“Oy!” James exclaimed when he saw Harry’s face. “Did someone slip you a Polyjuice Potion during the meal? You look just like me!”
“Oh...yeah,” Harry said. He would’ve come up with an excuse at that moment, but he was too busy staring at a near mirror image of himself. James was almost exactly his height, looked of about the same body build, and the only real two differences between them were that Harry wore glasses, and his eyes were green.
“What’s your name?” James inquired, still examining Harry’s face intently.
“Yeah, what is your name?” Lily spoke up. “What are all of your names, actually?”
“I-I’m Ron,” Ron said, still in awe of Harry’s teenaged parents. “Ron Weas...”
As he started to say his last name, Hermione quickly hit him with a Silencing spell. Ron, soon discovering he couldn’t talk, simply shrugged.
“Well, hello, Ron Wheeze,” Lily said slowly, shaking his hand. “Very interesting last name."
“I’m Hermione Granger,” Hermione said, turning to Harry and giving him a meaningful look. “Why don’t you introduce yourself now?”
“I’m Harry,” Harry told James and Lily, then turned to look at Hermione as he said his last name. “Harry Potter.”
Everyone stared at Harry in shock. James looked very amused, Lily looked confused, and Ron and Hermione gave Harry anguished looks.
“Potter?” James said. “Harry Potter? How odd. You look just like me, and we share last names. Plus, Harry’s my middle name...what’s yours?”
Before Harry could reply, Hermione pinched him rather hard, and Harry winced. James and Lily took this to be a reaction to the mention of his middle name. “Oh, I get it,” Lily said. “You’re probably embarrassed about your middle name. Let’s not press the matter, James.”
For a second, Harry thought she’d known his middle name, but realized she’d been talking to his father. “Actually,” Harry said, “my middle name isn’t that embarrassing. It’s...”
“Harry,” Hermione said through gritted teeth, “can we talk? Alone?”
“Certainly, Hermione,” Harry said nonchalantly. With that, Hermione grabbed Harry by the sleeve into the common room. Ron, still under Hermione’s Silencing charm, waved fervently goodbye to James and Lily before rushing after them.
“Harry, are you mental?!” Hermione said furiously. “If they find out you’re their son, it could change history!”
“That’s the point, Hermione,” Harry said exasperatedly to Hermione. “That’s what I’m trying to do. What have I got left back home...er, forward home?” His voice began dripping with sarcasm. “Oh, wait...you’re right, Hermione...I have a Dark wizard after me, my parents, mentor and godfather are all dead, and my aunt and uncle loathe me with a passion! I wouldn’t want to change a thing about the future!”
Hermione watched him carefully for a second, then slapped him hard across the cheek. Harry’s eyes watered with the blow, mostly from surprise.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” Hermione said. “I’m your friend, Harry. You remember that. I’m looking out for your best interests right now.” With that, Hermione stalked away for the girls’ dormitories.
Harry turned to Ron, whose eyes were wide with surprise. “What have I done wrong?” he asked. Ron started to reply, but realized he still couldn’t talk. With a sigh, Harry muttered the counter-curse, and Ron could speak again.
“Well, you’re sorta being selfish right now, Harry,” Ron said sadly. “Don’t you see that all those changes are looking out for yourself? If your parents were still alive, do you think we would’ve still met? Or that all the problems in the world would be solved?”
Harry only looked at him, confused.
“Harry, as your friend, I won’t force you to not do something. But I still think you should talk to Dumbledore before trying to change anything more.”
Harry lowered his eyes. “All right. And thanks, Ron. You sure have matured faster than me.”
Ron had to laugh. “Are we talking about the same Ron Weasley? I would dream to be like you, remember?”
Harry half-smiled. “Well, I suppose we should go upstairs and change for bed...” Suddenly, he remembered something. “We don’t have any of our stuff!” he exclaimed.
Ron also realized this. “What do we do now?” he moaned.
