Harry and Hermione, after getting Emily ready, went down to lunch in the Great Hall. Just as Harry had finally gotten Emily to take her bottle and start to drink, rather than hitting it and giggling, the doors to the great hall opened and four people made their way through.
"Of course it's real." Ginny said her arm around Luna looking as if she were comforting her.
"What are you guys doing here?" Hermione asked fork still midway to her mouth.
"We don't have any bleeding clue, Dumbledore sent us." Ron said stealing something from Harry's untouched plate.
"Hands off!"
"There is something I think we need to talk about." Ginny said sitting next to Hermione.
"What's that?" Harry asked as he kicked Ron for trying to steal his food again.
"Well there needs to be a re-naming of course." Ginny said fervently.
"Re-naming?" Harry looked to Hermione who shrugged her shoulders.
"Well it can't be the trio anymore can it?"
"What ARE you talking about?" Hermione asked.
"There's four of us now, and trio doesn't really describe it, does it? And a Quartet is just too weird to have to say, 'the quartet' it doesn't really have a ring to-"
"Excuse me but there are six of us, seven if you include little Emily." Luna added and Neville nodded in agreement.
"Hey! When did they get invited into the group?" Ron asked.
"We all chose to go to the department of mysteries..." Neville said.
"I helped you two all this summer-" Ginny added.
"Admit it, you're stuck with us, like a bad case of the Narflaps." Luna said smiling.
Hermione's cheeks grew red and before she could blow up at Luna for naming something that didn't exist Harry gave her a pleading look. Hermione took a deep breath and continued to listen to the conversation.
"We didn't exactly name ourselves, it's just what stuck-" Ron said.
"The Marauders named themselves, what's so wrong if we name ourselves?" Ginny asked.
"Well the Marauders were egotistical and trouble makers. We're neither of those."
Everyone stopped and looked at Harry in silence.
"They were immature, doesn't mean they didn't get over it." Harry shrugged.
Everyone seemed to find this acceptable and continued their conversation.
"I think we should just stick with Dumbledore's Army." Neville said.
Everyone became silent for a moment again, only to break out in 'NO!!'s and 'Are you crazy?'
"What about the D.O.H.s? Defenders of Hogwarts?" Ginny said.
Harry and Hermione tried to stifle a laugh, "No, definitely not." Hermione finally said.
"Besides acronyms are passé, we should just have a cool name." Luna said.
"I got it, the sentinels, meaning the guardians." Neville said.
"The Seven Sentinels?" Harry asked.
"Right." Neville said.
"Worth considering I guess-"
"Maybe-"
"Not the best but it might do-"
"Right, tomorrow we'll ask Dumbledore to make an announcement to tell all the students to now call us 'the seven sentinels.'" Hermione snorted.
An hourglass was smashed in the middle of the table, and Bellatrix LeStrange appeared from underneath an invisibility cloak.
She kept muttering something in Latin, and before anyone could do anything to stop her. a cloud covered them and started to circle them like a tornado.
In a swirl of lights and dust Harry tried to keep an eye on Bellatrix, but she ran and hid before the dust could settle. Once it did Harry saw a jet of light heading towards them, he turned over the nearest table so they could hide behind it. He looked over the table to see not what he thought he would.
There were students in the Great Hall, and he knew none of them. He tried to find a face he knew among the crowd of people, and did. Dumbledore was ushering people out of the Great Hall. This in and of itself was expected, but his beard was shorter by at least a foot, and he looked years younger.
Harry exchanged a look with Hermione.
"Oh no..." Hermione shook her head.
"Bellatrix has brought us back in time." Harry said to everyone that was hiding with him.
Harry looked over to Luna, "Take Emily, get the hell out of here, get somewhere safe."
Luna nodded, and when someone started to fire on Bellatrix she took her chance and ran out onto the grounds.
"Figured it out yet?" Bellatrix cackled loudly.
"We all ready knew! No one can keep hold of Boardwalk _and_ Park Place!"
