The girl peered through the bangs on her forehead at the black-haired Harry, "Potter?" Crossing her arms and meeting their eyes, she gazed at them sternly through her intense green eyes. "It is, yet again, another night after hours. Oh, let me guess!" she sarcastically added, "Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew are all using Polyjuice Potion! Illegal Polyjuice Potion at that!"
Hermione shook her head, "I think you have us mixed up with someone else. Um… we need to see Professor Dumbledore immediately. And if Potter actually was out after hours, it wouldn't matter. He's Head Boy."
"That may be the case, but Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew aren't. That would also lead to reduction of house points and detention." This girl obviously wasn't in the mood to lose, whoever she was. "If you aren't them, then who are you?" she smirked, waiting for an answer.
Ginny frowned at the challenger, her fingers running lightly over the wand in her pocket. It really would be a shame to ruin the pretty girl's face with a Bat Bogey Hex. "Why don't you tell us who you are first?" she inquired calmly.
The girl let out an exasperated moan," You're always trying to do this to me, Sirius… If you laugh at me, Merlin help you, because I certainly won't. Lily Evans." She glances at Ginny, the look in her eyes telling her that she knew what Ginny thought she was going to do, and she wouldn't allow it. "And who are you, if you aren't James Potter and his revolting posy?"
Hermione stepped forward, trying to avoid a massacre in the hallway; she knew what Ginny was capable of. "I'm Hermione Weasley. This is my husband Ron, his sister Ginny, and our friend Harry Potter," she said, motioning to each of them in turn with a flap of her hand.
Lily stared wide-eyed at the group in front of her, but mainly the tall, black-haired boy standing next to the freckled red head. She bit her lip, thinking. She didn't know that James had a brother, but this 'Harry' boy looked so much like him except for the bright green eyes. James' were hazel. But she had seen these eyes before…
Blinking, Lily shook her thoughts back into existence. "Are... Are you James' brother or something? He's uh… never mentioned a family member called Harry before." She spit out, looking rather confused.
Harry brought his hand up to his hair and ruffled it about a bit in frustration. "No. I'm not. I'm sorry," he said to his seventeen year old mum, "but we really need to see Professor Dumbledore."
"Okay. I'll take you, but you had better have a good explanation, Potter," the girl said, amused that it fit his appearance so well.
They were silent for the first half of the long trip to Dumbledore's office as they all tried to interpret what had happened. Hermione was very curious about her situation. If her boss had a suspicion that the potion might lead to time travel, then why did they not tell her about it at the office? Did they think that she wasn't capable of a simple thought process? They thought she was the most responsible, the most dependable in the department. So why didn't they tell her? Maybe they were afraid that if she knew, then she would never do what they wanted her to. Now they were in a really sticky situation. They had been taken back to Hogwarts nearly 40 years ago. And what about Harry? Surely he would want to get to know his parents… Her mind rushed as she thought of these things. What if he were to warn them! What if Neville turned out to be 'The Boy Who Lived'? Would Voldemort still be defeated?
Meanwhile, Ron walked silently behind Ginny and Harry, his hand grasped around Hermione's as his mind wandered. What could this do to Harry's mind? Would his best mate ever want to leave the time they were in? He had just lost Fred… he didn't think he could lose everyone else in his family because he was stuck back in time.
Harry walked behind his mother, looking her over. Her long, red hair fell down her back in waves, very similar to Ginny's. He couldn't get too close. He couldn't get too close. Just say it over and over again. Can't get too close. How could he be so cruel and not tell his mother that she would die within the next 5 years?
Ginny looked at Harry carefully. She longed to squeeze his hand and tell him everything would be okay, but she knew that it wasn't. As she glanced back over to the young woman walking in front of her, she grimly smiled. It would be a fight to get everyone back to normal after this…
As they were walking one of the long hallways before they reached the headmaster's office, the other half of Harry's missing family, and the cause of many of Lily's headaches stepped in their path.
"Ah, Evans. What a pleasure it is to see you yet again on this lovely evening. Been busy, I see" He said cheerily. His hair was very messy as he nodded towards the group behind her. "Care to introduce your new friends?"
"Shame that I can't say the same thing, Potter." Lily put in. "They have asked to see Professor Dumbledore and if you'd like to know their names, why don't you ask them? They do have voices like you and I," she snapped back to the boy, who smirked and gently pushed her aside to look at the people behind her. Seeing the boy at the end, he did a double-take. He looked like a mirror image excluding his green eyes. For a fleeting moment he thought they were Lily's eyes, but quickly thrust that thought aside.
