"I should have known you two would somehow be involved in this." Elizabeth said tiredly as she pulled herself to her feet, brushing off the dirt that had stuck to her dress. "Where am i this time?"

"It's less of a question of where and more of a question of when." The woman spoke up calmly, glancing around at the overgrown garden and tutted, "terrible house keeping this place has." She said with disinterest before turning back to Elizabeth.

"But at this time the where is just as important." The man added chidingly to the woman.

"I suppose it does, doesn't it.""Where did you come from? i didn't hear any apparation sounds." Bathsheda questioned, keeping her wand pointed at the two newcomers, they seemed to know something about what was going on

"Are you two going to talk in half statements again?" Elizabeth added the question in frustration and Bathsheda looked to her in confusion.

"You know these two?" She asked and Elizabeth nodded.

"In a way, they are the Lutece Twins, Rosalind and Robert." She introduced gesturing to the two in turn.

"She remembers us." Robert spoke glancing at his twin.

"That's good, it would be terribly embarassing if she didn't but who could blame her after her ordeal?" Rosalind asked curiously.

"What are you doing here? Why was I brought here?" Elizabeth asked loudly trying to get them to focus.

"We are where we're needed." Rosalind explained calmly.

"And needed where we are." Robert concluded. "You know how this works Elizabeth."

"Constants and Variables." She muttered, "then who or what is the constant in this situation?" She asked and Rosalind smiled.

"She knows." Robert stated looking at Bathsheda

"She will know." Rosalind continued.

"She does know." Robert finished and Elizabeth sighed in frustration, a straight answer from these two was the equivalent of trying to pull teeth. Even when they were being a bit more helpful than this they were still confusing to focus on but at this point they seemed to want to avoid talking fully around her. Perhpas it was because of the woman that had helped her. The Twins definitely thought that she had some clue as to who was involved in all of this.

"There is someone you know or know of that is a focus of all of this." Elizabeth explained and Bathsheda looked confused at this.

"How am I supposed to know who that is? I know a lot of people." She said in confusion having been quickly lost by the double talk and tense changes by the Lutece Twins, she had spent years dealing with the illogical nature of Wizards and Witches and had started to properly understand how their society worked but this was a whole different game.

"They appeared now, what happened now and who is here that you know? Besides myself of course." Elizabeth asked and Bathsheda's eyes widened, the realisation of what had just happened down in the basement kicking in.

"Harry!" She replied in surprise and turned, bolting into the house.

"She knows." Rosalind commented simply.

"She did know." Robert added and Elizabeth sighed again.

"So I am Variable in this." Elizabeth questioned. "This Harry is a focus of everything that is going on here."

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps not. One does not explain an experiment for fear of tainting the results." Robert explained.

"You told myself and Booker lots of things while dealing with Columbia!" Elizabeth protested. "Songbird, accessing the rifts to enter a different Columbia, you guided me into Rapture!" Elizabeth snapped and paused, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "How did I get here?" She asked slowly, "I remember Rapture, i remember Atlas and I... I remember dying."

"You remember dying because in a different dimension at a different time you did die. However my Dear Brother pointed out that everything we did do and everything that had happened was our responsibility, our mess to clean up. Our device and abilities and yours as well are all connected through out." Rosalind explained calmly, a small smile on her lips as she studied Elizabeth.

"So you saved me?"

"We just opened the door for your escape, you stepped through." Robert paused, sharing a glance with Rosalind and a slight nod before continuing. "With your wounds healed, we went on our way. An infinite number of realities to see and explore."

"As we travelled these infinite rifts we found that the rules were not as consistant as we first believed. There were still constants but they changed."

"How can they be constants if they changed?" Elizabeth asked in confusion, for it to be a constant meant that it was unable to change. Always a Lighthouse always a City and always a man.

"Because if there are an infinite of dimensions than there are obviously an infinite number of variations, to have anything less would not be Infinite, it would indeed be finite." Robert explained calmly and Elizabeth still looked at him in confusion, she was starting to see where he was going with this but at this time she still wanted him or his sister to flat out state it. "What if there was no City and no Man?"

"And no Lighthouse?" Elizabeth continued thoughtfully, though it came out more like a question though they both nodded.

"A different time with a different set of actions that create a different constant." Rosalind simply said.

"Then what are these new constants? and how did I get here?" Elizabeth questioned again, cursing her inability to fully remember what had happened.

"You came here because you chose to, if you can't remember it, what good would us telling you do?" Rosalind dismissed, "in time you will no doubt remember, i do hope it isn't too late by that point though."

