Welcome back all!
Whilst there were many reviews which made me laugh and think, I really have neither the time nor space to write responses in my works. Sorry to those of you who got that impression. I'll do it maybe every 5 or 6 chapters or so, but not more frequently than that.
Now, to alert you all of new business. A faithful reader pointed out to me a weakness in the end of chapter 8 which could be better. After careful deliberation, I changed the last scene of Chapter 8 so that it's more artistic. Please go and read it if you wish.
ONWARD!
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Chapter 9: Outsmarting the Prankster
Dumbledore was sitting at his desk reading over a report when there was a knock at his door.
"Come in," he said nonchalantly. Lily entered and sat down in front of the headmaster without saying a word. "Is something the matter, Lily?" he asked. She considered him for a moment before exploding.
"My son!" she yelled wide-eyed. "He's my son and you didn't even tell me! Why?!" Dumbledore sighed and leaned forward.
"If I had told you, would you have believed me?" he asked. Lily opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She leaned back in the chair, defeated. "How did you find out?"
"I overheard him and Hermione talking about it," she said. Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at her. Fine! I listened in on them." Dumbledore nodded.
"So I take it then, you know who the father is?" Lily sighed and buried her face in her hands.
"Yes..." she mumbled.
"So now, the most important question is: How are you feeling about all of this?" the headmaster asked. Lily sighed and ran her hands through her streaming red hair.
"Overwhelmed," was the response she gave.
"Perfectly understandable," replied Dumbledore. There was silence in the room for a short time until Lily spoke up.
"The future..." she said. "How'd it happen? They didn't come back here on purpose, did they?"
"No, from what I understand it was an accident."
"Then what caused it?" Lily asked, suddenly motivated.
"I'm afraid that the answer to that question is not mine to give," replied Dumbledore. "From what I know of them, I believe that Harry and Hermione will be more than happy to tell you everything you wish to know in due time. Don't forget though, that James will inevitably find out about this also. You need to be prepared for his reaction."
"You don't think that he'd do anything rash, do you?" asked Lily.
"One never knows, when it comes to James," replied the headmaster twinkling. Lily chuckled slightly at this. "Now, it's getting late," said Dumbledore. "You should go and get your rest, so you can enjoy your last day of freedom here before the year starts." Lily nodded and stood to leave. She stopped at the door, preparing to say something, but though better of it and descended the stairs back to the hallway below.
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'I need to know the truth,' Lily though to herself as she got into her bed that night. 'And he needs to know that I know. I have to make sure that it's the first thing he hears from me tomorrow.' She sighed. 'Harry Potter, the son of Lily and James Potter......' Lily didn't know how to feel about hearing that she would eventually marry (at least she hoped marry) the infamous James Potter and bear his son. Somehow, as she thought about it, it didn't seem as bad as it should've. With that notion, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts carry her off to sleep.
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Harry had an ominous feeling in his stomach when he awoke the next day. His first thought was Hermione, and he looked over to see that she was still laying in bed next to him, breathing softly. He smiled, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face, and her eyes flickered open in response to his touch.
"Sorry," he said smiling. "I didn't mean to wake you."
"'S ok," Hermione replied sleepily. "Just so long as it's your face I see when I do wake up." Harry grinned.
"It always will be if I have any say in things," he said. "So what do you want to do today?" Hermione sat up and stretched.
"Keep you from getting hurt," she said. Harry's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what Hermione was talking about. "The Marauders?" she asked.
"Oh," Harry replied disdainfully. "That."
"Yes that," she said. "You know they're going to go through with whatever it is that they're planning, so we need to be prepared for it."
"How can we be prepared for something that we know absolutely nothing about?" Harry asked sadly. "We were ready and waiting last year. Hell we even knew what was coming, but yet we still weren't prepared for it," he said solemnly, remembering that day in Hogsmeade about 5 months ago.
"You don't think their prank will be on the same level of magnitude as that, do you?" Hermione asked.
"I guess not."
"Well then let's get you mentally prepared for it. Obviously, it's going to have all the elements of a good prank. You're not going to see it coming, parts of it are going to hurt, and it will make a great story afterward. So what could they do with dust that fills those requirements?"
"Beats me," replied Harry. "I say let whatever happen, happen, and move on. We still have to choose all of our courses, don't we?"
"Just our electives," answered Hermione getting out of the bed. "Transfiguration, charms, defense, and potions are already definite. We have two or three periods that we'll have nothing for, so we need to decide what to take during those time frames."
