A/N: I have to notify those of you who have wanted an update for some time that I don't have a very good plot figured out for this story. I wrote this back in middle school and now I am almost done with college. It is hard to continue a story that you wrote so long ago and there are some things I wish I could change, but for now I am keeping it as it is.

I continue to get reviews for this story every once in a while and it really is touching and so nostalgic. It is because of these reviews that I have decided to post this chapter. I hope you all enjoy. However, I want you all to know that updates will not be frequent unless I somehow learn to write at lightning speed. I do have a way that you guys can help me, though! If anybody has suggestions for what they'd like to see in this story go ahead and mention it in a review or PM me, and it may help me get this story moving on. I can't promise I will put it in here for sure, but I suffer from writer's block nearly all the time and so it just might make its way in here.

To sum up what has happened so far in this story (for those who read the last three chapters a LONG time ago): Harry was transported back to Marauder Era (7th year) and he was attacked by Remus during a full moon. There was some interaction with James in the last chapter in which Harry learned that magic is real.

Chapter 4 – 1978

1978:

A droplet of water splashed into the sink, making a popping sound that was profound against the silence. It continued leaking. The broken and battered sink was well integrated with the grotesque theme of the cottage.

He preferred the confined space the cottage provided and better yet, the silence. It allowed him to concentrate. After all, he had many plans that needed careful attention.

His hand was clamped around a small teacup. The tea was no longer hot – the things he touched seemed to turn cold after a short time.

Staring straight ahead of him, he lifted the cup to take a sip. Before it could reach his lips, he froze. Slowly, he set the cup back down on the table.

He gently pushed himself out of his seat and stood upright. The legs of the chair scratched terribly against the splintered wooden floors. He turned his head slightly to the left, as if listening for a sound. Any sound.

Another droplet of water fell from the sink. Pop.

He glared. Something wasn't right.

He made his way to the door and flung it open. It flew on its hinges as far as it could go and smashed into the wall of the house, disturbing the silence that just existed a few seconds ago.

As soon as he walked outside, the wind began rustling around the trees and hugging the loose parts of his house – particularly the shutters. He noticed the greyness of the sky.

He listened again. For a sound. Not the wind. Not the leaves or the shutters.

"Magic is real…"

It was faint, but he heard it. Those words crawled into his eardrums.

He wasn't prepared for it, but when he saw it he cupped his forehead. He saw the image of a vicious werewolf in his mind and he could sense fear.

What was going on?

Then the image of a boy flashed before his eyes. It was a boy with a scar. A boy he had never seen in his life. He was in a room that looked much like Hogwarts.

It angered him. What was the meaning of this? What could be bothering him at this time? The images meant nothing to him.

Angered, he stormed back into his home. He was going to figure this out. But his dark plans could not be interrupted further.

Tom Riddle returned to his planning with a new momentum. He would not let silly little visions get in the way.

Petunia had her head in her hands. Her husband paced the kitchen, and she sat at the table, in fear that she might faint.

They had planned on letting the boy out of the cupboard that morning since it was a school morning, Monday. But their plans changed when Harry was nowhere to be found.

"Where could that little brat have gone?" Vernon growled, his face purple.

Petunia shook her head and looked at Vernon. "I don't know, Vernon, but … what if they come looking for us?" She was scared. She knew that they were completely responsible for Harry, and that losing him might have serious consequences.

"Like hell they will, Petunia. Not if I can help it!"

This didn't comfort Petunia at all. She knew what wizards were capable of…besides, her own sister had been killed with the flick of a stick.

"That little freak," she spat under her breath. "He makes everything so difficult!"

Vernon grunted in agreement. He grew tired of pacing and sat heavily down into the chair across from Petunia's. "What are we to do?" he asked, out of breath.

Petunia already knew. But she was afraid. The morning they found Harry at their doorstep, they had also found a letter. It told her exactly what she had to do. She looked nervously at her husband. By the look on her face, he already knew, too.

James left Harry in his dormitory before heading to his meeting – of course, he had no choice. He gave Harry his snitch to play with while he was gone. He didn't expect to be gone for more than an hour, and Harry seemed incredibly fascinated by the flying little ball—it should keep him entertained.

