Beside the frozen Black Lake, they both felt happy.
Will turned to look at Sylvia. The dim light fell across her fair face, tracing its gentle contours.
Her dark brown eyes seemed especially bright in the night as she gazed at him.
"Will," Sylvia said softly, her voice drifting on the winter wind, "sometimes I wonder what I'd be like now if I'd never met you.
"Probably an ordinary Slytherin girl. Or maybe an ordinary Beauxbatons girl."
"Oh?"
"I told Hermione my family wanted me to go to Beauxbatons," Sylvia said, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. "Then I'd probably graduate, do what my parents told me like so many others, marry a pure-blood from a suitable family, and then..."
"And then?"
"Then spend my whole life living up to other people's expectations." Sylvia turned and met his eyes. "I wouldn't have learned so much interesting Dark Magic, or gone to the Room of Requirement every day. And I certainly wouldn't be here like this."
Will looked at her without speaking.
Sylvia went on. "You know, when I was little, I never thought I'd come to Hogwarts."
"But you did. Why?"
"Because one year, I had a dream."
"A dream?"
"Yes." Sylvia seemed lost in the memory. "There was a woman in it. She told me I would definitely go to Hogwarts."
"And you listened?"
"I did, because the woman in my dream was me. She said I'd be happy."
Will listened quietly as moonlight edged them both in silver.
"I didn't really understand what she meant back then," Sylvia said. "Not until... I came to understand it little by little."
She left it there, but Will understood what she meant. What troubled him more was why Sylvia had used a Time-Turner.
They fell silent for a moment. Only