Slightly shaken up, James looked at the four unfamiliar faces. "I don't know you, and that's new for me because I now everyone." He looked at Harry particularly closely, "And why do I have an uncanny feeling that I'm looking at a mirror when I look at you?"
Hermione sighed and repeated for the second time that night, "I'm Hermione Weasley. This is my husband Ron, his sister Ginny, and our friend Harry Potter"
As Lily opened her mouth to ask a question, James butted it, looking rather confused, as everyone was at the time, "Potter? But that's my surname! Are we related?" he frowned, upset that his family might have hidden a cousin from him. "I've never heard of a Harry in the family, and you can't look like my twin without us being closely related!"
Harry turned to Hermione and muttered under his breath, "We're going to have to tell them, Hermione. There's no other way. Not everything, but just the very basics. I really don't want to be hexed into oblivion."
"Okay, Harry, but that's it. Just the absolute basics." Hermione added one last thing with an unutterable warning, "Nothing else, Harry."
"What are you guys on about? Tell us what exactly?" James asked impatiently. He wanted to know why this 'Harry' person looked so much like him.
"Before I tell you anything," Harry said, glancing around, "I think it would be better if we found a private place. Nothing I'm going to tell you can be overheard."
"Why don't we go to the Room of Requirement?" Ginny suggested.
"That would probably be our best bet. Do you really feel like going there, though? And Ron," he said, looking over at the tall young man next to him, "You too, mate. The memories-"
Ginny interrupted him, "It's fine, Harry. We know it was where he died, but we have to go back there at some point. We're strong enough." The thin girl looked over at her brother as he nodded.
"How do you know about the Room of Requirement?" James asked, "And what about somebody dying?"
"We found it at Hogwarts when we were here." Hermione said, answering his question. "It's so strange coming back with the school being normal. I keep picturing it being… after…" she choked up, and Ron moved over to hug her around the shoulder consolingly.
Silence enveloped them once again as they walked towards The Room. Ginny and The Trio kept picturing the scene after the final battle, while Hogwart's previous Head of Houses were thinking what the group could possibly have to tell them.
James was also trying to piece everything together as Ginny paced three times in front of an empty wall. They had said someone had died near their destination, yet he had never heard of any death at the school apart from Moaning Myrtle's. There was also the fact that 'Harry' resembled him, but had green eyes. 'He must be related to me,' he thought. 'But how can he be? My parents didn't have any siblings, so he couldn't be a cousin. Unless… No, that can't possibly be… but it's the only explanation...'
The boy's thoughts were interrupted as a door formed in front of him and the others. They all stepped in, Lily and James wondering what was coming, and the other four wondering how they were going to explain it all. And even more. How could they keep James and Lily from telling the Marauders?
An hour later, James' head was spinning from all the information he had received. It seemed as if the impossible idea that had collided with his head had been true after all. Harry and his friends were indeed from the future, and Harry was his son. Lily had been so surprised with the ludicrous idea of James Potter having a son that she had fainted. Harry wouldn't tell him who his mother was, but told him not to assume anything. (James had been eyeing Lily, and that's when Harry had mentioned it) James had asked about himself and what kind of father he was to Harry, but Harry refused to answer.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you," Harry said for the umpteenth time, sighing. "I wish I could tell you everything. But that would be impossible. It could ruin the future for the whole wizarding world."
"Why though? Is it something to do with this raving lunatic Voldemort?" James asked, desperate to know what happened to him. He was almost bouncing on his chair in anticipation.
Harry frowned "Never talk to me about Voldemort," he said roughly. Harry stood up and walked over to a nearby mirror, tinkering with the baubles hanging off the sides. As he looked in the mirror, he saw his father sitting on his chair behind him, looking at his reflection.
The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was to talk about what he had been through with Voldemort. Maybe sometime before he went home would he tell James and Lily, but not before he was ready to. As he calmed down and returned to his seat, he studied his mum's sleeping form carefully. She was so beautiful and reminded him so much of Ginny. Not just her hair, but the snippet of personality that he'd seen in the short time they had been together. It was eerie the resemblance of the two women appeared to have. How could both father and son fall for two women with red hair and similar personalities? He didn't know, but certainly wanted to find out.
