Disclaimer: No, I have not morphed into J.K.R. since last we met. Unfortunately.
(A/N: I am not coming up with cooler chapter titles. Not even if you ask nicely.)
Chapter 2: Time and Again
"Right," James said, pacing the length of the dormitory with a severe expression as though it were a very meaningful activity. "Right."
"James, you've been walking back and forth saying 'right' for the last fifteen minutes," Remus said pointedly. "Don't you think we ought to—?"
"I think what you ought to do is shut up," James snapped, so viciously that no one said anything for the next several minutes.
"Well, I've got a suggestion if nobody else has," Sirius said, studying his fingernails with purposeful disinterest.
"Have you?" said James. He was really beginning to loathe his friend's penchant for melodrama.
"Yes, I just said, didn't I?"
"Sirius," James said warningly.
"I think we should go to breakfast," he said, and descended the steps into the common room without another word.
"Padfoot," said James, rather loudly as he was saying it for the third time in a row without being answered. Again Sirius did not reply, acting for all the world as though there weren't three other boys directly behind him. "Sirius," —they followed him, still resolutely silent, down from Gryffindor tower— "Sirius," —they waited for a moving staircase to settle into its proper position— "SIRIUS!" —and arrived in the Great Hall just in time to be accosted by a large, disgruntled barn owl. James saw only a curious flash of red before Sirius snatched away the letter tied to its leg and shoved it hastily into his pocket.
"Sorry, did you need something?" Sirius asked lightly.
James's hazel eyes narrowed as he stared at Sirius, trying to read some form of guilt in his expression. "What was—?"
"Not now, we'll be late for Charms," Sirius said before he could finish, which James found odd as Sirius hadn't been wearing a watch and had never before expressed an interest in being on time.
Peter groaned audibly. "I thought we did all this so we wouldn't have to go to class."
"Yes, well, best laid plans..." Remus replied vaguely, looking thoroughly confused with the whole situation. "At any rate, it looks as though we've only gone back a few hours more than we meant to. I expect it'll just sort itself out." He coughed uncomfortably; this was exactly the sort of thing Sirius and James often said, and exactly the sort of thing that always seemed to get them into trouble.
From then on the day was fairly uneventful; Flitwick had given them all detentions when they turned up half an hour late, but this was nothing out of the ordinary as they never seemed to get through a week without one; a double of Potions was spent in quiet mockery of Professor Slughorn, referred to by Sirius as the only person alive who drooled over Lily Evans more than James did (James had tried to hex him under their table for that, but missed and shattered several nearby jars instead); best of all, Professor McGonagall had not killed them on sight, assuring that the state of the broken Time-Turner which was still slung loosely around James's neck had done no lasting damage to the one that presently sat inside her desk.
Heading back to the common room after their last lesson (a particularly excruciating period with the ghostly Professor Binns), they felt a good deal better than when they'd left it.
"I can't believe we've actually gotten away with it!" Peter said for about the fortieth time.
"Dunno if it counts once we've broken it, Wormtail," said Sirius. Peter frowned, not much liking the idea.
"It's the principle of the thing," James said indignantly. "Doesn't matter what happens after we get it, the point is we got it." He paused, apparently feeling a need to further the point, and added, "And we still get away with loads of stuff."
"Which is what makes me the worst Prefect this school's ever had," said Remus with a wry smile. "Sort of thing I should put a stop to, really. Shame it's so entertaining."
He made to keep moving, but James put an arm out and stopped him.
"All right, Moony?" he asked, his tone of sudden concern deepening as he noted the pale, withdrawn look his friend had taken on over the past few hours. "How's the furry little problem?"
"Fine at the moment," Remus said without looking at him, clearly wishing the subject had not been brought up at all. "Less than a week before it isn't."
Sirius hit Remus roughly around the head with his rucksack. "Keep looking that cheerful and people will start mistaking you for Moaning Myrtle, Moony."
Remus laughed weakly, but still looked rather ill. "I—" He stopped speaking before his sentence had been properly started, for his audience's attention had shifted suddenly and decidedly elsewhere.
Both James and Sirius's eyes were locked on the greasy black-haired head bobbing down the corridor opposite them.
