Chapter Summary: Remus and Sirius find themselves revisiting their old school days and can't believe how much time has done to them. Mainly a filler. Review anyways!
As the world slowed down around them and finally came to a stop, Remus and Sirius didn't say a word, but first Apparated to Hogwarts…or, rather…outside of Hogwarts. The grounds looked fresh, young and beautiful. The air was cool, crisp, but still had an essence of light and warmth about it. Faint outlines of students in black robes were scattered about the grounds. It must have been a weekend. No one looked like they were in classes. The Whomping Willow swerved it's long branches around and around off to the side of the hill, from afar it looked like it was a gently sway, but both Remus and Sirius knew it was a violent swing once one got closer. The sun was peeking out over the east hills, so it was probably no more than 9 o'clock in the morning. Something about the atmosphere made Remus and Sirius shiver.
"What year is this, Remus?" asked Sirius. Remus shrugged. He was just glad he didn't overturn the Time Turner…he was just winging it. He'd never used a Turner before.
"We need to get up into our old dormitory room and get some Polyjuice Potion from under you bed, Sirius," said Remus. Sirius agreed and nodded. "We'll just have to be careful getting up there is all."
Sirius nodded and took a breath. The two men slowly advanced on the school. It was as if the path took forever and a day to walk down, and they both had to be certain that none of the student saw them as they came closer. Just before entering school grounds, they saw a small group of young girls appearing to be in their second or third year walking with some books towards a small oak tree just outside campus. Sirius chuckled to himself and nudged Remus. He pointed to a tall, chubby blonde girl with big, pouty lips and small, pudgy feet that didn't look like they could hold the weight of that big girl up for too long.
"Recognize her, Remus?" he giggled. Remus looked confused, then he realized who she was and groaned.
"Oh no," he moaned.
"That's Rosalind Centauri! She fancied you, Remus!" Sirius said with a mock sing-song voice. Remus grunted.
"Let's just get inside," he said back. The men waited for the girls to move along, and then they saw a clear path to the entrance to the clock tower. Gryffindor tower wasn't far from there. "How old do you reckon she looked?"
"Well, her hair was curly until the end of second year…so she's a third year, no more than that," said Sirius, recalling. Remus nodded. They found themselves in a long corridor that led to the stairwell that, in turn, led to the Gryffindor common room. No one was inside on such a beautiful fall morning, so they were fairly safe…unless Filch was around…but Sirius and Remus thought he would be spending the free time doting on Mrs. Norris the Sixth (every cat he got he named Mrs. Norris). SO Sirius and Remus walked casually, careful to duck whenever they came across a painting.
"That means we're fifth years," Remus said. Sirius grinned and laughed. "What?"
"Don't you remember? That was a Triwizard Tournament year at school!" Sirius reminded Remus. "This is autumn of the Triwizard Tournament year!" he grinned. "Don't you remember what happened that year?"
Remus shook his head. "I don't think so…"
Sirius tried very hard to surpress a huge belly laugh while they walked cautiously towards the Gryffindor common room. "The Yule Ball was a riot, remember? You went with Lily—"
"—AS FRIENDS, Sirius! She didn't have a date and neither did I! Damn, man, you must be young again because you sound like a teenager!" Remus rolled his eyes.
"And James got all pissed about it and made Peter take Polyjuice Potion so he looked like a girl prettier than Lily!"
Remus felt himself trying to choke back a laugh as well. "And THEN, everyone voted James and Peter as Prince and Princess of Yule!"
"And the crowning ceremony was when Peter changed back into himself!" Sirius finished. The men did let themselves laugh a bit. Fifth year was a good year to come back to, because it was, as far as both Sirius and Remus felt, their best year at school. The weekends in Hogsmeade were a riot, the Triwizard Tasks were exciting to watch, there was even some Quidditch gamed in between tasks that were exciting, and, as Sirius recalled, this was the first year that he and Bastet were a serious couple.
"Sirius? Do you think we're in Hogsmeade this morning?" asked Remus. Sirius shook his head.
"Hogsmeade weekends didn't start until after the first frost this year, remember?"
"Oh, yeah!" Remus nodded, understandingly. "Where do you think we are now?"
Sirius thought a moment. "The Great Hall, I guess, doing some homework?"
Remus and Sirius looked at each other. "Yeah, right!" they said in unison.
"Homework!"
"That was a good one!"
The two time-travelers went to a window and looked down over the courtyard. Student were sitting and standing around, going on as if they didn't know what 20 years into the future was going to bring them. Then again…they didn't know, did they?
Sirius and Remus then heard some whispering from down the corridor. They ducked behind a statue. It sounded like four or five people walking towards them. Hopefully they were both hidden well enough.
Neither men expected to find who they found turn that corner, but when they saw who it was, their jaws dropped. Four boys and a girl. The tallest boy was very handsome, with his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and his stubby facial hair complementing his pronounced chin. The handsome boy had his arm around a girl with a short, curvy frame; she had wide hips but a nice pair of legs. The girl's curly hair was a vivid orange color this morning, reaching halfway down her back. The second boy was only slightly shorter than the first, wearing round glasses and having to push his unruly black hair out of his eyes every few minutes to see where he was going. The third man was of average height with lighter colored hair. He had a scar running across his left cheek, as if a nail of some creature had scratched him there. He looked tired and a little shabby compared to the taller two men, who looked lively and handsome. The last boy was at least a foot shorter than any of the men, and about four inches shorter than the girl. His hair was also a lighter color. His nose was large and stuck out, his eyes squint and small. His teeth were pronouncedly larger as well. All of the teenagers wore black school robes, save for the bespectacled boy and the girl, who wore red and gold Quidditch robes.