"As for the new constants, you know of one now, but it is not our place to tell you. Time has a way of revealing all in the end."

"Because it already has revealed it." Elizabeth said in understanding, to the twins, time had no concept, they were where they needed to be when they needed to be, "the only constant that i know of is the boy who woke me up, this time, these realities here link to him. He is, he was and he always will be, his circumstances may change but he is always there in one shape or form." She said in understanding about this pocket of time and dimension that they had come to. "How do i play into this?" Elizabeth asked, trying to see if she could get an answer from the two of them but they just smiled that enigmatic smile and Rosalind waved the question off.

"We've told you and we will tell you. You know how this works Elizabeth, one does not explain an experiment for fear of tainting the results."

"But you've already told me so much, what does al ittle bit more hurt?"

"Have we? This is all things that you already know, we just wanted to make sure you were okay," Rosalind said warmly, the two had been there to care for her in this situation even if they were so detached.

"We almost feel responsible, like a relative."

"Perhaps a distant absent minded relative." Elizabeth muttered in frustration but said her farewell and turned and walked away, back into the house after the woman that had woken her up. She reached the doorway and glanced back, sure enough the twins were gone. "It seems there is at least one other constant." She said and closed the door walking through the house, following where the others had gone thanks to the footsteps in the dust. "I don't know where I am, I don't know when I am, I don't know what's going on." She came to the door that led to the basement and froze. it was silly really, she had been trapped but now she was free, there should be no danger but at the same time, she had been shut in there. Trapped in a glass box until by chance someone had come down here. 'What if they had never come down? would I have been trapped there forever?' She mentally questioned and shook her head. She couldn't dwell on it now. She took the stairs slowly, her boots clicking against the wooden steps as she walked down. below she could hear voices, calmness and confusion mingling together, not knowing what had happened but trying to understand what had just happened.

"But what was the power? what were those things that appeared all around us?" An older woman's voice questioned and Elizabeth realized what had happened.

"They're called tears." She said as she hit the bottom of the stairs. "They're windows into what could be, what may be, what has been." She explained in the hopes of keeping it simple for the people.

"Are you talking about Alternate Dimensions?" Bathsheda spoke, there were theories, there were beliefs that they existed but nothing had ever happened to prove that they were there, they did make for some interesting stories though. "How is something like that possible?"

"To explain would take a long, long time and I'm still not sure that I would be able to explain it. It is something I've been able to do since I was a child."

"Alternate Dimensions?" McGonagall asked, having lived in the magical world for all her life, she had not heard anything regarding them before so this was all new to her. Elizabeth looked at her, thinking of a simple way to explain what it was to the sterner looking woman.

"Picture yourself walking along a street that ends in a crossroads, two directions a left turn and a right turn, Pick a direction." Elizabeth ordered and McGonagall looked pensive for a moment.

"Left."

"You take the left turn, you move on and never look back and the turn is all but forgotten about, but what if you had turned right? what differences could that have made? what events could you have encountered if you had gone that way instead of left. Every time you make a decision like that, you create a... branch, a new pathway that could have been. The tears are windows to these situation." She explained, not wanting to give the full information that she could in fact travel those paths or that this was just a very basic aspect of what her power was.

"So the power transfer to Harry would have given him the same abilities?" She questioned and Elizabeth shook her head.

"In theory it shouldn't, there is a specific reason why I can see them, why I can interact and pull things through these tears." She said and to demonstrate, she pulled open one that had appeared earlier, a window to a garden, she reached through, picking a flower from the windowsill before closing the rift again, holding the rose. It felt weird to show someone who wasn't Booker or from Columbia that was in the know the rift, but it felt right as well. To not show them would only cause doubt and this way she was able to control what they knew. She paused to sniff the rose before holding it out to the others. Bathsheda responded first, taking the rose studying it intently and coming quickly to the conclusion that it was a real rose. "It is not something that can be replicated easily without my assistance." She said with certainty before changing the subject away from the powers. "How is he?" She asked, turning the attention back to the unconscious boy still lying on the floor but a pillow had been placed under his head to make sure he was comfortable until they moved him. "You said his name was Harry, didn't you?" She asked as she studied the boy, he looked no older than ten, thin and possibly malnourished and he was pale.