They all looked questioningly to Harry who sighed, "Fine, you come up with clever quips while being fired at, let's see how you do."
"What do we do now?" Ginny asked as she ducked back down while Ron fired some hexes over at Bellatrix.
"We could get killed by Bellatrix, that's option one."
"I don't like it, what's option two," She asked.
"Dumbledore sees us as a threat and _he_ kills us." Hermione said.
"I think I liked the first option better."
It was then that the were fired on by an entirely different source. Ginny looked over, then quickly ducked back down again.
"It's the Marauders!"
Harry tried to look over the table but was pulled down by Ginny and Hermione.
It was at that moment Neville took the chance and Crucio-ed Bellatrix.
Ron held him down as Ginny took his wand and Harry fired on Bellatrix while Hermione fired binding spells on the Marauders.
"Letting Neville fire on the woman who put his parents in St. Mungo was a bad idea Ron." Ginny scolded.
"I wasn't bloody thinking, I was too busy being hexed from every direction!"
"Nevy Wevy has some powers, but not good enough I'm afraid!" Bellatrix yelled.
"Be thankful we aren't letting him go! So Bella, become the sacrificial lamb? Not in your Dark Lords good graces are you?"
"My Master honors me!!" Bellatrix yelled, "He's given me a chance to kill you!"
"Sorry, only one person gets that privilege. He's going to have to come and clean up his own mess!" Ron yelled over the table.
"Ron," Harry said, "Could we please refrain from calling me a 'mess?'"
"There's no way out Bellatrix!" Hermione then threw a couple of hexes her way.
"ENOUGH!" A loud and powerful voice shook the entire Great Hall.
Bellatrix was firmly bound by one spell from Dumbledore.
"You, all of you over there, explain who you are _now_."
"We... It's difficult to explain." Ginny said.
"I don't care."
"Look, we're from the future. Bellatrix LeStrange over there... well think of a time turner gone completely bonkers. We're students here, you know us- or rather will know us." Harry searched for something that would make Dumbledore not want to kill them all, "The password to your office is always the name to some kind of candy, you haven't eaten Bertie Botts since once when you were a kid you ate a vomit flavored one..."
"You have a really pretty phoenix named Fawks." Ginny said.
"Throw all of your wands towards me."
They complied and waited for further instruction on what to do.
"Now I want you to one by one stand up, say your name, and step away from the table." Dumbledore said calmly but still rather harsh.
Ron let go of Neville and let him stand up.
"Neville Longbottom." He said rather sheepishly for someone who moments ago preformed the cruciatus.
He stepped over the others and over to the other side of the table.
"Ron Weasley." Ron said as he stood and moved from the others over to Neville.
"Ginny Weasley." Ginny said after she got up and joined her brother.
A small silence passed, Hermione squeezed Harry's hand before releasing it and joining the others, "Hermione Potter."
Harry took three deep breaths and got up, went to Hermione's side and said, "Harry Potter."
Harry watched as what looked almost to be his mirror image almost collapsed from what seemed was shock.
"The five of you, go up to my office and wait for me there. The password is Razzles." Dumbledore said, still quite severe.
They obeyed, quite happily, and ran up to his office.
"At least he didn't kill us." Ron said as they waited.
"That of course doesn't guarantee he wont." Hermione said.
Harry looked out onto the forbidden forest, where Emily and Luna were sure to be. Hermione came over, gave him a small hug, then sat next to Ginny.
Fawks flew from his perch to Harry who held out an arm for him to rest on.
"You shouldn't be able to remember me," He said as he petted Fawks' plumage.
"He does become friendly to anyone who stays true to Dumbledore, he could probably sense it," Hermione said.
The door to Dumbledore's office opened and everyone inside stood up a bit taller.
Harry motioned for Fawks to return to his perch, then stood next to the others.
"The first question I have of you, you cannot answer, so I shall go onto the second, how was the spell preformed?"
