AN: So, yeah, I get that I need to update Musical Stories. And I will once my inspiration for it comes back. However, I've managed to get some inspiration for a Harry Potter fic. I've never wrote one to post before, so I hope it's okay.
My inspiration for this fic came from Ministry of Magic's song This Town. The lyric piece that got my attention was: "Everyone will know that we're still fighting, not in shallow graves or fearfully hiding."
As such, I thought I would attempt a story. It's not in seventh year. But it's got a few aspects that could be tied into the lyric piece loosely. It's actually one of those time travel fics that I've found myself obsessed with recently.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything your recognise from J.K. Rowling or elsewhere.
Harry definitely wasn't feeling too up to par right now. In fact, now that he'd seen what time period he'd landed himself in by being too close to an explosion of a box of time turners at the Ministry, he felt downright sick. He wasn't sure he could handle seeing his parents and their friends when they were going to be the same age as him. A sixth year. He was glad that they'd changed his appearance. Not many questions would be brought up then. Instead of his normal messy black hair and emerald eyes, he had managable dark brown hair and moonstone blue eyes.
He knew that Hermione was going to have his head later, no matter what he did to protect the future he'd come from.. But he couldn't exactly help that, could he? It's not like he wished for this! He shook himself from these thoughts as the Headmaster approached him. It would be soon that he'd have to go to Platform 9 3/4 to ride to school like a normal transfer student, as his made up story said. Harry had already been sorted. A Gryffindor again. Unsurprising to Harry.
It was only when Harry got on the train at Platform 9 3/4 that he finally got to thinking. He had gotten there early and took a seat in the first empty compartment he found, staring out the window at nothing, lost in his thoughts. His mind flashed back to the battle at the Ministry. To Sirius's death. To Remus's comforting words. To Snape finally realizing that Harry wasn't the Golden Boy he'd thought after all. People can change, Harry realized. It may take a lot, but they can change.
He was startled out of his thoughts by a knock on the compartment's doorframe. He looked over, his eyes guarded. Four people stood by the door and he examined them curiously before he gave them a shy half smile.
The sandy haired boy spoke. "Mind if we sit with you?"
Harry gave a faint smile and motioned for them to have a seat before going back to staring out of the window.
The four took seats in the compartment, continuing what sounded like an old conversation.
The same one who'd spoken before was examining Harry. "You must be the new exchange student Dumbledore mentioned,"he said. "I'm Remus Lupin."
Harry looked at him for a moment before he half smiled again and nodded. "Harry Evanson."he responded quietly, voice sounding slightly hesitant. The same way it had sounded when he spoke at the Dursely's home.
The other three introduced themselves as well. When Harry didn't speak again though the questions being fired at him and only offered a faintly amused smile before going back to staring out the window, Sirius spoke. "Blimey, he's just as shy as you were in your first year, Moony!"he commented.
Remus gave Sirius an unamused look, but didn't stop him from speaking to Harry again. "Say, did you get sorted over the summer holidays?"
Harry looked back at Sirius, his eyes still holding a haunted look in them that disturbed the Marauders. "Yeah. Gryffindor,"he answered softly.
Sirius grinned, but let him be after that.
Harry stayed out of the conversation. He listened, but said nothing.
When they got to Hogwarts and into the Great Hall, Harry nodded in greating to Professor Dumbledore, who was giving him a curious look as he took a seat beside Remus at Gryffindor table.
A few other people introduced themselves to him, but most of them left him alone. He was content with that, actually.
When Snape entered and moved past the Marauders to get to a seat at Slytherin table, which was stationed beside Gryffindor table, Sirius and James threw out their normal insults. Harry flinched at them, and Snape only cast the two a withering glare for them, but Sirius had managed to trip him up when he wasn't paying any attention.
Harry, who'd seen this happen, glared coldly at Sirius, getting up and helping Snape to his feet carefully. As soon as Snape was back on his feet, Harry whirled around to glare at Sirius. "That was uncalled for,"he snapped, his voice losing any shyness that had been there previously. "He's done nothing to you,"
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Sure. It's more because he's around,"he said. "Why do you care? Snivelly's just another Slytherin death eater wanna be."
Harry crossed his arms and gave Sirius a look. "Really?"he asked, voice icy.
Snape looked a bit uncomfortable, having someone he didn't know stand up for him.
"Well you know what, that still makes him better than you. Because you're being a bully."Harry snapped.
James stepped in. "He's not."he said. "Not our fault that Snivelly took to patronizing us in first year and continued throughout."
Harry turned his unamused glare onto James. "People can change."he said.
He didn't say another word to the two of them, instead turning to Snape, his gaze softening into one of concern. "You're okay, right?"he asked, looking the Slytherin over for injuries.
Snape rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, fine."he said, seeming a but more uncomfortable.
Harry nodded and let him go to his seat at the Slytherin table before he took his seat again. Remus looked at Harry, as if seeing him in a new light. "It takes guts to do something like that, you know, seeing as you don't know any of us,"
A moment's pause before Harry met his eyes. "I just don't like bullies."he answered. "Had enough experience with them before. It was the least I could do."
Remus half smiled at that and nodded.
Sirius and James were looking at Harry curiously, almost as if he were some sort of unknown creature they were trying to figure out.
After a while, Harry sighed and spoke. "You two reminded me of my cousin,"he told them. "And that's not a good thing. Which is why I snapped at you like I did. Give him a chance, okay? I mean it when I say that people can change. You just have to stop to get to know them to figure out if they have."
Throughout the feast, random conversations were cropped up. Once the five boys were in their dorm room, however, things settled down a bit. Harry was the last one asleep. He stayed up an hour after the others had gone to bed, just thinking, trying to sort things out in his mind. He just hoped he hadn't shifted things too greatly that evening by doing what he'd done. Still, he was proud that he'd done something that could really help someone else.