A/N: Okay, I'm going to try and update regularly now. Thanks to everyone who followed favourited, and reviewed! *Gives out virtual brownies* (I worked really hard on those.) And thank you to my amazing beta, Cookies and Cream1234567! Okay, so on with the chapter.


Chapter 4

Harry awoke with a jolt. He groaned with pain, and sank back down on his pillows. He heard the doors open, and the faint sound of voices. He could just make out a few words.

"Beyond me…Can't find…Dark magic…chest…Can't just leave it…"

He heard soft footfalls, and the curtains around his bed opened gently. Harry found himself looking at Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore surveyed Harry. He felt a little uncomfortable.

"Ah. Yes, I quite see what you mean Poppy." He looked slightly alarmed. He looked at Harry. "Is it alright if I also inform Madame Pomfrey about your…situation?"

Harry thought for a moment. He supposed it was. He nodded his head slightly. Dumbledore gave him a small smile, and disappeared around the curtain. Harry heard Dumbledore whispering for a moment. He heard Madame Pomfrey gasp. "Impossible!"

He heard more whispering, and then Dumbledore, followed by a white-faced Madame Pomfrey, opened his curtains, and stepped around his bed. Madame Pomfrey spoke.

"As I was saying Headmaster, I've tried everything, absolutely everything, and nothing I've tried is working!" She seemed a bit hysterical now.

"I may know something that will work…" said Dumbledore. "But in the meantime, It would be no harm to fetch a pain-relieving Potion. He'll need it," Dumbledore grimaced.

Madame Pomfrey looked politely amazed. "Headmaster? Maybe I should do it?"

Dumbledore gave her a kind smile. "Oh no need Poppy, no need at all. It's very old magic. Ancient in fact. Almost as ancient as me! Even more so! So I'd better try it."

Madame Pomfrey looked a bit flustered, but she simply replied, "Oh course Headmaster," and scurried away to get Harry a pain-relieving potion. Harry didn't understand why she didn't just summon it. Just then, she ran back into the room, and placed the potion on the bedside table.

"Here we are," she muttered, and perched herself down on the chair by Harry's bed.

Dumbledore took his wand from his robe pocket. "As soon as I start the spell, Mr. Potter, drink the potion."

Harry nodded, and took a deep breath. Dumbledore flourished his wand, and started to mutter under his breath. Harry grabbed the potion from the bedside table, and gulped it back. He then felt so much pain he couldn't handle it. It was excruciating. He tried not to, but he couldn't help it.

He screamed.

XxX

Remus stopped as they were walking back to the common room. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" replied James.

Remus shook his head. "It's probably nothing."

They were just about to go, when they faintly heard what sounded like a male scream.

"There it is again!" said Remus. "You all had to have heard that!"

"Its coming from the hospital wing!" shouted Sirius.

They looked at each other.

"Let's go investigate!" Sirius bellowed.

They heard the screams again. They ran back towards the hospital wing, and stopped right outside the doors. They could hear the screams very clearly now. It sounded as though someone was being tortured.

James' eyes hardened. He threw open the doors to the hospital wing, and ran down the room, Sirius, Remus and Peter at his heels.

They all gasped. Dumbledore had his wand held high, and pointed at Power's chest. They could see his skin, slowly creeping forward, knitting itself back together, criss-crossing over his chest. Some of his insides were slowly being sucked back in. But the screaming was the worst.

James couldn't stand that scream. He recoiled. Madame Pomfrey rose from her seat beside the bed, looking murderous.

"GET OUT! OUT! NOW!"

They ran from the room and slammed the doors behind them.


Sirius was currently busy, getting sick, all over Remus' shoes.

Remus sighed heavily. "Charming," he muttered. Remus crinkled his nose when he picked up the scent of the puke.

Sirius came up for air, and shuddered. "That was horrible!" He lurched.

Remus stepped back quickly.

Sirius stood up. "I'm all right now." He was an odd shade of green. He looked down at Remus' shoes. "Might want to wash them," he said unabashedly.

Remus scowled. "Who said anything about washing them? These are going straight in the dump."

Peter was trembling over in a corner, muttering to himself, and looking over his shoulder every few seconds.

