Harry awoke groggily the next morning, feeling like he’d been hit by a train. He sat up slowly, looking around and taking in his surroundings. He was in the Hog’s Head, in one of the rooms upstairs. Then, as his mind slowly began churning again, he remembered the events of the night before, and jerked his head to the left.
Lily was sleeping beside him.
He was so surprised, he promptly fell out of bed...luckily, he was still clothed. He got up, grabbed his cloak and shoes (which lay in a heap beside Lily’s off to the side) and ran from the room before she had a chance to wake up. He put on the remainder of his clothing as he ran downstairs (not an easy feat) and burst into the pub area, racing through it and to the outdoors before the bartender could react.
There were no carriages to take him back to the castle, so he had to walk the two-mile distance between the castle and Hogsmeade. It was a perfect morning...the air was slightly chilly, but it wasn’t windy, and birds chirped all around him...but he didn’t care. All he could think about was what might have happened the previous night.
What did we do? Harry thought frantically. Did we just fall right asleep? Or did we... His mind had been too absorbed with Firewhiskey, he couldn’t remember a thing that happened after Lily led him upstairs. He was terrified of what might happened if anything had happened to her, and was worried sick the whole walk.
Half an hour later, Harry arrived at the castle, out of breath. He was starving, but he passed right by the Great Hall, not daring to live it up with the others. Instead, he walked up to Gryffindor Tower, where he passed through the nearly-empty common room and up to the dorms. He had prayed it would be empty, but to his dismay, James and Sirius were in there, with what looked to be hangovers.
“Hey, guys,” Harry said wearily to them, grateful he hadn’t had too much to drink to put him in the same boat as his overdosed friends. James and Sirius grunted in response, not moving from their four-posters.
“When did you get back to the castle?” Sirius muttered to Harry.
“Just now,” Harry said. “You?”
“Little after eight,” James muttered in a weak voice. “Paddie got here about half an hour later.”
“What time is it?” Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Nearly eleven,” Sirius replied, glancing at his watch on the bedside table. “Where did Evans go? She wasn’t anywhere to be seen when we got back...”
“She, erm...stayed at the bar for the night, same as us,” Harry offered. “Remus was the only one that came back before bed.”
“Where did she stay?” James asked, sitting up suddenly and grimacing from doing so. “I heard the bartender telling some old witch as I left the bar this morning that the last three empty rooms in the bar were taken last night. If Sirius and I each took a room, that leaves one room, and if you and Evans both stayed there...”
“You didn’t,” Sirius whispered to Harry, wide-eyed.
Harry groaned. “Look, it was late, and we’d both had a little too much to drink,” he sighed. “My plan was to get her to drink enough to go in to sleep with you, James, but I miscalculated how much I could have without overdoing it...”
James looked shocked. “You...slept...with my future wife?” he said incredulously.
“Listen, James, I can explain...”
“I’ll kill you!”
James stood up suddenly and stumbled towards Harry, promptly falling to the floor. He scrambled to get up, reaching for his wand, but Harry flicked his own, which he’d been fingering in his pocket since arrival in case of such an occurrence, and James was thrown backwards onto his bed.
“Look, you’re not my boss, James,” Harry said calmly, trying to keep his temper from rising (one bad trait he’d inherited from his equally-temperamental father). “You and I both know I could beat you in a duel. You remember what happened last time we dueled...”
“We never dueled!” James said, suddenly confused. “Why would we do that?”
Oops. Harry had forgotten he’d wiped that particular memory of James’ nearly three months ago. “I, erm...” he struggled for an excuse, but he’d had enough of lying. He sighed. “Look, we fought about a week before Christmas break because I was dating Lily, and you were angry. I had to wipe your memory, so you wouldn’t remember...I didn’t want to be on your bad side forever.”
“You wiped his memory?” Sirius said, surprised. “Blimey, that’s pretty good, Harry!”
James wasn’t so impressed. “I’ll tell you what, Harry,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Harry. “I’ll let you off for now. But one day, maybe not today, maybe not this week, or maybe not even this year, I’ll get you for this. You’ll regret the day you ever messed with James Harry Potter!”
Harry scoffed. “Don’t hurt yourself,” he quipped, and walked from the dorm, leaving Sirius and an enraged but subdued James behind him.
He decided then to walk down to the Great Hall for breakfast, or rather, brunch. He figured the only person that knew about last night’s events that would be down there was Remus, who wouldn’t really care, or at least, not tell everyone about it publicly. However, as he made his way downstairs, he came across Lily, who was running in the opposite direction. When she saw Harry, she froze in her tracks, then whimpered and turned around, taking a detour, obviously headed for Gryffindor Tower to hide in the dorm, as Harry had tried to do.
And suddenly, a brilliant idea formed in Harry’s head. His own words to Hermione, during his first Memory Charms lesson, when talking about modifying James memory, rang throughout his mind: “You’re saying...it’s possible to change his memory completely so he remembers something else?”
“Exactly,” Hermione had responded. Now was the time to exercise this theory again. He drew his wand and sprinted after Lily, who was a bit ahead of him, but he caught up to her on the fifth floor.
“Lily, wait!” he called out, and Lily turned around, terrified.
“What?” she asked timidly.
Harry, without caring to explain, pointed his wand at her forehead. “Obliviate!”
***
Down in the Great Hall, Harry spotted Remus, and walked over to greet him. “Hey, Remus,” he sighed, plopping down beside the boy. Remus smirked at him.