"I am going to kill him," Sirius said flatly.
"Have to beat me to it, then," said James.
Peter watched the two of them apprehensively; Remus hardly even breathed, unsure what to do next.
"Tough deciding what to do with him, really," James mused. "Shouldn't levitate him, he'd grease up the whole hallway, someone could slip..."
"Forget magic, I'll beat him to death."
"Nah, you'd be washing your hands for ages."
Sirius gave his short bark of a laugh, and James grinned back at him.
"OI! SNIVELLUS!" James bellowed as Sirius continued to laugh madly. "I'D LIKE A WORD!"
Snape whirled around, wand raised, and saw that once again the odds did not favor him to win this fight. "Always the four of you, isn't it?" he yelled back, but he did not take a single step in their direction. "You'd never dare take me on alone, Potter!"
Sirius continued to laugh, possibly louder than before, but James no longer saw humor in the situation. His eyes had gone suddenly dark and cold.
"Are you calling me a coward, Snape?" he said in a quiet voice that nevertheless carried quite clearly to where Snape was standing.
"And if I am?" Snape snarled.
"Then I'll just have to—NO, SIRIUS! PUT HIM DOWN!"
Sirius flicked his wand lazily, dragging Snape through the air in imitation of the movement. "Hm?"
"I said—I said put him down." The words felt heavy and unnatural as they left his mouth, but he tried to look stern as he said them.
Sirius paused, wand still raised, and turned, a puzzled expression sliding across his handsome face. "What? You can't mean Snivellus?"
"How many other people are you levitating, Padfoot? Drop him."
Very, very slowly, Sirius began to lower his wand arm, his eyes fixed on James with the surprised and slightly guilty look of a puppy caught using the carpet in an impolite manner. Snape hit the floor heavily and Sirius walked off to stand with Remus and Peter, muttering and shaking his head.
"Satisfied, Snivelly?" James said, his tone once again snide and mildly insulting. "One-on-one, like you wanted, and I'll still wipe the floor with you...'course that might leave it a bit slimier than I found it, but..." he shrugged, earning the approving laughter of the other three. "Any last words?"
Whatever it was Snape had planned on saying (James hazarded a guess at something his own mother would have been none too pleased with), James did not hear it. Something icy and deeply unsettling had seeped into the pit of his stomach and pulled, flinging him backward through a complete mess of surroundings that were moving far too fast to be processed properly.
Then he was picking himself up off the floor, taking in the unpleasant sound of someone's weak stomach sorting itself out on the carpet, and wondering what the hell had just happened.
He was not on the cold stone floor of the deserted corridor in which he had been about to duel Severus Snape.
He was in the sixth year boys' dormitory in Gryffindor tower, and someone was yelling very loudly into his left ear.
"—and we've been mates for ages, but there's a bloody line, James! I know you've got absolutely no sense of responsibility, but this is just a whole new level of—"
And so on.
James briefly considered ignoring him, but after five minutes it was clear he'd have to act in the interest of preserving his hearing.
"All right! I heard you the first thirty times, Remus, give it a rest—"
Surprisingly, Remus fell immediately silent, apparently waiting for James to explain himself.
"I—er—" James paused, scowling at Remus, knowing he was wrong and hating it intensely. "I'm sorry, then. I shouldn't have—well—" Remus nodded, accepting this as the best he could manage; Peter, whom he seriously doubted had ever been angry in the first place, smiled; Sirius, however, still looked away from him.
"What's with you?" James asked, a small line creasing the space between his eyebrows. He'd always liked Sirius best of the three of them, they'd hardly ever fought before...yet Sirius was most certainly avoiding his eye...
"Nothing," he said firmly. Then he changed his mind. "No—I want to know what you were playing at, running away like that!"
James felt his face grow hot. "Running away? From Snivellus? Me?"
"Oh, excellent, you can hear. That clears it all up, thanks."
"What are you on about? I wasn't running from anything, you—"
"Oh, my mistake. Must just be my strange definition of 'running away' that involves leaving so you don't have to fight someone."
"That was nothing to do with me! I'll go and find him now if that's what you—"
"Nothing to do with you? And I suppose that Time-Turner works without you touching it, does it?"
