Changing the Past by PEMDAS
Chapter Notes: Thank you, everyone, for your patience with this chapter. As soon as it is validated, you can read it at last!!
“What?!” Harry exclaimed. How is this possible? Harry thought. He’s my father; how could he not be from this time?
James nodded sullenly, then cracked up unexpectedly. Harry was totally confused.
“Come off it, Harry,” James said, wiping a tear from his eye. “’Not from this time’, please...”
“James, look at me,” Harry said seriously, grabbing James by the shoulders and forcing him to look into his eyes. “Haven’t you ever noticed the similarities between us? Everything’s the same, except for my glasses and eye color. I got that from my mum.”
“Your mum...” James pondered that, deep in thought. Suddenly, a wicked smile crossed his face. “Evans!”
Harry nodded, and James gave a whoop of delight. “I KNEW she’d come around eventually!” James said excitedly. “I think I’m starting to believe you.”
“Dad...er, James...listen to me,” Harry said. “Just because I say she’d gonna marry you doesn’t mean it’ll happen. If you’re still a big-headed jerk around her, she’ll never love you.” It was a sharp remark, and Harry knew it; James immediately winced. “I’m sorry,” Harry said. It’s just that...I went into Professor Dumbledore’s Pensieve in my time and...I saw the incident with you and Snape at the lake in your fifth year.”
“Ah, right,” James said. “I remember that. But he deserved it! He called her a Mudblood! Of course, that’s to be expected when he just got off with her...”
“Yeah, but that’s no excuse to...what?!” Harry exclaimed. “What do you mean, he got off with her?”
“Oh, didn’t you know?” James said. “Lily dated Snivellus for a few months, in our fourth year. That’s why I’ve always hated him, you know. That slimy git, with my Lily!”
Harry took a deep breath as he processed this information. It definitely explained a lot: why Snape had always hated him...because he was the son of a woman whom he had once loved. Seriously, though, Harry said to himself, Why would a Slytherin go out with a Gryffindor?
“I guess there’s a lot both of us don’t know,” James said, chuckling nervously. “But, I mean, wow...me and Lily really do hit it off! I think I’m ready to believe you now. Wait ‘til I tell the guys...”
Suddenly, something dawned on James. “Wait...” he said slowly. “You told us at breakfast that your parents died in a car crash,” he said. “That means...me?”
Harry swallowed, tears beginning to form in his eyes. “James, I think this is why I wanted to come back in time to meet you...I wanted to protect you and Lily from harm. Look, it wasn’t a car crash that killed you, James. It was Lord Voldemort.”
James stared at him, wide-eyed. “Wha-why?” he asked. “What would You-Know-Who want to do with me and Lily?”
“He wasn’t after you,” Harry explained tiredly. “He was after me. There was a prophecy that said I would be the only one that could defeat him, so he tried to kill me. You died fighting Voldemort, and Lily...she shielded me from him and died, and Voldemort then tried to kill me, but Lily’s love saved me, and I was left with this.” He pulled back his black hair to reveal his scar. James looked at it curiously.
“Well, if everyone knew You-Know-Who was after you, wouldn’t someone have put a Fidelius Charm on our location or something?” he asked. “Who was the Secret-Keeper?”
Harry closed his eyes sadly. “This is the hardest thing to tell you, James,” he said, sighing. “You and Lily chose Sirius to be your Secret-Keeper...”
“Of course,” James muttered, nodding.
“...but somehow, Peter convinced Sirius to make him Secret-Keeper, but Peter...Peter was working for Voldemort.”
James gasped. “No...not Wormtail...”
“I know,” Harry said sadly. “He betrayed you to Voldemort, James. The boy you hang out with every day is the reason you died.”
James ran a frustrated hand through his thick hair. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered. “What about Sirius?”
“Sirius confronted Peter on a Muggle road a few days after your murder,” Harry said, “and Peter blew up half the people there, and went into hiding. People thought he had died, and they blamed it all on Sirius, and Sirius got sent to Azkaban for life.”
