Well. This was certainly interesting. Remus leaned against the bathroom sink, trying to think of something. Sirius had run away, and Peter was mysteriously missing. He could either try to find them, or do nothing. His first instinct was to go with finding them… but then again, it was so blissfully quiet…

He relaxed a bit more, closing his eyes. No, this wasn’t going to work. His conscience was gnawing at him, and besides, Peter and Sirius were his friends no matter how annoying they were.

Remus went to the door, ready to ease himself out when Moaning Myrtle appeared from a toilet. Great.

"You’re leaving me?” Her bottom lip quivered, as though she were seriously hurt.

He didn’t want to get into this. “Look, Myrtle, I’m really sorry. But I’ve got to find Sirius and Peter.”

The ghost slid up closer to him, staring at him. “Why find them… when you could be with me?” she asked, slipping a ghostly hand through his shoulder.

“Um…”

“You don’t love me!” she choked. “I was in love with Harry, but he never knew! He taunted me too! But you never did… you were always so nice…” Immediately, she dove back into her toilet, leaving Remus alone once again. Time for his great escape… he’d always wanted to do this, and now really seemed the perfect opportunity…

Leaning against the wall, he looked left and right. Seeing no one, he dived to the floor, rolling around a few times before popping back up, shifting his eyes this way and that. Sneaking carefully to the door, he slammed himself against the wall one more time to avoid being seen by spies. Finally, in one swift movement, Remus threw open the door and dashed outside.

Remus Lupin, agent 008. Oh yes, he liked it. Now that his moment of fun was over, he had to get back to business. Find Sirius and Peter… and James and Lily, and then they could go home. Back home to where his mother baked magical cookies and cakes and pastries and…

He hit his head with his hand. That was probably the weirdest thought he’d ever had in his life. Gently, he worked his way through the hallways, running into no one. Careful… careful…

Suddenly, a round faced boy appeared out of nowhere. Remus spun around, looking for a place to hide, but there was none. Just wonderful.

The boy looked a bit confused, once even scratching his scalp. Finally, he turned around and looked at Remus, much to his horror. Remus had begun to slink away, but it was too late now.

“Uh…” the boy still looked confused. Maybe it wouldn’t be so incomprehensible to run away. “Do you know where the bathroom is? Sorry… but I sort of forgot…” He looked extremely hesitant, and Remus couldn’t help but point in the right direction.

“Thanks,” the boy replied, giving a relived smile and left, sort of shuffling off. Remus started off again, but was stopped short when the boy said, a little bit unsure, “You know, I haven’t seen you around. Are you new?”

“Um…”

“You look really familiar.”

“I think you’re mistaken…” Suddenly, a thought hit Remus. Maybe this was his son! It wouldn’t be impossible… how else would he know who Remus was? Maybe he was famous in the future. But either way, the thought of offspring made Remus wince a little whenever he looked at the boy.

It looked as though a light bulb went off above the boy’s head as his face lit up. “You were on that video!” he cried, looking excited. Then his face darkened a bit as he added, “You turned my dad into a duck…”

“Uh… Oh! You mean Frank! You’re Frank’s son?” He looked at the boy’s face, and noticed a resemblance. “I’m quite sorry about that, I never meant to…”

“Wait.” The boy’s face screwed up as he thought. “If you turned my dad into a duck, that must have been about twenty years ago or so. But you look the same…”

This was getting a little too close for comfort. Remus felt the inside of his pocket- and what a stroke of luck. Just what he wanted was tucked inside. “You know, I’m really sorry about this, but I’ve really, really got to find my friends, and I can’t have you find out who I really am…”

The last thing the boy saw must have been a cylinder like object coming towards his face with the words “Moony’s Unperfected Prank” written on the side.

As Remus ran away, Neville was rolling around the floor as an armadillo. Like father… like son.

Sirius Black was still at the preschool, and the children had gone wild. Completely and utterly wild. The ice cream girl first scribbled all over her piece of toilet paper and then promptly threw it away, demanding real paper. After that, she began to draw on a picture of some strange cartoon creature that resembled an aardvark and wore glasses and a yellow sweater. With her additions, he had sported a brand new curly moustache and devil horns. Actually, it quite improved on the drawing…

Sirius leaned back to examine it more and added some long eyelashes, long curly hair and lipstick. This was looking pretty good. He was about to add on some fairy wings and a tutu when the little boy started to make trouble.

The trouble that was occuring was a tremendous sort of trouble. If Sirius could define the word trouble, he would have given the child’s name. In order to explain this properly, you are going to have to locate your lips. Just above, there should be a little indentation. Do you feel that? Good. That was where the little boy was placing marbles and miraculously shooting them at the windows, and one had already shattered. Sirius didn’t know how he was doing this, but he wouldn’t stop to ponder the logic.

“Stop!” he shouted and ran to the kid, who was having immense fun, by the way. “Stop… shooting marbles from that little… indented thingy…”

The child, eyes looking droopy and sad, gazed up at Sirius, letting the marble fall from his lip.

