Author's Note: I was imagining what it would be like to be dropped into an alternate universe - particularly an alternate, and fictional, universe that you had some knowledge about. What if you could change the fate of that world? Would you?

This is what happens if someone makes that choice, to diverge from the path and create a new future. Or, at least, I hope so.

~ Strange New World ~

Su was sitting in a tree, reading. The dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves, bathing her in green and gold. Below her, her younger brothers were playing tag with their cousins – squealing and screaming and running like wild things. She paid them no mind, absorbed by her book. She was caught up in the story, imagining a new and different world, far away and impossible to reach – a world of magic and mystery and danger and excitement.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, pressing against her ribs and lungs, and it was hard to breathe for excitement. The pages turned and she reached the climax of the story, the great battle, the triumphs, the tears, the losses and fears and hopes for the future. And then it was over, for at least a little while, and she heaved a sigh of relief.

"Su! Su, where are you?"

"Over here, Mum!" She waved at her mother, tucking the latest Harry Potter book into her bag, right next to William Shakespeare's Othello, Computer Engineering for Dummies, A Brief History of Time, and Myths, Legends, and Fairytales.

"Su, lunch is in five minutes," her mum told her, standing beneath the tree. "Get down from the tree and meet us at the table across the park, okay? Wash your hands, too!"

"Yes, mum, I'll be right down."

Her mum walked away, and Su dreamed for a moment about receiving a Hogwarts acceptance letter for her eleventh birthday in the next year. But magic wasn't real, and she lived in Australia anyway, so she couldn't go to a boarding school in Scotland.

Still, it could be fun, doing magic. It seemed like a dead useful thing to have.

She carefully dropped her bag to the ground, so that she could climb down the tree without it snagging on the branches, which had been a problem on the way up. Unfortunately, the bag knocked against the trunk of the tree and fell into a dark hole beneath the trees bulging roots.

She scowled at it. Great. Just great.

She jumped gracefully out of the tree, landing on her feet with no injuries and perfect balance. When her mother had given her club options, gymnastics had seemed far more useful than knitting club or girl's soccer, and it was really paying off.

On the ground now, she looked for the hole that her bag had fallen into, while in the distance her mum shouted for her to hurry up and come for lunch.

"Be there in a second!" She called back.

The hole was deeper than she had originally thought, and she wondered briefly if it was an animal burrow of some kind. A rabbit hole, maybe? The thought made her laugh. Still, she could see her bag, sitting in the dirt just beyond her reach, while the Harry Potter book had fallen onto the grass just beside her.

"Mum's going to get me for this," Su sighed, eyeing the dirt on the bag. Grumbling about getting her clothes dirty, and the inevitable scolding she'd get from her mother for it, Su slipped past the tree roots and into the hole.

That's where everything went wrong.

She snatched up her bag, but the dirt beneath her feet crumbled, and she found herself choking on the dust, blinded by the dirt that got into her eyes. She was falling, flailing, and couldn't find her balance in the small space.

Something hit her neck, and stars burst in front of her eyes, but the burning pain distracted her from the sight. Then all she knew was pain and darkness.

She had the strangest sensation of floating, as if she was adrift in the ocean.

All she could see was darkness, and somewhere, just out of her reach, something silvery and misty, floating in the current with her. It came closer and closer, until it surrounded her with a softly glowing silver light.

The mist was cold, but to her surprise, when she touched it, it circled around her hands and soaked into her skin, until she herself was glowing. It felt a little odd, like when her eyes were adjusting from darkness to light, a little painful, but ultimately it left her feeling clearer-headed.

She could hear whispers, echoing all around her, but she wasn't sure what they're saying. Just as she strained her ears, tuning into the sounds, something tugged at her, pulling her out of her lazy, floating haze, and down, down, down, into somewhere else.

She landed on her feet, at least, though she stumbled into the wall.

Looking around, Su subdued, with great difficulty, the urge to panic. She was standing in a room of black marble, surrounded by strangers in dresses, each pointing a stick at her and eyeing her warily. She must have fallen into some secret underground lair of a freakish cult or something. She just hoped they wouldn't try to sacrifice her in some kind of deadly pagan ritual, or force her to marry an eighty-year-old man.

She wasn't really sure what freaky cults did, but she really didn't want to find out.

"Um," she glanced around, looking for the door. "If you wanted to show me the way out, I'll just get out of your hair and be on my way. Sound fair?"

One of the strangers waved their stick and a bright red light shot towards her.

Once again, she was swallowed by darkness.

"She's waking up!"

"Quick! Hand me the potion!"