"He seems fine, he's exhausted and needs rest if he's going to recover properly. Although the drain of power was from you, the shield that stopped us from getting him out was powered by his own magic. We were just about to move him to somewhere more comfortable. The people here apparently disappeared years ago but everything is still in a reasonably good enough condition so we should be able to put him in a bed upstairs, we can clean the dust off and he can rest there while we decide what to do with you." Bathsheda said and Elizabeth nodded her head absentmindedly as she thought about what the Lutece twins had said. Harry was the key point in this, he was the constant. There was something going to happen involving Harry that brought the attention of the Lutece Twins. Or was it that something had happened that had drawn their attention. she resisted the urge to hold her head and cry out in frustration, dealing with those two always resulted in a headache and always left more questions than answers. Bathsheda lifted her wand, flicking it and levitating the unconscious form into the air. Elizabeth frowned, it was similar to things she had seen before. Were they the same? it didn't look like a tonic and she seemed to be focusing it through that stick.

"While she takes care of him, perhaps we should take a seat and try to work out what is going on?" McGonagall suggested, gesturing to the stairs and back to the Living Room. Elizabeth took one last look around the room that had been her cell and nodded her head turning and walking back up the stairs, acutely aware that McGonagall had been watching her intently to make sure she wasn't a threat. They stepped into the living room and Elizabeth walked around the room studying it. Furniture in designs and shapes that were vastly different from what she remembered. When she had arrived here initially she had not stopped to study what had changed.

"So different now." She mused as she walked around looking at the Television in mild fascination. She glanced back at McGonagall who was watching her before she gestured at the seat with her stick and all traces of dust were gone and the colour had returned to it.

"Have a seat." She commanded with a simple yet very authoritative tone and Elizabeth walked over and sat down. "Who are you?" She asked and Elizabeth frowned, she was willing to answer questions but she was not going to be treated like she was in an interrogation.

"Shouldn't you offer your name first before you start interrogating me? It seems only polite." She countered and the intense look turned to a small glare that sent a chill down Elizabeth's spine. She could see that this woman was not someone to cross.

"Very well, I am professor Minerva McGonagall, I teach at Hogwarts and you are?" She introduced and repeated her initial question, very focused and very determined.

"My Name is Elizabeth... Elizabeth Com... no that's not right, Elizabeth DeWitt." She introduced, initially falling onto an old name before correcting herself, it would make no difference either way here, the man in question was a non-entity in this location and time, at least she thought he was. "Where am I?"

"You don't know?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking. I remember looking for someone, someone bad and getting knocked unconscious but not where I was."

"You are in the town of Little Whinging in Surrey. Your accent isn't English, are you by any chance from the Colonies?" McGonagall asked, using the old term for Americans, Elizabeth frowned at the choice of words, they had formed into states by this point, in fact quite a long time ago, why wouldn't she refer to it as the states unless she was making a slight joke but the look from her face indicated it was no joke.

"I am from there." She said simply. It was technically true. Columbia had been part of the USA before it went on its own little path into the Sky. Though whether or not that happened here... She stopped the train of thought, she could worry about it later.

"And you came to England looking for someone."

"In a roundabout way I did. I almost caught up to him before but missed him. it took months before I found out he was in England." She explained calmly.

"Why were you looking for him?" McGonagall asked wondering whether or not Elizabeth could be a danger to Harry with this action.

"That doesn't matter. I probably won't find him again." She said waving it off. "Now when am I?"

"When are you?"

"Yes, when am I? time, year, date. I don't know how long I was in that box. I Dont know how much time has passed since i first arrived" She responded and McGonagall drew her wand bringing up the time.

"It's 5 pm, Saturday August 4th 1991."

"1991!" She asked in shock. glad she was sitting down. "I've been down there for so long." She muttered quietly. "Or was I moved there? I wish I could remember what happened before." She muttered, the last bit was quiet and more to herself than McGonagall.

"The latest you could have arrived was November 1st 1980. The runes were designed to take advantage of the wards that protected the street." Bathsheda said as she walked down the stairs. "In fact, if I had to hazard a guess the arrival was planned in progress with the wards going up. You'd have to be in here on the day the runes were set to fully take effect and not cause an impact to the protections that would be noticed." She explained as she continued to try and puzzle the runes that had been set up down there.

"That would take incredible timing, not to mention they'd have to know exactly when this was going to happen and what was going to happen." Elizabeth said, humming as she thought about the situation, there were few people who could manage to be that accurate with timing. "So, what do you plan to do with me now?"

"You're lost, out of place, out of time and have no resources to your name. We can't by all means just leave you to your own devices." Bathsheda explained. "Not to mention those people seem to think you'll have some impact on what is to happen."

"Those People?"

"Sorry Minerva, I forgot that you weren't there when they appeared. two... visitors appeared after I apparated Elizabeth out." She said giving a pointed look at Elizabeth.