James was shaking. "That scream…"

XxX

Harry felt like he was on fire. He writhed and squirmed, like he was getting tortured. This wasn't quite on the level of the Cruciatus curse, but it was fairly close.

He vaguely saw figures, stopping quite close to his bed, but he barely noticed them. All he could think about was the pain. But almost as soon as it had started, it was gone.

He panted like he had run a marathon. So he wasn't dead. Everything was going to be okay.

"Done," breathed Dumbledore. He looked troubled. "Accio pain-relieving potion." It came zooming towards him, and he held it out to Harry. "Here, take another," said Dumbledore, and he pushed it towards him, and sat down with a sigh.

Harry took it with trembling hands, and swallowed it in one go. Ah…sweet relief. He sighed with happiness. His chest was still aching severely, but he hardly cared anymore. It was over. He looked at Madame Pomfrey. "Can I go now?"

She gasped in horror. "Certainly not! You must stay here, until I am absolutely sure you are fit to leave!"

Harry scowled, but knew that he had no other option.

She continued. "There will most likely be scars, but you are extremely lucky Professor Dumbledore knew how to fix you up. It could have gotten a nasty infection, and if it did…with and injury like that, only Merlin knows what it could have led to," she said grimly.

Harry looked at Dumbledore. "Thanks Professor," he muttered.

"You are most welcome Mr. Potter. I am very sorry that you had to be subjected to such…pain."

Harry laughed. "Don't worry about it."

Dumbledore frowned. He wondered what the future brought. It didn't look like a very bright place, judging by this strange boy. Not that outside of Hogwarts was a ray of sunshine at the present moment, either.

He said his goodbyes, rose from his chair, and walked back to his office.


Harry slept like he hadn't slept in days, with a dreamless sleep potion. He woke up. Was the whole thing a dream? It must have been. He marveled at his imagination for a moment.

He then distinctly remembered taking a dreamless sleep potion. He looked down at his chest, where huge red slashes ran right across it. Oh, well, shit. It wasn't a dream. It was real. Harry closed his eyes tightly for a moment. His parents were alive. They were also sixteen. He couldn't tell them anything. Sirius was dead. And now he was alive.

Harry felt his eyes watering, as he gripped his hair, hard.

Everything was so messed up.

He heard heavy footfalls, and looked up, as Madame Pomfrey came striding over. Could he leave now?

"This will only take a second Mr. Powers," she said briskly. "Or Potter, I suppose I should call you." She gave him a small smile. She poured a few drops of acidy looking green potion on the big red slashes that ran across his chest. Big puffs of greenish yellow smoke rose from it, but he didn't mind. It stung slightly, but Harry didn't complain. He hardly cared right now.

The slashes closed up. They now looked several days old.

"There," Madame Pomfrey announced. "I unfortunately can't do anything about the scarring, but at least it's healed properly now."

Harry fidgeted, and then looked beside him. There was a white shirt on the bedside table. He grabbed it, and pulled it over his birds nest hair. He gave Madame Pomfrey his biggest smile. "Thanks so much Madame Pomfrey." He paused. "Can I go now?"

She pursed her lips. "Yes…well I suppose so…but-"

Before she could change her mind, Harry jumped up from the bed, and ran out of the double doors as quick as he could, shouting "Thanks!" as he slammed the doors behind him.

Madame Pomfrey sighed, but then smiled to herself. "Teenagers," she thought. "I'll never understand them."

XxX

Harry raced up the maze of stairs, and round the corridors as fast as he could, jumping over the trick steps easily, knocking into a few people on the way.

Not that there were many people around anyway, as it was roughly seven o'clock in the morning. He stopped in front of the Fat Lady, quickly gave her the password, and shot up the stairs, and threw open the door that lead to his dormitory. He heard a loud groan. "Oops," he thought guiltily. He had forgotten the Marauders would be sleeping.

He didn't feel all that particularly sorry anyway.

He ran to his trunk, threw it open, and extracted his Hogwarts robes. He heard a creak, and looked up to see a disheveled Sirius, looking extremely irritated.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?"

Harry stared at him. He squashed the urge to hug him. It made him feel so relieved, seeing Sirius alive and well.

The boy in front of him looked so different to the Sirius he knew. He was well built, and handsome, and his stormy grey eyes were bright.

The Sirius Harry had come to know was very thin, and his eyes were sunken and waxy, and had lost the brightness they had now.