"Definitely potions," said Harry also standing up. Hermione looked at him in surprise. "What? I bet it'll be loads easier than when Snape's teaching it, and besides, I want to learn my stuff so that when we get back to our own time I can rub it in his overlarge nose." Hermione huffed at this but couldn't repress a slight smile that appeared on her lips.
"Come on," she said rolling her eyes. "We should go and get breakfast." Harry nodded and they walked down to the Great Hall hand in hand.
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"They're coming," said Sirius sitting down next to James.
"You brought it, right?" he asked bringing a forkfull of eggs up towards his mouth. Sirius responded by dropping the pouch he had been showing off the previous night on the table.
"Put it away!" Remus hissed. "The last thing you two need is to get caught."
"Oh lighten up Moony," said James. "We're not going to get caught."
"You said that exact same thing the time you tried to break into Professor Dumbledore's office to get that damned book," he said. "We may be Marauders, but even we are still liable to get caught every now and then."
"Yeah yeah," said Sirius reaching for the jug of orange juice and sprinkling some of the dust in it. "But it's usually worth it. Prongs, if you would do the honors?"
"My pleasure," said James pulling his wand from his robes. He inserted the tip of it into the jug and muttered a few words under his breath, causing the juice to glow slightly. After this was over, he vanished all the other jugs of orange juice on the Gryffindor table, and banished the one with the dust away from them a little ways. Just as he had pocketed his wand, Harry and Hermione came walking into the hall, still holding each other's hands. Sirius scowled.
"I cannot wait to get them," he said through gritted teeth. "I wonder what kind of stuff they're hiding from us." Although Harry and Hermione were walking along the side of the table that Remus and Peter were sitting on, Harry noticed James and Sirius' stares as they passed the Marauders. Harry stopped and turned to face James with the steely glare he usually reserved for Malfoy.
"Whatever it is you're planning," he whispered in a dangerous tone. "I don't care what happens. But if you do anything to hurt Hermione, then you will have real problem on your hands, regardless of who you are." With that he and Hermione stalked off down the table to sit next to Lily, who was staring absently at her eggs.
Harry and Hermione sat down across from Lily, and the two of them began to pile food on their plates.
"Where's the orange juice?" asked Hermione looking around. Seeing the jug down near the Marauders she sighed and went over to retrieve it. While she was gone, Harry took the opportunity to talk to his mother.
"So how was your night?" he asked. Harry was greeted with a stare to rival the one he had just given his father moments earlier.
"Lily?" asked Hermione tentatively returning with the juice and pouring herself some. Lily didn't respond, she only continued to glare at Harry.
"Um......" began Harry with hesitation. "Did I do something wrong?" Lily's expression softened slightly, and she began to chuckle. "Are you ok?" asked Harry. "One minute you're staring daggers at me, and the next you're laughing? You're not going mad are you?" Lily's laughter died away and she returned her gaze to him, only without the death stare this time.
"You know," she said. "The funny thing is that last night I did think I was going mad. Hearing that you're the wife of James Potter in the future can really put one's nerves on end." Harry's fork dropped, and Hermione's goblet clattered to the table, spilling the orange juice she had just been about to drink. Eyes wide, and color drained from his face, Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Lily cut him off. "It's ok," she said. "I wouldn't have told me either."
"How....how did you find out?" he asked breathlessly.
"I overheard you two last night," she said smiling. "I guess some of James really has rubbed off on me a little bit."
"You eavesdropped?" asked Hermione incredulously.
"Well I wanted answers and you two weren't giving them to me willingly," she said. "I knew there was more to you Harry, but I never imagined for a second that you were my son from the future." The color started to return to Harry's cheeks and he took the goblet of orange juice that Hermione had poured for him.
"Thanks," he said not drinking from it. "I couldn't tell you, you'd have thought I was barking mad," Harry said. Lily nodded her head.
"Probably, but it's better I found out anyway, because now we can prepare for the reaction that we're going to get when James over there finds out," Lily said. Harry nodded and drank deeply from his goblet.
It started immediately. First, it was a slight chill. Then his eyes glazed over as a warm sensation spread throughout his body. Hermione and Lily were in conversation and didn't notice that Harry was in a daze. All of a sudden, a voice spoke up in his head.
"Take your girlfriend's hand," it commanded. Somewhere in his brain, Harry registered that the voice sounded a lot like James'.
"Why though?" a second voice in his head asked, that astonishingly sounded a lot like Hermione. Immediately Harry snapped back to his senses. He was about to look over at the Marauders when the voice sounded again.
