A/N and disclaimer: i don't own any of the harry potter characters or any of that extra stuff, they belong to jk rowling and warner brothers. and someone else probably will say they thought of a concept similar to the watchers somewhere along the line but this version of them is mine and not based on anything at all, just some weird "what if" thinking on my part

A/N: sorry to those of you who are reading this for the second chapter but you will have to re read some of the first since I did a little reorganizing. I decided that the events in the first and second chapter work better when read all at once so I stuck them together. They fit pretty well since that's how I wrote them in the first place.

Not quite finished yet

He seemed to be floating. No that wasn't right, because he felt something solid

under his feet. But there was nothing else around to judge where he was, so he couldn't really tell what was happening. All he knew was that he had an overwhelming desire to see his wife or at

least find out what had happened to her. He needed to know, it was overwhelming him and he didn't know why. "Lily?" He called pensively. But when no immediate reply came he tried again, louder

this time. "Lily? Are you there? Is anyone there? Sirius? Remus? Professor Dumbledore? Snape? Anybody? Santa? Just kidding. Where is everybody? Ok, jokes over guys, Ha Ha very

funny, now get out here so I can hex you. Guys? Hello? Oh come on, I was just kidding about that hexing thing! Lily? I need you Lily, where are you? " He kept calling for what seemed like days, but

could have been hours or even just a few minutes. There was really no way to tell since there was nothing else there to judge the passage of time, it was just

white as far as his eyes could see. Eventually, when he was about to give up hope and just sit there listlessly he heard a voice say, "you can stop calling for your wife Mr. Potter, she can't hear you

yet." Needless to say this stunned him more than finding himself here. Hearing a disembodied voice telling him what to do, and calling him by his name, was more than he could handle

at the moment, he lost his temper and started yelling at it. "Who are you? Where is my wife? What have you done with her? Just let me see her! Did she save Harry? I

have to know what happened!" He suddenly fell to his knees and started crying for his lost wife and son, "please," he was begging now, "I have to know that they are ok! I need

to know what happened to them! Did she get away? Did they survive?" The voice spoke again, "calm down Mr. Potter, you'll see them when the time comes, and not a moment

before." when this statement failed to calm him down, the voice tried a different approach, "James, I know you want to see them now but they aren't here yet, they aren't

ready. If you calm down I can explain some of what happened but not all of it, that comes later, when you're ready for it." James stopped for a moment and after having decided that some answers

were better than none, He stood up and tried to face the unknown voice. This turned out to be a bad idea considering there was nothing to face, all he did was make himself feel dizzy. "Can I at least

see who I'm talking to?" he asked, "talking to disembodied voices is kind of annoying, and makes me feel a little crazy." "Good point James, I wouldn't want you to doubt your sanity, at least not yet."

and with that a very familiar looking old wizard appeared in front of him looking for all the world like he expected James to run up and hug him just for appearing there. "You look familiar," James said,

"I feel like I've seen you somewhere before." "I should say so young man." the old wizard said, "for all the times you've been in my old office after one of your shenanigans, I think you should have my

name memorized by now, as well as those of my predecessors." "so you were a headmaster of Hogwarts?" James askedincredulously, how could they let such a frail looking old man be the

headmaster of a school like Hogwarts? "wait, now I recognize you! You're Professor Dippet!" The old wizard nodded his bald head fervently. He looked down as he said, "I would like to think that I

was the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever known, since the founders of course, I would never say I was better than those four." the old wizard, now identified as Professor Dippet, looked

ashamed for some reason. "But once again I have been proven wrong, just as I was 39 years ago, when we expelled the wrong student. But you need not know about that…yet. At least this time my

failure has proven fortuitous, as Hogwarts had yet to fall on it's darkest days when I was alive. Now it's greatest headmaster is battling to save it, and even the watchers don't know whether he will

succeed or not. It all hinges on one boy." James was a little troubled by this, he knew that he was living in dark times but he had never realized exactly how bad the situation was. For the first time

