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A/N: Wow, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad you all are enjoying it! Sorry if the chapters seem a little short; they get longer as the story progresses.
Happy reading!

Chapter 2:

Something seemed different about the wise aged man who sat behind the desk. James thought Dumbledore appeared older, not that he had ever been young since James had known him, but still James noticed more wrinkles than usual that lined his face. The familiar twinkle in his blue eyes was still apparent though as they looked surprised behind his half moon spectacles. Why should he be surprised? James thought to himself, I've been into his office plenty of times before.

He watched curiously as the two teenagers entered and positioned themselves at the front of his desk. There was a silence as their headmaster seemed to scrutinize them with keen interest. "Miss Evans, Mister Potter?" he asked finally, staring at each in turn.

Lily found it odd at the amount of astonishment in her headmaster's voice. Surely he had students call on him at night before. How could you not, living with the Marauders inside of the castle?

"Yes, Professor. You see we need—"

The old man looked slightly amused as he leaned forward, propping his elbows up onto his desk, peering at them. "How did you two get here?"

James and Lily thought this an odd question to ask. How are you supposed to answer that? James wondered humorously to himself, Well, Sir, we walked down the corridor after being berated by some Slytherin, called out every sweet we could think of to your guarding gargoyle, jumped onto your revolving staircase…and, well, surprise.

James turned his head to glance at Lily, sharing a look of utter bewilderment. "We, I mean I," James corrected himself after a severe look from Lily, "knew you have an obsession with candy and after about five minutes I finally guessed the right password…"

"No, no, James you have quite mistaken me. I meant to ask, how did you get here…to this time?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, I don't really know what you mean…" Lily said quietly, looking anxiously at her Headmaster as her heart beat seemed to speed up dramatically. The spinning…the blackness…the falling…oh, dear mother of Merlin.

"Miss Evans, Mister Potter, this is the year 2003."

A ringing silence preceded this statement and only the soft singing from Fawkes the phoenix broke it. James blinked a few times before rubbing his hair, causing it to stand up on end. Lily felt like she was going to pass out as her head seemed to spin, trying to comprehend this newest bit of information.

"But…how? Are you sure?" Lily stuttered, looking from James to Dumbledore as if waiting for someone to jump out and yell 'April Fools!'

Dumbledore chuckled slightly. How could he be so bloody happy at a time like this?

Lily thought annoyingly.

"Yes, Miss Evans, I'm positive what year this is, even though I am aging these days," Dumbledore winked at the two. "But as for how you got here, I was waiting for you to tell me." The professor pulled out his wand and with a flick of the slender black stick two chintz chairs landed onto the floor. "Please take a seat."

James smiled slightly as he plopped himself down onto the closet chair to him as Lily looked around confusedly before taking a seat herself. "I don't really know what happened," James began jovially, glancing at Lily.

A short feeling of loathing coursed through Lily at the excitement in James' voice. Apparently, he thought this some big, great adventure whereas Lily thought it to be a complete nightmare. A soft cough from her professor brought her back to what was going on, so she continued the story hesitantly. "Well, it all started with Potter—"

"—No, Sir, it all started with Evans," James broke in quickly, throwing a smirk in Lily's direction.

"Who was the one that hexed that blasted mistletoe to follow me around, huh?" Lily challenged, the presence of her Headmaster, Dumbledore, forgotten momentarily.

Dumbledore merely popped a sherbet lemon into his mouth, as he watched the two teenagers amusedly from behind his spectacles. "Did you ever think that maybe the mistletoe was just attracted to you off of its own accord?" James countered, crossing his arms in a defiance manner.

A very strange noise issued from Lily's throat, opening her mouth to retort. "You are so—"

"As I'm sure you two have many things to discuss," Dumbledore broke in, his eyes twinkling as he observed James and Lily. Lily jumped slightly at hearing her headmaster's voice, "I think we should just continue trying to find out how you two ended up here. Miss Evans, if you'll be so kind as to continue with the story."

"Sorry, Sir, Potter was just being such an arrogant, pompous…" Lily trailed off, her cheeks turning pink. "Sorry Professor," she muttered again, hanging her head.

Dumbledore's eyes laughed. "I've temporarily gone deaf and I have absolutely no idea what you just said. Please continue with the story."

Lily was a bit taken aback at her Headmaster's remark, and wasn't quite sure if he was being serious or not. "Uh…right," she answered awkwardly, shooting a glare at James.

"Yes, as the lovely Miss Evans was saying," James took over, bowing his head courteously to her, "it all started when she dragged me off into some random classroom on the seventh floor…wait…" James eyes went wide as the new thought hit him, "it must have been the Room of Requirement!" James stated excitedly, looking at Dumbledore for approval.

"Yes, that room does have plenty of magical qualities, but something must have triggered it," Dumbledore suggested, leaning back in his chair, examining the two teenagers.

Lily peered at her headmaster, "Sorry, but what do you mean by 'trigger it'?"

"My apologies, Miss Evans. I meant to say, something must have triggered the reaction, the reaction that sent you two here. What happened next?"

James and Lily shot each other a quick look. "I, well, I started yelling at him and then it just kind of happened. It was like the floor had vanished and we were falling through space…until we fell straight into the same room we had left." Lily continued, amazed that neither James nor Dumbledore could see her heart pounding against her chest.

There was silence for a moment as Dumbledore continued to stare at the couple. After a minute, he suddenly got up and began rummaging through a book shelf along the wall, finally pulling out a heavy, rather dusty, textbook. It landed on his desk with a large thump as the Headmaster began flipping through its ancient pages.

