Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything recognizable belongs to JK Rowling and WB Studios. The story idea is mine.
Summary: In 1976, James Potter had a nightmare. Things changed after that. Nobody questioned it. Nobody could link it back to James Potter's nightmare. But in 1976, James Potter had a nightmare and history changed as we know it.
Gift Fic: For Mentathial! happy birthday, love! Hope you like this fic!
On a pretty uneventful autumn night of 1976, James Potter started screaming. His best friends and dorm mates woke up and ran to him. They shook him awake, as he thrashed and screamed in his dream. When he woke up, his face was wet from sweat and his clothes were drenched.
"James, what happened?" Sirius Black asked, firmly holding James in his place.
James looked at him, eyes wide and his breath erratic. He looked at Remus Lupin, who was shaking and sitting on the other side of James' bed and Peter Pettigrew, who was leaning over James' bed, trembling and trying to comfort James by his own shaking hands.
"Dre-Dream. Nightmare. Dead. Everybody."
It did not make sense, but the boys huddled together around James' bed, comforting him and explaining to him that nobody was dead, that everything was fine and nobody was going to die either. Remus took out his stash of chocolate, sharing it with his best friend as Peter began to tell him random tales from the previous summer, anything to get the horrendous dream out of James' head. But he kept shaking his head, holding on to Sirius tightly. Remus and Peter shared a quick glance, both unsure of what they could do.
As morning rays shone through the sixth year Gryffindor boys' dorm room, things had changed. The boys were not the same they had been one day ago. Nobody knew what happened. Behind the closed doors, the lives of the four Marauders had changed forever.
The next morning found the four Marauders quietly sitting at their places. When breakfast came with no joyous laughter from the four of them, everybody brushed it off. It must be one of those days when the Marauders felt peace was needed. Nobody paid much attention to it.
But then came Fifth Year Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs and Professor McGonagall grew worried. James could not do a simple task she had assigned him. While sometimes the boy did carelessly leave his work, James' face showed different worry. Sirius was not being his ridiculous self, flirting with McGonagall. His eyes had a haunted look, a different kind of fear that Minerva had never seen. Remus' shoulders were dropping more than before, a sense of tiredness washing over him. Peter, one of her weak students, was even more terrible that day.
But Minerva brushed it off-the boys would settle everything among themselves, she believed.
The real shock came in the Potions class that the Gryffindors shared with Slytherins. Severus entered the Potions classroom by almost pushing Pettigrew down. He had expected a curse, some hexes and the imaginative swears from them. But none came. Instead, the three boys immediately rushed to help Peter and lead him into the classroom without sparing a glance to Severus.
Slughorn was surprised when there was no sound from any of the four boys. But instead of musing over it, he happily taught the class potions.
"What's up with those Marauders?" Fiona Walker, sixth year Gryffindor, asked Gryffindor prefect Lily Evans. Lily stopped chewing on her quill and looked up to where her friend was looking. "They have been so quiet all morning."
Truth to be told, Lily was enjoying as much peace as she could as long as the idiots kept quiet. But Fiona was right-it wasn't like the Marauders to be quiet in the presence of Slytherins.
"Must have had a rough morning," Lily tore away her gaze from the four and grabbed the knife from the other end of the table. "Pass the ingredients, would you?"
Fiona did as asked, but the frown refused to leave her face. "But they are so...silent. It's scary, Lily."
"It's probably nothing," she shook her head, reading the instructions in her book, "We have to let the cauldron heat first, I presume?"
Fiona nodded numbly. "But they are so..."
The blond was abruptly cut as Lily slammed her knife on the table. "Fiona, I swear to Merlin, if you do not shut up about the Marauders I will use this very knife to take your eyes out."
Usually, people scrambled away when Lily made a threat like that because Lily Evans usually held true to her word and liked her revenge to be served cold. But after six years of living with her, Fiona knew which threats were empty and which true.
"I am not joking Lily, this is serious!"
"Uhhm." The two girls looked up to see Professor Slughorn smiling. "Any problem, ladies?"
Using her innocent smile, Lily said, "No professor, just talking about the potion."
Slughorn nodded, clapping his hands. "Of course I expect nothing less than best from my Star student. Do not disturb the genius, Miss Walker."
With a laugh, Slughorn moved on to another table. Fiona glared at Lily at once went back to the instructions. "I am joking Lily."
Groaning, Lily shut her book with a thump and glared at her friend. "Fine, if they continue to be silent, I will go talk to them."
Fiona face at once lit up. "And you would also talk to Sirius..."
"Absolutely not!"
Pouting, Fiona rushed to get the other ingredients. Once her friend was out of sight, Lily did look up. As soon as she turned her head, the four Marauders head snapped down to their potion. Narrowing her eyes, Lily clicked her tongue impatiently. But before she could actually get back to her work, James Potter looked up. For the briefest second that their eyes met, Lily was sure that Potter had been crying.