Someone gently pried her lips open and dropped some water onto her tongue. The sensations that followed were strange. At once, everything she knew became sharp and clear, but her limbs felt heavy and her thoughts were foggy.

"What is your full name?" one man asked.

"Su Ran Li."

"How old are you?"

"Nine years and eleven months. I turn ten on the twelfth of July."

"Where did you come from?"

"Clarify – where was I born? Where was I raised? Where was I directly before I came into this room? Where was I directly before I dropped into that other black room?"

The strangers exchanged glances, though Su could not properly interpret these glances. She didn't know why her answer was so strange – after all, their question had been very vague. If they wanted clear answers, they needed clear questions.

"All of the above," a woman declared at last.

"I was born in Melbourne, Victoria. I was raised in Melbourne, Victoria. I was in that black room full of strangers directly before waking in this room. I was in a tree in Scotland on holiday reading a book, and then in a hole looking for a bag that I dropped, directly before falling into that black room full of strangers."

"Do you know where you are?"

"No."

"Do you know how you got here?"

"No."

"Do you know who we are?"

"No."

"What do you want?"

"I want to go back to my family, because my mother is probably worried about me, and my brothers are probably hungry for lunch and sick of looking for me, and I don't know anyone here and I'm scared so I want to leave."

The strangers exchanged glances again, before leaving the room. Su watched them go, her limbs still heavy, but her thoughts less foggy. She was afraid that she had been drugged and kidnapped. She didn't know where she was, and things were looking grim.

"What did she say?" Madame Locke asked, pacing in her office before the three Unspeakables who had been present in the Veil room when the girl had fallen through it. No one was sure what had happened – only that they were experimenting with time-turner bubbles in proximity to the Veil, in hopes of being able to communicate with the dead. Instead, out of nowhere, a small girl had stumbled out of the Veil.

Alfred Yao had been so surprised that he had stunned the poor girl.

"We gave her the veritaserum, Madame Locke," Yao told her. "Her name is Su Li, she's nine. She doesn't know where she is or how she got here. She just wants to go home."

"A nine-year-old," Locke's face fell, sighing. "She was far too young to die."

"Li," Sherlock Pearl frowned. "Any relation of yours, Beatrice?"

Beatrice Li shook her head.

"I don't know," she confessed. "If she were from England, I could probably assume she was a cousin that became a casualty of the war, but she's from Australia so…"

"She did mention that she was in Scotland before she fell through the Veil," Pearl pointed out. "She might not be related to you, but the war still might've gotten her."

"I suppose."

"If I may ask," Yao frowned, shifting nervously on his feet. "What are we going to do with her? We can't just send her back through the Veil… can we?"

Locke shook her head. "No. It is possible that we might learn something from this girl, about where she came from, and what happened to her. Besides, she's only a child. She deserves to live a full life, even if it's not the life that she was originally intended for."

"Who's going to take care of her then?" Pearl frowns. "It will have to be an Unspeakable, because we need access to her if any new information comes up, or if we need to ask her about her past and such. I'm just saying this now – I am barely qualified to keep myself healthy, let alone a child."

Locke glanced at the other woman in the room, and Li blushed under her scrutiny.

"Well… Nathan has been asking me if we might settle down and have some children. I don't think that a nine-year-old is exactly what he had in mind, but perhaps it's a start?"

Locke nodded. "Alright, I'll draft up the paperwork, we need a backstory for the girl. Until everything is prepared, I suggest that we all lay low. We don't need anyone from the Upper Floors digging into this. I hate bureaucrats."

"Yes, ma'am."

Li, Yao, and Pearl bowed before the head of the Department of Mysteries and left.

The drug was beginning to wear off, and Su looked around at her surroundings nervously. She was in a room made of the same gold-veined black marble as the one she had fallen into before. This room was smaller, had no windows, and only one door.

She was sitting in a moderately comfortable wingback armchair, but there was no other furniture in the room, and no carpet on the floor. It was very Spartan.

She realized with a start that there were no lights in the room – or at least, not electric ones. The were flickering candles in ornamental iron sconces bolted to the walls, the shifting light and shimmering shadows were starting to scare her. She was in a strange place, being held prisoner by a cult of child-drugging creeps, and she had no idea what they wanted from her.

She just wanted her mum, to be held in her arms and told that everything would be okay. That it was all a nightmare and the monsters wouldn't get her as long as she cleaned her room and ate all her vegetables.

A choked half-sob, half-laugh burst from her throat at the thought of the old stories her mum would tell her to simultaneously rid her of her fear of monsters under the bed and also do her chores at the same time.

"You all right there?"

Su sobered immediately, drawing her knees up to her chest in order to get as far away from the strange woman as possible. She didn't know what they wanted from her, and she was terrified out of her wits, but she wouldn't go down without a fight if that were what it would come to.