"Take your girlfriend's hand!" it repeated. Then it all clicked in Harry's head. His first thought after breaking free of the spell was 'It was the Imperious Curse,' but hearing the voice in his head again while he could think freely told him otherwise. All of a sudden he had an idea and grabbed Hermione's hand.
"Harry?" asked Hermione worried. "What's wrong?" Harry continued to stare into space, and comprehension slowly dawned on her. She glanced back at James and Sirius, who were both smiling at their food. "Harry what's wrong?"
"What's going on?" asked Lily.
"They pranked him," said Hermione, her gaze still fixated on Harry. "I don't know what they did though. Immediately she felt Harry grasp her hand under the table. "Harry what are you-" she stopped as she felt him trace patterns on the back of her hand. "Harry what - oh...." she said as she realised what he was doing. He had been tracing letters on the back of her hand. I O-K. L-E-T T-H-E-M T-H-I-N-K P-L-A-N O-K. Hermione bent in close to his ear. "You better have a good reason for this," she whispered.
"I do," he replied almost inaudibly, his lips barely moving. "Tell you later." Just then the voice went off in his head.
"Get up from the table." Harry smiled inwardly, knowing that James thought he was controlling his actions, and got up. "Walk back to your dorm." Obliging, Harry began to leave the Great Hall. Hermione stood up to follow him, but was distracted when Lily spoke up.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I don't know, but Harry seems to be in control," Hermione responded. "I should follow him, just in case." Lily nodded and Hermione made to follow Harry, but found herself face to face with Peter Pettigrew.
"Um....I was wondering if you could help me out with a problem I'm having," he said shaking slightly.
"Why? You four don't seem to like neither Harry nor I very much, so why should I help you?" Hermione responded in her best Head Girl voice possible.
"Uh....." Peter ran back to the Marauders, but Hermione saw that Remus was the only one left. He muttered something to Remus and the werewolf just shook his head and told him to sit down. Knowing it had been a diversion, Hermione ran to the Entrance Hall looking for Harry, but he was nowhere to be found.
Up in the dorm a few minutes later, Harry was standing with his back to the door and his wand hidden up his sleeve, waiting for the arrival of the Marauders, which he assumed would be any minute. True to his thoughts, the door opened and Harry could tell from the reflection in the mirror that it was just Sirius and James. 'Sit on your bed,' the voice commanded. Harry smiled and turned around, his wand out pointed at Sirius.
"Incarcerous!" he bellowed. Not waiting to see if the spell took effect, he pointed his wand at James and yelled the same thing. Both fell to the ground bound by the hands and ankles with ropes, with identical looks of shock on their faces. Harry laughed. "Prank me? Hah. You should know better than to assume that all new students are completely incompetent." He stood there and waited for their response, but when none came, he spoke up again. "You can speak, you know."
"How?" asked James.
"How can you speak?" asked Harry feigning ignorance."
"How did you do it all?" James reiterated. "That's what I want to know. First you find out about us planning to do something to you, and then you fight it off. How?"
"First of all, if you're going to talk about planning to do something to someone, you should really put silencing charms on the room you're in. I overheard nearly everything last night. Second, you'll do well to know and remember from here on out that the Imperious Curse has no effect on me, so your little trick certainly had little chance of contain me either. Lucky for me your dust continued to keep the link to my head active, so I could still hear your orders." James and Sirius blinked in response before James' let out a laugh. Harry could feel his father's presence in his head disappear.
"No way..." said Sirius.
"Who drank it?" asked Harry quickly. James made a throaty sound much like a laugh.
"Evans," he said smiling. Harry was on top of him in a flash, clutching the collar of his robes tightly.
"You release her this instant," Harry whispered dangerously. "You have five seconds before I cast some very unpleasant things on you."
"I already let her go," said James casually. "Honestly, why do you care so much? I thought you were with that Hermione girl."
"Hermione," began Harry. "Happens to be my future wife. She is a woman, not a girl, and you will treat her as so. As for Lily, she happens to have been the only person who was remotely kind to us when we arrived, so forgive me if I want to maintain her friendship."
"You're engaged?" asked Sirius.
"Officially, no," replied Harry. "But I've told her that I plan on marrying her someday and she's already accepted." James snorted.
"How do you even know you'll be together forever?" he asked.
"Because I do," Harry replied. "And maybe if you'd stop being so bloody immature, you'd see that perhaps the person you care about might be able to return those feelings."
"Lily?" asked James. "How do you know about that?"
