Hello Wild Fungus here.

Basically, this story occured to me randomly over the xmas hols while i was about to go to sleep. I dont know if it's any good but I figured I might as well post it up as I'm unable to update my other story.

I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I dont own any of these characters and I never will unless J.K is willing to give up the rights for a jar of nutella.

Black's Time turner

Chapter One - Introduction: March 10th

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOONY!"

Remus Lupin rolled his eyes, "Thanks," he said wearily, "but I told you guys I did not want a birthday party."

"It's only a small one."

"Small?" repeated Remus looking dishearteningly at the streamers and banners adorning the Potters' home. "James, this is ridiculous."

James Potter opened his mouth to reply but just then his pregnant wife entered the room carrying a huge chocolate cake. Remus shot James a weary look as both of them helped Lily place the cake on the table.

"You've really gone to too much trouble," Remus told Lily earnestly.

"Moony will you quit whining?" yelled Sirius Black who had just come down from upstairs with two bottles of fire whiskey in his hands, "It's your birthday and we are going to celebrate whether you like it or not."

"But it's only my twentieth," protested Remus as Lily started lighting the candles.

"We might as well celebrate every birthday we get," put in Peter Pettigrew who was hovering by the cake eagerly, "who knows where we'll be in a years time?"

Sirius hit him hard on the arm, "Thanks for that Wormy," he said sarcastically.

"Stop it Padfoot," James said sharply, "Pete's right, so many people have been lost this year and it's only March. I mean who knows whether this could be the last time we're all here together?"

There was a gloomy silence between the five friends. As much as they didn't want to admit it, they all feared for their lives. James hadn't slept for four nights now; he was so scared that someone would harm Lily and the baby if he did. Sirius as confident and brassy as he was, wouldn't drink from glasses given to him, just in case. Remus's main concern was his lycanthropy and that he may be forced by other werewolves to join the dark side. Lily's fear was for her unborn child and the world she was bringing it into and Peter? He just hoped no-one knew.

"Make a wish, Moony," Peter said breaking the awful silence.

"What? Oh…" Remus closed his eyes for a moment. What he wanted to wish for was that the war would end, everything would be ok and then maybe he could settle down like James and Lily but he knew none of those things would come true. The war felt like it was never going to end, nothing would ever be ok and werewolves didn't settle down. What woman would ever want him? He'd never be able to have normal kids. It was hopeless dream he was harbouring and what was the point in wishing for things that were hopeless?

"Hurry up," snapped Sirius.

Fine, I'll wish for good things to happen, thought Remus, that's broad and non-committal. He blew out the candles.

"HIP HIP HURRAY!" cried James as he eagerly went to grab a slice of cake.

"Oi, Remus first, greedy," said Lily slapping away her husband's hand. Remus smirked and made sure to take the biggest piece possible.

"Thanks Lily."

"You're welcome."

Two hours later, and the fire whiskey was beginning to kick in. Peter had fallen asleep half an hour ago, Sirius was rummaging in the kitchen for more alcohol and Remus sat opposite Lily and James. The latter was stroking Lily's stomach in a sort of dazed fashion which for some reason was making Remus feel oddly envious.

"Have you decided what you're going to call it?"

"Hmm?" said James tearing his eyes away to look at his friend.

"The baby," Remus explained.

"We've discussed a few names," Lily said with cheeky grin.

"Oh have we?" asked James evidently surprised, "Please tell us the names that we've discussed."

"Don't look at me like that, I've just been brainstorming that's all," insisted Lily but she pulled a small notepad from her jean pocket.

"You have a book?" cried James snatching it out of her hands, he flipped through the pages, "Blimey Lil, how many kids are you thinking of having?"

Lily rolled her eyes but smiled, "If you look at the last page I've narrowed it down to five for boys, five for girls."

"Let's hear them then," said Sirius coming back into the fray with a sole bottle of butter beer.

James coughed dramatically before saying, "Girls or boys?"

"Boys!" Sirius roared before winking at Lily, "Obviously."

"Ok here goes, ahem… Michael…"

"Michael Potter?" said Remus with a laugh, Lily scowled, "I mean, um…yeah… wonderful name."

"Next is Niles." James snorted before going on, "Number three is Alexander. Hmm…Alex Potter… I suppose that's ok. Number four is…Apollo?" James laughed, "more of a Black name isn't it love?"

"I beg your pardon," said Sirius in indignation but he was smirking.

"What's number five?" asked Remus.

"Number five is Harry."

"Harry?" spluttered Sirius, "You might as well name the poor kid dung hole."

"Hey, Harry is ok," countered Remus, "Harry Potter. There's a certain ring to it."

