Chapter 1 - Prologue – In Time

Rowan lets out a groan as she holds her head and rather dazedly blinks. Trying to regain her bearings, she glanced around. She hastily scrambles back upon noticing a thin man with shallow skin, a large hooked nose, piercing black eyes, and dark silky robes standing before her.

As she warily studies the strange man before her a sense of familiarity in the man's appearance causes Rowan to narrow her eyes, but before she can connect the dots the unknown man collapses onto the floor. Her eyes immediately flicker over to the severe bleeding wound on the slender man's waist. She instantly moves to grab her medical kit to only realize she is in an unknown plain white room.

"We're in time," the thin man coldly muttered in a velvety English accented voice. "The wound is fatal. Regrettably, there is not much that can be done at this point."

Rowan numbly crosses her legs and wryly says, "This isn't some sort of Terminator situation is it?" If Rowan's vast plot experience had taught her anything at all and that is to never trust an AI. But most especially never trust the information on a time continuum event for the past and future can always be re-altered if not, there wouldn't be a whole slew of Terminator movies.

"Terminator?" The man's brow crinkled in confusion and annoyance.

"Yes," Rowan curtly replied as she slowly edged away in suspicion. There was something very familiar about the man as though looking at a familial relative. But as far as she was aware her father had been an only child and she herself was the same. But the way those lips pressed together seemed to be too much of a familiar gesture to be so easily ignored. But most especially those dark swirling ink colored eyes that seemed to absorb all light.

A loud cough startles Rowan out of her thoughts as the man coughs out a wad of blood and tiredly wipes his bloody mouth. Reaching into his pocket for a handkerchief, the cold faced man irritably snapped, "Am I correct in meeting, the descendant born from the forbidden union of a tree dryad and a druid's lust?"

Rowan sighs with resignation at the family's skeleton in the closet so to speak. For once upon a time, a nature-loving druid fell in love with a tree dryad and from their mutual love a child was born, her many great-grandfathers. The love story was true by all accounts as all family members carried a spark of magic within them with some more than others.

"Yes," Rowan drily replied as the last piece to the puzzle suddenly clicked in her mind at seeing the dark eyes narrow as if in triumph. Swallowing nervously, Rowan anxiously says, "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but are you my future self? Because I never thought I'd get a sex change, no offense."

"No," the man flatly rasped rather appalled at the idea itself. "I'm from an alternative universe."

Rowan privately sighs in relief but narrows her eyes coldly back. "In that case, exactly what brings you here?"

"I need your help," the thin man breathlessly said, before falling into a fit of back-breaking coughs.

Somewhat cross at being unable to do anything, Rowan rolls up her sleeves to reveal a leaf-like birthmark on her upper wrist. The grizzled man's lips twitch into a bloody smile. "So, you're a Magician?" The grizzled man bitterly coughed.

Rowan blinks in surprise and suspiciously says, "Why? Aren't you one too?"

The grizzled man adamantly shakes his head in thinly veiled horror. "Preposterous, I'm a wizard!" He proudly sniffed in retort.

Rowan furrows her brow and snorts back, "A wizard, huh?" The grown man sneers back at her with a familiar twist of lips causing Rowan to sneer back in an identical reply.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Rowan frowns as she contemplates the response. Why was he here to see her unless Magicians didn't exist in his original world? But if wizards did exist in his world, there shouldn't be any need for him to see a Magician. After all, unlike wizards who used wands to perform all sorts of magic, Magicians were born only being able to use one sole type of magic. And even then, very few Magicians were ever able to match a wizard in power and those rare enough that were classified as Grand Magicians.

Raising an eyebrow up, Rowan flatly asked, "So, what do you want?"

"I need you to change the fate of my world," the thin man coughed streams of blood into his handkerchief.

"One, no way. Two, time and fate do not like to be changed. And three, I'm not from your universe," Rowan argued back. Besides she was a woman and he was very much a man. She had no desire whatsoever for a sudden sex change.

"And that is exactly, why it will work," the thin man snapped back. "Any changes you make will be permanent as you are from outside of our universe and timeline."

Rowan rubs her forehead with her hand and sighs. "Ignoring this supposed theory, what exactly am I trying to do?"

The thin man sneers back and says, "In my world an evil wizard, the Dark Lord-." He pauses as if forcing himself to speak, "-Lord Voldemort rules the world. I want you to stop him before he succeeds."

"Wait, are you talking about H**ry P**ter?" Rowan incredulously said and frowned. Wait, why couldn't she say those two words out loud?

"The what?" The thin man sputtered.

Rowan grimaces and growls, "I'm assuming your name is Severus Snape, am I correct?"

The thin man narrows his eyes and icily replies, "Given that you are my alternate version, I should think that should not surprise you."

"Well, my surname and first name most certainly aren't Snape nor Severus," Rowan countered back.

Severus Snape narrows his eyes at the response but does not probe further. "I'll be sending you back in time to kill him."

"Wait, time out!" Rowan hastily gestured with her two hands in vehement protest.

Severus Snape simply ignored Rowan's protests, "1971."

Before Rowan can continue to vehemently protest, the white room begins to loudly crack and break as a roar from outside fills the room. "What's happening?" Rowan exclaimed.

"We've run out of time," Severus Snape croaked. "If it's any consolation, you were already dying, when I saved you." Rowan cursed out loud as the faint, but painful memory of being stabbed through the chest can suddenly be recalled verifying the truth of the statement.

The white room rapidly breaks apart like an eggshell as the grizzled man yells over the roar, "Save-!"

"Wait-!" Rowan called out too late as the white room broke apart and they fell into utter darkness.