"Let's just say that I'm a well-informed person," replied Harry. "Now here's the deal. I'm going to leave this dorm now. I have no doubt that Remus or Pettigrew will find you and release you, but in the mean time, I want you both to think about the little chat we just had.
"You know we'll have to get you back for this," said Sirius. If Harry didn't know better, he'd have sworn that Sirius tried to smile when he said this.
"Maybe, but you should know that I learned from the best," Harry replied from the door.
"I'm the best," said James laughing.
"Not where I come from, PRONGS, you're not." And with that Harry closed the door behind him leaving Sirius and James in shock.
"How in the bloody hell did he know my nickname was Prongs?"
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Harry returned to the Great Hall a few minutes later to find Hermione and Lily absent. The only people he recognized were Remus and Peter, both of who were wearing equal expressions of awe on their faces at Harry's entrance. Doing the first thing that came to his head, Harry ran towards the hospital wing, as he supposed that was where Hermione had taken Lily after she had drunk the juice.
Not bothering to be quiet, Harry burst into the hospital wing and found Lily sitting up in one of the beds, Hermione sitting in a chair next to her. Madam Pomfrey (if she was still the resident nurse) was nowhere to be found.
"Harry!" exclaimed Hermione jumping up and embracing him tightly. "I didn't know where you had gone, so I went back into the Great Hall and found Lily all dazed and such, so I took her here. Madam Promfrey just stepped out to talk to Professor Munson for a moment."
"Who?" asked Harry.
"Professor Munson," said Hermione again. "He's the potions teacher." Harry gave a derisive snort. "Don't worry," she continued. "I've heard he's not all that bad."
"He's not," said Lily. "Why, who's your Potions teacher in the future?" Hermione and Harry exchanged a glance before Harry replied.
"Snape..." he mumbled.
"WHAT?!" Lily yelled. "You can't be serious!"
"I am," replied Harry. "And trust me, he's even worse then than he is now."
"I'm so sorry," replied Lily. "Going through that must be unpleasant. I wonder what James says about it."
"Not much," replied Harry truthfully.
"I'm sorry," said Lily again. "So, any news of what happened?"
"They put something in the orange juice," he answered. "You drank it, thus the result of you being here."
"What did it do?" asked Hermione.
"It seemed to have an effect similar to the Imperious Curse," said Lily drinking a small cup of water. "The moment I drank the juice, I felt myself drifting into a kind of peaceful world, where nothing seemed the matter. Of course I've only read about the Imperious Curse, I've never been under it."
"It wasn't the Imperious Curse," said Harry. "I know what it feels like. It was similar, but there were several differences."
"Like what?" asked Hermione, curiosity emanating from her.
"Well it was kind of-"
"Wait just a bloody minute," interjected Lily firmly. "When have you been under the Imperious Curse?" Harry and Hermione exchanged an extremely nervous glance.
"Uhhhh......" stammered Hermione.
"How much do you know about Voldemort, Lily?" Harry asked.
"Not a whole lot aside from the fact that he hates muggles and muggle-borns," she replied. Harry sighed and took a seat at the foot of Lily's bed.
"Draw the curtains, will you Hermione?" he asked. She nodded and closed them with a flick of her wand. "Silencio," he muttered. "The year is 1997 where we're from," he said.
"1997?" Lily asked. "And you're in seventh year? That means that I'll have you three years from now?!"
"Yes, but it doesn't matter at the moment," said Harry. "In 1997 Voldemort is the greatest threat on the face of the earth. He had lost most of his power, but regained it, and now he's twenty times stronger than he is at this point in time."
"What does all of this have to do with you?" asked Lily. Harry looked at Hermione who had tears bristling in her eyes. Letting out a deep sigh, he continued.
"I'm at the top of his hit-list," said Harry sadly. Lily's eyes widened and tears started to roll down her cheeks. "There's more," he continued. "In about two and a half years, in 1979 that is, there will be a prophecy made stating that I'm the only one who has the power to kill him. And 'neither can live while the other survives'," said Harry quoting the prophecy from memory. "Either I will kill him, or he will kill me." Lily was shaking now and he moved up closer to give her a hug.
"Harry," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry...."
"Lily...." he said consolingly. "Mum....there's no reason to be sorry."
"Of course there is," she said wiping her eyes. "What kind of a mother am I if I let you get to be the prime target for Voldemort? What's my reaction to all of this?" At this, Harry had to bite his lower lip in order to hold back the tears, but small pools of water formed at the corners of his eyes anyways.
"I...I...I can't," he said letting go of Lily and breaking down. "Hermione, please. Tell her...I can't do it..." Hermione wiped her own tears away and looked into the same emerald green eyes of Lily's that Harry had inherited.