The meeting was only the second meeting of the year – it consisted of partnering up the Prefixes to do rounds together at night, planning tutoring sessions, and planning other events. James and Lily switched off speaking, but Lily couldn't help but notice that James wasn't as bright as usual.

Indeed, the Head Boy was very exhausted. On top of not getting much sleep, he was distracted with thoughts of Remus and Harry. In fact, Remus had managed to make it to the meeting and didn't look so great himself. Just seeing Remus, though, made James feel guilty. He knew that if he found out he would never forgive himself.

"And to wrap up today's meeting, I just want to say that you guys did a splendid job escorting first years to their classrooms last week. So…that's that. Go enjoy your weekend," James finished, rushing his words then stepping away from the podium and gathering up his stuff.

The Prefixes loudly followed suit, glad that the meeting wasn't long – some lingered around and chatted away.

Lily watched James pack his things with a raised brow. She was wondering what was wrong. No attempts to get with her? None of his stupid sex jokes? She hadn't even seen him purposefully mess up his hair since he got to the meeting—that stupid habit she hated.

"What's the rush Potter?" She didn't often start conversations with him, but she was curious as to why he was acting strange.

James looked up at Lily and gave her a small smile, trying to make it charming, but he only put in half the effort. "Nobody wants to be here longer than they have to."

That didn't really help Lily understand what was going on. "You just seem a little tired…" she probed.

James secured the buckles on his satchel and threw the strap over his head. He looked at Lily weirdly, surprised that she was saying such things. "Aw, you care," he said in mock astonishment. He smiled and messed up his hair.

Lily rolled her eyes. There was his stupid habit. "Whatever, Potter… go do whatever it is you have to do." She waved him away, not wanting him to think she actually cared. Plus, he wasn't giving her answers. Maybe nothing was wrong after all.

James was pretty good at hiding things when he was confronted.

"I thought we were about to have a nice conversation," James joked, he shook his head as if disappointed in Lily. "But I guess I'll leave."

Lily crossed her arms and glared at him. "Bye, James."

James laughed. "Bye, Lils."

Lily huffed after him for calling her that much hated nickname.

As he left the room, he spotted Remus walking down the hallway, heading back to Gryffindor tower. He caught up to him.

"You know, you could have skipped the meeting. I wasn't expecting you to be there." James said, as casually as he could. He didn't want to mention Harry just yet.

Remus stared at the ground in front of him as he walked slowly. His muscles ached all over and he still had scratches on his back that burned, which he hadn't found all too surprising. Although he didn't pick fights with his stag and dog friend, he did sometimes play rough.

Remus shrugged. "I know. I'm just trying to maintain my façade."

James knew how Remus was after full moons. He didn't like to talk much. He didn't try to carry out the conversation but just walked alongside his friend, having to slow down his regular pace for his weak friend.

They turned an empty corner, and that's when Remus suddenly stopped.

James walked a couple steps ahead of him before noticing. He looked back at his sad friend. "Remy?"

Remus's eyes left the ground and he looked up at James seriously. "James. Please tell me the truth. Did something happen last night that I should know about?"

James's expression didn't change. "Why would you say that?"

"Sirius is acting suspicious. Like the time Severus tried to enter the Whomping Willow passage and you had to save him because I nearly…" Remus stopped and sighed. He couldn't even bring himself to say it, even though it was about two years ago that he almost hurt Snape.

Sirius wasn't good at keeping gigantic secrets from his friends. He was a great liar like James, but when it came to serious situations like these, he was a nervous wreck, such as when the Snape incident happened. He had gone into it with horrible intentions, but as it was happening he instantly regretted it. It was especially hard for him to hide his guilt – and James was certain Sirius had a lot of that now.

It was really tough to look at Remus at the moment. James contemplated whether or not he should reveal last night's events. This was his friend. It would be harder to lie to him than it would be to just say the truth, and he would most certainly eventually find out. After all, there was currently definite evidence of last night's events in his dormitory. James couldn't hide Harry forever.

