Chapter one, in which Cathy goes forth, that is back.

Dreadful whine rose above battle cries and roar of spells. Juliette felt a shiver go through her numb body. She knew this voice, she knew it belonged to Mia. She couldn't imagine what sort of pain tore this animal-like sound from her throat, but she also knew that wizards were able to make death seem like salvation. Juliette found out about it first hand; her bloody face with plucked out eye was a grotesque testimony of their cruelty. Maybe she could heal herself, but it would take time.

Time. Juliette was running through her castle's corridors, hurrying through known by heart labyrinth. The last stronghold of vampires in England was falling, the enemy broke inside and Juliette desperately needed time, which she had so little of.

There was only a handful of them left. Juliette have lived for very long now, but she's never seen anything so terrible. Her own race, so close to extinction. Here, on the Islands, there wasn't more than over a dozen of them left, most of which hid in her castle. Her last hope laid in faith that wizards haven't reached the underground lab in which she hid group of her favourites, pupils she was especially fond of. If they also were killed, everything was lost forever.

The further from the main hall of the castle she got, the weaker the smell of vampire and human blood was getting; it wasn't clutching at Juliette's throat with a mix of dread and hunger any more. She more like fled than ran down the stairs leading to the underground. Her impractical, long skirts were tangling around her legs. Dressing, she wasn't preparing for a fight. She wasn't ready for death. None of them was. Long life didn't prepare for dying in agony.

She wanted to have one more year. One year for conversation with those she loved; things she never had courage for; learning so many places that changed always when she left. During those seconds that it took her to cross the road between the stairs and the lab door Juliette was remembering her thousands-years existence and examining her conscience. Experience of millenniums taught her that you sin against others and yourself, not some distant gods that come and go.

She clenched her fingers over chilly metal of the doorknob and froze in absolute immobility, feeling weak from the wave of relief. They were inside. They were alive. She could feel them. Relief was soon joined by disappointment – only three, so little, so very little. Juliette forced herself to summon peace to her massacred face. She couldn't let them catch on her emotions. They had to focus on the task at hand. It was Juliette's last trial. If vampires had gods, this is what she would have answered to them from.

She opened the door and slithered inside, closing it tightly behind her. Soon wizards will start looking for them. Her pupils were located near the opposite wall. Marco, tawny and dangerous, was leaning against the stone wall, with his arm around the waist of ashen haired Cathy. Alexandra half-laid by their feet, her hand clutched to her thigh from which blood red as her hair was flowing. They looked frightened, uncertain, young.

"We've lost the castle," said Julitte and her voice didn't even tremble. "We've got little time left."

They knew it, of course. Their gazes were drawn by the empty eye socket, even though they were trying not to look so they wouldn't hurt her. Marco pushed himself from the wall and in one swift movement stood next to Juliette.

"I'll keep them upstairs. Buy you some time."

Cathy made a little sigh, as if she was going to protest, but he left, not looking at her. Maybe in past live they were connected by friendship or some other feeling Juliette wasn't aware of, but right now they meant nothing to each other. Task was the most important thing. Juliette didn't say anything either, because Marco's decision was suicidal, but logical. Just as logical was that Alexandra couldn't be send by herself. She was wounded, probably couldn't even stand up and wasn't registering a lot, blinded and deafened by the pain. Juliette herself had to cast the spell. That's why the only one left was aristocratic Cathy. She seemed to understand it, too, because she nodded her head shortly. Only after a moment did the full weight of that decision reach her, because she started protesting.

"Nicholas was supposed to... I'm inadequate. I'm not suitable. It wasn't me..."

"Get a hold on yourself, we need you concentrated," Juliette interrupted her harshly. She started preparing the ritual. She was pushing away cabinets full of mysterious utensils, making some space in the middle of the room. Alexandra's eyes were following her, coated with fever like leucoma.

"But Nicholas was supposed to..."

"Nicholas is dead!" Juliette screamed unexpectedly. "Everyone's dead, we are the only ones left. If you don't want to join the corpses with stakes in their hearts or heads cut off, my advice is, get a hold on yourself!"

Alexandra moaned silently. Juliette thought that she probably doesn't care. She doesn't know what's going on around her anyway.