"Oh please," said Sirius derisively, "Harry Potter? There's no pizzazz. No spark. When we need a hero, people aren't going to call Harry Potter."

"Who will they call?" asked Lily with a grin, "Apollo Black?"

They all laughed apart from Sirius who stood up in pretend anger, "All I'm saying is if you call that kid Harry I refuse to be godfather."

"Oh no Lily!" exclaimed James feigning shock, "What shall we do without the mighty Padfoot? I say we make Moony godfather then."

"That's brilliant," said Lily earnestly, "Will you do it Remus?"

"Hey, hey," interjected Sirius quickly, "I was only joking. I'm going to be the godfather."

"Says who?" snapped Lily, "James and I haven't discussed it." She turned to James sharply.

"Yeah Pad, nothing's been decided," said James but he winked covertly at Sirius.

"Remus, you'd be a lovely godfather," Lily continued beaming at her werewolf friend, "You're so responsible and you know the value of hard work unlike some people." She narrowed her eyes considerably as she glanced at Sirius.

"Lils, I'm sensing negative vibes from you," said Sirius who appeared affronted, "But I wont hold it against you, what with your hormones being what they are." Lily frowned and almost opened her mouth to say something very unsavoury but Remus wisely cut across her.

"Lily, I'm flattered but I don't think what a new born baby needs is a werewolf for a godfather and plus, Sirius is an excellent role model." Sirius grinned broadly and hi-fived Remus while Lily rolled her eyes and went upstairs.

"Great job you've upset her," James said glancing upwards to see if his wife would return.

Sirius shrugged, "Now that she's gone, I can give old Moony here his very special birthday present."

"Oh no Sirius," Remus began hastily, his mind raced through the other presents he'd received from his friend, they were always things which exploded, made an obscene noise or got him in severe trouble. Sirius put a hand up to silence his furry friend, the grin on his face was huge. He prodded Peter but the short, fat one did not even stir, "Fair enough." Sirius checked the living room quickly and shut the door. He started muttering incantations robustly at everything around him, when he seemed satisfied that all was in order he took out a small package from his cloak pocket and handed it to Remus. Remus Lupin eyed his friend suspiciously but knew he had no choice but to open it and so did so. Wrapped up in the brown paper Sirius had given to him was a small, odd contraption attached to a necklace much like a pendant.

"Well?" said Sirius expectantly.

Remus fiddled about with the necklace for a moment before glancing at James who looked just as baffled as him, "Padfoot, what is it?" he asked finally.

Sirius wide grin was slowly replaced with confusion mixed with outrage, "What do you mean what is it? It's plainly obvious what it is!"

Remus glanced at James who looked up at Sirius, "Pad, we seriously don't know what the hell this is. I mean, I guess it could be a necklace but no offence it's kind of grotty."

Sirius stared at his two best friends in amazement, "You really don't know what this is?" he cried. They nodded. Sirius burst into laughter behind them Peter stirred.

"Are you going stand there and laugh or tell us Black?" Remus asked.

"Ok, ok," said Sirius wiping a tear of mirth from his eyes, "Sorry, wow, I obviously couldn't have got you a better present if you don't know what this is. It's a time turner!"

"No it's not," replied James immediately, "I've seen millions of time turners at the ministry. This looks nothing like one."

"That's because this is custom made, hand carved by Egyptian time warlocks just for you Moony." Sirius said somewhat proudly.

"Egyptian time warlocks?" repeated Remus with a sigh.

"Don't you believe me?"

"The sad thing is I believe every word," Remus said dryly, "What am I supposed to with this 'hand carved Egyptian time turner?' bad things happen when you meddle with time Padfoot, or so we were forced to write in our defence against the dark arts N.E.W.T.S"

"Not to mention it is highly illegal to have one of these without ministry permission, let alone hand carved them," hissed James, his eyes looking fearful at the door as if expecting to be taken to Azkaban this very moment.

"Hey, since when have you been mister ministry?" snapped Sirius.

"Since I had a wife and unborn child to think about," said James sharply. "I have enough people trying to get me without the authorities on my case."

"Wake up Prongs," Sirius snapped angrily, "If you haven't noticed you-know-who is killing people like it's going out of fashion, I hardly think a time turner offence is going to be high on the ministry's priority; and as if they'd turn in an auror, we're like gold dust. Secondly, this isn't for you, it's for Remus. I just thought with everything that been going on lately, it might be nice for him to be able to relive the good old days when the only problems we had were annoying snivellus and enjoying his furry little problem."

