Before the past, after the future

A/N ok, this is a little hard to explain right now, but believe me it will make sense in the end. The title is a bit weird but it might seem slightly less insane at the end. This is supposed to tie in with my other story, Lilys cousin, which I'm still writing. Have patience please, I've got a lot on at the moment and am writing this in between deadlines!

Disclaimer: Fey still is mine (she says I'm hers) but almost all the rest belongs to the fabulous J.K.Rowling (lucky woman!).

Prologue - time travel

"Sirius?", asked Harry, he wasn't looking forwards to asking this but he needed Sirius' help.

"Mmm?"

"I need your help."

"What have you done?" Sirius was more than a little pre-occupied, he was going over the recipe for his latest trick. He ran a joke shop in Diagon Alley that was doing even better than Zonkos! He never really knew what he was making but it always blew up or something similar whether it was meant to or not.

"Me and Hermione think we have worked out how to time travel, or at least we think we have and we want to send someone back in time to the rising of Voldemort and gather information that can be used in the trials against his followers in the spring."

By now Sirius had forgotton all about exploding shoelaces and was staring at Harry in amasement. "You want to send someone back in time? To my schooldays? Are you mad? I don't remember anyone from the future!"

"Of course you don't. But the way we think it will work is that they go back and are there in someone's mind, and in effect are that person. They have two lives, one now and one in the past." Harry wasn't sure that this would work but his first problem was to find a volunteer.

"So they exist then and now?"

"Yes, but the only way they can come back is to die in that life. The only problem is-"

"That you need a volunteer. I'll do it." Sirius wasn't sure what he was agreeing to but if it would help Harry, and he owed him so much-

"You can't. You're alive now and you were then so it wouldn't work. Anyway I've got an idea of who to ask, but I need your help in another way. I need to know the names of everyone you knew, who was close to your little gang of Marauders, who died."

Sirius stared at him. Everyone? That was impossible, so many had died during Voldemorts rise, and he couldn't remember them all. "Well I don't know if I can help, but I bet between me, Remus and Kat we can work it out." he stood up, "We can go now."

When they arrived at Remus' house he was not there, but his wife, Kat was. She was a pretty woman in her mid-thirties and had been another of Sirius' schoolfriends.

After Voldemort killed Lily and James the friends had split up and had not seen each other for many years. Sirius had met Remus again when he escaped Azkaban, but neither had contacted any of the old gang of Marauders until Kat had discovered Sirius and Remus at full moon chasing each other round the Welsh countryside. She had recognised them at once and they had talked for a long time about what happened all those years ago, and within a few months Remus and Kat had got married and started up their own 'Magical Plants' shop. She looked very different now, her long, hazel hair now was inches from the floor, but the old mischievous glint was still there.

"Sirius! What a suprise! And Harry, nice to see you again." She swept across the room and pulled them to their feet (Harry still hated travelling by Floo Powder!). "What can I do for you?"

Sirius grinned, "You can do whatever you like to me darling!"

She raised an eyebrow, "I am a married woman, you shouldn't speak like that to me, what if my husband walked in?"

"I'd ask him how he tricked you into marrying him!"

Harry interrupted, "We have come for a reason, if Sirius was just wanting to flirt I would have sent him as far away from me as possible!"

"Of course you have, Harry, now how can I help you?" Kat still found it hard not to cry every time she saw him, he looked so much like James. Apparently Remus and Sirius had got over this, but she wasn't sure she ever would.

Harry took a deep breath, "I want to know the names of everyone who was close to you at school who has died."

Sirius could see that Kat was puzzled and carried on, "He wants to send someone back in time, and it has to be someone now who if it works was friends with us, but died because thats how they come back to our time."

"Can you help with the first bit for now, although I might need your help later," Harry really hoped that all of his parents friends would help later but he'd ask about that later. To his relief Kat agreed.

The list had thirty names on it by the time Remus got home, and he could add a few more. Harry was exhausted by now, each name brought back memories to the Marauders, and each had a story to tell. Unfortunately there was no-one who bore any resemblance to anyone who Harry knew, and could ask to do this. It would be too hard to take on a new personality so they were searching for someone who looked and acted like someone in the present day.

"Isn't there anyone else? However wrong they might seem?" Harry pleaded.

Remus and Kat exchanged worried looks, "There is someone," Kat said slowly. They both were advoiding looking at Sirius, who was looking daggers at them.

"She isn't dead." he said flatly.

"Sirius, we know what-" began Remus, but Sirius cut across him.

"I'd know. She isn't dead, and it couldn't have been her." his voice was flat and toneless, unlike any other time Harry had heard him speak.

"Who-?" he began, but Sirius looked so upset that he changed tack. "Are you sure there isn't anyone else? Anyone?"

Remus frowned, "Well there was that boy in our house, Peters friend. But he..."