James growled with frustration and raked his fingers through his messy hair viciously. "Look, Harry. All I want to know is, who do I marry, and am I a good father? Or am I not?" he snapped.
Harry looked over at his father, disgusted, and walked over to Hermione, Ginny, and Lily. "Hermione, can you please help me?" he asked, turning to his best friend, knowing she would be able to help.
"Of course I can, Harry. What is it that you need help with?" Hermione offered, looking up from where she was curled up on a nearby couch.
He looked over at Ginny and Lily and pulled Hermione to her feet. Glancing over at James again he gently pulled Hermione to him so he could mutter angrily in her ear, "Can you please explain, as I have done so many times, that I cannot tell him who my mother is? And I cannot tell him if he's a good father. He has figured it has something to do with Voldemort, but apart from that, he knows nothing and he can't know anything else. You also might want to mention that he can't tell Sirius, Remus, and especially Peter, because he won't believe me, and I give up. Git," he muttered.
Hermione look sympathetically at Harry as she leaned back, "Is it really that bad?" Harry nodded and she sighed. "I'll do what I can, but I have to admit that I know where you get your stubbornness from!" She chuckled as Harry glared at her and stalked off.
Hermione went over to explain to James that they couldn't tell him who he married because they weren't together yet. She also pointed out that his future wife might panic and never date him, resulting in a lack of Harry being born. She also assured him that just because Harry didn't mention whether he was a good father or not didn't say that he wasn't. It just meant that Harry wouldn't tell him. The last thing she told him was that he couldn't tell his friends.
"Why can't I?" he pleaded. "They won't tell anyone! Not if we make a Marauder promise… There are serious consequences if we tell, you know…" he said, getting off topic, and looking at a very amused Ron, "Last time, we stripped Peter down to his knickers and levitated him up to the girl's dormito—"
"No," Harry spoke up. "I know that you want to, and you think that you should. Not yet." Harry said firmly, "And if we do decide to tell you, we choose when."
James' eyes widened at his son, and he stood on his tiptoes a bit to whisper in Ron's ear, "Is he always like this? Just like Evans?"
Ron snorted, but Hermione and Ginny gasped inwardly when they realized that James might have it all figured out.
A soft rustling was heard at their feet as Lily's form shifted positions, "What's going on?" A voice mumbled groggily. "Where am I? I had a dream that—Oh. I wasn't dreaming…" Lily yawned as she woke up. "That's unfortunate. What happened? One minute I he-er-eard you saying that you were James' son from the future, and then next thing I know, I'm here on… this… mattress." She said, looking around her body.
Ginny giggled, "You fainted!"
Lily blinked, "Oh. Right," the girl switched right back into automatic Head mode, "Was there anything else you wanted me to know? I assume you told James, but is there anything life threatening that I should be aware of?"
"Only that they wouldn't tell me who I was married to, whether I'm a good father, and I can't tell my own best mates about anything going on in this room!" James put it, pouting.
"Shut up, Potter. Is that all you can say?"
"I thought you were calling me James, Evans?" he threw back.
"Not when you act like an inconsiderable git. Don't you see that they might not be able to tell you those things because it could ruin the future? Don't you think that they would tell you those things if they could? I'm sure that Harry would love you tell you the answers, wouldn't you, Harry?" Lily said, turning her head in Harry's direction.
"Of course I would. He is my father after all, even if he acts like a prat sometimes." Harry said.
"Hey that's not fair! How do you know if I act like a prat?" James asked with his pride hurting.
"We have our sources." Ron commented.
Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat on a couch nearby, watching as Lily and James stood about 7 feet away from each other, shouting.
"They're exactly like what we heard about them." Ginny added turing to face her best friend, "Wouldn't you say, Hermione?"
Hermione nodded, "Oh, definitely."
"And I didn't get all this information from filing detention reports for Filch, either." Harry remarked to James as he calmed down. "Lily, there wasn't anything I needed to tell you, apart from those two things."
"Okay. I think we should take you to Professor Dumbledore, then. He probably has an idea that you're here by now…" Lily said, combing her hair through with her fingers in a small attempt to look presentable.
"He ought to know by now, with you two shouting as loud as you were…" Ron muttered to nobody in particular as everyone got up from their comfortable positions to head towards the headmaster's office.
The six set off, James' arm wrapped firmly around Lily (despite her protests) to keep her from wavering in step, and the two couples walked hand-in-hand to see the headmaster they hadn't seen in over a year.