A/N: So, yes, this is the old back-in-time plot. But hey, you know, I always like these, and hopefully you will too. Review if you've got questions or comments.
~~~~~~OrangeScript
Disclaimer: By the way, In case you were wondering, I'm not JK Rowling. I know, it's shocking. But we'll all just have to get over the shock. It would be great if I was though...SIGHHHHHHHHH. BUT I'M NOT. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE? I DON'T OWN THE CHARACTERS, OR THE WIZARDING WORLD, OR ANYTHING IN THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS! AND I'M ALSO MAKING ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY. yeah.
Abruptly the spinning stopped and, with a very graceful thud, Harry landed in more or less of a standing position, his head throbbing, stomach lurching, and eyes struggling to adjust to the brightness of his new surroundings. Finding his now-slightly-bent glasses in his hand, he thrust them on.
The world came back into focus and Harry was jolted to find himself face to face with a pair of rather astonished-looking watery grey eyes and a red nose that twitched in a very rodent-like fashion. Harry jumped back; his wand came to his hand, and he pounced at the unfortunate owner of those features, his eyes blazing.
"You," he snarled, his voice filled with loathing. He had a hard time remembering to breathe as he stared furiously down into the grey eyes. Harry's hand curled tightly around the boy's collar, and he jammed his wand into the pink, fleshy neck of Peter Pettigrew, the man who had cost him just about everything.
Peter choked. His eyes watered. "Please, please it hurts." Harry was disgusted. Spittle flew everywhere. The red face was even redder than Harry remembered, the whiny, wheezing voice was higher pitched. He was, in every respect, like a frightened little pig of a boy- much like Dudley.
Harry heard the thumps and ungraceful sounds of his friends behind him as they, too struggled to get their bearings in the new time, and in the back of his mind he had a triumphant shriek of "It worked!" but his eyes were trained only on the filthy boy at the end of his wand.
"You traitor!" He screamed, jabbing with his wand at the terrified boy's neck, "You bloody rat, you son of-"
"Let go of him," a voice growled, steady, foreign, and yet somehow so familiar: "or I swear I'll hex you 'till you scream for your mother."
For the first time, Harry looked up from where he'd been glaring at Wormtail, and took in the others around him. Three boys, about his age, in Gryffindor robes, had their wands trained firmly on him. The one in front, the one who had spoken, was tall, slight, and athletic-looking, with messy black hair and glasses that sat lopsided on his nose; his eyes glinted with a steely anger.
His father. Harry swallowed. He didn't even have to look to know that the other two were a younger Lupin and Sirius: he had interrupted a Marauders' meeting.
"You'd be better off without him," he said furiously, yanking harder on Peter's collar, "trust me, I'd be doing you a favor."
"Yeah, he's a pain in the arse but we'd rather keep him if it's all the same to you," Sirius spoke for the first time, his mischievous eyes held no laughter now- the anger in his dark eyes was surprising as Sirius had never looked at Harry in such a way before- "We've grown rather fond of the boy."
"Leave the lad alone," Remus added quietly, his wand hand twitching.
And these were the friends the worm had betrayed, Harry thought, the anger working its way to boiling point.
"Stay back," he yelled at them, briefly pulling his wand off Wormtail to brandish it wildly at them. "Just stay back!"
"We're warning you," Remus began, but James apparently had a different idea. Harry's father's eyes flashed; he roared "Sectumsempra!" and before Harry could even think about blocking the spell, Hermione's wand shot out behind his ear with a lightning fast "Protego!".
In a moment Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Ginny were grouped protectively around Harry and his captive, each with a wand pointed at one of the Marauders and Hermione maintaining the shield.
"This is so weird," Ron whispered, leveling his wand at Remus Lupin.
"Agreed," muttered Neville, whose wand was aimed at the nose of Sirius Black.
"Harry," Ginny said, sidling up to him and squeezing his arm affectionately, "you might want to let go of it's collar, you don't want to make your dad mad," she winked at him sadly, her wand still pointed at James Potter.
Breathing hard, Harry let go of the shirt, but kept his wand pointed at Pettigrew, who scrambled backwards, also panting heavily.
It was at this point, of course, that none other than Prefect Lily Evans showed up, wand at the ready, trailed by everyone's favorite greasy, bat-cloaked git.
"Potter, would you like to tell me what the hell is going on?" Lily shouted, pointing her wand at each wizard and witch in turn, face morphed into an irritated and bewildered scowl that only grew deeper when both Harry and James turned at the name "Potter."
Harry watched as Snape's wand automatically found James's unprotected back, but he also noticed, not without interest, that the potions professor held back on a curse. Probably on Lily's behalf.
"It isn't what it looks like," Harry said quickly, turning a pleading eye to his mother. "I think we all just got off on the wrong foot."
"And who are you?" Lily switched her wand from James to Harry, her infamous eyebrow arching superciliously.
"I'm..." He turned helplessly to look at his friends. Ron and Neville merely shrugged; Ginny looked like she was trying to think of something, but Hermione spoke up.
"Dumbledore!" She yelled, then glanced around. "I mean we're here to see- we need to speak with Dumbledore."
"Does he know you're coming?" Lily asked, lowering her wand a bit, so it was less threatening.
"Um...We're not sure," Harry hedged, aware of how stupid he sounded.