Sirius gave him a long look, and then just shook his head. “You know, that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I only made it up because, when our old teacher was here, we were naming our body parts and what we do with them,” he said, swinging his legs unhurriedly, “and so I wondered what that little thing above your lip did. Now I know.”

“Normal people don’t do that,” Sirius protested, sitting next to the child. As to demonstrate, Sirius put a marble on his lip and tried to shoot it towards a wall. It fell flat and lamely bounced down the floor.

Ever so slowly, the kid turned to Sirius and shook his head, even dropping it lower a bit as if very ashamed. “You have to curl your lip, and then push it,” he explained, then verified.

As Sirius looked on, the premise of the idea seemed more and more entertaining and appealing. “Give me the blue one,” he commanded, and gave it a shot. Although it managed to get a few inches away, the marble certainly went further than before.

The child looked at Sirius in admiration. “That’s very good for someone just learning!” he proclaimed, as though the expert. “Now try it again.”

And Sirius did.

“Quiet.”

“But…”

“No buts!”

“But I…”

“What did I say before?”

“Not to say but.”

“You said it!”

“But?”

“Yes!”

“Sorry. I won’t say ‘but’ again.”

“Kind of ruined your promise there, didn’t you?”

“Wait, but…”

James just gave up, turning around. Lily shrugged her shoulders and gave a frustrated sigh, leaning against a tree by the lake. As they had officially been deemed ‘unable’ to go to class with Ron, Hermione and the rest of the crew, they spent their time walking around the castle. After James had an encounter with Sirius, they decided to stay towards the lake. Of course, James loved it, except for the fact he couldn’t frighten Malfoy out of his wits, but Lily didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the idea.

Light bounced off the water as clouds began to gather in the horizon, gently turning a deep purple. The most beautiful time of day, Lily thought.

“You know,” she began, looking at the glassy waters, “we could have still gone to class if you hadn’t ruined it by telling McGonagall all about how you and Malfoy got into a fight.”

Holding back a laugh, James managed to only snort. “It wasn’t a fight. I was quoting to him. Quoting! How bad could that be? If I just went up to you and said ‘You are like a big jam doughnut with cream on top’ that wouldn’t be called getting in a fight, would it?”

Lily stared at him. “And why am I like a jam doughnut?”

Sliding into character, James gave a grin and lowered an imaginary top hat. “Your arrival fills us with delight and your departure only makes us hungry for more.”

She gave a cynical laugh. “You didn’t make that up yourself.”

“Well, the statement you made wasn’t completely original, now was it?”

Lily was silent as she gazed at the waters of the lake, watching as a fish of some sort rippled the water. Something was niggling at the back of her mind… something she desperately wanted to know…

“James?”

He looked up, already having gone off to his own little world. “Yes?”

“James… when are we going to go home?”

For a moment, she thought he might not answer. Finally, he gave a sigh. “You know what? I don’t know. Remus is trying to help us, and it won’t take too long, because you know how smart he is. But then again, he could never solve the mystery of who put the flobberworm mucus into the cauldron next to ours in Potions…” James went off into thought again, watching as the ripples in the water grew in frequency.

“I just want to go home, James,” Lily said suddenly, interrupting his dreams. The intensity of her tone startled him. “Not to say it’s not interesting or fun here. But I miss home… I miss my mother and father, and my friends…”

“Remus is here,” James pointed out, slipping towards the water to put his toes in.

“Yes, but he’s not Remus! He’s an older version… I mean, they’re barely the same person. I don’t know…”

James seemed intent on making her see his way. “We’ve got Harry, haven’t we?”

Giving a sigh, Lily leaned back. “Funny you should mention Harry… I was just thinking about him. He’s a wonderful person… but… it’s a little strange.”

James looked shocked. “How?”

“Well… I mean, apparently, in the future, we’ve had a child together and we named him Harry and now he’s all grown up and… it’s sort of strange to be meeting him when we’re 16. I know I’d be proud of him, if I were older and actually remember being his parent. But I really don’t know who he is.”

Once again, James went silent, pondering over her words. Finally, he said, “There’s only one thing I find a little odd about this whole future thing. Which one of us decided on the name Harry? I hate that name.”

Lily looked quite offended. “I think it’s lovely,” she proclaimed, jutting her chin out.

“Well, it shows who won the ‘name the baby’ contest,” snorted James, dipping his entire leg in the water.

“And what would you have named him, may I ask?” Lily gave a smile as she could almost predict the answer.

“Well… James. If James wasn’t appropriate, then maybe Horatio. But I do love the name Barnaby. Barnaby Potter. Isn’t that beautiful?”

Shaking her head, Lily stifled a laugh. “Barnaby.”