Beatrice felt pity and sympathy tug her heart at the sight of the small girl curled up in a chair that dwarfed her, eyes wide with fear. She was pretty enough, Beatrice thought distractedly, with long, straight black hair and wide dark eyes. Everything about the girl was petite and delicate, but there was something in her eyes, beyond the terror and fragility, that intrigued her. It was a look of careful calculation.

Su was trying to figure out if she could escape before the strange woman could attack her. Those robes were long and cumbersome – if she could tangle the woman's hands and then knock her off her feet, perhaps she could make a dash for the door. The problem was, Su didn't know where she was, or how to get out, or how many people she would find on the other side of the door. She decided to wait it out.

Beatrice watched the girl's eyes dart between herself and the door, glancing at the wand in her hand, to her robes, to her feet and to her eyes. There were plans forming behind those eyes, she could see, and this impressed her.

"My name is Beatrice," she told the girl, smiling gently at her. "I've been sent here to explain your situation to you. I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me."

She conjured up a chair for herself, casually dropping into to allow an atmosphere of informality and intimacy less likely to frighten the poor girl.

Su squeaked and paled, her hands clenching the armrests of her own chair so hard that the nails bit into the fabric and her knuckles turned white.

Beatrice raised her eyebrows. Perhaps this Li was a muggle-born, or even just a straight muggle, to have been surprised by the magic?

Silently, she cast a core-examination spell on the girl, and observed the girl's still-unstable magical core floating around her body with a silvery glow.

So she was a witch then. She was probably a muggle-born, considering her reaction to magic. Maybe she was muggle-raised, at the very least. Beatrice decided that she would just let the girl ask her questions, and give more explanations about the magical world and how it worked to her as time went by.

"Go on," she let her smile evolve into an easy, friendly grin. "Just ask me anything."

"Where," Su began, but she hesitated. Beatrice nodded encouragingly and she continued. "Where are we? What is this place? Why am I here?"

"We are in the Department of Mysteries, a branch of the Ministry of Magic focused on research and development," Beatrice smiled. "Yes, magic is real. I know it's hard to believe right now, so we will talk about that a little bit later, when you are more comfortable. As for why you are here…"

Beatrice sighed. She wasn't really sure how to explain this situation to a child. To her superiors, who knew of the projects and purposes, yes – but a child? Unknown territory.

"We have been experimenting, with the Veil– a powerful object that we know very little about other than the fact that we can hear snatches of whispers from those we know to be dead on the other side. As a result of these experiments, you have been expelled from the Veil and into the hall that holds it. We can only assume that you have died at some point, and were drawn through the Veil through our experiments."

"I died?" It was hard to believe, it just sounded so impossible, and Su couldn't imagine how it could have happened. Did she… did she break her neck, in that hole in the ground? Or did she just hit her head so hard that she was hallucinating about women conjuring chairs and talking about the Ministry of Magic in a British accent.

"We think so," Beatrice told her. "To tell the truth, we know very little about the Veil and what lies beyond it. No one has ever returned from the other side – even when we tie ropes around them, they just seem to disappear into thin air.

Su curled up in her chair, trying to sort through her thoughts. There was a Ministry of Magic in the book she had been reading, perhaps her recently finished book was affecting her imagination and hallucinations – her little daydream had become a full-blown fantasy, complete with tactile details. It was starting to scare her.

"Right," she said, after a while. "Ministry of Magic. Veil. Experiments. Dead. I suppose this means that the only way for me to get home would be to kill me? That seems like a bad idea. What happens to me now?"

If it were all just a dream, then Su would simply wake up naturally… eventually. If, somehow, she really had died and been dragged into an alternate universe, magic had already been demonstrated to her and there was no obvious way home.

Beatrice fidgeted. She had been expecting the question, but she was still unsure of how to handle children, and was anxious of the girl's reaction to an invitation to stay in the home of complete and total strangers.

"Well, it has been suggested… I mean to say, that a logical and viable option," Beatrice stumbled over her words, unsure how to phrase it for a nine-year-old mind. "My superior has proposed that, for the time being, you might stay with myself, and my husband – he is quite fond of children, but we have been unblessed so far."

"So… I will be living with you until more permanent arrangements can be made?" Su asked, surprising Beatrice with her mature vocabulary.

"Exactly," she smiled at the girl. "I must admit – you're taking this much better than I thought that you would. I expected more tears."

"I think I'm in shock," Su confessed. "You can expect the tears, soon, I suppose."

"I'll keep that in mind," Beatrice smiled.

"Do you have my bag?" Su asked.

