By the time James had woken up, they had reached Hogwarts. He saw that Lily was still sleeping, and her head against his shoulder. He smiled contentedly. He had dreamed of this for so long, now that it was actually happening, he felt he had walked into paradise. He stroked her long red hair. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
“Lily,” he whispered softly. She stirred slightly, looking up at him. She smiled when she caught his gaze.
“Are we there already?” she asked groggily. He nodded. She sat up, running her fingers through her hair to get rid of some of the tangles from playing Quidditch.
“Want me to carry you?” he asked playfully, seeing how tired she was.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” she said, laughing.
“Come on then,” he said, grabbing her hand. She hid her wince from him, trying not to let him see the large bruise that had formed around her wrist. As they stepped off the train, Sirius, Remus, and Peter ran up to them. Their faces were flustered. “What’s the matter?” James asked them, frowning.
“They are going to try and steal the Time-Turner from Dumbledore themselves!” Remus said.
“How do you know?” Lily asked, perplexed.
“We over-heard,” Sirius said out of breath.
“It’s true,” said a slick voice from behind them. Lily trembled slightly, and James looked at her worriedly.
Then he saw Snape standing behind them. He immediately moved Lily to his other side, keeping himself between her and Snape. Lily glared at Snape, who smiled, nodding in satisfaction. Obviously she hadn’t told on him. “We need to move...now. We shouldn’t have gone to the try-outs.” Lily glared. She hated him so much...yet he was helping them! It was so frustrating.
“We need to go and get Dumbledore now,” James said. Lily nodded her agreement.
“What if he doesn’t believe us?” Peter said quietly. They all stopped. James hadn’t even considered that. He had always taken for granted that Dumbledore would believe them. Dumbledore had always believed them before. Lily looked at him worriedly.
“I’m afraid, Mr. Pettigrew, that I would need a little more detail, but I am definitely not apposed to listening to what you have to say,” said a calm voice just behind them. Everybody jumped a foot in the air. They turned around abruptly to see Professor Dumbeldore. Snape looked terrified to see him there, even after he saw who it was. Lily didn’t understand why, why should Snape fear Dumbledore? He was on their side...
“Professor Dumbledore, we think that Lord Voldemort is trying to steal the Time-Turner in your office,” Lily said anxiously.
“And all of the ones at the Ministry,” Snape reminded urgently. James looked at Dumbledore, and saw that he was looking curiously at Snape.
“I heard it with my own ears, Professor. They wanted me to steal it for them,” James said. Dumbledore nodded.
“We should inform the Minister,” Peter said, almost a question. Dumbledore coughed slightly at this and Remus raised his eyebrows.
“If you don’t mind my suggesting, Professor, but I really don’t think we should involve the Minister. He would be...reluctant in believing that the student named Jack Mallon is actually the evil Lord Voldemort,” he said. Dumbledore chuckled, nodding.
“Well, normally I would object to this, but I believe you are right Mr. Lupin,” he said, apparently thinking. Lily noticed that Snape was staring curiously at Peter, who was looking extremely uncomfortable. Lily frowned in confusion. It was almost as if Snape was trying to read Peter’s mind. What was going on with Snape and Peter? James nudged him.
“Wake up Snivilus,” James said. Snape turned around. Lily expected him to retort some snide remark, but he remained grinning in that self-satisfied way that infuriated her.
“I’m afraid, Mr. Potter, that if we are to do this together, we must refrain from fighting with each other,” Dumbledore said calmly. James nodded apologetically.
“Well, if we’re going to do this, we need to do this quickly,” Lily said. Snape nodded.
“I agree Miss Evans,” Dumbledore said, and he looked at around them. He stopped and took his hat off his head. “Portaticus,” he murmured, and his hat glowed blue for a second, and then went back to normal. Then he turned to the students. “When we arrive, I want you all to drop to the floor immediately,” he explained. James looked at him questioningly.
“Please make sure that you are touching my hat.” Everybody layed their hands on the hat, Snape looking a little worried. Lily looked at James, slightly nervous. He put his arm around her, pulling her closer. She felt better, but then felt way worse as she saw the way Snape looked at James. Pure jealousy. She snuggled closer to James as Dumbledore began to count down.
“Five...four...three...two...one...” They all felt a jerk. Lily landed on her feet, but James pulled her down onto the ground. He rolled on top of her, shielding her with his body as a blinding purple light filled the room. Lily closed her eyes tightly, burying her face in James shoulder. After a few seconds, the light began to fade. Lily looked up at James, who was staring at her.