Even if Sirius hadn't suffered as much as the other prisoners, Azkaban had affected him greatly.

Harry looked at the floor. "Getting changed," he replied shortly.

Sirius scowled at him. "I can see that! Why so early though?" he whined. "You interrupted my beauty sleep!"

"Could you two keep it down?" James hissed, while pulling his pillow over his ears.

Sirius narrowed his eyes, and looked around the room at his sleeping dorm mates, and then, at himself. "If I can't sleep, no one can!" he bellowed.

He then made his way over to James' bed, and proceeded to poke him awake.

"Oi! Get up!" he screamed in James' ear.

James groaned, and rolled over. "Piss off," he mumbled.

Sirius grinned. "Alright then," he whispered, rubbing his hands together. He maneuvered himself up onto the edge of James' bed, and started to jump, stamping on James' face in the process.

James screamed. "ALRIGHT! I'm getting up!"

Sirius stopped jumping, but since James wasn't moving, gave him a hard kick in the side for motivation.

James hissed in protest, and sat up, his hair even more disheveled than usual. "I swear to God Padfoot, I'M GOING TO RIP OFF YOUR HEAD AND FEED IT TO A HIPPOGRIFF!"

Sirius snorted. "How nice," he responded. "Now for Moony," he whispered, an evil glint in his eyes.

Remus was lying sprawled across his bed, one arm over the side, trailing along the floor.

Sirius made his way over to Remus' bed, and bent down so he was level with his ear. Harry watched, amused, as Sirius began to sing quite loudly, and off key. He had a truly horrible voice. It reminded Harry of the sound of fingernails, running down a blackboard, of a screeching kitten with tonsillitis, and concluded in his mind, if he were ever to go to hell, it couldn't be much worse than this. Harry then realized, that with Remus' heightened senses, it would have been torture, as he could probably hear it ten times louder than Harry could, as though it was being screeched through a magical megaphone.

Remus sat bolt upright, and put both hands over his ears, wincing.

"Make it stop," he muttered. "Someone please, make it stop. SHUT UP!" he finally screeched.

Sirius only grinned, and continued to sing even louder.

Remus rocked himself back and forth, muttering like a mad man.

"What do you want? I'll do anything! JUST MAKE IT STOP!" he bellowed.

Suddenly comprehension dawned on Remus' face, and he scrambled out of bed, and landed on the floor with a thud.

"There!" he pleaded. "I'm up! Now please, shut up, and stop singing! STOP!" he looked on the verge of tears now.

Sirius stopped abruptly, and grinned. "Two down, one to go," he said rather loudly.

He made his way over Peter's bed, leaving Remus on the floor, looking quite demented.

Harry wondered how Peter hadn't woken up during all that racket Sirius had made, but soon found out that Peter was...immune.

Sirius tried everything. He prodded and poked, jumped on his mattress, kicked him in the head and even sang in his ear, while Remus moaned, and tried to shut himself in his trunk, just to block out the noise.

Sirius ran out of ideas. He frowned. Peter was a hopeless case. Then Sirius' eyes lit up, as inspiration suddenly struck. He retrieved his wand from the table beside his bed, and ran back over to Peter. He pointed his wand at Peter's face, and muttered "Aguamenti."

A jet of water sprayed from Sirius' wand, and hit Peter squarely in the face. Peter thrashed around for a moment, and then sat up abruptly, getting tangled in his bedcovers.

"Whatshappening? Arghhh! I'm drowning!" Peter coughed, and then snorted water from his nose.

Sirius laughed. "Don't be thick Wormtail, it was just me!"

"Why?" Peter choked out, while trying to roll himself out from the tangles of bed covers and sheets.

The lid of Remus trunk was thrown open, and Remus himself popped his head out. "Brilliant question Wormtail! Why Sirius? Why? You promised back in Fourth year that you'd never subject me to that kind of torture again!"

Sirius sniffed. "If I don't get to sleep, no one does," he said simply. "Now, chop chop!"

Remus groaned. "Sirius, this is ridiculous!"

Sirius opened his mouth widely. Remus looked panicked. "I mean, of course we're all up, aren't we?"

He looked around the room at his fellow marauders. Everyone stared at James, who was nodding sleepily, before dropping back onto his pillow.