"They're known at the Lutece Twins, Rosalind and Robert, brilliant scientists, the best in their field, though a bit detached from reality." She chuckled at her own inside joke. "To them everything is an experiment, why, what, when, how. All of it is something that can be picked apart and studied." She looked between the two and saw the shared looks of doubt and knew where this was going to lead so spoke up first. "What I said about tears, that's a small aspect of it. The Lutece Twins found a way to harness it and actually enter different dimensions, different time lines." She paused as she let that sink in for a moment. Downplay her own powers and raise up the level of power the Lutece Twins had. "Something went wrong though. Something bad happened, I don't know what because I wasn't there but they were... killed for lack of a better word." More doubt and confusion, she could work with this. Of course she wasn't about to tell them it had happened because of the actions of someone she knew in a roundabout way. "They were killed with their own device but instead of destroying them it put them outside of existence. They are but they aren't. They exist but they don't." She explained. "Neither alive, nor dead." she concluded to the looks of disbelief on the faces of the two. "I've been trying to work it out for years but I still don't know for sure." She added, a little white lie but it didn't hurt to hide the extent of her powers for now. "Now I've got to ask a question myself," she said looking between the two, trying to keep up to keep them flat footed even though she knew she didn't really have to, they had been perfectly honest so far with their actions. Almost transparent but she had to keep it quiet for now. "What is all this that you've been doing? Floating the kid, teleporting from one location to another, what is it?"

Looking back and forth between each other they had a silent war to see who would take the discussion of magic. It was one that was always interesting to deliver to people that were being introduced to it, they acted so differently. McGonagall eventually took the initiative. "What do you know about magic?"

"As in Sleight of hand? parlour tricks?" Elizabeth asked and McGonagall smiled before shaking her head.

"No, I mean actual magic, the ability to turn an object into another, the ability to disappear from one location only to reappear in another." She said giving two different examples.

"It's fake? they can be explained away." Elizabeth said though she wasn't entirely sure she believed it herself after all, to some, her ability would be believed to be magic.

"I assure you my dear, it is anything but an illusion, though there are several spells that could be used to create an illusion." She corrected and with her wand pointed it at the coffee table that sat to one side turning it into a small brown dog.

Elizabeth gasped in shock, a hand coming up to her mouth as the dog barked at her excitedly and jumped up at her. "It's a real dog." She whispered in amazement as she leant over and stroked its fur, amazed at how real it felt.

"To an extent, it breaths, it moves and acts like a dog but it's not truly alive, in a few minutes it will revert back to its initial state as a coffee table." McGonagall explained.

"This is amazing. there are more of you who can do things like this?" Elizabeth asked in excitement as she continued to fuss the dog.

"There's an entire hidden community that runs parallel to the non-magical world." McGonagall explained and Bathsheda snorted.

"Runs parallel in many things except evolution, we're still stuck in the past while the muggle world continues to evolve in leaps and bounds." Bathsheda added sarcastically. "We're stagnating, refusing to change our ways because it worked in the past."

"That doesn't sound so good." Elizabeth spoke up quietly.

"Traditions and old upbringings are a hard thing to change, expecting people to become different overnight is not going to work."

"Refusing to change can be worse though, it can bring disaster, war, destruction and pain." Elizabeth spoke, a haunted tone to her voice as she remembered what had happened to Columbia.

"The Division has already brought that to the community, we're still recovering from what happened and trying to prevent it from ever happening again. Hell, it's only because of one child that we're at this point to recuperate." Bathsheda told Elizabeth.

"Harry is the constant." Elizabeth said, repeating what the Lutece Twins had said before, it was starting to fall into place. Harry had to be the child that Bathsheda was talking about.

"Excuse me?" McGonagall asked and Elizabeth focused on her, looking intently at her as she stopped paying any attention to the dog by her feet.

"Who is Harry, why is he so important?" She asked.

TBC

It feels good to write again, I won't lie it's been a long time since I've done anything like this and I'm glad that I did. I picked up a program on Steam called Nimble Writer, don't ask me why it essentially has the same tools that Word does, less in fact but at the same time there is just something about it that kind of kicked the gears into action. This is one idea I've wanted to write for a very long time and now it's just flowing so damn easily. The start may feel a bit clichéd but I think it works.

I've got the first 10 chapter already written, i'm going to upload one a week i think. It'll allow me to keep the chapters to around the size i want and still keep a steady update.

Shout out to my friend Zaraelys Soulrage who has been a godsend to bounce ideas off of while i've been writing.

Another shout out to a Reviewer: rickyp01 who has helped me with his review, after i got it, the scene just clicked and the Lutece conversation has now been altered.