“Yes, Barnaby!” James looked up in surprise. “Is there something funny about that? Barnaby. All the greatest people on earth were named Barnaby. Barnaby Vir created the magic wand you know. And Barnaby the Conqueror took over England and made it the civilized place we know today. Of course, who can forgot Barnaby Lincoln-”

At that moment, the ripples that had been breaking the water violently suddenly stopped as a pink tentacle shot out of the water, grabbing James around the ankle.

Lily didn’t even realize she was screaming, but apparently, she was, as the high pitched sound met her ears. “James! James, oh my God!”

On James’s face was simply shock and a bit of confusion as the tentacle tried to take him under, pulsating as it tugged at his leg. “What the f…” James began, but another wrench had him clinging to the long spears on grass poking from the ground.

Getting down on her stomach, Lily held out her hands, fear written all around her eyes. “Grab my hands!” Trying to oblige, James let one fist loose hold of the grass and held it out to Lily, which she quickly took. The only problem was the tugging was too getting too strong, and her hand slipped from his within a few seconds.

Panicked, Lily searched around, trying to find someone, anyone…

Two men had appeared from the castle doors, silhouettes painted against the dying light. They seemed to be talking to each other, and it was quite obvious they were good friends.

“Help!” Lily screamed, running over towards them. “Help me! Help us!”

James, finding no better options, dug his fingers into the soft dirt, hoping he wouldn’t slide into the lake with the Giant Squid.

The men, taking no time to even think this exclamation over, ran towards Lily, shaking with relief. She began to explain to them, tell them what happened, when she realized James was having quite a hard time staying on land.

“Please, just help…”

The two men gave affirmative nods towards each other, and then each other a leg and pulled as hard as they could.

“Couldn’t you pull a little softer?” screeched James as the men, yanking with all their strength, finally released James from the tentacle’s grasp.

With a shuddering gasp, Lily flung herself onto one of the men, crying with relief, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” James looked rather cross as he sat himself up.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he muttered, brushing dirt off of his robe, forgetting he’d screamed as loud as he had. The two men gave quiet smirks, but the moment they actually stopped and gazed at James, their mouths dropped open.

“Harry?”

James looked up at the two men. “Oh no…”

Sure enough, Fred and George were staring back at him. “Are you all right?” George asked, running over to him and checking for any bruises.

“Um, yeah, I’m just fine…”

Fred, however, had taken in interest in Lily, nudging James slyly. “So, Harry, you’ve finally got a girlfriend…”

Lily bristled angrily, forgetting exactly who they thought James was. “Excuse me?”

Fred put up his hands in mock offense. “I’m sorry, but when I see you screaming over poor Harry, nearly sobbing with relief when he’s out-”

“We’re just friends, all right?”

Fred and George gave each other a knowing glance, a smug look on their faces.

Finding this a rather awkward situation, James began to scratch the back of his head when he noticed seaweed tangled throughout his hair. Just great. He started to pull the slimy weeds from his hair when George rushed over.

“This should be wicked,” he muttered, with a gleam in his eye. “C’mon, Fred!”

In a moment, James had been changed from a wizard to a Barbie doll. Fred and George grabbed and plucked at his head, and in an instant, all the seaweed was gone. As was a fair amount of his hair.

“Ouch,” whined James, putting his hand on the back of his head, and brushed his hair off his forehead to see clearly the damage that lay before him. “What was that for?”

But Fred and George were not laughing like they had been before. This time they were staring straight at his forehead.

Sirius ran out of the castle, feeling rather freed. The fresh air felt good on his face, and for a moment, he felt like he needed to do something. Here he was, doing absolutely nothing! He’d have to wait a while for McGonagall to stop looking for him.

For some reason, he was feeling a bit disoriented. He wanted to just run on and on for hours one minute, and the next, he was so tired he could barely stand. But now, he wanted to run.

So that’s what he did for a while, just wasting the illusion of energy his body had conjured. Yet he kept going, spurred on by childish whim to find a magical land of some sort, or something. His mind wasn’t working rationally anymore; he just jogged mindlessly, trying to find anything.

Gradually, he noticed he was running alongside a pavement of some kind, winding in a straight line for what looked like forever. He made notice of it then went running without a second thought.

And there it was!

In the distance, it appeared, in the middle of nowhere, like a castle rising out of the sea. Or at least that’s some metaphor Sirius read in a book somewhere. And all he could think about was just that.

Sirius began to sprint faster and faster, eyes always connected with the place. Pushing his body to the limit, sweat started to pour down his face, his legs pumping with a ferocity man had never seen before. Muscles ached, and for a moment, Sirius thought his lungs would explode. But then, he was there.

The building looked fairly new, with a glass door at the front. A small bell was perched above the frame, for reasons unknown to Sirius. The pavement had widened out, making a big square of… pavement. The whole place looked very nice, and a few of those weird tinny rolling machines that Sirius had seen at Peter’s house and on Monty Python were situated on the pavement.

As Sirius looked around, he was struck by an odd thought.

What now?