"Moony…something did happen last night. But I think we should talk about it in your dormitory," James said, his voice low.

Remus's face turned white, shocked that his intuition was true, but he nodded his head.

James felt an awful nip in his stomach, realizing that this was what he had been dreading all day.

They walked back to the Gryffindor tower and up to the dorm room. Sirius was sitting on the edge of his bed, twirling his wand around between his fingers. Peter was laying in the bed next to Sirius, staring ahead of him with a bored expression. Upon seeing James and Remus, Sirius dropped his wand and Peter sat up in bed.

"We're telling Remus what happened," James notified the two. He checked the time, noting that he needed to make this quick in order to get back to Harry.

Sirius looked guilty. Peter looked a bit pink in the cheeks, but he felt the least responsible for what had happened the night before. He was hardly capable of keeping Remus inside the shack as his rat form, and even less capable of luring him back in. In fact, he chose to lay low when Remus had violent nights like those.

"You should probably sit," Sirius said, looking wearily at James. Remus looked terrified.

James scanned the other beds to make sure nobody else was in the room. When he confirmed the coast was clear, he cast a silencing charm for good measure and sat down next to Peter. Remus sat next to Sirius, hesitant in his movements and clearly troubled.

Taking a big breath in, Sirius started. "Last night, you escaped from the shack." Remus did not react yet. He knew that sometimes he was controlled enough that the others would let him leave the shack to run freely in the forbidden forest.

"It wasn't a good night, either," Peter piped up. "We were planning on staying in the shack that night."

James nodded. "Once you escaped, we lost you for a bit. And while looking for you, I came across…a person," James said—maybe he would skip the part about that person being a young kid if he could.

"I tried to scare him away in my animagus form. You must've not been very far off, though. You came up from behind him and charged at him…" James drifted off, examining Remus's expression.

It was really hard to do this to Remus. James watched as Remus buried his pale face in his hands. It was obvious where this was going.

Sirius rested a hand on Remus's shoulder. James immediately responded with the most comforting thing he could come up. "Remus, you have absolutely no control of your body when you're in your werewolf form. There's nothing you could've done. It's not your fault. Sirius and I take full responsibility." James tried to comfort him. It was unfair that Remus should be responsible for whatever happened to Harry, and James wanted him to know that.

Remus didn't say anything. It was silent for a while. Nobody wanted to speak, deciding that they should let him take in the new information. They didn't look at each other or Remus. He kept his face hidden in his palms, anyway.

"What happened to him?" Remus finally mumbled, revealing his face, which looked red. He felt hot, and although he didn't have any tears, he was absolutely terrified and embarrassed. He still didn't look his friends in the eyes.

"As far as we can tell, he's okay. I don't know if he was bitten…" James trailed off.

Remus just nodded his head, his forehead lines indicating his stress. He held onto the hope that he may have not bitten anybody, but at the same time, he feared the outcome of this tragedy. The possibilities were endless – how many consequences would they suffer?

"Peter says he couldn't tell," Sirius added.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I watched from a tree close by, but it was all a blur. Everything happened really fast."

It was a lot for Remus to take in – James himself had not come to complete terms with what was going on.

"I will take full responsibility for anything that happens. He's in my headquarters as we speak…I have to go check up on him. I can't promise he wasn't bitten, but he seems to be recovering extremely quick…I'll sort this out somehow," James said, although he did have a lot of doubt. How was he even going to go about this?

And with that James stood up, but Remus stopped him. "No. We're telling Dumbledore. I can't believe he wasn't told sooner." He muttered the last part under his breath.

Sirius's head snapped up. "No! We can't do that. He'll find out about our illegal animagus and…Remus we could all be expelled."

"He needs to know! He's the only one who will know what to do…" Remus argued, looking heated.

"James and I will figure this out – " Sirius started, but then Remus interrupted him.

The red color drained from his face again, and he was stark white. He stood up, speaking a little louder. "Stop saying that. I'm the one that attacked. This was always a terrible idea. I should never have been let out of the shack since you all became animagi. I'll go alone. I won't even mention you guys were there at all—"

Remus seemed to miss one big part of the problem. For once he wasn't thinking straight. In fact, none of the boys seemed to be able to think straight.