"You and James..." she began, her voice quivering. "V-Voldemort....he killed both of you when Harry was 15 months old." Upon hearing this, Lily clasped her hand to her mouth and her already bloodshot eyes widened. A single tear could be seen rolling down Harry's face and landing on his lap.
"I never knew you," he said shakily. "Nor dad, for that matter. I had to live with the Dursleys my entire life."
"Who?" asked Lily, her brow slightly furrowed in confusion. Harry looked at her.
"Your sister's family," he said through gritted teeth.
"What?" Lily said in a very dangerous voice. "You had to live with my sister and whomever she married for your entire life?"
"And their son," he said. "It wasn't very pleasant."
"Oh, Harry," she said sliding over next to Harry and hugging him. There was silence for a moment until Hermione spoke up.
"I'll leave you two alone for a moment," she said getting up. Harry grabbed her hand before she could go anywhere though.
"Like hell you're going anywhere," he said with a slight smile. "As far as I'm concerned you're as much a part of my family as I am, so you're staying right here." Lily looked up at Harry at hearing this.
"Are you two....?" she asked hesitantly.
"Married?" asked Harry with a slight chuckle. "No, but once the war is over I do plan on making her my wife." Lily smiled and motioned for Hermione to sit down on the other side of her, which she did. Putting an arm around Hermione, she looked at her.
"My son and my future daughter-in-law," she said sniffling. "And after you leave to go back to where you came from I'll never see either of you like this again."
"Don't say that," said Harry. "One of the many things that Dumbledore has taught me during the war, is that existence doesn't end with death. There's a place afterward that we all go to, and eventually we'll all be reunited there with each other." Lily gave another sniffle and smiled sadly.
"Is it true that Sirius is dead too?" she asked. Harry bowed his head at this question.
"He died at the end of our fifth year," Hermione said answering for Harry. "He was murdered by one of Voldemort's followers." Lily shook her head.
"Both of you," she began. "I've known you each for about a day and I already can tell that you've gone through more than any of us could ever imagine in your lifetimes. And all I can do is sit here and tell you how sorry I am that I was never there for you before Harry, or you Hermione, for that matter."
"Don't be sorry," said Harry. "If it makes you feel any better, when Voldemort killed you, you protected me with your love. He tried to kill me, and consequently the curse backfired upon him, resulting in his first downfall. It's why I have this scar," he said pulling up his bangs for Lily to see the lighting-shaped scar on his forehead. "You saved my life."
"Well that does make me feel slightly better," Lily admitted. "I hate to bring bad memories to your mind, but I need to ask you one more thing."
"What's that?" asked Harry.
"How did you end up here?" Harry sighed.
"Do you know about the Tome of the Spellmaker?" he asked.
"Actually yes," Lily replied. "James tried to steal it from Dumbledore at the end of last year."
"Well we made a spell using it," continued Harry. "It was to transport the caster, along with one person that the caster chooses, and their belongings to the safest place possible."
"Why would you make a spell like that?" Lily asked. Harry sighed again.
"Well in the future Voldemort has a connection to me through my scar," he said. "He found out that Hermione and I were in love with each other."
"We don't know exactly when he found out," Hermione said "But soon after we were faced with the problem that I would be a target."
"Why?" asked Lily.
"Because Voldemort wants to see me suffer," said Harry. "It doesn't help that Hermione's muggle-born." Lily nodded her understanding.
"So as a result, we made the spell in order to keep me safe," said Hermione. "We thought it would be best to have an escape plan if I was ever attacked."
"So I take it you were attacked and the spell brought you here?" asked Lily again.
"Something like that," said Harry. "We were on the Hogwarts Express when the train was attacked by death eaters. In my haste, I cast the spell, and we ended up here."
"So why can't you just make a spell to go back?"
"Dumbledore's friend Nicolas Flamel has the tome," replied Hermione.
"I'm sorry to break up the reunion, but I need to speak with Harry and Hermione for a minute," came the voice of Albus Dumbledore through the curtains. Harry jumped up and pulled the curtains back to let the headmaster in.
"Professor," he said. "How could you hear us? I put a privacy charm on the curtains."
"Oh we all have our ways of doing things," Dumbledore said with a smile. "But I do need to talk to you and Hermione quickly.
"I'll go then," Lily said standing up.
"No, stay," said Harry adamantly. Lily looked at the headmaster for permission and he nodded. She sat back down in-between Harry and Hermione as Dumbledore replaced the curtains and muttered a spell to make sure that no one could open it.
