A/N: I'm putting this at the beginning to get it out of the way. This is a lighthearted story that I was writing at the same time as my other story Hermione's Grief so that I wouldn't get too depressed while writing it. I hope you like this; please review it for me (I'll be eternally grateful!!!)
Disclaimer: Nothing here belongs to me, everything is the property of J.K Rowling, her publisher, and Warner Bros. Please don't sue me.
**********
The dungeon was cold, clammy, and altogether unpleasant. Harry was at the cauldron he was sharing with Ron, stirring his potion. Water dripped on the back of his neck as Snape came around to look at everyone's potion.
"Nicely done Draco; add a few more unicorn hairs Ms. Parkinson," Snape said as he walked through the Slytherin side of the room. Coming over to the tables where the Gryffindors were working, he was a lot less forgiving and helpful. "Stir harder Potter, you're going to be here all evening at that rate; Ms. Granger, stop doing everything for your partner, he'll buy you a new cauldron if he ruins it like he always does."
Harry and Ron glared at Snape's back. He had partnered Neville together with Hermione, having grown tired of 4 years of melted cauldrons and trips to Madam Pomfrey because of Neville. However, Snape still picked on Neville mercilessly. Harry doubted that Snape had ever said a nice word to Neville in the 5 years Neville had been studying at Hogwarts, especially not after that boggart incident.
Having finished critiquing everyone's potions, Snape returned to the front of the classroom. "Once everyone has finished stirring their potion and it has turned the proper shade of purple, it will be time to bottle them and let them sit outside. Can anyone tell me why we have to let these potions sit outside?"
Hermione's hand shot into the air, as usual, and, as usual, Snape ignored it. He called on Malfoy instead.
"These potions have to sit outside in the full moon light for one night so that the ingredients can be properly activated," Draco said smugly.
"Very nice, 5 points to Slytherin. Now, can anyone tell me what this potion will do once it is complete? Seamus, do you know the answer?"
"Umm, this is a, umm, Memoriam Potion and it will, uhh, help us remember?" Seamus guessed.
"Wrong, 5 points from Gryffindor. Please try to pay better attention in my class," Snape picked up a vial containing a purple soup-like potion. "This is a Memoriam Potion, it will help you remember a past experience, any experience, regardless of how young you were at the time. You will be able to remember anything, so long as you were conscious and awake when it occurred, even if a Memory Charm was put on you," Snape looked around the room. "Everyone, put your potion into your vial and seal it tightly and write your name on it with an Indelible-Marking Charm."
Harry and Ron poured some of their potion into their vials.
"Harry, how do we write our names on these?" Ron hissed into Harry's ear. Harry shrugged.
Hermione leaned over and grabbed both their vials, quickly writing their names on them without Snape seeing her. "With an Indelible-Marking Charm, we learned it last week in Charms class."
"Oh, of course," Harry replied, placing his vial in front of him.
Snape continued speaking. "As you leave, put your potion on my desk, I will be putting them outside this evening so that we can use them tomorrow. Your assignment for tomorrow is to write an essay on how to use the Memoriam Potion and decide what memory you want to have."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione shoved their books back into their bags and left the dungeon, trudging back to their House.
"Wow, Snape wasn't in that bad of a mood today. I wonder why?" Hermione remarked.
"Probably figured out a really good way to do Harry in," Ron said glumly.
"Ron!" Hermione said. "I'm sure Professor Snape is not trying to kill Harry."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Hermi, he's never forgiven me for 3rd year," Harry said, siding with Ron.
"Whatever, do either of you know what you want to remember?" Hermione said as they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Dazzling Dragons," the portrait swung open.
The three of them walked over to their favorite chairs by the fireplace.
"I'm not sure, I'm thinking about bouncing ferrets though," Ron said, pulling out his potions book.
"Honestly, Ron, don't you think that's a bit childish," Hermione said. "Besides, if Snape asks us what we remembered you'll lose points for Gryffindor for sure."
"Hermione's right, Ron, you ought to think of something else," Harry said. "What about you Hermione?"
