Harry's dad and his friends, figuring that something was up, had grabbed the twins and dragged them up to the common room. Lupin had sent ropes shooting from his wand, binding Fred and George to chairs, and Pettigrew had been sent to keep watch and keep anybody else out. Nobody in Hogwarts really paid attention to Peter, but they knew that if he was acting on Potter and Black's orders, they'd better listen.

"So," James barked, once the room was secured, "Do you bookends want to tell us what's going on with you?"

"Could you stop calling us bookends?" Fred protested.

"We don't appreciate it," agreed George. James looked at them, his eyebrows raised, with a small smile on his face. He looked a bit like a wolf. Neither Fred nor George could remember Harry ever looking that dangerous.

"We think we might have moved a bit too far back in time," Fred explained hurriedly.

"We're from the year 1996," George went on.

"We go to Hogwarts there."

"And we were trying to find a way to cheat in our exams."

"We were going to use a time turner."

Sirius smirked.

"Told you it was a good idea," he said to Remus with a grin. James shot him a look, and Sirius shut up.

"Go on," James prompted.

"We were just going for a test run," George continued.

"Thirty minutes," Fred added.

"Yes," George said, "But we think we've gone a bit further than that."

"Thirty years."

"And we don't think we want to try using the time turner again."

"Because it's obviously botched up."

"And we don't want to end up in the year 2007 or something."

"So we're stuck here," Fred concluded. They looked at each other and nodded. James, Sirius and Remus exchanged surprised glances.

"And you know us how?" James pressed. The twins looked at each other, and Fred shrugged.

"Well, you taught us last year," he said, nodding towards Remus.

"Taught you what?"

"Defence against the dark arts," George told him. Remus looked at Sirius, who shrugged.

"It could happen," he said simply, before turning back to the twins, "Go on."

"You're a friend of ours," Fred said to Sirius, "You're our friend's godfather. Sorry, but you're on the run after escaping Azkaban."

Far from being upset, Sirius actually looked quite pleased.

"I escaped from Azkaban?" he exclaimed, grinning, "Cool! Am I the first?"

"Yes," George said, "And you…" he looked at James nervously, "Well…" He suddenly wished that he had stopped at Sirius.

"What about me?" James asked, giving them another wolfy smile, which sent a shiver down Fred's spine.

"You're our friend's dad," he said finally.

"Is that the one who's Sirius's godson?" James asked.

"Yeah."

"How come he gets to be godfather?" Remus sulked jokingly. None of them seemed to be taking this seriously. The twins were surprised. Harry would have been serious and most likely brooding, but his father was looking at it all as if it was a joke.

"You can be godfather to my next kid," James said. Remus accepted this with a grin. "Who's the mother?" James asked.

George opened his mouth to reply, then stopped. He looked round to his brother for help, but found Fred in the exact same position. What was Harry's mum's name? How could they have known Harry for four years and not know his dead mum's name?

"We're not sure," they said in unison.

"Very well," said James, very much the detective. He leaned closer to his friends and they all whispered together for quite a while. They kept looking over at Fred and George, and occasionally beckoning to each other. As unnerving as this was, the twins couldn't help feeling grateful that they hadn't had to tell James that he was going to die.

"OK," James said finally, looking very dramatic, "We think we believe you. But if we're going to help you, then we need something from you."

"What?" George asked.

"We don't have much," Fred added.

"Just our quill."

"And our wands."

"Ah," said Sirius, pulling the quill from the pocket of George's robes and looking at it closely. After a quick examination, he handed it to Remus and muttered something. James, annoyed at being left out of things, snatched the quill from Remus and pocketed it. Sighing, Remus leant towards him and muttered something in his ear.

"I think you might be right," he said to his friend. He turned to the twins. "We think you might be our kind of people."

"Your kind of people?" George repeated, glancing at his brother.

"Meaning what?"

James sighed. "You're giving me a headache with that bookend double-act thing you've got going on there.

"Well we're sorry," Fred said.

"But we come as …"

"…a package deal…"

"… and this is the way we speak…"

"…and we would appreciate it…"

"…if you didn't call us bookends…"

"…thank you!" they finished in unison. James looked at his friends and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked them, "They're a bit weird."

"Of course!" Sirius grinned, "They're definitely our kind of people! Using time turners…"

"Illegal time turners," put in Remus.

"Yep," Sirius nodded, "Using illegal time turners to cheat in exams. I mean, even I wouldn't have thought of that! And who else but our kind of people would be that cocky when they're tied to chairs?"

"Point taken," James said, "But still…"

Fred looked at George, who shrugged – well, as well as someone can when they're trussed up like a pig at the Hogwarts Christmas feast – and looked back to the three boys who were still bickering away.

Finally, James gave in, seeing as he was outnumbered two to one, and giving him some credit, there were several threats of being hexed by Remus.

"It just so happens," he said to the twins, quickly regaining his cocky, in-charge composure even after losing the argument, "That Remus here just happens to be very good at charms and such like, and he is willing to help you get back to wherever you came from."

The twins breathed a sigh of relief.

"But there is a condition," James went on. Fred and George glanced at each other. Something told them that this boy – who was a lot scarier than Harry – wasn't going to be asking for a free box of chocolate frogs.

"Yeah," Sirius butted in, grinning from ear to ear, "We need your help. You see, there's this... thing we've got going on with the Slytherins, and we could do with a few ideas, and help and whatever. You seem like people who'd be good at stuff like that."

"Depends what this thing is," Fred said.

"We're not the most intellectual of wizards," George added.

"But we're very good at getting out of classes…"

"…and cheating in exams…"

"…and things like that."

James muttered something that involved the words bookends and headache, but didn't say anything aloud.

"It's a sort of…" Sirius said, unsure how to describe it.

"It's a prank war," James butted in, with a barely disguised smile on his lips, "And we're pretty damn awesome at it. But we need new ideas, because the Slytherins seem to have most of the teachers on their side after an incident involving some of the House Elves and a lot of macaroni, and most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are too wimpy to join in. it's getting pretty intense."

Huge identical grins broke the twins' freckled faces.

"Well you're in luck!" Fred said.

"Because it just so happens…"

"…that we're experts in that field."

"We're planning on opening our own joke shop," George added, in case this was any incentive.

James grinned so widely that his face looked like it might explode.

"Well then," he said happily, "We're in business!"


That's Chapter 2 up. I hope everyone likes it. Thank you to all my reviewers! Usually in my chapter fics, I dedicate each chapter to a reviewer, so this one is for classically emily, because she was my first reviewer, and she's nice, and also to Rhistix because... well... I know her, and she scares me.

Until next time, please keep reviewing, and keep the criticism CONSTRUCTIVE!

BNRH