“No...not Paddie, too!” James moaned. “Why me? And...poor Remus...what became of him?”
“Well, he taught DADA in my third year,” Harry replied, to which James smiled weakly, “and he was probably the best teacher we’d ever had, but once everyone found out he was a werewolf, he resigned. Then he joined the Order of the Phoenix “ an organization against Voldemort led by Dumbledore,” Harry added before James could open his mouth. “And Sirius...he escaped from Azkaban when I was thirteen, but...he died three years later.”
James buried his face in his arms. “I can tell why you would want to change everything,” he remarked. “What do you think you’ll do?”
“I don’t know yet,” Harry said. “There’s a couple things I could do, but some of them would really screw up the future for good. I need to figure out how to stop Peter and Snape without killing them...oh, and Bellatrix.”
“Lestrange?” James asked. “What’s she got to do with anything? Or Snape?”
“They’re both Death Eaters...at least, they will be,” Harry said. “Death Eaters are Voldemort’s supporters, by the way. Bella killed Sirius, and Snape...he killed Dumbledore, just a few weeks before I got transported here.”
James’ jaw clenched. “Don’t worry, Harry,” he said. “I’ll get Snivellus for Dumbledore’s sake...you can take Lestrange.”
“No!” Harry said. “What good will killing anyone do? Would you rather be thrown in Azkaban for life? I’d rather die, personally!” James looked at him angrily, then sighed and nodded.
“The things I need to change are you and Lily’s death, Sirius’ death, and Dumbledore’s death. That means we need to somehow get rid of Peter, Bella and Snape. The first thing we should decide whether or not to tell Sirius and Remus...because we obviously can’t tell Peter that we’re plotting against him.”
“Well, we can’t tell Padfoot or Moony anything without Wormtail butting in,” James sighed. “I guess we shouldn’t tell them anything. I’ll just tell them you were spying on us or something to get them off your back for your knowing a lot about us...”
“Fair enough,” Harry said. “So...we should figure out how to do this without hurting anyone, or changing anything else drastically.”
“What do you figure?” James said.
“I do know one way we could eliminate Snape,” Harry said thoughtfully. “Dumbledore told me that you saved Snape’s life this year from Moony during a transformation.”
James snickered. “Me, save Snape?” he said, stifling a laugh. “I think not!”
“I know; I didn’t believe it, either,” Harry said, nodding. “It would be a little unfair, but we could recreate the incident and not have you save him this time. That way, technically, it wasn’t our fault. It was his fault, after all.”
“Why? What did he do?” James asked.
“Well, Sirius told him that Remus was a werewolf, and Snape went after him when he went under the Whomping Willow, but you pulled him away before Remus could do him any harm.”
James nodded slowly. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said. “It wouldn’t be my fault, because I could be somewhere far away where it isn’t my responsibility, and Remus couldn’t get blamed, because he was in werewolf form. It would be like suicide!”
Harry nodded, and then stretched and yawned. It was nearing one in the morning. “We should figure the rest out another time,” he said. “Remember, don’t tell anyone about this. Not even Ron and Hermione.”
“Oh, did they come back in time with you, too?” he said.
“Yeah,” Harry said, “but they didn’t want me telling anyone about the future. Neither did Dumbledore.”
James’ eyes widened. “You disobeyed Dumbledore?” he exclaimed. At first, Harry thought James would be mad, but then, he smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “I guess you really ARE my son!”
Harry laughed. “After you, ‘Dad’,” he said, opening the tapestry for James to climb out. James obliged, smirking, and Harry followed soon after. “Well,” Harry said, “we’d better get back to bed before anyone notices we’re...” He stopped short, noticing James had stopped in his tracks. He followed his gaze down the corridor, then gasped.
Sirius, Remus, and Peter were walking towards them.
***
Author’s Note: Okay, okay, don't get mad at me for the cliffhanger being nothing of importance, but hey, it got you to read the next chapter, didn't it? I hope you guys read more! Please review!