Year Ago Today

"So why didn't she come with you?"

"I think she was unsure if you wanted to be left alone or not," Sev said. "She would have come with me, but than she also thought you didn't want the both of us coming because we might be two overly," he waved his hand vaguely instead of saying the next word that he couldn't remember what it was.

"Oh, alright," Nic said. "Well, I'm glad at least one of you showed up." She smiled at Sev then.

"Lauz overthinks things sometimes," he said with a shake of his head. He sighed. "How long are we going to be stuck here? It's weird enough being over ten years older than I am meant to be. Let alone a different time line. Let alone, this one."

"I don't know..." Nic muttered. "Maybe we'll be stuck here until we get to see the end of the war firsthand and know what our mums went through."

Sev wrinkled his nose. "I hope not. That would be horrible."

"Yeah..." Nic agreed quietly. "Maybe we got sent back to fix or change something and make it better?"

"As long as we don't die in the process. ...Why the HELL do I have the same name as the headmaster?"

"Maybe he does something later that makes your mum admire him."

"That seems unlikely," he muttered. "Considering he's doing a very good job at nearly killing her."

"What do we know, though?"

Sev scowled. "I hate the lot of them," he said.

"I do too."

"At least we win," he muttered sourly.

"That's always a plus."

"But, it's just, horrible to think of what our side had to go through before that happened."

"The end justifies the means," Nic muttered. "In a war, sacrifices have to be made for the greater good sometimes."

"I just, don't want to think of my mum going through those things," he said tiredly.

"But it's made her the woman we know and love and that's what counts. That she made it through and is sane and functioning and stuff."

"Nic, I'm five, technically. In my mind, everything is still meant to be bloody perfect. I just," he sighed. "I dunno."

"Your mind is seventeen just like the rest of you," Nic said taking a second to look at him. "You grow up well, Sev."

"It'd help if I hadn't skipped all the middle years."

"Eh. As of now, you skipped those awkward growing into yourself years."

"But I don't know why I am who I am. Or am who I will be," he frowned. "This is confusing. Or how I learnt all the things I know. And that stuff. It's weird."

"It's magic, Sev. Don't question it."