"You're not sure?" Snape sneered at the same time James yelled "He's lying! They're lying!"
Everyone turned to James, whose face was red. "They just popped up, in the middle of nowhere like...like apparation! And then he," he took this moment to jab his wand in Harry's direction, "attacked Peter!"
"Hogwarts has anti-apparation wards," Lily said sharply. Stealing a quick look at Harry and his friends, she turned to Remus. "Is that what happened?"
Remus nodded and Sirius added "Just like he said."
Hermione jumped in again, desperately. She looked at Lily. "Miss Evans, yes?"
Startled, Lily nodded her head.
"I think this has all just been a big misunderstanding. We are friends. We-" she smiled lightly, "we come in peace." Hermione nudged Harry, and he reluctantly lowered his wand arm, pocketing his wand. The motion was copied by his friends, and Hermione dispelled the shield charm. "See? We mean no harm."
"Very well," Lily said, her nostrils flaring. "I shall escort you to the Headmaster's office." She turned angrily to the Marauders: "Potter, Lupin, Black, lower your wands this instant. Duelling is not permitted without teacher supervision and approval. If I find out that there was any misconduct on your part, I will freely deduct points from Gryffindor. And Potter,"
Harry's shoulder gave an involuntary twitch and James, who had, with difficulty, sheathed his wand, turned to Lily warily.
"Come with us to the Headmaster's office and you can give a report."
James nodded and followed Lily and Harry's group towards the castle, shooting his friends and Snape a suspicious look.
As they moved off, Harry turned for one more glance at his godfather and smiled as he saw Sirius, clearly annoyed, mumble a hex at Snape's shoe, which immediately grew claws and teeth and started attacking its owner's foot. Snape's angry shout echoed through the grounds, and Lily, leading the troop, rolled her eyes as a melee broke out behind her. James looked longingly back at his friends, but Lily soldiered ahead and they all had no choice but to follow. Ron and Harry exchanged glances and silently agreed to play it by ear.
….
Dumbledore was sitting quietly at his desk, head in hand as he looked over some photographs. The girl in the photo, Ariana, smiled sweetly up at him, tilting her head with a silent laugh. There were tears in his eyes when he heard the knock, and, hastily wiping them away, he turned to his gargoyle.
"Miss Evans and Mr. Potter and...some others."
Dumbledore looked at the gargoyle strangely, but replaced the photographs underneath some papers in his desk's bottom drawer and adjusted his bowl of lemon drops. "Enter," he called mildly.
James Potter entered first, looking mutinous, and he was followed by five others whom Dumbledore had never seen before. Bringing up the rear was Lily Evans, whose eyes were alight with a whole lot of questions, and who had a cautious wand drawn.
"Lemon drop?" He offered them the bowl.
Lily shook her head and addressed him. "Headmaster," she began formally, then indicated the assorted group of people next to her: "they appeared, as if by apparation, onto the grounds, and they quickly got into an altercation with Potter and his friends. I stepped in and broke it up and they said they had to speak with you, so I escorted them to your office."
Dumbledore felt his brow crease, and he looked past Lily to the people she gestured to. The one that stood in front looked remarkably like...James. Dumbledore shot a quick comparative look at his student. Yes, the resemblance was very strong: The messy black hair, the athletic build, even the tilted glasses. The James lookalike regarded him carefully but familiarly, as if they'd already met and knew each other well. It was a weird look to see on the face of a complete stranger.
The other children also looked at him with a vague sort of recognition, just none as strong as the boy's. He scanned them for a familiar face, and was slightly rewarded. The two redheads, obviously related, had a very Weasley-ish look about them, and the other boy looked like someone he couldn't quite place, but the last girl he was certain he had never seen before.
Dumbledore turned back to the boy in front, James II, he was starting to think of him as, and the boy closed his eyes tight, as if in concentration.
Then came a light, feathery touch at his mental shields. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. A Legilimens? Dumbledore's mental shields were, as they always were, sturdy and unyielding, but he got the feeling that James II wasn't trying to penetrate. He grasped the presence, the light touch in his mind, and was surprised when it unraveled into a message: Need to speak. Important. He could feel in the words the boy's magical signature. He looked into James II's eyes, which were now open. They were bottle green like...like Lily's. And they were very intense.
"Leave us please, Miss Evans, Mr. Potter...the rest of you."
Harry could feel Ginny's hold around his arm tighten and Neville, Ron, and Hermione looked to him for the okay. Dumbledore's eyes were locked intently on his; he nodded. Silently they all left, Ginny giving his forearm one last, encouraging squeeze.
When the last student had filed out of the room and the door clicked shut, Harry crossed the room to the cupboard where Dumbledore's pensieve sat. The silvery liquid was streaming out of his ear to his wand even as the basin flew out. With the grace and fluidity of one who has had much experience with such oddities, Harry transferred the memories to the bowl. As he turned back around, a splash of red caught his eye. He reversed his turn. A beautiful bird sat preening its feathers atop a bookshelf. It cocked its head at Harry and he grinned: "Hullo Fawkes. Good to see you, old boy."
"Wonder of wonders," Dumbledore steepled his fingers and leaned back on his chair. This ought to be good.
Author's Note: Well Hello There. Just a plot bunny that's been hopping across my brain. Should I continue? If I get enough reviews you betcha there'll be more. So please review. It makes me happy. And happy people write more :)