"Oh, when I was little I think I saw some wizards when I was out at the zoo with my parents. There were these really weird people dressed in robes at the tiger cage and the little boy was asking something about magic to his parents. I asked my mum about them and she noticed them and we walked away, I think my mum thought they were loonies," Hermione explained, "I want to see if I can remember their faces, maybe it was someone whom I now know."
"Cool, Harry, do you know what you want?" Ron asked.
"Umm, sort of," Harry said quietly.
"What?" Hermione asked.
Harry mumbled something.
"Excuse me, I didn't hear that," Hermione said, leaning down to Harry and cupping her ear.
"Family, I want to remember anything from before my parents died, maybe something about Sirius too," Harry said, running his hands through his hair. "The only thing I know of my parents is from the Dementors."
"That's a very good idea Harry, it should do you good," Hermione said.
"I hope so," Harry replied, grinning. "I hope I remember something about Professor Lupin when he was younger, Sirius was talking about some girl named Leyla the other day and Lupin look ready to murder him, I wonder if I'll remember anything about whoever she is."
"Humph, that is remarkably childish, Harry," Hermione said.
"I know," Harry said.
**********
Later that evening, after Snape had put the potions on the greenhouse roof, two dark figures floated through the Hogwarts' gates on broomsticks.
"Master will be pleased," the bigger man said, his hood falling back to reveal silver blond hair.
"Yes, he will be," the fatter man said, his silver hand gripped his stick tightly. "What exactly are we doing?"
The blond man sighed, "if I have to explain this again to you," the man drew his finger across his throat. The fat man gulped nervously.
The blond man resumed speaking. "The Potter boy made a Memoriam Potion today, he will be using it tomorrow. What do you think he will try to remember?" Before the other man got a chance to respond, the blond man continued, "Potter will try to remember his family. Well, we are making a simple switch in potions, this potion will take him to whomever he wishes to see. It has been altered it a bit so that it will allow him time travel as well. If everything goes as planned, which I assure you it will, Potter will be taken back in time to his parents, whom he will undoubtedly try to warn about our Master's attack and your betrayal."
"So?" the fat man asked nervously.
"So, our Master will suffer a small defeat because the Potters will be ready for him and will possibly hold him off so that they remain alive, but he will never get the chance to try to curse the Potter boy and he will not suffer the, ah, 'temporary set-back' that he did 15 years ago. Do you understand or must I repeat myself?"
The fat man shook his head. The two men had reached the greenhouse where the potions were standing in the moon light. The blond man took a small vial out of the pocket in his robe and handed it to the fat man, who switched it with the vial labeled 'Harry Potter'.
"Perfect, now we just wait for the morning and our lives shall change for the better, Wormtail, Master will be proud of us."
The two men flew swiftly off into the night, their evil job completed.
**********
The next day in potions, Harry examined his vial with trepidation. Snape had just told them to drink the potion and concentrate hard on remembering what they wanted to remember. Ron's and Hermione's potions were a normal purple color, but his was a strange green color and kept giving off weird bubbles.
Harry was hesitant to ask Snape about it; all Snape would do anyway would be to make Harry drink the potion. He pinched his nose tightly and downed the potion in one gulp. Concentrating on his parents, Harry felt the potion work its way through his body, sending small shivers through him.
All around him, people were talking avidly about their memories, on his right, Hermione had realized that those people she had seen at zoo were none other than Seamus and his family; she was explaining the whole situation to him. On his left, Ron was recalling a particularly evil prank that his brother Bill had told him when Ron was still little.
Harry remembered nothing. He had no new memories, the potion had failed. The tingling had stopped a few seconds after he had drunk the potion and nothing else had happened.
"Hermione, Hermione," Harry tapped on her shoulder, "nothing happened, what should I do?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "You had the same batch as Ron and his worked, why wouldn't yours?"
"I dunno, maybe I wasn't concentrating hard enough, or maybe there's nothing to remember," Harry said.
"Don't be daft Harry, of course there's something to remember, you might not have been concentrating hard enough."
Just then, Snape's voice could be heard over the muddle of students. "I see everyone here has some new memories, your assignment for tonight is to write an essay about what you remembered. Class dismissed."