"I'll get right to the chase," he said sitting down in the chair that Hermione had occupied. "Nicolas Flamel has gone missing."
"Please tell me you're joking," said Harry. The headmaster shook his head, causing Harry to laugh. "It just never gets any easier, does it?"
"Doesn't he have the Tome right now?" asked Lily. Dumbledore nodded.
"So do we have any leads?" asked Hermione.
"Aside from the fact that we're reasonably sure that he was kidnaped, none," replied the headmaster.
"Well we know that he's safe, wherever he is," said Harry. "Last time I checked, he had only recently passed away after finally exhausting the last of the Elixir. That was sometime during fifth year, I believe." Dumbledore smiled at Harry.
"The less I know about the future, the better," he said grinning. "I don't want to know how you know about the stone."
"Let's just say I had a little run-in with someone who was trying to steal it in my first year," said Harry. Dumbledore nodded.
"Well I just came here to tell you that until we can locate Nicolas, you two will be stuck here. Rest assured, the Ministry has been notified and the Aurors are already searching for him. No one knows how long it will take to get results though."
"I understand," said Harry. Dumbledore stood to leave, but Harry remembered something that he had been meaning to ask. "Professor?" The headmaster turned. "Out of curiosity, are there any positions on the Gryffindor quidditch team available?" Dumbledore beamed at him.
"Well, you'll obviously know that your father occupies a chaser position, but I believe that the seeker position needs to be filled. Tryouts will be a week from this Saturday, as I understand it," Dumbledore said, answering Harry's next question.
"Thanks," replied Harry smiling. After Dumbledore left Hermione turned on Harry.
"You cannot be serious," she said. "You're not actually going to tryout for the quidditch team, are you? You know how scared I get when you play."
"Are you kidding Hermione?" asked Harry. "The opportunity to play as a SEEKER alongside my father-
"And mother," Lily interjected. Hermione and Harry stared at her with wide eyes. "What?" she asked. "Surely you know that I'm the keeper for the team?" Harry shook his head.
"No one ever told me..." he said. Lily frowned.
"I wonder why..." she said. Hermione broke the silence a few minutes later.
"Fine, Harry, you win," Hermione relented. "But if you make the team and get hurt, I swear I will spend the rest of our lives saying 'I told you so' to you every night before we go to bed." Lily laughed.
"You don't like flying Hermione?" she asked.
"I'm terrified of it," she admitted. "I flew once back in our first year, and that was enough for me."
"Well, if we're all done bickering like in-laws," Harry began smiling. "Perhaps we should go and check on James and Sirius. I don't want them to be tied up for too long." Lily laughed.
"You incarcerated James and Sirius?" she asked.
"They never saw it coming," said Harry. Hermione gave him a stern look, but smiled, and the three of them set off towards Gryffindor Tower.
When the three of them arrived in the common room, Harry was greeted with four wands pointed right at his head.
"James you put your wand down this instant!" shrieked Lily. "And tell your friends to do the same!"
"Not this time Evans," said James. "Lockheart here has done wrong, and needs to be punished for it."
"Oh and I'm sure that trying to put him under an Imperious Curse-like spell doesn't break a single rule," yelled Hermione. The Marauders glanced at James at this.
"You're not involved in this," he said after some consideration. "Back away."
"Like hell I will!" yelled Hermione.
"ENOUGH!" Harry bellowed. "James, if you want to settle this, we'll do it the old fashioned way. Being a Marauder you ought to know about the Room of Requirement, let's head over there, shall we?" There was a shocked silence as the Marauders looked from one to the next at this challenge. Finally, James spoke.
"If that's the way you'll have it, then fine by me!" he said.
"Good," Harry replied. "Five minutes." And with that he marched right back out of the common room, followed by Hermione and Lily.
"You can't possibly imagine dueling with your own father?" asked Hermione in a whisper.
"Can't I? He needs some sense knocked into him," Harry responded.
"Harry, I couldn't agree more," said Lily. "But I should warn you, James didn't get to be Head Boy by being dumb." Lily stopped for a moment to ponder at what she had just said.
"I didn't escape Voldemort four times by being dumb either," Harry responded not caring that Lily had stopped. After a few minutes of silence, they arrived at the all too familiar seventh floor corridor. After pacing up and down the hallway three times, the door materialized and Harry yanked the handle open. The three of them stepped inside to find themselves in a large arena.
"It's large enough," said Lily.
"It'll do fine," said Harry. At that moment the Marauders walked in, and James gave Harry a sick smile.