"It's outside," Beatrice assured her. "We can pick it up on our way out, if you'd like."

Su nodded, and followed Beatrice out of the room.

"So, is there a Wizard's Bank?" Su asked, as she followed Beatrice out of the Department of Mysteries and through the corridors of the Ministry. "Is it like normal banks? Do you make deposits and investments and wills and hide your jewellery there?"

"Our bank is called Gringotts," Beatrice told her. "It's run by goblins. They're very clever, and very proud. Never get on the bad side of a goblin."

"Gringotts," Su repeated. It seemed that she had been right – she had somehow dropped into the fictional universe of JK Rowling's books. "Where's that?"

"In Diagon Alley, part of the central Wizard's Network in London."

Su was silent, considering her situation. She was sure now that she was in JK Rowling's Harry Potter universe – complete with magic, goblins, and Gringotts Bank. But she was lacking information, as not only had she not finished reading all the books, but she also lacked the information that Rowling had neglected to expand upon, as it was not important to the plot.

How big, exactly, was Diagon Alley? Was Knockturn Alley the only other wizarding street in London or where there others like it? Were all these streets for shopping only, or were there neighbourhoods and homes somewhere in the middle of London?

Su felt, suddenly, that she had only ever seen a very small part of a very large world, and decided that – afterlife or hallucination or Alice-Down-the-Rabbit-Hole – she would learn as much as she could about this new world.

"So… where are we going now?" She asked, ducking under a flock of flying memos and trying not to stare. She had long since given up trying to remember all the twists and turns that compromised the maze that was the Ministry.

"To the public fireplaces, so that we can Floo out of here," Beatrice told her.

Su tilted her head to the side, squinting at Beatrice and pretending not to understand.

"I'll show you how it works when we get there," Beatrice promised.

"Is there anything else you think I should know before we go?" Su asked, stumbling after Beatrice in the great crowds that flooded the main hall, and eyeing the garish gold statue of magical creatures worshipping a witch and a wizard with distaste.

Beatrice used a combination of Notice-Me-Not charms and tripping jinxes to bump herself and Su to the front of a long line before a public fireplace. She paused while considering Su's question, and then shrugged.

"Nothing that I can think of at the moment," she admitted. "Only that you should probably avoid touching things in the house until I can tidy up my… experiments. Oh! And my husband's name is Nathan – and he loves to cook."

"Right." Su still felt woefully unequipped to face the wizarding world, but supposed that the majority of things she would pick up as she went along.

"Right," Beatrice nodded, smiling. "Okay – the Floo. Take a pinch of Floo Powder, and throw it into the flames. The green fire won't hurt you, so don't worry. Step into the flames and shout – very clearly, mind – the name of your destination. I'd suggest you close your eyes and hold your breath to avoid the smoke and dust."

"Got it," Su nodded, staring at the fireplace with grim determination.

Beatrice put a pinch of Floo Powder into her hand.

"Our address is Greenling Cottage, Wiltshire," Beatrice told her.

Su nodded and stepped into the fire, dropping the powder on the flames and shouting, "Greenling Cottage, Wiltshire!"

Su stumbled out of the fireplace, coughing. Behind her, Beatrice appeared in a flash of green flames, wiping the ash from her face with a handkerchief and offering a spare to Su, who gratefully accepted.

"Nate?" Beatrice called out. "I'm home! I've brought a guest."

"I'm in the kitchen, Bea!"

Beatrice smiled, and gently guided Su through the house, towards the kitchen.

Su was finding it hard not to stare. A wizard's house was not greatly different from 'normal' houses – there were couches in the living room, and a coffee table, and bookcases and shelves full of photographs and knickknacks. But the photographs were moving, and peering at their new houseguest, and the knickknacks were hovering toy brooms and sleeping little gold cat statuettes.

The cottage wasn't big – from all appearances there was only the living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen-dining area – but Su liked it. For one thing, there were books crammed into every corner, on every subject.

She could see titles like A History of Time-Travel: Past and Future by Martin McDowell; Mythical Creatures that Really Do Exist by Xenophilius Lovegood; The Narnia Myth by Icarus Smoke; and Aeroplanes: Can Muggles Fly? By Tamara Knoll.

She hoped that she'd stay long enough to read some of these books – even if she was just hallucinating. She hoped that, somehow, she had gained the ability to use magic, and could practice some of the spells she might find in Advanced Travel Charms or 101 Useful Transfigurations. After all, what was the point of being dropped into a magical world if you couldn't use magic?

Finally they emerged from the living room and entered the kitchen, where Nathan Li was cooking dinner. Su watched, fascinated, as while he chopped vegetables manually, behind him on the stove, a pot was stirring itself, and another spoon was serving rice into some bowls without assistance.