Sirius pursed his lips in a very McGonagall sort of expression.

He marched over to James' bed, raised his leg, and gave his head a deft kick.

James' eyes shot open. "OW! What was that for?" He sat up, rubbing his head furiously.

"To get you up," said Sirius simply. "Now come on, hurry up!" He slapped James on the cheek.

James looked murderous. "I am so going to get you later," he muttered dangerously.

Sirius just grinned, looking around their dorm. If you could even call it a dorm. More like a toxic waste dump, thought Harry. They're even worse than me and Ron, and that's saying something. There were clothes and socks strewn all over the floor and Sirius' mattress looked suspiciously lumpy. James had tacked Quidditch posters all over his bit of wall, mostly consisting of The Tornadoes.

There were stacks of books under Remus' bed, but even his area of the floor wasn't particularly clean.

Harry was sure he could see a mouldy old slab of Honeydukes chocolate under Peter's bed, as well as a good few socks.

And Sirius…Well his sleeping area was a mess. There was ink smudges on the headboard of his four poster, and dirty clothes piled up under his bed, and a pair of underwear was threatening to teeter off the edge of the topmost pole. He had posters of Witch Wonders pin up girls littered all over his wall, as well as a picture of a muggle motorbike, and a Gryffindor scarf wrapped around the end of his bed.

"What choo up so early for anyway?" said James, still massaging his head.

"Him," said Sirius.

Harry started to edge away.

"Who?" said James, looking slightly confused.

Sirius pointed at Harry dramatically. "Powers! Came clattering in, all hours of the morning! Outrageous! Woke me up he did."

Harry tried to look innocent, but since he had the face of James Potter, failed.

James stared at him. "You? WHY? Look what you've-" James stopped. "Wait. You're out of the hospital wing!"

Harry looked at him awkwardly. "Um…yeah."

Remus poked his head from the trunk. He looked at Sirius suspiciously, before jumping out, the lid of the trunk swinging shut behind him.

He made his way over to Harry, and gave him a smile.

"Hi. We met the other day. I'll reintroduce myself since...well...we didn't get to do much talking, as you were carted off the hospital wing by these two crackpots."

He gestured to James and Sirius.

"Oi!"

Remus ignored them. He stuck out his hand. "Remus Lupin."

Harry shook it. "Harry Powers."

Remus gave him a lazy grin. "Sorry about...this." He waved his hands around the room wildly.

Harry laughed "It's alright. It was my fault anyway, for waking Sirius up."

Peter suddenly spoke. "So...how's your chest?"

Harry glared at him. Trust that rat to bring it up. Peter shrank back under Harry's gaze. The others appeared not to notice. "Fine," said Harry through gritted teeth. His knuckles were going white, as he was trying to suppress the urge to strangle Peter.

"Oh yeah!" said James. "Doing okay?"

Harry nodded.

"How'd it happen?"

He frowned for a moment, and then looked at the floor. "Doesn't matter," he said, without looking up.

Sirius cut in. "Dumbledore had to fix it, didn't he?" He shuddered and gripped his bed, holding on as if for support.

Harry frowned. "How-" He then remembered the vague figures he had seen. He bit his lip. "You saw that?"

James looked sheepish. "Well, we were passing by chance..." Harry raised an eyebrow. James scowled. "Oh alright! We heard you scream, okay?"

Sirius interrupted. "Why couldn't' Madame Pomfrey fix it? Was it painful? It must have been, I nearly got sick— " Remus scoffed— "when I seen your skin, Knitting itself back togeth-" Sirius stopped at the look on Harry's face. He felt slightly guilty. "Sorry," he muttered. He looked up again. "But what did it feel like?"

Remus looked uncomfortable, James looked curious and Peter looked slightly fearful.

Harry stared at a small crack in the floor. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But-"

"Padfoot," Remus warned. "Drop it."

Sirius looked annoyed, and James slightly disappointed. Peter looked as if he couldn't care less.

Harry looked up again. "Are you lot coming down to breakfast?"

James nodded. "Yeah. Yeah we are. Give us two minutes." Harry nodded.

While James was getting ready, Harry took a good long look at him. They really did look almost exactly alike. Harry was glad to see that James didn't strut, like Snape had told him, but walked with an air of confidence, and his head held high. James had a lot more confidence than Harry ever had. His warm hazel eyes twinkled, and soaked in everything around him. Harry smiled to himself as he watched James getting ready.