"Glad to see you know how to use the facilities, Lockheart," he said. "Although why, I can't possibly imagine."
"It's none of your business," Harry replied coldly. "Enough chit-chat. Let's get this started."
"As you wish," replied James with a sick smile. "Nievathroma!" A blast of orange light shot from the tip of his wand and flew at Harry, who rolled out of the way in the nick of time.
"Diffindo," muttered Harry. A rush of violet light streaked at James' torso, and instead of moving, he just stood there and smiled. The spell hit, and Harry rushed forward to make sure that he hadn't cut his opponent up too badly, but found himself facing James, who was smiling and perfectly unharmed.
"You have much to learn, Lockheart," said James. "Remorso Flagrates!" A long whip of fire emanated from his wand, and he twirled it about his head before releasing it at Harry. Again, Harry narrowly avoided being hit by it and saw that James was laughing.
"Everte Statum!" Harry bellowed. Again, the spell hit, but again no damage was done to James. Roaring laughter could now be heard from all of the Marauders, not just Harry's future father. Desperate, he looked to Hermione for help.
"Think!" she mouthed pointing at her head. Harry thought for a minute then realization dawned on him.
"Let's get this over with, shall we?" asked James. "Locomotor Mortis!"
Harry saw the thin jet of light move towards him, but instead of running, he stood firmly in place. 'I need something to shield me' he thought, and in the instant before the spell would've hit him, a pane of glass several inches thick appeared between him and the oncoming spell. The spell hit the glass, which then disappeared. Harry looked back at the Marauders and found none of them were laughing anymore. James, however, was stilling smiling.
"Very good," he said putting his wand away. "Now that you know what you're up against, let's play a more dangerous game." And with those words Harry found a hundred spears rushing at him from all points of the room.
'I need to escape..." Harry thought, and the Room transported him away from the spears, which proceeded to shatter against each other.
"Potter stop this right now!" Lily screamed.
"I'm sorry to do this Lily, but conflicts need to be settled one way or the other," he replied, and both Lily and Hermione found themselves chained to the wall with their mouths bound and a small shield surrounding both of them. "So you can't interfere," he said. As James turned back to his opponent he found that Harry was gone. "Where've you gone?" he asked the silence of the room in a sing-song voice. He was greeted with a loud reverberating laugh.
"You want a battle of wits?" Harry's magically amplified voice boomed throughout the room. "You've got it." Immediately the Marauders were bound and gagged by magically conjured ropes, and about 4 stunners were sent at each from different directions. Only James managed to escape in time.
"You learn quickly," he said breathing hard. A smile crossed his lips as he screwed up his face in concentration. A loud thud could be heard off in the distance of the arena as Harry reappeared, landing on the floor of the arena hard.
"Better than not learning at all," Harry said through gritted teeth. One last time he thought hard of what he needed, and found James bound tightly by Devil's Snare, the same shield surrounding him that was surrounding Lily and Hermione. Panting, Harry stood up and faced his father who was quickly losing consciousness from the grasp the plant had on his air supply.
"Help me...." James breathed.
"Say you forfeit," replied Harry.
"Hey....I'm dying here..." James said turning red. "Help me out..."
"I'm not falling prey to any Marauder tricks," Harry replied. "Forfeit, and you're free."
"You....win...." said James, his face turning from red to blue.
'I need to have everyone back to their original state before this duel started,' Harry thought, and instantly the Devil's Snare vanished, along with the restraints that bound everyone else in the room. The other three Marauders also regained consciousness. James slumped to the floor and Sirius rushed over to him.
"Prongs...what happened?" he asked helping James to his feet.
"I......I lost," replied James taking deep breaths. The Marauders looked at him as if he were Lucifer himself. Without answering, James stormed out of the room followed by the other three, leaving Harry, Hermione, and Lily in silence.
"He...is...such...an...idiot!" Lily exclaimed growing red in the face. "One of you could've been killed!"
"I doubt it," replied Harry. "Once I figured out that the room would obey my thoughts, it became easily to manipulate it so that we could avoid injury."
"Can we not stay here?" asked Hermione. "I'd prefer if I could go somewhere to sit down after watching that." Immediately the room changed into the Gryffindor common room. Lily and Hermione looked at Harry, who shrugged.
"It gets easy after a little while," he said. Hermione shook her head at him but sat down on the couch nonetheless. Harry took a seat next to her, and Lily sat in one of the armchairs by the fire.
"Are you sure that I'm your mother and he's your father?" Lily asked. "After that display I don't see how I could ever stand to bear that man's child."