"Bellatrix threw an hourglass onto the table, smashing it, then she kept saying some Latin words. The dust picked up and went into a tornado like thing, then we ended up here." Harry recalled.
"Is that everyone's recount of the situation?" Dumbledore asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Why did she do it to you? Why you specifically?"
"We'll she's a Death Eater!" Ron said, "And Harry, he's"
Harry coughed heavily and Hermione tried to inconspicuously kick Ron.
"A great Quidditch player. Yup, no one can beat him." Ron said.
"I don't appreciate being lied to." Dumbledore said.
"You said it yourself, when meddling with time, if something goes wrong, the future could be changed in catastrophic proportions." Hermione said.
Dumbledore turned his attention to her, and after being silent for a moment said, "When did I tell you that?"
"My third year, when you had McGonagall give me the time turner, so I could go to all of my classes."
Dumbledore sighed and looked as if he were thinking about something for a moment.
"I don't know what to do with you now. If Bellatrix LeStrange is a Death Eater as you've said it will be hard to try to get any information from her. You might be here until we can find something to get you back where you belong, which might be a while to say the least."
Harry looked out to the grounds and felt a panic rise, "Couldn't someone from the Order try something, anything, to get the information from her?"
Dumbledore looked pensive, "How do you know about the Order?"
"Can't say really." Harry said.
"We can't force her to tell, and being a Death Eater she wont be likely to talk, even if she were tortured," Dumbledore paused, then said "This is still a school, and you still have to do your studies, I've decided that while you're here you need some seventh year students to watch over you. You may at least know one of them Mr. Potter..."
Harry looked at Dumbledore hurt, and Dumbledore seemed to catch it. Dumbledore had always called him Harry, since his first year, 'Mr. Potter' seemed as if he were disappointed in Harry, or indifferent to him, which hurt.
"Are you all right?"
Harry nodded, but looked back out into the forest.
"And of course Miss Potter, your father. And some of his friends, they do have the highest marks in the school."
Hermione tried several times to interject, but Dumbledore hadn't given her the chance. The door to his office swung open and Hermione went directly to Harry's side, grasping his hand and his arm, to keep him back so he wouldn't kill Wormtail, and to comfort him at the site of his father and Sirius.
"Will you look at em? I'm sure she looks like her mother, cause she looks nothing like me, but he... it's a spitting image isn't it. I didn't notice how handsome I was until I got this view of it. I'm a rather remarkable specimen, wouldn't you say Lil?"
Lily walked in after all the marauders were inside the door and rolled her eyes.
Hermione grabbed tighter on Harry's arm. She was sure that she was hurting him, but he didn't seem to mind, or move.
"Rather close for brother and sister... Who holds their sister's hand?" Sirius asked.
Ron and Ginny quickly tried to hold hands, but they didn't get it at first, and in contact for more than two seconds made them both detach and rub the ickyness off their hands.
They five of them became fish out of water, trying to answer and not knowing exactly what to say.
"I... I don't, I mean... I, I'm not." Harry said.
"Talkative, are you sure he's yours?" Remus asked then continued, "You are. If you look down at your hand you'll see it's right next to hers, so close they are touching in various places. It's what we enlightened people call 'holding hands.' You're holding hands with your sister."
"No, we- He isn't." Hermione said.
"You mated with a seamonkey Potter. That's the only thing that can attain for their intellect." Lily said.
"What we've been trying to say is we aren't brother and sister." Harry said quickly.
"I guess Potter is a pretty popular last name..." James said.
"And they're supposed to be the brightest of their year?" Ron snorted.
"You see," Harry said, "The thing is, that... We're married. Hermione and I."
"Married?" Lily asked.
"Huh?" Remus said.
"Wow!" Peter said.
"Why?" both Sirius and James asked.
Hermione blushed, still holding tightly to his hand she took her left one off his upper arm and showed the simple band on her finger to the marauders plus one.
"We got married about two months ago," Harry said.
"If I may ask... Why?" Dumbledore said from behind them.