since his arrival he was glad that he was there for the moment and not back in the world he was from, the one that was experiencing dark times even now. When he got back he would have to tell Lily

all about this place and send an owl to Dumbledore thanking him for keeping the school safe for his son. But what if he couldn't get back, what if there was no way out of here? No, he couldn't think

that way, he had to get back, if not for Lily then for their son Harry. James couldn't leave Lily to raise their son alone, there was no way he would do that to her, he loved her too much and he was

sure she wouldn't be able to lose him and continue fighting as they needed to, for Harry. James' mind was made up, he had to go back by whatever means possible. "Professor Dippet, I have to go

back." James stated. The Professor just smiled and said, "I'm afraid that's not possible." James was livid now, "I don't care. I'm going back, and I don't care who, what, when, where, why, or how it

happens. I'm going back, and you can't stop me. I have to protect my family!" James was shouting now. Who did this Dippet character think he was? Nobody could tell him that he couldn't go back and

protect the woman he loved and their precious son that they had worked so hard to protect. He was James Potter, Nothing in the world could keep him from his family, he was just a little bit stubborn

that way, and he wasn't going to change anytime soon. "Professor I don't care what you say, I'm not going to just sit here knowing that they are in danger. I'm going back and there's nothing you can

do to stop me. You can kill me if you want. I really don't care, I'd rather die than let them get hurt while I'm just standing here talking to you!" Professor Dippet had a mournful look in his eye as he said

his next words with sadness evident in his voice, "that's just it James, I wish I could send you where you want so desperately to go, but it's impossible because you are dead. And after death there is

no going back.

"What!?!? What do you mean I'm dead?! I'm talking to you aren't I?! How can I be dead if I'm talking to you?" James knew that yelling at the frail old man known as Professor Dippet would not help

at all but he had just been informed that he was dead, and he couldn't go back to save his wife and child from the greatest enemy known to wizard kind, and quite understandably he was none too

happy about it. To his credit, Professor Dippet let him yell, he seemed to know that stopping James at a time like this would cause him to be beaten within an inch of his afterlife, if that was even

possible. Perhaps the old man knew more than he was letting on at the moment. Truthfully he did know more, though not very much considering he was only the first one that James was to see before

the last task took place.

Although he technically had all the time in the world, or whatever this place was, Armando Dippet was not a very patient man, yes he could wait if he needed to, but he didn't have to like it, he only

had patience for his students and faculty members. Since James was neither a student or a teacher, Dippet's patience ran out. And when Armando Dippet runs out of patience with you, he let's you

know, quickly and usually painfully as well. "James Potter! Sit down, shut up, and pay attention!" Professor Dippet's yell probably could have been heard as far away as London, if they had been in

the real world instead of whatever this place was. "Now, will you be quiet and listen to me so I can explain?" Dippet said in his normal voice as soon as James had obeyed him. James could only nod,

for fear of getting yelled at again, he almost looked like a first year getting yelled at by a teacher for the first time. It took all of the restraint garnered from his years of teaching not to laugh at the

sight of a grown man cowering in front of the frail old headmaster.

"Thank you. Now, I'll do my best to explain exactly what happened, and tell you what I know of the events that transpired this evening… and would you please try not to interrupt me this time?"

Dippet said, James seemed a little annoyed at the last statement, most likely because he had been about to do just that. When James didn't say anything to interrupt him, Dippet continued on with his

explanation. "Yes, you are in fact dead, killed by the one called Lord Voldemort, and at this exact moment in time it is impossible to send you back at all, so don't ask. As to where you are, I don't really

know. For the moment I would have to say nowhere and everywhere all at once. You see, we are in essence 'outside' of time, at least as far as people on earth know and understand it, they see it as

linear with a start and end point, and for them it's true since they are stuck in a linear existence within the time stream. We don't have to worry about time as a factor in our existence here, it doesn't

affect us, hence my statement that we are outside of it instead of within and subject to it's movements." James couldn't contain himself any longer, "but why am I here? And what happened to Lily and

