A Love Not of the Past
Note: James & co are in their third year, the two most important people are in their second and Molly's brothers are in their fifth year
After what felt like forever falling through nothing, Harry landed, heavily, on the sun-splashed grass of the Hogwarts grounds. Getting to his feet and looking around, he could immediately spot the differences between this past-time Hogwarts and the Hogwarts of the present; the squid splashing about in the lake was smaller, the whomping willow was noticeably younger and fresher, and Harry's stomach gave a lurch as he saw, sitting under a tree near the lake, none other than his father, Sirius, and Lupin, who all looked no older than their thid year. He walked over to them and sat down to listen to their conversation, eagerly drinking in their young faces, bright voices and happy laughs.
"The History of Magic exam nearly killed me though." Sirius said lazily, leaning back on the tree's trunk.
"Bet you forgot the dates again, hey?" Lupin, who's face looked peaky and recently scarred, grinned.
"Oh come on, who has the time to bother?" James laughed. "I think I did fine in DADA, what about you?"
"Oh that was good!" Lupin grinned again
"Yeah, easy enough." Sirius nodded, then looked around "Where's Peter got to, anyway?"
"No idea." James leaned back and Harry followed his gaze to the quidditch pitch, where he could see tiny figures on brooms swooping around.
"Your practice is tomorrow, isn't it?" Lupin also looked over.
"Yeah." Harry could hear the happiness in his father's voice "I've missed quidditch; all these exams have drained my energy."
"Same!" Sirius nodded. Harry listened to their chit-chat for a while longer before getting to his feet as he decided to take a look around, maybe find his mother or anyone else he recognised. He wandered along the lake shore for a while until the sounds of laughter reached his ears, a sort of mocking, cruel laughter that was not nice to hear. Harry followed his ears and the sound of the laughter to another tall birch tree, where a group of sixth-years were laughing at a small ginger boy with glasses and Harry clenched his fists as he recognised one of the sixth-years as Lucius Malfoy, who shoved the boy over so his glasses fell off. One of his friends promptly stood on them, cracking them and the group whooped with laughter again.
"Leave m-me alone!" the boy cried as he groped for his glasses and tapped them with his wand with a whispered "Occulus Repairo." As he stood up, Harry's mouth fell open in shock, because he realised that this little boy was in fact Arthur Weasley, only much younger, probably in his first or second year.
"Leave me alone!" Lucius repeated mockingly. "Make us, midget!"
"Yeah, make us, flame-head!" the one who had broken his glasses sneered.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" another young voice rang through and Harry turned to see an equally small girl with short curly ginger hair coming up, her face full of anger at the sixth-years. Harry had to give the young Molly a round of applause; she seemed to show no fear at striding up to these bullies and telling them to get lost.
"Oh look!" Lucius cackled, sounding a lot like his son would. "Ickle Weasel's got a girlfriend! And a Prewwet girl at that! What would her parents say?!"
"They'd be happy I don't hang around with obnoxious gits who need a hair cut!" Molly retorted. Malfoy was furious and his hand flew to his wand.
"What did you say, you brat?!" he cried. His friends too all drew their wands, but backed away slightly so it was him against the two second-years. And judging by Molly and Arthur's expressions as they drew their wands as well, they had no experience in duelling at all. Harry wished desperately he could intervene as Lucius raised his wand and Arthur grabbed Molly's wrist as if to pull her away, when suddenly, there were two bangs and Malfoy was sprawled on his back. He scrambled to his feet with a snarl and jabbed his wand at the two again, but before he could do anything, another two people dropped nimbly out of the tree and landed on their feet in front of Molly and Arthur. Harry stared at them as a feeling he had seen them before stirred inside him.
They were obviously twins, but one had flashing blue eyes and fairly flat copper-red hair, whereas the other sported a mess of brown curls and hazelnut eyes. Both of their eyes glinted with fierceness, and there was a very Fred-and-George air about them as they said,
"Bog off, Malfoy, and leave our sister alone."
"Oh look boys." Malfoy tried to sneer again, but Harry could hear the slight change in his voice. "It's the Prewwet twins! Come to defend their little sister!"
"How cute!" another of the cronies called. The twins pulled their wands out and stood side-by-side.
"Cute, hey?" the copper-haired one repeated.
"We'll see how cute you think we are after you get out of the hospital wing!" the other said.
"Nice try, twins." Malfoy sneered. "But it appears to be four of us against two of you."
"Three!" Molly called, trying to move forward before her brothers pushed her back.
"You stay back, Mol." The brown-eyed one said firmly. Suddenly, his twin slashed his wand sideways; Malfoy jumped slightly, but the spell wasn't aimed at him and two of his cronies fell back, one unconscious and the other's face swelling to strange proportions.
"Why you-" Malfoy snarled "You'll pay for that, Gideon Prewwet!"
"Oh Merlin's beard!" The brown haired one rolled his eyes. "For the last time, he's not Gideon, I am!"
"I am Fabien!" the other also rolled his blue eyes. "Honestly, you're supposed to know the younger years!"
"Shut up, you-" Malfoy was cut off as the other twin shot hexes at the other two cronies at the exact same time as Fabien yelled,
"Expelliarmus!" Malfoy's wand went spinning out of his hand and before he could move, the twins had both of their wands to his throat.
"Now." They said in unison, and Fabien continued, "You are going to follow our first suggestion and Bog. Off. Now."
"And keep the bloody h*ll away from our sister or any of her friends." Gideon added.
"You will pay for this." Malfoy spat as he backed away.
"We'll see." The twins called after him. Molly was looking grumpy.
"Why wouldn't you let me help?" she huffed.
"You think he'd hesitate to hex someone younger than him?" Fabien sighed.
"Errm, aren't you two younger than him though?" Arthur questioned. Gideon shrugged.
"He's intimidated by us together, probably. If it was just one of us, he'd have tried harder." He said. "But Mol, listen, be careful of that git."
"You as well, Arthur." Fabien added.
"Next time..."
"We may..."
"Not be around"
"To help."
"...fine." Molly pouted slightly, and Arthur just said,
"Thanks anyway."
"No problem." Fabien replied. "Come on, Gid, it's practice in ten minutes."
"Coming!" the twins jogged away, leaving the two standing together under the tree.
"T-thank you, Molly." Harry noticed that Arthur was blushing profusely as he spoke.
"For what?" Molly seemed confused, and Arthur replied,
"For sticking up for me. I-I guess even if I can't, it's good that-"
"But you can." Molly said.
"Huh?" Arthur blinked at her.
"You can stick up for yourself, it's just you don't always get round to it." Molly explained kindly. "It's just something everyone learns."
"You think?" Arthur looked possibly relieved at her words.
"Absolutely." Molly beamed "You should try it sometime."
"Maybe I will." Arthur managed a smile and suddenly the whole scene dissolved into mist and Harry felt as though he was floating up, up, up, up...
A/N: Sorry for abandoning you guys...here's my apology :)