What the fuck was going on?
By the time lunch rolled around, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects had come and asked her what was wrong with the four boys. Irritated by the number of questions, Lily decided to finally do as Fiona had asked her. Anyways, she had to get Remus to start on the patrol duty with her that night. Might as well begin somewhere.
"All right, speak up!" Lily said, standing behind Peter and Remus. Everyone turned to look at them, each soul was curious to what the Marauders were doing. "You have been quiet all day and honestly, it is quite scary. I was just enjoying the peace but everyone has been pestering me about it. Mind filling me in? Potter? Black? Pettigrew? Remus?"
The four boys exchanged a quick look before Potter spoke up. "I had a nightmare."
Lily frowned. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that all of you are deathly quiet because James fucking Potter had a nightmare?"
"Believe whatever you want to," Sirius said coldly, "but it's the truth. James' nightmare...kind of shook all of us."
Lily huffed. "What was so frightening about this nightmare that all of you have been so silent all day long?"
"Death."
Lily's head whipped to Remus Lupin. "What?"
"James saw death, of everyone. His dream was quite...descriptive."
Lily honestly did not believe that the Marauders were shaken up because of a dream, but one look at the faces confirmed that none of them was lying. Taking a deep breath, Lily sat down beside Pettigrew and looked at them, a soft expression on her face.
"Listen, boys, dreams are just a part of your life. You honestly can't believe everything that you see! I once had a dream that I had turned into a monster and killed everyone in my family. That sure shook me up, but that doesn't mean it's true! Don't let a simple nightmare affect you so much, all right?"
The boys exchanged a look, contemplating her words before nodding along.
"Great," Lily smiled at them, "Now, I expect the lot of you to be back to your usual selves by tomorrow. I don't want an elaborate prank-Remus, please keep them in line, but otherwise be back to your normal selves and remember our rounds tonight."
With a small pat on Pettigrew's shoulder which prompted a smile, Lily Evans turned around and left. Her work was done, she had done her part and now Fiona Walked could go and ask Sirius Black out on her own.
Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk when he felt the wards tingle. Someone was coming up the stairs and Dumbledore did not know who. It was before dinner and Albus must have surely remembered had someone been given an appointment.
The day had been interesting, to say the least. The infamous pranksters of Hogwarts had gone utterly quiet for some reason, alarming everyone. Kettleburn had a feeling that it was the calm before the storm, the storm being a prank. Dumbledore himself disagreed, but nodded along.
As the doors were knocked, Albus said, "Come in."
It would be an understatement to say that Albus was surprised. He was certainly not expecting the young Gryffindor in his office.
"I must say I am surprised, my child," he said, making the student sit comfortably in one of the chairs. "How can I help you?"
A month passed and the marauders shifted back to their normal selves, but there was a certain difference in all of them. James Potter became as unbearable as he could with his obsession with Quidditch, yet he never raised his wand to hex anyone unnecessarily. Sirius Black flirted and laughed with all the ladies and boys, but always politely turned down anyone he was not interested in. Remus Lupin still laughed and shook his head at his friend's antics, but he was not scared to voice his opinions anymore. Peter Pettigrew was still best friends with the three of them, but he became bolder, branching out and putting in extra effort in all his classes.
Much to the surprise of Lily Evans, James Potter stopped asking her out every single day. He asked her once, just before the Hogsmeade trip, but once Lily turned him down, he nodded and walked away, shocking everyone. The boys did not stop having fun-they merely matured in their approach.
It was on a particularly cold day, before the start of Christmas hols when the news came. Dumbledore had been missing for a few days, but he was known to go out to the Ministry for work. Lily was happily talking with her friends and the four marauders sat at a distance, having a food fight amongst them. The owls swooped in during breakfast, bringing with them the Daily Prophet. Lily smiled at her owl, before taking the newspaper and unfolding it. She couldn't believe her eyes as she saw the headlines. There, in big bold letters stood:
YOU-KNOW-WHO DEFEATED! DUMBLEDORE SAVES THE WIZARDING WORLD YET AGAIN!
Excited chatter broke out in the Great Hall at once. You-Know-Who or the Dark Lord Voldemort was a menace. He targeted Muggleborns and Half-bloods especially, killing people mercilessly. His defeat meant that muggle-borns were safe again.
Lily rejoiced with her friends, laughing and chatting excitedly. However, amidst all the noise and confusion, she spotted the marauders, looking pensive yet happy. There were no loud declarations, no whooping from Black and Potter, no sudden scream from Pettigrew and no shout from Remus. They all smiled and congratulated each other, but there was no great show.
Lily sometimes wondered what James had seen in that nightmare that changed the boys so much.
So yeah, a new project! Wo-hoo! I have most of this story written out, and it will be Jily in a world where Voldemort was defeated early. It's not exactly what you will expect it to be, I can guarantee that.