James and Lily glanced at each other as the silent minutes passed until Dumbledore shouted "AHA!" causing both James and Lily to jump about four feet out of their chairs. "Miss Evans, or Mister Potter, did either of you wish for something, unknowingly, to happen?"

"I can't recall—"

"—YES!" James interrupted, "Don't you remember, Evans? You wished for me to get thrown into the future so you, and I quote, 'would never have to see my face again'."

Lily opened and closed her mouth several times, gaping like a fish that had just been thrown up out of the water. Bugger, so this was her fault.

"Right, so the reason you two are here is quite simple," Dumbledore explained, "you see, it happened to a young man by the name of George Hindington over a hundred years ago. He claimed to have traveled through time, but of course no one believed him. The idea was so absurd back in the day, especially since the last thing he could remember was subconsciously wishing to be somewhere else whilst inside the very same room you two were in. It also didn't help that he couldn't remember what had gone on in the future. Naturally, many Witches and Wizards have tried to confirm this theory, but no one has ever been able to accomplish it again."

"Excuse me, Sir," Lily said, "but if Mr. Hindington couldn't remember what had happened in the future, how did he remember he had been there at all?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Very good question, Miss Evans. Apparently, when he arrived back in his regular time, he claimed that he was wearing a coat he had never owned. Confused, he went around asking everybody whether they had ever seen this coat, but no one had ever seen anything like it. It confused matters even more when the tag inside of it told that the coat had been made in the year 1935, when Mr. Hindington's own time was 1901."

"So," began James, trying to put together everything they had just heard, "we were sent some thirty years into the future simply because Evans wished for it to happen?" James asked incredulously.

"It appears so," Dumbledore replied, grinning.

For the first time in a while, Lily spoke up. "Well, then, let's go back to this so called 'Room of Requirement' and simply wish to go back to our time."

Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm afraid it isn't that easy. Like I said, many investigators looked into Hindington's claim, but they were never able to time travel themselves. My belief is that you can't simply walk in and wish to see the future or the past. If it was so, we'd have people disappearing right and left. In order for you to go back, you're going to have to wish it without meaning to wish it to happen."

"I'm sorry, Professor, but that doesn't make any sense," James stated, as Lily stared intently at Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry to disagree, but it makes perfect sense. You'll realize it soon enough."

James sighed, aggravated at their Headmasters evasiveness. "So, you mean we're stuck here until Evans and I figure out how to wish 'subconsciously'."

Lily laughed shortly, "With your brains, this could take a while."

"Hey! We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't wished for it!" James declared, shooting up out of his chair.

"I wouldn't have wished for it if you would just learn to pull your head out of your arse!"

"My butt is cute, thank you very much!"

"Quiet!" Dumbledore exclaimed with such force that the two teenagers quickly sat back down, occasionally shooting glares at each other. "Bickering will not help you solve anything. Now, I believe we need to arrange your sleeping quarters and time tables. You both will remain in Gryffindor and keep your same schedules you had in the past."

He tapped two pieces of paper with his wand and handed one to Lily and James. The papers had their individual time tables on them as well as the password to the common room. "Now, I must warn you that you must be careful with what you do and say while here in the future. We do not want to change the past any. On that note, I believe name changes are in order as well as appearances."

He walked over to James and tapped him on the head with his wand. James' hair and eyes immediately began to change colors, resulting in a light brown haired, green eyed James Potter. Dumbledore then did the same to Lily, changing her silky red hair to straight blonde and her deep emerald eyes to a dark blue. "I believe that should do," Dumbledore announced, stepping back to admire his handy work.

Lily and James gaped at each other. This was too weird…

"You two are now Jacob Gates and Lisa Carlyle, transfers from Beauxbatons, although originally from England; we don't want anybody suspicious about your English accents. Any questions?"

James and Lily shook their heads in a completely dazed fashion. James was running his hand through his new hair as Lily fingered her own.

"Well, then, I trust you'll enjoy yourselves and meet some fairly interesting people. Remember, anything you could do could possibly change the pass, so be cautious. Goodnight Miss Carlyle, Mister Gates."

As soon as the heavy oak door closed behind them and the winding staircase emitted them at the bottom of the gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office, Lily rounded on James, her face livid.

"If you think I'd ever consider going out with you now, you're dumber than I originally thought."

James eyes glinted, swinging around to face her. "It's as if you're blaming me for what happened when we both know, Dumbledore included, that it was all your fault."

Lily's face turned a steady shade of red as she drew herself up to her full height. "My fault? My fault? Tell me, whose fault is it that whenever you talk to me you always end up saying the most retarded things, resulting in me hating you even further. If you had never decided to bug me tonight and hadn't of charmed that wretched piece of fake mistletoe to follow me around all day, I wouldn't have yelled at you at all. So now tell me, whose fault is it really for being stuck here." She stared at him in disgust, her hands on her hips, apparently waiting for his answer.

Leaning up against the castle wall leisurely, he responded coolly, "It seems to me that you need better control over your anger."

A low, dangerous growl escaped from her throat, as Lily's mind screamed in frustration. "And it seems to me that you need to see a therapist for your stalker issues."

"Honey, I wouldn't be a stalker if you would just agree to go out with me."

Without warning, Lily swung her hand back and with a resounding smack her hand made contact with the side of his face. "Bloody Merlin, woman, what was that for?" He placed his hand tenderly over his stinging cheek which now supported a bright red hand print.

Lily smirked, relieved that she had let out her emotions before they had made her head explode, as she turned her back on him and walked away towards the Gryffindor common room. She was never going to survive this.

Next Chapter: First day in the future...James' clone arrives...woohoo!
Thanks for reading!

--HeyLookTheSnitch