"Don't ask me," said Harry. "No one ever told me the details."
"I suppose not," said Lily.
=====
During dinner that evening, Harry, Hermione, and Lily kept glancing over at the Marauders who were staring quite intently at Harry.
"Wonder what they're up to," said Hermione quietly.
"Probably planning to get me back in some way or another," replied Harry. At that moment, James and the rest of his gang stood up and left the Great Hall in silence.
"Reckon we should follow them?" asked Lily.
"Can't hurt," replied Harry. "You never know what they could be planning, and it might help to be one step ahead." The two girls nodded and they silently left the Great Hall. As they arrived in the Entrance Hall, Hermione saw them go up towards the tower, and nudged Harry. He nodded, and the three of them followed in silence. When they arrived at the portrait hole, they found that it had been left open, and they walked in closing it behind them.
"We need to talk," said James as soon as the portrait was closed. He appeared out of thin air from under his invisibility cloak, followed moments later by Sirius, Remus, and Peter.
"What's there to talk about?" asked Hermione icily. "Unless you plan on trying to kill Harry again." James snorted.
"We were never trying to kill Harry," said James.
"Oh and a hundred spears at his head qualifies as friendly tickling?" asked Lily in the same tone. James laughed at this.
"I knew he was smart enough to get out of the way in time," James replied. "If not, I could've saved him anyway. Now let's sit down, there's some things we need to discuss."
The two girls looked at Harry skeptically, but he nodded and sat down on the couch anyway. Lily and Hermione sat down next to him, while Remus and Peter occupied the armchairs on either side. Sirius and James stayed standing.
"That was impressive, what you did earlier today, Harry," said James.
"Thanks," Harry said. "But somehow I get the feeling that a congratulations isn't the reason why we're all sitting here." James and Sirius chuckled at this.
"Too right you are," said Sirius. "You're here because we all wanted to apologize." Harry, Lily, and Hermione looked at each other in stunned silence, before James continued.
"We didn't know you, and we judged you based on your appearance," he said. "That was wrong of us."
"What they're trying to say is that we were all idiots, and you deserved to be treated better, especially in a new school," said Lupin from his chair.
"You telling me the truth?" asked Harry. James nodded. "Why the sudden change in attitude? From what Lily tells me you've been a notorious prankster all your life. Why become soft now?" James reddened a little bit at this.
"Getting beaten to the point where you're forced to give up can be very humbling," he said softly. "Anyways, I've said what I wanted to say. I'm going to bed now." And with that he walked off to the dorms, accompanied by Sirius and Peter.
"Don't take it personally Harry," said Remus getting up. "He'll come around. You've already proven yourself in his eyes, he just needs to accept it." Harry nodded and Lupin followed his friends up to the dorm.
"Well..." said Hermione. "That was certainly interesting."
"Yeah...." replied Harry staring off into space.
A few minutes passed where none of them said anything, and then Lily stood up.
"Well I'm really tired," she said. "I'm going to head off to bed. You two are free to use the Head Boy room again if you wish."
"Thanks Lily," said Hermione. Lily nodded and with that she left Harry and Hermione on the couch in silence.
"Do you think he was sincere?" she asked after a few moments.
"It's tough to tell," Harry replied. "I hope so, it means that he's coming around and that I might even get to see my parents together before we have to go back."
"Speaking of which," Hermione said. "You're not planning on going after Flamel with Dumbledore and the rest of them once they figure out where he is, are you?" Harry looked at her and ran a hand through her bushy hair.
"You know something?" he asked. "I think that this time, knowing he's going to be alright, I'll stay here with you." Hermione cuddled up to him and put her head on his shoulder.
"Thanks," she whispered before she fell asleep, Harry shortly thereafter.
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A/N: As I was beta-ing this chapter, a few thoughts popped into my head about some questions people might have, and I want to answer them. First of all, Harry letting the Marauders know about the secrets of Hogwarts is on purpose. There need to be some clues for them along the way to helping them realise the truth. Second, Flamel is missing, but like I wrote, Harry won't be going on the rescue mission to get him. It's merely a means of keeping him and Hermione back there for a while. Third, the truth will get revealed next chapter, so you won't have to wait very long.
A/N#2: A person brought to my attention that in an interview, James was actually a chaser, not a seeker, so that passage has been changed from the original writing, which had James as seeker, and Harry trying out for beater (And I'm not going against cannon by having Lily play, you'll find out in four or five chapters why Harry never knew she played).
That being said, that's all for this week! Catch you later.