Hermione and Harry looked at each other, trying to come up with any reason they could tell.
Hermione opened her mouth and said, "I'm pregnant."
Harry looked to her, wide eyed, and she just tightened her grip on his hand for a moment.
Remus and Sirius both patted James on the back, while Peter and Lily just looked shocked. Dumbledore looked at both of them for a long moment, then nodded.
"You students should get going, go down to the study room I set up for you, Professor McGonagall will be there shortly." Dumbledore said, effectively shooing them out of the room.
The ten students walked out silently and the five students from the future were a couple of steps behind the others.
"Hermione..." Harry whispered in a scolding tone.
"I know," She whispered back, "but it's the only way. Dumbledore would never accept it if we told him we were in love, and if we told the truth... It's much safer to keep the reasons for our marrige a secret."
"We need to get away from the marauders. We need to make our way into the forbidden forest." Ginny whispered forcefully.
"We're here!" James yelled from the front of the group.
He opened the classroom and went in, while everyone followed. Once inside the room filled with a complete and utter silence. Everyone felt rather uncomfortable, and Harry's emotions changed from pure hatred for Wormtail, and wanting so badly to go hug his mother.
"So, how did you all meet?" Lupin asked.
All four of them looked to Hermione who shrugged, then after rolling her eyes nodded that they could continue.
"Harry and I met on the train... our first year. Then we met Hermione who we didn't like at first, but after the mountain troll..."
"And I was in the same house, just a bit accident prone..." Neville said.
Ginny snorted, "That's like saying Harry looks a little like his father."
"And Ginny's my sister so... Er- how did you meet?" Ron asked.
"You already know that." Sirius said.
The five laughed nervously, then the silence filled the room again.
"I guess we should move onto the studies then. We can start with Defence Against the Dark Arts-"
"We've got that covered." Neville said.
Ginny nodded emphatically, while the others tried everything to not show any emotion.
"I'm hungry." Hermione said before any of the marauders could respond to Neville's statement.
"We should go down to the kitchens." Harry said to her.
"We should all go," Ginny said, "But you guys neednt bother, we can make it down there by ourselves."
"You all need to go when one of you is hungry?" Lupin asked.
"Empathy eating." Hermione said, "You know, because I'm pregnant."
They all quickly exited the room and once they were down a darkened passageway Harry leaned against a wall, then sat on the floor. Hermione kneeled down next to him, and the others circled.
"Harry, if you kill Wormtail then you may never be born." Ron said.
"Or worse," Ginny added, "You could change it so Neville's the one with the prophecy."
Neville looked wide eyed at everyone, "Oh please, please, please Harry-"
"Don't worry, I'm trying my best when it comes to him."
Everyone was silent for a while seeming to wonder what could be troubling Harry.
Hermione hugged Harry tightly and said an 'Oh Harry.'
The trouble Harry was having had little to do with Wormtail, it mostly had to do with his own parents. He wanted to be able to do something, anything. Ask them if they were proud of him, ask them if he could play Quidditch as well as his father, ask his mother if he had retained any quality about her besides her eyes. He wanted to know what their favorite subjects were, what their favorite candy was, what were their favorite colors, and if getting in trouble had ever been like it had been for him, trying to protect the school. And he wanted to tell them everything too. He wanted to tell them about all the adventures he had every year. From the philosopher's stone to the department of Mysteries. He wanted to tell them his patronus was a stag, and that Lupin had become the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he ever had. He wanted to tell them that he missed them, and thought about them every day, even though he didn't really know them at all.
"You guys should go down to the kitchens and get some milk," Hermione said, "For Emily. I'll stay here with Harry."
"Are you sure?" Ginny asked as the other two boys started to make their way out of the passageway.
Hermione nodded, "It'll only upset me if I go down there and see all of those house elves. We'll meet just beyond Hagrid's hut, in twenty minutes."
Ginny nodded back and went after the other boys as Hermione tried to comfort Harry.
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