"Yes, but how would we explain the child up in my room –"

"Child?" Remus repeated, horrified.

James cringed. He hadn't meant to say that.

Remus was frozen. He was horrified at the idea that he had charged at a child—somebody who was probably around his age when he himself got bitten.

James sighed and looked to the ceiling, hands on his head. He knew Remus was mad at them. But at the moment they needed to figure out what they were going to do.

It was silent for a while. The three marauders realized just how deep they were buried.

After a few moments, James spoke. "I have an idea…"

He described his plan to his friends. They agreed on what to tell Dumbledore, but on one condition that Remus wished for – they had to go to him today.

Harry was still playing with the snitch. It had been over an hour since James had left. A few times the snitch travelled to the ceiling, and Harry was jumping on the couch, bed, tables, to try and reach the little golden ball. He could do this forever.

He stopped when he felt a grumble in his stomach. It must almost be lunch time.

He suddenly remembered the hunger he had felt just a day ago. Stuck in the cupboard under the stairs, ashamed of doing something so horrible to his cousin.

He couldn't help but wonder what the Dursley's must be doing now. Did they notice he was gone? They were probably celebrating his absence. Harry was always told of how he was a burden to them. They took him in, and all he could be was ungrateful. Why was he so ungrateful?

"Harry?"

Harry jumped. James was standing across the room, forcing a smile. Harry had not heard him come into the room, he was so deep in his thoughts.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," James said, walking closer and rubbing his hands together nervously.

"It's okay," Harry said, noticing James's awkward body language, but restraining himself from asking what was wrong.

"Look, uh…Harry. We need to talk about last night," James forced himself to say. He was tense and, truthfully, very nervous. Anything could happen in the next hour. He could be expelled. He could discover Harry was in danger. He and his friends could be prosecuted for breaking wizard law…

But James stood straighter and took a deep breath in. He tucked away any anxiety he had and forced himself to appear calm and serious.

Harry watched James curiously, and nodded his head. He was eager to find more answers to the many questions still bubbling inside his head.

James sat Harry down on the couch again, but this time James stood in front of him. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "Where to start…where to start…" he mumbled to himself, looking past Harry.

James uncrossed his arms and let out a huge sigh. "Okay. Do you know exactly what werewolves are?"

Harry's brows crunched together as he thought hard. He thought the question was a little strange. Why did it matter? "Uhm…I know that they are like a normal person, except that they turn to werewolves…at full moon…?" He answered with uneasiness. He didn't want to answer the question wrong. He only knew this idea because he had read fairytales at school. "My teacher says they're not real." He said this part with confidence. He knew that everything his teacher said must be true.

James nodded and rubbed his chin. This boy really knew nothing about the magical world. "Well…they are real, Harry. Just like magic. What you saw last night was no ordinary wolf…it was a werewolf."

Harry's eyes widened. He really hadn't realized it, but it did make sense. He remembered now that he had seen a full moon in the sky.

"Don't be scared, though, Harry. Like you said, they are normal people. But when the full moon comes, they transform. They can't control themselves. They become bad. When they are humans, though, they can be just like you and me. This particular werewolf was my friend, and he is actually a very nice person. I just want you to know that what he did was a complete accident. Just like your accident with your cousin. He feels really bad, and he is really…really sorry," James said, looking hopefully at Harry. He didn't want Harry to fear Remus, or to think that werewolves were all awful, scary beasts.

Harry listened carefully to everything James said. Again, he thought of Dudley. He really did feel bad for what he had done, and he was sorry too. He could relate to this werewolf. The werewolf didn't know any better, because he was out of control. Just like Harry was out of control when he somehow caused his cousin to plummet.

After a few moments of silence, Harry replied.

"Can you tell him it's okay?" he said. That's what he would want Dudley to say to him, and so why not forgive this werewolf who was very much like himself.