“I dunno,” Harry said. For some odd reason, although they had been awake for a total of four hours, he was feeling very tired. It must’ve been something to do with the sudden time change. “This isn't good; it’s Monday tomorrow, so we’ll have to figure something out in the morning.” With that, they both trudged up to their dorms. They only stopped to kick their shoes off at the foot of their new four-posters before falling asleep soundly. And for the first time in weeks, Harry slept without a single nightmare.
***
When Harry awoke, Ron was shaking him fervently. “Harry!” Ron exclaimed. “Harry, wake up!”
“What?” Harry moaned groggily. “What time is it?”
“Why don’t you check your watch and find out?” Ron said, grinning madly.
Harry’s eyes opened wide at this. His watch had been with the rest of his stuff when they disappeared the day before. When he sat up, his feet bumped against his trunk, causing him to wince in pain and smile at the same time. “Where’d this come from?” Harry said, half to himself and half to Ron. He rummaged quickly through his trunk and found that everything looked to be still there “ including his scrapbook.
“Beats me,” Ron said. “It just appeared their overnight, I guess. Lucky us.
“Wait,” Harry said suddenly. “My Invisibility Cloak is gone.”
“Hmm...” Ron said. “That’s odd. Is anything else missing?”
“Nope,” Harry said. “It looks like everyth-”
Suddenly, Hermione barged into the room, carrying an armful of her belongings. “You got your stuff back, too?” she exclaimed. “This is incredible!”
“Not as incredible as going back in time without a time-turner,” Ron said, half to himself.
“Well, most of my stuff is here, anyway,” Harry said. “My Invisibility Cloak is gone.”
Hermione pondered this information for a moment, then grinned. She walked over to James’ four-poster (who, along with the other three Marauders, had gone to breakfast) and rummaged through his trunk. “’Mione, what do you think you’re doing?!” Ron exclaimed. “What are you thinking?”
But he gaped as Hermione pulled out the cloak from the locker. “You seem to forget that this originally belonged to James, Harry,” Hermione said. “You can’t both have it at the same time.”
“That’s weird,” Harry said, taking the cloak for her. “Look...it even has the little stain in the corner, like mine...”
“It is yours, Harry,” Hermione, “only 20 years earlier than yours. Oh, and by the way, do you have your scrapbook?”
“Yeah, it’s right here,” Harry said. He picked it up and opened it, and immediately gasped: all the pictures were gone.
“I thought so,” Hermione said when she saw this. “Harry, don’t worry. The pictures disappeared because they haven’t taken place yet. As they all occur, they’ll reappear in your scrapbook.”
“You seem to know a lot about this, Hermione,” Ron quipped.
Hermione glanced at him. “If you’ll remember, Ron, I spent a whole school term using a time-turner. I’m quite aware of the laws of time travel.”
“Forget it,” mumbled Ron.
“Oh, and Harry,” Hermione said, with a meaningful look in her eye, “those pictures will only reappear if they happen exactly the way they did in the first place.”
Harry snorted. “Hermione, how many times do I have to tell you?” Harry said. “I want to change the past. I want everything to be different. If everything changes, I’ll have a whole mansion full of pictures of my mum and dad! I don’t need a stupid scrapbook compared to having my parents in the flesh.”
Hermione closed her eyes in frustration. “Believe me, Harry, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Neither do you,” Harry retorted. “The only way to find out is by doing it.”
“Touché,” Ron remarked. Hermione glared at him.
“Look, Harry, just promise me you won’t do anything stupid before you talk to Dumbledore today,” Hermione sighed.
“Hermione, look, I don’t need you...”
“Promise me!”
“All right, fine,” Harry said irritably. “I promise.”
Hermione studied his face for a few seconds, and then, satisfied, walked out of the boys’ dormitory.
“Well,” Ron said, “I guess we should go down for breakfast.”
“Yeah,” Harry said absentmindedly.
“Hey, Harry,” Ron said, walking in front of him so he looked at him, “Hermione only said not to try and change things, right? Why not try to get to know your parents more? I mean, that wouldn’t hurt, right?”
Harry thought about that. “No, I suppose not,” he said. With that, he and Ron walked out of the dormitory and down to the Great Hall.