Sirius and Remus couldn't believe it. It was James, Bastet, Peter, and themselves as fifth year students at Hogwarts!
"There must have been a Quidditch game today or something," Remus noted. Sirius nodded.
"We should go see it," said Sirius.
"We can IF we can get to the Polyjuice Potion first…" Remus warned. Sirius nodded. "Now, sh! I want to listen!"
The small group had stopped after the turned the corner.
"What time is the match?" asked young Sirius.
"Noon," answered Bastet. "Then we slaughter the Slytherins, right, Prongs?"
The boy in Quidditch robes nodded. "Damn straight!"
Sirius smiled. He suddenly remember the match. They did win. If this was the game he was thinking of, it was even a shutout.
"I bet Prongs' hoping the Beauxbatons girls will be watching, eh?" teased Remus. Young James blushed, as did Old Remus. Old Sirius nudged him in the arm.
"You were quite the jokester too back then!" Sirius said. "I miss you…"
"If not those silly birds, at least we know ROSALIND will be watching!" Peter mocked. Young Remus blushed at the comeback, again, Old Remus blushed even redder.
"Haha! Wormtail strikes again!" James said, high-fiving his short accomplice. Old Sirius gritted his teeth.
"He's the one we need to get away from the rest of them! Then he'll never have the chance to betray James and Lily years later…" he said to Old Remus. Suddenly, more footsteps could be heard as a taller girl ran to catch up to the gang. The girl was bonier than Bastet, and her hair was a more natural shade of red. Her face was very pretty. Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Bastet smiled as she caught up to them. James scrunched up his nose as if he'd smelled some foul odor.
"I just wanted you wish you good luck, Bastet!" said Lily.
"I was wondering where you were!" Bastet said, hugging her best mate. Sirius nodded and remembered how Bastet was to Lily as he was to James. Kind of a foreshadowing occurrence, looking back.
"A-HEM…" James cleared his throat loudly. Lily ignored James and instead, turned to Sirius.
"Sirius, no throwing Dungbombs at the Slytherins on their brooms again. McGonagall told me to tell you that one more time it will be detention for a month," she warned. Young Sirius gave a look of indifference.
Bastet turned to look at James. "We need to report to the field and warm up a bit," she nodded at James.
Young Sirius looked at Bastet. "I'll be cheering you on even if you suck miserably…"
Bastet playfully punched Sirius in the arm. Then Sirius bent down to kiss his girlfriend. James groaned.
"Get a damn room!" he moaned. Young Remus laughed. Bastet and Young Sirius turned to James and stuck their tongues out. After another moment of laughing, Bastet and James dashed the opposite way down the hall, and the others walked past the statue where Old Sirius and Old Remus hid towards the Quidditch field. When the coast was clear, Sirius and Remus got up and looked down the hall and began walking again.
"We were best mates," Remus moaned. "I wish we could've stayed like that forever," he sighed.
Sirius nodded. "Well, if we do this right, we can be, minus the rat," he reminded. "Come, let's get to the Polyjuice Potion stash…"
Sirius and Remus dashed into the main stairwell and approached the Fat Lady picture. She eyes the men up and down and looked confused. "Who are you?"
"Just hired by Filch," lied Remus. "Squibs, we're part of the newly instated cleaning service."
The Fat Lady nodded. "They need that around here. Apparently, as brave as the Gryffindors may be, they sure as hell don't know how to conquer a trashbin…password?"
Sirius thought back for a moment. What was the fifth year password…?
Remus suddenly spoke. "Gluteus Medius," he said.
The Fat Lady made a gesture and the painting opened. As they climbed inside, Sirius gave Remus an odd look. "How the bloody hell did you remember that?"
"I was a prefect, remember?"
"Oh yeah, I'm sure every Hogwarts ex-prefect remembers their passwords!"
"At least not the ones who spent all day snogging their girlfriends and hurling Dungbombs at Slytherins on broom!" Remus retorted.
"Ouch," said Sirius, rolling his eyes as they sped up to their old room. Sirius could go straight to his old bed in a flash. He k new which one it was, because there were two photographs by his bed. One was of him and Bastet with arms around each other, and the other was Sirius and his favorite cousin, Andromeda Black. Sirius dove under the bed and pulled out an old box and opened it. There were 20 or so bottles of Polyjuice Potion just waiting for the hairs.
Sirius pulled a small baggie of hairs from a small compartment beside the box.
"I always kept hairs from other students just in case," Sirius said. He took two of the largest bottles (they needed to take a sip every hour on the hour) and handed one to Remus. They dropped the hairs in and waited a moment. Sirius took a moment to recall whose hairs they were.
"You have Stanley Henson," said Sirius. "I have Jonas Robinson."
"Are they still students here?" asked Remus.
Sirius shook his head. "Expelled fourth year, but none of us knew that, did we?"
Remus thought. "I guess not!" he said. He lifted his bottle in the air. Sirius clanked his glass against Remus' bottle in a toast.
"To us!" chimed Sirius.
"To our mission being a success!" chirped Remus.
"To our younger selves being so damn good looking!" Sirius added. Remus smirked, then both men sipped the potion. They chokes, forgetting how disgusting it usually tasted.
"Cheewrs…" moaned Sirius, experiencing ghastly aftertaste.