Magic is amazing, she thought.

"Nathan, I'd like you to meet Su Li, she'll be staying with us for at least a little while," Beatrice put a hand on Su's shoulder, and it was a solid and comforting weight. But that weight, and those words – at least a little while – suddenly it felt so real.

This wasn't a dream. She was stuck, in some other world, away from her family, her friends, her life. She might never be able to return home. She might be dead – wasn't that what Beatrice had said?

She burst into tears, surprising both Beatrice and her husband. Nathan immediately rushed over, offering Su a handkerchief, which she accepted, sobbing uncontrollably.

She hated crying – it was so messy. There were tears, and the snot, and the uneven breathing. Crying was just so undignified, and emotional and Su found that – while cathartic – the experience was generally unpleasant.

"Oh, sweetheart," Beatrice sighed, stroking Su's hair. "It's okay."

"What's the matter?" Nathan asked. He was quite confused by his hysterical new guest. In fact, he was quite confused by the actual presence of his guest.

"She's had a rough day," Beatrice told him. "I'll explain later. Su, why don't you get some rest? The guest bedroom is over here, just put your bag down and get some sleep." Gently she led Su to the bedroom, and emerged soon after, having tucked the girl in.

"What's going on, Bea?" He asked, sitting down at the table and handing her a bowl.

"One sec," Beatrice held up a hand and ate her dinner quickly, while her husband squirmed – with impressive patience – beside her, occasionally picking at his own meal.

When they were done, Beatrice told him all about experimenting with the Veil, trying to communicate with the dead, and the unexpected emergence of Su from within. There was no record of anyone ever emerging from the Veil, and the Department of Mysteries wanted to ask Su a lot of questions about Death, and what was Beyond the Veil.

"This is happening very quickly," Nathan frowned, rubbing his temples. "This is Ministry business – where's all the paperwork? You know how that bureaucracy works, everything takes eight months to be processed and finalised… unless you're a ridiculously wealthy pureblood." At this, he scowled. "Did you know that Lucius Malfoy has delayed another raid on his house? This is the third 'surprise' raid that's been postponed this year! I was talking to Arthur Weasley about it – you know how they were in school, don't you remember? Always at each other's throats. There was fifth year, when they–"

"Back to the situation at hand, Nathan," Beatrice put a calming hand on his arm, and smiled at him, both amused and exasperated. "We have been asked to take care of this little girl – for the foreseeable future. I don't believe it will be too much trouble. In a year, she'll be off to Hogwarts, and we'll hardly see her…"

Nathan sighed.

"I don't know, Bea," he said. "Death is Death – it can't be defied without terrible consequences. And time-turners… terrible things happen to people who mess with time. You know this better than anyone, Bea."

"Changing the past is one thing," Beatrice replied. "But giving a future to someone who deserves one, who was too young to die – surely that's reason enough? Nathan, haven't you always wanted children?"

"Beatrice, this isn't about wanting or not wanting," he growled, frustrated. "This is about messing with things beyond your understanding. The effects of keeping her here, when she doesn't belong in our world, could be disastrous!"

"So what?" Beatrice snapped, scowling. "What would you have me do? Send her back through the Veil? She's a child, Nate, and I won't send her to her death if I don't have to. She deserves to live a full and happy life, don't you think so?"

"I'm just worried," Nathan pleaded. "The consequences of this… Bea – bad things happen to people who thwart death and play with time."

"I know," Beatrice sighed, and she looked very, very tired. "I know that. I do. I just– I can't– Nathan. Everyone deserves a second chance. She's just a girl. She's not about to go our and destroy the world or anything."

"He was just a boy once," Nathan told her; equally quiet. "Then he started screwing around with death and became a Dark Lord and now no one will say his name."

"Just…" Beatrice slumped in her seat. "Just give her a chance. Please?"

Nathan looked at his wife – and she was so beautiful and sad and tired and hopeful… how could he deny her anything, really?

"Okay, Bea. Okay."

In the bedroom, Su Li tossed and turned beneath the covers.

She was trapped in some strange new world, without her family, and without her friends, and with only the barest understanding of what had happened to her.

There was no way to get back home, she decided, so she must adjust to this new world. In the morning, she would try to see if she had magic. Then she would do as she had always done – learn everything that she could about everything she came across.

One day, she might just change the world.

A/N: Even though Su's technically a character in the books, she basically doesn't feature at all. Her personality, her history, her existence in an alternate universe is all made up by me. Basically I'm screwing with canon - but isn't that what fanfiction's for?

Anyway, if you want to, you can review and tell me what you think.