“What happened last night?” he asked slyly. “I neglected to notice that you wanted to be alone with Lily...”
Harry shook his head sadly. “My plan was to get Lily drunk enough to sleep with James,” he explained in an undertone. “It almost worked, except I also had too much to drink, and she ended up sleeping with me. But don’t worry!” he added feverishly, as Remus’ jaw dropped open, “I’ve taken care of everything already.”
“What, like a contraceptive charm or something?” Remus asked, a little too loudly. The people surrounding the two boys promptly got up, disgusted, and moved somewhere else.
“No, not like a contraceptive charm!” Harry said. “And thanks for sharing that with the whole world.”
“What did you do then?” Remus asked.
“Simple,” Harry replied. “I replaced her memory of sleeping with me to sleeping with James.”
“Nice one!” Remus said, grinning at the idea. “James’ll love that, if you’ll just do the same for him. Some birthday present! Doubt Lily’ll be thrilled, though.”
“Ah, well,” Harry said, shrugging. “That was what James was going to do anyway, if I didn’t step in. I won’t lose any sleep over it.”
“Yeah, but James OR Lily won’t be happy if something did happen,” Remus rebutted. “It’s more than probable that the Evans and Potter family will have a new family member around Christmastime.”
“Don’t say that!” Harry warned. “It won’t happen. I refuse to believe it.”
“Okay, I won’t,” Remus said, putting up his hands to signal a truce. “But don’t you think, after they do some sort of DNA test, they’ll find out that James isn’t the father of...well, you know...?”
“I thought about that, too,” Harry said. “But I figure, it’ll be about Christmastime, like you said, in nine months. The Healers will be off with their families, so she probably wouldn’t give birth at St. Mungo’s...but don’t get me wrong, she will not give birth.”
“If you say so,” Remus said, returning to his food. “Are you gonna eat with me, or what?”
“No,” Harry replied. “I’ve got too much on my mind.”
He grabbed a plateful of food and left the Hall promptly, not stopping to say hello to Professor Dumbledore when he walked into the hall. He walked out onto the grounds and down to the lake, where he sat under a bench someone had wisely conjured underneath an old oak tree. He munched his eggs, toast and sausage, deep in thought.
I wonder what Ron and Hermione are doing right now? he thought to himself. He hated to admit it, but he was starting to wish he hadn’t thrown that bit of leather into the fire three months ago. If something bad did happen with Lily, and something did get him arrested for altering time, he would have no way of getting back.
But no matter. He wouldn’t think about that right now. For the time being, he would live his new life as it played out. He finished his meal, Vanished his plate and silverware, and stood up. It was about time for James and Sirius to say good-bye to their old memories.
***
Several weeks later, Harry and James were back on good terms, but James was worried sick. When he finally confided in Harry that he had slept with Lily (which he didn’t really), Harry feigned surprise and sympathy, which made James feel a little better. However, on that fateful Tuesday evening, James came to Harry looking terrified.
“Lily told me she’s been having odd stomach cramps lately,” he told Harry worriedly. “She said she’s going to Madam Pomphrey for a pregnancy test, and she’s forcing me to go.”
“You nervous?” Harry asked.
“Terrified!” James moaned. “I can’t believe I got myself into this mess. You gotta help me!”
“No can do,” Harry said, frowning sympathetically. “Like you said, you got yourself into this, and you’ll have to deal with the consequences.” After he said that, Harry went on a personal guilt trip. Aren’t you the one to talk...killing people, and staying in the past and avoiding consequences! Nevertheless, he went with James to the Hospital Wing later that night.
Lily was already in the room with Madam Pomphrey, who had her wand pointed at the teenaged girl’s stomach and was muttering something, so James entered quietly while Harry remained outside, half not wanting to know the results, half wanting to know. Five minutes later, Lily fast-walked from the Hospital Wing, face unreadable as she sped away, presumably up to Gryffindor Tower for bed. James, however, remained inside for several long minutes, while Madam Pomphrey talked to him in an undertone.
Harry didn’t know what to think of this. Is she giving him a lecture on how he got lucky this time, or a lecture on how to be a good father? he wondered. Finally, James emerged, looking quite depressed. “Well?” Harry asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
James looked up at Harry, face set but lips quivering slightly. “I’m going to the Owlery,” he said in a strained voice. “I need to explain to my parents why I’m going to have a son in eight months.” He walked away sadly, leaving Harry to think alone.
Harry’s head, spinning at a million miles an hour, told him to walk after James and tell him the truth, but he couldn’t. Instead, he kicked a wall with anger and slid to the marble floor, sobbing silently. What have I done? he thought miserably. Now James has to take the fall for it, and it’s all my fault...and I can’t go back. Oh, Ron and Hermione, why can’t we start over again? I should’ve never come!
Harry jumped. Two people were standing in front of him, obviously bemused by his appearance. Harry, embarrassed that someone had found him in this stance, stood up and wiped his eyes. “I, erm...” he began, then froze when he saw their faces.
It was Ron and Hermione.
Author’s Note: Ron and Hermione to the rescue! Has Harry had enough abuse for one story? I’m almost done with him, don’t worry; he’ll have to pay for all of this soon, but I won’t tell you how or when. Thanks for reading; please review!
Changing the Past by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: Pretty self-explanatory...this chapter details what happens the next morning (duh), and also a bit further into the future...but I'll say no more; you'll have to wait and find out!