Sirius glared at James and James stared back, neither of them speaking. Remus coughed to break the tension, it wasn't often his two best friends raised their voices at each other. They smiled sheepishly at him then at each other. "Thank you very much for your present Sirius," Remus said after a pause, "Hogwarts with you two…three," he glanced back at sleeping Peter momentarily, "was the best time of my life and I'd love the chance to go back there but I understand James's concerns. We shouldn't try this out here."

Sirius sighed disappointedly and sulked, throwing himself dramatically onto a chair and staring daggers at James. After about ten seconds of this, James groaned "Fine, you can use it here, but only if we go back to a time I pick."

Sirius grinned, stood immediately and took the time turner into his hands. "Thanks Prongs! Ok, where shall we visit?"

James thought for a moment then a large grin crept across his face, "Let's go back to our last ever prank. Do you remember? We snuck into Slytherin and changed all their robes to Gryffindor colours."

Sirius beamed, "Yeah I remember. We wrote 'Gryffindor forever, long live Gryffindor.' on Snivellus's forehead using that permanent quill you found on McGonagall's desk. It was the perfect way to say goodbye."

Remus frowned, "Hardly, as I remember it we spent the last week of term in detention and Lily broke up with you."

"Yeah but it didn't matter in the end did it? We were engaged a few months later," James pointed out. He looked at the time turner and then turned to Sirius, "Take us back there."

Sirius fiddled with the time turner and the other two watched him avidly.

"How does it work?" asked Remus.

"Well, that thing there," began Sirius pointing vaguely to the centre of the time turner, "that decides if your going backwards or forward, so I'm flipping it back. That dial above it is the date thingy, so I need to scroll it to about eighteen months ago."

"It was further back than that," said Remus, "We have to be very precise right?"

Sirius muttered something inaudible about not understanding hieroglyphics but with a tap of his wand the time turner began to glow red, "Cool, it's ready."

"What do we do now?" asked James.

"We all hold the time turner and then we say the place we want to go; Hogwarts."

"We'll be able to get back right?" asked James suddenly his thoughts straying to Lily.

"Don't worry, it'll be like we never left. Time won't have moved an iota in the present." James looked relived and he and Remus each grabbed hold of a part of the time turner. On Sirius's count they all cried "Hogwarts!"

Nothing happened.

They tried it again and then once more but it didnt work.

"I don't understand," muttered Sirius fingering the contraption, "maybe if Remus needs to wear it for it to work." So they tried that and placed a hand each on Remus as they said "Hogwarts!"

Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?" snapped Sirius walking away from his friends to think more carefully.

"Padfoot it's obvious it's a fake." James replied solemnly, " I hate to say it but you've been had. Someone has sold you a piece of scrap metal and tried to pass it on as an ancient time turner. It happens all the time."

"It's not scrap," said Sirius sharply.

"Look it doesn't matter," Remus put in, "It's the thought that counts."

"No I mean it. I know it works," Sirius said turning back to his friends, "I've…erm…already used it."

"What?"

"Where did you go?" asked Remus.

Sirius shifted uncomfortably, "I went back ten years. I went home, twelve Grimmauld place."

"You did what?" cried James in disbelief, "but you hate that place."

"I know," said Sirius hastily, "I just wanted to see it again, see it the way I used to when I was happy to be there," he stared at his feet before suddenly looking up, "So I know it works. We must be doing something wrong."

James wanted to press Sirius a bit more on his trip back home but he could see from his best friend's face that this was not the time, instead he took the necklace on which the time turner was held, "Maybe we have to be more specific," he said finally, still holding on to the time turner which hung neatly on Remus's neck. He looked up at Sirius who was a little way from him, "Like you were."

"But all Sirius said was twelve grimmauld place right? or was it 'I want to go to twelve Grimmauld place'?" asked Remus, "I mean if we-"

"JAMES!"

Remus Lupin never finished his sentence; a sharp, searing pain had alerted him to the time turner and the ethereal glow it was emitting. He looked at James who held it in his hand. Before his very eyes he witnessed James Potter being engulfed by an orb of light, his eyes were horror-stricken and his mouth was wide open but no-one could hear his scream. Remus frantically turned to Sirius who stood rooted to the spot. "HELP!" he yelled desperately as he felt his own orb of luminosity suffocating him.

Sirius ran towards him but it was too late, Remus was surrounded by blinding light and somehow it seemed to drown out Sirius's yells. Suddenly he felt himself hit solid ground and it was dark and silent. Remus clutched helplessly at his neck and to his dismay he found that the time turner was not there.

That was just the introduction

Feel free to criticize or praise.

Hope you liked it. If not , nevermind and check out my other story :)

WFG

P.S - Chapter two coming soon.