“Are you alright?” they both asked simultaneously.
“Yes,” they said together. Then they started to laugh. James, not caring if anybody was watching, leaned down so that his face was a hair's-width away from hers. She looked up at him, her breathing jagged. Seeing that she wasn’t opposed to him being this close, he brushed his lips against hers. Her body immediately responded as if she had been struck by lightening.
Smiling at her response, he deepened their kiss. She began kissing him back, until her whole world started spinning, landing face down when somebody cleared their throat loudly. Lily blushed crimson, but James grinned widely. He lifted himself up off the ground, pulling her with him. He chanced a glance at Dumbledore who was watching them with a smile, his eyes twinkling merrily over his glasses.
“I hate to interrupt, but I believe we have more pressing matters to attend to,” Dumbledore said. Sirius was sniggering loudly behind his hand, but stopped at a glare from James. Lily looked around, smiling and blushing, until her eyes fell on Snape. He mouthed the word ‘whore.’ She leaned up and kissedd James firmly on the cheek in response. Snape snarled.
“What exactly did you just do?” James asked Dumbledore. Dumbeldore smiled.
“I just froze anybody at the Ministry,” Dumbledore said.
“How come we’re not frozen?” Lily asked.
“I told the spell to freeze all but this room,” Dumbledore explained. Remus nodded, obviously having read about this in a book or something.
“Where are we?” Peter asked, looking around them in awe.
“We are in the Once and Again Room,” Dumbledore said grandly. Lily looked at her surroundings. The whole large room seemed to have a strange, pale blue mist floating around them. But every time one of them tried to focus on the mist, it vanished. Lily was in awe, as hundreds of Time-Turners hung from the ceiling and walls. Other devices, maybe more time-travel instruments, also hung all over the place. Lily looked down at her feet, and saw that they were standing on a huge, moving clock. As Lily listened, she could her a faint ticking. Then it started to get louder as she focused on the noise. This had to be the most bizarre room she had ever been in.
“Well....we’re here. What do we do now?” James asked, rather stumped. Lily stopped. She had never actually thought about how they were going to destroy the things once actually there. She looked at Dumbledore, who was blinking sadly.
“That will be simple enough, but realize, that by destroying all of these, we are cutting ourselves off from mass discovery,” he said. Lily took this in slowly.
“It has to be done, Professor,” Remus said boldly. Dumbledore nodded.
“Are you sure though? Maybe we should just keep one...” Peter said. Everybody stared. Peter rarely spoke, especially about his opinion. “Just so that all the information isn’t lost,” Peter said, hastily. Snape grinned.
“That’s very wise of you, Peter, but I don’t think we should take any chances,” Remus said. “We need to destroy them all, as quickly as possible.” Peter nodded, going beet-red. Dumbledore smiled at Peter, he was such a foolish boy.
“Very well, Mr. Lupin,” he said, and he waved his wand. There was a loud blast, and all the devises burst into tiny pieces. James held fast to Lily, as tiny bits of metal bounced off him. He looked up and saw that all the bits of metal started to melt. They started to form a small circle in the middle of the room, and the ticking sounds got much, much louder. Lily covered her ears, sure the pounding would deafen her. The huge puddle of melted metal started to ripple violently. Then the ticking stopped suddenly, and the puddle sank through the floor as if it had been floating in midair the whole time. Sirius started clapping loudly.
“Would that trick work on homework?” Sirius asked excitedly. Dumbledore smiled.
“I’m afraid not, Mr. Black. Now, I am going to Apparate back to the school and bring the Portkey back with me. Hold tight, I’ll be right back,” he said, smiling.
"But...Professor...you can't Apparate inside Hogwarts!" Lily said. Dumbledore smiled slighty, and vanished. Many of them just kept staring at the spot where the puddle had been moments ago. They had done it...right?
“Well, what a coicidence. We're all here....together," said a cool voice. They all turned to see their worst nightmares come true. A fully grown Lord Voldemort stood in the middle of the room, holding Dumbledore’s Portkey. James grabbed Lily’s hand. Behind Voldemort were Malfoy, Bellatrix Black, Theodore Knott, and a boy that James recognized as the Slytherin Keeper, Sebastian Harridson.
“How did you know? How did you know what we were up to?” Lily gasped at last. Voldemort chuckled, and somebody shifted uncomfortably behind her.
“You know, you Mud-Bloods and Muggle-Lovers are all the same. All of you are weak, all of you are simple, all of you are...trusting,” Voldemort said, putting much emphasis on the last word. Lily then realized something. Somebody must have ratted them out. But who?