James tried to hide his shock and confusion. That was it? He thought he'd have to beg Harry to understand. He was baffled that Harry wasn't so traumatized by the event that he would so easily forgive Remus. "I will, Harry. He will be very happy to hear that. But I have another question for you."

Harry gave James his full attention.

"Do you happen to know if you got bitten last night?"

The silence following the question was deafening. James almost wished he hadn't asked, but it was the most important question he had asked thus far. He held his breath, anticipating Harry's answer.

Harry grabbed his left arm with his right and held it. He looked at it. "I remember feeling something here," he said, trying to remember exactly what had happened. But he had been in too much pain at the time to realize exactly what was going on. "An' it felt kind of like teeth."

James blinked. He felt light headed and finally sat down on the couch next to Harry. Harry wondered if he was okay. What was wrong?

"Let me see," James said, gesturing to Harry's left arm, where he held it.

Harry let go of his arm and revealed the spot he thought he might've been bitten.

James looked closely, running a hand over it. The medicine they had given Harry must have cleared it somewhat, but there was definitely a mark there that looked and felt like teeth indentations. His skin was broken in places that indicated bite marks. James's heartbeat was strong in his chest.

Maybe they were Sirius's bite marks, James thought. This could be true, but he couldn't tell from just the scars.

"And you're feeling okay, Harry?" James asked. He wasn't sure many times he had asked since Harry had been awake. Too many times already.

"Yes."

James nodded uncertainly. "Good…there are some people I want you to meet."

"He's ready."

Sirius nodded and Remus just stared at the entrance of James's dorm room.

"Don't do anything stupid," James said looking at Sirius.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but James interrupted him. "Okay let's do this."

Harry was still sitting on the couch as James had instructed him to do. He observed the two unfamiliar boys that entered the room, but instantly recognized the black haired friend.

"Merlin, James," Sirius said. "Seeing him now, he looks…identical to you!"

James rolled his eyes. "Excuse my friend, Sirius," he said to Harry. "He's convinced that we look alike."

Harry nodded, but he agreed with Sirius. He thought he kind of looked like James, too.

"Really, Prongs?" Sirius said. "Doesn't your conceited arse ever look in the bloody mirror?"

"Padfoot! Language!" Remus hissed at his friend, speaking for the first time. He was currently a nervous wreck, but he was trying his best to appear composed.

"Yeah, Padfoot, language," James said, glaring at Sirius.

Harry blushed a little. He was used to hearing Vernon swear.

James's thin, brown-haired friend was scanning Harry as if he expected to find something. Harry noticed, and was curious to know who the boy was. The other chubby brown-haired friend seemed a bit shy as well.

"This is Remus," James gestured to Remus, seeing the way Harry stared at him. "He's—"

"The werewolf?" Harry said. He wasn't sure how he knew, but he did.

Remus paled and looked Harry in the eye, feeling ashamed. Sirius stood frozen and stared at Harry, about to open his mouth in Remus's defense.

"Did James tell you I forgive you?" Harry inquired, looking at Remus with eyes that hoped he would accept his forgiveness. "I know you didn't mean it. Sometimes I do stuff I don't mean, too."

Harry stared at his feet, rubbing his shoes together, feeling a little ashamed himself.

Remus was speechless, as were the others. Peter's mouth was hanging open a bit and Sirius had a brow raised. James couldn't help but give a small smile. He gave Remus a reassuring look.

Remus carefully neared Harry, sitting at the coffee table right in front of Harry. He grabbed Harry's hand and squeezed. "I am so sorry for what happened last night. I wasn't myself, and I would never in my wildest dreams want to hurt you."

Harry nodded. "It was scary, but…you don't look scary."

Underneath all the worry and self-hatred, Remus was able to muster a smile. "You are very brave, Harry."

Harry smiled at this. "Do you really think so?"

Remus nodded. He let go of Harry's hand.

A/N: Sorry if you don't like this, it was what I could come up with after leaving this story for two years.

You might wonder why they told Harry that Remus was the werewolf that bit him. I wondered that too, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, I always saw Harry as the type who "sees the good in everybody". I also think it'll work better for the future of the story.