Spilling different colourful powders on the floor, Juliette tried to concentrate only on her work. Even so, time after time she was catching herself waiting for another protest from Cathy. Nothing like that happened. Vampire aristocrat was now standing still like a statue and her almond-shaped eyes were directed at Juliette, following her. Taking it as a good sign, Juliette asked, "Do you remember what were you doing June 1944? Where were you then?"

"I was in my crypt," said Cathy in a silent, even voice, like a child asked a question by the teacher. "I was asleep."

"That's even better. I'll send you back to that time. You'll wake up in your crypt and as the only one, besides Alexandra, will have the knowledge about future happenings. Your task, of course, is to not let them come into existence. You must neutralise Aster de Nox before she gets a chance to declare war against wizards. Stop this senseless slaughter. Keep the London Covenant, guaranteeing both races peace. This is your most important mission. It's a shame we don't have time to work on a more detailed plan. With Nocholas things looked quite differently, he was..."

She trailed off, but Cathy knew the rest of this sentence. Older. Stronger. Better. Nevertheless, she stepped into the circle drawn by Juliette, practically dragging half-conscious Alexandra behind her. They were their last, desperate hope and they weren't allowed to fail. Anyway, did they have any choice? Staying here, in this time, meant death, and a very rapid one at that. How much longer could Marco keep the wizard upstairs? If he was in Cathy's place...

Juliette didn't ask Cathy whether she's ready or not. There was no moment besides "now", she wasn't going to be any more ready. Juliette just raised her wand fetched from between her skirts' folds and said a spell, aiming it at Cathy and Alexandra. At the very last moment Cathy's and Juliette's gazes met and Cathy understood that even if she changes the course of history, in this reality, in this version of the world, her teacher is going to die very soon anyway.

And then supernova's explosion send Cathy into bottomless abyss through which she was falling or maybe floating – it was hard to establish any direction in nothingness. Inertia made her nauseous and pressure caused her physical pain. When everything calmed down a little, Cathy experience eerie feeling that can be caused only by looking at oneself. Not in the mirror, when reflection is merely repeating movements and facial expressions of its master. Cathy saw herself sleeping in dark and narrow sarcophagus, peaceful in her alabaster stillness, unaware that all of a sudden there were two of them. Cathy recognised her facial features and her hair, her hands intertwined on her chest, even her dress, classical and timeless, as she thought about it back then, choosing it. Even so, she couldn't think about the other one "me". She reached out an incorporeal hand to touch the other Cathy's chick. And then suddenly they became one.

Cathy opened her eyes and discovered she's laying at the bottom of a dark, narrow, stone sarcophagus. She would have inhaled deeply, if there was any air worth filling lungs with here. She felt well known numbness associated with awakening after long lethargy. Body would need few days, maybe weeks, to go back to its normal state. Right now Cathy was not much stronger than an average, mortal woman. There was no way she could lift a heavy sarcophagus lid.

For a moment Cathy was wriggling in search of a wand, until she found it at the head of the sarcophagus. It was hard to bend her wrist in the narrow space so that she could point the wand at the lid. Bones were protesting.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she chocked out.

Even her magical abilities were weakened, but the stone lid rose lazily nevertheless, revealing insides of the crypt. Cathy sat and waited until her head stopped spinning. She used this time to look around the dusty chamber filled with cobwebs. Luckily, nobody plundered her resting place. Grave robbers were a real plague amongst vampires and the Covenant was clear what is the punishment for a vampire who kills a mortal, so they could do very little about it.

Cathy jumped out of the sarcophagus and onto the floor. The crypt was small, without any devotional articles – crosses, paintings, icons, religious symbols. Everything that Cathy owned was being stored at Gringotta's, peacefully bringing her profits, which was a secret to many a vampire's fortune. They had a lot of time to multiply their money.

With some trouble did Cathy manage to unbolt the door. Lock was putting fierce resistance and the bar was really heavy. Outside there was a summer afternoon, warm and smelling of night rain. Cathy locked the door behind her with a spell and started looking around the cemetery. It was well groomed and small-town-like, with a few family crypts. The one behind Cathy belonged to the oldest ones. There were no dates engraved on it, only a surname, five letters covered with green layer of lichen: Ellis.