All the students stood up, still talking eagerly about their memories, everyone except Harry.
"Hey, Harry, did you remember who that Leyla girl is?" Ron asked once they were out of the classroom.
"No, my potion didn't work, Ron, what should I do?" Harry asked.
"Oh, make up the essay for tomorrow. I'm sure you can fudge something interesting."
"No, you will not lie in your essay Harry. Just explain that your potion didn't work," Hermione said.
"What, so Snape can take points off Gryffindor?" Ron replied.
"Shut up Ron, you're a bad influence on Harry. Besides, what do you think Snape will do if he realizes that your essay is a fake?" Hermione said.
"I'm not a bad influence on Harry," Ron said, insulted.
Harry sighed; Ron and Hermione continued bickering all the way to the portrait hole stopped only to say the password. As they entered the portrait hole, none of them heard the small pop behind them.
**********
25 years earlier
"Ow, my toe you big oaf," Remus said as Sirius stomped on his foot.
"Sorry Moony, there's not enough room under this cloak for all 5 of us," Sirius said as they crept along the hallway back to the dorms.
The Marauders had been out on another one of their adventures. It was the middle of the day and the Marurauders, plus Lily, all had been free. They had all hidden under the invisibility cloak and went to the Slytherin common room for some mischief. All the Slytherins were at class, so the room was empty and before any of them got back, the Marauders had already turned the entire common room upside down, using adhesion charms to stick the chairs and sofa to the ceiling.
"That was amazing, I wish we could see the look on their faces when they see our work," James said, his arm around Lily's shoulders.
"I dunno guys, what if one of them gets hurt by a falling chair," Peter asked.
"Then they get hurt!" Sirius said, clapping the smaller boy on his shoulder. "They're evil Slytherins, they deserve it."
"We ought to be more careful, we nearly got caught," Remus said, rubbing his sore toe. "Why are we waiting out here in the hallway for?"
"According to the map, Professor Dumbledore is coming around the corner," James said. "We need to wait until he passes for us to go into the common room. He'll get a little suspicious if he sees the portrait open for no reason."
Just then, all five of them were thrown violently backwards, hitting the stone wall hard.
"Ow god, that hurt," Remus moaned.
"You can say that again," Sirius said, as he adjusted the invisibility cloak to cover them all again.
"Lily, are you okay?" James said, putting his arm around her to support her.
"Yeah, I'm fine, sweetie," Lily said as she reached up to kiss him.
The other three stuck their fingers in their throats and pretended to gag. James kicked the closest one, who happened to be Peter.
"Hey, James, we're just having fun, no need to get violent," the small boy protested.
"Come on, the coast is clear," Remus picked up the Marauders Map, glancing at it briefly.
Shuffling awkwardly under the invisibility cloak, the 5 of them walked over to the common room.
"Pickled Pixies," James said quietly. The picture ignored him. "Pickled Pixies," James said it a bit louder.
"Hey, why won't it open?" Remus said.
Just then, the portrait hole opened to let out a boy about their age.
"Who's that?" Sirius said.
James stepped out of the cloak for a minute to ask the boy what the password was.
"Hey, you," James shouted at the boy, who turned around quickly.
"Harry? What are you doing out here? I just saw you inside," Neville asked, confused.
"Harry?" James said, equally confused.
"Umm, are you okay Harry? Do you want me to take you to Madam Pomfrey, you look kinda weird."
Sirius snorted under the cloak.
"Never mind that, just, uh, what's the password? I forgot it." James said, wondering what could have happened.
"Harry, why don't you come with me to Madam Pomfrey, I just saw you say the password less than 5 minutes ago," Neville said, coming over to James and grabbing his arm to drag him to the infirmary.
"Hey, leggo of my arm! Just tell me the password," James pulled his arm out of Neville's grasp.
"Whatever you say, Harry. The password is Dazzling Dragons," Neville, looked at James who was standing in the hallway, waving at him strangely. Neville shrugged it off and headed to the Library to finish his potions essay.
Once Neville was out of the way, James ducked back under the invisibility cloak.
"Okay," he said to 4 equally confused faces, "what the hell just happened?"