He hunted under his bed for his Hogwarts robes, extracted them, and threw them on over his head, took a trip to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, and took one look at the hairbrush Remus had handed him and threw it aside. Harry knew the feeling. It wouldn't make a difference anyway. The rest of the marauders took a few minutes longer, especially Sirius, who couldn't find his toothbrush. They all sat, waiting for him at the end of James' bed. There was a very awkward silence. James was quick to break it.

"So...Harry."

Harry didn't like the sound of this.

"What's brought you to Hogwarts?"

Harry swallowed. He took a quick search through his brain for something, anything that could help him.

"Oh, well, Hogwarts is supposed to be one of the best school's there is, from what I've heard. Just a change of scenery really. My Aunt and Uncle want to give me the best education possible."

Harry laughed silently. This was so far from the truth it was at the point where he would call it ridiculous. James wasn't buying it either.

"How come you didn't come by train, like the rest of us?"

"Um...I was busy, and I arrived a little late," he said lamely.

James narrowed his eyes. "Busy? Doing what? You made quite an entrance."

Harry was getting restless. He didn't know the Marauders were so nosy, though he supposed he couldn't say much either. At least now he knew where he got it from.

"Just-just stuff. My portkey malfunctioned as well, so I didn't arrive exactly where I was supposed to." This was sort of true, he mused.

James nodded, but still looked extremely suspicious. Harry sighed, but couldn't blame him. Well, what was he supposed to say? He was a terrible liar.

James spoke again. "Did you say you lived with your Aunt and Uncle? What about your parents? Are they away or something?"

Remus was staring to looked extremely uncomfortable now, and Peter simply curious.

Harry looked James in the eye, for the first time, really taking in that this was his father, standing in front of him in the flesh.

"My parents are dead."

James felt like bashing his head off of something. He gawped at Harry for a moment, but quickly tried to redeem himself. "Oh. Sorry, mate."

"It's alright," replied Harry, even though it wasn't. His Dad was standing right in front of him. "It happened when I was a baby."

James didn't ask anymore questions after that. Instead he took to pestering Sirius.

"OI! PADFOOT! HURRY UP WOULD YOU? THAT MIRROR IS GOING TO CRACK ONE DAY, IF YOU DON'T STOP STARING INTO IT!"

Remus rolled his eyes, and Peter smiled. Sirius shouted back.

"ALRIGHT! HOLD YOUR HIPPOGRIFFS! I'M BRUSHING MY TEETH!"

A moment later, he came bounding into the room, threw open the door, and practically hopped down the stairs. He looked behind him. "Hurry up you lot!"

Remus pursed his lips, but broke into a grin. They made their way down to the common room, and out through the Fat lady. They were just going down the staircase, when James groaned.

"Forgot my transfiguration book. Go on ahead. I'll catch up."

They shrugged and continued down the stairs, while James bounded back in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. "We'll show you around later," remarked Sirius. Harry nodded. No one had said anything about Harry's sudden appearance, which felt quite nice for a change. No staring in his direction, or whispering people, debating whether he was losing it or not. A good few people greeted them though. One person greeted them all by name. It was a fifth year Ravenclaw boy.

"Hi Remus, Sirius, James!" He missed out on Peter, but settled for nodding and beaming at him instead, and moved on.

Sirius hooted with laughter. "Everyone thinks you're James!"

Remus smiled knowingly. "I was wondering why no one had questioned your sudden 'appearance'. I should have realized it sooner, because of course-"

Remus was cut off, just as they were entering the great hall.

"POTTER!"

Harry spun around, but suddenly remembered that he wasn't Potter anymore. Not here anyway. Just then the breath caught in his throat.

A girl with a heart shaped face, long flowing red hair, and bright emerald green eyes that matched his own, was staring up at him, looking furious.

His Mum.

Lily Evans.


A/N: Sorry I took a while, I'm on holidays right now, using one of those computers where you feed it money. And my Brother's laptop broke, so he's been Hogging mine recently. *Sigh* So tell me what you think! If you have questions, don't be shy!

Remember: Reviews are good for everyone. A review a day will keep the doctor away :)