Harry?" Dippet just smiled at his stubbornness, no wonder his family had been chosen for this, if his son was anything like him then this would almost be too easy. After James settled down again

Dippet continued his explanation as if he hadn't been interrupted at all, "I was just getting to that. You must pay attention because this is important. We who are outside of time are known as

watchers, and with good reason: we watch events as they unfold but we don't interfere, hence the name watchers. When people from the linear time stream die they can either become watchers or

not it is their choice, and they always have that option open, though few stay more than a few generations before moving on. There is a catch though, while you are a watcher you must keep the

balance between good and evil, no matter what. That is why we do not go past the present moment in the linear time stream, no matter how much you are tempted to do it, going forwards will throw

the balance even further off center, and in the process reverse all of the actions we have taken to fix the time stream up to this point. That is why you must not do it. This is all I can tell you at this

point James, you will find out the rest when we have added another to our conversation." James was disappointed about not being able to hear the rest but hopeful that the time had at last come

when he would be able to see his wife once more. With some reluctance because he didn't want to be proven wrong, James asked the question at the front of his mind, "who is it?" Dippet smiled sadly

and gave the one answer James both desired and dreaded at the same time, "your wife." James could barely contain his grief, "No! Not her! Not Lily! Anyone but her! She needed to live for our son!

There's nobody else to take care of him! Why did she have to die?!!? She was supposed to survive! Why I died to save her and then she died too? Was my sacrifice for nothing?" Suddenly something

hard hit James in the head knocking him out of his little world of self pity. He looked up and Professor Dippet was standing there with a book in his hands looking rather disappointed with him, " Let's

get something straight James, You did not die just to save her. Your sacrifice was not for nothing, because Lily died for your son to live. Understand?" James nodded, he really didn't like the old man at

the moment and didn't trust himself not to yell at him. He had no idea how he was supposed to feel after this latest revelation. On the one hand he had just found out his wife was dead but on the

onther hand James was relatively sure that Harry was still alive. Dippet had said that Lily died to save their son, which meant that Harry was still alive, albeit without parents now, but at least he had

survived somehow. James suspected that he wouldn't get an answer to that question until Lily arrived so he decided to focus on something else that had been nagging at the back of his mind since he

had heard that Lily was joining them. After a few deep breaths to calm himself down, James felt ready to ask his next big question, "how and when is Lily getting here?" Dippet looked relieved as he

answered the question, as if a huge weight had been taken from him and passed on to James. "You will be getting her. She is understandably upset and we feel that you are the best person to calm

her down." James could hardly believe his ears, "I'm going to get her? Where is she? When do I go get her?" Although he had thought he was ready for anything, James didn't expect the answer he

received. Dippet looked at him as if he was joking, "all you have to do is think about how much you want to see her and you'll be able to see her off in the distance, after that it is simply a matter of

walking over to her. There is one other thing I think you should know before you run off to get her: Lily won't see you unless she wants to. Otherwise you will be invisible to her, that's why you

couldn't see me when you first got here, I didn't want you to, and if someone here doesn't want to be seen they won't be. That is why, when you walk up to her she won't know you are there until

you say something. Now go get her before we all die of old age." for some reason Professor Dippet thought his last remark was rather funny but James didn't get it until he was far away. Since they

were outside of time they couldn't age, and they were already dead anyways. That was slightly funny in a morose kind of way, but not nearly as funny to James as it was to Professor Dippet, the old

man had a very weird sense of humor.

A/N: this is as close to scifi as it's ever going to get. but really if you look at it from the point of view of one of the characters then it doesn't seem so far fetched. plus in book 5 we found out that the department of mysteries was studying time itself, so how do you know whether or not there was a file on the watchers down there? plus i only needed a way for james and lily to be dead and still be able to see harry grow up and stuff. it's almost the same thing as what happened to harry when he was killed in book 7 but didn't die. though sadly James and Lily really are dead and there is nothing i can do about it. hopefully i will get the next chapter up sometime tonight or tomorrow, and by hopefully i mean probably.