When they walked into the hall, everyone was already eating and talking animatedly. Normally, back in his time, Harry’s entrance into the hall meant slightly more hushed tones, as most people talked about him those days. Now, however, people only ignored him. He had apparently gone from “the Chosen One” to “that nerdy transfer student from America”. And frankly, Harry preferred it that way. He was getting sick of the attention.
“Oy! Harry!” came a voice from the Gryffindor table. “Over here!” Harry looked toward the voice, and found it to be James.
“Coming, Dad,” Harry said without thinking. Ron kicked him in the shins, and Harry almost tripped. He walked over to greet James, and Ron walked over to join Hermione, who had sat down next to Lily.
“Did you just call me ‘Dad’?” James said, smirking, as Harry approached.
“Uh...yeah,” Harry said, thinking fast. “Uh...there was a kid at my old school that everyone called Dad for some reason, and...I just forgot I wasn’t there anymore.”
It was a lame excuse, but James appeared to buy it. A voice piped up from James’ left side. “So, Prongs, this is the long-lost twin you were telling us about. Harry turned to see a sixteen-year-old Sirius Black looking at him curiously. Harry’s stomach lurched. Although Sirius had been a raggedy man in Harry’s time, he now found himself looking at a handsome teen. His long hair looked naturally built for his face, which was clean-shaven except for a few hairs on his chin.
Harry also saw Remus, sitting quietly across from James and Sirius. He had a textbook propped open, but he was now also examining Harry. Harry, who had just recently seen Remus before traveling through time, also saw the differences in appearance, as this Remus was a very clean cut person. He combed his hair to one side so no one hair was out of place, and his robe was iron-pressed and clean of any marks or stains, despite the food he was now around.
Then Harry saw Peter. His stomach lurched with anger as he stared into the innocent eyes of the man “ or, teenager “ that betrayed his parents. Peter was a short, mousy boy that reminded Harry a lot of Colin Creevey. He also seemed very childish to Harry, although working for Voldemort had obviously hardened him into a man later on. Harry had the sudden urge to lurch across the table and strangle Peter, but he held back, knowing that wouldn’t be smart in front of everyone.
“Hey, you gonna say something?” James said when he saw Harry examining everyone. “Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Harry, this is Sirius, Remus, and Peter.”
Harry almost said, “Yeah, I know,” but he bit his tongue. He had promised Hermione not to give anything away yet. “Nice to meet you,” he said instead.
Just then, Sirius spotted Harry’s scar. “Whoa, check it out, Prongs!” he said. “Look at that scar!”
James spotted the scar, also. “That’s wicked!” James said, grinning. “Where’d you get it?”
Harry tried to think fast. “Car accident,” he said, thinking of the story the Dursleys had made up for him years ago. “It killed my parents,” he said, thinking, what the heck?
“Sorry then, mate,” James said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“I lost my parents too,” Sirius commented. His face suddenly grew grave and dark. “I’m almost not sorry about it, too,” he growled.
“Don’t scare him, Padfoot,” Remus said from across the table. “He might get ideas that you’re a mass murderer or something.”
Harry remembered the events of his third year and had to stifle a laugh at that remark.
Just before Harry could sit down to talk further with the Marauders, Dumbledore strode briskly up the aisle towards them. “Harry? Would you join me, please, in my office?”
“Sure,” Professor, Harry said. “I know where it is.” Dumbledore nodded and walked away.
“How do you know where the headmaster’s office is?” James asked. “You’ve hardly been here for twelve hours!”
“Oh,” Harry said. “I visited the school once before I transferred,” he thought up. He was getting better at making up lies.
“Right,” Sirius said, smirking. “He probably got in trouble or something last night.”
“Oh, leave him alone, Paddie,” James said. “Harry hasn’t gotten accustomed to our making fun yet, have you?”
“Uh...” Harry said, not sure how to respond. “Well, I’d better go with Dumbledore,” he said. “Catch you later.”
“Will I see you in Transfiguration later?” James called after Harry as he began walking away. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
“Sure,” Harry said. With that, he turned after Dumbledore, sighing with relief. So far, so good.