Plan was forming itself in Cathy's head step by step, until she herself was surprised by the ease with which it came to her. She stood before the cemetery gate, casting last glance over her shoulder at the place of her many years' rest, and then she teleported with a silent crack, just as if someone stepped on a dry stick.

"Bloody hell!"

Cathy briefly congratulated herself on a good timing. She managed to surprise Alexandra exactly at the moment when she was standing up from the carpet in her small apartment stuffed with books. It seemed like this was the place spell transported her to. She wasn't carrying any wounds any more, but she looked very pale, as if time travel wasn't really good for her.

"Catherine," she chocked out. "You startled me. So... We did it? Are we really in the past?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" asked Cathy with a sigh. "Come on, let's find out." She grabbed Alexandra by the elbow, ready for another teleportation.

"Wait! And what if these are still our times? They'll kill us on the streets!"

This theory was probably correct, but Cathy didn't feel like admitting it. If they really didn't make it, then she had no trouble with dying even that very moment. Everything was lost anyway and all that was waiting for them was running away from the chase. She didn't want to be the last living vampire.

She teleported both of them in the middle of the Diagon Alley, into the crowd of people that dazed her. It was a long time since she's been next to so many mortals at once. She let go of Alexandra's elbow, looking around, at passerbys' faces. Few people looked at her briefly. Nobody was attacking. At her side Alexandra was trembling in fear.

"See? We're alive," said Cathy evenly.

Despite indifferent face that she was showing, on the inside she was bursting with excitement. They were in the 40s, in the time when Aster de Nox haven't reached her position yet. They had a chance, a real chance to change the course oh history, save their race. Juliette accomplished the impossible.

Memory of her mentor and friend sobered Cathy up. Even though she knew that in theory she's save in her castle, working on one magical experiment or another, she couldn't get rid of the image of an empty eye socket.

No, no, no. This haven't happened yet. This will never happen. She won't let it.

Among many qualities Juliette observed in Cathy over the many years of their acquaintance, there really weren't many of those she would like to see in a person chosen for he mission of fixing the past. Still, Cathy was a vampire aristocrat, raised up and spoiled from the day she was born, and that meant that she was a good actress with a talent at hiding her emotions. As the opposite to Alexandra, who looked like she was very close to fainting. Cathy sent her a single look. In her opinion, Alexandra wasn't a particularly good vampire.

"What now?" asked Alexandra.

"Do you have any money? We'll go to Lilith's Arms, feed, get recent newspaper. We need to get up-to-date with current events."

Alexandra seemed to be grateful for the fact that Cathy's taking the lead. It fit Cathy, too, because she liked giving orders. Two vampires started walking through the crowd, enjoying great feeling of not being afraid that someone may attack them any moment. From Diagon Alley they turned into Knockturn Alley where the crowd was much thinner, but more colourful. Cathy followed with her gaze a witch who walked into the nearest shop, petting thoughtfully skeleton of a cat that she was carrying in her arms. Cathy disapproved of keeping pets. Not because she didn't like them. There was just no point in getting attached – they were dying so quickly. A little bit like people, when she started thinking about it.

Pub Lilith's Arms, local addressed strictly to vampire clientèle, was just like Cathy remembered it from times before wizards burned it down. With a sort of melancholy she recognised signboard presenting female vampire lavishly gifted by Mother Nature, yet suffering deficiency in the dress department. She stepped into the dark interior, with Alexandra following close behind.

They sat at the first table by the door. At this time, by day, there weren't many patrons present. There was a pair of vampires in travel coats sitting near the long counter and a very young vampire with long braid was reading a book in the light cast by the fireplace.

"What can I get for you, ladies?" asked a publican, appearing from thin air. He was a vampire of age that was impossible to establish and had hair sticking in every direction and neatly trimmed ginger beard. He spread his hands widely, as if to show that everything they can see is at their disposal. His gaze rested on Cathy and he smiled broadly. "I'll be damned if it's not young lady Ellis!"

"Hello, Isaac," said Cathy semi-automatically. "An acquaintance of mine, Alexandra Engels."