James drew the long chain out of his shirt and thrust the hourglass under Sirius's nose.
Sirius examined it for a long moment. "Oh yeah. Forgot we broke it."
Then they both burst out laughing.
Remus and Peter sat on the ends of their respective beds, mesmerized by this exchange. Finally Remus coughed loudly enough for them to take notice, and they turned to face him, Sirius still snickering minutely, James's face twitching every few seconds with the hint of a poorly suppressed smile.
"Intriguing though the insanity of your friendship is, we have a very, very big problem on our hands," said Remus with a severe expression that reminded James of Professor McGonagall. "Obviously the Time-Turner's malfunctioned—"
"Has it?"
"Shut up—and I think I know what's happened."
"Breakfast!" said Sirius suddenly.
"Ye—what? No! There's no time for—Padfoot!"
But Sirius was already through the door and down the steps, out into the common room and through the portrait hole before the rest of them had gotten out of their pajamas.
"He must be really hungry," Peter said, pulling his robes on very quickly so as not to be left behind.
James shrugged and smiled broadly, but Remus still looked very put-out.
"Oh, lighten up, Moony, there's only about four days left before the summer holidays, can't sulk now!"
"But that's what I've been trying to tell—"
"Hey, Evans!" James said excitedly. Remus gave up on his sentence then and there.
Lily, halfway through the portrait hole, turned at the sound of her name, and the look on her face suggested she regretted this immensely.
"I—ah—" James stuttered, but no words came to him. Her startlingly green eyes met his for only another second before she turned with a look of express disgust and ducked out into the corridor.
Just as Remus and Peter had expected and Lily had feared, James followed her.
"Evans—"
She did not respond except to quicken her pace slightly.
"It's a felony to say 'good morning' now, is it?"
Remus and Peter exchanged dark looks; Lily sped up again.
"Just say something, will you?" James said exasperatedly, still trailing along after her.
Lily stopped so suddenly that James nearly crashed into her. He straightened instantly, flushing slightly under the force of her gaze. He couldn't remember when she'd ever stood quite so close to him...he thought it a great pity that it was only so she could tell him off.
"And if I don't?" she snapped, reminding him forcibly of someone he'd rather not think of when faced with a pretty girl. "What're you going to do, hex me until I go out with you, Potter?"
"No—I wouldn't—"
Lily's expression did not soften in the slightest. "Why not? You do it to everyone else, why make exceptions?"
"I—because—ah—"
"Tell you what, why don't you just carry on jinxing everyone you walk past, and I'll just carry on remembering that I'm not five years old, and hopefully we won't have to have this discussion again." The way she said this made it sound a bit like a threat.
"But—"
"Good-bye, Potter."
"Vicious, that one," Sirius said mildly. James was in too foul a mood to contemplate the mystery of where he had come from. "Don't know what you see in her." His gaze drifted down the corridor just in time for a last glimpse of her retreating back. "Well, I know what I'd see in her," he admitted.
James did not laugh. "Don't talk about her like that," he snapped. Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow. "That's not why—I don't know why—I just—"
"—can't talk properly?" Sirius finished.
James sighed. "Not around her I can't."
Sirius shrugged. "Bound to happen eventually. Girls are mad like that."
"All that aside," said Remus tersely, now looking more cross than ever, "aren't you forgetting something?"
"Er—Potions!" James exclaimed suddenly, apparently having forgotten such a thing existed. "Forgot we had it first today, at least Slughorn might go easy on—"
"No," Remus snapped, impatient to make his point, "and if you'd bothered listening to anything I've said in the last twenty minutes, you'd have noticed that we do not have Potions first today." He glared at the other three, most severely at James. "Do you know what we have got first today?"
"I expect you're going to tell us."
"Charms," he said without acknowledging the interruption. "And do you know what we are going to have first tomorrow? Charms. And do you know what we are going to have first every day until you work out what in the name of Merlin's florescent underpants you did to that Time-Turner?"
"Bowling?"
But for once nobody laughed, because for once there was nothing to laugh at.
"Congratulations, James," Remus said darkly. "You've created a time-loop."