She wasn't close friends with Isaac Pennyworth, son of the pub owners, but every familiar face was causing her joy. Especially that she remembered how Isaac's head looked, exposed to ridicule in Lilith's Arms' broken window.

"I was under the impression you aren't going to join us for another decade or two?" Isaac looked at her quizzically.

"I've just woken up."

"Ah, in that case, a cup of blood for both ladies. Bear's, fresh, worth trying. A newspaper to that? We call it Welcome Among The Living package."

He laughed at his not particularly funny joke and strolled towards kitchen, shaking his head in disbelief. He came back a moment later with two dishes made of stained glass, containing about half a quart of blood each. Cathy pushed the blue "cup", as Isaac called it, towards herself and started drinking in slow, long sips. Blood was warm and tasted of forest and Cathy was very hungry. From the corner of her eye she notices how impractically long are her fingernails. Her hair have also grown out a lot, though a lot slower than it would have happened with a human. She will have to take care of that. There was a lot of small things like these.

"Strength solution is out of the question," said Cathy as if they haven't stopped their conversation even for a moment. "Maybe it would work with Nicholas, his family's got power... Elisses do too, of course, but in this other sense."

Alexandra looked at her questioningly over the newspaper she was browsing. It was enough for Cathy when she noticed the date printed on the first page: 17th of July, 1944.

"We have politics. My father was one of the vampires signing London Covenant, did you know that? We need to get among humans and vampires. Gain a position. Aster de Nox haven't started yet, she's oscillating somewhere around the Ministry of Magic and our Council. This way she'll get followers. We need position. If we acquire all of it before her... This can work. For a start."

"That's all very nice," Alexandra interrupted her, presenting irony perhaps for the first time, "but how are you going to do this, Catherine? I'm sorry, but I won't help you. My family isn't important enough for anybody to even remember our name, did you know that?"

Cathy haven't had any specific idea how to get to the top of the vampire social ladder, but she didn't say it out loud. She sent Alexandra a crooked, sarcastic smile that looked odd on her face with classical features.

"Can I stay at your place?" she asked instead of an answer. "I need to talk with goblins at Gringott's, they take care of my finances."

Not having much of a choice, Alexandra agreed. Cathy didn't know what the red-headed vampire was thinking about her and she was probably a happier person because of that – something in Alexandra's expression suggested it's nothing nice.

They finished their meal and left Lilith's Arms. Alexandra had her own life that was calling her in these times and she clearly wasn't keen on keeping Cathy company during executing rest of the plans she had for that day. Afternoon was only starting and Cathy was going to do a few more chores. She began, just as she promised, with a visit at Gringott's.

She was savouring the feeling that came with climbing up the white, marble stairs leading to the building. She wasn't looking as presentable as she wished to on the first day of her regained life, but she couldn't stop herself anyway, she had to straighten her back proudly as she was walking into the long banking hall. She walked over to a counter behind which sat a goblin with especially suspicious expression.

"How may I be of service, miss?" he asked in a screechy voice.

It was curious, really, but goblins weren't smelling compelling to Cathy at all. She didn't associate their blood with food at all. Instead goblins associated vampires with money, and that was pretty much defining their relations.

"My name is Catherine Ellis," she introduced herself. "I would like to talk to a person responsible for managing my account."

It was long time since she had a chance to give her name to anybody. During times of war it was unnecessary; she almost forgot how it is to be a person, with desires, qualities, past, she was so busy living from day to day, floating somehow on the surface of existence. Back then, there was no time for thinking about things like that. You knew people you could trust, meeting new ones was needless.

Naturally, goblin didn't believe her just like that. Without any protests Cathy underwent the procedure of identity check – she laid her palm on a small plate that was changing colours for a moment, until it took on a nasty, yellowish green tone.

After couple minutes of waiting, Cathy was approached by a female goblin who informed her indifferently that her name was Scriba. Cathy rarely saw female representatives of her species and the same could apparently be said about Scriba, so for a moment they were just eyeing each other, overcoming the height difference with some difficulty. Scriba was the first one to break out of the trance and she led Cathy to one of the rooms adjoining the main hall. It was an elegant office practically dripping with luxury. Cathy took a place at the chair by the table with delicately curved legs. Scriba stood by her elbow, apparently not wishing to go through procedure of climbing the too tall for her sit. She produced a packet of papers for Cathy to browse through. They were account statements, tables of numbers, some percentages from equity tradings. It meant nothing to Cathy, but she tried to keep her expression politely interested.

"What will you need, miss Ellis?" asked Scriba in a sober tone.

"Everything," answered Cathy at once.

This clearly piqued Scriba's interest. Money flow was probably the only thing, right next to jewels, that was ale to make a goblin happy.

"Everything," repeated Cathy with conviction. "We should probably start with an accommodation. I would like to rent, or more readily buy, a tenement house at Diagon Alley."

Goblin's professionalism was legendary. A little over a week after this meeting Cathy could move in to her own apartment, furnished by the last owners. Rest of the tenement house remained empty – Cathy wasn't interested in renting rooms for shops or looking for tenants. Her predecessors had a tendency for furniture deftly pretending to be antiques and Cathy decided that it satisfied her for now.

Diagon Alley was providing her access to everything she needed ad hoc. And if anything was from a little different shelf, she could always venture at Knockturn Alley. She spent her days writing letters to her acquaintances and informing them about her early awakening or wandering the shops. Sometimes, like this particular afternoon, Alexandra kept her company.

They were leaving Twilfit & Tatting's, a boutique that Cathy found especially to her liking and that Alexandra was describing as snobbish. Cathy made sure over her shoulder that the saleswoman wrote down correct address to send all her shopping.

"We should be spending this time on planning how to interrupt Aster, not wasting it in shops," Alexandra pointed out acidly.

It was hard to disagree with her, but Cathy had no idea how sitting at home and racking their brains was going to be any more inspiring. She slowed her pace, because there was some sort of commotion ahead of them, someone was blocking the street by the Flourish and Blots Bookseller. She was suspecting that maybe book signing by some well-known author was taking place, but it was hard to establish from such a distance and through swirling crowd of people.

"We need to get to the public life. I would propose some ministry job, but we don't have predispositions for that," replied Cathy. "We can't just appear out of nowhere, two vampires with their contact with present times disturbed, and expect that they will let us do anything bigger than a coffee. Where else do you have contact with people? Think."

By the book store a scene was playing, drawing more and more onlookers. Reddened, laden with packages plump witch was waving a cauldron she held in one hand and trying to convince small and just as plump boy to go inside Flourish and Blots, because she had to buy him his textbooks, for Merlin's sake. The boy was answering tearfully that there is no way he's going to any school, so there is no need for textbooks. The witch looked like she was honestly thinking about just stunning the boy with a spell and dragging him inside by force. Cathy would probably cheer for her. She haven't discovered any maternal instincts in herself yet. In this aspect her maturity was fully corresponding with her teenage looks.

"You can stop thinking now," she said, smiling to herself. "I know what we're going to do."

"Is that so?" Alexandra showed her interest. "And what exactly?"

They squeezed by the witch and the boy, leaving the pair to their own dramas. Cathy's eyes shone in actual delight, for the first time in many, many years. At last she had something to hold on to. She was surprised that she haven't thought about it earlier, so obvious was this solution. If they couldn't find any job adequate to their task, they had to reach a little lower. Thanks to that they could avoid the effect of appearing out of nowhere, they were gaining some more modern background. To an average wizard name "Ellis" meant nothing, he didn't know what stories are connected to it. Here Cathy couldn't rely completely on fame surrounding her family. She will have to create Catherine Ellis from scratch, make her an independent person, not leaning on her ancestors' achievements. Solution she just came up with was perfect for Alexandra, too, because it wasn't actually referring to the past.

"Are you going to tell me, or will you just continue to smile like that?" asked Alexandra irritably, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Dear Alexandra, we will sign up to Hogwarts."

AN: Hello! Hope you didn't hate this chapter very much. This one, and the next one, for that matter, show some background that wolud look stupid just explained in few sentences, I think. Anyway, if you are already annoyed with Cathy... Well, she's not a very sympathy-gaining character.

I have this story finished, but it's in Polish. What you can read here is my poor translation, so if there are any grammatical errors, point them out and know you are helping me to learn. Thank you in advance!